How Wealth Can Destroy You as a Muslim. Avoid This Trap At All Costs

Look at getting controversial.

Now, if it's just to have Benzes and Lambos and Bugatti Chirons, then you're destroyed. Because none of that will go with you.

Because they have no greater goals. They're only chasing the next dopamine hit. After that, they'll start going into nonsense.

He was given a kingdom where he could control even the birds, even the animals, even the jinn. But he didn't use that for his personal benefit.

That scares people away from making money. I feel like making more money would distract them.

This is some gems I'm dropping, especially for your audience. That is my personal secret. Habit is every night.

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa rakatuhu. Welcome to a new episode. In this episode, I have a question. Are you afraid of making money because you think it'll pull you away from the deen, that you can't be a better Muslim because you have wealth? What do you think, Sheikh?

See, money and wealth can never distract a person who has goals, who has their akhirah in front of them. Because Suleiman Alayhi salatu salam had a kingdom like none before or after, wealth and power, even over other creations like jinn and animals, but it never distracted him from his akhirah subhanallah.

So he was one of the richest person on earth, one of the most powerful subhanallah, yet was never distracted 100%.

How? Because Suleiman alayhi satu salam, he kept his da' wah as his goal. He kept the goal that Allah sent him as a prophet above his worldly life. He used that wealth, he used that power, he used those militaries for the deen to spread, not for his personal benefit. And anybody who has that priority set right, they're going to be saved from it. So we look at Suleiman from the background. He is the son of Dawud, so his father was a king. So he was born into wealth and he grew that wealth and that kingdom. And Allah subhanahu wa ta' ala, gave him a kingdom that nobody before him, not just on the worldly treasures, but even on the jinn, even on animals, he spoke the language of the animals. This was a miracle given to him by Allah subhanahu wa ta'. Ala. And he was able to keep the jinn in line intact. They were under his authority.

So that's so much power.

I mean, imagine today, Musk and Bezos and all those billionaires put together couldn't have that kind of wealth. And Suleiman he had so many wives. Biblical accounts even mention that it was in the hundreds. Seven hundred wives and 300 concubine, according to biblical accounts. Right. Islamically, we also know that he did have a lot of wives. He had mansions, he had wealth, but he never let that distract him from the dawah. He continued to go out.

But how did he do it? Because so many people would make money, and the first thing is money would get to their head. Or some people are actually afraid of making money and they're afraid of what it will do to their life and how it will put them astray. We'll speak about it later.

But that's the problem, is people don't have their goals. They don't have their priorities. Right? Right. Money isn't the end goal. Money is the means for you to get to the end goal, which is Jannah. Right. For you to use towards getting to your purpose of the deen of Allah. Subhana wa ta' ala becoming the dominant in the world. La ilahara Allah being spread to every corner of the world. Money can be a means of that. And that's why the Sahaba radian worked. That's why the ambiya worked. Suleiman, he was given a kingdom where he could control even the birds, even the animals, even the jinn. But he didn't use that for his personal benefit. I mean, imagine today if somebody is given that authority, you would be, you

know, I mean, you would take animals and take over a country.

I mean, you would use jinn to, like, do magic and all the haram. But he didn't. Sulaiman kept his goals in mind. And that's a very important thing for our brothers and sisters. What is your goal? If your goal is Jannah, if your goal is the pleasure of Allah, if your goal is to serve the deen, then that has to be your number one goals. When you make that money, you utilize it for the deen. You put it towards the da'. Wah. You put it towards teaching and learning and benefiting and helping the Islamic causes. Suleiman, he was so wealthy, but. But he went out and when he took account of his birds and his animals that were under his authority, he found the hudhud, the bird missing. He said, where is this? When the hudhud told him that I went to a place where I saw people worshiping other than Allah, immediately became focused on the dawah. He didn't want the kingdom, he didn't want the wealth. He was wealthy. He had king. But he said, there's a kingdom like this? No. We need to send the letter of Tawheed. And I'll tell you something very interesting.

Tell me.

The only time Bismillahir Rahman ar Rahim, you know, is used the bismillah in the Quran twice in a surah, like in the beginning of every surah, except for Surah Tawbah, you have Bismillah Rahman Rahim. But bismillah is used twice in the surah because it's used in the letter of Suleiman Alayhi Salaam. When Suleiman Alayhi Salaam wrote the letter, he began with bismillah in the name of Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'. Ala. So immediately he wrote this letter. And then the Queen of Sheba bilqees her kingdom, he wanted to bring it in front of him. Now imagine like this is not something easy to do. So a jinn, Frith Minal jinn, a very strong, powerful jinn, told him, before you get up from your place, I'll bring the whole kingdom in front of you. Imagine the power he had. But the one who had iln, the knowledge of the kitab, the one who was given the knowledge. And as the ulema of Tafsir said, he was a human, but he had power greater than the jinn because of knowledge. He said, before you blink your eye, I'll bring the kingdom in front of you.

So they were very powerful.

Yes.

But I still did not distract him.

It did not. And when that kingdom was brought, he gave them da' wah and they became Muslim.

So what's the secret? I guess to stay focused even when you might get a lot of wealth, because that scares people away from making money. They feel like they will get distracted. They want to stay practicing. And I feel like making more money would distract them.

I mean, I'll tell you personally, one thing I do is every night I have a time that is my time alone. And this time, even if I'm traveling, even if I'm alone, if I'm with people, I'll take some time out, sit alone quietly and think to myself, what am I doing in my life? What are my goals? What are my intentions? Is my intent to please people? Is my intent for popularity? Is my intent for wealth? Or is my intention still solely for the sake of Allah? And if I see a weakness in my intention, I sit there and think and ponder. Okay? Even if every military and government and billionaire supports you, but Allah is not happy with you, what's the point? Even if you're the most Popular person in the world. You have 10 gazillion subs. What's the point if Allah is not pleased with you? Right? And I keep working on that until I can fix my Niyyah. And then I talk about to myself, you know, even if it's just for a few minutes or for hours, depending on what you need at the time, about what is my goal for tomorrow, what did I do today, and what's my goal for tomorrow? Did I do that which pleases Allah today? How can I increase that? Did I do that which displeases Allah? How can I decrease that? And what is my goal for the next day?

That's amazing.

So every day, this is some gems I'm dropping, especially for your audience. That is my personal secret habit, but I'm sharing it here.

So every day you mentioned, you reflect at night, you spend some time alone on what you did that day. Increase what pleases Allah and decrease what displeased Allah. And then you plan your next day for tomorrow.

And a lot of times people don't know, so they assume. Right. For example, you'll see a lot of times, even indoors and podcasts, I'll wear

Shaykh, why does Sheikh wear sunglasses? Inside, there's no sun. So many comments on this.

All these glasses that I wear are prescription, including my sunglasses.

Okay.

And because I have, due to lack of sleep, a condition where I'm highly sensitive to light. So even in like a podcast studio, the light, it gives me headaches.

Really?

Yes.

Interesting.

That's why usually even indoors, I wear shades. Otherwise I'll get a migraine from it. And outside as well. But I don't tell people. I let them assume bad about me because I don't really care what they think.

He's trying to flex sunglasses and he's

okay, let him think that sometimes I wear gloves and. And people don't realize because I work in the med device industry. And you realize that especially when you're driving and you're out a lot, the sun hits your hands a lot more than anywhere else. A lot of the skin cancers come on your hands because people don't realize. And for us in street, Dawah, we're

on the street because you work in the medical industry.

Yes. Yeah. So I work a lot of companies that deal with skin cancers and so on and grafting. So for us that are in the streets, we deal with it a lot. Driving, sitting, speaking. So the sun hats, the gloves actually help because otherwise skin cancer and all these kind of situations and skin damage is a Big problem. People sit around in their comfortable houses not realizing what we're doing on the streets. Sometimes five, six, seven, eight hours we're out there in the streets giving dawah, making salah there, eating there, drinking. You know, we're out. You know, we have what's called December nights in San Diego, where our duaat, they go out there sometimes for 11, 12 hours straight in shifts, but sometimes 6, 7, 8 hour shifts, giving dawah. But we don't care what people think because we know our goals. This is why I sit there and I think to myself, okay, maybe I shouldn't do that. Because people say this and I think, you know what? Who cares what people think? Allah knows my intention, Allah knows my condition. So I keep going. And that's why I advise everybody, even if you're a gazillionaire, you still work hard, you still focus because you're doing it for the sake of Allah. Subhanahu wa ta'. Ala. And you never let the wealth distract you because if it distracts you, it will destroy you.

And I think that's the main point you're mentioning so far is even with Sulaiman, the conclusion I'm taking here is the focus should be the ikhrah first.

Yes.

And then whatever is left, you spend it on the dunya. It seems like you should always come back to, am I making sure my is taken care of, my focus, my deen is good. And then I can focus on the dunya. And I feel like that's the key to make sure you don't get distracted.

Exactly. The dunya is just the requirement to get to your goal. Right? Meaning if I need to go from here, like we're in the blessed city of Medina, the beautiful city of the Prophet. If I need to go from here to Riyad, right? And I need to drive there now, if I buy a car that the engine's broken and the tires are ripped, I'm not going to make it.

Yeah.

So that's not zohot, like, oh, I just want to buy a broke car because I'm not going to make it. So if I get a good car, a reliable car, a comfortable car, a car that has good gas mileage or whatever, that I need to get to my goal, no problem. Spend all the money you need on it. Fine, but get to your goal. But if you get in that car and you just drive around, you never reach real. You just, you know, look how nice my car is, you know, I'm doing donuts, you know, then you lost Your goal, right? So make Akhirah your goal and then Allah will give you a comfortable life. And Allah gave Suleiman and Dawud the wealth of the world, the kingdoms. Why? Because they didn't lose their focus. They used it for good. They benefited in Dunya and they have Al jannatul fardos ala ala in the Akhirah as ambiya subhanallah.

I think one of the takeaways I'm taking as well here is how solitude actually helps you when it comes to staying focused. It's something that happened to me recently. I was Alhamdulillah. I live here in Medina. I was around my team and for the past, I think, month and a half we've been living in the same apartment. So it's a five bedroom, been five, six people in the house every day. And I realized after two, three weeks, I started feeling distracted. Not in terms of daily, but overall, I felt like I was foggy when it comes to my goals. Because so, so many times you have so many inputs, so many feedback, so many things coming into your day that you lose focus on what's your main purpose and your main goal. So, subhanallah, I turned out to take a similar decision that you did, where I just, I rented a separate Airbnb, just stayed by myself for a few days, and you just allowed me to actually reflect for two, three days, not speaking to anyone, realizing, okay, what am I doing? What's going on? What's my goal? What's the first thing? And then I get clarity and then we can jump back on it.

And this is from the Sunnah as well. The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam used to go to the Ghar of Hira, as we know from the Seerah. And he used to be alone there, even though he had friends like Abu Bakr Radian. Before Islam, before Nabua, he had his wife Khadija, he had his children, but he used to take some time to go and be alone. Now, after Islam, he didn't go to the. He was busy with the people. But as Aisha Radian said that even in Medina, he used to do what's called Badu', where he would go outside the city and to a beautiful place where there was waterfall and things. And he would spend time alone, remembering Allah. Subhanahu wa ta'. Ala. Even in Medina, there are gardens here and I can take you insha' Allah, where there's a well that the Prophet used to go sit there by himself. And he spent time alone even Though he was in the city to reflect. And that's very important. If you're out there making money, may Allah bless it for you. If you're out there striving and struggling to, to make it good, strive. But what's your goal? Why are you doing it? If it's just to have Benzes and Lambos and Bugatti Chirons, then you're destroyed because none of that will go with you. If it's just to have mansions and houses and wives and living up that luxury, I mean, look at getting controversial.

Now.

He wasn't a Muslim, obviously he was somebody of the Jewish faith. But world wise, he had everything worldly wise, like things that people strive for money. He had billions of dollars, he had businesses, he had mad contacts. I mean from kings to presidents to movie stars, from Bill Gates to everybody. Right. He had his own islands. Not just one, he had two. Apparently he had bought a second one. Right. He had his own planes. Right. You know, as far as living up desires, he definitely didn't hold back there. But where is he today? Where's his money? Where's his wealth? What benefit is that giving him? Is his island helping him now? He's dead. He's no longer in this Dunya. And even if you believe in conspiracy that he isn't, he will be. Every soul shall taste death. So keep that goal in front of you. And. And wealth will never distract you. So work hard, make wealth, but keep your goal. The Akhirah, to use that wealth for the Akhirah.

That's very interesting. And one point I'll mention without getting too controversial on the specific examples you gave, but specifically, not having a better goal than a worldly goal would lead to distracting you because we can see the extremes that people would go to and the madness they would end up. They would end up doing crazy things that people could not even understand because

they aren't even pleasurable.

Exactly. And you would understand. They had taste of so much pleasure and so much. They always looking for what's next because they don't have a greater goal. And that's what leads them to do a madness.

There's a brother named Asnaf. May Allah protect him. He used to be a model, a good religious brother, Mashaallah in Las Vegas doing street dawah. And when you hear about his story and what he saw in Hollywood and the things that, I mean, things that weren't even pleasurable, he wasn't even enjoying it himself. Things that wouldn't make sense but because their hearts are dead because they didn't control their NAFs. They engage in things that are disgusting, that are not pleasurable, even by a psychological or a pleasure. Hormones, scientific break.

Yeah, it doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense because they have no greater goals. They're only chasing the next Doberman hit. And when you had so many cars, so many houses, so many wives, after that you don't have a greater goal. They would start going into nonsense.

And just think about this. Where is that wealth? Where is that fame for him today? Where is Fir' Aun's wealth today? What benefit does it do?

Nothing.

But if you are a billionaire, but you're working for the sake of Allah, those billions will be working for your Sadaqa Jariyah. You will be in that grave. And that masjid you built, or that well that you dug, or that orphanage that you built, or that Qur' an that you paid for that was given to those non Muslims that were sitting and reading and became Muslims from it. That is sitting there, being read, or that knowledge that you taught, all of that, or that pious child that's making dua for you, all of that is benefiting you. All that profit of good deeds is coming to you, is even within the Kabbalah subhanallah.

I think that's one of the biggest things, is having a bigger goal than just the Dunya. And then using the Dunya as a tool to achieve your bigger goal, your ultimate goal is making it to Jannah. And then you'll just use whatever wealth you have, whatever skill set you have, in order to get the Dunya to help you achieve your goal.

From a business perspective, tell me something. When you. You see a lot of cases of brothers that were stuck in the 9 to 5 grind, that were driving an hour, two hours to work every day. And you know, so meaning it's not just a 9 to 5 because you add traffic and you add going early and you add meeting calls and. Right. And then those that got out of that rut and started their own businesses and worked hard, are they able to then focus more on their deen?

I have so many cases I don't even know where to start with. But the most recent one is one of my, one of my students I interviewed. His name is Michael. He's a revert. May Allah protect him. He was in the music industry when he was not Muslim. Over 10 years, he used to. He studied music, he used to do tours. So traveling around the world, playing music, Alhamdulillah, he reverted to Islam and he had no Source of income. Then because he had to quit the music. He then gets into one of the easiest things to do with. Without any skill set or degree. He gets into construction, very hard work. He was in America, extremely hot weather, and he was working in construction. He worked in construction for two years. He ended up being laid off. He ended up struggling. He ended up having to find another job in construction two hours away from his city, drive two hours work construction and come back. Sometimes he would stay there days, four

hours of just driving, just driving.

And he had a baby on the way. Very difficult situation.

So just think about that though. I mean, eight hour work, one hour lunch break, which is not counted.

Sometimes he would even have to sleep there, stay over there for a few days, leave his wife and go work. And his wife was pregnant, baby on the way. He would go over there and, and then come back.

So nine plus four is what I'll count 13 hours.

Any hour that he was awake, he would be working. Count as that.

That's insane.

And I spoke to him actually before he even started our program. He Subhanallah, turns out, joined our program a few months into. He had so much hard work. He made enough money, Alhamdulillah, he got financially free from his job. So he managed to quit his job. His first baby, Alhamdulillah, was born. He moved now to Malaysia where he now Alhamdulillah makes money. He made hijra, Alhamdulillah, he makes money with his business. And he now works four to five, six hours a day on his business. The rest of the time, not only he's spending it in a Muslim country. When Alhamdulillah, you have the Aden and you can you have a baby, you're raising him compared to the US I don't need to give you a sketch on what they're teaching in school. And from the Alhamdulillah, he also now gets to spend the rest of his time studying the deen, learning Arabic and things that actually matter. He actually Subhana turned out to become one of the coaches inside our program. You know, helps other brothers learn about business and make hijra as well. So you see how he came full circle, went from working hard, staying in the sun in construction, to Alhamdulillah making money, to making hijra, to helping others learn how to make money and end up making hijra.

Now that he's making money, he's not just relaxing either, right?

No, that's the thing. That's the thing. He's actually, he mentioned his business takes him five to six hours a day to run. He's spending the rest of the time training other people, sharing the knowledge that he has on how they could do the same thing that he's doing so that they could have the same transition.

That's beautiful.

Mashaallah so in summary, if you're afraid that making money will distract you and pull you away from the deen, then the actual answer is not about making money. The answer is about your goals and your niya. Is your ultimate goal to get to Jannah and achieve what's in the ikhrah? Or is your ultimate goal the Dunya? Because if your ultimate goal is the Ikhara and making it to Jannah, then there's plenty of ways of where money a business being successful would help you achieve the ikhrah. So come back to yourself, spend some time alone setting a specific goal for yourself, reflecting on how you can achieve that goal for the Ikhrah and then use the Dunya to accomplish the goals you have for the ikhrah. Barakalafiq for listening in and I'll see you in the next episode. Salam Alaikum.