 I would like to take this opportunity to extend my thanks to the community for inviting us for this first half of Shah-e-Madan. Insha'Allah we'll continue to be here until after the A'amal Nights but in terms of our discussions tonight is the last night here from this particular pulpit and hence I want to extend my thanks to all those who have participated, all those who have brought this series to life and that means all of the ones who are sitting with us this evening as well as throughout the last 15 nights, it has been an honor to come over such a vibrant period within the Islamic year and I pray that insha'Allah the words have been of sub-benefit. Please forgive me if there has been any shortcomings and insha'Allah I look forward to meeting the community again and serving as best as I can. Please raise your hands, let us join each other in da'a. There are many people who are unwell, many people around the world who are in need. We are aware of two young sisters who are very unwell, they continue to be in difficult situations. Let us ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for their shifa and for all those people around the world who we know are in need. Maa yujeebool muztarra iza da'a wa yajshifu al-su. Maa yujeebool muztarra iza da'a wa yajshifu al-su. Maa yujeebool muztarra iza da'a wa yajshifu al-su. Ifadlika wa bi-rahmatika ya arhamal rahmeen. Bi-haqqem wa-hammad wa-aalihi taahideen. Audhu Billahi min al-Shaytan al-Rajeem. Bismillahi al-Rahman al-Raheem. Al-hamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen. Al-hamdulillahi al-Ladhi hadana li hada wa maa kunna li nahda liya lawla an hadana Allah. Wa-salaatu wa-salaamu al-ashraf al-anbiya'i wal mursaleen. Khatam al-Nabiyeen. Sayyidin al-Mumajj al-Bashirin al-Musaddaq. Al-Mustafa al-Amjad Mahmood al-Ahmad. Abul Qasim al-Muhammad. Wa ala ahli baytih al-Tayyabin al-Tahileen al-Muasumeen. Wa la ala Allah wa al-Dhalimina min al-awwalina wa al-akhareen. Amma ba'al. Qala imam al-Hujj al-Alayhi al-Salam. Allahumma ma al-Rawafdina mid al-Haqq fahamilna wa maa qasuna anhu faballadna. Allahumma al-Mumbihi sh'athana wa sh'abihi sada'ana wa al-Tukbihi fathqana wa kathirbihi qillatana wa azizbihi dillatana wa aghnebihi a'ailana wa aghzebihi al-Mughramina wajburbihi faqrana wa saddabihi khalatana wa yastilbihi usrana wa bayyidbihi wujuhana wa fukkabihi asrana wa anjihbihi qalibatana wa anjizbihi mawaidana wa stajibbihi da'watana wa atina bihi su'lana wa ballikna bihi minad dunya wa al-akhirati a'malana. Salawat. Master of A'ayj Imam al-Zamana. My respected teachers, brothers and sisters, salamu alaykum jamia wa rahmat Allahi. Wabarakatuh. Our discussions over these last 40 nights have taken us across the length and the breadth of the A'iftatah given to us by the Master of A'ayj Imam al-Hujj A'ajjalallahu ta'ala Farijal Sharif. We have stated that the da'a is split into two. The first half is appraised towards Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and the second is appraised towards the Divine Leaders and therefore seeks to build upon our relationship with both. We stated on a previous night that the purpose of the fast, the purpose of this month in particular, is for us to realize the weaknesses that we have and overcome them. The verse in the Holy Qur'an states to us Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem, yaiyuhal ladina a'manu kutiba aalaykum ussiyam kama kutiba a'al ladina min qablikum la'allakum tattakun The reason why we have prescribed fasting upon you just as we prescribed fasting upon those before you is so that you may reach, attain that status of taqwa, God-consciousness, discipline within the human soul. Hence the fast and the fast thus within the month of Ramadan is for that purpose to absolve ourselves from those weaknesses so that we obtain that station within ourselves until next year we can continue to build and build and build for the rest of our lives. We stated that within Shahr-e-Madan it is the best of months throughout the entire year. We have seen a pattern that within Rajab we recite a particular da'a within Shaaban we recite a particular da'a and in Shahr-e-Madan again there is a daily da'a to be recited and if Shahr-e-Madan is the peak of the months then it must have the very best of da'as in order to give us that taqwa that we are there by seeking there must be that ramp-up within the da'a Rajab, Shaaban, Shahr-e-Madan Hence the da'a if Tita should be considered the very best of da'a because it is the very best of months and here this da'a has been given to us by the master of our age and we posed a question at the beginning and we said that when we interpret these verses we are required to interpret them in line with the Imam that has given them to us why didn't the commander of the faithful give to us da'a if Titaq why didn't Imam Baqar or Imam Al-Hadi peace be upon them all give us the da'a of if Titaq what is it in regards to the Imam of our time and we continued by asking that if the Imam is the one who is synonymous with Ghaybah we see that the Imam has spent so much time away from our eyes that this da'a must also be relative to the Imam's own life and the relativity of his own period hence we ask these sorts of questions and we begin to see that the da'a takes shape in the minds when we ask these questions here we state that the Imam who is giving us this da'a is providing us with a very specific manual if Shahr-e-Madan is for the purpose for us to reach Taqwa and if the da'a of Shahr-e-Madan is the best of da'a and this da'a is linked towards the Imam who gives it to us when we look at this da'a holistically we can see that this da'a is specific towards the Imam and the building of our goals for Shahr-e-Madan if my goal in Shahr-e-Madan is to seek out my weaknesses and move me towards that pinnacle of the human being that I can become this da'a is also specific towards the month and towards those certain objectives thus we find that the Imam in the second half of the da'a is speaking so much about himself so much about Ghaybah so much about the issues that we need to be aware of in our specific time that being the case we can specify that there is clearly a relationship between the concept of Ghaybah and the concept of Shahr-e-Madan as in if Shahr-e-Madan is this month which we are seeking to build ourselves so we may obtain that highest level of taqwa the concept of Ghaybah is directly associated there is a relationship between the two meaning that the Shahr-e-Madan the month of fasting the purity I am seeking to obtain the purpose of this obtaining is in order for me to understand Ghaybah and for me to bring about an end to Ghaybah as quickly as I am capable of doing there is a direct relationship between my own purity and this unseen Imam of mine that is due to return here the end of the da'a here the end of the da'a that we have recited now in the Arabic Khutbah begins to really shed light upon these issues it really begins to delve into the concepts of our period within Ghaybah and what we can be doing to build upon this coming in these last few nights we have spoken about some very delicate issues and we have gone into some philosophical depth we have asked Allah SWT to broaden our minds as to why Ghaybah is as to our understanding as a global community to understand ourselves as a Muslim nation to understand our role as a Shi'a group to understand ourselves as individuals towards this particular issue of Ghaybah we have stated that the Ghaybah of the Imam we must understand it as a universal phenomenon the Imam is a universal Imam he is for everyone we must understand that when he comes he will be bridging that gap for everyone in humanity we must understand that although we are the ones calling out for him there are others who are also in need of this Imam though they may not call upon him in the same way we have been calling their actions, their purity is also a call for the Imam when we find people around the world who are actioning on behalf of the Imam's own ideals on behalf of the Imam's own actions and thought processes their call towards the Imam is purer than my own call towards the Imam at times because they are demonstrating that they are the ones in action whereas my call comes from the tongue it is only passive their call for the Imam is manifesting itself in an action based manner we have stated when it comes to the call of the Imam we must export this concept of Mahdi-ism we want the whole world to be calling him and here we need to build upon this concept tonight inshallah is our conclusion we need to bring these concepts to the fore of our thought and we need to ask ourselves about how to finalize this thought process this moulding of these ideas so that as we depart this particular series we leave ourselves with one or two key particular lessons that we can take towards the whore of the Imam of our time the da'ah at hand, the da'ah at titaah it has clearly shown us a direction that we need to go it shows us that in Shahram-e-Lan we are constantly thinking about the reiba of our Imam it is moulding us that in this time when we are trying to become the perfect human when we are trying to become the perfect servant of this Imam what needs to come at the foremost of our thinking is the reiba there is a tradition that comes to us from the commander of the faith he says, ad-da'ah mukh al-mu'min ad-da'ah mukh al-mu'min the da'ah is the source it is the brain for the mu'min meaning that when the Imam begins to discuss these issues of reiba when he begins to discuss these issues of the growth concepts of reiba when he describes the shortcomings that we have within this period of occultation it is supposed to become the source of our thinking we are supposed to mould ourselves around his own manual of thoughts the section of the da'ah that we have recited Allah is being asked here for something very important he says, my lord, oh Allah help us to bear the weight of this truth Allahumma ma'raftana min al-haqqa fahamminna allow us to know, have ma'rifah bear the burden, the weight of this truth that is bearing upon us you know, as a believer of the Imam there is a huge responsibility an Imam, he is actually asking for this help us to bear the burden of this Allahumma ma'raftana min al-haqqa fahamminna do not allow us to fall short in the conveyance the deliverance of these responsibilities look at the statement being made by the Imam on behalf of this Shia what is being conveyed to us, the relativity of these words he continues Allahumma ma'raftana min al-haqqa fahamminna he is saying now in this section of the da'ah oh Allah we are separated help us to come together bring together us in unity help us to repay our debts help us to realize our shortcomings and overcome them help us in these manners so that we can become better as we are supposed to be in this section of the da'ah there are secrets that are being mentioned by the Imam if I want to know the period in which I am living in if I want to know why there is no da'ah tomorrow and Friday why there has not been a da'ah until to date I need to look at these lines of the da'ah and assess my actions my actions within the community and our actions as a Shia nation our actions as a Muslim nation and most importantly our actions as a human body and thus we will be able to understand why that the whore has not taken place yet oh Allah it's very simple bring us together in unity what is the Imam saying we are not united hence if we are to bring forth the the whore we need to become united we need to be together he says this bring us together stitch us together in this united nation oh my lord if we are poor help us to repay back our debts the responsibilities of us in society he is talking about these issues hence we need to observe these lines of da'ah in accordance with the shortcomings that we have and use these as a tick box to understand how we need to grow to become or bring about that culminating factor when it comes to this issue let us start thinking now let us again put on our thinking caps in the last seven days I think we have really challenged the thought processes that we have had and let us bring this concept to that culmination let us ask ourselves a question imagine for a minute you were not a Shi'a let us step outside the box for a minute and not come with our bias let us not come with the knowledge that we know because you and I come with a certain level of knowledge we have learned, we have gone through madaris we have been reading books majlis comes every single week we come with a certain gradient of thinking but let us assume this point of the discussion as if I am not a Shi'a as if I was a Sunni who didn't believe in the occultation or as if I was a Christian who does not believe in the presence of a 12th Imam or the Mahdi that I believe in let us start with these sorts of questions I pose you a very simple question what is the purpose of Ghayba? what is the justice of Ghayba? and then we are talking about an individual who is the supreme individual of our time he is the one who is supposed to bring justice just the way that there is injustice he is the one who is supposed to bring about the culmination of human society he is the one who can bring us together he is the one that can bring us from our poverty of thinking to the very peak of what we are supposed to become he is the grace of the Holy Prophet of Islam in one he is the knowledge of Ali ibn Abi Qalib in one he is the patience of Al-Hasan in one he is the bravery of Al-Hussein in one he is the worshipper of Zayn al-Abideen in one he is the one who will split open knowledge like Baqir in one he is the one who will bring about the culmination of thought and accept others like Ja'far al-Sadiq in one he is Bab al-Hawa'ij like Musa al-Qadim in one he is the one who is gharib al-Quraba of our day all in one he is like the pure youth Muhammad Jawad in one he is like Ali ibn Al-Hadi who began the preparation of Ghayba in one and he is the one who is proving to all the Khulafa his grand stature like his father Hassan al-Asqadi in one I ask you a very simple question what is the purpose of Ghayba? what is the justice of Ghayba? is it just to you? not as a Shi'a if you didn't believe in Al-Mahdi but you know the height and the grandiosity and I am explaining to you the grand culmination of this human being in one and you were a Christian would you not ask this question? why would your Lord in your religion take away this human being for 1200 years maybe 15 maybe 2000 years only to bring him back when so much terror so much blood has been shed so much wealth has been wasted so much life has gone to spoil am I not entitled to ask this question? would you not ask this question? even if you were not a Christian would you not ask this question as a Shi'a? why has he taken the Imam away from our eyes? what purpose does it serve? when I begin to understand this question correctly I will then begin to understand my role as a Shi'a A within the religion and B within humanity in order to bring about the culmination of this human prince the purpose of Rehba has been only one the purpose of Rehba was to take away this human saviour from the eyes of humanity in order for them to reach the point of justice on their own the purpose of the Rehba was to remove this individual so that we apply what we have been taught we begin to accept Quran we begin to accept what Ahlul Bayt say and we are the ones who want to apply it for ourselves with or without the human saviour present I recognize the justice of this Imam and I want to implement it whether he is present or whether he is not present I want to reach a state where my thinking is in line with the Imam's thinking making me as a human body worthy of his coming hence Allah swt took him away from our eyes and said oh humanity I have given you 124,000 prophets and many wise men I have given you grand women who are the peaks of humanity for you I have given you book after book after book I have given you Imam after Imam after Imam there is nothing I have not taught you there is no lesson of ethics or of law or of philosophy or of theology that you do not have present with you I am now asking you to obtain the purpose that I created for you in the first place Imam is away instead of you seeping into the depths of destruction wasting money killing each other at random blowing each other up having racism and prejudice within yourselves I ask you to break those shackles and become what I created you to become in the first place obtain your purpose when you have obtained your purpose and you are ready as a human body to behold the Imam that is when I will send him back to you and not a moment sooner it is really that simple it is like saying in this community the president is the all knowing he probably claims himself to be the all knowing imagine the president has this ability and he knows how to govern and he knows how to make this community tick perfectly he will run union he will run welfare he will run this in every single subcommittee but then he has taught us how to run as well he has left for us all the aspects all the tools to do it and then he goes away what is his expectation of us his expectation is that we do not fall into a pit whereby we cannot learn to run the community ourselves he expects us to take those principles and he says that if you drop I will not return until you have learnt how to govern yourselves in your community it is exactly the same thing from our Imam's perspective I am waiting on the people who call upon me to obtain their purpose and I am waiting on those people that don't know of me to realise that they need me and when they realise that is when I will be sent to return back to you now how do we understand this how do we qualify and quantify this issue let us assume for a minute let us just say Imam A.S. is coming tomorrow on Friday at 12 o'clock may Allah hasten his reappearance let us assume that he is coming tomorrow what will happen what will be the sequence of events the first thing he will do is he will stand by the Holy Ka'aba and he will announce his coming he will say I am here oh gathering of everything in creation al-Mahdi is here then he will wage war he will wage war against those people that seek to stop the divine presence of a godly just government and those who seek to obtain or seek to oppress or seek to push him away they will wane by his side away from the Imam having established government how long is the Imam staying in government for how many years seven years the minimum according to Ahadith is five years the maximum is nine years think about this very carefully brothers and sisters he has been in ghaybah for how many years twelve hundred years he may be in ghaybah for two thousand years he may be in ghaybah for five thousand years but when he comes he is only going to be present in government for a maximum of nine years no more what does that tell us? that tells us that in those nine years he will have established that government around the world he will have established peace just the way peace is ought to be he will teach us how to distribute wealth around the world as it ought to be he will teach us how to become a governing race of human beings whether I'm in New Zealand or Mexico or Bolivia or Pakistan he will teach us how to be as we are ought to be in those nine years now here I pose to you a very simple question he is martyred after nine years and he leaves us after those nine years if we have not learned to become as we are supposed to become what will happen when he leaves us? he comes he establishes government he teaches us how to be he dies after nine years, martyred what will happen if we are not capable of governing ourselves we will return back to the way we were premahdi, will we not? we will kill the way we used to kill we will waste money the way we used to waste money we will be the ones who oppress the way we used to oppress the purpose of the imam is not to teach us it is for us to have reached the point ourselves merge our thought process with him he will show us his way of doing when he is martyred and leaves us we will learn and be able to govern ourselves because we want to be governed in that manner if I am not ready to behold the coming of the imam when he comes and leaves I will only go back I will regress to the way I was before the purpose of the reiba the reason to remove the imam from my eyes for such a long period is to allow mankind to reach the peak in which they are supposed to reach independently they want to act as they should act on their own accord and then I will send my imam to you once I have sent him to you you will then be able to work alongside his ideals and you will not reject him the way the people rejected Rasulullah you will not reject him the way the people rejected Ali ibn Abi Qadeb you will not reject him the way the people rejected Hassan al-Asqari you will be those group of people in Mexico, in Bolivia, in Alaska in New Zealand wherever you may be that is ready and befitting that is the purpose of reiba that is the reason for the occultation for us to reach that peak on our own utilizing the tools Allah SWT has given to us let us go further in this thought let us challenge let us break the veils of these thoughts that have encompassed us as a community as a group for so long here we need to begin to reach the perfection that we need to get to and here we need to challenge a few thoughts we need to break the thoughts that have kept us down that have stopped us from the correct thought process I want to ask again more simple questions imagine now let us just pick London where I live as an example and then maybe you can apply it to here and we can begin to spread this thought process around the world we have laws in London laws here are you allowed to jump a red light in London and are you allowed to jump a red light here you are not allowed no? why are you not allowed what is the reasoning what is the reason behind the government the law putting in place that you cannot jump a red light in London you cannot jump a red light here in Dart what is the reasoning discipline in traffic drivers would you say that if I jump a red light the reason why I am not allowed to jump the red light is because an uncoming car where they are going green all will happen so I am obliged to actually obey the law aren't I now here I want to challenge this no no I am not saying challenge the red light don't jump the red light let us think about this when the Imam of our time comes and he wants to make something legal and illegal when he wants to make something within the Sharia and outside of the Sharia what words will he use he will use the words that he uses within Quran he will call something Haram and he will call something Halal the Prophet peace be upon him when he used to designate something when he wanted to say something was impermissible he would use the word Haram lying is Haram stealing is Haram now if he was not confined to the Arabic language what word would the Prophet have used legal and illegal it is illegal for you to lie it is illegal for you to steal it is illegal for you to cheat when the Imam of our time comes he will have a law for what the Imam of our time comes he will have an economic system agreed when the Imam of our time comes will he have a system for the traffic he will yes because the Imam has an all encompassing system am I correct the Imam has a system for everything within this universe it is not mundane there is a scholar by the name of Ayatollah Sayed Muhammad Hussaini Shirazi may Allah bless his soul Sayed Shirazi was once writing in Qum Sayed Shirazi if you know has written 1400 books 1400 books by the end of his life many of our community members will have met him in their lifetimes when he ended before he died his fingers you know they don't use he didn't use Microsoft Word like we use Microsoft Word he would write with pen after writing 1400 books his fingers were so bent he would not even hold a pen properly Sayed Shirazi was sitting and he was writing a book do you know what he was writing a book on he was writing a book on the etiquettes and the law of making food you know being in the kitchen making food like maybe we might do or our wives or our mothers and our sisters and the helpers in the house will do he would write a book on the ethics and the laws of cooking someone in Qum came to him and said Sayedna with respect you are a grand marja you are titled Imam Muhammed Husaini Shirazi don't you think you're wasting time writing books on the laws of cooking Sayed Shirazi responded and said woe be upon you tell me didn't Fatima Zahra cook didn't Fatima cook yes Fatima cooked how can you say it's a waste of time the ethics of cooking when Fatima cooked the Imam when he comes he will not neglect anything he will make a perfect law for everything there is the law for cooking there is even the law for traffic system now I'm asking a very simple question when the Imam comes and he writes an all encompassing script for us to follow if he goes to parliament and he rewrites the traffic laws and makes them perfect will he use the word Haram or will he use the word illegal he will say it is illegal for you to jump the red light won't he he will say it's illegal for you to use the phone whilst you are driving why because it will put at risk other people's safety I am saying to you think about this very simply at the time of the Prophet he was confined to the words Haram because it was Arabic language in our time we are confined to the words legal and illegal really they are the same thing they are synonymous with each other in my language I will say it is Haram to steal but I will say it's illegal to do tax evasion no it is exactly the same thing it is Haram for you to steal and it is Haram for you to steal from the state does that make sense they are synonymous with each other the words are synonymous because the Prophet was confined he used the word Haram if the Imam comes tomorrow he will not say it is Haram he may use our language and say it's illegal for you to tax evade it's illegal for you to jump the red light it is illegal for you to use the phone whilst you are driving because you are putting people's lives at risk it doesn't become illegal it becomes Haram it is exactly synonymous I need to raise my level of thinking instead of me thinking that there is one system for Sharia and another system for the rest of the world for me to tax evade and do dodge and to jump through loopholes instead of me thinking that I can cheat the state but it's okay for me not to do it here I should begin to really think about my system I should begin to understand that these systems should be synonymous with each other it is Haram for you to not pay Khums it is also Haram for you to do a dodge and tax evade they are synonymous with each other instead of me thinking that I can do one Haram within Sharia but it affects me not within the secular world no this is completely completely incorrect if the Imam comes he will use the language of our time and he will say to you it is Haram for you to do tax evasion for you to not pay your tax for you to jump the red light for you to use the phone whilst you are driving for you to do something against the state it is Haram the same way it is illegal there is no difference between the two our thought process is down here we think it's okay to steal from government or we are told that it's okay to be able to take from a non-muslim or we are told that because this land has been stolen that it's okay for me to go and steal back we have lowered our way of thinking we have regressed as human beings instead of thinking that what laws are good for society here is actually how Islam would also prescribe exactly the same law if it is Haram for me to tax evade it is illegal for me to tax evade if it is illegal for me to jump a red light is it Haram for me to jump a red light because the law is synonymous with each other they are both seeking the ultimate good for what humanity's purpose is we need to raise our way of thinking as to how the Imam will govern when we govern ourselves like how the Imam will govern that is when the Imam will come back and not a day sooner the moment we continue to slip and slide into the shortfalls and the pitfalls of our own thoughts we will regress and we will not be able to bring our Imam back towards us let us put it to us this way our ethic needs to be the sublime ethic in everything that we do as the Shi'a we need to be the ones who are the ultimate presentation of how the Imam wants us to be there is a story of another Shirazi of Sayed Muhammad Riddha Shirazi he passed away a couple of years ago we have mentioned him from the pulpit before one day it is narrated Sayed Riddha had a house next to the Masjid he lived in the house next to the Masjid across from the Masjid there was a building this was in the area in Kuwait city this incident took place there was a building blocks being made some Egyptian workers had been brought over in order to make the building as they were making this building they were Sunnis they come from Egypt to come and work as contractors build and go back one day one of the people one of the Shi'as from the local Masjid was walking past and he noticed that during the break that these workers from Egypt were now praying like Shi'a they used to be praying with their hands folded all of a sudden a few days later when he noticed that they were praying with their arms down after they finished praying he came over to them and said to them forgive me when I first saw you begin as contractors to build this very building you were praying with your arms folded hence I could recognize that you were from the Ahlu Sunni or Jama'a today when I come again I see that you are praying with your arms down why? what has changed in these few weeks they said that there is an Imam from the Masjid every day he used to come to us with a tray on that tray were oranges and glasses of water for us they were dates on that tray and some food that we can partake from the heat was so much that he recognized that we were thirsty he would go out and he would feed us these oranges and give us drink with his own hands this person was the Imam of your Masjid it was his ethic that turned us towards being Shi'a we were inclined towards Shi'ism because we recognized that his ethic was so high we wanted to follow the mudhub of someone who represented this religion not the religion we had been born into this is the ethic that we are asking for this is what you and I are obliged to perform in order to bring the Imam back that it's not my tongue that brings a sunni towards Shi'ism it is my action that makes me worthy of being a Shi'a when I see that there is that red light when I see that there is any law that is a just law in my land whether I live in the states whether I live in London whether I live in Canada or whether I live in Tanzania if it is a just law I am obliged to follow it Khafir government or another government why? because it is dealing with the same ethic of the 12th Imam his words he may use the word haram 1400 years ago today he will say something is illegal they are synonymous with each other if I break the law today I am actually performing a sin if I perform a sin I am the one who is accountable whether it be a secular law or whether it be the law under the guidance that they are they are one and the same my ethic should be the ultimate ethic and if I understand my ethic then the Imam will come back that much quicker in front of my eyes this is what we are trying to say we have fallen short when we talked the other day we said the Prophet's mind was up here the Imam's mind is up here his thought process is up here we need to raise our thinking in order to be like that why is there ghaibah? the reason why there is ghaibah is Allah SWT is testing humanity he is saying can you not see what I have left you can you not see what treasures I want you to follow raise your thought process until you are capable of beholding that human saviour because when he comes he will expect you to think like him and he will not click his fingers and make you think like him as we quoted the tradition from the fifth Imam three days ago this Imam this grand human being of ours this outstanding Imam of ours needs to be understood he needs to be understood better it is not for us to stand and think that we have done our role sufficiently that is a poverty of thinking you know where we need to get to and again we are challenging and breaking thought we want to traverse the veils of this issue look at the difference as to where we are as a Muslim ummah and where others are let us look at this again and finally come to a conclusion on where our thought process needs to be today over these last 40 50 years we have seen the issue of Palestine our brothers in Palestine the vast majority of them are from the Ahlus Sunnah wa Jama'a and we call and fight on their behalf and I say fight I don't mean physically I mean struggle we write we speak out we march we demonstrate on their behalf the illegal and illegitimate state of Israel which is occupying the Palestinian land goes against every charter in the United Nations they are obliterating a society the method of which is if we destroy the children if we kill the youth then the next generation cannot reproduce and then eventually we remove the entire Palestinian race that is the objective we as Muslims around the world demonstrate march read write in order for justice to prevail over the occupied lands of Palestine I pose a question to you again brothers and sisters reflect deeply upon this question today and tonight answer it honestly if it was the other way round if it was the Palestinians that were occupying the land of Israel and were bludgeoning to death the Israelis were using helicopter gunships to kill the Israelis and they were using tanks to bulldoze over the house of the Israelis would the Muslim ummah stand up on behalf of the Jews the same way the Christians today are standing up on behalf of the Palestinians I want you to think deeply about this question change the incident imagine it was the Israelis the Jewish brothers of ours they were being annihilated how many of us would march on Al Quds day for the same thing answer it honestly be honest with me for a minute would you march how many of us would march I thought justice is justice irrespective of what color you are or what creed you are or what how you look the point I'm bringing is this the Muslim the poverty of thought amongst the Muslims today is that we are calling for an awaited savior and he is looking us and he is saying you will march on behalf of the Palestinians because they are Muslim because the Israelis and the Jews are taking away the Palestinians rights because they are Muslim but if it was the other way around you wouldn't go and lift a finger for the Jews why should I come when you haven't reached the perfect thought process why should I come when you're still this is supposed to be if they were Hindu how many of us here would go and march for them if they were Sikh being obliterated would I create a day every single year in order to march on behalf of the Sikhs no that my friends my respected brothers and sisters is the difference between the Muslims and everyone else in the world today those Muslims march because they are Muslim to free Palestinian lands because they are Muslim those Christians have no religious association to Palestine those atheists have no religious association towards Palestine those Sikhs have no religious association towards Palestine yet they march in their hundreds and thousands around the world to free Palestine that is the difference they are doing it because it is good and just we do it because we have a religious association who is higher tell me the one who does it because they have an end goal or the one who is doing it because it is a pure deed I am doing it Lillahi Azawajal they are doing it Lillahi Azawajal they are believing in their own God be it Jehovah, be it God, be it Jesus they are doing it for the sake of their God or they are doing it for no God at all I am doing it because I want the Palestinian land they are doing it because they recognize right is right, who is higher who is better, who is pure this this is why the Imam is not coming this is why the Imam is not coming because we have a poverty of thought process I am willing to steal from a non-Muslim because he is non-Muslim I am willing to jump the red light because I don't term it Haram he is not watching I will pay my Khums because it is Wajib but I will jump the red light because he is not watching I won't march on behalf of a Hindu because he is Hindu but the Hindu I will expect him to march on my behalf this is why the Imam is not coming this is why we are still in the state in which we are today the moment the Muslim ummah the moment the Shi'a ummah realizes this the moment we as a human nation realize this is the Friday Hewakup when we say export Mahdiism we are not talking about the name Mahdi we are not talking about the 12th Imam I am not talking about Bihar al-Anwar I am talking about the concept of right and wrong the concept of justice as justice is supposed to be the concept that humanity can reach that point why is the Imam in Ghaybah what is the justice the thinking of Allah SWT removing this grand human being the pinnacle of human thought is because he is waiting for us to reach the pinnacle of thought ourselves once his mind reaches our mind that is when we will behold the victory of the Imam of our time the master of the martyrs the master of the martyrs was butchered to pieces Hindus will come and they will represent on behalf of Abu Fadir Abbas they will recognize Abu Fadir Abbas Hindus and Christians Mahatma Gandhi will come and speak about Abbi Abdullah I expect them to recognize Hussain but I will not recognize them or worse still Hussain for me Hussain is Hussain because Hussain is Hussain if Imam Hussain wasn't a Shia and wasn't a Muslim but he was a Hindu and this exact same sacrifice took place it would still be the greatest symbolism of right ever to have taken place but we are honored that he is a Shia we are honored that he is the son of Fatima we are honored that he is the grandfather of Mahdi hence when he stands for justice he was standing for justice for the whole of humanity whether you are a Hindu whether you are a Christian or whether you are a Jew Hussain stands for justice and that is what the Shia should be standing for as well Hussain alaihi salam is universal he penetrates like the son penetrates and comes to every part of this path this is where we need to reach to as a thought process Imam was the one who stood for human justice 12th Imam stands for human justice the Shia will also stand for human justice imagine Sayyid Zainab I want you to imagine a lady who is so strong physically that she can carry the body of Zain al-Aabideen alaihi salam out of the burning tent and then I want you to imagine that by the time she reached back to Medina her husband said are you my wife Zainab your back has become bent your hair has turned grey your face has become tired is this my wife Sayyid Zainab which Zainab am I seeing in front of me when Zainab stood in front of the tyrant when she was bound by her wrists when there was a rope around her legs when there was a rope around her neck tying her from one child to another her rope was tied to her sister the other rope was tied to Sukena tied to Fatimah al-Sukhra which tied to Zain al-Aabideen which tied to young Muhammad Baqir she stood in front of the enemy tyrant and said I see nothing in this sacrifice except beauty this is what I see from the sacrifice of Husain his sacrifice traverses every single human being that he is justice incarnate Sayyid Zainab is the one who stood in front of Yazid it is narrated that one day within this confine within that very Darbar once Yazid was looking and was asking who are all these children name me one by one it came to the daughter of Husain ibn Ali they pointed and said this with Sukena she is the daughter of Husain ibn Ali one man stood and said Yazid I want this young child I want to buy this young child from you what price will you put for her I want to take her as a slave within my house Sukena responded with such braveness by Allah you have lied you can never take the daughter of Husain you cannot take the daughter of Husain as a slave within your house we see that there is one tribulation that stands out above them all I want you to remember that when Zain al-Abideen was asked O Zain al-Abideen what was the worst trial that you had to perform was it seeing the headless body of your father was it seeing that they trampled over his body and tore his chest to pieces was it that they slapped your sisters was it that they tore the earrings from your sisters as Zain al-Abideen says a shahm a shahm a shahm take yourselves to shahm if you have been to Bazaar a shahm take yourselves there at this point stand outside that great gate and enter in with me it is narrated by Zain al-Abideen himself he says seven things happen to us when we enter the gates of Damascus that have not happened before what seven things were they the first thing was that we asked that they take the heads of our martyrs and place them at the front instead of placing them in between our women because if they see the heads of our martyrs between our women they will see our women without any charter I want the heads to be at the front so they focus on the head of my father the head of my sisters the next thing was that they entered us through the biggest gate where so many people were they took us through the gate where the Christians and the Jews they pelted us with stones and they said to us this is the revenge for what happened in Badr in Ahad and in Hunayn then as we entered there were women who stood on the balconies of their shops they took boiling water they threw boiling water on us I saw Sakina having boiling water thrown on her that is why in the traditions we are told that when she is laid to rest they couldn't even take the cloth off her because if they took the cloth it would have stuck to her body and ripped her skin from her young from her young body Zain al-Abideen says then they took us to an area whereby they tried to sell us off as slaves but the worst thing that happened to Zain al-Abideen was this that he narrates that as he entered into Sham there were women who took sticks of fire they took sticks and lit those sticks they threw them towards Zain al-Abideen Zain al-Abideen narrates that one stick of fire landed on my turban it began to burn my head but because my arms were chained I could not even stop the burning of my head Zain ab had to come to me and take that fire off my turban please raise your hands let us join each other in da'a we pray to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for the hastening of the reappearance of the awaited saviour we ask you Ya Allah allow us to be alongside him in all times in our life and in our death Ya Allah we are to pass away from this world before his coming raise us from our grave so that we may be alongside him and participate in his victory we ask you Ya Allah there are many people around the world who are going through such trials and tribulations Ya Allah we say to you on this Thursday night that we fear the day will come that just the way Jannat al-Baqi has been bulldozed we fear that one day Sayyid al-Zaynab will also be bulldozed we fear that Sayyid al-Raqayya will also be bulldozed we ask you Ya Allah protect Syria from those who seek to destroy the goodness of Syria we ask you Ya Allah grant the Syrian army victory over the terrorists and the rebels we ask you Ya Allah for those people who are in need especially in Afghanistan in Iraq, in Palestine we ask you for those in Yemen and in Egypt we ask you for those people who are going through trials and tribulations and those in Myanmar grant them victory, safety, security education and medicine we ask you Ya Allah forgive our sins, the sins of our parents all those whom we love allow us to perform the ziyarat of Ahl al-Bayt, peace be upon them all allow us to understand Quran better the month of Ramadhan better da'a eftitah better our fasting better we ask you Ya Allah in the final moments of our life as the shayateen encircle us and wish to quench our thirst by giving us water from their own wells allow Ahl al-Bayt to come to us and quench our thirst so that we may go into the next world Ya Allah, allow us to die in the love of Muhammad and Ali Muhammad wa qatalan fi sabilika fawafiq lanaam wa s-salamu alaikum jami'an wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh there are two announcements the first one is a reminder that tonight there is a youth program organized by the debate society for the ages of 16 to 40 the discussion is looking at how we can actively debate with our Sunni brothers and the methods of debate with our Sunni brothers we also announced that next Wednesday which is a day of holiday here I understand it is farmers day, national farmers day on the day of holiday and Wednesday after the tafsir session here in the masjid after Daghur we are going to reduce the length of the tafsir session and we would like to keep an open question and answer session for the sessions that we have been giving meaning if there are any questions that have arisen from our discussions on our Tadabbur fi l-Quran series or on our series based upon the tafsir of the A'if Tita if there are any questions then we openly invite them any criticism, feedback on Wednesday afternoon after the tafsir session there will be an open session for us to discuss and to debate these issues I ask you to recite one last salawat in honor of the awaited saviour Imam Mahdi, Ajjal Allahu ta'ala A'if