Test of power

Auto-generated transcript:Allah is the most merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. And peace and blessings be upon the honour of the prophets and messengers. Muhammad Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Tasliman kathiran kathira. InshaAllah we will complete the khatira on the lessons from Surah Al-Kahf. And then if Ramadan starts then we will not have these khatiras after Fajr. The whole season of Ramadan is above. I have already recorded that. That will come out on our channel inshaAllah. So you can listen to that. [PAUSE] The last test. As I said there are four tests that Allah mentioned in Surah Al-Kahf. The test of faith. The test of wealth. The test of knowledge. And the last is the test of power. [PAUSE] In the test of power Allah mentioned a righteous king called Dhul-Qarnain. [PAUSE] Once again there is no need to conjecture about who exactly in history Dhul-Qarnain was and so on and so forth. If Allah wanted to specify he would have specified. If Allah did not specify it means that the actual specific identity of the individual is not important. What is important is what we learn. [PAUSE] So Allah mentioned this king. And Allah SWT then said. [PAUSE] He told us the story of this king. And the journeys that he undertook. And what he found at the end of his journey. And what he did. So Alhamdulillah all those details. And the journey that he did. And the journey that he did. Please read them. It's the last two three pages of this. And so I'm not going to talk about them here. We'll just look at the lessons from that. [PAUSE] The first and foremost lesson. [PAUSE] Is to understand and learn that all wealth and power. And all. [PAUSE] Sultan and hukuma. Belongs to Allah SWT. And he gives them. To whoever he wants. [PAUSE] Like Allah said. قُلِ اللَّهُمَّ مَالِكَ الْمُلْكَ تُؤْتِي الْمُلْكَ مَنْ تَشَاءَ وَتَنْزِعُ الْمُلْكَ مِنْ مَنْ تَشَاءَ وَتُعِزُّ مَنْ تَشَاءَ وَتُضِلُّ مَنْ تَشَاءَ بِيَدِكَ الْخَيْرِ إِنَّكَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ Allah SWT mentioned that everything belongs to Allah. Say. Allahumma my Rabb. My Allah. Allah. مَالِكَ الْمُلْكَ He is the Malik. He is the owner. And he is the, another form of recitation. He is Malik. He is the king. الْمُلْكَ Of [PAUSE] everything. Of all that exists. [PAUSE] تُؤْتِي الْمُلْكَ مَنْ تَشَاءَ He can give this mulk. All of it, part of it. To whoever he wishes. He gives it to whoever he wishes. وَتَنْزِو الْمُلْكَ مِنْ مَنْ تَشَاءَ And he takes it away from whoever he wishes. تُعِزُ مَنْ تَشَاءَ And he gives izzah and he gives prestige and honor to who he wishes. [PAUSE] وَتُظِلُّ مَنْ تَشَاءَ And he humiliates whoever he wishes. بِيَتِكَ الْخَيْرِ Allah in your hand is all khayr and all goodness. إِنَّكَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ Truly you are capable of doing whatever you want. You have control over everything. عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ So that's the first lesson. To understand this and to remember that in our lives. The purpose of all this understanding is not simply to get some information, but to implement it in our lives. Second one is to establish justice if you have wealth and power. Okay. Wealth and power doesn't mean that you have to be a king. [PAUSE] Whatever wealth you have, whatever power you have, you have one servant who works in your house, you have power over that servant. Establish justice. Don't ill-treat them. Don't make them work more than what they are supposed to work. They have to have some working hours. Follow that. Respect that. Talk to them decently, respectfully. Okay. And all the rest of it. So establish justice if you have wealth and power and don't oppress the people. Dhul-Qarnayn mentioned this when he was given the freedom to punish or to treat people kindly. Allah gave him the freedom. He said, Allah said, do what you want. He said, I will punish the criminals. I will punish those who are going against the laws of Allah SWT. But I will help those who are not because I have power. It doesn't mean I will use this power for anything negative. Third lesson is don't take from others and be content with what Allah has given you. People offered tribute to Dhul-Qarnayn. He said, I don't need tribute from you. What Allah has given me is enough. [PAUSE] And this is also similar to what Sulaiman A.S. did when the embassy came from Sabah. He said, I don't need tribute from you. He refused the gifts. And he said that what Allah has given me is enough and it is better. [PAUSE] Now, when he is saying what Allah has given me is better, it doesn't mean Allah has given me more money than you. It means Nubuwat. Allah made him a Nabi. And he is saying that what Allah has given me in the form of Nubuwat is better than you. Any gift that anybody can give me, any human being can give me. [PAUSE] So contentment and Qanaat with what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives us is far better than seeking material wealth or comparing with other people. The secret of sadness, the secret of depression is to compare with others. Whether it is wealth, whether it is whatever, your shape, your form, your house, this or that. Comparing with others is guaranteed to make you sad, to make you unhappy. [PAUSE] Number four, take steps to protect yourself or to complete your goals. Like Dhul Qarnayn, build the wall and so on. But realize that these will succeed only if Allah wills. [PAUSE] Allah has ordered us to, make effort. [PAUSE] Allah said for the human being, there is nothing more than what he works for. So we are supposed to work, we are supposed to make effort, let us make the effort. But don't believe that success comes before because of the effort. That is why the Tafseer of the Quran is the life of the Nabi . [PAUSE] This concept which I'm explaining, of making effort, but having faith in Allah, we see this in Rasulullah's conduct in the battle of Badr. He made all the effort, he made all the arrangements, he set up everything. And then he stood before Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala and he made dua. And he said, Oh Allah, if this fails, then our mission fails. [PAUSE] He did not make this dua without the effort. He could have made the same dua sitting in Masjid-e-Nabawi. He need not have gone to the field of Badr or anything. He would have made the dua, right there. [PAUSE] He did not do that. He made all the effort. He travelled, he did all this. He put himself at risk. And then finally, when all that was done, then he made dua. And this is a lesson for us. Make the effort. Don't make duas just sitting around and you know, you make dua or you tell somebody, please you make dua for me. We will make dua, what are you doing with your dua? [PAUSE] Are you doing something or not? [PAUSE] So, I think that is the point. It is very important for us to do that. Sayyidina Amar came into the Masjid one day at a time which was not time for Salah, maybe some in between. And he saw some young men sitting there. He said, what are you doing here? They said, we are Mutawakilin. We have Tawakkul on Allah. [PAUSE] Sayyidina Amar whacked them and he said, get out of here. He said, Allah SWT does not send gold and silver from the sky. Go work. Don't sit in the Masjid and say, we have Tawakkul. So, it is very important for us to understand Tawakkul is to trust in Allah SWT after making the effort. [PAUSE] Like we said the, the Prophet said, tie the camel and then trust Allah. That doesn't mean you trust the rope. [PAUSE] But it also doesn't mean you just leave the camel and say, well, Allah will take care. No. Allah has given you a hukum. So, follow the hukum. [PAUSE] So, therefore, take steps to protect yourself or complete your goals. But realize that success will come only from Allah. So don't take credit for whatever success you may get. But realize that it is the grace and mercy of Allah SWT. This whole thing of, you know, self-made man or meri mehnat se mai kamaaya. Kuj bhi nahi kamaaya. Allah Ta'ala diye to kamaaya. Mehnat se kamaana kar raha hai to, hamaal aur mazdoor aapse bharke paise wala nahi tata. Unni jaisi mehnat kar raha hai, aap apni zindagi pura hai. Aapki puri mehnat ko milai bhi to, aapke ek din ke bhar awar nahi hota. [PAUSE] Mehnaat ka kya sewaale? O toh aapko Allah de raha. [PAUSE] Kaam toh kar raha hai. Kumki Allah ka hukum hai. But Allah is giving you. If it's a question of, that you are earning with your effort, then the head load, coolie and the construction worker would, what he does in one day, if you add up all our effort for the whole life, it will not be enough. It will not equal to that. Because that fellow is working in the burning sun, in 45 degree Celsius temperatures, throughout the day. [PAUSE] Kabhi kareham. Allah karam hai. Allah never put us in that situation. [PAUSE] Number five, remember that no matter how much power or wealth you may have, it will come to an end one day. And you will stand before Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. No matter who you are. No matter what kind of king you think you are. No matter how much of power, wealth there is. One day you will stand before Allah. And I will stand before Allah. And we will all stand before Allah. [PAUSE] Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la then mentioned in this, after this whole story is over, some there are two or three very, of course the entire Quran is something to think about, but two or three very, very important ayat. Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la mentioned those who are the great, greatest losers with respect to their deeds. Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la said, Qul, hal nunabiyukum bil aksarin a'mala allatheena dhalla sa'yuhum fil hayati al-dunya wa hum yahsabuna anna hum yuhsinuna suna'a ulaika allatheena kafaru bi ayati rabbihim wa liqa'ihi fahabitat a'maluhum falaa nuqeemu lahum yawmal qiyamati waznah thalika jaza'uhum jahannam bima kafaru wa'ttakhadhu ayati wa rusuli huzwa Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la said, Say, O Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, shall we tell you who are the greatest losers with respect to their deeds?