 The blessings upon us are immense in the short time that we have together here today that we hope that Allah will put us in a state of Tereco because this is the way of the believers to constantly be in a state where we are reminded and we take reminders and we learn lessons from everyone and everything that is happening around us and because this is such a dear community to our heart I wanted to share something to you that with you that impacted me greatly and I don't normally read in this way from something that is written but because it affected me and there are so many beloved people too in this community that I call it also has the same impact upon you and the backdrop to this email interaction was with someone that we wanted to invite for a program and this was her response and her way of saying that she was unable to be there and we want to use this as a gateway to the brief comments that we want to make about prophetic optimism and how our prophet was, so Allah is telling him in relation to maintaining hope, in relation to taking good moments in relation to being positive, in relation to having that true prophetic optimism about the future so in this email this was her response and I will just read I am actually drowning here, your duads are requested we have started up many projects and yet there are so few people that can truly carry them we find ourselves having to multitask and teach that we can programs that in the Muslim class at the home co-operative my daughter attends at a weekly class for general Muslims take care of children on a daily basis at the kindergarten they open help with the children during the events we brought lecture events, support and give counsel to sisters going through divorce, marriage or break down health problems, dot dot dot each time I prepare someone to take over a role in the work we are doing here that I have been getting married and leave the city are expecting children so they have to stay at home are simply very tired and wary of the project they have been given we ask Allah for milk, I mean we live in a time where very few will sacrifice the teachings that change the course of our lives seem to only inspire people in the moment they love the idea of being for those that serve Allah yet life is strength and courage to divorce the world their mortgages, careers, carvers, homes, children are dear to them they simply cannot live as this work requires them to live they justify the way of life through giving and charity when they can attending courses and lectures from time to time and giving dowry to their colleagues at work their hidden allies and following their interests whether it be the study of Islamic medicine designing modest clothing, cooking prophetic foods and liquor-free the list goes on these are blessed Muslims for they are aware that life must live upon the Allah unless they live upon this but they live upon it on their own terms they have no inclination to do what really needs to be done we are in a time in which our sons and daughters are being lost to drugs, alcohol, fornication and even worse the actual loss of faith we have a lot of protection for us in our offspring despite this no one is interested in saving humanity they are only interested in saving themselves we find ourselves in the midst of madness through this work, this papyrus, this poor and proper soul has yet to understand the way of my teachers to give love and not to give orders for the people of this age cannot do what is asked of them they desire only to be loved by their teachers and not to be asked to serve the doubt what their teachers serve so power of love, one of my teachers told me give love more than you give the sacred law because no one wants to hear for the most part about God's commands they only want to care about love the parts of the people of our time are weak it is taking me 10 years to understand these words the people of God that uphold the truth in the spirit of the sahaba who sacrificed their homes, their wealth, their children and their very selves as they spoke of the battlefield as they made the migration from Latifah taking nothing but the love of Allah and his messenger and provisions as they built the mountains those in the spirit of that Iyad Allah was Allah who caused them to declare being my very being he sacrificed for the own messenger of Allah this is the spirit that is rare amongst people the majority arm has the donkeys and a manger please only when his master drinks and more he eats the increase of their rage and promotion the security of their jobs this is what fills the majority of the joy they earnestly work to seek stability in this world and turn their entire being towards this lovely goal the world is their kibla and so their lives are directed towards it and they are in complete circumnavulation their lives revolving around their economic stability blessed to be among the two men who set the Muslims during their graves 300 people with their messenger of Allah sent them on the field of battle with four horses between them a few swords and sticks and stones but they had a faith that was so formidable that they fought like supermen where they strength did not come from their bodies but where they strength that came from their souls souls illuminated with the light of truth and how you all are and our teachers this spirit is alive and we tasted it and fell in love with it we were sincere in wanting to kneel Allah's messenger to be in the presence of the righteous we placed allegiance to this path that laid our hearts bare in front of Allah as purely poor and accomplished people that would be in the service of this truth and being as our teachers are those that give their flesh their blood their lives and raising the banner of this great truth we were ordered to these lands to plant seeds and we're so naive to think that he who plant seeds is easy to think that the Jaffa who plant seeds is easy on my last night before going home one of my teachers told me if you can't plant seeds then plow so that the land is fertile enough for the next generation to plant seeds if you can't plant seeds then plow plow the land so it is fertile enough for the next generation to plant seeds and so we plow and we plow and we plow but my goodness the way of this path is so extreme for the people of our life ourselves we find that our feet and our hands are bleeding and until we have a long side as people that bear this spirit of sacrifice we will have to carry this work alone and because of them that we do not pray under this weight by Allah this will be of use their support we are scattered around the earth we know we need to help each other bear the weight of this work we are a brethren bonded by a secret that we were given in sacred lands and then she goes on to say is that this is why she wasn't able to attend I love her quote this is someone who understands the purpose of life this is someone who understands the essential message that our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is that he not only inspired but instilled into the companions of our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam by Allah these are the meanings that is going to determine our quality as a believer this is what's going to determine that who we are is that the way that we stand in relation to these meanings but one of the ways of our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is to teach us that we have to be people of work we have to be people that are ready to roll up our sleeves and to be in it until we take our very last breath and one of the things that our Prophet taught us is to have unfettered optimism in light of the worst situations possible and if we look at the life of our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is that we find that these meanings are all interconnected optimism, hope, positivity, taking good omens and then accompanying that with hard work and our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is that his optimism was different than other people's optimism because it was revealed, it was rooted in revelation it was rooted in relation to whether his Lord found a way to show him about the future and that we know that he was given knowledge about what was going to happen in the future but it is by virtue of our connection to him and our belief in him is that we believe in the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and that we believe that people have hope in the dunya people that don't share a leaf is that their hope is restricted to this world while our hope is rooted in our Lord Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and belief in him and related to our ultimate return run to him Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam this world will never be a utopia if anyone thinks that it is is that they are deceived always be in the state that it is and yes that just as we are required to do the work that we have to do while we are here in this world is that we simultaneously have to be detached from that and to realize is that what really is going to remain is what we do for his sake Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam khulu shayneh hadekun illa wajhab one of the meanings of that is is that all of the deeds that we do are perishing except that which was done solely and sincerely for his sake Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and if you look at the life of our Prophet is that you will find and the most compromising of times is that our Prophet would give the Sahaba immense glad tidings think about how he would pass by Ahmad Ibn Yasum and his Blessed Mother Somalia and their blessed family and he would see them being brutally persecuted and he knew that there was nothing that he could do except give them true hope and Allah have patience oh family of Yasum is that your trist is paradise this is when it's going to really all come to the surface and people will do anything they would do anything where they could see the station of Yasum of Ahmad Ibn Yasum and his father and his Blessed Mother Anyam al-Qiyamah they would wish to come back and to go through everything that they went through here in this dunya likewise our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and the Blessed Hidr we all know the story that I'm connecting it to this prophetic optimism about which we are speaking is that as he does everything that he did during the Hidr taking all of the means and it is here when the bounty was placed on his head and one of those who was previously a criminal coming to chase him down because they wanted that bounty of us that meagerly 100 camels for the first of creation Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is that we know the story of Soraka and after the miracle happened he realized this was a prophet and believed in him but what did our Prophet tell him that he says is that how will it be when you are wearing the bracelets of the King of Persia he's going on this route precisely because he's trying to avoid people from capturing him or taking his life Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam but while he's in this state he's giving someone glad tidings that he's going to wear the bracelets of the King of Persia think about what our Prophet was instilling in the companions and one of the most salient examples of this is in the battle of Khandak in the battle of the trench that we've all read about and we've all heard about but it's time for us to start living the lessons of these battles we don't want this to be read in historical fashion yes there's an element of history to it but the whole purpose of these stories is to inspire you and I we want to be like them it's like one of the great imams of our deen is that used to work really hard to the extent that his mother worried about him he was doing so much spiritual struggle he was studying so much his mother came to complain to his teacher and he said to his teacher Khandak said take it easy do what it is that you can do and to know rely upon the bounty of Allah inshallah you receive the intercession of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam but what was his response to his teacher he says that I know that many of the great people of this ummah is that some of them will be raised as an ummah as Allah describes the Prophet Abraham there will be those that have a banner in their head in Yomul Qiyamah that they're the means for people to enter into paradise because they interceded for them he said I don't want to enter under someone else's banner although everyone wants to enter under the banner of Sayyidina Muhammad but by extension he says I want to have my own banner and he says if that is your intention they keep doing what it is that you are doing our Prophet in this battle of Khandak adds that the largest arming arabian peninsula ever had been amassed against them 10,000 people against the companions and they build a trench to defend themselves and they came to Iraq that our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam after setting the line and drawing it with his own blessed hand and staff Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is that when they were unable to dig those boulders out that they came back to the Prophet and told him about it and he didn't tell them to dig around and he himself went to the place because he'd set the line of where to do and then is that he hit it three times with his staff and there's different narrations one of them says the first time that he struck that there was a flash of light like lightning and he said there's a level of 50 hunt fatus Persian has been opened up for me and then the second strike and the second third of that boulder was pulverized Allah wu akbar Futu khatli that room room was open for me and then according to this narration is that he struck it a third time when the entire rock became pulverized and he says Allah wu akbar is that Allah ta'ala has made him one of the largest tribes of the Arab island in Sa'ban the people that would help and give victory to this cause these and there are many many many many other examples of our prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is that he instilled these meanings in the companions and one of the reasons that optimism is so important is because it relates very subtly to the choices that we make as an individual in other words is that if you look at the opposite which is pessimism if we are pessimistic the worst thing that can happen and the worst thing that can arise from that pessimism is not doing the work that we're meant to do because the nature of the human being we become despondent we become lazy that when we're overwhelmed with pessimism and so our prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that we have clear narrations that indicate this is that he didn't like tiyar al sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he didn't like taking bad omens and by extension that he didn't like people that were in a pessimistic state and that he liked fa'al and tathawud that he liked optimism sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he wanted us to take good omens and extending it and extrapolating meanings from that is that he was very well aware of the subtleties of the way that we work as human beings and that is when we have hope which is closely related to optimism is that this is what allows us to know what it is that we do it is the fuel for that soul that will drive us to do whatever it is that we can do and look at the principle of Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam the hadith that we've all heard that's narrated in the Muslim Imam Ahmad is that if the day of judgment comes upon one of you and he has in his hand a fasilah a seed let him plant that seed even if he's not going to be there to bear fruit upon that commanded us to do the work even if there was no hope for that to bear fruit in this world what is he teaching us sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Allah but one of the most subtle means is his arm around the love of the heart is that the way that we interact with our Lord and what is the intention behind what we do we as believers simultaneously have to have high hope that there be fruits for our work so we be completely detached from the fruit in result of our work it very well might be is that no one responds to anything that we do the sacrifices that we make is that we don't see bringing about any benefit at least apparently at the surface level however is that if you dig much deeper and to understand the meanings behind those who actually uphold this work they're much deeper they're of a cosmic nature and they relate to the upholding of the world in and of itself just out of Allah will remove this world when the last spirit of the believer is taken likewise is the case especially with the righteous those who are the khulafa of Allah on this earth but these are lofty meanings is that we have to aspire to and that we have to understand that our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam did not tell us about these meanings he realized their importance and he realized is that is that what it relates to in terms of what happens when they're lost in an individual and from everything that has been said I want to examine now the words of our Prophet did again that we've all heard but look what he says and this is the narration of Sahih Hussein the Hadith about his Ajaban that it's amazing and the Amr al-Khul al-Ukhair his affair is all good but in this narration what he said Wa-maa-daqa illa le-mu'min but that is only for the mu'min he didn't say here Muslim and you study in theology the interrelationship between Islam and Imam and someone who's a mu'min and a Muslim and at one level they're synonyms and they're interchangeable but another level depending on how it's used here this is related to a higher degree this is someone who truly believes in other words what our Prophet is teaching us is that we have to be a believer and not only have general faith but have that move into experiential faith which translated into a world view and we interpret in every single moment the situation in hand in a way that is pleasing to our Lord Subhanahu wa Ta'ala so that we're going to talk about a cure for pessimism or any of those other things that were mentioned negativity and taking back omens and so forth and so on and that it starts with faith and it starts with taking our deans seriously and learning how we can strengthen our faith because the stronger our faith is the more that we'll believe in the promise of Allah and the more that we have that otherworldly impulse within ourselves flourishing and driving us towards work for the afterlife is that the more that we will move away from the meanings of despair and pessimism and then there's other things that we can do as well is that we can make sure is that when we talk about things is that we need to mitigate our discussions of evil in Rome with dua if you're watching a news segment and that you feel bad after what you should if you see that much of what is shown to us in the news is that we should in a very serious way and I'm not joking a minute after to make dua it takes time after of ever that concern that you have is good but if it's not a company by action what is the real benefit of it and if you don't do it right after at least at two hundred time or in the morning when you wake up or some other time to the extent that we're exposed to these types of things you have to also follow up with dua and doing something about it at least dua and actually dua is also the heart of the affair also is that we have to be very careful to get ourselves in pro bon conversations even with our friends about subjects that are subjects of darkness because if you focus too much on evil and darkness it brings darkness to your heart and this is something that I think about all of my teachers from beginning to end one of the things that take homes is that every time you are with them you leave with a renewed spiritual operation you renew you leave uplifted and you relieve their presence that with a spiritual boundary that has been charged and you're ready to go and you're ready to put roll your sleeves up and get to work across the board is that this is one of the things I've noticed consistently with the people of Allah is that they don't like to dwell on evil is that yes we need to assess the situation and optimism it does not mean that we are naive nor does it mean that we look at things uncritically nor does it mean is that we're unsophisticated nor does it mean that we're debilitated on the contrary is that what we have to understand is while we also see things as they are we understand the situation of the affairs most importantly of all is that we do the work and this is what our prophet is teaching us in all of these lesson narrations that teach us about the importance of optimism madad at least of peace wajtaawfiruqwar wajtaawfiruqwar As-Sulah as-Sulaiman sallallahu wa sallam wajtaawisyat wa as-Salaam wa sallam wa sallam wa sallam wa sallam wa sallam wa sallam wa sallam wa sallam wajtaawisyat I'm not bad, yeah, you got a lot in me, you see, go on and see, yeah, yeah, you talk a lot. Alhamdulillah, the affair that is upon our shoulders is great and it is serious. And when we realize our responsibility that it weighs heavy on us and it should and the sign that we feel that it's heavy means is that we've understood something of what it means to be a believer. And we think back in this pre-earthly covenant that we've taken with our Lord, Supreme Lord, and this amana and trust which was sown to the heavens and the earth and the mountains and they refused to bear it and they were fearful of it, but the human being assumed it. It is to the degree that we understand the gravity of this affair and we understand our own himmah is that we've been created for a purpose and for a duty is that it will lead to him which is concern and is to the degree that we have concern is that we will have what is called himmah and all three of these words are linguistically related and to the degree that we have that spiritual aspiration will lead to the degree that we do the work that we need to do and the blessing of this all is is that how could it be anything other than good as our Prophet informed us sallallahu alaihi wa sallam when you think about the reward that a lot of mother koha ta'ala has in store for the believer when allah ta'ala that gives the believers their gifts on yomu qiyamah and then we enter into paradise and we experience the bliss of every moment of paradise which increases exponentially the summation of the next moment is better than a summation of all of the other previous moments and this goes on until eternity it just keeps getting better and better and better and better and we know that allah has been paradise by the aimerat that which no eye has seen no ear has heard nor that which has even come to the heart of a human being how could we anything other than inspire and in closing when in relation to we all know what today is you can see what i'm saying in light of today as well as in light of anything else that happens in your life we're talking religious principles at this point is that when i explain this to my teachers that about some of the concerns of the muslim qiyam iqsa la taqafu al khayr buq bil aliq do not have any fear good is coming to you it doesn't mean that there's going to be hardship but the believer is enlightened and part of his enlightenment is understanding that precisely any challenges are the greatest of opportunities and when you understand that how could you be anything other than optimistic and how could you be anything other than also amazed like our prophet was and think about why was our prophet amazed why was he amazed of the affair of the believer is because he realized sallallahu alayhi wa sallam which is important for us to tap into the way he had his top any sallallahu alayhi wa sallam as that everything was from Allah everything ultimately is from Allah and this is why that this very issue ties to these issues that relate to the very essence of our imam and it's only when our imam becomes strong and we can overcome many of these shackles that are literally preventing other people from higher degrees of practice of this Dean is that we will then move into that these levels of closest to our Lord subhanahu wa ta'ala may Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala give us to a big him this in the law of sallallahu alayhi wa sallam I say in this name the We have to know Subhanahu wa Ta'ala to give us all the optimism, we have to know Subhanahu wa Ta'ala to give us true hope, we have to have a positive outlet, we have to follow the Sunnah of our Prophet ﷺ in all our different affairs, we will inspire every single one of us to be able to be in the service of not only our kingdom and all of humanity and make the life of our Prophet ﷺ be that is which that we that judge everything and the things through which we see everything and the inspiration for which is that it is the inspiration for everything that we do. May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala give us to be in all different affairs, bless our family and our children and our communities and blesses with the very best of results and the end of results and may all our endings all be good. I will say in the next life, La ilaha illallah, ma hurmah al-Mus'ulna to fully actualize its meanings in moving out of the abodee, aboukum Allah, nasir al-akhum Allah, innAllah li'l abdu bi'ad-dh-dh-sani, wa ikhain al-fura'a, man ha'ha na'ka'a shahari, wa ad-dun, munkari wa ba'li,