 مده ونستعينه ونستوفره ونعود بالله من شرور أنفسنا ومن سيئات أعماننا من يهده الله فلا مدلله ومن يدلل فلا هادي الله وأشهر أن لا إله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له وأشهر أن محمدا عبده ورسوده والله عليه وعلى آله وأسحابه أجمعين وسلم قال الله في كتابه العزيز بعد أعود بالله من الشيطان أرجيم بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم يا أيها الناس اتقوا ربكم الذي خلقكم الذي خلقكم من نفس واحده وخلق منها زوجها وبث منهما رجانا كثين ونساء واتقوا الله الذي تساءلون به والأرحام إن الله كان عليكم رقيب وفي مكان آخر يا أيها الذين آمنوا اتقوا الله يا أيها الذين آمنوا اتقوا الله حق قاته ولا تموتن إلا وأنهم مسلمون الحمد لله كل محاولة هو لدي الله نحاوله نحاوله أساعده ونحاوله أسفه نحاول محاولة في الله من نفسنا من نفسنا ونفهم that whoever Allah chooses to guide there will be none to misguide that person and whoever Allah lets go misguided there will be none to guide that person and we testify that there is no god no deity worthy of worship except Allah alone he has no partner and that Muhammad peace and prayers of Allah be upon him upon his companions and his family and all those who choose to follow him until the last day is the prophet, the messenger and the servant of Allah الله says in the beautiful Quran translation of which is Oh you people fear your Lord who created you from one soul and from that soul it's mate and from these two sent forth many men and many women and fear and have consciousness of Allah through whom you ask of all your various needs and the wombs that bore you truly Allah is always ever watchful over you and in another place he says Oh you who believe fear and have consciousness of Allah as is his right as we ought to as you ought to oh you who believe and do not die except in a state of complete submission to him and so it's of this last verse that we often here recited said in خطبه that I want to base the خطبه of today التقوى الله حق تقاته ولا تموتن إلا وانتو مسلمون have takwa of Allah have fear of Allah have consciousness of Allah as is his ought fear Allah see Allah be with Allah as you ought to and do not die except as Muslims except in a state of Islam except in submission complete submission to Allah and so one of the questions we must ask ourselves when we come across an ayah like this is how how do we develop takwa of Allah how do we understand it how do we reach that how do we make sure to fulfill this exhortation that is in the Quran and comes across in many other places in other ways as well what is takwa and how do we approach it first of all the ayah says التقوى الله حق تقاته have consciousness of Allah as as is his right حق تقاته and we realize that as created beings as limited men and women with limited potential we need to ask ourselves how could we ever really understand what that means understand what takwa means so when I say I want takwa in my life what does that mean many of us these days we go throughout our week and we come to our five daily prayers or to anything else that's supposed to remind us of Allah supposed to build takwa in us and it's not happening we're feeling where is Allah where is my relationship with Allah where, how do I improve because these things that I'm doing they're not bringing me to that place they're not creating this thing that I want to feel this takwa this consciousness this witnessing that I say on my tongue with the shahada I say that in every prayer I make and every time I want to make zikr too sometimes I say that اشهروا على إله إلا الله that's how I began my life as a Muslim and insha'Allah that's how I will end my life in this world too may Allah grant us the tawfeeq to be able to exit from this world with إله إلا الله being the last word upon our tongues often we're in this position thinking I'm doing all the right things aren't I why can I not find Allah in the Quran why can I not find Allah in Salah how can I not develop takwa in all these things that he's saying will help develop takwa in me Allah also says in Surat Al-Baqara that fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed as it was written for those who came before in order that you may achieve takwa so some of us may be fasting in order to achieve that in order to get to consciousness of Allah but sometimes it doesn't happen and so one of the first things we have to realize is who is putting the takwa in our lives is it us who are doing these various activities that are going to bring us closer to Allah no no Allah puts the takwa in our lives and Allah brings us close to him Allah is close to us and our job is to turn ourselves to Allah in such a way that we start to realize how close we are to Allah we start to realize that Allah is with us in every single moment and not just when we feel like having him with us and so sometimes when we think I'm doing this thing why am I not achieving this result from it for one who is the slave and who is the Lord are we telling Allah when we want him in our lives yeah Allah please come to me in my Salah but the rest of the time when I'm at work when I'm driving on the freeway when I'm with my family I prefer you to take kind of a back seat there but when I'm in my Salah I want you to be there I need you to be there so that I can feel like I'm gaining something from Salah and surely if you've written Salah upon me five times a day surely you want me to receive the benefit of that so why am I not feeling you in the Salah does that sound like the talk of a slave or does that sound like the talk of a Lord who is the Lord and who is the slave SubhanAllah if we're going to be truly ready to see Allah in the places where we want to see him we have to be ready to see Allah in the places where we don't want to see him if we're going to see Allah when we come to the Masjid if we're going to feel the brotherhood and the sisterhood that Allah's Dean should bring us then we need to be prepared to see the changes that being true witnesses for Allah will bring in us when we're with other people and outside of the Masjid oftentimes when we're with other people we're not thinking of how to see Allah in that moment we're not thinking of how to see Allah through other people often what we're thinking is how can I see myself in that person because if I can see myself in other people then I can deal with it but Allah I don't know that's something that I really understand I understand Allah when he comes to me in Salah I understand Taqwa when I feel something and I feel close to Allah in Salah but oftentimes we can find Allah in the most remarkable of places that when we truly understand that Allah is the Creator of everything in this world every person in this world every action in this world everything that could come about he is the Lord he is the Creator he is the originator he is the overseer of every single thing once we start to understand that reality we start to see that we can have the vision to start feeling Allah's presence in every part of our lives but often when we're interacting with other people we think that Allah is with us before we think that Allah is with other people that if I see a brother who I've seen from the Master and I see him in another context not doing exactly the same thing that I do in the exact same way that I do it not making zikr when I make zikr not making his prayer the way I make my prayer I start assuming that Allah is with me and not with that brother or sister that if only I could convince that brother to be with me that's how I could convince that brother to be with Allah that's not how it works often often our own selves are the veils between us and Allah such that if we could start seeing how other people are close to Allah and how other situations involve closeness to Allah in them then that would be truly a profound effect that we could have on society the Prophet عليه الصلاة و السلام was who he was and was able to develop the community that he developed not because not because he was the only one who saw Allah but that he understood that he could bring other people to that station as well he could see that in every person their Creator is Allah and therefore he could bring every person in his community رضي الله عنهم may Allah be pleased with them to some kind of consciousness in themselves that would bring them to see Allah in their own way because every person has their particular way that they find Allah that doesn't mean to say that there aren't certain certain specific ways in which in which the path to Allah has been defined no, we understand that Islam sets out a plan for us sets out certain guidelines we can't just go on our whims and think we can approach Allah by doing whatever we want to do and we can't let other people fall into that fallacy as well but still the specific way in which I find Allah and I find closeness to Allah is not the specific way in which another person will one example there are many movies that come out in the summer summer blockbusters and now we're heading towards that time when the summer blockbusters start coming out and many of us as Muslims we wonder how could we how could we really see Allah in a place like that see Allah in a movie which has this big industry often has things that we don't want to be looking at bodies that we don't want to be looking at language we don't want to hear things we don't want to see but one of the things about summer blockbusters is that it gives people who have no other frame of reference in which to feel the greatness that they know is present somewhere in the world it allows them to feel that greatness when you see big explosions on the screen when you see these huge storylines that go from looking like everything is a failure at the beginning to everything working out at the end this is greatness that people can witness on the screen and what is it when people want to see that and find pleasure in that they're finding pleasure in remembering what it meant to experience greatness remembering that day that happened before we all came into this world when we witnessed Allah and Allah asked us بيربكم as we're told in the Quran Allah asked every soul am I not your lord and every soul all of us responded but yes you are our lord and so we can understand that when we begin to relate to others and see how they might be inclined to seeing manifestations of Allah in this world that's when we can start to connect to them and when we start feeling in ourselves how we can bring consciousness of Allah into our various parts of our lives outside of the parts where we normally think that we'll find Allah that will bring us into a closer relationship with Him in those times when we do actually want to see Allah as well so when we're on the freeway worrying about how to merge where we need to get to all of these things when we start saying and making ذكر saying and saying we start bringing consciousness of Allah into that moment when we look at the world around us as we're driving when we say what Allah has created we're bringing consciousness of Allah into that moment and the more we can do that in our lives and the more we push ourselves and allow ourselves to be changed by the ذكر of Allah by the remembrance both on the tongue and in seeing His signs in the world and reflecting on them throughout every moment of our lives the more we can start to being open to that and start to train ourselves and after that the more Allah will be present in all of those times especially the times when we want Him to be present so if we want خشور in صلاح if we want to understand the Quran if we want to feel ذكر and we want to achieve تكوة we have to be ready to take all of these other parts of our lives that happen outside of that and regarding all of them say Allah we give them up to Allah we understand that they want even hours in the first place everything is for Allah including ourselves إِنَّا دِلَّاهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ we belong to Allah and to Him we are returning if only we can wake up and understand what that means I'll call it قولي قولي هادة وأستغفر الله ولكم وليسائر المسلمين I say this my speech and I seek refuge and seek forgiveness from Allah for me, for you and for the rest of the Muslims see forgiveness from Him during this blessed time for barely He is most forgiving most merciful الحمد لله رب العالمين all praises due to Allah Lord of the worlds Allah also says in the Quran إعود بالله من الشيطان ورديم إن الله وملائكته يصلون على النبي يا أيها الذين آمنوا صلوا عليه وسنموا تسليما اللهم صلي على سيدنا محمد وعلى آل محمد كما صليت على إبراهيم وعلى آل إبراهيم وبارك على محمد وعلى آل محمد كما باركت على إبراهيم الله also says in the Quran that He and His angels send prayers upon the Prophet and peace upon Him Oh you who believe send prayers upon Him and peace upon Him and in this thing too we can understand too that when we read the Quran and come to things like this that when we are with the people of Allah and when we are with those who are with Allah that will facilitate our closeness to Allah as well so I exhort you to Taqwa of Allah I exhort you to good companionship because it is through being with the people of Allah that they will bring us close to Allah it is said that those who are making theka of Allah and praising Him when they do so those who are just around in the general area get the blessing too and they get those angels so a blessed thing it would be to be with the angels and be with Allah when we say peace and praise upon the Prophet الله هم صلي وسلم عليه وعلى آله وأصحابي أجمعين وعلى من تبيهو بإحسانين إذا يوم الدين الله great praise and peace upon the Prophet Muhammad upon his family his companions and all those who choose to follow him may he make us among them yeah Allah yeah Allah grant us Taqwa yeah Allah grant us good in this world good in the best world good in the next world and save us from the punishment of the fire yeah Allah help us to understand what good is in this world and what good is in the next world yeah Allah grant us that consciousness grant us that understanding help us live according to it yeah Allah show us the reality of this and how we can live according to it yeah Allah help us to show others the reality of this deen and live according to it yeah Allah yeah Allah return the Muslims to that deen with a beautiful returning yeah Allah yeah Allah grant us respite in this world save all those people under oppression especially those in this ummah of your beloved Prophet صلى الله عليه و آله و سلم and count us among them on the last day do not let us die except we are among them and our last word in this life إله إلا الله truly understanding its meanings and implementing it throughout our lives أمين أمين والصلاة والسلام على الرسول الله والحمد لله رب العالمين أقم الصلاة