The Calls of Faith 2: The Authority of the Sharīʿah, Then Seeking Help through Patience and Prayer

Occasion: Transcription of an ʿIshāʾ khatira delivered on 29 March 2026 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

We began a discussion about the calls of faith in the noble Qur’an, that is, whenever the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Most High, addressed people with the words «يا أيها الذين آمنوا» (“O you who believe”). And in the last session we reviewed the importance of the call.

Why Does the Speaker Call Out?

We said that a call occurs when there is a kind of exaltation, or a kind of belittling, or a kind of address owing to the importance of the one addressed. Either the addressee is important, or he is being punished, rebuked or warned; so it is either raising his standing or lowering it. Or we call out not because of the addressee but because of the message itself: the matter we want to give requires greater alertness, so we call out, and the person turns to what is being said to him.

The Types of Address in the Qur’an

The types of address in the noble Qur’an I cannot enumerate, and among them, by way of example and not exhaustive listing: «يا أيها الناس» (“O people”), «يا أيها الذين آمنوا» (“O you who believe”), «يا بني آدم» (“O children of Adam”), «يا أيها الإنسان» (“O human being”). And there are calls specific to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, when our Lord says: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا النَّبِيُّ لِمَ تُحَرِّمُ﴾ (“O Prophet, why do you prohibit”), ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا النَّبِيُّ إِذَا طَلَّقْتُمُ﴾ (“O Prophet, when you divorce”), and so on.

«O human being.» You see from the start that the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Most High, addresses the human being when He speaks to him about his inner faculties, his destiny and his affirmation. And Allah, blessed and exalted, addresses him when He wants to set right in him something intrinsic, in the depth of this human being, within him. So you see, for example: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الْإِنسَانُ إِنَّكَ كَادِحٌ إِلَىٰ رَبِّكَ كَدْحًا فَمُلَاقِيهِ﴾ (“O human being, you are striving toward your Lord with great effort, and you will meet Him”), ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الْإِنسَانُ مَا غَرَّكَ بِرَبِّكَ الْكَرِيمِ﴾ (“O human being, what has deceived you concerning your Lord, the Generous?”), and so on.

«O people.» Then you move on, and there is «O people»: when does the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Most High, address creation with it? For example: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اعْبُدُوا رَبَّكُمُ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُمْ وَالَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ﴾ (“O people, worship your Lord, who created you and those before you, so that you may become God-fearing”), ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ كُلُوا مِمَّا فِي الْأَرْضِ حَلَالًا طَيِّبًا وَلَا تَتَّبِعُوا خُطُوَاتِ الشَّيْطَانِ إِنَّهُ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌّ مُّبِينٌ﴾ (“O people, eat of what is on the earth, lawful and good, and do not follow the footsteps of Satan; he is to you a clear enemy”). And the point of the statement: when does the Lord of the worlds address people as a whole? Allah, blessed and exalted, addresses them when He lays down a law that regulates the movement of people and their lives.

If you say: is this an address to the people of faith to eat what is lawful? It is said: what may be meant here is the lawful in the divine, legislated, devotional sense, and what may be meant is what Allah has made lawful in dealings among people, which does not give rise to grudges among creation. And when do grudges arise among creation? In cases of cheating and deception, theft, fraud and swindling, and the alteration of facts. Here souls change, even if you are not a believer; so this is an address that suits the soundness of life in itself: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ كُلُوا مِمَّا فِي الْأَرْضِ حَلَالًا طَيِّبًا﴾ (“O people, eat of what is on the earth, lawful and good”), and so on.

If you say: when the Lord of the worlds says at the beginning of the Qur’an ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اعْبُدُوا رَبَّكُمُ﴾ (“O people, worship your Lord”), how does what you say fit with the occasion of the verse? I say: the principle of worship is among the things without which life cannot be set straight, so He called them at the opening of the Qur’an to that upon which their life is set straight, that they worship. And when they worship, they eat from the lawful. And when they eat from the lawful: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ إِنَّا خَلَقْنَاكُم مِّن ذَكَرٍ وَأُنثَىٰ وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ شُعُوبًا وَقَبَائِلَ لِتَعَارَفُوا﴾ (“O people, We created you from a male and a female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another”),^[1] so another matter is realized before me, which is the matter of social bonds, societal diversity, dispersal, mutual acquaintance, complementarity, cooperation, and so on. So if you gather the «O people» addresses in the noble Qur’an and look at the proportion of division among them, that is, if you try to link them in this way, you come out with a wonderful topic.

«O children of Adam.» Then after them come: «O human being,» «O people,» and after that «O children of Adam.» When does Allah, blessed and exalted, speak to the children of Adam? When He speaks to them about common roots among them, for He, glory be to Him, the Most High, makes us feel the authority of a mother who unites us all, so He says: ﴿يَا بَنِي آدَمَ لَا يَفْتِنَنَّكُمُ الشَّيْطَانُ كَمَا أَخْرَجَ أَبَوَيْكُم مِّنَ الْجَنَّةِ﴾ (“O children of Adam, let not Satan tempt you as he removed your parents from Paradise”). And before it in Sūrat al-Aʿrāf we have: ﴿يَا بَنِي آدَمَ قَدْ أَنزَلْنَا عَلَيْكُمْ لِبَاسًا يُوَارِي سَوْآتِكُمْ وَرِيشًا ۖ وَلِبَاسُ التَّقْوَىٰ ذَٰلِكَ خَيْرٌ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ مِنْ آيَاتِ اللَّهِ﴾ (“O children of Adam, We have sent down upon you clothing to cover your private parts, and as adornment; but the clothing of piety, that is best. That is among the signs of Allah”). So what does Allah, blessed and exalted, speak to people about here? He speaks to them about covering the private parts, He speaks to them about feeling respect for the humanity of this human being; for the exposure of private parts is a violation of the sanctity of the children of Adam, the children of Adam as dignity and as humanity. That is why the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Most High, says there: ﴿وَلَقَدْ كَرَّمْنَا بَنِي آدَمَ وَحَمَلْنَاهُمْ فِي الْبَرِّ وَالْبَحْرِ وَرَزَقْنَاهُم مِّنَ الطَّيِّبَاتِ وَفَضَّلْنَاهُمْ عَلَىٰ كَثِيرٍ﴾ (“And We have certainly honored the children of Adam and carried them on land and sea and provided them with good things and preferred them over many”).^[2] Notice that He did not say “the human being,” but said: “We have honored the children of Adam.” So when the matter was connected to the dignity of that human being, his standing, his rank and his entitlement, He connected it to the honored children of Adam, to the honored Adam; and when the matter was therapeutic within the soul, He connected it to that human being.

«O you who believe.» Then we move on, and so we are before «O you who believe.» These who believed met around an aim and a goal, and what is this goal? The goal is what they believed in; what they gathered around of a cause and goal, they are named because of it or called because of it: «O you who believe.» This is a very simple summary, and the scholars have spoken about it at great and abundant length, and elaborated on the links between the similarities in the Qur’anic calls.

The First Call: “Do Not Say Rāʿinā,” and the Meaning of the Authority of the Sharīʿah

The first call in the Qur’an, as we spoke about it in the last session, is the saying of the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Most High: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَقُولُوا رَاعِنَا وَقُولُوا انظُرْنَا وَاسْمَعُوا ۗ وَلِلْكَافِرِينَ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ﴾ (“O you who believe, do not say ‘Rāʿinā’ but say ‘Unẓurnā,’ and listen. And for the disbelievers is a painful punishment”). And we mentioned that the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, the Most High, is teaching people good manners toward the authority of the Sharīʿah. And who is it? The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. He is the conveyer from the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, the Most High: a conveyer from the Lord of the worlds in wording and meaning in the Qur’an, and a conveyer from the Lord of the worlds in meaning without wording in the noble ḥadīth.

And you say to me: what is the evidence? ﴿إِنْ هُوَ إِلَّا وَحْيٌ يُوحَىٰ * عَلَّمَهُ شَدِيدُ الْقُوَىٰ * ذُو مِرَّةٍ فَاسْتَوَىٰ﴾ (“It is not but a revelation revealed, taught to him by one of mighty power, possessor of soundness, and he rose”). Here we stand before the noble ḥadīth: its words are not a letter from the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, the Most High, but it has been narrated that the Holy Spirit breathed into his heart that no soul will die until it completes its provision and its term. So the verbal text here is not the wording of the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, the Most High, but is the meaning that our Lord revealed to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, which settled in his soul and so he told people of it. Agreed? So we say again: the Prophet ﷺ expresses the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, the Most High, in wording and meaning, and expresses the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Most High, in meaning without wording, and each represents for us an authority.

And among that: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تُقَدِّمُوا بَيْنَ يَدَيِ اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ﴾ (“O you who believe, do not put yourselves forward before Allah and His Messenger, and fear Allah. Indeed, Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing”), ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَرْفَعُوا أَصْوَاتَكُمْ فَوْقَ صَوْتِ النَّبِيِّ﴾ (“O you who believe, do not raise your voices above the voice of the Prophet”). So we have a command not to go ahead of the Prophet, a command not to raise the voice above his voice, and a command not to alter the words the Prophet spoke: do not say “Rāʿinā” but say “Unẓurnā.”

A Question: Why at the Beginning of the Qur’an and Near Its End?

And here is a question: if the matter is in this order, why did this verse come at the beginning of the Qur’an, and those verses come near the end of the noble Qur’an, in Sūrat al-Ḥujurāt for example? And we have evidences of this in other places in the Book of the Lord of Might, exalted on high.

And the answer is that what came at the beginning of the noble Qur’an, in terms of context, in Sūrat al-Baqarah specifically, falls right at the heart of what the Lord of the worlds told about the afflictions of the Children of Israel and their twisting of texts. And among their twisting of texts was their altering of the words that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ spoke, and their mocking of the station of prophethood, by way of affecting wit, as we say in Egyptian “biyistaẓrafū” (they play the wit), as though they were cracking jokes. So the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Most High, forbade all such things, and the first command came in the Qur’anic call to the people of faith: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا﴾ (“O you who believe”) to be disciplined with what is called the authority of the Sharīʿah. Because respect for this authority, which is represented by the message of heaven that has come to us, makes a person submissive before this legislation, looking at what he is receiving, so that what you receive becomes fixed in your heart, settles in your mind, and your body is regulated by it, responding as a translation of the mind and feeling.

The Second Call: Seeking Help through Patience and Prayer

Then we move on. The second call in the noble Qur’an, in which the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Most High, speaks to us, is His saying: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اسْتَعِينُوا بِالصَّبْرِ وَالصَّلَاةِ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ مَعَ الصَّابِرِينَ﴾ (“O you who believe, seek help through patience and prayer. Indeed, Allah is with the patient”).

And I have a matter of the utmost importance, which everyone who studies the Qur’an must care about, and that is the matter of context. Context is a whole that leads you to link similar passages in every place of the Great Book. So you are before ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَقُولُوا رَاعِنَا﴾ (“O you who believe, do not say ‘Rāʿinā’”) and before ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اسْتَعِينُوا﴾ (“O you who believe, seek help”), so what links the two? Whoever disciplines himself to the authority will not find life afterward easy and smooth, but obstacles will surround him. So whoever surrenders himself to the authority must be patient with the consequences of this following. Did we understand?

Ibrāhīm, Peace Be upon Him: Building the Inner House, Then Society

So come, let us look together, turning a page in the Muṣḥaf. We begin from the saying of the Most High: ﴿وَإِذِ ابْتَلَىٰ إِبْرَاهِيمَ رَبُّهُ بِكَلِمَاتٍ﴾ (“And when his Lord tested Abraham with words”). Here is the inner construction and society. Ibrāhīm, upon our Prophet and upon him be prayers and peace, in this Qur’anic discourse the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Most High, tells us about how to build this mindset that was embodied in Ibrāhīm, peace be upon him. How was it embodied? It was embodied in a fully Muslim mindset: ﴿فَأَتَمَّهُنَّ﴾ (“and he fulfilled them”). Then this Muslim mindset, out of increased surrender, became qualified for ﴿إِنِّي جَاعِلُكَ لِلنَّاسِ إِمَامًا﴾ (“Indeed, I will make you a leader for the people”). And the first thing that this leading imam begins with in his construction is building the devotional side in the life of creation: ﴿وَإِذْ يَرْفَعُ إِبْرَاهِيمُ الْقَوَاعِدَ مِنَ الْبَيْتِ وَإِسْمَاعِيلُ﴾ (“And when Abraham was raising the foundations of the House, and Ishmael”).

Do you see a resemblance to that? Yes, the resemblance is in the arrival of the Prophet ﷺ at the very beginning of his coming to Madinah. So what was the first thing he did? He built the mosque, so that people would have not only the verbal authority in “Rāʿinā” or others, but the comprehensive authority in which all people prostrate to the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Most High, following their first imam, who is the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and upon his family and Companions abundant peace. Agreed? So we are before an inner construction within the family, and the construction of a society.

Then you proceed with the context and see: ﴿وَوَصَّىٰ بِهَا إِبْرَاهِيمُ بَنِيهِ وَيَعْقُوبُ﴾ (“And Abraham instructed his sons with it, and so did Jacob”). This is the matter of inheritance. And someone may say to you: he wanted to secure the society internally, in faith and in provisions too; so he prayed to the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Most High, in His saying: ﴿وَارْزُقْ أَهْلَهُ مِنَ الثَّمَرَاتِ مَنْ آمَنَ مِنْهُم بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ﴾ (“and provide its people with fruits, whoever of them believes in Allah and the Last Day”); he prayed to his Lord to secure people in their provisions and their food, and so on. And this also has its confirmation or support in the saying of our Lord, glory be to Him, the Most High: ﴿الَّذِي أَطْعَمَهُم مِّن جُوعٍ وَآمَنَهُم مِّنْ خَوْفٍ﴾ (“Who has fed them against hunger and made them secure from fear”), so He secured for them both sides: the side of psychological and inner security and security even from calamities, then the matter of feeding and satisfying.

You move on, so: ﴿وَوَصَّىٰ بِهَا إِبْرَاهِيمُ بَنِيهِ وَيَعْقُوبُ﴾ (“And Abraham instructed his sons with it, and so did Jacob”). What is the matter here? The matter of inheriting the religion, and not neglecting the second generation so that it goes out into life without awareness or understanding, and then the matter is lost.

A Digression: Churches for Sale, and “I Fear for Islam”

A few moments ago, before the ʿIshāʾ prayer, we had the screen open on a website on which we were searching for churches for sale in America, for example. I will show you the screen, if anyone can see this scene: do you see the red dots? Imagine this scene: you can, in utter simplicity, enter a specialized website and search, and you find a huge number of places.

So you can imagine. I had a guest, and we were speaking about the same subject, and he said: By Allah, I fear for Islam. So I said to him: Are you not ashamed to say that? Are you not ashamed to say: I fear for Islam? My brother, have shame, fear your Lord! Do you compare what was founded on falsehood with what was founded on truth? What was founded on falsehood from its very root will not stand over the course of time, and no leg of it will be straight in the world of life, but it falls either by itself or by its makers; this besides the fact that it is not convincing.

Then you now have mosques in which thousands of worshippers pray the Friday prayer. That is the bounty of Allah, which He gives to whom He wills. So what fortune do you have beyond that? But there remains the responsibility of holding fast to the religion and biting on it with the molars and passing it on to those who will come after us, so that it is not lost in the midst of these calamities. Even those young people who come here, by Allah the Almighty, we hope in them that they will be leaders not only of the Muslim community but leaders of the whole world. So what do you rely on, by the grace of Allah? Only to give the means that are in your hands, to surround those around you with your care and protection, and to extend to them a hand of help with all the energy and strength you have, that is all: the inner house secured by a sound creed and complete worship, which the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, the Most High, legislated for us, and so on.

So you see yourself proceeding with the verses to see that Ibrāhīm, for example, received the charge and surrendered himself to it, and he is a model; then he built the inner house, then he built the society and secured it with its pillars, then he instructed his sons with it, and Jacob after him instructs his sons, and this is the matter of inheritance, inheriting the matter of religion.

Obstacles on the Path of Calling: The Change of the Qiblah

You proceed with the verses, so we are before: ﴿سَيَقُولُ السُّفَهَاءُ مِنَ النَّاسِ مَا وَلَّاهُمْ عَن قِبْلَتِهِمُ الَّتِي كَانُوا عَلَيْهَا﴾ (“The foolish among the people will say, ‘What has turned them away from their qiblah which they used to face?’”). Are these not the verses that come after that in the order of the Muṣḥaf? We are turning the pages so that we do not recall from our heads. And what does it represent for me in the context in which I am moving? It represents for me the number of obstacles that will face you as you walk in the path of calling to which you surrendered yourself, from the time you refrained from saying “Rāʿinā” and said “Unẓurnā” and “listen,” and passing through the journey of Ibrāhīm, upon our Prophet and upon him be prayers and peace, avoiding all the offenses that occurred at the hands of the Children of Israel and their tongues and their violations. Then you pass on, and you are before ﴿سَيَقُولُ السُّفَهَاءُ مِنَ النَّاسِ مَا وَلَّاهُمْ عَن قِبْلَتِهِمْ﴾ (“The foolish among the people will say, ‘What has turned them away from their qiblah’”). So it is as though the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, shows you a model of the challenges you will face in your life of calling, so be alert to that.

You proceed, and you are before: ﴿قَدْ نَرَىٰ تَقَلُّبَ وَجْهِكَ فِي السَّمَاءِ﴾ (“We see the turning of your face toward the heaven”). It is as though the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, the Most High, is commanding the people of calling not to be occupied with these absurdities and trivialities that people speak in order to obstruct you, but you must be occupied fully and completely with the matter of worship. ﴿قَدْ نَرَىٰ تَقَلُّبَ وَجْهِكَ فِي السَّمَاءِ﴾ (“We see the turning of your face toward the heaven”), do not grieve: ﴿فَلَنُوَلِّيَنَّكَ قِبْلَةً تَرْضَاهَا﴾ (“So We will surely turn you to a qiblah with which you will be pleased”). And it is as though the believing soul is pleased only with more worship of the Lord of the heavens and the earth, glory be to Him, exalted on high.

Our Lord, glory be to Him, the Most High, tells us in His saying: ﴿وَمِنْ حَيْثُ خَرَجْتَ فَوَلِّ وَجْهَكَ شَطْرَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ﴾ (“And from wherever you go out, turn your face toward the Sacred Mosque”). So when we see this saying of the Lord of Might, what do people understand? What is understood by people in general: from wherever you go out, turn your face; Allahu akbar, in whatever direction you are, you will pray toward? The Sacred Mosque. Correct. But this contextual implication here tells me: “so turn your face toward the Sacred Mosque,” as though Allah, blessed and exalted, is showing him that he will turn his direction toward the desired goal. I accept what the people of tafsīr have said, but can we add an inner meaning? We have that it is required of us, wherever we are, to work for the same goal that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ worked for, and to proceed with the means of establishing the call on the earth, so that it is inherited in the roots of the hearts of men, and remains in the depths of minds and souls of men and women, the old and the young, and so on.

“O You Who Believe, Seek Help through Patience and Prayer”: Why Patience First?

I will not lengthen things for you, but after that there comes to you: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اسْتَعِينُوا بِالصَّبْرِ وَالصَّلَاةِ﴾ (“O you who believe, seek help through patience and prayer”). The verse, as we indicated earlier, says: seek help against what? Against the challenges that preceded, and we have indicated very many challenges: seek help through patience and prayer.

And here is a question: should it not be the reverse? That is, that He say to me: seek help through the prayer, which carries you to patience and helps you in it. But the prayer itself requires patience; not everyone prays, and even the one who prays needs to be patient in perfecting the prayer that he performs. So it is as though the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Most High, is building the mindset of awareness that will perceive pain, challenge, perseverance, the desired goal, the ways of arriving and the mechanisms of work. By Allah, the verse in itself draws for me a complete strategy for the movement of life: ﴿اسْتَعِينُوا بِالصَّبْرِ وَالصَّلَاةِ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ مَعَ الصَّابِرِينَ﴾ (“Seek help through patience and prayer. Indeed, Allah is with the patient”).

So what comes after that? The Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Most High, says: ﴿وَلَنَبْلُوَنَّكُم بِشَيْءٍ مِّنَ الْخَوْفِ وَالْجُوعِ وَنَقْصٍ مِّنَ الْأَمْوَالِ وَالْأَنفُسِ وَالثَّمَرَاتِ ۗ وَبَشِّرِ الصَّابِرِينَ﴾ (“And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, and give good tidings to the patient”). Give good tidings to the patient, who sought help through patience and prayer against what? Against the methodology of life. ﴿الَّذِينَ إِذَا أَصَابَتْهُم مُّصِيبَةٌ قَالُوا إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ * أُولَٰئِكَ عَلَيْهِمْ صَلَوَاتٌ مِّن رَّبِّهِمْ وَرَحْمَةٌ ۖ وَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْمُهْتَدُونَ﴾ (“Who, when disaster strikes them, say, ‘Indeed we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we will return.’ Those are the ones upon whom are blessings from their Lord and mercy, and it is those who are the guided”). Āmīn, O Lord of the worlds. ﴿وَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْمُهْتَدُونَ﴾ (“and it is those who are the guided”): we guided them to what? To knowing the path of Allah, glory be to Him, the Most High.

And we agreed at the beginning that the noble Qur’an does not stop at the limit of the verse, and that the verse after must have a connection with the one before. So imagine someone trying with me to link the two verses, as we say: ﴿وَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْمُهْتَدُونَ﴾ (“and it is those who are the guided”), then: ﴿إِنَّ الصَّفَا وَالْمَرْوَةَ مِن شَعَائِرِ اللَّهِ﴾ (“Indeed, al-Ṣafā and al-Marwah are among the symbols of Allah”), the Ḥajj. Very beautiful. What is the relation? Al-Ṣafā and al-Marwah, and the running between them, and the hardship in it. And it is as though the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Most High, is telling you that you will be guided to more movement, and that halting will never occur with you.

A Summary of What We Have Discussed

We have a great deal to say, but the time is late for us. I ask Allah, glory be to Him, the Most High, for you safety, blessing, well-being and security, O Lord of the worlds.

The summary of what we discussed is that the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, the Most High, when He called you with faith, raised your standing and made your worth with Him pleasing. And when He commanded you with this sequence in the matter of respecting, esteeming and revering these texts coming from the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Most High, and respecting the stations in the authority of the Sharīʿah that is in our hands, He then moved us to the mechanisms of practical implementation of this authority. And the first of them is that before you is a long path of work that requires patience from you, and your first helper is your connection with the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Most High, through your prayer to Allah, mighty and majestic. So let us not forget our goal, and let us not forget that our basic mission in this country is our being established in our religion and establishing it in the land on which we live, and passing it on to those who come after us.

I ask Allah to set right for us and for you, to make us and you content, to make us and you firm, to decree for us good things, and to make our hearts humble before Him.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: The verse is from Sūrat al-Ḥujurāt, and its completion is: «لِتَعَارَفُوا ۚ إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِندَ اللَّهِ أَتْقَاكُمْ» (“that you may know one another. Indeed, the most honorable of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you”); the speaker mentioned only the portion set down. The verse «اعبدوا ربكم» is from Sūrat al-Baqarah. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: The verse is from Sūrat al-Isrāʾ, and the speaker stopped at «وفضلناهم على كثير». The first verse is from Sūrat al-Aʿrāf, and «لا يفتننكم الشيطان» is from it as well.