How Hardship Comes With Ease! | Mufti Menk | London – E… — Transcript

Bismillahi walhamdulillahi wa salatu wa salamu ala rasulillahi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'in. My brothers and sisters, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us that every one of us will face hardship. But He says, with hardship comes ease. And He says, with hardship there is a lot more ease than the hardship. It will come. We must be patient, we must persevere, we must thank Allah, we keep trying based on the capacity given to us by Allah, we supplicate, we call out to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and we are guaranteed that a time will come when ease will come. How many of us have had issues in our lives where we felt we were broken and where are we today? And how many of us have been broken again and again? And each time we're strengthened more than we ever knew. More than we ever knew. So Allah Almighty gives us examples of those better than us in the Quran and even in the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, in order for us to derive lessons and to achieve comfort and to have the reassurance that indeed Allah is going to help. Today I want to touch on the best story in the Quran. Which one is it? It's the story of whom? Come on, guys. I know they have my talk right at the end. But inshallah next year we're going to change that. Say amin. But that doesn't mean you need to fall asleep. Which is the best story in the Quran? Tell me. Prophet Yusuf. Jazakallah khair, my brother. Prophet Yusuf a.s. So much hardship and so much ease in the same surah. Every time there was ease, you find it didn't last so long before there was some difficulty that brought about greater ease as a result. You know the story. I'm not going to go through every detail of it, but I want to mention the ease and the hardship starting from the beginning and you'll be able to flow with it. It starts off with a dream. Is a dream a good thing or a bad thing? Generally, it depends what you dream. If it's a nightmare, you'll get up and say it was a bad thing. What are we taught? You give a sadaqah, a'udhu billahi minash shaitanir rajim, you seek the protection in Allah from shaitan, the accursed, and you can sleep the other way if you can blow on one side with a slight spit and you sleep facing the other way. There is a procedure. That's when it's a nightmare. And Allah says, you know what? Don't worry. You've given your charity, seek the protection of Allah and don't think too much about what you saw. However, when it's a good dream, we get up smiling and we're so excited and so happy because you saw something. Sometimes you may never have that in your life, but you had it in your dreams. And sometimes it's so real that when you get up, you're so happy and you're like, ah, what happened? You know, there was a young boy. He was arguing with someone in his dream. Someone was giving him 100 pounds. And he says, no, I want 200. And the guy says, no, just take the 100. He says, no, I want 200. And he's dreaming. And the argument continued for a while. And somehow he woke up. When he woke up, he realized there was neither 100 nor 200. He quickly closed his eyes. He says, okay, just give me the 100. It's fine. It doesn't work that way, right? It doesn't work that way. But it feels so real. Like I had the money. I enjoyed it. Sometimes I look forward to sleeping simply because I'm expecting a decent dream. MashaAllah, TabarakAllah. May Allah grant us the ability to get up for Salatul Fajr. Because sometimes when you're dreaming so sweet and so beautiful, you know, you don't want it to end and then you feel lazy to get up. But Yusuf alayhi salam saw a beautiful dream. That was a point of ease. It was comfort. It was something that brought about goodness. And immediately he told his father who told him, watch out. That watch out is a warning. A warning about what? The hardship that may come as a result of that ease. Are you watching what we're saying? And then, unfortunately, as a youngster, he released the information. We make this mistake sometimes. We let everybody know everything nice that's happening in our lives. And now, in the age of social media, we let everybody know all the nice things that do not happen in our lives as though they happened. We show filtered, fake, AI content in order to feel good. But Allah tells us through the teachings of Nabi Muhammad and through the Quran, various examples and stories, Allah tells us to be careful who you say what to. You don't have to tell everyone everything. Not everyone's going to process it in that beautiful way. Not everyone will be happy at your happiness. Not everyone is going to be sad at your loss. Some might become excited at your loss and others would definitely be upset when you gain. They might even try to block it and stop it. And they might do something out of jealousy that will result in your downfall. So be careful. As much as the dream was a point of ease, there was difficulty that followed. Because then when the brothers got to know about the dream, they planned the downfall of this beautiful boy, handsome guy, Yusuf, may peace be upon him. So that was hardship that came his way. When the hardship came his way, they went to the father. The plan was hatched. They went to the father, they lied. Let's take him to play. If I were to take you to play, we go and play whatever football or whatever else it might be together. It looks like it's a point of ease, it's goodness, it's something good, right? But with that good, there was hardship, there was that was connected to it because the plan of those who had done this was actually for the downfall of this person they were taking out. Their own brother. I could go deeper and tell you that the brothers actually wanted to kill their brother off. But one of them said, لا تقول يوسف, hey that's our brother, don't kill him off. Maybe just throw him away. Maybe just put him into a pit. That's hardship and ease. You follow? Where's the ease? The ease is Allah created someone to say keep him alive. Follow? Yet had it been the other one and the majority was actually listened to, they would have eradicated the young man. But the brother says no, leave him. So they put him into the pit, into the well. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? To be thrown into the well. It's a bad thing. The little children are answering me, MashaAllah, thank you so much because the adults are about to go to bed. So that's a good thing and a bad thing. The good thing is the kids are answering and the bad thing is the adults are about to go to bed. It's a fact. So they put him into the pit. As a result of that hardship, Allah created ease. What type of ease? Someone came at some point and took him out of the well. Wow. SubhanAllah. Look at the ease. So it might look like it's temporary ease, but it is part of the path that Allah had chosen for this great prophet of His. And this path was so beautiful that Allah revealed it in a whole surah, almost in order. It's the only surah of its kind in the Quran. Because Allah wants you to know in your life there's going to be hardship and ease. When there is ease, don't let it make you become arrogant. Because when you have and you are achieving and you are gaining, remember, be humble. A day will come when the negatives have to clock in as well. A day will come when you might lose what you have. Are you ready for that day? You've got to say, by the help of Allah, we will navigate it when it comes with the help of Allah. We don't want it to come. But it will. It has to. You will not remain healthy forever. The hadith says seize five opportunities before they are overtaken by five negative situations. And what are they? There are things mentioned. Go and check them out. You're not going to be wealthy forever. You're not going to be healthy forever. You're not going to be young forever. You're not going to have free time forever. And you are not going to be alive for eternity on earth. That's what Allah is telling you. So you need to prepare that ease that you're enjoying now. D

more ease than the hardship. It will come. We must be patient, we must persevere, we must thank Allah, we keep trying based on the capacity given to us by Allah, we supplicate, we call out to Allah subhanahu wa

ta'ala, and we are guaranteed that a time will come when ease will come. How many of us have had issues in our lives where we felt we were broken and where are we today? And how many of us

have been broken again and again. And each time we're strengthened more than we ever knew. More than we ever knew. So Allah Almighty gives us examples of those better than us in the Quran and even in the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him in order

for us to derive lesson and to achieve comfort And to have the reassurance that indeed Allah is going to help. Today I want to touch on the best story in the Quran. Which one is it? It's the story of whom? Come on guys. I know they have my

talk right at the end. But inshallah next year we're going to change that. Say amin. But that doesn't mean you need to fall asleep. Which is the best story in the Quran? Tell me. Prophet Yusuf. Jazakallah khair my brother.

Prophet Yusuf a.s. So much hardship and so much ease in the same surah. Every time there was ease you find it didn't last so long before there was some difficulty that brought about greater ease as a result. You know the story. I'm not

going to go through every detail of it but I want to mention the ease and the hardship starting from the beginning and you'll be able to flow with it.

It starts off with a dream. Is a dream a good thing or a bad thing? Generally, it depends what you dream. If it's a nightmare, you'll get up and say it was a bad thing. What are we taught?

You give a sadaqah, a'udhu billahi minash shaitanir rajim, you seek the protection in Allah from shaitan, the accursed, and you can sleep the other way if you can blow on one side with a slight spit and you sleep facing the other way. There is a procedure. That's when it's a

nightmare. And Allah says, you know what? Don't worry. You've given your charity, seek the protection of Allah and don't think too much about what you saw. However, when it's a good dream, we get up smiling and we're so excited and so

happy because you saw something. Sometimes you may never have that in your life, but you had it in your dreams. And sometimes it's so real that when you get up, you're so happy and you're like, ah, what happened? You know, there was a

young boy He was arguing with someone in his dream. Someone was giving him 100 pounds. And he says, no, I want 200. And the guy says, no, just take the 100. He says, no, I want 200. And he's dreaming. And the argument continued for a while. And

somehow he woke up. When he woke up, he realized there was neither 100 nor 200. He quickly closed his eyes. He says, okay, just give me the 100. It's fine. It doesn't work that way, right? It doesn't work that way. But it feels

so real. Like I had the money. I enjoyed it. Sometimes I look forward to sleeping simply because I'm expecting a decent dream. MashaAllah, TabarakAllah. May Allah grant us the ability to get up for Salatul Fajr. Because sometimes when you're dreaming

so sweet and so beautiful, you know, you don't want it to end and then you feel lazy to get up. But Yusuf alayhi salam saw a beautiful dream. That was a point of ease. It was comfort. It was something that brought about goodness.

And immediately he told his father who told him, watch out. That watch out is a warning. A warning about what? The hardship that may come as a result of that ease. Are you watching what we're saying? And then, unfortunately,

as a youngster, he released the information. We make this mistake sometimes. We let everybody know everything nice that's happening in our lives. And now, in the age of social media, we let everybody know all the nice things that do not happen

in our lives as though they happened. We show filtered, fake, AI content in order to feel good. But Allah tells us through the teachings of Nabi Muhammad and through the Quran, various examples and stories, Allah tells us to be careful who you say what to. You don't have

to tell everyone everything. Not everyone's going to process it in that beautiful way. Not everyone will be happy at your happiness. Not everyone is going to be sad at your loss. Some might become excited at your loss and others would be Definitely be

upset when you gain. They might even try to block it and stop it. And they might do something out of jealousy that will result in your downfall. So be careful. As much as the dream was a point of ease, there was difficulty that

followed. Because then when the brothers got to know about the dream, they planned the downfall of this beautiful boy, handsome guy. Yusuf may peace be upon him. So that was hardship that came his way. When the hardship came his way,

they went to the father. The plan was hatched. They went to the father, they lied. Let's take him to play. If I were to take you to play, we go and play whatever football or whatever else it might be together. It looks like

it's a point of ease, it's goodness, it's something good, right? But with that good, there was hardship, there was that was connected to it because the plan of those who had done this was actually for the downfall of this person they were taking

out. Their own brother. I could go deeper and tell you that the brothers actually wanted to kill their brother off. But one of them said, لا تقول يوسف, hey that's our brother, don't kill him off. Maybe just throw him

away. Maybe just put him into a pit. That's hardship and ease. You follow? Where's the ease? The ease is Allah created someone to say keep him alive. Follow?

Yet had it been the other one and the majority was actually listened to they would have eradicated the young man. But the brother says no leave him. So they put him into the pit into the well. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? To be thrown into the well. It's

a bad thing. The little children are answering me, MashaAllah, thank you so much because the adults are about to go to bed. So that's a good thing and a bad thing. The good thing is the kids are answering and the bad thing is the adults are about to go to bed. It's

a fact. So they put him into the pit. As a result of that hardship, Allah created ease. What type of ease? Someone came at some point and took him out of the well. Wow. SubhanAllah. Look at the ease. So it might look

like it's temporary ease, but it is part of the path that Allah had chosen for this great prophet of his. And this path was so beautiful that Allah revealed it in a whole surah, almost in order. It's the only

surah of its kind in the Quran. Because Allah wants you to know in your life there's going to be hardship and ease. When there is ease, don't let it make you become arrogant. Because when you have and you are achieving and you are

gaining, remember, be humble. A day will come when the negatives have to clock in as well. A day will come when you might lose what you have. Are you ready for that day? You've got to say, by the help of Allah, we will

navigate it when it comes with the help of Allah. We don't want it to come. But it will. It has to. You will not remain healthy forever. The hadith says seize five opportunities before they are overtaken by five negative

situations. And what are they? There are things mentioned. Go and check them out. You're not going to be wealthy forever. You're not going to be healthy forever. You're not going to be young forever. You're not going to have free time forever. And you

are not going to be alive for eternity on earth. That's what Allah is telling you. So you need to prepare that ease that you're enjoying now.

Don't let it make you arrogant because it's going to go. May Allah grant cure to all those who are sick and ill. Amen. Yusuf a.s. taken out of the well. It must have been such an exciting moment. Imagine you trapped somewhere and

suddenly someone comes and opens the well and there's light. And that light itself is so soothing because you now know that you are going to be taken out.

But when he got out, as much as there was so much of ease and he could breathe properly once again and it was so beautiful, immediately they thought negative. There was a point of hardship that came in. What was it? They sold

him. They sold him in the markets. Can you believe it? Sold him in the markets. So I was in hardship. I came out into a little bit of ease.

I tasted it for a very short time and suddenly now I'm being sold. That's what happened to Yusuf a.s. But when he was sold, there was silver lining to it. He ended up at some point in the house of a very influential person.

Now if someone is working somewhere, imagine you're working for top person you have a top job it might be a difficult job but the fact that you're working for someone who's really influential and so on there is hope that perhaps

some goodness will come out of it so Yusuf goes into this beautiful home it reminds me of Moses he grew up in the house of the Pharaoh himself How's that in terms of ease and hardship? Look at how Allah says, with ease

there is hardship. Or should I say, with hardship there is ease. The Quranic verse doesn't say with ease there is hardship. It actually says, with hardship there is ease.

Because the ease is what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has created us right at the beginning with as a backdrop. It's supposed to be easy. You're young, innocent. You don't even pray yet. You don't even talk yet. You're just enjoying. If you were to

mess your clothes because you couldn't control your sphincter muscle, nobody's going to penalize you because at that point, that's what was expected of you.

Today I was in central London and I thought of an idea. I saw people With their dogs, as the dog relieves itself, they have a little, like a pan or something to take the mess up, put on some gloves, clean

the mess and take it up. And I thought of something, I said, you know what? If there is a bright spark who wants to make lots of money, just like how you have pampers for kids, they should develop pampers for dogs. Because then

you don't have to walk around with everything, but you're just going to have to tie it somehow. Someone's going to do that at some point. Who knows? But nonetheless, it's not my field. So it was just a thought crossed my mind and

I quickly said, well, you know what? I better keep quiet about it. I didn't.

I spoke about it here now. So if you do start the business, 10% is mine, inshallah. But nonetheless...

nobody's going to blame a dog for having stopped somewhere and peed but they're going to look at the the person who's with the dog and say hey you better clean that mess right I think it's illegal here in this country to just allow

your dog to mess everywhere and anywhere so a child at a little age does what children will do innocent. There's a lot of ease as you grow older and you become of understanding it's supposed to be something even better. But now there is

an element of expectation. We no longer expect you to pee in that way. We no longer expect you to talk in that way. You're supposed to grow a little bit older and more mature and you're supposed to be able to learn how to

do things. That's Allah. So this is Allah's plan. Yusuf taken out, sold, went into a very good home and then he was accused he was accused subhanallah being accused is not an easy thing it's a hardship very great hardship because they made a case out of it

but there was an element of ease because one of the children bore witness for him it's in the quran so he knew hey guess what allah came to my help and assistance and here i am Allah Almighty is helping me.

But that didn't solve the problem for that moment because they still imprisoned him to the degree that he asked for the lesser of the two evils.

Yusuf a.s. had an option. Or, not an option, but there were two things that would have happened to him, should I say. He either had to do a sinful deed they were asking him to do, be imprisoned he says oh Allah I'd rather

be imprisoned let it be that I'm imprisoned because I don't want to do the sin that they're asking me to do so when he was imprisoned wasn't it a positive of the negatives because he was asking for that Allah gave it to

him but it's still a negative thing to be imprisoned and when he went in guess what he had someone to talk to that's another positive Imagine going into solitary confinement. You can't talk to anyone come out mentally Unwell at times depending on where

it is and who it is and so on. It's not easy But when you go in and you've got a few people to talk to you can learn or on you can do so much more you be educated You can come out mashallah

with a lot of goodness and positivity You have to be focused on the positives if you're going to be focused on the negatives You are going to hurt yourself and you have no option so You can't come out rather make a positive

out of it you're in a situation i'm going to look at it in the most positive way yusuf he enjoyed the companionship he started talking to them they looked at him they loved what they saw and they loved

the companionship and immediately they said you look like a good man you know what we've had dreams we want you to interpret them and allah gave him the knowledge to interpret the dreams so the dreams One was relatively negative, the

other one was a little bit positive. To the degree that something interesting happened. Imagine a guy says, oh, I saw the dream. I saw a dream that was very negative. And the interpretation comes equally negative to say you're going to be

executed. One of the first things that would come to the mind of the person is, no, no, no, I didn't really see that dream. I was just saying it, right? I didn't really see the dream because you just told you're going to be

executed. Can you believe it? So Allah says, The thing that you're asking a question about, these dreams, it's already a matter that is destined. It's decreed. It's done. You can't change your mind now to come and tell me, I didn't really see the dream. Allah says,

it's done. So at that juncture, he reminded one of them, That when you are released, remember me. I'm an innocent man jailed for nothing. Remember me. When you go out, you're going to be serving the king. Remember me.

Allah says, that guy forgot. That guy forgot. Shaitan made him forget. And the point of shaitan making someone forget is a very interesting point. I've spoken about it quite a lot recently to say, shaitan is a positive thing or a

negative thing. Come on. Say it. Negative. But do you want to hear the slight silver lining that comes out of it? You can blame shaitan for something you've done.

That's the slight positive because people do wrong things. And what do they say? Brother, forgive me. You know, shaitan made me do this. Haven't we said that? I know a guy who was having an affair. His wife caught him. He says, you

know, wallahi, it wasn't me. Shaytan made me do it. Shaytan made me, brother, you've become a little shaytan yourself. Hasbun allahu wa ni'mal wakeel. So as much as we are saying shaytan, shaytan plays a role indeed, but you are responsible.

So you can't run away using the word shaytan. You can't get to the court.

And when they say, why did you steal? You say, judge, look, Allah says shaytan makes you do things. It wasn't me, it was shaytan. If you weren't caught, you probably would have eaten it and said, shaitan ate it. Right? You can't do that.

So this is why there is a slight silver lining in the sense that if it's a sin that's committed, it's definitely shaitan who deviates people and so on. But the responsibility is ours because Allah has given us a limited choice. And he asks

us to be responsible to that level of the choice we have. we've been given from him so Yusuf when he was forgotten by the one who had gone to the king at some point the king saw a dream the dream at that juncture we couldn't see we

couldn't tell whether it was positive or negative because it was a dream there were seven cattle seven corn this some of them were lean and some of them were and a long dream he was Interested in the interpretation and this

young man remembered, hey, Yusuf. Now the positive of it is had this young man remembered Yusuf earlier, one wonders what would have happened. But because he remembered him at the right time a few years later, there was a reason that the king had to bring Yusuf

out and appoint him in charge something very important the granary the granary the grain had he been released earlier one wonders what would have happened or had he been mentioned earlier he might not have been released but here they released him so Allah knows the timing of everything you want something

perhaps this is the wrong time you want it Desperately. Perhaps it's the wrong time.

Do you really think Yusuf alayhi salam did not want to be released desperately? I'm sure it was more desperate than what you and I feel in our own desperation for our matters. But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala kept a

prophet of his in that condition because he knew that the timing of the release needs to coincide with something that he will come out as a leader.

He came out, we can say he was appointed as almost a minister. Minister. Prison, right to the rule in the government. I know of a few of them, you know, prisoners. For years, they come out, they are the leaders of the same countries.

A few examples. Someone says Nelson Mandela. Correct. 27 years in jail. Came out, who was he? President of South Africa. Wow. The timing...

Yusuf a.s. appointed and then at some point the drought came in. And look at how Allah works. Allah says, there will be good crop, then there will be bad crop. There will be a good harvest, bad harvest. Look

at the positive, the negative. Look at what I was saying right at the beginning.

That you will make a profit and a loss. Allah tests you by giving you.

Allah tests you by taking it away. The sharp ones are those who... Understand when I have made something, let me not leave my eggs in one basket.

Let me diversify to the degree that when there is a rainy day, I have something to cushion myself with. You have a job and you're earning. Set aside something, save something. Don't just spend everything because a day might come, you could lose

the job. Easily. So what have you done to prepare for the day that you might lose a job? I don't want to become anxious and suffer with anxiety to think about losing the job. But while I have the job, I want to save, prepare, invest, do something else, see

how best I can improve so that who knows, just like Yusuf alayhi salam story, there might be days, there will probably be days that will not be as nice as these ones. What did I do? Look at the lesson we're learning. Then

Yusuf alayhi salam comes through. He saved the grain and for the other seven years. Enough to last them even more than seven years.

And he rationed it to the people and then the brothers who planned his downfall did not realize that it was only because of that negative plan, the plan of difficulty that Allah created ease and victory and raised him above them. Their

plan was in order to drop him below them. Without realizing that that same plan was going to be spun by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in a way that he was raised above them. Wow. Subhanallah. This is something magnificent. When you plan the downfall of someone else, that could

just be your own downfall. You'll enjoy the moment if you have the upper hand for a while. You'll enjoy it. But the days will turn. Days are not the same. Aggression, oppression, occupation, colonization, whatever it is, it will not last forever. Never.

It has to come to an end. It has to turn around. It has always turned around. Some have lasted a few years. Some have lasted. A century, some a little bit more. But it will come. So be careful what you do. Be

careful the seeds you sow. Because you will reap what you sow. Yusuf a.s. saw his brothers come in. The father says, hey, you have to go through. We need the rations. When he saw them come in, he noticed that there was one missing. There were only ten of them. He was

the 12th. There was the 11th who was missing. He says, where's this 11th guy?

He asked them. They were excited to go and get the rations. Little did they know that this man is actually our brother. The same one we dropped in the pit. At that point, he did not want to rub it in. He

didn't want to rub it in. Imagine a guy firing you from your workplace. for the wrong reasons. Fast forward 10 years later, he doesn't realize that where he has applied for a job as a manager, you are the owner. How's that? And he walks in and

you say, this was my former manager. It's your day. You either are going to go and take him to task. You might keep quiet for a moment or you might want to employ him if he was a good worker and teach him a

lesson. But it has happened and it can happen. It's happened so many times. I know of someone who did wrong to me in a humongous way many years ago. And a time came when they were in need of something

that they felt I was one of the only guys who could actually do it correctly for them. And they came to me. Don't ask me what I chose to do. I'm not a prophet of Allah. You don't need to write down what I

did. We are learning from Yusuf . We are human. You might want to say, hey, excuse yourself. Or you might want to help. Like I said, I'm not going to say what I did. But Yusuf decided, let's give them

the rations. You know what? Bring your brother along. His ration is not going to be collected by a third party. He must come and collect it himself. And so when they came forth after that, again, guess what? He met his brother.

But before that, when the brothers went back to the father and told him that we need to take this brother with us, that was such a negative thing. It was so difficult to do that because the father says, look, I sent his brother

with you guys earlier and you know what? He never came back. So I feel that the same thing might happen again. He was on edge. But he sent the brother because they needed some food. Allah made it happen. And they came back

without the brother. SubhanAllah, can you imagine how it must have been for Jacob, Ya'qub alayhi salam? These guys came back without the brother. Hardship, difficulty, but it was just about to open the floodgates of ease that nobody had ever imagined. The most difficult Difficult

situation passed. The prophet Jacob may peace be upon him. To the degree that as a prophet of Allah. He was crying and he lost his eyesight. He was crying. Imagine a prophet of Allah.

His father was a prophet. His grandfather was a prophet. His son was a prophet.

What a great man. He's crying because of the hardship. But that hardship, he kept on saying something. It's a natural crying. It's not because I'm questioning the decree of Allah. The faith levels were on a hundred.

It was not a doubt in faith. But he cried because of a human being missing his loved ones. When the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam lost his son Ibrahim, he cried. He shed a tear. He shed a few tears. When the tears were

shed, the Sahaba asked him, he says, He says, these tears, they are a mercy that Allah has put in the hearts of the merciful. You have some mercy. You will miss even your pet that was just a cat. And at times, a little dog. If

you had interacted with your pets enough, There will come a time when if you miss the pet or it disappears for a day or two, you might struggle with insomnia and you would probably shed tears and you might even get up for tahajjud.

Oh Allah, my cat. I see people smiling because they know probably happened to them, right? Oh Allah, my cat. And I'm just imagining all the du'as coming. Imagine there's a thousand people making du'a in the masjid, right? And we've got Gaza happening, we've got Sudan happening, we've got Afghanistan

happening, we've got Pakistan happening, and then we've got your cat happening. Can you imagine what type of du'as there are? And the angels are recording everything. There's Gaza, Gaza, Gaza, Gaza, Sudan, what? A cat. Are you following what I'm saying? I'm just trying

to picture it to see how the du'a... But it's not wrong to make du'a for your cat as well. But... Don't forget your brothers and sisters who are struggling in Gaza and elsewhere on earth. Those we know, those we don't know. May Allah

create ease for them. But the point I'm raising is you cry a natural tear because you're a human. You got connected to it. If you work with someone and you lost a mate, workmate who was not even a Muslim, you'd probably

shed tears because you're a human. And that's natural feelings of a human being. I miss you. I miss this person and so on. So the prophet shed a tear for his son. Yaqub mentions it in the same surah. This is to confirm that his level of

Iman was top notch. He did not doubt Allah. I know from Allah something you guys don't know. I know. He says, O my children, go and go and look for and search and look out for Yusuf and don't lose hope in

the mercy of Allah. For indeed, those who lose hope in the mercy of Allah, only those who don't believe in Allah.

You believe in Allah, you can't lose hope in the mercy of Allah. He will do for you a miracle, something you did not imagine. For Allah, He just has to say, be, and it is. That's Allah. I believe

it. world can tell you whatever it wants allah can do something that even nature would probably say this is impossible because for allah nothing is impossible i believe that so yes yaqub alayhi salam saying you know what the positive is your faith levels are high okay there

is a tear but at that point when you're about to break my brothers my sisters it could in your life right now where you're at a breaking point you're really thinking what can ever be worse than what I'm going through right now

I bring to you the stories of the messengers Allah says that the messengers went through struggles they strove they went through hardship difficulty until the messengers said when is the help of Allah going to come and Allah says

indeed the help of Allah is very near Yaqub alayhi salam. Why is his story mentioned? Why is the fact that he went blind mentioned? Why is all the detail mentioned? To show you the positives, the negatives, the hardship, the

ease and the plan of Allah with the best of the lot, the messengers of Allah. Who are you? Who am I? We are not even messengers. We will go through a lot. Strengthen your faith. Believe in Allah. Have conviction. Allah will help you.

Allah will take you out of the disaster. Allah will open the doors for you such floodgates that you'll never see that negativity that you were in. Thinking that you know, it's the end. It's not the end. It's only the beginning. So Allah subhanahu

wa ta'ala clearly tells us that there came a point when Yusuf alaihi salam asked his brothers the question that really was the ultimate victory. The ultimate victory beyond which there was only ease.

Do you know what you guys did to Yusuf, to Joseph and his brother when you were ignorant? You guys didn't really know what you were doing. Probably they matured much more later. Could have maybe realized their blunder. But

here's the question. They were shocked because nobody knew about it. Besides their little circle. How would this man know about it?

Possibly he is the same Yusuf. Is it that you are that Yusuf? He says, yes, I'm Yusuf. This is my brother.

That was it. I want you to concentrate on something very, very interesting for your life and mine. Imagine this is the point of victory against those who planned to kill you, but they didn't end up doing that. They planned to destroy you. They couldn't achieve that. They planned your loss.

They said negative things about you even after you were gone. They wanted you to be forgotten and everything, the worst of negativity, worse than any one of... seated here today and I can tell you when it was discovered that this was Yusuf

and these were actually the brothers who planned all of this downfall the first statement the Quran records of what he said is he says indeed Allah has favored us Subhanallah. All the hardship forgotten. Everything forgotten. Allah says, Yusuf is telling his

brothers, I'm the Yusuf, this is my brother. Allah's favored us. You and I would say, come here. You guys wanted to throw me into the well. Get into the prison. Meaning possibly, I wonder. The first thing he says,

whatever you guys did is irrelevant because that was part of the plan of Allah.

Allah. I'm going to do a few things today. Number one, to thank Allah. Oh Allah, I thank you for the hardship that you brought into my life because it is through that hardship that I am where I am. In my life.

I'm sure you guys have seen so many people online, offline, say so many things about people who are serving in the deen and the da'wah. It is because of what they are saying and doing that Allah's gotten you to where you are. Had

you taken that out of the equation, perhaps you would not be where you are.

So the first thing you do, oh Allah, I thank you for my haters. For as long as you love me, I'm good to go. How's that one?

thank Allah for your haters sometimes I laugh at the guys they don't know it's not they are not my Lord they don't own a penny they don't own a thing if anything they're harming themselves they're hurting themselves someone

wants to correct correct in a beautiful way I'm a human we make mistakes you tell me brother this I suggest this I suggest that it's taken but the minute there is negativity don't allow it to make you negative understand that this is the

beginning of a huge positivity that's coming in my direction i just need to navigate it correctly that's the lesson navigated how you need to Allah says you know what you're going to have to bear patience oh you who believe you're going to have to be conscious of Allah you're going

to have to be strong Upon understanding and accepting the decree of Allah, you have to be patient. And you have to hold forth. And you have to be conscious of Allah. Develop your relationship with Allah. Taqwa. Your piety, your connection with Allah. Allah says, So that you can ultimately

succeed. So that you can be successful. That's why we develop it. So we ask Allah to help us grow. We ask Allah to grant us goodness.

And don't ever think that in my life there is something worse than what happened to Prophet Ya'qub alayhi salam. Guess what? He forgave his brothers number one. No, the first thing he didn't forgive them with the first statement recorded

in the Quran. He says Allah favoured us. Everything that happened was a favour of Allah. Everything that happened was a favor of Allah one by one. If any one of those things were missing from the equation, Yusuf a.s. would not have been there

on that day. Do you understand that? Any one of those things, we counted quite a lot of them this evening. All of them were important to have gotten him where he was. Same applies to you and I. They fired you. They said this

to you. Islamophobia set in, something happened. Wallahi, that's in the plan. Take it in your stride, navigate it correctly, get help, assistance, thank Allah, bear patience and keep going, keep moving, don't give up and the day will come when Allah gets you exactly

where he wants, light years ahead of the others. Light years. Nobody owns you besides Allah. Your sustenance is in the hands of Allah, not in the hands of a guy who's trying to do you down. No chance. A deal

didn't go through, big deal. Allah has a bigger deal for me. okay I don't mind then after saying thanks to Allah that Allah's favored us he says whoever develops consciousness and whoever bears patience Allah doesn't waste the deeds of those who do good you

do good keep doing good then they sought forgiveness he says you know what I forgive you it's okay No, no retribution against you today. Go. Go, call our Father, come, and inshallah, everything will be okay. We'll enjoy. The day you have victory is a day when

you are tested as to how clement you are, as to whether you're going to release or you're still going to hold the burden and keep the grudge. What do you have? Brother, He did something negative against you when you only had a thousand

pounds. As a result of all of that, today you are a billionaire. Why hold it against him? Thank him. You follow what I'm saying? You're a billionaire. How much do you want? You won't even spend 10 million in your entire life. Maybe.

And the rest of it is excess. You have more than what you need. Why worry about what they were doing? It's okay. Let go. I can walk past and smile at the guys and greet them with a lovely smile.

Why? Because hey, what has Allah given me? Where am I? It wouldn't have even come. I thank Allah. So this is Allah. He thanks Allah. He forgave them. He told them come and he looked after them thereafter. It's not easy.

I know my time's up, the screen's actually gone off. That's how much I've overshot.

But I told him as I was coming up, today's the last day, we don't have a sofa chat. These people have been waiting all day. I'm just gonna speak until I'm done saying what I wanted to say. May Allah bless you guys. May

Allah bless all of us. And may Allah grant us ease. Today was a powerful lesson in the ease and hardship connection. The difficulty and ease connection. positive and negative connection and the fact that we need to navigate through it and understand if Allah's got

this happening you know what I want to go through it by the help of Allah Yusuf ultimately witnessed the interpretation of the dream he had in childhood and he knew that this is the gift of Allah may Allah

grant us all goodness gift upon gift and may allah bless us and our offspring and all those to come inshallah until may allah make us steadfast and positive and may allah grant ease to every one of you who is going through any hardship

today should be a lesson for you that no matter what your doors the floodgates of positivity and goodness and success are about to open just bear patience Give it a little bit of time. One might ask how long did it take between

when Yusuf alayhi salam was in the pit and when he witnessed ultimate victory. Some of the narrations say 40 years. And some are slightly different but it was a long time. For you and I may Allah make it easier than that. And may

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala open our doors. Aqulu qawlihada wa sallallahu wa sallam ala nabina Muhammad wa sallamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.