Muhammad West – Am I Good Person #04
AI: Summary ©
The importance of worshipping Allah's advice and following guidance is emphasized in South Africa where people have poor father figures and struggle to bear them. The need for respect and understanding is emphasized, along with the importance of knowing one's parents' opinions and following guidance. The importance of patient behavior and avoiding offenses is emphasized, along with the need to be humble and mindful of others' actions. The speaker also offers a book on the dozen of people who have failed to meet their goals and a gift for those who join the guidance for their life.
AI: Summary ©
And we send our love and our greetings,
our salutations to beloved Nabi Muhammad
to his pious and his pure family, to
his companions, and all those who follow his
sunnah until the end of time. May Allah
bless us to be among
them. We are on part 4
on the
the framework of being a good person.
We mentioned the list that Allah had given
us in Surat Al Furqan, the list that
Allah had given us in Surat Al Maarij,
and then we started last week on
a bit of advice
where the pious Luqman
alaihis salam, this man that Allah mentions in
the Quran as a man of great wisdom,
a man of great,
understanding,
he's giving advice to his son. And on
a very special occasion, he's giving his his
son profound advice.
And as I mentioned last
week, this man must have been a great
man to be mentioned by name in the
Quran. Abu Bakr Radiawala is not mentioned by
name in the Quran.
Only one Sahab is mentioned by name in
the Quran. Luqman is mentioned by name. Allah
names a surah after him, so he must
have been a truly pious man, yet Allah
does not speak anything about his Ibadah, his
tajjud. Allah takes out. This was what what
he had done in terms of sharing information
and giving a talk to his son. And
I was watching the show, and I hope
I don't know if any of you have
watched it, Chasing the Sun, about the Booker
when they won the World Cup now. And
I know there's a lot of all black
fans here.
But what came out from there, which is
very interesting,
how many
of them are raised not by their fathers
or their mothers? South Africa is one of
the countries, the highest in the world, where
people don't have good father figures, one of
the reasons of our social breakdown.
And here we have Allah wants to take
this moment out of Luqman's life and saying,
here's a dad
speaking to his son about life lessons. He
wants I want I wanna tell you, my
son, what is going to be success in
this life? You might be a doctor, a
lawyer, a mechanic, whatever it is, those are
all good and fine. But my boy, this
is what you need to do. And he
began by saying, my son,
your job my job is we should avoid
shirk and worship Allah alone.
If we die on
and, you've made it. That's life. That's the
purpose of life. That's how you need to
pass this exam. And so the first thing
is to have Allah as part of your
life, to worship him, not to come a
shirk because the worst of all things is
shirk. And then before Allah goes on to
the next point, so Allah almost breaks Luqman's
speech. And then Allah says, Luqman isn't telling
you. I'm telling you, you need to be
good to your parents.
You need to be good to your parents.
And Allah mentions here how our mothers struggled
in pain
to to bear us, to carry us, how
our fathers struggled to raise us. And
one of the if you look at the
list of priorities, Allah says, I am your
priority, and the next major priority is your
mom and your dad. And your mom, of
course, a degree above your dad.
Very famously, a a man comes to the
Sahaba.
He comes to Hajj, and he's carrying his
mom on his back.
He's performing Hajj Tawaf with her on his
back, and he's jamarat with her on her
back. And he says to the companions he
says to one of the companions, am I
have I now paid my debt to my
mom? My mom carried me, and I've carried
her for more than 9 months. She's crippled.
And the and the and the Sahabi says,
no.
You might have carried her for longer. You
might be feeding her like she fed you.
But when she did it, she did that
out of love. You're doing it out of
obligation.
You're doing it out of I must do
it again for mom.
Mom doesn't expect an award
for caring for you, carrying you, feeding you.
She enjoys it. She loves it. She does
it out of love. And that is the
difference between, you know, the heavens and the
earth. And so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then
gives a very interesting point here that I've
said that you worship me alone and you
must obey your parents. But then Allah raises
a point. And what if
if your parents
make jihad upon you to come a shirk?
There's now a conflict.
How do I obey my mom and dad
if they disobey Allah? So Allah says in
that situation, you disobey them with respect.
You don't follow what they are saying, but
you sahibahum.
You be their companion in goodness.
And so maybe Alhamdulillah, we don't have a
situation. Make it easy for you if anyone
is in that situation, but we don't have
our mom and dad trying to cause us
to commit sin. They always encourage us to
do good. But it might be that mom
and dad has an opinion with finance that's
not correct.
Or with parenting, that's a classic. Mom and
dad has a view, this is how your
parent, and they may not be
right. How do we disagree? How do we
disagree with our parents?
Allah says that you disagree with them with
the utmost respect, with the utmost kindness,
and and that you accompany them with the
best of character and conduct.
And Allah
reminds you and me and follow the path
of those who turn to Allah in the
end, and to me is your return. All
of you are going back to Allah. So
Allah took a break in Luqman's speech
to say, remember your parents. After Allah, remember
your parents. Now back to Luqman.
Now Luqman says,
And again, we see this is this term,
is a beautiful term of endearment,
endearment. He's saying, my my boy,
my wonderful boy, I love you. It's coming
from a place of love. I'm giving you
advice because I love you. I'm not trying
to break you down.
He says,
He says, oh my son, oh my dear
son, verily,
if there be
a small little seed or grain,
and it were hidden under a rock
and or it will be floating in the
sky or deep in the earth.
If a tiny little atom was or grain
was out there
hidden. Allah
will bring it forth, Allah is aware of
it, Allah is most close.
Now this one of the another there's so
much beauty in this. One of the names
of Allah is Alatif.
Alatif means the most gentle.
Is gentle. And it also means to be
the one who is most subtle. And Allah
usually brings
with his knowledge. Like in Surat Tabarak,
Allah brings the 2 together. Khabir is the
one who knows all your secrets,
but Allah says he's gentle. Why would he
combine that 2? Because, subhanallah, if we knew
the secrets of each other, what would be
our perception of one another?
How would we deal with you if I
know, oh, that's who you really are behind
the scenes? That's what you really watch at
night? How do I deal with you? Allah
knows exactly what you and I do, but
he still deals with us very kindly, very
gently.
Our perception sometimes of Allah is Allah is
a policeman, and he's just waiting for you
to make a mistake. Rather, Allah is watching
continuously and sees how we make mistakes, and
then he forgives us and opens the doors.
So he's saying, oh, my son,
you are Allah is wherever you are, Allah
is going to see you. Whatever you do
and say, Allah is is with you.
And in this way, sometimes when we talk
about Allah sees you, we usually do it
in a way of of scaring.
But it's supposed to be when we talk
to our kids, it should be something good.
My boy, I might not be here forever.
I won't be here forever, but you're never
alone. Allah sees you. Allah is gonna be
with you. You might find yourself alone in
that boardroom or in your marriage or wherever
it is. You're not alone. Allah knows what's
going on in your life. You might be
suffering or struggling with something that no one
else understands. Allah is.
He is the one that is away and
he is most kind.
Now
he says, he reminds so Luqman reminds
his son, Allah is your companion. Allah is
with you at all times. He sees what
you're doing. So be aware be aware of
Allah. Then he says,
my dear son,
Subhanallah. Surah
Firkan
Surah Mukmanun began,
the believers are those who make
are the ones who make salah. Luqman is
again saying to his son, my son, the
first thing I want to tell you,
make your salah on time. Be punctual on
your salah.
It doesn't matter whatever else comes in your
life,
what meetings you have, what deals you need
to do, what your friends want, Make your
salah on time. So maybe your kids and
our kids get to a certain level
where they want independence, they wanna go out,
and we have to give them that independence.
We should tell them, be safe, go out,
but make your salah on time.
Make your salah on time. And where are
you gonna make Maghrib? You're gonna you're gonna
leave now as of time. You're gonna come
back Isha'i. Were you gonna make Maghrib? Were
you gonna make Isha'i?
Make sure you make salah and time. Have
all the fun you want. Play the whole
night your games and Fortnite, whatever it is.
But just make salah you just make sure
you make salah on time.
Then then he says, if you perform salah
and perhaps, look, perhaps, Luqman's son is at
an age where he's still young,
he's not he's not yet an aale mashiach
mawlana. He's not running a family. Clearly, his
son is not married. So he's saying, your
job, really, my boy, is to just make
solar. Before you are married
and our kids in school perhaps, in primary
school, in high school, varsity, really, the only
obligation you have, just perform your salah. That
is the most important thing. Perform your salah.
And then always be on the side of
what is right and forbid what is evil.
And we're seeing across the world now
the on on the front lines of talking
out against oppression,
on the front lines of those protesting genocide
are young people at universities, if you look
look at the news.
We don't have to become a Mawlana sheikh
to be the one that calls for being
for for for righteousness.
You don't have to be you don't have
to have PhDs and degrees before you can
call to what is good. Call to what
is good is I need to be on
the side of goodness.
When
I see 2 groups fighting, there's the bully
on the one side, I stand up for
the little guy, say, no. This is wrong.
When we see these papers on the floor,
you know what? I'm on the side of
Ma'ruf. On what is Ma'ruf, I pick it
up. Also the word and command
command what is enjoying,
encourage, be on the side of what is
Ma'ruf. Ma'ruf means what is known to be
good.
Good. You everybody knows
what is right and what is wrong to
a certain degree of just uncommon human decency.
He's saying my boy, always be on the
side of those who are good. You know
who are the troublemakers in the class and
those who are the the people that are
working hard. Be on the side of in
your whole life and throughout
our lives, we trans we we transition.
In school, we know who are the guys
who are good and those who are guys
who are not so good, the naughty ones.
We go to varsity, we know the guys
who are committing mischief and those who are
doing good work. In the boardroom,
subhanallah.
Yeah.
It's a place, subhanallah, very who's doing good
there? I don't know. But anyway, you know
who's doing good and who's not doing good.
Be on the side of righteousness.
So being
good and doing right on your side,
that is fine, but now a step above
that. So the first thing is you make
take care of yourself. The next step is
you encourage good through your actions. Before you
tell anybody you must do this and you
must do that, I do good, and I
encourage others through my example to do good
as well. But then I have to stand
up against the bully.
I have to speak out against what is
wrong. I can't can't just do good, and
then I pick up the litter, but then
the next guy dumps everything on the floor.
I must say, brother,
this is not okay. And so now this
is and he's saying, look, he's saying, my
boy,
as you progress in life, if Allah has
given you the tawfiq to make salah,
now you need to go a step further.
And if you are on the side of
goodness, of righteousness, you are a a a
a a good person
to the best of your ability, then part
of being a good person, a good citizen,
is you must stand up against what is
wrong. And perhaps this is where a lot
of us or a lot of those, mashaAllah,
good people here, that is where we fail.
Well known statement.
It is enough for evil to prevail
when good people do nothing.
We don't need
evil people to evil people succeed not because
they are so smart and clever. It's because
we, as good people, don't stand out and
respond against it. We see it in politics.
We see it in economics. And so it
requires
a level of courage
to speak out against what is wrong in
the world, to speak out against the problems
in your community, to speak out what's wrong
in your family. And so he says,
you need to get to a point. And
maybe he's talking to him. Maybe he said
to dad, what must I study? Must I
be a doctor, lawyer,
IT, whatever? He says, my boy. It doesn't
matter what you study. So long as you
make your salah, you worship Allah, and whatever
you do is for the betterment of the
world. You're doing ma'ruf,
and you are going to be a champion
against evil. As a lawyer, as a doctor,
whatever it is, as a mechanic, you will
stand for what is good and you will
stand against evil. Wasbir alamaa al Sabaqa. And
if you do that, then you must have
patience. He's almost telling him, it's not gonna
be easy, Rod.
To be a good person in the world,
to stand up against
oppression, to stand up for the small guy
is not going to be easy. You know
it is easier just to focus
Netflix and chill, that's the easy road. But
to actually stand up and do something and
speak out, now it's different.
And so now you need to persevere.
You're gonna get criticized.
You're going to get knocked. You're going to
get pushed around,
but you can't give up.
You have to be an agent of change
and goodness, and so now you need to
have sabr in times of difficulty,
especially when you do when you have to
be patient
on a principle.
Being patient when you're sick okay. You are
patient. There's nothing more you can do. When
you are poor, okay. You're patient for yourself.
But to be patient on a principle that
you can let go. When life is difficult
because I'm holding on to this, if I
just let go, I just resigned my position,
I just stopped
being part of the Masjid Committee. Then, you
know, my Saturdays are free. That's al Asmih
al Umoor. He's saying this is of the
most difficult of all things to achieve. In
fact, the 5 greatest
anbia the 5 greatest of the anbia, what
are they called? They're called the ululazm,
the 5 who persevered the most. So this
word he's saying to his son, the hardest
thing you can do is to be a
good man,
standing up for what is right,
standing against evil, and being patient upon that,
dealing with what is thrown at you.
If you achieve that, he says, the job
is not done.
The job is not done because now shaitan
has a plan for you in that. And
he has a plan for you that you
might have reached a certain level of success,
but he can bring you down very quickly.
You see, the shaitan,
he knows that for most people, he wins
them over through their desires.
I like that, so I eat that. I
look at that. I'm not supposed to, but
my desires
this is, Sheikh Hamwek. You know? Okay. We
are all human. That's shaitan's plan for everybody.
For the guy who's able to master his
desires, he's able to stand on what is
good. Then the shaitan says, you just focus
on your tajid, brother. Don't worry about the
rest of the masjid.
Yeah. They're fighting and but just you focus
on yourself. Now he wants you to be
complacent on your own Ibadah.
You have to go a step further and
say, no, I can't just focus on myself.
I'm part of a community. I need to
help and encourage and stand up. I can't
care only about my kids and someone else's
children are dying and being bombed. I need
to make a I need to stand up
against what is wrong. So now, okay, I
stand up. And then he makes he throws
at you hardships, criticisms,
takes your time, becomes exhausting, frustrating, but you
persevere.
Now shaitaan has another plan for you, for
that person.
Now you go to bed and you think,
oh, masha'Allah, I made my tajjud.
I,
my family is making salah.
I just gave that beautiful bayan. People are
listening to me.
There's a sense of pride that enters the
heart. And so he says, my son,
Allah says he says and Allah says that
Gukman is saying to his son that if
you have if after all of this, after
all your success, alhamdulillah,
and all the achievements, if you gone through
life
you see some people that fall on the
side or that side, but you've gone through
life. You've ascended. You have a position, a
maqam, amongst people.
Don't for one moment think you are better.
Don't for one moment
let superiority enter your heart, for indeed that
was what happened to shaitan.
And turn not your cheek away from people
in false pride.
The worst pride is not the pride of
the guy who's driving up and down when
revving his Ferrari. That's a type of pride,
but that's one or the person who's proud
in their beauty. The most disgusting pride to
Allah is the pride of iman.
Look at you.
Look how I my is above my ankles.
All of you in jahannam. All these are
in jahannam.
That
is the worst kind of pride.
The waking up at night and feeling, masha'allah,
I'm making tajjud. All these people are sleeping.
Where are these people? I'm in the masjid.
Where are these people?
That is worse to Allah. And it might
be that the pride of a pious person
is more
is more destructive than the sin of the
sinner.
And so Luqman is saying to my son,
if, alhamdulillah,
you take my advice and you achieve success
and you excel and you become successful in
the dunya, then don't ever
be that person. And he says, don't turn
your cheek away from people.
Meaning,
when you speak to people, you make them
feel lesser than you.
You make people feel like, oh, you are
on a different daraja. Don't turn your cheek
from people and don't walk on the earth
in the way that people feel like you
are superior. It might be you rev your
car in a way that makes people feel
like your car is superior.
God, Allah does not love anyone who out
of conceit acts in a boastful manner.
And walk moderately.
And
speak nicely and moderately. Lower your voice.
And he says and, evidently, the thing that
Allah hates the most is people like the
braying of the donkey. He speaks to be
heard.
His speaking is only there so that people
may hear him. And so this basic advice,
if we were to summarize it, he says,
your first priority is worship Allah alone. If
that is where you're struggling, start there. Then
make salah. Focus on your 5. Don't worry
about anything else. Don't worry about the ummah.
Just make your 5 salahs on time. If
you get that 5 salahs on time, then
be on the side of trying to do
good, encourage little bit better, little bit better.
And if you get all the basics sorted,
the basics of your life is sorted, your
money is sorted, alhamdulillah, I'm not doing haram,
I'm not doing major sins. I'm I'm a
functioning Muslim citizen. I'm of that I've got
my
my bleep in order.
Right? Then you need to go out and
fix the ummah. Turn and defend the ummah.
Speak out against evil
and then be sober. Don't be like the
person who joins the Masjid committee, and then
when it becomes difficult because I a meeting,
ah, this I don't have time for this.
No. No. No. You took on the Amanah.
You stand for it.
It's easy to be pious when things are
easy. It's hard to be pious when things
are difficult. That's why we need you, to
be patient. And alhamdulillah, if you've gone through
all of that,
always remain humble. Always remember that while you
are on this journey, maybe you are in
the lead, there are people that Allah subhanahu
did not give the he gave to you.
Allah blessed you by being able to make
your salah on time. Not you. It wasn't
your doing. There are others who are also
trying. There are others who are also struggling
with their hijab, struggling with their salah. Don't
make them feel inferior. Your job isn't to
get to the finishing line. Our job is
to let all of us get to the
finishing line. May Allah all grant all of
us to get to Jannah for the dose
together. I mean, just one announcement. We will
have our Hajj and Umrah, course, half day
course. So for those who just summarize everything
from 8 to 2 o'clock with dour time
on Sunday, 5th, this is this Sunday
and we are,
releasing our Hajj and Umrah guide. So,
a brand new publication. This is like your
handbook for the Hajj. So anyone going on
Hajj, a lovely present to buy somebody
that, you know, when they're in Tawaf, when
they're on Arafa, what is the dua I
need to recite? This is that book. It's
a how to do guide in terms of
your Hajj and Umrah. So inshallah, if anyone
is interested, you can speak to us, and
we are we're we it is being launched
today or tomorrow