Dua & Closing Remarks by Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed — Itikaaf Session 2 — Annual Winter Retreat 2026

Opening Du'a

When you ask Allah, then ask with full conviction — ask Allah with full conviction that our du'a will be accepted. So when we are beseeching Allah, make sure we have full resolve and conviction that Allah is listening to me. And especially in these final few moments before Salatul Fajr, Allah is always turning His attention specifically towards His servants. Even those who spent the entire night or the entire day sitting — Allah is waiting for them to seek forgiveness. So inshallah, with expectations of acceptance, let us turn to Allah.

The time between Adhan and Iqamah is also a time when du'as are accepted. So inshallah, after the Adhan is called, I encourage everyone to make an individual du'a for a few minutes — present your own specific needs to Allah. And after the sunnah, inshallah, we can take this opportunity to recite Quran until Fajr.

There is none worthy of worship except Allah. We can now perform our sunnah salah. The two raka'ats before Fajr salah are the most emphasized of the non-obligatory prayers — we ensure that we perform those. And thereafter inshallah, we can busy ourselves in the recital of the Quran.

Also, if we have any bedding lying around, the volunteers will have them moved now behind the barrier. If we would like to move our own things, kindly move them now inshallah.

Adhan & Salah

The Adhan was called, followed by the Fajr salah. The congregation recited Surah Al-Fatiha and Surah An-Naba' (Juz 'Amma) during the prayer.

Morning Du'as Session

As we near the ending of our program and our retreat, inshallah we will begin this last session with a presentation of the morning du'as that Rasulullah ﷺ has taught us, which should be read every morning. Masjid Dar es Salaam, from where Mufti Azeemuddin is the director, has prepared a booklet compiling all of these morning du'as. Inshallah it will be presented by Hafiz Yunus Rashid, son of Imam Tariq. Inshallah he'll read through the different du'as with their virtues and we can recite together inshallah. The intention is how we can make this a part of our lives — our every morning should begin with these du'as that Rasulullah ﷺ has taught us.

Du'a for Protection from Unexpected Calamities

In the name of Allah, with whose name nothing on earth or in heaven can cause harm, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing.

(Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 5088; Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3388 — to be recited three times)

Du'a for Well-being and Protection

O Allah, grant me well-being in my hearing. O Allah, grant me well-being in my sight. There is no deity except You. O Allah, grant me well-being in my body. O Allah, I seek refuge in You from disbelief and poverty. O Allah, I seek refuge in You from the punishment of the grave. There is no deity except You.

(Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 5090 — to be recited three times)

Du'a of Complete Reliance

O Allah, I hope for Your mercy, so do not leave me to myself for even the blink of an eye, and rectify all of my affairs for me. There is no deity except You.

(Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 5090; classified as hasan by al-Albani)

Tasbih of Glory and Praise

Glory be to Allah and all praise is due to Him, to the extent of the number of His creation, to the extent of His pleasure, to the extent of the weight of His Throne, and to the extent of the ink of His words.

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2726 — to be recited three times)

Seeking Refuge in Allah's Perfect Words

I seek refuge in the perfect words of Allah from the evil of what He has created.

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2708)

The purpose of all of these du'as and all of these activities that we have been doing since yesterday is how we can bring them as a part of our lives. For the morning portion, we talked about the different prayers we should be performing, how we should perform them, and the dhikr that we should be doing. Then Mufti Sahib made the collective du'a. The whole idea is how we can learn that du'a is supposed to be our conversation with Allah — it's supposed to be effortless and something very easy. So we learn how to make du'a, what to say, how to speak to Allah. Inshallah whatever booklets are left over will be passed out after the end of the program. We try to learn these du'as and recite them on a daily basis inshallah.

Closing Remarks by Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed

I ask Allah that He makes this sitting here after Fajr extremely blessed for all of us, and may He make it weighty in our scales, and may Allah allow us to share those things which are of most importance for us now at this final majlis and final gathering. Ameen ya Rabb al-'alamin.

Honorable friends — the hours that we spent here in the masjid from yesterday: these are, although few hours, but inshallah extremely valuable — because remember, we are guests in the house of Allah, and we have come here hoping that Allah will grant us what we are asking for, which is His forgiveness and His pleasure.

Preparing for Ramadan

Now that we have charged ourselves up a little bit, we have to ensure that the remaining 35 days or so — approximately till the month of Ramadan — is spent in preparation for the blessed month. And that preparation: the more we prepare honestly, the better the experience will be. It should never be that someone says, "Ramadan — I'm not feeling it," or "Ramadan came and arrived and it was gone and I didn't notice it."

And it's true. I'll tell you from my experience being an imam of a masjid — and especially all imams in the month of Ramadan — we are very, very busy with just beyond the normal programs. It's the logistics and running around. And I honestly don't go to any store; we don't have time to go to any store. Anything beyond the masjid — that's it. But sometimes maybe my mother may have a doctor's appointment, or I have to take something somewhere, so half an hour or one hour in one of those random days I end up going outside. And when I go outside, honestly I feel like it's a whole different world. I feel like SubhanAllah — I'm so focused, I'm breathing, thinking, sleeping — just Ramadan, Ramadan, Ramadan — serving the community and so forth. But then there's a whole world outside that has no idea it's Ramadan. For them it's just February 20th, or March 1st — it's not Ramadan, it's just the normal Gregorian calendar, completely disconnected from the fact that it's Ramadan. You see everyone drinking, everyone eating, everyone running around, and it's like — wait, what's going on?

And that is the life that all of you see — all day — who are not given this opportunity to be in the masjid. Being in the masjid is such a huge blessing. Those who are going to work 8 to 5 outside — you're surrounded by people who do not realize it's Ramadan 15, Ramadan 1st, etc. They think it's just normal, the rest of the year. So how do I make sure that I keep reminding myself that I'm in Ramadan and not just in March or February? That's an important thing. And if we remind ourselves of that outside of the masjid, alhamdulillah, we will be able to make the most of it.

You do not have to be in the masjid to make the most of it. You can have a full-time job, be taking care of your responsibilities, and still make the most of it — if you and I spend our free time properly.

A Story of Attachment to the Quran

I want to share that a brother from my area — a physician from Chicago — a few years ago was very far away from the deen. He tells me himself that all the free time he would spend playing music — he would have gatherings at his home, play instruments, and people would come over. Something happened five or six years ago. Alhamdulillah, he started coming towards the deen, and he said, "I want to learn how to read Quran. I need to spend my time connecting with the book of Allah." But his reading was very weak, so he started taking Quran class with somebody — half an hour a day. In that half hour he would do maybe one page; actually, I think he probably started with the alphabet, slowly made his way. Then about three years later, the October 7th attacks happened and the crisis in Gaza began.

He heard in one of the talks that if you can't do much, what you should do is do some good deeds and dedicate them to the believers who are going through difficulty — as a gift. He thought: I'm sitting over here, what can I do? I can't do much. I'm going to send spiritual gifts. So he made an intention: "I'm going to start reciting Quran for the brothers and sisters of Gaza." Allah within a matter of a couple of years increased his speed to a level where, along with his full medical practice, he started reciting one khatm of Quran every single week. He would make a khatm on Thursday night and have his family gather together and make du'a for the people of Gaza. Every Thursday night — he's been doing that for more than two years now, still continuing.

Then Ramadan came. One day after leading Eid salah, he invited me over to his house. I said, "How was your Ramadan?" He said, "Alhamdulillah, great." I asked him also about his Quran goals, and he told me something which baffled me. He said, "Alhamdulillah, this Ramadan — just in the month of Ramadan — I did 17 khatm of Quran." Seventeen recitals of the whole Quran while practicing full-time medicine, an hour away from his house — going to work and coming back, a 50–60 hour work week.

I said, "How are you doing this?" He said, "I just — Allah started putting barakah in my time. I started dividing it up. Initially I said, let me do 5 juz a day — one with each salah. One before Fajr, then Dhuhr, Asr, Maghrib, Isha — in between patients he'd take time to read a juz after every salah." And he also told me — one day he heard that I had spoken about it in a masjid (not mentioning his name, and none of you know who I'm speaking about), and he said: "Subhanallah, it had an effect on me. I don't know what happened — I heard that you spoke about it — and I realized it was the first time in two and a half years that it was Wednesday and I had fallen very far behind on my weekly goal." So I asked what he did. He said, "I woke up, I realized, Astaghfirullah — this is serious. There's Al-'Ayn, the evil eye, even though no one even knows." And he said, "I just sat down, I buckled down, and I said: that's it — I'm not going to stop until I finish the khatm." Alhamdulillah, he recited the entire Quran before his Thursday goal.

He was telling me: "Where I am right now — just three, four years ago, if you had seen me, you would never imagine I could even read a page." But slow and steady wins the race. And this is a miracle — it's a miracle of the Quran that no other book can do. You can't sit and read any other book this many times. No other book can you spend hours reading which you don't understand — and he's not Arab; he's learning Arabic now, he's joined an Alim program — but initially and till now too, it was a rudimentary understanding of what he was reciting. How can a person spend so many hours reading something he doesn't fully understand, and how can he sit there holding a mushaf going page after page? This is definitely the miracle of the Quran.

The Quran as the Cure for All Problems

My beloved friends, this is the most important medication we all need for all of our problems — spiritual, psychological, emotional, financial, you name it. If only you and I would just attach ourselves. I ask Allah that He allows this gathering to be a means of all of us becoming attached to the Quran — where we're not doing it because it's Ramadan, and we're not doing it because we have to recite our sabaq in the morning — we're doing it because we love Allah and we love the Quran, and that's it. We can't fathom living without it. This is our favorite pastime, this is our favorite everything.

Once a person is blessed with this, look at the du'a of Rasulullah ﷺ:

O Allah, make the great Quran the spring of our hearts, and make it a means of removing our sadness and dispelling our worries and anxieties, and make it a means of taking us to Your paradise, the paradise of bliss.

Rabi' means spring. When it becomes spring — at least I don't know how Orlando is, but in Chicago it's very obvious: you have four seasons, very clear. As much as people complain about our cold winters, when the spring comes it's amazing. You're coming out from 25-degree temperatures, everything dead, to a very amazing change that is so visible. So rabi'a qulubina — your heart is just like when spring comes: it becomes green, it becomes lush, the dead becomes alive. "Ya Allah, make the Quran a means of bringing life to my heart." Wajal ahzanina — "Oh Allah, make it a means of absolutely removing and scraping off all my worries and concerns." Wa dhahaba humumina wa ghumumina — "Oh Allah, make it a means of the removal of my sadness, depression, and worries." Wa sa'iqina ila jannatika jannat al-na'im — "Oh Allah, make the Quran a means of taking me and grabbing me to the highest of Your abodes in paradise."

So the Quran has this ability. I don't know if this is a marfu' hadith — maybe not — but this du'a is mentioned in the books of du'a that are attributed to the Prophet ﷺ. The actual source of it I don't remember, but you can find it in Al-Hizb al-A'zam or Munajat Maqbul — we had those books available yesterday. Either way, the idea is that this is how we should be making du'a: "Ya Allah, allow the Quran to become a cure for my heart." Because there isn't anyone here who can say they are absolutely worry-free. All of us are so focused on our troubles and problems. But the question is: are we focusing on the solution? How much time have you and I spent with the Quran today, yesterday, this week? SubhanAllah — if we don't do that, our problems will still remain there.

The Convert Brother and the Fragrant Grave

Mawlana Yunus Burhānpuri, hafizahullah, mentioned a story which I heard myself. He used to come for i'tikaf in California about 20–25 years ago. One Ramadan he came to one of the masajid in California and asked for a certain brother — a senior convert brother — whom he used to see in his previous i'tikaf. He said, "Where is so-and-so? I still don't see him anymore in this masjid." They said, "He passed away." SubhanAllah.

Then they said, "Sheikh, you remembered him — we need to tell you his story." They said this convert brother accepted Islam at a much later age in his life — maybe in his late 60s — so it was hard for him to learn how to recite Quran in Arabic. However, after burial they all as a community witnessed an amazing fragrance coming out of his grave. And not just for a few minutes — it continued. The fragrance coming from his blessed grave was too obvious for them to ignore. So they went to his wife — the widow — and said, "Please share with us a little detail about your husband that we are not aware of. He is definitely a very special person in the eyes of Allah. What did he used to do, because of which Allah has honored him in this manner?"

The widow said: "My husband, after performing Fajr salah, would come home and pick up a mushaf — a copy of the Quran — even though he did not know how to read Arabic. He would sit, he would open the mushaf, take his fingers and pass them over the lines, and say: 'O Allah, I believe in this. O Allah, I believe in this. O Allah, I believe in this.' This is what he used to repeat. I'm sure he would read the transliteration and maybe even the translation, but he still wanted to hold a copy of the Quran in the language it was revealed, and reaffirm: 'Ya Allah — even though I don't understand what this is, I can't even read it in Arabic — I am reaffirming the fact that I am a full 100% believer in every single thing mentioned here.' She said this is something he used to do. Maybe this is the means by which Allah granted him that status."

So Mawlana Yunus mentioned this, and I heard it, and I thought: SubhanAllah — if a person has the connection and the conviction in the heart even without understanding what Allah is saying, even without being able to recognize the letters and read — a person can reach a closeness with Allah that he can never reach through anything else.

Imagine someone who can learn and who knows how to recite in Arabic. Imagine the one who can spend some time learning the meanings. Imagine someone who can attend a tafsir session and understand the secrets and teachings of the Quran — how far can he reach in his connection with Allah?

Examples of the Scholars and Their Connection to the Quran

The brother who is reading 17 Qurans in a month of Ramadan — and I have met individuals like Mawlana Badaat, who passed away in Madinatul Munawwara, one of the senior students of Shaykh Zakariyya. Whenever I used to go for Umrah over any number of years, those of you who may remember — he used to be in an automatic wheelchair, sitting on the left-hand side of the front umbrella in Masjid al-Nabawi. I remember whenever after Isha we'd be going back to our hotel, leaving Masjid al-Nabawi, I would pass by him, and every day — whatever time of the year you go — you would see him reciting the 30th juz, because he would be finishing his daily khatm of the whole Quran in Masjid al-Nabawi. Towards the end of the COVID times he passed away — may Allah elevate his status and all those who have passed away, Allahumma ameen.

How do you do that? There are multiple people like that who did one khatm of Quran a day — eight to nine hours a day.

The Lesson of Barakah in Time — Shaykh Zakaria's Example

Shaykh Sha'rawi — the great scholar from Egypt, the mufassir of the Quran — he writes: just like when a person gives charity, we believe that charity never decreases wealth. The Prophet ﷺ said:

I swear by that Being in whose hands is the life of Muhammad, wealth never decreases because of charity. (Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2588)

He took an oath: wealth never decreases by charity. No matter how much you give, it may seem that it's going down, but it's not. Try it. That's why you always see those who give — they keep on giving, and those who don't give, they never give. Because those who give have done business with Allah, and they've tasted the sweetness of doing business with Allah, and they've never gotten poor. They only got richer — the more they give, the more it just comes back, comes back harder, comes back more. They've tasted it, so they keep on giving.

So similarly, Shaykh Sha'rawi says: the one who spends his time serving the deen — or reciting Quran, or doing something for the deen — even though two hours went away in vacuuming the masjid, two hours went into visiting a Muslim brother in the hospital, two hours went into reciting Quran — like sadaqah does not decrease wealth, spending time in the effort of the deen does not decrease your time. Instead, what happens is you actually get barakah in your time, and so you will end up doing much, much more than what others are doing.

Shaykh Zakariyya Kandhalwi writes that one scholar came to him and said: "I am an ustad of hadith. I teach the most advanced books of hadith, and I have to do a lot of preparation for it. So because of that, spending time with hadith, I do not get enough time to recite Quran. Any advice?" May Allah allow us to understand these stories truly and bring change in our lives — Allahumma ameen.

Shaykh Zakariyya said: "You don't have time to recite Quran because you are preparing hadith — mashallah. Okay." He then said, "Look at me. What do you think of me?" The scholar replied, "You are my teacher, you are my sheikh." Shaykh Zakariyya said: "Do you know my schedule? I am not only a sheikh to literally thousands and thousands of students in suluk and tazkiyah — every day I receive hundreds of letters which my students open and read to me, and I give answers. Along with that I am a prolific author. Along with that I am a full-time teacher. And along with that I have to also be the spiritual guide for the effort of da'wah and tabligh. So madrasa full-time, tazkiyah full-time, tabligh full-time, and of course my family. With doing all of these things, I recite every single day consistently 13 juz of the Quran — 13 juz every single day, no reduction in it. How is that possible? You're telling me you don't have time because you're teaching hadith?" He said: "Don't give an excuse like that. The reason you can't do anything is because Quran is not in your life. That's why you can't seem to get things done. The day is never long enough."

Don't we all complain the day is never long enough? Can we have a 25-hour day, a 28-hour day? Even if you had a 48-hour day, you are not going to get things done if Quran is not in our life. We will never have enough time. Every day before we go to sleep, how many of us sit there thinking: "How many unfinished tasks do I have?" SubhanAllah — you're trying to go to sleep but you're thinking about all the things piled up from yesterday, the day before, and Sunday night you're thinking, "I've still got stuff from the whole last week, and Monday morning I have this and that." You lose your sleep over it.

Instead, if a person says — and I want us to take this lesson back from this gathering — if I want barakah in my time, I need to start spending time with the Quran. And this mal'un shaytan doesn't let us do that. He says, "I'll read Quran afterwards. Let me take care of this first, then I'll read afterwards. I just don't have time to read Quran." Brother — the reason you and I don't have time for our wives and our kids, for studying the deen, for coming to the masjid — is because Quran is not in our lives.

Practical Advice: Committing to the Quran

Once we start dedicating — I'm saying at least let's all make a commitment — at minimum, 30 minutes. Just 30 minutes. Solid 30 minutes. No matter what, I have to recite Quran. Open a mushaf. Ideally, do not read on your phone. When you are forced to because of a situation — you don't have a physical copy — fine. But generally speaking, let's not make that a habit. Especially if you're in a masjid or at home, try to pick up a physical copy of the Quran and read. There is so much barakah in holding it — your fingers are a witness of the Quran, this hand that's holding it is getting the reward, your fingers are getting the reward. And there's no distraction of being pinged and that irritating notification sound, the light — you're reading Quran and you and I know what it is: you're being bombarded from all different sides. Especially when you're reading Quran, even more messages somehow show up, and more things you remember to search. A'udhu billah — while reading Quran: "I wonder what this ayah means, let me put it in ChatGPT." That's a distraction. When you're reading Quran, don't do anything else. Just focus. Once your recital is done, then mashallah you can check the tafsirs and so forth.

Another issue: some people say, "Okay, Ramadan is coming — I don't know what the Quran means. How about I just start reading translation and tafsir?" No — that's two separate things. The translation and tafsir is one thing and the recital of the Quran is something else. You cannot replace one with the other. Go ahead and spend time reading translation and tafsir — mashallah, that's great. But it cannot replace the actual recital of the Quran.

The Quran as an Attribute of Allah — Advice from a Shaykh

One of the beautiful pieces of advice that was shared with me on this recent Umrah that Allah blessed me with — with many of my teachers — one of the mashayikh mentioned: when you are sitting with the Quran, understand that the Book of Allah is not a creation of Allah. We know that. The Book of Allah is the attribute of Allah. It is an attribute of Allah — it's not a thing, it's not a creation. It is an attribute of Allah. It's the most noble thing we can connect ourselves with, because it is an attribute of Allah that Allah has given us a chance to connect with.

So he said something which I had never heard before. He said: when you sit and read Quran, present all your needs to the Quran — your thoughts, your worries, your concerns. He said the Quran is the strongest intercessor because it's an attribute of Allah. If the Quran says, "Ya Allah, I want this person to be forgiven" — Allah will listen. "I want this person to go to paradise" — Allah will listen. Because this is an attribute of Allah that is now speaking on your behalf. He said: similarly, that will happen on the Day of Judgment. But in this world too — when you and I recite Quran, present in our mind all of the problems you are going through, present them to the Quran. "Ya Quran, I want you to take this to Allah. I want you to present it." Just like the Quran will inshallah be with us in the grave, and will inshallah be standing in front of us as a lawyer on the Day of Judgment — inshallah you can start benefiting from the Quran in this world as well. "Can you please push my file up forward?" SubhanAllah. Imagine what type of person does this — the one who actually believes that the Quran is such a powerful gift. He is the one who is going to speak to the Quran: "Can you please get this need of mine fulfilled? Present it to Allah." Allahu Akbar.

This attachment, my beloved friends, needs to happen. Once that is nourished in our hearts, then what will happen is we will not find contentment in anything else. One scholar — I travelled with him, SubhanAllah, to India; we were on a flight together — and I tend to fall asleep on planes, but I sat with him and he started reading Quran. I've travelled with him in America too — in khuruj. As soon as he would sit, literally — you know, I fall asleep in the car — he'd sit in the car, and I've travelled with him in America and then in a plane once, from Chicago to Delhi. Mashallah, when we landed in Delhi I said, "Mashallah, how much did you read?" He said, "Alhamdulillah — I read Quran." Nonchalant. I said, "How?" He said, "As soon as I sit in the car — I'm not driving — what should I do? I'm not flying the plane. This is my habit: as soon as I sit in the car, as soon as I sit in the plane, I start reading." And alhamdulillah, by the time he arrived at the destination — whether one khatm or half or whatever, depending on the distance — alhamdulillah it gets done.

And I looked at him like, "How is this?" This is love for the Quran. Just like our screen time is 8 hours, 9 hours, 12 hours, 5 hours — another person from a different era would say, "How is it possible that you could be looking at your screen for this many hours?" He wouldn't understand it. But you say, "That's just what it is — as soon as I sit in the car, I open my phone; as soon as I sit in the masjid, I open my phone; as soon as I sit on my bed, I switch on my phone." That's just how it is. The way we are with our phones — we just have to become like that with the Quran. We have to replace one with the other.

Practical Steps: Managing Screen Time

We need to cut down our time on our phones. I would suggest a couple of things. First — on your phones, you can turn on the grayscale. Just go to your settings, go to the color filters, and turn on grayscale. Then all these colors disappear. If you do a Google search on the effects of color on us — psychologically, neurologically — what it does to us, you'll see the immense benefits of removing color from the phone. There's so much research done on this. The setting is available on the majority of phones. One big effect is that it's no longer enjoyable to sit there on your phone. You only pick it up as needed — if you need to do work, okay — but it's not enjoyable; you can't continuously stay addicted. You do your stuff and leave it.

Number two: definitely try to lock down our social media apps. And don't wait till Ramadan — do it now. So if we have a habit of TikTok, if we have a habit of CNN, if we have a habit of a New York Times app that we spend an hour on every day — these are things we really need to immediately start cutting down in preparation for Ramadan. Delete it. And ideally, lock it down. I tell our students: delete these apps and go to your app store settings and lock your ability to download things. You can give the passcode to a friend — he gives his to you — and you just lock it so you can't download things.

Till now — if it gives you any encouragement — my phone: I've used my wife's phone to lock down my own phone. It's irritating at times, because I'm traveling abroad and I need to download something, and it says "Ask your parent" — right — at 2am. You can imagine: my wife doesn't appreciate that call. But I say: "No, this is the safety feature. This is how it is." My phone has been locked like this for many years. And I would encourage this: no one should regard themselves as safe. All of us should always regard ourselves as being at risk — anytime, anywhere, shaytan and nafs can deceive me. The best way is that haram content should never be accessible from our phone. Not just for your kids — for your own self.

You know how many divorces we're dealing with, how many marriages breaking down because men and women are being unfaithful to one another — and don't think that if you have four kids, it can't happen to you. So this is a safeguard — not just for Ramadan, but generally speaking. Block out all the haram content. Have somebody else type in the password for you. Android has Family Link you can use. iPhone has other features. You can use these things to block things out.

Once you've made the phone less fun and less of a time-waster, also put a screen lock — so that once you hit five hours, the screen locks. You can't use it. It gives you a warning: "You've got one hour left, half hour left," etc. There are many amazing tools available. One of our students built something called SalamGuard — the website is salamguard.com. It's got a lot of great resources on how to lock down our phones, and also adhkar and dhikr to help with addiction.

Alhamdulillah there's a lot of good work happening in this field. Another student of mine told me yesterday — to make du'a — he's creating an AI-powered app to fight pornography addiction. So alhamdulillah there's a lot of good work happening. If you're looking for solutions — and I know a lot of questions came up about this last night — there are solutions. Just reach out for help. SalamGuard is a good start. You can also reach out to me at imam.azeem@gmail.com, and say, "This is the situation — what are the resources?" and I can share with you those resources.

The du'as that Hafiz Yunus read — similarly there are du'as on SalamGuard that are very effective for fighting back addiction. There are Quranic verses — and alhamdulillah I can tell you, with the huge amount of data I have and the people I've shared these with, at times people who were not able to overcome addiction in 15–20 years were able to overcome it within a week. So there is a solution. The solution only lies in the Quran and the deen.

Closing Announcements and Upcoming Programs

We hope that inshallah Allah makes this Ramadan the most powerful and unique Ramadan we've ever had, and that thereby every Ramadan afterwards also becomes better than the previous one.

The Ramadan checklist was shared yesterday — if there are copies still available, please take them home with you. It has, for 30 days, every single day, the different deeds and good acts we can busy ourselves with. It's a simple checklist — you choose what you're going to do this Ramadan, and every single day you can hold yourself accountable through it.

Last but not least, as we come to a conclusion: I'm blessed to be here. Alhamdulillah, I've been coming here since 2008–09 — to the previous masjid, and now alhamdulillah here. May Allah continue to keep this place populated. Always keep our hearts attached. May Allah protect the masjid from the evil eye. May Allah protect the masjid from any sorts of fitna — internal and external — from the evil of the shayateen among humans and jinn. May Allah grant all of you qubul and acceptance for your sacrifices — the donors, the patrons, the musallees, the imams, the board members — everyone who has done whatever they've done to build this place. May Allah make it very heavy in your scales.

Upcoming Events at Masjid Dar es Salaam

I would like to also invite you to come visit us. Those who have not already done so — make a habit of coming to visit us whenever you can.

No-Tech Retreat — In two weeks from now, exactly two weeks from now, we have our annual no-tech retreat. It's exactly 24 hours long — very easy. You can fly in Saturday and leave Sunday night. It's Saturday Maghrib (around 5pm) to Sunday 5pm. It will be January 24th weekend. No-tech means you disconnect — leave your technology in the car, come into the masjid. Within 24 hours people are leaving crying: "We don't want to leave. We have felt what we at times don't even feel in Umrah — in 24 hours." There's dhikr, there's du'a, there's a du'a workshop — everyone gets into their own corners and makes du'a — then a salah workshop, a wudu workshop. We have one guest speaker every year who focuses on a topic. This year's guest speaker is Shaykh Hashim Ahmed — a convert scholar. He accepted Islam in the late 60s to early 70s, studied Islam at Umm al-Qura in Mecca in the 70s, then went to Pakistan to study, and taught Sahih al-Bukhari and books of hadith for 30 years in Karachi. His mother and father — one was Christian, one was Jewish — and Allah guided him. He can speak better Urdu than most of us here, SubhanAllah. He's a scholar, and mashallah Allah blessed him so that every son is a scholar. He will be our guest speaker — a very ruhani, spiritual person. Allah has given people like this. How often can you see a 75-year-old person who surfs every morning? He still goes surfing every morning. I really encourage all of you to please come and visit — January 24th.

I'tikaf — Last 10 Days of Ramadan — In the month of Ramadan, we have a very structured i'tikaf program that has been running since 2013. Every year about 80–85 brothers from across the country come join us for sunnah i'tikaf for 10 days. I encourage you — if you can take the 10 days off and want to have an amazing experience, come join us. Even if you can't do all 10 days, come for the last 10 days of Ramadan. Even 3 or 4 days of i'tikaf, inshallah, will be tremendously beneficial.

Annual Retreat — Will be in April this year. It's 3 days — for men, women, and children, for the whole family. You can do i'tikaf in the masjid as well.

Arabic Intensive & Islamic Studies Intensive — Taking place every summer since 2009.

One-Year Islamic Studies Program — Begins in August. It's very emotional for me to see how many of the graduates of this program are here today. Mufti Omar Naji — who started with the summer program, then went 1 year, 2 year, 3 year, 4 year, 5 year, 6 year, 7 year — and then completed the 2-year specialization in Fiqh Shafi'i. How often do we see this in this country — someone who has studied 2 years of actual specialization in Fiqh Shafi'i, learning how to give fatwa in that madhab? Alhamdulillah, he is now serving as an imam in Tampa. Another scholar, a graduate of Dar es Salaam — Shaykh Omar Ali — also an imam in Tampa. And we have tens of students who have done the one-year program, now all over Tampa, Orlando, Miami, etc.

These are things I have to offer — outstanding programs there to serve your sons, your daughters, and you. Come and benefit, and come back and serve your community. I ask Allah to allow these masajid to be connected spiritually, to allow us to benefit from each other's company, to allow us to benefit from the good that we have, and may Allah overlook our mistakes and our shortcomings and grant all of us ikhlas.

JazakumAllahu khayran.

Final Announcements

May Allah accept — and as has been announced, inshallah Ishraq time will begin at 7:34, so we have exactly 5 minutes to prepare. After that, breakfast will be served outside of the masjid. Please stay back for breakfast.

Lastly, we ask everyone to forgive us for any inconvenience that may have been caused in the arrangements of the program, and we ask Allah to accept everyone's efforts. We ask that Allah allow us to leave with lifelong lessons and new habits that we form inshallah.

JazakumAllahu khayran.