Sikander Hashmi – Congratulations to All Summer Millionaires KMA Friday Message
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AI: Transcript ©
Respected elders, dear brothers and sisters, my young
friends,
salaam alaikum I'd like to start off today
by congratulating
all of my young friends
and their parents,
grandparents,
family members,
on completing another school year.
And especially for those who have graduated,
I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to continue
to grant you many successes
and all that is good for you throughout
your lives and in the afterlife.
My friends, the report card
and the grades
that you have received,
they decide
what happens to you next.
Do you move on to the next grade?
Which program you can get into?
Do you qualify
for scholarship
or not?
And the success of our youth and our
children
is our success.
The success
of our community members
is the success
of our community.
And
you are an important,
very important part
of the future
of our community.
So as we celebrate your achievements
and your efforts,
let us also remember
that there is
a much
greater report card
that we are currently working for.
As I remember as a child, the anticipation
that would come with the report card,
right? Even if I knew that I probably
did well, like I did a fine, but
still the anticipation that would come with
getting the grades, getting the report cards, and
opening it up, and looking at it, and
seeing,
you know, what I actually got.
So that
anticipation
is for a report card that is just
for 1 year or, you know, for a
term or one academic year at the most.
Imagine
the report card, the report book
for our entire lives.
The anticipation that would come
with,
what grade did Allah
give me
for my life?
And is this a passing grade?
Will I pass
into
Jannah in the hereafter
or have I failed?
See, this grade that we will receive
in that book, that report book,
will determine our final fate in the hereafter.
So it is much, much more consequential
than the report card or the grades that
we get at the end of the year
or at the end of the term. That's
not to say that they're not important. Of
course, they're important.
But the final report card and report book
on the day of judgment
will be much, much more consequential.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
tells us,
Whoever is spared from the fire
and is admitted into Jannah will indeed triumph.
That will be the true triumph when a
person is able
to steer clear of the hellfire
and is admitted into Jannah.
That will be the true
passing grade. That will be the true success.
And we ask Allah
to make us from among such successful. Muhammadu
ameen.
See, if you have not studied well during
the year,
what happens?
You dread
getting that report card
because you don't know if it's going to
be a C or a D or an
F.
There's a certain amount of dread if you
know that you haven't done well, you know
that you were slacking, you know that you
were procrastinating, you know that you didn't prepare
well for the exams, you know you didn't
put in the time required
into your assignments
and into your studies.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala tells us about the
people
who will be in that state on the
day of judgment? And
the book of deeds will be placed
before
them. Then you will see the guilty people
in what state?
Scared.
The mujrilimin,
the guilty people, the criminals will be scared
of its contents.
And they'll be saying, woe to us.
What a book is this?
It has missed nothing,
minor or major, but it has taken it
into account. Every single thing is in here.
Every single detail is in this report card.
It hasn't missed anything.
Whether it was small or big, everything's recorded
in it.
So woe to us.
Allah
tells us, Thus they will find
whatever they did
present
before them.
This is one book that's not gonna miss
anything.
A teacher may have missed
a missed assignment. A teacher may have missed
an incorrect answer.
A teacher may have made mistakes but this
book will contain no mistakes. Every single action,
small or big will be recorded.
And Allah
ends with,
And your Lord will not wrong anyone. Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
does not do any zulum, any oppression, any
wronging towards anyone. So whatever they did will
be in the book.
Without any additions,
if Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala wishes, He can
subtract it, but nothing extra. Whatever they did,
minor or major,
present in this book
without wronging them. No one is being misled.
No one is being tricked.
Whatever they did, it will be present. So
my friends, while we congratulate you and celebrate
your accomplishments and efforts today,
we must also
not
get carried away
and forget the fact that true everlasting success
will only come after our report books
on the day of judgment
show that we have passed
the test of this life successfully.
And that is when the true success
will be recorded. So yes, your success in
this world is very important and why I'm
very happy for all of our children, all
of our youth, Mashallah, who have studied hard
and they have, or maybe they have struggled.
That's okay as well, but they tried,
you know. And they got the report cards,
and Mashallah, many of them have made accomplishments.
This is wonderful, Alhamdulillah.
Right? You should continue working hard,
but understand
that that is within the greater picture. That
is a subset of the bigger picture which
is
getting your report book, your report card
in a good way in your right hands
inshallah on the day of judgment. May Allah
grant all of us this. You
know, when I was a student, I would
absolutely detest
the exams
at the end of the year. It would
feel like an enormous burden. It would feel
like it was heavy boulders on my shoulders.
And when it was over, it felt like
these boulders
had been removed
from my back. And it felt like there
was nothing now to worry about in the
world. It's
this amazing feeling of freedom.
You know, I'm finally done, and I don't
need to think about these studies or think
about these exams and these tests anymore.
So, you know, you have today,
you're probably feeling like you have all the
time in the world
to do whatever you
want. Right? And when it comes to time,
today,
you're like a millionaire.
A millionaire who has
5000000 seconds.
And subhanAllah, if we count our lives and
our time in seconds, all of a sudden
it seems like there's not that much.
Right? So I was doing some math last
night.
So about
average life expectancy, if you say it's around
85 years, that's about 2 and a half
1000000000 or 2 1000000000 or so seconds.
And your summer vacation is approximately 5000000 seconds.
And I want you to think about it
in terms of seconds because
at every moment, a second is ticking by,
right? I look back at that clock, there's
a second going by,
like literally every second.
So the critical question is, what are you
going to do with these 5000000 seconds?
Today, you've got 5000000 seconds. They're all yours.
You could do whatever you want with them,
pretty much.
So what are you gonna do with your
5000000 seconds? Are you gonna be like those
who make big money? Sometimes there's athletes and
they sign multimillion dollar contracts, or people playing
lottery, which is haram, of course, and then
they win big.
And then what happens?
They blow all their money in no time,
right? They're like, Oh, I've got so much
money, and they start blowing it left, right,
and center.
And then next thing you know, after a
little while, they're staring down at bankruptcy,
right? So you don't want to be like
that because that means you'll find yourself in
September or at the end of August with
nothing good to show for, for these 5000000
seconds.
Or you can take these 5000000 seconds
and you could use them
for something productive,
something useful.
So let's talk about this quickly,
What you can do with these 5000000 seconds?
Because today you're a millionaire with 5000000
seconds. So for starters, you should take a
break.
What should you do? You should take a
break and get some rest, especially if you
work hard. Because you see the deen of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala teaches us balance,
balance between study and life,
between work and life, taking care of our
body, our mind, our spiritual heart,
taking care of ourselves as a whole.
So there's a time for everything. So divide
up your time.
You know, this is your time to take
a break.
And it is narrated from
Aliyib Nabi Talib
radiAllahu An that minds get tired,
so do bodies,
or as do bodies rather. Minds get tired
as do bodies,
so treat them with humorly wisdom. Treat them
with humorly wisdom. So
wisdom, which is humorly, or humor, which is,
or has wisdom, right? So treat yourself with
something essentially to give yourself a break, But
something that is not totally useless, something that
has some benefit in it.
And it was also
reported that he said that refresh your minds
from time to time,
for a tired mind becomes blank.
Refresh your mind from time to time because
a tired mind becomes blind.
Rabud Arba radiAllahu anhu
is reported to have said that, I entertain
my heart with something trivial
in order to make it stronger
in the service of the truth.
I entertain my heart with something trivial
in order to make it stronger in the
service of the truth. So there's nothing wrong
with relaxing with things that are lawful.
Some games, some activities
that are refreshing,
and they don't contain any indecency or bad
morals, anything prohibited.
But remember that too much of one thing,
even if it is permissible, even if it
is lawful,
is not good.
Right?
The pursuit of pleasure should not become
a goal of life so that you devote
all your time
to it, forgetting your obligations and responsibilities. So
it's supposed to be a temporary thing. A
break is supposed to be temporary.
Sports, games, activities, leisure should be temporary
with the objective
of getting you refreshed so that you can
get back to doing what you're actually supposed
to be doing. So when you're budgeting your
5000000 seconds,
put some seconds aside for taking a break,
some relaxing activities,
but don't use all of your 5000000 seconds
for that
cause that's not
what is meant to happen.
Now, when you're taking a break, none of
us stop breathing. Nobody says, Okay, I'm really
tired. Let me take a break. I'm gonna
stop breathing for a bit. Does anybody say
that? No.
Or do you say, I'm gonna take a
break, I'm gonna stop using the bathroom
when I need to, or I'm taking a
break, I'm gonna stop eating.
No.
Similarly,
salat,
zikr of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
is our oxygen,
is our spiritual oxygen. It is our lifeline
to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
So don't cut it off
or put it in danger while you're taking
a break. So yes, take a break,
but make sure that you are maintaining your
spiritual oxygen,
which is the dhikr of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. And the foremost way of doing that
is in the prayer. So maintain your prayers
and be connected to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
because
this is just as important, more important
than
eating,
than having to use the bathroom, than the
other physical bodily necessities.
The remembrance of Allah
in our prayers
are more important
for our
spirituality,
for our spiritual heart than these things are
for our physical bodies.
I know some teens,
they spend their summer, entire summer memorizing the
Quran
or in summer school to get ahead
or volunteering or other projects, learning something beneficial,
doing something positive.
Some successful students give advice, and one of
their top advices was don't waste your summers.
If you want to be a successful student,
if you want to be a successful person,
don't waste your summers. Don't think this is
just 2 months of nothing. This is 5000000
seconds of nothing,
but rather use it to your advantage.
Use it to catch up if you're falling
behind in something, or use it to jump
ahead.
Maybe learn a new skill,
take a free course online,
support important causes
like that of our brothers and sisters in
Palestine.
Many of you will be traveling, others will
perhaps stay at home. Whatever you do, think
of how you can turn it into something
powerful and something positive.
We know from the teachings of our beloved
prophet
that
that actions are judged by
their intentions,
or that intentions are what actions are judged
by. Now, that doesn't mean, by the way,
to make it clear, that doesn't mean
that if we do something,
bad with good intentions, it becomes good. So
don't get it wrong. It doesn't mean that
you can do something wrong or bad with
good intentions and it'll make it okay or
it'll make it good. That's not what it
means.
But what it means is that if you
do something good and permissible,
but you do it with even better intentions,
then you can make it more powerful.
Right? So for example,
if you're going to be spending time with
your family on vacation,
don't just enjoy the trip, but make the
intention that you're doing this
to strengthen family ties, which is something which
is commendable, which Allah Subhana Wa Ta'la has
commanded.
InshaAllah, you'll get rewarded for that time
with your family.
Travel with the intention of seeing the beauty
and the diversity of Allah's creation.
And as a means of pondering
and reflecting and strengthening your faith. And InshaAllah,
you'll get rewarded for that.
If you're going to work, do it with
the intention of serving others, or perhaps saving
money to support your parents,
or for charity, or for your studies, maybe
even for marriage.
Now when I got married
some years ago,
I pretty much paid it off
with a paid summer internship.
It was one summer, three and a half
months of work, whatever I earned, I was
able to pay for
my marriage.
If you're into playing sports or you're working
out,
do it with the intention of improving your
physical and mental strength.
Which in turn can make you better at
studying and better at worshiping Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala.
So, we're talking about 5,000,000 seconds.
So, that's actually, you know,
quite a bit. And remember,
that killing is not good in itself. So,
don't kill, not even time.
Don't be in the habit of killing
even time. So don't kill it by burying
it under, you know, under things that have
no benefit.
Right? Time will slip by, it will go
by. You know, I think about when I
was young, I didn't spend too much time
playing video games,
But the time that I did,
that hasn't benefited me in any real way.
Right? It was time to take a break.
Yes. Took a break. But was there any
other real benefit from it? No, there wasn't.
Right? If you're hanging out at the mall
endlessly,
that's not only going to eat your 5000000
seconds, but it's also going to eat up
your cash as well. Right? So be wise
about the choices that you make. See, time
lives on with things that are most beneficial
because the benefits you
or others receive
during that time go on
benefiting for days, months, and years to come.
The Prophet
has told us,
That there are 2 blessings
which many people
lose,
health
and free time. Many people are losers in
this. They end up losing out these two
blessings, which are
health
and
free time. And you only realize that it's
gone once it's take You only realize rather
its value when it's taken away from you.
When you have it, it seems like you
have a lot
and it's endless. But when it's gone,
then you realize, Oh, I wish, I wish,
I wish.
So protect yourself from saying I wish and
being regretful
in the future by taking advantage of the
blessings that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has given
you, these 2 great blessings
at this time.
So build your character, build your faith, your
life, and most importantly, your afterlife. In there's
a number of Islamic camps and events, and
conferences that take place during the summer, there's
various activities. If there's nothing else, there's 5
times prayers happening Alhamdulillah in the Masjid.
Right? So take advantage of these opportunities because
every second has the potential
to move you closer to success.
So use it and don't lose it. Now,
one easy way to lose a lot more
than what you bargained for is through your
friends.
What's an easy way of losing?
Through your friends.
Never underestimate
the influence your friends have on you.
Never underestimate
the influence
that your friends have upon you. Because peer
pressure is a real thing.
Right? Or just being in an environment where
people are doing something,
their friends. It can make people do the
craziest things, but can also make them do
the best, the greatest things as well. Right?
It depends who you're hanging out with,
What they're doing, what they're talking about,
what their mind is engaged in. And the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam gave us the example.
The parable of a good friend, he said,
and a bad friend, is that of a
carrier of musk, perfume and a blacksmith,
a person who works with iron. The carrier
of musk will give you some or you
will buy some, or you will notice a
good smell at the very least.
But as for the blacksmith, you will burn
your clothes or you will notice a bad
smell. That's not to say there's anything wrong
with being a blacksmith. Right?
But it's about it's an example about the
types of friends that you choose. If you
have good friends,
either they'll give you something beneficial,
some knowledge,
maybe some good trait, a boost,
or you'll give them something
and they'll give you something, or at the
very least, you'll be away from trouble.
At the very least, you'll stay away out
of trouble. If you have bad friends,
you will get burned
one way or the other.
If your friends are not good, you will
get burned one way or the other.
And at the very least, you're gonna stink
in terms of your character, in terms of
your faith, in terms of your intellect. So
protect yourself from being in stinky company. You
hang around a garbage truck. Again, nothing wrong
with being a garbage man, garbage person,
right? Nowadays, that's what we say. But
if you hang around there, you're gonna get
affected by the smell. Yes? So protect yourself
from bad company, protect yourself from bad friends
who are
leading to no good.
So to recap, my friends, my brothers and
sisters, number 1, certainly do take time to
relax. Even parents sometimes in the summertime. Actually,
I don't know. Right? Sometimes parents are scared
of the summer because now the kids are
home, right? But otherwise, maybe you don't have
to do the pickups and drop offs anymore
and you get a break from all the
homework and other stuff. So time to relax
in permissible ways, find activities, time to spend
with the family,
travel, find good places to go, even if
it's you know, it doesn't have to be
expensive. You can find things to do locally.
You know, try to engage your family and
spend some time relaxing with each other Insha'Allah.
Number 2, certainly be mindful of your salah
and your obligations and responsibilities.
Stay connected to Allah
ensure that you are engaged in the remembrance
of Allah and you're not shortchanging your relationship
with Allah.
Number 3, look for ways to turn what
you're into or whatever you're doing into something
better, how to elevate your intention so that
you can be rewarded
in greater ways Insha'Allah for whatever it is
that you're gonna be doing.
Fourthly, don't kill time, value your time because
when it's gone, it's
gone. And finally, be with those who are
truthful, meaning be with good friends, good company
so that you end up doing good things.
Insha'Allah. We ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to
bless our time and efforts. Ask Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala to protect us all, especially our
youth from useless and harmful pursuits. Ask Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala to guide us, to value
our time and health in the best way
best way possible. Ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
to enlighten our hearts with His remembrance and
the love of His Messenger Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
Ameen wakkhutawwal hamdulillahi rabbilahi wa lalameen. We'll take
a quick break inshallah and we will continue.