Indeed all thanks and praise is due to Allah

(hence) we praise Him

We seek His Help

We seek His forgiveness We believe in Him We place our trust upon Him

We seek refuge in Allah from the evil within ourselves

and the consequences of our evil deeds.

Whoever Allah guides

and whoever Allah leads astray will never find guidance

I bear witness that there is no God except Allah the One, without partner

And that Muhammad is His servant and His messenger - Have you ever wondered what is it that makes people cry in salah? What is it that makes them

cry in their duas? Why is it that Im reading Quran and I cant enjoy it? Why am I not able to get devotion in my salah? Even though the shayateen are locked up. - Lets say you are at the best burger spot in town! You and your friends are sitting there and the waiter brings the food to the table. Lets say that there are seven of you. Six of you are having the time of your life. You, on the other hand, have a stuffy noseTheyre sitting there and enjoying every single bit and youre all like, I could cook better than this man. Whats the problem? When your nose is blocked, you cant taste anythingsimiliarly when you block your eyes with sin, your ears with sin, your heart cant taste the sweetness of the Quran. Your heart will not taste zikr, wont taste the sweetness of Iman. - So how do you unblock the pathways to your heart? What is the first step? Istaghfaar. - The Prophet Nuh a.s. preached for 900 yearswhat did he preach?

Then I said, "Ask forgiveness of your Lord. Surely He is the most forgiving.

He will send down abundant rain from the sky for you,

increase your wealth and sons; and grant you gardens and waterways.

What is the matter with you that you deny the greatness of God, [Nuh 71:10-13

One day, he was travelling to ash-Shaam and on the way, he stops by a Masjid to spend the night. The guard of the Masjid tells him,You need to get out, the Masjid is closing. I have no where to go, said Imam Ahmad. Ukhruj.. get out, said the guard.Now, he could have said, Oh, by the way, Im Imam Ahmad, but he didnt. Instead, he, rahimahullah, took his belongings and went to sleep on the steps of the Masjid. The guard came outside and told him to get off the steps and go somewhere else. Imam Ahmad didnt know what to do.

This guard then picks up Imam Ahmad by his legs and drags him to the middle of the street and drops him. So now Imam Ahmad is like.. uhh.. Okay.. A baker who owned a bakery across the street saw Imam Ahmad and said, You can stay in my bakery tonight. Ill be doing some work .. you can come sleep here. So he opens the way for him. Imam Ahmad (rahimahullah) observes this man. Hes putting the dough together, putting it in the oven, and through every step of the process .. kneading, forming, baking, etc., the man is saying: Istaghfaar The entire night, he is making tasbeeh of Allah subhanahu wataala. Imam Ahmad is shocked. Think about it, how quickly people get tired of tasbeeh, yet this man is constantly doing dhikr at his workplace! This isnt even Tahajjud or Itikaaf or something. Imam Ahmad then asks him, How long have you been in this situation? He says, Which situation? Making tasbeeh of Allah, he said. My whole life, said the baker. Imam Ahmad asks him a second question. What have you seen from Allah as a result of all this tasbeeh that you make? Maa dautullaha li shay, illa ataani iyyaa I never made dua to Allah for anything except that He answered it. Imam Ahmad says, SubhanAllah! You never made dua to Allah for anything except that he gave it to you?! And he repeated.. I never made dua to Allah for anything except that He gave it to me except for one thing. Imam Ahmad (rahimahullah) said, And what is that? He said, an araa Imam Ahmad To have a chance to see Imam Ahmad Imam Ahmad (rahimahullah) is brought to tears. He embraces this man and says: SubhanAllah. Qad jaa aka bi Ahmad. Yajurruhu bi rijlihi ila makhbazikh Here is Allah! He brought you Ahmad, dragging him by his feet to your bakery ..if it wasnt for you, I could have slept in peace at the Masjid.