The following speech was given by a visiting scholar from the land of Sri Lanka. Here is the summary:

He said that the condition of the world is very bad today. Every countries are facing terrible situations whether the country is rich or poor. Since all conditions are from Allah then is Allah oppressing us? No. Allah doesn't oppress anyone. Allah made oppression haraam on Himself and made it haraam on us. There is a thin white outer coating over the date seed which is so thin that it rips off when you open the date. Allah informed us that He will not do even that amount of oppression to us. Then where are all these problems coming from? They are from ourselves.

This world is a place of means. If we don't eat then we feel hungry and if we don't drink then we feel thirsty. If we hit someone with a iron rod, then he will feel pain. So, there is a system of cause and effect. So, the bad condition that we are facing today is from the effect of what the people are doing all over the world. Because our doings are bad, that's why the condition is bad.

Then the scholar talked about how Allah blesses those who are pious. If there is village where people fear Allah, then Allah will open the blessings of the heavens and earth over them. On the other hand, a village where people disobey Allah, Allah will cause the blessings of heavens and the earth to be closed over them. It may seem that the pious people don't have many things, but due to the barakah (blessings) from Allah, it's sufficient for them. The Shaikh gave an example of goats and dogs. The goats give birth to about 2 babies once a year. Every year millions of goats are slaughtered during Eid ul Adha. Then thousands during Hajj and thousands every day. Still, we don't hear an announcement saying that the goats are becoming extinct or that their population has decreases dramatically. On the other hand, dogs give birth to 2 or more babies every 4 months. So, the dogs give 4 times more birth than the goats. Also, the dogs are not slaughtered. But, we don't see the whole world full of dogs. That is because there is no barakah in dogs. The example of the pious people are that of the goats. Though there is little but it's enough for them. As for those who disobey Allah are like the example of the dog, they can have a lot but there is no barakah.