Footprints in the Sand: Lessons from the Pious | Muftī Azeemuddin Ahmed | 03/11

Opening Du'ā and Invocation

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. O Allah, send blessings and peace upon our Master Muhammad and upon the family of our Master Muhammad. And bless and send peace upon the Lord who has opened my heart and made my affairs easy.

And remove the knot from my tongue so that my words may be understood. Glory be to You, we have no knowledge except what You have taught us. You are the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.

O Allah, teach us what benefits us and benefit us with what You have taught us. And increase us in knowledge and in action. O Allah, enlighten our hearts with Your knowledge and use our bodies for Your obedience.

Ammā ba'd.

We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that He inspires us to share and hear those words which are most beneficial for us at this moment. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala put effect in what we read and what we hear. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala soften our hearts to the truth. May Allah azza wa jal allow whatever we share and hear to be spread across the globe and become a means of revival across the entire ummah. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala remove our spiritual disease and illnesses through the barakah of this gathering and all the other gatherings in the masjid. Allahumma ameen.

Introduction: Connecting to the Pious Predecessors

We are speaking about why we have chosen the book The Fathers and Sons of Deoband and the background of our recent pious predecessors — the spiritual as well as the academic heritage that alhamdulillah has been passed down through them to myself and to all who attend any of the programs here. And it is very important, all the time, that we keep on connecting ourselves to the connected ones, keep on looking back and realigning ourselves with the uninterrupted chain of spirituality and knowledge that goes back to the Prophet ﷺ, onwards to Jibreel ﷺ, onwards to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And as long as we are connected — inshallah ta'ala — this is the hablullah, it is the rope of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as mentioned regarding the Qur'an.

So when we are connected to this unbreakable rope, no matter how tough the situation may be around us — which is most definitely getting tougher by the night and by the day — Allah azza wa jal will save us inshallah, as long as we are connected.

So we talked about some of the attributes and the qualities that these elders had. And it's not the fact that we just say they're our elders and we love them — no. It's because they genuinely had qualities that will make you successful. And the purpose of reading these qualities and hearing these stories is to inspire you and I to follow in their footsteps. It's not sufficient to say, "This was my father, my grandfather, this is my shaykh," etc. Instead it's important that we follow it. So with that intention we are reading, and with that intention we are listening.

The Sunnah: The Indispensable Guardrail of the Qur'an

So we mentioned just a few virtues — and there's a lot more — regarding sunnah and what the Prophet ﷺ has said about it.

In Mishkāt al-Masābīh, Miqdam ibn Ma'dī Karab radiyallahu anhu narrates that the Prophet ﷺ said:

"Listen, I have been given the Qur'an and another thing along with it just like it — i.e. the sunnah. In our time, a gluttonous one will recline against his cushion and say, 'Take the Qur'an only. Take its permissible as permissible and its forbidden as forbidden.' Even though whatever the Prophet ﷺ declares forbidden is also forbidden in the Qur'an."

(Sunan Abī Dāwūd, Hadith 4604; also recorded in Mishkāt al-Masābīh)

I'll read another one similar to this hadith. 'Irbāḍ ibn Sāriyah says the Prophet ﷺ said:

"One among you reclines against his cushions and claims that Allah does not declare forbidden anything outside of the Qur'an. Listen — I swear by Allah — I have also enjoined, advised, and forbidden many things. They are of the same importance as the Qur'an, but in fact even more."

(Sunan Abī Dāwūd, Hadith 4605; Sunan Ibn Mājah, Hadith 12)

Again, "reclining against his cushion" conveys the same idea as "gluttonous" in the first hadith. These ahadith carry the Prophet ﷺ's prophecy that a time will come where you have wealthy people, who have nice mansions and cushions, and will be eating lots of different varieties of foods. And after they are filled to their stomachs, they will sit back and give their two cents on Islam.

Part of that will be — the idea that it's nice to say "I'm part of something." Everyone likes to be part of something. So religion will become just like an identity of sorts. It's nice — you're part of something bigger. Eid day feels great, doesn't it? A big group of people together, alhamdulillah, it feels nice. But in the process of that, a group of people are there for the identity purpose — the idea of "I want to be part of a larger group." But when it comes to actually following what you're supposed to do, we don't want to do that. Instead we want to continue to do whatever we have been doing. So how do you go about doing that? You start playing around with the deen.

And the deen is such that the protection of the deen is the sunnah. If you remove the sunnah, then the Qur'an can be played around with. Allah Himself says:

Allah says: there are many who get misled through the Qur'an and many who get guided from the Qur'an. So there are many people — ex-Muslims and others — who will say, "I left Islam because of a verse of the Qur'an." I have myself interacted with many of them. Why did you leave Islam, brother? "Because of this verse." Allah said that in the Qur'an — that the Qur'an itself may mislead people. And this very verse, some people leave Islam because of it.

Ajeeb — they become a manifestation of this very same verse that I just read from the fourth page of Surah Al-Baqarah. So Allah says — and I'm one of those people who have been misled — according to you. Of course, I don't regard myself as misled; I regard myself as enlightened. But your God says that. SubhanAllah. It's ajeeb — the man is a manifestation of the very verse, and he still doesn't get it. So scary. And they are very intelligent, well-read, educated, coming from good homes. Nobody is safe. May Allah protect you and I in our iman. Allahumma ameen, till our last breath.

So what is the railguard around the Qur'an? What is it? It's the sunnah. You throw out the sunnah, and every single deviant sect — I don't need to name names — but the most unorthodox, those outside of Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama'ah, you name it. Including, of course, people who we all believe are not Muslim — the Mirzais, Qadianis. If you ever engage with them or see them online, 100% — what are they going to be quoting? Qur'an, Qur'an, Qur'an, Qur'an, Qur'an. I'm telling you, an average Mirzai is much more capable of quoting Qur'an than the majority of masjid-goers here. That's just how it is. They study, and you'll be shocked.

That's why we should all know our pay grades. Don't involve yourself in fights that you can't really handle yourself. Because in the process of that, you may end up losing your own deen. Don't involve yourself in that. Learn the deen. As soon as you see a question, come and ask, and say, "Give me a book, I need to learn about this." But don't get engaged in debates, because it really is dangerous.

Stories of Warning: The Danger of Knowledge Without Tazkiyah

The Scholar Who Debated Mirza Ghulam Ahmad

I'll share with you a story my ustad, Mawlana Shabbir Sahib, told us in Mishkāt al-Masābīh class. He said that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, when he went through his stages — claiming to be a Mahdi, claiming to be the Messiah, claiming to be a prophet, all sorts of things — one young scholar, very powerful, told his sheikh: "There's a new fitnah, a new person causing a lot of problems. I would like to go sort him out. I want to go debate him."

So his ustad said, "No. You are not ready yet." He said, "Who says so? I'm ready. I'm number one in class. I memorized all the texts." Really smart kid. Curiosity killed the cat — intelligence kills the man at times. When you trust your intelligence, that "I know better than my mom and dad, I know better than my teachers because I have gotten better marks, better grades" — this is very dangerous. So he told his student, "Do not go." He said, "No, I got it." And he went.

He went into that debate. Remember, you're speaking to somebody who says he's a Messiah, he's a Mahdi, he's a prophet. This scholar goes to debate him. What happened? He lost the debate. It's possible to lose a debate. But that's what he said: "I lost the debate, and that's it. I'm going to become Mirzai. I believe you to be the prophet." And subhanAllah, he became — because he was so intelligent — he became the right-hand man of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. Because Mirza was not very well-spoken or well-written, this scholar became a prolific writer who defended him throughout his entire life better than Mirza could do himself. He penned his books, dedicated his life to Mirza. And after Mirza died, he continued until his own death.

So our ustad would say: pure knowledge gets you nowhere if it is not coupled with tazkiyah, if it is not coupled with spirituality. And that spirituality has to come through someone else. You need to have that spiritual doctor, a mentor.

This statement I tell my beloved students every single day: I am sitting in front of you with my elders' hands — my mom and dad and my shuyūkh — on my head. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala always keep it like that. Allahumma ameen. You cannot think that just because you are, mashaAllah, in fifth year, sixth year, seventh year, or in takhassus or something, that you've made it. The day you think you've made it and you don't need your teachers, you don't need your parents, is the day of your downfall. And I'm sharing this with all of you who may be non-students too — please teach your kids. And if you're a student, understand this yourself: stop thinking you know it all. This destroys us. This is what makes us exactly Iblīsī. Because this is exactly the Iblīsī mindset — "I know it all." And when a scholar, a student of knowledge, or anybody else for that matter says he knows it all, then he becomes another helper and supporter of Iblīs.

The Sheikh Who Smelled Apostasy: A Lesson in Firāsah

Another incident Mawlana Shabbir Sahib told us: one day, this same individual — years earlier — had gone with his ustad to Madīnah. They went to visit a great scholar of tazkiyah there. When the student walked away, that sheikh said: "Pata nahi kyun mujhe yahan se irtidad ki boo aa rahi hai." — "I don't know why, but I smell apostasy here. I have a stench of apostasy coming from somewhere." What is this called? This is called firāsah. When Allah azza wa jal gives a person a great intuition into things. Who has this intuition? The people who have the noor of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in their hearts:

"Be wary of the foresight of the believer, because indeed he looks with the noor of Allah."

(Sunan al-Tirmidhī, Hadith 3127)

The Student Who Ignored the Advice of Mawlana Inamul Hasan

Another ustad of mine, Mufti Ilyas Ahmad Barakātuhum, shared a story of an individual — a college student — who went out for four months in jamaat. After that, he changed his life and said, "I want to go study 'ilm," which is a very common thing. People go on the path of Allah for three days, forty days, and they want to become scholars. Many people change their lives through this. Many of our scholars across the entire United States have roots in this — they went for three days and their lives changed. You would never imagine it. I've asked them point blank: "Did you go in khurūj?" They say, "Of course. I went forty days." SubhanAllah. History is in the effort of da'wah and tabligh. Especially the majority of reverts — well-known revert scholars, or a big chunk of them at least.

So he went to Nizamuddin and met Hazrat Ji, Mawlana Inamul Hasan rahimahullah. After he finished his four months, he said, "I would like to go become a scholar. I want to go to madrasah." So Mawlana Inamul Hasan rahimahullah told him, "You know what? You don't need to go to madrasah. You go back to your university, alhamdulillah, do the work of da'wah and tabligh, you'll stay on the sunnah, just do your university." He said, "No. How could you be stopping me from becoming a scholar?"

So he ended up going to madrasah — this story Mufti Ilyas Sahib shared — he went to Karachi and started studying there in Darul Uloom Karachi, Binori Town. And Mufti Ilyas Barakātuhum says, "I still remember he used to come to talk to me after 'Asr sometimes, over tea. This young South African would ask a lot of tough questions — he was a first-year student. And I still remember this — we're talking about the late 1970s." Eventually, he got disenfranchised from the madrasah in Karachi. He became an English teacher in a Catholic school. After that, he went back after many years, joined university, became an academic, and became what you would call a reformist. He's written books, lectured, and has dedicated his life to "reforming" Islam.

Hazrat Mufti Sahib says that thirty years later, he still remembers that discussion they had with this young man.

My point in sharing these three stories with you is that there is something called firāsah. And there is something really important — istikhārah and mashūrah. When you take advice from people who are connected with Allah, Allah will guide them to give you such advice that's worth millions. Do not undermine this. No matter how set you are in your ways — "I have to get married to this person" — this is the biggest issue. People come to me all the time. You come giving me a date, giving me the wedding card. We don't say anything because it's too late. But that's not the way to do things.

If you really want the blessing of somebody, make mashūrah: "Is this a good proposal? Is this a good match for my son, for my daughter?" And then ask somebody else. But when the person says, "Mujhe samajh mein aa raha hai" — "I understand it. I get it" — that's where the problem comes. When you say "I understand it" — the "I" destroys everything. So big decisions and small decisions — take the advice of whoever you regard as a senior, a teacher, or whoever you're trying to get their du'as from. Before you get their du'as, first get their mashūrah. Not that everything is done and then you ask for du'as. By then, it's too late.

The Sunnah as the Only Protection

So what we learn from this is that many times something can become a source of guidance, and the very same thing can become a source of misguidance. The Qur'an itself is a source of guidance — but when you remove sunnah from it and start going into the Qur'an without the sunnah, every deviant sect will always quote the Qur'an. And today some of the most well-known aql-parast, new Mu'tazilites — people who worship their own ego and intellect and say, "Everything's got to make sense to me" — they have a huge following. And then you have the Middle Eastern monarchs and leaders who also understand this: "If we want control over what our deen looks like and sounds like, and we just want a stamp of Islam while doing our own thing — what's the biggest obstacle? The sunnah, the hadith." So attack the hadith. Call it fabricated.

Jabal 'Ayr and the Whitewashing of Islamic History

Just this morning, I saw on someone's phone a picture of Madīnah. And this gives me goosebumps — I've never seen a picture like this. It's from high on top of a mountain. It's a luxurious, beautiful atmosphere — a restaurant with beautiful lighting, an unbelievably high-end, five-star restaurant at the top of a mountain. And what do you see down below? The entire Madīnah. They are now promoting it like crazy: "Come, take a road trip up to the mountain and enjoy your evening, your sunset at the top of a mountain looking over Madīnah." It's called Jabal 'Ayr.

I was like — wait, Jabal 'Ayr? I remember this from my Madīnah trips and my ziyārah. I did a quick search. The Prophet ﷺ said: "Madīnah is from Jabal 'Ayr to Jabal Uhud."

"Jabal Uhud loves me and I love it." Jabal Uhud is a mountain of Jannah. And Jabal 'Ayr — there are so many narrations of it being from Jahannam.

(Sahīh al-Bukhārī, Hadith 2889; Sahīh Muslim, Hadith 1365 — regarding Jabal Uhud and the sanctity of Madīnah)

I did a search on it — it's so clear. What do I find online? All the first twenty websites, including Wikipedia, all saying this hadith is weak. Wikipedia is doing takhrīj of hadith? Since when does a Wikipedia post do takhrīj of hadith? There's an agenda, and in order to pursue that agenda, they realize the hadith is going to cause issues. So the hadith that says this place is part of Jahannam — they just label it weak, to show it's not worthy of practice.

You heard about al-Hijr — the dwellings of Thamūd — where Allah's wrath came? Even on Wikipedia, they're trying to whitewash it — to remove the idea that this is a place of punishment. Because no Muslim tourist was going to go there otherwise. Do you understand what I'm saying? Say ameen. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow our hearts to be able to communicate without using our tongues. May Allah allow the fikr, the concern, and the things I see in my heart and mind to be shared without my lips needing to move — and for you to just get it. Because if you get it, you'll be able to save your kids and your future generations. And if you don't get it, it's over.

The type of makr — the plotting that is happening to destroy our deen in the near future — is very, very alarming. And in order to achieve that destruction of the deen, what do you have to remove? The sunnah. Not just the hadith — the full practice of the Prophet ﷺ. One is the statements, and one is the full lived practice of the Prophet ﷺ. And we're seeing this today. All of these new innovations happening right under our nose, every day within our community — by our own kids, by our own community members, sometimes our own spouses. And anytime you say, "By Izzan, this is wrong, I'm just following sunnah," they say, "That was just sunnah. It's not a big deal. I'm not doing anything haram. It's just sunnah." That's how it starts. When you remove the sunnah railguard — game over.

So if someone says, "Brother, I want to connect with a scholar, a program, a speech, a podcast, a halaqah" — the key litmus test is: to what degree is the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ being established, from top to bottom? What degree of sunnah? That's it. I mean it. That's the only thing that's going to save us.

During the era of Dajjāl, the only thing that will save you is to keep asking: "What's the sunnah?" That's the only thing that can extinguish his evil — it's the sunnah. He can't stand up to the sunnah. Why do we read the first ten and last ten āyāt of Surah Al-Kahf? That is the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. And the Prophet ﷺ spoke about its memorization. How many of our sons and daughters have memorized the first ten? Nabi ﷺ spoke about recitation and memorization. Read it, read it, read it. And inshallah, tabārak wa ta'ālā, you will continue down this path of connecting with the teachings of this Surah.

My beloved friends, I'm telling you, I'm not exaggerating — we are in really crazy times right now. This Ramadan is the craziest Ramadan I have ever seen of what's happening outside. And what will come in the next couple of months is something. The biggest problem is the safety of our iman. Ya Allah, grant me husnul khātimah. Ya Allah, grant my kids husnul khātimah. Ya Allah, grant my parents and my spouse husnul khātimah. That's all. The most important thing is we cannot lose our iman. Every night, make this du'a.

The Reward for Reviving the Sunnah

Nabi ﷺ said:

"Whoever revives any one of my sunnahs which was abandoned after me will receive the reward of those who act upon it, without any reduction in their reward. And whoever starts a new innovation — a new thing which is disliked by Allah and His Prophet — will receive the sin of those who act upon it, without any reduction in their sin."

(Sunan al-Tirmidhī, Hadith 2677; Sunan Ibn Mājah, Hadith 210)

So understand — today is an era of trending, of what's trending online. If you start something that goes trending, and it's something haram, something against the sunnah, you're going to get the sin even in your own grave for every single person who does it after you. That's why one post, one little thing that people put online and it takes off — the ramifications of that, we are not understanding. Even if a man is dead, the sins will continue to gather in his book of deeds.

On the flip side — if you start something beneficial which is bringing people back to the sunnah, alhamdulillah, and you make it into a trend, you get the reward. We have a Ramadan checklist — trying to get people to start a'māl. Everything on there is from sunnah: tasbīh after salāh, tarāwīh, daily du'ā. Reading Surah Al-Mulk, Surah Al-Dukhān, Surah Al-Wāqi'ah, Surah Al-Mulk. Make it trending. All of you have your ability. Get some daily checklist, a children's checklist. The method — having a graphic — that's not the sunnah. But no one said that was sunnah. The idea is to get our families onto a'māl, especially in the month of Ramadan. If that becomes trending, mashaAllah, you'll get the ajr of it.

Nabi ﷺ has mentioned:

"Whoever revives my sunnah has loved me. And whoever loves me will be with me in Jannah."

(Sunan al-Tirmidhī, Hadith 2678)

What else could you possibly want? To be in paradise with the Prophet ﷺ. My beloved friends, it is simply a matter of reviving the sunnah.

Abu Hurayrah radiyallahu anhu narrates that the Prophet ﷺ said: "Whoever acts upon my sunnah when my ummah is corrupted will receive the reward of a hundred martyrs."

(al-Bayhaqī in Shu'ab al-Īmān; cited in Mishkāt al-Masābīh)

In another hadith, Nabi ﷺ said: "Even if Mūsā ﷺ was alive, he would follow me."

(Musnad Ahmad; cited in various collections)

Warning: Sweetened Poison — Talks That Pull You Away from the Sunnah

Many of us might be saying, "Why do you talk about the evils of the ummah? Why do you talk about what's wrong?" My beloved friends, it's like a father speaking to his son, or an older brother speaking to his younger brother. "Outside there are messed up people — highway robbers, thieves, bullies at school — watch out." Because the poor kid doesn't know. He just goes after anybody who gives him candy. So you have to warn people: "Hey, don't get enticed by someone offering you candy." That's why I'm telling you this — don't get enticed by the latest post that's most attractive.

I've heard someone say, "You know what, you need to listen to a talk that just makes sense to you, that you enjoy, that doesn't make you feel bad, doesn't make you always feel remorseful, doesn't emotionally blackmail you — it makes you feel good about life." This is the criterion of what a "good talk" is? SubhanAllah. What is the point of realization — my flaws, my mistakes, I've got to make tawbah — if we don't make tawbah now, then when? All of us should be crying. All of us should be lost in thought about our own sins and our diseased hearts. If not now, then when?

There is an effort to say, "Don't pray 20 raka'āt, pray 8." Then, not even 8 — "It's not that important, it's just sunnah." Then a person said, "I've written a whole book to prove there's no such thing as tarāwīh." What are you trying to achieve by this?

One of my friends attended a khātira of a very well-known speaker. The entire half-hour khātira — on what topic? On how some of the sins that have been classified as major sins for the past eight, eleven, twelve centuries are actually, from further study, not major sins. Is this something to be stated? Why are you telling this to the people? That brother — he's not a scholar, he's a professional — he walked out of the talk. He said, "Man, I know things are clearly haram and I already have a hard time staying away from them. And you are coming on the mic and telling me that things I've been told are haram my whole childhood — things I alhamdulillah have been staying away from — you're saying I can do it?" Why would you say something like that?

The goal for us is to push towards sunnah and stay away from haram, makruh, khilāf al-sunnah, anything and everything that is even doubtful. So my beloved brothers, my dear sisters, my dear listeners — please be aware that there are a lot of talks, lectures, and reels that are actually poison for our hearts. Anytime you hear something, reflect on the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ: Does this speech make me want to follow the Prophet ﷺ closer or not?

People ask about the beard. My ustad said, "Bhai, wājib hai, sunnat-e-mu'akkadah hai, fardh hai — let's leave all that. How did the Prophet ﷺ look? Finish." When you speak, let's not even get into this fiqh discussion. How did the Prophet ﷺ spend his nights? Forget 8 rak'āt, 20 rak'āt, 15 rak'āt — what did the Prophet ﷺ do? How did he spend the night? Was it in marketplaces? Or was it literally tiring himself in ibādah? So any lecture you attend and listen to — constantly ask yourself: "Is this pushing me closer to the Prophet ﷺ's life or pulling me away from it?" That's your gold standard.

I truly hope I'm making sense to you all. There is so much happening right now — it's so scary that the majority of people are falling for it. They're attracted to the sweetness, the charisma, the music in the background, the lights and the camera and the action — and a person becomes hypnotized. Welcome to the Dajjāl era, where a lot of the incorrect things are going to be pushed in ways that you won't realize. That's why — you're not always going to be sitting with your teachers, you won't always have a scholar nearby — just say: "What I just heard right now, whatever talk I just attended — does it make me want to follow the Prophet ﷺ more or less?" That's your answer. If it doesn't create within you the fervor to go against the grain and follow the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ, please distance yourself from there. Because what you're getting is actually more harm than benefit.

One mufti sahib said something beautiful: "Be-dīnī, bad-dīnī se behtar hai." Lack of deen is far better than having an incorrect deen. He'd rather have a person who is openly doing haram and knows it — and says, "Brother, I'm not righteous, I'm not pious, I hope one day I'll make tawbah" — than someone who thinks he's following the deen but is actually following a wrong version of it, and tries to convert people to this new "reformed" type of deen. This is where the danger lies today.

As Nabi ﷺ said:

There are going to be du'āt — inviters — at the doors of Jahannam. Du'āt is the plural of dā'ī. There are going to be callers on the doors of Jahannam. Even the caller himself, he doesn't know what's happening to him. He himself is duped. He doesn't realize what he is doing. But he is unintentionally calling people towards hellfire — asking them to change this, change that, leave this, "that's okay, this is okay." And at the end, nothing is left.

(Sahīh al-Bukhārī, Hadith 3606; Sahīh Muslim, Hadith 1847)

Closing: The Yardstick Is the Sunnah

The purpose of any of my talks is never to incite hatred against anybody, never to incite anger towards anybody — but rather to be a wake-up call for the oppressor and the oppressed. To be a wake-up call for the deceived and the deceiver. And begging and hoping that you and I do not fall into the category of a deceiver, nor into the category of a deceived one.

May Allah grant us istiqāmah and iman and yaqeen. May Allah grant you and I an immense, immense attachment to the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. May Allah allow our beloved children, our spouses, and our generations to be committed to the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. This is the yardstick of everything. Any event, any issue, any talk — always say, the yardstick is the sunnah. What would the Prophet ﷺ say? If he were here.

I've been saying this for years — for maybe fifteen years. This is one of my statements: anytime you're in doubt, imagine if the Prophet ﷺ was here, what would you do? But this is now being labelled "emotional blackmail" — "Why are you making people think too much? They should not feel guilty." So these are very scary times. Ask Allah to protect yourself from any and all people who may end up misleading you and I.

It's not over until the soul comes out of our body with iman. Inshallah, let's join in du'ā. If everyone can proceed downstairs quickly inshallah — let's not talk, let's not chatter. We're doing dhikr and du'ā. Let's proceed downstairs quietly and turn to Allah now.