The Shocking Truth About Quitting Work as a Muslim

There's a lot of people who want to make a lot of money just so that they can be comfortable.

That is disgusting. That is something that makes me physically sick to hear. There is no such thing as dawud the king, the one that Allah gave prophethood and kingdom, that he used to continue to work with his own hands. And then they tell you, you know, you come here, you work in our factories, you make us rich, and you don't make too much or you lose your benefit.

What does that allow you to do? To not have anyone control you?

It gives me freedom. I can say whatever I want. I can speak the truth because.

Welcome to a new episode. In this episode, I want to speak to you, Sheikh. There's a lot of people who want to make a lot of money just so that they can be comfortable, stack money in the bank and just chill, go on an island, drink juice all day and just relax.

First thing, stay off the island. Sorry.

Okay, yeah.

Secondly, secondly, I'm telling you, that is disgusting. That is something that makes me physically sick to hear. There is no such thing as chilling in life. Life is to work hard. The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said, the best of that which is eaten is what a man earns with his own hard work and hands. And then the prophet hadith, he said that dawud, dawud alayhis salaam. The king, the one that Allah gave prophet and kingdom, he was wealthy, that he used to continue to work with his own hands and eat of what he earned.

He was still working in a normal job.

Yes. Even though had a very hard job. He used to work with metal, he used to make armor, he used to make chainsaws. And Allah made that as a miracle for him to show. But he used to continue to work with his own hands even though he was a king.

Subhanallah.

How can we be lazy?

It's one of the hardest jobs.

It is.

You're melting the metal. It's very hard. It's very difficult. You cut yourself. Even though he had money, a kingdom, he was still doing it.

Exactly.

Why?

Because Allah subhanahu wa ta' ala made this life for us to work hard. He was developing the soldiers for defending the Muslim lands. He was making the armors that would be used by the armies. He wanted to use his own hands to earn his risk, not just sit there and live off others. One of the calamities of the Muslim ummah today is this welfare state mentality where if you can go to a country where they Give you enough money to live on. They give you medical and they give you housing. You just sail then. And you don't want to make money then because then you lose your benefits. And that's a trick, a slave mentality that is being used by some of these countries to keep a certain class of citizens down.

I think they do it on purpose. Like the government purposely traps you, of course.

Really, because it motivates you not to earn money. You don't see and Goldbergs and Elon Musk's and Jeff Bezos sitting there doing that. No, they're out there trying to make billions, trying to make millions, trying to influence policy. And then they tell you, you know, you come here, you work in our factories, you make us rich, and you don't make too much or you lose your benefits. You don't make too much or you lose your housing. And then we get lazy.

They're not actually helping you.

No, no. They're harming you. And that's why in Islam, we help people, but we don't keep them down. We motivate people to work harder. The Prophet would not just give people money to live. He would give them money to go do tijara, to go become businessmen. He would encourage the sah to involve other sahaba in their businesses. And that's why the Prophet, even himself, when he used to go in the caravans, he used to take people with him even before prophethood, and he would educate them on how to do business. So this is very important for the Muslim ummah to continue to work hard. No such thing as retirement. No such thing as just, you know, making enough and sitting on a beach. And cruise control. Life wasn't meant for cruise control. You know, for us, when we're out there in the streets giving da'. Wah. And even though we're not doing it for the money, we're not out there trying to make salaries off of it. But when we're out there, we never think it's enough. Like, people tell me, why do you still go out to the streets and speak to people? You have a platform. You have millions of subs. You could sit there and just do stage debates, and you could do any podcasts, and you could just do the da' wah that way, and it's relaxing. But no, no, no, I'm out there on the streets every weekend. When we're in the us, when in Europe, wherever else, we're on the streets giving dawah. We've done street dawah from Kuwait. We all the way to Canada to the US To Peru in South America. And inshallah, we're going to go to every single country in every single city by the will of Allah. Subhanahu wa ta'. Ala. And until Malik Al Maut comes and taps me on the shoulder and tells me it's time to go, we're going to be hitting the streets.

Mashallah. It's amazing. Baraklawfiq. I want to understand more on what the Prophet's take is on this, specifically, when it comes to working hard and still always going to work. Because we have the example with Dawood, who was a king, was still working. A lot of people, they kind of feel the tiredness of labor. They don't feel the benefit of it. Yes, I get a paycheck, but I'm always tired. I want to just stop. I want to do something else which is easier.

I don't understand that. I don't understand that mindset, to be honest. Like, I don't know how to respond. Like, what does it mean to stop? Well, what's the point in stopping?

They want to find something that's easier, that's lighter on that.

What's the point of ease? The point is to work smarter and harder and achieve more than you were. You were expected to.

But they're not motivated to achieve more. They just want to relax. They can't sustain the pain of working harder.

See, I don't get it. I honestly don't get it. I got.

How old are you, Sheikh? If you don't mind me asking.

I'm 48, 49.

You look a lot younger. Mashallah. The guys are usually.

Come on, come on. There you go.

They're usually in their 20s, 25, 30 years old.

Oh, my Allah. 20 years old. They're tired.

I promise you. I promise you.

That is insane. Like. Like, that makes me want to throw up right now. At 20 years old, I was like. I didn't even sleep, you know, like, even right now, I sleep usually four to five hours at most. Yeah, right. At 20 years old, I used to sleep one or two hours and I was at it. I look, when I was. When I was in my 20s, I was. I had left the street life, right? So I was working a regular job and I was going to school. I mean, I got my bachelor's in computer science. I got my executive MBA before my hadith sciences and all of that. And I was married and I had kids and I homeschooled my kids and I did dawah and I went to a madrasa at Night and I wasn't tired.

I might have many medals alone, but

how are you guys gonna be at 20 years old this time? Your bones are strong, your health is strong.

Oh yeah, they would have some savings. They would save five.

I feel like blah right now in hearing this, man. Savings, man. 20 years, man. If you're 50, you need to be working hard. If you're 70, you need to be working hard at 80, 90. I can understand slowing down a little bit, but you still got to keep going.

Subhanallah. That's actually crazy.

No, no, no. I mean, I physically feel sick right now. I can't stand laziness, but I can't stand people that are not motivated. I don't understand that.

Look, so help me understand. Imagine, imagine they genuinely. They don't mean harm, they don't mean bad. They don't want to just.

But that is bad.

Yeah, but they don't understand it.

Wasting a minute of your life is a crime.

They spend a lot of time on TikTok. On social media they would work. They feel like if they can cover the bills, they did their job. And then anytime they have extra is free time. Enjoyment time. Scrolling time.

Look, look, look at the sahaba radianhu Ammar. Such a beautiful sahabi. We spoke about him earlier, Amr IBN Khattab and the Ansari, how he had a deal. He said, okay, look, one day you work and I sit with the Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wasallam and whatever I learn at night, I'll teach it to you. Next day you go to the Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wasallam and I will work and whatever you learn, you will teach. No, no, he fully covered the dunya and he fully covered the akhirah. No laziness.

A lot of people would agree with fully covering the ikhrah. They would say, I wanna learn Quran, spread the dawah, but why should I fully cover the Dunya?

How will you spread the dawah if you aren't able to pay your own bills? How will you learn the Quran when you're begging people for money? Islam is a religion of izza of quwa, not the deen of begging people. The Prophet said, the hand that gives the upper hand is better than the hand that takes the lower hand. Right? So when you are a person of the Quran, but you don't have your own sustenance, you're going to be begging people, you're going to be asking people and then when you're asking and begging People, they have control over what you can say, what you cannot say. Me, I can say whatever I want. They can cancel me. Our videos are not monetized. We're not worried about shadow bans. We're not worried about political pressure. We don't take money from any governments. We don't Alhamdulillah. We work for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'. Ala so we can speak the haq without any reservation. Why? Because I work a regular job so I have my own means of sustenance.

Interesting.

So people masjid can't. I don't get paid from any masjid. Whatever darsa do whatever salah I may lead is for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'. Ala. So no board of a masjid can come and tell me, say this and don't say that.

What does that allow you to do? To not have anyone control you.

It gives me freedom, right? I can say whatever I want. I can speak the truth. I can stand on the haqq. I can take the shadow band, I can take the cancellation and not worried about it. Like the ambiya, we're not worried about it. Like the sahaba, we're not worried about it. Like the great scholars of Islam, we're not worried about it. But that's why Imam Ahmad IBN Hanbal, he said one of the shroot, one of the conditions for somebody to be considered a mufti is an independent source of income.

Really?

Yes.

Can you say that again?

Imam Ahmad IBN Hanbal, the great Imam Sunnah wal Jama, the one that the Hanbali Madhab is named after. The imam who stood for the Aqeedah of Islam against the Mahna. Amazing scholar. He said one of the preconditions for somebody to be considered a mufti, somebody who can give fatwa is that he has to have an independent means of income.

So his own source of income, not what he's going to to be paid from the dawah.

Exactly.

Why is that?

Because then he can speak the truth. His fatwa will be upon the haq. Not worried about his salary. Because imagine if I pay all your

money, you won't be biased.

Exactly. And that's why Abu Hanifa, the great faqih, the great imam, the Hanafi Madhabad, named after Nawman IBN Thabit, great scholar of Islam, when he was offered to be the chief judge the Qadi Al Quda, he turned it down.

Really?

And he was imprisoned because he wouldn't take the job. But he wouldn't take it because he knew the strings it came with.

Okay, so they'll give you the money, but then they control what you say.

Exactly.

You can't do what you can do.

Not every qadi is like that. I mean, there are situations where the qadi was given independence and they became Quran and they did amazing work. And no doubt that it is upon the Muslim ummah to support our scholars because they have to feed their children, they have to take care of their families as well. And, and we shouldn't expect them to live like low either. We're trying to look at the. When you look at a company and you want a CEO that's really going to be able to run a company well, you're going to pay them well. If you're like, you know what, I'm just going to pay a minimum wage, you're never going to get anybody qualified in there, right? So same thing with scholarship. We should expect that our scholars live well because these are intelligent people, these are capable people, but they shouldn't beg for it. Right? We as a ummah should support them. Right. Like I'll give you an example we did in Pakistan. I was studying with a shaykh there, a very brilliant, very intelligent shaykh, very capable. I mean, his Arabic was amazing. He wrote huge volumes of work. But he was living a very, very difficult lifestyle. He didn't have money, he didn't have a lot of work. I mean, you know, very, very minimal. He didn't take money from the masjid and he didn't want to take money for teaching.

What was he making money from?

So he had some family money, meaning that his family had some businesses, very low level businesses, and they kind of took care of his expenses for him to be able to do what he did for the sake of Allah. But I mean, again, he had two wives and he had two very. I mean, like his house was smaller than this studio subhanallah, like that's how small. He had a little kitchen on the side. There was one bathroom and then one room and then he had children so he had to divide up a separate room and so on. And it was very difficult, you know, very. And I saw that he was struggling because, you know, if he was going to go work in a store and be like a salesman and how's he going to teach and things, right? So what we did is we got some of this is in Peshawar, we got some of the businessmen together and said, look, you guys have big businesses, you come to those durus, you benefit from that knowledge. You, you want to support the dawah. But you don't have the knowledge, you don't have that ability. He does. So make him a partner in your business, a silent partner. Not somebody who's going to because he doesn't have money to invest. But you tell him, okay, look, we have seven partners in this business. You're going to be our eighth. Just for the sake of Allah. Whatever we make from the business as we divide up our profits, you get your profits. You don't have to work in the business. And we made him a partner not in one business, but other businesses as well, and some businesses that said, look, we just want to support him. You know, people who had big stores in the markets and things. So look, we'll take care of his bills, we'll take care of this. We'll give him this much a month. And because it was not from one person, nobody had control over him. It was just a pool that was brought out. He didn't even know who it was. They didn't go and flex on him or anything like that. And we made him have a very good salary that allowed him to have a very comfortable life so that he could really focus on the dawah.

Okay, that's the important part, because I was going to ask you and say in this scenario, they're giving him money and he's not specifically working for it.

Yes.

So it goes against the first point that you mentioned, which is working for your money. But you just mentioned that that was for him to be able to focus on the dawah.

Exactly. Because for much of his life he continued to work, physically work, I mean, in labor jobs and things like this and earn his living, and that's fine. But when you have somebody who you're going to dedicate to the da', wah, then to have something for them to be able to dedicate that time is

also very important because you also shared

a reward for whatever they'll be doing. Like Abu Bakr, when he became a Muslim, he was a tajir and he was a businessman. He did cloth business and he continued to do that even after he was Muslim, even after he was a very high ranking person amongst the sahaba and he was going out for kital and so on, but he was working with his own hands. But when he became the Khalifa, the day he became the Khalifa, he was going out to the marketplace. Now imagine his mindset. He's not like, okay, I'm the Khalifa, I'm going to get a paycheck, I'm going to live no, no, he was out there taking his clothes to go sell at the market. Amr Radian told him, what are you doing? He said, I have to go make my earning. He said, no. He said, now that you're the Khalifa, it is the Ummah's responsibility to take care of you and your responsibility to take care of the Ummah. And if you're not taking care of the Ummah, who's going to do that?

So he was still working, but for the sake of the Ummah.

Exactly. And that's a very difficult life to live, but he did it and he worked hard. And until his death, he was working hard. Umar Radian, until he became Shaheed. He was working hard. Uthman Radian until he became Shahid. He was working hard. Ali Radian, until he became from the Shahda, he was working hard. You don't see any of the Sahaba cruising, you know, working hard with Dunya. I mean, not just making money, but making sure that the Ummah is taking care of and the Ummah strong as his Dunyan. You know, Uthman Radian, he developed a lot of the trade rules to develop the wealth of the Ummah. That's why in his time amongst the Khalifa Rashdin, it was the wealthiest time for the Ummah as well. What did he do? He developed a lot of trade routes. He developed the Muslim trade, I guess you could say associations. Yeah, meaning networking, developing how the first Muslim navy to be able to ship products. All of that economic groundwork was laid down by Uthman Radianu. And Uthman Radian khilafah was the longest amongst the four. I mean, Abu Bakr Radian was only two years and a few months. Umar Radian was about 10 years. Uthman Radian was about 12 years. Okay, and then Ali Radian was around six years.

So why was he longer than the other ones?

Azza Allah subhanahu wa ta' ala wrote it, you know, but I mean, aw Bakr radiant. Of course he was older. So I mean, life, death came to him at the same age as that of the Prophet. He was two and a half years younger, so he died exactly the same age. Umar Radian became Shaheed. And Uthman Radian, even though he became a shaheed, but he had the longest span. And then Ali Radian, he became Shaheed as well. And there was a lot of turmoil as you know. But Uthman Radian developed the financial abilities of this Ummah and the developed the first Muslim navy, developed many things in his time and he continued to have his own businesses. Even at the Khalifa, a lot of what he would be given as the Khalifa, he would put back in Baytul Mal because he had a lot of his own businesses still going. Alhamdulillah.

Alhamdulillah. So it's very interesting understanding how Dawud, even though he had a kingdom, a lot of money, still was working hard and wasn't comfortable. Why is it that nowadays some people might have money and they would just sit back and be comfortable, they would just keep the money and just relax?

I mean, I. I don't understand that mindset, to be honest. Like, I believe in working hard. I mean, what about you? Do you. Do you feel comfortable? Do you feel like just sitting and relaxing?

I feel probably Alhamdulillah. I probably have the most amount of money I had in my life, and I probably feel the most. And I probably felt the most uncomfortable I was ever really. Yeah. And that's because of the responsibility he places on you to have that wealth and to have the. The responsibilities with the people you have around you. I'm responsible for my family. I'm responsible for my team. Alhamdulillah. I have over 50 employees. That means every month, if money doesn't come in, there's 50 people, 50 men that I need to give money to, and they need to feed their own families.

Subhanallah.

That's the level of discomfort that's putting in, and I think that's where it comes from when it comes to working hard. I think the issue why, and that's the thing I mentioned to a lot of my students, a lot of the reasons why they don't. They don't feel that hunger, that drive to work is because they don't have enough responsibilities. They're not responsible for their mothers. They're not responsible for their wives. They're not responsible for their families. They could if they wanted to, but they decide to just sit and be comfortable. They could live in a better house. They could live. They could a lot of brothers. They have the parents who are still working, even though they're very elderly, even though they mention that they don't want to work, even though their parents say, no, no, my son, I'm good. They know that their parents are beyond the age of working, but they would rather be comfortable and not go work hard in order to provide for them. I think that's the biggest difference is having responsibility that forces you to work. Because some days I don't want to work. Some days I'm very comfortable. I'm like Alhamdulillah. My next door is not going to change my life. Why should I actually go ahead and actually work?

So why do you?

I realize I have to do it. I don't have a choice. I have to pay people. Also another one. The first one is responsibility. The second one is still responsibility, but it's more an amana. Allah gave me potential, gave me knowledge, gave me resources, and he's going to ask me on those resources, what am I going to do? He'll tell you, I give you this amount of money because Allah is the one who owns everything. I gave you this amount of knowledge. What did you do with it? If I say I was on an island drinking juice and wasted all the potential you gave me, what kind of answer is he going to give me? What kind of judgment am I going to have? I'm afraid of what will happen if I behave like.

That's a great point that. Don't you think we have a responsibility towards the Ummah? Even if you can pay all your bills and even if you can live a nice lavish lifestyle sitting on an island, you know, but what about the responsibility to the people of. What's this?

I think it's three layers. I think the first layer is your own close people responsibilities is you're responsible for your wife, your mother and so forth.

Children.

Exactly. I deal with a lot of business owners and usually past a certain amount, past six figures a year, seven figures a year, they managed to take care of this. After that, you see a lot of people be comfortable and drop the ball and they stay, they just chill. The next thing is being responsible is for your potential and how much you can achieve. If within a year of hard work you managed to achieve so much and retired your entire family maybe and put enough money so that you don't need to work, that's a proof that you can do so much more and that should be the reason why you do more.

But shouldn't that be also an amana that you teach other brothers in Islam to be able to do that as well?

100%.

I mean, if you're living comfortably but your brothers are struggling. Didn't the prophet Sallallahu alaihi Wasallam told us that the one who does not love for his brother, what he loves for himself is not from amongst us.

Yeah. That's the second layer, which is your potential, the amana that Allah placed on you and what you're doing with it, with your knowledge, with your wealth, what are you using it for? Are you just relaxing? Are you making it Used in order to benefit people. That's the second layer. The third one is when you go beyond your family and your responsibilities, when you go beyond your potential, you feel like you're doing hard enough, then there's a bigger potential, which is the Ummah. There's a Muslim somewhere in the world that if you worked harder, you could benefit.

Exactly.

There's one extra meal you could have fed. There's one extra well you could have dug where families who would probably have died from thirst, they would be safe thanks to you. And that's the extra layer that always pushes you. So if you feel uncomfortable and people are watching. Actually, no. If you feel comfortable and people are watching this and feel a bit lazy, then you have those three layers. You know that that would always keep you pushing hard. The first one is, can you do more for your family? The second one, can you use your potential to more benefit? And the third one is, how can you help? Like there's still problems in the world. There's Muslims who would need help. What can your skill set, your money, your benefit, be of help to them?

And I'll tell you this for myself, I had a very difficult challenge raising my sons because I was raised in a environment where I had to survive, where I had to be on the streets, where I had to watch my back, where I had to lend those skill sets. And I saw people that were broke, I saw people that were starving even in America. And I realized I couldn't be like that. So I had to work hard. But my children, I wanted them to have a comfortable lifetime. I didn't want them to go through those struggles. That's why I worked hard so they wouldn't have to go through it. But then I came to a point where I said, okay, but they're not going to have that hunger, they're not going to be street wise. They're not going to have that ability to discern between friend and foe because they weren't in those dangerous situations. So what I did is I took them to the streets. You know, I didn't let them live there. I sent you kids to the streets. Yeah. I took my sons to, you know, places where the homeless were, places where the gangs were.

Why do you do that?

I wanted them to see it because of course we live in a nice neighborhood. So they didn't see it in their, in their daily life, but I wanted to take them there.

What happens if they get to see both instead of just seeing the nice neighbors?

Realize that if you don't work hard, you could end up there.

Okay? So that drives the hunger of what's good.

And I remember I took my sons and they were very young, maybe six and four, very young. And I sat down with a person who was homeless and we brought food to them, we gave them. And I just told them, hey, tell me about your life. And I told my children, listen, this is school right here. Pay attention. And that person used to have a job, and that person used to live a proper life. But because of Riba, they lost their house. They weren't able to make their payments from that. Their wife left them and took half whatever they had. And because they didn't have an address anymore and they went to alcohol abuse, they became homeless. So I told them, look, they weren't born homeless like they were people that were part of society. But they for certain reasons didn't strive. And when they gave up, this is where you end up. And is that where you want to be? And then no. They said, no, they don't want to be there. I said, then you have to work hard in life. That's a very good example. And I think it's very, very important that people understand it's not just about you. You're not in this world. Just about you. When you see the people of Gaza, when you see the people in India, when you see people around the Muslim world from Sudan and everywhere struggling, I think it's a responsibility upon us that we work harder and we make that money to help the Ummah. So in front of Allah, subhanahu wa ta', ala, you say, I didn't just complain. I did what I could to support my family. As a man, it's my responsibility and to develop those around me to help them and whatever I could for the ummah at large, Subhanallah, because if you

think about it, that kid who's in haza, if you could flip the roles and he would be in your situation, what would he do?

Strive and struggle hard. He knows. He knows what it's like to be hungry.

But like you mentioned, the Muslim is not upon his religion until he loves for his brother what he wants for himself. And that's the same scenario where that person who is in Gaza who's hungry, that's your brother.

And that's a part of your iman said, the person will not be a true believer until Yuhabb Al Khi. He loves for his brother what he loves for himself. So part of our iman is that we love for our brothers, that we want them to be comfortable as well. Our sisters, our Ummah. So even if you don't want to work for yourself, work for the Ummah.

That's an amazing way of ending it.

Nice.

So, in summary, Ikhwa, never get lazy. Even if you have money, even if you have wealth, even if you feel comfortable and you have everything you want in your life. Number one, you could always achieve more. Number two, it doesn't mean because you're comfortable that you're doing your job. Allah gave you potential. You can always do more. And he'll ask you, what are you doing with the potential that I gave you? And on that day, I promise you, you don't want to have a loaded answer. So make sure today you use your potential and you make the most out of it. And you could always help somebody out. Barak Lafik. And I'll see you in the next episode.