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If I ask you a question and I say, tell me, what are three signs of success? If you look at somebody’s life, you look at a person and say, so and so is successful. What are the three signs? One, two, three, what will you say?
Who is a successful person?
Spirit of Allah. Yeah. Someone who is close to Allah and someone who has family. Close to Allah, who has family and has health. Okay. Good, good points. Ahmed, who’s successful?
It’s important because we all want to be successful and I don’t think that anybody in the world who wants to be a failure, might happen, we hope it won’t happen for us but nobody actually desires to be a failure, they want to be successful. So what is success? How do you define success? That’s important because if you don’t define it, how do you get it? One who can please Allah.
That’s true. All your answers are correct. That’s the thing to keep in mind. It’s not something only which you think about when in a situation like this where you are sitting in a masjid, I’m asking you and so on. It’s not only then. Anywhere in the world if you think, think for yourself, that should be the answer. Because this is what Allahﷻ also mentioned for us. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala defined what is success. Allah said, قَدْ أَفْلَحَ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ Allah said, The believers have succeeded.
Definitely, surely, the believers have succeeded. And then Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala mentioned a list of things.
Allah said, الَّذِينَ They are those. So Allah is not describing describing the qualities of the believers. Who are the believers? Those who have succeeded. So Allah is saying, these people have succeeded. Who are those people? One, two, three, four, five. So we’ll take only one of those and these are the opening ayat of Surah Al-Muminoon and this quality of having khushu in the Salah. Allatheena hum fee salatihim khushu. They are the people who in their Salah they have khushu. In their prayer, in their namaz, they have concentration on Allah alone. Their concentration doesn’t waver, doesn’t go here and there, they’re not thinking or all kinds of things, they are focused and they are able to concentrate and they have the presence of the huzur of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala where they are standing. الَّذِينَ هُمْ فِي صَلَاتِهِمْ خَاشِعُونَ And then if you see this ayat, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala in these ayat of Salatul Muminun, at the end of that list, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala mentioned this Khushu in Salah again.
All the other, وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ فِي صَلَاتِهِمْ خَاشِعُونَ وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ عَنِ اللَّهِ مُتَوَكِّفُونَ وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ لِفُرُوجِهِمْ حَافِظُونَ All of these, Allah mentioned once and then again He brought in Khushu in Salah. So the Khushu in Salah is so important that Allah Ta’ala mentioned this as the first quality of the successful person and He reinforced it. He reiterated it, he emphasized it. And then Allah said a very beautiful thing and we ask Allah for this. Allah said, Allah said, Allah said these people are the these people are the heirs, they are the inheritors of Jannatul Firdaus. Hum feeha Khalidoon and they will stay there forever.
Allah is not saying I will give them Allah is saying this is theirs they are the they are the people who they will inherit that right it is it is their haq it is their haq I mean for example Alhamdulillah you might say I will give this much of money or I will give this property or something something to my nephew, or to my niece, or to my friend, that’s your desire, you will give, but your son or your daughter, they are inheritance, they have got this right to your property in the amount that Allah has specified, this is their right, nobody can take it, even you cannot take it, even the father cannot take it, unless they leave Islam. Otherwise, the father cannot deprive his children, the mother cannot deprive her children of what is their right of inheritance. The right of inheritance is with Allah Ta’ala. The father has no right. You cannot say, well, I will not give because I don’t like this or no, no chance. You can’t do that. What you have when you die, your property will be divided according according to the amounts that Allah mentioned among your children, nothing on earth can stop it.
This is what Allah is saying. Allah is saying, Jannah is yours. Humul wari sun. This is the word of the Quran. Allah mentioned it. So the point is that we, and again, Allah did not say this unconditionally. Allah did not say this will be yours anyway, no matter what. No, Allah is saying specifically, this is for the believers. Only. Who are they? These conditions. And the first of those conditions is,
So, I remind myself when you let us think about this and say, where do we focus our attention? Where do we focus our worry, for example? Tomorrow we are worried about what will happen in the world and this and that and things are escalating in this part of the world and that part of the world. are we worried about what is the state of my khushu and salah as they say bachpan ki namaz or pachpan ki namaz there is no difference how I used to pray when I was 10 years old how I am praying now when I am 70 years old no difference that’s shameful because if that is the case it’s terrible because what did you learn in 50-60 years of life nothing zero because when we come into salah when we say Allah Akbar as I mentioned the other day, you were throwing everything behind your back and you were saying, I am in the hudur of Allah. I am in the presence of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. Nothing but nothing will distract me from the presence of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala.
I go on safaris and so on and I take pictures of wildlife and I always remind myself, if I am in the vehicle and there is an elephant in front of me or there is a lion in front of me, I am totally concentrated on that. At that time, I’m not thinking about my wife or my friend or my business or nothing. I’m looking at this animal. Here is a huge, big animal in front of me. I’m taking a picture. I’m looking at the light and this and that. Can I get a good picture? And also I’m saying this thing is right in front of me. We don’t know what it will do. Total concentration. The thing is, I don’t even like to give this example, but an animal can do that to you. An animal can make sure that you concentrate completely on him, and you are standing in the presence of Allah and the concentration is going here and there, thinking of this and that. So what does he tell us about the sense of reality when we stand before Allah ? When we stand before, when we are looking at the situation which I described, this is real, this animal is real. But when I stand before Allah , Allah, how do I understand my position when I’m standing before Allah, is Allah real?
So very important for us to see and to make sure that our focus is clear on Allah . Allah mentioned these qualities of people who He said they are successful, they have succeeded. Allah did not say they will be successful, no, let us say they have succeeded, qad aflaha they have succeeded, Allah.
So I remind myself, let us try to get into this list. So please read the ayat of, the opening ayat at 10-11, ayat of Surah Al-Mu’minun, one one by one, and then see how can I inculcate this in myself. Right? And especially, this applies to everybody, young, old, and so on and so forth, and Allah has given us tawbah and tawa, because of which we can clean our record, even if we are old, and whatever nonsense we have done, we can clean it up, but especially the younger people. Alhamdulillah, Mashallah, you are young, Allah has caused you to be born in a family which has Iman and Alhamdulillah, you’ve got parents who raised you right. Don’t spoil that. You’re clean, your account is clean Mashallah, don’t spoil it. Make sure you focus on what is important so that this beautiful beginning that Allah has given in your life continues. So we ask Allah to help us to concentrate on that which is truly important. Like both of you said, that Allah should be pleased. That’s the only thing which is important. How can I please Allah? If I do everything right in the world, and I also please Allah in that process, alhamdulillah, khalas. As I mentioned to you, Allah is mentioning, See the generosity of Allahﷻ, Jannah belongs to Allah, but Allah says they are the waris, they are the people who will inherit Jannah, not simply get Jannah, inherit Jannah. They will stay there forever. We ask Allah to make us among them. We ask Allah to guide us and to help us to follow the path that His Nabi Muhammad taught taught us and to live lives which are pleasing to Him, ﷻ wa sallallahu ala nabeel kareem, wa ala alihi wa sahibi ajmain, bi rahmatika arhum al rahimeen, walhamdulillahi rabbil alameen.
I request you to make dua, one of my very good friends in a masjid in America, he’s a young guy, he’s an engineer called Ali, and he studies in that university. They are called Western New England University. He is in charge of the media of our masjid. So we call him Media Ali. I call him Media Ali. His mother passed away yesterday. We ask you all to make dua for her. May Allah grant her Jannatul Firdaus without his help, inshaAllah, and support of the family. Wa sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.