Dedicated to struggling sisters.Â
Sydney Australia
13 Nov 2022
Mufti Menk – The Bright Side of Darkness
AI: Summary ©
The struggles of women in their early stages of marriage have affected their lives, but the importance of faith and finding a positive place in life is emphasized. The shift in the way people are living and the shift in the way people share and help each other have made challenges for single mothers and single parents. Prayer and sharing are key pillars for achieving a dream job and working hard to achieve goals. The importance of finding joy in the process and not giving up is also emphasized.
AI: Summary ©
Salam Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh
Smilla Rahmanir Rahim Al hamdu Lillahi wa sallahu wa salam ala Baraka Allah. May Allah be avoidable Allah Allah, He was lucky to get my my beloved brothers, my sisters, I'm excited to be here in Sydney once again and inshallah after this very energetic delivery of brother Omar Regan. I was thinking I'll have to raise my voice, but Inshallah, let's see how I can inshallah deliver this message.
Firstly, on a more serious note, we haven't heard much about the mother of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him
in her struggles, when she lost her husband while she was expecting.
Have you thought of that?
We know that she lost her husband, while she was carrying the most blessed of creation, Muhammad, peace be upon him.
But if you turn the pages of the Quran, you won't find details of that at all.
And if you read the Syrah of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, there is mention of it, but not with great detail.
Yet she was carrying the most blessing, the greatest of creation, according to us as Muslims, and the most noble of all prophets of Allah.
The struggles of a woman and a female if you were to think for a moment,
during pregnancy,
it's not easy pregnancy itself is something that is a gift and at the same time, a challenge. It comes with worry, concern, excitement.
And no one knows what the future holds.
But imagine those from amongst us or those we know who don't know,
who've lost the spouse or the father of the child during that time.
And sometimes, perhaps,
people go through separations and divorces as well.
Imagine the struggles
of this woman, or any woman
who is in that situation.
One of the consolations is to look at the life of the prophet Muhammad peace be upon him to know that no matter what difficulty I'm going through right now, it's not a sign of the punishment of Allah. It's not necessarily a sign of the punishment of Allah. Nor does it mean Allah is upset with me, nor does it mean that I have failed. Nor does it mean that I'm not going to achieve anything in life or my life is without purpose. In fact, it serves a purpose, so consolation to all my sisters out here, your struggles, whatever you're going through, whatever it may be, the challenges that people may never know about that you are going through in your life. Remember, Allah has a plan.
Allah knows why it's happening. And Allah knows that it's going to be tough all of us in life, we face hardship, every single one of us no matter who you are, how old you are, how powerful you are, how good looking you might be, how much wealth you may have, what type of a family you have, every single one of us will go through challenges and some of them some of those challenges will almost break your back. But it's okay, you know why? We're all in it. That's what it is. We're all in it different times. Don't you remember times when you went through such a tough situation that you wondered How on earth am I going to come out of this and today look where you are
sitting at a dinner hosted by human appeal international Mashallah. The clear.
And yet we, we may still be having our struggles. If you were to know the struggles of others.
Two things would happen immediately. Number one, you would realize how fortunate you are. And number two,
you would be able
you would be able to comfort yourself by comforting others. Say a good word. Don't worry, my sister, things are going to be okay. But myself I'm struggling more than you but I'm not going to say that right now. The statement is don't worry, my sister you will be fine. Don't worry. You might shed a tear or two because people don't know your struggles. Right? So the mother of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, don't you
Believe and I that Allah chose her for a purpose.
She struggled. She went through difficulty hardship. Imagine
his name is Mohammed bin Abdullah, the Abdullah, who is in that name, passed on while he wasn't born yet, or while he was in the belly of Amina
his mother.
And thereafter she gave birth mashallah not too many details are mentioned exactly about her condition. But we have some detail about the birth itself and some of the miracles that occurred.
But after that,
a few years later,
as a single mum,
I mentioned in this because we have a lot of single mothers, the number of single mothers has increased over time.
It's not a bad thing.
It may not always be a good thing either. But it's something it has happened, it's there, we rise to the occasion, Allah will give you the strength, Allah will take care of you, that child of yours would probably be some amazing human being who's going to achieve not just for the family, or the community, but perhaps for the globe at large.
I've looked at people who have become very popular, very
effective, those who've achieved some of the wealthy some of the powerful, some of those who have been ushered into positions of authority, and a lot of them have had an upbringing, that was not the most ideal according to the fairy tale, in our minds. The real world out there is not as sweet as the books we read, sometimes. It's a real world. The struggles are real. My beloved sisters, and my mother's, my daughters. Don't let your struggles create a gap and the distance between you and your maker. Don't ever for a moment think he's forsaken you he hasn't he knows.
Don't think for a moment
that your problems
are a sign of his anger, or he's upset with you all.
The there is a purpose. The minimum is the reward that you will achieve. Because of the patients you're enduring today will not only be connected to the hereafter, you will reap it in this world. Firstly, Allah will show you days of success. They're coming, you have to have hope you have to have conviction, because that's the whole reason why we call ourselves believers. I'm a believer, I believe belief is generally connected to that, which others might think is doesn't make sense. Sometimes I believe I have faith. I'm convinced. I may not be able to show you evidence right now. But hang on with me. Come Wait, be patient. It's coming. When you see it, you will say he was right.
She was right. That's what it is.
We're living in a world that is very different from the world that existed only 10 years ago.
We're living in a world that has changed so much that we would not be able to imagine life without a mobile phone and internet yet it's just a few years old.
I got appearance so many of us had our phones up mashallah would we have dreamt just 20 years back that that was going to be the case.
So things have changed. They have changed so much that we adapted to it without realizing or pausing for a moment and looking back and thinking how we've been blessed. When I sit today myself, and I tell myself my memory is not as good as it was when I was a child. And one of the reasons is the brains become lazy due to technology. How many of us had memorized so many phone numbers and talking of those my age, right? In their 60s and 70s
Okay, at least you're listening right fine.
So we knew a lot of these phone numbers off by heart I remember memorizing you just say a name and the number sort of appears in the little
bubble in your mind. Yes, that's the number I'm sure that it that's the number and today I don't know my own number.
I don't I've got to just pass you this.
Contact you save it you don't know it. Either. You look at the name and you dilate. Look at how we've become so
But the moral of it is life has changed, and it has changed drastically completely. With that the challenges will become much more and they are more difficult to navigate through as beautiful as it seems. So go easy on one another, go easy on one another, you don't know what challenges they're going through. And
the Almighty has kept the ease of your challenges in creating ease for the challenges of others, you have a problem you want ease? Well, the Almighty says if you'd like ease in your problem, go and search for others with similar problems or with any problems and reach out to them, spend time with them, try and alleviate and create ease for them. And Allah says, I will definitely create these for you as a result as a result. And that's the reason why when you reach deep into your pockets, and you take out something to give someone who doesn't have that itself is such a unique quality that I made mention of this yesterday as well. It is part of one of the pillars of your faith, to share
what you have that others do not have with them.
Imagine it's part of my faith. I'm a Muslim. And I'm sure the majority of us are Muslim. Don't you know what we do know there are five pillars in Islam, right?
One of them is a cat. What is the car? Do you realize what that statement is? It's a pillar of your faith. It means I promise Allah and I believe that it's a pillar of my existence, that I'm going to share what I have with those who don't have it. That's it. That's what it means. What do you have you have something Allah says, Well, if you're a believer, you have to share what you have with someone who doesn't have it. If you don't, you don't have one of the pillars. And if you don't have a pillar, you cannot call yourself a real Muslim.
We talk about prayer. Absolutely important. It's a pillar. It's a founding pillar. Indeed. You talk about uttering the shahada moments ago we heard one of the politicians, mashallah
who say we speak about the shahada, right? Important? It's a founding pillar? What about the Zakat? Is it not a pillar it is, which means if Allah has given me it's not about me, myself, and I, it's about all of us. I've got, I've got this, I've got this goodness, what am I going to do? How can I touch the lives of others in a way that by the time I get to Allah Almighty, I'd have already contributed towards the continuation of this humankind in a beautiful way. And I'd have earned the pleasure of Allah.
So Allah says, There is no body whom we've given absolutely everything they've wanted on Earth to nobody, not one. I could have 20 things. But man is such you have 20 Things you want it, you still want another five that you don't have? That's how it is. They say, and I've asked this to young kids, okay, how much money would you like to earn before you can say, Listen, I'm throwing the towel in throwing in the towel. And that's it. I don't need to work anymore. And that's it. So a lot of the youngsters used to say many years ago, a million
men get your million men talk, you'd want a billion, get your billion, then speak, you'd want a trillion I promise you. That's what it is. That's men. Allah says nothing will fill your mouth except the dust. When you get into your grave. That's sick. It's over. But for now, if you have a valley full of gold, and you say, Oh, I have a valley, I need another one. That guy who has one gold coin, you're looking at that gold coin. How can I get that too? That's man. But a Muslim, a believer says no, you know what I have, let me share a portion of this, I need to give, I need to give who I need to look for those who don't have what I have.
If I don't do it myself, I'm going to get human appeal to do it for me.
They will go around the world looking for those who don't have what you have, they will come back to you and tell you guys, we went to Somalia, here's what we saw. And you're sitting there saying I'm gonna help you and then they'll say we went to Indonesia, you know what we saw? And they give you information about something, a flood or whatever it may be the earthquakes, and then you think to yourself, I'm gonna do this. It's Allah Who placed it in front of you.
The challenges of others should comfort us to say, Allah has indeed blessed us and I tell you, you may think you have huge challenges because you actually do but the beauty of it is, Allah has tailor made your challenges according to the capacity he has given you. That's what it is. He says in the Quran.
You have a hardship while at
Do your hardship, according to others is actually a gift. But according to you, it's breaking your back, according to them, but if you had any one of their hardships
Imagine for a moment. And I'd like to say this because obviously, we're here at this particular function.
May Allah protect all of us to say, I mean,
imagine you have no electricity. Imagine you're kicked out of your house. Imagine you're out on the street, you have no clothing. Imagine you're fearing being shot dead, for example, in a war zone. Imagine suddenly you you don't know where your family members are your own children and you're running for your life. Are there people like that on Earth right now? The answer is yes. So many. Do you know where they were? They were in a better position than you and I are at one stage. In some cases. Do you realize that? So thank Allah, your problems are a droplet compared to what they have right now. That's what it is.
But Allah has given them the ability, they might cry. I've met people in refugee camps. I don't want to go into details. But when I sit and look at them and talk to them, their lives were better than mine right now and look where they are today. And I say, oh, Allah, don't test me or my loved ones or our people with such a great test. But if he does, there's a purpose. Many of us here from other countries, how did we end up here, greener pastures.
And when I was landing today, Sydney, I saw those greener pastures. MashAllah
Allah grant us is, in reality, yes. But the lives of our relatives back at home may not be as ours, they will enjoy goodness, but in different things. And we enjoy goodness in different things. They will tell you, I'm not going to come there because of 123. They pick up some of the negatives, right? And we will tell them, Well, we're not going to go there because of 123. We pick up different negatives, but in reality, Allah has made you you have a purpose, keep doing good. My brothers, my sisters, keep reaching out to others. keep comparing your lives with those who have less not to those who have more. That's what the Islamic teaching is on guru Illa. Men who are doing a call the
Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him says look at those who have less who are below you in material life in the life of this world.
You take a look at for example, Musa the Prophet Moses made peace be upon him. He had a lot of struggles, from a very young age. Imagine his mother is mentioned in the Quran again, the struggles of another mother. And again, a mother of a prophet. Why did Allah mentioned this in the little bit of detail in the Quran, it cannot be for no purpose. It's because I need to learn a lesson from it. And you do too. So here is the mother of Musa alayhis, salam, anxiety, uncertainty. I don't know there is a tyrant ruler, he's killing all the children. I've got to take this child of mine, what should I do? Allah inspired her to put the child into a little basket or whatever, it may have been
a little box type of a thing. And Allah told him to put that particular child in the water, the river Subhanallah Would you ever do that? Would you do that with your child? I don't think so. Would you do that? No chance, man. Imagine the anxiety. You've given birth. Here's a child. And you've got to place the child every day we're looking every day where we're trying to find out what happened where did it go? And there is someone looking from this side and someone from that side. And what happens the enemy number one picks up the chart.
Imagine what this mother must have gone through and Allah loved this so much it was part of his plan. He mentioned it to us in a book that is to remain until the end of times the Quran Quran it's in there the story is in relative detail
Faranda Anna who Isla oh me he can eat wine while at Zen while he? Lemme
go luck but what a beautiful verse. Allah says We returned to him to his mother in order to cool her eyes. My beloved mother's my sister's, Allah will grant you the coolness of your eyes after your tears that rolled down for ever it might have been you remain steadfast do not lose your goodness because of the negativity that has happened in your life.
Allah will return to you
the coolness of your eyes, you know that term, coolness of the
Eyes is amazing.
It can be with tears, you could cry because man is created in a way that tears are not just for one reason. You have tears known as tears of joy. Wow, the same tears. And the same tear glands that released the tears when you are sad to a degree would release those tears when you have joy of the opposite degree.
You thought of that? I'm happy.
I can't believe this. I'm ecstatic. And what happens? The next best thing I'm crying? It happens to the women more right? start crying. You cry. What are you crying for? I love you, man.
That's why I'm crying because he loved me but too much.
My brothers, my sisters, and we're dedicating this to the sisters this evening because many are going through a lot of challenges. We who are on the sidelines, become quick to judge we've become quick to pass statement. But we've never walked in their shoes. We don't know what challenges they face from a very early age. We don't understand what they've had to navigate through in their lives. And we're quick to say sister, Jana, you know, and so on kind of Allah safeguard us. Take it easy go easy on the people, you don't know what they've what they've been through, you would not like to have been through it. And another thing had you gone through the same challenges perhaps you may
have drowned. So you don't know. Go easy on people speak to them with respect. That's what we are asking.
The mother of Musa alayhis salam Allah says, We returned him to you to the mother, K Takara. You know how well that doesn't so that she's not sad, sad anymore, because initially there was an element of sadness.
You won't be sad anymore. Sadness doesn't last you when you're sad, turned to your maker have hope continue trying to not give up. If you give up it ends there. If you do not give up you don't know where it's going to go. It has to go to a positive place. Take a look at those from amongst us who were not so intelligent in the classroom. We failed once we failed twice. What happened the third time we scraped through today. Huge mashallah qualification. I'm a doctor. By the way. No one's going to ask you. Did you pass first time? Second time? How was it? Nobody's asking you that. I failed 10 times Bismillah. But I'm the only surgeon here Come here.
It's reality. So those days where you were failing because you were determined Allah loves determination. Allah loves you to try and keep trying, Allah loves you never to give up no matter what, continue and keep going.
rissalah million Federico was telling Billahi wallet charges. Here's the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him saying seek the help of Allah.
To achieve what you believe is beneficial for you. Work hard towards it is meaning to work hard to want to hope to actually face the challenges regarding that which is beneficial for you, is it beneficial, you think it's going to help you you need it, you want it work towards it, it's not just going to come on a plate. Chances are if it comes on a plate, you won't appreciate it.
So here, Allah subhanho wa Taala says, Well, it's a llama and Allah He has, that's where belief comes in.
We returned him to her we already mentioned in order that her eyes are cooled in order that she's not saddened anymore. And Allah says in order for her to know that our promise is the truth. Our promise is the truth. Allah has promised you. Allah promises you victory, not just in the Hereafter, even in this world, you will see victory. Sometimes you may not achieve what you want. Perhaps Allah wants you to achieve something else. You didn't get the dream job because you got a job better than your dream job. Mashallah.
I know a brother and I know so many examples. I'm giving you one. I know a brother who lost his job a few years ago, just not too long.
And he was so sad and so depressed and so upset and he he was fearing to lose a lot more because he had commitments made by the monthly income that he would get. And I met him and I told him my brother, perhaps Allah wants something else from you don't give up. Apply 1000 jobs in sha Allah and apply your mind think about different ways of earning, maybe buy and sell things. You know what I met him six months later, and he told me my brother I earn more than double what I used to earn when I used to work the companies my own. I've employed 10 People in six months.
This is a true story.
Today
He's a multimillionaire.
And he says, I can't believe I actually cried when I was fired.
Today, he says that I can't believe I cried when I was when I lost my job. I can't believe how depressed I didn't have the faith and the conviction and anyone to remind me to continue believing in me. And that's why I want to say something. My beloved mothers, my sisters, my fathers and brothers who are here today, you know, the young ones, we see the little boys like this guy here, and the others who are here Wallahi, I tell you something, only utter empowering words to them, you will change their lives, even when you want to correct them, it should be in a positive, beautiful way where they feel empowered. If you have uttered the negative word to a child, you have sown a
rotten seed, I promise you. Don't swear at them. Don't belittle them. Don't look at them.
We have a habit, or you're stupid, man. What's that? Do you know what you just said? If that gets into the mind of the child, the child begins to believe that he or she is stupid. You don't know they're sleeping at night, grinding their teeth, and they're thinking about you and your monster face telling them your ugly stuff, Allah.
Don't do that. Are you a believer? You don't say that? I see some of us pointing at one another. I hope it didn't happen.
Don't worry, don't worry.
My beloved brothers, my sisters, believers, you want to change the world you can. How by changing yourself, have a good attitude, learn to respect people, the children of others, they're not yours. When they've done something disastrous, it still doesn't mean that you have the right to belittle them. Would you like to see a change on the globe? We're living on it together, well, then empower them calling my son come here. I tell you what, if you don't do this, and you do this, you know what's going to happen. And you tell them twice and thrice, they will begin to believe in themselves. And the biggest achievers are those who believe in themselves. Because the cheese, I
believe I can do it. You get up 10 Children onto the stage and let them talk you will find some are very confident and some are so closed. It's natural. Sometimes people are created differently from Allah by Allah subhanho wa taala. But chances are the ones who are mashallah confident and so on. Someone somewhere has worked on that. Someone somewhere has tried to make them believe that listen, you can do it. It's okay to make a mistake. A lot of us have a problem. And Muslims have a problem where your child's made one mistake, they've done something wrong class, it's over. For you. That's it. You've written them out completely. This child is like this. That's it. No, no, no, no, no. It's
a challenge for you. What are you? Are you intelligent enough to be able to help the situation to be able to get in and make a change? Do you know if you can do that? You have actually invested in your hereafter because long after your death, there will be someone you worked on who still on Earth, doing good deeds and who gets the reward for it? It's known as sadaqa jariya. You invested in the human beings around you. That's what it is. Look at Allah Almighty mentioning stories of women who struggled, what did they leave behind? They left behind way beyond your imagination and mind we talk about the Prophet Moses May peace be upon him. Mostly we never mentioned the mother. Am I right or
wrong?
We talk about Muhammad peace be upon him. Mostly, we don't mention the mother. But the struggles that they went through are recorded to a degree depending on who it was not for nothing, so that I can stand up here today and tell you congratulations to all those going through struggles because you know what the dawn the Daybreak is just round the corner.
That's what it is. Yes, we acknowledge the challenges we're going through. We're living in an age where technology has taken over and it has two sides to it, a brilliant side and a really dark side and we are busy in the middle of navigating the boat is mashallah swaying and rocking side to side but inshallah we're going to get to our destination together. We're here to remind each other
this morning I was busy thinking as we were flying here, and I'm thinking to myself, I read an email and this person's asking me for advice.
And mashallah the airlines here in Australia. I was quite impressed with the quality of internet on the planet mashallah kundala technology there again. So, I said to this person asking me for advice.
pray five times a day. You
No matter what,
if you're weak, make it your aim, I'm going to get there.
If you're at four, I'm going to get to five. Make it your aim to pray five times a day. I tell you why I say this, that prayer when you strengthen yourself upon it, even if you're involved in a few things in your life that you're not supposed to be involved in, but your prayer is on track, it will come to your rescue. It will help you here it will improve you a day will come when you will be able to shrug off all the the the negativity that's in your life. Because of the blessedness of that prayer.
There was a question in some time back, people who were laughing
I've met some people I've known for many years in Brisbane, from Zimbabwe. And we were talking about back in the day and they were laughing at how the guys used to enter the nightclubs. Sorry, not me, by the way.
And they used to ask if the solutions that were being served in the nightclub or halau okay.
You follow the guys in the nightclub? He's got a bottle of alcohol in his hand and his I think the symbols are they allow you know, it's a question. It happens. Right? It does happen. You entered it in South Africa. If anyone's from there, they would know. There is a place where people go to gamble, gambling, guess what they have a salon.
I promise you they have a solid facility. Why? Because the people who pray Salah they're coming here to do other things as well. So people used to ask that how hypocritical is this guy? He has a bottle in his hand. He's in the nightclub and he has the audacity to ask if the samosas are halal. Now I've changed my mind. You know what? He's not a hypocrite.
If Allah has tested you with one sin or two, why should you engage in three for free?
Right? The third one is not just thrown in. I'm asking you is it halal Wallah? That's a very good question. At least your samosas are halal maybe by
maybe by the blessedness of those Halal samosas you leave your bottle.
Maybe by the blessedness of something you're doing right? You're gonna leave the other bad things. And I mean, I mean it I know I laugh, but I really mean it. It's a fact it doesn't mean that because you're doing one thing wrong or two, you have to suddenly throw in all the Haram things and say as it is and they know how Allah comes to things one by one, not all of them together. Allah is just Allah knows what he's doing. So if you're praying five times a day, you've ticked that box, why should I cross the box when I know I could do it?
It's something worth thinking about. Sins are not just all bundled together and counted as one no, they're different. If you if you if you did one because of your weakness, don't do the other. That's the moral of what I'm saying.
If I'm weak, and I haven't been able to dress as the way I should, for example, that's a weakness. Others might have bigger weaknesses. We wouldn't like to judge but you know, you want to get there but because of that, it doesn't mean now I need to go and do a lot of other haram things. And that's what we do as muslims we make people feel so so so far from Allah just because of one apparent thing we've seen, but they may be closer to Allah than you and I that's what it is.
Your struggle is yours alone. You know it Allah knows if nobody else is going to appreciate the deep secrets that you know. So work on yourself, my brothers, my sisters,
I could go on and on. But mashallah, I'd like to really appreciate those who are going through many struggles, whatever it is in your life, Allah is with you. We don't give up keep going. And Allah loves you and He knows you. And He knows your struggles. You don't give up you keep going closer and closer to Allah you work at your pace and push yourself
and you have hope in the Mercy of Allah he will show you the doors one after the other things are going to be easy and I'm not just saying it I mean it.
Let's not let the difficulties and hardships happening in our lives make us feel for a moment that Allah is far he's near he's with us a co Lokali hada was Allah Allahu wa salam ala Nabina Muhammad was salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.