 بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم الحمد لله وكفا وسلامنا على عباده الذين أصبحته أما بعد فعوذ بالله الشيطان الرجيم بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم والذين جاهدوا فينا لنهدي أنهم صبولنا سبحان ربك رب العزة عما يسيحون بعمل على المرسلين و الحمد لله بالحمين اللهم صلي على سيدنا محمد و على آل سيدنا محمد و بارك وسلم اللهم صلي على سيدنا محمد و على آل سيدنا محمد وبارك وسلم اللهم صلي على سيدنا محمد و على آل سيدنا محمد بارك وسلم الله سبحانه وتعالى يربيل النقرآن ي jaladina آمنوا يhofladina آمنوا التق고 الله حقض دقاته ولا تموتنا إلا وإنتوا المسلمون اللهم أسمى إنده then أنها تقوى كما تعتقدون أن يوهل الذين أامنوا تقوى الله تقوى فرحة الله تقوى الله سبحانه وتعالى تقوى is a little difficult to translate but the idea is to be conscious of Allah سبحانه وتعالى conscious of the potential for punishment and hope for mercy from Allah سبحانه وتعالى have تقوى of Him تقوى الله حق تقاده as it is His right that we have تقوى of Him that's Allah سبحانه وتعالى is right وَلَا تَمُوتُنَّا إِلَّا وَأَنْتُمُسْلِمُونَ don't die except as Muslims don't die except as Muslims and it's kind of a strange it's kind of a strange thing to say in a sense because none of us know when we're going to die right like that's not something that's in our knowledge when we're going to die but Allah سبحانه وتعالى is giving us an order related to that moment of death that we have to be Muslims and so what do you think we can do I mean the only thing I can think of you guys tell me the only thing I can think of is just to make sure that you're always in a state of Islam that you're Muslim and that you're always doing everything you can to be in submission to Allah سبحانه وتعالى today is a special day for our community if you haven't heard yet there was a tragedy in this community there was a young sister one week ago today just like right now we're having the men's halakha the youth group is going on there's the girls' youth group the boys' youth group all that's going on the exact same thing was happening last week except there's one difference this week is that one of the girls from the youth group she's not here now she was here last week she was laughing she was playing nobody thought anything was wrong and then she passed away I think the next morning I believe and today was the burial today was the burial in Livermore and the sister's name is Najaya Al-Khalifa from the Khalifa family her father brother Abdul Haq he's a member of this community her mother as well a member of this community it's a tragedy for our community this happened so I want to number one let everybody know that that happened we should do a dua for the girl may Allah سبحانه وتعالى grant her مغفرة and Rahma make her grave a garden from the gardens of Jannah may Allah سبحانه وتعالى make it peaceful peaceful abode for her till the day of judgment may Allah سبحانه وتعالى grant صبر to the family may Allah سبحانه وتعالى make it easy for them and I want to just share a few reflections and then just open it up for a discussion a lot of things happened today my daughter she so sister Najaya she was in the same youth group as my daughter and so my daughter obviously was very affected by this and so and my wife actually teaches and for the for the girls youth group and so sister Najaya رحمة الله she was in my wife's class as well I think last year so it affected our family a lot obviously so a lot of you know a lot of emotions and then أحمد الله سبحانه وتعالى I gave it to Stofi to take you know take me a lot of me to take time off of work and then attend her burial in Livermore and so in that process many things happened it brought back a lot of memories for me because we also had a baby that passed away and then the whole time I was at the cemetery I kept remembering that kept reminding me of that you know having to bury my own child and I'll share a little bit about what happened there and so it was very intense and then at the end of it I had a chance to see a brother of Lohaq and say Slav and you know offer some Dhu'a and he said some very deep things as well my child very strong brother my wife had the chance to see his wife my mother and she said masha'a you know they're very strong family may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protect them and keep them strong insha'Allah and so I'll share some of those details if that's alright with you guys that's all like I had in mind really for today is that cool with everyone or okay so you know the first thing I wrote it down a few notes so like I said you know we heard about it it was a massive shock to us but you know when I was at the at the cemetery today I started reminding me I was actually talking to another brother from our community here we were both there just waiting for the burial we were chatting about it and it reminded me of one of the حديث of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and my understanding is that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم drew a line so you can imagine a line in the sand it's like a straight line and he indicated that these are the aspirations of people right everybody has aspirations in their life I'm going to do this I'm going to do that I'm going to start a business I'm going to own this kind of car I'm going to travel here I'm going to travel there all kinds of things people have aspirations in their life right that's normal that happens so the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم drew that line and then he drew another line cutting through that line and indicated this is death death it comes people have all these plans and aspirations for their life but then when he ever he decides it's time for a person to go that's it it's over then doesn't matter what your aspirations were that doesn't stop anybody from their death and that's just reality and so when we're in these kind of situations it should be a reminder to all of us what life actually really is about it's okay have all the aspirations we should do that actually that's normal thing to do we should all do that and that's just part of being a human being that's part of how you live your life but always we should keep in the back of our mind that the real point of this life is actually الله سبحانه وتعالى and our passage our means our road into the afterlife is death that's the only way to get there you can't get around that الموت تحفظ المؤمن it's in the حديث of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم الموت تحفظ المؤمن death is a gift for the believer death is a gift for the believer and that reminds me of what brother عبدالحق said to me at the cemetery after he buried his daughter in front of me you know we were at the cemetery have you been to the livermore cemetery right it's a beautiful landscape especially today there's clouds and the way the light was shining and it's green grass it's a really gorgeous area and you know we're there but here we are dealing with something very painful in fact there were two burials actually we did the first one and then the second one was a sister in jihad رحمة الله so we buried her and then afterwards we were saying and I was for the to the father عبدالحق and I was myself was getting personally very emotional because like I said it kept reminding me of my baby that passed away that was a long time ago that was about 13 years ago 13 14 years ago and but he was very strong he was very very strong رحمة الله and went to say سلام to him and and a couple of my buddies were there too they're both from this community as well their daughters also were in sister in jihad's youth group as well so the three so the one two three four of them were together I'm sure there's other girls too but the three so my daughter and then the two other daughters were there and then their dads were with me when we were all saying سلام to him and so we told him you know our daughters were with your daughter in the youth group and and and and so and and he said the statement that just it really hit me hard and he said of my five kids she's the one I don't have to worry about and he pointed to his daughter's grave of my five kids she's the one I don't have to worry about why because she died at a young age she died as a Muslim right? and حق تقاته و لا تموتنا إلا و أنت مسلمون she died as a believer she achieved the goal it's such a young age so on the one hand it's tragic it's so painful on the other hand it's a relief that's what her dad is telling literally told us she's the one I don't have to worry about because he knows how she died it's the other kids that you have to worry about what's going to happen to them bad influence, good influence all those things we have to figure out obviously we should be thankful that's another lesson when you have that kind of a tragedy that kind of test to you one of the lessons is that you appreciate what you do have that's what happened to me then my other two kids I was like that's a blessing of Allah but at the same time at the same time we should appreciate when your child passes away that child becomes a means for you to get to جنة إن شاء الله and that's a hadith of the prophet as well that your child if somebody's child dies and my understanding is that child dies still as a child and then on the day of judgment that child then holds on to the parent and says ya Allah so now I'm not letting them go they come with me to جنة إن شاء الله so it's a lot of lessons for us like I said he was very strong after the burial another brother from the community he said a few words and they were very touching very powerful I didn't know this story so I thought I would share that as well just immediately after after the burial he said that actually he first recited this surah إذا جاء النصر الله و الفتح و رأيت الناس يدخلون في جن الله أفواجه فسبح بحمد ربك و استغفره إنه كانت توابة I think I'm sure everybody knows this surah إذا جاء النصر الله و الفتح when comes the help of Allah and فتح it's a victory و رأيت الناس يدخلون في جن الله أفواجه and you see people coming into the deen of Allah in large groups فسبح بحمد ربك و استغفره and so praise praise your lord and seek his forgiveness إنه كانت توابة definitely he is the one who always accepts the Toba everybody knows Toba I assume the repentance when you commit a sin and you ask Allah to forgive you so he recited this surah of the Quran and then he told a story about this surah which is very interesting he said one time in the time of Hazrat Umar رضي الله عنه right everybody has a Hazrat Umar رضي الله عنه the companion, the famous companion of the Prophet ﷺ and the second Khalifa after the Prophet ﷺ passing away so it's from him the story is about him he went into a gathering I think he said that the Sahaba رضي الله عنه used to have like a حلقة where they used to meet actually and discuss matters of knowledge but when he walked in there were other older men a Sahaba who were men like older and he walked in with Ibn Abbas رضي الله عنه who at that time was very young very very young and so the other Sahaba objected they didn't like that he was bringing in somebody who was very young until their gathering so that Hazrat Umar رضي الله عنه what he did was he recited the same surah يدعى جاء النسر الله يلفتح he recited that surah to them and then he asked each of them what do you think this means how do you understand this surah so they all started sharing their understanding and it was all about I'm sure does everybody know that that surah is famous because it was revealed at the time when the Prophet ﷺ had opened up Makkah but they all mentioned things like that it has to do with you know and those kind of things then he asked Hazrat Ibn Abbas رضي الله عنه what do you think it means what's your understanding so then he explained as a very young Hazrat Ibn Abbas رضي الله عنه he said this surah is an indication from Allah ﷻ that the Prophet ﷺ has completed his mission and Allah ﷻ is going to be calling him back to himself that's what the surah actually means yes it's a certain context and it has the whole thing about but it's actually the Prophet ﷺ now he's completed what he was sent to do and once you're done with your job so Allah ﷻ was going to call him back and so then he said that this is the Imam at the cemetery he reminded us that every time we have some kind of victory when he conquered Makkah every time you experience a victory in your life you should remember that victory is just bringing you closer to your death because think about it those victories in and of themselves what value do they have I mean really think about anything that you experience in your life some kind of accomplishment inherently what value does it have its value comes from what it's going to bring for you in the akhirah right it's just a process of getting you closer to the reality of our existence which is that we're going to die Allah ﷻ is going to judge us إن شاء الله تعالى إن شاء الله تعالى we end up in جنة so anyway these are just a few you know random thoughts about what happened today it's a difficult day obviously for all of us for the community there's some counselors or therapists that are available for the girls for the girls youth group because obviously they lost one of their their close sisters there but that's really all I had to share I think we have about 15 minutes I'd like to open it up now if anybody has anything that they want to share or any words I'll leave it to you guys إن شاء الله تعالى do you guys want to hear the story of when my son passed away I don't know if you guys want to hear about I mean I learned a lot from that process but the same time I don't want to I don't want to bore anybody so you guys tell me yes okay so sorry I didn't mean to put you guys on the spot like that but yeah yeah tell me are you just about 14 15 years old 15 yeah yeah something like that reason of I don't know myself all I heard was that the family the next morning she went to bed and the next morning they found her she had passed away that's all I know again we can't do enough I request everybody that when you get a chance I mean in the month definitely but even in the next few days as you remember her and remember her family to do the after them like I said Mashallah the very strong family but like it's always painful it's still painful no matter how strong you are especially for a parent to lose a child you know I mean we have any large like Mashallah we have a big community here any large community you know people pass away it just happens it's normal but when somebody that young passes away that's not common and that's very painful to go through yeah yeah oh like my daughter you mean yeah I think it's the same I mean when she first right yeah yeah I mean yep yep sure right right yeah yeah right sure yeah I know what you mean I don't know what's going to happen I think they're doing the counseling right now but I can just tell you what I saw you know they seem to have they obviously were very shocked and sad and crying and things like that but then like in my daughter I can tell you my personal usually the I think they're getting folks from for the center they're pretty with what what you're going and I think they generally do do a pretty good job but we'll find out I'm going to see what happens tonight sure I mean I'll tell you know when I was when I was six years old first grade one of my classmates got hit by a bus and passed away and I wasn't there I didn't see it I remember it like it was yesterday vividly I was in class our teacher came in she was crying and she told us hey your classmate passed away I didn't even know what that exactly meant and I remember the next day and he was my friend and his mom and younger sister came to get his stuff and it affected me but for me at least I'm sure I've had other experiences with losing somebody close to you and how you coped with it I mean for me like I keep making maybe they passed away that was a big thing losing a child that's just at a totally different level because you know the whole time what happened just really quickly he had a genetic disorder so we knew six months into the pregnancy that he was going to pass away but we didn't know how bad it was initially we didn't know that he was going to pass away we just thought he was deformed later on I think maybe a month or later then they said no he has this very severe condition he's going to probably pass away before he's even born and that just totally messed us up I mean I could not think straight I was a wreck and he lived for 19 days and then he passed away and that was really really hard because in those 19 days you know you think to yourself yalla take me instead I mean you can't even help it you just all your thinking even though the child he was super deformed that's why he passed away because his heart I mean every organ was deformed including his heart had I think two or three different deformities any one of them on their own would have been fatal for him so that's why they told us he probably won't even be born alive and anyway he was born alive though and then he lived for 19 days but in those 19 days was enough to get attached to him you know so that's why that's the other reason I was so like sad at the cemetery I thought these families spent whatever it was 14 years with their daughter and then Allah سبحانه وتعالى calls her back I mean that's really tough that's really difficult so anyway that's my experience is that is that when Allah سبحانه وتعالى puts that kind of test on you it's a big test because I think naturally as a parent you just wish that Allah سبحانه وتعالى would take you in place of the child and let your child live but that's what Islam is all about it's a submission to Allah سبحانه وتعالى so anyway that's how I understand it but like I said I'd love to hear your thoughts and you know yeah الله يرحم سبحانه وتعالى yeah so yeah again you know we should all try to do dua for her and for her family what else any words for us that's okay we're just talking about the sister نجاية رحمة الله and her passing way and doing dua for her yeah yeah beautiful family sorry I mean yeah it is yeah if you see hopefully I mean I'm sure they're very busy right now but hopefully her father will be back in the next few weeks and we can all try to you know comfort him and offer our dua to him in person if we see him should we wrap up early or anything else anybody wants to share yeah please can you do me a favor and come a little closer that way this will pick it up okay when he was sitting in the sahaba and his daughter said that when baby was sick and he sent a message that was good to be I'm just paraphrasing that's good to be patient and then after a little while she sent another message saying that he's coming very very sick and so he sent another message in the sahaba to visit his daughter and he put the baby in his arms and the baby was in his last breath and his grandchild in his arm passing away and his other sahaba saw the problem and he saw tears coming down his eyes around the cheeks he said what is this he said these are tears that are worse so it's amazing that you know you see all the losses and you just kind of related to all the losses that you've experienced you know it's an example of patience and support for us yeah let me just repeat it for the mic but the brother was mentioning the incident where was it the grandson of the prophet's yeah the prophet's grandson passed away and he was holding him in his arms and he took his last breath in his arms and so the prophet started crying I guess and so the sahaba they asked him about it and then what did he say this is a mercy yeah and yeah exactly that's something we should all remember when we these are tests from Allah سبحانه وتعالى it's part of this life that we go through loss and go through difficulties and of course it's always painful so it's not trying to minimize that at all but however what we can do is remember like you're saying that the person who went through the most difficulty the biggest test the prophet's son himself he went through such enormous tests father died before he was born his grandfather died his mother died you know his children died his grandchild died and he went through so many difficulties and losses and it's just a big trial and stuff that like if any regular person went through stuff like that I think they would just go crazy and but you know that's the general rule the more Allah سبحانه وتعالى loves a person the more he tests them that's just how life works and obviously that he's he's the beloved of Allah سبحانه وتعالى so you can imagine you can imagine the Habib of Allah this is how the Habib of Allah is going to get صلى الله عليه وسلم right so you know I guess from one perspective it can sound scary you can say oh my God you know the more I love Allah سبحانه وتعالى the more the calamities are going to come on me and that might be true actually but on the other hand you're connecting yourself to Allah سبحانه وتعالى that's not a joke that's a big deal and you know what that means is that now you are connected to the Creator of the heavens and the earth controls everything the one who's going to be who we're going to stand in front of on the day of judgment right and that's the best position to be in that's the best possible position to be in so you know I know these things are difficult like one thing that really bothers me a lot I got two minutes here one thing that bothers me personally a lot and I hear this surprisingly frequently I find that I love to protect this from this people go through some kind of calamity just like this that you know somebody passes away or something very difficult they're Muslim they believe in Allah سبحانه وتعالى but their response is how can Allah do this to me and they're angry with Allah سبحانه وتعالى have you guys ever seen this or heard of this before it boggles my mind I don't I mean I kind of get it but at the same time I'm like what are you talking about who are you to be angry with Allah سبحانه وتعالى it doesn't make any sense but anyway what we should my advice to myself and to all of us is to remember that this life is designed to be temporary is designed to be difficult it's supposed to be difficult and if it's not difficult something's wrong right they say I don't know if it's true or not they say he never even experienced a headache in his life because his physicians were so good that that's just the kind of stuff they used to give him he didn't experience the slightest difficulty but that's what made him why do you think he said I'm your lord the most high because he was never he was never put in that position to realize his weakness in front of Allah سبحانه وتعالى so these calamities they're a blessing actually right death is a gift for the believer every prick we get of a thorn that prick that difficulty we go through on the day of judgment raises our status right like we said earlier that child then comes and grabs you and gets you into jannah free ticket to jannah so anyway it's 9 o'clock I don't want to keep you guys late but again a reminder to everybody and please remember that this is all for Allah سبحانه وتعالى it's not for us السلام عليكم و رحمة الله