Tom Facchine – Allah Does Not Owe You Anything
AI: Summary ©
The importance of strong and confident faith in one's ability to achieve success is crucial to achieving success in life, rather than just a result. It is crucial to strengthen one's belief in oneself and their ability to achieve success, rather than just a result. It is also important to trust Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and not denying one's desires. It is crucial to have a positive attitude and not denying one's desires.
AI: Summary ©
Next hadith of prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam he
said
It's a longer hadith. It's got a couple
different parts to it, but it's extremely, extremely
important. The first part, the prophet said that
the strong believer is
vahir, the apparent part. Sorry, guys. This isn't
about gym selfies or but but your biceps
or your gains. The vahir, the the apparent
meaning of the hadith is that the khayr
we're talking about here or the sorry, the
qua, the strength
has to do with your belief, your faith.
How strong is your belief that
a strong believer is better than a weak
believer. The person who has Yaqeen,
who has certain faith,
who understands what they're doing in this world,
who understands who their Lord is, who understands
everything.
This person is better than somebody who's weak
in their faith and better than somebody who,
you know, yeah, okay, they're Alhamdulillah, they
they know the Shahada, they believe the Shahada
sort of loosely. They don't know the details.
They pray 5 times a day, you know,
hijab and salah and beard and whatever,
but they don't have absolute strong faith, absolute
certain faith, absolute unshakable faith,
like the type of person who's going to
do amazing things when nobody's looking or when
it actually contradicts their interest.
There's no doubt that the person with strong
faith
is better than the person with weak faith,
although there's good in both. Right?
This is a very hopeful hadith because sometimes
some of us some of us who skew
sort of, like, very self critical,
we can actually get discouraged
when we see sort of the heights that
are available to us. Right, when it comes
to piety and righteousness and all these sorts
of things. It can become very discouraging because
we have a very honest assessment of ourselves,
and we know that we're nowhere close. And
so we can, you know, be liable to
despair and to give up, and, of course,
the shaitan would love us to give up.
So the prophet, salallahu alaihi wa sallam, gives
us hope here because he says there's good
in both.
Even if you're not the strongest believer, they're
still they're still good in you. You still
belong. You're still one of us.
But but
we can't compare the 2.
The one who has strong faith is better
than the one who has weak faith, and
so there's that aspirational element that you should
try to strengthen your faith.
If you're somebody who has weak faith, you're
not useless. You know, you're
you're good, but you can be better.
And so we have a hope and an
aspiration, something to work towards that we want
to strengthen our faith. Then the prophet, salallahu
alayhi wasalam, he said,
be keen on what benefits you. Okay? First
part.
Then seek refuge in Allah,
seek Allah's help, what attaches,
and don't give up or don't be weak
or don't sort of be
enable.
This is a formula for success that the
prophet is giving
every single Muslim.
Pay attention to what benefits you.
Okay? And that's said in a very general
way. So it has to do with this
dunya. It has to do, of course, with
the afterlife.
But there's gonna be a lot of distractions.
Of that's sort of the, the implicit sort
of statement of the prophet here is that
there's gonna be things in Dunia that benefit
you, and there's other things that are gonna
be of no benefit to you. Distractions,
entertainment,
diversion,
forget all of that. Focus on what benefits
you and rely upon Allah, ask Allah for
help,
and don't fail. Don't be
incapacitated.
Don't be lazy.
So we see here that we share responsibility,
but also we depend upon Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala. It's not all up to us.
We have to focus on what benefits us.
We have to work. We have to have
a sense of urgency, and we have to
take the means, but at the end of
the day, we also have to rely on
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, which is why the
next thing the prophet says
is that if something afflicts you don't like,
it's a bad thing, a calamity, something you
don't like, don't say, if only
if only I did this or if only
this had happened or this or this or
this.
We start to think about other possibilities,
but instead say Allah
decided it or willed it or apportioned it
and he does what he wants.
If you don't do this, meaning if you
don't stop yourself and correct yourself, then you're
going to open up a door to the
devil's work, and that is something that all
of us want to avoid. So we have
here again the balance between what's in our
control and what's outside of our control.
There are things, our attitude, our intention, taking
the means that are inside of our control,
but then when it comes to producing the
results and the consequences,
it's up to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And if we've done our due diligence and
we have a strong relationship with Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala and we pray istikhara, and we
take the memes, and we have a clean
lifestyle, halal lifestyle,
and you still don't get the result that
you were after,
you have to trust Allah.
You can't question Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and
assume that what you want is the best
thing. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala told us it
doesn't work like that.
There are things that you want that are
bad for you, there are things that you
don't want that are actually good for you.
Medicine
is bitter,
even though it's necessary.
And so we can't turn our desires into
a god that we worship,
even though we say that we're Muslim and
we say that we're, you know, we're praying,
we're doing all this other stuff, but really
we're worshiping our desires,
because we're not gonna question them, and we're
gonna say that, you know, if I don't
get what I want, then I'm gonna question
Allah.
Why? Why me? Why didn't it happen this
way? I did everything right. I deserve this.
I deserve that. That's not the attitude of
a believer.
You question yourself first. You question your desires
first, what you want first, and you trust
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. If you know that
you have done no wrong,
meaning that you have a good intention and
that you took the means and that you
prayed istikhara and you asked Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala for his help, and if he didn't
allow it to happen, then you have to
trust that it's good for you and that's
better for you. And as we live and
we live longer and the years go by,
this is something that is Musahed. It's something
that just look back on your life.
That thing that you wanted, whether it was
a house, whether it was a car, or
there's a spouse, or there's a degree or
a program or whatever, a job,
you wanted it so bad at the time
with what you knew, you thought that this
was gonna be the game changer, you thought
that this was gonna be the best thing
for you.
And then just a year later, 2 years
later, whatever, you come to see, oh, wow,
I'm so happy that Allah
prevented that from me and didn't let me
get that. Allah knew what he was doing
the whole time.
So if you're straight, if you're right with
Allah,
you have to trust Allah
and don't get caught up with
what if, what if, what if, because the
devil's waiting for you to do that, and
he's waiting to lead you astray.