All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds. He blesses the heart of His obedient servants with happiness and bestows tranquillity upon those who are humble. I bear witness that there is no deity save Allah, having no associates. I also bear witness that our Master Muhammad is the servant of Allah and His Messenger. May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, his pure family and companions, and all those who follow them in righteousness till the Day of Judgment.

As to what follows,

O servants of Allah, I urge you and myself to be aware that you are asked to obey Him, the Most Sublime, in line with His orders: "O you who have believed, fear Allah and speak words of appropriate justice. He will [then] amend for you your deeds and forgive you your sins. And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has certainly attained a great attainment." (Al Ahzab: 70-71).

Dear Muslims,

The pursuit of happiness is a fundamental human goal and there are several aspects in achieving it. To begin with, one way of attaining happiness is by obeying Allah, the Almighty and following His religion. The Almighty promised His obedient believers with a happy life as evidenced in this Aya: "whoever does righteousness, whether male or female, while he is a believer, We will surely cause him to live a good life, and We will surely give them their reward [in the Hereafter] according to the best of what they used to do." (An-Nahl: 97). Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said in this regard, "Good life is happiness... and it covers all aspects of comfort."

The most important aspect of comfort is the happiness of the heart and its serenity, which can be acquired by believing in Allah, being devoted to Him, depending on and obeying Him. Indeed, there is no better worldly life than that of a believer who possesses an obedient heart, one who would live in this world as if he were in Paradise. One of the righteous ancestors said, "there comes a time when I think that if the people of Paradise were living such a life, then they would be truly living a good life. This is because the obedient believers' heart would be filled with happiness, contentment and comfort."

Furthermore, please know that when happiness sits in the heart, the entire life becomes sweet. To attain such a level of happiness, one should do so much good deeds so that he would receive provision of rewards and ultimately win Paradise as promised by Allah, the Most Exalted, in the following Aya: "those who have believed and done righteous deeds - a good state is theirs and a good return." (Ar-Raad: 29). In the interpretation of this Aya, Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with them, said, "the virtuous people will be rewarded with delight and comfort of the eye in this world and will be admitted to Paradise in the Hereafter. Thus, they will be blessed with happiness in both lives."

An equally important means of achieving joy and delight is remembrance of Allah, the Most High. This is because the believer's heart finds comfort in the side of Allah, becomes assured and pleased for having Him as his Protector and Supporter. The Exalted is He says, "those who have believed and whose hearts are assured by the remembrance of Allah. Unquestionably, by the remembrance of Allah hearts are assured." (Ar-Raad: 28). An interpretation of the meaning of 'remembrance of Allah' in this Aya said it meant "obedience of Allah".



In like manner, it is beneficial to know that amongst the key factors of gaining one's happiness, comfort, tranquillity and peace of mind is to believe in Allah's decree (fate and destiny) which is one of the tenets of faith. In Islam, to believe in Allah's decree, one should have good faith and trust in Him at times of happiness and distress, as well. Consequently, the believer shall seek Allah's blessings and long for His mercy. And whoever was tested with a failure, he should be patient, never give up and be optimistic that he can achieve success with hard work, prayers and determination. Yet, if things do not go well, the way a person has wished, neither should he get depressed nor should he blame his destiny.

Accepting Allah's decree was emphasised by the Prophet pbuh in many instances. For example, in the following Hadith, he said: "if anything afflicts you do not say, 'if I had done such and such things, such and such would have happened.' But say, 'Allah decrees and what He wills He does,' for (the utterance) 'If I had' provides an opening for the deeds of the devil." This means: one should be persistent on doing the righteous deeds, and when a person is deprived of any of the worldly matters, he should not feel disadvantaged. Rather, he should trust that Allah, the Almighty, prepared all that is good for him, as reflected by the Prophet pbuh when he said, "I am amazed by the believer. Verily, Allah does not decree anything for the believer except what is good for him." He pbuh also urged the believers to be positive at all times, as he said, "and know that victory comes with patience, relief with affliction, and hardship with ease."

Undoubtedly, those whose heart is filled with the acceptance of Allah's destiny shall cherish contentment, tranquillity and peace of mind.

Moreover, self-contentment is yet another key for achieving happiness. It is embodied in one's intrinsic satisfaction and abstention from begging. The Messenger of Allah said in this regard, "be satisfied with what Allah has allotted for you and you shall be the richest of the people." Therefore, those who are content with their own provisions and lot in life will get above the concern over the wealth and status of others and will definitely realise the true fortune. Our Master Muhammad pbuh described thus as: "richness does not mean, having a great amount of property, but riches is self-contentment."

Likewise, the people of wisdom realised this principle and advised their offspring to be self-content so as to cherish happiness, peace of mind and well-being. A wise man once said to his son, "O son, he who is satisfied with what he has been given will achieve the true happiness." A poet also said what it meant: exchange not contentment for anything, indeed in contentment you will find comfort and well-being.

O Servants of Allah,

It is also good to know that home plays a very important role in leading a happy life. Family happiness is built on faith and obedience to Allah and His Messenger pbuh and a sincere sense of gratefulness to what Allah has provided. Family happiness depends also on the qualities of those in charge: a husband, who leads it with wisdom, and patience, assumes responsibility and attends to it with sensible care, and a wife, who is the centre of happiness. This is stressed by the Prophet pbuh when he said, "the four pillars of happiness are: a righteous wife, a spacious dwelling, righteous neighbours and a good mount."

The Husband and the wife are two significant pillars upon whom the happiness and prosperity of the family rest. It is, therefore, essential that their relationship should be cordial and harmonious so that the whole family members live happily. Such happiness will also reflect on the whole society since the family is the nucleus of any community.

Let us then look into our hearts and see how much we are assured with faith and obedient to our Lord. Let us also assess ourselves to what extent we are satisfied with Allah's destiny and content with His provisions as well as whether we have achieved happiness inside our families. Truly these are the prerequisites of satisfaction and contentment.

With this in mind, we pray to Allah, the Almighty, to bless us with happiness in our hearts, family and society. May Allah make for us in our spouse and offspring a comfort of our eyes and grant us success to obey our parents.

O Allah, may You guide us all to obey You and obey Your Messenger Muhammad pbuh and obey those You have commanded us to obey in line with Your orders: "O you who have believed, obey Allah and obey the Messenger and those in authority among you" (An-Nisaa: 59).

May Allah direct us all to the blessings of the Glorious Quran and the Sunna of His Messenger pbuh.

I say this and ask Allah for forgiveness for me and you, so invoke Him for forgiveness, for He is the Most Forgiving, the Most Merciful.

Second Sermon

All praise is due to Allah, the Lords of the Worlds. I bear witness that there is no deity save Allah, having no associates. I also bear witness that our Master Muhammad is the servant of Allah and His Messenger. May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon ou­­r Master Muhammad, his pure family, companions, and all those who follow them in righteousness till the Day of Judgment.

As to what follows,

O worshipers,

Please be aware that the first thing we should advise each other about is obeying Allah, the Most Sublime, and to strive to bring happiness to our society in line with the vision of our wise leaders who relentlessly seek to provide all elements of happiness to their people. To this end, they ensure meeting people's needs and overcoming all difficulties in their way. Hence, bringing happiness to people has become the UAE leadership's enlightened humanitarian approach as well as a mission and a commitment. In undertaking of such a fine approach, the UAE government launched many initiatives with a view to maintaining all means of comfort and welfare to the UAE population people. Thus, they really represent the best of rulers whom our Master Muhammad pbuh described as he said, "the best of your rulers are those whom you love and who love you, who invoke Allah's blessings upon you and you invoke His blessings upon them."

That is said, let us implore to Allah, the Almighty, to reward our rulers the best of rewards and to grant them success to do all that is best for our country and people.

O Allah, please confer Your blessings and grant peace upon our Prophet Muhammad pbuh. The Messenger of Allah pbuh said, "for everyone who invokes a blessing on me will receive ten blessings from Allah."

O Lord, we pray to You to grant us happiness in this world and in the Hereafter, O the Most Gracious.

May Allah have mercy on the honourable martyrs of our country and those of the coalition and gather them with the righteous. May Allah make their dwelling with the ones upon whom Allah has bestowed favour of the prophets and the steadfast affirmers of truth, O the Most Gracious the Most Forgiving.

O Allah, please grant the best reward for the families of the martyrs and offer them patience and solace. May Allah grant victory to the soldiers of the Arab Coalition who gathered to restore the rights to their owners. O Lord, please be by their side and guide the Yemeni people to everything that is good. O Allah, make them rally for the word of truth and legitimacy, and bless them with welfare and stability, O the Most Generous.

May Allah be pleased with the Rightly Guided Caliphs: Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali, and all of the Companions.

O Allah, may we ask You for all that is good, in this world and in the Hereafter. O Allah, we seek Your grace to admit us, our parents, whoever has done a favour to us and all Muslims to Your Paradise.

May Allah grant success and continued health and care to the UAE President HH Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. May Allah also ensure success to his Vice-President, trustworthy Crown Prince and his brothers, Their Highnesses the Rulers of the Emirates.

O Allah, please forgive all of the Muslims, men and women, living and dead. May Allah have mercy on Sheikh Zayed, Sheikh Maktoum and the Late UAE Sheikhs. O Lord, forgive and show mercy on our parents, relatives and whoever has done a favour to us.

O Allah, we pray to You to grant Your forgiveness and reward to who built this mosque and to his or her parents as well as to anyone who gave to this mosque. O Allah, we also supplicate to You to forgive whoever built a mosque where Your name is remembered.

O Allah, make this gathering one of compassion, and our dispersion after it one that is infallible. O Allah, do not let anyone amongst us be deprived or desperate.

We pray to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, to protect the UAE against any of temptations, both apparent and hidden, and continue blessing the UAE with safety and security.

O Allah, we implore you to send upon us wealthy rain and make us not amongst those who are desperate. O Allah, relieve us! O Allah, relieve us! O Allah, relieve us! O Lord, provide us from the blessings of the sky a beneficial rain and make our crops grow.

Our Lord, give us in this world that which is good and in the Hereafter that which is good, and save us from the torment of the Fire.

O Servants of Allah "indeed, Allah orders justice and good conduct and giving to relatives and forbids immorality and bad conduct and oppression. He admonishes you that perhaps you will be reminded." (An-Nahl: 90).

Remember Allah and He will remember you. Be grateful of His benevolence and He will increase His blessings to you. Allah says, "and establish prayer. Indeed, prayer prohibits immorality and wrongdoing, and the remembrance of Allah is greater. And Allah knows that which you do." (Al Ankaboot: 45).