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Salam alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
Alhamdulillah, Rabbil Alameen.
Wa salatu wa salam ala al-sharafi al-anbiya ibn Musaleen Muhammad Rasulullah.
Sallallahu alayhi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam tasliman kathiran kathira.
So, amma baadu, my brothers and sisters,
Jazakallah khairun to all of you, especially the brothers from UMass
for taking the time and trouble to come and see me
before I go to India.
May Allah bless you and keep you in His special care and concern.
Some of you are freshmen and some of you are seniors.
And I don’t know by the time I return, you would have graduated and gone.
May Allah Ta’ala keep you safe always in His special care.
May Allah Subhana Ta’ala protect you.
May Allah help you in ways that you cannot imagine.
May Allah Subhana Ta’ala open doors for you from places where you can’t imagine.
May Allah Subhana Ta’ala protect you from all evil.
That which you know and that which you don’t know.
May Allah Ta’ala make it easy for you.
May Allah grant you your wishes, your goals, your aspirations
with khair and barakah and maafiyah.
I want to share with you four,
what I call my four hard truths.
And I call them hard truths because these are painful to accept to face,
but they are true.
I used to go to a gym in Hyderabad called Talwarkots.
In that gym, there was a huge scene to floor poster
which had a picture of a very,
over-muscled, big, huge man.
And the slogan said,
shut up and train.
And I think that’s a very good,
very good rule to follow for yourself.
To shut up and train.
Meaning, to focus on our life goals.
You’re here at the university.
And remember that you’re here for one reason only.
There is no other reason.
You’re not here for the clubs.
You’re not here even for the MSAs.
You’re not here for absolutely any reason other than
to get the best possible grades that you can get.
Absolutely the best possible grades that you can get.
Because you’re here for the best possible reasons.
And the best possible reasons are doing it.
Because what you do in these three, four years that you’re here
will determine your future for the rest of your life, more or less.
So therefore, it makes absolutely zero sense
to spend this time focusing on anything other than your studies.
Now, once you have finished with your studies
for the day, for the week, for the month,
and then you have spare time,
by all means, spend that spare time doing another six.
And in that, I would put your MSAs as the top priority
because to learn your deem and to do something good for people,
this must be your top priority.
Do spend time also on your physical education,
on being on physical fitness.
You must be known for the best food
among all American universities.
And usually that also means that it should be known for the…
its capability to fatten you the fastest.
Because all best food translates into enormous number of calories.
So you want to be in a situation where
by all means, enjoy the food,
but make sure that you burn it off.
So hit the gym,
have a beautiful campus,
go running,
go walking.
10,000 steps per day.
Make this into an absolutely invaluable rule.
10,000 steps per day.
And those 10,000 steps must be done at one stretch.
It’s not throughout the day.
So the routine that I always recommend for people to follow
is number one,
wake up one hour or one and a half hour
before the time for fajr starts.
And then make sure that you pray tahajjud.
Make tahajjud firm on yourself.
And once you’ve prayed tahajjud,
then read one juz,
one zibar of Quran.
And depending on your speed of reading,
if you can’t finish the whole juz,
read as much as you can.
And then go and pray salatul fajr by jama’ah.
Go to the masjid,
go to the masjid,
make sure that you pray salatul fajr by jama’ah.
And when you finish praying salatul fajr,
then you sit there in the place where you prayed,
and make this.
And make zikr
until the time for ishra comes.
And then pray two rakat and two rakat,
four rakat, but in twos.
The saba of that,
the reward of that is an accepted hajj
and an accepted umrah.
Then you hit the road
and get in your 10,000 steps.
Do your five mile walk
or run or whatever you like.
Walking is best.
Running is hard on the knees.
And you won’t feel it now,
but you will feel it when you get to Mahil.
So ideally walk.
But if you feel like a run, go for a run.
But do that.
Then come back,
have a shower
and start your day
or the rest of your day.
Your day started already when you book off for tahajjud.
And it started with almost two hours of,
two hours or more of the worship of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala.
And then you did 10,000 steps.
And then you had a shower.
So that’s the most beautiful way
of starting a day and running a day.
And then you have your breakfast
and then your glasses and whatnot, water.
You follow the schedule,
and believe me,
you will remember me long after I’m dead.
Because this schedule will make you
the most productive human being
on the face of the earth.
Absolutely, without a doubt.
Because you have the help of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala
right in your life.
And you ask for it every day
at a time when Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala
is asking,
is there anyone who needs my help?
And you’re saying,
Ya Rabb, labbaik, I’m here.
Now, to come to the four truths.
First one, pain fuels success.
No pain, no gain.
Now this is very, very, very important.
No pain, no gain.
See, I tell people,
many times we seem to be
caught up in this thing of,
you know, this is the modern world,
old rules don’t apply and so on.
Now please, forget this.
This is all complete rubbish.
It’s like saying that it’s a new world,
so therefore gravity does not apply.
There are certain fundamental laws
of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala.
They don’t change,
no matter what happens.
What you are seeing is technology,
at a very peripheral level.
At a very peripheral level,
at the, you know, just the face of it.
And we tend to get very impressed
with the technology.
But we need to ask ourselves,
who made that technology?
And the answer is,
some human being, some person.
And then the question is,
who made that person?
And the answer is,
Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala.
So if you are impressed with the technology,
you are impressed with the product of the product.
And not even one product.
Product of the product.
The produce of the product
is the technology.
You are impressed, but
think of and be impressed with the
power of the creator,
Jalla Shanam.
That is truly worth being impressed with.
So Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala made the fundamental laws.
And the first of those fundamental laws is,
no pain, no gain.
No pain, no gain.
So Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala made the fundamental laws.
Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala said,
for the human being,
there is nothing except what he works for.
We see this around the world.
People even resent.
They say, see such and such a person or so and so.
People, they talk about groups.
They own all the wealth.
They own all the media.
They dominate this, they dominate that.
Ask yourself one simple question.
Who stopped you from doing the same?
Who stopped you from loving the world?
Who stopped you from dominating the world?
Who stopped you from doing X, Y or Z?
Nobody.
You just didn’t do it.
You decided to do something else.
So why do you resent someone who is dominating,
whatever they are dominating?
So determine for yourself what it is you want from life
and go and get it, you will get it.
Dreams want to be caught.
Don’t get fooled by that.
Dreams want to be caught.
But if you leave the dream as a dream,
it’s a dream.
Nothing will happen.
You have to wake up and go catch that dream.
And that takes pain.
That takes effort.
That takes sacrifice.
That takes investment in yourself.
That takes denying yourself certain things
which would be nice to have.
But you’re doing that because what you are aiming for
is much nicer to have.
So no pain, no gain.
Pain fuels success.
Number two.
Nobody owes you anything.
Nobody owes you anything.
Now this is a big thing to understand
because today we seem to be living in a generation
which seems to operate on the principle
that the world owes them everything.
If they don’t get something,
it’s always somebody else’s fault.
Believe me, you can cry till the cows come home.
Nothing will change unless you decide to change it.
Nobody owes you anything.
Nobody cares what excuses you have.
Nobody gives excuses.
So you’ve got two kinds of people in the world.
Those who do things
and those who tell you why they couldn’t do them.
Now it’s not as if those who do things
are always successful.
They’re not.
Sometimes they’re successful,
sometimes they’re not.
But even when they are not successful,
they are people who will then look at it.
They won’t blame anybody.
They will say,
I’m not successful.
And then they go and do what it takes
to become successful.
They don’t give excuses.
For example, if you tell me
I will be here at 8 o’clock
and I’m sitting here waiting,
there’s no phone call,
there’s no information,
you don’t turn up,
and you come by 8.30,
of course, you will,
believe me, you will never find me there at 8.30
because I would have gone a long time ago.
But in case you have some people
who are more, you know, tolerant than I am,
so the guy sitting there at 8.30,
now you come at 8.30,
and from 8.30 to 9 o’clock,
you’re telling him the story
of why you could not come at 8 o’clock.
So, first of all,
you waste my time by coming late.
Secondly, you want to waste some more of my time
by telling me some soft story.
I’m not interested.
I am not interested.
Nobody is interested.
People do not care about excuses.
Nobody cares about excuses.
People only care about one thing,
and that is,
what value do you bring to the table?
What value do you bring to them?
People will pay for that value.
They don’t pay you for excuses.
They do not pay you for effort.
So don’t waste anybody’s time
by telling them how hard you’re working.
Nobody gives her,
nobody gives anything
for how hard you’re working.
Right?
You can work till your fingers become bones.
If the result is not there,
nobody cares.
The only one who rewards you for effort
is Allah .
But human beings,
the world rewards you only for one thing,
which is,
what value do you create?
Whether you got that value by magic,
or whether you got that value
by working five times,
five minutes a day,
or you got that value
by working 24 hours a day,
losing sleep,
sweating blood,
nobody cares.
All that they care about is,
what value do you bring to them?
So,
chase value,
money will chase you.
Chase value,
and money will chase you.
Chase money,
and you are chasing a shadow.
You will never catch it,
and even if you catch it,
it’s a shadow.
It has no substance.
So,
chase value,
money will chase you.
That’s rule number two.
First rule,
pay and fuel success.
Second rule,
nobody owes you anything.
Number three,
rule number three,
be respectful.
Because being respectful opens doors.
Be respectful to everyone,
and to yourself.
And,
you know,
you can be a good person,
but you can’t be a good person.
You can’t be a good person,
but you can be a good person.
Be respectful to everyone,
especially those who do not have power.
Waiters and waitresses,
bus conductors,
you know,
you name it.
Doorman and door women,
I don’t think they are door women,
but doorman,
you go to,
you go to check into a hotel,
the,
your room service staff,
right?
Those of you who live in countries where you have servants,
your servants,
your drivers,
whoever,
people who do not have power,
be respectful to them.
Be polite with them.
Be respectful to them.
And very important,
many times,
young people think that they are very smart.
And they try to manipulate people.
Let me assure you,
you may be smart,
I don’t doubt that,
but others are not fools.
Others are not fools.
Don’t try to be smart and try to manipulate people.
People are not stupid.
They’ll see through you,
and you will lose your most valuable asset,
which is trust,
which is credibility.
And that’s something you can never regain.
Once people start distrusting you,
once you get a reputation for being somebody who lies,
once you get a reputation for being somebody who,
who cannot be trusted,
you’re finished.
What was the title of the surah,
even before he became,
he got his Risalah?
As-Sadiq ul-Ameen.
The truthful and the trustworthy.
And the most important thing is,
you have to be a good person.
You have to be a good person.
You have to be a good person.
You have to be truthful and trustworthy.
If you’re not trustworthy,
you’re worthless.
Don’t try to manipulate people.
Once trust is gone,
it’s gone.
And rule number four,
success is a product of relationships.
It’s not a product of your IQ.
It’s not a product of your degree.
It’s not a product of how intelligent or smart you are.
It’s not definitely not a product of how handsome or beautiful you are.
It’s not a product of anything except
your ability to relate with people,
your social skills.
And this is something that has to be from the heart.
Genuine social skills.
That smile on your face will open doors.
It will solve problems for you much more than any amount of money.
The smile on your face.
The politeness with which you greet people.
I have a rule for myself.
I never greet anyone sitting down.
No matter who it is.
Old or young, small or big,
poor or rich,
when somebody comes to greet me,
I always stand up and I shake his hand.
I never greet anybody sitting down.
Rasul never greeted anyone or never spoke to anyone over his shoulder.
He would completely turn around and face the person.
He would look at him in his face,
eyes to eyes.
He would make eye contact and he would talk to people.
So we do that.
We learn from the Rasul .
And the reason why we do that,
success is a product of relationships.
And relationships come out of showing respect.
It’s your manners.
Opening doors, serving people,
helping people without being asked.
How many times have we seen people sitting in the masjid,
you know, guys, big muscular guys,
who wear t-shirts which show off their muscles,
who can do a deadlift of 200 kilograms.
They would be sitting in the masjid with their,
holding up the wall,
with their back to the wall,
legs stretched out in front of them.
And there would be an elderly man who is coming here,
has a walking stick.
He’s trying to get a, pull a chair to where he wants to pray.
And not one person will get up.
How ugly is that?
How utterly shameful is that?
Is this the behavior of Muslims?
Do we come from Muslim homes that we behave like this?
Is this what our parents taught?
Please,
let us not be a disgrace to our parents.
Let us not be a disgrace to our culture.
Let us not be a disgrace to the Muslims
and the Ummat-e-Muhammad .
Don’t wait to be asked.
We live in a community,
and it’s the job of everyone to help everyone.
Don’t wait to be asked.
Something needs to be done, do it.
You see a garbage can,
you see something on the floor,
pick it up and throw it in the garbage.
Don’t wait for somebody to tell you,
please pick up that.
No.
Do it yourself.
You see anything that needs to be done,
let’s go do it.
Somebody needs help,
go help them.
Don’t wait to be asked.
Right?
That’s very, very important.
Good manners.
Be polite,
be kind,
be considerate,
be compassionate.
Speak softly.
Don’t yell and scream.
No need to yell and scream.
Speak softly.
Let your argument speak for you,
not the volume of your voice.
Good manners.
And I want to end this
with two things.
One is that the ability
to get along with people
and influence them
is the most valuable ability in the world.
Dale Carnegie said,
he wrote a book called
How to Win Hearts and Influence People,
some name like that.
Very interesting book.
You must read it.
And finally,
John D. Rockefeller said,
I will pay more,
I’ll pay more for the ability
to get along with people
than I will pay for any other ability
under the sun.
So learn and practice good manners
that begins with being respectful.
I ask Allah
to help us to learn and to understand
and to live in a way
which is pleasing to Him
and which is a means,
which will be a means of
khair and barakah for us.
Wa sallallahu ala nabeel kareem
wa ala alihi wa sahbihi al mayim
bi rahmatik ya Rahman wa Rahim.