Mufti Menk – Return

			smilla rahmanir rahim Al Hamdulillah Allahu wa salam ala barakallahu
		

			Nabina Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa
		

			sallim ala Medina.
		

			We always praise Allah subhanho wa Taala. Every time we start anything meaningful, we start in the
name of Allah subhana wa Tada. And we praise Him and at the same time we send blessings and
salutations upon Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. He was the one who brought all the goodness
to us, Allah chose him to do that.
		

			And we asked Allah to bless his household, for they were the ones who supported him. They were the
ones who struggled and strove from the very beginning, including his companions, may Allah bless
them all. And may Allah subhanho wa Taala, bless all those who struggled and stroll through the
years, in a way that today the dean has come to us, and may He make us have the same concern that
they had in a way that the dean would be able to continue into our generations? And May Allah keep
them on the straight path up to the last day, I mean,
		

			brothers and sisters in Islam, if I were to tell you, that at the college you go, or the workplace
that you are employed at, if you were to make a mistake, and you went to your boss, and you told
him, I'm sorry, what would he do? It depends. He might be analyze you, he might not penalize you, he
might say, it's fine. If you really are sorry, you will prove to him that what I did is wrong. And
from now on, you will see that I'm not going to do that I'm going to be an asset to this business.
Or if you're a school, child, or school, going age, varsity or anywhere else, even if it's a matter
of time, and you did something wrong. And you were about to be expelled,
		

			or you were about to be penalized. And then you went and you said, I'm very sorry, I really
apologize. I did this, it was out of human error and so on. And I will prove to you that I'm going
to be a good student from now on. In that case, they may forgive you, they may say you know what,
		

			we will let you have another chance. When you come back some days later, and the same thing has
happened again, then what happens? They may let you off for a second time. The third time I doubted
that many places would let you off even sometimes family members might not let you off a third time
around. May Allah protect us and grant us goodness. Why did I choose to start in this way?
		

			Because Allah subhanho wa Taala declares himself most forgiving, Most Merciful, but we should not be
playing a game with a lot. He is not a little infant, nor is he someone who's employed us. nor is he
a person running a school as though he is far higher. He is
		

			Lord of the worlds he has set aside rules and regulations that we will have to operate by whilst we
happen to be living on this particular earth. And a man has given us a uniform to wear once we are
here. This uniform is made up of two things that which he chose for us and left which he has allowed
us to choose. What did he choose as a uniform for me and for you, the body you have and I have it's
a uniform. When you die, you will remove that uniform, it will be placed back into the earth like
Allah says Minh ha ha Navona Kumasi
		

			warming
		

			we have created you from that soil, we will return you into that soil and we will resurrect you back
from that soil. So this body is a uniform, my soul will depart the body which is the uniform and it
will carry on there is no more use for that particular body. Because in Jannah mela grand agenda, we
will be having a perfect body something that Allah has chosen for us different sizes and different
nature. Now Allah subhanho wa Taala groundless paradox.
		

			So that is one thing he chose for us. We have no decision. This is why you cannot go and start
having plastic surgery on your face. Just because you want to change what you look like. No, can you
start tattooing yourself or that is prohibited because it is allowed in a manner. It's like a
policeman who has a uniform and he starts writing big, big things on the uniform not allowed. He
needs to keep it neat and print prop. You have a school uniform and you write the name of another
school on your uniform. Does that make sense? So Allah has given you something
		

			You don't have to eat. You don't Pac. Unless it is permissible, meaningful women, they may be as big
as what they notice. Nowhere else may Allah subhanho wa Taala grant us quickness and protection. So
that is one uniform, the other uniform the clothing, we have the outer clothing, we need to adorn
ourselves in a uniform who would then go to one of the top schools of this country and pitch up
decide that I'm not wearing uniform, they will throw you right out so much. So I went to a school
where if your socks were not up and held up by what was known as a garter, you were told to go home
and collect the data. It's a little piece of elastic that holds your sock up. This is how slick
		

			people who are running schools have to be in order to protect the school from hooligans and so on.
Whatever their reasons, why is it we have something much more sophisticated than a school and the
rules are much more lenient than any school but still, we don't want to adopt it. You find the women
folk not interested in wearing the uniform men for not interested in wearing the uniform Allahu
Akbar, Allah strengthen us. May we learn to love the Sunnah of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam
in a way that we begin to realize the importance of adopting it and following it, every one of us is
on the level, we need to work to get to a level slightly higher. Don't ever think now I'm on a level
		

			and that's it. I'm sitting you're not gonna be nor are you an angel. You're a mere human being mean
Allah subhanho wa Taala grant us upliftment as the days passed, and may He never takes us back. So
it's important for us to know these are two uniforms. One is your body and the other is what you
adorn yourself with. It is absolutely unacceptable for us to become oblivious of it even for a split
moment to forget that this is from Allah, this is Allah instruction, we are in something that is
similar. And I'm giving this similarity to just bring it closer to our minds. Similar to a school,
where you are learning things, you write your examinations, time and time again, you write the
		

			exams, you pass on to the next level, you get harder examinations. Even with my law, it says the
bigger the examination, the bigger the reward in the law, either.
		

			Allah when Allah loves you, he tests you more, you want to choose a head boy in the school, you need
to choose the one who is the best, right? Because you know, you're going to be adding an extra
burden, he might have more sleepless nights than the others because his position is higher. This is
only an example. So within that school, we should understand in this life, we will have something
similar. You grow up you have one test, you have another test to learn how to read the Quran,
understand it, apply it, there is no point in going to a school and learning everything. And the day
of the test. We say I know the answers but I'm not ready to write them down. You'd be a fool.
		

			Brothers and sisters, we know the answers. We know the deen we know the regulations. We know halon
we know Haram. It's about time we wrote it down acted upon it. No point in saying I know this is now
doubtful, but you know, I'm hungry. You know, I'm scarred as they say, you know I need to eat.
That's not good enough. Allah subhanho wa Taala protect us, really, we need to apply it so that we
get to the next level, you get to the next level. And then you will be able to have a bigger
examination, Allah will test you with something more and more, until you graduate. The certificate
you get at school, say for example, grade seven, grade eight, you get certificates every year you go
		

			to the next year, when will you be able to use your certificates at the end, when you come out of
university and you have your degree, you can now use that applying to get a job. And then you say
I've got a top job because I work very hard and I've got top results. And this is what it is, you
will be able to use your certificates that you achieve in this life. Once you cross over beyond that
into the area. Then you have your certificates. I worked hard, I've got all A's and so on the Quran
speaks about it. Let's listen to the verses of the Quran. Allah subhanho wa Taala says
		

			to me, for
		

			me, as for the one who gets his results, his book, His Book of Records, which means whatever he's
achieved the A's or B's or the fail, whatever it is the one who gets his book, on his right hand or
in his right hand. He will say, hey, read my book. He's proud. He's happy, like the children are
happy when they have all A's and distinctions and I was talking about that look at it. And that says
you made me proud my son loves
		

			the proper pride will be on the day of judgment when we are given our books in our right hands
melodrama.
		

			We are deceived in this world, because the same son who came with all A's go and ask those who lost
such children before they could actually get a job. How did the school come handy? Nothing.
		

			This is why, yesterday I was speaking to a group of friends. And we were saying, you know, when
parents are wealthy, it's their duty to help their children to get married. It might not be fair up
for you to spend extra, and more and so on, you know, some people, sometimes you do have a case
where perhaps the bride's family might be more wealthy than the groom's family. So without wanting
to actually take control over this groom, because that's sometimes looked down upon in society, if
the man would like to help his son in law, no problem. He's using his wealth in a big inhibitor. And
he's actually facilitating what the question we were raising was, if he doesn't do that, the people
		

			will be fighting for that money. Once he dies, he'd rather have spent it properly in his life.
Allahu Akbar. So this is why we say some people who earn the millions and billions have never
benefited from it because they didn't spend it. They just amassed it. Same applies. Some people are
sharp and intelligent, they have AIDS, they have degrees, they have PhDs, they did not benefit from
it and all the day They die. Nobody's gonna say anyone ever let me go to the lounge. This is big
framed PhD certificate, put it on his chest so that you can see that this man had a PhD.
		

			Never, ever that's blasphemy. That is wrong. That is stupidity. Nobody would do that. Because they
know it doesn't help. It's a paper. All that knowledge can only help you for as long as you are
breathing. Even not so I can change what I just said. It can only help you for as long as you're
healthy. Once that takes you out of the way it's over. This is why you get to a certain age, you can
have the highest qualifications in the world. they retire you finished retire Why? To show you that
whatever you did waste of time, throw it out we getting the younger people and if they can replace
you with a machine, you didn't need Allah protect us. Today the replacing human beings with
		

			machines, you know that people's jobs on the line? Because they know but Allah is showing you Oh
man, you can be as sharp as you want. If you did nothing about your deen you have wasted your time.
If you did nothing about your link with Allah, you wasted your time. If you did not get closer to
the sooner
		

			You're wasting your time. And we hear it every day. We hear it every Friday. We know about it. We've
heard it on the radios. We've seen it wherever else we've been. And we know what is expected of us.
Shame man makes us look for excuses. No, man, I'm not yet ready. Come on. You want me to grow my
beard? Not yet. You know what, I just wait for a little bit more. And Allah says, you know, even if
you made the intention, it would have been enough. You did not know today was your last day.
		

			Hello, open our doors. Allah grant us the ability to change, it's a click, it's a switch, it has to
turn, you need to turn it because if you don't, your switch may be turned off before you know, this
is the thing. And this is why we tend to become so deeply engrossed in worldly material items that
Allah has drawn our attention to something else. What is that? When he describes gentlemen, through
the blessing lips of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, there is a narration that we all should
be knowing of by heart, fie harmala.
		

			Voila.
		

			In that paradise, there is that which no eyes have ever seen. Which means if you mean that there are
beautiful things in this world, they do not qualify to come to gentlemen, they don't not one thing
from amongst the material items of the world. While
		

			no ears have ever heard of. So if you've heard of anything, gender will be far better than that the
items you've heard of, will never qualify to enter.
		

			And man's mind is so small that it would never have crossed his mind that this is what I would
actually get in paradise. So if anything has crossed your mind in Paradise is far better than this.
Remember that. And if you take it further, you will come to understand. Did you ever think for a
moment that anything you find fancy and good and you work towards and you toil for in terms of
materialistic items that are of benefit to you in the dunya it can only be from the dunya nowhere
else.
		

			What does this mean?
		

			It means Say for example, you love a motor vehicle. Well the tin is from the mountain they mined the
day. The steel is also from under the ground. The fuel you use is from under the ground. The leather
is from the cow. What else you name it, it's all from the dunya there's nothing from Pluto or Venus
nothing. Nothing from the moon.
		

			Not at all. So it's only the word Allah says what you have seen yet is only from the earth, which is
one of the smallest planets in existence. This is what it is. And we busy committing adultery, going
to the casinos, we busy not wanting to turn to the dean, we can't give up a cigarette, we cannot
give up alcohol. We can't give up drugs, we have to bash our wives. And we have to beat up our
children and we don't want to come home on time. And he's with no time to read our Salah. And Allah
says, Man, you know how insignificant you are. If we were to take you up slightly higher, slightly
higher in your own atmosphere, you won't even see your house, and you won't even see the 100 people
		

			who are in your house. If you take off on an aircraft, you can see the little cars they look like
dinky dinky we used to call it dinky small little car.
		

			Nowadays, you get big remote control cars.
		

			So these metal DVDs, real cars look like that. And when you climb slightly higher, you cannot see
anything nothing. And unless anyone you still in the Earth's atmosphere, can you see anything? No.
When you still want to tell the woman who did it? When do you know?
		

			At the moment, she is smaller than a speck of dust? Can you see? And you still in the Earth's
atmosphere? Was it worth it? No, it wasn't Why didn't you switch your switch on before it was
switched off?
		

			This is the message I have for myself to start with. We know what's right and wrong. It's not good
enough for me to come here and say okay, this is right, this is wrong. This is why sometimes the
details we are reminded of constantly. The true question is when are you ready to start walking the
talk? When are you ready to do it? Are you ready? If you are not lying, we might not see the sun
again. We could never come out of the machine if Allah wills it can happen. So let us wake ourselves
up. Ask yourself what is it that I want? Before I turn to Allah? Do I want a huge clap across my
face? Do I want to suddenly be diagnosed with cancer or age before I turn? Allah says goddess and
		

			grand cure to those who are seeking do do I want a huge loss in the robbery and the death of people
I love around me and some major accident where my legs are crashed before I turn Allah says Hang on,
we still have merciful if we do that for you. You still have
		

			you might suffer a little bit If a person's had a huge crush and that made them come to the masjid
so hard Allah Allah loves them because Allah says we tapped you we tried to draw your attention by
giving you You didn't come so we took away from you now you can we still love you. Wow.
		

			Why do we have to wait for things to be taken away from us before we turn to Allah subhanho wa Taala
		

			Why do we have to miss a Salah the minute the time of Salah enters you must have a rash on your
bottles. You can't sit until you read that Salah it's a fact that's a movement. A person who is
really restless until the Salah is over today what we do shavon comes to us dialogue Salah is
		

			still the beginning time it's okay we wait for a while and then come last time you run him you know
suddenly sitting at 20 past five half past 525 past you busy making your hustle Salah
		

			that happens every single day. Is that how you treating a month imagine a person coming late to
school every day after a certain time they will beat your parents they do something they might even
kick you out of the school and say you know what? You're not fit to be here every day if it was once
or twice okay fair enough. But this we do it with Salah Salah is a gift 24 minutes in 24 hours we
cannot give it we find ourselves lazy while lying the hypocrisy shaper makes us get into his seven
o'clock you wake up for work but six o'clock you won't wake up for salah and you had to wake up five
minutes after that we wake up and we won't even think for a minute today's the last opportunity I
		

			ever had to eat
		

			and I was taking me away but
		

			this is why the heartbeat is suddenly Sinatra, Mama Daddy, when you read your Salah religious though
is the last Salah you're never going to get an opportunity to re there are millions and billions of
people who are in their graves, wishing that they could be returned to engage in one Saturday. And
here we are alive. We don't want to engage in those situations. And then when we come for Salah we
pick the grounds of pickling not realizing the closest You are
		

			the closest that a slave is to his other his when he's Institute. Take your time. Add one or two
most of us see what happens. When you coming up. Take your release slowly. The king of the world the
King of kings, the Lord of the worlds is whom you are in front of Don't rush.
		

			Imagine Allahu Akbar what we call a wake up call to say you know what? Reality strikes. Soon we're
going to leave the school of ours. Whatever
		

			A certificate you have that is what will help you in getting across.
		

			That is what will help you getting across. So it's up to you what type of examination you want to
write, you want to write, what is it that you would like to achieve?
		

			If you failed once, and this brings me back to the beginning of my talk, you failed once, you can
rewrite.
		

			You failed twice. You can rewrite.
		

			For as long as you're alive you have, you can write again, how many people get a matric at the age
of 25 3035. Some older people get a university degree at the age of 50 and beyond. Why because they
don't want to lose hope, without realizing it's only going to help them for another five years.
Before I go.
		

			What about the big degree that we need in order to live the eternal life? This life is only 60 to 70
years, approximately? If you're lucky that is. And beyond that, not 600 years. Today, I was reading
a hadith
		

			of Rasulullah sallallahu Sallam where he was explaining the door, the door of the garden of one of
us. May Allah grant us gentlemen, the Garden of Eden gentlemen, to get from one side of it to the
other, you'd have to work for 40 years. So behind Allah, and I'm thinking to myself today without a
joke in 40 hours, I can cross the whole globe by plane and come back to Joburg and that's when the
slow Airbus slow meaning it only moves at 900 Ks an hour.
		

			Imagine
		

			40 years for one go wonder what's inside. They say the Hadith says the tree would be such that if
you were to walk in exchange for 100 years, you'd still be in his shade. Allahu Akbar.
		

			You walking in the shade of your tree longer than you ever were in the whole dunya your entire life
and we are busy sitting in this linear thinking, you know, what is he telling us? We can't give up
adultery Allahu Akbar.
		

			We cannot give up gambling and believing this because these are the problems of the age. We cannot
give up *. We cannot give up haram relations, the sending of wrong pictures to other
people on their phones. It's happening Believe me, Allah subhanho wa Taala says God's really the
challenges are plenty. So what is the hope?
		

			The hope is we are facing upon Rahim we are facing
		

			a maker
		

			who is much more merciful than anything in existence. He has created mercy and divided into 100
paths one sent it down 99 he kept winning so panela so all the messy you ever see is part of the one
portion. The 99 inshallah we will achieve from from that we will enter Paradise now granted.
		

			So brothers and sisters, it's about time we asked ourselves some serious questions, serious
questions. What is the main question? When am I turning to Allah? What is it that I'm waiting for?
Before I decide to change my bad ways and habits? Have I
		

			recognized a man who's trying to lead me astray? And have I chosen a different path? There was some
people at the time of Rasulullah sallallahu Sallam so powerful, that shape and recognize them to the
degree that he stayed away from them. Can I give you one example. Omar
		

			says when he walked down one gallon shape and ran through the other gallon, he didn't even want to
cross paths. Because not only did he recognize the devil, but the devil knew this man, no chance
whatsoever. But with us, we look sometimes for the shaytan Allah protect this. This is why sometimes
I say And may Allah safeguard all of us. We really think of items as human beings such that even the
devil is ashamed of us say I didn't think of this man was you. Allah protect us. Really? Let's turn
to Allah Toba. Let's ask Allah forgiveness, not once or twice every day 100 times. Don't worry, the
bat allow us to give you your breathing. Allah forgive you the mercy of Allah, He will grant you
		

			paradise through the intercession of Mohammed Salah. We are just such a beautiful Shahada, la, la
la, la la.
		

			La. You know what it means? I know what it means sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. That is a more
powerful statement than anything that can exist. So Panama. That is what will drive me to gentlemen
and you two gentlemen, now Lagonda paradise, through the intercession of Muhammad. Allah says Allah,
we need to try at least in order to handle indecision. There's no point in saying we'll get into
session. Don't worry man. I learned that it teaches you how to apply law and the law once you get
paradise all the way down.
		

			Many times No way, no way you don't know if what you said was accepted, it can only be accepted if
you're working towards it. You know, you can have citizenship of your own country that you were born
in. If they want you to. If they want to strip your hobby, they may do so depending on what you've
done.
		

			So May Allah subhanho wa Taala bless us all, and May He grant us goodness inshallah. This was a very
short pep talk, I hope and I pray that it has affected me in sha Allah to live a better life from
now. And to become more conscious of my weaknesses, no matter what type of spiritual level I think
I'm on I need to work on my weaknesses and so does everyone else that Allah bless us all, and may
help us to love one another for his sake. And may we be as an omen, such that nobody would dare
trample upon us. May Allah subhanho wa Taala love us all. And may we be from amongst those who are
the lovers of Allah until we meet again, salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah.