 Asalaamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Allah Subh'anaHu says in the Qur'an, Ya ayyuhal ladina amanu ittaq Allah wa btaqu ilayhi l-wasila wa jahidu fi sabeelihi la'allakum tuflihun. This is Surat al-Maeda ayat number 35, Allah Subh'anaHu wa ta'ala says, Oh you who believe, oh you who have iman, ittaq Allah have taqwa of Allah Subh'anaHu wa ta'ala wa btaqu ilayhi l-wasila. And seek and seek to Him, al-wasila, al-wasila means the means of approach. This word wasila is related to the word tawassul or intermediation. So there may be deficiencies in our iman, in our taqwa. So Allah Subh'anaHu wa ta'ala, He commands us wa btaqu ilayhi l-wasila, this is a command. He commands us to fill in as it were. Our deficient gaps of iman and taqwa with al-wasila, the means of approach to Allah Subh'anaHu wa ta'ala. I'll give you an analogy, if you apply to a university, unless you have a 1600 SAT and a 36 ACT and a 4.3 GPA because you're taking honor classes, you will need help with letters of recommendation. Help from people who have authority and rank in academia and it's similar in the spiritual realm. We need all the help that we can get from those nearest and dearest to Allah Subh'anaHu wa ta'ala. We all practice tawassul at some level. Do you read the Quran? Well the Quran is not Allah and the Quran is not you. Reading the Quran is a means of drawing near to Allah Subh'anaHu wa ta'ala. It is technically a wasila. Some commentators, they say here that al-wasila in this ayah, chapter 5 verse 35, is tawbah, is repentance and tawbah is a great thing. The Prophet ﷺ he said, A ta'ibu min dhanbihi kaman la dhanbalaha kuma qala alayhi sallatu wa sallam. That the one who makes tawbah, the one who repents from his sin is like the one who didn't sin at all. And of course, there are among the eight types of people that Allah Subh'anaHu wa ta'ala explicitly says that he loves in the Quran. One of these are the tawabeen, inna allaha yuhibbu tawabeen. Allah Subh'anaHu wa ta'ala loves those who repent and who are the tawabeen, there are people who sin, then repent. Other commentators say that al-wasila in this ayah is a reference to the fara'id, the obligatory acts of worship. And yet others say al-wasila in this ayah wa btaghu ilayhi al-wasila and seek to him, and seek to him. The means of approach, the means of approach here according to many, is our Master Muhammad ﷺ. The means of approach to our Lord. The Ba'alawi Sadat of Yemen, they recite a beautiful benediction upon the Prophet ﷺ. They say, Allahumma salli ala Sayyid Muhammad, Muftahi ba'bi rahmatillah, O Allah bless and give peace to our Master Muhammad, the key to the gate of the mercy of God. Muftahi ba'bi rahmatillah, the key to the gate of the mercy of God. So if you think of the analogy of the Rahmah, the mercy or compassion of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala as being a walled city with a gate, right? And many claim to have the key, where the true key is our Master Muhammad ﷺ. Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala says in the Qur'an, قل إن كنتم تحبنا الله فاتبيعوني يحببكم الله. Say if you really love Allah then follow me. Now Allah is speaking directly to the Prophet ﷺ, say to them, if you all claim to love Allah then follow me, يحببكم الله, then will Allah love you, then will Allah love you ويغفر لكم ذنوبكم والله غفر الرحيم and forgive you your sins. Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala is forgiving and merciful. The sababun nuzul, the occasion of this verses revelation we are told is that a waft, a delegation of Christians from Najran, they came into Medina and they said that they worshipped Isa ﷺ out of love for God, right? And then this ayah was revealed, right? That they worshipped Isa ﷺ out of love for God but you don't demonstrate your love for Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala by worshipping Allah's creation, by worshipping Allah's Prophet. You demonstrate your love for Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala by adhering, by having itiba'a, by following the Prophet of God, whoever that Prophet might be. So the Prophet ﷺ is, is the key to the gate of Allah's mercy. He is the key to the gate of the love of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. If we want to enter into that city, that city of Rahmah through the gate, we have to go through a Prophet. In our case, and in the case of the Muslims all around the world, and in the case of the entire world really because the Prophet ﷺ, he is al-Alamiyah, he is a universal messenger and his shari'ah abrogates all of the previous shara'ih that he is the means of approach to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. So we ask our Lord by means of his beloved, and we will not be rejected insha'Allah, honour the beloved of your Lord and you will be honoured. This is how it works. The Prophet ﷺ he said, Every lineage on the Day of Judgment is cut off except those who are connected to me. So the righteous Ahlul Bayt as well as those who are connected to the Prophet ﷺ through love, what's known as the ittisaal of mahabba. Think of Salman al-Farisi who was a beloved companion of the Prophet ﷺ, he's not even Arab and the Prophet ﷺ, he said something extraordinary about Salman al-Farisi. First of all, the Ansar, they wanted to claim him as one of their own because Salman he travelled to Medina and became Muslim and the Ansar did that and the Muhajirin they said, sorry the Ansar, they became Muslim in Medina and Salman became Muslim in Medina. The Muhajirin they claimed him as well because Salman travelled to Medina and they travelled from Mecca to Medina as well. And the Prophet ﷺ he said, Salmanu minna ahlul bayt, Salman is from us the people of the house making him as it were an honorary member of the house, the prophetic house, the house of the Prophet ﷺ. Salman was beloved to Allah, beloved to the Messenger of Allah. He was beloved to Allah because he was beloved to the Messenger of Allah and there's many obviously examples like this, extraordinary statements the Prophet ﷺ makes about some of his companions about Sa'ad ibn Abi Waqas on the day of Urhud when he was defending the Prophet ﷺ with a life in lim, the Prophet ﷺ said, Irmiya Sa'ad, shoot your arrows O Sa'ad, Fidaka Abi Wa'umi, may my parents be your ransom. What he said about Sayyidina Umar, in the hadith, if there was a Prophet after me, it would have been Umar. The Prophet ﷺ said about Bilal ibn Rabah al-Habashi, he said, Sunmi'atu khash khashatan amami fa'idha Bilalun when the Prophet ﷺ was visiting Jannah with Jubeel al-Alayhi As-Salaam al-Laylatul-Isra wal-Mi'araj, he said, I heard the footsteps of Bilal in front of me. You see, all of these people beloved to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala because they are beloved to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. There's an amazing hadith that's recorded by Ibn Maja in Imam al-Tirmidhi narrated by Urtman ibn Hunayf. Her 15 masters, her father of hadith have explicitly said that the following hadith is absolutely sound including Bukhari and Nasa'id, Abu Nu'ayn bay Haqi Tabarani, etc., etc., that a man who was Darīl al-Basr, a man who was blind came to the Prophet ﷺ and he said, Urdu Allāha li anu'athiyani. He said, Oh Messenger of God, pray to Allah, supplicate to Allah so that I might be healed. And the Prophet said, If you have patience it is better, but if you want, I will supplicate for you. And the man said, Urdu, please supplicate. So the Prophet ﷺ told the man to go and to make an excellent wudhu and to pray raka'atayin, two units of prayer. And then say, Allahumma inni asaluka wa atawadjahu ilayka bi muḥammadin nabi ar-rahmā. Say, Oh Allah, I ask you and I turn to you by means of muḥammad, the Prophet of mercy. Ya ayyuhal ladīna āmanu ittaqullā wabta'hu ilayhi l-wasīlah. Back to our original ayah, Oh you who believe, fear Allah Subḥāna wa ta'ālā and seek the means of approach to him, right? So the Prophet ﷺ, he taught this blind man, atawadjahu ilayka bi muḥammadin nabi ar-rahmā. I turn to you by means of muḥammad, the Prophet of mercy. The Prophet ﷺ is the walking Qur'ān, so his prescription to the blind man was based upon the Qur'ān, recognizing himself as being the means of approach to Allah Subḥāna wa ta'ālā. There's a hadith in Bukhārī, one of my favorite hadith, a man came to the Prophet ﷺ after the congregational prayer and he said, Ya Rasūla Llāh, إِنَّي أَصْبْتُ حَدَّنْ فَأَقِنْ فِيَ كِتَابَ اللَّهِ A messenger of God, I have transgressed the parameters of permissibility, so punish me according to the book of God. You can imagine how difficult this must have been for this man to go and tell the Prophet that he's disobeyed Allah Subḥāna wa ta'ālā, how embarrassed he must have been, how frightened he must have been during this time. And the Prophet ﷺ said to him, ʿalayṣa qad ṣalayṭa, ʿalayṣa qad ṣalayṭa ʿmaʻnā, didn't you just pray with us, ʿqāla ʿnāʿam, the man said, Yes. And then the Prophet said, ʿfa ʿinna ʿlāha qad ʿhafara ʿlaqad ʿambaq, for indeed Allah Subḥāna wa ta'ālā has already forgiven your sin. You see this man brought his sin to the door of mercy and he was shown mercy. Some might say, well, the Prophet ﷺ was alive when that happened. Now, first of all, according to the sound hadith, the Prophet ﷺ is ʿhayun fi qabrihi, the Prophet is alive, he is conscious, there's an awareness about him in his grave. In the hadith of Abū Dawūd, which is a strong hadith, the Prophet ﷺ he said, ʿma min ahad ʿin yusallim wa ʿalayya illa ʿraddallāhu ʿalayya rūhi ʿhattā ʿrūdda ʿalayhi ʿsalām, that not a person gives me ʿsalām except that Allah Subḥāna wa ʿta'āla returns my soul to me so that I might reply to his ʿsalām. Imam al-Suyūt, he says, the meaning of this is that his consciousness returns, a heightened state of awareness returns to him. You might say, well, how is this even possible if millions and millions of people upon the earth are giving the Prophet ʿsalām and he can hear that or he can respond to that? Isn't that making him into some sort of divine entity or giving him divine qualities? And the answer, of course, is no, I mean, think of a tweet. You might send a tweet out to a million followers and at the same time, a million people see your tweet. The unseen realm is beyond our imaginative limitations. Allah Subḥāna wa ʿta'āla says, the martyrs are not dead, they are alive. Well who was better? The martyr who is a non-prophet or the Prophet ʿSallālu Llāhi wa Sallam, who is khayri l-khalkillā, obviously the latter is better. The bottom line is that our ibadat, our taqwa, our iman is going to be deficient. We need to take the means of approach to Allah Subḥāna wa ʿta'āla. We need to appeal to Allah's beloved and nothing and no one is more beloved to Allah than our Master Muhammad ʿSallālu Llāhi wa Sallam. Okay, now what about after the physical passing of the Prophet ʿSallālu Llāhi wa Sallam? There is a narration found in multiple books confirmed by all of the ʿSallāf, you'll find it in Kitab-u-Shifābah, Qādī ʿI'yād, Imam An-Nabawi relates it as well. A better one came to the grave of the Prophet ʿSallālu Llāhi wa Sallam and he said, oh Messenger of God, I've committed a sin, a grave sin but I've heard Allah ʿSallālu Llāhi wa Sallam in the Qur'ān, wa lo annahum ʾibdolamu anfusahum. Ja'uqa fa ʿstaghfiru ʿLāha wa ʿstaghfiru ʿLahum ar-Rasūlu ʿLawajadu Llāhatawāb ar-Rākhīmah. This is from the Qur'ān. Surah al-Nisa, I believe, ayah number 65, if I'm not mistaken, that if only when they had transgressed their own souls, come to you, Ja'uqa, the ʿKahir, is speaking directly to the Prophet ʿSallālu Llāhi wa Sallam. And Allah had, and they had asked Allah ʿSukhāna wa ʿAla for forgiveness and the Messenger had asked forgiveness for them, then they would have found Allah relenting and merciful. So the Bedouin comes to the grave of the Prophet ʿSallālu Llāhi wa Sallam, according to this famous narration, and he recites this ayah, speaking directly to the Prophet ʿSallālu Llāhi wa Sallam, O Messenger of God, I've committed a great sin, but I've heard Allah say this in the Qur'ān, that those who come to you, right, and ask Allah's forgiveness and ask you to ask Allah for their forgiveness, then they would find Allah relenting and merciful. And he said, well, here I am. I'm here to ask Allah for forgiveness and to ask you to ask him for my forgiveness. And of course, he recited a famous poem here. Oh, best of whose bones are buried in the earth, and it continues. You are the beloved whose intercession is to be sought or hoped for. And then the Bedouin wept and he walked away and a man named Al-Urtbi was watching this happen. And after the Bedouin had left, Urtbi had dozed off and the Prophet ʿSallālu Llāhi wa Sallam came to him in his dream. And of course, according to the hadith, and the hadith has reached, according to many ʿUrlama, the level of tawāt or multiple attestation, that whoever sees the Prophet in a dream has truly seen the Prophet ʿSallālu Llāhi wa Sallam. And so the Prophet told him, told al-Urtbi to catch up to the Bedouin and give him glad tidings that Allah ʿSallālu Llāhi wa Sallam had forgiven him. So the Bedouin brought his sin to the door of mercy and he was shown mercy. Without the shafaʿah of the Prophet ʿSallālu Llāhi wa Sallam, we will be lost. This isn't this idea of vicarious atonement. This is very different than the Christian idea of someone who literally takes on your sin and bears the brunt of your sin. This is not what we're talking about here. Shafaʿah is not someone taking your sin. Shafaʿah is someone interceding on your behalf like an advocate of some sort. With Allah ʿSallālu Llāhi wa Sallam, no one can take your sin. You're punished for your own sin. But shafaʿah is a type of grace that can be dispensed upon us from Allah due to some sort of connection we have with those who are beloved to Allah ʿSallālu Llāhi wa Sallam. There are extremists who write in their very popular books that one of the Nawakadu al-Islam, one of the nullifiers of one's Islam is taking intercession with Allah ʿSallālu Llāhi wa Sallam. This is ʿajeeb and ʿghareeb. I mean good luck on the Yom al-Qiyamah. And I don't know what Qur'an these people are actually reading because the Qur'an that I read, Allah ʿsubḥāna wa t-ta'āla says and I've obviously there's only one Qur'an. Yawma ʿIthin la tanfaʿr shafaʿatu. I mean that's half the ayah. If you stop there, yeah. On that day, no one will benefit from intercession. Again, that's only half the ayah. There's an exception, what's called an ʿistifna in Arabic. Yawma ʿIthin la tanfaʿr shafaʿatu illa man ʿAthin al-ahur-Rahmanu wa ʿRadi al-ahu qawlan, except the one, except the one who has ʿIthin permission from the indiscriminately compassionate and in his speech is well pleasing to Allah ʿsubḥāna wa t-ta'āla. Right? In ayatul kursi, we all know the ayah, man ʿthal l-lady yashfaʿr ʿindahu, who can intercede with him, who can intercede with him ʿillā bi ʿibnih, except by his permission. And according to the sound, Ḥadīth, the Prophet ﷺ on the Yawm al-Qiyamah, he's straight to Allah ʿsubḥāna wa t-ta'āla and Allah will tell him ʿIshfaʿatu ʿshafaʿr. Ask for intercession, in your intercession, we'll be granted. So I don't know what Qur'an they're reading. I don't know what Ḥadīth they're reading. And the Ḥadīth recorded by Imam Ibn Majah, the Prophet ﷺ, he said, ʿIshfaʿr yawm al-Qiyamah ʿthalātatum. Three types of people on the Yawm al-Qiyamah will be able to intercede. Al-Anbiya, the Prophet ﷺ, ʿthumma ʿalama, then the people of knowledge, the scholars, ʿthumma ʿshuhada, then the martyrs. The Prophet ﷺ said in a Ḥadīth, recorded by Imam al-Tirmidhi and Abu Dawud, ʿshafaʿatī li ʿahl al-Kabā'irī min ʿUmmati, that my intercession is for the people of mortal sin, the people of grave sin from my ummah. The Prophet ﷺ said in a Ḥadīth in Bukhārī, ʿyakhruju qawman ʿyakhruju qawmun min ʿan nārī bi ʿshafaʿatī muḥammadin ʿsallālu ʿalayhi wa sallam, ʿfa yadkhūlul jannah ʿawqama ʿqāla ʿalayhi wa sallātu wa sallam, that a people on the Day of Judgment will come out of the Hellfire by means of the intercession of muḥammad ʿsallālu ʿalayhi wa sallam, and they will enter paradise. The Prophet ﷺ said in a Ḥadīth in ʿMukhārī, ʿli kulli nabiyin ʿdawah, every prophet was given a supplication, ʿfa ʿurīdu ʿinshāʿallahu ʿan ʿajtabiyah ʿakhtabiyah ʿafwan ʿan ʿakhtabiyah ʿdawatī ʿshafaʿatan ʿli ʿUmmati yawm al qiyāmah, every prophet was given an intercession, but I wanted to keep my or to conceal my supplication if God wills for the Day of Judgment to be or to act as an intercession for my ummah. He said ʿsallālu ʿalayhi wa sallam in a Ḥadīth, that's recorded by Imam al-Tirmidhi commenting on the ayah in the Qur'an, ʿasāʿayyad ʿafakarabbuqa maqamam maḥmūda, soon will your lord, soon will your lord raise you to a to the praiseworthy station. Maqam maḥmūd wa ʿsū'ilā ʿanha, and he was asked about that, what is maqam maḥmūd? ʿqāla hi yashshafaʿah, and the Prophet ʿsallālu ʿalayhi wa sallam said, it is the intercession. I don't know what tafsīr they're reading. Allah ʿsūḥānu wa ʿta'āla says in the Qur'an, speaking to the Prophet ʿsallālu ʿalayhi wa sallam, wa la ṣawufa yu ʿatīqa ʿrabbuqa ʿfataru ʿda, wa ʿduḥā ʿad-sūra wa ʿduḥā, and soon will your lord give you something, and you will be immediately pleased by it. Imam al-Suyūtī says, what is this thing that Allah ʿsūḥānu ʿtaʿāla will give to the Prophet ʿsallālu ʿalayhi wa sallam, and he will be immediately pleased. There are many opinions, but the main thing that Imam al-Suyūtī mentions is ʿashshafaʿah, the intercession. Without the sunnah of the Prophet will be lost. Without the sunnah, the Qur'an becomes incomprehensible at times. The Qur'an is powerful, and without the sunnah wielding it, the Qur'an can become potentially dangerous. Allah ʿsūḥānu ʿtaʿāla says, that we sent among you a messenger from you to recite upon you our signs, to recite to you our signs, our ayat, and to purify you, and to teach you the book, teach you the revelation, teach you the Qur'an, and teach you wisdom al-Hikmah, we'll get to the meaning of that, and to teach you that which you knew not before. Notice it says, fi kum rasūlan, in among you, a messenger among you. The immediate meaning is the Arabs, right? Because the Qur'an was revealed first to the Arab, but the Qur'an is a very deep text, it's a very polyvalent text, it has multiple levels of meaning. According to the hadith, every verse of the Qur'an has a zahir and a batin and a hadd and a matla, it has an exoteric aspect, an esoteric aspect, it has a parameter, like a linguistic parameter, and it has a high or the highest meaning, the matla, the point of ascent, the greatest meaning. So what is it? fi kum could mean the Arabs, but another meaning of the messenger being fi kum in you is an internalization, if you will, of the sunnah, the normative practice or the agreed upon ethos of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam, that this ayah is also intimating this idea of appropriating or internalizing the sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam in the hearts of those who are the lovers of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam. In this sense, he is hayyun fi qalubina, he is alive in our hearts. Imam Shafi said that khikmah in this ayah, that he teaches you the book and wisdom, he said wisdom here, khikmah is the sunnah. So the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam, he taught the Qur'an, he is the mu'allim of the of the Kitab of the Qur'an, while khikmah and its application, the Qur'an must be interpreted through the lens of the sunnah. The sunnah is the hermeneutic of the Qur'an, to use a modern academic term. That we indeed we sent down to you adhikr the reminder in order for you to explain to the people to to explicate, to make bayan to the people what has been sent down to them. And in order for them to think deeply, you know, to have tafakkur, to think deeply, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam's words, the purpose of the commentary, if you will, of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam of the Qur'an is for us to think very deeply, not to be literalist or to be simplistic in our interpretations, but to think very, very deeply about the Qur'an guided by the sunnah, motivated by the sunnah. The extremists, right, the mutatarrifin, they only, they only look at what the Qur'an says, mahua, they only look at what it is, right, they ignore the why, limadah, why did Allah save us and also the third aspect, very important, the how, keifa, how to implement, they only look at what, they don't look at why Allah said that and they have no idea how to implement these things at different times in history. The latter two, the why and the how, this takes rigorous, itjtihad, rigorous scholarship grounded in the sunnah and the principles of the sunnah of the messenger sallallahu alayhi sallam. The method of extremism is facile and lazy. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam said, man raghi ba'an sunnatil falisa minni, how important is following the sunnah? Whoever turns away from my sunnah is not from me and of course the Qur'an describes the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam, azeezun alehi ma'aneetum, haresun aleikum, that, that, azeezun alehi ma'aneetum, haresun aleikum, it grieves him that you should perish, deeply concerned is he about you, deeply concerned, so that when the Prophet gives us advice, when the Prophet gives us command, it's coming from a position of deep concern, right? And what did he say, aleikubi sunnatil, I exhort you to follow my sunnah, wa sunnatil khulafa ar-rashideena mahdiyin, as well as the sunnah of the rightly guided caliphs, tamasakubiha, hold on to it tightly, wa abdu alayhi bin nawajith, and bite into it with your molar teeth, look at the analogy he's using here. There's a hadith of Aisha related by Imam al-Tirmidhi, that there are six people, six types of people that are cursed, that are cursed according to the statement of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam, he said, for example, az-za'idu fiqtabillah, the one who adds or attempts to add something to the Book of God, al-mukadhibubiqadirillah, the one who belies or disbelieves in the Divine Decree. And one of these six, he says, atadikuli sunnatil, the one who abandons my sunnah, you see the sunnah personalizes the Qur'an, it provides examples of the universal principles of the Qur'an, what are known as kulliyat and juziyat, what are known as the universals and the particulars, the minhaj of the mutta tarifin, the minhaj of the extremists, is that they elevate particulars over the universals, you see. There are particular stories attributed to the Prophet, for example, in sira literature and in particular hadith, for example, that do not match his universally agreed upon personality or his sunnah. You see, not everything that is written about him is true. And I'm talking here about Muslim sources, just because it's in a Muslim source doesn't necessarily mean that it's true and that there is a difference and it's a very important difference between hadith and sunnah. Sometimes, obviously, I mean, we draw the sunnah from the hadith, but this is not a one-to-one, right? There's a very important distinction to make between hadith and sunnah, that hadith is simply something that is attributed to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, or as the sunnah is the normative or the universally agreed upon ethos of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, or practice of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. So, his character virtue that dominates his personality is rahma, ana nabiur rahma, ana rahmatul muhdah. There's many hadith like this, that I am a gifted mercy, I am the prophet of mercy. So, anything that contravenes that is immediately suspect, anything that contravenes that even found in Muslim sources, this is what we have to understand. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is in the hadith bilayli imam atirmid, O my dear son, it's a term of endearment. If you're able to wake up and go to sleep, and you are able to not have any or carry any type of rancor or hatred for anyone in your heart, then do that. Yabunaya, he continues, O my dear son, wa thalika min sunnatih, and that is from my sunnah. This is from the sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, not having any rancor or hatred in your heart the whole day through. He continues to speak to Anas ibn Malik, and whoever revives or brings to life my sunnah, he has loved me. And whoever loves me will be with me in paradise. Revive a sunnah. It's not difficult. Abdullah ibn Harith, he said, he said, I never saw anyone smiling more than the messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. It's easy to smile. Just smile at people. And I'll close with this, a warning in Tirmidhi related by Urbayd Allah ibn Abi Rafi'ah. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he said, let me not find any one of you, like lounging on his couch. But when a command that I ordered or a prohibition from me comes to him, meaning from the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he says, he says, I don't know what we find in the book of God, we follow it. I don't know about this sunnah thing, whatever we find in the book of God, we follow it. They separate, divorce and sever Allah from his messenger. Again, the Quran with respect to many of its ahkam is a difficult book. Without the sunnah, one can make a mockery of the Quran. One can take things out of context. One can defame the Quran. One can cause humanity to revile and flee from the Quran. We ask Allah SWT to give us the Tawfiq to understand one of the greatest du'a one can make during this time, the last ten nights of Ramadan, according to the sound hadith of our master Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam related to us from our mother Aisha, radiallahu ta'ala anha, is when the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam used to say during these last ten nights, Allahumma inna ka'afoondu haibu la'afua fa'afu anna. O Allah, you are the effacer of sin and you love to efface sin, so efface from us. Allahumma inna ka'afoondu haibu la'afua fa'afu anna ya kareem wa sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, wa alhamdulillahi rabbil alamin, wa as-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.