Why comfort can destroy your purpose

Disbelievers, those who have associated partners unto Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and why it is they have turned away from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's guidance. Why have they turned away from it? Why have they rebelled against the messenger of Allah? Well, one of the reasons for this, is that they have been too comfortable for too long. says that which translates to Rather, it is that we have given them and their forefathers comfort for extended period of time. until their lives became very long and comfortable and plentiful This is one of the leading causes for a person to turn away from the truth. Too much comfort too long. When comfort is no longer used by the human being, as a tool to excel, and it is rather made and used as an ends in itself, then it becomes destructive. What does this mean? When a person is striving to advance, to become better, to excel, They must use comfort as a kind of carrot on a stick that they dangle ahead of themselves. They're striving with the idea of I shall be rewarded with comfort. This is how a person motivates himself. But when a person has too much of the carrot. When a person no longer uses comfort as an incentive and rather comfort in and of itself becomes the ends in themselves. And now become destructive because anytime a person finds comfort, they will leave off discipline, they will leave off hard work, and they will tend towards the comfort. This is destructive. Discipline is based on a number of things and one of these is delaying gratification as psychologist mentioned in their books. It's called Delaying Gratification. What does that mean? That reward of comfort, of pleasure, the longer you are able to delay it, the more you will excel behind it. You use it as a tool to propel you But when comfort in and of itself becomes your goal. Now everything starts to fall apart. Because whenever you are presented comfort you will leave off hard work. for that. For that easy comfort. To cash it in because after all that's your goal. Nothing else. And so, we find this in our modern culture that we have this false notion that we are here to pursue happiness. Why are we here? Oh, to be happy, to pursue happiness. It's even in the constitution. right? The pursuit of happiness. This is not a very good pursuit As a not a very good, meaningful pursuit because if we all only pursue that which made us happy, we would be pretty terrible people. Rather, we are to pursue that which is meaningful And that which is meaningful may make us happy along the way. And it may make us sad along the way. But we pursue that which is meaningful. Not necessarily that which is makes us happy. Happiness. And so, when a person tends towards comfort and pleasure too much, this will disrupt a person's discipline. Person must use comfort and pleasure sparingly. Only as a propelling force, as an incentive to continue to advance, to continue to do and pursue that which is meaningful. This is the purpose of comfort on this Earth. Otherwise, comfort does not usually produce any very very good results for human beings. Actually, it could be said that comfort is a great enemy to human advancement. That the more people become comfortable, the more they are lulled into. and are lulled into self-centeredness and lazi and a lack of discipline and a lack of meaning because a person becomes person reaches this ends of pleasure and they stop advancing. They stop growing. They stop developing. And this is very dangerous for a person. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala continues on. in the next verse. Say to them. It is merely by revelation that I warn you all. Not from myself. Not from my own self, for my own words. It is by revelation that I instruct you and warn you. Yet, those who are deaf, cannot hear the call even when they are warned. This deafness that Allah is speaking about here is a spiritual deafness. Meaning that they are deaf and immune to anything that is of consequence in real in in reality for them. It is if they can't hear it all. They might as well be completely deaf because they cannot hear that which is most important and pertinent from that which they are warned and that which they are told by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and his messenger. He goes on to state subhanahu wa ta'ala that which translates to and indeed if a single blast or blow of the punishment of your Lord were to touch them they would immediately wail. Indeed, woe to us, we were surely astray. We're surely wrong. Meaning, that this pain, as soon as it hits their system, they will immediately they will immediately leave off all of these all of these arguments that they come up with, all of these reasons why they claim that they don't believe and the truth will come out, that they honestly do believe. All of that will be pushed aside and it will be just true objectivity. They will immediately proclaim that they were wrong. Why is that? Pain as a very interesting way of making the human being objective. There is, there are few things in this world that will make a person see things for what they really are like pain. and few things in this world that will make a person more humble and pain As soon as that pain hits the system a lot of that ego and a lot of that arguing and a lot of that bickering and bickering and all of this games that people like to play Evaporates. and a person at that moment will do anything to make the pain stop. And if the pain is to stop by telling the truth even if it is humiliating, the person will do so. Because there is nothing pain. Notice here Allah mentions that pleasure On one hand, is what's causing them to argue and bicker and lie And notice here how pain will cause them to be truthful and honest even at their own expense, the expense of their own egos. and this is how a person naturally is. Yet, a person who has disciplined himself pleasure will not bring out the worst in them and pain will not necessarily bring out the best in them. A person who has disciplined himself to tell the truth no matter what. Person who has disciplined himself to follow the truth no matter where it leads. This person, person of Tuckwa, person of worship of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. Pain will only increase their embracing of the truth and pleasure will not. their pursuit of the truth.

[Arabic recitation]