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My gift

My gift

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 Auto-generated transcript:In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds. Peace and blessings be upon the most noble of the prophets and messengers. Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and upon his family and companions. Peace be upon him, and upon many, many. My brothers and sisters, yesterday, one of my students, a revert from the U.S., Abdul Karim, he sent me a request, and very interesting way in which he worded it. He said to me, Sheikh, I want you to give me a gift. And the gift is, give me one piece of advice, which will be good for my whole life. So, Alhamdulillah, anytime I get questions like this, I remind myself that this is, he's not asking me because I'm a great Sheikh. This is Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'ala's way of helping me to focus on my own priorities in life. So, Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'ala, causes somebody to ask a question. The beneficiary of that is me, Alhamdulillah. So, I said to him, and I'm saying to you, and I'm saying to myself, before everyone else, the one piece of advice I give myself, and to whoever wants to listen, is the only thing we need to do in our entire life, is to build our connection with Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'ala. That's it. Nothing more is required. Build your connection with Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'ala. He's one of our great sheikhs, Rahmatullah Ali, Sheikh Muhammad Saeed Ramadan al-Buti. He says, his father, his name was Mulla Ramadan. He said that when I was 12 or 13, he said, my father called me, sat me down, and he said to me, that if I knew, that you could get close to Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'ala, by sweeping the streets, I would have made you a street sweeper. If I knew, that the way to get close to Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'ala, is to sweep the streets, I would have made you a street sweeper. He said, but I know that the way to get close to Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'ala, is through ilm. Is through? Is through ilm. Learning about and learning Islam. So he says, therefore, my advice to you is as follows. He said, because closeness to Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'ala, is only through ilm. There is no closeness to Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'ala, through jahalat. This bida, that bida, following this one, that one, through ilm. And the ilm of this deen is the kitab of Allah, as explained and as taught by Muhammad Rasulullah, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. So he says, closeness to Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'ala, is only through ilm. Only through knowledge. But don't study, he's talking about the, why do you study, the niya of it. He said, do not study to get a certificate or a title or a degree. Don't study so that you will be called Maulana or Sheikh or Mufti or this one or that one. Or you, because you have this degree from this jamiyah and that jamiyah. He said, don't study to get a certificate or a title or a degree. If you do that, if you study for that reason, then you are a customer buying a qualification. You are not a student. You are not a talib ul ilm. You are a customer buying a commodity. Degree. Second thing he says is, do not make the ilm of Islam a means of livelihood. He says, don't teach and take money. Do not make the knowledge, the ilm of Islam a means of livelihood. Because if you do that, the nur will leave the pages and only the words will remain. And the third thing he said is, learn and practice the deen only to get close to Allah . And if you do that, he said, then he will give you from his treasures in ways that only he knows. And only he knows the wisdom of that. So, learn the deen only to get close to Allah . Not for the degree and this and that. Do not make that a means of livelihood. Don't take money for it. And third thing is, practice it only to please Allah . So, the first piece of advice to myself and anyone else is, always, always, always, be conscious of your niya. Continuously check the niya. As our teachers always told us, the niya is like, imagine that you are somebody who has gone into a big market, into a fair. Right now, Hyderabad and Dumaish is going on. Supposing you are in that crowd. And you have this, your wallet in your pocket. Where will you keep your hand? On the pocket. Because you don't know, at any moment, there will be somebody who picks your pocket. So, you went in there with your resources. But then when you actually go to a shop to buy something, you know, it's gone. And that is the state of the niya. We, Alhamdulillah, we come to the masjid. MashaAllah, you stand for salah. This is, may Allah accept it from us. But then the shaitan comes and he hijacks your niya. So, I advise myself and you, focus on the niya. And focus only on one thing. How to get close to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. And it's no mystery. Right? And don't imagine that, how to get close to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, I have to have this, some funny practice I have to do, on, you know, 7pm on Thursdays. No. There is no mystery in Islam. Please understand this very, very clearly. ...
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