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In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. Peace and blessings be upon the honourable prophets and messengers. Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him and upon his family and his companions, and he is very much in peace. In the next lecture, in the book of Fitna, in the book of Zunan ibn Majah, Abu Hurayla, may Allah be pleased with him, said, The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him and upon his family and his companions, said, Islam has begun to be strange, and it will come back as it began, so be kind to the stranger. Or as the Prophet said, peace be upon him. In the book of Fitna, the book of trials and tribulations, in Zunan ibn Majah, Abu Hurayla narrates that Rasulullah said, Islam began as something strange, and it will return to being something strange. Give glad tidings, give the good news of Thuwa to the people, to the strangers, to the people the world will call strangers. Thuwa is a tree in Jannah. The point I want to make is that if you take this Alice, and if you map it onto what I was telling you the other day, the secret of success is to differentiate, right? You remember that? Three, four days back in my khatira, I said differentiate, because if you are like everybody else, then you are one grain of sand, one grain of rice in a sack. Differentiate, stand out. A flag is a piece of cloth, right? What is a flag? It is a cloth, and if the flag gets dirty and you wash it and you hang it on the line, clothesline, and along with the flag is your shirt and your trousers and something else, and if a soldier is passing by, if somebody is passing by, they will not salute the flag. Nobody salutes a flag which is on a clothesline, right? But if the flag is flying high on the flagpole, then people salute the flag. Don’t talk about whether saluting the flag is jahez or not jahez. I’m talking about what people… The problem with giving Muslims advice is everything gets converted into some masala or fiqh. Forget that. The flag is recognized as a symbol of the nation only when it is flying high on the flagpost. Same flag. Flag hasn’t changed. You didn’t change the color of the flag or the nature of the cloth. No. Same flag. When it is on a clothesline, when it is, within quotes, hanging out, nobody respects it. Nobody respects it. But the same piece of cloth, when it is flying high, it becomes a symbol of the nation and it is saluted. Differentiation creates brand. Brand inspires loyalty. Loyalty enables influence. You remember I said this? This is the manifestation in our life today of the hadith, Fatuba Lil Kodaba. So who is the gharib? Gharib in Arabic means ajeeb, strange. Not gharib in Urdu means poor, no. It means strange, ajeeb, not usual, not like everybody else. So who is the gharib? Who are the gharaba? In a society that is based on corruption, a person of integrity is gharib. He is a stranger. Everybody takes bribes? He says, I don’t take bribes. You are a stranger. In a society where even the ulama, even the scholars take money to give khutba of Juma, they take money to glorify Allah, if you say I glorify Allah only for the love of Allah, you are a stranger. Gharib. In a society which is characterized with promiscuity and shamelessness, a person of dignity and honor is gharib, stands out. In a society which is based on cruelty, on oppression, on grabbing people’s wealth and grabbing people’s dignity and violating their rights and so on and so forth, a person who stands up and says I will not do that and I will not allow you to do that is gharib. He is a stranger. In a society that is sunk and drowning in hubbu dunya, in the love of the dunya, where people are, they have no problem making money in ways which Allah has declared to be haram. A person who stands up and says no, I will earn only halal. I will not earn haram. I will not earn haram because Allah is my raziq. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala huwar razaqh uduh al khuwati al batin. And Allah promised to feed me. I will not disobey Allah. This person is gharib. I can go on endlessly but you get the point. And what did our Rasul alayhi salatu wasalam, what did he say? Fathuba li’l quraba. Give them the glad tidings of Jannah. Nobody said that to stand out is easy. No. For a lot of people, when you stand out, you become a target. People blend in because they want to be hidden. The moment you stand out, you become a target. But remember, there is a sequence. And the sequence is that first they laugh at you, then they fight you, and then they follow you. This will happen. This will happen. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala mentioned this to us. Then what did they say? They said, no, you are not the Rasul, you are people like us. And the Rasul, what did he say? Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala knows. Allah sent us. Next step. We will punish you. We will do this to you, it will do that to you, and so on. So when you stand out, you… I won’t say it will happen every time, but it can happen. To stand out, you become a target. But you are not standing out for popularity. You are standing out for the love of Allah and His Rasul, alaihi salatu wasalam. Many times people, they say, we should be given leadership. Right? This happens a lot of times in NGOs, voluntary organizations, in masajid. We should be given leadership. Let me ask you a very simple question. Can you say the same thing in any other organization? Suppose you are working for Microsoft, working for GE, working for IBM or something. Can you say, I should be given leadership? Have you ever heard anybody say this? If you say, I should be given leadership, what will happen? They will tell you, that is the door. Exit is marked. Why? Don’t they want leaders? All the leadership training in the world is done only in corporate organizations. So they want leaders. Leadership has to be earned. Leadership is not given. Leadership has to be earned. You have to work, you have to show that you are worthy of being a leader. Then you get leadership. Not by demanding. Take the Rasul A.S.A. I cannot give you a bigger and better example. Here is the Nabi of Allah. Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala appointed him as a leader, as the Nabi, as the Rakoor. Did people start following it? The moment he said, Ashadu wa Laila illa Allah, Ashadu wa Laila Muhammad Rasulullah, it is… I am the Rasul of Allah. Did they say, Lambai ki Rasulullah, we are with you? Did they say that? What is the first thing that happened? The moment Rasul A.S.A. announced his resala. What is the first thing that happened? People followed it? What is the first thing? Storing. In Taif. All kinds of opposition. All kinds of opposition. It took him how many years? That is the nature of life. That is the nature of life. The only prime in the only place in the world, and my PhD is on that. The only place in the world where you will get leadership because of your name is in your father’s business. No where else. And that is the worst mistake that fathers can make. Read my book. Nothing to do with Islam. I am talking business. Read my book. The business of family business. I consult internationally on this. And I tell fathers as soon as your son get first of all get him a good education. Son or daughter. Once they have completed the education, send them out. Let them go and work for another organization. Not yours. Some other organization where his name has no value. Let him go and work for another organization. Let him go and sweep floors. Let him go and stack shelves. Let him go and drive trucks. Let him go and repair cars. Let him go and do whatever he does. Let him go and work there for five to ten years. Not one or two years. Because I want him to learn the business. I want him to learn how to lead. Where a name doesn’t buy him anything. Then invite him back. No problem. It’s your son. Your daughter. They need it. It is their inheritance. Then invite them back. Then give them leadership. They will lead. From day one if you put them in the position because my name is big. So my son has to be a big and the big always has to sit in the big chair. I can give you histories of organizations. Data. Of organizations. Three generations syndrome. Founder starts the organization. The next person in the seat is the son because of the name. And the third generation is sweeping the street. I’ll give you actual data. I’m not exaggerating. I’ll give you actual data. I told you. Read my book. This is Islam. Islam taught us this. Badar Islam Agharibar. Say, oh, do come up with a fatuba little. Or a bad. Let’s have a long in this. Let’s have in this little or a bad. Stand out. And the leadership. If you earn the leadership, you don’t have to ask anybody anything. They will come to you. Please tell us what to do. I remind myself and you, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala sent us Muslims to lead the world, to show the world how to live a life which is full of baraka and khair, full of blessings for us and for everyone around us. That’s the reason we are created. We are not created to run around like chickens scratching in the mud. We are sent to show people how to live. How to live with dignity, with honor, with compassion. That is something we need to learn. And then we need to practice in our own homes, in our own associations, in our own societies, in our own neighborhoods, so the world can see. And then the world will come to Islam, inshallah. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala jalla jalaluhu to help us, to guide us, to be with us, to forgive us. And to support us in trying to live our lives in a way that pleases His Majesty and Grace. Wasallallahu an’anabiyyil kareem wa ala alihi wassahbihi ajmaim wa rahmatikam.
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