DON’T DO THIS If You Want Barakah In Your Business (Ft. Sheikh Uthman Ibn Farooq)

You know, our brother Sneegle, when he first became Muslim, he had an offer by a gambling company. It was $20 million. He called me, he said, is this halal? I said, no, it's haram. He gave it up.

Every time you see a haram deal, you see something that's dodgy, you're borrowing this haram money from your halal future earnings.

If you give up a haram deal, where will your risk come from? He stood up against his own father. Can you imagine? And the father is telling him that, look, I'm going to harm you.

So what happened then?

He sacrificed for the sake of Allah.

And sometimes he's testing them. Sometimes he's hiding more reward and he wants to see by testing you what you'll do with it to give you a bigger reward.

Look.

Welcome to a new episode. In today's episode, we're speaking about giving something up for the sake of Allah (AJ). When you know something is shady, when you know something might be haram, but it's very attractive, but you have to give it up. It's very difficult. I mean, even we have our brother Sneaker who recently has been offered a $20 million a year deal for gambling company and had to turn it away. It's very difficult. We also have the example of Ibrahim (AS) who was asked to slaughter his son, subhanAllah, and sacrifice his son. How can you handle such a thing when Allah (AJ) orders you, but your feelings— it's so difficult. How do you handle it?

It's a beautiful question. And remember something, As a principle, whatever you give up for the sake of Allah (SWT), Allah will give you better than it.

Where is the proof in there?

And this is something that we find in the Quran, in Ahadith, and in the prophetic traditions. And the evidence for that, a beautiful example of that, is Ibrahim (AS). First off, Ibrahim (AS) was very comfortable in his life, you know, before Nabuwa, before prophethood, his father was a chief, a statue maker who people respected in the idol worshipping tradition. So, as a son of somebody like that, he had perks. He was living a comfortable life. But when he realized that this is something haram, when Allah (SWT) guided him, knowing that idol worship is haram, he did not hesitate to give up that life. And many of our brothers may be caught up in some businesses that they know are wrong.

That's a common thing. They have a great deal, they have a job, maybe there's some riba in there, I don't know. Or a business deal that is covering my bills, it's attractive, it's a lot of money, I need it, but it's haram.

This is where Ibrahim (AS) is such a beautiful example. He stood up against his own father. Can you imagine standing up and the father is telling him that, look, I'm going to harm you until he had to leave his life. He had to leave his environment. He had to leave where he was raised. And nobody wants to leave the place that they are comfortable with, that they grew up with, the streets, the places where their childhood was. But for the sake of Allah, he made hijrah. He left there and he went throughout his life making hijrah again and again. Going to the place where people were worshipping stars and suns and giving them da'wah. Going to places where he was being thrown in the fire. And he was not afraid of taking that risk for the da'wah. Debating with the people of Kufa, showing the falsehood of their arguments. But the beautiful, amazing example, and his whole life is so beautiful, is when he was tested by Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala with the issue of Ismail (AS).

Tell me about it.

Ibrahim (AS) was of older age, and his wife Hajar (AS) and his wife Sarah (AS), they had both of those wives, they did not have children. So, he was very old and he had no children. Then Allah (SWT) blessed him with Ismail (AS), a child at a very later age, and a child that he knew had a sign of piety, somebody who he saw that would be good. And obviously he was, he became a Prophet of Allah (SWT). Then Allah (SWT) ordered him to take that wife and that child to the middle of a desert and leave them.

SubhanAllah.

Can you imagine?

Why did Allah (SWT) order him this?

This is something where a lot of people have a misconception, and I want to clarify this. There are some people who say that Hajar (AS) became jealous of Sarah (AS) having a son, but this is not true. This is something you find in Israeliat, in some of the works of Christians and Jews, but not in the Quran or Sahih Hadith.

What do we find in the Quran?

What we find is that Allah (SWT) wrote for him to be the one who puts the foundation for Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, to establish Mecca, to be there from whose progeny would come the best of mankind, Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم).

So, it was an actual honor.

It was. Hajar (على السلام) was not jealous of Sarah (على السلام). These are misconceptions. These are pious women. In fact, she is the one that suggested for Ibrahim (على السلام) to marry her. Because Sarah (على السلام) was given to Hajar (على السلام), not to the Prophet Ibrahim (AS), from the king of Egypt, who at the time tried to harm her, but because of her great tawakkun in Allah and her dua, Allah protected her, and that king gave her. So, if she was jealous, she would have gotten rid of her, but she wasn't. She was a woman of piety. She told her husband to marry this woman, and when he married her, how do we know that it was an order of Allah to go there and not an issue of jealousy, is when he took her there, what did he tell her? —And that's a beautiful story. So, he took her to the middle of a desert. Imagine, especially those sisters watching, imagine your husband, who is a pious man, a religious man, takes you to the middle of a desert. There's nobody there. Not a house, not a building, no water, no food, no trees, no greenery, nothing but a hot, barren, harsh rock desert. You know, you've been to Mecca, If you look around, it's not green. Other than what they've imported now or brought water in, it's rock. It's not even sandy desert. It's hard rock. Like Madinah was a farming town. That's why when you drive around Madinah, there's a breeze, a lot of trees, naturally it's greener. Makkah was a very harsh environment. That's why there wasn't farming in Makkah. It was a trade town. But when Ibrahim (AS) took his wife and baby infant child there. There was nothing there. Just hard rock desert. And then he just leaves her. He leaves her there. And he starts walking away. And she tells him, who are you leaving us to? Infant nursing child. And he doesn't even respond to her. And then she asks the right question. She says, is this the order of Allah? And he tells her, yes, this is the order of Allah. What did she say then? So it hasn't anything to do with jealousy. It doesn't have anything. It has to do with being an order of Allah. And when she asked that question, what did she respond when he told her it's the order of Allah? She said, then Allah is enough for us. In the middle of the desert, nothing. Imagine a woman with that kind of iman. She didn't say, oh, you're a deadbeat dad. Oh, you're not a good father. You're not a good husband. Who are you leaving us to? Who cares about your mission? What about me? 'What about me? What about my rights?' And you know, all the things that many of our feminist sisters would be going off about today. This is the iman of this woman. She knew that if it's the order of Allah, Allah would take care of her. Ibrahim (AS) walked a little ways and then he turned around looking at them, making dua for them. He loved them. It's not that he wanted to get— he loved them. But this was the hikmah, the wisdom from Allah. So he sacrificed. For the sake of Allah. Now he's gone, there is no food, no water, no people, nothing. You know, and people worried about, oh, if I don't take this haram deal, then how am I going to feed my family? Imagine Hajar (AS).

She's there in the desert.

Middle of the desert, nothing around. Nothing. Not even water. And her milk is drying up. She has nothing to eat. Her child is crying. And she's running between Safa and Marwa, these two little hills. She's running between them trying to find anything coming, even though there's nobody there. Now what does she see after her seventh run? She sees Jibreel (AS). Allah (SWT) sent Jibreel (AS) from above the Samawat. He sent him down, said, go bring the risk to them. SubhanAllah. And he dug, some of the narrations mentioned from his wing and some mentioned from his foot, into the ground. And the water came out. SubhanAllah. And that water me and you are still drinking today. SubhanAllah. Look at that risk. Till today me and you are drinking that Zamzam water. Why is it called Zamzam? Because the water started to flow.

Too much water was coming out.

Hajar (as), she was worried. It's the desert. What if it flows out and disappears? So, she started to stop it, and in her language, 'zam' meant to stop. So, zam, zam, to stop it. Rasulullah Muhammad (saw), in the Sahih Hadith, he said that if she had let it flow, it would have been a river. SubhanAllah. But it became a well. Right? There, now she has water. Where did it come from? Allah. If you give up a haram deal, where will your rizq come from? Allah. He is the Razzak. Not haram deals. You know, our brother Sneako, when he first became Muslim, he had an offer by a gambling company. It was $20 million yearly offer. So we're looking at a 2-year contract, like $40 million. Right? He called me, he said, is this halal? I said, no, it's haram. He gave it up.

May Allah reward him.

May Allah reward him and accept it. Allah still increased his rizq. You think he's starving? No. Allah blessed him. Right? Now, Hajar (على السلام), now she has water but no food. Right? You can't just drink water. Right? Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) sent Jurham, the Qabeelat of Jurham, and these were actual Arabs from Yemen. And like Ismail (AS) and Ibrahim (AS) and Hajar (AS) didn't speak Arabic. They weren't Arab. Musta'rab. They became Arab from learning Arabic later. But this Qabeela was Arab. These were rough Bedouin, strong fighter men. They see just a woman by herself with a little baby, infant baby. And now they see water. It's something that's a very precious commodity in the desert. It would be nothing for them to flick their wrist with a sword and take the water. But Allah (SWT) protected her. Not only gave her the water, He protected her. The day, asked, can we use this water? And she says, yes, but the rights are ours. You can use it and you're going to share food with us. So now Allah brought Jurhum to bring them food. SubhanAllah. In the middle of the desert. In the middle of the desert.

But water first, food second. SubhanAllah.

And protection and people that settled there then. And Mecca, from the dua of Ibrahim (AS), Allah brought the risk. Today, me and you, when we go to Mecca, every type of fruit from avocados, from pineapples, from mangoes, from every kind of fast food, from al-baik to everything else, you will find in Mecca. The risk was brought by Allah (SWT).

And every person who's making tawaf and drinking zamzam.

Imagine, till today, me and you, are remembering that sacrifice. We are going from Safa to Marwah. This woman and her iman, she gave up, you know, what was her rights because she knew that Ibrahim (AS) was on a greater mission. Allah (SWT) rewarded her, raised her ranks. Till today we are drinking that Zamzam, we are going back and forth between Safa and Marwah remembering her and her iman. Ibrahim (AS) was tested again to give up something so precious to him, he was told to sacrifice his own son. So the first is him leaving up his environment, constant hijrah. Yeah, that's the one we spoke about. Second, his wife and child, leaving them in a desert.

Yeah, so the first sacrifice was hijrah. Yes. The second one we just spoke about it was his wife in the middle of the desert.

You can see the amazing woman. His wife and infant child. Subhanallah.

Now, the third one.

The third one. Which is Allah (SWT) inspires him. Now at that time, Ishaq (AS) is not born. He only has one child. And he had him when he was old. And it's a pious child. And he's growing up. He's not an infant anymore. He's growing up. And he loves this child.

It's a child that he asked for as well.

It's a child that he made dua for. And Allah blessed him. And now he's told, sacrifice him.

You know, people can resonate with this because a lot of times they make dua for something, they ask for something for a long time, they strive for it, and then it gets granted to them. So alhamdulillah, they're happy. And that's usually the biggest test, is when this thing is compromised. They made dua for it, they asked for it for a long time, it was just granted to them, and now they feel like they have to give it up. That's a beautiful story.

So what did he do? Now he's given this test, and it's such a difficult test. To sacrifice your own son, your only child, your only heir, the fruit of your loins, the carrier of your name, and a pious child.

With your own hands on top of that.

With your own hands. And he tells his son, this is what Allah has ordered me. What does his son say? Oh, my father, obey your Rabb. Do what you're told. He didn't say, you lost your mind? You're going to kill me? That's crazy. You lost me? You crazy? Right? Today if you tell some kid this, he'll be like, "You lost your marbles, my old man." You know, "I'm going to call Child Protective Services. You're crazy." Right? SubhanAllah. But look at the iman of Ibrahim (AS), of Hajar (RA), of Ismail (AS). He tells his father, "Do what you order. If Allah ordered you this, Allah will never harm us." So what happened then? Ibrahim (AS) cannot bear this. He's human. He's not stone. So he wraps up his eyes, he takes his son, He's about to sacrifice him, but Allah (SWT), when He tests you, He never harms you. It's a test to elevate you. Allah (SWT) took Ismail (AS) away from that place and put a lamb, sheep in its place. And when he sacrificed that sheep for the sake of Allah, thinking it's his son, Allah didn't allow his son to be killed. Allah protected him. And till today we are remembering that Eid-ul-Adha comes, We sacrifice an animal and give the meat to the poor and eat of it and give it to the family and so on, to remember the iman and how when Ibrahim (AS) gave up his own son for the sake of Allah, Allah did not allow that son to be harmed, but instead raised the ranks of Ismail and Ibrahim (AS).

SubhanAllah, so we can clearly see that every time that Allah (AJ) tests you with something that you like, and He tells you to give it up for His sake, you should always follow it because subhanAllah, you see the reward that you get from it.

Today, when we go to Makkah, al-Mukarramah, when we go and see millions of Hajjaj right now in Ramadan, millions are coming, records are being broken. You see this sea of people standing where Maqam Ibrahim is. Praying, or that spot remembering.

Two days ago, my friend went to Umm al-Aswad to get Eyoub (Abu Lahya). They mentioned 11 million people were there, SubhanAllah.

Last night I was there, and they said 11 million records have been broken in one night. And we go and drink of that Zamzam still. From what Hajar (ra) gave for the sake of Allah, Allah honored her. That risk, we're still eating from it. The food from around the world, we're still eating from it.

The level of honor compared to the test they had. Yes.

Until today, we see the Kaaba built by that same Ibrahim (AS) and that same Ismail (AS) together, father and son. And we're making tawaf and remembering Allah and we're making dua and we're remembering their sacrifices and the honor that Allah (SWT) gave them. So when you give up something for the sake of Allah, know this, that Allah will give you better than it, Allah will honor you greater than it, Allah will raise your ranks, Allah will forgive your sins if you sincerely do it for the sake of Allah. Who is Ar-Razaq? Allah. So, if you give up something for the sake of Allah, you think Ar-Razaq will not give you your rizq? Of course. And that's something we see in the life of Abu Lahya, the father of the Prophet Ibrahim (AS), and from that lineage, Of Ismail (AS) and Ishaq (AS) came the rest of the prophets. From Ishaq (AS), we see Eyoub (AS), we see Yusuf (AS), we see this lineage of prophets coming. From that, later, from Bani Israel that were there, Musa (AS), and from that Bani Israel, from the lineage, comes Dawud (AS) and Sulaiman (AS), and then later Isa (AS), and from Ismail (AS), now we see the best of mankind, Khatamun Nabiin, the Imamul Anbiya, the last of all prophets, the one that led all of the prophets in salah, the final brick in the house of prophethood, Sayyidina Muhammad ibn Abdullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم), from that lineage, from that blessed place of Mecca, from that blessed lineage of Ibrahim (AS), from Ismail (AS). Look at their sacrifices. Look how Allah raised their ranks.

But now, if people are watching this and they realize they should do the sacrifice, but they're afraid of hurting their family, they're afraid of their provision, they're afraid of putting themselves in a bad situation, how could they overcome this?

They need to once again think about the story of Ibrahim (AS). When he was ordered to take Hajar (AS), did he think, I'm going to hurt my family?

But he didn't know what was going to happen.

But he knew that Allah would never waste him.

Do you have any ayat, any hadith that can mention this to help people increase their iman? Of course.

Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) says, مَن يَتَّقُّ اللَّهِ, whoever has taqwa of Allah, Allah will find a makhraj for them, a way for them. يَجْعَلَ لَهُّ مَخْرَجًا. Whoever has taqwa of Allah, Allah will open a way for them. So when you have taqwa of Allah and you give up that which is haram and you give up that which has shubuhat, that has doubt, Allah will make a way for you.

And He will provide for them?

From where they do not expect. From where you don't expect rizq to come to you, Allah will bring it to you. And not just this, Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, He tells in the Quran repeated that He is Ar-Razaq, Ad-Dulquwata Al-Mateen, the One with the strength and power is Allah. Who brings us the rizq? Allah. Who gives us security? Allah. Look, even if you look at Surah Quraysh, you look at the 'li ilafi Quraysh.' 'Ilaf' here is their 'ulfa, allafa,' their passion of travel and sightseeing. You know, they would leave Baitullah and go to Yemen and go to Sham, even though the trade would come to them, to Makkah. But they like to do these travels. So, 'li ilafi Quraysh, ilafi him rahla tashshita, iwas saif.' What is their ilaf? What is this passion that has gotten them away from the ibadah of Allah? Is their rahla, is their travels. In the summer, they would go to Sham, to Syria, the current day, yaani, Palestine, may Allah free it, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, this was all called Sham. Because it was colder there and the business was there in the summertime. In the winter, they would go to Yemen. Because Yemen in the winter was warmer. Sham gets very cold, they get snow and so on. So, they would go to Yemen and they would trade. Now, what did they leave? They left the ibadah of Allah (SWT) for this. But Allah (SWT) is telling them that, look, who gave you aman? Who gave you rizq? Who gave you all of that? Allah did. فَلْيَابُدُ رَبَّهَاَ دَلْبَيْتِ. Go and worship the Rabb of this Bait. He is the one that gives you the risk, He is the one that gives you protection. Why did you forget that? Same thing that we see today. People chase that money, chase those haram deals because they think the risk— who gave them that? Allah will give the risk.

And sometimes He is testing them. Sometimes He is hiding more reward and He wants to see by testing you what you will do with it to give you a bigger reward, subhanAllah.

There is a beautiful hadith. Of Ali ibn Abi Talib (ra), Amir al-Mu'mineen Ali ibn Abi Talib (ra). At a time he was going to the masjid, a man came to him, told him, 'I am in great need, can you help me? I need 4 dinars.' He told him, 'Okay, look, it's time for salah, let me pray, and after salah we will talk.' He went, he prayed. After salah, he came, looked for the man. He didn't find the man. He went to his the camel, he saw the saddle, or the thing that you put on top to ride, is gone. The man stole it. So he went to the marketplace, and he found somebody selling his saddle. He told him, 'Where did you get this?' He said, 'I just bought this from a man.' Now Ali (ra) had decided after salah to give the man 4 dinar in sadaqah. He said, he made this niyyah that when I go see him, I'm going to give him half this khalas. But the man was not patient, right? He stole instead, he did haram.

He was impatient, so instead of waiting after prayer, he stole. Yes.

SubhanAllah. When Ali (RA) asked the man in the market, who did you buy this from? He said, this man, he described him, same man. He said, how much did you buy it from? He said, 4 dinars. SubhanAllah.

The same amount that he was selling.

So if he had been patient, He would get the same risk in the halal. Subhanallah.

But because he was impatient, he got it the haram.

The same risk. The risk didn't change. But the itham, the sin of the haram on him instead of the ajr of sabr, instead of the reward of being patient.

You know, that's beautiful because there's some narrations that mention your risk is written, you will make the same amount, just get it the halal way. Every time you see a haram deal, you see something that's dodgy, know that you're borrowing this haram money from your halal future earnings. So if you're accepting the haram deal, know that not only you're doing something wrong, but you're also harming your future halal risk because you're borrowing from what's halal. You're taking the haram money now that'll be removed from the halal pool that you have, as in what you'll be making in the future. You're taking it now the wrong way, just like we have an example here.

There's a beautiful hadith, and I'm going to say this for a lot of the businessmen out there because I know a lot of your audience, masha'Allah, they're either in business or they want to be. The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) told us, 'At-Tajir sudduq al-Ameen,' the one who does business but he's honest and trustworthy, he will be 'ma'ad nabiyeen, wusiddiqeen, wushohadaa.' Imagine. A businessman, but because he's trustworthy and he's honest and he's clear about defects and he's good in his dealings Islamically, Allah will raise his ranks. Nothing wrong with being a businessman, making millions and trillions, whatever you're making, but do it the right way. Allah will raise his ranks. And because of him being an honest businessman, Allah will raise him with the prophets, with the people of truthfulness, and the martyrs. You know, this hadith, tafsir of it from the Quran. Allah (SWT) says in the Surah Al-Fatiha that for us to make dua to be with those, 'an'amta 'alayhim,' that Allah has bestowed. Who are they? The Quran tells us, 'an'am Allah,' Allah has put His favors upon the bineen, wusiddiqeen, wushuhada, wassalihim. In the Quran, the tafsir is made. Now look at the hadith back. Nabiin, Siddiqeen, Shuhadaa. Again. So those that Allah has bestowed His favors upon you will be with them, with prophets.

Because you were honest.

And with the likes of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq and the Shuhadaa, the likes of Umar and Uthman and Ali radiyallahu anhum. If you are an honest, trustworthy businessman.

You got me excited now. There you go, that's the time. If whenever you're thinking of accepting a wrong deal, whenever you're seeing something that's shady or you're hesitant, your heart doesn't feel right, just leave it. Just leave it for the sake of Allah. You can clearly see from the history of the prophets here, an example, beautiful example with Ibrahim (AS) who gave up things for the sake of Allah that at the time didn't make sense for him. He was afraid for his family, but he still knew that was the best thing to do for the sake of Allah. And he ended up rewarding him for more than what he could imagine. He provided him from places he couldn't imagine, and he ended up elevating his rank, subhanallah. So if you ever think of accepting a haram deal or something that's dodgy, always leave it for the sake of Allah, and you will get better, bi-idhnillah ta'ala. Amazing episode.