 As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim, Alhamdulillah ya Rabbil Alameen Wa sallallahu wa sallam wa barakah ala Sayyidina Muhammadin Wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallim al-Maheen Wa Allahumma ftaqalina wa fatuhu al-Arafin Wa fiqqunatu fiqqun salihin Ya Ar-Rahmanir Rahmeen, Nabi Al-Sahih, Sadri wa Sadri, Amri Waql al-Aqqata al-Malhissani, Yaqqa al-Qawli As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu Hope everybody is doing well Alhamdulillah, today is the day of Juma, the day of Friday, a very, very blessed day in our tradition. And due to the circumstances, of course, most of the Juma prayers are not happening. So, insha'Allah, we're just gonna do a short reminder here just so that everybody can kind of keep that spirit going of getting a reminder on the blessed day of Friday. This does not take the place of the Friday prayer. So, we still have to pray for Raqqa al-Bohr at home. But insha'Allah, it's a good spiritual boost for all of us. So, we're in very, very interesting times. We're in very, very trying times. It's a time of tribulation. It's a time of jalal. It's a time of contemplation. It's a time of really thinking about ourselves. It's a time of introspection. One of the wisdoms of us being at home and having to be alone and quarantined is that we should try to reflect upon ourselves. We should try to reflect upon our life. And part of that means that we really need to think about where is the state of our heart right now? Where was the state of our heart before this coronavirus situation? And where do we want our heart to be after this situation, insha'Allah? And that's kind of what we have to examine. But first and foremost, let's just address the fact that many of us are feeling anxiety. Many of us are feeling worried. Many of us are feeling scared. And that's a totally normal feeling to have in the times that we're living in right now. It's okay to feel worried. It's okay to be unsure about what's going to happen. It's okay to have anxiety. It's, that's all okay. But we have to know that our tradition, alhamdulillah, gives us a way out of every difficulty. Allah has guaranteed that there is a way out of every difficulty. He has guaranteed that there is a cure for every sickness. And He is the Lord who is going to take care of us and going to take care of the ummah throughout this time and throughout this period. And so as we're feeling this anxiety and feeling this trust, it should be a means for us to change our inner state, to be directed completely and sincerely towards our Lord. Sincerely towards Allah the Almighty, Allah and turning to Him, placing our trust in Him, begging Him, asking Him for help, asking Him for assistance, crying to Him, turning to Him in repentance, asking Him to shower His mercy upon us and our families and our society and our ummah and the entire global community. That's one of the first lessons that we can take from this, is that the anxiety will come, but there is a way to turn that anxiety from a anxiety that bothers us to something that can then be channeled more positively towards Doha. And if you and I turn to Allah, seeking His assistance, asking Him for help and trying to place our trust in Him, trying to go through this difficult exercise, don't ever doubt that your Lord will help you. There we find a tradition that is mentioned that Allah is in the opinion of His servant. He mentions that I am in the opinion of my servant in a hadith Qudsi. And that means that if we assume good about Allah, if we assume that He's going to help us, if we have a good opinion of Him, insha'Allah He will help us, not on our timeline, but on His timeline. However, the first step is that mental shift to try and make that intention and to try and turn towards Him and seek His help, seek His assistance. He says in the Quran, wa sta'inu bi sabri wa salaf, that to seek His assistance with patience and prayer. And so if this situation is driving us towards praying, it's driving us towards seeking His assistance, it's driving us towards making more da'a, it's driving us to make more da'a, alhamdulillah. And if it's not, it's okay, but we have opportunities. We still have time to help shift our life, help change our situation. And so that's partly what we want to address today, just briefly, insha'Allah, that where is the state of our heart right now when this situation has manifested upon us? Many of us are going to have a fluctuation of states. We're going to be feeling different feelings as this crisis starts to manifest. But we should have an internal sense at this point that it's time now for us to change. It's time for us to change our life. If other events in the past didn't do it, if we made an intention in Ramadan last year, we're gonna, I'm gonna finally change my life today or I'm gonna finally change my life this month. And we were not able to make the intention or we were not able rather to actually fulfill and act upon that intention, then renew the intention, renew your intention. It's important for the believer to regularly be renewing our intentions. We all go through moments of life where we say we're going to change. This is now the time that we should act upon that because Allah mentions in the Quran that He does not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves. He does not change what is going on around a people, around a society until we make the effort ourselves to change ourselves. And so what better time right now when we need our Lord's Rahma, we need our Lord's assistance, we need help then for us to first look introspectively and change, that is what the believer should be doing. We should always first introspectively look to see what am I doing wrong, not blame everybody else that, oh, everybody else is doing all of these things wrong and thus this brought down this calamity. We know we live in a society full of sin. We live in a society full of generally doing a lot of, engaging in a lot of moral corruption. We know that, we're aware of that. The whole world is filled with that. But at our own individual level, let's take some time, especially on Friday, it's a good day to examine our state, the state of our heart, where we are at. And if we're able to do that, then we'll start to be introspectively look, okay, how can I improve my relationship with my Lord? Where am I at? And we will all be at different degrees. Some of us may be immersed deeply in a lot of sin and it's okay, Allah will accept us and allow us to turn back to him and this is the time to turn back to him. Some people may not be as immersed in outward apparent sin but they may be praying regularly but they may be doing their adhkara regularly. They may be generally be in a good state but there's still a lot of room to go. There's still a lot of room to travel on the spiritual path and that goes towards purifying the heart, purifying the thoughts, trying to gain more knowledge, trying to get closer to Allah. Every single person has a role to play in this situation, all of us. And this ummah has a role to play. Allah says in the Qur'an khuntum khaira umma jit ukhrejaq khuntum khaira umma jit ukhrejaq lindas that you are the best people. You, this ummah were the best people to ever be sent forth to humanity. But how did he qualify that? He says that you enjoin good and that you forbid evil. He goes on to qualify that statement. That is the characteristic, the defining quality that defines this exemplary ummah. If we do that, then we become an exemplary status. So again, we examine how much of our life do we spend doing that versus how much of our life do we spend encouraging people to not do good. Are we the people who when we see someone do something that bothers us, we start talking smack about them with our friends or with our coworkers or with our family members? Or are we the people who say, hey, we really shouldn't, we shouldn't really talk about them? That's the unpopular stance these days. People are gonna be like, oh, are you really gonna do that? It's not a big deal. I would say this to their face. It's not considered backbiting, right? That's, it's the unpopular stance these days to take the stance of, we really shouldn't do this right now. We really shouldn't, or our friends say, hey, let's go out, let's go to this party or let's go to this place where things are happening that we know we shouldn't be in a place where we shouldn't be, right? Or somebody sends us a video that's inappropriate or we're watching a show that's inappropriate. How many of us are the ones that are gonna extend up and say, not in a rude, judgmental way, gentle, calm, like, hey, let's try to change this. Let's try not to engage our life in watching this or in hearing this or in eating this or in going here, right? That's how we examine if we are starting to get to this quality of this exemplary onla. But it begins with an internal change. And that's what we need to focus on in this situation is an internal change. Because keep in mind, this coronavirus has woken up a lot, a lot of humanity. Alhamdulillah. At the same time, if tomorrow CNN were to report that there is a disease that guarantees that 100% of the people on this planet are going to get that disease and 100% of people who get that disease will die. So you're talking about 100% chance of somebody getting it and 100% mortality rate. How worried would people be? How worried would we be? How much would we be preparing? We now know of a disease which is very, very intense as we're starting to see. Still, even it's an intensity and how rapidly it's spreading, 100% of people, inshallah, won't get it. And the mortality rate remains at about 2%, maybe a little less than 2%, depending on the statistics that one is looking at, according to, let's say, the World Health Organization. So if that's the mortality rate and that's the rate of the chance of getting the disease, but we're still going through all the necessary measures as we should be, we're quarantining, we're maintaining social distancing, we're trying to prevent ourselves from going outside, we're doing all these measures, then think about it. If that, if there was a disease even more intense than that, how serious would our reaction be? And there is a disease more intense than that. It's known as death, the disease of death. Allah mentions in the Quran, qulul nafsin, that because of mode, that every soul is tasting death. Every soul will taste death. That disease of death will manifest. It's going to manifest for all of us and it's gonna be at different times, but every person on this planet, eventually is going to taste this disease. And eventually, not only are gonna taste a disease, but what is the nature of the disease? There is no cure, quote unquote, that disease takes our life. And so it should be a moment for us to think, I am preparing so much for this situation as I should be. But how much am I preparing for the real disease that's gonna impact me eventually? Because at this point, inshallah, this situation will pass and we ask that Allah Shah has looked upon this, upon the entire global community. This situation, inshallah, is going to pass just like many other situations in history have passed. We've, throughout history, the global community has lived through tribulation, has lived through plagues, has lived through entire major natural disasters, but death has always remained consistent and death is going to come in this, in any situation. And so we have to be aware how seriously are we taking our death? How seriously then that means are we taking our life? Because when that moment comes for us, all of the preparation that we did is going to manifest when the moment of death comes. Did we live a virtuous life? Did we pray all of our prayers? Were we on time? Were we kind to the people? Were we generous people? Were we people who helped others? What was our character like in this world? Did we follow what God wanted us to do? Which is, it's a small number of things compared to everything that he lets us do and compared to things that he doesn't want us to do, it's a small number, right? Did we dress in the way he wants us to dress? Right, did we speak in the way he wants us to speak and not speak about others in the way he doesn't want us to speak? All of these things will manifest. And so just like we're taking the precautions, we put the masks on and the hand sanitizer on and the gloves on and we stay inside. How many of us with regards to the real disease that's going to come are taking the necessary precautions? Have we quarantined the heart from the diseases of the heart? Have we put on the heart sanitizer to clean out the sins of the heart? Have we put on the protective layers between us and the masks that will protect us from the sins of this world? Because one sin is far more dangerous, regularly sinning is far more dangerous for the heart than any disease that exists and then the coronavirus. And it's a very serious situation, of course, but it should be a time that allows us to reflect because Allah says he will not change the condition of the people until they change what is in themselves. And we will pass away. We will get to that point where we die. We will get to that point where we enter the grave. We will be eventually carried by people in to the graveyard, right? As we're wrapped up in the kafan. We will be carried. We will be laid to rest. Eventually our family will leave. And then it's just us and God and our deeds. Our deeds will remain with us. Your deeds are your friends, but they're your friends depending on they're either your friends or they're your enemies. Good deeds will be your friend, but the bad deeds that we do, the small things we take for granted, the haram every day that we let enter our eyes, the haram every day that we speak from our mouth, the haram every day that we're always listening to as we're walking around and constantly listening to vulgar music or different things that people are saying. All of those deeds, they have a reality. They're being written down and we take them with us to our grave. And when they manifest, if it's on the bad side, it's very serious for everybody. It's very serious. It's not something to be taken lightly. When that manifests, right? It's going to make us feel even if we're feeling anxious and worried right now, imagine you're going to be in a grave and it can get constricted and it can get difficult and you're going to be alone. But if your good deeds are with you, they will be with you like light. They will open up your grave for you. They will protect the punishments of the grave from you. This is, we find this in the, in the hadid that the Quran will serve as a protection for the believer. Light will, it will be in the form of light. It will be protection for the believer. A lot of other many, many good deeds will serve as protection for the believers, but the bad deeds will cause difficulty for us. And then the same thing manifests as we approach the day of judgment where all of us will stand before our Lord. And this life will seem like it was a day or part of a day. It will be asked, it's mentioned in the Quran that how long were you on this earth? And there were people who responded. It was like we were here for a day or half a day. That's not that much time. But then the next life begins and the next life is evaluated based on how we spent this life. So the best thing that we can do in this time is take it seriously. Of course, take all the necessary precautions. Take this situation that we're facing very seriously and use it as a means to reflect because Allah does not change the condition of a people until we change what is in ourselves. We need to change ourselves. We need to change the situation of our families. We need to help society change. And ultimately, we need the world to change. We need a global tola, but it starts from within. No human being can go and try to affect change in the world if they have not started with themselves. Many folks want to try to change the world, but we have to start inside. How are we looking at what we're doing inside? And nobody's perfect. We will all have things to work on. So we work on this gradual process. What is the process? Is it a few simple steps? Three steps. First is we start with the sins that we're committing. Make a list of the sins that we're committing. We have plenty of time these days. We're sitting at home. Many of us are trying to figure out what should we be doing? Make a list of all the sins that you're committing, all the sins that we're committing, and the sins that maybe you stopped committing because we can't commit as many sins in the house because we can't go to the places of sin as easily. Or maybe the places of sin come to us in the form of our phones. We don't know. But we are limited, still somewhat. And then think about it. Take one sin and think about how serious you would take it if you knew somebody who had the coronavirus and who was just regularly coming into your house. How seriously would you take it? How seriously would we take it? We would be like disinfecting everything. We would be worried. We would eventually say, please don't come near the house anymore, right? That's how seriously we would take it. And now think if every time we let sin enter our home, it's more dangerous for the spiritual heart than any disease that's out there. And it's gonna have more long-term impact ramifications. We have to think about this seriously, though. Reflection is important because with this concept, it sounds kind of like, yeah, whatever, man, there's bigger things to worry about. There are quote-unquote bigger things to worry about, but the next life is the biggest thing to worry about. And so we should take portions of our day and worry and think about the next life. And just think not in an anxiety-inducing way, but in a change-inducing way, in a way that will help drive our hearts to change. What is that change? That change is that, okay, if I take this sin as seriously or more seriously than I take a virus, I will put more layers of protection between me and the sin than I even would between me and this virus. And there's like five, 10, 15 layers between most of us right now, right? And precautions, alhamdulillah, that we're trying to take with this coronavirus situation. Take the same approach with sin and think about it. And categorize the sin if we're engaged in major sin, if somebody is struggling with smoking or drinking or relationships with people, we shouldn't be in relationships with illicit relationships, premarital, sexual relationships, all of those types of situations. If that's the situation we're in, okay, we put a layer between that and we try to say how I'm gonna change myself because those things give us temporary happiness for a long-term disease, right? You could get temporarily, let's say somebody wants to like get out of the quarantine right now and they wanna just go about. They could go to all the places, go have fun, try to do things outside, but they risk something and they risk themselves getting the disease and then spreading the disease. Similarly, the sin, it's not gonna have the impact on the first day immediately on you. It's an unseen impact, but the impact comes over time. It builds up, it increases our worries, it increases our anxieties and the sin ultimately impacts the heart to the point where the heart is no longer as receptive as it once used to be. And so that's the first step that we should take. Think about the sins that we're doing regularly. Do we miss pleasure every day? Okay, we have to change that. This is the time to change it. It's a good time. We go to sleep earlier. We should try to wake up earlier in these times that we're in, asking Allah for help. Do we take our prayers seriously or do we just say, okay, inshallah, Allah will forgive us? That's a very common statement. We do hope that Allah will forgive us, but it takes work. It's like saying, I'm gonna go outside with no protection, put no effort in and inshallah, I won't get any disease. That's not how it works. You have to put in the effort. Similarly with our life, we have to put in the effort. So the first layer, write down a list of the sins that we're doing and examine, examine every limb, eye, the eyes, the nose, the ears, the mouth, the hands, the feet, all of our limbs and what sins we could be doing with each of those limbs and then make an active intention today that you want to change and turn to your Lord today and say, ya Allah, help me change, help me change. And then the next step is make a sincere toba, repentance. Turn towards Allah with repentance because Allah accepts the repentance of people who turn to him sincerely and he'll wipe away those sins and there won't be any impact inshallah of those sins. It's like going from situation when one has a disease and they're completely cured. That's how repentance works. So if we turn towards Allah, he can cure us. How do we do that? Just we first feel bad about the sin. There are three steps that the scar is identified. First we feel bad about the sin. We then actively engage in asking Allah for forgiveness and then we make a firm intention to never engage in that sin again. So make that intention today that ya Allah, there were all these things I was doing before this virus manifested and now I'm going to try to stop doing all of them or at least 80% of them, 90% of them. We may not be able to change everything completely but we should try. And if we can't, that shouldn't mean we change 0%. We change something in the middle but we always are trying to progress in this journey towards getting closer to Allah. And so we turn towards him repentance, asking for forgiveness. And then after we've done that with our sins then we next move on to the diseases of the heart. You have outward sins of the limbs and then you have sins that exist in the heart. An example of a disease of the heart is like jealousy or envy where you see somebody gets a new car and you feel like why did they get the new car? Why did they get the new job? Why did they get the promotion? I should have gotten it. What we're saying there subtly is that God made a mistake in giving them that and he should have given it to me. It's a very, very subtle sin but it has a major impact on us. It's one example or another sin of the heart to always be focusing on chasing after money or chasing after wealth or thinking we're better than other people being arrogant. All of these sins we have to examine. We start then with the sins of the limbs and we move on then to the sins of the heart because many of us maybe we're not doing as many of the sins of the limbs anymore but the sins of the heart are happening and so we have to work. Okay, let me purify the heart because one of those diseases that stays with us is far worse than any physical disease that could manifest in this life right now because it has spiritual ramifications that carry over with us to the next life. So then we examine where are we with our heart and we start that process of first asking Allah for assistance and then trying to change our heart and asking Him for help in changing the heart. And the best thing that we can do in this time is dig deep down when you're feeling worried, when you're feeling anxious, when you're feeling nervous dig deep down inside that part of you that's vulnerable that part of you that's worried that part of you that's sad that part of you that doesn't know what's gonna manifest and use that energy that you have or that feeling and direct it towards Allah and direct that feeling towards Allah and be vulnerable with your Lord and turn to Him in sincere, sincere, Toba. Ask Him for help. Ask Him for assistance. Ask Him for mercy. Your dua could be the reason this disease is lifted upon all of humanity. A sincere dua is one of the most powerful things that we can do. The dua is the weapon of the believer. A sincere dua is extremely powerful. It starts with a sincere repentance. Ya Allah, forgive me. Please forgive me. Change my life. Let me change my life and turn to Him sincerely. Use this energy. Use the feelings we're having right now. Direct them towards Him. Turn to Him sincerely and make a significant commitment to change your life. Come up with a plan then inshallah of the sins that you and I are doing and work on those sins one by one and have a plan ready for what after this is lifted how am I gonna change my life? Because if you and I just go back to normal and living the lives in the same way if they were not in a beneficial way if we go back to living them in the same way that we were before this and we haven't changed then what have we really learned? We're not learning. We have to take these situations as times to learn as times to reflect and finally use this time that we have wisely as we progress on this list that we're discussing on this path. If one has stopped and worked on the sins that they're trying to fix and then the diseases of the heart use this time five, 10 minutes a day to gain some knowledge to turn to Allah, to read the Quran, to ponder what does He mean? The answers to every problem in life are hidden in the Quran. They're there though and sometimes they're manifesting the Quran but the month of the Quran is coming. We just entered the beautiful month of Sha'ban and next month is the month of Ramadan and so this is the time that we should prepare to create some routine when we just engage with the book of Allah and look it doesn't matter how deeply engrossed we're in with the problems we're facing. Allah will help, insha'Allah. It's just a matter of us taking that first step. Us taking the step towards turning to Him. Us taking the step to come back to Him and us actively then engaging in the work because it takes work to improve in life. It takes work to become fit. You have to work hard. You have to work out. You have to eat healthy. It also takes work to become spiritually fit. It does take work but don't think that you can't do the work. You can do the work. Allah created you with an immense potential. He says in Surat al-Zaytun wa-t'ini wa-zaytun wa-tur-i-sineen wa-haadal balad al-ameen laqad khalaqna al-insana fi ahsan al-taqweem thumma radadnaahu as-far as-sa'fi'een that we created the human being in the best of forms. The best of forms and then He had the potential to be to go to the highest of the high or to fall to the lowest of the low. Use these moments to go to the highest of the high and be with your Lord because He is the Lord Most High and the one who's with Him, the one who's remembering Him, the one who's turning back to Him, the one who's crying to Him, the one who's weeping to Him, the one who's asking Him, the one who's seeking His assistance, the one who's begging Him, the one who is seeking all of His help for us and for humanity, insha'Allah, He will not deny them because He is a generous Lord. He will help them. And He says fadkuruni adkurkum that when you remember Me and I remember you. And so when you remember Him, He remembers you and what better station than to be remembered by Allah. When you are remembered by Allah, He will send His gentle breezes of assistance to take you and I out of difficulty, into assistance, out of the dulumat and the darkness, into the nur, into the light of ease and insha'Allah, He does that for us and for this entire ummah. Use this day, this moment to make a change in your life. Use this situation to change your life and remember coronavirus or not, eventually the disease of death is going to get all of us. And so we have to think how exactly are we going to respond and be prepared? Insha'Allah, you and I will have a khusna khatima, a good seal to our life and don't think that you can't do it. You have the potential, we all have the potential to change but our Lord is the one who's going to assist us and He does not change the condition of a people until we change ourselves. So make that intention to change yourself and insha'Allah, our Lord will start to change our condition, the condition of this society and the condition of this entire global community. We ask Allah for His khayr, for His luth and for His ease and we pray that Allah keeps all of us healthy, keeps all of those in this community and in our global community healthy. Allahumma salli ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa alihi wa sahbihi sallim. Rabbana taqabal minna inna ka anta samyul alim wa tawbalina inna ka anta tawabir rahim We ask you, ya Allah, for all khayr and all luth and all ease and all gentleness and mercy to manifest in these times that we're living in. Wa sallallahu alayhi wa sallim wa barakah ala Sayyidina Muhammad wa alayhi wa sahbihi sallim wa alhamdulillahi rabbil alaymin. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakah to you Jazakum ala khayr. InshaAllah we will keep these up on Friday around this time via MCC's YouTube page and potentially next week we may be doing class Friday night, 8 p.m. via MCC's YouTube page as well. Stay tuned in the MCC newsletter and the Facebook page for more updates. Jazakum ala khayr and once again this does not take the place of Jumma. This is just a reminder we have to also pray the four rakat of Bohr because there is no formal Jumma happening in these times. May Allah keep you all safe, healthy, sane, calm, collected and happy in these times. Wa sallallahu alayhi wa sallim wa barakah ala Sayyidina Muhammad wa alayhi wa sallim wa alhamdulillahi rabbil alaymin.