Omar Suleiman – How Allah Repays You For Your Honesty
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spend our time that allows a lot of cinema lado de la vida and he was talking to me he woman wanna so inshallah tada as we continue and inshallah I know that some people are probably still logging on from the previous stream.
You know, I wanted to talk about this subject of how Allah subhanaw taala rewards our honesty when we're in a difficult situation. And I wanted to take a very particular angle to this. So let me frame it in sha Allah tada in sort of a personal discussion that I was having this morning with someone that's experiencing an extreme amount of financial difficulty. And obviously, many people in particularly the COVID-19 era are experiencing financial hardship for the very first time, or at least for the first time in a very long time, in in this way, and as people start to experience financial hardship, and it's actually a paper that inshallah I'm working on a side, sister nudge one
sister Sato salon with the mental health as well as the faith element to it as how we deal with financial uncertainty. As people start to experience financial uncertainty, like many forms of uncertainty,
certain options become available to them, and certain things open up for them that might not have been open to them before. And I want to preface this by saying that there are legitimate fatwas, for example, legitimate scholarly opinions, for example, that if a person finds themselves in this situation, then they're able to, you know, out of necessity to engage in this particular type of financial transaction, which otherwise would be prohibited a lot of lots of behind Mahabharat, that necessity, makes things that are ordinarily prohibited permissible, and a restricted sense, right. And one of the problems is that people usually go beyond the restricted to the moment and they just
kind of go far into it. And this is this is, you know, very much so embedded in our legal reasoning as Muslims that there are certain hardships that make things permissible that ordinarily would be prohibited. But I want to take this beyond that. And I want us to just sort of think about it as an attitude as a mindset.
A person who has this quality that is referred to in our text, as if as modesty. modesty typically, when discussed in the spiritual sense refers to modesty in regards to probably the way that many of us think of it, as if in protecting oneself from Xena and everything that leads to Zina protecting oneself from adultery, fornication, and guarding one's chastity. But it also refers to staying away from how Tom money and not finding ourselves in a situation where we are engaging in prohibited forms of transaction. And so just says when a person is in a place of affluence, and they're gaining a lot, and they have a lot of money, for example, and they're in a place of luxury, and they're they
see that there is a way to do extra to gain extra and so they'll engage in some prohibited transactions because they've tasted the sweetness of wealth and prosperity and so I might as well keep increasing. Likewise, there's a unique hardship, a unique way of a person finding themselves in a in a way that they can be tempted to help them when they're in a difficult situation. And so typically, when we talk about a salaat, what blah, blah, when we talk about hardship and ease, we talk about it from the perspective of giving sadaqa for example, in hardship and ease, alladhina, Yun, Falco and FSR he was Pattaya praises the people that spent both in times of adversity and in
times of prosperity. But there's there's something to be said about a person who holds on to their principles, and does that does not lose them in a situation of hardship and in a situation of particularly the pinch of financial hardship. And this is where we find so much in our text about this idea of a loss of Hannah what's added rewarding a person for their honesty, woman yet tequila, Allah who Maharajah we have Zukerman, Hazel,
that whoever is mindful of Allah subhanho wa Taala Allah subhanaw taala will make a way out for them. And Allah will provide them from places and with things both Yazoo, Calum and Hazel a test that will provide him or her from places that they would not have expected before. Okay. So it refers to the source so you don't know where the fate where the good is going to come to you. You don't know when it's going to come to you and you also don't know how it's going to come to you. So both the source of the disk and the output of the disk the source of the sustenance as well as the output of the sustenance are unknown to you. When you choose to practice taqwa. When you choose to
practice piety and God consciousness, even in a tight situation, even in a difficult situation. Many so I can
Lola hospital and whoever interests a lot with all of their affairs, then Allah subhana wa tada will be sufficient for that person in regards to everything. Okay, in regards to everything. Now, again, I'm going to say this one more time, there are situations where a person finds themselves in a lota in a hardship, and there is a legitimate fatwa and a pathway where a person has to engage in something that is ordinarily prohibited for the sake of getting themselves out of a difficult situation. And so, you know, you'll find that this is gradual, and you'll find that it is both on the basis of how difficult your situation is, and whether or not you've exhausted the permissible
means to deal with the situation without having to engage in how long Alright, so how much have you exhausted the permissible means, in order to not find yourself in a place of engaging in that prohibited transaction or in those prohibited ways. And that's where that tough work really comes in. Right? So taqwa really refers to a sense of cautious, being cautious and being safe, particularly when it comes to sins. You know, the, the famous narration of the companions, who described taqwa as a person that's walking between thorny bushes and holding themselves tight so that they don't find themselves being pricked by those thorns. And so they hold themselves tight.
So, you know, so that they can remain safe, right. And so that's an attitude. That's a mindset that when a person finds themselves, in a situation where things become tempting, where it's easy to go a prohibited route, they ask themselves have I really exhausted all of the permissible ways to get myself out of this difficulty, they ask Allah subhanaw taala for help, they ask Allah for support, they exhaust their permissible means to get out of that situation. And then lastly, they only engage the prohibited to the extent that is necessary to get them out of their place of hardship or dire need, I'm going to say that, again, they only engage it to a point that it is necessary to get them
out of their hardship or their dire need. Because sometimes what happens is that just as you have some people that will sort of skip over the permissible, exhausting the permissible to get themselves out of a hardship, you'll also have some people that will exceed under the under the umbrella of a fatwa that was given in a very restricted way it will exceed and we'll just go all the way in. And so if this festival allows a person in this situation to engage this much, they'll use that photo to justify engaging in this much, right, so where's the tough one here, the tough one is not in a person, having exhausted all permissible means, and then finding themselves in deep
hardship. And perpetuating that hardship. The tough one is in whether that person really exhausted their permissible means and really tried really tried to, to go about things in the in the purest way possible, and ask Allah subhana wa tada for support in the process, and then engaging only what they had to have the doubtful or the what is ordinarily prohibited for that moment. So that's where tough what is in that regard, right? It's that a person holds back a person is skeptical, not of the the scholar that might give a fatwa for a situation, but a person is skeptical as to whether or not they would qualify for some of the concessions and the exemptions that are given in a hard place.
Now, of course, there's the extreme the opposite extreme of that, which is a person that's not even in a hard situation. And the person that just cheats with their money, a person that engages in prohibited transaction, maybe delude themselves into thinking that, you know, this is allowed, it's okay for me to do. You know, I had a person who is actually very recently who was cheating his customers, and he said, they're all kofod anyways, like, since so you're strict here. Like, you know, you're strict on this idea of, of APA. And, you know, we'll learn a lot and we have to hate these people. And so we can mistreat them. And then, you know, you engage in all sorts of head on
transactions, because they're kofod. Anyway, you know, like, what is that right? Like, how do you have that, that that split personality and that clear cognitive dissonance in regards to how you're going to treat these two situations, these two areas, right, these two areas. So when it comes to the opposite of extreme extreme of that, it's that person that cheats a little bit, that person that adds a little bit, a little bit of money to the transaction that sneaks in a little bit to the weights. And, you know, one of my teachers is he was talking about a little tougher theme. Because one of the first types of economic trends transgression that Allah subhanaw taala warned about was
People that tip the scales and will top 15 and, and will top 15. They, they deceive in small amounts, and the way that they deceive in small amounts and tipping the scale and tipping the price is they add just enough to the price or just enough to the weight to where they won't be caught by the other person. So think about the mindset of a person who cheats, who cheats in their in their wealth and cheats in their financial transactions, right? I'm gonna deceive and add just enough
what's going to govern At what point my cheating stops? My limit stops with my cheating is not if i think you know, I've got my excess and I've crunched my numbers. And you know, I would have had my full here. No, it's how much can I get away with? Right? How much can I get away with because remember, these are spiritual diseases from which these practices emanates, how much can I get away with, with that person without getting caught. And without without getting exposed in a way that would rupture my business, right or my transactions. And so that's the buff, right adds just a little bit there adds a little bit to the week, you know, with the profit slice some saw of a person
that would that would take grain that was bad. And that would put the best part of it on the top right to deceive. And that person, you know, when that person is going to hide the bad part of the grain in the depths of it and put the good part on the top, what's going to cause them to decide how much of the good part is put on top and how much of the rotten they allowed to be in that particular container is what they can get away with. And that's why I spent a lot when the prophet SAW some talks about the signs of hypocrisy when a person speaks they lie when a person makes promises they break their promises and when a person is interested and wait that to me the Hon really refers to a
lot of a lot of contractual matters. So you will Edina will be opposed
will Edina homely Amana to him whereas the hemlock boom or the last pentile tells us and within the outage people that honor their transactions that are honorable in their business honorable in their contracts, they keep the amount of secret gatherings or secrets that are given to them. But they're people of amount of people of trust. All the signs of hypocrisy of a person who speaks in lies a person who breaks promises and a person who cannot be entrusted in their affairs. All of them are found in a person that is dishonest with their financial transactions, all of them, right, all traits of that hypocrisy. And of course these there's the other head the way the hustle, federal,
which are you know, which I'm not going to get too far into right now. But a person exceeds the bounds of anger, and things of that sort. So this is what I want us to think about what we get used to. And just like with any sin with any sin,
and the Prophet size on warns us from hypnotic loop, this idea of belittling sin, it's the small drops that corrode the entire heart. And that lead a person to a complete place of fragility, a complete place of rebellion with the loss of Hamilton transgression with the loss of Hamilton. Okay, so, just like with any small sin, it's those small things that you start to cheat with, with your money, small things that you start to cheat with, with your financial transactions, the small things that you start to get away with the small forms of deception that you start to allow to be accepted as practice that corrode a person's tequila, and that Excel their newfound Excel their hypocrisy,
okay? And so what's the opposite of this? Allah reward towards honesty. And just like with sins, sins tend to yield a temporary short term benefit, okay? Like they're very immediate and the type of pleasure that they yield. Usually when a person sins they do it because of that they're coming at it from a place of Agile of being agile, right there hasty and agile two minute shape on there, they're hasty towards it. So they want to experience the taste of that desire in that moment, and they're impatient with their desires, they don't have sub with happiness with holding themselves back with their Shahada with their desires, and so they will engage in something that gives them an immediate
sense of pleasure only to be followed by a lifetime of regrets and even worse without Toba hereafter of regret, without repentance of hereafter regret, but it's, I've got to have it at this moment, I'm not patient enough, till the loss of habitat kind of makes the permissible means for me, to where I will either taste the benefits of engaging in only that which is permissible in just the Hereafter, or Allah subhanaw taala reward me
With an element of reward for engaging only in the permissible in this life and the next. And so I give you an example someone says, Look, I want to quit my business, I want to quit my, I want to get out of this how long okay? And for some people what this means is removing how long product off the shelf, removing something forbidden off the shelf. So think of a person that sells alcohol, right? Or sells, you know, pork or whatever it is, right? But I want to remove something harmful from the shelf, and that person is crunching the numbers and says well this much of my money comes from alcohol sales. And if I stopped selling liquor, then I'm going to I'm going to feel you know this
this great
you know, pain because 30 40% whatever it is of my sales are going to go to waste now. And it's very hard to reason with that person say only a tequila Hydra Allah homophobia supplement hated it. Allow provides you in ways that you did not know because they're only able to see to the extent of what the numbers read. And that's actually the problem, right? That just like with sin, you're only able to see what's right in front of you and you're not able to see what's behind it. Okay,
you are hasty. The same thing is true when it comes to our financial sense, and the lack of integrity or honesty that we might show in regards to our transactions in regards to what we engage in the financial sense, okay? Why? Because if I'm talking to that person, I say, Listen, if you're, you know, you don't know the risk that you will see in your life, through other business opportunities that Allah will decree that come your way, because of you abandoning that how long, you don't know the blessing, the Baraka that Allah will put in the money that you earn from Hello. So if you lose out on 30%, of the Baraka that Allah will put in the 70%, to where its benefits is
expanded, its blessing is expanded, you can't quantify that you cannot determine the list of the sustenance in your life that you will have in how Allah subhana wa tada then blesses your children, because they're now nourished on halaal income, as opposed to have on income, the blessings that are put in your family, right, as a result of that, there is no way for you to be able to quantify all of that. And so just like sub patience, when it comes to the hot arm in terms of sin, requires you to trust the loss of hundreds out of that what Allah has in store for you is better, and that you don't need to compromise on what is better for you that is in store from a loss panel to Anna, or
with the loss of Hannah Montana, because of the immediate temptation of the prohibited, the same thing is true with all of our financial temptations, money is a is so tempting towards how wrong, right and a person can find themselves falling over and over and over and over again, when it comes to these things. And these financial transactions. So I want to actually give you you know, two incidents of this two stories of this one of them, you know, I've loved no matter the length of time I
want to be he wanted to test non love nominal the law on him, I used to free slaves a lot, he was known for expiating slaves, and I'm the love normally a lot of time and who used to free the slaves, so much so that, that
people knew, you know, those that were enslaved knew
how to catch his heart and how to catch his eye. And so one of his companions told him, he said that, you know, because you will push yourself to free righteous, these righteous people that are enslaved by some people that are enslaved, will you hide your own luck, they'll deceive you by pretending to be more religious than they actually are. Because they know that that will cause your heart to incline more towards them. And then you'll even push yourself further to free them right to purchase their freedom and to let them go from from those that
that that are their owner. So you will you will do whatever you can to push them and he said, Look, you have your own anything law, they deceive me for the sake of Allah meaning, you know, the reward of freeing these people is blessing regardless whether they're righteous or not. And, you know, if I'm being tricked into doing more good deeds than 100 Allah right, so he was happy when he would do that. So I'm loving the low tide on him out. He was one time passing by a sheep herder.
And this this person that had the sheep, he was watching the sheep for his say, and he said to him, he said, you know, give me one of those sheep and I'll give you a price. Right? I'll pay you for it.
You know, just give me one of them. And don't tell don't tell your say it. So the man responded and said, mmm, look one more time and he said, Listen, I am mameluke I, you know, I'm enslaved and talent and I'm interested. I'm instantly
I'm interested I can't do that.
I love not a lot of the a lot of title and Houma he responded said couldn't it Malik akella have that tell the the spigot them that
a wolf ate one of the sheep. Right? Tell him that just one of them got lost, you can get away with it he won't notice if you notice is one of the missing. Just say that it was attacked by a wolf. The man's response was one other akula and what will I say to Allah?
What will I say to alarm I gonna say to Allah, that it was lost? Am I gonna say to a lot that a wolf ate it? What will I say to a loss of Hannah without a handle? So the honesty of that man, the righteousness of that man look where his mind went right away, because that's significant. This is a beautiful story in and of itself. But look where his mind went. Yeah, if I can deceive him, how am I going to deceive him? How am I going to receive a lot? Right? That's where his mind went right away, because that's who his heart was connected to this entire time as he was hurting those sheep not upholding the law. What am I gonna say to a loss of time? Right? And I'm loving all the love of time
and humor. He said Kenny Matson, Arthur kotka, Jr. He said that word that you just said has caused you to be free in this world. And I asked Allah Subhana Allah to Allah that it will free you the day that you meet him, meaning the day that it will free you from any punishment in the hereafter as Subhana Allah just that one word of Mother akula What am I going to say to Allah subhana wa Tada. Now his list
his list, though he had no expectation of it, right? That man's honesty, his honesty, would have gotten him as a reward from Allah subhanaw taala. Regardless, when he's speaking to him to love normal, the Lord Tyler and Houma he's not telling him that to impress him, he's telling him that because that's where he is. That's where his spiritual status akula What am I going to say to a loss of hematite? You have an excuse? I might be able to deceive myself, but what am I going to say to a loss of habitat? Mother akula mother acquittal, What will I say to Allah subhana wa tada in the midst of all of this one mega tequila, Hydra Allahu Maharajah, we are so calm and hateful I tested
that man did not imagine that he would be freed in this world. But he was freed in this world. He was working and he was living his life in a way that he would be freed on the day of judgment from any of the hardship in any of the distress of that heavy day. It's Pamela mother, in law, mother in law, What will I say to a loss of Hannah Montana, that motto, if we were able to bring that into all of our affairs and life would just change everything for us? Right? What will I say to Allah subhana wa Tada. And that's the process of Morocco. That's the process of observing a loss of habitat and everything that you do. And it becomes so much harder to observe a loss of habitat with everything
that you do, when the excuses that are being given to you to, to display, the loss of Hannah Montana are so many. And they come to you in a diversified sense of, you know, a diversified sense of advices. And whatever it is, people that are well wishers that tell you, it's okay, you can do this, you can do that, when it becomes a situation where, you know, everyone else is doing it this way. So you can do it this way, too. This is the standard practice, you can engage in the standard practice as well. Not the akula What will I say to Allah subhana wa Tada. And I'll just end with one with one thing In conclusion, you know, when you look at the story of the novel The a lot of time, and had
the lotto the local town hall, kept his Islam secret, had without the allot of time who not, you know, taking that stance of I had an ad the way that he did 1111 the way that he did, which caused him to be tortured the way that he was, a lot of the time would have certainly escaped that torture, or likely escape the torture that he underwent for expressing his Islam, the way that he did, especially in the situation that he was, he would have likely escaped that torture. But he also would not have attained the blessings and high station that he did as a result of as a result of him putting himself in that situation by insisting on even in the most difficult circumstances. He you
know, would be locked out of the long time I knew I had found himself in the way that he's honored to be the other than the first person to climb up in Medina and say Allah could allow a first person to climb on the cabin and say a lot like what a lot about the first person to do so in Jerusalem and puts would he have had all of that right? Had he not done what he did? And so yes, the immediate hardship that comes when a person practices tough law holds themselves to a higher standard.
consequences are sometimes hard, but you don't know what lis away to what's the sustenance of Allah subhanaw taala awaits you afterwards. And you don't know what source it will come from. And you don't actually even know the outcome or the way that that this will be divided. Because one of the things that one of the mistakes that we make is that we define risk only in terms of money, right? So if I give up this out on money that I'm going to have this * out of money instead, right? We define risk we define sustenance only in times in terms of financial instruments. And that is not the way that a loss of Hannah Montana defines this. And that is not the way that we should interpret
things in our lives, especially in regards to risk. So we asked Allah subhana wa tada to suffice us with the halaal. To to nourish us with tequila, to nourish us with axon to allow us to be in the process always avoid October so we asked a lot to suffices with Helen only with with that which is permitted so that we don't fall into that which is prohibited. We asked a lot to nourish us with taqwa and axon, with piety, God consciousness and striving for God's pleasure within with a different standard and some and the process of Morocco, Morocco always being present our lives, where we observe a loss of habitat, even in situations where it is so easy, it is so easy to turn
away from a loss of hundreds of other people make us more comfortable with turning away from a loss of time, we ask Allah to allow us to observe him in all of our affairs and all of our states in hardship and an ease. And we ask Allah Subhana horns out of that, as he observes us at all times that Allah subhanaw taala always finds us in a state that is pleasing to Him, and that Allah subhanaw taala make the best of our states, the best of our affairs, the best of our deeds, the last of them, only Allah subhanaw taala make the best of our days, the day that we meet him some kind of Motown law. I mean, does that mean well, Hayden I apologize once again for the technical
difficulties to get started. Slowly l'amour, Salone vaticana Vietnam Mohammed whiner only here for Sandy marine Santa Monica.