 On the day of Arafah, on the last year of our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam's life, when he made the Hajj, his one and final Hajj, he was with his companions and they prayed the Asr. The day was Juma Friday. Arafah fell on Friday in that year. And then he started writing his camel and a revelation came to him. A revelation that became for some people because they got the Isharah, they got the indication from this revelation that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam's life is coming to an end. But it's also a joyous occasion for the believers, for the Muslims. The Qur'an reminds us, Today, we have perfected this, Deen for you. And our favors, we have completed our favors for you. We are ready to give you Islam and Deen. And we have chosen for you Islam submission to the will of Allah SWT, willingly submitting to Allah, as your religion. Sayyidna Umar said that how beautifully it came on the day of Arafah, because we celebrate the next day as Eid. And we should be celebrating this verse that Allah has given us a perfect and complete way of life. Abdullah Ansari, one of the commentators of the Qur'an, who generally looks at the mysteries of the Qur'an and the spiritual aspect of these verses, he said something really beautiful. He said, the Deen is perfect. The blessings of Allah is amazing. What about us? What about the human being? What about the believers? How could we get to our perfection to become that Insan al-Kamil? How could we arrive to the full potential that Allah has put inside of us? So he said, there are four stations that you have to go through, and there are four bridges you have to cross, in order to get to the valley of human perfection, where you would see your own beauty, your own meaning, and you would see the full potential that Allah has created you. He said, the first one is the station where you obey Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with all the fara'id. Everything that He has made mandatory on you, you obey Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and you do it. And the things that are mandatory are not a lot. There's a science in Islam called farad-e-ain. This is knowledge that everybody is incumbent among everybody. Everyone has to know this knowledge. There's no excuse. You can't go on the Yom al-Qiyamah standing in front of Allah. He said, Ya Allah, I didn't fast because I didn't know the rules of fasting. It doesn't work. I didn't know how to make wudu properly. I didn't know how to pray. There's no excuse. It's farad-e-ain on every Muslim to know how to do these things and to learn those because Talab al-ain faridatun ala kulli muslimin wa muslima in a narration that seeking knowledge is a must for all of the Muslim men and women that you have to learn this knowledge that is farad on you and then to practice it. He's saying to practice that which is mandatory. That's the number one fear. Once you get out of this, you go to the next station which is to stay away from that which Allah has made haram. Because things that are haram, see, everything in the world comes with an instruction manual. When you buy something, it has a manual. You buy a phone, it has a manual. A vacuum cleaner, it has a manual like how to use it. It says, oh, this is electronic. Don't put it in the water, right? Don't put it in the fire. Why is the person who invented that thing has the instruction manual? Because if you put a vacuum cleaner in water, you're going to damage it. You're going to destroy it. Well, there is a manual for the human being that Allah has given us. It's the Quran in the sunnah of our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that there is a manual and staying away from those things that actually destroys us. Those things that are haram is part of the manual to tell us that these things will actually destroy us if we try it. This is one of the things, you know, Mawlana Rumi said something really beautiful. He said, you try everything in this world except poison. And they said, why? He said, which idiot will try poison? They said, let me see if this really kills me or not. But if it's poison, it will kill you if you drink it. Nobody will drink it. Well, unless Shaitan repackages that and put a different logo on it and different symbol. And this is what we are living in a time that people are sinful because of the packaging. They can't read through the lines. They can't see between the lines. So the third one that he said, those who are coming late, the eight, four station and four bridges to the valley or the land of perfection. So then he said that you have to have tawakko to Allah on your rizq. You have to have tawakko to Allah on your rizq. That your rizq, your sustenance, you have to really trust in Allah that Allah will provide. That doesn't mean you don't work. That doesn't mean you don't work. Ghar tawakkol mikuni dharkon. Keshkon pastakebar jabbar kon. Rumi said, if you're going to do tawakkol, do the work. And then trust in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We plan to see. We do. But Allah is the one who's going to give tawfiq in that seed or not. And rizq is very interesting. In our tradition, we say a guest comes to your house with their own provision. In other words, they're going to come and eat what's written for them already. Allah has written for them that they're going to eat that food in your house. This is the nature of rizq. He said, isn't it funny how much you love your rizq? But your rizq loves you more than you love it because it was created for you. And it's going to come for you because it was created for you. So we don't have to really, you know, people who work day and night to just... And they have heart attack and they die at a young age because they want to get more rizq. But rizq is written, it's come. All you have to do, you go after it, but you don't kill yourself for it because it desires you as more than you desire it. And it's written, when I was young, about seven years old, I broke my arm and I was in a hospital in Afghanistan. And they used to bring me this room that was like maybe 10 other patients in the room. So they would bring me food from home. And I wouldn't eat until I lost my appetite completely. And there was an old man in the other bed. And they would say, would you like it? And this old man had an appetite. I've never seen a man, old man, eat like that. And he would eat our entire plate. And he would constantly say every day, he would say, man, who planted this? Who grew it? Who cut it? Who sold it? Who bought it? Who cooked it? And who's eating it? Every plate of food that we give him, and I was in the hospital for about a week, every day, he would keep repeating that to himself. That's knowing that Allah is in charge. He's the one who provides. If it's written for you, it's going to come. If it's written for you, it's going to come. And the next one, he said, you have to have patience. This is the fourth station. You have to have patience with trials and tribulations that comes in life. One of the things about this dunya, people are disappointed in the dunya because they think dunya is a place of beauty and fun and play and games. But they don't know the reality of the dunya. If you look at the world, then that way you're going to be disappointed. But if you look from the way of the spiritual masters, what we, you know, said that I've learned this from the spiritual masters at dunya Darul Hammin, Wa Ghamin, Wa Talaim, Wa Fitnah. This is a qaeda that many of the people of spirituality mentioned that this dunya is a place of anxieties, of pain and suffering and trials and tribulations and betrayal. This is the dunya. And if you look at the world from this prism, from this lens, you're not going to be disappointed. You're ready for it. You know what it gives you. You know what it gives you because people have pain and they don't know how to deal with it. And they're like, why am I in pain? Why am I in pain? Allah is giving, we don't ask for pain. We don't ask for death. This is the religion of life. But if Allah gives you, right, if Allah gives you pain, then you have to know how to deal with that. Be patient with that. You have to be patient with that. And no, Mawlana has a beautiful story about Fira'un. He said, look at Fira'un and his dominion, what God has given him. Look at him. He has power. He has soldiers. He has many women bowing down to him. He said he gave him so much power, he actually thought he was God. Rumi said, God gave him everything to the degree that he called himself God. But one thing God didn't give him, pain. He didn't give him a headache. 40 years Fira'un, 40 years. He never had a headache, why? So he doesn't say, oh my God, my head hurts. Rumi said, Allah's name is so beautiful that Fira'un's tongue was not worthy of saying that. To say, oh my God, my head hurts. And this is the nature of pain. Whenever someone has pain, even if they're atheists, they say, oh my God, my head hurts. It's a Fira'un state that you call upon God. Call upon God. So why didn't he give him? Because of the moments that pain drives people too. One of the secret of pain is that it drives you to a corner where you're all alone, even if you're in the Anjuman, even if you're a gathering, you're alone when you're in pain. He said, Rumi said, that moment is priceless. That moment when you're alone with the alone in your broken hearted, in your in pain. And he said that you can't even call upon God with his name because you can't pronounce his name anymore with the pain. And I said, that's all you do. He said, but Allah knows. Allah knows that you're calling on him. And that is Ismul A'adhan. He said, that is the greatest name of Allah when you can't even make sense out of it. But Allah knows your heart that you're calling upon him with pain. Khondana Bidar as Afsor the Geest. Khondana Bidar as Dilbur the Geest. Rumi ends it and he says, to call upon God without pain, everyone can do that. Anyone can do that. But to call upon Allah when you're in pain, you must be a true lover. Only a lover can do that. Only a lover can do that. And that's the fourth valley that you, the station that you go. And then you get to the four bridges. The four bridges. So the first bridge is the bridge of Rida. You have to have Rida with the decree of Allah SWT. This contentment, this pleasure with the decree of Allah SWT, they are pleased with Allah and Allah is pleased with them. This is the beautiful Qaeda in the Quran. Allah is pleased with them and they are pleased with Allah SWT. These are the people of paradise. These are the people of success that they are pleased with Allah SWT because one is Qabul, right? One of you accept things. When something comes, calamity comes to you. They say, you know what Qabul, I accept it. But the other is you are pleased with it. Whatever comes from my Lord, unhappy. I'll take it. The Urdu poet said, I was alone one night. He said, I was alone one night and I was with the alone. And this is when you are really alone and everything else phases out and you are just what Allah SWT and I told and I asked Allah, I said, Ya Allah, do you accept the way of success? O my heart, accept it with pleasure. Either teach me to accept things that they are or put the ridah in my heart. This, this cause of just being content and pleased with what comes from you. That is a really, that's a high maqam to be pleased with what Allah sends to us. The second bridge is the bridge of Tawakko. Tawakko to Allah in all your affairs. In all your affairs, you have to have trust in Allah SWT. Most people trust science. Most people trust, you know, this and that. Our trust first and foremost is Allah SWT. That doesn't mean we abandon means. That doesn't mean we abandon. We don't have a security system in our business in our homes. That's not what it means. We are people of Aqal. Allah has given us intellect. But even with that, even with that the Prophet SAW said, tie your camel in trust in Allah SWT. You can tie your camel and it could still run away. You can tie your camel, it still can run away. And you can leave your camel and Allah can make it stay. But tie your camel in trust in Allah SWT. This is our way. So I have trust in Allah SWT. And the third one, he said, shukr in the ni'ma of Allah. When Allah gives you a ni'ma, be a shaker. The Quran reminds us beautifully about Dawood AS. I amaloo aali Dawood. Work of the family of Dawood wa qaleenum min ibadiyah shakur. Very few of my servants are grateful. Are people of gratitude. La'in shakartum la'azidannakum. The Quran is a formula. If you do this, I will do that. Allah says, if you're grateful, I'll give you more to be grateful. And by mafum mohalifah, by the opposite meaning of the verse, if you're complaining, Allah will give you more to complain about. So just being grateful, and this is a therapy that they're doing now with a lot of people who have depression. They say, just every day write down five to ten things you're grateful to. Within a month, they're actually happy because gratitude engenders happiness. This is the beauty of being a shaker. Being someone who is abdun shakur. Abdun shakur, the Prophet SAW was always in the state of gratitude. And to a point, a Muslim should become gratitude himself, in herself. You rise to this level where when you are the gratitude, you are a symbol of gratitude walking, you become the gift, you become the gratitude, because you practice it every day, and it becomes habitual, it becomes part of your lives. I say, We're talking about four stations and four bridges to cross in order to get to the valley of perfection, in San Al-Kamal to live our full potential. And these are secrets from the great master, Abdullah Al-Ansari who died in Afghanistan in 481 a beautiful man a hambulite scholar and a spiritual master. The last one that he says, the last bridge to cross is the bridge of Ikhlas. Ikhlas in your action number one Ikhlas in the khidmah that you do, service number two and Ikhlas in ma'rifah in the path of knowledge and learning and seeking and getting close to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. The Sahabas, they were more concerned about the acceptance of their deeds than the action of their deeds. They were more concerned that wall Allah accept this. In other words, is there Ikhlas is their sincerity because they were afraid of riyah of doing it out of, not out of Ikhlas. And Ikhlas there's a mystery in Ikhlas one of the things that Ansari says he says Ikhlas is aziz, it's precious and it doesn't go to every household and every person. Like you really have to work on yourself, on your nafs to attain the station of sincerity. The Quran mentions about the people of Ikhlas. Ma'rif Khurqi one of the masters, spiritual master one day he was hitting himself and one of the students saw him with a whip, he was hitting his stomach and he said, what are you doing? He said, I'm disciplining my nafs and I'm telling him, have Ikhlas and you'll be free. Have Ikhlas, you'll be free. I'll leave you alone because even at that level they were afraid of losing their Ikhlas. The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam a hadith that is related by Khozaifa and Abdullah Ansari mentions this in his tafsir and also a Risala of Imam Ghoshadi mentions it in the Ahya Imam Ghazali narrates this as well in Ibn Arabi narrates this many of the scholars as the hadith Hassan a lot of scholars say it's da'if but it's a beautiful hadith where the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam asked Jibril alaihi wa sallam what is Ikhlas and then Jibril asks Allah s.w.t and Allah answers and it's called Hadith Qutzi so Allah s.w.t says that here Ikhlas sirrun min asrari Ikhlas is a secret from my secrets from Allah's mysteries istauda'atu qalbum man ahbabta min ibadih that I put in the heart and puts it in the heart of those believers those of my servant that I love and this is why if you look at the people of Ikhlas everybody loves everyone loves people of sincerity there's nobody to say you know what he's very sincere in his Ikhlas it doesn't matter in every tradition in every tradition people of Ikhlas are honored in every tradition especially in our tradition Ikhlas is the foundation of practice on the path of spirituality Ikhlas is the foundation on the path of Islam of learning that you have to be sincere when you walk into this path the people of spirituality they say that Ikhlas that action is a seed knowledge is a seed that's what we learn we want to have a seed knowledge is a seed and your action is planting that seed but the water of it is Ikhlas maintenance of that tree is Ikhlas the fruit that it bears is Ikhlas all of that is Ikhlas if a person doesn't have Ikhlas they have a barren tree without any fruits the fruits in the dunya and the fruits in the Akhira the Sa'ada in the world and hereafter is founded on Ikhlas and sincerity and may Allah make us amongst the people of Ikhlas inshallah wa ta'ala give us to ufiq that we actually practice these inshallah and be amongst the people who practice these and be amongst this gathering of the four categories of people that Allah mentions in the Quran amongst the prophets amongst the Siddiqs and amongst the martyrs and amongst the truthful which they are all Siddiqs as we know that every prophet is a Siddiq every prophet is also a martyr every prophet is a righteous and every the ranking of it goes that the highest has the lowest in them they have that Alhamdulillah Allah has given them that muqam