 Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu. Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen. Wa sallallahu ala Sayyidina Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam. Jazakum khir, Sayyidi. That was such a beautiful and heartfelt and moving dua'a. It's a great honour to be part of this virtual coming together because in reality the coming together is not the coming together of bodies but it's the coming together of hearts. And when hearts are connected then distances are folded up. So may Allah SWT grant us on this blessed night as He grants those who gather in His houses because the intention of each one of us was to be spending these nights in devotion in the masjid, in tarawih, in prayer and supplication. Alhamdulillahi, we ask Allah SWT that He grant us the light of faith so that we rely not on our actions and not what is going on around us in the world but that we rely on Him and that we place our hope upon Him, a hope and a reliance that is unshakable so that if we err or fail, if we sin or stumble or if things don't work out the way that we wish, our hope is unshaken because our hope Ya Allah is in you, our trust and reliance O Allah is upon you. We ask you Allah for the insight that we have fear of no one but you so that we don't fear our failings, that we don't fear what is going around us in the world, that we fear none but you but with a fear that causes us to be humbled, a fear that with hope makes us turn to you and to have the urgency to pursue your good pleasure. Ya Rabbal Alameen, we ask you that you grant us the insight in these days of devotion by which we realize that our place in life is where you have placed us Ya Rabbal Alameen so that we don't seek other than what you are seeking from us, where you have placed us Ya Rabbal Alameen so that if you have placed us in the world of responsibilities, that we fulfill those responsibilities in the ways that are beloved to you with sincerity and with striving, with high intentions and that if you've placed us in circumstances where we are far from the world of means that you grant us the grace to make the most of that time that you open up so that we direct ourselves in devotion we direct ourselves in healing, we direct ourselves in reconnecting with you and reconnecting with family and friends and those networks of mercy Ya Rabbal Alameen, we ask you that you grant us in these days in which you have manifested something of your majesty to us Ya Rabbal Alameen that you grant us the insight to recognize that we are not the ones in control but it is you or Allah who is in control that you are the Lord of majesty and it is not for us to control the way things unfold in this life and that we gain in recognition of your glory and majesty Ya Rabbal Alameen, we ask you O Allah that we do not be of those who try to plot and plan every detail of our lives but who realize that it is for us to strive but that all matters in our own lives and around us are in your hands Ya Rabbal Alameen, we ask you that we direct our concern not to those things that are not our responsibility because those things are your affairs Ya Rabbal Alameen, the way things will work out, what's going to happen next week, next month these are not where our primary focus should be but rather that we should look carefully as to what Allah you are seeking from us and how we fulfill our duty to you and our duty to our families, our duties to our community, our duty to your creation in the ways most pleasing to you Ya Rabbal Alameen, we ask you O Allah that as we close this month the door of true asking be open for us that we leave the mirror asking with the tongue and really learn to ask with our hearts with certitude that your answer is a guarantee but in the way that you will and in the time that you will not in the ways that we whimsically wish for Ya Rabbal Alameen we ask you O Allah to grant us the light of faith, the light of certitude so that we realize that even when we ask for things in specified times Ya Rabbal Alameen that your answer is a promise but that what you choose for us and when you choose it for us and how you manifest it for us is in your merciful hands for you are the Lord and that we are your servants, we ask you O Allah that you grant us the faith and certitude and clarity so that when we experience anything of the difficulties of life and in its tests then we are not shaken by how it affects us materially or in our health or in our wealth and that we don't worry that oh I didn't pray my tarawih in the masjid I didn't do this because what you send to us is better than what we seek to send to you Ya Rabbal Alameen we ask you O Allah that you make us realize the tremendous feasts of opportunities that you send to us so that we realize that every moment of our lives is an opportunity every aspect of our lives is an opportunity to make us realize O Allah that we have so many ways of turning to you we ask you that we realize that every way that you have gifted us of turning to you is a way of fulfilling our potential as human beings as believers, as servants, as people who are grateful and who love you Ya Rabbal Alameen we ask you that you grant us to fulfill the potential of prayer to fulfill the potential of charity, to fulfill the potential of remembrance, to fulfill the potential of the Qur'an to fulfill the potential of reflection, to fulfill the potential of every sunnah of your beloved messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam so that we can fulfill what it means to be truly grateful servants of yours Ya Rabbal Alameen we ask you O Allah that you bring our religion to life, our hearts to life, our character to life, our devotion to life, our work to life, our family life our time to life by gifting us with the subtle reality of sincerity because it is this subtle reality of sincerity that gives meaning and substance and light to all our actions Ya Rabbal Alameen we ask you O Allah that we truly live seeking your pleasure, that we truly pray seeking you, that we truly remember you seeking you, that we truly recite the Qur'an seeking you, that we truly supplicate seeking you, that we truly give charity seeking you that we truly engage in every act of our acts of religion as an expression of seeking you but also that we work for your sake that no day should begin when we begin our work except that we renew our intentions that I am working for your sake O Allah that we never drive our cars that we never go shopping that we never turn on our computers that we never open our smartphones except with the renewal of that intent that this is for you O Allah that we never engage in the pastimes that we like whether we are making sour bread or we are cooking or we are helping someone that we make all of this for your sake Ya Rabbal Alameen we ask you that you grant us the sincerity in our dealings with our parents and our families with our friends in the community that you do not make our service simply fleeting and whimsical expressions of interest but that you make it Lillahi Rabbal Alameen truly for your sake O Lord of the worlds we ask you O Allah that you grant us this subtle gift of sincerity we ask you that you wash our hearts from riyat from insincerity so that we do not seek other than you in any act of devotion nor in any of our worldly actions Ya Rabbal Alameen we ask you that you free us of insincerity and any motive other than seeking your good pleasure in our devotions in our work in our family lives in our service we ask you O Allah that we be communities of light that we make our decisions on the basis of what is it that is most likely to be most pleasing to you Ya Rabbal Alameen we ask you that you illuminate our hearts with your love with the love of your beloved messenger Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam who has embodied and encompassed all dazzling beauty and all virtue and all perfections Ya Rabbal Alameen we ask you that you protect us and our families and our communities Ya Akram Al Akramin we ask you O Allah that you protect and preserve our elders that you protect and preserve our scholars that you protect and preserve our masajid and our institutions that you protect and preserve those who serve that you protect and preserve our relationships that you protect and preserve our bonds of family and friendship Ya Rabbal Alameen and that you protect and preserve the ummah of your beloved messenger I was asked to make du'a in English and I have tried to encompass in this du'a the first ten of the aphorisms of Ibn-u-Ata'illah secondary if these were not primarily my words I tried to paraphrase the first ten aphorisms the hikm of Ibn-u-Ata'illah, taking some gleams from them in this supplication and I was asked and the supplication itself is meant also to make us reflect a little bit spiritually but there's one aphorism of Ibn-u-Ata'illah that I just want to touch very briefly and this is the thirteenth aphorism the thirteenth hikmah when the forms of created things are firmly imprinted in its mirror or how can it journey to Allah when it is tied down by its desires or how can it be added to enter the presence of Allah when it has not purified itself when the when this heart hasn't purified itself from the filth of its heedlessness of Allah and how can it understand the subtle realities of the meanings of faith when it hasn't yet repented from its slips this is an amazing aphorism right how can a heart be illuminated right because we were created with a purpose that we are granted a heart that has that was born metaphysically in the divine presence say that and was created in paradise in the presence with Allah before our bodies our souls experienced the light of knowing Allah but then we're placed in a heart our duty in a body the duty is to bring back that light into our hearts right that is the purpose of faith that's the purpose of life that is the potential of faith to go from mere affirmation of faith to truly seeing the light a light we beheld before time when we said we said when Allah asked us am I not your lord and we said indeed you are but we said it because we beheld Allah but how can we our hearts be illuminated find that light finally heed the call of Allah to be close when the forms of created things are imprinted are imprinted in its mirror your heart which is the locus of your concern was not created simply to worry about the stock market and the economy and these numbers and this politics and this gossip and this and this and this and this our hearts were created my dear brothers and sisters to be present with Allah and to be present with Allah we need to step back a little bit in our priorities and to put the first first because if the mirror of our heart is full is filled with all these other concerns then when will it find light and that is the first of these steps that I'm gonna I'll tell you I mentioned the second step how I'm how could that your heart ever travel to Allah when it is hobbled by your desires which desires your sinful desires your whims that busies you the busy away from being present with Allah from being pleasing to Allah those lustful great great those lustful gazes the listening to things whether it be sinful music that pollutes your soul or listening to sinful backbiting and gossip and slander and tailbearing and all these things that we just whimsically inclined to just clicking on those videos one after another wasting away hours rather than journeying to Allah and the journeying to Allah is not only through devotion but the journeying to Allah is by connecting with our families by connecting with our friends by caring for others by expressing concern in all the ways that are pleasing to Allah how can we enter the divine presence when we don't wash ourselves from the filth of being heedless of Allah and we are in his presence yet we absent ourselves from Allah imagine you entered the court of the king but you ignore the king and he is calling you well you're just looking around staring at the walls and there's the king the king is present the beloved is with you wherever you may be right when we realize that and we say how can I be absent how can I be absent we need to take a shower a spiritual shower and rid ourselves of the jinnabah of the of the impurity of being heedless to Allah how by listening to the words of our prophet keep your term moist with the remembrance of Allah and keep away from the acts of heedlessness don't do the things that the heedless do okay think of the words of Allah aspronounced has the time not come for those who have believed for their hearts to become humbled before the remembrance of Allah has the time not come for those who have believed for their hearts to be humbled before the remembrance of Allah otherwise as Ibn Atayla closes this aphorism how can one ever hope to understand the subtle spiritual realities of faith when we haven't repented from all our slip-ups there's a potential in this life that potential is to be with Allah and to live a life in devotion in our work in our family lives in our free time in our service to live a life in which we are with Allah in love of Allah expressing love for Allah gratitude and hope and all these meanings but what is life it's about Allah aspronounced may Allah aspronounced grant us that goodly life which is a life lived with him subhanahu wa ta'ala and if we fall short of this that he make us strive with sincerity because we are not responsible for success we are simply responsible to strive and to strive to be sincere Allah ma salli wa sallim wa barik ala sayyidina wa nabina Muhammad nifta hiba bi rahmatillah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala subhanahu rabbika rabbil izzati amma yasifoon wa salaamu ala al-mursaleen wa alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen wa barakah allahu ta'ala bi hurmatu keep us in our family in our community over here in your prayers shaykh faraz as-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakah alaikum as-salam wa rahmatullahi wa barakah how are you doing allah alhamdulillah we miss you and we used you as a lady we used you as a lady ala astaghfirullah al-barakah al-kabirikum i i i saw once i began talking that that you were on the on the call too subhanAllah i should i should not be speaking in front of my elder saidi imajad dumuna saidi