 As-salamu alaikum wa marahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Bismillah Alhamdulillah, it's very nice to be here with you all and insha'Allah ta'ada. This is a presentation that we've been going through where we put a few slides together over our retreat from the past year and this is a topic that I believe to be the highest importance because it relates to our connection to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. And ultimately once we understand the importance of having a relationship with Rasulullah ﷺ, we will then come to understand the importance of what it is that we need to do in relation to the teachings that we receive from him. And there was a course synopsis that we developed for this so I'm just going to read this and then make a few comments before we continue insha'Allah ta'ada. So it says there is no better way to learn about the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ than to study what the Lord of the heavens and earth has mentioned about him in his book. These sessions will explore the topic of the Quran and the Prophet, highlighting the centrality of connecting to him ﷺ. It is commonly said that the name of the Prophet Musa, Moses, is mentioned more than the name of the Prophet Muhammad, which is true. But what is often overlooked is that Allah speaks directly to the Prophet ﷺ and the second person throughout the Quran. We will explore some of these verses as well as those that indicate the great stature and special characteristics given to our Prophet ﷺ by Allah ﷺ. And so the starting point really is that when we talk about the shahada, which is how someone enters into Islam, where someone to say, from now until Yom al-Qiyamah, la ilaha illallah only, there is no God but Allah, affirming divine unity, belief in one God. Were they to repeat that from now until Yom al-Qiyamah? But were they to fail to add Muhammad ﷺ, they would not be Muslim. Something simple in terms of understanding its meaning, but it's very profound. The shahada is la ilaha illallah, Muhammad ﷺ. And just even that in and of itself, you could spend a session or two unpacking how deep the meanings of the shahada la ilaha illallah Muhammad ﷺ are. That statement is a statement that is extremely hithy, i.e. packed with meaning. And so when we say la ilaha illallah Muhammad ﷺ in a more outward explanation of it, this is the phrase, this is the statement that summarizes the entire deen from beginning to end in all of its facets, imanan, islaman and ihsanan in relation to our faith, practice and spirituality. This faith summarizes it. Everything that's in the religion, every individual teaching ultimately is under the rubric of la ilaha illallah Muhammad ﷺ. And thus that this is why Allah to Adam made this the way that someone enters into Islam. And so all of the detailed teachings of belief, all of the detailed teachings of that fiqh where we get into legal rulings of the various acts of worship that we perform, that everything that we learn from our spiritual tradition, it's all in that. And then all of the other sciences that were developed to preserve the primary sources of the Qur'an, of the hadith and all of the instrumental sciences, all of this is included in the shahada. And it also has the deepest esoteric that's meaning as well in importance. And so that when you talk about people that have realized their faith, that see with the light of Allah, and this is possible because our prophet told us that it is, the fear, the ferasa, the inner sight of a believer, he looks with the light of Allah and someone who looks with the light of Allah is that type of person who Allah says, through me he hears, and through me he sees, and in another narration that this is a hadith Qudsi, and one of the most important hadith Qudsi of all, and hadith Qudsi, and I almost changed the topic last minute to a presentation on divine injunctions, but I said by preventing me. So we might have to dip into a little bit of the hadith Qudsi, because the hadith Qudsi are very special. And that in another one, This is a human being who, that we don't worship human beings, of course that's a given. But look at the language, and I remember being in a gathering one time, we were, I was in the Northern Virginia area, and we were waiting for Sheikh Abdul Hakim Marad to come, we were at Masjid in Mustafa, which is one of the special masjids there in the Northern Virginia area, and so that they just had the Foukeer say a few words as a filler to wait for the real speaker, Sheikh Abdul Hakim, who was coming, and so I ended up quoting this hadith, and there was a sister in the gathering who thought that the way that I translated it was shirk, right, and she walked out of the masjid. And it's when you see this construct in Arabic, How else are you going to translate this, right? There's no other way to translate, I will be the ear through which he hears, and the eye through which he sees, like how else are you going to translate that? Literally it was a You could get like a total little translation, but it doesn't make sense in English when you speak of it, because canna is another story, but my point is there's no other way to translate, that's what it means, and obviously you know that it doesn't have the anthropomorphic meaning, so then you have to understand what is really that being spoken about here, but then when Sheikh Abdul Hakim came he didn't know what happened, and he reached a point in his talk where he was going to quote the same Hadith Qutzi, and then he said, and he paused, and he said, Now if there's any literalists here, that it's better that you stand up and leave the room, right, which is literally what the sister did, right, before I translate this, and then he translated it almost the exact same way that I translated it. The point here being is that, look at the state of this individual, now what kind of individual is that, where that Allah is the, that person is in a very different state of Allah is taken over that person's that the affairs and has guided them, and so when we say, this is a profoundly deep spiritual meaning as well, and this is pointed to by the fact that it is written on the throne of God. What is the throne? In terms of magnitude, the throne is the greatest thing that Allah created in creation, right, in terms of stature, it's the Prophet Salli Sallam, but in terms of magnitude and size, nothing is greater than the throne of Allah, Subhanahu wa Ta'ala, and this is why that, for instance in the Du'a of Qarb that we say, La ilaha illa Allah al-Azim al-Haneem, La ilaha illa Allah, Rabb al-Ashil al-Azim, it's one of those that we praise Allah. He is the Lord of the magnificent throne. He's the Lord of the great throne, and what is the throne? And that we know that in Ahadith is that the Kursi, which is the footstool, and that all of the seven heavens, which exponentially get greater and greater, combined are like a ring thrown in a vast desert compared to the Kursi, and then we know the what Allah says in Ayatul Kursi, is that his throne encompasses the heavens and the earth, and then that the Kursi and everything that it contains is like a ring thrown in a vast desert compared to the throne of Allah Ta'bar al-Qutada, and written on it is La ilaha illa Allah al-Muhammad Rasulullah, and we have narrations that indicate one of them being in the collection of Imam al-Hakam in his Mustadrak, is that when Adam made his mistake and he asked Allah to add it to forgive him by the rank of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, is that Allah then asked him how he knew about the Prophet Muhammad and he said that I sought written on the throne La ilaha illa Allah Muhammad Rasulullah, and so these are meanings that point to the reality of La ilaha Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, but then you can start going even deeper and deeper and deeper and truly understanding who our Prophet is sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and that the scholars of the spiritual tradition say is that Muhammad Rasulullah is the tarjum of La ilaha illa Allah, and that gets very deep and very difficult to understand, but this is what is referred to when you have the likes of a way said Qadrani saying to the great companions Sayyidina Ammar and Sayyidina Ali, you've only known the shadow of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and what they're indicating there is that there's a reality of the Muhammad in nature, and that among the verses that point to that, and we're going to come back to this verse when Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says, Wusbili hukmu rabbika, be patient with the hukm of your Lord, and that can be contaminated as a decree or judgment, be patient with the decree of your Lord, indeed you are under our watchful eyes in no anthropomorphic way, they say this is one of the verses that points to the true nature of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and why is this so important? This is so important because those who came before us throughout the centuries until this day and age, but especially the epitome of this was embodied in that great generation of companions who took directly from the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, they understood who Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was and is, and this is a travesty, is that you can find videos online of people taking their shahada where they say la ilaha illallah Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, there's no god but Allah Muhammad was the messenger of Allah, as opposed to is, this is a travesty, is that was would be translated Kana Muhammadun Rasulallah, is that la ilaha illallah Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is a nominal sentence that is outside of time, there was a reality to the nabua and the prophet of our prophet Muhammad that's come in authentic hadith from the time that Adam was yet to be fashioned and it was described as being between clay and water and that all of a sudden just because he's no longer here there's not a reality to his nabua, to his prophethood sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, is that there's not a reality to his risada, he conveyed that message but the meanings of prophethood and messengership remain and they will continue to be there all throughout the world in the Barzakh and then until Yomu and then eternally forever and ever and so this is essential because there's arguably nothing more dangerous than try to separate our connection to the messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam everything else is built upon that this is the secret of the companions is that they understood who the prophet was and lest we forget everything in our religion we learn through the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam everything the most important thing that we learn is what? Tuhid, belief in the divine unity and how do we learn that? We learn that through the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and this is clearly stated towards the end of surat al-qaf where there are a lot of other questions says I am a human being like you the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was a human being he was like us so that he could be our exemplar and so that we could follow him however he was not like other human beings what does Allah ta'ala then say you ha ilay that I receive revelation revelation comes to me and then what is mentioned right after that that indeed that your lord is one lord your the lord that you worship is one in other words Tuhid what is greater for us to learn than the meanings of Tuhid belief in divine unity and as Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that says is that he taught you that which used to not know and the bounty of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam upon you was great and then is it which one of us knows that if we remember Allah Allah remembers us which one of us would have known that without Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam teaching that to the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and then conveying that reality to us no remember me and I will remember you and this verse has multiple multiple meanings remember me with repentance and I will remember you with forgiveness remember me in times of hardship and I will remember in times of ease I will remember you in times of hardship and this meaning is a very important meaning for us these gatherings that we're now in this is tazawud this is a practical manifestation of seeking provision for what we need to experience the vicissitudes of life everybody here will experience difficulties but if we invest time in building our spiritual immune system we invest time in strengthening our iman learning what is that we need to learn and just striving to put it into practice we will then have provision when we're tested and all of us will be tested and this is stated in hadith come to know Allah in times of ease and Allah will know you in times of difficulty and this is how we need to be as believers we need to know have Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam's assistance in times of difficulty because it is that divine assistance that turns the most difficult possible tribulation imaginable into something that's very easy for the human being to experience and don't think that situations that we see as completely mind-blowingly horrific that there's not divine gentleness in them is that we see the outward of things we don't know really what's transpiring in places like huzza right now as we speak and in the west bank and other places is that there is that divine gentleness taking place even though the surface level of it is the most horrific thing that you can possibly imagine and some of these stories slip sneak out here and there about these amazing moments where Allah to out of the sins because sakina comes from above Allah sins down sakina and if Allah grants someone tranquility and calmness and rest at the level of the heart is that no matter what it is that they're going through for the companions is that they would be in battle and they would doze off this is mentioned in the Quran the sakina was so great for them it's in the Quran they would doze off in battle who in their right mind could ever possibly doze off when you're staring death right in the eye in a real battle not behind a sniper rifle with a telescope with swords and you have to slice someone's head off and you see blood and killing and body parts all around you and you can doze off that's the way that the companions were is that they were people and this was the description of the great Ansar but the companions were like this there were people is that and that when it related to requiring acquiring worldly things none of them were ever to be seen but under Fezat when there were times of difficulty that's where you would find them this is how they were when it came to times of distributing war beauty and that that giving things of this world as you wouldn't find the true companions of the co-companies of the prophets I said they didn't care about that thing people of dunya yes that you would find them in those times but people of Akhir al-Khalas is that you find them more times where they're really in need where there really was a need where times where that many people were that scared to be certain places but they had the courage to be there this is where you'd find the great companions of the messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and that's how you and I need to be look at the last verses of surat juma sallallahu alayhi wa sallam sallallahu alayhi wa sallam teaches us a lesson about abandoning the prophet sallallahu there was a time where the prayer was actually first and the sermon came after and after this verse was revealed it was reversed where the sermon went first and then the prayer was after and sallallahu alayhi wa sallam teaches us oh you who believe is that when the adhan is called on the day of juma the call to prayer is called on the day of juma hasten to the remembrance of Allah is so we know that the surat juma tura ka'as is that of it is in place of the doha prayer is Allah's place to sermon so Allah has called that sermon that goes along with those abridged tura ka'as of Allah because we know the meaning of zikr Allah remembrance of Allah has simultaneous the meaning of remembrance i.e. invocation calling upon God's name but it also has the meaning of learning knowledge of listening to an admonition that prepares the heart to know Allah fast oh it adhikr Allah leave all transactions any financial transactions any buying and selling and then the later for ka'a once during the time of saying it was ma'am and i found that there was two adhans one indicate the entrance of the prayer time the second meaning that the khutbah was just about to start the ulama then said is that to transact after the first adhan is makru is disliked to transact after the second adhan is haram for those that it is wajib it is an obligation upon them to pray salat juma and then Allah that it goes on the fayda quryat salak once that you have performed the prayer that go about in the earth scatter about in the earth seek from the bounty of Allah and it is for this reason that some used to like to that purchase something after salat juma to fulfill this commandment which is a commandment for ibaha to make something permissible but they would like to buy something even though it's in the form again that seek from the bounty of Allah so they would buy fruit or a small little item or something to drink or something like this to put this command into practice remember Allah often in hopes that you are successful and then Allah to Allah says that what's good like it so that they see some form of commerce what happened was there was a caravan that came lehu is a type of that idle play that you're doing something that is essentially meaningless that you're just playing around that they leave you standing so you were standing delivering the sermon and that caravan came this is a time where there was straight in circumstance they thought and it was provision they left the prophet salam and that went to the caravan and unfortunately this is what many of us have done during our time is that we metaphorically have left the prophet salal alaihi salam we've left his teachings but when we read these verses is that the practical meaning for you and I because we were not there in that time is that we should say in our hearts I'm never going to leave the prophet salam I'm never going to leave his teachings no matter what is presented before me no matter what opportunity that I have no matter what worldly thing that I have an opportunity to that derive pleasure from is that we're never leaving the messenger of Allah is that we want to be people who stand by the prophet's side for us metaphorically speaking by putting his teachings into practice until the day that we meet our lord and what does Allah then say so this is getting into this topic of the Quran and the prophet salam so the verses before speaking about what the companions leaving the messenger of Allah outwardly but look at the next verse this is why the Quran requires to debut that we reflect upon it look at the station of Rasul Allah Allah then says that say oh prophet what is with Allah is that what with Allah is better from from this play and commerce is the best of all providers meaning outwardly when they're there in front of the Rasul salam Allah says is that the good that comes to them is directly from him Allah could have said is that that you get from being in the presence of the messenger is better than what Allah says in other words that those realities that when you're before the messenger of Allah is that you are receiving here directly from Allah so who then is our prophet salam and again we should state from the outset is that nobody worships the prophet salam this was not something that we ever had a problem with this is not no one in the history of the ummah has committed shirk in relation to the prophet salam every Muslim knows that only Allah is a nafah and a dog the one who truly benefits and harms every Muslim knows that no one has ever worshiped the prophet salam throughout the centuries this simply just didn't happen this was not the worry of our prophet salam and it's just interesting that those that actually became fanatical about anyone it was more with some that of certain sects that in relation to say and adding not in relation to the prophet salam so this has never been a problem but it's essential that you and I for us to have a sound approach to our religion to understand our relationship to Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and unfortunately many of the various ways of teaching out there to various degrees are either on the point of in car where they are putting into question what are actually standard ways of understanding our connection or that and that's at worst or at best oftentimes we find people limit it as if it's something that's not important and people have that perspective of is that can a muhammad an usulullah the prophet was the messenger of Allah almost in the sense is that the prophet came he conveyed the message and that's it and that's dangerous that will prevent us from understanding that realities of this dean that you and I must know to be able to have sound religious practice so this is really the backdrop to this presentation and this is what we really hope to get out of it is that to understand the centrality in our religion of connecting to the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam understanding who he is and if you're going to use the word was it would be who he was who he is and who he will be because it doesn't just stop with this world is that people who truly know what usulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and just look at there's multiple narrations about the questions that were asked in the grave but one of them is that the angels will ask this madatukul fi hadar rajul what do you say about this man hadar is an ismishara what do you say about this man there's different understandings that the scholars have here but those who know the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and truly know him and the more they know about him and his exalted stature with Allah the more ability they all will have to answer that question in the way that is most pleasing to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala because there's degrees to how people answer that question and the more that we know him if it wasn't important why would we be asked that if it was just about us and Allah then why would the only question be why wouldn't the only question be in the grave is manrabuk the prophet came to teach us to heat khalas that's it that's all we need to know so the only question we're going to be asked in this grave is that who is your Lord that's not the only question we will also be asked about the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is that what we believe about him we will also be asked about that our religion our dean and so what do we say we won't wouldn't know anything about our religion beginning with the most important aspect of that which is to heed and moving to all of the details that come when we have this three-dimensional practice from this perfect balance between iman islam and issan all of these different dimensions all of them in their entirety are based upon submission and it just so happens because norun adanur is the light of revelation upon the light of the intellect is that our religion is coherent it makes sense it makes sense is that it's rooted in knowledge and so the fact that you have scholars of akida you could translate it simply as creed or when it gets that into its more sophisticated form in milkana however you choose to translate that that speculative or dialectical theory however you choose to translate that is that they developed a platform where by which our beliefs could be articulated to people that don't see i died us in how we interpret scripture or even those who don't believe in the same scripture that we believe in this is amazing that the scholars have done this and the fact that you could that talk about an ethical theory on how it is that we approach acquiring that character traits and ridding ourselves of that vices in adorning our heart with virtues this is from the beauty of islam and the very unique discipline of islamic legal theory on how we extract that that individual rulings from the quran in the sunnah that this is amazing and how coherent and logical and how it makes sense this is a great blessing from Allah to Allah but is that the intellect their use is used to understand the fact that it's coherent is because it's true Allah made it that way and that when the two come together this is really what we want but we can never forget that even when we're using our intellect is that that really is in the second place it's rooted ultimately in revelation and this is something that people in our time have a difficulty understanding and that starts with that many people around us that are from various denominations of christianity and you can ask dr. Ali al-tawi why that's the case and he can give you a very sophisticated and detailed breakdown of why but that extends to that people of other faiths as well including jews and including the many people of different religions and then just people that are products of the modern world and that how dumb down people have become and just are just in a state that they've inherited as a result of growing up and the zeitgeist of our particular time and this is a concept that most people don't fully understand and this is one of the things that i've always loved so much about islam when we have these very clear definition of what's a nebi what's a prophet what's a rasul what's a messenger what are the four necessary i.e. that when we speak about that buttressing our faith with logic and with the intellect what are the four qualities that we assign to the messengers this is amazing this is the way that we preserve the way that human means are supposed to view prophets anyone that's had exposure to a skewed view of that and things that are said about prophets in previously revealed scriptures or at least that the distorted versions that are before us is it it's repulsive and you realize like how could you say that how could you say that about a prophet of god that makes no sense and then you have to follow them how could you follow someone that could potentially sin how could you follow someone that would commit such an abomination according to what you're saying that doesn't make any sense whereas isma and the scholars took this very seriously and they developed a whole interpretive methodology of how to understand the mistakes of the prophets who came before us right like that of adam al-asad as well as the other prophets and messengers and that's a very very important topic where there still is a lot of confusion in our community and i would actually recommend that mcc does a seminar with dr ali on that on isma like this is essential what does it mean that to understand the infallibility of the prophets and why is it so important that this is a very very that key topic to get right because so much is built upon that after that so this is all why that we're doing this and there are multiple ways that we can ultimately come to learn about our prophet's life and one of the things that becomes clear for someone who looks very carefully in the book of Allah and to see how often Allah addresses the prophet or speaks about the prophet's life and or the context of those is directly in related to something that happened to the prophet is that you start to realize this is and there's a beautiful by where he talks about the Quran and he talks about and so is familiarity and you could generally translate this as connection and essentially the dua of this great imam is oh Allah bless me to have a connection to every every harf every letter of the Quran every kanima every word of the Quran every ayah every verse in the Quran and every chapter in the Quran every surah it tilathan a connection that never leaves us for even the blink of an eye so look at that amazing dua that we learned on this great what is this great inheritor of the prophet's life and there are inheritors that have reached a mokam with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala where that their portion of irth of inheritance of the rosul is so great that Allah has actualized that in them and if that is someone who comes after the time of the prophet's life is that they are putting every verse of the Quran into practice to with relative degrees of perfection absolute perfection is for Allah but then we talk about relative degrees of perfection so relative degrees of perfection is like if someone to use a basketball metaphor is that if someone is 10 for 10 from the line they were a hundred percent right that was that's perfect but if someone's 20 for 20 that's even more perfect why because it's harder to hit 20 free throws in a row and not just 10 but if someone was a hundred for a hundred wow that's a pretty good free throw shooter yani that's a much higher degree of perfection than just 10 for 10 there's a lot of people who hit 10 straight free throws but there's very few people who hit 20 straight there's very few people ever that could ever maybe it might not have ever been done hit a hundred straight but a matter of someone hit a thousand free throws straight that's more perfect than 10 for 10 and 10 for 10 is more perfect than three for three and so forth so there's degrees of perfection but there are great imams of this religion who have been blessed to put the entire Quran into practice and this is why they were devoted to it so much read what imama now he says about the connection that we should have to the book of Allah he says the most is that has reached us and this is going to blow your mind is that he knew people and there's narrations of people doing eight khatams of the Quran every single day now that seems impossible right the way we think about time okay okay a fast reciter can recite in 15 minutes like a super fast reciter can do a jizat in 15 minutes and so that that means it's four jizat per hour and then that seven times four is 28 so basically about eight hours roughly is the quickest that you can possibly let do a khatam of the Quran and if you times that by two such you're reciting Quran for 16 hours a day and that you have a little bit of sleep but do a little bit of something else is that you might be able to fit in like two and a half khatams a day if you write that's a very outward measure of it but the way that people experience time is not uniform if Allah places barakah in your time is that you quite in a very real way will be able to recite in ways that other people don't but that's a whole other topic in of itself understand understanding how you and I cannot just have but experience barakah in our time it's still possible but there are things that we have to do and there are things that we have to resist there's things that we have to resist and many of these things that we have to resist are things that are ingrained into us living in the world in which we live that are actually very hard for us to overcome and you usually only see these types of things and people that grow up in very different realities and grow up in societies where their conception of time is very different than our conception of time although it is possible even here for people that if that door opens up for them to that experience the blessing in someone's time but this is primarily an affair of the heart and a matter of the roar and of the spirit and the essence of this matter relates to to the extent that our roar our spirit dominates that who we are as opposed to our nafs will be to the extent that you and I have barakah or blessing in our time will be to the extent that we experience it is that the more we do tagh liya to the roar is that we that give provision to the spirits and that we that have this ability to that tap into this incredible potential of the roar we start talking about this is starting like pseudo spirituality and modern nonsense but it's very very true is that the more that we the roar it's a secret from Allah Ta'ala in the Rooh is what makes us truly human and the alamin arwah is where we truly should be residing and the only thing that is preventing us is is that being trapped in the realm of the sensory so when you combine that to the society in which we live in the billions and billions and billions and billions of dollars that are spent to trap us in the realm of sensory whether it's consciously or subconsciously this is what's happening and this is the realm of desire and this is the result of realm of greed and that living excessively and extravagance and opulence and what happens is that the power of the roar if you will is covered by that what ensues in the heart when we have unmitigated that access to this world and just think about that how in our time it's so much more difficult than in previous times so this is what we want to get back to and so this is inshallah what we're going to be speaking about so we can move inshallah ta'ala to the first signs you can see that this was part of the retreat that we did this past year and the first session is really on connecting to the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu peace be upon him so we want to start right here at the basics and that we're not assuming any prior knowledge in a class like this some of you are very advanced and that already have a good understanding but we need to start from the beginning for how those of us that are less advanced and in reminders are also always good actually no it just went back so this is the first supplication of the Quran everybody knows surat al-Fatiha of course and again this is actually some of these things are very obvious but some of the purposes part of the purpose of this is to cause us to see what we get so used to seeing that we fail to actually see what's really there so when alatata says which is the first supplication in the Quran okay and this teaches us the etiquettes of supplication how does the Quran begin and then we praise Allah and so we praise Allah and then we declare you alone do we worship this is the sharia and you alone do we seek help Allah is teaching us right there in that verse verse five what we constantly talk about is the two sides of the same coin that's the reality is that we have to do our part you alone do we worship but we recognize is that we can't do it ourselves we have to rely upon Allah everything that we see in this world we have to see it from two sides of the same coin this has to be pounded into our hearts over and over again this is what's going to prevent us from despairing and we mentioned just in the is that it is only the disbelieving people that despair from the mercy of Allah is that believers do not they do not despair from the mercy of Allah do not despair from the mercy of Allah it is not an option for us no matter what is happening in Palestine or anywhere else in the Muslim world it is not an option for us to despair from the mercy of Allah that's from that one perspective from the standpoint of reality everything has to be seen as being from Allah nothing happens outside the power of Allah nothing no atrocity no oppression no tyranny nothing happens outside the power of Allah and at the same time the iyaka and that Buddha part is this relates to the Sharia is that if there's wrong you have to recognize wrong as wrong you always have to see wrong as wrong and then simultaneously that you have to see that wrong as being from Allah both are how we have to be and you will find in the Quran sometimes that we're pointed to thinking about things that in relation to that the standpoint of the means that uh so Allah says about our prophecy that indeed that you guide to the straight path in one verse indeed that you guide to the straight path and then another verse Allah says that indeed that that uh that indeed you do not guide Allah is the one who guides whom he wills how do you put those how do you reconcile those from this side of the same coin is that this is the outward dimension our prophet one of his names is a hadhi he's a guide he's a means for people's guidance but the reality is guidance only comes from Allah this is perhaps one of the most important things of all that we need to understand when we are involved in current events this is what keeps us sane this is what keeps us sane because if you and there's different types of the empathy i'm ever being at a that psychology conference and there was a lady there who um had done work um uh and had been exposed to that um very horrific things that human beings have done in rwanda and she she said that i realized that there's a difference between that um emotional empathy and cognitive empathy and what she said about emotional empathy was that she started replaying what she had been told about all the things that have happened murders and rapes and all of these horrible things in her mind and it was causing her severe dis imbalance as a result so she said that she had to shift to what's called what she called cognitive empathy where is that cognitive empathy is where there's empathy and you are aware of people suffering but you don't replay the events in your mind and um that ultimately empathy we have to have that's part of being a believer that's part of that being a member of the umo of our profit slice center but there's a way that we have to understand that empathy one in a balanced way and then there's a way that that empathy translates into action and if we don't understand the balance between the outward and the inward the and seeing everything from two different in two different ways that are two sides of the same coin then we'll get it wrong and that will lead it will end up on one in one way of one extreme are the other and deep down inside that are our teachers pound this into the heart and when you speak about this sometimes it sounds a little bit insensitive it's not insensitive this is the essence of how we're supposed to be as a believer but this is the reality that everything that happens to any member or the uma collectively in any given time here in this world is ultimately in mercy even though outwardly it looks to be unimaginable this is how how else are we going to understand the 75 years of what's transpired in Palestine how else are we going to understand everything that happened during the colonial period everything that's happened recently in wars is that for the believer is that everything that happens in that sickness calamity difficulty that experience in this world is an atonement so they return to a law in a good state and in reality when people believe in the hereafter and were we to be able to see people that are martyred are people that have gone through incredibly difficult things here in this world what they receive in the hereafter and were you to ask them in the hereafter they would want to come back and actually suffer more that's the reality they would want to come back and suffer more after seeing what Allah has in store for them and they would be willing to be patient with more suffering in this world so they could have more in the hereafter that's how that's reality now that doesn't mean that on the other hand we want suffering out with the bill do you see the balance that's from the standpoint of reality and then from the outward perspective is that we have to do everything we can possibly do to stand for justice to live right to call what is to what is good and to forbid what is evil and to love what Allah loves and to detest what Allah to add a detest that's a part of that's how we balance these two realities and that usually what happens is is that we kind of move a little bit in this direction but then we have to bring it back and we move a little bit in this direction then we have to bring it back and that ignorant people are people that if I would say what I just said there would be a lot of people that criticize what I'm saying because there is this it's this type of understanding that says and people have surely said this in relation to like events in Palestine for instance where can you we don't want your prayers we want action and that's a very ignorant thing to say we don't want your prayers we want action that's very ignorant to say that right and that that's actually a very dangerous thing to say and that is indicative of a very skewed perspective where someone's completely imbalanced in this direction and one there's some false assumptions that underlie a statement like that is that one they don't understand the power of dua and how real it is two they don't understand the relationship between the outward and the inward our prophet was promised victory on the day of bedar and he said to the companions it is as if I'm looking at the spots where the disbelievers are going to fall dead he saw it before the battle but the night before he stayed up praying to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala calling upon his name the living and self-subsistent to the extent that he was so worried about him but this points to the so they don't understand that which is number two that's a false assumption three is that it's assuming that people are actually making dua which one of us is really making dua like in the past week when have we ever made a true dua have we cried in the past week have we cried in the past month have we cried in the past year have we ever shed a tear for the umma in our entire life you'd be surprised how many muslims that are not weeping rarely ever read and that we should have been weeping for the umma before october 7th that after and we should be weeping for them until the day that we die is that I have teachers that I know that sometimes they are weeping so heavily for the umma of the prophecy and when their child comes in and sees them and think that they're having like a seizure or something because it's what's called that a a lahab a lahab bil buqa where it's like their body is like convulsing as a result of how they're turning to Allah that's dua that's the sunnah like you're making dua every single night in the wee hours at the night and throughout the day with a heart that is present and being emotionally involved in it where you're shedding tears and in a very real way you're feeling the pain of the umma why you're supplicating with what is called horqa and one of the greatest things we can bring to our heart for the sake of Allah is what is called horqa and horqa is literally where is that your heart is burning and we do it out of our ubodiyah out of our servitude to Allah because that's how he wants us to be we're bringing to heart that it's horqa that our heart and I remember someone speaking of one of the those who was in service of the umma of our prophecy said them and they likened him to a reed flute a reed flute is burned on the inside and that precisely because it's burned on the inside then when you blow into it it produces a beautiful sound and that people who have horqa where the insides are burning for the sake of the umma of our prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam these are people that do beautiful things outwardly for people and again this is the outward and the inward dimension this is how we are this relates to being like monks at night being like knights or lions during the day the passive active relationship the inward and outward the sharia and the haqiqah and that this relates to this reality and then look at the beauty of the Quran it's only after that we then have this state we've praised Allah and we've said that Ya Rabb is that we're devoting ourselves entirely to you and realize there's nothing we can do without you we're completely placing our trust in you recognize that you are the Rabb you are the lord of history and we know that aqiqah is there in the muttaqeen in this world before even the hereafter we know that history is in good hands we need this dual perspective otherwise we will make for anywhere from minor to major mistakes and then we ask the first dua after all of that the Quran is profound in the nasiratul ustaqeen we ask Allah to guide us to the straight path we ask him for hidaya and we're asking him that to guide us to the straight path but then what does Allah to Allah to say immediately siraal taal ad-dina an amta alayhim Allah could have just said guide us to the straight path why does he mention examples of people in general right after this this is setting up our relationship to the exemplars the inheritors the prophets themselves this is right here in the fatia indicating to us the importance of connecting for us it's connecting to the awliya it's connecting to the unama it's connecting to the waratha the scholars the pious the inheritors of the prophecy and for those that live during times of prophets connecting directly to the prophets this is right there in the fatia but it's over not the centrality what is more central than the fatia that all of the meanings of the Quran are in the fatia all the meanings of the fatia are in bismillah all the meanings the best one the first nuqta tilba the first direct when you first start to write the back this is profound this is indicating to us how our dean ends and unfortunately where you still talk about these meanings people say just worship Allah brother don't commit shirk don't overly praise people don't you know there's no need to focus on that the book of Allah is telling us differently Allah could have simply said guide us to the straight path and said that this is the straight path but right after that he says the path of those and this is why you see it involved on the slide before you the path of those you have blessed and then the two archetypes of those that we don't want to follow so there's clarity right from the very beginning not those you are displeased with and generally speaking we could think about them as people who know but fail to put their knowledge into practice for one reason or another usually relating relating to the overcoming of the ego and then the those who are astray are those who go astray without knowledge these are the two great archetypes of how people go astray either someone doesn't have knowledge or they have knowledge and fail to put it into practice and then we can understand the context of the this verse where Allah says he speaks about ma'iyah witness and the very first job of the Mufassar the one who is commenting on the Quran is to look at what other verses clarify or comment on the verse that you're trying to understand so this verse directly clarifies those whom Allah has bestowed his favor upon so in the verse before it's left in general those that you have blessed here that we learn who are the four great categories of those who Allah has blessed so again look very carefully at this so this is imprinted on your heart and it never leaves and it becomes the way that you practice your deen until you die this is haqq this is truth we're going to get more into this as we go further but notice Allah says how many times does he do this in the Quran obedience of Allah is through obeying the messenger obeying the messenger is obeying Allah and there's other verses that are explicit about this those people that obey Allah and his messenger is that when we read that ma'a we don't want to just pass over this and act like it's not important Allah is teaching us to desire and long for this witness this togetherness this ma'iyah why else is it there everything in the Quran is perfectly placed Allah is teaching us to desire this we want to be with these people and if it wasn't important if it was only about our relationship with Allah why is Allah saying that we're going to be with them if it's not important it makes no sense that perspective makes no sense it's there because Allah wants us to be with them eternally and because by being with them eternally is it then we're opening up the door for us to receive the divine favor and bounty and the scholars who truly understand these meanings say to the degree that we are close to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam in paradise will be the degree which that we receive the bliss of paradise including the gaze upon the noble countenance of Allah this is how you understand this but this is why we need to rewire the way we see things and when you start talking about it seems so obvious but why do people fail to see it in this way this is why we're doing this so look at these meanings they're very profound whoever obeys Allah and his messenger those people will be that with in the company of those blessed by Allah who are they they are the prophets and they are the people of truth the highest saints they are the shuhada the martyrs and the salihin the righteous and when was Allah then to emphasize this what honorable company rafiq to be in their presence to be a companion of them to be with them what is it going to be like this should move us one of the greatest intentions that we can make is that yeah Allah we want to live in a way where these people the nabiyeen or siddiqun and the shuhada and the salihin all love us and approve of us and are waiting for us in the hereafter there will be people that come now 1400 plus years later after the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi sallam who live in the end of time in the most difficult time to possibly live in that all of the prophets forewarn their people about and told them about the time of the antichrist and the dajjal and the end of time scenarios and Allah only knows best when it's going to be but they achieve the highest degrees of courses to Allah and imagine what the state is of an individual who returns to Allah and these people love him and you get these snippets from the dream world about what happens in the barzakh which is the intermediary realm and one is a story of the great Imam Sayyidina Foukeh Muqaddim Muhammad Ali Baalui is that there was a very important event in his life where there was a lot of political strife and they used to study with swords on their laps because there was a imminent threat at all times of conflict and civil strife and Sayyidina Foukeh Muqaddim is famously known for breaking the sword and indicating that we are taking a path of knowledge and dissemination of that knowledge and we're not going to get involved in political strife at all and this was the way of his forefathers and this is in particular the way of Sayyidina Ali Zaynab-e-Din this is why in the scholars that we study from when they talk about their ancestors is that even though it's obviously rooted in Ahl al-Kisa the blessed family of the Prophet SAW but both Sayyidina Hassan and Sayyidina Ali took their positions that they had to take four valid reasons and both of them were right and validated by Allah in his message but if you look at Sayyidina Ali Zaynab-e-Din the sole surviving son of Imam Hussein is that he took a very different trajectory that he abandoned politics and anything that related to that the ruling state of believers and he took a path of in and ibadah and that with Allah of knowledge worship helping people and helping people and this is the tradition that's been inherited generation after generation generation after generation generation after generation and you find multiple manifestations of even those who don't have their assani to their chains directly through them all throughout the Muslim world here to this day and age these are the traditions that the likes of people here and many other people that you're learning from and you're privileged to learn from the very I've taken from this is their way is that a way of self-refinement understanding is that the single most important thing of all is that every single individual tries to rectify their own soul this is the timeless job of the prophets and those of their inheritors that come after them is to help people refine their soul to come to know Allah and prepare for them to hear after and to live right and to have wisdom and to put everything in this proper place and this can't be done if someone cannot curb their ego the greatest thing you can do for the world is to overcome your own ego so that you can spare the world from the potential havoc that your ego could would wreak your ego would wreak havoc on the world if you do not restrain this is the single most important thing even if you it's unpopular to say that and people want action and they don't want prayer or they don't want these types of things that's this is haq this is the way of all of the true scholars and people that have that receive these meanings by way of transmission back to the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and that doesn't mean that you don't do other things but it means is that that your number one goal of life is to come to know Allah and to prepare for the hereafter and the bulk of what is that you do is in that in living a life like that will help you when certain things happen that you can take certain stances because you're trained to do so in a way that is detached from the ego and you can assess them correctly because you have a light that gives you a criterion to understand truth from falsehood and speak in a balanced way that's not impassionated by the ego the ego skews everything and then sometimes you want to join a just cause which you make things worse because you cannot control your ego and you have a skewed perspective and so when you put everything together then it all starts to make sense this is what you're rooted in and then you start adding to these other dimensions and then there's times that our prophet spoke about there were times that lack clarity and we can get into more of this before the day's overbilling night out of because I do think it's important to hit head on is that in a situation like the one we're in now what are things we can all do so if you please remind me we'll come back to this and pick up exactly where I left off but getting back to this eye and then we'll close here and take a 15 minute break we're taught in the first verse the first chapter of the Quran and then the verse in surah tani satan that clarifies us clarifies it the importance of withness in maya the importance of connecting to these people and that just to hammer that last point home and I forgot to mention sainaf al qaym al qadna was so I got distracted so when he took this path his teacher was not happy with him because his teacher wanted something specific from him in relation to outward knowledge but when he took the path of tasawwuf is that he had a slightly different trajectory and his teacher forsook him until the day that he died and when he passed away sainaf al qaym was outside of the blessed city of terim now this is one of the karamat and these types of things are can happen and the famous story has it is that sainaf al qaym when he came back his teacher his name was bat marwan they said he swore an oath is that he wanted he still wanted his teacher to be phleasom this is the way that people are they're people of adha even if they know they have to take a slightly different position from but what their teachers they're who taught them might be is that they always have adha with their teachers and they always remain loyal to them and he said that he was going to remain in the minaret in the jammat mosque in terim until that he met with his teacher his teacher went to the barzakh and then the mu'ad then one night day comes in in the morning to call the adhan and he overhears a conversation between this great imam and between his teacher his teacher came to visit him from the barzakh which is popular it's possible this is possible to prove this is possible how did our prophesies in him see the prophet moses on the night of isra with miraj alive in his grave praying this is possible allah brought all of the spirits of the prophets to pray behind rasul allah in jerusalem so these things are possible and there's other examples of this you know that jaffer of tayar who has given wings to fly to send salams to the prophesies these things are possible and there's story after story to confirm this so anyhow what is possible in the time of the prophets and their command is also possible after them so he says to him his teacher about he says that when i went to the barzakh he said i found the people of the barzakh waiting for you longing for you the way that the people in hadramot wait for the date harvest so in hadramot traditionally had very simple food and it was usually something like just bread and dates and maybe a few other things here and there from time to time some meats and some other occasional the dishes that they might have but the staple food was essentially bread and dates bread either made out of corn or wheat sometimes barley and dates and then in murtenia i used to remember that during the date harvest because the food was also very simple there is it used to really look for it they used to call it gaitana and they used to actually some teachers would go to where they have the date poems and set up there and teach their lessons there during the date harvest and i remember eating so many dates that you get blisters on the inside of your mouth right and if you've ever been in a desert situation where you're not getting a lot of sugar and you don't have a lot of sweet or savory types of food that dates are delicious and they really spice things up so you can imagine the way that someone's waiting for the date harvest they're eating very simply and then the date harvest happens and they're having these delicious ripe and then eventually that dry dates and so they said that i found the people in the barzakh waiting for you the way that these people wait for the date harvest the meaning they're being is there's certain people is that when they transition into the next world the nibi yin and the siddiq yin the shodan the sardin are waiting for them that with joy and longing now what kind of individuals that that's how you and i want to live that's the legacy that we want to be a part of we want to live in a way now who cares about all these different rewards and awards and things that we can get here in this world and the titles that were given and the distinctions that none of that matters if it's not for the sake of Allah and all of these none of that matters what we want is that to become beloved to Allah and then Allah to command the angels and then naturally all of those who are beloved to Allah will love you if you're beloved to Allah and imagine the state of that individual you and i are living 1400 plus years out in the craziness of this world in which we live just think about crazy this world is and that when you die they're waiting there and there's even another vision someone had about saying the phoghi where there was a procession and one of the ways that in some muadah they speak about the prophecy is the arus al-khafiqeen right the khafiqeen from the east to the west the arus is the one who's getting married and other words is that he's the one that everybody is looking at and so the arus al-khafiqeen is just imagine like in the procession when someone's getting married right the groom comes in and some cultures like in palestine they have what's called the zeffa you come in and everybody's looking who they're looking at the groom he's the center of attention and he's dressed you know very nicely and he's wearing traditional and all that right and that imagine in the barzakh is that there's certain people that's how it is is that they're the ones that everybody's come together to celebrate the way that they lived here in this world if we could live like that if we could even have just the taste of that reality what it would be like and this is what every time we recite this verse and rather every time they recite it you know so ultimately that should be our intention is it solely for the sake of Allah that we want to be from the elect of those that Allah has bestowed his server upon such that when we transition from this world we'll fully detach we don't want to remain here anyway other than to do what it is that we can do while we hear so that we can experience that in here after and then if someone experiences that y'all there is no tongue that can possibly express how great that reality would be let's take a 15 minute break inshaAllah ta'ala may Allah ta'ala give us tawfiq and bless us in all of our affairs and make these realities firmly rooted in us yeah Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahmeen we'll start to move along in the slides in the next session inshaAllah ta'ala and if you have any questions please write them down we'll give 10 minutes in the beginning of next session to field the questions and inshaAllah ta'ala we'll proceed further okay so we can open up the floor if there's any questions on anything that we've discussed thus far my question is which is more important for young Muslims to learn the ilm of the zahir like learning tafsir or hadith or the ilm of the botan learning spiritual sciences so the question is is that which is more important for a young Muslim to learn the outward sciences or the inward sciences and the reality is is that they're both important so they're not mutually exclusive you don't learn one at the expense of the other right and so that we learn the outward sciences and the inward sciences together and then we've done the very best that we can to that be the way that we need to be and as imam that madag famously said if we join between the outward sciences and the inward sciences is that this is the true way that a believer should be is between joining between the two so i would i would be on both fronts simultaneously and that's traditionally how it was taught right and ultimately when we think about the time of our prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is that all knowledge was taken from him and it's only later that we think about um these different distinctions of outward and inward and so forth and ideally is that we're getting everything at once and um and it might have to be studied inside eight different places in different ways but collectively is that they all are playing their role and so i would personally be on both fronts at the same time yeah and then the way that this works is even the outward sciences is that they're impacting you directly inwardly so there's an inward dimension even to the outward sciences and sister did you have a question the the part about oh uh the part the part about oh prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam say that you are a man could you elaborate on that one because there seems to be um you know i don't know if there's like a mistranslation there's like there's a inner meaning of that verse as well that prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was more than just a man he was and so why was that so he was a man but he's not like other men in other words he was a human being he was of human form he was of the gents of the genus of human beings but what is meant was is that he's the most special of human beings and so that um that prophets are human beings they're males they're human beings but they're not like other human beings in the sense that they receive revelation so they're there's what's called isti fat they've been chosen by Allah to receive revelation that's really the point is that um sometimes people's place so much focus on the human side of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam it's almost as if he was just like us and he wasn't just like us he was just like us in terms of his human form but he received revelation so that internally what he received from Allah his station with Allah and this is further thought of is when you think of that when the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam spoke it wasn't like someone else speaking when he would say something it would become legislation until Yomu Qiyam and that's indicated in hadith where man came to him and asked him about the pilgrimage if it was an obligation every single year and then he turned away from he came from his other side and came to him from a third side asking him the same question and finally the prophet looked at him and said that may Allah have mercy upon you were I to have said yes i.e. that it's an obligation every year it would have become an obligation so meaning his words were not like our words I could say yes and it didn't mean the same thing but he was so beloved to Allah that when he spoke what he says becomes legislation until Yomu Qiyamah that's really what's uh what's meant by that not that there was uh and he was a human being like us Allah he said about that his words were not like our words his acts were not like our acts that makes sense yeah but please feel free I want everybody this is your opportunity I encourage you to ask questions even if we took half of the day speaking and having discussion and answering questions it's worth it this is an opportunity if something that crosses your mind and you want to to ask it now is the time to do so and meaning that we don't do it all right now in this first 10 minutes of the second class but yet in the time that we have together today inshallah so we'll come here and then we'll come back to you inshallah okay you have the mic thank you so much so the question is about the questioning in the grave there's multiple narrations about the various questions that we are asked and is there an ultimate response the main thing is is that the questions are going to center around our belief in Allah the prophet and our deen those are the most important questions that we can prepare in other words is that the stronger our belief in Allah and in the prophet and the more we come to know Allah and know the prophet the more we know about our deen and the more that we put our deen into practice the more positioned that we're going to be to answer the question so whatever the exact questions are when we return is that that's what we want to spend our life doing and again the more we know Allah the more we know the prophet the more we know our deen and that put it into practice then the more we're going to be able to answer those questions and and ultimately what we need is for Allah to give us thabat you thabitullahi l-aminu bil qawli thabiti Allah that makes the people who believe firm with the qawli thabit the firm word in this world and hereafter and this is the iyaka na'buru iyaka na'stein we do our part to do everything i just mentioned but ultimately we recognize there's no way for us to respond to those questions without a law making us firm and i remember that years ago learning this from shekhamzah where you know that people even in a very outward sense sometimes when they have like a very big test that they're going to take that they go mind blank you know you've studied studied studied and it's possible that in the moment you just go mind blank because of the uh immensity of the moment and um in this reality just when we hear these descriptions of that seeing these two angels that will come to us and ask us these questions without the help of Allah there's no way so all we can do is do what was mentioned rely upon Allah and then Allah will make us firm so that we answer those questions and the way that is pleased in terms of what time so sorry so um i just want to check because it makes it a little easier for me what you mentioned about a man but not like other humans um similarly i'm thinking it makes it easier for me to understand and i just wanted to check that um like husband of isa was a human being too but unlike any other human being is that thinking correct or not so in general the example you gave of prophets right is that they are human beings however they have special qualities and in particular their most special quality is that they receive revelation so only prophets can receive revelation and so that means they're like other human beings in so far as they have physical bodies that they share with many other things that human beings share in but internally that they have an ability to receive revelation no other human being has that ability and so that if you look at in the end of surat al-hashar lo anzana had al quran we to have revealed this quran to a mountain that are a two hush and what the sudden hush you would have seen it in awe and fearful in that split the asunder from the fear of Allah in other words is that Allah tells us that where the quran have been revealed to a mountain it would have pulverized it but the hearts of the prophets received that verse that's what's really meant is that they have an ability to receive what other human beings do not have an ability to receive so they're human beings but they're not like other humans in that they have an ability to receive revelation and then there's a long list of special qualities that they have there's a new book it's been published i recommend that everybody gets a copy of it there's actually two books i recommend because when we talk about knowing the messenger of Allah these two books are very important and helpful and you can find them both on the imam al-azali institute website they're based in new york and the first is a translation of the shema al-at-tarmidhi and this translation is excellent and it includes very good notes in the margin and this is an excellent book to have on everybody's shelf and to be read and then they also recently published a book on the hasayas the special qualities of the provost isa it has a red that cover and i would highly recommend everybody gets a copy it's actually three different works one is a work on the laby by imam asyuti and then there's a book by imam is adena of the salam and then they translate and comment on many of the names of the provost isa i think that it was taken from the so it's actually three books in one and this will open one up to this this meaning of what are called hasayas special qualities of the provost so the prophet had quality salam that even other prophets didn't have and then the prophets oftentimes had qualities that even beyond revelation that other human beings didn't have and this is really what is meant and the purpose of us knowing those unique qualities of our provost isa this is where this is really right at the crux of the matter is that knowing how special the prophet is and what he's received enables you and i to take what he's giving us more seriously and to put it into practice the ultimate goals to know a law we're not meant we're not ever worshiping the prophet we're only worshiping a law but he is the means but by loving him by connecting to him this helps us put his teachings into practice to ultimately come close to a law and so then when we're close to the prophet we're actually close to a law and that's what's so amazing about this and so that and ultimately we only love the prophet because Allah commanded us to love the provost i said and because he's the most beloved of all of creation to Allah so part of faith is we love what Allah loves and therefore we love the provost i said more than anyone and everything else other than Allah so it's very clear it's very straightforward so yes i think that's one way of of of making sense of it yes yeah but that's the whole purpose of this and again to get back to this point is that if you look at the companions and what they were able to do all of that stemmed from their relationship with the provost i said they understood is that the prophet was the messenger of Allah they understood what that meant and then look what it enabled them to do by embodying his teachings and then taking them to the world as a result and this is part of what we're trying to not just hint at explicitly say if we try to separate from our understanding and practice of Islam the connection to the provost i said they're all supposed to have is that we're going to make grave mistakes it's going to lead to a mistake at the level of conception and then it's going to make it we're going to make mistakes at the level of practice and action so again this gets back to the two archetypes we spoke about in order for anything to be valid accepted and then you could say beneficial in the true sense of the world word is that you have to have the correct conception you have to know what is it you're doing and then based upon that correct conception then is that what you have to do has to be right so there's numerous examples that you can mention there but i'll just give a random example just to kind of bring this point home so at the level of conception let's just say someone as many people in our world actually do they say okay the world in which we live can only sustain one point however many billion people well now there's well over seven has it reached eight billion point now someone google real quick has it reached the eight billion point maybe has now you gotta keep checking but let's just say that okay it's reached eight billion so we're way overly populated so someone their conception is the world can only hold one point something billion people and so we have over eight billion people so we're in a crisis that if someone puts that out there what are their underlying assumptions one is their underlying assumption is there's a particular way that we have to live that being modern people that requires a certain amount of energy use and so forth and so on right another underlying assumption is is that believing that there's limited resources other underlying assumption is is that certain givens about human nature that human beings will always tend to do certain things in a competitive world that we have to get down to the bottom of that conception question the underlying assumptions and for us in all three of those areas and there might be more things i'm just randomly bring this up on the top of my head is that when you put all of those things into question you find that we see things very differently so what might lead some people to say then as a result of this we need to control the population and these Muslims that keep having so many kids right i remember growing up right before we came with them and it was usually in our circles like the Mormons used to have all the kids right and it was just like this common trope of like people like holidays Mormons are having so many kids right almost like it's irresponsible like what are you doing to the planet right and then Muslims there's that sense like they're just having so many kids and then there's almost like you know they're like animals like they don't matter control themselves and this type there's all these other things where it's unfortunately you'd be surprised like you know but then you all of a sudden learn about these statistics they're like how that certain peoples that were going to use the word race are dying and that they've done studies on this and i forget what it is if it reaches below 1.4 in terms of the average amount of people they have that it's irreversible and so literally you have dying populations and then these other this other redefining of gender altogether is not going to that help with those statistics but the point here is is that um no there's always you right uh that will do that will do that will do that will do that will do that if any more catheter will become an omen a more camera our proper society encouraged us to have children into the have that people say he's going to boast about them on the day of judgment that doesn't stop that all of a sudden because moderns believe that there's not enough resources that we don't subscribe to a view of limited resources we know that no matter how many people are on the plane if we're living principally there always will be enough and so there's we have to question those online so my point is if you get the conception wrong then it might lead you to getting it will lead you to getting everything else wrong you can't get anything right if you don't have the right conception so when it comes to everything you've got to have the right conception and this is other words is that you could say this is where everywhere in the corner where a lot points to belief and practice those who believe and do righteous deeds as combination of the two this is essential so we have to get this right at the level of conception understanding who our proper society is how our relationship to him should be this is essential because all of the details that we learn after that are built upon this and the attempt here is is to just look at certain verses of the Quran that teach us how to view the Prophet's life in him and then how we can then take from his various religious teachings and I'm hoping at some point to follow up with a detailed study of the companions themselves and illustrate time and time again how is that they view the best of creation Salaam how intent they were to convey his message there's this it really struck me we did a reading of Sunan At-Tarmidhi and there was one companion who said I watched the Prophet closely for an entire month look at how they were this is the way they were they knew who he was so in other words he spent an entire month watching the Prophet closely so when they came into his presence they were just looking at him they were looking at him they were really they saw him as the source of guidance and then the hadith goes on to say is that he used to recite in the Turaqa Asbi for Fajr and imagine everything else that this is just the narration we have imagine everything else that he observed in that time were for an entire month he was observing the Prophet very closely that's how these people were because they understood this meaning man yut-il-lah wa rasul whoever obeys Allah and his special they understood what that meant and they understood that the Prophet everything that he did was a teaching moment and when they read a hadith like I have only been sent as a teacher they didn't understand that in just a very general way is that our Prophet came as a teacher they understood that every haraqa and every all the haraqat in second at every moment of movement every moment of stillness when our Prophet spoke when he didn't speak what he spoke about and what he didn't speak about how his face looked how he responded to certain situations what he did by now what he did but everything they saw as a moment of learning that's how they were in relation to the prophecy every single moment was important and again this is standard this is not this is not excessive this is standard this is how it should be and so what I'm trying to encourage is that attitude that we all develop in understanding of the prophecy that allows us to cultivate this relationship with him and we're going to end at the end of the day with practical ways of doing that but then also as we embark upon the study of his deen and we learn the science of al-qida we learn the science of fiqh we learn the science of tasawwuf which are the essential pieces of knowledge that we need to know our deen is so amazing it's so amazing it really is and think about the far dine the individual obligations this is the knowledge that is the essential knowledge in the Quran and the sunnah that everybody has to know so in other words if you want to summarize what you need to know from kitabullah and from the sunnah of the masjid of Allah it's all in the far dine and it can be taught in its most basic way in two hours and then you can expand and go a little bit further and you can expand and go a little bit further and this is what Imam al-Ghazadi mentions in his book called jawahir Quran the jewels of the Quran where initially what became the arba'in and also the 40 foundations was supposed to be that a part of jawahir Quran this is what he says is that this knowledge that i'm presenting to you which is essentially the knowledge of iman islam and ihsan this is if you act upon it you're acting upon the essence of what is in the Quran and the sunnah of our messenger slice and what a blessing how many of us are ever going to read sahib bukhari let alone the other that five canonical collections and these are just the major ones the muslim ibn ahmed is over 30 000 a hadith and that any real muhadith is working with 900 plus collections of a hadith and that some have pointed to individual narrations of being that in the realm of is 47 or 67 000 total not including the muqarurat in the different versions in the different that's narrations of them there's a lot out there if we were required to do it in our self we would not be able to do so so what a blessing is that we can learn our deen in the most basic way if you believe in la ilaha allah you are a believer and that's what happened really for people in my own family is that they thought that if i don't put all of the individual rules into practice i'm not a muslim and no anyone who believes in one god and they believe that the prophet is a prophet they're muslim and there's actually quite a few people out there don't even know they're muslim they're actually muslim and this is the type of doubt actually the word is like man you're already muslim like whether you realize that you are already muslim and all you have to do is to specifically say and everything else comes after that and even if someone only said it one time in their life ever they're saved and our prophet will come to rescue them if they actually end up in hell may Allah protect us himself and take them into paradise for those that say la ilaha allah one time and the shahada is great with allah to barak wa tata so okay let's move on here biznillah so if we look at the next slide you can't really see it that well does that say witness as well these are just other examples of this maa this particle that can be translated as be with or this idea of witness or togetherness and to show that just how you and i should be moved by this this witness is creating this condition of the heart where you long for your beloved where you want to be with them where you understand that from our dean is to desire to be close to these people and to have a connection with them and this is one of the greatest things of all that we can cultivate in our own hearts in the hearts of our children in of all things that will protect your children and help them navigate the difficulties of our time nothing is greater than this meaning nurturing in them from the beginning of their life the love of Allah and the messenger of Allah the family of the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam and the righteous nothing will protect them more than that and then after that knowledge knowledge is secondary to this reality and knowledge is of the utmost utmost extreme importance but before knowledge is the connection of the heart to these people rear your children nurture your own heart first and then nurture this in them nothing will protect them more from the evil influences of any time but especially in the dajalak world at the end of time than this reality and then you add to that as well that knowledge grounding them in their dean so they can see through a lot of this nonsense that is out there this is what we're being called to amranu oh you who believe in Allah is speaking to the people who believe in who in him it takullah that have takwa of Allah will be with sadaqeen and be with sadaqeen and the scholars here say Allah did not say be from the sadaqeen which we're supposed to be is that be with them because what happens when you're with them this is what happens and this is the other secret here about connection when your heart is attached to these people and you love the prophet you love the siddiqun in the shuhadah and the sadeheen what ends up happening is that that love is an elixir that molds your heart to be like them by virtue of the love even if you don't put much energy in to help the process but especially if you put energy in to help the process you become like them when your heart is attached to them and then outwardly you try your best to be like them and this is the goal is to mold yourself to the sunnah the prophesy center and ultimate felicity and that gazing upon the navel contents perpetually is just simply to mold yourself to the rasulah if you do that you'll attain the greatest thing in this world in the hereafter and to the degree some of us are molded this way where there's degrees to which we're molded and that we're aligned but the secret is to be aligned and this is why these two fronts of the internal connection combined with the outward effery put in is it what helps this process take place and so that these are very powerful aspects of our deen and people that understand these meanings you'll find these are the people that are firm these are the people that are firm and we can go into a whole tangent here is that people that have a methodology in life and they understand the minhaj of the Quran and the sunnah the methodology of the Quran and the sunnah and then by extension the way that that is interpreted and expressed by the great inheritors of the prophets in every generation is that when you adhere to a particular methodology that protects you from confusion that protects you from doing what you shouldn't do in times where things are ambiguous that helps you understand what it means to specifically put into context various verses of the Quran and hadith of our messenger sallallahu alaihi sallam in any given time because even groups that have gone astray they've almost always gone astray with misinterpreting that various verses in the Quran hadith of our prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam or cherry picking certain verses in decontextualizing not understanding that in light of other verses in the Quran and other hadith of our prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam and so this is why we need a methodology and this is one of the quintessential traits of ahl sunnah wa jaman is that they have that created a coherent way of interpreting the essential sources of our religion and have passed it down throughout the generations this is what we connect to when we learn from these various scholarly methodologies so we need minhajia we need a methodology in life that we can cling to and live by and know in any given circumstance okay what should i do and in the moment it's so tempting sometimes to jump on board with what so many other people are doing and that sometimes it's not a matter of being fully right or fully wrong there's shades of gray in this but people that have a methodology resist that temptation that they know is that while we have to respond in the moment at times to various things we also have to think long term and that this is what this methodology is going to ensure is that what happens before these events during these events and after these events is that we have thought everything through we resist the urge of solely responding in the moment so here this is another call to witness and then we have other examples that look in for instance sort of hood that we see this that what does Allah ta'ala say well alina amunoo maahu in relation to the prophethood who believed in those who believed with him in relation to the prophet salih well alina amunoo maahu in those who believed with him and then in relation to our prophet Muhammad Rasulullah well alina maahu these meanings move the hearts of the righteous Muhammad is the messenger of Allah in those who are with him this is how they are what is there a shidah alil kufaq they are firm with the disbelievers now that doesn't mean that at work like i've been commanded to be firm with the disbelievers and you are a disbeliever so i'm going to be firm with you i'm not going to smile at you i'm going to be rude to you in fact that's not what it means the primary definition here is is that we do not let the kufaq of the kafir the disbelief of a disbeliever seep into our understanding clarity that we have in this religion nor do we let the acts that a person of that a disbeliever does get confused us to think that this is something that we should do we have clarity a shidah we're firm is that we are nice we're kind we're polite and we're people that call people to Islam and any opportunity we have to call people to Islam at work in the street at the grocery store wherever we must first and foremost with our state secondly with our words but we don't let people sway us from our religion we're people of principle because even if people are acting however it is that they're acting we are firm and we remain principled under all circumstances this is the essential meaning as i've learned directly from our teachers a shidah that kufari that's what it means and there are various times is that when people are trying to harm us to that we're firm outwardly and that doesn't just apply to disbelievers that applies to believe if a believer is trying to hurt us we don't like oh hey brother come hurt me right no you can defend yourself and the fact that there's a hadith that says man kutila dunamali fahua shahid whoever dies trying to defend his wealth is a shahid that person has the reward of a martyr and if someone comes to you and they're holding you at gunpoint and they're asking you for your purse or your wallet is that in sharia you have one of two choices you can either give it to them it's permissible or you could fight back and if you die fighting back you're a shahid now i'm not encouraging one or the other that's left to you to figure out what is it you want to do but were someone to fight back that they have the right to you don't have this hence one over your wealth you could fight back and if you die you're a shahid and you might feel that okay it's better for me just to hand it over i don't really have any too much in here take it right that's but you can fight back if someone is that trying to attack you and so this also is a very other important point is that there is a common misunderstanding that good character always means that we're nice and we're not firm that's not the case there's times that we have to be firm and these are other conversations but then they are merciful and compassionate with one another and so this description is for the Prophet s.a.s in those that are with him in other words the Prophet taught them how to be this but to be this way but from the blessing of this witness and what else does the word sahaba mean companionship taking spending time with them when Allah to add it says kama ar-sana fi kum rosul an min kum look at how many times in this particular verse Allah says kum you meaning this is for you kama ar-sana fi kum just as we have sent among you rosul an min kum a messenger from among you yatlu alay kum that's three times so far he recites to you ayatina wa yuzaqi kum and he purifies you another kum wa yuallimo kum yet another kum al kitaba wa hikmata wa yuallimo kum as six kum and um that he teaches you that that which uh that he uh that you previously did not know and so the meaning here is is that uh that this first bit yatlu alay kum he recites to you and the meaning of this is is that when you in order for that in order to to really experience that you have to be in the Prophet s.a.s in him and hearing him that teach them the meanings of the book reciting the quran to them in prayer and outside of prayer on the pulpit in the circles of learning and so forth and every other teaching situation where the Prophet is that quoting or reciting or reading the quran so in other words what this means is is that the oral transmission comes first the talaqi the personal instruction that we receive comes first this is if we don't get this right there's no way for us to be successful as a community that in america or anywhere else ever in any age and any geographical location in other words is that the most important thing that we need in any given time in any geographical location are living representatives that are inheritors of the Prophet that can teach us our religion in person with companionship spending time everybody needs is the internet is a band-aid we should still use it for good purpose but it is not a replacement it's dangerous if it becomes a replacement let alone that if we that open up a door for bad use of the internet has to be good principled use and it can be used as a supplement and in places where people do not have local scholars is that it's a band-aid but it is not a replacement and until you and I have that multiple people in every major and minor large and small and even in rural areas that cities in the united states of america representatives of the Prophet that are teaching us this religion we're not going to ever get far we're going to remain in darkness because if you just think about your own self and if you've had opportunities of being with good people it takes time it takes time and when you have these transformative moments with the great inheritors you never forget them they're the greatest moments of life and anyone who's become successful has almost always with the only the rarest of exceptions it's not the case they've been affected by good people even in the dunya so this is something that has to become a staple part of how we view the deem where we need to interact and there are some people who just don't want to do work with the youth don't want to what we encourage with the work we're doing in mokasin we have that programs for daycare students from age two to five we have a medrasa for students from age six to 11 we now have an academy for students that are from ages like 12 to 17 or 18 then we have a seminar that primarily serves 18 years and older but all of our teachers we encourage to teach all of the different age groups and personally i find it just as fulfilling it's not about being fulfilling it's about doing what's right it's just as important to interact with a two-year-old as it is an 18-year-old it's just as important to interact with a 14-year-old as it is with someone who's 50 years old it's just as important every opportunity is an opportunity to plant a seed of the prophetic inheritance in that individual and usually two-year-olds don't argue with you either right they just absorb it and you would be surprised what is possible if we do things right and we need community to do this the barian knows about microclimates this is the place of microclimates if you have a microclimate of faith given the hostile macroclimate of this oasis desert that's you know dry that space of kufr and disbelief is that you can nurture your children but you have to come together as a community and there's a lot of people have done this and there's a lot of good happening in places like the barian other places in the United States of America and it's totally possible and i've seen examples especially in places i think it of one in particular new jersey where i know a friend who's a teacher who spends a lot of time with the youth and i've seen before my eyes tens of people end up in college fully balanced they have a career track they're thinking straight they're mature and they're almost unaffected by all this nonsense that is taking place in the world but it's because they have soba they spend time with this teacher he's there with them he's doing activities with them he's answering their questions he's helping them through their difficult times he's giving them advice on career on marriage on friendships this is what we need we need people that we can go to but there's so many people in the community this is why we need so many of these people that one person is not enough there's only so much that one person could do is only so many appointments that you can have in a week that even doctors there's only so many patients that they can fit into the 10 minute or whatever slots and this is why we need more people but if it became a priority for us as a community and we're willing to support these endeavors even more so that we're willing to sacrifice our for ourselves and with our own children for them this is when everything is going to change but as long as that we are for all intents and purposes thinking that this whole educational process is something that is auxiliary for a few people but y'all at best i'm just going to support it and send a little bit of money for it we're going to remain in the situation we end this is one of the most important things that we have to take these tangents for is to convince our community of the importance of education we shouldn't have to do that we shouldn't you have to take these tangents we should all understand this so anyhow this is another example mohammad al-Russoa wa ladina ma'u those that were with them is that look at what happens to them as a result of being with them they have the same traits as the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam they're firm with the disbelievers in the way that was mentioned and they are merciful amongst themselves tarahum now because of their companionship and they're with them they're all one he they and the Prophet are one they have the same traits rukka and sujadan they're bowing and prostrating in prayer yyabtahuna falda laminallahi wa ridwana look at their traits this is how they are they are people that seek Allah's bounty and good pleasure imagine if you just implemented that one verse you're a person that prays extensively you're a person of prayer anytime you're bothered by something you got news that you might get fired right you rushed to prayer you got who knows that you lost a loved one you rushed to prayer you got news that you just got some type of illness you rushed to prayer this is the way they are this is how they are and they're people that their day is spent seeking the bounty of Allah and there's an outward dimension of that and there's a spiritual dimension of that and his good pleasure see my hope he would do him is that the sign can be seen on their faces that brightness they know who they are meant after the sujood from the trace of prostrating in prayer these people are special they're like monks at night they're people of devotion and precisely because they're people of devotion is that what's that oh did i not change the slide and yet another one but we won't go into that anymore and yet another one the point here is like this is the Quran how many verses do we need to read right it's just this is what the Quran is teaching us and that's precisely what we're trying to get at here the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is the straight path so that when we ask Allah to add it for the surah to mustaqeem is that the surah to mustaqeem is a way of living yes it's a way of being it's a methodology that we adhere to it's taqwa it's fulfilling certain commandments and avoiding certain prohibitions but all of that was embodied in the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam all of that was taken from him so this is why you have certain commentators that say when Allah says some of them interpret this verse as saying is that this hada is in this in me a shot of referring to the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam so some would translate this as and indeed that that or that he is my straight path i.e the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that is a valid interpretation of that so with this interpretation so follow him not follow it and do not follow other ways for they will lead you away from his way and so when we understand that that takes on a whole new meaning is that the prophet was the greatest example of the spiritual path this is why scholars say is that the greatest tafsir of the quran is actually the life story of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam his sira his sira is the greatest tafsir because he is teaching us in every moment of his life the ideal way to put the divine address of the quran into practice and so imagine a tafsir that connects those dots of various instances and how in this particular instance the prophet is putting this particular verse into practice now that is a knowledge that audya might be gifted that is not in books and that knowledge could be inspired someone could recite receive that knowledge by way of inspiration from the bounty of allatah but i'm not aware of a tafsir that that's the whole purpose of the tafsir is to point that out that part of this presentation towards the end was to mention some concrete examples of how various things that our prophet said were directly taken from verses of the quran and it's very clear because of the similarity in terms of what the prophet is speaking about but i didn't get very far in preparing that although there's multiple examples of that but then some of them are not as clear the ones that i chose were fairly easy because there's similar things that our prophet is referring to sallallahu alayhi wa sallam so he is the straight path but then we're going to go a little bit further he also sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is the firmest handhold the urwat al-wuthqah so in surat al-bakar was Allah say renounces false gods tahut are false deities and believes in Allah has in certainly grasped the firmest unfailing handhold there's an extra space there after handhold and some of them say is that the urwat al-wuthqah is the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and what is meant by that is and this is very important and this is perhaps one of the greatest things that can be used to convince you or someone else about the importance of knowing our prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam there is a lot of people that get very confused for various reasons a class that they might have taken that a question that they might have been asked that they're unable to respond and they're unable to solicit an answer to that question or that something that they heard or learned about the religion that just trying to grasp and it doesn't make sense to them and so forth in the end there's an easy way for us to renew our faith and to preserve it even if you don't have the answer to that question or whatever in the end there's only one or two possibilities either the prophet told the truth or he didn't either what he's saying true or is true or it's not true there's not a third possibility you either believe in him or you don't believe in him and that not knowing whether or not you should believe in him is a type of not believing him it's very simple you either believe in him or you don't believe in him and so once you understand that the more that you come to know the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam you always have a safe haven in a refuge to go back to i don't understand that particular theological issue or i am trying to grasp on why this evil is happening in this world i don't understand the wisdom behind it or that that particular question that was posed or that particular legal ruling i don't fully understand how to understand that in light of what i know from the religion but i'm going to go back to this safe space i know for sure that the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is telling the truth it's a safe place for you to go back to and that's why he's the firmest handhold it will never break it can't break and that meaning is that there and if this is why it's so what they come back to the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and this is why is that you see examples of the companions when they had difficulties understanding things they would always go back to him because they knew he was since he was telling the truth they believed in that unequivocally that they knew this a hundred percent he was telling the truth and they went back to him and there were even times where they would have wasawas whisperings of different sorts questioning their faith the companions themselves and they would go back to the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and he would treat them and that he would treat them at all three levels he would treat them spiritually and he would treat them emotionally and he would treat them in relation to knowledge at the level of the mind he would always treat people in every single way sallallahu alayhi wa sallam but the light of his presence was supporting everything else that he did in relation to his emotional intelligence if we're going to call it that and that way he was dealing with people at a psychological and emotional level but then also is that the way he was outwardly in how he spoke to people and that what it is that he said so this is that very important and then yet another that understanding the prophet also according to some scholars is the rope of a law and you'll have and when you come to these meanings you'll have different opinions of scholars and all of them are valid but this is another invalid interpretation is that he is the hablullah matin and it could also be the quran there's multiple interpretations but when you understand that you start to see the interrelated nature of this on how that it's the quran is also the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam it's the hablullah in other words is that you hold firmly on to him but when you hold firmly on to him you're holding firmly on to what he brought which is the quran to his son all of the other meanings they're all intertwined but when people truly understand who the prophet is is that they'll start to understand how all these all other meanings are interconnected through him if that makes sense so some say and hold firmly to the robot and do not be divided so then we have to bring up this issue of not seeing the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam so everything that we've set up to now we hope that someone's been convinced at this point and this verse here is a verse that could be used to point to the reality that there are people that look at the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam but they do not see him now this verse has more than one meaning but this is one of the meanings so okay so one of the meanings of this is that referring in relation to how they saw the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and you may see them facing towards you they're looking at you they're seeing you but they're not seeing you they're seeing you in terms of you're physically there but you're not rasul allah to them you're the your team of ben yahashem the orphan from ben yahashem is that you're this or you're that or you're someone who based upon their own polluted hearts wants power wants dominion wants control wants some material wealth of some sort as all that are things that disease souls that seek is that they have to that then project that on you so there's a lot of people during his time that saw him but they didn't see him they were looking at him but they did not see him whereas the companions looked at him but they saw him they knew who he was sallallahu alayhi wa sallam there was no generation of people that ever that knew who the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam really was like the companions and they do mention this is a lot ifa this is a subtle that these gems that you hear from your teachers as they say in the end of time when jesus son of mary comes back because he shares with the prophet nobu wa and risada prophethood and messengership is that he will be able to speak about the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in ways that no one else has spoken about that on earth and no matter how much the companions or any of the inheritors came to know about the problem after they're limited because they don't share with him nobu wa and risada whereas isa does so he's going to be speaking about the messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in ways that other people that don't realize haven't have yet to speak about and that's also another meaning is that if you really think about the beauty of this is that with all of these world conflicts if jesus was with us here right now alayhi sallam he would be on our side if moses was here right now he would be on our side he would be on our side against those who actually claim him against those who actually claim him that low were the moses is an abam to be is that he would have no choice other than to follow me if he was alive alayhi sallam and when isa comes back in the time he doesn't judge with the hukum of the injil that he judges with the hukum of the quran and of our prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam so this is very important this verse points one of this not the only meaning of this verse has other meanings as well this is one meaning that can be extrapolated from this is that there are people that will see him that look at him but not see him and what this indicates for us is that we need to be people who cultivate what is called a mishad a proper understanding literally an outlook of our prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam a proper conception and the scholars of the inward sciences have always said that this can be applied even to anything that you do athletics your career anything else is that you will only benefit from things to the extent that you see them as important so i could have this a bill right here right it could be a dollar bill or it could be a thousand dollar bill and if it was a thousand dollar bill i'm looking at that i'm like oh that's a thousand dollar bill and so if i just saw a thousand dollar bill right here what are you going to do with a thousand dollar bill right or just take the example of a check it's one dollar and there are a hundred thousand dollars is written on it's a piece of paper the young children are going to be oh it's a piece of paper right put it in their mouth it's a hundred thousand dollars but it's it's just a piece of paper i'm just scribbling a little bit you know me and draw something on it it doesn't mean anything to them they see the paper but they don't understand the worth of that paper is that a check that's worth a hundred dollars right there you could deposit of a hundred thousand dollars in your how are you going to treat that you're going to treat that very differently than it was a check for ten dollars or a hundred dollars so in other words is that two people can see the same thing but see it very differently and the more you understand the value of what it is that you see the more that you will then respond in relation to that if you have precious you really have things that are of great worth you tend to protect them you put more energy in to preserve them and likewise is that this is how it is in relation to our prophecy and the more we understand who he is is that the more than we are positioning ourselves to benefit from him sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and then you could go into a plethora of verses we will just focus on a few a plethora of verses that indicate the people being veiled by the human side of our prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and this can primarily refer to that disbelievers during his time sallallahu alaihi wa sallam but by extension it could also potentially refer to people that are veiled by who our prophet also is sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and the various degrees of knowing who he is so that if you look at this what they say mockingly what kind of messenger is this he eats food and goes about in marketplaces for a living if only an angel had been sent down with him to be his co-warner or a treasure had been cast down to him or he had a garden for which he may eat and the wrongdoers say to the people you are only following a be-witched man look at how many times Allah speaks about this in the Qur'an this is very important and so many of our people to this day this is where we have to put our minds together and really think about how we want to present the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam to our people but before we do that first and foremost with our own actions but if we don't understand him correctly and we're not exemplifying his sunnah it's going to be limited what we could do in terms of talking about him is that yes we have to do that but first and foremost it has to be reflected in us and this is getting back to that timeless duty of the prophets and the messengers and their inheritors this is what they're meant to do to cultivate these meanings that residing to you our signs or our revelations and purifying you that help when you transform live the realities of these teachings and then also that presenting to him by way of knowledge this is how our prophet was and this is the standard that we hold ourselves to such that when you see us following short you know that's us and not him but this is the way that we should be this is essential and understanding in depth understanding the psyche of the people of the time which we live what is preventing them from understanding prophethood and messengership what is preventing them from understanding the Prophet s.a.w. we have to do think very carefully how we as a community and can do things to change this perspective and to build bridges of understanding the means for this veil to be lifted from him so they can get beyond from just seeing this humans I learn alone a demonized version of who he was s.a.w. and understanding who he truly is and in this regard I whole heartedly believe is that we have to present the Sunnah of our Prophet s.a.w. and I'm unapologetically unabashed the in its entirety as it truly is and even if some things are a little bit uncomfortable people to hear in the long run you're much more likely to win them over when you speak to him as he truly is for instance when you read and I remember Sheikh Samar saying this when we were studying Sunnah term of the and it's a valuable point he feels that it's actually better and this is not taking from the genre of Shamal of learning about the Prophet's characteristics s.a.w. he says is that the greatest way to learn about the Prophet s.a.w. is also to study that all the different that aspects of his life as is presented in a comprehensive book like the Jamr Sahir Bukhari or the Sunnah of At-Tarmidhi and that you learn so much about you learn about him as aspects of Jamal and you learn about him as aspects of Jalal and when you present it right as opposed to in a very that apologetic sense of wanting people to accept that the Prophet s.a.w. fit them into their own narrow lens which has been affected by modernity that no really presenting him as he really is and talking about the wisdom in that yes his name he's the Nabi al-malahm he's the Prophet of battles and that famous that he's the Nabi al-Rahma that's how it starts he's the Prophet of mercy and he's the Nabi At-Toba and he's the Prophet of repentance but he's also the Nabi al-malahm he's the Prophet of battles and no one fought more just wars that were sanctioned by Allah solely for his sake than he did so license sacrificing everything and no one was more upright and just and moral even in the heat of the battle than he was so license and after the battle and then how he treated prisoners so license and then the akam that he left behind that regulate warfare so actually what people shy away from is actually a proof of who he is and people that know the way that the world really works and that there are times that you need to use force that are not going to be drawn towards Islam if you don't present the Prophet in his entirety that people really know that if you do and show is that they will see that his understanding and what he was given by Allah is superior and then everything else takes its place we are not people of war but we are people that we want peace we do not resort to war unless we absolutely have to and because our Prophet is muta khalaq bi akhalaq illa and we know that the merciful has outstripped his wrath the default position of the Prophet is he was mercy and he only moved to a firm response to the extent that it was needed based upon the people or peoples that were before him otherwise the default position is rahmah so whose fault is that that's their fault that his he was doing what he was commanded to do and even in some of those firm stances that he took they were all embedded with mercy in reality where someone to actually see so there's a lot of thought we have to do here in a very strategic way how are we presenting the messenger of Allah to our people and what are the creative ways that we can really get down to the nitty degree into effect that many of these frames of thinking that people have and the ideas that they have in relation to these core aspects of our Dean and then that to speak to people at different levels more intellectuals and well read people you're going to speak to them differently than people on the street and find out various techniques that different people based upon what they're able to do can that reach out to people in different ways and present our messenger this is of the utmost utmost importance and I think we need to stop for prayer here very soon so we'll end on this slide does that say the Prophet's human side so what is the correct way then to understand the human side of our Prophet's high center and I've learned this directly from our teachers is that the Prophet's human side is a door to understand his spiritual his special nature not the opposite that the some people think of the Prophet's human side in a way that limits their understanding of a special nature it's a door to it and this is evidenced by this verse that you see all before you that we've already quoted say oh Prophet I am only a man like you you highly but he's been revealed to me I receive revelation that your Lord is only one God and so in other words is that this is the progression that the Quran is teaching us the scholars of Shamal spoke about the physical characteristics of the Prophet's high center because he was the most complete perfect and beautiful human being of all even in relation to his physical stature from the way that his bones were from the way that his flesh was from the way that his physical features were this is why that they mention it everything about the Prophet's high center even in relation to his physical form reached the pinnacle he was the most beautiful human being ever and Yusuf was given a half of beauty but the Prophet was given all of beauty and here they say that were he not to have been clothed with majesty is that what happened to Joseph i.e. is that they ended up cutting their wrists because of his overwhelming angelic beauty is that that would have happened in relation to the Prophet but his beauty was clothed with Jalal and so from a distance people were in awe of him but when they got close to him oh they fell in love with him that's one of the most beautiful description of of all of this yet which is summarizes what happens when people enter into the prophetic preference look at the way this is even described whoever mixes with him such that they come to know him and they were up close then in his presence seeing his interactions seeing how he dealt with people seeing how he carried himself feeling what's happening to their heart when they're with him what happens they came to love him that's what happens and that's naturally what will happen if we present to the Prophet to our people Sala Lai Center first and foremost with our own states and then that also in relation to that knowledge of how he was this is what will happen and if that doesn't happen there's one of two things happening either we're not living up to how he is or we don't have correct knowledge to present him as he truly is or is that they are veiling themselves with their own ego and their preconceived notions but any human being naturally by virtue of their fitra if they didn't have any barriers would come to love the Prophet Sala Lai Center when they came into his presence but if they had that arrogance or that they had that ulterior motives and that if they have other diseases of the heart any or other things of this nature then they block themselves from the light the ego blocks the light the light is shining we block ourselves from the light by virtue of the ego because the ego is dense and it is a hijab that is kathif that is thick it blocks the light and so the human side of the Prophet Sala Lai Center is a door to know his special nature so understanding his physical characteristics his humanity and then leads to a knowledge of his character and all of his busted traits of how he is in relation to but that dimension of him and then leads to a knowledge of that his special qualities Sala Lai Center that's how we should view this inshallah tada we can stop there and go from here to that session what is supposed to be session two we kind of combined made session one kind of long that into these special qualities of the Prophet Sala Lai Center that let's break because I think we pray at 130 is that correct so that we can freshen up get ready to prepare and again if there are any questions anyone has this is that write them down and we'll do our best to get to any and all questions that people have what I call off you come a lot to give us to if you can bless us in all of our affairs and to give us knowledge of this religion and to worship him in a way that is pleasing to him my last upon I give us openings at all levels opens level of that our intellects and minds and opens of worship and openings at the spiritual level. Yeah, I mean by law protect us and preserve us and make faith firm in our hearts. Yeah, Allah and to build our spiritual music system such that we develop resilience and have an ability all our harmony to experience difficulties but to remain firm upon this path. Yeah, Allah was a lot I see Muhammad in my dad you serve you someone. Okay, so inshallah we can start just to take a few minutes if there's any questions that anyone has on any of the previous sessions because that they because of how special those people are right so when someone becomes beloved to Allah Allah that declares to Jibreel that he loves so and so and commands Jibreel to love him and then Jibreel declares to the angels in heaven that he loves so and so and it commands them to love him and then by extension is that people on the earth that also come to love them because I love for the sake of Allah so it's out of love actually. Yeah, any questions on sister side? Totally. Mashallah, great question, great question. So the question is about following the sunnah of our Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam. Is it how do we actually follow it? Do we follow every single detail? What does it really mean? And I think this is a very common question. Is it what does it mean to follow the sunnah of our Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam? And ultimately there's many dimensions to it. So there is a sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam in relation to belief. In other words is that the Prophet believed what the Quran taught him to believe. So how do we follow the sunnah? We believe as the Quran tells us to believe. Is that there's a sunnah in following the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam in terms of law, legal rulings, things you do and things you don't do. And so that the sunnah is to that follow the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam in relation to those specific rules. You fulfill the commandments and you avoid the prohibition. So we know our Prophet prayed five times a day. We know he fasted the month of Ramadan. We follow him in that. How did he used to do that? In detail, we follow him in that. And then we follow the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam in relation to character. What are the great traits of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam? And that trait by trait. He had mercy in his heart. We bring mercy into our heart. He was detached from the world. We bring that into our heart. He placed his trust in Allah. We place our trust in Allah. He loved Allah. We love Allah. He had compassion. We have compassion for him. He was tolerant and empathetic. We be tolerant and empathetic and so forth and so on. He didn't have envy or arrogance or ostentation. We follow him in that. So then it starts to get more and more fine tuned. We follow the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam in terms of his dealings. What were the general principles and how he used to deal with people? We first know that by the rights that we're supposed to give people. So when we learn about the whole concept of rights, the rights of parents, the rights of teachers, the rights of neighbors, the rights of your fellow Muslims, the rights of other people in humanity. Every time that you fulfill someone's right, you're following the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam at the base level. And then you know that beyond that, you're supposed to also have Ihsan and show excellence. So this is how it works, right? And then there's, for instance, what you call the sunnah of decision making. How did our Prophet make decisions? There's a way. So all of these details that we learn that open up the door for us to understand the comprehensive way in which we follow the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam. But I think a lot of people get confused because when they think of following the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam, they only think of very outward things, like a beard and a hijab and clothing. And surely that's part of the sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam. And we have principles about those, but those are not the only things. And it's a mistake to say that they're not important, but it's also a mistake to say that they're the only thing that's important. But I think, so this is where we have to really expand the horizons of our mind, what it means to follow the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam's sunnah. And that's just, everything I mentioned is just touching the surface. And then there's a lot more details there to follow. And I think it's important to note there is that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam is an objective reality that every single person of his ummah can subjectively relate to. And that's the miracle of it, is that there's a reality to the sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam. But then you can think of it like the sun, is that the sun shines on everything. But there's different ways in which the sun shines on different things, if you will. But also the source of it all ultimately is the sun. And what we want is our portion of reflecting the light of our Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam. Okay, should we get into a little bit of the material inshallah? Okay, so just to set the so right now it's 242. And what time is that prayer here? 445. Okay, so we want to give people time to freshen up. So we'll try to stop by 430. So we're going to do a session until about maybe 320. And then we'll pick back up and have one final session inshallah ta'ala. I may we'll go to about 330. We'll see how it goes. And then so we have two more sessions inshallah with a break in between. Time to prepare for Asr. Okay, so don't worry about session two here. Just look at what we're talking about. Now we're going to move to, and again the whole context here is about the Quran and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi alayhi sallam. And what we hope to have introduced is the greatest way that we can come to know the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam is through the Quran. And when we read the Quran carefully and we see how many times the Prophet is mentioned and how he's mentioned and what Allah says about him directly and indirectly is that then we come from that with a new conception this is the way that it should be. And don't worry at the end we're going to lay some broad strokes out of things that we can do moving forward to strengthen our connection with him sallallahu alayhi sallam. So this session is on the qualities of our Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam. And again this opens up a huge door. Look at what Allah says about him. So this is about the divine solicitude for the best of creation for the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam. This verse in Surat al-Tur, and so this comes in Surat al-Tur and we know that when Allah sallallahu alayhi sallam that says this, this actually in fact comes, this is the last, the second to last verse in Surat al-Tur, Surat al-Tur has 49 verses. And then Surat al-Tanajim comes right after it, the chapter on the star. And the first verses in Surat al-Tanajim, some interpret them as the Prophet that seen the Archangel Gabriel but some say it can also value to be interpreted as a reference to the Prophet s night journey and ascension into the Divine Presence, into Heaven and ultimately into the Divine Presence. And so what is really interesting to note here is that our loss of penalty that is saying to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam was better. So be patient with your Lord s decree. In other words, everything that you're going through, all of the persecution, the hate that you're experiencing, just imagine, how could you ever hate the Prophet? People, there was time, there was people who hated the Prophet. Like what an indication of the existence of Allah is that the fact that there are even atheists, the fact that there's even people that could hate them, but how could you ever hate the Prophet s sallallahu alayhi sallam? And what did Allah say in the shani aqa? Who are the ebtur? The one who hates you, the one who loves you, he is the one who is cut off. When they said, Batara Muhammad, is that when the Prophet s that male son, male child passed away, they say, Batara Muhammad and that's what it means is as that his lineage was cut off. And then Allah s sallallahu alayhi sallam revealed, Al-Taynaka Al-Kawthar. And the broader meaning of them than thinking that there's not good associated with the Prophet. And Allah says, Inna Al-Taynaka. Inna, emphasizing, indeed, we have given you Al-Kawthar. Kawthar is a Sifa Thawal, that it's a Sifa Mubalighat to emphasize the meaning. We have given you abundant good. And literally the Kawthar is a river in paradise that flows into the basin of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi sallam. And then it relates to all of the good that our Prophet has been given by Allah, in all of its manifestations, for him and his ummah here in this world and in the hereafter. So a specific means and then it has broad means, and this is the multiple layers of interpretation of Allah s book. Inna Al-Taynaka Al-Kawthar. And then some of them say that the Kawthar also specific refers to the Ahl-Bait. Because the context of the verse, Fasalli Rabbika Wanhar. So play to your Lord and that sacrifice, Inna Shaniaka Huwadabtar. The one who loves you, he is the one who's cut off. You're saying that his lineage is cut off. You are the one that's cut off from all good and we've given him all good, sallallahu alayhi sallam. And this is why that what's the du'a that the Prophet made on the wedding night of Sayyidina Ali and that Sayyid al-Faltima. Allahumma Aakhirij Minhum Al-Kathir Al-Tiyyid. Allah bring forth many pure and good people from their minds. And so we call them Al-Hal-Bait Al-Tahir, the purified household of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi wa sallam. And in some places is that when this verse is recited is that people say sallallahu alayhi sallam wa alayhi. Is that they praise upon the Prophet and his family. Because one of the meanings of the Kawthar refers to in other words is that we know by way of Hadith as even though the Prophet had four daughters is that his Durya, his lineage by way of divine decree was through Sayyid al-Faltima. And that he that affirmed patrilineal lineage but then he says that my lineage is special it is through Sayyid al-Faltima. And especially in particular that through Sayyidina Ali and Sayyid al-Faltima. Sayyid al-Ali had other children after the return of Sayyid al-Faltima to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala but they're not considered to be Ahal-Bait they're considered to be Ahal-Bait. The dominant opinion is that Ahal-Bait is broader than Ahal-Bait. Ahal-Bait are those who it's not permissible for them to receive zakah. And they're the believers from Bani Hashem and according to other scholars like the Shafi'iyah that also Bani Mat'alab. And that when the Prophet made this du'a, this is what we've seen for centuries. Is that how many of the great awliya of the past have been from Ahal-Bait al-Rasulillah. And ultimately anyone who has taqwa has the opportunity to be from the people of lala. Allah knows best where to place his message. And there's something that the Ahal-Bait has that is very special in relation to their interpretation of the Quran in every single generation but also in relation to their preservation of the sunnah. And these are topics that are very important but we're not going to go into too much detail in. So here Allah is commanding about, be patient with your Lord's decree. Everything that you are going through all of your difficulties, all of these calamities, know that you are truly under our watchful eyes. Wow, that's really powerful. That is powerful. That what is Allah saying is that Allah is declaring that how beloved that His Prophet is to him. This is showing the divine solicitude, the divine care of Allah for the Prophet. And again, were you only to see the outward, there was times where it looked like the Prophet was being humiliated. There was times where he was prostrating and people came and poured that feces from animals on him as he's in a state of prostration. There was times where people are fighting him, insulting him, pushing him out of his seat, throwing rocks at him, spitting on him, pushing him. And if someone would see that, our hearts would be torn into pieces because it's the best of creation. We wish we could be ransom for him. And like the Sahab was about to be thrown into a pot with boiling oil. And don't you wish that the message of Allah was in your place? No. It says, I would that I wouldn't that trade this position for the Prophet to be poked by a thorn. Not only my life, I would choose this over the Prophet being poked by a thorn. This is the way they were. They understood their team. And so when you recognize that, then you recognize is that even when the Prophet outwardly seemed like he was being humiliated, the reality was his remembrance was raised with Allah. And if we maintain the principles of our Deen, it will always lead to a good result. And we have this beautiful concept, which is Quranic. That one of the two goods, either you die as a martyr, and this is in the context of battle, but also relates to the battleground of life. Or is it your given victory? Is you come out on top? It's a win-win situation for the believer. It's always a win-win situation if you and I stick to our principles. That is the key. And so outwardly, our Prophet went through a lot of difficulty. But the reality behind that is that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala was watching over him and granting him his divine solicitude in a way that he never shown to anyone before him or after him. Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And so how do we interpret all of those things? In other words, this is the nature of how people who are beloved to Allah live here in this world. In other words, is that the believer to the extent of our iman, we will actually expect tribulations. What a different perspective. Nobody wants to bring difficulty upon themselves. But the mindset as a believer is that I'm going to go through tribulations. And like anything else, if you go into a situation where you're ready to face something and you know that you're about to have a shot with a needle or something, you can brace yourself so it's less painful. But if it just happens out of the blue, it might be more painful because you weren't ready for it. If mentally that we approach life like, hmm, I could experience difficulties at any moment. And there might be serious difficulties. I just read recently that something I didn't know that Imran Ibn Hussein, the famous companion of the Prophet Hussein who used to hear the teslim, the salam of the melaika, is that he was bedridden for 30, I think 33 years of his life before he met his lord. Imagine being bedridden for 33 plus years. Wow. And imagine how horrible that would be. No one wants that. You don't make, you ask Allah for Afya. But when someone came to him and was showing so much empathy and felt sorry for him, is that he looked at that person and says, this is the decree of my lord and this is what is most beloved to me. Because it's the decree of my lord. We don't ask for it, but if Allah sends it your way, these are people of iman. And they said that this is the decree of my lord. What a meaning. Imagine if you and I had even something of that in our heart. And our perspective was, is that we expect to be tried as long as we're here in this world. It will be very different than what we're tried. What we hope is, is that we have a portion of this reality. And I asked Sheikh Sam with this question, this is coming. We talk about the kafir khitab. Now Allah speaking to the prophet in the second person and that he said it was a correct meaning. To the extent that we are close to the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, it is to the extent that we will have our portion of the kafir khitab i.e. when Allah speaks to the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam directly in the Quran in the second person. In other words, to the extent that we're close to the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, it is to the extent that it is as if Allah is also addressing us with that kafir khitab. And to the extent that we're distant from him is to the extent that we're distant from that reality. So in other words, is that the closer that we follow the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and the more this very verse also applies to us with the ups and downs of our own life. And the same command is also for us. Be patient with your Lord's decree. Endure, have fortitude. If you live right and you follow my beloved, is that know that you're also under our watchful eyes. We're taking care of you. And these will be tribulations of those that are beloved to me. What a meaning. And what a beautiful perspective. And then let's keep going. So if we move to the next slide, the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is the greatest beloved. Some of you refer to him as al-Habib al-A'lam. He's the Habib al-A'lam. He's the greatest beloved of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And look in Surah Taha, when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, وَأَلْقَيْتُ عَلَيْكَ مُحَبَّةً مِنْ مِيْ I showered you with my love. And that here, that this relates, it's a khitab first and foremost the prophet Moses alayhi sallam. But the context of Surah Taha, if you look from the beginning, Taha, which is one of the names of the best of creation sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, وَأَلْقَيْتُ عَلَيْكَدْ كُرْعَنَ الْتَشْقَةُ We did not reveal the Quran to you so that you would be miserable. And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala goes on to recount the story of Moses. And in the story of Moses that it goes on actually for quite a bit. And then Allah ta'ala eventually gives us a summary of the life, excuse me, of Sayyidina Musa. And how is it he inspired his mother to cast him into the river and that put him in the taboot. And then he was that it cast him upon the shore. And then that his enemy, the enemy of Allah, the Pharaoh, is it and took him. But what is Allah ta'ala to say, look at the context of this verse, it's really aji. And the taboot, they put him in the taboot, the box of the chest. Fak di fihi falyam, cast him in the river. And he was cast from the river onto the shore. And any of mine and any of his will take him. Look at the context of the story. Right? This is when many Israel's being persecuted. The men are being killed and the women are being spared. And Moses is that miraculously taken in by the Pharaoh himself. And the whole reason they're killing the men is because they were aware that there would be someone from Bini Israel that would lead to his demise. Just to show the power of Allah. And that meaning extends to us to the same day. There will be people that grow up in the belly of the beast, in countries like the one in which we live and in other places in the world. And despite all of the fitna, everything that's out there that could lead them astray and cause them to disbelieve or to live a terrible life is that Allah will shelter some of them and protect them and grant them guidance and help them be firm upon the path and maintain istiqama and be upright before him. Whether they were born into Islam or whether they converted at a certain point. And so in the context of this, look at this. An enemy of mine and an enemy of his that takes him. And then amidst all of that, I have showered you with my love of Moses. Despite outwardly how this is looking, it's a dismal situation. How is this even going to work? And Allah is saying to him that I have cast my love. I've showered my love upon you, O Moses. So that you will be brought up under my watchful eye. Allah, this is so powerful. There are people that are grown, go up in the United States of America. And again, either into a Muslim family, they're born or accept this religion. And they are raised under the watchful eye of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, despite the difficulties of their time. And they have on the seed, they have their portion of this, where the Lord of the heavens and the earth is saying, Allah is saying, I've showered you with my love. What is that? What does that mean? What is Moses experience? And so, this ultimately is tesliah for the prophesiesam. Allah is bringing solace to the prophesiesam, just as your brother in prophethood, Moses, also was persecuted and went through unimaginable difficulties. So you do too. But no, in the midst of all of that, in reality, it's because I love you. And if that's a relation to see the Moses, the greatest beloved is the best of creation, Sallallahu alaihi wa alaihi wa sallam. And then, keep reading in Surah Taha, Allahu Akbar. What does he say next? The prophet is the chosen one. So that comes in verse 39 of Surah Taha. And then we learn about that his sister and how she suggested that she knew some of the could take care of Moses because he wasn't nursing. And that he was eventually returned to his mother. And so that she would be pleased and she would not grieve. And then Moses mistakenly kills the eqipti. And then Allah Ta'ada that saved him from that distress. Wa fatanaka fatuna. We tried you in all different ways. Look at that. Wa fatanaka fatuna. Allah scribes this to himself. And we're referring to say, no, Moses, we've just tried you in all different types of ways. That here the fatuna is emphasis. Wa fatanaka fatuna. All of these different tribulations. But again, what's the context of them? Fala bista sanina fi ahli mad-dina. You live for many years amongst the people of Median. Then you came to the appointed time of Moses. And what does Allah say? This is one of the most amazing things of all. The Lord of the heavens and earth is saying, I have chosen you for myself. Allah Jalla Jalla is saying, I have chosen you of Moses for myself. What kind of individual is that? The Lord of the heavens and the earth is saying, was tanatuka, I have chosen you. I've literally created you for me. What do you think Allah is going to give us for an event like that? And if that's as great as this with Moses, then what about with Rasulullah? What about the messenger of Allah, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, that meaning moves your heart. And this is that side of things that we're referring to. We said there's an outward and there's an inward dimension. Is that there's a sharia dimension and a haqiqah dimension. This is the haqiqah dimension. And this meaning from the bounty of Allah extends to the entire ummah throughout the centuries. And everything that the ummah has gone through, the ummah has gone through severe tribulations, severe tribulations throughout the centuries. And every time people think that we're going to put out the light of Islam, it never happens and it never will happen. This affair belongs to Allah. And just when people think that they have power and control, is usually when it's carpet is pulled from underneath their feet. And Allah ta'ala will allow certain things to happen in order to try us. But then it reaches a certain point where khalaas is that justice happens. Or people are taking the task or they're punished here in this world. Or that the tide turns. This is the nature. But do you see the importance of understanding this? Is that this gives us a perspective when we understand world events and current events, how it is that you and I need to be. And it doesn't mean that we don't do anything. But it has to be a sacred activism that is rooted in the principles of our Deen that begins with our own selves and then extends to doing anything and everything that we can within the realm of what is permissible. And with the added dimension, the nuance is that not everybody has to do the same thing. Everybody has to play their role. And to use their divine God-giving gifts to do what it is that they can do. And then collectively, if we all are doing what it is that we're doing, while we rectify ourselves, we know for sure Allah will change our condition. And this is the truth. This is the way that they would have always understood it. And this is why that their approach has never changed over the past 1400 years. The principles are the same despite everything that happens. So to further this meaning. So again, we're talking now about the special qualities of the Prophet's learning how beloved the Prophet is to Allah as we see in the Book of Allah. Not even moving to the hadith or not even moving to anything else. This is the best way to do this. Look at this verse in Surat al-Baqarah. Allah Ta'ala says, is that indeed we see as an extra eye there. Oh Prophet turning your face towards heaven. Now we will make you turn towards a direction of prayer that will please you. So again, Allah is saying that he saw the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam turning towards heaven. And that the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam wanted the qiblah to be changed to Madin Atamaka Al-Mukarrama. The initial qiblah was of course towards the Quds towards Jerusalem. And Allah Ta'ala then says, we will make you turn towards a direction of prayer that will please you. And one of the things that Sayyidah Aisha noticed about the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam in his relationship with Allah, she said this beautiful statement. Indeed your Lord hastens to make you pleased to give you what you want. She notices and of course the way we view this is Allah only put in the heart of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam what it is that He wanted to give him. So when the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam wanted something it was only what Allah wanted because Allah would only put in the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam what He wanted to give him. So when the Prophet wanted something, he was giving it. That's amazing. And here it says, is that we are going to give you a qiblah. Allah could have just said, we're going to give you a direction of prayer. But that you are pleased with Allah saying this about the Prophet. So this is one that we all know that we've heard. But really no matter how many times that you look at this, is that it never ceases to amaze you. It's so amazing. Say oh Prophet, and this is a whole other dimension, how many times in the Quran is Allah say Qul. And this is how we'll talk about this in the next session. How many times does Allah say Qul? And what He's doing is, He's telling the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam to say, say oh Prophet. And so Allah is commanding the Prophet then to say this and then we learn what it is that can then convey. Say that if you love Allah, if it was the claim that they love Allah. So there's a lot of people out there that claim religion, claim that they are good people. Claim that they love Allah. Claim that they want to draw near to God. But Allah is saying, say oh Prophet, if you love Allah, then the sign that you love Allah is Fettibyuni. Follow me, do what I do, say what I say, act as I act, be as I am. And then your bihbqam Allah, what is more precious and more valuable and greater and more magnificent and splendid and illustrious and just keep going on and on and on then becoming beloved to Allah. What is greater than that? There's nothing greater than that in existence than to become beloved to Allah. The only thing that comes after that is to receive the divine contentment. And so Ramul Azad he says something beautiful. He says that the only station after the station of love is the station of contentment. And the reason that the righteous ask for the station of commitment because they realize is that the secret to the perpetual gaze upon the noble countenance of Allah eternally was the divine contentment after having become beloved to Allah. That is the richest and greatest meaning in existence. Nothing is greater than that. If anything motivates us, it should be that which motivates us. If anything moves us, it should be that which moves us. That is why we live. And if someone attains that by having a bomb dropped upon them and dies suddenly without realizing it, they've attained the greatest thing that you can possibly attain. If someone attains that by living a long life into their 90s then they've attained the greatest thing. However it is that someone attains that we ask Allah for love, we don't ask Allah. I'm speaking now from the standpoint of Haqqika, don't misquote me. But the point is if you attain that, you have attained everything. Nothing is more precious than that meaning. And I would like to ask maybe not so much in the MCC community because you have great Khatibs that speak here in Jomar. But a lot of people have never heard this meaning their entire life. It's amazing. How could you never have heard this in your life? You all have good people here in this community. Shek Hamza, Imam Zayi, and on and on and on and on and on. All the blessed teachers have attained all the blessed teachers in this community. You have Qadi Omar, all these blessed people. These are meanings you all are used to here hearing. But there are people quite literally who've never heard that in their life. The best thing that you can possibly achieve and attain, there's people who've never heard that meaning. What a tragedy, a travesty rather. That is unbelievable. We should talk about this day in and day out. This should motivate us to do everything that it is that we do. And it is because, is that the love of Allah directly equates to us experiencing the sweetness of faith. This is when faith becomes sweet. This is when you love to make dhikr. This is when your shahwa for dhikr is stronger for your shahwa than even the greatest shahawat and desires that exist in this world. And this is what we, how we want to be. And that, as that one of them said in poetry form, there's people that are out there that their shahwa is dhikr Allah, to remember Allah. That becomes their shahwa, what they like to do, what they enjoy. You put them alone in a dark room that's tight and constricted and with no one else around, no one to bother them. And they're as happy as could possibly be. And their heart expands and they're just remembering their Lord. And the sweetness that is brought to their heart is greater than any desire that anyone could ever experience in this world. Any drug that can possibly alter your mind or produce any type of euphoric feeling. What these people experience is greater than all of that. There's no comparison. And it's halal. It's permissible. And that it's intoxicating spiritually. And this happens when you tap into these meanings. And the door to that is Rasulullah. He's the door. And his inheritors. And these traditions that we have of chains of transmission back to him. When you connect them, these are the same. This is what they want from their students. They want their students to become beloved to Allah. And then think about how this person then is fulfilling their duty here on earth. Their heart is with Allah. Their shahwa, their desires are Allah and remembrance of Allah. And their desire ultimately is to meet Allah. And they don't even want to remain here in this world other than to to get more good deeds to prepare themselves for the meeting with Allah. Now imagine a person who's like that. And then they're serving in the world for some cause that needs to be served. What do you think their impact is going to be? Precisely because they're so detached, they're going to be that disproportionately effective to the degree that they're detached. The more detached, the more effective and beneficial that they're going to be. And these are the meanings that we need. These are the meanings that make us whole. So now let's look at a series of verses here. I'd also point to many of these special qualities of Rasulullah. And so the law, which is what? The contentment. I didn't translate that because it wouldn't fit on the title. It's a long title. Is the law of Allah? This is Quran. In other words, when the Prophet was content with something, it was an indicator that the Lord of the heavens and the earth is content. Think about the meaning, that meaning. Really, these are very, this is really profound. So Allah says, They swear by Allah to you believers in order to please you. Okay, the Munafiqah on the hypocrites. Well, it is the pleasure of Allah and his messenger. They should seek if they are true believers. It doesn't come across in translation. But if you look very carefully at the Arabic. That's dual in Arabic because you have Allah and his messenger. But then Allah says, Have more right. And Yerudu Hu. So, Is to be content. Allah Yerudu is to make content. Okay, so if I say Yani, I made him content. So here Allah is saying, Is that Allah and his messenger, which again that's the dual, Have more right for you to please him. Literally, Yerudu Hu. It Allah didn't say, And Yerudu Hu. So the wisdom that some of them are going to point out, Everything is perfectly placed in the Quran. The fact in Yerudu Hu, Even though it's a mention of Allah and his messenger, Indicates it had a ridah. The ridah of the Prophet is the ridah of Allah. That is the meaning taken directly from the Book of Allah. In can and what we need. Indeed, they are true believers. What a meaning. And the companions understood this. Is that when they made the Prophet happy, They realized, Is that it was leading, It would lead to the contentment of Allah. And think about the story of Abu Musa Al-Ashaadi. When he was leading the prayer, When he was praying, rather, And the Prophet walked by at night, Sayyidina Abu Bakr and Sayyidina Omar. And he heard him reciting. And then Sayyidina Abu Bakr beat it, Omar to it. And he told Abu Musa Al-Ashaadi, The great glad times of what the Prophet had said. The Prophet loved his recitation of Abu Musa. And he says, He's been given a flute from the flutes of the house of David. Indicating the beauty. Just imagine the hymns that David alaihi salam used to recite. There was a sister, She said, Calm her sister. This is a really melodic sister. She actually saw the power system in the dream Before she became Muslim. And then eventually became Muslim. And that one of her intentions is, Is that to live in a way such that, On Yom Muqyama, She can hear Dawud alaihi salam recite his hymns. In an incredible beautiful way. What a Munawar intention. What an enlightened intention. And when your heart is attached to things like these, These are the type of things that Allah gives you, When your heart is attached to them. This is why we want our heart to be early. We want our heart to be Samawi. We want our heart to be celestial. We want our hearts to be heavenly. We want our hearts to be attached to high things. And your heart gets attached to high things, By speaking about them. By reading about the stories of the righteous, Who are gifted these great things. And when you read about them, You start to attain Matalim, And things that you can seek that you didn't even know was present. So another example of that is, Is that one of our Shukhs said, Is that there will be people, Who are so close to the Prophet Sallalaihi Salam, On the Day of Judgment. Is that when he's inspired with those Muhammad, Those words of praise that he said in this world, He did not know right now. That he'll be inspired with them. And whereby which he will be differentiated From all of creation, Even Abraham, let alone everyone after him, Will realize who the Prophet is, And why he was preferred over them. He said there will be some people, Who will be so close to the Prophet Sallalaihi Salam, Is that they'll hear those words of praise, With their own ears. There will be people who, That have the sira of the Prophet, Recounted to them the Prophet's life story, By the Prophet himself. This is not found in a verse, Or found in a hadith of the Prophet Sallalaihi Salam, That these are meanings that come to the people of Nuremberg and Bolsigorah. They're not wajib beliefs, That you don't have to believe this 100%, But I wouldn't deny it either. These are coming from trustworthy sources. And these are latayaf. That learning things like that, That's something that's possible. Then you long for it. You long for it. And when you start longing for these meanings, That's a very good sign. That your heart is different. And these meanings have to be cultivated, In environments of faith and iman and Nure. And once the heart is saturated, This is what happens. You become Samawi. And this is what, How we're supposed to be. And what Sayyidina Adi said to, That Khomein, his blessed companion, And that, When he asked him about the true Ulama Al-Aminin, And he went, started by saying, That Khomein, There are people, That true knowledge, Has rushed them, To experiencing the reality of the affair. The true nature of reality. So they experience the spirit of utmost solitude. And then he goes on to describe them, That they are people, That what were their hearts like? Sahiba dunya bi-abdanihim. They lived in the world with their physical bodies. But their hearts are attached to the supreme assembly. The celestial realm. Out where they're in the dunya, They're with people, But their hearts are different. This is what we're being called to, Where we only to realize, This is our Dean. And once you realize that, Reality exists, And it becomes part of your reality, All of the affairs of this world are easy for you to process. No matter what happens, If someone has that. But if we're bereft of that, And we think that the only thing here is this world, To the degree that we think that, Is to the degree that we'll suffer. If this is all that we have, You don't want to lose it. But when you realize that actually, This is what it's about. And the also is, Is that everything we do is for the hereafter. It's one of the most oft quoted verses. How many times your parents might even have told you this, What I attend, Sahiba dunya. Don't forget your portion of this world. And certainly that we're not telling people to Not have their worldly affairs intact. No, have your worldly affairs intact. Get an education, Have a career, Get your stuff together, Do what you gotta do. Right, but no, that's only part of the story. And you have to do that ultimately for the sake of it. Quote the verse from the beginning. Wabta ghi, Fima ataq, Allahu ad-Dar al-Akhirah. Seek through what Allah has given you, The abode of the hereafter. That's the also, that's the foundation. Is that, It's actually the opposite meaning to the way that people quote it. With what Allah has given you, Seek the hereafter, Use everything that you've been given For the abode of the hereafter, For the hereafter. Wala tinsan, We'll see what come in the dunya. Don't forget your portion of the world. So now people use it opposite. Is that we all know that the vast majority of us Is that we're steeped in dunya. What we need is a little bit more akhira. And you start talking a little bit more akhira, People start getting really worried like, Oh my God, please. I don't want them to leave school. And then parents are between a rock and a hard spot. They don't want their kids. Sometimes we're too religious. But they don't want them to be irreligious. They don't want to practice too much. But then they get worried When they start going off the deep end. It's like, what's wrong with you? Right. Just practice religion correctly. From the right people. And have your dunya together. That we should, That know the true meanings of womanhood And manhood. And what it means to be responsible. And what it means to work. If you're working hard For the sake of Allah Ta'ala to provide For your family, You are fi sabilillah. And you're getting the reward For an obligation in doing so. And if you die working, You die and get the reward of a shahid, You're fi sabilillah. When you're working to support your family. And that, Especially when Allah make everything easy For you all here in the baria, La hola wara quwwata rabbillah. Pennsylvania is a lot cheaper. I'll tell you that. And people have to work hard here. Just to put food on the table. Subhanallah. And that we have to appreciate The hard work that people do. Even if they have to work long hours, We don't have the luxury Of just closing up shop Like people did in previous times Where they own their own store or something. And just, Okay, I've had enough. I'm going home for the day. That we live in a very valuable time And that has to be respected. The amount of time. And we can't make people feel guilty. You don't spend enough time with me. You don't spend enough time with the kids And things like that. Ya'ani Is that if someone is consciously doing that Because they don't want to spend time with the kids. That's something else. But if they're doing that To make ends meet And to provide a good living In a household And put the food on the table That has to be supported and appreciated. And people shouldn't be guilt-tripped for it. Anyhow, we want to have hearts. Ultimately, even though we're Sahiba dunya We're outwardly We're, look, Exists in the room. But our hearts Are attached to the mele ala. And these are why we sing beautiful poems. Because for those moments Is that when we recite those poems It's a time for us to y'all To remember what's truly important. And they say the secret of nashid Is that the natural Proclivity within the human being To love beautiful sounds And to love beautiful sights Comes from the divine address When he that spoke to us In the pre-earth realm Was said, alas to buta bukura And not your lord. And so naturally We incline towards beautiful sounds. And especially that When we hear beautiful poetry Poetry was recited during the time of the Prophet's life center. And when you add to it A beautiful lehan A beautiful melody It doesn't change the political ruling As long as the words are good And those means then uplift us. Or then we remind ourselves Mmm And the beautiful thing is in traditional societies They've woven this Into the fabric of their society. So you see this at lunches You see this at gatherings You see this even at weddings You see this at all different types Of social functions Where there's constant reminders Of what it is that our hearts should be inclining towards And unfortunately that we still just live This very dry reality of Islam And that it might suffice for salvation But to reach the higher stations That we need to think about things in a different way So when Sayyidina Abu Bakr Siddiq told Abumal Said Ash-Shari That the Prophet had praised his recitation He came to the Prophet and said Ya Rasulullah Why to have known that you were listening That I would have embellished my recitation In the very best of ways Astaghfirullah That's a riyat That's ostentation Astaghfirullah That's a riyat To tell someone that you would have recited better for them If they were listening That's a riyat That's ostentation In a normal circumstance And now with the Prophet Because he knew that if the Prophet was content with him That meant Allah was content with him He understood this meaning He was a master of Quran He understood Allahu Rasulah Hakkun Yerduhu So they wanted to please the Prophet Because they knew if they pleased him They're pleasing Allah And the Prophet didn't say Astaghfirullah Don't please him Only please Allah Right? That's not what he said That the Prophet did not That rebuke him And it would have been wajib for him To correct his understanding If it was wrong Sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi wa sallam So this is how they were They knew the value of the prophetic contentment And for us We don't get to see the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam But if we live in a way that's pleasing to him You will have confirmations in the dream world From the Prophet himself Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Indicating to you That you're on the right path That you're doing the right thing And we should all long for that The way that the companions long to Receive the approval from the Prophet During their lifetime This door is open until Yomu Qiyamah For his ummah To see him in a dream And to have an experience with him Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam It is now 3.30 Okay We'll wrap this up inshallah To the next session And then move to the next part The isnilaytada What does that say? The blessing of Allah We'll stop here Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam We'll stop you sending Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam We'll stop you sending Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam We'll stop you sending Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam So let's take about a 10 minute break Until 3.40 And then we'll come back And do one final session Insha'Allah wa ta'ala Please keep your questions And we'll talk about We can entertain them In the beginning of the next session Be in the night time Okay We have a little bit more work to do This won't be a full session Are there any other Brave questions that anyone has On anything that we've taken Or anything unrelated Anything else that is on your mind Although we can just pass the mic And that request was from them To speak right into it So the people on the live stream Can hear you All right Just a minute Is it on there? I can still not hear you I was wondering is it beneficial To learn about the other topics? Or Or is it enough To learn and love the problem? Masha'Allah Because he essentially perfected his loving Yeah Absolutely So the question is Is it good to learn about the other prophets Other than the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Or is it sufficient to learn About the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam So from the standpoint of Aqidah From the standpoint of creed and belief Were actually required To believe in 25 prophets All of them are mentioned in the Quran So in general we believe that there was There was a hadith that says There was 124,000 prophets And because of the level of the hadith The scholars say Allahu Adam There might have been more So we say we believe 124,000 plus prophets And then there's We say that we believe that 313 of them But again we don't say definitively Because of the nature of how that hadith has been established There's been 313 prophets Excuse me Messengers that have been given books 25 of whom were required to believe And detailed by name And they're mentioned in the Quran So from that standpoint It's an obligation to learn The names of the other prophets And in general Is that The greatest prophet that we can learn about Is the prophet Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam But it's also good to learn about the other prophets And to That read the various stories in the Quran About the other prophets And the Quran also Encourages us to learn about other special people From the past you have like the Ashab al-Kath The companions of the cave Or the sleepers of the cave You have the whole chapter on that Mary And she was not a prophetess She was a suddika She was a great saint And that someone who reached the highest Who reached the closest to Allah And that we also have other stories Of other pious people That we learn about in the last book Indicating to us in general The importance of loving the people of Allah So it's a good thing to learn about all of the people that Allah has blessed But the most time we should spend is on the prophet Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam But it's also good to learn about the others And we know quite a bit about the prophet Jesus We know quite a bit about the prophet Moses And some of the other prophets And that it's good to learn about them But ultimately one of the fruits of that learn about them Is also that we also recognize the great distinction of our own prophet In relation to them Because he's the Imam of all of them So, yeah Brother? Mm-hmm I'm so known for that It's coming to you, the microphone I work in a prison And I would appreciate any advice you could give me For the Muslims in the prison We have a great example in Malik Al-Hajjabaz, Malcolm And I always remind them of that But any advice you could give To help the brothers that are in prison Would be appreciated Beautiful I'm going to ask my brother Oscar To comment two minutes on that And then I'm going to jump in So hand that to me Okay, I want to hear what he has to say And I'm going to jump in after You shall Bismillah So what I would just say and again That you know better Because you're in that environment Right? And I've never been at chaplain That when I've been in with fellow chaplains My visits have been very brief And the one thing that I'll say Is that the brothers that I've seen That are in prison That are adhering to Islam Is that they're probably Some of the closest people that I've seen They remind me of the Sahaba And the companions of the Messenger of Allah And it's amazing Right? And I'm like Are you giving dawah to me Or am I giving dawah to you? Right? Because the way they affect you Because how they have to be about it In their situation But I really think genuinely If the It could be cultivated into the heart The importance of learning And studying the religion And appreciating that I think this is one of the greatest things That can happen And that the stories that I hear From like our brother Shikrami Ansour And everything he's doing through Tawba And that how transformative it is Is that when you have people That really embrace this tradition So there's a knowledge component And that I think That if that could really be cultivated Where people start taking knowledge seriously And then if it's possible That obviously there's limits in that situation How polarized it is And how one has to stay with Their own particular group And be very careful about who they bring in From other groups But to not forget the dawah imperative To the extent possible Where there is a active calling of people To the truth of Islam And I think those two things are in general Though I would encourage anyone But especially our brothers That are in that situation Is too that cultivate in the meanings Of wanting to learn And then provide for them resources To go in depth in their deen And remind them Of the importance of even being in that situation Of that importance of dawah And the example there is one of Seyna Yusuf Who gave dawah even while he was locked up Even while he was in prison It didn't prevent him from That calling to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala And then within that process of learning All of the meanings that are there To help someone given the incredible difficulty Of being in that situation To get by And to never lose hope Into then cultivate the heart So that it's oriented towards the afterlife Is it to the extent that that happens Is to the extent that Allah will give them A resilience where in which They'll be able to overcome that situation They're in to prepare for the hereafter That's not easy to do It's very easy to speak about Much more difficult to actually Practically implement But just the limited knowledge I haven't experienced That's what comes to my mind Beautiful May Allah give you tofiq And bless you in all of your affairs And what I hope is that our community Reaches a level of maturity Where is that all of these dividing lines That naturally exist by virtue Of this polarized society in which we live Is that we don't uphold those same Stereotypes and same dividing lines Muslims should be able to get beyond all of that And that we need to recognize That we are collectively an umma abadi And that we should be concerned About everyone in a very real way And resist the urge To remain comfortable in our own silos And that I'm hoping that we can do Much better than we've been doing There is some promising work But we have a long long long way to go And where people only to realize That how much benefit can that If I speak in a specific sense come from Our brothers that are giving dawah That's in prison and the needs That when they get out This is some of the most important work of all That we absolutely have to support So may Allah give you tofiq And give you strength And I'm hoping that the community Realizes the importance of these types of initiatives And get behind you and support you And support the brothers And that you can provide other opportunities For other people when they get out But also prevent people from going in In a very real way In a very real way Unfortunately many of the most important initiatives Are the least funded And the ones that people care about the least And that were people only to realize The dawah opportunities are a lie Even for those that are still inside But we don't tend to direct resources towards that And that were we only to realize the opportunity there We would direct a significant amount of resources From our community And that actively train people We should have a nationwide program Where we want 10,000 new chaplains In the next 20 years That are going to be placed in every That prison That we can You can actually have people in nationwide And that supporting materials Different ways of teaching initiatives And things of that nature We have to take this seriously And hopefully things will get better Insha'Allah We'll go over here too We'll stop if it was your name, right? I'll have you In Arabic or in English? You write your site Arabic, right? You read Arabic? Allahumma salli wa sallam So In English Um It's hard to beat Martin Ling's Sira In English It's a really, really good Sira It's really hard to That beat that Now there's probably about 10 to 15 other A bridge books are now out There's a lot of good Translations of Sira In English nowadays And they all tend to be a little bit more abridged I say Martin Ling's because That goes into a little bit more depth And it's very, it's very well written But I'm going blind blink right now Give me a second here I know this one I'm missing Dr. Ali Ramami What would you recommend? Or Sira books in English? Thank you Sultan Sultan of the hearts Very good book Thank you You just sparked my mind So I would start with like a Martin Actually I would start with even more abridged one Right Move to Martin Ling's Okay And then go to the Sultan of the Hearts And then go to the two volume This is one of the larger books Of the Smyr Zaid Is it in English? The prophetic narrative The prophetic narrative And that's two thick volumes So now you have your work cut out for you For the next like year or two So I would move from Martin Ling Sira To Sultan of the Hearts Which is very good I think it's Rashid Hailemas Hailemas And then the prophetic narrative Which is written by Smyr Zaid And then translated by N.C. Tamara Gray And a couple others I think So those are the ones that are in English Are in Arabic I mean, Ya Allah There's a The Mawahab al-Ad-Dunia by Muhammad Qustalani Is just mind blowing As well as it's abridgment Al-Anwar al-Muhammadiyah By Shaq Yusuf al-Nabahani Those would be two of the ones That I would recommend in Arabic Al-Anwar al-Muhammadiyah By Shaq Yusuf al-Nabahani And then Al-Mawahab al-Ad-Dunia by Muhammad Qustalani And then Another book that everybody should read Is Ash-Shifaq by Qadi Iyad And there's a new abridgment Of the Shifaq I think by his name is Amjad Shik'ah, Amjad Mahmood That you want to start with the abridgment And it's a white cover I think it was published recently And then get to the original Yes? Yep, that's another book, yeah Yeah Any other questions on the sister side? All right So let's finish up here and show So we left off on this side I'm going to move through these other ones fairly quickly That it just goes on and on and on These are selections Again, this is all under the Title of this Part of the special qualities of the prophet So I said they just go on and on And so this is how the prophet is The blessing of Allah In other words, like the blessing Like with Alif, Lam, Ta'arif An-ni'ma And Imam al-Busiri says In his very famous poem The Burda Al-Shifa He says the prophet is the greatest sign For those who reflect All the signs and creation The greatest sign Is the prophet And he is the greatest blessing For those who want to benefit So in this verse in Surah Al-Yamran Remember Allah's favor upon you When your enemies Then he united your hearts So you by his grace became brothers That's the outward way you translate it But who is the ni'ma here referring to? The prophet Being ni'mati through our prophet One of his names is Niyamatullah It's one of the names of the prophet And so the prophet is The blessing of Allah He's the greatest blessing of Allah Of all Of all blessings in creation He's the greatest blessing of all There's no blessing greater Than the prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam And he is the source Of all of our worldly And otherworldly All blessings in this world And all blessings in the hereafter He's the source Of all blessings Not just religious blessings That's clear We would not have anything of our religion We're not to be for our prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam But those that truly understand How beloved the prophet is to Allah If we go back to that hadith that we started with Is that it goes on Is that where Allah then spoke to Adam After forgiving him and said We're not to be for him Laulahu We're not to be for the prophet I would have not created Heaven or earth I would not create the fire or prayers And I wouldn't have created you And so who is the prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam And so essentially All of us and all people in creation Including other prophets Including the members of their ummah And all other people And everything else that in this world Is considered to be a blessing Is able to experience those blessings Because of the blessing So from the blessing of the prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam We get to experience all blessings That's pretty amazing Who is Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi sallam And this knowledge Is that once you condition your heart To think about this This is what it means to have a heart that is Samawi Is that you start to love talking about these meanings And you find great value in these meanings Because you understand what gems they truly are And when the heart becomes habituated To tasting the sweetness of these meanings And you that condition it such that it is heavenly And inclines towards That what is truly great with Allah You start to realize is that This is the source of blessing It is the source of light It is the source of inspiration It is the source of tranquility It is the source of serenity And keep going on and on and on It's the source of wilayah sainthood It's the source of all good that can come to you When you condition your heart to this And then you always will have people And this is why the Arab always spoke about There was what's called Ghazal It's love poetry And that many of the same themes That those who speak about the Prophet And write love poetry about him Are the same themes that the jahadi poet spoke about When they're speaking about the opposite gender And they always will speak about the wusha The wusha are the detractors Right? The laim Imam Abu Sayyid Oh you are that criticizing me And this vestal love that I have This pure love Ma'adirat that I seek an excuse from you That Minni ilayka from me to you Lo ansaftalam talo me Is it were you to be fair You wouldn't criticize me You wouldn't rebuke me Were you to know my state Would you know what happens to the heart Of someone that falls in love With the best of creation Were you only to know Is that you would never rebuke me And you see this throughout the poetry It's that they always talk about people that rebuke them There'll be people here that's like Let's talk about something else This is boring I know this Let's move on I'd rather talk about current events Let's go here Let's talk about that There's a lot of other things Of course we can talk about But If we really understand this discourse And the heart is conditioned Towards it It's very different then Because The true people of Allah The greatest odah You will always see they bring Everything back to the Prophet's life center Because they realize every spiritual gift Even in relation to what they experience In the divine presence from spiritual states Is all from Rasulullah So how could they do anything else Other than Bring it back to the Prophet's life center That's how they are That's how the greats are They always bring it back to him Always bring it back to him Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam I just have you send him And We're beginners We don't know what we're doing That we're blind Deaf dumb Stupid But we're trying to do a little we can And to move in the right direction Just follow Those that we know Are that the true lovers And the true people of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala Do the little that we can So the next slide What does that one say? Obeying the Prophet is obeying Allah Manya ti'a Rasulah fahad al ta'ala Am I going the wrong way? Yeah All right, tell me when I'm there We're good? Obeying the Prophet is Obeying Allah Very clear Whoever obeys the Messenger Has obeyed Allah Which other human being can you say that about? Very straightforward Does that say pledge of allegiance? No? This thing is switching up on me And it's like I'm doing the opposite thing here Pledging allegiance to the Prophet Is pledging allegiance to Allah Sorry, there's a typo there Inna ladin yubayunaka Surely those who pledge allegiance to you Outwardly their hand was in the hand of the Prophet So I sent him Inna bayu bayu in Allah Or actually pledging allegiance to Allah Very clear meaning And then I should say Shashan 3 Okay, so let's look at in this last session That several instances of where That Allah Jalla Jalaluh Uses what is called the kafil khitaab That is that he speaks to the Messenger of Allah In the second person So these are a few early examples Then we're going to move towards That Jus Amma Qul man kana aadun yujibi If inna zallu ala qalbek Say O Prophet, whoever is an enemy of Gabriel Should know that he revealed this Quran To your heart By Allah's will So think about this So when we said that statement Like there were people whose show And it's part of the shows the veracity In truthfulness of our Prophet That Moses is mentioned more in the Quran Than our Prophet is in terms of his name But in the wild that is true And that's important That does indicate something No one is going to write a book And then have someone else mentioned More than your own self in that book Because he wasn't the one who wrote it It's revelation that he received But it's greater to have Allah Speak to you directly in his book Fannunna zallu ala qalbek Allah says He's speaking directly to the Prophet And then by extension That we're supposed to know this meaning As his ummah He revealed it to your heart Inna arusallak abel hakki basheeran monadhirah We surely have sent you with truth O Prophet So I want you to pay attention When you read translations of the Quran And see when we see this O Prophet Look at you The kafir khitaab What is being meant there What is being referred to there This is very important And these are just examples I took these from early on And there's so many different verses in the Quran That speak directly to the Prophet In the second person Ya ayyuhan nabiyuh O Prophet Inna arusallakah We have sent you To the end of the verse Laysa alaykuhudahum You are not responsible for people's guidance And the examples go on and on But I guarantee you If you start tracing this It will open up a huge door for you To understand The relationship of the best of creation With the Creator Subhanahu wa ta'ala Because of how many times Allah speaks to the beloved Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam In the second person Wa allamaka maalim tuqun ta'alim He taught you that What you not used to know What kind of fadlullah alaykuh What is the Prophet experience Allah is saying Indeed Allah's favor upon you is great This requires a doke It requires to We spiritually taste this Allah first parted him Before he even mentioned What it is that he's parting him for Why did you give them permission to stay behind And they say this shows our Prophet It was so beloved to Allah Even though That it was better for him to have done Afallahu alaykuh Allah pardoned you Bima adhan tadahum Why did you give them permission And then if we look at That multiple other examples In the last jizah of the Quran We didn't include it here Because most of us know these Know these various chapters And that beginning With the last three chapters of the Quran Allah ta'ada begins We sometimes we call them In English the three qulz Okay And that's qulho aloha had Surat al-Falq and Surat al-Nas That there's a reference To the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam O Prophet That's how it's translated In brackets Allah is commanding Commanding the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam To tell us these realities And so there's a narration That indicates that one time A group of companions came out To seek the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam To pray with them And then that They finally found the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam And that he said to them qul And the narrator he says I didn't respond And then they said to him The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Said to him qul And he didn't respond Mashallah this thing is drooping down on me here Mashallah It's gotta just get that right angle and it sticks Maybe not There we go And then the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam That eventually said to them That qul a'udu bi'rab al-Falq Say qul And then he went on to recite Surat al-Falq And that this is very significant Because there are multiple examples That in the last juz'ah of the Quran Look at Surat fi'l Al-Imtara kafa fa'ara rabbuka Have you not seen what your Lord has done Bi ashab al-fi'l With the ashab, the companions of the elephant And they say that this indicates that Allah caused that to happen Even though the Prophet was not born yet This was during the time of the Prophet s grandfathers Abdullah al-Muttalab Allah caused that to happen In preparation for the birth of the messenger of Allah So in other words It is as if that Allah warding off Abraha's army from the Ka'bah Was for Rasulullah Because he was born 50 days after According to the dominant opinion The incident of the elephant And so that's We can extract that meaning from Allah saying What Rabbi Kudr said Have you not seen what Allah did With the ashab al-fi'l Bi ashab rabbuka And that keep reading Surat al-alakikra bi ismi rabbika Read in the name of your Lord Keep reading Surat al-shar'ah Alam nashrah lakka sadrak This is profound Have we not expanded for you Your heart Allah Kudr said Alam nashrah sadrak Have we not expanded your heart Alam nashrah lakka sadrak In other words Is that this is amazing When you start really reflecting upon this It opens up a whole new meaning for you It will change the way forever The way you read the book of Allah And you will start to see That how central it is Even in the discourse of the Qur'an And how it relates to the Prophet Muhammad Said And it will completely dispel this myth That somehow that this is not acceptable For us to have this loving and intimate relationship With the messenger of Allah On the contrary we'll see This is the reality of the deen And the way they were supposed to be And in fact The only way to attain the higher degrees Of closest to Allah It's all through this door It's all through him It's all through understanding this And this is why we spent time Going through all of these examples One of the other greatest examples Is surat ad-duha Wa ad-duha Wa lili ila saja Ma wadda aqa rabbuqa wa maqala When they said that your Lord has left you There was a pause in revelation Your Lord has not left you Nor does he loathe you Wa la l'akhiratu khayru laka min al-ula Is that the hereafter is better For you khayru laka Min al-ula than this world And then look at this Wa la sofa ya ultiqa Wa rabbuqa fal ta'udah Look at how many times he speaks to him In the second person That wa la sofa ya ultiqa And surely your Lord will give so much to you That you will be pleased So wa la sofa ya ultiqa anta He will give you That rabbuqa your Lord Allah could have said your tika Allah But he says, Rabbuqa your Lord Fa ta'udah So that you will be content These are deep meanings Very deep meanings And then Allah to add it Explaining the blessings upon him Alem ya jidka Ya timan fa awa Wa wajadika Allah Wa wajadika a'ilan How many times has it mentioned And then ends Wa ma bina matira bika fahadah This is profound How many times the second person is So when we're reading this Is that we shouldn't just pass over this We should think about Allah Is speaking to the Prophet's life center But again to really That fixate on this meaning When you read this And you're aware that Allah is addressing The Prophet's life center And you're realizing how amazing that is By you annihilating yourself In the Prophet's life center And that completely following him Inwardly and outwardly You are directly opening up the door For you to receive the potion Of what Allah is telling the Prophet's life center In these verses So in other words You're going through difficulty You feel a dry spot And when you read this verse Ma wa dha'aqudu buqa maqadah That gives you hope Your Lord did not abandon you And if he didn't abandon the Prophet's life center If you're trying to be like him He's not going to abandon you either Nor is he going to load you No matter what is that we experience in this world What it's going to receive in the Hereafter Is better than what we're going to see here And that to the extent that we are Muhammadi Is that we follow him Allah will give us what it is that we want And the secret there is to Make what we want what Allah wants And then if we want what Allah wants Allah will give us everything that it is That we want And that's the secret And then If we start thinking about our own selves How the Prophet was raised But then we think about our own life Look at what Allah did to you How he took care of you Think about how many times in our life Where you could have died You could have been seriously injured Something horrible could have happened What he protected us And then how many times that For us It actually really would have been going astray For the Prophet's life center There's different interpretations Of O Wa Jadaka Allah and Fahda But for us is that we really were astray And then Allah gave us guidance And then he found you a need And then grant you sufficiency So these are huge doors for us And then The last one that we will mention here is Is that in Surat Al-Balad And where Allah says I swear by this city The blessed city of Makkah And you are an inhabitant Of this city Of this land And this indicates That the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam We don't say that he was honored By being born in Makkah and Muqarramah If we truly understand things We say that Makkah and Muqarramah Was honored to have the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Be born in it And this is the way that we see All fadl All bounty that Allah to Allah gives in creation Is that he gives By visa Be The Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam And that all distinction In reality with Allah True distinction That leads to the varying degrees in the hereafter Is all even with the other prophets In relation to the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam That's the reality In other words the closer that we are to him Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam The closer that we are to Allah and the Muqarramah That we will experience From the bliss of the hereafter as a result And in closing this is encapsulated in some very blessed lines of poetry By the great Imam Sheikh Yusuf An-Nabahani Where he speaks about his love of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam And teaches us the necessary adab That we should have And he says And my love for him is ancient I am the servant of his servant And the servant of his servant servant In this way until no end In other words Is that The least affiliation to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam In any way is what I really want I will never cease To draw near to him through the door of his contentment Among those who enter I will continue to spread knowledge about his lofty attributes to people And I will write poetry wearing which I praise him in verse form I hope that he will say to me You are the salman of my love And the Hassan who praises me in beautiful ways In other words as our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam And some people might hear that Either from the Prophet directly in their dreams Or from the greatest inheritor of the Prophet alive Who can do that Just as the way that the Prophet That dawned the moment was said in the dream With his blessed cloak Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Look at it with these way These people are With my spirit I will sacrifice it and make it ransom For the dirt of his sanctuary The dust of his sanctuary For him, I mean cave For the dust of his sanctuary His blessed city The places that he walked That I would sacrifice my rur The most precious thing to him in my spirit For even the dust of his sanctuary And then look at the adab Wa lahud faldu li fiqabuli fi dayi And it is his grace upon me For him to accept my ransom and my sacrifice Meaning that if I sacrifice my soul for dust that he walked on Is that if he accepts my sacrifice The blessing is mine It's his that grace upon me and not the opposite I haven't done him a favor He's the one who's done me a favor by accepting my sacrifice That the one who has a connection to him Yentemi literally is affiliated with him Fahs Will be successful Inflicitous Wa lahajatilahu fi dhariq an timayi And he has no need of those people He is not in need of anyone in creation except his Lord His Lord is not in creation He's not in need of anyone in creation All he needs is his Lord Everyone else in creation is in need of Rasulullah He only needs Allah But everyone else in creation needs him He belongs to Allah alone His pure servant He is the majla And the manifestation of his attributes and his names All good in merit in creation It is from Allah To him Wa minhu And then from him Lilaasha'i To all other things So all good in creation All merit Anything that is of worth Is a blessing from Allah to him And then from him to everything else In creation That is how we understand our prophesies then And if we have these meanings It will enrich our heart And it will dawn it with the loftiest And most sublime And beautiful Of meanings that are possible May Allah ta'ala teach us to have Oak And to experience the beauty of these meanings And to love them And long for them And when our heart is attached to them Our Lord is too generous To allow us to depart from this world And to not experience them Ya'ar hamur rahmeen May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Bring our hearts to life For these meanings Ya'Allah And bless us Ya'Allah To not have our nafs Get in the way from the rules Experience of them May Allah ta'ala embed them In all of our hearts In the hearts of our children In our community And in the Ummah of our Prophet Muhammad SAW There are no meanings That can rise to the heart That will lead to Nasr To this Ummah Having victory like these meanings These are the meanings of victory And may Allah ta'ala That adorn our hearts with them Ya'ar hamur rahmeen And may Allah ta'ala That grant us relief And grant the Ummah of our Prophet SAW Ya'ar hamur rahmeen And our blessed dear brothers and sisters In Fiddlesteen Especially in Ghazda Ya'ar hamur We ask you to keep them strong And the blessed are Disabbalik And to seek reward from you And to be patient and to endure Ya'ar hamur rahmeen All of those Ya'al who are suffering May Allah ease their suffering And to bless them to receive their reward Directly from them And all of those who have returned to Allah May Allah ta'ala raise them To the highest degrees of causes To them Ya'ar hamur rahmeen And may Allah ta'ala Protect the Ummah of our Prophet SAW In Ghazda And in the West Bank And all throughout Fiddlesteen Ya'ar hamur rahmeen And ward off the plotting Of the enemies Ya'al hamur rahmeen And to return their plots Into their own necks Ya'ar hamur rahmeen May Allah protect them and to preserve them Ya'ala integrate them Forge in relief Ya'ar hamur rahmeen And may Allah bless them And may Allah bless them Fatiha Jizakumu l-akhir Thank you so much It's always wonderful to be back Home to the Bay Area And to be with so many blessed people And to be with all of you And I reward, ask of Ba'in Everyone in MCC And everyone in this community And inshaAllah stay together And be together There is a very blessed CUNY with very blessed people, and insha'Allah we hope that we see you all again soon. Bi'l-Nabbi'l-Qalafiq.