 As we enter into a new year, at least on the Gregorian calendar, we are starting a new class. So welcome to everybody. I see some new faces here. It's good to see everybody. We're going to be focusing this class. It's going to be about the journey of the human soul from pre what we would call the first stage of our life all the way until the afterlife. And so we're going to be covering a text known as the lives of man by Imam Abdullah bin Ali bin Haddad. We'll do our best to summarize the text. We're not going to go through line by line. The intention, inshallah, is going to be to complete the class right before Ramadan. So that will be about nine or 10 sessions, inshallah. And then we'll complete this topic right before the month of Ramadan. So to start off with context, why this topic is really critical in the time that we live in. In order for us to know why we're here and where we're going. It's first important for us to know where we came from. And Allah has defined that very, very clearly in his noble book in the Al-Qadir Al-Qadir. And his prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam has explained that to the human being. This gives the human being some focus and some purpose in life and it allows that purpose that informs our daily actions and informs what we do on a day to day basis to move towards that purpose. Absent any context of where we came from and understanding of where we're going. The human being loses their sense of purpose. And then we just become wandering people. And this is exactly the time that we're living in. Where the vast majority of Western society has forgotten about their purpose in life. Most people don't believe in the afterlife anymore. There's no understanding of accountability for the actions that we have. There's no understanding of reckoning for what we do in this life. And so then what ends up happening is everybody just does whatever they want. And it becomes a life of fun, games, play and a lot of injustice and corruption. As we're seeing now, we've been talking about it and we'll continue to talk about it. Insha'Allah, all of us should keep our brothers and sisters and the West Bank and Palestine in general and our attention as we are having the blessing and really the luxury of being able to gather together in safety and in peace. And so when we lose that purpose, this wandering starts. And that's why in the West you have statements like do whatever you want because you only live once. When in our understanding that's not at all the case, you don't only live once. You have to live many multiple times. And this life is a very short life that we'll be discussing. The life of the dunya is in the grand scheme of things. A very small, small, small percentage of dot in the ultimate life that Allah has planned for the human being. Because the human being is actually created for eternal existence. Not for a limited existence in this life. Meaning that we will at some point with Allah's, that if Allah gives us this ability, have the chance to go into one of two places eternally. And insha'Allah, the Jannah and not the Hellfire. But that is the choice that the human being has based on the consequences of what they do in this life. But if we think that this is the only life I have so I should have all the quote-unquote funds that I want. I should ask and just enjoy all my desires. And then I can do whatever I want if there's not convenient accountability. Then you get the situation that you have in Western society right now. Where the concept of the afterlife has disappeared. The small amounts that are left with let's say Christian society and kind of some of the Christian thought that still exists. There's a carte blanche to do whatever you want because the belief is that Jesus died for your sins and so you don't have to have any accountability for your sins. So you're basically left again at the will of your own desires. This never used to be the way of the Muslim ever. The Muslims had a defined purpose and they internalized this purpose by understanding where they came from. By understanding where they came from. So what we're going to do is we're going to cover five stages that he covers in this text. And we'll have one or two classes on each of the stages insha'Allah. The first is the life before we were born. There was a entire life that was lived before the human being was born. This is the day and that's what we focus on for today's topic. The time in which Allah asked every human being Allah is to be rabbikum. Am I not your Lord? And every human being said This is from the Quran and Surah Al Arath. So it's mentioned very specifically that every human being gave this covenant to Allah and promised him and told him Yes, you are our Lord and they acknowledged it. This acknowledgement happened. This life was before we even came into existence. And just like we don't remember the life in the womb we don't remember it. But that was a period of time before we were born. There was a life in the womb. And so you don't have to remember everything for it to have happened. For it to have happened. The second is the life that we're in right now which is the dunya. This is the small slice of reality. He says that we're most familiar with just a small amount of reality because we live it day to day and we see it. The person who thinks this life is it that this dunya is the only thing they are ultimately going to lose out in the eternal race for divine forgiveness and in the eternal race for divine pleasure. They will ultimately lose out. This dunya he divides and we'll cover these inshallah in sections into five different parts. So you have childhood. You have the age of youth where discernment starts to happen. You have the age of maturity, third stage. You have the age of seniority. You have the age of essentially decrepitude when someone is on their way out by their age. And he's going to talk through what the requirements are for the human being in each stage. Meaning what the child gets to do is not the same as what the adult is responsible for. So if the child just wants to play, like my son is here right now. He's about a year and a half old. And all he wants to do is play. At some point he'll be running around. He'll make noise. Please pardon any of the disruptions. But that's what the child does. They just want to play. They just want to hang out. They just want to eat. There's no sense of and nor does there need to be because this is what Allah created and this is what they're supposed to do at this age. There's no sense of responsibility at that time. But as the human being gets older, as he'll talk through, especially as they get toward more advanced stages, responsibility kicks in. And now someone's life can't just be about play and about fun and about consuming and so on and so forth. It has to start to be a level of responsibility towards the rights that Allah has and towards the rights that their fellow creation has. So this is the second part of human life. The third begins at the moment someone dies. So now we only got to two lives and there's three other lives that are left after you die after we die from this live world. So the third begins at the moment someone passes away. And this is now where someone, the next dimension of things starts to open up for the human being. This is known as the, they enter into what's called the self, the intermediary realm. This is a dimension that exists while we are existing right now but the vast majority of people don't have access to it. It's not, you can't see it. And just like there are certain parts of, that you have to look under a microscope for you to see molecules and then you have to look under a subatomic microscope for you to see certain things that you can't see with your naked eye. There are other creations of Allah. There are other forces that play in the unseen realm that you and I can't see. And they are not accessible to the vast majority of people. Sometimes when you're in a dream, when you're in a dream, you access things from this unseen, from these unseen realms that you may not be able to access in the seen realms, especially the human beings who are working towards themselves and who are working on themselves spiritually. Perhaps they'll see a little portion of this. The prophets, they have access to the unseen and Allah wishes for them to while they're silking this world physically. And anyone who has a portion of their inheritance, they'll have an access to this. But the core here is the third life is the barzah, the intermediary realm. This is from the time you die to the life in the grave. The grave is not just this six foot by six foot box that someone lives in. It can actually be a lot smaller for some people if the punishment is there from Allah and a lot of terrible things happen to that person in the grave. It can be very, very, very vast for others. Like a full jannah, a door is open to paradise for them in their grave and they don't really have, it says, though they see, as far as I can see, that's how wide their grave would be for them. It's all happening though in the unseen, because if you go to their grave, you go to their grave and visit them in the cemetery, you won't be able to see that. You and I will not be able to see that. But that's what they're experiencing. So this is again this intermediary realm. So we'll talk here about what happens when someone dies in accordance with our faith and our understanding. And then what can we do while we're still alive to prepare for that? And then what can we do to benefit those who have already passed away? So, you know, there's certain forms of charity one can give and put on, one can recite and others and we'll talk about that. The fourth will be the life on the day of judgment. The day of judgment is an entire life in and of itself when human beings are resurrected. And while the judgment is taking place, there's a life that they live with Allah says in the Qur'an. It is... Does anyone know how long Allah says in the Qur'an? The day of judgment is... 50,000 years. 50,000 years. So if we live till 75,000 in this life, 50,000 years is... That's how many times it dies. Let me figure that out. Someone who's calculated brain let us know how many times you'd have to live this life to reach 50,000 years without using your iPhone cap there. It's getting hard to go ahead and tell us that. So that's... But that's 50,000 years. That's the day of judgment. For some, it will be shortening. For others, it will be lengthy. This is based on what Allah wants to do with them and based on their taqala so the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam tells us that for some, it will be like two light raka, like somebody prays a lot of Isha, they pray two quick sunnah after, their day of judgment could go by for them like that. But it is an entire life because there's a whole... There's phases, there's the time where someone is gathered on the concourse, there's the time where the trumpet will blast first and there's the time people are gathered on the concourse and they are awakened. Then there's the time where that somebody has to face the questioning from Allah. Then there's the scales that someone has to face, the balancing on the scales. Then there is the intercession of the Prophet alayhi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and there's many other events that will take place on the day of judgment so one, we will talk about what those events are. And then lastly, the fifth life, this is the eternal life. Either jahannam or jahannam. Either hellfire or heaven. This is where somebody is going to be placed. And so these are the five lives that the human being... He breaks apart in the moment I died in this text. He breaks apart these five lives. Some of you could break them out into a few more, but that's at minimum the amount that somebody lives. So why is it so critical as we were just talking about to discuss these lives of the human being past? Because if somebody can really tap into the knowledge of what they used to be and where they're going, in the day to day we will have the direction of what we're marching towards. This is the best thing that we can offer to Western society specifically but really to the vast majority of humanity because people are lost right now. Everybody's looking for something. And when most people are lost, they're empty. Their heart is empty and then we fill it with all sorts of random things. Somebody will try to fill it with drugs. Another person will try to fill it with alcohol. Someone will fill it with both. Someone will fill it with their sexual desires. Someone will fill it with just all consuming media all the time. So filling in, filling in, filling in. But it can't be filled by these things. It will continue to remain empty and those things will not actually help give the purpose that the human being has. The only purpose that can fill the heart of the human being this empty cup you could say that someone has is their faith and is a lot at the end of the day. It's a real deep, deep faith in understanding what is the direction that we're supposed to be going and that's the only thing. So when somebody talks about happiness and fulfillment, true happiness is divine eternal happiness. When somebody attains this state it's not temporary happiness. It's not like this makes me happy right now. You'll see in the society we live in similar to this concept of you only live once but we just talked about how many times do we live? Five times. So none of us should ever say YOLO or any of these phrases because they're not, they're just not true, they're false. But they're a way to get the human being just caught up in desires. But just like that is a concept and somebody might have a very, very short-sighted focus to this life. There are people who when they understand how valuable the time is here does anybody here work in finance or have ever done like any investments before? All right, I've got one, two, okay, two or three handful of people. So anyone who's ever invested any money, you'll know, okay, if I invest the right amount of money in the right investment, right, you can't, you don't just invest in whatever you have to make sure you invest in something that really makes sense for you to put your money behind. I will have a strong ROI or a strong return on my investment and I'll get what are called dividends later on. This life is the life to make the investment in the Akhira. Every minute or day that someone uses wisely in this life pays significant dividends and a major ROI in their next life and every day that somebody wastes they are in significant loss in the next life. And the key is here, unlike in our dunya and in our money, we know how much we have and you'll know if I have $20,000 in my bank account let's say, somebody has $20,000 in their bank account they'll know when that is going to run out. The problem is you don't know when your bank account of days is going to run out. We don't know. It could be tomorrow, it could be tonight, it could be in a year, it could be in 35 years, it could be in 70 years. We don't know just today, may Allah have mercy on him. Imam in a masjid in New Jersey was shot at Fajr time a while entering leaving the masjid. And I don't know if he would have someone would have expected that while they're going to pray, and that's something that's going to happen. But inshallah what a noble action that they were going to do while that took place. So you don't know though the life that you have to live. Nobody knows the amount of days that they have in their life. This is why when the days are numbered, the days have to be meaningful. And which is why we have to now get away and hopefully this will be a reminder in this text of the destructibility of the society that we live in. Where our days are not meaningful for the most part. The vast majority of people in society we live in, the days are very just we use phrases like I gotta kill the time, I gotta pass the time, the believer doesn't feel the time. The believer uses time to leverage, leverage time to do what they need to do to accomplish in life. They don't just want to pass the time Netflix show after Netflix show this thing after this thing, this game after this game, and it just keeps passing and passing. That's not the point. But this, when the purpose is gone, the empty vacuous destructibility starts to enter. And so this when someone knows their purpose you just won't you'll know it. You'll know the feeling will hit inside that I have to use my time wisely. And someone has a set amount of time for leisure and everything else is with purpose. Whether it's with family or taking care of their relatives or working or so on and so forth. But the intention and the purpose is there with that. But that has to be the case if we know where we're going. This is why the Messenger of Allah SAW told us to remember death multiple times a day. And this is the third life that we'll discuss is about this remembering death and understanding what does death actually mean. But that takes a a really thinking not just intellectually but spiritually. So first we could go to a Genaza prayer, a funeral prayer. It may have no impact on us. That means that the heart is dying, spiritually is dying because we're not thinking I'm going to be laying down here one day and they're going to be praying to Naza on me. And so how am I going to do it in that time? And when that's the case all of the things that we care about, what you want to worry about is what you're going to look like on that day. Not what we look like and how we act and so on and so forth. Meaning, spiritually how luminous your heart is inside will be how luminous your face will be and how luminous someone's existence in the barzakh will be. That is the case. And how dark someone is in this life how dark their heart is how rotten it is will be then how the type of death they might have as well as the way that they'll experience the barzakh in a funeral. So we ask Allah for always for khusna al khatima a good seal and a good ending to use the second life that we've been given wisely. So with that we'll get to the first life as he describes, which is from creation the time Allah created us until we were conceived, until we were in the wombs of our mothers. There's an entire life that we lived. So the first is Allah mentioned this in the Quran. Allah created Adam, He created Adam, He created human beings from our father and our mother Sayyidna Adam, and Sayyidna Hawa, so these are the parents of the human beings, we are plenty Adam. Now there was a moment at which all of the souls, so everybody here, everybody in our families, everybody, all of our friends, everybody we know and everybody we don't know, anyone who has ever created Allah took them out and he asked them to take it out of the covenant. He brought all of the souls out and he asked them to take the covenant. This is known as the day of the covenant in which it's mentioned in the narration that this happened in a valley near Arafat. Arafat is in Makda, outside in the Makda area where one goes for Hajj. So this actually happened in a physical place. Allah says in the Quran, When your Lord brought forth from the children of Adam, from their goings, their seed and made them testify of themselves and Allah said, Yes, everybody said yes. We bear witness and we testify. And then Allah says that is that so you should not say on the day of judgment we were completely unaware of this because it's deep entrenched inside the soul of the human being. So on one hand the spiritual path is one of remembering and uncovering and unwrapping what's inside of you already. It already exists deep down inside. But the more this is why the heart is so important the more the heart gets covered and covered and covered and layered and layered and veiled and veiled, the harder it will be to remember this pivotal purpose that already is lodged inside of the human being. The more the heart gets all these darknesses go away and all of the sins that we do that bring about the darknesses go away the easier it will be now to remember this internal longing. And this is why some people they have a deep longing for Allah. Deep longing for Allah. They wish to be with Allah they wish to spend time with Allah they wish to connect to Allah they wish to be at Allah's house they wish to frequent the houses of Allah the masajid at the houses of Allah they wish to frequent the Kaaba and so on and so forth because that longing exists. Why does it exist? And why does the human being who is far from Allah have so much depression anxiety, stress tension? Because the only thing putting that at a spiritual level of course there's other reasons for this the only thing spiritually that can cure the human ailment is their connection to Allah. And all of it then is either your longing for the one who created you and who wants you to be near to him or you're far from him and kind of running far in the own direction Allah is trying to call you back regularly Allah is all giving us many chances calling us back calling us back calling us back and we're not maybe we're not listening, we're being rebellious but Allah is patient with us and he continues to give us time because this longing was already deposited inside of you in the depths of the human being was already there. At this moment in this very real event that took place Allah is to be at your home. Am I not your Lord? That was the key. And so why do we say thicker? What does the word thicker mean? Remembrance, right? Remembrance. So you only have to remember if you forgot, right? And so heedless, there's either we forgotten or we're remembering and the more we remember what we're remembering Allah and as we remember Allah we are remembering this key this key deposit that's been put inside of us of our purpose in life. Am I not your Lord? This is not a verbal statement only. This is a deep spiritual statement. Think about it. Am I not your Lord means that am I not the one who's in you should have your entire focus on your life form? That's Allah. Am I not the one who you should put above everything else? That's Allah. Am I not the one who should supersede all of your desires? The desire for money and fame and power and sexual appetite and so on and so forth? That's Allah. And as you continue going on the Lordship, anything you give priority to above Allah becomes an idol for the human being. So at the time we live in very few people have physical idols that they worship. People used to worship physical idols and so on like they would make idols and they would bow down to them. Now most people we have figurative idols which have been which we've created. So some of us worship ourselves, some of us were narcissists we worship the idea of how great we are and so on and so forth that's an idol in the human being. Others worship their looks. Gotta look this way gotta make sure everything's perfect. We were talking about this in the last couple classes like all the fake filters and everything out of social media. If it's not even how one really looks why would one use those filters and amplify themselves because the looks have now taken a status in the heart of the human being. Others worship money. It's all about money constantly trying to earn more and more and more to a limit it's good and then after that it's excess. Others worship fame and status, luxury I gotta have this luxury bag this luxury car this luxury watch so everybody can see who I am and everyone can see meanwhile hundreds of thousands of people are starving around the world and are suffering and we care only about our status and so on. This is again these are idols that are created in the heart of the human being. Allah wants you to say when you say Allah Akbar all of the idols should be destroyed inside of the heart and unless to become M.I. not your lord it's Allah not our lord that should come back. That chief meaning should come back. So this is the wisdom behind trying to recall this event. So now that you and I know we've said this Allah says in the Quran you can't you're not going to be able to say that it didn't happen because it did happen and everybody saw it happen and of course a love or witness to it as well. So now it's going to be a I could say I forgot I could say that I didn't listen but nobody is going to be able to say that no Allah you did not create me that's not going to be possible. So then this journey is one and this life is a journey of what? A journey for your soul, for our souls to find God. That's the purpose of life. And we only created mankind and gym to worship me or to know me to get to know me because experiential knowledge of Allah happens as you go through the movements of life. It doesn't just happen in one day one will see okay this happens in my life now I experience Allah in this way and then this happens and now I learn about how Allah is generous with me and then this happens and now I learn about how Allah wants me to be patient and so on and one gains this they have this relationship this interaction with their Lord. This is the key focus for in the life that we live in is to have these daily interactions and these these daily engagements. All of the children of Adam alaihi salam took place in this, took part in this and there are some people who they can remember enough to remember this moment. We've heard this from some of the scholars but that's not something that Awam the vast majority of us would be able to have it right but some people they're thicker can get so strong that they can remember this moment that actually took place. So spiritual the dimensions of spirituality the dimensions of the unseen and the dimensions of the multiple lives that exist the multiple dimensions that exist can become unveiled to somebody if Allah wishes and usually through a significant amount of spiritual effort that one puts in so this is possible the closer and closer one gets to this station of noses of Ma'nifah of Allah the more they might have these types of experiences but that's not the goal is not necessarily only to remember this but also to remember Allah and you'll feel it one will feel the unlocking of you know what I know now all my purposes and when one doesn't know it's just cloudiness that has to be washed away and we'll talk about how one washes that away. So differing degrees of people as we mentioned had differing degrees of awareness during this event. So the prophet alaihi salatu as-salam he was fully aware when these things were taking place he was aware in many many many moments he mentioned in one narration that his light was the first to be created and in another narration that he was a prophet already when Adam alaihi salam was between clay and water. So there are narrations is one of the strong opinions of the Ahl-e-Sunnah Jama'at with the first to be created was the light of the Nabi sallallam and then from that everything was created but so he was already aware and then he mentions in a narration that he was there when Nuh alaihi salam when Adam alaihi salam came down to the earth he was present in Nuh alaihi salam when he boarded the ark when he boarded the the the famous Noah's ark he was there with Abraham alaihi salam when he was thrown into the big fire into Nimrod's fire and so on and so forth so there's many events which the prophet alaihi salatu was present in and he took place in those events but this happened in a spiritual way that we and I will not be able to understand because it's a spiritual reality that the prophets are gifted but his status as the chief prophet as the say of all the prophets as the Imam of the prophets Imam al-Ur-Saleen gives him such a high status that Allah allowed him to be present and so he also then there was an awareness in this in this stage but the key point though for us is to know that this was real and that we will be asked about it we're not going to be asked about all the details of everything that's happened in our life but we have to know that we will be asked about this and an example would be does anyone here remember their birth into this world nobody remembers it but did it happen some people might they definitely know it happened some might have some photos or videos of it others might have a memento from the hospital or wherever they were born it happened so you don't have to remember something to happen for it to actually happen this is where the argument of the catharic of the atheist falls apart because they rely on their limited our limited human limited intellect and limited memory to say well if I don't do this this and this according to my intellect it could not happen hold on a second the intellect is created the intellect is created and it's pretty limited the intellect is actually very limited until it's unlocked with the light of spirituality the intellect is very limited it won't be able to understand many things so just because we don't remember it doesn't mean it didn't take place also do any of us remember life in the womb do you remember do you remember life in the womb it's the strongest chance it's for him to remember and I don't know if he thinks I don't think even he does even though it was like two years ago so if you don't remember life in the womb but did it happen yeah it happened 100% happened for everybody so again there is a life that exists and that doesn't have to coincide with the understanding human beings so then what we have to do is we have to trust God when he tells us this happened just like our children if we tell them yeah you were born and there was a time when you were you were in the womb and then there was a time when you were born they're gonna have to believe us it would be very foolish to say no you're making all of that up and none of it happened prove it prove to me that mom exists as they say the children the twins are arguing in the womb I heard about mom mom what do you mean mom mom who's mom mom mom is the one who who were inside right now I was like I don't believe in mom and that's like the atheist versus the believer but mom is there it's a real thing and so the concept of God when God tells us all these things the human being is supposed to say okay I'm gonna first start with believing you and then I'm gonna work on my own journey to uncover what that means why because everybody would believe at a deep level and if we all maintained our fitra what is fitra fitra is your primordial innocence your primordial reality that you were born with every human being is born with a deep innocence as we go through life we get corrupted our sins they start to veil us we look at things that are inappropriate we hear things that are inappropriate we interact in a way that accumulates sins the heart becomes dark and dark and dark and dark and dark until something happens when the heart becomes so dark that the fitra is gone now that heart begins to become rebellious and question things that in an early stage if you tell a child about Allah the child will believe you 100% there is no way the child has any reason to doubt it because their fitra is still intact their primordial innocence and reality is still intact they know ok yeah this makes a lot of sense and so they'll just believe it but the questioning starts to come when the darkness starts to appear in the heart so the reason why it's important for us to trust when God says something is because we're not in our primordial innocent states anymore we're trying to get there but the path to get there Allah has laid out in the Quran and the Prophet was the trust we have to put in that is that what they've said is correct so that it can help me wake up and get there otherwise we'll just be in this constant loss and this constant limbo stage this constant limbo stage so the key to unlocking this remembrance the key to unlocking this stage is fill your heart with light with norm very simple equation we'll mention this and then we'll mention one very nice narration in this chapter and then really this chapter is done in a very short section in this first one dikkur, remembrance of Allah obedience to Allah serving Allah, serving Allah's creation doing things that are of goodness to Allah's creation increases your light increases your norm the more newer that comes in the more purified the heart becomes sins looking at things inappropriate watching things inappropriate inappropriate dressing in an inappropriate way saying words that are inappropriate so on and so forth these bring darkness to the heart whether you realize it or not it doesn't happen in one day it's gradual gradual gradual gradual consuming things that are inappropriate around food around drugs around drinks so on they contaminate the heart contaminate the heart contaminate the heart until that heart becomes sealed like a rock and then nothing can get through to it nothing can get through to it like the hearts of all these politicians Biden, Blinken Netanyahu all of these they're just devils why because their heart has become so sealed nothing can change their heart nothing I mean it's obviously miraculously possible for God to change their heart but in the realm of means when you've done so much injustice so much killing so much killing of children so much starvation of innocent children men and continual injustice you're the leader of the unjust nations in the modern era what's going to happen all of those sins now fall upon your heart that heart will get darkened so you and I won't we don't understand like hold on a second why don't these guys just get it because there's no capacity left to get it the heart has become sealed Allah says it is their hearts become deaf dumb and blind and their hearts get locks on them and they become hardened like rocks it's very difficult to talk to a rock to convince somebody who just there's no opening that's possible so you and I have to protect ourselves while we're in the stage where we still have the ability to choose between good deeds and sin before the sins accumulate so much that they darken the heart once somebody starts on the path of good they'll want to do more and more good it'll just be natural that it takes a certain force of a push that one has to have where you have to really really push yourself to get there to resist the initial sins of the nafs the nafs is the animal soul the nafs of amada it's it inclines towards sins it inclines towards darkness it inclines towards desires it inclines towards just laziness and sleeping in all the time and all these which make the human being into a state of lethargy and into a state of not doing anything and then when they don't do anything they're likely to do more sin this is why the human being is supposed to be moving we're 70 plus percent water and water remains fresh while it's moving like in a stream it remains fresh while it's moving both spiritually and physically that's why it's very very important for the human being so all of these things will help the human being remember this moment so there's a well there's an amazing hadith of which is narrated about musa aley salam and his understanding of this fuma so we'll talk through most of it and then we'll then inshallah so it's narrated that under authority of wahhab ibn munabih radiya wa'an then when musa aley salam read the tablets the tablets he found in them the merits of the nation of muhammad sallallahu alay salam who is the nation of muhammad we alhamdulillah are the nation of muhammad sallallahu alay salam this is the umma of the prophet sallallahu alay salam and in it and then he lists many many many blessings so he asks these questions musa aley salam what was his trait that he had what was the title that he was given in the trait that he had he can speak with Allah directly musa aley salam directly conversed with his lord and there was so he asks Allah he says oh lord what is this mercy given nation that i see in the tablets Allah says it is the nation of ahmad so the prophet sallallahu alay salam his name is muhammad in this life but in eternal after life his name is ahmad he has many many many names over 100 different names for the prophet it is the nation of ahmad whose people are content with whatever little provision i give them and i am content with whatever amount of ibadah and works they are able to do and i make each one of them enter the garden by their testimony la ilaha illallah la ilaha illallah is that's it the goal is la ilaha illallah the beginning is la ilaha illallah the end is la ilaha illallah and one will realize what we mean by that through experience it's not something it's an intellectual concept you will realize what la ilaha illallah means everything is about Allah that's the goal so there is no lord who is worthy of worship except Allah who is worthy of attention except Allah who is worthy of our focus except Allah there is no reality that's worthy of that except Allah but this is something that the human being needs to realize so they enter the garden what does sheytan want to do he wants to take la ilaha illallah away from people so at the upper limit of what the devil will try to get to someone to do is to disbelieve in la ilaha illallah because he knows that even if the human being is sinning left and right we are all making mistakes all sorts of sins left and right as long as you have la ilaha illallah the garden, ultimately you will get to the garden insha'Allah because the prophet tells us that he will intercede for this nation and his station on the day of judgment is the highest station and he will be given an intercession what's an intercession it means somebody who is going to beseech Allah on your behalf because we will have nothing to stand before Allah with and so he's going to go to Allah and say ya Allah save my ummah, save my ummah and he reserved du'as that Allah said they are going to be accepted du'as he reserved them for the day of judgment for you and for me he said I'm reserving these du'as for my ummah on the day of judgment and I know we are going to need them and Allah is guaranteed the acceptance of those du'as and Allah says in the Quran we will give you until you are happy and the prophet says he's not going to be happy until every member of this ummah until every member and some he's going to go and pull them out of the fire himself that's how much the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam loves you but shaitan will want you to leave him leave Allah and leave his messenger shaitan's goal so never let when those whispers of shaitan come know that they are whispers and you have to do whatever you can to resist them even if one is not practicing much at all that should not which can't allow that to become into our hearts if shaitan can't get someone to do that a lot if he can't get them someone to sin a lot he'll get them to sin a little if he can't get them to sin a little he'll get them to waste a bunch of time and so on and so forth until he just wants to prevent you from the next level of good that's shaitan's goal so this is then musa alayhi sallam says I find in the tablets a nation of people who shall be resurrected and assembled on the day of judgment with their faces like full moons and we live in urban society where there's light pollution but otherwise if you go to an area where there's no light at all and then you see a full moon it brightens the entire night sky and now you can see everything so their faces and faces of this nation will be like full moons God replied and so musa alayhi sallam says let them be my nation let them be my nation by the Israeli or let them be mine Allah says they are the nation of Ahmad I shall gather them on the day of judgment when their foreheads and limbs shall be blazing white from the effects of the voodoo that they would make and the such that they would make this is the effect of all the voodoo that someone does it's going to give you light on the day of judgment it's going to be dark but your faces the faces of this ummah they will be light for people there will be disbelievers who will come up to the believers in inshallah on the day of judgment asking them for a portion of their light for a portion of their light because none of the like a flashlight at the iphone it's going to be light on your faces from sajdah, from voodoo, from prayer he then says oh lord I find in the tablets a nation whose people whose clothes are on their backs whose swords are on their shoulders people of certitude and tawakbo they glorify you from the top of minarets from the top of the towers they continue to fight for every righteous cause until they even battle against the vijal and he says let them be my nation and Allah says they are the nation of akhman so he keeps going, he says oh Allah I find in the tablets a nation of people who pray five times a day and nine, five hours of the day for whom the gates of heaven are open and whom mercy descends he says let them be my nation Allah says they are the nation of akhman he continues to list so many different virtues of the nation it's a lengthy hadith we'll go through a few more parts of it he said I find in the tablets a nation for whom the entire earth is a place of ibadah and is pure let them be my nation and for whom the spoils of war are lawful and he said they are the nation of akhman so again Musa alaih salam, he's a prophet he continues to ask every virtue what Allah talked about this nation, this umma the tablets that were given to Musa alaih salam the tablets which were one of the revelations given to Musa alaih salam this nation was mentioned in those tablets he says oh Allah I find in them a nation who fasts the month of Ramadan whom you forgive for everything they've done before let them be my nation he said they are the nation of akhman then he mentions that they do Hajj and then he mentions that that amount of forgiveness Allah will grant for them and then he mentions continually, continually, continually he says oh Lord I find in the tablets a nation of people who will be in first place on the day of judgment there's going to be like rows on the day of judgment there's people who are going to be in last place people who are going to be in first place people who are going to have no place we want to be in the first rows this is what Allah should always make us be in the first rows with the prophet salam the first rows with the prophet and his companions he says let them, they are the last to be created but they are the first place on the day of judgment how does that work? he says let them be my nation they are the nation of akhman all of this because we get to be in the nation of the prophet salallahu alayhi salam and he says I find in the tablets a nation of people when they intend one good deed a good deed is written for them and when they do the good deed they get 10 to 700 times the worth of that good deed and then the nation when they intend a sin but they don't commit it nothing happens but if they do commit a sin they just get one sin this is why the intention of the believers many of us feel very very have been feeling a state of hopelessness to a degree maybe with what guards what's going on in Palestine because literally even if you wanted to drop everything and go there and help you couldn't couldn't do it nobody would let somebody in they blocked it off completely but the intention of the believers is so important because there will be people who will show up on the day of judgment and they'll have all of these rewards the rewards of saving lives the rewards of protecting children the rewards of clothing people and they'll say I don't do any of this Allah says no but when that was going on when that genocide was taking place in Palestine you were there weeping and worried and concerned for the ummah and you were making intention after an intention Ya Allah please if only I could I would and that intention Allah says through that intention I already gave you everything that it is that you could have had but the intention this is for this nation this ummah gets these types of things that just I thought I wanted to do something you get a reward for it's so easy to succeed in this life if we just appreciate the religion that we've been given if we just appreciate the religion that we've been given and so he continues and continues and continues so then he says finally oh lord I find in the tablets a nation of people who will be resurrected and brought on the day of judgment as three groups one shall enter Jannah without any reckoning meaning no questions asked you won't even have to stand before God this group another's reckoning will be easy and another will be rigorously judged rigorously questioned by Allah he says let them be my nation he said they are the nation of Ahmad so then he says you have spread out all this goodness for Ahmad and his nation let me be a member of his ummah this is what Musa al-Islam says to God and God says oh Moses I chose you and preferred you over other people with my message and my speech take what I've given you and be grateful be thankful for what I've given you but this is that one of the greatest prophets in the history of Allah's creation Moses, Moses is a very very very serious important prophet the foremost of the messengers and he's asking Allah and he's asking Allah at the end of this to be from to be from this nation to be from this ummah not just that he wants this ummah to be his ummah but he says no no fine I'm a prophet but I'd rather just be from the ummah of the prophet that's amazing this is the honor that's been given to the nation of the prophet salallahu alayhi salam so the the question really for us is do we understand blessings that we're so that we're basking in and do we understand the blessing of the message that we have? Do we understand Say sorry Do we understand the blessing of the message that we have and do we understand the blessing of being people who have a purpose it's like who have a focus it's like um that itself is huge. And we'll end with this. The vast majority of people, as we mentioned, they don't know what their purpose is. They don't know, why am I here? Where am I going? And they certainly don't have the greatest of Allah's creation who's already tied to them. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, he is the person who's been concerned for you since the four you were born. And when you die, and on the Day of Judgment throughout all of these lives, the concern of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ extends and is a means of assisting you and I in our life. And so we have to keep that, keep that in mind, and we have to remember and unlock this, the knowledge of the stages of our life, and then remember the purpose that we have, and use that as a fuel to help us going on the days when we're down, because the life of the human being will be up and down, up and down. But as long as on the days when we're down, we get back up, and we remember the focus, and remember the purpose, will be in a good spot. Because we already have the blessing of being from the Nation of Ahmad. And so that's going to be a means of immense madad and extra assistance for us. So with that, inshallah, we'll end if there's any questions, do questions, and then we'll, like with this class as we mentioned, the next two topics will be about the life of the dunya, and then we'll basically be breaking out the rest of the chapters into two classes each until we end right here for Ramadan, inshallah, the life of this life, and then use that as a time to prepare for Ramadan, so that's about two months with each other. So we'll try to keep it short. I would highly recommend if folks want, this book is called The Lives of Man by Maman Khaddan, it's like $12 on Amazon. Highly recommend getting it. We will be going through again each chapter. It's very, very, very good to read, and it's very succinct, but it gets to the point on what's important to take away. So with that, are there any questions either in person or online questions? Yes, great question. The question is, anybody who came from before the Prophet, Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam's time, would they not have a chance to be in that first row? No, they will still have a chance. So as long as someone followed their Prophet, and they followed their Prophet with with certainty and with resolve, the Prophets themselves are going to be in the first row, right? And so then the people who are with them, they're closest of followers, will also be in the first row with them. But the numbers of this nation will vast outstrip all of the other numbers. Most of the other Prophets, they didn't have many other followers at the, in terms of the level of followers, and the number of followers the Prophet someone has. Yeah, go ahead. So people who speak the last part a little louder, the people who are really devout in their own religion, if they're Jewish or Christian. Yeah, good question. If somebody is really devout in their practice, and so do they still have a chance to be part of that first row, even if they're non-Muslim? And they have the remembrance of God. So ultimately, we always say with the Allah-u-Alam, like Allah is the judge of who goes to heaven and who goes to hell. And we don't have, we have knowledge of what Allah told us in the Quran. But beyond that, Allah can decide to do and can operate outside of what he has, what he did with the rule. So there's like the rule and there's the exception to the rule. The rule is that once this religion has come down, every other religion effectively has now been aggregated. That is the rule. But if somebody practiced, for example, at the time of the Prophet's Islam, they were unitarian, just monotheists, the Hanif. Before they, before the Prophet's Islam came down this message, they were already monotheists. They will, inshallah, get the reward of being from the Hanif of Ibrahim al-Islam, from the monotheism of Ibrahim al-Islam. The Christians, the Christians aren't really monotheists, right? The Christians worship Jesus as the Son of God and their Akhida is extremely problematic. So while the sincerity of something could be valued and appreciated and ultimately again Allah can decide what, what he's going to do with that, we don't have that belief that they have the access to these stations if this religion has already come down. And then with the, with Bunny Israel, with the Jews, Judaism does, is a strongly monotheistic religion. And so there are people among the Jews, Allah says in the Qur'an that there are some from, from some of them, there are believers, but the vast majority are not. And so it would depend a lot on if somebody was presented Islam properly, and then they rejected it. But just because somebody exists and they never heard of Islam, are they going to be accountable for it or not? The scholars have vast differing opinions on what that accountability would be. Mama Ghazali says they would have to have been presented it in its proper form for them to have been given a chance. Now, that's our job and our weakness, right? If we're living in a country full of non-Muslims and we're never presenting Islam to them. And we're letting everybody just kind of do their own thing. It's on us to present and to propagate the religion of the Prophet's Son. But once he comes down, came down, we don't believe in this idea that you can be from any monotheistic religion, you have to follow this religion. But before he came down, so-and-so, then yeah, any of the monotheistic religions would have, would have, you know, would have worked. But we want the last thing is we, we, we don't use our time too much on where is this person going to go? Where is this person not going to go? Like, that's a lot of Muslims spend time on that. That's really not a good way of use of time. Where is the Shia going to go? Where are the Sunni going to go? Where are the Wahhabis going to go? Where is this going to go? Where are the Christians? Let God decide that. Focus on yourself and purify ourselves and then focus on spreading truth to people and let a lot take care of the ultimate reckoning. Sister Said, any questions online? The title of the book is Lives of Man by Imam al-Adhaq. Lives of man by Imam al-Adhaq. And then there's a question on the day of judgment for people who didn't learn Islam. Hopefully we covered that in the last, last answer. Yeah, so the question is with regards to the questions that are asked in the pre-eternal realm, what were those questions? And yeah, essentially what were those questions? So the only questions in which there's confirmation on, which are in the Quran, is the question of Allah, so that confirmation from Allah of asking with gathering the human beings on this plane and asking, Am I not your Lord? And then bearing witness to that. The other, I actually have never, and I can follow up with you maybe afterwards, haven't heard any narrations that would describe any other questions that the human being has given any choice in the matter. The other, the human being is not given choice in the Qadr. You have a few prophets who would ask, for example, in one narration, the prophet Adam al-Islam saw one of his children and he really liked this child, it was Dawood, the prophet David al-Islam, and he said, give him some portion of my life. But Allah just said, I already decided everybody's lifespan, that's not really up to you. So the human being is actually not given any choice. Our belief is that the Qadr and the decree is from Allah on the day of judgment, afterwards, the human being is asked, for example, if they had a lot of suffering and a lot of tribulation, the human being is dipped into jannah for just a second, and then they ask or ask, did you have any suffering in this life? And they'll say, I had nothing. I don't remember a single amount of suffering. So that does happen afterwards. But as to the agreed upon questions from the creed al-Islam al-Islam, would be this questioning that's mentioned in Surah Al-A'raq in the Quran, of Allah asking us about His Lordship. And that would be the limit of the extent, anything else that took in place. Perhaps there's other narrations, but they wouldn't be considered mutawater. So we couldn't, we wouldn't rely on them as kind of dominant narrations about the questions. Yeah. Yeah, good question. The question is, what are ways to get back to the fitrah and back to the original state of heart if we feel like we've disconnected. So ultimately, the entire journey of the Deen is to get, is to get back to the fitrah. That's the purpose. The summary, the essence of it is captured in what's known as the science of eqsan or the science of the soul. So the science of Sufism, the science of spiritual excellence, the science of tizki, it's enough. Whatever word someone uses to describe it helps someone purify their heart. And there's a, there's a three step process. The first is one empties all the bad traits from their heart. So this could be traits like arrogance, getting over angry, being full of themselves and so on and so forth, being cheap. All the different traits that someone has there. They're mentioned in the books, Prophet Sassam has laid them out and one empties them from the heart, having a sharp tongue, yelling at people a lot, verbally abusing people and so on and so forth. One empties these traits. Similarly, one empties this, removes the sins that they're doing. So you would come up with like a, I have these sins that I'm doing. These are the big ones. These are the ones that are less significant. One keeps working on them until they've cleansed them. That's the first step. The second now is what's known as inculcating goodness inside of somebody. So the more Nurani actions, luminous actions someone does, the more that the heart starts to become polished and purified. The heart is like a mirror. Once it's fully, fully, fully, fully polished, it now reflects the light of God. And when it reflects the light of God, all these realities become clear in the heart. So now somebody starts to clean themselves and add good deeds. So this would be behaving in a righteous manner, having good luck. Obviously all of our five pillars of our religion, behaving well with one's parents, respecting our elders and so on. So that would be the second. The third then is now somebody starting to take all of the extra time that they have. And this is where now someone who's really focused on Ihsan would become focused or would have to apply. So the Prophet Sallam said that Ihsan is to worship Allah as though we see him and even though we don't see him, know that he sees us. So one acts in a daily basis with this understanding that Allah is watching me. Allah is aware of what I'm doing. And I have to be conscious in my efforts and in my interactions with people and with the divine knowing that there is this perpetual muhassaba that I have to take myself to account to. So this kind of vigilance that one has to have. If somebody can accomplish that, now their whole day becomes light and upon light. And now their heart actually gets surrounded in the inner realm with angels. And those angels assist them in doing more good deeds and now they become, they go back to the fitrah. But that's really, it's a journey. And so, but to study the books of Imam Ahaddad, Imam Ghazali, they've laid out what this journey is. And so if we can implement them, then inshallah that that will be a way of getting there. Okay. So with that, anything else? Anything online? Where do these classes take place in person? We are in Oakland, California at Lighthouse, Meshid, 7 p.m. Pacific time. We'll be doing this weekly inshallah. Okay. I think that's it. Because people of purpose and people of khaykhima and that you put barakah and tawfiq and our ability to learn Ya Rabb al-Alamin and our intentions that we have. Ya Allah. Ya Allah, we ask Ya Allah that while we are sitting and we are in a state of peace and we are in a state of enjoyment of our blessings. Ya Allah, we continue to feel for our brothers and sisters in Ghazan and the West Bank and in Philistine and all throughout many other parts of the Muslim world. And they're suffering. Ya Allah, we ask Ya Rahman that you pour your Rahman upon Ghazal. Ya Allah, we ask Ya Hafid that you pour your special protection. Ya Allah, thief that you offer before your special�工 upon them. Ya Allah, Ya Allah, Aziz, Ya Aziz, Ya qawyyul, Ya matheem, we ask that you assist them. يا wallet, we ask that you protect them. That you protect the children and that you protect the infants and you protect the toddlers and you protect all of them you Allah from this evil aggression. Ya Allah, we ask that you give himma to them. Ya Allah we ask that you give himma to the parents and that you give them all suffering, that you give them all taw Tun, that you help the elderly and you help the men and the women and the children and everybody in qzaya Allah in the West Bank who is struggling under this, and who is who is suffering Ya Allah, who is suffering immensely, we ask that you provide for them that you give them food, that you give them water, that you give them shelter, that you give them ease, that you give them warmth, Ya Allah, Ya Allah, we ask Ya Allah, that you assist them, that you give them strength, that you plant their feet firmly. Rabbanah, Afrik, Al-Hina, Sabran, Wa Ta'bidah, Qadamana, Wa Suranah, Al-Qaum, Al-Kafirin, Ya Allah, we ask that those who are resisting, Ya Allah, we ask that you give them Tawfiq and that you give them the ability to resist against these occupiers and that you defeat your enemies, Ya Allah, and the enemies of creation, Ya Allah, and these Zionist enemies that you remove these devils from them. You remove these devils from the planet, Ya Allah, and that you take them to account with the most intense of your reckoning, Ya Aziz, Ya Aziz, Ya Aziz, Ya Qawir, Ya Matin, Ya Allah, throw these oppressors and these tyrants, Ya Allah, into the pits of your fire, Ya Allah, and give the Palestinians and those who are suffering the highest of stations of Jannah with the Prophet ﷺ that you give them. Ya Allah, we ask that you accept their Shahada and that you accept those who have passed away and that those who are suffering and those who are sick and those who need healing, we ask that you heal them, Ya Shafi, Ya Allah. Ya Allah, we ask that you give us purpose in our life and that you not allow us to wander aimlessly and that you allow us to be focused people, Ya Allah, as we are getting very close to the end days, Ya Allah, and we are in these end days, Ya Allah, and we are in the end of times, Ya Allah. We ask that you make us people who work for the Ummah of the Prophet ﷺ and who serve this Ummah in the best of ways, Ya Rabbi, Al-Amin, and who serve you in the best of ways and who understand what our purpose is and who understand what our purpose is in this world and who are beacons of light and beacons of guidance for people, Ya Rabbi, Al-Amin, Ya Allah. We ask that you transform us inwardly and outwardly and that you transform our families and that you transform our hearts and that you transform our society, Ya Rabbi, Al-Amin, to be people of Yaqeen and people of Tauheed and people from the highest stations of Tauheed, Ya Rabbi, Al-Amin. We ask that you pardon us and that you forgive us and that you grant us the ability to be forgiven, Ya Allah, for the sake of gathering for you and for the sake of trying to learn for you. And we ask that you forgive anything it is that we intend or that we said that was inappropriate or that was wrong, Ya Rabbi, Al-Amin, that you put baraka in Tauheed and everything it is and every intention that we have. We ask you for everything good, the Prophet ﷺ asked for it and we ask for your protection from everything evil that he asked for protection from. And we ask that you give us the best of seals in this life and in the next life and that you protect us and our children and our parents and our loved ones, Ya Allah, and our family, Ya Allah, and all of those to come and make them people of La Ilaha Illa Allah Muhammad Rasulullah wa Sallallahu wa Sallam wa Barak'a ala Sayyidina Muhammad al-Nabi al-Ummin, wa la alihi wa sahbihi wa Sallam al-Amin. There's a few more questions that came in so inshallah we'll get to those next week. Inshallah.