Concluding Remarks + Closing Dua | Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed & Mawlana Zubair | Annual Retreat 2025

Concluding Remarks | Annual Retreat 2025

Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed & Mawlana Zubair | Dar-us-Salam, Chicago

Respected dear attendees, listeners, and those who are just joining right now as well — Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.

The Blessing of This Gathering

We thank Allah for blessing us all with this beautiful gathering for the past two days — a gathering which everyone who has participated, even for a few minutes, most definitely felt the barakah and the blessing and the nur that, Alhamdulillah, was present here through the presence of righteous elders, our scholars, Alhamdulillah, our seniors, of young children, of hardworking volunteers, of students of knowledge, and people of sincere desire to change from all across the country.

This is something that is a common denominator, insha'Allah, for these types of events — that you see people who have come far and wide who have not come for anything but for the sake of Allah, to sincerely get connected to Allah. The retreats are not necessarily the most entertaining events. They're not meant to be the most entertaining events. And so whoever does come here, he's come here for a specific purpose, and that common purpose is what makes it so effective — where you have people from all walks of life coming for one specific reason: How can I get closer to Allah? How can I preserve my deen? That's what's on everyone's mind.

So the numbers may be less than what another conference may hold, or whatnot, but that doesn't make a difference. The key thing is that there's this common denominator within anyone you stop and talk to: Why are you here? What brought you here? When did you hear about this event? Some of them heard a day before, some heard a week before, and they ended up purchasing tickets, renting cars, booking hotels, and making long drives, long flights to make it out here — and of course our locals as well.

The Power of Sincerity — The People of the Cave

SubhanAllah, when you have a group of mukhlisin — sincere people — together, then there isn't anything off the table. Anything and everything can be accomplished, as long as you have a group of people who are sincere. Allah says in Surah Al-Kahf:

Those people were young and they had faith, and Allah gave them even more faith. He gave them even more hidayah. He showed them what needs to be done at that given time — زِدْنَاهُمْ هُدًى — Allah guided them: you're living under an oppressive rule in which you cannot practice your faith. How do I go about doing it? Should I stay? Should I not stay? Should I move? Should I not move? Where do I go? What do I do? Allah says they were young and they were people of iman, and Allah gave them the hidayah of what the next steps should be.

Our example — mostly young people, Alhamdulillah, here in attendance — and people of iman. And insha'Allah, with sincerity you've come from different parts of the country, together in this beautiful gathering for the past two days. We should have this expectation as well that insha'Allah Allah will guide us towards our next steps.

How to Stay Inspired — Think Big

Many of the youth that I've been speaking to, the first question they'll ask is: "We feel so inspired for the past two days — how do I stay inspired when I go back home?" One brother just asked me, he said, "I want to do a retreat in my own city but of course not as big and large as this, we'll do a small thing." And I said, "Well, you already lost the game when you said that." Why are you making such a small intention?

I gave the example of the Super Bowl. Would you ever hear of a Super Bowl being hosted in a city where they say, "We're a small city so we'll just keep it with 20,000 people"? The Super Bowl is the Super Bowl regardless of who hosts it. You're gonna host it and people, their fans, will come and they'll purchase tickets and the city actually spends money on the infrastructure to be able to accommodate that.

If you want to host a retreat, go all out and make a goal that we're insha'Allah gonna have double, quadruple of what was here. Why not? And we're gonna also put 10 times the effort, 10 times the amount of dhikr and tears and du'a. And insha'Allah, based on your himmah and your aspiration, Allah will allow you to accomplish that.

Allah will treat us based on what we think of Him. If you think of Allah to be most powerful and qadir and most capable — which of course He is — then:

Put your reliance upon the all-living who will never die. And:

Trust in Allah and say: this is what we're gonna do. As long as there's ikhlas, you can achieve anything.

The Danger of the Nafs

One of my teachers — I reached out to him for advice just before the retreat — was highlighting the fact that the most important thing is that there should be no space and no share for the nafs. As long as we keep the nafs out of it — that nafs is that cancer. The nafs is that poison. It's that drop of urine that ruins an entire drum of milk.

As long as the nafs is not there, Alhamdulillah, the path is clear for us. We can do amazing things. But once the nafs comes in, then even the most beautiful structure, the most beautiful environment, the most beautiful spiritually strong effort of deen will be destroyed. It will become hollow. You'll have fights. You'll have arguments. You'll have differences of opinion. You will not need an external enemy — you'll become an enemy to each other. That's what the nafs does.

It is this horrible, quiet disease that once it takes root, it's like termites. If they come into a tree, they will literally eat it all out from inside until all you have is bark, and it just takes a strong wind or a kick and the entire tree will fall down. It fell down because it became hollow from inside. It became hollow from inside because these small insects had eaten it. And that's what the nafs does. The nafs eats us out. The nafs eats at our soul. The nafs eats at our ikhlas. The nafs eats at our unity.

And once that nafs comes in, we may have large infrastructure, but they do nothing for us. Because our deen doesn't spread through infrastructure. Our deen doesn't spread through minarets and domes. Our deen doesn't spread through beautiful carpets and beautiful chandeliers. We all know that. This is just an external place, an external tool to be able to host the reality of our deen — which is strong men and women, which we heard about last night from our esteemed scholars.

So now more than ever we need a group of mukhlisin — sincere people. And Allah will ensure that those mukhlisin will remain till the last person of iman stays. That's going to happen. The goal is: am I going to be a person of ikhlas or not?

The Revivers of Islam — A Legacy of Sincerity

My dear friends, we heard about the different amazing revivers of Islam this past weekend. I encourage all of us — I know probably there are very few who heard every single lecture; it's almost very, very challenging to listen to every lecture, MashaAllah. Lucky are those few who were able to do that, and I envy you for that. For the rest of us, Alhamdulillah, the recordings are all available right now live on the Masjid Diya's YouTube channel, and soon they will be uploaded on Apple Podcasts as well. On the way to work, in your train, in your bus — within the next week, try your best to listen to all of the recordings.

And you will see, Alhamdulillah, in the lobby, this beautiful effort has been done to place the bios and the short biographies of the various scholars. Take a picture of it on your way out — there are about 10–12 of them there. Be inspired by reading them. But there was one more recent one — the most recent one. We heard about Malcolm X. And one from the subcontinent that you heard on Saturday morning: Sheikh Yusuf Al-Kandhlawi, Mawlana Ilyas Kandhlawi, rahimahumullah.

I was speaking to one Arab brother just 3–4 days ago. I told him about the retreat. He didn't know about it. He said, "What's the topic about?" I said, "Revivers." He said, "Okay, can I ask you something? From the subcontinent, did you choose anyone?" I said, "Yeah." He said, "Who did you choose?" I said, "We have Sheikh Ahmad Sirhindi, and more recently, Sheikh Ilyas Kandhlawi." He said, "Okay, that's all — I just want to make sure you got his name in there." Then he said: "For the past 500 years in this world, I cannot see a single person who Allah used the way Allah used Sheikh Ilyas Kandhlawi." It's just something that I simply haven't found in any book or any study that shows the impact that Sheikh Ilyas Kandhlawi, rahimahumullah, had on the world — not just on the Indo-Pak subcontinent, no, not at all — but rather every single continent of the world. The revivalist effort that he did, and the outcome that you saw and you see and are witnessing, including in today's retreat — it's really almost impossible, if not impossible, to find anything similar to that within the past centuries.

The Model of the Retreat — Rooted in Da'wah

Hence, the way forward — I myself am very much inspired by that. You see, the method of running this retreat: the first retreat we hosted was December 2006 in my masjid, where I was previously imam before Dar-us-Salam got built — 6–7 years before it got built — in the Frankfurt Ave. Masjid. And it was under the auspices of a different organization that we had just recently started called Dar-ul-Hikmah.

The model — where did we get the model? The model was the Ijtema, the Tabligh Ijtema. The model of i'tikaf. The model of having programs after every salah. The model of having different breakout sessions for different groups. The model of emphasizing khidmah. The model of having dhikr as a very integral part — before the Ijtema or before the retreat and during the retreat as well.

Lots of those ingredients that we see in these retreats — for the past 19 years — which people are just amazed by. They come and say, "Man, I have attended larger conferences in huge 5-star hotels, but I haven't walked away this inspired before. What's in it? What's the secret ingredient?" Well, definitely we didn't pull it out of our back pocket. We used the da'wah model, the Ijtema model, and we took from there and placed it in here. However, we expanded it by not focusing just on men — expanding it to women, expanding it to children, expanding it to reverts, expanding it to ulama, all different. And then making sure all the speakers are ulama themselves. And then every single year having a different theme. Last year was a very different theme: Islam and artificial intelligence. And the crowd was very different last year too, by the way. Every year you have different types of people coming in, different themes.

And the goal is that from here we should be inspired to build a relationship of islah with the shaykh and tazkiyah. To be inspired to go out in the path of Allah and khuruj. To go become a student of knowledge in your local madrasa, institution, and seminary. To go join an amazing non-for-profit or humanitarian work that's happening in your community. You walk away inspired — study at Dar-us-Salam or somewhere else, join the effort somewhere, do something with your life after you attend the retreat.

Husbands and wives, hopefully, are listening to the talks together. Mom and dad and children, hopefully, are listening to the talks together. Future husbands and wives are listening to the talks — not together, but in opposite ends of the building — and are being inspired: SubhanAllah, I heard something, I want to be able to do something.

All those of our marriageable age — the first thing is you've got to marry the right person. That's the first step for success. Marry the right person. SubhanAllah. After hearing last night's talk on masculinity, hopefully that makes people start thinking: what type of person should I become, and what type of person should I marry?

Mawlana Ilyas Kandhlawi's Vision — Work Ahead, Talk Behind

So the idea — what I'm saying here is — those of us who are from out of state or even local, I want us to take inspiration from everything we heard, including specifically Mawlana Ilyas Kandhlawi's worldview and how he took his usool straight from Quran and Sunnah — which are ilhami usool — usool that you can say are divinely inspired.

One of the usool and principles that I remember reading in the letters of Mawlana Yusuf Al-Kandhlawi — and these are two books in the bookstore; I don't know if it's still open, maybe on the way out — see Hayatus Sahaba, the stories of Sahaba. A new translation came out, and when I saw it I got so excited, because this was something that my teachers have told me immensely about. Recently on my trip with my sheikh, he told me: "We don't need to stop lecturing our kids and lecturing our wives." He said: "Start reading Hayatus Sahaba at home. All your problems will get taken care of." The lecture — all it does is makes people get upset and angry, it doesn't bring in change. Let the stories of the Sahaba lecture you and her, lecture you and him. So Sheikh Yusuf Al-Kandhlawi's collection of stories of Sahaba — there's a new translation that's come out, so on your way out, make sure you grab a copy. This is life-changing.

It tells us what's the model we have. Because the era of difficulty is here now. In this era of difficulty, we're almost like in a Meccan era. How did Sahaba operate? And because of the certain way they operated, Allah gave them not just His Sunnah but gave them His Qudra. Allah's Qudra was manifested. Today, in this day and age, we have to come back to the lives of the Sahaba and the sunnah of the Sahaba within our homes.

The Miracles of the Sahaba — Allah's Qudra in Action

And insha'Allah, we will similarly see amazing, miraculous things happening at the hands of you all, at the hands of all of us. It's the same Allah present today. The same angels present today. We — our attributes have changed. And I hope you understand the intensity of what is being discussed here — that this is genuinely a really important point — that things will become, and are becoming, increasingly challenging and difficult. But we, Alhamdulillah, are not orphans. We didn't fall from the sky. We have an amazing legacy of revivers, starting off from the Sahaba, and every reviver that you heard in this past retreat — and each one did work against a backdrop of difficulty, against a backdrop of challenges — and they succeeded. They were humans, not angels. But they had sunnah in their life. They had the attributes and the qualities of Sahaba in their life. And Allah made miracles happen at their hands.

Allah made the forces of nature subservient to the Sahaba, and Qudra took place. You've heard the story of Umar, radiyallahu anhu, addressing the audience in Madinatul Munawwara and all of a sudden cutting out — to a separate statement — Ya Sariyya, al-Jabala, al-Jabala! — in the middle of his speech and khutbah to the people in Madina: "Oh Sariyya, look at the mountain! Look behind you! Look at the mountain!" Who is he speaking with? There's no radio, there's no live stream, there's no Bluetooth, there's no satellites, nothing. It's almost 1,400-plus years ago. What was going on? Allah had subjugated the wind to deliver this message to the army general Sariyya, radiyallahu anhu, who was looking forward with his soldiers and didn't realize there was an ambush behind him. And Allah allowed the voice of Umar, radiyallahu anhu, to reach him — and Sariyya, radiyallahu anhu, looked behind, and Alhamdulillah, the army got saved.

You have Safinah, radiyallahu anhu — the freed slave of the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam — in the northern African jungles. He gets disconnected from his companions, and eventually he comes across a predatory animal — a lion in the jungle. He speaks to the lion: "Ana rasool rasoolillah — I am the messenger of the messenger of Allah. I need you to help me, not harm me. I've been disconnected from my companions — take me to them." Instead of attacking him, that lion served as a guard and guided him through the jungle until he met the other companions.

You have Al-Ala' ibn Al-Hadrami, radiyallahu anhu, coming back from Bahrain — he literally walks with the army over a body of water. You have Tamim Al-Dari, radiyallahu anhu, pushing fire back into a volcano. You have Umar, radiyallahu anhu, stomping on the ground getting upset when an earthquake was happening — "How dare you shake! Have I not established justice on you? What's wrong with you? Why are you shaking like this?"

My dear friends, you saw how Allah made the forces of nature — the wind, the water, fire, animals, the earth — subservient to the Sahaba. And that's what Hayatus Sahaba documents for us. We need those miracles today. We need Allah's Qudra to come into action today. And it's going to happen by you and I going back to the roots — going back to the lives of the Sahaba.

Practical Takeaways from This Retreat

One simple piece of advice, if we want to connect ourselves: we've got Hayatus Sahaba there, but I also would recommend reading the letters of Mawlana Yusuf Al-Kandhlawi — the Makatib, his letters — which are found online and in bookstores. They're so deep. And of his father, Mawlana Ilyas — you heard about him briefly on Saturday morning — those are much deeper; sometimes you'll need a scholar to explain it. But Mawlana Yusuf Al-Kandhlawi is a bit easier to understand.

You'll see — each letter is a gem for us to implement immediately within our lives, because a lot of the youth here are saying, "I want to go back, I'm going to work with my student body, my imam, or there's no imam in my masjid — I am inspired, what do I do? How do I go about working?" And I'm just saying: use your inspiration in a wise manner. Do not make mistakes that will harm you and your community and your family. It's really important, now more than ever, to use our excitement and our strength in a positive manner, and at times in a subdued manner, with wisdom — so that the harm is none insha'Allah and there's more benefit.

How do you get that? That inspiration you'll get from Mawlana Ilyas and Mawlana Yusuf. Reading the letters, for example — one simple statement which is so powerful, and is the complete opposite of social media: something along the lines of — the work should be a hundred years ahead, and the chat and the talk of it should be a hundred years behind. What does social media say? The talk and the show should be a hundred years ahead, and the actual content — when you go see what's going on — is a hundred years behind. It's all, as Sheikh Yusuf Badat talked about, fluff. Money being fluff, the stock market being fluff. And similarly, the deen is slowly becoming fluff, because it's about the presence online, not the presence on the ground. That's not how the Sahaba worked. Who cares who knows about you or doesn't — leave that. Work at a grassroots level.

1. Grassroots Work — Back to the Masjid

Let's make a commitment that we will all work together at a grassroots level — which means getting people back to the masjid at an individual level, pairing up with someone for Fajr, for Isha, on weeknights and weekdays. Making sure that Alhamdulillah our masjid's sufoof are increasing. Making sure the tafsir that your shaykh in your masjid is doing, the numbers are increasing. The dars of tafsir that he's doing, numbers are increasing. The sisters' halaqah — the numbers are increasing. Every one of us needs to now work at a grassroots level. You don't need to have a lot of fanfare, you don't need to have a lot of show and name. Quietly start working at a basic level.

2. Read the Manzil Daily

You've participated in the past two days in the manzil — recitation of the manzil after Salatul Duhr. This should be a set pattern in all of our homes. May Allah reward our parents immensely — they've taught us this from age five and six. In our home, every single day, it was not a single day which we didn't read manzil from the age of five or four, and that's the time we memorized it. So this is something we should all do in our homes. Just type in "Manzil" — M-A-N-Z-I-L — in Google or whatever, and you can download a version of it with an English translation as well, or a transliteration possibly, and of course just the Arabic, or buy a hard copy if you wish. Keep it in your house and every single day make sure yourself, your spouse, and your children read this. Very important.

3. Recite and Study Surah Al-Kahf

As you also joined us in reading the first ten and the last ten verses of Surah Al-Kahf — also make that a habit. Because we are nearing the era of Dajjal — every speaker also kind of alluded to that, or many did. So Surah Al-Kahf is the antidote. Surah Al-Kahf is our protection. Not just reading Surah Al-Kahf, but reading the tafsir of it, listening to the tafsir of it, and pondering over its meaning.

Sheikh Abul Hasan Ali Al-Nadawi's famous tafsir of Surah Al-Kahf is published — it's called Faith vs. Materialism. It's translated into English, and it was originally written in Arabic. Also, Ma'ariful Quran by Mufti Shafi is available in English. Through Dar-us-Salam we also have the tafsir of it in sixteen sessions. Whichever you choose — find a reputable scholar and listen to the tafsir of it, and think about Surah Al-Kahf in light of what's happening today. Insha'Allah this will give us guiding light in these difficult times.

4. Connect with Regular Ruhani Environments

Last but not least, connect with good environments in your own respective cities. Many of the brothers told me, "Sheikh, when I go back I'm gonna lose it." And I said, "It's nothing about Chicago." You step out of this parking lot — it's like any other city. There's no difference. As long as you're inside these four walls you feel different, but you step out of here — you don't have to go a mile down — as soon as you leave the parking lot it's like the rest of the places.

What we all need, whether you're a Chicago local or from another state — once a year this type of environment is just not going to cut it for me or for you. We have to have regular exposure to these environments. Is this the only environment in the country? No, I don't say that. Alhamdulillah, there are always different retreats. For those of you in Chicago, Sacred Learning, MashaAllah, has a monthly retreat. And Alhamdulillah you have Sheikh Tamim doing one in California, and there are so many other programs now — in Tampa, I don't know all of them — but you can search. If you're searching for it, you'll find it. Every couple of months, find a ruhani program happening in a place you can fly to or drive to, maybe happening in your own city. When you start looking for it, you'll start finding it. Man, I want something every 6–8 weeks — what's happening in June? What's in July? What's in August? Insha'Allah you'll be able to find something. Repeated exposure to this type of environment is absolutely necessary to keep us, our wives, our husbands, our children, our siblings strong. Once a year is not sufficient.

Just coming here will remove the veil from our eyes, will remove the veil from our hearts, and we will automatically be inspired insha'Allah to make the right decisions.

Upcoming Events at Dar-us-Salam

The next big event happening here insha'Allah is June 21 and 22. June 21, Saturday, is the graduation of our Tanweer one-year immersion program — about 100-plus boys and girls graduating from a one-year program. June 22, Sunday, will be the Khatmal Bukhari — this year, Alhamdulillah, we have about 12 men and women graduating as ulama after 7 years. MashaAllah, 12 of them graduating. So mark it on your calendar — Saturday, June 21 and Sunday, June 22.

Mufti bin Hajj and I are here, Alhamdulillah — through the barakah of my father and mother going to South Africa in 1997 and visiting a Khatmal Bukhari, attending that event inspired us. My brother was already inspired, my dad was also inspired. But attending that event — it sealed the deal. And after that, MashaAllah, we ended up coming in. So the idea is: a graduation is powerful. Your son is not graduating — it doesn't make a difference. You bring your son, bring your daughter, bring your wife to the graduation. And even if they're young, let them watch these graduations for 3–4 years in a row. Eventually a day will come when they'll say, "Baba, I want to study," "Mom, I want to study." But if we don't bring them into these right places, then how will they ever be inspired?

Why does every kid want to be a basketball player, even when it's not going to happen? It's because they're watching. They're watching. They're watching games and they're like, "Oh man, I want to be like that." How often are we watching ulama graduating? How often are we watching tullab al-ilm graduating? How can we expect our kids to want to study ilm if we do not give them that exposure? That's what I'm requesting all of you — put down in your calendar June 21 and 22, insha'Allah.

Come with 10, 15, 20 people from your own city, and insha'Allah walk away inspired. And then right after that, our summer intensive starts from the 26th, Wednesday — a one-month program. Alhamdulillah, we have 130 spots available in the dorms for all the young brothers from across the country who want to come and spend a month here studying the Arabic intensive and the deen intensive. Sisters, it's open to sisters as well. It's open to ages 13 and above. If you have little kids, we have our Tarbiyah for Tots that happens over the summer, and we have a summer camp. Pretty much we've got you covered from age 3 all the way to 90 and more, right? Alhamdulillah. So you can plan it out from now — you've got 2 months. Plan it out from now, insha'Allah. This summer, instead of at the Swiss Alps, we're going to be spending it here at Dar-us-Salam, benefiting from all the programs that happen here, insha'Allah.

Vote of Thanks

We'd like to now conclude with a du'a with Mawlana Zubair Sahib, Alhamdulillah, who was sharing with me how inspired and happy he is to be here. More than that, we are so blessed to have his presence amongst us. We ask Allah — through the barakah of his sincerity and his connection with Allah — that He forgives all of us and inspires one and all.

I would not be able to complete this program without sharing a vote of thanks. Number one — to Allah, immensely, for everything that He has allowed us to do with aafiyah, with well-being, with ease. A vote of thanks to my parents, to all my teachers and asatidha, to my colleagues here at Dar-us-Salam — both the male and female staff and the teachers — and our entire amazing office staff. Our volunteers, both on the brothers' and sisters' side. All of our students. Our local volunteers from the community, who've done an immense job in ensuring that this beautiful conference is run beautifully and smoothly in every aspect, logistically, Alhamdulillah.

And a vote of thanks to all of you, Alhamdulillah, for your participation. To those who sponsored or donated towards the expenses of it — may Allah reward you and bless you immensely, allow you to see the barakah in your life, in your health, in your wealth. May Allah allow you for years and years to enjoy and reap from the fruits of this conference, and allow us all to be part of such retreats many, many more times together. Ameen, Ya Rabb al-Alameen.

With that, insha'Allah, we will ask Hazrat Mawlana Zubair Sahib to conclude this gathering with a du'a.

Closing Du'a — Mawlana Zubair

O Allah, make us a means of righteousness and allow us to go back to our localities and to do this effort of deen. O most of Allah, do we have the concern for all of our Muslim brothers and sisters and all of our children that 100% deen comes back into all of our lives. But we know, O most of Allah, this will not happen without an effort. So please, please help us to learn how to leave our comfort zone — the conveniences that You have blessed us with and made it so easy for us to practice this deen.

But let us continue to not forget the sacrifice that was made by our beloved Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and his illustrious companions — because of which we are reaping the benefit today. O Allah, for all our brothers and sisters, all the people who have gathered — please give us the tawfiq to go back and to read Your Quran, to find Your Quran, and to make our dhikr and to supplicate — beg, beg, beg You for our needs and necessities, O most of Allah.

O Allah, please help us to go door to door and house to house and try to remind all of our brothers and sisters. Send all of our children wherever there is a maktab — send them to the maktab. Let them learn the deen, O Allah. And if not, establish the places in which the deen is being taught. And all of our deeni madrasas and the khanqahs — all effort that is being made, O most of Allah, accept it. Overlook our shortcomings. Put love in our hearts for each other, O most of Allah.

All of our youth — O Allah, the whole world of darkness and kufr and shirk is attacking our youth. O Allah, You save them. O Allah, stand them up on their deen. Put the love of deen in their hearts. And start with the love of You, O most of Allah — the love of our beloved Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and his illustrious companions. Put the love of deen in our hearts and let us be ready to sacrifice everything for this deen.

Please, O most of Allah, let us live in Islam, in da'wah and iman. O Allah, bless us with a beautiful ending and bless us in what is after death. O Allah, fix our feet on Your straight path. O most of Allah, You have blessed the prophets, the truthful, the martyrs, and the righteous — O most of Allah, show us the way. Show us the way. Let us have an easy reckoning, and we ask You to show us our books in our right hands.