Surah Kahf Recitation & Jumu'ah Khutbah | Mawlana Yousuf Ghouse | 6/27

Recitation of Surah Al-Kahf

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Who sent down to His servant the Book, and made it not crooked — upright — that He may warn of a severe punishment from Himself, and give good tidings to the believers who do righteous deeds, that they will have a good reward, remaining therein forever.

And they warn those who say Allah has taken a son. They have no knowledge of it, nor do their fathers. The greatest word that comes out of their mouths is that they say nothing but a lie.

So perhaps you will make yourself grieve over their traces, if they do not believe in this message. Indeed, We have made that which is on the earth an adornment for it, that We may test them as to which of them is best in deed. And indeed, We will make that which is on it a barren ground.

Or do you think that the companions of the cave and the Raqeem were of Our signs a wonder? When the young men took refuge in the cave, they said, "Our Lord, give us mercy from Yourself, and prepare for us from our affair a right course." So We struck upon their ears in the cave for a number of years. Then We raised them up so that We might know which of the two parties was best in reckoning how long they remained therein.

We relate to you their story in truth. Indeed, they were young men who believed in their Lord, and We increased them in guidance. And We bound their hearts when they stood up and said, "Our Lord is the Lord of the heavens and the earth. We will not call upon any god other than Him. Indeed, if we did, we would have said something terrible." These are a people who have taken gods other than Him. Why do they not come with a clear authority? Who is more unjust than one who invents a lie about Allah?

And when you have withdrawn from them and what they worship other than Allah, then go to the cave. Your Lord will spread for you His mercy and prepare for you from your affair a facility. And you will see the sun, when it rises, move away from their cave to the right, and when it sets, turn away from them to the left, while they were in an open space within it. These are from the signs of Allah. Whom Allah guides is the rightly guided, and whom He sends astray — you will not find for him a protecting friend.

And you would think them awake, while they were asleep. And We turned them to the right and to the left, while their dog stretched his forelegs at the entrance. If you had looked at them, you would have fled from them and been filled with fear of them.

And thus did We rouse them that they might question one another. One of them said, "How long have you remained here?" They said, "We have remained a day or part of a day." They said, "Your Lord knows best how long you remained. So send one of you with this silver coin of yours to the city and let him look to which is the best food and bring you provision from it and let him be cautious. And let no one be aware of you. Indeed, if they come to know of you, they will stone you or return you to their religion, and you will never succeed."

And thus did We make them known so that they would know that the promise of Allah is truth and that of the Hour there is no doubt. When they disputed among themselves about their affair, they said, "Construct over them a structure." Their Lord knows best about them. Those who prevailed in the matter said, "We will surely take upon them a masjid."

They will say, "Three, the fourth of them being their dog." And they will say, "Five, the sixth of them being their dog" — guessing at the unknown. And they will say, "Seven, and the eighth of them is their dog." Say, "My Lord knows best their number. None knows them except a few. So do not argue about them except with an obvious argument and do not inquire about them from anyone."

And never say of anything, "Indeed, I will do that tomorrow," except by saying, "If Allah wills." And remember your Lord when you forget, and say, "Perhaps my Lord will guide me to what is nearer than this in right conduct."

And they remained in their cave for three hundred years and exceeded by nine. Say, "Allah knows best how long they remained. His is the knowledge of the unseen of the heavens and the earth. How Seeing is He and how Hearing! They have no protector other than Him, and He shares not His legislation with anyone."

And recite what has been revealed to you of the Book of your Lord. There is no changer of His words, and you will not find any refuge besides Him. And keep yourself patient with those who call upon their Lord in the morning and the evening, seeking His face. And let not your eyes pass beyond them, desiring adornment of the worldly life, and do not obey one whose heart We have made heedless of Our remembrance and who follows his desire and whose affair is ever in neglect.

And say, "The truth is from your Lord, so whoever wills — let him believe; and whoever wills — let him disbelieve." Verily, We have prepared for the wrongdoers a Fire whose walls will surround them. And if they call for relief, they will be relieved with water like murky oil that scalds the faces. Wretched is the drink, and evil is the resting place.

Indeed, those who have believed and done righteous deeds — indeed, We will not allow to be lost the reward of any who did well in deeds. Those will have Gardens of Eternity, beneath which rivers flow. They will be adorned therein with bracelets of gold and will wear green garments of fine silk and brocade, reclining therein on adorned couches. Blessed is the reward, and good is the resting place.

And present to them an example of two men: We granted to one of them two gardens of grapevines, and We bordered them with palm trees, and We placed between them fields of crops. Each of the two gardens produced its fruit and did not fall short thereof in anything. And We caused a river to flow within them. And he had fruit, so he said to his companion while he was conversing with him, "I am greater than you in wealth and mightier in numbers of men."

And he entered his garden while he was unjust to himself. He said, "I do not think that this will perish — ever. And I do not think the Hour will occur. And even if I should be brought back to my Lord, I will surely find better than this as a return."

His companion said to him while he was conversing with him, "Do you disbelieve in He who created you from dust and then from a drop of sperm and then formed you into a man? But He is Allah, my Lord, and I do not associate with my Lord anyone. And if you see me as less than you in wealth and children, then perhaps my Lord will give me something better than your garden and will send upon your garden a calamity from the sky, and it will become a smooth, dusty ground. Or its water will become deeply sunken in the earth, so you would never be able to seek it."

And his fruits were encompassed by ruin, so he began turning his hands in grief over what he had spent on it, while it had collapsed upon its trellises, and said, "Oh, I wish I had not associated with my Lord anyone." And there was for him no company to aid him other than Allah, nor could he defend himself. There, the authority is for Allah, the True. He is best in reward and best in outcome.

And present to them the example of the life of this world: it is like rain which We send down from the sky, and the vegetation of the earth mingles with it and then it becomes dry remnants, scattered by the winds. And Allah is ever over all things Perfect in Ability. Wealth and children are the adornment of the life of this world. But the enduring good deeds are better to your Lord in reward and better in hope.

And on the Day We will move the mountains, and you will see the earth as a level plain, and We will gather them and not leave behind from them anyone. And they will be presented before your Lord in rows, saying, "You have certainly come to Us just as We created you the first time. But you claimed that We would never make for you an appointment." And the record of deeds will be placed, and you will see the criminals fearful of that within it, and they will say, "Oh, woe to us! What is this book that leaves nothing small or great except that it has enumerated it?" And they will find what they did present before them. And your Lord does injustice to no one.

And when We said to the angels, "Prostrate to Adam," they prostrated, except for Iblees. He was of the jinn and departed from the command of his Lord. Then will you take him and his descendants as allies other than Me while they are enemies to you? Wretched it is for the wrongdoers as an exchange.

I did not make them witness to the creation of the heavens and the earth or to the creation of themselves, and I would not have taken the misguiders as assistants. And on the Day He will say, "Call My 'partners' whom you claimed," and they will invoke them, but they will not respond to them. And We will put between them a barrier of destruction. And the criminals will see the Fire and will be certain that they are to fall therein. And they will not find from it a way elsewhere.

And We have certainly diversified in this Qur'an for the people from every kind of example. And man has ever been, most of anything, prone to dispute. And nothing prevented the people from believing when guidance came to them and from asking forgiveness of their Lord — except that there should befall them the fate of the former peoples or that the punishment should come before them. And We send not the messengers except as bringers of good tidings and warners. And those who disbelieve dispute with falsehood to refute the truth thereby. And they have taken My verses and that of which they are warned in ridicule.

And who is more unjust than one who is reminded of the verses of his Lord but turns away from them and forgets what his hands have put forth? Indeed, We have placed over their hearts coverings, lest they understand it, and in their ears is deafness. And if you invite them to guidance — they will never be guided, then — ever. And your Lord is the Forgiving, full of mercy. If He were to impose blame upon them for what they earned, He would have hastened for them the punishment. Rather, for them is an appointment from which they will never find an escape.

And those cities — We destroyed them when they wronged, and We made for their destruction an appointed time.

And when Musa said to his boy, "I will not cease until I reach the junction of the two seas or continue for a long period." But when they reached the junction between them, they forgot their fish, and it took its course into the sea, slipping away. And when they had passed beyond it, he said to his boy, "Bring us our morning meal. We have certainly suffered in this journey of ours much fatigue." He said, "Do you see? When we retired to the rock, indeed, I forgot the fish. And none made me forget it except Satan — that I should mention it. And it took its course into the sea amazingly." He said, "That is what we were seeking." So they returned, following their footprints.

And they found a servant from among Our servants to whom We had given mercy from Us and had taught him from Us a certain knowledge. Musa said to him, "May I follow you on the condition that you teach me from what you have been taught of sound judgment?" He said, "Indeed, with me you will never be able to have patience. And how can you have patience for what you do not encompass in knowledge?" He said, "You will find me, if Allah wills, patient, and I will not disobey you in any order."

He said, "Then if you follow me, do not ask me about anything until I make to you mention of it." So they set out, until when they had embarked on the ship, he made a hole in it. He said, "Have you made a hole in it to drown its people? You have certainly done a grave thing." He said, "Did I not say that with me you would never be able to have patience?" He said, "Do not blame me for what I forgot and do not cover me in my matter with difficulty."

So they set out, until when they met a boy, he killed him. He said, "Have you killed a pure soul for other than having killed a soul? You have certainly done a deplorable thing." He said, "Did I not tell you that with me you would never be able to have patience?" He said, "If I should ask you about anything after this, then do not keep me as a companion. You have obtained from me an excuse."

So they set out, until when they came to the people of a town, they asked its people for food, but they refused to offer them hospitality. And they found therein a wall about to collapse, so he restored it. He said, "If you wished, you could have taken for it a payment." He said, "This is parting between me and you. I will inform you of the interpretation of that about which you could not have patience."

As for the ship, it belonged to poor people working at sea. So I intended to cause defect in it as there was after them a king who seized every ship by force. As for the boy, his parents were believers, and we feared that he would overburden them by transgression and disbelief. So we intended that their Lord should substitute for them one better than him in purity and nearer to mercy. And as for the wall, it belonged to two orphan boys in the city, and there was beneath it a treasure for them. And their father had been righteous. So your Lord intended that they reach maturity and extract their treasure as a mercy from your Lord. And I did not do it of my own accord. That is the interpretation of that about which you could not have patience."

And they ask you about Dhul-Qarnayn. Say, "I will recite to you about him a report." Indeed, We established him upon the earth, and We gave him of everything a means. So he followed a way until, when he reached the setting of the sun, he found it setting in a spring of dark mud, and he found near it a people. We said, "O Dhul-Qarnayn, either you punish them or else adopt among them a way of goodness." He said, "As for the one who wrongs, We will punish him. Then he will be returned to his Lord, and He will punish him with a terrible punishment. But as for one who believes and does righteousness, he will have a reward of Paradise, and we will speak to him from our command with ease."

Then he followed a way until, when he reached the rising of the sun, he found it rising on a people for whom We had not made against it any shield. Thus it was. And We had encompassed in knowledge all that he had. Then he followed a way until, when he reached a pass between two mountains, he found beside them a people who could hardly understand any speech. They said, "O Dhul-Qarnayn, indeed Gog and Magog are great corrupters in the land. So may we assign for you an expenditure that you might make between us and them a barrier?" He said, "That in which my Lord has established me is better. But assist me with strength; I will make between you and them a dam. Bring me sheets of iron" — until, when he had leveled between the two sides, he said, "Blow," until when he had made it a fire, he said, "Bring me, that I may pour over it molten copper." So they were unable to pass over it, nor were they able to pierce it. He said, "This is a mercy from my Lord. But when the promise of my Lord comes, He will make it level, and ever is the promise of my Lord true."

And We will leave them that day surging over each other, and the Horn will be blown, and We will assemble them in one assembly. And on that day We will present Hell to the disbelievers, on display — those whose eyes had been within a cover away from My remembrance, and they were not able to hear.

Then do those who disbelieve think that they can take My servants as allies besides Me? Indeed, We have prepared Hell for the disbelievers as a lodging. Say, "Shall We inform you of the greatest losers as to their deeds? Those whose effort is lost in worldly life, while they think that they are doing well in work." Those are the ones who disbelieve in the verses of their Lord and in His meeting, so their deeds have become worthless; and We will not assign to them on the Day of Resurrection any importance. That is their recompense — Hell — for what they denied and for what they took My signs and My messengers in ridicule.

Indeed, those who have believed and done righteous deeds — they will have the Gardens of Paradise as a lodging, wherein they abide eternally. They will not desire from it any transfer.

Say, "If the sea were ink for the words of my Lord, the sea would be exhausted before the words of my Lord were exhausted, even if We brought the like of it as a supplement." Say, "I am only a man like you, to whom it has been revealed that your god is but one God. So whoever would hope for the meeting with his Lord — let him do righteous work and not associate in the worship of his Lord anyone."

Khutbah: Loving for Others What You Love for Yourself

The Four Hadith That Summarize Our Entire Deen

Normally in colleges, you may see people preparing for a big exam — let's say the MCAT. You have the upperclassmen who have taken the MCAT and passed through that stage of their lives. You have the underclassmen who are preparing for it. Now what happens is that the people that are in prep mode see somebody who already came through and passed the MCAT, and maybe somebody did very well. So then they ask him: "Studying all of this is just overwhelming for me. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. But I see that you got a really good score. So can you just tell me what the important stuff is to study so I can just stick to that? Because it's too hard for me to go through everything."

So normally the response is, "Well, you can't really do that. You just have to study everything. Even though I got a good score, I can't really distill for you what the important stuff is." But imagine if somebody could actually do that — they say, "Instead of studying all the material necessary to do well on the MCAT, let me just give you material that can fit into one page. This is your cheat sheet. As long as you know this, that's good enough. You'll be able to get into any medical school you want." That would sound like it's too good to be true. And with studying for the MCAT, it is too good to be true — because that doesn't happen.

But something interesting is that actually something far more important than getting into medical school is our deen. And there was somebody who was able to do exactly that for our religion. There is a scholar by the name of Imam Abu Dawud al-Sijistani. He was an amazingly qualified scholar of hadith. He knew 500,000 hadith. As a famous saying goes:

(A well-known saying of the scholars regarding Imam Abu Dawud al-Sijistani)

That hadith was second nature to him. So he knew 500,000 hadith. And he said that after learning all of these different narrations from the Prophet ﷺ, what he realized is that pretty much everything can be summed down to just four hadith. Everything basically comes down to those four. They summarize our entire deen.

So when we hear something like this, we should say, "Wow, that sounds too good to be true." In any other circumstance in life, that would be too good to be true. But when it comes to our deen, it isn't. So he summarized it to four hadith — and these are very, very important hadith for us to reflect upon. Today we'll be talking about one of them.

Just so that we know the context: there are two realms of our deen. One is the do's, and the other is the don'ts. The do's are divided into two: there's the ibadat — our worship of Allah — and there's our interaction with our fellow human beings, the mu'asharat. The don'ts are things we're supposed to stay away from.

So those four hadith are: one of them is,

"Actions are judged by their intentions." (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1907)

This is about making sure our ibadat — our worship of Allah, our realm of interaction between us and Allah — is done properly, and that we refine our intention and ensure we're doing it sincerely. Then there is another hadith about our interaction with our fellow human beings, which we'll come to in a moment.

As for the don'ts: one hadith says,

"Part of the perfection of one's Islam is leaving that which does not concern him." (Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2317; Ibn Majah, Hadith 3976)

Maybe we'll talk about that on a future occasion. The other one says,

"The halal is clear and the haram is clear." (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 52; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1599)

That halal is clear, haram is clear, and between them are doubtful matters. If you want to keep your deen safe, you have to stay away from the doubtful things as well. He said, putting all four of these together, that encapsulates our entire religion. So these are four extremely comprehensive narrations. And the value of a statement like that, coming from someone like Imam Abu Dawud, who had 500,000 hadith before him, really means a lot.

The Hadith of Loving for Your Brother What You Love for Yourself

We said the do's comprise our interaction with Allah and our interaction with our fellow human being — ibadat, and then mu'asharat. The one we'll talk about today is that second one. So Imam al-Bukhari, rahimahullah, reports in his Sahih, from his teacher Musaddad, who reports from Yahya ibn Sa'id al-Qattan, who reports from Shu'ba, from Qatada, from Anas, radiyallahu anhu, that the Prophet ﷺ said:

"None of you truly believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself." (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 13; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 45)

So we'll spend the next few moments focusing on this one. Keep in mind that this constitutes about 25% of our deen. No person truly believes — we have not perfected our faith — until we love for others what we love for ourselves.

Three Ways of Doing Good for Others

When we interact with any other person and do something good for them, we can do it in one of three ways. Either intellectually — we think this is a reasonable thing to do, it makes sense that it seems like the right thing to do, even if there's not an internal drive. Or externally — there may be social pressure, societal norms, people generally expect this. Or internally — a person is driven from within to do it.

This hadith talks about that third level: that none of us truly have iman until we are actually loving internally for our brother what we love for ourselves. We're not doing it due to external pressure, we're not doing it because intellectually it seems like the right thing to do — rather, we're just internally driven to do it. So whatever we theoretically know that we're supposed to do, once that becomes part of our internal drive, then the hadith is saying that is when our iman has become complete.

Three Levels in Our Dealings with Others

In regards to actual practice of this, we may say, "Okay, this sounds great theoretically, but where do we stand? How does this actually work in reality?" People are at three levels when it comes to others:

Level One: You don't want somebody to have something good — you want bad things to happen to them, or you don't want them to have anything good. In Arabic, this is called hasad — jealousy.

Level Two: You are okay with them having something good, but you just want them to be at the same level as you — the sawi. You have a cookie, someone asks for some, you break it in half, you give them half and take half for yourself. That is tasawi.

Level Three: You actually want someone to have something better than yourself. Someone asks you for your cookie, you break off a little piece for yourself, and you give them the entire cookie. That is tafdeel. This is what the hadith is talking about — because we would have loved that for ourselves, but we prefer it for others.

How to Deal with Hasad (Jealousy)

In regards to the first level — if we don't want someone to have something good — what are some practical ways that we can resolve this? If someone else gets a promotion and we don't, and we feel bad inside, or someone else has been chosen for something we wanted, and we don't want them to have it — we should know that this is a disease. This is a disease of the heart.

First: We must make du'a that Allah removes this jealousy from our hearts.

The more we make du'a for it, the more we sincerely believe that Allah will respond to our du'a, then inevitably Allah will respond.

Second: There is a verse of the Qur'an:

Whatever blessings you have are from Allah. That applies to us, and it applies to everyone else too. So if someone else gets a blessing, that is from Allah. If we are feeling upset about that internally — even if we're not communicating it to anyone — that means we're being upset about something that Allah gave that other person. So obviously that's not good. We take this verse, we repeat it to ourselves and reflect on it, and the more we internalize it, the larger the reality will become.

Third: There is a hadith of the Prophet ﷺ:

"Whatever has passed you by was never going to reach you." (Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 4699; Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 22706 — from the hadith of Ubadah ibn al-Samit)

Whatever passes over you, whatever you don't have, was never going to touch you. So if somebody else receives something that we don't, and we feel really bad about it, we take this statement of the Prophet ﷺ and say to ourselves: whatever passed over us was never going to be ours in the first place. It was never destined for me. So it is useless for me to desire that.

Fourth: Anything that happens — these are all worldly things. We have to remember:

This world is all just play. Everything going on is, in a sense, not the final reality. Just like a movie — everything in it is not actually real. Similarly, on the Day of Judgment, it's like the curtain will be pulled, and we'll realize that everything was temporal. Whatever positions a person had in the world, it doesn't matter at all, because the only thing that matters is how close a person was to Allah.

Except the one who comes to Allah with a sound heart. So if we reflect on that — that I'm getting upset over something that's ultimately meaningless — maybe that will help us gain the proper perspective.

Tafdeel — Preferring Others Over Yourself

The second level is tasawi — you give someone else equivalent to what you have. The third and final level is tafdeel — you prefer that others get what you would like for yourself. You give others preference over yourself.

Just to put this into perspective: there was a person I went to school with, and there were two people who were competing for the top position in the class. Everyone thought it was going to go to one person, and then it ended up going to the other person. The person that everyone thought was supposed to get the top position — the valedictorian — went to the other person who actually finished as valedictorian and said, "I am genuinely more happy that you got this position than me." That is loving for others what we love for ourselves.

This can happen in school, with exams, with promotions, whatever it is. The hadith speaks specifically to this third level: that we love for others what we love for ourselves — in other words, we prefer others over ourselves. We give them the greater portion — tafdeel.

The Lesson of the Two Men — Dawud and the Ninety-Nine Sheep

Just to finish with this — there's a story that many of us may have heard before. Allah says in the Qur'an:

Has the story of the two people who disputed come to you? There are many different tafseer explanations of this. They came to Dawud alayhi salam. One of them said:

"This is my brother. He has 99 sheep. I only have one. He asked — he tried to take my one sheep so that he would have a hundred and I would have zero."

One of the prominent scholars of tafseer of our time says that what Allah is talking about here applies sometimes when you have a big business, and there is a small mom-and-pop shop. Even though that small shop doesn't provide any competition whatsoever — it's not threatening the integrity of the big business — the big business cannot possibly stand to have that other person in business. So they make sure to put them out of business.

This is what was going on. This man had 99 sheep. He saw somebody else with just one sheep. And he said:

He bested me in the discussion and ended up taking my one sheep. He couldn't tolerate that anybody had anything more.

So then Dawud alayhi salam — وَظَنَّ دَاوُودُ أَنَّمَا فَتَنَّاهُ — Dawud alayhi salam realized that this was a test. How was it a test? Because in his kingdom, there was this sort of injustice going on — people not able to tolerate anyone else. But this hadith is telling us not just to tolerate, not just allow for other people to exist, but rather to prefer them over ourselves.

"None of you truly believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself." (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 13; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 45)

None of us truly believe until we love for our brethren what we love for ourselves. We ask that Allah give us tawfiq.

Second Khutbah

Allah said: O you who believe, fear Allah, and let every soul look to what it has put forth for tomorrow, and fear Allah. Indeed, Allah is Acquainted with what you do.

Imam Abu Dawud al-Sijistani, may Allah have mercy on him, chose from 500,000 hadith four of them and said that they are the pillars of Islam. And from these four is the hadith narrated by Imam al-Bukhari, through his chain from Musaddad, from Yahya ibn Sa'id al-Qattan, from Shu'ba, from Qatada, from Anas, radiyallahu anhu, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: No one of you will truly believe until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.

So people, in relation to this hadith, treat each other on three levels. One of them is a man who does not love for his brother to have good, but rather wishes to lose what he finds of good — this is called envy. The second one is a man who loves for his brother to have good, but does not love for him to have more than him — this is called equality. The third one, which is the original intention of this hadith, is that a man loves for his brother to have good, and actually prefers it over himself.

We ask Allah to grant us success. I say this, and I ask Allah to forgive me and you and all Muslims — so ask His forgiveness. Indeed, He is the Forgiving, the Merciful.

All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. And peace and blessings be upon His Messenger, the Trustworthy.

O Allah, support Islam and the Muslims. O Allah, help those who support the religion of Muhammad ﷺ and make us of them. And overpower those who forsake the religion of Muhammad ﷺ and do not make us of them. O Allah, show us the truth and grant us to follow it. And show us the falsehood and grant us to avoid it. O Allah, support the Muslims. O Allah, protect the Muslims. O Allah, help the weak Muslims everywhere — especially in Gaza, in Syria, in Sudan, and everywhere.

O servants of Allah, Allah commands justice and good and kindness to one another, and forbids immorality and evil and transgression. He warns you so that you may remember.

Announcements

Please pass the donation boxes from left to right. There are also kiosks in the lobby. We know the many benefits of charity — may Allah give us tawfiq.

Dar es-Salaam's Tanweer Intensive will be starting insha'Allah on August 11th. The Integrated High School Program — Tadrees will also be beginning. Please apply online.

Alhamdulillah, there are many summer programs going on at Masjid Dar es-Salaam. Please see the website for more details:

• Tarbiyah for Tots — for boys and girls ages 4–5.
• Qur'an, Islamic Studies and Sports Camp (QIS) — for boys and girls ages 6–13.
• Tamheed Summer Intensive — for brothers and sisters ages 14 and up, covering fundamental Islamic sciences.

Alhamdulillah, we know that people have a lot of free time in the summer. We should try to take advantage of it and use it in the most beneficial way possible. See the website for more details.

There will be a weekly Tafsir on Tuesdays and a weekly Seerah Dars on Thursdays, insha'Allah. Tomorrow there will be no Team Fajr program due to the World Ijtema taking place this weekend. The next Sisters' Bi-Weekly Seerah and Salawat Suhbah will be taking place in a few weeks. The Sisters' Weekly Urdu Tafsir is currently on pause.

As many of us have heard, the World Ijtema is taking place this weekend at the Rosemount Convention Center for brothers 16 and up. This is a very unique opportunity where people are coming from all over the world — a very spiritual gathering. We should all try to do our best to attend for however long we can.

And of course, we remember that our brethren around the world are suffering — in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, China, Burma, and many other places. We make du'a that Allah alleviate all of their suffering.