00:03As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu, bismillah wa alhamdulillah wa salatu wa salamu ala rasoolillahi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
00:11Quote number 12 in my book, Better Me, says,
00:15Do not pretend to be someone else.
00:17Be yourself and excel to be the best version of who you truly are.
00:22One of the greatest mistakes that people make is to pretend to be someone else
00:27or to try to imitate other people in life.
00:32Yes, we should have role models to look up to, but to be them is something different.
00:37It's actually the shortest cut that you could use or the shortest cut to failure, in fact.
00:45So look at Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, may Allah be pleased with him, for example,
00:49who was talking about the companions who passed away.
00:52He said,
00:57That whosoever wanted to follow a path or a way, he should follow the path of those who already passed
01:02away.
01:05Because the living are still alive and they could make mistakes, they could mislead the people and so on.
01:11But the people who passed away already, their actions have come to an end.
01:15And then he started mentioning the virtues of the companions of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
01:20Without going further into details of the narration of Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, may Allah be pleased with him,
01:26I wanted to highlight one aspect where he said,
01:29Wakanu wallahi, they, the companions of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, the least superficial.
01:35So one of the criteria of success is to really become yourself.
01:39I was in one of the countries recently and they were telling me that, you know,
01:45in order for you to reach out to this audience, you have to do this, you have to wear this,
01:49you have to talk like this, you have to be like that.
01:51And I told them, subhanAllah, you are now trying to make me someone else that I don't feel comfortable with.
01:57The best way to reach out to people is just to show them who you truly are.
02:02Yourself, be yourself.
02:04And things will be much easier online.
02:06See you tomorrow, inshaAllah.
02:07May Allah bless you all.
02:08As-salamu alaykum.
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