Saad Tasleem – I feel like giving up
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
How long can we keep seeing
people being slaughtered and killed and no change
happening until we say, that's it. What's the
point of anything? Why even try?
Distinguishing
burnout.
So this is a a topic that,
possibly you couldn't pick a more relevant topic
for me in my life right now. So
I'm just gonna apologize
right off the bat before I get started,
if this session
is a little bit personal.
So generally when I when I
teach or, you know, speak on a topic,
especially when I teach,
I try to only pick those topics that
I have some personal relevance with that resonate
with me personally
because I have always felt that if you're
not speaking from the heart, you're not gonna
reach people's hearts. And so especially with Al
Maghrib Institute, you know, some of the seminars
that were mentioned,
they're all topics that have a personal place
in my life,
and that's why I choose to speak on
those topics.
And usually it deals with things that I
have been through as well. So,
I didn't pick this topic, but when I
kit when when I saw it in my
email,
really, like, got the gears turning and I,
like, I had a lot to think about.
And I've been thinking about this topic for
quite a bit now,
And the first thing that came to mind,
is
what has been going on in my life
in the past,
few years. So in 2022, about a year
and a half ago,
I lost my mentor, probably my main mentor,
Sheikh Mohammed Sharif,
Rahim
the founder of Al Maghrib Institute.
Al Maghrib Institute for those of you who
don't know was the OG Institute
So before anything else, I'm not gonna take
other names of other institutes,
before any of those institutes that you can
think about that teach that have like Islamic
learning and Islamic classes and all that, and
Maghreb preceded all of that and they kind
of set the stage or I should say
set the bar for everything to come after
it. So the fact that you have seminars
that make Islam relevant and applicable
to young people and to, like, the real
life problems that we're dealing with, that was
kind of the idea of Almagrib Institute. And
that's one of the reasons why,
I continue to teach with Almagrib Institute because
it allows me it gives me a vehicle
through which I can,
talk about Islam in a way that I
want to talk about Islam and that pretty
much is how does Islam apply to our
real
messy lives today in 2023
with everything that's going on.
I found a lot of times that people
study Islam. It's it's almost in a very
theoretical way, which is fine,
and you
learn all this theoretical stuff, which feels good
and but sometimes there's this disconnect between what
is being said, on the mimbar or what
is being said on stage
and then our real lives. And all and
sometimes, like, the shayatan comes and says, you
know, like, that's cool.
All this beautiful stuff that is being mentioned
about Islam and how you're supposed to be
the ideal Muslim and the ideal Muslim and
so on and so forth, but that just
doesn't apply to me because I got you
know, my life is crazy. I got this
this going on, then I'm dealing with this,
I'm dealing with that. I got, like, these
real problems.
So there isn't a place for Islam, at
least the way it's being talked about.
Like, that version of Islam, like, doesn't really
apply to my life.
And sometimes we go from, like, class to
class, convention to convention.
We hear these feel good topics and we
feel good for a little bit and then
we're like, now I gotta get back to
my life, which is not, you know, as
simple as what was talked about on stage.
And so to kinda bridge that gap to
say, okay, let's talk about Islam the way
it would apply in our lives, that has
been my goal for probably over a decade
now. And that's what I've been doing through
Al Maghrib and Sheikh Mohammed Sharif allowed Allah
hamal allowed allowed for that to happen.
He started Al Maghrib Institute,
a couple years before I went to Medina
to go study.
And my goal always was to be able
to study Islam once again to bring it
home and to teach it to
us, our real lives.
And
alhamdulillah, after I graduated from the University of
Medina,
Sheikh Mohammed Sharif hired me to teach for
Al Makram Institute.
And throughout that time Sheikh Mohammed
was a mentor to me because he was
there like to me once again like studying
in Medina,
the Islamic University of Medina, I was studying
like the ideal.
But then, like, how does it apply to
our lives? Well, that was Sheikh Mohammed would
often talk to me about like these are
the classes that are being taught. These are
the problems that, you know, people are going
through and like this is how Islam this
is how like we we have to talk
about Islam. And so he was there to
mentor me
throughout, you know, my studies.
And then suddenly, he was about 47 years
old,
2022.
I believe it was July.
He just passed away all of a sudden.
Now we don't know exactly what happened,
but Allah took his life. He went he
was actually, I believe he was at the
mall with his kids. He has like some
little kids.
They went to the Musallah to pray. This
is in a Muslim country obviously. They went
to the Musallah to pray and then he
just fell after salah.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala have mercy on
him and grant him to nothufr Rasool Allahum
Amin.
So that's 1.
2 months ago,
both my parents passed away about a month
apart.
My mom had been diagnosed with stage 4,
cancer.
So her death was pretty expected. I mean,
we knew, you know, it's coming.
Allah hamaha, she
was preparing us for the inevitable, right, because
she knew her diagnosis and we were able
to
we're able to spend time with her,
and kind of prepare for, you know, her
leaving us in this life.
And then she passed away and then, 33
days after that, my dad, allahu,
who didn't really have any like serious medical
issues,
he passed away all of a sudden, in
his sleep.
So that was for me, I would say,
a lot harder because with my mom, I
feel like I had time with my mom.
I got to prepare she got to prepare
and she prepared us actually, like she was
preparing her family.
Hamdulillah, she had like very strong iman.
But with my dad, you know, it's just
one day he was there, the next day
he was not. I was actually traveling. I
was out of town teaching an Almagrib seminar,
and, I just my wife called me and
she told me, like, your dad passed away.
And so
that happened 1 month after my mom passed
away, and this is about 2 months ago.
And that got me thinking a lot about
my life
and my legacy actually.
You know, with my dad, I've had to
go through a lot of my mom's stuff
we went through while she was alive and
she said, you know, this like give this
away to this and that, like all the
stuff we had to take care of it
was fine, But my dad,
he kinda just left.
And so,
and he my dad was living with me,
and so I had to go through his
things,
and it was just a weird sensation to
to
to see his personal belongings
that just remained. And I know, like, we
all know this. Right? Like when we die,
like, everything we have in this life is
just is just here. Right? We take nothing
with us.
Nothing benefits us in the in the akhirah
except our deeds. You know the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam, he says that there are
three things that follow a janazah.
1, stay with the one who has passed
away and 2, come back,
person's
wealth and,
their family and their deeds
follow the person to the genaza,
to the burial, and 2 of them come
back. The family and the wealth come back
and the deeds remain with that person.
And so to to to actually literally see
that happen with my dad,
was a big eye opener and so I've
I've been thinking a lot about,
what am I leaving behind? So if lakkadar
Allah, if I were to drop dead today
or tomorrow,
what are people gonna find?
What am I what have I done for
my akhira?
What have I done in this life?
And of course, of course, to add to
that what's happening in Gaza right now. And
what's happening in Gaza is not new, and
we know this.
And this has happened,
you know, it's been happening for a long
time,
but it's probably the first time in history
that we are witnessing it directly.
Right? So it's the first time in history
that we're seeing images
from
Gaza directly,
immediately,
on a daily basis. We're watching
our brothers and our sisters and our children
in Gaza,
going through truly unimaginable, truly truly un and
I say unimaginable because, you know, even though
we see these images and we see what
they're going through we don't really really really
understand what they're going through because
like, internally what's happening, like, only Allah knows.
But to be but to witness that,
once again, I and I think if if
us as believers right now in our lives,
like put aside, you know, my personal losses
in my life,
any one of us,
If we're looking at what what's happening in
Gaza right now,
and we're not thinking about our legacy, and
we're not thinking about what life looks like
tomorrow if I wasn't here,
then there's there's a big problem. Because we
know that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
gives us signs
and indications for us to wake up and
even Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says that
there are signs within yourselves like if you
just paid attention to your own life and
some scholars interpret this verse literally like in
your own bodies there are signs of the
magnificence of of of Allah and the temporary
nature of this life. I mean, think about
the fact that
if you get a if you get a
cold or if you get the flu, like,
what happens to you? You shut down.
Right? Things that you just took for granted,
you you feel like you have the ability
to do x, y, and z. You get
a cold, you get a flu, you get
a fever, and that's it. You're in bed
and you can't move and you you stop
functioning.
There are signs within yourselves, Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala says it's just a matter of paying
attention. So with what's happening in Gaza right
now,
and Gaza is once again not alone. You
know, we know what's happening in Sudan. We're
not seeing the images of of Sudan.
We know what's been happening to our Uighur
brothers and sisters in China,
over a 1000000 people. It's just that we
don't see it. Right? So it doesn't perhaps
doesn't have the same impact. And it's not
that the plight of one people's is more
important than the others. That's not my point.
My point is that,
we are now witnessing it. And so if
we're not waking up now, if we're not
thinking about what our life is about,
beyond just,
you know, accumulating things,
beyond just having more stuff. And,
you know, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
when speaking about what people spend most what
the vast majority of people spend most of
their lives doing, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala describes
it as takathur.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says, alhaqumut
takathur
that competing
for
basically what this means is more stuff, to
have more. This competition
of collecting more things in this life, it
has Allah says it has diverted you. It
has distracted you, distracted you from from what
we know to be real.
So we may be viewing,
once again, images straight out of Gaza,
of people losing their lives in an instance,
of families being lost in an in an
instance,
dozens of people altogether dying in an in
an instance.
But then we, subhanAllah,
distract ourselves with, you know, just stuff, material
things. And so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala once
again says, alhaqumuttaqathr
This
this consuming, this collecting, just competing for more
stuff, it has distracted you.
Until you visit the graves.
And this is in in in two sense.
Number 1, the main meaning is until you
die.
Right? Until you die, like, basically, the the
point here is that, oh, humanity, oh, mankind,
you're gonna keep
competing for more stuff.
And this competition is not gonna end
until you die, until you visit the grave.
Right? And when you're in your grave, that's
it. It's done. And we have the hadith
of the prophet which we all know that
if the children of Adam, the child of
Adam,
was given a valley full of gold, what
would they do?
Ask for a second one. In another narration,
it goes on. If they were given a
second valley full of gold, they'd ask for
a 3rd third valley full of gold,
meaning if they had everything,
they would just want more and then nothing
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam told us
nothing will fill
the inside
of this person except iliturab,
except dirt. And once again the the big
pick the main meaning here is until a
person dies, they're gonna keep trying to have
more and more and more that you can't
say you can't satiate,
worldly desires. Right? We're just always gonna want
more and more and more. So Allah says
until you visit the graves. And our scholars
added another meaning which should give us hope.
And that meaning is that until you visit
the gravesite
and you are reminded
of your mortality.
Perhaps
when you see death,
when we look upon death, we look upon
people dying in front, perhaps
that will give us pause. Perhaps that will
be the moment that we stop and we
say,
what am I doing with my life?
What is the purpose
of my life? What is the purpose of
what I do on a day to day
basis?
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says
that no, you will surely know. Like this
is not something that's gonna be left up
to. It's not there's no ambiguity here. When
that moment happens,
we will all know for sure.
Even the Muslim and the and the and
the namals, the atheists
will know for sure.
Right? The reality
of this life. And even today even someone
doesn't believe in God, you'll be hard pressed
to find a logical human being who doesn't
believe
that
they're gonna die and that they don't know
when they're gonna die, they don't know how
they're gonna die. Right? That's just we all
understand that. Right? But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
tells us you will
Allah says, if you only knew this with
certainty with the knowledge of certainty
in this life, you would have acted differently.
Alright? And so the question here once again
is when we view these world events, when
we can now begin to empathize
with death and loss and suffering,
do we have a'inmul yaqeen?
Are we certain
that this is what this life the end
of this life, that this is what everyone's
life look like? Are we certain
that we're not guaranteed a certain number of
years? And SubhanAllah, this is something, you know,
I thought about as well. A part of
me was like, okay. My dad lived until
you know, my dad was in his seventies
until he died. I've got this much time,
but that's not that's not how life is.
You know, there's a there's a a line
and I and I'm sorry for saying this
and we can probably edit this out of
this video inshallah.
But there's a movie called Batman versus Superman
and there's a there's a line there's something
that Bruce Wayne says.
And by the way, that movie, you know,
if you look at the journey of Batman
and we're gonna edit all this out. Don't
don't worry about it. Right?
That movie is really about,
Bruce Wayne, like, losing hope. Right? He's like,
you know, what's the point of anything?
And at one point in the movie, he's
like, you know, 30 years in Gotham. He
tells Alfred, 30 years in Gotham and what
what what does it accomplish? Like, they're still
criminals, and he's feeling like there's no point
to his life. And at one point in
in the in the movie,
he says, he says that, today, I'm as
old,
as my dad was when he died.
Right? So he's thinking about like, you know,
what have I accomplished? And that's kind of
why that movie resonates with you. We can
re edit now back to that regular presume
the lecture that's gonna go on.
But the point is that even at looking
at someone's regular lifespan, like, even that we
don't know. So if we if we were
to say and sometimes we find this comfort
in saying, you know, I have this much
life that's that I'm probably going to live,
we don't know that. We don't we don't
know what's gonna happen. So this is why
almul yaqeen, like this knowledge of certainty
is so powerful for us. Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala tells us,
And that's what we don't we don't want
this certainty to come
when we will see the hellfire
because
at that point, it's too late. It's too
late to to go back and say, like,
I wanted to live my life differently. Rabbi
J'oon, my Lord send me back.
Like, just, my Lord, send me back. I
promise this time,
I'm gonna live a pious life.
But, you know, they that's not true
because
the reality is we once again, we are
seeing
the reality of life with our own eyes.
We're seeing life and death,
but there are people who will take heed
and there's people who will not take heed.
There are people who allow themselves to be
distracted
by what little this world has to offer
if anything. You know the prophet shalallahu alaihi
wasallam told us that he said he asked
the companions, Do you know the worth of
this dunya with Allah?
And he said, You know what the worth
of this dunya is? He said, If one
of you were to dip your finger
into the ocean
right? You all been to the beach? You've
seen the ocean?
You look out. As far as your eye
can see, there's water. You see, like, the
curvature of the earth. Right? Refuting the flat
earthers right there. But you see the curvature
of the Earth, as far as your eye
can see, there's water. Parsan have said, if
you dip your finger into the ocean and
the little bit of dampness
that you have on
your finger, that is the value or the
worth of this dunya with Allah.
Like, compare what the ocean the vastness of
the ocean versus the little bit of water
that we have and yet we crave that
little bit of dampness. So Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala says,
Then with your own eyes, you will surely
see the truth.
On that day, you will definitely
surely be asked
about your worldly pleasures.
And once again, this is actually a positive
aya. Because what Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has
given to us
10 minutes? Oh, man.
What Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has given to
us,
it can be used to actually attain
goodness in the afterlife.
You know the story of Qarun.
The people of Qarun, the scholars at the
time of Qarun, Qarun was like the epitome
of someone who has given into this worldly
life.
Right? Everything he had, you know, the wealth
that he had, he was like enjoying life.
And the scholars, the peep knowledgeable people at
his time, they told him, wabtariifimaataq
Allah adarul akhira.
That use what Allah has given you to
to to to to earn the afterlife.
And don't don't forget your share of this
life as well. So there's that balance
that we that we search for in this
life. But the point here is that balance.
Right? Where is that is that balance? Well,
that balance can't come if we are a
100% consumed by this life. If our goal
is the akhira,
then everything else gets into focus, even the
pleasures of this life.
Because we can have the pleasures of this
life and the goodness and the blessings that
this life has to offer, but through those
pleasures, we attain the akhirah. And if you
wanna know, like, the most,
prominent example of this, the Quran gave us,
like, the most
clear
and, like,
like, outward example of this, and that is
this MSA crowd. Right?
Like, PG 13. Yeah.
That is fulfilling our sexual desires.
Right? The prophet,
he said,
in your in you fulfilling your your, your
sexual desires,
there is reward.
And and the companion said, how can we
be rewarded for something that we enjoy?
And the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, he
said, well,
isn't there sin
when you fulfill your sexual desires in a
Haram way, in a Haram way, in an
impermissible way? They said, yes. He said, likewise,
when you
fulfill your desires in a halal way, there
is reward.
But the point here is what is our
focus?
What is our intention?
Why are we living our lives? So once
that is set straight, then everything else falls
into
place. That we are living our lives to
attain the akhira. We're living our lives to
get dead lives to gain to gain reward
by Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And that
means that honestly
our definition of success in this life will
change drastically.
Because the world keeps telling us that success
has to be seen.
We have to feel it. We have to
look at it. We have to see change.
A believer does not live their life in
that way. Because for a believer,
as long as they have the right intention,
as long as they tried their best, as
long as they are patient with with the
hardship that they go through, they know they're
successful.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says,
wayasbirfa
innallaha layooajalmarsinin
For the one who has taqwa, and this
is where our intention comes into play. Why
are we doing what we're doing? Whether it's
our job, whether it's school, whether it's whether
it's activism, whether it's, you know what, just
educating people
about the genocide taking place in Palestine.
Right? Because let's let's let's take that as
a case study. Well, how do we define
success in that work that we're doing? And
I know what a lot of us now
are speaking out. We're trying to, you know,
educate people about
the horrific
nature of this genocide taking place in in
Palestine.
And sometimes we look at if we take
a look at success in just in dunya
terms, we're gonna burn out.
Because how long can we keep seeing
people being slaughtered and killed
and no change happening
until we say, that's it. What's the point
of anything?
Why even try?
So the question is what are we working
for? Are we working for I have to
see a change in this life? We desire
that, we want it, we work towards it.
But what happens One second, I'm gonna go
to the very beginning of my talk. What
happens
if today is your last day?
What happens? Do we stop working for Gaza,
for Falaslien, for any other cause or our
school, job, family, whatever? Maybe do we stop
working because today's our last day? No.
Because our goal is to gain that reward
with Allah and attain paradise.
And so even if what we are doing
doesn't come to fruition,
we know that
as long as you have taqwa, you're doing
it for the sake of Allah Subha
wa yasbir. And you're patient
with all the difficulties
that you're gonna face when you're trying to
do the right thing.
Because if the right thing is working for
the sake of Allah. When you work for
the sake of Allah, you're gonna face hardship.
Khazza, one example. Your job is another example
because if your goal is to please Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, you're gonna pick a a
job that is halal.
And that means you may not get the
type of lifestyle that you want, perhaps,
because you're not willing to compromise
on your morals.
Right? And so Allah says, why yasbim? And
you're patient because your goal is taqwa and
now you wanna please Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
you're working in this life, but you're patient
over the hardship that you deal with. In
this case, now glad tidings.
Allah does not allow the reward
of those who do Ihsan
to go to waste.
That is a guarantee from Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala that your reward is secure with Allah
Jala Wa'ala.
And that means our definition of success is
did we work for the right reasons?
Were we patient
with the hardships
that we face? And did we persevere?
Did we keep going
despite
everything getting difficult? Despite the odds being against
us?
So with Gaza, do we keep working to
bring justice to Gaza? Do we keep working
to free Palestine
even though the odds are against us? Even
though we don't see victory in sight? Yes.
Absolutely. Because
As long as you have taqwa and as
long as you are patient, then Allah will
not allow the reward of those who do
good to be lost, our reward is secure.
And you wanna know a good example of
that? Probably the best example that we have
today, it is the people of Palestine,
Palestine
themselves.
Because you ask yourself,
if you have any doubts
about how long your life is, ask the
people in Gaza how they feel about their
life. They will tell you, we do not
know. Forget tomorrow. We do not know if
we have tonight.
We do not know if we have the
next hour. We do not know how long
we're going to be alive. And are they
are they burnt out?
Are they saying what's the point of anything?
No.
They're saying that we will keep going.
We will continue to fight for our freedom
because our reward is secure with Allahu Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala and that comes through Taqwa.
That is the power
that Allahu Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
has given you my fellow brother and my
sister through your iman.
This is the difference
between a Muslim,
a believer and someone who does not have
iman. What makes the people of Palestine strong?
What makes them strong is their iman.
They know it is victory.
Either victory in this life or shahada which
is the ultimate victory.
And for us my brothers and sisters,
this is an aya.
This is a sign from Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala.
So with what we're going through in our
lives, once again, whether it be work or
school or family or career or a project
or activism, whatever we're doing, we do not
define success
by if by do we get what I
exactly wanted to get in this life?
We define success through our spirituality.
And this is why Allahu Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
tells us, tell the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam, you know, think about, you know, burnout.
If there's one man
who could claim
that
it's okay for him to be burnt out,
it is the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
Because he had to bring the message of
Islam to humanity.
He faced persecution
and adversity. He faced every trial. SubhanAllah, our
scholars of Sira, they say there's not a
single
adversity that you will face as a human
being except the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
face something similar.
And you know people say, may Allah protect
all of us. One of the most difficult
things you could deal with in this life
is the loss of a child. May Allah
protect us, protect our children, Allahumma ami. But
that is something the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
himself faced. He held
his young son Ibrahim
and the narrator says he held him to
his chest
until Ibrahim
breathed his last breath.
That is what the prophet
dealt with. So what did Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala tell him? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala told
him, fa idafaraqta
found sab wa ila rabbika farghab That when
you are when you have finished your duties,
meaning you have to deliver the message of
Islam to humanity, you have to fight off
the enemies, You have to give tarbia to
the companions, and you have to deal with
all the stuff that you have to do.
That when you're At the end of the
day, when you're done with all of that,
stand up.
Literally stand up.
Meaning what? Stand in prayer. Wa'ilaa
rabbikafarhab.
And to your lord,
turn.
Turn to your lord
in in your hopes
because our hope,
our positivity,
our strength, it all comes from Allahu
We can afford to lose everything in this
life
except Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.