 As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh, what a scene MashaAllah tabarak Allah may Allah preserve and protect all of you for coming out and being a part of this wonderful program and of course Dr. Rania, Sada Fadwa, Sada Shamera, the entire Rahmah Foundation for hosting and facilitating these beautiful programs and honoring all of us, alhamdulillah. I wanted to, before I jump into my presentation, just I have a disclaimer. The presentation I'm going to present is going to actually wake us all up. So I'm going to kindly ask that young children be asked to leave because it's pretty intense content and I don't want any, you know, children to be affected by what I'm going to share. So if you could please take younger children out, if they're asleep obviously inshallah that's fine but just I think it was 14 plus right is what I was told. Yeah. So Bismillah. I do have slides as you can see here and I apologize in advance if you see any typos. I am on like two hours of sleep and I was trying to put these together so I was telling you Sada Fadwa that I was nodding off. So if you see typos just ignore them inshallah. We'll do better inshallah next time but the, as we know we are about to, as Dr. Rene mentioned, we're knocking on the doors of the last 10 nights. And something that occurred to me, subhanallah, is that as we start the month of Ramadhan we know that the first 10 days are the days of or nights of mercy, correct? So and then the middle is forgiveness and then the last 10 days are of course seeking refuge from the fire. And so it occurred to me that subhanallah, in the beginning of the month he eases us into the month right with mercy. And then it starts to get a little uncomfortable because to focus on forgiveness requires honesty, requires transparency, requires really digging deep and looking at oneself with that lens of real honesty and critique or critically I should say. And that's uncomfortable for some of us. We don't really want to face those things that we may have been buried all along. And then subhanallah we get to the end of the month and even though the fast is getting easier, physically we're kind of acclimated, we're used to it, the schedule, the lack of caffeine, the sleeplessness, we're used to it physically but then emotionally and spiritually it's actually becoming more constricting, right? Because to think about the fire I think for a lot of people is also uncomfortable. We tend to lean on which we should, the mercy of Allah swt and thinking always of the rewards awaiting us. So to actually completely focus on something that maybe is a little bit, you know, it's more intimidating, it's more constricting, it's hard but we're supposed to be doing that. So that's where inshallah this presentation hopefully will take us through this concept of how to seek protection from the fire inshallah in the last ten nights. So Bismillah what that said, I want to ask a few questions here. Like first of all, what is the fire, right? Some of us may have an idea, you know, of this scorching terrible, you know, place because it is a living place but we may not really understand the descriptions or may not read, have read the descriptions. So just to have a little bit more detail about what the fire is, here is a verse where Allah swt is actually warning us, Audhu Billahi min al shaytan al rajim. He says, Oh you who believe, save yourselves and your families from a fire whose fuel is men and stones over which are appointed angels stern and severe who disobey not from executing the commands they receive from Allah but do that which they are commanded. So right away we understand that this is obviously a place that is real, it's in existence even as we speak and it will have this life in a sense that it has an appetite for men and stones and it communicates that and there are other verses where the fire is actually calling and in a way communicating. And here Allah swt also says, soon I will cast them into the fire and what will explain to you what the scorching fire is. It lets nothing remain and leaves nothing unburned, scorching the skin. Over it are 19 angels. Again these are I mean obviously terrifying for a reason because we're supposed to really think about what we need to do to avoid being anywhere near it, having any sense of it because it has a you know there's a there's a smell to it, there's a you know there's there's our senses can perceive it so we don't want any part of this right and so we need to understand that it is a very intense reality and so the verses is painful and as uncomfortable as it is we we should read them and contemplate them and then think deeply. I'm actually reminded just last night I believe no the night before I was on a um I think it was last night sorry my memory is so off because I'm on such little sleep but a couple last night I was on a celebrate mercy talk with Dr. Asad Tarsin and Sheikh Moslem of Hermel and we were also going over just 19 Surat Furqan and Dr. Asad brought up some verses that were very terrifying because they the same you know as we're reading there were these images that I hadn't really thought of until he mentioned them but in one of the verses he talked about how actually I'll read I did I have it here so let me read it here he says this is the Surat Furqan verse 25 so it's talking actually about the unfolding of the day of judgment and what's going to happen it's very rapid a lot of the scenes that we read in the Quran just reflect the intensity of that day and then what happens afterwards so he said Allah Almighty says watch for the day the heavens will burst with clouds and the angels will be sent down in successive ranks true authority on that day will belong only to the most compassionate and it will be a hard day for the disbelievers and then and beware of the day the wrong doer will bite his nails in regret and say oh I wish I had followed the way along with the messenger woe to me I wish I had never taken so-and-so as a close friend it was he who truly made me stray from the reminder after it had reached me and satan always betrayed humanity and then it goes on but that image of you know a person who's a wrong doer a disbeliever biting their nails this is you know did it go out sorry so that image right of a person biting their nails in regret we talked a little bit about that and it's just so humid right the experience of you know we've done that I'm sure when we you know it's something that we do when we're regretful of something but to imagine that people on that day will be filled with so much regret for their wrongdoings and then of course the scapegoating blaming their companions so it's this chaotic scene that unfolds and you know we if we're not reading these verses and almost not imagining them then we're forgetting that you know these are real things that are going to happen and we need to seek protection for ourselves and our family from ever being a part of those scenes right and so that's where the it's so necessary to contemplate on these verses because as intense as I said and uh and comfortable as they are we want to not be a part of them we want to have nothing to do with them so when we read these scenes like this you know scorching of the skin Allah protect every one of us in our loved ones from ever experiencing anything like that and this is again begs the question now how can we protect ourselves what do we need to do well we need to know what the fire is for right it's the fuel of it is men in stones which people is the calls does the fire call for so we do have in the various verses of the Quran I was finally described as different people who will be punished because of their you know different actions so the disbelievers those are obvious the hypocrites of course are in the lowest parts of hell but then there are other groups that are a little bit more generalized right so the arrogant deniers of truth sinners and criminals unjust oppressors those who proudly disobey Allah so this is where again this is more general sinning as we know is you know we all are sinners but those who sin and then brag about them they share their sins openly this is a different degree that we really have to ask Allah's father for forgiveness for if we've ever shared our sins openly if we've ever been proud of our sins or displayed them now with social media and this you know the culture around us there is a lot of this you know open sin sinfulness whereas before people had at least some degree of modesty of shame so proudly disobeying Allah tyrants murders again these are groups that are obvious to us but then those who persecute the believers those who prefer the world and neglect the hereafter so those with hubba dunya again many of us may fall into these categories we were we're chasing dunya we're heedless we're in ghaflah and in ramadan obviously you know alhamdulillah we're obviously all here there is a degree of awareness we're a little bit more aware of ourselves but if we relapse and we start to regress as soon as the month is over and we find ourselves abandoning the prayer abandoning the book of Allah abandoning our worship no longer you know taking inventory of our of what comes out of our mouth what the words that we say what we're putting into our hearts and our you know our vessels and hearts what we're listening to what we're watching if we're not doing that then we're going to slip right back into that state of rafla and may Allah again forgive us because if we leave the world in that state we don't know our ultimate fate but of course we we always have the highest opinion of Allah that he is the most forgiving the most compassionate especially towards the believers but generally speaking none of us should feel safe and that's really why the emphasis in the last 10 nights is to think about the fire because just because we're fasting just because we're praying just because we're reading Quran and we're standing for qiyam and we're praying to hajj and we're coming to the masjid does not ensure any of us safety and the moment we start to think that our deeds are going to be the insurance that protects us from the fire that is actually a very dangerous sign so reading into these verses and contemplating the different categories of people who will be punished it's really good for the nefs it's good for the soul to humble ourselves that perhaps because we don't know our end perhaps you know if Allah if if we you know continue to be neglectful if we continue to fail to heed the warnings we may find ourselves in any of these categories and in order to prevent that of course that's where we'll get to in a moment what we need to do proactively but again recognizing these categories cruel proud and arrogant people so if you've ever been cruel think about you know who that may apply to there are you know people in our community that struggle with anger and they have an anger management problem this can be shown to their family members it can be shown to strangers you know on the road or or you know in service people blow up and this is a very common problem now where people just you know they can't handle their own maybe pressures and whatever's going on with themselves personally and then they take it out on innocent people you know you go to a restaurant someone doesn't serve you and all of a sudden you're exploding you're calling customer service you're cleaning you're just this person who's trying to always get someone why because maybe there's things you haven't worked out so if you have that tendency to let your anger overcome you this is something to again be mindful of because cruelty and and injustice in that way has no place in the heart of the believer treacherous people traders liars gossipers and tail-bearers people who lie deceive gossip we know about how odious back-biting is it's akin to cannibalism literally in the foreign a lost partner likens to cannibalism so if we're gossiping we're talking about so-and-so's marriage or so-and-so's divorce or so-and-so's moving from here to there and so-and-so's husband lost her job and can you believe so-and-so husband did this or wife did this why why do we care why do we care about anybody else's personal life at least you know this is a sign of again a person it's a sign of spiritual disease the prophesies that I'm warned that the one who is you know busy with with with other people it's better for you to be preoccupied with your own problems than to worry about other people and then we also know that very clear hadith where he tells us part of the beauty of one's islam is that you leave that which does not concern you so you literally mind your own business but if we're gossiping and we're taking these things lightly we don't we're not realizing that we could very well be landing ourselves in a very very compromised position again what yeah that but that those who neglect their prayers very important that if we don't wake up to the reality that the prayer is the most fundamental thing that we do there is nothing more important than your salah and my salah nothing nothing more important if you and I you know I had a sister mashallah I remember may Allah bless her I spoke with her actually this past weekend she came up to me and I don't know if she's here but may Allah bless her because last year she came to a halakha and she was just sharing that she had a very difficult time with managing her worship and her work and so we were talking about how to logistically fix that she said that you know it's hard for her to get to her worship because she has so much work to do so I just gave her an assiha and I said well maybe you have to switch it maybe you have to do your worship first and then get to your work it's just a very simple nasiha I didn't think much of it I just gave the advice that we've been given plan your life around your prayer not the other way around so alhamdulillah when I saw her this past weekend she came up to me and she was just she just said it she said I have to say something to you it's actually thank you you know you gave me this advice last year that completely changed my life subhanAllah just some simple words it's a paradigm shift right because a lot of us are so focused on raising our children taking care of our parents if we have elderly parents you know paying the bills going to work going to school and we keep putting all these things on our you know I mean there's it's just this never ending to do list never ending list of responsibilities we have and then we plug in prayer whenever it's convenient and then we wonder why we're never at peace it's a formula that is it's destined to fail you will never find peace if you're going to do that whereas when you prioritize Allah subhanAllah and then plan your life you find that Allah will give you tofiq he'll expand your time you'll suddenly happy so that's what she experienced she said this past year alhamdulillah that's what she did she started to wake up early do her tahajjud do her fajr prayer get her ibadah in and then she started her work and she said everything changed for her and she was just very happy to report this change alhamdulillah wa shukrullah so these are very real experiences but again many of us in Ramadan we're on top of our prayers we have a full 30 days Allah is showing us we're very capable of doing it but what happens as soon as the month is over something goes wrong because it we're not afraid enough and that's where when you read that you know the the the punishment does anyone know i remember reading this a long time ago and it always stayed with me does anyone know the punishment of missing one prayer without a good reason what it is it is i think it's called either a laqab or a haqab i can't remember the arabic term but it's basically a period of 80 years of torment in the fire for missing a prayer without a valid reason so just be like oh i'm lazy or oops oops i miss fajr oops i guess i'll just do it tomorrow or maybe maybe out of the left if you miss fajr and you wake up without a sense of panic like ya Allah i like regret like deep deep fear there's something wrong because yes we're human yes the alarm may not have gone off that's that that's those are all things that we don't need to make a case Allah knows what happened it's the state of our hearts that we want to present to our creator when we come into the realization when we wake up from that sleep state it's the state that you present to your creator and regret should be the number one state jumping up from bed running to the bathroom and making will do it even if it's 10 minutes late 20 minutes late it doesn't matter because you want to show your creator that you're so remorseful that even though you were sleeping it wasn't intentional the idea that you missed the call of prayer that you missed the opportunity to worship your creator as he so deserves is enough to put you in a state to induce a state of panic and terror and fear in your heart if that's not happening and you're just like oh well or as we've talked about before missing you know prayers because oh i have a wedding to go to this is probably one of the things that i just will never understand love protect our hearts and forgive us forever ever ever thinking that a social event even a celebratory event is a good enough excuse to miss worshiping your creator like oh i have this you know big heavy fancy dress and makeup it's you know a low will understand but this is the kind of you know illogic uh and excuses that the nefs will make so these are the types of warnings we have to heed and again when we read the different descriptions that one i mean i should have maybe highlighted that because i think it's the most relatable we have a problem of people you know and i know and i'm sure dr any knows and many of the other teachers here know this is a struggle that a lot of us have is not being on top of our prayers so if we take anything from when we read the descriptions of the fire it is that is the most important way to protect ourselves manage your prayers do anything and everything you can to make sure you're doing your prayers on time anything and everything there's really no excuse whatever you need to do whatever you need to do i say that well lucky with no equivocation i'm not there's no exaggeration there whatever you need to do to fix your prayer do it whatever you need if you need five alarms ten alarms do it because it is the number one thing we're going to be asked about on the day of judgment if you're hustling if you're taking care of your kids all those things are great they're masha'Allah amazing deeds but they're not going to measure up on the scales if you're missing your salah they're just not you could be serving the umma you could be out there working in soup kitchens and feeding the homeless you could be traveling all over the world but if you're neglectful over your prayers it's not going to measure up so get on top of your prayers and make sure after i mean right now we should all have that niyah that inshallah as long as i live and breathe i will never ever abandon my prayers and i will never take lightly missing a prayer ever like i will never do that i will always feel the weight of missing prayers and may Allah guide us to really take our prayers seriously obscene and perverse uh pervert you know anything that's perverse if you're an obscene person what does that mean dirty jokes why are we telling dirty jokes why are we watching inappropriate material like comedians who are foul and disgusting why do we watch television programs and films that talk about things that are crude this is so reprehensible we are supposed to be the hallmark quality of the believers not just women men and women is modesty is hayat so if we are wearing our hijabs but then i mean it's final others you know programs and um you know all these social media accounts now may Allah guide our umma of women in hijab full hijab talking about very inappropriate things with men on podcast episodes what is happening what is happening in our umma where single men and women they're not even married are having these what intellectual discussions about intimacy in the bedroom with with non-mahram men what is happening aul ibn la this is not part of our dean we we have boundaries of what to talk about what's appropriate what's not appropriate foul jokes cursing music that's inappropriate topics that are inappropriate are haram they're in the category of haram so to be very aware of that and not make excuses if we do these things we again compromise our position and that's why we have to heed these warnings adulterers and cheaters you'd be surprised how common aul ibn la this is in our community may Allah guide us may Allah protect us if you are single make dua Allah subhana brings you a righteous spouse to protect you from falling into zina if you are married guard your chastity guard your modesty lower your gaze do not take it lightly talking with the opposite gender it is not a light thing to do if you work i mean i i've i've heard enough stories in my lifetime may Allah again protect our hearts and protect our marriages and protect our homes and protect our families because shaytan is out for us he knows especially in this day and age that the muslim community being the last maybe community that really preserves marriage and family he's coming for us he is coming for our community he's already broken on many other communities apart they don't even have they don't even take marriage seriously alhamdulillah we're still marrying but if we're marrying and then we're being lucy goosey you know we're we're interacting with the opposite gender in a way that is unbecoming inappropriate out of the love so we have to take these things very seriously to guard our chastity to guard our modesty lower our gaze when you're speaking with brothers if you are again single don't put yourself in that situation of you know of attracting that type of attention uh just because you know you if you want to get married do it the right way make da'a ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala the only way you will have any of us is asking Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala it's not going and putting yourself out there getting dressed up wearing a lot of makeup putting on very tight fitting clothing walking around with very sexualized energy this is not the way to do it and if we do these things may Allah forgive us it's not the end for us obviously there's always hope but we have to turn that around and the way that we turn that around is to adopt the the the necessary comportment the necessary disposition of a believer not just a believing woman because again these are rules for both men and women a believer is modest a believer does not put themselves out there in that way those who take usury those who practice sorcery and magic and i don't know what the last one was those who maybe they would leave that blank manila forgive and protect all of us subhanahu wa ta'ala but there are many categories right and i just wanted to share when the prophecy said him went on israq one miraj we know that he was given uh and he saw a lot of things that really disturbed him that really troubled him um and among them right were very clear descriptions and if you haven't read these hadith i encourage you to read them because they're terrifying right here the prophecy said when i was taken on my night journey i passed by people who had metal hooks in their hands and they were clawing at their faces and necks just imagine that it's it's it's i just can't imagine it i said who are these people jibreel jibreel islam said these are the ones who eat the flesh of people and attack their honor so for those who gossip for those who like to spread lies all the bilal this is what our faith will be may god protect all of us and forgive any one of us who's ever spoken ill of another person behind their back i saw some men on the night of my session whose lips were being sheared by scissors of fire i said oh jibreel who are these people preachers from your nation who commanded people to be righteous and they forgot it themselves yet they recited the book will they not reason this is for those of us who are in a teaching position we have to heed these warnings may Allah forgive us forever coming and sharing or you know calling people to things that we don't ourselves do this would be the ultimate sign of hypocrisy but these warnings are there for us to to really think about i saw a dream at night which two men came to me they said they said the one who's face you saw being torn away was a great liar who would tell a lie and it would be carried until it reaches the horizons this will be done to him until the day of resurrection stuck for a while again having your face being ripped apart because you are a liar and there's many very very graphic descriptions of the torments of people specific people dragged on their face you know things happening to them all of it's not you know the process and he was but she had one of the it he came to warn us not to just you know give us these gory descriptions so that we go oh that's so scary no it's actually y'all love please don't let me be a part of ever that scene witness it or be a part of it y'all protect me my loved ones and to really take that seriously because if you think that you couldn't be like it's you're otherizing and it's like oh that's not going to happen to me that's the first sign of delusion we should all be terrified at one point he saw a big bull with horns come out a small hole but then he struggled to go back down in it so this is a more descriptive scene of this uh bull that's trying to go through this hole um and it couldn't and then when the process of attribute what it was he said words that had been uttered but could not be taken back that's such a powerful you know um what's the word not metaphor but visual of what is it thank you imagery of words that are said that can't be taken back many of us say things that are so hurtful that are so painful if you cut someone down whether it's a relative your sibling your you know your spouse your child because you have a razor sharp tongue heed this warning and ask all the sponsors to forgive you if you've ever emasculated someone you know we know women we know how to do it i know i know how to do it i'll let me i admit i admit it i can we can do it you see men are very you know they're fragile their egos are you could easily just take one little thing just cut them into shreds if you wanted to if you have that capacity and i know we all know how to do it don't i thought you don't but if you've ever done it may Allah forgive all of us forever going there or you know hurting anybody our siblings friends sometimes we say things because we're we're passive aggressive you know we're we're burying resentment we don't know how to cope with certain things so we just weaponize our words and we hurt people and if we've ever done that we should really take that seriously and ask Allah to forgive the harms of our tongue and whether we know it or not sometimes we do it and we don't we're not even aware of it and that's why comprehensive is stuff that is the sins that i've done that i'm aware of and that i'm not aware of big and small be very comprehensive when you make a toba for these things um and i'm sorry i know i might be out of time i'm just going to go through the rest of these quickly this is also really i mean i'd really encourage you to read the descriptions of surat al-qaf about the day of judgment and the trumpet being blown and what will happen it's just that the imagery is so powerful but i wanted to share so i'll i'll try to go through these quickly and the trumpet will be blown this is the day you were warned of if we're reading the verses Allah swt gave us the warning but if we're not going to read them we're not going to pay them much attention we're just going to focus on jannah which of course is we should do that too but they it's a balance that we have to maintain so Allah's warning us and every soul will come with it a driver and a witness there's two angels one that drives us to our judgment and then a witness who will stand to bear witness to the judgment it will be said you were certainly unmindful of this and now we have removed from you your cover so your sight this day is sharp so this is exactly what i'm talking about our you know our reluctance to actually be mindful of these punishments we don't want to read them it's uncomfortable Allah's telling us we're certainly unmindful now the veil has been removed you're gonna see it all