 We're here inshaAllah on the Eid al-Adha and this is a great blessing in a time of difficulty for our community and for the larger human community for many, many reasons. The Eid is a time of joy but there's also because of so much of what's going on in the world it's also a time where we should be thinking deeply about the human condition about where we are as a species, about where our ummah is as a community, many, many things to think about. Allah SWT made this a day of remembrance, a day of joy. The Prophet ﷺ said in his Irofa hadith, Musal sal, he said that It's a time of eating and drinking and remembering Allah. We tend to forget in this cornucopia of the modern world that people actually did not have a lot to eat in the past. Many places they had famines were quite common and this is why today was a day when the Prophet ﷺ, the sunnah, is to sacrifice and the Prophet ﷺ told us that the most beloved action to Allah on this day is Ihraqu d-damm, is actually to sacrifice. And what do we do with the sacrifice? When he prayed they brought the kibsh after the prayer and he sacrificed it in his own hands, Allah SWT and he said, I'm doing the sacrifice for myself and for my ummah because many people are poor, they can't afford to do this. Unfortunately many of us are able to do this. Now is a time though to really send it overseas to the places where they really need it because we don't need meat here, you know. But there are many places where people really are having difficult time. But he sacrificed for himself and for his ummah and this is a reminder of the great gift Ibrahim ﷺ, who's our father and the father of our Prophet ﷺ. He's our spiritual father because this is his millah, it's called the millah Ibrahimiyah. And even though the sun is the Afqal, the father is always honored. Ibrahim ﷺ said that we still follow today. But the most important thing about Ibrahim ﷺ that I see is his absolute tawheed and tawakkur. And Imam al-Ghazali in his book, the Ihiyaah, he put tawheed and tawakkur together. And this is the foundation of our ummah and our teaching is tawheed and tawakkur. That we unify Allah SWT and we trust in Allah SWT. And this is why the when if you look at the the amazing story when the Prophet ﷺ Ibrahim took his wife and his and she was she was a legitimate wife of Ibrahim ﷺ and he is a legitimate son despite what some of the other traditions say about Ismail. It's not true. Ismail was legitimate son of Ibrahim. He's the first born and the Ahad is with him as well as with Ishaq. He went to he took Hajar to a place when you look at it it's a complete trust in Allah SWT. A place that has Wajal Ghairi di Zara'in. There's nothing there. And so he took him and she asked him as he was leaving is this you or did Allah tell you to do this? He said no, Allah told me to do this. She said then I'm a Rabbi. I mean she was content. She raised Ismail there and the the Arabs that were there these are the original Arabs and Arab and Arba'i they taught him Arabic. Ibrahim when he came they married him because they were very impressed with him great archer even the Bible mentions about him. They were very impressed with him as a man and so despite the fact that was not their ad their norm they married him to one of their daughters. Ibrahim alaihi salam visited from Sham. When he came there he saw the woman and and he asked where's your husband? She said he's out hunting and he said how are things here for you? How are things here? And she said terrible. They're horrible. And the Prophet ﷺ in Sahih Bukhari said she complained to him about their conditions. So then he said when your husband comes back, give him my salam and tell him to change the the ataba of his Bab, like the when you come into a house the ataba is the thing before the before the door the door mat. He said change that. So then Ismail came back and he noticed Anas the had he says like he noticed something and he asked her what happened today? She said she came sheikhun kada wa kada. He just said sheikh old man came and he said well what happened? He said he asked about our aish and I told him and then he he said did he alfaki bishay did he tell you to do anything? He said he said to give you salam and to say to change the door trust the trestle of your door and he said that was my father and he told me to separate from you so ilhaqi bi ahliki. Go and join your family. He divorced her. Why did he do that? Because Ibrahim was going he made a dua with Ismail when they built the house. Send a messenger from them and then he said that you alamuhum il kitab wal hikma, send a messenger from them who will recite to them your signs and he will So teach them the book and the wisdom and he will purify them because you are al-Aziz al-Hakim. So he knew that the source had to be pure, the Prophet ﷺ said, تخيروا من نطفكم like make sure that the one you marry is the right one because you're going to plant seeds so the earth has to be good earth. So he married another woman from them, Ibrahim came again visiting them and what did he say? He said, كيف عيشوكي because his Ismail was out hunting, he said, كيف عيشوكي? She said, oh we're in blessing. Nothing changed except the understanding, the mentality changed. Same conditions, but the woman she didn't complain, جهن احنو في نعمة, we're in blessings. في ساعة, she said the opposite of the other woman, the other one said نحنو في ضيق وشده. She said نحنو في ساعة, we're in blessing. He said, what food are you eating? She said اللحم والماء, meat and he said وشرابكي, she said water and he said, اللهم بارك في لحمكي وفي ماءكي. May Allah bless that meat and bless that water. The Prophet ﷺ said لم يكن عندهم حب. They didn't have seeds, had they had seeds you would have blessed the seeds. All they were eating was meat and water. The Prophet ﷺ said ليس الابني آدم حقم إلا من هذه الخصان. The son of Adam that has no rights except for these, بيتون يسكنه وثوبون يوارع عورته وجلف الخبز والماء. That's the only thing we're entitled to as a human being, as a creation of Allah is a house that protects you and for some it's just a tent. Close that you cover your nakedness with and then bread and water. This is basically somebody in prison. That's what a prisoner has. He has a roof over his head. They give him prison outfit and they give him bread and water in some places. Here they get other things but traditionally bread and water was what you gave the prisoner. In the Qarou'een and Tass, where the student studied, they were given just one loaf of bread every day and water as that was their sustenance for like going to college. When you go to college you get that's what they got. A loaf of bread and water and whatever else they had ate was from their own source. So the Prophet ﷺ said, that's all you deserve and the humans are feel so entitled to things. This woman was a pure woman and then she said, when she also said, جان الشيخ حسن الهيئة وأثنت عليه. She saw Ibrahim. She said a beautiful sheikh came to us today and then she praised him. The other one just said, شيخ ون كدر وكدر. So old man came. This is the difference between world views of how you view the world and this is what our religion teaches to change your mentality. Change the way you think about things. Change all this entitlement that modern people have. The crisis on this planet is one thing and one thing alone. Human beings are relying on themselves and they're not relying on Allah. They think they can do it on their own. All of the things that are happening right now are because people no longer call on Allah when they have tribulations. Ibn al-Afa'ilah says, الفاقاته بسط المواهب. Calamities are the spreads of divine gifts. Allah sends calamities to take people back to Him. That's why He sends them. Ibn al-Afa'ilah says that sometimes you will find in calamities what you cannot find in prayer and fasting because prayer and fasting always has the possibility of usur. But when you have a calamity you know that you're nothing. You know that you're a faqir. And this is why the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, a man came to him and said, اِمِيُوَ حِبُكَ. And he said, اَنْضَ مَنْتَرْقُوا. He said, I love you. He said, think about what you're saying. He said, I love you. He said it three times. او قال له مراراً. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, اِنْ كُلتَ تُحِبُونِي فَأَعِدَّ لِلْفَقْرِ تِجْفَافًا. Then get ready for tribulation. Get ready for things that are going to break you. SubhanAllah. اشدوا الناس. بَلَأَنْ الْاَمْبِيَاتُ مَلْأَمْتَرْ فَلْأَمْتَرْ. The people that have the most tribulation in dunya are the Prophets and then those like the Prophets. But we don't like to think about this. People want ease. This is human nature. People want ease. But Allah SWT wants you to know Allah SWT before you are confronted with your own life on the Yomu Qiyana. To have Ma'adifah of Allah SWT. So all of these tribulations that Allah sends to this species is for the benefit. And this is what people don't realize. This is a completely different way of viewing the world. When I was in Mauritania, a man asked me, in Mauritania when they eat, there's so many flies because it's a desert environment. There's so many flies that they will literally pour sugar in the corner to bring the flies there so they can eat without the flies. This, that's how many flies. And a very old sheikh, he was a scholar, a new and he said to me, do they have flies in America? And I said, we rarely get bothered by flies. He said, they're only with the stajal and ni'mah. He said, oh, I seek refuge in Allah. Maybe they're getting their blessings here in the dunya. You think about life, you know. This is a short time. All these tribulations is a short time. Now here, just in conclusion, the Prophet SWT said something that struck me as so extraordinary. And everything he said is amazing, SWT. You know, I have two cats and these cats, they walk around all the time. Like I pray, they come, they do qawaf. And then you see them walking around the house. They're always going in circles. The Prophet SWT, he called them awafoon wa qawafat, the animals that circle you. This is his mulahawa, SWT. I don't think I would have thought of that except because of the hadith that made me think about it. But this is the beauty of the guidance that he gave us. He saw everything, he said, Allahumma ar-deenim asha kama hiya. Show me things as they are. He saw things as they are. So he said something so extraordinary to me. And everything he said is extraordinary. He said, Badru is a hadith that Abu Hurayra relates. He said, Badru bil-A'man is haba'an. Pason, preempt with actions seven things. Preempt with actions seven things. Initiate your deeds, your good deeds before one or more of seven things will afflict you. And what I realize is, he covered everything in those seven things. Every single thing that is going to come to us is in one or more of these seven things. And you can't exhaust it. He said, Badru bil-A'mali is haba'an. Are you waiting for? Waiting. It's going to come. Poverty that makes you forget everything because people lose everything in the dunya. And once you lost everything, all you can think about is your situation because it's dire. And so the Prophet said, I'm called it farimunsiya. It's a poverty that makes you forget everything because you can't think straight. All you can think about is where your basic needs are going to come from. And there's so many people on this planet right now in this situation. Many of the Muslim countries that had beautiful lives, they had good lives, the vast majority of people have good. Now they're in the worst abject conditions, the worst abject conditions. And this can come to anybody, anywhere, any time. Fakran munsiya. And then he said, Or, well, that preoccupies you. A man told me, SubhanAllah, I got a letter from a man the other day who said to me that for 10 years he was working to get this money. And he said he had all these plans to help the Muslims and do all these things. He said, it finally came. And he said, I've become a horrible person. He said, I just, I was spending all this money. I got into all these horrible things. Inna linsana laya ta'a al-wa'ahu staghna. Man will transgress because he deems himself rich. You see, we know from social studies, people that are wealthy, they drive arrogantly, they treat people with arrogance. This is well known. Studies have been done on this because they get a sense of entitlement. They also think, like Qarun, that somehow that I was given this because of something I did, because I'm so clever, because I'm so important. This is what, so he said, Reena mutgiyan, al-maradan mufsida, or a sickness that will incapacitate you. People are healthy and suddenly they have a stroke and they can't function. They need people to take care of them or they get some disease, chronic disease. Suddenly they're in pain all the time. Now they can't think of anything except their problem. al-maradan mufsida. This happens to people. Or you begin to forget things, doting old age, dementia, you can't even remember some people, may Allah protect all of you, the best way to protect yourself from these things, they don't get khara, the people of Quran. Real, you have to take the book, take it seriously. But dementia, all these diseases that come to the mind, people forget, they come into a room, they can't remember why they're there. This happens when you age. So the Prophet said, you're waiting for khara, Reena, sickness, dementia. And then he said, al-moutan mujhiza, or sudden death. Everything's fine. People, young people, suddenly a heart attack and they literally drop dead, they don't even know what's happening to them. These are all things that the Prophet said, we're waiting for. Like hasten to deeds, hasten to deeds. People have money now. What are you doing with your money? Saving it for something or other? The Prophet said, when they asked, what should we spend the Quran replied, al-afu. Just whatever excess you have. Allah's not asking for what you need. He's asking you for what you don't need. But the dunya tells you, oh, I need this, I need that. You don't, we don't need anything. I live with Bedouin. I know how much a human being needs to live. We don't need a lot to live. And then he said, oh, ad-dajjana, tasharru ghayibi yutthabbar, or the Antichrist. And this is the most evil of things that people are waiting for, ad-dajjad. The Prophet said, the ad-dajjad won't come until people start lynching among the mimba. They'll forget. And you can see the preparation everywhere. People, you look at people now, they don't think for themselves anymore. They can't think. They just follow what they're told. They don't think about anything. It's amazing the raqla that this species is in. Deep raqla. And this is important too because the Prophet warned us about these latter days that we're in. And one of the things you see many Muslims now, they're deviating grossly from the Bukhanda Sunnah. I mean, talking about things now, we would never in a million years think our community would have been talked about or accepting things that are so unacceptable in our religion. And you know what I'm talking about. You see this now and then also adapting all of these things that have nothing to do with our religion. We don't collectivize people. We don't talk about white people or black people or any other group. Some, as if they're a collective. The Qur'an says, laat is, you know, wa adhanatun wizur ukhrat. No soul bears the sins of another soul. Whatever the past happened, those people have it on themselves. The children don't inherit their sins. They don't inherit their sins. We don't think about these things. We just adopt all these materialists now. We send our children to these universities where they're going to be indoctrinated. They're not going to be taught. They're going to be indoctrinated into things totally antithetical to the Muslim community. Every religious community that came to this country that was serious about their religion built religious schools and colleges. Every single one because they understood we can't let our children be taught by people that don't share our values. That's why the Catholics have schools all over, parochial, secondary school and colleges because they took their religion seriously. Where are the Muslim, we've been here so long. Where are our colleges? Where are our hospitals? Where are the things that we define our values? We define what we believe in. We don't let them define them for us. This is a materialistic culture. The whole planet is becoming this way. But we have a community where we actually believe in goodness and decency and virtue and chastity and justice and forgiveness and mercy and honor. These are the things that our Prophet taught us. I was sent to teach people, to purify them. In the commentaries they say to teach them all of the virtuous behavior and to warn them of all of the vicious behavior. This is our Prophet's will. I said the most generous of people, the most honorable of people. The Prophet's will, I said him, said he never swore. Every time he spoke about anything sensitive, he used what's called kinaya. He didn't ever speak crudely or obscenely. This is our Prophet. He said one of the signs at the end of time is foul language would become widespread. People would just use foul language. The tongue was a gift from Allah to speak. The Prophet was the most eloquent of people. One of the things when Fakhreddin Al-Razi says about Shiaqan, that one of the things Allah says is like, you know, like, rile them up with your, go ahead, rile them up with your voice. He said it's teaching our young people foul lyrics. That's what he said. Ashaar khabitha, putting foul lyrics into the minds of the young people so that garbage in, garbage out. These are all the things that we have to be aware of the environment we're in and protect our young people because Allah, their hearts are pure. Their hearts are pure. They're inculturated into foulness. The fitrah is natural. Even all of this talk about racism. Racism is not the natural state of human beings. The natural state of human beings is accepting one another. Children do not have racism. They'll play with any color of child. That's inculturated into people. And so this whole talk about people are racist by nature. It's not true. This is a lie from release to make people despair. Or people say that, oh, racism is the cause of oppression. No, racism is used as a mechanism of oppression. It's not the cause. It's used as a mechanism to divide and conquer. Divida at impera. The Romans knew this. We can't be fooled. We're a people that bring people together. We don't separate them. Shaytan, Shaytan Ya'isa an yu'bad fi jizirat al-Arab. He's desperate of being worshiped. Wa-rakin at-tahrisha baynukum. But he was content with creating division amongst you. Today is a day of joining. Today is a day of setting aside your all of your anger, whatever's happened with your family. This is a day silu al-hamakum, like call up people that you're related to. If there's something between you, ask forgiveness. Bring people together. This is our umma. It's an umma. Umma is a collective of people that have the same purpose. And our purpose is worship of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and service to His creation. That's the whole raison d'etre of this umma. The purpose of this umma is to worship Allah and to serve Allah's creation. Whether they're black, white, red, yellow, whether they're Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, whether they're Jew, it doesn't matter. We are here to serve. This is our purpose. We are here to serve. One of the things we've forgotten is feeding the homeless, feeding the hungry. They don't enjoy people to feed the hungry. That's one of the signs of people that are in shakawa that are wretched with Allah, is that they don't encourage others to help. We have people all over in need now. And many of the Muslims we've been blessed. And you don't have to give all your money away. You don't have to take one family. This is what Qadi Abu Bakr al-A'rbi said the Prophet was not somebody who was saying, give all your wealth away. Never. And there's nothing wrong with being wealthy in Islam. We're not socialists. Our religion is against this idea. There's, if Allah is blessed you with wealth, you pay your zakat and then you give suraqah on top of that. And that's all Allah's asking. Take one family that's in need and help them. If you can do two, then do two. This is what Qadi Abu Bakr al-A'rbi says. So these are things to think about on this day of Eid. The seventh thing that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam told us, health and tabiruna, is a sa'ata wa sa'atu adha wa amar. That's the seventh thing, which is the hour. There's three hours. What's called sa'at al-sughra, sa'at al-wusta, wa sa'at al-kubra. Sa'at al-sughra is your death. There is a door from the finite to the infinite. It's the door of infinity. It's the door of infinity. And that door is waiting. Each one of us, if you could see your ajal, because your ajal was written in the fi baqmi umi, it was written in the womb of our mothers. When we were in a womb, You raised me in the womb of my parents. And you were before me, before my parents. This is, this every single one of us has an ajal. If we could see it, you know, January 3rd, 2025, January, you know, it's every single one of us. It's there. And we don't think about it, but it's real. And this is what the Prophet ﷺ was somebody, he said, اكثر من دكري ها them in the death. Remind yourselves of death, not in a morbid way, in a way that makes you بادر بالعمال سبعاً, hasten to actions. We have little time. We're here for a short period of time. We have things to do. Each one of you has the gifts that Allah has given you. Some of you have wealth, you can support good things. Some of you have muscles, you can labor in good things. Some of you have, Allah has gifted you with intellectual brilliance. You can do that for making things to better our human condition. Everybody has their gifts. And we don't have any hip-hop for any human being. Every human being has the potential to know Allah. The street sweeper has the potential to know Allah. There were people in Medina that nobody took seriously and they were beloved of Allah ﷺ and his messenger. Like the black woman who used to sweep the masjid, and when she died, they didn't think anything of it. He's, why didn't you tell me? He was upset for a while because he knew who she was. He knew who she was. So this is a time for us to think about just changing the trajectory of our lives. Every day is an opportunity to make the you turn. Every single day. With Allah, there's no sign that says no you turn. We can always turn back. If we make Tawba, Allah makes Tawba to us, to love. And he will forgive. He said, even if you came, you came with the whole earth filled with your sins. If you ask forgiveness, I would forgive you. And Shaitan hates Tawba. He wants to put you in a state of forgiveness. So in Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, inshallah, bless all the people, wherever they are, that are having a difficult time. May Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, make it easy for them, give them solace in their hearts. May Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, make us people that remember the gifts that we've been given and share them with others. May Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, forgive us, bless us, increase us, elevate us. May Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, inshallah, protect this community. Protect the Qa'i min alayh. Bless all the people that set all these things up for us and did all this work. May Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, bless all the volunteers in the masjid. May Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, take you to your homesadimin, Qanimin. May Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, accept all the prayers on Arafah that happened yesterday. May Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, inshallah, give us some portion of those prayers. May Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, remove this blight, this plague that's on our species right now. May Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, remove ad-wadah, ad-balaa, all these terrible things that have afflicted our species. May Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, wake people up to their sinfulness and their need to make Toba to Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, to recognize that nothing afflicts us except what our own hands have wrought. May Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, remind us of this. May He remove the drought from this community. May Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, give us good rain, give the parts to earth, what it deserves. And may all of these creatures forgive us and these trees and all these things that don't deserve anything, but they suffer with us because of us. We see the trees and so many places are dying. You look at their leaves from the sinfulness of people, not from anything they did. And the Prophet ﷺ said, had it not been for the trees and for the animals, that the sinfulness of people would prevent rain from coming. So may Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, insha'Allah, give us rain, give us good rain. May Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, protect all of our children, protect our women, anybody who all these women who are wearing hijab, bravely in this environment, may Allah protect them and keep them safe and sound. May Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala bless all of you. The sunnah is to do the obhiya for anybody that's going to do the obhiya. It's after the prayer and you go, you have the days of these days of Eid. You can do it in any of the days of Eid. Now the best thing is obviously the ram. And you should, the sunnah is to eat a third, to give a third to your friend and then to give a third to poor people. But we have now agencies that will do this for you and distribute it amongst the refugees. So I think it's good, insha'Allah, to support our Syrian refugees, our Yemeni refugees, the Libyan. There's so many places where Muslims, Kashmiris, may Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, make it easy for our brothers and sisters in Kashmir and Palestine, obviously. I mean it's an ongoing, long, long struggle. May Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, insha'Allah, wake our community up.