# Allah Will Love You For Your Dhikr | Midnight Majlis S2 Ep. 3

**Author:** Dr. Omar Suleiman
**Series:** Midnight Majlis
**Published:** 2026-03-13
**YouTube:** https://youtu.be/2KRhczoDfNw
**URL:** https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/midnight-majlis/midnight-majlis-s2-ep3-allah-will-love-you-for-your-dhikr
**Topics:** Acts of Worship, Sharia

## Description
Do you miss Allah? Is there a way to measure how far you are from Him? What does your dhikr have to do with the angels, the heavens, and His Throne? And which of your friends are remembering Him with you? Dr. Omar Suleiman and Sh. Yaser Birjas continue to discuss gems on the benefits of dhikr...

## Transcript
**[0:00]** I want to welcome you all back again to our beautiful late night khatam of Shaykh Omar Suleiman from the Valley Ranch Islamic Center. This is the 23rd night of the month of Ramadan for this year. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make it a blessed night, Ya Rabb al-'alamin. We ask Allah to give us a full reward for that, Ya Rabb al-'alamin.

**[0:15]** As we study together the book of Imam Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah rahimahu wa ta'ala, al-Wabil al-Sayyib, which means the downpour of blessings. When you raise your voice with the beautiful words of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's dhikr, then you're invoking and you're asking, requesting Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to send abundantly

**[0:34]** those blessings. So may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala help us to be among those who abundantly remember Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, so we can get all these blessings from Allah 'azza wa jalla abundantly. Shaykh, now how are we doing tonight? It's the 23rd night, masha'Allah. So how are we doing? Alhamdulillah, Ya Rabb al-'alamin.

**[0:50]** We had, honestly, the tarawih was very memorable, wa lillahi alhamdulillah. It's amazing when the Qur'an is being recited with that heart. It's the best dhikr. It is the best dhikr, subhanAllah. Shaykh, I pointed out to Allah when I gave the khatirah tonight, and I can't help it every

**[1:08]** time I sit behind or stand behind a qari, or even when we have a gathering, whether it's a special occasion or people celebrating something, and they bring someone to recite the Qur'an, especially with beautiful recitation. I can't help it, Shaykh, subhanAllah, alhamdulillah, being born with the Arabic tongue, and understanding

**[1:28]** the language naturally. I just cannot help it when I look around and see I might be the only person in the gathering who understands what the imam is reciting. It is really, it hits so hard. Two ways. One, feeling guilty and responsible, because you have a huge responsibility knowing the

**[1:45]** Arabic language, the language of the Qur'an itself, and you have now more responsibility to reflect on it. And the other thing is just, I wish and I make du'a for everybody, wallahi, to be given the opportunity and the ability to understand the Qur'an the way it is recited.

**[2:01]** The ummah used to be like this before, but unfortunately with the change in the educational system, now the Qur'an has become a novelty. Only one child in the household to give the barakah, insha'Allah, or only for the people

**[2:16]** of the Qur'an. It's not like a personal task upon us to memorize the Qur'an. May Allah give you all the ability to understand the Qur'an, because it is indeed the best dhikr as Allah mentions in the Qur'an. Tonight insha'Allah, we're starting from point number 18, the benefits of dhikr, as Imam

**[2:35]** Ibn Qayyim is mentioning them. So point number 18 is going to be on page 117 for those who are following with us the English translation, page number 117. Those who are following with the Arabic page, it's actually going to be 97 insha'Allah, 97

**[2:51]** page number 18, and Imam Ibn Qayyim is speaking about the benefits of dhikr. So if you remember yesterday, he started talking about how dhikr, masha'Allah, purifies the heart and it brings you calm and tranquility and peace and all these beautiful things.

**[3:08]** Tonight he starts with number 18. He says, it removes impurities from the heart to become pure from the rust and corrosion,

**[3:23]** as it is preceded in the previous hadith. He refers to a hadith that came in the introduction, which was reported in Sunan al-Bayhaqi. The Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam said, although it's put in terms of authenticity, but it says, and the Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam said here, He says, everything has a siqalah, and the siqalah means basically, it's more like a time

**[3:45]** when it becomes rusty. So discoloring and rust, just like everything, whether it's your clothes, any gadget you have at home, or anything, subhanAllah, it becomes rusty at some point. And then when it comes to remove the rust, like polishing, polishing the heart from this

**[4:05]** rust will be to the remembrance of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. He says over here that you have to keep in mind that everything eventually becomes rusty or dull, like deteriorates, condition deteriorates obviously, and the heart does so through heedlessness

**[4:26]** and desires. And if you guys remember, we said three gates from which the shaytan enters your heart. Do you guys remember them, or have you forgotten? Because if you forgot them, that means your doors are open. So always remember to keep those doors closed for the shaytan. What are they?

**[4:42]** Number one, heedlessness, ghaflah, which is basically forgetting by choice, like you ignoring and not doing what you're supposed to do by choice. The second thing, desires, and the third one, anger. So he says over here, the heart becomes rusty because of heedlessness and desires.

**[5:02]** And he says it becomes pure and radiant to remembrance, that's dhikr, repentance, tawbah, and seeking forgiveness from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And subhanAllah, there's so much to break this down.

**[5:17]** Number one, the idea that your heart accumulates rust through constant distraction. If it's constantly distracted from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, it accumulates rust. It's like anything else, you say, I'm rusty, I'm rusty. The first time you try to do something after a very long time, what happens?

**[5:35]** You get fatigued quickly, and your form is off. It's all messed up, whether it's weightlifting or some sort of sport or some sort of exercise or whatever it may be. It's not done with the proper form, and it gives you extra fatigue in the beginning.

**[5:51]** And then what happens? You overcome the initial rust, and you get back to a baseline. And subhanAllah, the thing about Ramadan to Ramadan and the seasons of Allah's mercy, where you're more prone to remember Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, is that your baseline might rise every single year, right?

**[6:08]** But then you lose, like let's say that you came up 20%, but then you ended up losing 15%. So when you get back to baseline, you haven't lost everything. And this is actually really important, because someone might think like, okay, if I can't remember Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, if I'm having a hard time, that means that my heart

**[6:26]** is dead. No, it's not dead. It's rusty. And there are different layers of rust. Even in the Qur'an, by the way, كَلَّا بَلْ رَانَ عَلَىٰ قُلُوبِهِمْ مَا كَانُوا يَكْسِبُونَ Allah talks about a heart that is stained because of sin. The Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam said,

**[6:42]** إِنَّهُ لَيُغَانُ عَلَىٰ قَلْبِي that sometimes my heart becomes fogged. And the 'ulama talk about the difference between stain and fog, stain and fog. So there's the stain of sin, and there's the rust of ghaflah, heedlessness, of just distraction,

**[6:59]** like you haven't been working it out enough. You have not been connecting your heart to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Both of them are treated through dhikr, by the way, but different types of dhikr and different regimens. Obviously, the sin requires a deeper cleaning, right, a deeper cleaning to get that stain out of the heart.

**[7:14]** So a person comes back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and that's why he mentions, al-tawbah wal-istighfar, the things that bring a person back, or dhikr, and then specifically from the remembrance of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, tawbah and istighfar, repentance and the seeking of forgiveness from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

**[7:31]** And as a result of that, a person will have their hearts unrusted. Another thing I'll say here, Shaykh, which is really important is, this idea like we have of us being purified by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in different ways. I was just thinking about Surah al-Shams today.

**[7:47]** قَدْ أَفْلَحَ مَنْ زَكَّاهَا وَقَدْ خَابَ مَنْ دَسَّاهَا Like when Allah talks about the self, it says verily He has succeeded who has purified it, and He has failed who has dirtied it, sullied it, corrupted it, right? If you think about all of the different terms that are used about purification, tazkiyah,

**[8:05]** زَكَّاهَا, purification, صَلَاة, one of the meanings of the word صَلَاة comes from صَلَى الْعُودَ, that you remove the layers from the branch, you take it back to its asl, to its origin. When you think about fitnah, the word fitnah, fitnah means to burn the impurities off

**[8:23]** of something. So Allah puts us through fitnah, through fitnah, and that burns the impurities off of us if we respond with patience. Allah 'Azza wa Jalla purifies us once again. And dhikr is the constant removal of the fog, the constant removal of the fog and the stain so that the heart does not accumulate rust, and of course worse than that would

**[8:41]** be the stain of sin. Shaykh, that reminds me, in our modern life, we can't survive without our technologies and our, of course, machines and all the stuff and so on, and we make sure that the machine stays functioning at its optimum level by always changing the oil and polishing it and

**[8:57]** keep it clean and so on. And imagine if you don't take care of your car, for example, regularly, if you don't go and make sure to check, for example, on changing the filters and changing the oil and so on to keep it running, al-dhikr wal-tawbah wal-istighfar works exactly like that.

**[9:13]** Like imagine if you know that in order for you to function spiritually, and even physically, really, you have to take care and maintain your heart, the health of your heart physically by eating, of course, healthy so you don't actually disturb the heart, and also by doing the thing that will bring that peace and tranquility to the heart, such as tawbah, dhikr,

**[9:32]** and also istighfar. So the three things that you need to always keep polishing your heart, how often do you do that? And also remind me, kind of like a joke and a note on this matter, as Palestinians, we run on olive oil, so therefore, when we start to become rusty, when we are out of olive

**[9:48]** oil, obviously. I keep saying so, when we run out of olive oil at home, we start squeaking, basically. So – If you ever see Shaykh Yasser just downing a bottle of olive oil, it's not what you think it is. No, if you hear me squeaking, that means I'm out of olive oil at home.

**[10:03]** Seriously, subhanAllah, you always try to maintain that in your household. You don't want to run out of these essential items, for example, because it ruins your rhythm, ruins your life, ruins this and that. Can you imagine that you're taking care of everything around you, and you're not

**[10:19]** taking care of yourself very well? And you're not polishing your heart properly, regularly. The doors where the shaytan comes through are very well known to you. Heedlessness, and you can defeat that with dhikr. Shahwah, you repel that with tawbah, and then anger, you seek istighfar from Allah

**[10:38]** subhanahu wa ta'ala for the mistakes you have done. So three gates and three solutions. Each one of them has its own solution, so always try to keep, insha'Allah, continue to polish your heart. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give you that pure heart, Ya Rabb al-'alamin, that's full with tazkir. Allahumma ameen. Just the point that he mentioned here, he says, صدأ القلب الغفلة والهوى

**[10:57]** – that the heart becomes rusty because of heedlessness and desire. So heedlessness, he says, in another book he spoke about this man, he goes, the difference between al-ghaflah wal-nisyan – ghaflah, heedlessness, nisyan, forgetfulness.

**[11:12]** What's the difference? The difference is that forgetfulness happens accidentally, you have no input into that, it just happens accidentally. But heedlessness happens deliberately. You know that you need to pray, but what do you do?

**[11:28]** You keep procrastinating, that's ghaflah. You know that you're fasting and you need to watch your tongue for what you're saying, watch your eyes for what you're watching, but you know, you still, while you know that you're fasting, you go and you do the thing that you're not supposed to do when you're fasting, or you say things you don't want to. So that's ghaflah, that's heedlessness.

**[11:44]** But nisyan happens with everybody, it's just, subhanAllah, I just forgot I had a sip of water while I'm fasting, I didn't know, I wasn't… So you need to keep in mind that ghaflah, it's your doing, nisyan is a different story. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala forgive us for our nisyan, alhamdulillah Rabb al-'alamin,

**[12:01]** as he mentioned in the Qur'an, right? But for the ghaflah, for that heedlessness, that's something you're going to be held accountable for. Point number 19 he says, from the benefit of dhikr, أَنَّهُ يَحُطُّ الْخَطَايَا وَيُذْهِبُهَا

**[12:18]** فَإِنَّهُ مِنْ أَعْظَمِ الْحَسَنَاتِ وَالْحَسَنَاتُ يُذْهِبْنَ السَّيِّئَاتِ What a beautiful thing. He says, rahimahu Allah ta'ala, dhikr, it wipes away sins and wards them off. So it wipes sins and wards them off. Keep them away from you, and if they happen, you can erase them as well afterwards.

**[12:35]** He said, it is from the greatest forms of good deeds, and all good deeds wipe away bad deeds. I remember, that reminds me of hadith al-Nabi sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam in which the Prophet ﷺ mentioned, whoever counts subhan Allahi wa bihamdih a hundred times.

**[12:55]** If you say subhan Allahi wa bihamdih a hundred times in a day, the Prophet ﷺ said, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will wipe the sins of that day away, even if it was as much as the foam on the water, like on the surf.

**[13:11]** This is how much sins, subhanAllah wa bihamdih to wipe all these away. We're talking about the minor sins obviously over here, right? But his form of dhikr, just saying subhan Allahi wa bihamdih has that power to remove these sins away from your records.

**[13:27]** Why subhan Allahi wa bihamdih? Because when you say subhan Allahi wa bihamdih, you're praising Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala twice. سُبْحَانَ اللهِ, this is praising Allah 'Azza wa Jalla by freeing him from any form of imperfection.

**[13:42]** When you say subhan Allah, it means, Ya Allah, I praise you, I remove any form of imperfection from you. بِحَمْدِهِ, when you say alhamdulillah, that's now the affirmation of all the attributes of perfection to him.

**[13:59]** Just like saying لَا إِلٰهَ إِلَّا اللهُ, there's negation, there's affirmation, right? For subhan Allah is a negation. You negate all imperfections away from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. وَبِحَمْدِهِ, that's now the affirmation of all, the affirmation of all the good deeds. So the perfect attributes of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

**[14:18]** So therefore, we keep in mind that our dhikr, alhamdulillah, is always giving us extra credit and removes the bad ones. There's so much to say about the idea that dhikr, in this case, resolves the past, the present, and the future. The past, it completely removes it away.

**[14:34]** For the present, it turns a new page with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. For the future, as Ibn al-Qayyim rahimahu Allah says, it weakens the impulse to commit that same sin again. It weakens the impulse, so you're not going to feel the same impulse again to commit that same sin. It disconnects you from that sin.

**[14:51]** But I want us to actually break this down a little bit into two different categories. Number one, in al-hasanat yudhhibn as-sayyi'at, what he says here, that good deeds remove bad deeds. The Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam said this as a general rule, وَأَتْبِعِ السَّيِّئَةَ الْحَسَنَةَ تَمْحُوهَا Always follow up with a sin with a good deed.

**[15:06]** There's a narration from Sayyiduna 'Umar radiyAllahu ta'ala 'anhu, if you disobey Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in a place, then don't leave that place except that you did an act of obedience in its place. So you messed up in this area of your life, in the physical space, or in this area of your life, rectify that area of your life, rectify that place in your life, and replace

**[15:26]** the bad with the good. But when it comes to istighfar in particular, so dhikr is a good deed, that's the point that he's actually making, that dhikr is part of the good deeds. When it comes to istighfar, look at the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. If a person committed a sin, and istaghfara lahu, he sought forgiveness for that sin,

**[15:47]** the sin removes, or the istighfar removes the sin and turns it into a bright spot on the heart and a bright spot on the record. Suqilat qalb, the Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam said it polishes that part of the heart, and on the Day of Judgment, if you sought forgiveness from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, Allah will turn that sin into a good deed, to a point that a person, when

**[16:06]** their sins that they have repented for are being counted in front of Allah 'Azza wa Jalla, they would say, Ya Allah, there are some sins that the angels forgot to write down. Because of how merciful Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is to turn those sins into good deeds. Alright, but here's where it gets more interesting. There are two other categories here.

**[16:23]** One of them is what the Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam said, that when a person commits a sin, the angel is told to hold the pen for six hours, not six, 60 minutes, six periods of time, six hours, for a time period, to not even write it down, in case the person quickly

**[16:42]** catches themselves and repents. So let's say that a person quickly caught themselves and repented. The 'ulama mention that the istighfar will still be on the scroll. So you'll just have the good deed of istighfar on the scroll. The sin would not have appeared in the first place. And then there's a third category, which is even more beautiful.

**[16:58]** And that is the different level of istighfar, which is istighfar for a shortcoming in a good deed. Istighfar for shortcoming in a good deed. What the Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam would do after prayer, astaghfir Allah astaghfir Allah astaghfir Allah. The istighfar of the Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam was istighfar at-taqsir,

**[17:14]** not istighfar adh-dhanb. It was seeking forgiveness for deficiency, not for sinful deeds. And that's the best type of istighfar because it's a good deed that follows a good deed. It's a good deed that follows a good deed. So it beautifies what was already a good deed. Your salah was already beautiful.

**[17:31]** Your istighfar made it even more beautiful. And when you finish your manasik and hajj, fastaghfir Allah, then seek forgiveness from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. إِذَا جَاءَ نَصْرُ اللهِ وَالْفَتْحُ until the end of it, فَسَبِّحْ بِحَمْدِ رَبِّكَ وَاسْتَغْفِرْ

**[17:46]** This is building on a good deed. When your istighfar is a good deed built on a good deed, then it's the most beautiful form of istighfar, and that's the istighfar of the Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam. May Allah give us the ability to do that, O Lord of the worlds. Shaykh, point number 20, he says, أَنَّهُ يُزِيلُ الْوَحْشَةَ بَيْنَ الْعَبْدِ وَبَيْنَ رَبِّهِ تَبَارَكَ وَتَعَالَىٰ

**[18:05]** فَإِنَّ الْغَافِلَ بَيْنَهُ وَبَيْنَ اللهِ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ وَحْشَةً لَا تَزُولُ إِلَّا بِالذِّكْرِ He says it removes dhikr. It removes the strangeness between the servant and his Lord, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Between the heedless person and his Lord is strangeness.

**[18:22]** And it cannot be removed except through the remembrance of Allah عز وجل for dhikr. That reminds me of a very important, powerful, emotional concept in us human beings. You know, when you travel, and you travel far away, look, travel today has become much easier,

**[18:40]** and even human connection has become way easier. So those feelings that I'm talking about, maybe they're not understood properly because, alhamdulillah, communication is always there. But back in the days when people used to travel, there is no need to communicate with them until they come back again.

**[18:57]** And if you're going to have to communicate with them, you're going to have to send a letter. Or maybe make a phone call. If you go, for example, certain areas that there's one single phone line in the entire village, right? So they call, hey, can you call for so-and-so to come? And then so much trouble.

**[19:15]** So when people travel, Sheikh, they travel with a lot of memories and emotions and feelings and so on. And they have that wahshah, that strangeness. They travel away, and they're in a strange land, foreign place, away from home, from the loved ones and so on. The only way these people could have survived is by always having those beautiful memories of the loved ones.

**[19:37]** That's why you see in the Arabic poetry, it's always full with that. They always begin by speaking about what? Whom they love. So they also speak about their loved ones with their names, because their memories remove that estrangement in their hearts.

**[19:54]** And that's just a human connection. I mean, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala freed the people who were unjustly being imprisoned in the Arab world. SubhanAllah, when you go and you meet with some of them and you speak to them, what really strengthened them, alhamdulillah, are two things. When they're a strong believer, mashallah, they tell you, alhamdulillah, Allah is with us.

**[20:11]** The dhikr of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala keeps them strong, removes that estrangement of the prison. And also the memory of the loved ones who, alhamdulillah, they keep thinking about them, and they always make du'a for them and so on. Those letters are lifelines. Absolutely.

**[20:26]** Write letters to prisoners, it's a lifeline to them, subhanAllah. Just write them letters. It's not hard to write a letter to them, subhanAllah. SubhanAllah, Sheikh Naeem, if this is just between human beings, can you imagine between them and Allah عز وجل? And obviously, in order for this person that you remember, the loved one that you remember,

**[20:45]** to remove that wahshah from your heart, that strangeness in your heart, you have to have that very strong, loving connection with them, to that level. And that's, again, between a human being. So if you would like to remove that estrangement or strangeness in the heart between Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,

**[21:05]** ask yourself, how much do you love Allah عز وجل? Sheikh, the concept of wahshah. Like when you put someone in the grave, اللهم آنس وحشته في القبور. Oh Allah, handle his loneliness in the grave. There are different ways that Allah can keep you company.

**[21:22]** There's the company of the righteous people. There's the company of the angels. There's the company of the Qur'an. SubhanAllah, like even if you look at the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, when he's speaking to his most beloved, Aisha رضي الله عنها, will you permit me to be alone with my Lord? Like, let me go be alone with my Lord right now.

**[21:39]** Have you missed Allah? Do you miss him? You know, this idea of wahshah, I'll just put it to you this way. And I'll ask it as a question, in fact. Is there a way to measure how distant you are from Allah? Is there a way to measure how distant you are from Allah?

**[21:56]** Yes or no? How? How do you measure how distant you are from Allah? Sins? Yes. In one way, sins are of course putting a barrier between you and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

**[22:11]** How do you measure how distant you are from Allah? By how often you forget Him subhanahu wa ta'ala. You measure your distance from Allah by how often you forget Him. Because you forgot Allah which caused you to commit the sin. Right? You forgot Allah which caused you to commit the sin.

**[22:27]** And when you forgot Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, Allah caused you to forget yourselves, which caused you to harm yourself with that sin. لَا تَكُونُوا كَالَّذِينَ نَسُوا اللَّهَ فَأَنسَاهُمْ أَنفُسَهُمْ Right? Don't be like those who forgot Allah, so Allah caused them to forget themselves.

**[22:43]** And so when you come back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, Sheikh Yasser, you talked about that famous hadith of the person that finds his camel after all this time. Right? And Allah's farah with the tawbah, Allah's joy with the repentance of that slave. Like when you are repenting, you're re-entering a relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

**[23:02]** And you're apologizing for those sins and you're saying, I won't put this barrier between you and I anymore. And I will remember you. And there's something very powerful about this entire concept. Sheikh, the Arabic language is so beautiful. If we want to focus on the word wahshah, why is strangeness called wahshah in the Arabic language?

**[23:19]** Do you understand where it's coming from? So wahshah in the Arabic language, when you talk about beasts in the Arabic language, what are they called? Wuhush. Wuhush. Right? Whether wuhush or hushirat. You talk about the beast. And when someone is considered like a beast, it's called wahshi.

**[23:38]** But what is one thing that is common among all these beasts or these wuhush? Is to be what? In the wilderness. They're wild and they usually roam alone. So when someone actually becomes wuhush,

**[23:55]** it's basically become like a beast. And when they're a beast, they be like wild beasts and they're on their own, alone. And even in the Egyptians, subhanAllah, when they talk about how the feeling of being in that situation, that status, is ugly.

**[24:10]** And that's why with the Egyptians, when they want to describe something ugly, what do they say? Wuhush. Wuhush. Right? So wuhush is like ugly. But where is this coming from? From the exact same feeling. Because when something is ugly, you become distant away from it.

**[24:26]** And as a result, there is that sense of strangeness over here. You want to stay away, distant from it, subhanAllah. This is what it means over here. So when we talk about being wahshah in the heart, your heart becomes like a wild beast on its own in the wilderness.

**[24:44]** Away from what? Away from the source of peace and tranquility from its Lord, subhanahu wa ta'ala. So you want to bring your heart to that beautiful garden of bliss. To be in the presence of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala. And the only way you can do that is, like we said, if you love somebody, you always remember them.

**[25:01]** And if you would like to remove that wahshah, then in this case you have to remember Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala. Which brings to the hadith of the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, about the seven categories Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, will shade them. And it's going to come next, insha'Allah, ta'ala. That Allah says that one of those seven categories that will be under the shade of Ar-Rahman

**[25:19]** is the one who says, وَرَجُلٌ ذَكَرَ اللَّهَ خَالِيًا فَفَاضَتْ عَيْنَاهُ Someone remembers Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, in seclusion. When they are alone. When it's supposed to be a feeling of wahshah.

**[25:35]** Because there's nobody to enjoy their company. But that kind of wahshah was removed. Why? Because he's in connection with the Divine, subhanahu wa ta'ala. And in the joy of being with his Lord, subhanahu wa ta'ala, he starts crying. Like it's so joyful.

**[25:51]** He's like so happy to be in connection with the Lord, subhanahu wa ta'ala. You know about the hadith, Sheikh? There are two ways to also benefit from it. One, if you look at the seven categories, it's the only category that requires no position from you whatsoever. Like you don't rule any place.

**[26:08]** You don't have to be in a masjid. You don't have to have someone that you love for the sake of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala. You haven't been tempted. You don't have to have money to give charity. These all require positions. Everyone can remember Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala. Everybody can remember Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala.

**[26:24]** Another benefit of the hadith that one of my teachers mentioned is that all six of the other categories would have had to be that person in order to be one of those six. Wow. Like the just ruler, how would he be a just ruler? He'd have to remember Allah in private and have some humility and awe.

**[26:39]** Otherwise, he'd be taken aback. How would that person find a connection to the masjid? He'd have to take to the corner and remember Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, and be in awe. So every single one of those categories is by necessity the seventh category as well. So my dear brothers and sisters,

**[26:54]** just like we mentioned yesterday, you have to put on your daily schedule 20 minutes on the side where you just be alone. And don't get scared of being alone. Because we live in a very over-connected, over-stimulated society, subhanAllah. Being alone is scary these days.

**[27:09]** It's like we don't want to be alone. And even when you are alone, what do you do? You grab your phone out and start socializing with the content that you have on your phone. So being alone has become something very strange and brings wahshah to us. We feel that estrangement. And therefore, to beat that, you're going to have to develop that kind of enjoying being alone.

**[27:27]** And the only way you could do that is if you are with the one that you love the most. And if you truly have that love for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, being alone with him is no big deal. It's not a problem. So you don't really get bored? Oh, absolutely. Boredom is something for us to think about. If you get bored easily, that's a problem, right?

**[27:49]** I saw this meme one time, Sheikh, that something like, you know, introvert's happiest moment. And it was like when someone cancels plans. That's like when an introvert is so happy, right? Cancel plans.

**[28:04]** Are you telling me that you watch memes? No, of course not. Not in Ramadan. It's okay, Sheikh. It's okay. It's halal, insha'Allah. Certain memes are halal, yes. The ones that I send you are halal.

**[28:19]** The ones I send you are haram, yeah? Let's move to the next point. Bismillah. Digging myself in a hole. Point 21.

**[28:49]** This is a beautiful thing. He says, look, when the servant remembers his Lord by extolling His Majesty, subhanahu wa ta'ala, like you always speak about the glory of Allah, glorifying Him and praising Him, subhanahu wa ta'ala, then he too is remembered by Allah at times of difficulties.

**[29:17]** Like if you remember Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, Allah will remember you. As Allah says in the Qur'an, فَاذْكُرُونِي أَذْكُرْكُمْ If you remember me, I will remember you. Imam Ahmad, rahimahullah, he said, Imam Ahmad, rahimahullah wa ta'ala, he reported in the Musnad, the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, saying,

**[29:32]** As you remember the majesty of Allah, عز وجل, by saying, تَهْلِيل Means saying, la ilaha illallah. تَحْمِيد Saying, alhamdulillah. تَكْبِير Saying, Allahu akbar. Then he says, by the praise of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, these words revolve around the throne, humming like bees, remembering the one who remembered Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala.

**[29:50]** So wouldn't any of you like to be mentioned by something which he mentioned? Means in praise of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala. Like if you want Allah to remember you, remember Him. Those words of remembrance will be humming around the Arsh. So every time you go through something, they will remind, my Lord, your servant needs help.

**[30:11]** My Lord, your servant is asking you, my Lord, your servant praises you, subhanahu wa ta'ala. So when you mention Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, Allah says, فَاذْكُرُونِي أَذْكُرْكُمْ You remember me, and I shall remember you. Sheikh, this is my favorite point, you know why? This hadith, I remember studying the sharh of this hadith.

**[30:28]** In my series last year on the Barzakh, is Allah talking to you? I actually briefly touched on this hadith. But I'll tell you one of the amazing explanations of this hadith, Sheikh, is that the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, is saying, like you send a tasbih,

**[30:43]** and then it goes and it circles around the Arsh with your name, right? So the first thing is the dandana, we talked about yesterday, the humming sound, right? So imagine that sound around the throne of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, right? But here is the second part of how the ulama explained that hadith. It never stops circling the Arsh of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, with your name.

**[31:03]** What that means is like someone who died a thousand years ago, remembered Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, and they sent it up with their name, and it is still going around making mention of their name. The dhikr that you made ten years ago, five years ago, you had a moment in Ramadan last year,

**[31:18]** it's still there, and it's making mention of your name. And it circles with your name and with your remembrance. And some of the ulama, they used, of the proof of that, they used by analogy, the hadith of al-bayt al-ma'mur, 70,000 angels enter and they never return. This idea that once something goes to Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala,

**[31:35]** from the necessity of its quality of being baqi, of being permanent, is that it doesn't disappear, it waits for you until you get to Jannah. Your good deed waits for you until you get to Jannah. So like you think about the good word or the good thing that you do here, and how quickly it's forgotten.

**[31:50]** How quickly someone forgets something that you did for them, right? They forget the favors. The dhikr you make today stays there for eternity until it enters you into Jannah. And like, don't you love that there are all of these things going around,

**[32:06]** humming around the throne of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, making mention of your name, so the angels are saying, oh, that's Sheikh Yasser's dhikr, right? That's the dhikr of this person, that's the dhikr of that person. It becomes a culmination of a person's body. Like imagine, الذَّاكِرِينَ اللَّهَ كَثِيرًا وَالذَّاكِرَاتِ.

**[32:23]** Like those who remember Allah frequently from the men and the women. Abu Huraira رضي الله تعالى عنه used to do tasbih in a day how many times? 12,000 times. When he narrated the hadith of the fadl of tasbih or the virtue of tasbih,

**[32:38]** he would do tasbih. His wird was 12,000 tasbihs a day. Someone's like, that's impossible. I know people. I'm sure you've, I know people that do that much dhikr. So imagine, how many days did he live on earth?

**[32:53]** And like imagine, subhanAllah, all of them humming around the throne of Allah عز وجل with your name. And the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم is saying, wouldn't you love that there's something that reminds in the heavens of you constantly, consistently? Our parents, our grandparents, our ancestors, the companions,

**[33:10]** the dhikr of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. Some of the ulama mentioned the expanse of Arsh Ar-Rahman. That there's nothing that could ever encompass the expanse of the throne of Ar-Rahman but all of those athkar. It's not music. It's the humming of the dhikr,

**[33:26]** like the humming of bees going around for the last 1,400 years of the Muslims who have been remembering Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم and their athkar are going up there and going around and it's only growing until the Day of Judgment. May Allah عز وجل allow us to have an abundant portion of those athkar.

**[33:43]** اللهم آمين. Point number 22, he says, and it's a continuation I believe from the previous one, he says, وَالْعَبْدُ إِذَا تَعَرَّفَ إِلَىٰهِ تَعَالَىٰ بِذِكْرِهِ فِي الرَّخَاءِ عَرَفَهُ فِي الشِّدَّةِ وَقَدْ جَاءَ أَثَرٌ مَعْنَاهُ أَنَّ الْعَبْدَ الْمُطِيعَ الذَّاكِرَ لِلَّهِ تَعَالَىٰ

**[33:59]** إِذَا أَصَبَتْهُ شِدَّةٌ أَوْ سَأَلَ اللَّهَ تَعَالَىٰ حَاجَةً قَالَتْهِ الْمَلَائِكَةُ يَا رَبِّي صَوْتٌ مَعْرُوفٌ مِنْ عَبْدٍ مَعْرُوفٍ وَالْغَافِلُ الْمُعْرِضُ عَنْ ذِكْرِ اللَّهِ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ إِذَا دَعَاهُ أَوْ سَأَلَهُ قَالَتْهِ الْمَلَائِكَةُ يَا رَبِّي صَوْتٌ مُنْكَرٌ مِنْ عَبْدٍ مُنْكَرٍ I think many of you probably have seen this video. It's for life. It's so sweet and so beautiful.

**[34:43]** SubhanAllah, it's from Saudi Arabia, a guy

**[35:13]** I think he won some sort of a competition on a show or something like that. So as he was on the show taking live calls, he hears a call says hello and it was his mom and

**[35:29]** suddenly on live TV he drops everything he goes oh like his heart was jumping with joy that his mom is calling him and he is you know what how I'm just like so he's almost crying that his mom. Why? She said she just only said hello and he just like recognized the voice immediately and that's the voice of a human being.

**[35:48]** What how I'm just like so he's almost crying that his mom. Why she said she just only said hello and He just like recognize the voice immediately and that's the voice of a human being Imagine how much the angels will be joyful and happy when they hear you saying, "Ya Allah."

**[36:06]** And they would say, "Our Lord, we recognize this voice. We know that person." But if someone doesn't do regular dhikr and they say, "Ya Allah," who's this? And they're gonna start trying to say, "Who is that? Can we figure out? Do you know this person?" I mean, your answer will be delayed in the heavens.

**[36:25]** But if immediately you just say, "Ya Allah," and they say, "We know this person. We know the voice." Can you imagine the joy? Because of how that's a human moment? You hear your mom's voice and it's just like you jump like crazy. It's so beautiful to hear that voice. Don't be like an unknown caller on the phone, spam folder. Absolutely. Don't be in the heaven spam folder.

**[36:44]** You know, unknown caller all of a sudden, like, who is this guy? That's true. Your number should be saved with the angels. Your number should be saved, subhanAllah. There's a hadith. The Prophet ﷺ said, "Ta'arraf ilallah fir-rakha ya'rifkafish-shiddah." It's actually like these exact words: "Know Allah in good times, and He will know you in bad times."

**[37:02]** Know Allah in ease, and He will know you in in prosperity, and He will know you in adversity. If you sort of break this down between dhikr and du'a—du'a is a form of dhikr, right? Du'a is a form of remembering Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Dhikr in your times of ease is the fuel of your du'a in hardship.

**[37:20]** Dhikr in your time of ease is the fuel of your du'a in hardship. Sheikh, sometimes you don't even have to make du'a in hardship because Allah will take care of you right away before even you ask. Zakariya 'alayhi salam, he got cut off in the middle of his du'a. Why? Because he was always making du'a to Allah 'azza wa jal.

**[37:36]** "Wa lam akun bidu'a'ika rabbi shaqiyya." You always respond to me, O Allah. So Allah responded to him midway in his du'a, cut him off, and gave him more than what he was asking for. Ayyub 'alayhi salam—like, when you read about the tafsir of the verses of Ayyub 'alayhi salam, "Idh nada rabbahu"—like, the angels were waiting for him

**[37:53]** to open his mouth and to make a request because what got him to that position of being envied by the devil in the first place was his frequent mention in the heavens. Like, Iblis was like, "Who is this guy that keeps getting mentioned in the heavens?" Right? So the moment that he said,

**[38:10]** "I'm hurt," Allah 'azza wa jal opened up everything for him right away. They were waiting. We know this voice. We know this voice of Ayyub 'alayhi salam. And so you think about yourself. You know, when you call upon Allah—and, by the way, here,

**[38:26]** "Allah will know you"—it's similar to "la takunoo kalladheena nasullaha fa'ansahum anfusahum," or on the Day of Judgment when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, "Naseetukum, I forgot you." It's not that Allah 'azza wa jal doesn't know who you are, but it is the neglect of you. You neglected Me, so I neglected you, right?

**[38:44]** You've been neglected now as well. "La yukallimuhum Allahu wa la yanzuru ilayhim." Allah sees them and He will question them, but He's not speaking to them. Like, I know that Allah is not speaking to me. May Allah protect us. And honestly, like, when Sheikh was reciting tonight—Sheikh Ibrahim was reciting those verses tonight—

**[39:01]** you know, like, you read those verses, and he didn't start crying at the arja' ayah bi kitabillah as much as "Anta qoolu nafsun ya hasrata 'ala ma farratu fi jambillahi wa in kuntu lamina sakhireen."

**[39:16]** Like, I really messed up. Those statements of regret that you start to make on the Day of Judgment. And so, it's a scary thought. There's a spectrum here. Those that will be brought near to Allah 'azza wa jal,

**[39:31]** al-muqarrabeen—may Allah make us amongst them—and like, here, come under the shade of Allah 'azza wa jal, come under the shade of His Throne, and those that Allah is not speaking to, you go on the side until you're thrown into Hellfire. That's a scary, scary place to be. And so,

**[39:47]** the frequency of your speaking with Allah 'azza wa jal here is very much so an indication of the frequency of your speaking to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and being spoken to by Allah 'azza wa jal over there. The way that you sought the shade of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in this life

**[40:02]** from sin and from severity and from trial and tribulation is very much so indicative of the shade that you will be given from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the next life. Like, there's a parallel here to everything that's happening. None of this is random. So remember, dhikr in ease is what fuels your du'a in hardship.

**[40:19]** It's what allows your du'a in hardship to actually be accepted and to be heard by Allah 'azza wa jal and His angels in a way of embrace and acceptance. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make our voices recognized and heard. Sheikh, can I say one more thing?

**[40:36]** When Allah talks about, like, the heavens and the earth crying for some people, that the place of sujood would cry for a person after they leave, the mushaf would cry, that the place that was the gate of the heavens that used to be open for a person, when they passed away,

**[40:51]** it cries because it now knows that it's shut. Everything around us—it's not just layla tul-qadr that there is traffic between here and the heavens. Everything around us is constantly testifying in regards to our relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

**[41:06]** Point number three: he says,

**[41:22]** He says, in number 23, remembrance saves one from the punishment of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, as Mu'adh reported from the Prophet ﷺ: "No person can do anything more to save himself from the punishment of Allah than to busy himself with the remembrance, calling Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, the Almighty and Majestic."

**[41:41]** Because every dhikr—if you go back to the three doors of happiness—when Allah 'azza wa jal blesses you, you're grateful. You say, "Alhamdulillah," so now that blessing became an ultimate blessing. When Allah tests you, you're patient, so you say, "Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'oon. Alhamdulillah." So now that test became a means of elevation in the sight of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

**[42:00]** "Wa idha adhnaba istaghfara"—and when you sin, you seek forgiveness, so that sin became transformed into a good deed. Dhikr turns everything into good. It turns the blessing into a blessing and turns the trial into elevation. It turns the sin into expiation. Dhikr beautifies everything.

**[42:15]** So every incomplete good deed becomes complete with dhikr, and every sin on your record becomes a good deed by dhikr of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So it's a barrier between you and the punishment of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Also, like, when someone doesn't talk to you and when there's a wrongdoing that's been done to them—like, someone hasn't talked to you,

**[42:34]** right—and like, there's a distance as that distance is being created. You're not hearing the voice—like, you're talking about the human voice, and to Allah belongs the highest example— that anger just brews more and more and more and more. That's why the Prophet ﷺ forbade us from cutting each other off for more than three days. You're not hearing, like, a voice,

**[42:50]** so the distance grows and grows and grows and grows. And if you have mercy in your heart, someone calls you, no matter how mad you are, like, "Look, I'm really sorry. I'm sorry. I was away. I messed up. I should have apologized to you a long time ago. I'm sorry." Right away, it cools down. And Allah is so much more merciful than you.

**[43:08]** Your heart will usually have the capacity, like, someone says, you know, "I'm really sorry." You can hear the sincerity. It immediately, like, you don't want to punish them anymore. It brings back the good feelings. So what Mu'adh radiAllahu 'anhu is narrating here of this protection—like, if sin is a barrier

**[43:25]** between you and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, then dhikr is a barrier between you and the punishment of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. It's ironic that Mu'adh radiAllahu 'anhu is also the narrator of the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ when he said, "Can you guide me to something I can do that brings me closer to Jannah and keeps distance between me and Jahannam?"

**[43:43]** So he mentioned a few things to him, ﷺ. At the end of the hadith, what did he say? He said, "Make sure to hold your tongue." And then Mu'adh, surprised, he says, "Are we going to be held accountable for what we say?"

**[43:58]** And the Prophet was surprised that Mu'adh didn't know that. "Woe to you, Mu'adh! What is it that throws people on their faces in Jahannam more than the harvest of their tongues?" So he's the one who's narrating this as well, too, knowing that, "Look, busy yourself with dhikr. Otherwise,

**[44:19]** you're going to find yourself busy with something else." "I love you." So when the Prophet ﷺ told him, "I love you," "So don't forget to say at the end of every salah,

**[44:35]** 'O Allah, enable me to remember You, to thank You, and to properly worship You.'" Point number four: rahmatihi. He said it causes tranquility to descend, divine mercy to envelop the person, of course, and the angels to surround the one

**[44:55]** who remembers. In the manner the Prophet ﷺ has informed us, which is the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ: The Prophet ﷺ says, "Any gathering that comes together to remember Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,

**[45:14]** Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will send upon them these three things: Tranquility will come to envelop them. The angels will shield them with their wings, and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will remember them in a gathering better than them." And I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to make this a gathering that has been mentioned in a gathering that's better than this,

**[45:32]** surrounded with the angels and have tranquility and peace upon us. Sheikh Ibn Hajar actually mentions in the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ about sometimes the Prophet ﷺ mentioned the descent of sakinah, like in the hadith of

**[45:47]** the companion who was reading Surah Al-Kahf, and the horses started to move as it started to come down. Sakinah and mala'ikah are synonymous. Like, sometimes the Prophet ﷺ just uses sakinah, and that means the descent of tranquility is the descent of the angels, just like in the Battle of Badr as well, too.

**[46:05]** They brought sakinah upon them. So one thing, too: If you want to have the presence of the angels in your life and surrounding you, what do you need to do? More dhikr, right? You should watch the Ramadan series called "Angels in Your Presence."

**[46:24]** But on a serious note, like, something for everyone to think about, at every moment, you have unseen company. All the time, you always have unseen company. At every single moment in your life,

**[46:39]** there are creatures that are around you that you can't see. And your actions fully determine whether it is angels or shayateen, and there's no in-between. You either have angels around you, or you have devils around you based upon your deeds at all times. So if you could, like, think when you're in the midst of things—and again, dhikr is about mindfulness, too, like,

**[46:58]** what creatures am I attracting around me right now? Like, who do I think is sitting in this gathering right now when you're hanging out with your friends or whatever it is that you're doing? Who do I think is sitting in this gathering right now? Who do I think is with us right now based upon the way that this gathering is unfolding, based upon the things that I'm saying and that I'm doing, based upon what I'm watching?

**[47:16]** Am I surrounded by angels right now, or am I surrounded by shayateen? Like, you leave certain food out and you attract certain insects and maggots, right? Like, what are the deeds that I'm putting out to attract a certain type of creature? The angels love dhikr so much

**[47:34]** that they love the smell of your breath when you brush your teeth for dhikr. Like, they even inhale that in, like, "Oh, that's the breath that is going to be remembering Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala." They love everything about your dhikr, everything about your dhikr.

**[47:51]** Allah 'azza wa jal made it for them like their oxygen, right? Like, they just—they're attracted to it, the remembrance of Allah. They're flying around looking for it. "Halummu ila baghyatikum." "Halummu ila ma tatluboon." Come!

**[48:07]** As the ulema of hadith mention, even the Arabic language, when they find a circle, they start calling each other, "Start calling each other! We found it! We found the gathering of people remembering Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala! Come over here! Come over here!" And they surround that gathering, so they cling to that dhikr of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

**[48:23]** So you always have unseen company, and that's based upon your seen company and your performed deeds. You're the one that's choosing what type of unseen company is sitting with you, but there's always unseen company that is around you. Sheikh, number 25, he says,

**[48:42]** because dhikr keeps the tongue busy from backbiting, from slander, from lies and lewdness, from vain talk. And indeed, the servant cannot avoid speaking. So either he speaks with the remembrance of Allah and His commandments, or his speech involves these forbidden things.

**[48:58]** So subhanAllah, if you remember Allah 'azza wa jal, it makes your tongue busy with good things. Otherwise, if you go quiet, most likely, if you open your mouth, you're going to say something that you're not going to be happy with later on. Yeah. I mean, can you imagine someone going, "Astaghfirullah, astaghfirullah, astaghfirullah," "Yeah, she is like that."

**[49:17]** I know! Can you believe she, like— Your tongue can't go from dhikr to gheebah and nameemah and kadhib that easy. So, as we said, like, two nights ago, like, at the very least, a tongue that's remembering Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, even if it's not penetrating the heart, at least it's protecting that tongue

**[49:34]** right, from speaking something that's evil as well. So keeping it busy is a means of protection of it as well. Number 26, he says,

**[49:53]** He says, the gatherings of remembrance are the gatherings of the angels, whereas those gatherings of gossip and heedlessness are the gatherings of the devils. So let the servant choose which is more pleasing and important to him, for he will be with those

**[50:09]** very people in this life and in the Hereafter. May Allah protect us from that. That reminds me of the hadith. An-Nabi ﷺ, when you finish your fard salah, the Prophet ﷺ said, when you finish your fard salah and you sit down making dhikr of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, Allah will send the angels to you to be present with you while you're making that dhikr after salah.

**[50:28]** And what will their job be? To seek istighfar for you, making du'a for you. SubhanAllah, you're making du'a and making istighfar and dhikr, and the angels around you making that du'a and dhikr for you until you get up from your spot or if you lose your wudu. So,

**[50:44]** the angels are present. So if you want to have—if you want the angels, again, being with you to give you that peace and tranquility, always remember Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. There's also, Sheikh, this hadith. An-Nabi ﷺ: "Ad-dunya mal'oonah"—that the world is cursed. Everything is cursed within it except for dhikrullah,

**[51:02]** the remembrance of Allah, and everything that surrounds the remembrance of Allah. Or a scholar or a student. And "mal'oonah" here, the ulema of hadith mentioned, "cursed" here means deprived of blessings. It's not going to give you any blessing. It will give you no good.

**[51:18]** So a gathering—Allah 'azza wa jal should be mentioned in some way. And one of the ways that, you know, you should cut a friendship, by the way, is if it's awkward to talk about Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in that friendship. Like, if you're so distant—if your relationship is so distant from from goodness that even saying "As-salamu alaykum" is awkward

**[51:34]** as a greeting. And like, you bring in religion, but why are you talking about deen right now? That's a friendship that's not a good friendship for you, right? Some sort of dhikr of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, meaning Allah is remembered, and a scholar or a student—means the environments of teaching and learning, that everything in the world will give you nothing

**[51:54]** except for those two domains: the remembrance of Allah and something that surrounds the remembrance of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala or the remembrance of knowledge, something that surrounds the idea of knowledge. Number 27, he says, rahimahullah ta'ala: Allahu ta'ala

**[52:15]** Yes He says, rahimahullah ta'ala, "The one remembering Allah is happy by his remembrance, and thus makes those around him happy also. Indeed, he is blessed wherever he is. As for the one who is heedless of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's remembrance,

**[52:31]** someone who is heedless of Allah's remembrance—someone who just chit-chats, basically chit-chatting all the time— he's made unhappy by his heedlessness and vain talk, and so too does he make those around him unhappy." And that's a very interesting fact of life.

**[52:46]** You can't make anyone happy if you're not happy yourself. Like, you need to be happy yourself first so you can make others happy. And if you would like to be happy, obviously, there's nothing better than being in the company of the Lord subhanahu wa ta'ala. It gives you joy and happiness.

**[53:01]** So when people are around you, they can find that joy and happiness with that. You're very positive. You're always, mashaAllah, good to be around. They feel encouraged, inspired. You bring joy. But if your tongue doesn't have dhikr of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, or it has just, you know, kind of like, backbiting, criticism,

**[53:20]** whining about things and so on, no one likes the company of that individual at all. It's, uh, "Do not be around people that don't inspire you by their state of being or they don't guide you with their speech." Don't accompany people that don't do one of those two things.

**[53:40]** And, you know, if you think about, like, being in the company of someone who remembers Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, just the way that you feel at the end of it— you know, the Prophet ﷺ, when he mentions that a good friend is like a person who sells perfume, right, you smell good at the end. Like,

**[53:56]** what's the smell here? Right? Your heart feels good. Your soul feels good. And this was something, you know, Imam Malik rahimahullah would say this about Imam Al-Layth rahimahullah ta'ala: "Get close to Allah by being in the company of this man." Like, I feel different when I'm around this person,

**[54:11]** and when I leave this person, like, my heart and my soul feel different when I'm around this person. So you accompany people who are remembering Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala frequently, and your heart will feel different as well. Number 28, he says,

**[54:30]** rabbahu ta'ala. It gives the servant security from regret and sadness on the Day of Judgment. Every gathering in which the servant does not mention his Lord will be a source of great regret and loss on the Day of Judgment,

**[54:48]** which is the hadith. An-Nabi ﷺ: If people get together, the Prophet ﷺ says, "La yadhkuroona feehi Allaha ta'ala illa kana alayhim hasratan wa taratan yawma al-qiyamah." Like, if you sit together with friends—and we do a lot of socializing in our time—

**[55:03]** we go have coffee together, we sit together in the house, we sit down around the meal, and, like Sheikh mentioned, sometimes we feel kind of shy and embarrassed to be the party pooper and talk about Allah 'azza wa jal and talk about dhikr and deen and so on. "Oh, we came here just for the cakes, man." So now you're going to talk about deen and so on.

**[55:19]** So people, they avoid even doing that dhikr out of fear of losing friends. But here we learn that if you sit in a gathering, you spend an hour or more or less, and nothing was mentioned about Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, the Akhirah, the Deen of Allah,

**[55:35]** not even a reminder, that gathering will be a source of regret on the Day of Judgment. But with the dhikr of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, alhamdulillah, it counts for you, not against you. There's a hadith—I'll paraphrase it for the sake of time—that a person "yatakallamu bil-kalimati la yulqi laha bala"—doesn't pay attention to it,

**[55:54]** and it either throws him into the depths of the Fire, or, on the other hand, "la yulqi laha bala," he's gotten his tongue so used to speaking good words that the word that he didn't think much of elevates him to the highest ranks of Paradise. So "la yulqi laha bala" is the point here. Like, you're not even paying attention.

**[56:10]** Your tongue has become so used to a certain way of speaking that you did not consider this too much. And that's true in sin, and that's true in good. So the last two points he mentioned here—number 29, we mentioned already— is that when you remember Allah in seclusion, it's a source of blessing on the Day of Judgment

**[56:28]** to be under the shade of Ar-Rahman when there will be no shade but His, subhanahu wa ta'ala. And the last one, number 30, he says,

**[56:51]** In this, he says that the one who is constantly engaged in the remembrance of Allah, this will be a cause for him to be granted better than those who simply ask for something, as in the hadith. Umar ibn Al-Khattab, when he said, the Messenger of Allah said that Allah says in the hadith qudsi,

**[57:08]** "Whoever is preoccupied by My remembrance from supplicating to Me, I will give him better than I give those who just ask me this is might be misunderstood sheikh yeah it could be misunderstood absolutely the idea here is that the thana part of your du'a

**[57:27]** the praising Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala part of your du'a should not just be something that you quickly get through right and say that you get to a talab that you get to the ask to be something that you actually really immerse yourself in and sometimes like you'll think about like the du'a that you're making when we're praising Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala

**[57:43]** we're not really getting into that part but then once I start getting to my part which is the talab the ask then I start getting really really really into it right and really emotional and really desperate I want this I want this I want that now one way to understand this as well

**[57:58]** is to take the situation of Maryam 'alayha as-salam Maryam 'alayha as-salam did not ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for a child right but Allah 'azza wa jal gave her a child and that's the best blessing that ever was given to her if a person is pleasing Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala

**[58:14]** and remembering Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then Allah will decree in their favor even when they don't ask because they don't know to even ask for that thing in no way was Maryam thinking to ask Allah 'azza wa jal for a child she wasn't even married right but Allah blessed her right

**[58:29]** when a person is in the constant state of dhikr then the qadr is responding accordingly and the du'a is usually to alter the qadr in some way right so the qadr the decree is already in response to those things because sometimes you don't even know what to ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for

**[58:45]** so the two ways to really dig into this is to make sure that your thana is meaningful your praise of Allah is meaningful in your du'a and the second thing is that your dhikr is in and of itself a form of du'a because it is invoking and evoking the goodness that would come from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala

**[59:02]** to your point sheikh Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Qur'an clearly wa man yattaqillaha yaj'al lahu makhrajan wa yarzuqhu min haythu la yahtasib that if you're always mindful of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala all the time you're thinking of Allah 'azza wa jal that's dhikr right Allah will give you exit out of every difficulty, every hardship

**[59:18]** wa yarzuqhu min haythu la yahtasib and provide for you from sources you don't account for and you will find rizq comes to you from sources wallahi Allah knows and I'm sure each one of us alhamdulillah have experience with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala regarding this matter I remember when we were students in Medina sheikh

**[59:33]** we always broke ya'ni Allah musta'an but we survived those years mashallah all other blessings subhanallah but Allah will provide for you like I remember my first hajj subhanallah my first hajj it didn't cost me more than 150 riyals

**[59:49]** how much is that in dollars? 50 dollars? 50 dollars going to hajj ya jama'a how? subhanallah I was preparing to go to hajj with another friend of mine to be together and we were wondering how we're gonna get there how much it's gonna cost us blah blah blah

**[1:00:05]** and then as we were preparing to go suddenly I meet somebody, a senior student who was actually doing his PhD at the time he told me, he talked to me he said are you guys going to hajj this year? I said yeah of course he goes you wanna come? and I'm like bismillah

**[1:00:20]** he goes okay we'll drive together inshallah but we're gonna need to go a day later I said fine we'll go with you inshallah ta'ala so he drove us all the way to Mecca and we stayed with him because he knew he was there before subhanallah before so he took us to all the places

**[1:00:36]** where you need to do where you go to sleep, where you spend your time and we just came back again after hajj it only cost us 150 riyals I was like allahu akbar those days were golden days mashallah now you can't even imagine having hajj 150 riyals

**[1:00:52]** what I'm saying, we all have those experiences and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will put in your way things that you will find so much blessing and so much rizq come your way simply if you do your best inshallah keep remembering Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala I think only you have these experiences to be honest with you I think only you have these experiences

**[1:01:08]** yeah right Bosnia stories, hajj stories I'm sure everybody has a story sometimes I enter into your office where did you get this from? from the house a food spread you think that's actually coming from heaven

**[1:01:24]** we'll take questions inshallah right now so somebody commenting on the Egyptian word which means ugly the Egyptians also said when they miss somebody what do they say? the same thing

**[1:01:39]** what does that mean? it means that being away from you makes me feel like I'm in the wilderness I'm becoming like a wild beast without you basically like you tame me that's what it means when I meet you mashallah I feel tamed very well so that's a beautiful expression I feel like we should bring like an expert Egyptian

**[1:01:55]** to the family we should I mean if we dig in the dictionary we find a lot of expressions that has wahashti, wahash all these things ok a question says over here

**[1:02:12]** why somebody still complaining and saying subhanallah I still find it very difficult to feel the connection with Allah and the Qur'an what could that be? what's the reason for that?

**[1:02:27]** multiple things but the remedy is one right so it could be sins and a person should diagnose those sins and it could be honestly attention span it could be practice it could be you know just not creating the right environment for it so it's multiple things but mashallah

**[1:02:42]** just taking that private time to make dhikr just simply and quietly subhanallah and some people have a harder time focusing sheikh that's also a reality and also sheikh sometimes you know subhanallah the 'ibadah becomes just a task and when you read the Qur'an I have to read the Qur'an

**[1:02:57]** so you just kind of sit down to read the Qur'an so they don't want to connect with the Qur'an anymore right as much as just have it on the checklist right like I did my task for the day subhanallah right so do it with mindfulness we spoke about this in the first session and it's even with the Qur'an

**[1:03:12]** and remembering Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala may Allah make it easy for all of us wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh ameen but can I say something sheikh? yeah please if you're bothered by your lack of a relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that's a good thing so that's a step if it doesn't bother you that's a bad thing so if it actually bothers you

**[1:03:27]** that you're not feeling a connection it's like one of the 'ulama that mentions the difference between a sick heart and a dead heart a sick heart feels sick a dead heart no longer feels so it's a good thing that you feel like that distance is there

**[1:03:42]** and you want to remedy it yeah look at this comment someone's saying sheikh Yasir do you have a wardrobe in the room in the masjid mashallah? like you have a new outfit every time and you're on camera where does it come from?

**[1:03:58]** yeah no actually I have it at home alhamdulillah when were you in Afghanistan? huh? when were you in Afghanistan? never your Bosnia story it's in the heart Afghanistan's in the heart inshallah

**[1:04:13]** may Allah make it easy for them ya rabbal 'alamin someone's asking if you make a du'a and that du'a is basically was made in a time when the time is guaranteed to be accepted like for example when you break your fast when you see the Ka'bah the first time

**[1:04:28]** should we repeat that du'a? I made it in a time it should be accepted so mashallah done of course repeating it will only bring goodness but it was made in a time that was guaranteed why do I have to repeat it again? will you tell me sheikh?

**[1:04:43]** I'm asking you I'm the one asking the question you have the answer no subhanallah I mean who's better than the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam right? the prophet was guaranteed what? not acceptance forgiveness he was guaranteed jannah even but what did he do?

**[1:04:58]** sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he stands up at night in tahajjud until his feet start swelling and he was asked why would you do that for? I mean Allah accepted everything that you say your du'a, your dhikr khalas you're guaranteed jannah what did he say? qala afala akoonu 'abdan shakura shouldn't I prove

**[1:05:13]** that I'm worthy of it? I need to prove that I'm worthy of it so that's why I do what I do so when you make your du'a you're asking the most generous subhanahu wa ta'ala keep repeating that du'a may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala accept from you rabb al-'alamin what dhikr should a Muslim never abandon on daily basis?

**[1:05:28]** like salah is understood that somebody should not be abandoning at all but to stay spiritually connected if there was one dhikr that needs to be mentioned regularly what would that be? I mean la ilaha illallah would be the greatest renewal because that's the one the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam

**[1:05:43]** mentioned that a person should keep their tongue moist with but in general like there's the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam mentioned ahabbu al-kalami ila Allah the most beloved of words to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so it really goes around the words that you already know so there's al-tahlil la ilaha illallah

**[1:05:58]** al-takbir al-tasbih al-tahmid subhanallah alhamdulillah Allahu Akbar istighfar astaghfirullah allahumma salli wa sallim ala nabiyyina Muhammad wa salli ala Rasulillah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam wa la hawla wa la quwwata illa billah these are the things

**[1:06:13]** that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam teaches us to say every single day these are the one phrase adhkar that you keep yourself someone saying sometimes saying my adhkar my mind focuses on the word like alhamdulillah for example

**[1:06:28]** but then my mind goes off track thinking about other things like college or just casual things but I'm still saying the adhkar is that a bad thing? so sometimes when I remember I go back to paying attention afterwards but is that a bad thing if I start making dhikr

**[1:06:43]** and then my mind goes all over the place? it's human shaykh you're a human being I don't know of anyone who doesn't lose focus you're a human being again once you become aware of it come back right? and then try to see how you can make

**[1:06:58]** the distraction less by clearing the way before you start your dhikr right? so it's like what the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam taught us about even how we prepare for salah that you know a person handles all their needs before their salah

**[1:07:13]** so they're not thinking about those things you know? you know shaykh subhanallah when he was walking in his last few days in life sallallahu alayhi wa sallam as he was walking out of the masjid going to his house and then he said to the sahaba who were surrounding him

**[1:07:28]** qala laytani alqa ahbabi I wish I could live until I meet my beloved ones the sahaba they were shocked don't you count us among them? aren't we all your loved ones? he says antum as-habi you're my companions

**[1:07:43]** you earned your status basically but ahbabi another narration he said those who will come after me they believe in me even though they have never seen me he said each one of them will have the reward of 70 of you the sahaba said

**[1:07:58]** you mean 70 of them? he goes no no 70 of you the companions radiallahu anhum why would the reward of us here for doing something the sahaba did like salah tasbih dhikr would be multiplied

**[1:08:13]** 70 times more if not even more by the grace of Allah so what comes to the mind subhanallah shaykh the lifestyles in the past the amount of distraction was not as many for us our distractions are just crazy even people

**[1:08:28]** they ask me parents they ask me how can I you know make my son focus on Qur'an and this and that and so and so why? because they try to compare their kids who live in America in the suburban

**[1:08:43]** life in America with a kid with that child his social life revolves around getting together with his friend to memorize the Qur'an they don't have phones they don't have iPads they don't have all the distractions of this dunya they don't have the possessions

**[1:08:58]** that we have in this dunya and so on so that's why their heart is more collected their mind is more collected because their distractions are less but our life here in suburban life subhanallah it's crazy your mind is busy with everything you know what

**[1:09:13]** just try to get you're gonna get exhausted thinking what you're gonna do and then you're gonna end up just gonna go and buy something else why is that? because you get so distracted so you go into

**[1:09:28]** analysis paralysis your mind is always in that process so that's why sometimes shaykh our dhikr is not we're not focusing on our dhikr there's so many things that distract us from dhikr subhanallah

**[1:09:44]** turn off that noise whatever that is is it your phone? is it your friends? is it the TV? is it you know all the other stuff? just as much as possible turn off that noise and focus on the beautiful dhikr of Allah subhanallah someone is asking

**[1:09:59]** shaykh because we talked about tawbah and istighfar he says what's the difference between tawbah and istighfar? istighfar is part of tawbah tawbah is the turning back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala which is the seeking forgiveness

**[1:10:14]** for the sin also some ulama they say istighfar is by the tongue and tawbah also through the actions as well that brings back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala a lot of actually questions unrelated to be honest

**[1:10:29]** with you but we're just trying to filter them out over here when it comes to remembrance what is the best way to improve sincerity that you have to be with Allah subhanahu

**[1:10:44]** wa ta'ala for a long time as much as possible to be sincere in that du'a private remembrance Look, I was actually thinking about this especially in the last 10 nights

**[1:10:59]** you know yeah no I just want to ask another question actually Is it similar maybe no it's different actually like thinking you know you're you're you're

**[1:11:14]** you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're

**[1:11:29]** you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're

**[1:11:44]** you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're

**[1:11:59]** you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're

**[1:12:14]** you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're

**[1:12:29]** you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're

**[1:12:44]** you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're

**[1:12:59]** you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're

**[1:13:14]** you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're

**[1:13:29]** you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're

**[1:13:44]** you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're

**[1:13:59]** you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're

**[1:14:14]** you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're

**[1:14:29]** you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're

**[1:14:44]** you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're

**[1:14:59]** you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're

**[1:15:14]** you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're

**[1:15:29]** you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're

**[1:15:44]** you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're

**[1:15:59]** you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're

**[1:16:14]** you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're

**[1:16:29]** you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're

**[1:16:44]** you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're

**[1:16:59]** you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're

**[1:17:14]** you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're you're

## Other Episodes in "Midnight Majlis"
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