Mufti Menk – What life are you preparing for

			I visited one of the countries, the poorer countries in Africa. And we saw little children learning
the deen of Allah. They were learning the Quran, they were learning the Hadith, they were writing on
slates, they were sitting on the sand outside under the trees. And they were in the heat on little,
you know,
		

			little pieces of cardboard. And they were studying and the sheer who was there when I told him, you
know, can we perhaps, maybe try and get a few neurons that these people can read from, we can
actually build a place maybe we can try and organize and arrange for volume for sponsors, and so on.
He said, No, not at all. Not at all. If we get all of those luxuries, we're going to turn away from
Allah. And I was shocked. I was surprised I said, we're offering these people, a roof and air
conditioned, perhaps maybe electricity and various other they don't want it. I felt so small.
Because he told me, you guys spend your lives
		

			preparing
		

			for this life. And we want to spend our lives preparing for the eternal life.
		

			And he continued with me, and he says, you know these children, we teach them the deen and the
connection with Allah before we teach them about how to earn money. But I think you guys teach your
children. And you're more keen on money and worldly matters, than developing their link with Allah.
So I told him, no, maybe you don't know much, perhaps, you know, a lot of us would send our children
to the madrasa and so on, we do have a little bit of deep. He says, think about it carefully. I
think a lot of what you guys do is just by the way, it's a sideline, your main feature is to prepare
for this world. He's right. He as as difficult as it was, for me to admit it. He's right. A lot of
		

			us in our lives, guess what? The main feature is just preparing that for the dunya and the luxuries
of this world. Don't you agree? So what happens? You will go to school, you will do everything you
want to earn you want to have nice things, but what about your Salah? That's not nice, you're poor
and that's not nice. Your knowledge of Arabic You don't know. But you've read 2000 other books. You
know, your knowledge of the Quran, you don't know but you've read 20 massive books at university.
You know your knowledge of the deen of Allah, you're not even interested. It's by the way, when
people take your children for Islamic Studies, you think you paid for those Islamic Studies. So you
		

			suddenly need to have a result. But you don't make an effort with those children. You don't sit with
them. And they take too long and it's by the way, your school homework takes preference over your
your Islamic homework and just an example. And this is happening. It's a real it's the real truth.
So you want to earn the love of Allah and you're so indulgent, engrossed in this world. That's what
this hadith is speaking about. The Hadith says his head feed dunya you hit Buccola turn away from
these things of the world, these distractions of the world. Allah will love you. Because what will
happen you make your focus the dean primarily when my kids you know, grow up. Initially I should I
		

			should actually instill in them. The Deen of Allah. How am I going to do that if I don't have it
myself? They need to learn the Quran. They need to know the link with Allah before they have the
link with with the rest. You know, we ask a lot of goodness we ask a lot to grant us forgiveness.