 والله الحمد إن الحمد لله لاحمده ونستعينه ونستخفره ونعود بالله من شرور أنفسنا ومن سيئات عمالنا من يندي الله فلا مضللا ومن يبدله فلا حاديلا وأشهدوا الله إلا الله وحده لا شريكلا وأشهدوا أن سيدنا محمد عبده ورسوله وصبيه وخليه خير ندي أرسله أرسله الله تبارك وتعالى رحمة للعالمين فقال بحبه وما أرسلناك إلا رحمة للعالمين يا أيها الناس تبوا ربكم إن زلزلت الساعة شيء عظيم يوم ترونها تذهل كل مرضعة عما أرضعت وطدر كل ذات حمن حملات والترون ناسة سكارة وما أهم بسكارة ولكن عذاب الله شديد اللهم جبنا من عذابك يا رب العالمين الحمد لله it is from the greatest blessings of Allah سبحانه وتعالى upon us that he has gathered us here today not only on the day of Friday but on a momentous occasion and just yesterday we were celebrating Aratha and the Divine Presence of Allah سبحانه وتعالى that day of gnosis that day of knowledge in which all of us be it in our homes be it the fujaj be it in the masajid we're all seeking Allah سبحانه وتعالى's mercy we're all seeking Allah سبحانه وتعالى's forgiveness and here we are today celebrating the fruits of life but what do these three days have in common the day of Friday the day of the Eve and the day of Aratha so Juma and Arabic comes from Jannah which means to collect to come together and the Eve means to return and Aratha is that day of knowledge and so the idea is that we return to Allah سبحانه وتعالى collectively seeking to renew our covenants with Him which Allah سبحانه وتعالى talks about in the Quran when he says وإذ أخذ ربك من بني آدم من ظهورهم ضريةهم وأشهدهم على أنفسهم I love to be your Lord قالوا بلا شهدنا أنتقولوا يوم القيامة إنا كنا عن هذا غاقلين so Allah سبحانه وتعالى speaks about this day in the Quran when he says addressing the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم when your Lord took out of the offspring from the lions of the children of Adam and made them bear witness about themselves Allah سبحانه وتعالى said to them am I not your Lord I bless to be your abdikum and how did mankind respond to that how did creation respond to that indeed we bear witness to you Allah سبحانه وتعالى and so Allah سبحانه وتعالى continues to say that on the day of resurrection so you cannot say on the day of resurrection that we were not aware of this of this covenant so as believers we have on a weekly basis on the day of Friday this constant renewal with Allah سبحانه وتعالى and on the day of Arafa and on the day of Eid Allah سبحانه وتعالى provides us with more and more opportunities to renew that contract with Him that divine contract with Him and so when we talk about the day of Arafa reflecting on yesterday's event what is Arafa and what makes Arafa so special some of the scholars actually say that this covenant took place at Arafa or on the day of Arafa when Allah سبحانه وتعالى created Adam before admitting him into paradise he created his children not in the forms that we are in right now but rather our souls or even in the forms of despects or atoms and Allah سبحانه وتعالى took that covenant with us and what was our response to that when Allah cried out and might not be your Lord it was better it wasn't even yes it was better verily indeed it was intuitive as if our souls were just predisposed to believe in Allah سبحانه وتعالى from that very first moment association and so again throughout our existence here in this world we are constantly reminded to do that covenant with Him because that is a covenant that we took upon ourselves on that very first day in that very first moment and so we did not only testify to that covenant but we also agreed to uphold that covenant and so we have to ask ourselves how are we upholding this covenant with Allah سبحانه وتعالى is it once a year is it once a month a week and what are we doing to uphold that covenant are we one actively exemplifying the guidance that has been bestowed upon us are we exemplifying the way of our Messenger Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم and the guidance and the example that he brought forth to us how are we trying to uphold our commitment with Allah سبحانه وتعالى and so one of the examples that we see is the example of إبراهيم عليه الصلاة والسلام the father of all prophets and in fact our Messenger our Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم and the Quran is told by Allah سبحانه وتعالى to look back at the example of إبراهيم so Allah addresses the Prophet when he says ثم أوحينا إليك أنت تبعملة إبراهيمة حنيفة وما كان من المشكين then we revealed to you Oh Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم follow the creed of إبراهيم follow the path of إبراهيم follow the religion of إبراهيم عليه الصلاة والسلام a man who had pure faith and who was not an idolater he did not associate partners with Allah سبحانه وتعالى and so we can see that there is a common issue here between the Prophet's life and إبراهيم عليه الصلاة والسلام we will expand on this in the second football for both of them if you look at the situation and the situation during the prophetic period and we look at what إبراهيم عليه الصلاة والسلام was dealing with with his own family with his own people and with his own father it was the idea that the Asnam were prevalent that people were not worshiping Allah سبحانه وتعالى directly but rather they were taking stones and other means of worshiping Allah سبحانه وتعالى essentially associating partners with Him قولوا قولي هذا وأستغفر الله علي ولكم واستغفروه وإنهوه وإنهوه الحمد لله والصلاة والسلام على رسول الله وعلى آله وصق به ومن وعلى قال الله تبارك وتعالى في كتابه العزيز إن الله وملايكته يصلون على الندي يا أيها الذين آمنه صلوا عليه وسلموا تسميما الله صلوا على سيدنا محمد وعلى آله سيدنا محمد كما صليت على سيدنا إبراهيم وعلى آله سيدنا إبراهيم في العالم وإن لك حميل المجيل ونرى أن when the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم is told to look at the example of Ibrahim عليه الصلاة والسلام we must reflect on the attributes that Allah سبحانه وتعالى characterizes Ibrahim عليه الصلاة والسلام with in the Quran so Allah سبحانه وتعالى says إن إبراهيم كان أمة barely indeed Ibrahim عليه الصلاة والسلام was a nation he was a civilization within himself and the scholars say several things about this they say that when he was a nation why because he perfected all attributes of praiseworthy and so one of the Arab poets says ليس على الله من مستنكين أن يجمع العالم علىنا في واحدين it is not objectionable for Allah سبحانه وتعالى to bring the universe into one and so Ibrahim عليه الصلاة والسلام was that universe he exemplified order discipline he had the Waqala and Allah سبحانه وتعالى he incocated attributes that were praiseworthy attributes another thing that the scholars mentioned in this regard is that he was one believer in a society that was prevalent with Khufra or disbelief so he was the only believer in his society and so when we reflect upon this often times be it in our professional settings in that school we find ourselves being that one Muslim or two Muslims or three Muslims and even as Muslims living in the state in the states we are a minority and so this belief is surrounded we are constantly ingrained with ideas that are antithetical to our own belief system and so this was Ibrahim عليه الصلاة والسلام but despite that despite being him that one individual who believed in Allah سبحانه وتعالى that gave him closeness to the one that gave him closeness to Allah سبحانه وتعالى because he didn't allow his predicament to people who were around him to influence that belief and so he was Mustafim but he was upright the third thing that they say about him being a nation is that he was a leader of guidance right and in Arabic and umma and individual who is teaching people all good so he is also attributed as being someone who is followed and Imam the second attribute that Allah سبحانه وتعالى described to Ibrahim عليه الصلاة والسلام with is he says he was obedient to Allah سبحانه وتعالى he was one who stood up for what Allah سبحانه وتعالى had commanded him to do and we see this on their day of aid that he went out and he broke all of the he smashed all of the idols with an axe and he left an axe hanging on the biggest idol so that they can all reflect and see that even the greatest idol from the idols that they were worshiping could not stop this act of Ibrahim عليه الصلاة والسلام so essentially this rock was useless what was the result of this they asked who did this who did this for idols call you call you the whole Ibrahim they said that we heard about a young man Ibrahim and they they didn't accuse him of doing it but he didn't he didn't and so as a result of that the account people collected a fire and it was such a great fire that people couldn't even get close to it so they had to catapult Ibrahim عليه الصلاة والسلام into this fire now as Ibrahim عليه الصلاة والسلام is being thrown into this fire mid-air perhaps what is he saying he sang what the khujaj were repeating these past few days لبقى الله مُمَا لَبَيْ لَبَيْكَ لَا شَرِكَ لَكَ لَبَيْكَ إنَّ الحمدَة والنامَّة لَكَ والمُلْكَ لَا شَرِكَ لَا so even in that moment he wasn't complaining he was not thinking about his state but rather he was showing the state of gratitude to Allah سبحانه وتعالى because he knew that what was happening to him was only getting him closer to Allah سبحانه وتعالى so he wasn't looking at the material he wasn't concerned about what he was going to be thrown into at the moment but rather what the outcome of that tribulation would be and so he was looking up to Allah سبحانه وتعالى and the result when he's in the fire كُونِ بَوْدَنُ وَسَلَانَ وَنَا عَلَى رَبْرَانْهِمْ be peaceful and gentle to Ibrahim A.S. and in that moment what does Ibrahim A.S. do he's standing in prayer he's again thanking Allah سبحانه وتعالى what do we do when we're fired with the Islamic homes when we're fired by individuals who disagree with us what does our state look like then what is our response and who are we returning to these are questions that we need to ask ourselves on a daily level and this is why it becomes important for us to look at the examples of these people such as Ibrahim A.S. to turn back to them for inspiration and try to exemplify them and in conclusion there's other attributes that were given to Ibrahim A.S. but I'll just note of just being appreciative of the blessing that Allah سبحانه وتعالى the blessing of believing in Him it's one that we cannot even fathom but we are thankful for and we ask Allah سبحانه وتعالى to preserve because there's a lot of people out there who are trying to take that away from you and I on the day of Arafa during the Prophet A.S. his final sermon there's one verse that's revealed that on this day I have perfected your religion I have completed my blessing upon you and I am pleased as Islam the religion of Islam as my religion I Allah سبحانه وتعالى's religion this was revealed on that very same mountain that we took that original covenant with Allah سبحانه وتعالى on and so interestingly now some of the scholars actually said that this verse was revealed on this has been Allah سبحانه وتعالى's opinion on the day of the raid one it occurred on Friday and so this verse was even applicable to us today or yesterday but we have to really think about this blessing we really have to not only then think about it but try to embody it and once we embody it that's when our state of consciousness will be a state in which we are constantly remembering Allah سبحانه وتعالى the form the prayer everything that we do towards worshiping Allah سبحانه وتعالى will become more and more meaningful and that is how our purpose is created is created through consistency and that consistency will hopefully gain us a greater consciousness in Allah سبحانه وتعالى so we can realize the blessing that Allah سبحانه وتعالى has bestowed us with so that we can continue to testify and then be examples for each other and that is upholding a covenant to not only keep it through ourselves but then through our character through our action through our state of being others will recognize us without having for us to even state that we're Muslim publicly people will look at us and say this person is a Muslim I know this person I can respect this person because I know what they stand for so with that I ask Allah سبحانه وتعالى to make us a break I ask Allah سبحانه وتعالى to allow us to renew that covenant throughout our lives that Allah سبحانه وتعالى creates that state of consciousness within us so that we are not waiving by the individuals who are trying to take our religion away from us they are trying to attack our ideals and that I ask Allah سبحانه وتعالى that he make us all individuals who are Khalid الله that we become friends of Allah سبحانه وتعالى and that we become people who are beloved to Allah سبحانه وتعالى through our actions and through our state of being ربنا قاتنا في الدنيا حسنا وفي الأثرات حسنا وفينا عذابنا يا مقالب القلوب يثبت قلوبنا على دينك يا مقالب القلوب يثبت قلوبنا على دينك يا مقالب القلوب يثبت قلوبنا على طاعتك يا مقالب القلوب يثبت قلوبنا على محبتك يا الله we ask you for firmness in our religion يا الله we ask you for your love يا الله we ask that you assist those who are going through difficulties be they in our household be they in our personal lives be they in our communities be they around the world يا الله there's a lot of people who are suffering on this day يا الله please bring joy to them allow us to be conscious of some of the suffering that they are feeling so that we can be sympathetic to them and that we can give to them يا الله I'll make us people of service I'll make us people of service to you and to your creation and with that I wish you all a very good night because I'm going to say Peace be upon you