Muhammad West – The Powerful Muslim

AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss sh matter and sh matter, which are fearful of success and failure, and the importance of focusing on one's beliefs and not worrying about negative thoughts. They stress the need to believe in oneself and not worry about negative thoughts, as well as upcoming events and announcements. The importance of focusing on one's beliefs and not worrying about negative thoughts is emphasized.
AI: Summary ©
Good, and I'm going to prove it to
you that this thing you're telling us to
bow to is useless The ulama mentioned that
many of us think that sin, shaitan of
course convinces us to commit sin We think
that it only comes from a nature of
being Overconfident, a nature of being over desirous.
Many times shaitan is able to convince us
of sin through fear Through insecurity, look at
the ayah, Allah says الشيطان يعدكم الفقر ويأمركم
بالفحشاء Allah subhan says that shaitan, he promises
you and he scares you.
He scares you with poverty.
He scares you with failure You can't do
that.
You can't give charity because you're gonna be
poor.
You know, how can you take a sharia
loan?
You're gonna pay too much.
How can you take a career like that?
A sharia complied, you're gonna lose, your salary's
gonna go down How can you marry that
person?
Think about your dunya, think about your children,
think about that.
So shaitan gets us to do haram By
using fear tactics and then ويأمركم بالفحشاء and
he also incites our desires He first belittles
us, degrades us and in fact, this is
exactly how shaitan got Nabi Adam to eat
from the tree If you read in the
Quran, how did Nabi Adam disobey Allah?
Shaitan told Nabi Adam Do you know that
you are mortal and you're going to die?
He put the fear of death in Nabi
Adam and he said I will show you
a way to immortality It was not out
of disobedience to Allah, but when we are
in survival mode, we then cut corners We
then take the thing we shouldn't, we then
do the thing we're not supposed to.
So shaitan first belittles you and he raises
your Your fears and then when you are
in that mold of help me now shaitan
Show me the way, he says do this
and then he makes you to commit a
sin, but then Allah says وَاللَّهُ يَعِدُكُمْ مَغْفِرَةً
مِّنْهُ وَفَضْلًا Allah says but I, Allah, He
promises you mercy You don't have to feel
scared.
Allah is saying I promise you Safety, security,
you're gonna be okay and love and I
promise you that I'll take care of you
This is Allah versus shaitan And so shaitan,
all he does, Allah says يَعِدُكُمْ, he promises
you, he threatens you, he can't control you,
so he poisons your thoughts and that's why
Today we're going to talk about these negative
thoughts that all of us had which is
actually un-Islamic It comes from shaitan or
it comes from your own Psych, you know
your own mental state.
It is something which you must fight Part
of your ibadah is to think well about
yourself, about your deen, about Allah and to
fight it The Nabi mentions this, he says
يَعِدُكُمْ, beware of conjecture, beware of thinking about
this one and that one.
What are they saying?
What are they doing?
You know, you're making assumptions in your mind.
The Prophet says beware of it Beware of
your thoughts For then, conjecture is the most
false and worst of all tales The things
that play in your mind at night With
something good or whatever, the things that you
think about, now that guy, why did why
did he look at me like that?
He didn't greet me, she did that, what's
my mother-in-law thinking of me, my
daughter-in-law, those tales that you play
The Prophet says these are falsehood, most of
it comes from shaitan, avoid it and do
not look at the faults of others So
we need to actively combat our negative thoughts
You have to actively combat your negative thoughts
Let's list some of the negative thoughts Am
I a good Muslim?
Am I a bad Muslim?
Does Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala, when he thinks
of me, what is my relationship with Allah
from Allah's perspective?
Am I failing as a parent, as a
spouse, as a husband, as a child to
my parents, am I a failure?
How much worth do I have?
Maybe as men, sometimes even more so when
you know financially we struggle How much am
I of worth to my family if I
disappeared tomorrow?
What would that mean?
I'm not good enough and you hear this
at work even more so, you get maybe
your boss, may Allah protect you from an
evil boss He will let you know how
bad you are, how weak you are, how
you're not meeting expectations, how you're behind the
budget, how you're not performing People want success
in their dreams, many of us here are
subhanallah, mashallah in the prime of our life,
let's use that, our prime of our life
But there are many things that we dreamt
about when we were younger, we never got
there And we think about it, have I
failed?
My time is almost up, what have I
done?
What else can we add?
Come on, who wants to add a negative
thought here that you're thinking about?
No?
Is that it?
Have we had these thoughts?
You say, nah, subhanallah, sheikh, I know what
you're talking about, I don't have these thoughts
I think how quiet I am, I know
I'm the best, I'm the man Is this
what we really experience?
Did we walk out in our home feeling
worried, anxious, not knowing what the day holds
When we think of work and the future
and tomorrow, it's more of anxiety That's what
we deal with subhanallah, and that's not what
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wants us to
do The only time Allah says you need
to fear and be conscious and really be
worried is about our relationship with Allah It's
not a fear of a monster, it's a
fear of don't disappoint Allah, and the fear
of the akhira, that's the only thing really
worth fearing Because Islam and Allah uses this,
Allah says this dunya is like the matrix,
it's an illusion You will not lose in
the dunya, nobody will lose and nobody will
win How do I say so?
How much did you have when you were
born?
How much money did you have?
Zero How much are you going to have
when you die?
Zero You're not going to get any more
or less from when you're born You're going
to start, you're going to end where you
start Nothing matters in the end, Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala says nothing matters really Allah
says it's an illusion, it disappears, why are
you stressing over it?
Why are you so worried about it?
Why are you beating yourself about it?
If you're going to beat yourself up about
maybe the akhira, yes that should be, that's
important But the dunya and what your boss
is, subhanallah So I'm going to give five
tips inshallah of how to fight these negative
thoughts inshallah Five tips in our journey to
be powerful Muslims I said this is a
series inshallah, I don't know what's next week,
I just know it's part two But this
one is your relationship with yourself And the
only way, and it's you and your mind
and you and your thoughts I know for
me most of your thoughts happen in the
toilet This is the thoughts that we should
not have with ourselves There's negative thoughts, positive
thoughts When you're sitting in traffic, when you
review your life, when you look at your
finances When you look at your kids, when
you take stock of yourself, when life puts
it on pause What should be going through
your mind?
The first, subhanallah, and this is what I
found as I mentioned in umrah We should
have good thoughts about Allah We must think
well of Allah Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
should not invoke a kind of paralysis, a
kind of fear Like I don't want to
get closer to Allah This is not the
right way of thinking of Allah In fact
Allah says, or the Prophet says that Allah
himself says This is what we call a
hadith Qudsi A statement by Allah but not
in the Quran There's a very special hadith
about a hundred plus where Allah made a
statement but it's not in the Quran This
is one of them, look what Allah says
Allah says, I am as my servants think
of me If you think well of me,
you think I'm kind, then I will be
that inshallah I am as you think of
me I am able to be for him
what he thinks of me Allah is able
to be what you want Allah to be
And I am with him if he remembers
me Allah is always remembering us and if
you remember Allah And this hadith continues that
if he mentions me, if Allah says you
mention Allah to yourself Look at the hadith
goes on, Allah says if you mention Allah
in a company By name, Allah will mention
you by name in a much better company
It's amongst angels and the great of creation
Allah will say, Muhammad spoke about me, I'm
mentioning Muhammad's name Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is mentioning your name And if you mention
Allah to yourself, you're making dhikr in the
traffic Allah makes a type of dhikr of
you, he remembers you in himself And acknowledges
you This is who Allah is And subhanallah,
this hadith, the next hadith really encompasses who
Allah is The Nabi says that when you're
about to die Now may Allah grant us
that when we die, it's not suddenly That
we have a chance to prepare for it
And we have a chance That death comes,
not all of a sudden Now imagine the
doctor tells you, tells me This is your
last week to live or this is your
last day to live The kind of thoughts
that are going to go through our minds
We're going to worry about our kids, we're
going to worry about everything And then obviously
worry about the akhira What's going to happen
tonight when I enter the qabr You can
imagine the anxiety and the fear I mean
the emotions, one can't explain it But the
Nabi says, after all of that When you're
about to die, when malikah mode comes And
it's about to pull your ruh The final
emotion that you must have is this No
one should die except thinking positively of Allah
You must at the end of the day
say Alhamdulillah I think positively of Allah I
put myself in your hands I'm not the
best but you are perfect And your mercy
is for me as well You must have
positive thoughts Allah put me here for a
reason He loves me, he cares for me
I'm not going to disobey and disappoint him
Think well of Allah, that's the first thing
Number two, believe in the power of your
duas Believe in the power of your duas
Even if it doesn't come the way you
want to That whoever is conscious of Allah
He promises you he will make a way
out for you He will solve every problem
in a way in which he In a
way in which he wants to do it
He will fix Palestine, he will cure your
diseases He will give you rizq And Allah
says And he will open doors for you
of rizq From where you could not have
imagined He will give you that which you
didn't even ask And then Allah will become
enough for him That Allah will make everything,
he sets everything right And on this thing
about dua Many times the people will say
My duas have not been answered Does Allah
even hear or care about me?
Does Allah even listen?
Now look at this hadith A person may
hope for something of trade Or authority, he
wants a position He wants the promotion, she
wants the husband They want the child of
attaining it And they make dua and they
do everything right And thereupon Allah looks at
this person Allah looks down at you From
the seven heavens And says to the angels
The boss told you, you know what?
Tomorrow the announcer is going to go out
You got the promotion Just as you were
about to get it You thought, I got
it Allah says, take it away from him
Take it away from him Because Allah says,
if he attains it It will actually lead
him to Jahannam Allah's priority is you get
to Jannah Allah's priority is This must get
to Jannah This person must get to Jannah
And so he diverts things which are not
good for you And that's what you must
believe When that person denied you When that
proposal broke When the marriage didn't work out
When the divorce happened You say, Allah diverted
me from Jahannam I wanted the promotion If
Allah gave it to me, I would have
gotten Jahannam That's the thought that you must
have Sometimes not getting what you want is
bad But losing something that you had Has
a kind of guilt Why did I do
wrong?
And yes, we must reflect Sometimes there are
consequences to our actions You think well of
Allah But when you don't When things get
taken away from us We lose our job,
we lose our health How do we deal
with that loss?
Allah says, look at this It's not about
you Allah wants to remind us Most of
what's happening You and I only have a
small impact Make Salah, avoid Sunnah, make Dua
There's a much bigger budget happening here That
we are not part of Allah says Whatever
happens in the Dunya of calamity In the
world around you Allah says Allah says It
has already been recorded In a book, in
a register Long before you were created Long
before you were there The budget cut was
already there The job was going to be
taken away No matter how hard you worked
Allah says, I've already decreed that Not about
you Allah says, that's easy for Allah So
Allah and Subhanallah What I love about the
Ayah Is the next Ayah I'm telling you
That I've already decreed your calamities for you
Why?
So you don't feel bad That's what you've
missed out You don't beat yourself up I
don't want you to be paralyzed It feels
bad to be sick and lose a job
No doubt But don't beat yourself up about
it And don't become too boastful When things
do go your way It wasn't about you
Allah doesn't like those who boast And those
who are arrogant So number one, think well
of Allah Number two, believe in the power
of your duas When things are bad And
Shaytan tells you, not possible, not possible It's
impossible, it's going to happen It will happen
Like Allah opened the Red Sea for Nabi
Musa Like Allah opened a way for the
Anbiya It's not just for them, it's for
us also When things go bad in my
life Ya Allah, if I made a mistake,
I make istighfar Allah forgave me And if
still it's all about me Ya Allah, you
knew better The calamities that befell me Allah
decreed that for a wisdom that I don't
know Number four, thinking about death in the
akhira You say, ya, you want me to
think positively You tell me to think about
death How does that work?
Thinking about death Takes away all the crap
of the dunya Then that deadline, that performance
review That budget is meaningless If you got
the diagnosis from the doctor You've got six
months to live I guarantee you Your inbox
will not worry you anymore I guarantee you
that business deal Will not worry you anymore
The dunya stuff Will be put into perspective
It's not big We make the dunya like
life and death Literally You miss something in
the dunya It's like someone died No, when
you really think about life and death Then
it takes away the nonsense of the dunya
Because whatever is mainly concerned About the akhira
If your mindset is only akhira focused That's
the most important thing, mainly I don't say
only, mainly focused Because you can't only be
focused on the akhira Your main focus is
akhira, the day I die I need to
think about my janaza Who's going to be
behind me Are my kids ready Am I
ready with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala That's
my focus Whoever is mainly concerned about the
akhira Allah will make him feel independent of
others You will have no more worry about
your boss Or your clients Is the brother
going to put the AC on The whole
masjid looks that way So, whoever is mainly
concerned About the year after Allah will make
him feel independent of others And Allah will
make you focused and contented You won't worry
anymore You have only one big worry I
only have one big worry The day I
die What happens after my death That's the
only worry to worry about Again, in perspective
If you got a guarantee from Allah Will
you really worry about Okay, I missed the
holiday I missed the bonus Honestly, if Allah
told you You're going to Jannah When you
die Will you care about this dunya When
I get to my death Alhamdulillah, I can
persevere And that's what it is for a
Muslim We all believe inshallah Allah will go
to Jannah Conversely, Allah says The more you
focus on the dunya And fear the dunya
And worry about the dunya Allah will put
your dunya affairs in place for you So
that's the first thing Think well of Allah
Number two, believe in your duas Believe in
your duas Number three, when things go bad
Reflect, yes But realize a lot of it
is not about you It's Allah's plan Number
four, put your thoughts in perspective Whenever you
have that negative thought Think about akhira This
is the priority Am I on track with
my akhira And the last thing Allah says
Whoever of you does good deeds Whether you're
male or female And you're a believer You're
all believers Alhamdulillah Just do good Feed someone,
make extra dhikr Just do good I will
give you a peaceful life I will give
you a happy life You will have a
happy life Sometimes the thinking is the problem
The overthinking, the over Conjecture, sitting and thinking
And worrying and worrying Just do good Allah
says I will give you a good life
In the dunya I will give you a
peaceful life And in the akhira I will
give you a reward Better than the best
that you've done Just do good And this
subhanallah Is the beginning stage inshallah As we
said to become a strong And prosperous Muslim
The last hadith which we based the series
on Encompasses all of this And if we
take one thing away And think about this
hadith The Nabi says To be a strong
believer A believer that gives A believer that
fights injustice A believer that stands up A
believer that is proud of his deen A
believer that gives strength to others You're only
strong When you help others Being strong and
not doing anything with it Is not strong
So a believer that is strong Is better
and more beloved to Allah Than the one
who is The weak believer And the hadith
says But both are good Why are they
both believers Allah loves them both But the
strong believer The leader, the one that's out
there doing He's better to Allah So then
the Nabi says Strive to do that which
will benefit you And seek the help of
Allah Don't be scared to go out there
and strive I'm not only talking about Your
striving for goodness Be brave to take opportunities
And say ya Allah This is a halal
thing I chose I want good for my
family I want good for the deen I
want to do good I trust in you
and I go We are too scared to
try We are so connected to our jobs
and our paychecks And we don't want to
keep our heads under the water Just to
survive The Prophet says don't be like that
What's the worst that can happen You're gonna
die, you're gonna die What's the worst that
can happen That will benefit you of dunya
or akhirah If there's goodness in it Take
the plunge And then trust in Allah Seek
help from Allah Put your trust in Allah
and seek his help And do not ever
feel helpless Don't ever feel that my world
is not gonna work I'm not gonna survive
You will survive it, you will make it
And you will come through it And if
it doesn't work out He's also saying it's
always gonna be bunky dory Yes that business
opportunity will fail Yes it's not always gonna
work out Now, do not say if only
I had done so If only I didn't
listen to that stupid lecture No, don't say
if only Such and such Then such and
such would have happened Rather say Allah has
decreed And what Allah wanted has come to
pass Allah had a different plan And Alhamdulillah
Allah's plan came to light Because this thought
of if only It's called lawlah Lawlah, like
the name If only is the door of
shaitan The minute you say if only It
jumps into your mind And it poisons your
thoughts So be brave Take the plunge, strive,
be confident I have the haq on my
side I have Allah on my side And
when things go rough I can make dua
And Allah can open any door And if
finally it's a failure There's no way of
being Then say Alhamdulillah Allah wanted something better
for me And move on That is the
confidence of a powerful Muslim May Allah grant
us all to be strong Muslims for his
sake We have a few announcements We announced
that on Sunday of course There's our feeding
program of course But on Sunday after Maghrib
is Mi'raj We will be having our
Mi'raj program I'd like to hear from
you If there's anything specific you'd like to
hear With regards to Mi'raj We had
a few topics over the years If there's
anything really specific that you want Please share
with us, give us some ideas We appreciate
it And I think there's a watch If
anybody lost their watch Peace be upon you