OWN YOUR DESTINY: QURANIC GUIDANCE | Mufti Abu Layth

let's take a look at uh today's some verses of the quran let me just bring this up because i know when i get talking i get carried away people bismillah own your destiny this is such a an important theme look everybody is fighting a difficult battle everybody in their own way

one can never disparage the path of another okay but amidst that path people may find you know may have to walk over thorns may have to jump over hurdles all kinds of struggles as the poet says that

that he says that you know this if if you want to he's saying well if you want to come to my abode then you see this this kind of stone riddled path then that's the path you have to take that there is no like what he's trying to say there is no moonlit pathway that leads you to this abode that there is struggle and often amidst the struggle people they because we can't see what's ahead

it is natural to to waiver to to second you know to to to kind of question that i don't think i can do it to doubt to fall victim to the naysayers this happens in light of that and anybody and everybody can find themselves at in such positions i want to take a look at

three verses two first of all from ala imran that you have this verse and i want us to understand by extension the meanings we can also take as well now this may in its context be speaking about people with all kinds of struggle maybe back then maybe in some of the battles maybe in some of the other things in just day-to-day life

but today this this comes to comfort us this verse in every challenge that you are facing now check this out allah says that do not become weak don't become weak

do not be sad you are you will prevail you will overcome you will gain the upper hand al-alah is the one on top the one who prevails the one who makes it it is you but is there a condition does it come with a caveat allah says

if only if you have the faith see if you have that if you decide that look all this is happening but i might i'm going to own it i'm going to take control however that may be whatever your challenge is you know people have may allah make it easy for everyone but people have all kinds of challenges sometimes a person may have to

may have to put themselves in such a position that or in such an equation what i would call the the tariq benzyat method that we they just burn the ships what a tragic thing to do as they embark on the iberian peninsula which is uh modern-day spain and portugal so feeling outnumbered feeling the the courage and the determination of his men waiver he did the unthinkable

he burned the ships you think why on earth would you do that this is it's you've set at this impending doom it's a ticking time bomb we it is just a countdown to death that's all it is that's what the people are thinking and then he tells them that well there is a way out but it's through that that you see in front of you see you

on the other side allah and this mentality this tardik means here method at times in life metaphorically to burn the ships that you set your eyes on a goal and you lock in you think that i'm gonna get this done doesn't matter

and you see this same kind the same theme of the verse being repeated in surah muhammad verse 35 that and hear that do not fall weak do not waver water that you end up calling to a truce and this in surah muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam speaking about um speaking about hodeia speaking about the fatah makkah and other incidents but by extension

what about by extension in for us that calling to a truce when it comes to the challenges it doesn't have to just be that a person may sell themselves short in something they call to a truce whereas they could have that they could have attained they could have reached for the heavens but they just compromised

that you would have had that greatness you would have had the upper hand you would have had success and and greatness of my you know of like of epic proportions and this is such an amazing see after allah says that see a person they are in their struggle in life it could be something work related

it could be health related it could be family related it could be setting out on a venture but a person they've taken that tariq binziya method and burnt the ships and it's kind of all out so what do i do now what does a person feel in in that situation they are being reminded don't fall weak they're feeling weak but don't they're being told stay strong own your destiny but in those moments what do you find yourself

you find yourself alone allah follows it by saying what is the fear about god is with you you don't see anybody to the left or the right but god is with you

that go go with all your heart and it is in these circumstances that people achieve and allah says allah will not allow for your actions for these efforts for these endeavors to go to waste allah won't allow it but the question is will you allow it you see you have to it begins in here you have to own your own destiny and

then set that foot forward wallahu allies with you and success will unfold before you but it is a leap of faith and this is why allah says in the verse if there is a caveat that you have faith that if you believe because this is a belief but it is the power of belief people allah it is the power of belief

and you've got in in line with these verses a verse from you've got you just pause that surah hadith once again in a very similar in a similar theme allah reminding you because a person you know you may be i might think you know what i'm feeling lonely but i think i'm reminded allah is saying he's with me so i muster the courage

i set foot forward and i embark on whatever it is that i'm about to do but sometimes when you get there as things start moving forward maybe you've quit everything and you've started one endeavor one startup one little business that you've risked everything on a relationship a health issue something that you've you've gone all out but once you get there then you're thinking yeah allah was i

know i felt allah was with me there but what about now this verse comes straight surah hadid and in a verse to do with ayan i mean the surah that is named after you think nobody watches these efforts of yours you think it goes in vain people may not see your struggle people

may only see the glory they may not see the the kind of the sweat they may not see all the failure that you had to go through to arrive at that allah sees it it is enough to know that god sees it it brings it back into your consciousness because all of us feel that there is this sense of being watched and we'll speak a bit about this in a moment i want to speak about

the the glance of attention and consciousness but here in these verses so as a reminder that no matter what we're facing only okay and you know it doesn't mean this and this hadith i want to bring this here in it doesn't mean by the way owning your destiny

does not or it doesn't have to mean that it doesn't even have to signify glory it doesn't have to signify some kind of triumph it's internal it begins there you own it see in life upon occasion things may happen or things will happen to certain people that may not be good that may not be good for them or good to them

better still shall we say somebody could be afflicted with a terrible illness terrible disease somebody could lose someone they'd die somebody could fail miserably not every success is a triumphant success

you can still own your tragedy and there is a beauty in that you see because and this is the part that people miss people understand owning success owning you know triumph but they can equally own tragedy they can equally own the chapter of life that they are in that tiger it's happened it is what it is and in that there is a peace

there is a contentment wallahokum may allah grant ease to anybody that is suffering or facing any challenge but i feel these reminders are incredibly important i'll take a look