 It is a great honor and a great privilege to be selected as the sermonizer or the khateeb on this blessed day of Juma'a and I want to speak to something that occasions us coming back into communal space us assembling again after having spent some time in isolation. The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam concerning his own words. He said Truly I have been given the most comprehensive speech and this description of the speech of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam speaks to the fact that he can say something that is Mujazz. It is small in terms of the amount of the speech but the meaning of what he's saying is indeed quite deep and quite significant. So if we go to the Hijra of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and before arriving to El Madinah the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam he arrives at El Qubbat and he gives people four pieces of advice all four pieces assist us in living well together. The first thing he says of Shuslam spread peace among yourselves. Then he says and feed each other or feed people. Reach out to your relatives. pray in the middle of the night when other people are asleep and you will enter paradise without reckoning. These four pieces of advice these four wassaya these very valuable advices of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam are something that should be taken to heart by every individual who wants to live in a state of peace with other people. The first thing of Shuslam spread peace among yourselves. The literal and most mubashir meaning of this is say assalamu alaykum to people you encounter. The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said in an authentic narration that one of the signs of the end of time is that people only say salam to people they know. Why would we be withholding with this beautiful greeting that the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam has given us and annunciate all of the syllables of salam. Assalamu alaykum and of course the responses wa alaykum assalam. Right some people mumble when they give salam alaykum and of course the responses also garbled and barely comprehensible wa alaykum salam. No assalamu alaykum right give that greeting to people this is to heal to ahal al jannah. This is the greeting of the people of jannah. Right it's very very interesting when you think about radus salam being something wajib that responding to a greeting this is something compulsory in our tradition. This is something one must do. You know I've heard of people who when they want to in arguments they say to their earth you know earth while adversary assalamu alaykum knowing they have to say wa alaykum salam. Right the second meaning of Afshu salam is we need mediators. We need people that help to bring an end to conflict spread peace. You know it's compelling to me that one of the only times in which it is permissible for a muslim to lie is to reconcile to aid reconciliation between people that are feuding. The Prophet sallallahu alaykum said that a muslim can lie on three occasions. One is in warfare al harbu khada. The second is one can lie to a spouse if that lie will preserve the tenderness that exists between them and the spouse or the lie will prevent their feelings from being harmed or injured. So if one of us is asked is my cooking better than your mother's cooking of course it's better. Since marrying you I don't even think about my mother's cooking. Right if one of us is asked darling how do I look in this suit I'm going for my interview you look fantastic in this suit you're going to get the job even though she knows you look horrible in that suit. Right and the third reason a muslim can lie is to bring peace be to you know to help reconciliation among people that are feuding so that if Zaid and Amr have some issue between them one can go to Zaid and say I just spoke to Amr. He was telling me how much he misses you. He was telling me how some of the best hospitality he ever experienced in his life was at your home. He was telling me how you all used to play basketball together. He was telling me how he wishes that you all could spend more time together and you can go to Amr. I just spoke to Zaid. He was telling me how much he misses you. He was telling me how he loved when you all would camp together and do other outings together and even though neither one of them has ever said anything like that about the other. When they encounter each other this will help to break the ice. Zaid will say you know I heard some of the things that you said about me and Amr will say to Zaid I heard some of the things and neither of them said anything but when they see that somebody is trying to spread peace willing to go to the extent of lying just so that we can have Islam bringing brothers together they will then participate in their reconciliation and the Mefhum el-Mukhalifah is also present here right the opposite meaning don't be an instigator don't be a tail-bearing person don't be someone addicted to scandal it is one of the worst misfortunes of our community that we have become a community addicted to scandal we love the hot story we love to get on social media and badmouth each other this is a shatonic poison the prophet alaihi salam said ofshus salam spread peace among yourselves then he said and feed people you know I spent a great deal of time in Egypt and without fail whenever you encountered someone who was eating they would say to you now they didn't really mean that right they would say have some right or when you you know you know availed yourself of someone's service they would say it's on the house they didn't mean that either but just this cultural reminder that we are people of generosity we are people of feeding each other everybody knows that in the month of Ramadan two things happen that don't happen throughout the remainder of the year we pray together more than we normally do and we eat together more than we normally do and you can feel the collective level of devotion of the community rise by virtue of those activities it's been said to me that Muslims have never feared the arrival of two the arrival of children and the arrival of guests because each of them is bringing their own provision each of them is bringing their own risk nothing that you give ever nothing that you own nothing that you possess ever decreases from giving so why is it that we you know we we feed each other in the month of Ramadan but outside the month of Ramadan we don't host each other no i know during COVID it was very difficult to do some of those things but this is a virtue and we should strive to keep that virtue alive feeding each other right another meaning of is making sure people that are indigent have what they need you know a good friend of mine said that he had an opportunity to spend an evening with one of the most effective duads one of the most effective callers to Islam in our time and he said that he had resolved to ask him what is the secret of your effectiveness in Dawah and so he said sheikh what is the secret in Dawah and he said the sheikh said the secret the secret is in the kitchen you have to go into the kitchen if you want me to show you the secret and he said that he didn't know what to expect maybe there was some du'a that he had written and placed in the cupboard or maybe he he didn't know what to expect but when he went into the kitchen the sheikh told him go over to the cupboard open it and bring me a loaf of bread he went into the cupboard he brought the loaf of bread and he said ha the hua sir this is the secret i went to where people needed to be fed and i fed them i went to where infrastructural development needed to be spurred and i contributed to it i went to where people needed to be clothed and we tried to clothe them we went to where people needed medical care and we tried to provide it to the extent that we could as we were doing this people would ask us why are you doing this and then we would tell them about Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and his messenger this is Dawah to express real concern for people's practical welfare we are not a proselytizing community right those words are too close for me proselyte prostitute i don't like it we're not a proselytizing community we're a service oriented community and in that spirit of service we tell people about Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and his messenger so these are the first two pieces of advice for people who want to live in one of the other and in the second one spread peace the other feed each other and in the second portion of the we will discuss the the the last two inshallah was stuck for the Ali welcome to the sa'ir al mussemin wa akhir da'wana an alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen the third aspect of these nasa'ah these advices is sila al arhan reach out to your relatives reach out to your next of kin and i want to admit that family is difficult family is always a struggle but whenever i think about the struggle of family one expression comes to mind that if you find that you're disillusioned with something you should ask yourself why did i have any illusions about it to begin with family is hard even if we look at the quran and i do not mean this in an irreverent way i mean this is someone who reads the quran a lot of the stories of the quran are about dysfunctionality in families the sons of satan adan right from the beginning habiel and qabir right can enable nooh and his son ibrahim and his father yakub and his sons yusuf and his brothers asya and her husband iyub and his wife luth and his wife alayhi masalaam are you picking up on a theme here family is always the test of the righteous always but another expression comes to mind that being rubbed brings out those deficiencies brings out those weaknesses that you need to work on and this is the reason why family is always a great test because only someone close to you will test you so when you read the hadith of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam where people come to aisha asking for an epitaph asking for a summary description of the prophet alayhi wasallam and she says he was a quran walking on the earth or his character was the quran what is absolutely astounding about these rewayat is that this is what his wife could say about him the people closest to him knew of the goodness of his character see many of us we have good standing among everyone besides our relatives besides our families besides our next of kin so brothers at the masjid sisters at the masjid they know us to be good patient understanding people but our families when someone begins to compliment us they look out the window my wife says there's someone else named obey the law they can't be talking about you this is the test of family right sealur arham reach out to your relatives and reaching out to your relatives does not mean that you have to sustain the kinds of relationships that eventually become toxic no we're talking about cordiality knowing how to pick up the phone call that distant uncle call that distant auntie just wanted to say salam i'm thinking of you this is enough right to make sure that your parents know you are in service of your parents there's an authentic hadith that a man was carrying his mother around the kaaba making tawaf and he said to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam ya rasulallah is this what you mean by righteousness to parents and the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said no this is insolvent this is just equity right this is just equity what could we ever give our parents i am who i am because my mother loved me what could i ever give her i can't call my mother at least every couple of days just to check on her i can't call my father every few days just to check on him i'll say this and then we'll move to the last piece of advice as we get older we will inevitably recognize more readily the weaknesses and flaws of a lot of the people that we looked up to if the law blesses us we will see those weaknesses and flaws through a prism of mercy i can't tell you how many people i know that even right now these people are grown adults have not spoken to their parents for many months and when i ask why they mentioned mistakes that the parents made as they were raising them my father did this or my mother did this and my response now we're not talking about something catastrophic we're talking about regular mistakes that we make as parents forgive them just like you're growing now as a parent they were growing then reach out to them reconcile with them this is the emir of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and the last thing the prophet alaihi wa sallam said sallahu alaihi wa sallam pray in the middle of the night when people are asleep this is a nasiha this is a wasiyah that is more difficult to connect to communal life because it seems quite personal you pray in the middle of the night when people are asleep but i was i was asking one of my teachers about this hadith and i said every other piece of advice involves community and then this last piece of advice appears to just involve our own personal spiritual cultivation why the change why the shift and he said there is no shift the fact of the matter is that the place that we pray and this is not for me this is from raje but it's fahani and it's mufradat the place that we pray this is called a mihrab and even if you're an intermediate level student of arabic you know that mihrab is from harb this is it's more than mekan from harb it's the mihrab this is a place of war harb and arabic is war that if you want to be at peace with other people you have to be at war with yourself if you want your presence to be something delightful and easy for people in your family in your household in your community you have to be at war with your enoughs you see i once read somewhere that ten people committed to a path of self-purification can occupy one home and it's no problem but for two tyrants the world is not enough you see pray in the middle of the night refine the soul so that you can arrive to the conclusion that i can't get everything i want all the time it is not just my wants my needs that are important you have to subdue that enough so you have to break that enough i remember sitting with a very eloquent scholar and someone asked him what is the purpose of the month of ramadan or better yet what is the purpose of fasting in the month of ramadan and he said the purpose of fasting in the month of ramadan is to be hungry and i thought given your eloquence this is quite an underwhelming answer and he said no because that hunger is a very potent visceral reminder you can't have what you want all the time and if we as people understood that we can't have what we want all the time how different would the world be we would be in a different place ecologically we would be in a different place civilizationally we would be in a different place domestically we would be in a different place communally but the fact of the matter is that we are a people each individual with their ego their appetite of soul running completely amuck out of control and now we see the collective impact of this state of being out of control and if you want to reign some of that in the most effective way to do so is praying to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when you are assured that no one else can see you and it's not something that you're looking to to publicize to people you know some people mashallah they make a layer and when we see them the next day we say man why are your eyes so red praying to Allah all night no making p.m. a nail and allowing it to remain between you and Allah i challenge everyone present today do this for just 30 days and i'm guaranteeing a demonstrable difference in your character that people in your life will be able to testify to many different your wife will say man we had to you know a disagreement but his disposition was different your colleagues will say he seems different your husband will say she seems different right so all of these advices relate to us being able to live together the first was afshus salam spread peace be a person even if we're addressed by people that are ignorant the Quran says what call us salam when the jahilun you know when the people that are ignorant address us we say peace because our commitment to peace is not contingent upon their good behavior our commitment to peace is between us and Allah and be mediators of conflict don't be instigators of conflict don't be people following behind scandal what an unworthy activity for intelligent people who said what and what internet scandal why yadubillah the third thing the prophet alaisa wasalam said silo al arhan reach out to your relatives man don't be estranged from people who love you and people that you love if it comes to forgiving initiate the forgiveness al badio besalamibri'u minal kibro call it maybe alaisa wasalam the one that initiates the greeting of peace is free of arrogance don't wait for that person to call you you call them and then the last thing the prophet alaisa wasalam said salu bilayli when nasu niyam pray in the middle of the night when other people are asleep this is a guarantee and i can't issue any guarantees but we know as salu wasalam he has said this so it's a guarantee i feel comfortable issuing if we commit to doing those things communal life in our community will look different it will feel different it will be something that everybody who comes within any proximity to our community they will feel they will feel the love in these spaces and we would have to fight to keep them out of it inna allahu malaykutuhu yusalluna ala nabiyya yuhalladina aamlu salu alayhi wasallimu tislima inna allah yakmonu bilayadili wa hasanu ita idin qurba wa yanha anil fahshayi wal munikari wal baghi yadukum alalukum tathakkarun o dhukurallah remember allah yadukurukum he will remember you call upon him yes the jib lakum he will respond to you allahumma salli ala sayyidina muhammadin wa ala aalihi wa sahbihi wasallam allahumma salli ala sayyidina muhammadin wa ala aalihi wa sahbihi wasallam allahumma lakal hamduh hatta tarada wa lakal hamduh ila radhita wa lakal hamduh ba'da ridah wa lakal hamduh kalladina kudu wa khairun min ma nakuulu wa lakal hamduh kalladina kudu wa lakal hamduh ala kulli halid allahumma inna nasallukal huda wa tuqa wa alaafa wa lgina allahumma asturna bisitrikal jameel allahumma asturna bisitrikal jameel allahumma inna nasalluk wal aafwa wal aafiyat wal muaafah fiddini wal dunya wal aakhira rabbana aatina fiddunya hasanatun wa fil aakhirah hasanatun waqinah alaab al-naar rabbana laatu zinqulubana ba'di idh hadaytana wahablana milladunka rahma inna ka antal wahab rabbana aatina milladunka rahma tawahi ilana min amrina rashada allahumma rabbana laatafdahna bayna ibadika fiddunya wal aakhira allahumma yaa allah yaa allah yaa allah yaa allah bi jahi asmaa illahi wa sifatillahi wa anbiyaillahi wa rusulillahi wa salihina min ibadillahi nasrulun min allahi wa fathun qaribun wa basheril mu'mineen allahumma qidi hawaijana zahirun wa ba'dina allahumma razukna husn al-khatima allahumma razukna husn al-khatima allahumma arina haqqa wa razukna tiba'a wa arina ba'tila ba'tila wa razukna jitinaabah allahumma jaa al-akhira kalamina la ilaha illallah muhammadur rasulallah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam inna allahum laikatuhu yusalluna al-nabi ya yuhalladina aamu sallu alaihi wa sallimu taslima allahumma jaa al-akhira kalamina la ilaha illallah muhammadur rasulallah subhana rabbika rabbil izzati aam ma yasifun wa salamun ale al-mursaleen wal hamdu del harba'alameen wa haqeemu sallah