The Man of Two Gardens

Ba ba,

ba ba,

ba ba ba ba

end.

While hamdulillah unless he lemmya his volatile when I'm

when I'm Yakuza heavily you mean a bully?

Well hamdulillah Allah, Allah Allah,

Allah.

Allah, Allah, Allah

when he

when I let him in, and cosina comienza Yachty Amina Manya Hilda hufa moolah. Woman you

wanna shadow La ilaha illallah wa who la sharika wanna shadow Mohammedan Adama he was sudo of sallahu

wa kafa biLlahi shahida possum Allahu alayhi wa seldom at the Sleeman Cassie and Cassie

de tabula barrhaven, heavy heavy Mohammed met in some Allahu alayhi wasallam We're in nashoba

we're in Nakula

Allah, Allah Allah Allah.

Allah subhanho wa Taala Chiquita

econo regime

imagine that a human

being was

killed Angelina

Jolie minutiae was a job na da da da da da.

De Sabri. Cindy MD, Dr. Melissa Hokulea. Hola. Hola, Sabina, TB, La Ilaha, Illallah. Muhammad

Ali had what are some? What are some of the sub m in your oberheiden.

I was very conflicted about what to share in this football with you today. But I decided that I would focus my attention on one particular passage from SoCal Gas. And I'd like to start by expressing my appreciation and my just pleasant surprise that eating this community for the first time, I've been traveling across the country for some time now 100 now, but this is the first time I've been to Wisconsin and obviously the city also memorizers have blessed this community and the efforts that are being made in this community.

So what I wanted to share with you is some reminder for myself, and for all of you from sort of the pseudo we're supposed to recite every Friday. And before I start talking a little bit about these ions, I want to share with you an observation that I've been sort of on the side, the making about our community and communities across the world in general sociological fact, that there are lots and lots of families in the world, it doesn't even matter if they're Muslim or not. But they push their children to be successful. This idea of wanting your children to be successful is very common. It doesn't matter if you're a Hindu family, or a Buddhist family, or, you know, your Western European

family or an American family or you know, Erica, it doesn't matter. We want our children to be successful. And we define that success in very specific very similar ways. So for instance, in Chinese culture, you're considered successful at the point where your children are, you know, they will obtain a high degree in education, they've obtained a career, they own a property, they own some patch of real estate, you know, they've made it, they've paid those things off. And now they're considered successful, and they work and they work and they work towards those things. And actually, in some aspects of that culture, families compete with each other, and the parents, they get

together and they take the share notes on their kids. Well, Mike, Mike had already finished law school. And my kid is in the middle of vet school, but he'll finish soon. And he's already bought this. And he's already bought that actually. They compare it with each other. And when they find out one of the sons in the community has gone further, they all humiliate their own children saying Why can't you be more like him? But you know, what was the one thing I realized that matches Chinese culture

that's Muslim culture do now across the across the border and across ethnicities and cultures, we push our children to be successful. We look at other families and their kids and what they've attained and what schools they went to and what degrees they got and where they bought a house and how lavish their wedding was, and we want ours to be the same way. We're in this competition all the time. We're almost in this competition. And actually, the more you don't really look at your child or your second

So even as your as a person yourself, you don't even all the time, look at your own success looking at what's good for you or not, you're always comparing yourself to somebody else. They're constantly comparing, well, they did this. And they somebody else does that. And that was put into many of us by our, our parents themselves, who used to put us and our siblings in competition, they used to tell you what you were doing, why can't you be more like your brother? He does all of these things? And how can you How can you can do that. So if one of you, you know, if you have a variable internet school, well, Your brother has been written, right? Because if you went to med school, you mentioned

your brother did it, what's wrong with you, I guess you go. You know, it doesn't matter what you were created for now, you can create it for that school, one of my friends told me and one of the scholars I respect a lot told me, you know, the great minds of Western society, people like you know, even in film, for example, Steven Spielberg, and Steven Spielberg was a Muslim, he probably be a doctor and wouldn't be a producer.

Because we have certain definitions of success, we push our generations in that direction, I wanted to share this passage with you. Because in this passage, he talks about two Muslims, two Muslims that are neighbors to each other. One of them is pretty wealthy. And the indication that he's so wealthy is that a lot as our job makes it a point to mention his assets. Now think about that Allah dedicated I out of the Quran to describe the assets, the the things that this guy owns. That's a pretty big deal that allows him to do that. But I told you, there's two people, right, so if you describe the assets of one, then you should expect that the assets the ownership, the property of

the other should be described also. But what you very interesting we find is a lot as always dedicated to describing this person's assets, the first farmer gardener his assets, but the other guy is so negligible in what he owns the land isn't even mentioned in what he owns isn't even brought up. So he's it goes without saying he's not doing that well, financially. He's tough times of him tough. And this conversation happens between this very wealthy, I'm telling you again, Muslim,

and another Muslim, these two Muslims are having a conversation. And this conversation is recorded. So let's, let's take a peek inside this, this dialogue that happens and how I wanted to share with you this is a living conversation. There's not just a conversation that happened many 1000s of years ago. And a lot of those are give us a glimpse of it. These conversations have happens every day, between people like you and me. So Laszlo just says, blah, blah, blah.

Give them the example of striking example for the two men jannetty. Imagine that.

For one of those two men, we gave him two gardens. So one of this guy doesn't even have one property, he has two properties of grapevines

to live in Long Island at some point in my life in New York. And some of the most expensive real estate on Long Island is the vineyards all the way out east, by you know, by the water almost. And the some of the most expensive real estate, even in the country. vineyards are not cheap, they have they expensive to maintain. They're not like any other crop, you have to take a lot of care of them. They're very delicate plants, they can't even stand on their own, you have to put sticks in the ground. And they wrap themselves around the sticks the trellises, they wrap themselves around. So they're not the they don't manage themselves, you know, some plants they grow on their own, and they

can stand on their own and you don't have to take care of them. These are very delicate plants, they require constant care. And if they require constant care, you need a lot of employees, don't you, you can't just go in on a massive giant farm taking care of every single plant yourself. You have to hire people to do that. So the guy that owns two farms, it kind of goes without saying that he probably had a lot of employees, he had manpower behind them analyzer which is described as such. So he says, generating Inanna when he

says so he has gardens of grapevines, and of calm. And he goes further to say,

well, it's not looking

codifies his gardens with palm trees. Now, this is very interesting, I want you to imagine this picture. There's grape vines, he's really delicate plants in the middle, a huge field of them. And all around there are policies like the fence, there's not a wooden fence, it's offensive trees. And that's important because if the wind blows, these plants can get damaged. So his idea of protecting these plants is to put these gigantic palm trees all around, and that's the security system. So when the wind hits, it hits the trees first. It doesn't hit the plants first. So not only does he have a very good investment, he's got a very good security system to and obviously the policies themselves

are producers of wealth for him. So he's got money on top of money on top of money.

But you know, additionally what you need, you need other kinds of crop to which I've not been actually before I go there

between the two of them, they will also have additional farmland. So this is just two of the things he has aroma highlights the more exotic assets he has

Good morning, good intention that

you know, those of you or many of us are not in farming. But those of you that have come from backgrounds that you know about farm, farm land and farming, it's a very stressful work, you have to work the entire year. And it's you know, Now many of you have jobs now you get a paycheck every week, or you get a paycheck every two weeks. In farming, you get one paycheck a year, you have to work the entire year. And at the end of it when the crop comes out, that's when you get paid. And even that paycheck is not guaranteed. It's not guaranteed because it could be there's a drought, or there are insects that came into your farm, something went wrong. There was overheating, right,

there was a flood, all kinds of problems can happen and your entire years of work is gone. And the blink of an eye is gone. And you can't recover. That's the life of a farmer is very, very stressful. It's very difficult. But he describes his farm as

it used to get both of these gardens, they used to produce their food. In other words they were doing they were at 100% production year after year after year, things were going well, no weather problems, no insect problems, everything was taken care of. So you know, and in farming, if things go well, you make a lot of money. You make a lot of money. So he was doing very, very well, very well. And so let's still describing the first neighbor. He hasn't even talked about the second neighbor yet.

And he says, Well,

you know, you say

80% 50% 70% none totally minuti. And not a thing was missing at one point didn't produce, he was getting 100% out of this part of our job market. And only thing missing now in a farm. You know, if you traveled in the Midwest, especially you'll see farms that are being irrigated, right? So have these machines that spray the water.

For what if what in old times you had to have animals that go and deliver the water every place that was that was that says that between the two we have caused the spring to come out. So he's got two gardens, two huge properties in between them, there's a water supply biological with it. And he takes credit for it himself. And that's the thing I want to highlight and go back a little bit. A lot of what

he says

every time I mentioned this assets, he says we fortified it with palm trees a lot did, we made a spring profile in between, he didn't say the farmer owned it. Unless I gave it to him. I gave it to him, I gave it to him.

So even before we get to the lessons of the art, we're already being taught lessons. This rich man is not rich, because he's very intelligent. He made some very smart investment decisions. He's rich, because Allah made him this way. A lot of credit allowed the IRS even even as you're reading these, you don't think, Wow, this guy must have been really good businessman, you're thinking well, I really bless him. I want him to take credit away from himself as even describing his assets. Now what happens one day,

they're

the ones who used to own a lot of fruit. In other words, the guy that had a lot of wealth, the wealthy one, he's one day the conversation with his buddy next door, the guy next door, you know, he lives in all those old homes that you think should be demolished, and then it should be rebuilt nicely. It was one of those properties, you know, and he's next door. So one day, they're just you know, talking to each other and it just comes up.

He says to his companion, the guy sees all the time. Well, who are you how we did that.

And in the middle of just kind of conversing with him. And

he's just talking to him. They're just chit chatting. And in the middle of the conversation, he slipped into something

new when it comes to money,

and I do have a lot more than you when it comes to manpower, children, sons helpers, employees, I got a lot more than you that you have to understand. This is not how you would imagine the guy the rich guy came out of his house, went over it his neighbor, next door, neighbor opened his voice. And by the way, I want to tell you, I'm richer than you some article. That's not how it happens. That's not what's being told to us what is important because they're talking about other things. And he kind of slips it in, he slips it in. He lets him feel like he's poor and the other guys rich. He doesn't say directly. He inserts it in the conversation. So you know, for example, you have some of

you younger guys, you go to college, and you come from wealthy families. So you drive your BMW to school. And you have a friend who also goes to the same college but he's you know, he's barely making tuition. He's living in an apartment with like eight other guys because he can't afford it. And he takes the bus there or walks to school and you're like, Yeah, man just got the Beemer it's a good deal. Just 25,000 was a good deal, though. How'd you get to school? You know, you kind of slip it in the token a little bit. Let's say you don't say directly I am wealthier than you are, sir.

But you are making him feel insignificant.

Some of you always do this your daughter's wedding Mashallah we only help at the Crowne Plaza

$50 a plate. You know, Mashallah. It was very good. Who could have been better though, because we got a good deal because they were asking for $80. What about your daughter's? Because at the masjid, right?

People, let people know that you've got more than that. You don't say correctly. So he's you know, you, you attack people and make them feel less by what Allah has given you. And this, this attitude, this attitude, even you're not saying it directly, you don't say anything. And if you talk to

him, he was just talking about my daughter's wedding. I was just talking about this car is really good deal. Oh, my God. I didn't say anything.

You can defend yourself very easily, even if this farmer was stopped and told, why do you talk like because I was just talking man.

Understand? So big deal.

And I

have more authority when it comes to employees. Yeah, just, you know, this year, I'm downsizing. I've only got like, 15 employees this year. How many of you, you work by yourself? Right?

Good luck with that.

It's just this kind of condescending behavior. And there's more before we go on, you know, in Muslim community, in all societies, in all societies, one of the great sources of corruption is wealthy people

imposing their lifestyle as a standard on poor people.

So poor people feel like they are living a miserable life until they live the life of rich people. So you'll find in struggling communities across the world, and United States is no exception. In the Muslims, the easiest example to give is the wedding. easiest example of all, your family has a modest income, maybe you make $50,000 a year, maybe you make $70,000 a year, whatever your situation is, you have rent ticket you have the house to pay for you have education bills to pay for. But you know what, your cousin, who's very wealthy family, their wedding was $200,000. Their wedding was $80,000. The man was this much The party was this much the caterer and dad 10 parties before they

had the new car. And now it's your turn, and you're like, we can't do a simple wedding. We have to keep up. What are they gonna say? What is your co gonna say? What are people gonna say? What is this one gonna say? What is that one gonna say. And as a result, what you do is you put yourself in extreme difficulty, so that you make it look to people for those two days, you make it look to people, like you're pretty wealthy to even if you have to pay off a VA loan for the next 10 years for that one day of wedding and start that new wedding couple, often financial catastrophe. What a way to start a married life. Even if you have to do that just to make sure people see us as keeping

up with everybody else. This pressure can destroy families, it can destroy families, it creates hatred in society to you know, the place where I originate from in Pakistan, you have sometimes people that are very wealthy, living right next to people that are extremely, extremely poor. And when they'll have weddings in their family, they'll you know, they'll set up tents in the entire block, and you'll invite 1000s of people to the wedding. And you'll have hundreds of employees, hundreds upon hundreds of employees just cooking food, right. And he's each one of these cooks. Each one of these cooks, one of these cooks has four daughters, and he can't get one of them married. And

he looks at this party for one wedding. And he says Ben in this kind of money, we could have gotten our entire village married, you know, and it looks at that wealthy person. He's working for him, but he hates his guts.

Because there's a hatred being developed by people who show off their wealth in this lavish way, especially in the face of the poor, was what we're being taught. They're not just a rip pass by like a cool story. You teach it Sunday school, these are teachings for how to live as a community, how not to be lavish how to not to impose our wealth on others, to put standards on others. We've convinced ourselves until you buy a house and until it looks like this and this and this until it's something that people come to you and they park in the driveway and they go wow, that's nice. Until they do that we have failed. Our children are killed. They still live in an apartment.

How can you live in an apartment? You know, why haven't they bought a house yet?

How can you still have that car? Why haven't you bought another car yet? You know, and we put those those standards on the we're just like this farmer sometimes. What is the other farmers saying? The other farmers response? What the and by the way, he talks insultingly to this farmer and we don't even hear the response from this farm. The other guy, the neighbor, he didn't say anything

bearish, you don't say anything. He's put in a bad situation. So he doesn't say anything. Now the rich guy goes back into his house. He was just visiting as

much as mentioned his great farm was a halogen netta who lived in St. Louis, and he enters his garden and he's wronging himself.

By the way, what's beautiful is in the previous IRA, he had wronged his neighbor, he was mean to his neighbor, wasn't he?

The fact

that See,

he was only harming himself by these kinds of words, he will be blinding himself from reality. He forgot that the one who made him rich in the beginning of these I have a lot of Skype wasn't him, it was a lot. A lot of made him rich. It wasn't him.

And he goes inside. And he says, this is something very interesting confusion that many Muslims suffer from. And it's not just Muslims, many Christians suffer from it. But we do surprising that Muslims suffer from it and where people are odd, where people the teachings of Rasulullah sallallahu sallam, he says,

Now,

I don't think this stuff is ever going away.

I think my business plan is pretty solid. I've made some very smart investments, I've put the security system in place, the employees are just where they need to be the financial projections I've made for the next 10 years, this isn't going anywhere, I've got a stable situation.

I don't think this is going anywhere. And then he adds, he can see he doesn't think it's going anywhere. But then he adds masataka

I don't know, I don't even know what's gonna really gonna happen, I'll probably just set those things to scare us. He doesn't really mean it. You know, parents sometimes tell your children, if you eat, you're gonna, I'm gonna kill you.

Come and get a little, you know, a spanking here and there. But it's okay. It's not gonna be that bad. You know what happens when you get used to a life of luxury, you don't want to even think about the architect of the alpha is a difficult thing to think about. When homes are taken away, and the earth is flattened, and everybody's standing on equal footing. And you're being interrogated, and you have nothing of dystonia left. Once you get so attached to the Yeah, it's hard to let go. It's so hard to let go that this guy doesn't even want to think about the era. And somebody even brings up Hellfire paradise Judgement Day, somebody even brings these things because nobody's talking about

that stuff. I don't want to hear Can you take Can you just talk about that later. We all believe that. Okay, thank you. So even if by his tongue he believes practically he doesn't even want to enter that thought into his heart. He doesn't want to do it. And he has an interesting rationale that's hip on his heart in

a way of thinking that Shabbat has taught him this rationalization very interesting. He says when I need to be done.

Even if I was taken back to my master, even if I did die,

if Allah has given me so much here, that must mean that a law loves me.

Because I'm obviously hopefully more than my neighbor, my neighbor is look at him. He's in debt. He does barely on the farm. He has no helpers. He's getting old. But looking nearby has given me this this was hooked me up so much here. That must mean Omar likes me so much, that when I go, if I if he gave me this much, he's got way better for me. And

he's gonna give me just done on top of what I'm getting into. Yeah, in other words, he assumes that the life he enjoys here must be some kind of a glimpse for the life he's going to enjoy in the next life. By the way, this is a modern Protestant idea, as a modern Christian idea to

in many churches, you're taught, go get a promotion, get a better job, take out a second mortgage, you know, work, work, work and get a nice car because Jesus wants you to get it. That's a sign that the Lord loves you. The more you have, the more you acquire, in an RV. We don't condemn the acquisition of wealth, we don't look down upon those who are wealthy, and we don't look down upon those who are poor, because wealth and poverty are both tests from above. Neither of them are good or evil. There's no so wealthy people are evil or poor people are righteous, there's no such thing. Some of the greatest sob are extremely wealthy, and some of the greatest are extremely poor.

We don't have that standard. We don't judge it by that. But when you start thinking how Allah thinks of you is based on what you enjoying this life, then you are in the depths of confusion.

Well,

I will definitely find better than this over there.

That's my that's that's his thought process. Now, finally, even his religious ideas are getting confused. At this point, his neighbor feels like he should say something. See, this neighbor. His righteousness is shown in that when he was insulted. He didn't say anything. But when the guy started having wrong ideas about a law, then he felt compelled to speak. And he answered him, and he says,

and he didn't even just give him a lecture. He, you know, maybe invited him a second time. Now they're just chit chatting and talking and in the middle of a conversation

He's with some advice. And so just like he had said insulting, his neighbor is outstripping in advice in the middle of conversation. And he says

are you completely in denial of the one who made you from dirt?

Then he made you into a droplet of Sophie rock. Then he turns you into a man in other words, you are nothing. You talk about your finding everything you yourself were nothing you were dirt. A lot put you in this position himself. Are you forgetting what you want? How can that happen to you?

know that that's a lot of my master. Now it's beautiful. Right? So when he's giving the CIA is giving advice. He doesn't say that in a book. Is your master? No. I'm not even talking about you will see nuptse

and immersing myself I'm just saying he's my master when I wish he could get on the other end. I decided never to share with a lot. He doesn't sit him

down.

He doesn't talk to him that way. He still talks about himself and that's part of his humility. You know, he's just showing by example, I can't do *. I can't say that whatever I have is because of this all my offer is guaranteed. I think that's like *. I would never do *. I'm not saying you're doing it but I just can't do it. He points it to him so

then he says

Dakota

in

what was so long if you just entered your garden as you walk into your amazing property, if you just looked around and said Ma sha Allah whatever Allah will and we usually say Masha Allah without even realizing what we're saying.

We have no usually see a nicer masaba seven series

you know, new Acura NSX Mashallah nice house. That's obviously Mashallah. Mashallah also in something else, Allah decided that he will give me this risk, Allah decided my neighbor will have less dunya he will have less less risk in this world. That's all according to plan. I know that Allah makes his plan that's all up to me, that's up to a lot as elected. I can't take credit for what's going on here. This is by the will of a month. This is what I love whenever my once and when you say whatever, once you recognize that nothing here is permanent. If Allah doesn't want it to be, you cannot be guaranteed

that this will never go away. Because it's not up to you. It's up to the will of Allah. Why couldn't you talk like that? Why couldn't you humble yourself?

There's no force, there's no, there's no power at all, except in the past, in the last hands, in the possession of Allah.

Allah if, in fact, you didn't see the right.

And I am I'm not saying I'm not I am worse than you. I agree.

manpower, sounds like you do. I don't have any support. I don't deny that. But I'm saying if you saw that, you should have said that's what Allah wills. Some people give some some.

Some people he gives other people he doesn't get well, how many people in our audience are unemployed, they're looking forward. And they have good resumes. They have experience, they have good qualifications, and they're applying and maybe barely even getting a call for an interview and they can't find a job. And then there are people who are not even have the qualifications you have. But Allah decided they're gonna find a job and they're gonna get paid three times the salary, you're looking for some to a law so that we make the effort. But the power belongs in a man's hands, he can't forget that. That's the very essence of materialism. materialism means we put our trust in

things. We put our trust in things like our resume, or the money in the bank, the property each other. Our real touch has to be with

our mind is not just something we say with our targets, it's a state of mind. It's a way to think that's what we'll be targeting these ions. And so as I reached my conclusion, I want to share with you he gave him advice and said you got to watch it, it might be just to teach you a lesson.

And you're

very possible for my industry to give you a garden like yours doesn't make me want me to

sell a car or it could be the lessons from some kind of timely destruction from the sky and he will completely eliminate your garden will be nothing less.

Or the the water of it is going to sink into a river going in between. It could be the river could sink in and you won't even be able to dig it and find it you won't even be able to ask for it when that can happen to watch out. Don't mess with the laws often. Be grateful for what you have and what happens in the very next time.

When you know when Allah hears the word of a believer, especially the of the Muslim is not even though this might happen, but was

somebody and his entire his farm was surrounded, surrounded by the punishment of Allah is for his fruit was surrounded,

you know, pass by your kalibo Cafe.

He was just left standing there turning his hands like this looking at his investment, oh my god, what's happened here? He's just standing outside, going crazy doesn't even know what to do. His hands are just a couple people that are really stressed out. They don't know what to do with their hands. You know, having hands like this and putting them behind your back. You can leave a cafe for coffee. And the most incredible thing we hear Hi, Leah, Lucia.

Lucia in the Arabic language of the mama told you those the delicate sticks you put in the ground to keep the plants up. Allah says the garden was turned over on its sticks. In other words, those palm trees that are supposed to protect those plants, Allah made those palm trees fall on the very things that they're supposed to protect his security system was his destruction system. That was fine was

Lucia.

I know this seems like a terrible thing that happened right? But at the at the ending of the story is beautiful. Because in this journey, if you make Toba it's a good thing. If you have to lose all your wealth, but you gain a lot, that's a good game. That's a good game you didn't lose at the end of it all.

Oh, if only I hadn't done *.

If only I hadn't associated with Allah, my confidence in this material wealth, if only I hadn't become a materialist. In other words, he regrets his ship. In other words, he comes back to the right way. And that is a gift from Allah, what are we? What am I trying to say to you? The Muslim world today and all of us allies, has given us many blessings. And he has taken many things from us to the Muslims enjoyed in their history as a whole times of glory, times of glory. And even it seems like we've been robbed of them, maybe so we can just turn around and say yada,

yada. Maybe we can make Toba and go back to a buzzer, which are two and the four of them is a teaches your lesson in a hard way. We had better read these warnings and know these are not just stories. This is a formula with which Eliza was in teaching lessons. So we better make our dough bind returned back to a month before it's too late. We allows Amicus people that don't put their reliance in material goods. The lanzones are nice people that don't become arrogant and show off their wealth and make other people feel bad on account of what they own. Now, buyers always Amicus that people are giving a bill of brotherhood as you know of that leaf of making hearts come together

not hearts being pulled apart now to help us become those that keep family ties together and not allow them to separate at any cause. We allow those who look at the past as the past and join hands with their brothers and their sisters in this Deen and understand that their bond

is stronger than any quarrel, any disagreement any problem they've had in the past this element these words are stronger than any of our disagreements. So they make us one oma once again barakallahu li walakum

wa

hamdulillah salat wa salam ala

Muhammad Ali Baba as

as much as you can. There are a lot of people standing in the back in the lobby.

Yeah, you know, he was

Allahumma salli ala Muhammad Ali Muhammad

Rahim.

Allah Allah barik Allah Mohammed.

Mohammed

Ibrahim.

Allah, Allah in the La Jolla

even welcome diploma from Walmart

in the sala de la makuta