 The Abdullahi Minash-Shaytani-Rajim. We have many of our friends and family who are unwell and many around the world who are in trials and tribulations. We are informed particularly about one elderly lady and two young children from our community that are very unwell. Please raise your hands. Let's join each other in da'a. Ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for a shafa'a. Bismillahir rahmanir raheem. In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of all the worlds. All praise is due to Allah, who guided us to this and we were not guided if Allah did not guide us. And peace be upon the most honorable prophets and messengers. All praise is due to Allah, who guided us to this and we were not guided if Allah did not guide us. All praise is due to Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. Master of our age, Imam Zamanah, my respected teachers, elders, brothers and sisters. Peace be upon you all. Tonight, insha'Allah, is the penultimate night of our discussions on the commentary of da'a iftitah, coming to us from the master of our age, the Lord of our time, the awaited saviour of humanity, Imam al-Mahdi, Ajra Allahu ta'ala, Falaajal Sharif. In the previous two nights, we have sought to mold our minds towards that which is a befitting visualisation for the coming of the awaited saviour of humanity. We have stated that the da'a being split into two. The previous section was the one that bridged the gap between the praise of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and the praise towards the Divine leaders. And we stated that when it comes to the issue of the Imam, when the Imam speaks in this da'a, he speaks on universal terms. He says that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the one who destroys the kings. He is the one who responds to the callers who seek the aid. And therefore, there is not a limitation here. This is not based upon someone being a follower of the commander of the faithful or even a follower of his. If you are an enemy of justice, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wills to destroy you. And if you are a seeker of justice, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala seeks to raise you. Hence, when it comes to this universal concept, our Imam is universal. And we stated that the befitting mindset that we need is the one that understands that this Imam is for all of mankind. And as such, not only is for all of mankind, therefore we should also understand our role as being Muslims for all of mankind as well. As such, when we realize that the world is waiting, whether passively or actively for this awaited Saviour, the quickest point for us to start from today to receiving the coming of our awaited Saviour is by exporting the concept of Mahdi-ism. We should want the world to want what we want. We should want the world to ask for this coming of this awaited Saviour, and hence we are obliged to export the concept of Mahdi-ism, be it in our places of work, be it in our places of university, or be it amongst our general friend circle. Having understood this, we built upon this, and we talked about how the world is actually in motion towards the Imam's coming. We highlighted that there are movements that may not directly be associated towards the Imam of our time. They have no consciousness that their efforts are towards the coming of the Mahdi. However, their actions are paving the way for the awaited Saviour. For example, the Occupy Wall Street, or indeed all the Occupy movements. These are pure movements seeking to bring about economic justice. They are trying to break the back of economic injustice. They are representing the same ideals, the same morality, the same end goals that our Mahdi is also trying to emulate. Hence we see this is a Mahdi movement in its purest form. When we talk about the stop of the war coalition, they may be atheists, they may be Hindu, but they are acting on behalf of the Mahdi message. Hence we need to understand their role, and they need to understand ours. And as we stated that when it comes to the Holy Prophet of Islam, the success that was brought at his time was that his mindset was up here. He had the loftiest goals for mankind. He was inclusive, whatever color, whatever race, whatever denomination you came from, you can be part and parcel of God's pure system. My mindset is up here. At the beginning of his journey, the mindset of those whom he was preaching to was down here. By the end of it, their minds were raised, whereby they met each other. They were able to unite in the goals that they had. Hence Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed such a magnificent verse. That you, having been the worst of humankind, have now reached the pinnacle of groups within mankind. The same way the Mahdi's mind is up here, at present our mind is down here. For us to herald his beautiful coming, we need to come and raise our mindsets alongside his. We should be thinking, acting, strategizing, aiming to be in accordance with how the mindset of our Mahdi is. We need to continue building on this. And we stated yesterday that we can see that the world is going through these changes. And here we pick up where we left off and we now delve into the discussion of our own individual responsibilities towards Imam and practice preparation towards his coming. And we want to take this from another philosophical and very spiritual angle. And hence inshallah we will take this primarily from the Holy Quran and we'll understand our role towards building that mindset and unification with our own Imams. The world as we see today is going through one of the most intriguing periods of growth. We stated on a previous night that this world, this universe, existence as existence is, is unidirectional. It is growing in one direction. And actually if we see the events of the world that have taken place, especially over these last three or four years, we can also see that the world is beginning to take shape just as we might want it to take shape. Indeed there are increased trials and tribulations. Indeed there are increased problems. There is increased war. Indeed there is increased economic sanctions. However, at the flipside in the balance of this system, we also find the world is going through a huge step of growth. One that we should be honored to be participating in. What we mean by this is, as much as difficulty there is, the balance is that the world is going through the positive stages of growth. We are living through this period. We can close our eyes to it or we can state that this period is a wonderful strategic period for our Imam. And we want to participate in that. We don't want to be passive and alien towards this growth. We see this as a unique period within the history of humanity. Think about it this way. Look at what's happening in terms of the world economics. Look at Spain. Look at Portugal. Look, for example, to Greece. And we see that the world is in a certain turmoil that we have not seen economically for a number of decades. You look at it from the concept of the geopolitical movement. We see what has happened recently in Tunisia. We see what has happened in, for example, Libya. We see what has happened in Egypt. Go to the Middle East. And again, we see the rest of the world taking shape. How much have millions of people in Yemen struggled and strived for political justice? Maybe one, if you take a step back, will say that Egypt and Yemen and Bahrain in terms of the percentages and the numbers are the single biggest movements that have taken place in the Middle East. Yet how much have you heard of Yemen in the mainstream news? How much have you heard of Bahrain in the mainstream news? There are certain forces hoping to keep this silent. Look what's happening elsewhere in the world. We see that there are movements taking place in front of our very eyes. The world is taking shape in front of us. We should be honoured that we are living during this period so we may participate, partake in whichever way we can in our own limited capacity. Be it through blogs, be it through emails, be it through Facebook, be it through Twitter, be it through YouTube, be it through email. We are part and parcel of this movement that is taking place. We should be honoured to be living in this time. Hence, when it comes to understanding our Imam and understanding what he wants, we can look at this from those number of different aspects. These last few nights we have looked at it from the global concept. We have looked at it from the concept of our general thought process as a Shi'a body. But then we become more granular. We become about ourselves as individuals and we begin to introspect and we begin to look at how I as an individual can facilitate the coming of the Imam. How I can participate in that grand event that is the culmination of human existence. Think about it this way. The Imams, the Angels made that complaint or that debate with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. What? Will you send forth a caliph to the earth whilst we sing your praises? This caliph is the one who was called bloodshed and mischief on earth. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says I know about these people what you know not. There are people who will cause bloodshed and mischief but there will also be a group of people that will participate in the coming of the culmination of humanity's existence. We can be those people collectively and tonight insha'Allah we want to speak about that format individually. The verse we want to start with comes to us from Surat al-Jum'ah. Now we are going to be very verse heavy tonight. What I mean by that is we will look at several verses one after another and insha'Allah from the Arabic and from the conceptual position we will look at these verses in a lot of depth. So insha'Allah we will follow these verses one by one and understand how Quran Majid specifies how you and I as individuals can act towards the coming of the awaited saviour. Surat al-Jum'ah we looked at these last couple of nights. We can always forget of earth right? Let's hope it doesn't happen throughout the rest of the night. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says He is the one who raises from amongst themselves this messenger. He has a job description to do four things. Teach them the signs, purify them, teach them the book and to teach them the wisdom. These are the four job descriptions of our Holy Prophet of Islam. His inheritor is mentioned in the subsequent verse. What is the next verse in Surat al-Jum'ah? Look at the sequence of what is being told to us. First one, Allah is the one who raises the prophet. Job description. Going to do four things for humanity. Second verse is where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says from the latter generations will come a man who is going to do the same. The subsequent verse is That man, that individual that is going to come at the end of time, the one who is going to perform these four duties at the end of time in the end of time. That is the great grace of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Go towards the end of the chapter now. Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim. O you who believe, when the call for Friday prayer is raised, rush hasten towards the prayer. It is better for you if only you knew. The subsequent verse. And when the Friday prayer has concluded, disperse in the land and seek the great grace of Allah. Have you seen the flow? Second verse. He is the one who is going to raise from amongst themselves. The latter generations will come. That is the grace of Allah. The grace of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. When your Friday prayer finishes, when your Friday prayer finishes, rush hasten towards the prayer. And when your Friday prayer concludes, disperse in the land, seeking that father of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Subhanallah. At one level, at a very superficial, basic level, we think that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is saying, when Friday prayer has finished, go and seek the father. Go if you want to risk. Go and seek risk. If you want to do negotiations, go and do negotiations. If you want to go to the market, go to the market. It is no problem. He is saying this at a very simple, fundamental level. However, Friday is the day when I am expecting the awaited saviour. When Salat al-Jum'a commences, I am expecting to hear a call. Al-Mahdi is here. When Salat al-Jum'a finishes, and I have not seen the coming of the Mahdi, there are people who will sit waiting for him, weeping because they have to wait another week for him. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, when Friday prayer is finished, if Salat al-Jum'a is finished, go and seek the father. When Friday prayer is finished, go into the land but seek the father of Allah. Don't just sit there waiting saying he is not coming. Don't just sit there forgetting that Friday was the day for him. Continue to remember al-Mahdi. The moment Jum'a has finished, seek the grace of Allah. We seek Imam al-Mahdi until the next Friday. Can you see how that works? That is the grace of Allah. He is the great grace of Allah. Seek the great grace of Allah. Here is a very simple explanation as to how we can begin our understanding of our individual responsibilities. Here I want to focus on one word in particular for the majority of tonight's discussion. And that is the word wabtahu. Or the root word in Arabic is ibtira. Here we said wabtahu min fadlillah. Seek earnestly from the father of Allah, from the grace of Allah, meaning 12th Imam in this interpretation. Fadlillah is the 12th Imam. Seek from the 12th. How do we do this? How do we understand this seeking? What is seeking ibtira? How important is ibtira according to the Shi'a school of thought? And what is the outcome of ibtira in accordance to the Shi'a school of thought? Ibtira or wabtahu here in this verb is to earnestly seek. Earnestly seek. How do we translate earnestly? It means to really strive for something. It means to ask from here, not just from here. It means to generate from within this passion, manifestation that when you are asking and you are seeking, you are desperately needing. That is earnestly asking for something. You know when we drive back and forth from the masjid and there are people who are unwell, there are people who are on crutches, they don't have limbs and they ask. Do they ask in a blasé manner? No, if they asked in a blasé manner, they wouldn't get. You wouldn't have an emotional feeling towards them. You wouldn't feel sorry for them. You wouldn't feel like aiding them. It's because they are earnestly asking from you. They will wave you down. They may knock on the window. They may try to grab your attention. They are earnestly asking from the person. That is what it means to earnestly seek. Wabtarrou min fadlillah earnestly seek from the awaited saviour from the moment Friday Jum'ah is finished until the next Friday begins. Earnestly ask from him. There are many verses in the Quran that use this word Wabtarrou or the root word ibtira. We want to mention one or two and understand practically as an individual how I can traverse the path of knocking at the door of the awaited saviour, building my relationship with him on an individual level. There's a verse of Quran that says in chapter number five verse number 25 Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem Ya ayyuhal ladheena aamanu tukallaa Wabtarrou ilayhi al-wasila wa jahidu fi sabeelihi la'allakum tuflihoon All you who believe have taqwa have God consciousness. Seek earnestly a means of wasila strive hard in that way until you achieve success. Now here our context is ghayba. Our context is the individual responsibility towards bringing the awaited saviour. Let us repeat this verse. Oh you who believe Ya ayyuhal ladheena aamanu tukallaa Wabtarrou ilayhi al-wasila strive hard. Seek earnestly a wasila a means of nearness to what Allah wa jahidu fi sabeelihi la'allakum tuflihoon strive hard until you achieve your success. Now what is the greatest success in context of what we're talking about? The return of Al Mahdi. The return of this human grand saviour. Oh you who believe have God consciousness. Seek earnestly from the awaited saviour until you reach, until you see his return, until you see his coming. The word ibtira means striving, seeking earnestly a wasila from him. The problem is when we think wasila we think of it in two ways, often. Or the majority of us think of wasila in two ways. The first one is we think of it very lightly. For example on a Tuesday night we will come and we recite the A'a Tawassul Inna tawajahna wastashfa'na wa tawassalnaabika ila Allah wa qaddamna baynaka ya we are asking. But here we have to really understand what we are asking for and whom we are asking from. Wasila is a huge spiritual context in our understanding to genuinely earnestly knock at the door of an imam who is the representative of Allah SWT who has been given the keys of this universe and been told, govern on my behalf. This is whom we are asking from. This is whom we are seeking on behalf of. This is whom we are asking as a means of nearness towards Allah SWT. And the second thing is sometimes we only use wasila as a means to debate with our Sunni brothers and sisters. We say in our religion that we must perform wasila. We can ask for shifa'a through a secondary agency. Instead of looking at it in these ways only we need to expand our thought process as to how we can have this conversation. How we can have this intimate relationship with the awaited saver of our time. That's hadith. One day someone was sitting in the class of Allama Tabata Bay. And Allama is one of those grand spiritual masters. They asked him a question. Sayyidina, did Ahlul Bayt's peace be upon them ever play? You know like us as kids we play. We play FIFA, or at least I try and play FIFA whenever I can. We as kids we play our games, we play scrabble, we play these different games. Did Ahlul Bayt ever play as kids? Asking Allama Tabata Bay in doubts. Did they ever play as kids? Imam, sorry, Allama Tabata Bay responded and said yes, Imam did play as kids. There's many hadith to talk about this. Sayyidina tell us about the examples of Imam playing when they were children. For example one comes to us from our ninth Imam Imam Muhammad Jawad. Very famous example that we know of every time we speak about his willada or his shahada. As a young boy he is sitting on the road and the Caliph Al-Rashid is coming back from his hunting trip and he's coming in his whole caravan. He's got his ministers and his buddies and his army and people are coming back from him. And the Imam is sitting in the middle of the road playing with his companions according to the hadith. He's playing in the middle of the road. When the whole of the group see the Caliph and all of his entourage coming all the companions of the ninth Imam do what? They scurry away in fear of the Caliph. Imam sits in the middle of the road he doesn't move. A caravan can't run over a young child so they stop. Caliph is asking what's going on as a boy sitting in the middle of the road. He comes down and sees it's the ninth Imam who he knows. Muhammad Jawad why are you sitting in the middle of the road? All of your companions moved and ran. You are the only one sitting in the road. Why? All my companions ran out of fear of the Caliph. I, Muhammad Jawad, see no reason to fear the Caliph of my time. I don't need to run away. So now the first hadith from Al-Ama Tabata Bai. He gives us another hadith about the same Imam, Imam Jawad Al-Ama Tabata Bai says another incident reported in the books. One day Imam alaihi salatu was with one companion. He says that the Imam and this companion decided to play hide and seek. Hide and seek. You know like we as kids alaihi salatu I did it. You know you go and hide behind the tree or you go hide underneath the bed or in the cupboard and someone would have to go and find you, right? So the Imam is playing hide and seek with his companion. So here I want you to remember we're talking about Rehba. I want you to think about hide and seek in context of Rehba and bringing your Imam back. Al-Ama says 9th Imam companion go and play hide and seek. So who goes to hide? 9th Imam goes to hide. Companion is going to seek. So companion 1, 2, 3, 4, 99, 100 here I come ready or not. Now I can imagine in sports if you're playing at boarding house he would be the best footballer, right? Firstly you'd be pretty afraid to tackle him. You wouldn't want to tackle the Imam you'd feel pretty bad in trying to go in with a 50-50 challenge. But also if he has the ball or you have the ball and he comes to try and take it from you you would just give it to him. I don't want to just take it. So I can imagine the Imam being the best at hide and seek. Companion is looking everywhere. You know high and low. He's looking behind this tree and he's looking under the bed figuratively speaking. He's looking everywhere for the Imam. He's looking so long for the Imam he begins to think to himself that something's happened to the Imam. There are many enemies. Caliph wants him dead enemies want him dead. Maybe something's happened to him. Maybe my Imam has been assassinated. Maybe he's been kidnapped captured killed. Out of fear of this thought the companion begins to cry. I can't find my Imam. Where is my Imam? I cannot see him. He begins to weep and cry for the Imam. After having really cried his heart out for the Imam and within himself he says to him oh my Imam where are you? I have looked everywhere for you. I cannot see you. I cannot find you. The companion says I heard a voice from within my heart. Oh my dear companion do not fear. Wherever you may go and wherever you may be I wanted to teach you the lesson that I your Imam I'm always within your heart. No matter where you go however far away I am from your eyes I your Imam I'm always in your heart. You see firstly when the Imams played games they were teaching us a lesson behind it. It wasn't a random game. The Imam was showing us. But in context of Ghaybah Imam is always there. He is never not present. He is never not aware of us. As Imam Sadiq A.S. says nothing happens except that we are aware of what happens to our Shia. We are constantly aware. We receive your book of deeds. We weep when you have performed bad and we are joyous when you have performed good. The Imam is present in here. Hence when we say Wabtaghu min fadlillah Seek earnestly from the great grace of Allah. Or in this verse from Surat al-Ma'idah verse number 25 Allah S.A.W says Ya ayyu an-lathina amanatuk Allah Wabtaghu aleyhi al-wasila wa jahiru fi sabeelihi la'allakum tuflihoun Steak hard this wasila until you reach your success. We are talking about asking from our Imam knocking at his door constantly speaking to him, asking from him and communicating with him as best we can. This is the personal relationship that we must be building with our Imam that we can exemplify with our Imam. When we don't just take him as a means to asking for something else we take him as my Imam who is inside me present at all times. Allah S.A.W says in Quran I am closer to you than what? Your jugular vein. Imam is inside our heart spiritually, he is present at all times. Hence when I seek and I ask it is not just asking for my Imam I need more barakah, I need more risk I need more it is seeking a genuine relationship with the Imam as if he was sitting on the floor next to you. That is the relationship we should be seeking on an individual level. This word ibtigha is mentioned many times within Quran but there is one other verse I want to present to you. We have discussed this verse from a different angle in the tafsir sessions in the afternoon. In the last verse of Surat Al-Fatih Allah S.A.W gives us a verse which is a description of the qualities of the mu'min. Allah s.w.t Muhammad al-Rasool Allah wa al-lathina ma'ahu as-shaddahu al- kufa ruhama baynahum tiraahum ruk'an sujjadan yabtaghuna fadlam min Allah Now here again the statement ibtigha is used seeking earnestly asking hard often consistently, passionately ibtigha wabtahu ilayhi al-wasila This verse says the qualities of the mu'minah Muhammad al-Rasool Allah wa al-lathina ma'ahu as-shaddahu al-kufa that they are strong against the enemies ruhama baynahum that they are merciful amongst themselves tiraahum ruk'an sujjadan that you constantly see them in a state of ruk'an such that yabtaghuna fadlam min Allah that they are constantly and earnestly seeking the fadl of Allah Subhan Allah A quality of the mu'min is that he is seeking the fadl of Allah in surat al-jum'a we said the 12th imam is the fadl of Allah at the end of surat al-jum'a fa idha qudiyat-i s-salatu fanta shiluf al-artha when Friday prayer finishes you are asked to earnestly seek the 12th imam Allah says that those who are believers they should be seeking the 12th imam in this verse a quality of the believer is that he constantly seeks from the 12th imam Subhan Allah look at how this verse is coming to light imagine how if we had seen this verse in this light from before how often we would be in communication with our imam a quality of the believer the quality of the mu'min is that he is constantly seeking the fadl the 12th imam how do we understand this practically how do we understand this that we can assume into our daily lives there is a story that is given to us by Ayatollah Hadi Milani may Allah bless his soul Ayatollah Hadi Milani lived at the time of the Iranian revolution he was a very senior scholar a grand mujtahid and this story was told to me by Ayatollah Sayyid Fadl Milani in London one day as the revolution was taking place Sayyid Milani recognized that now that we have established Islam now that we have brought this revolution this spiritual intellectual revolution to Iran we need to build on it he observed that there was a particular problem what was the problem he said within the major cities within the large towns there were many alama but within the villages there weren't many alama meaning that within for example Tahran, within Isfahan and so on and so forth wherever you went, whichever masjid you went to there was always an alam someone who could spiritually guide someone who could intellectually guide the community however in the villages they didn't have someone present so Sayyid Milani decided to go on a recruitment drive he decided to bring in students into Hausa but this batch of students were to be trained specifically that when they complete their graduation they would be dispersed back into the villages so after he trains them however many years it comes to the day of graduation ceremony he sits all his students in front of him and he says I give you two pieces of advice if you don't follow either of them you must come back to me for further training look at the strength of this statement I am your teacher if you can't follow these two come back to me for further training the first one is this I have taught you the fiqh of the other scholars as well as my fiqh I have not given this recruitment drive this cause of sending out Ulamar to the villages for the sake of my name to be known I don't want you to teach my fiqh when you become an alim I want you to teach the fiqh of someone else Subhanallah purity of the heart I'm not doing this for my name to be raised I'm doing this Lillahi Azza wa Jal first advice second advice and please brothers and sisters take note of this advice especially in regards to our imam he sits in front of his students if you can't perform this advice return back to me for further training I advise you that every night before you sleep open your mosalla sit on it and converse with the imam of your time tell him about your own spiritual problems ask him to improve them for you tell him about the problems within your community ask him to improve them for you tell him about the problems within the world as the governor of this world ask him to improve them perform this action every night and if you do it not return back to me for further training look at what's being said look at how this concept of ibtiqa wabtaghu ilayhi al-wasila he is not an imam that's on the 15th of Shaaban I write once a year too is that really how it's supposed to be he is not an imam that only on Friday I call out Al-Ajjal and I give a Ziyarat too he is an imam that is residing in my heart just like Muhammad Jawad was residing in the heart of his companion he is an imam that is ever present he is an imam that is being sought after every moment of time before you go to sleep speak to your imam converse with him tell him of those things that you have no control over he is the governor on behalf of Allah SWT who is in more control me the weak human being or you the one who is the prince of justice ibtiqa wabtaghu ilayhi al-wasila wa jahidu fi sabilihi la'allakum tuflihoon each of these verses are telling us about ibtiqa and each of these verses are telling us about fuddle it's a very simple combination ibtiqa to earnestly ask and fuddle to ask of a particular individual to be seeking from a particular individual this is where we want to become this is how we want to grow our mindset this is how we need to engage at all levels of spirituality with our imam he is not the imam behind the curtain that i cannot have a relationship with he is the imam behind the curtain with open arms here we need to conclude on one particular important notion and i cannot say this about this community but i present this statement as a general observation that i have seen and if you as the wonderful people of this community feel that this is a problem within our community here then let us use this last 10 minutes to discuss this issue let us teach our youth and children this one particular point sometimes we find around the world that on a Thursday night there is less attendance taking place within the mosque have you seen this i hope you don't see this here sometimes we see this in some communities on a Thursday night there is a lesser attendance now on a Friday it is the holy day of the muslim week and on the night preceding Thursday night it is the holiest night of the week there are certain traditions that talk about the value of a Thursday night as an example one hadith qudsi says that as the sun descends and it begins to enter into maghrib time angels call out oh people of this area that is experiencing the Thursday night is there anyone who can call towards Allah for an increase in resq that he may give is there anyone who is calling out for better health that he may give is there anyone who is calling out for more deeds that he may give the angels are calling out to us asking for our da'a the hadith that says that the sanctity of Thursday night is so much that one who performs a sin gets double punishment and the one who performs a good deed gets double the reward now remember on a previous night we talked about the depth of huna and thawab we said huna is not just punishment it is punishment from within it is the constricting of your own growth as a character as a human being thawab is the doubling of the growth it is that reward internally that spiritual development as a character that is blossoming within the self when this hadith is said look at what is being said on a Thursday night it is such a sanctified night that if you are capable of performing an evil on Thursday night it will be double the punishment of your character it will doubly punish the growth of your character but on a Thursday night if you are able to perform good deeds the a'a kumail zealat al-waritha recitation of the holy Qur'an salat al-layl it will blossom double on Thursday night as to what it will do in any single night this is what it means now sometimes on a Thursday night our friends, our family, our youth do not come to the mosque on a Thursday night we are seeing this trend and it needs to be addressed and let us talk about why Thursday night is so imperative why Thursday night around the world is such an important period there is a verse of Qur'an that I would like you to I humbly request that tonight you go home and read for yourselves it is a verse of prophecy you know for example verses of prophecy in the Qur'an that are yet to take place this is a verse of prophecy in regards to the 12th imam this verse is one of the most powerful verses in the holy Qur'an chapter number 10 verse number 24 Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says at the end of time this earth will become an earth that is garnished this earth will put on its golden rain-ment we will explain what this means at the end of time this earth will put on its golden rain-ment and people will think that they have power over this earth until our command comes by day or by night let us explain this verse it is a verse of prophecy end of time when the earth puts on its golden rain-ment what does this mean golden rain-ment it means that the earth becomes adorned the earth becomes beautiful have you all gone to Google and have you ever typed in picture of earth at night have you ever seen a country by night and you can see that it is all lit up with all the street lights with all the lights of the buildings all the lights of the homes you have seen this pictures by night that the whole earth is glistening in its own way when the earth puts on its golden rain-ment when the earth is lit up at the end of time sparkling and when man thinks that he has power over earth subhanallah now this can be interpreted good and evil aren't there men and women aren't there men and women today they think they have absolute authority aren't there men today they think that they govern the entire world that they can control every facet of this earth until when the earth puts on its golden rain-ment and when mankind thinks they have power over this earth that is when our command when our Amr comes to the earth when our 12th Imam comes to the earth by day or by night sorry by day or by night there was a Lebanese professor he's a person who causes a lot of mischief he's very anti-Quran and he always tries to pick holes not that there aren't any he tries to pick faults with the Quran when he read this verse he wrote a paper and he criticised he's a professor haddad he said these are his words not my words look at the God of Muhammad look at the God of Muhammad he can't even decide whether he's going to send the Amr by day or by night, he can't choose a scholar who is the best student of Allama Tabata Bay by the name of Ayatollah Sadiq-e-Tahrani Allah bless his soul he died last year in March Ayatollah Sadiq-e-Tahrani wrote a response and said professor haddad will be upon you you've completely missed the point of this particular statement at the end of time when man thinks he has charge over the earth and when Allah sends his command by day or by night it means that when the 12th Imam comes there will be certain parts of the earth in day and there will be certain parts of the earth in night Subhanallah now I want you to understand this verse for the time in which we're living him let me ask you a question please answer me when is the 12th Imam due to come? don't say tomorrow, when is he supposed to come? what day? Friday, Ahsan, what time Friday? Zahrein so let us just pick a time, let us just say Friday Jum'a Zahre which is Salatu Jum'a comes at 12 o'clock yes? so when the Imam comes according to this verse when the Imam comes the Amr comes by day or by night Imam Alai Salatu Salam comes Friday 12 o'clock PM what time will it be in Australia? how many hours forward is Australia? 8 hours, let's just pick 8 hours so what time will it be in Australia? 8 PM what time will it be in Vancouver? how many hours behind is Vancouver? 10 hours, let's just pick I don't know, I should have checked it beforehand so let's just say it's 12 hours behind as an example, yes? so if, if or it's 8 hours behind if, if the Imam of our time comes to Makkah 12 PM it will be 8 PM Sydney and it will be 3 AM Vancouver when my command comes it will be by day or by night now understand the value of Thursday night my young brothers and sisters unfortunately in the world that we live in the weekend does not start on Friday it starts Thursday night clubs are packed on a Thursday night casinos are packed on a Thursday night bars are packed on a Thursday night who is filling these places? Muslims are filling these places and don't for a second think that it's not the Shi'a as well it really is someone in this Jama'at told me a few days ago that there is an owner of a particular club and he was asking him about the club and he says you know I have a problem my business goes very well but when it comes to Shah Ramadhan my business goes down 60% because that's when the Muslims don't come to the clubs that's when the Muslims don't come to the casinos that's when the Muslims don't come to the pubs on a Thursday night the night is in preparation for the coming of the awaited saviour if you are in Vancouver it is going to be your lay little Juma'a because when it's lay little Juma'a for you and if you are in the Haram if you are in the mosque in the Masjid reciting the Akumail in Makkah the awaited saviour is coming if on that Thursday night you are in a club and he comes in Makkah on 12pm will you be with him or will you be against him? you will be against him you will be against him can you see can you see my young brothers and sisters this is Shah Ramadhan that has pledged to Allah SWT that we make a movement in our hearts in this time we are the Shi'a's of Ahl al-Bayt we should be the crowning glory of humankind we should be the ones that the universe look to in adoration for our actions we are the ones that we should be exporting Mahdiism we are the ones that the Mahdi should come and do our Ziyarat Mahdi should be coming to us on a daily day we have to prepare on a Thursday night tell your younger brothers and sisters tell your cousins tell your friends this is Thursday night you do not know that tomorrow won't be the day he is coming can you guarantee that he is not coming next Friday? this Thursday be prepared come to the mosque recite your Ziyarat in preparation for the next day when he is due to come this is what we can do as individuals my friends to prepare ourselves for the coming of the awaited saviour this is how we need to adorn ourselves strive hard in that means of wasila until you achieve and reach success please raise your hands let us join each other in Dar for the hastening of the reappearance of the awaited saviour we ask for Ya Allah allow us to be alongside him at all times in our life and in our death Ya Allah if we are to pass away from this world before his coming raises from our graves allow us to participate in his victory Ya Allah there are many people around the world who are going through such trials and tribulations there are people in Afghanistan people in Pakistan people in Iraq people in Yemen those in Bahrain those in Syria those in Saudi Arabia those in Palestine we are hearing of troubles in Ethiopia in Nigeria, in Somalia there are trials and tribulations in Mexico there are trials for the people in Myanmar Ya Allah grant them ease grant them safety, security, victory, education, medicine and all that they need in love of the awaited saviour allow us to understand this holy month better, allow us to fast as we have been ordained to fast Ya Allah, accept our hajats Ya Allah, there are many people who are unwell grant them shifa Ya Allah, forgive our sins the sins of our parents all those whom we love, all those who love us all of our marhumine, all of our alama all of our leaders we ask for Ya Allah, allow us the opportunity to perform the ziyarat of Ahl al-Bayt Salamu alaykum Rajas the opportunity to dine the love of Muhammad bin Ali Muhammad Wa salamu alaykum jami'an wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh May I ask you to recite one loud salawat in honor of the awaited saviour Imam al-Mahdi, ajal Allah wa ta'ala forijal sharif