Asalmu alaimkum warahmahtullahi wa baraakatu.

Alhamdulillah we are gathered here today for the last ngajji before Ramadan and to wish our
friends Syakira and Fauzan goodbye. Even though we are separated by oceans and thousands and
thousands of miles, Insya Allah, you will never forget your friends in America and that we can meet
again someday.
The thing is, most of us, the students at Bu Sitis ngajji, are really young. We see everything in a
rose-tinted lens. The days stretch endlessly and overflow with boundless opportunity. Having a friend
move away is probably the worst thing to happen in our lives. Nowadays, these problems can be easily
resolved if you just turn on your smartphone (which I see some of you are taking advantage of right
now.) But when we get older, we find that our problems arent just limited to physical separation
anymore.
When we get older, we find that loss manifests itself in so many different ways: the loss of
ones livelihood, the loss of a dream, the permanent loss of a loved one. The list goes on. How then, are
we supposed to cope with all these awful things in the world? The answer, as most of you can guess, is
Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji`oon
Its simple enough: Verily, unto God do we belong and, verily, unto Him we shall return. This
quote, at first glance, is about death. But its actually so much more complex than that. If we were to
truly understand this quote, it would be easy for us to come to terms with our regrets and the inevitable
tragedies in life. Nothing happens without God willing it to happen and nothing is as important as our
duty to Him. We should take comfort in the absoluteness of his decree and trust that every hardship we
endure is nothing that He thinks we cant handle. To quote the Quran itself:
Fainna Maal Usri yusro (for every difficulty there is relief.)
Sounds like a slogan for life insurance. I personally didnt understand this concept for a long
time. If Allah is so merciful, why am I still suffering? Sometimes it seems like these difficult periods will
never end. Even when people said Allah helps those who help themselves, I didnt understand how I
could possibly play a part in my own life if God is always there.
But then I realized that yes, there is something I can do. Recovery, belief in Allah, starts with US.
Allah should be the person that we derive strength from, but WE are the ones who take the first step in
believing in Him and WE are the ones who build up our imaan. To put it differently, its like Islam is the
bones in our body. Theyre always there to support us, but its up to us to make them strong. If we have
strong bones, it becomes easier to jump any obstacle that comes our way, and it becomes much easier
to get back up after we fall down.