Everyone needs to have a sense of purpose, and they need to feel like they’re getting somewhere. In life in general, and whenever we are doing some type of task. No one like the feeling of sitting in a class, and feeling like ok this class is not getting me anywhere. Either because I know it all, or the subject is so boring, or because it’s just no interest to me. Similarly, if someone were to ask to play basketball, and the person who ran the court says, “Yes you can play, but you can only bounce the ball ten times while standing, and you can’t move around the court.” You can say, “Well that not fun.” Or someone said that yes you can play, but you can’t run while you’re playing basketball, you can only walk around. And that would make for a very boring basketball game, you could hardly call it basketball. What happens in all of these situations when either we’re not doing enough, or we’re not doing it to an intensity that is satisfactory to us, we lose interest right away. This happens in all aspects of life, and it happens in Deen as well. Sometimes we start losing our connection of our interest in deen, we start losing our inclination to practice deen. Even though we might like to, we might want to from inside, we have the intention of practicing or practicing more or practicing better, but the interest just isn’t there. The motivation isn’t there. So, it’s usually one of two things, aside from the whispers of Shaytaan, and aside from our own laziness, there are usually two things that get us there. A, we’re not using our potential. We’re not using our potential by doing enough, or if we are doing the basics, we’re not doing it with a high enough quality. Not doing it up enough is like going to a basketball court dribbling the ball ten times and walking away. That was not basketball. You went and you dribbled the ball. There’s so much more that you can do, there’s so much more that you should do but you just didn’t do it you walked away. How many times do you suppose you could do that? Most people couldn’t do that more than once it would say “this is just a waste of time.” Similarly having a game of basketball but not being able to run around, not being able to actually play, the intensity isn’t enough, so you lose interest. When we lose interest in Deen it’s because either because we’re not doing enough or what we’re doing is not intense enough. So sometimes, a person is lacking in their salat. A person feels disconnected from Deen, but they’re actually lacking in salat. They’re not doing the basics. So how do they expect to be connected when they’re not doing the basics. You have to do the basics to feel connected to the Deen. If somebody’s not praying there five times salaat, if somebody is not keeping a basic connection with the Masjid, they’re not doing the basic things. This Deen is very quickly going to lose relevance in their life because they haven’t made time for it. They haven’t made the space for it. Similarly, if somebody is praying five times a day, but they’re doing it with no attention whatsoever. Their mind is somewhere else, and from the time they say Allah Akbar till the time they say assalamualaikum warahmatullah, their mind is wandering about everywhere but in salaat. That salaat is going to become quite meaningless after, it’s just a matter of time. A person can only do that for a certain amount of time, and then they’ll start skipping salat. And then this person will say “yes I pray but I don’t feel it. I pray but I don’t get the benefit of it. I pray that I don’t feel connected with Allah (SWT).” That is not because there is something missing in salat, it’s because there’s something missing in us. That’s what it comes back to. We have unused potential. And whenever we have this unused potential it leads to boredom and disinterest. So what our mind is actually telling us when that happens, is that I should actually, and I could actually be doing much more. I could have prayed a much better salat, but because I didn’t use my potential that salat doesn’t have any meaning. Just like that basketball game when no one’s running around they’re only walking there’s so much more that they could have done. But because they didn’t apply themselves, it made for a very boring and sorrowful experience that it’s just sad. So sometimes we need to turn up the intensity. We need to turn up the intensity in our Deen. Either by doing, more or doing it better. Doing more because we’re not doing enough, there’s actually much more that we can do, but because we’re not doing it we end up losing interest. Sometimes it shows on the faces of students. They’re praying but they’re not there. Their mind is not really there. Their heart is not really there. They’re doing it because they have to. And what that actually means is not that they’re a bad person, that’s not what it means. What it means is they could be doing much more but they’re just not doing it they haven’t applied themselves. And if they started applying themselves and pushing themselves to maybe pray a higher quality of salat, this salat will pull them towards itself. The salat pulls us towards Allah (SWT). And once a person feels the joy the pleasure that lies in the intensity of worship, in the devotion that comes with worship, there’s no turning back. Once that thing touches your heart, it changes you. Like Ibrahim ibni Adham had done somebody reminded him once, it touched his heart. He heard noises on the roof of his palace, so he went up to see what’s this footsteps on my on my ceiling? So when he climbed up he found there’s a guy there walking around on his roof. He said “What are you doing here? Who are you? What are you doing here?” He said “I’m looking for my camel.” So what kind of fool looks for a camel on top of a roof, and what are you really doing here. He said “Yeah, only a fool would look for a camel on top of a roof, similarly only a fool would look for Allah (SWT) with the lifestyle that you have.” This message hit him so hard that that same night he did a bit of reflection he said “Really I on one side I want to get close to Allah. I have all these aspirations of being close to Allah and getting my du’as accepted, and being like this and like this and being saved on the day of judgment, but I’m not doing anything for it.” That same night he wrapped up his bags and he took off. He was the ruler of this area. Next morning people come to his room, his palace, his court, he’s not around. They’re like this guy’s gone, what happened. Then they sent a search party out looking for, him and they looked and they could not find him. Then finally one day, they found him in the thick of the forest wearing these simple clothes and just sitting there worshiping Allah (SWT). They said please we need you, he said no I need something else right now. There is something else that I need right now. Otherwise my purpose of life will be unfulfilled. Once it touches you there’s no going back. Harun Rashid had a son. Young, bright intelligent man filled with potential. But he saw that these worldly luxuries that my father has are only going to spoil me, so he turned all of them down, and he spent a life by himself worshipping Allah (SWT). He said I don’t want to have anything to do with all these luxuries and enjoyments. So it has been done, it’s been done over and over and over again. But when we feel disinterest in our Deen, when we feel lethargic towards our duties to Allah (SWT), it means we need to turn up the intensity. The intensity is not there. How do you turn up the intensity? Well look at each act that you do in your deen. What is the quality of your salat? What is the quantity of your salat? What is the quality of your tilawat of Quran, what is the quantity of your tilawat of Quran? What is your quality of good deeds and your quantity of good deeds? And what is the level of sins and mistakes and what is what is the amount of sins and mistakes? Once you take a quick look at that you’ll know what shifts you have to make. Doing this, moving from this direction, from this point to that point, requires this effort the sacrifice. It requires a cleansing process, that cleansing process is called tazkiya. As long as a person is going through this process where they’re challenging themselves, tazkiya is taking place, and this person’s interest, love, devotion, dedication to Deen is increasing many many many folds. And you will never find this person disinterested, you will never find this person lazy. So sometimes what we’re really missing is a dose of tazkiya, where we have to apply ourselves and push ourselves. We’re not pushing ourselves; Allah has put immense potential inside every single person. But because we’re not using it, life gets boring. Deen gets boring. Salat gets boring. Everything gets boring. it’s just the unused potential that’s speaking out. So these are some things for us to think about, and really some reasons why we should all start pushing ourselves a little bit more. It’s the end of the year, and this is where Shaytaan will try to make us waste all the good stuff that’s happened, and this is when we fight back. We push back against them we say we’re not gonna let you do that. We’ve spent many many days doing certain things, trying to get certain things right, and we’re not about to let you undo that. May Allah (SWT) give us Tawfik.
