All this was Planned and predestined by Allah.
It's up to you to realize you cannot have it smooth sailing.
There is not a soul on Earth who has everything
because you came on to this Earth in order to be tested.
Your examination paper was already written by Allah before you were born.
You have to ask yourself,
how did my teacher teach me to go through this question?
What answer should I put here? What should I do?
Who's your teacher.....
Before you were born
Allah Almighty has already written certain things about you and I.
The exact time of birth, the exact time of death,
whether or not we will be fortunate, and
at the same time the sustenance that will be ours,
the tests and the major challenges.
So the major aspects of your lives and mine were written prior to your birth.
Now the tests that you were going to have,
are going to have, shall have are also determined by Allah Almighty.
Al-Hadid 57:22
Any calamity, difficulty, hardship or test
that has come in your direction or anything that is on Earth of a similar nature,
meaning difficulties, hardships, calamities.
Accept that it has been written by Allah Almighty in a book from a long time back.
So it is written by Allah, predestined.
You need to know your tests.
You will go through them.
You have to go through them one by one.
It is impossible for anyone on Earth to have it smooth sailing totally.
Some people have an easier life than others,
but they have a different type of a problem.
You have someone who doesn't have wealth at all, but he has good health.
You have someone who has good health, for example.
But maybe they don't have children.
Or you might have someone who has children, but they are not good
and they are a source of his or her stress and sadness.
Sometimes you have a person who is relatively healthy and wealthy,
for example, but they suffer because of an earthquake or a loss in business,
something of things that they didn't imagine.
All this was planned and predestined by Allah.
It's up to you to realize you cannot have it Smooth sailing.
There is not a soul on earth who has everything
because you came on to this Earth in order to be tested.
Your examination paper was already written by Allah before you were born.
So what do you do?
Well, what you do is you have to look at the examination question.
You can't skip it because you might fail;
You don't know the next questions that are going to come.
You have to ask yourself,
how did my teacher teach me to go through this question?
What answer should I put here?
What should I do? Who's your teacher? Prophet Mohammad (pbuh)
Where did he get the answers from? From Allah (swt).
So anything that happens in your life,
ask yourself, how did Allah teach me to go through this and follow it blindly?
Subhanallah, follow it because that is success.
You follow what Allah says.
Why do we pray five times a day?
Why does Allah speak so much in the Quran about patience,
Patience - sabr?
Why does Allah say, when you're a pious person,
when you're closer to Allah or when Allah loves you,
He's going to make you go through and endure more patience than others?
Because Allah knows He's your Maker.
He wants you to have a high status.
when you answer an examination question correctly,
no matter how tough it was, you are the champion, right?
You have to go through challenges
and each one will go through a different challenge.
But Allah Almighty is the examiner.
He says, we have sent you onto Earth to test you.
You will be tested. You shall be tested like those before you
in order to distinguish who is Truthful in their faith and who is not.
We've heard that verse so many times of Surah Al-'Ankabut.
So remember my brothers, my sisters,
Don't be upset because you have a test. Be happy. Thank Allah.
Oh Allah! You put a test in my life. This one,
I can manage it by your help. Subhanallah.
Because if you don't want
one of the tests, Allah says, okay, we're going to give you another one.
That one might be more difficult.
Imagine it might be more difficult.
So take it in your stride.
Thank Allah. Look at your challenge.
What did I just suffer today?
For example, a huge loss in business that was written by Allah -Predestined.
How does the same Allah teach me to go through it?
What does He say?
He says, Bear patience and pray a lot.
Al-Baqarah 2:153
Oh you who believe
Seek assistance through your difficulties, hardships, whatever it may be,
by engaging in patience, forbearance endurance and at the same time, prayer.
Pray a lot, come close to Allah. This is nothing.
This worldly life. You came on here with zero.
You were nude. You were naked when you were born.
So whatever you have right now is plus you see what we mean?
If someone were to ask you, do you have more now or the day you were born?
You have to say now,
no matter what you have, even if you've got very little, because you know what?
When you are being buried, you will be buried with more than
what you actually brought onto the earth because you have two pieces of cloth.
Yet when you were born, there wasn't even two pieces of cloth.
So it's Allah's plan to show you, man.
You came onto the Earth,
We provided for you, didn't We?
We may not have given you the luxuries you wanted because it was part of Our test.
Like I said, some people come with different tests.
Allah says
Al-Baqarah 2:286
Allah does not burden anyone with more than he or she can actually shoulder.
If Allah has set a challenge in your direction, He knows you can cope.
He knows you can manage.
He knows you will manage.
So don't complain to anyone Besides Allah.
the Prophet, peace be upon him used to say, oh Allah,
I am complaining to you regarding my own weakness, yet he was the strongest.
O Allah, I'm complaining to you regarding my inability,
yet he was the most able from all of us.
SubhanAllah.,So what about you and I?
We will go through hardship.
We may go through a health problem for a year, two years.
Take it in your stride. Do not swear Allah.
Do not let it make you angry and bitter.
Become a good person.
Bury it with patience and thank Allah.
If your problem makes you a better person, it's a gift from Allah.
And if your difficulty makes you bitter and ugly
and makes you drift away from Allah,
it is perhaps a punishment from Allah.
No one on Earth will have what they want.
Everyone has a unique set of examination questions set by none other than Allah
Who made you and I?
You will not have two days. the same, days will come with challenges.
Imagine people fought the best of creation, Muhammad (pbuh)
by preparing armies to go and fight him.
What did he say?
With the help of Allah, we will not fail.
People planned to kill him so many times.
What did he do?
There were days when he had very little in terms of material wealth.
Yet Allah could have given him everything. What did he say?
What did his family say?
They were patient.
They looked at what Allah said
and the way Allah has chosen to solve this particular problem.
And that is the answer, that is the answer.
So you don't have an answer from your pocket or mine,
Sometimes we have a challenge and we think we want to solve it our own way.
No, it came in your direction.
What does Allah say about this?
What does the messenger (pbuh)
That's what makes you a Muslim and a Mumin.
If you do not want what Allah and His messenger (pbuh) have said in terms of solution
to your issues, your matters, your problems, then you can expect nothing
but failure and regret because Allah is your Lord and mine.
We say we are believers, but wallahi,
we have a lot to look into in order to confirm;
Are we true or are we just paying lip service?
That is why Allah says
Al-'Ankabut 29:3
We have tested all those before you as well,
in order to distinguish who is Truthful and who are lying.
Lying in what?
In their claim to believe in Allah.
If you believe in Allah and there is a huge earthquake.
Yes, it is difficult.
Yes, it is tough.
Yes, we will try and help.
Yes, you may cry.
Yes, you are a human being.
You may find it extremely difficult, extremely difficult.
But I promise you, with the help of Allah, you will survive.
You will make it.
You will come out of it.
And ultimately,
when your time is up and your examination is over, because the duration is up.
You cannot keep writing.
The books have to be closed and you have to go.
At that point, nothing is going to delay you, nor is it going to bring you earlier.
You can't say, oh, and now I know the answer to those questions.
Let me go back; too late.
The invigilator will actually cross you off
if you were to cheat or you want to delay further.
Allah is the Creator.
When the prescribed time of Allah for you,
for anyone, for anything comes, it won't be delayed. It can't.
In another place, Allah says,
An-Nahl 16:61
They are not going to be delayed by a moment,
nor will they be brought forward by a moment.
It's your time. It's up.
Take it in your stride. You came onto the Earth.
Where were you before you came here?
Well, trust me and trust Allah
that wherever you were, you're going to go back.
That's all. Is it a bad place?
Well, if I've tried my best on Earth to be a worshiper of Allah,
to solve my problems according to what Allah and His Messenger have dictated,
and I've tried to be a good person to others, I don't need to fear.
I don't need to worry. So many times Allah says,
No need for those people to fear, no need for them to be sad.
For which people?
Those who kept trying on Earth. You're a human.
You have faults
You may sin from time to time because of your human nature.
You might end up sinning,
but it's not because you defy Allah, it's because you're weak.
The solution to that is keep seeking the forgiveness of Allah.
Keep asking Allah's forgiveness.
That's why we say when something really bashes you in the face in your life,
boom and suddenly a limb was amputated, or suddenly a huge loss in business,
or suddenly you've lost a loved one or something major happened.
Do you know what?
Yes, we say 'inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un' What does that mean?
What does that mean?
A lot of us, we grew up just saying it without actually thinking what it means.
It means I belong to Allah in the first place.
And guess what? I'm going to go back to him anyway.
So everything that came and went was from Allah, went back to Allah.
The Prophet (pbuh), powerful advice,
He says, you need to know if the whole nation, everybody gets together to help you
or to harm you, they will not be able to help you or harm you
except by that which Allah has written for you or against you.
Otherwise they can't do it.
In another narration, the Prophet (pbuh)
explains so beautifully, what got to you was never meant to miss you.
And what missed you was not yours, was never meant to get.
A grain of rice that is written in your sustenance,
no matter what anyone on Earth tries to do,
will never, ever go to someone else.
It has to come to you.
A grain of rice has to come to you. You have to eat it.
It has to go through your system.
Allah knows the finest of detail.
Allah will give you.
Allah will provide for you.
Why are you turning to Haram when you want to provide for yourself
Knowing that Allah has kept it for you in halal?
And if Allah Almighty is not giving you, it's because it's not written for you.
So knock His door and keep knocking His door.
Calamity and hardship generally what we have seen, it comes in cycles.
Look at Yusuf (A.S)'s story.
Seven years they had ease.
Seven years, they had difficulty.
Then they had ease once again.
Sometimes you might face difficulty for seven days.
For seven months.
For seven years.
But after that, guess what? It's coming.
Be patient. Your day is coming.
It's coming.
And if Allah's written your death before that day, go.
No problem. We will go.
But we won't go complaining to Allah.
We will go happily thanking Allah.
Allah, you gave me a life. Many people;
You ask them. Are you ready to go?
No. Why?
Because, hey, my wife, my children, my whoever else.
Do you know what? It doesn't stop.
If you pass away, they will continue.
They have to carry on.
There is no way that they cannot carry on.
It's the plan of Allah Almighty.
Imagine, my brothers, my sisters.
If each one of us were given their own date of death.
You choose.
I think most of us wouldn't want to die before 100.
But even then, Subhanallah, when you start getting ill, you start getting sick.
You're a burden on everyone.
What's the point at that stage?
That's why you make a Du'a.
oh Allah! keep me alive for as long as You know life is good for me.
Take me away when you know it's good for me to go.
It's a difficult Du'a.
Because you might go today. Allahu Akbar.
But isn't it the most honest Du'a?
Are you a true believer? You have to go.
Why do you want to go after you are a burden to everyone.
And they say, Phew, he's finally dead.
I'd rather go healthy without having been a burden to anyone.
And life will carry on for everyone else.
The same applies when you are making Du'a.
Because our examinations are laid by Allah
and every test that comes in our direction is planned by Allah.
Allah teaches us. Call out to Me.
Saying what? Oh, Allah,
What should I say to you?
Say to Allah.
Oh, Allah, if this is good for me, for my Deen, my religion, my faith,
my worldly life, my present and my future, make it easy for me and let me have it.
Or let it happen for me and grant me blessings in it.
And oh Allah, if this is not good for me, in Your knowledge
and You know it's bad for me,
for my connection with You, for my current life for my future.
Then take it away from me.
And take me away from it and make me pleased with Your decree.
It's called Istikhara.
Why Istikhara?
Because I don't know the future.
Sometimes you see a crucial deal.
You want to dive into it. It looks beautiful.
Two years down the line,
the same guy crooked you and robbed you of ten times more than you ever put..
Sometimes Allah wants to block you from the very beginning.
So He starts showing you signs to say, you know what?
Don't even get involved.
It sounds too good to be true.
Remain with your millions.
Don't go into the billions.
I'm talking of Zim dollars.
Rtgs, by the way.
Because if you go into the billions, you know what?
You might lose a lot of other things that you have, Subhanallah.
What don't you have? Look at it.
Someone might complain. Well, I don't have this.
I don't have that.
There are others who would die to be in your situation.
They would love to be living your life.
And you are complaining.
Subhanallahi rabbil alamin
The whole aim of today's talk was
to remind you and I that tests come from Allah.
You can manage but only with the help of Allah.
On your own, you cannot do it.
If you remove Allah from the equation
and you don't want to pray and you don't want to bear patience, you won't succeed.
Allah says you cannot have profit every day.
You have to have a loss.
You have to have some element of fear,
anxiety has to come in your life.
There's no chance that we are not going to have someone without anxiety.
You don't know the future.
That itself is the level of anxiety.
But faith will keep you going with calmness.