 who reminds us that of his many qualities of his many attributes of his many characteristics that his mercy encompasses us all and he does not start with the one who is just in the Avenger of wrongs he starts with ar-Rahman the one who is universally merciful to all those who believe in or disbelieve regardless of who they are they are recipients of Allah Azza Wajan's mercy or ar-Rahim those that are those that receive his particular mercy right so though we receive existence we receive life we receive wealth we receive children but we also receive an abundance of wealth we receive an abundance of and we receive happiness with our children we receive the Quran we receive Hidayah we receive the Shafa'ah we receive the intercession of the beloved so Allah and the Akhirah and that is ar-Rahim the one who gives us gives us these particular mercy so when we say Bismillah that we start in the name of that Lord the Lord that has made us under his subject under his under his under his control that he has made us people who are oriented towards him Azza Wajan rather than oriented to anything else that would disappoint us it is from the mercy of Allah Azza Wajan that he has not left us to our own devices that he has not left us to just figure it out right it is not it is from the mercy of Allah Azza Wajan that he has sent us guidance it's from the mercy of Allah Azza Wajan that he has told us that we are imams of ourselves that we are imams of our own soul that is between our two sides when the Prophet says that every single one of you is a shepherd and every single one of you will be asked about your flock and you might think that I have no influence I do not have a circle of influence over any person in my life no one listens to me I'm not in any sort of religious leadership nor am I in any sort of political leadership I'm not the leader of my family I'm not the leader of my friends I'm not the leader and this this place or that place and this is not this does not mean that you're not a leader because at the very least you're the leader of the the nuts that you have inside of yourself the soul that you have inside of yourself that nuts that either calls you to do those things that are unbefitting of that soul that that soul was created to worship Allah Azza Wajan and it was not created to disobey him that that soul either does that and it's it's let loose to do what it wants it to engage in whatever desire that it has or it has taqwa it has God consciousness and this is a month in which Allah has ordained for us prescribed for us fasting he's commanded us to fast why لعلكم تتقون so that you have God consciousness so that when nobody is looking when nobody sees that you remember Allah is watching that Allah I am preventing myself from engaging in the halal of eating and drinking and so forth when other times I have difficulty engaging to have difficulty stopping myself from engaging in the haram that this is a month in which we are imbuing our souls with taqwa which we are filling our souls with taqwa God consciousness aware that Allah Azza Wajan is there and whatever level of taqwa we might have in the very least of that is to avoid his prohibitions and to enact his commandments to avoid those things that Allah has commanded us to avoid and to do those things that Allah has commanded us to do and if we can do that then our soul becomes a soul that is no longer a marabisu that is commanding it is this is commanding you to do evil it's the soul that is that soul that is that is reproaching you and in joining you to do good and that soul is the soul that is an Imam of your body you do not want to take the soul that is commanding you to do evil commanding you to displease Allah and His messengers and you do not want to take that soul as your Imam and so for taqwa starts primarily with leaving off the prohibitions of Allah and this month is a time when we train ourselves to not just leave his prohibitions but we even leave those things that are legitimate for us Imam Abu-l-Hassan Al-Shadrani one of the great spiritual masters of the tradition he says he says be wary of falling into sin falling into transgression falling into disobedience time and time again with absolutely no regard of the fact that you are falling into a sin time and time again that the one who because the one who transgresses the bounds of Allah that is an oppressor and the oppressor is not fit to be an Imam not fit to be a leader you are not fit to be a leader of yourself if you engage if we engage we're not fit to be leaders of our own bodies if we engage in things that brings about Allah's displeasure that we are not ready to take care of the flock of our own selves before worrying about taking the flock of those around us right our immediate family and then after that our extended family and then the circle of our friends and the circle of the community we cannot be people who are ready to have any sort of influence on another if we are not fit to be the Imam of our own selves and so we need to recognize that often times we transgress our own against our own selves the the oppression that we commit is often against our own selves and if we cannot recognize that and we do not take heed from from that we are going to see that there's going to be corruption spread in the land in the sea Allah says the corruption is sown in the land and in the sea with what the hands of people have earned the state that we are in we find ourselves in if we find a lack of khushua in our prayers if we find a lack of of presence in our prayers if we find that the umma is in a state that we don't want it to be in we find that our families are torn apart we find that our friends our circle of friends there's enmity and there's jealousy and there's aggression in between one another where did this come from bima kasabat aid in nas that this is with what the hands of people have earned that Allah is showing us that this is what our hands have earned and why so that they can taste they can experience they can feel something of what they did Allah is so merciful that he does not allow us to experience everything the repercussions of everything that we do is just a bit of what we do and in that affliction of feeling the repercussions of our actions is a mercy because Allah only does this so that we are aware that he is there that we are put into a sense of desperation that yeah Allah I cannot even control my own self yeah Allah I'm not fit of even controlling my own self so yeah Allah you take the reins yeah Allah that any good I do is from you and I say Allah praise be to Allah that Allah is the one that gave me that good and Allah is greater that he is the only source of that good and this I am you think about him be my but I don't know what I'm you know why I love him your ji'oon so that they can return back they can return back to Allah Azawajan so that if we want to be people who are imbuing our souls with Taqwa who are inculcating Taqwa God weariness in our lives this starts first and foremost by leaving off the prohibitions of Allah Azawajan it first starts with Taqliya with with with removing those characteristics for ourselves we cannot have Taqliya we cannot have adornment of our own selves our own souls with good characteristics and good qualities if we consistently sully and dirty our souls with evil acts and we cannot be people who are fit to lead our own selves an Imam is someone that you look at and you see that this is it this is a person that you want to you want to emulate right you look at them the Imam of all the Mursaleen sallAllahu alayhi sallam and you want to emulate him sallAllahu alayhi sallam and that and and and you look at him and the Taqliya that he has those beautiful characteristics he has with those beautiful characteristics be possible if he was if there were evil characteristics in him if that health of shaitan of that portion of shaitan was not taken out of him sallAllahu alayhi sallam would that be possible that we need to remove our and here shaitan is locked up in this month and we experience we experience that we don't have as much of an inclination to do evil acts in Ramadan even if we don't consider ourselves religious sometimes it's the guilt or the shame that brings us to stop doing evil deeds even if we're engaged in things even if we're engaged in things that are haram this in this month of Ramadan those people that we look at and we see them and they say and we tell ourselves this is a person that does not come to the masjid this is a person that that is not concerned about about Allah Azza wa Jad even that person that when we look at their Eman and this is beautiful that their Eman is so strong that it stops them from engaging in the prohibitions of Allah and so when we look at that person we should be reminded of Allah Azza wa Jad that this person who I look down upon is not engaging in those things that Allah has prohibited so what about myself I come to the masjid I'm at Juma I read Quran I am a person who has influence amongst my circle of friends right am I not myself a volume and my myself not an oppressor right and if you can turn and see the fault in yourself rather than the fault in the other that's how you know Allah wants good for you but if a lot busy you busy you with the faults of others and the the the gaps that people have in their character of their practice then you then Allah is Allah is distracting you from what you need to fix yourself what we need to fix ourselves from the villain the oppression that we commit ourselves against ourselves this is not oppression against Allah Azza wa Jad. Say Allah says this is one of the most hopeful ayaat in the Quran that oh say all my servants Allah is giving you that this is Allah's still that you are that we might transgress we might commit evil deeds but Allah says still says you are my servant. Say all my servants who have transgressed against themselves that do not have despair from the mercy of Allah. Allah forgives all sins right Allah forgives all sins one of the most hopeful ayaats in the Quran and so that we need to start in this Ramadan if we have not started now and if we think we've started we haven't really started if we think we've gotten somewhere we haven't really gotten anywhere yet right the people who if you've met the people who arrived did not think that they've arrived somewhere they see there are many deficiencies and they see the grace of Allah that he is not taking the Iman from them we need to start leaving those prohibitions and perhaps we don't commit major sins perhaps we don't even commit minor sins but there are thoughts that pass through our minds that we might have about ourselves or others about Allah Azza wa Jad that we're responsible for and the person who does this that the person who leaves off prohibitions and is patient through the afflictions that Allah has put them through because no one in this life will be free of affliction everyone will go through hardship the the most wealthy of us the most healthy of us and those that are the most sick of us and the the most destitute of us everyone will have afflictions so if you have sabr through those afflictions and you leave off your prohibitions and you are certain about the promise of Allah that it will come and certain of the fact that if you do not stop this Allah has also promised this threat then fahuwa imam wa inqallat atba'uhu that person is an Imam that person is a leader that person is is is set to lead them their own soul and lead their own bodies then and then in turn lead the other and then in turn lead the family and then in turn lead the extended family in this circle of friends and then extended community and so on and so forth that it starts with the self and if we want the facade the corruption in the earth and the sea right if we want if we want we can even say pollution in the earth and see to disappear the starts with ourselves to be my guess about aid in us we have to start with ourselves and that when we are afflicted with something that we take this as an opportunity to turn back to Allah say yeah Allah you have shown me the affliction of my own actions and yeah Allah I take this as a sign that I should come back to you I'll come to go to Hatha was the first of Allah only one of the side must mean you can't stop you know what the full raha is from now and I'm doing now was a lot of sunam on our son and I'll Ali he was a happy human well nothing that we said in the last 17 minutes or so is something that we haven't heard in our lives before we all know deep down in ourselves and it's that knowledge that we know in ourselves that brings us to the masjid that brings us to pray brings us to fast we all know that we're going to be accountable one day we all know that we have deficiencies we all no matter how hard we try to dilute ourselves that we are well we are good and well that we're fine and the others have and the other has a problem we all know that we have deficiencies and we all know there's there's room for improvement in all of us in this month of Ramadan is a madrasa it is a time of learning right of of dars of in the loss of erasure erasing those qualities right dars the word dars is related to word in the loss which means to erase right we should take this month as a time of dars and in the loss as a term of time of learning but also a time of erasure of those qualities that we're not fit that that Allah there's not fit to be in our souls Allah has created this this soul with nobility will a good carum na bani Adam Allah has and it has created your soul with nobility and Allah says we have a noble the child the child the children of Adam A.S. the soul was not made to engage in the prohibitions the soul is not made to be heedless of Allah Aziz and we know we know that deep down in ourselves whether we hear reminders or not we know that in ourselves and so we should take this as a month to engage in the Quran and engage in the Sunnah of the walking Quran so Allah send them and what if we are deficient in these two things that we bring these back into our lives and if if we are deficient in our engagement in our relationship with Allah Aziz and in our relationship with the Prophet ﷺ that this is a time that we renew that and we make we renew that covenant we have with with Allah and the Prophet ﷺ the covenant of alas to be rabbi kumqadu bala shahidna that am I not your Lord of course right of course and we witness to remind ourselves that we made that covenant and that we do not want to be presented as liars in front of Allah Aziz and so may Allah Aziz and make us people of taqwa may Allah Aziz and make us imams of our own selves may Allah Aziz and make us righteous imams may Allah Aziz and make us people who are worthy of having the flock may Allah Aziz and give us God consciousness may Allah Aziz and give us patience may Allah Aziz and give us gratitude may Allah Aziz Aza second gives us faith and trust may you hate God maybe gives us certainty may you give us God make people who are care良ed to ourselves and to a lot and to the other and we may be sources of mercy for others may we be sources of mercy for others that when others look at us they they're reminded of their Merciful Lord Azawajan, they remind them of their Merciful Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. May we be prophetic in our states, in our actions, in our words, in our Aqwal, Af'al, and Ahwal. May we be people whose hearts imbue Eman unto others. May our hearts be hearts that when people are engaged with those hearts, that is sufficient for them to become meaning, sufficient for them to become believers. May Allah Azawajan make us people of solace and peace. May Allah Azawajan make us people who have peace in our lives who are a source of peace for others. May Allah Azawajan make us recognize that Allah is the ultimate source of peace. The ultimate source of Salam. Allahumma anta al-salam. Wa minka al-salam. Tubarak ta'iyyad al-injalali wa laykaram ha'ina. Wa dikhil al-adha al-salam. Rabbana aatina fid dunya hasana. Wa fil aakhirati hasana quna aadab al-naar. Rabbana hablana min az-wajina. Wa dhibriyatina qurta ta'ina. Wa ja'anna lil muttaqini imama. May Allah Azawajan have mercy on our teachers, particular first teachers, our parents. Rabbir hamhuma kama rabbianis aghira. Rabbir hamhuma kama rabbianis aghira. Rabbir hamhuma kama rabbianis aghira. May Allah Azawajan allow us to recognize that Allah and His angels send their prayers and peace upon them as the beloved Salah has sent them.