Nouman Ali Khan – Striking Examples From The Quran #08 Blazing Whirlwinds
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the importance of having a garden, using palm trees, and grapes in various ways for business, including creating a "Grave." They emphasize the importance of maintaining independence and trust in relationships, and emphasize the need to create a culture of passionate entrepreneurship and building a positive environment for one's life. The success of their business is due to their ability to save money and grow their business, and the importance of protecting one's investment and setting up a trust fund and charity foundation. They emphasize the need to rethinking one's thinking and create a culture of passionate entrepreneurship.
AI: Summary ©
Salam Alikum before you begin this video just quickly wanted to let you know that so much of the work on the Quran has been completed on being a TV I want you to enjoy systematically studying the Quran from the beginning all the way to the end, in brief and then in great detail. And to do that, I'd like for you to sign up on beta tv.com. And once you appreciate what's going on in beta TV, I want you to become an ambassador for it and share that subscription with friends and family and give it as a gift. Thank you does certain enough to the Hanafi school and with nobody else
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Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.
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rubbish athletes everywhere silly Emery to Loksatta Mila Sani co leaf and hamdu lillah wa salatu salam ala Rasulillah while Allahi wa Sahbihi ah behind Muhammad everyone said I'm Ali kumara. Tonight Allah ricotta once again. Yesterday we spoke about two examples that Allah gave about rain and the water coming on a mountain and then on top of a boulder. In fact, a boulder was first and then the rain that doubles the produce was mentioned second that was 264 and 265. Of sorts of Baqarah. Today, the final piece of that puzzle which is 266 The next style in which Allah makes things very personal. So now that he's described these parables and talk to those who believe and
talk to and even warn that some might even end up being on the side of Cofer on judgment a Hola Hola, David Coleman caffeine. Now Allah makes things very personal and very direct. So just pay attention to how the language is built in this I will translate it little by little. Allah says I would do a honeycomb and takuna Allahu Jana.
Would one of you want that they should have a garden? This is a it's a question wouldn't one of you want one of you love actually yella do wouldn't one of you love that they should have a garden for themselves they should own a garden. The word Jana because this is another new Quran has been used hundreds of times already dozens and dozens of times to describe the Jana after this world. Right. But the word of course, Jenna originally means garden in this world, any garden can be called agenda. Similarly, in social graph, you have two gardeners that are having a conversation, and one of them owns two agendas. Right? That's not talking about heaven, it's talking about here. So the
coinage of the term Jana, in the Quran, mostly has the meaning of the akhira. But then Allah also uses it for dunya even though in the dunya sense, there are other words for gardens available, like for example, Hadith, Ka Hadith, in Arabic is also a garden. Right? But Allah is using this word because it has that double meaning. So if Allah says, What did one of you want that they should have agenda? For a believer before they even hear anything else? Where does the mind immediately go? To the hara, right? And immediately the believer hears this and says, Yeah, I love that. But then Allah will start to changing that conversation and superimposing the afterlife over this life in this in
this beautiful parable. So he says, wouldn't any one of you want that they should have a garden they should have agenda. Then describing the agenda. He says Minda healing will be made up of palm trees and grape grape vines. So now two things are mentioned palm trees and grapes. This is also important because the gardens of the ancient Arabs at the time when this Quran was being revealed. You can't really have a garden if you don't have palm trees. I mean, what kind of garden Do you even have if you don't have palm trees? Right so that was the staple. Other places in the Quran we learned that palm trees served other purposes. So for example, especially for people that were producing delicate
crop, like if grapes happen to be delicate crop also, they have to be grown on trellises trellises are they're called erosion Arabic technically, but you'd put a stick in the ground and the vineyard kind of wraps around it. And you have to care for it very carefully. So you have to have specialized people taking care of
It, it's more expensive to grow grapes than other crop because it requires more care. And it's easier to destroy. And because it takes so much work to grow, it's also more expensive to sell. Right so that everybody can buy grapes back in the day, it's a luxury item, if you will, right. So there's, there's chocolate you can buy from the local store. And then there's like, you know, expensive chocolate you can get right, so this is the expensive stuff. Plus, of course, we all know grapes were used to produce expensive wines, and other kinds of drinks. So it was considered a luxury exotic item. Now Allah is mentioning, wouldn't you like to have a garden that's made of palm
trees that standard day pumps that standard, but then he says what I love and grapes. Now, just to understand to help you understand the design of the gardens in ancient times, one of the ways they did this is they put palm trees close to each other. So they made an entire, you know how you have a fence in your property. Defense is made up of the palm trees. Right. And this was helpful for multiple reasons. One of the reasons this was helpful is if there's a strong wind coming, then the palm trees will take most of the wind, and the middle of the crop that is more delicate will not be as damaged. So it's safer to put them around the perimeter and then have the the delicate crop in
the middle. Right. And this is you know what Hofner Houma be nutlin agenda. But you know who Mazara is described in certain calf with one of the two gardeners he did, he employed this strategy. But there's other things I want you to understand about this. This is actually the Quran demonstrating an intricate knowledge and an intricate observation about the way they thought about business. How people thought about business, you see, you know, even nowadays, you have car manufacturers, that, you know, like who owns Porsche, I think it's Volkswagen, I could be wrong, but it's one of the German companies that owns Porsche. And that's an expensive brand, but they don't make their big
money off of the expensive cars. Because most people on the planet cannot buy those cars, they make their money on the cheap stuff. Right, and then they they put extra heavy investment into the expensive stuff, you understand. So the same way, the date palms are the cheap investment. And it's quick money, because everybody needs dates in the area. And you can grow them and you can use the fibers for other purposes, it's got multiple functions, and it survives the heavy, the difficult climate, etc, etc. That's the business strategy, you have lots and lots of day pumps. And if you can make enough money, then you can even afford to get into a more risky business with more high end
returns, which is what I know. So, you know, it's easy to get a garden with palm trees. It's very hard to get a garden with palm trees and grapes. So now Allah is talking about wouldn't one of you want to have like,
an incredible business? You know, nowadays, to give you a parable, nowadays, somebody opens up a restaurant, right? It's like a burger place. One of those places where you don't have a place to sit. Right? So it's halal, obviously. So, so you go to one of these places, and it's like a shabby looking place. And you just you get there. And even though even the cashier has like a bulletproof glass, and you have to slide the thing, and you know, that's the situation, but then the business grows. So he buys the restaurant in a nicer area. Right now. It's like you could sit down and have it but then he's like, no, no, I need to do more. So then he buys the next property and puts a
catering Hall in a shoddy Hall and whatever else. Now it's the burger place. Or it's the changes the name because burger sounds cheap. So gives it a new name. And then there's the catering Hall, but the catering Hall was a later investment, right? And what and when he was selling his burgers, he was thinking one day I'm gonna watch, I'm gonna have big plans, how we're going to expand the business is going to go to the so. So the idea is, you have these dreams of one day having the palm trees and the grape, the vineyard and it's going to be set up and you're going to have this exquisite business, you know, flourishing and reaching its climax, the you know, the envy of all
people. So he says, I want to I had to come into Hakuna Allahu Jana tominaga NAB. But that's not enough. The business has to be situated in a place where it's ideal for the business to keep growing. So he says did you even tactical and have at the garden at the bottom of which rivers are going to flow meaning it's already the previous iOS Rabwah. Remember, at a high at a high elevation. Now Allah is even mentioned almost suggesting that underneath it rivers are flowing, meaning maybe it's up on some kind of elevation and there's a waterfall running underneath it. And because there's a waterfall underneath it, the water irrigates the soil automatically from underneath because the
rivers flowing from underneath the soil. So you don't even have to produce bring water from the outside to cultivate your garden. It's taken care of like the business is taking care of itself. It's sustaining itself self sustained. So touch even Tatiana and her and of course this is also exciting.
If you have property that has a river flowing and has a waterfall, in fact, you will you all know I've mentioned this before, if you have waterfront property, that's the most expensive kind of property you can have. Now imagine a property where you own a river, or you own a waterfall. That's some next level of exquisite. That's, that's rare. So it's not just a business, but the real estate itself is pristine. And Allah says, wouldn't you would desire to have something like that. Now, whether we consciously thought about owning something like that or not, human beings have a desire to be in such an environment. And so what we do when we have enough money saved up to go on a
vacation, we like to go to places that have a lot of greenery, a lot of elevation, and some beautiful water scenery. Those three elements are always there, if you have a chance to go to some mountains, where there's waterfalls, and gardens, and you're just you're just taking pictures the whole time and just looking at the scene, you paid good money to just go see what Allah made. Right? And leave it on. And this This is like, because human beings are drawn to this image. And it doesn't even matter if you're Muslim or not. You're drawn to nature in that way. And especially that video that that that kind of typography of land, we're drawn to that. And it's so incredible that what
Allah describes in Jannah is very similar to these vacation spots, that people are drawn to all the time. Some of the top tourist places in the world. If you go there, you'll see Jana autoantigen, even Tatiana and have
no we haven't Colette Samara, some of the top vacation places, they all have the same thing in common. And some of the most beautiful beaches in the world and some of the most beautiful, you know, climates in the world have palm trees. In fact, palm trees become an association with common relaxation. Right? So what the first thing people think about California is the palm trees. You know, the first thing people think about when chillin on the side of a beach, there's a hammock, you're lying in the hammock, somebody's bringing you a drink and serving you and you're lying under the palm trees. Right? So this this image of luxury, which is from ancient times, till now Allah
embedded it's something in our fitrah wants this something in us, you know, overwhelmingly for human beings, this is something they desire. Now, some of you might say, I don't desire it, I just want to play video games. Okay, speak to me later.
So Allah speaking in overwhelming numbers, you know, by and large, this is what human beings want. So he says, Well, why don't you want this. And of course, we'd want it. Of course, we'd like to be the secure investment, even the risky investment, by the way, nobody starts their business with a risky investment, everybody starts with a secure investment. And when you've made enough money, then you can get into risky investment, the Anub, which means you have even if it fails, you're going to be okay, because the the heel is there. So they are now you know, that's that's a later venture. By the way, if a young man who's 18 years old, 20 years old, you know, some family, they want to
eventually want to, they have a goal to get there one day, right?
That's something that can happen overnight.
No know, people that have that kind of vision, that we're going to have that kind of property, we're going to have that kind of business, we're gonna have those people start saving money from the first from the beginning, and everybody else's kids are getting new shoes for eat. They're just polishing their old shoes. And the dad says Not yet. Not yet. Oh, you're so cheap, you don't get us anything. Just wait, just wait. And he's just pinching pennies, counting, counting, counting. And they're not spending anything extra on anything, even watching their budget on the food. And the guy spends his like 20 years of his life, just saving, saving, saving, saving, saving until that he gets into that
business and buys the big house and all of it. But he basically had to sacrifice his entire youth.
To get there, you don't just get there, you have to give up your entire youth. So watch what's happening in this remarkable IRA. He says, wouldn't one of you want this, and it sounds really good. We all want it at some level. Then he says what the houfy have been called litho malata leading into that it has in it all kinds of fruits. So it starts with palm trees and grapes. But then Allah says it has all manner of fruits. So now he's even making other kinds of investments and other kinds of fruits. And by the way, fruits in Arabic literature and also in the Quran, are an interesting term used for what we call nowadays return on investment.
Because you notice in the previous example, there was the seed was being planted, right? And now you know how you say in English also the fruit of your labor, right the fruits of your labor. So when Allah says all kinds of fruits means everything's working out every it's like somebody's got a touch of gold, they put a little bit of money here, it just grows again, they put some investment here, it blows up also and it gives them so much more return. Every seed they plant keeps giving them newer and newer fruits. So they start getting into more and more and more business ventures and so the houfy have been called lithium, right, right. So they're getting all kinds of fruits that Allah says
Now this sounds really good up until
allows feels really good. And all of a sudden, the conversation in this one is starts going downhill. He says, Well, Osama hole cable and that person who got all of this wouldn't you want to be that person and he says, and then old age age struck him down.
Old age targeted him. So he's got this gorgeous garden that goes up to the hill, but he doesn't have the legs to go up the hill anymore. He's got to get somebody to carry him there. He's got this beautiful view of this, you know, this waterfall that full pours into a pool, but he doesn't have the kind of health that he can take a dip and he's gonna die. He's gonna get hypothermia, he's gonna die.
He's getting too old and the garden is finally beautiful. You just can't enjoy it. You're too old to enjoy it. You got this beautiful mat nowadays, you know, people people get these gorgeous mansions. And they get there when they're so old, that they have to get those electronic stare assistant things you have to sit in it and it takes you up the stairs. Right? And may Allah help you know, those that are that are reached that old age it's a form of trial from Allah. It's a very difficult trial from Allah. The prophets I seldom used to seek refuge from old age for a reason. And Allah azza wa jal allow every one of us to maintain our esterna our independence of people in old age,
right? This is something we should be fearful of. And we ask Allah that he doesn't put us in that situation. But Allah describes this person, everything around them, their world, became Janna.
But they got old, was our whole cover. And that's tragic. The previous ayat, were building this narrative in which your investment was growing and growing and growing. And now he actually visually says, Okay, it's going to grow. And what if it does grow? What if you have all these gardens, but you don't you gotta hold? What's the point? What are you going to do with it? I met enough millionaires and even billionaires in my life, that after getting everything, the allure of those things disappears, like they're not into it anymore. I know, people that own multimillion dollar mansions that are like, this place is too big.
And in my head, I'm like, I'll take it.
Not too big. For me, this looks just about right.
Now we're thinking about moving to an apartment.
A person spends more than half their life dreaming that I'm gonna get out of this apartment. And go over there, the guy got there. It's huge. And he says, I you know, this is too big, you know?
What am I gonna do with all this space? Right? So the irony of it, because you can't enjoy it anymore. And your mindset changes, the things that, you know, the younger men here that are either either working or going to university, or they're just getting married, or they're not married, yet, they have these dreams in their head, they have, what kind of car they're gonna have, what kind of neighborhood they're gonna live in. Some of them are driving that, you know, taking a bus or taking the tube or whatever, walking down the street, and they see these fancy offices, all the glass buildings, they're like, I'm gonna have a job, like,
what's gonna be awesome. You know, I want to have one of those ID cards, that people that have purpose in their life, they have those tags, they scan the tag and they get in the building, it's gonna feel so cool. I want to have one of those, you know, and funny enough, the guy sitting in the office is looking at you walking down, man, I wish I was younger, again, I could just walk down the street and not be in this glass prison.
This, this chain around my neck, if I could just get rid of
it.
So we have these aspirations in our life, right? And the interesting thing about the language so far is is Allah talking to everyone? Or is he trying to point out an individual?
I will do this, every one of you want this. So you're thinking about you, you're not thinking about nobody else. This is the kind of garden I want. This is the kind of investment I want. This is the kind of money I want to make. You know, you've got these big plans of how you're going to use the money and how you're going to make more money from that money. Some of you guys you know, you're just thinking about how am I going to make that money man, I gotta I gotta get into crypto. I gotta, I gotta get an NFT or something. You know, this some way of making money? Right? But Allah says the houfy have been cool imagine a situation where the money is good. And then you got old but that's
not enough. Asaba holy cable, old age struck him down by the way, interestingly, is Saba was used just before for heavy rain, heavy rain struck down Osama Hua balloon. And now he says Asaba who will cover the old age struck him targeted him as if just like why Bill was a calamity all ages also a calamity and the the the heavy rain what did it do? It exposed the reality of the situation, didn't it?
And by using a Saba, what's Allah hinting at? The old age also exposes
The reality of the situation, the reality of the situation, all this stuff that I was running after I lost the ability to run
a Saba Hill cable. What a who do read it on the iPhone. But that's not enough. The reasons and this person has weak offspring, strange language. So he got old and he has weak offspring. Allah could have said he has young children, which is possible possible within the meanings of the retinal alpha, that he has weak children, or young children. But Allah didn't say young children, Allah said weak offspring. The RIA includes your children, and their children and their children and their children. Future generations are also called Luria. So that's one interesting thing. So maybe he's old. So he does, not only does he have kids, he also has grandkids. That's possible, because it's
using the word Luria. But looking at all of them, one description for all of them is what they are weak. Now, if they're if he's old, and he can't take care of the property anymore, he can't protect it anymore. He can check the accounts anymore, show me how much we collected, and his eyesight is too weak to and the, the guy is telling him this is how much money came in. And he's like, Ah, * again, huh? Right. So he can't, he can't even keep track anymore, because he's too old. And he needs to, if you're if you have a lot of wealth, and you're too old, who do you need, you need people you can trust, otherwise, people will take advantage of you, and who's the most people, you can trust
the people that are your own meaning your own kids, right? Interestingly, this was about a garden and a garden is what you plant the seed and the tree comes out, the grapes come out, etc, and your children or your own seed, right. And he's like, you know, my kids is all I have. And Allah describes those kids as weak. So one implication is they're very young. So even they're too young to take care of the garden.
Another problem is, if he dies now, and they're young, they're gonna get eaten alive by society, people are going to come and rob them, and other people will come and take all of it, and they won't be able to defend the property. Right. So even though he's very wealthy, he's too old to change anything. And he realizes, even the people around him are too weak to defend the property. So everything he spent his life building is about to disappear. And there's nothing you can do about it. Because the WHO THE RETURN TO artha. But the other meaning of weak is also immature. You know, a lot of times in the world, you have somebody who created an amazing business,
you know, amazing, amazing business. And then when they die, the kids take over. And it takes like six months, and it's burned to the ground.
Because we're fighting each other over the property, the kids are like, Oh, Baba didn't know what he was doing. I'll show you management and in their management, now they're, they're, you know, back on the street, and everything's gone. Because they're too weak to run something like that. Also, because the father, the one who built the business, he started from nothing. So he knows what it takes to build a business. He knows what it takes to work on a farm, he knows how to get one palm tree and turn it into two into three into four into five, that was work. That was many years of his life. But the kids, when by the time they grew up, they just saw the gardens already there. You
don't have to do anything, the money just comes to you. So rich people tend to have spoiled kids. And spoiled kids are weak. Even if they become adults, they we they don't know the the value of hard work. They don't know difficulty. They don't know grit. They don't they don't know it like that. Because they were everything was already taken care of. And so they come in. And he knows that even if they're not physically weak, they're mentally or psychologically in terms of maturity, they're also weak, they're not going to be able to protect his garden. So now this man is wealthy, he accomplished his dream. But the moment he accomplished it, a new anxieties took over.
I can one I can't enjoy it until my kids are going to destroy it. They can't even take care of themselves. One of my biggest fears they'll take over now if this is interesting, you don't choose your children. Right? Allah chooses your children for you. Sometimes you look at some of your kids, you're like, how are you mine? Right? That happens to
and the Romans used to have this problem. Because the Roman the Caesars, they're the Kings, right? The Caesar, and who's going to be the next king, the son of Caesar. But the Romans came up with a new solution. The Caesar came up with a new solution. He said, Okay, I have a son, but my son is a loser. I know it is no good. I shall take a son not have a son. Take a son. So what he would do is he would look at some of the most qualified young generals, the most accomplished loyal of his soldiers are advisors. And you know how in the British Empire, you have the idea of knighthood. Right, the Caesar would literally declare someone from today I have taken you as my son. So when you
take someone as your son, you get to choose their genetics. You get to choose their qualifications, their personality, and you're like this, this one I'm going to adopt, and I'm taking him as my son, and he I'll give him the kingdom because the one I get
I came from my own genes, my own seed. Know, if I want the Empire to survive, this kid has no business sitting on this throne. So I'm going to take a son. But generally speaking, in life, we don't take children and just declare them our own. In fact, Quran even says the room, the Abba him, called them by their father's names, right. So you don't get to ignore the father, the seed from which you came. So we have our kids who we have who we have. There's also an interesting loneliness being described in this, this imagery, which some of you not everyone here, but some of you may have become very successful in business, you will be able to appreciate it. Because sometimes Allah gives
ayat, someone doesn't have it yet. And they're imagining what it's going to be like, but some people already have it.
And they can relate not to the uphill, like, you know, you don't have it, you're like, oh, it's gonna be so awesome up there. But some people got there. And they can see how Allah is describing the downhill, because they got up there, and they can see the other side, right. So what happens as you become successful in business, is you become more and more lonely,
you become more and more lonely. People are the genuine relationships in your life, they become less and less and less. Okay, so what happens is the new friends you will make after you become successful, they're not friends of you. They're partly friends of you. But there's a big percentage of that is their friends of your success.
So they're not quite entirely loyalty. And if your success disappeared, then you'll notice some of those friends are also disappearing. You'll also notice that if you're benefiting them with your success, then they're really good friends. And the moment you turn the tap off,
you say we're friends, but I don't have to do things for you like that, then all of a sudden, they might even become enemies.
Because actually, the friendship wasn't with the person, the friendship was with what the person accomplished. So people like that tend to be very alone. And they have trust issues. It's it's lonely at the top, they say, right, they have trust issues. So they can't really honestly trust anyone. You know, by the way, this happens in business, this happens in politics, this happens in any any field, if you're at the top of your field, like if you're the top surgeon in the hospital, right, or if you're the governor of a city, in the top position, if you're the general in the military, if you're the head of the Fortune 500 company, if you're the CEO, or if you're the owner,
the problem is you cannot have you know, you have some issues you're going through, maybe you're going to something going to something in your personal life, maybe there's something going on in the company, you need to discuss with someone, you can't just discuss it with anybody.
Because if you think you're discussing it with your friend, that friend villa, you know, you know who talks to me about their personal issues.
And that becomes a value add for them.
So you can only talk to people you truly, truly trust the idea of Would one of you want this garden? Would one of you want the investments to grow, Would one of you want and then you have weak children, meaning the only one he could possibly have trusted as who has children. Allah did mention he has brothers that it can take over. He has a community surrounding him that can help No, no, he's alone at the top. He's just alone. Everybody else's kind of vultures, the only hope he had was his children, but they're weak to that's you know, and the only the only reason they would have loyalty to him is it's kind of a bond of blood. So they have to have loyalty, right? But even they are too
weak to show that kind of loyalty. So now this, this blessing became a curse because it's not it's not something that can continue.
It was the joy of it was short lived. The business success was short lived, and it got replaced even if the mansion is there, the property is there. The old man is still alive, but he's living his life and anxiety. He's not living in peace. You know, what's the point of having Janna outside and you don't have calm inside.
Many of you for example have may have gone on a vacation while you're depressed.
There's some drama happening in your family some problem going on some issue going on and you go on vacation and you go to the one of the most beautiful places in the world. And you have the most delicious food your favorite food, your favorite ice cream, it doesn't taste very good. Why not? The outside is perfect. If somebody saw a picture of you eating your favorite ice cream and by this waterfall and all of that my man this guy is living the life
and you're eating a you're like honest, you know doesn't mean anything. I don't feel like anything. Can we just go home? Why? Because Allah Allah made contentment, the inside more important than the outside. That's just the nature of the human being. Allah is describing okay fine even if you get all the outside don't have your have all these anxieties on the inside then what's going to happen? But things don't. This is not bad enough. The image continues the image so you got old your children are weak.
And then the image continues. What does Allah say? For Osama who is so so for Osama Ersan
then all of a sudden, while this man is old and his children are weak,
a whirlwind, a tornado, Al Assad comes from acid, like well lastly in the in Santa Fe, Hoser acid, an acid are all related acid means juice. And more solid is also when you take wet cloth, and you twist it until all the water comes out. And that's why the tornado or the whirlwind is called a twister.
That because it looks like the cloth being drenched and squeezed, that's why it's called ASR. Right? So Allah says, so all of a sudden, Tornado strikes this, this farm or this garden Valsalva he's still alive, he's old, he's still alive. He's too weak to be able to stop anything from happening. His children are too weak to to help with any situation. Plus, it's a natural disaster. What are you going to do anyway, except for run. And now they're watching their entire years of property, their entire future investments all be put inside of a blender and the blender turns on. But that would have been bad enough. But you know, because if the if the, if the thing comes and rips everything
up, maybe you have some money saved, maybe you have a chest with some cash in it or something, right? Or you have expensive clothes or things like that, right? Expensive items. It'll throw things around, maybe you can get go and recover them. Even if it's done it destroyed everything you might be able to recover something. Allah said aerosol rune fee now.
It's a whirlwind. It's a tornado Twister. Inside of it. There's a fire.
So it's not just going around destroying things. While it's destroying them. It's also what it's burning them. The thing about breaking something if I break wood, if, if I if when snapped a tree in half, for example, it broke the tree. But can you still recover wood?
You can still recover some wood from a broken tree. You can still reuse it for something that's possible. But if a tree got burned down
all you got left is ash
is unusable.
look this up on your own time. Don't do it. Now you'll get distracted.
Fire whirlwind, look up YouTube videos on this is actually a natural phenomenon. So sometimes there's a tornado, and there's a fire somewhere and the tornado hits the fire and the fire goes inside the tornado and flat forms a stream. It looks like a tube of fire going around burning everything. It's one of the scariest things you'll see. It's a phenomenon in nature. It's inside. It's the fire is literally inside the twister. It's inside the whirlwind. And some people have caught it on film, like this major news events and other things like you know, Australians are crazy. They got the worst job I don't know why but some guy in Australia they saw a video today he
was like yeah, it was the most terrifying thing I've ever seen May and he's got this whole bit I'm like, why are you making the video if you're so terrified? This these Australians man
so this is now burning down his entire life's work his entire savings his entire future he was worried about what am I going to kids what are my kids going to do? They'll destroy the garden. It's as if Allah showed him you don't have to wait for your kids to destroy the garden. I'll watch you I'll make you watch your entire life's work burn down in front of you
the fact that rocket and then so now when this fire comes, Allah could have said for how to rock Ah ha ha raka ha would have meant that the twister and the fire in it burnt it down. burnt down the garden but Allah says fatter rocket which is loves him, which means the garden itself set ablaze. The garden, you know went combusted. Now why is that important to note, it's as if the garden was too vulnerable and easily set on fire. It wasn't immune to this test. This is saba. Now notice the word is always being used the second time the first time was a Saba wo l cable. And now it's a Saba ASR. Now this fire comes and burns it down faster rocket. Now look at what Allah has done in this is
incredible, incredible and scary, terrifying example. First of all, Allah azza wa jal has given us a reality that this life no matter what you accomplish, at the end of it, this is what's coming.
For the believer of the nonbeliever, one way or the other, either you will see your your assets your treasures disappear in front of your eyes, or they will be the real Alpha who will destroy it after you
one or the other. Even though God knows this he builds a giant wall and says when Allah wants he'll destroy it.
I mean, this is a temporary fix, nothing in this world is permanent. And the first realization is you yourself are not permanent. So when the previous ayat said, Well, I, you know, Billahi will your will and I don't believe in Allah nor the Last Day, it was actually alluding to the fact that we make, we give for Allah sake are in Allah's path, because we are investing in eternal life. And now Allah is showing us in this example, how, how futile if you all of your efforts were focused on this life? What is it going to amount to in the end, when the hudl return to alpha, for example, hi, rsrp Hina now,
then there's the other interesting thing about this, this example, Why did Allah pick on an old man, he particularly highlighted the old age, and it's not just that he's old, enrich. So it's a interesting combination, right? Old and rich. Most people in government
right? Most people in big real estate giants old and rich. What happens is the guy the guy spent his life building this garden now he's too old. So other people are managing it. Other people are his his name is on there. But he's not the one doing the work anymore. When he used to walk in people used to say Yes, sir. Yes, sir. He used to give the instructions used to check on the well, he used to check on the horses used to check on the cows used to check. But now he's not the manager anymore. He's not the boss anymore. He's retired. He's old man. It's all his. But it's being run by others he's seeing almost it's almost as though he's seeing himself become invisible. His garden is
great. But he's no longer great. And he's no longer powerful enough to manage the whole thing. So what happens to him? What happens to this old man who sees that I did all this work? And all these people are working. But they don't remember me? They don't? Don't you know, I'm just, they just invite me on the yearly, you know, the employee, Gala. Invite me to hand me a plaque.
Who they think these people are I built this place.
So what does he do? every chance he gets every dinner, every lunch? You know, who built this farm?
Now who put that tree there? You know, and he's,
you people think you know what you're doing? And he's constantly reminding them that he's the man. He's the one who did this. None of you would have a job if it wasn't for me. You know, I was practicing this afternoon.
So he's doing all of that. You know what that is so interesting. It's a I think the Arabic terms are meant well, other
esoteric terms, that means I'm going to remind them who did this. I don't care if it hurts their feelings. They need to know where this garden came from. This is actually in a subtle way tying back to law to do so Ducati can build money, while other that old man who seen himself wither away wants to see credit go to him. You know, he may have done so well, up until now. But as he's dying, he's like, people are gonna forget me. I need to do some money before I go. So they know it was me.
Allah protect our intentions, especially in our old age. You know, there are there are.
There's some funny I hope that Allah doesn't count these experiences, you know, as money and other. But I've seen some funny things in life. I went to this one city one time. In Houston, there was a city. It was a masjid. I went there. And this old gentleman came. I said, I you know who I am? Like, no. I started this Masjid in 1937. Also cool. Yeah, I remember he was like, do you do?
I've never lived in Houston. I live in Dallas, four hours away. I remember when you were so little running around over here.
Yes, I remembered. Like I didn't want to. I didn't want to ruin the guy's moment.
But I don't know how many people he remembers running around. But that became his thing. People have forgotten him. Nobody listens to him. So he's a reminder, I'm the one who started this, please. You think you don't want him? I need you to know who I am. It's important for me. And so that becomes another way of Allah explaining the motivations behind a manual other when a person starts feeling invisible. When a person starts feeling like all their great accomplishments, all that attention, they used to have all the respect they used to command. Everybody used to look at them and say, Oh, but it's how baggy, right? That's gone all of a sudden, because they're too old. And now they have
to bring that back in some way. And money and other maybe a way to bring it back. But how is Allah describing that man, that's you literally had this beautiful garden and you brought a fire on it yourself. You just destroyed the whole thing before your own eyes. Now look at look at this last comparison between the previous comparison and this one, the previous previous method and the previous method, especially the one with the seed
If
you just planted one seed,
and it keeps growing and multiplying and multiplying and multiplying into infinity, it keeps on growing.
Compare that to this guy who's planted plenty of seeds, he's got a garden. But he knows that even his own kids will not be able to forget multiplying it, they won't even be able to maintain it. So you've got a comparison between a seed that keeps on growing, and then an entire garden that is not sustainable. And that's the difference between doing sadaqa in the right way, versus doing sadaqa in the wrong way with the wrong intention or in the wrong way with with manual other or with Ria. So this is Allah showing us how we are in danger of destroying our entire sadaqa. All of it, just by these comments, what an incredible, scary, terrifying way of letting never letting us forget what
we've done. Because we might have in the end, we might have an impressive amount of sadaqa we've given.
And we want the world to remember what we did.
And sometimes people do this for good intention, like they'll have oh, please put the name of the patron, or the one who donated all this money, please put their name at the door of the masjid or on the side or at the hospital or somewhere, so people can make dua for them. Right, which is good.
But even if they didn't have that name there, anybody who benefited from that place, it's not like the angels will say, Well, they didn't say your name. So I can't really record it in your credit, I've officially they just think the doctor, so sorry, you missed out on that. It doesn't worry.
You don't have to have your name for the South Dakota account for you. You know, because Allah multiplies in his own way, Allah multiplies in ways we can't even imagine. Just Just think of it just just just try to understand what Allah has done for us in his Rama, this is one of the greatest Rama of Allah is what he does with your Visa card, how He multiplies and grows sadaqa. If I put a little bit of donation for a the house of Allah, for example, right? In that masjid, there's children learning,
those children will maybe learn something good. And then that might impact their behavior and their life going into many, many years. And that one child might teach their children's children's children's show, and all of that there's a small commission that went into my pocket, because I put some money in the donation box on the side. In that same masjid, a wedding happened. And two people got married and they had shot the wedding was an act of about the two families coming together was inactivated by the the children, the child being born was inactive with the child doing the life of good from that marriage that happened in Allah's house. I'm getting a piece of commission of
generations and generations of the hail that's coming from that place of somebody who accepted Islam in that place. And three generations later, their great grandchild becomes a great scholar of this Deen, who knows, who knows, Allah is multiplying the sadaqa in ways we can't imagine. This is what he says you'll be sadaqat but when you build your own empire, you build your own business you have to, it's not like Allah will protect it in ways you can't imagine. You got to figure out how to protect it. I gotta make sure that I have the right management in place. I gotta make sure my kids are trained to be able to take care of this property. Me, me, me. So it's like it says if Allah is
comparing, when you have to protect your investment, how much anxiety Do you have? And when you hand your investment over to Allah, how stress free does it become? Right Allah just takes care of it and he will, he will do a way better job multiplying your money than you can ever do. And even if you got to the top of it, it's just downhill from there. For Asaba Hola, que Bella Huria Tondo IFA Asaba Hi, SRP, Hina Fattah rocket, cada Lika Ubu Allahu La comunidad La La Kentucky that have a Quran. Allah says that is how Allah clarifies the IRA to you. That is how all it's as if Allah is saying that is how Allah has now made all of the previous lessons clear to you. So you can continue to
think deeply the question for you and I then becomes we don't own a garden. Maybe some of you do. I don't know.
We don't know. But you might have aspirations to own a business. To build an empire to do is to do investments, that's your garden. Those are your palm trees and your dates. And we have thoughts about how to secure that investment. Then you have as you get older, you're not just thinking about money, you're thinking about legacy. When people make enough money, they stop thinking about money. They start thinking about legacy, they start thinking about what am I going to do with this money, I need to set up a trust fund, I need to set up this this investment. I need to set up this charity foundation. I need to do this, that and the other. They're trying to figure it out while once I'm
gone. They call it estate planning. It's a huge business. It's a huge industry that people that make a certain amount of money they have to go to estate planners to figure out what they're going to do with that excess money into their future. How much should go to the children how much should go to this cause How much should go to that cause How do you
Want your name to remain in the world? What impact do you want to leave behind? What you know? What legacy Do you want to leave behind? Right? And that's the lesson Allah is teaching us here have the right kind of planning for the future, the right kind of mindset. So he says, so you can think deeply, the if finally teaches us, that none of our expect none of our interactions every day, there are things that I'm doing every day that
that I consumed, and it's over.
Right, I slept, and I woke up, and that was for me, I ate some food. And that was for me.
So there are things even think of think of this in terms of money. The money I have, I use some of it to eat food, I use some of it to buy a pair of socks, I use some of it to, you know, get a plane ticket, etc, etc. That's stuff that's it's burning away.
But then there's the same some of that money I put into an investment, some of that money I put away for something that doesn't just it's not going to benefit me now. It's going to benefit me later. Right? That's the nature of forward thinking and long term planning. And that's what Allah is teaching us learn to think about truly long term planning, even the one who was planning to get a garden 30 years from now, and they're going to own it even that's going to burn down, learn to think even past those 30 years, learn to think 3000 years, learn to think long, long term, plant the seed become long term thinkers, this is the futuristic planning, you know, in terms of sadaqa also, this
makes us not just think why should give for the sake of Allah is the last thing I'll share with you. It's not just Oh, give to the I'm not getting another fundraising lecture. Right? Give for the sake of Allah, donate to the masjid donate to this cause this is no, no. Take a step back and think about this. Just like we plan for our business. Just like we plan for our business. We need to think about when we invest even for Allah sake, are we investing into something that truly can continue to produce more and more hire?
Just like in a business before you put money in it now? Like, is this a profitable business? Is it functioning in an optimal way? Is this does it have good returns? Does it have a good track record? Does it have a good you know, is this have good comps? What's the competition like you do all this research before you put money in an investment? But when it comes to for the sake of Allah, you know what happens? You will have somebody come give for the sake of Allah. Why should I give? Because it's for the sake of Allah. Okay, to do to what? Oh, do we have a school? Give to our school? Let me Can I see your school? Yeah, it's here. Okay. So tell me, what's the graduation rate? The kids that
come out of here? What are they going on to do? You know, brother, we don't ask these kinds of questions. Just get for the sake of Allah. No, wait, hold on. I just want to see what kind of quality of education you have in the school. Because I'm investing not for the school, I'm investing for myself, for my IRA.
And if I'm investing, I better make the best investment.
I better make the best investment. This some of this, some of this might offend some of you. It's okay, I'm leaving in a couple of weeks, I'm fine.
If there was a pizza place, and they made bad pizza, they will shut down
because somebody else is making better pizza.
But if there's an Islamic institution, and they're providing a terrible service,
no good. They will survive for 100 years. You know why? Because every Ramadan, they'll say you want Jana?
Give me Give me more.
And no. And they have no incentive to improve themselves, to do quality control, to expand to new a new head to be agile and say, Hey, we're not doing enough. We need to do more, we need to do more, we need to do more. Because they say don't worry, Ramadan is coming on the 27th.
Just get the best fundraiser to come in here. Let people cry, and give you know, pull pull out their checkbooks and write the checks and leaves. We'll give all that extra jewelry. I know exactly what to I've been doing this game a long time. This is not my first rodeo. Don't worry about it.
And so what does that do? It creates organizations that have no concern for improving the quality of their service. They're not trying to do the do better and better and better. Because now they're like those weak children that saw money come in easy from the garden, and they feel no need to improve so they're weak. So then we end up because of the way we've set up our institution, sometimes we've created weak institutions, and we reinforced that weakness. We actually encouraged that weakness, by the way that we've structured them and we need to rethink that. Because it is this is about our aka This is about getting the most out of everything I spend for the sake of Allah. I
will spend it on that which produces the most benefit them because I'm greedy for them.
benefited producers. I'm greedy for that. May Allah azza wa jal give our institutions the proper kind of insight. I don't mean to disparage our institutions, I just hope that we understand what it means to push the boundaries towards a son constantly and not be in the status quo. If there's a if there's a Muslim organization, institution, educational community, whatever, and they're the exact they're running almost exactly the same way they were running 50 years ago, and the only difference is they have a new area,
or they have a newer carpet. But it's the same exact politics the same things, the youth are still not really involved at all. There's no new innovation for mother's and the seniors. And if none of that's happening, then what do you what are you spending on electricity bills? The, you know, they're still hydrated but it's not the spirit of higher that Allah expects from us. May Allah azza wa jal give us the ability to aim higher at every level in our lives, and make us of those whose gardens never burned down. BarakAllahu li Walakum Fillmore al Hakim when IrfanView er can be layered with Mr. Alexander