Clock is Ticking: Are We Near the End? - Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed

The Blessing of Fajr

Fajr, early in the morning — when after Ramadan it becomes more challenging and it is not that popular — but alhamdulillah, Allah has allowed each one of you to be here today, and this itself is a source of great, great happiness for all of us. No matter how your weekend is going, I can say it's going to go great. The fact that we're here for Salat al-Fajr on a Saturday morning — insha'Allah this is a great sign that Allah loves you, and that He has allowed you, from amongst thousands of people, to separate from your beds, separate from your homes, and come to the house of Allah and perform Salat al-Jama'ah. And you are under the protection of Allah, and you are under the shade of Allah's throne, and you are insha'Allah amongst those people who will be walking with a beautiful, bright, well-lit face like that of the full night moon on the Day of Judgment. And insha'Allah Allah will give all of us the reward of standing up the entire night in ibadah, simply because Allah has allowed us to be here for Salat al-Fajr.

I ask Allah and I beg Allah that He makes you and I and our children amongst those who are blessed to be in Salat al-Fajr every single day, and may Allah make the last day of our life such that we are also there for Salat al-Fajr in the masjid. Allahumma ameen.

The Purpose of Discussing the End of Times

My dear beloved friends, the reality of this talk of the end of times and preparation for it boils down to the purpose. What is the purpose of having such a talk? Why did Rasulullah ﷺ speak about it? If this topic was not important, the Prophet ﷺ would never have spent his time speaking about it. The Prophet ﷺ spoke to a group of Sahaba who were far away from the Day of Judgment compared to where we are today, yet he would speak about it quite often and he would remind them about it. And he would speak not only about that, but also about all the different signs that are going to come towards the end of times — the signs of the fact that the Day of Judgment is around the corner.

The Prophet ﷺ actually set the stage by saying: "I have been sent with the Day of Judgment like these two fingers." Just like these two fingers are back to back and there is not much separation between them — similarly, my coming into this world itself is one of the signs that the Day of Judgment is right around the corner, subjectively speaking. That from amongst the entire history of the existence of this world, the coming of the Prophet ﷺ is one big sign that we are going towards the end. And the Prophet ﷺ shared and emphasized this point to the companions in so many different narrations.

Because the idea was: in order for us to be successful, we truly have to have our eyes on the end. If you have your eyes on the end, that will help you live every moment at its fullest. The issue is that people don't think about the end, and then they think, "It's just a weekend — just relax." Then Monday comes, and then, "Brother, it's just been three weeks since Ramadan, we need to relax." Before we know it, it's Friday again, we're back to the weekend. We've got spring break, and after spring break, something else. A person doesn't really get into the gear of, "I need to make the right decisions and the right moves because it simply might be my last."

Yesterday I heard the sad news of a young boy — 19 years old, subhanAllah — passing away. One of our acquaintances. May Allah forgive him. May Allah grant immense patience to his mom and dad and his siblings at this difficult time. When will it be our last? We do not know.

The Prophet ﷺ spoke about the Day of Judgment to the Sahaba for two reasons: first, for them to share the message with those who come after them, until it reaches us and those who are genuinely towards the end of times. And second, for the mindset of the Sahaba and those who listen to this hadith — that if you pass away, your Day of Judgment has already begun.

Is our Day of Judgment around the corner? Yes, it is — because our death is around the corner. We don't know if we're going to make it till the end of the weekend. We need to live every day and every weekend and every weekday as though it may be our last.

A Lesson from Uzbekistan: Remembering Death

I just came back, alhamdulillah, from Umrah and Uzbekistan. After Ramadan, I went to these two countries. In Uzbekistan, in Tashkent, we went to Shaykh Zayn-ud-Din Ahmadullah Ali's graveyard — he was a great scholar, the son of Shaykh Shahab-ud-Din Zahrawardy Ahmadullah Ali, who had moved there. And Allah used him to come from Baghdad to bring the Zahrawardy Silsila to the entire region of Mawara' al-Nahr.

We went there to visit Shaykh Muhammad Yusuf Sadiq's grave — one of the recent mujaddids and revivers of Islam in Uzbekistan. Allah took amazing work from him. He passed away in 2017. We got a chance to spend time with his son, Shaykh Ismail. And one man, in a short span of 50–60 years — he was not very old, he passed away quite young, relatively speaking — but the amount of work and the revival he accomplished in Uzbekistan is mind-boggling. In terms of translating the first translations of the Qur'an, the first translations of all of Sahih al-Bukhari, Muslim, Tirmidhi, Nasa'i — all into the Uzbek language, Russian language, multiple languages. Then three or four hundred different titles of books that he wrote, if I remember correctly.

And he was afraid that some people might not know how to read, and they might be bored — they don't want to read, maybe they want to listen. So he actually read the majority of his books aloud and recorded them, so those were also available. And he thought maybe people can't afford to buy books. So he created multiple websites, which are now the greatest resource of Islamic knowledge in the Central Asian Republic countries — the websites that are visited the most. He created apps. He created a system where you have QR codes in different masajid, and if you go there, you just scan it and get free access to all those hundreds of titles on your phone and you can read. How much effort this man put in, subhanAllah, is just amazing. He studied in Lebanon. His sons and daughters, who themselves are now in their 50s, mashaAllah, are all involved in carrying forward the work of their father and living up to the legacy of their dad, rahimahullah.

So anyway, we went to visit Shaykh Zayn-ud-Din's masjid and his khalqa and zawiyah. Amazing — 700, 800 years old or more. We went to visit his masjid, which is in the front portion of the graveyard, and below that is a place where he would have time dedicated for spiritual rectification, his dhikr, and where his students would come and benefit from him. So we saw people going down into a Chillah Khana. What is a Chillah Khana? Chillah is 40 days. This is a place where people — in those days, not like today where we have a summer intensive, a weekend seminar, and a youth program that starts with a barbecue and ends with a game of soccer — in those days, they used to have long, dedicated times for khalwah, seclusion from humanity and from the world, to focus on the inner self. This was a very popular, common method of islah and rectification.

So underneath the masjid, there's a small flight of stairs. We went in, and we found this very cool, maybe 100 to 200 square foot area. They now have mats put out — people can come do dhikr there. Most people coming to check it out are tourists. We sat there for a bit. Then I saw to my left something else going on. I said, what is this? The brothers who were with me said, "No, no, Shaykh, you have to come check this out." To my left, there was a grave — about seven feet deep inside, maybe one and a half feet wide, one and a half feet high. And they said, "Come, come, try." I'm like, "No, I don't know if I…" — "No, you have to, you have to try." So I went in. I scooted inside. You could see the soil right above you, soil to your right, soil to your left. Dark. I had five people at my feet in that small room.

And this was purposely built for muhasabah. This was purposely built for muraqabah — muraqabat al-mawt. The Shaykh would come and spend time not only in his small zawiyah and his khanqah, but part of that was to keep on remembering death by going inside this makeshift grave and spending time there. It had a profound effect. We were there for one to two minutes doing tasbih, but there were people around. I was just thinking: if I were to come alone, go into this grave for five or ten minutes — I don't think I'd come out the same at all. And imagine doing this every single day.

It's a realization that when you go outside — who cares who's driving what when they come to the party? Honestly, it's a piece of metal. Junk. Makes no difference. Whether you drive a $300,000 car or a $30,000 car, we're all going to go down the same place. Whether you're living in a one-bedroom apartment or a ten-bedroom home, we're all going to have the same ending. We're going to go inside something like this. That realization is not there right now — because we look around and say, oh, look what he's got, look what his son got, look where his son ended up, which university, who did she marry, who did he marry. But the realization will come: there will be a day when I'm going to be looking at soil to my right, to my left, above me, and below me. That is the ending for all of us.

Die before you die. Weigh yourself before you get weighed. Take yourself to task before your book of deeds is taken into account. These are the teachings of our deen. It is attributed to some of the earliest Salaf — if I remember correctly, even Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, rahimahullah — that they would make a daily habit of going into a dug-up grave and spending some time there every night. You cannot be the same if you do this every day.

Well, if we can't do that, at the very least we need to think about death every day. As Rasulullah ﷺ said:

"Remember often the destroyer of pleasures — death." (Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2307; Sunan al-Nasa'i, Hadith 1824)

It is a command of the Prophet ﷺ to remember death. And the Prophet ﷺ — he initially told people not to visit graves, but then he told us: go visit the graves. We should, on our own time, find the local Muslim graveyard. We've all probably been there many times to bury the dead. But going separately, just sitting there on a Saturday like this — go after Dhuhr and take a little detour. Go there, read, think about the names of the people you knew who used to stand right behind the imam five years ago, three years ago, two years ago. Regular Muslims. Going there and closing your eyes and spending some time — this day is coming. And just like no one shows up to the graveyard on an average Saturday or Sunday unless there's a janazah, similarly, no one's going to come see me.

A lot of people say, "Brother, I want to be buried next to my wife. I want to be buried near my home." But for what? Who's going to come see you? How many times have you gone to visit somebody in the graveyard? Let's ask ourselves — how many times have we gone to visit our elders, our friends who passed away?

Make niyyah — ya Allah, I want to die in Your path, far away from my home. There is some benefit in that. Where you pass away, Allah will build a palace for you from the place you pass away to your home, and you will be raised as a shaheed on the Day of Judgment. This is what the desire should be: I want to die as a shaheed, and where? In the city of the Prophet ﷺ. I want to be buried in Jannatul Baqi', and insha'Allah I will be raised amongst the first people on the Day of Judgment to enjoy the intercession of Rasulullah ﷺ.

Make this du'a — the du'a of Umar ibn al-Khattab, radiAllahu anhu:

"O Allah, I ask for martyrdom in Your path, and I ask to die in the city of the Prophet ﷺ." Make this du'a. Make it regularly and tell your children to make this du'a.

But we don't have to move to Madinah right now. Madinah is a place to die — that is the aspiration. We have to work here, wherever you are sitting right now. Work, work, work — and may Allah allow us in our final days before we die to go there. Right now the main thing is not to pack up and leave. Right now, instead, do the work of deen wherever you are, whichever part of the world you are in. Do the work of deen, and eventually may we pass away in Madinat al-Munawwara, insha'Allah.

The Importance of Studying the Signs of the Hour

My dear friends, the purpose of me sharing all this — the beautiful background of thinking about death and thinking about the signs of the hour — is that it is super necessary and a part of our deen. This is why one good suggestion I have is that every month or so, take time out to listen to one lecture on the signs of the hour. A powerful lecture given by a reputable scholar, rooted in the Qur'an and hadith. Listen to it. If you have books at home, pick up a book and read it. It will truly allow us to shift our priorities. Books on death and dying, on the signs of the hour — written by our classical scholars or even modern-day scholars — are extremely important to read consistently. Reading and watching or listening to a lecture on these topics will allow us to live insha'Allah every day as though it's our last, and it will also allow us to make sense of the chaos that we see happening around us.

Making Sense of the Chaos: Qur'anic Perspective

This section that was recited today in Fajr is one of my favorite sections of the Qur'an. I love these two ruku'. Allah says — and the gist of what He speaks about in many of these verses is — do you not see that We have released the shayateen to instigate these kuffar?

So when you think about the type of crazy rhetoric that happens online and in person, on radio and social media, you ask: how? How can someone say something so evil? How could someone incite violence towards average innocent people? How can someone do such horrible, subhuman things? The Qur'an is saying: do you not see that We have let the shayateen rile these people up? These are not even normal human being thoughts — these are satanic, devilish thoughts. The shaytan is coming and pushing them.

And that is why, when something is hard to fathom — how can someone act like this? — Allah even tells us: don't hastily say, "O Allah, how is this going to happen?" No, no, relax. We have it all covered. We are counting every breath of theirs. They say they can strike anywhere and throw crazy threats. What they don't realize is that Rabbul 'Alamin has also set everything up. And Rabbul 'Alamin is allowing them to commit violent crimes in this world simply to build up the case against them — so that when the time of their end comes, they will be begging for help, but not only will they not be helped, but for every single violent crime, and every single soul they have killed with their drones and their bombs and with their embargoes and with their self-induced economic collapse across the globe — every single drop of blood and every single shriek and cry of every single baby and child — they are going to pay a very hefty price. That day is coming.

Istidraj: Divine Entrapment

You've heard of entrapment. The first thing to know is: they don't realize that they are actually being entrapped by Allah. Today in the entrapment of the world, you get caught, five or ten years in jail, then you're out. Or even if you die in prison, that is still just the dunya — 30 or 40 years. But the entrapment of the akhirah — it never ends. A person is in everlasting torment in the fire of Jahannam. Allah says:

"Indeed, those people who belie Our signs — We are drawing them in from a way and a method that they don't even realize." This is istidraj — you could call it divine entrapment. Istidraj is where a person — daraja means stairs — where Allah pulls you down the flight of stairs without you even realizing it. The kuffar, or the fusaq and fujjar, are going down the stairs towards Jahannam.

So we need to understand this perspective. When you feel hopeless reading about torture, violence, the destruction of infrastructure, of masajid, of schools, of lives destroyed in seconds — 185 schoolgirls killed in one strike, one of the largest acts of violence against girls in the history of warfare — you wonder: how do you make sense of all this? The one who does not read the signs of the hour, the one who does not read the signs of the Day of Judgment, is going to get very confused. And his faith — Allah forbid — may get shaken. But when you start reading it, you realize all of this chaos is engineered chaos — not engineered by the humans sitting in palaces and houses of power. No, no, no. It is engineered by Rabbul 'Alamin. Rabbul 'Alamin already said this is going to happen.

And you might say, "Why, brother?" — but that is not a conversation we are positioned to have. You and I are humans, we are creation. It is not our job or our option to sit and question why. If you speak about why, you have to be God. You're not God. And neither am I. So we don't go there. Allah cannot be asked about what He does or why He does it. He has chosen to make the world the way it is. And we have to understand that there is wisdom — full, complete wisdom — even when we don't have the capacity to grasp every piece of it. Just understand that everything that's happening is set in stone, and the Prophet ﷺ, over 1,400 years ago, informed us of these things. That should give us, most definitely, a sense of calmness.

The Roller Coaster Analogy

They say, "Let it run its course." When you get very sick and you go to the doctor, and he says, "You have this type of cold, this type of virus — it's a 10-day course, it's going to take its course. You're going to get severe symptoms, you're going to have this issue, that issue." Now you're still coughing, still have phlegm, still have body aches — the pain is not gone. But what happens? There's a sense of calmness: "The doctor said these are the symptoms I'm going to have. It's painful, but what he said is what I'm going through. And even though you're taking medicine, you have to wait — it's going to take six, seven, or ten days." There's a sense of calmness, even through the pain, because you know it's going to take its course.

Same thing: as destruction happens across the globe, when we read a hadith of the Prophet ﷺ, it gives us this sense of calmness — that whatever is happening matches the description of the hadith. That is why it's not like no one is in control.

I give the example of a roller coaster. Some of you like roller coasters? I don't. Life is already a big roller coaster enough for all of us — I don't need to pay to go through another one. But when you're going on a roller coaster — some of the crazy, record-breaking ones are pretty wild — it goes up and down and zigzag and gets to the top and you're looking down 200 feet and you're frozen. Now there are two ways to respond. One: you hold on, scream all you want, and go down with it. The other: you say, "This is crazy — I'm unlocking this thing and jumping." If you choose to jump, you're probably not going to make it alive or you'll be crippled. The way to do it is to hold on and say, "This is scary, this is wild, but I'm just going to stick on." Why? Because although this is very crazy, it is engineered to be like this. It is playing its course. This is not a roller coaster gone wild — it was actually built like this. There are engineers at the bottom. There's a track it's going on. It's not trackless.

That is what's happening in the world right now. Everything is on track. It's wild. It's crazy. It's violent. It's horrific. But it's on track. It's meant to happen like this. That is the beautiful perspective our faith gives us, subhanAllah. Who else can sit here with such calmness and say:

We are pleased with the decree of Allah upon us. This is Allah's decree. This is what is needed now. Belief in destiny. Belief in taqdeer. I cannot change the destiny of the world. What I am going to do, what I am asked to do — as they say, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When you have difficulty and challenge in your life, make sure you respond to that challenge in a manner that is wanted from us by Allah.

The Signs of the Hour

Nabi ﷺ already mentioned that his coming into this world itself is a sign of the hour. I want to share a few other ahadith. The Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 8 — from the Hadith of Jibril)

"When you start seeing barefoot, naked, destitute shepherds competing in building tall structures" — referring very likely to the nomadic Arabs of the Middle East, who just within the past few decades have completely transformed. If you look at pictures from the 1940s and 1950s in many towns and cities of the Middle East, you'll see shepherds — they're very proud of that history and show it in murals. But where do we see today? The competition in building taller buildings. It is an obsession. Each small state, each capital, is trying to see how they can outdo the other — vertically, horizontally, with ajeeb types of buildings unlike anything seen anywhere else in the world. The Prophet ﷺ told us this.

The Greening of Arabia

One of the amazing signs that has come very true in the most recent years — the last five or six years, and even more so in the last two or three years:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 157)

"The hour will not be established until the land of the Arabs returns to being pastures and rivers." I remember about two years ago, going from Makkah to Madinah on the bus, and looking outside and genuinely thinking this was some painting — that the mountains had been painted green. Because alhamdulillah, Allah has taken me there many times, and a few years ago I looked and said, what is going on here? I have never seen any of this before. These very dark, hard, black mountains — all of a sudden, genuinely green. And now if you go online and search, you'll find they are building golf courses, green resorts. And the El Niño effect — scientists are saying this year it's going to hit its peak possibly around August 2026 or a little after — is going to be one of the potentially most disruptive weather events the world has seen, causing massive flooding in certain areas, severe drought in others, and extreme heat in most places. You've already seen what type of heat we've endured for the past few years, unheard of anywhere. Allahu Akbar.

Natural Disasters and Daily Conversations

There is a hadith of the Prophet ﷺ that before the end of times, every morning people will meet one another and the first thing they will talk about is natural disasters that have happened in their regions. What's the first thing you do? Check WhatsApp. And every morning you see a 7.8 earthquake on the Richter scale over there, 8.6 over there, massive flooding over there. I used to weekly share about weather events in my tafsir — I gave up on it, there's too many to mention. In Hawaii right now, subhanAllah, it's been completely devastated by floods. The Prophet ﷺ also talked about massive fires at the end of times — look at the California fires, the Australian fires, Canadian fires raging in summer. And this year, because of such a dry winter, ski resorts have been closed on the West Coast, in the Denver area and beyond — no snow.

When I went to Alaska two years ago for Jumu'ah and programs, my host showed me the mountain and said, "I've been here for decades — this is the first or second year we can actually see the mountain. It was always covered in snow." It's all melted. So sad to see the erosion of everything. I have friends from across the globe — regularly, subhanAllah, when I speak to friends in different parts of Africa, Southeast Asia, different parts of the world, they always say, "Shaykh, make du'a for us." And what happened? "We have an earthquake." "We haven't had rainfall in two months, all our crops are gone." "We had rainfall at harvest time, all our crops are destroyed." "We are hitting unprecedented heat." This is the normal thing — every time I speak to someone, something crazy has happened somewhere.

The Famine Before Dajjal

This super El Niño that's coming — the first of this type in the last hundred years — is predicted to create a massive shortage of food in the world. And this is a sign of the hour. The Prophet ﷺ said: before Dajjal comes, there will be three years of famine. In the first year, Allah will withhold one third of the provision of the world. The second year, Allah will withhold two thirds — the sky will stop giving water and rain, and the earth will stop giving grains. And the third year, it will be a complete, full stop. Three years of extreme famine — one third, two thirds, complete.

So the Prophet ﷺ was asked: "Ya Rasulullah, how are we going to live?" And this is possibly the most important part — the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih Ibn Khuzaymah, Hadith 1888; also referenced in Musnad Ahmad)

The Prophet ﷺ said that the people will be living through La ilaha illallah, will be living through Allahu Akbar, will be living through SubhanAllah, will be living through Alhamdulillah — and that will suffice them just as food does.

That day is coming. Let's ask ourselves: how much tasbih did we do this morning? How much tasbih are we planning to do this evening? How much tasbih are the boys and girls in our homes doing? If we do not have a habit of dhikr, what will we do? If we have not made ourselves accustomed to taking Allah's name, what will happen?

People will die in unprecedented levels. And will there be food? Yes — but it will be in the hands of a few. And they will say: if you want food, you have to follow our way. That is a dajjali way. That is exactly what is beginning to happen right now — embargoes are being placed, and countries within days and weeks are having their entire economies completely wiped out. From Venezuela, to Cuba, to Gaza, to Palestine, to Iran, to Lebanon. How strategically it has been done — closing down one of the biggest international hubs, shutting down flights. Close down the airspace and you destroy the economy without wasting a single bomb. Very smart. A multi-faceted, multi-pronged war — some places you're killing lives and destroying infrastructure, other places you're doing it quietly. SubhanAllah.

And the idea is: if you want to eat and drink, you have to 100% become exactly what they ask you to be. When they say jump, you ask how high. You don't ask any other question. This is just the beginning. You will see how the economy will be controlled by a select few, and food will be rationed out only to those who follow their ways. Everyone else will be told: starve to death.

But there will be believers who have built their connection with Allah, whose reliance is not on material things but on Allah. And they will say: no problem. We're not going to cave in. We're not going to change our faith because of what you are threatening us with. We have La ilaha illallah. We have SubhanAllah. We have Alhamdulillah. We have Allahu Akbar. And the hadith says that it will take care of you the way food takes care of you.

My friends, we are coming to an era that is close to the era of the Sahaba. And that is why you think Rasulullah ﷺ trained us like this. He spoke about the signs of the hour to the Sahaba — and in one way, he was telling us: if you want to survive the end of times, you have to become like the Sahaba. Your conviction and yaqeen on Allah has to become the way the Sahaba's conviction and yaqeen was on the unseen.

More Signs: Rapid Passage of Time and Perpetual War

Nabi ﷺ also said: "Arabic Iraq will be withheld its dirham and its qafiz (measure of grain), and Sham (Syria and its surrounding areas) will be withheld its mud and its dinar." The withholding can be interpreted as sanctions, war, or economic collapse that will prevent the flow of wealth and food to these areas — Iraq and Sham — which we have already seen. And now you'll see the current conflict going after oil fields openly, not even shyly — openly saying we'll grab the oil and the world will be a much better place. That means they're not stopping at one country.

The Prophet ﷺ mentioned that before the Day of Judgment, wealth will become abundant and overflowing, yet it will be concentrated in the hands of a few. You'll see the high inflation and low growth taking place right now — economic outlooks showing the largest transfer of wealth in generations, the world's first trillionaire coming soon, while the average person continues to suffer immensely.

The Prophet ﷺ said: before the hour, there will be Al-Haraj. They said: "Ya Rasulullah, what does that mean?" He said: "Al-qatlu, al-qatlu" — killing upon killing, meaning perpetual war, perpetual death, all over.

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1036)

"The hour will not be established until time passes rapidly — a year will be like a month, and a month will be like a week." Isn't this the case? Everything is going so, so fast. And the Prophet ﷺ mentioned: "The final major signs of the hour will be like beads on a string — if the string is cut, they will follow one another rapidly." The minor signs have all come — and I've barely spoken about all of them, I've only mentioned a few.

Truth Becoming Falsehood and Falsehood Becoming Truth

One of the very obvious minor signs today: the mixing of falsehood with truth — or rather, where falsehood will become truth and truth will become falsehood. The whole narrative. A false narrative is being presented and what the whole world says is dismissed — what scientists say, what all the news agencies say, what all the investigative journalists say, what all the websites say — all called false. And one newly invented fake reality is declared the truth, while everything else is false. That megaphone is in the hands of the few who will literally dictate what is right and what is wrong. Imagine being able to control the weather. Similarly, the definition of truth and falsehood is now in the hands of the few.

Every time I pinch myself, I can't believe I'm alive watching what's happening. SubhanAllah — such a level of unbelievable chaos, and everyone is quietly just watching. How are we seeing the sunrise in a world like this, where literally falsehood has become truth and truth has become falsehood? But the Prophet ﷺ said that. Vice will become virtue and virtue will become vice. The more violent you are, the more fahish you are, the more evil you are, the more the world will applaud you.

These are all things — read the signs of the hour and read the front page of the news. I remember last time I came here, I told you guys the same thing: just spend some time reading the headlines. Don't even read the articles, just read the headlines. One minute. And then read the hadith — and it all makes sense. What an amazing experience — it will create yaqeen, conviction, that our deen is the most true deen. That Nabi ﷺ truly was a true prophet of Allah who received revelation. Nobody would have imagined a hundred years ago that this could be the news of the day. And yet Rasulullah ﷺ, 1,400-plus years ago, told us exactly what's happening. Exactly.

The Watering Down of the Deen

My beloved friends, the preparation required to handle all of this is a preparation of men and women who are solid in their deen. Unfortunately, as the masajid grow, madrasas grow, Islamic schools grow, Islamic websites grow — we are seeing a complete watering down of the deen. And what a non-practicing Muslim, even a cultural Muslim of the past — from wherever many of our parents migrated 50 years ago — would never have accepted, so-called scholars are now doing publicly. A person who would not even pray Jumu'ah 50 years ago would never have done some of the things that scholars today are doing openly. How is that possible?

It is what Nabi ﷺ also prophesized:

"O Ummah of Muhammad, you are going to follow the ways of the people prior to you" — i.e., the Christians and the Jews. The way they watered down the deen, the way they changed it — you and your scholars will do the same thing. It is shocking.

One very well-known scholar last year met me and said, "Oh, you know, I've just given a fatwa — sorry, you're not going to like it." He's telling me this directly. I said, what am I not going to like? Unless it's wrong, I won't object. He said, "I gave a fatwa that you can build masajid, madrasas, and Islamic schools with riba — with interest-bearing loans." Obviously I'm not going to like it. He said, "We need more Islamic schools to protect our children, and we can't keep up, so we have to take conventional loans." I said: is there not enough Muslim wealth to build Islamic schools? More than enough. He said, "Yes, but they don't give." So the conclusion was, just take a conventional loan, build it, and they'll pay the interest off afterwards. But he said, for the musalla part — the actual prayer area — try to get a non-riba loan for that. For the rest of the building, it's fine.

I said: how does this not sound exactly like what the Yahud and the Christians did? It's like saying, let me eat the pizza but just remove the pepperoni. And now they're saying not even to remove the pepperoni — just eat it, eat a couple of pepperonis, it's not going to kill you. And this is an actual fatwa that is coming out. You can read it. And many more. There came a fatwa this year saying that zakah can be given to non-Muslim politicians and lobbyists. And another fatwa saying that Salat al-Jumu'ah can be prayed anytime after ishraq on Friday, all the way to Maghrib, as an official fatwa.

I told one brother who is very well-known — I said, listen, if you give fatwas like this, what are your students going to give fatwa like when we're gone? You and I, we at least saw some great mashayikh. When our students' only shaykh is me and you, and we're writing fatwas like this — what's going to happen in the next generation? He said, "Don't worry, insha'Allah it's going to be okay." I said, no. I'm sorry. I cannot just sit there relaxed. They're going to be okay? I can't give that much husn al-dhann anymore. Not when fatwas like this are being given.

This type of watering down of the deen is what is truly scary. You've heard the signs of the hour. You realize crazy things are happening. We're getting much closer. But at the same time, let's not get caught up by the abundance of masajid, schools, YouTube channels, and so-and-so. We have to make sure that whatever deen we are following is truly the deen of Allah and His Rasul ﷺ — not a new morphed deen, not a new reformed deen. Because if that's the deen we're on, subhanAllah, then even coming for Fajr — which is a basic thing — how regular are you and your kids for Fajr salah? This is the basic thing we have to start with.

Practical Steps: Building the Culture of Deen

1. Salah with Jama'ah

My point number one: Salah with jama'ah. It's not going to work any other way. It will never happen that you and I can survive if we're not with salah with jama'ah. Write it down — I have to be here, my children have to be here. You don't have to become a hafiz. You don't have to become an 'alim. The main basic thing — let's do basic things first. Salah with jama'ah. Fajr and 'Isha' at all costs. Say insha'Allah. Get the kids out.

But if you sit there and decide today, 15 minutes before jama'ah, "I'm going to start a new rule of the house — everybody comes for Fajr," it's not going to work like this. You have to work during the day. You have to spend time with them. Give them a ruhani environment. Bring them to a deen-filled environment. Connect them with righteous, good friends. And allow the desire to come from within them.

Let me give you a practical example from what we were doing at Dar al-Salam. We have, mashaAllah, 120 students in the dorms — from across the country, 22–23-year-old American-born students, normal kids, not from scholarly families. So coming for Fajr — is it easy for youth? It's not. So alhamdulillah, one of the brothers, Brother Wasim, came up with a competition. Not just showing up for salah — but a takbirat al-ula competition. Getting the very first takbir with the imam.

My dear beloved brothers, within 24 hours, the whole environment changed. They made teams of 8 or 10 — you have to be chosen by the team, like a basketball draft. The captains choose, and if you're not on the team, you can't win anything. So everyone wanted to be part of a team. And the captains made it clear: if you don't show up for Fajr, I'll kick you off the team. And subhanAllah — within 24 hours, what change happened in the madrasa is unbelievable. People racing. And if — Allah forbid — they woke up late for Fajr, they were sitting in a car driving 10 minutes to another masjid just to get takbirat al-ula. People who weren't even coming for Fajr before. Students were saying, "Shaykh, I'm going home for the Ramadan break, but I need to purchase my flight at a time where I don't miss my Salat al-Asr with takbirat al-ula." I'm like — wow.

How does this happen? One word: culture. When you create a culture, everything changes. Create a culture in your home. Create a culture within your children's friend group. Let's make a competition. Whoever shows up and marks their attendance — the uncles will draw a $100 gift card every week. Why not? This is completely in line with encouraging people. It is appreciation. So we have to come up with ways. Instead of the danda — the stick — let's try a different approach. Though I'll say, the danda needs to come first on the dads. Why is our house a mess? Because of ourselves. We have not done what we need to do. That's why our households are the way they are.

2. Daily Tilawat of the Qur'an

If we create a culture and environment of salat al-jama'ah, daily tilawat of the Qur'an, and daily dhikr, subhanAllah, the environment of our homes will completely transform.

3. Daily Dhikr

Sit down with your family and do a dhikr majlis. SubhanAllah 100 times. Alhamdulillah, La ilaha illallah, Allahu Akbar 100 times. Istighfar 100 times. Durood Sharif, salawat 'alan Nabi ﷺ, 100 times. That's it. We're not asking too much.

And make a habit of dhikr qalbi — dhikr khafi, dhikr in the heart. Allah, Allah, Allah in the heart — walking, moving, wherever you are. Start with 500 times a day. Get a tasbih counter, digital or otherwise, and make a habit of just doing Allah, Allah in the heart. And insha'Allah, slowly increase it.

What will happen? It will become your natural disposition. Wherever you're sitting — even listening to a talk — you'll be saying Allah, Allah in your heart. If your heart is saying Allah, Allah while you're ordering coffee, while you're in a meeting, while you're in a biology class — now if your eyes wander toward something haram, how can you continue looking with lust while your heart is saying Allah, Allah? How can you miss your salah with jama'ah when your heart is saying Allah, Allah? You will be in a state of wakefulness. You will not be in a state of heedlessness.

4. Daily Du'a — Crying Before Allah

And then daily du'a. There is an athar of one Sahabi who said: a time will come where no one will survive except for the one who cries the way a drowning man cries and begs for help.

The one who cries in front of Allah the way a drowning man cries — he is the only one who is going to survive. Our children need us, as dads, to cry. Our spouses, our parents, our siblings need us to cry. That is the greatest gift. Don't just send them to $60,000 or $80,000-a-year college and think you've done your job. They need a dad who cries.

Many times fathers tell me, "Shaykh, I'm so excited — my wife's expecting!" I say: start showing up for Fajr, my friend. That's what you need to do. If you can't show up for salah, you don't do dhikr, you don't do du'a — what is your son going to look up to you for? What is your daughter going to do? Have mercy on your child. Have mercy on your newborn. Become something. Do dhikr daily. Do du'a daily. Come to the masjid daily. Beg Allah. That is what your child needs. Your child does not need a $2,000-a-month kindergarten. What they need is a dad and a mom who cry.

Don't Give Up on Anyone — There Is Always Hope

These types of reminders — we need them on a regular basis. Our children need them as well. Never give up on anybody. People always ask me, "Shaykh, how do I work with this situation?" My simple answer is: bring them into the environment. That's it. Don't say, "But he's an addict." Just bring them.

A beautiful example: a brother reached out to me three months ago. He said his sister was about to file for divorce from her husband — who had multiple kids, was a drug addict, an alcoholic, neglected his family, and didn't pray. I gave him some Qur'anic 'ilaj — Qur'anic treatment — three or four things to do. This week, he messaged me: "Shaykh, my sister and brother-in-law have gone out to celebrate their anniversary, and I'm watching the kids. My brother-in-law is now regular in the masjid, taking Qur'an classes. I can't believe what happened." Two and a half months. Changed completely.

Alhamdulillah, we have hope. We have amazing hope. But you have to get the treatment. And the treatment is in the Qur'an and Sunnah. It starts with coming to the house of Allah, coming to these environments. So whoever you are worried about — bring them to this environment. Bring them, and introduce them. We have to work before it's too late. As long as we're alive, insha'Allah, it is never too late.

Closing Du'a

O Allah, grant us and our generations extremely unshakable yaqeen on the unseen. Grant us yaqeen on the promises and the warnings of You and Your Prophet ﷺ. O Allah, we ask You to grant us Your love and the love of Rasulullah ﷺ and the love of the Sahaba, the love of the family of Rasulullah ﷺ, the love of the Qur'an and the Sunnah, the love of the deen. Grant us pride in the deen. Grant us the strength to be able to follow the deen wherever we are. O Allah, save us from being intimidated into giving up our deen.

O Allah, we ask You to grant us the love of scholars and grant us the suhbah of mashayikh. O Allah, grant us tazkiyah of our hearts. Purify our hearts. O Allah, remove all the evil diseases — remove insincerity from our hearts, remove the love of materialism from our hearts, remove the love of lustful things from our hearts. O Allah, allow us to subdue our nafs. O Allah, allow all of us to be focused on our islah and the islah of our spouses, our children, our parents, and our siblings.

O Allah, allow the masajid, madaris, deen institutions, the efforts of da'wah, and all other humanitarian and deen efforts across the globe to be protected from insincerity, to be protected from hypocrites, to be protected from internal and external strife. O Allah, protect all of us from external and internal shayateen. O Allah, protect us from the evil of the shayateen from among humans and the shayateen from among jinn. O Allah, protect us from the plots and ploys of Iblis and his armies.

O Allah, grant us firasah and foresight to see the plotting of Shaytan, and grant us the ability to protect ourselves long before those fitan arrive at our homes. O Allah, allow us to connect the dots in what is happening around us. Allow us to see Your hidden qudrah and power behind everything. Allow us to see Your hidden hand behind everything, and allow us to see the hidden plotting of those who plot against us. O Allah, save us from being duped. Save us from being deceived. Save us from falling into a trap. Save us from the entrapment of our nafs. Save us from the entrapment of Shaytan.

O Allah, we ask You to grant guidance to our 'ulema, grant guidance and ruhaniyyah and fear of You to the scholars and to the leadership across the world. O Allah, guide the leaders and politicians of this country. O Allah, guide them. Create some level of fear of You and fear of dying in their hearts. O Allah, guide them to do what is in the best interest of the ummah. O Allah, protect them from the evil of the shayateen and the evil of their nafs. You are Qadir Mutlaq — You are most capable.

O Allah, we ask You to guide them to Islam completely. And those who are still far away lost in their filth — O Allah, guide them too. You are Qadir. O Allah, if You were capable of guiding Wahshi, who killed Hamzah — if You were capable of guiding some of the worst leaders of the Quraysh who hurt the Prophet ﷺ so much — then You can guide these people as well. O Allah, if guidance is written for them, guide them quickly, and allow them to use all their power to serve the ummah.

O Allah, accept the du'a of the oppressed ones. Accept the du'a of the oppressed ones. Accept the du'a of the oppressed ones. O Allah, save us from ever playing any part in any oppression. Make us amongst those whose knowledge of the Qur'an and Sunnah will not become a proof against them but rather a proof for them.

O Allah, grant us a mizaj and temperament of da'wah. Allow us to wake up our community, our neighbors, our sons and daughters, our spouses. O Allah, grant us yaqeen in our da'wah. Allow us to become movers and shakers of society, trendsetters wherever we go. O Allah, wherever we go, open up the doors of hidayah and close the doors of dalalah. Allow our presence to cause Shaytan to run away from those rooms and those houses. Allow our presence to bring angels wherever we go, to bring happiness and khair and goodness wherever we go. Allow us to become a means of joining and uniting hearts and communities.

O Allah, protect Masjid Hamza and all the other masajid here. Put barakah in their efforts. Allow the youth and the adults, the men and the women, to be connected. O Allah, bless the 'ulema of this community — grant them barakah in their health, their wealth, their lives, and their efforts. Allow the community to be connected to them and benefit from them immensely. O Allah, grant complete success to whatever plans our deen institutions have.

O Allah, allow the upcoming retreat to become a means of bringing a smile to the face of the Prophet ﷺ. Allow it to become a means of being accepted in Your court. Allow it to attract billions and billions of angels. Allow it to become a means of revival of Islam across the entire globe. Allow it to become a means of awakening Muslims and non-Muslims to the realities of the end of times. Allow it to become a means of the winds of hidayah spreading across the globe and the doors of dalalah, kufr, shirk, and ilhad closing. Allow all those who made niyyah today to fulfill their niyyah and come in 'afiyah, and allow their journey to become a means of bringing hundreds of others.

O Allah, save us from any bid'ah, any innovation, anything that is not according to what You want from us. Allow us all to become exemplary servants of Yours — our wives, daughters, sons, parents, and brothers. O Allah, whoever has any type of physical, emotional, spiritual, psychological, or financial difficulty — remove their difficulties. Allow all of us to be connected back to You in every moment of ease and discomfort. Solve our problems of this dunya, barzakh, and akhirah. O Allah, reward our parents and teachers immensely for everything they have done for us. And grant us all that we asked for, all that we should have asked for but did not, and whatever Rasulullah ﷺ would have asked for on our behalf — grant us that as well. And we seek refuge in You from everything that Rasulullah ﷺ sought refuge in You from.

Insha'Allah, make sure we perform our Salat al-Ishraq before we head home. Assalamu 'alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.