Nouman Ali Khan – Ramadan 2018 – Nightly Reminder – June 10

			The ministry Carnival team,
		

			wala Taku Lin Alicia in
		

			de cada Illa
		

			along with Becca eterna. See tower can
		

			be awkward I mean had
		

			recently Emily
		

			Coco de hamdulillah salat wa salam O Allah, Allah, Allah Allah, he was a PhD in America.
		

			Today inshallah I'll be sharing with you a law that is adapted optimism, from sort of, in the middle
of telling the story, the opening section of sort of gaff introduces the Quran and right after that
allows us to start talking about this remarkable story of young people that escaped from their town
and went into hiding into a cave, because the fact that they believed in only one God was enough of
a crime that they should be executed in their community. And so they went into hiding and allows
origin, miraculously put them to sleep for several 100 years. And in the middle of that story, Allah
stops telling the account of what happened with them, and switches his attention to the Prophet
		

			sallallahu alayhi wasallam, and says to him without the whole analogy in the fire, I don't delicata
don't, don't you ever dare say about anything, that I'm definitely going to do this or this or this
tomorrow. In other words, don't ever guarantee what you're going to do in the future ever, in law in
sha Allah, except that Allah wills it. In other words, add the clause, I'm going to do this
tomorrow, I have serious intention to do this, in sha Allah, if Allah wills that on us, this is not
the dog we're doing today. But regardless, it's important to mention that not normally not in our
culture. Now, when we say insha Allah, which we mean by that, it's probably not going to happen. So
		

			we've changed the meaning of the term. So if somebody says, Hey, you come into you come in tomorrow
to the meeting. inshallah, which probably means, no, that's your Islamic way of saying no, but
actually, in Sha, Allah is supposed to not take away your resolve for doing things, nor is it an
insurance policy against other people, so that when you make a commitment to them and say, I'll see
you at five o'clock, and then you don't show up. And you say, Well, I did say in sha Allah deny, no,
you don't get to do that. That's not what the purpose of that is. It's actually a humility that the
future belongs within the last hands. And whatever commitments I make, of course, I'm still
		

			obligated to them, but and whatever resolve I have whatever, you know, I'm determined to accomplish
you should have goals for tomorrow, you should have a schedule, you should have things that you want
to do targets you want to meet, you know, and there are deadlines that you want to meet for
yourself, if not for work or school. But even for yourself, I'm going to do this tomorrow, this
tomorrow, this tomorrow. But at the end of all of that you acknowledge that my cape, my intentions,
my motivation, my capability, even my past track record are not enough to accomplish something
tomorrow, at the end of the day, allows you to lose it and maybe something will get in the way. And
		

			that's okay, if that happens, I'll be okay. If Allah intervenes in some way, and I'm not able to do
what I was hoping to do, I'll be content with the will of Allah. That's actually in childhood, that
it's not an exception to your intentions. It's actually acknowledging that we plan but Ally's a
better planning than we are, and his will and our will sometimes they go hand in hand, but sometimes
his will and our will don't go hand in hand. Right? So that's Allah insha Allah, but then Allah azza
wa jal mentioned something more he says what's called Rebecca is that the seat mentioned your master
when you forget, mentioned a lot when you forget, remember Allah when you forget, in other words,
		

			often when we don't say that or we don't mean it is two things saying inshallah and meaning and
Sharla saying inshallah you speak about the future and you forgot to say, inshallah, and then you
hung up, Hey, I'll call you tomorrow. Okay, bye. Somebody come and you hung up. And then five
minutes later, why didn't say I'll call you tomorrow, inshallah. So at the time you say, it's okay.
You don't have to call them back and say, by the way, I was going to add in childhood, they don't
need to hear it. You're talking to Allah. Right? So you just declared whatever you remember, you
remember a lot, but that's in the words. But there's also actually the meaning at you know, at the
		

			moment you made a commitment but in your heart and in my mind, in my consciousness, I wasn't
actually thinking that Allah azza wa jal is in control. I even though I said it with my tongue, I
wasn't feeling that. And I should make the kind of Allah when I forget that and I remind myself
later on. And then Allah mentions this very powerful da, which is a statement of optimism that has
many, many lessons in it. And really, that's the one I wanted to focus on today. wakulla Casa de
niro be the Acrobat vinha da da da. This is what's taught to our messenger sallallahu alayhi salam
and say, say the following. I saw Dr. Nila be perhaps my master is going to guide me hopefully, my
		

			master is going to guide me the answer is actually words of optimism hopefully. So already what
Ally's teaching us is that a believer should have hope
		

			better things in the future. We should not be thinking about the future in terms of things are only
going to get worse. No matter how much worse things were getting before you should have a positive
outlook about the future. First of all, it's not in your hands and second of all, because it's in
Allah's hands, you have hope with him. Now what's the best thing you know, maybe maybe it's work
maybe it's home maybe it's whatever issue that you're going through, and you're trying to resolve
something into your future something you're trying to accomplish in you know, in business, personal
life, whatever else. The most important thing you're going to need is guidance. If you have
		

			guidance, everything else will work out. So there is I do I need to be hopefully my master will
guide me hopefully my Rob will guide me he'll give me guidance and that means doesn't doesn't just
in Islam, anything I do, I want to make guided decisions. My optimism My hope is that whatever
decisions whatever choices come my way, Allah azza wa jal will guide me to the right choice to the
better choice. But that's not where the DA ends. I saw ya De Niro, B Li acaba, minha de Russia.
These are some of the most profound words about the future in the Quran and our thoughts about what
guidance means. What does it mean to have guidance from Allah azza wa jal? You see, the first thing
		

			I want to explain to you it's a little bit of Arabic but it's okay. You'll forget after 20 minutes
and that's fine. Li Li is a whorfin. Allah is a heart they say often the two words are Li and Illa.
Illa means to Allah in Arabic means to. And Li means all the way to Salaam is helpful via it goes to
the very, very end. So if I pointed you towards something, or I guided you towards something, I
would use the word Allah. But if I guided you all the way to the end of something, then I wouldn't
use Eli I would say I will use Li when believers are being guided to the straight path. That's Isla
de la purisima. staffing, electrical staffing, when believers make it all the way to Geneva, because
		

			that's our destination. They say Alhamdulillah Allah de Hidalgo. They don't say hey, da da da da da
da da da, Li hada allama. We made it all the way to Jana Alhamdulillah, the one who guided us all
the way to this now come back to this ayah I saw Danny Robbie Lee acaba, de la isla acaba, de acaba,
de la misfire, which means whatever alleged talking about I'm hoping Allah guides me all the way.
Like that's the final goal. That's the final goal. That's the first bit of vocabulary here. But then
the strange word that's used is closer Acrobat is empty, which means not the closest, but closer to
let me give you a visual. So you appreciate the lesson in this door, or this statement. Here, here's
		

			where I am. Here's my destination. And I took one step I got a little closer, I got one other step I
got a little closer, I took another step I got a little closer. Each of these steps, is that a
destination or is that's just one step. That's just one step. That's not my destination. If I made
it all the way here, then I would use Li because I made it all the way to the end. But Allah says in
this hour, he teaches the Prophet sallallahu sallam, every single step is a destination.
		

			Think of every step as your final destination and towards guidance. Why? Why in the world, he taught
us something so profound about guidance. You don't know how long you're gonna live, I don't know how
long I'm going to live.
		

			And we don't know if we have another 30 years, 20 years or 20 minutes, we don't know. So if I in
these 20 minutes that I have left alone knows, if I took one step. That is it's I should take that
step as though it's my final step. I should take it as my ultimate goal, as if I'm not intimidated
by everything else. I'll give you another example to help you understand this, you know, kids that
memorize the Quran, especially when they start out, they go into the program, and some kids been
memorizing for six months, some kids been memorizing for a whole year, and this kid started day one,
day two, and he's only done it for a week. You know what the kids do? They're memorizing. And they
		

			hold the number of pages that they memorize like this. And then they look at this part. And then
they compare Oh my God, I know nothing.
		

			And the kids have memorized half they're like,
		

			you know, they're always looking at what more I have I not done. It's intimidating. You understand?
I only did this little there's this much left. When somebody starts learning about the you know,
study of Quran is an endless ocean. Maybe you start learning a little bit about the Arabic language
or studying the Quran. I only know a little bit about the Fatiha I don't even know all of Baqarah oh
my god Alia Milan and then Nyssa, and then Maya and then an aroma. There's so much less than I don't
know, there's so much knowledge that I don't have and you start worrying about how am I ever going
to get to the destination? How am I ever going to know everything? Some people are really into
		

			memorizing the vocabulary of the Quran, man, I don't know all the words. And even if I do I forget.
For all of those people think about not just in terms of seeking knowledge with seeking knowledge is
a dimension of this. every step you take is a goal. If you sat there trying to spend some time
understanding the last book, those minutes that you spent, you accomplished a goal. You don't think
		

			Yeah, I did it. But there's so much more left. Don't worry about the so much more left. Today Think
of it as the goal accomplished, you know. And what that does for every believer is they learn to
enjoy their journey. That getting closer, is their goal not getting to the end, just getting closer
is your final goal. Did I do something better than where I was yesterday? Did I make a little bit
more progress today than I did yesterday? Is that the case and if I did, I have accomplished a goal.
I hope that Allah azzawajal will guide me to get closer to him in terms of being upright in terms of
being guided than I was before. Just give me one more step. Just give me one more step. And you know
		

			what, so long as you've taken a step, some people are 1000 steps ahead of you. Some people are miles
ahead of you. Some people are one inch ahead of us, some people are behind you, you no longer care.
All you compare yourself is where you were yesterday, and where you are today. You no longer compare
yourself to anyone else. You know what happens inside a classroom sometimes, there are some you
know, I've been teaching a very long time. lecturing is different teaching is different when you're
teaching in a class. And some students always the teacher have asked the question, he's already
raised his hand
		

			and constantly raising his hand. And the person next to him starts feeling really inferior in their
intelligence, like this guy has all the answers, even before the teacher asks.
		

			And then in the beginning, you're impressed. Then later on in the school year, you're trying to
figure out how to assassinate this guy during recess, because he makes you look so bad every time.
		

			You start competing. And then you start comparing yourself to them and saying, well, they got a 90
they got 100 on the test, I only got a 70 and you start feeling inferior. But wait, on the first
test, you got a 40 and now you're getting a 70 you made huge progress. But you don't see that
anymore. Because you're comparing yourself to someone else. You think because you're comparing
yourself to them, you're a loser, you understand? Allah azza wa jal gave this profound law so that
we learn that when we stop looking at others, we look at ourselves. And we're optimistic that Allah
will show us progress at our own pace in our own way. Some people will take Giant Steps, some people
		

			will take little steps, some people will go very fast, some people will go slow, and that's okay, so
long as they are making progress. So long as they're doing that. I'm reminded of someone a friend of
mine who wanted to learn to recite the Quran, and he's from from Maryland area. And he does he's not
an Arab. He's all American, you know, and he can't pronounce the words and he traveled abroad to try
to learn. And he spent six months getting through our other Billahi min ash shaytaan. regime, his
chef would not give him a jazza and let him get to Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim because r o L. Zhu,
Zhu. You know, and he couldn't do it six months. And after six months, he came back so happy because
		

			he said asked me what I learned. I said what do you learn, he says are older Billahi min ash
shaytaan regime? And I was like, Yeah, I don't know if you're trying to say I'm the devil. But I see
your point. That was impressive. So you're not worried about how far you get you just worried that
you took a step? Me if we just got from a zoo, zoo, zoo zoo. Let's Let's go progress. I'm proud of
you. And that's the dog we make with a larger budget when we say Casa de Niro, Bella acaba, minha
rasheeda. The final piece of this law is Russia. First of all, we're allies guiding us to get closer
and closer in terms of being upright. In other words, what we learn and what progress we make,
		

			should make us better people. You shouldn't want to learn Arabic. So you understand the Quran, you
should want to learn Arabic. So you can appreciate the Quran to become more upright, like there's so
that's the goal. You could know a lot of Arabic and still be a horrible person. Arabic is not going
to make you a good person. You don't you shouldn't say I'm going to memorize the Quran. And that's
my goal to memorize the Quran so you can remember last words, so it can give you more Russia
memorizing the Quran and getting in touch with and reciting it perfectly and all of that is not
going to make you a better person. It's actually those are means to an end. Don't forget the end.
		

			The end is to get closer to being a better person, a collaboration. Acaba mean hatha and mean hatha
also, where am i right now? And how can I be a little bit better tomorrow. And this is the beauty of
this da, Allah expects no one to be perfect. Allah expects no one to be perfect, no one to make it
all the way to the end. Allah is going to ask me and he's going to ask you, how did you take that
little step that I asked you to take? How do you just take that one little step? And you know what,
that makes it a lot easier to be optimistic, because the lies and even asking me how many 1000s of
steps did you take? He's just gonna ask me about that one step. And when I take that one step, he's
		

			only gonna ask me about that one next step. That's all. That's all I'm answerable for. So you no
longer get intimidated by what you don't know what you haven't done, what you haven't accomplished.
No, that's no longer a concern for you. What did I get done today? And how is that better from what
I did yesterday? What improvements Did I make today? This is all
		

			I saw a da da da da da da da da da da barakallahu li walakum salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa
barakato.