Solution To Our State Of Weakness
By Mufti Menk | 2026-01-11T21:17:12.83748+00:00 | Topic: Purification
Solution To Our State Of Weakness
Opening
السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ
بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ
Quranic Recitation
أَعُوذُ بِاللهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّحِيمِ
بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ
"And those who do not expect to meet Us say, 'Why were not the angels sent down to us, or did we not see our Lord?' They have indeed been arrogant in themselves, and they have transgressed a great transgression. On the Day when they see the angels, there will be no good tidings on that Day for the criminals, and they will say, 'A banished exile.' And We will return to what they did of deeds, and We will make it dust scattered. The dwellers of Paradise on that Day will be in a better abode and a better abode. And on the Day when the sky will be split open with clouds, and the angels will be sent down, descending. Sovereignty on that Day is the right of the Most Merciful, and it will be a difficult Day for the disbelievers. And on the Day when the wrongdoer will bite his own hand, he will say, 'Oh, I wish I had taken a way with the Messenger. Oh, woe to me! I wish I had not taken such a friend. He has led me astray from the Reminder after it came to me, and Satan is to man a betrayer.' And the Messenger will say, 'O my Lord, indeed my people have taken this Quran as a banished thing.' And thus have We made for every prophet an enemy of the criminals, and sufficient is your Lord as a Guide and a Helper."
Opening Praise and Salutations
We praise Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We send blessings and salutations upon Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, his entire household, all his companions. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to bless every single one of them and to grant them all goodness. And at the same time to bless every single one of us to grant us goodness in this world and the next.
My brothers and sisters in Nigeria, I'm so happy to be here in your midst. And I thank Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for bringing us together solely for His sake. And I pray that He grants us the shade of the day of Qiyamah because we have got to know each other for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And our link and connection is solely and only because of the word of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Had the message that I deliver not been the message of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, it would have been irrelevant. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us from those who love one another for the sake of Him. And may He accept it from us.
Main Topic: Human Weakness
My brothers and sisters, a beautiful morning this morning in this beautiful city of Abuja. The topic we have been tasked to tackle this morning is a topic connected to solution to the state of our weakness or to our state of weakness. And we all know that the solution, subhanallah, we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to grant us the ability to recognize the weakness in order to be able to be from those who can solve the matter.
My brother, that's a solution as well inshallah. So, we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to bless every single one of us. We are human beings and Allah says:
"Man has been created weak." We are from a state of weakness. We were always weak as we grow older. As strong as we think we are. A small cough and a sneeze and we are knocked out. Do you agree? If you have a little headache, you cannot think properly. Why? Because you are a human being.
That's what it is. It's Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala who has created us. Weakness in so many different ways. Not just physical weakness. But sometimes we have emotional weakness, mental weakness, spiritual weakness, so many different forms of weakness. And that is we are man.
When I was born, I was totally dependent. We are always all dependent on Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. But He makes us dependent on our parents or those who are our guardians by the will of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So we are dependent upon them. And at the same time, if they did not look after us, perhaps we would have died of hunger. We needed to be fed. We needed to be changed. So many things needed to have happened to us. For us to be able to have grown up.
And this is the plan of Allah. And this is why Allah says, Allah has created us from weakness. A point of weakness. Which means we were very weak. Then He made us physically strong. We became strong at a certain stage.
When you get to the age of 40, mashallah, you are at the peak of your energies. But when you are in your teens, you think that you are the strongest person in the world and nobody can overcome you. That is just a feeling that a person gets at a certain age.
And thereafter you start developing grey hair, mashallah. And thereafter you start wilting. And then you start feeling that the strength I had a while back is now diminishing.
For you to remember that you are returning to Allah. So as your strength diminishes, your spiritual strength should be increasing. And this is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and His plan.
If a person dies at a young age when they are bubbling and bursting with energies, they would require a lot of strength to protect themselves from the temptations of the dunya in order for them to develop a relation with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Whereas if a person was given a long age, by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, long and healthy life, and sometimes they lose that health obviously at a certain age, then they become closer automatically to their maker because now they know we are returning to the one who made us.
This is why a person who is old and still continues to sin is far more dangerous in terms of the detriment to that particular person's spirituality and link with Allah than a person who is young and make mistakes out of their energies that have been bestowed upon them.
May Allah protect us from both.
The Source of Weakness
So my brothers and sisters, the weakness we have been created in, Allah says, thereafter you are granted strength, and once again you go back down into the weakness. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bless us and grant us all some form of ease.
However, if we would like to diagnose the weakness, we will find that it stems mainly from spiritual weakness. We are weak spiritually. We are weak in spirituality because the link with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that every one of us has can be better.
Can it not be better? I don't hear an answer, subhanAllah. It can be better no matter how pious you think you are. You can be dressed properly, you can be reading five salah, you can be in the masjid all the time, you can be giving your zakah, you can have gone for hajj, however many times you can have, subhanAllah, fasted not only in the month of Ramadan but even the voluntary fast.
But believe me, if you think that now you have got to a level where it's okay, I can sit back and relax, it means shaitan has got hold of you. That's what it means. None of us can ever think even for a moment that we have got to a level of satisfaction with our link with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
We can feel better, we can feel the spirituality, we can feel the calmness, because the link with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is closely connected to the contentment of the heart. When you have a strong link with Allah, even whilst you are sick and ill physically, you will always feel happy and content by the will of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
When you have suffered a loss in business, shaitan attacks at that point of weakness and makes you think, why did it happen to me? When you've lost a child, when the child was so innocent and you have borne him after so long, and you lost the child at that state of weakness, shaitan comes to attack, but it is the iman, the strengthening of the link with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, the acceptance of the decree of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that will empower us to become people who are strong once again.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us strength.
The Consequence of Weak Faith
Those who don't have faith and conviction can never ever have a very very good life, because every single person, no matter at what point or stage of success in the worldly life they have reached, they will always have days when they are down, when they feel low, when they feel slightly backward in the sense that they feel they are in need of something, they are grappling, they don't realize sometimes it is the link with Allah.
This is why my brothers and sisters, a sin that is committed comes with a lot of tragedy, it comes with a lot of depression, it comes with a lot of loss of contentment, because when you commit a sin, say for example the sin of adultery, when it is committed, it comes back to haunt a person at some stage unless they repent to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
May Allah grant us repentance and may He make us from those who realize and understand.
So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has blessed us, the example I was giving is that of adultery, when a person commits it, they are always living then in fear, they are always living for example in a certain condition that is not the best of conditions, and then what happens? That particular sin, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala may He forgive those who have sinned in all sorts of ways, every single one of us have committed different types of sins, but Allah has kept the door of tawbah open, the door of repentance opened at all times:
(Sunan at-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3537)
"Allah accepts the repentance of anyone who repents to Him for as long as they have not got to the point of ghargarah," which is the final point as your soul is being removed from your body.
So my brothers and sisters, sin comes with a payment, you either pay in this world or the next, or you pay in the next, but mainly you will find without that conviction you lose contentment, because even the
sustenance that a person has is snatched away, the blessings of it in fact snatched away due to sins committed, and this is why when a person has bad habits, say for example gambling or drinking or the night life or adultery and so on, in order to oil those bad habits a lot of money is required, so you have a beautiful salary, but where does it go? It goes to oil your bad habits, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protect us from bad habits.
People who gamble for example, if they were to live upon their salaries, they would probably have a much happier life, than when they began to gamble, thinking that by the chances they are of me winning the 10 million naira that are there in the lottery, hey, I might lead such a beautiful life, not realizing that every single month they are losing a few thousand nairas, had they protected those and saved them, perhaps the barakah was lying in those same nairas, in those same dollars or in that same currency, maybe Allah had kept some barakah in that particular sustenance, but we blew it off towards the devil, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala not do that to us.
The Need for Sincerity
So from all this introduction, what we learn is my brothers and sisters, we need to be sincere, we need to want to have a link with Allah, who wants to have a link with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, show us, subhanallah, without exception we put up our hands, we want to link with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, so are we genuine in that, when we return to Allah, we definitely want jannah, don't we?
Subhanallah, we can say that a bit louder, don't we? Yes we do, we want jannah, by the will of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, how are you going to earn jannah, when you are not doing something about the claim that you have made by your tongue, that you are sincere in your relation with your maker.
Some of us, the only link we have with Allah is by tongue, just like how we have a relation with one another by tongue, why do we have problems in society and community, and in families today, because sometimes we please each other just by our tongues, but in reality we are heading in a different direction, imagine meeting a person who does not like you, and he smiles at you in your face, and he tells you good words, my brother, you are like this and you are like that, praising you so much, but as you turn away, you find a knife in your back, I'm sure a lot of us have felt those lines, haven't we? Amazing, I heard a lot of yeses there, Allahu Akbar, so we can do better by the will of Allah.
But the problem is we treat Allah in the same way, when we have a problem, we call out to Allah, we cry, we get up for tahajjud, early morning prayer, we want to fast, we want to read Quran, why? Because you have a problem, and once everything is okay, we forget about who Allah is, we forget our link with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, Allahu Akbar.
Allah ta'ala says, "When evil affects man, or when ill affects man, he calls out to us on his sides, and standing, and sitting, and in whatever condition he is, he calls out to us the long long callings, the dua, the supplication, the prayers, and once we alleviate that issue, he carries on on the land as though there was never an issue that he called out to Allah for."
That is our relation with Allah. What a weak relation.
The Importance of Knowledge
So if we would like to strengthen ourselves, the first thing I need to know is, my claim to love Allah, I need to prove it. How do I prove it when I have never read his book? I don't even know his message.
So that means I would require the knowledge of who is Allah before I can actually develop a powerful relation with my maker. If you don't know who is Allah, how on earth are you going to develop a link with him when you keep on claiming, I love Allah, I love Allah, I love Allah, but you have read 20, 30 novels, you have watched 50 to 500 movies which you know of by heart, but you have never read the Quran even once from cover to cover in a language that you understand. You see the guilt? So how can we have strength when we have not yet read the Quran?
My brothers and sisters, let's be honest. I want a show of hands to answer the question I'm about to ask you, and let's be very very honest. How many of us have read the Quran in a language we understand from cover to cover properly and thoroughly? Let's put up our hands. Do you see? We can do much better.
My brothers and sisters, I think that was less than one tenth of us. Allahu Akbar. So why do we complain that we are weak? We have weakness, we have problems, we have so many things, when we don't yet know what the Quran is all about.
It's not just the recitation that sounds so melodious in the Arabic language, but that is extremely important and on top of that, you need to know what Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala has said. If I were to come to your house for a meal, for example, or any specific person that you love a lot were to tell you, we are coming to your house for a meal, the first question is, what will he eat? Am I right? Because you don't want to start cooking things that, you know, a person comes in, looks at it and walks out. No.
So if that is your first question, why is it your first question? Because you don't want to be embarrassed. You want to know something about them. Will this person come? Where will they sit? How will they walk? How will they talk? What will happen? What will not happen? When will they go? And you want to know every detail so that you can prove the good relation.
May Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala grant us an understanding. So, why is it that with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, who is far more important, we don't even know what He wants? We don't know what He wants from us. We think that Allah has only, and this is the case with a lot of the Muslims, we think that Allah
has only prescribed upon us salah, to dress properly, to have a good Muslim name, to pay your zakah, to fast in Ramadan, to go out for hajj, so that when you come back, you can be known as al-hajj.
Al-hajj. Al-hajj, but you are still in the nightclub. Allahu Akbar. Al-hajj, but you are still gambling. Al-hajj, but you are still committing adultery. Where is the hajj, my brothers and sisters? Now we are weak.
We need to strengthen the link with Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala. We should be ashamed of the fact that He has given us wealth, but we don't have a link with Him. He has given us health, but we don't have a link with Him. He has given us good spouse and children, we don't have a link with Him. He has given us food, we don't have a link with Him. We know nothing about Him besides the fact that I'm a Muslim, and I can recite the Quran beautifully. I read my salah, and that's it. I have a good Muslim name, and I dress properly. That's Islam.
Oh no, that is not even a portion, a small portion of Islam. The bulk of it is to do with your conviction in the heart, to believe in the unseen, to believe in life after death, to work towards it. Many of us know we are going to die, but a lot of us are so guilty, we've never worked to prepare the palace that we want to live in after we die.
We have not yet worked to prepare that. Why? That is prepared through great strength and difficulty. Allah has kept us here as an examination.
Life as a Test
Amazing. Imagine if I were to tell you, my brothers and sisters, here there are three live wires which are going to be between me and you. I'd like you to walk on to the stage. Make sure you do not touch any one of these wires, because if you touch them, you will be electrocuted. How many of us would not be careful and just walk straight through? Nobody. We would be very careful.
Make sure that our feet step exactly where the wires have created a space or there is a space so that we are not electrocuted. We are so worried about wires that we will not touch them, whereas when Allah tells you, do not commit this sin, because it will result in the loss of the akhira and the loss of paradise, we are the first to go and touch it and grab it, and then we pretend like we are not going to get electrocuted. And then we ask the question, why is this haram? Why can we not just drink? Allahu Akbar.
Why can we not just do as we please? Well, that is the difference between al-mu'min and ghayr al-mu'min. A person who believes, would believe that we have a place that we are going to go to, where we need to prepare for the day we meet with Allah. Mind maker.
Imagine today, we fall in love with the opposite sex just because they look cool, and just because they speak nice, and just because they are like this and like that. Not realizing, fall in love with He who made that person. If you fall in love with the Maker, He will grant you something that you have never dreamt about, never ever, by the will of Allah.
When will He give it to you? In a few years time. I was in Malaysia last week and I asked the question, how many of us want to go to paradise? Put up your hand. Masha Allah. Now comes the hard question. How many of us would like to die? Put up your hand. Allahu Akbar.
See, less hands, masha Allah. Because to get to paradise, you need to die. Allahu Akbar.
So, this is why Allah says, when I take you away from this life, I will do it against your will. But it will be according to My will. Why is it according to My will? If I left it to you, you would continue to think that this world has everything in it.
But you don't know that there is something totally perfect that is waiting for you on the other side. Amazing. You know, when you have a small house, for example, small home, and you are comfortable in it, you've been living for so long in it, everything is in order.
Say for example, the middle class people, and they have a house. And in it there is an electric kettle and a beautiful laundry, you know, dishwasher and so on, and everything is okay. And you are so comfortable in it.
One day, your husband comes home and says, listen, we have to shift out of here. And you're gonna say, well, I'm so comfortable, the school is around the corner, the shops around the corner, everything is just around nearby, it's such a central place, and I don't want to shift. And he tells you, but we have a bigger and better house.
And you say, no, I don't want to shift. Why? It is the fear of the unknown. It is the fear of the unknown. You don't know. So that's why you are reluctant to shift out. Subhanallah.
But when you shift out, whether it is against your will or not, and you go into a much better place where everything is controlled by your voice, subhanallah, you start thinking to yourself, wow, this was such a brilliant idea, and yet I was a person who did not really want to shift. Allahu Akbar. Imagine what paradise is like.
The Importance of Gratitude and Perspective
We get excited because we have a good perfume. So we spray it and we are so delighted when people say, oh, you smell so good. Wow. We get so happy, mashaAllah. So excited. Just because you are smelling so good and you don't realize the scent of all scents will be in paradise.
Allah tells you, you need to know the restrictions regarding the scent in the dunya so that you can make use fully of that perfect scent of the akhirah. We get so excited when we have nice clothes, when we have a beautiful car and conveyance. These are all points of weakness, my brothers and sisters.
The reason is, yes, we should be enjoying what the world has to offer, but not forgetting we have a greater place to prepare for. If I were to tell you, my sister, if you work at this particular place for 10 years, after that, you will be able to have a house that you can purchase. We will save up enough wealth so that you can now buy the house of your dreams.
Would you be happy? We are not answering. Would you be happy? You would be happy. Imagine, how many years? 10 years. Working hard from 8 to 5. For 10 years. Then I will get a house. But maybe you might die 9 years down the line.
Then what happened to your house? Then what happened to everything else? So Allah says, you can have that contract for your house in this world, but make sure that in the process you do not lose the house of the hereafter. Don't get too excited that you lose the house of the hereafter. Subhanallah.
And this is why we always say, my brothers and sisters, it is up to us to make sure that as much as we would like to enjoy the privileges of this world, we should never let them come in the way of preparation of the enjoyment of the privileges of the hereafter. Never let them come in the way. No matter what.
The Importance of Seeking Forgiveness
So Allah says, one of the beautiful ways, one of the most beautiful ways, one of the most beautiful ways of strengthening your link with Allah is to ask for forgiveness on a daily basis. Daily basis. Some of us say, well, I did not commit a sin, so why must I say, Astaghfirullah, O Allah, forgive my sin.
My brothers and sisters, there are sins we commit, we don't even know that we have committed them. There are sins we commit, there are sins that we commit that we don't even understand by the will of Allah that we have committed the sin. So it's important for us to ask Allah's forgiveness on a daily basis, and this is why He sent Muhammadsallallahu alaihi wasallam to us.
He sent him to us, and Muhammadsallallahu alaihi wasallam, who had no sin, used to ask Allah for forgiveness on a daily basis up to 100 times. How many times do we ask Allah forgiveness on a daily basis, yet we say:
We say that every day. We say that every other day. We claim to believe it, do we follow it? How then do we want strength? Do we even know the life of Muhammadsallallahu alaihi wasallam? Have we ever read a detailed biography of his life?
Unity Among Muslims
Today people are intolerant towards others. Amongst us, people will ask you, my brother, do you read salah with your hands folded or with your hands on the side? And that will be the means of
differentiation between me and you. A man comes to propose for your daughter or he wants to marry your daughter and next thing you ask him, sir, do you raise your hands in salah or do you not raise them? He says, I raise them.
Well, then you cannot marry my daughter. That's what happens. So we make life difficult. Your daughter is not going to live forever. Perhaps she might live up to 35, 40, 50, 60, whatever it is. She will curse you for making life difficult for her.
When it was the peak of her life, you refused and rejected the proposals that came through and you made life tough for her. How then do you want to come out of your state of weakness when your own family is cursing you behind your back? Allahu akbar. I don't know if this is a problem in this country but it's a global issue.
Oh, I heard the yes. Yes. Well, then we've touched the red button and let's hope we can learn lesson from it.
I challenge the parents who are here today to make it easy for their children to get married and you will find a lot of strength inshallah in your own family. Don't make life difficult for them. Allahu akbar.
May Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala bless us all. May Allah open our doors. These are the small things.
People who are looking at us from outside the fence, look at us and say, this is such a tough religion. They don't even allow their children to get married. This is such a tough religion.
They are so difficult even amongst each other. And yet we have allowed the cultural matters to overtake the religious matters completely. That is the problem.
So we will remain weak for as long as Islam is second. The minute Islam is overpowering and we understand culture is absolutely important on condition that it does not contradict the Islamic teachings. That's the only rule.
Culture, those who are cultured are far better people than others. But the condition is, if your culture contradicts the teaching of Muhammadsallallahu alaihi wasallam, then you need to discount it. You need to understand, excuse it.
Otherwise you will remain in your weakness. May Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala strengthen us. People oppress a woman in the name of Islam.
Not realizing that it is a cultural matter sometimes that people are using to abuse their women and say, well I'm a Muslim. Why do you want to attack Allah'sdeen when it is your own made up little equation in your brain that you are implementing in your life which creates weakness for yourself, your families and your progenies to follow. May Allah strengthen us.
The Harmful Effects of Cheating
Brothers and sisters, what I have said is a reality. And you know, I would like to talk about matters that are relevant to us. Sometimes we cheat people in business and then we think we are shrewd. We think we made a big profit. We think that we are intelligent. Not realizing that is the biggest state of weakness.
"Destruction be upon those who shortchange in transactions. When they are getting, they get the full amount. They get the full weight. And when they are giving, they give less. So they are always... They're wanting to win on their own and they don't want to see profit for others."
Allah says, don't those people think that they are going to be resurrected upon this great day? Don't they think that they are going to answer to Allah? You want paradise? You need to ask yourself, how did I allow the next person to benefit from this particular deal? If they benefited as well, then you have a greater chance of entering the garden. May Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala grant us entry into jannah.
The Three Pillars: Knowledge, Sincerity, and Action
My brothers and sisters, without knowledge, we will never be able to strengthen ourselves. Not at all. But knowledge alone is not good enough. You need sincerity.
Like we started this talk by saying, you need to be genuine to Allah. You need to love Allah, not just by tongue, but reality. Go out and work towards it.
Let us all undertake today that we will start lessons in the Quran to learn the word of Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala. Even if it means reading the translation of the Quran in our languages a verse a day, but we will do it by the will of Allah. Then you will find the strength.
How many of us are ready to develop a new league with the Quran, the word of our maker? May Allah strengthen us all. My brothers and sisters, there is something that the angels bear witness, that we have all borne witness, one for the other. We raised our hands, work towards it by the will of Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala.
Work towards it by the will of Allah. Don't be a person who builds a castle in the air and then starts stumbling after a little while.
The Parable of the Porter
[The speaker then shares a detailed parable about a porter who, while carrying milk, begins to daydream about building a vast business empire from the payment he would receive. However, when he reaches the climactic moment of his fantasy - rejecting the mayor's daughter in marriage as revenge - he becomes so emotional that he shakes his head, causing the milk to spill and losing everything.]
Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar. What do we learn from this? Let me tell you what we learn from this.
We all are aiming for paradise. Do not let the sin that we commit make the entire plan fail. No.
One small sin sometimes can make us go via another place known as Jahannam. We don't want that to happen. I don't want to go via, via. No. We want it direct, mashallah. May Allah count us Jannah.
Ameen. My brothers and sisters, this is why a sin that takes 10 minutes to commit can sometimes knock us back for years on end. We have to wait for another big pint of milk before we can actually build our relation once again.
May Allah grant us the goodness through tawbah and through repentance that may strengthen us. So don't lose focus upon what you would like to achieve by things that come in the way. Keep yourself strong.
Life as a Test
Like I was saying, this life is a test. That's why we're here. If life was supposed to be eternal, it would have been eternal.
But Allah says, when you come in the world, you are never going to have perfect health forever. Why? Because we want to see how you react to illness. You are not going to live forever.
Why? Because we want to see how you react when you see others die and when you are on your own deathbed. You are never going to have as much money as you want all the time. You will have a loss at certain times.
Why? We want to see how you react when you don't have or when you suffer a loss. You will never be able to marry the people you want all the time because we want to see how you react when you don't get temporarily who you want in this particular world. Allahu Akbar.
That's just by example. You may not get everything you want. Why? Because life is temporary. That's the reason. This life is a test. Allah is testing us.
What are you going to do when you don't have what you think you need in this world? Are you going to get closer to us to prepare for the day when you get to a place where you will have whatever you want? Subhanallah. Think about it. There.
Allahu Akbar. May Allah grant us goodness. Imagine. Allahu Akbar. Think about it. It's there.
Imagine. I've got a broad smile because I'm thinking of so many things. Allahu Akbar.
May Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala bless us all. So this world is a test. Just like when you go to school and you have an examination.
Do you think the questions are going to be easy? When you have an examination to become someone very important with a high qualification, do you really think the questions are just going to be what is 1 plus 1? 1 minus 1? 1 times 1? Right. Walk out. You have a PhD.
You are now a doctor. Is that what happens? No. You need to struggle for years on end.
And you need to answer questions that you do not like to answer sometimes. But you need to attempt it. And you need to make sure you've done your best.
And you might get, for example, 95 out of 100. Mashallah. Brilliant.
So we are ready to write examinations in this world in order to get a qualification that will earn us a job that has a salary that is slightly higher. But we are not prepared to go through the examinations of this world in order to get the qualification that will grant us paradise without reckoning. Subhanallah.
(Sunan at-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2396)
"When Allah loves His worshipper, that is when He tests him or her."
Amazing. Subhanallah.
So the greater the test, the greater the reward. Just like in the world. The higher the examination, the more difficult the questions.
Allahu Akbar. May Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala grant us strength. We need knowledge. Knowledge with sincerity. The two of them alone, not good enough. Why? You need action.
What's the point of everyone knowing? You know, last night I spoke on the television here in Abuja. And I said, what is the point of knowing one plus one is two? You have the knowledge. But when the examination asks you the question, the examiner says, what is one plus one? You write three.
What's the point? You knew the answer, but you did not apply it. When the day came, you did not apply it. So we know how to protect ourselves from the fire of Jahannam.
But we do not practice sometimes. We are weak. We know how to earn Jannah, but we do not practice sometimes.
We are too weak. We are lazy. Laziness really has no place in the life of a mu'min, in the life of a believer.
Do not be lazy. Life is too short. Very, very short.
Every second that ticks will never return. Never ever to return. It's like money being taken away from you.
So you'd rather lose it in a good way than to wait for it to get depleted as time passes. So this is why we say, if you want to be strengthened, you need to act upon the knowledge you have with the sincerity. May Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala help us to act.
Building Good Relations
And in order to act upon the knowledge we have, we need to learn to love one another. Nobody can think that I am better than the other. You don't know upon what condition you will die, and you don't know upon what condition they will die.
They might die in a condition that Allah is pleased with them, and we might die in another condition. May Allah not do that to us. So let's not be judgmental against one another.
Have good hope for one another. Every non-Muslim should be looked at as a potential Muslim. Who will showcase the deen to them? It will be us.
When they look at us, when they see our transactions, when they see how honest we are, when they see how brilliant we have a relation with our children and our spouses, when they see how honest we are, they should automatically be attracted to the deen. Subhanallah. Today they look at us as crooks.
They see us as people who are deceiving. They look at us as parents who make life difficult for their children. They see our children running behind the backs of the parents in order to do things because they don't have a good relation.
They look at the men sometimes who are cheating. They look at the women sometimes who could not be bothered. May Allah protect us.
How then do we showcase the deen to the others? Imagine the hadith says:
(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 3009)
"Wallahi, if Allah has used you, if Allah has used you to guide one person, it is better for you than anything of material value in this world." Humurin na'am are the red camels, that which was one of the most expensive conveyance at the time.
Like me telling you, for example, a beautiful new S500 Mercedes Benz 2014. That's the car of the age for your information. Imagine if I were to tell you to guide one person, if Allah has used you to guide one, how many? One.
It is better for you than the most expensive conveyance. That's the example I gave you. But today if I were to tell you, are you prepared to sit with these people and to try and talk to them about the deen, inshallah, for 10 hours, and convince them that what you are upon is correct, or do you want to just take this S class? I don't even want to ask you the question, my brothers and sisters.
I don't even want to ask you the question, because I don't want to put you in a spot. But what I need you to know is as a mu'min, it is enough for you to be a good muslim, that it will be an automatic showcase for the others to see. Not that we are doing it for them to see, but we are doing it for the sake of Allah, and they will see.
They will see. May Allah strengthen us.
The Importance of Salah
So my brothers and sisters, this is why we say, you need sincerity, you need knowledge, you need action. Some people have a lot of action, but they do not have knowledge nor sincerity. Their actions are lost. Some people have a lot of sincerity, and they do the action, they will probably do bid'ah, because you need knowledge in order to do what is right.
Some people have no knowledge, they have no sincerity, and they have no action, they have wasted their lives. We need to be those who have action, with sincerity and knowledge, we will be the true believers in Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala. But it needs a lot of strength.
Don't waste your time. Life is too short. Work hard on the relations you have. Work hard on that which is ordained by Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala. And I want to really underline and make mention of one very very important aspect as mu'mineen, that we can never turn a blind eye towards. That is the issue of salah.
The issue of prayer. The strength of a mu'min is derived through prayer. Although that is not the only thing my brothers and sisters, but what is of utmost importance, utmost importance, is the fact that we develop that link with Allah.
"Salah, when you fulfill it correctly, will protect you from immorality and evil," which means it will strengthen you. It will make you strong. Those who early morning, they get up for Salatul Fajr, come what may, they are stronger than those who sleep through it.
Far stronger. You want strength? You want happiness? You want protection from the devil? Get up for Salatul Fajr and read salah to Allah and Allah alone. See what happens to you.
You feel strong through that day. You feel spiritually different from the days when you did not get up for that salah. May Allah not make that happen to us.
We want strength. Force yourself to dress appropriately. You will have the strength.
You feel good. And subhanAllah, Allah will open so many other doors.
Marriage and Proper Conduct
You know I have had sisters who told me that, you know, I ended up getting married and I'm so unhappy in my marriage.
And sometimes you ask them, well, sometimes you ask them how it happened and they will tell you, you know, at that time I was not practicing. So he met me, he saw me, perhaps, you know, he saw parts of my body and so on that I was not supposed to show him in the first place. So perhaps he based his decision on what I look like and not who I was.
Do you know the difference between the two? What you look like and who you really are can sometimes be worlds apart. Some people look very, very innocent but there are, you know, devils inside. Allahu Akbar.
And some people might look, maybe through their looks, they might not be the most gorgeous of the lot, but their hearts are the most gorgeous of the lot. SubhanAllah. So if you were to choose for the right reasons, you would be able to live a good life.
And this is why we say, when you dress appropriately, when you work on your character, when you work on your conduct, you have strengthened yourself from falling into the weakness of this dunya where you end up making wrong decisions in marriage. And those who married you, have married you for the wrong reasons. May Allah protect us all.
My brothers and sisters, it is about time that we worked on our marriages. I'm sure it looks like a lot of us here are married by the will of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Work hard to be known as the best to your family members.
Sunan at-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3895
It's a hadith of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Do you know what he used to say? "The best from amongst you, the best to your spouse or your family members." How many of us, our family members can say, my father is the best, or my husband the best, my wife the best, subhanAllah.
How many of us will be able to hear the statement, not because they are scared of us, but even behind our backs. They will never say one word. They will say you are the best.
Work towards it because you will earn paradise when you can achieve that. When the hadith says the best from amongst you, those who work the best in their families. What is the point of the whole world's women thinking that, oh, you are a hot shot, top guy, and your own spouse is saying, if only you knew.
What's the point? Of the whole world thinking, wow, this guy's got such a good wife. And the man says, Allahu Akbar. May Allah protect us all.
May Allah grant us strength. It is happening in the dunya where people are living a life of cosmetics. Just like we paint our faces, we've painted the reality from the people so they don't know the disaster behind the scenes.
Really. My brothers and sisters, we can do much better. What a beautiful deal.
It is holistic. It allows us to enjoy the dunya. Do you know, we are not from amongst those who say, in order to achieve the akhira, just get out of the whole world, go into our heart, and just say Allahu Akbar and stay completely in that way.
Salah is extremely important. We know that. We've spoken about it, but Allah allows you to have good food and to have a good conveyance and to have good things in life.
We told you and we will repeat it and the lesson is for me as well, that should never ever come in the way of you and your maker, the link between the two of you. Never should you have anything that will come between the two. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala strengthen our link with Him.
Controlling Anger
So we will fulfill our salah by the will of Allah. We will dress appropriately. Another very important point.
You want to be strong, strengthen yourself by fighting your temper. Anger. Anger will get you into the most difficult situation of loss.
You will lose so much whilst you are angry. You say things and do things you will regret. So the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, a man came to him, young man, saying, Oh messenger, peace be upon you.
Imagine, the messenger. If you had a chance to talk to Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, what would you say? What would you ask him? That's a question that perhaps we can sit and just think about. One day inshallah we will meet him.
Injalil. So the man got an opportunity with Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and he says, Oh Rasul, give me some good advice. Oh messenger, give me some advice.
And the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, you know, one would have thought that he would have given a long lecture for a whole hour, like what we are doing today. No. He just said:
Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6116
"Don't get angry."
Amazing. Don't get angry. So the man says, And I need more advice. He says, Don't get angry. Second time. He says, And I need more advice. He says, Don't get angry. The third time. Oh, that was enough.
Subhanallah. This was continually repeated. What does this mean? For us, this anger is something we need to learn about.
Male or female, protect yourself from anger. Calm down. Cool it. Subhanallah. Calm down. Really.
It will help you. It will strengthen you. You do not need to prove that you can kick someone.
No. A strong person is not he who out wrestles the other, but he who controls himself when he is angry. Especially, when you have a soft target.
Who is the soft target? You know what the men do? I don't know if the women do it as well, but let's hope they don't. You know what a lot of the men do?
They have a problem at work with someone, and they cannot vent the frustration because he is big boss. So what they do, they come home, and they start yelling and screaming at the wife.
And the wife is like, but what did I do? I've just prepared such a beautiful meal. The children are all ready. You need to look at them.
They want a good hug and a kiss from you as the father. And you're coming here and swearing, and you have no clue that because he could not face big boss, he is facing small boss. So the soft target, you are just venting.
So now what happens? Your wife is crying. Why? Because your boss shouted you. Who's crying? Allahu Akbar.
You had a bad day at work, so you must make your wife and your children cry? Is that a Muslim? You still claim to be believing in Allah? You came home to show who's the boss? That's not important. The world can think that your wife is the boss for as long as you have a happy marriage. Thank Allah.
Go ahead. You know we used to tell the youngsters, my dear youngster, you are getting married today. You need to know something.
And by the way, there is a sister of ours instrumental in this particular preparation of this event. May Allah grant her goodness. She is getting married today, unable to be with us.
Wallahi, our duas are with you. But my advice to you, and this will remain forever, and your husband inshallah. Remember, your friends become secondary because your spouse becomes primary.
Remember that. Your friends become less important, your spouse comes first. So we have people, after they get married, the young man, it's 10 o'clock, he's still sitting in the corner there talking to all his friends, having a nice chat and a laugh.
And you tell him, brother, you're married? He says, yes. What are you doing here at 10 o'clock? He says, well, I'm the boss. You can be the boss.
That type of statement might break your marriage. Allahu Akbar. Even if all your friends, when it comes to 8 o'clock, you look at them and say, guys, have a good night.
I'm going. He says, wow, what a chicken. You're going home? Well, you can call me a chicken, and you can call me whatever you want.
But I've got a very happy marriage, alhamdulillah. Is there anything wrong? Going home early? Spending time with your spouse? There is greater reward spending time with them than to be sitting with your friends because that creates a state of weakness. Today we are speaking about strength.
A strong person can fight the temptation to be online all the time. Subhanallah. Online all the time.
You know, subhanallah. You get married, and people see you online. One minute ago, Allahu Akbar, you are married, turn off that phone, come on.
Subhanallah. Turn it off completely by the will of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. May Allah bless us.
The issue is that of discipline. You know, discipline is something, it does not just come without making an effort. You need to make a very big effort to protect yourself from anger.
You need to make a very big effort, fight yourself, fight your nafs in order to develop a good quality or eradicate a bad one. Don't think that automatically my habit of swearing is going to go. No, it won't just go away.
You need to stop it by force. You need to have the feeling within you that link with Allah and the hope in the Akhirah. The fact that you want to go to paradise must make you utter good words.
Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6018
"Whoever believes in Allah and the last day, which means you want to go to paradise, you believe in accountability, then such a person will say that which is good or will remain silent."
How many of us have only one of those two options? Sometimes we just talk a lot of nonsense. Allahu Akbar.
May Allah protect us. We lie, we cheat, we deceive, we say things that hurt people. For what? Because we are weak.
So if you want to become strong, start saying words that will help people, that will be putting a smile on the face of people. You know, in some countries, where the daughter-in-laws live in the same home as the mothers-in-law and so on, I don't know the exact situation here, but I will tell you what happens.
In some countries, the poor daughter-in-law has come up with a good meal and the mother-in-law will say, what's this? Pick on something.
What can I pick on today? Salt is less. It's a bit more brown than it's supposed to be. That means you can't cook.
I'm the cook here. That's what it means. For what? Why do you want to say words to your daughters-in- law or sons-in-law or anyone who's related to you or anyone else for that matter, your wife or anyone else? Why do you want to say words that are so cutting? Why? Would you like to have cutting words the day you get to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? Would you like to have bad words where only your weaknesses are picked upon? And sometimes they're not even weaknesses? No.
So, go ahead, inshallah, to say good words to people. Pick on something good by the will of Allah. I know of someone who will always eat whatever is served and smile and congratulate the cook and say, mashallah, thank you so much, even if it is burnt.
Wow. Why? Because that is acknowledgement of the effort of the person who made it. That is acknowledgement of the effort.
I want acknowledgement of my little effort that I am making for the sake of Allah when I read salah. And I don't want him to pick on the fact that my concentration was not 100%. But if I have a habit of picking on a little bit of a weakness of someone else, I may just have myself picked on with my own weakness.
And I don't want that to happen. How many of us can say we have 100% concentration in salah? Not even one. Why? Shaytan comes at that point of strength when you just say Allahu Akbar and then you start thinking, hey, this imam, his recitation is not good, even I can read better than that.
And a while later you think, oh, I don't know, he's reading so long, what's going on here? And a while later you start thinking, when he reads a verse a little bit slowly:
And we're so excited, he's going to the court, mashallah. And then he carries on:
Oh, what happened? I thought he was going down. That is the condition of man, the fact that you are understanding with me what I'm saying means we go through it because shaytan has the same plan with all of us.
We become so weak that we get upset when the link with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is supposed to be strengthened through the time in salah, and we get angry about it. Imagine, that is a weakness. What if
Allah had to pick on the fact that we did not have concentration as good as it should have been in salah, so therefore your salah is rejected.
That's what we've been doing throughout our lives, when we see someone trying to achieve something in our houses, in our homes, around us, and we only pick on the point that was a weakness, and we leave the rest of the effort that was made by that person. I think we can change that. Let's go home today and appreciate what we have in the house from those whom we live with.
Let's ask ourselves, how have I made life easy for those whom I live with? My brothers and sisters, we can do a lot. We can do a lot and a lot by the will of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
The Importance of Good Company
The last point I'd like to talk about this morning, inshallah.
Keep yourself in the company of good people. That is a point of strength. On its own that can strengthen you without even much assistance.
The only thing you have to do is to have good company. Why? Imagine I have brilliant company. What will happen at the time of salah? They will all say, brothers, are we praying? My sisters, what's happening here? Can we just quickly pray here in one corner? So if there's five of them and there are two of you who are a little bit weak, you can't say, no, we're not praying.
Sit there. Allahu Akbar. Can you do that, my brothers? Imagine five brothers are saying, let's just pray here.
And you say, no, you know, we'll give it a miss. Astaghfirullah. It won't happen.
You will say, okay, bismillah, let's go. We pray. Let me make wudu.
Two of them say, let's make wudu. Just when you were thinking, ah, the water, I'm going to be washing and wudu. And two of them say, right, here, let's make wudu.
They start doing it. And what happens? You then follow. It was made easy.
Why? Because you have good company. When those you mix with speak properly, they use good words, high language, meaning proper speech, you will automatically use similar speech. When those you mix with have upright dealings and they talk about honesty all the time, you will have honesty in your life.
So change your friends if they are bad company. Change them even if they don't like you as a result. Change your friends, believe me, if they are bad company.
You know, those who are hooked on to drugs and alcohol and gambling and so many of the other bad habits, a lot of the times they have bad friends.
That's the reason why they have these bad habits. I know so many young boys, good boys and girls who are hooked on to drugs only because it was peer pressure.
Those they mixed with were all on drugs. And that's why, you know, when someone wants to get married, a lot of the times, you just have to look at the company of those who mix with the person you like to marry. That's all.
So even if they tell you, you know what? I'm straight. No drugs, no alcohol, no this, no that. And all their friends are known as people who are definitely deeply into those bad habits.
They are lying. They are telling you a lie. You don't have to worry.
You can actually refuse, reject, walk away and carry on. Say, thank you very much. I don't want to take it.
If they are serious, they will change their company. You know, I always give the example of fish. And I want to give it again.
If you've ever seen fish, you know, they move in these schools. In a school of fish, for example, you have an amount of fish that go together. The same type of fish will always be together.
Even the birds, they do the same. When you see them fly in a huge amount of birds, for example, you see all the same type of birds fly together. The sparrows, all together.
The little doves, all together. Do you have one eagle and five doves around? Do you have that? Do you have a whale and then you have these little, you know, breams around? You don't. You have all together.
The breams are together. The whales are together. The dolphins together.
Like we said, the sparrows, the doves together, and so on. You don't just suddenly have one and it claims, look, I'm different. The rest will move away or it has to move away.
The same applies to friendship. If everyone is on drugs and one man says, I'm not, the probability of him lying is far greater than anything else. What are you doing with all these magic? All these little breams? Or you are one bream and there are so many whales around you.
You'll be eaten. Be careful. Allahu Akbar.
Ya Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protect us. So the issue of company is very important. My brothers and my sisters, if you have good company, you will develop good habits very easily.
It strengthens you completely and easily. This is why Allah says:
"O you who believe, be conscious of your Maker, be conscious of Allah, and be with those who are truthful." Be in the company of those who are truthful.
Those who are good, those who are honest, those who are upright. So we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to strengthen us all.
Closing
Brothers and sisters, I have tackled the topic, I have spoken for over one hour. And I hope and I pray that we have benefited in some way. It has been an honor to have been here in this beautiful city of Abuja. As you know the last time, due to unforeseen circumstances, I was unable to make it, inshallah, the next time.
And I will definitely, by the will of Allah, if He allows us, I will definitely be back again