Abuja, Nigeria
Mufti Menk – Solutions to our State of Weakness
AI: Summary ©
The importance of strong spirituality and connections with Allah is emphasized, along with protecting oneself from anger and avoiding cutting words. A culture of safety and integrity is also emphasized, as it is essential in the digital age of the world. A positive environment can be a source of productivity for businesses, and one is instructed to be mindful of one's words and actions to avoid getting in trouble.
AI: Summary ©
smilla rahmanir rahim al hamdu Lillah wa Salatu was Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah amin Nabina. Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa javelina woman, a son, Elijah Medina Baba, 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 subhanho wa Taala to bless every single one of them and to grant them all goodness and at the same time to bless every single one of us, to grant us goodness in this world and the next my brothers and sisters in Nigeria, I am so happy to be here in your midst. And I thank Allah subhanho wa Taala for bringing us together solely for his sake. And
I pray that He grants us the shade of the day of the AMA, because we have got to know each other for the sake of Allah subhanho wa Taala and our link and connection is solely and only because of the word of Allah subhanho wa Taala had the message that I deliver not been the message of Allah subhanho wa Taala it would have been irrelevant. May Allah subhanho wa Taala make us from those who love one another for the sake of him and may be accepted from us. My brothers and sisters a beautiful morning this morning in this beautiful city of Abuja.
The topic we have been tasked to tackle this morning is a topic connected to
solution to the state of our weakness or to our state of weakness. And we all know that the solution Subhana Allah, we ask Allah subhanho wa Taala to grant us the ability to recognize the weakness in order to be able to be from those who can solve the matter. My brother, can you put it down and face it to my face?
That's a solution.
So we ask Allah subhanho wa Taala to bless every single one of us. We are human beings and Allah says we're only a
body fat man has been created weak. We are from a state of weakness we will always weak as we grow older, as strong as we think we are a small cough and sneeze and we are knocked out. Do you agree? If you have a little headache, you cannot think properly why because you are a human being. That's what it is. It's Allah subhanho wa Taala Who has created us weakness in so many different ways not just physical weakness, but sometimes we have emotional weakness, mental weakness, spiritual weakness, so many different forms of weakness. And that is we are men when I was born, I was totally dependent. We are always all dependent on Allah subhanho wa Taala but he makes us dependent on our
parents or those who are our guardians by the will of Allah subhanho wa Taala. So, we are dependent upon them. And at the same time, if they did not look after us, perhaps we would have died of hunger, we needed to be fed we needed to be changed so many things needed to have happened to us, for us to be able to have grown up and this is the plan of Allah and this is why Allah says Allah, Allah
bar
the bar
A lot has created us from weakness, a point of weakness above which means we were very weak then he made us physically strong, we became strong at a certain stage when you get to the age of 40 Mashallah, you are at the peak of your energies. But when you are in your teens, you think that you are the strongest person in the world and nobody can overcome you. That is just a feeling that a person gets at a certain age and thereafter you start developing gray hair Mashallah. and thereafter, you start wilting, and then you start feeling that the strength I had a while back is now diminishing for you to remember that you are returning to Allah. So as your strength diminishes,
your spiritual strength should be increasing. And this is Allah subhanho wa Taala and his plan.
If a person dies at a young age, when they are bubbling and bursting with energies, they would require a lot of strength to protect themselves from the temptations of the dunya in order for them to develop a relation with Allah subhanho wa Taala. Whereas if a person was given a long age, you know, by Allah subhanho wa Taala long and healthy life and sometimes they lose that health obviously at a certain age then they become close automatically to the America because now they know we are returning to the one who made us. This is why a person who is old and still continues to sin is far more dangerous in terms of the
detriment to that particular person's spirituality and link with Allah than a person who is young and make mistakes out of their energies that have been bestowed upon them. May Allah protect us from both.
So my brothers and sisters, the weakness we have been created in Allah says, thereafter you are granted strength and once again you go back down into the weakness May Allah subhanho wa Taala bless us and grant us all some form of ease.
However, if we would like to diagnose the weakness we will find that it stems mainly from spiritual weakness, we are weak spiritually.
We are weak in spirituality because the link when Allah subhanho wa Taala that every one of us has can be better. can it not be better?
I don't hear an answer.
It can be better no matter how pious you think you are, you can be dressed properly you can be reading five Salah you can be in the masjid all the time. You can be giving your soccer you can have gone for Hajj. However many times you can have had a love fasted not only in the month of Ramadan, but even the voluntary fasts but believe me, if you think that now you have got to a level where it's okay, I can sit back and relax. It means chiffon has got all of you that's what it means. None of us can ever think even for a moment that we have got to a level of satisfaction with our link with Allah subhanho wa Taala we can feel better we can feel the spirituality we can feel the
calmness because the link with Allah subhanho wa Taala is closely connected to the contentment of the heart. When you have a strong link with Allah even whilst you are sick and Ill physically you will always feel happy and content by the will of Allah subhanho wa Taala
when you have suffered a loss in business shaytan attacks at that point of weakness and makes you think why did it happen to me when you've lost a child when the child was so innocent and you had born him after so long and you lost the child and that state of weakness shavon comes to attack but it is the man the strengthening of the link with Allah subhanho wa Taala the acceptance of the degree of Allah subhanho wa Taala that will empower us to become a people who are strong once again, Allah subhanho wa Taala grant of strength.
Those who don't have faith and conviction can never ever have a very very good life because every single person no matter at what point or stage of success in the world we live they have reached they will always have days when they are down. When they feel low. When they feel slightly backward in the sense that they feel they are in need of something they are grappling they don't realize sometimes it is the link with Allah. This is why my brothers and sisters as sin that is committed comes with a lot of tragedy. It comes with a lot of depression. It comes with a lot of loss of contentment, because when you commit a sin Say for example, the sin of adultery, when it is
committed, it comes back to haunt a person at some stage unless they repent to Allah Subhana Allah to Allah May Allah grant us repentance and may make us from those who realize and understand.
So Allah subhanho wa Taala has blessed us the example I was giving is that of adultery when a person commits it, they are always living in fear. They are always living for example, in a certain condition that is not the best of conditions and then what happens that particular sin, Allah subhanho wa Taala may forgive those who have sinned in all sorts of ways. Every single one of us has committed different types of sins. But Allah has kept the door of Toba opened the door of repentance opened at all times in Allah Allah, Allah.
Allah accepts the repentance of anyone who repents to him for as long as they have not gone to the point of Marmara, which is the final point as your soul is being removed from your body. So my brothers and sisters, sin comes with a payment you either pay in this world or the next or you pay in the next but mainly you will find without that conviction, you lose contentment because even the sustenance that a person has is snatched away the blessings of it, in fact, snatched away due to sins committed and this is why when a person has bad habits, say for example, gambling or drinking or the nightlife or adultery and so on, in order to oil those bad habits, a lot of money is
required. So you have a beautiful salary, but where does it go? It goes to oil, your bad habits, may Allah subhanahu wa taala protect us from bad habits. People who gamble for example, if they were to live upon their salaries, they would probably have a much happier life. Then when they began to gamble, thinking that by the chances they are of me winning the 10 million naira that are there in the lottery.
Hey, I might be in such a beautiful life not realizing that every single month they are losing a few $1,000 had they protected those and save them. Perhaps the Baraka was lying in those same narus in those same dollars or in that same currency, maybe Allah had kept some Baraka in that particular sustenance but we blew it off towards the Devil May Allah subhanho wa Taala not do that to us.
So from all this introduction, what we learn is my brothers and sisters, we need to be sincere, we need to want to have a link when Allah who wants to have a link with Allah subhanho wa Taala show us Subhan Allah without exception we put up our hands. We want to link with Allah subhanho wa Taala so are we genuine in that? When we return to Allah we definitely want paradise Don't we? Subhana Allah we can say that a bit louder, don't we? Yes, we do. We want Paradise by the word of Allah subhanho wa Taala how are you going to earn paradise when you are not doing something about the claim that you have made by your tongue that you are sincere in your relation with your maker? Some of us the
only link we have with allies by town? Just like how we have a relation with one another by town. Why do we have problems in society and community and in families today because sometimes we please each other just by our tongues, but in reality we are heading in a different direction imagine meeting a person who does not like you and he smiles at you in your face and he tells you good words my brother You are like this and you are like that praising you so much. But as you turn away you find a knife in your back I'm sure a lot of us have felt those knives haven't we?
Amazing I had a lot of yeses there.
So we can do better by the will of Allah. But the problem is we treat Allah in the same way when we have a problem we call out to Allah we cry we get up early morning prayer, we want to fast we want to eat for our why because you have a problem.
And once everything is okay we forget about who Allah is. We forget our link with Allah subhanho wa Taala
kashia
Mira, Runa Illa
Allah subhanho wa Taala says, When evil affects men or when Ill affects men, he calls out to us on his side and standing and sitting in in whatever condition it is. He calls out to us the long long callings, that you are the supplication the prayers, and once we alleviate that issue, he carries on on the land as though there was never an issue that he called out to Allah for. And is our relation with the law? What a weak relation.
So if we would like to strengthen ourselves, the first thing I need to know is my claim to love Allah, I need to prove it. How do I prove it when I have never read his book, I don't even know his message. So that means I would require the knowledge of who is allowed before I can actually develop a powerful relation with my maker if you don't know who he is a lot. How on earth are you going to develop a link with him? When you keep on claiming I love Allah Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, but you have read 2030 novels you have watched 50 to 500 movies, which you know of by heart, but you have never read the Quran even once from cover to cover in the language that you understand. You see the
guilt. So how can we have strength when we have not yet read the Koran? My brothers and sisters, let's be honest, I want a show of hands to answer the question I'm about to ask you. And let's be very, very honest. How many of us have read the Quran in a language we understand from cover to cover properly and thoroughly? Let's put up our hands.
Do you see we can do much better? My brothers and sisters? I think that was less than one 10th of US alone. So why do we complain that we are weak, we have weakness, we have problems. We have so many things when we don't yet know what this is all about. It's not just the recitation that sounds so melodious in the Arabic language but that is extremely important. And on top of that, you need to know what Allah subhanho wa Taala has said. If I were to come to your house for a meal, for example, or any specific person that you love a lot, we are to tell you we are coming to your house for a meal. The first question is what will he eat? Am I right? Because you don't want to start cooking
things that you know a person comes in, looks at it and walks out. No
So if that is your first question, why is it your first question? Because you don't want to be embarrassed. You want to know something about them? Will this person come? Where will they sit? How will they walk? How will they talk? What will happen? What will not happen? When will they go and you want to know every detail so that you can prove the good relation May Allah subhanho wa Taala grant us an understanding so why is it that Allah subhana wa Jalla who is far more important, we don't even know what he wants. We don't know what he wants from us. We think that Allah has only and this is the case with a lot of the Muslims. We think that Allah has only prescribed upon us Salah to
dress properly to have a good Muslim name to pay us to fashion Ramadan to go out for Hajj so that when you come back you can be known as Al Hajj
and Hajj but you are still in the nightclub.
But you are still gambling. But you are still committing adultery. Where is the heart my brothers and sisters, now we are weak. We need to strengthen the link with Allah subhanho wa Taala. We should be ashamed of the fact that he has given us wealth but we don't have a link with him. He has given us health but we don't have a link with him. He has given us a good spouse and children. We don't have a link with him. He has given us food we don't have a link with him. We know nothing about him besides the fact that I'm a Muslim, and I can recite the Quran beautifully. I read my salah and that's it. I have a good Muslim name and address properly. That's Islam. Oh no, that is not even
abortion, a small portion of Islam. The bulk of it is to do with your conviction in the heart to believe in the unseen to believe in life after death to work towards it. Many of us know we're going to die but a lot of us are so guilty. We've never worked to prepare the palace that we want to live in after we die.
We have not yet worked to prepare that why that is prepared through great strength and difficulty.
Allah has kept us here as an examination. Amazing. Imagine if I were to tell you my brothers and sisters, here there are three live wires which are going to be between me and you I'd like you to walk onto the stage make sure you do not touch any one of these wires. Because if you touch them you will be electrocuted how many of us would would not be careful and just walk straight through nobody we would be very careful make sure that our feet step exactly where the
the wires have created a space or there is a space so that we are not electrocuted. We are so worried about wires that we will not touch them. Whereas when Allah tells you do not commit this sin because it will result in the loss of the era and the loss of paradise. We are the first to go in touching and crabbing and then we pretend like we are not going to get electrocuted. And then we asked a question why is this Iran? Why can we not just drink Allahu Akbar? Why can we not just do as we please? Well that is the difference between the movement and the movement. A person who believes would believe that we have a place that we are going to go to where we need to prepare for the day
we meet with Allah my maker imagine today we fall in love with the opposite * just because they look cool. And just because they speak nice and just because they are like us and like that Not realizing fall in love with he who made that person.
If you fall in love with the maker, he will grant you something that you have never dreamt about never ever by the will of Allah when will he give it to you in a few years time?
I was in Malaysia last week and I asked the question How many of us want to go to Paradise put up your hand?
Mashallah, now comes the hard question, how many of us would like to die put up your hand a lot, see less hands Mashallah. Because to get to paradise, you need to die.
So, this is why Allah says I when I take you away from this life, I will do it against your will. But it will be according to my will. Why is it according to my work? If I left it to you, you would continue to think that this world has everything in it. But you don't know that there is something totally perfect that is waiting for you on the other side. Amazing. You know, when you have a small house, for example, small home and you are comfortable in it, you've been living for so long in it, everything is in order, say for example, the middle class people
and they have a house and in it there is an electric kettle and a beautiful laundry, you know, dishwasher and so on and everything is okay. And you are so comfortable in it. One day, your husband comes home and says listen, we have to shift out of here. And you're gonna say well, I'm so comfortable. The school is around the corner, the shops around the corner. Everything is just around nearby in such a central place and I don't want to shift and he said
But we have a bigger and better house and you say no, I don't want to shift why it is the fear of the unknown.
It is the fear of the unknown, you don't know. So that's why you are reluctant to shift out SubhanAllah. But when you shift out, whether it is against your will or not, and you go into a much better place where everything is controlled by your voice, so you start thinking to yourself, wow, this was such a brilliant idea. And yet I was a person who did not really want to shift, Allahu Akbar. Imagine what Paradise is like.
We get excited because we have a good perfume. So we spray it and we are so delighted when people say, Oh, you smelling so good. Wow, we get so happy. Mashallah so excited, just because you're smelling so good. And you don't realize the scent of all since we'll be in Paradise, Allah tells you, you need to know the restrictions regarding the scent in the dunya. So that you can make use fully of that perfect scent of the earth.
We get so excited when we have nice clothes, when we have a beautiful car and convinced these are more points of weakness, my brothers and sisters, the reason is, yes, we should be enjoying what the world has to offer, but not forgetting we have a greater place to prepare for if I were to tell you my system, if you work at this particular place for 10 years after that, you will be able to have a house that you can purchase, we will save up enough wealth so that you can now buy the house of your dreams. Would you be happy?
We're not answering would you be happy? You would be happy.
Imagine how many years 10 years working hard from eight to five for 10 years, then I will get a house. But maybe you might die nine years down the line then what happened to your house? Then what happened to everything else. So Allah says you can have that contract for your house in this world. But make sure that in the process, you do not lose the house of the Hereafter, don't get too excited that you lose the house of the hereafter. So Hanna law.
And this is why we always say my brothers and sisters, it is up to us to make sure that as much as we would like to enjoy the privileges of this world, we should never let them come in the way of preparation of the enjoyment of the privileges of the ACA. Never let them come in the way no matter what. So Allah says one of the beautiful ways one of the most beautiful ways.
One of the most beautiful ways of strengthening your link with Allah is to ask for forgiveness on a daily basis. daily basis, some of us say well, I did not commit a sin. So I must say, Allah forgive my sin. My brothers and sisters they as soon as we come in, we don't even know that we have commands in there.
There are sins will come in at me, brother, can you turn off that
there are sins that we commit, that we don't even understand by the will of Allah that we have committed the sin.
So it's important for us to ask Allah for forgiveness on a daily basis. And this is why he sent Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam to us. He sent him to us and Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam who had no sin used to ask Allah for forgiveness on a daily basis, up to 100 times. How many times do we ask Allah forgiveness on a daily basis? Yet we say?
We say that every day. We say that every other day we claim to believe in do we follow it?
How then do we want strings?
Do we even know the life of Muhammad? sallallahu alayhi wasallam? Have we ever read a detailed biography of his life? Today people are intolerant towards others amongst us, people will ask you my brother. Do you read Salah with your hands folded or your hands on the side? And that will be the means of differentiation between me and you. A man comes to propose for your daughter or he wants to marry your daughter and next thing you asked him Sir, do you raise your hands in Salah or do you not raise them? He says I raised them well then you cannot marry my daughter.
That's what happens. So we make life difficult. Your daughter is not going to live forever. Perhaps she might live up to 3540 5060 whatever it is, she will curse you for making life difficult for her. When it was the peak of her life. You refused and rejected the proposals that came through and you made life tough for her. How then do you want
To come out of your state of weakness when your own family is cursing you behind your back.
I don't know if this is a problem in this country, but it's a global issue.
Oh, I hear the Yes. Yes, well then we've touched the red button and let's hope we can learn a lesson from it. I challenge the parents who are here today
to make it easy for their children to get married and you will find a lot of strength inshallah, in your own family.
Don't make life difficult for them. Allahu Akbar, Allah subhanho wa Taala bless us all. Now open our doors. These are the small things, people who are looking at us from outside the fence. Look at us and say this is such a tough religion. They don't even allow their children to get married. This is such a tough religion, they There are so difficult even amongst each other. Yet we have allowed the cultural matters to overtake the religious matters completely. That is the problem. So we will remain weak for as long as Islam is second. The minute Islam is overpowering, and we understand culture is absolutely important on condition that it does not contradict the Islamic teachings that
is the only room
culture those who are cultured are far better people than others. But the condition is if your culture contradicts the teaching of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam then you need to discount it. You need to understand that excuse it otherwise you will remain in your weakness. May Allah subhanho wa Taala strengthen us
people oppress a woman in the name of Islam not realizing that it is a cultural matter sometimes that people are using to abuse their women and say well I'm a Muslim Why do you want to attack a last Deen when it is your own made up little equation in your brain that you are implementing in your life which creates weakness for yourself, your families and your project needs to follow.
Allah strengthen us brothers and sisters what I have said is a reality. And you know, I would like to talk about matters that are relevant to us.
Sometimes we cheat people in business and then we think we are should we think we made a big profit we think that we are intelligent not realizing that is the biggest state of weakness. Why
una
una de la Minami. Look at the warning of Allah.
Allah says destruction be among those who cheat in business,
who cheat in transactions who deceive in their transactions. When they are getting they get the full amount they get the full weight. And when they are giving, they give less. So they are always they wanting to win on their own and they don't want to see profit for others. Allah says don't those people think that they are going to be resurrected upon this great day? Don't they think that they are going to answer to Allah you want paradise you need to ask yourself how did I allow the next person to benefit from this particular deal? If they benefited as well? Then you have a greater chance of entering the garden May Allah subhanho wa Taala grant us entry into gentlemen,
my brothers and sisters.
without knowledge, we will never be able to strengthen ourselves not at all. But knowledge alone is not good enough. You need sincerity. Like we started this talk by saying you need to be genuine to Allah. You need to love Allah not just by tongue, but reality go out and work towards it. Let us all undertake today that we will start lessons in the Quran to learn the word of Allah subhanho wa Taala even if it means reading the translation of the Quran in our languages, a verse a day but we will do it by the will of Allah then you will find the strength how many of us are ready to develop a new link with the Quran?
May Allah strengthen us all my brothers and sisters, that is something that the angels bear witness that we have been witness one for the other, we raised our hands work towards it by the will of Allah subhanho wa Taala
work towards it by the word of Allah. Don't be a person who builds a castle in the air and then start stumbling after a little while. Can I give you an example on a lighter note, Mashallah. You know, they say there was a man who was a porter. He was a porter. Some of you might have heard this example. And one day, he was waiting at the train station, and they happen to be someone a rich man who walked out
Have the train jumped off the train with a can of milk? I'm sure we all know what the silver cans of milk look like, don't we? You know what a silver kind of looks like. So the bottle goes and says, Can I help you? And the man says, Yes. Will you be able to carry this all the way to my house? He says, Yes, I will. I'm an expert. You know, the experts. I'm sure we have them here in Africa as well, where we just put something on our heads, and we can put a huge pot at the top and we can we don't even need to hold it. We can run with that as well. And it still will balance on our heads. Am I right? Mashallah. Yes? means we can do it, I can do it as well.
Don't ask me to show you. So my brothers and sisters.
So this man says, Okay, I will do it. He says, Look, I will pay you so much. So it was a large sum of money, a large sum of money equivalent to the value of all that milk. And this man was so excited, the potent, he says, Wow, I'm going to be paid so much. And the brother says, You know what, make sure you don't drop this mug. If you drop it, you've lost everything. So the guy says that's a deal. And he started walking. So as he's walking, he had balanced that mukhang on his head, and he's thinking to himself, I'm going to get so much money. Wow. And he's walking. And he says, When I get so much money, I will buy some chickens. When I the chickens come in, they will start
laying eggs, I sell the eggs, I'll buy more chickens, I'll have a whole foul run, then I'll open a little abattoir. And we will start having two departments one will have eggs and one will have the chicken as in the slaughter of the chicken and I will start employing people. So I might need about 20 people to work at the abbatoirs as well as the end plant and then when the to start developing, I will buy some sheep and then when I have a lot of sheep, I will start getting the milk of the goat and so on and then I will develop into a full time farmer I will buy some cattle and when I get the cattle then I will employ so many people, I will have a big farm of mine, I will start plowing the
fields as well. And I will sow the seeds and we will start growing the crop. And when the maize grows, I will be selling and I will be supplying the big companies that are there in the city. And what will happen I will have employed at least two 300 people and we will be having a big farm dairy farm we will have the eggs we will have the poultry we will have the sheep and the goats. And now we will be properly producing then I will start exporting to other countries and in the process I will need to invest. So that big building in the city here, I'm going to buy that one and that one and I will buy them and then I will start you know investing in such a big way that I will one day become
a very, very rich man the richest in my country. And then when the mayor comes to me, asking me to marry his daughter.
Now he's thinking, why is he thinking in that way? Because there was a time when he wanted to marry the daughter of the mayor. And the mayor is saying Who are you and what do you own? So he was like, Oh, so I can't marry your daughter? No. So now he's thinking when I have all these farms and I've employed 600 people and I've got lots of property with hotels and everything when he comes to me begging me that marry my daughter, please I will say no.
So when he said know what happened to the milk, my brothers and sisters
in dropped off when it dropped off the milk went so the other man turns around and says hey, I told you that I will not pay you. You have now lost your wealth. So the man says Hang on, hang on. Do not get angry. You don't even know what happened.
So he says well What happened? So this man says, You just lost a little bit of milk. I lost my chicken farm my egg farm, my cattle, my beef farm my crops my export permits everything to do my properties in the city, my hotels 600 people have lost their jobs. And at the same time. What has happened to me here is I lost the daughter of the mayor once again.
Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar. What do we learn from this? Let me tell you what we learned from this.
We all are aiming for paradise. Do not let the sin that we come in, make the entire plan fail. No one small sin sometimes can make us go via another place known as jahannam. We don't want that to happen. I don't want to go via via No, we wanted direct Mashallah.
My brothers and sisters, this is why I assume that takes 10 minutes to commit can sometimes knock us back for years on end, we have to wait for another big pint of milk before we can actually build our relation. Once again.
As the goodness through Toba and through repentance, and may He strengthen us. So don't lose focus upon what you would like to achieve by things that come in the way, keep yourself strong. Like I was saying, This life is a test. That's why we're here. If life was supposed to be eternal, it would have been eternal. But Allah says, when you come in the world, you are never going to have perfect house forever. Why? Because we want to see how you react to the illness, you are not going to live forever. Why? Because we want to see how you react when you see others die. And when you are on your own destiny,
you are never going to have as much money as you want all the time, you will have a loss at certain times why we want to see how you react when you don't have or when you suffer a loss. You will never be able to marry the people you want all the time because we want to see how you react when you don't get temporarily who you want in this particular world. Allahu Akbar. That's just by example. You may not get everything you want. Why? Because life is temporary. That's the reason. This life is a test. Allah is testing us. What are you going to do when you don't have what you think you need in this world? Are you going to get closer to us to prepare for the day when you get to a place where
you will have whatever you want? Subhana Allah Think about it, there
is goodness, imagine?
Think about it.
Imagine I have got a broad smile, because I'm thinking of so many things. love Allah subhanho wa Taala bless us all. So this world is a test. Just like when you go to school and you have an examination. Do you think the questions are going to be easy?
When you have an examination to become someone very important with a higher qualification? Do you really think the questions are just going to be what is one plus one one minus one one times one right? Walk out you have a PhD you are now a doctor? Is that what happens? No, you need to struggle for years on end. And you need to answer questions that you do not like to answer sometimes, but you need to attempt it and you need to make sure you've done your best and you might get for example 95 out of 100 Mashallah brilliant.
So, we are ready to write examinations in this world in order to get a qualification that will earn us a job that has a salary that is slightly higher, but we are not prepared to go through the examinations of this world in order to get the qualification that will grant us paradise without reckoning. Subhan Allah Subhana Allah amazing why Allah says in the law.
When a man loves his worship, that is when he tests him. So the greater the test, the greater the reward, just like in the world, the higher the examination, the more difficult the questions
are Allah subhanho wa Taala strength. We need knowledge,
knowledge with sincerity, the two of them alone, not good enough why you need action?
What's the point of everyone knowing you know, last night I spoke on the television here in Abuja?
And I said, What is the point of knowing one plus one is to you have the knowledge but when the examination asks you the question, the examiner says, What is one plus one you write three? What's the point you knew the answer, but you did not apply it. When the day came, you did not apply. So we know how to protect ourselves from the fire of john. But we do not practice sometimes we we know how to engender. But we do not practice sometimes we are too weak, we are lazy. Laziness really has no place in the life of a movement in the life of a believer Do not be lazy Life is too short, very, very short. Every second that takes will never return never ever to return.
It's like money being taken away from you.
So you'd rather use it in a good way than to wait for it to get depleted as time passes.
So this is why we say if you want to be strengthened, you need to act upon the knowledge you have with the sincerity. May Allah subhanho wa Taala help us to act. And in order to act upon the knowledge we have, we need to learn to love one another. Nobody can think that I am better than the other you don't know upon what condition you will die and you don't know upon what condition they will die. They might die in a condition that Allah is pleased with them and we might die in another condition May Allah not do that to us.
So let's not be judgmental against one another, have good hope for one another. Every non Muslim should be looked at as a potential Muslim who will showcase the deen to them. It will be us when they look at us when they see our transactions.
When they see how honest we are when they see how brilliant we have a relation with our children and our spouses, when they see how honest we are, they should automatically be attracted to the deen Subhana. Allah today, they look at us as crooks. They see us as people who are deceiving. They look at us as parents who make life difficult for the children. They see our children running behind the backs of the parents in order to do things because they don't have a good relation. They look at the men sometimes who are cheating. They look at the women sometimes who could not be bothered. May Allah protect us how then do we showcase the deen to the others?
Imagine the Hadith says well, la de la, de la, la, la, la, la La he even la has used you. If Allah has used you to guide one person, it is better for you than anything of material value in this world homeowner now are the red camels that which was one of the most expensive conveyance at the time, like me telling you, for example, a beautiful new s 500 Mercedes Benz 2014 Wow.
That's the car of the age for your information.
Imagine if I were to tell you to guide one person if Allah has used you to guide one, how many one is better for you than the most expensive conveyance? That's the example I gave you. But today if I were to tell you, are you prepared to sit with these people? And to try and talk to them about the deen inshallah for 10 hours? and convince them that what you are upon is correct? Or do you want to just take this as class?
I don't even want to ask you the question my brothers and sisters. I don't even want to ask you the question because I don't want to put you in a spot. But what I need you to know is as a movement, it is enough for you to be a good listener, that it will be an automatic showcase for the others to see not that we are doing it for them to see but we are doing it for the sake of Allah and they will see they will see that law strengthen us. So my brothers and sisters, this is why we say you need sincerity. You need knowledge, you need action. Some people have a lot of action, but they do not have knowledge, no sincerity, their actions are lost. Some people have a lot of sincerity, and they
do the action, they will probably do better because you need knowledge in order to do what is right. Some people have no knowledge, they have no sincerity, and they have no action they have wasted their lives. We need to be those who have action. with sincerity and knowledge we will be the true believers in Allah subhanho wa Taala but it means a lot of strength. Don't waste your time, life is to show work hard on the relations you have work hard on that which is ordained by Allah subhanho wa Taala. And I want to really underline and make mention of one very, very important aspect as meaning that we can never turn a blind eye towards.
That is the issue of Salah, the issue of prayer. The strength of a movement is derived through prayer, although that is not the only thing my brothers and sisters, but what is of utmost importance. utmost importance is the fact that we develop that Lincoln Allah, in a sala de
Sala when you fulfill it correctly, will protect you from immorality and evil which means it will strengthen you. It will make you strong, those whom early morning they get up for Salah to come what may they are stronger than those who sleep through it. far stronger. You want strength, you want happiness, you want protection from the devil get up and read Salah to Allah and Allah No, see what happens to you. You feel strong through that day, you feel spiritually different from the days when you did not get up for that Salah May Allah not make that happen to us.
We went strength, force yourself to dress appropriately, you will have the strength you feel good. And so Allah, Allah will open so many other doors. You know, I have had sisters who've told me that, you know, I ended up getting married and I'm so unhappy in my marriage. And sometimes you ask him, Well, sometimes you ask them how it happened. And they will tell you you know, at that time, I was not practicing. So he made me he saw me perhaps, you know, he saw parts of my body and so on that I was not supposed to show him in the first place. So perhaps he based his decision on what I looked like, and not who I wants
to know the difference between the two.
What you look like and who you really are, can sometimes be well
apart, some people look very, very innocent, but there are no devils inside.
And some people might look,
maybe through their looks, they might not be the most gorgeous of the lot, but their hearts are the most gorgeous of the lot. So Panama. So if you were to choose for the right reasons, you would be able to live a good life. And this is why we say when you dress appropriately, when you work on your character, when you work on your conduct, you have strengthened yourself from falling into the weakness of this dunya where you end up making wrong decisions in marriage.
And those who married you have married you for the wrong reasons.
May Allah protect us all? My brothers and sisters, it is about time that we worked on our marriages. I'm sure it looks like a lot of us here are married by the will of Allah subhanho wa Taala work hard to be known as the best to your family members.
It's a hadith of Muhammad Sallallahu sallam, do you know what he used to say? The best from amongst you the best to your spouse, or your family members. How many of us, our family members can say my father's the best, or my husband, best My wife best to Panama. How many of us
will be able to hear the statement not because they're scared of us. But even behind our backs. They will never say one word, they will say you are the best. work towards it. Because you will earn paradise when you can achieve them when the audience is the best from amongst you, those who work the best in their families. What is the point of the whole world's women thinking that Oh, you are a hot shot top guy and your own spouse is saying If only you knew what's the point
of the whole world thinking wow, this guy's got such a good wife. And the man says
Allah protect us, oh, Allah grant the strength. It is happening in the dunya where people are living a life of cosmetics. Just like we paint our faces. We've painted the reality from the people so they don't know the disaster behind the scenes.
Really.
My brothers and sisters we can do much better. What's a beautiful deal. It is holistic, it allows us to enjoy the union. You know, we are not from amongst those who say in order to achieve the Euro, just get out of the whole world. Go into a heart and just say a long, stay completely that way. Salah is extremely important. We know that we've spoken about him but Allah allows you to have good food and to have a good conveyance and to have good things in life. We told you and we will repeat it and the lesson is for me as well. That should never ever come in the way of you and your maker the link between the two of you never should you have anything that will come between the two May
Allah subhanho wa Taala strengthen our linguini
so we will fulfill our Salah by the will of Allah, we will dress appropriately. Another very important point. You want to be strong, strengthen yourself by fighting your temper. Anger, anger will get you into the most difficult situation on loss, you will lose so much whilst you are angry. You say things and do things you will regret. So the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam A man came to him young man saying or messenger peace be upon imagine the messenger. If you had a chance to talk to Muhammad Sallallahu sallam, what would you say? What would you ask him? That's a question that perhaps we can sit and just think about one day inshallah we will meet him. I mean, in general.
So the man got an opportunity with Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam. And he says, oh, Sweeney, give me some good advice or messenger, give me some advice. And the Prophet sallallahu Sallam you no one would have thought that he would have given a long lecture for a whole hour like what we are doing today? No, he just said
Don't get angry. Amazing. Don't get angry. So the man says, and I need more advice. He says don't get angry the second time. He says, and I need more advice. He says don't get angry the third time. Oh, there was enough. SubhanAllah This was continually repeated. What does this mean? For us? This anger is something we need to learn about men or female. Protect yourself from anger. Calm down. hulan SubhanAllah. Calm down really it will help you it will strengthen you. You do not need to prove that you can fix someone No, a strong person is not he who wrestles the other but he who controls himself when he is angry.
Especially when you have a soft target who is the soft target you know what the men do? I don't know if the women do it as well but let's hope they don't you know what a lot of the men do they have a problem at work with some
And then cannot wait the frustration because he is the boss. So what they do they come home and they start yelling and screaming at the wife and the wife is like but what did I do? I've just prepared such a beautiful meal the children have already you need to look at them they want a good hug and a kiss from you as the Father and you come in here and swearing and you have no clue that because he could not face Big Boss he is facing small boss.
So the soft target you are just venting. So now what happens? Your wife is crying. Why? Because your boss shouted you Who's crying?
You had a bad day at work. So you must make your wife and your children cry. Is there a Muslim? You still trying to be believing in Allah you came home to show who's the boss? That's not important. The world can think that your wife is the boss for as long as you have a happy marriage thank Allah Go ahead. You know we used to tell the youngsters might be a youngster you are getting married today you need to know something and by the way, there is a sister of ours instrumental in this particular
preparation of this event Mashallah May Allah grant Oh goodness, she's getting married today unable to be with us. Well, I will do as well with you. But my advice to you and this will remain forever and your husband inshallah, remember, your friends become secondary, because your spouse becomes primary. Remember that.
Your friends become less important. Your spouse comes first. So we have people after they get married the young men 10 o'clock, he's still sitting in the corner there talking to all his friends having a nice chat and a laugh. And you tell him Brother, you married he says, Yes. What are you doing here? 10 o'clock. He says, Well, I'm the boss.
You can be the boss. That type of statement might break your marriage law. Even if you're all your friends, when it comes to eight o'clock. You look at them and say, guys, have a good night. I'm going
wow, what a chicken.
Well, you can call me a chicken and you can call me whatever you want. But I've got a very happy marriage and hamdulillah
Is there anything wrong going home early, spending time with your spouse, there is greater reward spending time with them than to be sitting with your friends, because that creates a state of weakness. Today we are speaking about strength.
A strong person can fight the temptation to be online all the time from Allah. online all the time. You know, somehow
you get married and people see you online one minutes ago. You're married 10 have that phone Come on. So had Allah turn it off completely by the will of Allah Subhana Allah Allah.
Allah blesses. The issue is that of discipline, discipline. You know, discipline is something it does not just come without making an effort. You need to make a very big effort to protect yourself from anger. You need to make a very big effort, fight yourself fight you enough.
In order to develop a good quality or eradicate a bad one. Don't think that automatically my habit of swearing is going to go No, it won't just go away. You need to stop it by force.
You need to have the feeling within you that link with Allah. And the hoping the
the fact that you want to go to Paradise must make you at the Goodwill's
man can you mean Oh Billahi min, Ash de familia.
Whoever believes in Allah in the last day, which means you want to go to Paradise, you believe in accountability, then such a person will only utter that which is good, or will remain silent. How many of us have only one of those two options. Sometimes we just took a load of nonsense, Allah, Allah protect us, we lie. We cheat, we deceive, we say things that hurt people, for what? Because we are weak. So if you want to become strong, start saying words that will help people that will be putting a smile on the face of people, you know, in some countries, where the daughter in laws live in the same home as the mothers in law and so on. I don't know the exact situation here. But I will
tell you what happens. In some countries.
The poor daughter in law has come up with a good meal. And the mother in law will say what's this pick on something? You know, what can I pick on today? Salt is less. It's a bit more brown than it's supposed to be? That means you can't cook I'm the cookie. That's what it means for what? Why do you want to say words to your daughters in law or sons in law? Or anyone who's related to you or anyone else for that matter? Your wife or anyone else? Why do you want to say words that are so cutting? Why
would you like to have cutting words the day you get to Allah subhanho wa Taala? Would you like to have bad words when only your weaknesses are picked upon? And sometimes they are not even weaknesses? No. So go ahead in sha Allah to say good words to
Pick on something good by the will of Allah. I know of someone who will always eat whatever he says and smile and congratulate the cook and say, Mashallah, thank you so much, even if it is burned,
wow, why? Because that is acknowledgement of the efforts of the person who made it. That is acknowledgement of the effort. I want acknowledgement of my little effort that I am making for the sake of Allah when I read Salah, and I don't want him to pick on the fact that my concentration was not 100%. But if I have a habit of picking on a little bit of a weakness of someone else, I may just have myself picked on with my own weakness. And I don't want that to happen. How many of us can say we have 100% concentration in Salah? Not even one.
Why shaitaan comes at that point of strength when you just say Allahu Akbar. And then you start thinking, hey, this Imam
his recitation is not good. Even I can eat better than that.
And A while later, you think, oh,
I don't know. He's reading so long, what's going on here? And A while later, you start thinking when when he reads a verse a little bit slowly, you know, when they say, BMI,
BMI, and we're so excited, he's going to record Mashallah. And then he carries on while
say, oh, what happened? I thought he was going down.
That is the condition of man, the fact that you are understanding with me what I'm saying means we go through it because shavon has the same plan with all of us, we become so weak that we get upset when the link when Allah subhanho wa Taala is supposed to be strengthened through the time in Salah, and we can angry about it. Imagine that is a weakness. What if Allah had to pick on the fact that we did not have concentration as good as it should have been in Salah. So therefore, your Salah is rejected.
And that's what we've been doing throughout our lives when we see someone trying to achieve something in our houses, in our homes around us. And we only pick on the point that was a weakness, and we leave the rest of the effort that was made by that person, I think we can change them.
Let's go home today and appreciate what we have in the house. From those whom we live with. Let's ask ourselves how have I made life easy for those whom I live with my brothers and sisters, we can do a lot we can do a lot and a lot by the will of Allah subhanho wa Taala.
The last point I'd like to talk about this morning, inshallah
keep yourself in the company of good people. That is a point of strength on its own, that can strengthen you without even much assistance. The only thing you have to do is to have good company. Why? Imagine I have brilliant company, what will happen at the time of Salah, they will all say brothers, are we praying? My sisters? What's happening? Can we just quickly pray here in one corner. So if there's five of them, and there are two of you who are a little bit weak, you can say now we're not praying, sit back?
Can you do that my brothers imagine five brothers are saying let's just pray here. And you say now you know we've given them a federal law, it won't happen, you will say okay, Bismillah Let's go, we pray that we make will do. Two of them, say let's make Whoo, just when you were thinking, the water, I'm going to be washing and we'll do and two of them say right here, let's make a start doing it. And what happens you then follow, it was made easy for you. Why? Because you had good company. When those you mix with speak properly. They use good words high language, meaning proper speech, you will automatically use similar speech. When those you mix will have upright dealings, and they talk
about honesty all the time, you will have honesty in your life. So change your friends, if they are bad company, change them, even if they don't like you, as a result, change your friends, believe me if they are bad company, you know, those who are hooked on to drugs, and alcohol and gambling and so many of the other bad habits. A lot of the times they have bad friends. That's the reason why they have these bad habits.
I know so many young boys, good boys and girls
who are hooked on to drugs only because it was a peer pressure those they mixed with war on drugs. And that's why you know, when someone wants to get married, a lot of the times you just have to look at the company of those who mix with the person you'd like to marry. That's all so even if they tell you You know what, I am straight, no drugs, no alcohol, no this no that and all their friends are known as people who are definitely deeply into those bad habits. They are lying. They're telling you a lie. You don't have to worry. You can actually refuse, reject, walk away and carry on say thank you very much. I don't want to take if they're serious, they will change their company. You know
I've always give the example of fish
I want to give it again, if you've ever seen fish, you know, they move in the schools, a school of fish, for example, you have an amount of fish that go together, the same type of fish will always be together, even the birds they do the same. When you see them flying in a huge amount of birds, for example, you see all the same type of birds fly together? The sparrows altogether, they don't have dogs altogether. Do you have one eagle and five dogs around? Do you have that? You have a word and then you have these little, you know, brains around?
You don't. You have all together the brains and together the worlds are together the dolphins together. Like we said the sparrows the dogs together so on, you don't just suddenly have one and
the rest will move away or it has to move away. The same applies to friendship. If everyone is on drugs, and one man says I'm not the probability of him lying is far greater than anything else.
What are you doing with all these imagine all these dreams, on your one dream and there are so many ways around you, you'll be eaten. Be careful, love. Allah Subhana Allah protect us. So the issue of company is very important. My brothers and my sisters. If you have good company, you will develop good habits very easily it strengthens you completely and easily. This is why Allah says yeah
larina moto turbo ma aku ma Saudi me, oh you believe. Be conscious of your maker, be conscious of Allah. And be with those who are truthful be in the company of those who are truthful, those who are good, those who are honest those who are upright. So we ask Allah subhanho wa Taala. To strengthen us all brothers and sisters, I have tackled the topic I have spoken for over one hour. And I hope and pray that we have benefited in some way. It has been an honor to have been here in this beautiful city of Abuja. As you know, the last time due to unforeseen circumstances, I was unable to make it in sha Allah the next time and I will definitely by the will of Allah, if he allows us, I
will definitely be back again soon. And we hope to have a better program, perhaps even at a bigger venue. And perhaps we will have a bit more interaction by the will of Allah subhanho wa Taala I really, really thank you for having come here in these huge numbers. And I really appreciate the love and the care that is very mutual inshallah between us. And I really thank you for your, your prayer for me, I request you to continue praying for myself for the oma and we pray for you as well May Allah strengthen you protect this beautiful country and protect us, all in this beautiful continent of ours and on the globe and large, you know, as technology is advancing, people are
becoming less tolerant of one another for some silly reason we need to make the change, we need to be more tolerant of one another. And we need to know Islam has not has not allowed or Islam has not taught that we become people who are reduced to hate mongers who spread hate and who would like to cause chaos on this globe. No, we should be the furthest away from that we should be those who promote peace and tolerance and who have seized every opportunity to portray the goodness of Islam to those who might hate Islam. So when someone does not like Islam, my job as a Muslim is to seize the opportunity to change that attitude of theirs. That will only happen if I develop a good habit.
And if I develop goodness within myself and every moment I get to interact with it, I make sure that it is the best form of interaction with Allah Subhana Allah bless every single one of us, May He grant us every form of goodness. Please pray for me. I don't even feel like leaving this podium. But believe me, it has to happen by the will of Allah subhanho wa Taala my brothers and sisters Thank you so much. And may Allah bless you all have a good day and inshallah good week and let's hope that this can have been life changing. Let's hope that this was not just a waste where we wanted to come and we were not prepared to change our lives for a good reason and the good cause in a good
direction, man Allah subhanho wa Taala make us those who can make a firm intention to practice upon what a sin whatever I have said that was correct and upright inshallah we asked Allah subhanho wa Taala to make it so it is from Allah subhanho wa Taala and that message from Allah, whatever I have said, if it were a mistake in what I have said that is from me from shavon I asked a lot to forgive me and I asked you as well to forgive me or sallallahu wasallam obala cahalane Amina Muhammad wa salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.