--- *This transcript was automatically generated by AI and may contain errors. * --- As-salātu wa s-salāmu ʿalā sh-sharafī l-anbiyā'ī wa l-mursalīn, Muḥammadun Rasūlu Llāhī ṣallāhu ʿalayhi wa ʿalānihi wa ʿasabu ṣallū tisli'i wa ʿanqasīl. Muḥammadun, if you think about this life, think about it in the context of, say for example, if you are sitting in front of your computer and you move your mouse, two things happen. One is, of course, the movement of the mouse, but two things happen. One is the cursor moves on the screen, right? And then by the way you click something happens. It performs some operation. Well, life is like this, which is that we do something here and it has an immediate effect and then it has an effect in the Akhira, in the Hiram. So you smile at somebody, it has an immediate effect, which is that person feels nice, you feel nice, and it is saddakha, so it goes in your account as a good deed. Just smile at it. Similarly, everything else, if you have some charity, you are kind to someone, you are respectful to the elders, parents, whatever is the good deed. Also vice versa, the opposite, that is sins. Something you do wrong, it causes its effect here, plus it's a debit in the hereafter. So it's very important to keep this perspective in mind and to live our lives and to decide on our actions based on this. Not just go by, I'm doing something, I like it, I don't like it, it's fun, it's not fun. So what is the effect of that in this duniya as well as in the Akhira? That's very important. Because things can be, almost as a rule, not always, but almost as a rule, we have, this is a sad commentary on our society and how we have structured it. Almost everything which is fun, almost, I don't mean it doesn't apply to everything, but almost, is either useless or it's a sin. Either it won't earn you any benefit or it's a sin. So we need to, even fun activities, we need to look at it from the perspective of how can I do something which is fun and which I enjoy, plus it's giving me some benefit. Because the time you have is the same. If I spend one hour here or I spend that one hour watching something on television, one hour is one hour. Same 60 minutes. And it goes from my life, it's not going from somebody else's life. I can't say let me spend one hour out of your Isha's life. No, it's my life. It's my life. So how do I want this, how do I want to spend this? Because the most important thing, nobody asked me what's the critical difference or distinguishing feature of Islam. Now I said the critical distinguishing feature of Islam is that we are accountable to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. For everything that we say or do, we are accountable to Allah. No matter what it is, no matter who the person is. I am accountable, you are accountable, everybody is accountable. So therefore obviously it makes sense that if I am then doing something, I will do it with that perspective. I have to give account for this. Is it something I want to do? Is it something that I want to do or I should not do? And with that in perspective, believe me, there is absolutely fantastic, you can have a beautiful life, have great fun, enjoy yourself. But as long as you keep that focus, if you lose the focus, then we go off somewhere else. Right? Now in the question, in the context of using it, when we say akhirah, also think in terms of what is the effect of my actions today in my life itself here. Like I was asking, why are you guys coming for the seminar? I was thinking here is a free seminar that is happening in UMass. Right? No limit. That kind of a seminar for that duration, two hours, usually if I was doing that commercially, you would be paying $1,500 per person. Right? Go look up AMI International catalog, see what seminars cost. The dollar value of that is $1,500 per person. You're getting it for free. Benefit is the same. You know, somebody getting $1,500 is not getting anything more, he's getting the same thing which I'm teaching.
