 I begin in the name of Allah, most gracious, most merciful. I bear witness that there's none worthy of worship except the one Allah and that his beloved Nabi and Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is his last and final messenger. As we embark on these really powerful, blessed days and nights of the month of Dhul-Hijjah in which we commemorate the teachings and the practices of the prophets Ibraheem and Ismail ﷺ and Hajra, as taught to us by our beloved Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Allah ﷻ mentions in the Qur'an, I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Satan. In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Wa'l-Fajr wa la-yaal-in-ashra. Allah ﷻ takes an oath and says, Buy the dawn and the ten nights. According to the majority of the commentators of the Qur'an, these ten nights refer to the ten nights, the first ten nights of the month of Dhul-Hijjah. Allah ﷻ reminds us in the Qur'an and he says, Wa-ad-din fi-n-nasi bil-hajji. Ya-tuka-ri-jalam wa-ala-kulli-dhamini. Ya-tina min-kulli-fajjina-ameek. He says, Announce to the people the obligation of Hajj so that they would come to you on foot, on every lean camel, traveling through every distant hilly pathway. This also, as we all know, happens to be the season of Hajj. Hundreds of thousands and millions of people from around the world will be going to Makkah, will be performing their Hajj, Mina, Arafat, Muzdalifah, back to Mina, visiting the beloved ﷺ in the city of Medina and will be fulfilling this once-in-a-lifetime obligation for many their first time there and for so many, maybe even their last time there. So a moment of excitement, a moment of worship, a moment of servitude, a moment of gratitude, a moment of satisfaction where they feel that they've been honored to having fulfilled this obligation from Allah ﷻ. But naturally, that's not the case with everyone. The vast majority of the ummah, the vast majority of the community, they're going to be at home and we're going to be spending, beginning this month, going through the course of this month, fulfilling all these other acts of worship of Allah ﷻ which reminds me of a hadith of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, that Abdullah ibn Abbas ﷺ narrates where he says, the Prophet ﷺ says, The Prophet, peace be upon him, says, there's no virtue more to the liking of Allah ﷻ in any day other than these days. Allah ﷻ likes the ibadah and worship, the ibadah and worship, the servitude of these days, the first ten days and nights of the month of Dhul-Hijjah are more beloved to Allah ﷻ than any other days. So while as Muslims, we think generally of the month of Ramadan, of a time of worship and ibadah and servitude and of generosity and charity, these ten days and nights are also included to be a part of that. So as the month of Dhul-Hijjah begins, we should be on high alert. We should be in that same and similar mode as we usually are at the beginning of the month of Ramadan, because these are extremely beloved nights. The Sahaba, the hadith continues very briefly, the Sahaba asked and said, Oh Messenger of Allah, not even struggle in the path of Allah ﷻ, because struggling in the path of Allah ﷻ is extremely rewarding, has a great reward, a merit attached to it. And the Prophet responded and said, not even struggle in the path of Allah ﷻ except for an individual who may leave with his or her wealth and life and not be able to return with either. Which reminds me of another hadith of the Prophet ﷺ, where the Prophet ﷺ says something similar. The Prophet ﷺ says, The Prophet ﷺ says, there's no days more beloved to Allah ﷻ that he be worshipped in them than the ten days of the month of Dhul-Hijjah. Here's the part that we want to remind ourselves. He says, peace and blessings of God be upon him, fasting every day of them is the equivalent of fasting for an entire year. And standing every night of them in prayer is the equivalent of standing the night of Qadr. Like I said earlier, generally, we only think of these merits attached to the fasting and the prayer of the month of Ramadan and the days and nights of Dhul-Hijjah while we know they're extremely meritorious, we sometimes do not utilize them the way they should. And so that's something to keep in mind. And so moving on to fasting, if we may, there's three hadith of the Prophet ﷺ peace be upon him, that I want to share. One of them says that The Prophet ﷺ used to fast the first nine days of the month of Dhul-Hijjah. So the sunnah would be to fast all nine days. And then in another narration, it's been mentioned, the Prophet ﷺ says This is a really famous hadith. For anyone who fasts on the day of Arafah, the ninth of Dhul-Hijjah, wherever we may be in any part of the world, the Prophet ﷺ says, I anticipate that Allah, God would forgive the year after it and the year before it. So these are extremely meritorious. So wherever we may be, whichever state, country we may be in, know when the month of Dhul-Hijjah begins, begin fasting if we can, not a requirement, a sunnah of the beloved, but as the ninth of Dhul-Hijjah comes, the day of Arafah, the ninth of Dhul-Hijjah, wherever you may be the day before Eid, fast on that day. And insha'Allah, Allah ﷻ would give us this extremely great reward. For individuals who may not be able to fast for whatever reason, at least intend in your hearts that if I was able to, I would have fasted. And insha'Allah, our reward would be with Allah ﷻ. Though I do want to share one thing, there's another hadith, that the Prophet ﷺ said, that for those individuals who happen to be in Arafah, at Hajj, the Prophet prohibited them from fasting. Also, a few other things that we can do during this time. It's a time of prayer and du'a. The Prophet ﷺ says, The best du'a is the du'a of the day of Arafah. Naturally, we know that for those individuals who happen to be in Hajj on the day of Arafah, we're fulfilling one of the obligations of Hajj. And so it is a day of prayer and supplication. But insha'Allah, it also happens to be a day of prayer and supplication. For everyone else, wherever we may be and the Prophet ﷺ continues, he says the best of what I have said and the Prophets before me have said on this day is So I'm just going to take a moment to remind myself and everyone else to make it a point that as we approach the month of Dhul-Hijjah, we make sure that we value it. As we approach the day of Arafah, make sure that we value it the way it's supposed to be done. So go out of our way and pray a little. Think of all the beautiful lessons that we learn from the story of Ibrahim and Isma'eel and Hajj, radiallahu anhum, the sacrifices that they made, the sacrifice that each of them made and that Allah ﷻ only asks us to make some small sacrifices in our lives and as a result of those sacrifices, God Almighty, Allah ﷻ bless them with so many blessings and for anyone that may be going through any difficulty and any sacrifice that we happen to be making for the sake of Allah ﷻ, know that there is a reward for it and there are divine openings. There's another verse in the Quran where Allah ﷻ says وذكر الله في أيام المعدودات and remember Allah ﷻ during specified days and generally we understand from that are the تكبيرات of تشريق when we say الله أكبر, الله أكبر لا إله إلا الله الله أكبر, الله أكبر ولله الحمد and in one narration the opening تكبيرات three times that we say these تكبيرات after our faradah prayers. These are known as تكبيرات of تشريق in the شافعي and the حمل مذهب their سنة in the حنفي مذهب it's واجب and in the مالكي مذهب it's مستحب as far as according to إمام أبو حنيفة and إمام أحمد بن حمل it's to be done after 23 prayers from the فجر of the ninth until the عثر of the thirteenth. So we actually began the day before عيد and we say the تكبيرات generally only to be said once many a times when we happen to be in a masjid or in a public place and people recite the تكبيرات they do it three times know that as long as it's done once that وجوب that obligation will have been fulfilled according to إمام مالك it's only 20 prayers from the ظهر of the day of عيد until the فجر of the thirteenth and إمام شافعي رحمة الله عليه has distributed it he said there's a specific number for the حاجیs and the non-hajīs as far as the non-hajīs they will do it for 24 prayers and instead of ending on the عثر of the thirteenth ending after مغرب on the thirteenth and for the hajīs from the ظهر of the day of عيد for three days 15 prayers lastly there's another act of immense act of worship that we do during these days around عيد الأضحة is our sacrifices عيش رضي الله عنها narrates that the Prophet ﷺ said that a human does no action from the actions of the day of نحر from the day of عيد more beloved to Allah than the animal sacrifice that we will receive a full recompense for this sacrifice on the day of judgment and so the Prophet ﷺ in another place says that whosoever has the financial ability to make a sacrifice and does not perform that sacrifice should not come to prayer now he doesn't literally mean don't come to prayer the Prophet ﷺ is highly encouraging us to make that sacrifice either we fulfill that sacrifice by having it done on our behalf in parts of the world where people happen to be in greater need or for example for those of us that are living here we may want to do a portion of the sacrifice ourselves so that we can experience it so that our children can experience it and we can celebrate that immense important element of عيد الأضحة by ourselves and with our families I also want to share one thing when we talk about sacrifice is that we can do it on behalf of ourselves but we can also do it on behalf of our loved ones who may not be with us we can also do it on behalf of the Prophet peace be upon him ﷺ Ali ﷺ narrates that there's a narration that says Ali ﷺ would slaughter two sheep one for the Prophet ﷺ and one for himself and he was asked about this he said why do you do one for the Prophet and he responded and said the Prophet commanded me to do this the Prophet ﷺ the Prophet peace be upon him commanded me to do this I will never ever leave this practice and we've seen our pious predecessors over the generations that when they would do their sacrifice they would do one on behalf of the Prophet peace be upon him ﷺ as well so in closing brothers and sisters it's a beautiful time of year that we're about to embark on and it is a time of ibadah worship as I mentioned earlier generosity kindness whatever all those qualities that make us a better person all those qualities that we bring into ourselves especially in the month of Ramadhan an endeavor to maintain and continue them after the month of Ramadhan we bring those into ourselves during the month of Dhul-Hijjah as well and so with that said we ask Allah to make these days and nights blessed and beautiful for all of us our families those around us and may Allah bless every single one of us with a Mubarak for those that happen to be at Hajj we ask Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala may Allah grant them all a Hajj Mabroor and we ask Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala to take us to the sacred lands again and again and allow us to be amongst those believers who submit to him who are pleased with their Lord and their Lord becomes pleased with them Ameen Ya Rabbal Alameen Barak Allah Fikum Jazakum Allahu Khayran Salamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Ta'ala Wa Barakatuh