 As-Salaamu Alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu Alhamdulillah, we thank Allah for this opportunity for us to gather on this last day of the Eid, the days of the Ayyama Tashriq, the days of celebration after the Eid, the three days. And in my thought, and perhaps you've heard me say this before, is that when you think about the Takbir, that the idea, well let's bring it back a little bit, this idea of the vikr, of Subh'ala Allah, Alhamdulillah, Allahu Akbar, is as if there are stages of understanding. The first stage is the stage of fascination. We look at the creation of Allah Subh'ala and we say Subh'ala Allah. And then we are taught that there is the level of fascination moving to appreciation, appreciation, Alhamdulillah, that we show appreciation for the one who has given us food and drink and made us from the Muslims. Alhamdulillah, that we show appreciation to the one who has given us life after giving us death because in our tradition we understand that sleep is the sister of death and then we move to celebration, which is the Takbir. And we have just passed through the days that we said of the of the Eid and of the Ayyama Tashriq and now the celebration is for what? The celebration, let me put it to you like this. I took my Shahada a few days before the Eid when I became Muslim and in between the Eid and when I took my Shahada was Juma'ah. So I remember going to the Masjid, my first Eid, sorry my first Juma'ah ever, and the Imam said there is a day in the year if you fast it Allah will forgive all of your sins from the year past and the year forward. Now mind you I'm a Muslim for 48 hours. Do you know what that is like for a person who has lived as a non-Muslim for 26 years of their life to step into a into step into this Masjid and have the Khatib say if you fast one day I've never fasted in my life but I know all of the things that I had done in my life that I needed to correct with God before I died and now here I am 48 hours in a situation where it is said to me that if you fast this one day Allah will forgive you your sins what have passed and the year has come. Do you understand now what the Takbir is for celebration? It's not fascination subhanallah it's not appreciation alhamdulillah but rather it is celebration Allah. So as we pass through these days of celebration what are we celebrating we're celebrating forgiveness that forgiveness alhamdulillah so if that is the one day of Arafah then think about what 10 days is for those that fasted 10 days of the al-Hijjah or nine days including the the the ninth of the al-Hijjah which was the I'm sorry which was the Yom al-Arafah. So this is the idea what I'm talking about of bringing us to this idea of celebration and the celebration being for forgiveness and that forgiveness creating hope and then that forgiveness creating hope. Now in Sahih Muslim Ibn Masrood narrates that the Prophet Islam tells a story of the last man to exit the hellfire and the Prophet Islam gives this description he said the man crawls away from the hellfire and his face is slipping and he's falling and it's hitting the dirt he's tremoring trembling as he walks and I said the fire lashes out as him at him as he escapes and he looks back and horrified he says with the loudest voice alhamdulillah all praise all appreciation is for the one who has saved me from you talking to the hellfire and then he says that I have been rewarded with something thinking he says I've been rewarded with something that no one from the beginning of time to the end of the creation has been blessed with and at that moment as he says this a tree catches his eye now this is the Prophet Islam relating this story to the Sahaba and Ibn Masrood now is relating it to a group of people radi allahu alaikum and he says when he sees that tree he says oh Allah allow me to draw near to that tree so I may enter the shade and drink from its water now think of where he just came from the last person to exit the hellfire what is the context of that the context of that the Prophet Islam said that anyone with an Adam's weight of iman will enter the paradise so that's not perhaps talking about people that are fasting that's not talking about people that are coming to ju'a that is not talking about people that are part of this community that are engaged having their children learning Quran having their children having a type of tarbiyah a type of Islamic rearing and growing up and refinement for them that's not what this is talking about it's talking about the person with the lowest iman and the umma of the Prophet s.a.w from the time until from the time that Allah has decreed that until yawm al qiyam that's the context so the person comes out of the fire sees this tree oh Allah grant me shade underneath this tree grant me drink from this tree and then Allah says son of Adam I fear that if I give this to you that you will ask me for more and then the man responds no Allah I shall not ask you for more and then the man is sitting in the shade of this tree enjoying the water right he sees another tree pop up in front of him better than the one that he is in what do you think he asks for oh Allah grant me that tree and Allah says didn't you just promise me that you would not ask for more but if I give you this perhaps it is that you will ask me for more what does the man say no Allah I will not if I permitted that tree I will not ask you for more and then a third tree is raised more glorious than one superior to two and number three is next to the doors of jannah and he says yeah just just that one just that one I'll only ask for this tree and nothing else and then Allah says did you not promise that you would ask for nothing else after that tree yeah Allah nothing else so he's permitted to draw nearer to that tree and as he is in the shade of that tree enjoying the water of that tree he hears the people pleading Allah to let them into jannah now for those who have made Hajj or Umrah you have visited the Kaaba there was a place which is called Muntazm it is between the black stone and the doors of the Kaaba this image is seared in my mind my first year as I mentioned when I became Muslim I also made Hajj in that year so my trip to Mecca as I'm making my way around the Kaaba and I get to the black stone I then see everyone fighting and pushing and wrestling to kiss the black stone and also they are pushing and fighting and shoving to get into the space of Muntazm which is a very short distance everyone is fighting for this and the image that was in my mind until this day is burned in my mind is imagine that those are the doors of jannah and they're closed and there's no more entry and in my mind I understood that and I made dua at that place at Muntazm yeah Allah never closed the doors of jannah to me never closed the doors of jannah to me so this man is hearing the people call out oh Allah enter me into jannah and then Allah says oh son of Adam what will satisfy you and finish your pleading talking to this man and then Allah says will it not please you that I give you all of the treasures and the bounties of this entire world and then I double it and then the man he raises his head out of humility and he says ya Allah of all the wrongs that I have done you release me from the hellfire you put me in the shade of these trees you can do whatever you want and now you're going to increase me even more like this are you mocking me and then everyone starts laughing at this point and those around him ask why are you laughing and he says I'll tell you why I'm laughing because the prophesied slum laughed when he narrated this point and he said what made the prophesied slum laugh is when he said that the man says asks Allah this question that you are the Lord of the worlds are you mocking me and it made the prophesied slum laugh because Allah's response was that I am the Lord of the universe and I can do whatever I want so if you live in a life that is displeasing to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala but in your heart in your heart is a trace of iman that Allah will even expiate those sins and enter one into jannah and now when we think about this and we think about this idea that we look at almost every page in the Quran is talking about jannah and as I said that the hope that the hope that is brought up or is brought up within side of us in these days is a hope of forgiveness from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala which is the promise of Allah but then that hope of forgiveness is the hope that every single one of us will meet just like this in paradise and there's another story that I'll mention quickly and end this khutba of how the reality is a reality that is more real than what we experience now when the prophesied slum explained at the battle of Badr that those who had wronged him and wronged the meccans and he said specifically about those who had put the entrails and put the insides of the camel on his back when he was in sujood and he could not get up and he talked about those people who laughed and mocked him at that situation he said the battle of Badr that he understood that such and such will die here and such and such will die here and this place in this place in the sahaba testified that after the battle of Badr they said at the exact spot where the prophesied slum had pointed that he saw that those bodies of those people laid there from the meccans and as they were pushed into a well and their bodies were were were done away with the prophesied slum speaks to them and says have you not found the promise of your Lord to be true Omar radi allahu anhu was standing next to the prophesied slum he says Ya Rasulullah you speak to them and they are dead and the prophesied slum turns to Omar and says Ya Omar they hear me better than you hear me right now they hear me better than you hear me right now the journey that all of us will take is real may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to be people of jannah may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to be the people that Allah describes in the Qur'an may Allah make us of those people that say that and no soul knows what has been hidden for them for the comfort of the eyes being the satisfaction of in jannah as a reward for them for what they used to do Ali said so again may this this gathering be a reminder may this be a reminder of the fact that the hope that is promised to us of the forgiveness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala such as we saw demonstrated in this hadith of the person the last person of the umma the prophesied slum as we said this hadith is from the sahri of imam muslim the prophesied slum gives a description of what it is like for that person with the lowest level of iman that they will forget they will experience this type of forgiveness from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and this is a verse also for me and sir to enter those who were not with us that Allah says we're at 39th chapter he says and for those who fear their Lord may Allah make us the people of tapua say amen may Allah raise us up with the people of tapua we live in this world the people of as people of tapua and it says that those who fear their Lord will be led to the garden crowds may Allah make us from that crowd i mean until they arrive there its gates will be open and it's keepers right it's keepers they will say you have done well so enter jannah forever may Allah make us of those people that will celebrate may Allah make us of those people that will gaze upon Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as the scholars have said be like cave without how but Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will avail himself to us may Allah make us of those people amen Allah opens for us may Allah make us of those people that will gaze upon Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala may Allah make us of those people that will gaze upon Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala