| An episode from Words From the Heart: What is your goal in this life? Do not underestimate yourself because you are valued by Allah. Examples of young people who have a goal. What are the reasons that lead young people not to realize their responsibility? Their stories told in their own words. The most precious thing in this world is to have a goal set for yourself. Ask yourself what you want? To those who are mindful� Whose hearts are filled with love for Him� Whose minds are connected with His Magnificence� Whose feet are on the Path� And the Nur of the Real One lightens the horizons Which guides them on the Right Path� Who never walks away from the goal they have set: Allah. Our topic is about�. having a purpose (a goal) in life. And the question is�what is your purpose in life? And what are your goals? The truth is, brothers and sisters, that there are a lot of people, and especially the youth, who have no idea what they want in this life and say: we eat and drink and work and marry and life goes on� And today we're going to discuss this topic. Do you think it's right to live your life like that without a purpose? Or shouldn't you have clear-cut goals set for yourself in this life? Let me be honest with you�today's topic is specifically for the youth. Why? Because we're assuming the elderly, by now, have already set goals for themselves in this life�so this topic concerns the youth more. What are your goals in this life? And what is your purpose in this world? Keep in mind that the most valuable thing in your life is your youth. It is the most beautiful stage in your life. Even though childhood is health and energy, but it's mindless�and the elderly stage is wisdom but it's missing youth. The ones who possess both the energy and the mature mind are the youth. Because of this, it is not of a strange matter that Islam as well as the Prophet (peace be upon him) care so much about the youth which he says about them: "A man's feet will not move on the Day of Judgment before he is asked about four things�how he spent his life, how he spent his youth, how he earned and spent his money, and how he used his knowledge". (Narrated by Tirmidthi). Notice how you're going to be asked about your life second by second, this particular day at this particular time, and imagine how hard the situation is going to be. Imagine who lived his whole life without a purpose and without an identity. But imagine, after you are asked about your life in general, you're going to be asked about your youth specifically. You might be wondering�won't I be asked about my whole life, how come I'm going to be asked about my youth again? Yes�that's because it's the most important stage in your life. Because of this, we find that the Quran focuses on the youth in an unusual way. You find, for example, that Allah has changed the rules of the universe all for sake of six or seven youth�imagine!! The rules of the universe changed for several teenagers!! Yes, Allah (subhanahu wa ta'la) says in surat-al-kahf, 13-14: (???? ???? ????? ????? ??????? ???*?????? ??? ??????..). [Truly they were young men who believed in their Lord, and We increased them in guidance. And we made their hearts firm and strong]. 'Fitya' means sixteen- or seventeen-year-olds. The rules of the universe change all for them� surat-al-kahf, ayah 17: (???? ????? ??? ???? ????? ?? ????? ??? ?????? ???? ???? ?????? ??? ?????? ??? ?? ???? ???). This means that Allah has protected them from the sun, so he made them enter a cave when the sun rose, its light comes to their right, and when it sets, it comes to their left, and so heat doesn't reach them which might decay their bodies, especially because they have been in the cave for a long period of time�and this is one of Allah's proofs that proves His Power and Mercy� And Ibrahim (peace be upon him) is another youth for whom the rules of the universe change. He is thrown into fire and he is 16 years old. It says in the Quran: [We (Allah) said: "O fire! Be you coolness and safety for Ibrahim (Abraham)!"] 21:69 I say all this so that you know�oh, youth�that there are youth who are valued by Allah�so don't underestimate what you can do as a youth, and it's a shame for you if you don't have goals set for yourself in this life�always ask yourself what are my goals in life? Why am I living in this world? Is it to eat and drink and die and that's it. Is it acceptable to say this? Are you living without knowing why you are living? A lot of people end up saying: I graduated from school with so and so grades, then I enrolled in so and so university, then I graduated, then I started working in so and so place and I earned what I earned, then I got married and had kids, then I died�.is this acceptable?!! Look at what our Prophet said (peace be upon him): "The youth believed me and the elderly belied me." The Prophet wanted to tell us that this Islam, which is overwhelmingly spread around the world, was once held on the shoulders of youth� Let�s take a look at these examples: v Ali ibn Abi Talib- he sleeps in the Prophet�s bed the night of Hijrah [so that the men of Quraysh who were set out to kill the Prophet that night would think he was the Prophet] and he was only 20 years old�the Prophet (peace be upon him) saw in him that he could handle this responsibility and so he chose him. v Asma bint Abi Bakr- she plays a great role in the migration of the Prophet (peace be upon him) to Madinah. She carries food to the Prophet (peace be upon him) who is in the cave [it is said that the cave is located at the top of a steep mountain making it difficult to climb, even for a strong man] and she was only 23 years old. v Mu�az ibn Jabal- the Prophet (peace be upon him) sends him to the people of Yemen [for dawah] and how old were you, Muaz? 20 years old. What�s all this?!!! What I want to say to the youth after these examples� You are so valued!! Why do you underestimate yourself and live without goals?!! Why do I say all this, brothers and sisters?! Because I notice that our societies are lacking youth without goals. Everyday a new caf� [in the American society: mall, entertainment center, movie theater, etc.] is built, and these places are considered the most popular building contracts. Why? Because our youth spend hours in these places�I pass by them often in my car and I find in some cafes youth in their �blooming� age but, unfortunately, they�re either playing, drinking, or just daydreaming about nothing. And I sympathize at the situation of the girls, all they�re worried about in this life is the latest fashions, and so and so girl bought so and so, and I want to travel to so and so place to buy so and so clothes�is this acceptable?!! Is it right for a girl�s only worries are to be�whether she is beautiful or not? And is it right for a guy to care so much to like a girl? Unfortunately, I�ve seen these examples�youth lacking goals. The guy [after finishing school] depends on his parents to eat and drink and doesn�t even try to build a future for himself�and the girls, all they�re worried about is to get married and to get married fast. Why? Because all the girls are getting married and that�s how life is. To all the youth, we cannot live in this emptiness. We cannot build a society this way!! Did you know that sociologists are able to predict the ability of societies to grow and prosper and to describe what the society will be like in a number of years and how many years it will take for the society to crumble? So how do these sociologists know? They study the youth and their interests. If they find the youth lacking a true identity and lacking goals, they predict that such a society will fail in so and so number of years and their predictions are exact. This is an analysis by sociologists who study the interests and the situation of youth in the western culture. Here's a story to clarify: The Muslims stayed in Al-Andalus (Muslim Spain) for eight centuries and during this time, they filled the land with civilization, knowledge, and religion. The Portugese were not satisfied with the presence of Muslims in Al-Andalus and they wanted to kick them out to Morocco, so what do they do? The Portugese started to study the Muslim youth in Spain and they began to send over spies to Spain in order to do this. One day, these spies found a group of youth where two youths were arguing with each other, so the spies were pleased and they left to study the matter. They found that what the youth were arguing about was the order of a hadith in Sahih Bukhari. They returned saying: "This nation will not collapse now." Years passed by and the spies returned and they found the youth still discussing matters of knowledge and religion, so they returned unfortunate again. But after more years passed by, they returned a third time and they found a youth crying and they asked him why he was crying. He said that his girlfriend left him, so the spies returned saying: "Now, we are able to defeat the Muslims." Indeed, the Muslims lost and were kicked out of Spain without difficulty and in 25 years, everything ended and there was no memory of Al-Andalus. The point is, to all the youth, is to have a purpose and to have a goal�do you have a goal in this life or not?? What are the reasons for the youth not being able to carry out a responsibility or not even wanting to handle it?! **Here are a number of specific points with which you might agree are reasons for the lacking of goals in life: laziness, low self-esteem, lacking a role model, and loss of ambition� However, I have to comment on this�all these reasons given cannot be justifiable for any youth whose life is lacking a goal. Look at a character like Ibrahim ibn Adham who was one of the great men who left the leisures of this world. In the beginning of his life, he was a "spoiled" and leisured youth. Once he said: "I was riding my horse chasing deer and suddenly an elderly man grabbed the tail of my horse, looked at me, and said to me: Ibrahim�is this why you were created? Is this what you were told to do?!...In other words, were you created for fun and play?! To all the youth�because of this, whatever your reasons are, nothing can justify your not having a goal in your life�because having goals in life is an essential matter and this makes me ask the question once again� Why were we created? Were we created to eat and drink and marry and have kids and then die? Or were we created for something else? There are a lot of people who have lived and died in this world and they had no idea why they were created. We see, for example� Aflaton said: (Allah created the universe and then forgot about it and that's why we see man always fighting and killing one another)..and we see another philosophy that says: (The universe is no more than a big game)�imagine!! The universe is simply fun and play??? And another example is Ilya Abi Madi who says: "I came to this world not knowing from where but I came�and I saw in front of me a path that I took and I will follow this path whether I liked it or not. How I came? I have no idea." This is a philosophy of life without a purpose. But these words should not be words of a young Muslim�because Islam has provided you a purpose in life, Allah (subhanahu wa ta'ala) says: surat al-thariyat, ayah 57 (??? ???? ????? ?????? ??? ???????) [I have not created man and jinn except for them to worship Me.]�.Yes, this is the goal�to live in this universe and your goal is to please Allah Ta'ala. To all the young Muslims�let us make our main purpose in this life pleasing Allah Ta'la and from this main purpose branches out many other things, but the purpose in life is gaining the pleasure of Allah Ta'ala. I recall a journalist interviewing a famous soccer player. He asked him: "Captain so and so, what do you hope for in your life?" He told him: "To enter Jannah." The journalist said to him: "No, no�I don't think you understood what I meant, I meant what do you hope for in life?" He answered: "To enter Jannah." The journalist said: "I need something that I could write down." He couldn't understand that this was his purpose and his goal. Then he asked him: "Then why are you into soccer?" The soccer player replied: "I play soccer so that I can live (get money) and so that I can show the world and the youth a picture of a respected Muslim soccer player who has good manners, deals with others respectfully, worships Allah and is successful in his job. They will learn from me and this way I will get 'thawab' for every youth who wants to be like me inshallah." The following is a story of a young Muslimah in which her situation may have been a lot harder than all of you. She is German and she chose for herself a major goal for her life and she strived for it. Let's see what she has to say: Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullah. My name is Aliyah. I am a Muslim German. I became Muslim when I was around 12 years old. I would like to tell you the story of how I became Muslim. I used to live a normal life in a small town in Germany. I did not have a good background about Islam. All I knew about Islam was what we heard on the news about "Khomeini" and in school we learned that it was the religion of the Arabs. But we didn't really think about Islam as a religion because religion in our society is something not important. People just live in this world not thinking of what's after life. But when I used to look at nature I used to say to myself that there has to be someone who created all these beautiful things, but what/who? And how do I know what it is? So I started searching. At that time, I met a group of Muslims that made me more aware about Islam. I started reading the Quran and participate in discussions with the Muslims because I wanted to know everything about this beautiful religion. Then I started trying some of the Islamic 'ibadaat' to see whether I am able to fulfill them or not, so I fasted and prayed with the Muslims. Then I started thinking about death and how I am going to stand in front of God Who is going to ask me why I haven't become Muslim yet. What am I going to say?!! At that moment, I decided to become Muslim and they informed me at that time that I must make ghusl (special wash) so I did it for the first time in my life and said the shahada (declaration), a beautiful phrase that is the basis of Islam. At that moment, I started praying: I memorized surat al-fatiha and surat al-ikhlas so that I can pray. In the beginning, I didn't tell anyone about my becoming Muslim but after a while, I started telling people that I was Muslim but I didn't have the hijab (scarf) on me yet. The issue of hijab was something hard for me because in Europe people don't really care much about your religion as much as they cared about appearance which was really important there. Of course, the hijab was something different to them and it drew their attention. One day I was talking to a friend of mine on campus and she was talking about the Muslims and she was saying that they weren't friendly and they had no idea what's going on in the world. So I told her that I was Muslim. She was surprised and said to me: "You don't look like it." Here, I started to understand the reason for the hijab: we should cover ourselves so that we can show the world that we are Muslims. I put the hijab and it wasn't an easy thing for me and my family. My family didn't really care about religion, but my neighbors and relatives started asking my family what has gone with their daughter? And why is she wearing that thing?!! Because of this, we had tense arguments about this piece of cloth. Then I started facing problems. In the streets, they used to say: "Go back to your native country!!! There's no place for you here." To them, there is no place for Islam in Germany. After becoming a Muslim for some time, I got married to an Egyptian Muslim and I was still a student at that time. I finished school and earned by Master's. I had two girls, thanks to Allah. After Allah has blessed us with our second daughter, we started thinking about how to raise them the whole environment in Germany was not appropriate which might cause them to face many problems. So we wanted to protect our girls from these problems and we decided to raise them in Egypt, among their Muslim family. But the situation wasn't easy for me. I found that the people treated me poorly and realized that some still considered me as non-Muslim. They would say to me: "It's obvious you became Muslim for your husband but when you go back to Germany, you're going to take off your hijab and stop praying and fasting because you're not used to this from when you were little, like us." I said to them: "How could I leave my religion? I am a Muslim and Islam will always be with me wherever I go. It has nothing to do with what country I am from." Unfortunately, I found the Egyptian society not what I was expecting. I thought I was going to find ideal Muslims but, instead, I found some of the people there obsessed with Europe. They're imitating it in many ways like being dragged into their fashion and music. The new thing is that when I became Muslim and I started wearing hijab, they didn't expect me to continue my education. But, of course, I finished school and earned my Master's because Islam encourages education. After I got married, they thought I wasn't going to work and that I would stay at home and have ten kids. But that didn't happen. Allah has blessed me with two girls and no more and I am happy with them. When my youngest daughter reached the age of pre-school, I went back to work. Among my work on the internet, I wrote the story of how I became Muslim which I put online. I get letters every week from around the world: United States, Singapore, Europe, Pakistan�the writers asking me about Islam and my experience with it and I tell them how happy I am with Islam and I tell them my experience with it. I feel that, by doing this, I am doing something benefiting for Islam. ----------------------------------- Ok, we just listened to her story and while she was talking, I wanted to comment on many points but I can summarize what I wanted to say in one phrase� The most beautiful thing in the world is for one to have a goal and the most beautiful goal ever is to know your Lord�isn't He our Creator and the Creator of this universe and that we are all going to return to Him?? You might find the goal of some people in this world is to make money�brothers and sisters, money is not a goal by itself, instead, it's just a tool to reach higher goals. Don't we see a lot of people who have the money but they're depressed and sad from the inside!! We should make money a tool for us to use to reach a higher goal. We should connect it with Allah Ta'ala�how can we connect money with Allah Ta'ala??! Yes�I want to earn money so that I can live a good life, raise my kids in a way that they're connected with Allah, give donations for the sake of Allah and help the poor�so that I can be rich and be a good Muslim at the same time. This is similar to what Aliyah mentioned before when she said that she was a good practicing Muslim who has a Master's and successful in her life. Imagine if this was your intention and that as you're earning your money, you are worshipping Allah in every minute you spend earning this money. Now think of any goal in your life in this same way� **A youth wants to be a successful athlete�. Why don't you make this goal a way to please Allah? You are a youth who has energy inside of you, if you don't use it in a good way, you might use it in a sinful way. So say� I want to be a soccer player seeking the pleasure of Allah, earning hasanat for every shot, for every breath, and for every drop of sweat. [In other words: Your main goal as a soccer player should not be for money or fame, but instead to be a good, successful Muslim soccer player who is a good practicing Muslim hoping to be a role model for the next generation.] **A youth wants to get married� Make this goal a way to please Allah. Your intention from this marriage should be to protect your chastity and to take your husband's/wife's hand and lead him/her to Allah so that you can both build a Muslim home which Allah Ta'ala can be pleased with. You can go out, travel, have fun�but always consider Allah over all things. A young lady's goal or purpose in life is to get married and have kids. Why? Is it because all the other girls are getting married? Or is it so that she can play with her kids and be happy with them? No�these goals end after a certain time. Instead, let's alter them in a way that fit the ayah (verse) we mentioned before. Our purpose should be to raise generations that worship Allah and work for the sake of Allah [and at the same time, be successful in life]. Because of this, your child should participate in sport teams so that he can become a good, Muslim athlete and he should care about his studies so that he'll become successful in life. I want show Allah a complete picture of a good, successful Muslim�imagine if this was your intention. When you raise your kids, every moment you spend in raising them will be put on your scale of good deeds, even when you clean him, take him to games, and your encouragement will all be hasanat for you. Now ask yourself�what is my goal in this life? There is a proverb that says: Be a man like a thousand men, but if you are can't, then be a man and don't be half a man." See how many around us, brothers and sisters, who have put for themselves very high goals. You see someone who is like a thousand men and another who is like a hundred men and then there are those who are like halves and quarters and then there are those who are zeros�what would you want to be? When the King of Babylon blocked Amr ibn Al-Aas, he [Amr] wrote Umar ibn Al-Khattab asking from him to send him four thousand men to liberate Egypt. Umar sent him three thousand men and a man who says that he is like a thousand men, he is the noble sahabi Al-Ka'ka ibn Amr. Umar said: "By Allah, the voice of Al-Ka'ka during battle is higher than a thousand men." The battle started and the King blocked the Muslims, Al-Ka'ka ibn Amr stood at the fortress and yelled with his highest voice "Allahu Akbar (God is Great), Oh Allah, elevate Islam!" The Muslims entered the fortress and became victorious with the voice of Al-Ka'ka. Indeed, Umar speaks the truth about "the man who is like a thousand men". When the imperialists took over our land at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, they found in the Muslims bravery and courage and they found that although the Muslim youth were weak, however, they had high goals. They found no way to control the Islamic and Arab worlds except if they follow a plan that focuses on two things. First: leading the youth astray. Second: making them forget the civilization of their forefathers. Because of this, we see youth now shaving their heads and walking down the streets with chains hanging from them, listening to western music that they don't understand, and flirting with the girls. And the same thing with some of the girls�all they are worried about in life is what to wear and how to look beautiful, etc�.They forgot that their forefathers were Umar ibn Al-Khattab, Khalid ibn Al-Waleed, Uthman, and Ali�.they forgot all of them and so corruption started to make way. To all the youth�in conclusion, I just want to sum up what has been said in a couple of words: Make your purpose in life a big one: Allah Ta'la. And I advise you, after you've read this episode, to go to your room and get a paper and pen and write down your goals in life because it's a shame to live and die without knowing what you want in life. Write down your goals and strive to achieve them and don't forget that the ultimate goal in this life is to know your Lord Who has created this life so that you can live to please Him while you live your life normally. I hope that we were a benefit and I hope that Words From the Heart has reached the heart. Thank you and Assalamu alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh. |
| Having a Goal |