 Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim, we start in the name of Allah, the most merciful, the most kind. Who amongst His mercies is that He sent His Habib ﷺ to us as a source of peace in himself. That Allah is As-Salaam, Allah is from whom peace comes and through our Islam, through submission to Him, we find our inner peace and the greatest manifestation of that peace is His Habib ﷺ. And there's a very famous hadith that many of us are familiar with, it's called Hadith As-Salaam, the Hadith of peace. And it's called Hadith As-Salaam because it's narrated by Abdullah ibn As-Salaam, radiallahu al-wan, who is one of the Jewish rabbis in Medina. When the Prophet ﷺ was coming to Medina, he wanted to look at him ﷺ as he saw the people gathered and he was looking at the commotion that was coming, seeing that the promised Prophet ﷺ, the final messenger, is coming. And so he looks at his face and he says, this is not the face of a liar. And one of the first words that the Prophet ﷺ says as he enters Medina, Abdullah ibn As-Salaam, radiallahu al-wan, who says that he heard the messenger ﷺ say, Ya ayyuhan naas, O people. This is the messenger ﷺ addressing all the people of Medina, whether they were Muslim or not. He didn't say Ya ayyuhan ladina, nor did he say Ya ayyuhan muttaqeen, he didn't say, he didn't particular, he said Ya ayyuhan naas, all people. And he gives the general advice, these are the first words that he says coming into Medina. This is Afshu al-Salaam, spread peace, wa ati'i mutta'aam, feed one another, wa sillu al-arhaam, join the ties of kinship, and then wa sallu bil-lady wa naasuniyam, pray at night, when everyone else is asleep, tadkhulu al-jannaha bi salam, and then you will enter paradise in a state of salam, in a state of peace, in a state of serenity. So let's take a look at this hadith. How does the process of him start? He starts with the right that others have upon you, that we say as-salamu alaykum all the time. Right, we say may peace be upon you, that's how we greet each other. This is the first advice that he's giving to Medina, the people of Medina, he's saying spread peace amongst one another. And so we might ask ourselves, what does it mean to spread peace amongst one another? When we say as-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu, we say that as-salam, that the salam of Allah may be upon you, as-salamu alaykum, may salam be upon you. It means that may you be secured from any harm that I may cause you, that any discomfort that might come from me, that may you be protected from that harm, may you have security from the harm that might come from me, whether I'm aware of it or not. That's what As-salam is saying, that that's the promise that you should make to the other, the ethar, the preference you should have for the other. When you meet them, that afshu-salaam, and spread this amongst each other, that when you say as-salam to the other, you make the other a promise, right, and we're not a people who take, who go back on our word. The Muslim is not a person who goes back on their word. That when we say to someone, as-salamu alaykum, what we're telling them is I am securing you from any discomfort that you might receive from me. That you are giving them an entitlement to their rights. That their right is that they are safe from you. And what does that indicate? That there's an acknowledgement that we are people who might transgress the bounds of others and we're not aware, or we might be aware. That somebody might say something that we might think is not too intelligent and we might laugh at that, and we don't know that in their heart that puts a sort of self-consciousness, a sense that what I said wasn't enough, that what I did was not what was sought at that moment and because of that, I'm lesser than any of everyone else in that gathering. That to send salams to others, when you say as-salamu alaykum is to protect people from what we might subconsciously be harming them with. To make a comment on someone's clothing or make a comment on something that we don't know what might enter their heart, that we might think it'd be trivial. But it might be great with Allah, that we imagine it to be trivial. In our account it's trivial, but with Allah it's grand. But these things that we might do here and there that we don't realize that have effect on them, it might be a preventative from our salam on to them. And then he goes and says, so after giving that peace to others, give food to others, feed others, that when you break bread with others, that when you feed others, it puts love in the heart between the one that's feeding and the one that's fed. They on a mass say that the person of saluk, the person on the spiritual path is who? It's someone who has benefit from them when you're with them, but they have an open table spread, meaning that they feed you, but whatever they may be, whatever, in the process of that, that protect yourself from the fire, even if it's with half a date, that we might not have the means to consistently feed others. But if it might be that whatever Allah has blessed us with that we give that for others because we want to give them the sense that they're important to us and they're loved by us, and that we enjoy their company, then what might that do to their hearts and what love might that bring between two people? What would that do to the fraternity, to the brotherhood, to the sense of brotherhood that we have amongst one another? It puts love in between two people. And then he says, they keep the ties of kinship. And break off these ties of love once they're established, right? When the love is for the sake of Allah, then it's because it's not unconditional. It's conditioned on whatever is pleasurable to Allah, and what is pleasurable to Allah is to put surur, to put happiness into the heart of another. So after we've given the salam, secured the other person from whatever might come from us that is uncomfortable for them, and then we fed them and grown that love between one another, then he's also saying keep that tie of kinship. How many people are there that we know that we haven't reached out to them to see? We might not have seen them for who knows how many days or months or years or how many people in our own families that we haven't reached out to. We might have a lot of, say, first cousins. You might not even know that every single one of their names, right? You might have a long list of extended family. But part of keeping those ties of kinship, whether it's the family or the friends or your neighbors, whoever it may be, is to reach out to them and keep those ties of kinship to know that they're important to you, that they're loved, that perhaps they might be thinking about you and you haven't thought about them for months, that what type of happiness might they put in their heart that this person thought of me, that I was important enough to this person, that they thought of me in a time when they might be going through some difficulty or maybe nobody's reached out to them in a while. Nobody's asked them how are you doing and actually said it with some care and love. How are you doing? Not a simple, how are you doing? Good, alhamdulillah. All right, nice to see you and bye-bye. But how are you doing? Is there anything that I can do for you? Is there something I can do to bring happiness to your heart? Is there something I can do to make whatever situation that you're in better? Is there anything I can do for your kids or your parents or your loved ones? Wasilun alham, keep those ties of kinship. So first, Heesal Al-Assalam says what? Spread peace, number one, okay? That's for other people, fulfilling the rights of other people. And then feed others, fulfilling the rights of other people. And then keep the ties of kinship, fulfilling the rights of other people. Three things in regards to others, before it comes to our personal relationship with Allah, wa sallu billahi wa nasuniyyam, and then pray when other people are asleep. And this isn't to say that you can't pray at night when everyone's asleep unless you've done these three things. But this is the importance of fulfilling the rights of the other and preferring the other over oneself. The Heesal Al-Assalam said three things in relation to the other, but then when it came to the relationship between one and their Lord, it was what? One thing, wa sallu billahi wa nasuniyyam, because these three things that proceed are what completes perfect character. Al-Assalam said, he said, that I've been sent, I've only been sent to perfect a good character. And the person who has a strong relationship with Allah is a person who has the love of what's good for the other in their heart as well, that if a person spends their time praying, spends their time making zikr and fasting, they snap at their parent when their parent asks them to do something, or if they aren't generous, if they don't feed others, if they don't give others the sense of security in their company, then that person should be a little bit introspective and think, how strong really is my connection with Allah? How strong is my connection really with Allah? That I spend my time praying and fasting, but others, I think I'm doing some ihsan towards Allah, I can't find ihsan towards others. That these people are also part of the ummah of the Habib al-Assalam and the fact that they're part of the ummah of the Habib al-Assalam, that I, and if we do these four things, the person says, he says, al-Assalam, tadafoolun jannahah bi salam, and then you'll enter jannah, in a state of security, in a state of peace, I say to this, wa astaghfirullah ali wa lakunisal muslimin, yaqam astaghfiruh, innahu wa laghafun rahi. Bismillah wa alhamdulillah wa salatu wa s-salamu ala Rasulillah wa ala ala alihi wa sahbihi wa ma wa ala. Though the deen might seem like there's a long checklist of things you've got to keep in mind, that there's the fasting, the zakat, and the prayers, and the sunnas, and the wajibah, and if I want to be a person of Allah, I have to be a person who gives all my money and charity, and spends my time at home making zikr, I don't go to work, I don't do this, I don't do that, you know, and that's how we enter jannah, and we think that jannah is reserved for those people, Allah's mercy is grander than that, the prasasalam, with these four simple acts that are not difficult to enact, simply just being good to others, it doesn't take much to be good to others, it just means not to do things that offend others, it's not, there's not as much action as non-action involved, just don't, right, that just don't be a nuisance to others, and then fulfill the rights of your Lord, and then you enter paradise, it's not a long list of things that He's giving us asanam, it's not a long list of things that He's giving us asanam, and so we, we thank Allah for the fact that He's made it, He's giving, He's looking for excuses for us to enter jannah, we thank Allah for the fact, so we ask Allah that we be people who are people of salam, people of security and peace, who give salam to others who are trans, transitive in our salam, that when we see others they feel a sense of security when they're around us, we ask Allah that we be people of ita'am, to feed others, we ask Allah that we be people who be the means of others' risk, of others' provisions, we ask Allah that we be people of generosity, so people who have connection to others so that we have a connection to Him, we ask Allah that we be people who make others feel important, so that we will feel important on the day, on the mahshar, on the planes of resurrection, we ask Allah that we be people of salam, to be people of dua'at, to be people who seek, seek from Allah and from none other, we ask Allah that we be people who are not people of riyat, people of ostentation, that we pray when others are asleep and that what then that our actions in our private are better than our actions in public, we ask Allah that there be secrets between us and Allah that none others know and we ask Allah that He allows us to enter His jannah with salam, we ask Allah that He allows us to enter His jannah with salam, we ask Allah that He allows us to meet as-salam, to be smiling when we meet as-salam, we ask Allah that we be people when we meet the Prophet as-salam, that we're smiling and he's smiling with us, smiling at us and he's happy to see us knowing that we were people who enacted his advices, we ask Allah that we be people who have no source of salam other than Him, so He say, Allahumma anta as-salam, we ask Allah that we be people who are grateful for our teachers, particularly our first teachers, our parents, we say, we ask Allah that we recognize that Allah and His angels send their benedictions and salutations as-salam on the Prophet and that we're asked to do the same,