When we look at the life of the Prophet (s) and religion and spirituality as a whole, and we try to over

sensationalize it in that we imagine it to be much tarawee'h prayer, more Qur'an, and while being true to an extent we ignore the life of the Prophet (s) and especially the hardships that he went through. I guarantee that a brother is not here because he came to this masjid and had a negative experience, because he was dressed a certain way, and was met with in a very negative way, and i guarantee you a sister is not here because one day she came here and her hijab was not the best and she was told off, and she never wanted to come again, and so they were turned off from the deen of Allah and Islam, and we lost serious potential. The sin is on the person and the people that turned the people away. Its not about making the masjid friendly, the point is that the Prophet (s) really dealt with some really tough and severe circumstances, we are talking about purpose in life, and the reason is that whenever you are looking for something and are dedicated to something you are willing to take all that comes with it. E.g. someone dedicated to med school will not quit because of one professor, and no one goes to work and quits because of a co-worker, and they don't stop working because they want to become one of those, "jerks that have a lot of money." We don't abandon the duniya, and if your living is dealing with the nastiest people in the world you dont abandon it because the duniya is pushed down our throat; today the purpose is to carry a wad of cash and pursue the duniya. Muslims work at liquor stores and sell haram and this is not a problem or them, why? This is their purpose.This is how you are programmed in a way, and why do we expect the deen to be different? The life of the Prophet (s) was this way, he dealt with people that are rude and disrespectful, and he was mercy to mankind. Abu Hurayra (ra) narrated that once the Prophet (s) was just walking, a bedouin walks in and grabs him from the back of his collar, hey you, give me from what Allah gave you, and AH narrates he pulled the garment so severely that he left marks over the neck of the Prophet (s). Think of a king, someone who has made a contribution to the world, we think because we did one thing for the masjid we need to be respected, and think has an uncle walked up to you and grabbed your garment and choked you? AH narrates that the Prophet (s) took it off, gave it to him, smiled and kept on moving. How would a human being other than the Prophet (s) think to himself in this situation - do you know who I am and what I have done? Look at Surah Abasa, the Prophet (s) is trying to do his dawah with the high players of Quraysh such as Abu Jahl, Ukbah bin Abi-Mueet. Abd ibn Umm Maktoom (ra) runs to the Prophet (s) with patchy clothes, picking up dirt and demands - teach me from what Allah taught you. In Surah Hujurat, the Prophet (s) goes home at night after giving it his all through out the day, these are the few moments he has with his wife. People are not calling on his cell, texting him as those that are bothered today who work in Islamic work, rather people are literally coming to his door saying come on out we need to talk! So he dealt with extreme roughness from within the community. We are talking as a whole right now without hitting one subject. The Prophet (s) dealt with much thus. The sahaba loved the Prophet (s), but not everyone was like the sahaba that gathered the water from his wudhu when he made it. You had the ignorant, the simple, the arrogant

and the hypocrites. The Prophet's private life and his family life definitely took a hit. In the times of battle the tradition of the people back than was that the leader does not fight in battles. Yet the Prophet completely redefined this. Ummar, a warrior on his own, right, narrates that when it would get extremely hot in battle the sahaba would start to hide behind the Prophet and fight behind him. He did not sit back, he was on the front lines, he was always working. On top of that what was his escape? For us we think our escape is from the deen rather than to the deen, how many people are waiting for Eid so they can take a relaxing time away from Ramadan. Our sense of breath, relaxing is escaping the deen, alhumdulilah Taraweeh is over. What was the escape of the Prophet (s)? For the Prophet (s) his Qiyam was different! When Abn Ibn Masud prayed behind the Prophet (s), he read Surah Baqarah and IM narrates when he read 100 ayat i thought he would stop (IM was an illustrious sahabi of the Quran, he received 70 Surahs from the Prophet himself!), than the Prophet (s) kept going. He got to 200 and i thought maybe he'll do ruku than, he finished SB, than he started Nisa and finished, and he thought it was over, no he went to Al-Imran than! The vast majority of the sahaba were not speakers, this is the difference between a doer and a talker. Anas' narration about a man by the name of Dimam u-Thalama, a bedouin. Here was a man with no diplomacy and was very rough. He came to the Prophet (s) while he was sitting in the masjid, he walks up to the Prophet (s) and asks are you Mohammed-yes- I am going to ask some frank questions without diplomacy so do not be offended and just answer. He asked, Oh Mohammed, who raised the skies? the Prophet (s) was reclining and answered Allah - And who pegged the mountains? - Allah - And who flattened the Earth? - Allah - And I ask you by the one who raised the skies, and pegged the mountains and flattened the earth, did Allah send you as a messenger to us? the Prophet (s) was reclining, he sat up and said yes. Then he kept asking the Prophet in the same manner- I ask you by the one who... did Allah command you to command us with prayers - yes - and again I ask you by the one who.... did Allah command you to command us with Zakah? - yes - and he went through the pillars of Islam and the answer to all was Yes. He said my name is Dimam u-Thalama and I accept your message, and he jumped on his camel and he was in such a hurry that Anas narrates he didnt even bother untying it from the post, he rode off with it. What an interesting character! He was in a rush and there was no sweet talk, and Anas narrates that night by the time had set everybody behind this valley of Naouman was Muslim. Dimam got home and went to his wife, she asked where were you? he said I went to meet Mohammed and I have accepted Islam and I reject these idols and if you do not reject these idols i have nothing to do with you. She answered ya Dimam you will get this and that against you.... he answered no we believe in Allah the one who raised the skies, pegged the mountains and flattened the Earth! His wife became Muslim, than his parents, than he went out and spoke to everyone that night until everyone was Muslim by Maghrib. Here was a doer not a talker. If Dimam gave a khutbah it would probably be a horrible khutbah.

He is a doer not a talker, and this is what the sahaba were. They heard the call and they got to work. Whenever they heard Allah and the messenger, they believed it enough and were ready, and so why is this relevant to us tonight? Allah says in Surah Ankabut, do you think you will just enter Paradise and you will not be tested, and you hear about the people that came before you, they were struck by all forms of hardships and disease. The Prophet (s) had his neck stepped on in sujjood, had camel intestines on him while he was praying! Did anyone ever do this to us? You would sue a man here in the US. When you hear of the people that came before you, and bore what they bore, and worked for the cause of Allah, and we think we can just enter Jannah without work and just saying you want to go to Jannah? We try to accuse Allah of injustice many times - how can Allah punish this group of people? And so and so? We concern with others' affairs. It would also be equally unjust to say that the person that works their whole life for Allah, the person who toils -like Dimam, Bilal, Abu Dhar, Salman, Umm Sulayms, Umm Salamah - those are not deserving of being treated different by Allah than those that have done absolutely nothing with their lives to deserve Jannah? This would also be very unjust on Allah's part. On the day of Judgement when you stand in front of Allah and ask for Jannah what have you done for this? Today we feel Islam and the masjid should be privileged to have us, they can't do without me, No! Rather they definitely can and it does not depend on you, it is but your honor to be here. We are not even talking about the people of the past, look at the people in Syria today, when they go to the masjid despite what is going on over there, they do not get the choices that we do. Today we choose what mosque has the best Iftar, AC, recitation, number of rakaah etc. There they have to worry about being killed every time they go to a masjid, because there are people there that will stab you and kill you while you pray and are dressed like an Imam and a Muslim. Sisters get thrown off the 2nd floor from the Masajid and there are videos of this. Talk about struggle! Here we are still having the same discussions every single youth and MSA Halaqah about gender relations and music. That is what we are talking about, there they talk about the masjid despite facing death every single time! And we have to face Allah not just with the people that lived 14th centuries ago with that dedication, no we will stand in the same gathering with people that lived in our times! When the siege of Gaza was taking place, how many people refused to stop going to the masajid? So many imams and youth were murdered on their way to the masjid and back but they refused to leave the masjid. The imams would make Adhan and say do not come to the masjid it is dangerous and pray in your homes. Have we ever heard this before? When the massacre happened people still went to the masjid! In Tunisia so many sisters were raped because they wore Hijab back in those days of Tyranny. A friend I know made Du'a against the tyrant and when he went to his home country he narrates that him and his wife were at a restaurant when a policeman came, tugged her hijab, cursed at her and went off. The point not to make us feel little, but this is what we should take from this lecture as a whole:

Whenever you believe in something deeply, thinking of Jannah, and want it, you do NOT settle for less. We can talk about story after story of the sahaba and especially the Ansar. Umayr ibn Hamam in the battle of Badr, he heard the Prophet (s) say that for those participating and going forth is Al-Jannah. Umayr had some dates in his hand and said, Bakhim Bakh, an exclamation mark not real Arabic, he said, Wallahi if I live long enough to eat these dates than I am a loser, and he went forth! The irony here is that the Ansar when they made their covenant with the Prophet (s) all they said was that they would protect him. The irony is that Ansar would have to break alliances with their other tribes, there were only 3 Ansar over the age of 40 because of years and years of tribal war, and after finally achieving stability they made this promise to the Prophet (s) knowing full well that this could potentially cause choas and bring death to their remaining tribe by having all of Arabia against them. They gave all those people from Makkah half of everything they had! Oh Prophet what do you get back in return? Al-Jannah, and thats all he said. The Prophet could have said give it a few years you will be most honored and Allah will give us victory, he had this revelation of victory. Rather he said if you are here and are dedicating yourself to this work, all you will get is one word: Jannah. The Ansar on that basis took Bay'ah or an oath with him, and their agreement was that if they get into battle the Ansar would not have to fight alongside them. The Ansar had this on contract that they did not have to fight alongside the Prophet (s), yet at the battle of Badr there were 243 Ansar and 17 Muhajireen. They did not care if this was on paper, they wanted Jannah! Just like that person at work or going to med school, you believe in something at the end of this and you are willing to take the baggage because you believe in something so deeply. It is so sad, why do we see youth in the community getting addicted to drugs, relationships, suicide and this is becoming a growing trend! Clinical depression, sadness, why? Because they are not living. They do not know what life is because there is no meaning to that life. Thus inflicting pain, flushing their career, getting addicted to a new drug, doing away with their family and religion, i need to feel like i am living even if this means purpose in the wrong way, a negative life. And they never consider deen because from the outside you are going to have to wait till Jannah to be happy. Tell someone who is struggling with their life, its ok at the end you get Jannah and they ask how will this benefit me now? The benefit now is a meaningful life, knowing that Allah is pleased with you, having that self-esteem, pursuing something real and tangible, and you do not care if others are pleased with you, you reach self-actualization and break that shackle! You do not care and have meaning to your life, rather knowing that what you are pursing will never go away! People work and work and achieve what they've been trying for years and years and realize this really wasn't what it was all made out to be. Allah says in the Qur'an, know that your life is nothing more than play, then amusement, then decoration (superficiality), then competition, gathering money and children (living your life through wealth, works and your kids). Like a beneficial rain that came upon crops and then they grow, a farmer sees this and things he has accomplished something, than it starts to crumble and it turns yellow (You will see what you achieved as yellow!).

There are 43 different tafaseer or benefits from this ayah! Allahu Akbar, Allah says you will see what you achieve as yellow, think of seeing things that look really really fresh and next thing you see plants and leaves and the entire garden turns yellow. What is so powerful is that Allah didn't talk about the adhaab of the akhira until after, rather the adhaab of this life when you dont work for something meaningful! In duniya you get enough money to buy what you want, e.g. you got your dream car and dream house on Riba and you thought that house and car would give you happiness. The house looks awesome at first and you enslave yourself in debt, and you work extra hours to get yourself out of debt because you thought the house and car would give you happiness, and you dont even enjoy that house or car. The point: it turned yellow! Even if you get a vacation home it is guaranteed that you stay there long enough it will turn yellow i.e. it will not interest you anymore. You get your Iphone, all of a sudden it is not good enough and all of a sudden they are not thin enough, then it needs to be thick enough when it is thin enough, and it has to look different every time! The point that you get something and it looks awesome from the outside: if i get that i will definitely be happy you think. You drive your amazing car for a week and it turns yellow, and you think, I want more and something else that gives me happiness; the same car next year but the lights need to be slightly different. What this is a drug addiction and at the end of the day you realize that you have no meaning in your life and this is punishment of this duniya. Allah says in the Quran, we created man in toil. As humans we are always working, always trying to accomplish something. The worst punishment in this life is to see that your achievements in this life were actually fruitless because you were pursuing something that had no meaning to it. Allah says in the Qur'an, that which was sought and that which was seeking is meaningless. You reduced yourself to that car, that phone, that home, to all of that which was meaningless to begin with! You became less than it by virtue of seeking it. Ibn Taymiyyah: And so the one who seeks Allah can never be unsatisfied because you are seeking something that is so much greater than you because you can never be likened to Allah so you will never be weakened as you are seeking Him, Allah says, here are people seeking meaningless things without living life and at the end of the day they inflict pain (social, physical, psychological) because they want meaning, and here you have a person seeking Allah and every time he gets closer and closer to Allah he achieves two things. Ata (ra) said that doing a good indeed gives you 3 pleasures (and yes they should make you happy and of course this should be done without making you proud, the Prophet (s) said: if your good deeds make you happy and your bad deeds make you sad that means you are a believer - i.e. you still have some good in you, it is problematic when you think so highly of yourself that you dont do anything anymore, you have done Taraweeh and that exempts you from everything else and that you do not do anything anymore), So Ata said that there are 3 pleasures for a servant while he does a good deed. 1. While he is actually doing the good deed - does it not feel good and you are aware that this is a good deed and it is for Allah?, 2. Whenever he remembers it - you feel good when you think back on your accomplishments. You think alhumdulilah in my youth I figured it out and I did something meaningful (SOS is a big fan of intensives - weekends, weeks, days of going

away and these are sweet memories. You don't feel like you wasted your time when you do these things) 3. This is the ultimate pleasure when he meets Allah - the real pleasure is when you meet Allah. As an example, the Prophet (s) said the fasting person has two pleasures; when he breaks his fast and when he meets Allah with that fast and Allah rewards him. Again, working despite the obstacles, there are many ahadith where the Prophet (s) praises the one who loses something in the process of being Muslim. The Prophet (s) praised the grey hair from aging that came through out being Muslim and working for the sake of Allah in your life, you attained it while being Muslim. He praised a young person raised in the worship of Allah and his heart was attached to the masjid. In essence someone worked and sacrificed some things and the Prophet (s) praised this often. Sheikh Omar Suleiman: I remember right before Ramadan a great scholar by the name of Abu Ishaac al-Huwaynee in Egypt had to have his legs amputated. This is a person that has taught millions of people Islam. SubhanAllah, it gets you thinking, how many times have those legs walked for the sake of Allah, masjid after masjid, to seek knowledge. He was the prison mate of Sh Abdul-Hameed Kishq in prison when the people of Egypt were under tyranny. How many times had these legs walked for salah and stood for Tahajjud? Here is a man who worked for the sake of Allah. Than you see a person who lived their entire lives, say as an athlete, and at the end they also lost their legs. You think, look at the difference between the two - one worked and worked and see how Allah speaks in Surah Yasin how your hands will speak and your legs bear witness. This is scary! Your eyes, legs, limbs, your tongue, everything will speak for or against you on the day of Judgement. Sh Ahmed Deedat, whether you agree or disagree with his tactics, he was a doer. In the 90s when he became paralyzed from nose down, and you see his old debates you'd see he always had energy mashaAllah. He once did a debate at LSU with Jimmy Swagger, Sh Ahmed got off a plane and started fresh with Jimmy. He was fresh and ready to go always, than in his old age he became paralyzed from nose down and all he had was his eyes. This is very heart breaking to see what happened to him after his stroke and seeing him laying in bed. But you know what, did he quit? No. He had a machine where he could write letters using his eyes, he would blink at certain letters, and he would spend the entire day writing letters to the preachers he debated, and if you wrote a letter between 96 and 99 he would actually respond to you. He had two Christian nurses in South Africa and he would debate with them using his eyes, and in 98 one of those nurses accepted Islam. The guy accomplished with his eyes what some of us may not be able to accomplish with our full faculties through-out our lives. This is deep, and how can we meet Allah then with what we have? So again, are you doing something meaningful with your life? If you have the same discussions about haram versus halal while others are doing things more productive, you are consuming yourself in things purposeless! And the Prophet (s) said you will be asked about your health and your body and how you consumed it. One day we will all be weak and we will see ourselves get old unless we die in a sudden tragic accident, our health going away, this is natural and this is what life is. If towards the end of your life you have done nothing meaningful with your life to have a true

legacy with Allah than you will be filled with regret, and on the day of Judgement this was an amanah and you will have to answer for this. The Prophet (s) said that if we will be asked for a sip of water even! What about the blessing of Islam? Emaan? SOS: it bothers me so much personally to see wasted potential. There are some people that have a world of potential but they end up being so average because they are not doing anything. They are concerning themselves with halal versus haraam and they are not doers. Allah will ask us about this! There is a masjid in Dallas called Epic masjid (East Plano Islamic Center). The sisters there have 11 sisters halaqahs a week and 1 guys halaqah. I remember the ICNA sisters wing invited me for a lecture on RIba at 11 am on a Tuesday morning and there were 100 sisters there! Again, making use of your time, working and doing something meaningful In Surah Hadeed, Allah says, people were happy and pleased with a beneficial rain that came and the crops and plants grew, and people were satisfied and pleased, and then it turned yellow, and then the plant completely died and disappeared, and then the real punishment has not even started yet (it is when you meet Allah)... and for the believers the forgiveness of Allah and His pleasure and the life of this world is but a temporary pleasure based on deception/delusion. The tafsir of this ayah is beautiful and every single tafsir has different interpretations, there are multiple benefits from it! The beauty of the Quran is that every day new miracles are discovered of it via science. Something very beautiful coming out of modern science: ABC in 2009 covered that ants actually talk to each other in a highly sophisticated way. And in Surah Al-Naml Allah told us how the ants were talking and planning when Suleiman (as) came. Every single year we find beautiful things from the Quran, what a beautiful living miracle! Sheikh Omar Suleiman: I remember my beloved teacher Sh Hatem Al Hajj talked about a benefit from this ayah, that Allah is basically describing a life here, and the reason the plant crumbles is because it does not have water. This is true, the beneficial water went away. When a child is born 76% of its body is water, and when he dies only 52% is water. You literally turn yellow in that regard and you dehydrate. Again the point that you do something meaningful in your life. Jose Addison in his book, the principles of Happiness, he wrote that there are 3 components of happiness, 1. Something to do, 2. Something to love, 3. Something to look forward to If a person has these 3 components in their lives they will be happy and if they do not they will be unhappy. Something to do: as humans, especially when young we are more likely to be caught in a get-rich-quick scheme and how we can be rich quicker - sell this, that etc and this is very attractive and they tell you that you can retire by 40. As humans though we do not like to sit back, it is actually miserable. CBS news spoke about how when people retire they still want to work! And in reality retirement is not nice, you still want to keep working and doing something meaningful. People like being productive.

Something to love: if devoid of love, friendship and you are doing it because others are doing it without loving what you do, without having anything to love in your life you will not be happy Something to look forward to: one of the most miserable things for a person is getting there (their dream) and it was not what it was made out to be, and there is nothing left now to do or to look forward to, you have the money, the material and the status. This unfortunate disappointment occurs on a daily basis, people are always disappointed because the duniya always disappoints. You may get rich with your house and your car but your health goes down, your parents pass away and your kids may be messed, and you realize you have nothing to look forward to beside using your money to make more money. Sheikh Omar Suleiman: I read this from Jose Addison and i was happening to be reading Surah Al-Imran that day.. and the ayah: rush (meaning work, something to do, rush) to the forgiveness of your Lord (something to love) and a paradise as vast as the heavens and Earth promised for those conscious and aware of Allah (something to look forward to) This is so beautiful! There are so many books about happiness and achievement and speaking about the hell of a purposeless life, well 1300 years ago the scholars were speaking about this and this is in the Quran and the Sunnah already! Allah already wants you to live a meaningful life. If you really love Allah and Jannah you will find a way, because today if you work in any capacity in an Islamic organization you will be underappreciated because quite simply this is the time that we live in but you will learn to work past it. Thus if you are doing it for yourself or for the praise of people you will burn out! So do it for the sake of Allah, and every single step will keep you happy with what you achieved but at the same time you will want more. You learnt a juz, you want more. You learnt the basics of Islam and you feel like you are the most ignorant person in the world, and subhanAllah unfortunately the opposite happens too with someone who has no knowledge of Islam. You want more! In the duniya this does hot happen, but in Islam you taste the sweetness and you want more. You taste the sweetness of Salah, and you understood the words and you want to understand more Qur'an. Let those who want to compete, compete for that (the Pleasure of Allah), thus do not worry about the people above you in the duniya in the culture where everyone competes with everyone else, work for Allah and your life will have meaning and purpose. Ibn Qayyum in his Fawaid said that you know you have had a productive day when you put your head on your pillow and you fall asleep right away! You have turned that 24 hour day into 100 hours, whereas another person slept half a day and wasted it. You turned it into a lifetime! We look at people like Dimam and the sahaba and what they were able to accomplish, example how they read Quran every single day - we see this and think no way is this possible! - but they had blessing. And first and foremost we must be able to stand in front of Allah first and foremost because Qiyam is the true first work.