Reminders
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"Avoiding that which doesn't concern you” | Daily Reminders
With most of us with a lot more time in our hands, it's easy to get lost in things that are not beneficial to us. Sh. Omar Suleiman encourages us to rethink the ways we involve ourselves in other people's affairs and the things that we busy ourselves with.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Once again everyone, welcome back to our nightly reflection. Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim. Alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen. Wa salatu wa salamu ala rasulihi al-kareem wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa salam tasirun kathira. I hope you all are doing well insha'Allah. So I wanted to actually connect tonight's reflection to what we spoke about last night. So last night we mentioned this hadith in brief where the Prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam mentioned the most beloved of actions to Allah. And the beginning of that hadith is that nakhayran nas anfa'alhum linnas that the most beloved of people or the best of people in the sight of Allah are those who are the most beneficial to the people. So the best of people are those that are most beneficial to the people. And then ahabbu al-amali ilallah the most beloved of actions to Allah. And then I mentioned the three things that come in that narration and to thkira ala qalbi akhika surura or tut'imahu khubza or takdi a'anhu daina that you enter a sense of joy into the heart of your brother or sister, a sense of inner joy or that you feed them a loaf of bread or that you do away with one of their debts. So I wanted to look at the flip side of that. So the beginning of that hadith suggests that one way to know that you are loved by Allah or one way to directly find yourself in the category of those who are seen favorably by their creator, may Allah make us all amongst them is to look at how beneficial you're being. Now the other side of that, I wanted to talk about a statement from Imam Hassan al-Basri rahimahullah ta'ala. Imam Hassan al-Basri said min alamati irad Allah ta'ala anil abd an yaj'ala shuklahu fee ma la ya'ni that one of the signs that Allah has abandoned a person is that he busies him with that which is of no benefit to him or that which is of no concern to him. So again, min alamati irad Allah ta'ala anil abd
one of the signs that Allah has turned away from a person is that that person is busy with that which is of no benefit to them. That person is busy with that which is of no concern to them. And this connects with a hadith that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said min husni islam al-mar'i tarkuhu ma la ya'ni that one of the signs of a person's soundness in faith is that they abandon that which does not concern them. So part of the perfection of faith is ignoring that which doesn't concern you. So if you connect the two, you know, this saying from Imam Hassan al-Basri rahimahullah which can be extrapolated from the saying of the Prophet peace be upon him to the hadith yesterday, if the most beloved of people to Allah or the best of people in the sight of Allah are those that are most beneficial to the people, then those that are most abandoned by Allah are those that involve themselves in the affairs of the people in a way that's not beneficial, okay? So there's a direct connection. The first person is someone that involves themselves with the people not to expose them, not to humiliate them, not to waste time, but to directly benefit them, to be of aid to them. The second is someone who involves themselves in the affairs of people in a way that they're looking for their flaws, they're looking for their faults, they're looking for their next gossip material, they're looking for things that don't have any benefit to them whatsoever. And so that first person that involves themselves in the affairs of the people with the intention of benefiting the people is the opposite then of a person who involves themselves with the affairs of the people in a way of humiliating them or exposing their flaws or following up. تتبع العرات as the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam mentioned it, constantly looking for the next gossip, constantly looking for the next juicy thing that's being spoken about, involving themselves in things that are of no benefit. So the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said that one of the ways to make your Islam sound,
to make your faith sound, is to abandon that which doesn't concern you. And this is really important right now because a lot of us have a lot more time on our hands, we're spending more time on social media, we're spending more time looking through different things. And it's very easy to get lost in following the latest news and the latest news not in a way that's beneficial or not in a way that informs you about the world, but in a way that gets you caught up in the next drama. If there was ever a time for us to put a moratorium on Muslim Twitter drama, then it would be now. If there was ever a time for us to rethink our social media usage, it would be now, right in the midst of this pandemic, where people are worried about how they're going to bury their loved ones, where people are worried about how they're going to fulfill their obligations in a way that they've never had to think about before. This is the time for us to really rethink the way that we involve ourselves in the affairs of other people, the things that we busy ourselves with. That first person is someone that looks to see how they can be of assistance to the people so that they could benefit themselves in the sight of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. That second person is someone who looks to see how they can humiliate the people or how they can get involved in the latest gossip and drama in a way that distances themselves from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And it also is just so unproductive. And by the way, I do want to actually point out something here that to say that something doesn't concern you is not to say that it's not important. There are some things that are important that you don't need to weigh in on and you don't need to waste your time with, right? There are some things that just don't concern you. And that's what the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam told us to pay attention to. Is this of benefit to me? Do I need to be involved in this? Do I need to be following this? Is there anything that I'm going to gain out of this for my dunya or for my akhira?
And if you read all of the books about people that get ahead, people that are productive, they always talk about how you use your idle time and how you perfect your craft. Now our craft as believers is trying to please Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, right? And Luqman al-Hakim, who's a great man that Allah talks about in the Quran, that some of the minor opinion is that he was a nabi, a prophet, but he's certainly a great figure that we hear about in the Quran, who excelled with his character, whose advice to his son is priceless advice, for us. He was asked, Ibn al-Jawzi rahimahullah says, he was asked, how is it that you reach the position that you reached? How is it that you got to that place that you got? And he said two things. He said, بصدق حديثي with being truthful with my speech وتركي لما لا يعنيني and abandoning that which did not concern me. So the first thing again was I was truthful with my speech. I was someone that constantly spoke the truth. I made sure that I did not lie. And the second thing was I did not busy myself with that which was of no concern to me. And there's a connection between the two. Because if a person engages constantly gossip and things that are of no benefit to them, they're bound to transmit a lie even if they didn't intend to lie. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that it's enough of lying, enough of a share of lying for a person. And يتحدث بكل ما يسمع that he passes on everything that he hears. That you just relay everything that you hear. And so if you're constantly engaging things that are not productive, that are not beneficial to you, you're bound to also lose your threshold of truth, your standard of speaking the truth constantly. And so بصدق حديثي the way that he got ahead was with the truthfulness of his speech وتركي لما لا يعنيني and to abandon that which was of no concern to me.
So you need to ask yourself, how do I keep myself busy with things that are of benefit to me? Now I should say with that, that leisure, that is halal, leisure that is permissible, is not haram, it's not forbidden. In fact it can be used to propel you towards that which is good. So taking a break, engaging things that don't involve gossip, that don't involve things that are haram, that don't involve things that are forbidden, engaging things that are not full of drama, full of fitna, just engaging things that are lighthearted, that are within the bounds of permissibility, for the sake of getting better, for the sake of recharging, for the sake of refreshing, those things are actually positive. So it's okay to engage your share of sports, engage your share of halal comedy, engage your share of whatever it may be, have some fun, lighthearted humor, as we talked about yesterday, sometimes that can even be an act of worship. But just not getting too caught up in things that are of no benefit to you, to where it becomes like an occupation, an addiction, to where you know everything about everything, that has nothing to do with you. But you're just so obsessed with always following things through, getting bogged down in those things, in the process killing your time, in the process looking at things you're not supposed to be looking at, transmitting things you're not supposed to be transmitting, developing certain things about your, certain feelings, maybe about your brothers and sisters, getting caught up in things that are of just no benefit to you whatsoever. And I want to end on that note with something just very beautiful. Sheikh Mohammed Mokhtar al-Shanqiti mentioned, how the believer lives their lives, or how they determine whether something is of benefit or not. Okay. So if من حسن اسلام المأوي تركه ما لا يعني that if from the goodness of a person's Islam is that they abandon that which is of no benefit to them,
and that it's a sign that Allah has abandoned you or turned away from you, which is very scary because right now we're all thinking about how do we get on God's side, how do we get Allah on our side, how do we connect to the Creator, how do we beseech Him, how do we get His aid right now in these difficult moments. So, you know, there's a direct connection then, if a person is getting bogged down in things that are of no benefit. So that's one side of things. And then again, engaging things or engaging the affairs of the world to see how you can be of benefit, right, which is the complete opposite perspective, a complete shift in mindset with how you deal with it. So anyway, Sheikh Mohammed Mokhtar al-Shanqiti said something very beautiful. He said that the believer sees affairs, beneficial affairs, in one of two ways. He said, إما مقبل على شأن من شؤون الدنيا يصلحوا يستعينوا به على آخرته He said either a person engages a matter related to this world that will rectify his affairs and help him prepare for the hereafter. So what's beneficial in the worldly sense is finding something that will help rectify my worldly affairs within the bounds of permissibility and help me prepare for the hereafter. So إما مقبل على شأن من شؤون الدنيا يصلحوا يستعينوا به على آخرته وإما مقبل على شأن من شؤون آخرته يستعدوا به للقاء ربه This is just so beautiful. My translation is not going to do it justice. He said, The second thing is a matter related to the hereafter that will prepare him for his meeting with his Lord. So I'm engaging something that is worldly so that it can either rectify my world or prepare me for the hereafter or I engage something that is hereafter oriented so that it can better prepare me for my meeting with Allah, for my meeting with my Creator, with my Lord. So again, he said either a matter مقبل على شأن من شؤون الدنيا
either a matter related to this world يصلحوا يستعينوا به على آخرته that will rectify his affairs, help him prepare for the hereafter وإما مقبل على شأن من شؤون آخرته يستعدوا به للقاء ربه or a matter related to the hereafter that would prepare me for my meeting with my Lord. So again, just find as much as you can. I mean, it's going to be very easy for us as we're getting used to this new life, right? Allah knows how long it's going to be to get really, really lost in a bunch of gossip, in a bunch of drama, in a bunch of fitna. You know, people are going to have so much time for toxicity now that they should have been abandoning even when they had very little time. Ask yourself when you start getting caught up in something, like, is this really going to benefit me? Is this really going to help me in any way? Is this even recharging me or is this corrupting myself? Is this corrupting my nafs? And find things as much as you can, even in the realm of leisure. Be intentional about your leisure. Be intentional about your breaks. That you're taking a break so that you can recharge, but you don't get lost in those things. And as we're trying to find structure, inshaAllah, Ta'ala, to get our days right, so that we're doing everything in proper timing, it's going to be very important for us to divide our affairs effectively and efficiently, inshaAllah. So I pray that that's a benefit to you. And one of, you know, I guess the silver lining of the time that we have right now, you know, it's really refreshing, alhamdulillah, to see some of the beautiful talks that are coming out, some of the beautiful lectures and programs, things that have moved virtually. Though we definitely want to engage the masajid once again. The houses of Allah again. It's just beautiful to see all of the different institutes, all the different seminaries, all the different scholars and imams that are putting out just beneficial content. So there's enough for you to engage, inshaAllah, in this time. And I pray that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allows you to find this a benefit as well. And I will see you all tomorrow, inshaAllah.
Also, on that note, by the way, if you go to Yaqeen Institute's Facebook page, you'll find that we have a daily reminder there at Yaqeen Institute's Facebook page every morning, inshaAllah ta'ala. So you'll find that the first one was today with our dear brother, Dr. Attaf Hussain, the vice president of Yaqeen, uploaded a very beneficial reminder today there. And inshaAllah ta'ala tomorrow, I believe we have Sheikh Mohammed Al-Shanawi Abu Abad, uploading also something or coming online for something very beneficial inshaAllah ta'ala as well. So jazakumullahu khayran. I pray that you all keep well. I appreciate your comments. And I'll see you tomorrow, inshaAllah. Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
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