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Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim. Alhamdulillah, Rabbil Alameen. Wasalaatuhu wa Salamu ala ashrafil anbiya’i wa al mursaleen. Muhammadun Rasulullah, yaksumlullah alayhi wa ala alihi wa ala alihi wa sallam, tasliman kathirun qirdra. Wa ma ba’du. My brothers and sisters, let me ask you a question. I was looking for our gardeners who are very fond of gardening, but I don’t see any of them here today. But anyway, I think most of us know enough to answer this question. And the question is that if you have, for example, an apple tree in your house, and you find that the apples are not good, there’s something wrong with the apple. What will you treat, the tree or the apple? This is the problem. No, but he’s right. This is the problem. This is the problem. The problem is when the apple is sick, when there is something wrong with the apple, people are trying to treat the apple. You can treat the apple, then you die, nothing will happen. Because the problem is with the tree. The problem is with the tree. If the tree is healthy, the apple is healthy. If the tree is sick, the apple will be sick. Right? As I tell people all the time, I don’t make the laws. Allah made the laws. And Allah made the laws for our benefit, not for His benefit. Because he is Samad. Allah is free from all needs. The laws of Allah are for us. They are for our benefit. We follow the laws, we benefit. We don’t follow the laws, we get hurt. Today we live in a world, especially in this country, because this is where this entire philosophy was born here. And has gone global now. But it’s there everywhere. And that philosophy is the philosophy of the philosophy of the not of Allah. The worship of the self. The worship of desires. We are told to spend our life in pursuit of happiness. Yes? Pursuit of happiness. Good test. Now if you ask people, where is this happiness? I should pursue happiness where? In the park, in the market, in the house. What is happiness? Go a step before that and say, what is happiness? What is happiness? For example, if somebody is a drug addict, being addicted is happiness. If somebody is an alcoholic, being drunk is happiness. Yes or no? So people can be happy doing some things which are themselves completely toxic and completely terrible. Right? So is that happiness? So if you ask the guy, why do you drink so much? You’re drinking, you’re destroying your life, your life of your family and so on. I’m in pursuit of happiness. I’m supposed to be happy. I’m being happy. I’m very happy. He’ll argue with you. What’s your problem? You got a problem? What’s your problem? I bought the alcohol with my money. I’m drinking. It’s going into my body. What’s your problem? I can make a long list of people doing things. That’s not the purpose. Point being, what is happiness? Now, what does Islam tell us? Islam also tells us to live our life in pursuit of happiness. First of all, understand this. Islam is not the opposite of this. Islam also says, live your life in pursuit of happiness. But Islam tells us where this happiness is to be found. It doesn’t leave you to decide because in the worldly sense, pursuit of happiness leaves you to decide. So anyone can decide, this makes me happy, I do that, that makes me happy, I do that. Islam says, no, no. Pursuit of happiness and we’ll tell you where is it to be found. For example, if I have a problem with my plumbing in my house and I’m looking for a power drill and somebody says, go to CVS, you’ll get it. Or go to Friendly’s. They make nice ice cream. Excuse me, I don’t want ice cream. I need a power drill. Go to Friendly’s. How will you get power drills in Friendly’s? You get power drills in Home Depot or you go to power drills in a place which sells power tools. So, I mean, this is it. So my question is, if you don’t know where to find happiness, how will you find it? I’ll give you another example. You all listen to the Quran. May Allah SWT bless the Sheikh. It’s a beautiful recitation. I come, my main aim is this, to listen to the recitation. Did it make you feel happy? Seriously. Don’t give me a Sunday school answer. Did it really make you feel happy? Yes or no? Where is the happiness? Happy in your ear or happy in your stock? Or happy in your left hand? Where? In the heart? You mean the pump? Which pumping blood? Happiness in the heart but not the pumping blood heart, the Qalb. And the soul. Right? You listen to the Kalam of Allah, it gives you happiness in the soul. Now, suppose you are hungry. You are very, very hungry. You have not eaten for two days, three days. Very hungry. And I tell you, okay, I have a chemistry chair. And then on that TV screen, I project for you pictures, 3D images of your favorite food, whatever your favorite food is. Beautiful food. And I have an aroma machine and I also have the aromas. You can smell the food and you can see the food. Fantastic food. And I make you sit there for half an hour. And I say, are you okay now? Full? What did you say? Will it take away your hunger? What will it do? It will actually increase your hunger because you start salivating because of the swell. You are seeing the food, you are already hungry. It makes it worse. Because every kind of need has something to do with the food. Because every kind of need has something which fulfills that need. To fulfill hunger, you need food. Even if you are hungry enough, there is a wonderful story. There was a complaint about one of the governors to say that the man who was living alive will actually call him to Madinah. So the governor came to Madinah and said for example, he called him at 10 o’clock in the morning. He came there, he sat there. Said the man is in his work, this man is also there waiting. 10 o’clock happened, 11 o’clock happened, 12 o’clock happened, time for Salat Zuhr. So the man is now very hungry because he came from wherever he traveled and came. So the governor came, he came to the Khalifa, he is expecting to have some nice food and so on. Nothing. And then Salat Zuhr, he said okay, after Zuhr maybe the Khalifa will eat. Nothing. Zuhr finished, time for Asr. Asr finished, Maghrib finished. Then Sayyidina Omar sits him down and they get some food and this is very, very basic, you know like foundational food, like barley or something. Very basic food. And the man ate and he ate everything, clean his plate. So Sayyidina Omar said to him, are you satisfied, are you hungry? He said, I’m very hungry. Sayyidina Omar said this is the cure for hunger, right? Wait long enough. Instead of eating 10 times a day and eating all kinds of stuff, trying to satisfy this hunger, no. So if you’re hungry enough, it doesn’t even matter if the food is tasty or not tasty, you will eat it because that is what satisfies hunger. Happiness is nothing to do with the body. Happiness has to do with the heart. Has to do with the Qalb, has to do with the soul. And this culture tells us where to find this happiness? In marijuana. In the pubs, in the bars, in the clubs. In homosexuality, in free sex. In shopping, just mindless shopping. What do they call it? What therapy? Retail therapy. They call it retail therapy. I tell people just, if you know English, use your sense, right? Retail therapy. Who goes to therapy? Any therapy is for who? Sick. So if you are sick, you are telling me I am sick. So going to a shop is going to cure you? But this is the problem. The problem is you are being led in the wrong direction because they are telling you satisfy your happiness through materialism because that materialism is money in somebody’s pocket. Every time you buy something, every time attention. The billionaires of the, of, and even until now, were people who were, who had energy companies. Oil, natural gas, electricity, energy companies. The billionaires of today, out of the top five, four are media companies. And media companies also in companies which are dealing in social media. What is the, what is the commodity there? Your attention. Your attention. Nothing else. Can you imagine? You are not even paying anything. You are not paying Facebook anything. Is anybody sending a check to Facebook every month? Is there a subscription? Nothing. Free. You are told it is free. Is it free? You are paying with your life. If it was free, Zuckerberg would not become a millionaire. Zuckerberg became a millionaire because it is not free. Somebody is paying. Who is paying? The advertisers and so on and so on and so on. How are they paying? Why are they paying? Because of you. Because you are sitting there with your face in the Facebook and somebody else is making money. You are getting nothing out of it. You are giving your life span, which is irretrievable. That ten minutes you gave will not come back. Where that ten minutes at the time of your death, when Malakul Maut is standing there and Malakul Mauth said, I will give you ten minutes. That is the value. That is the actual value of the ten minutes. If you get ten minutes, if I get ten minutes just at the moment I am dying, what will happen? If I am not in Wudu, ten minutes is even enough for me to make Wudu. I will face the Qibla, I will fall into Sujood, I will recite Kalima and Malakul Mauth will take my soul in Sajda, reciting Kalima. That is the value of ten minutes. InshaAllah Jannah. And that ten minutes you are giving to Malakul Mauth to become a believer. Why? Why? That is why he keeps saying, tree in the tree, the problem is the tree. It is not the apples. I am just kidding. I am kidding. You better give that cut. Sometimes people, one day a friend of mine told me, they have a share. So his son, his personal son who was 20 years old, he wanted to, from India I am saying, his son wanted to come here to America. So this man, the parents were worried, 20 year old guy, he just goes out to America, what will happen to him? Where will he go? Fall into bad company? This will happen, that will happen, wonder. So they took him, so finally they did a deal. They said, if the Sheikh says you can go, you can go. Otherwise you can’t. It’s okay. So went to the Sheikh. So the father says, Sheikh, can I, my son wants to go to America. Can I send him? Should I send him? The Sheikh said that depends on what you did with the son for 20 years. He said, I can’t answer that question. You answer the question. Whether you can send him to America or not depends on what you did with that son for 20 years. Don’t try to cure the apple, cure the tree. Today we want to outsource everything. You make the babies, let somebody else raise the babies for you. So it will be the daycare center, after the daycare center, in the daytime the public school, after that maybe Makhtab, and after that some Sheikhs, some Imam, and as far as you are concerned, I am busy making money. And then suddenly your eyes open when the child is 18, 20, 21, whatever. And then you say, this is my child? Come, come, come. We’ll take you to the Sheikh. What will the Sheikh do? The Sheikh is not a magician. Brothers and sisters, please understand this. Pursuit of happiness. Islam tells us, live your life in pursuit of happiness, but that happiness is to be found in service to others. My happiness is in making you happy. My happiness is in spreading goodness around me. For everyone. I will be happy if I make others happy. And when I make others happy, that makes Allah happy. The pleasure of Allah is the same thing. So pursuit of happiness, whose happiness? The happiness, the pleasure of Allah, the Rida of Allah. Where is that to be found? In service to people. In being good to people. Not in self-indulgence. Not in more and more and more of whatever I am doing. Not in variety of this kind and that kind and some other kind. No. So I remind myself and you, let us reorient and re-correct our focus. And not fall into this trap of materialism, of more and more and more, of whether it is things or whether it is experiences or whatever. And seek happiness where happiness actually exists, which is the Rida of Allah. How can I get the Rida of Allah? By obeying Allah, by His worship, and by serving all of humanity and the world. Allah sent us with a global plan. That is what makes us happy. That is what will give us happiness and satisfaction. And the Rida of Allah. We ask Allah to orient us to His service, to orient us to His worship. We ask Allah to accept our duas. We ask Allah to enable us and to give us the tawfiq to earn halal, eat halal, do halal, and to fear above everything else, His anger. And may Allah bless the Prophet and his family and his companions.
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