Sisters Talk by Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed - 04/18/25

Sisters Talk — Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ
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. Blessings and peace be upon you.

O Allah, open my heart and ease my affairs. Open the knot of my tongue so that my words can be understood. You are the Most High, the Wisest.

O Allah, teach us what will benefit us. And benefit us with what You have taught us. And increase us in knowledge and action.

O Allah, enlighten our hearts with Your knowledge. And use us for Your obedience. And guide us to what You love and are pleased with — Your words, deeds, actions, intentions, and guidance. You are capable of everything. Ameen.

Dear sisters, peace be upon you. Praise be to Allah. Allah has blessed us on this very blessed day of Jum'ah — that we are gathered in the house of Allah, for the sake of a gathering, for the sake of knowledge and dhikr. Insha'Allah. We ask Allah to make it very weighty in our scales. We ask Allah to revive our hearts. We ask Allah to allow us to be able to put into practice whatever khair and good we listen and we share. We ask Allah to make us amongst those for whom this knowledge will be a proof for them and not against them. Ameen.

Introduction: Bidāyat al-Hidāyah

Insha'Allah, we have about 45 minutes till Asr Salah. So we'll go over a short selection from one of the beautiful books of Imam al-Ghazali rahimahullah. The final book that he wrote before passing away, called Bidāyat al-Hidāyah — Beginning of Guidance. And as the name points out, it is a book for someone who wants to begin their relationship with Allah and wants to start walking towards Allah.

It is a very beautiful and fundamental book that teaches us what are some of the main steps that need to be taken. This is a book that I've had the honor and the pleasure of teaching in our immersion program — our Tanweer immersion program — for the past 13 years. And one of my favorite books that I think has had a huge impact on anyone who studies it, anyone who listens to it, and who teaches it as well, hopefully.

There are three sections, and I'm going to be reading the first page of the third section, which is the section on the relationship and the etiquettes of companionship — etiquettes of companionship.

The Layers of Companionship

There are many layers of companionship. Companionship number one — with Allah. And then number two after that — with everyone else, the creation. Within the creation you have companionship with those who you see very often, your close friends. Then companionship with people who you don't know but are out there in the community, in the university, in school and so on. And then companionship also at times with people who you would want to avoid — people who you might know are actually harmful for you, but you end up bumping into them as well. So there are different etiquettes in dealing with all of this.

And I think this topic is so important because of the powerful hadith of the Prophet ﷺ — that a person in their religiosity will be at the level of their friend. When it comes to religiosity, when it comes to deen, the height of your religiosity is where your friend circles are. The type of people we're with, those are the type of people that will dictate what level of deen we have in our life. So each one of you should be very careful who you befriend — the Prophet ﷺ is saying.

(Sunan Abī Dāwūd, Hadith 4833; Jāmi' al-Tirmidhī, Hadith 2378)

I feel like this is such an important hadith for myself and all of us. We many times are trying to move forward towards Allah. The blessed month of Ramadan has come to an end. We are almost halfway — more than halfway — through Shawwal. And we slowly start losing some of the things that we had gained in the month of Ramadan — the beautiful feelings that we had, the beautiful spirituality that we had. How does a person retain that? It's a question. And so one of the fundamental ways to retain that is through appropriate and good companionship. SubhanAllah.

Al-Qism al-Thālith: The Etiquettes of Companionship with the Creator and Creation

But before we go to the company of any friends and family, the first companionship is with Allah — our Creator. So this is the page that we'll read:

Al-Qismu al-Thālith: Al-Qawlu fī Ādāb al-Suhbati wal-Mu'āsharati ma'al Khāliqi wal-Khalq.
Third chapter: on the discussion related to the etiquettes of companionship and dealing with the Creator and the creation.

He says: know very well that indeed your companion — الَّذِي لَا يُفَارِقُكَ — who never parts from you, who is always with you, who never separates from you — فِي حَضَرِكَ while you are at home, وَسَفَرِكَ while you're traveling, وَنَوْمِكَ while you're sleeping, وَيَقَظَاتِكَ while you're awake — بَلْ فِي حَيَاتِكَ وَمَوْتِكَ — rather, subhanAllah, beyond all of that, even in your life and after your life, in your death, once you have left this world — in your grave — there is a companion who is with you all the time. Who is that? He is your Lord. He is your Sustainer, your Master, your Creator.

So there is no one who is closer to us than Almighty Allah, because He is always with us no matter where we are. This is such a deep point — that Allah is our ṣāḥib. SubhanAllah, Allah is our companion. And if you and I get to know Allah, we're never going to be lonely.

The world is such an 'ajīb place. You know, the empty nest syndrome they talk about — mom and dad have five kids, four kids, and after that they all go to school, they all go to college, and they're all gone. They still have this huge house but it's now so quiet, there's no kids there. Then after they get married also, they're living somewhere else. Someone was married and then their spouse passed away. This dunya is a place of separation. We said today in the khutbah — Allah sent Jibreel to say to the Prophet ﷺ: "O Muhammad ﷺ, love and live howsoever long you may wish — you must die. And love whomsoever you wish — you must separate from them."

So this is a reality that's going to come with all of us. Allah is the one who makes us laugh and He makes us cry, gives us death and gives us life. Dunya is a place of heartaches, of separation. No matter how much a person may love another person, a day will come where they will have to lower them into the grave, will have to take soil and throw it on the body, and will have to eventually put in a ton of dirt and cover them up — that's dunya.

But the one who has built the relationship with Allah and who has become a companion of Allah — then even when everyone leaves, and the dirt has been piled up on top of us and we're alone on the first night of the grave, we won't be lonely. Because that Lord and that Almighty Allah whom we have befriended and have been His companion throughout our entire life — He'll be with us on that first night of the grave. And the second night, and the third night, and every day and every night, we will have the companionship of Allah.

The Hadith Qudsi: "I Am the Companion of the One Who Remembers Me"

(Hadith Qudsi — reported by Imam Ahmad in al-Musnad; also referenced in Shu'ab al-Īmān of al-Bayhaqī)

وَمَهْمَا ذَكَرْتَهُ فَهُوَ جَلِيسُكَ — whenever you remember Him, He is sitting with you, meaning He is your partner, He is your companion. Why? As Allah has said in the Hadith Qudsi: أَنَا جَلِيسُ مَنْ ذَكَرَنِي — "I am the companion of the one who remembers Me."

As we are sitting here in the house of Allah today, discussing and speaking about Allah, we should have this conviction that this gathering is surrounded — حَفَّتْ عَلَيْهِمُ الْمَلَائِكَةُ — by angels, all the way to the top. نَزَلَتْ عَلَيْهِمُ السَّكِينَةُ — Allah's special mercy is descending upon us. وَذَكَرَهُمُ اللَّهُ فِيمَنْ عِنْدَهُ — Allah is mentioning us, our names, in front of those who are with Him — those who are close to Him, i.e. His angels.

Imagine — my name is being taken, your name is being taken by Allah. It's very hard to imagine. If some famous person at a rally of a thousand people recognizes someone, that person gets so excited — "wow, my name was mentioned!" If on a social media post a name gets mentioned, people get so excited that they were recognized. Imagine Rabb al-'Ālamīn — the Lord of the worlds — who created the entire galaxies, the oceans, the rivers of this earth, and all of that which exists beyond what we can see — hundreds and millions of light years away — all of it is under His control, in His dominion — He is taking my name, He is taking your name. How should that make us feel?

أَنَا جَلِيسُ مَنْ ذَكَرَنِي — whoever remembers Me, I am his companion. The Quran says:

Remember Me — I shall remember you. That's why the ulama say: if you want to know how much Allah remembers you and what is your standing with Allah, ask yourself — how much do you remember Allah?

The Story of the Restroom and Remembrance

Once I was listening to a talk of one of the students many years back, and he said something in his talk that really touched me. He said: we look at people outside who drive a fancy car, who live in a beautiful gorgeous home in a very exclusive zip code, who have properties and this and that — and people are envious of them, saying, "wow, how lucky he is." But then he said: I think someone we ought to be really more envious of is someone who does something maybe real simple. You go to the restroom — like a masjid restroom — and you see someone going into the bathroom stall, and then they come back out after one second, and then they go back in. He said: that person — I think we should be more envious over his status and over what he has, over someone who has the fanciest of cars and the fanciest of homes but does not have what this man has — or this woman has. What do they have?

He stepped foot into the bathroom, but as soon as he stepped foot he remembered: I did not recite the du'a. So he backs out and then reads:

And then enters. The fact that in that moment of need — of relieving themselves — in a very private moment, in a very mundane moment of our daily life, Allah made this person still remember Him, to the extent that he went inside and then came back. He said: how can I enter the restroom in a manner that is not in accordance to the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ? The Prophet ﷺ would take Allah's name on every occasion — even before entering the bathroom or an area of relieving himself. And after relieving himself:

These are normal, biological, mundane needs every single day that we go through — but how many people are blessed by Allah to remember Him, that no matter what it is, they will stop and say: "I've got to take Allah's name." No matter how hungry they are, they cannot put a morsel into their mouth, they cannot taste anything without saying Bismillah. When they leave the house, they cannot step out without taking Allah's name. From wearing their shoes according to the Sunnah, to sitting in their car according to the Sunnah — these people are blessed souls, they are chosen servants. Why are they so enviable? Because we should believe that these people are being remembered by Allah hundreds of times throughout the day — because Allah is inspiring them to remember Him hundreds of times throughout the day. May Allah make us amongst those people whose tongues are always moist with the remembrance of Allah and whose hearts are always thinking about Allah.

Remembrance in the Most Difficult Circumstances

There was an interview of a doctor who went to Gaza, and he met some men and women who had been imprisoned in the jails. He had an interview with some of them who came out. They were saying: while we were in prison we had such a hard time and everything was being monitored, but we made a goal every single day to send salawāt upon the Prophet ﷺ — one million times, as a group. The guards would be looking at us and we had to be careful not to be moving our lips because they would get upset about that and we'd get in trouble — "what are you reading, why are you moving your lips?" But we still tried our best to ensure that even without moving our lips, we kept our hearts busy with sending salawāt upon the Prophet ﷺ.

The Second Hadith Qudsi: "I Am with Those Whose Hearts Are Broken for My Sake"

وَمَهْمَا انْكَسَرَ قَلْبُكَ حُزْنًا عَلَى تَقْصِيرِكَ فِي حَقِّ رَبِّكَ فَهُوَ صَاحِبُكَ وَمُلَازِمُكَ — He said: whenever your heart breaks, whenever you have a heartbreak out of sadness over your inability to fulfill the rights of Allah, then Allah is your companion and Allah is your continuous partner.

What does that mean? When a person starts thinking: "Ya Allah, You are my Lord, I am Your servant. أَنْتَ الْغَنِيُّ وَأَنَا الْفَقِيرُ — You are the most free of all need and I am the one who is in need of everything. I am poor, You are wealthy. I am creation, You are Creator. I am nourished and You are the Nourisher. I am disgraced and You are the most Honorable. Ya Allah, I cannot blink an eye without Your permission. I cannot sip a gulp of water without Your permission. I could choke on that — yes, that water which is supposed to keep me alive may end up becoming the means of my death. I am so much in need of You, Ya Allah. How respectful I should have been towards You. How obedient I should have been towards You. But Ya Allah, years and years and decades I have spent in disobedience. My eyes have been polluted from sin. My ears have been polluted with sin. My tongue has been polluted with sin. There is no strand of hair that is not polluted with sin. Ya Allah, and we break down crying, and we are saddened — that You are so great, I am so insignificant — how should I have acted with You? Shame on me for leading my life the way I have."

When a person breaks down like this in front of Allah, He says Allah is your companion and He is consistently with you. How so? As Allah has said in another Hadith Qudsi:

(Referenced in Ihyā' 'Ulūm al-Dīn by Imam al-Ghazali; attributed to a Hadith Qudsi)

"I am with those whose hearts have been broken for My sake."

So there is one meaning I already gave — that my heart has been broken because of Allah, meaning I feel so guilty, I feel so overwhelmed. Let me give you an example. Say someone was calling you and you were sleeping, didn't pick up, and when you wake up later in the day you see 20 missed calls. It depends — if it's a scammer you don't care. But imagine, subhanAllah, this was your mother. Imagine this was someone who has done so much iḥsān towards you — no one has done more iḥsān towards us than our mothers. Imagine this is someone who you had borrowed money from and were supposed to return it, but he gave you a lot of extra time — and now he needs it because, Allah forbid, he is in a big time of need. He needs that money. And you look and see — this man was there for me, helping me in my time of need, and now look, he has called me 20 times and I was not able to pick up his phone call. How do you feel? Guilty. Your mother says: "I was so much in need. My daughter, my son — I was calling out for you to help and you didn't pick up." How would you feel if you found out that your mother at that time badly needed you — she was stranded somewhere, she was hurt, and she was looking for help — and our phone was off? It hurts when you think about it.

Now, similarly, there is no one who has done more good towards us than Allah. Even the fact that our mothers love us more than we love them — and more than almost we love ourselves — that love that the mother has for us came from where? It came from Allah. Allah put our love into our mother's hearts and our father's hearts. So how much should I have acted obediently in front of Allah? Sadly, I have not.

So that's when a person starts crying. When was the last time we cried because of this? May Allah make us amongst those people who cry over the fact that we have not fulfilled the rights of Allah. Allah says — and they have not appreciated Allah the way He ought to be appreciated — subhanAllah, 'ajīb — they have not appreciated Allah the way they ought to be appreciated. Why does Allah have to say this?

"O human being, what has deceived you about your generous Lord — who has created you, who has beautified you, who has made you in order, in symmetry, and has created you in very beautiful forms? Why is it that you seem to have found someone else beside Him? What has deceived you about Him?"

There was a Bedouin — when he first interacted with the Muslims, with the Ṣaḥābah or Tābi'īn, whoever it may have been — when he heard the verses of the Quran being recited, he became shocked. He said: what kind of servant are we, that Allah in the Quran, when He speaks, why does He have to take an oath? Why does He have to say:

He said: why does Allah have to take an oath? What a shameful human being — that he puts himself in a situation where his Lord, when He speaks to him, must take an oath. Look at how this Bedouin is speaking. Astaghfirullah — your Lord is talking to you. How dare He has to take an oath. This is fiṭrah — this is what you call innate pure nature. The one who recognizes himself and Allah — you use your gesture, your simple signal to me to do something, and I must do it — because if I don't, not only my health or wealth or prosperity depends on You — my wujūd, my existence, my mom and dad's existence, my grandparents' existence, the entire world's existence depends on Your irāda, on Your will. Ya Allah, I am indebted to You completely.

Giving Up the Haram for Allah's Sake

So that's one example of this hadith. Another explanation is that a person's heart is broken for the sake of Allah. Possibly one other meaning of this is that a person was involved in something ḥarām — he was very much indulged in it, he really liked it. Say it was a ḥarām relationship. Say it was a ḥarām income or investment. And he was really wedded to that, very comfortable with it. Now he found out that this relationship is ḥarām, this income is ḥarām, this food is ḥarām, this music is ḥarām — this xyz is ḥarām. Whatever it is — looking at this, watching this, reading this, banking in this, investing in this — is ḥarām. So now he makes tawbah and backs off. But now he has withdrawal effects — he's aching and paining because he remembers that drug, that emotional attachment — whatever he had — he gave it up for the sake of who? For the sake of Allah. And now he's sitting in a corner crying.

Why are you crying? Because I missed my previous habits. I missed my previous relationships. Why do you miss them? Because I found out they were ḥarām and I gave them up for the sake of Allah. Now that person — he or she — should know: Allah is with him. أَنَا عِنْدَ الْمُنْكَسِرَةِ قُلُوبُهُمْ — "If you want to find Me, find Me with those whose hearts are broken for Me." Meaning Allah is with him, is in his heart. Whatever du'ā he will make — insha'Allah, We accept it. Whatever tawbah they will make — insha'Allah, We accept it. Because he gave something up for the sake of Allah. That's very deep.

So when people are going through a tough time nowadays because of giving up something, give them hope, give them encouragement. Understand that you are in a very special situation right now. I deal with this a lot with young brothers or sisters who may reach out and say: "This was a ḥarām relationship — is this okay?" No, sister. No, brother. This is ḥarām. This is not going to work. This person is not even a Muslim. "But I've been with them for many months or years." Ḥarām is ḥarām — you have to change it. Otherwise, leave it. Many times they know the answer. It hurts. But then we encourage them: "Right now, you are probably closer to Allah than you've ever been, because you're giving up something for the sake of Allah. Allah is Shakūr. Allah is grateful. Allah will never allow you to walk away empty-handed." Astaghfirullah — Allah will never take from us and not give us back. Allah will only take from us to give us. Allah takes to give. So if He's taking away our friendship or something that we enjoyed, He is most definitely going to give us far more than our expectations — far more than we can imagine.

The Beautiful Poem

If you were to recognize Allah properly — the way He ought to be recognized — you would have made Him your companion and you would have left people to the side. As the famous poem goes:

"Oh Allah, I wish — as long as You become sweet for me — that no matter how bitter life may be, I don't mind. And if only You are happy with me, even if all of humanity is angry at me. And Ya Allah, I wish the relationship between me and You is perfect — is populated — the road between me and You is busy and populated. I'm speaking to You, You're responding to me. You're speaking to me, I'm responding to You. There's this continuous back-and-forth communication between me and Allah. And the relationship — the pathway — between me and the rest of the world — خَرَابُ — it's empty. I don't mind, as long as this road between You and I is populated."

Wallahi, what a beautiful poem. All this depression, sadness — and I deal a lot of times with brothers and sisters, especially women who will reach out to the masjid and say: "I'm very depressed because this happened, I'm getting a divorce, my son did this to me, my daughter did this to me." Okay — we have to worry about this, we have to get counseling, we have to get medication, we have to do this and that. But the number one thing is — the amount of time you're spending crying with this one and that one and this one and that one — please, if you could spend just 10% of it crying in front of Allah, you won't need to even talk to me. Allah will guide you to what needs to be done. But we have to channel our energy, our sadness, our anxiety towards Allah.

Going and talking — "I need to offload" — offload first on Allah, then you go offload elsewhere. "Oh, I need to talk to my mom now." I tell people: how many times am I going to tell you — mom can't do anything for you. The only one who has control over your situation is Allah. Yes, talk to your mother — no problem. But before you talk to your mother, talk to Allah. Before you talk to your sister, talk to Allah. Before you talk to your husband, before you talk to your son, before you talk to your daughter — speak to Allah. And if we have Allah, dear listeners, then honestly you can get voicemail, you can get a phone disconnected — no worries.

The Imam and the King: A Story of True Reliance on Allah

It is mentioned about one of the imams of the Jāmi' Masjid of Delhi during the time of the Mughals — the imam of the Jāmi' Masjid gave a khutbah and the king came for Jumu'ah. In the khutbah he called out — and he said — this is of course hundreds of years ago, a story I'm sharing — he said: "It is not permissible for men to wear silk and to wear gold." He mentioned that in his khutbah. And the king was sitting there wearing silk clothes and gold embroidery and what not. He mentioned this in his khutbah. When the king went back to his court, he got upset: "How did the imam speak about something in my presence and call out ḥarām when I'm involved in it? Not acceptable." So he said to his secret service — his soldiers of the court — "Go grab that imam and bring him to me." In those days there was no long procedure — if the king didn't like you, most of the world runs like that, and unfortunately it's running like that now today as well in many places — if you don't like it, khalas, kill him or imprison him for life.

It so happened that the son of the king, the prince, was a student of the scholar. So he came running to the imam of the masjid — the scholar, the great 'ālim — and said: "My father is very angry at you and he is sending his secret police to come arrest you. I'm very worried about you." Allahu Akbar. So the scholar — the imam — he looked at the boy, and he said: "Is that so?" Then he told his servant — because this is not taps — he told his servant: "Fetch me my jug of water. Bring me my wuḍū jug. And bring me my muṣallā — my prayer mat."

As soon as the imam said this, the son ran back to the king's palace to the dad and said: "Oh father, please don't do what you're doing. The sheikh — he has pulled out something very powerful. He's pulled out the wuḍū jug and the prayer mat. You can't compete with that." Allahu Akbar — you can't compete with that. His relationship with Allah is such — your army doesn't stand a chance. Your soldiers will not be able to arrest him. Big problems will befall you.

As it comes in hadith:

(Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Hadith 6502)

Whoever holds enmity against My friend — I shall declare war against him. Whoever has enmity against My friend. Who is a friend? It could be any one of us. Allah says: I declare war against that person. My friends are My chosen ones — don't mess with them.

So when a person builds this relationship with Allah — this friendship — there is no creation in the entire existence that can put a finger on you, that can do anything to harm you without the permission of Allah. If we have found Allah, we have found everyone and we have found everything. And if we've lost Allah, no matter what we have, we have nothing. This is where the desire needs to be after Ramadan ended — ask ourselves: what is my relationship with Allah?

The Tears of Mothers and the Power of Du'a

My dear mothers — may Allah give long life to all of our mothers. Say ameen. May Allah give long life to my mom. I tell you this as a witness — I grew up born and raised in Chicago, but I grew up seeing every single day my mother crying — hours. Was she in a financial problem? No, alhamdulillah. Emotional problem? No. Physical problem? No. Her concern was the tarbiyah of us and the tarbiyah of the future generations. But I remember so vividly, as a four-year-old playing with my trucks — I'd just walk in to look at my mom, and honestly she would cry like something bit her — sitting on a chair or sitting in a corner, just in du'ā the whole time, just du'ā, du'ā.

And that's something that I am so grateful to Allah for — that He gave me a home in which I was raised by a mom that truly led us through tears. And that does wonders. The tears of parents, and the tears of mothers and fathers for their kids, does things that no university, no madrasa, no masjid, no professor, no sheikh can do. That du'ā gets heard by Allah.

There are more problems today than ever existed when I was born. The world is a much tougher place — much more difficult, much more violent, much more scary. And honestly, the thing that's going to keep us going is crying. Today in the Jumu'ah khutbah I referred to the fitna, and there is one hadith or saying of one of the companions of the Prophet ﷺ. He said:

(Referenced in various books of Islamic admonition; attributed to a companion of the Prophet ﷺ)

"The only person who will be saved in that era of fitna will be the one who begs Allah the way a drowning person begs Allah." Have you ever seen anyone drowning? Think about it — have you ever been in a situation in a swimming pool, river, or ocean? It is the worst possible thing. A person becomes extremely helpless. If you've ever been in a near-drowning incident, you'll never forget it your whole life. If you've ever seen someone like that, you'll never forget it your whole life. That is the absolute pinnacle of helplessness — when a person is drowning and you are far away from anyone.

He said: the way a drowning person would beg Allah to get him out of that mess — that level of desperation is necessary in your du'ā if you want to survive the fitna. I hope we understand the depth of this — not only do we need to make lots of du'ā today, but we also need to cry a lot, and we have to have the quality of the du'ā. It needs to be of genuineness, of desperation.

Our masājid need people to cry. Masājid don't need money — mashallah, we have tons and tons of money in our community. I'm not saying all of it is being donated, but there is money available if need be. What we need more than anything else is people to cry in the masjid — people to cry for the masjid, people to cry for the community, people to cry for the youth, people to cry for the boys, for the girls, for the adults. Then we will see subhanAllah wondrous things happening.

So if we want to come out of our difficult situations — definitely have all the means. I am not negating the role that counselors play. Today after Maghrib there will be a counselor speaking on raising children in turbulent times — a psychologist, a therapist. MashAllah, these are necessary things. As imams and therapists do — medication at times is necessary. But having all that, what we need to do is spend time with Allah — speaking with Him.

That's what Imam al-Ghazali is saying — if you knew Allah, you would have taken Allah as your companion and you would have forgotten people. Why am I not making du'ā? Why am I not motivated to sit and cry in a corner? I haven't recognized Allah. I haven't recognized the power and the qadr of Allah. I am ready to spend two hours running around this place and that place, calling this person and that person, this office and that office — but subhanAllah, a tenth of that — if I were to perform two raka'āt of Ṣalāt al-Ḥājah and make sincere du'ā to Allah and then go on calling this one and that one, going to this office and that office — life would have been very different.

The Final Lines of Bidāyat al-Hidāyah

I've got two more lines as we finish this section.

If you cannot remain in the state of remembering Allah at this level throughout your entire day — you can't do that because you're too weak — then he's saying to me: "I warn you — ensure that there is no day or night that goes by in which you cannot say there was not even a few moments in which you spent time secludedly with your Lord." وَتَتَلَذَّذُ — and in which you enjoyed speaking with Him. تَلَذَّذُ is the enjoyment of communion. مُنَاجَاتِهِ — privately whispering.

You don't have to — dear mothers and sisters and brothers and fathers — Allahu Akbar — the du'ā when you're hurt, sometimes we're hurt, sometimes people hurt us, and you're so hurt that you can't even speak. It's fine. You don't need to speak. Allah hears the language of the heart. And some of the most powerful du'ās that we can make — and I encourage you to try this because my teachers have taught me to do the same — just raise your hand like this and let your heart do the talking. Don't move your lips. Don't move your tongue. Just let the heart pour out emotions. Allahu Akbar. It is special because it requires very high amounts of focus and sincerity. When no one can hear you, no one knows what you're doing. If you cannot raise your hands, don't raise your hands if you're in a situation like that — but let the heart speak to Allah.

So He says: make sure you do not have a single 24 hours in which you say, "I don't remember, from yesterday till today, even a few moments when I sat and spoke with Allah." You have to have a few moments every single day in which you say: "I had what I call down time with Allah. Just me and Allah."

He says: at that time — when you are spending one-on-one time with Allah — that's when now you have entered a formal ṣuḥbah. You have entered formally into a companionship — if I can say that — a companionship with Allah. Now you have to follow the etiquettes. "Okay, now I'm with Allah. Alhamdulillah, You've allowed me to be in front of You. How should I be in front of You?" That's where he talks about the adab. And I will stop here.

Closing Remarks and Recommendations

I encourage you to get this book — we have a few copies outside, we've only brought like four or five copies. But if you run out or you're not able to get them, go online and find it. Mecca Books out of the East Coast sells it. Al-Balag might sell it as well. It's called The Beginning of Guidance — and you want to make sure you get the copy with the English translation in it as well. Mufti Abdul Rahman Mangera from White Thread Press is the one who has published this. He actually does teach a few lessons of it. And I hope one day I'll be able to do a very detailed class of this.

I do teach this book every single day in the one-year program, but it's not recorded. But I think for the general benefit of the community, I have done a lot of lessons of it in our Team Fajr program. Masjid Darussalam's YouTube channel — if you go to Masjid DS and check the Team Fajr section, insha'Allah you may be able to find the explanations of Bidāyat al-Hidāyah. Insha'Allah Ta'ala.

Du'a and Closing

I ask Allah that He allows me and all of us to implement whatever good was shared. If mistakes were made, may Allah overlook our mistakes and forgive us. May Allah not make this knowledge a proof against us, but rather a proof for us. May Allah fill our hearts with His love and allow us all to have a personal, private relationship with Him. May Allah inspire all of us to talk to Him every single day. And may Allah allow us to cry in front of Him every single day — not only for our own issues, but for the issues of the Ummah. May Allah guide our generations and allow all of our children and grandchildren and progeny to become amongst those who are able to get their needs fulfilled by asking Allah. Ameen, Ya Rabb al-'Ālamīn.

Insha'Allah, after Ṣalāt al-Maghrib we'll have a program for the parents, and after 'Ishā' Ṣalāh it will insha'Allah be for the college students, high school students, and the youth insha'Allah.

Assalāmu 'alaykum waraḥmatullāhi wabarakātuh.