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Love, Focus and Joint Ventures
How would life be if in all our ventures we had the top most expert partner with us, he would be there to advise us on which path to take, would be there to consult on important and time sensitive decisions, would be there in all aspects of our venture whether it be relations, education, career, business, da’wah, activism, investments and so on. When we try to please multiple people with different or opposing demands, we spread our energy and efforts and may often feel frustrated or losing because of contradictions. How fulfilling life would be when all different forms of love and focus are aligned, our focus is in one direction and we have the best advisors? We will also discuss a natural form of love and inclination and when it is blameworthy and when it is not.
Bismillah. Wallahumdulillah Wa Salat Al al-Salamu wala rasulullah. This is your breakthrough coach, Zubair.
Last week, we were discussing about giving up a bad habit, addiction, or in general unwanted behavior. We discussed three key ingredient, and that of those words. No. one, love for something bigger, something more important, or fear of something, fear of losing something bigger, right? So someone has addiction, or an unwanted behavior, and they realized that, hey, I could be pursuing my time, energy in my life and pursuit of this higher purpose, and pursuit of this higher goal, my higher dream. And this unwanted behavior and addiction is pulling me down. And when they realize that, and they realize how spending time in that unwanted behavior would make them lose the bigger picture, their bigger dream, their passion, you know, that would help them to focus on that bigger passion, and that greater purpose and to leave the bad habit, or addiction and unwanted behavior.
The two other ingredients that are the super necessary are the will power and patients. We’ve talked about how it has to be done with patient, because it’s not going to happen overnight, and we will have to invest time and energy until we see significant results.
Now that time we were talking about just having something else, something bigger, a bigger worthy purpose, right? Now, if you take it to the next level, right? As you take it from one, from lower step to higher step, right? You realize that eventually, ultimately comes down to the love of creator, and the desire to please Him, right? Now if you get to the level, everything else becomes secondary, right? Your metrics change, the way you see life change. So as an example, you know, if you have worldly goal, right? And let’s say if is to read some sort of financial independence level, reach a level of saving in your bank account, right, your metrics is just that, right? In general, what happen is that you wouldn’t be counting your efforts towards, you’ll always be stressing out your final numbers on, hey, how much money do I have in my bank, Right? But if your purpose becomes that pleasure of the love of the creator as oppose of the creation, and in this case the creation would be the money, the wealth, right, the assets verses the love of the creator which is, hey, you know, I’ve been giving my life, and my time, and my focus and my energy, and I just don’t want to waste it chasing comfort of my body, right? So If your chasing up of your body, you would be very stagger, you may be end up very lazy, and you know, sleeping a lot, just not making any effort, right? or vice versa, but in general, let’s take a example, what someone who is very complacent, and just like sitting at home, or relaxing too much, you know, hiding from people, hiding from taking, making efforts and so on and so forth. Whereas someone realized, look I’ve been giving this life as a matter of trust, I’ll be accounted, for my energy, for my youth, for my time, for my asset, for my skills, and so on and so forth. That person would be thinking about how to best use my time, skills, focus and my energy, and then, the journey becomes the metric, right? How are you using your resources becomes metric. So if your using it the right way, even you don’t see significant success right away, you are happy, you are content, because you know that the way you are using your energy, and your resources are in the pursuit of the creator.
Another thing to realize that, look, you know, these two love, the love of the creation, the ultimate love of the creation, whether be your own desire, your status, your fame, your money, your wealth, your family, what have you, or the love of the creator, they do not exist together, right? So one form of the love will ultimately expel or diminish the other form of love. So having the love of highest, the creator, is the most beneficial form, and will help you live a fulfilling life. So is something to make a choice like, which love do you want to focus on it? Because eventually, ultimately, one love diminish and expel the other from your heart.
So when we reach that form of love, the love of the creator, then loving others and other things become for the sake of that love, right? So if you love other things, because they help you get closer, and help you increasing the love of creator, right? or it prevent you from losing or diminishing love of creator, so that’s like an example, right? So you may have some friends that you love because Allah (subahana wata alla) wants you be close to, Allah (subahana wata alla) wants you to take care of them, they can be like imitate family members, parents, spouse, children, and so on and so forth. Or people that remind you of Allah (subahana wata alla), people that teach you about Allah (subahana wata alla), and the deen of Allah (subahana wata alla). It could also be the love or pursuit or having things that would prevent you from falling into haram, from falling into prohibited things, right? so having a spouse, pursuing a spouse, or getting marry, or having a good relationship with spouse, having good life with the spouse, helps you to prevent you from Zina from falling into illegal or impermissible relationship in Islam. So your pursuit and you are spending time investing your relationship with spouse actually helps you from falling into haram relationship which would have caused you to diminish or to decrease your love from Allah (subahana wata alla), or His love for you. So you see how it becomes all aligned, or how it becomes, you know, in line, and becomes eventually for the love of the creator, the One.
Obviously, as we know that the shirkh, shirkh in the love associate the partner, that love is not forgiven, right? So that means you loving someone equally, or more than you love the creator. And that love could be for people, for fame, for status, for wealth, for access, and also for your desires. So we see in surah Al-Jathya, and Allah(subahana wata alla) says in verse 23.
Have you seen him who takes his own lust, his own desire as his god, so his obedience, his submission, his following is only to his desire, right? and Allah (subahana wata alla) says, and Allah left him astray and seal his hearing and his heart and put a cover on his sight? So he is not able to see beyond that, right? His all concern and focuses is his own desire, what would make him feel good, what would make him feel the enjoyment and so on and so forth. And the verse continues: who then will guide him after Allah? Will you not than remember? So as you make this choice of following our desires, or following the knowledge, following the commandment of Allah (subahana wata alla) is very important thing to consider. As you keep on doing more on the desire side, as we are talking about earlier, you know, may Allah protect us, come to a level that our desire become our God, may Allah (subahana wata alla) protect us from this.
Ok, now as we are talking about earlier in the introduction of the episode, regarding joint ventures, right? So think about it, right? How do you feel that if in every effort and every pursuit that you have in life, you have the best advisor, the most experience person as your partner, right? You want advice? Boom, you can have it. You want support, connection, networking, boom, you can go to the partner and then you have it, right? That’s how, if you look at the start of world of entrepreneurship and you know how you have seen the investor, the angel investor, then you have venture capitalism, and so on and so forth. That is how you put on to invest, you know, and financially as well as they bring in their own experience, and their own connection, and their own network and advice, and help the new business grow, right? Think about it, how would it be if you had that opportunity, right? And what can be a better advisor? Who can be a better advisor? Who can be a best support other than Allah (subahana wata alla), the creator Himself.
So, let’s take a look at the beautiful hadith kursi which is a narration by prophet (sallalahu alayhi wasalam) in which he is narrating from Allah (subahana wata alla). So this come in the salih buhari and is partial long, and we’ll take a look at part of that, in which the prophet of Allah (sallalahu alayhi wasalam) has been reported to have said that Allah (subahana wata alla)says:
So the translation of that it goes, whosoever shows enmity toward someone devoted to Me, someone in allied with me, someone that obey to me, I shall be at war with him, right? So in that case, you know, when you reach that states, your enemy becomes enemy of Allah (subahana wata alla), right? Is that beautiful, right? And Allah (subahana wata alla) mentions how does that happened. Allah (subahana wata alla) says, my servant draws not near to me with anything more love by me than the religions duties I had made obligatory upon him. So the best way, the most fastest way, the most efficient way for us to get closer to Allah (subahana wata alla) is to focus on the quantity and quality of the thing that Allah (subahana wata alla) has made obligatory on us. Things that are compulsory, things are wajib, things are fard upon us. And then to excel, Allah (subahana wata alla) says, and my servant continue to draw near to me with voluntary deeds, voluntary actions, so that I shall love him, right? So you continuing doing that until a point that Allah (subahana wata alla) loves him, and then “I love him, I am his hearing with which he hears, his seeing with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes and his foot with which he walks. And if you want ask something of Me, I would surely give it to him, and if you were to ask Me for refuge, I would surely grant it to him.”
So now think about this, the words that hadith uses is “wabe” scholar explain it to be as the companionship, meaning that Allah (subahana wata alla) is with you when you are doing those actions, right? So Allah (subahana wata alla) is with you, with His support, with His aid, with His guidance, with His facilitations, so on and so forth. So doesn’t life become so beautiful because whenever you are taking a decision, imagine Allah (subahana wata alla) is aiding you in taking the right decision, in choosing the right partner, and choosing their right friend, choosing the right spouse, and choosing the right ventures for business and careers, and education, or Dawa, or activism, or socialism, anything right?
If you think about some of the verses in Quran, such as the Al-Taoba, in no.40, narrating that how prophet of Allah (salalahu alayhi wasalam) was telling Abu Bakr (ra), when they were in the cave, and the enemy the mushukim were chasing them and find them, and prosecute them, and he tells him that, look, (Arabic…)
“Do not be afraid, do not grieve, Allah (subahana wata alla) is with us.” right? so If you had that sort of motion in your life, that sort of awareness, that sort of internalization of this concept in your life that Allah is with you, and is aiding you, supporting you, in everything, and whatever happens to you is by the choice of Allah (subahana wata alla), His choices for you are better than your plans for yourself. You know, how perfect and how beautiful life would be.
And then you have in surah Ash Shura how Musa responded to his people, right? This is when he faced with sea, ocean in front of him, and you know, Ferron and Ferron’s people were chasing them, behind them, right? so he know from a worldly perspective that 2 plus 2 equal 4, the material perspective you have the destruction and death in front of you and behind you, right? but you know, he can see beyond that, he say, look, no, this would never happen, Allah would not let us go to waste, and Allah is with us, He will guide us, right. And then Allah (subahana wata alla) comforting Musa (a.s) and his brother Haroon (a.s), you know, when they were being sent to Ferron, Fara, they were concerned about what he will do to them. Allah (subahana wata alla) says that, look, “you do not fear, verily, I am with you, hearing and seeing.”
So this is something that we can aim to the right, higher form of love. And now, you know if we were to look at it from different angle, look the sweetness of faith, right? I mean, if you’re not enjoying the sweetness of faith, and the beauty of faith, the beautiful hadith in which the prophet of Allah (Sallahu alayhi wasalam) has reported, he said that, there are three qualities, whoever has them, will taste the sweetness of Iman, will taste the sweetness of faith.
And these are the three qualities. No. one, is to love Allah and His messengers more than anyone else, ok? To love a creation, the slave of Allah only for the sake of Allah, and then thirdly to abhor, to hate returning to disbelieve after Allah has save it from it, as it would heed to return to the fire of hell. So no. one likely you know who do you have pure love for, who you desire most, who is your main focus, Allah and His messenger their pleasure, or someone else, right?
Secondly, when we love people it is because of Allah or some other reasons.
Thirdly, how much do we value faith, Right? and the part of that is also like, you know, as we talked about earlier that disobediences and sins and the consistent of that, and not repenting, and not stopping enough, you know, trying to give them up, can lead to one of disbelief, right? So are we concern about it, hey you know, you know, I really want to avoid, you know, going back to disbelief, right? Are we taking the measure of that?
And then an beautiful ayaah in surah Baqara: 165, Allah (subahana wata alla) says
From mankind among some who have taking for worship others beside Allah, they love them as they love Allah, but those who believe love Allah more than anything else.
Now, let me talk about this love, it’s important to take a quick look at the different types of love. So first love is love for Allah, right? How much do you actually love Allah, right? And that would necessitate falling a love, meaning if you love Allah, you’ll also love what Allah loves, right? This is the second types of love which is to love what Allah loves. And that would lead one a true love for Allah, would lead one to actually follow Islam, and to follow the rules and commands of Allah (subahana wata alla), and to obey to Him, and to submit to Him. Now the third form is basically you love someone else, a creation but you love it for the sake of Allah (subahana wata alla).
And then the forth one is actually loving someone alongside of Allah. So it’s not for Allah, but is someone even if is a contradiction with Allah, you actually love them similarly, or even more than Allah. And that’s rare, you know, you start falling into the Shrik, this is something that’s not forgiven. That’s very dangerous territory to be in it, and that could be your love for your own desire, or your own thinking, or your own intellectual. You know, above and beyond the love of Allah (subahana wata alla), right? similar to what shaytan did, he did not obey Allah (subahana wata alla)’s order to prostrate to Adam (a.s), rather he refused and he was thinking on his own that, oh no I am better than Adam, and so on and so forth. And all that argument we are aware of, right? So you can have similar things when our desire, our family, our culture, our friend, you know, are our context with Allah (subahana wata alla) wants us to do it.
And then, finally, the love which is natural love, right? So someone who is really really thirty, really going to love a nice cold drink, right? So that’s the natural love, our natural inclination, right? Or the natural love for, you know, wealth, or comfort, or you know, the opposite gender, and so on and so forth, right? So these are natural form of love that Allah (subahana wata alla) has placed. And they are not blamed worthy, right? They are not blamed worthy as long as they do not distract us from our primary purpose, right? If they do distract us from our primary purpose, than they could be blamed worthy, or they could be falling into what we were discussed earlier about loving others as you love Allah, or loving others more than what you love of Allah, right? And this is something if you take a quick look at two verses in the speech of the book of Allah (subahana wata alla) in surah Al-Munafiqoon, in which Allah (subahana wata alla) says:
Oh, you whom believe, do not let your children, your wealth, distract you from remembrance of Allah (subahana wata alla)
So this when our children, or you know, the wealth, and the pursuit of wealth, preservation of wealth, come in a position to Allah. So we may be missing prayer, because of them, we maybe you know, forgetting or being distracted to pause pray to Allah (subahana wata alla) or do what Allah’s commanded, or maybe taking haram and prohibited means to increase our wealth and protect our children and so on and so forth.
Likewise in surah an-noor, Allah(subahana wata alla) says praising the people, He says
There are people that their wealth, and their transaction, their trade does not distract them from the remembrance of Allah (subahana wata alla). So they do engage in that, they are not lazy, they engage in that, they are active, you know, when the time for Athan, when the time for prayer comes in, they would stop pause to do what is necessary. Likewise, they were not engage in any haram dealing and so on and so forth.
That’s something to keep in mind that natural form of love inclination is not an issue. What becomes an issue is when it becomes an opposition to, or a distraction from Allah (subahana wata alla) once. So let’s recap, right? And we talked today about focus, and the ultimate love for the creator, and how if we make him a focus for His pleasure, how are metric change, and how life becomes more comfortable, and how it expels our fears and so on and so forth. Then now, the notion of how do we get there, how do we get to the point that Allah (subahana wata alla) love us, and we become worthy of Allah (subahana wata alla) His support, His aid, you know, all throughout and we have talked about focusing on our right, the obligatory deeds, then the votary deeds on obviously alongside, asking Allah (subahana wata alla) by Dua to bless us with His love, to bless us that we focus on Him, and His pleasure, and He becomes the most beloved to us, and so on and so forth, and then actually doing active checking, right?
So, you know, a lot of time we have these checking at work, or education, where we are receive our grades, our regular quizzes, or assignment, or midterm, or finial exam, and we have similar things at work, you know, different performance of metric, you know, if you run your own business, you have different metric to measure the profits and losses, PNL, loss and gains, and sales, and revenue and all that other stuffs. But, you know, how much time do we actually take to check in on our relationship with Allah (subahana wata alla), right? Our focus on that, our commitment on that, you know, our commitment to prayers, the quality of prayers, you know, our attachment and time spent with the Quran and so on and so forth. And then we want to take a step forward, then also check in with your important relationship, such as with your spouse, with your children and so on and so forth.
So may Allah (subahana wata alla) help us focus and follow what is beneficial, and until next time. Subhanakallahumma wa bihamdika, ash hadu anlaa ilaaha illa anta, astaghfiruka wa atoobu ilaik. assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh
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Muslim Mastery Breakthroughs is our weekly podcast series in which we share insights on how you can achieve breakthroughs in your life to unlock your spirituality, relationships, and mindset. You will get practical steps towards living a truly extraordinary and fulfilling life in sha Allah.
To check out previous episodes visit Breakthrough Podcast
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