 Al-Khumman Al-Raheem, let us join each other in da'a insha Allah, raise our hands. There are many people around the world who are very unwell, many of our family members and friends, and indeed two particular sisters of ours. One lady who is very unwell, and one young daughter of the community who is also very unwell. There are tragedies and trials going on around the world. Let us ask Allah SWT for his intercession, speedy recovery for all those who are unwell, and victory for all those who are fighting on behalf of Truth and Justice. In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. In honor of Lady Khadija, please recite one line. In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful, the Gracious. In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. As-salamu ala ashraf al-anbiya wal-mursanihin Khatam al-nabihin Sayyidin al-mumajjad bashirin al-musaddaq Al-Mustafa al-amjad Mahmood al-Ahmad Abul Qasim al-Muhammad Wa ala ahli baytah tayyamin Tahinina al-Masumihin Wa la'na Allah wa la'zalimina min al-awwalina wa al-akhalihin Amma ba'ad qalayma wal-hujj alayhi as-salam Al-hamdulillahi ala ilmihi ba'da ilmih Wa alhamdulillahi ala afwihi ba'da qudratih Wa alhamdulillahi ala tawli anatihi fi ghazabih Wahu wa qadirun ala ma yulid Al-hamdulillahi qalikil khalqa Bāsit al-rizqa Fālik al-isbāḥ Dhil n-jalāli wal-iqra'm Wal-fazli wal-in'a'am Al-lādi ba'udah fālā yurā Wa qarubah al-shahid an-najwāt Bārak wa ta'ā'a Imam of the age, Imam of the Zamanah My respect to teachers, elders, brothers and sisters As-salāmu alaykum jami'an wa-raḥmatullāhi wa-barakātuh We continue, inshā'u Llāh, in our discussion on the commentary of the A'if Titaq which has been provided to you and I by the master of our age Imam al-mahdi, A'jjal allāhu ta'ālā Fāluja al-shareef Over these last two previous sessions we have discussed this particular line from the A'if Titaq where inshā'u Llāh tonight we seek to bring it to its culmination The line that we have been exploring says, all praise belongs to Allah for he is the creator of everything in creation and hence we have been posing these questions as to why do I exist what is my purpose within existence? Fundamentally I have not asked to exist there was no time when I was asked question as to whether I want to come within this universe but as we begin to explore the greater depth of these questions we begin to really analyze also I have not been able to pick where I have been born into I had no say and no choice into which family I was born into into which era I was born into into which physical skin into which color into any part of my decision making process was never part of the consultation there was no choice for me and therefore we examined one particular verse that says to us وَلَقَادِ عَلِمْتَنَّشْأَتَلْؤُولَا فَلَولَ تَذَكْكُرُونَ that you will know the first period of your existence will you not then remember will you not then recall and this first realm of existence is the one in the womb it is speaking of the journey of the fetus in that as soon as the sperm meets the egg and Allah SWT begins the development of the fetus it is going in this one direction it is a uni-directional course towards the completion of the fetus so that it may be born into the physical realm of existence here and the idea is that the fetus is constantly growing it is growing in stature it is growing in cores Allah SWT makes it complete one stage of existence in order for it to achieve its next stage of existence in order for ultimately to achieve its own completion and if within the womb it does not complete its completion it is unable to fully develop when it comes into this realm of the existence it will be a shortcoming there will be a small deficiency within it rendering it less able to fully form and function within this physical existence similarly in this realm in the life that I have been given be I living for 40 years or 70 years or 80 years I am also replicating this same journey I am bound to journey from one stage of my existence to the next stage of existence to the next stage of existence until I complete that journey and then we posed further questions yesterday we said that this is a platform for us to understand the purpose of this journey we need to delve further into this concept what does it mean for me to journey from stage to stage of my existence and what is my completion we stated yesterday that for me to journey from existence to existence from one stage of my being to the next stage of my being is one whereby I need to see myself as the character that I am the question we posed is no longer why am I existing but who am I in existence am I my name, am I Jaffa the 27 year old person I am not Jaffa by name this is only one thing that identifies me whereas if you were to change my name and put my name as Muhammad put my name as Ali or as Hassan or as Hussain I would still be me as the character that I am and therefore the label itself does not provide me with a cause to understand me my character my weaknesses, my flaws, my shortcomings and indeed my strengths make me as to whom I really am if I want to see my own journey I must see how I am growing as a human being towards the completion of myself what is this completion of myself it is to stand at the peak of my own humanity to break the shackles that have bounded me as a human being whatever weaknesses I have in the 40 or 60 or 80 years of my lifespan when Allah Ta'ala decides to call me back into his proximity into his mercy when my soul is separated from my body I can stand before my Lord and say I am a complete human being before you I have returned to you without those deficiencies I started with I have built and built and built my character until I am a human being that is worthy of being titled as a human being we gave many examples we showed yesterday for example the Nabi Allah Musa A.S. went through his own journey he was challenged to the core of the human being that he was he had a physical defect whereby he couldn't speak as eloquently as another but look the very fact that he was weak in this manner Allah Ta'ala challenged him with this very weakness go towards Pharaoh stand in front of him and debate with him use your weakness to turn it into the completion of yourself use your weakness to burst forth from the being that you currently are break forth with full confidence in Allah Ta'ala look at how he challenged him with his own weaknesses and turned him into the complete prophet that he eventually became with this strength with this strength and confidence gave him the ability to stand in front of Banu Israel the very people of his own that would be bringing him down or trying to bring him down then we said yesterday there is the story of Nabi Allah Ibrahim A.S. he sought yakin he sought certainty in an increase whereby he could worship Allah Ta'ala better by virtue of Allah Ta'ala giving him this Allah Ta'ala tested him by this now that I've given you certainty in me I ask you to slaughter your own Ismail and here we state that the same way when I learn to stand in front of my own Firaun I become Musa in the same way when I learn to sacrifice I also become Ibrahim when I see the greatest sacrifice for me and I learn to slaughter my own Ismail be it my pride, be it my arrogance be it slaughtering my own laziness I am putting to the sword my own Ismail and I burst forth as the Ibrahim from within me that the Quran is speaking about and here we stated that when someone begins to see completion no matter what trial no matter what tribulation no matter what difficulty you see from them they burst forth at each stage of their existence and you will see that nothing short of noor comes from their face we highlighted that on the 10th of Muharram Abiyab Dillah was tasked with the most difficult task known to humanity to give one of his friends after another to give one of his children after another to give one of his family members after another and to know that eventually his sisters and daughters would be chained, slapped their earrings torn from their ears their veils snatched from them marched from one city to another in full parade but for a human being to sacrifice himself and at that point continued to realize the full glory of Allah SWT on the 10th of Muharram the enemies themselves testified to this very station of existence in stating that the more we strike Hussain ibn Ali the more we see his face shine with noor to the extent that we are unable to strike him down this is what it means to come to the fore of your own completion that despite me being challenged to the very core of who I am you will see me shining gloriously in front of Allah SWT hence the one verse that we state is unique for Abiyab Dillah Ya ayyatuhan nafsal matma inna ilji'i ira rabbi kiral ziyatan rabbiya because he was this soul that was so content that despite all that was going on around him despite every single arrow striking him despite every single sword striking him he was going through one stage of noor to the next stage of noor to the next stage of noor until when his head was separated from his body that is when you can see the completion of his own existence coming into shape this is what we are talking about our own journey in life my journey cannot be your journey and your journey cannot be my journey my tests are mine and yours are yours the things that I go through in life I can never express to you fully and the things that you go through in life no matter how eloquent a tongue you have you will never truly be able to express to me but the heart that beholds each of those trials raises its hands and says ya rabbi it turns towards him and that is what we mean by this completion of self where there is nothing other than you and your Lord where it is you and your Lord only and you are annihilating yourself in front of Him every other person in existence may exist but all of them exist in order for me to serve you my Lord I am coming to the very fore of my completion as a human being and that is why you have created me so that I may achieve my own completion however I feel I can in front of you here we need to continue to build and we want to do this and this particular building and this particular understanding of the culmination of this subject of my purpose, my existence in light of this grand lady by the name of Lady Khadija Salawatullahu Salamu Alaihem and we want to understand the stages of spirituality and we want to understand the stages of existence as we go towards our own completion and see this in light of this grand and supreme personality and through the examples that she has set for us as we come to this point of existence we need to return back and of course we need to start at the very beginning of existence or at least the very beginning of our own physical existences and thus we look always towards the story of Nabilullah Adam Alaihissalam now we have stated in a very philosophical sense in a term that allows us to think differently when I see the story of Musa Alaihissalam I want to see myself in light of his character I want to judge his character and see whether I can ascend to that lofty character as close as I may be able to become I live his story when I fight oppression and when I see my own Firaun I become the Musa and when I see I must sacrifice I become the Ibrahim and I live the story of Ibrahim and thus in the same line of philosophical thinking when I see the story of Nabilullah Adam Alaihissalam I am also obliged to look at him and say indeed he is the Prophet there was the Prophet Musa there was the Prophet Ibrahim there was the Prophet Adam but when I look at their stories I must replace their stories with my stories I must understand that I am also in thinking I am also in line with that story and as much as it is about the individual Adam I am also Adam Alaihissalam and therefore I mirror that story with my own story in order to understand my own purpose we go back towards the story that Alaihissalam begins this with a discussion towards the angels I am going to place on earth a caliph now here when we look at this particular discussion it is an inspiring discussion we need to look at why the angels took the tone took the specific response that they took and understand it in line of who Nabilullah Adam vis-a-vis you and I are what it really means the response as we know from the angels is what are you going to create someone who is going to cause mischief and bloodshed whilst we are the ones who sing your praises and glorify you Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala responds with an insightful statement I know what you know not I know about Adam what you know not now there are a number of different ways we can interpret and discuss this particular sequence of verses however I want to come to one particular point when it comes to the complaint of the angels we notice a number of things we find that in regards to their complaint they are very specific what are you going to create someone who is going to cause mischief and bloodshed now what do I understand of mischief and what do I understand of bloodshed when I understand mischief for example on earth I can think of mischief in a number of ways normally I might include bloodshed within mischief but the fact that the angels separated the two must mean that they were discussing two separate issues to them mischief was one thing and bloodshed was another thing of course whatever mischief they had supposed us to be performing or bloodshed that we were going to perform they had thought that we would perform these actions and indeed we see around the world there are people who are performing these actions the point here is is mischief and bloodshed the single biggest sin that Adam, mankind, vis-a-vis you and me can perform what's the biggest sin what's the unforgivable sin according to Holy Quran shirk Allah says that this is the one sin I will not forgive why do we need to intertwine the whole discussion the question we pose is Ya Allah, why will you not forgive shirk why would you forgive murder but you would not forgive shirk why would you forgive stealing but you would not forgive shirk what is it about shirk that you will not forgive but what is it about murder that you will forgive shirk from the perspective of you and I when we understand it from the perspective of the Shia 12 and the Muslims who try to believe in one God this God that is omnipotent this God that is omniscient this God that has no partners you and I, we tend not to think that you and I are performing shirk I don't believe he has a partner I did not put anyone in partnership with Allah therefore how does this verse affect me do I think that this verse is only in regards to someone who is a Sikh or a Hindu or a Christian why do I think that this verse is not also about me here we find that we need to understand shirk at our level and also understand it in accordance with how the complain to the angels were and also the understanding of my own growth and completion shirk at this level does not just mean adding a partner towards God because you and I will say that we don't perform this therefore shirk is actually something which stops your own spiritual development shirk is that factor which is a limiting factor it is a factor which stops your own spiritual development if I am the one who is praying my Salah and I am the one who goes down into Sajda and my Sajda is the purpose so that I may have a mark of prostration upon my forehead is that not the biggest shirk that one can perform if I am going into Sajda and on my mind is I wonder what is for iftar or I wonder what is on TV or I wonder who I will see at the mosque and all those things that sometimes enter into my head is that not the biggest shirk that I can perform I am going into Sajda and in my heart and in my mind is something other than Allah this is the act of shirk for you and I it is this limiting factor it is this action which stops inhibits prohibits growth within the self here we need to again qualify what we mean by certain terms when we talk about huna and when we talk about thawab what do we understand by thawab and what do we understand by huna when I perform a good deed I am told that I get thawab and we tell our children that when they perform a bad deed they get huna, they have a sin indeed this is very correct the question we pose is how does this manifest itself in the next world I think that huna will manifest itself in the pitfalls of hell there will be scorpions, there will be snakes there will be chains, there will be rows of fire there will be these things which I drink in boiling water and this is how huna will manifest itself in the next world how will thawab reward manifest itself in the next world in the next world it will manifest itself by virtue of giving me carpets to sit on or giving me hollard-ein in presence or giving me grand palaces and waterfalls and rivers of honey and milk the problem again is that we are limiting ourselves in our own growth capacity my own stage by stage growth process that we are speaking of towards my own completion is being limited by my own thinking process the fact is thawab is not just for the next world and huna is not just for the next world thawab and huna is here in play at every second every moment of my own existence how do we mean this the holy quran it talks about this as a growth capacity when I perform a good deed it is supposed to manifest within me within my character there and then it is supposed to break the chains of who I am so I burst forth to the next stage of my own existence towards that end goal of completion when we come and pray our Salah Allah SWT says that there should be a resulting factor from my Salah inna Salata tanha anil fahshaa wal munkar surely Salah is supposed to keep you away from fahshaa and munkar meaning that when I come and pray my maghrib Salah when I begin my takbirat al ahram when I approach the musallah I am bound, constricted by certain spiritual weaknesses maybe I am lazy maybe I tell lies maybe I look at someone who I should not be looking at maybe I am someone who is somebody who causes mischief within the community but by virtue of a true, dignified, genuine prostration towards Allah SWT at the end of my Salah when I finish my three takbirs I am supposed to become a new individual a human being that has grown that when he began his Salah he came with certain weaknesses by the end of the Salah he has left without those weaknesses hence inna Salata tanha anil fahshaa wal munkar the Salah is supposed to grow me as a character from within hence I know that my Salah has been accepted because it has caused a chain reaction within myself where I am no longer the same weak individual I have burst forth as a new human being to become the person I am supposed to become this is thawab thawab as a reward is constantly manifesting itself within you it is that growth cycle it is that seed that you water and it will spring forth into that huge beautiful blossoming tree that is the character that I am supposed to have now again go back towards the statement of the angels my lord are you going to cause someone who is going to cause mischief and bloodshed why didn't they shirk why didn't they assess and say that you are going to perform shirk because to the angels if they are going to complain about a human being that is going to perform bloodshed and shirk surely they would have complained to Allah about the greatest sin that would be performed surely they would have said my lord why are you going to create a caliph on earth when he is only going to perform shirk when he is going to create a partner to you because we are the ones that can break that cycle they saw us as performing mischief and bloodshed but they saw an action so one-sided that they assumed it to be evil whereas when you see human beings we are capable of performing one action to someone else it is evil but to you and I when we understand the value and the depth of it it is the true service of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala if the angels were to have seen the tenth of Muharram one side was causing bloodshed and indeed another side was causing bloodshed one side was Yazid's army and one side was Hussain ibn Ali's army from one side indeed they were causing mischief and bloodshed but from the other side the same action was for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala defended the religion and helped it create such a movement that has not been measured until today that is what we are capable of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says I know what you know not about these creatures I know what they can achieve you are looking at them in such a one-dimensional manner this creature of mine can achieve so much if only you understood and then in the next stage of this story Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala teaches Adam all of the names what does he mean all of the names we are told within Ahadith that these were the names of the Ahl al-Bayt peace be upon them all and indeed it was or maybe some other traditions might say that these were the names of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala however when you look at another tradition it really allows us to understand our own purpose within existence our own capability our tools to measure ourselves with there is a tradition where some companion comes to our sixth imam and asks him this question yabne rasoolillah what were these names that were taught to Nabi Allah Adam alayhi salam our sixth imam responds and says Adam alayhi salam was taught the names of everything in existence he was taught the names of the mountains and he was taught the names of the materials he was named, he was taught everything in existence to the extent of this carpet that I am sitting on right now think about this tradition what does it mean to you and I let us go back to our philosophy when I stand in front of the Firaun of my time if I am the Shi'a within Atif and I am standing in al-Sa'ud I am Musa and I am standing against the Firaun of my time and when I have to slaughter sacrifice something of myself in the way of Allah I am manifesting that verse of Quran that makes Nabi Allah Ibrahim and when I see this story I am Adam alayhi salam when Adam alayhi salam is taught all the names and our sixth Imam says that he is taught the name of everything in existence including this carpet that I am sitting on now what does it mean for you and I it means that Adam alayhi salam as the Prophet vis-a-vis you and I as the individual Adam we are vested with such knowledge that we are the ones who can understand everything in this universe we are the ones who Allah SWT has vested with such knowledge and such trust that we are the ones that can make sense of this universe look outside go and stare into the night sky for just two minutes think about the grandiosity of this universe there are 850 billion galaxies within this universe we as Adam have been vested with the authority and the capability to understand it all oh gathering of the jinn in mankind if you wish to break forth burst forth into the if you wish to break forth into the countries of the skies then do it who is stopping you have you not realized your own potential human beings and yet you want to quibble over the most petty of things yet you want to fight over the most petty of things you want to slaughter each other over the most petty of things have you not realized your capability as an individual when I say to you if you want to traverse to the heights of these heavens do it but you will only be able to do it with my Sultana when I assess my existence in this way when I see what I am capable of do I really assess my 60 or 70 years of my life in the same light why am I lazy why am I wasting my time why am I allowing these weaknesses to hold me down why am I allowing a petty argument with my brother in the Iman Barghah to hold me down why have I not gone and said forgive me I was at wrong even if I wasn't at wrong and I know you were at wrong I come and say I was wrong because I break my pride which is holding me down to the next stage of my own existence do you not realize the capability that we have vested within you and these petty things in your life you want to allow holding you down you want them to chain you look at what we have become brothers and sisters every single challenge that has become in front of our way we have devastated it we are physically bound to here we said no problem I want to go and traverse to the depths of the oceans I am physically bound whereby I cannot do it we said no problem I will build a submarine and I will come and I will see the depths of these oceans it's no problem I want to go and traverse the skies no problem we will build an aircraft and we will send you to 30,000 feet 60,000 feet nay will allow you to walk on the moon nay right now there are probes that are landing on the moons of Saturn gathering the dust of Saturn Saturn imagine where we will reach in 500 years time imagine the capability that we have within our own existence there is no boundary that we are not supposed to break there is no thought process that we are not able to challenge there is nothing except Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala there in front of us when you approach your own existence why am I here why am I here am I really going to allow myself to be bogged down by these petty issues within my existence oh when I say my lord you have given me 40 years Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in hadith qudsi your breaths have been numbered I know how many breaths you will take I know whether you will live to 40 or 50 or 80 and the reason why I give you that specific number of years within your life is because within that period of your life I will allow you to go and reach your own completion as a human being if I have given you 70 years and you 40 because within your 70 you will achieve and within your 40 you should be able to achieve but can I risk it all can I allow my time to go wastefully can I allow every single day to wake up and be the same and be the same we quoted this tradition from our seventh imam imam mousa al qadim where he says he whose two days are the same he is in a state of loss and he who goes backwards the laanah of Allah is upon him it doesn't mean laanah curse like a lightning bolt strikes you we need to break forth of these little petty ideas it means that you are far from the mercy of Allah the proximity of Allah if you are going backwards where are you going in life every day you should achieve more and more every day you are learning more every day in existence when you turn on the news you are learning more when you open a new book you are learning more your growth spiritually should be inclined by this everything is unidirectional except me how can that be I should be following the trend of this universe and growing every single day the beauty of this scenario is as much as I am in control of closing my own self and slowing down my own progress and causing this own shirk and partnering to God I am the one who can speed up my growth as quickly as I want it to be and the beauty is brothers and sisters you are in the month whereby you are able to press the fast forward button not just fast forward you can actually skip chapters it's like you have that DVD controller in your hand and you are pressing click forward click forward click forward you are able to progress so much in this month if only we recognize how much this month meant to us when we understand it this way when we understand existence life within this way we find that there are certain verses of the Holy Quran that are calling us inclining us towards growth and they specify techniques, methodologies of how to assess oneself and how to burst forth into the next stage of your own existence the verse I want to present to you today which is in line with the life and the giving of this grand lady of light is the verse that comes to us from verse number 92 of Surah al-Imran Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem لَنْ تَنَالُ الْبَرْرَ حَتَّى تُنْفِقُ مِمْ مَا تُحَبُّونَ you will by no means achieve a state of righteousness until you spend from that which you love you will not be able to achieve a state of righteousness until you achieve that which you, until you spend that which you love now here we need to pose a number of preliminary questions what is this righteousness and what stage in my own growth is it am I at the stage of righteousness is it the highest stage of human being or is there something more that I can achieve by it righteousness is the word ber when it comes to the word al-ber there are other words that describe the spiritual levels that a human being can exist you break forth from one stage to another to another till you reach the station of being al-ber righteous till you move forward to a higher stage according to His Eminence Ayatollah Muhammad Jawad Mughniya may Allah bless his soul he has a tradition where he looks at these stages within the Holy Qur'an and he states that the very highest station a human being can reach is that of istiqama istiqama one of the verse he cites from the Holy Qur'an in Surat Al-Hud fastaqim kama omilt istiqama is translated as upstanding meaning fastaqim kama omilt be upstanding as you have been commanded to be be in the way your character you have been commanded to be in your character fastaqim the reason why they use this word so often is because we ask for this station within our Salah every single day Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem Alhamdulillah ar-Rabbi al-Alamin Allah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem Malik yawm ad-din Iyaka na'budu wa iyaka nasta'een Ehd nasir aqal mustaqim guide me or keep me guided on the straight path the straight path actually isn't just an ordinary path when we recite this in our Salah we are asking for the actual highest station within ourselves we are asking my lord grant me istiqama help me reach to this highest stage of existence within myself below this stage is the stage of Birol what is the word Birol mean? the roots word from Birol comes to the word al-barl al-barl is a land it's a very large piece of land the reason why it is a very large piece of land is because a very large piece of land includes a lot within it imagine now a very large piece of land for example let us take the United States of America from the east coast to the west coast it's a very large piece of land from LA to New York what will you find from one side of the coast to the other side of the coast? you will find everything you will find the beauty of the hillside you will find mountainous regions you will find natural minerals you may find oil you will find gas and therefore the word al-barl denotes a very large piece of land because it encompasses so much within it hence the word al-barl righteousness is a large station of righteousness where it includes all kinds of goodness within you you are truthful you are kind you are merciful you are generous hence when Allah SWT says you will not achieve this grand high station of righteousness it is a high station of righteousness that we should want to achieve because it accepts it beholds so much of goodness for me within this having told me that I can't reach this height of station within spirituality unless I do something I'm inclined to know what it is you will not achieve this high station of righteousness until you spend that which you love one day commander of the faithful Ali ibn Abi iqalb SAW was in a state of huge poverty this was at the time when Rasulullah was alive he was in a huge state of poverty and he saved for a number of days to buy himself a new shirt wanted to buy himself a new jubba whatever we might call it he wanted to buy himself a new shirt he saved for a number of days in order to get it because his own shirt was tattered he goes to the market and he gives the money and he buys that shirt and he goes home as he's on his way home he comes across a man that is destitute and poor a person who is more in need than him Alhamdulillah I have a house he doesn't Alhamdulillah I may have a shirt that's ripped but his is in a worse state than mine as much as I have saved and saved and saved for my own shirt I recognize that this man is in more need than my own he loved this shirt it was for him he had strived hard to get the shirt what did he do? he went and gave that shirt away to the other man You will not achieve this high station of righteousness until you are able to give and spend from that which you love you see when we give charity often we give charity in those things that are easy for me to give for example if I'm very rich and Allah SWT has blessed me with wealth it shouldn't be so difficult for me to give wealth it's not my money in the first place it's an Amanat from Allah SWT and I have a lot of money in the first place it's an Amanat from Allah SWT hence if I have a million and I spend 500,000 in way of community it's not difficult or rather it shouldn't be difficult it's not a test I'm not spending it from that which I love because it's not mine in the first place or if I look sometimes I have seen we can give an example sometimes a youth will go away go away to university go away to boarding school or he'll go away in such and such a place he'll move home child will get married son and daughter will get married it's time to move they pack all the boxes up and they decide what they want to keep and what they don't want to keep all the new things that they have bought they want to keep all the new lovely Nike trainers that's cost 100 dollars I will keep but my old trainers that don't fit me I'll give away to charity Masha Allah, aren't I so pious isn't it easy to give away the old trainers that have been scuffed isn't it easy to give away the old shirt that I'm never going to wear you know what, it was 3 years old you know what, it's 10 years old you know what, it's a hand me down I'll give it away to charity I'll send it to Palestine Masha Allah, Alhamdulillah, it's good believe me, you're getting thawab you are getting growth but the challenge is not to give away that which is easy for you to give away anyone can give away that which is easy to give away Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says you want to test yourself you want to break forth from the inhibitions that you have placed from those weaknesses from those chains that bound you give away from that which you love go and work and get those trainers that are 100 dollars trainers and then before you wear them give them to someone else if you can do that that is when you have broken that chain that is when you can say I am truly generous that is the test that is being put here can you see the difference I can give that which is easy for me to give it's good but if you want to break that chain if you want to see how generous you really are spend from that which you love spend from that thing that you want for yourself the beauty of this is is that there is no limit to this concept as we have been pondering upon the Holy Qur'an we can ponder upon this verse when it says spend does it mean literally spend am I confining the words of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to the literal one sided meaning isn't his words so beautiful aren't his words oceans upon oceans does he mean literally spend or does he mean give what is precious to me precious to me might be my time you will not achieve that grand station of righteousness until you can spend that which you love most if your time is precious let's see you organize yourself so that you can spend it in the way of Jamaat or let's say my position is important to me you know what it's important that I have such and such a title but I know that there is person X who is more suitable for this position than me he is better than me but if I want to keep it it's my pride it's my arrogance my name should be on that notice board my name should be on the website I want it's me it's mine Lantana Al Berra Hatta Tunfiqu Mimmatu Habbun you will not achieve that grand station of righteousness until you can break that which you love most that inhibition that is placed upon you that is holding you down until you can break forth that chain and you can give away that thing which is most meaningful to you that is when you will have achieved that high station of righteousness the concept is whatever is holding me down I assess it and I snip that chain I say I am stronger than that chain Allah has made me so strong has made me so great which challenge am I not able to overcome and when I look at my life in this light I will then be able to really assess where I am going towards for the rest of my life look at this grand lady who is Ummul Mu'mineen who in the time of the Holy Prophet of Islam he as As-Sadiq and Al-Ameen relied upon this grand lady you know there is this tradition that talks about the battle of Ahad battle of Ahad we have spoken about on the first night when we talked about the word Tamhees purging your soul imagine the battle of Ahad now you are on the battlefield and you are defeating the enemies one by one and certain companions do not fulfill their obligation as is expected of them and because of this the enemy who are fleeing all of a sudden turn around and they begin to slaughter the Muslims one by one striking them from the left and from the right the commander of the faithful the commander of the faithful who is this man this man who lifted the gates of Khaybar with one hand this man that is not scared of anything this man that is the lion of Allah SWT says in the battle of Ahad the war raged so ferociously that we took refuge behind Rasul Allah and yet Rasul Allah when his own life was taking such a difficult turn when he was the one fighting his own battle in Makkah he took refuge behind lady Khadija salawatullahu as-salamu alaykum look at the lofty rank that is this woman lady Khadija we don't mean literally on the battlefield he took refuge behind her we mean look at how this lady looked after how Rasul Allah went to her how such confidence was put into this particular individual how much she had given to him how much Rasul Allah trusted her and how much of a human being she really was this is the character of this grand lady and we see this verse and we see this grand station of righteousness from the one who would give that which they love the most there is no person in history who can ever come close to this like lady Khadija she was the richest woman in Arabia if you need my wealth oh Rasul Allah take it it is at your entire disposal it didn't end there if you need my position I will give you my position Rasul Allah what do we mean by this the hadith that is related about the birth of the lady of light as lady Zahra salamu alaykum was about to be given birth to lady Khadija came out of her house within Makkah she came out and she called the women folk of Quraish oh women folk of Quraish Khadija is in the pangs of labor please come and aid her is there any midwife that come imagine lady Khadija who had all the wealth in the world everything at her disposal when it came to the birth of the lady of light she didn't have the money to pay for a midwife to aid her in the birth of lady Fatima to Zahra this is how much she had given in the way of Allah SWT the hadith says no one they responded the women of Quraish responded and said no you are the wife of Muhammad we will not come to aid you in your time of need she went back into her house all alone the hadith narrates as she entered into her house she saw four lights in front of her the first one said oh Khadija I am your grandmother Hawa I have come to aid you in the birth of Fatima the second one says I am Asya the wife of Firaun I have come to aid you in the birth of your daughter Fatima the next one says I am Mariam I am here to aid you in the birth of your daughter Fatima and the next one says I am lady Umkulthum the sister of Musa I have come to aid you in the birth of your daughter Fatima look at the way that lady Khadija had given everything for Allah to the extent that she couldn't even have a midwife her position as being the senior most woman within the Quraish she had given this up for the sake of Rasulullah's mission it doesn't stop there lady Khadija gave so much of that which she loved she even gave her physical existence for Rasulullah in which way Rasulullah would be sitting on a gharahira lady Khadija as an elderly woman would walk up those very steps of the mountain every single day go and give Rasulullah food come down again go up and give food and come down when you and I go to Makkah today it is so easy for you and I to walk up on those steps by Allah it is easy today but it was 1400 years ago to see an elderly lady coming and serving Rasulullah in this way she would have taken such a physical battering upon her own body until you give that which you love until you give every single part of your body in the way of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala this is what it means to break forth there is no boundary I am not lazy I am not proud I am not arrogant I am not the one who causes fitna I break all of these chains so that I may break forth into the culmination of the human being that I am lady Khadija as an Allah had given so much in her way and maybe we would suggest maybe we would say that it was this striving for the sake of Rasulullah the lack of food within the house the amount of effort she put in establishing Islam that might have caused that illness that eventually took her from this world we hear from the Dhakirin and in the books of Musaiba that when she passed away from this world she did not even have a coffin she did not even have one a coffin for her to cover that blessed body of hers can you imagine what Rasulullah must have been saying Ya Allah she has given everything in the way can you not now send down one thing for her can you not give us one piece of cloth and indeed Jibra'il Ameen descended with those five cloths which cloths are these four oh Jibra'il this first cloth is for your wife Khadija this second cloth is for you this third cloth is for Fatima al-Zahra the fourth cloth is for Ali ibn Abi Qalib and the fifth cloth is for Hassan al-Mustabaa oh Jibra'il Ameen tell me where is this fifth cloth where is the fifth cloth that we can place for Hussain ibn Ali oh Muhammad your grandson the one that sits on your lap the one that you kiss on the neck the one that you smell his cloth the cloth that he will have on the tent of Muharram will be the crying sands of Karbala it will be the horses hooves on the day of Ashura it will be the swords that strike his body on the tent of Muharram this will be the coffin that closes the body of Abi Abdullah al-Hussain we see on the tent of Muharram that lady Zaynab s.a.w. comes and she comes and she embraces her brother for one final time why are you embracing me in this way oh my dear brother Hussain would you like me to tell you what my mother has told me for you she has told me to kiss you on the neck because it will be this neck that is struck and severed from your shoulders which children of yours will be captured oh Hussain Sakina will be struck Lady Fatima will be struck all of your daughters will be struck there is one tradition that says that when it comes to Shahm when Lady Sakina she was asleep within the dungeons of Damascus she saw a dream which dream did she see she saw four lights in front of her the first light introduced herself and said that I am your grandmother Hawa the next one said that I am Mariam the third said I am your grandmother Khadija and the fourth one this light introduced herself and said I am your grandmother Fatima Tazahra Sakina she walks towards this light Fatima she crawls and says oh my dear grandmother Fatima what is it that you are holding in your hand she says in my hand is the shirt of my son Hussain this shirt has been struck and struck and struck I will present this shirt on the day of judgement to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and I will ask Allah to take revenge for what has happened Sakina wakes up from this dream she cries out for her father oh my dear father Hussain Sakina wishes at one final time Sakina wishes to be embraced by you one final time Yazid he is sleeping so comfortably in his palace whilst little Sakina is sleeping on the floor of the dungeon Yazid wakes up what is this cry I am hearing this is the daughter of Hussain ibn Ali she misses the embrace of her father he says send the head of Hussain towards this girl this head of Hussain is placed upon a plate and it has a cloth upon it oh Hussain they did not give you a cloth on the tent of Muharram but they place a cloth upon your head they bring this plate they knock they open this dungeon Sakina says what is this they lift that cloth and this is the head of Hussain she takes this head into her arms she runs into the corner of that grave she cries out for the final time As-salamu Alaikum Allah Allah Allah to the corrupt people and those who believe in Allah Allah Allah Allah please raise your hands and let us join each other in the ah We pray to Ya Allah Ya Allah Ya Allah through the wasseel of Lady Sakina Salam Allah Alaihah and through the wasseel of Lady Khadija Salam Allah Alaihah Ya Allah hasten the reappearance of the awaited saviour. Allow us to be alongside him at all times in our life and in our death. We ask you Ya Allah, there are so many problems around the world. The people of Syria, the people of Bahrain, the people of Saudi Arabia, the people of Palestine, the people of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, the people of Yemen, the people of Egypt, the people of North Africa, the people of Mexico, Ya Allah, we run them safety, security, victory in the name of Muhammad in Ali Muhammad. We ask you Ya Allah, forgive our sins, the sins of our parents, all those whom we love, all those that love us, all of our marhuneen, all of our ulema, all of our leaders. We ask you Ya Allah, allow us to perform the ziyarat of Lady Khadija, peace be upon her. Allow us to perform the ziyarat of Lady Ruqayya, peace be upon her. And we ask you Ya Allah, in the final moments of our life, we die in the love of Muhammad in Ali Muhammad. Copyright© OSHO International Foundation www.OSHO.com