In the Qur'an, Allah SWT says, Inna Allaha wa Malaiqatahu yusalluna ala nabi Ya'iyuhal ladina aaman usallu alaihi wa salimu taslima Allah SWT and the believers, the angels, send salawat, they send salam on the Prophet, please be upon him. And then there's a command, O believers, send salam on the Prophet. Allahumma salli wa salimu ala nabiina wa habibina Muhammad. When this verse was revealed, the companions, the muhajirun and the Ansar, their response to the Prophet, SAW, mentioned in Al-Tabari was that it's not fair that the Prophet, SAW, gets a verse, gets salawat, gets salam from Allah and the angels. What about them? And so then Allah revealed another verse. And that other verse is that he is the one who sends salawat upon you and the angels send the same salawat to guide you out of the darknesses to the light. And he is so merciful to the believers. What does it look like when angels send salawat on you? Why is it important that the angels send salam on you? When the angels send salawat upon you, different scholars of Tafsir mentioned that one, when Allah says, it means that he sends his mercy upon you. It means that he sends blessings upon you. It means that he gives his protection to you. That Allah sends angels, commands angels to do the same. That Allah commands angels that they are to the right and to the left and to the front and behind you. That angels are there just to protect you. Can angels do anything except what they're commanded to do? No. This means that the angels themselves are ordered to do nothing except for protect you and pray for you. The angels we know are on our right and on our left. And my sheikh, Sheikh Abdul Adib, he was telling me that, masha'Allah, he's a person of the Qur'an, he's a scholar of the Qur'an. He has the shortest senate in the world. And he said that when he makes a mistake, of course this is like, his mistakes are not like our mistakes. His mistake is like, I didn't realize that I cut someone off in traffic. And then I start saying, and then I turn to the angel and I say, don't write it down, I'm going to make a saqfar. He's not making dua to the angel. He's not asking the angel for forgiveness. He's just interacting with the angels that are around us and that are part of our lives. The angel on the right, when we do something right, we know that the angel writes it down and sometimes it's just one good deed, sometimes it's 10, sometimes it's 700, sometimes it's more than that. And we know that the angel on the left is ordered to wait so that if you do something wrong, there is a command from Allah that the angels are commanded because the angels can't do anything except for what Allah commands. They have to wait until it is some time because you might ask for forgiveness. And if you ask for forgiveness, then the angels don't write it down as a bad deed. And in fact, if you intend to do good and you don't do it, it's written as good. If you intend to do bad and you don't do it, it's still written as good. But the angel on the left waits and then they ask, okay, now should I write it down?  And this conversation keeps happening until finally, finally, then it's written as one bad deed. The angels interact with us in the way not only that they watch over us and that they write for us what we do, but also in the specific way they pray for us. Imam Al-Baghaw we mentioned that if one angel were to ask for the forgiveness of all the believers, it would be enough for all of the believers to have just one angel. But Allah in more than one occasion in the Quran talks about a legion of angels asking for the believers' forgiveness an entire legion of angels. There's a verse in the Quran Subhan Allah it just blows my mind in terms of how much he raises our ranks when he commands angels to do something for us. Allah talks about the angels who hold up the Aarj. They are the ones who hold up the throne of Allah. And what do they do? They believe in him يؤمنون به ويستغفرون للذين آمنوا. What is يؤمنون به? The angels are holding up the throne of Allah. Angels, beings of light created by Allah. Do they believe in Allah? Obviously, they're holding up the Aarj of Allah. Do they believe in him? Now, why would Allah say they believe in him? When obviously the angels believe in him. Shaykh Al-Sha'arawi mentions because this Allah is saying that they believe only in what he has allowed them to know. They don't have the They don't know the unseen. They don't know what's going to happen in the future. The only one who has that knowledge is Allah. And so they hold up the Aarj they believe in what they have been taught by him and ordered to know by him and that's it. And then what? ويستغفرون للذين آمنوا This is so incredible because Allah ties the repentance, the asking for forgiveness of all of us to who? To Allah himself. The angels are holding up the throne of Allah. They believe in him and what do they do? Literally nothing. But praise him and make dua for us that they ask for our forgiveness and in the next verse they ask that Allah joins us with our loved ones in the hereafter. That not only of course would we want to be with the Prophet ﷺ and the righteous people in the hereafter but when you think about the hereafter don't you also want to see your child? Don't you also want to see your mom? Don't you also want to see your sibling your friends, your cousins and sometimes for some of us we don't know what that's going to look like even for ourselves but also for loved ones that we have who either don't believe in Islam or maybe they have at some point and they don't care anymore. Many of us know what that's like many of us know what that fear and that pain is like and we feel all alone in that moment of sadness for the people that we love and of course we don't know where we are going to be we pray that Allah enters us into the highest paradise but only Allah knows of course but we hope for his mercy more than our deeds one time a man walked into the Masjid of the Prophet ﷺ and he was just overwhelmed with sadness and the Prophet ﷺ asked him and he was like my sins, my sins so the Prophet ﷺ taught him to say a du'a Allahumma your forgiveness is greater than my sins and my hope in you is greater than my deeds than my hope in my deeds that we sometimes don't have hope in Allah's mercy because we don't feel like we deserve it I had a sister tell me this was on tiktok she wrote a comment a public comment she said how do I know how do I know that I have hope with Allah when he is mad at me and I asked her how do you know Allah is mad at you how could you know how could you possibly know that Allah is mad at you and she said that she got really angry with her husband and every time she sleeps she dreams that she is going to sleep without saying the shahada at the end of life and I thought SubhanAllah who has taught her about Allah who has taught her about Allah that her her relationship pain manifests in her having dreams that she is not going to be able to say the shahada at death that's not wahi from Allah saying that he is mad at you or that you are not going to believe in Islam that's having serious very real very understandable issues in life needing to work with a therapist and a mental health professional to navigate those emotions and insha Allah those dreams will change when your emotions also change and insha Allah you will always be given the glad tidings of paradise but that idea that so many of us hold on to so often is especially in Ramadan it's been a few days I am nowhere near where my goals of Ramadan actually were before I started please nod your head if you may be recognized that you are also not exactly where you want to be so many heads and at this point I am looking at myself and I am thinking my goals were very high and it's only been a few days and there is literally no way I can catch up right now I will not be able to meet from now I can't meet my goals but no literally they are really high but then I think okay did Allah SWT know that I wanted to He knows what you want to do and is He going to reward you for that intention itself yes so when we are looking at Ramadan and we are thinking that how is Allah SWT even going to forgive me when I am not even holding up to what I have chosen as goals for myself redirect that concept it's not about what I am doing it's about the fact that Allah SWT is the most merciful anyway don't rely on the fact that you are generous for His generosity He is generous whether or not you are generous yes of course when we are generous He is more generous of course when we worship Him to the best of our ability it's even more blessings but does that mean when you are praying and you are trying and you want to but you haven't been able to that He won't accept you who taught us that and why is it sometimes that that voice in our head that we are not good enough for Allah SWT not just a voice in our head but rather the way that we cast upon Allah SWT and assume that that's how He sees us Allah is not your internal thought your self-loathing is not Allah seeing you in a self-loathing way that's how I feel about myself Allah SWT is the one His mercy encompasses everything one of the companions used to say oh Allah when He would recite this verse He would say I'm something I'm something so oh Allah cover your mercy upon me and that mercy that exact concept of mercy is the one that the angels make dua for for us wa yastaqfiruna li ladina amanu who are li ladina amanu Allah could have said li al-mu'mineen li al-mu'mineen is someone who embodies the action of belief they embody it you look at them, that is mu'mineen that is someone who is acting on it living it every single moment mohsinin li al-mohsinin they do even better they strive even farther and even more but li ladina amanu amanu is a verb past tense they have belief, what does that mean? it means that in their heart there is belief and yet their actions struggle to match that belief so when you feel like you're not doing enough remind yourself that in arama ghanay on a Sunday you were at the masjid that is Allah that is an invitation from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala li ladina amanu are the people who believed and their actions struggle to keep up with the belief what about the believers who are fasting in Ramadan what about the believers who come to the masjid when they don't have to what about the believers who hate themselves when they make a mistake and they want to do better and they still mess up but they want to do better that is even more you're you're more deserving of the dua of the angels you're even more deserving of the dua of the angels who are commanded to make dua just for the people who believed and they struggle what about the people who believe and they struggle yes but they're trying so the angels when they make dua for us it's not something that we hear passively oh there are angels that's really exciting we'll believe in them they are physically present protecting us they are making dua for us even when we feel alone and a story in the Quran that encapsulates this so powerfully is that of Maryam alayhi salam's mother and that of Zakaria alayhi salam and that of Maryam alayhi salam when the mother of Maryam alayhi salam learns that she's pregnant she is ecstatic and we know this from different tafsir that she had struggled with being pregnant she couldn't get pregnant she was struggling with infertility and when she saw a little bird feeding her babies she started making dua and she made dua that Allah would bless her with her own child and then she got pregnant and now you can imagine her joy and her excitement with her husband in Iran alayhi salam so she goes from being so excited Zakaria alayhi salam so excited because she's going to be a mother finally to the loss of her husband now as a widow and how is she going to navigate having a baby and this is when she makes a particular dua اِنِّي نَذَرْتُ لَكَ مَا فِي بَطْلُنِ مُحَرُّرَمْ تَتَقَبَّلْ مِنِّي إِنَّ كَأَنْ تَسْمِعُ الْعَلِينَ the way that she makes dua here is very vulnerable that she's broken اِنَّ كَأَنْ تَتْسْمِعُ الْعَلِينَ he is the one who hears he is the one who knows he is the only one who is actually there this dua parallels the dua of Zakaria alayhi salam which just a few words well this is a different surah this is mainly surah alayhi hamran alayhi salam is described in different ways that one he enters upon Maryam and he sees that she has this fruit out of season that inspires him to go to dua so then immediately هُنا لِكَ دَعَزَ كَرِيَ رَبَّه immediately he goes and he makes dua now how is this dua made the description of it in surah Maryam is one where I have to tell you subhanAllah I have heard du'aaz as all of us have heard du'aaz sometimes they rhyme sometimes they are kind of flowy sometimes it is almost like someone is singing or very poetic but when I was studying in Egypt the way he would make du'aaz is the first time I heard du'aaz on a on a wide level on a wide scale because he was making du'aaz and he would make du'aaz in the wittar and the way he would make du'aaz it was just if you do not forgive us who is going to forgive us begging Allah do not turn us away do not turn us away oh Allah if you do not open your doors for us who is going to open their doors for us ya Allah don't turn us away don't turn us away the way he would cry and it wasn't this crying like it wasn't like yes we all we all have emotion right but it was the intensity of someone who knows they have nowhere else to go this brokenness this complete humility this oh Allah I have shattered pieces of my heart in my hands and I am taking them to you and glue them back together that emotion we feel in the Quran when Zakiriyah aleyhi salam is making du'aaz and he is saying so humbly my bones have become frail that his hair has turned color that his old hair is an elderly man here that his wife has been barren that he is calling out because he wants to have a child to be able to continue the message of Islam continue the message of Prophethood as he is calling out like this this intensity of whisper the intensity of call where no one else is around you but you are desperate Zakiriyah aleyhi salam is making this du'aaz and he is a prophet of Allah salam so he is a prophet of Allah and he cares for Maryam aleyhi salam the first woman to enter Baitul Maqdis and yet we can imagine that he has been making du'aaz his whole life we can imagine because he is a prophet of Allah salam so now this is the moment in his elderly age that Allah salam chooses to answer this du'aaz and when he does the next verse that the angels call to him and gave him the glad fighting immediately the du'aaz was answered within a second that the angels were there now there is a difference of opinion on if they are the angels a group of angels that gave him this glad views or if it was Angel Jibril aleyhi salam because Angel Jibril has the highest ranking of the angels and so to refer to him in this plural is intended to honor him so whether it was Angel Jibril aleyhi salam or a group of angels the point is that Angel Jibril aleyhi salam was inspired to make du'aaz after seeing Mariam aleyhi salam and her certainty that Allah gave her this route out of season because Allah can provide whatever he wants or whomever he wills this certainty and the way she says this ayah even whether you write it whether you recite it with whatever the maqam you choose to write it in you feel the lightness of the verse that it's powerful because he can choose to do this but it's also very light Allah can provide whatever he wills so then what happens right after what is the next part of the story who has given the news Mariam aleyhi salam so Angel Jibril gives the news to then Angel Jibril aleyhi salam gives the news to Mariam aleyhi salam and when he's giving her this news first of all the form of a beautifully formed man is what the sincere mention and that when she sees him her first response is to call him back to Allah her first response is to warn him fear Allah, feel not Allah it doesn't say Allah reminding him that the door of mercy is open don't do it Allah so merciful he can still forgive you before you do anything if an kathir mentions that he was so scared of an angel and Angel Jibril aleyhi salam's form he has 600 wings he has jewels and rubies this is a narration in Imam Ahmad that he has jewels and rubies just falling from his wings that they take the form of people so they don't scare people that Mariam aleyhi salam's words were so powerful that he's the one who put back and then he gave her the glad tidings of a son and this is so powerful in Arabic because the ahaba laki to give you the glad tidings is joyful Zakiria was given glad tidings and he was joyful of that news even though he himself was in shock the way the Quran has stated how is this possible when my wife is bare and how is this possible and they're in their elder age aleyhi salam however Allah swt once he can do it okay juxtapose the joy with the glad tidings that Mariam aleyhi salam received her reaction is not to say I'm chosen it's not to say alhamdulillah and maybe honestly maybe it was to say those things but that's not what Allah recorded he recorded her shock what are people going to say thinking about how this is going to impact the way that people are going to see piety because she's a paragon of piety her reaction wasn't to receive the gift from Allah with immediate joy and if it was that's not what Allah chose to reveal to us which in and of itself tells us something that when something doesn't seem like a gift to us or sometimes it seems like it's supposed to be a gift but it doesn't feel like one that there's space to navigate that and this is where the role of the angels is so important for us because there are going to be times that we feel completely alone and no one in our family is going to understand even if they care about us and no one is really fully going to grasp the intensity of the emotion that we're going through or the fact that we have to numb ourselves so that we don't feel that emotion and especially when someone says something like why would you get upset over that why are you crying or hasn't it been long enough think about the prophet what does it mean hasn't it been long enough that you've been sad hasn't it been long enough that you've been upset hasn't it been long enough that you've missed someone hasn't it been long enough that you've been crying didn't cry for a day or two days he cried for decades in one tefsir for 40 years before he was reunited with Yusuf can you imagine a prophet of Allah being told be patient being told and he was told in the Quran he was told how much longer are you going to remember Yusuf and what does he say I complain only to Allah I complain only to Allah I complain only to Allah I know from him what you don't know of course for us we complain to Allah and we need to seek support whether that's therapy or other forms of support it's critical the point is that Yusuf for all those years was not reunited with his father and it was so long before he was crying think about Ibrahim and it wasn't just the town that kicked him out of their village it was his father that threw him into a fire what does that look like when your own father is the one throwing you into a fire and that's real today that's real many individuals struggle with that in their family think about in the Quran the verses of calling his son to believe in him are so hard to read just so emotional just come just come into this ship I'm just going to go to the mountain the mountain is going to save me many of you know this pain because you have a loved one and you weep for them and you care for them but he's a prophet of Allah and he went through this gut-wrenching pain every single one of the prophet and every single one of the righteous when we look at their stories they had intense loneliness being alone feeling like there is no one else who can understand you as part of their narrative and in none of those stories would we ever say hasn't it been long enough we would never say that to a prophet so why do we say that to our own selves forget saying it to other people why do we say it to ourselves why do we expect that we need to be in a particular place at a particular time when the fact that we cry is a sign or the fact that we don't cry but we feel it is a sign that we're trying to navigate real life with still with belief in Allah you know that the battle of the battle of bed was in Ramadan and this is the battle in which Allah brought angels upon angels upon angels to fight for the believers to fight with the believers to give victory to the believers the angels were present they were there helping aid the believers to an impossible victory and when they did this and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam has great news that they are the victors what does he go back to Medina to he doesn't go back to Medina with this earth shattering joy he goes back to Medina and that Rukhiyyah his daughter has passed away the fact that in Ramadan Allah didn't make this month a month of just Quran and just Salah and how much did you read and how much are you worshiping what is worship worship is that actions are by your intention and that looks like taking care of your emotional state and it looks like supporting people in your family and it looks like following with the frustration after frustration after frustration of you seeing that no matter what you do the door is not opening and you wondering what is the point and where am I going but you still keep believing in Allah and that's exactly what we see from the Prophet and who aided the Prophet but the angels and Allah promise us that if we believe in him that he commands the angels to support us and what are different ways that we can bring the angels into our lives because as we can hear the angels are not just these beings of light that just exist and are not interacting with us we just believe in them and that's it no they are actively intervening into our lives if you've ever got into a car accident have you ever got into a car accident sorry about to and then it feels like something literally pushed your car away like it actually feels like something just like protected your car from hitting something to panel up that was literally an angel buffering between your car when you go to Salah when you go to pray it may feel like something you need to finish quickly we covered this in the Salah class yesterday for those who are at WVMA many times for Salah many of us it's something we need to do and we do it and that's amazing first of all may Allah bless every single one of us for trying to pray but an angel comes to your right an angel comes to your left an angels as big as mountain stand behind you this is Sa'id ibn Musayib who gives us this narration angels as big as mountains stand behind you when you're going to pray so when you're going to Salah and sometimes it's in the middle of trying to take care of kids running around sometimes it's in the middle of children timing your back sometimes it's in the middle of between meetings or just running for whatever else you have to do and sometimes honestly you don't have other things to do but maybe it's not something that you're like oh I need to pray I'm so excited it's like oh I still need to pray but think about the fact that when we go to pray who is standing as an army with us one time Allah I was with a group of Muslims we were planning an event and one of the sisters in our group Sabreen was there when this happened one of the sisters in our group she got a phone call and she just stepped away to take the call and then she came back and all she could say was I need to pray I need to pray I need to pray I need to pray I need to pray and we were like okay it wasn't a Salah time she was just saying I need to pray I need to pray we were at San Jose State we were in an engineering building I mean we were just in a building she just immediately went straight to a corner and she just started praying and she started praying and she started praying she didn't tell us anything she just went straight to Salah and then she came to us after all of her prayers and then she told us that her brother had been hit by a car and Panallah he didn't make it that was the first time that I think many of us had witnessed someone take Salah immediately as a as a rope to hold on to she didn't tell us she didn't sit down and say I don't know what I'm going to do she didn't say I don't know she just said I need to pray and she just went straight to Salah that moment that choice to go straight to Salah when you get news like this this is not just somebody who is praying and trying to finish it it's someone who is praying and they're aware that the angels are with them that they're aware that Allah is with them that when they enter this sacred moment with Allah it's a conversation that they're having back and forth with the Lord of all the worlds very personally it's a very personal connection and that connection is one that the angels witness and they roam the earth looking for the believers who are not yet not just praying but also doing actions like reciting the Quran there are angels whose sole job is to roam the earth looking for those who are reciting the Quran and then they go to them they go to that halakha they go to that circle of people who are reciting the Quran and I'm sure that you've heard many of us that they surround those people that with them comes this mercy that with them comes this tranquility this feeling tranquility have you ever been with a Quran class and you just feel good there or you leave it and you feel like refreshed of course the barakah of the Quran but also the physical presence of the angels and the companions the way that they used to recite the Quran it wasn't simply of course it was to recite it quickly that there's a place you know there's a time and a place for all forms of the Quranic recitation but when they would recite the Quran they would really recite one verse over and over and over again they would recite it over and over and try to understand how this verse applies to this moment in their life and this is a following of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam who would stand all night and just recite one ayah into if you punish them then they are your slaves and if you forgive them then you are the strongest and the most wise and this was that Prophet Jesus was responding to Allah on the day when he is asked about the people who worshiped Jesus instead of Allah but in that conversation is this ayah and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam would recite it over and over and over again because who is responsible for this entire ummah the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam so when we are talking about the angels interacting with us when you are sitting in your own room and you are reciting the Quran and no one else is in your house who is witnessing it the angels are witnessing it and they are not just witnessing it it's not just the one on your right and your left there are the angels who are roaming the earth looking for your voice they are waiting to hear your voice recite the Quran and if you struggle with reciting the Quran then double the reward to you and if you recite it so beautifully then you recite it like who like the angels this hadith that those who recite it so beautifully are reciting it like the angels so when you recite the Quran know that there are beings of light looking for you for your voice to recite because of the kid of just remembering Allah swt right now we are not reciting the Quran together we are mentioning the Quran but remembering Allah are there angels present right now yes inshallah it's a promise from Allah swt and what do they do right now the angels surrounding us they take the names of all of us and they go to Allah swt and they have a conversation with Allah when Allah swt asks them that we don't want to go to hellfire and Allah swt has a longer narration that Allah swt not only promises us that but also promises it to those sisters in the back who are just walking through and they are not actually sitting but inshallah they are getting the reward of it all of you yes exactly exactly so it's so awkward I didn't mean to make it awkward for you I'm so sorry you were just a perfect example may Allah bless you all anytime I got to tell you a secret I've never told anyone this before and I get the reward of it if I ever see a halakha and I'm not part of it I just stand there for a second I'm like oh Allah count me as that one person who had no intention of going to the halakha but they still want to be forgiven be that person who just walks through all those beloved brothers and inshallah all of that edger is going to them I'm very serious I shouldn't have done that again but the point is look how mercy he's so merciful that literally someone whether they're passing through or they're not planning to come or they just came because someone else was like hey let's just go for a little bit and they were like I have no interest in doing this but I care about you enough that I'll go that this person is the one who is counted as the one who is forgiven this person is the one who inshallah is counted as the one who goes to paradise this person is inshallah counted as the one who is saved from Hellfire how merciful is Allah that He wants you to win that He wants you to win Allah wants us to win and this is why even in our interactions with one another angels make dua for the one who teaches good the one who teaches good angels make dua for them okay when you're thinking teaches good what is the person that came to mind maybe like a Quran teacher maybe like someone who teaches Islam well what about if you've ever taught your siblings something good any parent in here who taught their child how to be kind to someone else or how to pray or how to say subhanallah or how to do good actions just someone who teaches good is somebody who the angels make dua for and not just the angels actually this hadith also says even the one in the sea there's another one that talks about the one who's a student of knowledge but the fact that you do good you make dinner for your family and you teach them the adikah of saying Bismillah Rahman Rahim before you eat the dua of eating before you eat cleaning up that is part of the sunnah to be clean these are good actions and the angels make dua for you when you teach others that and not only that when they do it because you taught them who gets the reward yes the person teaching the person teaching gets that reward it goes back to them whenever they do it when you eat surur there's a hadith that you eat surur and the angels make dua for you this is also I believe in imam ahmad not imam ahmad that the angels make dua for the one who makes surur even if it's just a sip of water panallah how merciful is Allah and yeah everyone is like I really never wake up all y'all we never wake up in surur if the angels are making dua for you just get it you're all there but inshaAllah they will make more dua when you wake up first of all if we say sallallahu alayhi wasallam earthman rali Allahu anhu asked the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam about the angels that are part of our lives and the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam taught him that there is an angel waiting at your lips that when you send sallallahu alayhi wasallam that that angel goes to the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and mentions your name to the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and not just that that you get the salam that you make when you say Allahumma salli ala Muhammad or peace be upon him or sallallahu alayhi wasallam or any form of salawat you are raised ten rank ten paradise you are forgiven for ten sins you get ten rewards and what the angels send that salam to you you can never lose with Allah you can never lose with Allah if you visit someone who is sick the angels if you go in the afternoon 70,000 angels pray for your forgiveness until the morning if you go in the morning 70,000 angels pray for you until the afternoon and of course this includes someone you visit in the hospital but what about when your own child is sick and you are like please don't let anyone else in my family get sick and please let them get better soon there is no intention that when you are caring for them you are also visiting them when you visit a family member when you are taking care of a sick person if you are sick, tell your family to come visit me in my room but also wear a mask so y'all don't get sick too but the angels make da'a for you that's not just one, 70,000 Subhanallah there are too many opportunities for the angels to make da'a for us and one thing that I shared in the talk yesterday I know some of you are hearing this information again but I just want to make sure that we leave knowing that it's about the action and the intention not about our emotional state this is something I remember hearing a lot from unnamed places that Ramadan if we are not weeping then how really successful were we in Ramadan that if we are not crying in the last 10 nights then how do we know Allah has forgiven us have you heard messages like that before there is a sister when I made Hajj when we made Hajj there was a woman sitting across from us in the tent and she was so talkative very talkative and just wanted to get to know everyone very sweet and then we went to Arafah the next day when we were all back in the same tent she was very quiet she just kept looking down staring at one spot and I went to her and I was like are you okay and she responded by saying I didn't cry a single time in Arafah not a single here in Arafah and I don't know if my Hajj is accepted and I just want to walk you back to the day before in Arafah the messages the day before on the microphone in the tent where everybody was making da'a because they were trying to do these reminders throughout the day and one after another one person after another said that if you are not crying today if you don't weep today then how can you expect that your Hajj will be accepted if you're not crying now your heart is as hard as a rock and hellfire is fueled by the locks when you hear messages like this and you don't immediately weep out of awe to Allah SWT it can impact your psyche because this isn't one or two random people we've probably all heard messages like this and have very likely many of us if not all of us many of us have decided whether or not we were successful in Ramadan based on how many times we've cried out of love for Allah SWT in our Salah and the reality is that Allah SWT is not crying as a form of showing that we worship Him and that we obey Him it's sweet when it happens it's a gift to feel it sometimes but the fact that you still worship and you don't feel it is a testament to the strength of your faith you're not worshiping a feeling you're not chasing a feeling you're worshiping the one who created your feelings okay you're worshiping Allah SWT who created you and all of your feelings be misunderstood but the point is that when you worship Him this is what He asks how do we become those whom He loves by doing the obligation and then after the obligation the extra and when Allah SWT loves us when Allah loves you when Allah loves someone He tells Angel Jibril A.S that He loves this person and then Angel Jibril A.S tells the inhabitants of the heavens that Allah SWT loves this person and then Allah SWT fills the people's hearts with love for Him or her on earth Allah SWT loves the one who acts for His sake and of course the intention and of course when we feel the emotion Alhamdulillah but the fact that you still keep going as a sign of His love for you there were three companions who committed a mistake that they didn't go with the Prophet SAW on when they had to go for jihad and the way that the Qur'an describes their state in such a tawba that like the earth just became so constricted the vastness of the earth and they felt like they had nowhere to go but then Allah SWT then He turns to them He turned to them He turned to them so that they would turn to Him He turned to them so that they would turn to Him anytime in your heart if you've had a moment where you have wanted to go back to Allah SWT that's Allah inviting you back to Him if you think you want to go pray it's an invitation from Allah SWT if you think you want to repent I'm sorry for what you've done it's an invitation from Him and if you haven't felt that but you felt bad about not feeling that that's an invitation too and if you're none of those things that just makes me all up on all of our hearts the fact that you care at all the fact that you feel guilty that guilt that only comes from loving Allah SWT the fact that you're worried that you feel apathetic like I feel apathetic love is a sign of Allah SWT's love for you and when you love Allah SWT when you believe in Him this is the world that we we actively worship Him in but in the moment of death in this moment of that moment of meeting Allah SWT is a culmination of how the angels interact with us in all of our lives that in that moment Allah SWT my mom she told me a story of her friend whose little sister had cancer and they knew that her time was finishing and her parents were in the hospital room and she said that she the girl the little girl she said who are those beautiful people who just came into my room and the parents couldn't see anybody and they were like who who do you see and she said they're carrying beautiful white dress and then she passed away we don't know what people are seeing in the moment that they're passing but Allah SWT says those who believe in Allah SWT and they are firm on that Allah SWT don't be sad don't be afraid and don't be sad we are your allies we are your protectors Maybe you are your guardian. This moment where you think you might be so alone and Allah s.a.w. promises you that He's created beings of light to give you the glad tidings as you go into the next phase, as you go into the akhirah, to forever, as you go into forever. And Abu Bakr radiAllahu anhu, he asked some of the companions, what do you think this verse means? إِنَّ لَذِنَ قَالُ رَبُونَ اللَّهُ ثُمَّ اِسْتَقَامُوا What is ثُمَّ اِسْتَقَامُوا?  And Abu Bakr radiAllahu anhu said, no, you've given it a meaning it doesn't have. It means those who believe in Allah. You believe in Allah s.a.w. The scholars of Tafsir, when talking about the verse that you come on the day of judgement يوم لا ينفع مان ولا بانون إلا من أس الله بيقلبٍ سليم, it's not, none of these things are beneficial except for the one that comes with this قلبٍ سليم, it's often translated as a pure heart. So then you think okay a pure heart is something that doesn't commit sin. But the scholars clarified this doesn't mean sin because we're all gonna commit sin. But do you believe in Allah s.a.w. and have certainty on that belief and have certainty in the hereafter? And if sometimes you have doubt in that, if sometimes you're laying in bed and you're like, is this for real? Is there really a hereafter? Is this really the truth? And then you have to talk to it and you're like, oh yeah for sure. Oh no, it is. When you go through that conversation, remember that the companions and صحيخ مسلم came to the Prophet s.a.w. and told him sometimes we have these thoughts, we can't even say them out loud. The Prophet s.a.w. was like, you really have thoughts like that? And the companions were like, yes. And the Prophet s.a.w. said, that is clear faith, the fact that sometimes you have these thoughts that you're not even sure you're allowed to have. And you're worried about it, that is a sign of true faith. And of course, if you have questions, if you have doubts, ask about them. Ask about those specific things. And then after clarifying that, go back to the fact that even Ibrahim s.a.w. asked Allah, a prophet of Allah who was thrown into a fire that was made cool, who thought miracle after miracle after miracle, I said to Allah s.a.w. any need case, show me how you raised the dead. And then Allah s.a.w. responded with, don't you believe and of course Allah knows that, Khalil Allah believe. And he said, So that my heart feels this certainty and peace, this affirmation. If that is a prophet of Allah s.a.w. then what about all of us? To be the person who believes in Allah s.a.w. their whole life and who sometimes struggles and who sometimes doubts but then goes back to this belief, this is the one inshallah. This is the one inshallah, who the angel will give the glad tidings. And to end, there is this narration of Sa'id ibn Jubayr, radiallahu anh, that he mentions in the tafsir of an ayah that talks about the people in paradise being with those that they love. And he talks about a man who comes and in paradise, he looks around and he asks Allah s.a.w. where's my dad? Where's my son? Where's my grandpa? Where's my son? He doesn't see his loved ones there in jannah. And then it is said to this person, you did the action. You worked, you worked to get here. You did the work, they believed but they didn't do that work. And this man, he responds by saying, I worked for me but I also worked for them. And Allah s.a.w. doesn't want this person to be sad in jannah. And so he calls those people, be entered into the level of paradise that this person is in, just so that they're not sad in paradise. One of the ways in which our du'aah can be accepted is when we make du'aah for someone else. When we make du'aah for someone else. There's a sister here who told me that one time all Ramadan, she didn't feel anything. She didn't feel a single thing all Ramadan. And one day while she was praying, she just started making du'aah for the person next to her because she had just talked to the person next to her who would look really down and that person said, I haven't felt anything this Ramadan. She was like me too. And in sajdah, she made du'aah for her to feel something this Ramadan, just to feel something in Ramadan. And in that sallah, this sister for the first time started breaking down. Started weeping, started crying. When you make du'aah for someone, behind their back, without their knowledge an angel says, Admin, and for you. Including when you make du'aah for your loved ones. Including when you beg Allah to guide your loved ones. Including when you pray for your children and every single person whom you wish to see in the highest paradise. While we pray for ourselves to be their first and foremost, we also pray for the people that we love. In sha'Allah, Ya Rabbi, we ask Allah to tell us that He is the one that we love. In sha'Allah, Ya Rabbi, we ask Allah to tell us that today we will be counted as those, not just for us, not just for us, but for every single person that we love as well. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. Thank you so much. I know it's extremely late on a Sunday night. Thank you so much all for staying this late. May Allah bless you and answer every single one of your du'aah this Ramadan with even more than you can ask for. Admin. Alhamdulillah.