Ask “Why?” Not, “What?” cover art

Ask “Why?” Not, “What?”

Ask “Why?” Not, “What?”

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 https://youtu.be/UHamiG5ea7k Auto-generated transcript: Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen. Wa salatu wa salamu ala ashrafil abdiyaj wal mursaleen. Alhamdulillahi Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam. Tasliman kaseeran kaseera. Abna al-Badu. My brothers and sisters, Subhanallah, I never get tired of these beautiful views of Al-Masjid al-Nabi wa al-Sharif. Once again, I'm sitting very close to the Roda Mubarak. Just behind it, a few steps away. I am thinking of the Hadith of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. The first Hadith in Bukhari, narrated by one of the Qatab-ul-Anhu, who said that Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he heard Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam say, in our Aamalu Biniyat, that the reward of the deeds, or the deeds are based on their intention, the intention with which they are done. The reason I'm mentioning this Hadith is because, normally when we look at decision-making, when we look at, when we look at, especially in times of stress, in times of, you know, any kind of difficulties, and we are thinking of what to do, how to do it, what decisions to make, what might be beneficial, what might not be beneficial, so on. We think in terms of trying to project, or trying to, in a way, foresee, like for example, you might say, if I do this, such and such will happen, if I do something else, something else will happen. So, we are looking at, we are doing some sort of scenario planning, and we are trying to imagine scenarios, and we are saying to ourselves, if I do this, then this scenario will happen, and if I do that, then that scenario will happen. This scenario might unfold, if I do something else, a different scenario might unfold, and so on. Which is all really, if you look at it, an exercise in fantasy, because we don't know, and we can never know the reality. We can never know what will actually happen. So, what we are trying to say is, we are trying to kind of foresee that, to the extent possible. So, you might say, well, what is the alternative? What must we do, and why or how does this hadith relate to this issue of decision, of decision making concerning our lives? What's the connection? My submission to you is, the connection is that, instead of thinking what might happen, ask yourself, why am I doing something? So, when you are considering a decision, and you are saying that, this is what the future seems to hold, therefore, what must I do? Instead of that, think of the decision, and say, don't say, should I do this or that? Think of the decision and say, why would I do this thing? Look at the reason you are taking a decision or deciding not to take a decision. Look at the reason for it, why? I'll tell you why I'm saying that, with an example. I used to live in America in 1997 to 99, and I went to America for the reason why anybody goes to America, which is, to build a career in your life. And as part of that process, I had a partner, a business partner, with whom I was planning to set up a training company. We needed $1 million to start. We started fundraising, and we raised $250,000. We raised about 25% of what we need. We raised that in a pretty short time, just for a month, for less than a month. My partner was absolutely thrilled. And he said to me, he said, we have arrived. So I said, how's that? He said, well, we have 25% of what we need, and the bank will give us the rest. So I went silent for a while. He said, why are you silent? I said, because, I said, we need to have a talk. He said, what talk? So we sat in his house, and this was about maybe 9 o'clock or something in the night. And we talked till the following morning, the whole night. I said to him that, there are two things that we cannot do. One is, we have to do something. And the other is, we cannot do. Thirdly, I can't do. I cannot participate with you if you do them. So the first thing we cannot do is to borrow money on interest. Irrespective of the reason, irrespective of the amount of interest. We are not borrowing money on interest. Number one. I said, this is an absolutely, as far as I'm concerned, it's an absolutely written in stone rule. We cannot borrow money on interest. And I said, the second thing we cannot do is to use alcohol as in any of our promotional events. So no wine and cheese parties, and no product launches with drinks and stuff. And of course, I also said to him, no use of women. Either as, you know, in pictures or actual women in any of the promotional activities. So I said, these are the two or three things that we absolutely cannot do under any circumstances. He looked at me as if I was crazy. He said, do you realize where we are living? I said, yeah. Why? He said, what difference does it make? He said, because in this country, this country America, this country America is America because of interest. He said, this is the biggest benefit we have that we don't need to raise all the money. And you want to wipe that out in ...
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