Today we are going to talk about being a millionaire, but before we begin to this topic, a question pops up in our mind, which is, Didn’t Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wassalam say that and he made a Dua to Allah “O Allah raise me with the poor”, didn’t he say; “O Allah make me die with the poor and raise me up with the poor” didn’t the prophet PBUH lead a life of simple existence and sustenance?
Don’t you know the hadith of Rasoolullah PBUH, where he spent two months with nothing but the two black things water and dates, (water looks black in the dark) water and dates to feed him, so why in the world are we even talking about this?
I had the same question when I went to my Sheikh (Islamic Scholar) and I said; Ya Sheikh, in our time today, should I be poor or should I be rich? because I cannot reconcile this fact my dad says be a doctor, be a lawyer, so you can be rich. My mom says something similar to be rich, but my religion seems to say something else. How do I reconcile this?
So my shaykh may Allah have mercy upon him told me something very beautiful and I want to share that with you, he said; the strong Muslim that Allah loves is the Muslim that has the world in his hand and Allah in his heart, amazing. He said; he has the world in his hand he plays with it as he wishes, does with it what he wants, he helps he wants, “the money is in his hand not in his heart”, what’s in the heart? It is Hereafter. this is the essence of jihad.
A man came to Abu Yusuf, the student of Abu Hanifah RA and asked him that, why don’t you write to us a book on Zuhd? what does Zuhd mean? Zuhd mean a citizen leaving the world, shunning the world, this is how we normally describe it, so Abu Yusuf said that I have already written a book on Kharaj for you, the person who was asking was confused because Kharaj is, what to do with the production of this earth and how to distribute it according to Islamic Fiqh. So people are confused and Abu Yusuf simply closed the door and went away.
How do you understand the statement of a Yusuf?
the way we understand it is that Zuhd is not what we think Zuhd is, so what doesn’t mean that you have to be faqir. Zuhd and being Zahid is not meaning that you have to be poor my friends, it means that the world is not there in your heart and in your mind the concern is not for this world the concern is for the hereafter, but in your hand have the wealth of this dunya to do with it what you want.
Allah subhanho wa taala has ordered us to be strong believers and Imam Nawawi rahima hullah said by Ijma of the scholars, a strong believer that has money and wealth is far more beloved to allah then a weak believer, a weak worshipper of Allah who does not have any wealth and he’s a poor man. why is that? Imam RA said that because ultimately a person who has wealth and money, he can help himself or help others, he can give it an honor to Islam and Muslims.
the Prophet SAW said when he needed camels, when he needed armors, what did he do? he asked Uthman RA, Uthman RA gave him ten thousand camels in one go. This is an honor, this is wealth and power.
In the 21st century, it is not honorable to be poor, it is not honorable for you to think that I am a great Muslim simply because, you have little money etc. No, I demand you be rich, I order you to be rich. Rich not in your heart with the wealth, but in your hand, in your heart have nothing but Allah. In your heart have an attachment for the Hereafter, do not shun the world but shun worldliness, does that make sense?
Allah subhanho wa taala in numerous verses in the Quran tells us to have strength, Allah says; and prepared for those who plot and plan against you, whatever you can from strength.
He also says about secular knowledge and what is secular knowledge?
it means all other types of knowledge except that it gives us economic strength physical strength in this world.
He talks about it and he says in Quran
We taught Daood how to mend metal and how to use metal in order to create bows and Spears out of metal. before they didn’t know metallurgy, so Allah taught them metallurgy and then Allah says; so are you thankful for this?”.
So brothers and sisters in Islam, every one of you must be a Zahid in your heart, desiring nothing but the hereafter in your heart, but in your hands, have the wealth of the world in your hands, so you can help this Deen and help this religion and help the vision of the final messenger sallallaahu assalam.
You can’t do that if you’re dependent on the government, you can’t do that if your worry is how to defeat center link and how to beat the center link and cheat the Center Link in order to make the most money. You cannot do that if your best investment is having more kids, so you can get more money from Centre link, you can do that by Allah, if you empower yourself with the right amount of knowledge, that will give you more money that you need. By Allah, you can then use that to help Islam and Muslims. it is for this reason why the Jews are where they are today, let’s learn something good from them, by Allah the respect and honor belongs in this world to the person who can control it, let’s stop being moved by the Qadar of Allah, let’s start being the Qadar of Allah on this earth and this is precisely my request to my brothers and sisters here, my friends the question is this, why is it the despite the Muslim world and Muslims being so resource-rich, we are so poor? why is it?
I thought long and hard about this question why is it that, even though we have so many resources capacity to do so much, yet we are so poor economically and strength-wise and I came about three reasons and I don’t know whether you’ll agree with me or not, but these are my three reasons:
The first reason why I believe Muslims are where they are is, that of something called “Ajz” what is Ajz? Incompetency, laziness, sitting back and not doing something, not striking when the iron is hot, but laying still, being soft, being gentle, just sitting back and not striking, going with the flow, it is Ajz and Kasal. laziness and incompetence are rife in the Ummah today, at the Prophet of Allah Sallah wa sallam sought refuge in Allah from this, he said allahumma inni minal Ajze wal Kasal, and he said that every single day, “o Allah I seek refuge in you from Ajz and Kasal, now what is Ajz? Inability incompetency and Kasal is laziness, in mercy mission I do not tolerate people with this quality, I ask them to leave, in mercy mission we cannot tolerate this the vision of the final messenger PBUH, it cannot be supported by people who are lazy, the Ummah cannot rise up if we are lazy, so I urge you to remember this point and to train your children to not be lazy, you know how we’re creating lazy people? we are creating lazy people in our homes, our children we’re creating them to be lazy, do you know how? Because, we give them every form of luxury there is in this world, when winter comes we buy them a new wardrobe of winter clothes, summer comes and we are like no no no, we can’t use last year’s clothes, let’s buy them a new wardrobe of summer clothes, winter comes we buy them multiple layers of mattresses for more and more comfort, they wake up in the morning and mom’s got breakfast ready for them, they go to sleep and mom is caressing their head.
Prophet Muhammad Sallahu alihi wasallam, he trained leaders from a very young age, you know how? Umar RA said; teach your children archery, teach your children horse riding and teach your children swimming. He said that in authentic narration for Umar RA.
Why with archery? Because you become focused on a goal, you’ve got a straight goal and so you’re very very clear, you’re sharp, you’re focused, you don’t waver if you hand wavered you will miss the target, that teaches you to focus and sharpness.
Why swimming? it teaches you to cope under pressure when a child is not afraid of drowning anymore, when he knows that, when he is under pressure if he struggles more he will drown, so he knows the best way to cope with stress and pressure is with the calm and peaceful body.
Why horse riding? because when a child can contain a big horse and animal larger than itself, it developed that character that I can also lead men I can also control human beings, so he developed the leadership and is in his mind these things are not simple things.
The first problem is Ajz and Kasal, incompetence and laziness, my brothers and sisters there is no place for incompetency in Islam, if you have failed and try again, if you have failed then you just realize how not to do it, if you have failed then you’ve increased your chances of success next time, that’s all you’ve done, be focused on what you want to achieve.
The second reason why people and why Muslims are not making use of the resources that, they have and strengthening themselves is something called “Wahn”, what is Wahn? The compainion asked the Holy Prophet PBUH, he said; love for this world and dislike for death, we love this world too much and we hate death too much and because of this, we don’t travel the Seas, because of this we don’t impact on opportunities, because of this we don’t try new things, because we are afraid, oh I won’t quit my job and try a business idea, because how am I going to feed my family, I won’t give up a profession and try that business idea why because how the gonna feed my family?
My friends don’t be afraid, the whole system was created so that you could serve the masters, MBA was created not to build leaders, MBAs were created so that the people who do the MBAs can work for entrepreneurs. My brothers and sisters in Islam, if you are afraid you can never achieve anything in this world, if you’re afraid you cannot drive, but by Allah you have conquered your fear of driving and your fear of accidents and Alhamdulillah you’ve started driving the day you are afraid of falling down, you could never ride your bike but you conquered your fear of riding the bike and you drove the bike.
I asked you all to remember the days Allah, he is the one who nourishes and sustains you all, but Allah if you truly had Tawakkaul, then Allah would provide for you, so do not be afraid, what we need do not fear anybody but fear me, Allah says; fear me if you indeed you’re believers, so conquer your fears. you cannot become courageous until you’ve had fear, because what is courage, except overcoming fear, a person who is brave, someone who has overcome his fear. so it’s normal to be afraid it’s normal my friend but overcome that fear and I see this problem as something hindering the Muslims all the time, “No I can’t do that” why? because I’m afraid, something will happen, I can’t start the business why because something will happen, so fear prevents us all from so many things, my brothers and sisters conquer fear and this fear applies to everybody, a brother who is not working, wants to start his own business, it applies to a sister who has an entrepreneurial mind but something is stopping her, why? she’s afraid of losing the $200 she has in her hand, fear, now essentially won’t support me now I have to do some work, fear is a problem my friends, overcome fear and by Allah it’s easy, the first time you give a lecture, you’re very afraid, first time you write a book you’re very afraid, or you give a course it’s very very frightening, but I’ll tell you what after that it’s easy, the first lecture I gave my hands were shaking, my legs were trembling, people could hear clattering, what was the cluttering my teeth my molars, he’s shaking but this is probably my hundred or two hundred or more than that lecture I’m not afraid what should I be afraid of what’s the worst that can happen.
Conquer your fears overcome your fears my brothers and sisters and you’ll be able to liberate yourself Robert Kiyosaki who is the author of the book “Rich Dad Poor Dad” he says; in his book before you leave your job read this book, he says; the number one reason why people don’t take advantage of great opportunities, number one reason why they don’t take charge of great opportunities os because of fear, they’re afraid that they’re going to lose their paycheck, they’re afraid they’re going to lose that regular and constant help, this is what makes Muslim leaders speak in a particular way, because they’re afraid of losing help from another country, conquer your fears, do not be afraid of anyone but Allah SWT, this applies both to a government scale, societal scale, organization scale, and individual scale.
The number three reason is as Hadith said is love of this world and dislike like for death, my friends the corruption of this world is amazing, the pious predecessors they said; beware of the magic of this world, indeed the magic of this world is worse than the magic of haroot and maroot, where the magic of Haroot and marut, used to separate between a man and his wife, harut and marut were two angels into Babylon to teach people’s black magic, in black magic the essential thing is to separate between husband and wife, the magic of this world separates between a man and his Lord, so beware of the magic of this world. It’s beautiful houses it’s beautiful dwellings luxurious living, beware of this magic for indeed, it is a distraction and my friends this frequently stops Muslims from struggling and striving more, because they want to preserve their beautiful life, they don’t want any difficulty in their life and because of this and the love for this luxury, love for this world, they don’t struggle, but I’ll tell you what, if you read the biographies of the greatest people that have made a tremendous amount of money in this world, every one of them had to sacrifice something significant, Richard Branson says; I sold my car, I sold my stereo, because he was such a great salesman, he saw that in order to invest in his business, what was his business record selling, how did he sell records from a broken-down telephone booth, he used to sell records, that’s how he started his business. Every single person my brothers and sisters has to have sacrificed something significant, it’s the test, but if you cannot do that if you can’t sacrifice, you will not be able to achieve any goal.