Navaid Aziz – Quranic Preinciples To Survive The Dunya
AI: Summary ©
The importance of gratitude and humility in achieving happiness and happiness in life is emphasized in the Quran. The success story is that success is not in the results, but rather in the effort. The importance of protecting and preserving one's values and being a sought-after person is emphasized. The speaker emphasizes the need to be mindful of one's behavior and not to become a seek seeker of knowledge. The importance of learning and listening to random lectures and finding a Quran program is also emphasized.
AI: Summary ©
My dear brothers and sisters, Assalamu alaikum
Let
me start off by asking a question.
Why
is 40
the pinnacle of wisdom?
Why is it that the at the age
of 40, we reach the pinnacle of our
wisdom?
Who can tell me?
Midlife.
Go ahead.
Mid
age but
I mean you'll see 40 year old individuals
that are 40 years old but they behave
like kids,
right?
So why 40 though? What's specific with this
number? Ismaila? Allahu
Akbar. So it is the age that Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala chose with the prophets and
messengers to receive revelation.
But now is it because they're receiving revelation
or is it the age of 40 though?
Right. Which one's coming first? And I'm arguing
that 40 comes first. So what's specific about
40? Like what's meant to happen at the
age of 40 that all of a sudden
you've hit the pinnacle of wisdom?
Go ahead.
The first verses of the Quran.
That's really good piggybacking of what he said.
How about my sisters?
Why is 40 the pinnacle of wisdom?
Experience.
Exactly.
But what type of experiences? What should what
is expected that you've experienced by the age
of 40?
Maturity?
What does that look like, though?
Family. What does that mean? You would have
experienced what by family?
Growing a family.
Okay.
That went in a different direction, but I'll
have to address that later. Go ahead.
Marriage, parenthood, dealing with income.
You guys are already positive people.
I'm waiting for someone to tell me, by
phoning you should experience death. Go ahead. Experience
all the phases of life? Experience all the
phases of life except for old age. Yeah.
That's pretty true.
But the expectation is you wouldn't experience someone
close to you that has died.
You wouldn't experience some sort of financial loss.
You wouldn't experience some sort of major sickness.
You wouldn't experience some sort of heartbreak in
your life.
You would have experienced some sort of failure
in your life.
All of these things would have happened so
that you can reach maturity as was mentioned.
Right?
So that is why 40 is considered the
pinnacle of wisdom and it was also the
age that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala chose
for the prophecy of messengers to receive revelation.
Now on the side, the prophet he
tells
us that the average age of his will
be between 60 to 70 years old. So
once you hit 40, you've actually hit, you
know, over that the halfway
mark of your life that there's not too
much longer
left, but all the major things that you've
meant to experience, you should have experienced by
now.
So now with that being said,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, when he describes the
dunya in the Quran,
he tells us
that what is the life of this world
except
an enjoyable,
deceitful
life,
right?
So the Hayat al Dunya this is in
contrast to Al Hayat al Radia. So the
Hayat al Dunya is the lonely life. So
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala refers to this life
as a very lonely life. It is not
the life that you're striving for, it is
the life that you're experiencing, but it is
a lonely life that you have something for
to look after to.
And then number 2, in describing this lonely
life, he says that there will be moments
that you will enjoy yourself. Right? There's a
there's an enjoyment that you will experience,
but it is.
It is
an enjoyment
that is ever deceptive
and ever deceiving.
So when you experience this enjoyment, you think,
subhanAllah, this is the epitome of life. I've
experienced it now. This is it. This is
what I was created to do. But in
reality, it is very deceiving and very deceptive.
It is very delusional. It makes people
It is very delusional. It makes people delusional
about the life of this world, thinking that
you were created to live for this life
alone. But the reality is it is that
you were created for the life of the
hereafter.
That is what you were actually created for.
So what I wanted to share in this
lecture
are what are the principles that Allah
gives us in the Quran
that will help us deal
with
the hardships and calamities
that we face, and how do we actually
survive and thrive in this experience.
So the first thing I want to
address is our moment of health
and the way we want to do this
is if you look at the world around
you,
you see calamity, catastrophe and death everywhere. SubhanAllah.
You think of Palestine, you think of Gaza,
you think of Avha, SubhanAllah,
like every day, this catastrophic catastrophe.
You think about Sudan,
you think about Libya, you think about Afghanistan,
you think about Pakistan, you think about Syria,
you think about Iraq.
The vast majority of our lands
that we come from
are going through some sort of conflict.
And it pains you subhanAllah that time after
time
this is what we keep seeing.
So how do you cope with this? Well,
let us look at what Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala says. Allah
He tells us in Surah Al Imran
that these are the days
that we allow to fluctuate between the people.
Meaning that there are certain days you're going
to do well, and there are certain days
that you're going to struggle. There are certain
days that you will be happy, and there
are certain days that you will be miserable.
There are certain days that you will be
rich, there certain days that you will be
poor. There's certain days that you will be
healthy, and there's certain days that you will
be sick. Why does Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
tell us about this?
So that we do not get fixed on
the state that we are in.
So if you're in a state of weakness,
you're in a state of poverty, you're in
a state of sickness,
understand that that state will not last forever.
And if you're in a state of prosperity,
you're in a state of health, you're in
a state of wealth, understand that that too
will not stay forever.
Your state will constantly
be chasing be changing.
Right? Imam al Shafi'i Rahim Abu Dhabi, 1
of his poems, he says,
He says that there is no harm that
remains forever nor is there any, happiness
that remains forever, in in summary.
So what is that meant to teach us?
So if your current state is not a
positive 1, understand that soon insha'Allah this state
will be over and it will become a
positive 1. So be optimistic.
Look forward,
and think that Allah
will make things easy. That
That after the hardship will come ease for
sure. This is the sunnah of Allah
subhanahu
wa
ta'ala.
Right? That which is to come is better
than that which exists right now. So if
things are tough,
be positive, be optimistic,
that inshaAllah things are going to work out.
You have to have that frame of mind
that this is all temporary and this soon
will be over.
But how about if things are positive in
your life
right now, and what we deem positive from
a worldly perspective?
You're healthy, you're doing well at work,
you
know, things are good with your family, things
are good in your social life, things are
looking good. What should our frame of mind
be at that time?
So if you're down, be positive and optimistic,
but if you are if things are positive
from a worldly life, what should our frame
of mind be?
Don't say negative.
It won't last. Sorry?
It won't last. It won't last.
Okay, so what should we do then?
Be thankful. Allahu Akbar. So that's the first
thing we want to do,
that in times of prosperity
you have to force yourself to be thankful.
Right? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
That very few of my slaves are actually
thankful.
And this is why when Ibn Al Taym,
he talks about the different tests that the
the slaves are given,
he says that the test of patience is
easier than the test of gratitude.
The test of patience forces you to turn
to Allah
The test of gratitude, you have to force
yourself
to turn to Allah
So the first thing you should do is
to be grateful to Allah
for those blessings. Now what does that actually
do?
That if you would be grateful to Allah
He will prolong
your happiness, He will prolong that positive
state that you are in. And I want
to comment on that very shortly inshaAllah, as
to what that looks like. What else should
we be doing if things are going well
in your
life? Do more, help that's to be charitable
and help others, help people. Okay. So be
charitable and help people, We're going to include
that as a part of our shukr. So
shukr is not only to say
but shukr is to use the blessings that
Allah has given you to worship Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala. So we'll accept that as the
same, but that's a very good answer. There
was a brother in front of him that
had his hand up.
Who is the other brother?
You or him? Go ahead. So remember Allah
in times of ease, so he remembers you
in times of hardship. So remember Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala in times of ease, so that
he remembers you in times of hardship. Right?
So this is the advice that the Prophet
gave to Ibn Abbas radiAllahu anhu.
That turn to Allah
in times of ease, in times of comfort,
and Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will take care
of you and your fears in times of
hardship. But again, we're going to include that
as a part of shukr to Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
Ascent.
So make sure not to become proud, not
to become arrogant,
Right. 1 of the things that happens to
people
is that when they experience prosperity,
they start to look down upon people. They
start to look upon,
they start to think too highly of themselves.
They start to think that they're self sufficient,
and they no longer rely upon Allah, they
no longer depend upon Allah, they're no longer
grateful to Allah
So gratitude and humility
have to go hand in hand. Gratitude and
humility
have to go hand
in hand. So when things are going positive,
make sure you're grateful to Allah and
also live in a state of humility, live
in a state of humility. Now the point
that I wanted to get back to
is this positive life that we're referring to,
is it
spiritual state?
Meaning that if we have all of the
things that we need, is that what causes
us happiness?
Or do we develop happiness from inside,
and we become content with all the things
that we have? Which 1 happens?
Spiritual.
The spiritual? So you have to be content
from the inside.
Sisters, do you agree or disagree?
Is happiness internal or external?
Internal? Excellent. And that's what we want to
look at. Imam al Jafi'i says,
That if you
are able
to make your heart content
with everything that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has
given you, then you and the 1 that
possesses everything are equal.
Right? Shaytan makes us think
that the more we accumulate, the more we
have,
the happier we will become.
But that is not true.
You need to learn to develop to be
content with the qadr of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
You need to learn to develop
gratitude
and satisfaction
with your circumstances.
Now how do you actually do that? That
is a difficult question, right? And just to
go on a quick side tangent,
the reality is the opposite
is a very very painful reality.
That if you keep accumulating, thinking
that, I will eventually become happy by accumulating
more,
Sooner or later you will realize
that this is a punishment from Allah Subhanahu
wa Ta'ala.
This is a punishment from Allah Subhanahu wa
Ta'ala.
Because your heart is empty, you're not worshiping
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala the way that you
should, perhaps you're following more into haram,
and things are going to be absolutely difficult.
So do not prioritize
the physical life,
prioritize the spiritual life. And this is why
the Prophet says
that whoever
prioritizes
their akhirah and gives preference to their akhirah,
Allah
will rectify their dunya and their akhirah.
But whoever prioritizes
the life of this world,
they will lose the life of this world
and the next. They will lose the life
of this world
and the next.
So you have to understand
that your attachment to the life of this
world
only brings about further misery.
Look at what the prophet
is taught in Surah
That do not be impressed
by their wealth
nor by their children.
For surely Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala only uses
those things to punish
them and then to destroy them as they
are from the disbelievers,
as they are from the disbelievers.
So now an important principle to establish over
here
is that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
does not give the duniya
to those whom He loves solely.
But rather Allah
gives the duniya to everyone
and only gives the deen to those whom
He loves.
Allah
gives the dunya to everyone
and only gives the deen to those whom
He loves.
And we aren't taught this enough, we aren't
reminded of this enough. People think that, Oh,
if I have more wealth, Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala loves me more. If I have a
bigger house, a better job,
Allah loves me more. But that's not true.
A sign of Allah
love for you is that he engages you
in his worship.
A sign of Allah's
love for you is that he gives you
the understanding of this thing.
A sign of Allah's
love for you is that he engages you
in the teaching of the Quran and in
the learning of the Quran.
These are signs of Allah love.
Right? In our cultures,
you know,
I shouldn't bash our cultures cause there's a
lot of good in them as well. But
1 of the negative things that comes out
of our cultures is that when someone becomes
a doctor or gets this, you know, a
lofty job or something like that, they're like,
look at you know, he's become
a doctor, which then doctors, they have amazing
jobs. I'm not putting that down. But I'm
saying that it's as if he's reached this
lofty status, Allahu Akbar, that he's become a
doctor.
But if their child decides to become an
imam,
or their child decides to go study the
deen, all of a sudden it's like, oh
poor child, couldn't get into anything else so
he went to go study the deen. Right?
Like our priorities are completely reversed and that
should not be the case.
In fact, our biggest honor and our biggest
privilege
is that our children are committed to the
deen, and studying the deen, and learning the
deen.
So now getting back to the first principle,
the first principle
is,
That your days are going to fluctuate. Some
days are going to be good, some days
are going to be difficult.
Learn to react to both of them. In
difficult days, be positive and optimistic that things
will work out, so do not get bogged
down in the trenches. And when things are
going well, whatever that means,
at that time be grateful to Allah
and live a life of humility.
Number 2,
What does success actually look like? What does
success actually look like? Who can give me
a definition of success?
Brothers or sisters,
Assalam.
Allah
He tells us in Surah Al Imran
that
whoever is saved from the hellfire
and entered into paradise,
then they are the successful ones.
They are the successful ones.
Even when
reciting, we were praying salatul mumrib in the
first lakah, we recite it from Suratul Buruj.
In Suratul Buruj, what does Allah
tells us is success?
He says,
That is the great achievement.
The individual that has iman and does righteous
deeds, and has entered into
paradise.
That is the ultimate success that you will
attain.
So going back to the life of this
world, and I think things are getting, you
know, more chaotic as time goes on. You
know there was a time where people
measured your success
by your wealth,
by your position
in life, and your authority.
Now it's like, how how many followers do
you have on TikTok? It's like, you know,
I got 10,000,000 followers on TikTok. And that's
some sort of like status symbol now. Right?
Or you have like a 1000000 followers on
Instagram, a status symbol.
But what does that mean? And I think
this is where,
subhanAllah, if people knew
the level of accountability
that comes with people following you, no 1
would want to delete.
If people knew the level of accountability that
comes with people following you, no 1 would
want to delete
because you're responsible for your flock.
So the more people that you have following,
the more people you're responsible for. If you're
not guiding them towards good,
that means you failed in your position. You
could have 1,000,000 followers, you could have a
1,000,000,000 followers, but if you're not guiding them
towards good, you failed.
Whereas the individual that has 1 follower and
they guide them towards good is successful.
And this is why
I want you to think about this deeply.
There are certain prophets
that will show up on the day of
judgement
and they will have no followers. There are
certain
prophets that will come and they will have
a handful
of followers.
The greatest example we see of that in
the Quran
is Nuh alaihi salaam.
Nuh alaihi salaam, he gave dua for over
950 years. Meaning he lived Will
any
Will any of us have the audacity to
say that Nuh alaihi wasalam was a failure?
Hashalillah,
a'udhu billah.
From the greatest of prophets,
from the greatest of prophets.
Not just regular prophets but from the elite
of the elite of the prophets.
So how could anyone say that he didn't
have a following thus he must be a
failure?
So what do we learn from this?
It's that success
is not in the results,
success is in the effort.
Nuh alaihis salaam
is a success story
not because he only had a handful of
followers, he is a success story
because he consistently
and persistently
worshiped Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
without giving up.
That is what true success
is.
And when an individual
does that,
that is when Allah
enters them into
and this is like
a an point that's very important to understand.
Do we actually enter Jannah through our deeds?
Or do we enter Jannah through the mercy
of
Allah It's very important to keep reminding us,
ourselves of this.
When we enter Jannah through the mercy of
Allah
The Quran
is not the same. The Quran is not
the same. The Quran is not the same.
The Quran is not the same. The Quran
is not the same. The Quran is not
the same. The Quran is not the same.
The Quran is not the same. The Quran
is not the same. The Quran is not
the same. The Quran is not the same.
The Quran is not the same. The Quran
is not the same. Through your deeds. They
said, not even you, you Rasulullah, he said,
not even I.
Except if Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala chooses to
the Quran.
He's also the Quran.
He's also the Quran. He's also the Quran.
He's also the Quran. He's also the Quran.
He's also the Quran. He's also the Quran.
He's also the Quran. He's also the Quran.
He's also the Quran. He's also the Quran.
He's also the Quran. He's also the Quran.
He's also the Quran.
Where he says that there was a man
that lived from the people before us.
He lived for 500 years
on an island by himself.
And all he did was worship Allah Subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
Day night, he's just worshiping Allah Subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
Till he's had enough of this life. So,
he asks Allah,
oh Allah, I'm ready to die. And
Allah causes him to die. Look at how
righteous this man is, that he makes du'a
to Allah and Allah
answers immediately.
So now we move forward to the day
of judgment.
And the day of judgment has come, and
this man is now going to have his
reckoning.
So Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala he says,
enter this man into Jannah
through my mercy.
And this man says, no, no, no, Allah.
No, no, no, Not by your mercy, but
through my deeds.
I sacrificed, I gave up, and all I
did was worship you for 500 years.
I want you to enter me into Jannah
through my deeds. So
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, he commands for this
man's deeds to be brought forth.
And you see mountains, upon mountains, upon mountains
of deeds that are there.
And then this man he gets happy, he's
like, Allahu Akbar, I made it,
I'm set. I'm good to go. I can't
wait to get to offer those.
Those are my words, not in the hadith.
Then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala He commands the
angels,
Bring
1 blessing.
Bring 1
blessing.
And place it on the other side of
the scale.
And as soon as
that 1 blessing is placed,
those mountains upon mountains upon mountains
are weightless
to this blessing.
Who knows what that blessing was?
His sight. His eyesight, ascent.
It was his eyesight.
So this man's eyesight is placed on 1
side of the scale, and 500
years of constant worship is placed on the
other, and it's as if he has no
weight.
So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala decrees, enter this
man into the hellfire.
And this man now panics. He's like, La
ilaha illa Allah, what did I do?
I should have gone for the mercy of
Allah. And he says, O Allah, I begon
you with you and I plead with you,
enter me into Jannah through your mercy. Allah
asked him, Are you sure? He says, Yes,
oh Allah, enter me into jannah through your
mercy.
And Allah
enters him into jannah
through his
mercy.
So now when we say that ultimate success
is to be entered
into
Jannah,
that is a factual statement.
But where the understanding happens
is that your entrance into Jannah is not
contingent on the deeds that you do. It
is the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
But what shouldn't be forgotten
is that in order to be eligible for
the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, you
have to meet certain criteria.
Which is the shahada of and
the the 5 pillars of Islam.
You have
you have your commitment to the 5 pillars
of Islam, you're eligible for the mercy of
Allah. You don't have those 2, you're not
eligible for the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
So now, begs the question,
if our
entrance into Jannah is contingent upon the mercy
of Allah,
what is the point of doing deeds?
Why do we do good deeds?
Who can tell us? Why do we do
good deeds?
Go ahead.
Go ahead. The deeds make you eligible and
they determine your level. Ascent.
So deeds make you eligible, so there's a
minimal requirement of deeds that need to be
met.
And then number 2,
they determine your level in the hereafter.
That is the benefit of doing more deeds.
And you may not realize this right now,
but
we need to force ourselves to understand this
concept
as best as we possibly can.
No 1 wants to crawl into jannah.
No 1
wants to crawl into jannah.
In just 1 hadith,
the Prophet
he tells
us about high rises in Jannah,
and he sitting out with his companions 1
day,
in the desert, there's no light pollution like
we have, and you can just see the
you can see the constellations
everywhere.
And he tells his companions
that in Jannah,
there will be high rises that will twinkle
and they will be as far as the
eye can see.
And the companions, they got sad.
They said,
that must only be for the prophets and
messengers.
And the prophet
he says no. It is for those who
believed in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
and did righteous
deeds.
Meaning,
that you're going to have different levels of
residences in Jannah.
You have some people that are going to
be living in protents.
You have other people that are going to
be living in high rises.
You have other people that are going to
be living
in mansions, in palaces,
and castles.
Made out of gold and silver. And this
is Allahu Akbar.
You know I want you to think about
the richest people that we know in this
dunya. Your Elon Musks, your Jeff Bezos,
your Bill Gates, all of these people.
Do any of these people
have a house built out of gold?
Do any of these people have a house
made out of silver?
Do any of these people
have a house made out of pearls?
They don't. As rich as they are, they
don't have that.
Because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has created
the epitome of luxury
only to be in Jannah.
Only to be attainable in Jannah.
Right? When the description of the house of
is given,
it's this massive passion, this massive
palace and mansion that Allah has
created for him.
That has bricks of gold and
silver. And that is what 1 looks forward
to.
The Prophet
he tells us,
that those that memorize
And they will be told
Read and recite
just like you used to read and recite
in the dunya.
Now what is the beautiful thing about that?
Like imagine,
you know Jannah has 100 levels, each level
is a distance as far as the eye
can see.
And they're going
Quran,
as angels
ascend them
to as far as they can go,
through recitation of the Quran. So the more
you recite in Quran in this dunya,
the more Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala elevates your
status in the hereafter.
And that only happens through the good deeds
that you do.
And you may think, subhanAllah,
in this life, we easily settle for mediocrity.
You know as long as I have
a roof over my
head, I have food to eat,
you know I have something to drink, I
have a bed to sleep on, alhamdulillah.
And we should be grateful for whatever Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala provides us.
But this does not apply to the life
of the Hereafter.
For the life of the Hereafter,
you want to covet, you want to be
as greedy as possible, that you don't want
to be in the lowest levels of jannah.
In fact, the prophet he
tells us that if you ask Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala for Jannah,
ask him for a for those.
Don't just settle for entrance into Jannah. Ask
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for the highest level.
That is what you should be striving for.
So the deeds that we do
are for those higher ranks in jannah.
Now getting back
to our principle,
is what does success look like?
Success,
my dear brothers and sisters,
is to be entered into Jannah, it's not
immaterial possessions.
If you want to talk about success from
a worldly
perspective, it is to be content
with whatever Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala has given
you.
If you're able to be content with whatever
Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala has given you, then
this is success in this life,
and success in the Hereafter
is to be entered into Jannah. May Allah
Subhanu wa Ta'ala make us women's inhabitants. Surah
Alameen.
Principle number
3.
When you look at the story
of Musa Alaihi Salam,
particularly in Surataha,
what does Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala show us?
That Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala he tells them
that go to
he has surely transgressed all bounds. And we
know the famous du'a that comes right after
that. He says,
He starts off by making du'a that, O
Allah, help me carry this burden that You've
given me by expanding my chest. Make easy
for me my affairs,
loosen the knots on my tongue so that
the people can understand what I'm saying.
The disservice we do to ourselves is that
we always stop at this point.
The dua of Musa Alaihi Salam does not
stop over here. Musa Alaihi Salam, he continues.
He goes on to say
Right? He goes on to say that, O
Allah,
grant me a companion.
Grant me a companion
who will strengthen my resolve
in this mission
and that we can remember you together and
that we can glorify you together.
This is an important point that as human
beings,
we were not created
to be in isolation.
We were not created to be by ourselves.
We were created
to be surrounded
by people.
Right? In fact, when you look at the
word,
people often assume that the word comes from
the which is forgetfulness,
which even though it is a common theory,
is not linguistically true.
Linguistically,
the word
comes from 1 that socializes,
1 that needs to interact with others.
And SubhanAllah, I want you to think about
this. You know, recently, within the last 4
or 5 years, that like a light bulb
went off in my head when I heard
about this.
But where was Adam alaihis salaam? Where was
Adam alaihis salaam?
In Jannah.
What did he have in Jannah?
White.
Before that, what did he have in Jannah?
Everything. Everything.
Adam alaihis salaam
had everything in Jannah.
Everything.
Yet that was still not enough
because he felt lonely. He said, oh Allah,
I need someone to share this joy with.
It's no fun having everything if you're by
yourself.
You need someone to share that joy with.
So he asked to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
for a spouse and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
created Hawa.
And for me, this was like the, like
the switch that went off. Like, it truly
showed me that as human beings, we weren't
created to be by ourselves.
We were created to have spouses. We were
created to be surrounded by friends.
That is what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala created
us and that is our our fithullah,
is to be surrounded by people. Because Adam
alayhi salaam, he's had everything,
yet if he had no 1 to share
it with, it was still emptiness that he
felt.
So we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for
a companion.
Now
because
we have this
desire
to be surrounded by people,
we are very vulnerable
to the choices that we make as to
who we choose to be our companions and
our friends and our spouses.
And this is why the prophet
he tells us, and this applies both ways
even though,
the hadith is mentioned about women, but a
woman is married for 4 reasons. What are
the 4 reasons she's married for?
Go ahead.
Okay. Her family and her
Her
her her her her beauty,
her her wealth,
and her power and authority. Right? These are
the the 4 reasons why a
woman is married.
And even though the prophet mentions this, what
does he tell us? He tells us that
whoever marries
for the deen will never be disappointed,
will never
be disappointed.
Wealth and power goes away, family lineage is
of no avail in the hereafter.
The only thing that will help you is
the deen.
So that is the first criteria you should
be looking for in your spouse. Or I
should say the first, but I'll say the
most important criteria that you should be looking
for in your spouse is the deen, without
a shadow of a doubt.
This is the person that's meant to help
you get to Jannah.
Now the same thing applies
to your friends,
your closest and most intimate friends, the people
that you spend the most amount of time
with.
It shouldn't be dependent on, you know, what
soccer team you like, or what basketball team
you like, or what hockey team you like,
or, you know, what, what type of cryptocurrencies
you invested in.
That shouldn't be the basis of your friendship.
You can have it as tangential things or
secondary things. That's not a problem.
But the primary focus should be
that together, we want to get to Jannah.
Together, we want to please Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. Right? What does Musa Alaihi Salam say?
So that we may glorify you and remember
you, oh Allah
That is the primary function of our relationship,
to worship Allah
And Allah,
he tells us the exact opposite
as well. He tells us the exact opposite
as well,
that people will show up on the day
of judgment,
and they're about to be thrown into the
hellfire.
And
Allah gives them an opportunity
to give their excuses.
What do those people say?
They go on to say,
Then woe to me only if I didn't
take so and so as a friend. If
I didn't do that,
I would have been saved. I would have
been entered into
Jannah.
People will realize that on the day of
judgment
that your influence
is what dictates your life.
Whoever you allow to influence you will dictate
your life.
Now this leads into not only
our friends, not only our spouse,
but even the people that you follow on
social media.
I want you to think about this for
a second.
People think, you know what?
There's no problem
on following sports
celebrities on social media.
Who can tell me some of the negative
things that you will be exposed to
by following sports celebrities and athletes on social
media?
What are some of the negative things that
come out of that?
Go ahead. How long activities do they promote?
Excellent. So a lot of it stems from
who's sponsoring them. Right? A lot of times
it's alcohol companies, tobacco companies, gambling companies. These
are the ones that are sponsoring them. So
whenever they're promoting an aida, a lot of
the times it's going to be haram. And
I love what the brother did, he just
gave this general answer, right? Of the haram
things, and he covers everything I wanna cover.
So I didn't even get to go into
the specifics and ask you more for for
your opinions, I apologize.
But that's 1 thing. Number 2,
is what do these athletes do when they
celebrate? And this is why, you know, may
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bless him and and
protect him and have mercy upon him. Our
brother, Hakim alaijuan, Afaidullah,
in 94 and 95, and this is going
to be, you know, beyond your years for
a lot of you.
When he won
the NBA championship,
he outright told his team,
any 1 of you comes close to me
with a bottle of champagne,
you're gonna be in trouble.
And they had, like, their own celebration with
Hakim Hajiwat where no alcohol was involved, and
then they had their own private haram celebration
later with the alcohol.
But that was like, you know, the Muslim
identity, the Muslim persona was very,
vivid and and very present.
So then, when they're celebrating, they're celebrating with
alcohol. And you may know that alcohol is
haram, but subliminally, what's happening is you're becoming
desensitized to it. Oh, when I celebrate, I
should be celebrating with alcohol because that's what,
you know, ways, what that's what we're meant
to do. And how bad could alcohol be?
Right? You become desensitized to the haram nature
of it. Number 3, the relationships
that they're in. Right? The relationships that they're
in. How many of them have children out
of wedlock? How many, you know, different,
what's the word I'm looking for? Illicit relationships
have they had.
And these are the things that are being
promoted. And you may think it's okay, I'm
following a sports athlete, but at the end
of the day, if you're becoming
desensitized
to
it, the haram does not seem as haram
as it should.
And you may think that I know it's
Haram,
but the the pain of of seeing the
Haram isn't there anymore.
Right? The prophet
tells us that whoever amongst you sees an
evil, let them change it with their hands.
And if you're not able to, speak out
against it. And if you're not able to,
hate it in your hearts, and that is
the weakest of iman.
But what's happening to us that when we
see all of this haram, we're no longer
hating it. We're like, you know, it's a
part of the duniya. They're doing it. I'm
not doing it. It's okay. No, it's not.
You still have to hate it in your
heart. You still have to hate it in
your heart.
So, you have to be very careful
of the people that you follow on social
media, and the desensitization
that it leads to as a result of
you following them.
So be very careful as to the friends
that you choose.
Be very careful as to the spouse that
you choose. Be very careful as to the
people that you follow on social media.
The last 1 that I'll leave you with
is
your iman will fluctuate
in this life, it's inevitable. Everyone's iman
fluctuates.
How do you protect and preserve your iman?
And remember I was telling you about how
that light switch
went on?
Another light switch that went on early in
my studies,
alhamdulillah,
by the father of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
is that if you analyze the Quran,
how many times
is the Prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam asked
or commanded rather to ask for an increment
in something, That, oh Allah, give me more
of something.
He's not commanded to ask for more iman.
He's not commanded to ask for more taqwa.
He's not commanded to ask for more salah,
or dhikr, or recitation of the Quran,
but he's commanded with
that, oh my lord, increase me in knowledge.
And you have multiple statements from our predecessors
that
nothing will
protect you
like knowledge.
Nothing will keep you company
like knowledge.
Nothing will keep you connected to Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala
like knowledge.
It was amazing that Ibn Mubarak was
asked, If you could
come back to life
and be
a or b a seeker of knowledge, which
1 would you wanna be?
Right? We all know the virtues
of of dying.
We all know of the virtues.
Right? Allah
he tells us in this beautiful like ranking
almost.
That whoever obeys Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala and
his messengers of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala,
then they will be in the company of
the prophets,
the the martyrs,
and the righteous and the righteous, and what
a great company they are, and what a
great company
they are. So Allah
has laid it out for us as to
what are the rankings the the the the
the the the the the the the the
the the the the the the the the
the the the the the the the the
the the the the the the the the
the the the the the the the the
the the the the the the the the
the the the the the the the the
the the the the the the the the
the the the the the the the the
the the the the the the the the
the the the the the the the the
the the the the the the the the
the the the the the the the the
the the the the the the the the
the the the the the the the the
the the the the the the the the
the are the scholars.
And then you have
the they are the martyrs, and then the
they are the righteous.
So
was asked, if you could come back to
life and dedicate
your life to just 1 thing,
what would you dedicate it to? He says,
without any hesitance, without a shadow of a
doubt, to become a seeker of knowledge.
Even though the martyr has so many virtues
to it, subhanallah,
that they are in the hearts of green
birds, they will have, you know, x, y,
zed,
no mansions in paradise, they will enter into
jannah without hisaab,
they will have from the hurlulayn as they
desire, subhanAllah.
All of these,
yet he knew
because he was a man of knowledge, that
seeking knowledge was better. He knew that seeking
knowledge
was better.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, he tells us
that even the fish in the
sea seek forgiveness
for the seeker of knowledge.
Even the fish in the sea seek forgiveness
for the seeker of knowledge.
He tells us
that the virtue
of the scholar
over the worshipper
is like the virtue of the moon
of the rest of the stars
when it is a full moon night.
So I want you to think how bright
the full moon is when it's a full
moon and compare it to the rest of
the stars. Which one's brighter? Without a shadow
of a doubt, it is the moon. And
he says, that is the virtue of the
scholar
over the worshiper.
Meaning, you have someone that worships Allah
day night.
But they don't engage in the seeking of
knowledge. They don't engage in the teaching of
knowledge.
Then you have someone
that fulfills their minimal requirements and does a
little bit more inshallah.
But they have dedicated their lives
to teaching.
I want you to think about this.
How many worshipers
do you know from the pious predecessors?
How many worshipers can you name?
And then think about how many,
how many teachers
and scholars can you name from the pious
predecessors?
In fact, the vast majority of them will
be all scholars. They all had their personal
Ibadan and their stories without a shadow of
a doubt. You need to have that,
But you will remember the scholars because they
have the greatest impact. They were more beloved
to Allah
and thus Allah
allowed their legacy to reach us.
All of these people who are scholars.
Right? So the point I want to get
at
is if you want to survive this dunya,
you have to have some sort of active
engagement in seeking knowledge.
With a teacher preferably
in person.
If unable to in person, then online.
If unable to,
then study the books of the scholars.
If unable to,
then at least be consistent
in listening to those random lectures
on a weekly basis.
Do not make your iman
like that 10 second iman. You watch a
clip on TikTok and you know, I got
my dose for the week.
You're not going to sustain faith that way.
You'll feel good for a little bit.
You might learn,
you know, some interesting fact
in that point, but that is not knowledge.
Knowledge is that which is done consistently at
the feet of the scholars. If you can't
do it at the feet of the scholars,
then do it online with them. If you
can't do it online with them, at least
read their books.
That is how knowledge is sought, and that
is what we should be doing.
So these are the principles that I wanted
to share with you.
To summarize,
number 1, understanding
that your days will fluctuate, so act accordingly.
Number 2 is that success
in the hereafter is to be entered into
Jannah. Success in this life is to be
content with whatever Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has
given you.
Number 3,
be very, very careful as to who you
surround yourself with and who you're influenced by
and let them be people of deen.
Choose your spouse as a person of deen,
choose your friends as people of deen, choose
the people that you follow on social media
as people
of deen.
And number 4, the last 1 that I
shared
is that you will only survive by seeking
knowledge. The only way to protect your iman
is by seeking knowledge. And it is not
contingent that you become a full time student
of knowledge. It's not contingent that you become
a scholar or an imam,
but just have consistent learning.
Make that incorporated in your life,
and that is how you will survive. May
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala protect us from all
evil and harm in this life and make
us of those that are entered into Jannatul
Firdaus without hisab in the afterlife.
And Inshallah, I will take 3 questions, and
then we break.
So if anyone has a question, please raise
your hand and ask or forever hold your
peace or let me go in peace inshallah.
Is Manila? Just open up any folks. Oh,
you have a question? A lot of go
ahead.
So are you talking about the life of
this world in general or social media specifically?
In general.
Life in general. So I mean the general
rule is,
you know,
Yahi ibn Kathir,
he says,
that knowledge cannot be attained
by by living a life of comfort. And
you can replace the life of the
word knowledge over here with righteousness.
Then it becomes very hard to live a
righteous life when you're living a comfortable life.
So the more you have of the dunya,
the more harder it becomes to worship Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
So what that means is, and we didn't
get time to expand on this, but you
have to have this framework with the things
that Allah gives you. And that framework is
that you want to be more attached to
the 1 that gave you the things rather
than the things themselves.
Right? I want you to think about what
happens
when you get,
a car for the first time. It can
be a brand new car or it could
be your first car that's used. But when
you get that car for the first time,
you're so careful.
You're gonna park it at the end of
the parking lot because you don't want anyone
to ding your car.
Right? You're gonna keep it clean, you're gonna
wash it and make sure that there's no
dents on it, no scratches on it,
until finally, inevitably,
a scratch is going to come, a thing
is going to happen, and then you're like,
who cares about the car now? Let it
be, let it happen.
But that is the reality of what this
duniya does to you. You get so,
you know, consumed in your mind
that I have to protect the things of
this duniya.
But who's going to protect your afterlife?
So eventually, the realization you need to come
to, there's 2 things, the giver and the
gift.
Attach your heart to the giver and not
to the gift.
The gifts will come and go. The giver
is going to be there forever.
Attach yourself
to the giver
and no matter what happens in your life,
you will be content.
Attach yourself to the gift.
As soon as it comes, you're happy. As
soon as it goes, you're sad.
Imam Ahmed Rahimullah, when he was asked about
Zuhd,
he said, true Zuhd
is that if you were to get,
the equivalent of $1,000,000,
it wouldn't make you happy, and if you
were to lose $1,000,000
it wouldn't make you sad. That is what
true zohat
is. Because your heart is not attached to
those material possessions, it is attached to the
1 that gave you those things. So this
applies to everything in life.
You overindulge in the life of this world,
and iman becomes
difficult. Good deeds become difficult.
But attach your heart not to the things,
but to 1 that gave them to you,
and you will be able to enjoy the
things that Allah gives you. But even if
they are taken away, you still have your
iman, and that is the most valuable,
asset, treasure, and gift. And Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala knows best.
Go ahead.
What is the best way that to be
close to the Quran or make the Quran
as the
main main moral to
for shibab?
I am not the right person to answer
this
question. I feel so 1 of this questions
is with regards to, you know, how do
you affiliate, how do you establish a good
relationship with the Quran.
And I give that disclaimer that, subhanAllah, my
own relationship with the
Qur'an, is not where it should be. So
I share this information not because
I've reached a level of excellence in it,
I reach I share this with you because
this is what I aspire to be.
Ibn Taymah, he
alludes to the fact that the believers should
be reciting 5 juz of the Quran every
day.
That's what you should be striving for, to
retain the Quran.
Imam al Khurrabbir
he says, if you do a khatm of
the Quran
every
40 days,
then this is the khatam of the lazy
people.
If you do 1 khatam every 40 days,
this is the khatam of the lazy people.
What about those that will do
1 khatam in a lifetime?
You know I often wonder, especially in the
Indian Pakistani culture,
when the child at like 70 years old
does a khatu of the Quran, there's a
massive celebration,
huge party.
And I wonder, is that because they know
that this child may never finish the Quran
again? Let us celebrate it while he's had
it? Because this may never happen again, so
let us celebrate. InshaAllah, I hope that's not
the case, but I often wonder where that
came from. So the point being,
think about everything else that is important in
your life.
Right?
You know you have to eat, you know
you have to sleep, and these are things
that you can't compromise.
But you should feel a level of pain
when you don't have your daily recitation of
the Quran.
That is what it should look like. So
try to affiliate your Quran with something that
you do all the time.
So perhaps, you know, after 1 of the
salahs,
just sit down and read as much Quran
as you can for 20 minutes, or read
a little bit of the Quran after every
salah, or before you go to bed, read
some Quran, but try to find something that
you can anchor your Quran to.
That because you can't miss that thing, it
also means that you'll never miss your recitation
with the Quran.
Number 2, sign up for a Quran program.
Even if you're half of the Quran and
you know the Quran, find a Quran teacher,
And that is someone that will keep you
in check, and you'll have peers and friends
that will check up on you as well.
For 1 of the beautiful things about Abu
Bakr and Ummah
is that they
competed for the deen.
So compete for the deen, with your friend
in the rest of the Quran. Hey, did
you read your
verses of the Quran today, or did you
read your pages of the Quran today? This
friend, I will compete with you. And that's
1 of the best things to do. So
I think those 2 steps of number 1,
anchoring the Quran to something that you have
to do, and number 2, signing up for
a Quran program and having people that you
compete with, those are the
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala knows best. I want
to give a last opportunity to the sisters.
Any questions?
Okay folks, let's conclude over here
as I believe, they're going to be having
soon
inshallah.