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In the name of Allah, the most Gracious, the most Merciful. All praise belongs to Allah, Lord of the worlds. Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala sent Ramadan 4, which is to make us rather Rahman, to make us Mutakoon, to make us people of Taqwa. The people of Taqwa are the special slaves of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala. We look at the last three qualities out of the nine that Rasulullah said, that Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala mentioned in Surat al-Furqan. Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala said, Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala said, Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala said, One of the critical to success matters is prioritization of things that we choose to pay attention to and those we choose to ignore. Focus is the art of ignoring the fluff. The reason we must do this and why it’s critical is because all resources are finite. Nobody has unlimited resources, nobody, period. So they must be preserved and leveraged to get the maximum benefit. Out of these resources, time is the most valuable because not only is it finite, but we don’t know how much we have and when our clock will stop ticking. Above all, time is not renewable. Once gone, it’s irretrievable, it’s irreplaceable and so it is invaluable and precious. Everything else we can get back. Money goes, money can come back. Health goes, health can come back. Not time. But seems to be that in today’s life, we spend time as if it was a never-ending river. The two places where we waste time the most are entertainment and argument. A lot of that entertainment ranges between useless and valuable. A lot of that entertainment ranges between useless and I’m not trying to be unkind. The value of anything is to look at it and say, what did I get from this? And if the answer is you got nothing from it, tell me if it’s useful or not. So most entertainment that we have today ranges between useless to actually haram. Arguments are worse because they are worse than haram because they strain and break relationships and they achieve nothing in the real world. Many times that I, I mean I have many friends, many, many close dear friends. But people with whom on some very important matters, I am on the complete opposite. Total opposite. I mean there’s a friend of mine who has a Muslim name but he’s atheist. But he’s one of my closest and dearest friends. I make dua for him. I learn a lot from him. He’s a naturalist. He’s a world-class naturalist. But so on and so on. He does not see the signs of Allah’s mercy and nature. But he’s a very close friend of mine. So we, first rule, we never have arguments. Secondly, if we have, anytime it comes to that, and Hanzele, he’s also a wise man. The question I ask myself and the question I assume he asks himself is do I want the friend or do I want the argument? Do I want to win the argument or keep the friendship? It’s simple as that. Same thing in marriages, even more in marriages. Do you want to keep the marriage or do you want to win the argument? Decide. You can’t have both. Utterly useless. You win the argument, you lose the friend. You lose the argument, you lose anyway. So what’s the point in arguing? Especially arguing about things over which we have no control, absolutely. And just think, just reflect. You know, this is something that we need to do. Reflect what are we arguing about. 90% of the time it’s politics. Most of those who argue about politics won’t even go to vote. The one thing you can do, because they’re also, they argue, what is the point of voting? This one is also bad, that one is also bad. This one is also bad, that one is also bad. So what is the point of you arguing? He’s voting hara-li Islam. His whole life, everything he’s doing is against Islam. He’s earning haraam, he’s eating haraam. Voting, is it according to Islam? Please. Walk away. Allah ta’ala gave us two legs. If you had one leg, I say hop away. I have two legs, walk away. Just walk away, just go away, go away, go away, go away. Malkhshat, walk. Allah gave you two legs for that reason. Just go away. And if you have to stay, do two things. First of all, the moment that discussion starts, somebody says, what do you think about? Excuse me, thank you. Wonderful, beautiful topic. Let us decide on two things. Firstly, what is the aim of this, whatever is going to happen, discussion, argument, whatnot, what are we going to achieve by this? What are we looking for, right? We’re going to be spending time, irreplaceable resource, our life. So what is the outcome? What am I going to get at the end of this? Let’s decide that. Write it down. Second point you say is, how much time are we going to spend on this? Is it one hour, is it two, is it the rest of our lives, the rest of the day, what is it? How much time are we going to spend? Then let the argument happen. Set a timer. As soon as the timer starts up, no, don’t talk without, if they disagree, walk away. Set a timer. As soon as the timer starts, sounds off, stop. Mid-centres, no problem. And then ask two more questions. First question, did we achieve what we set out to achieve? Right? Did we set up, we had some goal, what was the goal? Did we achieve that goal? And second thing is, was it worth the collective time? So if it’s one hour and there are ten people, it’s ten hours. Ten waking hours. Was it worth ten waking hours? I always tell people when I give this example, I say one or two things that happen. Either people will stop doing this complete total waste of time or they won’t involve you. So both ways you win, you know. Both ways you win. But never, never, never, anything which is not in your control, keep your mouth shut. If you are really so seriously interested, pray Tura Kaata, Tahaajyut, put your head in Sujod and beg Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. Only He can help you. Only He can change situation. If you can’t do that, don’t fool yourself. You are not really interested. You are interested in wasting your life. If that’s your interest, go ahead. It’s your life. My brothers and sisters, I remind myself and you there are many things in our lives which we consider to be minor, small. And if somebody remind you, say what is this small things? No, the small things add up. As they say, take care of the pennies, the pounds will take care of themselves. Right? Penny wise, pound foolish, many problems in this, all this nature. Take care of the small things. That five minutes and five minutes and five minutes, all adds up. All adds up. The other day I gave you a, I mean I love doing these little statistics. I made an account, we were taking an hourly rate of 25 dollars per hour. Two hours a day, that’s 50 dollars a day. Over 50 years. It’s half a million, it’s close to a million dollars. It’s a one, it is 970 something dollars. Close to a million dollars. How many of us spend two hours a day and we don’t know what happened to the two hours? Right? So very, very careful. It’s very important for us to accept reminders and admonitions. Allah swt has said, they don’t walk away. When they are reminded, they don’t walk away. There’s a beautiful story of saying Umar ibn al-Khattab, radhe-l Anu. And who is Umar ibn al-Khattab, radhe-l Anu? Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said about Umar ibn al-Khattab, radhe-l Anu that if Umar is walking down a street, shaitan takes another street. Nabi sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said if Allah had kept Nubuwar alive, if I was not the last of the Ambiya, Umar would be the Nabi after me. Say that Umar ibn al-Khattab is the one based on whose questions Allah swt revealed Quran several times, not once. He was very very particular about following the Deen very strictly, especially with regard to Ibadat. So one day he heard a man making a dua and the man said, Allah make me among the few. So he says, no one caught him. He said, where did you learn this? What is the meaning of this? Where is the Dalil? How do you make a dua and say, oh Allah make me among the few, what few? So the man said, when Allah swt, whenever he mentioned in the Quran those who he is pleased with, he always said there are few. For example Allah swt said, وَلَخَذْ مَكَّنَّاكُمْ فِي الْعَرْضِ وَجَعَلَّا لَكُمْ فِيهَا مَا عَيْشَ قَلِيلًا مَّا تَشْكُرُونَ Allah swt said, we have indeed a few people who are pleased with us. Allah swt said, we have indeed established you on the earth and provided you with a means of livelihood, yet you seldom give thanks. Few give thanks. And then Allah swt said, وَهُوَ الَّذِي أَنْشَاءَ لَكُمْ أَسْسَمَعَ وَالْأَبْصَارَ وَالْأَفِدَةَ قَلِيلًا مَّا تَشْكُرُونَ Allah said, and He is the one who created for you hearing, sight and intellect, yet you hardly give any thanks. Only few give thanks. And many other places. Sayyidina Omar Wadilhan was immediate reaction. He says, oh Omar, he is admonishing himself, he says, oh Omar, everyone knows the better than you. This is the humility. This is the humility of people who, if anyone had a right to arrogance, these were the people who could do it. If anyone had a right to arrogance, these were the people who could say that we are the best. Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said, my generation is the best. No sahabi ever said that. Think about that. Khyru al-Qurun-i-Kharni is the hadith of Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. No sahabi said we are the best. Especially after Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam himself is saying, my generation is the best generation, they had a dalil to say we are the best. They never said it. I remind myself and you, may Allah swt grant us tawfiq, to always do that which pleases him and to save us from that which does not please him.
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