Sikander Hashmi – Success in School & Life KMA Friday Message
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Respected elders, dear brothers and sisters,
my young friends,
When a sports season starts,
every team
hopes to win the championship.
Nobody
plans
to get eliminated
from the playoffs. Nobody plans to lose.
But we know
that their success
is based on how well they develop their
skills,
how well they train,
and how well they play every day.
Similarly, my friends, if we want to be
successful
at the end of the coming school year
or if you want to be successful
at the end of our journey of life,
the work starts
now.
If we start if a team starts thinking
about the playoffs
when there's only 2 weeks to go,
it's too late.
Gotta start thinking about it earlier. You gotta
start planning for it earlier. So if you
wanna be successful at the end of the
school year, if you wanna be successful generally
through this journey of life,
the work and the planning needs to start
now. We can't leave it till the end.
And the better we plan,
the better decisions we make every day,
the better our chances of success.
And the poor decisions that we make every
day
and the less we prepare and the less
we focus on our goal,
the higher the chances of failure. That's simply
how it works. So today,
I'd like to share with you
4 tips.
Just 4 tips to make it safely
and soundly
through this journey,
through this journey of school,
of studies,
and through the journey of life overall.
Now remember
one thing,
that while our teachers, our professors,
our colleagues, our supervisors,
our coaches,
they want us to succeed in this life.
We want you to succeed in this life,
but more importantly, in the hereafter as well.
Right? So anyone else that you deal with,
unless, like, it's an Islamic school or you
have, like, you know, Islamic or Muslim teachers,
generally, everyone will be focused on getting you
to succeed in whatever
you're doing and whatever their responsibilities
are.
Okay? But our responsibilities here at the Masjid
are not only for your success through this
life and through your studies or whatever you're
doing,
but also
your success in the afterlife. May
Allah grant us success in all of our
affairs, Ameen.
So first and foremost, my friends, number 1,
surround yourself with Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. Allah
is already in control of everything. Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala is already aware of everything that
you're doing. So, you're already surrounded. We are
all already surrounded in some ways
or in different ways by Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
But
we also need to do the same and
surround ourselves with
the remembrance of Allah
with belief in Allah
with trust in Allah
You see, even for a journey as noble
as Hajj, like, what journey could be more
nobler
or more special in the sight of Allah
than the journey of Hajj? Of course, we
know. It's the greatest journey a person can
take. But even regarding that journey, Allah
says, pack up, pack your provisions. What does
Zawah do?
Pack your provisions for the journey. Take necessary
provisions for the journey, and surely, the best
provision is taqwa.
The best provision is righteousness and piety with
Allah
and be mindful of me, oh people of
reason.
Allah
says, oh people of reason, oh people of
intelligence,
be mindful of me. And as the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam has told us,
fear Allah
have taqwa of Allah wherever you may be.
It doesn't matter if you're in the classroom,
if you're in the playground, if you're out
with your friends, if you're on the bus,
if you're on the train, if you're closed
up in your bedroom and it's 2 AM,
fear Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, have taqwa of
Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala wherever you may be.
And also as the prophet Sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam gave the golden advice to sayyidina Abbas
radiAllahu anhu.
That mind, your relationship with Allah
safeguard
Allah
Meaning safeguard whatever is due towards Allah
and Allah
will safeguard you. So strengthen your bond and
strengthen your relationship
with Allah.
Secondly, my friends, the zikr of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala. Allah tells us in the Quran,
Allah has tied
but not just a little bit of. A
lot of has tied
Allah has tied a lot of with
success. So if you wanna be successful
in this world and especially in the hereafter,
increase your dhikr of Allah
If you increase the dhikr of Allah
whether you say
You remember Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala?
Or you put on your those headphones or
those earbuds,
but you're listening to Quran while everyone else
is listening to music. You pay attention to
your salah. You solidify your connection with Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
This will lead you to success inshallah.
But you have to do it a lot.
The dhikr needs to be a lot. Why?
Because the dhikr gives us strength
to withstand
the temptations,
to withstand
the flood that is coming our way. That
dhikr gives us spiritual fortitude.
If your dhikr is weak,
your spirituality will be weak. If your dhikr
is weak, your defenses against the temptations of
shaitan will be weak as well. So increase
the dhikr of Allah, and you will see
that the rest of the problems will go
away, Insha'Allah.
Lessen the dhikr of Allah, and the problems
are gonna increase. It's as simple as that.
So increase the remembrance of Allah
And finally, solidify your belief in Allah
This is for the first point because Allah
tells us
that indeed it is the believers who have
succeeded. The believers are the ones who are
going to be successful. So success again is
tied with
belief.
And what do we hear in the adhan?
Come
towards success.
So our belief with Allah sub in Allah
has to do with our success as well.
But listen to this. Success
without belief
isn't really success. It's fake success.
If you want true success,
you must have belief in Allah
A person can discard their belief in Allah
and feel they're successful,
but that's fake success. They're never gonna be
successful that way.
So our success is tied with our belief
in Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. Allah tells
us, And
do not be like those who forgot Allah.
You know what happens when people forget Allah?
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala makes them forget themselves.
They forget about what is good and bad
for themselves
when they forget Allah.
It is they who are truly rebellious.
When people forget Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, they
will end up forgetting themselves.
Do not forget what is good for yourselves.
And in order to maintain that,
remember Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So that's number
1, surround yourself with Allah. 2nd, the point
that numb number 2, surround yourself
with good teammates.
Surround yourself with
good teammates.
You know, for people who play sports, you
know how it feels to be, like, on
a really sucky team.
Okay? Like, you're, like, a good player and
everyone else just sucks.
Okay? It's not pleasant, and you don't win
any championships that way. You don't you don't
get far that way. K? Similarly, if you
wanna succeed, surround yourself
with good people, with good teammates. The best
friends will be those who are amazing friends
in this world and in the hereafter.
As the saying goes, the qualities regarding good
friends,
The one who reminds you of Allah when
you see him or her. When you see
that friend, they remind you of Allah Subhanahu
wa
And
they're they add to your knowledge when they
speak. K. You look at them, they remind
you of Allah
When they speak, they don't just speak rubbish.
They don't speak, you know, about useless things.
But when they speak, they increase your knowledge.
And
their actions remind you of the hereafter. This
is the type of friends that you actually,
you know, ideally want to have and that
we also want to be ourselves for others.
May Allah
grant us such friends and make us such
friends towards others.
As the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam has told
us,
a person is upon the deen, is upon
the religion, the path, the way of life
of his close friend, so beware of whom
you befriend.
Be careful of who you allow into your
life. Be careful of who you allow to
to take from your time and your attention
and your energies
because those are the people you're gonna end
up becoming like.
So be judicious. Be careful about who you
allow
to get close to you.
As brothers and sisters, we also need to
be looking out for one another. So if
you see your brother or sister in faith,
it's falling, it's slipping,
it's about to drown, will you not help
them?
Of course, you would help them. Right? I
hope you would help them. We all wish
that somebody would help us if we were
in that situation. So if you see someone
going down that path,
try to help them. Try to pull them
up. Don't push them down. Don't be like,
look at that such person. He comes to
the masjid for Jumayah, and look what he's
doing in the masjid. Look at her. This
is how she behaves in the masjid, or
this is how she is in front of
her parents. Look what she's doing in school.
No. That's the wrong attitude.
Instead, be like, you know, this person is
behaving in this way. I'm worried about them.
Let me encourage them to come to the
masjid
more. Let me encourage them to improve their
behavior. Let me try to help them steer
them away from this path of destruction.
So be looking out for one another,
spend time with those who are good, but
keep your eyes out for those who need
help and try to pull them up instead
of pushing them down. On the day of
judgment, Allah
tells us close friends will be enemies.
That close friends will be enemies to one
another on that day, on the day of
judgment, except for the righteous, except for the
people of Taqwa.
If you have friendships based on Taqwa, based
on the love of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
that friendship will last, will endure until the
day of judgment and beyond, insha'Allah.
Otherwise,
that is a future enemy. If your friendship
is not built upon taqwa, that's a future
enemy on the day of judgment.
So stick to those who have good character,
ideally the people of taqwa and the people
who are close to
Allah so that you help each other in
getting closer and closer to
Allah Number 3, develop good habits.
And most bad habits, if you think about
it, have to do with lack of control
over our desires. What do they have to
do with? Lack of control over our desires.
So we know what is better for us.
Logically, almost everyone knows what is good for
us.
But we let our nafs, our temptations, our
desires overtake the logic. And therefore, we end
up with
time management issues.
No. We end up with a poor routine.
We end up with bad sleep.
We end up with too much play and
hanging out, not enough attention on the things
that matter.
Right? We end up with
useless substances and getting addicted,
and we end up with filling our mind
with junk. This all has to do with
lack of control over our nafs, our desires,
our temptations.
Right? So develop good habits.
Your body needs your body has a right
over you. You need proper sleep.
Right? Staying up all night and then sleeping
all day is not the way Allah has
designed us, unless someone really has to do
it because of work or something.
K? So get proper sleep.
Eat properly.
You know? Do time management. You have a
project coming up. Right? Don't procrastinate and leave
it till the last minute. Think about it
now. Start planning. Right? One tip well, I'll
give you what I used to do in
university is if I had an assignment coming
up, I would block off time to work
on that assignment. K. I have a paper
due next Monday.
Okay. On Saturday, I'm gonna take 2 hours
between 12 PM and 2 PM. And then
on Sunday, I'm gonna give it another 45
minutes, and I'm done. And that way, I
don't have to worry about it. When that
time comes, I go, I do my work,
and my assignment is done on time.
K? So simple little tweaks, time management,
avoiding things which are not beneficial,
avoiding filling our mind with junk by listening
to music and watching unnecessary videos.
Right?
Develop good habits, and they will help you
get through the year and through your life
in a good way grant
us good habits. And finally, my friends, as
I always like to say, you probably know
it at the back of your mind by
now, try your best and leave for Allah
the rest. What that means is that our
job,
our control is not over the results. As
believers, we know that Allah
is the only one that controls the results.
Our job is to have the right intention
and to give it our best reasonable effort.
Once we have done those two things, the
rest is in the hands of Allah
But in every situation, we are called upon
to try our reasonable best. Right? Give it
your best shot and then leave it up
to Allah
because the results are in Allah's control.
Allah
will give you the good results inshallah. Allah
will give you the best result that you
deserve and that you need at that time
as long as you have put in the
right intention and you have put in the
reasonable
effort.
We ask Allah
to grant success to all of us. We
ask
Allah to grant us,
and all of our children and youth success
in this world and the next. Ask Allah
to protect all of our children, our youth,
and all of us from all types of
evils and harms whether they're visible or they're
hidden. We ask Allah
to grant them and us ease on this
journey and to grant us strength of iman.