Heighten Your Aspirations
Chapter 2
Just getting through the day
To what end?
Is tomorrow another day to get through?
After you get through all the days, then what happens?
Let’s get straight about what we are seeking to do.
We are at the door of eternity. What we do now will echo forever. Your vehicle for Jannah and earning Allah’s pleasure is in this world.
What do you seek to accomplish with the time Allah has given you?
Islām is a religion of real success
That call is made throughout the day — Haya Ala Falah.
Don’t let your precious life be corrupted by unholy endeavours that lead to dead ends. Your mission in life, should you choose to accept it, is to worship Allah and give victory to His religion and not worry about the naysayers who would only regard you as good if you are submissive to their wishes.
The Prophet ﷺ uplifted a nation in their darkest moments. In the trench, fearing the dangers ahead, the Prophet ﷺ struck the boulder…
…and with each SPARK, he saw the Keys of Kisra, the Keys of Yemen, and the Keys of Al-Sham!
Allah says about the hypocrites “They were satisfied to be with those who stay behind, and their hearts were sealed over, so they do not understand.” (9:87)
In contrast, many of the Prophet’s foremost companions, who loved the holy sanctuaries of Mecca and Medina far more than any one of us could, left home to spread the justice of Islam — never to return.
Bilal ibn Raba is buried in Damascus, Khalid ibn Waleed in Homs, Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah in Jordan, Abu Ayyub al-Ansari in Istanbul, Ali ibn Abi Talib in Iraq and Sa’ad ibn Abi Waqqas in China — may Allah be pleased with them all.
They were activated by Islam as it sharpened their clarity on purpose and made them the finest versions of themselves. They set out with a relentless will to succeed at the highest levels and embodied the Muslim spirit of pushing boundaries and defying imaginary limits set by others.
It meant they had grand hopes and aspirations, and worked towards them knowing that Allah “will not allow to be lost the reward of any who did well in deeds.” (18:30)
The stakes could not be higher and they knew it and so did everything they could to enhance their status in the hereafter and gained dominance in this world as a by product of that.
They were people of depth and profundity who did not substitute the priorities that Allah had set nor sit back to discuss trivial matters. Rather they worked within the constraints they had and forged ahead with massive tawakul in Allah whilst delivering the message with such elegance and gravitas.
— What would you set your heart on if you knew you couldn’t fail?
Apathy is a Sign of Spiritual Sickness
But most people are passive and don’t really care, or don’t care enough to do anything significant.
You need to develop high aspirations to be able to exploit your time in the best manner. The Muslim’s aspiration will be commensurate with his level of faith and certainty, because actions are connected to that which is settled in the heart of certainty, faith and belief.
The Prophet ﷺ exemplified leadership and pursuing lofty goals, and if we are truly followers of his example, then we will seek to do the same.
Taking the Necessary Strides For Your Own Progress and Elevation
No one truthfully and seriously seeks something but acquires it. If one does not receive it all, he would at least achieve some of it.
Heed the words of the Prophet ﷺ when he said “Knowledge is acquired by seeking it, and patience is acquired by striving to be patient. The one who strives to attain good will be given it, and the one who strives to protect himself from evil will be protected.” and in another narration “Whoever tries to make himself self-sufficient, Allah will make him self-sufficient.” (Bukhari)
It’s easy to get a bunch of people sort of excited for a little while. The challenging part, and the reason that change doesn’t happen as often as it should is that we get distracted. The people that actually change things are the ones that have a time horizon that’s longer than 36 hours.
Mission Critical — Where is the Sense of Honour of the Muslims?
A divided Islāmic world offered feeble resistance to the Crusaders who had invaded and consolidated their hold on the lands surrounding al-Quds containing Islām’s third holiest site, Masjid al-Aqsa. The warring Muslim parties did not take the Crusader invasion seriously at this stage.
After almost 100 years of occupation, in the words of Imām al-Dīn al-Khatīb: “Allāh renewed Islām after it had declined and strengthened it after it had grown weak” through Nūr al-Dīn and then by the man of the hour, perhaps the most celebrated of Muslim soldiers in the history of Islām, Salāh al-Dīn Ayūbi, who threw down the gauntlet to the invading Crusaders.
He reportedly wrote: “We hope in Allah the Most High, to Whom be all Praise, Who leads the hearts of Muslims to calm what torments them and ruins their prosperity.
Where is the sense of honor of the Muslims? The pride of the believers? The zeal of the faithful? We shall never cease to be amazed at how the disbelievers for their part have shown trusts, and it is the Muslims who have been lacking in zeal. Not one of them has responded to the call. Not one intervenes to straighten what is distorted; but observe how far the Franks have gone. What unity they have achieved! What aims they pursue! What help they have given! What sums of money they have borrowed and spent! What wealth they have collected, distributed and divided amongst them!
There is not a king left in their lands or islands, not a lord or a rich man who has not competed with his neighbours to produce more support and rival his peers in strenuous military efforts. In defence of their religion they consider it a small thing to spend life and soul; and they have kept their disbelieving brothers supplied with arms and champions of war; and all they have done and all their generosity has been purely out of zeal for him they worship in jealous defence of their faith.
The Muslims on the other hand are weak and demoralized; they have become negligent and lazy, the victims of unproductive stupefaction and completely lacking in enthusiasm. If, Allah forbid, Islam should draw reign, obscure her splendor, blunt her sword, there would be no one, east or west, far or near, who would blaze the zeal for Allah’s religion, or choose to come to the aid of truth against error? This is the moment to cast off laziness, to summon, from far and near all those men who have blood in their veins.
But we are confident (he speaks about himself and the small group of believers who began with him and then became a large group); Alhamdulillah — in the help that will come from Him and entrust ourselves to Him in sincerity of purpose and deepest devotion. InshaAllah, the disbelievers will be defeated and the faithful will have a sure deliverance.” ~ Salahuddin Ayyubi.
After a number of battles, the decisive battle once again, as many times previously, took place in the blessed month of Ramadān in the year 582AH at the battle of Hattīn. On his way to Jerusalem, Salahuddin conquered almost every Crusader city. Leading up to this battle, one of the crusader kings, Renaud de Chatellon treacherously attacked a Muslim caravan during a period of truce.
He seized these people, put them to torture, threw them into pits and imprisoned some in dungeons. When the prisoners objected and pointed out that there was a truce between the two peoples, he remonstrated: “Ask your Muhammad to deliver you”.
The battle of Hattīn which then followed, is considered by many to be the key to all the Muslim conquests against the crusaders and represented the period that the crusader tide began to recede which eventually resulted in the liberation of al-Quds on the 27th of Rajab, which was said to have coincided with the Night Journey of the Prophet ﷺ.
The very first jummu’ah khutbah (Friday Sermon) delivered in Jerusalem following its liberation has been preserved for us until this very day began with a verse which was indeed apt for the magnanimous occasion: “So the people that committed wrong were eliminated. And all the praises and thanks be to Allāh, the Lord of the worlds”. (6:18)
One of the names and attributes of Allāh is al-Rāfi ‘The One who raises’ and it was in the blessed month of Ramadān in the battle of Hattīn that Allāh raised Salāh al-Dīn’s status among the greats of this noble Ummah.
During his reign, Salahuddin built many schools, hospitals, and institutions in his quest for intellectual and civic achievements. He was determined to bring justice, peace, and prosperity to all those within his domain. His accomplishment in evicting the Crusaders from Palestine and Syria are well known.
What is less well known is his achievement in welding a unified Islamic body, free of internal fissures, which offered the Muslims, the opportunity to dominate global events. It was the generation of Salahuddin that not only recaptured Jerusalem, but also laid the foundation of an Islamic Empire in India and briefly contained the Crusader advance in Spain and North Africa.
It is widely reported that Salahuddin Al-Ayubi — The king of Egypt, Sudan, Syria, Lebanon, Jerusalem, Hiaz, Asir, etc., left behind 1 dinar, 47 dirhams, some armor, and one horse. His family had to borrow money to be able to perform the funeral. He demonstrated tremendous modesty and humility whilst having a ferocious resolve in doing what was necessary for the honour of the ummah by utilising everything he had to for the service of this religion.
History bears testimony to the fact that hostile occupying forces have come and gone in Jerusalem, but never lasted. The Babylonians, the ancient Greeks, the ancient Romans, the Byzantines, and the Crusaders have all exercised authority in Jerusalem without respecting the sacred sites, only to fade away and be remembered with contempt.
Jerusalem is the crucible in which the struggle between good and evil is played out and the sanctity of the city is based on restoring the legacy of all past prophets revered in Judaism, Christianity and Islām, and the establishment of universal justice.
Historically the status of Al-Quds is the yardstick by which the Ummah’s strength is measured. Our current situation could be gauged by a quote from the 575 page Goldstone report in to the 2008/9 war in Gaza that said “The Mission concludes that what occurred in just over three weeks at the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009 was a deliberately disproportionate attack designed to punish, humiliate and terrorise a civilian population, radically diminish its local economic capacity both to work and to provide for itself, and to force upon it an ever-increasing sense of dependency and vulnerability.”
Such barbarous actions are an outrage to the collective conscience of the world. We should feel upset, angry, enraged, and sad. It should stir something within our hearts. And those emotions should be channeled to working towards bringing about real change.
As the Prophet ﷺ told us, “Whosoever of you sees an evil, let him change it with his hand; and if he is not able to do so, then [let him change it] with his tongue; and if he is not able to do so, then with his heart — and that is the weakest of faith.”
The tyrants will continue to brazenly violate the rights of the oppressed as long as the Ummah continues to reward the oppressors with impunity.
The story of Nūr al-Dīn, Salāh al-Dīn, Qutūz and others was underlined by aspiration and sacrifice. What remains now is for the wider Muslim populous to lead a grassroots revival. Sacrifice of time entails many things like writing, speaking, authoring, raising awareness, building resources and campaigning. It may be arduous and toiling, but this is Jerusalem.
You Have A Lot to Aim For
You show your worth by what you seek — Rumi
Islam raises its followers and has come to give people the desire to act, succeed and excel. After describing the bliss of Paradise, Allah says “So for this let the competitors compete.”(83:26)
Modern literature, awash with superficial concerns for a good life, offers no meaningful parallels. All the cold pressed, organic green juices in the world means nothing if you don’t feel that you are here for something greater. You could have all the financial stability and career success possible yet still crave that feeling of purpose and value.
People are often seen to be floating through time and space. They seem trapped in an existence that doesn’t excite them and thus don’t really perceive any real need for progress.
Surah Asr speaks to the fact that truly mankind is in loss except those who get their act together and do good and have patience.
Aside from the obvious good deeds, competition in worldly life that aims to make Muslims self-sufficient by inventing something or by achieving progress in the economic field, so as to free Muslims from their dependence on others and provide commercially viable solutions to our problems, with the intention of seeking the pleasure of Allah and winning His Paradise, is good and praiseworthy competition as it is in fact related to the Hereafter. High economic growth can, in turn, help elevate the country’s standard of living and retain it’s intellectual capital.
The Muslims should seek to reduce their dependence on others by controlling the means of production, especially those that relate to the security and well-being of society such as manufacturing, data centres, pharmaceutical companies, research facilities and defence. They should build organisations that are predicated on true Islamic values and help others in authority to create an enabling environment for the Islamic economy to flourish.
Furthermore, the prosperity in the affairs of this world supports the religious life as there is nothing wrong with riches for the one who fears Allah. Ibn Qayyim said: “When there is money in your hand and not in your heart, it will not harm you even if it is a lot; and when it is in your heart, it will harm you even if there is none in your hands.”
Such a person is not consumed by materialism or held back by physical possessions and is able to sacrifice things when a need arises. They remove excess from their own lives whilst using their resources to advance the various interests of the Ummah.
This agility demonstrates their faith and helps them to capitalise on new opportunities that elevate their rank in the hereafter.
If We Learn To Focus On What We Simply Ought To Do
quite often, the rest takes care of itself
The Messenger of Allah said “Whoever’s main concern in life is the Hereafter, Allāh will fill his heart with richness, and his worldly affairs will fall into place, and dunyā will come to him in spite of it. But whoever’s main concern in life is this world, Allāh will place poverty between his eyes and Allāh will make his affairs scattered, and he will get nothing of this world except what is decreed for him.” (Ibn Majah)
Unfortunately, the condition of most people is spoiled because their intention for leading is purely to secure a status and accumulate money. This excessive love of wealth risks compromising obedience to Allah, and the blessings to be gained from seeking His pleasure.
Such individuals deprive themselves of the truth for the imagine wealth to be the goal and not a means. Thus, the Prophet said, “If two hungry wolves were let among sheep, they should cause no more devastation among these sheep than man’s craving for money and prestige would do to his Religion.”
But if one were to do it right, then they receive the glad tidings of The Prophet ﷺ who also said “An honest and sincere businessman will be raised with the prophets, the siddiqin and the shuhada” (At-Tirmidhi).
There is the pursuit of wealth, which can be done for noble and ignoble reasons. It is not greed when your intention is to fulfil a duty that Allah has placed on you like providing for your family, maintaining relations and supporting the Ummah. In fact all this is praiseworthy.
It only becomes blameworthy when you chase the riches at the expense of neglecting your duties and acts of worship.
Become More Aware of What’s Really Worth Your Energy
The ambition for eternal bliss changes behavior
Pursuits in life can sometimes dominate the entire discourse of our existence, fooling us to reach fulfilment and satisfaction, only through attaining a status in this world attached to wealth.
Wealth and hustle should be used to raise your rank in the hereafter and not get in the way.
Thinking about death will purify us of all false ambitions. It is with the knowledge that you are going to die that brings the focus you have in life and the sense of urgency to accomplish something for the sake of Allah.
True entrepreneurship can mould a person to be an agent of change and be a pivotal force for good. It was Uthman ibn ‘Affan (may Allah be pleased with him) who prepared the army of al-‘Usrah by himself, without asking the others to help carry their share of the responsibility.
In fact, it was often the spirit of entrepreneurship amongst some of the Sahāba that helped bring continuity to the cause of Islam. Everything they did was geared towards supporting and enabling people to worship Allah.
We need a private sector that supports the strengthening of the ummahs various institutions and the rule of law, not one that detracts from it. For example, Big tech companies contribute to economic growth in an important way — which in turn give society the capital to raise its standards of living and live in dignity. The Muslims need more upstarts that challenge established global businesses and brands.
The failure of the Italians in the world war was in part due to their relatively small industrial sector, narrow curriculum and pervasive shortage of technical talent that placed severe limits on the extent to which the country could commission, operate and maintain machinery required for their wars.
In times of crisis companies where able to repurpose their factories to produce what the country needed. A prepared country’s architecture should thus be built to handle these growing levels of activity and eventualities.
The Germans understood this and had developed their industrial capacity and authorised a list of businesses to carry on operations that were essential to the German war effort.
Historically when the men went to combat, the women took their places in the factories to keep the nation well supplied. People lived on rations and paid whatever price necessary to win.
Effective leaders in any industry or arena of life foster creativity. The Muslim community should aim to organise its extraordinary thinkers who are free and able to constantly exchange ideas and pioneer new ways to learn and execute actions that advance their vision and goals.
Create Something of Value or Support Those Who Can
The Muslims should not be underrepresented in media, culture and politics.
It is crucial for the righteous to step up and assume authority in all areas that matter so that good can prevail. Such ambitions should be considered as a part of religion and as a good action that brings one nearer to Allah.
Otherwise authority will be handed to the corrupt who will invariably marshal the nations resources to pursue the wrong objectives and force everyone else to live by their terms.
If one is not able to do justice to the role of leadership then they should endeavour to support the competent ones who can. Though their recognition with the people may be less, their reward with Allah may be more than those who that actually lead.
This is because they do not set out to cultivate ‘hero status’ but rather work with sincerity and understand that leadership is not the goal but a means to enact good in society for the sake of Allah.
They’ve figured out that they can be more persuasive sometimes without having the top job — more room to maneuver.
Such people don’t care about who gets the credit so long as the objectives are met. These self effacing individuals are able to blend extreme personal humility with intense professional will.
So personal interests aside we should seek to support people who can do something decisive for our ummah’s unity, progress and security.
Self Awareness
Abu Dharr (raḍiy Allāhu ʿanhu) narrates: “I asked the Prophet ﷺ “Why do you not appoint me to an (official) position?” He ﷺ patted me on the shoulder with his hand and said, “O Abu Dharr, you are a weak man and it is a trust, and it will be a cause of disgrace and remorse on the Day of Resurrection except for the one who takes it up with a full sense of responsibility and fulfils what is entrusted to him (discharges its obligations efficiently).” (Muslim)
The Prophet ﷺ was able to determine the strength and limitations of people and calculated things not just on the basis of piety but on the basis of their qualifications and how well they would do in those positions. People were selected to hold important positions based on their suitability and competence. This enabled them to bring strategic insights and efficiencies to the cause that an otherwise well-meaning layman just couldn’t deliver.
In summary, to avoid aimlessness, you have to stand for something and then act and behave in accordance with your stand. Don’t allow aimlessness to rob you of years of your life. You will ultimately be remembered for — and your body of work will be built upon — the battles you chose to spend your time fighting. Act with urgency and diligence today to define your battles, then carefully allocate your focus, time, and energy on things that matter to you.
There are battles that only you are equipped to fight, and while we can’t tell you what they are, we suspect you probably already know at least some of them.
Understand there’s a window of time to do it, and decide to go all-in.
The Ummah does not need more cowards with lowly ambitions, It is crying out for Lions to lead it.
We ask Allah to render His religion victorious through us.
