 Ma'sha'Allah, Alhamdulillah, we've entered into the 27th night of the holy month of Ramadan There's a strong opinion. There's nothing definitive but according to our Ulama the strongest opinion is that Tonight is Laylatul Qadr Which is the night of power is different ways of translating Laylatul Qadr The night of power is one way of translating like Qadrá the night of constriction Because the ulama say that on this night Well, the Quran says that the angels descend and the Ruh and The Ruh or the spirit according to the Mufassirin of the Quran is the archangel Gabriel Jibril alayhi salam the angels descend and there's a type of constriction so there's a type of a constriction on the earth due to the Just a sheer amount of angels on the earth Another meaning of Laylatul Qadr is the night of destiny which Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Decrees For all of us what's going to happen during the year And that is not to say that we are strict determinists You know Mali said Karam allahu wacha that dua changes the Qadr Now when reality nothing can change the Qadr, right? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's knowledge is perfect But from our perspective We know that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given us Limited volition something of free will a Limited Iqtihar But we have no power whatsoever to do anything Intrinsically La hawla wa la quwwata illa billah There is neither strength nor power except through Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala So we're given choice. We know this intuitively You know, this is why we have courts of justice in the world You know someone who's caught, you know, or convicted of murder You know, they're gonna say well, why are you putting me in jail? This is part of the Qadr. That's true But we know intuitively that we have limited volition. We know this It's part of our nature So when we act Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala On the occasion of our action. He dispenses his Qudra. He dispenses his power another meaning of lady talk other is the night of Honor or rank because Qadr in Arabic also means to have rank So this is a truly momentous occasion That Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given us To come and gather The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he said in a hadith which is sound and come a lady talk of the day Emanan wa htisaban whoever stands to pray On lady talk of the with faith Which is maybe a better translation is confidence than faith. I Don't have a problem with faith, but some people they hear the word faith and they think oh, that's the opposite of reason Either logical and have reason or you have faith Right, and this is something that the new atheists Have really started in the West right after 9 11 that faith is this type of Blind adherence to believe without reason So to have confidence in something is a better word and confidence just means faith Confidates with faith Doesn't carry the baggage of the word. Unfortunately the word faith is being it's been sullied So we should try to own it to redefine it or use a different word But we believe because it is reasonable to believe That's why we believe you know Ibrahim alayhi salam He said to his people I For a tomb he said do you not see what you worship? You and your fathers of old and faqra dinner razi he said about this. I am this is in Surat Ashura. I believe He said that in this Ibrahim alayhi salam He wants them to think about what they're worshiping. This is a verse He says this is a verse that condemns this type of theological taqleed This type of blind adherence in matters of theology. It's not permissible To be a blind follower in matters of theology. In other words, you have to believe what you believe You have to be able to explain why you believe something That's called discursive theology You don't have to be a theologian But you have to know something if somebody asks you You know, you know, why do you believe in Islam? Your answer shouldn't be I was my dad's Muslim Or my grandfather's Muslim or you know, I just raised in a Muslim household You should be able to give reasons. Why do you believe the Quran is the word of God? Why do you believe the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi sallam is a messenger of God? and one of the keys of Getting these types of understandings these types of openings and understandings because yeah, there's there I mean There's IQ, right? I think IQ is real. Some people say it's not real. I don't know why they say that but Yeah, your intelligence is probably to a certain degree determined by genetics But we also believe in futu hat in openings Right, and I've seen this with with I've seen people that Struggle with like learning Arabic Like really struggle And then I see them a short time later and they're Masha Allah fluent in Arabic How did this happen? well Dua is And sometimes we forget that Right, this is the essence Dua supplication calling upon Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the essence of worship Right We call Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala From the depths of our hearts Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala answers our Dua in some way or another he's going to answer our Dua Whether in this world or in the next world But this has this has a type of Efficacy to it. Don't think Dua is falling on deaf ears. I'll do billa Call on us Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala We call the rubber come would you know me as to jib lakum Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says and your Lord says call upon me I shall answer you So whoever stands late al-Qadir Imanan with confidence in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Wahtisaban and Expecting a reward from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala So we have a good opinion of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala You know the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. He said where the two na'alain where the two sandals of hope and fear Right of Khauf and Raja Right, so we have hope and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We have hope. He's going to forgive us And we have fear in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We don't have so much fear in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala That we start to despair of the mercy of Allah And it's haram to be in a state of mercy la takhtunatumirahma tidla Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says do not be in a state of mercy do not be in a state of despair of the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala But on the other side on the other hand we don't have so much hope on Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala That we start becoming a bit lazy Right and by lazy. I mean sloth. This is one of the seven deadly sins according to the Catholic traditions So sloth is spiritual laziness Not in dunya. There's people that are lazy in dunya. Yeah, but this now we're talking about you can work 80 hours a week and have sloth 80 hours a week in the dunya and still be spiritually lazy Right So so don't have so much hope in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that you start leaving the prayer That you start disobeying Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Right that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has a Hock upon us to obey him The one of the companions of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam Abdullah ibn abbas radi allahu anhu ma He came to the Prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam for advice And he's related. He's the cousin of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam in the Prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam said If I did not Yawhidic that That literally guard Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala And he will guard you Preserve Allah. He will preserve you say preserve Allah guard Allah. What is the meaning of this according to the? Ilama the meaning of this is guard the commandments and prohibitions of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala And he will prioritize you who give you to feeq If we prioritize Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, he will prioritize us. Yeah, you have a dean a man Yeah, you have a dean a man in tonsill Allah I am sure come or you thought that I'm a come oh you who believe give victory to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Give victory to us Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and so that he might give victory to you and he'll plant your feet firmly How do we give victory to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala according to the exeges? We obey Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and the means of our obedience is the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi sallam And this is clear from the Quran we follow Allah and his messenger Cool in kuntum tuhebbun Allah fattibi ooni. You have been cum Allah. We are going to look at them Well, I'll go for a rakhine this I am the Quran is chapter 3 verse 31 This is called I had to empty Han the verse of examination So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says to the Prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam say If you really love Allah Then follow me follow the Prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam then he will love you and forgive you your sins Allah is forgiving and merciful So adherence to Allah and his messenger This is of paramount importance And life is short, you know very short. I remember why 2k? Many of you were born after what okay? I Remember my first day of kindergarten. I ran away Our house was across the street. I remember walking across the street and looking at my shadow on the street I can still remember this this was in You know 2017 dollars This was in the 80s I'm dating myself. I'm actually younger than I looked That's what people tell me But time goes quickly and I as I always tell our young people life is too short to sell out the Dean All right, it's gonna be over soon. I know that sounds a bit maybe morbid, but it's true and we need some We need some reminders, you know that are sort of Sober we need sober reminders life is short life moves quickly Right have is the comma in the religion you know So Nowadays, especially there's all this madness happening There's it's very difficult for a lot of people and the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam He said there's gonna be a time when Someone who has patience over his religion is like clutching onto a cinder a burning coal You know imagine holding a burning coal. That's that's how hard it's going to be holding on to your Dean So you have to keep juggling it Some people drop it some people get burned We have to hold on to it We are to see movie habit illa he jamee and wala taferra cool. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Quran Hold tightly to the rope of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and don't be divided right What is it? It is on means a type of grip. That's going to save your life Like the earlier must say it is on is the grip imagine the grip Imagine you fall into the ocean and someone throws you a lifeline imagine your grip on that rope That's called at it is on Hold on for your life The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said Aleykum bil sunnahi wa sunnahi al-khalafaa ir-rashideen al-mahdiyeen Tamsakubiha wa adduh alaiha bin-nawajiv or kamaqala alaihi sallatu wa sallam The imagery he's using to communicate this truth He says I Exort you to follow my sunnah in the sunnah of the rightly guided caliphs The rightly guided caliphs Abu Bakr Sadiq radiallahu anhu Omar ibn al-Khattab radiallahu anhu Uthman ibn al-Affan radiallahu anhu Say na Ali ibn abit alib radiallahu anhu imam hasan alaihi sallam radiallahu anhu These are the five according to my so you T the five rightly guided caliphs hold on to their sunnah Hold fast to it and bite down on it with your molar teeth. This is what he says these molar teeth are very strong Bite down on it as if your life depended on it. Don't let go of it because life is short You know What does he move me happy little he jamee'an? Well, that's a farraqoo and Don't don't join a firqa Well, that's a farraqoo means don't join a firqa a firqa is a group that believes they have the exclusive truth and Everyone else is a kafir Amongst the muslims This is different than a madhab. It's permissible to join a madhab even Recommended a madhab is a school of thought like a university Right the first firqa in our history were the khawaraj the Karajites as they're called They believe they had the truth. Everyone else was a kafir. They make takfir of even sahaba They they don't discriminate if you can say one thing positive about them They don't discriminate. They don't care if you're fulan or Imam Ali they make takfir of you But that's a firqa in the Prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam he warned us against those types of people And the Prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam was one who united the hearts right and His disposition was very gentle Which is amazing because he came into an environment that was extremely harsh In the fact that he had this gentle disposition is a miracle and his life is a miracle If people would just open their eyes I mean he's the most praised human being in the history of the world his name means the praised one right there Is that okay? How do people not see this his name Muhammad sallallahu alaihi sallam means the one who was often praised But now you have like Christian apologists saying that's that's his later name. That's not his real name Can't be his real name because that's such an obvious sign That he was a prophet. So no his his actual name was alameen. They say that's his real name you know completely Misreading you know that was his title that was given to him, but you see the trickery that they use Right a sadiq alameen was a title that was given to him by the Quraysh before Islam right because even they testified to his His truthfulness so the Prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam he unites the hearts and This is mentioned in the Qur'an fa bi ma rahmatin min Allahi lintalahum fa bi ma rahmatin min Allahi lintalahum Wa lo kuntu faddan ghalid al qalbi Lan faddo min hawlik It is part of the great mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala That you have lean You gentle disposition If you were harsh or hard-hearted you would have seen men flee from your presence He was a gentleman. This is a beautiful word in English the Prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam was a gentleman a true man right and Part and parcel of being a gentleman is sometimes a gentleman has to have a bit of Strictness Because he has to be courageous. He has to set the earth. He has to he has to place just upon the earth He has to defend people under his Authority And so we see that beautiful balance in the Prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam that no other Prophet had he's in San El Kamil Right as he's called by our allama Every prophet is in San El Kamil But no one had the perfect equilibrium like the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi sallam me look at a prophet statesman military genius military leader father right Messenger of God Etc. Etc. Etc. No one in history is like this This is a major sign a major delil of our religion a major delil of his nabua sallallahu alaihi wa la alaihi wa sallam So engaging in the Quran engaging in the Quran is very Engaging with Quran. I fell out of the baroon of Quran. Do they not can be the things of Quran? What does the Quran say about the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi sallam? What does the Quran say about our Lord Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and This is the month of the Quran So there's a few early surahs of the Quran that were revealed to him sallallahu alaihi sallam During a time of extreme difficulty in his life right during a time when basically the Quraysh were trying to Cancel him right We live in a weird culture nowadays But people are offended very easily people don't want to have discussions People don't want to talk about thing You know, it's strange. They won't even let you if you say for example, you know, I don't really think it's a good idea to give children You know hormones when they're nine or ten years old And supplies them They don't want you don't want to hear it. They won't let you talk. It does cancel you the kick you off social media It's very strange And the Prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam during the early period There was you know, there was distress. There was it was the time of anxiety even depression So I want to talk about one surah in particular and I mentioned this in the past But nowadays it's it's even more relevant Surah 93 of the Quran is called surah al-duha And this surah really gives us a prescription as to how to deal with Basically the postmodern world that we're living in Where more and more we're seen as Just very strange people which is a good sign by the way because The Prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam said in that deena bad a ghariban Fasayah oodoo kamaa badaa fatubalil ghorabaa He predicted this sallallahu alaihi sallam. This dean began strange. It was very strange for the Arabs You know, there's one odd you can't drink alcohol You know no fornication What is this very strange and then it became normative Right because when Islam spread around the world it became the standard And then he said it's going to return to be strange again It's very strange Right. I remember What was it your 2000 I was at the copy machine I used I used to be an accountant by the way making copies and One of the other employees said I heard you're getting married and I said, yeah She said, oh, how long have you known each other? I said about two weeks What That's so strange It's okay And they come by my cubicle Are you coming to happy hour? No Why not? Uh, you know, I don't drink alcohol. What? What do you do for fun? I'll never forget it. What do you do for fun? We live for the weekend And then every friday like clockwork. Are you coming to happy hour same people? Are you going happy hour? No, are you gonna happen one of my I have a neighbor mashallah brother Muhammad. He said He said that a good way to get out of that is just to say i'm a recovering alcoholic Never ask you again because that's something to remember All right, I'll never ask you again But you know, we we're strange people You know We believe in traditional morality We believe in the difference between men and women You know I had a um One of my professors said that undergrad was a rabbi and uh And I asked him about shaking hands with women because they don't he's orthodox They don't shake hands with women right and vice versa It's called shumar negaya. It's a it's a concept they have in their halak, which is their sharia um And he said I said, how do you how do you explain this to people and he said I just tell them i'm sexist I said, oh What He said, yeah, what's the definition of being a sexist you treat men and women differently? In fact, we all do that And what what's wrong with that? That's a good thing Obviously the people who I want to talk about mistreating People of the opposite gender. There's only two genders by the way I mean, it's intuitively obvious This is the problem with modern education You go to a modern university you drop a hundred k on an education and you come out thinking there's 55 genders That's called that's called robber. It's called grand larceny They drain the common sense out of you. You were smarter going in then you came out And now you're a lot poorer subhan Allah Yeah, this is a attack against the natural inclinations anyway So and then I said, okay, and then he said i'm also discriminatory. I discriminate It's like, oh what? You're a sexist. You just yes. I discriminate. I treat people differently I don't treat my mother like I treat my sister. I said, oh But the modern world wants to equalize everybody And this looks good on paper You know And I don't mean any disrespect, but it's kind of like you know Christianity sort of looks good on paper You know love god is love It's love man He died for your sins, man Isn't that beautiful? But then you scratch the surface a little bit It kind of falls apart Right and see the nasa men as illa. Um the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said treat people according to their status According to their rank Right This is extremely important that we have a concept of hierarchy The word hierarchy Comes from the greek. It means sacred rule hierarchy Is established by god the ultimate hierarchy at the top of the ultimate hierarchy is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala If everyone's just equalized suddenly say we're all equal it sounds good. We're all equal We're all equal Then what happens the people of knowledge are completely decentralized My opinion is good as their opinion My opinion is I can make tafsir of the quran who cares if you have 40 years of training I have a translation here I can read I can take akham from the quran I can interpret the quran Right and tell you the amateur about to her the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said it's very interesting. He chose This in the hadith jubilee When jubilee alaihi asalam how many questions did jubilee alaihi asalam asked the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam by the way Hurry hurry Hurry five Some people most people say three It's actually five because we we put the hadith on pause Tell me about Islam. Tell me about iman. Tell me about ihsan and we push pause Tell me about Sa'a the hour mal masoolu anha bi aalama mina sa'ili The one being questioned knows no more than the questioner. Yes, aloonika an sa'a ti ayaana mursaha qul inna ma ilmuha inna enda rabbi They ask you about the sa'a say the the knowledge of it is only with my lord fa'akbini an amaratihah then tell me about its signs. That's the fifth question Tell me about the signs of the sa'a And the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam could have said anything here and talid al amatur abataha A A slave girl will give birth to her mistress A slave girl will give birth to her master Very interesting There's different ways of looking at this hadith because the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam had jwaami al-hikam jwaami al-kalim and jwaahir al-hikam He had extremely comprehensive speech. That's just saturated with sapience with wisdom There's different ways of looking at this hadith One way according to modern scholars traditional ulima that are in the modern world Is there's going to be a total leveling of society That societal structures and hierarchies will be turned upside down And we see that now we see it everywhere and it's not a good sign People not respecting Scholarship they're not respecting age He's not from us who doesn't have mercy on our little ones our young ones and have Waqar and have respect for our older ones Now you go into a university classroom And you know, they're referring to the hey referring to the professor by his first name And you know openly disagreeing with bad adab You know one of the One of my teachers said recently that one of the zaituna alumnus. He's at uh, georgetown And all these non-muslim professors are They love him He's a graduate student because he shows so much respect To them. He said this is this is amazing This is a very counterculture nowadays is just to show respect to a teacher is very strange You know So this religion will return as something strange So during this time the prophet sallallahu alayhi salam he received the the wahi Iqra on lady tul qadr. And this is when the entire quran was brought down It's called an in zal in zal means the entire quran was brought down to the summaud dunya and then five verses From the in zal were given to the prophet muhammad sallallahu alayhi salam. Let's call the tanzil or a piece meal revelation So iqra and then you have Uh the mudathir and other early verses of the quran And then some of the mushrikine they had caught wind that the prophet sallallahu alayhi salam was claiming To receive wahi from allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And then there was a break in the revelation It's called the tfattra. There was a break and some say it was a few days Some say a few months even some of the mufassilin say might have been up a year But there's a break and so the mushrikine began to taunt and mock and ridicule the prophet sallallahu alayhi salam right And umu jumil bintu harb Who's the wife of abu lahab Who was canceled by allah subhanahu wa ta'ala by the way That's a cancellation. You don't want that's the cancellation. We should be really concerned with Because nobody's going to remember us In a hundred everyone in this room in a hundred years unless you know, I mean they're trying to upload their consciousness into clouds now That's what people are trying to do There are people who think whatever's latest is greatest. This is their whole philosophy of life. Whatever's happening now must be the best So right now what we need to do is we you know, stop getting married go live in a pod go buy an electric car start eating bugs and worship technology and go into the metaverse And become an avatar and then eventually upload your consciousness into the cloud and then we can download it into a cybergenic A cyborg and you can live forever. Isn't that beautiful? This one millions of people believe Because this is their philosophy. Whatever is the latest is greatest And they say things like, you know three years ago I was an idiot I was I was using, you know, the wrong verbiage but now I'm woke and um I'm so different from three years ago And then we say, okay, what about you mr. Muslim? Khairu Naskarni the best generation is my generation. When was that 1400 years ago? Oh my god 1400 years ago. You're a caveman That's crazy That's What? How can this be? So, you know this Anyway So one of the mushrikine She caught wind of that the prophecy salam was Claiming a prophecy and there and then there was a break in the river. So she said she said This means he's cancelled. Goodbye Abul Ab is cancelled There's only a few people by the way. We can say are cancelled We have to have a clear, you know, Dalil Abul Ab is cancelled Abu Jahl is cancelled Fir'aun is cancelled Right, there's only a few people. So we have to be careful about Consigning people to the hellfire. This is haram to do this in our religion. We can't do this You know the christians when they debate with us. I've been debating christians for too long That's why I look older than I really am Turn your hair gray But uh, one of the sort of sales one of the I don't know what to call it Sales pitch, I don't know They'll say something like I have I have a personal guarantee. I'm going to paradise A personal guarantee. Do you have this guarantee mr. Muslim? I said, oh, it's not a personal guarantee. I mean the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. He said But it's not a personal guarantee You know the prophet says I'm he didn't say You know that that ali from california is gonna duckle agenda But the muslim I hope to be that means that that's not good enough. I have a personal guarantee you know And it's interesting a lot of these christians Who claim to have these personal guarantees they convert to islam What happened to your personal guarantee to say that you're you're This christian over here who was who was like you a christian does he still have a personal guarantee now that he's muslim? No, no, no, no. So what's the point of saying you have a personal guarantee anyway? So in the robber who would doubt him and call ahu indeed his lord has forsaken And hates him. This is what she was going around saying Right and so allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed this beautiful sura sura would do ha As a sura of taslea of consolation Consolation upon the heart of the prophet muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam What do how a lady either a saja so he begins the sura By taking an oath this is called a qasam In adoration and when allah subhanahu wa ta'ala swears by something That something is great And allah says in the quran la amruka by your life He swears by the life of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam But in this case what do ha what is what do ha this is the morning light This is the light before the sun reaches its zenith So that light is always soothing. It's not hot. It's not uncomfortable Right even the the hottest of environments The the light of the dua is soothing So the ulema say dua here symbolizes the wahi the revelation Because this is a a source of consolation And comfort for the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam So by the revelation wa laili either a saja and by the night when it is still So the opposite of dua is lail So the opposite of revelation Is when there's no revelation All right So allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is saying Whether you're receiving revelation Or not receiving revelation ma wadda aqara buka wa maqala Your lord has not forsaken you Allah saying i swear your lord has not forsaken you nor is he displeased with you nor does he hate you Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will never forsake the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam So what do we gain from this? You know Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala he's revealing the surah to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam But we are the umma of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam And in the quran you'll notice that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala seamlessly moved from a second masculine singular To a second masculine plural Speaking directly in other words speaking directly to the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam And then speaking directly to him and his umma without skipping a beat Right Would you have come Without skipping a beat t fat. This is in rhetoric ill t fat sudden change Turn your face towards the sacred mosque In the singular to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam wherever you are turn your faces To the sacred mosque What is this show according to the mufassereen a very close intimate relationship Between the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam And the prophet and and his umma That's us So this surah Allah speaking to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam by by extension to the umma of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam That if we obey Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in his messenger Allah will not forsake us Nor does he hate us And this dunya Is just it's a test It's a trial And we should recognize it as being a test And The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said the most severe of tribulations come to the prophets Right But it's never a punishment for them It's a means by which Allah raises their rank But for us it could be that but or us it could be a punishment So we make toba to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala And if it's a punishment then good we make toba Allah's purifying us in this world And inshallah put us into jannah We don't want the punishment in the next world In ibn abbas he says that if a bala if a type of Uh trial Comes to you Then make shukr to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Because it could have been worse he says Like you know you You lose a million dollars. You could have lost two million dollars You know you uh, you lost the use of one of your hands. You could have lost both of your hands Make shukr. It could have been worse number one number two It only happened in the dunya not in the akhira number three It didn't have anything to do with your dean, but in only in your dunya So we should be in a state of shukr So your lord has not forsaken you nor is he displeased with you What is later is better than what is now Right, so you can take this in two ways that what is later in medina Is better than what's happening now in mecca In other words have hope be an optimist for your life now right Have hope That your life your conditions will improve, but you have to Take initiative Right, so the famous iconic statement right tie your camel then trust in Allah The better when it was outside didn't tie his camel the camel is running around like this In the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam said who's camel is this? He said that's my camel I have trusted Allah. He said Hobble her to tie her down then trust in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala So we have hope we have raja in Allah raja is different than tamanna There's two words. There's many words for hope in arabic, but tamanna is sort of a hope without action Right the Quran says With a human being have whatever he hopes for vainly without any action right tamanna right sitting back and You know Making dua but not taking any Any steps towards that towards that end Right muslim is an active participle the word muslim is called an ism fa'il Right muslim not muslam not passive muslim is someone who's fa'il Someone who is active who's doing things right like it says in the hadith qutzi That if my servant draws close unto me the span of a shipper a hand span That I draw close unto him the span of a dira which is a qubit And if he draws near to me the hands if he draws near to me a dira a qubit I I come to him a fathom which is this Arms length a wingspan and if he walks towards me I run towards him in no anthropomorphic way That we have to take an initial step Right, so we have raja in Allah Right You have in the messenger of Allah a beautiful pattern of conduct Whoever has raja hope in Allah hope with action Hope with action in Allah and in the last day it makes frequent remembrance of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Another meaning of this is the afterlife is better than this world for you right so You know we we do our best in this world But we don't put all of our all of our what is the expression all of our eggs All of our eggs in in the spirit of easter even though we don't believe in it because he was never crucified But alaihi salam We don't put all of our eggs in the basket of the dunya a lot of people do that people of the world Ahlul dunya that are materialists. This is all they have So they try to create this kind of jannah on earth By any means necessary This is tried in the past and it's led to massive death massacres Whole-scale massacre genocide. It doesn't work You'll never actualize true justice in this world We have to do the best we can but at the end of the day true justice will manifest On the yom al qiyama By ala adil by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and on that day, we don't want justice. You don't want justice On on the yom al qiyama. Nobody is going to be saying no justice. No peace Nobody wants justice on yom al qiyama. You want mercy on the yom al qiyama mercy so This is part of our Commitment as muslims that we believe in We believe in the punishment in the grave the questioning in the grave We believe in uh the yom al qiyama the day of judgment We believe in the sirat We believe in jannah and nahr you know But we have hope in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Well, I saw if you're atika rabbuka fatarudah And then Allah says to the prophet say salam and by extension to all of us And soon your lord will give you something A'ata means like a gift He'll gift you something Fatarudah and immediately you'll be pleased So what is this thing? According to mama siyuti when the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam received this ayah And by the way, this ayah was given to him according to siyuti in it Khan Directly by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala without their intermediation of jabil alayhi sallam Is placed directly into the heart of the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi sallam There's a few times there are few places in the Quran where this happens like the end of al-baqarah Which it contains our essential creed So this surah and the following surah These were placed directly into the heart of the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi sallam Well, I saw if you're atika rabbuka fatarudah, and soon your lord will give you something And immediately you'll be pleased and according to mama siyuti the prophet said I will never be pleased Never be pleased while one person for my umma is in the fire So the ulema say what is this thing that's going to give the prophet ridah immediately is that the entire umma will enter jannah eventually Soon I will give you this your entire umma is going to enter paradise Now look at what happens here Right This is again. He's by extension. He's speaking to all of us in times of depression in times of anxiety Right, what does Allah say to the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam? He starts to remind him of past blessings Alam yechid kaya timan fa awa Did he not find you an orphan? And gave you shelter and give you shelter Don't you remember that alam is a rhetorical question in the Quran when it says alam It's a it's a istif ham taqiri. It's a rhetorical question. The point of this question is not to get you to say yes or no It's simply to remind you in other words in other words. You were an orphan And he sheltered you Like alam tara kaifa fa ala rabbuka bi asha bil fil And this again second masculine singular Speaking to the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam Uh Don't didn't you see what your lord did to the companions of the elephant? In other words, you should remember that event Why did Allah do that? That was the year you were born Allah saved mecca for your sake Right because that was the year you were born What was your like a da'alan fahada and you were searching and he guided you in da'alan here It does not mean he was like lost or disobedient or something This is by all of the mufassereen da'alan has different meanings. One of the meanings of da'alan is wandering or searching for something Asking for something because the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam he His bi'ata was on lidat al qadr, but he was a prophet when adam was beina al-rukh wal jasad He was a prophet before adam alayhi sallam and this this is sound this is sound aqida. This isn't some goofy sufism These are sound hadith He was a prophet before adam He has irhas. He has pre prophetic miracles prophetic meaning pre bi'ata pre commissioning miracles That uh, baheera the monk he saw a cloud covering the caravan in bostra And he knows from his knowledge of ahl al-kitab that a cloud signifies tofiq Because a cloud would follow around the bani israel in the cyanide Demonstrating god's tofiq that god was with them protecting them etc So he invited all of these men into his cell Right, he said have a meal inside my cell. He was a monk. He's surrounded by manuscripts So he noticed that There was a 12 year old 10 year old boy amongst them and that a palm tree had bent his trunk to to shade him So he approached this boy and he said i'm going to ask you a question in the name of al-ata and al-uzza And the prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam does not interrupt people unless it's absolutely necessary And he said No names are more detestable to me than al-atan al-uzza So baheera said okay He's passed the first test This is a mu'ahid and he's the greatest mu'ahid sallallahu alaihi sallam He's the greatest monotheist in the history of humanity and no one can deny this No one can deny this And the jews they they don't know what to do with him He's an enigma for them Because that's their claim to fame is tohiid. That's what they say. We're chosen because god chose us They say hashem chose us god chose us To to give the light of el-ekhad of tohiid to the goyim to the nations That was their whole job, but this one man does it better than all their prophets put together All their prophets put together I'm just oh, what happened here So some of them said okay, he's a nebi, but he's only for the non-jews So he's for 99.99 percent of humanity Okay Yeah You're almost there you're getting closer Because they're very reluctant. They're very reluctant to ascribe to him kithb Right they're very reluctant to do that because He's he's he's so extremely successful as a monotheist How can we say he's making this up? Okay, he's he's for the non-jews So And you were weighed down with family responsibilities And we enriched you So to enrich someone spiritually as well as financially In all of the mufassilin say the means of his enrichment was a seheda khadija tulkubra aleyhi salam Who supported him with her wealth? So we have three reminders of past past blessings So when you feel depressed when you have anxiety when the modern world is Bewildering us which happens more and more now I can go into some more details very disturbing things That people want to normalize it's hard to even watch a movie now with kids You can't watch a kid's movie. You have to screen it six ways to sunday Right because all these hidden satanic messages and everything you can't go to a library You can't go to a The kids section at a library and the kids mommy. Can I read this? Oh, let me let me look at it Oh No, what's wrong with it? It's a kid's book No, no, so you have to you have to sort the books out haram halal in the kids section What's going on? a jib and gharib types of things going on you know so when we have this type of you know distress Remember these past blessings of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala That number one he made you muslim. He put you in a masjid on lady tulkadar Who knows if you're going to be here next year even if you're alive. You may not be here That Allah gave you two feats imam malik said and some of the teachers they say don't even say this but He said that if you pray in jama'a isha you have your portion for lady tulkadar Just if you pray jama'a isha prayer You've caught the lady tulkadar You know In part of the wisdom why the exact night wasn't given because imagine a muslim who knows the exact night And he's nowhere to be found in the masjid How pitiful of state is that If he knows the exact night Achieve Remember remember these past blessings And then we have three imperatives for the future So remember this past blessings and here's something to do So amma liya team of ala taqqar as for the orphan Don't be harsh towards them. Why because you were an orphan. That's the subtext Allah saying all right Alam yajid ka yateeman fa awa fa amma liya team of ala taqqar So there's a correspondence in these ayat. This is incredible in the quran The quran the surah is a complete literary unit. The surahs are they have this A chiastic concord to them. There's this type of parallelism That is and this happens with short surahs and al-baqarah There's a book written by non muslim. You see berkeley professor Raymond Farron called coherence in the quran where he looks at surah tul baqarah He says the entire surah is a big chiasm And if you're not writing this down, this is impossible If he sallallahu alayhi sallam is not looking at these ayahs and putting this here and this there you can't do this It's 286 verses and not only that he's receiving baqarah and then a verse from al-maida and nisa He's not just getting all baqarah and then and then it's not in The way he's receiving the quran is not in the canonical order It's in the chronological order. So he's telling the scribes where to put this ayah where to put that ayah And you look at these ayahs you look at these surahs in the canonical order and they're all works of art This is impossible Unless he has a 400 iq You can't do this and it's what people are realizing now Because the the classical sort of orientalist this quran is jumbled up and it's it's moving tenses And it's talking about adam then moses and then it is going back to adam and it's it's chrono. No, no, no If you have the depot of the quran, you'll see the coherence of the ayat In our scholars talked about this. This is not something non-muslims found imam ar-razi talks about this because al-muna sabbat You know the sort of coherence of the ayat of the quran As for the orphan do not over overwhelm him And the one who asks you for something the sayel Don't reject him What is this verse? What's the sort of parallel of this verse? You were searching for something and he guided you so the one who comes to you searching Right, don't reject them because you are searching In other words treat these people like i treated you Allah is telling the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam treat these people like i treated you And as for the and as for the ni'ma the blessing of your lord Talk about it. Speak of it. What is this ni'ma? Al-islam This religion speak about islam Right, so this is our prescription. This is our This is our prescription for how to come out of the type of distress and depression Right. No that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has not forsaken you And does not hate you as long as you are in obedience to Allah and his messenger and we have toba Right toba is a very beautiful thing. We should be in one of two states toba or shukr or both Toba or shukr and again the modern world. They don't recognize these Three of the greatest theological virtues toba repentance. I'll finish in a minute here Toba Right repentance The modern people in the modern world the postmodern world They don't believe in god many of them They're atheists Toba to who? You know, why should I make toba? I didn't do anything wrong What's wrong with me? I'm perfect And then shukr Gratitude Gratitude to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala contrast that with the victim mentality that's being bred in these Colleges universities. Everyone's a victim Right This is totally satanic Because this is a satanic mentality Right when adam alayhi salam made toba Rabbana the lamna anfusana Adam and eve it's in the plural, right Oh our lord, forgive us rabbana. We have wronged ourselves. What if I'm to fill lana? lana kounana min al-khasid and if you don't forgive us, we'll be from the last ones Right, this is this is adam alayhi salam. This is the adamic paradigm. What is the satanic paradigm? Because you did this to me he says Fabima aghway tani you you led me astray shaitan victimizes himself The prophet sallallahu alayhi salam did not victimize himself He didn't And there was real oppression happening and that that's what happens when people victimize themselves and they're not real victims. What does it do? It completely minimizes people who are victims And then we don't see that victimization. We don't see that oppression The prophet sallallahu alayhi salam people threw garbage on him He went home. He wrapped himself in his mantle. He laid down. Yeah, you had mudathir Qum fa'anvir. Wa rabbaka fa tahir. Wa rabbaka fa kabbi. Qum fa'anvir Wa rabbaka fa kabbir. Wa thiyabaka fa tahir. Wa rujaza fa hajur. Wa la tamnun tas takdir. Wa li rabbika fa'sbir Oh, you wrapped in a mantle stand up. Qum means get up Literally stand up and also have istiqama You know and and dust yourself off clean your clothes. They threw this on you clean it Don't expect someone to pick you up and start cleaning you You have to do it yourself And shun their idolatry Shun their their their defilements And magnify your lord and don't expect anything in return Don't expect any reward from human beings This is only from allah subhanahu wa ta'ala So May allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Bless all of you bless all of us may allah subhanahu wa ta'ala accept our Fasting and our worship may allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Blot out our sins One of the greatest of the dua the adiya of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam During the last 10 nights. Allahumma inna ka'afoon duhibbu al-afwa Fa'afu anna. Oh, Allah you are the one Al-afu means the one who erases the sin It's gone. Like Allah is called al-ghafer al-ghaffar al-ghafur the one who forgives Right, but the sin is still there. He just forgives it But the affu is the one who it's deleted It's gone completely and Allah can delete things completely. So you ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to delete All of our sins. So there's no trace of them And he loves the prophet said he loves to delete sins So delete them from us As-salaamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh As-salamu alaykum with your permission Dr. Aditya a few questions Put you in the spot All right If you want to raise your hands, usually the sisters have the most bravery than the brothers So i'm looking at your side. I doubt it Sisters Nobody. Oh my god. She let me down No question. Oh good. All right. I'll come to you next brother As-salaam brothers As-salaamu alaykum So during the speech like At one moment like what I heard when you mentioned khati jar alaykum like her name, right? You Like what I heard is like instead of saying alaykum you said alaykum as-salaam So I just want to know like what is the right way to uh, you know address there Yes, so sometimes when I do that people think I'm a Shiite Say where are you from Iran? Oh What is your name? Okay No, we can we can say alayhi as-salaam alayhi as-salaam for sahaba It's perfectly permissible to do that. You'll find, um, handwritten Handwritten manuscripts Where they write fatima alayhi as-salaam Because she's from ahl al-bayt Right, uh, so it's permissible to say it. Um, for some reason Just sound kind of organically. I guess maybe to I don't know to maybe draw a distinction between Sunnis and shi'a that a culture kind of developed Where the Sunnis would say radiallahu anhu and anha and in the shi'a They would say alayhi as-salaam alayhi as-salaam But when I meet you I say as-salaamu alaykum, right I say alayhi as-salaam to you alayhi as-salaamu alaykum Um, so, um It's perfectly permissible to do that, you know And especially for ahl al-bayt. I mean the ahl al-bayt have a In sunni orthodoxy they have a special rank with us Right, um So and this is something in the quran. Well, maa as-salaam alaykum alayhi as-salaam In surah shura Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says to the prophet say No reward. Do I ask of you for this except love for the family? And this is interpreted by almost by many many sunni sunni Mufasirin That it is incumbent It is it is obligatory to love the family of the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi as-salaam That they have a special place And you have the hadith, in the tarikun fikum al-thaqalain, Kitabullah wa sunnatih, that's one hadith, it's a sound hadith, but there's an even stronger hadith in our books, Sunni books. Kitabullah wa itrati ahl al-bayti. And there's no contradiction here. See what is it then? We follow the sunnah or the ahl al-bayt. There's no contradiction because the sunnah has always been preserved in its most pristine form amongst the ahl al-bayt. The most ahl al-bayt are ahl al-sunnah wal-jama'ah. Most descendants of the Prophet SAW are sunni. People don't realize that, you know? That's just a fact. I was in a Shiite mosque one time and the brother stood up and he said, he said, do you follow the imams or do you go after the caliphas? That's how he put it. I said, what caliphas are you talking about? He said, you know the caliphas. I said, no, name them. He said, Abu Bakr. I follow Abu Bakr. Othman, keep going. Okay. So the question is faulty. The very question is false. Right? So, you know, we shouldn't fall victim to these kinds of simplistic polemics. Right? But, you know, that's part of our tradition. You know, we love ahl al-bayt and we're not afraid to say it but we think about us when we say that we love ahl al-bayt. Okay, sisters. Okay, good. I'll come to you, brother. Sorry. Assalamu alaikum. I'm sorry, can you hear me? My question is, if you have a consistent pattern of where you're having some kind of a problem or question and then you show up to a talk or a khutbah and that conversation is being referenced of what your troubles were or your questions were. Is there a deeper meaning to that? I've always been curious. Thank you. Allahu alam, I don't know. Yeah, probably. I mean, we should keep our eyes open, you know, for things like that. You know, that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is using the asbab. He's using certain means to give us the answer to things. This happens, I mean, it's people, they say this is coincidence and things like that, but this happens a lot. I remember just tonight, I was behind Qari Amr, and they say that if you can keep your brain having one extraneous thought during the prayer, you've reached wilaya, right? And Abu Bakr did that during his prayer, he was completely focused. But most of us are not awliya, I thought suddenly it came to me, what am I going to talk about later? And then Qari Amr recited an aya, and I said, oh, masha'Allah, like right then, wow, perfect. So we can keep our eyes open. It's like the guy, you know, what is the joke? He was, there was a flood or something, he's standing on his roof, right? And they, you know, in the car, the ambulance comes by and says, get in, get in, it's going to be flooded. He's like, no, no, no, I made dua to Allah. He's like, okay, and the ambulance goes away. And then it's flooding, and the guy comes with a boat. He's, get in, get in, you're going to be drowned. I made dua to Allah. And then the water gets higher and higher, and he's like, he's about to drown, and the helicopter comes, throws him a rope, he said, grab the rope, you're going to drown. I made dua to Allah. And then he dies. And then on the Day of Resurrection, Allah SWT, you know, he says to Allah, I made dua to Allah. He says, yeah, Allah says, I sent you a car, I sent you a, I sent you a, a, a rowboat. I sent you a helicopter. This was the answer to your dua. Three times. Okay, I'm coming brother. So when you're speaking about the Khawadij, correct me if I'm wrong please. Yeah. They were really strong about the, even more than the companions, and they had this practice where they would count the, they would say something like, they would count it on stones, and they would kind of put them in front of them, right? Would you say that's equivalent to the prayer beads? Is there any relation? I was wondering. I got my steps in. I haven't heard that about the stones. But according to the Erlumah of Ahlus Sunnah al-Jama'ah, it is a practice of the Salaf to use the Subhah, and that it's, it's a good thing to use the Subhah. Even just to have it on you, even if you don't use it, because when you feel it on your person, even if you don't use it, you'll, you tend to make zikr, or you remember Allah SWT. I'm not out seriously that it has origins with the Khawaraj, but Allah SWT, I haven't heard that before. But you're right about the Khawaraj. I mean, when Sayyidina Ali sent Ibn Abbas to them, he said that during the, after Zuhur, when it's really hot, and the Sahaba are taking their naps, you can hear buzzing like bees in the dwellings of the Khawaraj because they're reciting the Quran, right? He says, if you saw them pray, you would nullify your prayer. You think your prayer is nothing, but the Prophet SAW said, the prayer, the Qira'a, doesn't pass their throats. It doesn't, in other words, it doesn't penetrate the heart. You know, so that's the danger of being a formalist. Right? And Isa A.S., I mean Imam al-Ghazali, quotes a lot from Isa A.S., because during his time, Imam al-Ghazali was dealing with a kind of heuristic mentality where there was all this sort of importance attached to the outward and not necessarily on the inward. The outward is important. There's no doubt about it. But if the outward is sound and the inward is corrupt, you know, then that's a problem, you know. Imam al-Ghazali mentions a story in the Marbles of the Heart. There was a, there was a sheikh, a sheikh of Shari'a, of Fiqh. He was a faqi. And then there was a Sufi. And when I say Sufi, I mean, I'm talking about a man of ihsan. I'm not talking about some sect of Islam or something, or some new age type of, you know. The Sufi, according to our traditional understanding, is someone who doesn't have any dunya in their heart. So by this definition, the Sahaba were Sufis. By this definition, so Sufi or Tassawuf is a technical term for ihsan. And ihsan is the third component, the third major component mentioned by the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam in the Hadith Jibreel. Anyway, so this is not an absolute dichotomy. It's not like there's Fiqh on one hand, and there's, this is just an example he's given. He's given in the Aja'ib ul-Qalb, the Marbles of the Heart. Aja'ib ul-Qalb to demonstrate the importance of inward sciences. He says there was a Fiqh, his name was Sheikh Ibrahim Araqi, and he heard about some mystic named Abul-Kher. So he went to the dwellings of this mystic, and he noticed that he was praying Maghreb, so he caught the prayer behind him, and then during the prayer, Sheikh Ibrahim was thinking, this guy's Qura'ah is horrible. His voice is horrible. Yeah, what is this? He wasn't making any mistakes, but just his voice was, you know. So then after the prayer, they had a conversation, and he said that he meant, went to go make, refresh his Wudu, Sheikh Ibrahim, and he went, and he was over by the Wudu area, and he said, a lion came out of nowhere. A lion, right? Sheikh like, ah! And he ran back, he said to the, he said to Abul-Kher, he said, there's a lion in your Wudu area. And the mystic said, ah, he's still there? So he went over there, and he grabbed the lion by his mane. He said, don't you know I have a guest? Get out of here! And then the Sheikh said, oh! How did you do this? And so Abul-Kher said to him, you put so much stock on the outward, you're afraid of lions, I put more stock on the inward, and lions fear me. So ultimately, the state of the heart this is what the Khawaraj missed. The Khawaraj, there's a story mentioned by Ibn Asakir where he says that three of the Khawaraj, they massacred a family, a companion of the Prophet ﷺ. They killed him, they killed his pregnant wife, and they took out the fetus and slid its throat. These are Khawaraj. They did this to a companion of the Prophet ﷺ. Because they said to him, what is your opinion of Ali? And they said, I meet him, what do you mean? They said, kill him. Right? And then Ibn Asakir mentioned they were walking along and they saw this kind of orchard area, and they started picking grapes and eating them. And they suddenly said to themselves, we didn't ask the owner for permission, Astaghfirullah, we're eating grapes, we're stealing grapes. And he says, look at this mentality. They have the blood of a massacred family in the Sahaba on their clothes, and they're worried about some grapes. You stole some grapes. But look at the bigger picture here. This didn't occur to them. Sisters, before I go to the brothers. Yes, I'll be right back, brother. Assalamu alaikum. In the lecture you said that Allah has sworn by life of Prophet Muhammad. I just want to know in Quran what are the other things that Allah has sworn by and what is their significance? So, there's different adurations. So, asr time, Allah takes an oath. So you'd have to actually go into the tafasir to look at the significance of these things. Right? What are some other ones? Wa al-fajr wal-ayalin, wa tini wa zaitun. Right? So we'd have to go into the tafasir. Right? But there's great significance attached to these objects. So Allah swt can swear by whatever he wants. We swear by Allah swt. We only swear by Allah swt. But Allah swears by the life of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. I swear by your life, they are just they are intoxicated in their lust. Very interesting. Ayah. And unfortunately, nowadays you have people that like I said, there's this kind of leveling across the board. People think they can interpret the Quran without requisite knowledge. You know, an alim, an alim is someone who has at least 25 years full time training. 25 years, full time studies. That's an alim. A sheikh 40 years. Right? So anyone under 40 who claims to be an alim, I'm very suspect of that. I mean, it's possible they start studying at like 15 or something but full time for 25 years. You know. But you go to like these, you know, you take a class on intro to Quran at the university. They have, they they read the text through something called radical hermeneutics which means that you can basically interpret the text however you want through any type of lens. So you have for example, you know, a, I don't know, a feminist reading of Surat Mariam an LGBTQ plus reading of Surah Hud or something like that where they're arguing something that's clearly antithetical to the text. But then you point out, what about this verse over here? They say, oh, don't worry about this verse. This is what every heterodox, every firqah, every shubah, every religion. Every heretical group in Islamic history they use the Quran to justify their positions but they don't, they don't look at the entire Quran. Ibn Hisham says the Quran is a juwahda it's like one sentence and you can't just isolate something from that sentence. Right? This is what Ahlul Kitab did. Allah addresses Ahlul Kitab in the Quran. Do you believe in some of the book but not other parts of the book? And they're very brazen about this. I mentioned this before, a very famous feminist Muslim professor who says if there's a verse in the Quran that you are offended by it, just say no. Just say no to Allah. This is how she puts it. Just say no. No Allah. Just say no. When I was a kid in elementary school our teachers used to tell us, someone offers you drugs. Just say no. That's good advice. I know to Allah, bad advice. But I don't know, I feel sorry for our young people entering into these institutions. I really do. I don't know how they, it's a jungle out there. And if they can hold on to their iman that's a it's a tough it's a tough place. And it's getting harder so we ask Allah SWT to strengthen our iman to give us istiqama, to give us if-bat in the religion not to be afraid. Look at these other religions they're just they fear human beings they fear human beings they don't fear Allah. The Quran says Let the people of the gospel take the people of the gospel take a hukum by what Allah has revealed therein the Quran wants the Christians to follow their text. Follow your text because that'll make for a better world. This is why Muslim men can make Christian women you say, but they're Trinitarian. Yeah. But they have family values that are similar to ours that'll make for a good marriage. They believe in gender roles. They believe in traditional morality. Those things count in a marriage they count very high. It's very important. Follow your book. But nowadays you have people you know they basically interpret their text through the current lens the current zeitgeist which means the spirit of this age. Whatever is, again, whatever is latest is greatest. It must be the greatest because I'm living now it must be the greatest. I'm alive. I know we can keep going all night but we'll take one last question. So in your experience like with Christian debaters because that's how I kind of like knew you have you perceived like any shifts in like the intellectual rigor over time and what is the most prominent topic of discussion with them currently because I'm noticing that they're a little bit weak. They're very they're kind of repeating the same and they're agitating the same discussions. Also I want to invite you kindly to clubhouse sometime to speak to some of the brothers there like try to give Dawa. Maybe we speak to Christians there all the time but yeah just that. What is kind of like the hot topics now with apologists because you know Sam Shamoon a bunch of these apologists are just really weak like they really have nothing going for them so is it funny anymore to have like what's going on in that field if you don't mind please. Yeah I really wish you didn't mention this person's name you know. These people are mustahzi'oon it's impermissible for us to even sit with them you know a mustahzi is someone who mocks and ridicules the religion who mocks and ridicules the prophet we're not even supposed to give them a platform don't even just completely ignore them Allah says what does he say but the mustahzi'een Allah says I will suffice you with respect to the mustahzi'een in other words I'll take care of them like Abu Jahal and Abu Lahab right there's a few seven or eight of them that were known all of them were killed at Badr or they died from disease you know so I wouldn't I would be very discriminatory as to who you engage with even if you're claiming to be Christian and they come to you with smiles and this and that and you know I learned my lessons the hard way I mean there was a cop to Christian guy who was smiling and talking about love this and that and he wanted to have a debate with me in 2003 and I said yeah we met the night before at a hotel he was very cordial and this and that and then the next day at the event he had three other debaters so it was like a four against one and two of these guys were like fluent in Arabic and they knew like I mean still one I mean come on we took care of business you know I remember the MSA was panicking and they're calling we're trying to get this local Imam to come help you I said relax brother the hawk will win sure and then it was just but I got to a point because they were losing I got to a point where this man who's a he's a Coptic priest he's became belligerent and started slandering the Prophet say Salaam at that point we can't you know lesson learned right but you're right it's the same issues you know they're bringing up marriages of the Prophet say Salaam they bring up the fact that the Prophet say Salaam was a military leader and all of this is hypocrisy I mean I mean if you look at the if you look at all of the casualties in every battle of the Prophet say Salaam Abu Hassan Nadebi he actually did a study on this and he said there's about 1,018 casualties in all of the Ghazawat of the Prophet say Salaam enemy and Muslim Mushadikin and Muslims 1,018 men in 23 years all men on the battlefield right Musa A.S. in Exodus 34 he comes down the mountain he sees his own people worshiping the golden calf he orders 3,000 men slaughtered on the spot in one night but he's a Prophet but the Prophet said oh no he can't be a Prophet this is total hypocrisy and then you know they bring up things like preservation of the Quran and things like that what they're doing is they're banking on Muslim ignorance of their own text they know a lot of Muslims they've never heard of Qiraat they've never heard of the Ahrufa Saba'a so they'll bring like a Quran it says Malik yawm ad-Din Malik with a dagger alif in another Quran it says Malik yawm ad-Din Malik two different Quran and then the Muslim the du'at that are very young right they're there and they're doing their best they start going they have this cognitive dissonance you wrote this Quran you this is a fabrication you're calling this a fabrication yeah oh really you know so a lot of it sort of you know smoke and mirrors it's the same stuff regurgitated I don't find any strong arguments coming from the Christian side you know but you know we have to be cordial with people these kind of debates that are highly polemical I mean I debated this other guy I'm not going to mention his name very popular on YouTube and this was about 16 years ago you know and it's probably it was a bad idea but you know we should have ad-Dub with people we should be discriminatory with people as to who we debate and at the end of the day so we should inform we should inform with ad-Dub the Quran tells us how to make da'wa right and so call people to the way of your lord with hikmah which means according to Imam al-Zamakhshali and others he says it means with proofs scriptural proofs rational proofs historical proofs it means good attitude, good comportment right with ad-Dub right so both of these have to have to work inshallah but we shouldn't disrespect people's religions we shouldn't mock people this is not the sunnah we're all guilty of this doing things like this in the past so we make toba we ask Allah to forgive us because we're be hindering us from the path of Allah we don't want that to happen Allah says don't curse their gods or else they're going to curse Allah right so we can point things out to them with ad-Dub it's very difficult to do I don't have the temperament for debate anymore this is what I've learned I don't have the temperament because I let my ego get involved and I can't do it I thought that when I got older I would be more patient I don't want to hear these bad arguments anymore you can miss me with all of that now I don't want to hear it anymore I've already dealt with it that doesn't mean I won't come on clubhouse I'll come inshallah anyway inshallah inshallah I feel like there's a lot of blessings here on this blessed night tonight if you walk outside the skies are open and the rains are falling a lot of mercy coming down tonight and we found that Sheikh Hamza is going to be doing our Eid namaz this Friday and we're also blessed because Imam Ahmad Dib is here and one of my favorite people along with Dr. Ali Atayi in the Bay Area here and I strong-guard him to say a few words inshallah to everybody because I want you to know this young man he's coming up and if you would come up here Imam with your permission Dr. Ali Atayi we just have him say a few words as well don't leave please so yeah, inshallah so just so you know the lay land after we finish here we're going to do a du'a inshallah and then after the du'a we'll have a quran recitation in unison and then we'll do our Salat at Tezbeh we'll go close to Qiyam time at 3am inshallah so Imam Dib is not necessarily from this area he's been very busy in the West Valley Islamic Center him and his father and so look him up look him up he's got a lot of information about the topics that we're talking about here with your permission I got excited obviously I wasn't supposed to be here and I came genuinely just to listen to Sheikh Ali Subhanallah funny enough I was actually supposed to be giving a Tafsir of Swat inshallah at West Valley Muslim Association but then there was a power outage so that's proof that they took others tonight right it was so powerful that literally the power went out my senate to that joke is Lubna the executive director so we actually had to evacuate Subhanallah the Masjid and so you know I didn't really expect to have time and Sidi Usama who's here with me my dear friend from Sacramento he said Dr. Ali is speaking so I said Bismillah we gotta go so I genuinely came just to benefit but you know there's a lesson in that I think you know Subhanallah it's not a coincidence that the most blessed night of the years called because you will never really appreciate the power of Allah until you learn to accept it you know you'll never really appreciate the destiny of God until you learn to accept it they do studies on this stuff now they talk about how the most miserable people are just people who fail to accept what they can't control and the happiest people are those who have been in contentment with God all along because they know it wasn't their decision anyway you know it wasn't they were never in control to begin with this is exactly the meaning of the Hadith of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam that's the idea here I really this is very embarrassing you know Dr. Ali is like a hero for me so you know I'm just gonna do this I was asked but the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam he said you know you know the Hadith strange it's perplexing the state of the believer it's only perplexing for those who are not believers that's the idea here that strange and perplexing is the matter of the believer what's the rest of the Hadith every matter of theirs is good what's after that how does the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam explain it exactly everything is good because if something happens that they didn't expect what they perceive as negative in that moment they say Alhamdulillah their patient and when something happens which is a blessing that they also did not expect what do they say Alhamdulillah their patient and thankful so that idea of you know being able to always witness the Qaid necessitates an acceptance of destiny and so I think it's really really out for us to reflect on that tonight is that what we're here to do is we want to make dua to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala but the real gift is that we're making dua to Allah it's not what we're going to get from Allah we already got the gift we're here making dua so you know if I could leave you with two things because you know that's like the you know what happened tonight SubhanAllah it's Hajib I have to tell you this I was sitting there in the back listening to you and I would think of something I'm not just saying this because you're here I would think of something and then you'd mention it right and then I'd think of another thing like the incoherence randomly I was just thinking about like you know the incoherence of the Quran arguments and nothing to do with your talk and then you'd mention it and then this is the SubhanAllah this is the strangest part of tonight for me I was towards the end of your talk I felt bad because I got distracted this happens you inspired insights all the time so I was thinking of the hadith you know I leave you with two things al-Qur'an and then someone asked the question about the hadith so you know I interpret that as you know my love being true to our beloved teacher here who is our teacher but you know the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he said I leave you with two things so maybe you know in that light I'll leave you with two things the first in terms of taking advantage of this blessed night we come into Ramadan the same way we came into Ramadan we come into Ramadan with tauba through hope and we leave Ramadan with tauba through hope and the beautiful thing about the word tauba repentance I personally, I mean who am I to speak in front of Dr. Ali about like etymology but from my very limited understanding of the etymology of the word repentance it doesn't actually capture the concept of tauba because all of the etymology surrounds the ideas of like regret and being sorry but the heart of why tauba is called tauba is because there's this idea of returning and so that doesn't just capture the fact that we obviously need a plan which you know our sheikh shared with us tonight like there has to be something that we do but there's another really beautiful thing about hope that's captured in this idea of tauba which is what would happen if we saw all of our mishaps and shortcomings as nothing more than just a wrong turn from our natural fitra and tauba being nothing more than a return to who we're meant to be originally and so when you have this idea you're not going to feel like you're inherently a failure no no you just acted in a way that was unbecoming of what you're destined to be of your true nature and so you don't get caught and stuck in this type of stuff when you realize Alhamdulillah Allah created me with a soul he created me with a fitra and my task as an imperfect human being that I was created imperfect by design, Allah swt tells us this clearly if all of you stop making mistakes he would wipe us all out and create humans that made mistakes just so he can forgive so the idea isn't to be perfect the idea is to be in a perpetual state of returning to Allah swt and you won't even be able to do that if you thought you weren't imperfect you wouldn't be able to be in a perpetual state of repentance if you thought Alhamdulillah I'm good my friend Bashir Jones he always jokes he says like we all have issues and if you don't believe you have issues lying is your issue in other words, gently speaking you're delusional you don't have issues so number one take tawbah to Allah swt seriously which necessitates hope it necessitates that no Allah is capable of changing my state destiny qadar and taqdeed destiny is about power you have to believe in the power of Allah you have to believe that Allah swt can change your state tonight you have to believe that Allah swt can change your state in an instant theologically speaking we have to believe this the second thing I wanted to share if I may and then I'll stop talking I shouldn't be talking you know we spend a lot of Ramadan even though it's the most communal month of our year we spend it thinking about ourselves and in a special night a lot of us are thinking about dua which is exactly the right attitude I need to speak to Allah I need to ask Allah we should also be thinking about each other and you know I would even dare to say your night is better spent making dua for others your night is better spent look at the ad'iyah of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam look at how many of them is Allahumma inna na'udubika min al-hammi wal-hazan Allahumma inna na'udubika it's always in the so many of it is in the plural because we should not forget we should not forget our brothers and sisters on the path on our own path we should not our spirituality shouldn't be an individualistic approach to piety but because our lives are like this right then it filters into our conceptions of the faith I grew up in an era it's crazy to think of this but I grew up in an era where people would claim the truth when in reality it was nothing more than a truism informed by the modern sensibilities of that time give me an example I remember asking someone please make dua for me and they would say make dua for yourself brother it's like what I don't think that's how this goes it's like make dua for yourself brother it's like Habib if I wasn't making dua for myself I wouldn't see the power of dua but why would that become not just a a one off weird thing that someone says and we have to be compassionate we don't know their stories but how does that become a default norm of the status quo I'll tell you how because we live in America that's why and in America it's nefsi you want me to make dua you make dua for yourself I don't want your piety to touch my piety wait wait we're supposed to both get individual piety together there's a community the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was not a prophet of nefsi and that's who we are I'll share with you one story just because it was shared today it's a really beautiful story it might shock you maybe not in the best way but I'm gonna share it anyway one of my closest friends he's my partner in da'wah if you don't know him you should look him up it's really good to see the next generation of scholarship so that you don't go around singing end of times blues there will always be people who will carry this deen that was the guarantee by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and so he shares a story that he received from his sheikh and it's a true story about one of the great great great sheikhs of Morocco who used to at Thursday nights muslim kids muslim kids can also do haram things you're not immune from the influences around you and they would always just get drunk Thursday nights every Thursday night they get drunk and every single time without fail sheikh would pass by and smile at them so eventually they don't love with him he's just showing us kindness when a muslim does this especially when there's a culture of adab they still have shyness which is why we should never assume anything but that about people because if the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam's madina had a regular drunken sahaba the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said loves Allah and his prophet who are we to assume anything else about anyone so he'd always look and he would smile at them subhanAllah he would smile at them so then they said sheikh we'd just love to invite you we'd love to invite you over maybe let's do like a weekly halakha because it's Juma but they still want to get drunk this is the craziest part about this but they had adab this is the funniest part of the story they had adab so they said ya sheikh why don't you come after we've kind of recovered it's a true story this is a true story but not only did he come the period where they were drunk he devoted that entire time for dua for them every single week then this group of young people wake up one day and they all look at each other and it was kind of like you feeling what I'm feeling you feeling what I'm feeling I'm feeling it too what were they feeling disgusted by alcohol they couldn't even look at it look they've had hangovers before they've had hangovers they've had their fair share of throw ups and vomit they've had that they looked at each other they said we can't fathom even thinking about picking up this alcohol because of the dua of the sheikh and this is not a silly story we have to believe this the only reason this is unfathomable to us is because our existence is so nefcy it is so consumed by an individualistic lifestyle that we cannot fathom that someone would spend their week making dua for a group that we would consider damned and then see the power of Allah in that so my sincerest request to you make dua for yourself obviously but don't forget each other our faith I mentioned this several times in my visit here I find it so beautiful and sheikh maybe I hope you can correct me but I find it strange and beautiful that the most private act of worship slyam is done in the most communal month of the year the reason fasting is more rewarded than any other act is why what do the scholars say it's because no one knows you're fasting no one knows you're fasting you could do it privately it's between you and Allah completely yet that one act that can be rewarded infinitely we don't even know how to quantify the rewards of that Allah places its obligation in the most communal month of the year is that a coincidence I don't think that's a coincidence I think there's a clear lesson here that if we want to do faith right individually we don't forget each other that faith done right is faith done in a community and so please make dua for each other the Prophet s.a.w. says when you do that you get whatever you're asking for anyway it's a two for the price of one it's about Allah right so leave this beautiful night with Toba which again we said is rooted in hope which our sheikh talked about in the best opinion of Allah swt possible can change your state he can change your state a mass murderer was given redemption you can be given redemption too everyone can be given redemption as long as you're sincere in your Toba and secondly please make dua for each other because this not only is something that we benefit from as individuals and it's not only something that allows us to follow the sunnah of the Prophet s.a.w. what it does is it keeps our heart alive with love for each other which the Prophet s.a.w. shall I remind you said what is the very way we enter Jannah لن تؤمنوا لن تدخلوا الجنة حتى تؤمنوا you will not enter paradise until you believe and you will not believe until you love may Allah swt allow us to love one another and to favor each other and to make us truly selfless by not thinking of ourselves and preferring others over ourselves even in this most blessed night بارك الله فيكم forgive me sheikh for speaking in your presence and it's an honor to be here thank you anything to add sheikh are you good please sit so you got to see our present islamic scholarship and our upcoming tonight what a treat we had tonight so we're going to do we have so many people here we're going to have to move it to the prayer hall so we're going to walk out just a little bit and we're going to do Salat al-Tazbe'ah before we do we have one of Qadi Amar's students here we're going to go out there we're going to read some quran together in unison and then after that we'll have a du'a with our dear sheikh inshallah and then we'll go out to the prayer hall so we'll have a concertano I think you're here somewhere there you are so what we're going to do is we're going to read surah and milk please come up here we're going to read surah and milk in unison so if you want to pull that up on your phones we're going to read surah the four quran together inshallah so we'll start with surah and milk with Muhammad inshallah and then we'll have our du'a jazak la khay yeah just clarification so it's milk then then learn from two nights ago then then then then then then then then then then the verse from surah shara la yas tawiy ashaab un nari wa ashaab ul jannah ashaab ul jannah hum ul faizun ashaab ul jannah lau anzalna haadal quran ala jabal illa r'aytahu khash'an mutasadd'an min khash'yatillah wa tilka al anthan nadribu haal innaas lau anthan nadribu haal innaas asha'an allahi an ma yushrikun asha'an allahi an ma yushrikun huwa allahu al khali qul bari'u al musawir lahu al asma'u al husna lahu al asma'u al husna yusab'ih lahu ma fi'ssamawati wa al arb wa huwa al aziz al hakeem wa huwa al aziz al hakeem wa huwa al aziz al hakeem qul huwa allahu ahad allahu al samad lam yalid wa lam yulad wa lam yekullahu kufu an ahad Bismillahir rahmanir raheem Qul huwa allahu ahad allahu al samad lam yalid wa lam yulad wa lam yekullahu kufu an ahad Bismillahir rahmanir raheem Qul huwa allahu ahad allahu al samad Say, He is Allah, One, Allah is the Most Merciful. He was not born, nor was He born, nor was He a disbeliever, nor one. In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. Say, I seek refuge with the Lord of wealth, from the evil of what is created, and from the evil of what is lost, when and before. And from the evil of what is lost, when and after. And from the evil of what is lost, when and after. In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. Say, I seek refuge with the Lord of people, the King of people, the God of people, from the evil of what is created, Who is in the hearts of the people, From the jinn and the people. So, open it. In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds. The Gracious, the Merciful. Master of the Day of Judgment. Iyaka na'bud wa Iyaka na'sta'een Ihdina al-sirata al-mustaqeen Sirata al-ladeen an'amta alayhim Ghayri al-maghdubi alayhim wa al-dha'een Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem Alif laam meem Zalik al-kitab al-arayb fi Huda al-muttaqeen Al-ladeen yu'minoon bil-wayb Wa yuqeemoon as-salat Wa min ma razaqna hum yunfikoon Wa al-ladeen yu'minoon bima Unzila ilayka wa ma Unzila min qablik Wa bil-ahirat hum yuqinoon Ulayka ala hudam mir rabbihim Wa ulayka humul muflihoon Allah, la ilaha illa Hu al-hayyul qayyum La ta'akhuduhu sinatun wa la nawm Lahu ma fi'ssamawat wa ma fi'l-arb Ma azal lathiyashfa undahu illa bi-idnih Ya'lamu ma bayna aidihim wa ma khalfahum Wa la yuhitoon bi-she'in min ilmihi Illa bima shaa Wa si'aqur si'uhu al-samawat wa al-arb Wa la yawduhu hivwuhuma Wa hu wa al-Ali wal-Azim Lillahi ma fi'ssamawat wa ma fi'l-arb Wa in tubedu ma fi'anfusikum Aw tukhfuhu yuhasibkum bi-hillah Fa yawfiru limayyashaa Wa yu'adzibu mayyashaa Wa Allahu ala kulli shay'in qadir Aamana al-Rasul bima unzile inayhi Mir Rabbihi wal-Mu'minun Kullu an'amana bil-Lahi Wa Malaikatihi wa Kutbihi wa Rusulih La nufarriq bayna ahadin mir Rusulih Wa qalu sami'ana wa ata'ana Ofraanaka Rabbana wa inayka al-Masir La yukallifu Allahu nafs'an illa was'aha Laha ma kasabat wa alaiha maktasabat Rabbana la tu'a khidna Inna si'na aw aqta'na Rabbana wa la tahmil alayna Isra'an kama hamaltahu Alaladin min qabalina La tu'a hamilna ma la taqta lana bih Wa aafu anna wa ufirlana Wa rahamna anta maulana Fansurna alal qawmin kafirin Wa aafu anna ya kareem wa sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Al-Fatiha JazakAllah Khair. Thank you all for your practical spiritual insights. So now if you want to refresh in your wudu, we'll give you about 10-15 minutes inshallah, and then we'll meet you in the prayer hall. If you've never experienced Salat at-Tazbeh, it's one of our Sunnahs and you're in for a treat because it's something that you're able to do for the first time inshallah if you haven't. So we're going to explain how to do it inshallah in the prayer hall, so there's a here we'll lead for us, but we'll give you about 10-15 minutes inshallah, and then we'll meet you in the prayer hall. JazakAllah Khair. And if you want to put your chairs against the wall, that would be helpful.