 بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم الحمدلله رب العالمين والصلاة والسلام على سيد المرسلين سيدنا محمد وعلى آله وصحبه وسلم تسلم من كثيرة السلام وعليكم رحمة الله وبركاته ايه المبارك كل عامن وانتم بخير الحمدلله الله تعالى has blessed us to reach this day of Eid the day of the prizes the day where the prizes are distributed brothers and sisters dear beloved brothers and sisters who've endured this very strange but and challenging but very rewarding in many ways a Ramadan our Eid is the culmination of struggle if you look at our Eids if we start for example with Eid at Ata it's commenced to celebrate the struggle of the Hujjaj who've traveled from far and wide many different places many different time zones many different continents of the world all of the continents of the world formally many by foot the journey of a lifetime and the the struggles of being there are so many people the the difficulty of moving around the difficulty of maintaining any sort of space all of this struggle culminates with the great Eid Eid ul Adha for there's a celebration and a commemoration if you will of that struggle the same thing can be said for Juma our weekly Eid we struggled during the week we're going to and fro to learn our earn our livelihoods many of us are commuting great distances during normal times we're getting up early in the morning preparing for work we're going to work then we get off we go to night school to try to enhance our standing on our job to enhance our earning power it's a struggle then we struggle cleaning and cooking and watching the kids and that's a joint struggle i'm not just implying that's the struggle of the women the men should be assisting in that it should be a team effort teamwork teamwork makes the dream work as they say but it's a struggle and then so and then juma comes and especially in muslim countries we shut it all down we sleep after fadir there's we don't have to go to work we go to the juma after juma we go to a mill if you're in west africa or northwest africa you get some wonderful couscous uh at your friend's house or at your your parents house and it's a joyous occasion that occurs every week after the weekly struggle the weekly grind the weekly routine the eat in paradise so we have the three worldly ease it'll fitter it'll atta and the juma and we have the eat in paradise and that's the root yeah and that eat occurs after the worldly struggle after a life of struggle a life of sacrifice a life of self-restraint for the believers a life of of of working and assisting others a life of service inshallah but all of that a life of illness and disease and deaths and funerals all of that struggle is what living in the world is all about the trials the tests and tribulations and the believer endures that and then when we leave this world the believer has the eat of the akhira the eat of paradise the eat of jannah which will be the root the beatific vision it'll fitter which we're now commemorating and celebrating it occurs after the struggle of ramadan so ramadan we're fasting and we're staying up late for tarawih and we're getting up early for sahur and we're reading trying to make time to read the Quran and we're going through the rigors of being deprived of food and drink during these fairly long days in the month of may and it's a struggle and it's not just one or two days it's 30 days this year allahu akbar it's not easy but after that struggle comes the eat and we celebrate we get the prize of forgiveness and liberation for the from the hellfire the great prizes of eat and we enjoy ourselves but then tomorrow what happens friday passes juma passes the weekend passes we go back to work we go back to work you know we celebrate from the hajj then what happens the struggle of returning home the struggle of dealing with the the the flu we might have picked up uh while we were on the journey we go right back into the struggle and the same thing for it'll fitter tomorrow we go right back into the struggle six days of shawwal ideally but anytime in the month ideally right after it'll fitter and this is shukr this is shukr this is a way of thanking Allah for the great great blessings of liberation from the hellfire the great blessing of forgiveness coming out of ramadan and our sins are forgiven these blessings call for thankfulness and fasting the six days of shawwal is one of the ways we show our thankfulness the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam when reminded that Allah has forgiven your mistakes of the past or the future what did he say a fellow and akuna abdan shukr would i not been loved to be a thankful servant and how was he showing his thanks by praying until his feet swole or until his feet cracked cracked according to different narrations and so we this world is struggle but this world is eat this world is struggle this world is eat and that's the way of of our life and and the struggle brings the ease what would this day be brothers and sisters were not preceded by ramadan the there will be an empty celebration but after that great struggle it's a joyous celebration it's a fulfilling celebration it's a deep and rewarding and rich celebration and so we pray that all of you are rewarded richly for your struggle during ramadan that you all receive the prize of forgiveness and liberation from the hellfire that you're able to visit the sick or visit your friends and relatives and loved ones during this time and finally that we not forget those as we enjoy the food and the drink as our prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam reminded us of the eat days here here a yamu aklin wa shurbin wa dhikrin nillah that they are days of eating and drinking and remembering Allah as we eat and as we drink let us remember Allah and then remembering Allah let us remember and pray for his servants who are less fortunate materially than we are who don't enjoy the blessings of clean water who don't enjoy the blessings of adequate food and nutrition who don't employ and don't enjoy the blessings of of significant shelter who are struggling on many different fronts the kaks bazaar in bangladesh the home of the large rohingya refugee camp which in addition to the the the the horror and the trauma of being uprooted from their home seeing their villages burned down seeing their crops bulldoze seeing their wells poisoned seeing their wives and their daughters raped and abused and then forced into a strange land and the difficulties that that involves and on on top of that now COVID-19 descends upon their camp and then a typhoon or cyclone uh hits the camp but they forge on and their faith sustains them and so brothers and sisters remember those beautiful brothers and sisters those in similar circumstances in syria and idlib province along the turkish border those who are in in camps in lebanon or in in jordan those who are in yemen the entire country rendered into just a massive refugee camp denied adequate nutrition cholera outbreak infrastructure schools and hospitals clinics being bombed by people claiming to be muslim and we're not pointing the finger finger at a particular side just as we can point the finger at the sardis or the emirates we can point the finger at the houthis and the iranians and others so we're not saying that we're just saying all of them claim to be muslim all of them say and none of them have any sympathy for the suffering of their fellow muslims may Allah bless us to have sympathetic hearts because we could be cast into that situation of having to make those decisions may we have sympathetic hearts may we have hearts that are mindful of our lord are mindful of our lord and we could go on and on we can mention in somalia or kinya the refugee camps in northern kinya filled with people from the somali lands we can mention palestine we can mention we can mention kashmir we can mention the entire country of india and we will say we'll stop with this note brothers and sisters the or the camps in europe grease and lesbos islands or other camps in europe where people are isolated and are suffering tremendously but it's not a day to to be overwhelmed with this but it is a day to remember as we enjoy our blessings and to pray that the blessings we enjoy will be theirs and to pray that if we are tested with those circumstances and we've seen with this virus how quickly things can change how here in the united states 35 now 40 million jobs can go in six weeks six weeks time is we we are no different our situation can change just like that how supply chains are disrupted things can turn around very very quickly and so so one way to prevent that a lot is as well insha Allah if you give thanks for my blessings i will increase you in those blessings so thank Allah for these blessings and pray for those who are deprived these blessings pray to Allah that war be in their situation we would have their faith if anyone who's been to to these camps and situations as i've been and can witness the faith of those brothers and sisters those believers under those circumstances it melts your heart and it brings tears through your eyes and we pray to Allah as we enjoy what we enjoy if we were deprived these blessings that we still have strong faith that we still have strong faith so as we said this isn't a day to harbor on these things it's a day of celebration may you all be blessed may your families be blessed may all of your loved ones be blessed may all of your relatives brothers and sisters and siblings parents children may they all be blessed and enjoy the blessings of Eid and in the in the end i will conclude with something mentioned by Imam Ali or attributed to Imam Ali radiyallahu anhu that from the blessings of this world islam suffices as a blessing and on this day of Eid we get to see and to enjoy the full beauty of this wonderful wonderful wonderful blessing that we've been given called Islam Eid Mubarak Kula Amin Wantum Be Kheer this is Imam Zayi Shakir and Allah bless all of you assalamu alaikum and rahmatullahi wabarakatuh