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Alhamdulillah Rabbil Alameen. Salatuhu wa Salamu Alaa Isharafil Anbiya wal Musareen Muhammadur Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi wa Alaa Alihi wa Sahbihi wa Sallam. Tasliman kathir an kathirahu. Fama baadu. For those of you who remember our sheikh in the second rakat of Salatul Isha, he recited the ayah Inna Allaha Ma’a Allatheena Taqaw Wa Allatheena Hum Muhsinu He said, verily Allah is with the people of Taqwa and the people who do Ihsan. I remind myself and you that we are facing a world which seems to be getting more and more difficult every day. And Muslims seem to be at the epicenter of this. They seem to be the target of anyone who is interested in taking pot shots at them. And naturally we try to find solutions and we have strategies and we say take the advice of this one or that one or the other one and so on and so forth. But I ask you and myself how many of us remember that the help lies with Allah. Subhanahu wa Ta’ala. And Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala told us who He will help. Inna Allaha Ma’a Allatheena Taqaw Wa Allatheena Hum Muhsinu Verily Allah is with those who have Taqwa and those who have do Ihsan. Both these words are related to action. Taqwa is to have Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala’s pleasure and His approval as the sole criterion for every decision and every action. A person who is concerned about Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala’s pleasure in every decision, every action. So we need to look at ourselves in our lives. And if I say I am a person of Taqwa, then I must see how do I behave? How do I treat others? What is my income? What do I eat? Where do I spend? Right? This is not a mystery. There are metrics for every one of these. These are real hard core data. It’s not a matter of opinion. I think I am a Muttakhi. I think so and so is a Muttakhi, you know. Nothing to think. You can see it, you can measure it. And Ihsan is to go beyond the Taqwa. Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala, the Rasul of Allah peace be upon him, described Ihsan. In the famous Hadith of Jibreel, Jibreel asked him, What is Ihsan? What is Ihsan Ya Rasulullah? And Rasulullah said, An ta’bud Allah ka anna ka tara Fa illan ta kun tara fa inna hu ya rak He said Ihsan is to worship Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala as if you can see him. To have such an amazing sense of the presence of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala in our lives that we worship Allah as if we can see him. And though we don’t see him, we know that he is seeing us. And of course as you and I know, Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam always gave answers where he used the Salah as an example to illustrate everything else in life. So to worship Allah as if you can see him. To do business as if Allah is sitting there in front of you. To talk to people as if Allah is standing right there and you are doing it in His presence. To drive your car, to park your car, you put your shoes in when you come into the Masjid. To how you use the bathroom, the toilet, everything as if Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala is right there. And though we don’t see him, we know that he sees us. Question is are we there? You might say well nobody is there, sure. Are we making an effort? Are we trying even? Because the acceptance of Dua is based on this. Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala said, Istainu sabri wa salaah. Salah bil mani, Salah as in the worship as well as Salah as in the meaning of Dua. Istainu sabri wa salaah. Sabar is to not just have patience as you just sit there and wait for things to happen, no. Sabar is to do your best. Make every effort to succeed and then turn to Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala and make Dua. And ask Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala. The finest example, the finest tafsir of this ayah is Istainu sabri wa salaah. Ya yaw lidhina amanu istainu sabri wa salaah. The finest tafsir of this is in the life of Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam before the battle of Badr where he is standing and he is begging his Rabb Jalla Jalaluhu. And he is not doing that sitting in Masjid al-Nabiway Sharif. He is doing it on the battlefront. He is doing it after making whatever arrangements and whatever strategies and whatever deployments that were in his power to make. Having done all that, only then does he stand in salaah. Only then does he make Dua. And he says, Ya Rabb, it is in your hands. If these perish, there will be no one to worship you on the face of the earth. And we know what happened. Allah swt has said, We sent angels to help you. We sent a thousand angels to help you. Just think about this. Why do you need a thousand angels? Why? You know why I am asking you that? Because how many angels is it going to take to finish everything in creation? One. And that angel is not making any great effort. He will just go, gone. One blow of the trumpet, everything is ended. So when only one angel is enough to finish everything in creation, by the power of Allah, why is Allah sending one thousand angels? This is the Ikraab of the Nabi, alayhi salatu wassalam. This is the Ikraab of the Nabi, alayhi salatu wassalam. So we understand who is the Rasul, alayhi salatu wassalam. Go on YouTube and see. There is a YouTube about Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to Germany. And there is this motorcade. I don’t know, maybe 50 cars or something. Like a spear. And one motorcycle, outriders and what not, what not. For what? To take one old woman from point A to point B? Short transportation we are looking at there. You are looking at the Ikraam of one country to the head of state of another country. Short transportation. So when you are seeing a thousand angels, this is not about winning wars. Allah does not need to send any angels. Malakun mawth is enough. One Malakun mawth is enough. Allah gives the Quran, die they are all dead, kharas. You don’t have to do anything. Ikraab of the Nabi, alayhi salatu wassalam. So when we want the help of Allah to come, Allah promised to help us. Allah promised to help us. But like every promise in the Quran, there are conditions. There are no unconditional promises in the Quran. There is nothing in the Quran that says do nothing and something good will happen. No. Never. Do this, this much. You do one, one hasara, you will get ten like that. But zero hasara, how much will you get? Say Allah, no I don’t want ten, give me five. No? You bring nothing, you get nothing. You bring something, Allah gives you far more in excess of what you want. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala, there are some things which we say ghaer moumkinat. There are some things which we say these are impossibilities even with Allah. Allah can do everything. But some things, for example, Allah is incapable of being stingy. Say if Allah can do anything, why can’t He be stingy? If Allah can do anything, why can’t He be stingy? You know He can’t be stingy. As the Prophet said, the last person to come out of Jahannam will be somebody who had iman like a grain of mustard seed in his heart. And this person, may Allah protect us from being that person. But, so he spends whatever time he spends in Jahannam, wallah alam. And when he is taken out of Jahannam, he is like a burnt seed. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala by His khudrat gives him life. So now he has come out of Jahannam, he is there. And he feels a breeze. And he says, Ya Rabb, what is this breeze? Allah says this breeze is from Jannah. That is Jannah there. The breeze from Jannah. The man says, Ya Rabb, if I can just look through that gate, If I can just look through that gate, just look. With your permission, if you allow me, just look through the gate. I won’t ask for anything more. Allah says, go, look. The man looks and he says, Jannah. Then the man says, Ya Rabb, if you allow me to take one step, If you allow me to take one step inside, just one step, that’s it. I won’t ask for anything more. Allah says, you just told me you won’t ask, now you are asking again. He says, Ya Allah, you are Rabbul Alameen. Allah says, take one step. So he takes one step inside Jannah, he is seeing, oh. And he just comes out of Jahannam. He just comes out of Jannah. Imagine the level of his appreciation. Allah says to him, how about I give this to you, which is yours. And just for your information, this is ten times the earth that you used to live in with whatever it had. Meaning from the day the earth was created to the end of the earth, every single thing that the earth contained. All the gold, all the silver, all the resources, you name it. He says, this Jannah has ten times that. How about I give it to you? Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says, the man turns to Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. And he says, Ya Rabb, you are Rabbul Alameen. You are laughing at me. You are making fun of me. You are laughing at me, Ya Allah. I’m a poor slave. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala says, I’m not laughing at you. I’m serious. Go. Take that. It is yours. Go to Jannah. The man goes in and as he’s going there, all the servants of Jannah, they surround him and they say, where were you? What a long time has passed. And the man says, thank God I came. He’s saying time passed. And as they proceed, he sees a nur. As soon as he sees the nur, he falls in sujood. So the servant says, what are you making such a do? He says, no, this nur is not the nur of Allah. He says, no, that is the light from your palace. That’s not the nur of Allah. That’s the light from your palace. Allah has given you the palace. That’s the light from the palace. Come, we’ll show you where the palace is. This is for the person who ended up in Jannah when he was taken out, the last one to enter Jannah. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala to make us among these sadiqot. I always say, I make you sadiqot. I’m not saying I’m good. But put me with the good ones. Like you put the dog of the Ashab ul Qaab with the Ashab ul Qaab. So the dog is also remembered in the Quran. The dog is mentioned in Zalah. He’s given that level because he was with good people. I say, Allah, make me like that. I don’t deserve it. Make me like that. With your grace, with your majesty, with your generosity, because nobody can be as generous as Allah. Nobody. Only Allah. So we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala to be generous with us. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala to forgive us. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala to grant us from the best. Not because we deserve it, but because He can give when we ask Him to give. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala that He chose us to come into His house. He chose Islam for us. He chose us to worship Him. He gave us the permission to make sujood. He gave us the permission to make sajdah. He said, wasjood waqtarib. Just see the beauty of this. You know, if Allah is not saying, run and come to me, walk and come to me, He says, wasjood waqtarib. Allah says, make sajdah and come to me. How can make sajdah and go anywhere? In your sujood, your face is on the ground. You can’t see where you’re going. You can’t even move in sajdah. Allah says, no, make sajdah and come to me. Why? Because when you make sajdah, Allah draws you to Himself. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala that He gave us the ability and the permission to make sajdah. We ask Allah to draw us close to Him. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala to make us among those who will be His people. Rijalullah. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala to use us in the service of His Deen, to bring forward and bring the light of His Deen and the light of the life of His Nabi A.S. and open that through us for the world. Okay.
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