Nouman Ali Khan – Jummah at Bayyinah Institute 13-01-23
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of expansion and growth in business, including the success of Islam's desire to expand risk. They emphasize the need to be mindful of one's behavior and not to lie about success to avoid damaging one's career. The concept of Taqwa is also discussed, with some believing it is just a reflection of a person. The speakers emphasize the need to be mindful of one's behavior and not to lie about success to avoid damaging one's career.
AI: Summary ©
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a figure that I have talked about before, briefly, is someone called karoon mentioned in some detail in sortal classes in the Quran, and karoun, just a few introductory comments about him. He was from the people of Mussolini. So that means from the Israelites, this is at a time when they were still enslaved by the Pharaoh. And he had, he was basically an informant for lack of better words. So he used to get information on who's planning a rebellion, which which, you know, Israelites are speaking against the government who's getting more popular and used to slip that information to the pharaohs government. So he was among the Muslims of the time the Israelites, but he was actually
just there, to spy on them and to pass information on to Pharaohs authorities. Which is why even though they were a slave people, he became very, very rich. The Humbert today is not about his means to wealth, meaning how did he become rich, that's something Allah talks about in social classes. And from it, there are lessons to be drawn about how people acquire wealth from illegitimate means, right, by selling out their own people, and by sucking the blood of their own population. And that's certainly something that is worth a discussion on its own. But today's Club is actually about one of the things that happens towards the end of the story, as it is told in social classes, where Allah
is going to tell us the effect that he had on his people, meaning his own people, not the Pharaoh and the reporting that he was doing to them, not his own wealth, but actually the impact that he had had on his own people. The thing is that, you know, when they're not doing so, well, they're slaves. So they're poor. They don't have fancy homes, they don't have a lot of clothes in their closet. They don't have, you know, toy extra toys for their kids. It's a rough life for them. And they see one among them who's like a rock star. He's like, he's got millions, he's got to evolve. He's got fancy clothes, he's got the nicest house in the neighborhood. When he walks by Harada Allah called me
hippies in zenity. He comes out all decked out dressed up, you know, all his bling. He's going through a poor neighborhood. Everybody's looking out the window, look at that, look at his ride. Look at it, you know, imagine like a poor neighborhood, right? Or a struggling neighborhood. And like a Ferrari, he's driving by and slow motion. Right and behind it as a Bentley, and behind that is some a couple of security guards and like there's a whole procession, there's a whole entourage going by and everybody's like, wow, look at that. Look at that, you know, so there's a there's a there's a display of wealth.
So he basically bedazzled his congregation or not his congregation, his community, they're all looking at this. And they're like, you know, the poor men among them, the young men and women among them. They're looking at this and they're saying,
Man, I wish I had that. You know, and so Allah captures their, their their hope, when he says, you know, yeah later learner myth Lama UIA karoun. If only we could have what he has man one day, you know, this is actually a very powerful mentality, that Allah is captured in the story because it exists around the world, you'll have, you know, even as a young man or a woman, you'll have posters of what you dream to have one day, right, or you'll have it on your phone pictures of your favorite car, right, or the purse, or the shoes or the kind of house or what you know, whatever stage you are in life, there are things you aspire for you desire, somebody else has it. And you you just you
dream of it all the time. You look at that, and you say, Man, I that's what I want. That's exactly what I that's the kind of vacation I want. So there's this, these people of high net worth, they kind of they give us the plant in our heads, what dreams we're supposed to have. Like what we're suppose if we had that, and we would be the happiest people, we would have the best and by the way. karoun Interestingly, our own only has a fraction of the wealth of Iran that owns actually the government himself. So he's think of a millionaire and you're comparing him to a trillionaire right or a multi billion there's no comparison. Right? What he has is nothing compared to what Iran has.
And what does Allah tell us about fit our own in the beginning of this surah that actually he used to be terrified that you were no df and I don't know what Hamana was. You knew the Houma Minho makan, we have their own. Right. So they used to go to sleep, afraid that the slaves are going to rebel one day or this government is going to collapse. So yeah, he's got he's got more wealth than anyone on the planet. Arguably some, some economists actually say that the United States is the first major nation after the pharaohs that amassed the kind of wealth that we have amassed. Right. So like this, this is an interesting bit of I don't know how accurate this is. But it's an
interesting thing to think about this is and that back then it wasn't like the government had a budget. And then it was distributed among different departments. It was a one man show that own technically owns all of it. Right? So he's, he's the Jeff Bezos and the president all of that all at one time, right. And he can't go to sleep at night and peace.
Right, he has everything this world can possibly offer. And he can't go to see but he's scared. He's scared. And then Allah interestingly, in other places in the Quran also describes like the way Allah beautifully, he turned on his cane, like, the most powerful man in the world doesn't have the power in his own legs, in his own hips, that he can just turn around, he has to use a cane to turn around, right? So Allah is describing this, this strange contradiction in the Pharaoh. But coming back to karoun, people looked at him and said, Man, I wish I had one, what this person has, right. And this is actually, I want you to think of this as an example that we find in every one of our lives. You
go to your go to somebody's wedding, and your daughter will be looking at the wedding. And she's married at age one day, this is the kind of wedding I want. These are the kinds This is the catering This is the kind of flowers, right? And there's young men are looking at a car or a job or, you know, they're walking down the street or going to their work or their school, and they see this fancy building, I'm going to have an office in that building right there. It's going to be awesome. It's going to be one of those glass buildings. He's like, imagining the the awesomeness of being on the 10th floor and having a view in his office. And at the same time, there's some guy sitting in
that office looking down, I wish I was free, like that young man who can actually live his life and be, you know, go or whoever he wants. That's the irony of it. But anyway, the point is, the people of high net worth, they tend to create a kind of desire in everybody around them for wanting what they have. Now, the thing is, if you want what they have, then you have to think about how did they get it? Like how did they become successful? Right? Because if I follow their path, and I will have a chance at getting what they have. So then what happens next is those people that have made a lot of money, or have amassed a lot of wealth or fame or power, they become mentors. So they say let me
tell you, how to make what I've made. Let me guide you on your five steps to success or your seven
Steps to become a millionaire are your 10 steps to become famous, or your you know, then they'll, they'll teach you because they've already got there. So now you want their success story. And by the way, this is interesting because nowadays, this is an entire industry, right? Somebody who becomes a millionaire, then they'll say, for my come to my seminar, and pay me $10,000. And in three hours, I'll tell you, how your poor 10,000 $10,000 poorer now after hours, but I will tell you that I'll let you know because you want to, you want to feed off of their success. And it's so glamorous and powerful that this isn't an ancient thing, humanity is drawn to that sort of thing, right? Where we
flock towards images of success, and fame and power, you know. And so what happens next is actually this is just me setting the stage, what I wanted to talk to you about is what Allah does with him. Allah does something strange with this person with Qarun. For cosafa be he will be daddy Hill.
Allah, so he had a mansion, clearly, at a nice place, Allah says that we sunk him. And along with him, his home, along with his home into the earth, like the earth just caved. And the house just sunk in. Right, and you might find on YouTube, you might find there are streets that all of a sudden just collapse into the ground. There's a there's a cavity all of a sudden, right. And nobody can explain what just happened. It's been there for 100 years to interview. And all of a sudden, it's just a hole in the ground, he literally sunk into the ground, where people used to look at his mansion and stop there. Now they're walking by there's a hole in the ground. And he can't be It
can't even be found. So and when they're walking by the they kind of have a realization, some of the people who used to want what he has, they have this incredible wake up moment. Because you know, in this life, like one of the famous sayings of ideal the Allahu anhu, a nurse when the people are sleeping, you know, when you're sleeping, you see an alternative reality, right? I don't, that's not real, but it feels real, what's happening in a dream. So people are sleeping, and in their sleep, they see this as success, they see this as something that we should all want to have. But for that moment, when they saw that house sunk into the ground, they woke up. And it's interesting that the
word as Bihar is also used in this ayah it's got this play on words as ballerina de mundo McKenna, who will by next morning, those who are wishing to be in his place just the day before, by next morning. The the phrase by next morning can also mean and then they wake up woke up. You know who, you know. So anyway, so my next morning, what did they say? Yeah, Cologne, they started saying, Well, you got an hola Yep. Soto RecycleMania Shah luminary, by the way up there.
You know how powerful a reality that Allah is the One who expands it is for whoever he wants among his slaves. And he contracts it for whoever he wants among his slaves. Allah can take your business and turn it from a few $1,000 to millions of dollars a month, he could do that overnight. That can happen. And there are lots of success stories like that. He can also take somebody's multimillion dollar enterprise. And it no longer exists. Right? That can happen to you can have cell phone companies or computer companies or technology companies that used to be all the rave not 1015 years ago. And then they're gone now. Like, I was reminded that, you know, Facebook HQ, I think it is, is
where Sun Microsystems used to be. And you know, they still have the old Sun Microsystems sign, just as a reminder of what could happen when you become obsolete.
Right, with the idea is empires rise and empires fall. And we start thinking this is because of what I've done. This is because of my business strategy. This is because of the I follow these tips. And then I got there, right. But all these tips that you can follow if everybody was following them, how come everybody's not turning into the success. There are other pieces to this puzzle. And the biggest piece of this puzzle is Allah decides when to expand the risk. And when to contract that is, there are people that are much better at business than I will ever be. And they are never successful in business. Even though they're much much better. There are people that are much smarter than I
will ever be. And they cannot get the job that that I've got here. Sometimes you have people that are like they didn't even graduate high school, and they have the best job. And there's someone who's like 100 times more qualified and they're applying everyone they can't get a job.
And sometimes the person who's least qualified is in management and the guy working under him is 10 times more qualified than him. Could any will be there for 20 years.
This is the reality of this world. And this is not just because it's a corrupt system, but actually sometimes Allah decides whose risk is going to open up and whose risk is going to close up. Now, as I say that, you might start thinking, well, then this is pretty fatalistic. And what's the point of me? Trying to get a degree? What's the point of me and trying to get a job? What's the point of being trying to expand my business? Allah is gonna do what Allah is gonna do anyway. Right? What am I even fighting for? Why do I even want those? Why do I even want that growth? And that's actually the question that I wanted to try to answer through these ayat today. Why should I try to do better?
Like, if you have a business? Why should you try to expand your business or excel in your business? If you have a career? Why should you want to do better in your career? You know, if you're a doctor, why shouldn't you want to run a hospital one day? Why Why shouldn't you want to move up and explore more horizons and expand and get bigger and bigger and bigger, which is kind of like the legacy of Solomon Alehissalaam, right? He wants to expand and expand and expand. And he's asking for more and more milk. So how do we reconcile these two things? Because people the poor people looked at Corona and said, I wish I had what he has been, how are we not like caught on? The the first thing the
first realization that Allah has given to you and me, that's a wake up call is, no matter what material successes, worldly successes will come my way or not come my way. That is in the end, not up to me. That is up to Allah. That's not up to me. That's number one.
Number two, let's keep reading till cut down all hirato Naja Aloha, Latina, la you read, do not renew and fill out the one of a sudden, that last house because this house was gone, right, the data was gone. And then the same word data was used in the next idea, by the way, that final house to house that is permanent, meaning dimensioned that's waiting in Jannah that's been made for those who do two things. Now you either win or Lunenfeld are the Walla facades now we get a key. He says it's for people who don't want Rulu in the world, renew means to be high. They don't want to be high in the world. The idea of renew is I don't want to be somewhere where I can look down at someone and
say I beat you. I have more than you now. I used to look up to you. Now I'm even better than you. Or you know, and I am as high as you are. Meaning you set your standard as somebody else. And now you're competing to get to that standard. You let go of people and who's high and who's low. You're you know, sometimes there are siblings, and one of the siblings becomes a doctor, or one of the siblings becomes a successful business person or whatever. And the other sibling is depressed because they're like, until I make more money than my brother, I have failed in my life. I need iRULU I need it. Now this person is going to go to med school, that they're going to become a
specialist and become a a surgeon. They're really successful. But you know what, none of the surgeries they've done, the career they've accomplished. None of that is actually what gives them satisfaction. When they get together at EA. And he's sitting next to his brother, hey, you know, I just bought my second property that's big, all of it became worth it, the entire education, all of it, it wasn't to save lives. It wasn't, you know, it was just, I just need to beat this guy. I need to prove to my dad who's higher. That's all it is. Allah says the final home was made for people who don't want or know. They don't look at something and say, Man, I want that. And that's my goal. They
let that go. That's not that's not on their mind. So now I have to think about myself, you have to think about yourself, how much of what we do is this pursuit of being higher, higher than someone else or as high as someone else? The rules that we have in our in our minds. It's not an accident, that this the opening of the surah Allah uses key terms in a surah to teach us lessons. One of the frown has 100 descriptions in the Quran. What description that Allah used for Frauen in this surah enough, Allah Allah fill up
for all around was high up in the land, you know, that means he's locked down and everybody has to look down at everybody. And at the end, he says, By the way, the last home is for people who are not interested in or low. If you're pursuing something because you believe in it. You're pursuing something because it's something good for you. It's something good for humanity. It has a purpose, but it has nothing to do with proving yourself to over anybody else. It has nothing to do with one upping anybody else. You know, I'll tell you a story I mentioned a long time ago I was when I was
I used to live in New York is really expensive. And I decided I'm going to move. So because I was traveling and teaching courses all over the country, everywhere I went, I was like, should I move here? Should I move here? Should I, you know, considering different options. And one of the cities I ended up in was Houston before I came to Dallas, and I looked at Houston, I liked the community a little bit. And then I asked somebody, Hey, what do you think about moving here? I was, like, what are you going to do here? I was like, Well, you know, I have this Arabic program and Quran study program. We have a lot of those. Have you seen this one, and this one. And so there's a lot of
competition, you're not going to be able to keep up. And you should look at this website. And this sounds like oh, like, that's really cool that they have all that stuff. But why are you so concerned about competition? Or what somebody else is doing? Or, you know, people coming up, you know, they opened up a masjid, they opened up a school, they opened up, that's so cool that they did why is that? Why should I think about that at all? And you know what, this is not just in the corporate world, you know, who got the project. This is not just in the restaurant business, you know, who's opening up a pizza place down the street. This even happens in the Islamic community or the Muslim
community, you know, who else is doing the youth program? You know, what their MSA is doing? You know, we got to do more than them we gotta be you gotta have renew. Allah says, this is a sickness. This is the sickness of Iran at the highest level. This was the sickness that karoun put inside poor people this is the irony that I want to explain to you that you know, fit own actually had height. He had the palace, he had the power. But the poor people, they don't have it in their hand. They don't have a loo in their hand. But now they want or no inside. And that destroys their hopes for the chakra law UD do not only one, it's not people that have a lot. It's people that are just
wanting a lot. Allah is commenting on what's going on inside my heart in my mind. And then he says, What are facade and these are people that don't want corruption. It's interesting that the word facade also used here is that if sad causing corruption, but it's corruption within forsook, and facade are two words in Arabic for corruption. And forsook is used for when a fruit or food goes bad. And you can see that the goo inside of the the apple is coming out. Right. So you can you can the corruption is coming out, that's forsook. But faster than Lebbon faster, that bar on the food looks good, but it's not good. Like on the outside, it looks fine. But when you taste the light, oh
my god, it's bad. It's really bad. That's the unfastened. That's actually called fasten. So when Allah says facade here, they don't want height. And they want to make they don't want anything to fail. They don't want to become corrupt on the inside. And this is really interesting. Because a lot of times people have the appearance of success on the outside, beautiful on the outside, smart on the outside, popular on the outside, but they're losing themselves on the inside. And Allah says, These people want to make sure that they don't get corrupted on the inside, if I can. If I can cure myself of these two tendencies, then fly away. Grow It, grow your business as much as possible,
excel in your career as much as possible. When your competitors become irrelevant. When proving yourself to some family member becomes irrelevant. When you're not looking at someone else's saying one day I'll have what, when when you can erase that from inside of you. That's the facade inside. If you can get rid of that. Then yes, pursue this dunya then it's well okay but to limit the pain, and the final end belongs to those that have Taqwa here. Interestingly, the definition of Taqwa is just like the definition of Cofer of Taqwa of Eman, these fundamental terms in the Quran. They have universal meanings, but then in certain ayat they have certain meanings. Allah gives them a
particular flavor in a particular context here in this ayah Allah is highlighting subhanaw taala that this tendency of me wanting to win over someone else, and me losing myself in the process my facade inside. That is my that is the enemy of my Taqwa. I could still be praying, I could still be fasting. I could be doing all that stuff. But I carry that inside me. My Taqwa is going away. I'm destroying my house in the future till cut down. Now I do highly Levine allow you to do not only one fell out of the water for southern weather. October 2018. Mangia Bill has sanity fellow who Jairo. Minha Allah says in this is the last thing I'll share with you today. Whoever comes forward with the
good. Some Al Hasan is the URL is really interesting here. You would imagine here Allah saying Whoever comes forward with any good deed that would have been Nikita he has entertained and maybe he has been lucky now called Al Hassan.
Rafa, Bilaam what's the purpose of doing that? It's as if Allah is saying that every good deed, every good and good deeds are based on good intentions. Every good intention that results in a good deed, or every good intention to begin with, is actually recognized by Allah, even when it is not recognized by people. People recognize the guy with the high net worth, people recognize the visible success, Allah recognizes to him. The thing that's more our rough is Al Hassan. It's the, it's the good deed itself, you know, the charity itself, the honesty itself, the integrity itself. And by the way, to get ahead, to get to where other people are going, you got to get corrupt, you know,
Godwin's example, was given because he was corrupt the way he made his money, right? You won't see, as everybody else is getting new projects, everybody else's business is growing, maybe I should lie on my resume a little bit too, because I gotta keep up with everybody else. Otherwise, they'll get all the projects, I won't get anything. And you decide not to lie on your resume, and you still get lesser projects, you don't get the same big projects that they get, or everybody else is making so much money, because they you know, because consultants, for example, they bill and you have to document how many hours you worked on a project because you get paid by the hour, right? And you can
finish the job in two hours. But you report that it's going to take me 25 hours. So you should do that too. Because if you want to, you want to get two hours of money, you should be getting 25 hours of money. So lie about it. When you can protect yourself from this desire. Well, everybody's doing it. And that's how everybody gets high up. I better do what everybody else does, to get where everybody else is going. You know? It's okay. It's okay. Everyone does it. You know, look at this one. Look at this one. This is allow you to do not only one fit already, well off asada. And for these people, Allah says, Whoever can come forward with the good deed for LA Hi, Ramona. He's going
to have better than that. They're going to have better than that. Or Mangia. BISAZZA year for the user Latina I'm gonna say, Ilana Cameroon, and people that were doing wrong and evil things. They're only going to get what they used to be doing. They're gonna get paid in full. May Allah azza wa jal make you and me realize how sneaky and how easily undetected. This virus is. This tendency to want to compare myself yourself to someone else. It doesn't just happen in money. It doesn't just happen in popularity in business, it can happen in family can happen among friends, it can happen in the smallest things. And when that when that tendency comes in, then it is the end of our Taqwa it is
the end of our desire to do good deeds because anything good you now want to do you want to do it because you want to do something better than somebody else. Now Allah azza wa jal makes us truly, you know, pure of the sickness, and may Allah not allow us to fall into the same trap that karoun fell into, and may Allah not make us impressed with the cartoons of our time. Because the the tragedy at the end of the surah is not karoun The tragedy is the people who were impressed with Qarun he's the influencer, the people that got influenced alleged talking about them, and some of them woke up and said, Oh, I realize now Allah expands and contracts this. I shouldn't be looking at
him and saying, This guy's gonna tell me how to get this. That's That's not him. He's not the benchmark of success. You know. So when when we have that mentality will protect ourselves from being impacted by the likes of Quran, Allah azza wa jal and Mica scholarone and make us not become a fan of God when BarakAllahu li Walakum Al Quran Al Hakim whenever anywhere er can be it.
Alhamdulillah wa Salatu was Salam O Allah, everybody learning of stuff like Hassan Ali Mohammed Ibrahim Mohamed El Amin, what are the other he also has a huge name called Allah azza wa jal vikita bicuculline brother and Akula Rudall bIllahi min ash shaytani R rajim. In Allahu la mala Ikeda who you saw Luna and then maybe you had Latina Amman Sallu alayhi wa sallam Otis Lima Allahumma Salli ala Muhammad Ali Muhammad camasta later Allah Rahim while early for him, I feel I mean in the Gambia Majeed Allahumma barik ala Muhammad and Muhammad Ali Muhammad came about a calibre him while early Ibrahim Al Amin in the Gambia Majeed about Allah but actually Malcolm Allah it took Allah in Allah
yet would have been it would have sent where it is in Cordoba. When hunted fracture it will incur all ethical Allahu Akbar, Allahu Jana Michael Stone. I can solder in the solitaire kind of mini Nikita Makuta