 Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Alhamdulillahirrahmanirrahim. Wa salat wa salam ala Sayyidin Mursaleen. Sayyidina Muhammad wa la alihi wa sahbihi wa salim tastiman kathira. As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakat. This is Imam Zayshak here, and I'm here with the second part of this class that's recorded primarily for the Muslim Community Center, but anyone who happens upon it, hopefully it will contain benefit. So last week we were talking about the descriptions of the worldly life, al-hayat al-dunya. This week we'll talk about the descriptions of the afterlife, the hereafter, and then the various realms of responsibility we have in this world as they relate to our destiny in the hereafter. And so why did we start here? Because we mentioned and we emphasize, we live in this world, undeniably, but we live for the hereafter. So we live in this world, but we live for the hereafter. And this is something we should keep impressed or that we should keep in the forefront, rather, of our consciousness, because many people, if not most people today, they live in this world and they live for this world and there's no active consciousness of the hereafter. And so what are the attributes that, and we emphasize we're ruling this in the Quran because this is the month of Ramadan, this is a Ramadan class, Shah-Ramadan, al-Ladhi unzila feehi al-Quran, Hudah al-Nasi wa bayinati min al-Hudah, wa al-Faraqan. So this is the month of the Quran, the month of Quranic guidance, the month of clarification, the month of distinguishing between right and wrong based on the guidance of the Quran. So we wanted to root the class in the Quran, this man money. So the life, excuse me, I know some of you in California might not have broken your fast yet, I apologize for drinking, but I'm on the East Coast. The Akhirah and the Quran, Hayatul Al Hayatul Akhirah, the afterlife is described as the real life. So Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala mentions, A'udhu billahi min al-Shaytanir Rajim, wal nad-dar al-akhirat al-ahiyah al-haywan, lo kanu y'alamun. So it says that verily the life hereafter, that is the true life. It is the true life if they only knew. Because once we internalize the reality that the hereafter is the true life, it impacts how we live our life here. It impacts our behavior. Once we know that basically this is an illusion. We've seen the illusion of strength and power. What do we say as Muslims? La hawla wa la quwwata illa billah. There's no strength or power except with Allah. So we had the most powerful economy in human history, right? That's what our president was saying. We have the most powerful economy in human history. It's undone in two weeks by something so small we can't detect it with our naked eye. So what was the point? That economic strength was the illusion of strength. And that's the nature of this world. This world is an illusion and the real world is the life hereafter if they but knew. Wa lo kanwu ya'lamun if they but knew. May Allah bless us to know. So many. Lo kanwu ya'lamun without a while. Lo kanwu ya'lamun. The life hereafter is the abode of permanence. Allah says, Arodo billahi minash shaytanir rajim. Inna ma haadihin haiyatud dunya matau wa inna l-akhiratahi adarul karar. So Allah says, Verily, this worldly life is but an enjoyment and the life hereafter is the abode of permanence. Khali deena fiha abada. Dwelling therein forever. And we pray each and every one of us dwells forever in paradise that we come to know As-sa'adat al-abadiya. As-sa'adat al-abadiya eternal bliss with no end. That is the abode of permanence. And this is the abode of temporal, of a temporal reality and nature. Kullu man alaiha faan. Wa yabqawuchhu rabbika dhu l-jalani wal ikram. Everything, everyone in this world, this lower world is perishing. Only Allah remains that we remain with Allah and find permanence with Allah and find stability with Allah. One of the reasons we're tossed and turned, brothers and sisters, we're up and down. Our lives are like someone on a rollercoaster up and down in and out, twists and turns is because our hearts are attached to this world and this world is a reality. Is it rather this world is in abode of constant changing vicissitudes. And so we change with the times, with the news, with the comings, the goings, the births and the deaths. But Allah is unchanging reality. Can Allah wa la shay'a ma'ahu wa-hu al-an ala ma'a alayhi kan. There was Allah and there was nothing with Allah and He is now as He was then. Unchanging reality, permanence. And so when we detach our hearts from the world and we attach our hearts to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, then we experience that stability and people notice it. Say, man, does anything upset you? Man, I feel like I'm in a washing machine and you come in, you're on an even kill. That's the fruit of a connection with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. This world is the best of the two lives. This worldly, excuse me, the life of the hereafter is the best of the two lives. Allah ta'ala says in that regard, that the life hereafter is best for those who have certainty. And mind, rather who have consciousness of Allah, will you not then realize this? Afala ta'akilun, that the life hereafter, this is the best for the believers. Why? Because the believers believe in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. The believers believe in the unseen and the belief in Allah creates a longing for Allah and a love for Allah. And where is that longing and that love fulfilled in this world or in the next? It's fulfilled in the next. Man ahabba liqa'a Allahi ahabba Allahu liqa'a One who loves and longs to meet Allah, Allah longs to meet them. Malhella Allah. And mar'u ma'a man ahab, a person will be with the one he or she loves. If we love Allah and we love the Messenger of Allah, our union with them, our meeting with them, is not in this world. It's in the Akhirah. How then could the Akhirah not be best? Mujuhu yawma idhamna adira ila rabbiha na adira. Faces on that day will be glowing. Gazing upon their Lord. However that will be. But that's in the Akhirah. And that will be the idin jannah. We're looking forward to idul fitr. But the idin jannah is so much and comparably greater. And that idin jannah is when we meet our Lord, Subhanahu wa ta'ala glorified and exalted is he. Allahumma salli ala Sayyidina Muhammad. The world hereafter can be a source of great torment for those who did not behave wisely and use their life and their time and their health and their wealth wisely in this world. Allah ta'ala says, A'udu billahi minash shaitanun rajim wa lahum fil akhirati azaabun azaeem. And in the hereafter they will have a great, great punishment. May Allah ward off any punishment for us, from us rather. The life hereafter is the abode of ultimate accountability. We're accountable to our actions, brothers and sisters. We don't just live here idly wasting our time. We are accountable rather for every word that we speak, where we are accountable for every action we undertake. There is accountability. And we're accountable in this world, but ultimately our ultimate and our deepest and our most intense accountability is in the next. May Allah give us two feet. Allah ta'ala says in that regard, A'udu billahi minash shaitanun rajim. wa lahum fil akhirati azaabun azaabun azaeem. These will be given or be rewarded, the rooms and paradise for their patient perseverance and they will meet there in greetings and peace. And so the world hereafter is a world where we will be recompensed. Wa lahka yujzauna, they are recompensed. They're given their jazaab. The aid is a recompense for the effort of fasting. And so it's called yawmul jawa'ah is the day of the prizes or they're given their prize that they earned. And in jannah, everything we did, not just the fast of Ramadan, we will be rewarded for or conversely punished for. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give us tofiq, tasir and kabul. As we mentioned last week, if you notice most of these characteristics associated with the achhira, they are targheeb. They're creating longing and creating desire for the jannah. And most of the qualities mentioned for the worldly life are targheeb, pushing us away from it. And there's a wisdom in that we discussed last week. May Allah give us tofiq. So we mentioned the relationship between the person and the hereafter. That relationship is a relationship of responsibility. So we mentioned we live in this world, but we live for the next. And so the relationship of the life of this world and the next life is the life and the abode and the realm where we will be recompensed and held accountable, literally asked. Sa'ala yasalu sa'ilun mas'ool. So he asked, he is asking the one questioning and the one being questioned, the mas'ool. So mas'ooliyah is being questioned given having to account for everything we did in this world. And I want you brothers and sisters, I want you to think about whenever a negative thought, not a negative action, we want to be beyond the realm of negative actions. Every time a negative thought comes to you, before you entertain it, ask yourself, how would I answer to Allah concerning this thought? And if you can consciously remind yourself and envision the time you will stand before Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala and will be asked about that thought, you will be able to repulse it, inshallah ta'ala. And if we can repulse the negative thoughts, how easy will it be to repulse negative actions? And that's one of the wisdoms of Ramadan in this sense. It runs parallel to what I just said because if we can resist good lawful food and drink and lawful relations, how much easier will it be outside of Ramadan to resist unlawful food, unlawful drink and unlawful actions? So Ramadan is a great training for us. That responsibility in this life, it's individual and social responsibility. So the authors of the text, we mentioned Nadoratun Na'im, Fima Karim, Al-Akhlaq, Al-Rasul Al-Kareem. They mentioned several realms of responsibility. So we'll go through those, inshallah ta'ala. And then next week we will enter into the main topic we want to emphasize and that's the realm, this world being the abode of test trials and tribulations were in the midst of one right now, the COVID-19 situation. So they say that individual responsibility, an individual's responsibility responsible for themselves, himself or herself concerning the gifts that Allah's given them intellectually, their hearing, their seeing, their body. All of these things are gifts from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And we're going to be held accountable in terms of how did we use them? How did we use this incredible intellect that Allah's given us? How did we use this physical strength that Allah's given us? How did we use the wealth that Allah bestowed upon us? How did we guide those children that Allah entrusted us with? How did we respond to those parents that Allah brought us into the world by their means? Individual responsibility in these various realms. The responsibility, and we just mentioned this for the individual vis-a-vis his or her family. So how did the individual respond in the realm of familial relationships? This is going to be something that we have to answer for. The responsibility of the individual to his or her blood relatives. So this is again, and this is a realm of responsibility. Do we assist them in their moments of need? Do we maintain contact with them? Did we share the blessings that Allah bestowed upon us? Were we open and receptive to receiving their advice and their counsel and all of those realms of activity that involve our blood relatives were responsible for? And Allah mentions all of these in the Quran. The fourth one, the responsibility of the individual vis-a-vis his or her wider community. And so did we help to advance our community? Were we a responsible productive member of our community? Were we a burden on our community? Did we terrorize our community? So this is a realm of responsibility that the human being is accountable for. The fifth one, the responsibility of this generation to future generations. Did we prepare them to meet the future responsibly and maturely? Did we instill in them the proper beliefs concerning their relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? Did we orient them properly and deem? Did we provide the foundation for their economic prosperity? And this is unfortunately, if we look at this system that we live under, there's massive failure. There's massive failure in the sense that spending for the wellbeing of our future generations and that means what? A habitable planet, but if we are trying to squeeze every last dollar out of fossil fuels, the dirtiest forms of coal, the dirtiest forms of oil, now shell oil, the dirtiest forms of gas production, fracking, which endangers our aquifers. For massive profits of corporations and individuals and stockholders, a small percentage of our people, generally more elderly people, and we don't care for our future generation. We don't care if we give our children a planet that's not habitable, where aquifers have been destroyed because of fracking, where ice caps have melted because we're burning so much for our fossil fuels, et cetera, then we betrayed the trust that Allah has deposited with us concerning our future generations. The sixth is the responsibility of our community towards other communities. Kuntum khaira ummatin ukhrijat lenas. You're the best of communities, ummas. This Muslim community raised up for the benefit of all the other communities. Kuntum khaira ummatin ukhrijat lenas. Are we fulfilling our responsibility to them? First and foremost, are we bringing the message of Islam to them in an intelligible fashion? Are we demonstrating through our words, our actions, our deeds, our character, our state of being the virtue of Islam before we even open our mouths? Are we helping to set an example ecologically, one of the great benefits of this COVID-19 Ramadan is as a Muslim community in North America, we're not dumping the tons of rubbish from our iftars into our environment, the styrofoam cups, the plastic forks and knives by the ton as a community, filling up the dumpster every night there's an iftar. We've been placed in a situation where that particular responsibility towards the world, the global community, it's been lightened from us. There's a blessing, there's a silver lining to every cloud. May Allah give us tofiq, tesir, kaboil and understanding. So we have a responsibility to those children in many different levels, to make sure the seeds of proper belief are planted in their hearts, to make sure that the love of the Messenger of Allah are planted in their hearts, to make sure that we are organizing our societies economically so that they will have the ability to prosper and to raise their families and to have viable economic systems to make all of that possible. The seventh one he mentions is the responsibility of the human being to other creatures in the sense that we are the custodian of Allah in his earth. And so that relates to what we're just saying about ecological devastation. We have a responsibility to those creatures when the wild animals can't drink clean water because we polluted all of the streams. We've failed in our responsibility towards them when they can't live in peace because we've destroyed all of their habitat and they intrude into our communities because our communities are in the forest and the plains where they once roamed, then we kill them as an unwanted intruder. In reality, we are the unwanted intruders. We are the polluters. We are the those who devastate habitat. We have a responsibility to those creatures. Now Allah bless us, they have the consciousness to fulfill it. Allahumma salli ala siyidina Muhammad wa ala anhi wa sahbihi wa sallam. So those are the realms of responsibility that the author mentions. We ask Allah to give us tafeeq. Now next week we'll move directly into the topic of the trials and tribulations. And the trials and tribulations are structured around those responsibilities. So we're testing in terms of our dealings with ourselves. We're testing in terms of our dealing with our families. We're testing in terms of our dealings within our community. We're testing, I don't wanna go to the masjid, those Muslims there, they think there are all this and that. That's a test within the community. We're testing in terms of our dealing with other communities. So there's so-called phenomenon of Islamophobia. That's a test in our relation with other communities. And so in all of these realms of responsibility, there are trials and tribulations and there's success and there's failure. Insha'Allah we'll go into this deeper next week. We pray that what we said today has been of some benefit. We pray that you continue to be blessed during Ramadan. We pray that alhamdulillah, that all of those who are battling with this COVID situation that you're given good health, we pray that those who haven't been afflicted remain protected. May Allah protect all of us, protect our families, our neighbors, our loved ones, our fellow citizens and the denizens of this planet that we share with them. May Allah give you Tawfiq, Tessio, Kabul. This is Imam Zayi Shaykh. BarakAllah wafiikum. Ramadan Mubarak. As-Salamu Alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.