 بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم وصل الله على سيدنا محمد وعلى آله وصحبي وسلم أجمعين mashaAllah as we near here the end of the days of mercy of course all of the منطب رمضان is a mercy but we know that the منطب رمضان comes in thirds and the first third is the third of mercy i thought we should reflect on the word mercy a little bit more because the word mercy in english does not quite capture everything it has in arabic one time the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam was sitting with his companions and this was his time soon after a battle had ended and there was a lot of chaos in the background and people going every which way and people trying to find their loved ones and there was a woman a mother amongst the people who was searching frantically for her child she couldn't figure out where her child had went to and for any parent who has even momentarily lost the child just momentarily you know the panic that sets in and this woman was going back and forth and back and forth looking um for her child and anytime she saw anybody else's child she would take them and hold them and then realize it wasn't her and just keep on looking for this child and so the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam turned to his companions and said do you see this mother do you think that this mother would throw her child into the hellfire and the question was kind of caught the sahaba by surprise it wasn't something they expected and so they said no by Allah she wouldn't do such a thing and then the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam explained himself and said Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has more rahmah he's arhami has more rahmah for his servants than this mother has for her child so imagine that imagine imagine a mother who's a parent who's desperately searching for this lost child and how much joy and happiness she regains when finding the child again and when the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam asked the companions can you imagine you know if this mother would throw her child into the fire and they just were sort of in disbelief right they couldn't believe the question right but it was a way for the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam to explain how merciful Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is with us in comparison to the mother right because the mother's love is a natural love but then you would understand that Allah's love and mercy for us is even grander and even more subhanallah it's beautiful and speaking of mothers and the love that mothers have this is no coincidence of course that the very place that a child grows in a woman's body the womb in arabic is called the rahmah and the name for mercy Allah's name for for himself the merciful ar-rahman and if you break down the three letter root word for each you realize that they're connected and Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam actually says this in the hadith what's he says i am ar-rahman and i created the rahm the womb and i named it after me inshaAllah an organ in the body and only in a woman's body that is named after Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala himself meaning it shares some of the very same characteristics of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala ar-rahman so even when we try to grasp what is this word mean of mercy what is the very it's the very core it's core to the very nature of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and who he is it symbolizes right we think about the womb the fetus grows inside the womb it's nurtured inside the womb and there's bonds built with the mother and child inside that womb before the child is even born it is a protective nurturing cared for environment and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that that rahm that he created he named it after himself subhan Allah right and in the Quran Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says this he says that Allah wrote upon himself he prescribed upon himself what the characteristic of what mercy rahmah it's beautiful right it's so beautiful and the Prophet ﷺ when he came with his message of Islam and what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala taught him was a cultural revolution it literally changed the way we perceive men and women and human interactions he took away this ignorant way of dealing with each other he as a man sallallahu alaihi wa sallam embodied the quality of rahmah from what he learned from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to be merciful with the people around you his own family first and foremost and then all of us and we have so many narrations where the Prophet ﷺ would hug and kiss his grandchildren and play with them and let them ride on his back and tussle their hair and throw them up in the air all these beautiful narrations of how connected and loving he was to his grandchildren and one day and children and one day there's a famous narration where a Bedouin man came to the Prophet ﷺ and he saw him having his grandchildren on his lap and playing with them and tussling with them and kissing them and the Bedouin looked at him this appointedly disapprovingly and did not like what he saw and then he very proudly retorted and said I have had 10 children and I have never kissed any one of them can you imagine the Prophet ﷺ listened to this and then he said something very important he said and what can I do for you if Allah has removed rahmah from your heart as in to say this thing about men don't kiss children and they don't show emotions and affection this thing is called jaheliyah and we want nothing to do with it here I kiss my children I hug my children I play with my children and my grandchildren and I show them love and affection this thing about being a man and not showing your affection not part of our Dean this is cultural nonsense that we do not approve of and so it's a cultural revolution that he did changing the way we understand because the Prophet ﷺ was operating from a place of what Allah told him and Allah made it clear and this is what he says in a different narration whoever does not show mercy will not be shown mercy in the hereafter subhanAllah so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wants us to show mercy to the servants of Allah to the other people around us especially our own family members and I'm reminded how when we first study the sciences of hadith because people can become very literal in their Islamic understanding we always say a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing because people become very you know literal and very specific and halal and haram and yes and wrong and right and the more and more and more you study the quieter and quieter and quieter you get because you realize the vast mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala the differences of our umma right the differences within my umma are mercy to us here comes the word mercy and right and in the hadith sciences the very first hadith were taught as an opening to say to us look you're going to be learning all about this deen and lest you start to become very literal and make it hard for other people the first hadith we're going to start with is is the hadith of mercy that says those who show mercy the merciful will show them mercy that first line is those who show mercy the merciful meaning Allah will show them mercy so show mercy to those on earth those in the heavens will show you mercy this is so important it's the first prophetic tradition that scholars of hadith transmission study because it's an intense importance of how you work with people and teach people and understand in the sunnah and the footsteps of the sunnah the prophets of the life are being merciful to people around you starting always with the family charity starts at home mercy starts at home and then ripples its way outward subhanAllah to Allah and so as we close here for today just as a reminder as we close these last 10 days of the days of mercy to remember that these days are a blessing within a blessing they're a mercy within a month of mercy inshaAllah and we want to really strive our hardest to please Allah subhanAllah to Allah and to make this an incredibly special month by ensuring that we deserve his mercy showered upon us and doing this by the good deeds that are multiplied many folds right and that all the bad days that are forgiven inshaAllah right and a sincere repentance that we strive to please Allah and Allah alone so I pray inshaAllah on these days of mercy that we embody the characteristics of mercy with one another that we are patient with our family members that we are patient in our workplaces that we are patient with those all who might annoy us that we quiet the inner critic within us all of this is a kind of showing mercy to one another subhanAllah that Allah may then show mercy to us may Allah subhanAllah increase us and uplift us and cleanse us and purify us this month and shower his mercy down upon us and allow us to be from those who inshaAllah are written for jannah and have nothing to do for jahannam Allahumma amin wa sallallahu ala Sayyidina Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam this is your sister Dr. Rani Awad signing off wa salaamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi