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