 that being that gave us existence that emanated his existence unto us and allowed us to exist through him, Azzawajal, that he is the one that necessarily exists and our, he's the one who necessarily exists and our existence is wholly dependent on his ijad, on him giving us existence and then his imdad allowing us to continue that existence. And he, Azzawajal, has emanated onto us his mercy by bringing us the modes and the means by which we continue our existence and he has given us his particular mercy, al-Rahim, the one that has given us that particular mercy of giving us a complete faith. That anything that we add to this faith that we try to add to this faith is an imperfection. Any sort of progress that we try to make that is not in lines within the bounds that Allah has set for us is an imperfection and it's not progress, it's regress. It is working backwards that no matter how hard we try to make progress, if it is not in line with the sunnah of his Habib sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, it's not progress. If it is not in line with the guiding, the guidance and the teaching of Nur al-Huda sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, the light of guidance sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, when the entire world was in darkness and he sallallahu alayhi wa sallam came and illumined the world and when he illumined the world, people that had the darkness in their hearts were illumined, these people who were for a lack of better words misguided, that these were people who would bury their children alive, who didn't know good character, who didn't know what perfection was, how to be a morally perfect person. These people who were rough in course became the most merciful people to mankind. These people that had the worst character, the people who would have a war over losing a horse race, a hundred-year war, two tribes, because one tribe lost the race, so the other tribe killed somebody back and forth and back and forth for a hundred years. The only person to bring them out of that darkness was he sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. That place which was called the Hijaz, it was called the barrier between the two relevant portions of the world, the east and the west, that it would not have been difficult for the Persians or the Romans to come and conquer these people, but they had no interest in conquering these people. It would do nothing for them. It was a barrier. Nobody wanted to go to the Hijaz and he sallallahu alayhi wa sallam came, and the Hijaz became the center and the pivot of the world, that without him we would not have known what mercy was, and without him we would not have known what true justice is. And for us, as believers, as Muslims, we have been given a complete guidance. Allah says, This is the last verse in regards to the rulings that Allah has given us. It's the last verse revealed. And some say it was the last verse revealed period, no other verse after this was revealed. And in this verse Allah says, on this day I have chosen, I have completed for you your religion, your way of life, and your religion, your deen is not simply the way that you worship. It's also your social conduct. It's the way that you show your conduct to yourself, and to your Lord, and to all those around you. It is a three-dimensional relation. It's not just one-dimensional within yourself. This is not just personal worship. And it's not just two-dimensional, you and the other. It's not just social conduct. It's not just your civic engagement. It's also your vertical relationship with Allah Azza wa Jalla. That if you do not put things in their place, and that's the definition that has been given to us from our ulama, from a unbroken chain, that if we want to know what justice is, it's to put things in their proper place. If we want to know how to be people of justice, it is to put your body in its proper place. When the time of prayer comes, you make the sajda. That's justice. And when the time comes to show another mercy, that is putting things in its proper place. There is no better role model of justice than he, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. He was the most merciful to mankind. If you want progress, it is to follow his way, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. If you want justice with your Lord, Azza wa Jalla, it is to respond to his call. Often we ask, why doesn't Allah answer our dua? Why does he not answer our call when we call upon him? And we don't ask ourselves the questions, why aren't we answering his call when he calls us, Azza wa Jalla? Where are we when we call on him, Azza wa Jalla? He answers. But not if our dealings are haram, and our wealth is haram, and our provisions is haram. Our food is haram. Our social conduct is haram. As the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, he has been provided with complete haram. The haram runs in his veins. How could he be answered? If we do not make progress to that perfection of him, no progress, whether it's technological or whether we think it's some ethical progress that we're making, or some societal progress that we're making, or some civic progress that we're making, no progress is progress unless it's an alignment with what he taught Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. And no one can be a balanced being, a person of adhan, of justice. No person can be a person who has their complete mizan, that their scales are balanced, unless they're following his balance, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. No matter how progressive you get in the way that you speak to your others, speak to the other, no matter how progressive you are in your technology, no matter what your iPhone can do, no matter what your computers can do, if it does not bring you to him, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, and his guidance, and from him, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, to your Lord, Azza wa Jalla? This is not progress, it's regress. And so we are people who want progress. We are people who want to be more perfected human beings, and progress is to move from an imperfection to a perfection. So if we move away from that perfection, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, we will never be people who become perfected. لقد كان لكم في رسول الله أسوة الحسنة. In the messenger for you, لقد كان لكم, for you. He Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam wasn't sent just for the pious or the impious. He wasn't just sent for those who pray and those who don't pray. He Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was sent for all people, كافة للناس, بشيرا ونذيرا. He was sent for all people, كافة للناس, all times and all places, that every message that was coming was coming for him, for him Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, to complete his message. He was sent for those people who came before him as well. He was the Imam of the rest of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, right? He was the Imam of those of those messengers and he led them Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam وَعَلِهُمُصَاتَ سَنَا أَجْمَعِينَ upon all of them be peace and prayers. He led them in prayer. He came after them but he was their model of conduct. He was the sign of progress. That every prophet, they came with the same creed, the same beliefs that they taught and then the practice that they taught was for the time and place and when he saw Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam came into being. That all other practices were done away with. Allah had abrogated them. Whether or not those messages remain sound or not, whether the message of the Bible and the Torah remains sound or not, doesn't matter. Whether we still have the message or not, it does not matter. He saw Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam has came to replace that, Aleyhi Wasallam. And Allah chose him. All those people from before were making progress to him and all those people who come after him are making progress back to his model Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. And those who want to be people of balance and of justice, then they should know that justice is by putting things in their place, by putting your character in its place, by putting your anger in its place. Sometimes it's not good to be angry and sometimes it's good to be angry. Sometimes it's good to be kind and sometimes it's not good to be kind. You don't want to be kind to somebody that is stealing or that is coming into your home and harming your family. That's not the time for, that is not the time for kindness. To be a person of, of, of justice is to show them harshness, but on the, on the reverse. For example, Imam, Imam Malik, Rahmullah Ta'ala, he was, he was, he was, he was bathing and somebody came and stole his clothes, right? Yeah, they're in bathrooms 1,000 years ago in their, in their homes. And Imam Malik, Rahmullah Ta'ala, somebody came to steal his clothes. He put things in this, in this, in their place. When that person came to steal his clothes, he wrapped himself, he dried himself and ran after him, right? He ran after him, Rahmullah Ta'ala. And he said, I want you to know that you're not stealing. I've gifted this to you. This is a gift to you. I do not want to sin of stealing on your hands. That's justice, putting things in their place, putting kindness in its place. This is justice. And when things are out of their place, things fall, fall into, fall into imbalance, injustice. And then this order within ourselves and within, within the cosmos and the order within creation, it shifts away from that which Allah commanded. And then we see those things that bring difficulty to ourselves and to others. And we become people who have wronged themselves and shown in, showed injustice to themselves. And Allah says in the Qur'an, commanding His servants, قليا عبادية الذين أسرفوا على أنفسهم. Oh my servants, my servants, reminding you that you're owned by Him, Az-Zawajal, that that is your place to be. You are under His sovereignty. Before you can become a good citizen, you need to be a good person. And a good person starts with belief in Him, Az-Zawajal, and belief in His message, As-Salaam, and good social conduct and to fulfill His rights and your own rights and the rights of others. يا عبادية الذين أسرفوا على أنفسهم لا تقنتوا من رحمة الله. Oh you who have transgressed upon themselves, don't despair from the mercy of Allah. And what is the dua of our our mother and father, آدم عليها السلام and حوا عليها السلام when they slipped. They didn't sin but they slipped. What they they they acknowledge that they slipped. They put things in their place. They said ربنا ظلمنا أنفسنا. Oh my Lord, we have wronged ourselves. We have shown injustice to ourselves. Right? And if you don't forgive us and you don't have mercy on us, we would be lost. They put things in their place. They were people of justice. They were people of complete balance. And if we're not people of balance, we can't expect. We cannot expect the society around us to function. The way that Allah wants it to. We cannot and the way that Allah wants it to is the way that's best for us. Allah is more merciful to me than myself. It's part of the mercy of Allah. He revealed the Sharia and didn't leave us to just figure it out. He revealed laws to us and he did not leave it to us to figure it out. Every every few decades there's some new there's some new mode of operating. Every few decades one thing is appropriate and then the next ten years from then the same things that were appropriate ten years before is not is not appropriate anymore. And people are lost looking for what how do we come to find a balanced society because they have turned away from the dhikr of Allah and the mention of Allah and they've turned away from the laws of Allah Az-Zawaj and they turned away they're turned away from the conduct of our Habib Salaam, the messenger and Allah has promised us in the word of Allah is true. We believe that the word of Allah is true. Those who turn away from my remembrance my mention they will have a constricted life and that is a reality and that's a fact. And until we orient ourselves back to him have complete tawajjuh to him. As Imam Sheikh Ahmed Zarrukh says, this path of ihsan and being an excellent person is to have complete sincere orientation towards Allah that if someone has sincere orientation towards Allah will they ever be a person who cheats in their business? Will they ever be a person who harms their family? Would you ever expect domestic abuse from somebody who has who's straight with Allah? It would not happen. They know that one day Allah will take them into account. Would you expect oppression and injustice from a leader that believes in Allah, truly believes in Allah and his messenger Salaam, who knows that one day I will be taken into account that what I do to these people and the trust that Allah has given me to be in charge of these people that if I do not fulfill the trust the way Allah Az-Zawaj wants then one day he is going to be under, I'm going to be under his control and I will have to answer to him the way these people answer to me. And you might not be a politician. You might not think that you have any sort of circle of influence. Everyone, so the Prophet Salaam said that everyone is a shepherd. Everyone has a flock to take care of. Everyone of you is a shepherd. And every single one of you is asked and is responsible for his flock, whether it's your families or if you're an older brother or sister, whether it's your younger siblings, whether you're a teacher and it's your students or if you're a student and it's in the students in the grade below you or if you're a manager at work and those under you or if you're a father or a mother who have children or if it's just you yourself, you're still responsible, you're your own flock and you are your own leader and you will be lost unless you take the hand, the metaphorical of hand of His Salaam and allow that to guide you. You will be lost until you allow that, right? Each leader needs their advisor and if you're a leader of yourself and he or Zawajan and the Prophet Salaam is your advisor and they are the only ones that will give you completely sincere advice with absolutely no portion for themselves, no ulterior motives. So if we want to be people of balance and of justice, we should remember that Allah Azawajan has commanded us to be people of justice and he has defined that justice, that justice has been defined as putting things in their place and that starts with us recognizing that we're under his command Azawajan and under the guidance of the Prophet Salaam and that we have rights to him Azawajan and rights to ourselves and rights to those amongst us and that we have other people have the right to be safe from our harm and the right to be safe from those actions that come from us that make them uncomfortable. We are speaking about in the first khutba, it's very simple. It's a tried and tested. It has been tried and tested for a thousand, four hundred plus years that you will have no comfort in life, no real comfort in life. And I do not mean just this life. You will not have comfort in your life that comes after as well. You might find comfort here, but you will have no comfort in life if you turn away from, if we turn away from the guidance that Allah has sent for us. We will never see things put in their place unless we put ourselves in our place. We will never see justice unless we do justice to ourselves and justice to our Lord Azawajan. So may Allah make us people of justice and mercy. May Allah make us the people of mercy. May Allah make us the people of mercy and may Allah make us people who are who are the conduits of mercy and the conduits of good, not just to ourselves and not just to our Lord, but to others. May Allah make us the people when they see us, they see the light of guidance in our faces. May Allah Azawajan make us the people that when people look at us, they say that I want to be this person. May Allah make us the people that when we depart, people are saddened that we depart and when we come, people are happy that we're there. We are happy that that guidance is shown to, that guidance is shown to them through us. We want to be people who have, who fulfill the responsibilities that Allah has given us. We ask Allah that He allows us to fulfill those responsibilities. We ask Allah Azawajan to never lose trace and never to lose sight of the, never to lose sight of the, of the, of the, of His commands and His prohibitions and to never lose sight of His Habib, Salaam, and the Sunnah that He was sent with. We ask Allah Azawajan that we're consistently on that Sunnah and we are never leave that dhikr. That's following that Sunnah is a dhikr and if we leave that dhikr, we ask Allah that if we leave that dhikr from, for a single moment that Allah reminds us and that if we do not see that reminder that Allah does not make our life constricted in this world or the hereafter. We ask Allah for His pardon and His mercy. We ask Allah for His pardon and His mercy. We ask Allah to be our source of solace. We ask Allah Azawajan to be our source of solace and peace.