We're going to continue on in our discussion of the main obstacles that the human being faces on their spiritual path to Allah. And the section that we're on is specifically covering the obstacles in relation or the main enemies of the human being, you could say. And so these enemies are the dunya and all of the alorments of the dunya, bad company, Shaitan, which is a very obvious one, and then the nafs. And so we're covering, if we've been covering last time, we will cover today is the nafs. This is the ego, the nafs is defined. This is a refresher as the ego, the lower self, the pardoned nafs, which is constantly commanding us to do evil and to follow our desires. Within the nafs, you have the element of desire, the hawah, which is trying to get us to follow various degrees of desires. We covered the different desires last time. We spoke about the appetites that the human being has. It begins with the appetite for food. And that's why fasting is a big part of our religion. Because if someone can cut or tame rather the appetite for food, taming is the right way to do it. Then the rest of the desires become easier to tame, which is why again the whole month, which is all about kind of tame, many desires, but specifically focusing on the desire for food.  And there's the desire for money, then it goes into the desire for fame, then for followers and that power and control. And it kind of, the higher levels of that include the desire for leadership and kind of being in control of a lot of people. These are all subtle desires that come out of different points in the life of the human being. When we're younger, we'll face different desires than when we're 30, then when we're 40, then when we're 50, then when we're 60. These desires will evolve. And the one has a comprehensive treatment for their nuts. Their desires will get better. They will rather be able to manage the desires that come later, later in life. And so that's what we've been, we've been covering now. We're going to focus on today is he's going to a section which is about taqwa and how taqwa is really the way to guard ourselves against the tricks of the nuts. And then he's going to get into and we probably won't get into depth of this day, we'll wait for until next time. But how there's different organs that you and I need to guard or other different limbs and each limb has a stage of taqwa associated with it. And these are doors into your nuts. So you have the eye, the ear, the heart itself, the stomach and the tongue. These are the ones he's going to actually cover. He's going to go deep into each of them. He's going to give us a comprehensive cure and treatment for how we cure all of these different, different desires that might come to us. Ruda lint, inshallah. So, but focus really is we covered last time the three ways to comprehensively cure the nuts. The first is to deprive it of its appetites because it's like an animal. When you give an animal everything it wants, it can act up. But these days in the modern world, we don't engage with animals the way that they used to back in traditional societies, but the way that the examples of scholars always use it, it's like a donkey or a bull or a horse where you have to give it some kind of reward and sometimes you take something away so that you can tame it. That's the way the nuts works. The second is that you deprive it of its appetites. The second is that you give it a lot of ibadah to do a lot of worship. Worship is something the nuts is naturally, it doesn't like in its earlier stages. It doesn't like to wake up early in the morning for fudger. It doesn't like to pray on time. It's inclined towards laziness and procrastination. It doesn't like to do extra ibadah and these types of things. So, worship would be the second thing to comprehensively cure it. And the third is really from the depths of our soul and the depths of our heart, rather pegging to Allah for assistance because ultimately only Allah can help us go process of defeating our own nuts. It's not something we can do in ourselves. Allah says in the Qur'an that we created a human being weak, state of weakness. And that only the one Allah helps and who Allah has mercy on, they will be able to defeat the nuts and they will be able to defeat shaitan and so on. So that's the comprehensive treatment. Now we're going to get into specifics and we're going to talk about why taqwa is so important and then how you go about attaining taqwa. And this comes at a good time because today I believe today or yesterday was the first day of Sha'ban. That means that we are now exactly 29 or 30 days away from the month of Ramadan. And Ramadan is going to come sooner than we know it. Ramadan is the month in which the believer tries to attain a state of taqwa where Allah says in the Qur'an that Ya'yuh ad-dinah amaluk uttiba alaykum issyam that you fast, fasting has been prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those who came before you la'allakum taqqul in order that you might attain a state of taqwa. And taqwa is a very, very big word, a big concept. It's hard to translate. But it's this idea of being aware of Allah every moment and acting with that in mind with every time we engage with the creation that we are aware that Allah is watching us and that he is present. And so we want to get into what taqwa is and 12 different wisdoms of taqwa and then we'll get into the different limbs and how to cure the ways that those go into the next one. So the first thing with regards to taqwa it's one of the highest stations that you can attain in our religion and it's something that Allah commands the believers to get to. And when you attain these states, for example Allah says in the Qur'an, when you're praying for Hajj and I don't know if people in this room have been for Hajj but maybe isn't anyone here been for Hajj or for Omran? Okay, that's Omran, right? And so when you go to Omran or to the holy cities what do you have to do? Like usually you have to do some level of preparation. You have to pack a lot of things. You have to get your visa. You have to make sure that you have a tour guide or an agent or someone to help you with the process. You have to book your hotel. There's a lot of stuff you have to do. And in the traditional times it was a lot more prep than what we have to do when you would go Allah's example He was in the Qur'an specifically for Hajj but when you would go to the holy lands it's a lot of preparation because you can't just hop on a quick flight have luggage and then you just show up there and you can be there for a week or two and you come back, it's not like that. It was a multi-month journey that would have to be taken from whichever part of the world you were in. You would have to make sure you have transportation arranged and you have a boat or a ship that takes you from one place to the next place then you're traveling by camel or walking often if you couldn't afford it. And there's only so much provision and that you can take with you. You have to make sure you have places arranged to stay along the way and so on. So Allah says that take your provision but the best provision that you can have is Taqwa. He says the best provision you can have on this journey is Taqwa. And Hajj really is a symbol for the journey of life. Hajj is a symbol for the journey of life where you and I are all on this journey and Hajj symbolizes us eventually reaching this state where we are going to die and each level of Hajj has a different link to death than the wisdom of that. That's a very separate kind of discussion but Allah says have Taqwa as the best provision. So many times we think that the best thing that I could attain is a lot of money. If I could just get a salary of this much money and if I could get this much stocks and if I could get this many, this nice car or if I could buy this six bedroom house or the five bedroom house or you know the exactly the need of life that I want that's the best thing that they're having to do provision. But Allah wants us to challenge that. He says no, no, no, no. That's all worldly stuff. I really don't care about that. Allah does not care. He gives people He loves a lot of good and a lot of outward material things in this world and He gives people He does not love at all those things. He has nothing to do with Allah's love for you. Absolutely zero. The people who Allah loves the most He tests them and many times He tests them through poverty and through difficulty. And it doesn't indicate Allah's love for a person but what does indicate Allah's love for a person is the spiritual provision that you and I have been given. So we have to flip our understanding and this is what he's going to get to. The gifts that you get are not gifts of the dunya. That's not the type of gift we want. Sometimes we think and we're still grateful for it but we think that if I get this material thing or if I get this material thing or I look in a certain way or I get exactly the grade that I want or get into the school that I want that that is the best gift I can have from Allah. That's good. That's not a bad, it's a good gift and we should be grateful but that's not even close to the best gift. The best gifts that the believer asks for are spiritual gifts which is why there's a concept in our religion which is known as your spiritual risk. Your spiritual risk. Your spiritual risk is your spiritual provision. Just like you have dunya provision you have spiritual provision and this is something you and I want to increase up and this is everything to do with how much ibadah someone is able to do the presence that they have in their worship the feelings of intimacy that they may feel with their Lord in their ibadah the feeling of nearness that they may feel all the spiritual stations that are given these are all like rogues that are given to someone spiritual rogues the fair, the best of the provision that Allah the Shabbat says to them well because it's all encompassing. So that is something for us to keep in mind when we go into Ramadan it's like thinking through it's like thinking about and making an intention of having the best gift we could get in the entire universe and we have it available to us in that month Allah gives us the ability to get it specifically in that month by doing certain things and by being present and we'll walk away from it completely cleansed and dressed in a very very beautiful spiritual dress you could say that's like the way that scholars talk about it so that is what taqwa is all about and it's something we should watch we should regularly make du'a to Allah we should regularly make du'a to Allah about that okay so the first praise or benefit of taqwa Allah says is that if for the one who has patience and taqwa that is a very very amazing thing in the sight of Allah that that belongs to the azmil amour the azmil amour is like a very high status in the sight of Allah Allah likes it when people have a resolution and they're steadfast that it's a side of spiritual strength outwardly when someone has this and so Allah's he begins by praising taqwa that's the way Imam al-Zali is talking about it here it's an expression of praise so Allah's we already talked about why it's important Allah anytime it's important he magnifies something himself anytime something's important the most important gift that the ummah has ever been given has been magnified the most is the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Allah says in the Quran that what a faqna like biqra we've elevated your mention and so he himself is the best gift for the ummah the how close someone's connection is to the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam how much love we have for him how much we desire to follow his sunnah that will ultimately dictate the the station of taqwa that we have because he is the Imam al-Untaqeen he's the Imam of the people of taqwa so Allah starts by praising this right and we know anything that God praises you and I ideally should feel like okay Allah likes this and then he talks about things in a in a negative context right so in the Quran the dunya is never spoken about positively we talked about this in the section of the dunya it's always like the distractions of this world the allurements of this world it's empty it's even the words used for it are more empty words it's like like vegetation that grows and then all of a sudden it turns into the yellow dry vegetation the yellow dry leaves and then it withers away that's how Allah talks about dunya but when he talks about spiritual realities this is a lot of praise Allah said this is from the best of things this is from the azmah al-armur the steadfast of things and he praises his messengers in that way and he praises these spiritual virtues the key to solving the problems that we have as an ummah today is to shift this mindset because the ummah we think just like western society that's very capitalistic in nature and consumeristic in nature has trained us to think that the best thing in dunya the car that we have the house that we have the salary that we have the position we have the status that we have followers all these things in dunya that's where the society we live in it makes us think like that but Allah does not give weight to it and that's why someone who's attached to the book of Allah they will be able to have everything kind of better understanding of these things the second thing is that taqwa protects you completely yes oh okay great I'm going to have some snacks shall I prepare a fire it's a wonderful resident chef of lighthouse so the second thing I'm sorry for those online the next time join us in person at lighthouse in Oakland and you can get the snacks as well the second is Allah says that the one who has taqwa Allah protects that person from the people who are trying to harm them and this is really important so Allah says if wa in tasturu wa tattaku when you have patience and practice taqwa their Kyle their plotting will never harm you it won't harm somebody it might look like it's harming someone outwardly but it will not actually harm them in reality and this is also very very not important to keep in mind that when you have taqwa you're entering now into a state of spiritual realities it's not just about outwardly someone says this how do we know this look at the life of the prophets and then look at the life of the great imams of this religion they went through immense persecution and difficulty but they weren't harmed by it it's actually amazing said that the hadid was saying this on Friday it's said that Rahim al-Islam the prophet Abraham peace be upon him he literally as a young man huge catapult was built for him and then a huge fire was was burning and he was catapulted from from one place all the way into the fire completely like this what kind of persecution is that all because he's trying to tell them don't believe in the idols believe in Allah and anybody who tries to do good they are following in the footsteps of the messengers and anyone who tries to call to taqeed and to the worship of Allah they are following in the footsteps ultimately of the messengers Abraham al-Islam being one of the chief messengers but look at the heart that happened just because they were trying to do good just because he was trying to call to good but he said what? Hasbun Allah wa ni'mal wa keelah he's in the middle of the catapulting in the middle of the air Jibril al-Islam the archangel Gabriel comes in and says do you need anything? and he's in a complete state of just internalized reality of taqwa and reliance on Allah and he knows this ayah and he knows the principles of this religion that if you have patience and taqwa that it will never harm you their gaya will never harm you so he says well from you you're a created being just like me I don't need anything Hasbun Allah wa ni'mal wa keelah Allah is sufficient for me and then what does Allah do? He says to the fire khunu bi bardan wa salam peaceful and cool for Abraham alaihi salam and it was and it was as though he's in the depths of his tribulation but he's in a relaxed state and it's all cool and peaceful for him that's what taqwa does it's not that the bad thing doesn't happen it's that you know how to get through the difficulty and it's a very important reminder in the times that we live in you have other examples of someone who's not a prophet the great Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal ar-Rahimullah that he went through one of the four imams of the four madhabs that he went through intense persecution many of us don't know how much he went through to make sure that our aqeedah was correct he was constantly being persecuted by this group known as the Mu'tazilayh and they were innovators in the religion and they basically denied aspects of theology that are essential to know and they believe that human beings create their own actions and that things are not created by Allah there's a lot of problems in Mu'tazilayh thinking and he defended them and he was tortured tortured and literally almost killed he was thrown in jail and then tortured and all the other many of the other imams at the time they they did this thing kind of like an inquisition where they went to the houses of the different imams and they said do you believe this theology or not and many of them they caved in they're like yeah we believe it we believe it we believe this innovative theology he didn't gave me I said no of course not he said no everything you're saying is completely wrong he defended it he wrote refutations and it is because of him that the Muslims that Allah through him gave Muslims victory and had a correct belief in theology otherwise just like the Christians have this crazy concepts I mean not to disparage other religion but just like there's concepts if we would find very disagreeable in their theology the Muslims were having crazy ideas coming to our theology because of innovative groups and he corrected that he went through persecution but he had Taqwa and Allah got him out of it Imam Shafi also was thrown in prison for a period of time many of the great imams of the religion were thrown in prison because they were trying to preach something that not everybody liked Imam Malik was beaten by the ruler literally he ordered him to be whipped multiple times so there's a lot of this and they all had Taqwa of Allah and they got through it yes it was infloweredly but inwardly Allah got them through that that's the lesson of Taqwa is that if you have Taqwa their Gaya will never harm you it won't hurt you yes some of them were martyred and many of them were martyred yes and many of them were martyred and many of them were literally martyred that are on the path to Allah we know this about many of the Sahaba that literally they were killed defending this religion that's a high station of martyrdom but they knew and okay they might hurt me they might wound me they might harm me physically but with Allah I'm in a good place so outward harm doesn't relate to inward harm and someone has taqwa and that's ultimately the goal of disciplining the nafs is to teach the nafs that because your nafs wants to only protect everything outwardly and it starts at a very basic level oh I'm hungry oh I want to do this oh I'm lazy oh I'm going to procrastinate oh I mean the type of stuff we go through like you know it's very very much the basics many of us we're just trying to struggle and not to diminish it or anything or minimize it but it's obviously not always at the level of like we're being persecuted for defending the theology of the ummah and thousand years plus will be affected by our stance right we're not necessarily going through that but the stuff we do go through the nafs wants to think about it outwardly all in the form of bodily desires Allah wants you to think about it all in the form of spiritual realities and ultimately the human being balances that by trying to tame bodily desires and get into a state of spiritual realities insha'Allah so that is the second thing the third then is that when you have tangwa Allah is in a state Allah puts you in a state where his special assistance is with you and ultimately in order to defeat the enemies of shaytan and the nafs you need the special assistance of Allah to be with you you need you and I want you but you can't do it ourselves you cannot rely on our own selves our own abilities our ibadah our knowledge whatever stuff we do we can't rely on that we rely on Allah ultimately so Allah says that in the laah Allah is with the people of tangwa He's with the people who have this true devotion and those who are active in goodness now imagine you're going through something and you know you're trying to do the right thing you know Allah has your back because he's literally with you and not in any anthropomorphysical way but the assistance of Allah is with you you're going to do the right thing you're going to know I have you're going to have firm resolution in that and Allah says that Allah is the wali of the muntahki what is the wali? the protecting custodian the protecting friend of the muntahki is with them so whatever difficulties you and I will go through or spiritual challenges and this really this section is about our spiritual challenges we're going to go through because life ultimately is a series of physical and most of the challenges can boil down to spiritual challenges in terms of the way we look at it but Allah will help us and you'll feel that that's all into the feeling of Rahim al-Aslam so everybody's thinking that he's burning in the fire but he's not burning in the fire it's become heard that most salam it's become cool and peaceful so what does that mean? it's happening because Allah is with him and Allah is giving him his assistance yes if you have tough work that's going to make a way out for you that's what I expect you to do thunder that we're going to I think he's going to get to that quote that quote that that he mentioned is mentioning is mentioning Quran Surah Salat that Fana Yatzaqillah Yajalahum Mahrajah wa yirazukum ilhaydu layak Hasid that whoever has taqwa Allah Allah gives them a way out of every problem and he provides for them where they never expected and Allah is sufficient for the one who places their trust in him and so that's another benefit and insha'Allah we'll kind of expand on that short bit the fourth is oh so I don't know what that was the fourth nice nice yes so the fourth is exactly that Allah saves you from hardships and gives you the ability to have lawful sustenance vision so problems you go through taqwa is the way out it is the exit strategy that's the way and you will get you will get assistance in a way that you don't know what was even possible and this is again we have to step out of the material understanding and into the spiritual understanding in our life even I think we spoke about this in the context of financial decisions and sometimes we limit ourselves to the financial structures of the western world and they're like well I have to do things this way even if they're haram even if they're laced with ri'bah with interest I have to do it this way because there's no other way well who are you talking about that there's no other way for the creation yeah maybe but for the creator it's not difficult for him at all that if Allah will give them way out of everything Allah did not say you're giving them way out of most things except you know health problems and financial problems or most things except family problems he says give them a way out of everything every every and that's everything we do if we have taqwa if we are in a state of God consciousness and awareness of Allah we will be Allah will find us a way out it won't be easy always but the way out will come and we'll feel really really grateful at the end for achieving that way out and he provides for them from sources he could never imagine where there's a woman he could like that's it sources he could never imagine what does that mean that you and I cannot limit Allah to operating within the confines of what we think is possible okay so an example of this would be if we say well you know I have a job offer and it's from a company that's basically their income is based on hot off but it's the only job offer I had and we're like yeah well but I need to earn money and so there's the only way I mean I've applied to all these other jobs and I'm going to take the hot off job offer maybe the company makes their money by selling weapons that then the United States uses those weapons and to bomb Muslims and other countries I mean many of you there aren't many companies that do that but now someone that won't take job offer because really isn't that big of a deal is this really happening and so on and so on and now what happened is someone might limit Allah they might limit the state that that Allah could provide that one we don't ever live Allah can send you from sources you could never imagine so don't try to imagine them let Allah do that for you let Allah give you and me whatever he's meant to give us and that has that reality has to settle it and you know this is a really Alhamdulillah but regardless of the specific topic we're on it's a very good section that for anyone who has the book highly recommend is kind of going through this every month every few months because it's very very powerful and especially in Ramadan I mean this is what Takwah is going to do for us if we can attain the state what is that chapter? this is the chapter we're on it's the specific sections on page 83 it's the third hurdle the third hurdle someone will face and it's on the cures for the nafs at this point and the book for those who don't know is Minhaj Al-A'idin i-laj-jan-na-sat-ab-al-A'idin by Imam Abu Hamid Al-Qasali so this one is very important and one of my teachers we were going through something and he said you need to repeat this ayat of Quran and reflect on it a lot multiple times in the morning multiple times in the evening because you will have situations in life hopefully not but if we do someone is sick there's no cure all the doctors are like I don't know what's going on or financially things are getting really constrained but all sorts of problems are happening from ayat-taq-il-lah ayat-al-qumok the one who has taqwa Allah will give them way repeated reflect on it think about it and insha'Allah that it will actually come to fruition the fifth is about the improvements of work so Allah the one who has taqwa Allah will give them their works will become enhanced and this is one of the quotes that's often mentioned in the in the quatba the yaiha-l ad-dina'a ittaq-il-lah wa quluqaw-lansalidah yoslih-lakum a'an-lakum that O you who believe have taqwa of Allah and speak words that get straight to the point with people don't over embellish things in one direction or the other or another and Allah will improve your works for you you and I yoslih-lakum a'an-lakum like literally rectify our works or we have flaws in our works we do deeds we're praying we're thinking about you know dinner something like that we're you know reciting we're reciting Quran or we're doing some they're something we're usually thinking about dunya we're not always present we're on our phones while also doing things which is not as in sometimes right and yoslih-lakum a'an-lakum Allah improves those works for that person Allah gives them an improvement in their ibadah and that's important because the tricks of the nas this is actually really critical the tricks of the nas specifically to get you to be impressed with your theme or impressed with your religious practice we all will come to call the riyah or mojab then oh look at me I do this I look like this I talk like that also all the tricks the nas has those tricks are preventable or they will be that the damage that those the nas does because it can harm your deeds if you do a deed for the sake of someone else the deed can be completely worth nothing at the end of the day because Allah wants you and I to do it for him but if we try to do it for him and the nas gets in the way but we're trying to have taqwa inshallah Allah will improve those works such that okay now we get more credit than we when we actually deserve we get some extra credit Allah gives us a spiritual boost so again another benefit of taqwa the sixth benefit of taqwa is that it results in forgiveness of sins so there's many ways to attain forgiveness for our sins one of them and we should do this often is to ask Allah to forgive our sins and that's a very important aspect of it another one is when you are doing good deeds and you have taqwa and you are trying to be careful about this this or that and then there might be some sins you and I accumulated many of them that we don't even really know we don't remember we don't even know if it was a sin the good deeds that we do it cleans those sins away and Allah forgives those sins because we had to stay in taqwa because we had to take up God consciousness and God awareness Allah is a Shakur he's the most appreciative it likes that we do those sins yes that's what it says follow up the bad news the good news and the bad news exactly follow up the bad news with the good deed and it'll literally erase the good deed and it comes to a point where the one who sincerely eventually makes taqwa when you actually ask Allah for forgiveness for your sins let's say someone lived a life of sin and they were Muslim so they didn't sound like you convert later in life and your sins are clean or Muslim and then they lived a life of sin if they repent and turn to Allah sincerely and they get on the right path Allah actually converts their evil deeds into good deeds and this is from the Quran there's no weakness in this like this is this is as sound as it gets it's from the Quran that he convert imagine Allah could convert a sin that somebody did like adultery or constantly talking bad about people or all the other sins someone might do and he can convert them into good deeds that's an amazing thing it's an amazing aspect of this religion that sincere repentance can literally clean everything up that we've done and that's an important kind of aspect to consider the 7th is that Allah in Allah your hip al-mentaqeen Allah loves the people of Sangha now attaining Allah's love is a very very high station and when Allah begins to truly love you your love for Allah will grow very strong in your heart and now worship and doing Ibadah and doing goodness it's not something you have to do like man like I got to do it like you know like when you know someone when we're young and our parents are going did you pray to do this and it's like yeah I did it it's not coming deep from sincere and now it's like I love my Lord I'm going to do this from the depths of my heart in Allah your hip Allah loves the people of Taqwa and there are 7 categories of people Allah mentions that he loves in Quran this is again one of those categories and if you attain to say the Taqwa you essentially open up the doors all of those categories the people of patience the people place their trust in him the people of Taqwa the people of Ihsan the people of justice the people of purity and the people of who seek forgiveness a lot who make a lot of Taqwa those are the some of the ways in which we attain the love of our Lord the eighth is about acceptance from Allah so again this is where the nus the nus is going to come in and try to mess up our deeds such that they might not be accepted not every deed is accepted we have to we have to think about that we might do a deed and we don't know if it's accepted that's why you should never be arrogant that oh if I do this this and this and this person this and do anything how do you know if that person's five deeds that they did and you've done a million if those five are accepted and only two of ours were accepted we have no idea because the arrogant people or the people who think they're better than other people their deeds are not accepted they have Allah does not Allah hates that and so again Taqwa includes humility because when you're aware always that Allah is watching you when we're aware that Allah is watching us and Allah is present will feel shy how can I be arrogant in front of Allah knows all my faults knows everything wrong I've done he knows all the the bad thoughts that come to me and so on and so it won't it won't will feel we'll have some other in front of Allah we'll have some matters in front of him and so acceptance that in Allah accepts only from those midan wa taqeen this is a little bit of a weighty ayah that you think only if you attain the state of Taqwa that Allah accepts but we hope that attempting to do so and that Allah will inshallah accept it as well the next one the ninth is about the bestowal of nobility and honor so this is status now it says surely the most noble amongst you and Allah's sight is the one who has the most taqwa so now this is about status in society as well Allah didn't say the one who has the most money he didn't say the one who has the biggest house he didn't say the one who drives the bans or the tesla he didn't say the one who has the most amount of followers or fame he didn't say the one who has the most outward adornment of they look the most religious he didn't say any of that he said Allah nobility comes from and Allah's weight of nobility comes from whether or not someone has a state of taqwa and taqwa is in the heart we know from the Prophet's son he said taqwa ahahuna and taqwa ahuna you won't know someone's level of taqwa you will see it outwardly if someone is outwardly following the commands of Allah that you will see some level of taqwa obviously Alhamdulillah someone is on the sunnah if someone is dressed according to the sunnah if someone is trying to observe the limits of khaya and so on that's a very good sign of taqwa but a lot of it is inward like how humble we are before Allah or are we arrogant before Allah are we like do we have a state of of a good opinion of others in front of Allah all of these things are something that's in the heart and it's covered you can't see that only Allah really knows that and so that is nobility now that means when you meet when you and I meet people especially when we like give people status we should not care who's on the billionaires list of forms we shouldn't care who has the coolest inventions that this billionaire wants to go to Mars and then this one wants to do this and this one that stuff shouldn't matter who doesn't matter who the the politician is with the most amount of followers or with the most rapport among people that's not nobility in Allah's eyes the minute we start at the moment we start to measure nobility the way Allah measures nobility that's when we start to succeed as an Omar the Sahaba when Sayyidina Omar radiolaha and when he walked into the Jerusalem to to essentially the keys were being handed of the city of Jerusalem we pray that Allah gives that that entire land back to the Muslims as it rightfully belongs and that he rectifies the situation that he removes these evil Zionists from that land but when he walked in he was literally walking and the one who was with him was like his assistant was on the camel and he was in like humble clothing he was just like that this is who I am I don't need to be like a king goes into a city conquering a city and a king is like you know I mean again we don't really have kings these days but that they're really rolling with the whole entourage they have but that's not the case that's not the case when it comes to when it comes to the sight of Allah and being honored in Allah's sight the 10th is that the one who has taqwa they will have good news at the time of death for Allah has said those who truly believe and have taqwa for them there are glad tidings in the life of this world and in the year after Lahum al-Bushraq al-Hayat al-Dunya al-Bakirah they will have glad tidings of goodness in this world and in the next so this is now for the one who is hoping for a good ending everybody we should all pray regularly for a khusmal hatima or a good seal a good ending we don't know what our end will be we don't want to try to live a life of good but then we slip up for the end we regularly pray to Allah I don't know what my end state is going to be give me a khusmal hatima and he says the one who has taqwa you try to do the same because the way is you live and you and I don't know if our death when it's coming there's a car accident or an earthquake which is killing our brothers and sisters may Allah have mercy on all of their souls they did not expect I bet the majority of them that that was going to happen that day at 4 or 20 or for whatever time in AM and what no one you don't expect death but if you live a life of taqwa most people don't expect death but if you live a life of taqwa you will learn that okay I could die so I better not slip up today I better try not to slip up if I wake up thinking something could happen I better hold my tongue and I might you know say something rude to somebody or so on and so forth so that again is another another another thing to keep in mind and the 11th is the freedom or deliverance or safety from the hellfire that Allah says we shall rescue those who practice taqwa we shall rescue them from the fire and we shall leave those who are evildoers crouching there will leave them there but those who have taqwa will save them and far removed from the hellfire will be the righteous that they won't be they won't even be close they won't even have to get near inshallah again amazing right taqwa is at the opposite end of the spectrum of evil of haram there's a lot of haram that we could do in our life and we hopefully choose not to do it the person who's living a life of taqwa they're on the opposite end of that spectrum and if we do that Allah gives us safety from the fire and the real there is there is the outward aspect of the fire of jahannam and then there's the reality of the fire of being far from Allah eternally if you and I ever feel like the angst of feeling far from Allah in this life imagine eternally never being able to get close to Allah just it's completely impossible it's just not not happening that's that's one of the there is the outward fire is real that's also the fire that someone goes to the dead at that point they're begging and they're repenting and they're saying Allah is just like not listening you had your chance and we don't want to be from that because we regularly Allahumma jinnam and I'm not that Allah save us from the fire and the acts of taqwa that ideally we have in this life they will save us and this is the cure for the problems in the modern world all sorts of crazy ideas are coming into the minds of people in terms of how they view the how they view things and the one who is seriously concerned about the Athara they will guard themselves against this they will guard themselves against this and then Allah of course gives Jannah to the Mu'taqeen or indebted Mu'taqeen that the the garden has been prepared it's been prepared for the Mu'taqeen Allah puts that extra it's not extra effort for Allah but from our perspective is special effort in to prepare the the garden for someone and that's everlasting any time you're going through a problem in this world remember that it's not going to be here for much longer you and I won't be here much longer and this is not everlasting this place is supposed to be hard as we know from the Prophet the hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam this is a prison for the believer and it's a garden for the disbeliever the disbeliever will have their garden in this life this is their jannah the cars and the homes and the fancy jets and the luxury this and all that that's all the garden that's for them but the real garden is reserved for the people of Saqwa in the next life that's where the believer in their life may look outwardly like oh my God even God and they're praying I remember some time one time someone asked me or I had mentioned a question like I know somebody they pray the they do all these things and everything's going like how do you how do you explain how does that work how come they're trying so hard and everything's going wrong that's the sign that they're trying so hard and things are not going well that means Allah is drawing them near because Allah is putting them through it in this life so he puts them through nothing in this in the next life pure gold in order to purify it it's put through a fire it's put through purification gold a diamond in order to make it make it actually come out a rock is put over immense pressure and then the diamond emerges nothing is possible without difficulty and hardware that's that's the case in dunya nobody makes it if no one's successful without working long hours and working hard and so on religiously sometimes we're not doing all that Allah just threw something and he wants immense good for us and that's the thing to keep in mind that there are there are people in this life maybe they ever get married or struggling to have children or struggling to find a home to live in or struggling to to eat what they want to eat all the different things that someone would want to do to remember that that's 50, 60, 70 years in this life of some struggle but a million tens of millions hundreds of millions of years in the next life inshallah there's no number because it's infinity it's eternal of goodness it's everybody in the next life who makes it to jannah is married everybody in the next life has whatever they want everybody everybody in the next life has no sickness or fear or cancer or worry or stress or anxiety or problems or family problems or arguments or all the tension we feel in this life there's no there's no natural disasters or nothing all that's gone and that's eternal and we have to reflect on that sometimes why that's why the people who we think about the Akhira if Allah gives us the door to be we think about the Akhira it'll help us deal with okay yeah, this has been a tough game humble this has been a tough week Alhamdulillah and we'll start to feel we'll start to feel a sense of patience with with these difficulties and just like the brother he just prepared all this this this this assortment of snacks right and very quickly Alhamdulillah and he did this that out of his kindness and this is a small example right Allah is going to prepare it immense things for you immense we don't even know what those things are going to be we have no idea Allah says you can't even imagine any thought that comes to your mind is different than that you have no idea but it's not easy paradise is surrounded by problems and difficulties hellfire is surrounded by ease, luxuries and desires in this in this world so it's all it all looks easy why is the person who's sinning why do they have this house and this car and this job and they continue to hurt people and they continue to be rude and why come they're getting all of it meanwhile this person of Takwah who's doing right they don't even have a home to live in their home was destroyed in in an earthquake or in a disaster whatever how does that add up don't limit the view to this dunya the view of the believer must incorporate the Akhira otherwise we won't be able to survive it won't make sense it must incorporate reality there is the reality the Haqika incorporates the light and that's why Allah says perhaps you love a thing and in it is much bad for you and perhaps you hate a thing or rather perhaps you hate a thing and in it is much good for you and perhaps you love a thing and in it is much bad for you and Allah knows and you and I don't and you don't know don't think you are and I are Al-Alim we don't have access Allah is the most knowledgeable He has all the knowledge He has all the information He has all the wisdom He has all the that all the decision-making ability rests with Allah so you and I cannot assume that that we are going to be able to operate in the way that we can we know everything we have to operate in a humble way say Ya Allah I have no idea why this is happening please help me you are my rescue you are the one I seek refuge in you are the one who is going to help me inshallah and we beg Allah for assistance and inshallah the assistance then will come and so this is the and He will give us good inshallah in this life through spiritual gifts and through tranquility and sainah and inshallah through the next life in the next life and so this then gets into these 12 traits of taqwa and it's a topic that the scholars have mentioned you know many many many books about this is just a few pages on the topic but really the goal for the one who attains the state of taqwa now they'll have the ability to defeat the nafs to defeat sheikhah and to defeat their enemies that they that they have in this life and ultimately He says it boils down to three things they'll have divine assistance in everything it is that they do and they'll have an improvement in their work and a correction of the deficiency in their work and they will have acceptance in their ibadah and remember this is the book for the people who are traveling the path of ibadah right of worship meaning it's not now the path of the five pillars only you're now trying to do more you're trying to pray extra you're trying to to learn more you're trying to be sincerely devoted to Allah every moment of your life and what's the point of all that it's not even accepted and then that's taqwa is the means of of acceptance inshallah so we'll pause there and because any questions I mean we'll do one or two other pages we want to make sure there's no time for questions and it does get too late either yes so some questions are like the bad thing yeah so is there anything is there anything good that's helping from the term good question very good question so the question is it's referring to a topic we discussed a little bit ago which is about how you have bad thoughts whether there's four categories of thoughts you have thoughts that are from Shaitan Khater Shaitani you have thoughts from the Nus Khater Nassani you have thoughts from angels the angels suggest something to you Khater Malikani and you have thoughts directly from Allah inspired directly from Allah Khater Rabbani and so the question is is that are all the good thoughts basically never really coming from us are they always coming from some from angel or directly from our Lord so in the early stages of the spiritual path yes they're they're not coming from us because the Nus is in the state of what's called Ahmad Abisu the evil commanding soul as mentioned in Surah Yusuf that the Nus is Ahmad Abisu commands to you as the Nus has more takwan it does more work it graduates to the next level known as the Nus-al-Lawama at this point you will start having thoughts of questioning yourself and questioning whether or not you're doing the right thing and so this will be now the self-blaming Nus which is ah man I didn't pray I should have prayed ah man I told myself I was going to read extra Qur'an and I didn't do it I was supposed to get charity and you're having that level and it goes on for a long period of time until Allah blesses someone with the station of the Nus which is the tranquil and serene soul and at this point essentially while the Nus could fall into times of the evil thoughts coming in now you may get assistance you actually will get assistance from this tranquil the tranquility of the soul because it will no longer be calling you towards evil now it's kind of like assisting you towards taqwa and towards good and the Nus will almost feel like for example if you do a good deed every day and then you don't do that good deed one day let's say then you read this and then the other eyes and then the prophet alaihi salatu wa sallam every morning and then one morning you just don't do it your Nus will feel off your you will feel off because you are right your Nus is part of you will feel off until you do that in fact for the person who has to drink coffee every day and you don't drink the coffee something's off if you work out every day or like you know healthy number of times a week and you don't work out for a whole week something's off the body doesn't so the Nus won't accept it it actually is like come on I need that I need that right and that's when it's a good sign it starts to be now a progress inshallah is being made but the careful aspect of it is that in its nature the Nus is still commanding to evil it's always still going to try and find a way to trick you at some point and so until Allah allows us to kind of fully overcome it so you should assume for the most part that the Nus is trying to play tricks on you and me but that there are times where inshallah there will be some level of persistence and that has to be governed by the sharia meaning you get a thought and the first thing you do is you weigh that against the law of Islam and this my knowledge is important and when you weigh it against the law of Islam now it's like okay is this allowed or not allowed but it and if it's allowed and then you go to the Nus does my Nus inclined towards it or not could it be for the sake of Allah is it for the sake of other people is it for the sake of tension and so on and then finally if it all checks out now you go forward that deep so the sign is that someone starts to get more present in their evaluation of the opposite much of the question it's also a good question that you even evaluate it and now that's a sign that you are progressing in that state versus listening to the desire and the thought when it comes in you act upon it impulsively and that's like a very desire kind of focus response does that make sense other questions she's any questions online okay I think so we'll we'll give you another page or two and then we'll end in shalom so he basically summarizes then takwah right into these into these three areas and now if somebody gets to this stage in shalom where they really are focusing their life on trying to attain this big big big spiritual gift of takwah now it becomes a lot easier to defeat the else because you need some defense against the offense that the nuts is playing the nuts plays a lot of offense always trying to mess us up always like plotting plotting plotting I'm gonna do this do that this desire this desire get him to get him or her to look at this thing listen to this thing is boom boom mess mess mess mess mess mess but takwah is a shield you'll see many of the scholars they'll translate this is like a protective spiritual shield it gives you a spiritual shield and once someone has this spiritual shield now it becomes possible to guard against the different enemies that you and I have now it becomes possible to guard against the different enemies that come because it will be now it will come from within so you will no longer have to away everything like should I do this should I not is this a good idea would Allah be pleased with this for the most parts when takwah is firmly grounded in somebody it's very clear because you'll just know it'll naturally come in okay now this is wrong this is completely wrong and there will be gray areas where you consult you you you consult you know the people of the current people of knowledge and scholars and so on but many other things will just be super clear no of course that's wrong of course that's something that's wrong and this is where takwah is so important to go into the depths of takwah what do I mean by that don't don't let our knowledge that we just memorize and we just do a few things and then we spend the rest of our life addicted to the same things that the western society calls us to be addicted to it's it's it's and because what that does is that now messes up your ability to get takwah right every season takwah is not only in a masjid takwah is not only in relation to prayer or to fasting or to knowledge or so on no no no takwah applies in every aspect of life even for example in raising children there is a very strange theories out there that have been come that that you know usually secular people or atheists and so on have come up with they completely contradict the principles of Islam completely and yet Muslims may be people who practice Islam a lot but they don't we don't always have the understanding of what Allah would prefer because our gounding of takwah is not sperm so the nus will play tricks on us and nus might get us to slip up in a thing we thought we thought that our religion has nothing to do with it your religion has something to do with everything in life it is a way of life it is impossible for the believer to not weigh something spiritually almost every I mean down to the video game that somebody plays you weigh that spiritually video games in general for the one traveling the path waste of time not recommended but but if someone is playing it playing call of duty in one of these shooting games or you're shooting up a bunch of Muslims haraam by the fatawa of the Muslims by the fatawa of the scholars for somebody to be doing that and to just let their heart get get dirtier and dirtier and filthier and filthier from from literally virtually that doing something that has a has an impact on them not permissible just like it's not permissible to play a game in which somebody is having inappropriate relationships with with all sorts of people or to watch shows like that all of that impacts a soul but this is where Islam is not just something someone learns to memorize a certain number of facts and figures of and that will affect only certain parts of their life no no no it's comprehensive it's supposed to be comprehensive and there is a an adab of having taqwa with every single part of the day that we go through okay what would be how would if Allah was watching me in this moment how would I want to behave? If Allah was watching me in this moment how would I want to behave? And so on and and that applies to the way we treat our parents that we struggle many of us to have you know taqwa with our parents just like we in least in Western society talking back is normal it's completely normal not having respect is normal kind of talking bad about your parents to other people is kind of normal they joke about their parents it's very very odd versus Muslim society they have this huge level of adab you might have somebody who's immersed in many sins but when it comes to their parents and the Muslim in the Muslim country they're like nobody talks about them and no one will they will never mess up their adab with their parents because they still have that it's rounded deep down inside so same thing about that a relationship with our spouse that offering to help out around the house if let's say someone is a man sometimes people think that only women are responsible for doing things around the house it's not the way the province was on he would mend his own clothes he wouldn't assist around this house he would be seen sweeping with a broom he was assisted was in the service of this family that's the way of Takwa it's the way of Takwa so all of these things down to the to the friends that we talked about this house time or we talked about this earlier to the friends that somebody makes to the online the platform that they engage with online communities that someone joys on that joins online all of these things require having spiritual grounding now it's difficult to learn the knowledge that the associated rulings and the Suli principles with every single aspect of the religion but the one who has Takwa and who learns the fundamental principles Allah will make the situation clear to them it will become clear and when the situation is murky go to the people of knowledge Fesar and Ahl al-Dhikr and Qutum and Qutum ask the people of Dhikr and the people of realized internal realities if you and I don't know and so we ask them but this is where you and I have to get to a point where we start to govern the different decisions in our life that we made with with with some level of time friends that we have ways that we we interact with our family the way that we interact with our parents the way that we interact around the household the way that we interact with our children the way that we raise our children the philosophies that we listen to the ideologies that we follow who we place on a pedestal and who we don't a lot of Muslims place Western billionaires on pedestals not from the way of Taqwa nothing no they have nothing to do with our path and if if you don't think that there's something wrong with the way that they're living their life that's that's a problem right because there's a lot of problems that they're bringing out into the world right but but these are ways that as somebody becomes a program so that's really the core component of this is once it becomes firmly grounded it starts to influence your worldview in every way and you will now spiritually always be weighing how does this situation how would this work or how to allow me to behave in this situation and and it gets subtle sometimes and Allah will send a test your way to see okay are you really going to be a person of Taqwa and enough is constantly resisting it always think we get this example last time someone cuts you off on the road and natural inclination is to curse at them to just completely lose our cool that's from the nuts we know that we've all probably done it but the person of Taqwa okay okay perhaps they're having a bad day try to make some excuses try to try to let it go not not not make it into this huge diversity coming humanly angry about it and completely losing it because ultimately it's a test from Allah Allah is the one who enables everything to have good and bad because Allah operates outside of the confines of good and evil outside he created both good and evil they're both creations of of our Lord um so that is the state ultimately that we want to get to now once this happens he's going to now get into next the way in which someone starts to attain this state and it comes from ultimately keeping your heart pure from all sorts of para the ultimate goal to attain because the prophets of Allah are suddenly said Taqwa Ha'buna Taqwa is here if here the heart is dirty and filthy and filled with dunya and desires and distractions and so on the purity won't be there and if this is purified now Taqwa can enter when Taqwa enters now every aspect of your life begins to be governed by this pure state so the whole goal is going to get into after this and really calmly you could say that the rest of the book is going to be about purification of the heart that's the goal ultimately some then il-lamman atta Allah il-alimit salim only one who's successful on the day of judgment is one who goes to Allah with the alim salim the sound heart a pure heart a heart that is in this state purity that is the goal and the limbs that access most of the heart is going to talk about and we'll cover this next time the eyes the ears the tongue the stomach and then the heart with regard to the thoughts and so on that the heart has obviously has an impact on someone's spiritual state and now this is where we'll start to get the understanding of why we have to be careful of what we watch what we say who we hang out with who gossips around us or doesn't if we gossip around other people or don't what we listen to there's a always discussion about music and is music allowed or is it haram and so on and so forth at the end of the day if it is going to hurt your spiritual state which probably 99% of chances it will it's going to impact your your tongue so avoid it but that but still someone knows that if someone just knows a black and white ruling this is haram and this is halal they might not go be able to understand well how does this impact me because the the effect of something right if it affects you positively will be positive and there's many many many machines and or even lyrics that might do so but if it's about misogynistic lyrics and killing people and murder and all sorts of you know sexual promiscuity and so on which much of what the music out there right now is of course that's going to affect someone negatively right and and the people who are leading the way and singing those songs and so on it's going to hurt someone if we're watching sports teams all the time who's primary objective is to try and get someone to be so distracted by the world of sports right what did the Romans say give them circus and give them give them give them food and give them circus and they'll be completely distracted right it's just give them sports give them entertainment give them food and they'll be completely distracted it's the person who talked about this lens they'll start to know that's probably a waste of time for me it's probably a waste of time for my heart to be too inclined to this because the goal is for your heart to be directed towards Allah always every single day and the approach to doing that is to adorn it with the sunnah of the Prophet and to weigh ourselves ultimately and would the messenger be pleased with seeing we do this and if no we stay away from it and if yes we move towards it and inshallah that will allow us to attain this comprehensive and we ask that Allah give this to us and give us the realities of and that the people who are that the ways of establishing knowledge deep inside our own hearts inside our own communities and so Allah will send us a body that will say that come in the heart I just have to send them so now there's any final questions and then we'll okay did you have yeah sorry a little hard to hear yeah to complain to process thoughts yeah to the question so the question how spiritually usually complaining is very very bad a love of when would it be okay is it okay to process information so this is where the intention and the manner in which you go about it comes in so if someone is complaining in a way that's like very clearly like oh my god this is the worst situation ever I hate this this sucks it's very very just obvious complaints know that it would not be virtuous you will be decreased because Allah says it's a metaphysical law that if you are grateful I will increase you and if you're ingrateful Allah gives you more to complain about and so complaining from that perspective would not be a wise thing and it will bring about more problems like complaining from a perspective of processing information so let's say you're going through a difficult health situation or a difficult family situation and you are now sharing that with someone to process like I went through this I've been struggling but I'm trying this out and they say now you're doing it from the form of getting advice that would be totally fine for someone to do and it might even fall under this idea about Deen and Naseehab that Deen is sincere concern and sincere advice but where it gets tricky is if two people are just both focusing on the negative aspects of their life and the whole time that they're together it's all about all the problems I have and they can't look at the glass half full and they're struggling to do that but that is is where someone now starts to fall into the people of ingratitude and ultimately one of the ways of the path of ingratitude will lead someone to a form of kufr not known as kufr of committing share but kufr because kufr means covering up and it means the one who is ungrateful and so it could lead somebody to becoming ungrateful and it says in the Quran even to the people of the Bani Isra'il when Pharaoh did a lot of wrong things to them he says remember remember the nekma of Allah when he saved you from the from the evil of Pharaoh and then when he bestowed upon you all of these blessings and he lists the blessing that's interesting he doesn't say remember all the hardship that you went through but rather remember the fact that Allah is very much focused on looking at all the good things that went on so it's about what level someone is at ultimately like whatever desire they have to and how aware they are that Allah is watching them if they are feel bad, adab and shy in front of Allah that Allah I know you're ultimately doing this and if you were if you are listening to me and now I feel shy that I'm complaining about the situation in front of you you should avoid it but if you're like I need someone's advice and Allah has put this person in my life whether it's a sister a parent or so on to get advice and you mention negative aspects of life to get advice that's not only permissible but many times encouraged so it kind of throws a balance and this is ultimately when the heart as the heart gets purer and purer it becomes easier to know in which situation kind of how you how you would act because your heart is serving as a judge for you and it's been given what Allah says in the Quran that the heart will receive a fulhan a criterion by which to judge and you'll kind of have a sense of what to do and how to approach something inshaAllah any other questions online how would one have patience for someone's parents who say hurtful things how does Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala want us to react yeah it's a good question so Allah holds you and me to account for what we do and the response we have does matter based on who it is that is saying something to us so when our when some random person on the street says something it's very different and the response we have than when our parents say something or when our you know elders or someone says something ultimately this is a little bit tricky because it you're supposed to try to be patient and to pardon and to forgive but also to protect yourself from that harm so you're not you're not required to just accept like a very toxic relationship and put ourselves in harm's way if someone is saying really messed up things to us all the time and if that's our parents we don't just let ourselves like constantly be in harm's way but we also and now we're talking about from the perspective of our goal we're not supposed to speak back we're not supposed to talk back or or start cursing at them or start seeing saying hurtful things because the other in that situation is to try the character we're supposed to have is to try and say okay you know what I'm going to use myself the best thing to do is remove yourself remove yourself or if you feel like your relationship is strong enough to eventually approach a conversation and say you know what what you're saying is really hurtful and it's I really don't appreciate it it really impacts me in this way that way in this way and so I'm going to I mean you ask them to try to stop that and sometimes that needs to be spelled out but other times someone might say certain things and Allah says about when someone is attacked those who would strain their anger and they pardon others and verily Allah loves the people who are striving to do good and the people who deserve the most are our parents and the mentality you want to try to bring again not when it's like super toxic or any form of like abusive we're talking now about sometimes hurtful things come out of people's mouths and that's part of the test that Allah has done and that's the test that Allah has he says we created some of you as a test for others but you remind yourself of all of the things that your parents did when you were growing up when you were young when you were a baby crying all the time the difficulty that they went through to try to try to take care of you to try to raise you the sleepless nights I mean there's a lot that goes into it and to try to really deeply remember that but at the same time it doesn't mean what they're doing is right because they don't have a free pass they are accountable to Allah for every word that comes out it's like we're accountable to Allah for every word that comes out but if the question is what should our response be it should ideally be especially with our parents one of trying to let it go and pardon and removing ourselves from the situation and if it's not possible then you get someone involved like an elder a knowledgeable person a counselor a family therapist to intervene and to assist in the situation yeah also it's good that's when we have forbearance that's forbearance that you can take a lot of negative talk and just as long as you know you can do it the most time very good very good point Allah loves it when people have this sabr known as Helm forbearance which is a state that the Prophet Allah to Islam exemplified in a lot of ways where people would come to him just say the craziest things just the most absurd things calling him a magician calling him a lunatic essentially he's crazy just all sorts of crazy things and he just became better and better at his character towards them these days somebody not even our parents someone says one thing to us and we just flip completely completely flip what do you mean and it's even in religion someone gives us advice religiously and we're just like what are you talking about don't you know this proof in this and don't you know we just don't want to accept it but the Prophet Allah to Islam he allowed for people to sometimes say hurtful things and he knew the same character but there's a balance here in terms of how much someone can handle and not everybody can handle the same amount of things and so this is not like giving people a pass to say hurtful things it's when things are said wajan na bahtal kumbah the fitna Allah says we've created some of you as a test this fitna for others will you not be patient and so we kind of remember that in those moments so I think we have time for one other question if there's anything on line or in person so is residing in questions ok on line any questions ok I think there's no point in life so go ahead now the Dua we pray in Arabic O Allah Darul-Rahman O Allah as-Sinem I throw my money because no one's truth we pray We ask that you pour your mercy down upon us and that you forgive us and that you pardon us. We ask that you pour immense, immense barakah into this month of Rajab. Allahumma, barakah to all of you Sha'ban wa balimna Ramadan and allows to reach this month of Sha'ban or immense barakah and that allows to reach the month of Ramadan. Ya Rabbi, allow this to be the best Ramadan that we've had in our life today. Ya Rabbi, I mean allows to be in a state of taqwa, inwardly and outwardly in every part of our days as we approach Ramadan and allow Ramadan to be a month which we attain immense nearness to you and that you open the doors of immense spiritual gifts and immense spiritual stations. Ya Rabbi, direct our heart towards you completely such that we stop wasting our time with the distractions of this baniyya and the distractions of the societies that we live in and that we spend our time trying to get closer to you. Allow our heart to be in a state where we are always present before you Ya Rabbi. Where we always remember that you are watching us Ya Allah and that you are aware of us.  I mean it is very difficult and many of us we have difficulties and problems and worries and stress and anxieties and depression and sadness and all sorts of grief that we are going through Ya Allah.  We ask that you give us and our believers and the fellow believers in the summa and our families and our loved ones a way out of every problem and every difficulty it is that we are going through Ya Rabbil Admi and we ask that you make us firm upon the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ and make us firm upon following the Imam al-Muttaqeen Ya Rabbil Alameen. Ya Allah, we ask that you give immense mercy and forgiveness and love and ease to all of our brothers and sisters in Turkey and Syria and all the other places in the Muslim world Ya Rabbil Alameen that are struggling and that those who passed away in this earth but that you accept them as martyrs and that you increase their stations Ya Rabbil Alameen and that you give them immense stations of nearest and generous but those that are with the Prophet ﷺ and those who are still here Ya Allah but who have no homes and who have no place to go to and no place to turn to Ya Allah they have you and we ask that you be present with them and that you give them sakina and that you give them sabr and that you give them helm and that you give them assistance and that you remove any sadness or pessimism or depression that any of them might have and that you give them that optimism Ya Rabbil Alameen for the next life Ya Rabbil Alameen and that you assist them inwardly and outwardly and that you give us trophy and the ability to assist them Ya Rabbil Alameen Ya Allah We have brothers and sisters all throughout the Muslim world we're getting harmed we have many of our brothers and sisters in Palestine who were that harmed today Ya Allah by these oppressors and over them we ask Ya Rabbil Alameen that you give them complete freedom and that you remove these oppressors from them Ya Rabbil Alameen and that you all those who have been martyr that you accept them as martyrs Ya Rabbil Alameen and that you assist those who have been who are going through this oppression and injustice Ya Rabbil Alameen that you remove those who are unjust and who are tyrants and oppressors over them Ya Allah Ya Allah any of the Muslims that are struggling through any part of the Muslim lands we ask that you bestow your mercy upon them Ya Rabbil Alameen we ask that you give us the ability that we are in a state Alhamdulillah of safety and security and we have food to eat and we have shelter and we have so many blessings please Ya Allah while we have these blessings let us use our time in good because we know that we may not always have this time Ya Allah so let us use our time doing good things and trying to get closer to you and let us not be people who waste time Ya Allah Ya Rabbil Alameen Ya Allah whatever anxieties and worries and sorrows and sicknesses we have we ask that you heal them completely and that you assist our parents and our loved ones and our children and our spouses and our family Ya Rabbil Alameen in our community with all of their problems and that you give us immense love for the Messenger sallallahu alaihi wa alaihi wa sallam we ask you for everything good that he sallallahu alaihi wa sallam asked for and we ask you for protection for everything evil that he has protection from us sallallahu alaihi wa sallam wa barakah ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa la alaihi wa sallam Alhamdulillah Ya Rabbil Alameen