Team Fajr with Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed | The Beauty and Pragmatic Nature of the Deen |

Opening Supplications

Beloved friends, dear brothers and sisters, elders, guests of the house of Allah, and students of knowledge. Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

We thank Almighty Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful, who has blessed us to be in the masjid today, and in the comfort that we're enjoying here, with the safety, alhamdulillah, and with all the luxuries that have been provided for us here in this part of the world, as well as in our specific lives. The amount of blessings, the countless blessings, Allah has awarded us all.

And at the top of all of that, is the blessing of iman, the blessing of recognizing Allah, the blessing of deen, the blessing of being connected to His house, and the blessing of being able to make it out here, to the masjid. This is most definitely the greatest blessing that we all have. And if once a person has this blessing, then the rest of the issues of this world can be taken care of, and a person can understand that, and a person can make do with it.

But if a person is missing out on this blessing, then he has nothing. And so, as a believer, we are taught that we have to make an effort and du'a, for the betterment of our worldly life on earth, as well as the betterment of the future. The beauty of our deen is that it's so pragmatic, and it's so realistic. It is something that every single one of us can, if we take a moment and reflect, we'll see how it is a deen that is extremely logical, and it is of greatest benefit to anyone who wants to adopt it.

A Comprehensive Du'a of the Prophet ﷺ

So today I'd like to share one du'a of the Prophet ﷺ, that there was rarely a gathering in which he did not recite this du'a. This was his habit, that he would always recite this du'a in all his gatherings. And hopefully, insha'Allah, we can also memorize it and make a point to recite this du'a as often as possible in any gathering that we're in. And from this du'a, you'll understand the comprehensive nature of this deen, and the comprehensive nature of Rasulullah ﷺ's prophethood as well.

(Sahih Muslim, Book 48, Hadith 71)

The Prophet ﷺ is saying: "O Allah, rectify for me my religion which is the safeguard of my affairs. And rectify for me my worldly life in which is my living. And rectify for me my hereafter to which is my return. And make life for me an increase in every goodness. And make death a relief for me from every evil."

First: O Allah, Rectify My Deen

The Prophet ﷺ is saying: O Allah, أَصْلِحْ لِي دِينِي الَّذِي هُوَ عِصْمَةُ أَمْرِي — Rectify for me my religion, my deen. Oh Allah, please take care of me. The first thing we're going to ask Allah is to take care of our deen. Oh Allah, please take care of my deen. Now my deen, how important is it? هُوَ عِصْمَةُ أَمْرِي — This is the crux of all my affairs. ʿIsmah — it's something you use to protect yourself. If I have my deen, I can protect myself from all the difficulties of this world. If I have my deen, I can protect myself from all the difficulties of the future life. Whatever difficulty anyone of us is going through, if our deen is intact, we can take care of it.

And this is what you see happening overseas. Every single day, the latest types of reports that come out. SubhanAllah, we hear about Gaza. Just last night, I was just reading about the West Bank. That while whatever is happening in Gaza, everyone is focusing on Gaza, but the unbelievable oppression that is happening quietly in the West Bank is really heartbreaking. And it's very clearly being mentioned that the world's attention is on Gaza. So now the settlers have thought that this is a very good time for them to grab the land of the Palestinians and kill and pillage and intimidate people. So the level of audacity and fearlessness and shamelessness that the settlers have is seriously just sickening, to say the least.

In one case, just yesterday, there was a janazah for four people who were randomly and unfortunately killed. And in the janazah — a wild janazah — without even, forget about arms, they have no arms, they didn't even carry Palestinian flags, they didn't want to intimidate, they didn't want to cause any problems. No flags, nothing, quietly just taking the janazah, and another two got shot and killed. Point blank, right in the stomach, right in the face — a father and a daughter, a six-year-old. No one is speaking about this.

But what really made me sick in the stomach, having read that, was the father — the uncle — who was trying to go for the janazah of the other four, trying to go get the bodies from the morgue, and on the way back he lost two of his own relatives. But he just says — he got shot in the stomach, got shot in the face — and in the English translation in the BBC article, it says: "Whatever Allah's will has happened, and we trust and we put our reliance on Allah." It's written in English.

Again, you see this unbelievable level of faith, unbelievable level of iman. The person has lost innocent people for no reason. But because he has deen, he has a perspective on it that allows him to move forward, and that allows him to come out as a winner.

The Story of Haram ibn Milhan

You know the famous story of Haram ibn Milhan — one of the companions of the Prophet ﷺ — where the disbelievers, in the midst of a battle, were able to get a believer pinned to the ground. And as he was killing him, as the Muslim breathed his last and died in the battlefield, he said:

"I swear by the Lord of the Ka'bah, I have become successful."

So he's dying, and he's saying to the killer: by the Lord of the Ka'bah, I am successful. That really hit the killer. He said, this person I just killed — how is it possible that he is successful? He died. He's gone. How is he saying with an oath on the Lord of the Ka'bah that he's successful? And those words, SubhanAllah, became the means of the killer's hidayah. He thought about it, thought about it, thought about it, eventually went to the Prophet ﷺ, and took shahadah and became a Muslim. Because he couldn't believe that someone could be dying, and could be saying he's successful.

And that's what the perspective as a Muslim gives you. That when you are a true believer, no matter what the situation is, you always see success in it. And this is the benefit of having the deen taken care of.

So going back to this du'a: اللَّهُمَّ أَصْلِحْ لِي دِينِي الَّذِي هُوَ عِصْمَةُ أَمْرِي — Ya Allah, take care of my deen, which is the crux of all my affairs.

Another du'a connected to this first part:

O Allah, do not allow our musibah, our difficulty and our test, to be in our deen. First of all, we don't want to get tested anyway. But if we get tested, we'd rather get tested in the dunya. We'd rather get tested by loss of some money, a loss of this or that. But the last thing — which we hope we never ever have to suffer — is a test in our deen.

And that's what we see today happening in this part of the world: the dunya may not be being tested as much, but what is being tested is our deen. People are left and right not practicing the deen, and are involved in fulfillment of their lustful desires. Although they have all the dunya and the blessings of this dunya at their feet, but unfortunately these blessings are becoming a means of destroying their akhirah. So the imtihan in the third world country is in the dunya. And the imtihan in the first world country is in our deen.

This is why it's scary, because we all have to go — sooner or later, today, tomorrow, we're all going. But if we lose our deen, what awaits us in the future is nothing but evil.

On the Nature of Death

You know when they say, someone died peacefully. Muslims say this, non-Muslims say it, everyone says it about everyone. But honestly, who died peacefully and who didn't, we don't know. It may seem to you and I peaceful, but what is actually happening in the world of the unseen, no one knows. That person could have had the most pitiful, most terrible death. But you may not see that. You may not see all the tug of war that the angels are having with his soul. You may not see the angels hitting his face and his back as they drag the soul out.

As Allah says, that they will be hitting their faces and their backs:

And telling them to taste the punishment of the burning, taste the punishment of hellfire. We don't know what discussion the angel of death is having. We don't even know in what shape and form the angel of death is descending upon the disbeliever. But we say a person died peacefully.

Do you know, Aisha radiallahu anha says, that after she saw Rasulullah ﷺ passing away, she saw him pass away with a lot of pain. She saw him pass away having a very, very bad headache. She saw him pass away with a lot of fever. She saw him pass away with his hand in a bowl of water, saying:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 4449)

"Indeed, death has its difficulties. Death has its pangs." This is the Nabi of Allah ﷺ having a difficult time at death. Allahu Akbar. She said: after seeing my husband and my Nabi pass away like this, after that I realized that I'm not going to judge things based on the manner of death. Because there is no doubt that the Nabi ﷺ is the best of the best of the best. But the fact that he had this difficult death does not mean — I seek refuge with Allah — that he is in some bad relationship with Allah, or that Allah is unhappy with him. This difficulty of death is simply the final way Allah granted him an extremely high status in Jannah. This difficulty Allah intended for him to go through so that what awaits him in Jannah could be unbelievably more than whatever he expected. And so, difficulty at death is at times for a believer the greatest mercy.

And the flip side of it, as it comes in hadith, is that ease at death at times becomes one of the greatest punishments for a disbeliever. How is that so? A disbeliever has done so much — for example, so much oppression or so much sin — that Allah is waiting to punish him. However, not every single disbeliever is only going to do sinful things; they're going to be doing nice things, they're going to be doing kind things as well. SubhanAllah. There are many non-Muslims who do amazing things of kindness.

So now what are we going to do about that? On the Day of Judgment, no one is going to be oppressed in the least. So you have a disbeliever who has done something good — we need to settle the score, we need to settle the debts; we don't want him to come on the Day of Judgment and say, Ya Allah, what about this, what about that? So Allah gives this person an easy death. And on the Day of Judgment, when he says, Ya Allah, what about all the good that I've done? The answer will be given to him: don't you remember your death? Your death was easy, it wasn't painful. And that cancels out everything. Anything you were supposed to be getting in reward for the difficulty you went through has been settled because you had an easy death. SubhanAllah.

Look, the ending is so different. Rasulullah ﷺ going through so much difficulty. A disbeliever at times going through ease. You can't judge things based on what you see. What is actually happening inside, only Allah knows.

So this is telling us that as long as the deen is present, then no matter what the situation may be, insha'Allah we'll get out of it.

The Crisis of Poverty and Starvation

As for those people who are passing away overseas — for example, in Africa right now, in so many parts of Africa, there are unprecedented levels of starvation. Whether it's Nigeria, whether it's Ghana, whether it is Somalia, whether it's Malawi — unbelievable levels of poverty.

One of my classmates from Malawi, I spoke to him yesterday. He said, you know what, I went fully prepared to speak about Palestine in my town in Malawi, in Africa. But he said, he went to go speak, he went to visit an old man in his hut before Salatul Jumu'ah. And he said, that scene was just so powerful that he had to speak about that instead. What was that scene? He was explaining to me, and he sent me a picture. He said he went to go visit an old Muslim man who was sitting in a small, maybe 6 feet by 6 feet hut, made out of straw. Everything he has inside there — bathroom, shower, sleep — everything in there. No one to take care of him. And on top of that, the man has nothing to eat. He's literally dying because of starvation. There's nothing there. He doesn't have the ability to walk out and go ask for food or anything like that.

There are thousands of people as we speak right now who are literally dying from starvation, which is the most painful way a person can die. Those are believers. Those are Muslims. The other day I told you, my own friend told me he attended a Salatul Janazah of a father and son who didn't die by a bullet, but they died SubhanAllah after having eaten a poisonous root. Because their food had come to an end. People are eating plants, people are eating roots, people are eating grass, people are eating leaves. And unfortunately, some of these are poisonous. So imagine a father and a young son dying from a poisonous plant they've eaten because they've got nothing else to eat. And how does that even fill your belly? How does that help you in your nutrition? Allahu Akbar.

May Allah grant all of these people the highest levels of Jannah. And may Allah continue to grant them sabr and patience. And may Allah provide them from His infinite treasures, food. And may Allah allow us all to do our part to thank Allah for the blessings of food that we're enjoying, and financially, and in any other way we can — participate by donating to these causes. Ameen, Rabbil Alameen.

But brothers, it goes back to the point of islah of our deen. If the deen is right, then a person will, no matter what the situation is, die in a state that Allah is pleased with him, and he is pleased with Allah based on what he sees. That's why this is the first thing: O Allah, take care of my deen, which is the crux of my affairs.

Second: O Allah, Rectify My Dunya

Number two: وَأَصْلِحْ لِي دُنْيَايَ — O Allah, take care of my dunya. Make my dunya easy, comfortable, righteous and upright.

Some of the ulema, the commentators on this hadith, say it is as though Rasulullah ﷺ is also giving an excuse for why we are asking Allah to take care of our dunya. After all, the hadith says:

"Live in this dunya as though you're a traveler, or a stranger." So why should you worry about the dunya? The answer is in the du'a itself: وَأَصْلِحْ لِي دُنْيَايَ الَّتِي فِيهَا مَعَاشِي — O Allah, take care of my dunya, because I live in it. There's no way I'm going to get to the akhirah unless I go through the dunya. And as long as I'm here, I want you to please take care of my affairs over here.

For example, if a person's dunya is not good — and dunya doesn't just mean wealth, dunya means also peace and comfort — if you don't have that, you can't worship Allah. Like you've come here and you're sitting peacefully because alhamdulillah, you're not worried about your home right now. You're not worried about attackers coming to your home. Allah forbid if that was your worry, you and I wouldn't be able to make it over here. But we are here because, alhamdulillah, we have safety at home. We feel comfortable. And that's why we're sitting in the masjid like this.

So we're asking Allah to take care of the affairs of our dunya in which we live. Because if the asbaab of this dunya are not taken care of, then we will not be able to prepare for the akhirah.

One of the ulema said something very nice. He said — for a believer, and only for a believer — the asbaab, the means of this dunya: wealth, health, money, contacts, relationships, peace and comfort — all of these are called means of this dunya. He said that for a believer, the means of this dunya in reality are a means to build a beautiful Jannah.

For a believer, when you say, alhamdulillah, Allah has blessed me with a lot of money — great. What do you do with that money? What's the purpose Allah has given you this money? It's not just to spend over here. It's to spend in a manner that you will have a beautiful Jannah. That's the purpose Allah has given a believer money. A person has contacts — I'm very well connected. What is it for? Is it only to make our children's businesses grow and to fill our bellies? No. Relationships are to help people who are in difficulty get their needs fulfilled, and thereby get your Jannah made. So if you are politically connected, or business-wise connected, or you have wealth, health, or a large family — all of these blessings of Allah have been given to a believer so he can build his akhirah.

Usually what happens is a person, as soon as he gets enough money, the first thing he wants to do is buy a piece of land and build a huge home. Fine, but that's not the primary purpose for a believer. For a believer, his main goal should be: alhamdulillah, I hit the jackpot. Now with this jackpot, I am going to build my akhirah. I am going to build my future. That's the way a believer thinks. Our approach to life is just completely different, because we know there's a place coming.

You know, new money that's coming into the youth — many of the youth are making money here and there in different types of ventures. And so many times they become trigger-happy. Within one month, they buy an exotic car. Within three months, they are living in the most expensive apartment or a penthouse. Within a year, they've got the most expensive home. There are people far wealthier than these young people — they've got generational wealth or they've built their own wealth over 50 years — old, but very conservative in their spending. So they will be sitting on millions, but you'll see their car will be very simple. Sitting on millions, with a very simple home. Both Muslim and non-Muslim. Because they have a different strategy of investment, a different strategy of expenditure.

They say, you have to keep money for rainy days. The kids don't think about that. The kids want to go spend, spend, spend. But the elders will say, no, you cannot just spend all your money overnight like this. You have to put into investments, you have to put into different stocks, you have to put into different funds, and you have to be conservative in your spending. So that's what we call intelligence on their part — they know how to budget things properly. The magic word is budgeting.

So a believer knows how to budget like no other. Because his budget doesn't end at death. He prepares for مَا بَعْدَ الْمَوْتِ — after death. That's the uniqueness of a believer. So when he does his budget — whether he's making $3,000 a month or $30,000 a month — part of his budget is: how much of this is for sadaqah? Because I need to keep it for a rainy day. And it's only rain out there. It's only problems in the akhirah. Sadaqah is what's going to save us. So he has allocated a certain percentage every single month from his salary for sadaqah. He has appointed a certain amount to give to his parents. He has done a portion to give to his poor siblings, for some of his cousins overseas who don't have anything. He has allocated all of these things. Who is he trying to help? He's trying to help himself. He has budgeted properly so that when he dies and goes to the hereafter, alhamdulillah, he's got a nice retirement fund that he can bank on.

This is how a believer thinks. But you won't be able to have a nice retirement fund for the akhirah unless you have something here. You're not going to be able to sit and do lots of ibadah if you don't have food and comfort. That's what the Nabi ﷺ said:

(Reported by al-Bayhaqi in Shu'ab al-Iman; also referenced by al-Suyuti in al-Jami' al-Saghir)

"Poverty may lead to disbelief." Look at those brothers and sisters overseas in Africa for example, who don't have food. They are being enticed by NGOs and by non-Muslims. Right here, within two or three square miles of where we are right now, there are massive organizations — Christian organizations, Evangelical Christian organizations — that are pouring in millions of dollars in different parts of the Muslim world where there is no food. And they collect right here, right here at the stoplights.

One convert was telling me, the church his grandmother used to go to — on every Sunday they have different fundraisers, mostly for Africa, mostly for humanitarian things. The Sunday he went to visit, they were raising money for one country in Africa to dig wells and provide food and what not. How much did they raise in a Sunday service? $300,000. This is every Sunday they are raising. $300,000 going into wells and food, which is, alhamdulillah, great, but unfortunately it comes with a price. That price is: you've got to come to the church, you've got to leave your deen, you've got to start attending Bible services.

That's not happening far away — it's happening right here in Wheaton. Right here in Wheaton, I saw with my own eyes, about 8 or 10 years ago, on a Sunday morning, I just happened to be driving by: a big white church van coming and picking up Muslim brothers from Somalia, from Sudan, SubhanAllah, and taking them. This is what the hadith is speaking about — كَادَ الْفَقْرُ أَنْ يَكُونَ كُفْرًا — that poverty may lead to kufr. If a person does not have food, what is he going to do? You need bread, you need to eat. So if someone says, I'll give you bread, but you've got to come take Bible study in the church — a person, what is he going to do? Let us beg Allah that He never puts you and I in a situation like that. But honestly, if your situation was like that, and your children are dying hungry, your wife is starving — you say, give me food, I'll do whatever you need me to do, because I need to live, SubhanAllah.

So this is why we're asking Allah to take care of our dunya. Because we don't want to lose our deen. And we don't want to be bankrupt when we get to the hereafter.

So beloved friends, I'm reiterating this point: to have a comfortable, good dunya is very good. You ask Allah for ease in this dunya — رَبَّنَا آتِنَا فِي الدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةً. But the maqsad, the purpose, is not the dunya. The purpose is the akhirah.

One scholar from the 2nd or 3rd century said:

Meaning: if we didn't have these gold and silver coins, some money that Allah has given us through business and what not, then these kings would have used us as a handkerchief — meaning, because they have money and we don't, and we are in tough situations, they would have used their material upper hand over us to make us do things we don't want to do, and used us for their dirty laundry. But alhamdulillah, we have some money, so when they say, "do this for us," we say, nope — we don't need to do this for you. We're not going to be your slaves.

So there are many narrations of this sort that explain to us that having a few dollars in your pocket is actually very good, because it makes you independent from those who try to buy you out. How pragmatic, how beautiful a deen. No one is saying, don't have money. Take care of your dunya as well. Take care of your deen as well.

Allah mentions in the Qur'an, addressing Qarun:

"And seek, through that which Allah has given you, the home of the Hereafter; and do not forget your share of the world. And do good as Allah has done good to you. And do not seek to cause corruption in the land. Indeed, Allah does not like those who cause corruption."

Qarun had tons of money, but he didn't want to invest in a retirement package for the akhirah. How much money did he have?

Just the keys to his treasures had to be carried by a group of strong men. And his own people told him:

"Do not act arrogantly. Indeed, Allah does not like those who exult." Don't let the money go to your head. Allah has given you money — this is an amazing door to Jannah, an amazing door to the akhirah. If you've got money, if you've got stock, if you've got property, if you've got wealth, do not underestimate the power of this. You can actually do so many great things — for yourself, for your akhirah. People are out there trying to buy real estate and build and renovate homes and compete with one another. You should roll up your sleeves and get into the game — the game of investing in your akhirah like no one else.

MashaAllah, our Uzbek brothers are here. I remember one Uzbek brother who told me in Ramadan — it was so nice listening to him. He said: you know, I have a goal. I'm doing business, but my goal, SubhanAllah, is that when I enter the masjid, I should look at whatever cause, and I should be able to give more than what everyone else has given combined. SubhanAllah, just like Uthman ibn Affan would come and knock the ball out of the park. How? Because he had money. But with money, he had an unbelievable level of iman.

People always focus on Abu Bakr and Uthman's money, and Abdur Rahman's money. But they don't think that if money did everything, then 56 Muslim countries with billions of dollars would be able to help the Muslims today. So money itself doesn't do anything — you need to have iman. But what did Uthman ibn Affan do? He would come and literally just take over. The army — Ya Rasulullah, I've got it. Who's going to help? I've got it. Again and again and again, Uthman ibn Affan raising his hand. Because the other people don't have — the wife doesn't have breakfast, the kids went to sleep hungry the night before. Where are they going to give for the expedition? But Uthman ibn Affan, Allah had blessed him, so he used that blessing for the akhirah.

So this is the type of jazbah, the type of desire we should all have: Ya Allah, give me dunya so that I can build my akhirah. Give me dunya so that I can help others. This type of commitment, mashaAllah tabarak wa ta'ala, is commendable.

And Allah is also telling Qarun: وَلَا تَنسَ نَصِيبَكَ مِنَ الدُّنْيَا — We're not telling you to go hungry here. Eat. This is one of the explanations of this portion of the ayah: do not forget your share of this dunya. You have a right to eat. You have a right to have a comfortable home. You have a right to do things. No one is telling you that you're not allowed to do that. But don't forget the akhirah. وَأَحْسِنْ كَمَا أَحْسَنَ اللَّهُ إِلَيْكَ — Be kind and generous, the way Allah has been kind towards you. وَلَا تَبْغِ الْفَسَادَ فِي الْأَرْضِ — And do not use the money you have to cause chaos on the earth. إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُحِبُّ الْمُفْسِدِينَ — Allah does not like those who cause corruption.

This is again for people who have money. What does the deen say? Alhamdulillah. We don't preach the wealth gospel. Unfortunately there are people out there who say just that — you'll find God in just earning, and go spend, buy a private jet for me. The pastor doing fundraising for his own private jet — not one, not two, but three. That's not what our deen teaches us. But also the deen doesn't say that if you have money you have to give it all away and sit hungry on the street.

So: O Allah, take care of my deen, which is the crux of my affairs. وَأَصْلِحْ لِي دُنْيَايَ الَّتِي فِيهَا مَعَاشِي — Take care of my dunya in which is my living.

Third: O Allah, Rectify My Akhirah

وَأَصْلِحْ لِي آخِرَتِي الَّتِي فِيهَا مَعَادِي — O Allah, rectify my akhirah, to which I have to return. Take care of my akhirah which I have to go back to. So three things: take care of my deen, then my dunya, then my akhirah.

Fourth: Make Life an Increase in Every Goodness

And then: Ya Allah, every single day that I live in this world, allow me to always be in profit — amal profit, dunya profit, just doing good.

O Allah, make my life a means of increase in every goodness — in all goodness. Like now, alhamdulillah, today we have Saturday. So this Saturday should be so much more productive than yesterday. Tomorrow, insha'Allah, we live on Sunday — much more productive than today's Saturday. Every day that Allah is giving us life, we are actually investing and doing better in every sense of the word. Otherwise, what's the point of living if you go down? You want to keep on going uphill. And when Allah in His infinite knowledge knows that from here it's only downhill, that's when you want Allah to take you away.

O Allah, make the best day of my life the day I come to meet You. When we are at the peak of our life, when Allah knows from here it's only going down — that's when we want Allah to take us away.

Fifth: Make Death a Relief from Every Evil

And then when we do die, whenever that's meant to be, it shouldn't be like — oh man, we missed out. There was a big opportunity to earn akhirah, and if I just lived one more day, I could've been a part of it and built a beautiful akhirah. No.

Make my death a means of protection from every evil. Death should be the biggest gift for me. Because if I lived another day, I know I would have fallen into a great musibah. So death in reality is what? تُحْفَةُ الْمُؤْمِنِ الْمَوْتُ — death is a gift for the believer. So we're asking Allah to make our death our gift. That if I were to have lived another day, I may have lost my iman. I may have lost my credibility in the community, lost my honor.

You want to die in a state that you have great honor, great health, great everything. That's why it's mentioned in hadith: O Allah, give me healthy eyes, ears, mind and body, and make them last till my death. Meaning, I want my eyes, ears and faculties to outlive me — that I die in a state that my eyes, ears and body are in beautiful shape. SubhanAllah.

Making This Du'a a Habit

These are the beautiful du'as of Rasulullah ﷺ. The Nabi ﷺ would not leave from a gathering without making this du'a. Meaning, he always made this du'a. So you can find these du'as in Al-Hizbul A'dham — available downstairs in the bookstore — or in Munajat Maqbool, The Accepted Whispers. They are beautiful collections of du'as. If you don't already have a copy, make sure you get one. They contain the prophetic du'as, divided over 7 days of the week — about 200 du'as in total. So insha'Allah, if you read them every single day, you will have completed all the prophetic du'as in one week.

We ask Allah to accept these du'as on our behalf as well. Let us read it together once:

Ameen.

Announcements

So we have a slightly different schedule today, brothers. Because Fajr is late, and our dars obviously needs to run half an hour to 45 minutes or so, we have the Hifz students coming. A hundred boys are coming every six days a week, alhamdulillah. The area downstairs where we eat breakfast is the same place where the Hifz students have their classes. That's why we are requesting everyone to cooperate a little bit.

Alhamdulillah, we are here and we get the reward of staying in the masjid and waiting after Salatul Fajr for Ishraq. We request everyone not to pray Ishraq right now. Kindly, please proceed downstairs and have the breakfast, insha'Allah. But don't forget — before you leave home — perform your Salatul Ishraq. What is the reward for that? You get the reward of an accepted Hajj and Umrah. And another reward is that Allah takes care of the needs of the day, because you stayed in the masjid doing dhikr and the remembrance of Allah from Fajr all the way till past sunrise.

So this is my request to all of us, insha'Allah. And I want to thank our brothers from the Uzbek community who not only brought the breakfast today for all of us, but alhamdulillah came in beautiful numbers. For those of you who know and who don't know — this program happens every single Saturday. So we invite all of you to be regulars here on Saturday mornings for the talk, for the du'a, and for the breakfast, insha'Allah. After the breakfast, insha'Allah, there is Ishraq Salah. And then you can go to the gym — there is volleyball, there is a running track, there is basketball, alhamdulillah. Whatever sports the brothers want to play, the adults mostly and youth also, mashaAllah. We encourage you to come to the court, to the gym in the back.

Closing Du'a

And those who are suffering, Ya Allah, from natural disasters — we ask You, Allah, to end their suffering. Grant them respite. O Allah, grant them safety, grant them peace, grant them food, grant them sustenance, grant them security. O Allah, have mercy on the cries of the young ones, the cries of the elderly and the women. O Allah, the cries of the widowers and the widows. O Allah, have mercy on their pleas. O Allah, allow their cries and their pleas to reach Your Throne, Ya Allah. Allow Your angels to descend and allow Your mercy to come into full force, Ya Allah.

O Allah, provide for all those who do not have food. O Allah, provide security for those who don't have a home, for those who don't have. O Allah, grant safety to those who do not have. O Allah, we ask You to not test us with difficulty, now that You have allowed us to taste safety and security. O Allah, allow us to be thankful and grateful to You for the safety that we're enjoying and the food that we're enjoying. Allow us to become truly thankful and grateful to You, Allah.

O Allah, grant shifa to all those who are sick. Grant maghfirah to all those who have passed away. Brother Hisham's father who passed away — we ask You, Allah, to grant him Jannatul Firdaws and elevate his status, and accept all the goodness and khair that he had done. And grant sabr jameel to his family.

O Allah, all other brothers and sisters from the community who are going through any type of difficulty at home — infighting with their spouses, with their children, with their parents, with their siblings — O Allah, we ask You to end this infighting. End these attacks of shaitan and nafs within the homes.

O Allah, we ask You to grant full reward to our brothers of the Uzbek community, O Allah, who brought their home-cooked food and made lots of effort to prepare breakfast for all of us. O Allah, put barakah in their health, put barakah in their wealth, put barakah in their families, put barakah in their good intentions. O Allah, save their generations. O Allah, as amazing jazbah and desire for deen as the parents have, allow the young children to follow in their footsteps, O Allah. And protect their community, O Allah, from dissolving and from losing their identity. Allow this Uzbek community, O Allah, to become the strongest of communities in this country in the matters of deen. And allow them, O Allah, to revive Islam in the West, O Allah, and across the globe.

Jazakumullahu khairan. Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

Again, we request everyone to proceed downstairs. Don't forget your du'as. Thank our hosts. And insha'Allah, perform your Ishraq Salah afterwards.