 Allah says in this book in the Qur'an, إِدَّ تَشْهُورِنْ إِنَّ اللَّهِ يَتْنَ عَشْرَةَ شَهْرٍ فِي كِتَابِي اللَّهِ يَوْمَ خَلَقَ السَّمَا وَاتِي وَالْأَرْضِ مِنْهَا أَرْبَأَتُنْ هُرُمْ Low, the number of months with Allah when He created the heavens and the earth, He decreed that there be 12 months. And from the 12 months He said He decreed that 4 months are to be sacred months. 3 months are in succession following one another. And those are the months of Dhul Qaada Dhul Hijjah and Muharram. And then the month that we are presently in the month of Rajab, they call it Rajab al-Mufrad because it stands alone by itself. Nevertheless, this is the 7th month in a very sacred month. And for those that their hearts are connected to the Deen, connected to Revelation, connected to Prophethood, and above all connected to the love of Allah and His Messenger, we should know the price, we should know the worth of such a month. That it is a very ghal month, that it is a very expensive, very, very worthy month. And in this month, we should remember that just like sacred places like this Masjid is a sacred place, and we came here today for Juma, we wore best clothes, Alhamdulillah, and we cleaned up and we all took baths or we go to the Haram, Haram-e-Sharif over in Makkah or Medina Munawwara. It's a sacred place when we enter a Masjid and we remember that, Subhanallah, we have to watch what we say, we have to watch how we act, we have to watch ourselves accordingly to the hukm to the rules of Allah SWT because we are in a sacred place. But when you enter the month of Rajab in the other sacred months, you have to think about that in the same way because you're entering the month that way, that this is a very sacred month so we have to act accordingly during this month and we have to be careful with what we say and what we do and how we interact. The sacredness of this month and its reverence is with Allah SWT, we have to remember that it has been given 30 different, over 30 different titles or nicknames for this month out of reverence. One is Rajab al-Mujarrab, which means that it's the extraordinary, the honored and revered and magnifying buddh. Another name is Rajab al-Assam. Assam literally means the defeat, the deafening in the silent Rajab. The deafening in the silent Rajab, why? Because first of all Allah SWT commands in this month, He says, Do not transgress or oppress your own souls in this month. Meaning don't sin, don't transgress against your own selves. And then He talks about Allah SWT forbids any hostilities, any war. All of that has to come to an end and although divine guidance always adheres to this and encourages humanity from executing their anger and their egos and committing atrocities and hostilities, these four months like the one that we end, emphasizes it and it gives us a long month reminder that we are people of understanding and that we should have a sense and of an ethical framework to be able to self-restrain, to be able to call a peace treaty, to be able to call a truth in the time so we can adhere to divine guidance and use our akal. So this is one of those months and not to do things and cause arguments and cause fitna that will actually lead to war will lead to fighting, will lead to argumentation. And then this is not just for the hukuma, this is not just for governments. This is not just for countries but an extension. It is also for the family. The husband and the wife have to remember this. And then the siblings have to remember this. Brothers and sisters and friends, we all have to remember this as human beings that this is a mubarak month and this is a month that we have to start preparing ourselves for Ramadan because why? The last ten nights of Ramadan, Allah SWT says anybody, the Prophet says that Allah says that anybody that asks for forgiveness shall be forgiven except those that are called ranker and don't forgive others. So we have to slowly prepare ourselves for that month of Ramadan. And another nickname for the month of Rajab is Rajab al-Asab. Asab means to pour and it means that the mercy of Allah SWT is so abundant and the mercy is pouring in this month of Rajab. And the ulima say the Ra of Rajab literally stands for rahmatullah, the mercy of Allah SWT. And the jim stands for judahullah, the generosity of Allah SWT. And the ba stands for bir, the kindness of Allah SWT. And when the Prophet ﷺ would see the hilal, the moon, citing of this month, he would make dua. He would say that Allahumma barik li fi Rajab wa Sha'ban wa Balighna Ramadan. Oh Allah blesses in this month of Rajab and Sha'ban and let us reach Ramadan. The Sahaba six months before Ramadan would start preparing. They would pray that they made it to make it to Ramadan. And that is why Rajab they say is shahrul istighfar, the month of forgiveness, the month of making dua, asking for forgiveness. Wa Sha'ban, Salah al-mukhtar, this month of sending salawat on the chosen one, the Prophet ﷺ, was Ramadan shahrul qiraatul Quran. Ramadan is the month of reciting the Quran. And the ulima would always begin with Rajab in order to prepare for Ramadan. Imam Abu Bakr al-Waraq al-Balkhi, who was the uncle of Imam Tirmidhi, he would say that in Rajab you should plant your seeds. You plant your seeds as a farmer and then in Sha'ban you would irrigate them and you would prepare them. In Ramadan you would have your harvest, that you would profit of all of these things that you're doing. So Rajab in Sha'ban is really laying the foundations for Ramadan. We shouldn't go into Ramadan cold. You know, you can't play in the Super Bowl. You haven't practiced and you haven't had any playoff games. You go over there and you show up and you're the team that did it and you're going to get killed. Because we have to always prepare. Some people just show up and they say, you know what? I'll start Ramadan in such a mubarak month. But no, we have to start preparing now. And one of the things that we should do in this month is make big intentions. We should always have big intentions because the mu'mins' intentions are always bigger than their actions. So we intend that we will do the things we missed last month, last year, and do the things that we didn't do in last Ramadan. And then we have to make, this is the month of Istighfar. Rabbi Ya'fili wa Rahmli wa Tuba'lai, make a lot of us ask for forgiveness, ask for mercy in this month. This is the month of Istighfar. Some of the key events that took place during this month, first of all was that the noble parents of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam got married. The noble parents of the Rasul Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was conceived in this month also. But one of the most mubarak things, one of the most major events that happened was on the 27th night of Rajab, which is the Isra and the Me'araj. The Isra and the Me'araj, and the Isra being the journey of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam from Makkah to Quds to Jerusalem, and then the Me'araj, the ascension into the heavens. And this is really, really miraculous and from an Islamic perspective, the Isra and the Me'araj in this journey was very significant. It was such a significant event because it was the first time historically ever that somebody was invited to the heavens. You know they say nobody's seen death, nobody's died and came back to tell you about it. Well, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la from his Fudal has taken the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam behind the veils and he has shown them everything and he has came back and it's the first time in history that somebody went to the other side Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and he was shown heaven and hell. He was shown in the Barzakh. He showed every single stage of this creation of Allah was shown to him and he was brought back to us and we were told about it. And this actually connects humanity with the hereafter and gives us assurance as believers that there is a place. There's a place. And Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, a lot of people, they're in such confusion what's going to happen after death? They're really an afterlife and you hear all the atheists and you hear all these things but Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, we know it's the truth. Why? Because Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is not a liar. Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Even his enemies, Asadq al-Amin, he was called the trustworthy one. So we know what's going to happen. When Abu Bakr Sadiq, radiallahu ta'ala, when he said the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam when the Quraysh heard that he said and came back, they said, oh, we got him, we got him. There's no way, this is a month's journey. They came to Abu Bakr Sadiq, radiallahu ta'ala, and he said, do you see what your sahib is saying, what your companion is saying? He's saying he went there in one month and came back. He says, if he said it, it's true. If Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said it, it's true. Believe it, count on it, bet on it. Alhamdulillah, this is from the mercy of Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. And one of the greatest things, what is the meaning, another great meaning of this is that not only, why didn't the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam go straight to the ma'raj? Why wasn't the ascension done straight from Makkah into the heavens? Why did it go to Bayt al-Muqdis? Why did it go to Jerusalem? What was that step for? It was because at that time there was no places of worship for the Muslims. It was only for Christians and Jews in Jerusalem at that time. But the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam went there to lead all of the Anbiya in Salah and to establish this pluralism of monotheistic religions of peace that this is the message that we should always consider going for peace, that should we always bring peace and we should work towards that goal. That is the message of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, before fighting, before war, if we can do it and we're in an era we could write to our congressmen, we could do so many things to bring about peace. So that was a, that's why the stop was made. So it's a, it's a, it's a message to humanity that peace is, this is what we're doing, that we should do. And then the five times Salah, the five times prayer, everything was given to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam through Jibril Alaihi Wasallam except for the Salah. The Salah was given to him directly by Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. And what a great gift, especially in the time of so much distraction, a time of so much heedlessness, the prayer literally grounds us. People losing their mind, they don't even know what gender they are. People go into a school and shoot up and they don't know why they did it. All of this confusion, but the prayer grounds us. It makes us have Zikr of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. It brings us back to reality, to know what our existence is, what our existence is about. And that is why the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says, As-Salaa Imad-U-Din, that the prayer is the pillar, the middle player. If you see, if you have a tent, you have the four corners that are held up, but if you take one of those out, it still stands. That middle one, if you take it out, the entire thing falls. That's why he says, As-Salaa Imad-U-Din, that this is the pillar of our religion, the pillar of our religion. And then he says that, Ad-Dua Mughal-Ibadah, that the prayer is the essence of worship. And Mughal also means bone marrow. And what does bone marrow do in the body? It promotes the generating of red blood cells, of a blood cells and in the immune system, a defense. As-Salaa Sallahu-Din, that the prayer is the sword of a mu'min. The prayer is the sword of a mu'min, the weapon of a mu'min of a believer. Again, defense, that it protects you in these times, that if you pray five times a day, it protects you. And in one hadith, Imam Ahmad Ibn-Hambel, he takes this as, As-Salaa Al-Farqu Bain Al-Kaafir Al-Muslim, As-Salaa. The difference between the Muslim and the non-believer is the prayer. Now, the Humblies, they take that and say that if you left prayer, you've become a kafir, so you don't have to make it up. You just, you become, and you can take your shahada and start praying. The other Mada'eh, no, they don't agree with that. They say you're a faciq, you're a major, major sinner. But that we can't ever, ever leave the prayer. Allah SWT says, that Allah says that everything in the heavens and the earth, all creatures, everything, they have a form that they have been given to glorify Allah SWT. And he says even the birds, when you see the birds, how they in unison put their wings out and they fly, they're in glorification of Allah SWT. He even brings them in this ayah of the Qur'an. In Muhammad SAW, he was given the form of the Salah that we were about to do. And if you even see the name Adam, alif dal mean the alif is the standing position, the dal is the ruku, and the mem is the sajda. But when you see Ahmad, it's that he's a complete insan. His is the alif is the standing, the ha is the ruku, the mem is the sajda, and the dal is the jalsa when he says before the salam, the complete prayer, because he was Ahmad. And anybody that has a teacher who is a murid, who has a teacher that's taking them to Allah SWT, if you're a murid, what is a murid? A murid is someone that you read. Who are you read? He wants. He wants what? He wants enlightenment. He wants Allah. He wants to attain. So his teacher, his sheikh, teaches him through worship, through praise of Allah, to get to Allah SWT, and then once he gets there, he's the murad. He's been chosen. He's there now. Muhammad SAW was murid and murad at the same time, because he was Ahmad, that praised Allah the most, and then he became Muhammad, the one that was praised because he praised Allah the most. SAW. And there's five times, the significance of the five times prayer, having five fingers and five toes on each foot in each hand, having the five pillars of Islam, which every single action that we do, there's five different rulings, and there's the elements, earth, water, fire, air, and the fifth element, the soul. There's something about the number five that Allah SWT has prescribed this for us. And the prayer is something that you express with your hearts. So your limbs has to be the translator of your heart. And when we enter this prayer, we have to know that this prayer is really the humility of the heart and not just the limbs. It's not those actions that you just do. So in this month, we have to try to perfect that, that when you literally, when you say Allah Akbar, you're saying God is the greatest. As you enter, you say I'm putting the world behind me, and you say nothing is greater, not my job, not my kids, not my wife, not anybody, not my husband. But Allah is the greatest. So you can't enter that prayer thinking about anything else, but Allah, I put everything behind me, and Allah is greater than all of it. The essence of the prayer. And then the human being, he stands in prayer. He stands, and when you stand, you can see as far as the horizon. So you can literally think, I'm somebody. But then as soon as you go into Ruku, you see your grave. And you say, I'm nobody. And when you go into the Sajda, it's symbolic for, I'm going into this ground. And when you may come back up, I'm going to be resurrected from this ground. That the prayer has all of these inner meanings, and that we should always try to find what these inward meanings are. And there's a lot of them. And the Hia'il-Ul-Mid-Din, Imam al-Ghazali, has an entire chapter dedicated to this. And inshallah, that's something that we can, we can all try to study in ourselves. Imam Abu Sayyid al-Khudri, he says that the Messenger of Allah, SAW, said, if you had five rivers between your home and in your place of work, five rivers, and you bathe in every single one on the way there and back, would you have any dirt left on you? No, you wouldn't. And the prayer is like that. Every single time you prayer, all the sins that you did between those prayers, before each one of them gets forgiven. Abu Hanifa, when he used to make wudu, he used to sit in a high place and he used to make wudu and he held his hands right here and he wouldn't let the water drip on him. His students would say, Ya Abu Hanifa, why did you do that? He said, don't you see the sins dropping off from me as I wash myself? They were people of understanding and they knew that this was what it was about. One of the things that I really want to really, really fortify in the hearts of everyone here, especially our brothers and sisters and the youth, that we are people of, we're people of Allah, that we are people of the messenger of Allah, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, we have been umma that has been chosen by Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala and that should not be taken lightly, that we should never ever ever leave this prayer. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, which was considered literally the day that the angels were decided, the angels were crying, and they were all lined up between a Thursday and the Monday that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam returns to his Lord Subhanahu wa ta'ala and he, it's Maghrib time and he just, he led the people in Maghrib and he's very, very sick. He feels very, very weak and he tries to get up for Isha but he doesn't, he can't do it. He passes out. He passes out and the people are waiting. They're waiting for him to leave the salah. So they're waiting and all of a sudden he comes to, he comes to and the first is, he says to say in the Aisha radiallahu alayhi wa sallam nas have the people prayed La ya liya Rasulullah Humfi into that it. They're waiting for you. So he says, bring me a basin of water and he put some cold water in it and he said, I'm gonna bathe and he tries to bathe and he bathes and he bathes and then he gets out of this water and he tries to go to the masjid in order to leave the salah but on the way there, they're literally dragging him and he passes out again and he can't do it. So he's passed out and then he comes to consciousness again and then the first thing he asks A'sallam nas have the people prayed Ya Rasulullah La Humfi into that it. They're waiting for you Ya Rasulullah. So he's so weak, he can't do it and then at this point Salat al Aisha, he makes Isharat towards saying and he asks him to leave the prayer 17 prayers he led from Isharat to Fajr of Monday. That Monday. 17. That's something for people of understanding that knows that he was the Imam while the Prophet Salat al Aisha was still alive and so he wakes up the next day and the first thing that he says he says to the people do not die without a good opinion of Allah the Prophet Salat al Aisha says do not pass without having a good opinion of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and then the next day which is that Sunday night he Salat al A'sallam he takes every bit of anything that he has in the house and he gets rid of it and he gives it in donation he gives it away Say that Aisha says that we didn't even have we didn't have even oil for the candle that night I had to go borrow it I had to go borrow it and then that morning during Fajr he wakes up he forces himself he makes wudu I'm talking about when he's 6 he has to be carried I'm not talking about having the flu and then you and I just sleep all night and say Allah is merciful he could not literally walk and he gets up and he drags himself and he goes into the he starts walking and he goes to the masjid we're saying and he pulls the curtain and he looks and he sees his ummah they're praying and when he says when I saw Rasulullah I thought he's well I thought he's going to come back my heart was pounding I was overjoyed but he just smiled and he went back inside and then until Salat al Duh he goes and he calls her and she whispers in his ear in her ear and she smiles and she cries and then she whispers in her ear again and she smiles and laughs and the aisha asks her about it later on he said what did he say he told me that he was going to pass then why did you laugh what did he say he said that I will be the first to join him Subhanallah told him she was going to die she was happy because she was going to be back with the messenger of Allah 6 months after 6 months later Fatima says she passes and then he's laying on the lap of our mother Aisha and he's at his last moments and the son of say and he has a as he walked in his pocket in the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam slowly staring at it and saying the aisha knows that's his wife that's his beloved, our mother and she knows that at this time do you want that he nods yes so she goes and grabs it from and she choose it for him slowly makes it soft and he puts it in his mouth and he puts it in his mouth and he raises his eyes and says something and then he says he says with those with those that you have favored y'all Allah the prophets and the martyrs and the siddiqun have mercy on me and then he says the companionship most high and then he says three times and he passes and that is the importance of the prayer and those who love the prophet should never lead the prayer and for my young brothers and sisters that are here, whether you're in school in college, wherever you are don't ever forget your prayers don't be of those that were shy don't be of those pure people of strength we're people of identity we're people that are prophets so always in Allah says that those who join Allah and the believers and the messengers the team of Allah they'll always be holly boom they'll be winners because Allah and his messenger can't lose Allah and his messenger can't lose