 الحمد لله الذي هدانا لهذا وما كنا لنهدد لولان هدانا الله الحمد لله الذي انزل الفرخان على عبده ليكون للعالمين نذيره وصلاة والسلام على خير خلق ونور عرشي أفضل للأنبياء والمرسلين حبيبنا وسيدنا وسندنا وشفيعنا ومولانا أب القاسم محمد وعلى آله التيبين الطاهرين المأسومين المظلومين أما بعد فقد خال الله سبحانه وتعالى في كتاب المجيد وقوله الحق وهو أستخص صادقين بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم يا إيه الذين آمنوا كتب عليكم الصيام كما كتب على الذين من قبلكم لعلكم تتقون صدق الله العلي العظيم سلوات على محمد وآله محمد أبدأ في الله's name the beneficent the merciful all praise belongs to Allah سبحانه وتعالى for blessing us with this life this existence and granting us the opportunity to continue to reap from his infinite grace and his beneficence not only has he shaped us in the best of forms and granted us this life however long even if it's for a few seconds it's nonetheless one would argue that existence is superior to nonexistence and the potentialities for existence is eternal we are finite human beings were creation that did not exist before so we are finite but Allah through his mercy gives us infinite potential which means we will continue to exist infinitely and not only that but Allah has shaped us and granted us free will the ability to choose our own destiny though he puts us in the right direction he protects us guides us while we have propensity desires to deviate as Allah says and even if we deviate even if we deviate unless we willfully deviate with this desire to constantly reject Allah's mercy then by all standards we have to deviate because Allah says even if we deviate even if we deviate even if we deviate unless we willfully deviate and by all standards unless we want to do the extreme Allah's mercy is so abundant upon us that even if we go astray even if we deviate Allah is oft forgiving Allah says أسرفوا على أنفسهم لا تقنتوا من رحمة الله إن الله يغفر الظنوب جميعا إنه هو الغفور الرحيم أقول to my believers as Allah says to the Prophet قل يا عبادي الذين my worshippers أسرفوا على أنفسهم the ones who have gone astray with themselves لا تقنتوا من رحمة الله do not lose hope in the mercy of God God is oft forgiving He forgives all your sins it's when you and I want to deviate purposely Iblis style Mu'awiya style Fir'aun style then we deserve the severe punishment and in this blessed month of Ramadan as Allah says إلا ما رحمة ربي except by his mercy do you stay on the right path one of the greatest mercies of Allah besides our existence besides our free will besides the guidance that we have and of course besides the best role models we have our prophets and the imams is the fact that Allah has instituted this blessed month called Ramadan الله سي شهر رمضان الذي أنزل فيه القرآن ودل للناس وبينات من الهدا والفرخان we will discuss this as Allah knows the essence of the Quran being in this month and you will notice that historically all the major scriptures which was given to which was given to which was given to which was given to peace be upon all of them and Quran which was given to is the final they were all revealed in this month they were all revealed in the لتصبح في حالة ترقم في قنوات رماثة. فهذا قنواته مهمة. وفي هذه الأسئلة أتمنى أننا سنساعد في نفسنا بغة أصدقائية، بغة أصدقائية، بغة الأصدقائية بغة أي أسألات، الله أكثر مطلق. لذلك when we capture that presence and we realize how merciful Allah is then we will just naturally flow with spirit. For I don't believe one can ignite one's spirit without a truthful touch of someone's essence, their fitro. If we can touch each other's fitro where we feel an incredible presence with the truth as the Quran says لا اكره في الدين there is no compulsion in religion قد تبينا رشته من الغي there is no compulsion in religion truth is clear from error so the second part Allah says there is compulsion but it is the compulsion of truth which everybody agrees is a beautiful compulsion we love to compel each other for the truth because that's not something we feel in other words we are not limited when you're compelled to go to prison when you're compelled to be silent when you're compelled not to express your own opinions in a dictatorial fashion in a draconian fashion we feel our free will is marginalized and it's a gift of God to have given us free will and free will by the way is the limited free will where we can choose at the moral level right versus wrong good versus evil moral versus immoral but when there is truth we love it we don't mind compelling ourselves even to the extent of our own destruction because Allah has promised that when an individual pursues the truthful pathway as Allah says قول جاء الحق وزهق الباطل إن الباطلة كان زهوقة truth is ever present and growing and falsehood is ever vanishing and weak we don't mind being compelled with the truth so I would hope that in these nights when we reflect and we reflect carefully and we analyze the truth carefully for sometimes we may believe something to be the truth when in fact it is not under that premise if you and I believe something is the truth when in fact it is not in the judgment of Allah SWT he doesn't punish us for that because there's no willful intent to reject the truth but where the punishment comes is in the fact that because we think something is true when it's not then we are marginalizing ourselves with that false idea thinking it's true there is no punishment on judgment day for that but the punishment is that we are not getting maximum value because we're in the wrong direction it's like I got lost on the highway the GPS gave me the wrong direction it's not a sin but I never got to my destination so I suffered so in life when we think something is the truth when in fact it's not there's a sincere objective that Allah will reward us for that struggle to know what is the truth but the ideal situation is for you and I to strike the truth as quickly as possible so we can maximize our potentials while on this transient earth for a short period of time it's an honor to be here it's an honor to be here especially in the blessed month of Ramadan it's an honor to be welcomed by a respected sheikh Bahraini and I welcome and I say my sincere greeting سلام عليكم جميعا ورحمة الله وبركاته we pray to Allah سبحانه وتعالى in this blessed month that our spirits reach high stations and particularly through fasting because this principle of fasting كتب عليكم الصيام كما كتب علي الذين من قبلكم meaning this prescription is not new it was given to all of mankind من قبلكم means it goes all the way back to Adam and that this prescription of fasting is rich from the perspective of Allah helping us to contain control the free will in the right direction it's very important Allah says وقد خابا بندسها so Allah perfected the cell and taught it wrong and right Allah says indeed successful is the one who keeps this free will the self the spirit pure and failure is the one who lets it go astray so there is an element of practice there's an element of vigilance there's an element of desire to counteract our foolish ignorant desire I want us to establish one thing very clearly that Allah created the universe in positive terms Allah says He created the universe in truth not in lies a lie only exists potentially if there is truth when there is truth but truth does not need a lie to exist so the good pre supposes pre exists that's رحمة Allah is all good there is no evil in Him and you notice by the way let me give you a quick introduction when we study ethics we study morality you notice these terms ethics these are sciences we study in the university philosophical discussion so we say I am studying ethics now within ethics there is the counter ethics which is called unethics when you are scrupulous it means you follow the rules carefully within the law when you are unscrupulous you violate it we say when a person is ethical it means they are good and therefore we can say therefore they are potentially unethical when we say the person is moral it's good so why don't we study immorality in the university well immorality is a subset of morality why don't we study unethics no because ethics is the master look how Allah creates everything positive even our terminology starts with positive even governments that have armaments that destroys the world like we have today we have bombs that will destroy the earth a thousand times but they always come under defense fund it's never offense fund they are very offensive many armies are very offensive but the ethics the law of nature dictates that if you want to call yourself human you have to project a positive vision of yourself you have to talk from the positive existence for example is essential for us to talk about nonexistent Fana is nonexistent but you can't talk about Fana until you exist it's absurd to talk about existence when we're nonexistent look how positive Allah is everything He puts in us is positive He created the universe in truth and therefore when we lie it's rejecting what's real and when we lie we cause destruction كذبت ثمود بتغوها the tribe of Thamud and this verse continues with the verse of the nafs كذبت ثمود بتغوها إذن بعث أشقها قال لهم رسول الله و سقياها فكذبوا فاقروها فدم دم عليهم ربهم بدم بهم فصوا ولا يخافوا أقباها صالح صالح قاموا بهم و قلت دعوا لهم they wanted to be lied who is this prophet he is false he is a liar when he is true so when there is this effort to cover the truth we call it in English the truth to cover it to lie to cheat the way Moawi used to do the way we have some politicians in the world today who are masters of lying we call them mendacious pathological liars every other word is a lie they become destructive they confuse the world they cause not only destruction for themselves but to others whereas prophets and imams came to clarify والذي بعث في الأمين رسولهم منهم يطلع عليهم آياتي و يزكيهم و يعليمهم الكتابة والحكمة و إن كانوا من قبلوا لفيه لا عليهم أبين they came to correct things they came to clarify you see prophets are clarifiers when the non-believers were asking the prophet when is this promise you claim there is a day of judgment coming when when is this day of judgment coming when is this day of judgment coming Allah says to the prophet و إنما أنا نذير مبين say to them this time of the day of judgment is exclusively the knowledge of Allah no prophet no imam إنما العلم you can reveal it you can tell it but Allah says to the prophet tell them you are a clear warner you clarify you put light you elucidate you give clarity you give vision you give security you give eternity examine these principles cannot be challenged you cannot challenge the principles of truth you cannot challenge the principles of truth سبحان الله none of us can do it it's built by the almighty God and Allah says baskin it think about it when you have doubt hold on to the what we call fundamental truth do you doubt exists if you look at the Quran its language is very simple very simple but deep powerful why is Allah talking like this because Allah wants us to have certainty so that when we cry to him when we beg from him when we pray to him when we follow his instructions we do it with confidence and clarity not with doubt not wishy washy I don't know I don't know maybe maybe not how do I solidify that to the extent that you say how do I make myself ready to give everything for this truth for the love of God it's not easy when we listen to the stories of Ahlulbayt and prophets we wonder how did you have that clarity when there was such a small band of you you were the prince in Medina now they cornered you and you are praying where are the angels to help you Imam says we don't need them Allah is our helper when God helps you you cannot be defeated when and if God doesn't help you who will help you that equation is simple we need to instill it into our children into ourselves so that when we talk about deen it's not constant argumentation as to why we should do it because there's clarity of vision we make argue about the ways to do it but we don't argue about the necessity of a deed to submit to Allah Ramadan is that month that helps us but not only should we fast we should reflect we should cogitate introspect think when we read an eye of Quran people mashallah read the entire Quran some people read it multiple times good but I advise even if you didn't do that and you have no time assuming we don't take one word and reflect upon it and the beauty of the Quran is that it's a seed once you plant it it will grow and it will naturally compel us through truth to want more and it will become friendly to us it will become our life but sadly in the Muslim world the Quran is very neglect even among Arab speaking communities the majority of them cannot even quote one verse whereas Allah says ورحمة للمؤمنين ولا يزيد الظالمين إلا خسارة what we have revealed in this Quran is a Shifaah is a mercy is a guidance for the believers and it does nothing to the troublemakers but destruction meaning the Quran has a has a complete function not only does it guide but destroys the enemies what the prophet says on judgment day he will say he will complain يقول يا ربي إن قوم تخذوا هذا القرآن my lord my community ignored this book this is sad where the Quran has already told me what the prophet will say the question is do you and I want to be that statistic do you and I want to be that complaint of the prophet or do we want to be out of that we have time in this month of Ramadan let's sit and reflect take one verse talk it all the time make sure you use it in your sentence quote it in Arabic don't just translate it quote it لعلكم تعقلون we reveal this Quran in Arabic so you know it's only addressed to the Arabs of the time it's a command to all of mankind when they understand the power of the Quran is second to none and yet you find in سلط القمر Allah says ولا قاد يسرن القرآن للذكر هل من متكر 4 times the Quran repeats that verse in سلط القمر 4 times and then smack me on the head when I'm not reading but he doesn't do that he honors my free will too much he protects it and the honor is that he talks to me intelligently the honor is that he allows me to reject him the honor is that he allows me to ignore the Quran he says because I honor your free will but احسنتم احسنتم لنفسق وإنسأتهم فلها when you do good you do good for yourself so Allah says if you don't read it no problem لا يحزنك كفرهم إلينا ما رجعكم فننبئهم بما عملوا إن الله عليم بذات الصدور نمتعهم قليلا ثم نترهم العذاب when they do kufr it was disturbed by that it should be today what's happening in Palestine Iraq Syria Yemen in all these major countries where wars are taking place you will find that we should be disturbed and what's happening in the continent of Africa the amount of killing that's taking place on that continent we should be disturbed because truth is compelling and Allah is positive and you and I when we fast we say I want to be positive if you look at the whole Quran it's all about positive everything about it is positive our behavior is positive when Allah forbids us from doing something it's positive don't do this لا تقربوا زنا do not approach adultery do not eat the flesh of swine do not imbibe in alcohol do not gamble these are sins and they are destructive there is some good in it but overall it's destructive positive do not find faults in each other لا تلمزوا انفسكم ولا تنابزوا and do not give each other bad names when you have become believers ومن لم يتوب وليكهم الظالمون and if you do not desist you are a troublemaker beautiful it's positive so let's read in this month of Ramadan reflect on one verse but understand it's a positive religion within this time that I have 10 minutes more I want to set a very clear standard in these nights Allah loves people who look in themselves He loves it والله who you love والتوابين Allah loves those who turn to Him Allah loves those who introspect who look within themselves and it's very important to understand that nothing is more sacred to us in the entire existence of the universe even more than Allah is ourselves we love ourselves the prophet has said in judgment day everybody will say enough see enough see what will happen your father will be next to you your mother will be next to you your children will be next to you you won't even care about them oh mankind beware of that day my father will help the son someone will help the father because we will be enough see enough see enough what's going to happen to me where am I going am I the foremost of the four months those are the nearest ones to God and Allah says they won't even be questioned they will be told enter paradise then there is that group أصحاب اليمين أصحاب الميمنة and مش أمه people of the right hand meaning it's metaphorical they will receive their deeds and God is pleased with them and they will enter paradise then there are those who will be told to enter hell we must concern ourselves for that but I must say honestly honestly don't put too much emphasis on that my advice emphasize Allah's presence and mercy fall in love with him fall in love with him so much that you are willing to do anything for him and even if he were to decide to put us in hell which he won't but if he did we are pleased because we love him too much and if the beloved wants me to be somewhere is him happy إمام إليه الإسلام says you know in which was written by as you know preceding to him خذر you find that he says إمام is saying and of course that I can bear the heat but I can't bear your separation you know your mercy your presence let's fall in love with Allah let's sacrifice ourselves for him understand when I say that we animated thinking when we say that sacrifice for Allah we think Allah is the beneficiary he is not there is nothing you and I can do that will benefit Allah so when we do something for Allah Allah says actually for you so let's maximize it through Allah there is a reason for that and I will talk about it further and focus on being positive and be very careful about being negative negative should only be used for constructive criticism and constructive trajectories otherwise absolve ourselves from negative very dangerous fault finding ارغب جلس all these are negatives avoid them because it destroys us the prophet said when you're jealous you will burn the way fire burns wood don't it's destructive in this month of Ramadan I advise us all let's look at each other with mercy and not only among us as Muslims everybody black white tall short wide narrow I don't care what nationality you belong to look at them with positive eyes look at the animals with positive eyes look at the insects with positive eyes look at everything with positive eyes even the water we drink look at it with positive eyes research shows that when you and I do something positively it responds positively so let us make our commitment in this month to permanently eradicate backbiting fault finding looking down on people people who do that do that because they have a low sense of security for themselves and they feel they need to dunk and destroy others to look good whereas الله says when you remember الله has become tranquil so there's no need to look down on anybody in fact pray for everybody that's positive the law of nature is positive الله made the universe in truth but it takes effort a tremendous amount of planning and to constantly be reflective in this manner and for us to stop and I put that in capital letters stop condemning people to hell we are masters of sending people to hell is kaffir going to burn in hell like who authorized you that how do you know that did Allah tell you that no but I know I read the Quran he says if you pray 5 times a day you say 10 times a day master of the day of judgment we became masters of the day of judgment we're experts in damnation condemnation oh he's nudged it's kaffir you think our prophets behave that way you know if they had such an attitude none of us would be Muslims today we'd all be jahil in our little ignorant ways because they were broad minded they welcomed I'll talk about kufr I'll talk about iman I'll talk about Islam my definition is not a noun it has a noun characteristic but it's actually a verb kufr is a verb iman is a verb Islam is actually when Allah said يسلم وجه يسلم the verb dean is a verb we've taken it as a noun and the minute we take it as a noun we become members of the club so I am now exclusively in the club so anybody who's not in my club is a reject and it's easy now kaffir bad all negative I travel the world and it's not only among Muslims it's among Christians, it's among Jews it's among Hindus, I've heard it and then there are those among them and within Islam who are just nothing but positive but many a time some of us will go and point a finger at them brother sister you're too nice to everybody you're too inclusive you're too forgiving you're too welcoming that's not Islam you should damn and condemn ISIS style ISIS is a master their religion is built on negative it's all negative condemnation destruction beheading this is the way of Iblis not the way of Allah the way of Allah is the way موسى was sent to فرعون الله سبحانه وتعالى with a soft tongue and ask him and incite in him the truth and should he reject leave him alone موسى is a prophet is a Rasool it's a Nabi highly endowed with nine miracles given to him major ones he could have destroyed فرعون just by looking at him yet he had no authority to do that because Islam is not a religion of condemnation it's a religion of hope it's a religion of love it's a religion of positives you will not find a single verse in the Quran wherever Allah says fight and get them it's preceded by verse that if they come and attack you and they're going to hurt you then defend but when you have their upper hand when you have an upper hand over them be nice to them be kind forgive them don't abuse الله you have مقسطين God loves the peacemaker in this blessed month of Ramadan my respected sisters and brothers I want us on a daily basis to instill this within ourselves and upon our children and I believe that since myself is the most sacred and that is what's going to be question on judgment day not what my friends think of me not what my community thinks of me like I get on facebook or how many followers I have some people say you know I have millions of followers wow can you invite them on judgment day let them stand for you we'd like to see what they will do for you Frank Sinatra had millions of followers does anybody go to his grave and say I'm going to jump in with Frank Sinatra because he had such a beautiful voice and he was such a rich man we'll stand on judgment day for him but people used to stand in line for hours and days what happened oh that was entertainment precisely so what is life about entertainment do you think we're going to entertain ourselves on judgment day we'll talk about entertainment to a student who just took his exam and is going to check his grades try to entertain try to entertain them then they have no time for you they are nervous but the day of judgment is much bigger much bigger and I pray to Allah that we concern ourselves because when you and I light within our hearts we will just light the world we don't have to go light people's hearts light your own heart you will light the world in this month let's reflect let's abstain it's amazing when we fast we become very conscious oh you're lying I'm fasting you cannot create false hadith you know the rule says you create false hadith while fasting there's a shikal maybe your fast is broken it'll break why? because you have traversed in extreme line destructive line your fast is disturbed because the purpose of the fast is to prevent that so now it's like drinking water breaking your fast so let's understand within ourselves that we need to carefully modulate ask Allah to inspire me to inspire me with the Quran people come and ask me I know very little of the Quran I feel ashamed I wish I knew more and the amazing thing is every time I read the Quran I felt like I never read it before I feel like oh my God I've been reading this ayah hundreds of.. it never struck me this way Allah says exactly it's an ocean never sees to to keep indulging in it and it'll guide you it'll show you things the average cannot see it'll calm you in this month while we're fasting let's discuss the Quran let's minimize gossip let's minimize fault finding let it become the template for the remaining 11 months إن شاء الله بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم اللهم إنا نرغب إليك في دولة كريمة تعز بها الإسلام وأهلا وتضل بها النفاق وأهلا وتجعلنا فيها من الدعاة لا تعتك والقادة لا سبيلك وترزقنا بها كرامة الدنيا وأخر دعوني الحمد لله رب العالمين والسلام عليكم جميعا ورحمة الله وبركات