You Can Do Better
Date:
Channel: Mufti Menk
File Size: 24.51MB
Episode Notes
Youth Talk at edialogue.org centre in Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
AI Generated Transcript ©
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salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.
smilla rahmanir rahim al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa Salatu was Salam O Allah, Colombia even more saline Amina Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa
ala Medina.
Beloved brothers and sisters, we think Allah subhanho wa Taala. for giving us this opportunity to be here today we praise Allah subhanho wa Taala, who created us, who provide everything for us who has given us much more than we deserve.
And at the same time, we send blessings and salutations upon Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam,
the one who was sent to us with all this goodness that we have. And we ask Allah Subhana Allah, Allah to bless all his companions, his household and every one of us.
inshallah, Today, I would like to speak on a beautiful topic connected to the youth.
And that is
a topic that I have entitled we can do better.
Every one of us grows, as the days pass,
by Allah subhanho wa Taala says, one long project,
go to
the
moon.
It is a law who took you out of the wounds of your mother's and you knew nothing. When we were born, did we suddenly come out and say Somalia? Come on here? Is that what happened?
No, it didn't. When we were born, we didn't even make a noise besides crying at a certain stage. It was just crying. It's just the miracle of Isa or Jesus May peace be upon him where when he was born, he actually spoke in the Abdullah, I am the worship of Allah.
And you know that that is mentioned in sort of Nadia, we asked Allah subhanho wa Taala to guide those who have the incorrect belief about Jesus made peace be upon him to that which is correct. I mean, so when we were born, we came to this world without really knowing how to speak. There was no sound that was made besides that, which did not make sense. But do you know what a mother who is experienced would be able to differentiate between the cry of a child so the mother will say this cry is for hunger, this cry is because the child is perhaps with this child, this cry is because the child is tired. And this cry, I don't know, I'm worried let's go to the doctor. So Pamela, so this
was a gift of Allah and it still continues to be a gift. But as we grew older, we began to say a few words. Why? Because Allah has put within us the development to a degree that He created us from weakness. And slowly we worked up to the point of strength. When we hit the peak, in certain ways, we start slowing down once again. And this brings us to another verse of the Quran where Allah subhana wa Jalla says, Allah,
Allah.
Allah says, Allah has created you in a condition of weakness, and from that weakness he has brought you up to strength. And after that strength, he has then taken you down with to weakness and gray hair, weakness and gray hair. Something amazing is when you are young, and you are perhaps an infant, you are weak, you depend on people to do your things and the people around you do it happily. The parents will take you to the doctors happily if you happen to be sick, they will carry you, they will lift you they will perhaps move you from point A to point B they will feed you they will change your nappies. Everything happens happily and every day. The one who did all this for you
will keep on telling will keep on asking Allah Subhana Allah Allah Allah
grant this child of mine good health, God, this child long life, let the child and let the child man and do you know when you grow very old, what might happen May Allah protect us all. We become dependent on someone once again, maybe it's the same child that we looked after when they were little kids. And now when we are over
They feel lazy to look after us. So they say, Oh, I took my dad to the hospital. Oh, I've been holding my mother, I carried my mother, I felt I did this. And I did that so many different things. And at the end of the day, in the heart, one asks a question, when is this going to end up vermelha, safeguarded? I hope it doesn't happen to us. But people have said, you know what shaytan does come in and says, you know, how long am I going to carry on with this paralyzed Mother of mine? Allah protect us all. So the issue the point I'm raising two things, one is the lesson we have to learn from the verse obviously, because we read it, and two is the fact that we grow to a peak and at the
peak, after a certain point, we start dropping in certain ways. When I say certain ways, I mean, physically,
physically more than anything else. And so Allah it's a gift of Allah subhanho wa Taala that he has kept us so beautifully. As we're young and we growing we learn more every day. That's a gift of Allah. What does this mean? You know, when you go to school,
when you go to school, Subhana Allah, you learn right at the beginning, a BC or Elif, bachata and so on. When you get to the next year, you build on what you learned the first year. And then the third year you build on what you learned the second year, so if you know one plus one, and you learn that the answer is two that will help you right up to the end of your life. It's not like okay, one plus one was something we learned in grade one, forget about it now. Now if someone asks you What's one plus one, just tell them I don't know. No, it's not a silly question. It is something that you will need to know all along. So we develop and we grow and there is room for improvement and everything
we do, we can do better. So as a Muslim, where do we start today? We're talking to youth Mashallah. Mashallah the youth? Where do you start? What can you do better in point number one, you link with Allah subhanho wa Taala you can do better.
You can do better you can improve on your link with Allah I tell you why our driving force as muslimeen is the fact that we believe that others don't believe they do what they want, their first point of improvement is perhaps how much money they can earn. So that's the first point of improvement. But with us as muslimeen our first point of improvement is my liquid Allah can be better every one of us myself included, because Allah can be better do you read your five Salah if you do on what time do you read your five Salah you can improve on the time. If you don't read your five Salah Oh, that is something dangerous. You have to do something about it. I tell you why
believe makes us understand why we are in the world. If I were to ask you, why are you in this world? What would you say? Let's see what you say you? Can some of the guys answer me? Why are you in this world?
What is the reason?
Everyone says to wish of Allah subhanho wa Taala correct because I love this. Or Allah, Allah about.
I have not created mankind or humankind, except that they worship me. And Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam explained what is this worship? He explained, worship in a nutshell is to lead your life in such a way that all of it is a preparation for the day you will meet with Allah. That's what it is. That's the meaning.
To worship Allah subhanho wa Taala would mean to lead your life in such a way that you are preparing in the best possible way to meet with Allah so far is part of abandoned, worshipping Allah alone is the primary item that we look at,
to do the acts of worship in accordance with what Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam has taught is something of prime importance. But what you need to know is from the point of birth, right up to the point of death.
I must be conscious of the fact that I don't know when I'm going to die. I have no clue. This might be your last few moments. It might be my last few moments. I don't know. So if I want to die now and say I need to Allah subhanho wa Taala. What will I say? I say, You know what? We were having fun. I just went to school I learned I was about to qualify, I was going to do this, but then you took me away. That's not good enough. It's not a good enough answer. He said, you know what i was i really i was earning a salary. And I earn so much and I got a promotion and earn much more and I bought a car and a house and I was so happy and I married the most pretty girl on on the face of the globe. And
you know what? We were about to have kids and then you took me away? All these answers are material answers. The proper answer is Yala. Whatever opportunity you gave me. I need to develop a link with you. Forgive me wherever I have faltered I tried my best.
This is the link and this is why I say we can do better with our
incunabula because we don't know when we are going, that's the difference. A lot of people running behind materialism, let me tell you, your test is your test is whilst you are in the world, look at what is happening to others and learn a lesson for yourself. Let me give you an example. There are so many people out there, they were born, they lived, they died, what did they achieve? Nothing.
Absolutely nothing. But the world says this person was very successful. Why? Because he was, by the time he died, he was the CEO of a multi million dollar company while he did so well. Let's be honest, is that called doing well? Doing well in your life. Now what will happen to him, he died, he did not develop his Lincoln Allah. So Allah sends us to the world for an examination, and then he takes us out once the examination is over. He sends us in the world for an examination and he takes us out you are here. And soon you will be out. There are others who came in and they are out there are some who are still waiting to come in, and then they will come out short period of time. Listen
carefully, what I am saying is very, very serious. You have a short space of time to pass an examination and walk out. You have a very short space of time to pass your examination and to work on what is the exam. The exam is a lot has put obstacles in your path. Watch out, be careful for them.
You know a lot of the youngsters like to play games, I don't know, do you know what is the PSP three, and PSP four, and so on? I'm sure you're aware of it, I see the smile. So wish I know. But anyway, I know, you know. So you have all these games that you play when you play a game. Say for example, it's an ordinary game that a person might be playing
and say, racing cars, okay. So as you're racing, the obstacles, they can never ever have a game that is just a straight road, you just have to press the accelerator and switch over and they see who did the best. There's no game like that. That's boring. They have to have bins and turns and potholes and obstacles and something to do with something else. You must avoid hitting here and then you must go as fast as you can. And you do this so that you can finish and you have protected yourself from the obstacles. And you were at the finish line. Am I right? So say you at the finish line number 10. What will you do?
Let me see if some of the answers know the answer again. If for example, you play the game for the first time, and you finished off number 10. What what are you going to do?
Start again exactly what I wanted to hear. You're going to try again. Why? Because now you want to do a bit better, a bit better. So I tell you in life, life is a test. It's not a game. It's reality. So Allah says, look, you die once there's no coming back. There's no coming back. But we do us a favor. When you realize that you coming out second and third, there is something known as Toba, turn back to us we will come we will let you come up first.
Are you following the point? But you remember you like I say your life is such you there will be obstacles. It will be a beautiful card dangling in the front. And you know what? You've got half the money to earn them to buy the vehicle you don't have the other half now it is a test of Allah. Are you going to do something haram to get them car number one number two is? Is that car your main focus in life? Very important is that car your main focus in life images you might achieve and then when you die, what will happen? Nobody's going to bury that Lamborghini with you in your grave to say wow, big achievement. Yeah, it is very nice man. That's not going to happen. So understand that
with the link with Allah subhanho wa Taala. One of the most important things is to know that there are so many understand, stay away from Haram. You know, Zina or adultery is very easily committable depending on the environment you staying in, the winner is He who protects she will protect himself or herself from it. The reason is, and when we talk of Xena, for those who don't know the English, the Arabic language who might be listening to us, we're talking here of adultery, for example, it's just cited as an example. So to stay away from it, you would be projecting your wheels from hitting a pothole. Imagine you're driving, and you are in this race. And you see a huge pothole and you say
let's see if this car can take it, aren't you?
Aren't you a big fool, because you know that those big mac rooms you know those wheels, alloy wheels, they cannot take even the slightest of a pothole in my part of the world they call him buckling the wheel which means that room would actually get bent in such a way that you have to take all four out because you cannot have three that look the same and then one suddenly is a biscuit tire or it is something totally different. No, you change all of them or you repay the one if you can. So the point being raised is when you see Haram in your path, consider it an opportunity to get closeness to Allah subhanho wa Taala by staying away. So when you see something that you're not
supposed to look at, to lower your gaze for the sake of Allah, you should be happy to see I like passing my test here. So Pinilla
Time for Salah You're so lazy and you you just get up and you say you know what, no matter what I'm sitting and I'm not going to move until I get out of my bed and I go and read my Salah, you say Allah, I thank you for helping me pass the test, as cozy as the bed was because of the air conditioner because of whatever else. And as tired as I was, I got up because of you this might be the last salad that I will ever eat. could be any of you die, you're such a happy person imagine.
So why do we say you can do better is because as time passes, we have more and more obstacles. You know, when a person grows older, they get a family family comes with many more responsibilities. You spend time with your children, your family you need to earn.
And this test of the world is such that Allah has kept in it. Things that are beautiful for you to go and achieve. So sometimes people will,
for example, you know, you're living, you grow up, you get your first job, and your first pay packet. First salary, I'm sure a lot of you who are working, you remember the first time you got an amount of money, this is your money, and you looked at it. I hope you said that.
But sometimes people just look at it. Wow. Now I can quantify this, I can do this, I can do that. Whereas other people are thinking, let me save up as much as I can. One day I need to get married. And one day I need to have children. Look, Allah puts it in your sensible mind to say, one day you will get married and you will have children. Do you know why it's your duty, to have those children to pass the baton on so that the next generation can be prepared through you. So life is not all about you, you and you it is about you? Yes, but you link with Allah in such a way that you prepare the next generation for having the same or better link with Allah subhanho wa Taala This is why
those fathers who did not used to be religious, and they became religious, and then they have children, they will always tell you I want my son to be happy, but they are not happy. Why because they say we have earned the word I know of business people who were away from the dean when they came to the dean and they started reading their salah and so on. And then they had children they started saying you know what, don't worry my son Don't worry about money. We've got the money, you worry about your link with Allah, I want you to become a habit. I want you to learn the deen I want you to be a daddy, I want you to do this. And to do that. All this is part and parcel of your test
from Allah subhanho wa Taala. But we need to know it's not good enough to only worry about the children when we are not worried about ourselves. This is something that is extremely important. So going back to the first point that I was raising, and that is we can do better when it comes to our link with Allah subhanho wa Taala my way of looking at this is to constantly remind yourself that you are in a test. It is a very temporary test. Everything you are doing it's a temporary test. You have your beautiful phones, your beautiful watches, your nice clothes, beautiful perfume, whatever else you have Mashallah all this is Xena to hire to do all this is part of the beautification of the
world. It is not the aim of your existence here. But it is, by the way, by the way, your aim is to earn the pleasure of Allah. And you need to make sure every day you learn more you put more into practice, you do not miss that which is compulsory and obligatory upon you. Some of us we earn wealth, and we don't face the cat because we think you know what, I'm not ready. I know of people who've told me I've had money for the last 20 years, I haven't paid the cat, I just used to give a few charities here. Why this is a taste of Allah, He gives you 1000 real and he tells you do what I only need a little small percentage back very small. Let's see if you can give it Imagine you are
begging to someone a beggar. And you are begging to someone and you happen to say give me $5 or $10 or Yeah, let's use the term here. Give me 100 he gives you 105 and he tells you now that you have 105 give me backside. And you say I don't want
Come on
Who gave it to you? He gave you more than you asked for. And he's telling me Give me back the five and not even five to be honest with you. The percentage in most cases is smaller than that. When I say most cases there are a few exceptions where when it comes to farming and when it comes to mining and so on the percentage is slightly bigger. But Allah is asking you to give some back and sometimes we find ourselves dilly dally. So my brothers and sisters remember one thing you link with Allah subhana wa jal is something amazing. It is unique, always developing because when you die, don't you want to die at the time when your link will Allah is at the best possible level. You know, a friend
of mine lost his child two weeks ago.
And I spoke to the brain and I told him you know, I know your daughter.
Not directly but from what we hear. And Aren't you happy at the fact that
Her life moved in such a way that the time she died. From what we understood she had a much better link with Allah than all of the previous days, which means she had she was at the best possible position, up to that time to have gone. And voila, he the man nodded his head. Good news for such a person when you die, and when I die, and we have to talk about death. You know, some people don't like the topic death, the minute you say dentistry is one of them again, you know, the minute you say you're gonna die. But that's the only real thing. It's the only real topic you can actually talk about. So So what happened is with me and you, if we are getting closer and closer and closer to
Allah, and one of the days we die, we would be the closest we ever were to Allah than in the past. This is what is meant by you can do better do better every single day. This is why Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam used to say that bad news to the one whom is two days or equal
to yesterday and your today are equal in terms of spirituality and achievement. It's the same bad news to you good news to he whose two days are not the same today's better than yesterday. So there are three types of people want those who today is worse than yesterday, that is destruction. The other is those whom yesterday and today are the same. That is bad news, because you can do better. That's our topic.
And the one who is successful is he whom yesterday
and today today is such that it's much better than yesterday.
And this is common logic before I move on to the next point of this particular subject. I want to tell you that Allah has kept in such in men, that men will never be satisfied totally. In terms of materialistic achievements. No matter what he gets, you always want more low and eliminate Adama O'Connor lithonia de la de
la la la Motta, even if the son of Adam had two valleys full of gold, he would want another one. So that's just the system of nature. It's a system of, should I say contaminated nature, if we can even use that word. What that means is, say for example, you are working right? If you are working, and your salary is 10,000, real decent. I think that's a decent salary.
After some time you want to have the next following year you want it to be 15 you are working young post you want a promotion. If your salary is the same, there will come a time when you get bored. And if your salary is going down, I think you will quit your job and find another one. Right? Your salary is going down, you quit your job you say I need another job. And if you're getting a promotion and if you're earning more and more, you're happy. Remember for us the test is that must happen but with our link with Allah Subhana
Allah What is your link with Allah Come on, we can do better. We can be the best of people fulfill your obligations unto Allah and abstain from the prohibitions never ever render a single act of worship to anyone besides Allah subhanho wa Taala because that is like a major volcano that erupts in the middle of the street. That's what it's like. You know you have beautiful car beautiful, sweet, beautiful everything and suddenly volcano everything is gone. That is cheap. May Allah subhanho wa Taala protect us. Let in Ashok putana Rama Luca wala takuna nominal cassadine Allah subhanho wa Taala tells Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam what the powerful was directed at Rasulullah
Salah if you are to engage in your deeds will be wasted. And you will be from amongst the losers.
He was never going to do that. But look, the message is directed to him. And obviously, common logic it is directed to all of us as well. May Allah Subhana Allah grant us goodness, what else can I do much better in we set the link with Allah. The second point and I must raise this and I will not dwell on it too long is your link with Rasulullah sallallahu sallam. The reason is, he is the Nabhi that was sent to us we believe he is the best of them, the highest of them, and we respect him and love him to the highest degree and we believe that the love of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam is displayed by actions and not merely and only by words. So words are they Yes, you read your Salah
Allah, wa salam, and so many other words of praise and so on. But just words of praise is not enough. You know, if a person says I really, I respect you and then once they're hugging you, they take a knife and they stab you in the back. Is that respect is that love is that key? If someone says oh, this person is a wonderful person, and they go behind the scenes, and they're doing everything against what you say what wonderfulness is that so this is why we believe that we can do better with our link with Mohammed Salah Salam by learning what he taught. Learn the seal of the Sierra is when we talk of CR generally we are talking about the life of Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam
starting from just prior to his birth right up to the point where he passed away so a lot while he was alive and we learn all of that would be ideal.
I'm looking at what he went through for, for the sake of Allah, Allahu Allah to convey the deen to us. It was done to conveyed to us, for us, sake of Allah, but for us to pass the message to us. So how much are we prepared to sacrifice? How much do we learn from that just his life story. And number two is something known as the hadith of Rasulullah sallallahu Sallam and that is the statements. And the Hadith obviously goes into much more than just the mere statement, it even goes into his confirmations, and it goes into various qualities of his and so on. What do we learn from his instructions from the study, we will never be able to learn if we don't even know that we have
not made an effort to learn it. You know the link with Allah subhanho wa Taala. Each one of us needs to also do something about his link with the Quran.
And the link with
each one of us needs to do better when it comes to the hadith of Rasulullah sallallahu Sallam have you learned? Have you understood him? Have you tried to memorize even a few? Will you be able to quote 40 Hadees for me here and now? And if not, at least for your own self? Do you know a minimum of 40 heads off by heart?
The reality is a lot of us don't. Am I right? We cannot come on you love the man. You want his shafa and intercession on the day of piano. We ask Allah to give it to us. It's definitely something that is mentioned in the Hadith, that Rasulullah masala will be granted a special shafa a special intercession and so on. So what we need to know is, you will only deserve it if you have taken a keen interest in the message that the men brought.
So we can do better by the will of Allah subhanho wa Taala we can definitely do better by the will of Allah subhanho wa Taala. Let's move on. If you take a look at the link with Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam it will automatically encompass the companions of Muhammad Sallallahu sallam, what they went through and their lives, who they were and their names. You know, speaking to the youth, today, we have an issue where people are being distracted by sport. Now sports is something very important. When you need to keep it you need to perhaps something recreational once in a while, we will not say that it's haram completely, but how you treat it, your treatment of it can become
prohibitive, because if it is going to distract you from your Salah, from your obligations unto Allah, if it is going to become an issue that becomes your main aim in life and so on then the ruling changes. But the point I want to raise is as much as it is important for us to be fixed and to be able to also have a bit of recreational time and mix and interact in that particular way. We must know that the importance given to it is a test for us. How much importance Do you give Allah and His Rasool and the companions of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam. And how much of importance Do you give the football stars and possibly the gold stars and various other than cricket
stars and so on that might be living in our times or before? So if you were to be able to name for me,
I think football is quite big American football is big. Is football bigger than cricket here was cricket began football. Football, Okay, there you are. Football is quite big. So if you were to be able to name me, chin of the top footballers, your favorite, I think you as a result, you should be able to name 20 of the top Sahaba as one of your loved one. It's only thing, it's a balance. So nobody said to know Becca man, his whole life history is wrong. But if it's done
as a primary duty that you felt towards someone that perhaps was important, you need to know that what is primary is actually the Sahaba of the alarm. I know Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in his life story. Sometimes we do not know the details of his own life, that then we do the details of the lives of the others. So remember this, something very important, you can do better, but you need to pick up a book. If you want to do better, you need to fight laziness.
Later laziness is something that will really destroy you. If you are lazy. Your day will go by and tomorrow you say okay, I will do this and you say look around tomorrow. That's not good enough. Today, it must happen here. And it must happen now. So do not leave what you can do today for tomorrow. That is the rule if you want to achieve in life, never ever, no matter what the environment might train you to become, don't allow negative training. No, you do that which is correct. And I'm sure today when we talk of human resources and we talk of Human Resource Development and so on, when we talk of training of the staff of any multinational corporation or any
company and so on. We talk of eradication of laziness. Don't wait for tomorrow. You must fight you
laziness because all you have is your moments now.
What happened yesterday gone? What is going to come tomorrow Tomorrow you might never see. But right now you can do something. So start getting up and doing something. This is why Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam said in one Hadith, that if you have a scene that you want to soul, and tiama happens to come, try to sow the seed, rather die in that condition while you're sowing the seed. Why? Don't say Oh, piomas? Yeah, maybe put the seed assignment wait and see what's going on? No, no, no, no, no.
Obviously, this the Hadith is speaking about
the, the, how much? How keen, we should be to get good done. Do it ASAP, you don't know, you know, you've got something you want to give out in South Africa, do it today, do it now do it as best as you can. Because we don't want to
delay in such a way that we do not end up doing it. If I die, at least I know. I finish do whatever I could by the help of Allah subhana wa jal. So to in order to be able to do better, we have to find laziness.
Okay? What are the other points that we can do better in? We can do better in our relationships with one another, with one another. And what this means primarily when I meet you as salaam alaikum, how are you my brother, you are either my brother in Islam, or you are my brother or sister in humanity. And if you are my brother, or sister in Islam, there are so many rights that I owe you and you owe me. And if you are my brother or sister in humanity, there are still rights that I owe you and you owe me primarily, you can do better in your character, your character, how you talk to others. Look, if I were to meet you, for whatever reason, I need to ask myself,
when I leave you, whatever I left you with
anything positive?
Is it something you achieved from
If not, I can do better. So if I meet you, and I start swearing, and I start screaming, and I start yelling, that's not good enough, change them.
Change them. But if I meet you, and I am a person who spoke to you very well, I left you with a good warm heart, you became a happy person, positive energies, I gave you some hope. I tried to speak to you nicely. And I even though I was a little bit tired, I might have been a little bit sick. But the way I spoke to you, you actually felt welcome, you felt important and so on. That is what is supposed to be achieved. And you got a good message.
A good message of what a reminder, some people just by greeting them, you are reminded of Allah, you know that some people just by mixing with them, you are reminded of your duty as a Muslim. The brother says, You know what, my brother, I just need to pray Give me two minutes. And you sitting together?
By right you should say, brother, it's time for prayer. Let's go and pray. I know in this country, you can do that very easily. And even in other places you could but sometimes people will say, Hey, I'm not ready to pray. It's happened to me where I asked a certain brother. I said, You know what? Should Isn't it time for prayer? Let's he says I'm not yet ready. You're not? Yeah, are you? Are you used to something? I thought that was only for women. love Allah. Allah protect us, really. It's something that we need to understand when you meet a person in the interaction should be so positive that we should never ever be losing an opportunity to have a positive impact on someone. Never lose
the opportunity. Now, sometimes and there is a sickness that occurs people are very good to strangers, but their own people, they are bad to them. So you are a kind person you smile to everyone but get home and your wife was so scared. She's hoping that you didn't come because she says as soon as this man comes there is a disaster. When is my food? Why are these kids awake? They're supposed to be sleeping disturbing. These type of statements happen Believe me, there are people like this. We go home instead of entering the door with a broad smile and bringing calmness to the home. We will bring so much of terror to the home where you come in and everything is warm.
May Allah protect us. That should not happen. You can do better your relation with your family, your spouse, your wife, your husband, whoever it is your children, your parents, you can do much better, but you need to find what is known as you know, you know what is the next your soul your inner being you need to fight it in order to become better. Don't think that it's just going to come like a date. You know where you you have you have a medication, you eat the tablet and next thing I'm a very nice person, much the Tamron akiu there is an Arabic saying we do not think that the height or success is just like a date you eat it and next thing, you will be successful. It's not a date, you
will achieve something only by working very, very hard in that direction. So if you want to be a better person to your wife, go home and fight yourself to smile at her to say good word to tell her how much you love her today. You know
I always say the gym I love you, there's so much we can learn from it so much we can learn from it. Because a lot of the times people who say I love you, they don't actually mean it. It's just a word. It's just a word. And then people say, really.
So it's something that's unique. Because if you look at
the words, if they come from the right person to the right person, they mean a lot. When they come from the wrong person to the wrong person. They mean nothing, they actually mean zero, may Allah subhanho wa Taala, kindness, love for his sake. And this is why, like I say, we can do better even with our children. I know who is speaking to you, but they are those who have children who are listening to me. And believe me, you can do better the amount of time you spend with them the guidance. Remember what we said at the beginning of this talk, you have to pass the baton on to the next generation, you will become old yesterday when I blew into the mom.
I saw an elderly man who was being pushed by another elderly man, and the other elderly man happened to be his son. So they were both elderly. So the father must have been in his 90s. And the son must have been in his 60s or 70s. Because it looked like he must have had children quite early. And he refused for a worker to push that wheelchair. You know, the airline normally has a worker who will push the wheelchair. The man says no, let me push. And I looked at him. I didn't say anything. But I understood what he is trying to do. He says my father, this is an opportunity for me to push him. Why must I let someone else push him whilst I'm here and I'm alive. I am here. Why does this happen?
So he says, You walk I will push and I was in moved me to say Subhana Allah, Allah help us all. Either. We don't get to that age. You know, it's not easy to say amen to that. Because everyone wants to live very long. You know, but believe me, the best death is when you die once you are still a bit healthy. You know, once you people have you haven't become a burden on someone because, you know, when you become a burden on someone, it's a test for them. But it's a test for you too. It is very irritating. I have spoken to some elderly people who need help even to get a small bottle like this from the corner. They they need help. And they say there was a day when I was the strongest in
the whole club and I was powerful. Now today I can't even move my hand. But that's a gift of Allah because you prepare to meet with him but it's an invitation because no matter what you want to do, you are dependent on someone and it's a test for those people to say are you going to help if you help Allah will assist you. But remember passing the baton on to the next generation will only happen if you have the time. And if you are going to use whatever Allah has blessed you with in order to help them and guide them to say Look son, one day I will not be here. You know what you need to do. You need to make sure you do not miss a Salah when you work with honestly do not be
tempted by corruption. today. Corruption is very easy. Anywhere you go on the globe. There are people who are corrupt. Why because the pattern has not been passed on properly or sometimes the baton was passed on meaning from from parents coming down. Sometimes it was passed on but remember the way the fitna and the tastes and tribulations is advertised today. Very very vigorous, very strong. Everywhere you go there's an advert advertising one a woman advertising something material a motor vehicle look at the billboards anywhere in the world what do they advertise they are very few countries and Mashallah this country Saudi Arabia is one of them where you find them advertising the
Quran advertising it to our I know when I was young up to today you traveling on the highway sometimes you see Latin sorry Corolla, I'm sure you've seen that, isn't it? They say so panela Billboard. Now in South Africa also we have a few of those billboards Mashallah way they say Subhana Allah and they have a translation in English. So it's there. But the point I'm raising is 99% of the billboards. You know, when I was younger, I'm going to tell you this, it's actually quite funny.
I drove while we were driving from Mancha to Jeddah
and there was a huge Billboard and there was a horse and I and something you know, the horses we were always interested in Mashallah horses and horse riding and so on. So there was a big horse and he said they sleep high.
And I said hey, this horse is called sleep I you know, we were just and I did not realize what they actually are advertising is
a mattress, a mattress sleep I was on him and a young and I'm telling my father today the advertising overseer and he started laughing. He says the advertising a mattress, and I said there's no sign of a mattress. He says that's how they advertise it.
Like for example, when they want to advertise to say for example, tires, you know, Pirelli or Bridgestone or something. In some countries, they will have a woman and there is no tire they just got a woman smiling and they got to the bottom it says Bridgestone, come on.
Someone who wants to look up that woman might Google Bridgestone and then only find the tires they'll be wondering what's going on. Allah save goddess so
The way the worldly items have been advertised and are marketed a very vigorous, so your taste is far greater and your reward is bigger to be able to streamline your life in a way yes, you make use of the dunya you make use of the material items, but only to bring you closer to Allah and to help you to fulfill your duty unto Allah. I had a case where there was a certain boy 13 years old, he wrote me an email and he told me you know what, my father is a very religious man. And he told me that to go to a theme park is haram and to do this and haram and to go to the park is haram and to go out for this.
And he says, Now, you know, I'm cooped up in the house, I don't know what to do, please, can you help me? So, it so happened that I knew the man's father than the boy's father. And when I met him, I told him I said, you know, what, do me a favor
in this world, all these items that are available, it depends how you use them, that makes them either haram or that keeps them within the confines of halon. So say for example, there is a theme park theme park meaning you know, you have rides and maybe a roller coaster and a big wheel and something else. Now one might say okay to go there, the reality is no, if you are there whole day every day all the time no Salah, no nothing you are mixing freely with the other sexes and so on or with the opposite sex and what have you. The truth is, that is when the way you are going there is what says what you are doing is wrong, the facilities available, but if you happen to go there once
in a while for a fixed period of time, bearing in mind your dress code your your duty unto Allah Salah time you stop what you are doing you fulfill your Salah, you eat only that which is halal and so what's wrong, you need recreation once in a while your children needed because they need to develop and children you know, it is nature that they will play Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam used to sometimes encourage the little children within certain limits to play.
You know, there are so many different
way he would even joke with the little children and he would spend a bit more time with them. And he sometimes they they used to have the some of the Abyssinian slaves or the little boys we used to come in and they used to entertain by playing, but it was not every day and it was not whole day, it was very limited. And it was part of recreation. So we need to understand and realize that we need to develop as much as we should be doing better in our link with Allah link with
the link we have with the rest of humanity at large the link with our family members, our parents and so on. Remember to strike the correct balance. And we ask Allah subhana wa Jalla to help us with this beautiful balance. So my brothers and sisters, we can do better in every single thing in our lives, no matter what it is, you know, for example,
today we are here we are dressed Mashallah the dress code is excellent. It's good, Mashallah, how, you know, we can do better? How can we do better? Go back and check. What are the confines of Islam when it comes to my dress code? What must my face be looking like, you know, what should I be looking like and so on. And you know what, we can develop it. I won't mention specifics because there are too many things, but we can develop. If we talk to the sisters for a moment. One thing you need to know is and as the sisters were talking to sisters, the development in dress code is a beautiful opportunity to get close to Allah beautiful chance. And every day we do better. The worst
would be the one who goes backwards. You know, what is what is meant by going backwards? say let's take a look at the dress code. So you have a sister Mashallah and she's put on a cloak and so on. And the day comes when that cloak is thrown away.
But if you have another person who never wore the cloak, and suddenly it comes in, we would say my sister, I would rather encourage someone who's moving closer to Allah than someone who's actually going back. We can see the devil is dead, there is always still a chance for as long as you have not died. This is why Rasulullah sallallahu Sallam has told us in Allah Allah to be Ludo but Allah VG mala Mubarak, Allah subhanho wa Taala accepts the repentance of a slave or a worshiper, meaning any one of us. Allah accepts our repentance for as long as that worshiper has not got to the point of
karma is when your soul is being removed from the body. There is a certain point where it's actually coming out now and it's called the caracara. Some of the scholars say when the soldiers got tied to the top here, where the where the neck is roughly and how exactly that happens, Allah knows best and we will all taste it one day because Allah says Cologne,
cologne.
Every soul shall taste death.
It's a taste
Every soul shall taste them. So when the when a person gets to the point of the door of repentance is closed and
what this means is, you have a chance you have a chance when does the chance game point?
At the point of
going back to our PlayStation games, you die once you die twice, you die thrice then it says Game Over fleshes, isn't it on the screen? Am I right? Most of the time you have three lives with us, like I told you, you have one life, but you have so many opportunities, you made a mistake. So y'all have to give me I admit my error. I regret it. I asked you to forgive me. And I promised you not to do it again. And Alice is forgiven. Here you are start a new slate. And then be
a person who has sought forgiveness from a sin is equivalent to the one who has no sin.
And there is one beautiful condition that I always love to reiterate and repeat. And that is the mercy of Allah is so immense, that Allah says, If you repent and after that you keep on doing good deeds, we will go back to the bad deeds that you did a long, long time ago, and we will convert them into good and bring them back onto the scale.
Illa
Allah, Allah Allah,
Allah, Dino Lola hussaini, he has an
Allah speaks of so many students and how bad they are, and so on, and how the people will be punished because of their things. Then he says, except for the one who repents, and after that does good deeds. So there's two conditions, when you repent, Your sins are forgiven. But if you repent, and then you do so many good deeds, then Allah says, We won't only suffice by having forgiven your bad deeds, we will take them and convert them into good and put them onto the right side of the scale. And here you go. So you have bonus extra points. May Allah Subhana, Allah, Allah grant us that opportunity. So my brothers and sisters, we can do better. Keep telling yourself every day in
everything you do, you can do better, even when you read your Salah, you know what we can do better in our concentration.
And the concentration is a beautiful gift of Allah. And I was reading about meditation in the West. And what they say is, I was reading and to be honest with you these days, if you Google it, and you check it out, you'll find it. They say, you know, at least thrice a day, it's very, very healthy to spend five minutes meditating. So what type of meditation so they will tell you, you know, you, you actually concentrate you can close your eyes and concentrate on your breathing. Concentrate on one thing for five minutes. And what it will do it releases a lot of your stress helps you focus again in your work and so on. And I said yeah Subhana Allah, when we tell people to fulfill Salah with for
sure and concentration, they say By the way, but you tell them to do this, they will do it quickly, because why doctor at from some way in the West has told you this. When Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam told you the other thing, you're not worried, but in the behind the scenes, they looked at what Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam said, and they modified it in a way that it does not seem like recording from them, but they actually got it from them. That is Salah, your gift and mine five times a day, you know how beautiful it is on a hot day you working and you know what I read, they say during the morning, you wouldn't you would you would not need it that much. But because later on during the
day, you've already been awake for so much you would need to bring the you'd need to bring the gap between the two points of meditation a little bit closer. And I said that is amazing. That is amazing. Because research, according to them is showing and proving to you that the gap between household and Muslim and Muslim in Asia is much smaller than the gap between fudger and
the beauty. That's why we say the gift we have if they knew Firstly, if we fulfill it properly, that's when we will achieve the goodness of him. And that's why when you are eating salad, forget about everything else. It's you and Allah, forget about everything your business can wait your meetings can wait everything can wait because if Allah wants he can take you away there and then in such a way that that thing will delete itself, your meetings will cancel everything will go. This is something far more important. Your link or the last part of your core test is the main paper that you are writing in your exam is Allah the main paper. You know, normally in this debate, you have
something known as in the examinations you have something known as orals, and then you have practicals and then you have the written paper. A lot of the times they will tell you that the written paper is far more important.
You know, the audio is okay, we can sort it out. We'll see we can do it later we can, but the written paper, you missed it, you're gone. So for us, the most important thing is Salah, you can do better by concentrating, bring back your concentration. So if you ask those Guru's of breathing, they will tell you, whenever you lose your concentration, bring it back, immediately bring it back immediately back on to what?
onto your breathing.
So they say,
we have something higher than that we tell you bring it back unto the words of Allah,
the highest thing you ever have. And that's why we say my brothers and sisters, if you are reading Salah, and I'm going to say this, we are sitting here in demand at the moment. And Saudi Arabia, if you are in this beautiful country, and you have not made an effort to learn the language of the Quran, you can do better. It's worded that way, I've worded it lightly. You can do better. You will regret it a day will come imagine the word of Allah, you don't know it. Come on, you can do but you don't know the meaning of it. He laughed. He laughed.
He was sorry. If you don't know the meaning of that there is a problem.
I don't want to say put up your hands who has a problem? I don't want to say that. Because I know a lot of people have a problem. The reason is, like I told you, the marketing of the worldly items is so vigorous, but the marketing of matters which out of the middle of the call is not as rigorous.
Yet that is the core, that's your test. Your test is when you see all the material items of the world being promoted in so many different ways through the whole media, how is it that you are going to protect yourself from all those potholes, so to speak, or obstacles and you're still going to drive your vehicle which is yourself through the path in a way that you come out in one piece by the help of Allah subhanho wa Taala So, you can do better bring yourself back to concentration, you know, when we are in record, what is the one of the main to ask that we say Subhana Allah be an AVI Am I right?
One of the main publications that is read read there, when we are buying record, some people do not know the meaning of that. And some people know the meaning but they are not concentrating on it. So they say
you know the meaning but you you should have taken the bother of a few split seconds to think of it. That is when your Salah will actually be much better, so inshallah we can do better. I spoken quite a bit. It's actually been 52 minutes since I started talking. And I asked Allah Subhana Allah to bless us all and to grant us all every form of ease and goodness. I think I'll open the floor for a few questions inshallah.
If time permits, and it was really an honor to be here, I really appreciate the fact that so many of you have turned up here at such short notice and I hope that they are brothers and sisters perhaps online who may have benefited. Apollo mother's moon was
Solomonic