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Bismillāh ar-Raḥmān ar-Raḥīm. Al-Ḥamdu lillāhi Rabbil-‘Ālamīn. Wa salātu wa salāmu ‘alā ash-sharafi al-anbiyā’ wal-mursalīn, Muḥammadun Rasūlullāh ﷺ, wa ‘alā ālihi wa sahbihi wa sallam. Tasliman kathīran kathirahum ‘abadhu.
My brothers and sisters, Allah subḥānahu wa ta’ālā said: “Inna Allāha ma’a alladhīna ittaqaw wal-ladhīna hum muhsinūn.” (inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un). Allah subḥānahu wa ta’ālā said, really, Allah subḥānahu wa ta’ālā is with the people of *Taqwa* and the people who do *Ihsan*.
*Taqwa* is a condition where we are concerned about the pleasure of Allah subḥānahu wa ta’ālā in every action, every decision, every speech. That Allah should not be displeased with us. There we fear the displeasure of Allah subḥānahu wa ta’ālā. This condition is called *Taqwa*.
And *Ihsan* is a situation which is higher than that, where we are concerned with doing the absolute best that we can possibly do with regard to anything. So doing something to the level of *Ihsan* means to do it in the best possible way. Rasūlullāh ﷺ, when he mentioned this, he said, for example, if you are slaughtering an animal, make sure that you do it in the best possible way; meaning that you sharpen your knife, you make sure the animal is not panicked, you make sure the animal does not feel any pain; do it in a way which is the best, even in that.
So Allah subḥānahu wa ta’ālā is saying that Allah is with those people who have *Taqwa* and with those people who… who have *Ihsan*, who live and work at a level of *Ihsan*. So the question I want to ask myself and you is: if somebody says, “What is your ambition?” What is your ambition? How will you answer that? How will I answer that? What is my ambition? Ask a school-going child, ask somebody who is in college, ask somebody who started his career, ask somebody who is in mid-career. What is your ambition? What is the answer we usually give? I think always we give. What is the answer? “I want to pass this exam,” “I want to enter into this career or that career,” “I want to become an engineer or a doctor or this or that,” “I want to win an election,” “I want to become chief minister, prime minister, president,” whatever it is.
“I want to memorize Quran,” even take the…
the ambition of people who are in the line of the… “I want to memorize Quran,” “I want to become Mufti,” “I want to become a Muhaddith,” a Mufassir. “I want to become a Qari,” “I want to win the Qirat competition in Al-Qahira or in Makkah.”
I have never thought of it like this myself, so I’m not excluding myself from this and I’ve never heard anybody saying that “I want to be a Muttaqi” and a Muhsin.
… *Taqwa* and a person of *Ihsan*. Now, why don’t we see that?
Because that awareness is not there. And I’m talking about success in the Dunyā only. I mean, in the Ākhirah success, obviously, for the Muttaqeen and the Muraseen. Allah subḥānahu wa ta’ālā has said, “The Ākhirah is for the Muttaqeen.” So, Allah mentioned this and Allah subḥānahu wa ta’ālā has promised this, that the Ākhirah is for the people of *Taqwa* only. Allah did not say “But”—I’m saying, even in this Dunyā, Allah subḥānahu wa ta’ālā promised success for people who have *Taqwa* and people who have *Ihsan*. Who live with *Ihsan*. So, as our ambition, why is it we don’t think of that? Why is it we don’t think of saying, “My ambition is to be a Muttaqi”? My ambition is to be a Murasib. To be somebody of the *Ihsan*.
The reason I’m saying that is because as our ambition is, so will be our action. Because people work according to their ambitions. If my ambition is to be a doctor, I will not join an engineering college.
Nothing wrong with engineering, but that’s not my ambition. My ambition is to be a doctor. So, I will join a medical college. If my ambition is to go to London, I will not board a flight going to New York.
Right? They are both going in the same direction, but two different destinations. So, if my ambition is to be a Muttaqi, then it means that by definition, I will not do anything that will displease Allah Almighty. Because my ambition is to be a Muttaqi. It’s my ambition. So, the reason I’m saying is that we have to differentiate between being and doing. And unless you
do, you will never be. If you want to be, you must do. And unless you do, you will never be. This is a
rule of life. “To be, you must do.”
If I want to be a doctor, I must do medicine.
If I want to be a pilot, I must do flying. I must learn how to fly. A plane, right? So, doing is related.
It’s the causal factor for being. We tend to define ourselves in terms of doing or being goals. “I want to be this,” “I want to be that.” “I want to be happy,” “I want to be successful.” “I want to be a good father.” “I want to be a good mother.” “I want to be a good son or daughter.” “I want to be a good husband or wife.” “I want to be this, be that.” What do you need to do in order to be that? We don’t think of that. But unless you do, you will never be.
So, if we define “I want to be a Muttaqi.” Okay. But what do you need to do?
What I need to do is to ensure that I do not say or do anything which can displease Allah subḥānahu wa ta’ālā.
Then I will automatically be a Muttaqi. I don’t have to say “I want to be a Muttaqi” because if my whole life is focused on pleasing Allah alone, and doing everything which pleases Allah subḥānahu wa ta’ālā, saying everything which pleases Allah subḥānahu wa ta’ālā, and not doing and not saying anything which does not please Allah subḥānahu wa ta’ālā; if this is my focus, then I will automatically be a Muttaqi.
I don’t have to say that. But if I don’t do all of this, and if I keep saying “I want to be a Muttaqi,” “I want to be a Muttaqi,” you can say that a million times. You will not be a Muttaqi because you are not doing what it takes to be a Muttaqi. Same thing with Al-Ahsan.
“I want to have a life of Ahsan.” So do something. Go look at your car.
If your car has dust on it, you are not living a life of *Ahsan*. You open the door, if the car looks like a garbage dump, a garbage bin on four wheels, like some people’s cars are like this. What can we do? We have children. So what? Train them, teach them. They are not animals. What’s the problem? Even if they are animals, they can still be trained. So train them. This is how you sit in a car. This is how you do your things. Coming from school, don’t just dump your bags. Don’t just throw your shoes anywhere. Keep things in a proper way.
Somebody sent me this beautiful quote. He said, “Discipline is to have every day the same. Indiscipline is to have every year the same.”
Think about that. How beautiful that is. Discipline is to have every day the same.
Indiscipline is to have every year the same. Meaning there is no progress in life. Your year is the same because you have done nothing. Discipline is to have every day the same. It’s boring. Discipline by definition is boring.
But indiscipline by definition is failure.
It’s only when you do the boring stuff that you progress.
You must do what you do. Do something on a daily basis for an insanely long period of time to see progress in life. This is Allah’s rule. It doesn’t change because you are Gen Z or Gen A or Gen whatever you like to call yourself. It doesn’t change. This is the rule of Allah. Long attention spans and the discipline to work for a goal until you achieve it. Whatever that period of time is, it doesn’t matter. No point in moaning and groaning about it. No matter how long it is, you work on that goal until you achieve that goal. Period.
So being goal and doing goal. I’m saying we began with
“Allah is with the people of *Taqwa* and with the people of *Ihsan*.” And if you want to become a person of *Taqwa* and *Ihsan*, we ask Allah for this, then we have to get discipline. We have to focus on what we do on a daily basis. We have to focus on what is important and to continue to do that no matter how boring it is.
Because we know that that is the road to success. The road to success is that.
Every single day. Continuously focus on that. There was a very famous basketball player called Kobe Bryant. He died in a helicopter crash. Very promising guy. Absolutely brilliant. And what they used to say about him, something completely crazy. They said the first time what happened was that he was playing college
matches and missed two shots. Two baskets. Missed two shots. And they saw him, he was sitting and he went and sat on the side and he had his head in his hands, bent down. So the commentator would say, “Oh my God, look at him. He looks so sad and it’s such a tragedy,” and you know, this thing happened and two balls missed. How bad Kobe must be feeling and so on. This is what commentators do. So when the match finished, the commentators came, they asked him. They said, “How are you feeling?” He said, “I’m feeling fine.”
He said, “No, you must be feeling very sad.” I said, “Why?”
He said, “No, we saw you sitting like this. With your head in your hands.” He said, “I was trying to figure out
why I missed those two shots. Now I know. So I will not do it again. That’s it.” What is sad? “I did something. It went wrong. So I want to know how did I do wrong. Now I figure I was—I sat like that to concentrate. So I now know. So I won’t do that again. Period.” What is sad?
So the point is that if we want to succeed, we have to do this. Focus. Make this our ambition. My ambition is to become a Muttaqi. No matter which age I am. I may be a thousand years old. I haven’t died. So I am still in the race. The only person out of the race is the person who has died. For him, the race is over. Now account it. As long as we are alive, it doesn’t matter whether young, old, forget all that. My goal is to become a Muttaqi. This is my ambition. To become a Muttaqi. To become a Muhsin. Somebody who is living a life of *Ihsan*. As I told you, it begins with everything. Are your shoes shining or not? Are your clothes clean or not? Is your car, what does your car look like? How do you talk to people?
How do you behave? You eat your food, then what do you do? Do you go wash your plate or you throw it somewhere and somebody… Every single thing matters.
This is the whole point of *Ihsan*. *Ihsan* is absolute excellence in whatever we do.
Right? So everything matters.
So let’s try, Insha’Allah, we ask Allah to make us among those whose ambition in life starting from this minute is to become Muttaqoon and Muhsinoor. Because for them, Allah promised “Al-Aqibatu Lil Muttaqeen.” The Jannah is for them. Ākhirah is for them. We ask Allah to make us among them, Insha’Allah. Wa sallallahu ‘alā nabiyyil karīm wa ‘alā ālihi wa sahbihi ajma’in bi raḥmatika Allāhī wa barakatuh.