Ramadan 2022 – Boost #26 – Facing Hardship with Faith – A Night of Motivation

Prophet peace be upon him said, look for Leila to have gathered in the last 10 nights of Ramadan. Amongst the last 10 days is a night better than 1000 months. Make the most of these auspicious nights and multiply your reward. feed the hungry, shelter the needy, empower the poor and spread smiles amongst orphans.

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Smilla he will Hamdulillah he was salatu salam ala Rasulillah he were Allah Allah, he was happy he edge mine.

My beloved brothers and sisters, it is amazing to be here in this beautiful month of Ramadan, with such beaming faces, everyone, so happy smiling in sha Allah, hiding all the difficulty hardship that you and I may be facing. And that happens because the Almighty is the one who favors us always.

I was in this beautiful hole before Ramadan. And there was a verse that I mentioned and repeated.

And later when I left I thought of it. And it helped me in my own challenges. You need to know every time someone talks to you

about

goodness and how to overcome the challenges and how to enjoy the comfort and the contentment that the Almighty has created. That person also faces challenges of their own.

And their own comfort and contentment

would definitely be

according to how much they hear themselves.

So if I were to adopt the goodness that Allah has blessed us with, that I talk about,

it would bring about a lot of comfort in the midst of the biggest challenges that we may face in our lives because life is all about challenges.

And if I ignore what the Almighty says, then I will have to face the consequences of that. And one of those consequences is no matter what happens on Earth, even if your issues are small, they will seem so big because you haven't taken the guidance, who made you and who made I who made me, Allah Almighty made you and I and Allah Almighty has told us what to take seriously and what not to take seriously.

And today, I want to remind yourselves and myself about the same verse. Allah says, What

do you need met Allah Hilah too soon? To places in the Quran, Allah says if you were to try to count the favors of Allah upon you, you would never manage to count them. If you were to count the favors of Allah upon you, you would never manage to count them. So I'm sure you've heard that verse before where Allah says, tried to count the favors of Allah you won't and Allah continues. In Surah Ibrahim Allah Almighty says in Santa Laval Lumo

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indeed, man is not only oppressive, but he is very ungrateful.

kuffaar means one who's ungrateful, showing ingratitude. Why am I ungrateful? There are many explanations, let me give you one of them. In these verses, Allah is telling you about His favours upon you then he says, but man is ungrateful because we concentrate on those things we don't have. That's what it is, we concentrate on what we do not have so we go wrong. Allah says, try and count the favors upon us upon you from us, and then see what happens. So this verse is so amazing because the reverse of it gives us the greatest hope. If we were to look at it. Allah says,

if you try to count the favors of Allah upon you, you won't manage. So that means if you try to count what Allah has not given you or taken away from you or the challenges or difficulties or hardships he placed in your life, you will manage to count those. Have you ever thought of it that way?

If I tell you how are you say I've got a big problem. Did you know what you just said? I have got a big problem means one major issue right? Well, you've got a I've got a few issues that I'm going dealing with at the moment. What did you just say? I've got a few What about

The rest of everything else, you've just ignored everything. You're breathing your mind, your family, your whatever else. It may be your health, your wealth, your job, even if you don't have the job, for example, so much more that you have that others don't have. Your Dean, your iman, the fact that you're focused, all of that is amazing, isn't it? But people don't think about it because the challenges are overwhelming. Sometimes we are human, we need a reminder to say what's gone wrong in my life. Well, this has gone wrong, what has gone right? This has gone right Subhanallah Subhanallah in my life, and in all honesty, if 1000 things go right, one thing goes wrong. Because when we say

go wrong, according to us, it's obviously a hardship or difficulty. But 1000 Things went right.

Many of us stress and we're upset because of one thing that goes wrong in our lives. Yes, it's major to lose a loved one might just be the first loved one you've lost. But trust me, it's very big. It's not easy. And it's only with closeness to the Almighty that you will be able to overcome that.

You know, to be to go through a divorce after you went through marriage, people say my engagement broke and they are depressed. But what about the others the engagement went through mashallah, they spent a lot of time, effort, energy, they invested in the marriage, the Nikka went through the wedding went through and thereafter we started not getting along. Now what I'd rather the engagement broke. But if the engagement broke, we would have been stressed in a different way.

Allah saves us sometimes from things we don't realize things that are not going to happen in our lives. Had they happened, Allah knows how they would have happened. And so he doesn't want us to go through that he takes us out of it from the very beginning.

But man is so stressed sometimes he only looks at negatives have you come across people who no matter what happens, they think of the worst possible thoughts.

They think of the worst possible thoughts. If someone is crossing the road, they start thinking the most negative thoughts. If someone is walking and there is a bulge coming from their pockets, they start thinking the worst possible thing that could be in those pockets. Subhanallah What's it got to do with you leave them Subhanallah let them be if a person is greeting you know, the greeting me for a reason, they must be something I'm sure they're going to use me I'm sure they have bad intentions. Why do that? Let it be, you know, Allah speaks about war in the Quran. And Allah speaks about how important it is to try and avoid war. Allah says it should only be Allah as a last resort. And then

Allah says, and even if you ended up fighting, if the enemy is inclining, towards peace, Allah says, inclined towards the view as well straightaway. But then there's a question. What's the question? The negative question comes about? What if these people are inclining towards peace in order to con me in order to deceive me? So let's listen to what Allah says. We're in Jannah. Holy sell me Valjean, law.

GL Allah, Allah, amazing. If they are inclining towards peace, you are inclined towards peace as well and rely on Allah. So that's a bonus. I did what Allah wants me to do, I made the peace and on top of that, guess what I am doing? I am relying on Allah I am I'm trusting Allah on this one. I'm trusting Allah on this one. You know what, sometimes you will trust Allah on it. And Allah wants you to be deceived once or twice in order for you to learn something great in order for you to cross a barrier that you hadn't ever crossed before, in order for you to arrive at a level of closeness with Allah that you were never at before. So Allah Almighty immediately after that, he says,

What AUD do I care for in Hasmukh Allah still if they want to cheat you and deceive you, after you have laid your trust in Allah. Remember, Allah is sufficient for you. Allah is enough for you. Allah knows Allah has assisted the believers before you

with his own victory, look at the Battle of Bedore

imagine Allah the Lord of the Worlds he does not need you and die for anything. And if he wanted, he could have had Nabi Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam win every battle, and he could have had so much more, but it was part of Allah's plan that you may or may not understand. It's part of Allah's plan.

When Abu Sufian was asked by the enemy, tell us more about this man.

Do you guys fight with each other? He says, Yes, we do. We've had a few wars. Who wins? Well, they win. Sometimes we win sometimes. He said, Well, that's how it is with all the prophets. Subhanallah Did you hear that? He said, That's how it is with all the prophets. They win. Sometimes these people win. Sometimes the ultimate win is always for the believers. Allah says, A believer is in a condition where he can never lose. If he has that faith. He's in a win win situation. If it went your way, you're happy. If it did not go go your way.

It went the way Allah wanted it anyway. So you're a believer, and you just take it in your stride. Okay, that's fine. I remember there's a couple came to me. And one of the two is asking, look, we want I want to end this marriage. But what's the problem? We don't have a problem. But I want to end this marriage. But I don't have a problem. There's no problem whatsoever. It's obviously so stressful, so stressful, because you and I know, marriages break when the two parties don't get along. But if they're getting along, and suddenly someone comes up and says, You know what, I don't want this anymore. Subhanallah it is so difficult, so hard.

And so to comfort this person I said, Allah knows best, Allah knows what the future holds, take it in your stride, see what it is, Allah knows, perhaps it may be a means of some form of opening that you never dreamt of that will happen. You need great conviction to believe what I just said.

You need great conviction to believe what I just said. Because without faith, you will just look at today. That's it. You will look at today how many of us have cried to Allah as we grew up for passing the exams? Where are you today? Subhanallah someone messaged me earlier and said I wanted to come but we weren't allowed with children who were below 10. So I couldn't come. And I'm saying clearly there must be some goodness in it. What goodness can there be in it? Well, I know that believing in Allah there must be some goodness in it. It's okay. Maybe on your way here. You might have made a big exit and stuff for Allah. That's thinking negative. But anyway, in order to think

positive of why we didn't come or why we weren't able to come let's think a little bit of what negativity we were saved up from. That becomes positive, right?

You save from negativity, doesn't it become positive? Come on. I know you guys are fasting. And I know it's the UK and I know you're fast. A very, very long, I flew in from Madina Munawwara and trust me, yesterday's fast was longer than all of you guys as fast put together and my Shala I said welcome to England and they kept asking me fasting, sir, I said Yes, sir. Yes, Madame. I'm fasting. I hope we get to our destination very fast. That's why I'm fasting Mashallah.

May Allah bless all of us?

But, so sometimes things we desperately want We ask Allah for and it doesn't come the way we want it. But we lose the bigger picture. Allah has given us a lot of what we wanted from the time we were young. Think of the days you were at school, how you called out to Allah Oh Allah I need to pass this examination. I need this needs to happen. Oh Allah grant me this grant me that Where are you today? You might have failed once or twice but the general picture what happened? Where are we? We have progressed in life we have gotten so far. Oh Allah grant me this job grant me that I was working out how much money has been spent on me from the time I was born.

I was working out how much money has been spent on me from the time I was born. I want you guys to thank Allah

by looking at what amount of money was spent on you from the time you were born, just think about it, what does it cost to feed you? What did it cost to get you out of the hospital to begin with? Mashallah, and what did it cost to bring you up and to send you to school depending? For some people, it might have been less some people more but millions trust me, it goes into the millions you want the way it was all that money? What if they didn't worry about me just gave me the cash today?

You wouldn't be here. That's the thing. Because when you start looking at those figures, you are going to thank Allah Ya Allah, Ya Allah. Imagine a million pounds spent on me a million pound? Did my folks or did the people even have that money? No, they didn't. How was it spent over time? Over a long time the money was spent. Think about what I'm saying?

Subhanallah how much money have you now forget about how much was spent on you? How much have you spent in your life from your own money?

You will be shocked how much Allah has given you. Your salary might be a few 1000 You've spent hundreds of 1000s if not millions already in your show.

live so far, you still have a long way to go Insha Allah, may Allah grant us goodness, good, healthy lives that He is pleased with us the day he takes us away. I mean,

but man looks at the negatives, we look, you know, in the month of Ramadan, usually what happens, we have a lot of giving charity, because it's recommended in the month of Ramadan, the reward is multiplied, we have all the charitable organizations reminding us telling us you need to do this and you need to do that all these reminders are good. And we give, we end up giving Islam teaches us that your charity is never depleted by your giving. In fact, it is increased. It's increased it's an investment when I invest. If I have say for example, 20,000 pounds lying around mashallah, lying around means you got to be quite rich for that right?

What should I do with it, so you're looking for an opportunity to invest opportunity to invest Subhan Allah, Allah tells you, if a year has passed, and you're still looking for an opportunity to invest, we're going to force that investment out of you. We have to two and a half percent, bring it this way you invested into your hereafter. And you know what Allah says, that's an amazing verse. He says, when you give a little in charity, the small droplet a little seed, the ones who spend their wealth in the in the good causes that Allah creates for you.

The way I've worded that is actually important because pause for a moment and tell you do you know when there is an opportunity to give, it's actually an opportunity created by Allah for you to see if it meets if it actually catches your attention. And if your heart feels like giving give, if your heart feels soft, give you know why it's your opportunity created by Allah, Allah will fill it with someone else, if you're not going to fill it. It's not like the cause is going to stop. The it's not like people are going to die before their time. No, but it's just that we were

not quick enough to seize an opportunity. So going back to this issue of what the Quran says regarding that spending, the multiplication of it is amazing, because he

he makes it similar to a seed that is sown that grows corn that has all these, you know, the the is the corns Subhanallah each one of them brings about so many more of those seeds 100 to 700. And beyond Subhan Allah, Allah is telling you your wealth is like a seed, you sow it and move on, you see what will happen to this, you see what will happen to this many times we have, I know where I come from in Africa, in Zimbabwe, if you throw the mango seed

on the ground, do you know

in a few weeks, you will see a little plant there, you will see a little tree there. Even if no one gave it water, and no one cared for it. In a few weeks, you begin to see that. And you wonder how fertile the soil is who looked after it. It was Allah.

Allah takes care of everything he's going to take care of you. He's taken care of the seeds, the plantation a lot of the times even those who plant trees, intentionally, they don't see the fruits of those tree, they are doing it for others.

If you look at the huge trees, fruit bearing trees, who planted them, many times they were planted by others, people who have passed on I remember reading a story of an old man who took his grandson to plant a mango tree. And he told his son, this tree will give fruit after seven years. And the grandson is saying you're wasting your time you'll be dead. He says I know I'm doing it for you. Because my grandfather did for us and the tree we all had mangoes from was planted by a man who didn't have a single mango from the tree.

And that's why Islam tells you when you do something like that, it's the only time your reward keeps clocking. After you've passed on, it's called sadaqa. To enjoy area. It's called a charity that will continue after your death for as long as Allah will sometimes it keeps on going for many, many years, sometimes centuries, sometimes a few years. It's still called sadaqa jariya. You for example, were involved in tree planting and after you passed on the trees last 2050 100 years your reward lasts that amount of years.

In fact,

if from that tree or the trees

were planted because of the seeds that came from the trees you planted you you do definitely do have a share of that reward. You know Allah is works in amazing ways.

So Allah Almighty tells us how he multiplies the goodness oh

all the time, it's always multiplied. My brothers, my sisters, did you know when you're facing challenges when you're facing challenges in this life?

Allah Almighty helps you through that by reaching out to others who are facing a similar challenge.

For example, you have a health problem. If you try to assist others who have a similar health problem, you will find Allah will help you in your issue. That's the Hadith of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, that Allah will continue to assist his worship for as long as that worshipper is busy assisting others.

So you begin to feel content and happy.

When I help someone, the contentment I achieve by helping them is unmatched. Try it.

It's unmatched, you will actually feel a certain part of you grow. And you know, it's addictive.

Once you've helped a few, and you see the goodness, and you see what it's doing, you want to help more and you want to help more and you want to help more. And you You keep going, what are you doing, my brothers, my sisters, you are helping yourself, that's what you're doing. You are helping yourself, you are being a human and part of the way Allah has created you and I is I will achieve contentment and ease

by assisting others.

So for those who don't reach out to others, no matter what you have, you will be lacking something.

And that's why we say my brothers, my sisters, look at what Allah has bestowed upon you, if you concentrate on what he has not given you. If you concentrate on what Allah has not given you, you definitely

will not be able to taste the beauty

of the contentment that Allah has created. When I say created Allah creates contentment. Contentment is a condition that Allah creates within a person.

You need to be happy with what Allah has put in your path, take it in your stride. Bad days do not last. Bad days do not last but they have to come to you. If you're going through an issue, others have been through the same issue. Because we're all human. You look at my life.

People might be looking at say, oh, what challenges does this guy ever face? He's living their life as they say, right? That's not true. You would never ever want to live my life. Not for a day.

Trust me, not for a day, Allah gives everyone a certain capacity to take things.

I remember one of our shares. And I'm going to end on this note, I think

I have a bit more time. Okay, if you have a little bit more time Sharla Don't worry.

One of our chefs said that a student of his came to complain, chef I have problems, big problems. So he was explaining exactly the way I was today to say look at the favors of Allah upon you. If you have difficulty hardship, you know, it's it's it's limited, but if you have goodness, it's unlimited. Whatever you have count the good and the bad. How many things have gone wrong in your life, you can count 10 things, how many have gone right in your life, you will not count them? Okay. So he kept on saying this young man complaining saying no, I've got the most difficult life from everyone. He says, Okay, we will do something tomorrow in the masjid says okay. The following day,

as the people were entering, he gave everyone a pen and a paper and said write I want you to write

10 of the most difficult things in point form that you are going through in your life.

Every one of you so they all sat down a few 100 of them. And they wrote 10 of the most difficult things. They were going through no names, no nothing. And what happened is they they put it into a bucket. So each person's little piece of paper was in a bucket. And then he shook up this bucket and he told the people, right, all your problems are in this bucket. All your issues are in the bucket, right? I want you to pick up one paper each, or keep on picking up papers until you're happy with the one that you would like to hear that.

I am saying I have more problems than all of you. Okay. That's what this young man was saying. So what we've done, we've taken all of your problems, put them in a bucket, bring the young man and tell him pick up any one of these. It's a combination of people's problems.

So the people started and they pick up one or no put it down again because there's two three things I really can't go for. Pick up another one. We've done, pick up a third one, put it down, pick up a fourth one put it down until they

picked up enough to say, You know what, I need my own paperback. I just want my own paperback. Why? Because I've realized, Allah put you through issues and has given you the power and the ability to go through that if you knew what others were going through you just thank Allah for the nothings that are going on in your life in terms of hardship. I'm not belittling your problems. But remember, issues are relative. When you start knowing what others are going through, you begin to thank Allah, you begin to say, Oh Allah, I've got it easy, man. You know, I had a car crash two hours I was there. And mashallah, you know, at least they took the car away the other people, the guy lost a

limb.

What are you going to say?

That's why Muslims are taught to say, it could have been worse, could have been worse. May Allah bless you. So I said I was going to end with that, brother, oh, he told me you can go on, you know a little bit more. So I thought of one more thing.

My brothers and sisters. Remember.

It's not like you're not going to go through challenges in life, you will we just came out of COVID. Hopefully, people are still being affected. But we've come out of it.

We've learned from it. It has evolved and we have evolved. And subhanAllah we're, we've lost loved ones some of us have lost a lot some of us have gained as well. Pick up the pieces and keep going. If you're going to pity yourself, you're going to go nowhere. You have to be strong, you have to get up in the morning, there's no chance you have to get up you have to start off with that prayer in the morning. You have to move and you have to make sure you made an effort through the day the Almighty will bless the rest of it. If you're going to be lazy and worrying about oh no, I can't even get out of bed, force yourself to do a few of those things. And the rest will be done by Allah

in the sense that, see how Allah opens your doors. But if you're going to pity yourself, I'm struggling and even even if you don't have a cough, you start getting a cough, imaginary one. Even if you don't have a fever, you start feeling oh, I've got a fever, imaginary one. Even if you're not your bones are not aching. You start feeling a my bones, get up and take a walk

Subhanallah do something and see how Allah Almighty blesses you because Allah has created you for movement. Allah has created you to move your heart beats all the time, imagine if that heartbeat had to stop, even for a moment.

So please feel good about yourself. Don't think that Allah hates you doesn't like you know, are you trying? Are you turning to Allah? are you improving bit by bit inch by inch, millimeter by millimeter? If the answer is yes, you're heading in the right direction, you might want to pace it up a little bit. And that's why we have Ramadan and that's why we have the last 10 nights. And that's why these are the most beautiful nights. If Allah wanted, he could have kept Laylatul Qadr in the first part of Ramadan and told us listen, it's on the seventh day of Ramadan, the rest of Ramadan, people would actually stop fasting sometimes depending on how weak they are installing

Allah.

But Allah says, You know what, we're going to keep it hidden. And we are going to keep it towards the end. The end of all the things. That's what becomes exciting, including football Subhanallah the last few moments are the best. If you have missed the match, but you you just caught the last 510 minutes. Everyone screaming and yelling and especially when they haven't yet scored properly. You know?

Check all the smiles here. In front. Yeah, you know what I'm talking about football, especially in

in the UK. What do you guys call it soccer?

You call it football? Okay. I got it, right.

Oh, it's called us? No. Okay.

I was gonna say something, but it's Ramadan. I don't want to argue they say when people say things, just say in Islam. You know, if someone wants to insult, you just say I am fasting. So I'm just saying, brother. I'm fasting. It's okay.

May Allah bless us, but the excitement's towards the end because you know, one goal can change the whole world you agree?

Look at all the nods I think it was for God's that was the problem right?

May Allah grant us ease you must be wondering how does this guy know? Well, I'm a human beings just like you isn't it? So yeah, mashallah, it's been very nice to talk to you guys. And I pray that whatever we've said can actually motivate us to to do better. And at the same time to feel that we are indeed blessed by Allah because this feeling when we have it, it helps us get closer to Allah.

When you feel that you have nothing you feel distant from Allah, that's a major problem. You actually do have a lot you have more than what you think you have. It just need someone to help you to look at these things and to see, you think you have issues. Perhaps I have bigger issues than yours. I want to tell you, the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him had the biggest difficulties, the greatest hardship, and that's why one of the most soothing, soothing ways of remedying your

sickness and illness is yes to go through the Quran. But together with that go through the life and the biography of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, step by step and see how it will change you. It will move you, it will renew a lot within you that needs renewing. May Allah bless every one of us I only had a sallahu wa salam ala Nabina Muhammad, the Prophet peace be upon him said, look for Leila to gathered in the last 10 nights of Ramadan. Amongst the last 10 days is a night better than 1000 months. Make the most of these auspicious nights and multiply your rewards. feed the hungry, shelter the needy, empower the poor and spread smiles amongst orphans.

Donate today, w w w.abdulai.org.uk.