 Imam Qayyim al-Jawzi, a giant in our Islamic tradition, he gives this beautiful parable a comparison in which he compares the month of Ramadan and how it relates to the remaining 11 months of the year. And he draws parallels to the story of Yusuf alayhi salam and his relationship with his father, Yaqub al-aslam. He says that just as Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, his most beloved month is the month of Ramadan of all 12 months. Similarly, Yaqub al-aslam had 12 sons, and of them the most beloved was Yusuf alayhi salam. And similarly, just how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala pardoned and forgived all 12 brothers of Yusuf alayhi salam due to the barakah, due to the maqam of Yusuf alayhi salam, similarly we ask that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala pardoned and showered his mercy upon us for the rest of the year because of the amal we did in the month of Ramadan. Brothers and sisters, we all know that the month of Ramadan was just passed, was a very special month for you and I. It is a month in which all of us, we brought upon us new traits. We put back, and we put away, and we did away with those habits that we were struggling with. Things that we were struggling with, we tried our best to put them away. And the important thing to do, as the scholars they tell us, is that just because the month of Ramadan has seized, this does not mean that the actions, the good actions that we do, they seize either. As they say that the rub of the month of Ramadan is the same rub of the month of Shawwa. And the same rub of the month of Shawwa is the same rub throughout the entirety of the month, the entirety of the year. Meaning that any good that we had brought upon us in the month of Ramadan, which seems like it just started a few weeks ago, we should make an effort, a concentrated effort to continue it throughout the rest of the year, be it in the Nahia ta'ala. When we look in the Quran, we see that in the entirety of the Quran, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala by name only takes the name Ramadan once in the whole Quran. And when we look at that verse, at the end of that verse, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, he tells us why is it that we fast and what to do once we complete fasting. And we all know that one of the reasons that we fast is to gain taqwa, to gain God consciousness. The idea that we are able to do away with that which is permissible in the other months for 30 days, it makes it easy for us to stay away from that which is unlawful for the remaining 11 months. But at the end of this verse, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, he says, wa li tuqmil il-adda, once you have completed the designated days, the 29, 30 days of fasting, wa li tuqbiru Allah ala ma hadakum, and you glorify Allah, you praise Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for guiding you down the path that he guided you upon. The scholars, they say that this is where we derive the itaqbirat from. And this last part, this last part is important where he says, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, he says, wa la ala kum tashkurun, so that perhaps you all may be thankful. Brothers and sisters, there is so much, there's an abundance of things that you and I, we need to be thankful for. As Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, he says, in the Quran, wa in ta'addu ni'matallala tuhsuha, that if we were to try and count all the blessings that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, he placed upon you and I, we would not be able to count it. We would not be able to put a number on it. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, he says, wa asbeegh alaykum wa asbeegh alaykum, ni'mahu zahiru wa batina. Wa asbeegh, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, he poured, he enamored, he showered upon us, blessings, those which are zahirun, those which you and I, we can see, those which we can take into account, but those which are batina, those which are concealed, those which are hidden, those which you and I, we don't even know that we should be thanking Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for. As the Imam Shafi, Rahimullah, he puts it so eloquently. He says, I can never sufficiently thank Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, my Rab, because of the fact that I should be showing shukr for the fact that he has given me the ability to realize that I should be showing shukr to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And he has given me a way to give and show shukr to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And at the end of the day, brothers and sisters, when we show thanks to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, ultimately it benefits us. As Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, he says in the Quran, la in shakurtum la azeedanakum. Now first, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is in no need of our shukr. But when Allah subhanahu, when we are thankful to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, it is we who benefit. If, as Allah says, the in shakurtum, if you are thankful la azeedanakum, that verily I will increase you all in the amount of that blessing and the barakah in that blessing. I pray that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allows us to be amongst the shakurtum. When we look at the verse that I started off with today, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, he gives this phenomenal analogy. He says, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, he knows that in this month of Ramadan, we have worked tremendously hard. We have built these good traits. And now when we have finally gotten to the finish line, now that we have built up our iman, this is the time that people, they often let go. It is important to realize that the month of Ramadan, it is much like a spiritual boot camp. We go into this month of Ramadan and we better ourselves. We build up our iman. And then we use that newfound iman to bolster ourselves, to leap forward into the remaining 11 months. As Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, he says in this verse, He says, don't be like the person who ties, who spins string, who spins yarn, who spins wool. And that's a very tedious and a very long process, a very hard process. And eventually you keep doing it, you work hard, you work hard, you work hard. And finally, after all this striving, after all of this hard work, all this tedious process, it becomes strong. It becomes, gets to the point that you want it to be. And after all of that, you let go. And Qa'atha, you start untwining it. How foolish, how silly is this? We put in all of the hard work and at the last minute when we should be reaping the benefits, we start untieing the yarn. We start untieing the work that we have done. Similarly, in the month of Ramadan, you and I, we have gone to new levels. We have raised our spirituality. Now is the time to capitalize. Now is the time to run into the remaining 11 months of the year with our new found high Iman. As we see, sometimes people, they feel that I am not able to have the same level of Iman throughout the year. In the month of Ramadan, I had the spiritual high, but I wasn't able to do that in the remaining 11 months. To this, we see the Hadith of Hanzala, radiallahu anh, and the conversation that took place with him. Hanzala radiallahu anh, he was a great Sahabi. He was one of the Sahaba who was gifted with the ability to be able to read and write. A skill that was coveted at that time. It was not common and he was able to do so proficiently. And it is for this reason that Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam handpicked Hanzala radiallahu anh to be his direct scribe. One day, Hanzala radiallahu anh, he comes forth to the greatest companion, Abu Bakr radiallahu anh. And he says, Ya Abu Bakr, I fear I have becoming wanafik. I fear I have become a hypocrite. To which Abu Bakr radiallahu anh, he says, Subhanallah, Ya Hanzala, what is this that you claim? This is no small thing that you're saying. Hanzala radiallahu anh, he says, whenever I'm in the presence of Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, my Iman is very high. I feel that I'm able to see jannah and jahannam right in front of me. I feel that I have no desire to do anything but obey Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala and his messenger. But the moment I go back to my family, I go back to my work, my Iman, it drops. Abu Bakr radiallahu anh, he says, Bay Allah, Ya Hanzala, whatever it is you are experiencing, I experience the same thing. So both of them, they rush towards the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and explain to them what is going on. They explain their whole situation. And the Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he comforts them. He says, Bay Allah, this is normal. This is nothing to worry about. Meaning that it's very normal for our Iman to dip and to rise. As one of our teachers, they put it so eloquently, they put it so beautifully, that the Iman of a believer throughout the year is very much like a person who invests money. When a person, they invest money, suppose a person, they invest $100. Throughout the year, they have the hope that this money increases. And perhaps the first couple of months, they start doing really, really well. Their money doubles. But it is inevitable that that investment, it will decline a little bit. And the hope of that investor is that even after the money declines a little bit, that the principle that they started off with is lower than the amount that they have at the end of the day. Similarly, our Iman will dip at times throughout the year. But we should make it a firm resolve to make sure that our Iman, though it may dip, it may not be as high throughout the remaining 11 months. It should be better. It should be higher than the amount that was when we entered the month of Ramadan. Don't go below that amount. And after this one year, after we have this new Iman, we have a new principle to work with. Because now it starts compounding because then the next Ramadan when it comes around, we're at a higher level. And we build upon that. And we build upon that. We keep climbing the levels. And therefore, every Ramadan is better than the previous Ramadan. And eventually, be in the law, that are the best Ramadan will be our final Ramadan, inshallah. When we take a step back, and we also, when we look at this hadith we examine, we see that it's very normal for our Iman to dip. But what's important is that we build upon any good habits that we acquired during this month. As Allah, as the Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he tells us that the most beloved action to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the one that is consistent. As we see in the hadith of Bukhari and it's also found in Sunnah al-Nasa'i, habbul a'amali ad-dawamuha ilallah wa inqal. Right? That the most beloved action, the most beloved deeds to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala are those which are consistent, even if it is few. It is very easy for a person to one off, go and do something which is of great magnitude. And that's a really good thing. And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bless them and accept. But the important thing, and this is why the scholars, they say, one wisdom is that a sign that one of our actions is accepted is that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala invites us to come back and do it a second time, a third time, a fourth time. That we are continuous in whatever we do. Therefore, in this past month of Ramadan, many of us, it started increasing and going to the Masjid. In the month of Ramadan, the Masjids were full to the brim. Come two, three in the morning. The Masjids, they were full. But now, when we look in the rest of the year, they struggled to have one, two Sufuf, right? If we made it an effort to go to Taraweeh, continue attached, devote yourself to the Masjid. Attaching yourself to the Masjid is a great thing. We know from the teachings of the Nabi Sallallahu alayhi wasallam that on the day of judgment, and the seven groups of people who are shaded paradise, one of them is who attaches his heart to the Masjid, right? And especially if we cannot come for all the prayers, at least for the Fajr prayer, at least for the Isha prayer, for those are the prayers that have additional reward. Similarly, some of us, we may have noticed that it's not too difficult for us to fast. We were able to fast, Alhamdulillah. Increased in the amount of Nawaf al-Fas that we do. Start fasting Mondays, Thursdays, if we're able to. Fast those 13th, 14th, and 15th every month. And what better time to do it than this month right now, and the month of Shawwal, what we find in an authentic hadith from Nabi Sallallahu alayhi wasallam, whoever fasts in the entirety of month of Ramadan and then fasts six days in the month of Shawwal, for him is a reward as if he fasted the entirety of the year. Subhanallah, right? And these six days, they don't necessarily have to be consecutive and we can pair them up. We can do some on Mondays, some on Thursday. We can do some on the 13th, the 14th, 15th to combine some of those intentions. But doing little things, even if it's consistent. For others, it may be that in the month of Ramadan, I enjoy reading Quran, I enjoy doing Dua'a, I enjoy doing Zikr, even if it is just five minutes a day, even if it's just three lines of Quran daily. Do it, just do it consecutively. As Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'ala, He says, in Qal, even if it is a minuscule amount, something that is small but it is continuous, that is what is beloved to Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'ala.