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Fajr Reminders - Mahmood Habib Masjid and Islamic Center

Fajr Reminders - Mahmood Habib Masjid and Islamic Center

By: Fajr Reminders - Mahmood Habib Masjid and Islamic Center
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 We came to give, not to take. Islam Spirituality
Episodes
  • How to build Tawakkul

    How to build Tawakkul
    Dec 17 2025
    Auto-generated transcript:In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. And peace and blessings be upon the messengers and messengers. Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and peace and blessings be upon him. Tasliman kathiran kathira famma ba'du. My brothers and sisters, in Jammu al-Tirmidhi, there is this hadith where Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him, is reported to have said, If you were to rely upon Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, with the required reliance, then He would provide for you just as a bird is provided for. It goes out in the morning hungry and returns full. In Jammu al-Tirmidhi, the hadith is reported where Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him, is reported to have said, the meaning of which is, If you were to rely upon Allah, if you were to rely upon Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, with the required reliance, then He would provide for you just as a bird is provided for. It goes out in the morning hungry and returns full. We ask Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, to help us to have tawakkul on Him and on Him alone because only He is worthy of being and He is worthy of being relied upon. The question is, how do we build tawakkul? How do we build this reliance on Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, and on Him? And the answer is that we build reliance in the same way that we build reliance on anything else. And that is, by focusing on the power and the strength and the ability to provide of that entity that we are intending to rely upon and also to look at our own history in that relationship. And that is why they say, we should trust, we should verify, verify, verify, verify, verify, verify, intending to rely upon. And the second one is interesting because the second one starts from where the first one finishes, which is that having learnt about the greatness and glory and power and control of the entity we are intending to rely upon, to actually have this reliance, to have this tawakkur, there has to be a leap of faith. A risk has to be taken. At that point of risk, our true belief on this entity is called to question. You really believe. If you really believe, then step forward. I want to tell you two stories. One is a hypothetical story, it's a teaching story. And the other one is a true story that happened to me. The hypothetical story is that there was this man, it's a teaching story, so it's very useful. There was this man who wanted to climb the Matterhorn, which is one of the most famous mountains in India. And he was one of the very difficult mountains to climb in Europe. And he wanted to climb it, climb one particular phase of it, which was a very difficult phase to climb. And nobody had until that time attempted it solo, alone. This man decided that he wanted to do that. So he trained for it and so on, a couple of years. And he came to this mountain, and he said, I want to climb this mountain. And he said, I want to climb it. They were kind of quick people. They were kind of quick people. They were kind of quick people. They were kind of quick people. They were kind of quick people. They were kind of quick people. They were kind of quick people. They were kind of quick people. They were kind of quick people. They were kind of quick people. They were kind of quick people. They were kind of quick people. They were kind of quick people. They were kind of quick people. They were kind of quick people. They were kind of quick people. They were kind of quick people. They were kind of quick people. They were kind of quick people. They were kind of quick people. They were kind of quick people. They were kind of quick people. They were kind of quick people. They were kind of quick people. They were kind of quick people. They were kind of quick people. very early. As he was starting to climb, the weather changed. And it looked like the weather, there was going to be a storm or something. And the weather was not conducive to climbing. So the people around him, they tried to dissuade him. They said, look, just wait. He said, no, I have no time. If I wait, then I lose this opportunity. Then I trained for this for two years. And I have to climb. And let's see, maybe the weather will change for the better. He said, no, the weather prognosis, the weather predictions are that it will get worse. Anyway, the man didn't listen to the advisors. He started climbing. And as he went higher and higher and higher and higher, the weather kept on worsening until it came to a point where this man was... It was very high up. And it became pitch dark. And there was a terrible wind and gusty wind and pitch dark. And this man is climbing on his own. No help. And then the inevitable happened. He reached up for a handhold. He caught a place in the rock. And as he was lifting himself up, his whole body weight on his one hand. The rock gave way. And he fell. It's pitch dark. He can't see anything. And as he's falling, his whole ...
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  • No pain no gain

    No pain no gain
    Dec 16 2025
    Auto-generated transcript:My brothers and sisters, this is a follow-up on my previous khatira, that happiness is a choice. Happiness, you don't become happy because of the possessions you have or the circumstances you find yourself in or because of what somebody else does for you or does not do for you and so on. Happiness is not a factor of external things that happen to you in life and definitely not of any material possessions. Happiness is a choice. You become happy when you want to become happy. And that's a very powerful and very empowering thought to keep in mind because you will find people in the best of situations who are constantly complaining. I have a friend of mine who, I even joke with him, but that's his life. He's had the best of jobs. He's risen to the maximum height possible in his career. He has wealth. He has properties. He has, you know, all kinds of stuff. But anytime you talk to him, you always say, yeah, you know, this is a but, yeah, but. I mean, this but is the root cause. The but is the biggest and the most clear symptom of this disease of ingratitude, of being ungrateful to Allah. 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And his whole life's work, so it was, you know, God knows, a few thousand experiments maybe. And one day there was a fire in the night. It was a huge fire, completely uncontrollable. And Thomas Edison's son says that the minute I discovered and I realized there was a fire, I went looking for my dad. I thought he must be going completely crazy because that's his whole life's work. And it's just, you know, going up in flames and nothing can be done to stop it. And he said, I saw him standing there with his hands clasped behind his back, watching this fire. So he said, I went to him, I said, Dad, are you okay? Is it, you know, this terrible thing has happened? He said, go call your mom, tell her she'll never see a fire this big again. Now imagine, this is the attitude of the man. His whole life's work is going up in flames before his eyes. And he tells his son, go call your mom because she's never going to see a fire like this again in her life. So the son says to his father, he said, he says, that's okay. But I mean, you know, this is your whole life's work. I mean, what do you have to say about that? He said, look, how many people get a chance to have all their mistakes wiped out and to start afresh? Yes. How many people get a chance to have all their mistakes wiped away, wiped off and to start afresh? Now, the same thing. It is a fire. All your life's work, all your experiments, everything is going up in flames. The question is, do you go into despair? Do you commit suicide? Do you say my life is over? Or do you say this is a fresh beginning? Who makes that choice? It's as simple as that. Who makes that choice? And the answer is very simple. You know, I don't need to tell you the answer, right? But do we make that choice? This is our challenge. Allah SWT did not promise us ease. Allah SWT promised us growth. And growth comes with pain. No pain. No gain. Growth comes with pain. The question is, how do you see that? I used to do Aikido at one point in time when I was in Bangalore. And we were sparring in the dojo. My partner and I using Bokken, which is wooden swords. Basically wooden sticks, slightly shaped like the, like the katana, the Japanese samurai sword. But obviously they have no sharp edges and so on. So my partner, obviously we are all friends. So he was, you know, sparring with me. So he's attacking me and I'm blocking and so on. Our sensei, Julius Abe, he came up to us and he said, you know what? The best, the best partner, ...
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  • Happiness is a choice

    Happiness is a choice
    Dec 14 2025
    Auto-generated transcript:Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen. Wa salatu wa salamu ala ashrafi al-anbiya wal-mursaleen. Muhammadun Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi sallam. Tasliman kathiran kathiran. Amma baadu, my brothers and sisters. I was talking to a friend of mine, and we were talking about the different kinds of things that are happening in the world, almost all over the world, and everyone seems to be in some kind of problem or the other. For someone it's financial, for somebody else it is political, for somebody it's health, it's old age, it's, you know, all kinds of stuff. And the conversation was kind of going towards, you know, a lot of negativity. And I was, then I remember I said, I said to them that I was really repeating something which I read many years ago and which I try to hold on to because of how beautifully it's done. And the story was about this lady who, an old lady, this Uber guy gets a call. And when he goes to pick up, there's this very elderly woman. And she just comes to the door. She says, will you, can you help me with a bag? So he comes, he goes up there. There's one single bag. And as he picks up the bag, he sees that it's a small little house. And he sees that it looks like she is vacating the house. The house seems to be, you know, completely empty. And so he takes the bag. Takes her, helps her down the stairs. And then they are going to the car. And this woman seems to be very happy. Absolutely, you know, top of the world. So he puts the bag in the car. And then she gets into the car. And he says, he has the address. So he knows that he's taking her to a sanitarium, an elderly care facility. So he asks her, you know, just, you know, a conversation. He says, you're going to this facility. And, you know, who is there? Anyone in your family? She says, no, I have nobody. I'm alone in the world. And I got to a stage where I can't really stay alone by myself. So I need to go. I need to take this. I need to go to this facility. Now, this Uber driver, he doesn't know me. Should he sympathize with her? What should he say? So he says, spontaneously, he says, you know, that's terrible. I mean, there's no one here. Even to go to this facility, you have to go on your own. She says, well, you know, I'm not going to go. I'm not going to go. I'm not going to go. You know, you are there. I mean, I'm so happy that you're there. And thank you very much for being there. So the man says, of course, absolutely. I am honored. I'm very happy to be with you. And so he said, how are you able to maintain this kind of equanimity, this kind of, you know, there's no anxiety. You're not upset. Nothing, you know, you seem to be so happy. And really, I mean, what is there to be so happy about? So she said something which is fantastic and which has, Anandila stayed with me. And I'm sharing that with you because I think it is such a beautiful thing. She says to him, every morning when I get up, I'm at an age where I get up, I have aches and pains. And every day I wake up, I think I have a new one. And so on and so forth. But she said, every morning when I get up, I realize that I have a choice. And my choice is, that I can either think about this new pain I have. And I can think about the fact that I can't remember things too well. I can think about the fact that sometimes because when I need to go to the bathroom, the need is so urgent that sometimes there is an accident. I can think about all kinds of things. Or I can look out of the window and I see this absolutely beautiful, glorious sunrise. I see this absolute glorious, you know, sunny morning. I see it's now winter, so I see snow everywhere. It's beautifully white. And then there is a cardinal sitting on a rock. It looks like a ruby which is on a bed of white silk cotton. I can listen to the thrilling, beautiful sound and song of the skylark. I can think about the fact. I can think about the fact that while it is true that I am old and I have these aches and pains and stuff, but alhamdulillah I am able to walk. I am able to move around. I am not in a wheelchair. I can think about the fact that I am able to more or less eat whatever I like to eat. I don't have any crippling diet restrictions. I can't even go to the doctor. I can't even go to the doctor. And so on and so on. So meaning that she says that I have a choice to think about many, many things. And she said that I thought to myself that all of those things are true. While it is true that I have aches and pains and the rest of the list that I mentioned to you, it's all true. It's also equally true that there are so many positives. Right? That I am not in a wheelchair. That I am able to move around and so on and so forth. And a whole lot of them. It's not just these things. There are more and many more. So she says, I therefore have in my life all these choices. Now, my thing is, which of these choices do I want to focus on? Right? Which of these choices do I want to focus ...
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