 As-salamu alaikum warahmatullahi wa rahmatullahi First of all, may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon you for allowing me to be with you all. It's a great honor to be here with you. This is a very nice tradition to read the translation of the verses, masha'Allah. Very, very nice. The first thing is that we should start by being grateful that to be able to have a house of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ana that we can come to to establish the worship of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ana to engage in the congregational prayer is a great blessing. This is the first point. The second point is that the prayer itself is a great blessing. We think about the Prophet ﷺ and his retreats to the cave of Hiraat and you know many scholars they said and he would go to the cave of Hiraat essentially he was worshiping sallallahu alaihi wa sallam but he didn't know exactly what that should look like per se but he would go to retreat and to think about Allah and to worship Allah and to you know and then eventually when the revelation begins shortly after that then the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is taught how to pray and so this salat is a huge gift actually that many many people live their lives deep down inside look at the verse that was read subhanAllah the verse that was read about and then when when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala took the souls of everyone and he bore made them bear witness am i not your lord and they said verily you're our lord so deep down inside everybody has this desire to know Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala everyone has a desire to worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and sometimes it's covered up by many different types of things sometimes it's covered up by our desire for power our desire for wealth our distractions from material things or whatever else it might be it's covered up but deep down inside people want to worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and how many times have we seen people who come into Islam and then the first thing they say is i realized that i was always a Muslim but all of that time they didn't know how to pray they didn't know about zakat they didn't know about fasting they didn't know about hajj they didn't know about the basic teachings of the prophets and Allah who are there to send them about how to live their life what to do what not to do so this is a great great tremendous gift to be able to say yeah Allah we believe in you we submit to you and we know that you have asked us to do this prayer that you have given us the blessing of this prayer and through the prophets and Allah who are there to send them i have showed us how to worship you we thank you Allah for this blessing and when my dear brother Dr. Asad we spoke about doing this small reminder the verse that came to mind for me was the verse in Surah Taha where Allah says He says i chose you so listen to what is being revealed to you Allah is speaking to and i chose you and listen to what is being revealed to you then he says what verily i am Allah there is no god but me this is the key really subhanAllah you know why does someone come to salah on friday on saturday morning at six o'clock six fifteen in the morning why does someone come during the week before they have work why does why does why does one do this that's why the prophets and Allah who are there to send them said that when you see someone coming regularly to the salat in the masjid then bear witness to their iman like know that they're a believer okay we know that this person is a believer because this person who's regular in the salat it's a sign that they believe in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so and Allah says oh no that i am Allah there's no god but me so worship me worship me and and be in this sincere loving devotion to me and establish the prayer for my remembrance they say that there's two major meanings for this verse actually one of them is not the one we're going to focus on but it's the one where the prophets and Allah who are there was on them said that the person who sleeps through their salat or they forget it then the way for them to make up for that is that they pray it when they remember it right so one way to think about the verse actually is and establish the prayer when you remember me so if the person forgot to pray but then they remember oh subhanAllah i forgot my zohr prayer forgot my asr prayer and they pray it and they establish that salat which by the way is what we're supposed to do this prophet said that that's how they make up for it it doesn't yes we should hold ourselves accountable but we should also keep moving in the right direction the prophets and Allah who are there that when we do something wrong we follow it with something good and it erases it so there's a positivity to it so this we miss the prayer we remember it we make the prayer the second possibility they say in the meanings is that establish this prayer so that you may remember me so that you may remember me and this i think is of course the more not apparent but this may be the thing that comes to mind first that we establish the prayer to remember Allah subhanu wa ta'ala and so when we have these prayers throughout the day actually that's why many of the Ottoman the righteous people they were very consistent in the mid-morning prayer the doha and it because this this period from fajr to zohr is too long without a prayer not too long in a bad time but like it they want to pray so i have to do some prayer in between and then so you do the fajr and you do the mid-morning prayer and you do the zohr prayer you do the asr prayer you do the majr prayer you do the ashr prayer so the entire day basically becomes a day of zikr and remembrance of Allah subhanu wa ta'ala and that of course is what we want to do and we should recognize and realize that the remembrance of Allah subhanu wa ta'ala brings a light to our lives and we don't want to live in darkness one of the beautiful things about coming to fajr prayer is that you can witness the daybreak right the falak and the daybreak is is a tremendously hopeful thing you have this darkness covers everything and the thing about darkness is that one of the things that you have all these forms around us right like if we were in this room you have people you have pillars you have chairs you have bookshelves you have all of these different things when you're in darkness you can't see any of them if it's truly dark you can't see any of them right but as soon as there's a little bit of illumination then the forms begin to take shape she's like i think there's something over there i'm not really sure what it is but something's over there and then is there because a little bit more light a little bit more light a little bit more light then things become more and more clear and the remembrance of Allah subhanu wa ta'ala is what brings clarity to our lives everything is dark actually without the remembrance of Allah everything is dark without the worship of Allah when we begin to worship Allah subhanu wa ta'ala the sun begins to rise in a sense on our hearts the sun begins to rise on our minds we're able to see things as they truly are oh this thing i thought it mattered it doesn't actually matter that much this thing i was really worried about it it's not actually something to be worried about this thing i wasn't paying attention to it it's actually very important i need to take this thing seriously but the light becomes it starts to come and so like when we come in the morning and you see the you start to see slowly but surely the hills start to become more and more clear so as we keep regular in the salah the heart begins to be more and more clear and so we establish the salah in order to remember Allah subhanu wa ta'ala and whenever we find ourselves therefore without enough remembrance of Allah subhanu wa ta'ala in our lives the easiest and most important way to regain that is to recommit to the establishment of the prayer so i don't know what's happening with this what's happening with my relations commit to the prayer and especially commit to prayer in the masjid you know mashaAllah everyone is here this is a beautiful thing commit to prayer in the masjid at least you know whatever we're doing commit to something and then that commitment will bring more and more light inshaAllah into our lives you ask Allah subhanu wa ta'ala to make our lives always filled with his remembrance to make our lives always filled with his love and his obedience to make everything that we do an act of worship and an act of remembrance of him subhanu wa ta'ala we ask Allah to open our hearts and our minds and our bodies to his remembrance and that he makes every single step and every single moment and every single breath and every single word and every single action all of it they could for him subhanu wa ta'ala we ask that Allah illuminates our lives and our homes and our families that he protects us and our loved ones we ask that Allah subhanu wa ta'ala gives victory and aid to our brothers and sisters in Palestine that he alleviates their suffering and then he aids them in everything that they need and everything that they're in need of Ya Allah Ya Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahimin we ask Allah to guide us and to give us light and everything that we do in front of us and behind us and on the left and on the right and above us and below us Ya Allah Ya Noor Al-Sama wa Ati wa Al-Alm Wassalamu Alaykum wa Salam Alaykum wa Salam Alaykum wa Salam Alaykum wa Salam Alaykum