 we start with the name of Allah, the compassionate, the merciful, the most gracious, the most kind, subhanahu wa ta'ala, glory be to Him. There is nothing in the heavens or on earth or nothing in the heavens or in the earth but glorifies the name of God, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And that's why we are honored to join that zikr, to join that tasbih. If you notice brothers and sisters in Surat Al-Jumu'ah, before Allah invites us to come and pray in Surat Al-Jumu'ah, that actually comes at the end of the Surah, the last three Ayat. Before that, Allah wants to remind you and to kind of put you in your place. The first Ayat in Surat Al-Jumu'ah talks about how you sabbihi lillahi ma fissamawati yawma fil'am, al-malikil qudus illa aziz al-hakim. To Allah glorifies what so ever is in the skies and what so ever is in the earth. He's the king, al-malik, al-qudus, the holy one, al-aziz, the mighty, al-hakim, the all wise, all knowledge. Allah puts that statement in the Magir of Surat Al-Jumu'ah before he invites you so that his invitation is just for you to join the rest of the universe because the universe is already glorifying. The question would you like to join or not? And Allah says if you join, there is a lot of goodness in it, even though you have to leave your business and then come back to it. So we say, ya Allah, if you know, we don't even need to know. We say, We listen because you're the all-knowing and the all-hearing. We know because you told us and now we know. And then Allah Azawajab says after the Salah is done then go back to your business and seek of Allah's pleasure, seek of Allah's pleasure and Allah's bounty and Allah's income. So interestingly it's been imprinted in our heads that Friday is a holiday, day off from work. Actually based on the Qur'an Friday is not a day off because Allah says come from work and then he says go back to work. According to the ayat at the end of surah al-Jum'ah, the whole idea of having a day off does not even exist in our history. Every day is a day on and every day is a day off. Muslims used to work from Fajr to Salat al-Asr, from Asr to Maghrib, his family time, from Maghrib to Ishaa, his Masjid time, from Ishaa till Fajr is Allah's time and sleeping time. The day was every day is a working day and every day is a day off. You don't have to worry and you give everyone his Haqq. SubhanAllah. And that's why at a time we were very productive. Right now we stop working Thursday noon. Why? I'm preparing for Friday. Then Saturday is, we're not working either. Why? I'm recovering from Friday. I need a rest from the rest and a vacation from the vacation. And by Monday noon you start functioning and that has put us back in comparison with other nations. SubhanAllah. But the day of Friday is a day of work, a day of ibadah, a day of tasbih, a day of asking Allah's forgiveness and worship, and a day of asking Allah's grace and sustenance and income. So Alhamdulillah that we are here and we're not there. Alhamdulillah we answered the call of Allah. So may Allah Azza wa Jalla, just for that answer may Allah accept it from us and open our minds and hearts to the truth and to following the truth. Amen. Brothers and sisters, SubhanAllah, time is running and time is passing. The young is becoming old and the old is passing to the next stage of life. The one who's not born, they're becoming born and then they get older and then older and the stages of life will all go through it. And the question is when is it that you're going to wake up? You see Allah's blessing is that you don't come to life five to ten years, 14 years. Most of the dogs and cats live for that time. Every one year for us in the life of a cat or a dog is seven years. So when a dog lives 14, you multiply 14 by seven. That's the age comparing to our age. So imagine if we come to life and we die after 14 years. You know this is the most time that you are clueless. You're moving from childhood to puberty and when kids move to puberty suddenly overnight they think they know everything now. Just by the fact that they became, their voice became deep, their shoulders are wider, they have now a little mustache and this and they have an opinion. They think now I know what I want in life. Don't talk to me. Don't tell me what I want. SubhanAllah. A day before you were a child. Now you are one day old or one year old as an adult. But what do they do? They count all the years from birth. No, don't count all the years from birth because these years don't count. You were a child. As an adult maybe you are one year old. When does a one year old do? At least we, one year old start walking, start learning two years old, three years old. So SubhanAllah that's why Islam does not have the concept of a teenager meaning you're clueless. It has the concept of a child, young man, then a full man. And a young man is a young man under training or a young woman under training to become old SubhanAllah. So when we look at Allah's blessing that Allah has given you time, time so that you grow and Allah hinted that by the age of 40 you reach your complete maturity. You know you move from being a baby to having a baby. That's a full cycle in life. A child, baby, then older, then older in education, work, getting married and then you have a baby and your baby is growing. So now you've been in old position in life. So Allah expects you to mature by that age. Of course by Allah gave you a system so that between childhood and maturity you don't ruin yourself and ruin your life and say I'm going to try everything in the world wrong or bad or this until I learn by trial and error, trial and error, trial and error. No, no, Allah gives you a way of life a system that if you follow you will be safe until your maturity and your wisdom and your knowledge catches up with your actions. So you act first, you protect yourself from harm, you do what is followed, until your knowledge and experience in life catches up to that. But the problem brothers and sisters, what's happening is today, you know, it was just 100 years ago. Ask your grandfather, by age 15, by age 10 there is no elementary school, there's no middle school, there's no high school. So this is all in the last 100 years. So by age 10 the kid cannot wait to go to the next stage in his life which is working with dad. So by age 15 he has five years of experience of work. Of course not a full-time work but helping, helping and by the time of 15 or 16 the boy is full body, masha'Allah. He has just only a few inches to grow for the rest of his life but otherwise he has shot up, you know, with growth. So by age 15 16 most of the, ask your grandfather, they were getting married by then. If you hit 18 people will look at you and say what's going on, why you're not married yet. You don't have to go back 1400 years, just ask your grandmother. I did that in our message in Saratoga and I asked people to ask their grandmothers how old was she when she got married and they were shocked. They didn't know that their grandmothers got married around age 13. 9, 10, 11, 12 and they're like oh my god, I was in shock talking about Prophet Muhammad marrying Aisha. It turned to be I don't have to go back to Aisha, I have to go back to my grandmother that I've seen. So the thing is people used to mature early. The maturity that people used to get by 15, 16 in today's system by the time you graduate from college and you get to school you're getting it by 25, 26. So the maturity shot back 10 years. Then right now actually not right now 10 years ago the maturity of a 25 only at 35 years old you can talk to him and have a conversation, serious conversation. Because before that if half of the conversation is not laughing and joking he's not interested into talking to you. I mean that's nice when you are 12 years old 11, 10, 8, 9. But now you're 25 when he says the whole thing has to be like laughing and otherwise it's not fun as if we live our life by one principle. Is it fun or not? So now the 35 years old is having the maturity of a 25 years old just 10, 15 years ago. And one who's you know 45 is having the maturity of a third and you can tell. So time is passing. And Allah Azza wa Jalla warned us in the Quran. Give us a warning. By time truly human beings or mankind or the human is in a great loss. There's one tradition that we came to know. It was just this birthday parties. So you know and even adults I'm finding out recently they're having a birthday. I mean I don't know how you're 40 and you're celebrating your birthday. I don't know. So when I am invited then now they're like inviting me right. I don't know what's going on. But nevertheless I say are you celebrating gaining one year or you should be crying for losing one year. Because now that year is gone. You're closer to death one year. You didn't gain anything. Show me the year. Is it in your pocket? Can you give it to me? You can't. It's gone. So the whole idea if we want to have birthdays should be a yearly the annual reflection time. So we invite our friends in this and we ask the child to reflect on his last year. What have you accomplished? What have you done? But to turn the whole thing into a cake and candies and this and what did you get? Nothing. I'm celebrating that I've wasted the last year. We don't do that as Muslims. Time is running and it's running out and we all know it. So now since Allah gave you time, Allah did not bring you to life for seven years only and then you're dead. Not 14 years and then you're dead. Allah gives you 60 70 hour life expectancy is getting more with all of this medicine and this especially in the developed countries. So you're getting more time. What is that translating in the mind of people is more time is I got more time to fool around. When is it you're going to wake up brothers and sisters? That's the question because time is running out. So Allah Azza wa Jalla says there's someone that when time passes it's like he has money in his pocket and there's a cut a hole in the pocket and every time he puts money money is running out and there's someone else his pocket is strong and intact. Every time he puts money the money is saved. Not only he's saved it's getting invested. So Allah says most of the people their time is running and it's getting wasted. And he lost. So Allah gives us a way of life. An entire map in life. This map and this plan a Muslim thank God that this surah is in juzo amma and it's very short. The young and the old and the man and the woman and the good memory and the bad memory they all can memorize this surah. Imam Shafi'i Rahmatullah Ali in his commentary to this surah he said if Allah jalla jalaluhu revealed nothing from the Quran except that one surah it would have been enough. It's an entire Imam Shafi'i faqih, alim, hafiz pure Arabic tongue after spending 10 years in never the less. He says this is an amazing surah because it's a complete way of life. So Allah gives you four steps. Now one should ask himself where do I fall into these four steps. Number one is Iman. Now Iman is not something that comes falls from the sky down on you like that you're walking down the street and then you were just in the right time in the right place and then he died a fill on you and now you have the Iman. This is what people even though this sounds silly what I'm saying but actually this is how people think. Akhi why don't you get up and pray? Allah didn't guide me after sending a prophet and a messenger who suffered for 63 years and after leaving the Quran and you're saying Allah didn't guide you like what do you mean? Oh you know Allah didn't guide you. This whole idea that Iman is some boom inspiration and you are waiting your whole life for that inspiration. You pray waiting for it, you go to Hajj waiting for it, you fast waiting for it and it's not something to wait for. It is something that is within your hands. Iman comes in our faith from ilm. You learn with a good intention, you learn with a good intention for Allah because you want to know the truth and that's when your Iman start growing with your ilm. That's one condition. That's why Allah has started this whole thing with. You got to know, you got to read, you got to think, you got to analyze, you got to see, you have to see not only have sight but have insight. So Allah is saying us illa ladina aamu. This Iman is built on ilm, on learning your deen. Learning what is Allah telling you? There's no confusion in our deen. There's no confusion, there's no mysteries, there's no secrets. There's no like some something that you can like some baataniya, they don't teach their deen to their children except when they turn 40. This is haraqat baataniya. In the Muslim world there are some groups like that. You are forbidden from learning your deen until you turn 40. I actually met someone who's like that and who became a Muslim after that and they explained the whole thing for me. It's very interesting because you're not supposed to know it's learning process but this learning is not about learning only, that's half. The other half illa ladina aamu wa amilu s-saliha. Wherever you go in the Quran you'll find illa ladina aamu wa amilu s-saliha. By the way this principle, Allah put it for the Jews, Allah put it for the Christians, Allah put it for the Sabi'in, Allah put it for the Muslimin, Allah put it for every deen. The two pillars of Iman are very strong and the two pillars of Iman is Iman abillahi wa liyumil aafi. And the learning, Iman an amal s-salih. So what did Allah censure at al-Baqarah? Inna ladina hadu wa nasara wa s-sabi'in, nabadina hadu. Inna ladina aamanu wa ladina hadu wa s-sabi'ina wa nasara wa s-sabi'in. Astaghfirullah. Inna ladina aamanu wa ladina hadu wa nasara wa s-sabi'in. The Muslimin, the Mu'min, the Jews, the Christians, and the Sabi'in, man aamana billahi wa liyumil aafi. Whosoever believes in God and on the Day of Judgment, wa amilu s-salihan, and then he did good deeds, fanahum ajuhrum imda rabbihim. Wa la khawfun alihim wa lahum yuhazim. Universal, universal criteria. It's not only for Muslims. Today the one who is clueless, what do they do? They are not learning, nor they are doing. They are doing few things and they think it's enough. So they are not learning, they are not doing. The one who is enlightened goes and learns, learns, learns, learns, learns, learns, learns until the day he dies and he never gets to do anything. But the one who is few of the few, the few of the few of you, aamanu wa amilu s-salihan, and then they even continue. Which means they learn and they apply, they learn and they apply. Now before I move on, I just want you to notice there is something settled in this surah. If you notice basic Arabic, you don't have to be a scholar in Arabic language, you will notice it. Allah says, Singular form, insaam. Not wa al-asr, But when it came to iman, it didn't say, it's switch from singular to plural. Which means we have to do this together. wa al-asr, ilal ladhina aamanu immediately jump to plural. So you have to get it. You have to get it on your own. That you do this with everyone else. That's why you notice that in surah al-Fatiha, you don't say, Guide me to the straight path. It says, How can I raise my kids? If my kids are the only kids who are Muslims or believers or have faith or believe in God. Every other kid they play with, they don't believe in God. They don't have a faith or honor. How can I survive like that? Can you pray juma'a alone? Would you fast Ramadan alone and have ishqar alone and have eid alone? Would you go to Hajj alone? How are you going to live your deem? This is a communal faith. Islam is a communal, is based on the jama'a. Together, together, together, together. Communal faith. You, now, now, you came here to pray to Allah. Not to anyone else. But you pray with other believers. Salatu l-jama'a, fil masjid. Allah puts that condition in siyam, in salah, in zaka'a. In Hajj together, together, together, do it together. So there is a hild, illa alladina, aamanu, together. They learn together. Are you part of a halakha, in a masjid, or a halakha at your home? Or God knows what it is? A circle of knowledge. Are you part of anything learning your deem? Because if you are not, Inna l-insana la fi khusr. You're losing. Are you doing some, any action to make sure that you are practicing your deem? So it's not theory, theory, theory. When Allah says, say, pray, you pray. Allah says, pi'amu laydu qiyam. Allah says, zaka'a, you give zaka'a. Allah says, siyam. Are you making sure that you're practicing? When Allah says, take care of the yateem and the miskeen and this and that and this. And make sure you do good deeds and give salah on this. Are you doing it? And are you doing it? With an organization, whatever that organization might be, that's the question. Wa al-asr inna l-insana la fi khusr. Illa ladina aamun. Wa amiru s-salihad. Islam and iman is not claims, right? We're very well-known to know that Muslims will say, Islam is the most beautiful religion. I agree. Are you beautiful too? Did the beautiful make you beautiful? Islam is a solution to the world's problems. I agree. Has it been a solution to your problems? Are you applying or are we just making? Because what is happening is that we keep on praising, praising God, praising Febis and then we go home and we do whatever we want. And then we feel good. Haas, I've done my job. I praise God. Allah is not in need of your praise. Rasulullah ﷺ is praised universally from Adam till Sayyidina Isa A.S. But it is you who join that beautiful crowd of Nbiyaq and Mursaleen and Siddiqeen by doing what Allah is asking you to do, by doing the right thing. The right thing. El-Ladina aamun wa amiru s-salihad wa tawa'asawu bil-haqqih wa tawa'asawu s-salih. Two mechanisms that are even more rare than the two steps. The first step is learn your deen, increase your iman. That's half. The second half, make sure that you put it in the world of action. The third and fourth is even now we are getting into more rare, more rare. El-Ladina aamun wa amiru s-salihad wa tawa'asawu bil-haqq which means advice each other because we're all, we all have mistakes and we're all valuable. We're not infallible. We're not like, we're not perfect. We're not angels. So I need reminders. I need you to tell me. In a nice word, say the best word at the best time, at the best place, with the best intention. That's the qualifications of nasiha. Don't advise people in front of everyone that's called insulting. Advice them alone. Use very nice words. Make sure the guy's not hungry, thirsty or has to go to the bathroom and you're going on and on and on with your nasiha. He's not going to listen. Make sure it's the best time, the best place, the best intention, using the best words. But if we don't tell each other like that, what did Allah say? If you stop bringing the good and decreasing the evil, your community will collapse because everyone will become on his own. And what did Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam say? He said something that the Arabs used to say before Islam. The wolves only eat the lonely sheep. So we might be in this masjid, maasha Allah we open the MCC, maasha Allah 400 people are praying salat al-durrah or salat al-jumrah. Excellent. Maasha Allah in the MCC 2,000 people pray salat al-durrah. Wonderful. But at the end of the week, do we have 2,000 individuals? Because 2,000 individuals could be in the same place of course everyone could be in his own place. It won't make a difference. That's why it's not about numbers. Read Surah Yaseen. Allah sends two prophets, no one believes. So Allah supports them with a third one, no one believes. Finally, one person believes. He comes and says, I declare my support to these three prophets, these three messengers. He says, you do, he says, I do. Okay. We kill you. And the kinder. Is it about numbers? That's why it doesn't reconcile. 1.5 billion. Okay. The world has 7 billion. And so the thing is, are you working with any, with your masjid, with your family, with other families, with this organization, with that organization, are you part of a group effort? Because you know what? You will never learn Islam until you work with, you will discover who you are. Your temper will come out and your frustrations will come out and your impatience will come out and your bad morals and manners will come out and you will discover, oh my God, I thought I was perfect until I started working with other people. And I discovered that I'm still perfect, they are wrong. We always learn the wrong listen, right? I'm still perfect, they are wrong. You know what? I am not going to do this anymore. Halas, I'm leaving. We are leaving. Learn. And that's why I mean, when we say Sahaba, Radwanullah Ali, that was their amazing thing. How could the individualistic Arabs who had only loyalty for the tribe, how could they come together and help one another and support one another and stay together and even they're struggling when they're doing it. Sometimes they do it right, sometimes they do it wrong, but at the end, Masha'Allah, they became like the stars in the sky. Radwanullah Ali. So, what Tawasaw Bil Haq advice one another, not insult one another, or not forgetting about one another. It's either, we don't have another solution. You either insult him or you forget about him. Can you do something in the middle? The fourth step, Once you do this, you feel like running away. You don't want to do it anymore. So Allah says, have patience. What Tawasaw Bil Haq, be patient. It's not easy. Well, I want to do it my way. Yeah, everyone can do it his way, but then we cannot talk about any accomplishment in our life. Why our country here, the country that we live in, why is it the first economic and force in the world? Is it because there is individual rich people in America? Who are they? You barely know the name of two. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Do you know a third one? I challenge you. Who know? Was that the guy that 10 years, 15 years ago, 20 years ago, was running for presidency? You know, from Texas, you know, but that's not. It's because of corporations. What is corporation? Teamwork. That's why our country is number one. But you go to other countries and you find, oh, he's rich and he's rich and he's rich. And when he becomes rich, he makes sure everybody else doesn't get rich. Any employee becomes a threat for him. So you see that mentality. Where is it getting us? So the message that I have for myself, first and foremost, for my brothers and sisters in Islam, time is running out. And you're getting older and your children are getting older. May Allah Azza wa Jall make us wake up and do the right thing before it's too late. Salatu wa salamu ala man la nabiyya ba'ala Sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi wa sahbihi wa sallam wa teslimin kathira Brothers and sisters, I am only one of you and I'm an advisor. In the mid 90s, from 1995 to 2000, the middle school, the high school, the college students, the youth, what we call the youth, used to come and ask, Sheikh, I can't pray in the school. Can I pray the Quran asr together? Can I pray Maghrib and Ishaab together? Sheikh, can I get like from the restaurant like Nanzabi Hamid? That was the question and we used to say, In the mid 90s, in the mid 2000s, the question become, Why can't I have a girlfriend? I'm not going to do Zina. I'm just going to be, she's going to be my friend. It became more far away from Islam. Why can't I go out with my friends to the bar? I'm not going to drink. Right now brothers and sisters, the bulk of the questions that I'm getting from high school and college students, does God exist? Just so that you know, that's question number one and Allah is my witness. And I'm standing here in a very difficult position. Question number one from college students and high school students and young professionals and maybe they are married and have kids. Does God exist? Why do we have to have a religion? Well, I mean, that's the most common question right now amongst the practicing Muslims within our community. Of course, your son and daughter will not come and ask you that because they know what's going to happen if they ask you that question. The sky is going to fall onto her, but they come and ask me or someone else after they trust that we're not going to go crazy on them. So that's why, Alhamdulillah, knowledge has come to you this weekend, Saturday and Sunday. Masha'Allah, we have a seminar about Shahada, and it will answer precisely that question from the ayat of the Qur'an because believe it or not, Allah talks about that in the Qur'an. Like the Qur'an does not assume, oh, everybody believes in God. It's just we have to make them believe that there is one God. No, no, no. There are so many arguments in the Qur'an with atheists and Allah says, like explicit, this is what they say. One, two, three, four, five, six. And here is the answer of Allah to it. Literally, Allah even brings what they say first out of Amana. And this is where the agnostic says, if there is God, if there is no God, we have nothing to lose, but if there is God, we're going to go to heaven. And then you have the people, the even the muslims and the people who worship Allah. You have all the situations and Allah brings this one argument, this one argument, this one argument, and then the polytheists, then the monotheists, and then everybody, his argument is mentioned in the Qur'an and it's cancer. No one talks about that. So knowledge has come to your doors in MCC, insha'Allah. So if you can and you should put the time aside on Saturday and Sunday, insha'Allah, we have a seminar tomorrow and after tomorrow and starting tonight, there will be a preview about Ash-Haru an-Lailah and Allah, Ash-Haru an-Masrullah because believe it or not, that's where we have to talk right now. We're not beyond that. And that's something you can spend your whole life, you know. The highest branch of faith is Lailah al-Allah. And if your final words from your life is Subhan Allah or Bismillah or La ilaha illallah that has the word of Allah, insha'Allah. Dakhla al-jannah, wa sallallahu sallam, wa sallam, sallam, sallam says. So may Allah Azza wa Jannah save us and save our sons and daughters and may Allah make time a factor of winning not a factor of losing for us. May Allah Azza wa Jannah may it pass from al-Ladina, Aman wa Ameer al-Salihaat wa Tawasaw bil-Hakwa wa Tawasaw al-Sadr and may Allah Azza wa Jannah make us minna al-Ladina, attaw wa hum muhsinun, insha'Allah. Allah muhsin al-Muslimina wa al-Muslima wa al-minina wa al-mumina al-Nahyaal minhum wa al-amwat innaka al-qareemun, al-sami'un, al-Mujeeb, al-Dawat Allahumma, a'izzabina, al-Islama, al-Unsur, binan, al-Muslimin wa alibina, kirimateil, haqiwa, din wa jannah min ibadika, al-Saliheen, Ya Rabbi, aminun. Allahumma, ablada, ablada, min azwajina, wa dhiriyatina, wa ta'aimun. wa jannah min mutaqina, Rabbana, wa a'atina, fid dunya, hasana'tan, wa fil aqirati, hasana'tan, wa qina'atad, al-Nar, dirahmatika, Ya Rahim, Ya Afoom, Ya Ghaffar, Subhanah, Rabbika, Rabbir-e-Izzati, amma yasifuna, wa salamun, al-Mursahina, wa al-hamdu Lillahi, Rabbil Al-Alamin, wa sallallahu ala Sayyidina, Muhammad, wa al-Ali, wa sallallahu ala Al-Muzaqi, Al-Muzaqi, Al-Muzaqi, Wa Aqim As-Salata, Inna As-Salata An-Nalina, As-Sharif Al-Munfaq, Wa Lillahi Al-Rabbi Al-Rabbi Al-Lah, Ya'ala, Mumaat As-Salaamu Alayhi wa Salaam.