The Awful F Word

bIllahi min ash shaytani R rajim Bismillah R Rahman Rahim Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa Salatu was Salam ala Shafi monastery and Sadie now Muhammad Ali he was a big Marine. My beloved brothers and sisters of Sudan Malik Omar rahmatullah wa barakato.

Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil aalameen. Always it will begin with the praise and thanks of Allah, masha Allah, Allah, Allah Allah will testify that is none worthy of worship besides Allah subhanaw taala and we send our love and our greetings and salutations so beloved Debbie Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, to his Pisces pure family, to his companions and all those who follow his sunnah until the end of time. May Allah subhanho wa Taala blesses to be amongst them. I mean, I mean, when hamdulillah Al Hamdulillah. Today, the matric results were released, doesn't look like the too many of you that got your results today are then if you go back and think about that, that moment, and it

might be a relative, a cousin, a nephew, or a son or child who's getting the results today. And we always talk about the beginning of the academic year the importance of learning and knowledge, that in the in our Sharia, Allah subhanaw taala he doesn't praise people with political power of armies and countries or doesn't praise people that have money. This is not important to Allah, but he praises the people of learning and knowledge and we talk about knowledge such as Sharia knowledge, there is the divine knowledge. And then there is the dunya sciences as well. And Allah subhanaw taala says, The edify Allah will Latina Avenue, that always that he guarantees success to people who

have Iman, me income, while levena, Otter le muda Rajat, and it gives the people of knowledge, and excellency a Daraja, at a level above that, those who don't have knowledge. And so we are a religion of learning. We are a religion of of knowledge, and it's part of our life. And really to all of us here. If you have an open, if you haven't opened the book.

I don't know since mythic, then it's a problem. It's not part of our Sharia. And it is really, if you look at the value of knowledge, we always mentioned, the scholars mentioned this, every blessing. Every blessing Allah gives for free, he's able he gives you your life, your heartbeats, without asking anything in return. He even gives money, wealth for free, people are born billionaires inherited, people are born kings, the kings of today they didn't fight to raise an army, they got it for free, our doesn't mind. But he will never ever, ever give knowledge for free, whether it is dunya knowledge, whether it is accounting knowledge, whether it is science, knowledge,

if you want something of Allah's knowledge, you need to dedicate time and effort for it, he does not give it for free, even the Gambia did not get it for free. And so we usually talk about the importance of knowledge and learning. And those who are successful today, we ask that you use that, to change the world to do something great. Your knowledge is not just the to get a good salary, but it's nice to have. But really, your knowledge is there to do something of value and benefit. But today's clip is actually dedicated to those who didn't make it to those who failed. Those who are sitting down looking at the results. And it didn't go according to plan. They got rejected from

whatever college that they applied to. This week, I was part of looking at sub papers. And some make it some don't make it make dua for everybody. But failure is part of life. Failure is something that everybody will experience will taste in your life. It's it's a promise from Allah. And for those who are going through a very difficult day to day, we're having tough conversations with the family members were themselves with us future seems uncertain. What do we say about that? failures, setbacks, broken hearts losing a job maybe in your career, you didn't get the promotion you wanted that deal fell through. All this takes a toll on you as a human being. You think about where do I go

from here and you question your own set

have worth. And so from an Islamic perspective, how should we view setbacks and failures? How should we view when things didn't go the way we wanted to? Well, there's two ways of looking at it. There are those who take failure very personally. They look at this moment, this promotion, I didn't get this exam that I failed, and they internalize it. And they doubt the self worth. They feel that there's a permanent situation, I'll never get out of this. And they remain in that, and they give up. That is through failure. Whereas the Islamic way of looking at failure or setbacks, it is a lesson to be learned. Every good every experience, good or bad, is something that you learn. If you

made a mistake, you learn from it, you improve, we don't take it personally. It is a temporary setback, we are always optimistic, and we don't give up and we try better and tomorrow will be better. Remember,

this world success is measured by numbers. How much runs you made at the end of the year profit? How many A's you got on your percentage you got on your script? How many likes on Facebook? Allah subhanaw taala does not measure things in numbers. He measures things in terms of sincerity and effort. And even the greatest of people, the best people, people better than you and me who worked harder than you and me. They did not see the success in their lifetime. Look at this hadith, the responses on the day of karma, I saw many nations many saying on the Deaf chiama I've seen there were many, many Ambia prophets, some of the Ambia they only had one or two followers, their whole

life's work, they were only able to convince one or two people to follow the path. And then he said I saw a in Obi Wan Kenobi, we did not have a single follower, but anybody followed him based on numbers. He was a failure. His mission was a failure. He couldn't even convince his own mother, his daughter, his child, the Snubby of Allah, he failed. So that's from our analysis. But in the sight of Allah subhana wa Tada, this was a prophet. His life was his work, his efforts are seen, and he did his part. And Allah subhanaw taala rewards accordingly.

Sometimes, so sometimes you have a setback, because Allah subhanaw taala never planned for you to achieve that in your life. Sometimes Allah subhanho wa Taala withhold success deliberately. And this is especially for the one who worked hard, who put the effort in and didn't see the results. There are many people who are disappointed like that you worked hard in your career, you didn't get the promotion that you deserve. You worked hard and you studied hard. Something didn't go well.

The occasion, you know, beat you. Why, why are Allah of course the one who didn't work hard and didn't focus and they failed? Well, there's no reason there's no excuse. There's no mystery why you learn from that and work harder. But for the one who did put the effort in

the resources, some of the reminds you the one who is skilled in reciting Quran, he says the one who is skilled in reciting the Quran, will will have a reward equal to the angels he status will be like the the angels and the one who reads the Quran, and he struggles or she struggles and he does so with difficulty, then that person will have a double reward. Sometimes Allah subhanaw taala puts you in a tough situation. And he does not make success come easily. I will be some people we succeed to seems to come to them. Putting in half the effort I do, but things just go the way Alhamdulillah it's a blessing of Allah and for others, Allah makes every inch of battle, every mark a struggle,

every rent a fight. You have to work and work and work just for every inch.

This Allah does when you really love somebody, and he wants you to apply yourself and so the reward with Allah is greater, doesn't feel nice, but it's greater. Sometimes your failure or your setback is so that Allah you wanted this thing so bad you wanted this person to marry this person is so bad, and it didn't go your way. Perhaps this was a setback, so that you could find a better path to success. And we look at the Sierra, the prophecies alums mission for 13 years for 10 years. He's calling he's preaching to the people of Makkah, and they are not following Him. He's basically if you think of him as a salesman, he's a failure as a salesman, he's not able to share or spread his

religion.

And during how much time during which time he would have a meeting with all the big chiefs he would schedule because the unhedged or the chiefs would come to Mecca. So he had a whole list of big chieftains said he was going to give Dawa to any meet with them. And hajis all week and one after the other. They reject Him they slam the door in the in his face. They make him feel

really bad. And nothing is going according to plan. And he's on his way home after a long day of rejection. He's on his way home. And he passes by the Jamara Acaba and he sees six hajis sitting the six ordinary unknown people, not chiefs, not big guys, and he just says to them, Look, he's now sold the presentation to the big chiefs, the kings of Arabia, they all said, No, he meets six random people. And he said, Where are you guys from? And they said, We from Yathrib said we have to Medina like, yeah. Do you mind if I speak to you about my religion? They said, Okay, fine. We can have a chat. And the six people they gave them to be salaam, a few minutes. He spoke to them about Islam.

They were so impressed and amazed about this message, because they've heard a similar thing from the Jewish tribes in the city. And they accepted Islam. They said, we promise we will come back next year. We'll tell our people and we'll come back next year. Meet us again at hedge acaba.

There'll be so let me just six guys, okay, you probably even didn't think much about it. following year he made them again, they doubled to 12 and they said our people are ready for your message. And as we know,

these histories, you know, subhanAllah Medina would embrace Islam, Medina would become the first capital of the Ummah, Medina will change the world, but same six people, the city and unknown.on, the map within 10 years would be the most the leading civilization on earth conquering the Romans, the Persians, one chance meeting between the NABI Salam and six random people on the side of the road, change history. But that was after years of feeling like I failed years of feeling I'm not going forward. And you never know when Allah has placed that success. When is that? When is that moment of success. And if we look, look beyond Islam, we look at, you know, people in the world, the

most successful people in the world, whether it is in academics, scientists, billionaires, writers, sports people, they will tell you how often they failed. Einstein, for example, if you know, he was so poor, he'd studied when he was done graduating, nobody wants to employ him. He wasn't seen as anything special. He was selling insurance, door to door insurance, Albert Einstein knocking on your door for insurance. But of course, he kept working at his research. And again, this is the rest is history. JK Rowling, the lady who wrote Harry Potter, she was basically almost homeless, living on wealthy writing a script on the side that no one would really believe would become something great.

And the you know, the wealthiest author in the world, Michael Jordan couldn't make his high school basketball team was cut from his high school basketball, he wasn't good enough, but became the greatest basketball player. And all these people will tell you

that it wasn't. Our success is not the absence of a setback. We failed and we had setbacks and we, you know, made our mistakes over and over. But what made us different is we did not give up. We kept going, I even saw, I was looking at famous people that failed.

Colonel Sanders, the chicken KFC guy, he was bankrupt up until the age of like, 70, nobody wanted his recipes. 1000 restaurants rejected you. And he kept going, I think at some point your wife tells you look here now, if it didn't happen after 70 years, and I'll put that it's not gonna happen. But again, guy kept at it. And you know, subhanAllah This is the real part of success is dealing with setbacks, and it's almost a natural part of success. And at some point in life, as we said, from a Sharia perspective, we know, Allah promises you, you are not going to get it all your way. You need to feel an experience a setback and a failure, so that Allah can allow you to feel your dependency

on him. And also, because success breeds complacency. Some of the greatest people that could have achieved so much, they potentially stunted because they found success early, they became comfortable, and they were never pushed out of the comfort zone. Then a result says remember Allah in your times of ease, be so that he will remember you in your times of difficulty, meaning that he is a promise. If things are good today.

Tomorrow, perhaps things will become difficult, so remember him. So for those who didn't make it, those who are going through a setback within your career, in your marriage in your studies. What should you do now? What can I do now? To help the situation? How do I move forward? So the first thing as we mentioned, you know, don't give up. The world has not come to an end. It might feel like rock bottom, but you have survived. One of the great things of,

of realizing your biggest fear is once you've taken the knock, and you're still alive, and you're still standing, and your family still with you, you realize sometimes the fear of something going wrong is actually worse than it was it materializing. And when you confronted it, and you took it head on, and you look at the sunrise tomorrow, I will still be okay. I'm still going to be here.

Since then you almost feel bulletproof. I can take this mock again. And it gives you the courage to try a second time. And I guess that is the reason why some of the most successful people, when we talk about success in terms of money, and in terms of, of career, why they're so successful is because they didn't fear failure. They experienced it so many times, they said, You know what? going bankrupt again, it's part of the it's part of the deal. So don't give up. And it's sometimes very difficult for people who's never experienced the setback before, to throw in the towel and give up very easily. That's not part of our Sharia law. It's not part of our deen. And it's not part of the

lessons. If you look at the Quran, Subhan Allah, it almost seems like those who will be successful in Kiama, have a rough time on the dunya. And those who have the best time in the dunya, the Pharaohs of the world, they are the ones who failed. And so our measure of success and failure, we need to look at that. So don't ever give up and try again and keep trying again. Then so Salem, in a beautiful Hadith about optimism, Hadith, which you've spoken about so many times, he said that if Kiama, the trumpet had been blown, and the day of judgment was upon us, and you had a plant in your hand, then plant put that in, put it in the ground, even though I know it will never flourish, that

plant will never see.

It's the day of judgment is over. There is no tomorrow. But our intention, and our hope for a better tomorrow is what makes us Muslim. That's what the heavy salami encouraged, we do not look at the results. The results are with Allah. Our job is to put in the effort and to keep trying and to keep pushing and to persevere. And to remember that everything is in the hands of Allah. We don't give up.

Sometimes, yes, there is a lesson to be learned that we should try something different. Persevering doesn't mean trying the same. What is it, the definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Sometimes, trying something different doesn't mean that you give up.

Sometimes we have to take advice, sometimes we have to look at things differently. Sometimes the path that you are on was not meant for you that there is something better for you. As I said, as I mentioned in the in the case of enemies of Salem, he believed that these tribal chiefs in Riyadh or in Yemen, this is where Islam need to go. Medina was not on his mind that this is where Islam was going to survive. He didn't even really know ways this place, Medina. And Allah had decreed that his way success is going to be the path where your success my success lies, we don't know belongs to Allah. And that's why all we can do is put ourselves out there, try our best. And then make dua

Allah guide me to what is best for me, guide me, you know, and I don't know. And so try the paths that Allah has given you. I also, you know, I watch a lot of TED talks when I do this lecture. And they they mentioned, you know, educational psychologists mentioned that one of the failures in the way we teach our kids now is one thing to specialize early. Like a very early age, you must know what you want with it sports, you're going to be a soccer player, so you can start now. They call it the Tiger Woods method, where from the earliest ages, they told him you're going to be a golf player, and yes, you will be successful. But that is bad in the sense that you've never experienced

multiple avenues. Whereas a the world that we live in, you need to be adaptable. You need to change your plan and re and have enough skills, have enough skills that if plan A doesn't work, you can land onto Plan B. And for us as parents most of your years, I said your matric results came with a long time ago. So but late now to change that path for you. But the way when you raise when we raise our kids, to tell them it's okay to try and to not to fail, but not to that if you try your best and it doesn't go well it's okay. Keep trying and try different things. Don't give up. Don't go for the path of least resistance when things get tough. Didn't want to change. Okay, now school isn't so

nice. I'm gonna go do hate, hate so nice. I want to become something else. No, you will give it its full Huck. But to find where you really fit takes a while. And it's a bit of trial and error. And so we as parents need to encourage our kids to try different things, to experience different things, to look at harnessing different skills. And then of course, to put your hopes in Allah subhanaw taala.

Remember, success is not guaranteed.

There are great people who work harder than all of us that are smarter than all of us, who will live from our perspective, a life that is very mediocre. Allah knows who they are. We don't know. And Allah has given success and power and might. Two people we can see don't deserve it. This is the decree of Allah is how Allah works.

How Allah give success and failure is belongs to him. And for each and every one of us our path of life. His objective is that we achieved Jana, he puts us on a path that will achieve Jana. And so in a hadith we close off the Navi Susana mentions.

The strong believer by strong it only means it doesn't only mean physically strong, but yes to those of you who jump, it counts as well. The strong believer, the successful believer, the independent believer, the believer who helps others, the one who can stand his ground is better and more beloved to Allah than the weak believer.

Allah loves the independent, strong, successful person more than a one who is struggling and weak. Although the Hadith says both are good, Allah loves them both. Both are believers, he loves him. He loves them as well. But the strong one, the one who puts his effort and does get success, Allah loves this one more.

Then the Prophet Solomon says strive to do that, which will benefit you. Work hard. put in the effort, make the time steady, fight for that deal, fight, fight, don't give up. Don't expect things to fall in your lap. Strive for that which will benefit you and seek the help of ALLAH to things.

You put in the effort. And then you put your trust in Allah, you make the effort, and then you put our call in Allah. So do those two things, strive hard, you do your part, and you put your trust in Allah. And don't feel helpless when things don't go your way. If you've done your part, and really I wish we can say this to our kids, when they give us news and if you genuinely did your part, if you really put the effort in and it didn't go your way, you shouldn't feel bad. You shouldn't blame yourself. You shouldn't beat yourself up. You've done your part. Allah does not ask you beyond that. Don't feel helpless. And then the Prophet says And if anything befalls you, meaning negative,

anything go that didn't go your way. Don't say Lola, Lola and a person's name. Do not say if only I did that and that and that if only if only don't live in the cycle of regret. Don't say if only this if only that, that such and such would have happened if I did that that would have happened if I didn't do that. The problem is don't go don't go down that road. Rather you should say cut that Allah Masha Fang, it is the will of Allah and the decree of Allah. This happened by Allah's decree. For Falola promises that word if only opens the door of shaitan it begins with a seed that will plant doubts and make you lose your trust in Allah will make dua that ALLAH SubhanA approximates his

beautiful dua, dua that we should recite daily dua that we should try and memorize the provinces Allah li Dini, Allah you're a small to Amory, oh Allah make sure that * right my Deen which is the foundation of my life. Everything is secondary, but make me a good Muslim that's the priority. or Allah fix my Deen was literally dunya Latifi hamachi and make my dunya good familia Allah bless me in my dunya because I live in this world I need to exist in this world make it easy for me was literally a hero to Allah TV her my ID and make my Acura are the best for me. Where is my ultimate place of destination is my Acura. Make my Acura good for me. What's your al Hayato zyada li fi

highly cool frequently hiring and lit my life with every day let tomorrow only be an increase in goodness that every day be a good day that as long as I live my days be an increase in goodness. What's your motor raw, raw data rotten Lehman coalition and let my death be a relief from all my sadness lead when death comes to me. Did it be a relief? Let me be happy to meet Allah the day I die. May Allah grant this for all of us success in our deen success in our dunya success in the Africa lead our life be an increasing goodness and our death be a mercy and return to Allah and goodness. Amin Amin just one announcement. We have an orphan program tomorrow we're taking our

orphans out there's about 75 of them to the aquarium and to the Battery Park. I think they are at the waterfront. If anybody would like to sponsor one I think it's like 200 or than 250 and often no no compulsion but insha Allah what a good way to make it easy for those who don't have parents so please support inshallah Dracula her or son Allah Cena Muhammad Ali Osaka Islam listening alhamdulilah Billa and Amin Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh