Sarah Sultan – Attaching to Allah #08 How Can I Stay Motivated Without Seeing Results

			Name building the kava in this empty desert and then here we are today you know whenever we making
Tawaf and you know sometimes these thoughts come to you
		

			yeah they did all they did this you know the macabre himself sitting right you see his first step
right there but he had no idea that place will have millions and millions of people
		

			are hola hola Mexico tamale. We're whether the robotically female play attorney, we're open till
hayati, Allah wa attic where accent Family Welfare Lee
		

			remember the site of the MT carrabba
		

			When pandemic first happened, Didn't it look strange? I spamela think about that moment. Ibrahim I
said
		

			and is married it is finished the building of that caliber in a barren desert.
		

			Nothing around. No people. No clocktower.
		

			Complete, empty desert.
		

			And Allah subhanaw taala says as to why he might make this drought together Oh Allah accept. And
Allah says didn't make the call. Then Brahim is some looks around and says
		

			Lumbee Oh my Lord, what's going to cause my voice to reach and Allah says Evelyn Orlean Billa call
upon me is to deliver it. So okay, just make the call. And you'll see what happens Subhan Allah,
Ibrahim writes them never live to see the huge groups of people. throngs of people coming from
around the world, making Hajj in the way that he taught. He never got to see it. But that did not do
away with his motivation.
		

			He did not get to see much of the glory, that he planted the seeds for, in fact, the majority of it
on this earth. And there's this idea in Islam right if sadaqa jariya plant the seeds of something
that outlives you, but don't get attached to the outcome. In fact, it can even become a fitna, it
can become a test and doubt doing good work. Like I need to see the outcome I need to see this
happen in front of my eyes, in order to be validated in order to feel fulfilled. And we're
constantly reminded that you know, part of doing it sincerely for Allah subhanaw taala is not being
so attached to the outcome. Now, those are good dreams profit slice of them. He mentioned that each
		

			one of us is struck by Pluto. Long hopes we have hopes in life that never actually materialized
because life ends before they can materialize. Right? So he drew the line slice alum, here's deaf in
here, the hopes that you had in life. One time even took two stones and he tossed them slice on
them. He said, you see the one that landed further away. Those are your hopes in life, the one
that's closer to you is your death. Every single person in their grave has things that they wish
they could have done and they wish they could have seen Noble or not so noble, but they feel like
there were things that were left in this dunya
		

			is there ever a moment where you kind of think back and you say you know I don't I don't know I'm
not gonna live to see this and it's okay, were you able to visualize something in the future and
find motivation towards like a legacy or project or some good or some dream that you're able to
disconnect yourself from the outcome but to say you know,
		

			I still want to plant the seeds I'm gonna see where it goes. Is there a story in your life about
someone's legacy touching you even though they did not live to see you?
		

			And you like wish they could have seen the impact?
		

			Ibrahim
		

			you know, the example you just mentioned about name building the kava in this empty desert. And then
here we are today. You know, whenever we making Tawaf and you know, sometimes these thoughts come to
you, it's like, yeah, they did or they did this, you know, the macabre himself sitting right. You
know, you see his full step right there. But he had no idea. That place we will have millions and
millions of people
		

			coming and then this past Ramadan, we record. I don't know how many
		

			Millions, it's it's just mind blowing.
		

			And I had the opportunity to go to Omaha
		

			in March, and just like you said, you know, you go to the locations, you know about a thought and
hiking, you know, cave Hara in the middle of the night.
		

			And some and even with the guy, but there's even now there's so much construction and there, you
know, the guards can kind of get on your nerves a little bit because just want to be there to
worship.
		

			But what really helped me was to remember that, you know, somebody was here in our history
		

			that made it possible for us to be here right now. And I think, you know, it's such an anchor to
hold on to when we learn about history, and you know, those who came before us, our grandparents and
knowing about, you know, the struggles that they went through, there's so much power in knowing our
history, and, you know, Islam and, and Lucia and all that stuff that gives us the strength, you
know, to proudly say, you know, that we're Muslim, and that this is who we came from. I think it's
amazing.
		

			Absolutely. You know, just to add to that, you know,
		

			I do think you know, we
		

			we as Muslims here in North America, for example, we're very lucky to be here at this time, because
we don't know the struggles, you know, our elders went through to like preserves his religion, the
fact that we're able to, like just go down the street and there's a masjid literally within five
minutes, 10 minutes, we we stand on the shoulders of giants, you know, the, like the auntie, who had
her, you know, Islamic school, and like a little basement or like the uncle who opened his home, his
garage for like, so that everyone can come and pray. I don't think we will ever see that because we
have all these mega massages and whatnot. Mashallah. But you know, all these uncles and Auntie's who
		

			came here the struggles for, like, preserve their religion to hold on to their religion. And, you
know, I, you know, there's someone who probably will never know, live to see the fruits of their of
their labor, right? We're every part of the, you know, the city, this country, there's a mustard no
SubhanAllah. So yeah, you know, that is something I think about very deeply. When you imagine when
they see him on the day of judgment, these kids from 200 years after them that are still praying in
the masjid that they started an institution or that are Muslim, because they were part of the
guidance of their great great, great grandparents and like, Who are you coming to testify for me on
		

			the day of judgment? Like, I'm here, because it was because of your, your art was because of your
donation, it was because of something that you did. that influenced you, right, you know, people
that live long enough.
		

			Like my parents got married, in the one measured in Houston.
		

			Like this, it sounds insane, saying that the one must did in Houston at the time, like what the one
measured in Houston at the time. You know, it's like Subhan, Allah and I got the message. It's the
school's the institutions and the bulk of the blessing of it, just multiplying it. Sometimes we get,
we get hard on ourselves, we're down on ourselves, like you know about the challenges and obstacles
that we're facing. So you know, some holly, look at your elders, and they see so much clay it like
so much goodness, like, because they saw it, they saw it come to fruition in their lifetimes, like,
you don't remember what we were like, you know, 2030 years ago, 40 years ago, you know, this idea of
		

			1000s of Muslims in schools and institutions.
		

			unheard of, you know, we would never have imagined and here they see it in their lifetimes, but a
sign of sincerity
		

			is that you're not connected to seeing in your lifetime. Nor are you connected with having your name
on it. You know, one of the ways that you challenge yourself in terms of your own sincerity is if
someone else does a good effort, are you pleased for them? I mean, of course, you want to share in
the reward, are you jealous, jealous and envious, you know, not in a way that's good? In a way
that's negative, like I should have done that I should have got that credit. You know, but you're
just happy to see those fruits, you know, panela of good work, and people that Allah has blessed to
do good work. That's one of the signs of sincerity is you make dua for those people? May Allah bless
		

			them for doing so much good. May Allah preserve that blessing upon them, right. So you're not
connected to seeing it in your own lifetime, nor are you connected to being the one on the platform,
you know, raising up that that award, right instead, like Hamdulillah, it's being done. And one of
the lessons that you know, especially that is important for people that want to do good work, and
have impact is that as a believer, you do not become obsessed with seeing the fruits of your labor.
You stay on
		

			occupied with planting seeds. It's like when you make a deal, like when on a health level the lawn
who used to say that I don't concern myself with the answer to my drought, I'm just blessed that
Allah gave me the ability to make the drought, right? Because I trust him with the answer the same
way your
		

			your your deeds are forms of Do you like how like SAP to like stuff like, you gave me a seed, I'm
gonna plan it. The fact that you let me be a part of planting that seed and have the land please.
And while we might not get to build the cabinet and see, you know, millions and millions of people,
but we can certainly be a part of that legacy be the night Tyler. And you know, one of the things
that
		

			you know, I once heard a righteous person say and they're doing it in a very natural and blessed way
was a little less surprise me on the day of judgment with the good deeds I didn't know about.
Surprise me like, you know, people you read about people that are male are protected us that are
shocked because they forgot their sins. What about those people that didn't live to see the full
effect of their good deeds? And those good deeds are showing up? The way that we see in the case of
Rahim is now May Allah subhanaw taala, because people like that a lot.
		

			So SR SATA motivation is particularly very difficult to maintain, especially when you're not seeing
results. How does a person maintain motivation, when they're not seeing anything come out of their
efforts, it's incredibly hard, you know, when you're working really, really hard on something, and
you don't see the the end result being at all what you envisioned, it's really hard to stay on
track. Obviously, maintaining a positive intention can be very, very helpful. But that's still
something that's really difficult. And, you know, I think about the example of Hajer, you know, in
the middle of the desert, and, and, and the the ways emsam came to be in that situation. And that
		

			that story for me is a reminder of the fact that, you know, sometimes our accomplishments are very
the end result of our, our efforts can be very unpredictable. Right here. She is an all she's doing
her efforts, right her her what she's trying to do is she's trying to survive. She's trying to have
her child survive, but through her actions to promote survival. Ellis paradata has given us this my
exams on the water of zamzam for for generation upon generation upon generation and the centuries
and it just goes to show that a lot of times it's not it's not just about it's not about the effort
necessarily, it's about this is what Allah subhanaw taala has decided is going to happen, whether it
		

			was going to be through hedger, or whether it was going to be through you know, all those passages
just saying Be and it is my that zamzam was meant to be there. And I think sometimes if we remember
that, that our job, like her job in this situation is just to try. That's our that's our job is to
put in effort. And Allah subhana promises us that on the Day of Judgment, all of our efforts will be
seeing all of the good that we have accumulated, we will be recompensed in full. He doesn't say that
all of the end results you're going to be recompensed for No, it's your efforts that you're going to
be recompense for, and realizing that can really alleviate a lot of the responsibility, we put a lot
		

			of responsibility on our shoulders, for things that are not our responsibility. We talked about the
guilt that comes with not being able to save somebody that we care about. So this idea of putting
guidance on our own shoulders, of putting risk on our own shoulders, our provision, putting the the
path that our children take so how long if any of you have children, you realize even a one year old
has their own mind, and you can't control what they do. Right. And so realizing that there's so much
that's out of our control, and that when you when you leave it to ALLAH SubhanA data, that
responsibility, that heavy burden can be alleviated. So asking ourselves, is this my responsibility
		

			to bear? Is the success of this effort, my responsibility to bear and no, it's not. And so you leave
it to us past data, and it helps to alleviate a lot of that burden. I think a big part of what makes
it such a struggle, when we want an accomplishment to show up with the end result that we're
anticipating is that we base it on the success and qualities that we see in other people. And what
else passata has gifted them, right? All of this, all of this goodness is through Aleste path data.
And instead, we should be looking internally and thinking what are the strengths and qualities that
Alicia has that it has given me that I can make an effort through? And so asking ourselves that,
		

			that am I basing my motivation on what somebody else has accomplished and me wanting to emulate
that? And can I now translate that to what are the qualities and strengths that alas PanDa has
possessed?
		

			sent me for and how can I utilize that to please Him? So is there a story in your life about someone
who deeply impacted you, but hasn't lived to see all that they meant to you? Please share their
story below