Understanding Purpose and Power

Understanding Purpose and Power

Opening Supplications

Indeed, the most truthful speech is the Book of Allah, and the best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him. The worst of affairs are the newly invented matters, and every innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire.

And whoever obeys Allah and His messenger has certainly attained a great attainment. (Quran 33:71)

All praise is due to Allah. We seek His help and His forgiveness. We seek refuge with Allah from the evil of our own souls and from our bad deeds. Whoever Allah guides, no one can misguide, and whoever Allah allows to go astray, no one can guide. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah alone, without partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and messenger. Peace and blessings upon the final messenger Sayyidina Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, upon his family, his companions, and those who follow them until the end of time.

Introduction: Studying Faith Through Principles

The last few weeks we were giving a series of khutbas on some of the principles of faith. And we discussed how one of my old teachers, mashaAllah, Dr. Hassan al-Shafi'i, he revived this effort to study faith through the lens of principles instead of through the lens of argumentation. Because what happens we find that people when they restrict studying aqidah strictly to argument with one another, this is not really going to be a means to create the ground by which the ummah can grow. Allah did not grow the ummah on differences.

Allah said that Allah brought them together. They were in a state of disunity.

And you, O Muhammad, even if you spent every penny you had to unite them, you could not unite them. But Allah united them. And Allah says in the third chapter of the Quran:

You were enemies.

And Allah brought you together.

And when you were not together, you were close to the cliff of hell, and Allah saved you.

Later on He says:

You became brothers and sisters.

Unity as Divine Mercy

That's why one of my teachers used to say: When Ahlus Sunnah finds itself divided, it has to understand this is the Azaab of Allah. And when Ahlus Sunnah finds itself, or the Muslims, excuse me, find themselves, Sunni and Shia, find themselves united, this is the Rahmah of Allah. So, it's not, especially for those of us who converted, we already came from hyper-differences, crypts and the bloods, now we got this group and this group in Islam.

We're used to this. As one convert told me, I've never seen anyone hate better than the Muslims. And I never saw anyone love better than the Muslims. It's like they're mercurial. I don't get it. So the reason that Dr. Hassan al-Shafi'i, the brothers can scoot forward again, and then give some room for the sisters so they can scoot forward, MashaAllah:

Allah will make room for you in Jannah.

It's in the Quran. I'm against the wall, so you're good. You can come all the way up, man.

So, that's why Professor al-Shafi'i now, MashaAllah, is ninety years old. He said we need to talk about faith in the form of principles. Because the Muslims are so successfully disunited, subhanAllah. That doesn't mean that we don't have wrongs. Of course we have wrongs. But there's hikmah in how we address the wrongs.

The First Principle: Human Dignity )قاعدة التكريم(

One of the principles that we talked about first, was what's called قاعدة التكريم which is respecting people, regardless of their race or ethnicity or their language, or their social economic class, or where they're from.

The Second Principle: Belief in the Hereafter

The second thing, and this is the principle that we're talking about now, is that we believe as a prophetic community in the hereafter. We believe in death. Imam Ibn Taymiyyah, rahimahullah, he said, death is so important, the hereafter is so important, that it's mentioned on almost every page of the Quran.

Master of the Day of Judgment.

The first four pages of the Quran I just read, every page there's a verse that says, you're gonna die. (Reference to Quran 2:4-5)

And how are you preparing? This is very important because, as we saw just a week ago with the death of Kobe Bryant, people were shocked, like death.

The Reality of Death

Allah says:

And those people in that plane, in the helicopter.

Allah said the مُصِيبَةٌ of موت came to you. مُصِيبَةٌ means a test that rocks you, that shakes you, that freezes you. Allah said the مُصِيبَةٌ of death hit you. It hit you, meaning it came when you least expected it. And there are so many hadiths of Sayyidina Rasul, peace and blessings be upon him, that remind us of death, and to live for a higher purpose.

And often times these hadiths, that's why Imam Ibn Hajar Al-Haythami, not Ibn Hajar Al-Asqalani, he wrote a book, the 40 hadiths that say:

(Sahih Bukhari 6018, Sahih Muslim 47)

Whoever believes in Allah and the last day, let them do this.

Who believes in Allah and the last day, let them do this. So belief in Allah and the hereafter is tied to good deeds, to living a life of purpose.

Connecting Aqeedah to Action

The reason I say that is, every salah, we're reminded of this meeting with Allah. But how can we frame, because we said the principles of aqeedah, are meant to help us frame individual policy, that then extends to public policy. And how we engage people.

Allah did not make the prophets just to live in the mosques:

The masjid is for Allah.

But then Allah describing them, He said, prophets were in the markets, even though the markets were the most hated place to Allah. The prophets were in the market, bringing people to haqq. Because they know that religion has to be in the public sphere.

One brother, he was complaining to me, all these Muslim youth, they're lost, this, this, this, Muslim youth, this, this, this. I said, how many Muslim youth do you know? He said, brother, you play Fortnite all the time. 48 year old man playing Fortnite. Worried about the Muslim youth. He just got capped by a Muslim youth. Why don't you go and try to talk to them? You can't blame the sick if you close the hospital.

The Prophets in the Public Sphere

So the prophets are posited in the public sphere purposely:

Allah says, so no one can have an excuse. We sent the prophets so no one can have an excuse.

Your job, oh Muhammad, is to make things clear, alayhi salam.

And we are also posited as an ummah in the public sphere:

You're put, Allah says, you are sent for the benefit of people.

Self-Accountability: Looking at What We Send Forward

The reason I say this is when we think about the hereafter, we may not understand what is the capital in this life that allows us to monitor ourselves and see how I'm living. What am I up to?

Allah says:

Let every soul look to what it sends for tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow morning actually means يوم القيامة. But it's called tomorrow morning because don't think it's far away.

Don't think it's far, but we know it's close.

Checking Ourselves Before We Wreck Ourselves

But Sayyidina Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, he taught us how to check myself. There was a

song, check yourself before you wreck yourself. How do I check myself? Some people are guilty of DUIs. But some of us are guilty of DUD. Driving under the influence of Dunya.

It's funny but we know it's true. How many of us we told ourselves straight ratchetness was fine? Because our nafs put that gift wrapping on it. And said it's okay, Allah is merciful. Allah will forgive you and then after you do it, Allah will never forgive you. Don't go back to the masjid.

We recite every day, Surah Al-Fatiha:

Maariq Yawm al-Din.

Maariq is a very interesting word. We think about Black History Month, Maariq Shabazz. The imam of the American Muslim community is Malcolm X, rahimahullah. This month we plan to take a trip to visit his grave and make dua for him. And ask Allah to give us just a drop of his sincerity.

Understanding Maariq: The One Who Holds Us Accountable

But Maariq is the one that is going to judge how you used his mulk. That's how we should understand it. The Maariq is the one that makes muhasaba. You hasiba al-nas ala maa ataahum min mulki. If you speak Arabic, it's very clear. The Maariq is the one that calls you to account for how you used what he gave you. What he gave me. We say:

That's how I'm living. How am I using the mulk that Allah has blessed me with. And the first step to this is to understand.

Power and Sovereignty )الملك(: Not All Power is Bad

And this goes against critical theory. That all power isn't a bad thing. We need to be careful of people who in the name of religion encourage us to get beat down until we tap out of dunya. We need to be careful of that kind of message. Like you know, just take it to the jaw. Don't stir the pot. Be quiet. You can't read Malcolm and follow that madhab. You know brothers, Alhamdulillah, whatever happens.

But mulk, we believe, as mentioned by Imam al-Qani in Jawharat al-Tawheed:

وَرِزْقٌ عِنْدَ الْقَوْمِ مَنْ تُبِعَ مَنِ انْتَفَعَ

He said that we believe that rizq, because rizq is what we're given from Allah's mulk. The provisions are from Allah's sovereignty. He said rizq is what was given to you by God for you to make benefit of. So when we take Allah's mulk that He's bestowed upon us and we use it for benefit:

What we risk them, I'm going to say it in English so you can understand it.

The Arabic word risk, right? What we risk them, not risk in English. They spend:

يُنتَفِعُونَ بِهِ

They believe that what we gave them, they should give it. They should spend it. So now it's rizq. Now we call it rizq.

Using Our Talents or Losing Them

There's a few important things we believe. That if Allah has given us certain abilities and talents, if we don't use them, He will take them away from us. This is an authentic hadith of Sayyidina Nabi, peace and blessings be upon him, who said Allah, when He bestows upon a person a talent and they fail to use it, He will take it from them and give it to someone else.

Number two, we believe we're powerless. And that's the key to really having a great relationship with Allah. As one of my teachers used to say, make me rich by feeling impoverished to you. Don't make me poor by feeling free of you.

The Prophets' Admission of Powerlessness

And that's what we find in the Qur'an in three contexts. The Prophet says:

I don't have the ability, the Prophet said, Ibrahim. I don't have the ability to help myself. I have no mulk, la amlik. (Quran 7:188)

I have no real power to protect myself from harm. That's the first context. The second context, we find the Prophet say:

I cannot protect myself from bringing any benefit to myself. I can't harm. I can't benefit. (Quran 10:49)

That means what? (إِنِّي عَبْدُ اللَّهِ - ʾinnī ʿabdu-llāh). I'm the servant of Allah. Al-malik al-mulk.

When Sayyidina Ibrahim said to his father, for those of us who are converts, sometimes our parents, my brother was Abu Jahl, now he's Abu Talib. (Quran 60:4)

It took time when I first became Muslim, my brother was Abu Jahl. I used to call him, you're Abu Jahl. He says, you're Abu Jahl. I said, don't worry about it. Now I told him, you're Abu Talib. He said, who's that? I said, an ally.

He said:

Ibrahim, even though his father treated him that way, he said, I will ask Allah to forgive you now.

But I have no power to help you. (Quran 60:4)

Not Forgetting Allah in Activism

And often times in activism circles, we may forget Allah. We get caught up in the cause. Maybe as influencers, we forgot, you're not an influencer. You're muathar, you're not muathir, you're the influenced. Because kullu tahta sultanillah. Because everything is under the sultan of Allah. That doesn't also mean that we're complacent. Because the one who has all power and authority told us to what اعْمَلُوا get busy.

Even though I'm all powerful in my power and in my transcendent knowledge, I'm telling you, believer, work for Jannah:

Race forward, the Quran says.

Seek provisions from Allah.

Divine Knowledge Commands Action

That's why my teacher said, you can't affirm transcendent knowledge and not work hard. Because the one who has perfect knowledge told me, work. We get it twisted, right? We say, well since Allah knows everything, I'm not gonna do anything because He knows everything. You can't say that because the one who knows everything told you to get busy.

Well, I, you know, no, no, no, you just want a Netflix binge. You don't want to work for zero waste. You don't want to work for climate change. You don't want to work for BLM. You don't want to work to change the prison industrial complex. You don't want to stop bombs dropping on Yemen. You just want to chill.

My teacher, when we first converted, we used to tell him, man, we're gonna chill. He was from Senegal. He said, you chill too long, you're gonna thaw in hell. I said, ooh, I'll be at the masjid tomorrow at 4am. We got there and the masjid was locked. Right?

Two Readings of Maariq in Surah Al-Fatiha

But Allah is Maariq. And there's something beautiful in Surah Al-Fatiha, as we finish the first part of the khutbah, that we read Surah Al-Fatiha two ways here. Sayyidina Shatibi said:

مَالِكِ يَوْمِ الدِّينِ وَنَاصِرٌ رَوَى الدِّينِ

Only two of the 70 imams read it the way most of us read it.

مَالِكِ يَوْمِ الدِّينِ

The majority, they say:

مَالِكِ يَوْمِ الدِّينِ

If you're from West Africa, you know this qira'ah:

مَالِكِ يَوْمِ الدِّينِ وَرْشِ النَّافِعِ

Why? Because (مَالِك - mālik) is milk. Is (مُلْك - mulk) And (مَالِك - mālik) is from milk, like what you drink milk. Remember that. Milk does the body good. Milk does your dunya good. If you use it right. If I use it right. The milk of Allah, not the milk in the store.

Why? Because (مُلْك - mulk) means everything belongs to Allah. Milk, I can say:

هُذَا مِلْكُ لِي

That specifically is my property. So when we say:

مَالِكِ يَوْمِ الدِّينِ مَالِكِ يَوْمِ الدِّينِ

That means nothing great or small escapes Allah's power. Nothing is minuscule. Everything belongs to Allah.

Allah's Sovereignty and Our Responsibility

And Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subḥānahu wa taʿālā) He made us responsible for how we use this milk to live for the hereafter. We talked about Qarun last time. He used the milk that Allah gave him for what? Dunya. I don't mean dunya in the sense of like you know, dunya in a normal way, in a moderate way is okay. Ain't no telling nobody live in a cave

or nothing. But opulence is what we want to be careful of. We are not an opulent community. We are a community that believes in discipline.

So Allah in the Quran, because I remember when I first converted, the brothers from Jama' Tabliq, they kidnapped me. I don't know who they were. I was like okay, I'll hang out with you. It was like a 40 day hangout. I was like wow, this is a long vacation man.

But they took me to this grocery store in an old neighborhood that I used to be in. There was a brother. He was selling all kinds of haramco basically. He had haramco. So I went in, I was like man, you're selling 40 ounces of old English man. You got like, if you remember this stuff a lot, Mad Dog 2020 in the grocery store man. Your name is Abdul Malik.

He was like you know brother, the prophet is the one responsible for that. We are not responsible for that. We are not like prophets. People say that all the time. Why don't you pray Fajr? Oh, I'm not like the prophets. What do you mean to your parents? Oh, I'm not like the NBI. Why don't you smile? Oh, I'm not like the prophets. That became like the perfect alibi now. Oh, I'm not like the prophets.

The Quran Holds Us All Accountable

Watch what the Quran does. The Quran is like my old grandmother in Tongua, Oklahoma on Sunday morning. If you don't go to church, your life is over. Old school. No excuses. I got a cold. Here's some Kleenex. Go. I don't feel well. Jesus will make you feel better. Wow. She was not Muslim, so you got to understand it in her context. I don't feel well. Well, then you won't be able to eat my fried chicken. Oh, I feel so great. Suddenly I'm reformed.

Watch what the Quran does. The Quran doesn't allow for this. We're not prophets. We're just, you know, whatever.

Allah says:

In the correlation, in context of mulk, what Allah has given us.

Allah says:

أَلَمْ تَعْلَمْ

Oh Muhammad, singular. Don't you know that Allah has all the mulk? And then suddenly in Arabic this happens. It's not nice in English, but in Arabic it happens:

But none of you, not only you Muhammad, you and your ummah, have any helper but Allah.

Meaning all of you share in the responsibility. Not just Muhammad. So the tense changes from مُفْرَد to جَمْع . You Muhammad, you Muhammad, all of you, you and your ummah. So there's none of that. I'm not a prophet.

When you say:

أَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ

You become part of the best clique. You become part of responsible people. I become part of people that live for something greater.

First Khutbah Conclusion

So we ask Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subḥānahu wa taʿālā) إِنَّا اسْتَخْتِمْ مَا آتَانَا فِي طَاعَتِهِ يَهْدِيَنَا سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى. Ask Allah to guide us, to use what He has given us towards His obedience. Ask Allah to make us brave. Ask Allah to make us strong. Ask Allah to unite us with Sayyidina Muhammad.

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ وَالصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَى سَيِّدِنَا رَسُولِ اللهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَأَصْحَابِهِ وَمَن وَالَاهُ

أَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ لِي وَلَكُمْ إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ

Second Khutbah: Everything is From Allah's Sovereignty

Every single thing you have, every single thing I have is considered a gift from the sovereignty of Allah. It's a gift if we use it right. That's why Allah says:

After Salatul Jumu'ah go, work hard, hustle.

But hustle for the fadl, what's good. If we fail to use what Allah has given us for the right thing we don't consider it theologically as rizq, specifically. You know what we consider it? A trial. Fitna.

And that's why the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said that the feet of a person will not move on the last day until they're asked about four things. All these are from the مُلْك of Allah that we have the choice to use for good or the choice to use for bad.

عَنْ عُمْرِهِ فِيمَا أَفْنَاهُ

How he or she destroyed their life. Their time. (Tirmidhi 2417)

There's another narration:

وَعَنْ شَبَابِهِ فِيمَا أَفْنَاهُ

On his or her youth.

You know what youth is?

Youth is high octane. My son, mashallah, I like to put him on blast because I can. He likes to tell me, I'm lazy, I'm lazy. I said, if you're lazy, what's the difference between you at 16 and someone that can't move at 84? It's the same thing. You're chilling on the bed, they're chilling on the bed, but at least they want to do something, they just can't.

The Prophet's Du'a for Using Allah's Mulk

So we find a very beautiful du'a that we should learn. It's on my Instagram page. Sorry to make a shameless plug, but that's not the intention here. That the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, taught us how to start our nights and our days staying focused on using the مُلْك. Because when I realized that the مُلْك that Allah has given me is raw material to use, that's going to open up possibilities for me. That's not going to shut things down, that's going to open me up.

Allah says in Surah Baqarah, we talk about this on Tuesday, in Usul al-Fiqh:

Allah made everything for you, rock with it. Handle your business.

And people always come, is this halal? Is this halal? Is this halal? The origin of everything is halal unless you can prove it's haram. That's why Allah said to the Sahaba:

Forbidden for you because, forbidden for you because they understood things normally to be what? Permissible.

Redirecting Talents, Not Destroying Them

So they were able to use their talents and use their gifts. They weren't a myopic community that simply lived in a masjid. When we look at the Sahaba, we see artisans, we see people that were involved in the markets, we see artists, poets, we see great people who were able not to mute their talent but to redirect their talent.

Ibn Taymiyyah rahimahullah, he has a beautiful statement about this. He said, Islam didn't come to destroy anybody's culture. We don't believe in cultural appropriation. That's why we all look different right now. Different type of stuff. He said, it came to polish, not to destroy.

So instead of like sometimes, I know we come to Islamic schools, we've been exposed to people that kind of make us feel bad because we have talents. We have gifts. But who gave you the gift? It's Allah. Al-mulk from Allah. It's not the gift. It's how I use it.

Morning and Evening Dhikr of Sovereignty

So this dua, the Prophet would say in the morning and the evening:

You know, we arrive at the evening and all sovereignty belongs to Allah.

And if you think about what I'm saying, the choice of how I use Allah's, the sovereignty He has bestowed upon me, then you'll understand now, surah al-mulk. Ah, surah al-mulk:

Blessed be the one who has all the mulk, all the power, all the sovereignty, and He is in control of all things.

And now you understand the second verse:

Who made life and death as part of His mulk, as a test for you to see how well you live.

So life in itself is mulk. Everything around me is a test. How am I living? What am I gonna do on Friday night? How am I gonna spend my evening? What am I going to engage in? That's mulk. That's the test.

And that's why the Prophet would say:

We arrive at the evening and all sovereignty belongs to Allah.

And praise be to Allah.

And when we ask Allah for guidance, we're asking Allah guide us to use the mulk that you have given us for you. That's why Abdullah ibn Mas'ud said:

No one will ever attain what's with Allah through disobedience. Willful disobedience.

And the dua continues, All praise is due to Allah who gave this to me.

Yesterday I saw my daughter crawl for the first time. This is incredible. It's kind of scary though. Got to baby proof every single hole in my house. Anyone want to come over this weekend?

But then I said:

You know like, subhana Allah, even crawling. We couldn't even crawl without Allah's permission.

Yet we get arrogant because we got some flat shoes on. We used to be in baby shoes:

We begin the evening by recognizing Allah's transcendence. We're in the ever shrinking sphere of worship in the world today. With the ever encroaching high tides of disobedience. It becomes important that we engage in dhikr as a form of spiritual rebellion and resilience against that tide.

Seeking Good and Refuge from Evil

Then the Prophet would say:

Oh Allah, I ask you for the good in this night.

Means, give me that good from that mulk man. Let me use it for the right things:

And the good after it.

I seek refuge from the evil.

That means me. I may potentially do something wrong in this night:

And the evil that comes after it.

Oh Allah, I seek refuge from being lazy.

I don't use what you've given me:

And the ailments that befall people as they get old.

Power Can Be Rizq or Fitna

There's another point that I wanted to make. We'll work on it next time inshaAllah. Is that all power isn't a bad thing. Power is mulk. So I can either turn power into rizq, bi'ithni Allah, if Allah guides me. Or I can turn power into fitna.

There's a difference between the power of Fir'aun and the power of Dhul Qurnayn. In the story of Sulaiman, Allah mentions that we revealed to Sulaiman the knowledge of magic. But he didn't go for it. He knew this is a test. That's why the malaikah said to those people, it's a fitna. You can't use it for good.

Because we believe something. Anything in Allah's mulk that is designated haram, or designated as evil in itself, is a fitna. If we use it in the name of trying to do it right.

A Story About Misguided Intentions

When I was in college, there was this brother. And I'll finish with this story. It's kind of funny. Because everybody looks scared. We first became Muslim. We used to go to this club before we became Muslim. This is before. We have the before Muslim clause. MashaAllah. One time my wife caught me. And she's like, that was like three years ago. I converted again.

So that brother, he was not coming to the Friday night halakas. We used to have like what we call convert detox. Where you had to be in this program for like two or three months before you were unleashed. You know we had to get it out of our... Dialysis man.

So we started asking him, bro, where are you? He's like, oh man, I go to the club every Friday night. That same club. We said, subhanAllah. I said, I'm making dawah bro. I'm going back in the club. I'm calling all the people to Allah.

He said, man. I said to him, where? In the DJ booth? He said on the dance floor. Promise is what he said. And then one of the old brothers from the dar, Dar Islam, he said to him, nah brother, you're being made dawah too. You deceived yourself.

So it's very important when we think about mulk, that we rely on Allah's guidance. And what's wrong is wrong. What's clear is clear.

Building Healthy Power

So ask Allah. Next time we'll build on the idea of healthy power. As the prophet said:

The strong believer is more beloved to Allah than the weak believer. (Sahih Muslim 2664)

Prayers and Supplications

So ask Allah. We pray for our sister Betty Shabazz, the wife of Malcolm Shabazz. Who many people forget the great effort that she made. The struggles that she made. The sacrifice that she made. Raising those daughters by herself. Ask Allah. May Allah expand her grave. May Allah put light in her grave. May Allah accept her as the shuhada. And we pray for her husband.

And all of the black American Muslims and black African Muslims that were brought to this country that died. When you read the story of people that were in bondage in Georgia, and they still taught the Mariki madhhab even though they were in bondage. You have a person who wrote the Risalah of Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani by his hand, in bondage, in Atlanta, in Georgia. Because he understood no matter where I am I have to use the mulk for Allah.

May Allah bless every one of those brothers and sisters. May Allah bless those that we know and accept those that we don't know.

We ask Allah to bless our communities across this country that we can truly be allies to people in deed and in action. Ask Allah to make us from those people who understand to use what Allah has given us is perfectly fine but to give us the tawfiq to use it correctly.

Ask Allah to help our brothers and sisters with substance abuse. May Allah make the wine of the hereafter more beloved to us than the wine in this dunya. Ask Allah to protect us from those who may be abusing us or mistreating us.

Ask Allah to bless our brothers and sisters in prison. May Allah free those who are truly innocent. May Allah make us allies of those people who are unjustly incarcerated.

We pray for our brothers and sisters on the border who have been separated from their children. May Allah bring them together. We pray for our imams. We ask Allah to give them tawfiq and to guide them.

We pray for our sisters who hold it down. You know many of our sisters who are wearing hijab, they are automatically in the game. Brothers we have to warm up, right? We have to stretch. We go out in the streets. You know I can become William real quick.

But may Allah strengthen and bless those soldiers, those sisters on the front lines. May Allah help us to be true allies to our sisters who are mistreated and often times neglected, astaghfirullah, in the name of religion.

We pray that Allah make us men in the way of the sunnah of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. We ask Allah to make us lovers of the masculinity of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him.

Ask Allah to make the Quran beloved to us. We ask Allah to help the people in China. Ask Allah to protect those people and cure those people who have been impacted by this very difficult test, this virus.

We ask Allah to bless our brothers and sisters in Kashmir and the Rohingya in Bangladesh, in Palestine, in Syria and Idlib now where the last bastion of fighters for freedom are being fought by so many different powers. We ask Allah to give them strength and help them.

We pray for our brothers and sisters in Palestine and all over the world and most importantly we pray for ourselves. May Allah forgive us. May Allah accept us. May Allah guide us.

Oh Allah use us:

Ask Allah to take us and use us for His obedience.

We ask Allah to cause the people's hearts to turn to us in a friendly manner and to make us be those who will be a means for people to find guidance to Allah.