Revive Your Heart: Putting Life in Perspective

tadhrūhu al-riyāḥ
. 
Wa-kān Allāh ʿalā
kulli shay’in muqtadirā
—and Allah has always been in complete control over all
things. The word 
fa
here—as opposed to 
thumma
—needs to be highlighted. In
the Arabic language when you say: 
fa-aṣbaḥa hashīman
—that means over time
the plants deteriorated; it took a long time before the plants died and then they
became useless. 
Fa
actually means 
mufāja’atan
—it just happened, out of
nowhere.
You know what Allah is telling us? It could be that you and I have wealth,
we could be doing well and you might look at your wealth and say, ‘
Al-ḥamd li-
Llāh
, I think I’m secure. I’m doing pretty good. I don’t have to worry about
money anymore’. But you know what? That sense of security is exactly the
problem of the gardener that was talked about before. He thought: 
lan tabīda
hādhihī abadā
—‘This ain’t going nowhere’. Literally, that’s what he said. He
looked at his garden and said, ‘Come on! This is too good an investment.
Everything is exactly where it is supposed to be, my projections for sales are

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getting higher and higher. I’m hiring more and more employees. Things are
looking pretty good. It’s not going anywhere’. And what does Allah do?
Overnight, his entire garden’s gone. Overnight!
In this example it’s greenery. In fact, it’s not just greenery; it is so green that
the plants are intertwined with each other. You’re like, ‘How’s this going to go
away? This is really fertile’. Then, all of a sudden, it becomes useless. It’s just
something people step on, people don’t even care for, and winds carry it around.
And when winds are throwing something around obviously it’s accessible to
everyone. Twigs and leaves and little pebbles on the ground, everybody has
access to them, right? It’s not like, you have to pay for them. Nobody picks them
up and puts them in their pocket, because they are worthless. You don’t see
dollar bills flying around in the air, because there’s a value to them. People will
pick them up. Allah is teaching us that the things we own will one day be
useless, they will just be useless. 
Wa-kān Allāh ʿalā kulli shay’in muqtadirā
.
Wealth and children are an adornment of the life of the world. But the
deeds of lasting righteousness are the best in the sight of your Lord in
reward, and far better a source of hope.
(Al-Kahf 18: 46)
Now after this example of gardens and plants growing, Allah (
subḥānahū
wa-taʿālā
) then teaches us: what am I really talking about? If you didn’t get the
point yet, let me not speak in examples anymore, let me be explicit and direct
with you. 
Al-māl wa-l-banūn zīnat al-ḥayāt al-dunyā
—money and children they
are the beautification, they are the beauty of worldly life. They are what make
this low life beautiful. This life, right here, Allah boils it down to two things that
are beautiful. Allah first says money, then He says children. And you know
what? You talk to a young man who isn’t married or who just got married, just
starting his career, just finished school, first pay cheque that came through,
right? What’s he always thinking about? He’s thinking about money and how to
spend it. And if it’s not money like cash, it’s something that is a result of the
money. It’s the car, it’s the furniture, it’s the gadget in your pocket, right? It’s

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the stuff that came from money, at the end of it, all of it is 
māl
.