Mufti Menk – Ramadan 2016 – Save Yourself Series – 18

Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.

smilla rahmanir rahim In the name of Allah subhanho wa Taala Most Gracious, Most Merciful Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala

nabina Muhammad, Allah, Allah He was happy. We praise Allah subhanho wa Taala we send blessings and salutations upon Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, his entire household all his companions, we ask Allah Subhana Allah Allah to bless every single one of them, and every single one of us to May Allah subhanho wa Taala forgive us and grant us goodness. I mean, my brothers and sisters, the most beautiful story mentioned in the Quran is the story of use of Annie salatu salam. It is mentioned within one surah and Allah subhanho wa Taala has kept it the only story that is in such great detail all in one place.

So Allah subhanho wa Taala starts off by making mention of a dream that was seen by Yusuf alayhi salatu salam, and we have so many lessons to learn from this, we actually have so many lessons, however, we'd like to look at the lessons from a different angle. What should we do? How should we look at it in order to learn a lesson from it in order to be able to save ourselves from the destruction, the calamity, the envy, the jealousy that took place at that particular time? So we ask Allah subhanho wa Taala to grant us goodness the first point I'd like to raise with number five of pseudo Yousuf where the father is telling his son jacobellis Allah the Prophet Jacob May peace be

upon him is telling you so Valley salatu salam. He is telling us to Valley salatu wa sallam that do not relate this dream of yours to your brothers. Do not relate this dream of yours to your own brothers because they might become jealous of you. What do I learn from this? Allah says, Allah Boni Allah.

Allah, wa t cafe Aki una caca in a shame on me.

He says, Oh, my beloved son do not relate to this dream to your brothers, for they may plot against you, they may plan against you. Indeed, shavon is an outright enemy. He is a clear enemy of man. So he's not blaming his children, he's blaming shapen people are good, generally, shape man is bad shape and makes people do things that is unacceptable. So what I learned from this, for me to be able to say to be saved from the jealousy, from the plot of a person who perhaps doesn't like me, I don't need to tell the whole world everything about my life. The weakness we have in today's day and age, any little thing that happens in my life, I want the whole world to know it. So I will put it

up on Facebook and Twitter, and Instagram and BBM and what have you and WhatsApp chat groups, and it's the juiciest of gossip. And everyone's supposed to know that I bought a new car. It's a BMW 12 series.

So Pamela, I think you just realized there isn't a 12 series. Well, I have one so Han Allah.

May Allah subhanho wa Taala grant us ease and goodness. So the point being raised on a more serious note is you don't have to relate everything nice that happens to you to everyone not all will be happy upon your happiness, not everyone. Sometimes you need to know if you have made a profit if you have made business for example, a good deal. If you are getting married, there are certain people you might want to tell in advance or earlier than others. Some you don't even want them to know trust me, they might spoil things for you shapen will come to them and make them plan your downfall and guess who gave them the information? You may Allah subhanho wa Taala safeguard so learn to be

secretive about your matters your affairs, there is integration within the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says is that you know Allah tala how he can milkman seek assistance to complete or to fulfill your affairs by being secretive about them. You know, it might be slightly regeneration, but the meaning is absolutely correct. If you want assistance to achieve what you'd like, be secretive, because you don't know people can become jealous of you. Not everyone will be sad that you're lost. Some people might rejoice when you are struggling. You don't need the whole world to know I'm sick. Or I'm not well, or I'm going into for an operation. You might want some people to know you might

want them to make do out for you. But others will rejoice at the fact that you are sick. They will say oh ally thank you for accepting my job. Finally, this man is sick. So Villa May Allah subhanho wa Taala

do that too. So that's a powerful lesson to be able to save ourselves from harm that we would inflict by our own mouths. We are the ones who gave information to the people, we made them jealous of us. And sadly, very sadly, my brothers and sisters, the world today teaches you exactly that teaches you to boast, to brag to make a big deal of things to show off. And this is the reason why even those who don't have things they want to show like they do so panela they want to pretend I know of a couple that went into a convenience store and they were testing out all the clothing taking all photos with that clothing. And that was only testing but the world thought Wow, you've

been nice close Allahu Akbar. May Allah Subhana Allah Allah forgive us, they didn't even purchase anything. They wasted the day of all those at the convenience store testing things like rich people, and the intention was never to buy it was just to put up some lovely photos with some shoes that I can't even afford. May Allah subhanho wa Taala forgive us. Then Allah subhanho wa Taala warns us about something else. Do you know your children come to you with tails, people come to you with stories and a lot of the times I've heard people say, you know, children don't lie. I actually think you need to revise that. They do. They do from a very early age. They can create tables, they can

make stories that didn't even exist. Go and see the children. I don't know what children you are talking about. Some people like to fish information from children. So they asked him, do your daddy and mommy fight at home? and innocent child says yeah, my father bashes my father up, you know, and nothing happened of that nature. The middle child was watching too many movies. May Allah subhanho wa Taala, forgive us. And the whole world comes to believe that story and everyone thinks that you're about to be divorced. And there's nothing like that. Be careful. Do not believe everything you hear, be very, very careful. Sometimes with adults, we hear tales, we hear stories, we hear

WhatsApp messages floating around saying the cup I will be making power off. When someone asked me Is it true that the Kaaba will be making power seven times around the sorry, the moon will make the offer on the cover seven times at 3:25am. And I said after that the moon will also shave its head.

Allah subhanho wa Taala forgive us. It's a tale. It's a film. And we forward it. And we actually get excited by forwarding such tales. My brothers and sisters Be careful worse than that is when you have destroyed the honor of a Muslim by spreading falsehood. Even if it was true, you will not mean to spread it. People say you know this person is like that. This one is like that they went through this they pinched that this man did that this one killed this one, that one murdered this one. This one slammed that one and so on why? Either you authenticate it thoroughly, or drop the story. In fact, even before that, ask yourself, Is it connected to me? Should I really be interested in this?

Does it affect me in any way? If the answer is no, leave it don't even bother authenticating it. It doesn't affect you. It doesn't bother you. You know our brains become clogged with information we don't need. So when it comes to Salah, we cannot concentrate just like our phones filled with images and videos that we really don't need. Now you're worried because the memory is full and your phone is becomes sluggish. The same applies to ourselves too many unnecessary things. So when we say Allahu Akbar, the mind goes where it starts wondering Ooh, that man I just heard he struck a deal of 2 million grands wonder Subhana Allah, this time of Salah is not the time for that. But look at your

processor. Look at how it's processing because it's clogged with something that is absolutely unnecessary. So Allah says verse number 16 of surah Yusuf regarding the children of use of Allah is of jacobellis Allah, the brothers of the Prophet Yusuf alayhi salatu salam who came and lied to their father. They said, Oh, Father, we're going to take this child, we're going to play with our brother, you don't ever send him with us. And the father says, I fear I fear that a wolf might come and eat him at night. They went they hatched their plan, they threw him into the bottom of a Dark Pit. And do you know what they did?

And they came to their father at night, crying with tears, crocodile tears, to cry. They said

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our Father, we went with use of an A salatu salam, we were racing while we left him on the side, and the wolf came and ate him Subhan Allah what lies so the lesson I learned is your children can tell a lie to you, not everything they will tell you is the truth. And over and above that other people around you, no matter how pious they may seem, they may have wrong information that they are handing to you. Even if I were to tell you something about another person, you need to authenticate it with

For you take it from me. It needs to be first hand information or you need to know this is probably a lie. People say things about you. People say things about me. People have said things about the prophets of Allah. People have said things about Allah, do you think you and I are going to be saved? Not at all. But the weakest person is He who believes everything he hears, be careful, you will start hating a lovely person solely because you heard a dirty rumor about them that was actually false. It was created out of jealousy, out of hatred or any other qualities. May Allah subhanahu wa taala protect us. This is why we say Save yourself. When you read the story of the

Prophet Yusuf alayhi salatu salam don't just say Wow, what a beautiful story. What a lovely dream. Ask yourselves what lesson do I learn from this? May Allah subhanho wa Taala help us all?

thereafter, Allah subhanho wa Taala makes mention of how this innocent child absolutely gorgeous, absolutely handsome. Allah subhanho wa Taala makes mention of how he was in a pit, a Dark Pit. But guess what, he was always a happy child. Allahu Akbar. He always made the most of whatever situation he was in. Have you ever heard any narration weak or fabricated any narration or any verse of the Quran that says use of Allah His salatu salam was thrown into the well and he was depressed there. He lost hope in Allah. He became a person who thought he's going to die now. Not at all. Never. He was happy. He sees the opportunity. He was looking forward to being saved. He knew that Allah

subhanho wa Taala. His help would come it was conviction. You know what conviction is known as the highest level of conviction is known as a son. You and I know Islam, you're a Muslim. Man. You're a Mormon Eman means belief within your heart. It's a slightly higher level than Islam. Islam here referring to the practical or the actions that you would engage in when they say the Pillars of Islam are five, they mentioned that which you can see a person do with your own eyes, whether they declare the Shahada or they fulfill their Salah or they abstain from food in Ramadan or they give charity to the poor or they are going for Hajj actions. You can see them when it comes to the

pillars of Eman you cannot see they are all in the heart six pillars of Eman and to build a formula equity what could you be I believe in Allah, in the angels in the books in the prophets, etc, etc. You don't know that? I'm just claiming it. It's inside the heart. It's between me and Allah. But there's one level higher than that. In the hadith of gibreel Allah salatu wa sallam he asked me, Sam, so the Prophet sallallahu Sallam says Alexander and Tabitha la Kanika Tara,

Tara,

sum is the highest level of conviction such that when I'm worshiping Allah, I'm convinced it's either as though I can see him or if not, then I know for a fact he is watching me and he can see me. So when I say Allahu Akbar, I know Allah is watching me, I'm convinced that's called a sun. So Allah says, if a person has the quality of the sun, and the quality of taqwa, which would come hand in hand, then Allah subhanho wa Taala gives that person authority as well as knowledge. You know, in one of the verses of Surah Al Baqarah. Towards the end, Allah says, what law How are you on nimue como la, be conscious of Allah and Allah will teach you. Allah will give you the knowledge you

really desperately want sound knowledge, be conscious of Allah developed, acquire, develop piety, Allah will give you that knowledge, law. Law, as simple as that. And in these verses, Allah says, verse number 22. What I'm

saying, when he got to the peak of his age, we blessed him with authority as well as with knowledge. And Allah subhanho wa Taala says, you know, the decisiveness in his decision making was a blessing from Allah subhanho wa Taala. Allah says, this is the way we recompense those who are mostly mean who are good, and at the same time they have developed the quality of exam, may Allah subhanho wa Taala help us so I need to protect myself from ignorance, I need to protect myself from losing the knowledge I have. I need to save myself from losing the wisdom that Allah may bestow upon me by being a person who is upright because if I am sinful, if I turn away from Allah, I will lose all of

these things. And I will think that I have knowledge but I don't, I will start disliking good people because I am bad myself. When I have bad qualities. Allah subhanho wa Taala will not guide me to distinguish right from wrong, I will make friends of enemies and enemies of friends and years later, I may regret if I'm lucky, or I might die in a condition that I've lost. So my brothers and sisters are beautiful, powerful lesson. Let's learn to be

thankful to Allah subhanho wa Taala. Thereafter, I'd like to draw your attention to a crime that people accuse each other off sometimes, and that is the crime of adultery. It's a bad sin. It's a major sin. One is yes to commit the sin to commit the sin is very bad you and I know but to accuse someone else of it is an even bigger sin. It's an even bigger sin because that person is innocent. What about if it was *, * is even worse than adultery, you and I know it has the factor of force.

May Allah subhanho wa Taala forgive us

to * that is actually such a grave crime in the Sharia.

And Subhan Allah to accuse someone of it is an even greater crime, and the best of the best.

at that particular time was used of Allah salatu wa sallam.

He was accused of *. He was accused of attempting * Subhana Allah, may Allah subhanho wa Taala forgive us imagine how serious a crime it was. Now from this, we achieve a little bit of comfort to say people have accused us of so many things all of us here, every one of us even those listening across the globe, all of us have been accused of little things, minor things. I don't think we've really been accused of something so great. May Allah subhanho wa Taala, strengthen those who have been accused of massive crimes that they haven't committed, don't believe, Tails. If it was today, we would have had it on WhatsApp and BBM. And everywhere else on Facebook and Instagram would be

abuzz that this person committed the *, yet they did it. They didn't they were totally innocent. This woman was trying for the man. And because she didn't get what she wanted, she started accusing him. That's what happens to this day it happens where a woman tries to perhaps get close to you. Or maybe a man tries to get close to you. And because he or she cannot or failed. And they feel dented in their ego. They start blaming, you know, this woman Watch out, she's knows

she's not loose at all. You're the one who's loose. You're the one who attempted and because she kicked you out and she put you in your place. You now want to have bad words to say about that woman, it's a double crime. One is you tried your luck. And when Allah protected that person, you know when to damage that person's reputation, you won't manage you might succeed for a short space of time after that. Allah subhanho wa Taala will make things clear. So let's listen to what happened.

Allah subhanho wa Taala says this woman had accused us of alayhi salatu salam, and

she had said, matches

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and in

general,

what is the recompense of the one who intended ill or immoral, immoral acts against your own family against your wife? So she's asking her husband? Shouldn't it only be either imprisonment or some painful punishment?

And she knows the man was innocent, but usually is Salatu was Salam What did he say at the time?

Before we make mention of what he said, let me tell you something interesting. Allah says that the women of that town, their mouths were all moving. And their lips were moving tongues wagging. With what with the story? Hey, did you hear the latest gossip? Allah says wirkkala Nice. Feeling Medina Emre Tula zz Torah widow Fatah. And I've seen the women of the town they began to talk that the wife of this noble man, this man in authority here, she tried her luck, or whatever the tale was, some of them had the right side of the story and the others had the wrong side of the story. So the point raised here is look at how Allah makes mention of the tale. That was a time when there was no phone,

no mobile, no internet, no telephone, no telex, no fax, imagine and at that time already, the whole town knew about it. So we don't know what to tailor. Now la safe goddess, really my brothers, my sisters, when they are good things, spread them when they are bad things. Delete the message. I challenge you. When you have a message someone sends to you. If it is bad, ask yourself carefully. It's Ramadan, Allah here this is a challenge. We need to save ourselves from the punishment of Allah, honestly, in this world and the next, a bad message comes it's either a video clip, an audio clip, or just a forward or an image, something And do you know what? It is evil, bad, sinful,

hurtful about someone else or just plain sin *, whatever else it may be. I challenge you for the sake of Allah for the sake of your gender. just deleted. Allahu Akbar. And don't bat an eyelid about it.

deleted, and you will save yourself onto speaking about how to save ourselves. Here it is. Delete the message and voila. When you have a good message, read it, smile, forward it to one or two people. If it didn't help you, it might help someone else. I have someone who sends me a message every Sunday night, and every Wednesday night to say do not forget to fast tomorrow, it is a tsunami every week Subhan Allah and I know if I for example, I'm not going too fast, but I forward the message to someone perhaps from the 10,000 people, if one person or 10 people or 100 people fasted. Guess who gets the rewarded? Well, I know I get a portion of it. May Allah subhanahu wa Jalla grant

us ease so brothers and sisters read a lot of Quran in Ramadan Mashallah read a lot of Quran in Ramadan, you know, I'm telling you that now when you open the Quran, you know who's getting a reward for it inshallah. Allah subhanho wa Taala bless us. We Allah subhanho wa Taala grant us ease. So my brothers and sisters, remember, when it comes to evil, it spreads very fast, it's your duty to cut it, stop it, make sure it stops at you. No one else delete it. Sometimes you have the courage send the message back to the person who sent it to you to say you know my brother, you know my sister, please don't forward me these type of messages Allahu Akbar. It might dent the relationship because

people say I was just joking. I was just joking. That's what they say. They hurt you. They lie. They accuse they do that which is unacceptable in the eyes of Allah. And then they say we were just joking. Come on, you can take a joke. Don't be serious. No, not at all. You don't joke about certain matters. Now Allah subhanho wa Taala safeguard us? May Allah subhanho wa Taala strengthen us all. So this was the story. And at the end, Allah subhanho wa Taala says, she told these women, the one woman who is now at the center of this sin, she is telling the other women that you know what, if this man doesn't do what I want him to do, because they acknowledged Wow, he's a good looking man.

Now we understand why you want to do what you want to do. That's what they said lavaca Stone Villa, imagine she's getting the support of the rest of the people rather than them say hey, Fear Allah, be careful that she had people around her who were telling her Hey, this is not a human, this is an angel. So she says Now do you blame me? They say Well, you know what, how can we blame you? Allah? Allah, my brothers and sisters, this is criminal. It's really unacceptable. One is the sin that is being committed to is the people around you, encouraging you to carry on with it. You and I need to have friends whom when all is planned to commit a sin, they tell us fear Allah, be careful. Watch

out, don't do it. I promise you don't do it gotta be returned to Allah. Those are your genuine friends. They are but a few. They are. But a few May Allah subhanahu wa Jalla make us from those. So Allah subhanho wa Taala says, when he heard this, the prophet Yusuf alayhi salatu wa sallam, he heard them discuss that if he doesn't want to commit this act of immorality with me, then I'm going to get him jailed. Do you know what he says? From BCG? No. lie I mean, my adoni les verse number 33 sort of used to, Oh Allah, it is better for me to be cast into the prison than that which they are calling me towards Allah. Allahu Akbar. He's asking Allah, Allah save me from such a crime of

immorality. I'd rather go to the jail than to dirty myself safiullah pause for a moment. Brothers and sisters, we are living in a hyper sexual age, you know that everything is about *, everything. And I tell you what, to protect yourself for the sake of Allah, Allah He you will be saved from the prison of the grave and the prison of the hereafter.

Here is Allah subhanho wa Taala relating to us the story of an absolutely handsome man, we know Yusuf alayhi salatu salam was the most handsome and at the same time, he is saying, Oh Allah, let me rather go to jail. I don't want to do this. Trust me, the looks on a person's face and the news that they have a lot of it is connected to the obedience of Allah subhanho wa Taala. A lot of it is connected to them, shunning sin, may Allah subhanho wa Taala grant us no and don't mistaken known for complexion complexion has nothing to do with no you can have a person as dark as charcoal, but they have more than one who is Caucasian. May Allah subhanahu wa taala grant us a deep

understanding. May Allah subhanho wa Taala bless us. So my brothers and sisters, what a powerful lesson.

And Allah subhanho wa Taala says he was imprisoned as a result. And when he was imprisoned, guess what happened again. It was another bad thing. Number one, he was put into the pit number two, he was sold in the market number three. He was accused number four. He was found guilty when he was innocent. Number five

He was jailed. Not once did he say, I think someone did something on me. Let me go and start cutting the lemons. And let me start now taking all these rose petals and let me go to this show. And I think he's going to show me who's did what on me. That's what we would do today. Well lucky. He had 12345 things going wrong in his life one after the other massive things. He doesn't have a complaint he said, Oh Allah, I'm happy man. I'm happy Allah for as long as you are with me. I'm with you. Everything is okay. Not once did he blame black magic, my mother in law? No way.

There's no mention of his mother in law, slavery Allah or his sister in laws. Allah. Allah, Allah subhanho wa Taala safeguard us, we Allah subhanho wa Taala help us in our own issues. Remember, 99% of the issues we go through have nothing to do with someone having done something. It's just a test of Allah. But our weakness of Eman makes us first question. I wonder who did this you doubt this one doubt that one. those closest to you who love you the most sometimes or who love you a lot, who really care for you are the ones whom you start accusing whom you break relationship with. Why? Just because you're a man is weak. That's what it is. May Allah subhanho wa Taala forgive us all. So

Allah subhanho wa Taala says, when he was imprisoned, he was a happy man. Subhan Allah. Do you know the first thing he spoke about in the prison was gratitude to Allah. There were two people who walked in with him or who were in the cell with him sharing the cell. They looked at his face as they saw his face. They said, verse number 36, makes mention of it. In Iraq, Amina Al masini, we see that you are You look like a person who is very good. And I told you my sin means a lot of things. It also means a person who has a very high level of conviction,

very high level of faith in Allah subhanho wa Taala. So they looked at him and from his face, they could see this man is a pious man, this man is a really good man. So they said, we find you to be a really good person. We've seen dreams. We'd like you to interpret these dreams. He didn't say okay, here's the meaning of your dream. He was given the knowledge by Allah. But you know what he said? He says before the food comes to you, the meal comes to you. Don't worry, I'll let you know what you want. But I want to start off telling you, Allah has favored me, Allahu Akbar. I want to start off by telling you the favours of Allah upon me, what are the favors of Allah upon me, this is my

father, this is my grandfather. This is who we are. All my forefathers are all pious people and Alhamdulillah. While I can act on as Elijah, he says, verse number 38, many people are not thankful. Wow, you just thrown into the jail. And you are saying, oh, people are not thankful. I'm so thankful to Allah, Allah save me. Allah save me from what from sin. Allah protected me. Allah has bestowed upon me such beautiful parents such lovely father's forefathers, Wow, my brothers and sisters at a time when he was going through suffering. According to us, if any one of us was in jail, may Allah safeguard us from being jailed or from the prisons. If any one of us was in it. Imagine how

depressing it would be here is a man smiling, telling people I really thank Allah, I am so grateful for whatever Allah has bestowed upon me. What a great lesson, save yourself from the depression. Take a look at the positives out of that negative that you think is bogging you down. There definitely have to be positives that come out of that. If you're in loss, if you are suffering in your business, if you are suffering in your health, if you are suffering in any other way, take a look at how it has softened you It brought you close to Allah it might have brought the family together, it might have solved so many other problems. Allah has blessed you by giving you so much

in terms of positive why concentrate on the negatives, save yourself that tension, save yourself that negative feeling and Allah subhanho wa Taala will open your doors. Then he seizes the opportunity of Dawa. He calls them towards Allah He says all my companions of the prison. Do you not know that worshiping one Allah Who made you worship your maker worship your sustainer that is far better than worshiping all these other gods and deities that people believe in? Whether they are sticks or stones or other people or anything else? He is telling his inmates the prisoners with him saying, You know what? worship Allah alone, isn't it better worship Allah alone, many people don't

know that Allah subhanho wa Taala alone should be worship brothers and sisters. Even at that point where he was in the prison. He sees the opportunity to call towards Allah May Allah subhanho wa Taala save us all. Remember when you call others to Allah, Allah will save you from calamity and difficulty as well. May Allah bless us all. We will continue in sha Allah, Allah sallallahu wasallam o Baraka Allah, Vina Mohammed Subhana, Allah Subhana Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah and the sulfuryl kawana