 Praise be to Allah, who has brought the hearts together on this auspicious day of Eid, Eid al-Adha, a day of celebration, following the greatest and the most glorious day and most blessed day of the year, Yom Arafah. And so today is a celebration of that greatest day, it's a celebration of that divine favor. And so we slaughter and we feast overjoyed by Allah's gift of guidance. The day of Arafah, you know, in many ways, is an enactment of Yom Al-Qiyamah, of the day of judgment. Because on Yom Al-Qiyamah, just like the hajjaj on Yom Arafah, all of mankind will stand together on a flat plane, like the plane of Arafah. And on Yom Al-Qiyamah will be naked and bare without any clothing, much like the people on Hajj barely wear any clothing, the only wear the bare essentials of clothing. And we will be beseeching and begging our Lord for forgiveness. And so the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says, khairud du'a'i du'a'u yom Arafah. The best of du'az are the du'az that are asked on the day of Arafah. And the best here means that they're the most hopeful to be accepted by Allah. And we notice in this hadith that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam does not limit who's making the du'a' here. He doesn't say that the people of Hajj, their du'az are the most hopeful to be accepted. But he leaves a general. And so all of our du'az, insha'Allah, on that day of Arafah from yesterday are likely to be accepted, more likely than any of the du'az we make on any other day. And so this likely acceptance is what we celebrate on Eid. And we celebrate it with the intensity, which we would celebrate entering paradise. Because just as Eid follows Yom Arafah, paradise follows Yom Al-Qiyamah. For the believers will all enter Jannah, insha'Allah, either initially and immediately or eventually after some period. And it's in Jannah that we'll be granted our eternal felicity, our eternal sa'ada and happiness. This is a day of celebration. And the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was a person who used to celebrate a momentous occasion. She's a person of happiness. Kanadah Iman al-Bashir is one of the qualities of the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. He was always smiling. There's stories that are related in the shema'il of the companion Jadri ibn Abdullah said, he said that from the time I embraced Islam God's messenger, Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he would never prevent me from talking with him. He would never stop me from accessing him. And whenever he saw me, he would smile and laugh. And then there's another story narrated of a Bedouin companion named Zahir. And this Bedouin companion would bring the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam gifts from the desert. And so one day it's narrated that Zahir was selling his goods in the marketplace. And the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was behind him and he approached him from behind and hugged him really tightly and embraced him. And so the companion not knowing who was was a little bit frustrated and said, what are you doing? Let go of me. Until he realized that it was the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam behind him. And so the companion then leaned back and leaned into the blessed chest of our beloved Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And then the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam jokingly called out, who will purchase the slave of mine? Who will purchase the slave of mine? And one of the qualities of Zahir alayhi wa sallam was that he wasn't known to be very good looking. And so when the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam called out who will purchase the slave of mine, nobody responded. And so Zahir alayhi wa sallam said, O messenger of Allah, by God you'll find that I am valueless, meaning as a slave to sell. And the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam replied, no, in the sight of Allah you are priceless. This was the happiness of the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. This was the joyful nature, the uplifting nature of the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And so we too as believers, happiness is one of our characteristics, not just in the Akhirah, but also in this world, in this dunya as well. And that happiness isn't just something, it just isn't just a state that we have when things go our way, but it's also a happiness that we find in our very belief, in our acts of Ibadah, in our acts of devotion. Because as the scholars say, actions are the news bearers of your final state. Obedience, if you do acts of obedience and acts of worship, these are news bearers, they bear good news, glad tidings of jannah, of paradise. And sinfulness bears bad news of misery and being entered into the fire. So then there's a measuring stick now with which we can test ourselves. And that is, if I am as a believer seeking the happiness and the peace of belief, seeking the happiness with which the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam would uplift his companions, then how does it feel for me when I obey and worship Allah? Are those acts of obedience weighty and heavy? Are they difficult to do? Are they without any sweetness? Are they always burdensome? And then if we happen to fall into acts of wrongdoing, acts of sinfulness, are those easy in light? Are they satisfying? Do they feel good? Because if this is how you feel, then you should know that you've contracted an illness, that there are bacteria attacking your soul, making you sickly, like someone who has a cold, because someone has a cold, their taste buds are numb, so they can't taste a true taste of food. The scholars of Allah, the Fouqaha are in Ijmaa, they are in consensus, that Allah revealed his sharia for the interests of mankind, as for the benefits of mankind. And what this means is that the sharia reveals the true nature of morality, where reason falls short, where we can know some things by reason that are good and wrong, but the sharia completes and perfects this knowledge. And so what this means is that when Allah commands something, he's revealing the true nature of that act, that that act is good because of something that Allah has placed in it, and that it's in the best interest of mankind to act accordingly, and that that act is a sweet and wholesome fruit. And then when Allah prohibits something, he's revealing it to be the opposite, he's revealing it to be a poison, something that is against our very own interest, against our very own humanity. And so to taste fruit then, if we're tasting the fruits of obedience, but not finding it sweet, if we're drinking poison, but finding it satisfying, there's an undeniable sign of illness here, an undeniable sign of sickness here. And so the question then goes back to what we asked earlier, what then is the bacteria that's assaulting us? What's the virus that's attacking our spiritual taste buds so that we cannot distinguish good from evil? The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says, Inna Al-Abdah Ida Aqta Aqti'atan Nukitat Fi Qalbihi Nukta Tan Saudaa Fahidah Wa Nnaz'aa Wa Staghfar Wa Taab Suqila Qalbuh Wa In'aad Azidah Fi Ha Hatta Ta'alua Qalbah When a man commits a wrongdoing, a black spot appears on his heart, it's literally scratched onto his heart. If he ceases that act and he seeks forgiveness, then his heart is polished. But if he repeats the act that black spot grows until it takes over the heart. The black spot on the heart is representative of something and it's representative of your capacity to be influenced by an external bacteria, which is the shaitan in this case. Shaitan and his demonic forces and his demonic forces don't have to be from the spiritual realm. You have demons from the humankind. You have demons from jinn kind. You have demons in the virtual world on social media, et cetera, et cetera. These demonic forces poke and prod at these black spots and aggravate them and then our egos that take this aggravation and then indulge in what we've been poked and prodded to do. And specifically this poking and prodding gets worse in times of abadda when you're intending to do abadda, when you're intending to do dhikr because this is when shaitan puts in the most effort because he knows that you're entering an act of worship with Allah. So if he can stop you from that, if he can stop your heart from getting involved in that, then you will be under his influence. But if you can enter that act of worship with your heart, then you will be saved from his influence, saved from that bacteria. What was the promise that shaitan or the, or what did shaitan swear to Allah? He said, I will halt them on your straight path. So when you're on a straight path, that's when you have to watch out for shaitan. It's important in general to believe in these influences, even though in our modern secular world it seems oftentimes like the stuff of fairy tales. These are not fairy tales to be embarrassed of. These are not asatir al awalin. These are truths which if forgotten pose a terrible danger to your religion and therefore to your humanity as well. They say that the greatest trick of the devil is to convince you that he never existed in the first place. Why? Because then he can influence you. Then he can stick, as we'll get to, his long snout because the shaitan is described as al-khanas, the long snouted one. He can stick his long snout into you and cast suggestions and ideas. And you don't know where they came from. How many times have you thought of something horrible? You recognized immediately, oh, what a horrible thought, what a disgusting thought, what an evil thought. Where did this come from? And you get angry at yourself. And you wonder, what's wrong with me for having these thoughts? That wasn't you. That was never you in the first place. That was shaitan. But because you don't have it in the front of your mind that shaitan is a real force in the world, you didn't notice it. Those suggestions were thrown into your heart, cast into your heart by shaitan. And so, you have to recognize these thoughts. You have to be aware of your own thoughts and cast them out, just as the Hajjaj, the people in Hajj did when they threw stones at the Jamarat, throw stones at the shaitan when these thoughts come. They're not you. The greatest deception of shaitan then is to make you believe that he is you. To make you believe that you, your own sense of identity, what you believe is your own sense of identity is actually him in disguise. And unfortunately, in many of the mottos and the things that this culture lives by, that this culture breaks us with, you could say, are these types of deceptions. Things like find yourself. Things like follow your heart. Why? Because people who don't believe in shaitan, they are intrigued and deceived by the shaitan to believe that he is them. And so, they go out to find themselves, to follow their hearts. And they obey every whim and desire that shaitan has cast in their hearts because they can't differentiate him from their real selves. And you see them invent all kinds of new perversions and absurd claims about what's true and what's false, all because they can't, again, differentiate between the true light of the soul and the demonic darkness that shaitan is casting into them. They are shea'al-tina l-insul jinn, yuhi ba'uduhum ilaa ba'ud, zukhrufa l-kuri gurura. These are the demons of mankind and jinn kind who whisper to each other the gilded words out of deception. And so, this is something that we should seek refuge from every day, and most of us do in certain nas. We say, we seek protection from the evil of the whispers of Al-Khannas. What then is Al-Khannas? One of the meanings of Al-Khannas is the long-snouted devil. But another meaning, an older meaning in Arabic, is Al-Khannas is someone who's forced to retreat when Allah is mentioned, when Allah is remembered. He's forced to withdraw his snout. And so, what counteracts wassa wassa, and what counteracts its ability to impact you in the long-term is this dhikr, is this invocation and remembrance of Allah. And obviously that primarily would be reciting the Quran and the different du'a's that have been narrated. Practically, this poses an immediate question though, which is that if someone is afflicted by the poking and prodding of shaitan, urging him to indulge in his ego, then how is he ever going to find the strength to be left alone, to sit down for five minutes, 10 minutes, 30 minutes, and recite the Quran without being distracted, without being poked and prodded? We all recognize the experience of intending to spend more time presiding the Quran. But as soon as we sit down to do so, we suddenly remember some responsibility that we had forgotten or a notification pops up on our phone, and suddenly that period of time that we had dedicated for the Quran goes away and we wonder what happened to it. And so, the question then, or the answer to that then is if your individual resolve is turning out to falter, if your individual resolve to do the dhikr is not where it should be, is not effective. Then, if it can all be done as an individual, then it should be done as a group. Groups should gather to remember Allah. Groups should gather to recite the Quran because the light of faith that's present in each believer is multiplied many fold, is multiplied exponentially when they're all gathered, when we're all gathered like this here today. The prophet Salaam said, no people gather in one of the houses of Allah reciting Allah's book and studying it between them. Save that, peace descends upon them, mercy envelops them, angels surround them, and Allah mentions them with a company that's with him. These are the four miracles of the believers who come together, the believers who come together to recite Allah's word. And they are the descent of peace, the enveloping of mercy, being surrounded by angels and being mentioned by Allah. Angels, as we know, are beings of light, and so this is gonna bring us back full circle to what we initially started out with the black spot. Angels are beings of light, and it's of the nature of light that when light comes, the darkness vanishes. And so, Allah tells us to take advantage of the angels to call on the angels to ask them to aid us to seek their aid. Allah mentions in the Quran, He aided them, He assisted them with soldiers that they did not see. Who are these soldiers? These are the angels. And so, we say on this day of aid to seek the aid of your family, seek the aid of your friends here, these people who are in Mu'noa, these people, everyone here who is enlightened and has the light of faith in them. Those who you're sitting next to, you should have conviction that they have light in them, that they have the heart of a believer, and that when all these lights are brought together, that they intensify in brightness, and the darkness of the shayatin go away, they're cast away, and that the demons amongst men and jinn are driven out. And so, we can return to our true state, return to our original purified state of being a mu'min. And what's a mu'min? A mu'min is someone who is secure because iman, literally in Arabic, is that which gives you security. That is, security from the endless and meaningless play and folly of this world, security from the bread and circuses that's designed to distract us from the misery that comes with having no faith. But for the believer, their iman is what gives them security from this. It's what gives them the peace and the tranquility and the happiness of being a believer. One of the names of the prophets to Allah is ta'ha. So Allah says in the Quran, oh prophet, oh prophet, we did not reveal this Quran for you to be miserable. Allah says in his noble scripture, Allah says, Allah has preserved this Ummah of Muhammad in all its countries. Inna ka ala kulli shayna qadir wa bil ijjabati jadeer Wasala Allahumma, salatan kamila Wasalaamu s-salam antaamma Alaa Sayyidina Muhammad, alladhi tan hallu bihi l-ukhad Wa tan fariju bihi l-kurab Wa taqda bihi l-hawaij Wa tunalu bihi l-raghaib Wa khusna l-khawatim Wa istasqa l-ghamamu bihbar shi'il kareem Wa ala aarihi wa sahbihi Fi kulli dhamhatin wa nafas Bi'adidi kulli ma'alouman lak A'in ma'barak wa as-salamu aalaykum wa rahmatullahi wabarakatuh