 In alhamdulillah, naḥmadu wa nasta'inu wa nastaqfiru wa n'a'udhu billahi min shur'uri an-fus'ina wa min sayyia'ati a'mālinā man yahdihilā fā la mudillālā wa la miyadu l-fālihādiyilā wa ashadu an-lā ilāhi illā lā wahduhu lā sharika lah wa ashadu an-lā muḥammadan a'abduhu wa rasuluhu Alhamdulillah, praise be to Allah subhāna wa ta'ālā for the opportunity to see the last Friday of this blessed month of Ramadan every day is a blessed day but these last ten days are very exclusive for the ummah of the Prophet ﷺ with all its merits. Traditionally, our scholars and our ulama, they were always worried about something different than the general ummah were concerned with. Most of us, we are worried about how we can get closer to Allah. This is our general and it should be how to get closer to Allah subhāna wa ta'ālā, how to do good things and how to move on the ladder of spirituality. But they had a fear and their fear was how we can protect ourselves from falling from the ladder, how we can protect ourselves from losing the rewards, how we can protect ourselves from going bankrupt because on this path you could actually fall really bad if you're not careful. So this is the way of the ulama that they were always worried about and how to protect themselves from falling. Abu Hayyā, there's a beautiful scholar, this is in Resolute Imam Ghoshayri, he mentions this about Abu Uthman al-Hayri who wrote a letter to Abu Abdullāh Muḥammad ibn Fadr al-Balkhī and Abu Uthman hired a great scholar himself but this shows the humility of them when they write letters and ask questions because it's just through humility is one of the greatest doors of learning. One of the greatest doors of learning is humility. This is why if you look at the sahabah amongst when they were around the Prophet ﷺ, when the Prophet asked the sahabah question, what was the response? And some of the questions that are in the Ahadith, you read it, we know the answer and we barely have any knowledge of Islam. You think they didn't know? You think Ali, Karam, Allāhu wajjū, the man of hikmah, wisdom doesn't know the answer? You think Abu Bakr said they didn't know the answer? They all, most of them they knew the answer, but what did they say? Allāhu Rasūlu Llāh. Just the humility, Allāhu Rasūlu Llāh knows best, right? That humility opened the doors of knowledge and that's why that community, the first community, they are the exemplary community of knowledge. So he said in his letter to him, he said, O Shaykh, I have a question for you. Can you give me the alāmat, the signs of shiqawah, of wretchedness? He wanted to protect himself from becoming a wretched person. He didn't want to fall and go into that state. This is the worry of him. I don't want to become a wretched person. This is what I say to Umar. He was asking, Tell me, do you see nifāq in me? Am I a munafiq? Umar is asking, do you see any signs of nifāq in me? So I can rectify myself. This is the worry of the ulema. He writes back to him, he said there are signs of wretchedness and there are three signs that if you have these and if Allah afflicted you with that, then you are not a righteous person. You're a wretched person. So what's the first one is that these are the people. He said that Allah has given them knowledge but didn't give them tofīq to put those knowledge into action. They have the knowledge but they haven't, they were beg from doing that, putting that into action. Knowledge without action. In our religion, the highest level is to actually know Allah swt. That's the highest level. If we look at the verse of the Qur'an where Allah says, وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنَّ وَالْإِنْسْ إِلَّا الْيَعْبُدُونَ We have not created a jinn and a human being except to worship us. Ibn Abbas said, إِلَّا الْيَعْبُدُونَ مِيز إِلَّا الْيَعْرِفُونَ It means in order for you to have ma'rifah of Allah, to know Allah. In another word, worship is through knowledge. You have to know in order to worship Allah swt. You can't worship out of ignorance. And this is why our religion, the foundation of our deen is knowledge. What does the Qur'an begin the first revelation? Allah tells His Prophet, إِقْرَ رِيدْ بِسْمِ رَبْبِ كَلَّذِ خَلَقْ In the name of your Lord who has created you. Look at this first seven verses that was revealed to the Prophet ﷺ. خَلَقَ الْإِنْسَانَ مِنْ عَلَقْ He's teaching him now, where do you come from? The source of human being from عَلَقْ إِقْرَ رِيدْ وَرَبُكَ الْأَكْرَمْ Then he's showing, who is your Lord? Who is your Lord? It is Allah swt. He's kareem. Allah is generous. Right? يَا إِهَا الْإِنْسَانَ مَا غَرَّكَ بِرَبْبِكَ الْكَرِيمْ Oh human being, what has deluded you from Allah swt? A Lord that is so generous. The ulama say the answer is already in the verse. What has deluded you from His generosity? A Lord that is so generous. It is His generosity that has deluded us. The generosity of Allah has deluded us from Him. From seeing is who He is. Allah swt. الذي حلم بالقلم He taught you how to use the pen, the writing, the tools of knowledge. It's all about knowledge. It's all about knowledge. And then the Qur'an says اللذين أوت العلم درجة Allah has given those people that He has given knowledge. They raise them in a degree. And they have a daraja. هل يستوي اللذين يعلمون واللذين يعلمون It's a Qur'anic question. This is what they call a rhetorical question when there's no answer to it because it's so wabih, it's so clear. It's clear. Are those the same? Those that we have given them knowledge and those that don't have knowledge? No, of course they're not. Allah doesn't even answer it because وَمَا يَسْتُوِ الْأَمَا وَالْبَصِيرَ The Qur'an in another place says those who are blind and those who can see they are not the same. They're not the same. Those who've been giving knowledge and those who don't have knowledge they're not the same. But knowledge is the foundation of this religion because through knowledge you learn how to worship your Lord. You learn who you are. You learn where you came from. You learn where you're at. And فَأَيْنَ تَدْحَبُونَ You get the answer to this Qur'anic question. Where then are you going? And that is the great question that every human being must come face to face with it. Where then are you going? Where do you think you're going? Where do you think? All of cosmos. Why is it that everything is going in circle in the cosmos and everything is moving towards the destination? Where are they going? Everybody's going to Allah SWT. Every one of us will stand in front of Allah SWT. So the knowledge, the foundation of the Deen is knowledge. The Prophet SAW said فَضَلُ العَلِمَ لَلْعَبِتْ كَفَضَلُ قَمْرِ عَلَسْسَئِرِ الْكَوَكِبْ The preference of the Aalim over the Aalim the regular worshiper is like the preference of the moon over the stars. And our sheikh said both moon and the stars they get the light from the sun. But the moon gives out the light back to the earth. So you can see your path in the darkness of the night. Right? It illuminates the way for you. There's the nature of the moon. There's the nature of the scholars. Khajab Dalal Ansari the great sage of Herat said اَلْعَلْمِ بِعَمَلْ مِسْلَكُرِ شَرَخْبَ دَسْسَئِرِ An Aalim who doesn't have action is like a blind man with a flashlight in his hand. He doesn't benefit but here's the secret of this beautiful statement. He doesn't benefit from it but other people can benefit. You can benefit. There are people who say oh, I don't want to study with so and so. Right? Because he has a aim but he doesn't have amal. He doesn't have action. Our sheikh told us go get the aim from him and you put it to action. Go grab it from him. He's just a carrier. He's not worthy of it. Right? So the action the Sahaba were more concerned about the acceptance of their action than the action itself. Would this be accepted? Right? This is amal for the knowledge that Allah has given us. This is extremely important that when we learn something we practice it. Everything that we learn we practice it. When we teach our children something we let them practice that thing until they get to the level of perfection. Insha'Allah wa ta'ala. So the second thing for the sake of time he said the second thing out of the three he said the one who has been given action but he hasn't been given sincerity in his action ikhlas. What is ikhlas? What is ikhlas? Ikhlas is to do an action and you don't want anyone to see you. That's ikhlas. You actually don't want anyone to see you doing a good action because it's sincerely and fully for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. You can't have a mixed action. You can't. You can't have action that oh I'm doing for the sake of Allah I'm doing for my nafs and I'm doing for the snow. It's either for your nafs or for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Say Na'ali there's a story in the Musnari of Rumi said Na'ali was in a battle and he he came face to face with a with a pagan and said Na'ali defeated him and you know Sun Tzu in the Art of War says that the greatest moment for the warrior is when he gets to that level this is what they call in the traditional sciences they'll call Sa'a the happiness. Happiness is when you reach your goal. For a mountain climber happiness is when you reach that top of the mountain that he always wanted to. For the one who loves medicine as happiness is when they become the doctor because they always wanted to become a doctor. For a warrior the happiness in that moment you defeated the enemy. This is it. You are the pinnacle. This is the adrenaline rush in you. And then he the man when he defeats him he wants to kill him and then the man spits spits in his face in the face of Say Na'ali. And Maulana says they say this is the greatest praise of Ali in all of literature. Right? He says he spat in the face that every Wali in every prophet loves this face in the face of Ali. That's the face that he spat in. But Ali Karamallahu had you stop fighting. He said I'm not going to fight you. And he tied him up. And the man said why did you stop? You were supposed to kill me. And then you stop. I spat in your face. I suppose I mean I made it worse. He said, yes you did. He said Chum khadu andoch di darruima nafs jumbido tabahshut khuyima. When you spat in my face you shook my nafs I wanted to really kill you for my nafs for myself. Before that it was for Allah. I was fighting for the sake of God. But now I'm fighting for my sake. I wanted to really I wanted to really hurt you. Because you spat in my face. You shook my nafs. Right? And then he said niin bahre haqshadu niime hawa syarqatandar kaur haqnab wa drawa He said, half of me was for God. The other half was for my hawa for my passion for my desire for my nafs. You can't do a work half for God half for nafs. So I let you go. And this man said who are you? And what is your school? Who is your mudarris? Who teaches you? These, this, who taught you this? He said, this is taught by my prophet in my Quran. And he said, I want to be like you. I don't care what religion you're in. I want to be like you Ali. This is the greatest da'wah when people come to you and they say I want to be like you. I don't care what is your religion? Tell me your religion. I want to become like you. They don't know what you are because you are a man of akhlaq. And all your action is for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Al akhlaa sarrun min asrari This hadith is da'eef. But this is for waudh. It's da'eef. Ibn Hazm said it's da'eef. Al-A'ili said it's da'eef. But, Alhamdulillah, even da'eef hadith, you don't throw it away. He said, this hadith is Qutsi. Allah says, Jibreel, at least Allah, somebody asked the Prophet, what is akhlaas? The Prophet, I asked, Jibreel. Akhlaas. The Prophet, I asked, Jibreel, what is akhlaas? He's the teacher, right? Everybody has a teacher. Even though his rank of the Prophet is higher, but he's a teacher. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, what does my beloved wants? What is he asking? This is asking about akhlaas. And then Allah tells him this. That akhlaas is a sarr, is a secret from my mysteries that I put in the heart of those servants that I love. Whoever has akhlaas in sincere, those are the people that Allah loves. And Allah says, I don't even let the angels write it. And I don't let shaitan know it so they can corrupt it. Or they don't, I don't want anyone to know about this. This is a secret between me and my servant. This is akhlaas. This is sincerity. The action are supposed to be for the sake of Allah. And what makes the action beautiful? What makes the action with akhlaas is your intention. And this is why almost every book of hadith starts with اعمال بالمياد وإنما So the Imam Nauwi in the Arabian Bukhari, all of the hadith books, except maybe one or two, it starts with this book, with this hadith, that your actions are by your intention. وإنما لكل يامري مهنوة And everybody gets what they intend. Right? And then for man هجرته الى الله ورسولي فهجرته الى الله ورسولي Whoever make migration for the sake of Allah, they make migration for the sake of Allah. Why did the Prophet use that metaphor? Why did he say something else? Why did he say whoever make jihad for the sake of Allah? Why is he a hijra? Because it was a man who made hijra for a woman to Medina. It wasn't for Allah. He wanted to get married there. And he said whoever marries for other than make hijra for other than that, they made hijra for whatever cause they have made hijra for. So your intention has to be pure. So the last one he said he said that for those people of wretchedness or the one who has been given companionship of righteous people and they don't have respect for them. They have been given companionship of the righteous people but they don't have respect for those people. Companionship is risk. Companionship is risk. Our tradition of spirituality the shiok sitting here so I shouldn't be talking about spirituality. Our tradition of spirituality is based on sohbah. That's it. It's sohbah, it's companionship. The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam didn't have followers. Now everybody has followers, right? How many people follow you on Twitter? How many people follow me on this and that? They're followers. That's not our tradition. I'm sorry. Our tradition is companionship. The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam didn't have followers. He had sahaba. They were companions and they benefited from the sohbah of each other and the greatest sohbah was being in the company of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. So he is saying that you if you've been given companionship of righteous people you have to honor that. You have to be grateful to that. You have to honor your teachers. You have to honor the people of knowledge. لَإِنْ شَكَرْتُمْ لَأَزِيدَنَّكُمْ If you're grateful to whatever Allah has given you Allah will give you more. That's the nature of Allah. You'll give you more. But if you're not He will take it away. You will lose it. You will lose it. So an Insan al-Kamil this incredible book Aziz al-Din Nassafi wrote. He said that all your studies everything that you do in your life all the knowledge that you learn from Sadaf al-Nahou from grammar to mathematics to Quran to Hadith whatever you learn all of it is to prepare you for the companionship. That's all. To qualify you who is going to be you the person that you're going to keep the company of. So companionship is a gift from Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala in its risk it's your sustenance. So appreciate it if Allah has given you good company. I'll say this. Astaghfirullah. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen Wa Salatu Wa Salam ala Sayyid al-Mursaleen Wa ala aali wa khas'ab yajmaheen Bin Ahmad al-Kiyyar Al-Rahmeen Imam Ghazali Rahmatullah Ali said Al-Ailn Bilal Amal Junoon Wa ala Amal Be Ghairi Al-Ailn La Yaqum Knowledge without action is insanity. In action without knowledge is a vanity. It's not possible. Most people they don't think about just their relationship with Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. There was a game we used to play with kids on shoots and ladders. Some people might have played it and you just roll it and then you go up and up you're supposed to get to the top of the board and just keep going. And then you get on the ladder you go up and then there was a places where you just if you get on that and then you whoosh you shoot down back sometime all the way to the bottom. And getting down on the bottom tch is like that. You can really lose it. All of these teachings you can lose it if you are not vigilant. And this is why it's important to know what really makes us rich. What makes us successful. Where Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala we all know the success stories of the junior. We studied, we go to college, we learn how to become successful, how to have a successful company. How all but what about the success of the heart? What about the success where Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala? So the advice that our sheikh Al-Balkhi gives is first if you've been given knowledge practice it. Even if you know anything even if you don't want bellekhu endi wa lau aaya Prophet As-Salaam said teach even if you know one verse if you learn how to make wudu properly teach somebody and then practice it and every day make that wudu the way you learned it. Right? The way you learn it if you learn Salah properly pray like you learned it. Just put those in action. And then the second is to have sincerity in your action. Ekhlaas make sure it's for the sake of Allah. Make sure people you're not about people seeing you and we'll end with a story from the great Sa'adi Shirazi who a man went to the king for a dinner and then he went he was a scholar. This is the type of scholar we're talking about. And he went and he came back home and he told his wife and kid the son asked him, he said, oh, Baba, how was how was dinner at the kings? And I was like, yeah, we were there. I laid alhamdulillah the Jama'a and the prayer and the king was behind me. Incredible. How was the food? Oh, food must have been really good. I barely eat anything. Wife, can you make some food? I'm really starving. The wife is like, you came from the king's dinner and you're starving. He said, oh, I was in front of the king. Just a little bit, you know, just to I don't want to overeat. Obviously, in front of the king. And so his son says, Baba, why don't you repeat your Maghrib prayer as well? Why don't you repeat your Maghrib prayer as well? Because the way you ate for the king, I'm sure your prayer was like that for the king as well. It wasn't for Allah. So you have to be very careful. There's subtleties, subtleties in this deen and you can lose actions, lose action. One of the ulama said what the ulama of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is most deprived of is intention for all the action they do. He said, every day we lose tons of rewards. For example, when you eat, we don't make intentions. I intend to eat so I can have the strength so I can pray. I intend to eat so I can be healthy because Allah says, you know, keep good health. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam reminded us, keep good health, right? I eat so I can go and exercise so I can keep my body in check. So you can make multiple intentions. I wear clothes so I can cover my nakedness. This is a deen taught us. You get a reward for that. You get a reward for covering, you get a reward. I wear clothes so I don't get harmed. I don't want to harm my body, right? All of these, everything that you do, you can make intention for it and you can get multiple rewards and that's a practice that you can start and it will become habitual, these practices. These are the practices that become habitual when you make intention for these things, insha'Allah. In alhamdulillah, may Allah make us amongst the people that we are amongst the salihin, amongst the righteous and we are not amongst the rich people. May Allah protect us from knowledge that doesn't have action, from action that doesn't have sincerity and from the sohbah that we are not grateful. May Allah give us the ability to serve this deen in the best way, in the way that we are most qualified and may Allah protect us, protect our families and our children and our offspring until the Yawm al-Qiyamah from the fitna and the fa-sads of our time. May Allah bring ease to the Muslim all around the globe, especially to our brothers and our sister in Gaza. Allahumma yassir wa la tawassir, ya Allah make the affairs of life easy and not hard. Ya Allah, ya Allah, ya Allah. May Allah descend His mercy in Palestine, ya Allah. Ya Allah, they've been suffering for too long, ya Allah, ya Allah. Make it easy for them and take the shuhara in this month that they've gone, giving the highest rank of Jannah, ya Allah, the highest rank of Jannah. And make them all witnesses, ya Allah. People are coming to Islam from the martyrs of Gaza. Ya Allah, for every person that's leaving, thousands of people are coming to Islam and what an incredible testimony to the shahada of our brothers and sisters there and to the patience of our brothers and sisters there. We in here, we look at it and you look at these films in this, that from the mothers that you just weep that the connection that they have with Allah, may Allah give us that kind of connection, that kind of connection that any calamity that comes, they say, it's from my beloved, it's from Allah, it's from Allah and they cause their hearts are connected to Allah and may Allah make it easy and give them prosperity in Palestine, ya Allah, ya Allah. In all of the Muslim world in Darfur, ya Allah. In Afghanistan, people are suffering all over the Muslim world in Kashmir, ya Allah, Allahumma yassir wa la tawassir, may Allah bring peace, peace on earth, may Allah bring peace to all the children. No child should suffer, regardless of their religion of their race, they're all in fitra, inshallah. Inna alhamdulillah, inna alhamdulillah, inna alhamdulillah, inna alhamdulillah, Sayyidat-e-Ama'alina man yahdeen laa fa laa mudalla laa wa man yidlil fa laa haa dee laa wa shanwa laa ilaha illa Allah wahdahu laa sharika laa wa shodan laa Muhammadan abdahu wa rasoolahu arsalahu bilhuda basheeran wa nadinaan qalallahi subhanahu wa ta'alafi qur'an majid inna allaha malaykutu salluna ala nabiyyya ayyuh aladina aamun usallu alayhi wa sallimu taslima ya ayyuh aladina aamun ta'allaha haaqatu qaati wa laa tumutunna illa wa anatum muslimu diyahi aladina aamun taqallaha wa qulil qawla nisa adhida yuslih laakum aama alakum wa yafil laakum dunubakum wanyatu Allah wa Rasulah paqat fa'z al-fawzan adheem wa qala Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam arhamu ummati abibakir wa ashadum fa'amri ilahi umar wa asdaghum haian utman wa aqada hum aliyan maqfatum al sayyid tunisa a'hal al jannah wa hamza asadullahi wa asadur rasooli qaila qur'un qarani thumma al adiniyelun hum thumma al adiniyelun hum inna lahya a'amur bil adli wal ihsan wa yata'id al qurwa wa iyan ha'an al fahshahi wa al munkal wa al baqi yadakum al a'alakum tadakurun fa'adkuruli a'adkur kum wa shkuruli wa la taqfurun wa dhikrullahi aqbar wa atimu s-salah