Success is assured

Auto-generated transcript:As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. And achieving success and trying. And he said, well, even after trying, if you are not successful, what shall you do? So I said to him, I say to you, that after trying, not being successful is not possible. It is not an option. Because Allah SWT said, وَأَلْلَيْسَ لِلْإِنسَانِ إِلَّا مَسَعَ Allah SWT said, there is nothing for a human being, for a person, except that which he works for. Which means that if he works for it, he will get it. The option that he worked for it, he tried, but he failed, does not exist. Allah did not say that some people will try and fail, some people will try and succeed. No. Allah said, for a person is only that which he tries for. Which means, if he tries, he will get it. If he does not try, he will not get it. Now this is a very important thing to keep in mind. And not get discouraged. When you are working hard, and you seem to be working for a long time, and you find that, you know, you are not achieving your results, it is not something to lose hope. It is only to understand that maybe, either my way, what I am doing, the method is not the best method, or I have not put in enough time. If you see the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, he talks about the 10,000 hour rule, and he says the difference between somebody who has worked 6,000 hours on something, and 8,000 hours on something, and 10,000 hours on something, the difference is, the difference in magnitude is literally transformation. It is not a linear progression, but it is something which is, you know, multiples of what between 6 and 8, and 6 and 10. It is like multiples of that. So, think about it like this. This is an example which I have given many times before. Those of you who listen regularly, you will remember this. Example I give is that of somebody who has gone to, say for example, you go to a kirana store, you go to a grain store, you go to a provision store, and you ask him to give you, say, 20 kilograms of wheat, or 20 kilograms of rice. So, he puts, he takes the scale, you know, the regular balance. He puts a 20 kilogram weight in, and he has to weigh in, like, one pan, and as soon as he does that, that pan descends to the countertop, and the other pan is up in the air. Then he takes a scoop, and he starts putting in the rice or the wheat into the other pan, which is usually shaped like a kind of bucket to hold the grain. And he keeps pouring the grain in, he keeps putting the grain in. And say, for example, now he's putting in 2 kilos, 5 kilos, 6 kilos, 10 kilos, 15 kilos, 17, 18 kilos, 19 kilos. What do you see in the position of the two pans? You will see there is no change in the position of the two pans. The pan with the weight is still sitting firmly on the countertop, and the pan with the rice in it is up in the air. Now, have you ever, at a stage like this, which you would have seen if you go to any store, this is something that you will see. Has it ever happened to you that the salesperson turns around and says to you, you know what, I don't think this is going to work. As you can see, I'm working hard. As you can see, I'm working consistently. As you can see, I've been working continuously. I've not slacked off. I've not stopped doing my work. But as you can see also that nothing is happening. So I think maybe you should go somewhere else. Try some other store, because it is not possible to weigh 20 kilograms of wheat or rice in this store. Has this ever happened to you? It will never happen to you, because if the man says that, you will just laugh, because you will say, this is the most idiotic thing I've ever heard. What do you mean it's not possible? What's not possible? You have a 20 kilogram weight in one pan, and all you need to do is to put 20 kilograms of rice in the other pan. And if the pan is not descending, if the other pan is still not descending to the countertop, if it is still up in the air, just simply means that there is not 20 kilos of rice is not in that pan. That's all it means. So what do you do? Keep putting more. Now, this whole conversation will not happen, because the man understands that. So he keeps on putting rice. And then you find that when he is, say, for example, at 19.8, then you will find the other pan also starting to come down. There is this kind of movement between the two pans. The other pan also starts to come down. The pan with the weight starts to go up until the bottom. The other pan also starts to come down. The pan with the weight starts to go up until the bottom. And then the two of them are almost level. Then the man, instead of taking a scoop, he now takes the grain in his hand and he releases a little bit at a time until both the pans are absolutely equal. And then to make you happy, he will put in a few more grains so that the rice pan is a little bit lower than the pan with the weight, which means that you are getting a bit more than 20 kilograms. And then he will take the rice out. And he will put it in a bag and give it to you. And you are happy. He is happy. Right? Successful. What contributed to that success? What led to that success? Just consistent effort. Just consistent effort. So now, if, for example, if you are working on your project, whatever the project is, to ask yourself, what shall I do? How long should I work? And the answer is until you are successful. Until you are successful. Because Allah promised success. Allah did not promise failure. Allah did not promise you doubt. Allah did not say it may happen, it may not happen. Allah said, There is nothing for the human being except what he works for. Meaning, what he works for, he will get. As simple as that. So therefore, we have to be very clear in our mind. So therefore, we have to be very clear in our mind. And say, let me make sure that I am doing my part of the job, which is consistent, sincere effort. If I am doing my part of the job, if I am doing consistent, sincere effort, then success is not just a chance. Success is absolutely assured. Inshallah, you will be successful. Now, having said this, you say, well, I've been working very hard. I don't see much results. Then what you must do is not lose faith in success. Just re-examine your situation. When you look at it, you say, well, examine this and say, have I made enough effort? Number one. Number two, is it the right kind of effort? Because sometimes what happens is that we spend a lot of time and energy doing the wrong thing. And then you find that, oh, I have not, I'm going in the wrong direction. So you are still traveling, you're still making effort, but the effort is in the wrong direction or in the wrong direction. You are still doing it the wrong way or even if it is not wrong, it may be a way which is kind of, you know, not the best way. So therefore, what do you do? You say, well, I change my effort, I change my method, I do not change my goal. That is very important. I do not change my goal because if I'm changing my goal, then, it has no meaning, right? Or if I give up, it has no meaning. There's no question of giving up. Why would you give up? When Allah has assured you success, why would you give up? So, we continue to work. We continue to work with sincerity. We don't work to, you know, please anybody or impress anybody. We work to please Allah SWT. We work sincerely. We work consistently. And we periodically re-examine our methodology and re-examine the amount of effort. And then, inshaAllah, we will be successful. Final point, sometimes the success will come in the Akhira. This is also part of the story. That you might feel that, well, in this life, I did a lot of work. I did it in the right way. I did it for, you know, lots of years. But I did not see success in this life. Then maybe it's a kind of thing where, where Allah is going to show you that success in the Akhira. And that's important to remember that. Because Allah SWT promised success. Allah did not say it will happen in this life. He didn't say it will happen in this world. He said, for a human being, there's nothing except what he works for. Meaning, some of that he'll get in this life. Some of that he'll get in the Akhira. And since effort itself is commendable and effort itself is, inshaAllah, rewardable, then we expect Allah SWT and we have the best hope for Allah SWT that He will grant us success in the Akhira. We ask Allah SWT for success in the Dunya and the Akhira. رَبَّنَا آتِنَا فِي الدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةً وَفِي الْآخِرَةِ حَسَنَةً وَكَنَا عَذَبَنَا رَبُّا وَصَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَى الْعَمِلِ وَعَلَى الْعَالِيِّ وَسَهَبَ إِجْمَاءٍ بِرَحَةِكَرَهُمْ وَرَحَمِكَ