Elements of Success

Elements of Success

Alhamdulillah, this subject is a very important subject, and it's the subject of the Rijal Allah. And the first thing I want to say about the Rijal Allah is that traditionally, Rijal Allah was not limited to the masculine gender. Rijal Allah was actually considered a maqam, or a station.

Understanding Rijal in the Quran

Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi, in his Tafsir, Bahr al-Muhit, when Allah says:

"Rijal are maintainers because of the preference of Allah for some over others."

Allah uses an ambiguous way of articulating preference of some over others. And Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi says about that ayah, that first of all, not everyone with a beard is considered a Rajul. That by the mere fact that you have testosterone does not make you a Rajul.

The Criteria of Preference

And he clarifies that further by saying, that Allah gives, and this is called (تنبيه الكتاب - Tafsir Tanbihi), when Allah explains why something is something. So when Allah says (الرِّجَالُ قَوَّامُونَ عَلَى النِّسَاءِ) He says and the there is to indicate the cause.

(بِمَا فَضَّلَ اللَّهُ بَعْضَهُمْ عَلَىٰ بَعْضٍ - Because of what Allah has preferred some over others.

And that ambiguity indicates that some women have preference over men also. Now he says about that, that the preference is in Jihad (- القيام بأسباب بقاء الإسلام أمر بالمعروف نهي عن المنكر) - those people who study and learn knowledge.

That is why Allah says that there is a preference of the رجال. It's because they fight Jihad في سبيل الله. They struggle in the way of Allah with their lives and their wealth. They command to good and they forbid evil.

(وَبِمَا أَنفَقُوا مِنْ أَمْوَالِهِمْ - And because of what they spend out from their wealth.

Now if those criteria do not exist, then there is no قيام there is no فضل, there is no preference. If those criteria do not exist, in fact quite the opposite happens.

Women's Station in Jihad

The woman in the house who is raising a child or children and maintaining the house is in the station of a مجاهدة according to the Prophet ﷺ doing her Jihad and the man is not doing his Jihad. Then she is

preferred over the man quite clearly. And like the poet said:

لَوْ كَانَتِ النِّسَاءُ كَمَا ذَكَرْنَا لَفُضِّلَ النِّسَاءُ أَحَدَ الرِّجَالِ

Like the one we mentioned - and he was talking about a great woman - then women would have clearly been preferred over men. So the preference is not a biological preference. It is a preference of action and behavior.

Women in Islamic Sciences

And this is why many of the علماء used to say about women - and a very fascinating thing about women - most of the women that excelled in Islamic sciences excelled in the science of حديث And it is a recorded fact that there has never been a وضاع a woman who falsely placed hadith in the whole history of the Islamic science of حديث where there have been countless numbers of men who have falsely placed حديث

And so this is one of the things that Allah says about the women is that they are (حَافِظَاتٌ لِلْغَيْبِ) (Quran 4:34) - that they preserve the unseen. That this is something that Allah has given these righteous women. And this is something very fascinating.

The Station of Rijal

So if you look at this idea of the رجال those people who established the deen of Allah, Allah says in the Quran:

From amongst the مؤمنین are رجال. And I don't want to translate it as men because I think it becomes misleading. If you look at the Arabic word,رجل means to stand on one's two feet. In other words it is somebody who is in a station of Adamic nature. They are the khalifa in the earth of Allah. And this is the maqam of the رجل. And it is not ذكر. It's not a male, because Allah distinguishes between ذكر and رجال very clearly in the Quran. There is a distinction between males and between رجال

And so the idea of the رجال Allah as models of success, as models of success - first thing we have to look at when we think about vocabulary that's important, we want to look how Allah uses those words.

Defining Success in Arabic

If you look at the word success in Arabic, you'll probably find two, maybe three words that fit the word. And the first one is:

"My success is only by Allah."

And so the idea of success is success by Allah. Tawfiq means that one's actions are in harmony with the مشيئة of Allah, with the providence of Allah. When one's actions become harmonized with Allah, that's success. And

there's no success out of that.

The Losers

If you're not successful then in English you're called a loser. And in the Quran you're also called a loser. Only they're called أُولَئِكَ هُمُ الْخَاسِرُونَ - خاسرون. They're the losers. They are the losers.

And if you want to know the best definition of the losers, then you look in سورة الكهف:

"Should we tell you who the greatest losers are? Those who have completely lost all of their endeavors in pursuit of the dunya."

In pursuit of the dunya. And they think what they're manufacturing, what they're doing, what they're making is this good thing, it's a great thing. Those are the losers.

And Allah says about them:

They're the ones who have been in kufr towards their signs of their Lord and they didn't think that they were going to meet their Lord. So they lost all of their actions. All of their worldly pursuits were lost. We give them no weight on the Yawm al-Qiyamah. We give them no weight on the Yawm al-Qiyamah.

Wazn on the Day of Judgment

And the Prophet ﷺ says that there will be huge fat people that come on Yawm al-Qiyamah who were in this world - they were arrogant and proud and rich and wealthy and people look up to them. And he said they won't weigh even a gnat's wing on the Yawm al-Qiyamah. They have no wazn with Allah.

And when Ibn Mas'ud, who was a very thin man, was climbing a palm tree and some of the Sahaba saw his legs, they laughed at this. The legs were so scrawny that they laughed. And the Prophet ﷺ said: "Beware about laughing at this man's skinny legs. Because Wallahi on the Yawm al-Qiyamah those legs would outweigh the mountain of Uhud." You see, so this is the qiyas. This is the criterion of the believers.

Our Criterion of Success

Our criterion of success is not the criterion of the kuffar. We have a very different criterion of success. But the interesting thing about success by its nature is that success in the dunya and success in the akhira have very similar qualities and attributes. People that are successful in the dunya - very clear things can be identified amongst those people that will indicate how they became successful in the dunya. And the same goes for the people of akhira.

And so what I would like to do is first look at the idea of failure, because:

الْأَشْيَاءُ تُعْرَفُ بِضِدِهَا

"By opposites things are known."

And so if you understand failure, then you will understand success also.

Verses on Failure in the Quran

In the Quran, the word fashil, which is failure - there are four verses in which fashil or failure is mentioned in the Quran. And we should look at these verses deeply and consider what they mean. Because if you want to understand failure, then look at what Allah says about failure and how failure comes about.

First Verse: The Battle of Uhud

The first one is:

Allah says: "And Allah was truthful when you had failed."

And you need to do is study the Ghazwat of Uhud, which is why so many verses in the Quran were given to the analysis of what happened on the day of Uhud, in which the mu'mineen were better prepared than they were prepared on Badr. And yet the Uhud did not have the same outcome as it had as Badr.

Allah says: "When you had failed وَتَنَازَعْتُمْ فِي الْأَمْرِ - and you disputed in the matter."

Now in the Quran Allah will sometimes put what should come first second. This is very common in the Arabic language. Failure is related to tanazu'. And tanazu' has to do with when you disputed amongst yourselves.

The Lesson from Uhud

Because the Prophet commanded a group of archers to maintain on this small mountain overlooking Uhud to protect the believers. And when they saw the goods being distributed and they thought there was clear victory, a group of them left. And the leader that the Prophet ﷺ had put in charge told them don't leave. And only a small group remained with him. And the other ones left and they disowned that the Prophet ﷺ had put in to charge. And this caused the failure.

When Ikrimah ibn Abi Jahl and Khalid ibn Walid took advantage of this situation and they attacked the believers before they had become Muslim, and they caused a great tragedy amongst the believers. And we lost shuhada' which were gained with Allah:

Allah took back to them shuhada'. And so it was a victory in the end because the Prophet said:

قَتْلَاكُمْ فِي النَّارِ وَقَتْلَانَا فِي الْجَنَّةِ وَالْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ

"Your dead are in the fire and our dead are in Paradise, and all praise is due to Allah."

But Allah wants to explain to us مِّن بَعْدِ مَا أَرَاكُم مَّا تُحِبُّونَ وَعَصَيْتُم - after you saw what you loved, then you had isyan.

The Causes of Failure

So if you want to understand failure, it's very clear: Disobedience to Allah and His Messenger, and disputation amongst yourselves.

وَمَا ضَلَّ قَوْمٌ بَعْدَ هُدًى إِلَّا أُوتُوا الْجَدَلَ

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi 3253)

"No people goes astray after they had guidance except they're given disputation amongst themselves."

And so disputation amongst each other is a sign of failure. And this doesn't mean that we can't disagree and look for... No, disagreement is important:

اخْتِلَافُ هَذِهِ الْأُمَّةِ رَحْمَةً

"The differences amongst this ummah is mercy."

But the differences has to be based on knowledge. It can't be based on empty opinions. It has to be based on what Allah and His Messenger say and not on what we think and what my opinion is.

On Humility and Opinion

And in my humble - and humble opinion there's no such thing. If you're seeing your opinion as being humble, you're already in a state of arrogance. I mean quite literally Ibn Ata'illah says: "The one who sees his humility has lost humility."

So we... and a lot of people say it and they don't think about it just because it's something that kuffar like to say: "In my humble estimation." You won't see that in any of the salaf say في رأي المتواضع

Because first of all opinion is something - Imam Al-Shafi'i said:

الْعِلْمُ مَا قَالَ اللَّهُ قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ وَمَا سِوَاهُمَا وَسَاوِسُ شَيَاطِينَ

"Knowledge is what Allah said, what His Messenger said, and other than that are whisperings of shayateen."

And one of the signs of the end of time is:

إِعْجَابُ كُلِّ ذِي رَأْي بِرَأْيِهِ

Dunya and Akhira

"The amazement of every opinionated person with his opinion."

Then Allah says: "From amongst you are those who want the dunya and from amongst you are those who want akhira."

Now I prefer the opinion of the Maliki scholar from Alexandria, Ibn Ata'illah, who said: "Don't think that Allah is saying they want a dunya for its own sake. Those were the sahab of the Messenger of Allah and the best of creation who were defending the Prophet of Allah on that day of Uhud. They wanted dunya for akhira. But their desire for that dunya for akhira - there were those who wanted dunya solely for the akhira and there were others that didn't even care about dunya. They only wanted akhira without any looking to the dunya."

And this is a good makhraj for the sahabah. So Allah says: "From amongst you are those who want dunya and from amongst you are those who want akhira."

For us unfortunately it doesn't have that beautiful makhraj, because there are those who want dunya and those people will destroy the ranks of the Muslims. And one of the sahabah who they heard - the cow called to the Muslims about the majusi in the ghabah. When Muawiyah heard that story, he had somebody from the army come and he said: "What was the secret of that day?" And he said: "I think the secret of that army is I don't think we had one person in that entire army that wanted dunya."

Second Verse: Trust in Allah

The next ayah - Allah says:

"If two groups of you began to get anxious, thinking they would fail."

And this is the hamm of shaitan. Shaitan puts anxiety in them:

"He promises you failure, poverty and penury."

And so Allah says: "Two groups - and again this is in the ghazwah when the Prophet ﷺ - they saw the numbers of the Muslims and a group of them wanted to leave like the (منافقون - two groups."

But Allah gave them strength because Allah reminded them: (وَاللَّهُ وَلِيُّهُمَا - "How can you think that you will fail when your protector is Allah?"

When the groups gathered together saying: "Oh look, they're going to get you," they said: "We trust in Allah and Allah is enough as a protector."

And so this is the iman. And Allah says: "So let the believers trust in Allah."

Remembering Past Victories

And then look at this reminder immediately after that:

And this is one of the essential elements of success: is to remember past successes. And so Allah reminds them: "He gave you victory on the day of Badr and you were weak. You were weaker than you were today, so why do you think you should fail today if he gave you victory on Badr when everything indicated that you would lose that day?"

And it became Badr al-Kubra, the great battle of Badr, because we had victory.

Third Verse: Allah's Vision

And then the next ayah - so these are the first two ayahs. The third ayah: He shows you in your dream - and the prophet's dream is revelation - that they were few in number, the kuffar, that you would defeat them. And this is instilling in the heart the recognizing that no matter despite their great numbers, they're still few because they don't have Allah. And despite our little numbers we are great because we have Allah. And this is when Allah reminds us in the Quran: "How?" By the power of Allah. So this is the reminder of Allah that victory is by the Izn of Allah and not by superiority in technology, in hardware, in numbers, in any of these things. This is all illusion. It's waham from shaitan.

The Battle Against the Romans

And shaitan wants to make us think that we're weak and we can't overcome and we don't have strength and power. And the great mujahid Khalid ibn Walid on that day when they met the Romans and they were like spread out locusts and the sahaba and the tabi'een began to fear some fear when they were looking out at the vast numbers and they were small in number - and Khalid ibn Walid radiallahu anhu reminded them. He said: "Hawqalu ya ibadallah. Say la hawla wa la quwata illa billahi ya ibadallah. There is no power and no strength save in Allah."

So don't be deluded by these armies in front of you because Allah is the giver of power, Allah is the giver of victory, and Allah is the one who gives success to the mu'mineen. And the hearts became tranquil:

The hearts become tranquil by the dhikr of Allah.

Fourth Verse: Obedience and Unity

And then in the last ayah, and then Allah says:

"If Allah had showed you that they were great, if he made you think in your hearts that they were great, you would have lost, you would have disputed amongst yourselves, but Allah knew what's the secrets of the hearts. He knows how to yuthabbit alladheena amanu bilqawla thabit - He will give tathbeet for the people who believe with the strong and firm word of la ilaha illallah."

All of that is false gods from other than Allah. Every power other than Allah is a false god and don't believe in it. Believe in the power of Allah. And so Allah said: "Then you would dispute amongst yourselves and that would cause you to lose."

And so Allah says: "But Allah is the one that salam - that he is the one that gives safety, that he is the one that gives peace, that he is the one that will give strength." And Allah says: "He knows the inner hearts."

And then he says in the fourth ayah:

"And obey Allah and obey his Messenger and do not dispute amongst one another, la tanaza'u. Don't dispute amongst one another because you will lose, wa tadhhaba reehukum - and your power, your wind which pushes the sails of Islam."

And the sail, the word for sail in Arabic is shira', which is the same root from shari'a - that the shari'a is powered by the wind that Allah gives us, birih from Allah, with the quwa that Allah gives us to move this deen forward to the next generation and to establish it in the earth.

Allah says: "If you dispute amongst yourselves, if you do not obey Allah and his Messenger, then you will lose. You will lose, and your power and your strength will go. Wasbiru inna allaha ma'a sabireen - so be patient because Allah is with those who are patient."

The Essence of Failure and Success

So in these four ayahs you have the essence of failure. The essence of failure is disobeying Allah, disobeying his messenger, and disputation amongst yourselves out of ignorance and arrogance.

And the strength is clearly identified in the final ayah when Allah says: "Obey Allah and his messenger and don't dispute amongst yourselves." And if you do that you will have victory.

Models of Success in This Ummah

Now the next thing I want to look at is just a few models of success in this ummah.

Suhaib ar-Rumi

And the first model that I want to use is Suhaib ar-Rumi. And there are many sahab I can choose from - any of them because they're all models of success.

Suhaib ar-Rumi - the reason I choose to take him is first of all he was a slave who was stolen in his youth by Byzantines. He was raised amongst the Byzantines and finally escaped from them and ended up in Mecca poor and bereft. But the man was a man of success. He became a wealthy merchant in Mecca very quickly.

When the sahabah were making hijrah, Suhaib ar-Rumi made hijrah alone. He thought he was going to make hijrah with the prophet ﷺ . The prophet made hijrah with Abu Bakr, he made his hijrah alone.

The Quraysh followed him out and he finally set his arrows. And he saw the Quraysh in front of him and he said: "Ya Quraysh, inni armaakum - you know that I'm one of the best archers amongst you, and wallahi if you come near to me, I'll throw every arrow at you and take many of you, and I'll kill many of you. But if you let me go then I'll tell you where I hid my wealth in Mecca, and you can go and take it."

And they agreed with that and they were people, even though they were mushrikeen, they were people of wafa and not of ghadr. And so they gave him his aman, and then they went back and they took his wealth.

When he got to Medina, the first thing the prophet ﷺ said to him:

رَبِحَتْ تِجَارَتُكَ يَا أَبَا يَحْيَى

"Rabihat tijaratuka ya aba Yahya. Your tijara with Allah - that was successful, your tijara with Allah was successful. Rabihat tijaratuka ya aba Yahya. You traded dunya for akhira and that is what gave you your success."

Who told him what Suhaib ar-Rumi did in the middle of the desert? Allah. And this is the gift of Suhaib ar-Rumi to this ummah:

"From those who sell their selves seeking only the desire of Allah, seeking only the contentment of Allah."

The Black Woman of the Masjid

The next successful model I want to use is a black woman who we don't even know her name, who used to sweep the masjid of the prophet ﷺ

And when she died - this woman who the sahaba prayed over and the prophet ﷺ was not informed - when he saw that she wasn't in the masjid anymore, he said: "Where's that old black woman?"

And they said: "She died ya rasulallah."

He said: "Why didn't you tell me so I could pray over her?"

This is a woman whose name is not even mentioned in the books. We just know she was a black woman who used to sweep the masjid. And she was successful because the prophet noticed her and Allah noticed her.

Zuheir the Bedouin

And another one is Zuheir who was a simple bedouin. He used to come to Medina and he used to sell things in the souk. And one day Jibreel came and said: "Should I show you someone who Allah loves and you should love?"

And he said yes and he took him out and he showed him this poor bedouin Zuheir. And he said: "Ya Zuheir."

He came up from behind him and he covered his eyes. And Zuheir smelled the scent of the prophet on his palms. And the prophet said: "Who will buy this slave?"

And Zuheir said: "Then you see me that I'm somebody that's not moving in the market, I'm not worth anything."

And the prophet said: "You're not worthless in the eyes of Allah."

And he used to say to this man: "You are our desert and we are your city."

And so this is another man who was successful in this life and in the next life a simple merchant that sold simple things from the desert on the streets of Medina.

Sa'id ibn Jubayr

And then the next person I want to look at is somebody who was an African, a black African man whose name is Sa'id ibn Jubayr, one of the greatest of the tabi'een.

This was a man who grew up with a love of knowledge that attached him to the greatest of the sahaba. He was a student of Abu Musa al-Ashari. He was a student of Abu Sa'id al-Khudri. He was a student of Abu Hurayra. And finally he became one of the greatest students of Ibn Abbas radiallahu anhu. This man who was a teacher of men and a maker of rijal. And he became one of the greatest of the tabi'een and one of the most learned people of this ummah.

When he died it was said about him: "With him knowledge has gone into the earth that every single living creature in this world is in need of. With this man's death, knowledge has gone into the earth that will not be returned."

Sa'id ibn Jubayr and Hajjaj

This man who during the time of the great fitna of Hajjaj ibn Yusuf - when he killed Abdullah ibn Zubayr at the Ka'bah, who was the khalifa of that time - when he killed that man, then each person he would take in front of them and he would say: "Did you make kufr by your breaking allegiance, by your breaking allegiance with Bani Umayyah?"

And the people, if they said no, he would have them killed. And if they said yes, then he would let them go. And many people said no.

And this man Sa'id ibn Jubayr who heard about this fitna - he knew one day he would meet Hajjaj ibn Yusuf.

And so he went to a small village near Mecca and for ten years he taught people. For ten years people of Mecca would go and learn from this man.

And Hajjaj when his governor found about the power and the authority that this man had amongst the people, he sent his armies to get this man. And his armies came and when they took him from his house, his daughter began to weep.

And he said: "Our meeting is in Jannah."

So he knew where he was going. And the greatest jihad is to speak the truth. And the greatest jihad is to speak the truth in front of an unjust tyrant and then be killed for it. And this is the ahad which Sa'id ibn Jubayr had.

And so he was brought forth in front of Hajjaj ibn Yusuf and he said: "Sa'id ibn Jubayr?"

And he said: "You're the shaki" - because Sa'id is felicitous - he said: "You're the wretched, the son of the broken." Zubayr is the one that fixes.

And he said: "My mother knew what my name meant more than you did."

And then he asked him a series of questions. And in the end he told him: "How do you want to be killed?"

And he said: "You have no power to do anything to me. Just do what you want. And he told him I will be the last person that you kill."

When he left, Sa'id ibn Jubayr began to laugh and he had him brought in. And he said: "What are you laughing about?"

He said: "I'm laughing at your arrogance before Allah. How stupid you are. What a fool you are to think that you are some kind of tyrant in the earth that can do what he wants and you won't - and he said - I'm the last person that you're going to kill."

And Hajjaj ibn Yusuf said to him: "I've killed better than you."

And he said: "Exactly - those people forgave you. I'm not going to forgive you. And I'm making dua against you and Allah will take you."

Hajjaj ibn Yusuf after he was killed - Hajjaj ibn Yusuf lived 15 days. Every night he would see in his dreams Sa'id ibn Jubayr pulling at his feet or grabbing his neck. And he would shout out: "Ma li wa Sa'id ibn Jubayr! Ma li wa Sa'id ibn Jubayr!" This is the power of the wali of Allah. You see, this is the power of the wali of Allah. This is the power of successful people.

Sahnun: The Qadi of Qayrawan

And then the next person I want to look at is Sahnun, the great qadi of Tunis, of Qayrawan. And this is a man who lived his life in poverty and humility and became one of the greatest scholars of this ummah.

Ibrahim ibn al-Aghlab, who was one of the greatest rulers that this ummah has seen, who was a scholar and a hafidh of Quran, who began the Dawla al-Aghaliba in Tunis - when they wanted to appoint Sahnun as the qadi, he refused for one year. This man argued with him.

Finally the sultan worked out a strategy. He brought him before him and he said: "What do you say about a man who's the best of the Muslims and the ruler wants to appoint him as qadi? What do you say about this man?"

He said: "He should be forced."

"What if he refuses?"

And he said: "Then you should still force him until he accepts it."

He said: "What if even forcing doesn't work?"

"Then he should be whipped until he accepts it."

And he said: "You are this man. What do you want me to do?"

And this Sa'id ibn Jubayr argued with him till finally he accepted the qada with three conditions. The first condition that he would begin with the family of the ruler and the ministers and all of the people working for the government - that's who he would implement his qada first. And the second thing that he would not be given any money for his work. And the third thing that the implementation would take place immediately and he would either perform it with his own hand or witness it.

And he accepted these conditions.

Now this man when Sahnun - when he became the qadi of Al-Qayrawan, the people rejoiced because he brought justice to that city. One of the women who was accused of having a house where they were - women were servicing men what he did was he had the house destroyed and then he took that woman and he put her

in a neighborhood surrounded by salihin. He put her in a neighborhood surrounded by salihin so that she could be rectified.

This was Sahnun who was a model of success, a man who died in poverty. So we don't measure our success by dunya.

Successful Women of Islam

Aisha bint Abi Bakr

And the last thing that I want to say is I want to talk about ten qualities that have been identified by these kuffar. The wisdom is the last beast of the mu'min. And I want to say there are many women that I could use as examples and I think it's important to mention one of our most successful women. And that is Aisha, one of the greatest intellectuals and scholars of this ummah, who was in the house of the prophet of Allah not wasting her time in frivolity but learning and absorbing the knowledge of this deen to the point where all of the sahaba recognized Aisha and went to her for guidance and for fatwa.

Fatima bint Muhammad

And Fatima, the daughter of the prophet of Allah, who is the model of a woman - who again much is unknown of her life, but we know who she produced: Hassan and Hussain, the two youth of the people of jannah. And look at their lives, Hassan and Hussain. And this is a woman who her children are a testimony of who she is.

And I will say every single man that I mention - behind him is their mother. Every single man of success in this dunya and in akhira - behind that man is the mother or the murabbiya who raised that man. And the women should recognize that we have countless women in the history of Islam whose names are unknown to us, but the works that they produced are in the children that they produced, the men and the women that they produced.

The Mother of Malik ibn Anas

And Malik ibn Anas - there is no Malik ibn Anas without Umm Malik. There is no Malik ibn Anas without the mother of Malik, who when he went to study first, he said: "She used to tie the turban on my head." His mother used to tie the turban on his head. And she would take - she would say to him: "Take from his forbearance before you take from his knowledge." Because the woman knows the importance of forbearance and the murabbiya.

The prophet is Halima - is the woman of hilm. These are the successful people.

Ten Qualities of Success

The ten qualities that were identified - and I looked at each one of these and I recognized them as valuable and that's the only reason that I'm repeating them - were identified by a neuropsychologist who studied people that were successful in this world. And we have to recognize that because we have left the models of success, the

mentors of success, and the qualities and characteristics of success, we have become failures. And the people of dunya are ruling this world and they're creating havoc everywhere. And unless we return to the examples of success, we will have no success.

First Quality: Strong Sense of Purpose

The first one is they say every successful person has a strong sense of purpose. You have to have a strong sense of purpose.

What greater sense of purpose than to know that your goal is Allah? What greater sense of purpose than to know that your goal is Allah?

Second Quality: Role Models and Mentors

The second most identifiable characteristic is they seek out role models or mentors. And these mentors instill in them a sense of possibility. This is the reason according to the Quran why the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was given the stories of the prophets who went before him to give him tathbeet, to make firm his heart, that he would have success just as the prophets before him had success despite all the tribulation.

And so we have to look at the examples and the models of these early community and these great leaders because these are the people that instill in us a sense of possibility.

You were given success on the day of Badr and you were weak and abased in the earth.

Third Quality: Visualization of Goals

The third identity is the strength of visualizing the goal. The strength of visualizing the goal. No one has a better visualization of his goal than the messenger of Allah who literally described to Suraqa ibn Malik the day that he would put on the bracelets of Kisra. The day that he would put on the bracelets of Kisra.

And that happened when he stood before Umar ibn al-Khattab and the bracelets of Kisra were brought into the presence of Umar. And he said: "The prophet promised me that I would wear those bracelets." And Umar put them on Suraqa ibn Malik. And this is the sense that he instilled in them.

He told them: "You would enter into the palaces of Kisra." And they had this sense on the day of the khandaq when the sahaba knew that he had proved that he was true. The munafiqoon said that he's only promised you delusion.

So the prophet was instilling them a sense. He was giving them a vision. He was giving them - he was putting in their minds eye a sense of where they would be. And he even told them that there is coming a time when a

woman will leave Sham and go to Yemen on her camel and fear nothing but the wolves in the road because there would be security and safety by the justice that Islam brought.

He told them that they would enter into Jerusalem. He promised them that they would have victory in Constantine. He promised us - because it hasn't happened yet - that we would have victory in Rome, that Rome would be conquered by the Muslims, that Constantine which is now Islambol - though it left Islam - will come back to Islam without the sword. The Muslims will only come to the gates of it and say Allahu Akbar and the people will remember and return to Islam.

And so this is the vision that the prophet instilled in his sahaba. It's a vision not of failure but of success. We are people of success. And this religion is a deen of success. It's not a deen of failure. And the prophet was the most successful human being that ever lived on the face of the earth. And this is by the shahada of the non-muslims.

If you read Michael Hart, the historian who wrote the 100 most important personalities in history, he said the most successful human being that's ever lived is the messenger of Allah, the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم. And this is by the witness of our own enemies:

وَالشَّيْءُ مَا شَهِدَ بِهِ الْأَعْدَاءُ

And the greatest witness is what your own enemies show testimony to.

No one was more successful than the messenger of Allah:

And you have in him the best model because he is the model and the mentor of success. And if we follow him we have success.

Fourth Quality: Positive Sensory Orientation

And the fourth example is a positive sensory orientation - that you dwell on past successes and not failures. We should not dwell on our failures. We should only remember the successes of this ummah. And this is why Allah reminds us:

Remember your past successes when you were weak and Allah gave you victory in the earth. And so we have to remember that Allah will give us victory.

Fifth Quality: Self-Assurance

And the next one is self assurance. They know that they can succeed. They know that they can succeed.

Do not be weak and do not grieve and you are the uppermost if you were believers.

"And if you are afflicted by something, you know that they're afflicted by it also. And your affliction – our affliction is a purification and a reward by Allah. And their affliction is حسرة - it's grief and despair and sorrow amongst them."

قَتْلَاكُمْ فِي النَّارِ وَقَتْلَانَا فِي الْجَنَّةِ

Your qatla are in the hellfire and our qatla are in jannah. Our dead are in jannah.

Sixth Quality: Planning and Organization

And the next thing, the sixth thing - I only have a few more so I'm almost done. The next thing is that they plan and organize. They know how to prioritize. They break down their goals into workable parts. That we have to become people of what they call in the medical community, triage - that they look at the most important thing and they take that.

We have people now that they spend their argumentation about where you put your hands in the prayer, where your feet should be. These things are known in the books of fiqh. We don't need to argument over them. You ask any scholar of any worth and they'll tell you very clearly. And there's different ways to do it because we're not supposed to get caught up in these trivial matters.

Because this is the disease of the Talmudic rabbinical mind which asks: "What kind of cow? What color of cow?" They go into these - and they say the devil's in the details even in this society, you see. Because this is what the pickiness - the picky-minded, narrow-minded simpleton people that spend their lives in trivial pursuit in matters of no concern.

No, we have greater things. This is a universal deen. The Prophet ﷺ is the universal man. The Prophet ﷺ is raising us above this triviality and putting us into the most important matter which is: where is your heart?

"The day that nothing will benefit them - not wealth or anything - except the one who comes with a sound heart. And so where is the heart in the prayer? Not where is the feet, where is the heart? Where is your heart in the prayer? Where is the heart? What are you watching?

I knew a man recently who wouldn't pray behind a man because he saw six mistakes in his prayer. And I wanted to know: who are you watching? Your brother or Allah? Who are you in muraqabah of? Who's your muraqabah for? What is your prayer for? You're sitting there watching the imam to see how many mistakes that he makes in moving his finger. Subhanallah, these are diseases.

And so we have to plan and organize.

And organization - this is the only reason the corporations are successful is because they know how to plan and organize. They plan way ahead of time. We can't even plan for tomorrow. The only thing I think now we've become good at planning is what we're going to eat for the next meal. People are very good at that. And we're good at waleemas.

And I think if I was khalifa - and you're lucky I'm not - but if I was khalifa I'd banish all of these waleemas. I'd finish it off. We have women being raped all over the place. We have Muslims being bombed. We have our mosque being destroyed. And we're busy: how many sheep are gonna be there? And how many belly dancers at that wedding? I heard of a wedding not too long ago that had nine belly dancers. Allahu Akbar. Takbir. Do you know what kind of takbir? Takbiratul janaza, the funeral prayer. That's what kind of takbir. Four of them.

Seventh Quality: Acquiring Necessary Skills

So here the next one is the ability to acquire necessary skills needed to succeed. And that means you have to identify where your weaknesses are. And one of our greatest weaknesses is we don't have scholars, neither from the men or the women. And we need to produce scholars that can guide our ummah.

And everybody wants their child to be an engineer or a doctor. Why don't you want your child to be what the greatest thing that a human being can be? A da'ian ilallahi, a basheer al-nadheer. Why don't you want to be from amongst the people that the prophet said: "The two parents of the one who memorizes the book of Allah will be given crowns of light on the yawm al-qiyamah." Why don't we want to be from those people?

Why don't we want to be from the people where your children - waladun salih yad'u lahu - a righteous child who invokes Allah for them? Because their dunya won't help you. Their dunya won't help you. Your provision was written before you were born. Their dunya is not going to help you, but their akhira will help you. So make your children people of akhira, not people of dunya.

Eighth Quality: Patience (Sabr)

And then the next is the patience - sabr.

Be patient and enjoin others to patience.

And I tell you there are two lessons as far as I'm concerned that the Muslims have to learn, because all of the tribulations coming to us are based on two things as far as I'm concerned: one is kibr and the other is the lack of patience. Kibr and the lack of patience.

Until we get kibr out of our heart and recognize that saying La ilaha illallah does not make you special, because the munafiq says La ilaha illallah and he's lower than the kafir. He's lower than the kafir.

And if you feel safe from nifaq, from hypocrisy, according to Hassan al-Basri, one of the greatest of the tabi'in,

you're a munafiq. "La ya'manu min al-nifaq illa munafiq" - the only one that feels safe from nifaq is the munafiq. So if you feel safe from nifaq - because Umar ibn al-Khattab didn't feel safe from nifaq. He went to Hudhaifah ibn al-Yaman and said: "Do you see in those munafiqin - do you see in me what you see in them? Tell me by Allah I want to know if Umar is a munafiq."

And he said: "I don't see in you what I see in them."

So you have to ask yourself. And if you want the qualities of the munafiq, it's in the Quran. They say on their tongues what's not in their hearts. They pray lazily. They don't remember Allah except a little bit. They're mutadhdhib - they oscillate. You see, they're all there. You can find them in there.

So we have to have patience.

Ninth Quality: Perseverance

Perseverance - and then perseverance. Khayru al-amal adwamuha wa inqalla - be persevering.

"No one has except what they endeavor for." What they persevere for.

And he will see his endeavor. He will see his endeavor. We will see our sa'i.

And their endeavor was shown with gratitude by Allah. Sa'ayin mashkooran wa dhanbin maghfooran wa tijaratan lan taboora a sa'y and endeavor that Allah shows gratitude to. And Allah is shakoor.

Tenth Quality: Love for What One Does

And then the last thing is the ability to love what one is doing. To love what one is doing. Allahu Akbar.

We have to love what we're doing:

They love Allah and Allah loves them. They're pleased with Allah and Allah is pleased with them.

And none of you truly believe until he loves Allah and his messenger more than he loves his own self. And so working for Allah and his messenger would be the most beloved thing to him because he loves Allah and his messenger. So this is the last thing. You have to love what you're doing.

And if you find it difficult -

- they only give out the infaq and they hate it. They detest it.

So we have to start giving out and loving it. Spending our money fi sabilillah and loving it.

You don't reach birr, righteousness, until you give out what you love. What you love. So we have to love to give out by Allah.

Jazakum Allah khayr.