 Dear brothers and sisters, I begin in the name of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and I send peace and blessings upon His blessed messenger Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. And I enjoin you and I enjoin myself to have taqwa of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, taqwa fulfilling the commands of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala outwardly and inwardly with the heart, outwardly with the limbs and inwardly with the heart, and avoiding the prohibitions of Allah outwardly on our limbs and inwardly in our heart. One of the things that we have to remember as Muslims is that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has not left us without, he has not left us without things, things that we need. He is Al-Razaq. One of the names of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is Al-Razaq, is the provider, the one who gives us sustenance. And everything that we can benefit from is part of our sustenance. So that not only includes our food and our clothing and our housing, which is usually what we think of when we say the word sustenance. But we also have to remember that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives us our spiritual sustenance. So when he gave us iman, when he gave us faith, he was giving us sustenance. When he showed us the way through the Quran and through the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, he was giving us our sustenance, the sustenance that we need, the things that we need. He will give us a way out. And if we have taqwa of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, if we have this piety, this taqwa of Allah, he will give us a way out. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the Quran says وَمَنْ يَتَّقِ اللَّهَ يَدْعَلَّهُ مَخْرَجَى That whoever has taqwa of Allah, the fearing of Allah outwardly and inwardly, avoiding the prohibitions outwardly and inwardly, fulfilling the commands outwardly and inwardly, if we have this taqwa Allah will give you a way out. Will give us a way out. So one of the things that we're dealing with towards the end of time is the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said يصبح الحليم و فيها حيرانة That the person who's a haleem, who's a gentle and understands things, even he will be confused. Even the one who doesn't panic under stress will be confused, the haleem. So what do we do? One of the things that people who are involved in teaching and in da'wah and in counseling in the Muslim community one of the things that we're hearing a lot from people is I'm confused. I'm confused. I'm confused about faith. I'm confused about practice. I'm confused about this or I'm confused about that. A lot of confusion. And for some people it's a test for them and it actually causes them to doubt their faith and it causes a weakness in their faith. But if we know that the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam was giving us the guidance that we need the guidance that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is giving us that we need through him, through the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam he has not left us without guidance. He has not left us without instruction. He has not left us without a guidebook. So when we look at one of the foundational hadiths of the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam which is commonly referred to as the hadith of Jibril because Jibril alaihi wa sallam came to the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam in the form of a man and then asked him four questions. We usually, when we're teaching, only focus on the first three. What is Islam? What is Iman and what is Ihsan? What is our belief system as Muslims clarified by Jibril alaihi wa sallam in the question and answer between him and the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam What is our belief system? Iman. What is our practice system, Islam? And then what is the joining of the two and the perfecting of the two are Ihsan whether you call it Tezkiya or Ihsan or whatever word you might use the perfection of those two things. But do we look at the fourth question that Jibril alaihi wa sallam asked the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam because when the Sahaba were asked by the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and look at the edab that they had when Jibril was asking these questions and Omar and the other Sahaba didn't know who this person was they didn't go and say who was that person they knew that the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam would teach it to them in the proper time and so they waited and when the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam asked him do you know who this was? And some people say it was after three days Omar sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said I waited some time and they said that was three days he waited three days for the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam to revisit that topic that interaction and say do you know who that was? and he said Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam Allah and his messenger are more knowledgeable he said that was Jibril atakum he came to teach you your deen he came to teach you your deen so if knowledge of our deen is based on those three foundational things and then also the fourth one we have to look at each one with scrutiny we know how to get iman we know how we study the books of faith and the hadiths of faith and the ayahs of faith we know how to get Islam studying the books of law and so forth we know how to get ihsan the books that have shown us how to join between the two but the fourth question of Jibril alaihi sallam about when will the day of judgment be? and the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said that the person who is asking the question meaning Jibril and the person being asked meaning the messenger of Allah both of them don't know only Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam knows when the day of judgment will be he said then what are the signs and he mentioned two signs that the barefoot and destitute shepherds would be competing with each other to build tall buildings and that the slave will give birth to her master so what are these two things? these two things are signs of the end of time signs of the end of time so when we look at this signs of the end of time and asking about when the end of time is coming we have to realize that this is an integral part of our faith to know essentially what it is is to know our times to know the time that you're living in to know the issues that you'll be facing it's going to differ from country to country region to region, state to state even family to family the times that you're living in is different than what your parents are lived in the time that you're living in is different than what your children or what the next generation will live in so each Muslim at every generation has the duty to figure out their times what's going on and where is their deen and their identity being attacked this is very important to know our times and to know how our Islamic identity will be attacked how people will try to take us away from the faith the Quraish had a system to try to take different people in different ways the slaves that became Muslim they approached them with one way the notables of Quraish that became Muslim with a different methodology when he approached the believers at his time he approached at different times it might be force come back to this shirk polyethism, leave faith or I'll kill you by force or by trickery everybody is going to have a different system there's not one system that people are going to pull others away from faith but the fact is that people are going to pull others away from faith so we look at who is being pulled away from faith and how we can keep our identity and keep ourselves as Muslims so we ask Allah SWT to give us this firmness in faith and to ask and to have this understanding of our times and to realize how we can make sure that we preserve our deen and that we leave this dunya with La Ilaha Illa Allah Muhammad Rasulullah In the name of Allah Bismillah Alhamdulillah Al-Salamu Alaykum Taqullah Their brothers and sisters have Taqwab Allah SWT both outwardly and inwardly, publicly and privately This may seem like a daunting task to figure out our identity and to understand how we can firmly establish our Islam in our lives and transfer it to the next generation. One of the things that when we look at the way that people interacted with the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, one of the things that people would do is use language to twist the truth, to twist the truth. And this is the point that I want you to leave this khubba with today, this Jum'ah. Think about how people are using language. One of the main things that Allah has ennobled Benny Adam, Allah says in the Quran, We have ennobled Benny Adam, many different ways. Some of the Sahaba said because he gave us hands to eat with. Look at the animals and they have to put their face. The most noble portion of a creature is its face. That's why when we go into sajda, that's what we put on the ground to show our humility to Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. The most noble portion of our face, we don't have to stick it in our plates to eat. Allah has given us hands to bring the food up to our face. This noble part of our creation. But Allah SWT has also given us many other aspects that make us that are part of this karam, this nobility. One of the main aspects is language. Is language and what differentiates us? Even the Arabs would call a human being, The creature, the animate creature who can speak, differing from animals. If you look at other animals, they have their communication. A lot of the things that we do as creatures, as living animate creatures, they do the same exact thing. But what differentiates us is the ability to have language communication. They can communicate, but this language is a nobility that Allah SWT has bestowed us on and yet it's the same language that people can twist and allow us to and force people to change their belief in their understanding. An example is that during the time of the Prophet SAW in Medina, there were people that knew his description. They knew who he was. They knew what he looked like. They knew him better in description than their own children. They knew where he would come from, what family he would be from, the way he would talk, the curliness of his hair. They knew all of the descriptions about him. And yet when he came, they rejected him. They rejected him and they began to twist things through language. And so Allah SWT reprimands them and he says, بَلَا تَلْبِسُ الْحَقَّ بِالْبَاطِلْ Do not enshroud truth with falsehood. Do not enshroud truth with falsehood. Do not cover up truth with falsehood. This point, brothers and sisters, is one of the main ways that people will try to change believers from their syph system of belief to get them away from belief. They'll use language, the same thing that gives us our nobility, that gives us our individualism as human beings, that gives us our characteristics. They'll use the same thing to trick us. And we may even do it ourselves. We may even do it ourselves. So we have to understand what is the language that is being used in our times? What is the rhetoric that's being used in our times to shift us away from our belief? To shift us away. As an example, if somebody said, what is one of the main attacks that people have on Islam? One of the first things they say is the hijab. If you mention the hijab, the hijab is a wonderful symbol of modesty and a symbol of spirituality and a reminder to us of our submission to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and an outward symbol of Islam today. Today in the world and especially in the western world, the symbol of Muslims is a Muslim woman wearing hijab. It's not us his brothers. It's not us wearing beards. It's not us wearing kufis. The international symbol of who a Muslim is today is a Muslim woman in hijab. That's an honor that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has given to the Muslim women and the people of our times. But this same symbol that we could be proud of, people will start naming it with other names. This is oppression. Don't wear it. You're covering up your beauty. Don't wear it. You're doing this or do doing that. And then they could actually cause some people to doubt their faith. Their faith says, I'm a Muslim. This is what is prescribed in our religion and so on and so forth. This is a beautiful set of instructions and yet, but with people twisting that, they'll get people to shift their faith. The same thing will happen at many other levels. The same thing will happen with people trying to shake our faith in the Messenger of Allah, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, the same way that the Quraysh used to tell people, why are you following him? He's just a man, right? Yes, he's a man, but they're twisting the language to say he's just a man. Or they would say, if this was such a great message, why didn't you send it to an angel? To some people that made sense. The Quraysh were using language to twist people's understanding and cause them to not have an ability to realize that Allah SWT can give nobility to a human being, make him a Messenger and give him a message because for some people said, yeah, it makes sense. If Allah wanted to do this, why didn't he send it to an angel? We may or may not have people in our day and age that are attacking it in the same way that Quraysh did, but we do have people that will come in, they won't use the same wording, but they'll use a similar style, which is basically they're attacking, they're covering up truth with falsehood and they're using language as the medium. And to end, I'll go back to the hadith where the Prophet SAW said that the slave will give birth to her master. Some of the early scholars took this literally and they gave an interpretation. The majority of scholars gave an interpretation that's applicable at all day and ages. They said this was the Messenger of Allah SAW showing us that things are going to be inverted. Truths are going to be inverted. So what was once a noble quality to have? Societies are going to flip it. What was once something that was considered abhorrent by people of all faiths and all religions is going to be overturned by Supreme Court. What was once considered falsehood will now be considered truth. So this is what we have to do as Muslims. We have to say we know there are people either intentionally or unintentionally trying to change our faith and invert the realities and they're doing it through the medium of language. So we have to be aware, brothers and sisters. We have to be aware of the attacks on Islam through language and through trying to invert the truth and to try to convert the truth and the realities because the end result of that inversion of the truth is a shaking of our faith. A shaking of the foundation of our faith. Our faith which is based on there is no God but Allah. Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. Everything in the Quran is true. Everything in the Quran is true. If they can just get somebody to twist one ayah, one understanding or one acceptance of one ayah, they've pulled the plug on the ship and the ship will begin to sink and that's what people are trying to do. So our duty as Muslims today is to understand this even beyond our faith and our Islam and our joining of the two. We have to realize the times that we're living in and realize that a powerful medium of inverting the realities to change our identity and to shake our faith is through language and we have to be aware. We have to teach ourselves critical thinking which can come through the hadith in the Quran studies but even other studies as well so that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will allow us to leave this dunya with la ilaha illallah, Muhammad Rasulullah. And I say this in this and I ask you to ask forgiveness from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for all of us and for all of the Muslims and all of the world and for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to give us thabat to give us steadfastness in life and after death to give us steadfastness on the Qawli al-Haq on the true statement of la ilaha illallah, Muhammad Rasulullah during this life and at the point of death and after death when the angels come to ask us Ya Allah Ya Rahman Rahmeen Thabitna bil Qawli al-Thabit wa khtibna lana bil iman Ya Rahman Rahmeena Qawli al-Qawli, haza wa astaghfirullah li walakum wa atim as-salat