The Power of Knowledge

By Khalid Latif | 2026-01-16T13:45:15.648707+00:00 | Topic: Knowledge

Extracted Text

The Power of Knowledge | Imam Khalid Latif | Islamic Studies: Prophet Musa | Miftaah Circles

Opening Greetings and Salutations

(السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ - assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh)

(بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ - bismillahir-rahmanir-rahim)

(الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ، وَالصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَى رَسُولِ اللهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ وَمَنْ وَالَاهُ - al-ḥamdu lillāhi, waṣ-ṣalātu was-salāmu ʿalā rasūli-llāhi wa ʿalā ʾālihī wa ṣaḥbihī wa man wālāh)

Opening Praise

All praise is due to Allah. We thank Him, we praise Him, we glorify Him. We beseech Him to send His joyous salutations upon His most beloved, peace and blessings be upon him, and upon all those who choose to tread in his path until the last day.

The Story of Prophet Musa and Al-Khidr

It is said that during the time of the Bani Israel, a man asks Musa (peace be upon him), "Who is the most knowledgeable amongst Allah's creation?" And you all likely know the narrations, you know the stories behind it.

Musa (peace be upon him), being a prophet of God, he says that I'm the most knowledgeable—and not with an air of arrogance, but he knows the lofty responsibility he's been given. And so he responds in accord.

And Allah says, "Ya Musa, why did you say that you were the most knowledgeable? Why did you not say that Allah knows best?" He says, "Know this, that in this world there is an individual who has more knowledge than you—Khidr (peace be upon him)."

Our teachers, they tell us that it's not that necessarily the knowledge of Khidr (peace be upon him) exceeded that of Musa (peace be upon him), but it was a different knowledge that he possessed.

Musa (peace be upon him), he immediately asked to be pointed in the direction of where Khidr (peace be upon him) is so that he can learn from him. When they come together, Khidr (peace be upon him) tells him that these are the criterion conditions, and they move forward.

And so as we know the narrations and we know the different instances. One of those instances: they're on a boat, as many of you know. This is where one of the lessons of Khidr (peace be upon him) is given to Musa

(peace be upon him).

The Parable of the Bird and the Ocean

While they sit on the deck of that boat as it traverses the water upon which it is sailing, a small bird comes to the deck of the boat and then leaves from the deck and goes to the water and takes a simple sip of the water.

Khidr (peace be upon him), he says to Musa (peace be upon him), "Do you see this bird that has just taken this sip? And do you see that ocean that it drank from? That sip of water that that bird took—that is the knowledge of you and I. And that vast body of water from which it drank from—that is the knowledge of Allah."

Arguably the two most knowledgeable people in the world. And in comparison to what it was that they knew to what the potential was to know, subhanallah.

The idea is to not engage it in a prism of self-deprecation but in a prism of liberation. And when you have now started to quench the thirst of knowledge, recognize that on every tomorrow that you are blessed to be in this dunya, there is that much more opportunity to know that much more.

The Purpose and Protection of Knowledge

We pray that inshallah ta'ala Allah puts barakah into your studies and efforts, and through the knowledge that you have acquired He ingrains within you necessary and deep hikmah that enables you to know how to access it in any given situation that you find.

Because nobody can take it from you other than you yourself. And the way that you lose it the most and you steal it from yourself is by not really understanding how to implement it when the time becomes necessary.

Understanding Dunya Through Knowledge

What's the difference between dunya, which means world? But when we call upon Allah at least 17 times a day, "Lord of the worlds" (Rabb al-'alamin)—ours is not a deen that is anti-world, anti-dunya. We just understand the proportionality of this world in relation to the world beyond this one.

For us as people who look to traverse the earth in a way that is distinct from other people who we share this world with, you can try to build a relationship with the world that you invoke every time you engage Allah as Rabb al-'alamin. Or you can traverse it as it is meant to be understood as a materialistic source of gain.

Because 'ilm is still the root of the worlds that we identify Allah to be the Lord of. And so if that world has the same root as 'ilm, that means that the world in and of itself is meant to be a means through which you and I

grow and learn. That every step that you traverse in it is an opportunity of a step of knowing. That every step can also be an opportunity for a step of remembrance, or it could be a step of forgetfulness.

May Allah make us from the people of remembrance. But you decide that when you walk on that earth if you want every step to be one that enhances for you and enables for you a depth of meaning. Or is the knowledge that you know a knowledge that can only be understood and accessed through one prism, one frame— something applicable within the walls of one space and not something that you can translate in such a way that when you go out into the world it is not giving you the strength that it's meant to give?

Multiple Perspectives: The Lesson of Al-Khidr

What happens when Musa (peace be upon him) engages Khidr (peace be upon him)? It's not that his perspective is not valid. It's not that it's not a viable vantage point. But what we want to understand when we have a foundation in our deen is that it's just where we start, and we move forward, and there's so much opportunity to take from it.

Why do you think God has us recite Surah Al-Fatihah 17 times a day? And that you go through it for decades of your life? The mufti sahab who's been here for three decades, may Allah preserve him and make him a continued source of benefit for all of us, likely has recited Surah Al-Fatihah not just for 30 years but probably even 30 more years on top of that—60 years of reciting that chapter over and over and over.

It doesn't mean that the lessons from it are learned just by reading it once. Nor does it mean that the verses change—they stay the same. But the distinction from the one who really wants to know and the one who is content and complacent with just simply knowing at the surface level is that you know that ours is not a deen about how much you know but how you know what you actually know.

You can read the same chapter for 60 years and every time it teaches you something different because you are changing, you are moving, you are growing.

One of my father's uncles wrote a tafsir on Surah Al-Fatihah that was 7 volumes long. Each chapter, each book, hundreds of pages. That doesn't come from thinking about the surah never, nor just engaging it once through rote memorization. But every opportunity is an opportunity for going back to say that I will engage, I will deepen, I will learn, I will understand.

The Three Dimensions of Islam

Khidr (peace be upon him), he is showing to Musa (peace be upon him) and in turn to all of us that everything is not always seen just through one perspective or one prism. When you have a foundation in deen it's not a foundation that's just about learning the ritual and that's it, the mechanics.

Because in the foundational narration of our tradition where the angel Jibreel (peace be upon him) comes and he asks the questions—What is Islam? What is Iman? What is Ihsan? Tell me about the hour—it gives us the approach of dimensional understanding of this religion.

The First Dimension: Islam

Because you can take your pillars and you put them as one dimension: Your prayer, your fasting, your charity, your Hajj. And there's importance to it—the mechanics, the steps, the rules. These are not just things that come from nowhere but time-tested modes of worshipping God for our gain and benefit.

A lot of us we just stop here. For many of us we don't really even go past parts of it. But if you have just one dimension, regardless of what it actually looks like, everything is going to look just like a straight line.

The Second Dimension: Iman

When you add a second dimension—that is our theology, the fundamentals of our faith—it now goes from beyond the horizontal and it gives you a vertical so things start to have shape. So the line is now a square or a triangle or a circle or a rectangle, but it starts to give you an understanding of what's there.

The Third Dimension: Ihsan

What our deen is about is not just two dimensions. We have the interjection of a third that is called Ihsan. And what Ihsan does is that it brings in that other plane that gives you volume, it gives you depth. It helps you to understand that nothing can be seen only in one way.

But each of you who sits in your seats right now, if you look here towards this place, not one of you sees it exactly the way as anybody else. And it's not that anyone's perspective is more or less valid, but each one actually bears merit to it.

The Beauty of Prophetic Understanding

The recognition of deep beauty epitomized in our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was that he can stand here and see what he saw from where he saw it, but also understand where everybody else stood and meet them from their perspective.

Knowledge is not about, "Hey come and stand with me and only see it from my eyes." Because everybody is not the same race as you or class as you or culture as you. Everybody has not had the same life experiences as you. They haven't gone through the same things that you have gone through.

And to now take text and apply it to context and meet people where they are, and to live the hadith that your programs are based off of:

Hadith: "The best from amongst you is the one who learns the Qur'an and teaches it."

Reference: Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 5027

That teaching is not just, let's sit down in a front-facing lecture, but you can go and teach in a way where you understand how people actually understand. And they'll learn by seeing you, they'll learn by listening to you, they'll learn by experiencing what it is that you build.

So when you have the opportunity to dig deep into the same verses over and over and over, but pull out just pearls in depth of beauty and wisdom—not casting finiteness to something that has so much more that you can gain from it-you say that, yes I'm an engineer, and yes I'm a doctor, and yes I'm a lawyer. And yes I've complemented my understanding of those things with my deen and an understanding of this tradition. But I'm going to go and build uniquely what I have been endowed with in terms of skills to go out and build through the prism of my tradition. And I will try to connect to people in such a way where I know that they might not see it the same way that I see it, but it does not mean necessarily that their perspective is somehow lesser than mine.

Knowledge and Character

Everything is simply just a tool. There are people who use our books to commit horrendous, horrific acts. That will not protect us from ever becoming like that. You have people who are from the greatest luminaries of our tradition who preface their books by saying that scripture is a dangerous thing, because you can turn a book into whatever you want to. And all it really is is simply an extension of what's going on in your heart.

So you want to recognize that yes, knowledge can be passed on in those ways. Wisdom, hikmah—that's a door that opens not from somebody just throwing words at you. You want to take the character of your teachers, you want to take the compassion, the dedication of it. You want to think about what it really means that you have had the blessing of sitting with somebody who has served a community for over a lifespan—more than some of you have even lived in this world.

You just don't take words at that point. You take demeanor, you take actions. You see that knowledge without character is a pathway to corruption. And if that understanding is not transforming you in a way that renders benefit, blessing, and goodness, or creating an understanding that says, well, how will I see something that enables me to still go out and live in accordance with that prophetic message of understanding?

Theology can be memorized from a book. Fiqh can be memorized from a book. The Qur'an is a book—it should be memorized. Ihsan is not something that is just memorized. You can't read it to learn it. It comes from living it and experiencing it. So too with other virtues and other values.

Representing Your Teachers

But fundamentally, your starting point here necessitates your intention of saying: What will I do with it individually? Where will I bring it in terms of the spaces that I find myself in?

And then not in a burdensome way—when people look to you and they say that this person came from somewhere, they were molded, they were fashioned, they were shaped into a certain individual—beyond representing ourselves, we represent the people who taught us.

The Example of Allama Iqbal

Allama Iqbal, when he is given awards and recognitions and accolades—he authors a lot of books, gets a lot of credentials, and he has degree upon degree—he gets to a point where the British want to give him knighthood.

And he says, "If you were to give me this honor, I need for you to also give it to my madrasa teacher, my Qur'an teacher from when I was a young boy."

And they say to Iqbal, this prominent individual from the subcontinent, "We don't know your Qur'an teacher. Tell us about him. Has he written anything, what are his books?"

Iqbal says, "I am his book."

It's a different kind of bond and responsibility.

Honoring Our Teachers

Think for a second, how many names do you know of great scholars and shuyukh about religion? Dozens, hundreds. 14 centuries of lived tradition has had that many more people who are remarkable. May Allah grant them only the best in the world beyond this one. But their names are not known to us.

The way that we honor those who sacrificed for us is by living everything that they passed on to us as best as we possibly can. It's not meant to be burdensome, but when you leave from this place, taking whatever it was that was passed on to you, you now also honor a bond with the people who gave you that knowledge.

And the way that that knowledge is given from you to others is going to be indicative to those people of who your teachers actually are.

And so when you fail to smile the way our Prophet smiled, then understand that they're going to say, "Well that's how they taught them religion."

When you jump first to be in a space where you believe the hype that's about you, you let people bring you food before elders eat, you let the pregnant woman stand in the back of the line while your stomach is getting filled,

somebody else is going to be the one that sets up the chairs, will clean up after everybody else leaves—our Prophet was still somebody who his wife says he did his own chores, he sewed his own clothes.

The transformation of it is what you want to take for yourself.

The Need for Contemplation and Community

You want to be able to see what is there for not what is most apparent, but recognizing that everything has meaning to it. And the opportunity to gain from it is imperative.

We live in a time where things have gains and benefits. The interconnectivity of the world today through the prism of modernity is unlike anything else. You can literally learn this deen right now from people who taught your teachers where their teachers still are by opening up a computer and being connected. And the pros and cons of it, we can sit, but that's not what I'm talking about.

What I'm saying is that there's not as much that keeps us separated. Things connect us through technology unlike anything else. But with modernity there is also a lot of things that are problematic. And from amongst those, one is that there is a decrease and diminishing of places of reflection and contemplation—places of stillness.

The Challenge of Leadership

I had a teacher who told me, "Khalid, you're going to do this work and you're meant for it." I said, okay, I didn't know what that meant. And he said, "Just know that committing to this path is very lonely."

And I felt something in my heart more so because this was a man that I loved who spent hours with me, passing on to me things of externals and internals. And when he told me that I would feel alone, it made me wonder that did he feel as if he was alone? But I didn't ask questions because I was much younger and I didn't know how to express those kinds of things.

When I started to move forward in my career, I took on this burdensome idea that I had to be there for everybody, and I couldn't let anybody be there for me. The community that I'm blessed to serve is 10,000 people growing every year, subhanallah. It started with a small mountain and has grown every year since our inception.

And not as a tangent, but metrics of success are not quantified in our deen, again. You can have 10,000 people and nobody's getting impacted. And you can have 10 and you made them weapons of transformation for the world.

And being in a place where there wasn't an opportunity to sit and really understand now the need for whether or not you go into an explicitly religious role or you take your knowledge, your degree, your credentials and you

apply it to another industry. But you want to be in a sphere, in a space where you understand that strategically: You can't take care of anybody's heart if you're not taking care of your own. And your self-care is of you in your entirety—physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

Supporting One Another

And to get to a place where we ponder and reflect that our teacher has done something longer than any other imam potentially in the United States. It's also because a lot of shuyukh, they burn out, they get tired, they get exhausted. They don't have people around them who understand what it's like for them to do the work that they do.

And so two points from there:

1. Check in on your teachers after you leave

Make sure the space that you are benefiting from is a place of illumination, and that illumination exists generations from now. Because wherever you go, you have still always given back to the place that gave to you. And the people who sacrifice for you, you ask them every so often, "Are you doing okay shaykh?" Even if it's decades from now.

2. Stay connected to each other

The people that you share this achievement with, mashallah, you always stay connected to each other. Our Prophet, one of the things before he passes away that he does is he stands in front of those who fell at Uhud and he says, "We will be together again soon."

These were people that he struggled with in ways that he didn't struggle with other people. These were people that he stood with and he moved forward with. Remembering them always.

So you shared classrooms together. You learned together. Your hearts were transformed together. You have to be there for one another. Because some of you will take the knowledge that you have and you will go on to be in careers that will situate you and give to you opportunity to do amazing things. But there might be some of you who go through certain periods that are really difficult. And when you don't have people to lean on, it can be hard.

Personal Testimony: Building from Nothing

I was 22 when I started working at New York University as their first Muslim chaplain. And nobody did that job at that time. So there wasn't anybody that I could ask, "What do you really do with it?" And I thought it was going to be halaqas and khutbas and standing and speaking and just teaching people the things that I studied.

From day one, there was a line out my door. Everybody just wanted a place to talk.

And complementing it with an idea that when you're building something, it can be hard. The first three years that I lived in New York City and I worked in that role, we didn't have funds for me to have a salary. I slept on a couch in a one bedroom apartment with three other brothers—and eventually it had to be four because rent in New York goes up all the time and it's crazy expensive.

I had to teach at a high school that paid me $750 a month. And my rent, my share of it was $690. So I had $60 left in the month to just spend.

And Alhamdulillah my family is well established. But also you might relate that sometimes even when they're supportive, you're doing something that nobody else really does in your communities. They're not always thinking that success will come in the ways that we at times understand success to be. So I couldn't necessarily ask for support from family even though they would have done it, because within me I said, "I have to show that this is something that can actually be done."

There were days I would walk around the buildings that our events were held in. At a university there's always food being served here and there. My friends that I lived with who worked in corporations, they would get more in a day to spend on lunch than I had in savings at the end of the month. But without any conversation, every day I would come home and at least one of them would have had a meal that they purchased for me sitting in the fridge because they knew I just didn't have money for food.

I went through those years and it taught me a lot about myself. It taught me a lot about others. Alhamdulillah we now have 11 staff members at our center. We serve a large diverse group.

But what I say to you is that I was able to do it because I was 22 years old. I didn't have responsibilities, I didn't have children, I wasn't married at that time. Everybody doesn't have those privileges.

Supporting Your Peers

And some of your peers, they're going to go into spheres of work, and it'll be hard for them as they're building. They're going to need you to support, to check in, to call and say, "Is everything going okay?" To give them a source of hope, a source of inspiration and say that you can use me as a place of listening. So that when you make your decisions and your choices, you're able to really think that there is somebody who gets it. Who knows what it's like to have to make those difficult decisions.

And when you commit, commit in the sense that you are working towards the achievement of actual goals. So the success of our center, which is still growing and has a lot of learning to do, is that we had a vision that we were trying to work towards. It can be exhausting if you try to run and do everything for everybody all the time. But you got to have an idea of what you want to achieve and then be focused on it, so that you know what it is that you're doing as well as knowing what it is that you do not want to do.

And you can change it up a little bit. But I can say fundamentally, you have to believe that what you're being given is what the world needs right now.

Islam as an Antidote to Ugliness

The sunnah of our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is a direct antidote to much of the ugliness that exists in this world.

I've been in conflict zones, I've been in the aftermath of war. I've sat with refugees all over the world who have fled their homes of centuries because literally their homes were fired down. I've been living with people who are survivors of every form of abuse that you can think of.

What pushes those realities upon them are an absence of ethics, morals, values. The world needs Islam more than at any other time.

You got to be proud of what you have—not a foolish pride, but with humility you can still be confident in what Allah has given to you. And you recognize that what Islam enables for people is to make decisions and choices with something bigger than themselves in mind. That they exert now consciousness, mindfulness, real presence in why they do what they do.

And the only way you can get somebody to start thinking like that is to make sure that you never stop thinking. You don't stop reflecting, you don't stop contemplating. You don't stop taking time for your own growth and your own movement.

Meeting People Where They Are

There's gonna be moments where you will meet people that you won't know what to do for. It's totally fine to say at that moment, "I don't know."

Story from Toronto

I was in Toronto speaking at Sheikh Yusuf Badat's Masjid—very large community—and they were doing a program on mental health in Islam. And after I'd spoken and given some remarks, there was a panel that we had.

And there was a sister who was on the panel who was speaking. And she was a convert who self-identified as black. And she said she was diagnosed with clinical depression, and she was also a survivor of sexual violence, incest. May Allah protect her.

And she shared her story, she shared her narrative. And people listened and they tried to understand. And then when the program wrapped up, three sisters came to me. Wearing abayas, hijabs, niqabs—I'm not stereotyping, I just want you to have an image of the conversation as best as you can.

They said, "We studied this deen in Madrasa in India seven to nine years. We then went on to further studies.

We then went to the UK and we did a degree with Sheikh Abdul Hakeem Murad. And now we're doing a masters here in Canada."

And they said, "Nothing of what we learned has us know how we're supposed to respond to this woman."

And all I said to them was, "Likely there are things that you probably learned. But two, it's also okay that you specifically are not the one that has to answer her questions, nor do you have to answer it alone. But you know what you bring to the table. And you identify gaps in your own learning and training. And then you find the right people to bring it with you so that together, in an interdisciplinary mode, you help and you support."

Applying Knowledge to Reality

Reality at times is a lot different from what we experience. The memorization of a text, in and of itself, is the starting point for then knowing how to bring that text to a real circumstance.

How will you take what you are learning and help somebody who's trying to understand why they sleep in the back of their car of Allah's generosity? Or somebody who is wrongfully incarcerated of Allah's mercy? Or somebody who saw governmental law enforcement literally kill their parents and no consequence to the assailant, the perpetrator? What will you tell them about having trust in Allah?

At those moments, you can't just spit out something you memorized and hope it sticks. But you think about what it means when our Prophet says:

Hadith: "Speak good or be silent."

Reference: Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6018; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 47

And it doesn't mean be silent because you just don't do anything. But if you're trying to learn, you have to be able to listen. And if you're talking, you can't listen. So within the silence, there's the ability to absorb and understand. And then the process, you go back and you reflect. And then you think about, well what is needed in this actual moment?

Learning from Diversity

Every person that you meet, you're not going to be able to engage them based solely off of where you've come from. You want to deepen your knowing—you go and be in populations that are different from your own.

The Example of Bilal (may Allah be pleased with him)

You ever think about the example of Bilal (may Allah be pleased with him)? "Ahad, Ahad" (One, One) and then he stands literally on the Kaaba—the epicenter of that society. And everybody watches this black man with their Arab eyes elevated in the most literal sense.

The Prophet knows how to teach. He didn't just speak in his last khutbah that no Arab has superiority over a non-Arab, nor no non-Arab has superiority over an Arab, nor black over white or white over black. But he lives it in that moment. It's continuous. And it's not just in that moment, it's regular.

The Journey to Abyssinia

Why do you think he sends people to Abyssinia to be with the Najashi? Do you ever think about it? What must it be like for Jafar bin Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him) and all of the Muslims who go to Abyssinia—what we know is modern day Ethiopia-with the Quraysh of Mecca coming behind them to bring them back?

And they're in the kingdom of a king who is a black man. The entire court is people who are black. Because they came from the society where the black man had a boulder put on his chest, dragged through the streets.

That's the difference between somebody who just sees it one way or recognizes that in the things we've learned there's so much more that we can understand from it. To get what I'm saying?

And in their socialization the pedagogy is not just learning is in the classroom. But he makes the entire earth, peace and blessings be upon him, a means for their growth and understanding. And he gives them opportunity directly and indirectly to break down the ugliness that exists and recognize—because some of those people when they come back, they now see Bilal differently because they spent time in a society that functions off of principles of race and class different from the Meccan society. And there's deep opportunity to understand and reflect on that.

Final Guidance

Where you move forward to may not look the same as everybody else. But let your destination always be one that is nothing other than being with Allah.

You will make mistakes. That's how you make more concrete your knowing. There will be times you will tell somebody something and it will be totally the wrong thing to say. Have the humility to accept it and embrace it and learn from it as you go forward.

And there will be times when others have no idea what to do, and yours is the voice that can offer perspective. Find strength within yourself and understand that at that moment the movement of your words is for benefit of everyone, not elevation of yourself.

And where you have opportunity to continue to learn and continue to grow, dedicate a portion of your day always to spending time with what you have already been given, and making time for acquiring and taking more.

There's so many things out there that one can do. InshaAllah Allah will continue to elevate your individual maqam to a place where you continue to serve Him by going out now and serving His creation through action, through deed, through character, through demeanor, and doing it with the best of intentions as possible.

Closing Dua

So to conclude, I would ask that you join me in just making a short du'a together on behalf of our brothers, inshaAllah, who have achieved and are recognizing their own potential for growth and movement forward.

And as we make du'a, understand that the impact of our collective prayer is only yielded from each individual heart by being as present as possible. Because we don't know who in the audience carries the most sincerity. But we know that together we're able to do that much more than at times we can do on our own.

So let yourself take away the distractions and be as present as possible as we make a du'a for ourselves, for the institute, for our brothers, inshaAllah, and for all the sisters and brothers who study here.

Du'a

اللَّهُمَّ آمِينَ

We begin this supplication in Your name, Ya Allah, and beseech You to send Your choice of salutations upon Your most beloved, peace and blessings be upon him.

We ask that You shower Your infinite mercy upon this gathering, granting each and everyone who is present here and our loved ones only the best in this world and the best in the next.

We ask, Ya Allah, that if all of us are meant to be together only at this time, at this place—whether we are young or old, male or female, regardless of our race, our ethnicity, our social class, our country of origin, our cultural heritage-if our individual hearts are meant to be in the presence of all other hearts that are gathered here only at this time, at this place, then gather us all together again in the best of places in the world beyond this one.

Ya Allah, Ya Hakim, Ya Ahkam al-Hakimin (O Allah, O Most Wise, O Wisest of those who have wisdom), we gather here today to celebrate the acquisition of knowledge of these brothers in this community. We ask, Ya Allah, that You increase them in that knowledge and endow them with a depth of wisdom as they move forward from this place.

You who are the source of life, the source of truth, of sustenance and love, we turn to You in pursuit of true knowledge and understanding. Make us all from the wise and those who seek out only wisdom. Grant us

contentment that only wisdom can, and a contentment that escapes so many.

And thank You for all those You have placed into our lives who have spoken words of truth, love, and wisdom to us, even when we didn't want to hear it. Grant us the wisdom to know when You are using someone to speak instruction into our hearts, and the strength and courage to follow through with that guidance even when it is difficult.

Grant us wisdom that does not lead us simply to wealth in the world, but leads us to real understanding and comprehension. In our pursuit of knowledge, make us those who find that which our hearts are in need of, and guide us always as we travel this world with an ever increasing thirst for real truth.

It is usually the ignorant who believe they always know, the unaware who think they understand. Make us, Ya Allah, those who are always in pursuit of growth and never satisfied with where we currently stand.

Make us those who always think before we speak and take the time to learn about those things that our minds think about. Make us those who are wise enough to say "I don't know" when we don't, and keep us from ever becoming those who have an answer, a thought, or opinion on everything.

Make us those who increase in our wisdom through sound reflection and contemplation, and keep us from becoming those who only gain understanding through experience.

Grant us a deep control over our emotions, and never let us become those whose anger overpowers our intelligence. To know others as intelligence, but to know ourselves as real hikmah. To exert control over others as a sign of strength, but to be able to control ourselves as real power.

Make us from the strongest of the believers, and let us never be those who gain the world at the expense of losing our souls.

For the Graduates

As these young men graduate from this place, Ya Rabb, grant them strength of all kinds. Put barakah into their studies and the studies of all the students that are here, and grant them success in each of their endeavors.

Put into their beings a desire for nothing less than true excellence and to push themselves to try their very best.

Let each of them excel in all that they do, and with each success in this world, grant them more success in regards to the world beyond this one.

Make them those who only act with knowledge, and to never leave any knowledge they have been given unacted upon. Show them how to use it with wisdom. Help them to use it to bring benefit to this world and all those who are in it, and to be a means of benefit for them and the world beyond this one.

Help them to use what they have learned, the skills that they have acquired, and the relationships that they have built to make this world a little better in ways that only they uniquely can.

Help them to look forward, and let their foresight be rooted in courage and never fear. Let them meet the future with hope, and make them the hope that we need for our futures to be filled.

Make them only those who will be their helpers and supporters, and protect them from any harm or tribulation, any affliction, anxiety, or any wish of any kind.

Make them those who are never afraid to dream. Give them inspiration to work towards achieving each of their heart's aspirations. To find strength through service, success in each failure, and increase them in knowledge that is beneficial and protect them from that knowledge that does not benefit them or any of those who are around them.

Help them to deepen in their beneficial knowing:

Help them to know who it is that they are, and not let the people they are today be afraid ever to meet the people they can be tomorrow. Help them to truly know themselves better each day they are in this world, and through that understanding to better themselves in their knowing of You, Ya Allah, and Your mercy, their knowing of You, Ya Allah, and Your love.

Perfect them inwardly and to always be in control of their hearts. Give them hearts that feel anger whenever anyone is abused, and the confidence and compassion needed to build for them what they are in need of.

Give them hearts that feel sadness when anyone loses a loved one, and the gentleness and mercy needed to be there for them fully.

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Give them hearts that feel joy whenever anyone of them succeeds, and the love and hope needed to celebrate that achievement.

Make them from amongst those who live with true contentment every day of their lives, and grant them an abode in the place of ultimate contentment in the world beyond this one.

When their hearts are heavy and they are filled with darkness, bring people to them who illuminate them through kindness, compassion, and love.

Make them always the reason that people have hope in this world, and never the reason that people might dread it.

Make them those who use their strength, their power, their sheer will and determination to break down the walls of inequity, injustice, and oppression that confine so many today.

Help them to truly be those who come together on principles of truth, patience, and mercy, so that they can do for others what they have the ability to do.

Inspire them to build the shelters and clinics that their neighbors are in need of. Inspire them to take in the orphans and children that the world has forgotten. Inspire them to be generous and honest people of integrity and sound character. Inspire them to live their Islam in such a way that it brings benefit to all those who are around them, and it lifts every day the hearts that beat deeply within them.

Help them to silence fear and abolish anxiety, to overpower indifference and break away from greed, to eliminate arrogance and defeat racism, to be bold enough to ask of You to make them those who only did good.

Give them strength to stand again after they have fallen. To understand that they will make mistakes, and grant them the wisdom to learn from their failings and the humility to truly gain from their successes.

Make them always those who follow goodness. Help them to be patient and forgiving and to always visit the sick. To respect their elders and to give of their wealth. To be just in all of their dealings and to be honest and trustworthy. To be gentle and loving and to take care of those who are in need. To always love for others what they love for themselves.

Help them to speak good and only good and to otherwise be silent. To respect and honor all human beings irrespective of their religion, color, race, gender, language, status, property, birth, profession or class.

Make them those who live their Islam and those who remember always the sacrifices that others made so that they could be where they are today.

Make not the pursuit of this world their goal, but let their goals be for the best in the world beyond this one.

Help them to sustain the lessons that they learned in this beautiful space and share what they learned with all those that they will meet.

Bless their teachers and increase them in strength always, that they might be a continued source of benefit for Your creation.

Give them confidence that helps them to see their strengths as well as their weaknesses, and protect them from arrogance which lets them only see weakness in the world around them.

Give them the courage to reach their potential, and protect them from the fear that keeps them from doing so.

Let their growth be gradual and consistent, and help them to strive every day even if it is very little.

Enrich their lives with the richness of their souls. Grant them companionship that helps them to reach their best, and keep them from companions who hold them back. Grant them friends who encourage them towards all that is good, and help them from friends who take them towards that which is not.

Make the Qur'an their guide, and grant them a deep understanding of it. Make the Sunnah their goal, both inward and outward aspects of it. And make their prayer their anchor, granting them the true sweetness that Salah and Du'a only can.

Make the best of their deeds the last of their deeds, and let them not leave this world other than in a state that is most pleasing to You.

We ask You Allah that by the barakah of this gathering You accept our Du'a. By the presence of the righteous that are here You accept our Du'a. By the sincerity of the most sincere that are here You accept our Du'a.

We ask You Allah that You bless our sisters and brothers, those who have dedicated themselves to learning this Deen that You have given to us for our benefit. Make this institute a source of illumination for this world and all of Your creation, and through it Ya Rabb give to each of us only the best in this world and the best in the next.

Protect us always from hearts that are not humble, tongues that are not wise, and eyes that have forgotten how to cry.

Forgive us for our shortcomings and guide and bless us all.

Qur'anic Verses

رَبَّنَا تَقَبَّلْ مِنَّا إِنَّكَ أَنتَ السَّمِيعُ الْعَلِيمُ وَتُبْ عَلَيْنَا ۖ إِنَّكَ أَنتَ التَّوَّابُ الرَّحِيمُ
(Quran 2:127-128)

"Our Lord, accept [this] from us. Indeed, You are the Hearing, the Knowing. And accept our repentance. Indeed, You are the Accepting of repentance, the Merciful."

وَصَلَّى اللهُ تَعَالَى عَلَى خَيْرٍ خَلْقِهِ مُحَمَّدٍ وَآلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ

Wa ṣallallāhu ta'ālā 'alā khayri khalqihi Muḥammadīn wa ālihi wa ṣaḥbihi ajma'īn

And may Allah send His highest salutations upon the best of His creation, Muhammad, and upon his family and companions, all of them.

Closing

السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ

Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu

Note: This lecture emphasizes that knowledge is vast and limitless, and we must approach it with humility, always seeking to deepen our understanding. It teaches us that knowledge must be accompanied by wisdom (hikmah) and character, and that we must honor our teachers by living what they taught us and supporting one another in our journey of continuous growth.