Bismillahir-Rahmānir-Rahīm
South Africa - Capetown - Mens bayān!
29/06/15 Shaykh Kamaluddin Ahmed db
What does balance mean? Im going to give you a few tips:
There is a difference between a professional who believes in Allāh swt and a professional who doesn’t believe in Allāh swt
1 - We set a limit on how much we can attain dunyā. Perform at the level of excellence at your post, but what is your limit? Is it your dream and necessary ambition to become CEO? Because when you see the CEOs of this world - their job = their life. So let it be for some people, however the muslim professional cannot be like that. Ākhirah is our purpose. Our purpose in this dunyā is functional - purely functional! ‘Rāhatal Qulūb’ - this lies in ‘ibādah. You can feel satisfaction at work, and delivery a presentation. But passion is something different altogether. That should be our relationship with the world - satisfied but not passionate. This is called ‘zuhd’ - love for the dunyā is the root of all sins. You need to identify that line for yourself. In America, we have the ‘GPA' grade average’ where they are graded 1-4. Someone said to MG db that i have 3.7 average. He said I’m doing some islamic courses - he said today i was thinking, if i was only to study dunyā and leave my dīnī work, i could get 3.8 Should i leave my dīnī tasks? I told him no, Islām doesn’t teach you have to leave all other aspect of your human development. Don’t think you can learn later in life to do islamic community services. These workers, some of them, they share stories between themselves to show who works more. SubhānAllāh. A student was telling me he gets depressed when he hears their stories because of their addiction to work.
2 - While they are working, they don’t let that work distract them from the dhikr of Allāh swt. Rijālun la tulhīhim tijaratun wa lā bay’un and dhikrillāh! This is the verse for you - frame it! Remind yourself! Take a five second reminder when you see this āyah. Your real hearts passion should be Allāh swt. Take a few second heart check - this will sell you from selling your heart and soul! Even Americans use this statement - corporate culture can suck you in. This is another line you draw. You have to keep watch. Keep watch over your heart. Is this environment affecting you? Feel the nearness ‘huwa ma'akum ayna mā kuntum.
3 - From rough scan, you seem to be mid career professionals - now, when you are mid career…this is a stage in your life that either you have reached the end of your advancement, or you’re one of those people who are on fast track. There are two sets of you. Either way, whichever one you follow, take a more serious approach to your dīn! Now you need to think, can i find some time how i can development in my dīn. I know how to do so much, but i don’t know the meaning of the Qur’ān. You don’t even know Allāh swts names - lillāhi asmā’ul husnā, fad’ūhu bihā’. There is another personality of yours - your spiritual personality. You have not allowed to come out. Do you prefer to stand longer in salāh or make sajda? Is there a particular surah you like reciting? This is part of your spiritual personality. Do you feel any connection to a certain verse? Your preferences, your flavours, your flair has no come out yet! If i was to ask you which car you like, you will tell me exactly the model, the colour you like. If i ask the women, which colour matches? Why did Allāh swt combine these names, and not the other names? You feel like wearing certain colours in a day? It’s jā’iz - but do you ever think I will call Allāh swt with this name today. Your materialistic personality has developed. You have your fav powerpoint background - so many favourites. You want them to come out in dīn. If you are mid-career, you should think I am in my spiritual infancy. You’re already half way in the grave - one foot is in the grave. You don’t want to meet Allāh swt like that. ‘wa al laysa lil insāni illā ma’ sa’ā’. We wouldn’t be able to function if we weren’t dynamic in dunyā - you need the same dynamism is dīn.
What is the level of your salāh? Can you taste the difference between ‘subhāna rabbiyal adhīm, subhāna rabbiyal a’alā’? We settle with mediocrity in dīn, and go for excellence in dunyā. Allāh swt has prescribed excellence in every single thing he does. If you conducted one meeting and it went bad, you would think how could i fix that.
Take you dīn seriously. Ramadān is a testament that you can do more. We can stay from basic needs for Allāh swt - and we are not even tempted to cheat. So many times you could secretly eat, but its not even in your imagination. We could have swallowed some water during wudhū - but we don’t. This is taqwa. We fast out of taqwa.
Ride on the wave of this fast. What are few things you could do in Ramadān”
1 - Make du’ā - you need to feel a need and dependency for du’ā. Rasūlullāh صلي الله عليه وسلم said, even if your shoelace snaps, still make du’ā to Allāh swt! Every du’ā at the time of suhūr and iftār is accepted - 60 blank cheques. Maximise on these du’ās - max up. Ask Allāh swt for Himself. Ya Allāh swt, as easy you allowed me to fast, as much istiqāmah you give me, grant me the same persistency in the rest of dīn. Ramadān is the month of wilāyah, of love, of being beloved and loving Allāh swt - don’t confine yourself to just the fast. Some people will get nothing except hunger and thirst from their fast - don’t be like that. The problem is we have fasted many many times before; but very few of us change. What if someone said to you they have been on Hajj 30 times, yet they haven’t changed. There are people right here who have spent 20/30 Ramadāns, but have still not changed. How much Qur’ān can you recite without interruption? We don’t even know. But we talk like this - we say I did an all nighter for work! SubhānAllāh
If you tired your body out for this world, can you not tire yourself out for Allāh swt? Experience the high of the last ten days of Ramadān. If i gave you 1000 pay cheques for one night, you’d think I’m the best boss. Allāh swt gave us ‘ khayrun min alfi shahr’ - don’t miss the last 5 odd nights. Better than 83 years of worship!
You’ll be amazed how much barakah Allāh swt has put in Ramadān!
Let me tell you more features regarding Ramadān - you know when you go to somebody’s house, and they want to feed you so much as they don’t know if the guests will come again. Similarly, I know that 90% of you won’t ever see me again so i don’t know what to tell you. I have ten mins to try and feed you as much as I can.
Why can’t you befriend that Allāh swt who has already befriended you? Your day could be for your company, but your nights and weekends for Allāh swt. Your mind for company, your heart and should for Allāh swt - then your work will be counted as dhikr. So make a lot of du’ās
2 - Connect with the Qur’ān - I would love it if you can finish the Qur’ān. Otherwise, if you can’t then take a sūrah, and keep reciting it, keep reciting it. Learn it’s tafsīr, learn it’s meanings - keep doing it until you’ve reached a level of passion and expertise. If you memorise it, it will move you then - use it in your salāh. How long are you going to pray the small sūrahs in salāh that you just roll off your tongue. Take a paragraph of Qur’ān and learn it really well, so when you pray that in salāh, it will melt you. Develop a powerful connection.
3 - Add some sunnahs in your life. Even just one sunnah - add it this Ramadān. Try to put in your heart some sunnah feeling - how did he fear and love Allāh swt, what was his kindness, gentles with others = these are all feelings. This is what it means to be an ummatī - your pattern should be patterned after his heart. Our hearts are very different to his hearts - if people knew our hearts and how different it was, they wouldn’t call us Muslims. I’ll give you an example - take ‘ar-Razzāq’ and feel it in your heart. He swt is the sustainer, provider - every time you eat, think Allāh swt is feeding me, think he is giving you a bed to sleep - feel it! It’s true because Allāh gave you this. How can you be Abdur-Rahmān and Abdur-Rahīm when you don’t know what it mans? How can you be Abdur-Razzāq? Imam Ghazāli has a beautiful book on the names - learn the names.
[http://www.amazon.co.uk/Al-Ghazali-Ninety-Nine-Beautiful-Names-God/dp/0946621314]
Connect with Qur’ān, get a sunnah feeling and make du'ā. Just get some success in your dīn - and then keep going, keep going, keep going. May Allāh swt make this the best Ramadān of your life, the life-changing Ramadān of your life. Amīn
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