 As-salamu alaykum. Tiare and Emiya just emailed about 40 minutes ago and said can we come do our Shahada and we're like come on over we're celebrating today Bismillah and if you guys are comfortable can you share a little bit about your journey what brings you here what brings you here today whoever wants to go first whatever you want to share. About two years ago we participated in our first Ramadan and after participating and doing a lot of research and soul searching we decided to kind of continue practicing so we've been practicing since then on our own and I've been researching on how to officially make the transition so that that's what led us here today. Thank you would you like to share anything Emiya? That's pretty much the same thing we were both we both had separate interests and kind of would start speaking about converting I grew up Baptist and so I'm going to church like my family and stuff and so I was talking to her about it and she was like oh my gosh I was thinking about the same thing and so that's why she we did the first Ramadan together it was hard was hard but we've been practicing and she's been like researching and teaching me some things I have some awesome co-workers that have been sharing different things with me too and so here we are now ready. I'm honored we're honored to be here to witness to witness this moment in our journeys of life we have they say four awakenings and this is the highest and of the four awakenings we start with when we're born we start with just a sensual awakening senses where babies are just turning to sounds and tastes and putting everything in their mouth and and they're learning to use their senses and then they go to a emotional awakening where they start to experience things they can start you know babies when they're they don't have experience shyness or you know or or or or or or even fear or anxiety until they get a little older right and so these emotions they start to experience them and then there's an intellectual awakening ideas in our mind and I can understand and comprehend and then there's a spiritual awakening right and and and this is today part of the spiritual awakening and and and Mia and tiara tiara you know this day is more important than any other day of your of your life really I mean life is not easy in itself and it has its ups and downs and it has its challenges and it has it's this but you know this this acknowledgement to God is a big victory it's like I found the truth I found the truth I found it I finally like I found the truth I found you God I finally found you God you're real I know you I know your name I know your words your love letter the Quran the final testament the last testament of God the Quran I can I can read your letters your love letters to me right you said you started in Ramadan and Ramadan they say is they say it's a month of fasting and it's and it's and it's a month of not eating in a month of not eating but it's it's also a month of refalling in love you know why because when someone falls in love what they do they can't eat and they can't sleep right and they're reading they're thinking about their beloved and so what does a Muslim do in Ramadan they don't eat they sleep less and then at night they're reading God's love letter the Quran so it's a month of feeling our heart with God and they say the poet says in Arabic he says like a darun fee calvi he says oh God you have a home in my heart people today it's often where people worship image worship money worship prestige worship popularity God doesn't look at your money God doesn't look at at your image God looks at your heart right and today is a day to to demonstrate to say God here I am I found you right and I'm here to surrender Islam means Islam means surrender you know why because this is the thing when you surrender to God and let go you can actually have peace and that's why Salam means peace because when you surrender and let go and you're like you know what I have to let go of this endless chase this attain unattainable stuff that everyone tells me I gotta do I'm gonna let go and when I let go and I stopped trying to prove myself to every single person out there all I care about is God that I need to prove myself to then we can experience peace holistic peace and in Islam we have three dimensions body mind and soul and today you're submitting your body submitting your mind and submitting your soul right and and they're all interconnected and related and and and knowledge is very important God gave you a mind made you brilliant I'm serious and that mind the first word God said to man when he revealed this message was read was read it wasn't worship wasn't pray it wasn't watch screens you know it was read it was read because when our mind starts to read and know the one we know it goes into our heart and then we can love and then when we wanted our heart loves then we can go into our limbs with devotion that's that's that's that's the way it works knowledge love devotion right and if we skip to the love without knowledge the love is on shaky grounds shaky foundation and if we skip to the devotion without love the devotion is on shaky grounds but it's a journey of all three the body the mind and the soul right and today your as you continue on your journey started long ago this journey of the soul that existed before it came in this body of yours and will continue to exist when our bodies decay into dust your soul is going to continue to live and the words that you utter right now it's beyond these walls and it's beyond this body means beyond this tongue it's something that goes into the into the the the invisible realm where the angels are going to celebrate the words that you say and this these these this graduation the spiritual graduation is is more valuable this is this is real is more valuable than any other graduation I don't care if you have a Harvard PhD or whatever this is the real deal we don't take our Harvard diploma to our grave ladies and gentlemen we take our we take our heart with us our spiritual heart we take our deeds so this is a beautiful moment I congratulate you I congratulate you both tiare and Amiya congratulate you on taking the step on telling God that you own me and I will conform to you and I trust you I trust you God more than I trust my own self more than I trust my own self that's that that's real that's deep that's powerful that's not that's that's our way because he's that he's the all-wise and all-knowing I'm we're not the all-wise you know so we trust God and sometimes you know what sometimes it might be difficult to see the wisdom and something that God does you know what I'm saying just be real you know why is that happening why did this happen to me why did that happen to her what did that happen to them and we can't see the wisdom but you know what we need to see at that moment we need to see with the eyes of the heart we need to see al-haqeem that's one of God's names the all-wise we need to see ar-raheem that's one of God's names the all-merciful even when we don't comprehend with our brain the wisdom we know that all-wise has this cosmic theophany cosmic theophany as he orchestrates and we trust and we defer and sometimes it's not easy it's not easy you know but we trust just like a little baby or a little child trust their mother trust their father even though they don't know you know we and it's it's a much greater gap we trust God so this is this is a this moment when we do this I want you guys to know this if you ever did anything wrong in your life I'm not saying you did it's forgiven think about that for a second think about that this is guaranteed promised by the Messenger of God Muhammad peace be upon him salallahu alayhi wa sallam if you have anything you ever made a mistake you ever did a sin ever did anything it's erased that's a powerful thing and in that moment you pray to God in that sinless sinless moment I have nothing and any future mistakes you can eraser God gave us an eraser all you have to do is is have some remorse I feel bad for what I did and I'm gonna I intend not to do it again it erases it and that's fine you know God loves to forgive and we're told that if we were people that didn't make mistakes and sins and seek forgiveness God would replace us with people that made sins and sought forgiveness because God loves to forgive and he loves us to call him to turn to him right as you're doing today as you turn to him today to turn to God and him is just the limitation of language God is not limited by any of those descriptions but by limitations of our language we use these we use these words in this vocabulary so today as you continue your journey it's a milestone and it's a very simple task I'll pass you the mic tiare and I will I will share with you is syllable by syllable or word by word the testimony of faith the declaration of faith as you enter into the fold of Islam and you enter into this community right and stay close words of a feather flock together is now what they say that I say right yeah so so stay close you know people people they're they're state transfers to you and wherever they're walking they're gonna take you with them so choose people that are walking towards paradise people people that have are walking towards goodness choose people that have disciplined their egos they don't worship their desires instead they're free from their desires it's a huge difference it's actually that it's like it's like this this thing people it's like this idea this false freedom I'm free if I can do whatever desire I want that's false freedom the true freedom as being free from my desires that I have the freedom not to eat that chocolate chip cookie that's calling me but if you're a slave to that chocolate cookie and can't resist that's not freedom because I can't resist it so we this is a epic journey of disciplining our ego and submitting to God the one and only the one who owns us the one who created us the one who were returning to him inshallah so we'll do it in Arabic and in English inshallah and I want you to know that every molecule in your body will testify for you on the day of judgment these walls these people these chairs the these particles in the air that we can't see all of them are bearing witness to this in a manner we can't comprehend and on that day of judgment that last final day before the final destination of heaven and hell they will testify for you they'll say tiare submitted to you yallah amia submitted to you she turned to you she acknowledged your existence Allah Ash hadu Ash hadu An la ilaha ilaha Allah wa Ash hadu An na Muhammed Rasul Allah Ash hadu An la ilaha Allah wa Ash hadu An na Muhammed Rasul Allah Ash hadu An la ilaha ilaha Allah wa Ash hadu Muhammed Rasul Allah I testify I announce I witness that there is no God except Allah and I witness and I declare and I testify that Muhammed is the messenger of Allah Takbir Takbir Takbir Sallallahu alaad Sallallahu alaad Sallallahu alaad Sallallahu alaad Sallallahu alaad Sallallahu alaad We ask him to send peace and blessings on the final messenger and probably for him and we ask in this moment we ask you yallah our lord our god our creator our maker our designer our designer the one that we trust and the one that we accept even when we don't understand we ask you in this moment to bless tiara and amia amin and to bless them inwardly and outwardly amin and to make them have beautiful wonderful servants of humanity and servants of god amin and to take care of them and to heal them and to cure them and to beautify them to ennoble them and to make them examples for humanity examples of beautiful magnanimous character and nobility and elegance and to give them to help them hold on to the truth as the truth and to see the truth as the truth and to reject falsehood and to understand that the false is false and all of us with them yallah we turn to you in this moment we ask you that this temporary journey that we have on this planet we ask you to make it gentle for us yallah to be gentle with us yallah to be gentle with tiara and amia and to give them openings yallah and to give them victory and to infuse them with light and illumination and blessings and guidance and to take care of their homes and their houses and their careers and their bodies and their life and their happiness yallah yallah you do as you please you say be and it is you do whatever you want you are capable of everything and this sometimes we get hypnotized by this life by this world and sometimes we forget what's real and we forget our purpose and we forget that we're returning to you and in this moment we ask you to be gentle with us when you send us reminders send them gently yallah amen and gather all of us in your heaven in your paradise without judgment without judgment amen send peace and blessings and all the prophets peace be upon him and thank you thank you Let's get some hugs, Taqbeer, ladies, let's go, the men know how to just like...