 Alhamdulillah, Shukrullah that this beautiful topic, Al-Kothar, in the Ataynaka Al-Kothar, barely we have given you Al-Kothar. And the two predominant tafasir commentaries of this term, Kothar, the first one is a specific river in Paradise. And it's related to the Hode itself, the pool of the Prophet SAW, that all believers will drink from, after which they'll never be thirsty again, and we ask Allah to make us amongst them. The second main tafseer or explanation of the term is Al-Khayr kathir. So for the students of Arabic, Al-Kothar comes from the same root as kathir, which means a lot. And so it's, but it's an emphatic form, so Kothar, like tremendous good, tremendous good. And if we read the seerah and the shama'il, the seerah being the life story, the blessed biography of the Prophet SAW, the shama'il being the characteristics, qualities, features of his blessed person, both outward and inward, SAW, then it's nothing but khayr kathir. I mean every page and every paragraph and every line and every sentence is khayr kathir and khayr kathir and khayr kathir. Tremendous good, tremendous good, tremendous good. And so literally every single volume and every single chapter of the entire intellectual and spiritual heritage of Islam is a commentary of Al-Kothar. It's every good imaginable. And but there were specific detailed meanings that were given, that were proffered, that were placed forth as to what Kothar entails. And one of the most beautiful ones is related by one of the great imams of the Sunni tradition, Imam Abu Abd Rahman al-Sulami, he was a codifier, he was a hadith scholar and a codifier of the Sufi tradition. Him and his student Imam Qushayri, as well as the famous Hujjad al-Islam al-Ghazali, the three of them, the triumvirate together, Sulami, Qushayri, Ghazali, they're considered the key codifiers of the inner tradition of Islam. And in his tafsir, Haqqaik al-Tafsir, Imam Sulami cites Imam Ja'far al-Sadif, on this ayah. What does Al-Kothar mean? And the great blessed Imam Ja'far al-Sadif, that he says, He says that Al-Kothar is a light in your heart. A light in your heart. From the divine person speaking to the Prophet, from Allah himself, it's a light in your heart that guided you to me and cut you off from everything besides me. In other words, the light of absolute monotheism, the light of pure tawheed, recognition of Allah's oneness always. This is the foundation of all light. And it begins with the Prophet's blessed heart, and therefore from his blessed heart is all illumination in the world. All illumination in the world comes from the source of it, the masdar, the primordial source of it is the blessed, luminous heart of our Prophet, Sallallahu alayhi sallam. This is an essential meaning of Al-Kothar, because all good comes from that blessed heart, Sallallahu alayhi sallam. And related to this, a century later, Qadir Ayyad, the great Maliki Andalusian jurist and judge, Rahimahullah, and hadith master in his famous book, Ashifah, the cure to recognize the rights of Al-Mustafa, the rights of the chosen one upon us, Sallallahu alayhi sallam. He cites Imam Ja'far Al-Sadiq on the meaning of a najm in Surat al-Najm, that Allah Ta'ala swears by the star, that Allah Ta'ala swears by the star when it descends, when it sets. And what's the oath that your companion is not astray, he's not misguided in any way, he never deviated, and he does not speak from his own desire, rather it's revelation revealed unto him, Sallallahu alayhi sallam, on his blessed heart. That what is this star? Again, the predominant tafsir that one reads will be, it's the stars of the heavens. So literally the stars in the heavens, Allah Ta'ala swears by that. That's the common tafsir. But Qadir Iyad cites Imam Ja'far Al-Sadiq, Rahim Allah Ta'ala, as saying that the najm that Allah Ta'ala swears by in the surah is again the blessed Qalb, the blessed heart of our Prophet, Sallallahu alayhi sallam, that Allah Ta'ala swearing by the heart, this luminous bright, intensely bright heart of the Prophet, Sallallahu alayhi sallam idha hawwa, when it sets, when it descends, when it manifests in the world. And the commentator of the Shifa, Mulla Ali Alqari, the great Hanafi jurist and hadith scholar of several centuries later, he says that this heart, the idha hawwa when it manifests, it's, what does it entail? It entails that the heart is always inclining to Allah and it's absent minded from other than Allah. The presence of the Divine in the heart of the Prophet, Sallallahu alayhi sallam. And the third characteristic he describes, he says, was tigraqi hi fi hobbihi subhanu ta'ala, and the fact that this blessed heart is immersed and submerged in the love of Allah Ta'ala, immersed in the love of Allah Ta'ala, that this is the najm, this bright star that Allah Ta'ala swears by, wa Allah Ta'ala ala wa alam. In that light, the principle of love, because al-kawthar along with the luminous knowledge of the Divine comes with the incredible love of the Divine. And this is the very description of our Prophet, Sallallahu alayhi sallam, is Habibullah, the beloved of Allah Ta'ala, that hobb, that this blessed heart was replete and istigraqi, it was immersed in the love of Allah Ta'ala, that's a sunnah for us to follow. How do we invite kheir kathir, tremendous good into our lives is to follow this inner sunnah, this inner precedent. We often think of the sunnah as outward legal precedent of habits and customs of the outward life of a believer, and that is from the sunnah. But there's an inner sunnah, and the first inner sunnah, after belief itself, iman, is love of the Divine, love of Allah Ta'ala. And there's a proof in the blessed seerah of our Prophet, Sallallahu alayhi sallam, there's innumerable proofs. And one of the proofs is in the hijra. In the blessed migration when the Prophet, Sallallahu alayhi sallam, makes the migration to Medina Munawwara, the luminous city, it used to be called Yathrib, which comes from a root word of blame, Tathrib, that Tathrib alaykum ulyom, Yathrib was a place of blame, the Os and the Khazraj, the tribes of Yathrib used to fight, there was conflict, there was ignorance, jahiliya, until the Prophet comes, Sallallahu alayhi sallam, this star descends now in Yathrib, and no longer is it called Yathrib, forever we call it Medina Munawwara, the luminous city, and when he first arrived, he descended, he stopped at Quba, right outside of Medina, and he stayed there for a few days before he entered on the day of Juma'ah into Medina proper, Sallallahu alayhi sallam. And in that entrance on the way, ibn Ishaq relates in his seerah that it came during Salatul Juma'ah, the time for the Juma'ah prayer, and so he gave the first Juma'ah Khutbah as he is entering into Medina, Sallallahu alayhi sallam, and in that short but powerful Khutbah, one of the most salient principles that he emphasizes, Sallallahu alayhi sallam is love itself, because what does he say, Sallallahu alayhi sallam? He says, He's planting the seeds of the new community, the new society, the new polity, the republic, if you will, like Plato philosophizes about the republic, what's the perfect city, Aristotle did the same thing, the perfect city-state, it manifested in time in Medina Munawwara, this is the city-state, par excellence, the republic par excellence of human history, Sallallahu alayhi sallam, as the head of state, and so he's planting the seeds of the best polity as well, the best society, the best community, the best polity, and what does he say, love everything that Allah loves, this is emanating from that heart that was immersed in the love of the Divine, and what does he say after that, Sallallahu alayhi sallam? And love Allah Himself from the very bottom of your hearts, love Allah from the depth of your hearts, subhan Allah, the first khutba, the love of Allah Ta'ala, and not just loving Allah at a basic level, from the very, from the entirety of your hearts, and he concludes this khutba, Sallallahu alayhi sallam, with the principle of love manifesting in the community, because he says, wa tahaboo bi-rohillahi baynakum, and love one another by the tender mercy of Allah amongst you, love one another by the tender mercy of Allah amongst you, and that love of one another started with the love of the Prophet himself, Sallallahu alayhi sallam, because no one loved anyone in the world like the companions loved the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi sallam, and like all believers till the end of time, loved the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi sallam, no human being in history, no entity, no idea is as beloved, nothing has been loved more in the entirety of the cosmos than the Sayyidina Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi sallam, and one particular example of this from the blessed Seerah that we can highlight, a beautiful story is at one of the battles where the enemies committed treachery, they invited six of the companions as teachers, it's called the Rajiyah, Rajiyah is a well outside of Medina, they sent one of the tribes, sent ambassadors, and they said, we became Muslim, we want you to send teachers, so the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi sallam sends six companions to teach them, and they were lying and they were treacherous, and so they ambushed these blessed six companions at the well of Rajiyah, and they killed, treacherously killed four of them, and two of them were imprisoned and sold to the Quraish in Makkah, because the Quraishi, the Quraish wanted, they had a bounty out for them, because they had killed some of them at Badr, and so one of them was Khabib, and the other was Zaid ibn Dutunna, and Zaid ibn Dutunna is imprisoned in Makkah, and he is awaiting his execution, and Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, ibn Umayyah, the head de facto leader of Quraish at the time, he asks Zaid ibn Dutunna, he says, he says, I ask you by Allah, and perhaps this could be translated in English as give me the God's honest truth, like be 100% honest with me, he says, would you prefer right now that Muhammad was in your place, Sallallahu alayhi sallam, and you were at home comfortable with your family, and Hazrat Zaid ibn Dutunna, he says, I swear by Allah, I would not like that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi sallam is pricked by a thorn right now, while I'm sitting comfortable with my family, and Abu Sufyan says, he says, by Allah, he says, I swear by Allah, I never saw amongst people anyone loving anyone else, like the companions of Muhammad love Muhammad sallallahu alayhi sallam, he's speaking as not just a non-Muslim, not just a pagan, but the very leader of the enemies of the Prophet, Sallallahu alayhi sallam, and he's recognizing this profound love, this is a window to the reality of all the companions, this is a window to the reality of all the blessed companions, Allah be pleased with them, and in that light, we wanted to return back to another meaning of kothur, because how else does this love in the blessed heart of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam, how else does it manifest? We see so many examples of it manifesting in the world, in this light, but what about the next life? The supreme manifestation of that love, the supreme manifestation of that love, and we return back to Imam Sulemi, Rahimullah in his tafsir, again, right after he cites Imam Ja'far, he says, and another time Imam Ja'far sadaq was asked, Rahimullah, about what's the meaning of kothur, and he says, another time he says, he says, the other meaning of kothur is that Allah is saying, we have given you this great good, i.e. your intercession for your community, your intercession for the entire ummah, and this is the love of the Prophet manifesting in the next life, sallallahu alayhi sallam, when every other Prophet, despite their own perfection, says nafsi nafsi, on that day when humanity goes to them asking for intercession, they say, my own self, my own self, because this maqam al-mahmood, this praiseworthy station is reserved for al-Habibullah sallallahu alayhi sallam, it's reserved for the most beloved of Allah, it's reserved for what in the New Testament, wallahu alam, cited that it cites Hazrat Isa alayhi sallam, saying, await the paraclet, the paracletus in Greek, which means the advocate or the comforter, it has two translations that you'll find, the advocate, which in Arabic is a shafir, and so according to us, if this statement is correctly attributed to Nabi Isa alayhi sallam, we would say that the paraclet is Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alayhi sallam, he is the advocate par excellence, and through that advocacy, the shafa, the intercession on the day of judgment, everyone is comforted, because even the prophets are saying nafsi nafsi, but when he is granted his any dua that he wants sallallahu alayhi sallam, that he reserved for the hereafter, he says ummati ummati, my community, my community, and this is the great relief, the cosmic relief, what principle does this come from? What principle does this come from? This comes from the principle of muhabba, the principle of love, this is an act of love for all of humanity, the comforter, sallallahu alayhi sallam, Sheikh Yusuf al-Nabahani said the paracletus is one of the names of the prophet, sallallahu alayhi sallam, and in that light, that will also cite that one of the beautiful descriptions, that that's a potential description in the New Testament, but what about the Old Testament? And we know that the prophet was prophesied in the Old Testament sallallahu alayhi sallam in the Torah, and Abdullah ibn sallam amongst others became Muslim because he recognized, they recognized him like they did their own children, that Abdullah ibn sallam and others. And so in that light, one of the early Tabi imams, Ata ibn Yasar, he approached the great companion Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-Aas, and he says, describe for me the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam, describe for me the Prophet, and what does this noble companion, who was a scholar of the Torah? He was a scholar of the Torah. He says, absolutely. He is described in the Torah with some of his description in the Quran. Oh blessed Prophet. We have sent you as a witness and a gospel, the bringer of glad tidings, this supreme advocacy of love in the hereafter, and a warner, and a sanctuary for the unlettered, a sanctuary for the disenfranchised in the world, a sanctuary for the ummiyeen, perhaps in the context of the Torah, a sanctuary for the Gentiles. Anta abdi wa rasuli, the description continues according to his knowledge of the Torah that Allah ta'ala said to the Prophet, describing the coming of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam, you are my slave and my messenger. Anta abdi wa rasuli, like Allah is selecting him for his own self, subhanahu wa ta'ala, for his own self, la ilaha illa Allah. Samaytuka al-mutawakil, I have named you the one who relies on Allah, par excellence, the perfect relier on Allah ta'ala. Laysa bifadzin wa la ghalid, he is neither harsh nor coarse with people. Wa la sakhaabin fil aswaq, nor does he shout in the marketplace. He is the master of every adab, sallallahu alayhi sallam. Wa la sakhaabin fil aswaq, wa la yajzi bil sayyiatah, wa la yajzi bil sayyati al sayyiatah, wa la kenya'afu wa yasfah, from his mahabah, sallallahu alayhi sallam, from his supreme love. He never repays, he never responds to an evil with an evil, but rather he overlooks and forgives. Allah ta'ala will not take him in death until Allah makes straight through him the crooked nation such that they all say la ilaha illallah, wa yaftaah bihi aayun an umya, wa aadanun summa, wa kulumun gufa, and until Allah opens through him, sallallahu alayhi sallam, eyes that were blind, herring that was death and hearts that were sealed. Reflect on the state of Arabia before his coming in Jahiliyyah. The level of darkness, pagans that worshiped idols and killed each other out of revenge and vengeance and knew nothing but injustice and transgression of the rites of the weak and the poor. Look at the transformation, bi'ayyakulu la ilaha illallah, their eyes are open, their herring is open, and their hearts are unveiled such that that same light from his blessed heart now transfers to the light by the time of his passing over 100,000 companions across Arabia, all of them immersed in that same tawheed and love of the divine saints. Who could transform Arabia into 100,000 saints? Only the Sahib al-Kothar, the master that was given tremendous good, sallallahu alayhi sallam. And then after Arabia converts and Allah takes him, those blessed lights, look what they do to the world that within 100 years, Islam is east from China, west all the way, close to Paris in France. And north, however north it gets, and south all the way down into Africa. La ilaha illallah, all of these saintly people, and until the end of time, that Allah will not cause the end of time to occur until there's no one left on the earth saying Allah, Allah, Allah, the same zikr that it began with in his blessed heart. We ask Allah to make us recipients of the light of our Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam through being imbued with his blessed teachings outwardly and inwardly.