Goals of learning – #3

Fajr Reminders - Mahmood Habib Masjid and Islamic Center

---*This transcript was automatically generated by AI and may contain errors. *--- In the name of Allah, the most Gracious, the most Merciful. All praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. And peace and blessings be upon the honorable prophets and the righteous. Muhammad Rasulullah, peace be upon him, peace be upon him, and upon his family and his family. Brothers and sisters, we are looking at action points. We are looking at what is it that we do and what is the value of that. I mentioned to you the importance of starting with the Quran, with memorizing the Quran, with understanding the meaning of the Quran and then going further into the details of the tafsir of the Quran, with the intention of applying it and living by it. Next step was to read and study the life of Rasulullah, peace be upon him, and also with the same intention, which is how can I apply that in my life. Third one is look at what skills do you have? What can you do? It doesn't matter what the skill is. As long as you are learning a skill and you are doing this continuously throughout your life. Believe me, the neurons in the brain, which is what gives us intelligence, the growth of which and the development of which and the preservation of which keeps you and me away from alzheimer's. These are dependent on the exercise for the neurons is in learning new things. And believe it or not, the more difficult the thing is to learn, the more the neurons are exercised. It is painful like all exercise, but it exercises the neurons and builds them. One of the most difficult things to do is to learn the Arabic language. But that's also one of the most beneficial things to do, both in terms of what it does for the neurons, as well as, and even more importantly, the fact that you are learning the language of the Quran and the language of Rasulullah. So therefore, that is one thing. So put a metric on it and say what skill, what language, what is it that I am learning? Number one. Number two, what was your investment in it? What are you investigating? Time, money, energy, whatever. What is my investment in it? And to motivate yourself, ask yourself what is the potential gain of this? When I'm learning this, what is the gain of this? I'm learning carpentry. What is the benefit of learning carpentry? I'm learning to be an electrician. What's the benefit of that? And so on. As I told you, the skill doesn't matter. No matter what the skill, learning any skill is beneficial. And the more difficult the skill is, the more the benefit of learning that skill. So make sure that you are learning some skill or the other the whole time, as much as possible. Some skill or the other the whole time. Very, very important for us to do that. And put a metric, as I keep saying all the time, unless we are measuring, we don't know what is happening. We don't know what is happening. Unless we measure, we don't know. So make sure that you measure that. Third thing is, or third thing or fourth thing, I forgot which number, but anyway, evaluate the value of whatever you are spending time on. Say, what did I get out of this that will benefit me? So some ways of thinking about that, what did I get out of this that I can sell? Or what is it? What did I get out of this? Which gives me a skill or knowledge that is marketable. In which way does it benefit me? Now, that is a very important thing to keep in mind, because all of these are ways in which you motivate yourself and say, Well, you know, I am getting something out of this. Now, the answer is, I didn't get anything like that, but I enjoyed myself. That did yourself that you just gave up that much of your life to someone else to get rich. If you did that deliberately because you love that person, no problem. But if not, forgive me for saying that you are a sucker. Forgive me for saying that you are a sucker. So all those who sit around and watch soccer matches, basketball matches, I wonder if you are not a professional soccer or basketba...