Episodes

  • Future – 4 stages – #5

    Future – 4 stages – #5
    Jan 7 2026
    Auto-generated transcript:Alhamdulillah Which means, as we discussed, Allah SWT said, Every living soul will taste death. Every living soul will taste death. And only on the Day of Judgment will you see, will you receive your full reward. And the one who is freed from the hellfire and entered into Jannah, only that person is successful. And the life of this world is nothing but deception. So we looked at the first three of these things in the last few days. Today we look at the last one. Omalhayatudunya, illa mata'ul quroor. Again, the bayan of the Quran, Allah SWT is emphasizing through the grammar. When we say mal, we say wa ma'al. That's how the two are connected. Nothing but. Allah is saying this dunya, this life of this dunya is nothing but deception. So what is the deception? What is the deception? Now, maybe some of you will say, now with AI and all the fake videos and all that. This is all superficial. This is all, this is not deception. We know it is deception. See, for a deception to be successful, you must believe it. If you are seeing something fake, you know it's fake. Where is the deception? There is no deception. For something to be deception, you must believe that it's true. Right? Then only it is, otherwise where is it? You can see it is false. You know, you are saying it's false. There is no deception. To give you an example, I was many, many years ago, I was in California, in San Francisco. I was, went there to teach a course and reached there one evening. The course was next morning. The whole evening was free. And there was a, right opposite my hotel, in the Marriott, right opposite the Marriott, there was a huge theatre, which was a 3D theatre. So, I decided to go see that movie. So, it was something about sharks. So, they give you those 3D glasses, goggles, and you sit there and the, it was two or three, there was one part about sharks, there was another one about the, you know, the, you know, the sharks. There was another one about the, about the universe and so on. So, you sit in the special chairs and the chairs also kind of move to, you know, give you a, an experience of reality. And really, without, without any, this is like maybe almost 30, 35 years ago. To this day, I remember it. It was so powerful. And I can tell you that through that whole movie, it was literally, in the sharks movie, it was like the shark was going to come out of the screen and, you know, swallow me or something. That real. And if at that time, if you had, you know, attached sensors to my body, you would have seen how my blood pressure and electrical impulses in the brain and everything else, how they would have been working. Right? And at that time, if you asked me, do you remember why you are here? Why did you come to San Francisco? What is going to happen tomorrow morning? Nothing. All of that is gone. I am in the movie. I am literally in the sea with the shark. But that is deception. That is the deception. Because I'm not in the, I'm not in with the shark. I'm not, I'm not in the movie. I'm not in the movie. I'm not in the movie. I'm not in the movie. I'm not in the shark. I'm not in any danger. I'm not in the sea. But I believe I am. Right? And you don't need to go into a 3D theatre to, to, to feel all this. Movies are a good thing to understand something which are much more important than the movie. But any movie you see, if it's a sad scene, you are affected. You feel sad. Right? You might even cry. If it's a happy scene, you will feel happy. But you know yourself that what is happening on the screen is all acting. If somebody is dying, he's not dying. If somebody is, some, someone's heart is broken, it's not broken. If somebody is, you know, in some sort of situation or desperation, they're not. It's all acting. We know this. But we are completely hooked into that. So if you are crying in the movies, why are you crying? Are you stupid? I mean, why, why are you crying? Because that's a thing happening there. It's not happening there. It's a, it's a, it's an action. You know, it's a, it's a script of a, of a movie. It's play acting. Why are you crying? But we get so involved. So the deception of this world, which Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has created, is not Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney Disney ...
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  • Future – 4 stages – #4

    Future – 4 stages – #4
    Jan 6 2026
    Auto-generated transcript:Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah Suppose you go to a bank manager, suppose you are an auditor, you go to the bank to audit the accounts, and you ask the bank manager, what is the balance, what is in your safe? He tells you, oh, I have lots of money. Are you mad? I mean, what kind of answer is that? What do you mean, lots of money? You go to the teller. What's your... Huh? How much do you have cash? No, I've got lots of money. I don't have enough. What answer is that? Give me a number, man. Give me a number. If you don't give me a number, as far as I'm concerned, you are sacked right now. Get out. This is what will happen to us on the Day of Judgment. That is what will happen to us on the Day of Judgment. I'll come back to this ayat. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in another place in the Quran, O you who believe, He's not talking about believers. Save yourself and your family from the fire. From the fire. If you don't have enough, Allah will give you money. That's it. Our Heaven is a garden. It's in a corner. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in another place in the Quran, Save yourself and save your family from the fire. The fuel of the fire is what? Is people, and нас, and stones, The fire which is so fierce and so hot, it will burn stones, lava, liquid rock, liquid fire. وَعَلَيْهِ مَلَائِكَةٌ غِلَازٌ لَا يُعَاسُونَ اللَّهَ أَمَرَهُمْ وَيَفْعَلُونَ مَا يُمَرُونَ And on that fire are established Malaika who are extremely severe, fierce, and they do what their Rabb has ordered them to do. They won't say, Arre Sahib, Arre, Chande Chhor De, no, no, no. So, فَمَنْ زُهْزِعَ عَنِ النَّارِ وَأُدْخِلَ الْجَنَّةَ فَقَدْ فَأَسْحَابِ الْجَنَّةِ اللهم جعلنا من أصحاب الجنة إن شاء الله وَلَّمْ مِنْ أَسْحَابِ الجَنَّةِ وَلَّمْ مِنْ أَسْحَابِ الجَنَّةِ The Hadith of Ibn Masud رضي الله عنه Abdullah ibn Masud رضي الله عنه One of the greatest of the Sahaba of Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم He narrated, the Hadith in Tirmidhi That Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم said The feet of the son of the children of Adam عليه السلام will not move from before their rub until they answer five things it's four things one of those two so five feet will not move I remember I saw a movie once on the on the plane I only see movies on the planes because we got long flights so you know see the movies so one movie I saw was a movie what a prison some story about this so in that prison the prisoners they are wearing shoes boots with metal soles the sole of the shoe of the boot is metal and all the corridors in that prison are made of steel mesh so you can imagine metal shoes on a steel mesh and metal shoes on a steel mesh and metal shoes on a steel mesh it's a big racket when they walk is a bang bang back so I'm thinking to myself why do we have this and they show a scene where there is a fight starts and the minute the fight starts the prison guards they throw a switch and when they throw the switch this mesh gets magnetized the electromagnet so the feet of those as they are running they are running and they are running and they are when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when when with the time I gave you? What did you do with the life I gave you? He spent it scrolling on Instagram, on Facebook, on Snapchat. Six hours a day average. Six hours a day, seven hours a day. What you do for six or seven hours a day is called a job for which you should be getting a salary. Right? Who's paying you? Is somebody paying you to scroll ...
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  • Future – 4 stages – #3

    Future – 4 stages – #3
    Jan 5 2026
    Auto-generated transcript:May Allah be with you. May Allah be with you. May Allah be with you. May Allah be with you. May Allah be with you. May Allah be with you. May Allah be with you. May Allah be with you. May Allah be with you. May Allah be with you. May Allah be with you. May Allah be with you. May Allah be with you. May Allah be with you. May Allah be with you. Allah said which means every living thing will taste death. Your full reward will be paid to you on the day of judgment. The one who has been saved from the hellfire and entered into Jannah, only that person is successful. And the life of this world is deception. We talked about the time of death. We talked about death itself. Today we will talk about the second phase which Allah SWT said Allah said on the day of judgment you will receive your full reward. Now the thing to understand is that Allah is saying you will receive the full reward on the day of judgment. It doesn't mean that you will not receive any reward until then. This is the way. This is the mistake. People who deny the conditions of the grave, the Azabul Qabr, the Sahabul Qabr and they say there is no Azabul Qabr and there is only judgment day, judgment will be done. If that is the case then what do we do with the mention of the Azabul Qabr, specifically mention of Azabul Qabr in the Quran? Allah SWT mentioned and said that the Fir'aun and his people are shown, the fire, morning and night. And on the day of judgment they will be returned towards the worst of punishment. Two specifically separate things. If you want to deny the Azabul Qabr then what do you say about the dua of Rasulullah himself? Which is the last dua we make in Tashahud when we finish our salah. And many of the walama and ayima have said that your salah is incomplete if you don't make this dua. Allahumma inni a'uz bika min azabil qabri wa minal naar. Begins with this. Allahumma inni a'uz bika min azabil qabri wa minal naar wa na'uz bika min fitnatil mahyai wa mamat wa min fitnatil masihil dajan. This dua, you have to memorize it and do it. If you are not doing it in Tashahud then your salah is not complete. It begins with O Allah I seek your protection from the azabul Qabr. And the azab of the fire. Two separate things. And Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam himself is asking this. Allahumma inni a'uz bika. I am myself. Ya Allah I am asking. So if the Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is seeking refuge from the azab of the Qabr. Obviously it does not apply to him. This is a thing which he is teaching us. And this is something which he is saying to. Because Allah SWT commanded him to teach us. What does it mean? It means there is an azabul Qabr. Again all of these are not things for us to debate with people and to argue and so on. When you go into the Qabr you will know. So if somebody tells you there is no azabul Qabr. No problem brother. What do you think? I don't think. I do not think. When there is a text. When the Kalam of Allah is before me I don't think. What is there to think? Allah SWT is saying something. You want me to think over this? Allah SWT is saying something. You want me to think over this? What kind of delusion is that? What do you think? What is the value of my opinion? Nothing. Zero. So don't get into any arguments. What Allah has said, Allah has said. And our job is to inform. Our job is to inform. Nothing more. And then information has come to us from Rasulullah SAW. So Allah is saying full reward. Now what happens in between? Nabi SAW described in terms of the azabul Qabr. He described different things that happen. There is azab of the fire. There is azab of snakes. There is azab. There is azab of people who have illegally occupied or usurped other people's property, land especially. Nabi SAW said in the Qabr he is, he will be hammered with a hammer, with an iron hammer on his head, which will send him down seven earths. Then he will come back and be smashed again, goes down seven earths. And this will continue until the day of judgment. Allah. celebr celebr celebr celebr celebr celebr celebr celebr celebr If you have deliberately left Salah, you could pray, you did not pray, nobody can help you. Nobody can help you. It doesn't matter what else you did. It does not matter what else you did. Maybe you did Hajj, maybe you did, you fasted. We have a peculiar situation. We have people who fast all of Ramadan, but they won't pray. So fasting is also like a cultural thing. Everybody in the house is fasting. If you fast, you will get a party. Fasting is a fast. Can you believe it? The Adab of the Qabar is real. Then on the Day of Judgement, and again the opposite is also real. The Saab of the Qabar. In the Qabar itself, Allah SWT will give us a taste of the Qabar. Jannah. We ask Allah SWT for this. Allah SWT mentioned, Arabic Arabic Arabic Arabic Arabic Arabic Arabic celebr celebr celebr Allah said those people who said those who said Allah is my Rabb and they were firm on that they were on that ...
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  • Future – #2

    Future – #2
    Jan 4 2026
    Auto-generated transcript:Muhammad is the Messenger of God and His體 & his family. Peace and blessings be upon him & the those who are Copts. Also said in Sajsa consummation And yesterday we talked about the first part where Allah said, كل نفس ذائقة الموت Everything, every living thing will taste death. So what is death? ما هو موت؟ What is death? We think, generally people think, that everything ends with death. For example, if somebody is in pain, they are in hospital, they are suffering or something, at least his suffering is over. کم از کم تکلیف تو ختم ہوئی. بولتے رہیم. So we think death is the end of the story. But the truth, the reality is, death is the beginning of the story. موت زندگی کے یا حیات کے اختتام کا نام نئی ہے. موت اختیار کے اختتام کا نام ہے. Death is not the name of the end of existence. Death is the name of the end of existence. Death is the ability to do anything. موت زندگی کے یا حیات کے اختتام کا نام نئی ہے. There is a story of one of the Salaf As-Salihin, his daughter died before him. موت زندگی کے یا حیات کے اختتام کا نام نئی ہے. So one day he saw his daughter in a dream. And he asked her, how is it? She said, we can see everything but we can do nothing. And you can do everything, but you can see nothing. so she has died she is telling her father in the dream we can see everything but we can do nothing but you in this life you can do everything but you see nothing that is the reason why we have the Kalam of Allah SWT because even though we cannot see anything Allah has told us what will happen we have the beautiful Hadith of Rasulullah narrated in Musnad Imam Ahmad narrated by Al-Bara bin Azib who said that Rasulullah said meaning of which is verily when the believing slave is about to depart this world and enter the hereafter this is the narration of the time of death I don't know if any of you have seen somebody actually dying I have seen and on the face of the person there may be nothing it may seem like nothing is happening they are eyes are shut, they are sleeping but everything is happening there and that's why death has been compared to sleep because in sleep also the soul leaves the body goes to Allah SWT and if the death of the person is there Allah keeps it if it is not there it comes back so in sleep also you may see a dream you may see a very beautiful dream but the person may be sitting next to you they are seeing you but they don't see anything they are seeing you sleeping similarly you might be having a terrible nightmare but you are not sleeping you are not sleeping in this nightmare literally if you actually hook up ECG machines and stuff you might see his heart is his blood pressure is going through the roof his heart is beating very fast and so on he is running from some monster in the dream but on the face of it you don't see anything so here Rasool Allah is saying this is the time of departure at this time you are leaving verily when the believing slave is about to die you are leaving you are leaving you are leaving after leaving if you don't believe after leaving, you aren't going to die no fear you don't know no fear пَيْخُق are the hand of Allah No fear they aren't no no you are being what messengers yes Moses Mo it is correct present we ask all the people today put those hands put those hands now the whole acho Hakan ни kabar the ally the company is and sits by his head and he says Ya ayyatuha nafsu al mutmain irji'i ila rabbiki raadiya tam marziya fadkhuli fi ibadihi wadkhuli jannati Allah SWT tells us words O pure soul come out to the forgiveness and pleasure of Allah then his soul comes flowing out like a drop of water flowing from a cup there is no pain, no suffering just wonderful then Malakul Maul takes the soul and no sooner does he seize it but they take it the other angels take it and they place it in that shroud and the perfume then out of it comes the most excellent fragrance of musk to be found on the face of the earth then they ascend with it and they pass any group of angels that they pass by the angels ask who is this pure soul and they reply it is so and so, the son of so and so using the best names by which he was known on earth then they bring it to the lowest heaven and ask for the doors to be opened and it is opened for him those who are of high rank in each heaven accompany the soul until they approach the next heaven and so on until they reach the seventh heaven then Allah SWT says record the book of my slave in illiyun illiyun which is the highest heaven and take him back to the earth for I created them from it and I shall return them to it and then I will take them out from it again then his soul is returned to his body and the two angels come up and make him sit up and then the hadith mentions the questioning of the grave questioning in the grave ...
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  • Future – 4 stages

    Future – 4 stages
    Jan 3 2026
    Auto-generated transcript:In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. In one ayat, Allah SWT mentioned four things. The first thing He said is, Every living thing will taste death. Kullu nafsin. Whether the person is a good person or a bad person. Whether it is Pharaoh or the Nabi. Extremes. Whether it is rich or poor, healthy or wealthy, healthy or sick, whatever. Kullu nafsin da'ikhatul mudh. If it was born, it will die, period. First thing. Second thing. Fa innama tuwaffawna wujurakum yawmal qiyamah. Allah said, And you will receive, your full reward only on the Day of Judgment. So, some reward Allah will give in this dunya. Both good and bad. But actual full reward only on the Day of Judgment. Fa innama tuwaffawna wujurakum yawmal qiyamah. And then Allah SWT stated something which is the, which is a criterion between success and failure. We want to be successful. We want to have great careers. We want to have name, fame, you name it. But Allah SWT said the measure. Faman zuhzi'ani nari wa udkhilal jannata faqad faas. The one who has been saved from the hellfire and entered into Jannah, only that person is successful. Faqad faas. Nobody else. In the Quran, Allah SWT used two words for success. Falah and fawz. Falah and fawz. Muflihoon fa'izoon. Falah is success, but which is temporary. Meaning, after the success, there is some more exam. You passed your metric exam. Successful, alhamdulillah. First in class, what not, what not. But can you say, okay, fine, I'm done. You're not done. That's only metric, 10th class. After this, you have intermediate. You pass that. Are you done? No. Then after that, you have your undergraduate. Are you done? No. Then after that, you have your postgraduate. And this goes on. At the end of all that, you are starting your career. Will you get into the interview or not? Once you get into the interview, now what happens to your career? What happens to your career? You're looking at another 35 years. So even though you are successful, there is some exam after that. But fawz, fawzoon azeem, Allah said, fa'izoon, may Allah grant us all of that, inshallah. Fawz is success, which is ultimate, daiman. Success, after this, there is no exam. Finished. Last exam. Now, it's only, enjoy. Last exam. After this, there is no exam. So who is that person? Who is finally successful? The one who is freed from the hellfire and entered into Jannah. And the last thing which Allah mentioned, Jalal Jalaluhu, He said, He said, This life of this world is nothing but deception. Deception. See, even in the way things are stated. For example, you can say, the life of this world is deception. But Allah did not say that. Allah said, the life of this world is nothing but deception. You know, the emphasis is much more. Nothing but this. So everything in this world which seems to be success, is not success. Deception means what? Deception means whatever appears is not how it appears. Nowadays, thanks to AI, you are getting example after example of deception. People send these videos. There's one doing the rounds. There was one, first of all, of an elephant which, you know, was pushing a deer, a cheetal, out of a flood water. After some time, exactly same kind of flood water. If you notice the two things, it's exactly the same thing. Now this elephant is a tiger. And this elephant is helping this tiger. The tiger is now climbing on top of the elephant. And they say the elephant is helping the tiger. So they sent it to me. They said, is it true or false? I said, total false. They said, how do you say that? What is the AI? I said, you don't have to know AI. You have to know wildlife. There's no earthly way that it won't happen. First of all, because a tiger weighs what? 200 plus kilos. For 200 plus kilos of cat to climb on top of the elephant, what is he using? Four inch claws. . Can you imagine? If he climbs on top of the elephant from the ear on top of the head, what will he do to the ear, to the trunk, to the elephant? Completely lacerate it and destroy it, you know. There's not one drop of blood being shown on that film. Now who will believe that? Because people who don't understand wildlife. Oh, what's happening? What's happening? What's happening? You are being fooled. That's what's happening. It's a very benign form. There's much more malignant ways in which we are being fooled in this life. So fourth is Allah mentioned. The reason I'm saying this is because it is Allah did not simply send the Quran for us to recite it and say wah wah or something. No. The purpose of the nuzool of the Quran is to say, the nuzool of the Quran al-Kareem is to understand it and to live by it. It doesn't matter how much Quran you know. What matters is how much Quran is in your life. How much Quran do you actually need to know? You have to pray. If you know Surah al-Fatiha and you know one...
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  • Resilience is the master hack

    Resilience is the master hack
    Jan 2 2026
    Auto-generated transcript:Resilience is the ability to be resilient. The ability to get up from a fall. And as the Chinese saying goes, if you fall five times, get up six times. The ability to get up from a fall, the ability to deal with failure. This is one of the most important things for success. Because failure is very much a part of life. Everybody fails at something or the other. To be able to get up from the failure, this is what spells success. Now in that context, I read a beautiful story recently, which I want to share with you. That's called the Hershey School. I call it the Hershey Chocolate School because we know Hershey from the chocolates. It's very interesting. I'm just reading what was posted. He sat in a mansion built for children who would never come. And he decided that silence would not be the end of the story. In 1909, in the company town of Hershey, Pennsylvania, Milton Hershey was 43 years old and wildly successful. His chocolate company was thriving. An entire town carried his name. A grand house stood on a hill above the factories and streets he had built from nothing. At night, the house was quiet. Milton and his wife, Catherine, Kitty Hershey, had designed the mansion for children. Bedrooms waited, hallways echoed, gardens sat untouched. Kitty could not have children. And in the early 20th century, childlessness was treated as fate. Wealthy couples were expected to accept it and move on. Milton Hershey did not. To understand why, you have to understand how much failure shaped him. Before success found him, it had missed him repeatedly. His first candy business collapsed. His second failed even worse. By 30, he was broke, embarrassed, and dependent on family support. He knew what it felt like to be written off. So when he looked at that empty house, he did not see an ending. He saw an opening. He saw a new beginning. In 1909, Milton and Kitty announced they were founding a school for orphaned boys. Not a charity they would fund from a distance. A school they would build, run, and shape themselves. People were baffled. Why take on something so demanding when you already had an empire to manage? Because he did not want to donate. He wanted a parent. The boys who arrived had nothing. No money, no security. Often no one left in the world who claimed them. Milton and Kitty met them personally. Milton would kneel to speak to them at eye level and explain that this was not a handout. This was a home. Kitty became the heart of the place. She learned names, checked on homework, asked if the food was good. She mothered the children she could never bear. And the school grew around that. She was loved. Then, in 1915, Kitty died suddenly at 42. Friends assumed the school would fade. It had been their shared dream. And now she was gone. Milton grieved quietly for years, keeping the school running while the world waited for him to step back. In 1918, he did the opposite. Milton Hershey transferred control of the Hershey Chocolate Factory. The Hershey Chocolate Company into a trust for the school. Not a portion, not dividends. Control. The entire enterprise, the Hershey Chocolate Company, now existed to fund the education, housing and care of children who had started life with nothing. Sixty million dollars at the time. An unthinkable sum. His associates warned him. What if he needed the money? What about his legacy? Milton's answer was simple. He was a man. He was a symbol. This was his legacy. He gave away the mansion and turned it into part of the school. He moved into modest quarters. He continued to greet new students, remember faces, ask how they were doing. He lived to see boys graduate and build lives he had made possible. When he died in 1945 at 88, he left behind no heirs by blood. But he left behind a future. Today, the Milton Hershey School serves more than 2,000 children at a time entirely free of charge. Housing, food, clothing, healthcare, education and support are guaranteed. The trust he created now manages tens of billions of dollars, all dedicated to childhoods he would never personally witness. There is a statue on campus of Milton Hershey. It does not show him as an industrial titan, it shows him kneeling beside a child, hand on a small shoulder, eye to eye. That was how he understood family. Most fortunes are built to be inherited by the already fortunate. Milton Hershey had no children to inherit his wealth, so he gave it to children who would have inherited nothing at all. Every piece of chocolate sold under his name still funds the decision. Every year, more lives are shaped by a choice of children. The children are the ones who are the most important. The children are the ones who are shaped by a choice he made more than a century ago. He sat in rooms meant for children who never came. So he made sure they would be filled forever by children who needed them. For one thing, always buy Hershey chocolates and eat only Hershey chocolates. I think that's the least we can...
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  • Live thoughtfully

    Live thoughtfully
    Jan 1 2026
    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 honour of the prophets and messengers, Muhammad and the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and upon his family and friends. Tasliman kathiran kathira. Faham Badum. My brothers and sisters, as we enter a new year, and today is the 31st of December 2025, tomorrow, inshallah, will be the 1st of January 2026, it's useful to take stock of what we achieved in the last year and decide what we want to do with the year that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given us once again. Another year, another chance to get it right, if we wish to. The reason we need to be concerned about this is because a day will come which will be our last. It will be the last sunrise or sunset that we will see. It will be the last meal we eat. The last salah we pray or choose. The last prayer we choose not to pray. It will be the last words we say to the last person who is destined to hear them. It will be the last place we go to from which we will then be taken away. We will no longer be able to go or come as we wish. Not go on our own, but taken away. That day will come. That day will come. We don't know when, but we know it will come. The sun will rise for the last time for us. Maybe that day is today. As I grow older, I am aware of an ever-increasing sense of urgency. A feeling that I have progressively less time to leave behind a legacy that can be a credit to me. This sense of urgency has nothing to do with the fact that the reality of time running out is one that we all face. It has more to do with a desire to do something to maximize the benefit of the time that I have left. Naturally, like all of us, I have no idea how much exactly is left. So all the time I have left is a time of time. There is no more reason to act fast. Allah SWT warned us in the Quran again and again and again. And Allah SWT said, It's not the dying that is worrying. It is the accounting. We will not die and become dust. We will not die and become dust. We will be resurrected and called to account. What will we do? What will we do? In this process, to help us to work through this, I developed a theory based on my own life experience, which I call living thoughtfully. Living thoughtfully. I believe that before we act, if we think about what we are about to do, the reasons for it, the possible effects of it, and other alternatives that we may have, and then ask ourselves, do I really want to do this thing in this way? Then we will be able to vastly improve our own effectiveness. But, can we do that? In living thoughtfully, the most important matter is to check our intention. We have the first hadith in Bukhari, narrated by Sayyidina Umar ibn al-Khattab, that Rasulullah SAW said, the reward of a deed is based on its intention. The rewards of deeds are based on their intention. A bribe, for example, is after all a gift. The difference which makes one right and the other wrong is the intention. A gift is good. A bribe is haram. It's bad. Imam al-Nabawi, Rahmatullah Ali, one of the most eminent scholars, author of this hadith, writing about the importance of intention. In his book, Ar-Riyadh as-Saleheen, he begins by saying, He said, He said to live with the awareness of the intention in all that we say, in all that we do, and in every situation that we find ourselves in. Whether visible or hidden. Whether visible or hidden. Imagine living with such a heightened sense of purpose that before a person says anything, he asks himself, why am I saying this? He thinks of the effect of his words. If I say this, what will happen? And then takes responsibility for that. Yes, I want this to happen. Or he said, no, I don't want this to happen, so I will not speak. Now he does the same with every action of his and reflects on his contribution to a person's life. To any situation that he or she is faced with. If we behaved with such a tremendous sense of responsibility, no matter what our position in life, what a wonderful world we would be able to create, our problems of inequity, poverty, environmental degradation, and moral bankruptcy can all be traced to one source. A lack of responsibility for our speech and actions. We lack concern. We must change that. I call on you to do so. I contrast living thoughtfully with the opposite. Living thoughtlessly. Just remaining alive. Going from sensation to sensation. Like a cow or a goat or a dog. Not that I have anything against cows or goats or dogs, but I would like to believe that I am different. In today's social media dominated world, this is what we are doing even more. Living from dopamine hit to dopamine hit. We must break out of this and realize that our clocks are ticking. And our time is drawing to a close. Age is not an indicator of how much time we have. Old or young, we will die at our appointed time. Nobody will get an instant more or ...
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  • Purpose of knowledge – 1

    Purpose of knowledge – 1
    Dec 31 2025
    Auto-generated transcript:Allah is the Greatest, the Merciful, and the All-Merciful. All praise belongs to Allah, the Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings be upon the honour of the Prophets and Messengers. Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and upon his family and companions. My brothers and sisters, Allah SWT taught us about education, about how to educate, about what must prioritize, what should the priorities be in education. Allah SWT told us in Surah Al-Azim Raan, إِنَّ فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَاقْتِلَافِ اللَّيْلِ وَالنَّهَارِ لَآيَاتٍ لِأُولِي الْأَلْبَابِ الَّذِينَ يَذْكُرُونَ اللَّهَ قِيَامًا وَقُعُودًا وَعَلَى جُنُوبِهِمْ وَيَتَفَكَّرُونَ فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ رَبَّنَا مَا خَلَقُتَ هَذَا بَاطِلًا سُبْحَانَكَ فَقِنَاظَ بَنَّارٍ Allah SWT said, which means, Verily in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the day and the night are signs for people of intelligence, people who reflect, people who think, people who have minds. And Allah described these people, al-wurid, al-bab, as people, people who remember Allah SWT standing, sitting and lying down. This is the beauty of the economy of the bayan, the narrative of the Quran, wherein just one or two words, Allah SWT collects and encompasses everything that goes under the description of the Quran. This is the beauty of knowledge. So Allah SWT is saying the first condition of a person of intelligence is that they recognize their Rabb, Jalla Jalaluhu, and they are obedient to Him because they reflect, they remember Him in every aspect of life, standing, sitting and lying down. Every aspect of life. They remember their Rabb, whether they are at home or they are in their workplace, whether they are in their home, whether they are in their workplace, Whether they are kings or paupers, whether they are married or single, whether they have children or no children, whether they are rich or poor, whether they are healthy or sick, in every aspect of life, they remember Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Remembering Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is not just a passive state of being. It doesn't mean merely repeating the names and attributes of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in this dhikr or that wazifa. Remembering Allah means being aware of the presence of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in our lives and becoming totally obedient to His commands as they apply. Being aware means being obedient to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in our lives and becoming totally obedient to His commands as they apply. Remembering Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala means being obedient to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in our lives and becoming totally obedient to His commands as they apply. So the first quality of people of intelligence is that they recognize the presence of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So the first quality of people of intelligence is that they recognize the presence of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. They think, they ponder, they research. As a result of their research, they discover. They go deep into. All of these means of understanding or phrases of understanding are encompassed in the word yatafakkarun. Fikr. To be concerned. Concerned. In what? In the creation of the heavens and the earth. In the creation of the heavens and the earth. Allah used the preposition and. Now, those of you who know Arabic, if you write a sentence, Alladheena yadhkuruna allaha qiyamahum wa qu'udahum wa ala junubihim aw yatafakkaruna fee khalqis samawati walad. This sentence would be grammatically correct. What it would mean is that these are the people who remember Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala standing, sitting and lying down. Or those who reflect upon, who are concerned about and who do research in the creation of the heavens and the earth. Now, so in this sentence, though it is grammatically correct, we are talking about two different kinds of people. Who are the people who are al-ulil al-baab? People who remember Allah standing, sitting and lying down. Or. Those who reflect on, research in and who are concerned about the creation of the heavens and the earth. But this is not the ayat of the Quran. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is not describing two different kinds of people. Allah is not saying that either this or that both are OK. No. Allah is describing two qualities of the same person, of the same people. The first quality is to be concerned. To be concerned about the pleasure of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. In everything that we say or we do. And this is the definition of taqwa. To be concerned about the pleasure of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. In everything we say or do is the definition of taqwa. So Allah is saying the first quality of the person who is fit to be ...
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