 Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds. We praise Allah and we seek His aid and we ask for His forgiveness. We seek His protection from the evil of ourselves and from the evil of our actions. Whomever Allah guides, none can misguide. And whomever He misguides, none can guide. I testify that there is no God, that Allah alone, He has no like. And I testify that Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam is a slave and final messenger. Praise be to Allah who has brought the hearts together on this auspicious day of Jumu'ah, literally the day of gathering, just as He brought us together on that primordial day of Yom Al-Mithaf, the day of the Covenant. On that day, Allah asked us, Alas to be rabbikum, am I not your Lord? And we testified, bella, indeed you are. This gathering then is a reminder of that past gathering and is a warning of the upcoming gathering, the day of judgment, Yom Al-Qiyamah, when we will be all brought together to be questioned about whether we remain faithful to that first covenant. We come to Jumu'ah today under a blanket of smoke and fire. For some people, they have to live in areas where the smoke is bad, maybe their eyes are stinging and then for other people, perhaps they're wearing a second mask so that they can breathe normally. The smoke and this fire has changed our behavior, has changed our condition. We as believers, there's a third way in which the smoke and this fire should change us and that is the fire should remind us of what's coming. That's the hell fire, that is jahannam. This fire then is a reminder of those fires to come. As Allah has told us, He tells us, evil has emerged in the land and the sea due to what people's hands have wrought in order that they may get a taste of what is to come, have one make it a taste of what they have done and so that they may return. There are three points Allah tells us about in this ayah that we need to pay attention to. The first is that evil exists because of the sins of mankind. We might guess if that's aid in this. The second is that Allah sends evil to us on the earth, whether it be fire or earthquakes or the evils that the mankind commit. He sends these to us as a mercy to us so that we may get a taste of the reality of sinfulness and that reality is that sinfulness leads us to the hell fire. This is from the Yubiqah and Ba'al al-Diyamidun. And the third point is that the evil Allah sends us as a reminder to turn back to Him, to do toba. Turning back to Allah, doing toba is an essential part of this religion and it's an action that we are constantly doing as the companion in the Sayyidina Abu Ghraera, who narrates what the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, He said, He said, I swear by Allah that surely I seek Allah's forgiveness and repent to Him more than 70 times in one day. And this is despite the fact that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is ma'asum, he's infallible and that he's flawless, he doesn't commit misdeeds. And so we take from this that repentance is a constant state of being for us, it's something that we are always doing, regardless of what state we're at. In a way, doing repentance is like wearing a mask. Because the mask filters the air that we breathe so that we don't have to breathe in the disease and the smoke that's in the air. And in the same way, repentance filters our air that we breathe from committing evil deeds. In another hadith, the companions in Abu Sa'id al-Khudri relates that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam related a story about a serial murderer, a mass murderer of a previous nation who had killed 99 souls. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said that one day this man asked for the whereabouts of the most knowledgeable scholar on the face of the earth. And someone told him, go to this monk. And so he went to the monk and he asked, can I repent? And will my repentance be forgiven? And the monk said, no, of course not. You've killed 99 people, what are you thinking? And so this is obviously not a great idea. The man killed the monk, making it 100 kills for him. But then the man asked again about who's the most knowledgeable scholar on the face of the earth. And so another person directed him this time to a true scholar. And so the serial murderer, the serial killer went to him and asked him, I've killed 100 people, so can I repent? And the scholar said, yes, certainly you can repent. Who do you think stands between you and repentance? And then he said, go to this faraway land because over there you'll find people who worship God. And so you can go and worship a lot of them. And don't ever return to your land because it is a land of evil. And then this mass murderer then set out for the land. But he only got halfway before death overtook him and his soul was seized. When his soul was seized, the angels of death came, sorry, the angels of mercy came and angels of punishment came. And they started to fight between themselves. Who was gonna take the soul of this man? Should he be taken to paradise because of the state in his dying breath that he was repenting and that he was turning towards Allah? Or should he be taken to the hellfire because he had killed 100 people and he had never performed a good deed in his life? And when they were fighting, a third angel came and the third angel measured the exact place that the man had died and it turned out to just be one hand span over the halfway marker in the direction of the land of worship. And because of that, the angels of mercy seized him. If you ponder this hadith and think about the difference then between the monk and scholar, you'll see that in our religion, Allah's forgiveness comes freely. No matter what a person does, he can always rekindle the light of faith and turn back to Allah. There's no need for confession to a priest. There's no need to pay money for your sins. There's no need to suffer or remain tortured by guilt. No, just turn back to Allah. Allah has made it that easy for us. We should never think that our mountain of sins is too heavy for Allah to forgive because everything is easy for Allah. In another hadith, the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him says, in Allah, Verily, Allah accepts that the repentance of a slave so long as he doesn't gargle and the commentators of this hadith explain that this refers to the gargles of death. His repentance will be accepted until the moment of his death. So don't despair of the mercy of your Lord. Allah tells us, وَرَحْمَةِ وَسْيَعَتْ كُلَّ شَيْءِ My mercy encompasses everything. Allah's doors have been swung wide open and he does not close them. So don't ever despair of the mercy of your Lord. Don't you see how many former criminals and incarcerated persons become Muslim in prison? This is because of this one hadith that if a serial killer of 100 people can be forgiven, what can you have done? What can you have done? That is worse than that. Moulana Rumi has a famous line of poetry. Come, come again, whatever you've done. This is no caravan of despair. Allah says, We do not reveal this Quran for you to be miserable. And so repentance is always open to us. And so repent and seek, and seek Allah's forgiveness and turn back to him. I'll say to you this, وَاَسْتَبْفَرْ اللَّهَ لِهِ وَلَكُمْ وَلِسَائِرَ الْمُسْلِمِينَ تَسْتَبْفِرُهُ إِنَّهُ وَالْمَفُرْ رَهِمْ وَالْحَمْدُ اللَّهِ وَالْصَّلَغَتِ وَالْسَلَامُ وَعَلَى رَسُولَ اللَّهِ إِنْصَلْحُ اللَّهِ عَلَى وَعَلَى وَسَلَمُ If we continue on with the story of the mass murderer, another thing to notice is how desperate this man was. Because even after killing so many people, he didn't rationalize his actions, he didn't justify his actions. He knew they were wrong and he wanted a way out. One of the understandings that the commentators give of this hadith is that the fact that the man was one hand span over the halfway marker was because he had become sick or injured in his journey. And he had gotten to a point where he couldn't ride the animal that he was riding anymore, and so he was crawling on the ground, hand span by hand span, moving forward. And so he was reaching out his hand towards this blessed city of worship. And because of that last effort, he made it into paradise. And so this is how we should be with Allah, using all of our strength, even until our dying breaths, turn back to Allah and to focus on him to the exclusion of all else. We should extend out our hands in desperation and dua'ah because this is an acknowledgement of our complete desperate need of Allah, our complete powerlessness and inability. As Allah says, يَا أَيُهَا الْنَاسُ أنْتُمُ الْفُقُرَاءُ إِلَ اللَّهُ وَالْلَّهُ وَالْغَنِيُ الْحَمِيدِ Well people, you are in desperate need of Allah and Allah is needless, and he is deserving of praise. Therefore, when we turn back to Allah in repentance and seek his forgiveness, we do so desperately, knowing that without his mercy we would fall into the pit of evil and never be able to recover. Desperation, our scholars tell us, forms the second of the four pillars of Toba. The first of these pillars is that you have to stop doing the sin that you're doing in the moment, meaning that you cannot be repenting from a sin while you're committing that sin or if you plan on doing it in the future. The second pillar of Toba is regret. Regret for disobeying Allah, and this is the essence of what it means to turn back to Allah. And it's important to remember that this regret is specifically to regret that you've committed a deed with which Allah is displeased. And so, if someone commits a sin while they're out of Allah and you seek Allah's protection from that, if someone commits a sin which then results in unplanned pregnancy, then to only regret that act of sin because of the pregnancy, that's not Toba. Toba is that you regret the sin specifically because Allah is displeased with it. And lastly, the third pillar of Toba is to resolve upon never doing the sin again in the future. And the key to actualizing this is what was mentioned in the hadith, that you leave the land in which you committed the sin and that you go to a new land because when you change environments, this is of the essence, this is essentially important for making sure we don't sin again because in our previous environment it becomes a trigger for our old habits. The fourth pillar of Toba is to repay the person hurt by the sin if there is such a person such as giving back stolen money or begging the forgiveness of someone if you backbid them. And so an easy way to remember these four, the four pillars of Toba, is to remember the four Rs. Rest, regret, resolve, and repay. Rest from the sin, regret your action, resolve to never do it again and repay what is due to other human beings. And so I remind you today and I remind myself that we ought to remember that repentance is constant, that repentance is free, that repentance is desperate, and that repentance has these four pillars. Allah says in his noble book, Allahumma sallim wa sallim ala sayyidina wa kurrat ya'ayunina Muhammad wa ala ala haarehi wa sahbihi wa mad tabi'a wa bi-ahsan ilayhi wa mad-teen Allahumma al-firla al-mu'minina wa al-mu'minaat wa al-muslimina wa al-muslimaat al-ahya'i minhum wa al-amwad innaka ya maulana samia'u min kareeb al-murji wa al-taawad Allahumma al-sura al-Isnaam wa al-muslimina wa al-muslimina wa al-murza al-sura al-Isnaam wa al-muslimina wa adilla al-shiraka wa al-mushrikeen Allahumma ya'a haeyu ya'a taayyum bi-rahmatu gana nastaqith aslahana sha'nana kullah wa la takina ila anthusina tarfa ta'ain Allahumma ja'al al-Qur'an al-Rabi'a al-Qudubida al-Nura sudurina wa ruzutna tilawad wa anha al-layli wa kurat al-Nahar Allahumma hafidha hadih Muhammad al-Muhammad ilathin jamil biladihat innaka ala kurbi jayn qadir wa bi-il'inshaabati jadeer al-Rasul Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam ar-Rahm bi'ummati bi'ummati abu bakr wa ashaduhum fideen Allahi umar wa astakum haiaan utman wa aqadahum ali wa fatimatu sehdatu nisa'i ahl al-jannah wa al-hasnu wa al-ghusayn sehdah shaba'a bi'ahl al-jannah wa al-hamsatu wa asadullahi wa asadu rasulah khairu al-Kur'uni karmith tum al-ladina yalunuhum tum al-ladina yalunuhum ayyab al-Llah innallaha y'amurukum bil'addi wal-ahsan ta'id al-Kur'ba wa yinha'an al-fahsh'a'i wal-munkari wal-bagh'i ya'idakum na'allakum tadaqkarun adhkur Allah al-Azim yadhkur kum wa shkuruhu yasidkum wa astaghfiruhu yadhkur lakum wa takuhu yaj'allakum in amerikum wa khwaja wa aqiru s-salam