 Alhamdulillah, my beloved brothers and sisters in Islam. Alhamdulillah that Allah has gathered us on the blessed day of Jumu'ah, this blessed day of gathering. And Alhamdulillah that Allah has gathered us on the eve of the ascension of the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa sallam. The blessed night in which Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala took his beloved into the presence. Alhamdulillah we know that what preceded the Isra and Me'araj was the year of sadness. Innamal usriusra, innamal usriusra. With difficulty comes ease. The year of sadness was the year that our beloved Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa sallam lost his beloved wife, our mother Khadija. May Allah be pleased with her and raise her rank. The one who was the first to believe in him and the one who comforted him and gave him solace from the very beginning. We also know it was the year that Abu Talib, the uncle of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa sallam passed from this world. And he was the one who gave sanctuary and refuge to the Prophet and the nascent community of believers. And so all of a sudden the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa sallam had lost his inner refuge, his beloved wife, as well as his outer refuge, his uncle who was protecting his community. And this meant that the community of believers was in an existential threat. In the tribal society of Arabia your tribal protection was everything and now they were vulnerable. And so the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa sallam went to ta'if seeking protection. But far from welcoming him with open arms, they stoned and they chased him and willed from him home. And when he was asked, he said about that time, that was the lowest point for me. And in that darkness upon darkness, that difficult experience that he was given, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa sallam took refuge in an orchard and he prayed a famous prayer. And in that prayer he said, oh Allah, I complain of my situation. I complain of my weakness and my inability and incapacity as my people reject and oppress me. But he sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa sallam said I complain of my weakness. He didn't complain about his situation to Allah. He complained of his own inability in that moment. And the crux of that prayer was this point where he said, but if you are not displeased with me, then I have no complaint. His only concern in that moment was that this could potentially be a manifestation of divine displeasure. But if this is what Allah willed and desired for him, he had complete contentment. Do with me whatever you will, as long as you are not upset with me. Sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa sallam. And so he returned to Mecca and this is where the blessed Isra and Mi'raj occurred. And there are many narrations of this blessed event. The angel Gabriel came to him and he was accompanied by Mikael and other angels. And they roused him from sleep and in the narration they split his chest. And they purified his heart and they poured in it from gold vessels. Gold vessels full of hikmah and iman. And the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa sallam was taken to the buraq. This steed whose name is light. Buraq is from the same word as lightning, barq. And it traveled at the speed of light. Every step was to the furthest horizon. And the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa sallam traveled. He traveled in this world but he also traveled vertically, horizontally and vertically. Sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa sallam. And he was taken to the place of Jesus' birth, Bethlehem. And he was taken to the place Mount Sinai where Allah spoke to Moses. And he saw Moses praying in his grave. And he was shown many things in the unseen. And what the Qur'an says about this blessed night. His vision did not swerve nor go astray. The prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa sallam remained completely focused on Allah. He was traveling to Allah. And whatever was revealed to him was not going to distract him from his mission and his goal which was getting to Allah and ultimately witnessing Allah. And it's amazing in narrations what was shown to him. There were things shown to him that attempted to entice him to swerve away from that ultimate vision. Such that we find in narrations that one thing he was shown on his journey was an old man who called to him, Ya Muhammad, Ya Muhammad come here. But he didn't look. He stayed focused on his goal. And Jabriel said to him that old man was Iblis. And he sought to lead you astray and your ummah astray. From another of the manifestations of the unseen that was shown to the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa sallam. There was a woman that the narration says had bare arms and was decked out in every jewelry and finery. And she said, Ya Muhammad look at me come to me. The prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa sallam would not look. But he kept his vision towards Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Sayyidina Jabriel said that woman was the dunya. And if you would have looked at her, most of your ummah would have inclined towards her after you. He was shown a number of manifestations and at each one, maa. His vision did not swerve nor did it go astray. This is our prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa sallam. Focus on the supreme goal subhanahu wa ta'ala. When the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa sallam arrived to the holy sanctuary of Jerusalem. He dismounted the burak and he entered into prayer. And he prostrated to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala completely focused on his creator. And as he was praying, a throng of individuals gathered behind him and started following him in prayer. Thousands upon thousands upon thousands followed him. But his focus was so intent upon Allah, his vision did not swerve. That he was not distracted by this great multitude around you. And after he had prayed, Sayyidina Jabriel asked him, Do you know who it is who has gathered behind you in prayer? The prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa sahbihi said no. He said it is every messenger that Allah has ever sent who followed you in prayer. You are the imam of the mursaleen. Sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa sallam. Which one of us, if we were praying and many thousand of people gathered behind us would not be distracted from their prayer, let alone if it was every prophet and messenger ever sent. The prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa sallam, ma azaq al basr wa ma taqaa, focused on Allah. And then the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa sallam, we know from narration that Allah sent 124,000 prophets. All of them were in attendance to meet Sayyidina Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa sallam. And he met them in that blessed occasion. And then in narration, the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa sallam experienced the greatest thirst he has ever felt. And what do you think he thirsted for sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa sallam? Even amidst all the prophets, even after all the things of the unseen were unveiled, he thirsted for his beloved subhanahu wa ta'ala. And Jibreel came and presented vessels to drink, and presented amongst them was wine, and presented amongst them was milk. The prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa sallam chose the milk. And Sayyidina Jibreel said to him, you have chosen the fitrah. And if you would have chosen the wine, your ummah would have gone astray. Subhanallah that the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi sallam chose the milk, which is full of immense symbols for us. First of all, the milk symbolizes the fitrah because it is pure. It doesn't go through a process. It is as it is created by Allah. Milk also we know in our tradition symbolizes ma'rifah, experiential knowledge of Allah. And Allah created us because he loved to be known. And so the primordial state of the human being is a loving devotion to Allah, which leads to knowledge of him. This is why he is Annabi al-Ummi. Because just like the child, the infant doesn't get food from outside, but it's fed directly by its mother. The prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa sallam did not need to learn through books and lectures and courses, but he was taught directly by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. This is our beloved prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa sallam. That's why one of the scholars said it's wrong to say that the prophet couldn't read or write. That's not what Ummi means. Ummi means he didn't need to read or write because he was taught directly by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And this is where the ascension begins. Up to that point, that is the Isra. That is the horizontal journey over the earth, but then the vertical journey into the Divine Presence through the seven heavens begins. And the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa sallam, the entire time, he's not just thinking about himself, but he's thinking about you and me. And that's why he is modeling for us the journey through life horizontally, but also the spiritual journey to the Divine Presence. And he was shown many things in each heaven. The prophet occupying each heaven. There is much that could be said, but we must skip some in such a short address such as this. But ultimately the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa sallam passes through the seven heavens to Sidrata-l-Muntaha. This is the blessed tree, the low tree of the furthest boundary. This tree is a miraculous tree, which is essentially the outermost limit of the created order. This tree in narration, its leaves are so large that it could wrap up the entire ummah. That a rider could ride for months and years under the shade of one of its branches and not reach the end. And amongst the amazing narrations of its leaves are that they are crystalline and they change from sapphire to ruby to emerald. They're transforming every moment you look at them. And golden moths alight upon them. So the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa sahbihi witnesses this. But even seeing all of this, he only yearned for Allah. He was not distracted. His vision did not serve nor go astray. It is also said in this place, Sayyidina Jibril revealed himself to the prophet. Sayyidina Jibril had been leading him this whole way. And at this point, he revealed himself to the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi in his true nature. Tens of thousands of wings, majesty, beauty. He is the greatest of the angels. And it is said in narration that some angels are so great and so luminous that on Yom Muqyama people will think it's a law at first. Until Allah reveals himself. And Sayyidina Jibril is the greatest of them. But even as the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa sahbihi witnessed his beloved Sayyidina Jibril in that state. He willed to witness Allah alone. And so Sayyidina Jibril said to the prophet, this is the outmost limit of my Maqam. I cannot go any further. I am the greatest of the angels, but this is the extent that an angel can go. You must go the rest of the way alone. And from amongst what our scholars say, this is the culmination of the creation of Adam in fact. That we know when Allah created our father Adam. He commanded the angels to bow. And the angel said, will you create one who will shed blood and so discord upon the earth? And Allah said, I know what you know not. And this is the fact that angels bowed to the human being, Sayyidina Adam. And this is the culmination of that because the Sayyid of the angels reached his limit. But the Sayyid of Benny Adam continued on. And the Quran speaks about this meeting of Sayyidina Muhammad with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as qaba qausayni o adana, the two bows distance or nearer. What was revealed was revealed. It is said that the Prophet ﷺ heard the writing of the pen upon the preserved tablet. And it is said that if you were to hear your own name being written on this tablet, you would die from ecstasy just to hear the writing of that pen on that tablet. But the Prophet ﷺ continued on into the Divine Presence. And it is the dominant opinion of our ulama that the Prophet ﷺ witnessed Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Now, he is the leader of Benny Adam because even in that blessed state, even in that blessed state, he was concerned for you and me. Which one of us, if we were able to be with Allah, would ever come back? Which one of us, if we know we could leave this dunya and we could be with Allah and we could be embraced by his infinite mercy, would ever wish to return to this dunya? So the greatest miracle that was to happen that night is that he returned from the Presence to show us the light. And in that embrace, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gifted the Prophet ﷺ the Salat. This prayer that we pray five times a day. The exact movements and motions of the prayer that we make were gifted on that noble occasion. And the Prophet ﷺ said, As-Salat Me'raj al-Mu'min. That the prayer is the ascension of the believer. I say this, As-Stafu'rullah li walakum al-Isaa'il al-Muslimin fa'as-tafu'ru. Bismillah wal-Handrila wa-s-salatu wa-s-salam ala Rasulillah, sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa-salam. And so the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa-salam, even though he entered alone into the Divine Presence, he carried the heart of his, he carried every one of the believers, every one of his ummah in his heart into the Divine Presence. And he returned to earth and returned to the tribulations that would follow and the difficulties that would follow including the events of Uhud and the difficulties and the struggles and trials of tribulations of life only so that he could bring you and I the way to ascend to Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. This is our beloved sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa-salam. And this is what we celebrate when we celebrate the Isra wa Mi'raj. Alhamdulillah wa shukrulillah the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa-salam taught us every aspect of how to be in this world. Everything he did was with remembrance. And this for those of us that converted to Islam when we embraced Islam it was overwhelming in fact to learn the du'a for entering a room and the du'a for leaving a room and the du'a for waking up and the du'a for sleeping and eating and finishing eating. But what was clear as we attempted to memorize these is that what the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa-salam was a way to remember Allah with every breath. Our whole deen is remembrance. Our whole deen is remembrance and our whole deen is letting us know not to be led astray by the world not to be distracted by buying and selling but just as the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa-salam kept his focus on Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala to follow in his footsteps This is what he called to sallallahu alayhi wa-salam Now he called us ultimately to a way of remembrance. You could even say he called us to the art of remembrance. If we think of it like that Islam is the art of remembrance and each one of us is an artist and I write poetry and I enjoy it and it's something that I love and I was drawn to Islam in fact through the beautiful poetry of our tradition and once I visited a sheikh of mine and he said it's a beautiful thing to write poetry he said but the most important thing is to make your life a poem for God to make your life a work of art for God you are a poet or you are an artist each moment you make a mark when you die you step out of the painting and look at your art on Yom Kriyama what we have is our life to present to Allah that is our work of art and of course some of us who feel that some parts of our life are not beautiful to present to Allah we rejoice in the fact that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is Al-Ghufur Indeed you are the forgiver or the pardoner you love to pardon so pardon us and Allah's pardoning is like one who erases the ugly mark on the artwork so that it becomes beautiful and so we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to write on the canvas of our souls the beautiful qualities of his beloved sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa sallam such that we draw his characters and our qualities into our hearts and we truly become Muhammedin such that buying and selling and status and the fleeting things of this world do not cause our vision to swerve from our Creator but we are in a state of remembrance and one cannot remember unless one already knows and that is also what we learn in the Quran that all of us know Allah at the center of our being we all witnessed Allah in the world before this world but not all of us are in contact with that spirit deep inside of us that remembers and so what our beloved Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa sallam brought was the means and the method and the art of remembrance so that we could be like him sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa sallam remembering Allah as if we are witnessing him as he defined Ehsan and worship Allah as if you are witnessing him and if you are not witnessing him he is witnessing you so we ask Allah SWT to shower his infinite blessings upon our master Sayyidina Muhammad we ask Allah SWT to rectify the state of the ummah and make us truly Muhammedin outwardly and inwardly and may we take the guidance and the nur and the tarbiyah of Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa sallam so that we can truly be a example for humankind of how to walk in the way of the prophets peace be upon them all O Allah we ask that you shower your mercy on all those who are in difficulty and in hardship and are suffering our brothers and sisters in Turkey and Syria the Uyghur people in China and every place that people are suffering Muslims or non-Muslims shower your mercy on them manifest your aid to them O Allah bless us in Rajab and Shaaban and bless us with Ramadan pray for Sayyidina Muhammad and his family pray for Sayyidina Muhammad and his family and his family and his family O Allah we ask that you bless our teachers and our elders and our parents and our guides and make us a truly truly transformed by the prophetic way Ibad Allah may Allah be pleased with the good and the good and may He be pleased with the good and may He be pleased with the good and may He be pleased with the good and may He be pleased with the good and may He be pleased with the good and may He be pleased with the good and may He be pleased with the good and may He be pleased with the good and may He be pleased with the good and may He be pleased with the good and may He be pleased with the good and may He be pleased with the good and may He be pleased with the good and may He be pleased with the good and may He be pleased with the good and may He be pleased with the good