Mustafa Umar – The Real Purpose of Life
AI: Summary ©
The importance of understanding the human experience and the potential for distancing one's own history is emphasized, along with the need to reflect upon the human experience and make conscious choices based on what they choose to do. The speakers emphasize the importance of learning from the story of Adam Alayshaim and building a foundation to build answers to the purpose of life. They also stress the importance of fulfilling the covenant and avoiding drinking and other false accusations, as well as the benefits of living in a culture that is not cultural or genetic. The speakers also emphasize the importance of understanding the principles of life and the temporary nature of life, and encourage individuals to study and practice Islam.
AI: Summary ©
We begin
with the remembrance
of Allah.
The one true God with the capital g.
We praise him.
We thank him.
We ask for his help and his assistance.
And we ask for his forgiveness.
And we declare
that there is no one worthy of any
worship,
of any obedience,
of any obeisance
except to the one true God Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. And we bear witness that Muhammad
ibn Abdullah
is the last and final messenger that has
been sent for our guidance, for the guidance
of all mankind.
Some of the things
that we need to reflect upon
as individuals,
as human beings in our lives
is
how we as human beings relate to this
world.
And one of the things, one of the
big mistakes that many people have made throughout
recent modern history
has been to give prevalence
to a concept
or to an idea
that the human being can figure out everything
on their own.
Unaided
by any type of help
or any type of revelation.
And this concept
has been around for several centuries.
And one of its manifestations
has been in the field of science.
And people have believed
that when science begins to advance,
when technology begins to advance,
if only we can zoom in a little
bit more, If only we can develop something
to an extent where we can observe the
universe around us a little bit with more
insight, a little bit deeper, then we will
somehow be able to accomplish and solve all
of the problems that we have. We will
somehow get closer to finding out what the
meaning of our life is, what the true
purpose of our life is.
And in fact, some people
are still
in high hopes about this.
Not realizing and not reflecting
upon the reality of the situation.
So much so that today,
people are still confident
that
at one point
in the future,
because sound waves
maintain themselves
within the earth's atmosphere.
We will actually be able to reconstruct
the voices
of people that have lived in the past.
Thus, we can find out not only our
human origins
based upon archaeological
digs, but we will be able to find
out conversations
that people were taking place over a 1000
years ago. Maybe 2000 years ago. And that's
a very interesting idea.
And it's a very interesting concept.
But there's something that we learn when we
reflect upon it a little bit more. And
that is that even if we were able
to reconstruct
some bones, even if we were able to
reconstruct
some sound waves
Of even possibly the earliest generations. Possibly
the first human being that's ever lived, Adam.
How much
could we actually find out about how his
lifestyle was? How much can we find out
about our own human history? And if anyone
thinks about it even for a fraction of
a moment,
they realize there's really not that much that
a human being can know. You can read
all the books you want. You can go
through all the libraries you want. But actually
the capacity for you to know even the
history
of one human being
is impossible.
You cannot even know your own history every
single thought that you ever thought in your
entire life, you cannot know all of those
thoughts.
What do we need then?
If we really want a grasp
of where we came from, where we're going,
what is our purpose here, why are we
here, what is the first and most important
step that we need to take? We need
to understand
that it is only the creator of this
world
who can tell us the things. It is
not going to be an advancement somehow that
we're going to increase in technology. That we're
going to go and observe other people around
us. That we're going to go go and
perform certain experiments and find out how other
communities live. This is exactly what Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala is telling us in the Quran,
in Surah Al Baqarah,
and in several other places when he's mentioning
the
story of Adam. And the story of Adam,
the first human being that was created is
reminding us of many many things.
The first and most important thing that we
should reflect upon as Muslims, and we should
be thankful for that we are Muslims
is near the end of the story of
Adam alaihis salam, where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
says,
speaking to Adam
that he is going to descend on this
earth.
What took place right before this incident?
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala our creator, our Lord
tells us
that when Adam made a mistake
in paradise,
what happened?
He
made a conscious decision
to change his ways. He decided to make
the u-turn
unlike the Satan who decided to keep on
going. So when Satan slipped and he
rejected and he refused to believe in Allah,
he refused to obey Allah. What did Adam
do when he made a mistake? He made
a u-turn. So the first and beginning
of our human history on this earth begins
with Adam making a change in his life.
Showing his superiority as a human being that
he has the ability to change. And that's
one of the greatest characteristics that a human
being has. The ability to change. What was
the answer that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala gave
him? And Allah turned towards him and forgave
him.
How is that relevant to us as human
beings?
Every single Muslim
who knows even the bare minimum about Islam
knows that every human being is born without
any sin on their shoulders.
They are born in a test of this
life with the ability to choose between what
is right and what is wrong. When they
make a decision, they are making a conscious,
sometimes educated, not sometimes uneducated,
but a conscious decision
based upon what they're going to be choosing.
And that is how we as Muslims understand
the world. There are many people out there
who believe in something else.
Some people believe that the sins of their
forefathers are going to be inherited upon them.
Some people believe that because they lived in
a previous life, they've been reincarnated
into something in this life, and therefore, they're
being held responsible for what had taken place
in a previous life. But Muslims believe that
the slate is clean. That you start fresh.
So what do we move forward? The first
and most important point that we learn is
that we have a responsibility.
We have an ability to choose between what
is right and to choose between what is
wrong. There are no excuses
that we should be making for ourselves when
we go and decide to choose the wrong.
Instead, when we do it,
what we what should we be doing? We
should be doing exactly what prophet Adam, peace
be upon him did. To make that u-turn.
And this is the first and most important
important point that every Muslim needs to learn.
Is that we will make mistakes in life.
We will mess up from time to time.
The fact that Allah has given us the
choice between what is right and what is
wrong implies that if any if no one
at all made any mistakes whatsoever, then people
would say, where is the choice?
No one's going wrong.
Show me where's the choice. I don't see
any manifestation of free will in this world.
Everyone's doing everything right in the first place.
And if everyone was doing everything wrong, we
would say the same thing.
So what we do find is that one
of the benefits
that Allah has given us, one of the
blessings that we have is the ability to
see the manifestation of that free will inside
of this world. And this is what Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala is telling us. And then
afterwards,
we begin to have
a foundation
to which to build our answer
to what is the purpose of life. And
this is what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says.
Because of this, you guys are going to
go down to earth. Even though you've been
forgiven. Adam has been forgiven. His wife has
been forgiven. Shaitan has not been forgiven because
he did not ask for repentance. All of
you are gonna go down to earth. And
then what?
So I'm going to send the human beings
on this earth to be tested.
What is the test?
He says guidance
will come from me to you.
And whoever follows that guidance, they're not gonna
have any problems.
What is the purpose of life according to
Islam?
It's for you to when that guidance comes
to you.
When you understand what Islam is. When you
understand that there's a creator to this world
because there's no way it just organized itself
out of nowhere. There's no way that it
just popped out of nowhere. What is the
next step?
The next step is to not
suffice yourself in thinking that God or Allah
has created this entire world, and then just
let it be by itself.
As if you have no connection with God.
Because the one who thinks
the one who thinks that there's a supreme
creator,
but then there's no interference whatsoever.
It's the same
whether they believe or whether they don't believe
there is no difference.
There is no benefit because there is no
connection in your life. So it becomes an
abstract concept. It becomes an abstract principle. But
what does Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala remind us?
He says,
and those
who disbelieve,
those who deny our signs, and those who
disbelieve
Those are gonna be the people who are
being punished.
Why?
Because
the belief
in the guidance that God is sending for
us
is not simply an intellectual mistake.
It is a moral mistake.
And that is what we need to understand
as Muslims living in America.
That to disbelieve
in a revelation that God is sending to
us
is not an intellectual
mistake that you would make. People look at
the past civilizations.
Wow. They believe that the earth was flat.
Look at the ignorance that they were in.
Are they gonna be held responsible for that?
Are they gonna be held morally accountable for
that? No.
Look at the people who made mistakes when
it came to observing natural phenomena.
People believed all sorts of wacky things.
And still people believe a lot of wacky
things. Even though they may be taught in
our local universities or by our local professors.
But at the same time,
at the same time we're not gonna be
morally accountable for that. But what the Quran
is telling us is that when the message
comes to you from your Lord, when the
message comes to you from your creator, you
are going to be held accountable for that.
And that is your purpose in life. That
is the station, that is the place where
you should strive to achieve. Try to understand
that Islam is not something cultural.
Islam is not something genetic because my parents
were that way then therefore I'm that way.
It's not something that's ingrained within you automatically
that you're gonna be defined by it whether
you practice it or not. It is a
conscious decision that every single human being needs
to make and we need to understand that
principle.
Now what is the next verse in this
context? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala begins talking about
the children of Israel.
Where's the connection? Reflect upon the connection.
Allah begins to talk to the children of
Israel. The children of Israel.
We're referring to the people who came from
the descendants
of Ya'aqob of Jacob.
And what does he tell them? He says,
oh people of the book, when my guidance
comes to you,
don't be believe in it. Don't be one
of the first people to reject it, and
have be conscious of this decision.
Why
do you think it's talking about the people
of Israel over here? Why would it be
talking about them? What many Muslims
make a mistake
when they're reading the Quran. One of the
things that they do is they begin to
open for example, you open up the Quran,
you see some stories. The first thing talks
about being a believer. The next thing talks
about the story of the prophet Adam. Okay.
That's interesting. The next thing starts talking about
the Bani Israel, the Jews.
And what does the average Muslim make a
mistake here? They start looking and say, Subhan
Allah.
Look at the ignorance that they were in.
Look at the misguidance that they had. Look
at how bad they were.
Not realizing
that the reason one of the reasons why
Allah is putting this here is not only
so that you can go and look at
them. It's so that you can learn a
lesson from this. So that you can benefit
from this. And what is the benefit from
this? Who were the Bani Israel?
Who were they?
They were the Muslim Ummah of the past.
They were the Muslim community
of the past.
Because what is a Muslim? A Muslim by
definition is someone who submits themselves to God,
or at least wants to submit themselves to
God. The one who believes in the guidance.
What are what is being told here? Is
that there was a group of people who
accepted at least partly or outwardly. They accepted
the guidance. They claimed that yes we're Muslims.
They claimed that yes we're following the religion
of Islam. We're submitting ourselves. We're surrendering our
ourselves to Allah to God. We're claiming to
follow the prophets. We're claiming to follow the
books. Where is the mistake that they began
to make? They began to stop being self
critical.
They began to start being content with the
fact that they have this label of being
a Muslim upon them. And then they began
to deviate from the right way. So Allah
is reminding us
that you Muslims now
don't fall into the same trap that other
believers had fell into. They had believed, they
had accepted, but they began to fall into
hypocrisy.
They began to fall into
arrogance. Thinking that because they're from some certain
tribe, because they're from some certain race, that
they're gonna have some level of superiority
over everyone else. And then what did Allah
say?
He said,
He says, fulfill my covenant and I will
fulfill my covenant with you.
What does that mean? That is a bilateral
treaty.
It is not a unilateral treaty where one
person makes a treaty with the other and
says, I'm gonna do this for you. No.
You fulfill my covenant
and then I will fulfill
your covenant.
What is the covenant?
Worship only Allah.
Be obedient to Allah. Serve your creator. When
you fulfill that, then I will fulfill my
covenant and give you success in this life
and give you paradise.
But if you don't fulfill the condition,
how can you expect? And how can we
as Muslims expect that we're gonna always somehow
achieve something
because our name maybe Mohammed.
Because we came from this or that country.
We cannot expect this. And if we do
expect this, then we should go back and
read what the Quran is telling us. Read
what Allah was trying to tell us rather
than putting our own thoughts and our own
ideas
into what Islam is. Then Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala says,
Now believe. Now it's referring particularly to the
children of Israel. Now believe
in what I have sent down which confirms
that which you already know.
It confirms that which you already have with
you. You're already familiar
with the fact that every single prophet throughout
time is called to the same exact beliefs.
The belief in the oneness of Allah
and the belief that we should be doing
things which in obedience to Allah. The same
message. When did the message change?
When can one prophet come along and make
some change in the message saying, no there
may be 3 gods. No there may be
10 gods. No you should worship me. Or
no you should go and start doing bad
things. No. You should not take it into
consideration. You don't need to read your book.
No. You don't find that because that would
be an inconsistent concept. And then what does
it
say?
How did some of the people, some of
the Muslims
in the past,
how did they deviate?
What was their cause
of deviation?
The first
was that they did not even read their
own book.
They did not care for their own book.
So much so that they began to sell
their revelations
for a price.
What was it? Personal gain. Your own personal
desire over the book of guidance that Allah
is revealing to you.
How many of us
end up falling into the same principle many
times?
We end
up going and making time for every single
thing in our own life,
except we don't make time for the Quran.
We don't make time to study the word
of Allah. We don't make time to learn
and understand what the guidance is being given
to us by Allah.
Are we not selling the book?
If there's a class going on, if there's
a tafsir session going on, if you have
some time, almost every single person in this
room is literate.
Every single one is literate. They can at
least barely read or at least to a
high level most probably.
How many of us take the time out?
And what is stopping
us? What is it that's stopping us and
preventing us? Because we're busy.
Busy with what?
Busy with earning money.
Busy with going and playing. Busy with entertaining
ourselves. We're busy with all of these things.
I cannot understand
much of a difference between a person who's
trying to gain money and sell their book
and between someone who doesn't make time because
they're interested in pleasing themselves.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is giving us a
warning. And this warning is for me before
is a warning for anyone else. But this
is something that we need to face the
facts squarely
and sincerely and ask ourselves.
Are we dedicating ourselves
for the sake of Allah? Are we dedicating
ourselves to Allah, our creator? Or are we
going here and there?
Are we being true Muslims? And ask yourself
what kind of Muslim do you want to
be?
Put a number on it.
Ask yourself what kind of Muslim do you
want to be? Some people they say I'm
content, you know. I'm 20%.
I'm pretty good. You know, I'm happy with
where I am. I was like 19%, you
know, 5 years ago. I'm about 20 now.
That's pretty good. You know, you're giving yourself
a little bit too much credit maybe. Maybe
you should raise your standards. Because when it
comes to other standards,
when you go to school, say, well, you
know, I just got the 59%.
I got the 60%.
Just barely passed. That's my goal. That's exactly
what I wanna shoot for. Is that how
we react? Is that how we act when
it comes to other things? No. So we
must have a consistent attitude
when it comes to Islam and when it
comes to this world. When it comes to
things that we want.
The first thing, they began to sell their
own scriptures. What came next?
Do not confuse.
Do not confuse.
Do not mix up
the truth with the falsehood.
While you know.
While you know. What is the other way
that people began to deviate from the path?
What is the way that people began to
go away from their own religion and go
away from Islam in the past? And how
does it relate to us?
They began to change the messages.
They began to mess up the truth with
the falsehood.
They began to take their verses
of their scripture,
and they began to take what the what
God has told us, and they began to
play around with it a little bit. You
know what? I know it says that, you
know, we need to do this and we
should avoid, you know, this type of drinking.
We should avoid these type of intoxicants.
We should avoid this and we should do
this. We should do it. But you know
what?
Times change.
You know what? If we, you know, mold
this verse a little bit differently, we can
kinda play with it. I had a person
actually come to me. It's kind of interesting.
A person actually came to me and he
said, you know what?
He said, it's actually
told in Surah Al Baqarah. We were talking
about the same almost the same verses here.
Very close to it. He said, actually it
encourages. The Quran encourages us
to smoke weed.
I said, wow.
Really? Where is that? He says, it's right
in the Quran.
It says that Allah has sent down rain
from the skies. And through that rain, he's
caused all type of greenery to grow.
As a provision for you. And therefore, that
can be included in the provision because it's
greenery.
And there's nothing wrong with it. Beginning to
twist.
Beginning to change. There are people who go
and they say, you know what? Because red
wine has certain benefits.
Because it can actually benefit you and it's
good for this part of the liver and
all of that. Therefore, everything in Islam, everything
that's good in Islam is supposed to be
good for you. And everything bad in Islam,
Allah has only prohibited the bad things. Therefore,
I'm only doing what's good because it's Islamically
acceptable. But of course, they didn't go and
read the rest of the Quran where Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
He says that there are some there are
some benefits. Let's move forward inshallah.
There's some mixed space in the back for
some people.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, there are some
benefits in these things.
But the harm outweighs the benefit.
And even America in the thirties, when they
tried to prohibit
alcohol. They tried, they miserably failed even with
the help of the army. Because people were
addicted. But when they tried to, they understood
the problems.
They understood that the harms outweigh its benefits.
And that's a principle that we don't only
apply in Islamic law. That's a principle
that we apply in life.
Because this life is temporary.
We know that this life compared to the
next life is going to be oh, it's
like a drop in an ocean according to
the prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
This life compared to the next is like
a drop in an ocean. In what sense?
In terms of its duration,
as well as in terms of its quality.
Both of these things. In terms of its
length, and in terms of the quality of
life that you're gonna have in the next
compared to this is nothing.
Imam Al Sheyafari
Rahimahullah.
He's made a statement. Actually, sorry. It was
Imam Al Khazali made the statement. He said
that every single Muslim knows.
The the bare minimum knowledge that every single
Muslim has is that the next life is
better than this life.
He says,
that person
will become a true Muslim.
A true believer
when that belief
or that knowledge
prevails over his heart.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us among
those people whom this knowledge prevails over our
heart.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala continues to talk about
certain things in this verse.
After telling the people to pray,
after telling the people to spend, after telling
the people to be in obedience
to Allah,
It makes one very important statement at the
end. That Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
are you gonna be one of those people
who calls other people towards righteousness?
Are you going to be one of those
people
who enjoins others to do all of these
things?
But you yourself
don't do them.
But you yourself don't do them,
and you recite the scripture.
And you know the truth.
And you know exactly what's in this book.
And it says, don't you have any sense?
Don't you have any brains?
Don't you have any wisdom?
What Allah is telling us here and how
it's relevant to us here
is that if you ask the average Muslim,
do you not have firm belief
that there's only one God? And they will
say, yes.
If I ask you to worship this microphone
right here, would you bow down and prostrate
to it? If we could trick you somehow,
if we can argue with you somehow to
convince you that this is an idol, would
you prostrate down to it? See, this is
the most ridiculous thing. We would never prostrate
to anything except Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Except
to our creator. We have enough sense to
not worship any human being, to not worship
any statue, to not worship any idol.
We have enough sense.
And would you ask any average Muslim, do
you not believe in the Quran?
Do you not see the certain facts that
it talks about? The certain prophecies that are
there? The fact that there's no contradictions?
The fact that this book has been preserved
intact? They would say,
absolutely. I have no problem with that. Doesn't
bother me at all. And not only that,
when someone if someone were to come and
ask you,
tell me about Islam. Is it that religion
of terror or is there is there all
this weird stuff in there? Is it an
irrational religion? Does it not make sense? You
would say no. The average Muslim would say
no. Islam is the greatest religion. It's the
best thing that you could ever do. It's
the best religion. If I could ever pick
any religion, if I could recommend the religion
of Islam to anyone, this is the religion
that I would recommend it to. I would
recommend them to this religion because it is
the absolute best. You just look at the
fundamental principles that Islam brings and you can
see the difference across the board.
Then the question
is, that would we
promote
and propagate
and have pride in all of these things?
Would we have such confidence
that our book is correct? That our religion
is true? That it makes all complete sense?
But at the same time, we don't dedicate
ourselves to it.
At the same time, we don't give it
its due respect. We don't give it its
due dedication.
We don't give it its due reverence.
And instead, we're content
with telling people how great it is. We're
content with telling people how great the Quran
is and handing it to them and giving
it to them. Say, this is the guide
book for your life.
Yet, there are many people who've never even
gone through a quarter or even 10% of
that guide book.
And what good is a guide book if
you don't know what it says?
How can it give you guidance if you
don't know what it say?
So I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for
myself and for everyone else. That Allah gives
us
the motivation,
the drive,
the dedication,
and the self discipline
to study Islam.
To increase in knowledge,
and to practice upon those things
which we learn.
There's a great scholar of Tasir
who has just passed away in the last
week. Doctor Israr Ahmed from Pakistan.
One of the greatest scholars who dedicated his
life
to go and teach the Quran.
All the time, every Ramadan,
every single night, he was up after
prayer giving a lesson
on an entire juz of the Quran. It
took over an hour
at night. Sometimes going until 1, 2 o'clock
in the morning. We ask Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala to forgive him and give him a
high status in paradise. We ask Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala to allow us to benefit from
the tafsir and from the works of the
scholars have left for us and allow us
to benefit from the Quran. Oh Allah, help
us deliver the message of Islam to the
community in Anaheim, to the community in California,
to the community in America, and to the
rest of the world community. Oh Allah, help
us make the people of America
open their hearts to the message of Islam.
Oh Allah, give America, give the United Nations,
give the Muslim lands the rightly guided leadership
that they need to be successful.
Oh Allah, remove the grip of war and
criminals
on our country and on the rest of
the world. Oh Allah, keep our community united
and gather our hearts and make us rightly
guided. Oh Allah, safeguard our children and our
families from all the difficulties that they may
face. Oh Allah, help us to attend the
prayers inside the mosque. Or at least
help us to pray them in our homes,
with our families, on time, and with concentration.
Oh Allah, help the sick amongst us to
get well. And oh Allah, help the muslims
around the world who are suffering whether it
be physically, or mentally, or spiritually.