Mustafa Khattab – 1 Ramadan Reflections Imam Malik & The Elephant

Mustafa Khattab
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The speaker discusses various upcoming talks and talks about animals, including the elephant, the elephant in the room, and the elephant in the car. They encourage people to keep their elephant in the room and not to get closer to Allah. The speaker also talks about a guy named Sebastian from Germany who took a strategy to buy electronics from a Facebook fan page and sold it for $45,000. The speaker emphasizes the importance of learning from the stories and having a strategy to achieve the goal of getting closer to Allah.

AI: Summary ©

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			For 10 minutes, Artikaf. You will get the
		
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			word for salah and Artikaf as well.
		
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			Today, inshallah, I'm gonna tell you a couple
		
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			of quick stories to set the stage
		
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			for all the talks, throughout the month of
		
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			Ramadan with the niya, with the hope inshallah,
		
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			getting getting us closer to
		
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			Allah filling our bank account with hasanat,
		
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			removing our sins, getting closer to Allah,
		
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			the first story
		
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			is about,
		
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			the elephant and Imam Malik.
		
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			Imam Malik never had an elephant, by the
		
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			way.
		
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			The people of Arabia were not very familiar
		
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			with elephants. We know elephants exist in Africa,
		
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			they exist in India, in in those parts
		
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			of the world, but in Arabia, they were
		
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			not very familiar with elephants.
		
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			One elephant was brought after the, invasion of
		
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			Persia at the time of Umar alayhi alahu
		
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			to Madinah. And when the people saw the
		
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			elephant, some of them some of the sahaba
		
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			said, I mean, halkillahi manara. This created by
		
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			Allah is so strange. They have never seen
		
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			an elephant before.
		
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			So now, at the time of Imam Malik,
		
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			he was teaching al Muwatta Hadith,
		
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			and hundreds of students were sitting in front
		
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			of him.
		
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			And while he was teaching, someone came and
		
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			said, oh, there's an elephant in the city
		
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			for display.
		
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			So all the students ran away except for
		
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			a Yahya al lehi. Only one student remained
		
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			in the halakh. The rest of the students,
		
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			hundreds of them, they ran away to see
		
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			the elephant.
		
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			And we don't really know if it was
		
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			really an elephant or not, but they heard
		
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			the word, they ran away, they left Imam
		
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			Malik, and Yahya was sitting.
		
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			Imam Malik was very surprised that they left
		
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			him to see the elephant,
		
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			so he asked Yahya
		
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			al Layfih,
		
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			wouldn't you go and watch the elephant with
		
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			them? And he said, Yeah, Imam. I left
		
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			my country, and I left my people, and
		
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			I came to see Imam Malik, and now
		
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			to see the elephant.
		
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			So the whole point is,
		
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			we have a lot of elephants in the
		
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			month of Ramadan.
		
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			Sometimes we turn our back on what is
		
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			most important in this month, just to do
		
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			small things like elephants that don't really matter.
		
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			So think of Facebook as an elephant,
		
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			think of Instagram as an elephant, think of
		
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			Twitter as an elephant, video games as an
		
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			elephant, sleeping too much, hibernating
		
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			during the day of Ramadan as an elephant.
		
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			So there are so many elephants in the
		
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			month of Ramadan
		
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			that block us from getting closer to Allah
		
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			So try to find those elephants in this
		
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			month, and keep them somewhere, like they say
		
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			the elephant in the room.
		
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			So block them somewhere, insha'Allah,
		
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			so you would be with Allah Subhanahu Wa
		
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			Ta'ala through this month. The second story, very
		
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			quickly, insha'Allah.
		
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			It's a story I mentioned about 2 years
		
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			ago.
		
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			The story of a guy, 23 years old,
		
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			from Germany. His name is Sebastian.
		
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			So basically there was an electronics store in
		
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			Germany like this bike here. So basically, they
		
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			were going to open their store number 150.
		
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			So they selected a lucky one from their
		
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			Facebook
		
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			fan page, and they told this guy, Sebastian,
		
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			that you have 150
		
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			seconds to go into our store. You have
		
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			1 50 seconds, 2 minutes and half, to
		
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			take all the stuff that you need for
		
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			free.
		
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			2 minutes and half. So on the day
		
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			he came,
		
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			he took 2 minutes and half, and he
		
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			came out with
		
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			electronics, the value of
		
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			45,000
		
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			Canadian dollars.
		
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			So he did an interview. It's available on
		
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			YouTube. You can watch it. So what he
		
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			did basically, they asked him, how could you
		
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			do something like this? $24,000
		
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			in 2 minutes and half. How could you
		
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			do it? And he said, I had a
		
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			strategy.
		
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			The strategy was, he went to other stores
		
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			to see because the layout is usually the
		
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			same, like Walmart, you know, all these stores,
		
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			no frills. The the layout is usually the
		
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			same. So he said, I familiarized
		
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			myself
		
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			with where they kept the light and most
		
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			expensive items.
		
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			So he filled his cart with iPhones, Xboxes,
		
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			laptops, iPads,
		
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			45,000
		
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			Canadian dollars
		
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			in just 2 minutes and a half.
		
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			So basically,
		
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			most of us, we
		
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			receive the month of Ramadan with no strategy
		
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			whatsoever.
		
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			You have a few days in the month
		
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			of Ramadan, at least this is what Allah
		
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			calls it in in the Quran, a yam
		
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			al madudah. It is just a few days.
		
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			So you have 30 days to collect as
		
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			much or as many hasanat as you can.
		
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			If you have a strategy, you can collect
		
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			millions of hasanat.
		
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			Otherwise,
		
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			if you were in the shoes of Sebastian,
		
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			you go to the store of Ramadan,
		
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			and you have 30 days, all you would
		
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			get, because you don't know you have no
		
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			strategy, you will fill up your cart with
		
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			toilet paper and lollipops and stuff. That's
		
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			$10 maximum. Right? If you have a strategy,
		
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			you will come out of this month with
		
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			millions of Hasanat.
		
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			No strategy, you are not getting anything. So
		
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			we need to learn from these stories, lock
		
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			up your elephant in the month of Ramadan,
		
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			and have a strategy like Sebastian. We ask
		
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			Allah
		
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			to give us, the best of this month,
		
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			bring us closer to Allah
		
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			Give us the reward according to our, sincerity.
		
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			I will be sharing more stories with you
		
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			to achieve this goal throughout the month of
		
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			Ramadan. As usual, I conclude with a question
		
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			about the Quran. The lucky winner will get,
		
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			a 150 seconds tomorrow. No. You will get,
		
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			a good a good prize tomorrow,
		
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			The question for tonight is, the Quran was
		
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			revealed to Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. So
		
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			we assume
		
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			that Muhammad salallahu alaihi wa sallam would be
		
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			the most frequently mentioned name in the Quran.
		
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			However, Musa salallam is number 1. 136
		
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			times.
		
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			Adam salallahu alaihi salallam
		
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			25. Mariam alaihis salam 32. Muhammad salam is
		
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			one of the least,
		
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			mentioned prophets by name in the Quran. Only
		
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			4 times.
		
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			How come? If you know the answer, email
		
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			me at imamustafatnatoyacenter.ca
		
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			before tomorrow's and you'll get a good prize
		
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			tomorrow inshallah. JazakAllah Khaim.