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My brothers and sisters, we would be excited if someone were to tell us that

I have a good deal for you whereby if you do such a simple thing

you will make so many thousand dollars and perhaps we can repeat this on a monthly basis or a weekly basis.

You and I would both be happy, wouldn't we?

Because we know that sustenance is absolutely important for our survival on Earth

and everyone is looking for halal sustenance.

Everyone needs some form of income. May Allah give us blessings in our income and may He make it easy for us.

But that excitement if you look at it is only worth it if that money that we are going to earn comes with the blessing of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.

If the money you have is part and parcel of the mercy of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, it is worth it.

But sometimes Allah gives people wealth in order to test them and knowing that they may fail that test depending on their relationship with Him

and their relationship with the rest of the creatures that He has created.

If He knows that their relationship with Him is distant and He knows that they abuse and despise and belittle other people

He may give them wealth as the entry point into His ultimate punishment.

And this is mentioned in the Quran where Allah says when they forgot us, they forgot what they were reminded about in terms of their relationship with Allah.

Allah says we opened all the doors for them, the doors of what? worldly successes. We opened all the doors as what? As an entry point into the punishment of Allah.

So they are confused. So Allah says when we opened the doors of all these worldly things,

worldly little successes in inverted commas for them, then they forgot us when they became happy and arrogant and proud in the wrong sense with what they were given.

Allah says we suddenly took them with our punishment. And they were confused. For either who mubli suud, why confused? Confused because they thought,

MashaAllah is giving us, this is a sign of Allah's mercy, He loves us, He cares for us. He really, you know, He will never punish us and so on.

And Allah says suddenly when the punishment came and everything disappeared, they are confused because on one hand they had worldly stuff.

The other hand they are being punished. Allah Almighty says when we give you, it is not necessarily a sign that we are happy with you. And when we have taken away from you, it is not necessarily a sign that we are angry with you or upset.

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