Yusha Evans – Jummah STIRIVING FOR EXCELLENCE
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Give me two minutes because I will be
doing a very small fundraiser for the masjid
to be able to help us with a
bill that we got to complete the construction
of the back street side and we need
the permanent certificate of authenticity.
So just give me two minutes after the
salah inshallah.
Number two, we still need teacher, teacher's assistance
for the boys on Sunday from 10 to
2pm 10 to 2pm so if you can
come and help us with the boys during
Sunday school, please do so inshallah.
Number three, alhamdulillah, with collaboration with epic sisters
and teachers, we've started a class for sisters
in Allen and Plano for adults only every
Tuesday from 930am to 2.15pm. So that's
every Tuesday from 930am to 2.15pm. If
any sisters are interested, just contact brother Adam,
our president to sign up for those classes
inshallah.
And number four, we also want to offer
a full-time hips program here in Masjid
Salahuddin, led by chef Atul Fattah, who is
well qualified in this.
So if you have any interest in this,
also please let our president brother Adam know
inshallah.
Barakallahu feekum, wasalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar,
Allah Akbar, Allah
Akbar, Allah
Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah
Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah
Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah
Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah
Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah
Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah
Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah
Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah
Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah
Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah
Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah
Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah
Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah
Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah
Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah
Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah
Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah
Akbar Allah My
dear brothers and sisters, inshallah, I was reading
through some verses the other day and one
caught my attention and I spent some time
looking through it, asking a few people about
it one that we very well know, but
I wanted to understand its implications and share
them with you today inshallah, because I've heard
part of this but I want to try
to connect them as they come from his
own This verse comes from Surah Al-Baqarah
where Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala says wa
la tulfoo bi aydinkum illa tahlaqtuh thank you
wa ahsanu and do good inna Allah yuhabbul
muhsineen Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, please forgive
me as well, I'm still suffering from the
cold that my daughter gave me last Saturday
I haven't slept for probably more than two
hours this entire week you know how that
is when you have children, and then they
give it to you but Allah Subhanahu wa
ta'ala tells us in the Qur'an
and we've heard parts of these verses used
in different ways we've heard that Allah loves
those who are doers of good we are
told that we've heard the part about spend
for the sake of Allah and then they
separate the part, do not let your own
hands become your destruction but there is a
specific reason why Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala
decided to put all three of these things
connected into one verse the very first thing
Allah tells us and spend in the cause
of Allah spend in the cause of Allah
this is something we know is a good
deed charity you cannot decrease your worth by
giving charity but then we find people separate
the verse where Allah says don't let your
hands become your own destruction meaning that don't
do harm to yourself that's the way it's
normally used and interpreted don't do harm to
yourself but if you look at what Allah
says in the beginning and then connects it
with wow that means these two are interconnected
so what Allah is telling us is that
do not let your hands be your own
destruction by withholding the goodness that Allah has
given you this I actually had a chance
to talk to Sheikh Abdullah Shamqiti's son-in
-law and I asked him to ask about
this verse he said yes, they're connected he
said that Allah is telling us don't let
our hands be our own destruction by withholding
the good that He has given to us
and then Allah ends it by saying and
do good for Allah indeed loves the doers
of good and I asked him about the
muhsin he said the muhsin is not just
a doer of good because it comes from
the word ihsan he said ihsan is to
strive for excellence it is to strive for
excellence in everything that we do the muhsineen
are not just the doers of good the
muhsineen are the ones who go above and
beyond they're the ones who strive for the
best in everything that they do because we
know the Prophet in a hadith where Jibreel
came to him sat and all the companions
witnessed it, he came to him in the
form of a man sat in front of
him and asked him three questions there's a
very beautiful book written about this called he
came to teach you your religion but he
sat in front of the Prophet and he
asked him what is Islam and he talked
about the pillars of Islam he said what
is iman he talked about the pillars of
iman then he asked him what is ihsan
and he said that ihsan is to worship
Allah as though you see him worship Allah
as though you see him and if that's
not possible if you're not capable of that
then worship knowing that he sees you worship
him as if he sees you when he
left the companions said who is this man
out there it's almost like he's coming in
here interrogating you about the religion who is
this man he said for indeed this was
Jibreel and he came to teach you your
religion so ihsan the muhsineen are the ones
who strive for excellence whatever we do as
a Muslim we should strive to do it
with ihsan it doesn't matter if it's our
worship to Allah it doesn't matter if it's
our business dealings it doesn't matter if it's
our contract the way we deal with each
other it doesn't matter if it's the way
you clean your house everything a Muslim does
they should try to do it in the
best manner in the best way and Allah
says indeed Allah loves yuhibbul muhsineen he loves
those who go above and beyond this is
what ihsan means this is what a muhsin
means to go above and beyond when we
look at our lives when we look at
our lives as Muslims the question I talked
about this one time in a khutbah the
question we should be asking ourselves is the
world a better place because of me is
the world a better place because I exist
that is what every Muslim should be asking
themselves is the world better because of me
and if the answer if you can't give
that resounding answer a yes then you need
to re-evaluate your purpose re-evaluate what
it is that you're doing because your life
is short the only thing that will matter
is the goodness that you left is the
goodness that is going to become of you
our purpose as Muslims should be to be
a beacon of light hope joy for the
rest of the world goodness should emanate from
us sand should emanate from us at all
times and at all places no matter where
you are or where you find yourself you
should be a person that is a person
of benefit you should be a person that
people look to and say this person makes
other people's lives better that is what the
believer should be about that is a core
value of mine that is the reason why
I do everything that I do is because
one of my core values besides worshipping Allah
subhana wa ta'ala is to be a
source of goodness for anyone that I can
reach by any means necessary it's why I
got into psychology it's why I do counselling
it's why I give da'wah it's why
I do it's why I do these things
it's because I want to be of the
mahsineen because Allah loves them and if Allah
loves you we know the very beautiful hadith
of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam which
I've said on this minbar that the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said if Allah loves
someone he tells the angels that are around
him and tells those lower and lower in
rank until the angels of this earth are
told to all creation that Allah loves so
and so so you love them Allah loves
the mahsineen we should be a source of
benefit to mankind and if we are not
a source of benefit to mankind then we
are failing our purpose but we cannot be
a source of benefit to mankind until we
become a source of benefit to ourselves we
have to be our own source of goodness
the person that you should help first and
foremost more than anything or anyone else it's
you you have to save you you cannot
give from a bankrupt account Shaykh Abdullah once
told me when giving da'wah he's like
you have to take in because you cannot
pour from an empty cup you can't pour
from an empty cup so there are times
where I take breaks and I go off
of social media or I seclude myself why
because I need it I need to replenish
me I need to replenish me because I
can't give you what I don't have if
any of you here today came and asked
me for a million dollars if I had
it I'd love to give it to you
I don't have it so I can't give
you that but I give from what I
have so that's something you need to self
evaluate every Muslim needs to evaluate themselves they
need to evaluate themselves and ask themselves what
benefit can I give to human beings what
benefit can I give to the world what
has Allah blessed me with that I can
use to help others that's what this verse
is talking about spend in the way of
Allah it doesn't always mean just money it
doesn't always mean just money that's where it
begins yes because Allah has blessed us with
it but spending in the way of Allah
means giving of yourself giving of your time
giving of your talents giving of the things
Allah has given you because there are people
who have nothing who benefit the world greatly
there are people who might be poor but
they've benefited the world so much with the
things that they've said or the things that
they've written even if you look at some
of the scholars of this religion they were
poor they were poor they had nothing but
yet look at the legacy that lives on
through them look at the legacy that lives
on through them such as our dear Shaykh
Islam Ibn Taymiyyah Rahim who was not a
wealthy man he was a poor man he
never even married he never even got married
never had children look at the benefit that
we still take from him today this is
what it means by being a muhsinin someone
who strives for excellence to leave this world
better than the way they found it aqoolu
qawdaha wa astaghfirullah wa alaikum wa astaghfirullah wa
alaikum wa astaghfirullah wa alaikum wa astaghfirullah wa
alaikum wa astaghfirullah wa alaikum wa astaghfirullah alhamdulillahi
rabbil alamin wassalatu wassalamu ala rasulillahi wa ala
alihi wa sahbihi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi
ajmain wa man wala ila yawmin neen an
ma ba'dah so Allah tells us spend for
the sake of Allah because everything we have
is from Him everything we have there is
nothing that you have there's nothing you possess
that's not from Allah and doesn't belong to
Him so spend from what you have whether
that be your money, whether that be your
time whether that be your education, whether that
be your degree whatever it is that you
have that you can make the world a
better place with spend it for the sake
of Allah and then Allah tells us don't
let our hands be our own destruction through
stinginess, through miserliness through self-containment through worrying
only about ourselves and not caring a single
bit about another human being that is not
the life of the believer and then Allah
tells us to be a person who is
a doer of ihsan, of goodness He didn't
say just be a doer of khair that
is general goodness He said be a doer
of ihsan and then Allah says indeed He
loves the doers of good but before we
can be a benefit to everyone else again,
we have to be a benefit to ourselves
and I mentioned Shaykh Hussain ibn Taymiyyah rahimahullah
ta'ana because I leave you today with
an advice he gave about self-improvement because
you cannot help others if you are not
helping yourself I tell this to so many
of my counseling clients that because some of
them come and they're struggling but they're also
worried about other people that's kind of how
it works people who go through things they
take on an empathic empathetic nature to see
that in other people and try to help
them and I always remind them that yes
it's good to want to help other people
but you can't help other people if you're
not helping yourself you have to help yourself
first and foremost.
Shaykh al-Islam ibn Taymiyyah rahimahullah ta'ana
this is from his majmu'ah fatawa he
said, when a person sees that their chest
does not feel open and at ease, if
you're finding yourself in a point in your
life where you feel like there's tightness in
your chest, this is one of the signs
of stress, anxiety things of that nature, it
becomes physical symptoms there's a very good book
about this called The Body Keeps the Score
written by Dr. Van Der Kolk when he
says if you feel that your chest is
tight and it's not open and you're not
at ease and you don't experience what is
known as sweetness of iman, the sweetness of
faith, and it doesn't have that same feeling
to you anymore or the light of guidance
doesn't shine in your heart you don't feel
that, you don't feel that light he said
then number one, the first advice istighfar seek
repentance from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ana for
indeed tawbah will bring about things, it opens
doors you have no idea to, there is
a reason why our Prophet alayhi salatu wasalam
said I make istighfar between 70 to 100
times every single day, and he was the
best of creation let your lips always be
wet with istighfar, even if you don't know
what you've done wrong I guarantee you, you've
done something so always make istighfar to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ana that was his first
advice, he said secondly then maximize their efforts
in goodness as much as you can, this
is about being a mu'min, start doing efforts
of goodness, push yourself to do good deeds,
seek repentance from Allah, make istighfar and then
maximize your efforts as much as possible, for
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ana says in surah
an-kaboot and those who strive their utmost
for our sake, those who strive for our
sake they work for our sake, they make
effort for our sake, they do jihad for
the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ana,
we will most certainly guide them to our
path, we will most certainly guide them, and
keep them on the straight path, and in
ways of this life and in the hereafter
and then lastly they must return and fulfill
all their religious duties outwardly and inwardly and
stick to the straight path, seeking Allah's help
and forsaking any idea that any transformation or
any ability can come from anyone or anything
other than Allah alone, seeking and knowing that
rectification the rectification of the human being cannot
come except from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ana,
because we have no capabilities beyond Him, we
say la hawla wa la quwwata illa billah,
there is no power, there is no might,
there is no movement there is no capability,
it basically means that nothing happens except by
the power and will of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ana, He said by doing this and
remaining steadfast upon these small principles Allah will
guide them back Allah will guide them back,
He'll open the heart, He'll put the light
of Iman back into them and give them
the sweetness of faith so let us be
of the mufsineen insha'Allah ta'ana, those
who give a greater benefit to the world
when you leave this world there should be
an impact when you leave this world there
should be an impact felt, if not then
we have wasted a lot of our lives
and on the day of judgment we will
have it may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ana
make us of the mufsineen insha'Allah Arabic
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