 We praise Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and we send peace and blessings upon his most noble and final and beloved Messenger Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and I enjoy you and I encourage you and I encourage myself to have taqwa of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala taqwa being the fear of Allah Outwardly and inwardly Avoiding his prohibitions outwardly with our limbs inwardly with our hearts and fulfilling his commands outwardly with our limbs and inwardly with our hearts One of the things that we find in the Quran is that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells his blessed prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam To remind them of the days of Allah but that Kirhum be a yam Allah Remind the people and in this context the immediate context was Quraish Remind them about the days of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala the days that Allah has chosen The days that he has made special The days that commemorate something Because the Quraish they used to have days that they would set aside for things to remind Themselves and their people and keep their culture alive about whatever they chose to be important And they have those special days and those special weeks and those special seasons and those special months And Allah is telling the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam to tell Quraish and by extents by extension all of humanity Remind them of the days of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala The days the Ashhur al-Hurum the prohibited month Months remind them about Ramadan and what does Ramadan mean remind them about the Hajj and what is the Hajj season mean Because in that are the days of Ibrahim alaihi sallam making his journey remind them about all of these days Remind them about those days and then there's mention of some of those days in the Quran Why does Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala we have to reflect on this in ponder? Why does he commemorate? Days like the day of bedr And when we say it for everybody listening when you hear the day of bedr something happens inside you You know, there's a connection there Something happened on that day. It's very symbolic It had a direct impact on the development on the Muslims and it's a special day the 17th of Ramadan in The summertime in the hijaz while fasting and somebody recent recently mentioned that When somebody asked well, could somebody? Break their fast if they're studying for their SATs or their MCATs or their whatever other test better Just remember better and then that reminds the people because it's not just Quraish that we remind about the days of Allah It's all of the people remember better Remember oh, remember kandab Remember the day that Wahi started remember all of these special days So we have these days that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has commemorated in the Quran and through our acts of worship through our Ibadah that we are Told and ordered and command commanded to commemorate those days and also to remind other people about those days Especially when people take other days and seasons to not remind about Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So that's where The order comes in if people are have special days and special seasons Remind them about the days of Allah But there's another kind of days of the people the days that people set aside That it's not necessarily the days of Allah the days that he has chosen to commemorate And it's not those days that people have put aside to commemorate the idols and false worship and associating partners with Allah It's days that people have said these are special We want to remind the people about something that's important to us as humanity And so when we look at that we don't have to reject it and say it's not necessarily from our Dean We can have expressions of humanity as human beings. We come together and we say you know what this on this month Or this day, we're going to focus on something. We're going to remind people about something This month the month of September has been set aside as suicide awareness month And it's important for us as Muslims to be aware about it To be aware that this is something that doesn't affect one people or one race or one culture or one religion or one country It affects humanity It affects humanity and so we have to bring we have to remind ourselves. What is it within our Dean? That we can have within our communities within our families within our friendships within our Places of employment that we can remind people about Being aware of this elements of humanity and how can we prevent it? What can we do? What can each and every one of us do? To bring awareness about this topic to be somebody who prevents this and preserves the sanctity of life as Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala reminds us in the Quran that the sanctity of life is so sacred and It's so important that if somebody kills one person it's like they've killed all of humanity and Somebody once worked this out mathematically to show what does that mean? well one Aspects of what he found when he worked this out mathematically He said for each and every one of us to be here today To be breathing Think of the two parents that we had and the two parents that they had and the two parents that they had and just go back a few generations Now go back a thousand years go back five thousand years go back ten thousand years How many human beings had to live? Go through life be born live go through life get married and have a child that would go on to the next link so that you could be sitting here today and So if somebody removes that person's life, it's like they've removed all of those people's lives Because you sitting here you remind everybody about all of those who have come before us And there's many other elements in our Dean that remind us about the importance of preserving life I want us to think about just one aspect of the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah Salallahu Alaihi Wasallam That we're already doing But we could build upon it. It's just like any aspect of the Sunnah that we're already doing our prayer is There's some element of your prayer right now as you sit that you could improve just one little bit Doesn't mean that I'm going to add all these Sunnahs and read longer prayers and get up No, not not a major shift Just one small step that you can do right now to improve your prayer Think about it. There's something that we can all improve on and Once we achieve that a year down the road if we ask ourselves this again, can I improve it one more bit? There'll always be room for improvement. We can always improve whatever we're doing The element of the Sunnah that I want us to focus on and remember Is that the Messenger of Allah? Salallahu Alaihi Wasallam used to ask about people his Sahaba and he would say how are you doing? Now we say salams assalamu alaikum. How are you doing? We think we do it automatically, but we don't realize the Magnitude of what's behind that question How are you doing? It's a question where we can gauge this this person, you know, we meet as human beings all that how are you doing? I'm doing good. I'm doing good. We don't realize that throughout the day We're checking in with each other sometimes now in the literature. They call it a check-in Just to make sure is everybody okay? Is everybody okay because if somebody's not okay for whatever reason economically like financially physically mentally Emotionally Dean wise we want to address that we don't want to just gloss it over. How are you doing brother? I'm not doing too well today. Why I missed, you know, Fajr or I Had a fight with my friend or my employer. Okay, let's talk about that That's one of the points of that and the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam as it's mentioned in the Seerah Can I a tefaqa do us? Can in the be you sallallahu alaihi wa sallam you tefaqa do us? He used to ask about them If he didn't see somebody coming regularly he would ask it. We're so and so we haven't seen him for a while and We do that and we can all improve on that But if we if you see somebody coming in a regular place coming to school at a specific time And then one day they don't come to school at that time or they don't come to work or they miss a few Jama'as You can implement the Sunnah saying let's check in on that brother or that sister. Let's see how they're doing So we're doing this check-in and then giving that time and given that openness to actually be present with the person To notice what they're saying To notice what they're saying because sometimes a person could say I'm doing okay, but because you know that person You notice something's different in the way. They're saying it and they're the tone or the pitch You notice something's different about their body language You notice something is different about the way they carry carry themselves and this is the believer has to be is Caius and Fat'in as the messenger of Allah Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said he described the believer we the believers in Allah the ummah of Muhammad We are Caius and we are Fat'in. We are discerning people We are discerning people and we're Insightful people we think beyond what's right here in front of us We believe what's right here what we believe beyond what's right here in front of us We know there's two angels with every single one of us right here We start with that we believe and so not only do we have more insight into the unseen We also have more insight into the world around us because we're looking. We're searching. We're asking about things We're looking for opportunities for our growth for other people's growth So if we see somebody who's not we know they're not doing well we can ask more about that in the Quran Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala In an ayah encouraging us to give Sadaqa Reminds us to look for a very specific type of person who is in need Because there's certain people who are in need their need is clear everybody sees it If somebody is on the streets with their hands stretched out and their clothes are Torn and their hair and face is disheveled. They have no place to live They have no food for their stomach. You can tell this person is in need That person it's easy to spot and find and give Sadaqa to that person Allah reminds us to look for another type of Fakir another type of person who is in need The person who That the person who doesn't know and in this ayah Jahi doesn't mean like ignorant It just means you don't know about their state But if you don't know about their state you would think that this person is wealthy And I want each one of us to think about somebody in their life That you might have known Later was in need Financially, but they never showed it They maintained a certain presence about themselves. They didn't want people to think oh, that's a Fakir I should help them out with Sadaqa. They maintained a presence about themselves. They didn't ask questions Asking people and if they ask it's just a simple ask. It's not Ilha It's not like oh come on. Help me out. Help me out. It's just a subtle Request and Allah reminds us reminds the believers look for those people too look for the people That the Jahil the one who is unaware of their state. This is not a negative use of Jahil It just means you don't know about their state You would think they are not in need because of their ifa because of their modesty about their state So this is where we need to develop our giving to others because the Fakir the one in need is not just the person who doesn't have wealth it's the person who is in need of anything and If somebody is in need of reaching out to somebody else we have to be that person for them And so we can ask and sometimes people will tell us but even if they don't tell us develop our sense of cagiousness and Fatin our insight and our perception so that we say no, I think I think we should talk Let me call you up. I got some time and and show them that you have the time for them The messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wasallam one of his descriptions is that he was very welcoming to the people at first They said the first at first glance when people would see him sallallahu alaihi wasallam Habahu They have Heba of him and Think about the ummah of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam as we stand in the world today when people see us There's a certain level of Heba standoffness And we're not going to completely remove that because that's from his Sunnah that Allah gave to him And he has made it a part of our ummah that we carry a certain element of that Heba of that awe-inspiring presence of that fear-inspiring presence But also that state would not linger because once the people did Iqtilat with him once they sat with him once they spoke with him once he spoke with him They loved him so they easily went from the Heba of the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wasallam to the love So what we have to think of is who in our circles are stuck in that Heba mode where they don't want to open up to us They don't want to reach out for help to ask from us because we've made we've put up too many shields too Many barriers too many hurdles for them to actually have us engage with them We should be more open so that we can engage with the person and Then once that person opens up then we give them our time and that's part of the well-coming not I'm busy I'm busy I'm busy because we're all we can all be full of busyness in our life But if we really stop and give a moment to our brothers and our sisters in faith and our brothers and sisters in humanity Then it'll be a part of our it is a part of our Dean that we can that can have a direct impact in preserving the life because the sanctity of life The preservation of life is one of the core elements of the sharia if we look at if we sift through all of the rulings of Islam and we break break them down to Five things one of them is the preservation of life So a core element of who we are as Muslims a core element of what Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala is telling us in the Quran a Core element of the the mission and the message of the messenger of Allah So Allah is preserved life and we have to do whatever we can to be part of that process May Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala give us the tawfiq and give us the success to be that part Alhamdulillah Wa Salatu wa Salamu ala Rasulillah wa ala alihi wa sahabi wa man wa ala Ma ba'ad fa ya'ibad Allah usikum wa usik nafsih bi taqwa Allah Taqwa Allah fa siri wa ala aniyah Taqwa Allah wa yuallimakum Allah We praise Allah we send peace and blessings upon his most noble and final messenger Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and I enjoy you and myself to have taqwa of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala Avoiding the prohibitions of Allah outwardly and inwardly and fulfilling the commands of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala outwardly and inwardly We can also look at how the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam when he would ask people about their state how they responded and The encouragement for that is that for each of us We don't have to always hold it inside and we don't have to always keep it to ourselves and say you know what? I'm going to depend on Allah and I'm not going to talk to anybody about this We can reach out to people We can see that the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam when he was overcome with something that he did Didn't know what it was. What was the first thing he did? He ran from Ghahirah down to his wife Khadija radiallahu anha and He told her what happened to him. He reached out to her and She responded and she had a way of dealing with that situation and then reaching out to professional advice She went to her cousin and said can you help us explain now? It was that was why that's not a Mental health or an emotional issue But the lesson that we're getting is that if you have something that's overwhelming Reach out to somebody who can then connect you with with a professional who can help you understand that again It's not a mental health experience that the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam was going through I'm just using it as an example of that the Sunnah is reach out when you need somebody and you can look for professional help as well Another thing that we see is that one of the Sahaba when the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam asked him how he was doing A lot of times the Sahaba would say How wonderful is my state? How wonderful is my state once I read one of the narrations one of the Sahaba said be How wretched is my state In other words, you don't have to cover it up if you're having a horrible time That's what be salhal means. I'm in a horrible state If you're in a horrible state and somebody asks you kayfa asbaht. How are you doing? I'm not doing well Have the courage to do that But again, it has to be with somebody that you can trust that's gonna have that tarheeb that openness that Welcomeness to accept that not just brush it off not just say oh a believer doesn't layu saba bil ikti'ab A believer doesn't get depressed as many people TV sheikhs will tell people when they say I'm having some depression That's not how we just brush it off or tell people have stronger iman or say oh as a Muslim You you don't need to you shouldn't have to deal with this note These are real situations One of the of car of the messiah was sabaah the evenings in the mornings that many of us do but we don't know the story behind it That is Allahumma, I mean I would have become an ill-hemmy will hasn't until the end of the hadith That hadith that we many of us recite in the mornings in the evenings that hadith came when the messenger of Allah Salallahu Alaihi s-salam walked into the message He saw one of the Sahaba abu umma ma radiallahu anhu sitting in the masjid in the prophet Salallahu Alaihi s-salam asked him Why do I find you in the masjid in other than the times of prayer in other words? This is awkward. This is different. There's something is different about your daily schedule If you were here five ten twenty minutes before the prayer Understandable a few minutes after the prayer understandable. You're here for the Jama'a But I see you here at a time where there's no prayer time Imagine you walk in Wednesday morning 10 a.m. You see somebody up against the wall. We say okay He's either got a day off or some time off or maybe he's going through something And so this is what the prophet Salallahu Alaihi s-salam was asking him about Why do I see you in the masjid at not of a time of prayer? He said humum and do you know? I have a lot of humum thoughts anxieties that are overwhelming me and I have do you know And I have debts think about that Here's one of the great Sahaba Going through a lot of thoughts that are overwhelming him and debts financial crisis and the prophet Salallahu Alaihi s-salam taught him this du'a that now we recite in the morning in the evening and then made du'a for him But it's another example of how he would reach out and ask about that and notice something different about them in Arabic It's called lisan al-hal So there's the lisan the tongue that will tell the person Exactly what I my state is cave al-hal. How are you doing? What's your state and they'll respond with their tongue? But then there's the the tongue of the state lisan al-hal where you can tell something about this person Oh, and now you have to use your insight and you have to hold that moment and actually be present with that person and say Is something going on and then they can open up and you can share with them if the person Again that could be any range of things But if the person is having Suicidal thoughts or suicidal ideations There are ways to reach out and this country has made a very easy way now in addition to 911 where you can call for an emergency They have 988 that people can call or text if it's something if it's a mental health crisis specifically if it's a suicide crisis So we as Muslims should know that and be those first responders And if we are aware of something that we can hopefully be part of that preservation of a light of life That is so important to our Dean may Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala make us from amongst the people who follow the Quran May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala make us from amongst the people who understand the Quran May Allah make us from amongst the people who understand and follow the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala make us from amongst the people who love the Messenger of Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam Who love him more than they love themselves who love Him more than they love their children and their families and their wealth. May Allah Subhanahu Wa'Ta'Ala give us the tawfiq and the success to be from amongst the people who are Ibad-ul-Rahman, and who walk on the earth here. May Allah Subhanahu Wa'Ta'Ala make us from amongst the people who are the Ibad-ul-Rahman, the servants of the Rahman who walk lightly upon the earth. And may Allah Subhanahu Wa'Ta'Ala make us from amongst His servants, His Ibad that preserve the life of people.