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The Master’s Plan, Not the Master Plan | Dr. Omar Suleiman
What happens when your dreams don’t come true? You find contentment, because your dreams are not greater than Allah’s decree. Tune in to Dr. Omar Suleiman deliver a powerful message about manifesting your story while trusting in Allah’s plan.
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
00:00The Master Plan How many of you have ever had the situation where you were in a Google Doc and you were working on something and someone else was simultaneously working on that doc?
00:14No, I'm serious, serious question. Not many of you. You don't use Google. I understand. If you found yourself in a situation where you were working on something
00:28and someone else was working simultaneously on it, it can be one of the most frustrating experiences in regards to your own output that you will ever encounter.
00:42I want you to imagine that you're typing up something and then someone comes in there and just deletes a chunk of your work, or someone takes it in a direction that you never anticipated.
00:54I actually use this example to start off this talk for a very specific reason. A lot of times when I'm handed the title for a session at any conference, it's,
01:04What do you dream of being? What do you want to become? How do you see this all playing out for yourself? It's always the same words of empowerment, leadership, and they all kind of circle around
01:16one another. But what I want you to actually appreciate as we talk about the subject of what you dream of being is that there are two parallel tracks that are side by side.
01:32You are the author of your deeds. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the author of your decree. Therefore, you have your dreams, but your dreams will ultimately every single time be overtaken by
01:46His decree. And so while you're authoring your own story, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala may have an entirely different story written for you, but you're still told that you have to write.
01:59So the Google Doc is there, you're writing what you can, and then a chunk gets deleted and it goes this way, a chunk gets deleted and it goes this way. And to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala belongs
02:11the highest example. But if I was to ask you about Yusuf (عليه السلام), we all know the story of Yusuf (عليه السلام), and we all know where Yusuf (عليه السلام) ended up. He ended up on the
02:25throne. He ended up not just as a noble prophet, but as an example of forgiveness, as an example
02:33of grace, as an example of perseverance, immortalized in the Quran as this prophet from Bani Israel that is not immortalized because of his da'wah, but is immortalized because of his
02:48example in the face of his own tribulation. And da'wah of course emanated from that. I want you to imagine if you were having a conversation with Yusuf (عليه السلام)
02:59before Yusuf (عليه السلام) was thrown into the well. And the Prophet (ﷺ)
03:06said, there is no lineage more noble than the lineage of Yusuf (عليه السلام). A prophet,
03:14the son of a prophet, the son of a prophet, the son of a prophet. He is Yusuf ibn Ya'qub ibn Ishaq ibn Ibrahim. When you talk about someone that's destined for greatness,
03:27Joseph the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham. Talk about a legendary lineage. Talk about destined for greatness. Talk about having it all quote unquote handed to you as far
03:42as the spiritual hall of fame is concerned. You are the example of all of those examples that
03:52came before you. It culminates in you. Think about the pressure on Yusuf (عليه السلام) and imagine what you would have thought his trajectory would have been if you met him
04:03before he was thrown into the well. Like you all are familiar with LeBron and Bronny, right? As far as basketball analogies are concerned. The pressure on being the son of
04:16LeBron James and having to try to live up to that and you're never going to be great enough nor will you be bad enough. You're always kind of stuck in between or you're the brother of
04:29Steph Curry. You're Seth Curry. I feel bad for the guy. You are always in the shadow of someone greater than you. You either take what has been gained and become greater
04:43or you disappear into that shadow and you're always going to be deemed insufficient because you haven't lived up to the example of the one that came before you.
04:53When you look at Yusuf (عليه السلام), Yusuf (عليه السلام) is not a disappointment. In fact, out of all of the children of Ya'qub (عليه السلام), Yusuf (عليه السلام) is the one who clearly
05:08is destined for greatness. He's clearly the chosen child. He's clearly the one that's going to carry the torch and that's going to gather all of what has come before him.
05:20And when Zakariya (عليه السلام) made du'a for a child, he said,
05:26"Let my son inherit me and inherit from the family of Ya'qub and make him to You, O my Lord,
05:39pleasing." The idea was that if You give me a son, O Allah, You give me a child, I don't just want him to have my greatness or what I have attained. I actually want him to be
05:52able to gather a greater spectrum of knowledge and piety, the legacy of the prophets that came before me as well. I want him to have the wisdom of Bani Israel. I want him to have knowledge of
06:05all of that which came before. When they say the parent wishes that their child would surpass them, and this is not true of any other human relationship, at least at the natural level,
06:16there are exceptions to that rule, but the parents are different. This is culminated in the du'a of Zakariya for his son Yahya that I want him not just to gain what I have, but to gain what all of
06:28the prophets of Bani Israel have had. And Yahya (عليه السلام) did not disappoint. He had the knowledge of the Torah. He was the scholar of all scholars as far as the prophets were concerned
06:41in terms of the prophets of Bani Israel. So he used Ya'qub as a starting point. What then when Ya'qub looks at a son of his, or when he looks at the son of his, his eye gleams with such love and
06:55such promise that the brothers of Yusuf (عليه السلام) look at him with envy, not because of the unfair treatment of Ya'qub, but just because the distinction of greatness was so obvious.
07:10Imagine if Yusuf (عليه السلام) was having an interview as a young man before he was taken into this trial of his. What do you want to become? How do you see your life playing out?
07:24Not only by the way are you the son of a prophet, the son of a prophet, the son of a prophet, the father of prophets Ibrahim (عليه السلام), you also are the most beautiful human being we've ever seen.
07:38Half of the beauty has been put in Yusuf (عليه السلام). Like imagine what it was like to see him, this kid, and to think about what his life was going to be. And Yusuf had a dream.
07:52The way that Yusuf (عليه السلام) saw that dream playing out perhaps was different, or certainly different to how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala was going to plan it out for him.
08:05But at the end of the day, if Yusuf was to share that dream with you and you don't know what's going to become of the story of Yusuf (عليه السلام), that I saw the sun, the moon, the stars
08:18prostrating to me, you would have said it sounds about right. This is the dream of Yusuf (عليه السلام). This is the work of Yusuf (عليه السلام). This is the natural bestowal of greatness upon
08:31Yusuf (عليه السلام). The trajectory seems to match the dream. But look what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
08:38decreed for him. Suddenly he finds himself in a well. Suddenly he finds himself as a slave.
08:48Suddenly he finds himself as a slandered slave. Suddenly he finds himself as a prisoner, slandered slave. And then all of that switches and he becomes a minister.
09:02And not only does he rise towards the greatness that was charted out for him as a natural trajectory, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave him things that he never would have dreamt about,
09:13but after trials that he would have never anticipated. Allah gave him so much more. Imagine if Yusuf (عليه السلام) did not go through all of that. What would his story have been like?
09:26What would his story have been like in the Quran? How fewer would the pages have been?
09:34Would he have been mentioned simply as Ya'qub is mentioned? Ishaq, who undoubtedly is a great prophet, an answer to a prayer. But do you have the story of Ishaq (عليه السلام) in the Quran?
09:48Would Yusuf (عليه السلام) have been just that? Which is still a lot? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala had in store for him to be so much more. His story expanded
10:02as a direct result of his trials expanding and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala does not test without purpose. Therefore, when you recognize that everything that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
10:16is putting in front of me, every single obstacle that I am encountering is part of the reason of my greatness, then you're able to bear the trials with grace.
10:31That all of this has the potential to take me from being a few ayat in the metaphorical sense
10:40to being an entire chapter. Then you'll bear the trials with grace. You'll bear the things
10:47that come your way with grace. It started off with a dream but it didn't just go from Yusuf having this dream to the sudden celebration, the sudden manifestation of that dream. Allah
11:01subhanahu wa ta'ala put Yusuf (عليه السلام) through a nightmare before he actually arrived at that dream. Then the dream made sense. Then the nightmare was put in perspective.
11:13Then it all came together. Likewise, our Messenger (ﷺ). Imagine what it was like to be him at the age of 39 years old and for six months the Prophet
11:25(ﷺ) sees dreams about what tomorrow is going to be. He sees exactly what's going to play out the next day (ﷺ). He can capture it (عليه الصلاة والسلام).
11:37Like think about that. Imagine seeing a conversation in a dream and then waking up the next morning and that conversation happens in front of you in the exact same setting. Imagine seeing a dream that someone died and then waking up in the morning to the announcement of that person's death.
11:53This was happening to the Prophet (ﷺ) for six months. That is what partly drove him to the cave in Hira to try to make sense of
12:04whatever was communicating with him and he believed in Allah, he believed in God. However, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala was communicating with him what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala destined him for.
12:16He went to Hira, (ﷺ), and the story was being built up for him. The dreams were there highlighting clear prophecy. The character and the reputation were intact.
12:31The positioning was perfect. Khadijah (رضي الله تعالى عنها) is his wife. He is a Hashimi (ﷺ) of the most noble lineage. It all seems to be coming perfectly together.
12:46But two decades of a nightmare. Not all of it but some of it. Ta'if,
12:56the persecution of the family of Yasir, the loss of his uncle Abu Talib, the humiliation at the hands of those that were supposed to be closest to him. Hijrah, forced migration, exile,
13:11there's a lot that had to happen for him to reach what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala had destined him for (ﷺ). But it started off with true dreams that manifested in something so much
13:24more expansive. See I gave you the example of Yusuf (عليه السلام). Had Yusuf not gone through that trial he might have been a few ayat in the Quran but now he's a chapter. Had the Prophet (ﷺ)
13:37stood up on Safa after seeing those dreams and being affirmed by Khadijah (رضي الله تعالى عنها) and being affirmed by Jibril (عليه السلام). Had he stood up on Safa and they said to him
13:55we believe in you, we are pleased with you. Then the story of the Prophet (ﷺ), the seerah of the Prophet (ﷺ) would have been shorter and the gems would have been less
14:07and the position would not have been to the extent that it is now as Allah always decreed ashraf al-khalq (ﷺ), the most honorable of Allah's creation
14:21(ﷺ). So the point that I start off with before I talk about you crafting your own dreams is that there are two simultaneous stories being written. The one that you think
14:33you're writing and the one that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has written for you and there are deletions and directions that are going to happen in the authoring of that story that you can't anticipate
14:46but you're still commanded to write. What you're not allowed to do is to sit back and wait for that document to fill itself. What you're not allowed to do is to fill your scrolls with evil
14:59and hope for some miraculous grace to come and to redirect you towards good. It might happen, but if you intend to sin waiting for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to suddenly guide you aright,
15:12then you're no different than those who said, if Allah wanted us to be righteous, we would have been righteous. If Allah wanted to guide us, we would have been guided. Abdicating your own responsibility,
15:24abdicating your own sense of accountability, abdicating your own God-given authorship in the name of belief doesn't make sense.
15:36This is not the way that we approach our Lord. This is not the way that we approach the ultimate author of our story subhanahu wa ta'ala. So where do we start? Where am I right now?
15:50Am I three pages in? Am I 30 pages in? When does the conclusion actually come in? Because almost everyone in here knows someone that was your age
16:03that died an untimely death, that suddenly was diagnosed with something, or suddenly was in a car accident. And as we're talking about the world, watching Gaza,
16:16and watching people of all ages and circumstances, each and every single one of us can see ourselves in some of the people of Gaza right now. Someone that's your age,
16:28someone that had similar ambitions to you, someone that had similar interests to you, and had everything taken away from them,
16:39except for their faith and their dignity. Every single one of us can see someone right now. So where's the conclusion of that document? When does it take a turn?
16:52So here's what I want you to walk away with, bismillah ta'ala. Imam al-Hasan al-Basri (رحمه الله تعالى), he mentioned that when young people seek knowledge,
17:06it's like engraving into a stone. That the difference between someone seeking knowledge in their youth, and someone seeking knowledge later on in life, is like engraving into a stone, versus writing onto a paper.
17:21As you start to form yourself, and author your story, and decide what your intervention in this world is going to be.
17:32What you are actually consuming right now is building the default of who you are. Whether Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will give you 20 years on earth, or Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will give you 60 years on earth.
17:44You are engraving into the stone right now, and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, who is the provider of all provisions, who is the reason for all reasons,
17:57who is the means for all means, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala could certainly, as a result of your sincere repentance, erase what is engraved in the stone of evil, and fill it with something good.
18:09But you don't know if you're going to live to see that happen. So what are you engraving into the stone right now? What are you putting deep into yourself? Here's what I want you to think about, and I want you to think about deeply.
18:23Mahmoud Khalil, right now, who's in a prison in Jena, Louisiana, student protester,
18:34chose to go out there and protest for Palestine, recognizing his own vulnerability in the situation, that he is not an American citizen,
18:48and that by doing so, he's exposing himself to a certain type of harm. I doubt that he thought what would happen to him is this.
19:01I seriously doubt it. But I can guarantee you that he was preparing himself for even far worse outcomes in the process
19:14than the one that actually happened to him. When you think about the juxtaposition that you see right now on our college campuses,
19:26it's actually an indication of a broader trend in society. When most people are confronted with Gaza right now, as far as the American public is concerned, they actually don't care that much.
19:40The overwhelming sentiment that cannot be captured in a statistic is actually indifference. Like, yeah, that's probably terrible, and I hope they figure it out, but it has nothing to do with me.
19:52So I'm going to live my life and pursue my career and pursue my goals. And yeah, it's terrible, and I hate seeing children die, but at the end of the day,
20:03that's not enough to activate meaningful sacrifice in my life or alter my own trajectory because of something terrible that's happening thousands of miles away. There is actually a similarity here
20:17to how a lot of young Muslims approach Islam, approach the cause of Palestine, approach all of that which has been given to us of divine importance. Yeah, Islam's important to me.
20:30It's important for me to have some sort of a loose connection to the Muslim community. I feel bad about what's happening right now in the world, but at the end of the day,
20:42it doesn't really affect my day-to-day that much. And so I can proceed. I can share a few things online. I can say a few things here and there.
20:55But overall, I can proceed with a level of indifference because it's not immediately consequential to my life. That actually indicates a broader attitude
21:09that you can choose to make yourself uncomfortable for something great or you can choose to wait for something to confront you that is of greatness that might catch you without a foundation
21:23and might take your trajectory to a place that you actually don't want to go. When you think about these young students, may Allah bless them, that have taken a stand for Palestine
21:37and that are paying a price today. They made a choice, and I'm only using that as one example. And they understood and they understand
21:49that things might take a turn for them that they weren't necessarily preparing for. I use for you the example of Ibtihal Abu Sa'ad. May Allah bless her.
22:03The young Moroccan sister that came from Morocco. Can you imagine her parents sending her from Morocco, coming to the United States of America, going to Harvard University, getting hired at Microsoft,
22:17wearing hijab. Like you must be thinking the trajectory of Ibtihal is great. How much da'wah are you going to do? How many colleagues are going to see this young, bright, brilliant Muslim woman engineer?
22:31Mashallah, you're going to have a co-worker that might embrace Islam. You're going to have a co-worker that's going to say, I met this young woman of integrity. If she just stayed quiet and did her thing, she still would have a great trajectory.
22:45But she chose to do something greater. Despite that entire build-up, she goes out there, and she takes a risk. Alhamdulillah Rabbil 'Alamin.
22:58She stands right in the face of the oppressor who happens to be her employer. Knowing that she's going to be pushed out of that gathering,
23:10and that this is going to mean that everything that she has built for the last few years, that her family invested in her for, is potentially going to be thrown into the garbage.
23:23But she did it. And she became a global icon. And you know what? Alhamdulillah Rabbil 'Alamin. Look at where she is today. Ibtihal lost her job,
23:36lost her job at Microsoft. But Alhamdulillah Rabbil 'Alamin, in the process, inspired millions of people around the world. And a side note, today she works at Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research.
23:50Alhamdulillah Rabbil 'Alamin. So I'm proud of her as well. And I hope inshallah ta'ala that as her story has expanded, it expands to something more beautiful.
24:04But what I want you to think about, is that I believe she's only 23 years old. I don't know, and forgive me if I got that wrong. But I want you to think about where you are right now.
24:18If I am sincere for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, then maybe there is a major rupture that's going to come into my story. Maybe that decree is going to hit me with something I wasn't prepared for.
24:32Maybe it will be devastation. Sudden death of a family member. A car accident. Some sort of a disease that I wasn't prepared for. Something terrible happening out of nowhere. Maybe that's the rupture.
24:45Or maybe the rupture is the consequence of something that I chose to do for His sake. That suddenly sends my story completely out of whack. But you know what?
24:59So long as you are sincere for the sake of Allah, so long as you are engaging for the sake of Allah, so long as you are resisting for the sake of Allah,
25:11so long as you are pushing for the sake of Allah, then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will not let you fall in a place in your story that is to your detriment. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala instead will destine you for greatness
25:24perhaps that you could not even capture with your imagination before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala brought you to that moment. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala may have something else in sight for you.
25:37That's so much more. But you've got to broaden your heart. And so something really practical here, dear brothers and sisters. You could start thinking about your trajectory later on and crafting out your dream.
25:51Sometimes Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will take someone who is on a wrong trajectory and suddenly right their trajectory. Write it and make it right.
26:04But most of the time, when you aim to do things for the sake of Allah, even if you don't end up in the exact position or with the exact domain that you thought you would end up at,
26:17it's never random. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will still place you within that same genre of good work. And so you might think that, you know what, I'm going to aim to do this and I'm going to aim to be this
26:30for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Something happens that doesn't allow that. But Allah 'azza wa jalla will still reward you with something better and your story will only expand, it will not diminish.
26:43But just like with the choices that we make every moment with a good deed or a sin, do I choose to take this temporary moment of pleasure that is followed by a lifetime of regret?
26:56Or do I choose to engage this temporary moment of struggle that is followed by a lifetime of reward? And bi-idhnillahi ta'ala, greater than that, an afterlife of reward.
27:10May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala place us upon the trajectories that are most pleasing to Him. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala expand our stories by putting barakah in our efforts. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us amongst those
27:24that work and worship in accordance with that which He has sent. And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to be joined with our beloved Prophet (ﷺ) and all of the great young people, the Sahabah,
27:38that were around our Messenger (ﷺ) in the highest level of Firdaws al-A'la. Allahumma ameen. Jazakum Allahu khayran. Wassalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.





































































































































































































































































































