Tom Facchine – Check Yourself
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the prophet's message about everything is a portion of his will, and that failure and success are the two most common factors affecting people. The speaker emphasizes that the Prophet's desire is to stop people from giving up and apply themselves to their abilities and needs, rather than relying on their intelligence or ability. The speaker also emphasizes that the prophet's desire is not to depend on one's intelligence or ability, but to apply themselves and take the means they have.
AI: Summary ©
In our next hadith, the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam said,
That's for Wahoo Muslim. The hadith is found
in Sahih Muslim. The prophet
he said that everything
is determined by a loss of
it's in his Qadr. It's in his,
apportionment or his decree.
Even
laziness
or
well, we could say maybe failure is another
laziness failure is is one translation,
or your ability, your sharpness.
Right?
And this is a very, very foundational hadith
when it comes to understanding
Allah's
will and Allah's
sort of Qadr, his
determination of everything
in the universe.
Sometimes when it comes to our abilities, we
can become diluted into think that our abilities
are in our own hands. Right? The talents
that we have, the skills that we accumulate,
yeah, we see this a lot in academia
or when you're taking a test or whatever,
you know, you only rely on
yourself. How many of us really? We know
that we were taught as Muslims that when
you you sit in an exam, you know,
after having studied and taking the means, you
say Bismillah and then you rely upon Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
For most of us, that's very difficult. For
most of us, we we rely too much
on ourselves. We assume that,
it's really all in our ability and all
in our courts to be able to, sort
of decide whether we're going to succeed or
fail, and that's why, unfortunately,
we see the results of this attitude and
how we treat people. We see people
who are rich and successful,
and we treat them in a certain way,
especially in the United States of America where
we have this sort of false meritocracy.
You see somebody driving a Tesla living in
the suburbs, and you assume that they've done
something right. You assume that that is all
because of, like,
like what said in Surat Al Khasas, right,
by Karun that this is from my reason.
This is from my ability. I'm the one
who did it. I deserve it. I worked.
I grinded. I hustled. I did this stuff.
Right? Without realizing that it's Allah
that gave you that ability in the first
place. It's Allah
that enabled
the talents and skills
that you have to actually
reach the conclusion that that that they reached.
And so when we see someone poor on
the street, we have the opposite. We blame
them morally. We say, oh, this person must
have done something wrong in their life. This
person must have screwed up. This person must
be, you know, and we treat them less
than human. Right?
You can take also a demonstration from how
do you
act in front of one person versus the
other. If you're in front of the person
from the suburbs with a big house and
drives a Tesla, then you're gonna straighten up
and you're gonna be happy when you receive
an invitation for iftar at that person's house
versus if you've got somebody who lives in
the hood and, you know, next to a
boarded up, you know, apartment or whatever,
and you get invited to an
iftar, you're gonna be sort of, well, boy,
that's not really what I was hoping for.
Right? Part of this, we're not just concerned
for our personal safety. Part of this is
our false assumption
that we get what we deserve in this
life, which is something Allah
tries to break us from this superstition,
multiple times in the Quran. And one of
those is the story of Qadun,
at the end told at the end of
Surah Al Khasas in the the 28th chapter
of the Quran.
Is that we see wealth, we see success,
and we assume that this person must have
done something right. And we see failure, we
see poverty, and we assume that this person
must have done something wrong. It ain't that
simple. The the the will of Allah
is gharib. It it overcomes all of that,
and so you might find that Allah
might keep somebody poor
in this life because it's better for their
afterlife, just as he might keep somebody rich
because it's better for their afterlife, and at
the end of the day we don't know.
So the prophet in this particular hadith,
he's basically
implying this. He said that everything is in
everything. He said every single thing
is a portion by Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
It's in his decision. It's in his decree.
It's in his Qadr.
Even
the ajus, which is like inability.
Right? We call in Arabic, you call someone
ajus once they've reached old age because they're
kinda like,
you know, they they don't have the abilities
that they used to have,
or a case like somebody who's sharp, somebody
who's able, somebody who's, you know,
you can imagine in the prime of their
lives. All they do is, you know, if
they wanna go do something they just they
just do it. Right? We're used to assuming
that that's in our control and the prophet
is informing us that this is actually part
of the will of Allah. Like, even your
inability to do something and your ability to
do something is part of Allah's will. Now
why is the prophet telling us this? What
does he want
to sort of what does he want from
us by telling us this? Is it supposed
to make us just completely give up and
say, well, you know, I didn't get out
of bed this morning and I'm gonna stop
going to the gym and I'm gonna stop
taking care of myself because, hey, it's all
from Allah
at the end of the day. Anyway, no,
that's not what Allah that's not what the
Prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam wants from us and
that's not what Allah salallahu alaihi wasallam wants
from us, but the Prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam,
he's trying to stop us from getting egotistical
and big headed
when it comes to our abilities or our
situation and realize
that we depend upon Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
in every single scenario
is that, yes, there are means Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala created
the world, the dunya, with cause and effect.
If you want the biceps, you're gonna have
to hit the gym. If you want
to succeed in something, you're gonna have to
apply yourself and take the means, but at
the end of the day it's really up
to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
whether your arrow hits the bull's eye or
not. Whether all of the means that you
take and all of the things that you
do to apply yourself are going to lead
to the outcome that you want, that's up
to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And even your
internal motivation,
your ability or inability,
or even your external sort of ability or
inability. That too is all determined by Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. So what the prophet salallahu
alaihi wasalam wants from us is not to
depend upon the means as if they are
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
That you don't depend upon your intelligence.
You don't depend upon
your whatever it is, your talents, your skills,
your credentials. You depend upon Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. You get the credentials.
You take the means. You do what you
have to do, but you have to understand
at the end of the day that it
all comes back to what Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala willed. And as the Salaf, I believe
it was
who said if that something was destined for
you, if Allah decided or decreed that something
was gonna happen to you, then there's no
way that it could not have happened to
you, and the opposite is true. Is that
if something missed you, if something didn't happen
to you, then it doesn't matter what you
did. If you went back and change tactics
or whatever,
that it was never going to happen to
you at all. This is Allah's will. This
is Allah's Qadr, and that's what the prophet
salallahu alaihi wasalam wants us to understand by
this hadith.