This podium is the podium of light. It has established itself as such over hundreds and hundreds of khutbahs given by its main occupier, Khaled Abou El Fadl. These khutbahs have been memorialized with articulate brilliance and diligence, in a way that can only come from a true, dedicated student. Our gratitude to Josef Linnhoff for all that he has done to preserve this pulpit and memorialize it in written form, and to give it the beauty and the diligence that these sermons deserve. With their permission, I begin.
As an Ummah, we have done a great disservice to the two weighty things that have been left behind for us by our Prophet, which is a hadith that has reached the level of tawatur in which the Prophet, towards the end of his life, announced to his Ummah that he leaves behind for them two weighty things, and that if the Ummah holds on them, they shall never go astray. The book of God and his closest kin, his Ahl al-Bayt, and that they will not separate until the day that they join him in the heavenly abode.
We know of our shortcomings with the Qur'an, but we likewise have similar shortcomings with the closest students and disciples of the Prophet, being the family of the Prophet. In nearly every school of thought, one of the main sources of understanding this religion, our God, and our Prophet come from the concept of needing to refer back to the historical sources who knew him best, who spent the most time with him, who upheld his message through their thoughts, their actions, and eventually through the reports.
Here I turn our attention to the character of Husayn ibn Ali. His story is well attested and well-known, and this is not the time to delve into the specifics of what took place during the shining moment, the crowning achievement of the household of the Prophet, which took place 14 centuries ago in Karbala. It is a momentous occasion that deserves closer study and more frequent recognition and remembrance, therefore we need to read more carefully.
When Husayn ibn Ali set out from Mecca and Medina and went towards Kufa to answer the call of aid for the Kufans, who were under severe repression from the government and the governors of Yazid ibn Mu'awiya, the caliph who claimed the caliphate after the death of his father Mu'awiya, Husayn ibn Ali wrote to his brother, Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya. It was a will and a testament, and it is well attested to. In it, he says, "In the name of God, the beneficent, the merciful, this is the testament of Husayn ibn Ali ibn Abi Talib entrusted to his brother Muhammad, known as ibn al-Hanafiyya, the son of Ali ibn Abi Talib. Verily, Husayn ibn Ali testifies that there is no God but God, the One who has no partner, and that Muhammad is His bondsman and His messenger, who came with the truth from Him. I testify that paradise exists and hell exists, and that the final hour shall come. There is no doubt about it, and that God shall bring forth the dead from their graves."
He says, "I do not rise due to stubbornness or rebelliousness, nor to cause mischief or oppression. Indeed, I rise to seek the salvation and reformation of the nation of my grandfather Muhammad. I wish to enjoin goodness and forbid evil, and in this I follow the tradition of my grandfather Muhammad and the tradition of my father Ali ibn Abi Talib. So whoever responds to my call truthfully should know God is the source of truth and will reward it. If anyone rejects my call, then I shall be patient until God judges and rules between me and the people with truth, and He is the best of judges." This was his final testament to his brother. He uses specifically the word salah, “reformation.” How could there be cause for reformation 50 years after the death of the Prophet?
In 2024, if anyone proposes a slight adjustment to our thinking and behavior, they are immediately dubbed a “Reformist”; a dirty, ugly word: They neglect to understand that reform is potentially the source of their najah (salvation), if they would but set their egos aside for a moment and not be so jealous because they did not invest the time and effort to refresh or bring something new. Perhaps it is not even new, though it just seems new because of the deviance that we have fallen into. So when someone calls back to the original message, it seems like an invention.
Husayn ibn Ali says in another statement that he sets out to correct the bid'ah that has been enacted since the death of his grandfather. What bid'ah is this? What innovation is this? One can review the sermons of Husayn ibn Ali in Karbala, and there are many, but I have not seen one in which he speaks of fiqh, rules and rituals. What he speaks about are the pillars and the foundations of this system of thought, this faith. They are built on justice and equity. They have built a culture of an unwillingness and a refusal to accept humiliation and degradation. That Muslims are the people of ‘izzah, the people of dignity and honor (sharaf), and they will not be humiliated by the innovation of false rulers, despots, liars, cheats, thieves or people who hate the people whom they rule over. Those who wish to put out God's light with their words. Those who assign lies to and twist God's words to avoid accountability and avoid moral progress, because it hurts them and their individual objectives of becoming greater, bigger, more influential, more powerful, and richer. In essence, it is the same disease that sank the pharaoh all those years before, “ana rabbukum al-a’la” (Q 79:24).
“The Book of God and the nearest of my kin.” It is through Husayn that we know the Qur'an and it is through the Qur'an that we know Husayn, and it is through those two that we know the Prophet, and it is through him that we know our Lord.
For those who have had the chance and done me the honor of listening to my previous khutbahs, you will know that I spoke of my obsession with the surahs known as the Musabbihat, the five surahs of light. Of course, all the suwar are light, but these shine particularly brightly in my eyes. Surah at-Taghabun, al-Jumu’a, as-Saff, al-Hashr, al-Hadid. I wish to share with you all a bit more about the suwar and why I am so enamored with them.
The suwar were revealed in the Medinan period, which lasted about 10 years. Based on the research of my teacher, as well as some of my opinions about the order of revelation, at-Taghabun was the first, being a surah that was revealed at the very onset of the hijra, followed by al-Jumu’a three years later. In the fourth year after hijra, Surah as-Saff was revealed. Surah al-Hashr comes soon after in the fourth year after hijra, and most agree al-Hadid came down in the eighth year after hijra.
I believe there is a possibility that al-Hadid was revealed earlier, perhaps the fifth year after hijra or shortly after. There is some evidence to back this that I will not get into, but for reference, Hassan Farhan al-Maliki has done some work on this and he suggests that it might be the fifth year. I have not yet come to my own conclusion, but it does make some small differences.
The Musabbihat are a group of chapters very closely linked with one another. We are alerted to their likeness and their connection at the beginning of each chapter which starts with a variation of the phrase “Sabbaha lillah” or “Yusabbihu lillah.” For those who have heard the tafsir, they will know that one of the main points of that tasbih and the tanzih at the beginning is to indicate to the reader that the Lord of the heavens and the earth has put into motion our entire reality, and we are but actors in a play acting out a role, except usually in a play, the casting director chooses who acts out which role.
But God Almighty allows all of us to choose what role we wish to play in this theater. He has given us the ability to choose at our own volition. We can choose to search for God, to seek after God, to understand God, to understand His objectives, to understand His attributes, and we can align ourselves with those attributes or we can choose ourselves. We can choose heedlessness, we can choose loneliness. Taghabun is a surah that speaks about the challenge that one faces when wanting to submit to God. Submission, whether it be through moving somewhere, making a huge career decision, or spending money in the way of God. Family members come and say, "You ought not to do this. This is too much money. This is too difficult. This will ruin your life in a particular way. This will ruin my life in a particular way. You will be separate from me."
It puts one in a very difficult position where they have to balance between their commitment to their family and their commitment to the objectives of their God that they have come to know. In al-Jumu’a, there is a balance between the commitment of purifying oneself, of listening to the moral authority that is giving them the process for that purification, the moral education necessary in order to understand the text that has been revealed by God, and balancing that with very difficult financial circumstances and the competing pressure to leave the sermon in order to go buy and sell product.. Had we been in the circumstances of the Companions, we may have easily succumbed to this pressure and abandoned the Prophet during his sermon.
In Surah as-Saff, there is yet another challenge and a difficulty, that is about staying true to one's word. It is about understanding what are the elements of iman (belief), namely confirming one’s belief through action. Al-Saff teaches about the power of being a unanimous force woven together by moral fiber.
The narrative of Surah al-Hashr, which we have spoken about before, Muslims put together the very difficult lessons that they learned in at-Taghabun, al-Jumu'a, and as-Saff. Their practical understanding of balance culminated in a spectacular challenge as they confronted the Banu Nadir, who hid behind their palm trees and hid behind their fortresses. Ultimately, they were able to win without engaging the army in hand-to-hand combat. It was a shocking outcome that resulted in Muslims receiving an outpouring of war booty that suddenly enriched them in a way that was like a thirsty man receiving a cup of cold water. When they least expected it but needed it most, God delivered them salvation.
Then they were given yet another challenge in al-Hashr, that being the order of distribution for the spoils. It went to those who needed it most; not to those who gave the most, but to those who needed it most. A very, very important point.
Al-Hadid is a deeply philosophical surah that came to demonstrate how all these chapters are linked together, as if a set of prayer beads (masbaha). Our reality as human beings is live through life experiencing challenges. The musibah, the calamities are the fire that burn away the selfishness and pave the way for a human being to think of themselves as but a member of a saff, a member of ranks or an order, impenetrable because they are all united.
One of the most densely packed metals in the world happens to be iron. Interestingly, the names of four of these five surahs all mean a variation of a collection or a togetherness. “Jumu'a,” in congregation, “saff,” in ranks, “hashr,” yet another gathering, “hadid,” a solidness that is stuck together in a way that you cannot rip them apart. Ultimately, this togetherness leads to taghabun. “Taghabun” is when wins and losses are turned upside down, the way that we understand wins and losses is flipped on its head. We are taught how we can achieve the lesser and greater victories through the moral lessons of these chapters.
This is the absolute brilliance of these surahs. We have three surahs in a row that are preparing us for this momentous occasion in which no Muslim could have anticipated that they were going to win. They thought they were on the verge of absolute loss, and suddenly they won. The moral, psychological victory that they gained during the confrontation in al-Hashr, was the first military engagement after Uhud, which was a major psychological defeat. Suddenly, the Muslims won everything beyond what they could have possibly imagined without having to raise a single sword.
That makes me think of the fath (conquest) of Mecca. Yes, military strength is important. Yes, military strength gives you the ability to defend yourself. Yes, military strength gives you the ability to be taken seriously, but it is but a mechanism for a greater purpose. Militiary might communicates that you will not be humiliated, and now that everyone knows this, they have no choice but to hear what you have to say. If what you have to say is Light, then it will inevitably lead to a cultural revolution, which is what ultimately won over Mecca. It was the Muslim culture that persuaded and won the hearts and the minds of Mecca over, and there was no need anymore for war.
This is why I think the famous passage at the end of Surah al-Hashr, in which God mentions all of His fantastic beautiful attributes as if they have all been gathered in one, each one of these attributes needs to be realized in the actions of believers. These surahs are a small collection to show a snapshot of what the whole looks like and what the whole Qur'an aims to do. The whole Qur'an can fit in the Fatiha. Every ayah of the Qur’an refers to the Fatiha, every ayah fits in the surah, every surah fits in its group like in the Musabbihat, and every group fits within a whole. A perfect balance.
Briefly, some reflections on Surah as-Saff. We examined previously the projection of strength from Banu Nadir in Surah al-Hashr, in which they took refuge behind their stone walls and behind their palm trees, which they used as a cover while trying to put out the light of the Qur’anic message with their words. (Q 61:8).
There is a reason why the Muslims succeeded in al-Hashr and they were not dissuaded by the smoke screening and the doubts that were verbally thrown at them from behind those walls. It was because they understood the moral refrain and the rhetorical question at the beginning of al-Saff. What kind of Muslim would you be if you cannot keep your oath, if you espouse and proclaim a moral value or principle and you do not act on it? Where are your red lines? You say your red line is Masjid Al Aqsa, you say your red line is the Haram al-Makki, are you sure? What actions are you taking to ensure that those red lines are defended? If one can just cross the red line, are you someone with honor or are you humiliated? Husayn ibn Ali's war cry is hayhat minna al-dhilla! “Far be it from us humiliation, far be it from us.” Are we inviting the humiliation onto ourselves?
In the event in al-Hashr, the Muslims arranged themselves, their intellects, their emotions, their spirits and all of their efforts as if individual small bits of brick or stone, set in a rank in a metaphysical moral sense, and they could not be defeated in the incident of the Banu Nadir. They could not be because they understood.
Among the current circumstances that we are now facing is that, according to a report from Axios, Arab officials held a secret meeting to discuss plans for post-war Gaza. “Senior national security officials from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority secretly met in Riyadh 10 days ago to coordinate plans for the day after the war in Gaza and discuss ways to involve a revitalized Palestinian Authority in governing there, three sources with knowledge of the meeting told Axios.”
With all of its treachery, why the Palestinian Authority? The Arab despots say, "No, we need a Palestinian state. We cannot have peace unless there is a path to a Palestinian state with the Palestinian Authority." Why the Palestinian Authority? If it is for Palestinians, shouldn’t the Palestinians choose whom they want?
No, because “Hamas must be replaced.” It is not because of Hamas' ability or inability to govern or provide infrastructure that they need to be replaced. They need to be replaced for a very specific reason, and that is because there can be no demonstration of the possibility for self-determination for Arabs and Muslims at large. Self-determination needs to be utterly destroyed as an idea. “You live in my house, I own this house. Hejaz is mine. Egypt belongs to me. Jordan is my kingdom. You live here. You are my subject. When I say ‘jump,’ you will jump. When I say ‘sit down,’ you will sit down. When I do not say anything, you are free to mingle about the cabin and speak to one another in a very limited fashion. With no work, by the way, and with no hope. Unless you completely sell out and build what we want you to build, which is complete and utter capitalistic subservience to the cultural hegemony of Israel and the United States, this is the only version we will accept from you. Otherwise, shut up and sit down, and we will tell you what we are going to do next.”
“Yes, we agree. We cannot just make 2 million people disappear. We are not magicians. We cannot kill them all, it is impossible. The are not simply going to disappear. So, what are the despots going to do? They are going to do what they have always done: place the people in a body bag, zip tie them up, shut their mouths, sit them in a prison cell, or get them to do what they need to do by any means necessary. And whoever is willing to do that as a governor there, they will place them there.
It is just like Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad in Kufa, or the other Umayyad governors who rose to power. They were not there to maintain the sanctity of the caliphate or to uphold the moral authority of governance that they saw from the caliphs before them. No, they were there to make sure that they had every last city in a stranglehold. When someone stood up to say something like Muslim ibn Aqil, the cousin of Husayn, they took them to the top of Masjid al-Kufa and threw them off. What do the rest of the people think when they see the main leader, who has come there to assemble the arrangement and the arrival of Husayn ibn Ali, their savior? They have cut the head off the snake.
“If you do not want that to happen to you, shut up, sit down, and let us massacre the grandson of the Prophet because he is the last wedge preventing total domination. He is the last thorn in our side. He is the last vanguard of the prophetic message. He has no choice. We know him inside and out, he will never give the pledge of allegiance to despotic authority, not after we have humiliated you Muslims. The Prophet just died, we have already humiliated you with our bid'ah, with our innovation of despotism, hopelessness and darkness. We have succeeded in taking the words of the Qur'an, shutting out its light and turning it over, because you did not have the courage, the ethic, the moral fiber and the imperative to stand up and say, ‘No way under my watch are you going to do this. Extinguish the light under my watch?’” It happened. We cannot avoid the truth any longer. It happened, and it set an awful precedent.
If you do not wake up and understand this is tantamount to taking the Qur'an and throwing it in the trash, you are in for a very rude awakening. I do not care if you grew up in a Shi’a mosque or a Sunni mosque, both of them get it wrong all the time. If you want salvation (najah), if you want any essence of dignity, you will fix yourself and you will align yourself with the Prophet, his family, and their example. Otherwise, you are lost. And guess what? We are lost. History repeats itself yet again. 30,000 dead. Where is the red line? Is it at 2 million? What is the number? McDonald's and Starbucks? This is where we draw our line and defend our honor?
The Hill reports, Gaza war gives new urgency to US push for Israel-Saudi ties. These officials are being accosted at their dinners to call for a ceasefire, and behind the scenes, they cannot run fast enough to work on the normalization process due to the pressure from pro-Palestinian advocates. “The Biden administration is reviving talks to broker ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, part of efforts to lay the groundwork for stability and security,” the keywords here are stability and security, “in the Gaza Strip if Hamas can be defeated,” which it cannot. “If executed, a Saudi Israeli pact would give President Biden a signature foreign policy win before the November election. Such a deal could also help push back on critics, who blame Biden for the world spiraling into chaos."
I have a question. Near unanimously, Muslims and Arabs in the United States have made it known they will not be voting for Joe Biden, despite knowing that that could possibly lead to further disaster. I actually think this is commendable. They are not willing to accept this humiliation any longer. They elected Joe Biden because they were told that if they elect Biden, they will have his ear and they could possibly sway him one way or another, or at least be heard. Though in reality, he aided, he abetted, and he lied. So we boycotted Starbucks, we boycotted McDonald's, and we are going to boycott the election, which means we are possibly going to see a Trump presidency, which will see more devastation for Muslims. We know that. We are factoring that into our decision. It might hurt us, but we are already hurting and we are factoring it all into our decision.
I ask you, is Biden the only world leader that wields any sort of power that allowed for this genocide to take place? What about the Gulf states? What about Saudi Arabia? What about the Emirates? What about Egypt? What about Jordan? Could any of this happen without their aid and acquiescence? We have seen Ansar Allah, the Yemeni organization, put a few boats in the Red Sea, and the West lost their minds. They were willing to bomb Sana'a to hell in order to allow their cargo to continue to go through the Red Sea.
Saudi Arabia has no influence, no oil, and no possibility for an embargo? Were not Saudi Arabia and Ansar Allah not just shaking hands a few months before all of this? Saudi had understood you cannot beat Ansar Allah, they were trying to move on. Why not join them in the Red Sea? Does Saudi Arabia need to have that big of an issue with Iran? Iran that has survived this long under American sanctions and being a pariah state. It has seen technological advancement, it has its own drones, it possibly has a nuclear weapon or the know-how to create a nuclear weapon. Can you imagine Saudi Arabia allied with Iran?
“We must have security in the region.” Okay, then why not secure your region? I am no fan of any of these despots, but if we are talking about political pragmatism, would it not make more sense for all of the Iranians that are dying for jobs in the United States, that are overqualified and still have no work, and are all engineers to instead go to Saudi Arabia? Is Saudi Arabia not built by expats? Who got the oil out of the ground? Who refined it? The Saudis? They could have invested in the Iranian economy. Anybody ever think of that? It is such a shame, it is embarrassing. You prefer to ally with those who are clearly treacherous. When you are allied with them, they cannot wait to stab you in the back and you cannot wait to stab them in the back, but that is your nature. Rather, you could have at minimum, imperfectly provided security and safety to the region.
I have a further question. What if during the Prophet's time, 30,000 Muslims were mercilessly slaughtered without the ability to truly defend themselves by a foreign power? Meanwhile, the Prophet comes to learn the role in this slaughter played by the rich and the influential members of his nation, who he has allowed to be custodians of and to take care of the Hejaz, his home. Would he appoint them then to govern the Hejaz and to be the custodians any longer? If they were even given the job, would he just say, "Oh, well you should continue," or would he sack them? What would he say about Muslims who knew this, but continue to line the pockets of the despots with their Hajj and umrah money? What would be his ruling? You want to talk about law, then let us talk about law. What would be the hukm?
I promise you, I want to go on Hajj and umrah more than you do by 100 times, perhaps even 1,000 times. Instead, I have been to Masjid Al-Aqsa twice. I have been to Karbala and I have been to Najaf. You think I prefer to go to these blessed places rather than to God's home, my sanctuary? I have no choice. You have left me no choice, but I will not be humiliated. I will not accept the proposition that I must humiliate myself by financially supporting those who have allowed for this genocide in order to worship my Lord. I will humiliate myself before my Lord if He humiliates me, but you will not humiliate me. Where is your izzah? Where is your sharaf?
Yes, stand up to McDonald's. If you really have courage and belief, stand up to the false dajjal occupiers of Mecca and Medina. They are occupiers, and they are subservient to the devil that is Israel. They sold out for pennies, nothing.
It is not just the Arab regimes. I am an Iranian, I have the jurisdiction to offer some critique.
In 2022, we saw an uprising demanding social progress and relief upon a people who suffer from horrific sanctions and are isolated. The United States offers acceptances to colleges, universities and graduate programs to Iranians. They accept their petitions for E-visas, as they are uniquely qualified as engineers and doctors. Their case then goes to the National Visa Center and the embassy, where they are interviewed and then remain in administrative processing hell for 8 to 14 months. Their case is then taken to court and the court says, "When we balance the test, we are not sure that 13 months is really a long time. We can understand that it would make people very sad and upset, but we are in the end dealing with," and this is the writing that is in between the lines, "terrorists. You are all terrorists. Even if you are not, we are going to deliver collective punishment," in hopes that the collective punishment and the resulting aggravation will push these people to go fill the streets and protest more.
The Iranian people have a legitimate bone to pick with their government, but unfortunately, because of the damage, the pain, and the suffering at the hands of their government, they have lost their moral compass as well, and that also shows up in the Qur'an. When a people live under degradation and despotism, it destroys the entire moral fabric of the society and the moral education goes out the window. Yet, the best you can think of is, "Well, since I do not like this guy, whatever he says, the opposite must be true." The analysis then becomes, "Maybe Israel is not so bad. Maybe America is not so bad. Maybe we have been lied to this whole time. Because I am too lazy to do the work and because I am too damaged, I am just going to say, 'You know what? We too should be subservient to Western capitalism and imperialism.'"
Dr. Mohsen Kadivar released a set of lectures on YouTube that are very incredibly well researched about Allamah Tabataba’i who is the very famous Iranian scholar and the author of Al Mizan, the Qur’anic tafsir. Dr. Kadivar proves that on multiple occasions, Allamah Tabataba’i uttered the following statement, "In this revolution (1979 Iranian Revolution), there was one true martyr that was killed, and that martyr was killed unfairly and unjustly. That martyr was Islam itself." Quite a statement! Why did he say this? I cannot be sure, because the Iranian government did everything they could to bury this statement. The love of Allamah Tabatabai’s life was Morteza Mutahhari, his student, and when he was brought news of his killing death, his response was that there was but one martyr and that martyr was Islam itself. That is quite a claim.
I cannot be sure why he said it, as I am not a student of Allamah Tabataba’i and I am not an expert on Iranian modern history. However, I do have my own opinion if I had to guess as to what the reason could be, or at least what I believe makes sense if someone were to say that. Especially given the fact that Tabataba’i was very much invested in education, philosophy and irfan, and was very much invested in the cultural and societal advancement through building the intellect and building the spirit to make for a society that would be a society of light. That is my opinion as to why he said that. There is a need for a cultural revolution that is dedicated to morality and equity. Is the Islam that the Iranian government espouses, that Islam yet? I believe Allamah Tabataba’i had an inkling that the requisite understanding of Islam was not yet ripe. That the implementation of this version of Islam would be destructive. From all of the censorship that Tabataba’i endured when he simply wanted to teach philosophy, he must have understood that his fellow clerics were the ones obstructing progress and there must have been a fundamental misunderstanding of the whole point.
Let us contrast that very briefly with the wins by the pro-Palestinian movement’s success at the Chicago City Council. We attempted to do the same here in Columbus, but the Zionists had reached them first, many years ago, which again demonstrates Muslim political weakness. We are not prepared, we are only reacting. We are not looking forward, we are just trying to put out fires with buckets of water. But, the win in Chicago is commendable and shows an element of the Musabbihat that we spoke about. People living in the heart of Western imperialism have not given up. They continue to go to every single institution of power and they disrupt, they will not allow them to forget. These institutions have been banking on the fact that everything fizzles out eventually, but they messed up too big this time. They have lit a fire underneath those who are oriented towards justice, whose qiblah is qist and adl, who pray towards those attributes, whose belief in those Godly attributes are realized through their action, their persistence and their courage.
These individuals have now pushed Israel to the brink. The infighting in the war cabinet is unprecedented. The civil strife and infighting amongst the Israeli polity is unprecedented. Qatar slipped on a banana peel and let out information about a potential ceasefire, gave Gazans false hope and then the ceasefire did not happen. We are not sure what happened, but what a blunder. The Israeli war cabinet is divided and they now have to consider going back on their military objectives because they are not sustainable. The craziest factions, like Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, are trying to widen the war and put more pressure on the United States to enter into a devastating world war.
Look at the power of Surah As-Saff. Look at the example of those who succeeded in Chicago. They applied but one morsel of the treasure trove that exists in just these five surahs. Just one morsel. I do not know if they were thinking about God, but imagine if they were, how much more powerful it would be. Being a moral unison. If they put it together with the rest of these ethical precepts, with these timeless moral lessons, Israel would not stand 24 hours.
This is the mission of the Prophet. This is the mission of the Ahl al-Bayt. The bid'ah is despotism. The orthodoxy is equity and justice. Let this be our moment. Let this be our Surah al-Hashr.
Dear Lord, make this our moment. Allow this guidance to reach the heart of those who already espouse and proclaim belief. Make this our task that we can succeed and pass on to the future generations. Make it so this does not end with us, that we are not the chain in the link that broke. Let us connect to the next generation. Let us build, rebuild and prove that Your word is divine through our actions. Forgive us for our shortcomings, help us, and strengthen us.