[SPEAKER_00]: Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and the Qur'an, he gives us so many examples, so many parables.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the reason that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala gives us these examples, these parables, these stories, is so that we can spend time reflecting.
[SPEAKER_00]: and thinking about how these examples apply to our daily lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of us, we see the Quran, we come to the message that we see the most half on the shelf or we go to our home and we see the most half in our house.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we think to ourselves that this is a sacred book, it's a holy book, it's a very, very special book, and those are all true.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the person who treats the Quran with such reverence
[SPEAKER_00]: that they develop a relationship where they don't engage with it has missed the entire purpose of the Qur'an itself.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of my teachers early on used to say that he could always tell the success of his students by how they're most half how they're Qur'an looked.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said, if you're a Qur'an looked clean and pristine and nice, he said, I could tell that you were not going to be a good student of the Islamic studies.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you're poor, I'm
[SPEAKER_00]: was worn down and the binding was getting weak and the pages had been flipped and had creases in it and there were notes along the side.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said, this was a student that was going to fully grow and understand and develop their firm, their understanding of this Dean.
[SPEAKER_00]: Allah SWT gives us so many different examples so that we can reflect daily, weekly, monthly, on how we live in this life,
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the examples that Allah SWT presents in the Quran, a number of times across different places, is the example of human development, how a child grows, how a baby, how a young person becomes strong and becomes older and becomes more senior.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in the Qur'an, whenever Allah SWT highlights this development, there's always a mention of change.
[SPEAKER_00]: The famous ayah where Allah SWT said that we were born into weakness and then we became strong and then we became weak again.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's always an idea that there are different stages and different moments that a person needs based on their age and the stage of life that they're at.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we see, in the life of the Prophet, I such a sonam, that the way in which he dealt with different people at different stages was very strategic, was very calculated.
[SPEAKER_00]: He would deal with people in different ways based on who they were, where they were coming from, even how old they were, and what their spiritual state was.
[SPEAKER_00]: the Fatih of Mecca, the prophet Aysut to Salam, was traveling back from Geronah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when the Prophet Sultan was traveling back, there was a place that they stopped the Caravan in order to perform prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so he had asked one of the companions to call the Evan, and one of these companions began to call the Evan.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, after the conquest of Mecca had happened,
[SPEAKER_00]: The Muslims were in a very peculiar situation because there were many people from Mecca who had either just become Muslim, and their Islam was still maturing, or there were people who were not yet Muslim, but they had politically conceded to the Muslims, meaning that the Muslims are now the ones who are in charge of Mecca of our city.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was a group of young boys, and they were from the second category.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were not yet Muslim, but they were part now of the community.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were companions of the Muslims in this journey.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when they heard the Evan, they were young.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were like 10 years old.
[SPEAKER_00]: They did what you would expect children to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: They started to call the Evan themselves, but they didn't know a way that was actually in a form of mockery.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there was one in particular, who his name was Abu Mahdura.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Abu Mahdura, his actual name was Aus bin-Mehar bin-Lau-Zan Al-Jumahe.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what was different about him in that when he was repeating and sort of mocking the Evan is that even in his mockery, even in his joking, his voice was very beautiful.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the Prophet ﷺ, he hears this and he looks at all these children that are making fun of the azan, which is a very horrible thing to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he sees one of them has a particularly nice voice.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he calls that young boy over, Abu Mahdoudah.
[SPEAKER_00]: So come over here.
[SPEAKER_00]: So all the sudden they all stop, of course, because when kids get in trouble, they act like they didn't do anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: He calls this young boy over and he says to him, can you repeat what you said?
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to hear your voice.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he became shy.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the Prophet, I say to Salam, he gave him actually some money.
[SPEAKER_00]: He took out some money and he gave him a small bag of coins.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said, this is for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can I please ask you, can you repeat the Evan, can you repeat after me?
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the Prophet, I say to him, he said, Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar.
[SPEAKER_00]: Abu Mahlura started to repeat, but he still did it very quietly.
[SPEAKER_00]: Allahu Akbar Allah, Allahu Akbar.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was very shy.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the Prophet, I say to Salam, he repeated.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, say it again after me, Allahu Akbar Allah, Allahu Akbar until he got this young boy to call the Evan with his beautiful voice.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he could tell the Prophet, Salam could tell that he was hesitant because he still was not Muslim.
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't want to concede, he didn't want to join the Muslims, but there was something just so charming about the Messenger of the Prophet ﷺ. So magnetic that even people who weren't Muslim, they felt compelled to respond to his request.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a Allah our Islam.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the Prophet our Islam, he felt this hesitation.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he took his hand, it's a Allah our Islam.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he ran his fingers through the hair of this young boy.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then he placed his hands on the chest of this young boy and he said, Oh Allah, give him hidayah, oh Allah guide his heart, guide his heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: Abu Mahdurah then departed and they did their prayer and then they went back to Mecca.
[SPEAKER_00]: When they got to Mecca and they had settled, they were preparing for prayer in the Haram.
[SPEAKER_00]: And of course, this is the kaba, this is the, you know, the, the, the most important message on the face of the earth.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the Prophet is with Salaam and everybody, they're looking for them as then to come and call the advance, so that people will come for prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: All the companions they start to look around, who wears this, wears this person, wears bilat, wears so and so, get them to call the advance, the Prophet says, hold on.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's someone I have in mind, where is Abu Mahdurah?
[SPEAKER_00]: And he comes, and his personality now is different, something changed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Before he was hesitant, now he's a little bit more excited.
[SPEAKER_00]: The prophet Aishwatu Sanam says, can you please call the Avan for us?
[SPEAKER_00]: And he does.
[SPEAKER_00]: Later, much much later, when Abu Mahalura is narrating this whole story to us, he's much older in his life.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was asked about how he came to Islam, and he told this whole story.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was a young boy, I didn't want to, I was mocking the event, he called me over, he gave me some coins.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then when he gets to the point where his heart turned, he says something very interesting.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says the prophet Isa to Saddam, ran his fingers through my hair, places hand on my chest and made doof for me, and when he did that.
[SPEAKER_00]: He went from being the person that I didn't want to be next to, to all of a sudden becoming the person that I couldn't see myself being away from.
[SPEAKER_00]: My heart yearned for him, Salalai Salam.
[SPEAKER_00]: He went from being the most hated to the most beloved, and that's when I became a Muslim.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he said, as proof of my love for that moment in my life, he grabbed his hair as an adult.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he said, I have never, ever cut this piece of hair from my head, because this is the hair that he touched.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a La Lajra's hand.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can you imagine the story of a young boy who in a matter of hours or even days went from being the young boy who was mocking the event?
[SPEAKER_00]: the call to prayer, one of the most sacred and beautiful experiences there are people that have heard the Evan and that was enough for them to accept Islam and this young boy went from mocking this act of worship the Evan to all of the sudden becoming the Mu'eddin of Meshri Haram can you imagine what did it take?
[SPEAKER_00]: what was the transformation?
[SPEAKER_00]: was as Allah reminds us in the Qur'an that every state and every stage has its strategy.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Prophet is also to Saddam, when he dealt with other people who were proclaimed enemies of Islam, he had a different approach, he had a different style.
[SPEAKER_00]: When there were people that mocked Islam who were much older, mature, intelligent, developed, responsible.
[SPEAKER_00]: His approach was not to run his fingers through their hair and give them money.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you see here, Salam Allahayu sallam, that he understood the scenario perfectly.
[SPEAKER_00]: He understood that this young boy is too young to understand that what he's doing is not right.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he understood that if I can win his heart over now, it will be the best decision for the rest of his life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Brothers and sisters, the reason I'm telling the story of a young boy to a room full of mostly adults is because as much as we look at the story of a ten-year-old and think that that has nothing to do with me If you look at the nefs that is inside of every single one of us It is closer to that of Abu Mahaludah than it is ten-eving else
[SPEAKER_00]: When we hear, and when we feel the desire to do something, the scholars say that the enough that is inside the force, the energy that is pushing us towards our actions is similar to that of a child.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so many of us, we live our life as Muslims, and we have a very simple strategy when it comes to being Muslim.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will pray when I feel like praying,
[SPEAKER_00]: But if I don't feel like praying, I may not pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will give Sadaka, if I feel like giving Sadaka.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if I don't feel like doing that, then I may not do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even though these are adult thoughts happening inside of the hearts of all of us, this sounds very childish.
[SPEAKER_00]: My son Moosa is seven years old.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are some days where Moosa prays with me all five prayers, Masha Allah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there are some days where I'm begging him to pray one.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I ask him, I say, most Obama, what is the difference between yesterday and today?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yesterday, you prayed, fudged with me, the horror ostrich mode of Asia.
[SPEAKER_00]: Today, we're sitting here and I'm like, please, frame-out, and his shorts are too short anyways.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he says, Bob, I yesterday, I felt like it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Today, I don't feel like it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as much as we look at children and say, that's nonsense.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, La, he, that same thought exist inside of each of every one of us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if we deny it, we're not telling the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: A loss of Hanohatala in the Qur'an, he actually gives us the example of the most childish adult that ever existed in history.
[SPEAKER_00]: The most childish adult, his name was Fadoun.
[SPEAKER_00]: Fadoun, a tyrant, and a pressur, you know, you think of the most evil people that we can imagine today, the most evil people that we can think of.
[SPEAKER_00]: Fereoun was exactly like them, if not worse.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we see SubhanAllah that the one thing that held back Fereoun was not lack of power, no, absolutely not.
[SPEAKER_00]: Was not lack of money, no, of course he had the most.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was the one who was in charge, but it was the lack of discipline.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was the childishness that existed in his heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: that every mature individual develops, the ability to do things that you don't want to do, because you know that this is what Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala wants you to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: We see in the story of Fad'a'oun, in Sultan Nazi'a'at, a very interesting conversation, and Allah to Allah shows us this, and by the way, he gives us the cure at the end of this passage, which I love Subhanahu Wa.
[SPEAKER_00]: to the sacred valley of Attoa, and he tells him go to fit out because he has transgressed his way out of line.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is your job now, your purpose is to go and try to correct this tyrant and bring him back into proper behavior, act like an adult, as we say.
[SPEAKER_00]: He goes and he asks, now think of the example, the Prophet is what's supposed to say, I'm called Abu Mahdoodah over.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you want to call the other?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a proposal.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a request.
[SPEAKER_00]: A law, Subhadah who went to Allah will not force anyone of us to pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: He will not force anyone of us to give that cat.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's our choice.
[SPEAKER_00]: Allah has placed before us the opportunity.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the chance to please him, Jalla Wa'ala, but he's not going to make our limbs go over to the Wudu area and make Wudu and then stand in Salah No.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look at Sayyidina Musa.
[SPEAKER_00]: He could have come and said, look, you have no choice.
[SPEAKER_00]: Listen to me or you're done.
[SPEAKER_00]: Fakul, hallaka ila an tezaka.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you want to be purified?
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you want to be a person that seeks purification of your state?
[SPEAKER_00]: and will you not let me help you and guide you to your Lord, our Lord, everyone's Lord, Allah so that you can develop a proper state of mature reverence of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: To prove to this person, you know, when you're speaking to a child, sometimes you tell them, hey, if you do this, I'll give you something, they say show me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to see it first, all right, when I'm trying to convince my son, whose name ironically is Moosa as well, Moosa, if you finish your homework, we're going to get ice cream.
[SPEAKER_00]: He goes up in the freezer, show me.
[SPEAKER_00]: wants to make sure the goods are there.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's smart, you know, and fill, you can't promise, you know, in transactions, you can't promise a good you don't have.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he's just operating within the shitty hour.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, look, I'll do the homework, but you've got to show me the goods first.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then I open the freezer and he sees the popsicle.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, Bismillah, let's start.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mass, science, English, let's go.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, popsicle time.
[SPEAKER_00]: So SubhanAllah Allah gave Sayyidina Musa The evidence to show this childish person for our own is immature, tyrant that I am coming from Allah, this is not from me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Farahul Ayyat Al-Qubarah But just like a child does, when you don't want to listen, it doesn't matter how good the proof is.
[SPEAKER_00]: Fakha'a-zeba wa-asa.
[SPEAKER_00]: but I don't saw what he needed to see.
[SPEAKER_00]: He saw what everyone else saw.
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember the magicians?
[SPEAKER_00]: When they were having the duel and Musa Isalam throws down his staff and it becomes a snake.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they prostrated and they said, this is, no, no, no, this is not magic.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Prophethood.
[SPEAKER_00]: Every single person who saw what Musa Isalam was given from Allah, they submitted.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if a person's heart has no discipline, has no strength to go against what they want, and to rather prefer what Allah wants, Fakad-e-e-Bawasa, Fum-e-e-d-e-d-e-s'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
[SPEAKER_00]: Sorry, the word literally comes from striving to do something hard.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes the truth is easier to follow.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are moments when doing the right thing is the smoother option.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have everything in front of you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just do the right thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why would somebody fight so hard to go in the wrong direction?
[SPEAKER_00]: To go against traffic, to swim upstream, why?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because the ego is uncontrolled.
[SPEAKER_00]: All of us in this room have been a part of a discussion a debate or an argument where we hit a certain point in that discussion when we know that we were wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: The hardest thing in that moment when you spent the last 30 minutes trying to defend your point is to look at the person in the eye and say you know what you're right.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_00]: I apologize.
[SPEAKER_00]: For now, in that moment, did not possess the maturity, and the discipline to look at Satan and Moussa and to say, you know what?
[SPEAKER_00]: You're right, I'm wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: Fumme ade barayas ha'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a
[SPEAKER_00]: I am your Lord, the most high, brothers and sisters.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you look at this story and you see the degradation of maturity, you see that fit out and went from someone that was being offered a beautiful offering, mentorship and guidance from the words and the mouth of a prophet to all of a sudden now claiming that he is God.
[SPEAKER_00]: What you're witnessing before your eyes is a person that has no self-discipline.
[SPEAKER_00]: No self-control, no real strength doesn't matter how much money, power, influence, doesn't matter what you have if you can't control yourself, you can't control anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: The people around you, they might respect you for worldly reasons, but if you cannot control yourself, you can't control anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is why the Prophet ﷺ said that the strong one is not the one who can win in a match of wrestling and pin the other person down.
[SPEAKER_00]: The strong one is the one that can control themselves in a time of anger.
[SPEAKER_00]: This Hadith sounds like it's very simple, but there's deep spiritual implications here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your strength has nothing to do with other people.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your strength is found here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Many people can run fast, can you make your way to the mission?
[SPEAKER_00]: Many people can make a lot of money and work long hours, can you donate that money when someone in the desert needs it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because all of the success that you and I have, if we can't capitalize on it when I want to ask us, it's not strength, it's just our own weakness, may Allah protect us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ana, later in the Surah.
[SPEAKER_00]: He actually tells us, in nashidalika la ar-ebaratandi meyakshah who ever heard this story, it is a deep reminder for those who have khashia, for those who revere and think so highly of Allah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Allah to Allah gives many, many different examples.
[SPEAKER_00]: He explains the building of the earth and the laying out of the earth and the construction of the sky and the alternation of the day and the night to display that it's not for an al-Huzoor abit him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then Allah's upon him, it's al-Alam will finish here.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says something so beautiful, so powerful.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says when he describes Jenna,
[SPEAKER_00]: Heaven may Allah grant us that.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, wa'am ma'am and khafam al-Kam al-Bihi, wa'na'han nef sa'an il-hawah, fa'in n'al-jannata hiil ma'awam.
[SPEAKER_00]: Allah gives the most beautiful description of paradise and then he says that paradise will be given and will be granted to a person that has two traits.
[SPEAKER_00]: Number one, and these traits are the exact opposite of for our own.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, number one,
[SPEAKER_00]: but a man in half a macamor abhi, for a person who in their heart of hearts, they have a deep level of concern and caution and even fear about ever transgressing the status of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'adhan their life.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know the feeling you have when we say fear of Allah You know what that you know that means day-to-day.
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't mean that you walk around looking at the sky like this That's not fear of Allah
[SPEAKER_00]: Fear of Allah is when you know that if you do what you're about to do, you're going to miss us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you look at the clock and you look at your heart and you sit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that tension that you feel, the tension, even though no one knows, you're just that work.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, this is Toronto, so you probably work with 58 Muslims as well, so they all know.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you get my point, nobody's going to judge you, nobody knows.
[SPEAKER_00]: that's health of Allah.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's when you're scrolling on your phone and you see another video, another picture of someone in Gaza or Lebanon or Sudan or somewhere that needs the food more than you need another dish or they need clothes more than you need new clothes and you look at that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you say to yourself, I'm going to have true fear of Allah here.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going to just stack my own belongings more.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to give to someone who needs more.
[SPEAKER_00]: Having hope of Allah is a daily reality.
[SPEAKER_00]: Having hope of Allah, having fear of Allah is always wondering, am I going to be able to make the right choice from the time comes?
[SPEAKER_00]: And what is the result of that?
[SPEAKER_00]: How do we prove that we love Allah, that we fear him in the right way?
[SPEAKER_00]: Whenever your necks pushes you to do that, which you know is not the right thing to do, you hold yourself back.
[SPEAKER_00]: You hold yourself back.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's hard work will lie.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is hard work.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is not easy, but Jen does not cheap.
[SPEAKER_00]: And nor is it free.
[SPEAKER_00]: A lost pound iron local iron, he says that he purchased from us the believers.
[SPEAKER_00]: He purchased from us our lives and everything in it, for Jannah.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not cheap, and it's not free.
[SPEAKER_00]: It requires the ability to be disciplined and to sacrifice for the sake of Allah.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the most important things that a Muslim can walk away with today from this Khutbah is the idea that if I want to be Muslim, I'm going to have to make tough decisions.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to have to make tough choices.
[SPEAKER_00]: not everything in my life because of my Islam is going to be easy.
[SPEAKER_00]: We think I muston ya Allah make my life easy.
[SPEAKER_00]: No that's not how it goes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Allah as a result of your Islam will not make your life easy.
[SPEAKER_00]: He will put tests but he will give you the strength to conquer those tests.
[SPEAKER_00]: May Allah ta'ala give us the ability to hold ourselves back from the things that we should not do.
[SPEAKER_00]: May Allah ta'ala give us the strength and the ability to practice a slam the way that he loves.
[SPEAKER_00]: May Allah give us the ability to follow the son of his beloved messenger, Sallallahu ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala ala