Concentration is critical

Auto-generated transcript:In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, the 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 companions. Peace be upon them all. And after that, my dear brothers and sisters, there is a question that I keep getting asked every once in a while about whether I am willing to, and if I am not willing to, then why I am not willing to, present my lectures in shorter forms. So people ask me, can you, you know, whatever you have been, you are trying to teach, can you do this in five minutes? Or can you do it in, you know, something like this, which is a very short time. And I have always resisted that. I've always said no. Now, I want to address that and try and explain mostly for my friends who ask me this question. I know they're very sincere people. So it's really in honour of their sincerity that I want to that I want to make this even stronger. So, it's not a disclaimer, but it's something that I want to state. And my answer to them is as follows. Which is, take the, as we always say, you know, the best example is the example of Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. And the best example is the example of the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. And the example of his, those who followed him in Exodus. So let me give you a couple of examples. Take for example, Abu Hurairah Radiyallahu Anhu. Abu Hurairah Radiyallahu Anhu used to, he said, somebody asked him, they said, how is it that you have, you have quoted so many hadiths, whereas Abu Hurairah Radiyallahu Anhu and others who have, who were and who spent far longer with Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, have not quoted that many hadiths. So Abu Hurairah Radiyallahu Anhu, now he's not criticizing Abu Hurairah Radiyallahu Anhu, but generally speaking, he said that while you people, meaning he's talking to whoever asked that question, he said, while you people were busy in the markets and in earning livings and in doing business, I used to spend that time with Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. He said, I used to spend so much time with him Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, that I would not even have time to eat. And there were times when I would fall down and I would faint. I would faint with exhaustion and with hunger. And people thought that I was having an epileptic fit. And they would, those days the sort of cure or antidote to this epileptic fits was that people used to, you used to make them smell leather sandals. So they would hold up, you know, their slippers under his nose. And he said, people didn't realize that the reason I fell down was not because of epilepsy, but because of hunger. And the reason I was so hungry, to the point of starvation, to the point of literally falling down, was because I spent all that time with Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Second example. Imam Qi gur самой Larif was sent by his mother small little kid. So he came and Imam Malik had a system where he would give dars of hadith muwatta between Asr and Maghrib in the courtyard of the masjid and Nabi Muhammad Sharif and then after the Salat of Maghrib Salat, he would give the dars inside the masjid between Maghrib and Nisha. So two sessions, not ten minute beats, two sessions. So the two of them together were a couple of hours. Maybe more than that. The time between Asr and Maghrib in the Hijaz is a long time. And then between Maghrib and Nisha. So these dars he used to give. So now he comes there, he starts the dars and this little kid less than ten years old is sitting right in front at his feet. And as Imam Malik is speaking he notices that this little kid is doodling in the sand with his index finger. So because there was no carpets and stuff. So he would sit on the sand. And this little kid is with his finger, he seems to be doodling, making little patterns. So Imam Malik got very irritated. But he was a very kind person. He never said anything. He didn't say anything. He didn't stop the kid. You know, he didn't want to embarrass this kid in front of people by criticizing him or something. So he didn't say anything. But obviously he didn't like what was happening. And this continued. So after this, then the Adhan for Daghrib was called. And they went inside. So in the second session, this kid came and he made salab and he said I am so and so. I have come. My mother has sent me. I have come to be your student and I request you to accept me as your student. Imam Malik said, sorry, go back. I will not accept you as a student. Now this little boy who was who would later become the student of Imam Malik, the great Imam Ash-Shafei, he started crying. And he said, what have I done? He said, I came here to study from you. And what is my mistake? What did I do wrong? You know, you are rejecting me and I've done nothing. Imam Shafi said, no, you have your mistake is that I saw that you are not doing anything. I saw that you are not doing anything. I saw that you are not doing anything. I saw that you have no seriousness with regard to learning. Because I saw that you were doodling in the sand. I am talking about the Hadith of Rasulullah I am explaining things here and you are doodling in the sand. Right? Now, Imam Shafi says to him, he says, yeah, Imam, I was not doodling in the sand. I was memorizing your dars. Yes. So now, I imagine Imam Malik's reaction. Imam Malik says, maybe he said to himself that this kid is not only lazy and distracted, but this kid is also cheeky and disrespectful because he's trying to tell me that he memorized the lesson. Remember the time period is easily more than one hour, probably two hours. So Imam Malik said, okay, so you memorized the lesson? He said, yes. Okay. So he said, recite to him. He said, yes. And this little boy started from Bismillah, walhamdulillah, wasalatu wasalamu ala Rasulillah, and so on. And he completely recited the entire dars from Asr to Maghrib to Imam Shafi, to Imam Malik, and of course all the students and so on were there. Everyone is absolutely astounded. Imam Malik hugged him, he kissed him, and he sat him down, and he said, I accept you as my student. Now, think about this. Imam Malik's dars was not geared for 10 year old kids or five year old kids. His dars was his dars. If you come to that dars and you don't understand, it's your job to do whatever is required to make sure you understand. You don't understand. You don't tell the Imam, teach it like this, teach it like that. If you, this dars is for a period that he decides from Asr to Maghrib. You don't go there and say, well, can you cut this down into, you know, 30 second bits because my attention span is only that of a goldfish or a monkey. Can you turn it down to five minutes, five minutes or 10 minutes? Because this is how much the youth of today are able to concentrate. They don't say any of that. They go, they sit there, they take notes, they pay attention, and they study. Whether you're five years old or 10 years old or 500 years old makes no difference. You go there because you are interested. You go there because you want to learn. You go there because you are a winner. Third example. Ibrahim Adhem Rahmato Laleh, the king of Balkh, which was a kingdom in modern day Afghanistan. He decided that he needed Tazkiyat-ul-Nafs and went in search of a Sheikh. He gave up his kingdom. He abdicated. He abdicated his throne. His son was put on the throne. He abdicated his throne. And he left like a habit without an entourage, without, you know, just with his personal belongings, minimal personal belongings. And went in search of a Sheikh. He found a Sheikh and said to him, I'm Zonzo and I have come to learn from you and please teach me and accept me as your student. And the Sheikh says to him, I accept you on condition that you must do what I tell you. He said, sure, I will do what I did, what you tell me. I came here for that. So he points to a stable, which was a distance from his residential dwelling. And he says, that is the stable of my horse. Go there, make a place for yourself in one corner and stay there and food will be sent to you. And your job is to stay there in dhikr. Pray and make dhikr of Allah . The teacher does not tell him how long. He doesn't say, this is the first stage in your journey. Just go and stay there. Ibn Ahmad Ibn Abdul Ali could have asked him, I will stay there for how long? 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 10 hours, 15 hours, 10 days, 15 days. He didn't ask him. He said, go. He went. So now he goes into the stable and those of you who have not seen or felt or smelt the inside of a stable, go find a near place. Go find the nearest you know, stables near your house and go and ask to be let inside and go and smell what a stable looks like. See what a stable looks like and smell what it smells like. So, he went there and he cleaned up a small part of the stable and he put his bedding there in a musalla and he is praying. That evening, the groom of the horse brings the horse. The Sheikh tells him, there is a man there in the stable. When you go and stable the horse, when you go and park the horse and you are grooming the horse, he says, throw some dirt, throw some dust onto that man. Now the groom also knows, you know, because this is a spiritual hospital. And the groom knows what is happening. Here is a patient who needs spiritual care, who has come and the teacher is the spiritual doctor. And they must have been people before. So the groom knows what's what's happening. So the groom takes the horse. He ties the horse there, secures the horse. And as he is there, the groom takes the horse and he ties the horse there, secures the horse. And as he is there, he takes the horse and he ties the horse. And as he is grooming the horse, he throws some dirt on Ibraheem Rahmatullah Ali. Now remember,