 Regardless of what you profess to believe in the outsiders will always judge you on the basis of what they hear your leaders say. The outsiders don't know what the demands of your religion are. So they judge you first and foremost by what they see coming from those who they believe to represent you. And your leaders, regardless of if they are self-appointed or if they are propped up by some outside sinister force or if they grow organically from the grassroots, this will always be the case that most people on the outside will judge you by those who they believe represent you and your community. And in the same vein, we find in the Qur'an, Allah SWT, when he speaks about communities, he speaks to them utilizing what we call today over-generalizations, call it to Yahudu, the Jews say this, call it to Nathara, the Christians, they say this. Not mean that every single Jew or every single Christian says this. Perhaps not even the majority of them, but Allah SWT, he refers to them in that way. And because this is simply the way that human beings generally operate. And the reason I start with this is because about a week ago, a somewhat popular Turkish chaplain had posted on his Instagram page, Pride Mubarak, Pride Mubarak. Today, an organization that refers to itself as Muslim advocates. They did a number of posts also celebrating and endorsing LGBTQ normalization, celebrating what people call themselves as gay Muslims, et cetera, et cetera. Muslim advocates is what they call themselves. I don't know which Muslims they're advocating for, what Islam they're advocating for. But this will be the case all the time. And what is interesting between these two comparisons, a chaplain and an organization, one is looked upon as being pro-Zionist and the other is anti-Zionist. But they agree upon this point that they share in this sentiment that it's okay to celebrate sexual deviance. Islam does not take pride in sin. Muslims don't take pride in sin and especially not sexual deviance. Islam forbids fornication, adultery, incest, bestiality, sodomy, all of those things. Islam, when we have to be clear as Muslims and we have to be clear to the public as well that when we do find these individuals who are public figures and we say, no, that person doesn't represent me. Of course, unless you actually agree with that person naturally. But this is a big problem, brothers and sisters. And I was trying to hold it in but I couldn't help but say something about it today because our umma is dying, especially in the West. And I would say the reason is because there are not enough of us who are willing to embrace what is special about Islam or embrace the idea that Islam has something to contribute to this civilization. There's a word called fitna in the Arabic language and then the Quran is utilized to mean many things, sometimes it translates as seduction, persecution, test, tribulation, punishment, civil disorder. There are many different meanings of fitna, but in its etymological roots it means to test gold and fire in order to determine its authenticity. A fitna, the goal of fitna is to bring out the true from the false, the real from the forgery, the believer from the hypocrite. That is what fitna is intended to do and Allah, Almighty, He sins upon humanity, sins upon especially His umma, fitna. We live in a time of great fitna, a time of great fitna, plural, a plural form of fitna, where it's even hard at times to distinguish the difference between what is real and what is fake. Technology has done that to us, social media has done that to us, movies has done that to us, et cetera, et cetera. They make it difficult in these times. And when we find Muslims endorsing immorality, that is a big problem. Why is it a big problem? Because Allah, Almighty, He sells it in the Quran. That Allah, Almighty, He would never punish the people or the villages while there are reformers among them, while there are among them people who are calling to righteousness. Allah would not punish the people as long as there are those among us who are doing that thing. But the moment we stop that, Allah subhanahu ta'ala, He will send His punish among us. I fear that a great punishment is coming. I fear that not only for the Muslims, but everyone else, because of the direction that our societies and our civilizations are going, the individuals who are supposed to provide moral clarity and who are supposed to act ethically and morally, they're not doing their jobs anymore. We're actually doing the opposite. We're promoting decadence. We're promoting deviance. We ask Allah subhanahu ta'ala that He spare us from this great tribulation. Okay, he tells us, he warns us in the Quran, Be on guard against a fitna which will not exclusively strike those who are wrongful among you. We're not only afflict those who are committing wrong, but it will afflict everyone. We ask Allah subhanahu ta'ala for His protection. I'll say this. Brothers and sisters, the real question is, are you gold? Or are you just simply gold plated? Are you real? Are you a forgery? Are you a true believer? Or are you a hypocrite? When it comes to calling to the right way that we're told that in order to enjoin good and forbid the wrong, that you are to fulfill or to act in accord with those teachings. In order for your call to be effective throughout Muslim history, especially going back to the early periods of conquest, that Muslims, they rule different societies as minorities. And most of the times, most of the people, if not all of the times, they didn't know a lick of Arabic. They didn't know and understand anything about the Quran, but they looked at the character of the Muslims. And they said, you know, these people are better than the ones we got right now. Bring them and welcome. Rule over us. Lead us. Why? Because they saw something about the Muslim character that was different from the people who have ruled over them already. And it took centuries for the countries today that we call Muslim countries to become majority Muslim. That didn't happen right away. That happened over centuries of Dawa, of people standing, upriding, providing moral clarity, being committed to good will. That is how that occurred. So we're supposed to act upon the commandments. We're supposed to avoid the prohibitions, but we're also to enjoin the good and forbid what is wrong. But in the process, we're also supposed to be gentle in what we call to, gentle in what we forbid. We're supposed to be knowledgeable of the things we call to and we forbid. And we're also supposed to be just. And the reason why I highlighted this fact, that both sides of this particular debacle, as we can perhaps call it, the prosionists or the quote unquote prosionists and anti-zionists are united upon promoting moral decadence, is that when we start talking about leadership that we need to look to all of those individuals who we were looking up to just a week or so ago. And everybody was pro-Palestine. Everybody, yes, terrible Zionists. We support the Palestinians. We look at them now, those same people. Let's see what they're saying about this. And if they're not saying anything about it, it lets you know that there's some political expediency involved here, that these are not genuine call-outs against those who are pressing the Palestinians. Again, we're always going to be represented in the eyes of the outsiders by those who are in positions of leadership and we have to create distance. If we hope people will properly understand not only ourselves, but Islam. So may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us the ability to do so. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala he deepen our sincerity and our commitment, our conviction to Islam, and may he protect us from the bug-outs and machinations of shaitan inshallah. Peace be upon you all.