 Being here is a gift, you know? Not everyone gets. And you know, SubhanAllah, just watching all of your faces... Do you know what terrified people historically about Muslims? You know what Muslims were seen as an undefeatable civilization? It wasn't our weapons. A lot of different civilizations had incredible technologies. Aad and Thamud were destroyed. We don't know anything about them. Civilizations had technology. I went to the, masha'Allah, my beloved friend Sidi Usama and his family. They took me to the, what was it? The Roman palace? Palace of fine arts today. And I looked at that and I was just like, Allah Akbar, what a beautiful marvel. Other civilizations had beauty too. They had weapons. They had brute strength. They had all of this. But do you know what terrified people? What made people so perplexed about Muslims and Muslim civilization is that their joy, their greatest sources of enjoyment was the remembrance of God. That is what terrified people. Because you, when your ultimate source of joy in life is connected to something completely transcendent. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Something that has absolutely no attachment to this world and its various possessions. How can you defeat such people? How can you ever even encounter such people without a level of respect and humility? You know, this is why what's interesting, I find that to be a very interesting, one of the most interesting like phenomenon of the last like maybe 50 years plus, is this person, personality called Habib. Raise your hand if you know Habib. You know Habib? Of course you do. And those who didn't raise your hand, you know Habib. You just don't want to like raise your hand. You know Habib, right? Best, greatest fighter in MMA history. No one I don't think could even would even argue with that. Today's talk is not MMA. Don't worry. But what's so interesting is that about Habib, yeah, he was strong. Yeah, he had skill. Yeah, he had discipline. So did a bunch of other fighters. But do you know what time and time again people said about him that they knew in their hearts must have made him the greatest. How could you beat someone whose entire life revolved around doing everything for Allah? His entire life, his sources of relaxation were, can you stop by real quick? I need to take a break and pray two rakat in the message. That was his joy. That was his raha. While others, what are they doing? They finish the fight. They go engage in lewd behavior and fisk and fashat. You think Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, even if they win, they will never be respected. Ever. And the reason I say this, because I truly believe, forgive me, I'm just going to use one mic because it's awkward. I truly believe that one of the most tragic developments, one of the most tragic developments in Islamic history is us forgetting the centrality of joy. We forgot how to have a good time. And ultimately our good time was rooted in the remembrance of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and the praise of the messenger of Allah. Which is the why this is a hill I will die on. I will die on this hill. People who tell you, you know what you just saw? You smiling faces, singing praises to the Prophet SAW? That's just a group that does that. Whoever says that is a liar. May Allah forgive them. This was the majority and the Prophet SAW said, my ummah will never, right? My ummah will never come together upon a lie. The Prophet SAW said, whoever introduces into this affair of ours, what is not from it will surely be rejected. It won't make it. It won't make it. This was what you see around you, the faces of joy, the activity of vikr. This was our people. And not only was it the normative tradition of Islam and of our people, it was the very thing that caused people to tremble about the Muslims. That caused people to think, what is it that they have? How could it be that they come and find their joy in remembering Allah? How could that be? The Prophet SAW said in an authentic hadith, the most beloved action to Allah is what? Walk around telling people what's wrong with their Islam. Is that the most beloved action to Allah? Is that the greatest action to Allah? Slant the little knowledge that you got on Google, that you heard on some YouTube lecture. Is that the most beloved action to Allah? Go around telling people what's wrong with their life. Is that the most beloved action to Allah? Go around frowning like, Islam is serious. Yes, in the hadith, the deen um etin, absolutely. That this deen is serious. But do you know what the Prophet SAW says? You think the Prophet SAW didn't know that this deen was serious? Why was he smiling all the time then? You understood the seriousness of this affair more than the Prophet? Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam? Why was he smiling all the time? Why was he a source of joy to everyone and everything he encountered, even the rocks and the trees? They grieved when the Prophet SAW left. They grieved when he left. They grieved so much so that everyone heard it. There was a miracle at the time of the companions that when they, when he passed on to the other realm they heard the cries of nature because they knew the most greatest of creation that embodied the greatest attribute of mercy is now gone. And they were worried. Were the people that come after, will they forget? Will they implement that? Will they remember that? Inna had ad-dina matin. Right? That the Prophet SAW said, inna had ad-dina matin. This deen is serious. But the Prophet SAW also said that the most beloved action to Allah and the greatest action to Allah is to bring joy to the hearts of the believers. Joy and the centrality of joy is not an afterthought when it comes to the practice of this great religion. Again, it is the very thing that fiends will find perplexing. Y'all are coming here to have a good time. Remembering Allah? Our new years? You're not at the parties? You're not out drinking? You're at the masjid remembering Allah? Of course they're going to find that perplexing. But we don't find that perplexing because Allah SWT gifted us with this life. And Allah SWT inputted within our very nature that the way in which we enjoy this life is by forever remembering that it was a gift from Him that we cannot ever find joy when disconnected from the source of joy. We can never find peace when disconnected from the source of peace. We can never find happiness when disconnected from the creator of happiness in all things that we feel inside. So I want to commend you for upholding a sunnah that in our land, some people want to act like it's an afterthought till this day. But you know, you know this is our people that we come together to remember Allah and the Prophet SAW called these gatherings. He called them gardens of paradise on earth. And they were so important. They were so important that I don't know a single hadith like this where the Prophet SAW said they were so important that even the one who comes here and finds it weird. Yeah, that was me, by the way. Because maybe some of you are coming here for the first time and they're like, one of the world is happening. The heck. That was me, by the way. I came to a first, because I grew up in an environment where most of us are still growing up in environments where this is weird. You don't do these in Masajid. Some even dare to say it's haram, which is the most insane thing ever to me. But in the most difficult environment that does not reinforce people's faith, you want to tell them and say, Allah, Allah, Allah together is haram. But I was like that. That was my reflex. I remember the first time I came in, I sat for 10 minutes. Honestly, it wasn't even 10 minutes. I'm giving myself too much credit, Shaykh, to be honest. It was like three minutes in. I was just like, alright, I'm just going to sit here out of adab and never come back again. But you know, subhanAllah, I thank Allah. And I'm telling you this story just because I'm sensitive to that. And look where I am. I'm sitting on the stage for some reason, telling you to remember Allah in this way. The same person that when I first came into these gatherings, I thought these people must be crazy. I don't know what they're doing here. They're not serious enough. They don't represent the archetype of deen that I thought was the ideal. A frowning, big-bearded, angry Muslim that wants to tear everything up. And if they're happy, it's by accident. Oh, I wasn't supposed to smile. SubhanAllah. Stuffed for a lot. Stuffed for a lot for being joyful. Stuffed for a lot for being joyful. Like the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, was always joyful, despite struggling more than anyone. I say these stories to you because you're upholding a practice that is so central to the preservation of our iman because within the preservation of our iman is the preservation of who we are. We lose ourselves when we lose that. The Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, declared this as a guarantee. Wa ladheena nasu'Allah fa ansahum anfusaum. Those who forgot Allah, what happened to them? They forgot who they were. They forgot who they were. So, yes. What you see today may be in your heart, you don't know how to feel. But I urge you, I urge you to remember that the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, guaranteed us that our beautiful ummah would never ever come together as a majority upon something that was not good for them because we had the truth. And what you saw today, many of you are used to this. Some of you are not. There is a 5,000 ways of doing this. Completely different. When I went to the same person that came to his first Medjah Zikr that thought, I don't know what I'm doing here, but you're the same person. I go to Cape Town, South Africa and I struggle against my nefs. I do a little bit of jihad. I'm like, come on, man. You need to not be so simplistic. Okay? You had an experience, but you can have other experiences too. Go for the sake of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala. And I went to Mejid al Awad, the first Medjah that was built in the city of Cape Town over 300 years ago. 300 years ago. 300 plus years of preserving Islam through this. And I stepped foot. And I sat down. And I started crying like a baby. Within those first few minutes, what in the world is this? It was unlike anything I've ever heard in my life. And just to finish the thought, the Prophet SAW, again, I don't know what hadiths like this. Or not only does he praise and act, he says even the people who don't come here to do the act get the benefit of the act. Unlike any other act, you don't even have to have the niyah. Isn't that amazing? Like, you can say, okay, I made intention to memorize the Qur'an. It's New Year's, right? Raise your hand if you have the resolution to memorize the Qur'an. Just raise your hand anyway. Say, Bismillah. Say, Ameen. Say, Alhamdulillah. We're all going to be hafaz. MCC is going to call me tomorrow. It's like 25 registered in our HIFS program. What happened? Let's say you make a niyah to memorize the Qur'an. Okay? What does Allah promise us? You make a niyah to memorize the Qur'an. You do ayah by ayah by ayah. Maybe an ayah every day. Half an ayah. But out of adab, you don't do half an ayah. Minumum an ayah. And then a week later, Allah SWT says it's your time to come back to me. I love to meet them. I love to meet my servants. It's time for you to come back. How were you resurrected on the Day of Judgment? Are you resurrected as someone who memorized one ayah? You're resurrected as someone who memorized the Qur'an because of the niyah that you had to memorize the Qur'an. Now, that still required a niyah. An intention. But the story that the Prophet SAW tells us in a hadith Qudsit about a mejlis, a gathering of coming together, remembering Allah together, you get the benefit even if you didn't have the intention. No, no, let me go a step further. You ready for this? Even if you had the opposite intention. What is this story? You know, I've come to the conclusion about myself that if my entire role in life was just to go around random people around the world just to help people with one hadith I would die a happy man. What is this hadith? You know the story. Allah SWT has this beautiful conversation with the angels and the angels, they see people just like you gathered to remember Allah and they go to Allah and they say, look, we're perplexed too. We don't get it. They're here just to remember you, ya Allah. Just to remember me? Just to remember you, ya Allah. What do they want? They want jannah. They want freedom from hell. They want their dreams fulfilled. They want forgiveness for their sins. Give them all of it. Allah tells the angels, give all of it to them. And of course, who's the giver? Allah. Nothing happens without the will of Allah. It's what makes us a Muslim. It's what makes our Aqidah so powerful that everything is connected to one divine source. But then the angels tell Allah, what do they tell them? There's someone that didn't come here for that. Isn't this incredible? There's someone that didn't come here for this. They're here. Right? Maybe it's one of you. Raise your hand if it's you. No, I'm just joking. Call yourself out right now. Call yourself out. Maybe it's one of you. One of them didn't come for that. He says to the angels, grant him all of it too. And I'm paraphrasing. Why? They are my people. They are the people. The people. The people. Meaning the creme de la creme. These are the elect. These are the bastions, the guardians of this deen. These are the elect. No one in their company is going to leave distressed without their needs fulfilled. So this activity that was done by every single Muslim land in every single century as a majority of Muslims is the only act that I know that not only do you get benefit by not having an intention, you will still get a benefit from having a different intention. Even the wrong one. What is the mercy of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala? What does this tell us? This tells us, and to conclude, there's something very, very common sense. And this is why I talk about this. People, I've had many, I've had friends who will lie and I love them to death. They're just like, why are you always talking about group liquor all the time? Because they know me. I'm an introvert who likes to just be by himself. It's like, we know you, bro. Why are you talking about group liquor all the time? That's how I'm going to die on this hill. Number one, because I believe it's Haq. Haq al-Aqla. At some point, yeah, we got to tell the truth. But number two, look at what the Prophet is also teaching us. What he's teaching us is something so common sense, man. What he's teaching us is that not everyone here is Masha'Allah, Super Muslim. Super Muslimah. Not everyone here is at the same level of religiosity. It is absolutely crazy to demand that of our people. It's crazy. The Prophet saw some never demanded it out of him. How can, how can we claim? How can we do this and claim the Prophet saw some who allowed someone to urinate and is measured and then said, let him finish. Let him finish. And then simply went to him and said, there's not the place for that. That says, the messages weren't built for this. Right? And that person felt the mercy so much that he felt compelled to say what? Oh, Allah. Have mercy on me and Muhammad and nobody else. Why? Because why? Because they still had work to do. In implementing that level of mercy that the Prophet saw some came with as the fundamental nickname by Allah, وَمَأَرْصَنَّاكَ إِلَّا رَحْمَةَ الْعَالَمِ So, so, what's this common sense thing? It's common sense, man. We're all struggling in various ways. We came from different stories in different contexts. I swear to you, if you saw me as a teenager, you would not believe I'd be sitting up here. I'm telling you the story. I thought, I thought, what is this? We're all at different levels. Yet the Prophet saw some and guarantees us through this hadith, قُتْسِ, he guarantees us that when we come together and spread and express joy together we have a good time expressing joy together in the remembrance of Allah even those who came with the wrong intentions will find healing. Even those who came with doubts will find answers. Even, because that was all of us, Sheikha Hussainah. We're just talking about this. Her story is incredible. And I won't share it because I don't know if I'm allowed to. Am I allowed to share a bit of it? No, I'm not going to show it anyway. I'm not going to do it. You guys ask her for her story. But the point being is that we're all coming with various different things within us. Yet, as Imam al-Ghazali says, which I find is so beautiful and Ibn Abideen records this in his hashiah. Imam al-Ghazali says when asked about gatherings like this, this was his position. And are there other positions? Yes, like I said, I'm going to introvert. It'd be nice to be at home. But I also love this and it's not everyone's cup of tea but listen to what Imam al-Ghazali says because this is a common sense thing that I want to deliver to you today. He says, when asked about group thicker, he says the adhan. The adhan. Just like the adhan. That when it is made together with other people, it reaches more people. Right? Does an adhan with people around reach more people than an adhan when someone assaults you? Of course, common sense, right? Imam al-Ghazali says just like the adhan coming together to remember Allah and remember the greatest of creation, the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa alaihi is going to reach more hearts because we all come with our sincerity and our struggles and we're here to express joy together. And I want to finish by saying this. I started off by saying this is the very thing that other people knew made the Muslim civilization undefeatable and again, I'll die on this hill because I've read enough history to know different peoples at different things. But man, the Muslims you could not replicate their love for the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. You couldn't. You had grown men. Omar radiallahu anhu. You had grown men. The archetype of masculinity. So stereotypically masculine that the stories we give is his feet dragging while he's using his horse and you know, like every now and then just by walking, everyone is shivering and you know, shaitans literally running the other way. You know, these are the stories we tell. This is the same man that had lines down his cheeks because of tears out of love for Allah is bestiary. You think Islam is not going to spread when that's within the hearts of the believers? You think we're not going to heal when that is our concern? You think we're not going to be able to be of benefit to those around us when that is within our heart? So just remember that. We are people of joy and let not anyone tell you anything different. We are people of joy rooted in the remembrance of Allah and the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. And if you take this seriously and if I take this seriously Wallahi amazing things will happen that will cause you to think did that just happen? Now I'm going to tell you a story. Should I tell them a story? I'll tell you a story. Because my dad, you know, I just tell stories about my dad. So that's the only thing you need to know in my bio. Not the degrees and dissertation. I tell stories about my dad. Last night we went to see the fireworks which is like, I don't know. Is it hot off? I don't know. I don't think it's hot off. We went to see fireworks. We went to have a good time. My father was just chilling, like making a thicket. Wallahi, he was just chilling, making a thicket, talking to people, smiling, expressing joy. And because of his joy, right? I just have to say because of his joy, right? This happened last night. I'm not making this up. To a girl and a guy. Look at what Joy does. A girl and a guy. They heard this and he found out they were Muslim and he started talking to them. And to say this politely, they were not there for any halal reasons. They weren't married. And they were together to watch the fireworks where we were. Then he started the conversation. How long was the fireworks season though, Salma? 20 minutes? 25 minutes? By the end of the fireworks, you know what happened? They not only were they so perplexed and not only them, other people, by the spreading of joy that my father was doing. Like they were perplexed of meeting him. My father, they said, we want to do, we're going to do our niqah. I'm not even joking. I know it sounds crazy. Well, I'm still in shock. I still don't understand what happened. Because why? It was this experience. Just joyful. Just being a beautiful person that caused them to feel a sense of shame before Allah in the midst of haram. And they left as husband and wife. And I was a witness to that. Wallahi, wallahi. The strangest things will happen when we recognize Yes, this dean is a serious thing. And we got to get serious now. I need more stories. I got a bunch where that came from. Flight attendant about flight attendant taking shahada. I got a bunch where that came from. But wallahi, I only share these stories. I don't share them lightly. But I do want us to have a light hearted experience about them. I share them because I'm convinced what the secret sauce is. This is the secret sauce. This is it. That when one is engaged in the remembrance of Allah and the remembrance of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam now heart is filled with love of the prophet and Allah it will be inevitable that they will walk around absolutely blissful and joyful and spread that everywhere they go. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to emulate that example where we are always spreading joy wherever we are and may Allah make us sources of peace wherever we are and may Allah make us sources of healing for one another and may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to always prioritize these gatherings where Allah and the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam are remembered by our master Muhammad and his family and his companions.