Fajr Reminders - Mahmood Habib Masjid and Islamic Center

Auto-generated transcript:My dear brothers and sisters, in the famous hadith of Abdullah ibn Awar r.a who reported from the Prophet s.a.w. The Prophet s.a.w. took hold of his shoulder and said, Be in the world as if you are a stranger or a traveler. Be in the world as if you are a stranger or a traveler. Among the teaching stories that we hear, the story of a man who came to the house of a wise man and he saw that the house had no furniture, absolutely nothing. The story is also told about the house of a man named Farid r.a. So maybe this relates to him. So he saw there was no furniture. So he asked him, where is your furniture? So this wise man, he asked the man, where is yours? So that man said, I am a traveler. He said, so am I. Ibn Awar r.a used to say, if you survive to the evening, don't die. Do not expect to be alive till the morning. And if you survive to the morning, do not look forward to the evening. In a healthy condition, prepare yourself for illness. And while you are alive, prepare yourself for death. And these are in Bukhari. I will send you the references of this also, inshallah. Another hadith in Bukhari, in Ibn Bajah and in Musnad ibn Ahmad, Rasulullah, Rasulullah said, What have I to do with the world? In connection with the world, I am just like a rider who sits under the shade of a tree, then goes off and leaves it. And this is in Tilmidi, in Namaja and Musnad Ahmad. Rasulullah said, what do I have to do with the world? I am like a traveler, I am like a rider on a horse who takes, rests for a little while under a tree and then continues on his journey. The great jurist, Al-Fudail bin Yaad, Rahatul Ali, said to a man, he asked him, how old are you? The man said, 60 years. Al-Fudail said, you have been traveling to your Rabb for 60 years, which means that you are about to arrive at your destination. So the man said, Al-Fudail said, do you know what is the meaning of that? He said, when a person knows that he is a slave and that he will return to Allah, he knows that he is to be asked about his deeds. If he knows that he will be asked, he should prepare answers to the questions. So the man asked him, he said, he asked Al-Fudail, he said, what shall I do? So Al-Fudail bin Yaad, Rahatul Ali said to him, that is an easy matter. So the man said, what is it? How is it easy? Al-Fudail said, you should stick to the straight path, meaning do not disobey Allah, do not anger Allah. He said, you should stick to the straight path for the rest of your life. You already live for 60 years, whatever is left, stick to the straight path for the rest of your life and Allah will forgive your past. You will commit sins, inshallah. And if you commit sins for the rest of your life, you will be held accountable for those and for the deeds that you committed throughout your life. So at whatever point in time we get some guidance, Alhamdulillah, straighten yourself from that time onwards. Don't worry about the past. And this is one of the things that shaitan tells. Shaitan says, oh, but you know, your whole life you lived like this. Your whole life you disobeyed Allah. What is the point now? There is always a point, even if it is two minutes before you die. We don't know whether it is two minutes or two hours or two days or two centuries. So from the moment you get the enlightenment, the moment you understand, yeah, I've been doing something wrong, immediately stop. Now, in the light of the above, a poet said, if a man walks for 60 years to a destination, then the destination will be very close. The destination will be very near. Ibn Abbas narrated that Rasulullah SAW said, there are two blessings which people lose. What are they? He said, they are health and free time. And this is in Bukhari, health and free time. Two blessings that people lose. Especially if you think about it, you know, in youth, how much of free time there is. Schools, colleges and so on. In your, when you start working,

https://youtu.be/bmGtVp8Gpe0 Auto-generated transcript:As-salāmu ʿalaykum wa rahmatullāhi wa barakātuh. Wa ṣalātu wa ṣalāmu ʿalaykum wa rahmatullāhi wa barakātuh. I am walking in Shiran Palace, KBR Park. And as you can see, they have this road. So, they installed these concrete blocks in a completely undrown chain. And then when they finished that whole work, then it rained. Heavy rain and the whole road got converted into a drain. And then somebody says, oh, how can we, we need water for the, we need space for the water to run off. So, then they hired a whole bunch of labor and removed these blocks individually, one by one. Every so many meters. Right? So, nobody thought that it would rain. Can you believe this? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. rains is a discovery for the forest department okay i think the way money is squandered is not funny anyway the park is very beautiful it's uh massively destabilized left alone so uh they haven't tried to improve it uh meaning destroy it so we have uh the natural vegetation and it's like an urban forest of grasses it has all kinds of different trees and lots of birds uh mammals reptiles small mammals uh reptiles and so on one of the most commonly seen things is peacocks absolute profusion of peafowl in this part what i want to talk to you about today is a thought which is that when we talk about careers we talk about life and so on we talk almost exclusively in terms of success in terms of victory right so what are the successes what are the victories and so forth and we run away from failures especially failures where the failure was not due to was not due to natural causes but was due to our own lack of judgment or wrong judgments we try to avoid that and pretend that it didn't happen or it couldn't have happened well after all how can i be wrong no i suggest to you that hooking your self-esteem hooking your self-image to success is a very dangerous thing and the reason is dangerous is because of how we are conditioned to define success our conditioning is that we from the earliest childhood whether it's a parent whether it's a teacher and then as we grow older it becomes a boss it becomes a individual boss and might become few rise enough in an organization and it could be the board of the organization but multiple external people our success what we like to call success depends on what they start doing and how they keep dealing with success this is what we are constantly moving on, my God, success is highly traveling fellow nano bio environmentalist andinary and 150 and display profile among other things as you walk along the screen or beyond the screen you have a long Parkinson who will say what can i do this or where I can do that or what can i do that or what can i do it this way there is an increasing strength of love it is a responsibility to keep growing lines across business since you are involved in it it is a complement in life okay so i have just been in the last several months over school you tried to define but instead they say about it. So if they say, oh fantastic, great job, we feel happy. If they say no, bad job, we feel unhappy. The job itself, what is my view about my work? We don't think about that. So our self-image and our self-esteem is hooked to success as defined by somebody else. Now that somebody is only looking at a final output or outcome without having almost no knowledge or very limited knowledge of what it took to get to that place. They don't have that knowledge, more than likely they don't care. But they will pass some judgment. So we also have this habit. We say, oh great, good job, fantastic job. Tommy, you're a great guy. And Tommy feels sad, glad, bad, mad. Now, as I said, the big problem with this is that then our happiness is always in the hands of somebody else. And if we are not able to get that good,

Auto-generated transcript:In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. Peace and blessings be upon the honour of the Prophet and the Messengers, Muhammad and the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him and upon his family, and upon all his family. And after that, brothers and sisters, this morning at the time of the Hajj, I got news that one of my very dear friends in America, his mother passed away, his mother passed away very suddenly. I called him, he said, 15 minutes. She was walking, talking, suddenly had a heart attack. In 15 minutes, she was gone. We ask Allah for Jannatul Firdous, without Hisaab for her and for Sabr for the family. I'm mentioning this as a reminder for us. Last Friday, my father's sister passed away, my Poovi. So, her children, they requested me to do the Salatul Janaza and so on. So, I went there. The Kavarsan in Chilkal Guda, that one section, we have our family graves. So, there's not enough space. So, they buried her in my grandfather's grave, her father, my Dada. My grandfather died in 1965. So, they opened the grave and they buried my aunt there. I looked into the grave, there's nothing. There's nothing. It was very salutary. It was very holy. It was very holy. It was a very holy experience for me to actually look into the grave of my Dada, my grandfather. I was probably nine years old or something like this at that time. So, they did not take me to the Kavarsan. I did not participate in the Janaza and so on at that time. So, this is actually the first time I've... I mean, I visited his grave many times. It reminds me that, Alhamdulillah, Allah reminded us of this day. Which will come to every single one of us. About which Allah said, كل نفس ذائقة الموت كل نفس Every living thing will taste death. كل نفس ذائقة الموت every living thing will taste death, without exception. Good or bad, old or young, sick or healthy, makes no difference. Muslim, non-Muslim, makes no difference. The worst of them died, and the best of them died. Rasulullah s.a.w. himself passed away. Allah s.w.t. said, Everybody. And one day, we will die. And on that day, S.A.w. said, You will then really see. Because the curtains which are there over our eyes, will be pulled aside. And then we will really see the reality. We will see the Haqqah. And that is the day we need to prepare for. This world, Allah s.w.t. said that this world is except, it is nothing except deception. What looks like success in this world, is actually failure. And what looks like failure, is success. So when we look, when we hear and read, about the last days, and about the Jal, and we say the Jal will show the fire, and actually it will be the Garden of Jannah, and you will show a garden, but that will be the fire. You don't have to go all the way there. You can see it today. You don't have to go all the way there. You don't have to go, Allah protect us from being at the same time alive when Dajjal is there, because that's a time when the Prophet asked protection from that time. But you can see the Jaliyat of this world. You can see this deception of this world right now. As we speak. Where things which we aren't behind in this life. Just go on the street here. You know this, India probably is one of the, it's not the only place, but one of the few places where you can actually see this chasing behind money, and running behind money, and running behind this false name and fame, and see it very clearly in this society. Small things. Designation for example. I should be called senior vice president sanitation. Who are you? You are a sweeper. Huh? Somebody is, one friend of mine getting very agitated about this. No, they don't call me this, they don't call me that. I said when you are saying they don't call me that, and that is bothering you, who has the power? They or you? Mind is blank. You've lost our capacity to think. When you are saying they don't give me this respect,

Auto-generated transcript:We come to the last of the principles. He says reputation outlasts riches. John D Rockefeller, he gave away 500 million in charities. He built the University of Chicago and Rockefeller University. He treated his people well with respect. And he always says money disappears, reputation echoes through generations. And your legacy is not your bank account, it is the name, the reputation you build for yourself. I'm reminded of the Gucci family slogan, which says quality is remembered long after the price is for water. Quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten. He also said that his secret empire or the empire secret was not oil, it was people. He said, I'd rather earn 1% of 100 people's efforts than 100% of my own. And he spent personal time recruiting top talent globally. And very interesting what he said about who in his view was the best person to have. He said, I will pay more for the ability to get along with people than I will pay for any other ability under the sun. He said, I will pay more for the ability to get along with people than I will pay for any other ability under the sun. So he valued people of talent, he valued people who were present, who got along with people, who were influential. That's how you become influential, by being able to get along with people. You do not become influential by being crass or by being qualified. You do not become influential by being a good person. You do not become influential by being quarrelsome or by any other way. You build reputation and you build influence by being nice. Now being nice does not mean you don't stand for your rights. It doesn't mean that you let people walk all over you. No, it just means that whatever you do, you do with style and you do with kindness and you do that with good manners. Good manners are worth money. Believe me, they're good. They're worth money. They're worth money. They're worth money. They're worth money. I remember a little kid, maybe 10 years old or something, and I was in the riding club and Syed Ahmad Khan Sahib passed away. He was my riding instructor. And I would always, you know, in our Hyderabadi way, I would say, I would make salaam to my elders. And I was not conscious of it, but I evidently had a big smile on my face. And Syed Khan Sahib was a good rider. Syed Khan Sahib was one of the first to say, , He told me that you are respecting people. You are doing salaam to people and you are smiling will open doors for you that you cannot even imagine. And he told me this when I was 10 years old. Today I'm 17. I believe that is so true. I'm so grateful to Allah . for such good teachers and for enabling me to do that. Now, reputation outlasts riches. John D. Rockefeller's competition and rivalry with Andrew Carnegie was not only in oil, but also externally in philanthropy. And both of them, they tried to outdo each other in giving more and more to charity. And obviously, that's a wonderful thing. It's a thing which the whole of society benefits from. And they did that, you know, amazingly well. The thing he says is he treated people with respect. That's the whole thing. The whole point is, how do you build reputation? Reputation is a very... First of all, let me say this. Reputation is your most valuable asset. Nothing in the world comes even close to your reputation. In terms of its value, as far as you're concerned. Reputation. The thing I say to myself and I say to anyone who's listening, what do you want to be remembered for? What do you want to be remembered for? Always ask yourself this question. Any situation that you are in, what do you want to be remembered for? And then go and do that. Do the thing that will make you memorable, that will give good memories to people. So if you are a parent, raise your children, the way you want to be remembered by those children. If you are a teacher, teach the way you want to be remembered as a teacher. If you are a manager,

Auto-generated transcript:In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise belongs to Allah, the Lord of the worlds, and the most gracious of all the messengers. Muhammad and the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, and peace and blessings be upon him and his family. And after that, principle number eight. John D. Rockefeller says, reinvest everything or lose everything. Reinvest everything or lose everything. His pending rule was never touch principle. Never touch the principle. Reinvest 90% of the profits, live on 10%. He says men fail, and this is before all the equality stuff, so therefore people fail, because they spend tomorrow's fortune on today's pleasures. He's talking about the never-never. He's talking about borrowing or getting into debt in order to fund today's pleasure. Compound interest builds empires. He's saying men fail because they spend tomorrow's fortune. You don't have it with you. Tomorrow's fortune on today's pleasures. Compound interest builds empires. Truest words spoken and completely reflect the Islamic principles of zero interest, zero interest finance. Just see. Just see what people usually spend on. People will spend, I'm talking about America especially. People will spend on, first thing they spend on is a car. They will try to get a new car, and then they will try to get the latest car in that bracket. I mean, not everybody is aiming for a Ferrari because they know they can't afford that. But if they're buying a Toyota, then they want the best and the latest and so on and so on. Fully loaded. Whereas if you just ask yourself, what is it that I need? You don't need a car, you need transport. I lived in America for six years, and I never had a car. And I never needed a car. People used to laugh. They used to say, you're the only person in the whole of the United States who does not own a car. I said, exactly. I am proud of that because I did not own a car. And because of that, two things happened. One, I saved a huge amount of money. And secondly, I helped another brother with some income. I had this dear brother and friend of mine, Abu Hadi, who used to drive Uber. And then he used to drive for me. And anywhere I wanted to go, my wife wanted to go, we would call Abu Hadi. We just did a very simple thing. I said, if I lease a car, obviously I will not take a car on finance by paying interest. But even if I take, and I did not want to spend the money to buy a new car. So I said, now what's the option I have? One is to buy a secondhand car. We don't know what kind of condition it is in and so on and so forth. And you drive it. So now you're paying insurance. You're paying for gas. And then of course the liability. If you, you know, you're driving, you have an accident, all of that. If I lease a car, it would have cost me the lease about $500 per month, plus insurance, plus gas, plus this. Whereas in terms of my usage, I'm not saying everybody has the same usage. If you have to drive to, you know, 100 km a day, you have to pay $100. 100 km, 100 miles a day or 50 miles a day commuting, that's a different thing. I didn't have to do that. So for my usage, I, in six years, I don't think I spent $500 in any one month. So I used to call him, call my, this, my friend to drive for me. And so therefore I had access. To a driver and a car. And he's a good friend of mine. So, you know, he would, it would be good company. I was learning Arabic. So I would speak my sort of practice my Arabic with him. And he would help my wife whenever she went shopping. The point I'm making is that when you use your money wisely, which is never touched the principle. He says spending tomorrow's fortune on today's pleasures. This is what happens. That's why they send you the send you credit cards in the mail. That is why they have all these great schemes where you can get a house straight away and you will get a mortgage. Apart from being completely haram. It gives you.

Auto-generated transcript:In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Peace and blessings be upon the Master of the 100 and the Master of the 100. Muhammad and the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him and upon his Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, are very much in harmony. From the principle of number seven, John D. Rockefeller says to his son, master negotiation with this framework. Number one, understand the environment. Number two, know your resources. Number three, find the opponent's weakness. Number four, clarify your goals. Number five, read their emotional state. Read their emotional state. He said, information is ammunition, emotion is opportunity. So he's talking about how to negotiate. Now, I want to share with you a very nice quote. And they said, you do not get what you desire. You get what you can negotiate. And this is very true in life. Many times we find people who are competent, but they do not get what they deserve. And all they can really do is complain and moan and groan about it and say, oh, you know, I should have got this. And I didn't get it. I say to them, ask yourself, why did you not get it? How can you get it? Because this quote, which I mentioned for you. I'll repeat that. You don't get what you deserve. You get what you can negotiate is a very, very, very true thing. So the point is, why didn't you get it? Because you could not negotiate it. Now, I just mentioned to you John D. Rockefeller's negotiation principles. Number one, understand the environment. Number two, know your resources. Number three, find the opponent's weakness. Number four, clarify your goals. Number five, read their emotional state. And he's talking about, therefore, then this is emotionless. He said information is ammunition. And emotion is opportunity. What I would submit to you is, again, my framework on this is different. My framework is in negotiation. The thing to think about. The way I look at it, when I negotiate, in my mind, I don't necessarily say this, but in my mind, I say, well, how can I help you to get what you want? So when I'm negotiating with another person, my thinking is, how can I help you, the other person, to get what you want? Now, you might say, well, this sounds crazy. Because in a negotiation, you should be worried or I should be worried about what I can get. My submission to you is that any negotiation for it to be successful, unless it's a very negative thing, just a one-way thing, like, you know, somebody is holding you up. It's a holdup. The guy is pointing a gun at you. There, you're not going to say, how can I help you get what you want? Although that might bear some thought. You know, I'll leave that with you. Tell me how you can make it work even there. But you might say, well, you know, right now, I need to get out of the situation. So how can I overpower this guy? How can I, you know, neutralize him? But other than that, in normal situations, for a negotiation to be successful, the most successful negotiations are win-wins, where both parties get what they want. And this is, in fact, possible. This is, in fact, possible. It's possible in far more interesting ways. This is, in fact, more interesting than we like to imagine. But since most of us have been conditioned or trained in the win-lose way of thinking, we never get past that. So we are always looking at, how can I get what, how can I get out of this? How can I get, what can I get out of this? Not how. What can I get out of this? And in the process, I kill the golden goose. That's okay. and rip open its belly and get all the eggs. The thing to remember is that in a good negotiation, both parties get what they want, and at the end of that, they also have a good relationship with each other. Now, I use this framework always in my family business consulting, and also in other places, but family business consulting,

Auto-generated transcript:In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings be upon the honor of the prophets and messengers. Muhammad and the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and upon his master, peace and blessings be upon him, are very much in agreement. Now we come to the sixth point of Rockefeller's advice to his son, which was, he said, business is war, act accordingly. Now, Andrew Carnegie was his greatest competitor in the oil business. And when they built a pipeline threatening Standard Oil, which is Rockefeller's company, Rockefeller bought the railroad and he bought the oil transportation. He bought Monopoly from the railroad and dropped shipping costs and crushed his competitor. His advice was, attack where they are weakest, not strongest. Having said that, this is one point on which I do not agree. And I'll give you my reasons by telling you two stories. One is a story which I heard, which I also... confirmed it to the extent possible, which is in Saudi Arabia, in Makkah, in one of the big binoud stores. Somebody started a typical similar store. Binoud is a grocery store, big, big, huge big grocery store, grocery store chain. So somebody opened another grocery store across the street from them. With food and tea and whatever else. You know, whatever they're selling. So the manager of the binoud store, obviously, he got worried. And, you know, he said, what's going to happen to our business and so on. But the owner of binoud, he responded and he said to the manager, send some of your people to help him. And he sent him food, he sent him tea. And he said to them, we have a Musalla here in the store. So at the time of Salah, you're welcome to come and pray here with us and so on. The manager was shocked because, you know, you're supposed to kill your competition. And here you're helping the competition. The owner explained very simply, and this is where our Islamic values and ethics and our aqidah and our faith are. And this is where our Islamic values and ethics and our aqidah and our faith are. And this is where our Islamic values and ethics and our faith are. And our faith must come in the way always for decision making. And he says that our sustenance has been determined by Allah. Allah SWT wrote what we are supposed to get. And they will not, a competition, they will not be able to take even one rial if it is already declared for us. It belongs to us. So why don't we try to get some rewards, hasanat, and help them? Now, this is the business philosophy which... is rooted in Islam. And I see this wherever people are following the religion, alhamdulillah. One of the places I see it is in Hyderabad. In Turbazar, there is... which is the bazaar that comes... that is after... when you're going towards your city, when you pass Mazamjai market, the... Usmanganj, which is the... not Turbazar, Usmanganj. Usmanganj, which is the bazaar that... comes after Mazamjai market. Usmanganj has a whole series of hardware stores. So they sell everything. I mean, you name it, they sell it. Including... you know, electrical fittings and lights and this and that. And all kinds of hardware. Now, almost all the stores... I'm saying almost as a safety measure. But all the stores... are owned by Buhari people. Every single one of them. Now, you go to any of those stores... and you ask for whatever thing you want. If that person doesn't have it, he won't tell you, I don't have it. He will give you a seat. He will order some tea for you. And he will send his... employee... to a neighboring store... and say, with the instruction that... this is what this customer wants. If they have it, bring it. And the neighboring store will give him that item... and... the item is given to you. He won't send you to that store. He'll get the item for you from the neighboring store. Now, the neighboring store... is his competition. Right?

Auto-generated transcript:In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. And peace and blessings be upon the honour of the Prophets and Messengers, Muhammad and the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him and upon his family, and peace and blessings be upon him and upon his family, and upon his many, many, many. What is next? Principle number five. Rockefeller says, excuses are mental illness. Excuses are mental illness. My quote on excuses, I say excuses don't change reality. Think about it like this. Say you had your wallet in your back pocket, in your hip pocket, which is probably the worst place to keep a wallet. But most people do. So you had the wallet in your hip pocket. People also keep the wallet on the dashboard of their car, right up in front and under the windscreen, where it's visible to everybody, and then they have their window down, and somebody obviously, you know, puts his hand in, grabs the wallet and is gone. And you have lost all your, whatever was in the wallet, your ID, your credit card, your money. So say, for example, you had your wallet in your back pocket, and you were, you know, you were going to a railway station or a fair or some crowded place and your wallet, your pocket is picked. Your wallet is gone. So now if you come and explain to me and give me this whole story of how it was so, normal, natural, you did take precautions, but however, you know, these people are so bad and the world is so bad, and therefore your wallet got stolen, and you give me all these excuses and I say, absolutely, I agree with you. You know, it's not your fault, right? It is not your fault. Will your wallet come back in your pocket? It won't, because loss is loss, gain is gain. Loss does not change to gain just because you have an excuse. So excuses don't change reality. Rockefeller puts it another way, more powerful. He says excuses are mental illness. Then he says three excuses that kill success. I'm not healthy enough, I'm not smart enough, I'm not lucky enough. I'm not healthy enough, I'm not smart enough, and I'm not lucky enough. All of these are excuses. Paul Coelho says, if you want to succeed, you must never lie to yourself. And those are excuses. Lying to yourself is excuses. I don't have enough time. I'm so busy. The person who is accomplishing huge things is somebody who also has the same 24 hours. So I ask people sometimes this question. I say, what's your dream? So they tell me, my dream is this. Okay, fantastic. What's your life goal? They have not heard about that. They don't have that life goal. So if it's not a life goal, why don't you have this dream written down as a life goal? Okay, so I write it down. How does it become a goal? It becomes a goal when you put a timeline on it. So I will achieve this dream by this date. It doesn't matter if the date is sketchy. Put a date. Once you do that, then I ask people, how much of screen time do you have? How much of time do you spend on screens? And it's very easy. Your phone has an app which tracks that. So enable that app and it will track the amount of time you will spend on the screen. Average screen time for most people is between 4 to 6 hours. Six hours is a working day. What you are doing for six hours is called a job. And jobs have salaries. So my question is, if you are spending six hours on a screen in social media, what are you getting paid for it? Who's paying your salary for it? If nobody's paying your salary, and of course we know that nobody's paying your salary, then why are you there on that screen for six hours? As simple as that. Now if you are there on the screen for six hours, how on earth are you going to achieve your dream, which I'm assuming is not being on a screen for six hours? So your dream is something else. So if your dream is something else, how is that dream going to be achieved when six hours a day, eight hours a day, your face is in your phone,

Auto-generated transcript:We come to Rockefeller's letters and advice to his son, Principle 4. It's a very interesting one. He says, money is fire. Use it or get burnt. And the commentator says that Rockefeller never worshipped money. He compared it to fire. He said it can warm your home or burn it down. It can feed the hungry or destroy the greedy. He donated 500 million and secured his legacy. The interesting thing to understand, as far as money is concerned, is that we live in an environment where we are taught to define ourselves in terms of money, to actually chase money, because we are told that money is what runs the world and therefore your net worth defines you and so and so's net worth is this much and net worth is that much. So effectively you're saying that a person is worth the value of his or her possessions. Now just think about that. Just the thought that your worth, who you are, what you are, your worth is to be measured, or that's what they want you to do, in terms of how many things you have. So whether those are shares in a company or whether they are your houses or cars or whatever, this is your worth. And the whole idea of this is because we live in an environment where the ruling principle is commercialism. The religion is commercialism. And the temples of that religion are the shopping malls, online or online. So you know you buy things with money, you don't say if somebody hasn't bought, if somebody has been in mộtv Bag Que Bagmon Hbt Л ath suppressor dan something bad and then goats come to you. And things like that. Actually I don't think I've done all that, only bought things for myself. And actually I do three things, is to encourage you to buy more. It's to encourage you to buy more, it's to encourage you to buy without thinking because I can always return it. While the people who are selling, they make money as long as they can register a sale. So it doesn't matter how long the person uses that thing which he bought, doesn't matter. As long as he can register a sale, he's fine with that. So therefore, it's something that, you know, therefore the money is what we are chasing. The fact of life is that money is the result of quality effort. So if you produce quality, money will follow. But if you chase money, then money is like a shadow. The more you chase it, the more it goes away from you. If the sun is behind you and your shadow is in front of you, then if you are running behind that shadow, you will never catch it because as you run, the shadow is in front of you. It's always in front of you. You can never catch the shadow. But if you turn around and you face the sun, then the shadow is chasing you. It's not the other way around, right? The shadow is chasing you. So that's how it is. If you are, if you are chasing the sun, if you are chasing quality, if you are chasing quality, then you find that money will come to you. You don't have to worry about money. But if you chase money, then quality will disappear. Because one of the first things that people do when they are chasing money is they are tempted to, I'm not saying everybody does it, but most people do it. They are tempted to sacrifice quality in order to make money. And of course, they will have all kinds of reasons they are doing it. They will make excuses and so on and so forth. But they will try to sacrifice quality and they will try to, you know, take shortcuts in order to make money. This is how the whole thing functions. People are willing to sell their honor because to make money, one of the ways of making money, a dishonorable, horrible way is to take bribes. People will do that. Shaitan tries to tempt them and say that one of the ways of making money is to take bribes. One of the ways to make money is to get into debt. That's how they send you credit cards free in the mail and they sign you on for nothing because then you start buying. You are in their clutches. As soon as you start buying, then of course you have to repay

Auto-generated transcript:In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to God, the Lord of the worlds. And peace and blessings be upon the messengers and messengers of God, Muhammad and the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him and upon his family and all his companions. From the book of John D. Rockefeller's advice to his son, the nine points. We have seen the first two. First of all, first point was hardship is your greatest teacher. Number two was failure plus persistence equals breakthrough. Third one, he said, love your work or live in misery. Love your work or live in misery. Now, he used to tell this famous story of Christopher Wren, the great architect and builder who was pivotal in rebuilding London. After the great fire of 1666, which involved designing 52 churches and St. Paul's Cathedral. He was an English architect and scientist and mathematician who was known for his work in the English Baroque style. And his legacy is connected to the new look of the city of London. He designed many of the most important structures like the Royal Observatory and the Hampton Port Palace and so on. Now, St. Paul's Cathedral is considered to be his masterpiece. And the design of the cathedral is a prime example of his architectural work and his architectural genius. The story of Christopher Wren goes like this. That he was at the site supervising the work when there were three stone masons who were breaking stones. Sculptors or stone masons who were breaking stones. So he asked them, he said, what are you doing? So the first of them, he said, you know, what can I say? I'm just breaking stones. So it was something like a punishment. This is a painful thing. I mean, why the hell do I have to do this? That kind of a mental attitude. I'm breaking rocks. He asked the second one. He said, I'm earning a living. So he was, you know, a step better than that. So he's not seeing the work as punishment. He's seeing the work as at least getting him some benefit. And he asked the third one, he said, what are you doing? He said, I'm building a cathedral. Now, this is, if you think about this, there's three people doing the same exact work. But one sees it as something which is a punishment. He'd rather not be doing it. The second one sees some meaning in it, but there's not really meaning in the work itself. But in what the work can give him, which is a paycheck at the end of the month or whatever period. But the third one is seeing that work as something which, you know, is a punishment. And he said, I'm doing this. It's a Migration Act, right? The fourth one sees something which reflects himself, which is his legacy to the world. When I was in the Plantations in 1991, 1993, we were planning to leave. And we wanted to, we lived in Kerala or the border of Tamil Nadu Kerala and that place had a beautiful teacote. So we thought we'd, you know, make some household furniture and take it with us. So we sent him back to马 Myanmar and told him that the旨 We asked, we got this carpenter, this Kerala carpenter, very famous for their absolutely fabulous work. So we got this carpenter, he came with an assistant and he told us how much wood we needed and so on. So we got the wood to make a dining set, so a dining table and six chairs. And he gave us a list of materials. So I told him, I said, you know, let me get all the material for you and then you can make, you can do the work. And he was on a daily, per day wage. So I didn't, for whatever reason, I didn't give it to him as a contract work, but I gave it to him on wages. So he was going through this work. Now he, one of the things he gave me was seven grains of sandpaper, his list, seven grains of sandpaper. So I'm thinking to myself, well, this. This is nice. This guy is going to sit around and he's going to be sanding this wood day after day and I'm paying for that. So I, obviously I didn't say that to him, but I said to him, I said, why do you need

Auto-generated transcript:In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings be upon him, the most merciful, the most merciful. Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and peace and blessings be upon him, and peace and blessings be upon him, and peace and blessings be upon him. My brothers and sisters, we are looking at the nine letters of advice that John D. Rockefeller wrote for his son. Absolutely brilliant pieces of advice, which I thought I should share with you and myself. And the first one was, hardship is your greatest teacher. The second one, he says, failure plus persistence. Failure, not failure by itself. Failure plus persistence equals breakthrough. Failure plus persistence equals breakthrough. Think about this. Edison, Thomas Edison, failed 10,000 times. He failed 10,000 times. The wonderful story of his, which I love the most, because he is the founder of GE, General Electric, with which I have been working for many years. Working as a consultant from 1994. The wonderful story, two wonderful stories. One is, of course, is, they say that the light bulb, he got it right at the 1100th time or some such thing, right? So they said to him, well, you failed, you know, 1100 times or 1100 minus one. So 10,999 times. So it's, you know, you failed so many times. So he said, no, it takes 1100 times to succeed. That's how long it takes. So in many other cases, you know, put together, they say that he failed 10,000 times. Now, the most wonderful story of Edison is that his lab caught fire. So he had this lab in a, you know, like an outhouse. So, you know, they have these, what they call granny cottages, which is just off the main house. There would be a cottage where your elderly parents or parents, for intending, they were supposed to stay there. So they're close to you and you take care of them. And they're still, they have their independent living. So this kind of granny cottage, so, you know, maybe it was a, it was a room or a shed or whatnot. So that's where he did all his experimentation. That's where he did all his discoveries or inventions. So all his work, all his work was there, you know, whatever his current experiments and current inventions. Inventions in progress. He had all his documentations and so on. So all of that stuff is there in this, in this building. And one night it caught fire. So it was a huge conflagration. The whole place was completely on fire. And there was no way that, you know, that fire could be put out or anything would be saved. So John D. Rockefeller's, no, no. Edison, Thomas Edison's son, he says that I, when I saw the fire, I went looking for my father. I thought he was going crazy with grief and with, you know, with this sense of loss. So, and I was afraid that he might do something, you know, to, which might harm himself, which might harm himself. So he said, I went searching for him. I see him standing there with his hands, gloves behind his back, looking at the fire. And he said, son says, when I got to him, he says, go call your mom. She'll never see a fire like this again. Go call your mom. She'll never see a fire like this again. So son says, well, you know, I was absolutely astonished at his equanimity and the fact that he was not, you know, screaming with grief or something. So he asked him, he said, Dad, this is all your work, right? This is everything that you have. All your inventions and all the, all the writing and all the documentation and everything else. Right? I mean, you just watching it burn. You, you know, you're not, you don't seem to be bothered. He says to his son, how many people have a chance to make a completely new beginning? Just think about that. How many people have a chance to make a completely new beginning? Slate is wiped clean. Right? Now you can think about this and say, well, if I was living a life, you know, as a drug addict. And I,

Auto-generated transcript:In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. Peace and blessings be upon the honour of the prophets and messengers. Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and upon his family and his family. Peace and blessings be upon him, and upon his family and his family. My brothers and sisters, all praise is due to Allah. One of the beauties of Islam and of winners in life is that they are open to learning from everywhere. And that's what I also recommend. One of the things I want to share with you is Rockefeller, John D. Rockefeller's advice to his son. This is being written in terms of nine specific principles. So let me read out the list first. He says, First principle, Heart-shaped, Hardship is your greatest teacher. Hardship is your greatest teacher. Secondly, Failure plus persistence equals breakthrough. Failure plus persistence equals breakthrough. Third one, Love your work or live in misery. Love your work or live in misery. Fourth one, Money is fire. Money is fire. Use it or get burned. Use it or get burned. Fifth one, Excuses are mental illness. Fabulous. Excuses are mental illness. Number six, Business is war. Act accordingly. Business is war. Act accordingly. Number seven, Master negotiation. Master negotiation. Number eight, Reinvest everything or lose everything. Reinvest everything or lose everything. And number nine, Reputation outlasts riches. Reputation outlasts riches. Inshallah, We will talk about these in detail. We do not even know. We do not know in detail. Deliberate intellectual Cathedral Training, Research of heteroplane technology, Fidel zas genius. What a ape there, Clean equatel, Guaranteedministry, But rather maintain iron economy and Not make humane decisions. But preserve equality, wildそんな welfare hundred billion in today's money but his greatest creation as they say was these letters his letters to his son so the first principle is saying is hardship is your greatest teacher now young Rockefeller Johnny Rockefeller faced crushing poverty and constant rejection crushing poverty and constant rejection his response I am grateful for the struggle it built the character that built the for Joe it built the character that built a for Joe and he says that success requires deliberate suffering conscious suffering really if you think about it we human beings seem to learn mostly from I won't say from the book but from the book but from the book but from the book once a entirely but almost entirely from hardship not from peace if I am if you ask me to think of or if I ask you to think of ten people ten people just randomly ten people who you know almost invariably those who you think about who are successful in every way whether it's material whether it is material whether it is material whether it is material whether it is is material whether it is spiritual whether it is physical our people who are people who started in poverty of people who started with nothing now are people who started in poverty of people who started with nothing now poverty I don't necessarily mean somebody was bringing on the street but poverty I don't necessarily mean somebody was bringing on the street but someone who had to think about spending money somebody who for whom money was spending money somebody who for whom money was not easy for example hand me down hadn't had it down close from their siblings or not easy for example had me down hadn't had it down close from their siblings or have anything to say on my children is that I had to close my children's or from their parents, they made choices. I think the biggest, most important strength that comes to us from being poor, from not having enough resources, is to make wise choices. Because you cannot have everything, you're forced to choose. Everything is a choice. Every single thing is a choice because you can't have everything. So the smallest things,

Auto-generated transcript:Khilal Ramadan Rahim, Alhamdulillah, Rabbil Alameen, Wasalatu Wasalamu Alayhi Sharifil Abiyyil Mursaleen, Muhammad Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wa'ala Alihi Wasallam, Tasleeman Kaseeran Kaseera, Faman Badu. My brother and sister, it's very, very important to think about the purification of the heart, tasiyat al-nafs, for learning Islam. People come to me and say, I want to become a great speaker. And I say, that's absolutely the worst place to start. because before you become a great speaker, you have to become a great worker, like a person who does amal, who lives by Islam. This desire to speak and the desire to tell people what to do, this is a huge trap. Sahal bin Abdullah, he says, it is not lawful, it is not possible for light, for the nur of knowledge to enter a heart in which there is something that Allah dislikes. Just think about this. These are things which are so critically important that we need to reflect on them. He says, I repeat his words, it is not lawful, it is not possible for light, for the nur of the knowledge of Islam to enter a heart in which there is something that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala dislikes. And he says, the source of this, this statement is the statement of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in Surah Al-A'raf, Allah said, I will turn away from the verses which are arrogant in the earth without truth. And if they see every verse they do not believe in it, and if they see the way of the right path, they do not take it as a way. And if they see the way of the wrong, they take it as a way. That is because they have denied our verses and they were not the way. And in the verse of the verse, Allah says, He says, I will turn away from my signs those who act unjustly with arrogance in the land. Allah is saying, I will turn them away from my signs so that they will not get to that. And even if they were to see, even if they were to see every sign, they still would not believe in them. If they see the right path, they will not take it. But if they see a crooked path, they will follow it. This is because they denied Allah's, our signs and were heedless of them. May Allah Ta'ala protect us from being people like that. Sufyan bin Ureena in his tafsir, he says Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will deprive them from understanding the Quran. SubhanAllah, we see how, what is the wages of arrogance, how arrogance will destroy you if you are arrogant. May Allah have mercy on us. Arrogance is the first trap of the ulama and the umara, of the rulers and people with authority and of people who are people of knowledge as in they know the theory but they are, you know, their hearts are sealed because they have arrogance in them. So when they become... Ulama, when they graduate from this or that darurum, they start considering themselves to be great scholars and they spend their time criticizing other people without looking at themselves and Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is saying such people, I will prevent them from seeing. Right? Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is saying, I will prevent them from seeing. Muhammad Yusuf al-Firyabi, rahmatullah alayhi salam, he said, Allah is saying that we should not be afraid of the people who are not in the right direction. He said, Allah is saying that He will deprive them from reflecting on the Quran and taking lessons from it. Ibn Kathir, rahmatullah alayhi salam, in his tafsir of this ayah, he said, Allah punished them with a terrible punishment of ignorance because they were arrogant. So whoever allows, now we talk about the taskiyatul nafs, we talk about purification of the soul. I remind myself anew that all of these talks of purification of soul are worthless if we do not actually go and purify ourselves. For example, imagine. Imagine that you have just come back from a run, you are sweating, you are stinking, your body is full of sweat and dust and muck and God knows what, right? And you are watching this absolutely passionate speech about the benefits of bathing,

Auto-generated transcript:In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. And peace and blessings be upon the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. Peace and blessings be upon him. Peace and blessings be upon him. Peace and blessings be upon him. Peace and blessings be upon him. If it's hot water, it's cold. No problem. You make wudu, you come to a masjid, alhamdulillah, the masjid is air conditioned or it is heated or whatnot. You're praying on nice carpets. No hardship. If you're feeling hungry before you come, eat something and nobody stops you. Eat something and come. And that we find difficult. Imagine. And about this salah, or any salah, Rasulullah said, the slave is closest to Allah when he is in sujood. And he said, when the slave makes sajdah on the farsh, on the earth, he is actually making sajdah before the throne of Allah . Before the Arsh of Allah . This is the guarantee of the Rasul . So how thankful we should be to Allah for having given us Islam. And Allah gave it to us. I know about myself and I don't know about you, but none of us made effort or went through danger or did something. Alhamdulillah, we're born in Muslim homes. Our parents are Muslim, grandparents are Muslim for the last thousand years, God knows. Right? So, we should be thankful to Allah. We should be thankful to Allah. You can think like the Lord , always in the path of the Prophet and within ourselves. And the Healer living in us is a Self, so It is He who gives us tie. This is what life is about. I never respond for these things. So I kept quiet. And then I said, why would you want to pray in the toilet? So she said, I don't want to pray in the toilet. But the toilet is the only place where I can pray. If my parents or my family see that I am praying, if they see I am a Muslim, they will kill me. So I pretend to go to the toilet. That is the only place I have to pray. What shall I do? What fatwa will you give for this? People go through such difficulties. I am not exaggerating. People go through such difficulties and more. We know the Sahaba. We know what all the Sahaba went through. That's a different thing. I am talking about today. In today's world, the kinds of difficulties that people go through in order to become Muslim and they are still firm on this. They are still firm on this. Alhamdulillah for us, we are to do nothing. And you say, pray five times a day, we cannot do it. May Allah have mercy on us. Eat halal, earn halal. No. Has to be some, some mixture has to be there. Hmm? So let us value this. So badi chaise. First, value this religion. That's it. Alhamdulillah, just think about it. This religion came to us because of the sacrifices of people who are far, far, far superior to us. The Sahaba of Prophet Muhammad , what is the comparison of the Sahabi to us? We are not even, our position and darja with Allah is only because of Islam. Otherwise, in terms of darja compared to the Sahabi, we are not even, at least I'm talking about myself, I don't even consider myself to be equal to the dust on the hoof of the donkey of the Sahabi. But Allah has given a position where you do imamat and you do khitabat and you stand in these masjids and you talk about the greatness of Allah . On what basis? On what basis? Only because Allah has put a cover over my faults and over my weaknesses and over my sins that you don't see it. You say, oh Mashallah, Mashallah, Yaver Bhai, we love you. If Allah had removed that cover. That's why Imam Shafi'i said, if somebody praises you, remember, he's not praising you, he's praising the cover that Allah has put over you. He can only see that. He's only seeing the cover that Allah put over you. So he's praising you. Oh Mashallah, Mashallah. Mashallah who? Me? No. It is Sattari of Allah. Sattaru Rayub Ghaffaru Dhunu. That's it. That's it. I'm saying it. I'm saying it, I'm saying it. I'm saying it. See that?

Auto-generated transcript:As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. And achieving success and trying. And he said, well, even after trying, if you are not successful, what shall you do? So I said to him, I say to you, that after trying, not being successful is not possible. It is not an option. Because Allah SWT said, وَأَلْلَيْسَ لِلْإِنسَانِ إِلَّا مَسَعَ Allah SWT said, there is nothing for a human being, for a person, except that which he works for. Which means that if he works for it, he will get it. The option that he worked for it, he tried, but he failed, does not exist. Allah did not say that some people will try and fail, some people will try and succeed. No. Allah said, for a person is only that which he tries for. Which means, if he tries, he will get it. If he does not try, he will not get it. Now this is a very important thing to keep in mind. And not get discouraged. When you are working hard, and you seem to be working for a long time, and you find that, you know, you are not achieving your results, it is not something to lose hope. It is only to understand that maybe, either my way, what I am doing, the method is not the best method, or I have not put in enough time. If you see the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, he talks about the 10,000 hour rule, and he says the difference between somebody who has worked 6,000 hours on something, and 8,000 hours on something, and 10,000 hours on something, the difference is, the difference in magnitude is literally transformation. It is not a linear progression, but it is something which is, you know, multiples of what between 6 and 8, and 6 and 10. It is like multiples of that. So, think about it like this. This is an example which I have given many times before. Those of you who listen regularly, you will remember this. Example I give is that of somebody who has gone to, say for example, you go to a kirana store, you go to a grain store, you go to a provision store, and you ask him to give you, say, 20 kilograms of wheat, or 20 kilograms of rice. So, he puts, he takes the scale, you know, the regular balance. He puts a 20 kilogram weight in, and he has to weigh in, like, one pan, and as soon as he does that, that pan descends to the countertop, and the other pan is up in the air. Then he takes a scoop, and he starts putting in the rice or the wheat into the other pan, which is usually shaped like a kind of bucket to hold the grain. And he keeps pouring the grain in, he keeps putting the grain in. And say, for example, now he's putting in 2 kilos, 5 kilos, 6 kilos, 10 kilos, 15 kilos, 17, 18 kilos, 19 kilos. What do you see in the position of the two pans? You will see there is no change in the position of the two pans. The pan with the weight is still sitting firmly on the countertop, and the pan with the rice in it is up in the air. Now, have you ever, at a stage like this, which you would have seen if you go to any store, this is something that you will see. Has it ever happened to you that the salesperson turns around and says to you, you know what, I don't think this is going to work. As you can see, I'm working hard. As you can see, I'm working consistently. As you can see, I've been working continuously. I've not slacked off. I've not stopped doing my work. But as you can see also that nothing is happening. So I think maybe you should go somewhere else. Try some other store, because it is not possible to weigh 20 kilograms of wheat or rice in this store. Has this ever happened to you? It will never happen to you, because if the man says that, you will just laugh, because you will say, this is the most idiotic thing I've ever heard. What do you mean it's not possible? What's not possible? You have a 20 kilogram weight in one pan, and all you need to do is to put 20 kilograms of rice in the other pan. And if the pan is not descending, if the other pan is still not descending to the countertop, if it is still up in the air, just simply means

https://youtu.be/bvg4kZ_h_Mc Auto-generated transcript:Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen. Salatu wassalamu ala ashrafil amin. Muhammadur Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa ala alihi wa sahibusallam. Tasliman kathiran kathira. We see that snake coming towards here. And right now he is very successfully pretending to be just a stick. This is in KBR Park. How interesting. So he might like to hide, but we don't let him hide. So Allah Ta'ala said, Sabaha lillahi. Maafis samaawati wa maafil abda. Allah said, Every single thing which is in the heavens and on the earth praises and sends up the praise of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala jala shan. Now just think about that. Reflect on this and say, what does it mean? We leave what's in the heavens, what's on the earth, what I'm seeing here. Sabaha lillahi maafis samaawati wa maafil abda. It means that every single, this thing here, this year of grass fruit, right? Every blade of grass, every leaf on every tree, right? See this leaf? It is singing the praise of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And also this one, and also this one, also this one. Every bug, every bee, every spider. Every frog, every toad, every turtle, every bird, every animal, every butterfly, every locust, every grasshopper. Every single thing sings the praises of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Sings the praises of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So when we pray, we are joining our praise and we are joining our munajat and we are joining our glorification with the glorification of every single creative thing. And we know that everything, illallah, is created. Allah is the creator and He is the creator of every single thing. Everything we know and everything we don't know. They've all been created by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And they are all aware of their place in their society. They're all aware of their place on earth. They're all aware of the purpose for which they have been created. And they all fulfill that purpose. Of course, they have no choice in the matter. Allah has not given ikhtiyar to them. So they do what they have been created to do. And as a result of that, they live their lives. I don't claim that the grasses are happy and the trees are happy. It's a question of happiness. And then so on. Human emotions, they don't apply to non-human things like these. Although they probably do apply to mammals. And more than mammals, maybe to birds. Meaning living, moving creatures probably. Again, all of this is my guesswork. But point being, that's not material. We come back to us. We have this whole issue of, therefore they do all this. The creatures of Allah. And they benefit from the mercy and blessing and the rizq that Allah gives them. Whereas we, well, we know what we do. Allah gave us ikhtiyar. Allah gave us control. Allah gave us the choice of whether we want to obey. Or not. Allah said, Allah said, Allah said, say that the truth is your Rabb. Allah is the truth. And it doesn't matter whether you believe this or not. It doesn't matter whether you believe it or not. I'm not trying to convert you. It doesn't matter to us. It matters to you. And that truth is the truth. That truth is the truth. That truth does not change for anyone. So Allah is saying, If somebody wants to believe this, go ahead, believe it. And if someone wants to deny it and say, no, sorry, there is no God. And all of this just happened by accident. Whatever theory you have. Allah is saying that's up to you. You want to believe that, believe that. It makes no difference even to us. It makes no difference even to human beings. What difference can it make to Allah? So you might say, well, why then should I believe in the truth? Why should I even search for the truth? Why should I want to know what the truth is? Because it makes no difference to anyone else. It makes a world of a difference to us. Because based on this truth, on the day of judgment, when we will be called before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, which is also the truth,

Auto-generated transcript: In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. And peace and blessings be upon the Prophet and the Messengers. Muhammad and the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him and upon his family, and peace and blessings be upon him and upon many, many. My brothers and sisters, may Allah bless our scholars. One of the scholars, he said, be thankful that Allah allowed you to stand at his door. Be thankful that Allah allowed you to stand at his door. Don't be in a hurry. Don't try to knock on the door because he knows you are there. He does not need to be alerted to the fact that you are standing at his door. Don't knock on the door. Don't demand this and that. Don't expect answers. Don't say, now that I'm here at your door, open the door. Now that I'm here at your door, give me what I want. Nothing. Just stand at the door and stand at the door with the sense of awe and majesty and intense gratitude that Allah enabled you and permitted you to stand at his door. Just that. Just that. Just that. And the guidance to stand at the door of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Yet, you, with all your problems, you with all your issues, you with all that you have, with your dirty hands and your dirty tongue and your dirty book of deeds, Allah allowed you to stand at his door. So just encouragement. Have that sense of gratitude in your heart as you stand at his door. And remember that if he allowed you to stand at his door, he knows why you are there. He knows you are there. He knows why you are there. And he allowed you to stand at his door because he will open the door and he will give you what you need and he will give you what you want. There is no doubt about this and there should be no doubt in your mind about this. But don't be in a hurry. Do not be in a hurry. Do not disturb. Do not try to push. It is the sign of Abodiyat. It is the sign of the slave that the slave is so conscious and so aware and so overwhelmed with just the thought that my Rab allowed me to stand at his door. That he does not do anything. Just standing at the door of his Rab is something which is so beautiful, which is something which is so invigorating, which is so enervating, which is so ennobling, which is so rejuvenating that it does not even occur to him to go beyond that. Say, Alhamdulillah, I am content. I am content. I am here. I am content. You know, I think about this as in the days, in my early days, my childhood I had, we lived in a big house and we had dogs and of course they were outside the house but one of the things that I always sort of thought about was a dog is happy just to lie on the mat. mat outside your door. That's it. He won't go anywhere. He won't ask for anything. He's just lying there on that mat. And when you come out of the house and he jumps up and down, he jumps, you know, he shows his delight in multiple ways and his tail is wagging and so on. And he's barking in that special tone, which tells you that this is not a bark of anger. It's not a bark of fear. It's a bark of complete and total delight that you have appeared. Complete delight. And he's jumping up and down. Complete delight. He's not looking for food. He's not looking for you to do anything with you. He's just absolutely delighted that you exist. He's absolutely delighted that you are there and that he has the opportunity to look at you. He has the opportunity to stand there in your presence. That's it. He's so happy with that. I tell myself that is how I should be with regard to my Rabb, Jalla Jalaluhu. That when I go and obviously Allah SWT does not appear in our presence in that sense, but we ask Allah SWT to enable us to see him in Jannatul Firdaus inshaAllah, as Rasulullah promised that Allah will show himself to us. We hope that day will come. And we hope that we will be the people who Allah SWT will permit to see him Jannatul Firdaus. But today, when we stand in Salah,

Auto-generated transcript:In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. Peace and blessings be upon the honour of the Prophets and Messengers, Muhammad and the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him and upon his family. Peace and blessings be upon them. And after that, my brothers and sisters, it is very important after the first prayer to do the Masnoon adhkar of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him and upon his family. All the adhkar, all the dhikr the Prophet used to do after the first prayer, it is very important to do that first. Before anything else, before the khatira, before anything which the Imam wants to say or any haddars or hadiths or anything else. Finish the adhkar of, these are all Sunnah Mu'akkadah. They are almost as important as the first. Finish that, then do whatever else you want to do. So the Prophet said, first and foremost, after you finish your Salah, you say Astaghfirullah three times. Astaghfirullah, Astaghfirullah, Astaghfirullah. And then you say Allahumma a'inni a'la dhikrika wa shukrika wa husni ibadatika. And then if you like, you can say Allahumma takabbal minna innaka anta as-sami wal-alim wa tuba'ilina innaka anta at-tawabur raheem. And then you recite Ayatul Qursi. The recitation of Ayatul Qursi, after the Salah, the first Salah, Rasulullah said, the one who recites Ayatul Qursi after the first Salah, the only thing that is between him and Jannah is his death. Meaning, as soon as he dies, he will go to Jannah, InshaAllah. So simple. Ayatul Qursi after the first. So, the Ulema have said that this could mean Ayatul Qursi immediately after the first, or it could mean Ayatul Qursi as the last thing, before you say Salah. So after Atayat and after Dhurut Ibrahim and after the Dua's, you recite Ayatul Qursi and then you say Salam Alaikum, Salam Alaikum. In the Salah. So the Afdal way is to do that and immediately after Salah also. So after you say Salam, Salam, then Ayatul Qursi. And then SubhanAllah, Alhamdulillah, Allahu Akbar, 33, 33, 34. And then La ilaha illaAllah, Wa a'dahu la sharika lahu, la huma al-mulk, la huma al-hamdu, wa ala kulli shay'in qadir. So this is the minimum. And then of course, if Allah gives us tawfiq, La ilaha illaAllah, wa a'dahu la sharika lahu, la huma al-mulk, la huma al-hamdu, yuhi wa yumeet, wa huwa ala kulli shay'in qadir. That addition of yuhi wa yumeet. Huwa ala kulli shay'in qadir, ten times. And after that, Allahumma la ma'aleh ala ma'atayta, wa la muti lima manata, wa la yanfawzal jaddah minkal jaddah. These are the little one lines. This we must memorize and we must say this. Right? Then you do your, whatever else you want to do. The dars or anything else. But until you finish the adhkar, don't be in a hurry. If you do not even have, peace of mind and sukoon in salah, in the masjid, where will we have it? That this life is full of all kinds of tensions and this and that. At least in the masjid, let us be, stay with peace and khair. InshaAllah Allah Ta'ala will give us khair. The key thing is to understand that Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala gave us this deen in order to give us sukoon. The purpose of the deen is what? To give you trouble or to give you, deen is not meant to give, deen is meant to solve our problems. Deen is meant to give us sukoon. But anything is beneficial only if you use it. You can have a beautiful house and in that you have, for example, you have an air conditioner in your bedroom. But here in Hyderabad in the summer, the temperature is going to 40 degrees Celsius and you are sweltering in the heat, burning in the heat. You are trying to sleep in the bedroom and you can't sleep and it's so difficult. And somebody says, why don't you turn on the AC? You have the AC, it is installed, it works. Why don't you turn it on? You know, this example sounds stupid, but that is exactly what we do with our religion. We have it, alhamdulillah. All of us,

Auto-generated transcript:Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Alhamdulillahirrabbilalameen. Wa salatu wa salamu ala ashrafil anbiya wal mursaleen. Muhammadur Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam. Tasliman kaseeran kaseera. Fahamna ba'du. My brothers and sisters, alhamdulillah, one of my friends asked me for some advice with regard to increasing khushu in salah. And subhanAllah, this is, I am no worry to give advice. My advice is given here in the context and in the way of reminding myself. Because khushu in salah is something that, I don't know about everybody, but certainly it's something that I sincerely believe that I need to. I need it as much as anybody else, if not more. And it's something that I am, you know, it's very important that we should have it. And khushu is one of the requirements for proper salah in the first place. I mean, it's not a frill, it's not a perk, it's not a fringe benefit, it's something which is, it's like a rukun of salah almost, that without khushu, salah is not valid. I don't mean that as a fatwa, I am just saying that the whole purpose of salah, which Allah SWT has said, aqim is salah, li dhikri, establish salah for my dhikr. Allah is saying this very specifically, aqim is salah, li dhikri. So, so ghafla in salah is literally like saying, I am hungry, I am eating, and my hunger is not going away. I mean, it's technically impossible, but this is the nature of things. So therefore, khushu and salah is absolutely critical. Now, how do we get there? The important thing to understand is that khushu and salah does not begin with salah. It doesn't begin when we stand there and say Allah Akbar. It begins in our whole life itself. First and foremost, khushu begins with our understanding of who Allah SWT is, and by understanding I don't mean, uh, cognitive or intellectual, uh, or theoretical understanding of who Allah SWT is, but what that feels in the pit of your belly. Uh, what is the first thought in the mind as soon as there is a problem? Do we think Allah, or do we think of something else? As one of my shaykhs used to say, if you have a headache, what is the first thing you think? Allah or Tylenol? Do you make dua, or do you look for a medicine? Nothing wrong in looking for a medicine, but is that, which is the first thought? So where is the khushu, where is the sincerity in asking? So do we ask Allah SWT, or we ask Allah only when, uh, you know, as an afterthought? Take for example, all the, uh, efforts, and the protests, and the marches, and the what not happening, uh, against this and that cause, uh, this and that situation, where Muslims are involved in. Um, but how many times have you seen people saying, let us make tawbah and istighfar? Let us make tawbah and istighfar, because Allah SWT's help comes to those who, Allah SWT, to those who have sought forgiveness, and who have turned towards Allah SWT. Faqultu istaghfiru rabbakum innahu kana ghaffara. You see, yusri al-samaha alaykum midrara, wa yumdidkum bi anbali wa baneen, wa yaj'al lakum jannati wa yaj'al lakum anhara. In Surah Nuh, Allah SWT mentioned and said that, faqultu istaghfiru rabbakum, and the Prophet says, oh my Rabb, I asked them, I told them to make istighfar, and I said to them, make istighfar, turn to your Rabb, apologize to him, be contrite, seek forgiveness, innahu kana ghaffara, surely he is the one who forgives. yusri al-samaha alaykum midrara, and then he will send down rain to you from the heavens, wa yumdidkum bi anbali, and he will help you with wealth, wa yaj'al lakum jannati wa yaj'al lakum anhara, yumdidkum bi anbali wa baneen, and he will help you with wealth, and with children, with meaning tribe, and which means influence, and, wa yaj'al lakum jannati wa yaj'al lakum anhara, and he will give you garden, then he will give you food, then he will give you food, then he will give you rivers, which refers to material benefits and wealth, and so on and so forth. The point being,

Auto-generated transcript:My brothers and sisters, this is the third part of the three-part series on decision-making in the Islamic way. Here I want to share with you a decision-making tool. And that tool is called Keppner-Tragot decision-making analysis. Keppner-Tragot decision analysis. K-E-P-N-E-R hyphen T-R-E-G-O-E decision analysis. It's there on the net also. You can read it up. I teach this in my leadership programs. Now, what they advise, they teach us a very nice method. In any decision, one of the reasons why people have difficulty making decisions is because they are not clear about what they want. And this might sound like, you know, might sound funny in an unamusing sense. But take, for example, if you say, people come to me and they say, I want to get married. I say, okay. So what kind of person are you looking for? What kind of, you know, girl or man or woman are you looking for? They're not clear, right? They say, oh, this person should be. A good Muslim. What is a good Muslim? A person should be from a good family. You know, what's a good family? So there are any number of questions. So the point being that it is very important. People get into confusion because they are not clear about what they want. So Keppner-Tragot gets this clear for us. And that's the method I want to teach you. The first thing to do when you are doing decision analysis, by using this method is to be clear about your goal. So what we advise people to do is we say, write down your goal. What exactly do you want? Write this goal down. You can write it in as much detail as you want, but write it down. Not verbally. Because unless you concretize this, it's like a soup in your head. Just floating around. And that's no good. So you need clarity on that. So write it down clearly. As clearly as you can. What is it that I want? As clearly as you can. Then what you do is, you take that description of yours, of what you want. And you write down, you analyze that. And you say, what are the essentials in this? And what are the desirables? So for example, you say, well, I want to buy a house. So what is the goal? The goal is to buy a house. All right. So when you want, so I ask you, well, what kind of house? Well, what are the essentials and what are the desirables? So you might say, well, you know, I want a house which is within 10 kilometers from my place of work. Now, I will ask you, is that essential or is it a desirable? Now, let me explain to you why I'm saying that. Okay. Now, essentials are go, no go. Black and white. So if you say that my, the house that I want to buy must be within 10 kilometers from my place of work. And I find you a house which is 11 kilometers, not 10, 11 kilometers from your place of work. Will you accept it or will you reject it? You might say, I will accept it. Then I will tell you you are not clear. Because if you... You are clear, then if the place is 11 kilometers away, no matter how stupid that sounds, you will reject that house. Say, sorry, not part of my essential. My essential is within 10 kilometers from 1 to 10. If it is from my place of work, I will buy it. If it is 11 kilometers, I will reject it. That is the reason why decisions don't happen because people have very vague requirements. So clarifying the requirement is absolutely critical. So what are the essentials? Obviously, the more number of essentials you have, the more difficult the decision becomes. You are narrowing the choices. Not difficult, but you are narrowing the choices. If you say house must be only 10 kilometers away, as I said, 11 is not good enough. So if there is a beautiful house which is 11 kilometers away, in reality, what difference does it make? It's a matter of 1 kilometer. But you say, no, this is 10. 10 is 10. 10 is not 11. 10 is 11. So it is very important to be clear about what are the essentials. I want to get married. Okay. What kind of person? Absolute clarity. For example, you might say the person must be Muslim. Now,