 Bismillah Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah, so we have reached the final section of the text. We're going to be focusing today on the description, the snippets of the description that Allah Ta'ala and his prophets have told us about jannah, about heaven. And then talking about the specific steps, some of the steps that we can take to try and reach jannah and hopefully the higher levels, inshallah, of jannah. And then we'll wrap up the text with a bit of a conclusion and then lay out some of the practical ways that we can apply it. So as we've been talking about this, the soul goes through this journey and we were created and there's multiple lives that we go through. The life that we are in, this life of Dunya and the Hayats of Dunya is the second life and the most consequential in terms of the actions that we do. Everything after this life will be a result of what we invested in this life. So we have after the life of this world, we have the life of the intermediary realm which is known as the barzah, the graves. What we go through, what we experience in the grave, that's all going to be based on the actions that the human being does in this life, in this world. And then after that you have an entire life known as the life of the day of judgment which is, again, as we mentioned, it's not really a day. It's an entire lifespan, more than a lifespan for some people. It can be up to 50,000 years as Allah Ta'ala mentions in the Quran and for some, and we hope that Allah lightens our load, it can be as quick as two short rakahs. And then the final life, this is eternal and permanent. There is no changing this life. One is in forever and this life doesn't expire. That's the life where the decision is made whether someone goes into Jannah, Heaven or Jannah which is the Hellfire. And at this point we discussed last time that there will be people who enter into the fire and eventually, maybe after years, dozens of years, hundreds of years or thousands of years will be taken out of the fire and going and put into Jannah. But there will be a point at which everything is sealed shut. Jannah is sealed shut. There will be nobody who can leave Jannah anymore. It will be closed. And then at that point, whatever final decisions and final destination we are in is the ultimate destination. It's eternal. There's no turning back. We are all in the life right now where actions actually can make a difference. And do'ahs can make a difference. And prayers can make a difference. Seeking forgiveness can make a difference. We are about to enter into the most momentous of months, the month of Ramadan, where all of these things that we do, insha'Allah, blesses us with life and to get to that month that will have an amplified reward. But there will be a time at which people will make do'ah and people will pray and people will ask Allah to forgive them and give them another chance and there will be no more chances. So we want to do the work that we can do when we still have the opportunity to do the work rather than waiting for a day with that opportunity. Everybody will see the consequences and we want to do it while we just hear about the consequences. We're not necessarily visually seeing or experiencing those consequences. So the descriptions of Jannah are amazing and they're beautiful and there should be descriptions that we reflect upon often as believers in order to give us some himmah, some repose, some affirmation to get through this very difficult world, this very difficult dunya that we are in. Allah says in the Quran, And give glad news to those who believe and do good works that there shall be gardens underneath which rivers flow. Each time they are given food of the fruits of Jannah, they will say, this is like what we were given before and it is given to them in a similar resemblance, but it's not of course the same. And then Allah says, there are for them purified spouses, there forever shall they abide. So God gives these different amazing descriptions of the type of experience one will have in Jannah, but it's important to know, give glad tidings to those who believe and do good works. Works, amal are recudered. Belief comes before the works actually have meaning and weight to them. Meaning that the most important deed that you can do, the most important belief that we can hold is belief in the oneness of God and belief in the religion of Islam and the messengership of Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Then the works start to have a major actual impact on our spiritual scales. So then he says about the people of Takwa, the people of God consciousness, the people who are mindful of Allah, that they are driven to the garden in groups and that they will reach it at some point and the gates are open when they reach it. And the guardians will say to them, the guardians assuming here the angels, peace be upon you, you were good, good in the past life. You were good, so enter it forever. And they will say, Alhamdulillah, praise is due to Allah who has fulfilled his promise for us and he had made us inherit the earth and now he allows us to sojourn in this garden where we will. And this is the promise for the wage almost that's due to the workers. The next IAS says, fine is the workers wage and you shall see the angels thronging around the throne. The angels, they make a tawaf around the throne just like we make tawaf around the carpet. Extroling the praise of their Lord and they are judged to write and it is said for them, praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah. And so again Allah is describing what happens when somebody gets to this point and is finally done with this place. And they enter now its ultimate peace. Greetings of peace are given and they can hold on to that peace eternally. And the angels, they welcome them with that peace. How different is that than what we were discussing last week with Jeff's position against the type of quote unquote welcome that's given to the people of Jannah that literally response is not even given to them. For over a thousand to two thousand years they might ask the angels something who's the guardian over Hellfire and he's not even going to respond to them. And when he does it's in a very, very, very Shadeed intense way because he's watching over them because it's a prison. It's not a garden. It's very, very, very different. It's quite the opposite. And what is it again now for the first one it always starts with the description of what you have to be like, the character traits that you have to have. And then you get this reward. So this was the first one was believe and do good works. The next one is Takwa. Takwa is about belief and doing good works. It's about avoiding the haram. It's about being mindful of Allah. The next verse it says that those who fear the standing before Allah, before their Lord there shall be two gardens. And so what does it mean to fear the standing before their Lord? Fearing in the day of judgment and when we are in this life and we are in the position of Qiyam and prayer that we should visualize this idea that we are standing before Allah and we are in a state of hope and khushur meaning a reverential awe of our Lord that who are we standing before and who are we presenting ourselves before and then the reward comes for that. And Allah Ta'ala He describes different types of groups. So the sabitun, the sabitun, the foremost, the foremost. They are those. They are those who are the people brought in the closest levels in the gardens of the light. And Allah Ta'ala He says about them that this is a group that it's like they're in first place. They're not just content with doing the basics. The basics meaning the obligatory actions. No, no, no, they want to strive and do more and more and more. Every little bit of extra we do in this life if it's accepted has exponential returns on the next life. So there's different ways in mathematics you study like linear algebra or like a linear path to something where the line is just completely straight and then you have something that's exponential or logarithmic where a little bit now can have major, major, major impact as it compounds and it grows and it grows and it grows. That's how this works when it comes to our good deeds in this life. The more that we strive, a little bit more goes a long way if it is accepted. It's not linear because we just do a little bit and Allah can give us a lot of reward. Ramadan is the month of exponential gain. You do a little bit, the reward is multiplied significantly. But the good deeds, they compound and they compound and they compound and they compound until somebody, 50 years, 60 years of striving in this life with eternal bliss in the highest level of Jannah and between each level, we'll get to the descriptions, but it's not like the difference between two cities in this life. Each level is a significant difference in terms of the amount of blessings and the amount of reward that one is getting and what they're feeling in each of these instances. This is why the scholars, they describe the paths that have been laid out. You have the path of salvation, you have the path of sanctification and then you have the path of damnation, essentially. And that's obviously going to Jannah may Allah protect us. The path of salvation is the generality where if we can just be good Muslims, inshallah, we'll be saved. But there's a higher path known as the path of sanctification, the path of being one of the awliya of Allah, the waliya of Allah, the path of being amongst the friends of Allah as Allah is described in the Quran and this is the group that is usually referred to as Allah knows best, but the commentators they usually refer to this as the people who have drawn close to people in first place, the out strippers. Not a second goes by, they're not a minute goes by, they think, how can I do more? Okay, I got time here. Let me do more hair, more good. Let me recite another surah. Let me do something of good. Let me go and help somebody else. Let me go and check in on how my family is doing and so on. They're always kind of striving to do good. And this is the path that is, of course, has the most, most, most, most amount of reward. So, God continues to describe the people. He says, Enter the garden you and your spouses to be made happy, to be made glad. And then he tells the people of Takba, those who have Takba will be in a secure place, a place of safety in gardens and in water springs. And this is a favor from your Lord, a favor from your Lord in the supreme triumph. So, the ultimate end triumph goal that one can feel any sort of, you know, gratitude over or they're really, really, really, really, really, the final achievement that they could, you know, want to have, that's what Allah Ta'ala is describing is the supreme triumph, which is entering into jannah. There is no more triumph, you know, beyond that. Of course, with except for the degree of the higher levels, that one gets into jannah. So, as believers, don't worry if we're not, like, succeeding the most in our dunya. There will always be people who make more money. There will always be people who are more successful in their careers. There will always be people who have more power outwardly. There will always be people of greater external strength. There will always be people who have more luxury, bigger homes, all the type of stuff. That's all Hayat al-Dunya. None of that matters at all in the eyes of Allah. It doesn't matter. You might give it to somebody and he could love them or he could hate them. But he only gives this, the supreme triumph, to people who he loves. That's it. The person who he doesn't love, it doesn't matter what they have in this dunya, they have no shot at this. They have no shot in the ultimate abode. Of course, while they're in this life, the chances still exist. But if they didn't achieve Allah's love, this is not there. So, as believers, this is what we seek our understanding of progress in. We care about spiritual progress, taming the nafs, becoming a better person, becoming a person of good ekhlaq. That's what we care about. We don't want to let the other concepts of progress get in our mind and confuse us in terms of what is important. So, we continue. You'll see mentioned a lot, the types of descriptions of Jannah. They speak a lot about the desires of the human being. So, they'll talk about the desires of food. So, Allah says, the likeness of the garden that the people have talked about are promised, that there are rivers of water that are unpolluted and rivers of milk, the flavors of which don't change. And rivers of wine delicious to those who drink and to the drinkers and rivers of clear honey. There is for them every kind of fruit and forgiveness from their Lord. And this is the most pure type of food, and of course even the reference of wine, the most pure type that you can imagine. It's not the way things are described in this life. The effects that these types of things have. You know, Allah has mentioned this in the Holy Qur'an. But he's giving this because many times people didn't have much to eat. They didn't have these are considered delicacies. Honey, in the time of Isa alaihi salam, and in the time of ancient times as well. If you had like a jar of honey, you were considered like a very well off person. It was a sign of wealth. Just because they didn't have as much material things like we do right now. And so, just the chance to imagine these luxuries, the unlimited amounts of milk, unlimited amounts of meat, all of these types of things. It's a really, really significant, of a lot of significance in the minds of the believers when they're trying to think, you know what, I don't have it in this life, but inshallah I will have this and much, much, much, much, much, much more in the next life. So this is one of the ways in which you understand. Because in this life again, nothing is going to be perfect. Even Jannah as described is clean. It says the rivers are unpolluted, right in this world. Things aren't necessarily like that, right? But because this world is not supposed to be perfect. And then it's also mentioned the adornments that human beings like as well, right? Gardens of Eden where they enter wearing armlets of gold and pearls, gold and pearls. And their clothing therein is silk. And they say praise be due to Allah who has put grief away from us. Our Lord is forgiving and generous. Who has installed us in this mansion of eternity where toil touches us not, nor can we be affected by wearyness. There's no tiredness, no sickness, no worry, no health issues, no problems, nothing like that. All of those things will go away in Jannah. And the luxuries again, all of these things are luxuries. Silk, for example, for men and gold. Gold and silk for men in Islam parah to wear. And men cannot wear silk and cannot wear gold. They would be considered, these are luxuries that we're not supposed to have in this life. So the Khufar, especially kind of traditionally in other civilizations, they would conquer, these kings would conquer these different areas and they would wear all sorts of gold and silk and all sorts of different ways to show how much they have. That's all reserved for the believers. That's reserved for Jannah. It's not supposed to luxuries. This is a way to help us realize luxuries and we're not supposed to live a life of luxury in this world. And if we are constantly thinking about that, there's a problem. Because Allah Ta'ala says, you think about it for the next life, but don't overdo it in this life. So the verses continue. There's many of them. We'll mention just a few more. Allah Ta'ala says the garden is brought close for those who had taqwa and not distant. So it's not distant. And then he says, this is what you were promised for every penitent, heedful person. Penitent, meaning the one who turned to Allah a lot in repentance. Who feared the Rahman, the all-merciful in secret and came with a contrite heart. And then it's told to them, enter it in peace. This is the day of immortality. There they have all they desire. And Allah says, and we have more. So he's giving again the secrets to how to enter into this amazing place. It actually doesn't require it's not that complicated. And it doesn't require us doing so many things. There's a few essentials. This one is describing being a person of taqwa, which is this all-encompassing trait. We're entering into the month in which taqwa and shallah is supposed to be fasting is supposed to be to help us inculcate taqwa. And he says, for the person who's pent in it, constantly turning back to Allah, the only reason you make repentance is when you're falling short. The key here is to realize that no matter how much we do, we're always falling short. The person who's doing the most amount of ibadah is still supposed to be repentant and turning back to their Lord because the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, would seek Allah's forgiveness over 70 times a day. And he didn't make mistakes. He didn't sin, right? But he's teaching us number one, but he's increasing in degrees so much in every millisecond that he's constantly seeking Allah's forgiveness for, and this is what the commentators mentioned, that perhaps for the lower degrees that he was in. For us, we make a lot of mistakes. So we seek forgiveness for the mistakes, for the sins that we do. And then to do what? Who feared Allah in secret. What does it mean to fear Allah in secret? This is also one of the traits of the people who are who will be under the shade of Allah's throne on the day of judgment. That they cried to their Lord. They wept in front of their Lord and feared him when they were alone. Right? So, again, Ramadan. Ramadan is actually a month in which we're supposed to spend a portion of the night just by ourselves being like this. Try to have a portion of the month in Ramadan where you just sit with your Lord if you can wake up, if we can wake up before Samoor after Salat al-Tawwi just to be with our Lord alone and to talk to him and to really, really fear, let the fear kick in. That's very, very important. In secret, worship in secret is very critical for the heart. All worship, there's some worship that's supposed to be done in public. Right? But there's also worship that must be done in secret. Because the heart has no other consideration. You're not worrying about what this person is going to think of me or this person is going to say to me that the heart will flow and it will feel very, very, the connection will be there in front of our Lord. And that's what we want to try to achieve. And again, the state of the heart is what Allah is mentioning here. He's not mentioning outward traits. He's saying the trait that they had in their heart they came with this soft and trite heart. And it keeps the people of Takwa again are mentioned. The people of Takwa will dwell amongst gardens and rivers firmly established in the favor of a mighty king. So again, the reward for Takwa. So it's important we should have time in Ramadan and outside Ramadan when we sit with some of the verses that mention the garden and just imagine it. Imagine it. We won't be able to imagine it because it's like what no eye has ever seen or what any thought that comes to your mind is not even like that. But at least to try to imagine the feeling that we'll have that there's not going to be any more worries or sadness or grief or issues or stress or anxiety nothing that's going to exist there. Meanwhile, hellfire that's all it is. It's awesome. It's all bad. And the garden is all good. And we have a choice to make based on the actions that we have in this life. So the prophet, he says, this is the hadith right here that Allah, He says, I have prepared for my virtuous servants that which no eye has seen, no ear has heard nor human heart has imagined. And then Allah says in the Quran no soul knows what has kept for them of delightful joy as rewards what they used to do. The reward is again exponential in accordance with what we did but what we do is the first investment that is essentially made. You can have like a very, very successful investment. Somebody invests something and their investment might grow 1,000 times in like two years. One year. That happens sometimes even in the stock market. But somebody else might invest something and their investment might, nothing might happen to it and somebody else might have negative amount. The key is that somebody has to make the investment of this life of the good deed and the more sincere they are the more likely it is that that's going to achieve growth and then the rest is up to Allah in terms of how much he chooses to reward them. But again we do believe and you have to act in order to get things. We do not have a belief in our religion that heaven is just handed out and is just given to you and if you follow a certain belief system you're good to go. That's not our belief and that I don't know that that has not really crept into the Islamic tradition. And so then the Prophet described different different Hadid about Jannah he says and one Hadid Jannah comprises 100 degrees. The distance between each of the degrees is like the distance between heaven and earth. We don't even know the distance between heaven and earth. We have no idea because this whole thing this entire galaxy and entire universe that we live in is not it's not even heaven yet. We're talking about just earth and the entire universe. This is not even comprised heaven yet. And look at how vast the universe is. The light that we see in the stars seeing that star millions of years ago hundreds of thousands of years ago hundreds of millions of years ago because of how long it takes for light to actually reach us. Right? So we don't even know how distant or how far and how vast this amazing kingdom of Allah actually is. This is how much the difference is between the degrees. Imagine the highest degree that he says that those is the highest rivers of the garden. Above it is the highest throne. When you petition Allah when you make dua is that therefore ask for those. So don't just ask for Jannah. Jannah is amazing but if you're going to ask just keep going and asking and asking and asking and maybe one time that we asked of the thousands of times that we did maybe that one time the dua was accepted and there will be people who in the same person people might have done the same amount of deeds in their life and one person gets into first level of Jannah which is the best accomplishment. And another person gets into for those and the only discrepancy between them is well because he asked for it or she asked for it and you didn't. So dua is key in our life. We have to have time for dua and we have to know what to make dua for. He didn't just say he gave us a very specific instruction. Therefore he asked for it. So knowing what to ask for this was actually probably one of the most amazing or for me at least one of the more helpful realization that has anyone ever made a dua list you make a list of dua for Ramadan or for if you go to Hajj or Umrah have you ever seen like someone has anyone ever sent you a dua list like someone you're like hey could I see your template or something or people if you ever go people will send you a dua list that ever happened it's amazing when you see the dua list of like people who are quite I mean all sorts of amazing dua happen for all sorts of people but it's really really really amazing when you see a dua list of these it was amazing for me of somebody who like the majority of the dua were all about the Akhara. Meanwhile I'm over here like I want this and I want this and this job and this house but I remember one of my teachers that I was able you know he sent me this list of dua and it was like everything was about all sorts of high stations in the Akhara like just the as that I didn't even ever think to make right okay so you have dua for those and then you have the dua to like cross the Sirat like lightning like in the first group that ever crosses the Sirat and then to never have any accounting at all on the day of judgment and to receive you know our book in the right hand it's all sorts of details of what to ask Allah for and it was really helpful because for me at least I was like okay you know what this is a good reminder to really orient the first dua that are made especially in special time, special months towards the Akhara because we all have good needs in our dunya and we should always ask Allah for any need we have but it's also important to spend ample time asking for all of these amazing blessings that are given indeed in the Akhara for those who are saying to send the list yeah if you could send me a DM I'll send you the list of the ones InshaAllah yeah it was very very useful for me I try to use it every Ramadan and pull that list out and I'm like I can't come up with a better one than this everything's already here so the next hadith the area of Jannah which could be surrounded just by like by like a circle basically he mentions here like a rope kind of like a rope a whip rope that was used for like an animal it's better than the world and everything it contains so the smallest area he said that should one of the women of paradise appear to the people of the earth she would illuminate the entire earth with light illuminate it completely and render it fragrant with must just one one the scarf which is upon her head is better than the world and all that it contains right so one article of clothing one person one area and how much how much better it is so this is again a way to help incentivize and help the believers understand how virtuous the people of paradise are how virtuous the experience of paradise is how amazing the the fragrance and so on and so forth these are ways to help some reflection to really let these things sit in then it's mentioned another hadith in the garden there is a tree under the shade of which a rider may travel for a hundred years and still won't reach the end they still won't go towards it so imagine like you know we drive by a tree you know there's a huge tree let's say and it might take us like 30 seconds to get through the whole shadow of the tree if somebody was on horse maybe you'll take them but now it's said for 100 years and they still won't be able to get through that's one tree in Jannah one this is how vast it is so it's helpful to get a sense spatially of how vast we're talking because this is the abode we add that the Almighty has created so it's an unlimited type of space he said the length of one of your bows in the garden so I think this meaning like the space so like this much space in the garden is better than everything on which the sun has ever risen or set not just not everything on which the sun has ever risen or set so at minimum we're talking about the entire solar system here not just just planet Earth just a little bit of space this much this much room is better than that so there's another hadith in which Abu Hurayah the Rabi'ul Awani asked the Prophet he said from what was creation created and he said from water and he said of what is the garden built and he said one brick of gold and of silver one brick of gold and one brick of silver it's mortar right what binds them together is fragrant musk its pebbles are pearls and rubies and its dust is saffron which is like a very very premier spice or exactly what category saffron will be in those who enter shall find joy this is the key part those who enter shall find joy without sorrow permanence with neither extinction nor death their clothes shall never wear out and their youth will never pass away they'll never they'll always be young and so this is really important to find joy without sorrow this place that we are in is the abode of sorrow it's the abode of difficulty it's the abode of tribulation it's the abode of grief and of sadness and of worries and especially as we see what's happening in Palestine in Al-Za it continues to be so difficult to grapple with let alone if we were to try to put ourselves in the shoes of our brothers and sisters and we can't even understand how they are are managing through this and yet what should give us hope as believers and what always has given hope to the believers because the life of the believers has always been difficult in this place in the Dunya is the reward that they that the believers will have for the sufferer and for the patients and for the difficulty and for the hunger and for the outward suffering that one is going through will be again exponential amplified type of reward such that they will never ever ever ever ever have sorrow again as we mentioned in the last in the last class that one will dip the person at the most miserable difficult impoverished hard life will dip one finger into heaven and then they will be asked did you ever have any problems at all and they just don't know nothing everything they'll never it will only be that this this some something will take over some type of experience euphoria that it'll just be that all of it was life and cleanse right and it will only be peace and goodness from there and so the problem he's he's encouraging people though are any of you willing to be to work in earnest for the garden for the garden has no rival he said no rival there's nothing he said it is by the lord of the kaba a light a scintillating light and then he continues to describe these traits about it a swaying fragrant plant a lofty palace a flowing river a multitude of right fruits that espouses and many garments in perpetual abode of life and in vigor in houses in a lofty house of soundness and slender and then they said we are the ones who shall work for him earnestly and then he said and say if Allah wills insha'Allah insha'Allah and so again giving them the incentive giving them the the incentive another hadith mentions the palm trees of jannah shall have trunks of green emeralds palm roots of red gold and its palm shall be clothing for the people of jannah from which their garments and their robes are made its fruits are the sizes of jugs and pails whiter than milk and honey softer than butter and devoid of of the stone in the center of the food and so Subhanallah just continues to describe the amazing trains that people will that people will experience and so when you enter this always brings a level of repose especially when one is grappling with the difficult situation or watching the difficult situation when people enter jannah someone will call out the herald will announce oh people of jannah oh people of jannah it is time for you to be healthy and never fall ill it is time for you to live and never die it is time for you to be young and never grow old and it is time for you to be happy and never be miserable and then and so if you're ever dealing with there's a lot of people right now who are very depressed a lot of depression that's common amongst Muslims amongst the youth amongst various communities these are the types of hadith that we have to read and really really really reflect on why would he say for you to be happy and never be miserable because that must have been a time that you were miserable otherwise you wouldn't know what this is referring to because this world it is going to drive people to some level of difficulty and misery it won't be permanent but it will happen or it could happen but he's saying that's all gone now it's time for you to be happy and you won't experience the opposite of that old age can be very difficult it's time for you to be young and never experience that pain of growing old 33 is the average age according to another hadith 33 or 30 years in that range in general and to be healthy and never fall ill because this life there's a lot of difficulty and sickness and illness and cancers and all sorts of physical tribulation which come so all the types we're seeing here physical tribulation done psychological tribulation mental health tribulation all done no more of it spiritual tribulation it's gone there is no more of it it's all peace but it's not going to come tomorrow necessarily it's going to take its time and we have to have sufferers believers and grow with it and rely on Allah that you know what Allah I yearn for this and I yearn to meet you but I'm good with wherever you've placed me for as long as you've placed me here please we always ask for getting out of the difficulty that we might meet in but we read this and we yearn to get out of that to get out of that difficulty and to get out of this abode of difficulty when somebody other amazing thing is when someone is feeling constrained in this dunya the dua to for something better usually comes a lot more from the depths of their soul versus for some people who this life is heaven for them already it's already all good everything is just smooth sailing they have all the luxuries here that are described and all of the the types of experiences that are described they don't want to leave there's a lot of people who don't want to leave this place that's why they used all these stories and fables of the people they were searching for the fountains of youth and immortality and so on and so forth there's a reality to that because there's certain people they want to be here forever they want but that's not us as believers we actually don't decided to to go eventually to the final abode so we have to put the work in inshallah to get there and then another hadith where the prophet sallam he said I met Ibrahim aleyhissalaam on the night of the isra and he said give my greetings give my salaam to your ummah and inform them that the garden has fragrant soil sweet water and is made of these type of planes the planting of which to plant certain trees there is to say subhanallah alhamdulillah la ilaha illallah wallahu akbar again make the investment plant right now so you say these words hopefully with the with the present part but when we do this thicker we're planting homes and trees and all sorts of good for us in the next life there are certain actions where one does they say the one who builds a house for Allah as mentioned Allah will build for them a house in jannah and all this is all work that we're doing so that we can eventually get there and all of us will see the fruit for everything but we'll have to say subhanallah alhamdulillah la ilaha illallah wallahu akbar took like 3 seconds 5 seconds but the reward for that if it's accepted by Allah is way more than the amount again little amount of effort that we came in so the key here and perhaps one of the reasons why I'm going to have that is that he walks us through these lives of man not just focusing on one life which is the life of the dunya it's so somebody can have an understanding of where we're headed so that we know what to do right now you know where you came we know where we came from we know where we're at right now we know where we're going and this then helps us understand the work that we have to do to prepare for the journey as it's mentioned we are just travellers in this world we are just travellers in this world it's not to another hadith that it has been reported that the poor among the Muslims will enter the garden 500 years before the ridge and the rivers of the garden and then it continues to describe the different the rivers of the garden will flow on the surface of the garden and the height of the people there will be 60 cubits the height of Adam a.s. very very very very tall and the least amongst the people will receive 10 times as much as the entire world as the entire world everything in it and we'll have a thousand servants and 72 the spouses and that it will take them a thousand years to see just a thousand years to see the gifts just to see the gifts not even experience them and the honour that Allah has prepared for them this is the least person of Jannah that every tree trunk in the garden is made of gold and that there are gates to enter into Jannah and that the degrees are as many as the number of verses in the Noble Qur'an so this is that it is really kind of like like an infinite potential in terms of what's possible in Jannah the secret that we should apply in this light is to make dua to be with the Prophet s.a.w in Jannah for those in the next light that's what we should always ask for because he's going to be in the highest place he's going to be in the best place and we will really want to be his neighbour and to want to be close to him and so that's one of the dua that we can make to try and comprehensive dua experience all the things that we are discussing so then he mentions here now we're not going to do this entire section but I would advise checking out this this the texts that we're reviewing where he talks about the vision of Allah this is a this the beatific vision is this amazing overwhelming positively overwhelming experience that the believers will experience as Allah Ta'ala says in the Qur'an the believers will see their Lord and that day faces will be resplendent looking to their Lord and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam he asks after the people of Jannah have entered he mentioned rather after the people of Jannah have entered Allah will ask do you wish me to give you anything more and they will say have you not frightened our faces have you not made us enter the garden and saved us from the fire and then he will remove the veil and nothing that they were given yet and already they've been given so much will be more dear to them that the vision of their Lord most high and the vision of their Lord most high and as the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam he mentioned one hadid they said we were with the messenger of Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and he looked at the full moon and he told them to the Sahaba he said you will see your Lord with your eyes as you see this moon and you will not be hindered for you will not be hindered from seeing him and then he gives advice therefore if you can manage to pray before sunrise and sunset do so as Allah says in the Quran extol the praises of your Lord before sunrise and sunset and so this is a very, very, very, very, very deep topic that is mentioned in the scholars but the creed of Ahlul Sunnah and Jama'a is that the believers will see Allah without any obstruction without any obstruction in the day of judgment in whatever way that Allah wills we don't know how to experience that we don't even know the experience that will have to be the same and it's not really something that one can try to understand nor should one kind of dive too deep into the goal is do whatever we can do to experience whatever that experience will be like the goal is not to get into the nuances of how would it work and what not are limited intellect in this life it's difficult to process this something big of a gift but what a wonderful gift it is Alhamdulillah and then another hadith mentioning Allah's mercy Allah said Allah has a hundred mercies of which He has sent down one of them to be divided in this life between humans jinn birds cattle and insects assuming animals here by which they have compassion and mercy towards one another this includes the mother to the child the father to the child and so on and so forth He has saved 99 mercies with which He will be merciful to His slaves on the day of judgment all of the goodness that one sees in this life even with animals and parents and so on everything that's one one hundredth of our Lord's mercy 1% He saved 99% for the day of judgment when we will all really really really need His mercy the key to unlocking the mercy rahmat Allah that the mercy of Allah is kareeb to the people of excellence that the muhsineen as Allah says in the Qur'an so again the mercy is not just distributed the way that we think it's distributed distributed the way Allah has said it is distributed the harder we work the more access we will have to this beautiful mercy of our Lord and inshallah then it will be a means of which we will attain Allah's forgiveness so with that the final thing we just want to mention and then where we reach the end of the text is to try and really reflect on the different stages of life we don't just want to have an intellectual understanding as Imam Ghazali he mentioned this in the section on the day of judgment he said the vast majority of humanity likely doesn't really believe on the day of judgment they don't believe in it anymore because of the way the way that they act we might believe in it up here but do we really understand it here do we really believe in the next life here and so we should reflect number one on what will happen when we leave this place what's going to happen what stage will we be in who will be with us the only one guaranteed you can have to be with us to be with them is Allah that's it nobody else might actually respond to that one of my Sandukam and my wife's great pond just passed away this morning there's the Rahmah upon her and give her high stations and her grave and the Jannah and she was mentioning to me that she was in the hospital and they were on the way to see her the family members and then they got a call from the doctor and she was just there for like a you know toward the later stage of life but just just it wasn't clear that this was like her last days at all it was just a check up things had deteriorated a little bit and then the call from the doctor that she that she passed so we don't even and if you could be with your family your whole life and you don't know who's going to be there but Allah will be there he says this in Surah Tawakya that who is closer to you than him at the time of death Allah is the one who's there he's the one who's present so we should focus as much as we can in this life and we should make the intentions because we're about to enter the month of Ramadan to be in a state that would be pleasing to Allah on the day of judgment and rather pleasing to Allah when we die and then inshallah pleasing to him on the day of judgment so that's the first is really try to understand what am I doing now that will prepare me for the moment of death then number two what investments am I making now that will inshallah if Allah accepts them make me in the right place in life in the grave and in canna because there are investments that we can make one should do the work to say I want to open up all the doors of good deeds the door of feeding people the door of taking care of my family the door of taking care of children and my parents and of the orphans and taking care of other people who are in need and the door of all forms of Ibadah and the door of Quran and all the doors as much as we can be a little bit to open them up and make the investments now don't leave any rock unturned if we can and then we will know which one is our main area that we're really drawn towards but to really invest in that and then number three to reflect upon these and to keep in mind that foremost the mercy of Allah because most of the time we're going to fall short we're going to make mistakes but Allah loves it when we turn to him when we're in that state of brokenness coming to him with shortcomings Allah loves that he wants us to come to him saying I'm not doing enough I'm really sorry I'm trying my best I just can't do it that's far more beloved to our Lord than the person who comes to him in a state of arrogance and wondering why is this not changing I did all this I did all this I made all these efforts and nothing's Allah doesn't like that Allah doesn't like the arrogant one Allah doesn't like the prideful one so in the context of our relationship with our Lord and our relationship with other believers we should always be humble because that will be a door as mentioned it's one of the doors that's the least traveled through because most people are not humble we should always keep a humility before our Lord I'm just trying but I need your help I'm broken before you I need your assistance and that inshallah will be one of the comprehensive ways of goodness with that we ask that Allah bless us with the lessons that Imam al-Hadad has put in this text and pardon us for our shortcomings and give to us from the asr'al and the unbaruch that are packed within these blessed meanings and from the chain of Sa'ad-e-Baa'alui and with that we'll do the questions and then there will be time for Isha inshallah questions if you have two questions online you can post them in the chat questions otherwise yeah the question is around guidance on how one splits their charity so family has the first right to the charity that we are giving so if we have extended family and extended relatives let's say that our Zakat is eligible then let's say for Zakat we would want to pass it to them but otherwise you want to think about it like if you have people who are very close to you who are in need you would want to prioritize that especially close that are in blood relations and Zakat has its categories of what it's actually allowed to be given to so you wouldn't be able to give Zakat to like help build a masjid that wouldn't be Zakat eligible but you would give it to the categories Allah Ta'ala has laid out in the Quran then you have the the Sadaqah Sadaqah has ample amounts of forms what the recommendation would be you try to split up Allah mentions in the Quran differing categories of people that one should give to and try to assist so I would say if somebody has like $500 to give there's a lot of virtue in feeding the hungry so you give a portion of that to the hungry there's a lot of virtue in taking care of the orphans so you give a portion of that to sponsoring an orphan and then there's other virtuous categories that are mentioned in there and you would try to give I would say a portion of it to each group for your Sadaqah and then for the Zakat to stick to it but there's no like kind of hard guidance in terms of this percentage you have to go to this group yeah other questions someone said can you talk about being in the shade of Allah's throne the seven under the shade of Allah's throne yeah so the shade of Allah's throne is mentioned in Hadith that are referring to the day of judgement to Yom El-Qiyamah where there will be no shade except the shade of Allah's throne and the sun will be brought extremely close and people will be very very very very in constrained circumstances because of how much sweat there will be how much thirst there will be there hunger there will be no shade except the shade of his throne then there's categories given there's ample amounts of categories some hadith mentioned seven one of which is the person who in their youth they worship Allah another is the person whose heart is attached to the masjid another is the person who when they're with their lord in secret they are fearful of him and they weep before their lord in secret and so we mentioned the full Hadith in the previous section I don't have it in front of me but you can look up that Hadith and then really try to make sure that at least we're in another is the two people who meet each other only for the sake of their lord and they love each other for the sake of their lord and then Allah knows best in terms of how many other categories may exist so we want to strive to be ideally in all of those categories another category is somebody if they are that one is being seduced by somebody and they turn away from that seduction would be under the shade of Allah's throne any questions? any more questions online? so tomorrow's this is the last class on this text inshallah we're done there will be as of right now there's nothing planned for Ramadan in terms of continuing this class obviously not at this time because this will be the time of Al-Far and then eventually but we'll send out an announcement if there are any classes in Ramadan in the WhatsApp group we'll finalize the schedule with Amir Sundiata tomorrow right around the same time we're doing a Ramadan like prep class so between Maghrib and Isha 638 light thick review of fasting as well as the virtues of how we can structure our days in Ramadan and then ways in which we can be elevated to the higher levels of fasting he has a beautiful section in one of these texts where he talks about the different degrees of fasting so we'll also talk through that in a few other areas so with that that will be 620 or so we'll pray Maghrib inshallah and then at 630 we'll start that'll go right until Isha inshallah so that's tomorrow Ramadan prep Ramadan is right around the corner it's either Sunday night or Monday night depending on the setting of the moon and the text is lives of man by Imam of the love of Allah we'll have that that's the text that we review so with that we'll go ahead and oh there is a question okay go ahead tomorrow um yeah I can record it yeah Ohaking a almost merciful we ask you for your mercy and goodness and ease and openings for our brothers sisters We ask that you feed them Ya Razaq. We ask that you provide for them Ya Razaq. We ask that you open for them Ya Allah. We ask that you lift this immense tribulation from them Ya Rabb Al-Admin. We ask that you accept them Ya Rabb Al-Admin. We ask that you take care of them with your Inaya and your Relaya and your special mercy Ya Rahman especially the young ones especially the children Ya Rabb Al-Admin. We ask that you grant them strength Ya Allah. We ask that you grant them strength Rabbana Afri Ghalina Sabran. We ask that you accept all of those who have passed away as Shuhada Ya Rabb Al-Admin. We ask that you give them victory over these Kuffar Ya Rabb Al-Admin. We ask Ya Allah that you allow this Manga Ramadan to be facilitated for them and to be facilitated for us. We ask that you will give us immense blessings in this special month of Ramadan that you allow us to implement what we have learned in this text and that you allow us to prioritize you in the next life Ya Rabb Al-Admin and not this life that you remove the love of this dunya in our life Ya Rabb Al-Admin. And we ask that you give us love of the Akhira and love of your Prophet ﷺ and love of you Ya Rabb Al-Admin. And I mean we ask that you allow us to reflect upon death frequently if you hated when both of them are Afia. We ask that you accept us going through this text Ya Rabb Al-Admin. We ask that you pardon any mistakes that were made Ya Rahman. We ask that you forgive us for all of our sins and that you pardon us comprehensively and give us a comprehensive forgiveness and comprehensive Afia in this life and in the next life. And that you allow us to have fasts of Taqwa and days of Taqwa and nights of Taqwa and nights full of Barakah and nights full of yearning for you and nights full of Duaiz and nights full of yearning for Duaiz to get close to you and close to your Nabi ﷺ and give us firmness in following the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ and give us the Qama and following your path Ya Rabb Al-Admin. We ask you for everything good the Prophet ﷺ asks for. We ask you for protection from everything evil that he has protection from us Ya Rabb Al-Admin. May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon our Prophet ﷺ and his family and companions. May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him ﷺ and his family and his companions. Amen. May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him ﷺ.