Assalamu’alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh
Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Rahim
1. Introduction
Let us pause for a moment to rest our souls from the weariness of the world, and delve into the depths of our hearts. Psychologically and spiritually, the greatest barrier preventing a person from progressing is not the long distance to travel, lack of money, or the difficulty of the textbooks. The true enemy resides within our own chest: a weak intention and fragile motivation. When our intention in seeking knowledge is not firmly rooted toward the heavens, our soul easily falls prey to laziness, boredom, and procrastination.
In the Qur’an, Allah Subḥānahu wa Ta‘ālā praises those who have firm resolve and earnestness in striving toward goodness:
وَالَّذِينَ جَاهَدُوا فِينَا لَنَهْدِيَنَّهُمْ سُبُلَنَا ۚ وَإِنَّ اللَّهَ لَمَعَ الْمُحْسِنِينَ
“And those who strive for Us—We will surely guide them to Our ways. And indeed, Allah is with the doers of good.” (QS. Al-‘Ankabūt: 69)
Intention is the engine that drives us. If the engine dies, the journey stops. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ laid this foundation from the very beginning so that we would have a source of motivation that never fades:
إِنَّمَا الْأَعْمَالُ بِالنِّيَّاتِ وَإِنَّمَا لِكُلِّ امْرِئٍ مَا نَوَى
“Indeed, actions are only by intentions, and every person will have only what they intended.( HR- Al- Bukhari and Muslim )
2. Lessons and Message
Friends, let us reflect on a logical analogy. Seeking knowledge without a strong intention and motivation is like pushing a stalled car up a steep hill. As long as there are people helping push from the outside—perhaps out of obligation, out of deference to the teacher, or just because they’re following friends—the car will move uphill bit by bit. But once that external push is gone, or when the road gets steeper and more exhausting, the car will inevitably roll back down. A strong intention is the car’s internal engine. When the engine within you is running, no matter how steep the road, the car will keep climbing to the peak without needing to depend on others’ pushing.
Sometimes we’re creative at collecting good intentions, but our motivation only lasts as long as a corn stalk. How many of us see a good book, buy it immediately, and make a firm resolve in our hearts: “Starting tonight, I’ll read two chapters before bed!” But the reality? After two pages, the book isn’t finished, but our eyes have already “completed” it—we’re fast asleep. The book ends up serving as an emergency pillow, extremely effective for curing insomnia. Or at the start of a semester, we’re fired up to take neat notes for every lesson. But by week three, the notes have turned into abstract scribbles that look like secret codes. This shows our motivation was only a fleeting emotion, not yet a solid spiritual commitment.
Let us bow our heads and reflect on a truly heart-wrenching true story about the meaning of earnestness. In the past, there was a great scholar who lived in extreme poverty. In his youth, he had no money to buy candles or lamp oil to read at night. Yet his yearning for knowledge burned fiercely in his soul. Every night, after the entire city had fallen asleep, this young man would make his way, stumbling, to the public street. He would sit beneath the dim light of the city’s streetlamp, its glow swaying in the night wind. One night, the air was bitterly cold and a light drizzle began to fall. His thin body shivered violently, the hand holding the paper trembled, and tears streamed down his cheeks, mixing with the raindrops. Overwhelming sleepiness and exhaustion struck his body, whispering for him to give up and go home to sleep comfortably in a warm bed.
Crying as he endured the cold, the young man struck his own chest and said to his soul, “O weak soul… will you be defeated by this cold? Will you trade the inheritance of the Messenger of Allah for just a few hours of sound sleep? By Allah, if this body must be destroyed, let it be destroyed over the pages of knowledge!”
He persevered until dawn broke. That young man who wept under the streetlamp later grew to become one of the greatest scholars, whose books are read by millions of people to this day. His steel-like intention defeated every physical and environmental limitation.
3. Conclusion & Closing
Brothers and sisters, the highest moral lesson for us today is this: The greatest enemy blocking you from attaining the light of knowledge is not your ignorance, but your indifference and weak intention within your own heart. Never blame external circumstances. If today we are lazy to study, lazy to recite the Qur’an, or lazy to attend a study circle, it’s not because we don’t have time—it’s because we haven’t placed seeking Allah’s pleasure as the main goal in our intention. Let us renew our intention every morning. Say to yourself: “I study today to remove my own ignorance and to attain Your pleasure, O Allah.” May Allah Subḥānahu wa Ta‘ālā strengthen the resolve in our chests, drive away laziness from our souls, and grant us steadfastness in seeking knowledge.
والله أعلم بالصواب
الحمد لله رب العالمين
Wassalamu’alaikum Warahmaullahi Wabarakatuh.
ِAbu Sultan Al-Qadrie
