5 Life Lessons From FIFA

Bismillah al Rahman al Rahim Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa Salatu was Salam ala Nabina Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam.

We begin by praising Allah subhanahu wa ala Rasulillah al Amin, the Lord of all worlds Maliki Yomi Deen, Owner of the Day of Judgment, and we ask him to send his choices to blessings and salutations upon our beloved prophet muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi wa sallam, his family members, his companions, and every single individual who treads on his path with the floss with sincerity until the end of time.

I'd like to start off by reminding myself and then all of you all who have gathered here for salatu Juma to adopt to bring in a life of Taqwa. And that is to be conscious of Allah, to be conscious of your maker. And you must do this if you wish to attain victory and success in this world as well as the next.

May Allah subhanho wa Taala make us all from the people of Taqwa. And May He make us from the victorious and successful ones. I mean.

Given that

everyone

or most people

are in

a fever of sports these days.

You have most people talking about FIFA these days.

And just maybe a few weeks ago, everyone was talking about cricket. So I thought it appropriate to touch on five, powerful, five, invaluable life lessons that

FIFA can teach us that cricket can teach us. So in summary, five powerful life lessons that sports can teach us.

So lesson number one,

lesson number one.

And please listen to me attentively follow the number of lessons in sha Allah. And we pray that Allah subhanho wa Taala helps us to bring these lessons to inculcate these lessons into our lives. I mean,

So lesson number one, my dear brothers in Islam is to be passionate

in whatever you're doing,

to be passionate in what ever you are doing.

This is a central concept in Islam.

And I give you the teachings of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in regards to this. What is this concept known as in Islam, it is known as a sun.

Sun. It is to strive for excellence in whatever you do. It has to be passionate in whatever you do. Now, just as how the FIFA The fever

is building up with regards to all the sports, the fever is building up with regards to all these sports to be passionate about these sports, to follow these sports to know the scores and know the matches and know the teams and know the nitty gritty details. Similarly we need to be passionate, but every single thing a believer does in his or her life.

The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is reported to have certain Hadith recorded on the book of Imam Muslim Rahim Allah. Allah loves to see one's task one's job, one's task done at the level of eight con. Now what is it con? It con is again excellence to strive for this level of excellence. Similarly, hadith is in the book of Imam Al Bukhari Rahim Allah, the messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is report to have said, do the best. As if you see Allah, okay? And if not, because we can't see Allah. Right? Remember, Allah sees you and this is why the famous hadith of Gibreel

in that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he says what is exon and taboo de la haka, Ana Katara. For inlanta Contura in the WHO Yurok their son is to worship Allah as if you can see Allah. But no, obviously you cannot see Allah so even though you cannot see Allah know that Allah sees you.

While Allah Hill masala Allah Allah, Allah is above all these examples, but just to give you an example to shed some light, think about it. Your employer,

your boss, your team leader, your coach, in front of such individuals, how do we conduct

ourselves, how do we behave versus wild perhaps when they are not looking at us, when we know that our employer is looking at us there is a certain level of excellence that we want to strive for in what we're doing.

So why not with the case of ALLAH SubhanA, Allah, Allah, Allah is watching us. 24/7. So in whatever we do, don't restrict it only to worship my dear brothers in Islam, be it in worship, be it in Ibadah outside of worship, you must strive for excellence. But unfortunately, today, when you look at the world

do you see today today? Do you see Muslims producing the best products?

Do you see Muslims producing the best cause? The best products? serving humanity? Unfortunately, no. I don't know how many of you all have read the book. It's called, if I'm not mistaken, the Toyota mindset, the Toyota mindset. So in that the author covers the Toyota way.

The Toyota way, there is this

way of philosophy that the team at Toyota, you know, Toyota, the vehicle, Toyota, Japanese Toyota, that they follow. And this way, this philosophy has two pillars. pillar number one is continuous improvement, always striving to improve, because at the end of the day, you and I was there's always something to improve something somewhere to improve. So Toyota works on pillar number one, continuous improvement. And pillar number two, respect for people. Today. In today's context, why do you think Toyota vehicles have such a good demand?

Why?

Very rarely do you see a Toyota vehicle depreciating. Rather the value appreciates, take the Toyota Land Cruiser, take the Toyota Sahara, the Prado, Corolla, whatever it may be, there's a demand all over the world. On the other hand, when you talk about certain German brands, they're not so reliable, why people are worried or parts are expensive, not reliable, I might get stuck somewhere the car might stop. It can be the most expensive Range Rover, but people are not convinced about the reliability of the vehicle. On the other hand, if it's a Toyota, people are convinced about the reliability. The other day, I was reading someone who has clocked

1 million kilometers on a Toyota engine, and the engine is still running without any issues. Subhanallah the Toyota way, the Toyota mindset. So just imagine if we Muslims. Now today you're reading and I'm sure many of you might have seen that. The Japanese after the tournament's after the FIFA games, you're reading of them cleaning up the stadium. They come. They they witness the game, and when leaving, they're cleaning up the stadium. And there were newspaper reporters who had gone and interviewed them and they had said they don't want any credit. They don't want any media coverage. The principle is that Japanese don't leave garbage behind. And by the way, they're not

only cleaning their garbage, they are cleaning the entire stadium. Look at the mindset look at the philosophy. Just imagine if we Muslims become like that. What a powerful message we will send out. This is a son My dear brothers in Islam. So it is not only in the masjid. It is not only in Ibadah some of us we strive for it in Ibadah I'm not undermining it. But outside of EVA, our lives are a mess. They're not punctual. We don't value our time. We don't value the time of others. We litter we dirty, we dirty the masjid we dirty outside the masjid as well Subhan Allah.

Simply put, if you just go outside the masjid and see the way we keep our slippers, see the way we keep our footwear, you can witness the chaos that is in our minds.

You see if your Salah is proper inner Salah tan ha and you will fracture you will move carry Wahlberg, if your Salah is right, it will prevent you from all these things. It will prevent you from chaos. It will prevent you from all kinds of evil things. It will bring in so much of discipline so much of orderliness into your life. So life lesson number one, my dear brothers in Islam, be passionate. Be passionate in what you're doing some of these teams, they're winning because they're passionate. When they're passionate. They have to train almost every

Every day, these players have to follow very strict diets. There's a lot of discipline, they can't just eat whatever they want to eat, and not train and expect to win the match, expect to perform on the field. They have to carry themselves with a lot of discipline and why are they carrying themselves with discipline because they're passionate about what they're doing. Similarly, my dear brother, you may be an engineer, be passionate in what you're doing. You may be an architect to be passionate in what you're doing. You may be a student, be passionate in what you're doing. You may be a businessman and entrepreneur, be passionate in what you're doing. Be passionate in everything.

whatever role you may be playing doctor, engineer, architect, computer engineer,

designer, whatever it may be so much to the extent that even voluntarily, let's say you're cleaning up something. You're cleaning up the community, the village, the community center, whatever it may be anything voluntary, whatever every task that you do, strive for excellence. That's number one. Life lesson number two, because I'm running out of time, teamwork.

You see all these sports that I mentioned, FIFA, football, cricket, the old team sports. So all these teams, they have superstars. I don't have to mention their names. Each team has superstars. But Can these two superstars win the game alone? Without the support of a team? Can they win the game alone? Just because they are superstars? Can they be alone? They can't. They need the team is there to win the tournament? To win the game to win the cup. And that is why Listen to me carefully. In the word team. You don't find i

i enter the ego or I can do it. I am the one. This is what Chopin thought of himself. Right. Hala, kata naman na ohata Whom and then he gave into his ego. Allah You created me out of fire me i and you created out of malice. That was salam out of clay, I am superior, I am greater. The sense of ego has to go away. So if we are to achieve great things, be it in your company.

Be it in your business, be it in your master, be it in your village, be it in your community, be it in your city, town, project, whatever it may be, work as a team and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam clearly illustrated this look at the Sahaba look at how they achieved great things they work together. So team work is of utmost importance. I have a tangent to touch on teamwork. I'll come back to that in just a bit. The next life lesson

be Listen to me carefully be your dreams goalkeeper and defender.

What is the job of the defender and the goalkeeper. The job of the defender and the goalkeeper is to prevent the opponent from scoring.

They prevent the opponent from scoring. So you my dear brother,

you must

protect you must block. That's why I say you must be the defender and the goalkeeper. You must block things or people

trying to hinder you from achieving your goals.

All of us we have dreams every single individual in the cloud we all have dreams or I want to achieve this in life. We all have aspirations. Remember, not everyone who is with you is your friend. And this is why you should not go about talking about your dreams to everyone. Why? Elian Ohakune because the evil eye is true. Al has said the jealousy is there. And today's context very rarely will you find someone who

wishes good for you. Keep your circle small. Make sure that you have the right company the right people with you the right team. Have lofty goals ahead of you plan your life. Move in silence move in silence you don't have to announce it to the world. A lot of us even before we achieve our goals we announce it on social media. We announce it to the world and we have sabotaged our dreams. We will have to protect your to be

fiercely protecting your goals your dreams. And do not let anyone to block you from achieving your goals. May Allah subhanho wa Taala help us to do so. Now remember I said I'll touch on a tangent. The tangent is connected to these two life

lessons, what is that tangent, the tangent is, be careful about your company. When I say company, I don't mean your private limited company. I mean, your friends your circle, why your company defines who you are. Your company defines who you are. Famous Hadith of the messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, I will give it to you in a in a summarized way, the prophet tells us the example of a good friend, along the lines of these words have come a call that was Salam is like that of a perfume seller is like that of a mask seller. You hang out with the right company, even if you don't buy perfume, even if you don't buy mask. By just hanging out with the perfume seller, you're going to

smell good. You go into the perfume cellar shop, even if you don't buy anything, there may be free testers, you will use that and you will come out of the shop smelling good. That is the effect of good company. On the other hand, bad company the prophet tells us is like that of a blacksmith who is a blacksmith. a blacksmith is a person who works at the furnace.

Working with iron. If you go into the furnace,

inevitably, you're going to come out smelling of fire, smelling of soot and cold. Sometimes, as the blacksmith is working pounding the iron away, sparks can fly and can knock your clothing can touch your clothing and you will come out with your clothes all burn. This is the impact of bad company you hang out with the wrong company. You might think or I am wise, I am intelligent. I'm not going to be affected by my friends smoking by my friend using drugs by my friend vaping by my friend doing shisha by my friend talking about girls in the in a wrong way. I'm not going to be affected. But you don't know, my dear brother, that your company defines who you are, eventually you are affected. And

at the very least, even if you don't take up smoking, you're going to be affected by the secondhand smoking. And do you know today research tells us that when I say secondhand, your friend is smoking, he inhales smoke and then puts it out because you are in his company you end up breathing that smoke. Do you know that that smoke is more harmful than your friends smoking?

is more harmful to secondhand smoke it is called so why are you destroying your life by hanging out with the wrong people? Subhan Allah, I'm going to quickly give you some interesting research that I was reading recently.

All this data, you will listen attentively to you know, understand it well. But it's very interesting. All this data was presented as a graph as a line graph. Okay, there are a few categories. Category number one, your time as a human being as an average human being this was studied, the time that you spend with your parents and your siblings, your mother, father, your sisters and your brothers.

The line graph it peaks in childhood, when you're young, you spend a lot of time with your parents and your siblings. And after that it declines after the age of 20 and starts to go down. Why? Because after the age of 20, you start spending less time with your parents less time with your siblings, maybe your job takes you away from home, marriage takes you away from home, so you're no longer spending a lot of time with your parents and siblings. So it peaks during childhood and then declines after the age of 20. So the key takeaways is that you should remember that your time with your parents is limited time with your mother and father is limited time with your siblings limited

so make the most out of your time. And bear in mind after the age of 20 your time with your parents start to decline. So remember, as they grow older, you may see them only a few times. So each moment that you have with your mother. Remember they are to mean adorable Jana, to those of Jana. So if your mother is alive, you are fortunate if your father is alive, you are fortunate go and sit down with someone who has lost his or her mother lost his or her father and you will hear the nagging the regret, the size of regret when saying oh how I wish my mother was alive so that I can go and massage her feet How I wish my father is alive so I can go and kiss his head. But now all I can do

is go and sit by their graves. So if your mother is alive, spend more time with your mother. If your father is alive, spend more time with your father. If your siblings are alive, spend more time with your siblings prioritize and cherish every moment that you have with them. So that is category number one. Category number two

time you spend with your friends. Again, think of the graph it peaks line graph because of the stick I can demonstrate probably peaks at

Age 18 and then starts to decline as you grow older, so at the age of 18, you spend a lot of time with your friends 1819 20 And then gradually it starts to decline. So here are the key lessons is embrace friendship.

You should embrace friendship breadth, but focus on depth. Meaning, don't always focus on quantity. Rather, it's about quality as well. One of you can say, Oh, I have a lot of friends quantity you have a lot. But if it will ask how many of them are quality friends, this person has struggled to answer, or I have friends everywhere. But if I'm in a tight spot, I'm not sure how many of them will come to my aid. If I am in some difficulty, I don't know a friend in need is a friend indeed. So quality of friends, you don't need quantity, you can have a small circle, but they need to be quality friends. So if you have such friends, cherish them. cherish those friendships. And remember,

your energy, your time, your resources, your money, invest them in the right type of friendships, don't waste them on the wrong types of friendships, look for meaningful friendships, healthy friendships that will last inshallah for a lifetime. Now, like I said, this is second category. Third category, the time that you spend with your spouse. This from the time it starts, some get married at the age of 20. Some get married at the age of 2530. From whenever you get married it trends upwards. Generally speaking in a healthy marriage, it trends upwards until that meaning you start spending more and more time with your spouse until death. I want you all to bear in mind, I

said parents, it peaks at childhood declines after that friends, it peaks during your teenage years at 1920. And then that also declines marriage from the time it starts, it goes on a generally upward trend. So the key lesson here is that who you choose, as a spouse is the most important decision you will make in terms of your relationships, your spouse, so be careful with who you choose as a spouse. Be careful, find someone that you will inshallah genuinely enjoy your life with. May Allah bless our marriages, may Allah protect our marriages, may Allah bless those who are not married with righteous and compatible spouses. I mean, I mean, you're allowed me

the next category, time spent with your children, it peaks in your 30s. And then begins to decline after that. Why? Because your children grow older. And then they start moving out, they start studying working. So when you are in your 30s, you spend the most amount of time with your children and then gradually after that, it drops. So key lessons time with your children is short, those magical years of innocence and sweetness will fly. Before you know it, your child will attend puberty. Before you know it, your child will now say he has to go to study, before you know it, your daughter will have to be given in marriage and your children will move away. Therefore cherish the

time that you have with your children and be present in every moment. A lot of us we spend time with our spouses, we spend time with our children, but we're not present. We're not present. We're in our phones, our minds are elsewhere, you're not present, the manner of you might be here also not present Subhanallah you need to be present in the moment. If you're with your child, be present. If you're with your teacher, if you're with your parent, your mother your father, be present, if you're with your spouse be present, it's very important.

You need to slow down and embrace this, these moments that you get with your loved ones. The next category time that you spend with your co workers, your employees, your team members, this, it generally is steady during your working years, the prime working years, which is from age 20, to age 60, approximately. So the key lesson here is you will spend a lot of time at work. So therefore, where you work, your line of work, who you choose to work with is one of the most important decisions in your work life, what kind of work that you're doing. You need to be passionate about your work. Some of us were working, but we're not passionate about our work. Our passion is

elsewhere. Do something that you're passionate about. May Allah help us to do what we're passionate about. And may Allah help us to make that work our stream of income. I mean, they're very fortunate individuals who get to do passionate work and earn from that work as well. Allahu Akbar.

The next category, my dear brothers in Islam, this is a very important one. Now what are the categories that are

mentioned

number one, parents and siblings.

Right? Number two,

friends, number three, spouse, number four children. Number five,

the time that you spend with yourself

the time that you spend alone,

my dear brothers in Islam, it steadily increases throughout your life.

As you grow old and older, you start to spend more and more time with yourself. It starts off where you're spending time with your parents and your siblings, but eventually they move out of your life, then you start spending time with your friends, eventually, they also move on, then you start spending time with your spouse that also eventually will fade away, because you start to spend more and more time with yourself. So the key lesson here, learn to embrace solitude. A lot of people can't, why they don't like themselves to spend time by themselves. Now all this data,

one side, it's kind of depressing for some to think that oh, eventually I'm going to be alone. And on the flip side, it's an eye opener. And this is the tangent, my dear brothers in Islam, your time such a valuable resource, spend it carefully spend it in the right company. choose your friends wisely. Choose your team members wisely. Choose your spouse wisely. Don't waste your time. Don't waste your time.

From the time that you have spend 1/3 of the time with people you can teach, spend 1/3 with people you can teach, spend 1/3 with people who are on the same level as you spend 1/3 with people who are playing a bigger game than you who are above you

1/3 with people you can teach the you can always impart the knowledge that you have. But if you always spend time with only people you can teach, you're not going to learn. So you need to spend 1/3 of time with people you can teach and 1/3 of time with people whom you can learn from, and the other 1/3 you can spend with people who are on your same level. So this balance needs to be struck, you must be meaningful with your relationships with the people you hang out with. You don't need to hang out with everybody. Remember that Mario Brothers and Islam

life lesson number four, I need to conclude, be flexible and learn to adapt in all these games in FIFA and cricket, you can see that you can't be rigid. Sometimes situations will quickly change. So you must be flexible and you need to learn to adapt to those situations. Similarly, we learned that in our lives last two years with COVID, we had to adapt, we have to be flexible, we have to quickly change. So this is something some people find it very difficult to do that they're very rigid. You need to be fluid, like flowing water. If you are like a rock, then you start to get the most but if you're like a river flowing water, you're constantly fresh. You're constantly fluid and flexible.

The last life lesson My dear brothers and Islam, great things take time.

You can't win the World Cup overnight, that things take time. So it involves patience. Sobre it involves Tawakkol reliance upon Allah. So you need to hold on to patience in your life if you want to achieve great things. Can you build a house overnight? Can you build a masjid overnight? Can you do the good things overnight? No, it takes time. So discipline, consistency, patience, ups and downs you have to be patient and the main key ingredient Tawakkol. Place your trust in Allah subhanho wa Taala and by placing your trust in Him, He is going to be there for you husband Allahu Allah kill Nirmal Mola Nasir, he is the best of planners. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he tells us

Coca Cola racela to salaam, the bird. Lovely example. When you place your trust in Allah, it is like the birds that fly out in the morning with their bellies with their stomachs empty and they returned back home with their bellies full.

Now did they stay in their nests and say Allah provide for us? No, they flew out. So you do you must make the effort. You must fly out you must work hard. But rest assured.

Have faith do not lose hope regardless of the economic situation, regardless of the economic turmoil, if you have trust in Allah just as how Allah is providing for the fee

In the ocean, just as how Allah is providing for every single bird out there.

Today, my dear brothers in Islam, dogs and cats are hungry because they are in a city setting. If they are in the jungle if they are in the wild Allah provides for them. Because we have built concrete jungles and we keep the dogs and cats inside. That's why they are going hungry. That's why they don't have food. But if they are out there just as how Allah is providing for the elephant, how Allah is providing for the lion, how Allah is providing for the whale, the shark, Allah provides for every single creation of his none of his creation will go hungry. It is our own greed and industrialization that has caused all these problems. There's so much of hunger today in the world,

because of man's greed, not Allah subhanho wa taala.

Therefore, my dear brothers in Islam, place your trust in Allah azza wa jal, Allah will provide Allah is there for us do not lose hope. Do not lose faith, great things are coming your way. With that I conclude May Allah Subhana Allah Allah forgive us of our sins, May he accept our good deeds may help us to purify our hearts. And just as how he united us here in this Masjid may unite us many more times in the future in this world in dunya, and may unite us in the beautiful and lofty gardens of Jana, in the companionship of our beloved prophet muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa aalihi wa sallam, and may He bless us all to drink at the howled at the fountain through the blessed hands of

Muhammad, Salah turabi wa salam, who I lay my mother, my father and myself be ransomed and sacrificed for him. I mean, I mean, we're throughout our year in hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen