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I wanted to remind us of a very beautiful imagery that our prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam gave to warn us about two things that destroy our faith and our religion. In a hadith narrated in the Sunnah of Atidmidhi and the Mustad of Imam Ahmad, our prophet said, imagine if two hungry wolves were to be let loose in a flock, flock of sheep or a flock of goats. A wolf, by the way, is an animal that destroys more than it can eat, unlike the lion. And the wolf will cause havoc wherever it goes. Every farmer knows this. That's why they have shepherd dogs to guard against the wolf. Our prophet said, imagine not one, but two wolves were to be let loose on an unprotected flock. Nobody's there to protect. How much damage would that cause? How many sheep would be left alive after that massacre, after that attack? Then our prophet said, that image. Imagine now, a man's eagerness for wealth and a man's desire to be famous are more destructive to his deen than those two wolves to that flock of sheep. Just like those two wolves will wreak havoc in a flock. The prophet said, we all have two wolves inside of us. We all have two animals that if we let them go unchecked, they will destroy our deen. Not a flock of sheep, not our wealth, our deen. What are those two animalistic desires? Number one, Hirs al mall, an eagerness to have more and more wealth. And number two, Hirsaal Jah, to be famous or to be in power or to be in the limelight. Fame and power and money. These are the two things, the desires. If we don't keep them in check, they shall destroy us. Worse than a flock of sheep is destroyed when they are defenseless against a pack of wolves. In this hadith, our prophet paints an imagery that is very vivid. And he asks us to be conscious of these two animalistic tendencies. Now, these tendencies in and of themselves, they are in all of us. The first one, the love of money, Allah says in the Quran, he's describing all of mankind, O mankind, you love money with a burning desire, with an immense desire. The love of money is something that is ingrained in all of us. But when we allow that love to overpower, when we allow that love to go unchecked, it will lead to disaster. How? So many things. Number one, Ibn Rajab comments that if the only crime of greed, if the only penalty of greed was that it made a person busy in this world to the point that he neglected the next world, it would be enough of a crime time. In other words, even if you earned halal and spent on halal, but all you did was earn, earn, earn, earn. Instead of just 15, 20, 30, 40 hours, you want to spend 80, 90. Instead of having enough to live, you want to have more and more and more at the cost of your time. Ibn Rajab said, if the pursuit of wealth, the only crime was that it killed up your time, this would be enough of a crime for the pursuit of wealth. Why? Because wealth is only temporary pleasure. How long can we enjoy wealth? How much can we enjoy the wealth that we have? And when we spend our time in the temporary pleasure, it will come at the expense of the permanent, which is the hereafter. And that is why our Prophet said in that famous hadith, what do you really have of your money, o son of Adam? What do you really have except your food, that when you eat it, you will then go to the restroom and defecate it? Or the clothes that when you wear them, after a while they will wear off? Or the good deeds and the charity that you spend forth, and that is the only thing of your wealth that you will actually have permanently. Think about it. No matter how fancy your palace, no matter how beautiful your sink and your toilet, no matter how great is the food, how long will those pleasures last in contrast to the pleasures of the Akhirah? So the first problem that happens when we have unchecked desire for wealth is we end up spending an inordinate amount of time in obtaining wealth at the expense of spending time in ibadah and in dhikr and in servicing mankind and in accruing the greatest wealth, which is the wealth of the hereafter. Allah says in the Quran, wealth and children, they make life beautiful. But the good deeds that remain forever are more beloved to Allah. The good deeds that remain forever, not your wealth. Another problem that happens when we prioritize wealth is that in the pursuit of wealth, we start justifying any means to obtain that wealth. And we feel that in order to feed our children, in order to build a bigger palace, we are justified in obtaining wealth through illegal, unethical, haram means. And this is without a doubt one of the worst effects of loving this world. When a person becomes blinded that they do not care about rizq halal, about ethical halal earnings. This is without a doubt one of the greatest disasters of loving money. Because haram wealth is one of the most evil things of our religion, haram wealth. Our prophet said, it is the number one cause of our duas, not being Accepted to Allah. If we feed our food, our money is haram and we're eating Haram and we're wearing Haram, how do we expect Allah to answer our duas? Haram wealth. Our Prophet said, hadith is in Ibn Majah, any flesh that is nourished by Haram has no right to go to Jannah. Any flesh that is nourished with haram means your money is haram and you're spending it on Haram and you're eating with Haram. Our Prophet said, any flesh that that is growing from that Haram, Jannah has no right for it. How can Jannah accept you when Allah says that he only accepts the pure? He only accepts that which is good, that which is so. When we become so blind in our love of wealth that we don't mind cheating, stealing, embezzling, lying, defrauding, when we become so blind that we just want to earn and earn and earn and we don't care about inflicting pain on others or being unethical or selling Haram, then we have opened up the door to destruction to ourselves. And that is why the love of haram wealth is something that is one of the main causes of destruction. The second point that is mentioned in this hadith is love of Jah. And Jah means fame and power. Jah means to be in the limelight. Jah means you want to be known and accepted by people. And this is done by obtaining positions of power, by doing things so that the people know you and talk about you. So our Prophet said, one of the two wolves is the desire to be well known, the desire to be in the limelight. The true believer understands that being in the limelight is a huge responsibility. It's not something you aim for directly. The true believer understands that stepping up for positions of authority, stepping up for positions of power is a huge amana. And they are shy, they're hesitant, they have to be coaxed and pushed in. They don't want to jump in and be the ones that are in charge or be the ones in the forefront because they have to answer to Allah. But when a person desires to be famous, when a person desires to have power, to have control, then this will lead to a very major disaster. Typically speaking, and that disaster is your ego becomes more important than the cause you have been entrusting. Started with your ego, your fame, your prestige takes priority over the responsibility that has been handed to you. And we see this time and time again, not just in politicians. We always like to blame politicians and they have word Much to blame. But the fact of the matter, dear Muslims, let us be brutally honest. At some level, we all play politics at some level, in our own corporations, in our own offices, in our own extended families, even in our own Islamic organizations. Shaitaan comes and politics gets involved. And we want to be the ones that everybody's speaking about, everybody praises, everybody puts on a pedestal. And our Prophet said, when that becomes your goal, when the goal is not the khidma, when the goal is not to fulfill the trust, when the goal is not to do a good job, but the goal is your ratings in the public view, the goal is what the people will say. Well then you have opened up another door of distance destruction. And what happens when you prioritize your ego is that you are willing to harm other people in that process. This is what happens with powerful people. This is what happens with cutthroat competitors. This is what happens with kings and politicians. That when they get to that power, when they get to that level, they become intoxicated. Even if we are not kings and politicians, as I said, at every one of us, at some level we have something that we're in charge of. We have some aspect that we have to intermingle with the others. And if our ego becomes the most important thing, then we will be willing to speak bad about others unjustly. We will be willing to take the rights of others unjustly. We will be willing to expose the faults of others or do many other sins. Why? Because we feel by doing that we will have our ego and our prestige and our fame put into the limelight. And we will do so at the expense of others. And this is the door of dhulm. Dear brothers and sisters, in this beautiful hadith our Prophet summarize two animalistic tendencies that live within all of us. To be extremely eager to obtain wealth and to be extremely eager to become famous. And the both of them our Prophet compared to hungry wolves. When a wolf is hungry, he will not even act rationally. He compared them to hungry wolves, beasts of prey. And he compared Iman to beautiful sheep flock. Beautiful animals, peaceful animals. Animals that bring wealth and benefit. And khair, that is your religion. And our Prophet said if you don't keep those two desires in check, they will destroy your deen even worse than how two wolves will destroy a flock of sheep. Dear Muslims, let no one understand from this that the mere desiring of wealth or the desire to do something effective is in and of itself haram or sinful. No, both of these desires, if you channel them and control them. They are permissible. Yes, they're dangerous. But in that there's also good. Our Prophet said to Amr IBN Al as ni'mal Madhu Salihl Rajul is salih. How good is pure wealth for the righteous person? How good is pure wealth for the righteous person? And when our Prophet would choose somebody to be on a delegation to be an ambassador, he would choose the one who was known. The fame was there, the prestige was there. In the treaty of Udaybiyya, our Prophet sent Uthman IBN Affan because he was the most beloved. He had a prestige and he had the pedigree or he had the tribe that would be at his backing. So he chose the person whose prestige and whose fame was known and he utilized them. And the same goes for every other ambassador that he sent. So in and of itself, wealth is not evil. In and of itself, being famous is not evil, but it is what you do with it and it is your prioritization of it. That is where the problem comes. So, dear Muslim, nothing wrong with wanting to be wealthy, but don't make that your overwhelming desire. Don't make that the end goal. Wealth is a means to the greater goal and the greater goal, if that is your goal, you want to live a comfortable life and you want to invest for the Akhirah. And there's nothing wrong with having the goal for money. And if you want to be effective and you want to do something for the sake of Islam and you understand that to do so there must also be a positive reputation. But your Niyya is not your ego. Your Niyya is to benefit the people. Then inshaallahu ta'ala. This too is permissible. So here is where the fine line comes in. And of themselves, wealth and fame are neither haram, nor sinful nor evil. They are neutral. But generally speaking, wealth and fame corrupt more than they guide. So we are being warned, we're being cautioned that if you enter this arena, if you're going to be full time businessman, lots of money coming in, or if you're going to be famous or even if it's at a lower level, be careful. You monitor your intentions and don't make these desires to become like wolves, like animals of prey. If we keep them in check, we can utilize both of these for the sake of the deen. But if we let them go, then they shall destroy us and destroy our religion in the process.