 All praise is due to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, Lord of the world's master of the day of judgment. We thank Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for allowing us to be here today on this blessed day of Juma, Alhamdulillah. All praise is due to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Juma is a very special day. It's a very blessed day and we're very blessed to be here. We're very blessed to be here in Juma, sitting in the masjid remembering Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, taking some time out of our day to remember Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, Alhamdulillah. Brothers and sisters, in the few moments that we have together today, I would like to discuss Yom ul Ashura. The day of Ashura just passed us. It was yesterday, Alhamdulillah. And many of you may have been fasting. Some of you may even be fasting today. And we pray that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala accepts your fasting and your Ibadah. What is the significance of Yom ul Ashura? Why is it so special? We know for a fact that Yom ul Ashura is the day that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala saved Musa, alaihi salam and Bani Israel from the wrath of Pharaoh. He saved Musa, alaihi salam and Bani Israel from the wrath of Pharaoh. This was the day that they escaped their oppression. This was the day that Musa, alaihi salam struck the ocean with his staff and it split. And he was able to go through with his people. There's difference of opinion, but some of the scholars say that this is also the day that Yusuf, alaihi salam was freed, was discovered from the well after his brothers threw him in the well. Some of the scholars say this is the day that Yunus, alaihi salam was saved from the whale. Some of the scholars say that this was the day that Daniela, alaihi salam was saved from the lion's den. Allahu alam, we don't know, but this is what some of the scholars say. The main point and the main lesson to take away is that this is a day where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala took, takes people from constriction into expansion. That this is a day that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala takes people from darkness into light. Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah. And this is why we fast on this day because of Musa, alaihi salam and his people being freed from ferron. Alhamdulillah. So this is a day where people are taken from constriction. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala takes people from constriction and he puts them into expansion. And brothers and sisters, that's what this dunya is all about. This dunya is moments of constriction and moments of expansion. And in moments of constriction, the response is sabar, is patience, to be from the sabirin, to be from the people who are patient. And in moments of expansion, the proper response is to be from the shakirin, the people who are thankful, who thank Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Brothers and sisters, right now, many of us feel like we are in a time of constriction. Many of us feel that we are in a time of constriction, the ummah of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam feels like we are in a time of constriction. The Taliban have taken over Afghanistan. There's smoke in the sky. There's a terrible drought here. There's a pandemic raging on. The problems in Syria and Palestine continue. The list can go on and on. And many of us feel constricted. Many of us feel we're feeling this agitation because of the situation around us. And so I wanted to discuss today, briefly, how we should be in this time of constriction. What we can do, insha'Allah. How we can get through this time, insha'Allah. So we know that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us in the Quran that verily in the remembrance of Allah, do the hearts find rest. So in times of constriction, we need to turn to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We need to turn to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We need to be some of the, we need to be of the towabin, the people who are turning back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Some of our shayyukh talk about how many people, tawbah, when you hear the word tawbah, automatically you think repentance. And that is very true. That is what tawbah is. It's repenting. But tawbah literally means turning back, turning back to who, turning back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So in every state, we need to turn back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. In everything we do, we need to turn back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, not just when you need to repent. If you have a job and you're trying to get a job, you turn to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to help you find your job. If you're trying to buy a job, to help you find your job. If you're trying to buy a house, you turn to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala and ask Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala to help you buy your house. And all of your daily, if you're trying to get married, you turn to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala asking him to help you find a righteous spouse. Every major thing you do in your life you turn back to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. And this is the main lesson is that we have to stop being so impressed with ourselves. We have to stop being so impressed with ourselves. Humankind has become so impressed with themselves. We're the ones, we have all the answers. Our science is going to get us through this. Our technology is going to get us through this. Our minds are going to get us through this. But we realize as Muslims that know really what's going to get us through whatever difficulty we're having is turning back to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. It's turning back to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. We have to realize this and we have to realize that turning back to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala is the answer. So the question then becomes how do we turn back to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala? One of the many people right, there's many things going on right now in the world and many of us are trying to bring about change and that's good. That's a very great thing. We should be bringing about change. If you're on social media there's a lot of people posting about the situation in Taliban, posting about the climate, posting about all of these things and that's very, very good. And we should be trying to actively make change in the world that we're in. But we need to first look at ourselves and see are we the change that we want to see in the world? We have to look inwardly. One of the Pakistani poets says, I can't say it in Urdu, but the English translation is one of the Urdu poets writes that I was trying to clean the mirror. I was trying to clean the mirror and then I realized it wasn't the mirror that was dusty, but rather it was my face that was dusty. I was trying to clean the mirror and I realized that it wasn't the mirror that was dirty but rather it was my face that was dirty. And the scholars talk about how this poem is about inward reflection, looking at yourself first. It's not the mirror's fault that this particular poet was dirty, it was his own fault and he needed to first fix himself before he could see the change that he wanted to see in the mirror. And that's what we need to do. We need to look inwardly, we need to see how are we being with our Muslim brothers and sisters? How are we being not just with our Muslim brothers and sisters with everybody? Everyone we share this earth with and that includes the animals and the climate. When we do business with Muslims, are we cheating them? When we're doing business with people, are we cheating them? When people leave our company, are they in danger of us talking bad about them behind their back? The little things, it's the little things. So the question then becomes, how can we turn back to Allah's upon what? How do we know what's our benchmark? And it's very simple. We don't need to make it complicated. We know that this religion is made up of five pillars, five pillars. And if you're doing these five pillars, insha'Allah you are in a good place. What are the five pillars? Number one, declaring that there is no God but God and that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is his last and final prophet. That's number one. Number two, that you're giving 2.5% of your wealth and charity every year to the poor and those less fortunate than you. Number three, that you're fasting 30 days in Ramadan. Number four, that you're praying five times a day. That you're praying five times a day. And number five, that you plan if you can to go and hudge the pilgrimage at least once in your life. If you're doing these five things, you're in a good spot. You're in a good position. If you want to fast more than 30 days, that's better for you. If you want to pray more than five times a day, you want to pray you're at the Hajj and you want to pray your insha'Allah, that's better for you. If you want to give more than 2.5% of your wealth, that's better for you. If you want to go on Hajj and 10 Umaraz, that's better for you, Alhamdulillah. But if you're doing the five pillars of Islam, you're in a good position, Alhamdulillah. And the believer also has to be aware of his or her four enemies in this life. Every believer, every Muslim has four enemies. And we should be aware of these four enemies. What are the four enemies? Number one, your ego. Your first enemy is your nafs, your ego. Your pride. The thing in you that makes you feel like you're better than other people. I didn't get invited to that event. Oh my gosh, how dare they? He didn't speak to me. She didn't speak to me. How dare they? Whatever it is in our lives, the ego, pride, your nafs, that's the first enemy. Number two, Hawa, your desires, your lowly desires. We all have natural desires as human beings, but it's when we get them out of control. It's when we get them out of control that it becomes a problem. It's controlling the lowly desires, making sure that we have a hold on them. And Ramadan is an amazing time to get that fixed because you leave food and you leave intimate relations with your spouse and it's a good time, Alhamdulillah. We should be striving throughout the entire year to get our Hawa, our desires under control. That's number two. Number three is Shaitan, the devil. He is real. His minions are real. And he is trying to speak to you every single day to try to get you to go astray, to plant those dirty, bad thoughts in your mind. We need to know that he is there and that he is real. To be aware of Shaitan and his minions. That's the third enemy. And the fourth enemy is the dunya. The dunya, being deluded by the dunya. Thinking that this dunya is it. Not having our eye on the larger goal. Not having our eye on the bigger picture. You can have the dunya, you can have the dunya. No one's saying you can't have the dunya. Muslim should be successful, but it's putting the dunya in its proper place. Realizing that it's not the most important thing. That our dunya is a means to serve our family, to get closer to Allah, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Putting the dunya in the proper place. There was one of the scholars of Syria. He knew all 10 versions of how to recite the Quran. There's 10 different ways you recite the Quran. He was one of, there's only a handful of people who know how to do this. And he was one of the people who knew how to do this. So the Syrian council of scholars decided, you know what we're gonna give, to honor these people, we're gonna give them bags of gold, to honor them. Because there's so few of them, this is what we're going to do, to honor them. And so they gave the sheikh a bag of gold. And he took the bag of gold and he held it, and then he gave it to his student, and he said, go give this to the poor. Go give this to the poor. Wallahi, when I look at it, all I see is onion peels. All I see is onion peels, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. What a beautiful story. Making sure that the dunya is in the right place. So these are our four enemies. So if you have the five pillars of Islam in place, and they're important in your life, and you're aware of the four enemies that are trying to attack you spiritually and take you off the path to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, then inshallah this is a good benchmark to know that you are in the right place, that you are working on yourself, that we are turning to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in times of, when times get constrained, when times get tough. I'll call you call me Hada wa s-Taqfirullah. I'll call you call me Hada wa s-Taqfirullah. Alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen wa s-salatu wa s-salam wa ala assidina Muhammad wa ala ala alihi wa sahbihi wa s-salam Ajma'een. Imam Rumi writes in his poetry. He says, ours is not a caravan of despair. And he's talking to the Muslims. Ours is not a caravan of despair. Brothers and sisters, no matter how tough it gets, no matter how bleak it looks out there, ours is not a caravan of despair. We do not despair. We don't believe that it's too much. We don't give up. We don't throw in the towel. That's not who the Muslim is. When the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and the companions were surrounded, they had to build a trench to defend Medina and they were surrounded by their enemies, they didn't throw in the towel. They didn't throw in the towel because they knew that Allah was on their side. Over and over again, we see the stories in the Sida of the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam when it could have been easy. The easy thing to do would have been to throw in the towel. The easy thing to do would have been to throw in the towel and to call it quits and to be done and to give up. But that's not our way. That's not our way. Ours is not a caravan of despair. We're others and sisters. We have to be united as a Muslim Ummah. We have to be united as a Muslim Ummah. We need to love each other, be there for each other, support each other. We are all one. The Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam described in the Muslim Ummah as one body. When one part of it hurts, we all hurt. Now is not the time for us to be divided over political lines, to be attacking each other on social media, to be calling out each other's countries. No, this is not what we're supposed to be doing. What we're supposed to be doing is to be loving each other, being there for each other, feeding each other, following the sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, studying his way, studying his sida, going back to the basics. Going back to the basics, someone came to one of the scholars and said, your talks are always about the basics. Why are you gonna talk about something more complicated? He said, if you don't have the basics down, you're not going to be great. It's all about the basics. Whenever an athlete is having a hard time, the coach goes to him and says, back to basics, back to basics, we need to go back to the basics. We can't make it so complicated. The Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said in authentic Hadith, in Sahih Muslim. Narrated by Junaab bin Abdullah, the Messenger of Allah Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, whoever is killed, fighting for no real cause, calling for tribalism or supporting tribalism, his death is the death of Jaheliyah. Brothers and sisters, our tribalism today is nationalism. It's thinking we're better than each other. Thinking Pakistanis are better than Bangladeshis, Afghans are better than whatever da, da, da, da, da, that goes on, goes on. This is not our way. We need to be united, we need to be, we need to go back to the concept of the ummah of the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, looking out at this gathering right now. You see Syrians, you see Moroccans, you see Afghans, you see Pakistanis, you see Bangladeshis, you see Indians, you see Europeans, Bosnians, Croatians, and the list goes on. Africans, South Africans, Ugandans, Kenyans, the list goes on, the list goes on. This is the ummah of the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. This is the beauty of Islam. This is the beauty of Islam. Inshallah we can go back to basics, we can go back to understanding the way of Allah Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and his Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. We ask Allah Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam to bring unity to the ummah of the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. We ask Allah Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam to bring unity to the ummah of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Ya Allah, the ummah of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, is hurting. Ya Allah, your ummah is hurting. Ya Allah, your ummah is hurting. Be gentle with us, Ya Allah, be gentle with us. Ya Allah, be gentle with us. We call upon your name Latif, the gentle one. Ya Allah, be gentle with us. We don't deserve your mercy. Your Prophet, your beloved Ya Muhammad ﷺ is our leader, we are all unified underneath him. And we call upon you to be gentle with us, to be kind with us, Ya Allah, to be kind with the people of Palestine, in Afghanistan, in Pakistan, in Syria, in Yemen, and wherever there is pain and suffering, Ya Allah, wherever there is chaos, we ask you to bring peace, Ya Allah, wherever there is chaos, we ask you to bring peace, Ya Allah, we want you, we love you, we need you, Ya Allah, be gentle with us, Ya Allah.