Fajr Reminders - Mahmood Habib Masjid and Islamic Center

Auto-generated transcript: In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. And peace and blessings be upon the honor of the Prophet and the Messengers. Muhammad and the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and upon his companions, peace and blessings be upon them. And after that, my brothers and sisters, we are talking about the ways to beat stress and how not to fall into the trap of stress and depression and so on in this world because we are looking at very unprecedented times. I don't think any of us in our lifetimes have seen or been this close to global, possible global catastrophes. We ask Allahﷻ to save us from that. We ask Allahﷻ to save those who are caught up in these negative cycles and get them out of those cycles, inshallah. So yesterday I spoke to you about the hadith of Abdullah ibn Abbasرضي الله عنه and what Rasoolullahﷺ taught him with respect to our rizq and what has been written for us. Today, I want to talk to you about something else which Nabi S.A.W. said and that is, and that's the stress combat tool which is the stress combat tool. Stop saying what if? What if? What if I fail? What if everything goes wrong? What if there is a nuclear war? What if this? What if that? What if the whole of the Middle East is up in flames? What if oil supply stops? What if natural gas stops? And so on and so on. What if? Stop saying that because shaitan thrives on hypothetical fear. He keeps your heart stuck in possibilities that may never happen. So what must you do? Replace this what if with Qadarallahu ma sha'a fa'al Qadarallahu ma sha'a fa'al Allah has decreed and whatever he wills, he does. Qadarallahu means Allah has decreed and whatever he likes, Allah will do. Rasoolullahﷺ said in a hadith in Muslim Sharif, he said this word if opens the door to shaitan. So don't say if. If this, if that. Don't say that. I remember one person I had met many, many years ago who his son was 20 something and he died in a motorcycle accident. So when I met him, I condoled with him and you know I said may Allah Ta'ala grant him Jannah and so on. He was not concerned about any of that. He said if only he had not gone to this place. If only he had not left at this time. Now this so I tried to explain to him. I said there is no point in saying that. The point is his death, the time of his death, the way of his death has already been written by Allahﷻ. There is nothing that you could have done to stop that. There is something I could have done. Something I should have done. And as far as I know, that is how he ended his life. To the end of his days, he just went on like this. If this, if that. Now this is a terrible thing. It's like a curse if we get into this. Never say if. Whatever happened, happened because Allahﷻ decreed. Nothing else could have happened. And Alhamdulillah because Allahﷻ is Rahmanul Rahim fi dunya wal akhirah. Whatever happened, no matter how bad it may seem to be for us, was the best thing that could have happened in that case. This is our Yaqeen. Today is Friday, Juma'ah. And on Juma'ah, it is mustahab to read Surah Al-Kahf. And we have the story in Surah Al-Kahf of Musa A.S. and Qidr A.S. and the three things that Qidr A.S. did. All those three things, making a hole in the boat, killing that boy, and building up the wall which was falling even though the villagers did not pay them. All these things appear to be negative if you just look at them straight away. Why would you make a hole in the boat? People just helped you across the river and you are damaging their boat. Why will you kill a small child? What sense does it make? But we know that there is a hidden purpose that Allahﷻ has. And that purpose is for the benefit of the people, even though we don't see that benefit because of our restricted perspective. So never say if. Whatever had to happen, no matter what it was, no matter how bad it might seem to be, whatever had to happen was the best thing, was the only thing which could have happened and was the best thing that could have happened because it was decreed by Allahﷻ. Because this thinking of if is the main reason for all worry and then all that follows it. Because with the anxiety you have other problems that happen with depression and this and that. The more intense, paradoxically, the more intelligent a person is, the more they seem to fall prey to this. Because they are intelligent, they can imagine, they imagine all kinds of possibilities. What if this, what if that, what if that, and go on and on and on. For example, one of the most common things we hear, especially in car accidents, he should not have been driving that car. That car is not so safe. He should have been driving some other car which has more, more safety features. I always think to myself and sometimes tell these people, Princess Diana died in a sitting in the back seat of an ar

Auto-generated transcript: As-saltu wa-s-salmu alaykum wa-rahmatullhi wa-baraktuh. As-saltu wa-s-salmu alaykum wa-baraktuh. Whatever is going to happen to us, Allahﷻ has already decided. Right? There's nothing that somebody else is going to decide for you. Allahﷻ has already decided. Whatever, everything, every single thing. Whether we are going to get food or not, whether I'll get a gas cylinder or not, all of this is already written for you. So what is the worry? Yeah? As Sayyidina Umar ibn al-Khattabرضي الله عنه said, if something is written for you, it will find you. And if something is not written for you, it will never find you. And you will never find it. Right? Make effort, because Allahﷻ sent us into this world to make effort. Allah said, So make effort. But do not put your trust in the effort. Trust has to be in Allahﷻ. So you might say, why should I make effort? You make effort because, two reasons. Firstly, because Allahﷻ told us to make effort. So you are doing it in obedience to Allahﷻ. Second thing is, that your khadr also, some of it at least, is written connected to the effort. So Allahﷻ would have said, I have written for you and me, that if he makes this effort, this is what I will give him. So it's connected. So if you don't make the effort, you won't get it. But you are not getting it because of the effort. You are getting it because that is what is written for you. Think about this. Down the road is a hospital, star hospital. Go to star hospital. Ask them to show you the people in the ICU. Then many of them are not conscious. They are in a coma. But they are getting their food. There is a riles tube down the nose. They are getting their food. So their rizq is reaching them. They are making no effort. They are not even conscious. But their rizq is reaching them. Because what is written for them, has to reach them. So we ask Allahﷻ to give us our rizq bil khair. Not in a hospital bed. Not through some riles tube. We ask Allah to give us our rizq. Alhamdulillah. Bil khair wa bil izzah. With dignity and with honour and with khair and barakah. We ask Allah for this. Inshallah. So we make the effort. Not for... Not because the effort gets me this or that. We make the effort because we want to please Allahﷻ. That is why in Islam, when we work and so on, if you have this understanding of this concept, this is our aqidah. This is the fundamental aqidah that we have. Allahﷻ said, قُلْ إِنَّ رَبِّي يَبْسُطُ الرِّزْقَ لِمَنْ يَشَاءُ وَيَقْدِرُ وَلَكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ النَّاسِ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ Allahﷻ said, Say to them, It is my Rabb who expands your provision or constricts it. Most people don't know. Most people do not understand. So the purpose of working in Islam is not to do your work, do it with dignity, do it reasonably, do it making sure that you do not do it with dignity, violate any of Allahﷻ's rules in the pursuit of this rizq. You are not missing salah, you are not borrowing on interest, you are not buying and selling haram, you are not deceiving anybody, you are not telling lies in the name of advertising, you are not doing all that. You are doing halal work in a halal way and do it at a reasonable level. So if you do this, then you will come home and you will sleep peacefully. You will not owe anything to anybody. You will not burn yourself out. People are working like donkeys. Day and night, there is no time to sleep, there is no time to spend with the family, there is no time to learn anything, there is no time to pray, there is no time in Ramadan. What busy? You are running the world? In 365 days, 365 days, you cannot take off 10 days. You have to be absolutely certain of getting Laylatul Qadr. If you get Laylatul Qadr, you are getting the reward of worshipping Allahﷻ for 1,000 more than 1,000 months. Allahﷻ says, Khairum Min Alf Shahr. So 1,000 months and more. Khairum Min Alf. No time. I am busy. You are carrying the world on your shoulders. Innaillahi And at the end of all that busy, what are you getting? You are still running around. This is not Islam. Allah did not tell us to work like this. Allah did not tell us to burn ourselves out. Allah did not tell us to work in a way where the whole family, everybody is suffering because of your work. Don't tire yourself out. Don't worry, and all kinds of concern and stress and problem with, a lot of people, they have no physical problem. They die because of stress. Point being, that their health suffers because of stress. Why are you stressed? You are not running the world. Allah is running the world. And Allahﷻ has said, don't worry. I know what I am doing. I have the power. I have written for you. Relax. That's exactly what the meaning of the hadith. Allah is saying, relax. Do as much as you are supposed to do. Relax. So, we ask Allahﷻ to help us to understand these things because these are the secrets of happiness in life. Focus on connecting with Allahﷻ. Focus on, ask yourself, what is

Auto-generated transcript: In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. And peace and blessings be upon the honour of the Prophets and Messengers, Muhammad and the Messenger of Allahﷻ, peace and blessings be upon him and his family and his companions. Peace and blessings be upon you all. And then, my brothers and sisters, praise be to Allah, we are talking about the issue of relationship with the Messenger of Allahﷻ and his family and his companions. And as I mentioned to you, I said there are three ayats that we should think about. One is where Allahﷻ mentioned the Messenger of Allah and specifically mentioned his role. Where Allahﷻ called the Messenger of Allah a special blessing and ni'mah on the believers and specified his role. I mentioned this ayah and what it all means in detail in the day of huwaa, so listen to that. Then Allahﷻ mentioned the connection, this role. Therefore, how does it mean? How does it affect us? Where Allahﷻ said, لَقَدْ كَانَ لَكُمْ فِي رَسُولِ اللَّهِ أُسْوَةٌ حَسَنًا لِمَنْ كَانَ يَرْجُو اللَّهَ وَالْيَوْمَ الْآخِرَ وَذَكَرَ اللَّهَ كَثِيرًا Where Allahﷻ said that the life of His Prophetﷺ, the entire life, all aspects of his life, are the best example for us. And Allahﷻ said they are the best example for the person who looks forward to the middle of the world. And Allahﷻ said that the day of judgement is the day of meeting with Allahﷻ and the day of judgement. And I explained to you yesterday, there is a difference between something happening, default, in any case it will happen, whether you look forward to it or not, the day of judgement will come, we will be presented before Allahﷻ. There is no doubt about this. Allahﷻ said, ذَٰلِكَ الْيَوْمُ الْحَقِّ فَمَنْ شَاءَ اتَّقَدَ إِلَىٰ رَبِّهِ مَا آبَىٰ The one who likes, who wants to do something about it, the one who wants this to be a good thing, let him make a way towards his meaning, let him correct his life and make it obedient to Allahﷻ. So that is default, that is going to happen to everybody. We are talking about someone who is looking forward to that. And as I explained yesterday, the day of judgement by definition, by its description, is not something that anyone can do. It is not something that anyone would look forward to, except those who believe that inshaAllah and musta'an, they will not be subjected to the trials and tribulations that other people will be subjected to. And the reason for that is because they followed the way of Rasulullahﷺ. So this is the second ayah which shows us the connection between the Nabi and his role, and us as those who believe in him and who follow him inshaAllah. The third ayah which I want to mention to you today is, what is the reward of this? And for that Allahﷻ said, قُلْ إِن كُنْتُمْ تُحِبُّونَ اللَّهَ فَاتَّبِيُونِي يُحُبِبْكُمُ اللَّهُ يَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ وَاللَّهُ غَفُرٌ رَهِيمٌ Allahﷻ said, say to those who claim to love Allahﷻ. قُلْ إِن كُنْتُمْ تُحِبُّونَ اللَّهَ فَاتَّبِيُونِي يُحُبِبْكُمْ اللَdb9b50c3e4a2f1d876a2a2a2a2a2a2a2

Auto-generated transcript: As-saltu wa-s-salmu alaykum wa-rahmatullhi wa-baraktuh. As-saltu wa-s-salm. Only two relationships which transcend our life into the hereafter. And therefore it is critically important that we fulfill the requirements of these two relationships. The requirement of the relationship with Allahﷻ is to worship only Him and nobody else. And to obey Allahﷻ in everything that He has commanded us. The requirement of Rasulullahﷺ is to obey Him and to follow Him. To make His ita'at and to make His itibah. I mentioned for yesterday, I said three ayats which define this relationship. And the first of them I mentioned yesterday where Allahﷻ said, لَقَدْ مَنَّ اللَّهُ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ إِذْ بَعَسَ فِيهِمْ رَسُولًا مِّنَ نفُسِهِمْ يَتْلُوَا عَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتِهِ وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ بَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَإِنْ كَانُوا مِنْ قَبْلُوا لَفِي ظَلَالٍ مُّبِينٍ And I explained the meaning of this ayah. And how Rasulullah s.a.w. is a ni'mah, is a blessing for us. And how we need to appreciate that. Not just by saying that we appreciate it or by singing some nasheed or something. But by appreciating. Actually implementing that in our lives. Today we look at the second ayah. Where Allahﷻ said, with respect to Rasulullah s.a.w. لَقَدْ كَانَ لَكُمْ فِي رَسُولِ اللَّهِ أُصْوَةٌ حَسَنًا لِمَنْ كَانَ يَرْجُ اللَّهَ وَالْيَوْمَ الْآخِرَةِ وَذَكَرَ اللَّهَ كَثِيرًا Allahﷻ said, Verily and truly, the best example for you to follow is the life of my Nabi s.a.w. for the one who looks forward to the meeting with Allah and to the Day of Judgment. And who remembers Allahﷻ a great deal. You see the first ayah which I recited yesterday and today also. This defines the role of the Nabi s.a.w. That he came to inform us about the revelation. يَتْلُوَا لَهِمْ آيَاتِهِ To purify us. وَيُزَكِّهِمْ To teach the Kitab. يَجْوَالِمُوا الْكِتَابِ And hikmah. And his wisdom and how to implement what Allah has ordered us. So this is the definition of the role of the Nabi s.a.w. In the second ayah, Allahﷻ is connecting us to that. This is his role. So what? So you follow that. Right? This is his role. You have been informed. Therefore, follow it. It's not just an academic question to say, what is the date of birth or so and so. Something like that. No. This is something which is very, very important. Because it directly relates to us. So Allahﷻ is saying, I sent my Nabi for this purpose. And therefore, what must you do? Follow that. Follow his lead. Follow his teaching. Follow the Rasul a.s. And again, the grammar of the Arabic language, Allahﷻ is reinforcing. Truly and surely. In the life of Rasul a.s. In his Usfahasana. This is the best example for you. And I remind myself when you, Allahﷻ did not restrict any or restrict or did not identify or separate or differentiate any particular aspect of the life of Rasul a.s. He didn't say his worship, his way of worshipping or his way of his family relations or the way he was as an administrator or as he was as a general in the army or this or that. No. As one of us studied this and that. His group established the life of Rasul a.s. It is the one. Ummah is a system in which the poetry and description of the day of judgment in the Quran in many places particularly in Juz Amma but also in many other places the definition of the day of judgment is always very horrific very tremendous very full of turmoil right all kinds of I mean when there is an earthquake when the mountains will move from their places yeah and so on and so on Allahﷻ mentioned all kinds of things that will happen on the day of judgment which will be tremendous which will be terrible so why would anyone look forward to that Allah is saying Yardullaha wa yawm alaq why will why will anyone look forward to a day which is so full of fear and terror and the only answer to that which makes sense to me is the person looking forward to that is assured that he or she will not face that turmoil it's not happening to you Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah I am safe who will be safe? the one who has the life of the Rasul as his framework of living in this world so the person who looks forward to that day take the meeting with Allahﷻ for example right it's not a small thing it's not something which we say oh this is nice I'll go meet Allah no the Anbiya feared this meeting because the great scholars of this deen they feared this meeting nobody said this is fine I'll go no anybody who says things like oh yeah I know I will go I will talk to Allah he's talking nonsense basically somebody who has no sense and no knowledge of deen people who knew Allahﷻ who were close to Allahﷻ who were chosen by Allahﷻ the Anbiya the prophets and the messengers they were afraid of the meeting with Allahﷻ Allah is saying looking forward how will you look forward to that by obeying the Rasool by implementing his way in our lives Yesterday I was having a conversation with one of my dear friends and we we

Auto-generated transcript: In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. And praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds. And peace and blessings be upon the honour of the prophets and messengers. Muhammad and the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him and his family and companions. My brothers and sisters, you are looking at the issue of relationships. Every relationship has a requirement that must be fulfilled to avail the benefits of that relationship. If you fulfill the requirement, you get the benefit. If you don't fulfill the requirement, you do not get the benefit. And we saw this in the case of the first and foremost relationship that we have, which is with Allahﷻ. Today, let us look at the second of the relationships, which is with Rasulullahﷺ. I remind myself and you that we know the hadith of Rasulullah sallam. He said that all the deeds of a person end on his death, when he dies. Similarly, all the relationships of a person, end when that person dies. When you die, all relationships are severed. Your father is no longer your father, your son is no longer your son, and so on and so on. To the extent that you even lose your identity. You are not referred to by your name. You are called, the janaza, or the mayit. All relationships end with our death, except two. Our relationship with Allahﷻ, is daiman, and the relationship with Rasulullahﷺ, is the relationship by which, we will be called on the Day of Judgment, as the Ummah of Rasulullahﷺ. And therefore, these two relationships, are over and above all others. The relationship of Rasulullahﷺ, I want to present before you three ayats of the Quran. Allahﷻ said, truly, verily, Allahﷻ has blessed The Muminin, the believers, by sending His Nabiﷺ from among them, He raised the Rasul from the believers, He is human, He is from us, and therefore it is a double blessing, one, that the Rasul is also human, like we are human, and that He is the Rasul. Allahﷻ mentioned four things: yatlou alayhim ayatihi wa yuzakkihim, wa yuallimuhum alkitab wa alhikmah. Allah sent him for these four things, to inform the people of the revelation that he receives, to recite the Kitab of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, to purify them internally and externally, and to teach them the Book of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, which is the same ayat which He recited, by means of information, to teach them what is the meaning of that, how it is to be done, and so on, and His wisdom, which is the implementation of those things in their lives. And then Allahﷻ said, and it is truly before that, they were grossly misguided. So before the coming of the Prophet, if you leave this, you will go back to that stage, which is the stage of Jahiliyyah. Now see the beauty of this ayah and see the stages that Allahﷻ mentioned. All of these are interconnected, it's not like four separate things. These are stages, these are like steps going up, these are like steps going down. First and foremost is inform, yatlu alayhim ayatihi. Nabi would receive revelation and he would recite it. This is what Allahﷻ has said. Aqimis salaata li dhikri. Allahﷻ said, establish the salaah for my dhikr. Establish the salaah for my dhikr, to remember Him. Next stage, as Muslims we say, Alhamdulillah, Allahﷻ has given us a command, establish the salaah, I am ready. Now how to do it? How must I establish salaah? What is salaah? Because salaah, the linguistic meaning in Arabic, is dua. So if somebody says, okay, Allah said establish salaah, ya Allah, is that salaah? No. Because there is a technical meaning of salaah. Linguistic meaning is by itself, technical meaning of salaah. Which is what we just did, salatul fajar. How did we get here? Did we prepare to come here? Yes. By making wudu, by purifying ourselves, if we needed ghusl, we made ghusl. Why? How do we know this? So Allahﷻ sent yathru alayhim ayati, aqim salatul zikri. So what must I do? Prophet told us what to do. Wuyuzakkihim, Allah said purify them, because the kalam of Allahﷻ jalla jalaluhu is pure, and the kalam does not stay in a place which is not pure. That is why the purity of the heart, tazkiyatul nafs is so critically important. Imam al-Shafi'i was a student of Imam Malik. And he had a prodigious memory, he used to say that when I am reading about a book I have to cover one side, one page because otherwise it photographs in my mind. He memorized it, just reading it once, gets memorized. I don't want to memorize, I just want to read it. So he used to say I have to cover one page. He was travelling once with his students, and he had some very important books with him in the saddlebags. And they got caught in a storm, in a flash flood. So everything was flooded, animals and so on and so forth. Finally they managed to escape the flood, and they came out. And then the people took out all the stuff, drying their clothes and various things. And when they came to the books, they found that the books were completely destroy

Auto-generated transcript: Bismillah ** الرحمن الرحيم**. Alhamdulillahi rabbul alameen. Wasalatu wassalamu ala ashrafil nubiyyil wal mursaleen. Muhammadur Rasulullah **ﷺ** Tasliman kathiran kathira wa ma'adu. Alhamdulillah we have a series of questions today. Let's see how many of them we can... Second question is, in Islam we have any form of dhikr and ways to ask forgiveness? Azkar of Allah **ﷻ**. Dhikr is basically remembering and therefore you can use any of the Asmaa wa sifat Allah ta'ala. The names and attributes of Allah **ﷻ**. You can use La ilaha illallah. So, the fundamental forms of dhikr. One is tasbih. Right? What is tasbih? Shukr wa malik. Right? Tamheed. Tahmeed. Alhamdulillah. And then what is the other one? Takbeer. Allahu Akbar. And then? Ahleel. La ilaha illallah. So, Subhanallah, walhamdulillah, wa la ilaha illallah, wa Allahu Akbar. So, these four you should do. And do as much as you can. But just for the sake of ensuring you do something, say, let's say, 100 times each. There's no magic formula. Just to make sure that we do something. So, you can do that. You can say, Subhanallah, 100 times. Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, and so on. Or you can say, Subhanallah, walhamdulillah, wa la ilaha illallah, wa Allahu Akbar. And you can also add, La hawla wa la fawata illallah, wa la... And do this whole thing 100 times. So, whichever you... Which is your thing. The key thing is not the count. Please understand this very clearly. The key thing is not the count. The count, as I said, is only as a matter of convenience. At least this much you must do. Usually, this is what people will prescribe for you. Do 100 times. And there are... I had this also mentioning the value of each of these and the reward and so on. The key thing is to do the zikr. With complete understanding and the feeling of that zikr in your heart. See, think about this. Zikr is with the tongue, right? And also in the heart. But the zikr, like I said about Ibadah, is a tool to achieve something. So, when you are saying that zikr, then you must look to see what is the effect. And you must look to see what is in the heart. If I'm saying SubhanAllah, imagine you come and see this beautiful view. And you say, SubhanAllah. Yeah? SubhanAllah. I was coming back from Jeddah just now. Last week. And I was waiting for Saadatul Fajr. So, to see when should I pray. Because the flight took off from Jeddah at some 3 o'clock or something like this. 1 o'clock. 1.50. So, it just took 2 minutes. And then when the sky started to lighten, then I saw a little red glow on the horizon. Right? And I know the sun is going to come up. So, it's time for me to pray Saadatul Fajr. That view was so beautiful. SubhanAllah. This is one little planet in this entire universe. This is a galaxy of billions of stars. And so on. One planet which is not even like a grain of sand on a beach. Which has a piece of sky there. And this sky has got some clouds. It's got our star which is the sun which is showing itself on the horizon. That is so beautiful. SubhanAllah. So, how must the creator of this be? So, that feeling of the awe and glory and majesty of Allah must come to you. And you must come with every SubhanAllah we say without a doubt. Now, there is a story that Sulaiman was going somewhere with his army. And he was flying through the air. And all the jinn and whoever, you know, the magnificence of Sulaiman. And there was a farmer who was standing in his field. And he saw him going. He said, SubhanAllah. SubhanAllah caused Sulaiman to hear that. So, Sulaiman came down into the field. In front of that man. And he said, what did you say? The man got terrified. He said, my God, what happened? Sayyidi. He said, yeah, Nabi Allah. Did I do anything wrong? I am sorry. He said, no, no, no. You said something. What did you say? He said, I said, SubhanAllah. I saw you going with all your Lashkar. You know, your army and your pomp and your splendor. And flying through the air. SubhanAllah. So, I looked at this. I said, SubhanAllah. SubhanAllah said, by the one whose hand is my soul. That one SubhanAllah of yours is better than everything I have. We know that we shall set them set that a slave will be produced before Allah **ﷻ** judgment. And when his deeds are weighed, the pan with the evil will have scroll of unscores. Lord book and book. And from where the pan is to the heavens. And the other pan is high in the air and it's empty. There's nothing there. So, the man will, they will ask the man. He said, do you have any good deeds? Man says, no. I have nothing. Because he'll go to Jahanam. He has no good deeds and he's got evil piled up to the sky. Then it will be said to the man, you have one. You have one good deed. The man says, what? So a piece of paper will be given to him and they will say, take this piece of paper and put it in that pan. So the man takes the piece of paper and he puts it in the pan and

Auto-generated transcript: Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim. Alhamdulillahi rukil alameen. Wasalatu wassalamu ala ashrafil nubiyyil wal mursaleen. Muhammadur Rasulullahﷺ sallallahu alayhi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam. Tasliman kathiran kathira wa ma'adu. Alhamdulillah we have a series of questions today. Let's see how many of them we can deal with. If we leave anything behind then we do it. So the first question is the concept of Taskiyatul Nafs. What is Taskiyatul Nafs and how do we achieve it? Allahﷻ when he mentioned Rasulullahﷺ he called him, he mentioned him and he honoured him by calling him his ni'mah. He said the Rasulullahﷺ is by ni'mah on the believers. Allahﷻ says Laqad manna Allahu ala al-mu'mineena Ith ba'asa feehim Rasulam min anfusihim Yatlu alayhim ayatihi wa yudhuwa Yuzakkihim uliya'allimuhum al-gitaab wa wal-hikmah Wa in kaanu min qablu lafihi qalalim mubeen Which means verily and truly we have bestowed upon the believers our blessing, our ni'mah by raising from among them our Rasul, our messenger. What does he do? Yatlu alayhim ayatihi He recites for them and before them the ayat which have been revealed to him. Wa yuzakkihim and he purifies them internally and externally. Wa yu'allimuhum al-gitaab and he teaches them the book wal-hikmah and he teaches them the book. He teaches them wisdom. And truly before that they had been misguided. Clearly misguided. So the question of tazkiyah to nafs starts from the Quran itself. Tazkiyah means to purify. Allahﷻ said, Qad aflah man tazakka They have succeeded those who purified themselves. And in many other places Allah has mentioned the importance of purification and the importance of tazkiyah. And Allah as I mentioned in the ayat before, Allah mentioned tazkiyah as the purification. So tazkiyah is one of the primary responsibilities of Rasulullah . So purification in short means purification. So when you say tazkiyah to nafs, you mean purify our nafs. The question is purify the nafs from what? Number one. Number two, what is the state of purity? How do I know if my nafs is pure? Nafs means breath. Nafs means the self. Our understanding of our self. Nafs also is taken in the meaning of kalb, which is the heart. So when we say nafs, depending on the sentence and so on, it can also mean kalb. So tazkiyah to nafs is tazkiyah to kalb also. Nafs also means roh. So it's also tazkiyah to roh. Now without going into too many complications with this, the best way to understand nafs is it's your intellect and your emotions. In terms of your intellect and your emotions. So the heart and the brain, the human being, these two are not clearly separated. They're not two compartments. They are interlinked, interconnected. To the extent that we know today from scientific research, that the heart and the spine, they have neurons. So there is some part of the brain which is actually the brain. It's actually physically present in the heart and the veins. And then the heart also performs brain-like functions of directing the body to do various things and so on and so forth. So there is a physical connection between the two. But looking at it from the non-physical aspect, looking at it from the aspect of the intellect and the emotion, these are connected. They're mixed. There's no separate intellect, separate emotion. Allahﷻ mentioned it also as Qalb-un-Saleem. And I think I did hear a series of lectures, three or four lectures in this masjid on Qalb-un-Saleem. They are recorded somewhere. Allah said, on the Day of Judgement, everyone will be at a loss, except the one who comes with a Qalb-un-Saleem. The Qalb, which is pure and complete and not corrupted and not impure and filthy. Tazkiyah is to purify. Now the purification, what is the state of purification? The state of purification is where the Qalb is filled only and only with the greatness and glory and magnificence of Allahﷻ. The Noor of Allah. So the Qalb must be purified. The Qalb must be pure and must be cleaned from anything other than Allah. In every aspect. So when we say adhaat in Allah, Allah as the one we worship. Allah as the one we fear in terms of anything bad happening. Allah as in terms of the one we seek help from. Allah as the one we seek guidance from. And so on. So only and only Allahﷻ. Tawheed is to purify your heart and remove everything other than Allahﷻ from this. So all hopes and aspirations which are linked to anyone other than Allah, ghairullah. Whether this ghairullah is physically present in your life or whether ghairullah is some person or celestial body or God knows what, right? People have faith and belief on all kinds of things. So all of this to purify and to remove all this from your heart. This is the purification. It also means to remove from our hearts, our nafoos, all forms of disobedience of Allah. So all desire to disobey Allahﷻ. Anything. I don't want to make a long list of that, right? Anythin

Auto-generated transcript: Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen. Wasalatu wasalamu ala ashrafil anbiya wal mursaleen. Muhammadur Rasoolullahﷺ sallallahu alayhi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam tasleeman kathiran kathira. From Abadu, my brothers and sisters, we are looking at the issue of relationships. The first of that is with Allahﷻ. And we established the principle that every relationship has a requirement in exchange for which we get the benefit of that relationship. If you do not fulfill the requirement, you do not get the benefit. And we looked at the requirement that we have of Allahﷻ, our relationship with Allahﷻ, and that is to worship only Allahﷻ and not to make shirk. And to obey Allahﷻ in everything that He has commanded us to do. And I mentioned four things that we have, we obey Allahﷻ because of them. And one is, the first one is that we know that Allahﷻ loves us. And two, that we know that Allahﷻ knows what is best for us. What is good and what is harmful. The third thing is to remember and remind ourselves that Allahﷻ ordered us to do something because it is for our benefit, not His. Allahﷻ is the best. He did not give birth to or be given birth to, nor did He give birth to any animal. Allahﷻ is pure. He is free from all wants. Nothing benefits Him and nothing harms Him. So when Allahﷻ has commanded us to do something, it is for our own benefit. And the fourth thing is that we know that when we meet Him on the Day of Judgment, we will be questioned about whether we obeyed Allahﷻ or chose to disobey Him. May Allahﷻ save us from that. Now, these four things: Allah loves me. Allah knows what is best. Allah commanded me to do something because it is for my benefit, not His. And the fourth one is that I will meet Allahﷻ. These four things work hand in hand. All these four are together. And when we live our life like that, then we find our life is full of peace and harmony and stress-free. Alhamdulillah. Because at the end of the day, it's only what Allahﷻ has written that will happen. This is one thing which we have to have complete and total faith in this. That only what Allahﷻ has written, only what Allahﷻ wants will happen. Nothing else will happen. All the rest of it is drama. It's very critical to understand that we are not just people; we are the slaves of Allahﷻ. We have no choice in the matter. We didn't create ourselves. We cannot destroy ourselves. We were created by Allahﷻ. We are sustained by Allahﷻ. Allah gave us whatever we needed and desired. And He said that He gives us whatever we ask for. And if you try to count the blessings of Allahﷻ, you will not be able to count them. We are talking only about counting, not even about thanking Allahﷻ. Just say, one, two, three, four, five. We will not be able to remember it. The blessings that Allahﷻ has given us. And it is through our gratitude, our thankfulness to Allahﷻ, that we must make sure that we obey Allahﷻ in everything. This jazba, this emotion, this quality of shukr, the quality of gratitude to Allahﷻ. This is the source of all happiness, the source of our satisfaction, the source of us being at peace. Gratitude to Allahﷻ, being thankful to Allahﷻ. And I always remind myself and I remind you that the best way to have gratitude to Allahﷻ is think of something that you like, some blessing which we have, any number. And then think of how life would be if that was not there. Take eyesight for example. How would life be? If you did not have colour vision. If you would only see black and white. It happens to people. They lose colour vision. So they can still see but everything is only black and white. So now you are looking at the most beautiful scenery. You can't enjoy it. Somebody says look at that sunset. What sunset? Look at that sunrise. Which sunrise? Take away taste. Simple things. Taste buds. After her third child, she had three children. After the third child, her taste buds got knocked out. She cannot taste anything. Whatever it is, it's just like eating grass. God doesn't want it. No taste. Just think of what life would be if you did not have that blessing. Alhamdulillah, when you have the ability and Allah has given you something, appreciate that. Thank Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala for that. In sujood, pray tahajjud. In sajda, count the blessings. Allah said, if you want to count the blessings, forget about. I am talking about being thankful. Just count one, two, three, four. Allah says, you cannot even count the number of things that I have blessed you with. Right? When we choose to disobey Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, think about this. He said, you're trying to disobey somebody who has given you so much. We thank Allah because of gratitude. We do that because we know that our best interest lies in obeying Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. If you're driving down a road, and if you're on a path where you don't know what is ahead of you, but you have wi

Auto-generated transcript: As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Our relationship is based on two things. One is love for Allahﷻ, and the second is fear of displeasing the one we love the most. Allahﷻ defined us and honored us Muslims by saying, وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَشَدُّهُمْ بَلِّ اللَّهِ The people who have Iman, they love Allahﷻ more than anyone or anything else. So when Allahﷻ has honored us, it is incumbent upon us to fulfill that honor by loving Allahﷻ. The way we show our love for Allahﷻ is by obeying Him completely and totally without qualification. Not by picking and choosing. Because selective obedience is disobedience. Selective obedience is kufr. Selective obedience is to choose which of Allahﷻ's commands we will obey and which we will disobey, which is the height of arrogance and kufr. So we do not obey selectively; we obey completely. Allahﷻ said, يَا يُهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أُدْخُلُوا فِي السِّلْمِ كَافَّةً وَلَا تَتَّبِعُوا خُطْوَةِ الشَّيْطَانِ إِنَّهُ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌ مُبِينٌ Allah said, oh you who believe, enter into Islam completely. Not partially, not as much as you feel like. It's not discretionary. You enter into Islam fully. When you say, لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ مُحَمَّدُ رَسُولُ اللَّهُ You have submitted yourself completely and totally to Allahﷻ on the way of Muhammadﷺ. You have not even submitted in our own way, no. On the way of the Rasul عليه السلام. And the finest example of that which I always quote is Salah. We pray the way Rasulullahﷺ prayed. Not our own way. If somebody is praying in a different way, then their salah is invalid. If your way of praying is different from the way of Rasulullahﷺ, then your prayer is not a prayer. It is invalid. It is faasid. We have to pray as Rasulullahﷺ prayed. Because this is his hukum. He said, سَلُّوا كَمَا رَأَيْتُمُونِي أُسَلِّي He said, pray as you have seen me pray. He didn't say pray any way you like. Pray in any way which appeals to you. Pray the way I pray. So the same principle applies to everything else in life. We submit to Allahﷻ in the way of Muhammad Rasulullahﷺ. So everything. I do business the way Nabiﷺ did business. I speak to people the way Nabiﷺ spoke to people. I eat, I drink, I do everything the way Rasulullahﷺ did it. This is the way. This is the meaning of entering into Islam fully and completely. Not partially. We don't say I follow Islam as far as Salah is concerned, as far as the Masjid is concerned, but once I am outside that door, then it is my life. I will do whatever I want. No, this is not Islam. Islam is to apply it in our lives in every aspect. So this position of the Muslim is, as we say, بَيْنَ الْخَوْفِ وَتَرْبُونَةً between the fear of Allah's punishment and the hope for His forgiveness and reward. We ask Allah for His forgiveness and His reward. This بَيْنَ الْخَوْفِ وَتَرْبُونَةً is the position of the Muslim. And Allah Himself mentioned this. He said, تَتَجَافَ جُنُوبُهُمْ عَنِ الْمَضَاجِرِ يَذْعُونَ رَبَّهُمْ خَوْفًا وَتَمَعًا بَيْنَ الْخَوْفِ وَتَمَعًا وَمِمَّا رَضَقَنَاهُمْ يُنفِقُونَ فَلَا تَعْلَمُ نَفْسٌ مَا أُخْفِيَ لَهُمْ مِنْ خُرَّةِ عَيُونٍ جَزَىٰ أَن بِمَا كَانُوا يَمَلُونَ Allahﷻ Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala said in Surah Sajdah that these are the people, Allah is praising those people. May Allah make us among them. Allah says these are the people who get up from their beds, get up from their sides in the time of Qiyamul Lail, before Salatul Fajr, who get up in the night from their side and they stand before Allahﷻ Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala بَيْنَ الْخَوْفِ وَتَعْمَى So they're standing before Allahﷻ Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, they're reciting Quran, they're praying, they're making dua and they fear the punishment of Allah and they hope for His reward. And they spend from what we have given them. So the action of also spending from what Allah has given us, whether it is wealth, whether it is health, whether it is energy, whether it is influence, whether it is strength, spending from the paths, spending what Allah has given, in His path. So they're spending from what Allah has given them. And then Allah said, if they knew what I have kept hidden for them as a reward, it would be the coolness of their eyes. So Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala kept that hidden. He said, I have made a special reward for them. May Allah Ta'ala make us among those who will receive this reward from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Now we obey Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala for four things. There are four things to remember when we obey Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. One, we know that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala loves us. This is a fact. This is something which there is no doubt about. Because, and the biggest evidence of that, if somebody wants evidence, the biggest evidence of that is Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam himself. The bi'asat of the Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and the revelation of the Quran Al-Kareem on him. This is the biggest

Auto-generated transcript: In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. And peace and blessings be upon the honour of the Prophets and Messengers. Muhammad Rasulullah ﷺ. Tasliman kathiran kathira. Fama ba'du. My brothers and sisters, we were talking about the issue of connection with Allahﷻ. As I mentioned for the last few days, we have been discussing taqaza and faida—the requirements of a relationship and its benefits. The first relationship we discussed was our relationship with Allahﷻ. Now, the requirement of this relationship is that we worship only Allahﷻ alone and do not join partners with Him in His abudiyat, rububiyat, or asma wa sifat. We acknowledge that He is our Creator, Sustainer, Maintainer, Protector, and Provider. This means we seek help only from Allahﷻ. Additionally, we keep unique attributes exclusive to Allahﷻ, such as knowing the future, knowing the ghayb, and having the power to give and take away things. This is the essence of being a true slave of Allahﷻ, which makes us close to Him and feel His presence 24-7. Allahﷻ said, "He is with you wherever you are." So no matter where you are, Allahﷻ is present in terms of His knowledge. Being aware of this has two major benefits: it acts as a shield against sin and provides enormous confidence. Firstly, awareness of Allahﷻ protects us from sin because if we know He watches everything, we will not disobey Him. If by mistake we end up disobeying Allahﷻ, we immediately make istighfar and tawbah, washing off any sin. Secondly, it gives us immense confidence since nothing can harm us except what Allah wills. Therefore, we must focus on making istighfa and tawah, returning people's rights, correcting our aqeedah and actions, fulfilling fara'id, and pleasing Allahﷻ to avoid harm. Today, imagine how much time we spend worrying about worldly affairs while ignoring our ta'alluq with Allahﷻ. We must change this mindset and focus on repairing our connection with Allahﷻ through obedience. There is no love for Allah without obedience, and relationships do not count when standing before Allahﷻ alone. Let us repair our relationship with Allahﷻ today, especially during Jumu'ah prayers, by sending salat and salam on Rasoolullahﷺ, reading Surah Al-Kahf, attending the khutbah early, and valuing the rights of the Prophetﷺ and Allahﷻ. Our only help comes from Allahﷻ Himself, so let us correct our ma'milat, akhlaq, aqeedah, and amal, asking Allahﷻ for His mercy and forgiveness.

Auto-generated transcript: In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. And peace and blessings be upon the honour of the prophets and messengers. Muhammad and the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and upon his family and his companions. Many peace and blessings. We were talking about the issue of relationships. And the fact that every relationship, no matter with whom it is, whether it is relationship with our parents, children, spouses, friends, colleagues, employers, employees, even relationships which are temporary, as in you go to a shop to buy something, there is a relationship that happens with the seller, which is for a few minutes. After that, you may never go back to that shop for the rest of your life. But that few minutes, there is a relationship. Similarly, relationships with strangers, you are driving a car on the road, you automatically have a relationship with everyone else who is using the road, and so on. And as I said, every relationship has a taqadah. It has a requirement. If you fulfil that, it gives you a faidah, gives you a benefit. If you don't fulfil that, then you do not get the benefit. So the taqadah of our relationship with our parents is that we are supposed to serve them. And the benefit is, then you will get their dua. If you do not fulfil the taqadah, they might still give you dua because they are parents, but then obviously, at some point, this will suffer. And may Allah have mercy, may even stop. Similarly, we have a relationship with our friends. And the taqadah there, the requirement there is that you are loyal to your friend. And the benefit is that the friend will be loyal to you. Loyalty has many forms, including correcting your friend if he is wrong. This is part of loyalty. Loyalty is not simply to keep on clapping and telling your friend what a wonderful person he is, even if he is not. That is not loyalty, that is lying. So similarly, you have a, and we have a relationship with our spouses. And there again, there is the concomitant responsibility. So there is a taqadah, there is a requirement, and there is a faidah, there is a benefit. And yesterday we talked about our relationship with Allahﷻ. And the fact that the taqadah of that relationship, the requirement of the relationship is that we worship Allahﷻ. And we worship only Allahﷻ. We do not mix anything in that worship. We do not worship anyone other than Allah. And we do not worship anyone with Allah. There are two kinds of shirk. One is you worship someone other than Allah. And the other one is you worship Allah, but you join something else with it. You join some other entity, creature, your imagination, whatever. Both of these are prohibited. They are haram. They amount to idolatry. They amount to shirk. Our love for Allahﷻ, our relationship with Allahﷻ, and once we do this, the benefit of relationship with Allahﷻ, I don't think I need to explain that. We are living in that. We are experiencing that. And may Allah have mercy on us. We are experiencing that. There is a great benefit from Allahﷻ, even when we do not fulfill the Taqaza of that relationship. This is purely the mercy of Allah. Maybe we don no pray. Maybe when we pray, the quality of prayer is pathetic. Despite that, Allahﷻ does not stop our health. He doesn't stop our wealth. He doesn't stop our food. He doesn't stop the air we breathe. We still continue to get all the benefits that we have from Allah. We take it for granted. May Allah have mercy on us. Just see the fun. There is a false shortage of gas, of diesel and petrol. Actually there is no shortage. Somebody spread a rumor and so now all the diesel and petrol pumps in Hyderabad are jam-packed with people. There are fights happening and there is police and all that. One little thing which is not even true. There is no shortage. There is no problem with that. LPG is a different issue but diesel and petrol is available. But despite that, so one little change in our routine and we all feel it. And yet, when it comes to the worship of Allah, we have our issues. Our relationship with Allah is based on two things. One is love for Allah and second is the fear of displeasing the one we love the most. Allah honored us by saying, وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَشَدُّ هُبًّا لِلَّهِ Allah defined the Momineen. He defined the believers. And He said the people of belief, وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَشَدُّ هُبًّا لِلَّهِ Those who have faith are those أَشَدُّ هُبًّا لِلَّهِ They are those who love Allah more than anyone or anything else. Allah honored us. Allah could have defined us in any way. But Allah chose to define us in terms of our love for Him. And therefore, if you want to ask yourself, if I want to ask myself, am I a believer? I must ask myself, do I love Allah? And do I love Allah how much? Allah Almighty has said أَشَدُّ أَشَدُّ is the superlative form of شَدِير Very much. More than anyone and anything

Auto-generated transcript: My brothers and sisters, our life in this world is a set of relationships. From the minute we are born to the minute we die, our life is a set of relationships. These relationships are the basis on which we exist. These are the basis on which we get our sustenance, progress, happiness, sadness, and so on. And it's based on these relationships that eventually we are born and when we die, we are buried. Everything someone relates to has a relationship. Hypothetically speaking, if a child is born and abandoned by the mother or father, then the chances of survival for that child are practically zero. So right from the word go, there are relationships. Each relationship has its requirements and benefits. You fulfill the requirement, you get the benefit; you don't fulfill the requirement, you will not get the benefit. Think about this in all aspects. Take your vehicles, your car, your motorcycle, or whatever. We have a relationship with them. Even though they are inanimate things, we have a relationship. The relationship is that I own it, so I take care of it, so it carries me to wherever I need to go. The requirement is you need to take care of it. The benefit is that thing will take care of you. It takes you to wherever. If you do not fulfill the requirement of taking care of the vehicle, then at some point the vehicle will not fulfill your requirement of taking you somewhere. It will break down or maybe you didn't fill gas, and it can't go anywhere even though it's there. Similarly, apply this to your relationships with parents, spouse, children, employees, neighbors, strangers, carpets, air conditioning units, chairs, clothes, everything. This carpet has a relationship with us, the air conditioning unit has a relationship with us, the chair you sit on has a relationship with you, clothes have a relationship with us, everything has a relationship, and every relationship has two aspects: one is what is required to maintain that relationship, and two, what is the benefit we get from the relationship. The first and foremost primordial relationship we have is with Allahﷻ. He is our creator, master, ruler; He created us, maintains us, feeds us, controls us, and we live by His order and one day we will return to Him. So what is that relationship? Think about that. Every relationship has a requirement to maintain it and there is a benefit. So think about the relationship with Allah in this way, in this aspect and say what is my relationship with Allah and what is the requirement of that relationship and what is the benefit of that relationship. Let us look at it from the perspective of the benefit angle first. What is the benefit of our connection with Allahﷻ? I think this is a very important thing to think about and consciously understand because most of us do not understand the benefit of our relationship with Allahﷻ. If someone asks you, "You are a Muslim, so what?" Is there some benefit? This is something that is not a matter of argument. Reflect on it and say the fact that I am a Muslim, what is the benefit of that? How does it distinguish me? Today we are living in a world where there is oppression on Muslims. There is pressure on us as Muslims. Alhamdulillah, Allahﷻ has kept us safe from that. But there is a general pressure. As a Muslim, if I board a flight or go into an airport, I have a different mental framework. Some people try to escape that by shaving their beards and pretending to be something other than Muslims. People know who you are no matter how much you shave your beard. We went to see a good friend of ours, Babi and me. He told us stories about people with beards being attacked in North India. So I said, I would rather die with my beard on than without my beard. What value does my identity add to me? My contention is it must add some value because otherwise why do we have this? Think about that. What makes you special as a Muslim? We know that Muslims were special. They went through centuries of being looked up to and emulated. In our country, all examples are clear before us. Find any old book which has pictures of the Maharajas. Look at every single one of them. Every single one of them has a beard and a turban. That was the aura and power of the Mughal Empire, which was the aura and power of the Muslim culture. Even though the empire itself was gone, the aura and power remained. The ones who are not Muslim used to dress like Muslims. Take the Coptic Christians in Egypt. See what they wear. There is a benefit in that relationship. There is a benefit in that identity. We need to ask ourselves today: what is the relationship with Allahﷻ? What is the value that adds to me? And therefore, what is the requirement of that relationship? How do I maintain that relationship and build that relationship? Without the identity, you are nobody. So, we ask Allahﷻ to help us realize who we are, our connection with Him, and keep us connected with Hi