 In the name of Allah, the most universally merciful and the most particularly merciful. Allah is manifesting mercy on us by gathering us to gather for Juma'a, to gather for a Jama'a, a congregation in which the hearts are congregated towards Allah Azza wa Jalla alone and where the hearts are not focused on anything except Allah and what our rights are on to Allah and what our rights are to fulfill for Allah. This Deen can be summarized, the actions of this Deen as Imam al-Hanifa says, it can be summarized as what you are responsible for and what the responsibilities are towards you. And so this Deen is an understanding of the transaction or the conduct that you have between firstly yourself and your Lord Azza wa Jalla and then the responsibilities you have to yourself and then the responsibilities you have to others. And from the mercy of Allah is that he has not how this accountable for anyone except ourselves. Allah says that you for you is what you earned and for them is what they earned. That those are people who have passed and for them is what they earned and for them is what they earned and for you is what you earned and you're not going to be asked of what they did. When we're raised on the Day of Judgment we're not asked of what others did, we're asked of what we did. And so in that sense the people that we live with, the people that we are surrounded by, the people that we interact with in our daily lives, those are also people Ummatun Qadhalat in that sense and they're also people who are passed and on the Day of Judgment when we are risen, when we're resurrected, they are as good as from that vantage they're as good as gone. And in this regard Imam Abu Hassan Al-Shathali, one of the great spiritual masters of this tradition said, Don't demand others to honor you, that you're not charged except with yourself. The only responsibility that Allah has given us is to ourselves. And so when we spend time thinking about what so and so is doing or how so and so is doing their acts or what they're busy with or what they're doing to us or how they made us feel this distracts us from our responsibility on this earth that Allah says that we have made you in this earth a vice-regent, a representative of Allah on this earth, that He has made us a representative and not made us responsible for someone else. That when we see that our role on this earth is to properly execute the laws and the morals that Allah has sent us with, us with and we see that that khitab that addresses direct towards us and not seeing as anyone else being responsible when we take responsibility for the rights that we have towards Allah and then the rights that we have towards ourselves so that we can properly enact the rights towards Allah and His creation and that is when we are focused with what Allah has charged us with. That is when we are focused with the fact that Allah has made us responsible for us and not for someone else so that when we busy ourselves and preoccupy ourselves with what so and so is doing and what is the fault of so and so that it distracts us from our own faults, it distracts us from what we need to fix within ourselves, it distracts us from the fact that perhaps when we see that someone else we might be standing next to someone in prayer and we're so focused on how fast they're praying and we feel like their prayer is not as good or that we feel that somebody else's will do when we see them as not with so much presence or someone else's treatment of someone else is not so well when we're concerned with that we forget about what we are to do. We forget that we are first asked to take to take care of ourselves that our own houses that we're supposed to put those in order before looking towards someone else, that before able to deal with someone else's problems we're supposed to be able to deal with our own so that when we are distracted from what our goal is we're distracted from our own questioning that when we're raised on the day of judgment we're not going to be asked what it's so and so doing what did the person next to you praying do or what did your friend do or what did your co-worker do or what did this person or that person do in their life that's not what we're asked for. We're asked for what did you do and so when we preoccupy ourselves with what other people want I'm sorry with what other people are doing then this is Allah taking us away removing us from actualizing our actual and from recognizing our actual job on this earth. On the similar line Imam Hussana Shadr the same the same Aalim says that if Allah wants the humiliation of a particular person he veils from himself his own faults and if he wants his honor if Allah wants this person's honor then basarahu biha then he shows him his own faults why liyatuba minha so that he may he may make tauba he may repent from them he may turn back to Allah and recognize what is wrong with him before recognizing what's wrong with someone else because if we want to approach Allah on the day of judgment with qalbin salim with the sound heart then focusing on what others is doing is not going to do much benefit to us focusing on what we are doing is what is going to benefit us on that day so Allah is not going to accept the person the day judgment unless they have a sound heart and how can we rectify our hearts when we're worried about the hearts of others or how can we expect to do some sort of good to others if we haven't fixed what's in ourselves we haven't rectified our own fate our own affair how can we expect to cause some positive change in the world how can we expect to remove oppression when we haven't removed the oppression that's in our own hearts how can we expect to do something about the greater environment when the environment of our own hearts is still sullied and still polluted how can we expect to do something about others if we haven't recognized that Allah is the one that does something for us and for others if we're so focused on what can I do to fix this person or that person and we don't recognize that Allah is on the fixes me and that person how do we expect to have some sort of change for the better for not for not only others but for ourselves how do we expect to reach Allah and to reach the end of this this journey that Allah has set us forth on how do we how do we expect to reach the end of Sirat al Mustaqeem the straight path if we're wavering left and right to what others are doing and the first degree of finding that Hidayah that Huda that guidance is asking the first degree of finding our way to Irshad to Rashad to guidance is to ask and not to ask others but to ask Allah before we ask others this is not to deny that we should take our means and enact the means that Allah has given us but as is in the in the famous the famous hadith in the abayn of imam no we the Prophet says if you want to ask and ask Allah if you seek help and seek help from Allah meaning seek ask Allah first before you ask someone else so before we ask someone else to change what is in that what is in them or before we even ask ourselves to change what is in ourselves the first step in this guy into fighting this guidance is to ask and to ask only Allah and to supplicate the Allah I find this problem in myself Allah fix it for me Allah I find that I think I'm better than others or Allah I find that I'm lazy in my worship or Allah I find that I am rude to people I or Allah I find that I'm harsh with my family or Allah I find that this is my issue and that's my issue then before we take those steps and we have to take those steps we can't deny that we have to take those steps to fix those issues similarly if we find if we have the ability to help someone else we take those steps but first ask Allah that before we find ourselves criticizing someone we should ask ourselves have I even woke up and have I woke up and no one else is awake and ask oh Allah this issue that you made me see in someone else first of all protect me from that issue and then if that still is if that if I don't find that in myself Allah then fix then fix that and rectify that matter in them as well and that's the first step to guidance that's the first step to completing surat al mustaqeem completing the straight path and none of us are free from any defect or fault the first step of a person being in fault one of the greatest signs of a person being in fault is that he sees no fault from in himself if he sees no fault in himself Allah has veiled him veiled him from his own reality and then he thinks I don't have to do toba I don't have to seek a stifar I'm fine everyone else is the problem we think everyone else is the problem that's usually a sign that you're the problem when the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam sought forgiveness for Allah 70 some 70 odd times and some narrations 100 times a day and he was the perfect man sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that he was the best representative of Allah on this earth but there was no better Khalifa of Allah on this earth than him sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and he sought forgiveness from Allah 70 to 100 times a day and and more right in Arabic we say 70 or 100 it means many times it doesn't necessarily just mean 70 or 100 if he was to ask 70 hundred hundred times a day who are we to see ourselves as safe and secure from the faults that Allah has placed in us Allah has placed faults in us and that's a reality but Allah has also made us his Khalifa on earth Allah's also made us his representative and part of us enacting and taking taking on the characteristic of a tawab Allah's a tawab the repentant and there's a saying some say it's a hadith some say it's not but the meaning is sound to khalaqu bi akhlaq illa that take on the characteristics of Allah that Allah's a tawab so our job our ability to take on the name a tawab there the pen that the one who turns it's for us to turn to Allah it's for us to see our our faults and to turn to Allah and say Allah even with this deficiency that I have your mercy is greater and you are more accepting that you are a tawab and a sign that Allah is accepting the tawab of a person is that the fact that they made that tawba because the sign that they have been accepted is that they've turned to Allah and Allah wanted them to turn to him the sign that a dua is answered is that the fact that the dua is made the fact that Allah hears you asking is a sign that Allah is ready to accept that dua and all is all that is demanded from us is that we ask if you came late and you have no idea what we're talking about this the responsibility of a human is three things fulfilling the rights of Allah fulfilling the rights of himself and fulfilling the rights of others if one is distracted with what is happening with the other and not worried about what is happening in terms of their relation to Allah this is an impediment and an obstacle in the in the course in the journey that is to our end to Allah that our journey when it when we and our ultimate end is with Allah right if if we are promised Jannah the greatest pleasure of Jannah is not the many descriptions of Jannah it's the fact that we are in the highest presence with Allah that is the end of that journey and if we are so focused on what is going on left and right and we are distracted from our true orientation our true objective and our true goal we'd find it difficult to fulfill our responsibilities so we ask a lot to be people who are cognizant of our own responsibilities we are we ask all that we are people who are cognizant of our responsibilities to Allah we ask a lot that we are people that are cognizant to our responsibilities to ourselves we ask all that we are people who are cognizant to the responsibility of others of our families and of our and of our of our workplace and of our co-workers and our peers and our friends and our children and our parents and and whoever it may be we ask all that we are people who are responsible we ask all that he makes us people who are cognizant of that responsibility we ask all that he makes us cognizant of the fact that we are the representative of Allah on this earth and that we not fail, that task that Allah has charged us with. We ask Allah that He does not make us people who are heedless of the fact that He has charged us with ourselves and not with others. We ask Allah that we recognize our own faults so that we may seek forgiveness from them and that we may rectify them. We ask Allah that we are people who are lessons for others that when we rectify ourselves the issues that we see in others are also rectified. We ask Allah that He makes us a people who are sincere in turning towards Him and sincere in seeking to reach our end with Him. We ask Allah that we are people who are sincere in our journey towards Allah. We ask Allah that we are people who are completely oriented towards Him and not turning left or right in this journey towards Him. We ask Allah that He rectify us and He rectify others and He rectify our families and He rectify our loved ones and He rectify anyone who has some sort of issue with them so that they meet Allah and Allah is happy with them. We ask Allah that we be people who have no source of peace other than with Him. So we say, Allahumma anta salamu minka salam, tabarata yadil jalali wal ikram hayyina wa adkhilna darul salam Rabbana aatina fiddunya hasnah wa fil aakhid ya hasnah wa khina aadab al-naar. Rabbana hablana min azwajina wa dhurriyatina qurra ta'ayuni wa ja'nna limuttaqina imama. We ask Allah that He have mercy on our teachers, particularly our first teachers or parents. We ask Allah to recognize that Allah and His angels send their salutations and medications on His beloved, peace be upon him, and they were asked to do the same, inna allah wa malaiqatahu yusalluna al-nabi. Ya ayyuhal nadina aamun asallu alaihi wa sallim utasima, Allahumma sani ala Sayyidina Muhammad wa ala aali Sayyidina Muhammad wa ala azwaji Sayyidina Muhammad wa ala ashabi Sayyidina Muhammad wa ala atba'i Sayyidina Muhammad wa ala ahbabi Sayyidina Muhammad wa ala ummati Sayyidina Muhammad wa ala baalik wa sallim sani alaihi. Inna allah ya amur bed-adil wal ihsani wa ita'idil qurba wa yana ha'in fahshai wal munqiri wal baghi. Ya'idukum la'allakum tathakkarun. Uthkur Allah, yathkurkum, remember Allah and He'll remember you. Wadu'uhu, yastajibilakum. Qa'an him and He will answer you. Waladhikr Allahi akbar. Wa allahu ya'alum ma tassna'una wa aqim as-salah.