 Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds. We praise Allah. We seek His aid. We ask for His forgiveness and we seek His protection. Whomever Allah guides, none misguide. And whomever He guides, and whomever He misguides, none guide. He is Allah. He has no like. And Muhammad, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, the man of praise is his slave and messenger. O you who believe, fear Allah. Fear Allah. Have taqwa of Allah. Be aware of Allah. Allah will rectify your actions and forgive your sins. Whoever follows Allah, whoever obeys Allah and his messenger has indeed been granted a great victory. These days that we are in are tremendous days. We are in turbulent times, difficult times. We are in the time of fitna. If we look at our brothers and sisters in Palestine who have been suffering severely this last month, we see nothing but unwavering faith, unwavering iman, unshaking iman, such that one of them who passed away, his hand was raised to the heavens in a shahada. Many of them are hufadh, protectors of the Quran, exemplifying high levels of iman. And during these times, these tribulations, when we see these tribulations, we wonder how do we respond and how do we understand, how do we process what's going on? The iman and the faith of our dear Palestinian brothers, as we see in Gaza, is of a high level. And how can we just achieve just one sliver of that? If Allah loves the people, He tests them. And the reward that we are granted is according to the level of hardship. And we see the level of hardship that our brothers in Palestine are going through is of a very high level. Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, says We will indeed test you with something of fear and hunger and loss of wealth, souls and fruits, and give glad tidings to the patient, those who, when affliction befalls them, they say, truly, we are gods. And unto Him we return. There are those upon whom come the blessings of from their Lord and compassion. And there are those who are rightly guided. Imam Al-Qurtubi mentions in his tafseer, We will test you, or Ummah of Muhammad, Wa-Llamu Lijawab Al-Qasim, The Lam in this word, Wa-Llamu Lijawab Al-Qasim means, Wa-Llahi. It is an oath. Surely we will test you. And Ibtilaq is from Allah, is the Izhar al-Mut'i'a min al-As'i, to make manifest the obedient from the disobedient. This is not because Allah did not know about this. This is to show us as a proof who is obedient and who is disobedient. Allah knows what happened and what will happen. Phil Azal in pre-Eternity, Do the people think they will be left alone after saying we believe without being put to test? Trials and tribulations are part of the nature inherent to this world. This dunya is in a boat of tribulation. Going back to the ayah, With something of fear and hunger. Now we are seeing great tribulations and many of us are shocked at the level of criminality that we are witnessing. But Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala says, Be-Shay'in with something. And in Balaqa and Arabic rhetoric, Be-Shay'in is used for tahqir. It is used to belittle something. This is just a small amount compared to the full torment that the kufr and the mujrimin, the criminals and the oppressors will undergo in jahannam, in the hereafter. So for us, this is a small amount compared to what they will receive in the hereafter. The Prophet SAW said, The Prophet SAW said, This people of mine, ummati, is one which is a recipient of mercy. It will have no torment in the next world, but its torment will be in this world. Trials, earthquakes and killings. Thus we should be reassured in the fact that our great reward, if we remain steadfast to our faith and patient through our trials and tribulations, will be jannah al-Firdous, insha'Allah. Going back to the oppressors, Humiliation before God and severe torment will befall the evildoers from their scheming. So we have to look at things in perspective. Our iman is not connected to the world, is not connected to worldly things. If we remain in the horizontal realm, we'll be depressed and we'll be in despair. But if we look up vertically to the heavens, we will be so busy that we cannot fall in despair. After Allah SWT announced that there will be tribulation in this world, He said, And glad tidings, glad tidings to those who are patient. So Allah SWT tells us that there are tribulations in this world, and He gives us the solution right after that. One more thing about ibtila is that it is a wake-up call for us that keeps us from slipping into heedlessness and the fragmentariness of this world, which can rip apart our souls. There is a saying of Imam al-Busiri, And till when will we be preoccupied with desires? While we'll be asked about what we put forth in good deeds. This obeying our Lord while outwardly manifesting love to him, this is something ugly. If our love was true, we would have followed him. The lover is obedient to the beloved. So this is a wake-up call, but Allah SWT gives us a solution to this wake-up call. He could have said, be patient, Isbir, but instead he mentioned the noun, to provide us with the understanding if you are in this situation, and remain patient, Allah will reward you. And there is a saying, The reward is commensurate with the hardship. What type of sabr is this? In the English language, patience may imply passivity. Patience may imply sitting back, being still. But here it means, Patience in obeying Allah, meaning that we're consistent in our obedient to Allah, and patience in refraining from disobeying Allah. Patience in refraining from disobeying Allah. And those who are in the state of sabr will not be able to fall in despair because we will think about the perspective that we are in. We will think about it through the perspective of the vertical perspective, looking towards the heavens, and realizing that this is a test. The word fitna in Arabic means, one of the original meanings is to test gold. In this way, we are being tested, and the obedient is being differentiated from the disobedient. But this level of sabr is what will give us solace, and what will reassure us that this dunya is temporary, and this dunya is the seasonal mu'min, is the prison of the believer, and the paradise of the disbeliever. Alhamdulillah, the one and only, the one and only, who did not give birth, and did not eat any of them. Allah says in His Noble Book, Alif laa haasiba naasu aayyutraku aayyakunu aamanna wa hum laa yuftanun wa laa qadifatanaal lazeena min qablihim fa laa aalamanna allahu lazeena sadaqu wa laa aalamanna al-kathibin Alif laa manin, to those who believe, think that they will not be tested, that they will be left alone? Indeed, we have tested those before us, before you, so that those who are truthful will be distinguished from those who are lying. So how do we understand tribulation, and how do we navigate it? Wabashir is s'abirin. Those who are s'abir, those who are patient. So as we mentioned, real patience in the Islamic tradition means to be patient in your obedience and patient in refraining from disobedience. When we are patient in obedience and patient in avoiding sinfulness, then sin, sorrow, self-absorption, self-pity, these which blind us, will not create an impatience in us that blinds us to do good, and will not lead us to despair. Allah SWT says, This is in the story of when Abu Bakr, and the Prophet SAW, were in the cave together. The Prophet SAW said to Abu Bakr, Do not despair, Allah is with us. Do not despair, for the victory of Allah is near. Our martyrs are in paradise and their dead are in the Hellfire. That in and of itself is a reassurance to us. We should never let our Iman be so weak that if we lose our job suddenly we have doubts. That is not the right type of Iman. Our belief is connected to the Akhirah, to the hereafter, not connected to the Aajila, which is the here and now. It is firmly, our belief is firmly rooted in the promise of paradise, not the ephemeral essence of this world and the material insatiable appetite that characterizes this world. Now, in order to have sabr and sabr, we first have to make Toba. We have to make Toba. Allah SWT says, And we bless Dawood with Sulaiman. He was an excellent servant of Allah. Surely he was great in turning to us, in repentance. So the Prophet Dawood, was an exemplar of Toba. So if this is a Prophet who is always repentant to Allah SWT in this manner, what about us? Where do we stand? We must view calamity, ibtila, as from Allah and understand it as a chance to rectify our internal spiritual states. Sabr in obedience and from engaging in disobedience is what we need. A grand Toba is what we need. Toba tan nasuha. Do we want to be those who are near to Allah or those who are far from Him? Lakaal hamdu alaamaa a'ateet Wa lakaal shukru alaama an'amta bihi wa awlait Nasta agfiro kallāhum wa na'toobu ilayk Nasta agfiro kallāhum wa na'toobu ilayk Nasta agfiro kallāhum wa na'toobu ilayk Allahum agfiro al-mūminīn wa l-mūmināt Wa l-musnīmīn wa l-musnīmāt Al-Ahyā'i minhum wa l-amwāt Innak yā Mawlānā Samee'u al-qareeb mūjīb al-d'awāt Allahum mansoor il-Islāmah wa l-musnīm Allahumma an surah of Islam wa al muslimin. Allahumma an surah of Islam wa al muslimin. Wa adillah shirkah wa al muslikin. Allahumma ya hayyu ya qayyum. Yirahmatika na astaghif. Aslihna na shakna na kullah. Wa la takilna idla anfusina tarafa ta'in. Allahumma jaalil quran rabi'a kulubina. Wa nurasudurina. Wa rzukna tilawetahu anaa al-layli wa atrafan nahaab. Allahumma hafaz haadihi al-umma ti'a mohammadiyah fi jami'i biladihah. Wa fi falasdeen. Allahumma astaghif. Ahwaal al-mustadaafina fi falasdeen. Allahumma astaghif. Ahwaal al-mustadaafina fi falasdeen. Ya Allah, we ask you to alleviate the suffering especially in Palestine, in Ghazab. Ya Allah, we ask you to alleviate the suffering all over the world and all over the places where they are suffering. Ya Allah. Ya Allah, we ask you to forgive our sins and enter us in Jannat al-Firdous with the prophets and the pious. Bi rahmatika ya'a rahama ar-rahaameen. Allahumma hafaz haadihi al-umma bi rahmatika ya'a rahama ar-rahaameen. Qaala rasululahi sallallahu alaihi wa salam. Arahma ummati biumenti abubakar. Wa ashadduhum fi ideen illahi umar. Wa astakuhum haiaan uthman. Wa qadahum ali. Wa fatimah sayyidah nisaa ihaal jannah Wa l-has'an wa l-husayn i'saidaa shabab ihaal jannah. Wa hamzahu asadullahi wa asadurusulih. Allah says, Allah commands the good and the good, when you are close to Him, and He ends with the evil, and the evil, and the evil. He grants you, perhaps, to remember you. So remember Allah the Great, He calls upon you to respond to you. And remember Allah the Great, and Allah knows what you do, and establish prayer.