 God is the most worthy and deserving of all praise. We ask Allah and we ask Allah alone to guide us, to prevent us from being misguided and from misguiding others. And we ask Allah to forgive us of our shortcomings, our weaknesses, our sins, those that we commit knowingly and those that we commit unknowingly. We ask Allah to bless the noble Prophet Muhammadun Diyabullah, subhanAllah wa'a'ayi wa'a'ayi wa sahbihi wa sahbihi wa sahbihi, to bless the noble companions, his family and the righteous everywhere. I mean, respected brothers and sisters, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Qur'an in the 17th chapter in Surah al-Israq, he says, put, say, on the tongue of the Prophet, subhanAllah wa'a'ayi wa sahbihi wa sahbihi wa sahbihi wa sahbihi wa sahbihi wa sahbihi wa sahbihi had the earth been populated by angels, then assuredly and most certainly, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala would have sent an angel as a messenger. And I want to dive a little further into this verse because it, like all verses in the Qur'an, deserves further exploration. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, the construction in the Arabic language is such that the verse begins by saying, don't count up. And in the Arabic language, when we say don't count up, it's like presenting a hypothetical. It's like saying how you would say hypothetically or imagine if you will. And so, while the possibilities or the probability of such an occurrence happening is not high, nonetheless Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is asking us to reflect on something oftentimes and more often than not for us to bring an example and a lesson there. And so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is saying that had the earth been populated by angels, that is to say an exclusion, so only angels living in tranquility and peace as angelic beings would, like on the earth in harmony and tranquility. And that if the angel, if the earth was populated exclusively with these angels, living in peace and harmony, then most certainly assuredly, again there's a stressing in the Arabic language here, that indeed that Allah would have sent an angel as a messenger. And the verse is as important for what it says and equally what it is not explicitly saying, saying. And by that I mean that the verse is addressing us, it's speaking to us, it is on the tongue of the prophet, in fact would, say, oh Muhammad. And so the messenger of Allah, the messenger of God, who is self-annabasho mithrukum, I am a human being like you, as the prophet says. And he is speaking to a human, largely human audience. And so what the verse is imagining or allowing us to explore is this relationship that exists between prophets, messengers of God, guides, reformers, that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala chooses, and the community or the people or the population that they are there to reform, to guide, to be a messenger for. And so the right relationship here and allowing us to reflect upon is the fact that the message that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has chosen human messengers for human communities, for human beings, because that is who we are. We are human beings. And so what I wish to talk about today, brothers and sisters, is this idea of being human. And that in fact being human itself is the greatest challenge. Because I would submit to you that the challenges and the frustrations and the struggles that we see in the world today are the result of human beings losing their humanity, forgetting their humanness and their humanity. Or in other words, forgetting their fitrah. And we'll talk about this in a second. And on the tongue or in the words of the poet from the subcontinent, he says, that it is outside of the realm of possibility that all things in life will come easy to you. It's not possible that life is going to just be a cakewalk. It's going to be easy. In fact, it is difficult for a person to be a human being. And what he's talking about again is this idea of what it means to be truly human. Not just be human because of our composition, of our makeup. We are flesh, we are blood, and we are bones. Yes, we are human. But to be truly human. And to truly encompass what it means to be human. And that, as I said brothers and sisters, I would submit to you, is the greatest challenge for us today. Is to recognize first and foremost our humanity. The Prophet ﷺ he said, That every child, every human being is born in a state of fitrah, in a state of primordial purification, of a purity, a perfection of this fitrah that is pure, that is wholesome, that is not corrupted. And then the Prophet continued and he said that then he is the child's parents that make that child a Jew, a Christian, or a Zoroastrian, and so on and so forth. And what the Prophet ﷺ remarkably is allowing us to examine is that age old question of nurture versus nature. Of nurture versus nature. That is this struggle that often exists between what we are created in, the state of how we are created, which is our fitrah. And then those environmental factors and those factors of nurturing that can preserve the integrity of that fitrah, or it can corrupt that fitrah. It can allow human beings to lose their humanity, to lose sight of their fitrah. And in the language of the Quran, in the discourse of the Quran, the opposition, the opposition forces, if you will, those things, those environmental factors, those neutral factors that can corrupt the human spirit, that can corrupt that state of purity that we are born in, are known as fitrah, or fitrah. It is the trials and tribulations of life, the trials and tribulations of the Hayat of Dunya, of the worldly existence that can and do corrupt the human spirit, and corrupt that fitrah, that primordial nature, that pure nature that we are born in by Allah ﷺ, that we are born with, according to the Prophet ﷺ, and by the will and permission of Allah ﷺ. Now I'm understanding the fact that this presents an opportunity for us to engage in a conversation, just as a side note, with those who profess to be of the Christian faith, because we reject the notion of original sin, which is a foundational tenet in Christianity, that human beings are born into a state of sin. They are born in need of redemption. And then that redemption and that salvation comes from outside of human history, which is what the crucifixion of Christ represents, which is what Christians had celebrated a week ago today, the Friday in Easter, right? This is a pivotal moment in Christianity, and in Christianity, with regards to what the reality and what it means with regards to the crucifixion of Christ. But that's just as an aside. So it opens up the possibility of that conversation that, well, Islam doesn't recognize that nature of sin. Yes, human beings are capable of sin, surely, but we are not born in a state of sin. We are not born in need of redemption and in need of redemption. Rather, we are born pure. And so the challenge before us, brothers and sisters, in recognizing our humanity, is to recognize that what is called for us, what we are asked to do is, in fact, preserve and keep intact the wherewithal, the natural human resources that we are born with, because we are born in a state of fitrah, of primordial perfection, of how Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, has created us as pure, as innocent, as free from blemish. And so first and foremost, recognizing that what we are being tasked with, both individually and collectively as a community and as a society, is to keep intact, to preserve and to protect the fitrah and to prevent the fitrah, to prevent those things that can corrupt the human spirit, that can corrupt and blemish that fitrah that Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, has created us with. But a part of understanding that, a part of understanding the struggle that lies before us, the challenge that we have, which is to preserve that human nature, is to first and foremost understand human nature, is to understand our humanity. And to go back to the verse that I started with, in establishing a contradiction, a distinguishing feature, what is different from us, than the angelic beings that Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, has created. And what separates us, beyond our composition, they are creatures of light, of pure light, and we are creatures of minimal thing, of clay. And that itself has some importance that we'll hopefully have a chance to explore. But the fact of the matter remains that we as human beings are valuable. We are not perfect. We are imperfect beings. We have the capacity to sin. We, in fact, will sin. In one of the reflection, one of the hadith of the prophets, Allah, He tells us that if the earth was created, or if there was a community that did not sin, then Allah would replace that community with a community that did sin, and then beg Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, for forgiveness. Allah is one who loves forgiveness. We are approaching the month of Ramadan, and in the month of Ramadan, one of the prayers, one of the dua, and the supplications of the prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, is Allahumma, إِنَّتَ أَلْفُونَ تُحِبْكُ الْعَفُونَ That, oh Allah, forgive me, because you love to forgive. Pardon me. Forgive me of my sins, because it is your nature, Ya Allah, Ya Rabb, to forgive us. It is in your nature to be merciful, to be affu, to love to forgive, to love to pardon. That is what Allah is. And so, yes, we are imperfect beings, and so we are going to have the frailties, the limitations that come and that are part and parcel of being human. And I say that because all too often in my experiences in dealing with Muslims interacting with our community is that oftentimes people struggle with this basic idea that they are valuable, that they are imperfect. And I don't just mean imperfect with regards to their relationship with Allah, but I mean imperfection in general. Our relationships are never going to be perfect. We're never going to have the perfect marriage. My wife is certainly attached to that. We're never going to have the perfect relationships with one another. We are never going to create a perfect social order and community, but it is a part of that process. And all we are tasked to do, all that I am tasked to do as a husband, is to be the best husband that I can be for my wife, the best father that I can be for my children, the best brother that I can be because that is what being human means. Being human means to falter, being human means to be frail, to be limited, to have those furnishes, but not to dwell on them, not to live in them, not to allow those things, those mistakes to define us, but rather to transcend beyond those mistakes and to seek Allah's forgiveness, to seek Allah's guidance, to being the best that we can be, or to put it differently, we are not being tasked with the impossible task of transcending our humanity, of being more than human. If God wanted that, He would have made us angels. If God wanted that, that if God wanted that, He would have populated the earth with beings that were angelic and incapable of sin, incapable of human error, there would be perfect beings that would walk the earth in peace and tranquility, but that's not what God intended. That isn't what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala intended for His creation here on this earth. He tasked us with the possibility of who we are and that human beings are that potentiality that we are created We are created, yes, in the best of lows, but what? But we are also capable of debasing ourselves to the lowest of lows. And so what human beings are and remain and will always be is that potentiality of who we are and what we are created with that God-given nature that fits it all and then the other end of that which is to fall so far short of our humanity and of accepting our humanity. And so if I could conclude one of the other challenges of understanding and appreciating the fact that we are human as I said, the greatest challenge being human is to yes, accept our humanity for what it is which is that we are these imperfect beings but also to understand the fact or actually before I get into the final point I want to go back to this idea of being created of clay because I was talking about potentiality because one of the interesting and salient features of clay is that it is malleable it is changeable it is mutable it can be spread it can be, you know compacted it can expand it can contract right, clay has that ability right the hallmark one of the satanic you know one of the things of satanic nature is to be arrogant I'm quite full of the fact that he was created and created that I have been created of a fire and he meaning Adam Adam was created out of clay as sort of a defamatory thing something that was a weakness but rather I would submit to you that clay, unlike fire that clay has that potentiality has that ability to be malleable to change and so if you find yourself if we find ourselves in situations that we aren't happy with that we are pleased with if we find ourselves in space with regards to our relationship with our creator or our relationship with our wives and our husbands or our relationship with our community members if we find that we are not where we want to be guess what you have the capacity to change you have the ability to change because that is in your nature that is in our nature because we are created out of clay and one of the beautiful features of clay is that it can be malleable it can be molded it can be changed it's not cemented it is not cemented and that is how we are as human beings are but if I go back to the final point then that I was going to make is that an understanding a part of understanding that we are human is to understand that we are a composite of a mind, body and soul of a mind, body and soul we are not beings that are purely physical we're not animals we're not beasts although unfortunately we can sometimes act like that when we give in to our bestial nature when we can give in to our lower selves our lower drives but the fact of the matter remains is that we are a beautiful composite of a mind, body and soul and so we have yes, we are physical beings and our bodies have rights upon us as the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam reminded us that our bodies have rights upon us so we should take care of this vessel that Allah has gifted us with and that has gifted us with that has trusted us with take care of ourselves take care of our health in and of itself is the need for us to be physically taking care of ourselves as a community we suffer from preventable diseases in the droves it's at alarming rates at epidemic rates in terms of heart disease and diabetes and so on and oftentimes these things that are related and are preventable because they're related to exercise lifestyle choices and what we eat our diet and so again we have the ability to change them we have the ability to change those cholesterol numbers right we have an ability to change the fact that we are borderline type 2 diabetic give up the gulab jamun every now and then right so we have the ability to change again going back to my earlier point but yes we are physical beings and we have physical limitations and our bodies have rights upon us and we have to fulfill those those rights that's why we marry that's why Islam doesn't reject this sexual impulse but rather it legislates it it says yes sexuality is a part of human nature right but we're going to regulate it we're going to legislate it it only occurs within the confines of marriage and so on so yes we have physical needs we have to feed ourselves if the time for prayer has come and you're hungry eat first so you're not thinking of your appetite all the time you're praying or if you have to relieve the call of nature you're going to do that first before you pray because our bodies have rights upon us our bodies have rights upon us the Prophet Salaamah instead of a group of companions saying that they would never marry and they would live lives of celibacy or that they would fast in perpetuity every day and the Prophet said no no follow my Sunnah I marry and I eat and the best of fasting is the fast of the Prophet Dawud Ali Salaamah which is the fast on alternate days if you're going to go about that strict sort of exercise and regimen but nonetheless so our bodies yes so we are physical beings but we are also spiritual and intellectual beings and one of the beauties of the Quran is the way in which it engages us in our totality it engages us in our total composition because the Quran is the recital it is an act of recitation we are to moisten our tongues with the dhikr of Allah SWT his Quran, his book, his Qalam and so the Quran is to be recited, to be read that is to say that it has even an engaging description we have a physical we have a physical portion of that right? there's a physical engagement but the Quran engages us as intellectual beings and spiritual beings it asks us to ponder it asks us to use the akkad, the intellect and the akkad can be a guiding force with regards to those parts of our humanity that we struggle with is our intellects our intellects keep us in check and so yes we are human beings who are a composition of a mind, body soul and recognizing that and recognizing that we have a responsibility to all of those elements and the elements of Islam iman, Islam or that they beautifully engage all aspects of that composition of human beings it engages us spiritually yes but it also engages us intellectually it also engages us physically because our actions, our ibadat what we do have physical manifestations they have physical postures in what we perform and prerequisites that involve cleansing the parts of the body and so on and so the ibadat are a beautiful exploration of this idea that human beings are this composite and so I say that brothers and sisters in order for us to reflect upon the task that lies before us not only in accepting our humanity accepting our fitra but also in recognizing that we as human beings are created in a certain way and in a certain fashion and to understand that is the recipe for success to understand that would lead us to not only on an individual level because that's the task before us in conclusion is that we must create a communal order so not only as individuals and our own individual struggles but as a community we are tasked as a community to create a social order a community that allows those human beings to reach and to arrive at their potentiality and so the task that we have brothers and sisters in this community is to make room and to be accommodating for all members of our community where they are with regards to their level of practice and their relationship with the faith if we're just preaching to the quote unquote most righteous as they say we're just preaching to the choir what about reaching those who are just nominally muslims or just identify themselves as muslims along in culture or culturally do we have a space in our communities have we created a social order for human beings to feel that they are welcomed in our midst and that they will be allowed to grow and that they will be allowed to be nurtured and that they will be allowed to reach that full potentiality that God has created them with and so the task that we have is to not only in ourselves to preserve our fitra but to create a social order and a communal order that allows other human beings to preserve and keep intact their fitra to remove those impediments those obstacles those fitan those trials and tribulations those traps that people fall into that can corrupt the human nature and so the task that we have brothers and sisters is to not only preserve our own fitra and to be conscious of those states that can corrupt our own natures but to create a community to create a community that can allow others to grow into their full potential and to remove those obstacles that corrupt the human fitra I pray that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives us dofi' I pray that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala blesses this community allows us to be that beacon of light and hope and to allow us to be and create spaces where all are welcomed and all are welcomed in our midst to grow and to become a part of this beautiful community Ya Rabbi Ya Rabbi