Sometimes our mistakes can be paralyzing, preventing us from moving forward and pursuing our goals. But when we reflect on our failures, we realize that they play an important role in guiding self-change and we can derive lessons that Allah SWT wants us to learn from our said failures. Allah SWT reminds us often that we, as Muslims, are among the high regardless of our failures, as long as we have faith in Him. So how can we overcome our fear of failure and allow our failures to be the catalysts of success and self-reflection?
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00Audhu Billahi Minash Shaitanir Rajeem, Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem, Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen,
00:13wassalatu wassalamu ala israfil anbiya wal bussaleen, Sayyidina Muhammad wa ala alihi
00:18ashabi ajmaeen, my dear respected brothers and sisters, assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi
00:22wa barakatuh.
00:24I want to thank Shaykh Suleiman, mashaAllah.
00:26I'm always amazed as to how beautiful our du'as are becoming in America.
00:32So the last du'a was for what?
00:34MashaAllah.
00:35Where?
00:36Where?
00:37Not at Cheesecake Factory.
00:38Where?
00:39In Jannah.
00:40Allahu Akbar.
00:41Mine would be chocolate.
00:42I'm just letting you know.
00:43Because they call me Shaykh, I say I'm not a Shaykh.
00:44I'm a milkshake.
00:45Chocolate.
00:46I'm good.
00:47I'm good.
00:48Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la gathers us again, Alhamdulillah, by his will, on this blessed
00:53morning of Friday when we gather together and inshaAllah we will go together for Jummah
00:59Khutbah and we have this beautiful environment that we tried to create and in some cases
01:05recreate over the next few days.
01:08So you always begin by thanking the people who have been spending months so that basically
01:14three to four days would unfold without inshaAllah any hiccups, any major issues.
01:19So we begin by thanking the organizers, in this case the Muslim American Society, all
01:25of their board members, their staff, their volunteers.
01:28May Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la bless them, indeed bless their families and reward them
01:32for their sacrifices.
01:33Say Ameen.
01:34Ameen.
01:35Oh come on.
01:36Your Ameen was louder for the cheesecake.
01:37God help us.
01:40So in all of the things they list, it almost sounds like an obituary, when you pass away
01:44he did this and she did that.
01:46A moment unfolded this morning as I was coming out of our room and getting ready that my
01:55shirt says no iron but because of travel and stuff it looked like it needed just a little
01:59touch up so I said to my son who is 13, so I do all the ironing at home.
02:05So the brothers are like, oh my God, would you stop and keep moving, focus on the topic.
02:10So I do the laundry, the ironing and the bathrooms because that's stuff that the family doesn't
02:14immediately need so whenever I'm awake at home and able to manage those things I can
02:19do that.
02:20So I've also trained my son.
02:21So this morning, because I was running a little short of time, I said to a 13 year old, manage
02:26this, just do that.
02:28And SubhanAllah, interesting enough, not only did he do well, then he thought it was a trick
02:32because it said no iron.
02:33He's like, what am I supposed to do with this, I said iron it.
02:37His reaction was precious.
02:39His reaction was, I am so honored that dad let me iron his shirt before a lecture because
02:48if he failed, I may not have a shirt because ironing requires different settings.
02:55So as I'm walking, I'm reminded of my failure.
02:58My dear beloved friend and mentor, Brother Samir Abu Isa heads up the Darul Hijrah Islamic
03:04Center.
03:05I see him and his wife and may Allah give her recovery.
03:08He had a very difficult car accident and Alhamdulillah, she's recovering.
03:12I'm so glad to see her here.
03:13He reminds me of my failure.
03:16So success with children, leave the room, come to the, you know, try to get to the lecture
03:19and I'm reminded of my failure.
03:20He says, I told my daughter to go to your lecture and to tell you that I don't like
03:24you anymore.
03:25I go, JazakAllah khair.
03:27But we know each other for a long time.
03:29He said, because the failure is what?
03:31You have not responded to my text about the khutbah that you're going to do and what date
03:36you can do it.
03:37Failure, didn't do it.
03:39As I'm walking, Allah sends me a success story, Alhamdulillah.
03:42Two young men walking with me, one of them on his own voluntarily shares that he is now
03:48SubhanAllah, has overcome stuttering, the ability to speak clearly so that InshaAllah
03:56and without nervousness and he himself volunteers that he went through a lot of, you know, if
04:02you will, treatment and exercises and was able to overcome it, right?
04:07All of us think of these things in different ways.
04:10All of us manage failure in different ways.
04:13There's even a word for the fear of failure.
04:17Anybody know it?
04:18It's like an SAT question.
04:19People are like, I'm on break.
04:20Give me a break, professor, right?
04:23You know what it is?
04:24It's atikufobia, A-T-I-C-H-I-P-H-O-B-I-A, it's the fear of failure.
04:29So for some people actually go through life, they actually have a hard time from the point
04:34of getting out of bed to then going on with the rest of the day because everything is
04:39just about a huge fear that I will fail.
04:43I will not make it.
04:44I will not be able to go about and it's just what we consider as basics.
04:49That's why I always say, make dua that you woke up, InshaAllah prayed Fajr on time, you
04:55were alive, breathing, healthy, able to move about.
04:59These convention centers are huge.
05:00You're walking even as people next to you are walking slower or on a wheelchair or on
05:06a whatever.
05:07These are all parts of the blessings of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala who is constantly giving
05:13us those reminders that he is in charge.
05:16He has a plan for us.
05:17What appears as a failure may not actually be.
05:20So Shaykh Suleyman made five points, right?
05:23With an introduction.
05:24So that made it six.
05:25So I'll make it four points to you have 10 and you can feel like you paid good registration
05:29fee.
05:30Got it?
05:31Alright?
05:32Alhamdulillah.
05:33So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sent us the Prophet ﷺ in a way and we're reminded as the completion
05:43of all of guidance and revelation, all of the prophets who came before and he himself
05:49said about that as an analogy, if you will, that my similitude to the prophets who came
05:54before me is of the building, is of the building, a beautiful edifice that had been created
06:01struck a built, if you will, and people would walk around it saying how beautiful.
06:07But the failure was what?
06:09Except that it was missing one brick, one brick.
06:13And they would say, what a beautiful structure, except that it is missing this one brick.
06:19And he said about himself, I am that brick.
06:22I am that brick.
06:24And yet in his life, in his life, we find that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala shows us a
06:30very human because it's the most detailed life of all of the prophets.
06:36May Allah be pleased with all of them.
06:38May Allah's peace be upon all of them.
06:39Say Ameen.
06:40Of all of the prophets, the most detailed life story, seerah that we have is of the
06:46Prophet ﷺ.
06:50Revelation begins, revelation begins, and then it comes to a pause.
06:55It comes to a pause for a few days.
06:57He was already troubled in the cave of Hira getting the revelation.
07:02And then now, and then now it has paused.
07:05It has paused.
07:06He is thinking of this as a failure, if you will.
07:10The Mufasireen tell us, Ibn Kathir says that among some of the interpretations was that
07:19as revelation paused for just a little while, Abu Lahab's wife and others begin to sarcastically
07:27ridicule him to say, look, like what you thought was something big is actually nothing.
07:32Nothing else is coming to you.
07:34No new revelation is coming.
07:36Who is he?
07:37He's a human being.
07:38How does he receive this?
07:40As all human beings do.
07:42The news that it's not going to work out, that maybe it, the signs that it isn't going
07:47to work out.
07:48Who is he?
07:49He's a young boy, an infant who never saw his father.
07:54He is an infant whose mother was only six years old by the time when she passed away.
08:00He was only six years old when she passed away.
08:02He goes through life, a very difficult life, if you will, without any of the parents.
08:07And yet here he comes.
08:09He's being told he's been chosen by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
08:12And then revelation stops.
08:14And here is the Quran for you and I, for all of time to come, being that source of
08:20reassurance for every single moment of our lives.
08:23Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reveals.
08:37And then what?
08:38Here are the reminders of all of the blessings.
08:42Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala saying, your Lord has neither forsaken you or abandoned you.
08:47Your akhira, your afterlife is much better for you.
08:50Keep focused.
08:52These are challenges on the way to the end goal, the end goal.
08:57And then he reminds him that your Lord will be pleased with you soon.
09:01Didn't we find you as an orphan of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam?
09:06And we took care of you.
09:09He has an infant child, a son among all of the children.
09:14All of the sons passed away.
09:16At the time that Ibrahim, his son passed away, again, the people around him mocked him, ridiculed
09:24him.
09:25In those days, in those days, every king wanted to make sure that he married over and over
09:30again until he had a succession of sons who would carry on his name, his lineage.
09:38And therefore, the power or the continuation of the kingdom, that was the goal.
09:44And so they used that against him.
09:46They said, you think you have this message?
09:49You think you're going to succeed?
09:51Look what Allah did to you.
09:53He cut you off.
09:55You are abtar.
09:57You are cut off.
09:58You have no sons.
10:00This was it.
10:01And what does he in a human moment do?
10:04The companions actually were surprised, and that's how we know exactly what happened.
10:10Some of you do that.
10:11You remember back at funerals, so-and-so was so overcome with grief, but they stood there.
10:18They barely, barely cried.
10:20In fact, they never even shed a tear.
10:22You remember those moments of grief, of happiness.
10:25The companions remembered, and that's why we know what happened.
10:28They said to him, this is ajib, this is strange.
10:31We see you crying.
10:33He said what we always remember.
10:35The heart does grieve.
10:38The eyes shed tears, but the tongue, because Shaykh Suleiman talked about how you deal
10:44with success and with failure, how you respond to failure.
10:48The eyes shed tears.
10:50The heart grieves.
10:51He's opening up an entire range of emotions for every single person to say as a human
10:57being, Allah will test you.
10:58The heart will grieve.
11:00The eyes will shed tears.
11:01But what?
11:03The tongue will never say anything displeasing to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la.
11:08And in that moment, again the Qur'an comes.
11:12Again the Qur'an comes and Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la reveals Surah Kawthar.
11:16Inna a'taynaka al-kawthar fassalli li rabbika wanhar inna shaniyaka huwa al-abdar.
11:24Don't worry, Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
11:26They're making fun of you.
11:28They say your message will be cut off.
11:30You'll be left with nothing.
11:32I am telling you, think again of the Akhirah and may Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la make
11:36us all worthy after having eaten the cheesecake to quench our thirst and to wash down the
11:44cheesecake with the fountain of al-kawthar.
11:48With the drink from the hands of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
11:51Say ameen.
11:53And so here we are.
11:55Here we are.
11:57All of that that they stacked up against him, the Qur'an kept coming again and again and
12:02again.
12:03Here is reassurance for you.
12:04Your Lord is merciful.
12:06Your Lord is there.
12:07He is your mawla.
12:08He is your protector.
12:09He takes care of you, but you got to keep coming back.
12:13You have to keep coming back.
12:15You have to keep trying 721 times.
12:18What insanity would someone say?
12:21But the other person says, I firmly believe that Allah has a plan.
12:24I'm going to keep trying in my human capacity to do the best I can to get through this as
12:30much as possible because Allah has a plan.
12:32I'm going to try my best to get through it.
12:35So between those two surahs and those examples, I'm showing you that don't feel that something
12:42that happens to you is in fact failure.
12:45Turn to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la because society has set it up so that we think that
12:49that is failure.
12:51We think and in fact Imam Al-Ghazali has said this, as I look back on my life, I realized
12:59that every time I thought I was being rejected from something good, I was actually being
13:04redirected to something better.
13:08Every time I thought, I realized that I thought I was being rejected from something good.
13:13I was actually being redirected to something better.
13:15You must convince your heart that whatever Allah has decreed is most appropriate and
13:21most beneficial for you.
13:25Some of you may be in high school, took the SAT exam, studied so hard, waiting for that
13:31one college, for that one university to send you those few words that say, that begin with
13:38congratulations, the admissions committee has reviewed your application and has accepted
13:44you.
13:45But remember, who created you?
13:50Who already wrote the plan for your sustenance?
13:54Who has decided where you will be at exactly the moment?
13:59And you remember, many of you remember exactly where you were when you, nowadays mostly it's
14:02email, when I was in undergrad it was a letter and you actually had to wait for the letter
14:07to come, right?
14:08And then you opened the letter or you had your parents open it because you were too
14:11freaked out.
14:14You're going to remember exactly where you were, but remember it's more important how
14:18you act upon the news.
14:21How do you deal with the news?
14:23And subhanAllah that reminder from Imam al-Ghazali is something very, very important.
14:28And to close out, this side of the room, because I need class participation, whenever I look,
14:34when I go like this, you're going to say it quite loudly and with all your emotions with
14:38the other lecturers like, what is going on in 104, right?
14:41I want to have what they're having, right?
14:44References.
14:45Yeah.
14:46All right.
14:47So when I go like this, right?
14:48All of you are going to say, shake it off.
14:51Let's practice that.
14:54And you're going to say, step up.
14:56Okay.
14:57Ready?
14:58There was a horse that had become quite old in the village.
15:06And as this horse was walking one night, it tripped.
15:10It tripped and regrettably it had tripped over the wall of a deep well that was the
15:16source of water for the villagers.
15:20As it fell into the well, it thought, I am done.
15:24I was already getting old.
15:26They're not going to actually ever take me out.
15:29It's so deep.
15:30How could they?
15:32As the horse lay there and morning came, the people came for Fajr prayer to get water from
15:37the well and found the horse in the well.
15:41Some of them said, the horse was already old.
15:45Let's just dig a new well, just cover up the well, bury the horse and that will be the
15:50end of it.
15:51The horse is hearing that.
15:53So some said, well, if we go with your plan, we will have no well and we don't know what
15:58the future will hold.
16:00And others said, well, we'll dig and we keep digging.
16:02Some of you keep digging for new water source and we will keep trying to bury this horse.
16:08So they brought the shovels and the people who were going to bury the horse won out.
16:12And so the horse was standing there on its forefeet, listening to the ground being dug
16:17around it, around the well.
16:20And as with each shovel, all of them got really, really excited because they said, this is
16:25it.
16:26We can just bury the horse done and we can move on.
16:29And with every shovel of dirt that was being picked up, the horse heard it grating against
16:38the floor.
16:39And as they took the shovel, the first shovel fell onto the horse and it said, I'm done.
16:46I'm done.
16:47They're going to bury me.
16:49The first shovel fell onto the back on the main of the heart, the horse.
16:53And SubhanAllah, Allah inspired the horse to, oh my God, seriously, he's like, uh, shake
17:01something.
17:03So let's try that again.
17:04It was really anticlimactic, yeah.
17:07That's why we don't do theater in the Muslim community because we have enough drama at
17:11home and in the masjids, right?
17:13We're like, we don't need drama, really.
17:15We have Bollywood and my wife is Egyptian, so we have Cairowood, so we're done.
17:22We don't need any drama of any kind.
17:24So the first shovel, as the dirt fell onto the back of the horse, the horse realized
17:31that the dirt was actually going to bury it.
17:34When it got near its ankles of the horse, it said, I'm not going to fail.
17:40I'm not going to die.
17:42So the next shovel that fell on the back of the horse, they kept shoveling.
17:50The dirt kept rising and before you know it, the horse was literally able to walk out
17:57of the well and they had provided the way for it to be saved because every dirt that
18:03fell on the back, the horse shook it off and was able to step up.
18:07Brothers and sisters, these conferences and conventions, I just have a few more minutes,
18:12are just another opportunity, first and foremost, to gather, to mention and to remember Allah
18:19Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la.
18:20Success for you today, make it so that you say, I'm going to complete the Sunnah of the
18:26Prophet ﷺ to recite.
18:30You had technically from last night at Maghrib, but you lost that if you haven't done it,
18:35until tonight at Maghrib to recite Surah Al-Kahf, to recite that.
18:40Not to have a recording recited for you because I'm getting tired of that.
18:44I'm like in Ramadan and Taraweeh, we have brothers doing the, I'm going to, no, I'm
18:48going to follow along right here.
18:49I got it right here.
18:50So they're standing next to you, Imam is reciting beautifully, they're like, and they start
18:54swiping because the wife is like, don't forget to bring milk for the Suhoor, like okay, right?
18:59Right in the middle of Surah Al-Biyah, okay, got to get milk, oh my God, right?
19:03Your car is about to be towed, oh lordy, right?
19:05Go on to Surah Yasin, yeah, that's death, right?
19:09So I'm saying, recite Surah Al-Kahf, make it a day of success.
19:14Say that I revived the Sunnah of the Prophet, peace be upon him.
19:17Rush to Jummah prayer, wait, don't wait for the Adhan, get there and sit down before the
19:23Adhan, so that when the Adhan goes off and the angels close their books, our recording
19:28is already done, our names are already recorded.
19:30As you receive failure, and Shaykh Suleiman gave you, mashaAllah, five different strategies,
19:35as you receive the news of failure, remember that your brain is actually programmed to
19:40anticipate failure, so think of that contingency plan.
19:45Think of what will you do if this happens or that happens.
19:48What is your next step?
19:49What is your backup plan?
19:51Who will you contact?
19:52What will you say?
19:53He mentioned, inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un, when I was, you know, in my early
19:57twenties and I was in Malaysia for two years at the Islamic University, teaching there,
20:03and subhanAllah, I met international students from everywhere, and I was an American raised
20:07child.
20:09So I was standing there with them, they were in their little co-op and they were cooking,
20:12and one of the guys was trying to cut a tomato, and the knife like barely nicked him, like
20:17you know, if you know Monty Python, like literally it was a nick, like literally barely a nick,
20:21and as I watched it, he goes, oh, inna lillahi wa, I go, oh my God, seriously, you're not
20:26going to die from that, right, subhanAllah, it's the mind that is directed towards Allah
20:32and the heart, you immediately know that that little cut, and the doctors are in the audience,
20:39they're not fundraising, so relax, doctors, right, they're like, oh my God, they found
20:42us out again, right, no, we love you, we love you for who you are and your money, right.
20:47So the idea was that, they were saying that the little cut can become an infection, and
20:53the infection could actually be deadly, deathly, if there was rust on the knife, anything could
21:00happen.
21:01So we always remember that we belong to Allah, and to Allah is our return, and inshaAllah
21:05remember that you are, you are the best, the best coach that you will have, because
21:12you're the only one experiencing it, so make the adhkar, make the dua, seek forgiveness
21:16from Allah, and keep struggling, and remember, if it gets really bad, oh ya Allah, this is
21:23why education in America is so struggling, people are like, why is our country becoming
21:28like that, it's this right here, right, inshaAllah, jazakumullah khairan, salamu alaykum.