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This is me in temperature is now minus 12 and it says minus 12 feels like minus 18 and I can tell you that’s true. I am in this Martiniyu Park, it’s a really beautiful place. As you can see here the river is also frozen. I will turn the orientation of the camera in a minute. The river is also frozen, the stream is frozen and it is very very cold. Alhamdulillah Allah SWT has continues to show the beauty of His creation in so many ways the whole time. My brothers and sisters, as I mentioned yesterday in the Khatira, the biggest trouble that the people of Mecca, the Mushrikin of Mecca and the Quraysh, the biggest trouble they had was with believing in the hereafter, believing in resurrection. For them to believe in Allah, they already believed in Allah as in their pantheon Allah was the supreme God and they said all the others are, they had different words which I don’t want to use now but meaning that they interceded on their behalf with Allah and so on and so forth. So they were Mushriks, they were not people who denied the presence of Allah SWT. They were not atheists, they were Mushriks, they were polytheists. So that was not the issue, the issue was, Allah SWT said they say how is it possible that we, after we have died and we have become one with the soil, our bones are, bodies have disintegrated, they have decomposed, we have become one with the dust, that we will be created anew, that we will be recreated, resurrected, how is it possible? Allah says, Allah said definitely it will happen and you are denying the meeting with your Allah, meeting with Allah and Allah SWT then challenges and command and says, say you will die, have no doubt about this, you will die. Allah SWT says, and it is his job to extract your soul and bring you back to Allah SWT. I remind you of myself that this will happen. I don’t think this is something that anybody denies, anyone, the most ignorant person, the most learned person, nobody denies death because every one of us has seen death. You have had, some of us have seen our closest and dearest ones dying in front of us, in front of our eyes, you have seen them passing away. I’m sure with some of us, they were so dear to us that if we had been given a choice, we would have gladly given our lives for them and say, Yallah, give my life to this person, let me die instead of them. Doesn’t happen, does not happen and Allah SWT mentions all of these things so clearly and Allah SWT says in the Quran, Allah SWT says, Allah SWT says, when you cannot breathe, when you are having difficulty breathing, when you are going through Sakratul Mouth, I mean Allah SWT protect us from the pain of that and Allah SWT says, and you are standing there looking on, you are right there, you are not absent, you are present, you are looking on, but you can do nothing. Allah says, this is a challenge. Allah says, if you can bring that soul back, if you can ease their breathing, if you can bring them back alive, do it. See if you can do it. Allah says, Allah SWT says, we are closest to them, but we are not visible. We ask Allah SWT to make our lives easier, our death easy. As I’m talking to you, you see there on top, there is a red-tailed hawk which is sitting in that tree there. It’s one of the predatory birds of this place. It’s beautiful. Just thinking or talking about death, I’m thinking that that is malakul mouth for some rabbit or some unwary mouse or squirrel. The hawk is sitting there waiting for what Allah has decreed for it. The point I want to remind myself and you my present sister is that if one falls into a trap unknowingly, if something you didn’t know and unknowingly there’s a hole in the ground, you didn’t realize it and you fell down, then okay, it’s understandable. I mean you didn’t know that. But knowingly if somebody falls into a trap, if knowingly somebody does something which he knows that it would be a tremendous loss, but he still does it, then what do you call that? And that’s why sometimes people ask me, they say, what does it matter what I believe? They say, well, I don’t believe in the akhirah. I don’t believe there’s a day of death, I don’t believe that I will be called to account. This life is all there is and I have money and I have power and authority. You know, I have nice friends. So I’m doing something, you call it haram. I have a girlfriend, boyfriend. You say it is haram, so what? I have it, I’m doing it, you know. And if it’s so bad, why doesn’t punishment come? How come I’m not being punished? I find these, you know, I have all this, I mean, you know, so nothing happens to me. So I’ll die, I become dust. Now I say to you, as far as I’m concerned, I believe in Allah and I believe in the last day and I believe in death. I believe that I will meet Allah and I want to live my life in a way where when I meet Allah, I will meet him in a state where he’s pleased with me. And that is what I advise you to do also. So the answer to the question, what does it matter what I believe? The answer is, it doesn’t matter what you believe to anyone else, it doesn’t matter what you believe to anyone else, but it matters very much to you. And the reason it matters is because our actions are based on our beliefs. Our actions are based on our beliefs. So if you believe that something will happen, then we prepare for it. If you don’t believe that, then we don’t prepare for it. So if we believe that we will meet Allah, then we will prepare to meet Allah in a state where he is pleased with us. But if we believe that we are not going to meet Allah, then we won’t do that. We will live our lives like animals from sensation to sensation, from you know, eat more, drink more, commit more haram and so on. And then we die in that state. The problem is that animals are not called to account, we are called to account. So what happens when we are called to account? So the belief doesn’t matter to anyone, it matters to us. My belief matters to me, your belief matters to you. My belief matters to me, your belief matters to you. Number one. Number two point to keep in mind and think, think about is that no matter what I choose to believe or not believe, it won’t change reality. It will not change facts. It’s not as if if I don’t believe in death, I will not die. I don’t believe in the day of judgment, so therefore it will not happen to me. I don’t believe, think about this. Say for example, a man is, there are two guys and they are both going skydiving. So as they are jumping off the plane, pretty high on their feet, one of them says to the other one, make sure your parachute works properly, test. The other one said, doesn’t matter, I don’t care. So what do you wait? I don’t believe in gravity, just think, what’s gravity? Have you seen gravity? You feel gravity? What’s gravity? Yeah, some stupid scientist said there’s gravity, so you believe it? Where’s gravity? Show you gravity. Right, I want to poke gravity in the eye. Where is this gravity? Gravity what? So this guy, this person is having this argument with the other one, and they jump off the plane. So as they are going down, both of them are traveling at the same speed because now they are in the purview of gravity. They are in the sphere where gravity is acting upon them, and they’re both coming towards the earth at an acceleration of 32 feet per second per second. 32 feet per second per second. And then the person who has the parachute who believes in gravity pulls the rip cord and his parachute opens. So what happens to him now? He feels a jerk, and this jerk is a sign that his parachute is working. This jerk is a sign that inshallah he will land safely. This stoppage of his rapid descent, the slowing down of his speed, is not a bad sign, it’s a very good sign because it is showing him that the parachute is working. But at the same time, what’s happened to the other guy? He’s continuing at 32 feet per second per second. So that guy now is showing his thumb to this one. And he says, see, you’re so stupid. Your development stopped. Your business is now, you can’t expand your business because you don’t want to take money or interest. So your growth is stopped and so on and so forth, right? I mean look at me, I’ve got a new girlfriend every week, and you’re stuck with the same wife for 40 years. What kind of stupidity is this? So who’s having more fun in life? I eat whatever I want, I drink whatever I want, I have great fun, I go here, I go there and you’re doing nothing. You’re wasting your time. What’s the point in having money? Right? So this is happening. So now as they are descending towards the earth, who is going faster? The one without the parachute. Who is apparently having more fun? The one without the parachute. But who will be safe? But who will be safe at the end of that journey? Who will land safely at the end of the journey? No brainer, right? No brainer. That is life. And that is the concept of Akhara. It is to understand this, that you’re not believing something, does not say, the facts of life. It does not change reality. Reality is that which exists whether anyone believes it or not. Reality is that which operates whether anyone believes it or not. Therefore, what’s the benefit of believing? The benefit of believing is that the one who believes knows what is coming and therefore he prefers for it. The one who does not believe, even though he knows what’s coming, he doesn’t believe that, so he is not prepared. The effect of that on both of these people, the one who believes and the one who doesn’t believe, the effect is different. Not because one is being preferred over the other, but because one is prepared and the other one is not prepared. I’m out here in this cold, minus 12, and you can see how I am dressed. If I didn’t wear these clothes, then I would become, I would fall sick very quickly. I would probably get pneumonia or something and die. But when I am wearing the right clothes, I’m enjoying myself. I’m having great fun. I’m walking in the snow and I’m talking to you and you know, it’s wonderful because I am prepared for this weather. It’s as simple as that. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala shows us examples throughout our lives and all of them point to the same reality. Now just as in this world, we are free to choose what we want to do. But every choice has a consequence. No choice is free. Every choice has a consequence. Every choice has consequences. And that is why Allah sent His Dhabi sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. That’s why Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala sent His Kitab for us to learn and take lessons. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala sent His Kitab for us to guide us to that which pleases Him and save us from that which does not please Him.
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