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Salam Alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh
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smilla rahmanir rahim al hamdu Lillah wa salatu salam ala rasulillah who Allah Allah, he was happy
his mind. We praise Allah subhanho wa Taala we send blessings and salutations upon Muhammad
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, his household, his companions, we ask Allah Subhana Allah to Allah, to
bless them, and to grant them all goodness. And we ask Allah subhanho wa Taala to grant every one of
us goodness as well. My brothers and sisters,
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we are suffering with what some have termed the worst
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cyclone, in the Southern Hemisphere.
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In this part of the world, definitely, it's true. We've never seen something as bad as this.
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In the southern hemisphere, while it is said that it is the worst, and today, I actually read an
article say it's possibly one of the worst in the world.
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Allah knows best. But what we can confirm is that it is very, very bad. Imagine a city where 90% or
more of the buildings are affected and damaged, where 90% or more of the people have been affected,
have lost perhaps some form of property, something is lost of this. And they have struggled and
suffered.
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Imagine entire villages wiped out.
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Imagine towns affected roads destroyed.
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And I'm not just talking about Zimbabwe. I'm talking about Mozambique to begin with, when the brunt
of that Cyclone has hit.
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The city of Barrow was hit so bad.
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It's never been hitting that way in the past.
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in Malawi, places have been affected in such a way
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that it brings tears to the eyes, 1000s of people
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10s of 1000s have actually been affected, with 1000s of them having been said to have either lost
their lives, or their homes or both.
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Now questions arise. The first question is Where is the Most Merciful? Where is Allah in all of
this? Why is the one who is the Most Merciful? The Creator? The nourisher? The cherish the
Sustainer, the provider, the protector? Why does he allow these things to happen? Why do disasters
happen across the globe where children lose their lives, people lose their lives? Why is this
happening? For what?
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How come he's so merciful and he sees people struggling and suffering and he doesn't do anything
about it? That's a question that those who don't know the answer of would ask sometimes people say
I'm suffering in my life, where is Allah? I've been calling out to him for a long, long time for
many years. And you know what, I still don't have a job
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that I'm sure we can relate to in our communities. My business, I've been trying with it for the
last 20 years, I still am only just breaking even if anything, and I've suffered so much of loss.
That's where people come to ask us, where is Allah? I'm losing faith. People say I'm sick, I'm ill.
I'm dying. I'm calling out to Allah. I've promised everything I've been praying I've been doing Why
is he not curing me? That's a question. Why did he allow the cyclone to happen? Why did he allow
someone to walk into a mosque? It's his house, his own house, he allowed someone to walk in and
shoot those who are praying to Him. Why did that happen? Why did he allow this? It's a question that
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those who perhaps don't have the answer for would ask.
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And it's up to us to answer that there are quite some simple answers for all of us.
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The Almighty created us and he says to us vahagn Versa do feel bad. Battery B maca. sabot ad
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liyu de bon bon jovi, amilo la Mia.
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In surah to room, Allah tells us one of the small explanations of the disaster that sometimes
happens in our life. This verse that I'm about to translate does not necessarily refer to every
single situation of difficulty, but it's talking about some of the chaos and the corruption and the
destruction that we're witnessing on earth.
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And its reasoning.
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Allah says this chaos has actually overtaken the globe.
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On the earth, it has become rampant because of what people have done because of the deeds of people.
Allah says, Yes, he's in control, he's in charge, he is all knowledgeable, he is all able, but he
allows you to a certain extent, something known as a choice, he allows you to have the choice, you
will practice it, and you are answerable for it. If you were to slap someone,
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you are answerable for that slapping if someone slaps you back, because you slap them,
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the blame would primarily be on you. And then maybe people might look at why the other one did what
they did.
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How many of us actually have worshipped Allah, how many of us have actually made peace with Allah?
How many of us fulfill the commandments of Allah, how many of us have actually abstained from the
prohibitions that Allah has asked us to abstain from how many of us have actually fulfilled the
duties and obligations still, he's most merciful. He says, I've given you more than what you've
asked for. I've given you more than what you've asked for, I always say to people, and this is a
blanket rule, I can generalize because mostly across the globe, the majority would actually relate
to what I'm about to say now. And that is, where were you 30 years ago, 20 years ago? What was the
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condition of you or your father or your forefathers, back on back in the day? And what is it now?
Are you not in a better place? Do you not have a better condition? Do you not have more in terms of
materialistic items? Don't you have greater facility greater access to things? Don't you have a
phone and internet and so much more in terms of facility, so generally, the trend has been going up.
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Allah has given you so much. But we look at the little that we lose and we start blaming Allah
sickness comes to everyone every year, nearly every year you'll have a cough, you'll have a flu,
you'll have a cold, the weather will change. It has to happen at least once a year. Some of it is
bearable. Some of you might not feel so much today, as I walked in, someone was saying you're
looking under the weather. You're looking under the weather and I'm just thinking, well, the weather
is so bad in some places. We have to be under it. May Allah subhanho wa Taala grant us protection
and ease.
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But my brothers and sisters, yes, we believe in Allah subhanho wa Taala, we believe is the Most
Merciful. And we do believe that if you look at the bigger picture, if you look at the whole
picture, you will realize that Mercy of Allah subhanho wa Taala imagine,
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we believe and one of the core factors of our belief is we believe a pharaoh to say you don't mean a
Lula the hereafter will be far better than this life. That's what we believe. We have belief in the
hereafter where there will be no problems, no issues, no power cuts to begin with no interruptions,
everything is free. SubhanAllah you don't have to pay for anything you've already paid on Earth.
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You believe in the hereafter. So if Allah says Look, I'm going to give you whatever you want. I
promise you the majority of the global forget Allah. That's what Allah subhanho wa Taala says,
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What either an
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IRA bawana wanna be Johnny be
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in it. And in another verse was he the Messiah who shabu Khanna OSA Allah says when men is given,
when Allah blesses men with everything, he turns away from Allah, he forgets Allah, look at those
who have absolutely everything. They've got good health, they've got good looks, they've got lovely
stuff, they've got a lot of wealth, they've got everything on earth that you can think of everything
is, you know, super in their lives, they are very few from amongst those who truly appreciate by
getting closer and closer to the maker, with humbleness and humility. Very few.
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Those are the fortunate ones. But Allah says to keep you closer to us, we take away things so behind
Allah, we take away things. Look at how people pray, when when the doctors tell you, you've only got
four months to live. You can only now turn to Allah. Imagine what a blessing that is. Because if
they didn't tell you recently, there was someone who was diagnosed with a terminal illness. And this
happens often May Allah grant us all cure, and them too. And the family was contemplating should we
let this elderly person know or not what is wrong with them? Some of them said don't tell them and
some of them said tell them. And then they asked me and I said it's the right of the person for that
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person to know what's wrong with that person. It's a right for them to know what is wrong. How's
that? It's the right of the person to know what's wrong with the person because they need to know
Look, I've got four months according to the doctors. Let me make peace with my maker before I meet
my maker that's a blessing of Allah. If you didn't tell them and suddenly they died. Then you
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You are wrong because you didn't give them a chance to make peace to realize that doctors will not
help at a certain stage, nothing will help at a certain point. So panela so it is their right to
know that you've got this disease, we've just found this out. And the doctors have said, there's
nothing much they can do. You're gonna have to try perhaps there's only two weeks more to live for
you. At least if they say Oh Allah, forgive me, Allah grant me, goodness, make peace with the people
you are at war with, you know, make amends, perhaps return some stolen property, etc, whatever it
might be. May Allah grant us ease. But isn't that a blessing? When you close your eyes, you had to
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close your eyes. People say, Why are these people dying? Well, I can tell you, it's only if you die
that you can go to Paradise. Well, you have to die. Because if I were to ask you, would you like to
die? Now? You would say no, although you all want paradise. So Allah says, Well, we won't ask you,
we just take you and we know that it's right for you. Don't worry about what condition a person has
died in for as long as meaning Don't worry about how the person has died.
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worry about whether or not that person has made peace with Allah at the point that they have died.
What that means is, if you die young or old, or that is irrelevant, when you have died, if you are
at peace with Allah, you are a winner, whether you are young or old.
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Those who died for example, if they died, doing good deeds with a good heart with closeness to
Allah, good news to them, even if they drowned, may Allah grant us all protection. We don't like to
die that way. We have to save life Indeed, we have to try our best to reach out to people. But don't
ask yourself, why did Allah do it? Allah knows, for example, if there is a little baby that died and
people say, Why did Allah allow the baby to go if Allah knew that that baby is going to grow up
suffering with a bigger problem, one after the other with disease with a hardship with lack of this
and lack of that Allah says the best thing for you, let me take you away now. And the mother says,
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But why? Instead of saying, but why? Understand that if Allah took the child away, now, it was the
best thing that could have happened. And if you bet patience upon what Allah decision was, then it's
the best thing for you as well.
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Recently, there was another question that came in my direction
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regarding a child, who was born with deformities, such that he passed away just after childbirth.
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Why did Allah do that? And I said, My beloved system, don't you agree? Now you've become a mother
Subhanallah you're known as a mother. And you're known as a mother who's lost a child, don't you
know the status of such a person in the eyes of Allah. So Allah gave you a child, in order for you
to become a mother number one, and then took the child away in order for you to bear the patients
that will be your ticket to paradise. Wow. So stop questioning Allah, when you see the broader
picture, you will understand you may understand there is there is something that is coming out of
there. People say well, why are others suffering? They are suffering for many reasons. One of them
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is for you to be able to reach out to them you who are not suffering, what are you going to do about
it? It's your chance, it's your opportunity. You see a person who's for example, asking for a lift
to go to the masjid and you're driving in your beautiful car with nice air conditioning and you see
them and they asking you a lift and you pass them. You pass them and you didn't even give them a
lift, they will still come to the masjid with someone else but you lost out. You agree. So Allah is
watching you, you can't say well, if Allah was merciful, why were they asking for the lift, they
were asking for a lift for you not for them Subhana Allah, they were gonna get the Allah was going
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to make sure that they're going to get to their destination, and our ultimate destination is
paradise. So whether they go to Paradise by dying in five years old by dying in a cyclone by dying
in a shootout by dying in with a heart attack, or whether they live to the age of 100 and died
thereafter, if they got to their destination, they have won if they didn't get to the destination,
they have lost. There we go.
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Now granted,
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so when we suffer a loss looking for a job, perhaps Allah wants you to keep calling out to him. How
many of us get up for Salah when we don't have a job when our health is at stake when we have
credits or when we have debts to pay or people are owing us things and so on we get up and say Oh
Allah help Allah help and we've got our for Salah, the minute everything comes in, I know of a
brother, May Allah forgive him. He told me himself that you know, I had a sickness. And I called out
to Allah to help me to help me to help me and the day Allah helped me and the sickness was
eradicated. You know what I actually went back to I went, I went into bad ways and habits.
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He started clubbing, he started drinking, he started doing all sorts and he was a good Muslim from a
young age. Why? Because now the outward problem that he has was had was resolved. So when he got
back into all of that, you know what Allah did. Within two years, Allah returned him to a worse
condition than he was prior was
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He came back to Allah and he came back to the machine and he spoke to me. And he told me you can
give my example a person who's ungrateful May Allah forgive me.
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Subhana Allah.
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So, wasn't it good for Allah to have kept the brother in a certain way? If, if giving you is going
to take you away from Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah don't give me but then you're going to have to
suffer on earth for a while. None of us can say, Oh Allah don't give me so let's just modify the DA
to be at peace, inshallah. We say, oh, Allah grant me. And while you're granting me Do not take away
from me, my closeness to you. Give me Oh ALLAH and with that giving, let me come closer and closer
to you as the days pass.
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And ultimately, whenever you take me away, you know, I give you one other example. If a person were
to die today, today, and the angel of death has to come to you, obviously, it's not going to happen
that he's gonna come to you. But if he were to come to you and tell you, you're going to die four
o'clock, you choose how you want to go? What would you say? You choose how you want to go? We say,
Look, I don't want to go, that's gonna be the answer. You can't say okay, I choose how I want to go.
Would you rather be a martyr? Would you rather just die on your bed? Would you rather someone come
into the mosque and shoot you? Would you rather while you inserted that? Would you rather while you
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in Salah? Would you rather just whenever you have a heart attack and go, What would you like? Or
would you say Hang on, let me sleep when I'm sleeping? Take me away? What would you say? for you as
a believer? What's the best for you. So behind Allah when Allah did it for others, without them
having asked and bless them with something they didn't even imagine they would be blessed with. It's
only those who believe who understand what happened. Exactly.
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So I was saying, in Islam, we are taught to acknowledge the one in need,
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and help the one in need and thank the one in need. And thank the one who created the need. There is
something known as charity in all religions in Islam, we call it Zakah. It's a specific type of
charity. Imagine if everyone's do ours accepted to be wealthy, and everyone had 5 million 10 million
who would actually give Zika
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when there's no one to receive it.
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That's why one of the signs of the hour is that wealth will spread so much that they won't be poor
people to give us a cattle. When I said this a few years ago, one young man came and said I can't
wait for the time.
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May Allah grant us ease.
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So when you see a poor person to reach out to the poor person should be considered an honor, when we
witness these who are struggling in chimanimani. And and in Monica land, and wherever else and in
Mozambique and in Malawi, to be able to reach out to them according to your capacity is actually
your test.
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We may not be able to do as much as others, but $10 makes a difference. $5 makes a difference. I saw
some crowdfunding happening online, I hope it's getting inshallah to the right direction, because
that is a problem. People ask me, who should I give to? And I said, Look, you know what, you have to
decide that you have to understand why should I give? Who should I give, we are fortunate sometimes
we might be able to join and I know of Muslim brothers who have got together and started doing
something about it in their own way. Not just one little group, but a few groups have got together
and started doing whatever they could. And some of them are cooperating. Some of them have teamed up
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with other organizations, some with government, some with whoever else, at least you are doing
something between you and Allah. It's not about showing off. It's about between you and Allah. So
you have to find the ones you trust most all you got to do it yourself. The minimum is make dua for
them. When you feel for them, it shows you have a heart
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Subhana Allah
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you know, when you have a heart, you realize that even if I don't have something monetarily, I might
be able to benefit those people in a bigger way than money. You see it's proportionate. At the time
of the professor solemn there was a companion who came in with a donation of one measurement of
dates. So some people started laughing at this companion saying, What's the one? What's your one
measurement of dates going to do? And the prompts are seldom explained. In fact, verses were
revealed, not to laugh and scoff at those who make a charity have a small amount, you don't know
what percentage it was. If you're worth a million, and you've given 1000, it's a small percentage.
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And if you're worth 100, and you've given 50, it's 50% of your wealth. So Voila.
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It's like an example that comes to my mind right now, which is very interesting. Let me say it had
him apart. He was a very, very generous man who known as one of the most generous of the Arabs. So
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he was asked once Is there anyone more generous than you? Have you ever met anyone more generous
than you? He was so generous, that if you
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Were in his
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presence, you, you would have got something always something big.
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He says yes, I met a young orphan, a young orphan who is more generous than me. So what do you mean
how? He said, you know, we were traveling at one stage, I was traveling with my friends. And on the
journey what happened is, we stopped over to eat something at some place, and we found an orphan.
And he had 10 sheep.
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And he went back he cooked something and he brought it for us, obviously brought the meat and he
brought everything and we were sitting there eating.
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This was hospitality, not being paid for it was not being paid for it was hospitality.
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Subhana Allah today on a journey, forget about being paid. May Allah subhanaw will rip people off.
May Allah grant us ease, say this man is in need. This is $20 but just say 50 Okay, he's got a nice
car.
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May Allah grant us forgiveness.
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So how timipre He says, I just commented that you know, the brain that you served us here from the
inside of that sheep's head, it tasted very nice. The the young boy, he was so happy, he went to the
back as we were eating, he came back with more, we ate that he came back with more after a while we
ate that we came back with more after a while. And we finished eating after a few hours, and we had
whatever rest we wanted, and so on. And as we came out of that place of the house, we noticed a lot
of blood. So I asked the young man, what's old his blood? He said, these are my my sheep. I cut
them. What do you mean, you can listen? Yes, I cut 10 of my sheep. Why did you cut all 10 of your
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sheep? That's the only thing you had? You know what the young boy says, and this will source the
quality of the Arabs at the time. He says, Is it possible for my guest to like something that I have
something that would make them happy? And I have it and I don't give them? It's not possible? I
don't mind 1234. So what if I cut all 10 and I presented the brain of all 10 of them to you people
to eat? You liked it? I'm sure I made you happy. So hard tomato. He says that one was much more
generous than I. So men asked him Well, what did you give him in return? He said, Well, I gave him
300 camels and 500 cheap.
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So they said well, then you are more generous. He says no, he gave 100% of what he owned and I gave
a small fraction of what I own vehicles. So the point I'm raising here is it's relative, your
assistance to those who are in need is relative to how much you have and what you can do. Not
everyone has the capacity of a government. Not everyone has the capacity of a wealthy person. Not
everyone has the capacity of an influential person, whatever capacity you have. But there's a secret
to it. Don't point fingers. The minute we point fingers, look, I did this What are you doing with
last? May Allah subhanho wa Taala grant us goodness, we can remind each other we can we can
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encourage each other, but we should never ever point these fingers.
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So my brothers and sisters, going back to what I asked at the beginning. calamity strikes. Yes, it's
Allah who knows why it strikes for a moment and the believer we are in a win win situation. Either
we live in ease or we die. If we live in ease, we win. And if we die, we still win. And if we don't
live in ease, we still win because we will get closer to Allah. Your your difficulty brings you
closer to Allah your hardship brings you closer to Allah. Don't let your geese drift you away from
Allah.
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That's a challenge. Many people say no, when I get money, I'm not going to change. When you earn
your first 1000 you got a big head, May Allah forgive us. Many people think when I get to authority,
power and influence I'm not going to change I'm going to prove to these people that me I'm a humble
guy, the minute you have a slight droplet of it already. You're a big man. Mashallah. mela somehow
subhanho wa Taala, forgive us. humbleness and humility is a test, especially for those with wealth.
And I tell you there is a small percentage who have been saved, the rest have actually lost it. So
when you don't have it's actually a bigger blessing than when you do have remember that and don't
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lose focus. I repeat that on Earth. When you don't have it's a bigger blessing than when you have
when you don't have it's a bigger blessing than when you have just remember that it's only those who
use what Allah has blessed them with in the right direction. That would actually be successful in
this world in the next
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May Allah subhanho wa Taala grant every one of us goodness and ease. May Allah subhanahu wa taala
open our doors. May Allah subhanahu wa taala bless every one of us, may we be able to reach out to
those who are struggling in one way or another. And my brothers and sisters, those who have suffered
while law it's important for us to reach out to them to explain to them that yes, it's the mercy of
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It's always a test from Allah, there is something in the broader picture. There is something in the
broader picture that is actually
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not understood by people may Allah subhanho wa Taala. Grant us ease. My brothers and sisters,
another very, very powerful factor that we need to remember. We don't deserve the goodness that
Allah has bestowed upon us. We are so far from Allah, but he says I will still give you I'm
breathing your breathing. We have a we have goodness, we have fans here today. You have eyes, nose,
mouth, lips, is working your tongue it works. Everything works. how sophisticated it is, let one
small thing go wrong with you. And you see what happens. A machine bigger than the size of this room
will not be able to replace your taste buds on your tongue. Subhana Allah
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did we ever make do our law let my tongue work properly so I can taste the food? Never. I don't
think any of us have even thought of that. Because we took it for granted but when you need goes
away or law Canfield anymore, my tongue my tongue, Oh Allah, what happened? It's a mercy of Allah.
You drew closer to him because he took something away. Allahu Akbar. May Allah subhanho wa Taala
bless us. I've spoken for a while, and I hope I make dua that we've benefited from what I've said in
sha Allah aku Kohli hada sallallahu wasallam albaraka Allah Nabina Muhammad
