Latest
814 / 1946
36
Afterlife
"You Owe Me." Free Yourself from Riba and Debt | The Other Side: Barzakh and Beyond Ep. 18
40
Afterlife
Was it that big of a deal? Your Wudu is Serious | The Other Side: Barzakh and Beyond Ep. 17
108
Roman Emperor Who Almost Became Muslim & Conquest of Jerusalem | Al-Aqsa: Past, Present, and Promise
113
General Psychology
Tested Like the Prophets | UK Tour Wembley Stadium Lecture by Dr. Omar Suleiman
131
The Blessed Land of Al-Sham: Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan | Al-Aqsa: Past, Present, and Promise
138
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Tamim al-Dari (ra): The Palestinian Sahabi That Met Dajjal | The Firsts
145
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Adi ibn Hatim al-Tai (ra): From Christian King to Companion | The Firsts
156
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Zayd ibn al-Khattab (ra): The Quiet Brother of Omar (ra) | The Firsts
161
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Tulayha ibn Khuwaylid (ra): From False Prophet to Shaheed | The Firsts
214
Culture
Israel's Ceasefire Rejection, Nurse Fired for Gaza, and the Law of Sacrifice | Imam Tom Live
333
Culture
Biryani Diplomacy: The Illusion of Political Influence & the "Flour Massacre" | Imam Tom Live
347
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Amr ibn al-As (ra): His Wicked Father and “Better” Brother | The Firsts
353
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Khalid ibn al-Walid (ra): The Legendary Military General | The Firsts
494
Quran
Juz’ 26: Mufti Abdul Rahman Waheed and Dr. Zohair Abdul Rahman | Our Afterlife and Our Purpose
610
Allah
Finding Faith Through the Prophet's ﷺ Conviction: Dr. Omar Suleiman | My Moment of Conviction
724
Social Justice
A Conversation with Afreen Fatima on the Plight of Indian Muslims | Dr. Omar Suleiman
735
Prophets
Why Is Asking "Why Does God Asks Us to Worship Him?" Flawed? (Part 2) | Yaqeen Whiteboard
771
Angels
Ep. 13: The Hadith of Jibreel (as) | Angels in Their Presence | Season 2 | Dr. Omar Suleiman
805
Afterlife
Sincerity Shines and Hypocrisy Blinds | Judgment Day: Deeds that Light the Way Episode 25
962
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Anisa, Al-Numan, and Amir (ra): On A Boat From Abysinnia | The Firsts
969
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Khalid Ibn Sa’id Ibn al-'As (ra): A Dream of the Prophet | The Firsts
985
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Zaynab Bint Khuzayma (ra): The Mother of the Poor | The Firsts Shorts
995
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Shurahbil Ibn Hasana (ra): The Scribe and Commander | The Firsts Shorts
1017
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Al-Shifa bint Abdullah (ra): The Healer and Scholar | The Firsts Shorts
1070
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Khawla Bint Hakim & Uthman Ibn Madhun: The Righteous Couple | The Firsts
1186
Islam in the West
Dr. Ahmed Osman: The Martyrdom, Funeral, and Burial of Malcolm X | Yaqeen Presents
1539
Acts of Worship
When the Prophet Sent People Home from the Masajid for Taraweeh | Daily Reminders
1654
Identity
Keeping Masculinity from Trending Toxic - Dr. Jonathan Brown | Reframing the Gender Question
1658
Social Justice
Overcoming Compassion Fatigue, Numbness, and Burnout - Sh. Omar Suleiman | Khutbah
1698
Acts of Worship
Day 24: When the Night Draws its Curtain —The Importance of Tahajjud | Ramadan Strong
1750
Social Justice
Conflict Resolution: The Line Between Justice and Peace - Sh. Omar Suleiman | Lecture
1751
General Psychology
Spiritual Personality - Zohair Abdul-Rahman | 2018 Yaqeen/MAS Academic Conference
1766
Contemporary Ideologies
Conversations at The Carter Center: Harmonizing Religion and Human Rights
1767
Education
How Yaqeen is a Resource for Our Community - Sh. Omar Suleiman | Making Principled Progress
1773
Islamophobia
How Yaqeen Heals Internalized Islamophobia - Dalia Mogahed | Making Principled Progress
1795
Jurisprudence (fiqh)
Appreciating Scholarship: Intro to Islamic Law - Tesneem Alkiek | Yaqeen in NY
1824
Acts of Worship
Episode 6: The Highest Companionship in the Highest Garden | Prayers of the Pious
A Ramadan for Your Books | End Ramadan Strong with Yaqeen Webathon
Welcome to the last stretch. Whether you’ve come here struggling and stumbling or breezed your way through, these last ten nights are your chance to make this a Ramadan for the books. The angels on your shoulders are ready with pens poised to record your good deeds and erase your regrets.
Join Dr. Omar Suleiman and the Yaqeen team to close off this Ramadan with practical tips and spiritual reflections on a month that lights the way towards forgiveness and eternal bliss.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Everyone, Bismillah walhamdulillah wa salatu wasalam wa rasulullah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala. Welcome to our annual Great Ramadan Strong Webathon. I'm sorry, and Ramadan Strong Webathon. See, I already messed up the very first line. That's how nervous I am about this, alhamdulillah. But we are blessed to have you all here, alhamdulillah wa rabbal ameen. You've been with us throughout the entire month, and this is really a moment for us to come together, bi'idhinahi ta'ala, to celebrate where we've come, and inshaAllah ta'ala talk about where we want to go. But before that, we produced this really great Ramadan series, right? Alhamdulillah, all these animations and graphics, and you know, it was really taking Yaqeen to the next level. And the only thing you all were interested in was who the reciter at the end is. And it was like, who is the reciter at the end? So we've had several theories. We had, did we kidnap Abu Bakr al-Shatiri? No, Shaykh Abu Bakr alhamdulillah is okay. Someone asked, and there was this conspiracy going on that it was Shaykh Bilal As'ad, who's a friend of mine from Australia. It's not Shaykh Bilal As'ad, alhamdulillah. So we're going to do the official masked Qari reveal. But on a serious note, Hafid Hamza alhamdulillah Fazi, who's actually our local Qari here at Valley Ranch Islamic Center, alhamdulillah wa rabbal ameen, a blessed Qari, alhamdulillah, who finished memorizing the Quran in 2015, has been leading Tarawih since 2016, has Ijazat in various Qiraat, his teachers including Shaykh Sa'id Hassanain, Shaykh Abdul Kareem Adgus, Shaykh Hassan Abu Naaf. He has won, alhamdulillah wa rabbal ameen, several national and international Quran competitions. And he is currently finishing up his last year as a mechanical engineering major. We ask Allah to bless him and to preserve him and to use him, alhamdulillah wa rabbal ameen. His ayah at the end of each episode of the Judgment Day series resonated with a lot of people. And here's the du'a that we're going to make for him that Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala make this heavy on his scale
and on the scale of his parents. May Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala allow his recitation of the Quran and his memorization of the Quran to be a crown for them on the Day of Judgment. Allahumma ameen. So Hafid Hamza, Bismillah. Surah Al-Fatihah. Surah Al-Fatihah.
Surah Al-Fatihah. Surah Al-Fatihah. Surah Al-Fatihah. Surah Al-Fatihah.
Surah Al-Fatihah. Surah Al-Fatihah. Surah Al-Fatihah. Surah Al-Fatihah. Surah Al-Fatihah. Surah Al-Fatihah.
JazakAllah khair Hafid Hamza. May Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala bless you. Make it heavy on your scales. May Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala allow you and your family to be people of Quran. May Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala always put in your household shifa and sukoon and all of that which is blessed and all of that which is pleasing to Him. Allahumma ameen. So Alhamdulillah wa baramin. I know that some of you are going to just tune out at this point because you finally got the qari at the end of our episodes. But on a serious note, Alhamdulillah wa baramin, there is so much that goes into the work here at Yaqeen. I know that it's difficult sometimes to appreciate all of it when you might just be interacting with one element of it. But I hope bidna Allahi ta'ala at least you found it to be beneficial and you've been on this journey for the last few years with us where you've seen the growth. When we first started Yaqeen, our goal was to be able to produce papers and content initially that addressed some of the issues of the day, that dismantled doubt, that nurtured conviction, that inspired contribution. But then Alhamdulillah wa baramin, our team grew as intended, but a lot quicker than we intended and with a lot more blessing than we had asked for, but we always hoped for. And Alhamdulillah, now you see the Yaqeen that is in front of you, Yaqeen that has over 80 team members, Alhamdulillah wa baramin, between three offices here in the United States, in Canada, and of course in Malaysia, Alhamdulillah wa baramin. You've seen the videos that you've been interacting with, with all of those scholars that we were trying to get together to first write papers, now working together to produce videos, Alhamdulillah wa baramin, produce media content. The creative team, which is turning all of those into small forms of digestible content, whether it's the longer lectures or the longer papers. The curriculum team, which has been putting it all together for your benefit, for your growth. And Alhamdulillah wa baramin, I hope as you've seen the growth of Yaqeen, you've seen it in your own household as well.
And as you've been joining this journey with Quran 30 for 30 or the Ramadan series, I hope that you've also checked out the many playlists. Alhamdulillah wa baramin, now at this point, just on our YouTube channel alone, we're at 1500 videos. That's between the videos that have been produced for Ramadan and outside of Ramadan, the animations, the lectures, the infographic videos, the various series that we've been able to put out, especially in the last couple of years in the wake of the pandemic. And Alhamdulillah wa baramin, just on YouTube alone, we have this week crossed the 100 million view mark. I want you to think about how many homes that is, how many people have converted to Islam, Alhamdulillah wa baramin, through those videos, how many people have found their Islam once again through that content. You may be one of them, your own children, your colleagues, your friends. You may have seen this impact in your own life. And we hope inshallah that we're connecting all of you to the Akhira and connecting ourselves to this notion of the Akhira. We don't do this work for anything that this world has to offer us. We do it for the Akhira and we pray that Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala accept this for our Akhira. And so here we are in this final webathon that we do. But inshallah ta'ala definitely not the last time that we interact with you in Ramadan, because if you've been a part of Yaqeen before, you know that the last 10 nights we go into the very next year. And we want you to invest in this work. We want you to invest in the content that has been directly relevant to you, and perhaps some of the content that you have not been able to experience just yet. The curriculum downloads, Alhamdulillah wa baramin, that have topped 9,000 curriculum downloads in over 200 schools in North America. The over 100,000 podcast downloads. We hope that you've been enjoying Double Take, which Alhamdulillah has been going strong. Or the book downloads that inshallah some of you will be looking at as we go into these last days of Ramadan. Over 100,000 book downloads as well, Alhamdulillah wa baramin, some of the important du'as that you can read in these last 10 nights.
And there's more. You're going to continue to watch more lectures, more videos inshallah ta'ala. Hopefully keep joining us on Quran 30 for 30. Hopefully you're not sick of us just yet. But we're not just a Ramadan institute. We are an institute that is dedicated to nurturing conviction throughout the year. To instilling this beautiful faith in our hearts in the most beautiful manner throughout the year. And bismillah ta'ala just as we've grown our resources, we have never, Alhamdulillah wa baramin, allowed that to translate into charging anyone for any of the contents. We are dedicated to our promise, which is to stay free and accessible to all inshallah ta'ala. To make sure that people can interact with this content. To make sure that the quantity of the research, the quality and the quantity of the research and content is constantly increasing bismillah. And inshallah ta'ala we are also asking you to give to many causes that are out there. We are not that institute or that organization, that non-profit that asks you to only donate to yaqeen or tells you that we are the only organization that offers value. You will always find us bismillah ta'ala telling you actively supporting, you know, to actively support the various relief organizations that are out there. To build wells and to build masajid, to be there for people in every way. But we hope inshallah ta'ala that you see the value of this work. That spiritually enriching people is just as important bismillah ta'ala. And nurturing yaqeen in future generations is just as important as nourishing people with food and drink. And inshallah ta'ala you will benefit from this work. So here is our ask for you today for the next few hours and then I am going to move on to the guests. Because I am getting sick of myself talking now. Alhamdulillah, we every year have seen growth. 1269 of you who attended last year's webathon contributed to the last 10 nights donation link.
That you see in the description inshallah ta'ala wherever you are consuming this content. We had 1269 people join in and automate their donations over the last 10 nights. We want to grow every year and so our goal for today is to have 1300 of you inshallah ta'ala as you are sharing the link, as you are benefiting from the various speakers that will come on. And not talk about fundraising but talk about how to make the most of Ramadan inshallah ta'ala. We want you to be one of those 1300 donors today. Every year our goal is to grow inshallah ta'ala. So I am asking each one of you in the very beginning, don't wait till the end. To inshallah ta'ala go ahead and sign up for the donations, the automate your last 10 nights donations. And to share it with your WhatsApp groups, to share it with your friends and family and to ask people to log on biddeninahi ta'ala. We have several hours ahead of us inshallah ta'ala where we will be benefiting from the speakers. But inshallah ta'ala throughout the way we are going to keep updating you with the count. Alhamdulillah every year we have surpassed that goal and we hope inshallah ta'ala this year it will be no different biddeninahi ta'ala. So please once again go ahead and sign up for that last 10 nights donation from now inshallah ta'ala. In the very beginning of the program so we can elevate that count. And we will periodically remind you as we update the count biddeninahi ta'ala. And we ask for your dua, we ask for you to inshallah ta'ala continue to tune in to the various programs that we have at Yaqeen. And we ask for you inshallah ta'ala to make dua for every single speaker and every single person that you have never seen. That has been a part of making this a reality in your own life. And to forgive us for our shortcomings and ask Allah Subhana wa ta'ala to forgive us for our shortcomings. With that being said inshallah ta'ala it's time to, maybe it's not time to move on to the next speaker. We got 7 minutes, 8 minutes. Hafid Hamza you're going to need to save me, I need you to come recite Surat Al-Baqarah for me right quick. I need help here. Troubleshooting, we just talked about growth and we're late on a speaker.
So it's okay I'm going to have to make sure that, is it the tech difficulty or is it the speaker's fault? We're playing a video first. We're playing a video first. Oh okay. So it's actually my fault. We're going to play a video for you all inshallah ta'ala and then we're going to bring on our speakers. Jazakumullahu khayran, Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. We'll be right back inshallah. According to a Pew research conducted in 2017, 24% of Muslim adults who grew up of course in Muslim households do not associate with the faith anymore. Clearly the stakes are very high and we cannot take this lightly. As educators we realize that our responsibility to teach our truth to this generation is enormous and it has to be done in fresh and innovative ways. In Islamic Studies Department, Religious Studies Department, we don't have access to lesson plans like core teachers do. When it comes to other subjects, they have access to great academic research. Unfortunately most of the research work that is available in the field of Islamic Studies is in Arabic and many teachers don't have access to the language or they're not at that level where they can access Arabic books. I guess that's where Yaqeen comes in. Curriculum such as Yaqeen's that comes complete with all resources, whether it's worksheets or lesson plans or objectives and standards, video resources, reflection questions. Best part about Yaqeen's curriculum is that it's very flexible, it's very fluid, it's not rigid. I assess the need of my student and then I customize it.
JazakumAllahu Khayran. May Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la reward the entire curriculum team. If you have not checked out the curriculum and if it's not being used in your schools, in your community, please do bi'idhnillahi ta'ala check it out. When we talk about the proofs for the existence of God, the proofs of the Prophethood of Muhammad SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam and so many different things bi'idhnillahi ta'ala that are of great benefit to our local community. So please inshaAllah ta'ala do check out the curriculum. Now of course that takes a team as well and behind that team, well I don't want to say behind that team, within that team we have a very familiar face inshaAllah ta'ala, the director of expanded learning being Dr. Tasneem Al-Qeek Alhamdulillah Rabbil Alameen who was of course the first guest on Quran 30 for 30 and bi'idhnillahi ta'ala is the first speaker of the webathon, if we can find her, do we have her here? Did she make it? You made it Alhamdulillah Rabbil Alameen. I was thinking that it was, you were here, you were here, it was me, it was me. I forgot that we had a video. I haven't slept for a few hours, you know, for a few days actually. So I forgot we had a video and then the tech team was trying to find you backstage. So we're just getting over the first technical hurdles but Alhamdulillah Rabbil Alameen. Dr. Tasneem being our director of expanded learning and of course being someone who has been such a huge part of writing at Yaqeen, producing videos for Yaqeen and also director of content strategy as well Alhamdulillah Rabbil Alameen. So we are blessed to have you Dr. Tasneem and we're ready to inshaAllah ta'ala hear what you have to say. How's everything going over there? Alhamdulillah doing well. I was just telling the team I cannot believe tonight is the 21st night SubhanAllah. So, so incredible but exciting nonetheless. That was something I forgot to mention in the beginning of the webathon too. So may Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to catch Laylatul Qadr in these last 10 nights. Allahumma Ameen. Indeed Ramadan went very fast but Alhamdulillah some of the habits
that you taught us in the Habits to Win series, I think a lot of people have been benefiting from that. So you still have people downloading the notes for that series and you still have people watching it. So what's been the number one Ramadan habit that you told people to implement that you yourself have seen working for you this year? Alhamdulillah honestly I was so happy when I was able to take over Instagram because I shared it again. It's the idea of just doing just a simple dhikr every single day and that's something I want to talk about today right. That if you repeat something as simple as SubhanAllah 100 times a day or La ilaha illallah, the amount of reward that reaps and it's something you can do anywhere and everywhere. It's just like these little things that we can really start to think about implementing Ramadan to really take care, take over with us after Ramadan is over. And so that's plenty to go around with that Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah, Allahumma Ameen. Wa jazakum Allah khair for being with us Dr. Chastani inshallah ta'ala I won't hold you any longer. So Bismillah please do share what you have to share with us. Asalaamu alaikum everyone. Excited again to be here with you all today. And going back to you know that habit that I talked about, something I want to talk about in light of the fact that our 10 nights are actually upon us. It's crazy to say. And when we think about preparing for the 10 nights and trying to catch the day of Qadr and really doing our best to get here and to spend our night in worship, a lot of times we think of it as, okay you know what I'm going to spend my entire night, we're going to pray Taraweeh, I'm going to get up and pray Tahajjud, I'm going to read Quran all night. And those are all incredible acts of worship and it's something that we should definitely strive to do. But I think what's happened over the years or perhaps my lifetime, I'm not sure if I've anyone else has experienced this as well, but I found that we've focused so much on these incredible acts of worship that we've lost sight of so much other good.
So many other opportunities to be able to engage with Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala. And again I'm speaking this, speaking from the heart here because I can sit all night and read Quran, I can sit all night and pray when it comes to the last 10 nights of Ramadan. That's where I get my energy, that's where I get my focus. But in doing so I've de-glorified, I've lost the opportunity to do so much more other different types of ibadah. And two of them are extremely important. Number one it's dua, right? This is the night in which your fate is sealed for the year and for years to come. And the Prophet peace be upon him said, making dua to Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala, that is the essence of worship, that is what worship is. And just as important as dua is dhikr of Allah, of taking that time to sit down and reflect. Because the point of Ramadan, the point of Laylatul Qadr, of doing all of this worship, yes it's to get plenty of good deeds, yes it's to catch the night, yes it's to get a thousand nights, a thousand days worth of ibadah, of worship on your skills. But it's also to walk away, leave Ramadan with having made a connection to Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala. And really deeply connected with Him in a way that has allowed you to remember Him in your day to day life. And so one thing that I want to be implementing the next 10 days and something that I want to share with you all, which I shared with you guys at the beginning of the month, is doing these different types of acts of worship. And one of those types when it comes to dhikr for example, it's just so incredible the amount of reward you can get from it. And if you haven't checked it out, we released on our website, if you go to the homepage and scroll to the bottom, we have 10 acts of worship you can do when you can't pray or when you want to switch up your prayer. And part of that includes some of the simplest qad you can do, some of the simple things you can say that are light on the tongue and heavy on the skills.
And some of those include saying something as simple as SubhanAllah, right? That the Prophet peace be upon him said, whoever says SubhanAllah just a hundred times a day, you get hundreds if not thousands of deeds in response. For those who say SubhanAllah, walhamdulillah, wa la ilaha illallah akbar. Just glorifying Allah, alhamdulillah, you know, saying glory be to Allah, alhamdulillah, praise be to Allah that He's allowed me to see these days. I have my health, I have everything around me. La ilaha illallah, there's no God but God. Allahu akbar, God is the greatest. Just really deeply reflecting on these and saying them, something we can do on our way to the masjid, something we can do in between two raka'as of taraweeh, something we can do as we're preparing for suhoor. These are easy, easy opportunities to be reaping in so much reward. The Prophet peace be upon him says in so many of these different examples, say this a hundred times, you get a thousand good deeds. Your sins are obliterated, a thousand sins are removed. The reward is magnificent. And so I want to encourage everyone, and that's one of my goals these next ten nights, is that I'm not going to let it slip by without taking these opportunities. And really as you're doing it, and you can incorporate it in so many different ways, whether again, it's just on your commute as you're working, as you're preparing for iftar, all of these different opportunities. But just like, you know, as you've been watching the Day of Judgment series, you've been able to really create this visual of what it's going to look like to stand before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. What it's going to look like in terms of, you know, your scales of the things you're going to be asked about, the actions that you'll be held accountable for and you'll be rewarded for. I want you to visualize the reward that comes with doing these adhkar. The Prophet peace be upon him gave us these visuals that every time you say subhanAllah walhamdulillah wa la ilaha illallah wa Allahu akbar, that you're planting yourself trees in Jannah.
Visualize this because that is the point of this Day of Judgment series. And that's the point of course of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala giving us so much detailed imagery of the hereafter. So that we can, as we live our day to day lives, as we, you know, interact with other people, as we read the Quran, as we make dua to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, we not only make that connection as to how this is impacting our lives today, but then we start to visualize, here I am, I'm making this adhkar, I'm reading this Quran and now I'm seeing myself rise in ranks in Jannah. That I'm seeing plants coming out from the ground in paradise. That I'm seeing Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, you know, the scales shifting in my favor. So take advantage of these opportunities to not only just to increase in your reward, but believe this month, with the Day of Judgment series in mind, believe this month, visualize every action that you do. Every interaction, every thought that you have, every opportunity you want to do good. Use that as an opportunity to think to yourself, this is where I'm going to be on the Day of Judgment because of these actions. Because I held my tongue, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, I know exactly, I recall that imagery from the video series, of where I'm going to be and how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is going to immensely, immensely reward me. So in the next few nights, take an opportunity to look at the post that we have on our website of some specific adhkar. Have that visual memory in mind and diversify your worship in the next 10 nights. Do your dhikr, do your salah, do your Quran, do everything, in every stage, at every opportunity. Just imagine the pleasure of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, that opportunity when you meet him, and you being able to present your good deeds, and you carrying your book of good deeds in your right hand, and that being a light, a source of light for you on the Day of Judgment. Jazakum Allah khayran.
Jazakum Allah khayran, Dr. Sam. Alhamdulillah, you woke me up. I've been trying to wake up. If anyone goes to our Instagram live, you talked about your Instagram takeover. It's pretty hilarious because you can see what it looks like when two guys who don't do Instagram live enough are trying to figure out how to use Instagram live. So if you want to go check out our Instagram, you can do that. But before that, inshaAllah, just a reminder once again to please donate, join the last 10 nights family. Alhamdulillah, we are over 70 now, so I think we're at 78 people out of the 1,300 goal, and we're just getting started inshaAllah ta'ala. So hopefully by the time I finish my Q&A with you, we would have tipped 100 inshaAllah ta'ala. So you talked a lot about visualizing, and I think that there's something that I was reflecting on as you were speaking about that, which is this idea that the very beginning of the Quran, we are called to believe in the unseen. It is al-ghayb, it is unseen, and it remains unseen because Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, as much as He conveys to us what awaits us, bismillah ta'ala, of His reward, you can't capture that because it's what no eye has seen, it's what no ear has heard, it's what no imagination has ever grasped. However, there's still great benefit to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala telling us about those things with our human imagination, and as one of the ulema mentioned, if this is the furthest that your human imagination can grasp, and it would be worth it, the dunya-y transaction, the worldly transaction, what then of the transaction of the hereafter, which Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, of course, will overwhelm those who will receive His mercy with His mercy, may Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala make us amongst them. Allahuma Ameen. So how do you... Do you have any reflections on this idea of the ghayb, the unseen, versus the seen, the fact that some of it still is conveyed to us in a way that we can see it, but at the same time remains unseen? Absolutely. I think there's... I think that the fact that a lot of it is unseen
has given us the opportunity to really imagine what that looks like on the Day of Judgment. That it's... Part of it is also about, you know, using our own imagination and being able to really associate husn-ud-dhan, that thinking well of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala and that reward of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. But also, I like to think of that unseen, like what we can see from this world, is incredibly powerful because what it tells us is that it's enough. In the sense that, SubhanAllah, I mean I think so many people have always asked me this, that, you know, there's no way you were able to understand this hadith or this ayah, or you have... Like how can you possibly wrap your mind around something like this? And I say to them, like, what I know of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, what He has revealed to us from the seen, is sufficient for me to know that I might not understand everything, I might not have the answers to everything, but I know that this glimpse that we've been given, the small answers that we know of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala's wisdom, is enough to get you past through anything. So take the opportunity to really, to connect with what Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala has given us and know that only anything beyond that is going to be good. And that goes both to the intellectual realm, but also that spiritual realm of connecting with Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. SubhanAllah. So it's getting past both instant gratification and visual limitation. I actually was just reflecting with Sheikh Yasser Fahmy on our Egyptian edition of Quran 30 for 30. I was reflecting with him on the ayah, فَلَا تَعْلَمُ نَفْسًا مَا أُخْفِيَ لَهُمْ مِنْ قُرَّةِ آيُنٍ جَزَاءً بِمَا كَانُوا يَعْمَنُونَ Like, no eye can grasp, no one knows what Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala has hidden for them, as a reward for that which they used to do. This idea that you cannot grasp it, but look at what you can grasp, and look at what Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala is offering to you in regards to the hereafter, and work towards that. Work, work, work. And the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam of course using his fingers to teach us the value of,
you know, good deeds being multiplied by ten. Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala on the Day of Judgment saying to the last person to enter into Jannah, What if I give you the whole world, وَمِثْلَهُ مَعَهُ وَمِثْلَهُ مَعَهُ And that which is like it with it, that which is like it with it, that which is like it with it, and keeps on going ten times the whole world as the lowest rank of Jannah. And even then, as the ilmah mentioned, even then it's greater, because SubhanAllah Jannah is Jannah. The world expires, the world is limited, the world spoils, the world rots. Jannah only increases in beauty, and the mercy of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala continues to increase upon us. May Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala make us from the people of Jannah. Allahumma Ameen. JazakumAllahu Khayran Dr. Tasneem for joining us today. Alhamdulillah, I know that everyone was very happy to benefit from you once again, and enjoyed having you on 30 for 30. So InshaAllah ta'ala we will move on now to our next guest. I hope he's with us. Dr. Hassan Alwan, are you there? Bismillah. Let's see if we can get Dr. Hassan here. Let me look at the count in the meantime. Salam Alaikum. Wa Alaikum Assalam. Wa Alaikum Assalam. Alhamdulillah. We are so happy to have you Alhamdulillah Arba'een. How are you Sheikh? Alhamdulillah. So pleased and so happy to be with all of you. Allah Ibarak Fika Sheikh. Sheikh I was showing them all the setup, the fancy tech, and the light. But Mashallah the light that's coming from your side is much more than the light that's around here. May Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la increase you in Nur Sheikh. SubhanAllah. Like we reflect the light of Allah and His Messenger and I ask Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la not to veil His light and the light of Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam by any darkness in my heart. Ameen Ya Allah. Jami'a. Dr. Hassan when we had you for 30 for 30, in fact when we had you last year, you really emphasized this idea of the gift of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la upon us. And you talked about this last year as well. This idea of something becoming beloved to you because it's beloved to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la.
And how Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la continues to increase upon us even though we're not deserving but that is more of a reflection of His names and attributes. And InshaAllah Ta'ala I believe today you're going to be speaking about dhikr, something in regards to dhikr. And I'm very excited to hear what you have to say and I'd ask you InshaAllah Ta'ala as we're getting started when you talk about the reward of the athqar, the reward of remembrance. Was there a particular narration that you came across at one point you said SubhanAllah and I know there are many but SubhanAllah the reward of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la for the simple dhikr. And then you can talk about the one, Bid'ah Ta'ala that you have chosen for us today. Yes, SubhanAllah like you just said it, yeah, Sh. Khalda. SubhanAllah. When we say SubhanAllah, you know it's a Muslim's way of saying that's so amazing, that's unbelievable, you know the word wow. SubhanAllah, Allah is so perfect in everything He created. So I remember there was one time I was like near a lake and some trees, you know. And the things were so beautiful and I was like doing some dhikr, right. And I was mentioned like I was looking on the beauty of everything around me and I was saying that's so beautiful, that is so amazing the way the trees are, the way the clouds are, the way and you know this wow, right. So I was saying SubhanAllah, SubhanAllah look how Allah creates. I'm looking at the clouds, look how Allah provides my risk, my provision. How Allah provides water for us. He's carrying water on top of my head in the forms of clay. Ya Rabbi, SubhanAllah, so beautiful. Look at that tree. SubhanAllah, SubhanAllah. And then I felt what happened in my heart. Alhamdulillah, all praise and all thanks be to Allah that I got to feel this, that I got to see this. Allah is so amazing and Alhamdulillah. And then I started, it automatically came.
SubhanAllah, Alhamdulillah. SubhanAllahi wa bihamdi. And then that brought the narration I want to share with you. That whomever says SubhanAllahi wa bihamdi, a tree is planted for him in Jannah. Whomever says SubhanAllahi wa bihamdi a hundred times, all his sins are forgiven. So I started saying SubhanAllah, those trees that I'm looking at and I'm amazed at and I wish my backyard had all of them, but I can plant a tree in Jannah with SubhanAllahi wa bihamdi. How will a tree in Jannah look like? How will a tree planted by SubhanAllahi wa bihamdi grow to be like? And I was like, SubhanAllah! And then if I say it a hundred times, all my sins are forgiven, that's Alhamdulillah! So I started realizing SubhanAllah for SubhanAllahi wa bihamdi. And Alhamdulillah for SubhanAllahi wa bihamdi. And I, SubhanAllah what happened at that point, I still remember it. I ended up saying SubhanAllahi wa bihamdi for SubhanAllahi wa bihamdi. And that dhikr is so powerful, it has so many benefits. So I came across a narration that the Prophet ﷺ said, مَنْ عَجَزَ عَنِ اللَّيْلِ أَنْ يُكَبِدَ وَبَخُلَ بِالْمَالِ أَنْ يُنفِقَهُ وَجَبُنَ عَنِ الْعَدُوِّ أَنْ يَلْقَاهُ Whomever one of you wants to stand by night and pray, but it's so difficult for him, he can't do it. Whoever wants to spend his money but there is miserliness and it's just a struggle and it's too difficult for me, and I can't do it. Whoever wants to be active and advocate for the truth but maybe a little bit cowardly, it's hard to do that. What's the solution? The Prophet of Allah said, فَلْيُكْثِرْ مِنْ قَوْلِ سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ وَبِحَمْدِهِ لِأَنَّهَا أَحَبْ لِلَّهِ مِنْ أَن يُنفِقْ أَحَدَكُمْ جَبَلٌ مِنْ ذَهَبٍ
Let that person say a lot, سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ وَبِحَمْدِهِ For it is more beloved to Allah than one of you spending a mountain of gold. And when I think about that, that is amazing. It suffices, you know the hadith, two words that are light on the tongue, قَفِيْفَتَنِي عَلَى اللِّسَانِ Heavy on the scale on the day of judgment, beloved to Allah, which brings us to the point. What are they? سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ وَبِحَمْدِهِ Wallahi, I read this hadith and sometimes I feel shy. Ya Rabbi, notice how the hadith started. Shouldn't it have been two words that are beloved to Allah? And that's enough? But Allah ﷻ said what? Two words light on your tongue. Very beneficial for you on the day of judgment. They're heavy, they're light on your tongue, but they're so heavy on the day of judgment. And they are beloved to Allah. سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ وَبِحَمْدِهِ سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ وَبِحَمْدِهِ And سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ, I finish with that one or two minutes. To do dhikr properly, it has to be done the best. Of course, saying it with the tongue alone is beautiful. But if you want dhikr to really not only get me the reward, but really have an effect on the way I live, on my heart, on my mind, to be a real cure, it has to be done with three components. My mind, my heart, and my tongue. And I'll give a simple example. So how do I do سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ وَبِحَمْدِهِ in a way that's transformative? I suggest the following. First, سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ is what, what am I saying سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ for? What am I amazed at? So I recommend everybody, walk outside five minutes every day, alone, no phones, nothing. And look around, and start looking on the creation of Allah. So I'll give you an example. I look on the sky. Ya Rabbi, it is so vast, it is so huge, how many stars are there? How many planets, how many? It is vast!
Ya Rabbi, Anta al-Wasi' One of Allah's names is The Vast. Inna Rabbika wasi'ul maghfir Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala is vast in His forgiveness. So every time I look on the sky, I say سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ, the sky is so big, planets and stars can't fill it. My sins can't fill it. Allah is vast, He is vaster than this with His forgiveness. So I start to look at it, I say سُبْحَانَ الْوَاسِعِ Ya Wasi' Oh Most Vast Subhanak Wa laka al-hamd And all praise and all thanks be to You that You are al-Wasi' I look to the cloud. Ya Razzaq Oh the one that provides, He is the one that provides water for me. Subhanak, look how beautiful it is, how fluffy it is, look how wonderful it is. It weighs a hundred thousand tons. On top of my head, Allah is carrying it. Subhanallah, look what Allah does. I say سُبْحَانَكَ يا رَزَّاقِ Wa laka al-hamd I look to a flower, look at the beauty of it. Ya Badi' Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, Ya Wadood Allah is like making Himself beloved to me, a flower. Subhanak, what a beauty, Wa laka al-hamd And I go on and on. So I see سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ وَبِحَمْدِ mixed with the names and the attributes of Allah. So I'm praising Allah for His attributes. I'm praising Allah for Him being Allah with all what Allah carries of attributes. Ya Mu'ti Subhanaka wa laka al-hamd Ya Mani' The one that gives, Subhanak wa laka al-hamd. The one that takes, Subhanak wa laka al-hamd. The one that brings to life, Subhanak wa laka al-hamd. The one that brings death, Subhanak wa laka al-hamd. Alhamdulillah. And سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ وَبِحَمْدِ For سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ وَبِحَمْدِ And what it brings to the heart, what a gift. سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ وَبِحَمْدِ
So سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ وَبِحَمْدِ For سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ وَبِحَمْدِ MashaAllah. May Allah bless you Dr. Hasan as you have shared these beneficial gems with us. I'm not sure if I'm... I'm not on yet. Bismillah. Afwaniya Sheikh Hasan. JazakAllah khair. SubhanAllah for the beautiful words that you have shared. SubhanAllahi wa bihamdihi. SubhanAllah al-Azim. This was actually Sheikh, I don't know if you know but this was actually the episode of the Judgment Day series that released today. Was actually talking about these phrases. SubhanAllah. I mean perfectly set. And what you said was far more beautiful than anything that I know of. May Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la bless you. You added on to the beauty of it. Alhamdulillah. And I think this idea of saying Alhamdulillah for Alhamdulillah. Saying SubhanAllah for SubhanAllah is very powerful. We have a statement from Ali radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu. That you should do istighfar for your istighfar. Sometimes you should seek forgiveness from Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la for the way that you sought forgiveness from Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. It could have been so much more beautiful, so much more profound. And as the Salihin used to say, if you die and Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la gives you the last words of Alhamdulillah, you owe Allah a Alhamdulillah for the Alhamdulillah. You owe Him a praise for the praise. And so the ability to praise Him is in and of itself something that we would praise Him for. Something that we should say Alhamdulillah for. And I think what you gave is very practical. This idea of five minutes without your phone. It's revolutionary actually. Five minutes of going outside without your phone and contemplating the heavens and the earth. And saying La ilaha illa Anta Subhanak is actually very much so therapeutic. And more so than being therapeutic, rewarding in the Akhira, rewarding in the hereafter.
And it's those small habits, five minutes a day, which I hope InshaAllah Ta'ala we can actually implement Bid'nah Ta'ala and bring into our own lives. So Jazakumullahu Khayran Sheikh Hassan. I do have a question for you as you're reflecting on these Athkar, as you're reflecting on these remembrances. You know, a lot of people struggle between quality and quantity. Quality and quantity. I want to say SubhanAllahi wa bihamdihi subhanAllah al-azim a hundred times. I want to send salawat on the Messenger Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam a hundred times. I want to keep my tongue moist with La ilaha illa Allah. There is the statement of Al-Fudail Rahimahullah Ta'ala where he was asked about Tasbeeh versus Istighfar. Saying SubhanAllah versus seeking forgiveness from Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. And he gave this example that Tasbeeh is the embellishing of the Thawb. Istighfar, seeking forgiveness, is the cleaning of the stains. And so cleaning the stain takes precedence. And then, you know, I just I shared in one of the Khatirahs the statement of Ubayy radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu where he asked the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam about making the entirety of his du'a salawat on the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. So in five seconds, I want you to solve this problem for me. In all seriousness, in just a few minutes, can you talk about this? What seems like two contradictions at times, the contradiction of quality versus quantity and, you know, this dhikr versus that dhikr. Can you share some thoughts on that? SubhanAllah. So first, a man came to al-Jum'ah and complained about just that. I'm trying, I'm doing, I'm doing, you know, a thousand times, two thousand times, huge numbers. But my heart isn't there. It's quantity, quantity. And what's the solution?
So al-Jum'ah told him, say alhamdulillah that Allah let one of your organs, that your tongue is in dhikr of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. That statement is a start. Even if all what I'm doing is my tongue, the way to initiate the heart with it, the way to bring quality is to start instead of saying the negative. I'm not, I'm not doing, I'm not doing. Hey, Allah gave me that the tongue is in dhikr. Alhamdulillah for that. You see how that engages the heart. Alhamdulillah. So it is good always, always to say dhikr, even if it's by the tongue only a lot of times. At least my tongue is busy with that. But in a humble view, sometimes it is what brings the heart into the presence. And it depends really on the state of the person. So sometimes if I'm in a state that currently I'm so happy because something happened in my life. If I say alhamdulillah, it's in the heart. This is Ali ibn Abi Talib when he was asked, which type of water do you prefer? You know, being a zahid one, do you like cold water, you know, really nice or just regular water? He said no, no, no, the cold, nice water. Why? He said because it brings alhamdulillah from the core of my heart. Subhanallah. Subhanallah. So in a way, one looks at his state. What do I need? What did Allah put me in? I worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala depending, and Allah knows, I don't pretend. If right now I'm so desperate, istighfar might be the best. If right now I just heard something about the Prophet ﷺ and my heart is... Salat al-Nabi ﷺ might be the best thing. And I'll finish with this. Sometimes it's neither. Sometimes I remember I share something personally here. Finish with that. And that was with my daughter when she was very young. And she was a little bit colicky, so she won't sleep. I had to carry her on my shoulder and walk around the room for half an hour till she sleeps.
So it's very difficult. So I started doing, instead of carrying her and just complaining, I said, OK, let me say, Subhanallah wa bihamd. But then it came to my head. Every time I say, Subhanallah wa bihamd, see it? A tree is planted in Jannah. And then I started to think, I've been saying, Subhanallah, I'm probably planting a forest right now. You know, half an hour of Subhanallah wa bihamd. Then I said, Ya Rabbi, make me the one on the Day of Judgment to take her by the hand, go into Jannah, into that forest that I just planted. And I said, Ya Aisha, that is the forest I planted to you when you were one year old by saying, Subhanallah wa bihamd. So you can see in that moment, that dhikr might be very relevant because it moved the heart and it became very authentic. Allah ta'ala. Subhanallah wa bihamd. Beautiful, beautiful words, Sheikh Hassan. Jazakallah khair. And may Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala indeed enter you into forests upon forests upon forests with your family and all of us with our families, bid'nahi ta'ala, and allow us to plant many, many, many forests in Jannah and accept it from us. Absolutely beautiful, Sheikh. We appreciated you. We love to see you. We hope to see more of you, bid'nahi ta'ala. We enjoyed having you on Quran 30 for 30. And we certainly, I personally benefited more than you know from the words that you just shared. So Jazakallah khair. I always benefit from your words, Sheikh. Jazakallah khair. Allahi barakaykum. Jazakallah khair, Sheikh Hassan. For everyone that's joining us, alhamdulillah, I mean you may have noticed the ticker, alhamdulillah, I mean we've crossed the 10% mark, alhamdulillah. So we have now over 130 of you that have signed up for the last 10 nights donation. Again, our goal, bid'nani ta'ala, is 1,300. So we still have a way to go, insha'Allah ta'ala. And I want everyone to take it as a personal goal to reach that goal, insha'Allah ta'ala, by the end of this program. It's something that we do every year. And of course, it's not something that we're going to end with the Webathon,
but it's something that we can do, insha'Allah ta'ala, as we're listening to these beautiful reminders, as we are listening to these beautiful athkar, as we're reading these comments across the screen, which, by the way, mean a lot to us. They mean a whole lot to us. I want you all to know as you're writing your comments that we have at Yaqeen, a channel called Impact Stories. And your comments are shown to the entirety of the team on a regular basis because it's important for us to know that we're actually living up to our mandate, and we know that we have ways to go, biddenallah ta'ala. May Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to be the best version of ourselves for ourselves and for you. Allahumma ameen. But your comments mean a whole lot, and we hope, insha'Allah ta'ala, that beyond the comments, you're also making a lot of du'a for us, insha'Allah ta'ala. So your du'as mean just as much as your donations, and even more so than your comments. And biddenallah ta'ala, as you continue to share the link and continue to get other people involved, I want to bring on our next guest. I hope she's here, insha'Allah ta'ala, Dr. Rania Awad. Dr. Rania, are you there? Masha'Allah. Dr. Rania, how are you? Alhamdulillah. BarakAllahu feekum. Wa alhamdulillah. You've had a busy Ramadan, masha'Allah. What have you been up to during Ramadan? I feel like you're one of those people that Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala has put a lot of barakah in their time. May Allah increase it. What have you been up to in Ramadan? You know, masha'Allah, we've been working hard on trying to build out a healing journey. And through this new organization, Madastan, where we're really hoping to actually bring mental health awareness to Muslim communities and really make it holistic, insha'Allah. So I've been really busy with that, alhamdulillah. I ask for your du'as. May Allah bless you. JazakumAllahu khayran. We had the blessing of co-authoring an article, alhamdulillah, on mental health. Which, I will say this because I have to say, you did a lot more than I did, so I'm very grateful to you, alhamdulillah. Can you talk a little bit about that article really quickly, insha'Allah, that we released and where people can find it?
Yes, absolutely. It was published in Religion News Service, masha'Allah. And the article is actually based on a Yaqeen study that my lab, the Muslim Mental Health and Islamic Psychology Lab at Stanford University, worked on with Yaqeen to actually look at COVID-19 and Muslims. And what was really amazing is, you know, we surveyed, masha'Allah, a global population, nearly 10,000 Muslims actually were in the study. And some amazing findings came out of it, you know, really understanding how Muslims were coping, how they were dealing with the pandemic. And one of the main and most beautiful things that came out is that people said that the relationship with Allah subhana wa ta'ala strengthened in this pandemic. And secondly, that also we found a direct mental health correlation between people relying on Allah ta'wakul, all that uncertainty that was coming with the pandemic, giving it to Allah subhana wa ta'ala, allowing that then to help them decrease their mental health issues like depression and anxiety, which was phenomenal, masha'Allah. JazakumAllahu khayran for that. And before you get started, insha'Allah ta'ala, you know, as the comments are coming across the screen, we see that we have viewers even from Al-Quds that are with us today, from Jerusalem. So may Allah subhana wa ta'ala liberate Al-Quds, may Allah subhana wa ta'ala make it easy for our brothers and sisters that are there and in places around the world where they are suffering. May Allah subhana wa ta'ala allow you to not just find victory in this life, but to find the ultimate glory and victory in the next life. Allahumma ameen. So jazakumAllahu khayran to all of you that are tuning in from our beloved Al-Quds. And bi'danai ta'ala one day we will be able to actually film in Al-Quds bi'danai and be present in Al-Quds with you. Allahumma ameen. JazakumAllahu khayran. Dr. Lania, please, bismillah, take us away. MashaAllah, alayhi al-barik fikum. You know, subhanAllah, Sheikh Omar, just because we were talking with Dr. Hassan just before this, and I was really grinning from ear to ear as he was speaking, because it was so beautiful, FitzabarakAllah, and it dovetails right into what I want to speak about, which is really that now that we've entered into the last 10 nights of Ramadan,
I wanted to focus on one of the most confirmed sunnahs of Ramadan, which is the sunnah of i'tikaf, or spiritual seclusion with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, that the Prophet ﷺ never neglected in Ramadan. And through that I really wanted to talk about something that people think about a lot, this concept of meditative contemplation, and certainly my field thinks about this a lot too, but I want to talk about it from an Islamic perspective and break it down a little bit to make it easier for people to do so and really take advantage of these next nights of Ramadan, this last portion, and this is the time where the Prophet ﷺ was so serious and really took on i'tikaf in a very spiritual seclusion and a very strong way. And now that our masajid are open again, and men and women are able to do i'tikaf in the masajid, and of course there'll be a subset of women who do i'tikaf at home, barring from the Hanafi school, I just want to say that this important sunnah, to really try it, even to some extent, I want everybody here to try it insha'Allah ta'ala. And the question always comes up, okay, if I'm in i'tikaf, what do I do beyond my prayer, Qur'anic recitation, du'a, zikr, listening to wonderful programmings like this? How else do I fill in that time? And so I always ask people, have you tried Islamic contemplation? And they'll say things like, do you mean like meditation? And the answer here really is no, because meditation, the way you find it today, is very secularized and comes from Buddhist roots. We have our own indigenous forms of ibadah that are much more holistic, and that our teachers of spirituality have written extensively about, things that work on the internal and external focus of the heart, the mind, the nafs, the self, and the soul. And you have examples from our scholars like Imam al-Ghazali, who talks about internal contemplative tools like muraqabah, self-monitoring, or muhasabah, self-evaluation, and then you have Ibn al-Qayyim, for example,
who talks about contemplative reflecting, tafakkur, or tadabbur, pondering on the meanings of the Qur'an. And there's so many formulas of how to do Islamic contemplation, and I'm going to share just one formula that I learned from my teachers when I was studying in Damascus. And one of the most beautiful things that they said, it's very simple but powerful formula, and I hope folks can really benefit from it, insha'Allah. It's a tiered approach. You can either start at the core with yourself and then think about the people in your life, your friends, your family, your spouse, your kids, your boss, whoever it is that's in your life. And then you go out into your community, then into the ummah, then to the globe, then to the universe, and you're contemplating on each of these rings. Or you do it the other way. You start at the universe, to the globe, to the ummah, to your community, to your people in your circle, to yourself, your weaknesses, your blessings, your relationship with Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. And for me, there are so many surahs in the Qur'an where Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la encourages us and helps us think through in a very contemplative, meditative kind of process. And he uses beautiful guided imagery. In my field, you know, we use guided imagery to help people kind of relax and really think through deeply their relationship with their world around them. And Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la does this in the Qur'an, and he also does it through rhetorical questions, kind of asking us a series of questions, and through it, you really feel the greatness of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. So I'm only going to use just one verse today, and it comes from Surah Al-Fatir. And Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la talks about, he's talking, it's a series of things where he's talking about how we're created. And then he invites us to think about the creation of the water, and then he invites us to think about the heavens, right? And then he says, يولج الليل في النهار ويولج النهار في الليل يولج الليل في النهار
He merges night into day, and he merges day into night. And we think about how, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, in this pandemic we've been in, even this program today is virtual. And there's all these virtual programs, but through the virtual programs, there's always some level, even two years into the pandemic, some glitches, technical issues, camera and mic issues. But with Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, there are no glitches. He literally merges day into night and night into day with no glitches. We go to sleep every night knowing that when we wake up, morning will be there. And we go to sleep, we wake up through the morning, and we know the night will be there. And we don't even think about it. Yeah, this is one of the blessings of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. And so when you think in this contemplative meditation, in a state of i'tikaf or even outside of it, and you think about, wow, I don't have the power to do that. Or when Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la says right after that in the same verse, وَسَخَّرَ الشَّمْسَ وَالْقَمَرُ قُلُّوا يَجْرِي لِأَجْرِ مُسَمَّةًۭ He subjugated the sun and the moon and each run an appointed orbit. And the sun doesn't come crashing down on us, the moon doesn't come crashing down on us, right? And you think, I can't do that. Nobody I know can do that, right? And so when that makes you really think about the greatness of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, and then He says, ذَلِكُمُ اللَّهُ رَبُّكُمْ لَهُ الْمُلْكُ This is your Lord, Allah. He has authority over all things. And that's the whole point of this meditative contemplation, to understand the greatness of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la and to shrink our egos back to where they need to be and shrink our issues and problems back to real size. And when you do this kind of meditative contemplation, you start to realize that you can connect very directly to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la and that He's looking into your heart, not into your outward form.
And so at that point you realize, okay, I am able to insha'Allah start the healing process. Start this, it has a very strong potential to heal us spiritually, but also psychologically and emotionally. And so my prayer insha'Allah is that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la heals us all on this journey in Ramadan and allows us to really benefit from the types of ibadah or worship that the Prophet ﷺ did, especially in these coming nights. Allahumma ameen. Ameen, ameen. Jazak'Allah Khayran Dr. Vania. SubhanAllah, as you were speaking, the ayah that came to my mind with a very profound, the very profound analogy that you just gave was, هل ترى من فطور? You know Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la tells us in Surat Al-Mulk, look out to the sky, you know, كرتين, look out more than once, keep staring هل ترى من فطور? Is there anything that is out of place with what Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la has created? And that is a sign of His perfection and our need of Him. No glitches. I've never thought of, you know, the idea of no glitches. But truly, SubhanAllah, we do everything that we can with all the advancements that we have made in our technology. We tend to, as humanity, think that we're becoming more independent of the Divine, but rather we're simply reinforcing, or it is being reinforced to us on a daily basis how dependent upon Him. We really are, SubhanAllah, in every way possible. And so I wanted to ask you a very specific question in that regard. We're talking about admiring what Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la has put before us. When people feel like, I need Allah to unlock my heart, you know, sometimes we talk about mental health in particular, this idea that there's a block, and I need Allah to unlock my heart so that I can continue to do. Can you speak to that, you know, this idea of, well, Allah made me imperfect.
And sometimes using that as a means for justifying our imperfections, you know, because that can happen, and it can also lead to some sort of complacency, or worse, beyond complacency, right, resentment, and just being completely shut off. So can you speak to that a bit? Absolutely, absolutely. You know, when Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, when we think about this concept of, as I was mentioning with the meditative contemplation, one of the things about Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la looking into our hearts, because Allah says in the Quran that really what our goal is, is to come to Him with a qalbun salim, right, this kind of concept of a sound heart, and that we've a heart free of spiritual diseases. And unlocking a heart is really something that happens little by little. This concept of, I think that the beautiful imagery that I think about is how when it comes from a hadith of the Prophet ﷺ, this concept of, you know, drop by drop, drop by drop, if you drop by drop water onto a stone, it eventually over time, literally bores a hole through that stone. And even if our hearts are completely kind of like shut off, and like you said, totally locked up, little by little by little, it opens up. But if you try to take a whole bucket of water and just pour it down onto that stone, it just splashes right off, and it doesn't actually make a lasting impact. And so, you know, I hope inshallah when people hear this, they're thinking, it's really step by step, it's little by little. And every time like the hadith, if you take the steps towards Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, He comes even faster to us, right. And so little by little inshallah, the hearts will unlock with these steps that we're taking bi'ibnillah. JazakumAllahu Khayran. Thank you so much for that, Dr. Vania. Thank you for your contributions. Thank you for everything that you've written, your holistic healing series and for being a part of 30 for 30 and the webathon, May Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la accept your Ramadan and beyond. BarakAllahu khayran. Wa Fikum BarakAllahu Khayran.
JazakumAllahu Khayran. And so as we are moving into the second hour, Alhamdulillah Rabbil Ameen, we are just under 200 donors, I believe, Alhamdulillah Rabbil Ameen. And what we need inshallah is everyone to really take this to the next gear inshallah, reach out to those that you know, tell people to sign up inshallah with whatever amount it's going to be so that we can make sure we meet our goal for today bi'ibnillah. So please my ask to all of you inshallah ta'ala is to make sure that you share the link, not just that you donate, but that you share the link in between our YouTube and Facebook viewers right now bi'ibnillah ta'ala we should be able to meet our goal. And someone who does a much better job at this than me, not just that this but pretty much everything in life is Dr. Attaf Hussain Alhamdulillah Rabbil Ameen. Dr. Attaf are you there? He might not be there. Oh, there he is. I'm here. I'm here. Asalaamu Alaikum Shaykh. Asalaamu Alaikum. Don't worry, we'll play the video. I didn't forget the video this time. I forgot the first time. I didn't forget it this time. But I just wanted to at least bring your bring you on screen before we play it inshallah ta'ala. Dr. Attaf, our vice president, personal brother, mentor, someone who's been a pioneer of so many good works in the Muslim community. May Allah accept all of it from you. Dr. Attaf, how are you, Shaykh? How's everything? Alhamdulillah, we're doing well. And thank you so much for the energy you brought. MashaAllah, we're at almost 200 of the donors. InshaAllah, we'll get the rest in the coming hour. Thank you so much. If we don't, I'm going to have to take back all the nice things I said about you. Please don't. InshaAllah, we'll get it done. InshaAllah, we ask everyone to please meet inshaAllah ta'ala Dr. Attaf's goal. Dr. Attaf is much better at fundraising than me. He's going to push us inshaAllah ta'ala.
But before I turn it over to him inshaAllah, and I'm going to be back, I'm going to take a break inshaAllah ta'ala. Dr. Attaf will host for a bit, Shaykh Ibrahim Hindi, and then inshaAllah ta'ala I'll be back with you. But before that inshaAllah, we will play a short video and then Dr. Attaf will take over inshaAllah. JazakAllah khair. Salam Alaikum Truly is a blessing how far Yaqeen has come over the past five years. This is a dua come true due to the generosity of Allah, then thousands of donors like yourself. And as we see the need for Yaqeen's work in the world, I'm proud of the legacy we're leaving behind for our future Ummah inshaAllah. As we remind ourselves that our life in this world determines our life in the hereafter, we push ourselves to do our very best to properly educate our youth, to support our Imams, to impart beneficial knowledge, to instill conviction in the hearts and minds of our community, to inspire changemakers, to foster spirituality in our homes, to spread a true understanding of Allah's message, to deepen our love for the Messenger sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam, to show people how faith is relevant in their everyday lives. Yaqeen's team is trying to accomplish a lot, but none of it is possible without your support. Be a part of this mission to dismantle doubt, nurture conviction, and inspire contribution, so that you too can build that legacy of a sadaqah jariyya for your hereafter. Act for your akhira, donate to Yaqeen. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah everyone. Welcome again to our ending Ramadan strong webathon. As Shaykh Omar mentioned earlier, we are just so honored that you join us, that you are part of our family. And from wherever you are joining us, we've seen so many different countries being mentioned, mashaAllah. We've seen folks mentioning that they're having iftar because of the different time zones.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala accept all of your fasting, your praying, and indeed your dua, especially for yourselves and your family and Muslims suffering all around the world. And also the dua that you send to us, your Yaqeen family members. Brothers and sisters, inshaAllah for the next hour, I'll be your host and we have coming up some of the scholars who you've seen on Quran 30 for 30 and some you will see again. Our Shaykh Abdullah Oduro, Shaykh Muhammad Al-Shinnawi, Dr. Farah Islam, Shaykh Yasir Fahmi, and Ustazah Faduma Warsameh inshaAllah in this coming hour. So stay tuned. And as we get started with this, we want to remind you why we're here. We're here first and foremost to see how best we can prepare to end Ramadan strong. We made it, alhamdulillah, we've been making dua, Allahumma ballighna Ramadan, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave us that and we are here. And we also know that people who are ill and who passed away, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant those who are ill shifa and those who have passed away, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala indeed grant them paradise. So each of us who are here and left behind, we are the ones inshaAllah who will carry on for these last 10 nights. How do we prepare strong? What are the practical tips inshaAllah that we can get to help each other and our family members inshaAllah to do the best these last 10 nights. So as you listen to these practical tips from the scholars of the Yaqeen team, we also want you to do your part inshaAllah to make this Ramadan for the books by making the sadaqa and charity divided up. Think about what you want to give and let our inshaAllah engineering team divided up behind the scenes so you can literally have every night of the last 10 nights have some of your sadaqa represented there. So the links are there in the chats as well and of course you can always visit yaqeeninstitute.org and make sure to contribute there.
To get us started inshaAllah, I'm going to first check in to make sure that we have our first speaker and he actually needs no introduction but it's interesting that if you think about inshaAllah how much he's contributed to Yaqeen Institute, we are really grateful and humbled by his involvement with us, Shaykh Abdullah Uduro. Just a little bit about Shaykh Abdullah as he comes on, mashaAllah, Allahu Akbar, look at that noor, mashaAllah. Shaykh Abdullah is a fellow and the head of what we call the Convert Resources Department here at Yaqeen Institute as well as the Imam of the Islamic Center of Qapel. So if you're ever in the DFW area, please make sure to visit that masjid and you'll get inshaAllah a first-hand view of Shaykh Abdullah and his community. He also supports several initiatives in Yaqeen from what we call conviction circles to voiceovers. Most recently as you've seen co-hosting the Quran 30 for 30 for the second year and we're still going to find out really ping pong all of that between him and Shaykh Omar. So it's going to go down, it's going to go down in live, in inshaAllah live and in person. And lastly, he spearheaded one of our newest resources which I really hope you take advantage of and you explore and you share which is Yaqeen Basics, which provides integral resources such as the Five Pillars Made Plain video series for new and renewed Muslims. Shaykh Abdullah, how are you doing? Alhamdulillah, I'm phenomenal. I'm glad to be here with Dr. Altaf. Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah. Shaykh, when you start off with phenomenal, there's really no place else to go but farther up inshaAllah. So may Allah bless you. You know, we're looking forward inshaAllah, you know, your topic today, as you know, is just basically preparing for the last 10 nights. So inshaAllah give us, you know, a few minutes of wisdom and then I'll come back with another question for you. BarakAllahu feek.
JazakAllah khair. Really just some small form of advice for myself and for all of you inshaAllah on this blessed 10 days is to work hard and to do what we can for our spiritual upliftment. And, you know, the way that we can really magnify our spirituality and intensify it is by helping others. You know, subhanAllah, the Prophet ﷺ, I just want to leave you with three hadith. And many of us have probably memorized them, but if not, this is a huge opportunity for us to encourage ourselves and to make a very beautiful, beautiful experience for ourselves and those around us. The Prophet ﷺ said in one hadith that all these are mutafiqun alayh, they're agreed upon by a Bukhari and Muslim. مَنْ قَامَ رَمَضَانَ إِيمَانًا وَإِحْتِسَابًا غُفِرَ لَهُ مَا تَقَدَّمَ مِنْ ذَنْبِهِ haditha as follows, the first Prophet ﷺ said whoever fasts the month of Ramadan with iman, with belief, with faith, conviction, and hoping for the reward his or her previous sins will be forgiven. Second hadith, whoever stands in the month of Ramadan, i.e. in prayer, with iman, with belief, and hoping for the reward, their previous sins will be forgiven. Third hadith, whoever stands the night of Qadr, the night of power, the night of Qadr, and you know as we know as late as Qadr is the night of power generically, with iman and with iman, belief, and hoping for the reward, then his or her previous sins will be forgiven. What we see in all three of these hadith brothers and sisters, ladies and gentlemen from all over the world, mashaAllah, those making suhoor and those probably making iftar and those waking up in the middle of the night to listen to this, is that the Prophet ﷺ said ghafir laahu ma taqaddamu min dambi that his or her previous sins will be forgiven. Sadaqa an-nabiyyi ﷺ. If this is said by the Prophet ﷺ and it's
authenticated, we know that it's a promise. But what is required from each and every one of us is motivation and destination. The first thing is that the Prophet ﷺ said in all three of these, whether he said whoever fasts in the month of Ramadan, whoever stands in the month of Ramadan, whoever stands the night of power, is imanan wa ihtisaban. These are the two conditions. Iman is that belief that we have, that motivation that gets us up in the middle of the night, that motivation that brings you here to listen to this message from all of us. We're motivating each other to be better people. Whether we give our financial support, our skill, our time, this is a way that we can help nastabiqul khairat, to compete in that which is good, wa na ta'awwilalabari wa taqwa, and to contribute to piety and righteousness. So when we do this, the iman is the motivation. It's that belief in Allah subhana wa ta'ala, the belief in His name and attributes, and the belief in any action that calls to that is gonna be that which increases the iman of other people. And this is why whenever we call to Allah, i.e. da'wah to Allah subhana wa ta'ala, calling to morals and ethics, this is something that is highly highly recommended and to a certain degree obligatory upon us to have that iman, that iman, that trust, that love, that awe, all of these feelings that we have towards Allah subhana wa ta'ala because He is Allah, that is iman. So when you do any one of these actions in Ramadan, in Laylatul Qadr, in the last ten nights, inshaAllah, you will be, those that your previous sins will be forgiven. But the second condition is ihtisab. Some of us were motivated in the first ten days, the second ten days, but the last ten days are coming up and now they're telling you 110%. Intensify. We want more intensity in regards to your detachment from the dunya and your closeness to your Creator, your undivided attention. Without a doubt, when one gives from what they love, as Allah
subhana wa ta'ala says, لَن تَنَالَ الْبِرَّ حَتَّى تُنفِقُوا مِمَّا تُحِبُّونَ That you will not truthfully reach righteousness until you give from that which you love. And I never forget one of my scholars mentioned when I was in the jamia, he said, you know, we have the pocket right here, he said the pocket was put here because it's close to our heart, because we love the maal. The maal, ما يميل وليه القلب. Maal is فلوس, money in Arabic, and maal is a verb that means to lean towards something. فَلَا تَمِيلُوا كُلَّ الْمَيْلِ فَتَذْرُوهَا كَان مُعَلَّقًا As Allah subhana wa ta'ala mentions in the Qur'an, in our emotions that may incline towards something. So the pocket was put here because we love the money. But if we have something that we love and we use it for the sake of Allah, i.e. we use it for something that God loves, without a doubt we see the yaqeen has been consistent in quality. Consistent in quality. Consistent in quality. Our salat has to be consistent in quality. It can be consistent but without quality. Because we don't have the khushr. It could have quality one day but not consistent. We ask Allah subhana wa ta'ala to make us of both of those, to be consistent with quality. But when you have your iman, the belief, and you hope for Allah's reward, that hope is what keeps you consistent along with the iman. So in these last ten nights, brothers and sisters, make sure that you give for the sake of Allah subhana wa ta'ala in helping and doing what Allah subhana wa ta'ala loves. Many of us have encountered people that their doubts have been alleviated. Many of us have had the opportunity to share a link, as you're sharing now hopefully to people, to where they can contribute and doing good for themselves before even the organization. For themselves. When you share that link with somebody, it's going to help somebody learn more about their faith. It may alleviate any types of doubts you never know. Allah subhana wa ta'ala takes control of
all affairs. It's just upon you to do your part. And you doing your part with belief and trust and hoping for its reward inshallah in Ramadan, in Laylatul Qadr, and in fasting, inshallah you receive this reward. So the connection to that brothers and sisters in these last ten days, when we stand in prayer, we ask Allah subhana wa ta'ala for His blessings and His rizq. So when we receive that rizq, we can give to those that are doing the best that they can for the deen. So let's not forget in contributing to this beautiful, beautiful cause of sharing the knowledge, sharing the information, sharing the motivation, and sharing the hope in Allah subhana wa ta'ala's reward for us. May Allah subhana wa ta'ala make these last ten days the best ten nights of our life till the end of time inshallah. And the next year is to come inshallah. So may Allah subhana wa ta'ala bless us in our efforts and allow these blessings to be a rippling effect and influence upon those. Don't forget to give to this beautiful cause because as you can see with the consistence, clarity, and quality, it's going to change lives inshallah as it has. Jazakumullah khair. Barakallahu fik. As always, very uplifting. And I think you said three times that we have the highest quality work. So I think it definitely reinforced the point and I hope those who are blinking didn't quite miss it. But we're grateful to you and to everyone else, mashaAllah, who contributes to ensure the authentic, you know, incredible content as well as high quality. Shaykh, I just said another, you know, 30 seconds or a minute. In terms of personally, your community, others you've interacted with, what's something you can tell us about the impact that Yaqeen has had? And you can choose any one of those domains either on a personal level, at the community level where you are in your masjid, or people you've interacted with online. No, I mean without a doubt, you know, I've been teaching young men for the past four or five years in my masjid. Definitely I've benefited from those youth in regards to issues dealing with doubt. So when we talked about the proofs of prophethood,
talking to them about the Prophet ﷺ, that series, also the conviction circles, dealing with the MSAs and dealing with the young men's and women's groups that we've had here. I have a young girl, mashaAllah, she's been dealing simply sisters group here in our community. She's tuned into Yaqeen and taught the conviction circles there. MashaAllah, the khutbah circles, the khutbah corners, I've used them, I pass them off to people. So it's very, very resourceful, but particularly those parents that come to my office and say, my son's having doubt in this particular God's existence, no mercy, why does evil even exist? It's sharing a link. It's sharing a link and that helps immensely. So there's numerous experiences I've had as an imam, yeah, and individually as well. Jazakum Allah khair. May Allah bless you and your family and inshaAllah we'll see you back on Q3430 later today inshaAllah. Jazakum Allah khair. Thank you so much. Jazakum Allah khair. Salam alaykum. So I'm getting the totals and mashaAllah we started just about an hour, hour and a half ago and we still have a great lineup of speakers coming up. So we're going to, so far I'm told mashaAllah that over 250 of you have already signed up and the count keeps going up. So we look forward to inshaAllah, you know, reaching that 1300 goal. I'm hoping in this next segment, you know, this next 45 minutes or so that we have left, that you will really pause and reflect on what impact yaqeen and the resources have had and the products have had on you personally. And then think about the sadaqa you want to give and to contribute towards the mission and then divide it up and say, you know what, maybe my family and I want to support yaqeen in the coming last 10 nights with $500 and let us divide it over inshaAllah over the last 10 nights. You want to do $100, whatever your capacity is inshaAllah, push yourself to make sure you sign up during the time that we are together. Let me go ahead now for the sake of time
because we're just, I want to, you know, actually we're gonna skip the video and as you've heard with Sheikh Omar, the big thing is about the video. We don't want to forget the video. So we're gonna go straight to our next guest and inshaAllah if we can bring him on screen. And this is someone again who we don't have to do a lot of introductions and again he's beautifully involved with his family and I believe he's accompanied today with family member, slightly on camera, slightly off camera, alhamdulillah. But Sheikh Shinawi is a fellow at the yaqeen, is the imam, mashaAllah, is imam and religious director of the Islamic Education Center of Pennsylvania, contributing across several topics mashaAllah. Sheikh Mohammed most notably has written a series of papers for yaqeen on the proofs of prophethood. I really hope you can tell us in the comment section if you've had a chance to look at those same papers and how you've benefited from them and also this can be released as a book later this year inshaAllah. Most recently he published a co-authored piece on tadabur with Sheikh Yusuf Wahab, mashaAllah, who Sheikh Yusuf is our research director for the Department of Quranic Studies that guides us on how to build a connection with and deepen our love for the Quran. Sheikh Mohammed, kif harkum, welcome. How are you doing? Alhamdulillah, I'm well. As-salamu alaykum everybody. As-salamu alaykum. I am so happy and so glad to see you and mashaAllah, thank you for bringing on a special guest with us. Definitely no issues with lighting on your side because the nur is taken over this room. Yeah, the room has bad lighting so I brought her on. No, no, no, mashaAllah. May Allah protect her and preserve her. Sheikh, now you're going to talk to us all about hope and inshaAllah I will come back when you finish and we'll have another question for you inshaAllah. BarakAllahu feekum, fayat tafadhal. Wa feekum barak, jazakAllahu khayran.
A'azat uli. A'azat uli. Maymuna wants to say something. We're going to start off with hope that Dr. Altaf Hussain has many soldiers in the pipeline to fundraise for our institutions. What do you want to say? Go ahead. Support yaqeen now. BarakAllahu feekum. BarakAllahu feekum. You heard the young lady. Sohayla said support yaqeen now, barakAllahu feekum. And she meant or else there'll be no more Ramadan series from Sheikh Omar. Which we're all enjoying of course, family as well. We watch iftar together. Live entertainment is over. Can we say like boring adult stuff now? Yeah. Thank you, madam. Take a hike. She wouldn't let me get on screen without making her solicitation to support yaqeen and getting on the ajr. May we never be deprived of opportunities to support good institutions and good work. And the need is certainly there, ever present. So regarding hope, I wanted to just share a few quick minutes. Bismillah, salatu wassalamu ala rasoolillahi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'in. You know what, the last 10 of Ramadan being upon us, the last 10 are all about hope. Just as Islam really is all about hope. You know, you think of dozens of riveting narrations just to inspire a person that no matter what happens, I can be redeemed. You think of just the narration of the man who killed 100 people and then somehow is redeemed on his way to turning a new leaf. And Allah azza wa jal, through the ayat of the Quran, through the hadith of our Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, makes it crystal clear to everyone that your past, no matter what your past looks like, does not necessitate your future. And so our deen is a deen of perpetual optimism, endless hope. But Ramadan now, how do we bring this to the last 10? Ramadan is sort of like a cheat code on accessing the infinite hope that comes with belief in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Because Ramadan gets shaitan locked up, things are multiplied in terms of reward. But also, also, we even know where the best of Ramadan lies, which is the farewell 10. You know, like when the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam says to you, pray as if it's your last prayer, because that if it were your last prayer, if you believed it was your last, if you were sure it was your last prayer, you would have, you know, a very different salah, right? You'll make your best one last. But with Ramadan, it's actually no more as if the last 10 are the most important 10. Ramadan tells you the last 10 are more valuable than the first 20. And the last 10 are, you know, easier than a full 30. Just squeeze just here, at least here, if nothing else, then here. And so it becomes a cheat code, like what more could we ask for? Besides all of the hope, people being freed from the fire every night, shaitan being locked up, gates of paradise, but then the last 10, right? And, you know, no, no one should enter these last 10. That is my message to everyone, you know, thinking about any longer, just forget it. The poor performance or you not meeting your own expectations in the first 20, because this is the 10 where you remember Allah's mercy most. As the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam told us that at the end of the day, no one's going to enter Jannah by their their deeds anyway. They said, wait, not even you, O Messenger of Allah. He said, not even I, unless Allah envelops me in his bounty and his mercy. And so there's no more room for, you know, second guessing yourself, feeling like you're not worthy in terms of your performance, because this is where you lock in the crosshairs. It's really about Allah's mercy, Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
I often remember the statement of Ibn Ata' al-Sakandari, Allah have mercy on him. He says, Inna min alamat al-i'timadi ala al-amal al-iyasu inda al-zalal It's a very beautiful poetic statement, even if you don't know the Arabic, but it means that one of the signs that you're overly relying on your deeds is that you lose hope when you misstep in your deeds, when you have poor performance in your deeds. And so we're going to try our best in our entire lives. But at the end of the day and at the end of Ramadan, we're going to push while hoping in Allah's mercy above and before all. You know, speaking of our lives, even like Jabir radiallahu anhu said that I heard the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam say Jabir said, I heard the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam say three days before he passed, let no one of you ever die. Let no one of you ever let their life expire, except while assuming the very best of their Lord, Subhanahu wa ta'ala. And so I want to repeat to you as well. Similarly, Ramadan is like a microcosm of Islam. Let no one of you just watch Ramadan expire, wind down, and its days leave us without knowing that it's all about his mercy and assuming the very best of Allah and just trying your best to outperform yourself in the previous days or the previous Ramadans. That's really it. And Ibn al-Jawzi, his word always comes to mind. I'll close with it. Ibn al-Jawzi rahimahullah says, the horse, when he knows he's at the end of the race, he leaves it all on the track. They say leave it all on the floor in sports. He said, when the horse knows that he's at the end of the race, he gives it everything that's left in the tank. Extra commitment, extra push, extra seriousness.
And so he says, let the horse not be more intelligent than you, O believer. O you who knows what's at stake and knows Allah's mercy will carry you. Push, push, push, push, push the social media away a little bit, except for limited beneficial consumption. But even that passively taking it in will never outdo you chasing yourself. Allah's mercy in these 10 days. Push yourself, squeeze a little more with your donations. Know that donations never break anybody's bank. It's always the same donors every year that they see Allah's promise unfold, you know, in terms of what they contribute. Push in your prayers, push a little longer. Don't put your hands down just yet and know that it's about Allah's mercy and that his mercy is mind boggling. May we all receive the fullest share of it. Allahumma ameen. JazakAllah khairan everybody. And you heard Suhaila support Yaqeen now or else, or she said, BarakAllahu feekum. Yeah, at first I heard you call her Maimuna and I was like, I got confused. I said, okay, that is Suhaila, mashaAllah, much bigger. Maimuna is 11, mashaAllah. Yeah, mashaAllah, mashaAllah. Thank you so much, Sheikh Naaf, for the beautiful advice. And we really hope that our listeners are taking it to heart. You know, I just wanted to ask you, as you have sort of, you know, seen and interacted not only in the community where you are, plus online and other folks have given you feedback. Where do you feel the impact, like in terms of Yaqeen, and what kind of impact are you seeing, you know, in terms of now, we just completed our fifth year, if you will, of existence. So just a few thoughts about that. SubhanAllah, I've seen the impact everywhere, to be honest. And I always tell people I have a special affinity or an extra affinity for, you know, the curriculum Yaqeen is putting together, because, you know, early start and prevention is better than cure, is always on my mind. But what seems to fascinate me, to be honest, is that every year people are saying I'm coming across Yaqeen for the first time.
And considering, relatively speaking, the amount of professionalism and traction that Yaqeen has in our little echo chambers as Muslims, I take from this, you know, a very optimistic read in that, number one, we are, Alhamdulillah, starting to realize, you know, what the mainstream looks like and what that puncturing the mainstream is actually possible. So that's very profound. And many people who perhaps would not otherwise, for optics reasons, professionalism reasons, framing reasons, whatever, even the tone and the narrative reasons, may not be consuming Islamic content, but we're continuing, by Allah's grace, to be instruments that are able to reach such folks that we have otherwise not been able to do, being able to, by Allah's grace, be part of walking people back from the edge of the cliff, may Allah forbid, the spiritual cliff. So may we never be deprived of a little corner of the work for His cause, deem us worthy to be used for His sake, and use us for it, allow it to be sincere, never replace us. Allahumma ameen. Jazakumullahu khairan. Again, we know you are, mashallah, going about your day with your duties, plus the children are there. So we want to thank you for taking time, Shaykh, during these first and the last 10 nights. May Allah bless you for all that you do for us. Barakallah fikuh, inshallah. We'll catch up with you soon. Thank you so much. Barakallah fikuh. So to continue with the program, you know, I've been given the update that we're approaching the 300 mark for the number of folks who have joined. Let me just make sure we are actually there. Yes, 306, mashallah. So this is phenomenal. We are really hoping that you can pause and reflect, wherever you are watching the webinar right now, and reflect on what actually has happened with yaqeen coming into your life. Has it just been an increase in knowledge?
Has it been an increase in practice, an increase in understanding, an increase in the way, in your outlook, in your attitude towards the religion? We hear so many, as Shaykh Omar mentioned in the beginning, we see so many of the impact stories, mashallah. What is your impact story? What has been the profound impact that Yaqeen Institute has had in your life? And then think about how to support us. We often, you know, wonder what would it cost to produce the highest quality products? And that's what we aim to do, put out the highest quality products and to make sure that the content remains free. So all of our brothers and sisters around the world can access it, inshallah, inshallah, and benefit from it. So in order to support that mission, in order to continue with the most authentic material and the highest quality resources, we need your support. And that's what this webathon, inshallah, is also intended to do, is to grow our base of those folks who are benefiting from our content and who are also saying, you know what, I will make my contribution. This is what my family and I, inshallah, will do to support the work of Yaqeen Institute. So we have our next guest, inshallah. So while I'm bringing on the next guest, please be sure to go to the website and to make sure that you are making a contribution and especially join the Last 10 Nights campaign. Because even if you split up, you know, $100, $200, whatever the amount is that you can afford to give over the last 10 nights, may Allah indeed accept from you. Indeed, you know, we are taught in our tradition, the amount of giving is never mentioned. When the angels make dua as narrated by Abu Hurairah radiallahu ta'ala anhu, Allahumma aati munfiqan khalafah, or Allah give to the person something in place of what they have spent, the amount is not specified. So we expect, inshallah, that you will do your best to your capacity and inshallah, Allah will bless you and replace what you have spent.
Now to stay on time and to keep the program moving forward, let me bring on our next guest. If I'm not mistaken, we are right on time with her and hopefully, inshallah, we can bring her on. So our next guest, mashallah ta'ala, is Dr. Farah Islam. And she actually, we say the newest, if you will, the Yaqeen family member, but she's been helping us without a formal role. She's been a part of the family, but now she's actually the director of what we call psycho-spirituality and a mental health advocate, an educator and a researcher. And mashallah, she explores mental health and services access in Canada, particularly for the racialized and immigrant populations, and also orients her research and community work around breaking down the barriers of mental health stigma and seeking mental health support. So Dr. Farah, welcome. How are you doing today? As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah, Dr. Al-Dawf. So happy to be here with you. Jazakumullah wa khayran. Mashallah, welcome. We're really glad that you took time to be with us today. So I know your topic on intentional muhasabah or introspection is critically important for these last 10 nights. So I'll let you go ahead and get started with that, and I'll be back after a few minutes with the question, inshallah. Thank you. Inshallah. Bismillah alhamdulillah wa salatu wassalam a'la Rasulillah. If we want to end our Ramadan strong, if we want to take on a habit that we can take for this Ramadan and beyond, take on the habit of good, honest self-accounting or self-evaluation, Dr. Rania actually mentioned it in her talk, of muhasabah. Every day, every week, every month, whatever works for you, inshallah. Like Omar bin Khattab, radhiAllahu anhu, beautifully advised us, he said, call yourselves to account before you are called to account. I want us to think about that wonderful companion who was promised jannah
because of his honest self-accounting every night, how he would look into his heart, he would look over his day if anybody had hurt him, and he would forgive them. I want us to take part in that kind of regular muhasabah, in that regular self-accounting. In psychology and mental health, there's a whole slew of evidence. We talk often about how things like gratitude journals, for example, really help people. Before you go to bed, you jot down some things that you're really grateful for throughout the day. Research has proven that that improves your sleep, boosts your mood, has all these wonderful benefits. And then there's so much literature out there and so much research on how to form better habits, on improving our relationships, whether it's with our spouse, our children, our own bodies, our health, our eating, I mean, what have you. The list goes on and on. I want us to take some of that energy and some of those good bits of advice and channel it into improving our relationship with our Creator, the most ultimate of all our relationships, subhanAllah, the literal purpose of our lives. What if we look back and thought about some of the most effective ways we can stick to a new habit? And research again has shown us we want to develop a new habit. We want what helps us to attach it to an already pre-existing habit, something we already do. So if we're trying to take on this new habit of muhasabah, of honest self-accounting, maybe we attach it to something we're already doing. Let's say the daily prayers. Let's say we pick the last prayer of the day. So we've done our wudu, we sit down on our prayer mat and maybe we take out a notebook, right? Take out whatever notebook you want. And I have a lot of notebooks, obviously. You take out a notebook or your phone and you start to jot some thoughts down. You could answer questions like, what did I get caught up in today? What was my mind racing with today?
Was it hard for me to remember Allah? How did I fight to free my nafs? Who am I struggling to forgive? Or on the flip side, you could even ask yourself more positive questions like, what were those moments where I really remembered Allah? What adhkar, what du'a came to my mind? And jot those down. What was I doing at that time? What made me remember Allah? Just taking some time to jot down some of those ideas. And I find that there's such a hopeful message in the way that we're instructed to correct our mistakes in our salah, in our prayer. We're praying, we make a mistake, we recognize the mistake, and then we follow it up with some good. We do some extra sujood and we end our prayer. It's like the message is, it's okay, we all make mistakes, move on. Tomorrow is a new day. And we can apply that powerful lesson to our new habit of muhassabah that we're trying to instill. Maybe you enslaved your soul today. Maybe you indulged in a habit that you've been trying really hard to let go of. Maybe you got caught up in the web of this dunya. Maybe you had a hard time remembering Allah. That's okay. Follow it up with some good. Give some sadaqah. Do something good. Resolve to do better tomorrow. And guard your soul. You know, one of the ways shaitan gets to us, and he's so successful at this, is to make us lose hope, to make us despair. But Allah Subhana wa ta'ala tells us, and this is one of my most favorite verses of the Quran, he says, Oh, my slaves who have transgressed against themselves, do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah forgives all sins. Allah is all forgiving, all merciful. Do not despair. Speaking of the ways that shaitan tries to get us, I'm sure many of us saw this tweet.
I don't know if you can see it if I hold it up like this, but many of us maybe saw this tweet from Shaykh Omar Suleiman before Ramadan, and he wrote, you know, Beware of the seeds shaitan plants in the last days of Shaban to ruin your Ramadan before it starts. And so when I read that post, and a bunch of folks in my family also read it, and we reflected on it together, and it led to a lot of these really interesting and introspective conversations. And we were just talking about how shaitan trapped us in those last couple of weeks. You know, whether it was he stirred up a ruckus at work, you know, poked at our egos so that we would, you know, fight back and, you know, say something we would regret, or, you know, finding ourselves in weird social situations where we'd start to meet people and then wonder, hey, how come I don't have a house like that? How come I don't have a career or a car or kids or freedom like that? Right? And it just goes on and on. Right? Shaitan just sucks you in. Right? So one of the really important ways we can take part in this muhasabah, in this self-accounting, inshallah, in this introspection, is to take ourselves back to those last couple of weeks before Ramadan. Do you remember how shaitan tried to trap you? What tricks did he use? How did he poke at your ego or at your nafs? How did he try to get you and try to ruin your Ramadan? And actually started to write all those pathways down. I'll be honest, and it just kept going on and on. Pathway one, pathway two, pathway three. Subhanallah. You know, may Allah protect us. Ameen. You know, what's interesting about shaitan is that he leaves footsteps. He leaves these seductive footprints in the sand so that we just want to follow him or he whispers into our chests. But they are just that, just footprints, just whispers. It's up to us whether we choose to follow him or not. And our beloved prophet, sallallahu alayhi wasallam, gave us these beautiful words of hope.
He said, praise be to Allah, alhamdulillah, who has reduced all of the shaitan's plots to mere whispers. You know, what's beautiful about Ramadan is that fasting is a shield. Fortify yourself. Take time in this blessed month when the big shayateen are locked up to guard yourself. Block every pathway shaitan could possibly take to your heart. And so how do we do that? Right. It takes knowing yourself, that honest self-accounting at the end of the day or the end of the month, whatever works for you. Ask yourself, you know, where did I fall? Where did I slip? And turn towards that with curiosity, not despair. Know yourself, know your weaknesses. Ask yourself, did I free my soul today or did I cause its ruin? And inshallah, resolve to get up and walk strong tomorrow. Jazakumullahu khairan. MashaAllah, thank you so much. And as you were speaking, you know, I started to realize that one of the amazing things about this platform and even the work that you're doing is that there are folks in the chat telling us how much of a direct impact this work is having. And so may Allah bless, you know, indeed all of what you're doing. Dr. Farah, in the time that you've been, you know, with Yaqeen and also just in terms of knowing the content, what are some of the ways that you're seeing the content impact either in your community or online if you've interacted with folks? What has that been like just for a few minutes? Peace be upon you. That's a beautiful, beautiful question. I think every year I'm blown away by the amazing reach of Yaqeen, subhanAllah. You know, I feel like a lot of us have this idea that we want to maybe finish the Quran in Ramadan, but maybe it isn't that we can't recite the entire Quran. We're not able to go through the entire translation, etc. And many of us who don't even really interact with the Quran on a daily basis in our regular lives.
But 30 for 30 being the sort of really accessible way we can complete a khatm, if you will, in a way of the Quran, a complete way of learning or interacting with the Quran through Ramadan. It's amazing to me how many people message, subhanAllah, you know, from high school or from, you know, different walks of life that from different stages of my life that have really benefited, subhanAllah. So may Allah reward all of you. May Allah accept from all of us. Ameen. Thank you so much, Dr. Farah. InshaAllah we'll be back in touch. And again, thank you for taking time out of your busy day to be with us today for the webinar. Thank you again. So we're going to continue now, inshaAllah, with our program, and as you've been hearing from our speakers, these are very practical tips. The program has been set in a way that you can really benefit, inshaAllah, as we go on with the rest of the program to see what you can do to improve your last 10 nights. What did you have planned? What can you make corrections on? MashaAllah, we're seeing people from literally all over the world. And we have now come to a point where we just saw a message from someone saying that they are in Ukraine. And may Allah subhanAllah indeed, you know, grant peace and justice and restore harmony in the country of Ukraine and indeed all over the world. Sheikh Omar mentioned earlier folks joining from Al-Quds and all of the difficult places where our Muslim brothers and sisters are living and experiencing Ramadan. So in order for us to, you know, inshaAllah, keep it moving, then keep the program sort of moving along, we want to remind you why we are here. Two reasons. Number one, practical tips on how to end Ramadan strong. And number two, as each of the speakers has been, you know, alerting and talking to us about, is that, well, the reality is that you should, inshaAllah, take something, one thing away from this webinar and inshaAllah, make, improve your plan for the last 10 nights.
Also, while you're doing that, we are really asking for your support. We are hoping that the content that you have seen and you have consumed, the high quality content, the free content, is making an impact. So please now try to go to the website and sign up for the last 10 nights campaign. Split up your donations over the last 10 nights. May Allah indeed accept from all of you. Let me now turn to our next guest. Let us bring on, excuse me, let us bring on Sheikh Yasser Fahmy, who is backstage and there is the Noor. MashaAllah. So this is Sheikh Yasser Fahmy. Just a brief introduction before we get going with him. He is the founder of the Prophetic Living Initiative and a Muslim instructor at the Harvard Divinity School. Sheikh Yasser has a degree from Rutgers Business School and also in business, sorry, a business degree and also an Islamic studies degree, mashaAllah, from none other than Al-Azhar University. Rashi, because of the take of time, let me slow it down a little bit. He has multiple ijazahs, both independent certifications in various Islamic subject of specialization. He is by far the first American Azhari to ever teach in the renowned Al-Azhar Mosque, and he is also a research advisor at Yaqeen and serves as an associate editor on our editorial review board. Sheikh Yasser Fahmy, welcome. How are you doing today? What's going on with you? Good? Alhamdulillah. Now that I see you, I'm good. Alhamdulillah. You saw your life flash before your eyes. Sheikh, I don't want to take up too much of your time. I'll come back with you and chat with you in a minute. We want to introduce the topic, the Prophet's intercession, inshaAllah. Please take it away. Bismillah walhamdulillah wa salatu wassalamu ala rasulillah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala wa baad.
Alhamdulillah, you know, as we're entering into these sacred last nights of Ramadan, one of the most central themes on all of our hearts and minds is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala accepting our call. You know, He says, if my servants ask you about me, then tell them I'm close. I respond to the call of the caller. If he or she calls. And subhanAllah, all of the prophets of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala had one essential dua that is categorically accepted. And all of the prophets of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala used their dua in the dunya except our messenger, salallahu alayhi wasalam, who uses his dua and he preserves it and he saves it for the afterlife. And this is preserved for a truly profound day, a very intense, magnificent, awe-inspiring day. And that is the day of judgment. And on that day, the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, he says, ana sayyidun nas, I am the master of people on that day. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will bring together people, all people, all of us will be gathered on this one plane. And we will all be responding to the call to join. And this will be a day that is very intense, very difficult, very hard. Everyone will be trembling. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will manifest on the day of judgment in a way unparalleled. The prophets will be overwhelmed by the awe and the majesty and the power of Allah. The angels will be trembling by the presence of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And so the people will start, the people themselves will start to kind of squabble and say,
do we not see the state that we're in and that sense of urgency and that sense of need kicks in. And so they begin to say, well, should we not find the one or someone who can intercede for us with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? Allah is so profoundly manifest and people are so unnerved on that day. They're like, well, let's find someone that can intercede for us. So the people will say, well, let's go to Adam. So they'll go to Sayyiduna Adam, Abu al-Bashar, like what an obvious choice. And they go to Sayyiduna Adam and they say, Anta Abu al-Bashar, you are the father of creation. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala created you and he breathed into you and he commanded the angels to prostrate to you. Ishfa' lana inda rabbik, intercede for us with your Lord. Don't you see the state that we're in? Don't you see this affair that we're going through, O Adam? And so Adam says that today my Lord exacts His wrath in a way unparalleled. Lam yaghdab qablahu mislah. He has not been angry like this in any other moment. And He will not be angry after this moment in any other way. And then he says, but however, I have my own affairs that I have to negotiate with Allah. Nafsi nafsi, nafsi nafsi. Today it's myself, myself. Go to someone else, He says, idhabu ila ghayri, idhabu ila nuh. So the people will run to Sayyiduna Nuh. And they will go to Sayyiduna Nuh, na ya Nuh, anta awwalurusul ila al-ard, you are the first of messengers and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has named you abdan shakura, a servant who is thankful. Ishfa' lana inda rabbik, intercede for us with your Lord. Don't you see our state? Don't you see our need? And so he says, inna rabbi qad ghadiba al-yawma ghadaba. That my Lord is truly, His wrath, His anger is manifest in a way today, unparalleled.
However, he says, today I have to address the affairs that are between me and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So Sayyiduna Nuh says, nafsi nafsi, myself, myself, idhabu ila Ibrahim. Go to Sayyiduna Ibrahim. So they run to Sayyiduna Ibrahim. You are anta nabiyu Allah wa khalilu. You are the Prophet of Allah and you are the close friend of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Ishfa' lana, intercede for us with your Lord. Look at our state, look at our need. Imagine all of us in this distressed, anxious state, just thirsting and yearning for any respite in this, you know, profoundly intimidating reality. And then Sayyiduna Ibrahim will say the same, that today your Lord's anger is manifest in a way unparalleled. However, today I have to address the affairs that are between me and Allah. Nafsi nafsi, myself, myself, myself, myself, idhabu ila ghayri, idhabu ila Musa. Go to Moses. So we will all run to Sayyiduna Musa. We say, ya Musa, you are the Prophet of Allah and Allah has preferred you. Bi risalatihi wa bi taklimihi ala al-nas. And he's given you this message and he's spoken to you directly. Intercede for us. Sayyiduna Musa will say the same thing. The wrath of Allah is manifest and today I have to rectify my own personal affairs. Nafsi nafsi, nafsi nafsi, idhabu ila Isa. Go to Jesus alayhi salam. And so we'll all run to Sayyiduna Isa. And so we go to Sayyiduna Isa, anta rasulullah wa kalamta al-nasa fil mahdi. And you spoke to the people when you were a baby or a child, right? And you are the word, you are the word. And he will say the same thing, subhanAllah. Today your Lord's anger is manifest in a way unparalleled and I have to rectify my affairs with Allah. Nafsi nafsi, myself myself, idhabu ila ghayri, idhabu ila Muhammad salallahu alayhi wa sallam. Then we all run to the messenger salallahu alayhi wa sallam.
We all run to him salallahu alayhi wa sallam. And we say, ya Muhammad, anta rasulullah, you are the messenger of Allah. And you are the seal of prophets. Wa ghafarallahu laka mataqadama min dhanbik wa mata akhara. Allah has forgiven you everything that has preceded and everything that has to come. Ishfa' lana ila rabbik, intercede for us with your Lord. And it is the messenger of Muhammad salallahu alayhi wa sallam says, I am for this. This is now my time. I am for this purpose, for this cause. Imagine salallahu alayhi wa sallam, you know, all of these magnificent prophets on that day, they're so intimidated by the moment that they say, I have to focus on myself with Allah. But it is the messenger salallahu alayhi wa sallam and that prophetic spirit that says, yeah, you know, I am for this cause. I am for the cause of all of you. And so the messenger salallahu alayhi wa sallam runs to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And he bows down in front of the arsh, in front of the throne. And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says to him, Ya Muhammad, irfa raasak sal tu'ta wa shfa tu shafa. Oh Muhammad, raise your head, ask and you will be given, intercede and I will intercede for you. Fa arfa raasi fa aqool, ya rabbi, ummati, ummati, ummati, ummati, my ummah, my ummah. And so the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam is told, Ya Muhammad, adkhilil jannah min ummatika man la hisaba alayhi. You know, enter into jannah those who have no reckoning. Min al-bab al-ayman, from the right door of the doors of jannah. But the messenger salallahu alayhi wa sallam goes and he ushers all these people in. But then he goes back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. He says, Ya rabbi, ummati, ummati, ummati, ummati. You know, he wants more. He still sees that there's so many left to go in.
So then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, He says, adkhil, go back and adkhil man kana fi qalbihi mithqalu dharratin aw khardalatin min iman. Enter into jannah the one who even has the atom weight of faith. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam runs. Imagine the urgency of the messenger salallahu alayhi wa sallam. He preserved his one dua for that day for whom? For us, salallahu alayhi wa sallam. So he runs and then he brings all these people into jannah, mashaAllah. Then he runs back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Ya Allah, ya ummati, ummati, ummati, my ummah, my ummah. And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, Go and enter into jannah man kana indahu adna, adna, adna mithqalu dharratin min iman. Like the one who has the least possible amount of iman. Enter them into jannah. So the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam goes and he comes back. Once again, ummati, ummati, my ummah, my ummah, ya Allah, my ummah, my ummah. And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam is told by Allah jalla fi'ullah, Go back and enter into jannah anyone who says la ilaha illallah Muhammadun Rasulullah. Brothers and sisters right now, say from the depth of your heart, la ilaha illallah Muhammadun Rasulullah. We must in these last 10 nights, as we come to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, in our broken states, as we yearn for the intercession of al-Habib salallahu alayhi wa sallam, we have to assert, that's why a man came to Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wa sallam, Ya Rasulullah, who is the one who will receive the best of your intercession? The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said to him, man qala la ilaha illallah, the one who says la ilaha illallah and they are honest and true, they say it's sitqan, they will be gifted jannah. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to make us of
those who truly have said and will say la ilaha illallah Muhammadun Rasulullah, that we are true believers in the way of la ilaha illallah Muhammadun Rasulullah. In this day and age, when every impulse, every influence, every desire, every philosophy is pushing us away from faith, away from belief, away from trust in Allah, away from trust in Allah and His Messenger Muhammad salallahu alayhi wa sallam, loving the Messenger salallahu alayhi wa sallam, there is no one that we should be attached to more than our beloved Messenger Muhammad salallahu alayhi wa sallam, you know, and of course most fundamentally Allah jalla fi'u'la, but this, this is Safina tun najah, this is the the arc, you know, the arc of salvation, this is the rope of salvation, you know, al-urwat al-wudhqa, the firm handhold is la ilaha illallah Muhammadun Rasulullah. I pray that in these last ten nights of Ramadan that we renew our pact with this testimony of faith in our actions, our conducts, our behaviors, our beliefs, our conceptions, our world views, that it's rooted and grounded in this simple truth and that may Allah bless us all with as-shafa' al-'uthma on the day of judgment. Barakallahu feekum wa salillahum ala Sayyidina Muhammad wa aakhiru da'wanan wa alhamdulillahi rabbil alamin. Jazakumullah khayran, Shaykh Yasir, may Allah really bless you for taking time during your busy schedule. Shaykh, you know, as you were speaking there are folks obviously quite moved by this idea of intercession and we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala indeed to bless all of us with that intercession of the Prophet ﷺ. When you reflect on and just sort of, you know, looking at how yaqeen has been, you know, serving the community, is there any one area or one particular resource
or something that comes to mind where you feel there's been an impact more pronounced than perhaps in the other areas, something that you feel yaqeen has done that people have either mentioned to you or you have seen yourself? Barakallahu feekum, I mean, masha'Allah, I have to say that to see yaqeen as a platform, not as an individual but as a platform, a group of brothers and sisters, Muslim brothers and sisters, who all collectively, alhamdulillah, love Allah and His Messenger, the purity of faith and beauty that is found on the yaqeen platform of people who are callers to the way of Allah, callers to the way of la ilaha illallah Muhammad Rasulullah, from the likes of, you know, sister Tasneem al-Keeq or I think Dr. Tasneem al-Keeq and all of, masha'Allah, our sisters on the platform, Dr. Zahra, Dr. Farah, who we just heard, Sheikh Omar, Sheikh Muhammad Shinawi, Sheikh Tahir, you know, Dr. Uweimer, yourself, Dr. Altaf, masha'Allah, all of the brothers and sisters, the ones that I'm mentioning and I'm not mentioning, masha'Allah, this is such a huge team, the yaqeen team, the staff, the volunteers, the committed researchers, to know by the grace of Allah that this platform truly is committed to one thing, la ilaha illallah Muhammad Rasulullah. And I want everyone out there to know in their hearts, bi fadlillahi ta'ala, that we are blessed to have platforms such as yaqeen and all of these platforms that are out there on the internet that truly seek to raise high the kalima of la ilaha illallah Muhammad Rasulullah, to negotiate it in every possible way, to negotiate it from a mental health perspective, from a social perspective, from a theological, from a philosophical, from every consideration, from every age group. But that's what the ultimate honing in on is, yaqeen billah, you know, certainty billah,
love of Allah, and may Allah only bless and protect yaqeen and grow its influence and its impact and its capacity to serve. May Allah subhana wa ta'ala grant it and fuel it with resources. Financial and human capacity and support in every way that we know that, and we do not, so that Allah uses this beautiful entity, bi khidmati dinehi, for the service of his deen. Allahumma ameen. MashaAllah, jazakumullahu khayran, mashaAllah, really beautiful reminder, and indeed ameen to all of the duas that you've made today, Sheikh Naad. Thank you so much for taking time out of your schedule, we'll be back in touch with you. Barakallahu feekum. Barakallahu feekum, habib. Jazakumullahu khayran. We have a video, inshaAllah, about the last 10 nights, inshaAllah we're going to roll that, and I'll be back with the last guest for this segment. We're at 417, 417 donors who have signed up out of 1300. Let's make it to 450 inshaAllah before we hand it off to Sheikh Ibrahim Al-Hindi next, but for now, let's watch the video. Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh, dear brothers and sisters. We have been spending time together, alhamdulillah, reflecting and pondering upon the day of judgment, and going through the ayat, the verses that talk about the day of judgment and talk about the hereafter. I hope that you can all see that you are a part of an institution that nurtures belief in Allah and belief in everything that is going to grant us success in the hereafter, inshaAllah ta'ala. And it is every year in Ramadan and specifically these last 10 nights that we really depend on you to help build out our free resources inshaAllah ta'ala.
And so I want you to think about how much this work has meant to you personally in elevating your faith and how much more it could mean to someone else. And contribute whatever you can inshaAllah ta'ala over these last 10 nights so that we can continue to grow this work inshaAllah ta'ala and collectively grow our faith and collectively bi'idhnillahi ta'ala succeed in the hereafter. Remember, your actions echo for eternity. Act for your akhirah. Jazakumullahu khairan Sheikh Omar, again for that reminder. We're going to keep moving with the program and I will bring on our next guest who inshaAllah is really an amazing asset to Yaqeen Institute. Let's bring on Ustaz Faduma Warsame. She is a Research Department Coordinator, inshaAllah at Yaqeen. And a Minnesota native, I must say, I must add that she is, yes, from the land of 10,000 lakes as we are told over and over again, inshaAllah, a blessed land. Ustaz Faduma is a Salat study at the Qalam Seminary and graduated last year, inshaAllah, from its five-year Alamiyyah program. She now serves as a Muslim student advisor and chaplain at the University of Minnesota. And the Assistant Director of Strive Sisterhood. Ustaz Faduma also is a clinical student of pastoral education and will begin her residency soon at the University of Minnesota Medical Center. Ustaz Faduma, how are you doing today? Oh, you may be muted. Unless, or I have to raise more money for the microphone. Check if you're muted. Still, Brother Fauzi, can you check to see what's happening?
I don't hear her. Okay, she's checking the audio settings. Let's make sure that... I'm not, yeah, I still don't hear you. Or I haven't reached a level of studenthood to hear the ustazah. Maybe I have to input, yeah, make sure your input is default, Fauzi is saying on the, it says default. Interesting. Okay. All right, so while we fix that, and inshallah, we want to give you an update. I'm going behind the scenes where the live counting is happening, mashallah, of all of the donors that are signing up. And I'm really, as I said, I wanted to hit 450 before we head up to Shaykh Ibrahim Hindi. And we will be doing that as soon as we bring back Ustaz Faduma. Right now, well, let's see. Okay, so we're switching gears. And we're going to figure out what happened with the audio. And inshallah, let me go ahead and bring on instead our next guest. And he also, all right, so can we bring on Shaykh Suleiman Hani then? And inshallah, I'll hand it over to Shaykh Ibrahim. Mashallah, allahu akbar, allahu akbar. Welcome, Shaykh, welcome. Ahlan wa salam. Wa alaikum salam, how are you doing, Shaykh? How are you doing, Dr. Akbar? Alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah. We are the Shaykh. We are just a milkshake, chocolate flavor, inshallah. Shaykh Hani is, Suleiman Hani is a fellow at Yaqeen. He's also the Director of Academic Affairs at Al-Maghrib Institute
and a resident scholar, imam, and active community leader in the state of Michigan. Shaykh Suleiman Hani wrote an extensive and pivotal piece on understanding suffering and evil in Islam as part of our coronavirus collection last year and has also developed a multi-part series on the miraculous nature of the Quran. Mashallah, Shaykh, we want to just get to your message right away. And today your topic is your story in Jannah. Falyatafaddal. Jazakumullahu khayran. Bismillah walhamdulillah wa salatu wassalamu ala rasoolillahi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa minwala. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bless Yaqeen Institute and all of its facilitators and all of the viewers, everyone who's tuning in. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala accept from you and may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us amongst those who benefit from what we hear. Allahuma ameen. I actually want to share a reflection on a short passage from Surah Al-Tur, Surah 52, verse 17, where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives us a description. First there's an oath and then there's a discussion on the people who reject the truth and those who do not have sure faith. And then there is a description of the believers in Paradise. Innal mutaqeena fee jannatin wana'eem. The believers, the righteous will be in gardens and bliss. Thaakeehina bima aataahum rabboohum, wawaqaahum rabboohum a'dhabal jaheem. They're enjoying what their Lord granted them in Paradise and Allah will have protected them from the torment of the fire. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protect us all. Allahuma ameen. And then, kuloo washraaboo hani'an bima kuntum ta'amaloon. They will be told, eat and drink happily for what you used to do. These are those days. Elsewhere in the Quran, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, kuloo washraaboo hani'an bima aslaftum fil ayaamil khaaliya. These are the previous days. Al-ayyaamil khaaliya are the days that passed, the days that you're experiencing right now. Can you imagine thinking in Paradise about the moments in which you prevented yourself from certain things for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
knowing it was good for you, knowing it was good for your soul, for your heart, knowing it would lead to the pleasure of Allah, knowing that it would lead to His mercy and His forgiveness, knowing that it would lead to Paradise forever. These are those days. These are the limited, valuable, powerful opportunities that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given us. You have these opportunities now, and those who departed do not. You have these opportunities now, and those who departed would wish to have another day, another week, another few hours in the month of Ramadan. So take advantage and push yourself throughout these ten nights and thereafter throughout the year. Now, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then tells us, fast forward, about the conversations of the people of Paradise. And this is one of the most emotional passages about the conversations of the people of Jannah. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us from amongst them. Allahuma ameen. Wa aqbala ba'duhum ala ba'din yatasa'adun They will turn to one another, and they will basically ask questions. They will talk. This is referenced throughout the Quran. Yatasa'adun, they're talking about their worldly experiences. They're talking about certain things that they remember. So here they say, qalu inna kunna qablu fee ahlina mushfiqueen They'll say, before this reward, before Paradise, we used to be with our family members, with our people. We used to be in awe of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Mushfiqueen has several meanings and connotations. We used to be in a type of fear, in a type of love, in a type of awe towards Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So we were in a state in which we had the right equilibrium as believers in the previous life. Thamanna Allahu alayna wa waqana a'dhabas samoon So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, as a result of that, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala graced us. And he protected us from the torment of the fire. Inna kunna min qabluna du'ooh, innahu huwa albaroo rahim Indeed, we used to call upon him, we used to make dua. We used to call upon Allah alone. And indeed, he is the most kind, the most merciful.
Now, there's a beautiful story here about Aisha radiAllahu anha. At one time, her nephew, Al-Qasim, he says, sometimes I would start my day, I would start by saying salam to Aisha in terms of my rounds, sometimes at night. And so in one of the reports, he comes to basically Aisha's house, radiAllahu anha, and he wants to say salam to her. And he finds out she's making dua, and she's praying, and she's reciting. So he says, one day I heard her reciting these ayat right here. Famanna Allahu alayna, Allah saved us, Allah graced us. Wa waqana a'dhabas samoon Allah was graceful to us. He said she was making dua, and she was crying, and she was reciting this ayah over and over and over again. So he said, I left to the marketplace, and then I came back, and Aisha radiAllahu anha is still reciting the same ayah and crying. She's still, to salli wa tabki, she's still reciting the same ayah as she's praying, and she's crying. Famanna Allahu alayna, Allah saved us, Allah graced us. We learn from the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, in terms of reflecting on the Qur'an, in terms of tadabbur, that if you come across one of the sayings of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, as you're reciting your daily Qur'an, and it moves you, hold on to that moment, repeat it again, think about it, live in the moment, experience it fully. Because the people of paradise will have some memories of what they used to experience in this world. You will have memories of your experiences in this world, but what will be removed from those memories are any negative feelings, any difficult emotions. They'll be removed from that. Inna kunna min qabloona addu'oon. The people of Jannah are going to remember what? We used to call upon Allah, we used to call upon Allah, meaning in the previous life, and that's all we used to do. We had hope in Allah. Innahu huwa albarroo raheem. That he's the most kind, he's the most merciful.
Brothers and sisters, the main act of worship mentioned here is first, internal, having the believers in a state of mushfiqeen, in a state of awe before Allah, and second is that they were connecting to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Throughout these ten nights of Ramadan, and throughout your life, never let go of your dua. Never let go of your dua. There's a powerful link between your dua in this world and your position in paradise. And there is a link between the quality and quantity of your dua with the state of one's heart. Where are you in your journey towards Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? Do not belittle any dua that you've been making. Do not give up on the dua that you make. Know that Allah is nearby. Know that every dua makes a difference. You might come on the day of judgment and you'll find this mountain of deeds. What is this for? That's the dua you never gave up on. That's the dua you never gave up on. It was saved for you for a day that is severe, for a day in which you needed it. Remember last Ramadan, the last ten nights, a lot of people were talking about the dua that they're making. How sincere they were in trying to ask for guidance. How much they really wanted to change for the better. And asking Allah, begging Allah in the last few hours, Ya Allah, allow us to make it to another Ramadan. Why? So that we can take advantage of this opportunity. And here we are, alhamdulillah. As we transition into the final ten nights of Ramadan, remember that this opportunity might not return. Just two days ago, a brother in our community passed away a few minutes before iftar. He was still in a state of fasting. He had just come home to his wife and to his children. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala have mercy on him and all of our brothers and sisters who passed away before us. Allahumma ameen. A few weeks ago, a brother in Chicago was in ruku' in taraweeh prayer and he passed away. May Allah have mercy on him. Remember the link between these ten nights and the day of judgment, the day of compensation, the day of reward. And so as you're holding yourself accountable and you're disciplining your nafs and you're striving really hard, remember to focus on your situation, your circumstances, and what you can do.
Every good deed you can do within your capacity, race to it. Don't just look at it. Don't observe it. Don't watch as other people take advantage. You race to it. You initiate. You take advantage of every breath and every beat of the heart that you have because your story in Jannah, by the mercy of Allah, will include the memories of good deeds that you did in this world. Your story in Jannah will include the memories of having seminars and webinars and courses online and access to all the things that we have access to today of institutes and organizations, alhamdulillah. Your story in Jannah will include the memories of giving charity in this world as well. So take advantage and support the institutions that are doing good work as much as you can. However, we have to make it to Jannah by the mercy of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. So push yourself and remember, Ala inna sil'atAllahi ghalia, ala inna sil'atAllahi al-jannah Indeed, the merchandise of Allah is expensive. Indeed, the merchandise of Allah is paradise. May Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala accept from all of us and elevate our rank. And may Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala make us amongst those who are constantly supporting good causes, who are constantly pushing forth with our good deeds, who are constantly staying away from the things that are displeasing to Him. And may Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala forgive us for all of our shortcomings. Allahumma ameen. Wa salilahum ala nabiyyina Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'in. Thank you so much, Sheikh Suleiman Hani. Beautiful message and particularly those current updates about folks who have passed away. May Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala indeed accept them all into paradise. Again, thank you for taking time to be with us today. Salamu alaikum wa rahmatullah. Wa alaikum salam wa rahmatullah. All right, next up, inshallah, as we approach the 500 mark of the 1300 goal, we're at 472. And we're hoping, inshallah, as you're listening, you will, inshallah, join and support the Last 10 Nights campaign. Let me bring on for the next hour, for the next segment, Sheikh Ibrahim Hindi. He is the director, he's a religious director of Yaqeen Canada. Sheikh Ibrahim, inshallah, it's all yours, brother. Take it away. JazakAllah khair, Dr. Altaf.
MashaAllah, it's great to be here. I'm excited to host, inshallah, this hour. Give you a little bit of a break. I know you've been, mashaAllah, carrying the load. Alhamdulillah. So, you know, I'm excited, alhamdulillah, to be here. And like Dr. Altaf said before, you know, you had to drop off, you know, make sure to automate your Last 10 Nights donations, inshallah. We're almost at 500 donors, bilillah alhamd. So please, inshallah, jump on board and get those rewards, inshallah, during these Last 10 Nights. I want to introduce us to our next guest and speaker. We got some great guests and speakers coming up who are going to be preparing us for the Last 10 Nights of Ramadan. And inshallah, first on the docket is sister Faduma Worsami, who works at Yaqeen Institute, mashaAllah, and is a student of knowledge, has graduated from a Almiyyah course, and we're so happy to have her back. And I hope, inshallah, the audio issues are all sorted. Alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah, we were able to get it sorted, alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah. Well, go ahead, inshallah, I won't take too much of your time. We'd love to hear, inshallah, your wisdom. JazakumAllah khair. Alright, bismillahirrahmanirrahim. So, when reading the Qur'an, it is really impossible to go through a chapter and not find a story that speaks to your heart. A story that is about forgiveness, about love, about mercy, and about hope. One of my favorite themes of these stories are the stories of repentance, the stories of forgiveness and redemption. And it's the moment when the person who is in that situation, the main character, if you will, knows that they messed up, and that there's nowhere for them to turn to, besides turning to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And I have a very beautiful mentioning of this in the Qur'an, in Surah Tawbah, about a companion of the Prophet, peace be upon him, named Ka'b ibn Malik. And Ka'b ibn Malik, radiyallahu ta'ala anhu, narrates this story himself.
Imam Muslim includes this story in the Book of Repentance, in his Sahih. Ka'b ibn Malik mentions that there was never a campaign of the Prophet, peace be upon him, that I never participated in, except that it was the Battle of Badr and the Battle of Tabuk. The Battle of Badr was not an obligation for everyone to participate in, and he's like, I didn't participate in that. However, the Battle of Tabuk was not, that was not the case. The Battle of Tabuk was a campaign of the Prophet, peace be upon him, that everybody who was able-bodied, had the means, was supposed to go and participate with the Prophet, peace be upon him. And he removes himself of any excuse and says that, you know, I was in a place of financial prosperity. I didn't just have one ride, I had two. So he couldn't go to the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, with that excuse, right? But the time was a very difficult time. It was a time where it was incredibly hot, and it was like the peak season for crops. And so the story is not just a story of forgiveness and redemption and repentance, but it's also a story of procrastination. Every single day, Ka'b bin Malik narrates that he would try to go and said that, okay, today I'm going to go and catch up with the group. I'm going to catch up with the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, and the army. And every single day he did not. Until it came to a time where he heard that the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, and the companions were on their way back. And so he realized he was in deep trouble and decided to do something that he ends up deciding against later on. He starts to go to his family to try to figure out what excuse he can bring to the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him,
and receive some support from his family members. But then when he sees the Prophet Muhammad, salallahu alayhi wasalam, returning and at the masjid, he tells himself that, how will I save myself from the anger of the Prophet Muhammad, salallahu alayhi wasalam? That I came to the conclusion that nothing could save me except telling the truth. So I decided to go with the truth to the Prophet, peace be upon him, when he arrived in Medina. And the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, looks to Ka'b and says, what kept you back? Could you not afford a ride? And Ka'b tells the Prophet Muhammad, salallahu alayhi wasalam, something that I think is so profound. And we can incorporate when it comes to accountability. He tells the Prophet Muhammad, salallahu alayhi wasalam, I have no excuses. I had the means. In fact, I had two rides. So I have no excuses to come to you with, Ya Rasulullah. And the Prophet Muhammad, salallahu alayhi wasalam, acknowledges his truthfulness and tells him to wait until Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, decrees something about his situation. Curious, Ka'b asks the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, is there anyone else who's in my situation? And the Prophet Muhammad, salallahu alayhi wasalam, tells him, yes, there were two other men who match your situation exactly. They did not participate yet. They were truthful. And so for 50 days, 50 days, five zero, Ka'b bin Malik and the two companions were in a way silenced, secluded and removed from the community. Removed in the sense that people were observing silence with them. People would not speak to them. And while some of the other companions stayed in their homes, prayed in their homes, and removed themselves,
Ka'b bin Malik would go to the prayers and would notice that nobody would greet him. Nobody would say salam to him. You know, he would try to catch peeks at the Prophet Muhammad, salallahu alayhi wasalam, and would see that the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, was not looking at him. It was a type of a boycott for 50 days. And Ka'b, radiyallahu ta'ala anhu, mentions that on the 50th day, after he had prayed Fajr, he was sitting on his roof and mentions that, I felt exactly how Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, describes in the Quran, that life had become hard for me and the earth, despite how vast it was, felt constrained. Right? Have you ever felt that way where you just, you know you did something wrong, you want to seek forgiveness, your heart is tight, and from afar, Ka'b, radiyallahu ta'ala anhu, hears a voice yell out, Ka'b bin Malik, there is glad tidings for you. Immediately, Ka'b goes into sajda and knows that Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala's messenger, salallahu alayhi wasalam, had informed the people of his acceptance, that Allah accepted his tawbah at the Fajr prayer. And so what does he do? He decides to go to the Prophet Muhammad, salallahu alayhi wasalam, and says that when he got to the masjid of the Prophet Muhammad, salallahu alayhi wasalam, the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, was at the front with a huge smile on his face, his face beaming with joy, and says to Ka'b, be happy with the best day that you have gotten ever since your mother delivered you. That after the day that you were born, the best day of your life is the day that Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, accepts your repentance. I said to the Prophet Muhammad, salallahu alayhi wasalam,
Ya Rasulullah, is this forgiveness from you or from Allah? And the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, tells him no. This is forgiveness from Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala. The gift of repentance is a gift that elevates someone to the station of siddiqun, of truthfulness, because of the virtue of seeking forgiveness, of turning to Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, and being honest with him regarding your sins and your shortcomings. This is not something that's easy. It's easier to avoid that guilt, avoid all the things that you've done. It's easier to make excuses, but to come to Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, with a heart that is seeking that redemption, that is heavy with guilt, that is the gift that Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, grants us all. Allah mentions about them in the Quran, in Surah Tawbah, and Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, has also turned in mercy to the three who had remained behind, whose guilt distressed them until the earth, despite its vastness, seemed close, seemed to close in on them, and their souls were torn in anguish. They knew there was no refuge from Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, except in Him, that He turned to them in mercy so that they may repent. Surely Allah is the acceptor of repentance, the most merciful. O believers, be mindful in Allah, and be with the truthful. May Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, allow us to be the truthful and to turn to Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, in repentance. Ameen. JazakAllah khair. SubhanAllah, a very beautiful reminder. You know, these are the days we're seeking the forgiveness of Allah, azza wa jall, and that's such a beautiful story about forgiveness and just sticking with it and seeking Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, as repentance and forgiveness until He grants us repentance. JazakAllah khair for sharing that. Alhamdulillah, now we have a great trailer to show you for our amazing, well-renowned, well-received Judgment Day
series. I'll leave that for you all to watch, inshAllah. Ali ibn Abi Talib radiAllahu ta'ala said, the life of this world is quickly departing and the life of the hereafter is quickly approaching. And each one of them has its children. So be children of the hereafter, not children of this world. For today there are deeds without reckoning, but tomorrow there will be reckoning without deeds. In this life, even an atom's worth of good is accepted if done with sincerity. In the hereafter, the whole world in gold would do you no good. And in every moment of the day of judgment, from when you rise from your grave to when you take your place in the assembly, from when you are brought forth to be held accountable by your Lord, to when you are taken to the scale for your scrolls to be weighed. From when you prepare to cross the bridge to your anticipated arrival at the gates of paradise, there are good deeds that you have sent forth that will come to your aid. Deeds that will take you by your hand and testify on your behalf, that will settle your feet and shade you from the scorching heat, that will light your way in the darkness and guide you to the abode of eternal delight. So do not ask your Lord when the day of judgment will be, but ask yourself, what deeds have you prepared? SubhanAllah, such a powerful series by Sheikh Omar and the team at Yaqeen.
That, you know, so many people have benefited from, including my own children. Alhamdulillah, I encourage everybody else to check out the series, inshaAllah. I'm happy inshaAllah to introduce our next guest who doesn't need an introduction. Sheikh Yasser al-Berjaz, well known, alhamdulillah. He serves on the Yaqeen Board of Advisors and is the beloved imam at the Valley Ranch Islamic Center. Assalamu alaikum, Sheikh. Wa alaikum assalam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Jazakumullah, Sheikh. Mubarak Allah. It's a pleasure to be with you all. You as well, Sheikh. We'd love to hear, inshaAllah, your wisdom. So go right ahead. Bismillah. Alhamdulillah, Rabbil Alameen. SallAllahu wa sallam wa baraka anawiyyana Muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa salam wa taslima an kathira thumma ma ba'd. When it comes to the last 10 nights of the month of Ramadan, a lot of people, they start preparing themselves for a night without any sleep, fatigue, you know, sleepless again, even days and mornings sometimes. It's so hard for people to do that. And then at the end of the last 10 nights, we get exhausted. But how much did we really gain from the effort that we put in the last 10 nights of the month of Ramadan? My few words with you, inshaAllah, in these few minutes, bismillah azza wa jal, is to focus on what is the most important thing I really need to work on in order for me to benefit from the last 10 nights of the month of Ramadan. What people look for towards the end of the month of Ramadan is what? Reconciliation with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. What you're truly looking for is to have this kind of moment of reconciliation with Allah azza wa jal. We heard earlier the concept of tawbah and what does it mean exactly to repent to Allah azza wa jal. Again, you're trying to mend the broken ties with your Lord subhanahu wa ta'ala. Finding that sense of reconciliation brings us what? Bring us comfort, bring us peace and tranquility, which is the essence of any relationship, even with the divine subhanahu wa ta'ala. So if you're going to be focusing on anything in the last 10 nights of Ramadan, why don't you focus on this? Making sure that your relationship with Allah azza wa jal is sound because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, He said, He promised those will be safe. He says, illa man ata allaha biqalbin salim. Except for those who come to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with a sound heart.
That sound heart is the one that will make you feel comfortable, make you feel at ease when it comes to dealing with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. The question is, how can I do this? How can I make sure that I reach that level of comfort? How I leave that level of ease with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? May Allah azza wa jal give you all that sense of comfort and relief towards the end of the month of Ramadan, Ya Rabb al-alameen. You know, when you come to the end of the month of Ramadan and look back and you see yourself, alhamdulillah, accomplished a lot to the extent that you're content and your heart is at ease with it, you realize, alhamdulillah, Rabb al-alameen, this is good. I've got, I've done what I wanted to do. I'm so happy with my accomplishment. This is absolutely important that you need to make sure that you do bi'idhnillahi azzawajal. You reach that moment of contentment that you've done enough to be pleased and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will be pleased with bi'idhnillahi azzawajal. And if you want to focus on one thing in particular, it's your heart. I know people, they would like to count, you know, how many rak'ah, how many pages they're going to finish from the Qur'an, and how much they're going to give for charity, and how much they're going to do this, how much you're going to do that. This is all, alhamdulillah, counts to your best deeds, bi'idhnillahi azzawajal. But the most important thing is the quality of what you're doing, and that's where the heart comes in. You see, when it comes to the heart, the heart carries, of course, the most important a'mal for us, the most important deeds, because the deeds of the heart will reflect in the actions. If you would like to be generous, if you would like to be loving, if you would like to be someone who is courageous and so forth, it starts from the heart. If you like to be the one who dedicates and sacrifices, it starts from the heart as well, too. That sacrifice is not going to come from your pocket, it's not going to come from your, you know, from your actions. It's going to come from the heart first, and then it will show into your personal actions. So if you would like to have the best of your last 10 nights of Ramadan, inshaAllah wa ta'ala, let's focus on the heart. Some of the deeds of the heart, obviously, is al-ikhlas, sincerity to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, love and satisfaction with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, fear of Allah azza wa jal, hope in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, or reliance and trust in Allah azza wa jal, finding patience in your heart and piety in the heart,
and being grateful and have that gratitude fill in your heart. The ultimate certainty, the yaqeen that you're looking for in your life, all of this comes into that ikhbat and khushu' and humbleness to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. All of this begins in the heart. Just exactly as we try to avoid all these other deeds that will corrupt the heart and will make it so hard and difficult to find that peace and tranquility and satisfaction at the end of the month of Ramadan, such as what? Arrogance, envy, social comparison, hypocrisy, showing off and riya, you know, having an imas in the heart of your, in your heart, and even the hot pursuit of this dunya. All of these will come between you and enjoying your last 10 nights of the month of Ramadan. My dear brothers and sisters, if you'd like to enjoy the month of Ramadan, the last 10 days of the month of Ramadan, like I said, again, you need to focus on your, you need to focus on your heart, focus on the, on the deeds of the heart. How can I make sure that I'm enjoying insha'Allah my last 10 nights, b'in Allah azza wa jal? In order for us to reach that level of comfort insha'Allah, we have to first of all recognize ourselves. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has gave us in the Quran three levels of nafs. These nafs are at least three qualities of the nafs. So you need to see yourself, where are you? The first one is an nafs al-ammaratu bis-su. As Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentioned in the story of Yusuf alayhi salam, when the lady was speaking, she said, inna nafs al-ammaratun bis-su, that indeed my nafs will always incite me to do wrong, like always pursues the desires and the lust. And so it always wants to be comfortable with the lowly actions of this dunya. Then there is a nafs al-lawwama, the nafs that keeps, you know, keeps blaming you. This is now the nafs of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, laa uqsoobu nafs al-lawwama. I don't, I swear to you by a nafs al-lawwama, that nafs that keeps reminding you and guilt tripping you every time you do something bad and keeps encouraging you and inciting you to do even more when you do something better insha'Allah wa tabarakahu wa ta'ala. The third one is a nafs al-mutma'inna. As Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, qal ya ayatun nafs al-mutma'inna.
Oh, a nafs, the nafs that is completely comfortable, completely serene and peaceful. Irji'i ila rabbiki, radiatim mardiya. Come back to your Lord and you'll be pleased and satisfied. So first, the first thing you need to work on is really is recognizing what nafs do you have inside you? Where are you? And based on that, you need to start working on this. Because if you believe that your nafs is always going after desires and your nafs is always following that which is wrong, you need to first remove that clutter from the heart so that you can start filling with that which is best in this last ten nights of Ramadan insha'Allah wa ta'ala. If your nafs is guilt tripping you all the time, that is a good sign. It means it's still alive. And therefore, I need now to feed the right side of it, the good side of it, so it can insha'Allah increase and decrease the fuel that would make my nafs always go towards the negative side as well too. Making sure that you're always on the right side of things insha'Allah wa ta'ala. And you feel that if you reach that level of utma'inna and serenity and peacefulness, alhamdulillah rabbi ameen, make sure that you don't lose that and do more and more bi'idhn Allahi tabarakahu wa ta'ala. How can we do this? So I have a few things insha'Allah before I close with Nillahi azza wa jal. The first, obviously, the first that you need to focus on is what the ulama call mujahadatun nafs. The surfstruggle. What does that exactly mean? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, daqad khalaqna al-insana fee kabad. We created insan in this dunya in a constant state of kabad. Kabad means toiling and working so hard. That struggle is part of life. Going through it, it entails for you to grow through it. Trying to eliminate that from your life, you will be wasting your energy in the wrong direction. So therefore, make sure that you embrace that struggle as part of your journey. And make sure that when things get difficult, you try to empower yourself with more ilm and knowledge and iman insha'Allah will help you to go forward with your life bi'idhn Allahi azza wa jal. So remember, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, wal-ladheena jahadun fee nafna ahdeeyannuhum subhuna. And those who struggle and strive in our path, we shall show them the way to Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala. May Allah show us all the way to him, ya Rabb al-alameen. The second thing, I need you to focus on also your manners, your akhlaq. It's very important that no matter how much you try to be individualistic in your ibad in the last 10 nights, your akhlaq and manners will bring you closer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And finally, if you need one thing that you focus on as well insha'Allah wa ta'ala, showing your poverty to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and your need of Allah azza wa jal. This is the moment that you show your humbleness and humility to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Disregard this, all this dunya, because it wouldn't matter when you meet your Lord subhanahu wa ta'ala. Focus on showing your humbleness, humility, especially in your dua. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala accept from you the best of your deeds, ya Rabb al-alameen, and make these last 10 nights of the month of Ramadan the best of your days in Ramadan, ya Rabb al-alameen. Walhamdulillah, wa sallahu alayhi wa sallam wa baraka to our Prophet Muhammad and his family and companions. Ameen, jazakAllah khair, shikh. Wallahi, beautiful advice. You know, in these last 10 nights of Ramadan, it's so important, like you said, to focus on our hearts, to, you know, break ourselves in front of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, show him that we need him, tell him that we need him, turn to him like that. JazakAllah khair, very beautiful. You as well, shikh. Inshallah, we have another great guest and speaker coming up soon. And I want to remind everyone inshallah to please make sure you sign up for our last 10 nights automated donations. You can set your donations inshallah for the last 10 nights, and that way every night of the last 10 nights, you'll be donating inshallah for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to support the great programs and content at Yaqeen Institute. Inshallah, our next speaker is Ustada Lubna Mullah, and she is a member of Yaqeen's board of directors and also serves as an Institute of Knowledge Chaplain at the University of California, Los Angeles. Assalamu alaikum, how are you? Wa alaikum assalam, how are you shikh Ibrahim? Alhamdulillah, it's great to see you. Great to see you too, inshallah. You know, Ustada, we're in these last 10 nights of Ramadan, and I think, you know, when we talk about these last 10 nights of Ramadan, we think about how we're going to make dua'a
to Allah and turn to Allah and talk to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. But do you think sometimes maybe we miss out a little bit on, you know, our the rights that we have to render to other people and how we treat other people and our manners with other people? And I think maybe inshallah you have some great insight inshallah to provide on this note, Bidhaminda. Yes, Barakallah fiqh, thank you so much. Bismillah wa salatu wa salam ala rasulillah. You know, absolutely, as all of our great scholars and speakers have been mentioning that these last 10 nights, let's finish it strong. But like we've mentioned before, it's not only about the ibadah that you're doing, your dua'a, your adhkar, your Quran, your prayer, all the things that you're doing, it should elevate you in some way. It should be transformational, right? We're really seeking that change and becoming a better person, a better servant to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and a better person to all of his servants on this earth. So with that note, I wanted to talk a little bit in the short time that we have together about forgiveness. And I wanted to really acknowledge the fact that forgiveness is not something that's easy. I had somebody confide in me and tell me, you know, I saw all of these one-liner reminders before Ramadan everywhere. Forgive, forgive, you know, don't have any grudges in your heart. And we definitely talk about that. And it's extremely important. But I think sometimes when people are hurting from something that's very egregious, something that, something really painful that's happened to them, it seems a little bit like, okay, easier said than done. How do I just forgive, you know, somebody? So that's what I wanted to talk about. And I want to take a step back and mention, look, we deal with all kinds of people throughout the course of our life. We're dealing with loved ones, people in our own home. We're dealing with neighbors, coworkers, you know, you name it, the random person on the street, you know, all of these people that we have in our lives, sometimes we're going to see them once. Sometimes we see them on a daily basis.
And inevitably, unfortunately, we're going to be hurt by them. Sometimes it's going to be something they didn't mean, but we took it in a certain way because we were in a certain mindset. And unfortunately, that grudge that we hold or that hurt that we have in our hearts, it lasts and it festers and it grows. And what happens is that that hurt that's in your heart, it prevents you from really being able to soak in all of the good things that's happening around you. It prevents you from wanting to reconnect with that person. It prevents you from having any possibility with that person, sometimes their family and anyone else who's associated with them. So, you know, with when people hurt you in small ways and even in large ways, the very, very interesting science behind it, all of the spiritual understanding that we have as Muslims from Quran and Sunnah, all of the information that we have point to that forgiveness is better. Forgiveness is better. Forgiveness is better. And it's a journey. It's not, you know, the intention can be a click of a moment, you know, can be a thought that you have. OK, it's one of these last 10 nights. You're going to have this thought. I'm done. OK, I'm done with this, this thing that I'm holding on to. This person really did harm me. I didn't deserve this. But you may have that thought and you decide, OK, I want to forgive, but you're going to find that it's a journey. It's not something that's that's easy and forgiving and forgetting is definitely very hard because you moved on and then all of a sudden you remember again something triggers that thought. You're remembering the pain all over again. So clearly this is a process. It's not something that's easy. I wanted to talk about this one ayah. It reminds me of this one ayah in the Quran in Surat al-Taghabun, which is Surah number 64, verse 14, where Allah ﷻ says عَرْضُوا بِاللَّهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ اسْمُ اللهَ رَحْمَنَ الرَّحِيمِ يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِنَّ مِنْ أَزْوَاجِكُمْ وَأَوْلَادُكُمْ عَدُوٌّ لَكُمْ فَحْذَرُوهُمْ
وَإِن تَعْفُوا وَتَصْفَعُوا وَتَغْفِرُوا فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ And this is referring, some of the Mufassireen say that this is referring to an incident in which when Prophet Muhammad ﷺ gave the command to emigrate from Mecca to Medina, that some people who wanted to make that migration, join in the migration, that their family members stopped them, they said, no, don't go. And so they didn't, subhanAllah. And so this is some of the Mufassireen say that this is, A is referring to that. But this is what I wanted to focus on. Yes, your, your family, even somebody as close as your family member may transgress, may hurt you in some way. But what is the next ASA? That if you are able to forgive, to pardon, overlook and forgive, then Allah is truly forgiving, most merciful. What's powerful here is that three different types of forgiveness is mentioned. You know, one is pardoning. Okay, I excuse you. I'm not going to take any retribution from you. Another is, subhanAllah, completely overlooking as if it didn't happen. Right? As if it didn't even happen. And this is, these are the qualities of course that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, you know, does towards us. And of course, us as human beings, to the best of our ability, we can try to do these things as well. And the other is forgiving without any, without any retribution. So, subhanAllah, there's different layers and different nuances. It would be a really a wonderful subject matter to discuss another time. But even to the extent, which is the highest kind of form that humans can do, which is to overlook, like you completely forget that this thing has even happened. What are you going to say? Well, that's easier said than done.
Okay, a few quick tips because I don't want to take too much time. When we're thinking about forgiveness, think of the first three letters. Four. Forgiveness is for you. SubhanAllah, the one who benefits the most from forgiveness is you. You're the one who's letting go. You're the one who's freeing your heart from the pain, this painful reminder. Even if it's something really egregious. And of course, you know, there's all kinds of things that could have happened in our life and it may take work and it may take processing with a professional. But when you truly are able to forgive somebody and let go and move on, it is better for you. You're able to reap all of the good things around you. You're able to have better relationships with the people around you. You're freeing your heart as Sheikh Yasser Birjes just mentioned. Free your heart. And this is one of the things we want to free our heart from. Another tip, the less you think about something, the easier it is for you to forgive. The more you think about it, the more anger and resentment will develop, the harder it is to forgive. That's not easy. Forgetting is not easy. But, and last but not least, remember that, to last but not least, forgiveness comes from a place of understanding. The more you try to understand the individual, why they may have done this thing to you, what state of mind were they in, how were they raised, that allows you to be able to forgive a little bit more. And last but not least, it's good for your health. Studies show that forgiving people reduces your anxiety, reduces depression, stress levels. It lowers your cholesterol. It boosts your immune system. So do it, inshallah, for your sake and for your body. Jazakum Allah khairan. Jazakum Allah khair. And inshallah, you can forgive the brothers for pressing whatever button they pressed. It's overloaded as if it never even happened. Alhamdulillah. I hope the viewers also feel the same way, inshallah. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. Jazakum Allah khair. It's beautiful advice and one that I think all of us need to take to heart in this month of Ramadan. We're eating iftar together and the masjid together, dealing with so many different people,
and it's the advice that we definitely need to forgive each other and overlook. Jazakum Allah khair. Alhamdulillah. For everyone out there, I just want to remind you, you know, to jump onto our campaign to donate during these last 10 nights of Ramadan. And we're almost at 600 donors. We're so close. We're at 549. We want all of you, inshallah, to jump on board if you're thinking about it, if you're hesitant, this is the time, inshallah. Jump on board and be part of the great team of people across the world who are supporting Yaqeen and all the content and all the resources that Yaqeen provides. Alhamdulillah. I'm really happy to introduce our next speaker, our next teacher, inshallah, Mufti Abdur-Rahman Waheed. Mufti Abdur-Rahman Waheed, he is a fellow at Yaqeen as well as an associate editor for our editorial review board, is a principal and a full-time instructor at the Michigan Islamic Institute and a co-founder and dean of academic affairs at Muftah Institute. As-salamu alaykum. Sheikhna, how are you? Your audio is not coming through. You might be on mute or you might need to check your input, inshallah, for the mic. The problem is like there's so much noor coming from the Sheikh that it overwhelmed the audio. Still can't hear you, Sheikh. I think if you click maybe on the settings. No, still not. Still not coming through. Okay. Fawzi, maybe you can give us some tips, inshallah, on how to get this. If you check the audio input on settings and then you go to audio and make sure it's on the correct microphone. Still not working. Oh, subhanAllah. Well, inshallah, we'll give Mufti Abdur-Rahman a few minutes, inshallah, to sort out the microphone
and we have, inshallah, a video to share with all of you. Beautiful part of the Muslim community is how strongly we stand together to benefit humanity. Or at least that's how it should be. Unfortunately, our community is in shambles. Our ideas and ethics are confused and we are plagued by doubt. Our identity is lost. We need something that can tackle the root of the problem while allowing our community to grow. We need a foundation of faith. At Yaqeen, we focus on doing exactly that. All of our work is centered on three areas. Dismantling doubts to establish the firm roots of faith. Nurturing conviction to strengthen existing faith and help it grow. An inspiring contribution to empower our community to benefit all of humanity. It all starts with a paper. A dynamic team of researchers and editors write academic papers that not only address doubts, but serve as a think tank for new ideas that are Islamically authentic and academically credible. These high-level papers are turned into accessible content that everyone can interact with. Like simple infographics, engaging videos and audio books, curriculum and resources for youth of all ages, and programs for the leaders in our community. With programs like Conviction Circles, we've provided a space for our community to critically explore faith and nurture certainty in all of our hearts. Through Yaqeen, we are empowering people to become confident Muslims who can bring positive change to our society. By sticking to these three areas, we've not only helped individual Muslims, but we've created an authentic voice for change that speaks not only to Muslims, but people of all backgrounds. We are reclaiming our narrative to produce that strong, beautiful community,
standing together to benefit humanity by dismantling doubts and nurturing conviction, one truth at a time. Alhamdulillah, you know, I've been blessed to be part of Yaqeen for a year, maybe a little bit over a year now. And Alhamdulillah, it's been, you know, such a powerful experience. Almost every day you feel like someone is messaging you or calling you or sending an email and saying, you know, I was leaving Islam or I was going in the wrong direction and I watched something at Yaqeen and it brought me back or someone says, you know, I accepted Islam because I watched this video series at Yaqeen. Alhamdulillah, there's so much powerful work that's being done and even more work inshaAllah that's on the way. And it's only possible because of people like yourselves, people who are supporting us, people who are donating towards this cause. Alhamdulillah. And so I encourage all of you bi'ithnillah to, you know, jump on board on our last 10 nights campaign. Automate your donations that every night during the last 10 nights, you will be donating something inshaAllah for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We're at 569 people who are donating towards this campaign, Alhamdulillah. And so, you know, jump on board, help us get to 600 inshaAllah. If any of you are on the fence and not quite sure, this is a great place inshaAllah to invest your money for the akhirah so that you can gain some of this incredible reward from all the people who are, you know, joining Yaqeen and, you know, really finding direction and finding guidance through the work of Yaqeen. And you can hear me now? I can hear you, Alhamdulillah. Hey man, I'm sorry about that. No problem, Alhamdulillah. You're always worth the wait, Sheikh. I'm always happy to have you. Go right ahead. Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim. Nahmaduhu wa na salli ala Rasoolihi al-Kareem. Amma ba'd. Hope everyone can see me and hear me. I'm not sure how much time I have left now. 14 minutes.
All right. So, they're giving me... I appreciate you giving me more time. I appreciate that. Nahmaduhu wa na salli ala Rasoolihi al-Kareem. Amma ba'd. What makes this month so special? I mean, think about that for a second. Is it just the name Ramadan and just the word itself makes it special? Possibly, but it's not entirely just the name. It's the same thing that makes a person special. The value of a person is based on the qualities and characteristics of that person. The people of this world, they give value to people that have more of this world. And Allah gives value to those of Akhirah that have more characteristics that bring them closer to Allah in Akhirah. So, in a nutshell, Ramadan has some distinct characteristics that separate it from the rest of the 11 months. Like, for example, now if I start asking you these questions, what are some distinct characteristics of this month of Ramadan? Well, it starts the night before Ramadan even begins with the moon sighting issues. If you're thinking that this is going to go away anytime soon, I feel bad for you. It's not possible because it's part of the fabric of Ramadan. All the huffaz lined up the night before Ramadan start, the ones who are waiting for the moon to be sighted, and they're all making dua, Oh Allah, give us one more day, one more night, please. We have to do du'a, we have to do muraja, and then we'll start tomorrow. I promise you I'll study tomorrow. And then you have the entire other side, like you have... At that night, it's about whose dua is stronger. The huffaz that are about to lead taraweeh, this is like an inside secret sauce thing that only huffaz know. Like, we all love Ramadan. Oh Allah, we love Ramadan. But just one more night, please. And everybody else waiting for Ramadan to start. And then the same thing happens the last night before Itikaf. All the mu'attaqifeen in the masjid, alhamdulillah, I'm just about to join Itikaf right now, are making dua, Oh Allah, make sure, Oh Allah, please let us sight the moon somehow, whether naked eye, you know, anything, we could do a drone. Oh Allah, make us start to see the moon so we can go home tomorrow.
And everybody else, people, I mean, even though, Oh Allah, it sounds bad, we love Ramadan, but it will be nice if you can go home tomorrow. So this is part of the characteristic of Ramadan. What else? Samosas and fruit chard for daisies. I mean, the consumption of samosas and fruit chard in one month has to be more than 11 months of the year. I mean, without a doubt. But on a serious note, the amount of nafl and voluntary ibadah we do, such as taraweeh, it's possible for an average Muslim that he or she prays more nafl and Ramadan than they do the entire year. If you combine all 11 months and then you calculate how many rak'ahs of nafl you pray, we pray more in Ramadan. So of course, there's gonna be some barakah because of that, right? Also, the recitation of Quran. How many Quran khatams are happening in one city in America? Forget the world, just in America, in Dallas or Michigan, in one city, so many khatam of Quran. So even if you're sitting idle doing nothing in the month of Ramadan, you still are feeling the barakah of this. And finally, one thing that distinguishes Ramadan from all the other months is the attendance in the masajid. The people coming to the masjid for taraweeh, for salawat. I mean, you could see it. Like if someone from outside comes to the masjid in the month of Ramadan, without even knowing it's the month of Ramadan, they can tell just by the attendance in the masjid. And this point right here, brothers and sisters, is extremely important because it is these actions and this attendance to the masjid that brings the nur of iman in our heart. My brother, he gives an example. He says, you go for hajj, you make the struggle. That's surah hajj. Then you have surah an-nur right after, you know, you have surah al-hajj, surah an-nur, and Allah ﷻ blesses you with nur of iman. And after you get nur of iman, then you have furqan, which is surah furqan. Then you're able to distinguish between right and wrong, permissible and impermissible. Similarly, the nur of iman, it comes,
where does this nur of iman come from? The nur of iman, right when you walk into the masjid, that's right when you walk into the masjid, you're walking into the house of Allah ﷻ. The Prophet ﷺ, he says, مَنْ غَدَىٰ إِلَىٰ الْمَسْجِدِ أَوْ رَاحَةً أَعَدَىٰ اللَّهُ لَهُ فِي الْجَنَّةِ نُزَلًا كُلَّ مَا غَدَىٰ أَوْ رَاحَةً This is not for in Ramadan only. This is also for the entire year, the person who gets up in the morning or in the evening and goes to the masjid. Every single time we go to the masjid, Allah ﷻ is preparing hospitality, a place for us in Jannah. Every moment we go, the Prophet ﷺ, he said, مَا تَوَطَّنَا And I'm gonna try to remember all the books that these hadith come in just because, I mean, you know, don't judge the book by its cover. So I'll mention it, try to play, you know, put a Zack and I card with hadith. This first hadith is for sure in Bukhari Muslim. The second hadith is also in Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal narrates his hadith by Abu Hurairah. He says, مَا تَوَطَّنَا رَجُلٌ مُسْلِمٌ الْمَسَجِدَ لِلصَّلَاةِ وَالذِّكْرِ That every single time a believer makes their abode, وَطَنَا means to make your abode. So, you know, you feel comfortable at home, that same, it doesn't matter where you are, you can go vacation to Hawaii, Mexico, but home is home, you come home, you feel comfortable, you feel at ease there. Imagine that's the ease that we feel when we walk into the masjid, that's how Sahaba feel. اَرِحْنَا بِهَا يَا بِلَالِ The Prophet ﷺ would say, Oh Bilal, give us comfort, that's all they had. Let's come to the masjid together, their homes were very small. So the only place they can congregate and see the ones that love the most was the masjid while doing sajda. That's why it's called masjid, the place of sajda. So the Prophet ﷺ is saying that a person who makes the masjid their abode, like that's where they feel good, and it takes an effort. Listen to the benefit of this. اِلَّا تَبَشْبَشَ اللَّهُ لَهُ كَمَا يَتَبَشْبَشَ أَهْلُ الْغَائِبِ بِغَائِبِهِمْ إِذَا قَدِبَ عَلَيْهِمْ The excitement Allah has, imagine that. It should be the other way around, we should be excited to go, but Allah loves us so much that Allah shows us excitement. The excitement that Allah has
for this person coming to the masjid, it could be after months, it could be after weeks, but the moment they enter the masjid, it's the same excitement that a mother shows seeing her child after a long lengthy delay. After one whole year, she hasn't seen her child for one year, and the child comes back, the daisies, you know, we like to light up the house, we have all the food, and she's so excited, you know, the days before the child even comes, the excitement is evident in the way she's talking, the way she's interacting. That's the excitement Allah shows when a believer makes the masjid their resting place, their place of peace, their home. That's what happens when Allah sees this person after so long. And subhanAllah, just talking about the hadith, a person, من توضأ في بيته a person who does wudu at home, فأحسن الوضو he does great wudu, ثم أتى المسجد he comes to the masjid. Now think about that, this is the house of Allah. وأن المساجد دلله This is the house of Allah, you're entering into the house of Allah. If you want to be next to Allah in Jannah, you should be excited and work hard towards going to the houses of Allah in this world. If you want Allah to be happy with you when He's seeing you standing in front of Him in Akhirah, then be happy standing in front of Him in this world. That's how it works. So, a person he comes to the masjid, فهو زائر الله He's the guest of Allah. Imagine being the guest of the wealthiest person in the community. Imagine, you know, Yaqeen is doing fundraising right now, may Allah open our hearts, we go for our institution, we go to someone's house, we know he can help us, we know what we can expect from that person. فهو زائر الله Allah is the king of all kings. He is the guest of Allah. وحق على المزور عينك أن يكرم الزائر And it is the right of the person who's being visited to honor the visitor. The host must honor the guest. And that's why on the Day of Judgment, Allah will make an announcement. إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُنَادِي يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ Allah will make an announcement. أين جيراني؟ Where are my neighbors? Where are my neighbors?
فَتَقُولُ الْمَلَائِكَةِ The angels will say, رَبَّنَا مَن يَنْبَغِي لَهُ أَن يُجَاوِرُكَ How is it possible that you can have neighbors? So, we always read the dua of Asiya, رَبِّ بْنِي لِّي عِنْدَكَ بَيْتًا فِي الْجَنَّةِ عَلِيهِ السُّلَامُ Oh Allah, build me a house next to you in Jannah. And that's the house we want. We say the highlight, you know how we have LeBron has a highlight, MJ has highlights. The highlight of a believer is death, that's the highlight of a believer, is when they pass away. Everything before that is a low light. This is dunya, the lowest place in the world. And the highlight is when they pass, الموتُ رُوحة المؤمن And the highlight of death is standing in front of Allah on the Day of Judgment, is Qiyamah. And the highlight of Qiyamah is Jannah. And the highlight of Jannah is a place next to Allah in Jannah. That's the highlight, that's where we have to get to. وَفِي ذَلِكَ فَلَّ تَنَافَسٍ مُتَنَافِسٌ So how do we get there? It seems like it's a far distance away, but it could just be a mile away from my house. If you want to be the neighbor of Allah, it could seem like, oh wow, Jannah, another Jannah. Allah is saying, أَيْنَ عُمَّارُ الْمَسْجِدِ My neighbors are those who used to frequent the masajid. They are the ones who kept the masajid alive, not through by turning the lights on, of course, paying for the bills and all that. We understand that as an ummah is our responsibility, but today the understanding of making sure we populate the masjid as an ummah has left our fabric. To be honest with you, the Prophet ﷺ says in another hadith, أَلَا أَدُّلُّكُمْ مِنَ الْمَسْجِدِ مَعَلَى مَنْ يَمْحُوا اللَّهُ بِهِ الْخَطَاٰيَةِ Should I tell you about something that will completely wipe away your sins? وَيَرْفَعُ بِهِ الدَّرَجَاتِ And that will elevate your status? They said, Ya Rasulullah, please tell us. He says, إِسْبَاغُ الْوَضُوُّ All the things that lead you to the masjid, not even, imagine the reward of being in the masjid. These are just asbab going to the masjid. He said, doing wudhu, وَكَثْرَةُ الْخَطَاٰى لِلْمَسَجِدِ Walking more towards the masjid, so parking a little further, walk a little bit, وَإِنْتِظَارُ الصَّلَاةُ بَعْدُ الصَّلَاةِ
And praying one salah, and then sitting there, and waiting for the next salah. Another hadith comes up, فَذَلِكُمْ الْرِبَاطِ This is truly the struggle, this is your defense. Like, you know how we try and protect ourselves? رِبَاطِ means so many things in the Mufradatul Qur'an, talks about Allama Raghul Asfahani, but literally it means defense. This is your defense mechanism, to protect you from your nafs, to protect you after the month of Ramadan, to protect you from sins, to protect you from evil eye, to all these things, this is what it is. These three things, doing wudu properly, walking to the masjid, and then staying in the masjid from one salah to another salah, I don't know exactly how much time I have left, if someone can tell me, because I'm just going to be talking, I'll never stop. Since I mentioned that waiting in the masjid from one salah to another salah, a hadith comes to my mind which is narrated in Tirmidhi, and we can even do this in the month of Ramadan, من صلى الغداد, a person who prays salah in the morning, في جماعة, in jama'a, thinking about jama'a, you know those who think that we can pray anywhere in jama'a and we get 25 to 27 times more reward? That's true, but should I tell you something? The jama'a in the masjid, what's the reward of that? You'd still get 25, 27 times more reward, but what's the reward of jama'a in the masjid? In Abu Dawood, the Prophet ﷺ says, اِن بَيْتِهِ مُتَطَهِّرًا إِلَى صَلَاةٍ مَكْتُوبَةٍ a person who goes with wudu to the masjid for a fard salah, فَأَجْرُهُ كَأَجْرِ الْحَاجَ الْمُحْرِمِ he or she will get the reward of a person who performed hajj. So yes, performing salah in jama'a will give you the 25, 27 times, we want that, but it will not give you the reward of performing one whole hajj. And another hadith about hajj al-Umrah, that's what I was just going to mention, is you go to the masjid for fajr salah in Ramadan, you make it a habit afterwards, ثُمَّ قَعَدَ you sit there, يَذْكُرُ اللَّهَ you remember Allah, حَتَّى تَطْلُعَ الشَّمْسِ until ishraq time, ثُمَّ صَلَّى رَكَعَتَيْنِ then you pray two raka'at salah,
هَكَانَتْ لَهُ أَجْرُ حَجَّةٍ وَعُمْرَةٍ you get the reward of hajj and Umrah daily if you can do this. So brothers and sisters, I mean this is an opportunity for us to, if we want our iman to be preserved in Ramadan, and after Ramadan, it's very easy, it's half a mile away from our home, a mile away, 10 miles away, Shaykh Ibrahim, there's no way I'm going to leave without an Iqbal poem. So let me say Iqbal poem quickly. Iqbal, he talks about these stars, long poem, he talks about these stars arguing and doing ghibah of human beings, oh human beings are bad and this and that. One star says, وَاقِفْهُ أَگَدْ لَزَّتَ بِدَارِ شَبْسِ أُنْشِي هَا ثُرَيَّ سَبِيهِ خَاقِ فُرْأَسْرَارِ He said, if this human being knew what the benefit and the flavor and the enjoyment of waking up for Fajr and Tahajjud, then this human being's status would be much higher than yours. Don't talk bad about this human being because it's on the surface of the earth and you're in the skies. أَغَوْشْ مَا أُسْكِي وَتَجَلِّيهَا كَجِسْمِ كُوَ جَانْگِ أَفْلَاقِ سَبْثَابِتُ السَّيَّارِ Within itself it has that light and that potential that all the other objects of light will become dull in front of it. You won't be able to see the sun's light, the moon's light, the star's light. The moment this human being understands the light that it possesses, which is the light of Iman. نَاقَ فِزَا بَانْغِيْ أَذَانْ سِهُوِي لَبْرِزْ All of a sudden, the entire universe heard the Adhan. الله أكبر الله أكبر وَنَعْرَكِهِ الْجَتَاهَا جِسْتِ الدِّلِكُ حِسَارٌ That Allahu Akbar, that Adhan when someone goes to words. Even the coldest hearts of mountains can shake. مَنْ خَانَ حَيَّ عَلَى الصَّلَاةِ يَخُونُ حَيَّ عَلَى الْفَلَاحِ The one who betrays a call to prayer, how can he be, he will one day betray the call to humanity, to serve humanity. مَنْ خَانَ حَيَّ عَلَى الصَّلَاةِ يَخُونُ حَيَّ عَلَى الْكَفَةِ حَيَّ الْكِفَةِ SubhanAllah, JazakAllah Khayran Mufti
SubhanAllah, you had the mic issue and then we thought we're not gonna have any time with you and then SubhanAllah speaker cancelled right after you, so we got extra time with you. And so we got Alhamdulillah beautiful reminder about the masajid and being connected to it and some some if bad poetry as well, MashaAllah. We're really happy for that JazakAllah Khayran I think everybody InshaAllah is gonna benefit deeply from that wisdom, particularly as we're entering tonight InshaAllah the last 10 nights of Ramadan. I just remind everybody InshaAllah, you know, we have our last last 10 nights, our last 10 nights automated donation campaign. We're asking you to jump on board. We're at 599, 599. I didn't want to leave until we got to 600. So Alhamdulillah, I hope we can just get one more person before I leave to get us to that 600 and InshaAllah Dr. Altaf will take over from here and he'll be leading us through and hosting the rest of this webathon bi-idh-dillah. But just give me that one more person InshaAllah, one more person sign up to our campaign InshaAllah for the last 10 nights. I wait every night InshaAllah you'll be giving something for the great incredible work that's being done Ayatul Fatiha. Dr. Altaf, how are you Zia? Thank you so much Shaykh Noor, thank you for that last segment. MashaAllah a lot of great, lot of excitement. You had a whole stage MashaAllah gathering of all of the guests. May Allah bless you and for keeping a straight face through all of it. BarakAllahu feekum. InshaAllah we're going to keep moving to the next segment InshaAllah and as Shaykh Ibrahim, a Hindi just announced that we are at 599. Our goal is 1300. Wherever you are sitting InshaAllah just take a minute to share the link for others to sign up if you already signed up. If you haven't yet signed up, do us a favor, go to the website InshaAllah and sign up. Spread your charity out over the last 10 nights. Now to move on to the next segment, we have MashaAllah Shaykh Yahya Ibrahim. If he can InshaAllah be brought to the screen. Shaykh Ibrahim hails from Australia. I love when they say hails from Australia MashaAllah. He's a registered teacher and assistant principal
in addition to being a Yaqeen contributor, he also serves as the Islamic chaplain for the Muslim community at Curtin University as well as the University of Western Australia and teaches Islamic ethics, theology and exegesis for Al-Maghreb Institute. Shaykh Yahya, how are you doing? Alhamdulillah, Salam Alaikum Warahmatullah. We've just had our suhoor here in Perth in Australia and we pray that Allah grants us a blessed day of fasting InshaAllah. MashaAllah. And may Allah accept from all of us Ya Rabb. BarakAllahu Fikir. And I know you're busy so lead us through InshaAllah finding love in the last 10 nights. BarakAllahu Fikir. Allahi Barak Fikum. Alhamdulillah, wa salatu wa salamu ala Rasulillah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam wa baak. Our pursuit has always been the pleasure of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And of course as we anticipate the arrival of the month of Ramadan, there is this heightened sense of seeking to do better and to commit ourselves to the way of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. There are those of us who enter Ramadan in different stages. Some of us are consolidating our prayers, we're regular in our salah. Some of us it's something that's a little bit of a challenge and we become more regular in visiting the masjid, mashaAllah, in attending in the masjid. Some of us we may be negligent in the five obligatory prayers and we find the sweetness of it in the long standing in Salatul Tarawih. There are those of us who of course who are seeking something more from Allah. You know many of us we enter the month of Ramadan and we have this hope, we have this aim that I'm going to make the right dua, I'm going to get some of the problems fixed, I'm going to increase my barakah, my productivity, my good, and I'm going to eliminate some of the things that I know I really need to kick out of my life. I just need that stimulus with Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. Now of course the greatest pursuit that Allah sets for us as a site is taqwa. laAAallakum tattaqoon
And that word taqwa means so many different things, but of its greatest, greatest elements is that it combines the love of Allah, the fear of Allah, and the hope of Allah in equal measure. I'm here to speak to you about the love of Allah as a part and parcel of the outcome that you want to exit Ramadan with. Because if you can find that as you stand before Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, it is out of love not just out of fear. I had one of my students ask me this question, they said, Shafiq Yahya, am I a hypocrite if I'm praying and I don't feel that connection? Everybody tells me I'm supposed to feel something magical. I hear my auntie say that when she stands in prayer in front of the Kaaba in Mecca, she's crying and her love for Allah. And I went to Umrah and I didn't feel that. I didn't experience that. What's wrong with me? And I want you to know that the love of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala is not just simply an emotion. What I mean by the love of Allah is that in these last 10 nights of Ramadan that you invest yourself in life changing events, life changing circumstances that you know as you move out of Ramadan can stay with you. So I want you to consolidate three things that I'm only going to limit it in the next two minutes to three things. First, dua, dua, dua, dua, dua. And you're going to say, what do you mean dua, Shaikh? I mean the two types of dua. The first is the praise of Allah. Just the essential five. SubhanAllah wal hamdulillah wa la ilaha illallah wa Allahu akbar wa la hawla wa la quwwata illa billah. Make it a regular habit. You're at work. Just mumble it within your heart. Mumble it on your tongue. Let your tongue remain wet with that dua of the praise of Allah. The second dua is talab, request. The Prophet ﷺ says, man lam yas'alillah yabdab AAalayh.
The one who is not regularly asking Allah for things, it is a sign that Allah's wrath, Allah's anger is with them. Meaning that that distraction and other avenues in your life is because you're not dependent on Allah. You're dependent on your intellectual pursuit. You're dependent on your degree, on your savings, on your family. I have enough. Everything seems to be copacetic. Okay. Everything is fine. And the answer is, ad-dua'u huwa al-ibadah. Ad-dua' is the essential of ibadah. As you head off to hajj, somebody is going to say, please remember me in dua. What do you do in hajj? Dua. You make tawaf. What do you do? Dua. You go between Safa and Marwah? Dua. What do you do when you stand before Allah? Allahu Akbar. Dua. Every aspect of every element of our faith returns to that essential. So in these last 10 days, there is no greater pursuit for you than dua, to just connect with Allah. Meaningful dhikr, reflective contemplation of Allah, understand the simple words, subhanAllah, walhamdulillah. One of the things that I do with my students is I do the dhikr of alhamdulillah, and I lead them in it. And I say, OK, I'm going to make the first out of the 33, I'm going to do the first 10, just listen. And I just say alhamdulillah that I have a job. Alhamdulillah that Allah has blessed me with a family. Alhamdulillah that I'm able to put food on the table for my home. Alhamdulillah that I'm a person regular in my prayer. Alhamdulillah that I am free of major illness. Alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah. And just focus on what it is that you are thankful to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for. So dua is your first pursuit to seeking the love and to finding the love of Allah. Number two is empathy, generosity and care towards others.
You're being called today to this yaqeen, ending Ramadan strong, and you're being asked to fulfill your nearness to others, to assist others. And there's no greater way for you to connect yourself to Allah than to connect yourself to Allah because of your service to others. Every person who does a raka'ah, every person who benefits from a video, every person who gains some insat that they did not have on account of a dollar or two that you spent, that you forget about but Allah accounts for, will be for your favor in the akhira. It becomes a sadaqah, an evidence of sadaqah. And lastly, my dear brother, my dear sister, is put in your heart that as you stand before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, think of His majesty and not of your sins. Don't focus on the negative things in your life, but rather focus on the horizon that awaits. And that dark pixel in the picture of your life today is something that does not represent the portrait of the life that you will have with Allah. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's love descend upon you and your home and your family. May Allah open for you an avenue to all good. May Allah assist you from all harm. May Allah rectify our affairs and connect us with those who we may have disbanded from. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala provide for you for means that you do not yet know exist. And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala connect you to the sunnah and the habit and the love of our Nabi Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Taqabbalallahu siyamana wa siyamakum. Wasalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Wa alayhi wa salam wa barakallahu fikum. Shaykh Yahya inshallah may Allah accept from all of us. Thank you so much for that beautiful reminder. We're going to keep it moving inshallah to the next segment. And as we bring on our next speaker, I want to announce that we have 624 donors signed up out of 1300. Those who are waiting to sign up, those who are waiting to sign up,
we're going to come back and remind you inshallah that this is the best time to do it. If you are especially in an area where iftar is coming up, make a dua, a special dua, and then go and sign up and you know ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for whatever you're inshallah your heart inspires you to ask. Now let us bring on my next guest Dr. Usman Omarji mashallah. He's the director of survey research and evaluation at Yaqeen and an associate editor on Yaqeen's editorial review board. Dr. Usman, how are you doing today? As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh. Alhamdulillah everything is great Dr. Altaf. Always good to see you on your one face. Alhamdulillah, JazakAllah khair. So this is good. We're going to go right into your topic, seeking to understand the Quran. Take it away. JazakAllah khair. Bismillah wa salatu wa salam wa rasool Allah wa baad. My dearest brothers and sisters, we all know Ramadan is special because of the Quran. And subhanAllah I think the way that many of us are raised, when we think of the Quran in Ramadan, right, it's usually reciting it a whole lot during the day. It's, you know, doing your best to follow its recitation at night. And that's kind of how we think about the role of Quran, like in our month and oftentimes in our lives. But I want us today to think a little bit about the Quran as a spiritual superfood that nourishes our souls in incredible ways. And these last 10 nights, my call, my plea, my request is to end Ramadan strong by dedicating yourself to the Quran, but different than we often do. And that is to dedicate yourself to the Quran through desiring to deeply understand its ayat and its meanings. And so I know so many of us, like we were taught that, like, you know, just just you want to read as much as you can, get every harf, right? You know, and we speed through. I remember when I was young, you know, I was trying to like speed through like a khatam and like, you know, I'm reading it like, you know, like a like a machine. Right. And I can't follow anything. And that's, as I've learned, is not the best way to approach the book of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
I want us to think about approaching the book of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala like an intimate close friend, that this friend you want to get to know really, really well over the last 10 nights. The first 20 days we're getting acquainted with the Quran, perhaps. Right. We're hearing it in the imam's recitation. We were reading it by ourselves in Arabic. But these last 10 nights, we've got to find our favorite surah. We've got to find our favorite ayah. We've got to really just figure out, like, what is Allah trying to tell me through his divine speech? And one of the things about the Quran is that or think about a relationship with a friend. A friend will only divulge their secrets to you if you really get to know them well and you really invest a lot of time with them. And so think about the Quran like that. The more you invest in understanding the Quran, its style, its organization, its structure, its themes, the more the Quran is going to say, here, I'm going to open up your heart to who I truly am. Here are my secrets. Here are the gems that people are looking for. And looking for it only reveals it to those who have that intimate relationship with the book of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Quran, a beautiful verse, فَلَا يَتَذَبَّرُونَ الْقُرْآنَ أَمْ عَلَى قُلُوبٍ أَغْفَالُهَا To kind of really shake us, to say, look, like, we've got to have this as a book that we ponder upon. Do they not ponder over the Quran or are there locks upon their hearts? And the Quran, when you know that you're reading it the correct way, you'll notice your emotions change. You'll notice your physiology change. And Allah tells us that in the Quran when he says, تَقَ شَعِرُ مِنْهُ جُلُودُ الَّذِينَ يَخْشَغُونَ رَبَّهُمْ That when you read the Quran, what will happen is you'll notice that all of a sudden, your physiology changes. When you're hitting a verse, it's about the day of judgment. It's about something serious. The hair on your skin will rise. And Allah then says, ثُمَّ تَلِينُ جُلُودُهُمْ وَقُلُوهُمْ إِلَىٰ ذِكْرِ اللَّـهِ
And as you get more and more comfortable, you'll find that comfort, you'll find that peace in your body and in your heart through the recitation of the Quran. So the way we want to read this book, my dear brothers and sisters, is when you read some verses, you should feel calm. You read other verses, you might get scared. You read other verses, you might notice your heartbeat increases. You read other verses, you notice your heartbeat decreases. And that's how you know I'm really actually paying attention. And these words are actually influencing me. When they say the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was more generous in Ramadan than any other time of the year, it was because he actually was reflecting over its ayat. Jibreel is coming and reviewing those ayat every single night. And he's being hit with these ayat all the time. And it's like, I've got to change my behavior. I have to change the way I think. And so a good friend is also someone you can approach no matter what you're going through in life. If you're feeling sad, open the Quran and find solace in the Quran. Allah ﷻ, He does what the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Sometimes we think that it's just kind of like a very structured, you know, day one this verse comes, day two this verse comes, day three this ayah comes. It wasn't like that. That Allah ﷻ was reviewing these ayat depending on the emotional state of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ at times. So when he's in a down state, he gets surat ad-duha. When he's feeling sad about his wife passing away and his uncle passing away and all these other things happening, he gets surat Yusuf. So look at the Quran as a book that you interact with emotionally. When you're happy, open the Quran and see you'll find yourself more grateful. When you're sad, go to the Quran. You'll find yourself being consoled. And this really is how you unpack this idea that a friend, you know, when we go to our closest friends, we don't always go to them only when we want something. The closest friend you go to regardless of what's happening in your life. I just want to kick it with my friend. I just want to hang out with my friend. There's no agenda. Approach the Quran without an agenda at times. I just want to get to know you and say and realize that as you do that, all of a sudden, it will change your vision.
It will change your life. It will change the ideas that pop into your mind. All of these verses will pop into your mind when you're searching for a thought. And that when other people, you will start to see blessings in the world when other people can't see any blessings. You will see Allah's gentle hand guiding you when other people are confused as to what's happening around them. You will see hikmah and wisdom in the qadr of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when others are wondering what in the world is going on. And ultimately, like my parting comment really I want to get at is this idea of the Quran becoming so deeply ingrained in us through the study of it. That the ayat flow through our hearts the way that our blood flows through our veins. And that you can, no matter what situation of life you're in, you'll be hit with an ayah automatically. Because that's how deeply you've gotten to know the book of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. I'm remembering a story of Imam Hassan al-Basri rahimullah, a great scholar. He was giving a lecture one time and someone came and gave him a glass of water. And he grabbed the glass of water with his hands and he felt unconscious. And the students came and they woke up the Imam and said, Imam, Imam, what happened? What happened? He woke up finally. He said, as I grabbed the glass of water, I remembered the words of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. وَنَادَ أَصْحَابُ الْنَّارِ أَصْحَابَ الْجَنَّةِ أَنْ أَفِيضُ عَلَيْنَا مِنَ الْمَاءِ أَوْ مِمَّا رَزَقَكُمُ اللَّهُ قَالُوا إِنَّ اللَّهَ حَرَّمَهُمَا عَلَى الْكَفِرِينَ He said, I remember the conversation on the Day of Judgment. I remember when the people of Jannah and Jahannam will speak to one another in the afterlife. And the people of Hellfire looked up at the people of Jannah and said, please pour some water down from Jannah. Please pour that water down so we can get some water. Or something to eat or some provisions, just something for us. And Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala or the believers will say Allah has forbidden that on the disbelievers. That is how the righteous interact with the Qur'an. They have that deep relationship that even if I get something as mundane as a glass of water, I hear a verse.
We ask Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala to make us amongst those who not only read it this way, but we react to it. When the Qur'an tells us reflect over nature, go and reflect for a minute. Close the Qur'an, go sit outside, go look at the trees. When the Qur'an says honor your parents, stop. Open your phone, call your parents, visit your parents. When the Qur'an says donate, anfiqoo fee sabeelillah, you hear the verse, you stop what you're doing, and you donate for the sake of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. I ask Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala to make us amongst those who develop that intimacy with the Qur'an, that it intercedes for us on the Day of Judgment and that it becomes our closest companion in this life and the next. Jazakumullah khair, wa salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Thank you so much, Dr. Usman, you can take a breath now. I think you were speaking at a fast pace, mashaAllah. May Allah bless you, beautiful message. And the last part you said was when the Qur'an says donate, then spend in the path of Allah, yaqeen is looking for you to support our mission. We are 50% towards our goal, alhamdulillah, and so now we need you inshaAllah to step up. We're going to go to a video, inshaAllah I'll be back with my next guest. Truly is a blessing how far yaqeen has come over the past five years. This is a dua come true due to the generosity of Allah, then thousands of donors like yourself. And as we see the need for yaqeen's work in the world, I'm proud of the legacy we're leaving behind for our future ummah, inshaAllah. As we remind ourselves that our life in this world determines our life in the hereafter, we push ourselves to do our very best to properly educate our youth, to support our imams, to impart beneficial knowledge, to instill conviction in the hearts and minds of our community, to inspire change makers, to foster spirituality in our homes, to spread a true understanding of Allah's message, to deepen our love for the Messenger sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam, to show people how faith is relevant in their everyday lives. Yaqeen's team is trying to accomplish a lot, but none of it is possible without your support.
Be a part of this mission to dismantle doubt, nurture conviction, and inspire contribution, so that you too can build that legacy of a sadaqa jariyya for your hereafter. Act for your akhira, donate to yaqeen. Please join me in welcoming our next guest, Dr. Jonathan Brown, who is the Director of History and Islamic Thought at Yaqeen, as well as the Al-Walid bin Talal Chair of Islamic Civilization in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. The good Dr. Jonathan Brown. Jack, welcome. How are you doing? Alaykum, how are you doing? Alhamdulillah, wa salam. We're running out of time, so you can have your full time. Please take it away on your topic of controlling... I'm speaking to you from not Washington, D.C. I'm in Boston, and I'm in a hotel room, and I have these decorative pipes behind me. Is that what it is? I was wondering what's... Hot water pipes. I thought you guys put a time out. Okay, let's go to the hotel. Okay, that's no problem. All right, go ahead. Control your anger. Go ahead. Salam alaykum. So I was thinking about what I would talk about, and this was like the first thing that came to my mind. Well, actually, the first thing that came to my mind was like an importance of reducing caffeine intake for Ramadan. Actually, then just sort of keeping with it all year. I did this last year before Ramadan. I reduced my coffee to like one cup of coffee a day in the morning and then one in the night or in the evening.
And then I kept that up after Ramadan this whole year. And this Ramadan has been so much better for me than a couple of years ago. I was just miserable all the time. I was like, I'm caffeine withdrawal. It's really important to reduce your caffeine intake to the point where it doesn't become an issue for you during Ramadan. Because it's really hard to focus on anything else, at least for me, if I feel like I need, I want caffeine a lot. OK, so that's not what I want to talk about, actually, but I want to talk about anger. And somebody the other day said to me, hey, I didn't know you have a temper. I was like, yeah, I have a temper. I have a temper. I don't get upset easily, but if I get upset, then I really upset, you know, so it's not good. And so actually one of the things that I try to work on a lot in general, but especially during Ramadan is anger. Because, you know, we know we're not supposed to eat. We know we we we know we don't just grab a hamburger and take a bite out of it or, you know, like grab water and drink it. Right. But we oftentimes, especially when we get grumpy because we're hungry or something or thirsty, you know, our kids are driving us crazy or something. We forget that we're all supposed to control our emotions during Ramadan. And so I sort of think a lot about anger and how to control it. And well, first of all, I mean, it's interesting to think about what the purpose of anger is. You know, when the Koran talks about like chahawat, right. So we have we have chahawat, our desires, our desires are good. I mean, we desire like food and water because that's our body saying like, hey, you need this to live. Right. We desire money or material objects because we want to have we want to be able to live. Like we need to have shelter. We need to have clothing. Right. We have some kind of physical security. We desire the, you know, intimate. I know this is Yakhin and people are very sensitive. So I'll say intimate relations.
We desire intimate relations because this is how we complete our function as reproducing beings on this earth. Right. So chahawat are good, but anger, like our other inclinations or other emotions or other feelings, is only good when it's fulfilling its proper purpose. Right. So all these desires, whether it's for food or for material objects or for sex or whatever. Right. They become very bad and very problematic and they become kind of pathways to destruction in this life and the next when they are become excessive or when they start to take over our life or when they start to to draw to sort of control us, to control us. When it's no longer our mind and our heart that's in control. But it's these desires and our wants. So, you know, anger is it's important. What is the purpose of anger? It's very interesting to think about this. What is anger actually do? Why do we have anger? Why did God create us with anger? Well, anger is sort of like fuel. You can think of it like fuel. Plato talks about this in the Republic. He talks about spirits. Anger in a lot of ways is like your spirit. If you can imagine, like in team spirit or something like that. Like it's what it's a fuel that drives you. So when you're you know, if you're really angry about something, it can like fuel you. It can keep you going about it. It can give you energy and give you passion. Right. That's a type of passion. But it is very important. I was thinking about how to phrase this. Anger is the fuel. It's not the driver. So anger is a fuel. It doesn't drive you. It's you. You use you say, OK, I want to turn on this like fuel injection. I'm going to put in anger. You make that choice. It's not what drives you. It doesn't control you. You use it. And that's very important. And in the life of the prophet, peace be upon him, we have really fascinating examples of how he dealt with anger. I think one of the most interesting things about him is that he actually got angry. Right. So he's not sort of like this person. He's not someone who's not human.
Sometimes you think about these role models people have in life or in history. They're almost like they're not really human beings. They don't have problems. They don't want to bow everything. The prophet was not above these things. He actually had anger. You see many, many hadiths, reliable hadiths where the companions of the prophet, they saw some will say like I saw he got angry and I saw the anger show. His face got red. I saw the anger show in his face. Like, you know, many instances when one time he hears about an imam who was reading prayers too long and everybody was kind of getting, you know, it was tough for people who were tired and old to stay in the prayer that long. He got angry, it showed in his face, as I said, or another time when someone tried to intervene on the for someone who was going to be punished for a crime. He got very angry. So but he didn't ever allow his anger to control his actions. So he would get angry, but he would control his anger. This is very important. So he it motivated him, but it never directed him. And we know this over and over again, many, many hadiths where the prophet is asked, what's the best action? And for that person, he'll say, you know, control, don't get angry, don't get angry, don't get angry, right? Oh, prophet of God, give us some counsel, and he'd say, don't get angry, right? Over many instances where he'd say, don't get angry. Now, of course, that's very good advice, but let's think about what we need in terms of practical advice. What do we actually do? How do we habituate ourselves to control anger? It's very important hadith where the prophet says, al ilm bata'allum wal hilm bata'allum, right? So you get ilm by learning and you get hilm or the ability to control your anger. You get hilm by tahallum, by practicing that. So you can, human beings, unlike other rocks and trees and things like that, we can actually train ourselves.
We can change our behavior. And so what is the prophet's actual practical advice? First, there's the great advice of du'um wudu'. This is really, when you get angry, first, just acknowledge that I'm getting angry. Practice it, just practice stopping yourself. You don't necessarily stop yourself, just recognize I'm getting angry. Once you have that recognition, once you're weak, then just try to remember these pieces of advice. First is to do wudu'. Wudu' is like the ultimate circuit breaker, right? So if you go and you wash your face, especially if there's a mirror, you're looking in the mirror, you're seeing yourself, you really get it, it breaks the circuit of your anger. You go back into the situation and you're just much less out of control. The second thing, and the prophet says this in hadith in Sunnah Abu Dawud, that If one of you gets angry when you're standing up, then sit down. And then the anger will leave you. If it still doesn't leave you, if you're still angry, lie down, right? So you're just physically basing your body. You're going from standing up to like kind of rooting your body in the ground, you're calming down. And then if you're still angry, you kind of root your body even more in the ground, like go back to the basis of the earth almost, and to control your anger. So these are important. One, understand what the purpose of anger is. Anger is fuel to drive us to good things and drive us against bad things. It's not the driver's seat. The driver is our mind and our hearts, you know, our sort of our reason in the greatest and most comprehensive sense of the word. The prophet repeatedly warned us over and over again not to get angry, to control our anger. And he gave us very concrete advice. If one of you is angry, right, sit down. Standing up. If you're still angry, lie down. And of course, also, doing what we do is very important. So habituate yourself to this. Get used to this.
Take your anger seriously. Anger causes some growth. Anger never gets anything. Think about this. When is a time when you got really angry and lost control and the situation ended up better? Just tell me, like, is that, for me, it never works. I get angry. I'm so angry. I don't want to do it. Ah! And it ends up really bad. I end up offending somebody. I hurt somebody. It's a disaster. Like, you never make good decisions when you're angry. You never make, you know, you never make good impressions when you're angry. You never really help other people when you're angry. You never win arguments when you're angry. You just, you know, hurt people and scare people and hurt yourself. So keep this in mind. That's my advice to you. Well, thank you so much. And I really wanted to catch up with you about that coffee discussion because you really did, I know you. If you conquered coffee, and it took you, what, about a year? So inshallah. I conquered coffee. Lies slain at my feet. Well, have a safe trip back home. I will see you shortly. Thanks again, Jack. Talk to you soon. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah. All right, to move on to the next segment, inshallah, we have our next speaker lined up. But before we go there, we want to remind you that inshallah, everyone who is watching, if you can inshallah share the link for donation, if you've already given, or yourself go and sign up for the Last 10 Nights campaign. Again, the idea is what? To learn practically what to do to make Ramadan end strong. And then to go on to actually do something about it in terms of charity. That you can split up your donations for the last 10 nights. You can even choose. Maybe you want the donations to be divided up evenly across the 10 nights, or have it specifically given some amounts on the other nights, and then the largest amount on the 27th night. We will do that work for you. Just decide how much you want to give, inshallah, and go ahead and sign up and then share the link.
As we bring on our next speaker, inshallah, this is Sister Sara Sultan. She's actually going to address us today on Do Not Forget Allah. You've seen her on Quran 30 for 30. She's also a fellow at Yaqeen and a licensed professional counselor, mashallah, who has been in practice for over a decade. Sister Sara, welcome to the program. How are you doing? Jazakallah khair. Good, alhamdulillah. Happy to be here. It's bringing my energy level up. I'm feeling this deprivation. Alhamdulillah. All right. Well, I will let you conserve that energy and take it away, inshallah. I'll be back in a little bit. Go ahead. Jazakallah khair. Bismillah wa salat wa salam ala rasool Allah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala. Amma ba'da, salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh, everyone. Very happy to be here with all of you, alhamdulillah. So I want to talk to you, inshallah, a little bit about something that I think is a very common experience, and it can feel sometimes like a confusing experience. And it's the moments in our lives where we sometimes feel lost, not a sense of loss, which everybody also experiences in terms of grief and things like that, but where sometimes we just feel lost. The idea sometimes I see leaves just floating in the wind, and you just don't know where any one in particular is going to land. They don't know what course they're going to take, only Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la knows that, right? And so that's sometimes what it feels like to live a human life, is this feeling of being lost. And these are moments that can really be disconcerting, right? There might be questions that come to your mind like, who am I? Why am I here? What is my purpose? What are my goals? Right? And those are really, really big and heavy questions,
and it can feel very intimidating to try to tackle them. And so losing sight of ourselves can really leave us feeling shaken and unsure of what steps to take to be able to lead a life of fulfillment and purpose. And so when we're lost, the question is, how can we find ourselves again? Right? When you're feeling lost, how can you get back in touch with who you are? How can you find yourself again? And so while there are a lot of approaches to this type of struggle, and getting to know yourself is a journey, and it's a unique journey for everybody, everybody's experiences are different, I want to touch on one universal way to begin to work on this today, right now, inshallah. And it's incredibly powerful because when you think about things in life, it's very rare that one thing works for every single person. Right? And this is a universal way. It's a spiritual way, but also very psychologically beneficial. And it is in Surat al-Hashr, in a verse where Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la tells us, and be not like those who forgot Allah, so He made them forget themselves. SubhanAllah. That people who have forgotten Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la are then made to forget themselves. That when we forget Allah, we forget ourselves. Because who you truly are is a worshipper of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, a worshipper of al-Aziz, the Almighty. That you are truly a servant of al-Khaliq, the One who created you. You are truly dependent on al-Qadir, the all-powerful. That we are all sustained and dependent upon al-Razaq, the Provider. Right? This is who we truly are. And so when we choose to remember Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la,
we choose to reconnect with the truest part of ourselves, the truest part of who we actually are. And we choose to live the life that we were truly meant to live. And we choose to live the purpose that we were truly meant to live, in terms of worshipping Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. And Ibn al-Qayyim talks about this beautifully. I won't say his entire quotation, but if you have a chance, look it up. But he... talks about how in the heart there's a void, and it can't be filled except with this connection, with this love of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. Because this is what we're meant for. This is who we are. And so as we walk that path toward finding Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, we actually end up finding ourselves as well. And it's incredible when you think about it that way. And that's why this could be a universal solution. Whenever somebody's feeling lost, this is something that can help. And so when we feel lost, it's important for us to ask, I know that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la is important to me. I know that He is a priority in my life. He is the main priority in my life. So many of us would say this, right? If you are tuning into this, then you are likely one of those people who would say this, inshallah. But the question is that even if we are prioritizing Allah, and we really believe that we're prioritizing Allah, the question to ask ourselves is, is the way I'm living my life reflecting my prioritization of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la? How can I live my life in a way that reflects who I truly am? Every single choice we make from moment to moment, and it's not just the big choices of who to marry, what college to go to, what career to choose, where to live, all of these different things. It's not just the big choices. Actually, a lot of times the small choices can be just as, if not even more impactful than the big choices. Every choice that we make, big or small, affects us in this dunya, in this life, and it affects us in our hereafter as well.
We are literally writing our own stories, SubhanAllah. And in therapy, when I work with my clients, the idea of creating your own narrative of who you are, of your life, it's a very powerful technique, right? Because the stories we make up in our minds can transform our experiences, can transform our mental and emotional health, SubhanAllah. But when you actually think about life and the way that we were created, we are literally writing our stories every single moment so that when we are handed our books on the day of judgment, we are going to read these stories on the day of judgment. So how can we rewrite our stories in order to be our best selves and to live our best lives here and in the hereafter? And Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la gives us a response. Actually, not, he gives us the response before this ayah. When he talks about these people who forget Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la and they're made to forget themselves, before that, he tells us what we need to do in order to not be from amongst these people. He tells us in the verse right before it, also in Surah Al-Hashr, "'O you who believe, have taqwa of Allah "'and let every person look to what he or she "'has sent forth for tomorrow and fear Allah. "'Verily, Allah is all aware of what you do.'" The antidote to forgetting yourself and forgetting Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la is to have taqwa. And what is taqwa? Taqwa, it means to be conscious of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. It means to be mindful of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. To recognize that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la is your Lord. To recognize that the hereafter is real. To recognize that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la is Al-Khabir, he's all aware. He's aware of every choice that we make, including the thought that we had of making the choice that we ended up not making and the way it changed our trajectory, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. That taqwa is having the ability to hold ourselves to account and being mindful that our choices either bring us closer to Jannah and success or further away from it.
That's what mindfulness in the context of taqwa is. And so how does this mindfulness of being mindful of Allah allow us to start to find ourselves, to start rediscovering ourselves when we feel lost? To remember who we are and to solidify our identities? The way that it works is being mindful of Allah and being mindful of the hereafter and knowing that we are going to reach that point inevitably, it removes all of the noise. All of the noise that comes in on a daily basis, all of the mixed signals that were sent by our friends, our family, society at large, right? We live in a time where we as Muslimin are definitely strangers, like the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, and give glad tidings that Islam began as something strange, it'll return to being something strange and give glad tidings to the strangers. And so when you are unique in the way that you're worshiping Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, there's going to be a lot of noise that's going to be surrounding you. And it's going to be very easy to forget what you're prioritizing and what is truly important to you. And so revisiting that and identifying that, okay, at the core of who I am is a worshiper of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, I'm being mindful, I know Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la is watching every single thing that he sees, every single moment, every single moment is reported, that cancels out a lot of that noise and it helps you to reprioritize what truly matters. So how do we now practically cultivate that sense of being mindful of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, of protecting ourselves from being those who forgot Allah and therefore forgot themselves? Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la talks about the opposite of those who are mindful, those who have taqwa. Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la talks about people who are heedless, al-ghafla in Arabic. And in the Quran, he says, those people are the ones whose hearts, ears,
and eyes are sealed by Allah, and they are truly heedless. Heedlessness is the opposite of mindfulness, right? And in psychology as well, not just spiritually, but mindfulness is all about paying attention to the present moment, awareness, creating a sense of awareness, heedlessness is opposite of that. And so cultivating the opposite, cultivating the opposite of heedlessness, it's very helpful to know what heedlessness actually is, which are people whose eyes, ears, and hearts are sealed by Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. And this is not in a physical sense. It's in the sense of forgetting Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, forgetting the purpose behind our existence, forgetting our duty to Allah, and also forgetting that this life is transient. It's not permanent, but the hereafter is permanent. And so how do we protect ourselves and cultivate this, this sense of mindfulness? We use our hearts, instead of allowing them to be sealed, we allow them to be open. Instead of allowing our eyes and our ears to be sealed, we allow them to be open in a spiritual sense. It's not about our physical capability. It's about how we choose every moment, what we choose to do in every moment, what we choose to pay attention to in every moment. So to wrap this up inshallah, with our hearts, set an intention to live your life purposefully, prioritizing your connection with Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. Choose one small step that you can start today that's non-negotiable, that helps you to remember Allah on a daily basis. It can be as simply as saying, SubhanAllah, Alhamdulillah, anything on your car ride on the way to work. Using your eyes and ears. Think different people have the exact same experience. People can, one person can have a lovely house and a lovely car and can have a lovely car, and think I can't wait until I get the next bigger house and better car. And that same, another person can have the same thing
and think I'm so grateful to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la for this blessing, right? And so allowing ourselves to focus on what we have, instead of what we lack, to focus on the blessings and opportunities that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la sends our way is a beautiful way to use our eyes and our ears to worship Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, right? So thinking to ourselves, did I notice that opportunity earlier today? To share a kind word with my children, to give a phone call to my parents, to provide a listening ear to a friend, to read the Quran, to wake up for Fajr, right? All of these are opportunities and blessings. And when we're mindful, and when we choose to remember Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la and to get back in tune with who we truly are, then amazing opportunities suddenly present themselves that we can take advantage of. So inshallah, starting today to prepare for our hereafter, make it a point to take a small step to reconnect with who you truly are and to remember Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, and then in that process, begin to remember yourself. Jazakumullah khair. Thank you so much, Sister Sara, beautiful reminder. And as the comments are showing, people are truly taking heed of your message. May Allah bless you and continue to give you strength as you approach inshallah the end of the fasting day. Thank you again. Salaamun'alaikum. Jazakumullah khair. All right, to continue with the program, inshallah, we're going to remind you that we are here as Yaqeen Institute. You know, when the pandemic started just a couple years ago and during the lockdown, it was just before Ramadan. And I remember distinctly all of the team at Yaqeen thinking, what can we do to serve our community around the world? What could we produce? And mashallah, tabarakallah, we had the Angel Series. And I'm really hoping that you'll recall what a beautiful, beautiful message that had, the series had, the Quran 30 for 30. And then last year we had the series about the Prophet Muhammad, salallahu alayhi wa sallam. And then of course this year we're having
the Day of Judgment series and trying to really bring to, you know, the front of our minds that this life is transient. All of the messages you've heard is that the life is transient and what's the most that we're doing to prepare for our akhirah. Brothers and sisters, Yaqeen cannot do this without you. You are truly the backbone of who we are. All of the content we produce, the highest quality products we produce, whether it is the curriculum that is benefiting Islamic schools or your youth group, whether it is the research papers and mashallah, tabarakallah, in the first five years of our existence, we passed over the number of 200, over 200 papers, mashallah, tabarakallah, were developed by the Yaqeen team and such amazing topics, you know, things that may have been addressed before, but for the first time were being addressed in a language that people could understand then in a tone, adopting a tone that was, you know, helpful to people and they felt a sense of hope. So we're hoping that all of this means something to you and to your family. And we know it does because you've been contributing, mashallah, tabarakallah, you've been sending us messages of how much the content impacts you. We ask you now on these beginning of the last 10 nights of Ramadan to really go to the website and to your, on your phone or on your laptop, wherever you're watching us and to sign up for the last 10 nights campaign. What this does is in a really, you know, condensed way helps you to achieve what you want to do, which is to have the best of your deeds on the last 10 nights, including all of your fasting, your prayers, and for your sadaqah, we ask you to sign up so that you can, inshallah, divide up and not have to worry about, did I give something today or not? You just divide up the, think of an amount and we will divide it up, inshallah, throughout the last 10 nights. Again, so far, mashallah, we have passed the 50% mark
and I'm going to look just to be sure, I don't mean to look away from the screen, but I want to make sure I give you an exact count. We'll also put it up on the screen as well. And you see the very delicate thermometer on the screen, mashallah, is showing you that we have 753 individuals that have signed up for the last 10 nights campaign. Be among those who bring us past the thousand mark. Be among those, inshallah, who you've either signed up, then go ahead and ask your friends and family and share the link. And the beautiful part is, in Islam, you have the reward for the intention you make when you share the link. And if someone clicks on the link and actually donates, you get the reward of the good deed that they, inshallah, undertook by your sharing the link. So however you can manage to get it done, sign up tonight, inshallah. And again, make dua as you sign up. Say, oh Allah, I'm going to be coming to you in the qiyam and in the last 10 nights, asking for better health, asking for healthy and loving, meaningful relationships, asking for more wealth perhaps. And oh Allah, don't make it a test upon us. Whatever it is that you desire, turn to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, make dua and indeed ask for that. And then go ahead and sign up and make that donation and to support your organization, Yaqeen Institute. Inshallah, we're going to watch a video next, and then I'll be back shortly. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said, may Allah make radiant the face of one who memorizes something that I have said and who conveys it to others. This shows us the importance of us as Muslims being inquisitive about the things that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam would say throughout the day and throughout the night. There's a dua for almost every occasion. It's upon us to go out and seek what did the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam say when he put his clothes on? What did the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam say when he woke up? What did he say before he went to sleep? What did he say before going into the restroom
and coming out? All of these things, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam used to say things. That's why in this series, we're not just going to tell you what the dua is or what the formula is. We're also going to teach you the Ibn-Nahe to add to some of those meanings. And although we did not hear from him today on this program, Dr. Tahir Wyatt, mashallah he's so central to who we are as Yaqeen. And in that particular series, he introduced you to all of the beautiful ways to call upon Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and indeed to seek assistance and to seek forgiveness and so forth. Brothers and sisters, the importance of dua cannot be underestimated. Indeed in these blessed nights, it's such an emotional time for so many of us. Some of us have lost beloved loved ones just either in the month or two before Ramadan or last year or in the last few days. And we remember what it was like to have our family members, our beloved loved ones with us during Ramadan. And of course we will miss them at the time of Eid prayer, at the time of Eid and the celebration, but really all of this, they benefit those who have passed away from our dua. Those who are alive and in need of healing and shifa, they benefit from our dua. We ourselves benefit from our dua. And most importantly, when you give, we are told by Abu Huraira as narrated by Abu Huraira, radiallahu ta'ala anhu, that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sends two angels every morning to see which one of his servants is spending in the path of Allah. The amount is not specified because we also know the Prophet peace be upon him said, ittaqulnaar, save yourselves from the fire, walaw, even if it is with half of a date. So it's not the amount that matters. It is the intention.
It is the desire. It is the intention to give and to support the cause of yaqeen inshallah as today we're mentioning. And so the angels make dua when you spend. The angels say, Allahumma aati munfiqan khalafa. The angels say, oh Allah, replace what has been spent. Give to your servant something in place of what they have spent. Today, inshallah, in these next few minutes, before we conclude the program, we want you to consider how much value yaqeen brings to your life. What would that be? Is it a program? Is it a series? Is it a particular speaker? Is it the Ramadan programs or anything throughout the year? Whatever it is, this dua series, for example, was a very intentional way that we at yaqeen wanted to help you to not only prepare for Ramadan, but to use those duas during Ramadan in the 11 months of the rest of the year, right, to benefit ourselves and indeed to benefit those around us. So make a special dua before you make a donation. Make that special dua before you go, you know, to the computer, inshallah, or your phone and sign up as much as you can. And again, dividing it up along the 10 days, 10 nights is a beautiful way to not have to remember every night. Then you can focus all of your attention on the acts of worship. Indeed, you can then focus on getting closer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and really reflecting on who you are, how far you've come this Ramadan, how much longer you have to go. And all of our speakers today gave such practical and beautiful advices, masha'Allah. And most of them emphasize dua, right? All of them emphasize dua because that is a critical part of our relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Brothers and sisters, we have reached, you know, as so far 769 people, masha'Allah, who have signed up. As you can tell that it's halfway past the goal, but not there just yet. So if you are perhaps approaching iftar wherever you live,
then make a dua and make that, you know, sign up for the campaign. If you have finished suhoor wherever you are and you are getting ready to start off for your day, then take a minute. Take a minute to show our team at Yaqeen that indeed you value the high quality resources we produce, all of the different programs and the articles and different, you know, the conviction circles, the conversations deck, whatever it is that has brought impact to your family, turn now and say, you know what, oh Allah, bless the team at Yaqeen and we receive your duas. Every time you make a dua, we feel them, we receive them. We may not ever get a chance to meet in person, but we know you're out there thinking of us, thinking of our team, making dua for us and indeed supporting us with, you know, your hard earned money so that we can have both, the highest quality content and indeed the, and keeping the content free for everyone to be able to achieve. So we are inshallah going to turn our attention now to our last segment, last part of tonight's segment. And to do that, I want to invite back inshallah to the studio with some social distancing because apparently we're in the same room due to my virtual background with our beloved Sheikh, our CEO and founder of the Yaqeen Institute, Dr. Omar Suleiman. And inshallah, he will take you through the last segment. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, sorry. Okay, only he, as you see inside. Anyone that was there a couple of hours ago. Well, only he could take the most serious of moments and turn them into a beautiful smile. May Allah always, always help him to continue to smile and may Allah bless him and his family. And indeed all of the lives that he and our work at Yaqeen has touched.
May Allah elevate all of you, except from you, your fasts, your prayers, your sadaqah, and indeed keep us all in your dua as we end Ramadan strong. Turning it back over to our Sheikh Omar Suleiman. Before we leave, Dr. Altaf, jazakallah khair. Really appreciate you and pushing and mashallah, handling this, not just for the last few hours, but jazakallah khair always for the great work that you do and what you bring to the team. Alhamdulillah, and always steering us properly. I told you that I take back the nice things I said about you who didn't hit the goal. I won't do that. Alhamdulillah, I'm Sheikh Ibrahim Handy. So it was the Canadian. Blame Canada. That's going to be our Yaqeen thing. Half of Yaqeen is Canadian, so we'll blame Canada for the drop off of donors in the middle. And we need everyone to come strong inshallah ta'ala for America at the end, right? No, then we're really not going to reach our goal because most people here are not from the US. So you're saving Altaf Al-Hindi by throwing Ibrahim Hindi under the bus. I see what you're doing. All right, take it easy, Sheikh. I'll talk to you later. Jazakallah khair, good to have you on. Barakallah Fikum. Alhamdulillah, I want to welcome everyone back. I want to welcome myself back to this. I've been enjoying it subhanAllah. I actually got to go home for a few minutes and I saw my family sitting on the couch and watching the webathon in the living room. Alhamdulillah, and enjoying every moment. So I want to thank all of the guests, all of our amazing scholars and speakers that have just introduced layer after layer after layer about how we take this last 10 nights to the next level. The only person that I won't thank is Mufti Abdur Rahman Waheed, who of course brought food and moonsighting into this. We have a zero tolerance policy for that stuff, but we're happy with the gems that he shared before that as well. But in all seriousness, Alhamdulillah, this Ramadan has so much to it for us.
We finally get to come back to the masajid. We finally get to come back and be in person. But we know that a lot of people have left before us. And subhanAllah, I just want to share with you all before I bring on Dr. Uwe Mir, something that is very touching to us as a team. I mentioned before that we always look to the stories that are sent in, the people that embrace Islam. And people that embrace Islam from all over the world. We had a Coptic Christian from Egypt embrace Islam recently. We've had people from Ethiopia embrace Islam recently. We've had people from all over the world, Alhamdulillah, sending in their conversion stories. But one of the things that means a lot to me personally are actually those who have passed away that used to watch our stuff. And when you see, subhanAllah, a donor that's no longer here, that was with us for the last few years, people we've literally hosted in banquets that were annual donors to Yaqeen that have now passed away. And we pray that Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala is allowing them to witness the most beautiful of everything that we've been speaking about in regards to the hereafter in real time. May Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala make that their reality. Allahumma ameen. But there are many, and I know that some of you that are watching have lost close loved ones. May Allah have mercy on your loved ones. And may Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala allow every du'a that you're making for them, every donation that you're making on their behalf, to count as a full sadaqa jariyya for them and for you. So I know it's a difficult Ramadan for some because of those who are no longer with us. But bindinnahi ta'ala we continue to be connected to them and connecting ourselves to that inevitable reality for us all, our akhira, in a way that's meaningful and inshaAllah ta'ala in a way that makes us not just more aware, but more activated towards that which gives us life here and gives us the best afterlife bindinnahi ta'ala for our eternity. With that inshaAllah ta'ala just a reminder, what number are we at everyone? Someone give me a number. 814? Alhamdulillah Rabbil Alameen.
So inshaAllah ta'ala if in this last hour we could have a strong push to try to get to our goal bindinnah, again you can go to the automate your 10 night donation, you can click the link in the description, whether you're watching on YouTube or on Facebook inshaAllah ta'ala, and automate whatever amount it is inshaAllah ta'ala. And we know that many of you have given before and will continue to give bindinnahi ta'ala. This is just the goal for this particular webathon inshaAllah ta'ala. So if you can push your family members, push your friends, whatever WhatsApp group you're in, for the last hour that we have to make dua, to donate inshaAllah ta'ala, we would really appreciate it. And with that inshaAllah ta'ala I want to bring on beloved brother, our editor-in-chief, Dr. Uwayman Anjum. Dr. Uwayman are you there? Alhamdulillah Rabbil Alameen. Hayyakallahu zikr Uwayman. How are you? Alhamdulillah. Alaykum as-salam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Allahi barak fik. It's so good to see you mashaAllah. How have you been? Alhamdulillah. Very good. Blessed. Allahi barak fik. How has your Ramadan been sheikh? It's been very good. Alhamdulillah. Ramadan always goes too fast. It's already over half-fin. May Allah subhana wa ta'ala bless you and accept from you. Has there been any particular Ramadan content from Yaqeen? You're going to be on 30 for 30 inshaAllah. We can't wait to have you inshaAllah. I've been thinking about what joke I'm going to make with you from now, but you know, when you come on for 30 for 30. But has there been something that you've been keeping up with from our content? Obviously you review the papers, but in general with Ramadan? Yes, a certain someone has a Day of Judgment series that I really love. And I was listening to it with my 12-year-old, which is, you know, who really likes it. It's high praise because a 12-year-old doesn't like anything. So and he's really captivated by it. May Allah subhana wa ta'ala bless you and your family, Dr. Al-Waymar. JazakAllah khair, sheikh. Bismillah. I'll let you take it away from here. Okay, inshaAllah. JazakAllah khair. Bismillah, alhamdulillah, wa salatu wa salam ala rasulillah.
So I wanted to talk about the notion of taqwa in the Quran and how it appears in a way that it is different from how we typically expect. We typically expect talking about piety and righteousness in sanitized, you know, formal gatherings when we are in a mosque and when you're ready to hear sermon. But the Quran brings up the notion of taqwa, which I will translate, in the thick of life. So the most powerful verses of that in that call upon the believers to have iman, to have taqwa, to remember Allah, are those that appear in the middle of disputes, conflicts, challenges, when your life is threatened or when your heart is broken. And my favorite one is one that appears in Surah At-Talaq. And as the word talaq and the experience of talaq, the divorce, is a point where people are most heartbroken. And Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, it is at this time when this most powerful and poignant verse about taqwa, which I will translate that as earnestness. You know, people often think of it as mindfulness. It is closer than that. It's more visceral. It's more embodied than just mindfulness, which, you know, you can take time out in your life and be mindful.
But taqwa is, you know, fear, but also loving fear and earnestness to obey Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala and concern and fear that you might displease the being, the Lord, the mighty creator, and the one to whom you owe so much. So that taqwa, where does it appear? It appears in the Quran in the middle of the battle of life. So Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala says in Surah At-Talaq, wa man yattaqillaha yaja'al lahu makhraja wa yarzuqhu min haythu la yahtasib wa man yatawakkal ala Allahi fahuwa hasbuh inna Allaha baliqoo amrih qada ja'alallahu likulli shay'in qadra So, two things here. One, Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala gives you, when you have taqwa, when you're thinking of Allah, when you're earnest to obey Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, when you're earnest to give to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, to give for the sake of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, your life, your time, your wealth, Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala saves you and gives you from where you cannot expect, and that adds to the meaning that I suggested earlier, which is that it's not what you can think, it is rather what you love and what you fear. It's more visceral, and so Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala gives you from where your mind cannot go, but Allah knows you cannot think, you know, especially when you're in a tough situation, how will it ever get better? Will my heart ever be put back together after this heartbreak? Am I worth anything if somebody I love so much didn't work out?
They have left me or I've left them. Will it ever be better? And should I treat them, you know, in a vengeful way that will cool my heart? Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala says it is at this time that you are earnest to please Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, that you must remember Allah, and if you do so, then all the things that you're looking for, the happiness, the wholeness of your heart, you will see that come from where you cannot expect. That do not try to get even with people because you're broken, but rather be generous, be forgiving, because your deal is not with the people who have broken your heart or who have failed to understand you or who have failed to reciprocate, but your deal is with Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala who will give you from where you cannot expect, where you cannot calculate, where you cannot imagine, where you cannot plan. And so to me, these verses in Surah Al-Talaq have been so powerful and so personally intimate. I remember a time where things were tough for me and I would do a wurd of these verses for a long time. I would just sit and say these verses and they would be so comforting and so uplifting. Inna Allaha baalighu amri. Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala is capable, is fully in charge. He will get his work done. He will support those whom he loves and those who love him and those who give and spend for his sake,
those who prioritize him and those who are in need of, you know, over and above their own needs. Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala will give them from where they cannot imagine. JazakAllah khair, Dr. Ooyimur, for those beautiful words, mashallah. You know, you're in a unique position in that, alhamdulillah, you write with a lot of heart for the ummah. May Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala make that true of you, that someone who's connected very much so to the ummah. You have obviously the Ummatics Colloquium and you know, you serve that role of being both our editor at Yaqeen and also having founded Ummatics. And I think that a lot of people often have a hard time balancing their individual ibadah with their care for the ummah. And so like, even when we think about what am I going to be making du'a for in these last 10 nights? Am I going to cry for al-Aqsa or am I just going to cry for that position that I really want? And then do the al-Aqsa part, if I even do that, as just, you know, something that just slips off the tongue. Can you speak a little bit about the personal ibadah element of being connected to the ummah's affairs in this way? Yeah, Jazakallah khair. This is a very important reminder that, you know, your feeling of the world, of, you know, think of yourself, you know, your heart as a sensor. And if all you think about is yourself, then you, your sensor, you have one sensor through which you can understand and experience and enjoy the world. When you begin to think of a community, a family, when you, you know, get married or when you're close to your parents and your siblings and so on, you experience life and taqwa and iman and successes and failures in multiple ways.
But when you think about the ummah of Muhammad ﷺ, the final ummah that Allah ﷻ has sent and the ummah that is most beloved to Allah ﷻ because it proclaims la ilaha illallah Muhammadur Rasulullah ﷺ, that ummah is when you take its pain and make it yours, it is all of those people whose taqwa becomes part of your taqwa. It adds to your taqwa. It adds to your birr. It adds to your prayers. It adds to your passion for Allah ﷻ. It adds to your concern. And most importantly, it adds to your yaqeen. You look at other people struggling who have less than you and they struggle far more than you and they strengthen your yaqeen. You know that you're not alone, that there is a whole group of people about which we say in al-Fatiha, ana'mta alayhim, that Allah has blessed them. And you just look at their struggle and you know, you feel the yaqeen that yes, there are people whom Allah has blessed. And oh Allah, make me among them. Do not deprive me of their ajr. We ask Allah ﷻ to not deprive us of the ajr of those who are protecting al-Aqsa and those in Kashmir and those Uyghur brothers and others throughout the world who have less than us and they offer so much more for your deen. Ameen. BarakAllahu feekh, Shaykh. I think SubhanAllah you're right that when you talk about ahlul Qur'an, there's a very particular type of person that might come to your mind when you think of a person of Qur'an. A hafidh of Qur'an, someone who recites it beautifully, someone who lives it beautifully. When you talk about ahlul yaqeen, people of yaqeen, the image that should actually come to your mind is the image of those murabitun al-Aqsa, those people of al-Aqsa, those people in Kashmir,
those Uyghur brothers and sisters that you mentioned. And there's so many more, SubhanAllah, that just embody it. Yaqeen is in the streets of Gaza under those bombs where the people still go to their salah, they still go to their weddings, they still go to their gatherings. They refuse to die because they don't live for this life, SubhanAllah. They live for something that is so much more. And indeed that's a reminder for everyone to connect to the ummah. Connecting to the ummah is connecting to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. I'm not sure if you want to share anything else, Dr. Uwe, then. No, I just want to add to what you said, JazakAllah khair, it made me think that you know when Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala is teaching the sahaba when the Quran is being revealed very early on, the example that Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala sets for the believers, including for the Prophet himself, alayhi salam, are not the rabbis and the ahbar, the scholars of Banu Israel, but it is ashab al-Ukhdud. It is the believers who suffered for their deen and were thrown in the fire. It is their example that in an example of people like that Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala sets up. That is, those are ahlul Quran. Those are ahlullah. And we ask Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala that to ease their suffering, to give them success, to give us success, and make us truly ahlul Quran. Ameen, ameen. JazakAllah khair, Shaykh Rumi. We appreciate your presence always. BarakAllahu feekum. May Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala bless you. Please keep us in your du'a, inshaAllah. Asbaha'in, you did the same. BarakAllahu feekum. BarakAllahu feekum. BarakAllahu. Alhamdulillah, Rabbul Ameen, we are now at 900 and let me see that, let's see what the number is, biddenillah, but alhamdulillah there was a nice, wonderful jump, mashaAllah, that took place. So we're at 906, mashaAllah. So we're less than 400 signups away, biddenillah ta'ala, in this last segment.
And inshaAllah ta'ala everyone will keep pushing, pushing, pushing, inshaAllah ta'ala. If you have not signed up yet, if you're watching and you have not signed up, please do sign up. Whatever amount that is going to be, may Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala put barak in it. And if you can share with your family and friends, then we would surely appreciate it, biddenillah ta'ala. And we ask Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala to accept it. And again, we will be making a du'a shortly, inshaAllah ta'ala. We have two more wonderful, wonderful speakers, inshaAllah ta'ala. And before that, I wanted to just cut for a video for a moment, inshaAllah, and then we will get back to the program. JazakumAllahu khayran. And so I want you to think about how much this work has meant to you personally in elevating your faith, and how much more it could mean to someone else. And contribute whatever you can, inshaAllah ta'ala, over these last 10 nights, so that we can continue to grow this work, inshaAllah ta'ala, and collectively grow our faith, and collectively, biddenillah ta'ala, succeed in the hereafter. Remember, your actions echo for eternity. Act for your akhira. Alhamdulillah, Rabbul Ameen. So, again, this is a video that you're going to be seeing, inshaAllah ta'ala, over these next few nights, biddenillah. I want to ask all of you to please circulate that video as well, inshaAllah ta'ala.
So as you're part of the webathon, we definitely, certainly are still aiming for our goal, inshaAllah ta'ala, and hoping we can finish Ramadan strong, but also finish the webathon strong, biddenillah ta'ala. But we will be asking you throughout the last 10 nights, inshaAllah ta'ala, to contribute to yaqeen amongst the many causes that you contribute to. We want to embody what we just spoke about in regards to Dr. Uweimer in being people who care for our ummah. We ask you to please support every organization you're seeing out there that's asking you to help them with their masajid, with their schools, with their relief efforts, biddenillah ta'ala, the seminaries, the educational institutions. Do what you can, inshaAllah ta'ala, to support those wonderful efforts. And at the same time, inshaAllah ta'ala, we ask you to keep yaqeen as part of that, biddenillah ta'ala, as everything that we do, biddenillah ta'ala, will always be free and accessible to the community. Whatever we raise goes into the creation of more resources, biddenillah ta'ala, that inshaAllah you're benefiting from, your colleagues are benefiting from, your families are benefiting from, your schools are benefiting from. So we want to ask you inshaAllah, with the last 40 minutes or so inshaAllah ta'ala, before we get into the du'a, let's go on this inshaAllah ta'ala run and make sure that we're able to get as many people signed up as possible and spread the word biddenillah ta'ala. Is Shaykh Jihad on yet or not yet? Okay, so we're waiting for Dr. Jihad Safir inshaAllah ta'ala, he's able to join soon. I wanted to actually share a reflection on something that has stuck with me from the moment that Dr. Hassan Alwan spoke about it. Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala is giving us not just signs, but in the signs that he is giving us of himself, he's also giving us signs of our own potential. All of these things that we see in growth around us, all of these things that we see that are molded so beautifully. Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala in Surah Al-Shams when he talks about the various stages of the sun, of the moon, of the heavens, of the earth, Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
وَنَفْسٍ وَمَا سَوَّاهَا فَأَلْهَمَهَا هُجُورَهَا وَتَقْوَاهَا Allah Azawajal mentions the nafs, the human soul. أَلْهَمَهَا فُجُورَهَا وَتَقْوَاهَا Allah has given it the capability to be molded with righteousness or wickedness. But when that soul is molded properly, when we engage in proper taskiya, SubhanAllah, when we discipline the self, then we rise to a position that makes us even more beloved to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala than the mala'ika, than the angels and anything in the heavens and the earth. That is the potential that Allah Azawajal has put inside of us. And so, especially when we get into these last 10 nights, you know, these are 10 nights that we're going to be pushing ourselves. We're going to be taking in more ilm than we take in any time throughout the year. We're going to be doing more dhikr than we do at any point throughout the year. More fasting, more prayer. Bid'in Allahi ta'ala, we're actually showing the potential of who we can become should we be pleasing to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. InshaAllah ta'ala over these last 10 nights, I wanted to actually just let you all know once again. We're not just going to have the Day of Judgment series. The Judgment Day series, Alhamdulillah, is going to be ongoing. And my favorite episodes really get into the end of it, which was the case with meeting Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam as law. And I know that you always see some people get 13, 14 episodes in and they're unable to continue. Well, please do inshaAllah ta'ala do continue. Our Quran 30 for 30. We have amazing guests that are still coming up, Bid'in Allahi ta'ala, for Quran 30 for 30. So that will continue. We're going to still have our Ramadan Khatiraz Bid'in Allahi ta'ala. Shaykh Suleiman Hani will have a nightly du'a Bid'in Allahi ta'ala that he's going to be doing that you can join in live with him inshaAllah ta'ala and make du'a with him in the last 10 nights. And on top of that, we have a reflection session every night with Shaykh Yasir Birjas and myself and sometimes a third guest where we will be reflecting on some of the work of Imam Ibn Al-Jawzi Rahimahullah.
Rahimahullah ta'ala, where he talks about, you know, means by which we get closer to Allah subhana wa ta'ala. So some of his his captured thoughts, his reflections that are very beautiful, very intense and give us an opportunity to connect to Allah subhana wa ta'ala in a beautiful way. Is Shaykh Jihad on or not? Bismillah. So we're having some Alhamdulillah, Shaykh Jihad is here. Shaykh Jihad, Salam Alaikum. Wa Alaikum Salam. How's everything? Shaykh, you saved me, man. I was like running through my mind. I was like, what else can I possibly say? Dr. Jihad Safir, it's good to have you. How have you been, Shaykh? Alhamdulillah. Excellent. You know, just as you know, more than more than all of us is just, you know, really staying busy during this month of Ramadan and trying to do as much as we can, you know, to maximize our benefit from this month. Alhamdulillah. Dr. Jihad, you are one of the most beloved guests that we've had on Quran 30 for 30. Alhamdulillah. I mean, we've had the opportunity to reflect with you and you made us a promise inshallah ta'ala that we were going to be able to do a lot more with you bitten the night time. And that really is, I think, a testimony to the way you've resonated with the audience here. Alhamdulillah. So I don't want to take up any more of your time inshallah ta'ala. Bismillah. Take us away. Alhamdulillah. Audhu billahi minash shaitanir rajim. Bismillahir rahmanir rahim. Alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen. Wa sallallahu ala sayyidina Muhammad khatam al nabiyyina wa imam al mursaleen. Amma ba'ad. We began with a very important hadith in regards to this particular month, allowing us to realize really the status of having this beautiful quality, being able to control the tongue.
As the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam mentioned, man lam yada' qawla az-zoor wal-amala bihi falaysa lillahi haajatun fee an yada'a ta'amahu wa sharaabe. And it was beautifully mentioned that whoever does not give up lying speech and acting upon those lies and evil speech, Allah is not in need of him or her leaving his or her food and drink. So many a times, you know, this month of Ramadan is the month of also controlling the tongue. You know, we look at the fast of Maryam alayhi salam, in which she had to control her tongue. She had the fasting of the tongue. Inni nadartu li rahmani salman. So she had, she vowed this fast for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala of fasting from speech. And also Zakariya, he was, you know, giving a certain amount of days to fast. These three nights as mentioned in the Quran of fasting, controlling the tongue. This is a huge part of this month is controlling the tongue for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, for this to be mentioned in regards to Allah not needing us to leave off food and drink. Right. He doesn't need that if we're not willing to leave off some of the things that that we spew off of our tongues. We look at the ability of the tongue. The tongue can uplift. It can also destroy. You have many people who they will never be able to forget. Right. The things that were told to them in their childhood, in their adults.
The tongue is that part that much powerful in regards to it is utilized to socialize us. It is utilized really to empower us, but it can also be utilized to destroy us. And we look at this particular month, this beautiful month and the blessing of being a Muslim in these beautiful times. How Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala constantly directing us towards beautiful words. When we give each other the salams, assalamu alaikum, we enter into this deen with beautiful speech. We also, you know, we take our shahada with beautiful speech. But not only that, we say inshallah throughout the day, always giving Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala full credit. Alhamdulillah. You ask somebody how they're doing. They say alhamdulillah. And constantly we say astaghfirullah. We're constantly using beautiful words. As Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reminds us in the Quran, he says ilay yas'adu kalima tayyib, that the beautiful word descends. Right. It goes to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. It ascends. That it goes up. Right. And it says that the beautiful words, right, they're heard around the throne, buzzing around the throne of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And for us, we want our beautiful words to ascend. We don't want our words to ruin our fasting. Our fasting is essential. It's essential for us as individuals who are fasting to recognize beautiful words. So remember this next time someone cuts you off your fasting in the month of Ramadan, someone cuts you off in traffic. Remember this even with your children.
You know, this is the month that my father would tell me that he would use. He would be very gentle with his words in this month. And he would tell me wait till after Ramadan. And alhamdulillah, by the time Eid comes, we would all forget about what happened during Ramadan. But he would use gentle words in this month. This is the month in which you use gentle words with your children. The husband should use gentle words with his wife. The wife should use gentle words with her husband in hopes that it extends. This type of training extends past this month. That extends past this month. We close with the beautiful saying in which Luqman, alaihissalam, he was told by his master, Luqman, who there's a chapter of the Quran named after him. He was told by his master, go and slaughter a sheep and bring back the worst parts of the sheep. And he went and slaughtered the sheep and he brought back the heart and the tongue. And there was a long time had passed and his master gave him the assignment again. But he says, go out this time and bring back the best parts of the sheep. The first time he slaughtered, he brought back the worst parts and he brought back the heart and the tongue. This time he was given the assignment of bringing back the best parts of the sheep and he brought back again the heart and the tongue. And his explanation is, is that if these things are good, the entire self is good. You know, some of the sayings that, you know, the the word is your servant until you release it. Then you become its servant. One of the other sayings that they asked Ali bin Abi Talib, how long does it take to get to know someone?
And he says as soon as he opens up his mouth. Right. The tongue reveals we have arrogance. Right. The heart of a man lies beneath his tongue. It reveals that we have arrogance, that we have jealousy. Right. If we're suffering from anger, if we have contempt for our brother and sister, it reveals all of that as soon as we we speak. So the reminder again is that a part, a huge part of the fasting is the fasting of the tongue. And we ask that Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to utilize words that are beautiful and allow words also to to help us. And, you know, gathering this position into Jannah. Man waqaahu Allah sharrama bayna lihyay wa sharrama bayna rijalayhi dakhalal jannah. He whom Allah saves from the evil of that which is between his jaws, meaning the tongue, and the evil of that which is in between his legs will enter into Jannah. And Alhamdulillah, I really appreciate Yaqeen. They are leading us all with beautiful words, and we ask that Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala beautify our speech and allow us to be of those who maximize our benefit through the beautiful words in this month of Ramadan. Alhamdulillah. JazakAllah khair, Sheikh Jihad. Let me ask you something, Sheikh Jihad. You know, forgiveness is a very difficult thing. We want it from Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala so easily, but it's so hard to give it to somebody else.
Yes. And, you know, as people are thinking about, you know, especially like the difficult tasks, you know, I think if you ask most of us, is it more difficult for you to reconcile with someone or is it more difficult for you to spend 10 nights in prayer, sacrificing sleep? I think the one that one text message, that one minute of reconciliation is probably even harder than that 10 nights of sleeplessness. What do you say to someone who just has not been able to get it out of their heart? They want to, but they just can't. Yeah, you know, I think that, you know, when we when we think about this idea of having goals, you know, a huge goal is definitely forgiving those, especially when we're in a position, you know, so it's easy when we gain status, when we finally have money. Now we can forgive. But when we're on our way up, it's difficult to forgive because of that comparison. We're still comparing ourself to others and they may be equal to us. But once we gain that edge over them, then it makes it that much more difficult to forgive. So it depends on where we're at, even socially. A lot of times. I would definitely say that, you know, we shouldn't look at that. We should definitely look at we may pass away at any day and we don't want to pass away with that type of grudge on our hearts. So we have the opportunity, especially during this month of Ramadan, to prepare ourselves to a certain level, even without, you know, having spending a certain amount of time in Ibada. But we can, you know, start walking towards that forgiveness, immediately making intentions and making that a goal. But forgiveness is one of the difficult things because it involves the ego.
You know, Sheik Faliqa, I just remember one thing. You know what it is? What is that? At least he's not a Samedi. At least he's not a Samedi. That is so important. Yeah, yeah. No, that is so important because it can always be worse. If you don't get the reference, go back and watch the 30 for 30 episode with Dr. Jihad. Sheikh Jihad, just in closing. You've you've been a part of Yaqeen, Alhamdulillah, I mean, you know, last couple of years you've benefited from the content. You certainly benefited the content as well. Alhamdulillah, I mean, can you just talk about, you know, being someone who's in an institutional capacity, founder of Islam, what Yaqeen means to the community? No, Yaqeen, without a Yaqeen, it would be hard. It would be very difficult to make progress. You know, we have to have a think tank. We have to have a location of ideas. And without that, we won't be able to really be able to look back and retrospect where we have been. And if we can't do that, it's very difficult to see where we're going. So I think Yaqeen, what it does, it's almost like a window cleaner and they allow us to see more clear in regards to the future. You know, so we have to have these studies, you know, these case studies. We have to have people who are experts in certain fields to bring that. So we can participate in this collective shura, so to speak. And you all are making it a clear vision in regards to how we want to position ourselves as Muslims in the future. Right here in America. Dr. Jihad, and who's your favorite, me or Sheikh Abdullah? Which one? Just choose one.
You got to choose a friend. If I say you, Sheikh Abdullah is going to put me in a headlock. You're probably right. I got to get my muscles. I got to get my muscles up first before, you know, two against one. If you take right, I'll take left. I think we could we could get them if we get them together. We got to definitely shake up. I miss him. You know, he he that's actually the question of the day is where Sheikh Abdullah he he he you should have seen earlier in the Webathon. He had the flyest suit I've ever seen him wear. And he was in some hotel. Look like a five star hotel lobby somewhere. I don't know where he is anymore, but as long as he still logs on for 30 for 30. We got to investigate this. Yes, I'm going to leave that to you. That's exactly what we love having you and always, always enjoy your presence. And may Allah bless you and all that you do. I mean, I mean, I mean, I love you all. So inshallah to everyone, as we are getting now to the very, very end of the darbala, I mean, we are at 900 and I'm away for the number to show up on the screen, inshallah. I'm going to put up on my phone. Let's see how quick you can get it. Nine ninety one. Allahu Akbar. Nine more people, inshallah, to get us to the 1000 mark, inshallah. We're right at the end. For some of you, you're already in the last 10 nights of Ramadan. So if you're already there, make do for us, because we're waiting anxiously for the last 10 nights and all of us. But then I thought we hope that whatever we donate, inshallah, I will be counted again. The ask your brothers and sisters is to sign up for the automating of donations during the last 10 nights. That certainly won't be the only donation that you give to a pain or otherwise with the night after the last 10 nights.
But this is one means by which we come together. So please sign up. Insha Allah. Let's try to get as many as we can in this last half an hour. But the night on it and we will end with a draft. But before that, very, very, very special guest. The Hamd Allah. I mean, is he on? I want to actually bring him on before I say anything. Allahu Akbar. Assalamu alaikum. Alaikum salam. Dr. Yousef, mashallah, you are all new man. The light is just it's it's it's it's blinding, but we're so happy to have you. So so happy to have you. How are you, sir? I am. I'm doing wonderful. I'm the law. I was just in a whole bunch of traffic making my way home. And it's funny, as I approached the the outside of the development, I said, Alhamdulillah, I made it. I remind myself, no, you didn't make it yet. You're not you're not there yet. Make that humbly again when you get to your home inside of your house. And I'm just glad to be here. I'm glad to, you know, participate in this in this great effort. Yeah, this is this is this is wonderful for me to prior to even being considered. You know, I was definitely a consumer of all of the material. It's just a beautiful thing. My family listens as well. So we thank you for all that you all do. Just like a lot of doctors. Thank you for all that you do, Dr. Yusuf Saddam. If you don't know who he is, I can't pull out your bio right now. Just say Google Dr. Yusuf Saddam. But Alhamdulillah, I mean, our Muhammad Ali, confident Muslim of the year. Alhamdulillah, I mean, we had a chance to do a wonderful program together as well. You know, just in December and Alhamdulillah, but I mean, really, you out everybody. You touched everyone. You also did a podcast on Double Take. May Allah bless you. Which was deeply moving, you know, to everyone that was able to witness it. But I think just being in your presence, Alhamdulillah, I mean, knowing you the way that I have the blessing of knowing you now.
So blessed to have you as a brother. So blessed to have you as a friend. So blessed to have you on the Webathon. Alhamdulillah, I mean, JazakAllah khair for agreeing to be with us, beloved brother. If you could say, you said that you consumed Yaqeen's content before. Or before you even start, inshallah ta'ala. What have you what have you been able to watch? What have you been able to keep up with? What was your introduction to Yaqeen? Do you remember when you got introduced to Yaqeen? Oh, wow. I don't remember exactly, but it was something that you were presenting. And then you all went and started doing the beautiful 30 for 30. And I tell you to to have an outside concept and understanding as you're listening to the Quran and reading the Quran and consuming it, to then mesh with what you just read or just reviewed is so beautiful because, you know, in my home, I got to tell you, this is this is something that I've always done. I've always had the audio Arabic and the English companion audio playing throughout Ramadan, but I always purchase a brand new Quran. And that brand new Quran may be from a different translator, maybe Piktor, maybe Yusuf Ali or M.H. Shakir. Actually, the M.H. The M.H. Shakir Quran is the Quran that I walked into the courtroom 33 years ago with, you know, and I still have this this Quran with me. It's a beautiful Quran. It's falling apart. Alhamdulillah. It's one of those things that you just when I look at it, I'm like, wow, that is where I fell in love with this deen in a way that was profound. And I tell you, the the reminders, I think, and the ability to be able to go back and to listen, you know, I love the fact that I can listen to the the Arabic and English and then I can pick up an international international and then I can follow along.
And as as I'm listening to the Arabic, I'm reading the English and then I'm hearing the English from the audio. And it's like a triple reinforcement. And I tell you, when I when I listen to you all and what you all do, it's so beautiful because there's so many things that are fighting for our attention. You know, at some point in the very near past, I decided to stop listening to. Radio, period, I mean, regular talk radio was bad, jazz, jazz became bad, classical music was just music, but definitely if you go into the more hardcore stuff, it disturbs you. It disturbs your soul when you're trying to reconnect and reenergize and reflect. And then when you realize what it is that you're doing, which when you realize what this life is, you know. You feel like anything that draws your attention away from focusing on Allah, focusing on worship, doing what it is that you're supposed to be doing. It's it's it disturbs you and Hamdi Allah disturbs you because some people don't get disturbed. You know, some people feel like, you know, it's just a part of me being young or, you know, hey, it's a part of life, you know. But I love that part about where I found solace because I remember I told my imam, Imam Talib Abdur Rashid, when I first came home from prison, I remember saying to him, man, it was easier to practice Islam in prison. I said, man, I want to go to I want to go to the mountains somewhere. And he said, yeah, yeah. But you can't become a monk. And I found a middle passage. And the middle passage is to completely immerse in deep dive into this faith and allow the faith to be something that you live with.
Allow it to be something that you use your eyes to see with, to listen to, to touch with. Right. Wanting Allah to Allah to become the eyes that you see with the ears that you hear with the things that you speak with. But trying to do it yourself now, asking Allah to bring it to you, to, you know, to to bless you with that, but also thanking Allah, you know, for those gifts and for those opportunities. You know, absolutely. May Allah bless you, Dr. Yusuf. Jazakallah khair for those kind words. And Alhamdulillah, I mean, you know, when we choose the Muhammad Ali Confident Muslim of the Year, it's always with, you know, in our mind, someone that really embodies that idea of just confidence and depth. And by the way, I want to shout out Jamila, Rashida and Maymay Ali, Alhamdulillah, who I know are actually watching the program. So we hope inshallah, we did right by your father's name. May Allah have mercy on him by choosing someone as worthy as Dr. Yusuf. Can you talk to us, Dr. Yusuf, about patience in these last ten? I mean, you you've embodied patience, Alhamdulillah, I mean, through being exonerated, falsely accused, exonerated and and carrying yourself with grace. Can you just give us a few minutes on patience inshallah as we come to the last third of the month of patience? Alhamdulillah, yeah, I'll try. I first want to begin with a dua that I usually say to myself, but I thought it may be. OK, to say it aloud in this particular space, I call it my dua for speaking. Oh Allah, I enter this sacred space at this sacred time to do your will. Protect me, guide me, have mercy upon me as I share what you have gifted me with the world. Allow me to rise because I am your creation. Clarify my thoughts so that they focus on you.
Loosen my tongue so that it speaks of you and calls to you. Allow me to magnify you and to extol you. For there is no deity beside you. Have mercy on me, guide me and protect me. Allahumma ameen. Definitely want to extend the salams to everyone. Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. You know, I've been witness that there is nothing worthy of worship except Allah alone without partner. That is important because sometimes when you think about the things that people have attached themselves to, you know, whether it be a stone or whether it be the sun itself that Allah depicts and describes in the Quran as people worshipping the sun, the stars and the moon and Allah says rather worship the one who created them. You know, I think about my journey and I call it a journey because the journey has not yet ended. This is a journey that is beautiful because I can place myself right in Quran by receiving what I call the ultimate inspiration, being named after Prophet Yusuf, alaihi salam, and also being named after Prophet Ijris, alaihi salam. That's my first and middle name. My journey is a journey where I really didn't know the truth about life, about anything until I was run over by the spike wheels of justice. I'm one of the members of the then known Central Park Five and now known Exonerated Five. And I'm looking at my watch because time tells things and Allah talks about time in a way where if you want to be thankful. And it's the 21st of this month, the Gregorian calendar on the 19th of April marked 33 years since the atrocity of taking us,
really, really stealing us, right, in a similar way that they stole our ancestors who looked like me from Africa and made us believe centuries later that we were only slaves, that we needed the liberation, that we needed to be a people who would call themselves a minority without realizing that we are actually part of the majority. And how the racism that permeated everything that turned the evil system of justice towards me had everything to do with the people looking at the color of my skin and judging me and not the content of my character. They actually turned my microphone down. They didn't want to hear us. They didn't want to really have us say anything. And when they drew us, they drew us in many ways where we looked like we were animals and we were beasts. This was my introduction. This was what I was faced with. I was given and this is the part that I think is really important. I was given a definition. I was presented with a definition here, Yusuf Salam. This is the definition that you have to accept as your reality. And I'll never forget, my mother told me I carry this into the prison, I carry this into the interrogation room. And when I got convicted, I carried it into the prison. And now I carry these statements that my mother told me out into the world. My mother told me that they needed me to participate in whatever it was that they were trying to do. Do not participate, she said. Refuse. When I put on the glasses called Islam. When I put on the thinking cap called Islam. That statement is so much more profound than the individuals that are carrying out the evil duties that they think they're doing just their job.
But in fact, they're listening to the devil himself, the waswasu of the shaitan who's telling them that it's OK. You know, we know they're not guilty, but it's OK to put these people in prison because we need the reality of slavery to continue by another name. And that another name that the additional name of slavery is the New Jim Crow system. That was the definition that they gave me. I had to think deep and hard and realize that they needed me to to take that definition. They needed me to accept that definition. In many ways, they wanted me to allow time to do me. Because they gave me time. I did seven years in prison. They gave me time. They wanted the time to do me and they did not want me to do the time. But I was reminded early in my bid. That I was born on purpose and with a purpose. That the most important truth beyond all truths when it comes to your birth. Is that when your mother and father got together, the great miracle that you see when you stand in front of a mirror, the great miracle that you see when you look at a photograph of a selfie of yourself is that miracle is that you were one of over 400 million options. All racing to the egg. And Allah chose you. Allah said to you, Koon, Faya Koon. And there you are. And here we are. When I connected to that reality, that truth, the ultimate reality that Allah wanted me to be here on purpose in this world,
living this life, I had to realize that. Whatever they wanted for me. Was so much less than it cheapened what it was that Allah wanted for me. And it gave me the permission to live my life in a full way. And when I think about being patient underneath the foot of oppression. You have to think a lot for the for the for the lessons I would always say and for the blessings, because let me tell you, it was a lot of hardship, a lot of pain, a lot of times where I would be on the prayer mat. And I remember I was telling a friend of mine the other day, I said, man, I remember the same prayer. I have the same prayer rug that I carry through all my prison bed. I still have it. I said there were times where I would wake up and I would be in a position of Sajda. I had fallen asleep in Sajda, asking Allah to remove this from me, help me out of this. After reading Surah Yusuf, I thought Allah was telling me something. I thought Allah was telling me that I was going to get out of prison a free man. But I came home to parole. I came home to more pressure. But when I think about what people have understood in the in the in the world of inspiration, they say pressure makes diamond, like everybody wants to be a diamond, but no one wants to go through the pressure of what it costs to become the diamond. Then more pressure on top of that. And then on top of that, more pressure. But it is exactly what Allah says in the Quran. Allah says, do you think that you will say that you believe and not be tested? Thank Allah for the tests, which is the lessons, and thank Allah for the blessings. And attribute all of it to Allah, because patience is the most beautiful thing that you can have.
The most profound statement of patience I found in the Quran is Sabran Jameel. When when the father of Yusuf, Yacoub was talking about, I'm going to just I'm going to have Sabran Jameel. We have to have that kind of patience because we live in a world which we call the microwave world. We want what we want when we want it. But Allah will give you and you will never be denied what is written for you. Just be patient. Smile when you're patient too. Think a lot. I'm pretty sure every single person watching just smiled. May Allah bless you. Profound, captivating. Honestly, I don't know how to follow that up except to say JazakAllah Khair. May Allah reward you. I can't imagine for the people that were sitting in that prison listening to your khutbas. Everyone wants to attend khutbas in these big masajids. I can't imagine what it would have been like to sit in your khutbas in prison and how many lives you probably touched that you don't even recognize that you touched. Dr. Yusuf, Alhamdulillah, and you continue to touch. But a young man who had given up hope in life that certainly would have been sitting in your khutba in prison and who found hope again through your words. And I'm sure I am 100 percent sure, bidna naita, that someone just found some hope in your words as well. That was close to giving up. So may Allah accept that from you. Every single time you speak, I don't want you to stop. And I mean that sincerely. You know, we had Dr. Yusuf for a confident Muslim session in mass, and then we went back and then, you know, Alhamdulillah, you grace us with another like two hour talk. And no one wanted you to stop. You know, and subhanAllah, we wanted you to keep going and going and going because truly sabrun jameel.
You're beautiful through that patience, mashallah. You shine through that patience. May Allah continue to bless you. May Allah keep you steadfast and firm. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make the best of your days the last of your days. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala forgive you for any shortcomings and may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala inspire many, many people through you and allow you to be one of his imams on this earth, one of his guiding examples and lights on this earth. And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala join you and all of us with our beloved Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Ameen. Allahumma ameen. Allahumma ameen. I appreciate it. May Allah continue to bless you. Please don't make it the last. Please don't make it the last. We want you. You can you can just choose what program you could have the Ramadan series 30 for 30. The web, we want you back over and over and over again. I know I speak for everybody, but we want to listen. I love being here. I love I love the spirit of Islam. I love your spirit as well, because one of the things that I appreciate is the welcome. Right. You know, it's one thing to be Muslim, but it's another thing to be welcomed. And a lot of people don't feel welcomed. And I think that the more we can welcome people, the more we can give people that smile, that charity that that Prophet Muhammad salallahu alayhi wa sallam talks about, smiling is a charity. And when you see your Muslim brother or your Muslim sister and you can smile for them like I love you for the sake of Allah, I appreciate you for the sake of Allah. All of it. Alhamdulillah. Brother Yusuf, I love you for the sake of Allah. Oh, SubhanAllah. I love you, too. You know, I'm saying it on behalf of a lot of people here. I love you. And I would have said it to Sheikh Jihad and he just he bounced. He he threw in, you know, those sneaky I love you's, the ones where it's kind of like, you know, when you're bros and like you don't want to like it. Love, you know, it's kind of, you know, we got to we got to one of those. And then he and then he just and then he just left the broadcast. Yeah, sometimes we got to be we got to we got to know that we sometimes have to be able to let the little macho go down.
Like you've got to put the macho down because sometimes it's uncomfortable. I got to be honest with you. It's very uncomfortable to be able to give love. But when you realize that Allah wants us to love each other, like the brotherhood that we have, the family of Muslims is different than even the family that we have that our own blood. Because that family holds each other sacred. They realize that Allah is watching all the time, recording all the time. And that book that we will be presented with, we hope that book has nothing but good deeds. And if they don't, I mean, we hope that a lot to Allah washes away all of the wrongs that we've done because of the rights that we try to do to correct those things that we did wrong. You know, we have to we have to look at our Muslim brothers and Muslim sisters as our family. Allah yabarak fikam. Jazakum Allah khairan to all of you. Alhamdulillah, Rabbul Ameen. As we are now at the end of this all, we pray that Allah subhana wa ta'ala forgive us for any shortcomings. Jazakum Allah khair. Dr. Yousuf, please keep us in your du'a inshaAllah ta'ala. For everyone else that has been here, Alhamdulillah Rabbul Ameen. We are grateful to you. We thank you for bearing with us. We had our glitches. We have our technical difficulties. Clearly, we have our hackers sometimes as well, but we do our best. And I want to actually bring up the last count inshaAllah ta'ala for donors. Bismillah. Let's see where we're at. Allahu Akbar. Alhamdulillah. So we crossed the 1000 mark. We're very close to our goal. I have no doubt that bi'idhnanahi ta'ala that those of you who will join later on inshaAllah ta'ala, some of you catching up with this will bi'idhnanahi ta'ala join through that link. And I just want to reemphasize to you, you know, Alhamdulillah Rabbul Ameen, we have a large team. And this is not just one person. This is not just five people. This is a large team. And when we say we're over 80, that's just talking about staff, but the volunteers,
those who donate are just as much a part of this work as anyone who works with that. Those who do dua for us the way that you do sincerely, bi'idhnanahi ta'ala, that's also to our benefits and to our upliftment. All of that counts and all of that makes you a part of the team bi'idhnanahi ta'ala. And we appreciate you all. We truly do love our ummah. And so we love you all for the sake of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. And our request of you is as you're continuing to give bi'idhnanahi ta'ala to remember all of us in your dua, to remember the team in your dua, to give us feedback, to ask us questions, to be a part of this, to join us year in year out, to join the 30 for 30 nightly, you know, make yourself known with bi'idhnanahi ta'ala in the comments and a big thank you. At the same time, you know, spread this khair bi'idhnanahi ta'ala if you've benefited from it. InshaAllah ta'ala we also know that we're coming into the last moments, especially if you're in New York on the East Coast, you're about to break your fast. So we're going to go ahead and end now bi'idhnanahi ta'ala with a short dua. Alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen, wa salatu wa salamu ala rasoolihi al kareem wa ala amihi wa sahbihi ajma'een. Oh Allah, we call upon you and we ask you first and foremost to send your peace and blessings upon your messenger Muhammad salallahu alayhi wa sallam. Yeah Allah as we thank you for all the blessings and praise you for all the blessings, we praise you for the blessing of sending us Mohammed sallallahu alaihi wa sallam with this beautiful and perfect religion and completing your favour upon us. Yeah Allah we thank you for this blessing of Islam, we thank you for this blessing of Iman, we thank you for the blessing of the Qur'an, we thank you for the blessing of the sunnah of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. We thank you for the blessing of brotherhood and sisterhood for your sake. take. Ya Allah we ask you to unite our hearts and to connect them all to you. Ya Allah, unite our hearts and connect them all to you. Ya Allah, unite our hearts and connect them all to you. Ya Allah unite our ranks and make them all pleasing to you. Ya Allah, unite our ranks and let them all move in a direction that is pleasing to you.
Ya Allah, unite our hearts, unite our ranks, to make us people that are connected to you and Ummah that is connected to you and the collective that moves with the direction, the thrust, the guidance of the best of the guidance that was sent with the Prophet ﷺ Ya Allah protect us from the evil of the shaytan, the evil of those who wishes harm Ya Allah protect us from the evil of ourselves, protect us from disunity, protect us from envy protect us from being captivated by our desires, protect us from falling victim to those traps that only distance us from you Ya Allah forgive us for the times that we've fallen and protect us from falling over and over again Ya Allah let this Ramadan be the best of all of our Ramadans Ya Allah let us be amongst those who catch Laylatul Qadr Ya Allah write down Laylatul Qadr for us Complete, complete, complete Ya Allah those who will fall asleep, those who have work, those who will find that they did not worship as much as they could have any slacking, anything of that sort Ya Allah overlook it all and write down Laylatul Qadr for all of us fully Ya Rabbil Alameen, Ya Allah, Ya Allah, Ya Allah make our feet firm on the Day of Judgment Ya Allah put our hearts at ease on the Day of Judgment Ya Allah make our scale of good deeds heavy on the Day of Judgment Ya Allah let our procedure on the Day of Judgment be swift Ya Rabbil Alameen where you enter us into a Firdaws Al A'ada without any form of questioning and without any form of Hisab, any form of asking Ya Allah let us be amongst those that you allow to forego the questioning in any form of accountability Ya Allah let us be amongst those that cross over the Sirat like the blink of an eye Ya Allah let us be amongst those for whom the Day of Judgment is shorter than the time between Dhuhr and Asr Ya Allah let us be people of the hereafter not children of this world Ya Allah allow us to overcome any sins that hold us back from you
Ya Allah purify us from anything that causes our Du'as to not be raised to you Ya Allah, Ya Allah uplift our Ummah, Ya Allah our Ummah in Palestine, our Ummah in Kashmir, our Ummah in Yemen, our Ummah in Syria Ya Allah our Ummah in Somalia, Ya Allah our Ummah, our Ummah, our Ummah Ya Allah uplift them, Ya Allah uplift them Ya Allah liberate Al Aqsa, liberate Al Aqsa, liberate Al Aqsa from the occupation Ya Rabbil Al Ameen, and Ya Allah make us people that champion the cause of the oppressed wherever we are and do so always with your Deen Allahumma Ameen Wa Salaamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullah Jazakum Allah Khayran to all of you for attending We pray that you'll continue to inshallah spread the word, make Du'a, donate and be a part of our programs going forward Wa Salaamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullah At Yaqeen, we focus on doing exactly that All of our work is centered on three areas Dismantling doubts to establish the firm roots of faith Nurturing conviction to strengthen existing faith and help it grow And inspiring contribution to empower our community to benefit all of humanity It all starts with a paper A dynamic team of researchers and editors write academic papers that not only address doubts but serve as a think tank for new ideas that are Islamically authentic and academically credible These high level papers are turned into accessible content that everyone can interact with
Like simple infographics, engaging videos and audio books Curriculum and resources for youth of all ages And programs for the leaders in our community With programs like Conviction Circles, we've provided a space for our community to critically explore faith and nurture certainty in all of our hearts Through Yaqeen, we are empowering people to become confident Muslims who can bring positive change to our society By sticking to these three areas, we've not only helped individual Muslims but we've created an authentic voice for change that speaks not only to Muslims but people of all backgrounds We are reclaiming our narrative to produce that strong, beautiful community standing together to benefit humanity By dismantling doubts and nurturing conviction, one truth at a time
Welcome back!
Bookmark content
Download resources easily
Manage your donations
Track your spiritual growth
1 items
1 items
1 items
25 items
50 items
9 items
