 Sometimes we lose sight that Allah SWT can take us out of the situation that we are in, as He is the one who has put us in that situation. And there are two things that I would like to remind myself and remind all of us here today, that we will find ourselves perhaps inclining towards despair. And I'm mentioning this because of the volume I would say of conversations that have taken place over the past, we'll call it a year or so, where if we look at the root of it, it's as if the conversation with the person is explaining, is that they've forgotten that Allah is the doer of all things. That Allah has created this situation, that Allah is seeing this situation, and Allah will see us and has created a way out of this situation, and He is seeing it to the end of the situation. So that's why I am inclined to speak about this and to share this as Insha'Allah it will find benefit in it. The two things that I would say that I think bring an onset of despair is one, when a person moves first to say that Allah is punishing me. This is not our knowledge. This is the knowledge of Allah SWT as to how He will deal with us with a situation that we find ourselves in. But to move directly to this to say that I am receiving this because Allah is punishing me because of doing this, this and this, we have heard this from our teachers before, you have moved now into the knowledge of Allah SWT that is not our realm. The second point that I would just remind ourselves of is that we are not required, we will say, we are not required to live a perfect life, that Allah SWT has sent the messengers, to guide us in a manner in which to live, but perfection is for Allah SWT, and we are people that are prone to making mistakes and having shortcomings, and as we know that Allah SWT is there to forgive us. Now that doesn't mean that we shouldn't strive or take ourselves to account when we make mistakes, but the key in my opinion is to develop our relationship with Allah SWT during these troubling times. If we know Allah, then no situation is to helpless and no sadness is permanent. It is not saying that we will not be sad, it is not saying that we will not find ourselves in a situation that we perhaps don't see hope, but as we said that no situation is hopeless even though we may think it, and no sadness is permanent. Now, when I say that we should know Allah, what do I mean by that? I don't want to just throw that out there for example and make an assumption of it. When I think about this in terms of knowing Allah SWT, and then knowing that a situation is not hopeless, I want to say that it's to reflect upon the attributes of Allah SWT. And this is what years ago many of you may know our brother Mashallah Zaytuna College, what I like to call him Professor Haroon Sellers because of the state that he has here. He shared a word with me that sticks with me and I think about it every single day. It's a word that he calls experiential tohid. We can read about tohid and understand it on a theoretical level, but how are we experiencing Allah SWT and his attributes every single day in our lives? That's the reality of living Islam. That's Allah SWT understanding his attributes and we'll get into them in a moment right now. That's what we're talking about here. How am I experiencing Allah SWT in my day to day that keeps me from losing hope, that lets me know that no sadness is permanent, that lets me know that this is happening in the knowledge of Allah SWT and in all of that to know that Allah wants me in the garden and to know that Allah SWT only wants good for me. So when I say this I'm saying in the context of us to understand Allah SWT as he has explained it to his creation through Hadith Qudzi. When he said, I am as my servant thinks I am. Now we have a context. I am as my servant thinks that I am. If we believe that Allah is not merciful nor wise, then we will find a world that is full of harshness and insenselessness. If we do not believe in these attributes of Allah SWT as Allah, Almighty, as being Al-Hakim, as being Al-Khabir, but experiencing them, not knowing them, but experiencing them, it makes me out of this situation. Allah is not oppressing me right now. He doesn't oppress and reminding ourselves in these situations when it's easy, when our lives are easy, it's easy to do that. But what happens when life begins to bear down on us? This is what we're calling for right now as a reminder. So as we said here that the Prophet SWT has said that I am as my servant thinks that I am. And then I'm again reminding us of this hadith where the Prophet SWT has said amazing, astonishing, is the affair of the believer for there is good, for there is good for him in every matter, every matter. There is good for him in every matter. And we might ask, okay, how? There are certain things that are problematic. He clarifies that and he says there is not a case, I'm sorry, that there is good in for him in every matter and this is only the case of the believer. Now this is interesting here because in the hadith, in the Arabic it uses Mutmin and it doesn't use Muslim, which is going to let us know that there's a level of iman beyond the shahada and beyond the practice of Islam as a Muslim to get to the level of Mutmin which is now dealing with our iman. And this is only for the Mutmin, he says. All the affairs are good for him. And he says here that if he is happy, then he thanks Allah. He shows gratitude and that is good for him. And if he is harmed with something, he shows patience and that is good for him. And what is the good that is associated with that patience? It's what Allah says in Quran, Inna Allaha Ma'a Sabireen. Those that patiently persevere will find Allah with them. And this hadith is in Sahih Muslim. But I wanted to just say, the time is getting short here, there are a few things that I wanted to just say that things that we should know as we become aware of our states that whatever grief we grow through, whatever hardship we endure, we must understand that we are never alone and understand this in the context of Musa and Harun Alayhim As-Salaam. When Allah says to them, Qal Al-Ata Khawfa Inna Ni Ma'a Kuma Asmaa Wa Ar-Ra. That Allah says in this state, can you imagine what we want to talk about tribulation? The tribulation that is the life of your life starting being put in a basket and separated from your mother and sent down a river to be brought up in a house of an oppressor who is committing the level of genocide that is happening to have all of those things and then the whole cycle comes back then you are sent to that person to call them to Allah. And what does Allah say? Qal Al-Ata Khawfa Don't fear. Don't fear. I am with you. I am the all-hearing and I am the all-searing seeing. That's experiential tawhid for us. Whatever situation we find ourselves, Allah is with me. Allah hears me. Allah sees me. Allah knows. Allah has created us. That's where we find the Raha. That's where we find the rest. That's our place of refuge. So there are three things that I would like to say that kind of the basis of this recognition. There are three things, inshallah. One, that we need to know. What are the things that we need to know in order to develop our relationship with Allah? Two, there are things that we need to do in order to maintain our closeness to Allah. And then three, that there are things that we need to aspire for which will consistently improve our relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala because times certain hardships are so consuming that we cannot focus on anything but the difficulty. But we have to remember that if we were to enumerate the blessings of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as Allah says in Quran, we would never be able to enumerate them. And there are just two things I want to mention. Imagine that, that just for today, the day that Allah has given us the ability to gather on Juma'ah and that we can make sajdah and we can say ya Allah. Let's look at those two things very quickly right now. Gathering on the Juma'ah, the Prophet ﷺ says the best day the sun rises over is Friday. On it Allah created Adam, on it he was made to enter paradise, on it he was expelled from it and at the last hour will take place on a Friday. So just the fact that we were able to witness this Friday we are alive on the best day in the sight of God. And Iman, Alhamdulillah, is alive in our hearts enough to bring us to the masjid to worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. To allow us to be in a state, as the Prophet ﷺ said, as Abu Huraira said in the hadith on the Prophet ﷺ, aqroba ma yakoon wa abdu min rabbihi wa huwa sajidun fa akhiru dua that the Prophet ﷺ has said the hadith that the servant is closest to his Lord during prostration. So increase your supplication therein. Allah has given us life. It is Juma'ah, we are able to make dua and be the closest to our Lord. Alhamdulillah may Allah continue to bless us. Iqoon al-Qulihadir s-Saghfili wa lakum s-salam wa minin yakum s-Saghfili Allah. Inahu wa gufur al-Rahim. Inna Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, kithian kama'amar. Washa'Allah, ilaha illa Allah, wa ahlihu la sharikala. Washa'Allah, anna saidina wa habibina, maulana saidina wa hamirina abduhu rasuluh. Khairinab-i ijtaba hu ralla alameen arsila. Arsuluhum Allah bideen al-hak liyutr al-deen kuli walaw kariha al-kafirun. Ibaar Allah, wu dhakurukum bi taqwa Allahi subhanahu wa ta'ala wu dhakurukum bi qawlihi subhanahu wa t- wu dhakurukum bi qawlihi saidina wa hamirina salallahu alaihi wa sahbihi wa sahbihi s-sam wa haithi yaqoon wa hadith itaqwa Allah haithi maa kuntum. Wu dhakurukum bi sharifim makan mustafa allah wa sallallahu alaihi wal aalit wa sahbihi s-sam haithi yaqoo ala as-sa mu ta'alaif al-Quran kireem Inna allahu wa Ma laiket hu yusalluna al-anabiyy Ya ayyuha ladina amanu Salallu alaihi wa sallimu tatneema Allahumma salli wa sallim wa barik al-sina Muhammad Allah is putting us in a win-win situation over and over and over again. Over and over and over again. Alhamdulillah, may Allah continue to bless us, and to increase us. In closing, I just want to say here that we, our ultimate aim is to, is to earn Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's pleasure and to enter the Jannah. And all of us fall short in worshiping Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as He is to be worshiped. And perhaps we forget in our toba or reflecting on our state. So perhaps these tests, as burdensome as they are, will ease the burden for us on the day of judgment. That is our hope, that we are not, this isn't just Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sending us through this exercise. Or in some sort of punitive relationship, He doesn't have that relationship with us. He has a relationship of love, loving His creation. May Allah open our hearts to receive that love. As we know this is a beautiful moment, Brother Sanjay. My name is Dawood. You as well, nice to meet you, alhamdulillah. So alhamdulillah, this, what we call a testimony of faith, reciting the Shahada. To me, what it represents, we understand our tradition that, that, if you could come here, you're being requested front and center. That it is all, it's just an outward affirmation of what God already knows exists inside of you. Okay, so we are here now to witness this as a group. Your transition into the, what we call the fold of Islam. So the first thing that we have to ask is that there is no compulsion in Islam. So that you are making this decision. No one is forcing you, this is a decision that is being made by yourself. And that you understand in full capacity of the decision that you are making. Alhamdulillah, Allah is the best of witnesses. So once that is clear, I can just explain to you as we say that, you know, entering into Islam is with the testimony of faith. We're going to declare that. I'm going to say it three times in Arabic. I'm actually, I was an Arabic teacher for some time, so I'll, it's just teasing. Alhamdulillah. You can follow me any difficulty. I'll just take a few points off afterwards. Okay. So inshallah, we will, God willing, I will repeat in Arabic and then you can repeat after me. And then I'll say it one time in English, so we're very clear on what has been said. Okay. And as I just like to mention to you that, you know, I myself am a convert as well to the faith and understand that it is a journey. It is a marathon and not a sprint. And there's a whole life that exists for us inshallah to understand. And it's that journey of our life, so to speak. So alhamdulillah, if you are, if you are okay with me, we can, we can, you know, hold hands if that is okay with you. Shaking hand like this, I think is good to do, inshallah. So with that, in reciting the testimony of faith, inshallah, if you could repeat after me. Ash hadu. Ash hadu. An. An. La. La. Ilaha. Ilaha. Illallah. Illallah. And last time, inshallah, encourage everyone to recite it together, one of our teaching And last time, and shall I encourage everyone to recite it together, one of our teachers has said and reminded us of this, Ya Huludina Aminu, or you who believe, believe, and they asked if we are already believers, how do we believe, and they said, jadidu imanukum, right? Renew your faith, so insha'Allah we can recite this with our brother, insha'Allah. Ashhadu, an, la, ilaha, illallah, wa ashhadu, anna, Muhammadan, abduhu, wa rasuluhu. I bear witness that there is no God except for Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad is his servant and messenger. Takbir, takbir, takbir. Alhamdulillah, brother Sanjay, welcome, welcome to Islam. Thank you, thank you, thank you very much, I appreciate it. Alhamdulillah, pleased to meet you. Very nice to meet you. May God bless your journey. Thank you. I'm glad to be here for you, whatever you need, insha'Allah. Of course, I appreciate it, thank you. This is a gift from the community that comes. It's a beautiful kind of collection of resources to help you in your journey. Oh okay, well I appreciate that. Thank you very much. Thank you, appreciate it.