 We begin as we always do with the praise of Allah, Lord of the Worlds. We praise Him and we seek His aid and we ask for His forgiveness and we seek His protection from the evil inside of ourselves and from the evil outside of ourselves. We bear witness that whomever Allah guides, none can misguide, and whomever He misguides, none can guide. We bear witness as well that He is Allah, He is alone and He has no like, and that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi sallam, the person appraise, the man appraise, sallallahu alayhi sallam is a slave and his final messenger. We gather today on this day of Juma, as we all know, is a day of gathering, is a day of remembrance, remembrance of that first gathering on Yubal al-Ast on the day of the Covenant, when Allah brought us out from the loins of our father, Adam, alayhi sallam. And we saw Allah, al-Zawajal, we witnessed him, al-Zawajal. And he asked us, al-Astubi Rabbikum, am I not your Lord? And we testified to what we witnessed and we said, and we said, bella indeed you are. And so we gather today as a reminder of that first gathering and as a warning that we will be held account for that Covenant that we took. We will be held account for what we know, and that will be on the, on Yuma Qiyama on the day of resurrection. And so we know that this life here is just an intermediate period, it doesn't last. It's not permanent and it's not real. This life is defined by these two poles of the Covenant, the day of the Covenant and the day of resurrection. And so just like this life has a Covenant, even in our daily lives, each day has its own Covenant. A Covenant that's meant to hold a person fast to his purpose in this life, on this earth. A Covenant that's meant to ensure that our hearts are always oriented towards Allah, that we aren't distracted by the hustle and bustle of the dunya while we conduct the daily affairs of our lives. And just like that first Covenant, that primordial Covenant is based on a witnessing of Allah, this Covenant too that we take in our daily lives is based off of a witnessing of Allah. That we see Him, that we acknowledge Him, and that we inshallah obey Him as well. That we see in every moment of our lives that Allah is real. Allah is realer than the clothes that we put on in the morning. Allah is realer than is more real than our boss and paycheck that comes every month. Allah is more real than this mushad that we're in right now, the walls of this mushad. He's more real than the grounds that we are sitting on or standing on. He's more real than anything around us. And this is what we're asked to believe in. That He is real, Azzawajah, and nothing else is. The Prophet, peace be upon him, says in a famous hadith in Bukhari and Muslim, he says the truest word that the poet ever spoke was the verse of Labid. A la kulli shay'in maa khala allaha ga'atilu. Verily, everything other than Allah is false. Verily, everything other than Allah is false. Allah is more real than anything you can imagine because He created it. And because He creates it, He continues to create it in every moment. And if He were to choose to let go of it and not to hold it in existence, then it would cease to be and it would vanish and it would become nothing like the twinkle of an eye. This is what we call, this basis is what we call iman. This mushad is what we call iman. It's based on seeing Him, Azzawajah, in every moment and believing in Him based on this in every moment as is found in the famous hadith of Jibril, alaihi salam. فإن لم تكن تراه فإنه يراك. Either you are seeing Him or you should know that He is seeing you. Either you are seeing Him or you should know that He is seeing you. And this seed, this recognition is what we call the lights of iman or the sweetness of iman. And the stronger that this light grows, the more that this seed grows and the more that it comes to illuminate the entirety of our hearts. And we live this reality then. We live this in our character. We live this in our thoughts and our thought patterns. We live this in our feelings and in our emotions and we live this in our actions. But sometimes the light of faith isn't so strong. Sometimes it grows weak, sometimes it diminishes a little bit, sometimes it fades. Or sometimes we feel like it gets covered up. And this in many ways encapsulates the struggle of those people who are committed to practicing their religion but don't always feel like they're able to. There will be a person who says, I know I should come to the mushad more. But X, Y, and Z keep stopping me always. I know I should focus more in my prayer or I should be more consistent in my prayers. But I have so many things that distract me, so many preoccupations, so many worldly distractions. I know I should seek knowledge more. I know I should learn more. I know I should sit and feed the scholars more. But I don't have the time. And so there's a want in all of us. There's a desire in all of us to strengthen this light of faith. But how do we do so? We find that we're not always able to do so. And so that light flickers. Sometimes we forget. And in this state over time, we start to feel guilty that we aren't doing as much as we should be doing. We aren't improving in the ways that we have promised Allah that we would improve. And so if you're guilty, we then do toba. We seek Allah's repentance. But then we find that we fall back into those same things. And so we seek Allah's repentance again. But then we forget again. Or we become preoccupied again. And sometimes we just find we don't have the strength or the fortitude. Now, this state of being, the Prophet Salaam, gives us a covenant to take every morning and every evening. And there are many covenants that we can take every morning and every evening. Normally this is what we call the words or the litanies of the morning and the evening or the du'as that we say in every morning and every evening. And the du'as that are recommended in the Sunnah of the Prophet Salaam are one of his most regular practices and one of his most emphasized practices. Because their reminder is set in reminders to keep us from straying, to keep us from forgetting, to keep us from being preoccupied, to keep us from feeling weak. And we know some of these du'as are meant to just strengthen the light of faith for us to renew the covenant. But others are for what we were talking about. Others are for that protection. Others are for everything that we feel like is enclosing us and keeping us from actually actualizing this light of faith. These du'as are to protect the light of faith from diminishing or from being covered. And so one of these du'as, it's narrated in a story of one of the companions, Abu Umamah, Brahu Allahu Anhu. That one day in the middle of the day, there was nobody in the masjid and the Prophet Salaam walks into the masjid and he finds Abu Umamah, Brahu Allahu Anhu, sitting in the middle of the masjid. And so he walks up to him and he asks him, Abu Umamah, what are you doing in the masjid in the middle of the day? Meaning what are you doing and most people are engaged in their business or they have things to be doing, but you're in the middle of the masjid and it's not the time for prayer. What are you doing here? And so Abu Umamah says, I have anxieties that cling to me, that won't leave me, and I have debts over Rasulullah. And so the Messenger of Allah, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says, shall I teach you then a phrase that if you say it, Allah will remove your worry and He will relieve you of your debts. And so he said, tell me, O Rasulullah. And so the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, in every morning, in every evening, say this, say, Allahumma, I seek refuge in you from grief, from anxiety, and from grief, and from inability, and from laziness. And I seek refuge in you from cowardice and stinginess. And I seek refuge in you from debts that would overwhelm me and from men that would overpower me. And if we consider what the words of the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, contain, the wisdoms contained in this, we find that this is a dua that's jama. It contains everything that we need to protect us. And so he begins, O Allah, I seek refuge in you from anxiety and from grief. And what is anxiety and grief? We know that anxiety is a type of, is something that we feel, is something that is a concern over loss, but it's loss about the future. We're worried about things might not be the way that we want them to be. We worry that we might not attain what we want to attain. And grief is worry and loss, but it's about the past. It's about things that we had and that we no longer have. It's thinking about days gone by, reminiscing about what could have been or should have been or would have been. And we know that there is a certain type of archetype, a certain type of person who always thinks about the past who always wants to rest on his laurels or live back his glory days. But to do so means that you aren't living in the present. To do so means you're always talking about things that have happened and are not doing what you need to do in the moment. You're not holding steadfast to what Allah asks of you in this moment. And then there's other types of people who, instead of recalling their glory days, recall what their fathers did or what their forefathers did or what their families did. And I'm from this tribe and I'm from this lineage and I'm from this person. And so instead of focusing on what is important to them and their relationship with Allah, they focus on other people and other things. This is concern over the past. And then there's people who are concerned over the future. They're concerned over what will happen next, what will happen to my family, what will happen to my job, what will happen to whatever other things that are going on in this world, what will happen to my country. And one of the interesting words about worry or anxiety, hum in Arabic, is that hum is very often used with the word shem in Arabic, which means to melt. And so the idea behind anxiety is, anxiety is a type of worry that melts you, it consumes you, it overwhelms you until you have, it's so overwhelming that you have no form left, no structure left. You dissolve into a puddle of water as it were. How can such a person be steadfast when they're in the state of anxiety or in this state of grief about loss, about things that have happened in the past? How can a person be steadfast upon what Allah seeks from them in this moment, seeking the wajah of Allah in every moment if they are in this state? And so, na'udu billah, we seek Allah's refuge from this. And then the dua continues. It says, oh Allah, I seek refuge in you from incapacity and from laziness. Because once we are no longer worried about the future or concerned about the past, now what we need is will and strength. The will to know what, to choose what we know we need to choose. The resolve to hold fast to it, as Allah says in the Qur'an, فَإِذَ عَزَمْتَ فَتَوَكَ الْأَلْوَى Have resolve and then trust in Allah. And then when you trust in Allah, when you continue to choose what Allah has asked you to choose, when you continue to turn towards what Allah has asked you to turn towards, then you need to keep that up and to be consistent in it. And for your strength not to waver or for you not to burn out. And this is the strength that we need. And so we seek Allah, we seek refuge in Allah then from weakness and from laziness. And then the dua continues. Oh Allah, I seek refuge in you from cowardice and from stinginess. And in other words, this is us seeking from Allah courage and generosity. Because as we seek to be pleasing to Allah, we know that there are things that he asks us to do that we don't want to do. He asks us to give of our wealth when we want to keep it and this is stinginess. He asks us to give of what we have, not just of our wealth at times, but of our time, of our knowledge, of our emotions. We're asked to give and give and give and we might want to keep things for ourselves, but what Allah is telling us is to give this anyways. And so we seek protection from Allah, from stinginess. And we seek protection from Allah as well from cowardice. Because as much as there are things that they want to keep to ourselves, there are also things that they want to keep away from ourselves. And it takes courage to say, no, it's okay, I'm going to endure the burdens that I must endure. I'm going to endure the dangers that I must endure because Allah has asked this of me. And then the dua continues and ends with Allah, I seek refuge in you from debts that overwhelm and that men that overpower. Because once we have this focus on the present and we have the will that we need and the strength that we need and the virtues of courage and generosity that we need, then we need to be protected from the external forces in the world that would hold us back. I'll say this, and I ask for Allah's forgiveness and peace be upon you, and I ask for the forgiveness of the Muslims, and I ask for forgiveness, and he is the one who forgives. In the name of Allah, and praise be to Allah, and peace be upon the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him. This religion, as we've been discussing, is essentially two things. It is affirmation and negation. And we find this in the shahada, la ilaha illallah. There is no God but Allah, meaning. Firstly, there is negation. There is no God. And only when we have negated everything other than Allah, can we affirm Allah. Only when we've negated everything of the dunya, when we have thrust it away from our hearts, when we have cast it aside, only then can we affirm Allah and find Allah and be true to Allah and be steadfast upon this. The second part of affirming Allah generally tends to be clear, that we must love Allah, we must love His Messenger and everything that they love. But it is often neglected is this aspect of negation, that we are also asked to hate, yes to hate, the things that Allah hates, and to hate the things that His Messenger, so-and-so, hates. We're asked to cast him aside, we're asked to cast aside the dunya and the places of the dunya because these are not our friends. And the friends that call us to dunya, they are also not truly our friends, as Allah says in the Quran, verily, shaitan is your enemy, so take him as your enemy. Don't just be haphazard about it. Don't just neglect the fact that there is evil in the world. Take him as your enemy. He only calls his people to be residents of the Hellfire. And so we're asked to hate these things, hate these things in the sense of seeking protection from these things and seeking protection in Allah because unless you push against them with all of your might, unless you push against them and struggle against them, these are the things that will destroy you and will spoil everything good in this world and beautiful in this life and worthwhile in this life and in the next life. قُلِ اللَّهْ فُمَّ ذَرْهُمْ فِي خُوْدِهَمْ يَلْعَبُونَ Say Allah, say Allah, affirmation, right? Say Allah, then leave them delving into their folly. And that is negation. ما جعل الله ذِي رَجِلٍ من قَلْبَيْنِ فِي جَوْفِهِ Allah says in the Quran, Allah does not place in the heart of any man, does not place two hearts in the body of any man. And so we're told in other words that we can only have one thing that we love. You cannot love Allah in this life. You cannot love Allah in the dunya. You can only love Allah and leave everything else aside. And this is what the dua tells us to aid in and seek protection from Allah I seek refuge with Allah from the wicked, I seek refuge with Allah from the helpless, I seek refuge with Allah from the evil, I seek refuge with Allah from the evil, Allah and His angels pray to the Prophet, O those who believe and pray to him and accept him, Allah prays to him and prays to our master, O our eyes, Muhammad, and to his family and companions, and those who follow him for a second until the Day of Judgment. Allah forgives the believers and believers, and the Muslims and the Muslims, for the sake of them and the dead. You, O our master, are all-hearing, the close, the responsible, and the supplicant. May Allah help the Muslims and the Muslims, and those who associate partners with the polytheists. May Allah help them, O my brother, with Your mercy we seek protection, we have reached all of us, and we will not leave ourselves behind. May Allah make the Qur'an and the Rabb of our hearts, and the light of our messenger, and grant us the glory of the night and the side of the day. May Allah protect us from the evil, and protect us from the evil, and protect us from the evil,