 By the blessing of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, and Ahlul bayt, we are discussing surat al-hamd, and we have reached the verse, iyaka na'budu wa iyaka nasda'een. We discussed that we, you alone do we worship and you alone do we turn for help. Why ibadah needs to be for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. By now we are going to discuss iyaka na'budu, ibadah. What is the definition of ibadah? One definition that has been given by the commentators, that ibadah means iqaa'ah, means obeying. They bring a verse that says chapter 36 verse 60. Alam a'had ilaykum ya bani Adama, ala ta'abudu shaytan, inna hu lakum aduun mubeen. Did I not exhort you, or children of Adam, saying do not worship Satan, he is indeed your manifest enemy? In here, Allah, by the commentators and based on their knowledge from the Quran al-Ahlul Bayt, alaykum, they come and they find ibadah as iqaa'ah, means obeying, because we do not have a big community of worshiping shaytan, very, very, very, very small community, there are some people, maybe we cannot call them even community, there are some people that they worship shaytan. But this idea and this verse is much more general, means obeying shaytan than obeying Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So it is very important, we might say that alhamdulillah sheikh, we are not worshiping shaytan, staghfirullah, we are worshiping Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, but we have to come and again analyze and diagnose our action, how much of our action is alongside the teachings of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, Rasulullah, Quran al-Ahlul Bayt, alaykum as-salam, and how much of it is according to the teachings of shaytan. Everything that I say, everything that I do, everything that I see, everything that I hear, everywhere that I go, everything basically, from time that I wake up, the time that I go to sleep, even before I go to sleep, am I doing things that satisfies Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and again it's following the teachings of Allah, Quran, Rasulullah, alaykum as-salam, vertically, and we will insha'Allah elaborate what we mean vertically, not horizontal, or are we applying the teachings of shaytan, are we obeying shaytan, I'm sitting within a gathering, and suddenly somebody starts gossiping about someone else, well what is the teaching for me, should I sit, or should I leave, should I frown, should I be participating within this, or should I leave, should I stop this conversation, well if I don't know the teachings of Rasulullah and Ahlul Bayt, alaykum as-salam, when it comes to the gossip, and what should a person do when he faces a circumstance that there are people who are gossiping behind someone's back, if I don't know it, I sit, and I laugh, and I might participate, and God forbid, God forbid, I might also add to this gossiping, which is a great sin, one can commit. Lying, seeing things that I need, I shouldn't see you, I'm walking in the street, I see something that I should not see, that I should lower my gaze, will I lower my gaze, listening to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, that I should abstain from this sin, or no, I will keep staring and staring and staring. Listening, I sit within a gathering that they're playing music that are haram, and I should not listen, and I should not pay attention, and I should leave, will I do that, or I will keep enjoying it, and again, God forbid, I might participate, and some might go extreme, insha'Allah none of us audience, but we're talking about other people, and they might participate in dancing, and mixed gender dancing, and so on and so forth. So, abadah to shaytan here means obeying shaytan, that brings us to a good action plan. Is it hard? Of course it's hard, it is difficult, but we do have people that they lived their lives, they were not infallible, they were fallible, they were not maasum, no, they were, they could commit sin, and some of them they committed sin. Again, not maasum, but everything that they did, they would think, is this obedience to shaytan, or obedience to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? I'm about to say something, in this statement that I'm about to make, is this the obedience of Allah in it, or obedience to shaytan? I'm about to hear something, is this obedience of Allah, or obedience of shaytan? I'm about to see something, is this obedience of Allah, or obedience of shaytan? I'm about to use my hand for a purpose, is this usage for the sake of Allah, obedience of Allah into it in it or is obedience of shaitan? I'm about to go somewhere is this the obedience of Allah in it or obedience of shaitan and everything everything that they did they read they talked they said everything they thought is this the obedience of Allah or obedience shaitan because Allah Allah said Allah ta'abudu shaitan do not worship shaitan means do not obey shaitan make sure you obey Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in his command so this becomes a good action plan and that is practice and again practice makes perfect we have to keep reminding ourselves reminding ourselves and reminding ourselves putting Allah and shaitan writing Allah and shaitan be being creative become be creative in reminding yourselves of how to be on the right path because shaitan makes us forget we forget and we are deviated so we have to keep alarming like a gps when you're driving and as soon as you're supposed to be going straight as soon as you make a turn well says the first you turn make a u turn first legal u turn and it keeps telling you keeps telling you because you have given a destination the destination is x place i'm going from y to x place when you go away it keeps telling you make a u turn make a u turn make a legal u turn and keep telling you keeps telling you until you come back and you come on the right path well we have that physical gps let's do something that reminds us on a daily basis to bring us back to the right path the path of obedience of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala we come through obedience ita'a ati'u we will discuss chapter four verse 59 where Allah says we have vertical and we have horizontal where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says yaiyuhal ladina amanu or you who have faith obey Allah and obey the apostles and those who vested with authority among you this is vertically not horizontally Rasulullah and guardians they are not horizontal they are vertically that we have to obey Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so anyone that we do we obey if this obedience it's taking us to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala well that is the right obedience but if the obedience it is getting us away from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala well that's the wrong obedience that's a very uh understandable concept Allah is telling us yaiyuhal ladina amanu or you who have faith obey Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and obey the apostle why because Rasulullah's teaching is from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala everything that Rasulullah orders is the word of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is a revelation from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so Rasulullah is guiding us to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so by us following and obeying Rasulullah by obeying Rasulullah obeying Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq obeying Imam Musa al-Kawim obeying Imam Iridah alaihi salam obeying all the 12 Imams we are obeying Rasulullah and we obeying Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so this obedience it's no problem with it but the obedience of shaytan comes we are obeying completely next to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Allah says don't shaytan says do Allah says do shaytan says don't it's completely on the other pole of what Allah says that's why Allah says he is your indeed he is he is indeed your manifest enemy so it is very important why we have to obey Rasulullah first of all Allah said I'll tell you Allah obey Allah and obey the apostle and those vested with authority among you there is a beautiful khutba of Nihaj al-Balaghah by Amir al-Mu'min the commander of the faithful Ali ibn Abi Talib alaihi salam where Imam says Allah sent Rasulullah with truth to do what to take people out of worshiping idols to worshiping Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that's why we need to obey Rasulullah by us showing obedience to Rasulullah we are obeying Allah because he came to take us out of worshiping idols to worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wa min ta'ateh shaytan ta'ateh shaytan ila ta'ateh Rasulullah was sent by Allah with the truth to take us out of obeying shaytan to obeying Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so by us listening and obeying Rasulullah applying his teachings we are following the obedience of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so it is very important in order for us to obey Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and the teachings of Quran where we need to go we need to go to Rasulullah we need to go to hadith we have some people they try to lessen the value of hadith and narrations and Sunnah of Rasulullah Muhammad sallallahu that is very difficult concept to apprehend where Allah says well this Rasul not everything that he uttered is in the Holy Quran he had he did a lot of things that are not within the Holy Quran a lot of things happened that is not part of the Quran well he is a role model well everything he did wellakum fi Rasulullah uswaton hasana he is our role model or our role model where we get his teachings what he did how he did it when he slept what he ate what did he go what he said what he did and so on and so forth well it comes within the narrations and the narrations we have to go to our scholars that have spent 25 30 35 years within the seminary and they have put tireless effort understanding narrations seeing which narration is more authentic the chain of narratives and so on and so forth so we cannot deny the importance of narration because we have Allah Allah and Rasul Rasul his Sunnah his teachings the Quran everything as a whole package it is very important so we need to understand if you remember within the previous episode we discussed about and one of our action plan was to download and get access to the kitab or the book Tuhaf al Aqool which has the narrations of Ahl al Bayt alayhum as-salam well Ahl al Bayt and Rasulullah Kulluhum Nurun Wahid but Rasulullah being hired and all the other imams well their teachings are one we have a lot of numerous narrations that Rasulullah and Ahl al Bayt alayhum as-salam they will say from my father from my father from my father from my father from Rasulullah so that's the chain that we have to go and hold on to book of Allah subhanahu ta'ala and Ahl al Bayt alayhum as-salam so this is very important download the book Tuhaf al Aqool and make sure you read the narrations of Ahl al Bayt starting with Rasulullah and the rest of the imams so you will be able to show obedience to their teachings and apply their teachings and not the teachings of shaitan and if we don't know the truth of Ahl al Bayt alayhum as-salam and Quran and we don't show obedience to these teachings we would definitely fall into the trap of obedience showing obedience to shaitan i mean a woman in the commander of the faithful states and he said when we are approached by a person he's asking us to do something but showing obedience to him it is against obedience Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala this is not we cannot accept it we cannot obey a person who wants us to commit a sin against Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala ibadah has different kind of ibadah inshaAllah we will conclude with this An'abi Abdullah al-sadr al-salam where he says ibad three people who worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala are three kinds Imam al-sadr al-salam states there are some people who worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala based on fear fear of the hellfire they worship they supplicate because they are afraid of uh getting into hellfire no problem with that but Imam says pray like this if slaves whatever they do it's based on the fear of their master make sure they do everything that the master has been said because they don't want to be punished some people they are worshipping Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala hoping for the heaven that they want to get something in return this kind of worship is like a worship of businessman he gives something he sells something he gives something back it's a basically give and take again nothing wrong with it we should always try to get away from hellfire do whatever it is to get away from hellfire and get Allah's reward which is heaven but there are levels and he's continues and there are a group of people that they are worshipping Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala because of him because they love Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala even if there was no reward and there was no punishment they worship Allah subhanahu ta'ala for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala because they are in love with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala this is the worship of a free man this is the best we are discussing all these so what is so we can also conclude this episode what is abadah is it only salah zakah khoms hajj jihad all our fura'ah deen as we mentioned within the previous episode some might think that okay we keep saying Allah created us for abadah so we just have to leave our work leave family relationships leave everything just sit on our prayer mat and pray pray pray pray all day long and fast no abadah everything that is done in addition to salah which is in addition to our wajabat everything that we do is abadah everything that we do it is abadah whatever that is done for example thinking about Allah's blessing and Allah's nama it is kind of abadah when we are in a place we've done all of our wajabat we've done all of our mustahabat thinking about all the blessings that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given us and thanking Him that's a kind of abadah Rasulullah says when a person goes out to gain halal income halal sustenance that is also it's ninth tenth of abadah that's also a worship Imam As-Sada alaihi salam also states if you look at your parents face with mercy and love for them that is abadah so everything a woman is helping her husband husband is helping his wife they are doing daily chores within the house washing dishes both of them washing clothes helping one another that it can be abadah I'm going to gain halal income that is abadah I'm being entertained in a halal way that is abadah everything that is done to gain Allah satisfaction and it is not haram well I'm going to do something haram that is not abadah that Allah said don't do it but anything that is mubah for example I'm about to drink water well I'm drinking water I want to get energy I want to have enough power so I can continue supplicating and praying Allah praising Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala drinking water becomes abadah I'm going to sleep before going to sleep I do wudu which is very very recommended that can be a good action plan doing wudu before going to sleep I'm going to sleep so I can get enough rest I can my body can rest so I can worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala next day that becomes abadah so everything in addition to our wajibat again in addition to our wajibat helping people helping needy people giving them hand whatever it is that aiding other people defending an oppress taking the right of an oppress and aiding the truth well that can be abadah anything that is halal and mubah we can have an intention in addition to our wajibat having the intention of qurba ta'ala that can be abadah and insha'Allah we can be rewarded insha'Allah we will conclude this episode with asking Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala begging him to hasten the opinions of our beloved Imam Mahdi a.j. Allah ta'ala Farid al-Sharif which is the most important dua Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem wa ar-daka taw'a wa tumata'ahu fiha ta'wila barahmatika ya ar-Rahman ar-Rahmeen