Revive Your Heart: Putting Life in Perspective

shayāṭīn
have
taken over and they are constantly making 
waswasah
to this person; because
what do the 
shayāṭīn
hate the most? They hate the Qur’an, they hate the word of
Allah. They flee from it. It hurts them. So you know what they do? Because this
person has let the 
shayāṭīn
, the devils, into his heart, they start pinching at his
heart when he hears Qur’an, and he says, ‘Ah, I don’t want to hear this’. It’s like
pulling a tooth for this person. This happens when you try to give this person a
reminder from Allah’s word. They get annoyed by it—agitated—like an allergic
reaction. Why? Because they have let the 
shayāṭīn
in. To let them out the first
thing you have to do is stop supplying them with fuel.
This is fuel. This useless wasting of time, this is fuel for 
shayṭān
. They love
that you waste your time. They love it because the one asset, the one piece of
wealth Allah gave every human being, is time. And what is music, and TV, and
YouTube, and Facebook, and Snapchat, and Twitter, and whatever else? If
you’re spending hours, and hours and hours on this stuff what is it except
destroying your time? It’s taking that one asset away from you; 
shayṭān
will love
nothing more. May Allah (
subḥānahū wa-taʿālā
) give you the strength to get
away from these temptations. My advice that I keep repeating—I can’t get
enough of giving this advice—find better friends. Find company that is not into
these things, and try to spend more time with them. 
in shā
’
 Allāh
you will wean
yourself off these habits, 
bi-idhni-Llāh
.

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CHAPTER 11
Putting Life in Perspective
That which has been given to you is only the wherewithal of the
transient life of this world. But that which is with Allah is better and
more enduring for those who believe and put their trust in their Lord.
(Al-Shūrā 42: 36)
I
t was very difficult for me to choose an 
āyah
for this reminder and I’ve
been thinking about it for some time. I realized at the end of all that thinking that
our religion, by definition, is simple and its teachings are straightforward. So I
don’t have to make something complicated when, by definition, it’s supposed to
be simple. This reminder is a reminder that I need, that I think everyone in this
room needs and it is something that we constantly have to live with. It’s so easy
to remind ourselves of but, at the same time, it’s very, very easy to forget. I want
to start with just a rough translation of the 
āyah
that I recited before you.
Allah (
ʿazza wa-jall
) in 
Sūrat al-Shūrā
, the forty-second surah, says: 
Fa-mā
ūtītum min shay’in fa-matāʿ al-ḥayāt al-dunyā
. ‘Then whatever you’ve been
given’— 
fa-mā ūtītum
, and the word 
mā
suggests that there’s an openness:
anything that you’ve been given. And in addition to all of that, it’s 
min
shay’in
.
You could say 
mā ūtītumūhu
—it could have been a pronoun; but instead of
adding a pronoun, it’s 
min shay’in
, and not even 
shay’an
; it’s 
shay’in
, which is

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very unusual language. It suggests any and all things, that you can imagine, that
you have been given. Now in using those two words together, in the 
āyah
, Allah
is talking about every single object, physical object that you own whether it’s
clothing, a car, a house or whatever you own, down to a pen that’s to your name.
In addition, Allah is also talking about whatever you and I have been given in
terms of life experiences. What kind of parents we have been given, what kind of
youth, what kind of opportunities we were given, what kind of friends you and I
were given? Everything that I have been given, everything that I have
experienced in my life thus far is inside,