 Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem, Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah Rabbil Alameen, Wa Salatu Wa Salamu Alakashakal Ambiya'i Wa Al-Mursaleen, Sayyidina Muhammadi wa Al-Alihi wa Ashabi Al-Maheem, Amma ba'al ba'udu Billahi wa Shaytan Al-Wajim, Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem. I bear witness that there is no worthy of worship except Allah Subh'anaHu ta'ala and that Rasulullah ﷺ is the last and final messenger. To the respected brothers, sisters and elders, it is a great bounty and great na'amat of Allah Subh'anaHu ta'ala that has allowed us to come into his home and offer the Friday prayer, especially given the circumstances we faced this past year. Let us all thank Allah Subh'anaHu ta'ala for this opportunity and we pray that insha'Allah we come back to a sense of normalcy where we can continue to come back to the home of Allah Subh'anaHu ta'ala and the masjid, offer our ibadat, so on and so forth. With Ramadan fast approaching, many of us know Ramadan as the month of Allah Subh'anaHu ta'ala, of the month of the Qur'an, in which the Qur'an completed its entire revelation. But it is also the month of mercy, the mercy of Allah Subh'anaHu ta'ala. And something that I want to speak to, particularly for our youth insha'Allah, is this sense of losing hopefulness in Allah Subh'anaHu ta'ala, or feeling like overwhelmed that this hopeless feeling of my sins are too great or that I am not worthy of Allah Subh'anaHu ta'ala's love or His mercy. Arguably this is the greatest tool shaytan uses against a believer, this sense of hopelessness that you are too sinful, that Allah Subh'anaHu ta'ala will not forgive you, or that there were so many pious people before us and even during our lifetimes, why would Allah Subh'anaHu ta'ala forgive and elevate someone such as ourselves. This is a great, great misconception of the nizam of the way that Allah Subh'anaHu ta'ala brought us into our existence, the purpose of our existence and His love for us. There are a few different reasons why this misconception may exist, particularly among our youth and we don't have time to maybe go over all of them but I will address a few. One is this sense that during the time of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam as well as the Anbiya alayhi sallam of the past, that there is a sense that everyone was perfect, that the companions at that time were perfect, it was just a perfect era among the Muslims and only the disbelievers were those that erred or that may have made any mistakes or anything like that and inshaAllah that's one thing I want to address inshaAllah. There was a young boy, a very young boy who came to Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and he once said, he said, Ya Rasulullah I've committed such a great sin, such a great sin will Allah Subh'anaHu ta'ala forgive me and Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said yes. But the boy persisted and he said, Ya Rasulullah the sin I've committed is so great that it's greater than this earth and everything it contains will Allah Subh'anaHu ta'ala forgive me and Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam responded yes Allah will forgive me. But he persisted even more, he said, Ya Rasulullah my sin is so egregious and so great that I fear it is bigger than the throne of Allah Subh'anaHu ta'ala. Then Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam responds and said, no matter how great your sin is, it is not greater than the mercy of Allah Subh'anaHu ta'ala. There's a reason every day in every prayer we begin with Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem. There's a reason when we look at the 99 names of Allah Subh'anaHu ta'ala, the first two are ar-Rahman ar-Raheem. There's a reason that it's very early in Surah Fatiha. It is because this is who Allah Subh'anaHu ta'ala is, first and foremost above and beyond all. He is Rahman and he is Raheem. And there are daily inconsistent reminders for us of this fact. The other potential misconception that exists or the reason it exists is sometimes our youth might feel that they're not able to talk to imams, scholars or elders with issues that they're going through. I just highlighted the example of the young boy and there was another young man who was speaking with Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam once. And as they were conversing, a young woman walks by and the boy as he's speaking to Rasulullah kind of looks away and starts staring at the woman that is walking by. Kind of like a Bollywood movie type of moment, right? But Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, his reaction to this is probably what's most beautiful of the story. Most of us probably fear being reprimanded or yelled or scolded at in a situation like this if it were to happen today in front of our parents or in front of an elder. But Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam simply took the boy from his chin, from the lower part of his face and churned his head away. It was a very gentle and very impactful way to deal with a situation like this. So inshaAllah we will talk later about certain pieces of advice that can help us not lose or not fall into a state of hopelessness later on inshaAllah. And one of these is to find a scholar, an Imam or someone we trust to inshaAllah talk about any questions or issues we may be going through. And the mercy of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala is prevalent as we keep looking for those signs. Surah Zuma ayah 53 Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala mentions that if it were to come a time in which if it were to come to a time in which there is a nation that exists that is perfect that there is no sins of this nation whatsoever Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala will take that nation and replace it with a nation that does sin but asks for repentance. If Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala wanted us to be perfect, if the nizam was to be perfect Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala already has his angels and when Rasulullah went on his journey in Me'raj he saw that 70,000 angels would kind of come and go and be doing tawaf in the heavens and constantly in a state of worship in front of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. So if perfection was the goal for human beings Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala would not have created us. There was no need for him to create us. It is part of the reason was that we would make mistakes but come back and repent to him and this is one of the most beloved actions by Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. There are many other stories and narrations about the kindness and the mercy of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. The example I mentioned earlier was a hadith but in the Qur'an in Surah Zumar Rasulullah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala says those that make commit a sin Surah Zumar Ayah 53, those who commit a sin be among those who repent so that you are the best among those who commit sin. So Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala's instructions to us are less about don't commit sin although that is there. It is more of what to do after committing a sin because it is an inevitable part of human nature. So inshaAllah let us realize this, let us implement this understanding and let us inshaAllah talk about a few pieces of advice that we can implement so that we are in constant remembrance of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala's love for us, his mercy towards us and his capacity to forgive us. Wa Ahlu Da'wana Anil Hamdulillahi Rabbil Alamin. Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim. InshaAllah just a few pieces of advice inshaAllah that we can use to inshaAllah not have this sense of hopelessness. One of those is always being the remembrance of Allah. Particularly when we are going to bed or early in the morning. Let us take a few minutes, even a few seconds to just say Allah Hu Akbar Alhamdulillah and Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. It will help us realize all of the bounties and ne'amats from Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala that he has given us, the privilege he has given us and his immense bounties. And when we start to reflect on this and by starting to do zikr of this it will help us remember Allah and more importantly identify Allah for who he really is, rather than be burdened with this misconception and this hopelessness inshaAllah. The second thing that we can implement inshaAllah is our prayer. Whether we're in school, whether we're at our work, whether we're an athlete or anything in between, there's always a path to success. There's always a path to success. There's a lot of different things happening at a time. If we're in school, for example, we have to take many classes, we have to do extracurriculars, we have to do SATs, so on and so forth. The nizam of this dunya for a believer is the same. There's acts of worship, there's giving charity, there's doing Hajj, there's fasting, so on and so forth. But the one thing that we can always point to as our North Star is our prayer. For Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala has mentioned to us, as it comes in the hadith of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that on the day of judgment, when our book of deeds is in front of Allah prayer will be the first thing we are taken to task for. And if our prayer is good, then all of our other deeds will be good. But if there is deficiency in our prayer, then there may be deficiency in our other forms of ibadah as well. So this is a clear sign for us. When we are feeling hopeless, when we're feeling sad, when we're feeling like Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala may not forgive us, let us turn to our prayer and let us make sure that our prayer is sound. So that insha'Allah the hadith of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam holds true that when we insha'Allah are in front of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala with our book of deeds, that it is that if our prayer is perfect, the rest of it insha'Allah will also be perfect insha'Allah. The last and final thing is let us insha'Allah find someone who we trust and who we can speak to, an Imam or anyone of that sort, someone with knowledge. As we mentioned in the examples of the young people that went to Rasulullah and spoke with him, conversed with him, shared with him, there was even a young person who once came to Rasulullah and said, Ya Rasulullah, I want to, I want to fornicate. I want to commit a great sin. Can you please allow me to do so? So can we just imagine for a second, for a young person to have this much confidence to approach Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam with such a question, how warm, how loving and how nurturing he must have been to create that safe space for such a young person? Whether we're elderly, whether we're young or somewhere in between, we must A, do our best to create that type of environment for everyone around us and B, align ourselves with someone of knowledge so that insha'Allah, whenever we are in a position where we're unsure or we're uncertain or we're feeling the sense of hopelessness that there's someone to turn to that can help guide us. Just like an athlete or a student, you know, there's a coach, there's a teacher, there's a mentor to help them find success, we must also spiritually find that person for us to lead us to that spiritual success, insha'Allah. And that was the last of the few reminders, insha'Allah. May Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala give us the ability to act upon what has been said. May Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala give us mercy, allow us to be merciful towards others and to gain His mercy in this life and the next. May Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala give us all the success in this life and the next. Arhamu ummati bi ummat yabu bakr wa ash-hadduhum fi amr Allahi umar wa asdaquhum haia al-usman wa qadahum ali ridwanu Allahi ta'ala alehi majma'een wa sayyidah shaba'bi ahl al-jannah wal-hassan wal-khusayn wa faqimatu sayyidah misa'i ahl al-jannah wa hamzah wa'asatullahi wa'asaturah suri Allahum maqfir lal'abbas wa waladihi maqfiratum bahiratum wa ta'atuna ta'latu wa adirudamba Allaha Allaha fi ashabi la tattakhiduhum gharabam min ba'di fa man ahabahum tabi thuppi ahabahum wa khairun ummati karni fumma al-ladina yaluna hum fumma al-ladina yaluna hum Inna Allahum ala iqaduhu yusalluna alal nabi Ya ayyuh al-ladina amanu usallu alayhi wasallim wa taslima Inna Allaha ya'munu bi al-addi wa al-hassan wa ita'idil qurba wa yana'a al-infahshai wal-munkari wal-baqm Ya'idukum la'alakum dadaqkarun Uthkur Allaha ya'fkurkum Udo'uhu yastajiblakum wa la dhikru Allah ta'ala al-akbar Wa Allah biya'alam wa ta'sna'un No no Allah wa akbar Allah wa akbar Shadu Allah, ilaha illa Allah Shadu anna Muhammadur Rasulullah Haya al-asrati, Haya al-fada Qadaqamat al-salatu, Qadaqamat al-salat Allah wa akbar Allah wa akbar La ilaha illa Allah Straighten the lines Please silence or turn off your cell phones JazakAllah khayb And please pray as if it is your last prayer La ilaha illa Allah Yawm adhul as-sarawatu wa la na'asiru Wa al-sama'ifati wajra Wa al-audhifati as-sardra Innahu la qawlu qaslu wa ma huwa bil-hazl Innahu yakeedun k'iyahu wakeedu k'iyah Kaafin ilanhiru Sami Allah niman ha'idah Allah wa adhul ala Allah wa akbar Alhamdulillah yawm ila Alameen al-wahmim imanik yawm Iyaka na'ud wa iyaka nasda'i Idhina as-siraw wa al-mussaqim As-siraw wa al-ladin Alameen na'umta aleyhim Wainil maqoubi aleyhim wa ladboum Sami hasma wabika anaa Alameen khalaqa fa-sawa Wa al-lafiqadda wa fahda Wa al-lafiqadda wa jamar Al-guthaa n'ahwa Sa nukniyuqa fala n'alsaa Iyaka n'ilaa ma'ashaa Zul al-jaahwa wa baru yassin Ka'il yusfaa Fadakir innna faaat Irrikwa Siyalakkar b'iyah shaa Waya tajannabu ha'l ashqa Ladi yoslanna Fumma la'yamut fiyaa Wa la'yahya Wa la'f la'hamaa Tazakka Wa dhaka wa asma wa bni Fa usfalla Balbuqfirun al-hayat al-dmiya Wa al-aqiratu fairu Wa aafil suhu fi'l ula Suhu fi'l rahima wa bursa Allah akbar Sami Allah niman hamida