Serenity in the Face of Calamity

Serenity in the Face of Calamity

Shaykh Navaid Aziz

Opening

(بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ - bismillahir-rahmanir-rahim)

(السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ - Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh)

I would like to begin this talk by praising Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala), a praise that only He (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) is deserving of. You know, this trip has been a big moment of reflection for me because the last time I spoke in the United States of America was in 2003-2004. And since then Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) had willed that, you know, it wasn't going to happen.

In fact, I remember the very first NJ Dawah conference when Sa'ad had invited me. I was determined to come, but Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) had willed that it wasn't meant to be. And His infinite wisdom, Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) made it easy for this trip, so I cannot show enough gratitude to Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) for allowing me to be here today, especially in your company, sharing with you the little that Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) has given me.

So I pray that Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) blesses our gathering tonight. My topic of discussion tonight, my dear brothers and sisters, is showing serenity and having serenity in times of difficulty, particularly when we go through personal trials. And I always like to start off this discussion through a joke that I learned a couple of years back.

The Joke About Marriage

And I'm not much of a joke teller. In fact, I don't know many jokes. This is like the one joke that I do know. And I like to share it when I start off this discussion. And this is the story of a husband and wife. And they're on their way to take a journey.

And the husband asks the wife, Honey, how long are you going to be? And the wife says, I'll be ready in five minutes. 45 minutes go by and the wife still isn't ready yet. She eventually comes down and the husband is angry.

Let's go. Let's get out of here. They get in the car and they start driving.

As they're driving by, the wife starts to feel guilty. She's like, you know, maybe I shouldn't be so late. I should get ready quicker. I shouldn't make him wait. And as she's passing by, she just wants to start up a conversation because there's this awkward silence in the car. So she says, honey, isn't this tree so beautiful? Aren't the clouds so gorgeous? Isn't the sun shining so nicely? And the husband's still in the rage.

He says, shut up and let me drive. And the wife becomes silent. Now, as they continue to drive, the husband's emotions start to calm.

And he too starts to feel guilty. And he recognizes the awkward silence in the car as well. And he starts thinking, how can I break this silence? But he's not as eloquent as his wife.

He's not as romantic as his wife. So they're passing by a farm where he hears the barking of a dog, the braying of a donkey, the mooing of a cow. And he says, honey, let me guess. These are relatives of yours. And she says, you're right. They're my in-laws.

Our Relationship with Allah

Now, the reason why I begin with this talk and what is the relationship with this joke and the talk is that growing up, we're taught that this relationship between a husband and a wife is this idealistic relationship where there's no turmoil, there's no tribulation, there's no hardship, there are no arguments. You just see the beginning of the relationship and we're told, you know, they lived happily ever after. That's all we're ever told.

We never see that middle part. But for those of you that have been married, you know for a fact that the pleasure in your relationship, the enjoyment in your relationship, part of it comes from the turbulence that you face in it. When parts of your relationship are bad, you know things will get better.

When parts of your relationship are bad, you know that prior to that things were actually good. So that gives you something to look forward to. Now, I start off with this discussion to show that this is how we as human beings perceive our relationship with Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala).

That when things are difficult, we want to know where is Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala). When things are going not according to what we had planned, we question where is the wisdom in this decree of Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala). But my dear brothers and sisters, the Prophet (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - sallallahu alayhi wasallam) defined for us our relationship with Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) in a very beautiful hadith.

The Hadith of the Lost Child

And this is the hadith of the woman that was in the marketplace that had lost her child. And as she's in the marketplace, she's running from side to side. Each time she sees a young child, she picks up that child and embraces that child.

And tears come out of her eyes. Tears of sorrow, tears of misery. This woman had lost her child.

Until eventually, she finds her child and she embraces her child. She holds on to her child. And a different set of tears come out. These are tears of happiness. These are tears of joy. These are tears of everlasting love.

And at that time, the Prophet (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - sallallahu alayhi wasallam) having witnessed this with his companions, he asked them, do you think that this woman would ever throw her child into the fire? The Sahaba (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُمْ - radiyallahu anhum) they responded instantaneously, natural response. (كَلَّا يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ - Kalla ya Rasul Allah). Never a messenger of Allah.

And then the messenger of Allah (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - sallallahu alayhi wasallam) at that time, defined our relationship with Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala). He tells us:

That Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) is more compassionate, more loving, more tender, more caring towards His slaves than this mother is towards her child. So what exactly does that mean? That means that anything that happens in our lives is a manifestation of that love, care, compassion, and mercy.

And that is what we need to perceive it as. Now one of the, I guess, terrible characteristics that we have as human beings, and this is a deficiency that we have, but we tend to feel better in the calamity of others. So we tend to compare what our trials are like compared to other people.

The Story of the Student from Medina

Now this is a natural thing that human beings do, you don't have to feel bad about that, but recognize it's not the best quality that we have as human beings. So I want to share with you a story that I experienced. And then I want you to relate that to your own trials.

When we studied in Medina by the fall of Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) when we graduated, there was no massive party, there was no celebration. We used to go and perform Umrah. And this brother from Canada, he graduated, and he and his family went to Al-Makkah, to Al-Mukarramah, to perform Umrah.

They finished their Umrah, and they're on their way back to Medina. It's the middle of the day, it's really, really hot. The kids are in the backseat sleeping, three of them, and the wife and the husband are in front, they're just sitting and talking as they're driving.

And the husband, as he's driving, he looks in his rearview mirror, and he sees that there's a truck swerving all over the place. It's going left, it's going right, going straight for a bit, and it's zigzagging all over the place. And the husband thinks to himself, what should I do? Should I speed up? Should I slow down? Should I pull over? What should I do? And in lack of making a decision, the truck actually runs him off the highway.

And the car turned over once, turned over twice, turned over a second time and third time. And I want you to imagine that each time the car flipped over, someone in the car was dying. The brother, the husband, he passed away. The oldest son passed away. The middle son passed away. And the only two that are left are the mother and the youngest child.

Now subhanAllah, this was the most unbelievable thing that the child, even though it's in a very protective seat and it's behind the mother's seat, it was, you know, immensely hurt and injured. Whereas the mother, even though she's in the front seat, her head could have hit the windshield and so many other things could have happened. She escaped unharmed as if she wasn't even in an accident.

But the miraculous nature of Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) in this incident is that even though she wasn't physically injured, she could not remember what had happened. She was struck by amnesia. So she gets taken to the hospital.

One week goes by, two weeks go by, and her memory is just not coming back. So the doctors say, look, we have to let her go. There's nothing further we can do for her. She just naturally gets to get reaccommodated to life. And hopefully she'll see something. Hopefully she'll experience something and she'll start to recollect.

So some of the sisters take her back to their house. They have lunch. They start having tea.

And one of the sisters starts at that time. She's like, look, I don't know how to tell this to you, but your husband was a student at the Islam University of Medina. He had just graduated. And you guys were on your way to perform umrah. You completed it. You're on your way back. And on the way back, you were in an accident. And in that accident, your husband passed away and your two eldest children passed away. But you have a young baby that's still alive.

And it was amazing, subhanAllah, that even though she could not remember that, her maternal instinct kicks in. She says, if my baby is alive, take me to the hospital right now. Take me right now.

And they hurry to the hospital. And they're on their way to the hospital. She's just concerned and worried the whole time. They get to the hospital. Where is the baby's room? Take me there right now. They get to the baby's room.

And I want you to imagine that the space between the mother and the child is the distance between myself and the edge of the stage. That is how far the mother is from the child. And as she starts approaching her child, getting closer to it, wanting to embrace it, she hears the flatline.

Her baby died in front of her eyes before she could embrace it. Now when you think of that story, think of the calamity that this sister went through. Think of all the hardships that she's gone through.

Now think about the challenges that you have gone through as a human being. Perhaps you got divorced. Perhaps you're struggling to get married. Perhaps you wanted to get into a particular program and you didn't get into it. Perhaps you wanted a particular job. You didn't get that job.

How does your calamity compare to this? It starts to seem very minute, almost insignificant. Not completely, but almost insignificant. Why? Because as human beings, we find solace in the calamity of others.

Understanding Our Response to Calamity

Knowing that as long as there are others going through greater calamities, alhamdulillah, at least it's not that bad. Now, one of my objectives behind this presentation tonight is understanding where we are when it comes to calamity. How do we respond to calamity when calamity strikes us? And the way we gauge that is through a small story that happened in my personal life.

But before we get to that, actually, you know what? We'll get to that second part in a bit. Let us gauge where we are when we come to calamity. So this goes back many, many years when I was a young child.

Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) blessed me with a sister that is four years older than myself and she was not fond of me at all. She hated my guts. So much so that any time one of her friends would come over, it wasn't enough I would hide in the basement. It wasn't enough I would stay in my own room. I would actually have to leave the house. So I would leave the house.

I would go play with my friends. Go play basketball. Go play video games. But a time eventually came where I needed to do homework and there was no place to do homework. So what I started to do was I started going to my aunt and uncle's house. And my aunt and uncle have a cousin or have a daughter who is my cousin that is about six months younger than me.

And I started spending so much time in their house. We started developing a sibling rivalry. And what that looked like was if she got a bicycle, I'd have to get a better bicycle. I got a laptop, she'd have to get a better laptop. And that is how things continued. But there would be like this one day, you know like four times a year where it was almost like a dagger in my heart.

I could be patient with everything else but I couldn't be patient with this. And that was the day we would get our report cards. Because I would come home and I would be happy with my grades. I would be over the moon with my grades. But my parents would always ask me, but how did your cousin do? And I was like, why is that even relevant? Why do we need to discuss that? And I had this bias. I was like, she is a practicing Muslimah.

She wears hijab. She wears jilbab. She has no social life. Obviously, she's going to be a better student than I am. And that's the way I would justify it myself. But as is the sunnah of Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) every believer will have their personal battle of badr.

The Driving Test Story

And my personal battle of badr came the day we went for our driving exam. That was such a marvelous day, mashallah, tabarakallah. Because she comes home from the exam, and I don't admit this, but it sort of went like this.

I'm in the back of the house, and I'm like, ya Allah, please let her fail. Ya Allah, please let her fail. She comes home. She has tears in her eyes. And I'm like, could it be? Did she actually fail? Or are these tears of joy? Why are you taking so long in talking? Talk right now. And then she finally says those words.

She's like, mama, baba, I'm sorry. I failed. And in the back of the house, you hear takbir. Allahu akbar. Now, the pressure is on me. I need to pass my driving exam, or I'm going to have no respect or dignity left, not only with my family, but with my friends as well.

So I want you guys to do the driving exam with me. I get into the car. The instructor is like, Mr. Aziz, welcome to your final driving exam. I would like you to reverse the car and exit the parking lot. I'm like, I got this. Put my seatbelt on. Adjust my mirrors. Everything's good. Look to my left. Look to my right. Everything's clear. Turn the car on. Put my foot on the brake. Put the car in reverse. And I'm going back. I'm going back. I'm going back. Boom! You hit something.

Now, what is the first word that comes out of your mouth? Do not say it out loud. We are at a Muslim conference. But the reason why I do this exercise is because you just learned what your natural reaction is when calamity strikes.

Now, what are we striving to get to Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) in the Qur'an. He tells us:

What Are We Striving Towards?

A second objective that I have from this talk is what are we striving towards? What are we trying to get to? In the books of Tafsir, you find this narration that talks about our predecessors, the sahaba )رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُمْ

And they mentioned that the sahaba )رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُمْ when calamity would strike, they would be grateful to Allah )سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى( for three things. They would thank Allah )سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى for three things. So they would develop a mindset of not just being patient but developing a mindset of gratitude.

Now what were those three things?

1. Number one, that this trial was not in their faith. Allah )سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى tested them in the dunya. They lost $10, not a big deal. They didn't have doubts in their faith. Alhamdulillah, that is the real trial. And they used to thank Allah )سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى for that.

2. Number two, is that the trial was not as great as it could have been. Trials can always be much much greater as we learnt. You lost $10, be thankful you didn't lose $100. You got injured, be thankful that you still have your health and that you can recover. Trials can always be greater. And they used to thank Allah )سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى( for that.

3. And then number three, they used to thank Allah )سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى for the fact that Allah )سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى( granted them patience. Meaning that Allah )سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى allowed them to keep their composure. What an ugly sight it is to see a believer when calamity strikes that they engage in disobedience to Allah )سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى( . That they engage in vulgarity, they engage in obscenity, they engage in breaking things and becoming abusive. So the fact that Allah )سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى prevents you from that is something to be grateful and thankful to Allah )سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى for

Five Points to Help Us Navigate Trials

Which is where we get to our third objective from this session. How do we get to that level? Now, what I'm about to present right now is actually a summary of five points from many, many more points. And there's a book called The Benefits of Trials and Tribulations. This is even translated into English right now.

1. Learn to Expect Trials and Tribulations

Number one. Learn to expect trials and tribulations in your life. Allah )سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى He tells us in Surah Al-Anqabut:

Does mankind think that they shall be left to say, we believe and not be tested.

And I want you to imagine, if I did this exercise again and I said, boom! What is your natural reaction going to be this time? Someone saying, SubhanAllah. Another one saying, Allahu Akbar. Another one saying لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ ,Someone else is saying إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ

Why? Because you're prepared, you know how to react to this. And this is what it looks like, that if you learn to prepare that your life is going to be filled with trials and calamities, you do yourself a favor because you're always prepared for it. You know what? A calamity is just around the corner, I shouldn't get too comfortable, I shouldn't stay within my comfort zone.

Because Allah )سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى will test those whom He loves. And inshaAllah, being students of knowledge, being those that attend these conferences, inshaAllah, we hope that we're from amongst those people.

2. Trials Remind Us of Our Greater Purpose

Number two, is that these trials and tribulations remind us of our greater purpose.

And I like to give the example, you ask a child that's in elementary school, what's your favorite part of the day? Oh, my favorite part of the day is recess and lunch. Why? Because I get to play with my friends. So this young child goes to school and they're playing with their friends and then the bell rings and they have to go back inside.

And the child is annoyed and frustrated and the teacher is like, why are you annoyed and frustrated? And the child says, I want to play some more. But the teacher reminds the child that it's okay to play during recess and lunchtime but you came to school for a greater motivation, for a greater purpose. Similarly, as Muslims, as believers, as the creation of Allah )سُبْحَانَهُ تَعَالَى it is okay to have fun from time to time.

But we too are on this planet, on this earth for a greater purpose and motivation. And that is to worship Allah )سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى(.

And that is why one of the natural responses for the believers that when calamity will strike, he or she will find a way to turn back to Allah )سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى regardless of what your faith was like prior to that.

How many Muslims do we see go back to the masajid when calamity strikes? How many Muslims do we see that start praying and those that were praying start praying their sunnahs and make dua and make dhikr and recite Quran and give sadaqah? All of this khair comes out of the calamity because you're now turning back to your true purpose which is to worship Allah )سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى(.

3. Trials Are a Purification

Number three is that these trials are a purification of your sins and your akhlaq. What does that look like? The person that is never tested or tried in their life, they will walk on this earth as if they own it.

They will be arrogant. They will be proud. Their head will be up in the air as they walk thinking that they own the universe.

Whereas when calamity strikes, you cannot help but be humbled. You cannot help but be humiliated in front of Allah )سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى because you realize it is truly Allah )سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى that is in charge. So that is your akhlaq at that time.

And in terms of your sins, the Prophet صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ he tells us that the son and daughter of Adam are not pricked by a thorn except that Allah )سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى forgives some of their sins. So what we derive from that is that the greater the trial, the greater the forgiveness from Allah )سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى if the believer is patient. The greater the trial, the more ajr and reward you are getting from Allah )سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى either in reward or in forgiveness if you are able to be patient.

4. Reminder of the True Nature of this World

Number four, that these trials are a reminder of the true nature of the life of this world. You know, SubhanAllah, when you look at the life of this world, it looks glamorous. It looks amazing.

One of the problems with social media is that people only portray the best side of themselves. You know, the left side. That's my good side.

That's what I'm always going to show. I'm always going to show myself having fun. I'm always going to show myself on a vacation in front of a beach with a beautiful sunrise having the most amazing meal you can possibly imagine.

That is what the life of this world looks like. One big manifestation of social media enjoyment, delusion. That's what it looks like.

But when calamity strikes, you realize the ugly nature of the life of this world. Not only ugly in terms of the evil and chaos that takes place, but evil and ugly even from the perspective where if your life is good right now, you

just need to take a glimpse of the news to look at what's happening in Burma or in Western China or in Egypt today or in Afghanistan or in Iraq or in Libya or in Pakistan or in any Muslim country. And that small moment of joy and happiness that you had completely disappears because it is a reminder of the true nature of the life of this world.

That it is an ugly life and you should see it for what it is and not get too attached to it. And sometimes when we get too attached, we need those reminders to bring us back to reality, to snap back to reality. And that is what the calamities do.

5. Allah Has Prepared Paradise for the Believers

Number five is that Allah )سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى has prepared paradise for the believers. Allah )سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى( has prepared paradise for those that are patient. Allah )سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى( has made this amazing creation that if you were to reflect on it would be the ultimate motivation that you would ever need.

Exercise: Imagining Jannah

Now I'd like to do a very, very quick exercise with you. And that exercise is as following. I'm going to give you guys 10 seconds and in those 10 seconds I would like you to close your eyes and just imagine that if you were in Jannah right now what would you be doing? If you were in Jannah right now what would you be doing? And we'll take 10 quick seconds starting now.

Okay, you can open your eyes. Now I like doing this exercise for three reasons. Number one, I learned who the rebellious people are because there's always people in the audience that are just staring you straight in the eye.

I'm not doing this exercise no matter what you say. Then you have a second group of people which have a bit of difficulty understanding English because they're the ones that aren't staring at you but they're looking around. They're like, what is everyone doing? Maybe I should be doing it as well.

And then you have category number three which is the vast majority of people and they are all of us here because I want you to ask yourself who jumped for joy? Who did you hear laughing and giggling? Some of you smiled but most of us were either neutral or even had a frown. And I'm like, man, what is going on in this person's Jannah that they're frowning? That they might as well stay in this dunya if they're gonna frown when they get to Jannah.

Now when you look at Jannah and how Allah )سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى describes it Allah )سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى gives us a few descriptions but not very, very many vivid descriptions.

Why is that? Allah )سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى did not give us vivid descriptions, many of them, because we don't need it. As human beings, when we like to think about our ideal vacation, our ideal home, our ideal car, our minds can easily wander off. And that is what we're meant to do.

Is that when Allah )سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى(He tells us that paradise has been prepared for the believers, we're meant to reflect on it, we're meant to think about it, we're meant to ponder about that what would I like in Jannah so that I

can keep working towards it. And that becomes our ultimate motivation. And this is what I do with young people when they come to my office for counseling.

And whatever problem they have, I tell them, hey, here's a blank sheet of paper, I want you to draw what Jannah would look like and what you would be doing. And anytime you feel down, anytime you feel like you lack motivation, anytime you feel you need that extra push, just look at this picture. Because that is what you're working towards, that is what you're going for.

My Personal Vision of Jannah

Now, let me share something else with you in terms of how I developed this exercise for myself. But before I go on to that, I want to recap what we've learned today. We learned today is that Allah )سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى loves us more than our mothers do.

And every action that happens to us is a manifestation of Allah's love and mercy. We learned as human beings, we find solace in the pain of others. We learned today where we stand in terms of calamity, that calamity were to strike, where we stand right now.

We learned today that the sahabah )رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُمْ they learned to be thankful to Allah )سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى( in their moments of trial for three things. That their trial was not in their faith, their trial was not as great as it could have been, and that Allah )سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى allowed them to be patient in their trials. We learned today five possible techniques to use to help us reach that level.

And those five possible techniques, learn to expect those trials, understand that these trials remind us of our true purpose and motivation, that these trials are a purification of our sins and our akhlaq, that these trials remind us of the ugly nature of the life of this world, and we shouldn't get too attached to it. And we learned that Allah )سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى( has truly prepared paradise for the believers. Which brings me now to my conclusion.

And that conclusion is, my dear brothers and sisters, that living in the province of Alberta in Canada, we're surrounded by this immense beauty. And from time to time, I like to go fishing. But it has been purely the qadr of Allah that no matter how many times I've gone fishing, and I'm not embarrassed to share this with you, till this day I've not caught a single fish.

Not a single fish. It is shameful, but my motivation is not the fish, it is just being in the nature reflecting on the creation of Allah )سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى(. So I think to myself, that in Jannah, I would like to go fishing.

But it's not just regular fish, this is like next level fish. And this is going to be, you know, just a simple analogy. How many people have watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory growing up? Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I'm assuming almost everyone has, right? It was like on TV all the time growing up.

So, in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, there's this one scene, where all the kids get to go inside the candy and chocolate room. Now everything was amazing, because you have like these trees of chocolate, these flowers of candy, you have the amazing oompa loompas, but I didn't care for any of that. All I cared for was that river of chocolate.

And I think to myself, and Ibn Qayyim (رَحِمَهُ الله - rahimahullah) alludes to this, he says on the verse of Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala):

"In paradise the believers will have each and every single thing that they desire, and we will still have more to give them."

He says that the predecessors when they commented on this verse, a lot of them said that the mazeed, the extra that Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) has, is to see the beautiful face of Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala). But it's not just restricted to that.

It is also literal in its interpretation that we will be at the utmost bliss and happiness in paradise. That Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) will give us whatever we want and desire. So at that time if my heart desires to have a chocolate river, Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) in His infinite generosity will grant it to me.

So that sets the scenario, you have a chocolate river. Now it sets a further scenario is that we have a boat and we have fish. But like I said in this world I couldn't catch any fish.

The fish of the akhira, they're surrounding my boat, like just hurtling around it. And they're like, Naveed please catch me, Naveed please catch me. So I put my hook out, I grab as many fish as I want, I take them into my boat.

And you know one of the terrible things about going fishing and actually catching a fish is you have to gut it, you have to skin it, and it's just not a pleasant experience. But this is jannah. So what do I want from those fish? They too are going to be chocolate fish.

You want lint, you want toblerone, you want Kit Kat, whatever your heart desires. So now you have these fish, you've eaten till you're full, till you're satisfied. And you're looking all around you.

To your left you see your family, they're having an amazing barbecue under the sun. The kids are playing in the park with the grass. There's this beautiful breeze just coming through jannah that carries the fragrance of misk.

And then to your right you see all of your friends that are there. They're playing volleyball, they're playing some sort of sport. They too are having a good time.

And you're there floating on your back under the sun in this chocolate river looking up to the sky and saying:

When I think about that, I think that is the motivation that I need when I need motivation to get through my calamity. Why should I be patient? Why should I be obedient? Because that's what's motivating me. Because this is what I'm striving and working towards.

When I need that motivation that, why should I pray my sunnah prayers? I'm tired, I'm lazy, I don't want to do it. Snap back to reality. Think about what your greater goal is.

So when you need that extra push, the only way we as believers will be motivated by jannah and will be motivated by paradise is if we have contemplated it, reflected it, imagined it, and have almost drawn it out to the degree that when we need that motivation, we can bring it in front of our eyes as if it is there, as if it exists, as if we have seen it. And that is what should drive us to that.

Closing

And I leave you with these words, my dear brothers and sisters. I pray that Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) facilitates our path to jannah, that Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) allows us to be of those that are patient and are rewarded and are forgiven. And that inshallah, when we make it to jannah and I have my chocolate river, I invite you to join me in it.