A word from the Shaykh on what we deposited in the past year and what we have prepared for the coming year.

The Shaykh : All praise is due to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our own selves and from the evil of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide, and whomsoever He leaves to misguide, none can guide. I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger. May Allah send blessings and peace upon him, his family, his Companions, and those who follow them with excellence until the Day of Judgment. As for what follows: This is the final monthly meeting of this year, the year 1415, which takes place tonight, the night of Sunday, the 29th or 28th of Dhul-Hijjah. We ask Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) to make our ending better than our beginning.
The topic of this meeting covers two things. The first is: What did we deposit in the past year? The second is: What have we prepared for the coming year? Both require attention.
As for the first: What did a person deposit in his past year? Was he fulfilling the obligations owed to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and to His slaves, or was he negligent, careless, and wasteful? Did he have sincere intention for Allah in his worship? Was his work measured by following the Shari'ah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)? Did he perform the prayer as it should be? Did he pray it at its times? Did he pray it in congregation? Did he fulfill its conditions and pillars as required? Did he pay the zakah of his wealth? Did he calculate it precisely, as if the recipients of zakah were auditing him with exact precision? Did he perfect his fasting, the fasting of Ramadan? Did he do in it what is obligatory? Did he perfect his Hajj if he performed it? All these are questions that a person must know the answers to. Did he fulfill his duty toward his parents? Did he maintain ties with his relatives? Did he be kind to his neighbors? Did he show mercy to orphans? Did he show mercy to animals? Did he fulfill what is obligatory upon him of enjoining good and forbidding evil? Did he fulfill what is obligatory upon him of calling to Allah (Mighty and Majestic)? Did he fulfill what is obligatory upon him of spending on his family? Did he fulfill what is obligatory upon him of paying the prices of sales and the wages of workers? All these are questions that a person must know the answers to. If he has been negligent in them, let him repent to Allah and make up what can be made up. If he has done what he was able to and what was obligatory upon him, let him praise Allah for that and ask Allah for steadfastness upon it. We know that when merchants complete a year of managing their trade, they stay up through the nights checking the ledgers: what came into the shop and what went out of it? What did the person gain in this year and what did he lose? So that they may make up what can be made up. As for the great trade, which Allah spoke of: , we are heedless of this trade and do not know what we have performed in it, except as Allah wills. Therefore, I say to myself and to you: It is obligatory upon us to check, to look, and to do what can be made up. We did what we could, and for what we could not, we seek forgiveness from Allah and repent to Him (Mighty and Majestic).
As for the future, in reality, no one can be certain about what he will do in the future. If he were to be certain about what he will do in the future, he would be a fool, contradicting the saying of Allah the Exalted: . The disbelievers of Quraysh asked the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) about the story of the People of the Cave, and he said: , and he did not say "if Allah wills." What happened from Allah (Mighty and Majestic)? The revelation was delayed to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) for fifteen days. It was delayed, and then the revelation came down. In that surah, Allah said to His Messenger: . This was part of the wisdom of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) that the revelation was delayed after the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) had promised them that he would narrate the story to them. And in this was the greatest proof that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was truthful, for if he had been a liar, he would have made up a story from among the stories and said, "This is the story of the People of the Cave." But he does not speak of the unseen except with what is revealed to him (peace and blessings be upon him). We are not certain about what we will do tomorrow, and we cannot be certain. How many people wanted something, but reality turned out contrary to their wish? How many people hoped, but the thread of hope was cut? But the believer is commanded to face the days with determination and energy. Allah pointed to this in His saying: , meaning He made the night and the day different, succeeding one another, so that people may be energized. Every day, new energy is renewed for them. Likewise, Allah the Exalted made the years longer than the days, without doubt, because they are months, and the days are hours. But He (Glorified and Exalted is He) repeated them for the servants and made the number of the year how many? Twelve months, so that when the year is completed, the person finds his energy renewed for a coming year.
So look, my brother, at what you have prepared for the coming year. Have you prepared energy for doing good? Then execute it and carry it out. For the determination to do right is right only if the person acts. Mere determination without any movement is wishful thinking, and it is appropriate to describe its owner as incapable, as came in the hadith from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him):
Organize your time so that Allah sends you blessing in it. Organize it, but do not make this organization a fixed, unchangeable thing. No, it is according to the situation, and the lesser may present itself in a way that makes it better than the greater. But organize yourself, organize your work. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . For example, make an hour for yourself in which you read the Book of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), an hour in which you read from the hadiths of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), an hour in which you reflect on the meanings of the Qur'an and the meanings of the hadiths, and an hour in which you reflect on what you did in your day and what you left. Organize yourself so that Allah blesses you in your days and in your hours. As for the one who neglects himself and does not care whether he works or not, whether he is energetic or lazy, he is without doubt negligent, and his time will be wasted, and he will regret on a day when regret is of no avail, because he followed his soul's desires and wished for Allah the impossible. He says, "I am a believer, if Allah wills, and I will be among the people of Paradise. I will be such and such," but he has no work. Work is necessary.