Mustafa Khattab – The Purpose of Life
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
I bear witness that there is none worthy
of our worship except Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And I bear witness that Muhammad salallahu alaihi
wa sallam is the seed of the prophets
and the final messenger to all humanity.
Whomever Allah guides,
there's none to misguide.
And whomever Allah believes to go astray,
there's none to guide.
To start with, I would like to congratulate
the whole Muslim community in Edmonton
on the building of the Islamic
Academy on the completion of the project,
and I encourage every Muslim here
to send their children to seek Islamic knowledge
at this huge and momentous,
building.
As we know, in Islam, seeking knowledge Islamic
knowledge is an obligation on every Muslim man
and woman, so take advantage of this project.
So today's topic, today's football is probably one
of the most important topics
or football you can hear in your life.
I didn't say it's one of the nicest,
but one of the most important. Because it
talks about your very existence,
the reason you exist in this life,
in Edmonton, in Canada, in North America, and
this whole globe. Why are you here?
So Allah
created a reason for everything.
And when you ask people throughout the world,
regardless of their faith, regardless of their color,
or nationality,
you always get the same answer. For example,
if you ask someone from Japan,
or from Palestine,
or from Argentina, why you eat? You always
get the same answer, man. And the answer
is always, we eat to sustain life, so
we can survive.
If you ask someone
from Alberta,
or from Montreal,
or from Winnipeg, while you go to Tim
Hortons,
you'll always get the same answer. We go
to drink coffee or drink Earl Grey tea,
like me.
If you ask someone, why do you take
the train, man, or the bus, or why
do you take the plane?
You always get the same answer, we're taking
the plane, the train, or the car, so
we go from one place to to the
other.
So imagine if you're sitting next to 1
in a someone in a train,
and you ask him, where are you going,
man? They tell you, you don't know.
You give him the wicked look and call
him cycles and zombies because they don't know
where they are going. You should get a
definite answer from them.
So
the only question that you will get different
answers on is the most important question in
this life that no one is willing to
answer.
When you ask him, what is the purpose
of your life? What are you doing in
this life?
Why? Why are you here?
So if you ask someone, they will say,
okay, we are here to make money,
and enjoy our life.
But brothers and sisters,
money can buy you medicine,
but it doesn't buy you health.
It can buy you a car, but it
doesn't buy you comfort.
It can buy you a bed, but it
doesn't buy you sleep.
And, look at this fact, statistically,
speaking, the highest countries with the highest suicide
rates in the world are the richest countries
in the world.
They are the most depressed people in the
world. They kill themselves, although they have more
money than most people in the world. So
money does not buy you happiness.
So if you ask someone else, they will
say, okay, we are here to live
and make babies and die.
Okay?
So if this is your answer, brother and
sister, what makes you different from your cats
that you have at home? It precisely does
the same thing.
It's born, makes babies, and dies.
So you as a human being, you have
a bit of reason, a bit of purpose
in this life. Right?
1 year ago, before I came here,
some of my friends here in Edmonton, I
gave them a call and I said, how
life is in Edmonton? And they say that
Edmonton is probably the sunniest place in Canada.
And believe me, they lied to me. So
what is the point if you see the
sun all the time, but it doesn't give
you heat, man?
Okay?
So the enjoyment of this life, whether it
is money or children, is not the right
reason why you are here.
So I have not created
jinn and humans except to worship and serve
me.
So the purpose
for our very existence in this life as
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Quran
is to worship and serve it alone.
So some people ask,
how can we worship Allah subhanahu wa taala
and serve him 247? Because this is the
only reason why we are here. We have
to work. We have to study.
The answer is
anything that you do in this life with
a good intention is an act of worship.
So salah is an act of worship.
When you go to work to make people's
lives easy and to be productive in the
society is an act of worship.
When you go to study to be a
doctor,
to heal people and to make their life
more enjoyable,
when you become an engineer to make people's
lives easy, this is an act of worship.
Anything you do in this life with the
meditation is an act of worship. The prophet
says, even smiling to your brother is an
act of worship.
Removing a harmful object from the street is
an act of worship.
So much so that the prophet
said, even when you enjoy your wife, when
you enjoy your husband, this is an act
of worship in Islam because if you do
it in Haram, you will be punished. And
therefore, if you do it with your wife
or your husband in halal way, then you
will get that award.
So this is the very purpose of our
existence.
So someone might ask, okay, now we know
the very purpose of our existence in this
life, why so many people are miserable in
this life?
So
the purpose or the reason why some people
are miserable in this life is because their
priorities are messed up. And people come to
me all the time. They are fighting, asking
for divorce, shooting at each other, bleeding.
And I tell them all the time, please
don't bleed on my couch, it's new.
So when you put your desires in front
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, you suffer. You
live a miserable life.
For example,
when it is time to salah and the
adhan is made,
Allahu Akbar,
but you say, no. No. No. No. My
video games are bigger than Allah.
Oh, my work is bigger than Allah.
Oh, my soccer or hockey is bigger than
Allah. Because you don't pray, you continue playing
games and video games and soccer, so on
and so forth. And you don't pray
until the salah is over and the time
for next salah is gone.
Or when you don't see provision or risk
in this life through Haram means, you always
look for a fast way to be rich.
You want to build a house in 2,
3 months, for a short period of time,
a $2,000,000
house, and the easiest way to make money
is to sell drugs, as some people do.
And the most creative way of selling drugs,
as I heard in the past,
few months I've been here is to deliver
drugs to someone in a pizza box as
some people do.
The other day, I was coming from the
graveyard
not because I was dead but because we
were bearing someone.
So on the way, brother Ab Hasan, I
was with him in the car with brother
Abuta, and all of a sudden, 7 police
cars
came toward us from all directions. So I
looked at him and I said,
What did you do, man? What did you
do again, man? He said, well, like, don't
look at me. I didn't do nothing, man.
Then while we're going to the side, we
saw a brother,
someone, and he's
9 17 years old, 18 years old. And
the police
men were all over him, and he was
holding a pizza box in his head. And
of course, maybe he has, drugs below the
pizza.
This is the easiest way. So this is
when you put your
desire over Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. As a
society,
when you put your ada, your traditions in
front of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. To how
it
and told them,
The second time is when you put your
traditions in front of Allah. When you push
your door to marry your cousin
to please people and displease Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
When you invite people to your house,
you invite 5 people to your house and
you cook people that is more than enough
for 50 people, 50.
So people will say, oh,
he is generous. Then you throw 80% of
the food in the trash.
Also,
when you as a society,
and I'm talking also about our society's backbone,
when they put politics in front of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Since 19 fifties,
our countries, whether it's Pakistan,
Egypt, Lebanon, Somalia, all of them,
we tried everything and we failed a big
time.
We tried
communism
and we failed.
We tried socialism, we failed.
We tried secularism,
we failed. We tried capitalism
and we failed.
And tell this day, some people are not
willing to give Allah, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, a
chance
to fix the mess in their life. So
how do you expect the Allah
to make it prosperous and successful if you
are not giving him a chance to fix
your life?
So these are some of the reasons why
we are miserable in this
So to know whether your priorities are in
order or not,
you have to sit back and reflect. I'm
giving you 3 quick,
solutions, and I'll wrap it up with this.
So the first one is you have to
sit back and reflect, give yourself 5, 10
minutes to think about your life.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has rights on you.
Your wife or husband has rights on you.
Your children have rights on you.
The people around you have rights on you.
Are you giving everyone around you the rights
or not?
Then you'll be able to to decide if
your priorities are in order or not.
The second technique is to imagine and visualize
that the prophet
is coming to spend the day with you.
So some people ask, oh, prophet of Allah,
give us a couple of hours to fix
the mess in our house, to put the
weed, the crack, the dope, and the and
all that stuff
to the side,
and so on and so forth. And when
the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam tells you,
let's go to the Masjid to prime man,
we'll tell him, okay, let's Google the Masjid
because, you know, I haven't been to the
Masjid in years.
I don't know if they're still in 1
13th Street or they moved to Winnipeg. I
don't know.
So what is this, man?
The third one,
The third technique is to imagine for just
5 minutes, you close your eyes and think
for 5 minutes that you died.
And some people will say, how how can
I die, man? How can I die?
If you can't die, you have to can
because one day you will actually die. So
people will say, okay, I can't die
because the the the world will be devastated
when I die.
My family will be devastated when I die.
My company will be devastated when I die.
So I tell you brother and sister, don't
worry, just die.
The world will not be devastated when you
die. The prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam died
1400 years ago and nothing happened.
Also,
family wise,
maybe
your wife will get another husband in 2
years,
or
your husband will get another,
wife in 2 weeks at most.
Your children will take your money and go
to Hawaii and enjoy their life, and they
will just forget you just died a few
days ago.
What about work? Don't worry. They will get
someone
better than you, would do a better job
than you, and take half of the pain
that you get, so they will actually be
dancing in the street when you die.
So don't worry, just die. And just imagine
that your life will be over, and when
you think about this, you'll be able to
fix the mess you created in your life.
So when you meet Allah,
your board will be clean and pure.
So our life in this world is short,
and the enjoyment of this world is short,
and I will conclude with this, insha'Allah.
So you have always to keep this in
your mind, whether you live for 30 years
or another 70 years, eventually, you will leave
this world and go to the next life,
which is the most eternal life.
You reap in the next life what you
sow in this life. So as they say,
this life is a plantation
for the next life.
Always repeat these words.
So Allah
says, those who are afraid
of standing in front of Allah
for judgment,
they will fix their lives, and Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala will give them Jannah at the
end.
So whatever language you speak, I want you
to always repeat these words every time you
don't know the purpose of your life in
this world.
So if you speak
Arabic,
I want you to always say,
If you speak Turkish, I want you to
always say,
If you speak English, I want you to
always say life is very short.
If you speak French,
I want you to say
If you speak
I want you to always say
If you speak
Somali, I want you to always say,
Life is very short. Whatever language you speak,
you have to always say it, and it
will fix your life. With that being said,
the last thing I wanna say today,
that now we know that our life in
this life is very short. So every minute,
every second, every day matters to you.
Every minute that is gone from your life,
it doesn't come back again.
And they always say, in the Arabic,
the only thing that it decreases when it
increases is your life. It brings you closer
to the last day.
If you want to know the value, the
significance of 1 year, ask someone who just
failed the exam and have to do another
year.
If you want to know the value, the
significance of a month, ask a mother who
just delivered a baby prematurely,
and how much she will suffer.
If you know if you want to know
the value of just one minute, ask someone
who just missed a plane or a train.
If you want to know the value of
the fraction of a second, ask someone who
just got bronze middle in a competition.
Because technically, the difference between the gold, silver,
and bronze is a fraction of a second.