Chasing money down the lizard hole

I suppose by now all of you have seen the, pictures that were published in a French newspaper depicting the utterly football players at the World Cup as terrorists and savages and whatnot. And there's been a lot of negative press in Europe and the West about Qatar. I'll give you my take on that. To me, this is a half hearted attempt, on the part of Europe and the West to try to save face and to try to look like they actually care about the values that they espouse. Because look, all of them across the board, Europe, The UK, America, everybody is deeply in bed with Qatar.

Nobody is interested in acting against Qatar in practical real terms, and Qatar knows this. All of these reports, all of this criticism, everything is for domestic consumption to let the West tell each other we take these moral stands and all of that, when in reality, you don't. It's like you want to sleep with Qatar and feel good about yourself in the morning. I mean, Qatar has invested billions of dollars in Europe. They've invested billions of dollars in The UK.

They're heavily invested in infrastructure across Europe. And of course, they are supplementing the EU's liquefied natural gas. The West has completely lost all bargaining power with Qatar. You all are criticizing them and saying all kinds of things about them. It's just noise to make yourselves feel better about yourselves.

Now it's absolutely true that there is horrendous worker abuse in Qatar of migrant workers and domestic workers across the board. There's fraud by banks, there's fraud by businesses, all of that's true. And the West doesn't care. Their cozy relationship with Qatar reveals their utter hypocrisy. And so they published these criticisms in their domestic press to try to look less like hypocrites.

But at the end of the day, they want money. Qatar is one of the top 20 contributors to Interpol. They don't mind taking that money. Now France where they published these pictures, last month or late September, they signed a $1,500,000,000 agreement with Qatar for natural gas, which was just like three months after they had signed a $2,000,000,000 agreement in June. French FDI into Qatar has tripled over the last decade.

There are around a 120 French companies registered in Qatar. And Qatar owns roughly $25,000,000,000 worth of assets in France. But the reason I wanna talk about this isn't actually the political elements. It's that there's a lesson in this. And that is that this profit seeking, be on your grind, hustle culture that's being promoted so heavily online, you know, even seeing it a lot among Muslims these days has another side to it.

The side that they're hyping up, for lack of a better word, is the positive side, you know. You're motivated, you try to go out there and succeed and all of that. But the way they're defining success is maximum profit, making the most money that you can and finding all of the various ways that you can to make money. Well, that exact same sentiment is what is causing the West to compromise in the so called values that they have. That exact same sentiment of get rich or die trying, do whatever it takes to make that money, that exact same sentiment can get you to degrade yourself to the point of literal prostitution.

This prosperity gospel, make as much money as you can, be as rich as you can, live the best richest possible life that you can. By best, I mean richest. This is just another example of following the lizard into the hole because we're just imitating the ideas and the approach to wealth and material, lifestyle of the West, of non Muslims, and that's not our way. And it kills me. Whenever you try to remind brothers who are on this hustle culture, this hustle lifestyle, this make money lifestyle, whenever you remind them about the Sunnah of a simple material lifestyle, they always remember Uthman.

The only time that they ever talk about Othman bin Othman because Othman was rich. So he immediately becomes their go to Sahabi for rationalizing their feverish race for that 6 figure income. But that same fever can make you compromise your morality. It can make you compromise your values. It can turn all of your moral values into just propaganda about yourself that is essentially lies because you don't actually believe those things.

Because what you really want and what you really believe and what your top priority is is money like the West, which is why they don't actually care about any human rights violations, any human rights abuse, any oppression in Qatar or anywhere else for that matter. As a matter of fact, for the sake of money, they prefer oppressive regimes. They don't have to worry about the country suddenly caring about their own population. They they can be assured that the dictator will serve their interests and can't be opposed. So for the sake of money, they actually prefer oppressive regimes.

So you see, when you have put money as your top priority and to the extent of being willing to do anything for money, justifying it, using the religion to justify what we have been warned against time and time and time again, You're putting yourself in grave danger. Look. We have to return to an Islamic understanding about wealth, an Islamic understanding about money. The value of your money is in its barakah. It's not in how much money you have.

It's how much barakah you have in your money. $10 with barakah will go farther than twice the amount, three times the amount, 10 times the amount because of the barakah. Just like the food for one can suffice too Because of the barakah. And if you're Muslim and you really want to seek, an increase in your risk, in your income, already told us how to do that. It's to give, to give sadaqah.

Now here's the thing. They will all tell you, the reason that I wanna be rich is so that I can use my money for Islam and to help people. Okay. Ask him for $20. Ask him for $5, and you'll see.

If you're not helping Muslims now with the little wealth that you have, you're not gonna help them when you have a lot. Because all you're saying is, I wanna be able to help Muslims when it doesn't actually require much sacrifice from me. When I already have a huge amount of money and I can just help people because it's, you know, because charity will be cheap for me then, and I can write it off. No. If you're sincere about helping Muslims, you'll do it now.

If you have $2, you'll give one in charity. If you're serious. But they're not. They've become infected in the mind with the love of dunya and chasing the dollar bill and chasing wealth, which is not an Islamic characteristic. Do business.

Make money, sure, provide for your family. But show me, you talk about Uthman. Show me anywhere where Uthman was hustling and was on his grind to make that dinar, to make that dirham. Where was that ever the center of his life? And you can't pretend that your heart is not attached to the money that you are seeking every waking moment of the day.

Money is filling your mind. The the chase for money is filling your mind twenty four hours a day. Now tell me that your heart's not attached to that. Putting money as your primary goal. Yes.

On the one hand, it gives you the energy and the motivation and the ambition and all of those are good qualities. But the other side of it is, you're also willing to degrade yourself. You're also willing to compromise your morality, and that's what's happened to the West. And these reports that they publish in their newspapers and these criticisms about Qatar is just to make themselves feel that they have that that they that they actually do possess those morals, and they don't. Make sure that you do.