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Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil ‘Alameen. Wa salatu wa salamu ala ash-sharafi al-anbiya wal-mursaleen, Muhammadur Rasoolullah ﷺ, sallallahu alaihi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam. Tasheebun kathirun kathirah, Huma baadu.
My brothers and sisters, one of the modern illnesses—by “modern” I don’t mean that it wasn’t there in the past; it must have been there—but to the extent it is now, almost in epidemic proportions—is the illness of anxiety. People becoming anxious, and the opposite of anxiety is depression, so it’s one of the two. Depression and anxiety has become extremely common, and very debilitating, very destructive, resulting in some extreme cases. But even without that, it’s something which drains your energy. And the reason for that is not living in the present. This is a mercy of Allah and it’s a creation; that this is an outcome of intelligence, the outcome of imagination. Now if you look at it, one of probably the most important abilities, human ability, is imagination. The ability to imagine something, to imagine a result, to imagine a solution, to think about a solution for a problem. Without imagination, you can’t do it. Imagination is absolutely critical. And that’s why one of the things I say: unfortunately in our schools, imagination is the first thing we kill. Children are not allowed to imagine anything they want. Right? Sir Ken Robinson, um, one of the great teachers of our time, in one of his speeches, he made, he mentioned this little story. In the small class of preschoolers, so maybe three years old or something like this, four years old, the teacher gave them a task to say, “draw whatever you like.” So one little girl is drawing something. So the teacher’s walking around, asking, “What are you drawing?” She says, “I’m drawing an elephant,” “I’m drawing a tiger,” “I am drawing this and that.” Then this little girl says, “I am drawing God. I am drawing a picture of God.” So the teacher says, “How can you draw a picture of God? Nobody knows what God looks like.” This girl says, “They will know in a minute.” They will know in a minute.
So the point is that this imagination is Alhamdulillah one of the greatest, or the greatest strength that Allah ﷻ has given us, and it’s an outcome of intelligence. If you can’t imagine that there is intelligent people who can imagine. So the opposite is also true. But like everything else, everything has its time and place. And imagination which is working over time is the problem. That’s what creates anxiety. As somebody says, nice little quote: he says, “The past is history. The future is a mystery. Today is a gift.” That’s why it’s called the present. So I think this is a very important thing to remember. And the trick is to be present in the present. Not be physically present here while your mind is wandering somewhere; you are either thinking in the past or in the future. But actually you’re not there. Be physically present. You know, I walk up and down here every day. Yesterday I was walking in this beautiful breeze. May Allah grant us rain. There’s no, rain is not coming. But the monsoon breezes, it is so lovely. Just walking up and down in the parking lot. That breeze was so beautiful. You know, I thanked Allah ﷻ. I said, “Ya Allah, what will be the breeze of Jannah like? This is the world. What is the breeze of Jannah going to be like?” Let us see that InshaAllah.
So our problem is that we are located in the present, physically. But we live in the past. We live in the past or future. And that is the problem. So regretting or being angry about the past and apprehensive and fearful about the future. So this is the tendency: being optimistic about the future is good, Alhamdulillah, no problem. But usually it’s also human tendency. We tend to remember negative things more than positive things. We remember negative experiences longer than positive ones. What are the positive experiences? In customer service, some research data, I remember, they said that if a person has an exceptionally good customer service experience—he’s not talking about normal good things, exceptionally good customer service experience—this person will tell maybe three people, maybe four people about that if asked. But if he has a single bad experience, a single bad customer service experience, he will tell 16 people at least without being asked. So this is human nature. We tend to accumulate garbage. That’s why marriages fall apart. Because you remember all the negative stuff more than the positive stuff. Now there has to be some positive stuff. But you don’t remember that. You forget that. You take it for granted. It’s my sense of entitlement. And anything negative, you remember it; you savor it. So this is the tendency of the human being.
So regretting or being angry about the past and apprehensive or fearful about the future. Now neither is of the remotest use because we can do nothing about it from where we are. We are in the present. You cannot do anything about the past. The past is gone. Whatever happened, happened. That’s it. You cannot change it. There’s nothing, there’s no way that you can change your past. Even literally, like while coming here to the masjid, whatever happened, happened. You can’t change that. Right? So forget about remote past. And the future: I can’t go out there and change that. But if we are present in today, we are present right here. And conceptualize the lessons from yesterday. The benefit of the past, the benefit of history is only one: which is to learn the lessons from history. Nothing else. The rest of history is stories. This happened, that happened, that happened, so and so, so and so. That has no value. What has value is the lessons we learn from history. So if we are here today, be completely present in today. Feel it, experience it, see it, smell it, taste it. And learn the lessons from yesterday. And prepare for tomorrow by doing the right things today. So there’s a way of influencing the future, and that is by working today. Today I have a chance. I’m studying a course. I have a chance to complete my degree. I have a chance to complete my work in such a way that get an exceptional degree, which will automatically influence my future. Because when job opportunities come, when assignment opportunities come, I have the degree. Sitting and wishing for it is no use. Work on it now.
But if you don’t do that, so if you want to be happy, productive and beneficial, learn the lessons from yesterday, live today fully and prepare for tomorrow. Now, happiness—therefore people are in search of happiness. Happiness is a choice. It’s not an event. It’s not a state of being that you wait for. When I get to this stage, when I retire, I will do this. When I grow up, when I get to age 30, I will do this. When I go to this place, I will do that. Happiness is a choice. It’s not a state of being that you wait for. It’s something that you decide to create for yourself. You want to be happy? Be happy. That’s all. Nothing else. Choose to be happy in whichever situation you are in. Choose to be happy.
I had gone to Jamshedpur to XLRI, and they one weekend took us out to see some sites there; there’s a lake there and so on. So we had stopped at a traffic light, which was a crossing, four-way crossing. And just outside Tata Nagar, just outside Jamshedpur, in Jamshedpur but just outside Tata Nagar. So you can see that, you know, it’s almost like a boundary. As soon as you get out of Tata Nagar, the potholes start. So the road has potholes and all that. So as we were parked like this and so there was a road coming from the right, it was a slope and there was a guy on a cycle, young guy on a bicycle. He was coming down the slope and he hit a pothole. It was a pretty…
A big pothole. He hit the pothole, bounced out of it and he said, “Wah, kya khadda hai.” Zor se baar, wah, kya khadda hai. Now, I burst out laughing and I was thinking to myself: here is this guy; he hit a pothole, he could have cursed, he could have said, “useless,” you know, municipal corporation, useless road people, they don’t do this, they hit up our taxes. He could have done all of that. He didn’t do that. He decided to enjoy the bounce. I’m not saying it’s a great thing. I’m just saying that it’s a choice. He decided to enjoy the fact that he hit the pothole, he bounced out of it and he says, “Wah, kya khadda hai.” Wow, what a pothole. Choice. To be happy is a choice, right?
Now, Rasool S.A.W. told us how to deal with all this and he said, the son of Adam, the son of Adam S.A.W. is not safe from three things: Worry, Grief and Regret. Now, worry is fear about the future—worry about the future. Grief is pain in the present, whatever it might be. And regret is attachment to the past. Rasool S.A.W. said, the son of Adam is not free from three things: Worry, grief, regret. Worry is fear of the future. Grief is pain in the present. And regret is attachment to the past. The three time zones of the mind. Now, all three exist inside the head. All three are not real. And all three can be overcome. And for that, Rasool S.A.W. taught us a dua—a very simple dua.
So, you can repeat it after me and you can learn it.
Allahumma, inni a’udhbika minal hamduhuni mankumaan. Alhammi wal-huzni wal-ajzi wal-kasr. So, three things, but the fourth one is a bonus.
Allahumma inni a’udh bika minal-hammi wal-hazani wal-ajzi wal-kasr. Right? *Allahumma inni a’udhu bika min al-hammi wa al-hazani wa al-‘ajzi wa al-kasr*. Wallah I seek refuge in You; I seek protection in You—from anxiety (*al-hamm*), from, you know, fear of the future,
grief (*al-hazan*) and sadness, incapacity (*al-‘ajz*).
Bilkul ‘a’jiz hojana, ajzi—incapacity—and laziness (*al-kasr*).
Because laziness is the root cause of all evil. And laziness. Now, as the ulama, they have said that Prophet S.A.W. sought protection from this because *al-ham*, which is anxiety, completely consumes you.
Right? Anxiety just completely occupies you and, you know, you can’t function. *Al-hazan*, which is sadness, drives you down. Now, I’m not saying, think about this. I’m not saying that there is no reason for anxiety.
That your anxiety is stupid. No, it’s not stupid. There is a reason. There will be some reason in terms of the future and so on and so on. The question is, what do you choose to do about that?
If you keep, if you allow that thing to stay in your head rent-free, then you are in a big problem. Because it will occupy your mind completely and you can’t function. But if you say, okay, so these are potential issues, possible issues in the future. What can I do about that today?
The key to deal with future anxiety is to translate it into today and say: “Is there anything I can do about this today?” In some cases, there will be something, so go do it. In other cases, there’s nothing you can do. For example, what is going to happen if this war in the Middle East continues? What will happen to the price of gas? What will happen to the, therefore, the price of food? Right? Now, are these questions real or not real? Questions are real. Yes, this might happen. But can you do anything about it? If you can do something about it, go do it.
Why are you sitting here? Go do it. But if you cannot do anything about it, what is the use of thinking about that, talking about that, you know, letting that thing go around and around in your mind? For what? It’s not going to change anything. Except that your mind now is going to change. It’s going to be occupied with something which is utterly useless and drags you down for no reason and no benefit. This is the meaning of *harm*.
Now, is grief that weighs you down, which is again today, but I don’t know what will happen today and this and this and this?
Maybe there is some other reason also. Maybe some tragedy happened.
Somebody died. Okay, they died. Alhamdulillah. Make dua for them.
And as… is feeling of incapability, of incapacity, of helplessness.
And we are not helpless. We just feel helpless.
We have the capacity; we have the ability to do something about it, but we feel helpless. And *kassil* is laziness—something which you know you should do, but you don’t do. You don’t get up. You don’t get up and go and pray Salatul Fajr in the masjid. Or you are supposed to complete something, you don’t do it.
So, say this dua. Any time when this, your mind is playing games and it’s, you know, overthinking or whatever you want to call it, goes round and round. Make this dua. This dua is to overcome all this. Allahumma inni awduh bika minal hammi wal hazni wal ajzi wal kass. Yeah. Make this dua.
We ask Allah S.W.T. to help us. Accept this dua of Rasulullah S.A.W. And we ask Allah S.W.T. to free us from these debilitating issues and make our lives productive, InshaAllah. Wa sallallahu ala nabiyyil kareem. Wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma’in. Bi rahmati Allah. Wa rahmati Allah.