 أن الحمد لله نحضر ونستعينه ونستغفره ونعود بالله من شلوري أكثر سنة ومن سيء آرزي أعمالنا ما يخفر الله فلا مضى الله ومن يضلل فلا هادئه ونشدوا أن لا إله إلا الله وحذب لا شريك له الملك ولا الحمد يطي ويميته وعلى كل شيء قدير ونشدوا أن محمد عبده ورسوله يا أيها الذين آمنوا وتقربواكم الذي خلقكم يا أيها الذين آمنوا وتقبوا الله حق التقاته ولا تموتنا عند وقت مسلمون يا أيها الناس وتقربواكم الذي خلقكم من نفسه واحدة وخلق منها زوجها وبالتا ميتما رجالا كثيرا ونساءا واتقوا الله الذي تساءلنا لي ولا تحاول إن الله كان عليكم رقيما يا أيها الذين آمنوا وتقبوا الله وقولوا قول السريدة يصبح لكم ععالكم ويطفل لكم ضلوبكم وما يتعب لها ورصوله فقط فازت وصح عليما أنما رعد كأنه خير خديد في تاب الله وخير الهدي محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم والشهد الأمور المحتاجوه وكله معتد التخليع وكله بدعة الملالة وكله دلالة عن الماء all things increases due to Allah we seek His help and His forgiveness we seek refuge in Allah from the people who have been ourselves and the consequences of our evil deeds whomever Allah guides will never be led astray and whomever Allah lets go astray will never find guidance and I bear witness that there is no God but Allah alone about many partners and I bear witness that Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم and He is His messenger تبارب المذيديات الملكه وهو على أبني شيء قبير لاتخلقوا من الآوة العياة ليفروكم أيضاً محسن عملة وهو عزيزه المخود today I came to talk about success and how we define success in Islam these first two verses of Surah al-Mulk he says unless that he in his hand is the remaining and he is over all things competence and he is the one who created life and death to test you as to which of you is the best in deeds وهي أخزلت أميدي هناك الكثير من الأشياء about these just these two verses in مونق يبدأ مع مونق ما هو مونق؟ هو أن كل شيء that is ruled over is all creation and all that is saying is all that bless is he who has complete control over all creation he is the one who is all-wise and all-creative so what is the all-wise the creator of the whole universe the one that has complete control of everything what does he say? مونق مونق مونق he is one who is over everything capable why do you create everything? this is a question that makes people spend their entire careers trying to answer thousands of years of philosophers and spend so much time trying to answer this question what is the purpose of life? why do we exist? why does everything exist? and here in eight words it's just eight words الله tells us exactly the meaning, the purpose why he, the wise the creator, the powerful creatives يبدو أميدي أميدي to test which of you is the best in deeds and that's it that is the answer that so many people seem to look for and the thing is that's very interesting about this point that I think we hear that many other people who have explanations of the Qur'an they transmit and say that it's very interesting very important here that الله mentions أيكم أحسن عملة أيكم أكثر عملة it's a very interesting point that Allah says who is the best in deeds and not who is the most of deeds and that's an interesting point that one of my teachers who I'm sure many of you are familiar with is أميدي أكثر عملة he comments on this point he says that deeds it's a very beautiful reflection that deeds are on a day of judgment they're scaled they're weighed and when you weigh something that implies that they have a mass to they have three dimensions if you vote for example if you have an idea you don't weigh an idea you'd say I have a great idea or I've had five ideas this month you count them if you have money you count your dollars you don't weigh your dollars if you have land you size your land by acres or some other measure and you don't weigh it but deeds here are saying weights like you would gold or silver or some other thing that has a mass to it which implies there's different dimensions to it and one way to look at it is three dimensions of a deed would be intention and sincerity and other dimensions where it would be the efforts who are putting forth how much efforts and the third would be the excellence and how it completes that deed and so those are the three aspects of deeds that will give it but the sincerity is very small so it's going to be a light deed on the day of judgment that might get blown away in the wind whereas you might have something that's very small just a few dollars like one dollar donated out of true sincerity that deed on the day of judgment will have so much weight on those scales and so that's a beautiful way to look at our deeds because it's not just about who has the most who does the most it's who does the best and excellence and how does he act this so if our point is to be tested with these deeds and who does the best of deeds how does Allah end this verse وَحُرَ عَزِزُ مَفُورُ He tells us He reminds us that He is mighty but He is forgiving and that's so important because if we get caught up and see the tests and feel so under so much pressure we all make mistakes and a lot of times people fall under the guise of guilt and you get chipped up they think they're running this race and once you trip in a race and you can't get back up you're going to be in the last place and it's a depressing day but that's not how it is it is forgiving and Allah reminds us here despite our tests He's there for us and He is forgiving and so if we slip up our sun's about getting right back up and then trying again and it's expecting those failures and the other thing is that it's not so it's not about let those girls get you down and at the same time it's not about I'll put it it's not about just the accumulation of randomities about putting it in your efforts and the last thing is that you cannot control the outcome of your effort and so you can't define success by the outcome you know there'll be so many prophets that come in the day of judgment that'll have a few followers a handful of followers some will have two followers some will have one follower there'll be prophets that spent their entire career doing gawah and they'll have no one that followed them but those people will not be failures in the eyes of Allah they were successful not because of the outcome because that is completely with Allah He cannot hold this accountable for the outcome it is completely in His hands instead He holds this accountable for the intention in our efforts and that is such a beautiful concept to remember and I think one of the most beautiful reflections of this one of the most beautiful stories that really embodied a lot of these concepts is the story of a Sahabi that unfortunately not many people have heard it all his name is Abu Bakdak and his story starts with an orphan during the time of the prophet so I said then there was an orphan boy whose parents left him behind a small plot of land and a few animals to take care for his life with him and so he decided to build a fence around this land so he can take care of his animals they don't run away they don't get stolen so he can encourage them and so he started building this fence and while he was doing that there was this big tree a big tree that was coming from his neighbor's yard and blocking the path and he couldn't go around the tree because that would be stealing from his neighbor and he could come on the inside of the land it was too small and so he needed to go through the tree so he went to his neighbor Abu Dababa and he said Abu Dababa will you give me this tree I'll just give it to you as a charity so that I may build my fence Abu Dababa said no this is my right it's my hope I'm not going to think about this tree and so the boy said can I buy it for you and Abu Dababa was still refusing he said I will not sell this tree this is my hope and it's a charity it's this source of income and so the boy got frustrated and he said he ran to the prophet and I said no which is such a beautiful concept just imagine that you're playing with him a boy who has an issue an orphan boy and he has that openness to the prophet when he runs to the prophet for the first thing the first thing he thinks of and he goes and tells the prophet the story so the prophet smiles he asks someone Abu Dababa and he confirms it in the story he says is this what happened is this true and he says yeah it's true so the prophet asks him the same thing he asks can you give this tree as a gift to the boy and Abu Dababa refused to sell this in my home and so the the prophet asked again he said will you we will buy this tree from you will you then get it to this boy and the man again refused and then the prophet knew that if you gave this tree to this boy he will give you a tree in Jannah the likes of which nothing has been seen it will take a writer 7 years to cross from one side to another on horseback and the word that was used for the tree itself is described as a tree that's so heavy with fruits that the branches start sinking and so he described such a magnificent tree of Jannah that would be given to him if he gave this tree up but Abu Dababa was this Sahabi that we want to talk about Abu Dababa now a little backstory on him he had a plantation that was amongst the most luxurious plantations in Medina he had the most palm trees for dates and Medina is a city that was agricultural and grew dates and exported dates that's their main source of income and so he had the biggest farm the most trees the highest quality you know non-GMO organic dates farms that was Abu Dababa's farm and so he knew who he was in the city of Medina he hears this and he goes to the prophet he says if I gave that tree to that boy would I get the same reward? and the prophet said yes so he went to Abu Dababa went to Abu Dababa the man of the tree and he asked him he said do you know my orchard and Abu Dababa said of course who does not know of your orchard he says I will give you my entire orchard and everything in it includes the house all the trees in it the land I will give you my entire orchard for that one tree Abu Dababa was like no way you're crazy he said he really knew I got insane and he says no he called the prophet he called all the Sahaba and he says I want you bear witness that I'm giving my land to Abu Dababa for this one tree and the transaction was made and it shook on me so imagine Abu Dababa getting this wow overnight just for that one tree and so Abu Dababa جنة do I get that tree he's doing all this for one tree and jannah and the prophet of Allah said no of Allah call this one tree for the one tree of Abu Dababa and you did not get one tree who gave your entire orchard and the Allah is way more than this anymore so he says you're going to get an orchard in jannah of those trees and then the light of it and then the light of it and then the light of it and he kept repeating that and the light of it and the light of it he kept repeating it so much and so a lot of singles Sahabi around I did not wish for that so he was a lady he ran home to his wife and his kids and he told them get out and they said what's wrong with happening he says we sold the house we sold everything and then she said for what what did you sell the house for and he told her we sold it for land and jannah and she said Abu Dababa what a successful transaction what a successful transaction that's an immediate reaction they gave up everything they had for that land and jannah what a successful transaction and there's even another narration that mentions that one of their boys had a date from their orchard and he took it from him and he said this doesn't belong to us anymore that level to give him a single date there's so many lessons that I think that we extract from this beautiful story is one of the the first thing that comes to mind is that he did not have to give his entire orchard he could have given a third half 50 trees whatever it was he could have given still an unequal amount but a property for that one tree and it still made a transaction and he decided to make it from the first offer he didn't have it from the first offer but he gave everything he had he had that level of sincerity and desire for jannah he wasn't trading for a tree and his mind was trading for jannah for a single tree in jannah and so that's a beautiful reminder of the kind of the kind of desire that he had and the reality he had of jannah he saw jannah as a reality more real than even the things in front of him his own lands on income such a beautiful example and he did not give from what was easy to give he gave from what was hard it was what he was came for it's what he provided the thing that he held most dear and he gave from what was most dear from the best things a lot of times we donate for example the worst clothes and you know what it's great every donation is good but a lot of times we give the used clothes we have we give things that have holes in it things that we're done with things that are easy to give instead of giving the best the favorite jacket or buying something new for someone going out of our way so this is an example in terms of that and seeking the word from Allah and nothing else and going back to the weights of the deeds imagine that Dean waiter and that he gave everything to get that dimension of sincerity and completeness and so this is a beautiful example I think you know may Allah forgive us and seek forgiveness in our God in the name of Allah peace and blessings of Allah peace and blessings of Allah peace and blessings of Allah peace and blessings of Allah peace and blessings of Allah peace and blessings of Allah and so again just to go over a few brief points before we begin our prayer in Islam there's a very beautiful concept and that he must all hope and that is that is not about the attention and the effort of our deeds your attention are judged by your your genes are judged by our attention say them as the Prophet said them and the rest is with Allah and there's so many examples of huge time to put in that put forward putting in that effort and then the results are with Allah for example موسى he struck the staff he struck the staff on the water to split the seas Allah split the seas nobody has ever struck the staff it has had and موسى did not have to split like he didn't have to put any effort forward for that to happen it was completely Allah but Allah still made him put in a little bit of effort to make the outcome happen and that's an example for all of us to put in that put forward and no better time is to do this and practice this than Ramadan and next week in Sha'a'a we'll be beginning the beautiful blessed month of Ramadan so in Sha'a'a'a if we just practice if we find each one of us and those are our strengths we find a bad habit and we try to block it out and have it leave by the end of Ramadan and we try to have it to try to instill it's the month of Ramadan and one example is trying to build a better relationship with the Quran if we are people who don't constantly read try to read a little bit of Quran each day maybe constant even if it's not a lot and if that's easy for us it's something we already do then try to finish and cut them if that's something we've never done of the Quran and if that's easy for us try to memorize a little bit of the Quran and if you're half it try to seek a higher understanding what you're reading try to internalize it try to practice in between if that's easy for us may Allah allow us to reach Ramadan it's not guaranteed for us there will be people who were with us in Ramadan last year we're not with us today may Allah have mercy on them and may Allah accept from their pasties and may they be a reminder for us for our death that we will for sure seek and we will for sure face someday may Allah forgive us from all our sins قولي قولي هدو صفر رحمة ورحمة ورحمة ورحمة ورحمة ورحمة ورحمة ورحمة ورحمة ورحمة ورحمة ورحمة