Revive Your Heart: Putting Life in Perspective

Yā Rabb
these are just followers, they
made a mistake 
kull banī Ādam khaṭṭā’ūn
(all of the Children of Adam make
mistakes). Forgive their mistake, let them move on from this, make them
stronger, and don’t put hatred for them in the hearts of other Muslims’. This is
the 
duʿā’
you make for them—
wa-staghfir lahum
.
But it’s not over yet. The next time there’s a meeting, call the people who
disappointed you. Have them join the meeting, and not only have them join the
meeting, when an important decision comes up, you ask them, ‘What do you
think? I’d like to hear your opinion’. And don’t just listen to their opinion for an
artificial: ‘Hey, tell me what you think?’ and whatever they say, you respond:
‘
Jazak Allah khayran
!’ No, no, no. Actually consult their opinion: 
wa-
shāwirhum fī al-’amr
, take their consultation in matters of decision. Take whose
consultation? The same people who disappointed you. Imagine, the same people

---

who disappointed 
Rasūl Allāh
(
ṣallā Allāh ʿalayhi wa-sallam
) in the Battle of
Uhud, when there’s a meeting happening for the Battle of Ahzāb, he calls the
same 
Ṣaḥābah
and says: ‘What do you think we should do?’ And they’re like:
‘Who? What? Me!? You want my opinion!? I just messed up last time’. No, no,
no, I need your opinion, I value your opinion. And this 
Ṣaḥābī
will say this can
only be the Messenger of Allah (
ṣallā Allāh ʿalayhi wa-sallam
) because no man
has a heart that big. This has to come from Allah. That’s why the 
āyah
begins:
fa-bi-mā raḥmatin min Allāh
. We don’t discard people’s opinion because they
disappointed us in the past; and we don’t just, artificially take their opinion. A
lot of times we listen to people but we don’t 
really
listen to them; we just go
through the exercise but it’s just artificial. We shouldn’t be doing that. Whatever
the Messenger (
ṣallā Allāh ʿalayhi wa-sallam
) does; he does with sincerity—
wa-
shāwirhum fī al-’amr.
Then finally when you make a decision: 
fa-idhā ʿazamta fa-tawakkal ʿalā
Allāh
—then when you reach the final decision, then trust Allah. Because the
decision you people reach, and that you (
ṣallā Allāh ʿalayhi wa-sallam
) reach,
that is not a guarantee of success. The guarantee of success comes from Allah, so
trust Allah after you make a decision. 
Inna Allāh yuḥibb al-mutawakkilīn
—no
doubt Allah loves those who put their trust in Him.
What are we learning at the end? We don’t trust our leadership and our
leadership doesn’t even trust itself, at the end of the day, all of us trust Allah
(
ʿazza wa-jall
). We do the best we can and whatever decisions we make, at the
end of it we don’t say, ‘I’m the leader, I made this decision, and it’s the best
decision’. No, we say, ‘I made this decision, 
yā Rabb
. Put 
khayr
in it because
this decision doesn’t just affect me, it affects all of my followers. It affects the
whole family, it affects everything; so 
yā Allāh
put 
khayr
in this decision. I don’t
know if it’s the best. They have relied upon me because they rely upon You’.
This is a beautiful, beautiful sampling of the 
Rasūl
’s legacy of leadership (
ṣallā
Allāh ʿalayhi wa-sallam
) and I pray that we’re able to get even an ounce of this
into our personal lives, even a little bit of it into our family lives, into our
business lives, into our professional lives, into our community life then 
wa-Llāhi
the 
barakāt
of the 
Sunnah
; the blessings of the 
Sunnah
, when we really apply
leadership, is that people love each other for the sake of Allah. And when you
don’t apply leadership principles, people start hating each other, people start
getting angry at each other. This kills anger. This puts out the fire.
May Allah (
ʿazza wa-jall
) make us of the people who are able to have soft
hearts towards their fellow Muslims and recognize the value and appreciation of

---

forgiving one another and moving forward.

---

---

CHAPTER 6
How We Earn
I
n this reminder, I wanted to reflect with you on a few 
āyāt
belonging to the
fourth surah of the Qur’an, 
Sūrat al-Nisā’
. Those of you who aren’t familiar with
Sūrat al-Nisā’
, it is one of the earlier revelations in Madinah after the Prophet
(
ṣallā Allāh ʿalayhi wa-sallam
) migrated to the city. Now just a little bit of
background so everything is put into perspective. When the Prophet (
ṣallā Allāh
ʿalayhi wa-sallam
) moves to Madinah, there are the beginnings of a Muslim
community. Back in Makkah, you could think of them as a non-violent
resistance movement, but that’s all they were, they weren’t a community yet.
They weren’t even allowed, in most instances, to pray in public. They were a
persecuted small bunch and they were seen as a fringe element in Makkah. But
once the migration happens and there is a community already ripe for the
message of Islam—a couple of tribes have already accepted Islam and they are
welcoming the Prophet (
ṣallā Allāh
ʿalayhi wa-sallam
), almost as a mayor into
that city, and he takes this position of authority.
There were, of course, Jewish and Christian communities in Madinah at the
time, and a treaty is formed between the Muslim, Jewish and Christian
communities for a joint collaboration to defend the city together and so on.
These are the preliminary workings of the Prophet (
ṣallā Allāh ʿalayhi wa-
sallam
) in the first six months that he got there. More and more of the Qur’an is
getting revealed and now the Qur’an includes instructions or laws. You’ll notice
most of the Makkan Qur’an doesn’t have a lot of laws and that is two thirds of
the Qur’an. Here and there, there are some ethical instructions but for the most