Mufti Menk – What Advice Would You Give- High School in Ghana
AI: Summary ©
The importance of developing taqwa levels during young people's lifecycle is discussed, along with the need to be mindful of behavior and respecting others' opinions. The speakers emphasize the importance of pursuing the right path for success and not wasting time, as well as respecting others' opinions and not wasting time. They also give examples of people who have passed away or lost their lives due to bad habits and advise against saying no matter who you are. The segment ends with advice on how to deal with problems and to stop separating people and bring them together.
AI: Summary ©
Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim, alhamdulillah wa salatu
wa salamu ala Rasulullahi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
We didn't know that we will meet you
guys, mashallah tabarakallah.
But the first thing that came to my
mind when I entered, mashallah, and I saw
young people, I remember one of the saying
that a sheikh of mine mentioned sometimes back.
He said that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
loves the people of taqwa.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala loves the people
of taqwa.
But his love for young people with taqwa
is even more stronger.
His love for young people with taqwa is
way stronger.
And the reason being that at that age,
temptation is at its peak for youngsters.
And also curiosity, they say curiosity kills the
cat, right?
But she never dies.
Because she always go back again and again
and test and try.
And this is the condition of youngsters, they
wanted to experiment.
And sometimes in their experimentation, they fall into
errors and, and wrong.
And that's why if you develop your level
of taqwa at that young age, you remain
protected.
And that's the very meaning of taqwa, by
the way, linguistically speaking, taqwa comes from, you
know, waqa or the the protection that Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala wanted us to shield
ourselves against anything that may anger him, or
make him, you know, or invite the wrath
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and his
anger upon us.
Taqwa is to create that shield between yourself
and anything that may anger Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
So I advise you, my young brothers, to
always develop that level in your heart, to
remember the saying of Ali ibn Abi Talib,
to fear Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and
his punishment, to always be content with what
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala had given you.
Never look at those who've been given more
than you, rather look at those who are
less fortunate than you always remember death, that
one day you will leave this dunya and
depart.
So the more you have these in your
mind, inshallah ta'ala your taqwa level will
increase.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protect you
and looking forward in the future, when we
visit this masjid, perhaps they will be giving
us the reminder inshallah.
Barakallah fika.
I'll pass the mic to Dr. Salah.
Alhamdulillah wa salatu wa salamu ala nabihi wa
mustafa wa ba'a.
It is always a pleasure to visit with
the youth, to socialize with them and actually
to learn from them.
Now you've become more expertise in many fields
than any of us and you have an
advantage that we already passed it.
The advantage is who among you know the
hadith in which a nabi salallahu alayhi wa
sallam said there will be seven categories of
people on the day of judgment, whom while
everybody else will be distressed, experienced in fear
and horror, only those seven categories of people
will be sheltered in the shade which Allah
will create especially for them.
Who knows this hadith?
Who can count the seven categories?
Anyone?
Bismillah.
Well, if you don't know it, it is
not a shame, but you can say as
many as you can out of them, out
of the seven people.
Normally people call the hadith as seven people,
seven people, but they are not seven people
because seven means one to seven.
They are actually much more than that, seven
categories.
Like when the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam
says number one imamun adil, a just ruler,
only one?
There have been many and there will be
many until the day of judgment.
So one of those seven, the brother there
wants to say the seven people, right?
You sure?
Okay.
Anyone, any of you knows any of the
seven?
Thank you so much.
This is yours.
That's why I say you have the advantage
which we already passed.
We're not shabab anymore.
We're not youth anymore.
I'm a young man who grew up in
the worship of Allah.
In the youth, they call it the teenage
adolescence.
People tend to, you know, slip off the
road, go right, go left, do some bad
stuff because they're youth.
But a person who recognized his way, which
is the shortest cut to heaven, to seeking
the pleasure of Allah, is doing his level
best during his youth to please the almighty
Allah.
When everybody else will be on the day
of judgment, frightened, sweating in fear, only those
people will be given security.
Only those people will be in the shade
which Allah will create for them so that
they are untouchable.
Why?
Because in this time and age of yours,
they feared Allah.
They loved Allah.
They prayed on time.
They lowered their gaze.
They have an access to browse wherever, online,
whenever they are alone and by themselves.
It's on their device, in their pockets, in
their hands.
But they say, Likewise, one of them is
a man.
He's very handsome, muscular.
He's become a celebrity, basketball player or whatever.
So a lot of girls are after him,
chasing him.
So whenever he's been offered something like that,
he says, no way.
Why not?
Why not, sweetie?
Because I fear Allah.
So when you put in your mind and
before your mind, your heart that you're never
alone, you raise the awareness of Allah's presence
in your heart and mind at all times,
then you become righteous.
You become steadfast on the straight path.
Then I can say to you, congratulations, because
on the day of judgment, you will be
untouchable.
One thing and I will end up with.
You know how many times in the Quran,
Allah promised that Allah will never waste the
word of those who do good.
Any good you do will not be wasted.
In surah Al-Kahf, Allah Almighty says that,
We shall never waste the word of those
who did well.
You studied well, you ate well, you exercised
well, you abstain yourself from what is forbidden.
Well, you do whatever you do for the
sake of Allah, then guaranteed everything either you
do or you do not do for the
sake of Allah is rewarded for.
May the Almighty Allah show us all the
right path and keep us steadfast on it
so that we meet him in a state
of piety and righteousness.
With my beloved brother and your beloved as
well, the youth, the young man, Mufti Mink.
My beloved children, my sons, I am so
happy to see you here today and I
thank Allah for you having been given this
beautiful opportunity that very few people have.
When I was young, I remember my father
telling me that what you have, millions of
people would like to have that but they
don't have it.
So don't waste it.
The seat that you are sitting on today.
Here in Ghana, I'm sure there are 10
,000 people for every seat that you are
sitting on who want that seat from you
and it's not able or there is no
capacity to give everyone a seat.
We wish that there was but in this
world, it's limited.
So make use of the fact that you
have the seat.
Don't waste it.
If you are wasting it, Allah will ask
you, why are you sitting here?
There is someone who would have done a
better job than you.
So the reason I say it is opportunities,
my beloved children.
They are given by Allah and he expects
you to utilize the opportunity.
Many times opportunities only come once, then they
don't come again.
So I want you to work very hard.
I want you to develop yourself for the
sake of the ummah, for the sake of
Allah and for your own sake.
If you develop bad habits, you will waste
your life.
If you start smoking and getting onto drugs
and getting onto bad habits, gambling, spending the
nights wasting time, *, it is your loss.
The loss is yours.
When you lose, you diminish two types of
future.
The one in the dunya and the one
in the akhirah.
The one in this world and the one
in the hereafter.
Why should I develop bad habits?
Why should I be abusive with my tongue?
These people you are sitting with today, some
of them are going to be ministers, maybe
leaders, maybe imams in masjids, maybe in other
countries.
They will be university lecturers.
They are not going to remain with you
forever.
They will be with you when you graduate.
Your life will take you to different places.
So make sure that you respect each other
because you don't know where the other man
is going to be heading.
And even if you knew, it does not
give you a right to disrespect someone.
Honor them.
Your days at school, your days at college,
those are days of development.
Develop yourself.
You know, when you graduate and you become
something, say you are very intelligent with robotics,
computer science and so on, they will call
you one day to develop maybe a motor
vehicle or an apparatus, some technological advancement that
you might want to apply into a vehicle
or a drone, whatever it might be, mode
of transport, new mode of transport that you
and I have not even spoken about.
You can do it only if you work
hard and if you focus on the right
things.
If you are going to waste your time,
wallahi you will regret one day.
Some will reach the sky while others would
have just wasted their time.
I want to give you one example of
Abdullah ibn Abbas radiallahu anhuma.
When the Prophet ﷺ passed away, he was
a young boy, maybe 13 years old.
And he saw one of the companions also
a little bit older than him.
He told him, let's go to the companions,
the senior companions and ask them questions, ask
them questions, ask them questions.
And this companion said, you know, you are
a young boy, so young, you are going
to go and ask questions, ask questions.
Do you really think they have time for
a guy like you?
Now that was wrong.
Why?
Because you can't say that no matter who
it is, you give them encouragement.
But nonetheless, Abdullah ibn Abbas radiallahu anhuma thought
to himself, I don't mind what people say.
I don't care whether I'm encouraged or discouraged.
I'm going to go.
He started asking and asking and asking.
He says when he was young, even before
the death of the Prophet ﷺ, when he
heard something, he would go to the sahaba
and list.
Did you hear this?
Yes.
What do you think of it?
How do you understand it?
What is the interpretation of it?
The same thing he says, I asked 30
different sahaba the same question in order to
find out what they are all saying.
It was something amazing.
And he learned.
Then a day came in his life when
the big companions used to ask him, oh
Abdullah ibn Abbas, what is the ruling about
this thing?
Umar ibn al-Khattab radiallahu anhu became amirul
mu'mineen.
He took Abdullah ibn Abbas and told him,
you need to be with me all the
time.
If I need to ask something, you are
the one with the knowledge.
You are the one who knows.
Who was he?
Youngster.
So the other man who told him that
why are you going to go to the
old people?
He is saying that I looked at him
one day with all the companions sitting around
him and he was teaching them.
And I said that man was right and
I was wrong.
That man was right and I was wrong.
He took it seriously and I didn't take
it seriously.
They asked one of the companions.
They asked Tawus.
He is a tabi.
They asked him.
They said you are going to Abdullah ibn
Abbas but there are others who are older
than him.
Why are you going to him?
You know what he said?
He said wallahi I counted 70 sahaba older
than him coming to him to ask him
questions.
So I asked him the questions.
Subhanallah.
Why am I giving you this example?
You are young.
Don't think because I am young.
You know knowledge is for those who are
older.
This is the time to learn.
This is the time to work hard.
This is the time to read books.
Read as many as you can.
This is the time to not to fight
and to argue.
To find solutions.
The ummah is in so many problems.
How are you going to solve the problems?
And I want to end by telling you
one very very important advice connected to our
day and age.
My beloved children, don't forget my words.
Always be a vehicle of bringing people together.
Don't be a vehicle of separating people.
The ummah is a very very large big
ummah.
It has in it a few billion.
Don't think you are the only muslim and
my small group is the only muslim.
Wallahi we are all muslim.
Learn to bring people together.
Work hard to come together.
Yes you might have a difference.
You can talk about it.
We are we are all different in a
few things here and there.
That does not mean that we do not
belong to the ummah.
You are part of the ummah.
We will love you.
We will fight for you.
We will defend you.
We will honor you and in fact we
will not harm others either.
Bring people together.
Don't separate them.
Some people sit and they try to look
at what is it that can make me
different from this guy so we can actually
throw each other out.
I don't need to work together etc.
You are part of the ummah.
A leader brings people together.
If you want to lead you need to
learn how to work with other people even
if they are different.
Learn how to navigate.
Talk to people.
Interact with them.
You will learn a lot.
So let's try to respect one another and
teach the goodness inshallah to one another.