Saad Tasleem – The Right Intentions Can Change Your Life

			So I want to start off inshallah to Allah by mentioning one of my favorite personalities in Islamic
history. And this individual, I'm sure most of you know who he is. Imam Malik Rahim Allahu Allah.
Now the life of Imam Malik actually draw a lot of parallels with modern day life and there's there's
many lessons to be learned from the life of Imam Malik. Because I feel like Imam Malik was one of
those personalities like many others, who was very in touch with the world that he was living in.
And he was able to, to, to live and breathe and embody the spirituality of Islam as well. And
actually, in my mind, I got him Allahu Allah in his time, his peers would consider him to be or some
		

			of his peers considered him to be the most knowledgeable person alive on the face of the earth. So
that is the status of of Imam Malik. But today, we all know the name of Imam Malik, right? We all
understand his importance and its significance. There was a time in his life Rahim Allahu Allah,
where Imam Malik had made the intention, he decided to compose a mawatha. Now I know when we think
of Malta, we already know it's or some of us may know, it's the book that my mother composed, which
is a collection of Hadith. But obviously, in his time, he hadn't written a matar yet. And Malta is
literally like a collection of of Hadith. So he mentioned to some of his peers, he said that I want
		

			to compose a well thought, I want to put together a collection of Hadith of the prophets that I sent
them. And some of his peers and colleagues they said to him, why would you compose a mawatha?
Because there are already so many more work because there's already so many collections of Hadith.
Why would you write another book with another collection of Hadith? And Imam Malik said a few words
that that ring true till today, and words that many students of knowledge and scholars and Lemma
they have memorized, Imam Malik replied with a with a very simple statement. When they when he was
told why would you write another MOA, there's already so many more laws, he said, Makana dinner he,
		

			yeah, because he said that which is done for the sake of Allah, it remains.
		

			Now scholars have looked into this statement, and they try to analyze what he actually meant here.
And he actually meant a few different things. It's actually a quite deep statement. Because number
one, he was saying that
		

			I'm not doing it for the sake of the people. I'm not doing it to be recognized as somebody who has a
mohawk, but I'm doing it for the sake of Allah has pantalla Makana dilla that which has done for the
sake of Allah, it remains. So the reward of it, meaning the reward from Allah who's panda to Allah?
That remains, right? So regardless of there being one mawatha or 20, muottas, I'm seeking reward
from Allah who's Panama to Allah. And so if I'm doing it for the sake of Allah, if my intention is
to be rewarded by Allah has Panama to Allah, then it doesn't matter how many mullahs there already
are, it doesn't matter whether people accept my book or not, it doesn't matter how many people read
		

			my book or not as a matter of fact, if not a single individual, not a single soul ever read the
metadata of Imam Malik, which we know is not true, because millions and millions of people have read
and continue to read and study and benefit from the most probably my Malik, but if no one had ever
read from the motto of Imam Malik, he knew that his reward is secure with Allah who's Hanoi to
Allah, because he has done it for the sake of Allah has to Allah. And that is the security that Imam
Malik felt in this deed and jello to Allah in other deeds as well. And I want to ask you, how
freeing of a concept that is that regardless of what people think, regardless of how it is viewed,
		

			regardless of whether it is accepted or not, regardless of you, have you being praised or not
praised or irregardless of you taking heat for something that you said or done? And Allah Subhana
Allah, I've come across young brothers and sisters, who have spent years working on a project. And
for some reason, one reason or the other, it doesn't take off. It doesn't do well. It's not
recognized by people, even though they put their sweat and tears into that project. Nothing happens
with it. And Allah it's very painful because you know what, as human beings, we have this need to be
recognized. Right, we have a need to be appreciated. That's why you look at any relationship. An
		

			essential integral part of any relationship is a
		

			appreciating the person in your relationship. And not only just appreciating them in your heart, but
expressing to them, that you appreciate them, and you appreciate all that they do for you, and so
on, so on, so forth. And that makes that makes that relationship healthy. And it makes that
relationship grow. And it empowers that relationship. So that's how we are as human beings. And so
imagine how freeing it is to know
		

			that no matter what people think, regardless of the success or the failure of anything that we do,
that if we are doing it for the sake of Allah, who's to Allah, then we are always appreciated. And
not only are we appreciated, we are appreciated in a way that no human being can ever appreciate us.
We are in pre appreciated by Allah mean by the Lord of everything in creation. That is the type of
appreciation that can truly bring rest to the heart. Because you know what, we live in a society
where a lot of our deeds are very public. And it's very interesting to Hala most of what we do, and
I have no qualms in making a general statement, a broad statement like that. But most of what we do,
		

			is in the spotlight, it's in the public. And we have social media to thank for that, obviously,
right? I'm not either I'm not against social media, right. But I think we need to take a look at
social media. And we need to really take we need we need to, we need to understand how it fits in to
our lives as a whole, but also how we balance our spirituality with social media. Right? So what do
we do to make sure that social media is not impeding on our relationship with Allah who's panda to
Allah? So in a world where pretty much everything that we do, is done for people, it's done in the
spotlight, what happens to our spirituality in a world like that? What happens to our spirituality
		

			in a world where we judge success or failure based off of how many likes or shares we've gotten on
something that we've done?
		

			Right, and that is extremely problematic. And as I said, I have actually counseled young people who
have broken down and said, You know, I did so much for my community, or my MSA, or you know, what,
even my family or for my husband or for my wife or for my children,
		

			right, and you really think about the panel, the plight of parents, and I know, there's not a lot of
parents in the room right now. But I'm a parent myself, and I'm a fairly new parent, I have an older
son who's three, and a newborn son as well. Right? So I'm fairly new at this. But I can now having
children of my own, I can empathize with parents, unlike I could ever empathize before because you
know, a lot of parents would come to me when their children are going through like their teenage
rebellious age, right? So 1415 1617, depending on the child could even be up to like 20 or so on, so
forth. Right. And usually, the parent comes to me, and they're like, I don't recognize this
		

			individual. Like this 15 year old is not the person that I raised. This is not the person that I
sacrificed everything for. I don't recognize them. Because I don't see that being reciprocated. I
don't see that love. I don't see that appreciation. I just don't see it. And how am I supposed to
come to terms with that. And I used to tell parents, straight up, I used to be like, Y'all need to
chill out. Right? Because they need time. Right? They're growing, they're changing. They're becoming
they're transitioning into becoming adults. And the last thing they need right now is someone
telling them that you know, nothing, right, and you better listen to us, and so on and so forth.
		

			Like, they're not going to no matter what you do, right? They're in a they're in for some right? Not
everyone, obviously, but somebody who's going through that transition, someone's going through that
phase in their life, I finish to tell parents like backup just a little bit. Right, give them some
space. Right. And now as a parent, myself, I still say that right now, very much still believe that.
But the way I look at parents, and the way I can empathize with parents is is very different.
Because you know, my older son, he's only three and I never thought in my life, that I could
sacrifice the way of sacrifice for this three year old
		

			these three years what I have done, you know, I never I never thought that I would be able to do the
things that I did not only that, forget sacrifice, just love itself. Right? We think we understand
love, you know if we've fallen in love or whatever, and this and that. And we you know, I think all
of us on some level we have were like Yeah, I know what love is right? I understand love unless you
have a child. You don't understand love? Because I'll tell you from my personal experience, I didn't
even know I had
		

			I had that capacity of love in me. And don't get me wrong, like, I love my mom, I love my wife, I
love my family. Like, that's all well and great. And I thought that was my capacity of love. Like, I
couldn't love anyone more than that, until my son was born. And it blew the roof off of my, what I
thought was my capacity of love. And so to now grow up and have this child grow up and to teach them
everything. And literally, you know, when the child is born, and I have a newborn now, and I'm going
through the cycle, once again, you literally have to do everything for a newborn. Like literally, if
you were to leave them on their own, they wouldn't survive. Right? If you were to not do anything,
		

			the child would die. Right? You have to make sure like your number one goal as a newborn, FYI, for
when you have kids, Inshallah, tada, your your your number one goal is to make sure your child stays
alive. Right. You have to feed them, you have to burp them, if you don't burp them, by the way that
can be problematic as well. You have to make sure like sometimes, you know, as as as newborns,
panela newborns don't do a lot, right. They just sleep and eat and poop. Like that's it right? And
so, and I'm used to my three year old who's very, very active, running around going crazy, whatever.
And sometimes my my newborn is just laying there. And you know, I'm looking at him, like, is
		

			everything okay? Like, I walked up to my newborn, and I put my finger underneath his nose and my
wife's like, what are you doing? I'm like, I'm just making sure he's still breathing, right? Because
he's just laying there, right? So you're a cause you're 100% responsible. You do everything for your
children, everything.
		

			And what happens when they grow up? And you hear those dreadful words when your child says to like,
Dad, I hate you. Or Mom, I hate you. Like, leave me alone. I don't want to talk to you. Right? That
can be an extremely painful situation, extremely painful experience. And ask Allah Subhana Allah
protect us from that, even though it's very likely, right? It happens, it's part of life.
		

			But once again, if we are doing something for the sake of Allah Subhana Allah, yes, we love our
children. And we want that appreciation. But if we understand that we are raising our child, for the
sake of Allah subhanaw taala, that Allah has given us a responsibility. And we have tried our best,
and we work our hardest. And I'm not saying that's going to be easy. But that is our end goal.
McConnell, Allah, He up God that which is done for the sake of Allah, who remains meaning we will
always be appreciated, if we were seeking that appreciation from Allahu Allah to Allah.
		

			And also,
		

			it is very freeing to know that whatever happens, and not have, you know, like I said, I know how
new parents are in the house, but it's painful for parents to feel like they're not in control.
Because so much of our lives with our children, we are in control, like we control everything that
our kids do, right, as I said, a newborn, you do everything for them. You control what they eat, you
control what they do. And, you know, up to a certain age, you control what they watch and what they
see and how they speak. And you define every you you define their world for them. Right? They don't
know what world other than the world that you have defined. That's all they know. But that at some
		

			point, they start to become independent. At some point, they start to have their own thoughts and
feelings, and opinions and decisions, and so on and so forth. And I know parents that have a very,
very difficult time letting go. Not because they want to, their only goal is to just control the
life of their child. But obviously, they're like, homie, I got like, 30 years on you, right? So just
sit down and listen to what I have to say. Because I've been through it all, and you don't know what
you're talking about, right? It's as simple as that, like, I want good for you. I want I want the
best for you. I love you more than I love probably any other human being. And I love you. So I just
		

			want the best for you. So just shut up and listen to me. Right? That's it like I don't, it's out of
love.
		

			But we all know that's not how life works. And we cannot control no matter how much we try to
control. We can't control it sometimes. And an excessive amount of control actually makes it
ironically, that we lose even more control. Sometimes the more parents hold on to their kids and try
to restrict them, the more they push them away, ironically. Right? So at some point, we have to
trust and Allah subhanaw taala. At some point, we have to say, look, I did my best. There's nothing
else that I can do like I tried. And trying doing your best doesn't mean you're perfect. No human
being is perfect. Right? And I'm talking about parenting here. But by the way, this applies to every
		

			single endeavor in life. Right? We're not perfect. Whether you're in you're in an MSA whether you
know you're studying for your classes, whether you're you're mentoring, like whatever you're doing
in life, you're never going to be perfect
		

			Fichte All right, not only like I said earlier, not only are you not always going to be appreciated,
you're never going to be perfect. And doing things for the sake of Allah subhanaw taala means that
you leave that perfection to Allah. And you understand that just because you're not perfect, it's
okay. Because Allah who's panda dalla is the one who is in charge. The results are with Allah. That
is what tell what good in Allah has pantalla is reliance upon Allah. reliance upon Allah means you
do everything that you can do. But you leave the results to Allah who's Panama to Allah. And imagine
living your life like that, that no matter what you do in life, no matter what project you take on,
		

			no matter what career path you choose, no matter what you do, that yeah, you give it your all, you
try your best, right? And best is relative for all of us, right, your best may be different than my
best. Right? And so we try our best, but we leave the results with Allah subhanaw taala. And once
again, that's a truly freeing feeling. That you know that Allah subhana data, even the Prophet
sallallahu ala he was setting them
		

			who is given the biggest responsibility ever given to a human being. And that is to deliver the
message of Islam to the whole world. Allah whose panna data reminded him in Nacala, the man but you
can't guide those whom you love, what I can Allah HYAH the main Yasha rather it is Allah who guides
whomever he wills, you cannot force someone to be guided. You cannot force someone to listen to you.
You cannot force someone to follow the truth. Why am I not Rasul? In Albula, the only thing that you
are in charge of is to deliver the message. Because you know, the prophets I send them out of his
deep sense of compassion, and love and empathy. It was very, very hard for him to see not only his
		

			his own close loved ones, but humanity, human beings as a whole, not following the truth. Allah has
kind of to Allah had to remind him that I like above enough soccer accoutrement, meaning that you
might kill yourself out of grief for people not becoming believers, like it's not on you. It's not
your responsibility to make sure everybody follows the message. It is just your responsibility to
convey the message. And yes, that may be difficult, but also it is freeing. And so going back to
email Monica Rahim, Allahu Allah, Allah, Imam Malik, he said, McCammon Allah He upcard that was that
which is done for the sake of Allah remains, meaning the reward remains. And I want to share with
		

			you one more example before I get to the second benefit of doing things for the sake of Allah,
Spanish Allah. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam told us, not authentic hadith, either Kama
Sutra, he says, I sent them he said, If the hour has been established, meaning the Day of Judgment
has started, what fee Yeah, the Adhikam fasula. And one of you, you have in your hand, the means to
plant a tree.
		

			And the person that said, funnest, funnest a thorough
		

			if you have the ability to stand up and plant it, then do so.
		

			So what is he telling us? This hadith is saying that imagine you have in your hands, like some
seeds, or something, you can plant a tree. And you you, you you and and the Day of Judgment has has
passed some said comma like it started. Not only is it coming or whatever, but it started like the
Day of Judgment is started. It's here, press that I'm sad if you're able to stand up and plant those
seeds, then do so. And you would think to yourself why. But why? Why would we do that? Because what
is the purpose of planting a tree? What is the purpose of of, of of planting anything? It's to see
it grow, to get the fruits from that tree to get something some benefit, maybe some shade like
		

			something.
		

			But if we know that we're going to plant this tree, and nothing's going to happen, because the Day
of Judgment started, time's up, game over. Why would we plant that tree? Why would we do that? And
one of the answers is that because we're doing it not only for this life, but we're doing it for the
reward of Allah's parents out of meaning if we are able to get that reward, the reward of planting
that tree
		

			then we get that reward. And that's an analogy for life as a whole because some people like they
live their life and I you know I'm going to give a talk later on about how life is fleeting and Life
is short but some people
		

			We take that to an extreme. And they're like, what's the point of doing anything in life, we could
die tomorrow. And that's true. But we don't live our life like that. Because we understand that we
work for this dunya for the sake of this dunya. And for the sake of the AKA, we work work for this
life, yes, for awards in this life, but more importantly for the rewards of the algebra, because
that is what will remain even if this life doesn't remain, even if this world is destroyed, the
world of the afterlife remains. That is why we excel at what we do. Not because we need to be
appreciated, not because we need to be recognized not even, because we need to see the fruits of our
		

			labor in this life. Because we may never see it. It may never happen. Right? We may like that tree.
We're not going to see that tree. But we're going to see the fruits of our labor in the afterlife.
So that's number one. Number two, Imam Malik Rahim Allah to Allah He said that which is done for the
sake of Allah Subhana. Allah remains, he also meant that Allah Who will take care of you in this
life as well. And what is the proof for that? The proof for that is the very fact that when I say
the mobile thought, today, we don't think of any individual other than who who do we think of
		

			Imam Malik. And that's why the word mawatha is synonymous with Imam Malik. So even though there were
dozens of them, what was the time of Imam Malik, Allah preserved the work of Imam Malik. And our
scholars say perhaps, it is because of the sincerity of Imam Malik. Perhaps Imam Malik was like, You
know what, once again, the outcome, the result is not in my hand. It's with Allah. And as long as
I'm doing it, for the sake of Allah is trying to add up, Allah will take care of it. Right. And
that's why I know sometimes the world that we're living in, we feel helpless, whether it be what's
happening in federal Slean, whether it be what's happening in Burma, whether it be what's happening
		

			to, you know, our most Muslim brothers and sisters in China, and we feel like we're 1000s of miles
away. What can we do? And somebody's like, let's do a fundraiser, let's raise some money. And
there's always that cynic that's like, what is my $10? Gonna do? Right? What is my little effort?
What is my post on social media going to do?
		

			Right? But the reality is, that if we're doing it for the sake of Allah subhana, Allah, we do our
best. And we know that Allah subhana, Allah number one has a wisdom in everything that he does. And
number two, we know that it's not in our hands, we try our best once again, and we leave the outcome
to Allah who's Panwa to Allah. And so I want to leave you in sha Allah to Allah with just a couple
of things.
		

			Number one, how do we attain sincerity in our actions? Because I know, you know, my whole talk is
about doing things for the right reasons. Right doing it in a world where people do things in
public, it's kind of changing the paradigm and doing things for the sake of Allah subhanaw taala.
Number one, just taking account of yourself, how much of our life do we spend doing things publicly?
versus how much of our lives do we do we spend doing things privately? Right, so for doing 10 things
online, if we're doing 10 things in public then maybe needs to our private lives, our private good
deeds, deeds that we're doing for the sake of Allah Spanish out of that no one knows about, it needs
		

			to match that. There has to be a balance. Number two, one of the ways to increase our sincerity and
by the way, sincerity is not an on and off switch. You're not either sincere or not sincere. That's
one of the traps that people fall into, where they'll be like, well, since I'm not sincere, I'm not
going to do it. Since I'm not doing it for the sake of Allah or since I'm not I don't feel 100%
sincere in my actions, then what's the point? Right, and that's not how sincerity works. Sincerity
goes up and down. We can be more sincere lessons here. And that's why we never leave in action out
of fear of doing it for the wrong reasons. We keep doing the action. And we work on our intentions.
		

			And my message here is not for you to stop doing the work that you're doing. Whether it be activism
or seeking knowledge or helping out in your community or whatever endeavor, even your careers or
anything. It's not for you to stop doing it. It's for you to work on your intentions. It's for us to
really take a step back. And just as we spend time working for that project, likewise, we spend time
working on our intentions as well. And that is a spiritual matter. That is something that goes
beyond the realm of just this worldly life. And that is the difference between a Muslim and a non
Muslim. A Muslim does something not only for this life, but there's a spiritual factor to it. And
		

			that shows us that as a Muslim spirituality must permeate everything that we do. And that is what
		

			It means to be a Muslim, to submit to Allah subhanaw taala. And that is what we mean when we say
Islam is a way of life. Right? Not that Subhanallah we just think that we have to look the part and
that means like, you look like a Muslim. And that's it. And so that's, that's, that's a very minor
part of Islam. It's a part of it, right, the rules that Allah has given to us, and so on and so
forth. But Islam, living Islam means that once again, that spirituality permeates every single thing
that we do. And because of that, we are freed by Allah subhanaw taala. So one of the last pieces of
advice I'll give you is that there are certain deeds that force our hand, there are certain deeds
		

			that force us to be sincere, like, we have no choice, but to be sincere. And I'll give you a couple
examples. But y'all are pretty smart hunting down. I'm sure y'all can come up with examples as well.
But and something like praying in the last third of the night. Right? When everyone else is asleep,
the world is asleep. It's just you and Allah has kind of data. If you got up in the last night of
the night and everyone else is sleeping and nobody knows you got up. There is no way for you to be
insincere. You can't. Because it's you. And Allah. That's it. Right? The only way for you to ruin
that sincerity is to be like, Yo, I got up for a pm today. You know, here you go. Hashtag pious
		

			Muslim or whatever. Right? Like you can Yeah, but in that moment, at the very least in that moment,
you are sincere because you have no choice, but to be sincere. Right. So the more we do those type
of deeds, deeds that force our hand, right, like we have no choice but to be sincere in that in that
matter. Right, the more it will help us get in touch with that aspect of our spirituality. So once
again, we need to have that dimension to our lives. Just as I'm not. Like I said, I'm not here to
badmouth social media or say that we shouldn't be on social media. I'm literally on like every
single social media site that's out there, right? My point is that we take a step back, and we
		

			reevaluate our lives just as we spend time on social media just like we work on our public face,
sometimes literally, right? Hashtag filter, right? Likewise, we work on our private life as well.
Likewise, we work on spirituality and ask Allah subhanaw taala to give us the ability to reach our
maximum potential with the baraka and the blessings of Allah who's Pella to Allah. Allahu Allah,
Allah Subhana Allah who will be handing a shadow in La ilaha illa and South Africa to the lake which
is Aquila, Clara was Sarah Marie kumara Llahi