 Bismillahirrahmanirrahim, we start with the name of Allah, the most compassionate, the most merciful, whose compassion and mercy envelops all of creation wasi'at-ur-Rahmati kullashay Allah Azza wa Jalla says that my mercy encompasses all things and he is with the believers mu'minina mu'minina rahima that his particular mercy is particularly safe for the believers and amongst that mercy that he has given us Allah Allah Azza wa Jalla has given us he has reminded us where we come from and where we're going when he says Allah Azza wa Jalla says inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un that surely from Allah we come into Him we are returning raji'un al-an right now we are returning to Him the current moment that we're in is the return to Him Allah Azza wa Jalla to Him that it's not the last gasps before our soul is taken that that's the final return that every moment is a return and we repeat this a minimum of 17 times a day in our prayer we say ihdina as-sirata mustaqeen we recognize the journey that we're on ya Allah keep us on the straight path the path has an end that this path ends with Him Allah it ends with Him Azza wa Jalla and that anything that distracts us on that path is a distraction from our objective anything that comes in our lives whether it be something that we take as a positive or a negative if it is something that brings us closer to Allah and it's within the bounds of what pleases Allah Azza wa Jalla then that is part of our path to Him and if it's something that distances from Allah whether we know it or not then that is a distraction from our objective that we're created here for one purpose and that's for us to reach our destination and in this regard Imam al Ghazali Hujjatul Islam radi Allahu anhu has a short work called ayyuhal walad oh young man or young boy it's a collection of letters to one of his students and one of his letters he tells the story of Hatim al-Asam and Shaqiq al-Balkhi Hatim al-Asam is a student of Shaqiq al-Balkhi and he spent 30 years with him radi Allahu anhu may Allah be pleased with him and with him all and one day Shaqiq asks you spent 30 years actualizing this path this journey towards Allah with me what have you benefited and he says tells his teacher I haven't benefited much except for 8 things only 8 things and he says let me recount these 8 things 8 things to you he says the first thing is that I found I looked unto creation I saw that everyone had something that they loved everyone had a child or everyone had a parent or everyone had a spouse everyone had a car or everyone had a whatever it may be everyone had something that they loved something that they held dear to them that their hearts occupation was that and I realized that those things that they love eventually he's going to depart with them that some of them will be there with you till your graduation from college and some of them may be with you until you're put in a senior citizen home some of them your children might forget you these things might leave you these things that are so beloved to us they might leave us and he's saying that I found all of this was beloved to people the furthest they might go is at the lip of the grave that that's where they would accompany us maybe to the lip of the grave then I thought what is it that enters me into my grave that I should take it as a beloved so that it is I find intimacy with that that I find that to be my comfort and he says I found it to be righteous deeds everything else is eventually going to leave us but righteous deeds that is going to enter into the grave with us if we love Allah in His Messenger SAW that is our company in the grave when everything else leaves us Allah is with you wherever you are those righteous deeds that we did those righteous deeds that we might have been distracted from if we take that as a beloved it will accompany us into the graves and the second benefit that Hatim says he says that I looked and I saw everyone was following their whims and desires they did what they wanted to do we do that with our worship sometimes sometimes we find days where we want to pray our sunnah so we pray them we find days where we don't want to pray them so we say it's fine it's just a sunnah as if it's as if the sunnah as if anything other than a sunnah will help us arrive at Allah Azza wa Jann it's just a sunnah he said I looked on to creation I saw they all followed their whims and desires and then he said I looked into the speech of Allah and I knew that it was true we believe in the speech of Allah Azza wa Jann we know that it's true and then he says I looked on to his words Allah Azza wa Jann says that as for who he fears as for he who fears the station of his Lord and prohibits his lower self his ego from following its desires and so he says that I took that to be true and I I oppose my desires that's the second benefit out of 30 years with he says the third one I saw that everyone strives everyone exerts their efforts to gather the dunya whether it be our ranks amongst people whether it be whether it be the jobs that we have or the cars that we buy or the families that we have or the people that we support the money that we give the giving itself could be dunya if it's for other than Allah the studying that we do if it's for other than Allah it's dunya he says I looked on to creation and I saw that they were gathering dunya and then I pondered about the words of Allah that whatever is with you is going to go one day it's ephemeral, it's leaving but what's with Allah remains what's with Allah remains so he says anything I did in the dunya I did it for Allah so that it remains that it's not going to depart me one day then he says the fourth benefit from his time as Shaqiq he says that I looked and I saw that people assumed that their honor comes from the wealth that they gather the wealth that they spend that the rank that they arrive at with people that the honor that they have is from taking money from people or giving money to people whatever it is it's in these things that are in the hands and whatever sort of honor that you might have had he says I saw that people misplaced the source of honor and he says I looked onto the words of Allah I said that the most honorable of you are those who have Taqwa of Allah that have God's weariness that keep Allah Azza wa Jal at the forefront before any step that they take that the people of Taqwa they think is that step pleasing to Allah Azza wa Jal or not is this what Allah wants me in that moment or not so he says I found that honor was in that and so I took Taqwa as my source of honor and he says the fifth one I saw that some people would criticize others backbite others slander others because of some sort of jealousy that they had our relationship with Allah is not just it's not just vertical it's horizontal as well if we don't have the proper relation with those around us if we don't fulfill the rights of those around us we're concentrating on our prayers and our fasting and our memorizing Quran and making our dhikr we haven't achieved what Allah Azza wa Jal is asking for that those we can't do without we can't do without our prayers and our fast that's a third we have to do those but the social interactions that we have we also have responsibilities that Allah expects of us and he says that I looked and saw that this is how people treated each other because of some sort of jealousy that they had so I said he said I pondered the words of Allah نحن قصمنا بينهم معيشتهم في الحياة الدنيا that whatever they had in this lowly world that Allah Azza wa Jal already already divided up I didn't need to be concerned with that person had and what sort of what car that person had and what home that person had and what education that person had and what am I going to do to become better than him or she is going to do to become better than me he says I understood that this is already pre-eternally decreed and so he said I left it it didn't worry me anymore the six benefit he said that I saw that people had enmity enmity towards each other people found reasons to hate on each other people found reasons to dislike the other and then I remembered his speech when he says that all of us are invited to the banquet of Jannah Allah invited all of us this is a team effort our life here is a team effort that we have each other nas one of the roots of nas is un the one that you find sociability with the one that you find comfort in that that's what other people are for us that they are partners for us to reach Allah Azza wa Jal for all of us to enter Jannah that there is no reason for us to take the others an enemy he says I looked and I saw that Allah Azza wa Jal said that Shaytan for you is an enemy so take him as an enemy so he said I took him as an enemy that whatever sort of enmity I had to another perhaps it came from Shaytan perhaps the ill feelings that somebody had towards me wasn't them perhaps it was Shaytan that that was the real enemy they says the seventh one the seventh benefit I found is that everyone strived with seriousness and emphatically struggled to gather up their provisions and sometimes those means that they took were not necessarily illicit it was amongst the haram it was things that were prohibited right that the ends don't justify the means he said that I saw that people took illicit means to arrive at their livelihood to arrive at acquiring their livelihood and then he said I remembered and then he said I remembered that there's not a single thing that walks on this earth, not a single ant not a single deer, not a single animal not a single leaf that falls except that its risk is already with Allah that the sunlight that the leaf receives, that the trees receive that the bushes outside receive, that the hills receive for their photosynthesis already from Allah that's part of the risk that every cup of water that you drink is from your risk Allah has already determined it, he's already decreed it what need is there to go against what Allah has given us the hands that Allah has given us the tongues that Allah has given us the eyes that Allah has given us the ears that Allah has given us and use those, the intellect that Allah has given us and use that blessing Allah has given us to disobey him in something that he already has already promised us what is the point of that so he said I cleared myself of any sort of Shubha any sort of anything that had any sort of doubt in it I left it and the final benefit that he found with his teacher he says I looked and I saw that everyone relied on creation they relied on creation and they forgot the Creator that they relied on the help that so and so can provide but they forgot the one who created so and so they relied on the satiation that food could give but they forgot Allah as the one that put satiation in the stomach after eating the food he said I looked under creation and I saw that this is what everybody relied on and I looked onto the words of Allah and I looked and I saw that Allah said that whosoever relies on Allah then he is a sufficiency we don't need sufficiency in creation we use those as our means Allah put that as our means we don't need sufficiency in creation we don't need sufficiency in creation we use those as our means Allah put that as our means for us to take but that's not our sufficiency Allah as the one who enters our sufficiency if we have thirst and Allah doesn't will that thirst to be quenched by the cups of water we drink that water will do nothing for us it's creation that quenching of the thirst is creation so he says I looked onto that ayah and I realized that if I put my trust in Allah he is my sufficiency Allah is going to execute as a fear Allah has already decreed it it's hap is going to happen there's no reason to worry about it there's no reason for us to worry about something that we can't we can't affect we take our means and we do what Allah has asked for us and the result is with him the result is with him so he says I took Allah as my as my trust as my pillar as my pillar he is my sufficiency and he is my sufficiency and how great of a how great of a trusty is he I say this I say this he is the one who forgives in the name of Allah in the name of Allah in the name of His messenger in the name of His family in the name of His companions in the name of His companions and that is that summation of the path if we were to actualize the fact that we are on a journey to Allah one day we are going to pass and that should be good news for us that we are going to pass one day that we are not going to see if we were to live forever how many of our loved ones would we bury how much struggle would we have to go through how often would we have to take the means to satiate ourselves instead of satiation in jannah how often We would suffer a lot if we were to remain here. And the fact that we are, that our end is not with anything except Allah Azza and Jinn should be a sort of source of comfort for us when we remember that we're going to pass as Allah is ar-Rahman ar-Rahim. So we ask Allah for His mercy, when we ask Allah for His compassion, we ask Allah that He makes us people of Taqwa. We ask Allah that He makes us people akraman nas, people of Taqwa. He makes us the most noble of people. We ask Allah that He gives us, that He gives us, He gives us honor and majesty to what pleases Him. And we ask Allah that He does not give us debasement through that which just pleases Him. We ask Allah that He gives us nobility in this dunya and in the ahfirah. We ask that we are people who, when we take a step that we think of Him, Azza wa Jinn first, we ask Allah that whatever step that we take that is pleasing to Him and His messenger, Salah al-Sannam, we ask Allah that the righteous deeds that His messenger, Salah al-Sannam, taught us and the company of Him, Allah Azza wa Jinn, the company of those deeds and the company of His messenger, Salah al-Sannam, the company of the Qur'an, the company of the walking Qur'an is our company in the grave. We ask Allah, Azza wa Jinn, that's our company in our lives as well. We ask that we find no source of solace except with Him. Say, Allahumma, anta al-salam. Wa minka al-salam tabarabta yadil al-mujalali wal ikram, hayyina wa adakhilna dara al-salam rabbana aatina fi al-duniya hasina wa fi al-akhreti hasina wa qina aada bannar rabbana hablana min azwajina wa dhriyatina qurra ta'yiningun ja'nna al-muttaqina imama rabbana aatina fi al-duniya hasina wa fi al-akhreti hasina wa qina aada bannar rabbir hamuhum aakima rabbayani sahgira rabbir hamuhum aakima rabbayani sahgira Oh Allah, have mercy on them as they had mercy on us when we were young. Allah, Allah, we ask that you have mercy on our teachers, particularly our first teachers, our parents. rabbir hamuhum aakima rabbayani sahgira Ya Allah, we ask you rabbana hablana min azwajina wa dhriyatina qurra ta'yiningun ja'nna al-muttaqina imama Ya Allah, we ask you to actualize that you said Inna Allahu wa Malaikituhu yusalluna al-nabi Ya ayyuhal laadina aamanusallu alayhi wasanimutasneema Allahumma salli ala Sayyidina Muhammad wa ala ala sayyidina Muhammad wa ala ashabi sayyidina Muhammad wa ala ashabi sayyidina Muhammad wa ala aswaji sayyidina Muhammad wa ala atbaa sayyidina Muhammad wa ala ahbaa bisaidina Muhammad wa ala ummati sayyidina Muhammad wa barika salimusallu alayhi Inna Allah ya'munu bin adi wa ihsani wa aitai d'un qurba wa yannhaanin fahshahi wa munkeri wa al-baghi Ya'idun aalakum tathakkarun Uthkur Allah ya'thkurkum Remember Allah He'll remember you and he'll answer you. And you, can't even, If God knows what you'll be doing and you both are not intellectuals yourell.