You know there are a lot of young people.
When we travel to the north,
I went out in the night and I met a lot of young people.
So what I try to do,
before I don't address people the way I did that night,
but after
my trip with you I've seen the way you speak
to people directly and I picked one or two
things from that.
So when I went to them I acknowledged
them and I began to speak to one person.
And before you know it the entire people there,
subhanallah,
they all came and they were listening.
You know the feeling I got at that moment,
wallahi,
I've never ever felt it like that.
What advice do you have to the young dua'at who are coming?
What should we focus on?
What should we really look in so that we will
not grow up and make the mistake of those
who have made the most terrible of mistakes?
Don't let it get to your head, number one.
Do it for the sake and the pleasure of Allah.
Number two,
laa takhaafu fi allahi lau matalaa.
Don't ever fear in the cause of Allah the negatives of those
who are negative or those who are going to be negative.
Those who are going to say things,
accuse you,
whatever.
They might say you're after this,
you're after fame.
It will grow.
It's not you who grew,
it's the work of Allah that grew.
People get upset when they see a large following of a sheikh.
Ask yourself, subhanallah,
it's not the sheikh,
it's actually the work of Allah that is growing.
May Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala make it easy.
So we do it for the sake of Allah and then remain humble.
You know,
if you know me and you've interacted with me personally,
long term or semi long term,
I try to maintain that consistency.
Yes, I'm a human.
Yes, I falter.
Yes, we commit sins.
Yes, we are sinful slaves.
Yes, there are things that we fall into.
We ask Allah to forgive us and we continue.
But we are not evil people and we don't promote hate and hurt.
And we want people to come closer to Allah.
So that's something I always like to
remind those who want me to remind
them of something to say as you grow.
I told you many years ago,
I met you the first time you had a program,
did you know?
And I told you my brother, this will grow.
Do you remember?
Because I saw your attitude.
I saw things and you know,
sometimes people look at me,
honest with
you, fame gets to the head of people.
You have to constantly remind yourself,
this is nothing.
You know,
if Allah wants,
He can take it away now.
And there are people who will be jealous
of you because they are not where you are.
They don't know how kids,
kids,
young kids,
you know,
I'm sitting here.
I'm way into my 40s and I have sometimes someone 20,
25 and they don't know,
they look at you.
They don't understand what you've done.
They know not much about you and they become envious.
Out of their envy, they attack.
They want your attention.
Don't give it to them.
Continue doing the work
and be humble.
Like I said, look at people.
You know,
you told me that there were,
when you went out that night,
there were a lot of people who,
let me not say the exact terms,
but who were into the nightlife.
And you went out to street, to talk to them.
And
I always like to look at a good quality or two
of someone and start with it and build on that.
So remind them of the good that is within them.
You know, you're a good person.
You're a kind heart.
I'm sure you have compassion.
There must be reason why you have this weakness or that weakness.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala knows
about it and He is waiting for you.
And He would be so happy if you turned
to Him. At least read one salah a day.
You will have a negative person.
You will remember,
social media is free,
is open for all.
There are so many minds of people.
They will always look at a negative.
They'll tell you, there are five salah a day.
Why did you tell him at least make one?
But my brother, I'm telling him to start.
It's my way of telling him start somewhere.
And according to me,
he'll do one,
then two,
then three and he will build.
And Allah will give him the sweetness of that salah.
They will look at the negative of it.
When you do something,
they won't look at the positive.
They won't try and give husnul dhan because
they don't believe truly in the hadith.
They might know the hadith about giving people husnul dhan.
Even the Quran tells you not to have these negative doubts.
They don't know that.
They don't follow it.
So if they don't follow it, it's not your fault.
You know,
you must continue to do the good work and you must
have a good perception of what people are doing.
Don't only concentrate on negatives.
Whatever you do,
there will be some people who just look
at the negatives and they will tell you,
shureen,
why did you go to talk to them?
Haram.
These were,
you know,
there were boys and girls,
men and women.
How did you go there?
Why did you go?
You're supposed to lower your gaze.
You can't.
You're supposed to be far away.
My brother,
the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam,
while the people were doing tawaf around the Kaaba naked,
he used to look down and say,
ayyuhan naas,
kulu la ilaha illallah tuflihu.
He was there, but he didn't participate in it.
He only looked down and said,
oh,
people say la ilaha illallah,
you will succeed.
Say la ilaha illallah, you will succeed.
And you know,
at that time,
subhanallah,
that is something extremely courageous.
He was a nabi of Allah,
subhanahu wa ta'ala,
salallahu alayhi wasalam.
So we need to continue to do that,
even though people who don't know will
actually continue to nitpick everything you do.
And you know what?
They might have a momentum.
They might have a little bit of a following and a gathering.
Don't worry.
Those people, Allah will guide them.
And if that's the way they think, tough luck.
But if you're going to come out and start replying,
who's going to do that street tawaf?
You will be depressed within two, three days.
You know, earlier on, some years ago,
when I first started off,
a negative comment used to bother me.
I stopped.
I don't even know.
To be honest with you,
I don't see a lot of the comments.
At times I do.
I have some of my family members who actually do some of that.
I actually have an admin or two who actually help.
And we have a good solid circle of ulama
and scholars that I have within myself.
And I know these are my confidence.
We work together.
We have a similarity in our approach,
although each one of us is unique.
But Allah loves this.
He made us unique.
You and I are not the same.
But you will reach people.
I will reach people.
There will be an overlapping of certain people,
and there will be certain people who only like
you and certain people who only like my method.
That's okay.
It's fine.
I'm not in competition with you,
nor are you in competition with me.
I'm doing it for the sake of Allah.
Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Now,
competing with each other regarding good deeds.
That's a sunnah of the Prophet.
If I see you've done something good,
I must also do something even better when it comes to good deeds.
But Subhanallah,
Allah Almighty,
when it comes to that,
turning back to Allah and seeking forgiveness of Allah and
changing your life for the sake of Allah,
Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Look at those above you.
Turn to Allah.
Be better than you were yesterday.
That's a hadith of the Prophet as well.
You know,
that the two days should not be the same.
You should be better than the you you were yesterday.
So there is an overlapping of those two hadith.
And you got to guide the people to say, listen,
you're turning to Allah.
You know what?
You should be better than you were yesterday.
And when you're doing good deeds,
you need to look at the others.
Al khayrat,
you look at the others and try to do more quietly,
not to brag about,
I did more than you.
I'm going to do more than you.
I'm going to show you.
I'm going to fix you.
It starts becoming ugly.
The sincerity is lost.
If the competition is with one another,
without Allah in the equation,
it could lead to shirk.
And if the competition is with one another
for the pleasure of Allah in a very calm way,
non-cutting,
but encouraging all,
by me competing with you,
why should I discourage you?
Why should I belittle you?
That's not for Allah.
If it's for Allah, I empower.
I come out and I appreciate, I thank.
And you led by example.
So you are going to get a full reward of what I've done.
So that's how we should look at that.