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*This transcript was automatically generated by AI and may contain errors. *
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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. And peace and blessings be upon His honored messengers and messengers. Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him and upon his family and his companions. And many, many peace and blessings. So, my brothers and sisters, one of the questions we need to ask ourselves from time to time and the more we ask, the better. And that is to say, how do I know in what direction my life is going? Am I getting tawfiq to do good deeds or not? Where is my life leading me to? Is it leading me to Jannah or to Jahannam? It’s very important to ask this question because Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala told us very clearly what happens in either case. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala in Suratul An’am in ayah number 125, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala said, فَمَنْ يُرِدِ اللَّهُ أَنْ يَهْدِيَهُ يَشْرَحْ صَدْرَهُ لِلْإِسْلَامِ وَمَنْ يُرِدْ أَنْ يُضِلَّهُ يَجْعَلْ صَدْرَهُ ضَيِّقًا حَرَجًا كَأَنَّمَا يَسَعَدُ فِي السَّمَاءِ كَذَلِكَ يَجْعَلُ اللَّهُ الْرِجْسَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala said, whoever Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala wills to guide, whoever… Please understand this, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala does not randomly decide to guide somebody or to leave somebody to be in their misguidance. The guidance that comes from Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala has to do with the desire of the person to be guided. There is no case of somebody who genuinely and sincerely wants guidance who did not get guidance because if that were the case, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala would not have sent his ambiyya. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala sent his ambiyya and this is evidence for anyone who wants evidence to say that Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala wants only one thing for us and that is guidance. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala only wants us to go to jannah. Those who go to jahannam are going to jahannam despite every opportunity that they had to choose to go to jannah. They chose not to go to jannah, that is why they are not going to jannah. I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala not to put us in that group of people. So Allah says, whoever Allah wills to guide, he wishes to guide, he opens their heart to Islam, meaning that for that person, Islam will become the most beloved thing. He will love Islam, he would love to spend time in the dhikr of Allah, he would love to study Islam, he would love to practice Islam. He wants to please Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala in every possible way. So whoever Allah wishes to guide, he opens their hearts to Islam. Now again, he says, whoever he wills to leave astray, meaning it’s not that Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala randomly decides, okay this person I will not help him, no. That person did not choose to obey Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. That person deliberately chose the path of misguidance. So whoever chooses the path of misguidance and therefore Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala leaves them there, he makes their chest tight and constricted as if they were climbing up into the sky and that is how Allah dooms those who disbelieve. Now the thing to understand therefore here is that if Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala, if I think I am being guided, what is the criterion, what is the meter? Am I being guided towards Islam? Is Islam becoming dearer to me? Am I finding joy in the Tilawat of Quran? Am I finding joy in studying Islam, in listening to Islamic lectures, in studying of Islam, in practicing of Islam, in charity, in Hajj, in Umrah, in Salah? The biggest and best test is Salah. Have I started praying Tahajjud if I wasn’t praying it, if I was praying it, am I praying it regularly and so on and so forth? What is the quality of my Salah? Is it becoming, am I getting closer to Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala or not? How much time am I spending with Allah, meaning in the Masjid, in Islamic activities, in studying and learning and reading and listening to the Quran or Karim or anything to do with Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala? How much time, duration of time? Think about that. So this is an indicator that Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala wishes to guide me and therefore Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala is opening my heart to Islam. Now see the opposite. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala said, Allah said when they became oblivious to warnings, meaning that they were on the wrong paths, they were indulging in haram, they were doing, they were disobeying Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala and His Rasool Sallallahu alaihi wasallam and they were warned and they were advised but they refused. Now think about this. When that happened, Allah does not say, so I punish them. No. Allah said when they did that, we showered them with everything they desired. Allah says, Allah says, On top of them the doors were opened. Over them were opened the doors of every worldly wealth, money, and of self-indulgence, of power, of political power, whatever. Opened for them everything they desired. And then Allah says, until they were completely engrossed and immersed in whatever they had been given, they became full of pride of that, Allah said, We seized them with surprise. Malakul Maut came, grabbed you by the neck. Cardiac failure, one heart, suddenly now you are before Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. And then they were in despair. They fell into despair because there is no escape. You cannot get away anywhere. Getting into a, falling into despair. That is also Surah Al-An’am, Ayah number 44. Now point I am making here and the point I want to reflect on, which is that where are we? If I monitor my life, right, and please do that for yourself, if you monitor your life, monitor the time. When I teach time management, for example, I tell people, make a diary. Make a diary of your time for your day. Take from the time you wake up to the time you go to sleep, the number of hours. Where do you spend those number of hours? What are you doing? What are the activities in which you are spending those hours? Think about that. What are the activities? And then ask yourself, am I going towards Jannah or Jannah? Does it look like Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala is opening for me the doors of Islam? Or does it look like He is opening for me the doors of everything other than Islam? Until the time comes when I will be grabbed, I will be suddenly brought to account, which is likely to be for me. Now, brothers and sisters, it is very, very important for us to monitor ourselves and not be in a situation where we are likely to be very unpleasantly surprised by what is brought before me. Very unpleasantly surprised. Because all the while I am thinking that I am doing well and masha’Allah no problem and so on and so forth. Suddenly I find that I am now in this big mess with Allah. If, please understand this very clearly, if you find that you are in a situation where you are not doing well, you are not doing well, you are not doing well, you are not doing well, you are not doing well, please understand this very clearly, if you find that you are losing interest in Islam, if you find that you get tired and sleepy when you listen to the Quran, if you find that you feel impatient and you don’t have time to listen to khatiras, to listen to lectures, to listen to the Quran-ul-Karim translations, the Arabic, if you find that this activity of a religious nature, the zikr of Allah, the mention of Allah, the remembrance of Allah, if you find that you are getting tired of that, that you are feeling bored, that you are losing patience with that, believe me this is a very very big red flag. This is a huge red flag. It means that maybe Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala is not pleased with me. So let us be very clear in our mind, right? And on the other hand, if you find that you are indulging in things which are maybe haram, maybe they are not haram in the sense of actual use of time and resources, buying and selling or eating or something, eating or drinking something which is haram, but they are activities which are really pointless and worthless because there is no benefit from them and there is, there may not be sinning in that sense of direct sin, but also there is no benefit from it, right? And I keep on giving the same example of watching sports. Playing sports there is a benefit because it is good for your health, but watching sport is the most useless activity on the face of the planet. It only helps the television channels to get richer, wealthier and wealthier. It doesn’t do anything for the people who are watching sport. It’s a useless, completely useless activity. And even though it may be mubah, it’s not haram, but at the same time if you say in terms of usage of time, is it something which I will get hasanat for? No, you will not get any hasanat for. It might even be a problem for you because Allah might say, well, I gave you the time, is this how you spent it? So if you find that your life is more and more engrossed in that and you find more and more interest in that, then this is a big, dangerous signal. You know, a lot of times people say, oh, you see the younger generation, believe me, people blame children for all those services. He says the younger generation has no concentration, their attention spans are very short. I say, no, sorry, that’s a lie, that’s not true, because the same younger generation has the attention span to watch an hour-long, you know, basketball match. They have the attention span to watch hours of football and soccer. They have the attention span to have their face in their screens, in their smartphones, looking at shorts and looking at TikTok and looking at reels on Instagram and all kinds of stuff. There’s no problem with attention span. They’ve got plenty of attention span. What they don’t have attention span for is Allah. What they do not have attention span for is Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wasallam. Now, if that is the case, if you say that the only thing I’m disinterested in is Allah, the only thing that I am disinterested in is the dhikr of Allah. If the only thing that I am disinterested in is the dhikr of Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wasallam, then please let me not say anything, because I don’t think anything needs to be said. I’m sure all of us have the intelligence to connect the dots, right, and come to the correct conclusion, which is that this is an indicator, this is a sign on my road, which is telling me that unless I change myself, it is showing me where I will end up. So ask Allah sallallahu alaihi wasallam to help us to develop the shauq, the deep desire to know Allah, the deep desire to be as close to Muhammad and Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wasallam as possible, and not get bored with the dhikr of Allah and the dhikr of His Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam. Wasallamu ala ala bi’l kareem wa ala alihi wasa alaihi wa barakatuhu.
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