—
*This transcript was automatically generated by AI and may contain errors. *
—
In the name of Allah, the most Gracious, the most Merciful. All praise belongs to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. And peace and blessings be upon you, the most honored of the prophets, Muhammad and the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him and upon his family and companions. And many blessings. Now brothers and sisters, somebody asked me to speak to some college students about so-called secrets of success in life. I say so-called because nothing is secret, everything is public. It’s just that some people just don’t get it. Like some people don’t get what’s in the face. Right? Not because it’s secret. Because most of the time you don’t want to see it. So for those of you who want to know this secret of success, let me share it with you. It’s very simple. I want you to remember three letters. Three letters. I, A and D. I, A, D. I stands for investment. A stands for abundance. And D stands for discipline. Investment mindset. A mindset of abundance. And A, the ability to discipline yourself. I, A, D. In the words of Vincent Lombardi, who is the director of the University of New York, in the words of Vincent Lombardi, who is a great coach of the Chicago Green Bay Packers, the team. He is a wonderful coach, wonderful coach for him. One of his quotes which I love the most, he says, the only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary. The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary. And that’s the truest word ever spoken. So three things. Investment mindset. Just think in terms of your life, think in terms of anything. If you want to get something, you have to give something. This is the rule Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala mailed. If you want to get something, you have to give something. If you want a good harvest, you have to plant the seed. Without planting the seed, and before planting the seed, tilling the field, cleaning it of all kinds of toxic substances and insects and pathogens, right? Making the soil friable and smooth, then making arrangements for irrigation and so on and so on and so on, all that is required for agriculture, and then planting the seed. If you don’t do all of this, you will not get a harvest. You will not get a harvest. You say, no, no, no, I am going to go and on this field I will pray tahajjud every day. You can pray tahajjud until where you make sajda become the hole in the ground, nothing will happen. In la mashaAllah Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala can bring water out of a rock. Allah told us He brought water out of a rock. But that is the will of Allah. That happens when Allah wants to show the world something. It won’t happen because of you and me. If you want a good harvest, you have to plant. If you want a good marriage, you have to first find the right person and then invest in that. Part of that investment is to take, I am trying to think of something which has more than four letters to describe what you have to take. What you have to take, right? From that spouse, you have to take something which as I said, try to find something which has more than four letters in it. There is no other way. Believe me, there is no other way. If you have in this mind of yours that you are going to marry this man or this woman who is complete, you know, absolute essence of goodness, then think of Rasool Allah sallallahu alaihi wasallam. The wives of Rasool Allah sallallahu alaihi wasallam not only had problems with him, but Allah sallallahu alaihi wasallam revealed Quran. In surah al-ahzab, Allah sallallahu alaihi wasallam said, if you don’t like to be the wives of my nabi, I will tell him to let you go. And I will give him better than you. Something as serious as that. Rasool Allah sallallahu alaihi wasallam kept himself away for a month from all his wives. So if you think that because you are such a wonderful human being, I agree with you, but I am not married to you, so it doesn’t matter to me. And he said, why does my wife have a problem? Then he asked me, let me answer for me the question, why did the wife of the Rasool have a problem with him? Allah sallallahu alaihi wasallam, Allah told us this, this is not my imagination, Allah sallallahu alaihi wasallam told us, this happened. Investment mentality. If you want to do well at your work, you have to go and spend time and money and energy in that work. If you want your shop to do well, you have to go in the morning and open the shop at the correct time. You can’t say today I am feeling lazy, I will open at 10 o’clock, tomorrow something else happens, I open one day, I don’t open one day. Huh? People like to talk about China and why Chinese businesses are successful. I will tell you a true story, because I have clients. One of my clients makes air turbines, you know, the big windmills. So they build air turbines. So where do they source those turbine blades? The blade is longer than this budget. So where do you think they source it from, China? So the guy tells me, we had ordered these blades, and they were supposed to come and we know these guys, they deliver, if they tell you, they are delivering on the 9th of November, you can bet your last dollar in your pocket, that on the 9th of November, come hell or high water, that blade will be standing in front of your house. Simple as that. So they said, in that particular case, they said, we, for whatever reason, this is in India, so he said, we were going, we were delayed in the construction, the civil works part of the process. Because they have to build the whole big foundation and put that big pole and all that, right? So they said, we got delayed with that. So our problem was now, a whole bunch, it’s not one blade, the whole bunch, it’s the whole field of, you know, windmills. So he said, the whole bunch of blades are going to be delivered, then we have to store them, which costs a lot of money. So he said, somebody had this bright idea that they will go to China and tell them that they have a problem with the, you know, the specs they sent, and change the specs. People are smart, they think they are smart. So they changed the specs, so now they have to redo, it will delay them, and that will match with our… So they said, we went. And not only did we go, but we went to one of our other clients whose facility was in some remote, a boot-doc’s place, I mean, it was like not in the town or not in Shanghai or something, it was very… So he said, they went into the remote place, and from there they called his company and they said, look, we got a problem, we need to talk to your engineers, so send your engineers. Where are you? We are in this place. They said, okay. Engineer will be there at 8 a.m. tomorrow morning. They said, okay. They said, 8 a.m. We see this woman. She must be, the man says, she is at least seven months pregnant. So a big baby like this. This factory was on top of a hill, and for whatever reason there was no car or something. She is pregnant. And for whatever reason there was no car or something. She is walking up that hill. She stops every little way. She is panting. Obviously, she is in difficulty, but she comes on top. Once she gets there, there is no place to sit, so she sat on the floor. She pulled out her laptop. She put it there. She opened the CAD CAM design thing. She said, here is the blade. Tell me what you want. So now these people are there. They are telling her, we want this chain, this chain. No problem. Whatever you say, right? You want this blade to make coffee for you, this blade will make coffee for you. You want this blade to fly, it will fly. Whatever, you tell us. So once they did all that, she pulls out a portable printer, connects it, prints out, gives it to them. She says, sign here. She says, sign. She says, when will you deliver? Same date. In that little line, deep. Same date. So these guys, these guys are saying, for God’s sake, we went all this way, what are we? Investment mentality. You build a global reputation for manufacture by delivering world class products on time consistently. I. A. Abundance mentality. Sharing. Believe me, in my life, I have practiced this throughout my life. I’m in the consulting business. My raw material, my product is all in my head. What I produce, every document, every PowerPoint, every book is original material. It has actually a dollar value. Right? I can take all my material and get it evaluated, there will be a dollar value. But throughout my life, I have shared my material, I have shared my designs freely with anyone who wants. Whoever asks me, I give it to them. Many of my consultant friends who are my friends, but also obviously they are, you know, business. They are not, I’m trying to find a nice word for it. They are not opponents or competitors in a way, right? Okay. They tell me you are giving away your original material. If you go to Bill Gates and say you own Microsoft, give me a laptop, he won’t give it to you. You have to buy it. You give it free. What sense does it make? I said it makes sense to me. Because throughout my life I have given and Allah has provided me from sources I could not devalue. And second thing is, people I give it to come back to me with their value addition on it. So I give Marwan something, Marwan come will, not that I’m saying I’m giving you, I give it to him, I forget about it. Six months later he comes to me, he says, you know, Sheikh, I was looking at this thing and this is my understanding on this. This is the insight of God, I say, Alhamdulillah. That’s value addition for me. And this has happened to me many, many times, many times. Abundance mentality. Share. Whatever Allah gave you, share. Like somebody said, don’t go to your grave full of stuff. Go to your grave empty. Whatever Allah gave you, give it back. Share with everybody. Go to your grave. What’s the point? If I go to my grave with all my knowledge in my head, the worms will eat it. I mean, what’s the good of that? Makes no sense, no? I mean, instead of that I share it with everyone. Then Alhamdulillah, I have people making dua for me. I have people who are benefiting from it. That is satskajarya for me. Why would I not share? Abundance mentality. And the last one and probably the most important is discipline. Very simple definition. Discipline is to do what must be done, whether you like it or not. Discipline has nothing to do with I like it, I don’t like it, I’m feeling tired, it’s not my mood. I… no, no, no. If I am alive, it will happen. The only way that will not happen is if I am either dead or I am… may Allah protect me and you. I am lying in some hospital in the bed. Otherwise, if I give you my word, this will happen. You can go to sleep, it will happen. That is the meaning of discipline. That is the meaning of discipline. Discipline is to do what needs to be done, what must be done, irrespective, whether you like it or not. Can I tell myself or I tell people, discipline begins with making your bed. As soon as you get up in the morning, make your bed. Clean, neat. Your bed must be like a, you know, like a tabletop, not a wrinkle as if somebody freshly ironed it. Pillows in their place, bed, cover on top. No matter what. No matter how much of a hurry you are, you might be in an absolutely raging emergency. Make your bed. Discipline is to get up at least one hour before the time of Salatul Fajr and pray Tahajjud, at least two rakat, if Allah gives to us, we will pray more. But at least two rakat of Tahajjud, no matter what. Whether you are sick, whether you are travelling, no matter what. And don’t let shaitan deceive you by giving you fatwas. Shaitan does this. It happened to me once. I was going to South Africa. So from Hyderabad, from India. So it’s a beautifully, the time of the flight is fantastic. It leaves Hyderabad at 10pm. So 10pm means I finish my work, I go to the airport. So 10pm means I finish my Maghrib, Isha, everything is over. I get on the plane, land in Dubai at 2am. I go to the lounge. And the flight from Dubai is at 4 or 5 or something like this. I land in South Africa. So I have, I have finished my Isha and everything here. And I just have to pray Fajr on the way. Or actually I think it starts after Fajr. So Fajr we pray in Dubai and then Zohar Asar and everything else. So no, salah time, no problem. So I landed in Dubai. And a thought came to me, let me go to the Mosalla and pray to the Tahaajjit. Instantly you won’t believe how far I actually, I was laughing. Instantly I get the second thought. You are in Safar. You are travelling. For the traveller even the first salah you pray Khasr. Tahaajjit is only nafid. I said, yeah, I know who you are. I know where this fatwa is from. So I gave a counter fatwa. I said, my fatwa is the dua of the traveller is accepted. And if that dua is made in Tahaajjit in Sujood, it is accepted even more. InshaAllah. Beat the fatwa with your own fatwa. This is the most. Shaitan has many ways of deceiving. Fatwa is one of them. So anytime somebody is giving you a fatwa which is likely to create trouble between brothers, some dispute and this. You remember that. What the statement may be correct. I don’t know. I am not disputing that. But it’s coming from a bad source. The intention behind it is bad. So don’t follow it. Discipline is to do what needs to be done irrespective of anything else. These three things, believe me, you follow this. Success is inevitable. You cannot possibly fail. What are those three things? Number one, investment. What are those three things? Number one, investment mentality. Invest in yourself. Invest in yourself and measure it. What are your metrics? Literally measure it. Say from last year to this year, what did I learn more? And I’m not talking about your school, college, degree work. Don’t take the curriculum. That’s out of it. Other than that, what did I learn in any field? What did I learn about people? What did I learn about work? What did I learn about myself? Anything you like. What did I learn? And it must be something you should be able to write it down. That’s the most important thing. Documentable. The metrics of it. What did I learn? What is my investment in myself? You should be able to document that. Whichever kind of investment. I was less healthy, I’m more healthy. I was fatter, I’m thinner. I was thinner, I’m fatter. Whatever you need to do. Lose weight, gain weight, whatever, right? Investment. Track the investment. Number two, abundance mentality. Again, track that. What did I share? What did I give? To whom did I give? Don’t tell them. Tell yourself and between you and Allah. And the third one is discipline. Discipline. Do what needs to be done, no matter what. No excuses. Because excuses don’t change reality. This is one of the many foolish things that we have been conditioned to believe. That if I give a good excuse, I’m safe. But you say, no, no, you’re not. Supposing, for example, if I lose my wallet, right? May Allah protect us and all our wallets. Supposing I lose my wallet. Then I come and tell you, you know, I was going in this place and this happened, that happened, that happened. And Marwan says, no, you’re absolutely right. This is, I mean, had to happen. It’s not your fault. Right? So I say, okay, my brother, I love you. But will the wallet come back? Wallet won’t come back. Wallet will not come back. Brother, you lost your wallet. Period. Khalas. Gone. Goodbye. Instead of making excuses, think to yourself, first of all, how can I mitigate that damage? What have I lost? What can I do? Cancel credit cards or whatnot. Second thing is how can I prevent that from happening again? So don’t waste your time. Don’t waste somebody else’s time by, you know, telling them all kinds of stories. No need. You suffered a loss. Figure out why did it happen. Figure out how can I prevent that from ever happening again? Period. Done. Amdala, you have gained. That’s the investment you made in yourself. So I remind myself and you, follow these rules if you want to succeed, insha’Allah. We ask Allah the Subhanahu wa ta’ala, Jalla, Dilla, Luhu, to give us khair and baraka in our lives and to help us from sources that we cannot imagine and to protect us from ourselves, from our own false, from shaitan and to be pleased with us and ever to be displeased. And to be pleased with us and ever to be displeased.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 21:52 — 15.0MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | Email | Youtube Music | RSS