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Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen. My dear respected brothers, sisters, elders, our life is a journey which we hope will end in Jannah inshallah. Our parents, Adham alayhi salam and Hawa alayhi salam, came from Jannah. And when Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala sent them to the earth, He gave them the key to return home. Istighfar, repentance. And they said to Allah, qala rabbana zalamna anfusana wa illam taqfir lana wa tarhamda lana qunanna minal khasireen. They said, O our Lord, we have wronged ourselves. If you do not forgive us and have mercy on us, we will certainly be losers. To make istighfar and ta’wa is to acknowledge that we have a creator, our Lord, Jallah jalaluhu, to accept that we need Him to be pleased, to be pleased with us in all matters, and therefore to humble ourselves before Him and seek His pardon when we make mistakes. This is the key to Jannah, because istighfar and ta’wa, repentance and turning to Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala said, fasta firu summa tubu ilayhi. Make istighfar, repent, and then turn towards Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. Istighfar and ta’wa is the first step to develop taqwa. The mistake that our parents, Adem alayhi salam and Hawa alayhi salam, made was to give precedence to their desire over the will of Allah. They didn’t deny Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala, but in that one instance, they denied the superiority of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala’s will over their own desire. To give Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala’s will its true place, as being superior to anything and everything that we may wish for, is the essence of taqwa. I begin with this primordial and fundamental incident because it is such a powerful message for us about where we need to start to return to Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. It is never too late and never too soon. I remind myself and you to identify the things in our lives that must change and to change them and to turn to Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala and seek His forgiveness. Change precedes and is the evidence of the sincerity of seeking forgiveness. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala said in His great mercy, In the ayat of Surah al-Zumar, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala said, Ya Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, say to them that Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala says, O my slaves who have transgressed against their souls, do not lose hope in the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala, for Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala certainly forgives all sins. He is indeed the all-forgiving and most merciful. Who other than Allah will call people who have disobeyed Him and angered Him and gone against Him and been rebellious to Him as my slaves? Who other than Allah will do that? When somebody disobeys us, we distance them. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala draws close. This is the mercy of my Lord, may He be exalted. Anas bin Malik in a hadith in Tirumiti, reported that Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala said, O son of Adam, I forgive you if you worship me alone, without partners, and hope for my forgiveness whatever sins you have committed. O son of Adam, I do not care if your sins reach the height of the heavens. Then you ask for my forgiveness and I will forgive you. O son of Adam, if you come to me with an earth full of sins and meet me associating nothing with me, I will match it with an earth full of forgiveness. Alhamdulillah, we have a merciful and forgiving Rabb, Jalla Jalaluhu. Let us return to Him. The blessing of Ramadan is to help us to develop Taqwa, which is the secret to solve all our worldly problems and to become deserving of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala’s forgiveness. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala mentioned the benefit of Taqwa. And He said, وَمَن يَتَّقِ اللَّهَ يَجْعَلَّهُ مَا خَرَجَهُ وَيَرْضُقُهُ مِنْ حَيْثُ لَا يَهْتَسِبُ Allah said, And whoever has Taqwa of Allah, whoever is mindful of Allah, whoever considers the Rida of Allah in every decision, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala will make a way out for them from all difficulties and will provide for them from sources they could not imagine. Not only did Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala promise to help the Muttaqi, but said that He would help them in ways that they could not imagine. Imagine Ibrahim A.S. sitting in the cup of the trebuchet, thrust up in ropes, about to be flung into a huge fire. Ask why he showed no signs of fear or worry. That is the meaning of Taqwa. When a person has Taqwa, he has no will of his own. His will is the will of Allah. He wants whatever his Rabb wants for him. In the case of Ibrahim A.S., when he demonstrated his tawakul, his total reliance on Allah, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala directly commanded the fire to become a means of safety for him. Allah said, قُلْنَا يَا نَارَ كُونِ بَرْضًا وَسَلَامًا عَلَى إِبْرَحِيمَ Allah said, we said, we commanded, we ordered and said, oh fire, become cool and become a source of safety for Ibrahim A.S. Allah didn’t put the fire out. The fire continued to burn. The people who threw him into the fire thought that they had won. But when he walked out of it safely, they knew that they had failed and that Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala had protected his Khalil. وَمَنْ يَتَوَكَّلَ اللَّهِ فَهُ عَزْبُهُ Allah said, and whoever puts their trust in Allah, that he alone, jalla jalaluhu, is sufficient for them. The reward of taqwa is tawakul. The reward of considering Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala always in every action of ours is a feeling of total reliance of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. The reward of taqwa is tawakul. When the slave is concerned about the pleasure of Allah and makes effort to gain it, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala grants him peace of mind and freedom from all anxiety and stress. Tawakul is to have total trust in Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. And the reward for it is that Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala will help us to feel his sufficiency for us. I remind myself, I knew that this sufficiency is not only for this life, but much more importantly for the hereafter, where we will need it the most. What can you say about the one who Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala assured that he would be sufficient for him? I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala this for all of us. To make us mutakoon, to solve our problems and extract us from our difficulties and to keep us in the ranks of the mutawakuloon and to fill our hearts with his noor and grace and love and to be sufficient for us in this world and the next. The criterion of what has value and what doesn’t have value. When we stay away from even the halal during the hours of daylight, we are emphasizing for ourselves that what makes something good and valuable is not the thing itself, but whether it pleases Allah or not. That is the meaning of arwudiyah. The slave has no will of his own. His will is the will of his Creator, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. He wants whatever Allah wants for him and not only accepts it, but is pleased with it. This is the essence of ridha bil qada. To be pleased with the destiny that Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala wrote for us. We see the most powerful example of this in the incident of Sula Hudaibiyah, which we will talk about in a bit. I say this, may Allah forgive me and all the wrongdoers, and I ask that they forgive. He is the Most Forgiving, the Most Merciful.
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