KH2010: 123 Pearls of Wisdom

[Faisal Abdul Latif]

Assalamu'alaikum all, just to share some of the Pearls of Wisdom that we caught throughout our 7-day break - for benefir of those of who you couldn't view it through the facebook page We recorded about 130 in total, but reduced it slightly for the sake of making it "123" - i hope that is a permissible innovation insha Allah Starters: correct the niyyah (intention) - an upright intention is like setting up your glasses - when your glasses have a certain color spectrum, that's all you see! A Muslim who is only concerned about his belly has no iman Charge yourself- revive your connection with Allah. Without he charge it's just dead- the shape is the same but the life is just out Prepare yourself before you receive knowledge: purify yourself- a farmer prepares the grounds before the seed comes in Plant the right seed: the right aqidah Hidayah doesn't come by itself- you need to BEG Allah for guidance The key to tahajjud is to develop the love for Allah If Quran is 100% complete (without the sunnah) Allah wouldn't have revealed Islam through a man: just send the complete book & instruct all men to pick it up! If Allah stops the door to zina, shouldn't we stop the door to bidaah? The more you study Islam, the more you learn to keep your mouth shut Commitment is crossing the line between "saying" and "doing" "wanting" to succeed does not make you succeed! The tiger walks alone; the sheep has lots of company The pressure on you to be like "the rest of them" is so great Excuses don't change reality - a loss is still a loss (e.g. Giving excuses of coming late If you don't take responsibility (admit) over what errors/mistakes you did in the first place, you won't take responsibility in CORRECTING it! Development of the body and the development of the mind are two different things Unless you pass the "exam", you won't be promoted The general rule is, just follow the sunnah - he study of fiqh principles (wajib, mustahab, mukrah) is only for correction Islam puts a lot of emphasis on he methodology, not the end result (the end doesn't justify the means) Sheikh sa'di learns wisdom from the blind man- touch the ground whenever you step forward Even if ibn taymiyyah and Muhammad Abdul Wahab were alive today and they refuted every single one of their (authentic) previous teachings, we will not listen to them! We follow teachings base on facts and evidences, not the shaykh! General principal on tafsir by sahabah, whether they narrated from ahli kitab (israeliat) : if the Sahabi is known not to take from ahli kitab, then we accept it Allah showed the world how to live, not to live like the rest of the world (6:116) We should give shukr that Allah sets limits for us- especially in what to eat! In history, one extreme always results in the formation of another extreme When you are aware you're in darkness, you'll always be searching for light Give people what they need in the way that they want You will NEVER find the world 'sacrifice' in vocabulary I'd a Muslim : ibadah is not sacrifice; it is your INVESTMENT (in the akhirah)! Ibadah is an investment that never depreciates (unlike cars); it's an investments that yields it's dividends- not in percentage, but in multiples! 10 to 700 times over! A fish out of water does but a fish in water is the epitome of grace and speed It’s not how much you have, it's how much you've done with it Learn the corrupt sects, for history repeats itself (ibn taymiyyah) Knowledge should take roots in our heart & be seen and apparent in our lives Recognize the Creator and reflect on creation- both, not one without the other (3:190) Reflect the creation- leaves, fruits, flowers : its variations: amazingly everything is different even if they are the same (13:4) When I argue with the scholars, I beat them, but if I argue with the lay person, he beats me (imam asy-syafi'ee) The authenticity of the Bible and/or Torah today doesn't even come close to how ablul hadeeth list WEAK Hadith!  The amazing thing about science of Hadith is knowing the detailed scrutiny it went through to investigate if they are authentic, strengthening the yaqeen on the authentic nature of our Deen Islamic scholars used to come up with poetry as a form of memorization (e.g. The 10 companions promised jannah, the 7 prolific narrators of Hadith, bayquniyyah for sciences of Hadith) Which is better: the artist who makes 100 copies of the same portrait, or 100 different portraits? Don't get hooked to feeling happy when people praise you- because it may lead to the other way around- you will get unhappy when you are NOT praised. If you are not (emotionally) affected by praise, you will not (emotionally) be affected by criticism We get problems to LEARN, not just to throw in the towel Once you pass the lesson/'test', you move on to new tests. The tests get gradually tougher as you progress And improve It's not just 'the sunnah', it's also 'how you implement it' - importance of imams of the mazahib You don't just love Allah for what He does for you, you love Allah for who He is (ibn taymiyyah) There's a huge difference between ta'lim and tarbiyyah; ta'lim is transfer of knowledge, tarbiyyah is nurturing and inculcation via stage-by-stage learning We don't have the stick of moses, etc - the Quran is the only divine thing we have; so, what is our attitude towards it? Something haram is not necessarily najis Fiqh is nit independent on Hadith, it is BASED on Hadith Sheikh musaaid's opinions on the four imams: imam Abu hanifAh-very strong in qiyas, imam Malik-has very broad perspective in Islamic knowledge, imam asy-syafi'ee- has the most fiqh, imam Ahmad- most knowledgeable on Hadith Timeline has a slight effect on criteria of acceptance of Hadith (e.g Abu hanifah time closer to he prophet, dhaif Hadith tend to be more reliable) When you want to cure something, use the opposite - don't give the disease a chance to remain and spread (e.g like a poisonous venom must be cured through it's antidote) (Abdul Karim al-) People's dedication to get what they want: Arnold Schwarzenegger broke into a gym 7 times during weekends, for a workout just to have 'the body' It's okay to be addicted- just change your addiction (mufti Ismail musa menk, in his address to drug addicts) Ibn al-qayyim equates love, fear and hope in Allah like a bird- it's body is love, one wing is fear and the other is hope. Without love, the bird cannot live. Without fear and hope, it cannot fly- if fear outweighs hope & vice versa, it cannot fly straight, & eventually the bird may not reach it's destination Importance of love, fear, and hope- in a Hadith narrated in sahib Muslim, a person went to jannah purely because of his fear of Allah's grand punishment- even when he had a completely deviated belief in aqidah It is the nature of the extraordinary goal to inspire extraordinary effort The issue is not the Earth, it's the angle - e.g 9pm on mt everest is not the same as 9pm on a flat suface!! Satisfaction is directly proportional to difficulty Nobody knows the best they are capable of- so keep trying One of the greatest azab that Allah gives to a person in his world is that He blocks you heart from feeling grateful to HIM 6:125 14:7 Losers compare with others - winners are too busy beating their own goals Muslims are lacking in mad people- people who are crazy in seeking the pleasure of Allah and they do all it takes to make the Muslim umah succeed! The world is in denial: just seeking a way for someone in Authority to say "it's okay" If you are articulate enough, you can justify anything. But justifying doesn't make it RIGHT If you have NOTHING to do, don't do it here A corrupt sect generally uses the Arabic definition without Islamic definition- confuse others Which long term goal are you sacrificing for your short term pleasure? Definition of "entertainment" - the thing that the goal-less people need to help them forget the pointlessness of their lives If you have not made any fundamental changes in your life to recognize its true purpose, you will always find a way to distract yourself from you life's pointlessness There are those who are too busy enjoying themselves in focusing towards their goal in life, to care about entertainment - the Saha ah were too focused in achieving the HIGHEST LEVELS OF JANNAH to bother about entertainment - even those who have already been promised paradise by the prophet "where do you find the time to do all this stuff?". Yawar baig: "same place you find yours" Doesn't matter what you want- what matters is what you DO (to achieve what you want) Take ownership of your own success and/or failures: you are the one responsible for it Success is where opportunity meets preparedness Education is for life - not merely for a living Reminder on the temporary nature of his world: a king had these words inscribed on his expensive ring: "this too will pass" Understand definitions in it's right context- "I had lunch with a lion" vs. "I went to the zoo and saw a lion" have completely different meanings of lion Number of hours of sleep is the biggest killer of effective time Don't cut down you showers just to decrease your daily maintenance time and increase your effective time, or else "people will know from a long distance that you have a life" "time" is not open to interpretation- 5 minutes will always be 5 minutes Effective method on dealing with destructive friends : do da'wah to them! Either one of two things will happen; (a) they distance themselves from you out of their self denial to improve themselves- alhamdulillah ! Or (b) they actually open their eyes and become good persons - walhamdulillah!! In anything that you choose to do or not to do, always communicate brand value and character The ability to feel pain is a sign of life What you have in the hand is the harvest. What you plant is the seed Circumstances don't hinder you to succeed- they only decide where to start Between growing up and growing old, there is a short window of opportunity during which we can make a difference Light illuminates, laser cuts through steel; the only difference between them is focus If you always do what you always do you will always get what you always got It is not necessarily true that if you do more in quantity you get more rewards; you get rewards for following the sunnah; which can even be less The wife is like the Grave – if she is your Paradise, then she will become your paradise in the Hereafter; if she is your Hell, then she will become your Hell in the Hereafter There is a difference between “falling in love” and “growing in love” – falling isn’t a good thing! It is not your husband’s right that you absolutely must take care of his mother, but remember – it is also his right that he can take up another wife the BEARD is the only visible sign that you are a man Allah will not ask you how much you earned – in fact, he fixed it for you! Rather, He will question you what you DID with it! Reminder to the da’ee to speak nicely to others. Allah instructed Musa to speak nicely to Fir’aun (20:44); ask yourself – are you better than Musa? Is the person you are speaking to, worse than Fir’aun? If a person as good and righteous as a Prophet of Allah, Musa, was told to speak nicely to the worst of all human beings – fir’aun – then you have no excuse to be so rude and ruthless against your companions! Avoid suspicion! The thing about suspicion is that you can always prove one is guilty, but you can never prove one’s innocence Marriage is about sharing – not about winning Those who pray together, play together, laugh together – stay together critical mindset of marriage – “CONSUMPTION: what can I get?” vs. “CONSTRIBUTION: what can I give?”. Don’t ask about your RIGHTS; ask about your DUTIES – those are what you will be questioned for! you can be a conduit to convey the Message of Allah – if you choose to ! Life is an equation; we can only control one side of it Marriages are not made on Heaven, they are made on Earth. And it starts with YOU Don’t fight back against shaytan! Use opposites to counter him – when in doubt, say “amantu billahi warasulihi” (I believe in Allah and His Messenger) Something haram doesn’t make something else invalid – but acceptance is a different story altogether (e.g. making wudhu from stolen water, giving charity from stolen money) ISLAM will only triumph by winning people’s hearts The problem today is, “we talk about the Creator without talking about the creation, and we tak about the creation without talking about the Creator” Fiqh principle: if you deliberately do something to bring something forward, you will not receive it later (e.g. killing one’s father to get his inheritance, wearing silk) Prioritize! So many ulama’ spend time and effort about debating the obligation of niqab (face covering) for women, when such a huge percentage of Muslim women in the ummah don’t even wear hijab (head covering)! If love for the ahlul-Bayt (family of the Prophet) means that I am called a syi’ah, then let the whole world bear witness that I am a syi’ah (Imam Asy-Syafi’ee) If someone saved your life from a lion, it doesn’t matter to you how famous the person is! (imam Al-Ghazali) Scientists say that when you sneeze, millions of germs go out; when you yawn, millions of germs go in ! Raising a child: you can’t just stuff him/her in a house, give it food, drinks, a bed, and some toys – this is what you do to a pet animal! Raising children : it’s not natural, it’s not talent, it won’t “just happen”, it’s not instantaneous, and yes – it’s not impossible We don’t worship a rock, but the way we worship – the lack of spirituality and knowledge – having no understanding of what we are saying – without yakin and tawakkal – it is AS IF we are worshipping a rock Do you really think Allah will accept your du’aa when the same hand that makes that du’aa is the very same hand that is used to commit sins day and night? Strategy: Solve people’s problems in the Dunya, and they will listen to you about the Akhirah People who purposely seek fatwa, don’t have taqwa  If Allah did not want good for you, you wouldn’t have been able to feed your curiosity to quench the thirst for knowledge Whenever you come across any disagreement, begin with first listing down the things you DO agree on; THEN work your way in Progress is the result of deliberately choosing to upset your equilibrium Success has a price. People don’t succeed because they aren’t ready to pay that price. People don’t succeed because they have not defined success, and they have not CHOSEN to take the initiative to pay that price BarakAllah feekum Regards, br Faisal

[izzat aziz]

thanks ya akhi faisal!!

good job!