Surah Kahf Recitation & Jumu'ah Khutbah | Mawlana Yusuf Ghouse | 8/29

Recitation of Surah Al-Kahf

And they are in the midst of these verses of Allah. Whoever Allah guides, he is the guided one. And whoever is misguided, you will not find for him a guiding guardian.

And you think of them as waking up while they are sleeping. And We turn them to the right and to the left. And their dog is upright, its arms in the middle.

If you looked at them, you would turn from them to escape, and you would be filled with fear. And thus did We send them that they might ask one another. One of them said, How long have you stayed? They said, We stayed a day or a part of a day.

They said, Your Lord knows best how long you have stayed. So send one of you with this paper to Medina, so that he may see what pure food is available, so that he may bring you provision from it, and that he may be gentle. And that no one should perceive you.

If they come out against you, they will stone you or turn you back to their religion, and you will never succeed. And thus did We send them that they might know that the promise of Allah is true, and that the Hour is not to be doubted, when they dispute among themselves their affair. So they said, Build on them the building of their Lord.

They know best. Those who were victorious over them said, We will take upon them a masjid. They will say, Three of them, their dog being the fourth. And they will say, Five of them, their dog being the sixth, guessing at the unseen. And they will say, Seven of them, their dog being the eighth. Say, My Lord knows best their number. Only a few know what they know. So do not argue about them except in plain sight. And do not ask of any of them about them.

And do not say of anything, I will do that tomorrow, except that Allah wills. And remember your Lord when you forget. And say, Perhaps my Lord will guide me to a nearer way than this. And they stayed in their cave three hundred years, and they increased by nine.

Say, Allah knows best how long they stayed; to Him belong the unseen of the heavens and the earth. Observe with Him and listen. They have no guardian besides Him, and none is associated with Him in His judgment.

And recite what has been revealed to you from the Book of your Lord. There is no alteration to His words. And you will not find besides Him a refuge. And be patient with those who call upon their Lord morning and evening. And do not turn your eyes away from them, desiring the adornment of the life of this world. And do not obey him whose heart We have made heedless of Our remembrance, and he followed his desire, and his affair was excess.

And say, The truth is from your Lord. So whoever wills, let him believe. And whoever wills, let him disbelieve. Indeed, 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, which scalds the faces. Wretched is the drink, and evil is the resting place.

Indeed, those who believe and do righteous deeds — indeed, We do not waste the reward of one who does good deeds. Those will have Gardens of Eden 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. Excellent is the reward, and good is the resting place.

And present to them the example of two men: We gave one of them two gardens of grapevines and surrounded them with palm trees and 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 to gush forth within them a river. 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 ever perish. 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 the One who created you from dust, then from a sperm-drop, then fashioned you into a man? But as for me, He is Allah, my Lord, and I do not associate anyone with my Lord. And why did you not say, when you entered your garden, What Allah wills, there is no power except with Allah. 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 send upon it a calamity from the sky, and it will become a smooth, dusty ground, or its water will become sunken into the earth, so you would never be able to seek it.

And his fruits were encompassed by ruin, and he began to turn his hands over in distress at what he had spent on it, while it was collapsed upon its trellises, and he said, I wish I had not associated anyone with my Lord. And there was for him no company to aid him other than Allah, nor could he defend himself. There, protection is from Allah, the Truth. 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 for reward and better for hope.

And on the Day when We will remove the mountains and you will see the earth as a leveled 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 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 before Adam, they prostrated, except for Iblis. 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 the creation of the heavens and the earth or the creation of themselves, and I would not have taken the misguiders as assistants. And on the Day when 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 into it. 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; but man has ever been, most of anything, contentious. And what prevented the people from believing when guidance came to them and from asking forgiveness of their Lord — except that there would befall them the way of the former peoples or the punishment would come before them. And We do not send the messengers except as bringers of good tidings and warners. And those who disbelieve dispute with falsehood to refute the truth thereby. And they take 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 your Lord is Forgiving and 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 Moses said to his servant, 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 servant, Bring us our morning meal. We have certainly suffered in this journey of ours much fatigue. He said, Did 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 of Ours to whom We had given mercy from Us and had taught him knowledge from Us. Moses 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, you will not be able to have patience with me. 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 about it mention. 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 good 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. 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 to everything a way. 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 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 the best, 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. And We had encompassed in knowledge whatever he had. Then he followed a way until, when he reached the point of sunset between the two barriers, he found beside them a people who could hardly understand speech. They said, O Dhul-Qarnayn, indeed Gog and Magog are great corruptors 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 mountain walls, he said, Blow with bellows, until when he had made it a fire, he said, Bring me, that I may pour over it molten copper.

So Gog and Magog 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 trumpet will be blown, and We will gather them all together. And We will present Hell that Day 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 instead of Me as allies? Indeed, We have prepared Hell for the disbelievers as a lodging. Say, Shall We inform you of the greatest losers as to 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 the meeting with Him, 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 having taken My verses 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 writing 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 has been revealed that your God is 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.

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Khutbah: Reviving the Dead Heart — There Is Always Hope

أَشْهَدُ أَن لَّا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ — I bear witness that there is no deity except Allah. أَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا رَّسُولُ اللَّهِ — I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.

The Obstinacy of Disbelief

Allah said in the Qur'an:

That the judgment has come to pass — that the majority of them will not believe. And then Allah didn't just stop at that. Allah went on to describe further:

That We have placed these collars, or these yokes, on their necks — so these reach their chins, such that they are forced to be looking up. In other words, they won't be able to look anywhere else. So Allah is describing that these people are not able to see even what's under their noses, so to speak. Why? Because it is as if there's a barrier that's even preventing them from their heads moving at all.

So now the comparison over here is that these people are disbelieving obstinately. No matter what you try to present before them, no matter what دليل — what proof, what evidence you bring — it's just that they're not going to listen. Even if something is right in front of their nose, they won't be able to see that.

Then Allah goes on — Allah doesn't stop there. First Allah says that لَقَدْ حَقَّ الْقَوْلُ عَلَىٰ أَكْثَرِهِمْ — most of them will probably not believe. Then Allah describes the extent of their obstinacy — it's as if there are these yokes around their necks. Allah goes on:

And there are barriers all around them. These barriers totally encompass them. So then they're not able to see anything. So after all of that, Allah then goes on to say to the Prophet ﷺ:

That whether you warn them or whether you don't, it's not going to really make a difference for many of them, because they're simply not going to believe. So Allah tells this to the Prophet ﷺ. On one hand, this is consolation to the Prophet ﷺ — that it's not that anything he's doing is wrong. When he's giving people da'wah relentlessly and then people are just not being receptive, it's not any fault in the Prophet ﷺ. Rather, Allah is telling the Prophet ﷺ that these people are just very obstinate.

Allah Gives Life to Dead Hearts

Then finally, after all of that — that's one, two, three, four, or five verses in which Allah talks about their absolute obstinacy and how they're not going to believe — then interestingly, Allah follows it up with another ayah:

Indeed, We give life to the dead. Now some people may interpret this literally — that Allah does resurrect the dead, and all of us will be resurrected on Yawmul Qiyamah — and that is partly what Surah Yasin speaks about as well: resurrection of the dead. However, the placement of this ayah — إِنَّا نَحْنُ نُحْيِي الْمَوْتَىٰ, We give life to those who are dead — especially after mentioning four or five verses about how they're utterly rejecting everything, the subtle implication mentioned by many of the commentators of the Qur'an is that one person is physically dead, while another person may be spiritually dead. Even after mentioning ayah after ayah after ayah about how these people are spiritually dead, Allah says: well, there may still be hope. إِنَّا نَحْنُ نُحْيِي الْمَوْتَىٰ — We give life to those who are dead.

Similarly, in another place, Allah says in Surah Al-Hadid:

Isn't it time that those who believe — that their hearts start trembling in the remembrance of Allah? Then Allah goes on to say that they shouldn't be like those people who were given the Book before, and then time passed — فَقَسَتْ قُلُوبُهُمْ — their hearts became very hard. وَكَثِيرٌ مِّنْهُمْ فَاسِقُونَ — most of them were disobeying Allah. After describing the obstinacy of these people, Allah continues:

Know very well that Allah gives life to the earth — to land — after it's seemingly gone dry, after it's seemingly died. But Allah gives it life again. Again, the placement of this ayah sends a very strong message: that even if somebody feels that they have قَسْوَةُ الْقَلْبِ — hardness of the heart — even if a person feels like their heart has died, Allah says after both of these passages that whether you feel your heart has died, whether you feel that every single path of coming to Islam has been closed for you and there is simply no hope for you whatsoever, whether it feels that your heart has gotten very hard — there is always hope.

Because after mentioning these verses, in both places, Allah says إِنَّا نَحْنُ نُحْيِي الْمَوْتَىٰ — We give life to the dead — and اعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ يُحْيِي الْأَرْضَ بَعْدَ مَوْتِهَا — Know very well that We give life to the earth after it has died. So even if we feel that our hearts have died, the Qur'an is sending us a very strong message: Allah can always give life to our hearts again. May Allah give all of us the fiqh to understand this.

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Two Stories: From Hatred to Love for the Prophet ﷺ

So now what we'll do in the few minutes that we have remaining — I just wanted to mention two stories. Both of these are going to feature individuals who stated the same thing: that before the occurrence of the incident, the Prophet ﷺ was the most disliked figure in the world to them. Then something happened and everything just changed. So we'll go through these two stories insha'Allah, and then talk about some lessons from them.

Story One: Abu Mahzura and the Adhan

The first story — this particular version of it is taken from a book of hadith called Musnad Ahmed. Imam Ahmed narrates:

(Musnad Ahmed, Hadith 15380)

That there was a Sahabi named Abu Mahzura. He was taking care of an orphan named Abdullah ibn Muhairiz. And Abdullah said: "You are taking care of me and I'm staying with you, but I don't even know your own life story. And I know that you used to give the adhan at the time of the Prophet ﷺ, but I don't really know about that. So can you please tell me a little bit more? Because when I go on this journey, I think everybody is going to ask me about you, but I don't really know myself. So can you please tell me the story?"

Abu Mahzura said: "Okay, the story goes like this." He says:

I went out with a group of other children, other kids. We were near this place called Hunayn. The Prophet ﷺ was coming back from the Battle of Hunayn, and then he met us sort of along the way. Now, there was a person among the Muslims who gave the adhan because it was the time for Salah.

So then what we started to do is we started to make fun of it. They weren't Muslim at the time. They heard the voice of the Mu'adhin and then they just started to mock the adhan. They were screaming, trying to imitate and ridicule it. Then all of a sudden the Prophet ﷺ heard the voice.

He told all of us: come, stand before me. Then the Prophet ﷺ asked them:

Which one of you did I hear, whose voice was raised? And now Abu Mahzura was very worried because he was the one who was actually mocking the adhan the most. He was hoping that his friends would probably back him up.

They all said it was him. "Wasn't me — it was him." So Abu Mahzura was obviously revealed.

The Prophet ﷺ told everyone to go, and then he told me to stay back. So now you can imagine — Abu Mahzura was a child at the time, very worried. So the Prophet ﷺ told him:

He told him: you stand and give the adhan. Do the same thing you just did — just do that again right now. So Abu Mahzura says:

That I stood up — I mean I had to, I didn't really have any choice — but the most disliked thing to me at that time was the Prophet ﷺ and whatever he was telling me to do. But I didn't have any choice. So then I stood up and I just did what I had just done before — I gave the adhan. So then the Prophet ﷺ with his own mubarak lips:

The Prophet ﷺ taught this boy Abu Mahzura the whole adhan. He went through the entire thing — he said: say Allahu Akbar, say this, say that, أَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا رَسُولُ اللَّهِ — say the whole thing. So he taught the whole adhan to Abu Mahzura رضي الله عنه.

Then finally when they finished:

The Prophet ﷺ, when he finished, gave a little pouch of silver to this Sahabi, to this boy Abu Mahzura, and then he passed his hand over the forehead of Abu Mahzura and then over his body. Then the Prophet ﷺ told him: بَارَكَ اللَّهُ فِيكَ. All of a sudden Abu Mahzura felt a change.

O Prophet of Allah! — he is calling him the Prophet of Allah — make me the Mu'adhin in Mecca. The Prophet ﷺ said:

I have officially appointed you as the Mu'adhin of Mecca. Then Abu Mahzura said:

(Musnad Ahmed, Hadith 15380)

He says that every single ounce of hatred and dislike he had for the Prophet ﷺ suddenly dissipated. It all just vanished. And every single ounce of hatred that he had was somehow transformed into love for the Prophet ﷺ.

Story Two: Thumama ibn Uthal رضي الله عنه

So that's one story. The story of this next hadith is taken from Sahih Muslim. We'll summarize due to lack of time.

There was a man who was notorious for his hatred of Islam. He was the chief of a tribe called Banu Hanifa. Whenever any Muslims came into his territory, he would capture them and he would kill them. So at some point he was going for Umrah. He happened to be passing by Medina. Some of the Muslims were standing guard around Medina. They saw somebody who appeared to be an intruder, so they captured him and tied him to a pole in the masjid.

Now the Prophet ﷺ walked into the masjid and saw this man tied up in front of him. He asked the people, "You did this?" And they said, "Yes." He said, "Do you know who you captured?" They said no — there were no pictures online, they couldn't check his profile on LinkedIn or anything. So he said: "This is Thumama ibn Uthal. He is the chief of the Banu Hanifa tribe. You've basically captured a king."

So then the Prophet ﷺ went to this man Thumama. And he said:

So what do you think? What do you think I'm going to do with you? So now Thumama, this man, the chief of the tribe, responds by saying:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 12, Hadith 4382)

He says: "Well, I don't know what you're going to do. If you kill me, then you'll be very justified in doing so because my hands are bloody with the blood of Muslims — I've killed a lot of them. So it's not unjustified to kill me. If you're going to be favorable towards me, then I'll be very grateful and gracious." And he said:

If you want money, just ask me — name an amount and I'll give it to you. The Prophet ﷺ left him. He came back the next day. He asked the same question. Thumama responded the same way: "Nothing has changed. Same thing I told you yesterday. If you kill me, you'll be justified. If you're going to be gracious and let me go, then I'll be very grateful for that. If you want maal, I'll give you whatever you want."

Meanwhile, the Prophet ﷺ was telling the Muslims to give Thumama the best food they could find — so he was being fed well, while also being tied up. Then on the third day, same exchange. After Thumama said the same thing, the Prophet ﷺ said:

He told the people: let him go. So Thumama left. He went just to the outskirts of Medina, took a shower, then turned around. Instead of heading back to wherever he was going, he came back to the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ and professed:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 12, Hadith 4382)

He said: I testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad ﷺ is His messenger. Then he said:

O Muhammad ﷺ, I swear that prior to this incident, there was no face on earth that was more detestable to me than your face. And now there is no face that is more beloved to me than your face.

And now your religion has become the most beloved of all religions to me.

There was no land that was more detestable to me than your land — but now your land has become the most beloved of all places to me.

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Lessons and Takeaways

So now we saw two stories. Both of them — Abu Mahzura and Thumama ibn Uthal رضي الله عنهما — said that the most disliked person to them was the Prophet ﷺ. Then thereafter, they said the most beloved person to them became the Prophet ﷺ. Tying this into what we discussed at the beginning — إِنَّا نَحْنُ نُحْيِي الْمَوْتَىٰ — Allah gives life to the dead hearts.

So what we understand from this is that if we've ever felt that our hearts are dead — we hear about the Prophet ﷺ, we hear about deen, but somehow something just isn't clicking for us — we should never give up hope. Because if these two people, to whom the Prophet ﷺ was the most disliked person in the world, ended up saying that every single ounce of dislike, of distaste, of hatred even, became love for the Prophet ﷺ, then there's definitely hope for us. Then there's hope for everyone else too.

If we see other people — people that we love, relatives, friends — and somehow we see them more distant from the deen than we desire, then we never give up hope. Because Allah is the One who changes hearts.

The second thing — and just finishing with this — is not to act on your impulse reaction. If we see someone who was mocking the adhan, somebody who did a lot of wrong things, the impulse reaction of anybody else would have been to treat them harshly. The Prophet ﷺ treated both of them with kindness. And it is through kindness that people change. Both of these people received immense kindness from the Prophet ﷺ. So if we want to change anyone, we change them not through unkindness, but rather through kindness. This is what we learn from the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ.

And finally, we see that these people were changed through connecting to the Prophet ﷺ. For us, what that means is: number one, following the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ; number two, reading the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ. Now every single one of us should purchase a seerah if we don't already have one — should download a podcast of the seerah if we don't already have access to one.

Maulana Idrees Kandhlawi has Seerah al-Mustafa ﷺ — a beautiful book of seerah. Shaykh Abdullah Sirajuddin has a book translated to English, Our Master Muhammad ﷺ — an absolutely beautiful book. In this month especially, we should make a firm resolve that we are going to connect ourselves to the Prophet ﷺ. These people changed their hearts through their connection to the Prophet ﷺ, and it is not a distant thing for us either. By embracing the seerah, saying salawat, embracing the sunnah, then it's very likely that our hearts can change as well.

May Allah give all of us tawfiq. وَصَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ الْكَرِيمِ.

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Announcements

A few quick announcements insha'Allah. We request everyone to pass the donation boxes from left to right insha'Allah.

A few upcoming programs: our weekend theme program will be starting insha'Allah tomorrow, so there is still time to register for classes. The Saturday track includes History and Development of Fiqh, Introduction to Hadith Sciences, and Aqeedah. The Sunday track includes Fiqh of Salah Part 1, Surahs of Salah, and Purification of the Heart. All very good opportunities to insha'Allah learn more and connect to our deen. Please see more information online.

Our weekly programs: insha'Allah we'll continue with Tafsir of Surah Abasa on Tuesdays. And we'll be starting a new series on Thursday — which is Imam Tirmidhi's Al-Shama'il al-Muhammadiyyah ﷺ. This will be after Maghrib Salah on Thursdays for both brothers and sisters, and will be conducted in Urdu by Imam Abdul Basit. For all of our Urdu-speaking members of the community, please don't miss out on this amazing opportunity. It's a unique opportunity to learn more about the Prophet ﷺ at a very intimate level, and to study a collection of hadith — about 400 hadith — over the course of about a year, with a full sanad, with a full chain of transmission back to the Prophet ﷺ for each and every hadith. It's a very unique opportunity, so please insha'Allah do try to take advantage of it.

Saturday, Team Fajr insha'Allah will continue tomorrow with our series on Lives of the Companions. Sisters' part-time programs: there's Qur'an Tarjuma in person, and Qur'anic Arabic in person; Riyad al-Salihin and part-time hifz are both available online. Please see our website for more details.

Finally, there are a few du'a requests. Sister Malika Begum is admitted to the ICU, so we ask Allah to cure her and grant her complete shifa. Dr. Syed Ahmed is critically ill in the ICU — we make du'a for him as well. Other community members have relatives who have either passed away or are very sick. We ask Allah to make things easy for the families of those who have passed away. May Allah forgive those who have passed away. May Allah cure all those who are sick.

And of course, we continually beg and beseech Allah for our brethren in Palestine, in Gaza, in the West Bank, who are suffering so much. May Allah alleviate their suffering and send a Salah al-Din for this ummah. Lebanon, Syria, Burma, China, and many other places as well — may Allah alleviate the plight of Muslims in all of those places. May Allah accept from us all.

Finally, our Sirah Conference will be taking place on September 19th and September 20th — in about three weeks — so please do mark your calendars for that.