Reflections & Resolutions - Mufti Abu Layth

Amen. People be folding the line of being. We are in 2014.

A new year whole year has passed us by. We are at a particular time when people throughout the globe are setting themselves resolutions and targets by which they can measure themselves for this year to come. We as Muslims have a tradition by which we take ourselves to account. Say has taught us how to take yourself to account before you are taken to account.

The of the messenger of Allah teaches us that or another way that the days are of three types and see more of that a day yesterday which has gone with what it contained. That you do not know or perhaps you will not reach it.

That rather it is this very day that you are in. So work for it or seize it. This tradition This teaches us to look back, reflect. Allah constantly reminds the believers throughout the Quran that in that is a ibra liman ofa tabiru that seek, take heed, look back, reflect.

So, we should look at this previous year, analyze it, evaluate, see our shortcomings, see where we fell short, see what we did right, use that to set targets for the future, for this coming year. When we when we will look at 2013, we may find that okay, there's some things we did alhamdulillah which were very good and some things perhaps we could have used that time and spent it in a much more productive way.

Okay, alhamdulillah the fact that we recognize that in itself is a blessing. Now, let's use that as a to kind of set a target for 2014. And I don't just mean I mean it could be personal targets for your family responsibilities in terms of career development, all of these things, but more importantly as well our development of the team.

What have we been doing to learn Arabic? What have we been doing to develop our understanding of the sharia, our faith, to gain a more clearer understanding of the Quran, to have a a greater grasp of the sunnah? What have we been doing? And if the answer is not much, then that is a huge problem. We need to stop right there. This year, we need to set ourselves a target.

How are we going to Let's Let's find an Arabic class. Let's join it. Let's start studying. We need to this year, we need to get this done. Do we know our ibadat? If not, let's get that done this year, people. As it is said that the greatest waste in the world is the difference between what we are and what we could have become.

Okay, the Arabic poet, he says He says that whosoever finds a route, a path to greatness, then let him not fall short in the transport. Let him set sail adequately. He says, "And I have not seen a shortcoming that is as or so heinous as or so shocking as the shortcoming of those who

were capable, yet fell short of perfection." So, let us set some targets. Let them be practical, be realistic and achievable, but at the same time, let them be about the deen, about the ulum of deen in setting that up.

Okay? And admittedly, perhaps we may have had some bad experiences in the past. Perhaps we have attempted to learn, maybe, but every time I have tried to learn Arabic, it just hasn't worked out, and therefore, you know, this ain't going to really work. Uh uh That is a myth. We need to stop right there. Maybe the method, maybe the application, maybe I need to try a different way. We need to learn from what went wrong.

There is There is a poem in Urdu actually, which says that this is our experience from candles or light which has gone out.

That the darkness also teaches us how to see. The point being that just because things have sometimes not worked, we can learn from that and move forward. So, with this in mind, we are now at the beginning of this new year, 2014. May Allah fill this year with great achievements for each and all.

May he make this an amazing, an awesome, an absolutely outstanding year for each and every one of us. A year in which we enhance our understanding of the thing. A year in which we reconnect with this amazing legacy that we have. That said, folks, do remember me in your kind duas.

As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi taala wa barakatuh.