 We also praise Allah on this day of Juma, on his day when he's brought the hearts together on a day that's called the day of gathering. Just as he brought our hearts together on that primordial day of Yom Alast, Yomul Mithaq, on that day of the Covenant when Allah asked us, Alastubi Rabbikum, am I not your Lord? And we testified, Bala Shahidna, indeed you are. This gathering then is a reminder of that previous gathering. Just as it is a warning of the upcoming gathering of Yomul Qiyamah, when we will be questioned on whether we remain faithful to that original Covenant. Allah rhetorically asked us in his noble book, in the Quran, he asked us, So where are you going? Where are you heading? And this is also a reminder for us, because he's asking us about our actions, about our deeds. Are your deeds, are your words, are your intentions, do they align with where you are going? Or are they going in one direction and you are going in another direction? Do you act as though you're going to live infinitely and that there's no end to this life? And yet, you know, that death is your destination and my destination and all of our destinations. Or is there alignment or is there misalignment? Do the words that we express on our tongues, do the words that we say, do we say them without a thought about our being held accountable for them in the Akhira, when we know that the Hissa, the Allah's accounting, is our destination? Are our words aligned with our destination or are they misaligned? And so this, our destination in life, is what Allah is telling us, is our yardstick for measuring our life. It's our benchmark for how we are doing. And Allah continues, he says, So where then are you going? This is only a reminder to the world. And so this question should cause us to ponder, should cause us to think, to become aware of what we are doing rather than sleepwalking through life, slight sleepwalking through our Ibadah. And that's Niyam, who is narrated of the Prophet, that people are asleep and when they die, that is when they wake up. Allah in this verse is telling us to wake from our slumber. What are you doing? Where are you going? Where is your intellect? Are you aware of what you're doing? Or are you just acting just in your normal routines, in doing, in your rote habits, doing what you've always done, doing what you have done every day? Where's your reflection? Where's your conscious engagement with your Lord whom you've created to worship? Can you count the number of times in your life that you said, or the number of times you said, What does this mean? Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim. Okay, we can translate it as in the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate. But what does that mean? What does it mean that we do something in the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate? What is it to do an action in His name? And why do we add ar-Rahman ar-Rahim? What's the difference between ar-Rahman and ar-Rahim when they derive from the same root of Rahmah, which is mercy? Are these just sounds that we emit from our tongues, from our mouths? Or are there deeper meanings that these basic translations are hiding? Deeper meanings that we ought to understand, that we should seek to understand? It's narrated of the Sahabah al-Rabbiullah an-Hum about their prayer, about their Salah, that when they used to pray behind the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, they would stand perfectly still, neither turning left nor right. Neither leaning forwards or backwards. As though they were birds perched upon their heads. This was their khushua. It was a type of ay, a type of dread of Allah. They were worshiping Him as though they were seeing Him. And they would weep when the Quran was recited. As though Allah Himself was speaking to them until there's not a dry beard left in the crowd and left after their prayer. This is what presence in the prayer means, as our teachers tell us. This presence of the prayer is not from the beauty of the sound, although the beauty of the qiraah, of the qadrah can help. But it's not from the beauty of the sound. It's not the harmonious cadences that the ear hears. But it's the beauty of the meaning that the heart hears, that the heart is affected by. Their hearts were being opened up to meanings that they had not comprehended, that they hadn't known before. And that's why they were weeping. And so when the Quran, when there are ayahs in the Quran that the qiraah recites and the Quran speaks about paradise, and the Quran speaks about Allah's mercy, they will weep peers of joy. And when the Quran, when the qiraah would recite verses about the naar, about the fire, and about Allah's chastisement, they would weep peers of fear. And when the qiraah, the reciter would recite stories of past nations and civilizations, those who were destroyed before us, they would beg Allah in earnest to be like the righteous in those civilizations, the righteous people who followed the prophets. And they would beg Allah not to be like the people of dunya who rejected their prophets. And so Allah destroyed them. This was their presence in the prayer. And how would they do this in the prayer, or outside of the prayer would have been read in the Quran, by repeating the same adhqar, the same words and phrases that we always repeat. They would say, A'udubillahi min ash-shaytan al-rajim. They would say, Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. They would say, I seek protection in Allah from the accursed shaytan. But for them, this wasn't just words, it wasn't just I seek protection, and it's the same everyday meaning that I've always heard. No, they understood that seeking protection from a shaytan isn't just seeking protection from the devil or from Satan himself, but also from every one of the minor shayateen, from the demons, dominions of shaytan. And this is because shaytan, in the original Arabic language, refers to المتمرد الحالك المخلق, which is anyone who's rebellious, who's ruinous to himself, and ruinous of others, destroys himself and destroys others. And so to seek protection from the shaytan is to seek Allah's remembrance. I seek protection in Allah in His remembrance. As a means of warding off anything that distracts from Allah. As a means of warding off anything that makes you seek other than Him. As a means of warding off anything that might diminish or delay your appointed meeting with Him, with your Lord in Jannah as part of the Ru'iyah. And so they used to say, I seek protection. I seek that you would surround me on all my sides, preventing any of these demons that would distract me from the purpose for which I was created to worship you. That would distract me from doing everything for your sake. That would cause me to rebel. That would cause me not to seek you, not to know you. What I would be like Him in our shaytan regime means is Allah, I seek your light. Your light that dissipates the darknesses of the shayateen. The darknesses that would otherwise engulf me and engulf those around me, that would cause me to be destroyed and would cause others around me to be destroyed. These are the meanings that should be present to the heart when we say, This is what should be in the forefront of our minds when we recite the words, And the converse is also true. The converse being when we see this meaning, when we see something that causes us to rebel against the will of Allah or may cause evil that we recognize something that causes evil and destruction in ourselves that causes evil and destruction in others. And that's what you could call it, that when we see something of that description and that thing that would distract us from Allah, that thing that would cast us into darkness is effectively a shaytan in meaning. And so we should say to it, And when we say shaytan, we mean that thing. So this is what we intend when we say, If it is your cell phone that's distracting you, that's tempting you with darkness and rebellion. Then say, I seek protection in Allah from this Chris shaytan of the cell phone because only Allah who can render its effects void so that it has no sway over the heart. And if what's tempting you is a person who's slandering you, who's insulting you, who's insulting your honor and your pride or spreading untrue rumors about you, and so that causes your nafs to want to respond, to want to respond in kind by slandering him back or telling the world about how awful so-and-so is because he's saying this and this and this false things about me. If this thirst for revenge is distracting you from Allah, say, I seek protection in Allah from this Chris shaytan who would distract me from my Lord by involving me in these petty quarrels and these petty fights that mean nothing. But I seek refuge in Allah from the temptation to transgress this man's rights even though he has transgressed my rights. And I seek protection in Allah's light from this darkness that he's trying to cast in me. It is he who I ask for protection because it is only he who can protect me. One of the secrets of the wording of Audhu Billahi min al shaytan al rajim is that it's a dua that gets at ultimate reality. Because what we are saying when we recite it is that we are saying that we as creatures are returning to our Creator, that we're acknowledging our complete need and our dependency on our Creator who himself is free of need, who is entirely self-sufficient and who is perfect. Allah says in the Quran, So flee to Allah, run to him with dry, with earnest, with energy as though you're fleeing from shaytan, attempting to escape him. And so we flee to Allah because otherwise we would fall into the clutches of shaytan or one of his minions and so we would become like them with the madrid, halak, muhlik. And if we do not flee to Allah, we would become rebels defiant of his command and we would have destroyed ourselves and we would have let others down the path of destruction. And if we do not flee to Allah, if we wallow in the depths of these darknesses or we would rather wallow in the depths of these darknesses because we would have turned away from Allah's light. And so in a hadith, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says, Inna Allaha La Yaqbal al-Dua'a Min Qalbin Khuaq al-Sahin But dearly Allah does not accept a dua of a forgetful inattentive heart. Because how can you forget your need of Allah? It is the most basic fact of your existence that you're an utter dependence of Allah. Because where did you come from? You came from a primordial realm. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says, Inna Allaha La Yaqbal al-Dua'a Min Qalbin Khuaq al-Sahin Dearly Allah does not accept a dua of a forgetful inattentive heart because this is one of the most basic facts of what it means to be human that you're in need of Allah. In every moment you are in need of Allah. And where you came from, where did you come from? A primordial realm where you took a covenant with your Lord. And where are you going? To Yom al-Qiyamah when you're going to stand on a plane with everyone here before your Lord and he will ask you whether you remain faithful to that covenant. Fafirru ilallah. Flee to him because you already depend on him. Flee to him because his presence is where you are going anyway. It's your natural destination. And how do we flee to Allah? By being present with him through these common adhkar, through these common du'as. These words are light on the tongue but heavy in meaning so we should grasp onto the meanings. Learn them well, learn them deeply. And say, A'udhu billahi min ash-shaitan ar-rajim and when you say it, bring all of these meanings to the forefront of your mind and intend them in your heart. That you seek protection in Allah and with Allah and by Allah in his light from the darknesses that would otherwise engulf you, these darknesses of the accursed shayateen who would cause you to perish, who would cause you to be distracted from your purpose in life and prevent you from fleeing to Allah. And whenever you see someone or something that matches this description of the shaitan and say, A'udhu billahi min ash-shaitan ar-rajim I seek protection in Allah and I am fleeing to him Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un. Indeed we belong to Allah and to Him we return. Allah says in His Noble Scripture Inna Allah wa malaikaddahu yusallu inna a'alan nabi yaiyuhal ladina aamanu usallu aalayhi wa salimu tasneema Allahumma sali wa salimala sayyidina Muhammad wa quratia'iunina Muhammad wa a'ala aarihi wa sahbih wa metabi'um bi ihsan illa yawmdeen Allahumma gfiril al-moo'mineen wa al-moo'minaat wa al-muslimina wa al-muslimat al-ahya'im minhum wa al-amwad Inna qiyamahulana saminu qareeb al-mujeebu da'waat Allahumma nusr al-islamu wa wal-muslimin wa dillal shirkaw wa al-mushrikin Allahumma yaa hayu yaa qayyum bi rahmatika nasdaghith wa min adabika nastajir wa aslehna naa sha'na naa kullah wa laatika l-naa ila anfusna tarfa ta'ain Allahumma ja'alil qurana rabiaa kudubina wa nura sadoorina wa raziknatilawatahu anaa al-layli wa atraaf an-nahar Allahumma hafad haadihi al-amma ta'al muhammadiyya fi jami'i biladihah Inna ka'ala kuddi shayin qadir wa bil'ijabati jadir qaalur Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam arhamu ummati bi ummati abu bakr wa shaddum fideen laahi amr wa ashtaqum haiaan othman wa qadahum ali wa fatimaat sayyidat wa nisa'i ahl al-jannah wa l-hasinu wa l-hussain sayyidah shababi ahl al-jannah wa hamzat wa asadullahi wa asadur rasulih khairu al-kurouni qarani thumma ladina yilunum thumma ladina yilunum eibar