Mufti Menk – Three Solid Points of Advice
AI: Summary ©
The speakers emphasize the importance of standing in a gathering and acknowledging the challenges of communicating with two age groups. They give a brief recap of their experiences with Laziness and encourage people to fight it and not give up. The importance of learning and practicing to achieve success is also emphasized. The speaker gives advice on distractions and advises the audience to use their own interests and not give up. They stress the importance of caring for others and avoiding distractions, and encourage people to be ugly and not call people in a negative way. The speaker also asks for advice on how to handle their Laziness and offers a choice between negative comments and negative actions.
AI: Summary ©
I'm so happy to be here but the
most difficult thing that I'm going to have
to do today is to speak to 2
different
age groups
in one gathering.
Do you understand what I mean?
We have
the younger learners here and the older ones
slightly at the back. And to speak to
both at one time is not easy, but
you're gonna make it easy for me. Right?
What's your name with the red hat?
Ahmed.
I like your red hat.
And what's your name with the Palestinian scarf?
Sorry? Tariq.
Masha
Allah. Lovely lovely to see you guys this
afternoon. Now the sun is out. Can I
take a long time or should I finish
up quickly?
Are you sure you want to sit in
the sun?
Yes. Okay. Masha'Allah Tabarakala. I wanna tell you
something.
When I was young, just like you are,
I started memorizing the Quran with my school.
So I used to go to school in
the morning, and I used to come back
home, and my father used to teach me
the Quran, and it was not easy. It
was not easy. I used to be a
little bit lazy sometimes, but my father told
me that everyone
who has achieved
anything in this world was not lazy. They
had to fight.
Fight laziness.
They had to fight laziness. They had to
do what?
When you don't want to get up in
the morning and you force yourself to get
up in the morning because you have to
do something
constructive, that is called fighting?
Layers. Fighting?
Layers.
Fighting laziness.
So you have to get up that's why
you're getting up. But because it's so cozy,
you don't want to get up. But you
don't you you don't do
what you feel
you want to do but you do what
you have to do.
How many of you get up in the
morning for fajal? Put up your hands.
Amazing amazing amazing.
Okay. I'm not going to say but you
can put your hands down. I'm not going
to say put your hands up if you
are lazy in the morning, but I'm going
to tell you if you get up for
salatul fajr,
even if you're feeling lazy, then Insha'Allah you're
destined for success.
So who wants to succeed? Put up your
hands.
Well, you start off with which salah?
Fajr. Put your hands down. Masha'Allah.
So even if you're feeling lazy or it's
a cold morning
or there is no electricity
because we're in South Africa.
I used to say Zimbabwe before share.
And even if, subhanallah,
it's
such a lovely dream that you're having, no
problem. Get up and you will get up
because you have to get up and you
have to fight.
Laziness.
You have to fight what, guys? Laziness.
Even if you're lazy to say laziness right
now, you have to say it. So you
have to fight what? Masha'Allah.
Masha'Allah.
That's amazing.
That's amazing.
If you want to succeed, you fight laziness
and then you don't give up. When I
was doing my hif, you know what's hif
when you want to memorize the Quran. Right?
I was 9 years old, 10 years old
and I started getting an idea
that perhaps it's too difficult and I'm not
going to finish.
I'm not going to finish. How many Jews
in the Quran? How many chapters in the
Quran? Can you?
How many?
30.
30 chapters in the Quran or 30 adza.
Some call it 30 para's. Right?
In Urdu, it's para.
So
it's 30
surahs, 30 chapters, not surahs. Surahs, there's 114.
But
when you start off number 1, number 2,
how many are remaining now?
28 remaining. Right? When you do 3, how
many remaining?
27.
When you do 4, how many remaining?
So 26
is so much and you start thinking, gosh,
am I going to finish?
And that question comes about shaitan, makes you
think again and again. And you think perhaps
it's going to be so hard for me.
I'm here to tell you do not give
up. Do not
do not
because we all completed it. How many of
you are hufab? You finished the whole Quran.
Put up your hands.
See, there are few from amongst us,
They didn't give up. They didn't?
Put your hands down. Put your hands down.
It's okay.
They didn't give up. If you give up,
it's you who gave up, but the world
will carry on. The other people who did
not give up, they will finish. They will
complete. They will succeed. It's not going to
be easy, but we're not on earth in
order for everything to be easy.
Sometimes things are going to be tough. They're
going to be what?
It's going to be hard.
Do you think it's going to be a
walk in the park to become a hafid?
Allah
makes it easy only when you fight your
laziness and you don't give up.
So what are you doing? 2 things. Number
1, fight your?
Number 2, don't?
Don't give up. Masha'Allah.
So you continue before you know it you're
already on 15.
How many Jews in the Quran did we
say earlier? 30. 30.
15 is exactly half. Right?
When you're on 16, you're going downhill now.
Right? 17,
you're going downhill. 18, a few more left
and then you're on 21. Some people give
up. If they give up, they lost. I
want to encourage those who might have give
given up. Today is the day. I'm reminding
you go back. Don't give up. It's never
too late. You must make sure you finish.
Do a little bit a day but do
not give up. It might take you 1
year, 2 years, or 5 years, or more.
It's okay. I'm not going to give up.
I'm not going to
give up. Never. That's a Muslim. Right? Now
I want to teach you one more thing
before I talk to you a little bit
more.
Can I teach you one more thing?
Yes. Okay.
While you are working,
there will be distractions sometimes.
While you are working,
Whether you're going to school, you're doing your
madrasah, you're trying to obey Allah's commands and
instructions,
distractions come. Imagine I am doing hifl, I'm
trying to memorize the Quran
and then a guy is playing games on
the side and he says come play. Come
play with us. It's okay to play but
you need to play only for 1 hour.
Only for how long?
Check all the older people don't agree with
me. Right?
You need to play for how long?
Come on, guys. I can't hear those base
voices of the guys there at the back.
The kids are saying one hour of each
other. They don't even know what they're in
for.
It's the older people we're trying to get.
You play for a limited time. 1 hour.
That's enough. After that, what do you do?
You go back to your work so that
you don't lose focus. Because when you lose
focus,
you will not achieve in this world. Look
at the people who have good jobs. Look
at these teachers of yours.
Look at the teachers of yours. They're called
educators.
Look at those who are around. They are
here every day. Okay. Sit down. Sit down.
No problem. Masha'Allah.
They are here every day on time. Do
you ever see them just sitting and playing
games? No. They don't play. They are here
because they are leaders.
They they are caring for you. They want
you to learn. They want you to succeed.
You might get a job and earn more
than them. They don't mind for as long
as they've helped you get up there. I
know some of my teachers who
are not maybe as successful as I am
from one angle, but they are more successful
than I am from many other angles.
So it doesn't mean that
they did not do well because they didn't
make more money, but they did very well
because they cared for the rest of the
people
like they like you are being cared for
and cared about right now.
So don't allow distractions
to come
in the path of
your journey to success.
You want to succeed in the exams. You
need to study. If you play too much,
will you have time to study?
If you play too much, will you have
time to study?
See the young I'm really really impressed actually
by the little ones.
But at the same time, I wonder, the
older ones, is it the sun that's, or
is it just the wind that's blowing your
voice away in the other direction? Because I
can't really hear you say you want to
study. SubhanAllah. May Allah protect all of us.
We all want to make money, mashaAllah. But
it's not just that right now. InshaAllah, it
will come. And that's not the the the
the beginning and ending of everything. It's actually
it's actually you as a person that means
more than your money. You have some rich
people who are very arrogant. Wallahi. They mean
0.
0. Nothing. They have achieved nothing besides money
they're gonna leave behind. And you know what?
It won't help them at all. But there
are some who have good akhlaq. What's akhlaq?
Character,
conduct, beautiful way of speaking. They care for
others. They don't allow distractions.
They don't allow themselves to hurt and hate.
You know what's hurt and hate? You talk
about someone, you swear them, you want to
belittle them, make them feel small, and you
want to hate on them. You dislike them.
You're jealous of them for no proper reason.
All those are distractions that make you a
bad person if you involve in them and
you don't
help yourself or allow others to help you.
But if you become a person who has
good akhlaq, good character, good conduct, wallahi, you
are successful.
So I want you guys to work hard.
Why I talk about distractions is today there
are so many things that can make you
lose your path. Can you name some of
them?
Can you name some of them? Yes. The
boys.
Name some of the things that may would
make you lose your path. Yes. Stand up
and say it loudly, Yalla.
Media. Possible. Social media, it has a good
side to it, a bad side to it.
Do you know what?
You need to make sure you if you
are using it, you use it properly or
don't use it. But don't be from among
those who uses it in a bad way.
You want to do some good something that's
going to help you, benefit you, something that
you might do to benefit others. But
the minute it's a waste of time or
something haram, something destructive,
you're not there.
Who can tell me some other distractions?
Yes.
Did you say PlayStation?
Yes. PlayStation, like I told you, how many
hours do you spend on it? 1. 1.
1. Masha'Allah.
1.
1. How many hours do you guys spend
on it gaming?
1.
5. The guy says 5 hours. 5 hours
a week or a day? No way.
No. 2 hours. We can compromise 4 hours.
Woah.
Come on, guys. The more you are into
gaming, the less you are going to be
able to do other things. And then what
happens? It becomes a distraction.
If it distracts you from your prayer, your
salah, it distracts you from reading the Quran,
it distracts you from your
studies and so on, then it's going to
be a problem. Sometimes
it makes you a person who
goes into a shell because you don't want
to talk to anyone. You don't want to
see anyone. You're in your room with your
phone or with your little laptop or with
your little iPad and you're just playing games
with people you're never going to meet and
your real real people around you who live
with you, you hardly see them. You come
down for food and what else? What else
do you come out of your room for?
Toilet. Yeah. Okay. Alright. Toilet. What else? Water.
Water. School.
Water.
You need to come out of your room
to talk, to play, to interact with your
family, your brothers and sisters, maybe your parents,
whoever it may be. Don't become a person
who locks yourself in your room and just
chills on your phone throughout the evening. Don't
do that.
Those are distractions.
Name me another distraction.
Yes.
YouTube.
Yes. It can be a distraction when you
are on it for more than how long?
1 hour. More than 1 hour a day.
You can't be on all of that. What
what's another distraction?
Xbox. Another distraction.
Yes.
Phones. Another distraction.
Masha'Allah.
These are all
yes.
Yes.
Masha'allah. Alright. Put your hands down.
You know what? Notice how the distractions are
being mentioned by little kids who barely know
about distractions.
You noticing?
But the people whom it's supposed to be
closer to the back, they're quiet. They're just
silent, sitting.
That's it. They're saying what? Sheen. Sheen.
Sheen. Before sheen, there is alif ba, ta,
da, jim,
You go all the way to seen, then
you go to sheen. But we don't even
have all of those. May Allah Almighty forgive
us. Allah forgive us. Listen. I wanna tell
you something very interesting. The older you get,
the the more sophisticated
the distractions become. You know,
smoking, drugs,
vaping, all of these are distractions, wallahi.
That is upon a category of haram that
which is not allowed. When Allah says something
is not allowed, wallahi,
it is because
he wants you to succeed. He wants you
not to fail. He wants you to be
a pure beautiful soul. That's the reason why
he says don't do this. Don't do this.
Don't do this. He doesn't say it because
he wants to make your life tough. He
doesn't say it because he doesn't want you
to enjoy. No. You enjoy that which is
permissible. That which is good. You can go
horse riding. You can go camping. You can
go wherever. You can play some football sometimes.
I told you, you can be on your
phone in a good way for how long?
We're getting there. We're getting there for 1
hour. Yeah.
Be disciplined. If you're not hard on yourself
and you don't fight laziness, you're not going
to get anywhere. So Insha'Allah, I hope that
everyone of us can benefit from what I
said this afternoon. I don't want to speak
too long, but
the reason why I said distractions for the
ones who are slightly older,
sometimes Allah
tests us with some distractions.
And sometimes, shaitan comes and he makes us
distracted.
We start looking at other people's lives and
talking about other people in a negative way.
Big people do that too. Young people do
that too. Don't make little circles and take
out 1 girl and say, no. She's not
in my group. She's not in our group.
And you make it tough for her. I'm
giving you a real life example.
You know, the same thing happens with boys.
This guy is not in our circle. He's
like this, like that. So what we pick
on someone. We say nasty words to them.
We tell them how ugly they are when
they're not really ugly. We're the ones who
are ugly. Because the only people who are
ugly are the ones who call others ugly.
It's the ugliness that makes you say someone
else is ugly. So don't say that because
in the eyes of Allah, he created us
all beautifully.
So therefore, don't ever call someone else in
a bad way to hurt their feelings. You're
gonna grow old. You know, when I was
at the University of Madinah, we had some
friends.
And a lot of them became ministers, prime
ministers,
top notch people across the world. And when
I sit and think, wow. This guy used
to sit right next to me. I have
colleagues who are imams of the haram. Imams
of the haram studied with me. And I'm
thinking to myself, gosh. We didn't even know
that this guy is gonna graduate and become
someone really that we would be embarrassed that
one day we had a fight with him.
I'm not saying I had a fight with
anyone, but I'm giving an example. Right? So
the same applies. I'm giving you the same
lesson to say, make life easy for others.
Speak with respect.
Give people,
you know, good vibes, not bad vibes inshallah.
Okay. So now I wanna talk to you.
Can I ask you guys some questions?
Who's ready for questions?
Alright. Put your hands down. We're gonna start
this side here towards the back.
What's the first thing I said?
The first lesson at the back.
Stand up and say it. Put your hands
up.
I'm gonna pick on you if you're not
gonna put your hands up. So stand up
and tell me. What's the first thing I
said? It was easy. Everybody repeated it. Yes.
Stand up.
Yes.
Fight your laziness. Fight your laziness. This little
boy said fight your laziness.
May Allah
help us. Come here. Come and get a
100 rands from me. Come.
Come here.
Come. Come. Come. Come. I'm serious.
Well done. Mashallah.
That's yours.
Okay. Fighting laziness. What was the second thing
I said?
Okay. We got somewhere.
Okay. The girl with the gray cap. The
girl with the gray cap. Yeah. You. Just
touch the cap. Yes. What did you say?
What did I it was second thing I
said.
The second thing I said. The first one
was fight your laziness. The second one was?
Yes.
Stand up. Stand up. What
did I say?
Okay. Sit down, guys. Sit down, everyone. Sit
down. Sit down. Sit down.
Sit down. Sit down. Sit down. Sit down.
Sit.
Sit. Sit. Sit. Sit. I'm
gonna have to choose someone from this side
because they,
Okay. Right at the end of the queue,
the second last person there. Yes. What did
I say? The second thing.
Wake up for Fajr but there was something
that I made everybody repeat. The whole point
was
that was part of fight your laziness. I
said
yes. Yes. Yes. Don't give up. Come here.
Come. Come. Come.
Don't give up. Yalla, come.
Come here. You want a R100 or 50
rands?
You want 50 only?
No. Don't be too humble. You must say
100. No problem. Okay?
Yeah. How many you want?
100 rands. Okay. That's better. Yeah. So
we said
yeah.
Well done. Shake my hand. What's your name?
So what are you gonna do? You're gonna
you're gonna fight your laziness and you're not
gonna give up. Then you can make 200
rands next time.
Go sit down.
Okay.
Okay. Now I'm not gonna ask more questions
because everybody's just screaming and yelling. Okay?
Can I ask another question?
Okay. I want I want the older the
older boys and girls to respond this one
here. Right? What was the third thing I
said? There were 3 major things I wanted
to raise today.
The first one was
fight your laziness. The second one was don't
give up. The third one was something. And
we we
okay. Wait. Wait. No. Sit down. Sit down.
Sit down. Sit down.
Only if you are over 10 years old,
you answer this one. Okay?
Only if you're over 10 years old, you
answer this one.
Sit down. Sit down. Sit down.
Okay.
There at the back. Yeah. Stand up.
No. Stop celebrating. You didn't tell me.
You You're gonna tell me what did I
say? What was the third thing that we
said? The first one was fight your laziness.
The second one is don't give up. And
one more thing.
Thank you. Don't be distracted.
You don't need to come all the way
here. We'll send you the 100 rands all
the way there.
You're too far to you're too far at
the back there. Yeah.
Well done. You guys are you guys are
listening. You see, do you want me to
ask a 4th question? Yes.
Okay.
The 4th question is going to be the
next time I come, insha'Allah.
Mashallah. Alhamdulillah.
So if you take home these three things
and you're serious about them, when I come
back again, I might come back anytime. I'm
gonna say, what were the 3 things I
said last time?
Right?
Will you guys remember?
Yeah. Are you sure?
Yeah. Okay. May Allah make everything easy for
you and wallahi. It was it was a
pleasure to be here this evening, meaning this
afternoon.
Nice to see all of your faces. We
want to see success
upon success. May Allah protect you all.
And,
inshallah,
I I look forward to coming back again
here. You know, when I went when I
was told JMS, I didn't even know you
had a school like this. I thought it
was, the old
place there. So when he sent me the
location when Mawlana sent me the location,
I was like, where is this place? And
when I came around and I'm seeing this
wall and I'm thinking to myself,
wow. Do they have a new,
you know, campus or something? But,
masha'Allah, amazing. I didn't know. You see, now
I know. So make use of this beautiful
facility. Congratulations
to everyone.
Insha'Allah, next time I come, I'll give you
an opportunity to ask me questions as well.
You wanna ask me questions?
Yeah. Insha'Allah, next time.