Reflect & Connect: Surah An-Nazi'at - Ep.01 - Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed | 7/22

Opening Reminder: The Virtue of Seeking Knowledge

As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. Alhamdulillah, as the new year of this seminary is starting, many different programs are coming. Alhamdulillah, as we announced, the Arabic intensive is starting tomorrow, inshallah. The taqmeel program from year two to seven is starting again tomorrow, inshallah. And then at the next month, from August, inshallah, the tanweer program, the tadris program, will start. And then we also have the online ta'aleem program. So all these different programs that we have, they're all focused on the center of ilm — studying knowledge.

And alhamdulillah, as we see this community, there are so many different opportunities for everyone here, no matter what background you're from, no matter how much you've studied before, no matter how old you are. For every single person, there's something for them to do. And this is something important, because in many communities you go to, you will see that this is not the case. Many times you go to communities and they see one scholar, and they're blown away. And they love to see ilm, but they don't have any opportunity where they are. In many places in America, the entire place is dead. There's a masjid, but there's no imam. There's a masjid, but there's no community members. There's a masjid, but there's no program. There's a masjid, but no one even comes to Fajr salah, Isha salah. So once they see some sort of knowledge, some person with any sort of knowledge, they love it, and they stick to it, and they make sure they benefit from it as much as they can.

Now looking at ourselves, this is something we must reflect on, because we're given so many opportunities to study. We're given so many opportunities to learn knowledge. Alhamdulillah, not only in Darussalam, but in the entire Chicagoland area, there are so many ulama. But we must ask ourselves: are we taking advantage of these opportunities we are given?

I want to mention one hadith which sort of gives us a reminder, and gives us a boost of energy to want to go and study knowledge. The Prophet ﷺ mentions in a hadith that the person who seeks a path, who makes a path, who strives to learn knowledge — the ilm of Allah — Allah Himself will make a path for this person towards Jannah. Because we are going and studying the knowledge of Allah, therefore Allah returns that — the reward for that is Jannah. No matter what kind of knowledge we're studying, no matter how much, whether it's seven years, whether it's one year, whether it's just a weekend or month-long summer program — no matter what it is, Allah is not looking for quantity. Rather, He is looking for how much desire we have to study knowledge, how much desire we have to study the knowledge that the Prophet ﷺ came down to teach us.

And the hadith follows: that the angels of Allah, whenever they see a person studying knowledge, they lay down their wings in happiness, in pleasure, in joy, in humility for this person who is studying knowledge.

(Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 3641; Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2682)

That the superiority of an 'alim — a person of knowledge — over an 'abid — a worshipper of Allah — is like the superiority of the full moon, the brightness of the full moon, in relation to all the rest of the stars. If you look at the sky, we see the full moon, how bright it is. That sometimes if we're walking and there might be no light, but the moon can illuminate the entire area around us. That's how bright the moon is. But none of the other stars can do that. None of the milky galaxy, whatever it is — none of them can give that same illumination that the moon gives.

Similarly, the 'alim, the person who studies knowledge, in comparison to the 'abid. The 'abid isn't some normal person — he's a person who worships Allah day in and day out. But it is because of the 'alim that the rahma of Allah spreads. The 'abid, it's just an individual thing — he's not helping other people. He himself is worshipping Allah, but that doesn't help anyone else. He's not teaching other people, he's not benefiting other people in ilm, or in spirituality, or in rahma being spread. But for the 'alim, because of his sole presence on the earth, Allah helps people. He might not even know the people he's helping, but because of this person being present on this earth, Allah helps so many people.

So, as we mentioned, there are so many different virtues of an 'alim, and so many reasons why we must support and make sure that the future generation are prepared to take up on this task that the ulama of the previous century and previous generations have left behind. And it is because of these ulama that inshallah Allah will help the entire mankind, will bring mercy and rahma upon the entire mankind, and alleviate all the difficulties that everyone is going through.

So, no matter what situation we're in, no matter what background we're in, no matter how old we are, no matter what we're working in — we must make sure that any opportunity that Allah gives us to study knowledge, whether it is part-time, whether it is full-time, whether it is on the weekends, we must make sure to take advantage of it. Because if we do not, then Allah very easily can take it away. Many people might know that in America, if you look just a few decades ago, it was not like this. If you go to Masjid Nur and you ask Amir Sahib, Sheikh Saeed Sahib, he would tell you that he used to pray Jumu'ah Salah on Sunday — just 40-50 years ago. Jumu'ah Salah on Sunday in the blessed Chicago. And now today we're having a tafsir session, we're having so many different programs, we're having a 7-year 'Alim course, we're having different retreats that are going on. This is all because of the ulama who came and established and made sure that the future generation of this land will be preserved.

So again, whatever opportunity we are given, we must make sure to take advantage of it. I ask Allah to allow us to take advantage of any opportunity we are given. And may Allah preserve all the ulama. Ameen.

Introduction to Surah An-Nazi'at and the 30th Juz'

Alhamdulillah, in this surah, Allah has begun the discussion on the Day of Judgment. This surah speaks about the majority of it on the Day of Judgment. And alhamdulillah, the second surah of the 30th juz' — and Surah An-Naba' as you have heard in the past 3-4 weeks was also speaking about Al-Naba' Al-'Azim, the great happening, the great news — and this is similarly continuing on with a theme of Akhirah.

The 30th juz', the majority of the surahs being Meccan — revealed in Mecca before, in the early days of revelation — focus on the fundamental aspect of faith that a person has to have before we can go anywhere. And that is why the injunctions of Islam are not mentioned in these surahs as much, ahkam. Rather, they focus on the iman, the strength of iman that a person has to have.

And this is such an important discussion for us. Because we see today that knowledge has become very easily accessible — via apps, via websites, via books, well, maybe you should say e-books, because people don't like to read real books. But nonetheless, knowledge is at the tip of our fingers. But what's going to make a person want to read? What's going to make a person want to open an app? What's going to make a person want to open a website? What's going to make a person desire to go to a library? There needs to be something in their heart that makes them feel that it is important for me to focus on this. Otherwise, they won't be reading anything. So having knowledge being presented to us on a silver platter in front of us is not sufficient. There must be an internal motivation to actually read, an internal motivation to study, an internal motivation to implement, an internal desire to research — and to get to the bottom of everything, including most definitely: what does Allah want from me? What is Allah asking of me? How can I please Allah? So the mere presence of knowledge is not the problem.

The Crisis of Iman: Apostasy and the Weakness of Faith

When I was mentioning to some of our ulama recently who had come from overseas for the ijtima' — I was explaining to them the issue of apostasy in our country, and in the first world countries, and in the educated population of the world. One of the things one of the ulama had mentioned is that this comes to us as a surprise. When we usually speak about apostasy, we hear about villages — villages where people have no knowledge. And then someone comes, the Christian missionaries come for example, and make effort, and people end up leaving Islam and becoming something else. It's either because of extreme ignorance or extreme poverty that we see massive numbers of people leaving Islam. You always hear about these villages where hundreds and thousands have left Islam because they never heard, they never saw Muslims. They grew up not knowing anything, not even لا إله إلا الله محمد رسول الله.

That's how the effort of da'wah and tabligh began — when Mawlana Ilyas rahmatullahi alayhi saw entire villages of people who were Muslim villages with Muslim names, and they seriously did not know the kalima. They've been Muslim for generations, and that's when it really hit him: how is it possible that we have entire localities of people, hundreds of thousands, who don't know the kalima? And of course they don't know anything beyond that either.

So that is something that people have heard. What they have not heard as much — at least people outside — is that you have people who have full access to knowledge, who have actually studied tajweed, who can recite Quran properly, who have attended lots of different schools — Sunday school, Islamic school, and then maybe even something beyond that. And after having all of that, they decide to leave Islam. That is something that was kind of new for some of them and they said, wow, this is not something we usually hear. But that is the case. Right now one of our groups of students was in a nearby state where they came across a scholar who studied the Quran, ijaza in all 10 modes of recitation, and used to be an imam in a masjid — now an open atheist.

So you see, this has become a much more common issue. What's going on? The reason for not practicing Islam is not the lack of knowledge. It's rather something more fundamental than that. It is either knowledge is already present — they know it — or it's at their fingertips. But the faith, iman, in the unseen is so weak that it does not allow them to practice on what they have studied, nor does it allow them to study. So that's the most fundamental issue. You've got to go back to the basics. The basics is explaining to people and making them understand and having them truly accept Allah and the unseen world. Without that, nothing is possible.

And so that's why the surahs of the 30th juz' are in that order — they are speaking about what a believer, or a non-Muslim, or a Muslim, everyone needs first. It's the hammering down of the iman in the unseen world. Once that is taken care of, then after that, every single thing will come in easy.

The Power of Iman: The Example of the Prohibition of Khamr

For example, Aisha radiallahu anha mentions: if the prohibition of khamr — wine, liquor — were to have happened in Makkah, she says people would not have responded. People would not have responded had it been made haram in Makkah. Allah made it haram after they had arrived in Medina, after some time, because the people were prepared. Their hearts were ready. Iman was strong.

How strong was it? That it just took one messenger from the masjid — not the Prophet ﷺ himself. One messenger, one sahabi, is going around reciting:

That's a fatwa. He's just reading a verse of the Quran. He's walking and he's reading out loud this verse of the Quran. And the ones inside, whoever is hearing it — there are narrations that speak about parties that were taking place. Because the way we drink chai, that's how liquor and wine was — it was so common. And so they're drinking and the sahabi narrates that people were pouring from kegs into jugs, from jugs into cups, and serving their guests. And as soon as those verses of the Quran hit their ears, everything stopped mid-air. The kegs and the jugs and the cups — everything froze. And everything just came out. Those who had their mouths full spat it out. They didn't say, one last gulp, or one last sip, or one last serving to the guest. Nothing. Everything stopped mid-air, and everyone poured it all out.

Could they not have said: how about we give it to our non-Muslim neighbors? How about we sell it? If not sell it, how about we package it and give it to them as gifts? How about we wait — maybe a new verse will come after that? Why should we be hasty in destroying this wealth? This is money, it costs money. Allah does not like people to waste. You could think of a thousand excuses, a thousand ways to safeguard their asset of liquor and wine. But it was not just an asset — they were infatuated with it. They had hundreds of words for it in the Arabic language. Their lives revolved around it.

How is it possible that in one instance, as soon as those Quranic verses hit your ear, you don't say: are you sure you're reading it right? Who sent you? How about at least I need two proofs? How about we wait till the next salah when we hear the Prophet ﷺ himself reciting this? A thousand things could have happened. But that's the difference between someone who wants to obey and someone who wants to find loopholes. We use the word fatwa shopping. When someone wants to find loopholes, then no amount of knowledge and fatwa will change a person, because he's always going to be finding a way around it. So because the iman was strong, immediately they gave up. Immediately. It's like a case study of how you have people so quickly give up something that they are so strongly addicted to. What power is stronger than the power of this addiction? That's called iman bil ghayb power. That's called love of Allah, love of Rasulullah ﷺ. When it becomes so strong that you're able to give up something that you are madly in love with.

And similarly the story comes of hijab — that when the ayat of hijab were revealed, it was just a matter of hours that the entire landscape of Madinah had changed. As soon as these verses were being revealed, women were not even going back home without trying to find something to cover themselves properly. Everyone immediately, as soon as they heard these verses — hijab is here, everyone is changing. This is what we call the benefits and the thamarat, the fruits, of having belief in Allah solidified.

We Are in the Meccan Era Once Again

So we are sadly in that era once again — the Meccan era of working on iman. We are in the Meccan era in many ways. I was thinking — I went to a masjid recently and they had a seerah program happening on Badr. They asked me to speak. And the thought that came to my mind is that yes, Badr is there — it's an amazing story. Thousands of angels came to help the believers, and miraculously Allah gave them success. But Badr did not happen out of thin air. Badr was preceded by 13 years of hard work in Mecca, and two years in Medina. A total of 15 years of hard work on iman. When iman was strong and at a level that now has the attractive pull to bring Allah's help — like a gravitational pull. Iman needs to be that strong that it can attract Allah's strength. Then you will have a Badr, and you'll have everything else. But if a person wants to have a Badr in the second year of Mecca without preparation, it's just not going to work. So people keep on wondering: when's Badr? But have we done the effort of Mecca?

I remember one scholar — SubhanAllah — he mentioned: I tell the ulama, before you give talks about Medina, first make sure your crowd is ready. Make the effort of Mecca on the hearts of the people so that when you say something to them, they are willing to accept and listen. Otherwise, they will simply shoo you away and say you have lost your mind. Do we not see that happening today?

The State of Our Masajid: A Wake-Up Call

One of my brothers last night came from this masjid. He said, "Sheikh, what should I tell you? I'm so heartbroken." He says, "I'm a musalli, I go to the local masjid of this area. And in the past few years and especially the past few months, I have seen that during Salatul Jumu'ah, the number of people — in the back or in the front, wherever — on their phones, misusing their phones while the Jumu'ah khutbah is happening." And he told me: "In this very masjid, last week, I was sitting next to a guy who was just looking at girls on Instagram. In the masjid."

So now, you think about it. During Jumu'ah khutbah — the once-a-week Islamic address happening for the ummah — if our ummati is coming, Rasulullah's ummati is inside the house of Allah, he left his work, he left something to come here. But his iman, miskeen, is so weak that it cannot keep his phone in his pocket. Not only that, his iman is so weak that he pulls out his phone during the khutbah. And then after that, he unfortunately does something despicable — in the midst of the public, while everyone is watching, he is simply scrolling, looking through pictures of inappropriate pictures of women.

That's a great example of what you call the absolute ICU condition of our iman. SubhanAllah, it's at the last stage. If the iman cannot stop a person from looking at haram on Jumu'ah, in the masjid, while the khutbah is going on — how will it ever stop him inside his bedroom at night? How will it ever stop him at work doing something wrong? How will it ever stop him doing something wrong in the car? How will it ever stop him doing something wrong anywhere else?

So let's first understand where we're at. Before you start thinking, I want this, Ya Allah — like ordering from a menu at a restaurant — wait, wait, wait. Our level of iman is so weak that the fact that the roof hasn't caved in on us is a big gift of Allah. Think about it. If this is happening — how much nuhusa and anger of Allah must be descending on our own masjid? If during Jumu'ah this is not one person, apparently multiple people.

I remember I was with him about a year ago in the back, and I saw literally a grown man playing video games during Jumu'ah. And Mawlana Ahsan was giving a khutbah on cellphones — that's a coincidence, that's a khutbah. And the man is playing video games. 35 years old, maybe 40 years old.

The thing is, if anyone of us sees it — how many of us will speak up? If the guy next to you is on Instagram, how many of you can say: brother, what are you doing? Come on, nicely. And if he doesn't listen, say: brother, I'm going to leave. I'm not going to sit next to a person who is sinning in this blatant manner in front of Allah. You're really asking — Ya Allah, bring it on. That's what you're doing.

Even the non-Muslims who come here, they want to wear a scarf and come. It's the respect of the house of Allah. And they say, oh, you're not supposed to take pictures, right? Okay, we'll put our cameras away. And so much sense of respect of a Muslim's place of worship. How can a Muslim, on the other hand, do this? But the thing is, not only are people sinning, there's no one to correct them.

So I went up to that person. I tapped him. He looked at me. I introduced myself. I said, brother, what are you doing? But you don't have to say what I said. You can just say: I'm a member of the ummah of Rasulullah ﷺ. I'm a musalli of this masjid. What are you doing? He looked at me. He shook his head like he knows what he's doing. I said, put it away. He's speaking about the cell phone — that's exactly what he's speaking about if you could only hear. So then he grudgingly put his phone away. And as soon as he put his phone away, the bayan finished.

So then I told him: what's happening? He said, no, Sheikh, this happens every week. You don't see it. But this happens every single week. My heart's desire is that we have volunteers — volunteers on the sufoof, just waiting. On the sides, the way you have in fundraisers. Just walk around and say: put your phone away. And the brothers who are welcoming people keep on saying as you're entering: you're in the house of Allah, please put your phone in your pocket or leave it in the car before you come. Or here's a box, if you are so addicted — which is very possible — that you cannot keep your hands away from your pocket, here's a box, turn in your phone. You know, just like in India and Pakistan, people turn in their shoes because there's no space — there's a guy who collects shoes, gives you a chit, and you come back and pick up your shoes on the way out. That's what we could do.

But to keep the phone in the masjid while you're just checking the stock market, checking sports, checking news — that's bad. But now checking pictures of half-dressed women during the khutbah? How is that acceptable? But the problem is no one's speaking up. No one's correcting. No one cares. It's someone else's problem, not mine. That's exactly what happens. When each person says it's not me, before you know it, it's going to be your son and then yourself. If everyone's going to have the attitude of "not me," so if our masajid are no longer safe during the peak jama' time, you tell me what's a safe spot. And then you tell me, where is the help of Allah going to come?

So the reason why we have this major problem, again, is the weakness of iman. Weakness of iman.

I was in Arizona — SubhanAllah — there was one security guard at one university masjid, an African-American police security guard. It was amazing. He was just standing there. May Allah reward our brothers. They have iman. Some of these brothers have:

They don't care about what people have to say. I'm a believer, and so I will practice my faith openly. He was standing there and I was walking in for jama' and he was literally stopping any sister that did not have a proper hijab: "Uh-uh, no, no. Wear your hijab properly before you come in." What are they going to say? Everyone's listening — they're all university students. But there's nobody to say what's wrong. That's a problem. Nobody to say: what is wrong with you?

And so now everyone says, no — kids have a mind of their own. You have a mind of your own, and in that mind of your own, you don't want to correct anybody. That's why we're in this situation. If collectively we all said: we are going to make the culture of Darussalam — and eventually every masjid — that during Jumu'ah, if you try to pull out your phone, do you know what's going to happen? Try it. Not from the imam — the person next to him will elbow him and say: what are you doing? What's the worst case? He's going to say, I'm going to leave. Go. That's the type of people we don't want here. We don't want them in any masjid.

There's got to be a safe space. When we don't have ghayrah for our own space, when we don't have any protective, possessive ghayrah over our own masjid — where is deen going to go? Think about a sahabi. Think about any sahabi sitting there during Rasulullah's khutbah and doing something like that. It would never happen. And a sahabi would never allow that to pass.

I was in Mecca with one of my teachers once, and there was music blaring from one car. And the ustad said — you know, Mecca is Mecca — he said: just imagine, if a sahabi was here with you, what would he have done right now? That's a question you and I must always ask ourselves whenever we're in a situation. If a sahabi was here, what would he have done now? If you don't know the answer, read Hayatus Sahaba. Read the stories of the sahaba.

So we need to have this desire within ourselves that we will create safe spaces in our home and our masjid wherever we have some authority. And it doesn't have to be in a mean manner — it just needs to be that you set the culture. Think about your board meetings with your manager, with your vice-president. Are you allowed to sit there and be on Instagram? You are in a meeting with Allah, Rabb al-'Alamin. Why should this be allowed? The problem is that we have enabled this. Our masajid have enabled it. No one can say anything to anyone. That is why, if we're going to let this happen, what is going to happen in the next few years? All across. It's really scary.

So I encourage you, wherever you are, whichever masjid, from whichever part of the world — create a system in which people are reminded from the outset before they come in that this is a cell phone free zone.

Keep on reminding. And by all means, you can have people who are around the masjid and on the sides — anyone takes out a phone, come on, put it away. Inshallah, after 3-4 weeks, automatically people will come right. I promise you there is still a lot of goodness in the ummah. It is just the fact that people have become addicted and there is no one ready to help.

So what is the gist of this? This is the gist of iman bil ghayb. If iman in the unseen is going to be strong, then we will have the capacity to put our phone away. Otherwise, if we don't have our iman in the unseen strong, then we simply will not have that capacity. So this is why — now let's get into the discussion of what Allah is speaking about the unseen over here.

Tafsir of Surah An-Nazi'at (79:1–14)

Ayah 1: وَالنَّازِعَاتِ غَرْقًا — The Violent Pullers

By the angelic pullers, pulling forth violently the souls of the disbelievers at death. Allahu Akbar. What a translation. Just think about this.

وَالنَّازِعَاتِ غَرْقًا — By the angelic pullers, meaning Allah is taking an oath on the angels. Every angel has a specific task. What are these angels tasked with? Naza'a means to pull out. They are tasked with pulling out, extracting the soul. And how do they take it out? They take it out violently. Astaghfirullah, I feel bad saying this example — but you see, when sometimes people get arrested, even innocent people nowadays. How does that arrest happen? They're not even resisting, they're thrown on the ground. They're sitting on top of his chest. You see these horrible videos. May Allah protect all of us. Allahumma ameen. That's what it is. وَالنَّازِعَاتِ غَرْقًا — they are violently pulling it out. Even if the disbelievers were to not see anything, the way the angels are going to come and pull it out is absolutely the most severe thing that has ever happened.

And Allah mentions this in other places in the Quran:

If only you were to see the angels — when they take the life of the disbeliever, يَضْرِبُونَ وُجُوهَهُمْ وَأَدْبَارَهُمْ — slapping and hitting their faces and their backs. Hitting them from the front, from the back, from top and bottom. And what are they saying? وَذُوقُوا عَذَابَ الْحَرِيقِ — Taste the punishment of being burnt. This is while Jahannam is still I don't know how many thousands of years still to come. They are still in this dunya. And already the angels are saying: taste the punishment of Jahannam.

And in another verse Allah says the angels will come and say:

I remember Hazrat Mawlana Choksi Sahib, the day he taught us in Jalalayn, this tafsir of this ayah. The way he said أَخْرِجُوا — I got scared because he has a rough voice. And all of a sudden he started screaming: "Take it out! Take it out! Take it out!" And I was just sitting in class. He was giving this beautiful example of how the angels will come and pull out the soul. You know, when the SWAT team comes in, they start screaming. But what happened? Why don't you just say, come out, knock the door, I'll come out. But no — it's shock and awe. The whole house is going to fall down. That's how the angels are going to come. May Allah protect us from this death.

And you might not see it — they say, oh, he peacefully died in his sleep in the hospital. No, you have no idea. Because this is a whole different dimension. You don't see and I don't see. Allah says:

We are closer than any one of you to the dying man. But you cannot see. Have you seen a person who is having a nightmare while sleeping? He's right next to you — screaming. Then he wakes up: oh my god, relax. But he went to a terrifying place just now, whatever he saw. And you sat next to him — your spouse, your son, your daughter, your friend — and you did not get any effect. And that person said, you have no idea how real it was. He's sweating, his heart rate is so high. There's nothing in the world that can convince him that that was fake until you actually pinch him and he comes to. All of us, if you have a nightmare, you know what it's like. But the person next to you has no idea what's going on. Just in this dunya, Allah has the capacity to have two separate worlds taking place right there in one bed. Just imagine what 'alam al-barzakh looks like.

'Alam al-barzakh — the life between this world and the next. Don't think that you have to see it and witness it to confirm it. You will see it, but you won't notice it from the outside. That's what we understand from this ayah. So the angels will say: أَخْرِجُوا أَنفُسَكُمْ — Pull it out, pull it out. Pull out your soul. Why would they be screaming like this? Because the kafir soul will not want to come out. They will try to go deeper, deeper into the body. And the ulama explain, from the light of the Quran and hadith, that the souls will be pulled out from the deepest, farthest extremities first — from the nails of the toes. Slowly pulled out, all the way through the throat, via the nose. And the dying person's eyes, as you've heard before, roll up — because the dying person is watching his soul leave the body. That's why the eyes are wide open, looking up. What are they looking at? They're looking at their own soul leaving them. Everyone — good and bad.

That is why the etiquette is: as soon as you go, you close the eyes of the deceased. You close the eyes so that it does not diminish from the honor and the karama of the human being — because when the family comes, you don't want them to have a vision of the body that is not beautiful.

So نَازِعَاتٍ غَرْقًا is referring to the angels pulling forth violently the souls of the disbelievers. And why does Allah take qasam? The purpose of taking qasam on the creation of Allah — Allah takes an oath on things that in our eyes are huge. Of course in the eyes of Allah, everything is insignificantly small. But the goal is for us to understand how important the message is that Allah is delivering. Allah takes the oath on the sun, and the moon, and the sky, and the stars, all over the Quran — these are huge creations for us. For Allah, everything is the same. So Allah is saying: you think this is big, right? Guess what — I'm going to take a qasam on that. That's how important this message I'm delivering to you is.

Ayah 2: وَالنَّاشِطَاتِ نَشْطًا — The Gentle Drawers

By the angelic drawers, drawing out easily the soul of the believers at death. Nashata — imagine a water bottle, or a leather water bag. You open the cap, and you pour it, and allow the water to nicely, beautifully flow out. This is how the soul of a believer comes out. A true mu'min.

When we talk about the word believer, we don't mean someone who in name is called a Muslim. We're talking about a believer who genuinely has iman in the unseen the way it needs to be. That's called a believer, remember that. Who cares what the last name is? The main thing is: where is the level of our iman? Where is the level of our a'mal? So that believer, when his soul comes out, he will be so excited to come. You don't need to hit him. He himself will jump out and say: I want to come with you, O angels. I've just been waiting for this day to come. SubhanAllah.

One of the brothers, last week — SubhanAllah, look at this story. One of the students in the deen intensive told me: a brother from their community in Florida retired at the age of 65 on a Thursday. Two Thursdays ago. He flew to the ijtima' that happened here in Chicago on Friday. He attended the ijtima' and then gave his intention for four months in jama'at to India. A beautiful way to start your retirement. He went to India, and SubhanAllah, within one week, he prayed Dhuhr salah in one masjid — I think he had lunch before or after Dhuhr — he lay down, said the kalima, and passed away in the masjid.

Alas. Retirement ended? Where? No, retirement did not end. Retirement is just starting. He has a property far better than anywhere else can offer, inshallah. On the kalima and the path of Allah. Just imagine how easily the soul comes out — just waiting.

And I was sharing this with the students, and then one student said: "When my grandmother died, SubhanAllah — an amazing story from America. The day she died, she did all the chores of the house, she cooked food for everyone, she took a long nice shower, she bathed properly, wore her nice white clothes, and said: I'm going. And she passed away." SubhanAllah, Allahu Akbar. How people say: I'm taking a flight, I'm going, I'm taking care of everything first. Imagine — she's cooking food for the house, cleaning the house, before going to the akhirah. At least one day everything is taken care of. Allahu Akbar.

This is وَالنَّاشِطَاتِ نَشْطًا. These people are mentally and emotionally prepared. They know a time is coming. May Allah grant all of us a beautiful death — in the city of the Prophet ﷺ, in the path of Allah. Allahumma ameen. In the death of shahada.

Ayahs 3–5: The Angels Gliding, Surpassing, and Conducting Affairs

وَالسَّابِحَاتِ سَبْحًا — By those angels gliding down smoothly from the heavens. Sabha is to swim. And these angels are swimming, gliding with various orders of Allah coming down to the earth or coming down to different heavens. They're moving around, swimming around in the heavens with the orders of Allah.

فَالسَّابِقَاتِ سَبْقًا — By those angels surpassing swiftly. Sabaqa yasbiq means to go ahead. So they are in the fast lane. These angels have a very important delivery — express delivery. They've got the lights on. What's going on? These are the VIP souls that are being taken to Jannah. Allahu Akbar. VIP souls first taken to 'Illiyyeen:

The souls of the righteous pious people are stored in 'Illiyyeen — the VIP resting place. That's where they're taken. So these angels say: quickly, move, we have to transport this VIP to 'Illiyyeen. And eventually of course they'll go onwards to Jannah.

فَالْمُدَبِّرَاتِ أَمْرًا — And by those angels conducting varied matters by the command of Allah. Allah is taking an oath here — by the angels who are fulfilling Allah's orders. All the time, whatever orders they are. Someone needs this, someone needs that. Allah is constantly sending angels to take care of that.

Angels are a very important discussion. Inshallah we should do a workshop or a bayan just on angels one day. Angels are a beautiful creation of Allah made out of nur. And these special creations have — for however many millions of years they live — nothing but the ibadah of Allah. And that ibadah takes place in different forms. So when someone, you know, you look at someone who is mashallah a pious man — he's been teaching hadith for 60 years, he hasn't missed his tahajjud for 40 years — you say: let me go sit in his presence, I'm going to get some barakah from him. The barakah you get from angels is unmatched. They are angels that have never — they cannot even conceive and comprehend what disobedience means. We at least take a break for eating and drinking. There is not a single second that they take a break. They're always worshipping Allah. So those angels are massive magnets of Allah's mercy. And when you sit with them, you and I benefit from them tremendously.

And that should be one reason why we come to the masjid. I'm feeling tired, I'm feeling down. I'm going to go sit with the angels and come. I'm going to go to the masjid. But there's no bayan happening right now. What are you going for? Nothing? No — I'm just going to go relax in the company. When you sit in the masjid with the niyyah of i'tikaf, you are sitting with angels. Right now all of us, alhamdulillah, are sitting with angels.

When a person says: why do I feel so different when I listen to a program in the masjid as opposed to listening online? Because there are specific angels of the masjid that you simply don't get at home. And so the blessing and the actual enjoyment, happiness, that you feel in the house of Allah — you cannot feel that level at home. It just doesn't come there. You have a habit of praying salah in the masjid. Allah forbid you're traveling and all your salahs are happening in a hotel or at home. You feel something is just missing. What you're missing is those specific angels. There may be other angels around you when you're praying, reading Quran, listening to dars — but those angels specific to the house of Allah are not there.

So that should be our niyyah. My beloved brothers, beloved sisters — that is why the effort needs to be made of how the average person who is now spiritually sick needs the company of the angels in the masjid. If you bring him to a gathering of deen, but your goal is just to get him into a banquet hall, a conference hall, or some other third space that's not a masjid, it is not possible to get those angels there. Yes, that may be a stepping stone to get to the masjid — as long as you're constantly at the end saying: mashallah, we have a program here now, Isha is going to be at the local masjid, please come for Isha there. Fajr is going to be at the local masjid. You brought him from one location, and now you're halfway there — next stop is a masjid. But if we do not make that the goal, this miskeen is sick. If we leave him there and just connect him to a conference center, he is being deprived of the suhbah of angels.

The hadith mentions how — it just came to my mind right now — the Prophet ﷺ prohibited us from coming to the masjid after eating onions. Onions, why? Because they have a smell and a stench. Garlic, onions, all these types of things. And you could add to that vaping and cigarettes of course. Why? Because the angels — this is their house. You and I come here for once a week or once a day. But they stay here. And now we're coming into their property, in their area, and we're stinking up the place. And they have a very delicate temperament — they just can't handle this.

So now — if onions and garlic are going to turn the angels off from us, imagine watching filth on the phone. That just came to my mind right now. Why would these angels not turn away from that person? Or even curse that person, who sits in the masjid and is on his phone looking at pictures? It's so scary. Then you wonder: I went to the masjid, but I feel more distant from Allah. Maybe because we're walking away with a ton of displeasure from the angels. Because we came to the masjid, and instead of respecting the masjid, we ended up desecrating it. And if we desecrate the masjid, you're not walking away in the pleasure of Allah — you're going to walk away with the wrath of Allah and the displeasure of the angels.

And these are important points. That's why teaching our kids — little ones — the etiquette of the masjid is very important. Come to the masjid, let's pray quietly, don't be running around, don't make a ruckus here. That's very important. Also, then you've got to teach the adults. That is why I appreciate the musallis in the masjid here — mashallah, you have set a gold standard. If I ask them: take my number or do this, they say: no, my phone's in the car. MashAllah, kudos to you. This is how it should be. All of us should be on that level, inshallah.

As we just say — fine, these 20 minutes, I'm just going to leave it in the car. Who makes the niyyah to do this, inshallah? Who makes this intention — that from now on, during fard salah, I will leave my phone in the car? Tayyib. We'll make the niyyah of that, inshallah. This will be a very good thing for all of us.

And number two — if a person forgets it, just say: I will not pull it out in the prayer hall. Because what happens as soon as you open it, your email's going to open, or the news article that you're reading is going to open. And find me a news website that does not have haram on it. Any website. It has pictures of non-mahram, inappropriately dressed — all news websites that we usually check. Yes, you and I are looking at it every day, so we become desensitized to it. But that doesn't mean it's not wrong. So at least we need to limit that outside.

So everything is based on intention. Every dars that we attend in any house of Allah, and every salah that from now on we pray in the masjid — make this niyyah: I'm going for Isha, and I'm going for the suhbah of the angels. When you say السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ at the end of salah, the niyyah is supposed to be for all the musallis on your right, all the musallis on the left — and you're supposed to make niyyah of all the angels to the right, and all the angels to the left. So keep on intentionally thinking about the unseen creations of Allah.

And additionally, there are many pious jinn as well that are around us, and there are many pious humans around us. So our intention should be that I'm going for the suhbah of any pious creation of Allah that is here, in the house of Allah. And when we make salam, we make salam to them as well. When the intention is there — they say when you're working out, you're supposed to focus on the muscle that you're working on, be intentional about it to help with the development of that muscle. So similarly, when you and I are sitting somewhere, we're supposed to be intentionally thinking: I'm sitting here to benefit from the pious that are around me — that I see and that I do not see. Then the level of benefit you and I will derive will be much more than someone who is absolutely unaware, disconnected from this whole concept of benefiting from angels.

So internalize this, and make this intention clear: I am sitting here, I'm getting the nur of Allah on me, I'm receiving sakinah from Allah, I'm receiving the dua of the happy angels around me, and their suhbah is rubbing off good qualities onto me.

And the goal should be: there is no way you're going to get hidayah outside of the masjid. We have to start working on connecting people to the house of Allah. You can invite them to your home, but the next step has to be the masjid. Every single gathering that you have — the goal should be: at the end of this, how can I get these youth, or anyone, connected to the masjid? Do not run a program from beginning to end outside of the masjid and say: this is it, next week we meet here. No. Every program has to somehow funnel people into the house of Allah.

Stop buying the narrative that masajid are outdated, that they are not youth friendly, not women friendly, not men friendly. If they're not friendly, you go change it. Why don't you stand at the masjid door and say: Assalamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullah, welcome to our local masjid. Come 10 minutes before Isha, 10 minutes before Maghrib, welcome everyone — make it friendly. We have to change the things that are wrong — but you cannot say, let's just abandon the masjid and try to find hidayah somewhere else. No. Hidayah is in the house of Allah. This is where it started, and this is where it's going to end. The Kaaba is a masjid. Our every single day, our qibla is a masjid. The qibla of our salah is the Kaaba, and the qibla of our life is Masjid an-Nabawi — meaning the life and the seerah of Rasulullah ﷺ. There is no way we can run away from the masjid.

Alternative Tafsir: Stars Being Pulled from Orbit

Allah takes the oath on these five different types. Other ulama of tafsir have given the interpretation that this is referring to stars — that وَالنَّازِعَاتِ غَرْقًا is speaking about the stars being pulled out of orbit. The idea of every single thing rotating around its axis and then moving around at a very fast pace — this is what's keeping, from a physical point of view, the mechanics of what keeps the galaxies moving. When you ruin that, when you destroy the gravitational pull, when you take everything out of its orbit:

The sun is going to be wrapped up, the stars are going to fall, everything is going to fall — because you have taken everything out of orbit, you have shut off the gravitational pull. All the forces that are constantly keeping things in balance — when you pull the plug, the entire universe collapses inside. Imagine this entire universe like a balloon — air is being forced into a big rubber globe, and when you pull the plug, the entire thing collapses. Like those children's bouncy houses — how it collapses when you pull the plug. You can put it in your trunk and go return it. That's what is going to happen to the universe — pulling the plug, everything is going to fall apart instantaneously. So this is what وَالنَّازِعَاتِ غَرْقًا is referring to, according to other ulama of tafsir — where Allah is going to pull the plug from all the stars and all the celestial objects that are moving, and everything is going to cave in on one another.

Ayahs 6–7: The Two Blasts of the Trumpet

يَوْمَ تَرْجُفُ الرَّاجِفَةُ — You will all be resurrected on the day when the shocking event will shock everything. Allah just calls it the shocking event. That itself should send shivers down our spine. The shocking event — الرَّاجِفَةُ — I don't need to describe anything else. He calls the Day of Judgment by this name: a shocking event, تَرْجُفُ — it will be shocking everyone. This is when the trumpet will be blown. There are two blasts: Nafkhah al-Ula and Nafkhah al-Thaniyya — the first trumpet and the second trumpet. After the first trumpet, every single thing will be destroyed. And with the second trumpet, Allah will resurrect everything.

تَتْبَعُهَا الرَّادِفَةُ — followed by the next one. Radif means someone who sits behind you. Radifah simply means the one that comes afterwards. So this is referring to the second blowing of the trumpet — and it's called just the second one, with no further description. Because there's nothing more powerful than this second one. Allah just mentions that it will be followed by the next one.

The Quran also mentions:

Allah mentions that on that day, when the earth will be given its opportunity to speak — the earth will speak about all its news, everything that happened. Because right now we're living in a world where everything is just so confusing. The amount of misinformation — I have to pinch myself every day now to think: is this fake news, is this sarcasm, or is it real? And unfortunately I'm becoming desensitized. I think a year ago I would lose sleep over it, but now — how much can we handle? Every single day five things on the news that are happening within our own country and across the globe, each more shocking than yesterday.

The Hadith of Deceptive Years and the Signs of the Hour

There's one hadith — SubhanAllah — I want to share with you, that talks about this concept of things not being what you expect them to be. The Prophet ﷺ mentions regarding the signs of the Hour:

(Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 4036)

Deceptive years shall come upon the people. What's going to happen? The truthful will be belied. The one who speaks the truth will be belied. And the one who is lying will be believed. The trustworthy will be discredited. And the treacherous will be trusted. Those who are treacherous to the country, treacherous to the money of the public, treacherous to the needs of the people — they're the ones who are going to be trusted. And the disgraceful will speak. Who are the ones with the loudest voice? The disgraceful ones. It was asked: who are the disgraceful ones? The Prophet ﷺ said: Ruwaybidah — little wicked men who speak about the affairs of the common people.

And in another hadith in Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal, the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Hadith 23958)

Indeed, preceding the false Messiah, there will be years of deception. So these years of absolute distortion of information are setting the stage for the arrival of Dajjal.

Who will then — now at least you can get from some website, from some person — we had a brother, my cousin, who just came back from Gaza serving in the hospital there for two weeks. He came and spoke here last night. So you have some information, firsthand, people who are still reporting. But when the Dajjal era comes — done. There is simply no, or almost negligible if any, presence of authentic information. It's 100% controlled from one source: Dajjal. Everything you want — any Google search you do, any AI search you do, anything you call — every single thing is now being filtered. The news that you get about anything — including searching a hadith online, most definitely searching ayats of the Quran online — the way I understand how things are going, every single thing is going to have that Dajjali filter on it. So the Quran will be understood from a Dajjali perspective. Hadith will be rejected or understood from a Dajjali perspective.

The biggest munafiqeen of today — they don't say: I disbelieve in the Quran. They come, they wear beautiful clothing, they pray Eid salah and everything. But they have a Dajjalic understanding of the Quran and hadith. That is why they can continue to commit such great oppression. If they openly said: I'm a disbeliever in the Quran, life would be simpler. But they don't. They say: we understand Islam better than you do. We understand Quran and Sunnah better than you do.

So that future is a very dangerous time in which all information is extremely filtered. And so what's going to help us at that time? What do you have to depend on? What we started off today's talk with — belief in the unseen. That's it. You have to say: every single search online, if it contradicts what the Quran and hadith have said — what has been passed down from my great-grandfather, grandfather, father — I don't care. Every single webpage, I reject it. Every single newspaper, I reject it. Every single thing — if it goes against what Allah and His Rasul have said. Allahu Akbar.

And today — ask yourself to what degree are we believing what Allah and His Rasul say, and to what degree do we believe what society is telling us? Society tells us: if you want to have successful children, do not worry about teaching them the deen, just send them off to the best possible college. What percentage of Muslims have followed that? What percentage of Muslims said: no, that's not the criteria of success. I have to teach my children deen. But society said that and we bought it.

There's no Dajjal yet. But already a big chunk of the ummah has lost the game. Their criteria of success is exactly what the kuffar say. As long as you earn money, that's it. When someone says: alhamdulillah, he has very successful children — immediately, what does it mean? Does it mean every single child of his has not missed Fajr since they became baligh? Or does it mean that they went to an expensive professional school and are now making 600,000 a year? Which one is it?

In our own terminology, a successful child is the one who made it to the best of colleges, and a failure child is the one who didn't make it. And that miskeen — so-called the one who is not that interested in college but says: Baba, I want to come to the masjid, I'll do some small job, but I want to serve the deen — that's when the whole family attacks. He wants to go to the madrasa. He wants to become an 'alim. Astaghfirullah — he's gotten affected by the shayateen. Doesn't this happen? In every household? Every student of mine will tell you the same story. In their households, every student here is a mujahid who's here because their whole family is against them. Their uncles are against them. Every single family gathering they are being pushed and brainwashed.

MashAllah, many of them stand strong. But they hate it. All my cousins — ask them which of them prayed Fajr today in a masjid. Why are you after me? No — we just want to save you from the clamps of studying the deen. Because you've gone off track.

So we don't need Dajjal to be misled. We've already sold out. Now just imagine when he comes with his full forces — how many will survive? I want us to stop thinking that we're in good hands. I want us to stop thinking: alhamdulillah, we are very good Muslims. Our idea of what is success and not success for our kids — it's not sufficient. It's not sufficient to say: mashAllah, that masjid's got an amazing mawlana, amazing khatib, beautiful talks, I love him — but would you make your son a mawlana? That's the question. Are you willing to send your daughter and your son to study the deen? And if you're not, ask yourself why.

Sorry, this comes out very straightforwardly. But I'm telling you, because there's time to repent now. Don't think that if we're failing the game now, we will ever get out of that false, dreamy world. Every single day brings a stronger challenge than the previous day. But what bothers me is the infatuation — that the trajectory of success for my son and daughter is exactly like the kuffar's trajectory. That's what we call a successful son and daughter. And we're so proud of it. No. That's not what it is.

Number one is our deen. That should be the number one thing. No one says don't send them to school and don't earn money. But the number one thing is: do my children have deen? Do my children know how to ask Allah? Do my children know how to make dua? Do my children know how to take from Allah's treasures? Or they don't? And if they don't, we've failed. Now you're going to teach them at age 22? How are we going to do this?

It hurts — how many boys and girls of our community want to come study the deen in this day and age. And yet the biggest obstacle are their parents. The biggest obstacle are their uncles and aunts. The biggest obstacle are their grandparents. This is a kufr mindset — studying the deen equals failure. It is the shackles of colonialism. Colonial imperialism that we are suffering from — that our deen education is no good. It's self-hate.

I gave a bayan on atheism in one Jumu'ah khutbah once. Afterwards someone came to me who was coming from the land of Aqsa and looked at me — I was wearing a thobe and a turban — and said: are you the brother who gave the khutbah? And I thought he was going to relate to me a story he's suffering with his son or daughter. He said: why are you dressed like a terrorist? Because I'm wearing the turban. You want Badr? The angels of Badr were wearing turbans, brother. You want Badr? You want Badr while calling someone who wears a turban a terrorist? If the Badri angels come, they'll have a problem with you first, if you have this much dislike for the Sunnah of Rasulullah ﷺ.

I'm very weak — I'm just sharing with you my own pain. We're hoping as a community we wake up before it's too late. That Sunnah has to be present in our life — and not just in the way you dress, which is very important. But our mindset has to be Sunnah-based. Number one: what do you call a successful child and a failure child? That definition has to be based on Sharia. And if it's not, we're wasting our time.

So before Dajjal, the Prophet ﷺ said this will happen — there will be years of deception. Right now is the time to stop taking our cues from online, social media, and society. And start taking our cues of success from the seerah of Rasulullah ﷺ and the seerah of the sahaba. Read Hayatus Sahaba. Read any book of seerah. And tell ourselves: Ya Allah, make my mindset the mindset of the sahaba. Really — Ya Allah, make my goals and the goals of my children, the ambitions of my wife, the ambitions of my husband, like the ambitions of the sahaba and the sahabiyyat. At least let's start with dua. Can we do this?

Every day: Ya Allah, make my goals and desires of my heart, and the desires of every member of my household, like the desire of Rasulullah ﷺ and his sahaba. And allow — as the hadith says:

(Arba'in al-Nawawiyyah, Hadith 41 — attributed in some collections; see also Sunan al-Nasa'i al-Kubra)

None of you can be a true believer until his desires become subservient to the deen that I have come with. What is desire? Desire is: what type of wedding do I want to have? What type of wedding should my daughter have? Should I sacrifice Rasulullah ﷺ's Sunnah because I have only one son or one daughter? No. Instead you say: I have one son and one daughter, and I'm going to make sure it's according to the Sunnah of Rasulullah ﷺ, so my Nabi can be happy.

So we've got to start somewhere. How are we going to start? We're going to start with dua. Asking Allah:

Oh Allah, I ask You for Your love. And the love of those who love You. And the love of those deeds which allow me to reach Your love. Oh Allah, make Your love more beloved to me than myself, my family, and cold water — on a hot summer day, what is the value of cold water? Oh Allah, make Your love more beloved to me than that.

Ayahs 8–9: The Hearts Trembling and Eyes Downcast

قُلُوبٌ يَوْمَئِذٍ وَاجِفَةٌ — The disbelievers' hearts on that day shall tremble. Allah is describing the internal condition of these people — that their hearts are trembling. أَبْصَارُهَا خَاشِعَةٌ — their eyes are downcast. They do not have the ability to look up. As the Quran says elsewhere — they won't even be biting their nails:

They'll be chewing on their hands — not biting their nails, not even biting their fingers. They will shove their hands in their mouths and be chewing and biting on them because of the absolute level of anxiety, stress, and fear. And أَبْصَارُهَا خَاشِعَةٌ — their eyes are downcast.

It comes in a hadith: Aisha radiallahu anha, when she heard Rasulullah ﷺ say that on the Day of Judgment, people will be raised the way they were born — unclothed, without circumcision, the way they were born — Aisha radiallahu anha immediately said: Ya Rasulullah, what about our hayah? What's going to happen to our modesty? And what's the response Rasulullah ﷺ gave? He said: Aisha, the condition of that day is going to be far worse than anyone having the ability to look at anyone else. Everyone is going to be so scared that they will never be able to even look up, to the right, to the left, to the front. They will be lost, drowning in their own worries.

That's a very powerful statement. Just think about that. The fear is so strong and overwhelming that a person will not be able to look around. Even if he may be 100% naked, and all the people around him are 100% naked — you don't worry about it. You're not going to look at any naked body. Because you will not have the capacity. He's telling this to Aisha radiallahu anha: because you will be worried about yourself. SubhanAllah.

And where are the women of today? Today, no one is forcing them to remove their clothing. No one. But إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ — what is the dressing of our society, of our daughters, of our sons, of the ummah all over the world? Aisha radiallahu anha is scared not about this world or the grave. She's worried about the Day of Judgment.

Ayahs 10–14: The Mockery of the Disbelievers

Yet, after hearing all of this — because they don't have belief in the unseen — mockingly they say: shall we indeed after dying be returned to the condition of the life that we are in now? Mardudun means returned. Al-hafirah — to the condition of life we are in now. Come on, man, who has seen dead bodies coming back to life? Nonsense, you're just speaking stories. These are أَسَاطِيرُ الْأَوَّلِينَ — fairy tales of the previous generations. There's no reality to this.

أَإِذَا كُنَّا عِظَامًا نَّخِرَةً — even when we have become old, rotted bones. Nakhirah is when there are holes in the bones and the bones have become disintegrated. Are you seriously telling me these dead, empty bones are going to come alive?

Yesterday when a brother was telling me a story — ajib, let me finish with this. You see, this is the unseen world. Once in a while Allah opens up the unseen world. He said one of the brothers in Palestine, SubhanAllah, his blood brother was killed. He found out where his body was — in some building. He said the brother told him: I went and found my brother's body after months. All that was left was skeleton. Skeleton, decapitated — the head was separate. He just saw his brother lying there — all skeleton, months rotting in the heat. And he said: I went to go pick it up. And as soon as I picked it up, fresh red blood started gushing out. And such a fragrance came out that he'd never smelt in his entire life. He said: I went and buried my brother — without the head — inside a burial place. And sometime later, SubhanAllah, someone brought a months-old head. They found it. He looked at it and said: this is my brother. He said: as soon as I picked it up again, the same unprecedented fragrance started coming out of my brother's head.

This is the reality:

Do never think those who have been killed in Allah's path are dead. The Quran and hadith mention: on the Day of Judgment when they are raised up, fresh blood is going to be gushing out. Because they're not dead — they're more alive than us. This is the unseen. A person has to believe that. The test is believing in the unseen without seeing it.

So these people failed the unseen test. They said, in scorn:

That then would surely be a very bad returning. They're being sarcastic because they don't believe at all in the Day of Judgment. We ask Allah that He truly fill our hearts with the level of yaqeen the sahaba had regarding the Day of Judgment. The level of iman that Allah wants us to have.

A Call to Action: Connect to the Masjid and the Ulama Before the Storm

So this is what we're speaking about — how the Day of Judgment will arrive in a manner that is very quick, one after the other. But the stage is being set up from now. The signs of the Hour — SubhanAllah — the minor ones are all present. The major ones are to come. Dajjal is one of those big ones, one of the major ones next in line. May Allah protect us all.

This is not a safe zone and safe area we're in right now. If we cannot protect ourselves now, what will happen in the future — that is my simple, humble appeal to myself, to my family, to you and to your families. This is the time for us to come right. This is the time for us to repent. This is the time for us to get our children right. The storm is coming — it's right there. You can see the dark clouds. You can see the tornado from five miles away closing in on us. This is the time to get into the spiritual bunkers. Connect ourselves with the masajid. Connect ourselves with ulama. Connect ourselves with pious people. Send our children to study the deen, please.

Tomorrow we have the Arabic intensive starting here. Tomorrow the Quranic Arabic intensive is starting here. If you're a college student or a working adult — from home, male, female, brother, sister, anywhere in the country — book a flight and come to Darussalam. Starting from tomorrow, we have our two-week Quranic Arabic intensive. After that, from August 11th, the one-year program will start. And in your own masjid, in your own area, if you have something like this, by all means, sign up for it. But let's connect ourselves with circles of knowledge. Connect ourselves to the ulama and the programs that are happening in the masjid.

Closing Duas

May Allah grant all of us and our loved ones that level of iman. May Allah grant us unwavering iman in the unseen. May Allah protect us from falling into falsehood. May Allah grant us unwavering love of the Sunnah of Rasulullah ﷺ. May Allah make us amongst those who are not afraid to practice the truth, to speak the truth, to invite towards the truth, to live by the truth, and die by the truth. May Allah make us amongst those who can invite people openly in our masajid, in our homes, without being afraid — with hikmah and wisdom — invite them towards the truth, invite them towards the deen.