 بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم سلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته الحمد لله رب العالمين والصلاة والسلام على سيدنا محمد وعلى آله وصحبه ومن تبعهم بإحسان إلى يوم الدين أما بعد قال الله سبحانه وتعالى في كلامه المجيد والفرقان الحميد فأعود بالله من الشيطان الرجيم بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم إن أنزلناه في ليلة القدر وما أدرى كما ليلة القدر ليلة القدر خير من في شهر تنزلوا الملائكة والروح فيها بإذن ربهم من كل أمر سلام هي حتى مطلع الفجر صدق الله العلي العظيم it is indeed a blessing of Allah سبحانه وتعالى that Allah سبحانه وتعالى has facilitated for us to get through this blessed month of Ramadan despite what we began with kind of fearing for many people and hopefully insha'Allah for most people up until now it's been a blessed Ramadan and we have been able to do certain things that we haven't been able to do in the past and we have valued doing those things insha'Allah naturally many things we have missed out on and we will continue to miss and we pray to Allah سبحانه وتعالى to reward us as if we had done those good deeds and reward us for our patients because Ramadan does not feel like a Ramadan without having done certain things but insha'Allah we anticipate the mercy of Allah سبحانه وتعالى we anticipate the forgiveness from Allah سبحانه وتعالى we anticipate the rewards from Allah سبحانه وتعالى we anticipate blessings and so many good and amazing things from Allah سبحانه وتعالى as we you know proceed now as we are about to close off the month of Ramadan we begin with the last 10 nights of Ramadan this is essentially it you know we've been we continue to get ready in the months of Rajab and Shaaban for Ramadan and then we begin the month of Ramadan in anticipation of the last 10 nights of Ramadan right the last 10 nights so this is it this is your final lap and all you got because the rewards are so much more greater and the rewards are not just in the akhirah but the rewards are in this world as well right Allah سبحانه وتعالى reminds us من عملة صالحة whichever believing man or woman does good deeds and of course Ramadan and especially the last 10 nights are filled with nothing but direct act of good deeds to Allah سبحانه وتعالى says we will give them a good life a good life a wholesome life so all that we've done until now and all that we will continue to do in the remaining nights of Ramadan will not only assist us in the akhirah but they will assist us in this dunya as well I recited and by the way I'm sure that I'm not going to be the only one I'm not going to be reminding you of the merits of the last 10 nights of Ramadan and the importance of the last 10 nights of Ramadan but the reality is that the more reminders we have insha'Allah the more we will benefit the Nabi صلى الله عليه وسلم is narrated to have said من قام إيمان وحت سابن whosoever stands in the night of Qadr out of faith and out of reward out of anticipation of reward all of their previous sins will be forgiven whoever stood in its search and found it for him his previous and future sins have been forgiven in another narration the Nabi صلى الله عليه وسلم more than a thousand months and then he says من حريمة ليلة القضر حريم الخير كله whosoever has been deprived of this night has been deprived of all goodness has been deprived of all goodness that's why we are reminded that the actions that we do don't take any action lightly brothers and sisters that's the point we've been fasting it is an act of great reward we've been praying do not take prayer lightly we've been giving in charity either less or more only Allah knows how much we have and how much we give and the struggle that we go through don't take that lightly all of that is rewarded by Allah سبحانه وتعالى all of that is rewarded by Allah سبحانه وتعالى and every extra tour and I will pray in these nights rewarded by Allah سبحانه وتعالى any effort that we make to pray عشاء in congregation rewarded by Allah any effort that we make to pray pleasure in congregation rewarded by Allah there's that hadith of the Nabi صلى الله عليه وسلم where he عليه صلى الله عليه وسلم reminds us and I've shared this so many times in the past if you pray عشاء in congregation you get the reward of worshiping Allah half of the night which is why there's some narrations and some علماء have mentioned just to make it easy for the believers that as long as you have prayed عشاء in congregation you will get the reward of the night of قدر I mean look at the blessing of Allah سبحانه وتعالى right look at the reward Allah does not want to deprive us of this night the prophet عليه الصلاة والسلام does not want to deprive us of this night when we pray they want to make sure that we don't get deprived of this blessed night so pray عشاء in congregation pray a little bit of تراريح if we have not been diligent in praying تراريح until now become diligent and I don't mean 20 and I don't even mean 8 become diligent let there not be a single night from here on let there not be a single night from here onward until the end of Ramadan that we don't pray at least to if you can pray more pray more right if you Imam Malik was known to have prayed up to 41 رقع but if you can't pray more than to at least to don't go to sleep without having prayed to رقع of تراريح if you have been reciting some Quran recite a little more if you've been reading the translation add a little more to it add something extra to receive the extra that's all do a little extra to receive a little extra gift from الله سبحانه وتعالى and the gift is that of forgiveness the gift is that of forgiveness imagine if someone were to pass away after having been forgiven by Allah سبحانه وتعالى they have nothing to answer for which is why you know one of our teachers would mention that most human beings will be accountable for is from the last moment they made forgiveness to Allah سبحانه وتعالى until they pass away because from Ramadan to Ramadan all the past is forgiven all your past is forgiven توبة to توبة all major sins are forgiven so the only thing that believers may remain accountable for is from that last moment you made استخفارا توبة and an individual passes away that's all you'll be accountable for and then also keep in mind that some of us some people have been feeling a little uneasy and guilty oh we haven't been able to pray this month yeah you have you've been praying at home and then people say that oh we've only been reciting the small Suras what does that mean have you not been reciting the Qur'an in your voluntary prayers have you not what else what have you been reciting you've been reciting the Qur'an in your voluntary prayers while some people may say small Suras or only Suras that I know what are you saying you're reciting the word of God you're reciting the final revelation of Allah you're reciting القرآن in your prayers why would Allah not reward you that's why Allah سبحانه وتعالى reminds us in the Qur'an that we recite from the Qur'an which is easy and we are reciting whatever is easy for us that which we know is easy for us that will be our reward with Allah سبحانه وتعالى and may this be for those of us that don't know a lot of Qur'an or have memorized a little bit of Qur'an in the past and have forgotten various chapters may this month be a reason for us to go back to memorize those Suras or memorize a little more than what we already know or memorize some of those Suras that we've been hearing again and again but we haven't actually formally sat down and gone through it you know honestly if I can while I'm talking about the night of Qadr if we can make a lifelong goal of memorizing just two Suras brothers and sisters just two Suras ياسين and ملك among all the verses of the Qur'an and of course the smaller Suras فلاق ناس and آيات الكرسي we all know those but I'm talking about lengthier Suras ياسين and ملك make it a lifelong goal and get started if you memorize one line a month one line a month you may be done in 10 years from now which is not a lot because in sha Allah we have many many more years to live or to memorize one line a week you would memorize 52 lines in the course of one year you would be done in a few years because of all the Suras of the Qur'an these are Suras that the Prophet reminded us to recite regularly every day ياسين for ease in your daily affairs and سورة الملك to be protected from the punishment of the grave then the Prophet it was my desire it was my desire that these 30 verses be in the heart of every believer of course there are other Suras that contain a lot of merit and so on but these two ياسين and ملك if we can get those down so let us anticipate the mercy of Allah سبحانه وتعالى mercy of Allah سبحانه وتعالى and reward from Allah سبحانه وتعالى which is why the Prophet reminds us ليلة القدر في العشر الأواخر من رمضان look for the night of qadr in the last ten nights of Ramadan and there are so many narrations be it the 23rd and contrary to what many of us from the subcontinent believe ستعيس ويرات the 27th night it could by the way very well be the 23rd the 25th the 29th in fact there's many narrations around the 23rd as well 25th as well and so on and so forth so just look for them and this hadith doesn't even mention the odd nights it just mentions the last ten nights so if I may leave us with a little bit of formula and that is brothers and sisters make our fasts of a higher category not just refrain from eating and drinking but refrain from speaking unnecessarily refrain from seeing things unnecessarily refrain from hearing things unnecessarily so make our fast of a greater quality secondly let us be diligent in our five times prayers and in addition to the prayers in the last ten nights if we haven't already done so in the last ten days become diligent in the sunnah prayers associated to the false prayers فجر has two sunnah before it ذوهر has four before two after مغرب has two after إشا has two after and then of course there's the other sunnahs as well which we know as sunnah غير مؤكده in the subcontinent let us be diligent in those as well because of voluntary prayers ذوهر and إشراق name of the same prayer وابين after مغرب and ترويح as much as you can become diligent in those be as charitable as you can if we haven't given our زكا let this be a time in which we give our زكا and let this be a time in which we if we've already given in charity please give again and lastly what I want to share is that a lot of times people are funds too and they're all very very important but if there's one institution that has really been suffering during the course of this month has been our local مسجد no one has asked me to say this to you but I know this for a fact that the institution that is really struggling happens to be our local مسجد this year so let us do our part to make sure that we give to our local مسجد for its operations not for this program not for that program specifically for the operations so that the مسجد can continue their operations may Allah make this month a Mubarak one for all of us make these nights a Mubarak one for all of us insha'Allah I will keep you in my duas my entire community especially the MCC community that I have been dearly missing during the course of this month and I request all of you to keep me my children, my parents everyone in your blessed duas in these nights may Allah grant us all well-being and forgiveness last thing and I wanted to share this at the end the dua that we should make is oh Allah you are the one who forgives you love to forgive so forgive me in any language that you can many times as you can make it a zikr of an entire tasbih may Allah grant us his forgiveness جزاكم الله خير السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته