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Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil ‘Alameen. Wa salatu wa salamu ala ash-sharifa l-anbiya wal-mursaleen, Muhammadin Rasulullah ﷺ, wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam. Tasliman kathiran kathiran.
And after that, my brother and sister, Rasulullah ﷺ, when he came and announced Islam in Mecca, he created perhaps the biggest revolution of all time in the world which still continues. The result is simply numbers: one and a half billion people in the world call themselves Muslim. And the whole world changed.
Now if you ask this question and say, “Okay, what exactly did he do? What did he change?” Because he brought some change. What was the nature of this change? So if you think about it, the change that Rasulullah ﷺ brought was not academic. It was not economic change. He didn’t bring a new system of administration or economy. He didn’t bring a new currency. He didn’t bring, these are the days of agriculture. And so he didn’t bring a new method of cultivation or animal husbandry. He didn’t bring a new industry. He didn’t bring a new technology. Right? Nothing.
What did he bring? What Rasulullah ﷺ brought was a new way of thinking. A different mindset. But that mindset was so profound and so powerful that it completely changed everything in the lives of the people of the time to whom this was presented. And as a result of that, it changed their destiny. Completely. And it changed their destiny in a way where to this day, people, historians, political scientists cannot understand what exactly happened. Which took a bunch of nomadic Arabs with no culture, with nothing to their name. Right? In the whole Jazeeratul Arab, there was not one palace. They didn’t have one carpet. Right? They didn’t have anything. They had not one university, not one school.
And yet they conquered the world. So what was it? In my study of whatever I have done, I think the change that Nabi Salah ﷺ brought was a very simple change but an extremely profound change. And that was a change in perspective.
The thinking until that time, and may Allah have mercy on us, we have gone back to that original time today. The thinking until that time was that this life is all that I have. Now, people say you only live once. True. Nothing wrong with that. But how do you see that? You only live once, so what? That’s the question. So therefore, what should you do? The conventional wisdom of the materialistic world today and which was the same thing then was, “You live only, you only live once, therefore, enjoy yourself.” Do whatever you want, indulge yourself, satisfy all your desires, all your fantasies. Because when you go, you will become dust and mud, and that’s it.
Rasool Allah s.a.w. changed that to saying, “You only live once, but the effect of this life is everlasting.” You only live once, therefore, live with the understanding that this life is where you have the opportunity to do things, to earn for you eternal benefits in the Hereafter. So from this life being all that I have, therefore, I indulge myself, it becomes: this life is all that I have, so this becomes my investment place to get rewards which are everlasting. Right? That is the mindset switch. And along with the rewards that are everlasting, also comes the issue of accountability. Because who will give you this reward, Allahﷻ? How will He give you the reward? By holding you accountable for what you did in this life.
So when Nabi ﷺ said, *ad-dunya mazrab al-akhirah*, He said, “This dunya, this life of the world is the tilth; it is the cultivation, it is your farm, it is your fields.” So what does a farmer do? Who is a good farmer? Somebody who does not go to the field? Or somebody who goes to the field diligently, on time, does a lot of hard work, does all that is required to make sure that he gets the best crop? Who is a good farmer? It is no brainer, right?
So if you look at two people in this world, both are working, they are both working hard, they are both trying to do the best, they are both trying to create the maximum impact. But one is doing it to enjoy it in this life and he thinks it is over. The other one is doing it with the understanding that he does it in this world, but the effect of this will be in the Hereafter, forever. He will get some effect here also, but the real effect is in the Hereafter, forever. So he does this work in this life with the understanding that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala is with me, Allah is watching me, Allah will reward me. So he makes sure that he does not do anything which incurs the anger of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala and that he gets only the reward from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala.
So it is not as if the person with the understanding and awareness of Akhira does not do any work. No. He will work; he will actually work harder than the other guy. Because if you think about it, and I have seen this with many, many among my coaching clients, that people reach what they call a midlife crisis, they call it a plateau, they call it different names. Basically, somebody who has worked hard, he achieved all that he had to achieve and now he has no motivation left in life. Because it doesn’t take much to satisfy you, you know. What do you want? You want property, you got property. You want position, you got position. You want toys, best car, best this, best that, okay, we got all that. Now what?
You have a nice family, you have enough money to travel anywhere, so you know, I want to go for Umrah, you go for Umrah. Every year, every year. Two times a year, two times a year. I want to go for a holiday, I’ve got money, I go for a holiday. Then what? I mean, you might say, well, I want a $100 million yacht, I want a 747, that’s all garbage. I mean nobody wants a $100 million yacht and nobody wants a 747. Forget that, right? But, I have enough money; I, when I travel, I travel only business class or I travel only first class. This is possible.
So, people reach a point where they feel my life is worthless, my life is pointless. They go to the point of literally committing suicide or wanting to commit suicide. There is no sense in living. What’s the point of living? Whereas the same person, if he is working with the perspective of the Akhira, right? He might still go for Umrah, he might still go for a holiday, nothing stops you. Alhamdulillah, Allahﷻ does not tell us to put ourselves to all kinds of pain and suffering to earn the Akhira. No. Live a good life, mashallah. Have a good house. Have an air conditioner if you feel hot. No problem. Have a nice car. Nobody says, “You know, go around on a bicycle.” No.
But do everything that you do with the perspective of accountability to Allah. Allahﷻ and expectation of reward from Allahﷻ. So, a person who is working with that, he never reaches a plateau. He never reaches despair. He never reaches a point where he says, “Life is pointless.” No. There is a purpose to my life till my last breath. Because everything I am doing, I am doing it to please Allah. I am doing it to see what is the maximum benefit I can get. Right? The whole concept of return on investment which we have, any kind of, you see, which is the best share to buy, the one which is going to give me the biggest yield. Right? You won’t buy shares in some dead company. You buy shares in a company which is going to give you some good yield and so on.
So, this person who is working with the perspective of the Akhirah, when he has some task in front of him, he says, “Which is the best way of doing this to get me the best reward?” I have this money, this loose money, some spare money. So, either I can go for a holiday or I can find somebody who needs help and I can help them. He is thinking long term. He is not thinking just now. I have a holiday. Okay, good. I mean, I have had many holidays. Nothing new. Even if I go to a new place, okay, I got a new place. You see different kinds of people with some other kind of food. Have the food, you can’t eat anyway because it won’t be allowed. So, it’s… But, if I go to a hospital, there is somebody there who is literally despairing. I have no money to pay the hospital bill. What will I do? You give them money, see the joy on their face.
Yeah? See the joy on their face. Because they never expected that. Never expected that somebody will help me. You help them. Quietly. And so, Allahﷻ said, “They are the people who give food even though they need it for themselves.” To the Yathim, the miskin and the prisoner. Now, eating halal food, it’s not halal, no? I mean, obviously, it’s halal food, you said. You want it halal, you eat, it’s good, you need it, eat, no problem. Allah will not punish you. But, instead of that, what did they do? They gave it to others. Even though I’m hungry, even though I need to, I also need the food. I earn the food. It is halal food. I can eat it. No problem. Allah will not punish me if I eat that food. I eat the food. I say, Alhamdulillah, Allah will reward me. But, the greater reward is there is somebody at the door who is asking, “I am hungry. Please give me for the sake of Allah.” I will not eat. I will give you the food.
These are ayat in which the Azba and Nuzul, these ayat came because Sahaba did this specifically so Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala revealed the ayat of the Quran. This ayat has Azba and Nuzul with regard to the two different narrations. But, point being that somebody actually did this. Yatim, miskin, and aseer. Now, imagine prisoners. Now, in those days, there were no jails. So, the prisoner was somebody who was around. He was not allowed to leave Madinah and go anywhere but he was there. But, he was a prisoner. Now, in the concept of Madinah, Manawarah, the prisoner was, it was a prisoner of war. So, who is a prisoner of war? Somebody who is not a Muslim. Somebody who was your enemy. You were fighting him. He lost the fight. He is a prisoner. So, this person is not even a Muslim. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala is saying when somebody is hungry, you don’t see whether he is a Muslim or a non-Muslim, you feed him. Allah is feeding him.
There is a story about Ibrahim a.s. never liked to eat alone. He always looked to see if he could get some guest so he could eat with him. So, one day, there was nobody. So, Ibrahim a.s. is walking up and down outside his house, his tent or whatever it was just, you know, hoping somebody will turn up. So, one man came. Some guy going by. Ibrahim a.s. caught him. Come, come, come. Eat with me. So, when he sat down to eat, Ibrahim a.s. said, “Bismillah.” That man said something. Whatever he used to worship. Ibrahim a.s. got so angry, he whacked him. He said, “Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala has provided the food you are taking in the name of some other god.”
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala revealed to him. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala said, “Ya Ibrahim, one day the man said this, you meet him. He said this every day but I feed him. One day he said in front of you, you are not even his rajar. He is eating his rizq. You got angry. But he says this every day but I feed him.” Ajib ha? So, Rasool a.s. changed this perspective in the mind of the people that this life is for you to build your Akhirah. Not for today. For your Akhirah. So, everything we do in this life, we must do it with that perspective. How is this helping me or how will it help me in my Akhirah? Do everything. You run businesses, you conquer the world. Do whatever, do anything you want to do with that perspective. That will do two things. One is, it will ensure that you do not do anything wrong. You will not oppress anybody. You will not take away somebody’s rights. You will not lie. You will not cheat. Because, there is accountability to Allahﷻ. There is accountability to the one who is Alimun Khabir, Alimun bi zatis sudur, Samee ul basir. The one who hears, the one who sees, the one who is knowledgeable, who knows, who knows what’s in the heart.
There is no escape from that. You cannot do something. You cannot hide from Allah and do something. Allahﷻ says, “He is seeing, hearing and He knows in real time whatever we do.” There is no hiding place. You can’t slide somewhere and do no. So, with this awareness when you do, then obviously you will not and I will not and we will not do anything which is displeasing to Allahﷻ. So, therefore, the world that you create is a world which is full of compassion, which is full of justice. Right? Because you are establishing that you are saying, “I will not do anything. I will not take away somebody’s rights. I will not commit a genocide. I will not kill somebody. I will not bomb somebody. I will not try to forcefully or forcibly take over somebody’s home or take over somebody’s country because they’ve got some resources which I want to grab.” I will not do any of those things.
I will not justify it for myself. If I go and kill somebody, it is murder, I will hang. Right? But as a head of state, you go and assassinate somebody, you won’t talk about it. We took out so and so. What did we do? Took out from where? From your pocket? All of this arrogance, all of this nonsense will never happen because, you see, I have to answer to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala. There is no take out, take in. One day I will be taken out by Allah. Then what do I do? So the world you create will be a world which is full of kindness and compassion and which is full of justice and fairness and where people, nobody suffers, nobody has problems.
And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala showed us this in the life of Rasulullah and the life of the Sahaba Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala showed this. There are reports of people in the time of Sayyidina Umar ibn al-Khattab he said a farmer saw a shepherd, he went somewhere, he came back, he saw his flock, he saw a flock of sheep there and a wolf sitting there like a sheep dog. A wolf, wild animal who normally would have killed a sheep. He is sitting there like a sheep dog taking care of his flock. So the farmer, I mean these people are also people of knowledge. The farmer says “This is evidence that our Amir is just, is adil.” And they say one day, some years later, the shepherd came and he found that the wolf had killed one of his sheep and was eating. So the shepherd, did not go and kill the wolf, no, the shepherd says, “This means, that the Amir has died; he is not alive anymore.” And it so happened that, that was the morning when Sayyidina Umar ibn al-Khattab woke up, he was Shaheed, he was killed in the Wasif when he was leading Salatul Fajr.
Allahﷻ showed us that it is possible to create an environment of justice and compassion. Sayyidina Muhammad said if a donkey trips on a road Allah will hold me accountable if a donkey trips on a road forget about people. He was going somewhere he met an elderly Jew sitting by the side of the road begging so he stopped. He said, “Why are you begging?” He said, “What do I do? I have to beg. I have nobody here. My children everybody is gone until I could work. I worked now I am an old man I can’t work. I have to eat.” Sayyidina Umar caught him lifted him up. He called his people. He said, “How terrible and unfair it is this man worked and went. He paid taxes. He did all this and now when he has no one to take care of him he has to beg. Why does he have to beg? It’s our job to take care of him.” So he commanded. He said, “Give him a house. Give him this much. Give him a pension. He told him you don’t have to work. You stay here in the house. You stay here. You will be taken care of till you die.” He didn’t tell him first become Muslim. Say say become no nothing. It’s our job to take care of the people in our environment doesn’t matter who they are. Doesn’t matter what they worship. Doesn’t matter anything. They are in our environment so we take care of them. We take care of the people. We take care of the animals. We take care of the environment itself. We don’t pollute the place. We don’t throw garbage everywhere.
We work. We live with this sense of responsibility to Allahﷻ and accountability to Allahﷻ so the world runs. You will still have the same progress. You will still have the same science and technology. You will have all of that but you will have it with a different perspective which is the people doing it are saying how can I build my Akhira with this. This is what resources will be one little change in the mind. One switch from focus in the Dunya for itself to focus in the Dunya for the sake of Akhirah. Focus is in the Dunya nobody says leave the Dunya. Leave the Dunya then why are you here? Go lie down in your cupboard. There is no leaving the Dunya. You will leave and I will leave when Allahﷻ decrees that’s it not in our hands. We are not allowed to do it by ourselves. We live in the Dunya for the Akhirah. So we ask Allahﷻ to help us to understand this and to bring about this change in our own lives. Change our perspective to change our perspective so we can live in this Dunya for the Akhirah. May God bless you with great blessings.