 with your brother, sisters, youngsters, and elders as the blessed month of Dhulqa'idah dawns upon us we are reminded upon the beautiful journey of Ibrahim alaihi salam and many times we hear the high points of the journey and the successes of the journey and this is what at many times allowed us to enjoy the story feel a sense of connection to the story but the reality of the matter is any individual that has come into this world that has become a beacon of light that has become a source of change that has become a foundation of people turning towards Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala they have consistent stories and journeys and among those journeys Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala highlights wa idhiba ta'ala Ibrahim arabbuhu that there are tests and there are challenges and through those challenges and the ability to persevere through those challenges Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allows there to be light for the ummah to benefit from there were challenges in Makkah there were challenges in the journey of the Prophet starting his message where his own family would leave him and persecute them and even kill people like Sumayyah and Yafsa or the Allah and Humayn they became Shaheeds there were challenges in Ta'if there were challenges in moving to Medina in the journey of Hijrah there were challenges in the blessed city of Medina though there was light and there was ease and peace and Anas ibn Malik, Allah says when he entered the city it was as if the entire city had lit up there was nothing but light there was light Hassan Nathabit says when the Prophet came to Medina the people of Medina specifically the Jews came to me at this point he was not a Muslim and they said that you have a very sharp tongue and you are known to be a poet we want that you stand at the bottom of this hill and when this man who claims to be a Prophet walked down the hill and he is a man that has snatched from us the honor of this community because when the Prophet came the authority of the community turned towards him we want that you say something about him that will blemish his honor that will tarnish his respect and that will be a taint or a stain upon him he's waiting on the bottom of the hill preparing couplets in his mind and then Muhammad ﷺ walks down the hill and he sees him and he is forced to say when I saw his eyes the moment that the beautiful face of the Prophet in the rays from his face touched upon my eyes I took my palm and I covered my eyes I did not cover my eyes because it was too heavy or too strong or it was not a beautiful sight to look at rather it was the most beautiful sight to look at I covered my eyes because I couldn't stand if I looked at this man for a moment longer perhaps Allah would snatch my eyesight away so I would look up and look back down there were challenges in Medina when I showed you Allah and I came to the Prophet ﷺ and said what was the most difficult day you have seen in your life for people like you and I it's quite easy to answer that question because Allah ﷺ tests based upon our capacity a man that has lost six of his seven children and buried them with his own hands a man that had to bury his supporter in Khadija and his uncle and Hamza and Abu Talib asked that person what was the most difficult day of your life and try to find a response he says in Makkah it was the day of Ta'if where I was pelted like no other and in Medina it was the day of Uhud where I lost my uncle Hamza there were challenges and at the end of these challenges was Ida Jaa and Nasrullah and Fatah was a victory in a conquest similarly there was the journey of Ibrahim and the challenges that he faced were normally a person that seeks success in any journey of life requires family support financial support mental support institutional support he was ripped away and stripped away of all of that where his own father said to him that if you continue preaching that what you preach and speaking of that what you speak of I will either stone you and shame you in public or you better leave me and don't come back don't look back at me that same individual is seen in the community to be an honorable youngster raised by the community and now being thrown in the fire in front of the entire community the factor of family isn't there there were challenges and the challenges were not such that they came once and they stopped where Hassan al-Basri says that a believer continues to struggle like a person who drowns in a body of water where waves are coming and plummeting upon him or her and they're able to find their way out of those waves and for a moment they're able to breathe and once again a wave hits them and they're challenged again Ya ayyuha l-insanu innaka kadihun ila rabbika kad hanfa mulaqi that all my all humans you will have to continue to find a struggle and see struggle upon struggle but the challenge that we have is through all of those struggles how do we persevere how do we stay upon the path which Allah has set for us and we seek guidance from the journey of Ibrahim where he's left his city of Iraq goes to Misr and goes to Palestine and finally settles and has children after 80 years of his life Allah gives him Ishaq and Ismail struggle upon struggle you know when everything seems like it's finally at the point where you want it to be you're told once again leave your beautiful gardens of Quds leave the land of your leave the land that you have sex and go to a land that is an unknown place we will tell you we are telling you to travel but we're telling you to leave without knowing where the destination is we don't leave our homes without having a destination on our GPS we have to know where we are going even if it's a 20 minute drive Allah tells you to leave and travel where do I go ya Allah I'll let you know when do I stop I'll let you know and this is the definition of what allows us to succeed despite our challenges the definition of I have submitted myself in every way possible to the command of Allah instantaneous response the difference between Abu Bakr and all the other companions was that he accepted without hesitation without reluctancy when we think and calculate in use our mind for the commands of Allah that is hesitation that is reluctancy and within that window is what shaitan finds to be his playground and he allows his unique assets to go to work where that small window of one day becomes a window of one month and we are all culprits of this I will do it tomorrow becomes I will do it next year hence Allah swt when highlighting one of the differences between the hypocrites and believers in Surah Hadid he says that when the believers will have a light on the day of judgment that they will be guided from the light where ibn abba says where we make wudhu and where our body parts touch the ground and such that Allah will give us light and we will be able to see with that light and the munafiqoon will say they will say to the believers hey give me some light too so that I can see and we can also be guided just like you and the caller will say retreat move back find your own light find your own light a wall will be dropped in between them to separate yom ul furqan to separate between those who accepted and those who did not accept and then from behind the wall these people will say which literally is translated as were we not with you why have we been separated why have we put why have we been put in a different room we came together we prayed together we were together why have we been separated for and the response will be quite interesting but no we were together we were actually together but you want to know what the difference is the difference between us being on this side of the wall and you being on the other side of the wall is we did not delay in upholding the commands of Allah what the Rabbas tomb and you delayed you constantly delayed and because of that delay of yours you were made to fall into doubts into double think every command of Allah if there was someone that had you right to ask why it was Ibrahim why should I leave my six-month-old toddler and my wife in a land in a land that has no fruits no crops vegetation no signs of life no human being there's no one here when our parents left their countries and came here they did not come to leave a better life and to find a worse life they left to find more peace more security more ease more comfort when we drop off our family members when we go on journeys we don't leave them with strangers we leave them with people that we know can take care of them and she is being left in an empty desert as far as the eye can see there is no sign of life this is not rational decision-making this is obedience to a command of Allah that when the command of Allah comes there is Sama'ana and Ata'ana we listen and we obey in the people of Jahannam they say in Surah Mulk وقالوا لو كنا نسمعوا we wish we listened we wish we obeyed the difference between those one will say we listened but we disobeyed and the others will say we listened and we obeyed she follows her husband for three miles to five miles into a place where she's called Gaya and she finally asks Allahu Amarak has this command come from Allah has this command come from Allah so it wasn't about what the command was in the details and the technicalities and legalities it was about what was the source of the command what is our point of reference of success what is our point of reference of happiness what is our point of reference of decision-making if the point of reference conflicts and if the point of references are many then decision-making becomes difficult because there's so many ways that we're being pulled for her it was one point of reference and that point of reference is is this Allah's command and Ibrahim A.S. nods his head and he says yes she then says إِذَنْ لَنْ يُضَيْعَنَ اللَّهُ أَبَدَىَ if that's the case Allah will never waste us because we are upholding the command of Allah and then she runs from Safa in Marwa not seeking help for herself but seeking help for her child in Isma'een from one part of the mountain to the next and we go for Umrah and Hajr and Allah take us again and again and this is one of the most difficult parts of the journey even though it's AC tiles and covered and beautiful beautiful structures and infrastructure it's a difficult process imagine in the heat of the sun running back and forth to find something that she could help her child with this is what Imam A.S. says since her form of making dua'a was so unique she could have sat on the side of the mountain and just raised her hands and said ya Allah give me water ya Allah give me help but since her form of making dua'a was so unique it was a masterpiece of making dua'a which is إِيَاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَاكَ نَستَعِيمَ that our dua'a is made while we're making the effort our dua'a is not made while we are working we're waiting for the effort to be made the greatest dua'a is that the dua'a's are made while we are struggling for Allah since her dua'a was a unique way of asking the response was also very unique the response could have came from a rain cloud the response could have came from a traveler coming and giving her water the response could have came from Jibril coming and giving her water but it was a unique response a miraculous response that till today we can benefit from and see and the Qaim Rahimullah says not only has Allah preserved where she ran from and where she went to Safa in Madua he has also preserved how she did it where she ran we run where she walked we walk if we run where she walked and if we walk where she ran our Umrah has been compromised and our Sa'i has been compromised it's not about what we did it's how we did it and Allah honored that of hers there was no clock keeper no cameras Olympics where she stopped we stopped Allah was there for the cameras and Jibril was there as the clock keeper until today we embody that same movement of hers not because of the movement is important but because of the reason being important the reason was I am pleasing Allah the movements were secondary the source of motivation was primary and that source of motivation was to please Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and because of their sacrifice the entire family every individual in that family had a role in this beautiful city being built we have today the beautiful city of Makkah-ul-Mukarrama where there was no individual that wished to live there now every single person hearts heart yearns to go there where it was a city where there was no vegetation is now a city with multiple forms of income not because it was fertilized through education not because it was founded and predicated upon wealth but rather it being fertilized and founded based upon sacrifice for Allah in tears for the ummah and now that city remains to be the most lit city in the world so my dear brothers and youngsters similarly for us if we want our home to be a beacon of light and to be a place where Allah uses to spread guidance we have to follow that same blueprint that same process and say don't fix what is not broken the process is where Allah's command comes we say the story of Ibrahim is not a story just to think about and say wow what a beautiful individual there's a reason why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala honored his story in the Qur'an in multiple ways to an extent that we have to say his name in our durood because who watched tabaqum he is the one that named us Muslims millata abikum Ibrahim who was sammakum al muslimin and by doing so he also set the framework of success and that framework is where we see Allah's commands we are able to find a way to implement him and if we cannot we seek forgiveness as all of us are indeed weak and all of us will continue to sin but the idea of hajj and the idea of hajr and the idea of ismail was not that there was everything every factor of success was already set up so they succeeded was rather quite the opposite where every factor was not present but they were able to succeed because they had the most important element which was the submission of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala iqbal says may Allah make us amongst those that can sacrifice for him make us amongst those that can lose sleep for him make us amongst those that can stand up at night for him make us amongst those that can give preference to him everyone sacrifices it's all about what we choose to sacrifice for wa akhud a'awna alhamdulillahi rabbil a'lamin