Aim High

Aim High

There is none worthy of worship except Allah. A man came to the Prophet ﷺ and said: I ask you for a riding animal that I can ride, and for a dog to watch over my goats and my sheep, and I ask you for a servant girl so she can serve my wife.

So the Prophet ﷺ said to him:

"Were you not able to be like the old lady from Bani Israel?" — from the children of Israel.

So the companion asked: Who is this old lady from Bani Israel? And the Prophet ﷺ explained to them: When Musa ﷺ wanted to depart with his people — wanted to leave the area with his people — they said that Yusuf ﷺ, the Prophet Yusuf, had ordered them not to leave that place unless they took him — meaning they took his body with them.

So Musa ﷺ asked: Then where is the grave of Yusuf? Meaning, we'll take his body with us — just show us his grave. They said no one knows it except for this old lady. So they went and brought her.

And Musa ﷺ asked her: Where is the grave of Yusuf ﷺ, so that we can take him with us as we leave this area? She said: By Allah, I will not show it to you until you give me what I ask for. And Musa ﷺ asked her: What do you want? She said:

"That I be with you in Al-Jannah" — meaning at your level of Jannah on the Day of Judgment.

So the Prophet ﷺ is telling this man: You could have asked for so many things — and you asked for a dog and a servant and a donkey or some kind of riding animal. He is teaching him to aim high, to ask for something greater than that.

Allah Loves the Highest of All Affairs

Also narrated by al-Tabarani from Ibn Abbas رضي الله عنهما, the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Al-Tabarani, narrated from Ibn Abbas رضي الله عنهما)

"Indeed, Allah loves the highest and the best of all affairs, and He dislikes the lowest of them."

And what's beautiful here is that it's not putting down the dunya, not putting down business, not putting down athleticism or sports. Allah loves the highest and best of everything — الأمور — general. So the scholars said:

"Allah loves the highest and best of everything." That you do your best in whatever field you're in — obviously so long as it is halal.

And that is why Allah tells the believers in the Qur'an:

"Race and compete for the good things, for the good deeds."

The Wisdom of Ibn al-Qayyim

Ibn al-Qayyim رحمه الله, the scholar, says:

"All the wise men of sound mind from every nation have agreed on this one issue: whoever wants to rest, he leaves resting — meaning for now he sets it aside. And whoever wants na'im, luxury and ease now, he has to leave it for now. And that withstanding calamities and dealing with difficulties — that is how you attain ma'ali al-umur, the highest and best of all affairs" — as was mentioned in the hadith.

You can test this if you have any children. Most of the youth believe that they're going to become multi-millionaires when they grow up — most of them have this belief. If you don't believe that, interact with youth, either look at a study on it or just interact with them. Most of them have that belief. They talk about their Ferraris and Lamborghinis and their mansions — but look at their work ethic. Just have them move chairs and they will start moaning and complaining, or they suddenly fall asleep. No work ethic. They don't want to work hard.

Because of a few success stories — this person from YouTube became a billionaire overnight for doing certain videos — everyone thinks, "I'll just go on that path." But most people of most nations know that if you want to rest, you leave rest for now. You work hard now, you rest later. And whoever wants luxury and ease now has to leave it for now — and will get it later. You don't just get both. These few success stories are few and far between, but everyone thinks they're going to emulate that success story.

Aim High in Du'a — Ask for Al-Firdaws Al-A'la

In Sahih al-Bukhari, the Prophet ﷺ, even in du'a, is teaching us to aim for what is highest. He said ﷺ:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 2790)

"If you ask Allah for Al-Jannah, ask Him for Al-Firdaws Al-A'la" — which is the highest level. No one should ask to be in the lowest level. Everyone should ask for the highest.

Then the Prophet ﷺ describes it: it is the highest level of Al-Jannah and it is the middle of Al-Jannah. The scholars asked: how can it be both the highest and the middle? They described that all the jinaan — the gardens of Al-Jannah — are curved like a semicircle. So the middle of the semicircle is also the highest point. The Prophet ﷺ said: it is the highest of Al-Jannah, and it is also the middle of Al-Jannah, and its ceiling is عَرْشُ الرَّحْمَٰن — the Throne of Ar-Rahman — and from it all the rivers of Al-Jannah flow.

So he is saying: even when you put your hands up and ask Allah, aim high — ask for the highest level. Aiming high in the du'a.

The Du'a of the Righteous — Make Me a Leader, Not Just a Follower

We also see this in the Qur'an. The du'a:

Not وَاجْعَلْنَا مِنَ الْمُتَّقِينَ — "make me from the righteous" — but: "make me an imam for the righteous, a role model for the righteous."

Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz — The Ever-Aspiring Soul

Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz رضي الله عنه — considered the fifth of the rightly guided Khulafa, even though he was approximately the thirteenth in chronological order — he used to say:

"Indeed my nafs, my soul, is very ambitious and always aspiring and aiming high. I desired Al-Imara — leadership — and I attained it. Then I desired the Khilafa and I attained it as well. And now my nafs is desiring Al-Jannah, and I hope with the permission of Allah that I will attain that."

Look at how he is aiming higher and higher. What is higher than the highest office in the land? He answers: Al-Jannah.

The Story of Ibn Abbas — Aspiration Over Complacency

Another example of aiming high is the famous and well-known story of Ibn Abbas رضي الله عنهما, who said that he had a boy who was one of his friends when they were young boys. He told him: let's go and sit and study and learn the knowledge of the Prophet ﷺ. The other young man belittled that. He said: who's going to pay attention to you? We have Abu Bakr, we have Umar, we have Uthman — all these companions are alive. Who's going to care about you and what you learn?

And then years passed, and Ibn Abbas became a scholar — even a scholar among the companions and among the older companions. The difference between him and the other young man is that Ibn Abbas رضي الله عنهما aimed high. He had aspirations.

Umar ibn al-Khattab رضي الله عنه used to say:

"I dislike — I hate — seeing a man who is just sabahlal" — meaning not achieving anything, neither in his deen nor in his dunya, content with whatever low-level thing it is that he's doing. Umar used to say: I hate seeing someone like that, not working hard for his deen, not working hard for his dunya.

Raising Our Children to Aim High — The Example of Imam Malik's Mother

One of the most important things we can do is aim high for our children. And when they aim high for themselves, don't tear them down. Many times we are experts at telling each other why we won't succeed at something. Anyone in the world can tell you why something won't work, why a business idea won't work. But few people are smart enough to tell you how to make it work. So don't be one of those who puts people down when they have a brilliant idea or some kind of high aspirations — as we saw in the story of Ibn Abbas.

The other thing is you can also guide them to aim high. This is the excellent example of Imam Malik. When he was a young boy, he had no interest in knowledge and he wanted to become a singer. And his mother wanted to give him something better to aim for. There were some very brilliant things she did here.

The first thing is she didn't try to critique what he was doing. Because as psychologists explain, actions are linked to goals. So if his goal is to become a soccer player, then what would his actions be? Watching soccer, playing soccer, talking about soccer — everything soccer. His actions are linked to his goals. So you can't nag him: stop watching soccer, stop playing soccer, stop looking at soccer. You can't tell him that, because his actions won't change. The only way to get him to stop would be to change his goals. If you change his goals, then his actions would change to match that new goal.

So his mother didn't nag him — stop singing, stop writing, stop hanging with these people, stop playing an instrument. She made him wish to become a scholar. And she did something else that was very intelligent: she dressed him up like a young scholar. Just like we do today with our children — we buy them the whole kit that has the stethoscope, and needles, and syringes, and the blood pressure machine, and they go around the house taking people's blood pressure. Or we buy them a kit that has handcuffs and a club and they go around. We make them love certain professions. She made him dress up like a scholar. She made him love the idea of studying his religion.

And now we are talking about him hundreds of years — over twelve hundred years — later, because he became Imam Malik. Had he become a singer, nobody in this room would know his name right now. So the idea is also that you can help readjust your child's aims, or your sibling's, or whoever it is — adjust it to have a better aim or a higher aim than whatever it is they have at the moment.

With that, we ask Allah to make us of those who hear the speech and follow the best of it.