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How Can I Stay Motivated Without Seeing Results? | Attaching to Allah - Episode 8

Every single person in the grave has things they wish they could have done or seen before death came to them. The Prophet ﷺ called these “long hopes” — dreams that you have that can never materialize because life ends. But the fruits of the seeds you’ve planted may materialize after your death.

How do you keep yourself motivated to work towards a dream you’ll never be able to see? And what can we learn from the times we have been touched by the legacies of people who have passed, even though they never lived to see it?

Tune in with Dr. Omar Suleiman, Ustadha Sarah Sultan and guests for episode 8 of Attaching to Allah, Yaqeen Institute's 2022 Dhul Hijjah Series.

Download the full list of du'as from the series.

Transcript

This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
They're building the Ka'bah in this empty desert and then here we are today. You know, whenever you're making the tawaf, sometimes these thoughts come to you. It's like, they did this, you know, with the Maqam Ibrahim standing, sitting right there, you see his footstep right there. But he had no idea that place will have millions and millions of people. Allahumma akthirmali wa waladi wa barik li fima a'taytani wa atil hayati ala ta'atik wa ahsin amali wa ghfir li. Remember the site of the empty Ka'bah when pandemic first happened. Didn't it look strange? SubhanAllah, think about that moment. Ibrahim A.S. and Ismail A.S. finished the building of that Ka'bah in a barren desert. Nothing around. No people. No clock tower. Complete empty desert. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, adhn to Ibrahim A.S. They make this du'a together, oh Allah accept. And Allah says, adhn. Make the call. And Ibrahim A.S. looks around and says, Rabbi, oh my Lord, what's going to cause my voice to reach? And Allah says, adhn alay albalakh. Call and upon me is to deliver it. It's okay, just make the call and you'll see what happens.
SubhanAllah, Ibrahim A.S. never lived to see the huge groups of people, throngs of people coming from around the world, making hajj in the way that he taught. He never got to see it, but that did not do away with his motivation. He did not get to see much of the glory that he planted the seeds for. In fact, the majority of it on this earth. And there's this idea in Islam, right, of sadaqa jariyya, plant the seeds of something that outlives you, but don't get attached to the outcome. In fact, it can even become a fitna, it can become a test in the da'wah, doing good work. Like I need to see the outcome. I need to see this happen in front of my eyes in order to be validated, in order to feel fulfilled. And we're constantly reminded that, you know, part of doing it sincerely for Allah Subhanu Wa Ta'ala is not being so attached to the outcome. Now those are good dreams. Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, he mentioned that each one of us is struck by tuul al-aman, strong hopes. We have hopes in life that never actually materialize because life ends before they can materialize. Right? So he drew the line, SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, here's death and here are the hopes that you had in life. One time he even took two stones and he tossed them, SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. He said, you see the one that landed further away? Those are your hopes in life. The one that's closer to you is your death. Every single person in their grave has things that they wish they could have done and they wish they could have seen. Noble or not so noble, but they feel like there were things that were left in this dunya. Is there ever a moment where you kind of think back and you say, you know, I don't know, I'm not going to live to see this and it's okay, where you were able to visualize something in the future and find motivation towards it, like a legacy or a project or some good
or some dream that you were able to disconnect yourself from the outcome, but just say, you know, I still want to plant the seeds and I'm going to see where it goes. Is there a story in your life about someone's legacy touching you, even though they did not live to see it? You like wish they could have seen the impact? Ibrahim, alayhi salam. You know, the example you just mentioned about them building the Kaaba in this empty desert and then here we are today. You know, whenever you're making the tawaf, sometimes these thoughts come to you. It's like, you know, they did this, you know, with the Maqam Ibrahim standing, sitting right there, you know, you see his footstep right there, but he had no idea that place will have millions and millions of people coming. And then this past Ramadan, for a record, I don't know how many millions, it's just mind blowing. Alhamdulillah, I had the opportunity to go to Umrah in March and just like you said, you know, you go to the locations, you know, about of Uhud, hiking, you know, cave hero in the middle of the night. And even with the Kaaba, even now there's so much construction and, you know, the guards can kind of get on your nerves a little bit because you just want to be there to worship. But what really helped me was to remember that, you know, somebody was here in our history that made it possible for us to be here right now. And I think, you know, it's such an anchor to hold on to when we learn about history and you know, those who came before us, our grandparents and knowing about, you know,
the struggles that they went through. There's so much power in knowing our history and, you know, Islam and Al-Isya and all that stuff that gives us the strength, you know, to proudly say, you know, that we're Muslim and that this is who we came from. I think it's amazing. SubhanAllah. Yeah, absolutely. You know, just to add to that, you know, I do think, you know, we as Muslims here in North America, for example, we're very lucky to be here at this time because we don't know the struggles, you know, our elders went through to like preserve this religion. The fact that we're able to like just go down the street and there's a masjid literally within five minutes, ten minutes, we stand on the shoulders of giants, you know, like the auntie who had her, you know, Islamic school in like a little basement or like the uncle who opened his home, his garage for like so that everyone can come and pray. I don't think we will ever see that because we have all these mega masjids and what not, mashaAllah. But, you know, all these uncles and these aunties who came here, the struggles to like preserve their religion, to hold on to their religion and, you know, there's someone who probably will never know, live to see the fruits of their labor, right? Where every part of, you know, the city, this country, there's a masjid now, subhanAllah. So yeah, you know, that is something I think about very deeply. I imagine when they see them on the Day of Judgment, these kids from 200 years after them that are still praying in a masjid that they started or an institution or that are Muslim because they were a part of the guidance of their great, great, great grandparents and like, who are you coming to testify for me on the Day of Judgment? Like I'm here because it was because of your dua, it was because of your donation, it was because of something that you did that influenced it. You're right, you know, people that live long enough are like, you know, my parents got
married in the one masjid in Houston. I'm like, this sounds insane saying that the one masjid in Houston at the time, like what? The one masjid in Houston at the time, you know? And it's like subhanAllah, now you got the masjids, the schools, the institutions, and the barakah, the blessing of it just multiplied. Sometimes we get hard on ourselves, we're down on ourselves, like you know, about the challenges and the obstacles that we're facing. So you know, subhanAllah, you look at your elders and they see so much khair, like so much goodness, like, because they saw it come to fruition in their lifetimes. You don't remember what we were like, you know, 20, 30 years ago, 40 years ago, you know, this idea of thousands of masjids and schools and institutions, unheard of, you know, we would never have imagined, and here they see it in their lifetimes. But a sign of sincerity is that you're not connected to seeing it in your lifetime, nor are you connected with having your name on it. You know, one of the ways that you challenge yourself in terms of your own sincerity is if someone else does a good effort, are you pleased for them? I mean, of course, you want to share in their reward, or are you jealous? Jealous and envious, not in a way that's good, in a way that's negative, like I should have done that, I should have got that credit, you know, but you're just happy to see those fruits, you know, subhanAllah, of good work and people that Allah has blessed to do good work. That's one of the signs of sincerity, is you make du'a for those people, may Allah bless them, they're doing so much good, may Allah preserve that blessing upon them, right? So you're not connected to seeing it in your own lifetime, nor are you connected to being the one on the platform, you know, raising up that award, right? Instead like alhamdulillah, it's being done. And one of the lessons that, you know, especially that is important for people that want to
do good work and have impact, is that as a believer, you do not become obsessed with seeing the fruits of your labor. You stay occupied with planting the seeds. It's like when you make a du'a, like when Umar bin Khattab radiAllahu anhu used to say that, I don't concern myself with the answer to my du'a, I'm just blessed that Allah gave me the ability to make the du'a, right? Because I trust Him with the answer. The same way, your a'mal, your deeds are forms of du'a, like ya Allah accept, ya Allah accept, like you gave me a seed, I'm going to plant it. The fact that you let me be a part of planting that seed, alhamdulillah, I'm pleased. That's while we might not get to build the Ka'bah and see, you know, millions and millions of people, but we can certainly be a part of that legacy, biidhnahi ta'ala. And you know, one of the things that, you know, I once heard a righteous person say in their du'a in a very natural and blessed way was, oh Allah, surprise me on the day of judgment with the good deeds I didn't know about. Surprise me, like, you know, people, you read about people that are, may Allah protect us, that are shocked because they forgot their sins. What about those people that didn't live to see the full effect of their good deeds? And those good deeds are showing up the way that we see in the case of Ibrahim A.S. May Allah Subhana wa ta'ala make us people like that. Allah hu ameen. So Sister Sara, motivation is particularly very difficult to maintain, especially when you're not seeing results. How does a person maintain motivation when they're not seeing anything come out of their efforts? It's incredibly hard, you know, when you're working really, really hard on something and you don't see the end result being at all what you envisioned. It's really hard to stay on track. Obviously, maintaining a positive intention can be very, very helpful, but that's still something that's really difficult.
And, you know, I think about the example of Hajar, you know, in the middle of the desert and the way Zemzem came to be in that situation. And that story for me is a reminder of the fact that, you know, sometimes our accomplishments are very, the end result of our efforts can be very unpredictable. Right, here she is and all she's doing, her efforts, right, what she's trying to do is she's trying to survive. She's trying to have her child survive. But through her actions to promote survival, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la has given us this Mayyad Zemzem, the water of Zemzem for generation upon generation upon generation in these centuries. And it just goes to show that a lot of times it's not just about, it's not about the effort necessarily. It's about this is what Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la has decided is going to happen. Whether it was going to be through Hajar or whether it was going to be through, you know, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la just saying be and it is, that Zemzem was meant to be there. And I think sometimes if we remember that, that our job, like Hajar's job in this situation is just to try. That's our job, is to put in effort. And Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la promises us that on the day of judgment, all of our efforts will be seen. All of the good that we've accumulated, we will be recompensed in full. He doesn't say that all of the end results you're going to be recompensed for. No, it's your efforts that you're going to be recompensed for. And realizing that can really alleviate a lot of the responsibility. We put a lot of responsibility on our shoulders for things that are not our responsibility. We talked about the guilt that comes with not being able to save somebody that we care about. So this idea of putting guidance on our own shoulders, of putting risk on our own shoulders, our provision, putting the path that our children take.
SubhanAllah, if any of you have children, you realize even a one-year-old has their own mind and you can't control what they do. And so realizing that there's so much that's out of our control and that when you leave it to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, that responsibility, that heavy burden can be alleviated. So asking ourselves, is this my responsibility to bear? Is this success of this effort my responsibility to bear? And no, it's not. And so you leave it to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la and it helps to alleviate a lot of that burden. I think a big part of what makes it such a struggle when we want an accomplishment to show up with the end result that we're anticipating is that we base it on the success and qualities that we see in other people and what Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la has gifted them. All of this goodness is through Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. And instead, we should be looking internally and thinking, what are the strengths and qualities that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la has given me that I can make an effort through? And so asking ourselves that, that am I basing my motivation on what somebody else has accomplished and me wanting to emulate that? And can I now translate that to what are the qualities and strengths that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la has positioned me for and how can I utilize that to please Him? So is there a story in your life about someone who deeply impacted you but hasn't lived to see all that they meant to you? Please share their story below.
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