A dear brother of ours has passed away,
Muhammed Yakub Genel at the age of 18, whom you may remember was on the show with us a few years ago.
How does it feel to connect to Allah, Yakub?
– It's an unexplainable love where you feel this connection,
where if you ask for something, you don't guarantee you're gonna get it,
but 90% percent of the time you think it's going to be accepted in your dua.
At the age of 18 and there was nothing wrong with him, he was perfectly healthy,
not a worry, not a care in the world.
His whole life ahead of him.
He went to sleep and didn't wake up in the morning.
I remember meeting him the first time,
he must have been about 12 years old.
We were at a fundraising dinner and he was sitting there on the dinner table
and he pledged 5,000$ that night.
I remember looking at him and we sort of had a bit of a joke
and I said him, "Where did you get 5,000$ from?
And he looked at me with so much heart and so much iman in his eyes said to me,
"You don't worry about where I got my 5,000$ from"
But I remember he pledged it and he paid it.
And I got the news when I was in Mina tents.
We were doing Hajj and I was in Mina Tents.
And the news came to me that Muhammad had passed away
and I remember the bitter feeling that I got, the bitterness, I was so upset, not just upset,
but I was so bothered that such is this world
that you can never enjoy anything fully because the reality of death is always there.
And the Prophet, ﷺ he says, "Increase much the remembrance of death for verily it is the destroyer of all desires"
You know there are no guarantees in life.
Allah hasn't guaranteed anyone anything except for one thing.
The only guarantee that Allah made with every human being
regardless of your color, your race, your religion, your age, your health,
the only guarantee that we all have is death.
Allah says, "Every soul shall taste death"
And death will find you no matter where you are,
in the darkest hole, in the lowest valley,
wallahi, in the summit of the highest mountain,
death will come to you and it will come as a shock,
it will come unannounced.
Ali ibn Abi Talib رضي الله عنه says, "People are asleep"
We're asleep my brothers, trust me you and I we think we're living.
You and I, we think we're living because we're chasing our dreams and our whims and our desires and our ambitions.
But Ali says, "People are asleep
and when they die they wake up"
But only when we wake up it's too late, bro.
Because there ain't no coming back.
What is it that we're really chasing?
You know, it's not like you and I don't know that we're not gonna die.
But we all have this illusion,
we all have this fantasy that we've created in our minds.
You know, this life plan that I have of mine.
This dream that I'm gonna grow up one day to be this amazing person who's going to be famous and rich
and have this amazing car and this beautiful house
and marry this beautiful woman and have these amazing children.
This is my plan.
And right at the end of this beautiful journey
that i'm sketching out on this canvas of mine,
right at the end there you know, I've allowed for death,
but I've allowed for this noble ending.
The reality is Allah doesn't work around my plan and your plan.
He's the one that plans, He's the one that designs.
He's the one that calls, He's the one that orders.
The Prophet, ﷺ was asked and I will end with this,
he was asked, ﷺ that, "Prophet of Allah who is the one that is most wise?"
He said, "The one that is most wise is the one that plans for his death
and he does good deeds in preparation of his death"
And when he was asked, "Prophet of Allah and who is the one that is most foolish?"
He said, "The most foolish is the one chasing his whims and his desires"
This is the greatest loser.
Be honest with yourself.
Where do you fit in this hadith?
Are we from the ones that are most wise?
Or are we really from the foolish?