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Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil ‘Alameen. Wasalatu wasalamu ala ashrafil anbiya’i ibn mursaleen, Muhammadin Rasulullah ﷺ wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam. Tasleemun kathirun kathirun. And now, my brothers and sisters, we are talking about what I call the Four Truths.
The first one, as I mentioned two days or three days ago, is that time passes. Time passes; we have no control over that. What we do have control over is what we will do with the time that we have.
The second thing, which I mentioned yesterday, was that liking something doesn’t matter. For success in life, to be successful, you don’t have to like what you are doing. You don’t have to like whatever you are focused on. If you like it, that’s good. If you don’t like it, but it needs to be done, it has to be done.
And if you don’t do it, then you suffer. Now, almost as a rule, everything that is beneficial—at least in the beginning—is not liked because it is painful.
When we talk about emotional maturity, EQ compared to IQ (emotional quotient), we talk about the ability to delay gratification. Gratification is some pleasure; to delay the pleasure. They did this experiment with little children, say a year old or something like this—year, year and a half.
This experiment involves sitting these children down, three, four, or five of them, giving each some sweet candy and saying, “The sweet is here in front of you. If you don’t touch it, it will give you one minute, one full minute.” One full minute: if you don’t eat that sweet, if you don’t touch that sweet, then at the end of one minute, we’ll give you two or we’ll give you three.
And they see all kinds of different behaviors. You see some children who will start crying. They want to eat the sweet, but they’ve been told not to touch it. They can’t take it; they start crying.
You will find another child who will look here and there when nobody is watching. He’ll take the sweet and eat it, forgetting what will happen after one minute, five minutes, or whatever the time period.
But you find some other interesting thing which was seen in one experiment: one child picked up the sweet, licked it, and put it back. He didn’t eat it. He just got some gratification—a little bit, just the sweetness of it—and put it back so nobody could say he ate it. Then you have somebody who doesn’t eat it at all, leaving it there at the end of the day.
The point being that the ability to delay gratification is probably one of the most important determinants of long-term success. Because long-term success comes out of building things. And building, by definition, takes time. Whatever it is, you plant a seed; it takes its own time to grow. I mean, that seed may be something going to result in a tree with amazing fruit. It may be amazingly tasty, but it takes time. You can’t hurry it. It has its own organic way of growth.
Similarly with animals. If you are breeding horses or whatever animals you’re breeding, it takes generations of cycles. You breed one, then check the best breed and breed to that, and so on. It takes generations before you get an animal that you are happy with.
Same thing in our lives. If you’re talking about success—whether academic success, how many years does it take? School plus college plus so on. And finally, if you’re going into academia, by the time you get a PhD, how many years is that total?
Similarly, business success. It takes years of building. So, everything which is worth having takes time.
Number two: it also takes consistent effort. It’s not just time alone. It’s not as if we just plant the seed and forget about it. One day it will go into a tree. No, it will die. You have to plant the seed and then you have to take care of that. You have to water it. When it grows up, you have to take care of it. Make sure it is not attacked by pests and diseases. Make sure no animal eats it. Fence it. This, that, and the other. So, it’s a lot. It’s a long time plus consistent effort.
Consistent, intelligent effort. Now, the ability to do that applies to relationships too.
If you’re building relationships, you’re building a network. Again, same thing. It takes time. It takes consistent effort. And the thing about all this effort and so on is, as I mentioned, delaying gratification. You will not see results.
That is what makes that effort so important and difficult because you will not see any results. Right? That seed which is growing is growing under the earth. You have no idea. For some time until the plumule comes out of the soil, you don’t even know whether the seed is alive or not. But you can’t dig it out to check.
So, you’re working. You’re working purely on faith. Yes, I planted it. Insha’Allah, it will come out of the earth. So also in life. So also with people. So also with businesses or whatever you’re doing. It takes consistent effort and it takes faith.
Three things: Time, consistent effort, and faith. And the faith is required to keep going in the face of not seeing any result.
Take the life of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. The best example for all mankind as Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala gave us.
See today when we teach the Seerah, we talk about 13 years in Mecca and 10 years in Madinah. These are numbers for us today because, post-event, it’s all over. Now, we can sit and count the number of years. When Rasulullah was in Mecca, try to put yourself in his position. Every day there was persecution; every single day there was some persecution from the Quraysh, either to him directly or to one of his beloved companions. Every single day there was no sign of help from Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala. No angels were descending. They were boycotted in the Wadi, in that ravine. The whole of Banu Hashim, so they were all boycotted. Allah’s help didn’t come.
Our mother Khadijah (RA) passed away. Abu Talib himself died. People have written that they could hear the crying of children in Makkah from that valley, crying out of hunger. There was no food. Allah did not send food from Jana which was sent for Maryam Aaliyah Salaam, which Allah could have sent but Rasoolullah Nasir’s effort didn’t decrease, didn’t waver.
He didn’t say, “This is too much. I’m sorry, I can’t. You know, I cannot put everyone to trouble. All these people are suffering because of me. Sorry, I can’t do this.” He didn’t say that.
And the people with him also didn’t say it. Including Abu Talib. Abu Talib—I mean, imagine, this is the irony and tragedy of history. Here was a man who loved Rasulullah ﷺ so much that he put himself on the line, his own life on the line, and suffered himself. There was no need for him to suffer all this.
But yet he didn’t get Hidayah. Yet he died without Islam. May Allah have mercy on us.
And that is the reason why it’s very important to understand that just loving the Rasulullah ﷺ is not enough. You have to also obey him ﷺ. Just saying “I love him” is not enough. Nobody can doubt the love that Abu Talib had for Rasulullah ﷺ. There is no doubt about this. None whatsoever. Nobody can doubt that.
Right? But his problem was: “But I will not obey. I love you, but I will not obey you. I love you, but I do not accept that you are the Rasul of Allah.”
Imagine, may Allah protect us from ourselves. This is our own ego. This is your own ego.
Abu Jahl, in his last moments, told him, “Just say with your tongue, La ilaha illallah. And I will intercede for you before Allah ﷻ.”
And Abu Jahl was sitting on the other side of the bed. And Abu Jahl said, “You are going to accept this thing because you are afraid of death.” He said, “No.”
“I am not afraid of death. I am dying on the religion of my forefathers.” Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un.
Yeah? So, we learn from the Seerah the importance of dedication to the cause—enough to take the pain required for the fulfillment of the cause.
So, as I was saying, the 13 years in Mecca—they didn’t know it was going to be 13 years. They were not waiting for a date. Okay, oh, now it is 20th of October; tomorrow we go to Madinah. You know, they didn’t know that. They had no idea. Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam had no idea. Other people with him had no idea how long they were supposed to be in Mecca or what they should do. Then they went to Madinah.
And going to Madinah—it’s not like, “Okay, I am getting a ticket now. I am going to America or something for a holiday. I am coming back.” This was leaving their motherland forever.
We talk about it as Hijrah (migration), this and that. This was banishment from your motherland, and they left Mecca as refugees.
They didn’t go as tourists. They didn’t go as travelers. They didn’t go because they wanted to go. Not one of them left Mecca because they wanted to leave Mecca. They left because they had no choice. And they left for the preservation of the Deen. They didn’t leave because they were afraid of dying. Mouth settled, they didn’t run away. To preserve the Deen. Because the Deen is not possible to be preserved there anymore. It got to a point. So let’s go to preserve the Deen. So they left as refugees. They arrived in Madinah with nothing.
Why did they have nothing? Apart from the clothes on their body, they had nothing.
All for the sake of the Deen. And then, as soon as they landed in Madinah, what happened? Everything was all beautiful? No.
They had a lot of opposition in Madinah also. The Munaafiqeen, the hypocrites, came in Madinah and caused Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam as much if not more pain and trouble than the Quraysh.
The opposition of the Quraysh was in the face. But this was behind the back.
What must Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam have felt? For example, think about this. He was going out for Uhud.
He had X number of people with him. As they left Madinah and they were on their way, roughly 300 of them.
The head of the Munaafiqeen turned around. He said, “I am not going with you.” Leaves them. Almost one-third of the army abandoned them.
What must Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam have been thinking?
Abdullah bin Salulh. So, problems did not end.
The three major battles—Badr, Uhud, and Khandaq—were all fought in Madinah. Badr was a victory but…
Uhud was a major defeat. 70 Sahaba got Shaheed (martyred).
The uncle of Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, Hamza bin Abdul Muttalib, he got killed. Musab bin Umair got killed. Abdullah bin Rawaha got killed. He got killed. And so many, 70 of them.
The family of Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Abdullah bin Rawaha was his cousin.
Loss after loss after loss. Yet, the key thing is, they did not lose hope. They did not leave their mission. They did not decrease in their dedication.
To the extent that Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala revealed Quran, and Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala said that the Muslims—and this Ayat was revealed in Surah Al-Ahzab at the time of the Battle of Khandaq—Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala said, “Many of them have fulfilled their covenant, and others are waiting.”
But their resolve has not changed in the least. فَمَا يُبَدِّلُوا تَبْدِيلًا. They have not changed. Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala revealed Quran about this.
مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ رِجَالٌ صَدَقُوا مَا عَاهَدُوا اللَّهَ عَلَيْهِ. Allah said, “From the people are those (Rijal), who are true to their covenant with Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala.” Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala is bearing witness about the truthfulness of the Covenant of the Sahaba. Imagine this. We have to understand the position of the Sahaba. It’s something which is incredible.
Right? So when people talk about the Sahaba, sometimes we may Allah have mercy on us and on those who do that—they just take their names. Abu Bakr said this, Umar said this: “Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un,” “Astaghfiru wal-ladhina…”
They are people who Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala is their witness. What more can I say?
Allah is their witness.
Allah revealed Quran. And not only one time; many times in the Quran, Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala revealed Quran. He said, these are the people: هُمُ الرَّاشِدُونَ. These are the people who are rightly guided. Allah is saying this.
So, the point I want to remind myself and you is that liking something doesn’t matter. To like or not to like is immaterial.
And to raise this issue of “I like” and “I don’t like” to the level where you decide on that is Shirk. This is Shirk.
Success means to do what it takes, no matter how painful, no matter for how long, until you succeed. That is the key. To stay in there. Staying power is what decides winners. Not a flash in the pan. Not some good luck. Not some stroke of fortune. No. Staying power. Sticking out the thing till you succeed. And all your competition falls by the wayside because they don’t have staying power. And you have staying power. That is the key. And this is what we learn from the Seerah.
Rasoolullah ﷺ, of course, he was the Nabi of Allahﷻ. But he and the people with him didn’t succeed because they were the wealthiest; they weren’t. They didn’t succeed because they had political power; they didn’t. They didn’t succeed because they were physically the strongest; that wasn’t true. They succeeded because they had staying power.
They had consistency. They delivered on their promises.
They stuck it out until success.
And that’s what I remind myself and you. Let us think about that and say that liking or disliking doesn’t matter. What matters is single-minded focus towards the goal and the willingness to stay with that until we succeed. By all means, change your direction—not completely differently, but make alterations in strategy to make it more feasible to reach your goal and so on. Do whatever alterations in strategy you need to do and so on. Nothing wrong with that. But you don’t change the goal. You don’t give up.
And you continue until you succeed. And that is the secret. You will succeed. Insha’Allah, Allahﷻ always, always, always gives success to the people who have stuck to their goals.
In history, you see this. Muslims or non-Muslims. The people who succeed are the people who are consistent and who are willing to postpone gratification. And willing to work to get success. We ask Allahﷻ to make us among those who are consistent. And to make us among those who are successful. And we ask Allahﷻ be pleased with us and ever to be displeased. Masallallahu Ala Nabeel Kareem wa Ala Aalihi wa Sahbihi Ajma’in. Okay. Bi Rahmatika ya Rahmanir-Rahimin wa Rahmatullahi Rabbil ‘Alameen.