 بحمد لله نحمده ونستعين به ونستغفره ونتوبه إليه وأشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وأشهد أن محمدا عبده ورسوله أرسله بالهدى ودين الحق ليظهره على الدين كله ولو كره المشركون عباد الله أوسيكم وإياية بتقوى الله واذكروا نعمة الله عليكم إذ كنتم أعداءا فألّ فبين قلوبكم فأصبحتم بنعمته إخوانا وكنتم على شفى حفرة من النار فأنقدكم منها الحمد لله على نعمة الإسلام الحمد لله على نعمة الإيمان الحمد لله على نعمة الإحسان الحمد لله على نعمة حبيبنا وسيدنا محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم خاتم الأنبياء والمرسلين الحمد لله على نعمة القرآن الحمد لله على نعمه كلها ظاهرها وباطنها الحمد لله على شهر رمضان الحمد لله على نعمة الصيام الحمد لله على نعمة القيام الحمد لله على نعمة الدعاء في شهر رمضان أما بعد بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم أريد أن أعود إلى جزء السادس سق the sixth section of the Qur'an to take one of the most possible significant aspect of our human life and human condition and to spend a few minutes on it to reflect upon it and this is the story of the two sons of Adam الله سبحانه وتعالى says إذقر أدم بالحق with the truth or veracity إذ قد دماء إذ قرباء قربانن that they have offered an offering to Allah and that this is what the test and the tribulation إذ قرباء قربانن فتقبل من أحدهما that Allah accepted from one of them ولم يتقبل من الأخر and it was not accepted from the other this is the story that really established our condition in this world in anamaasari but we often think of anamaasari as two opposing poles good and evil but in here الله سبحانه وتعالى says that both have made an offering to Allah both were acting righteously offering an offering to Allah الله سبحانه وتعالى as disposition of all affairs accepted from one but did not accept from the other now the scholar said that حابيل وقابيل which are the two sons of Adam حابيل was a a shepherd that had stock life stock and in his offering he offered the best of what he had and some commentaries said that he had a sheep that was born for him that he was so enamored that he took care of it fed it and so on and then when Allah سبحانه وتعالى asked for the offering he gave the best of what he had حابيل on the other hand is a farmer and in his cultivation the commentaries said that he offered from the worst of what he had so he looked at what cultivation he had what type of fruits he had and he offered the worst so Allah accepted حابيل's offering and not قابيل but the response of حابيل says لأقتلنك that verily I will kill you right so this is again too acting righteously right in terms of offering now the fact that the quality is different is one issue but in here out of jealousy out of jealousy and looking at what the other has versus what he has with Allah he still has his relationship with Allah سبحانه وتعالى so how we view jealousy how we look at what others have right and begin to have a fit of anger loss of what should be our reflection constant gratitude of what we have so it is often that we extend our sight at what Allah's blessings to the others is and not actually look at what exact blessing that we ourselves have even if you don't actually the commentaries said that the best blessings to have is health the best blessings to have is health wealth money is actually seen the lowest rank in but people actually but the opposite they think of paper or these days cryptocurrency right for those who were enamored with it they put that above health but when their health is impacted they will spend everything that they have right just in the hope of another day that Allah سبحانه وتعالى would give them so in here this aspect of looking at the other and what they have and then begin to have this self acting right in a fit of rage to try to take to punish to transgress on those whom we think that Allah has bestowed favor upon them and nobody knows what favors people have and what this favors people have you might think at somebody that has wealth as being having in doubt with the risk from Allah and because we are calculating something different but you don't know their tribulations that wealth might be their tribulation and your lack of wealth might be actually your best reward because Allah knows best for what is for us to us that which corresponds to our best interest and sometimes how to recognize what Allah is giving you versus that which Allah has given you as a tribulation because knows that you yourself is acting upon you that the prophet يوسف عليه السلام قال ان النفسة that your own self is commanding to evil so you have to always account is this from my own self or is it from Allah سبحانه وتعالى so in here that that it was accepted from one of them and not from the other and he says I will kill you and just think about from this story every human being that kills another human being every human being that kills another human being one of the children of Adam is getting the punishment or getting one of the sins because whoever establish a sunnah they get the reward if it's good and they get a portion of it that is evil or transgression so any murder that have taken from the time of حبيل and قابل tell today that sunnah that was started sunnah does not mean only the prophets you know there is a sunnah as a regular term versus the sunnah as it relates to the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم so you always have to be careful that you don't actually start a pattern yourself that others will emulate because if they emulate you you have set up a sunnah for people to follow that you get either the reward or the punishment so make sure you always establish things that people will emulate that are positive and today people are emulating all kinds of social media where people literally are just going crazy by causing other people to die as a result of emulation from social media again for those who follow the impact of tiktok right it generates and actually causes people literally mental health issues as well as people replicate what they're seeing in some of these videos and I'm not a critical of people using social media but just to understand that you if you put something positive you get a reward you get something negative or you amplify something negative you actually are partly responsible so we always close the doors of pretext we try to prevent this from continuing now the next verse لأن بسطة إليه يدك لتقتلني ما أنا بباصطة يدي إليك لأقتلك that if you extended your hand toward me to kill me I will not extend my hand toward you to kill you now from this we could actually reflect that within our Islamic tradition there is such a thing as called nonviolent engagement this is the verse we still are commanded to defend ourselves but our foundational tradition is the one that Allah accepted from the children of Bani Adam alright the one that Allah praises it says لأن بسطة إليه يدك لتقتلني if you extended your hand toward me to kill me I will not extend my hand to kill you meaning I will be a non violently standing there letting you take the sin of actually transgressing upon me the narrator says that the child who was stronger was Habib so even though that he was physically stronger he did not resist or allowed himself to respond to his brother by this transgression so again how we understand the human condition and how we ended up right now or again among Muslims more Muslims are dived from each other rather than from outside and I'm critical also from outside rather than also from the inside so again this verse is very very important he says رب العالمين so he says I have fear of Allah أو I'm fighting أو in opting not to actually transgress and respond to me in the same way that you are responding so we do have a non-violent tradition in Islam and also we reflect upon the Prophet Sah Beautiful the first 13 years of Mecca was a non-violent resistance our tradition calls upon us to be able to respond, to resist أن نتفضل في مصرورة ولكن فكرة نحن نموز من ندينة ونفكر في نفسنا من ذلك عمل نحن نفهم بأن إذا كانت هناك فتاة من ندينة ونطفل ونحن لن ندينة حجمية فأنا سوف نقوم بشكل جيد لقيمة الحضور بالمساعدة أن تساعد لا أغلقConvertence by which you actually go by it because the next verse is or the next two verses that Allah says who ever saves a human life is as if he saved all humanity and whoever takes one life is as if he took all the lives of humanity لأن جميع of us are made from the same DNA. And we're all connected. Every other human being is your brother and sister in the human family. We're all the children of Adam and Eve. And if you look at the world in this, then that changes your relationship to the world. So this story is really very foundational for us to understand. And the fact that he transgressed and killed his brother, he said, Allah says that he became from Al-Khassireen, the last ones. The ones that completely have laws. They lost their status with Allah SWT, but laws because they take the sin of everybody that transgress thereafter. So what I want to reflect for us is the following in relations to this story. One is to understand that we have been inflicted by a calamity, which is the calamity of inner fighting and inner conflict among the human beings, but also among societies. At the core of it is jealousy. At the core of it is jealousy. Jealousy of what others have or what you have not gotten because you think that you deserve to get that which you think you deserve. Allah SWT determines these affairs. So jealousy. And jealousy has consequences. Again, we see in here jealousy in righteous deeds. Jealousy in righteous deeds. So to understand that jealousy has complete negative outcome, don't look at what people have. Be in a state of gratitude for what Allah has apportioned for you. What God kept away from you is for your own best good and best interest. And usually when you have jealousy and look at what are people, you begin to scheme. Yourself is a scheming self. Yourself is a scheming self. Now again understand that we always think of Shaytan. Shaytan is only on the bench. He's not a main player. In Islam he's not a main player. He only can tell you was-wasa. Was-wasa is to insinuate. Meaning you just say well it would be good to go and hit this person because they might have a good car and you take it. That's was-wasa. Yourself is there. Yourself is there. That's why out of Allah is Shaytan. Shaytan is out. He's just running like 100 meters away from you. He has no authority. It's yourself that you have to worry about. And the Hawa. Your Caprice. Those are the things that are your real test. Right? And again we have a whole thing where the nefs is habitual. Just go back and time and time again. So again jealousy makes people. Right? Their own-their own brother. Some turn on their own family. Some turn on their own sister. Their own mother. Their own wife. Their own cousin and so on. Out of pure jealousy. It should be me. I should have this. I should have gotten it. No you shouldn't. It shouldn't be you. All what you say. الحمد لله رب العالمين. Praise be to Allah. Lord of the worlds. What he gave you is what you need. And what you consume is that which Allah سبحانه وتعالى accorded you as your risk. Alright? So jealousy. Jealousy produces anger. Because again you begin to boil. Right? You begin to boil. And this boiling end up in rage. And the thing about anger is you no longer see actually anything of rationality. You lose your human condition or human status of being irrational creation. Again in definition in what a human being is. الإنسان is حيوان نو ناطق. The human being is a speaking or rational animal. So in anger you actually begin to be losing your rational faculty and you lose the sense of what makes you human. So you need to be again to control your, not to control to try to remove your jealousy no matter what it is. To actually control your anger. Many of the companions used to come to the Prophet ﷺ as and give me advice. لا تغضب. Don't get angry. لا تغضب. Don't get angry. And again we could translate it as well I have my right as a person to, no you don't have a right as a person other than what Allah سبحانه وتعالى what you write. There's people just like if you cross their shadow they get angry. Why? Because my shadow is a reflection of who I am and therefore if you cross my shadow that's it. Right? It's the fight is on. Bigger piece of chicken is the fight is on. Right? We make all these out of all these construction that has no basis whatsoever and Allah سبحانه وتعالى is giving us. Now we're talking about leadership that's a whole different level. Leaders think that they need to be served. Right? Like what you call public servant is understood that the public should serve them. In our tradition امير القومي خاديمهم that if you want to lead you have to serve people. Serving people is خاديم is the one that actually render exact service. The last to eat. The first to come to Ashley prepare for the food or attending to people. Right? These days when you have public servant it's like you have to have an entourage and nobody can touch your shadow let alone actually sees you or touch you. That's not the خدمة in our Islamic tradition nor it is the امار in our Islamic tradition. Right? So again we need to reflect upon these verses to understand that Allah سبحانه وتعالى has given us profound lessons even though it is a lesson in here that reads to this constant سنة of people killing one another and continue to have the transgression but it's telling us to actually watch out for jealousy. Watch out for anger but lastly is to make sure if you want to give to give of the best of what you have. Why? Because the receiving is Allah even though it's a human or another is the agent or the bridge for it. When you think about when you're giving a poor right? You are not giving the poor the poor is only the agent of Allah سبحانه وتعالى Right? That's why even in our tradition the zakat the rich person puts their wealth in their hand like this and the poor comes and take it because the poor is the hand of Allah. So you want to give Allah the best of what you have and thank him the fact that he actually made someone else right? The agent for you to actually get closer to Allah. Allah is making it possible for you because again Allah he has complete dispossession of the affairs of this world. So he made the فقراء المساكين his door to you to actually get closer to him which is again has a sense of cleansing and cleaning some of your wealth. So we actually show gratitude to the poor and the مساكين rather than what you call thinking that flinging on them some quarter or some dollar thinking that we're actually making serve it. They're actually serving you without you actually realizing it. So it gets a sense of a different attitude, different perspective different notion in our relationship to other people and humanity in general. الحمد لله نحمده أستعينه به ونستغفره ونتوبه لي وأشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وأشهد أن محمدا عبده ورسوله أرسله بالهدى ودين الحق ليظهراه على الدين كله ولو كريه المشركون. So my advice to you to myself and to you in this Ramadan is to reflect upon the verses from the Quran and some of the narrations that we get and to really draw some of the lessons that are given to us because we're visiting the Quran in this Ramadan but in visiting there is deep, deep lessons for us to really take on. Part of Ramadan is to take away your habitual self, your habits of inconsideration, your lazy reflection and walking in the world and to embellish yourself with the good habits. So removing these bad habits is part of it and reflection of the Quran is one of the best way for us to accomplish this.