 Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem As we start, just a quick reminder and a quick request for reflection. Just reminding everyone that there is no power and no change in anything, change of heart, change of circumstances, except with Allah, except in Allah. So, I stand here before you as a means, as a sign, but ultimately, if all of you want to learn something today, if we want to hear something from Allah today, then let us set that intention before we begin. We praise Allah, we praise Him, we ask His forgiveness and we seek His forgiveness, and we seek refuge with Allah from our sins and from the evil of our deeds. Who guides him, there is none to guide him, and who leads him, there is none to guide him. And I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and I bear witness that there is no partner. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger. May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon his family and companions. Allah said in his old book, after I seek refuge with Allah from the evil of Satan. In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. O you who believe, be mindful of Allah. Be mindful of Allah, the truth of his deeds, and there is no doubt except, and he is a Muslim. What is the other place? O you who believe, be mindful of your Lord who created you from one soul, and created a wife from it. And there are many in it, and many among men and women. O praise belongs to Allah, we praise him as much as we can. We seek his help, we seek his forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of ourselves, from the evil of our bad actions. And we testify, we bear witness that there is no nothing worthy of worship, nothing worthy of dependence, nothing worthy of anything at all except Allah. He is alone, he has no partner. And we testify that Muhammad ibn Abdullah, the peace and prayers of Allah be upon him, his companions, his family and all those who follow him to the last day and may Allah count us among them, that he is Allah's final prophet and messenger and his servant. Allah says words in his beautiful Quran which can be translated roughly as, O you who believe, O you who have faith, who have iman, fear Allah. Have consciousness of God as is his right and die not except in a state of submission to him. And in another place, O mankind, have fear and consciousness of your Lord who created you from one soul and from that soul created its mate and from those two sent forth many men and women. And have fear and consciousness of God through whom you ask of your various affairs and the wombs that bore you. Verily, God is ever watchful over you. It's related about our prophet and father, Sayyidina Adam alayhi salam, the first prophet, indeed the first human. It's related that, of course, he was in Jannah and had everything that he needed, everything he desired, everything he would ever want, could ever imagine of wanting he had. He and his wife Hawer, may Allah have mercy and peace upon them both. And yet he took a decision, he was deceived out of that position and forced to come down to earth as an order, as a command of Allah. And it's related that when he came down on this earth, he had already seen Jannah, he had experienced Jannah, he had experienced the pleasures of heaven and the pleasures of being so close to the presence of Allah. So much so that it's related that when he came down to this world, according to Zem reports, and he cried for 900 years, 900 years he did nothing but cry, nothing but cry. And Jibril alayhi salam, the angel, the archangel would come to him and every time that he came to Adam, peace be upon him, Adam cried even more because the sight of Jibril would remind him of what he had lost. He cried to such an extent that when Jibril would come to him and it would increase his crying, it caused Jibril to cry himself. I was busy seeing the sorrow that this man was in. And it was also Jibril who taught Adam how to deal with this world. That in Jannah, whenever Adam alayhi salam wanted something, whenever he wanted food, all he had to do was just reach out again. He didn't even have to ask for it, he just had to think, have a desire and suddenly there it would be in front of him. And yet now he's descended to the level of the world, of the dunya, of the lower world and Jibril had to teach him, alayhi salam, may peace be upon him, had to teach him how to deal with this world. That no longer do you just imagine, do you just wish and it comes to you but you have to work for it. You have to take the seed, you have to plant it, you put it in the ground, you cover it, you water it, you tend to it, make sure it grows, make sure nothing else thumps it out, nothing else eats that shoot that comes out from the seed. You tend to it, keep watering it, use a little bit of fertilizer. Then finally you can take that seed, take that grain that comes from the seed and then can you eat it? No. Then you crush it. You crush it, you make a paste, you cook it and then you can have some bread. So much work is something that was completely effortless before. Really months, a year's worth of work just for one piece of bread. And it's reported that after Jibril alayhi salam taught Adam alayhi salam how to make this bread, Adam sat down on the floor to eat it, he sat down on the ground, picked up his loaf of bread that he had put so much effort into doing, into making, raised it up to his hands and dropped it and rolled down the hill. This is the world. This is the dunya, brothers and sisters. So let's not kid ourselves. Let's not lie to ourselves about the reality of what's going on. The reality is that we are not satisfied. We are not satisfied by anything in this dunya. And it's not fun. And it's not easy. It's tough. SubhanAllah. The effort that we have to put into, compared to the no effort that was ever part of our lives before. When we were just, just thoughts. When we were just gathered into the loins of Adam. We still had an existence then. We were with him there in jannah to a certain extent, not in the way that we have our existence now. But we know what it's like to be in the presence of Allah. And yet here we are in this world. Let's not kid ourselves. It's reported from Ali, may Allah be pleased with him. And that he was comforting one of the other Sahaba one time. And he said, let me tell you about this world. This world is simply just a few things. Just maybe five things in this world. There are things to eat. There are things to drink. There are beasts to ride. There are things to wear. And there are intimate relations to be had. Five things in this world. He said, now, now take a look. Think about these things. As for what we eat, the most enjoyable thing we could eat is honey. And the reality of that is that it's the spit of a little flock. The most pleasurable thing that we can drink is pure water. And the reality of that is that humans and animals and all kinds of creatures on earth, they all drink water. It's nothing special to us. The most pleasurable thing we can ride is a beautiful steed, a beautiful horse. And what do we do with that steed? We ride into battle and kill other people on it. The most pleasurable thing that we can wear is silk. Beautiful, comfortable silk. And what's the reality of that? It is the experiment of a world. Subhanallah. And it goes on. And so this is the reality of the world. When we look at the most pleasurable things, the things that we try to seek after, that we often try to find tranquility in, let me get the best of this world. The best circumstances, the most pleasurable things, the things that will make me feel easiest in this world. The reality of it is that it is the complete lowest thing that we can imagine. And the reality of it is that we're lying to ourselves, we're lying to ourselves, day in, day out. I know what I want. I just want a little more money. In fact, not just what I want, but what I need. What I need is just a little more money so that I can do just a little more of the things that I like to do. Or just a little more food or a little bit of this type of food. Or just a little more beautiful wife or beautiful husband to keep me company in the dark nights. Or just some nice kids. How about that? Subhanallah, Allah says in the Qur'an too. 5 levels of dunya. He says no. No for a fact that it is indisputable that this life, this lower life is nothing but let me list 5 things. But play. Amusement. Adornment. Pride between you. Constantly contesting with other people in terms of what you have. And just amassing children and wealth. That's all the dunya is. That's all that this worldly life is. And so how often yet do we lie to ourselves thinking that this is what I need. This is what I need. And yet the more we get the more we feel like we need. It never satisfies us. It never quite reaches us. Never. Always so depressing. And always so much work to get that when I finally grasp that I have to work so much to maintain it. When I have that beautiful nice big house I have to make sure that I have the income to be able to sustain the property tax on that house. When I have that beautiful wife maybe even if we were in a different context several wives then I have to make sure to have enough money enough space enough resources enough time to serve them well and take care of them. When I have enough children enough of all these things that amass these things which just creates more obligations for me and stresses me out even more. SubhanAllah. So let's just stop lying to ourselves and realize what it is that we really need what it is that our souls cry after. For one our souls cry after for something better and so we know that there is something better and that something is called gender. Heaven. May Allah almost make us all people of Jannah and to us all into it without any reckoning. And how is Jannah described? SubhanAllah. There are couches in Jannah whose height is the height between the heavens and the earth. And the Sahaba some of them when they heard this from the Prophet they said how could we get up on it then? What's the point of having a big huge cushion that we can't even jump up on? And he said well you know how he said they basically like the camel does as the camel comes down through its ride at the ride it gets on and then it comes up again. This is the same way that our Firaash will be. Our great cushions they will come down for us we will rise and we will rise up to those heights. It's reported that the people of Jannah get beautiful horses. Beautiful horses especially on Fridays when they can use them to visit their family members in their allergen. As for the food and drink the food and drink and indeed all of it is completely unimaginable far beyond what we experienced here. It resembles slightly what experienced here in such that we would be able to place names on it but completely does not resemble what's here in that it's completely different experience. SubhanAllah. And the fruit of Jannah the fruit of heaven is in such a way that it is always Daniyah. It is always close at hand. Whenever we want fruit it's always there. You just pick it, eat it. Do we have to go to the bathroom? No. Alhamdulillah. The drink of Jannah of many different kinds there's milk that doesn't come from a lowly place in a cow and it never goes bad. Indeed, rivers of milk running and they never turn sour. Rivers of wine and it never has any bad effect on us. We get buzzed. We get excited when we drink the wine but we don't get the headache afterwards. And it's not against the Amr of Allah. It's not as in this world when we can't have intoxicating drinks. The wine is something beautiful that has no bad effect and is not prohibited for us. Rivers of honey Rivers of honey that unlike the honey in this world which has to be filtered down filtered and treated and processed in order to really get to where it's edible and looks good the rivers of honey in Jannah will just run completely free of impurity. Not only that all these rivers will run around us so that whenever we go any place in Jannah they follow us. Run a few miles. Oh look, I can quench my thirst with a bit of honey. Not that we have thirst to quench. All of this is everything we could ever imagine and more. Everything. Everything we could possibly imagine. So not only is there going to be in Jannah these things that we get from our tradition which we have related to today but all the things that we can imagine I don't know about your Jannah but my Jannah, if I were to design it and if a lot is merciful enough to allow me to have just a taste of it it would be a place where I'd have zero gravity I could just jump around and fly I'd have a water park in my Jannah such that I take slides around in my Jannah and then go down into the depths of the lake you know what? I wish I could breathe I wish I could breathe down in the sea and suddenly I'd have kills and I could breathe. Anything I'd want, it would be there and that doesn't go under against our tradition because it's affirmed in our tradition that anything you could possibly imagine it would be there. Be there before you can even pronounce it before you can even say Allah, could you please give me this? No. Allah says in the Quran that request in Jannah, the people of Jannah when they make request, all they say is Subhanakal Obama all they say is it exalted is you Allah and then suddenly what they wanted appears in front of them Subhanakal Allah Here is the Jannah and so for one let's just stop fooling ourselves and realize that that all of this is not what we want there's something else and yet what we've been given is a deen a deen sometimes we translate deen as religion but literally in the Arabic it means transaction or at least has that kind of connotation a transaction and a retribution in terms of if we do something in this world then we get paid for it in the next world and so this is our transaction that every single moment we can have is a transaction with Allah that the dunya this lowly world comes to us and we convert that lowly world into Jannah currency so that person who annoys me that's in this world that person at work who I don't really get along with he and all his annoyance and the taaf things that he says to me in the way that I feel about it all of that I'm just patient in that I've now turned that dunya circumstance into Jannah currency when I go to the supermarket and I see all these foods laid out in front of me plastic packaging plastic packaging all these kind of things packaging all the petroleum that we use to take our car to use that got us in our car from our homes or whatever it was to our supermarket I think about it and think that all of this system it's all based on petroleum which is based on extracting unjustly the resources of the Muslim Ummah across the world when we think that and say to Allah you know Allah I'm going to be a little more conscious about what I buy and how I drive and how I live my life and therefore maybe I was driving a lot before and I choose to ride my bike once a day if we just do that for Allah into after our currency that's the transaction that we want that's the better transaction indeed take whatever's going on here and think how do I make this about the afterlife because if it's all about what's here that impresses me and it's never going to satisfy me may Allah grant us that success to see things in that way and to have that kind of transaction I call the podium how that works I'll put a lot of leave for that one take forgiveness from Allah during this time which we will give these a question Alhamdulillah Ibar Allah Oh servants, slaves creation of Allah fear Allah have consciousness of him Inna Allah Wa Mala Iqatabu Yusallur Anin Habib Ya Ayyuhalladina Aamanu sallu alaibi wa sallimu tasslima Allahumma salli wa sallim Muhammad Allah tells us He orders us in the Inna Quran to he says first himself he says that God and the angels send peace and prayers upon the Prophet alayhi sallimu sallim O you who believe, O you who have faith send peace and prayers upon him much and so we do Allahumma sallimu sallim and so this is the kind of transaction that we want in this world turning this dunya into aafira currency and yet as we think about it is that really what we want to is that the extent of our aspiration it's reported it's reported that there will be certain people in the next life who will be taken to the angels and shown what they have in jannah and imagine this as we've mentioned just a few bits of jannah palaces rivers all these places and wonderful goods things and food and pleasures all of these things presented to them that place in jannah is shown to them the angels take the net and say there you go this is yours there are people who will see that and say that's not what we want there are people who see imagine this they will see everything that their hearts could ever desire and more and they will turn back to the angels and say you brought us to what we didn't we weren't asking for this we don't want this why? is the jannah not created is the jannah still not a creative thing even though it's everything we could ever imagine and more ultimately it's still creative and were we made for creation were we made for creative things what does God tell us in the Quran that we created you for nice pleasures we created you to have some nice drink and food no and we did not create jinn and mankind except to worship me except to know me this is the purpose this is why we're not satisfied with anything in this world and indeed why many people in the next world will never really be satisfied with jannah even if they get the heights of jannah it's because we all have an ibad that shaped whole in our hearts we all have an Allah shaped whole in our hearts in our very being we have this whole that can only be filled by one thing and that is the presence of Allah and so I stand here to you today calling first myself and then the rest of you to remember that to never forget that never forget why we're here never forget what we want and what we don't want to we don't want creation especially not this world but not even the next creation too no matter how unimaginable and incomparable that will be we want the creator we want to be in his presence we want to see him we want to be with him and be with the most beloved of his creation that is possibly the only creation that we would ever be interested in the prophet of Allah peace and praise be upon him may Allah allow us to know him understand him and then ultimately be with him in this world and the next to have Allah that's what we want so let's stop fooling ourselves and the reality of this because it insist the reality of this is that if we're serious about this if this is what we want we can have it now we can have it now because does not Allah say in the Quran Allah is with you wherever you are does Allah not say in the Quran that he's closer to him than his chagil of a qalbi Allah comes between a person and that person's heart and if we knew Islamic cosmology we would know that this term the heart indeed is our very soul indeed it's our very self so what does that even mean that Allah is between me and myself he's right there he's with us but we're the ones who've been blinded blinded ourselves and this is the ultimate power of Allah that it said that he one of the great sages of our ummah has said that this is one of the amazing powers of Allah that he who is really the only thing existent who is really the only thing worthy of saying he exists he has life he is indeed the only of anything he has veiled us from him by something that ultimately has no claim to existence with him at all Subhan Allah why are we fooling ourselves Allah who Allah is with you wherever you are if only we can just accept that that yes this is the dunya this is the lower world the lower world that as we've said Allah talks about it vain excuse me gathering up things that don't matter at all but that's not the only word in our tradition that we call this world yes dunya is a word for this world but also is and what do we say 70 times a day at least Alhamdulillah praise is to Allah praise belongs to God the Lord of the Alams and what is the Alam the Alam in Arabic it's a tool Alam is a tool of knowledge Alam is the tool of knowledge this world is a tool of knowledge it's where we get our knowledge it's how we have our understanding and our understanding of what Allah Allah that if we're really serious if we're honest with ourselves and say yeah Allah all I want is just to just to understand what it means for you to be with me for you to to be in my life I'm the only one blinding myself from you so please just just take me away from myself take me away from myself from my own delusions that you're absent anywhere else or in any other time or place or even limited by time and place that oh yeah Allah yeah Allah if that's what we want then he will be near because the reality is he is near he is indeed the only thing near Al-Qariq, SubhanAllah he is THE near and if that's what we want and if we just acknowledge that that's what we need and that's all we ever want and any time that we think that we want something else it's really because that thing reminds us of what it was like to be in the presence of Allah that's the only reason why we're grabbing after these things if we truly realize that and just say to Allah all I want is you no more creation none of this I want the creator then we'll realize that he's been there the whole time may Allah not let us forget may Allah never leave us to assess in the name of Allah Alhamdulillah Allah says yeah Allah give us the best of this life and the best of the next life and save us from the punishment of the fight yeah Allah allow us to realize that the best of this life and the best of the next life is only that which brings us closer to you yeah Allah allow us to realize that that is what we're seeking after yeah Allah allow us to seek after that and ask you for it constantly and constantly being in a state of remembrance of you yeah Allah please never leave us to ourselves come between us and our hearts because you have truly said in your Quran that you come between someone and his heart yeah Allah grant us that station never let us forget yeah Allah allow us to actualize Islam, iman and ihsan and actualize true ibadah of you be true true committed servants of you and realize that that's why we were created