 Dear brothers, dear sisters, we are blessed and we are fortunate that Allah SWT has bestowed His bounties on us. We are now in the sacred months of Rajab, we just finished Rajab and Ramadan is approaching in these beautiful months. We will talk about the virtues of Rajab and the virtues of Shaaban and the virtues of Ramadan and how Siyam in the Qur'an falls between two worlds, it falls between Eman and falls between Taqwa i.e. Siyam and fasting is like a bridge between Eman and Taqwa and if you fast for Allah SWT Allah SWT out of His bounties and out of His favors will bestow Taqwa on us and will become pious and will become sincere. Today's reminder is actually about knowledge because in everything in life we need knowledge in order to acquire what we want to acquire and the Prophet ﷺ was sent as a teacher and Allah SWT created us in a way that we can acquire knowledge. It's one of the favors of Allah SWT upon us that we can learn and acquire knowledge and knowledge as you know is one of the Sha'ira of this ummah is one of the trademark of this ummah of Islam. The first few verses that Allah SWT revealed in the Qur'an is a Qur'an in the name of the I Lord, the one who created. The bounty and the favor of Allah SWT of bestowing knowledge on us is like His favor of creating us. Iqra'a bismi rabbika al-lazi khalaq, khalaqa al-insana min alaq. So many times in this surah the word Iqra'a is repeated, the word knowledge is repeated and the word khalkh is repeated and in this surah Allah SWT described four types of knowledge from the beneficial knowledge to the knowledge that will cause a person to kalla inal insana the knowledge that will cause people to oppress and that's not a beneficial knowledge. The Prophet ﷺ was sent to us as a teacher and he described himself as inna ma'bu istumu al-limaa, I was sent but a teacher and Allah SWT described them in the Qur'an and he says, who al-lazi, it is Allah SWT who sent from amongst us a messenger from amongst us why liyatlu alayhim aayati, to recite the Qur'an to us, to recite the verses of Allah SWT to us as is, to transmit knowledge as is without increase without decrease, to transmit knowledge accurately and when we learn we try to learn accurately, when we transmit knowledge we try to transmit knowledge accurately, when we quote people we quote them accurately, we do not add, we do not subtract, we do not put words in their mouths that they did not say, we do not twist what they say, we do not twist the knowledge, we do not change it and changing knowledge and changing things is something that is very detestable in Islam, the highest reality and the highest truth is Allah SWT and to change that truth becomes, someone becomes a disbeliever and someone becomes a musher and goes to hell fire realities and truth must remain as truth and knowledge is one way to acquire those truths know that there is no deity save Allah and the Prophet ﷺ as Allah SWT described in the Qur'an that he sent a messenger from amongst ourselves recited to us the verses and revelation and scripture why you zakkihim and to purify us, why you allimuhum and to teach us the book and wisdom to teach us the Qur'an and revelation and to teach us wisdom through his worlds through his actions through his behavior through his approval when we do something in front of him and he approves when we do something in front of him and he disapproves this is our goal as well with our children with our friends with our communities with our families sometimes our children will not be able to learn from a lengthy speech but when they see you doing something they learn they learn by demonstration they learn by observing they learn by acquiring knowledge Allah SWT described us in the Qur'an that he created us we know nothing when we are born we are like a clean page an empty page but out of his mercy he gave us the tools to learn he gave us the ability to learn through hearing we hear things scriptures and hadiths and Qur'an is transmitted by hearing we hear it it goes into our brain it goes into our heart and we remember it and through eyes through observation and experimentation so transmission of information observation and experimentation and through our hearts we reflect upon through our the intellect through our intellect and our heart and these are the three sources of knowledge transmission of information experimentation and observation as well as intellect and reflection and knowledge has many benefits our Ulama of usul and our Ulama of Sharia have told us that if a person does not use the tools that Allah SWT gave them they become ignorant we are born ignorant we don't we know nothing but if we remain as such we don't use the tools then it is as if we brought ignorance upon ourselves and that's there is no excuse for that Allah SWT created us as a human beings and what is a human being a human being is a living is a rational living being we have two qualities that define us as a human being one of these two qualities is life is our spirit and soul Allah SWT embodied us with and the second quality that define us as a human being is our intellect our ability to learn our we are capable of learning we are able to learn when Allah SWT told the angels I am putting a successor on earth they said oh Allah are you going to put someone on earth that will shed blood and cause corruption Allah SWT answered them in two ways he gave them two answers one way by saying that's a decision that the Creator has has made end of discussion and the second way of answering is by demonstration he taught Adam everything all the names and he brought them before the angels and he told them this Khalifa on earth will not shed blood will not corrupt the earth if he learns properly education and learning and knowledge can be used in two ways can be used in a way to shed blood and cause corruption and can be used in a way that will implement the sharia and justice on earth when Allah SWT gave us the amana of taqlif and entrusted us with moral responsibility at the end he says truly man is an ignorant and is an oppressor and those two qualities are the qualities that will prevent us from fulfilling our mission on earth the quality of ignorance and the quality of oppression and what is the opposite of these two is knowledge and justice learning how to be just and learning knowledge that will be beneficial for us and in this dunya and this life and in the year after for ourselves and for those around us and one of the things that knowledge has many features one of the features that inshaAllah will end this short khutba with is that knowledge will benefit us even after our guess is a mat ebnu adam in qata'a amaluhu illa min salaf the Prophet SAW says when a person dies all his work is done except for three things and among the three things he mentioned ilmon yuntafa'obi something some knowledge that he learned and transmitted to others and taught others that became beneficial for everyone and he mentioned two other things waladun salihun yad ulahi if you learn properly and you form a family and you have righteous children and they pray for you this will also continue after our deaths and knowledge is something that will remain with us even in the year after two things that when we die they go everything when we die they go except for two things the ulamas say marriage and knowledge and the year after when we go inshaAllah and paradise our spouses here in this dunya are our spouses in the year after and knowledge that we learn in this dunya will benefit us in the year after when we converse with those disbelievers who go into her fire and in the Quran there is an ayah specifically mentioned for that Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa ala alaihi wa sahbihi wa sallam kullamata matta'a ta'inun bin azad wa wa'at uzzumun bi khabar ibad Allahu taqul Allaha fi ma'ar wa antahu anana ha'anahu wa zajar wa akhriju hubad dunyaa min kulubikum fa inna hu idhas tawla asar wa alamu anna Allah Azza wa Jalla amarratun bi amra na'ameen badaa fihi bin afsih wa sanna bimala iqati kudusih fa qala azza min qa'ilin alima inna Allaha wa malaiqatahu yusallu na'alan nabi ya ayi wa ladzina aamanu sallu alaihi wa sallimu taslima Allahumma fa salli wa sallim wa barik ala Sayyidina Muhammad wa ala ala Sayyidina Muhammad salatan wa salamanda imayni mutalazimayni ila yawmiddin wa radhi Allah wa anim khulafai rashidin abibakrin wa umar wa asman wa alaih wa an sa'ir is sahabati wal qarabati wal tabi'in wa man tabi'ahum bi ihsanin ila yawmiddin Allahumma soil islami wa al muslimin wa a'ali ya maulana kalimat al imani wal habti wa ddin Allahumma man arada bil islami wa al muslimina khayran hu wa fiqhu li tulli khayratu wa man arada bil islami wa al muslimina gha'ira zalika fa fuzhu wa akta azeez al muhtadir tawalla al muslimina fi hazeel badaa wa sa'ir bilad il islami bi a'ini inayatik wa bi atammir a'ayatik wa abdil yusra n'ayah maulana yusra n'ajilan gha'ira aajilan ya rabbal alameen wa sa'ir jilkarba anil matlubin wa nafsil hamma anil mahmumin wa uddana ila dinnika raddan jameelan kariman ya akraman al akramin ila fawli al muslimina wa al muslimat wa al mu'minina wa al mu'minat al a'iyayi minhum wa al amwad innaka ya maulana sami'un qareeb wa al mojib al da'wah ibadah Allah innah Allah ya'umru bil adli wa al ihsani wa itaiz al kurba wa yannha anil fahshahi wal munkari wa al darl ya a'idu kum la'allakum tazabkarun wa akimus salam