 So dear children and your families and our friends in Indonesia, what we're going to do is something very special tonight. Do you see the picture of Imam al-Ghazali here? Well, I sent to all of your old parents email this link to this whole book and it's a flip book on the children's Ghazali interactive website in the library part and things to do. So you can go and look at this beautiful book because I thought we'd just do a quick review not of this golden book but of his life because this relates to what we're going to be talking about tonight. Just a minute. Oh, that's gotten pushed down over here. Push that up over here. All right. Do you see this man here, children? The father of Imam al-Ghazali was a very poor weaver. This is nearly a thousand years ago and he died while Imam al-Ghazali was a very small boy but what mattered to him most of all was children's education. So he sent his two boys to this wonderful teacher, Imam al-Jawaini. Do you see him up here? And he was an amazing teacher, one of the most special and he began to teach the two boys very much and then one day al-Ghazali, he was a small boy. He was up out in the desert and this caravan was going by to see the caravan below and thieves came and they stole everything from the people and there was Ghazali holding his papers behind his back, his school papers and the thieves said, give us that. And Ghazali said, oh, please, please don't take my bundle. If you take away my bundle, you know, I will lose everything. And then they said, well, of what use are these pages? He said, if you destroy my notes of my lessons, I work so hard to record everything I've been taught. And the thieves said, you mean, you know, everything you know can be taken away from you just like that. And at that moment, Imam al-Ghazali realized that what you really know, your true knowledge has to become part of you, the way you live and the way you act. So from this scary event, it has changed his whole life. And then he got hired. Here he is. Do you see him teaching right here? He's teaching at the Nizamiya school in Baghdad. And he was a very famous professor. And you see all these other people come to his lessons. You see how proud he is. He was so smart. He spoke many languages. He won every argument. He knew everyone. He dazzled everyone with his brilliance. And then he continued to give his lessons. And you see below, he was very puffed up. We've talked about not being proud or puffed up, right? And then he started thinking, oh my goodness, maybe I'm a hypocrite. Maybe I'm telling other people to do what I don't do myself. And then he got scared. He suddenly realized he thought I'm on a crumbling bank. You know, I'm telling people to be good and I'm not good myself. And then he worried, oh, I have to do something to be true to myself up, up in a way, if not now when. But you know what? He was too afraid to leave his job where he was so proud because he thought, I have a wife and two daughters. And this is a wonder and I'm respected and loved by everybody. And then the next day he went into teach and he opened his mouth and no words came out because Allah loved him so much. He took away his voice so he couldn't teach anymore. He was embarrassed and confused. And the doctors all came and they said, oh, his body isn't sick, right? Nothing's wrong with his body, right? But his heart needs to leave the life he is in. He's trapped. He needs to go in search to be near to Allah. So he made arrangements. There's his wife and two daughters. He said, I'll be back. I'll visit you. But I'm going on a long pilgrimage. I'm going out to find the truth. So then he traveled a great distance and he went to Damascus and he got a job in a mosque sweeping. This great scholar became a janitor and he started learning what it was to be humble and empty. And many times he was tempted to talk to people in the mosque and show them how smart. But he didn't do it. And then later on he went to Jerusalem and to Mecca. And finally he came home to his family and he wrote this wonderful 40-volume book called the Ahyat al-Muddin, The Revival of Religious Sciences. And that is, we're studying right now today book two of this great book. You've studied book one, the book of knowledge. You've done three, four, five, six, and seven. But now we're going back to two. Now a friend of mine, her name is, she's an Egyptian named Farida and she made this cartoon. What is the meaning of life? And this is in the workbook of workbook one. You must ask yourselves children, what is the meaning of life? The city, some people live in a city. Oh, she said it makes me forget. To breathe, it seems undegradable, unchangeable. I eat my way out of it. But nothing seems to fill the void inside of me. Sometimes a voice echoes from within telling me, look for meaning. But that I'm not just a zombie, a walking creature. My life in four steps. I sleep, eat, work and watch TV. I'm like a hamster on a wheel. A puppet pulled on a string. I don't mind living this way. Only if I could only stop asking myself these questions. Why was I born? Why am I here? Why am I going to die? Beats me. Is it for money? Is it for fame? Love? Do I get to take it all with me when I die? Where do we go after we die? Gasp. Let's ask Imam al-Ghazali. So this book, the book of belief written by Imam al-Ghazali, this is the children's version, will tell you many, many different answers. I have to tell you all, Ghazali used many imaginary tales and beautiful stories and metaphors to illustrate really deep concepts and ideas. Remember, we talked about the ant and the pen. That story tries to help us explain, while God knows and plans everything that will happen to us. Well, in this book, the Imam uses the image of small plants which grow in our hearts into magnificent trees to illustrate how doing beautiful deeds will nourish our inner growth and later produce beautiful fruits. His metaphor for polishing the heart makes it easy for us to imagine the process of self-observation and self-correction. In this book, he is going to explain to you children very deep concepts about this life and the life, the next life. So we decided that the Imam would make an imaginary visit to the children to answer their questions. Even though he died 900 years ago, as you know, his teachings, his teachings are coming to us right this minute. They're timeless. They're not stuck 900 years ago, right? So in the following story, the children pretended to came back to them through a magic door from the next world to answer their questions. Real church learning children and truth aren't bound by time and space. So we're very blessed to still have the help of Imam al-Dazali with us right this minute in learning how to polish our golden hearts. The children have been playing outside. Their mother called them in for prayer. They made Wudu very carefully like you all are doing now and they prayed in the special place they prayed in in their home. And all of a sudden, they finished their prayers and they were feeling very peaceful. They didn't feel like running back out to play. And all of a sudden, one of the children saw a magic door open and light coming through. They could see a kind-faced and beautiful man descending into the room as he stepped down under the carpet, the special door closed and completely vanished. Peace and blessings be upon you children. I am Imam al-Dazali. I have been noticing that you are very good young people and also that you have many questions. So I have come to visit you. So these are the questions that are going to be answered by Imam al-Dazali. No matter what century people live in, many people like all of us have the same questions about what life means, why we are born, what we must be doing during our stay in this world. Children, don't you all, don't you wonder about these things? Why were you born and what we're supposed to do? Yeah, you do, don't you? Yeah. So these children exclaimed, oh Imam al-Dazali, we're so grateful for this help. We were worried that we couldn't understand deep matters, what really matters. Now our very first question, our very third, oh I'm going back, our very first question, dear Imam al-Dazali, is we often hear our family saying, saying la ilaha illallah. That means there is no God except Allah. But what we want to ask you is who and what and where is God? Now, if there are any mothers and fathers here, if your child said to you, mummy or daddy, who and what and where is God, how would you as a parent answer them? In fact, it's hard for any of us to answer that question. But Imam al-Dazali makes it very simple. So now children, you're going to hear the answer to these amazing questions, all right? And then, you know, just remember that the reason it's impossible to explain who God is is because words aren't able to do it, right? But our special hearts can understand, even though our thoughts and minds can't grasp all that's real and true, but our hearts can. There is nothing like Allah. He has been here forever, before anything came to be, and before all these things He chose to create. Look at the picture here. Look at all the things Allah brought into this world. Everything you know about can come to an end, can't it? Like the horse there, the stream there, the tree there, like a bat flower or a bird, but not a loss upon Allah. He's aware of all that goes on. He knows even what a tiny, busy little ant is doing. I have a lot of questions. Oh, I'm glad you do. We'll go through the story and then you can ask your questions. Like how did Allah even come in the world? Was He like already there? Yes, He made the world. He's before the world. The world is one little thing He's brought into being. The universe. Even there was like always, always there? Yes, always there, forever. He's outside of, He has no beginning and no end, beyond time. He created time. Ah, I don't know. Well, we'll keep going here, all right? So then the little girl, Maha said, she said, he seems like a powerful person creating all these things. The Imam said, indeed He does, because we think about Him in ways that make Him seem human. We say He is the generous. He is the all-powerful. He is the beautiful. But let me tell you what He is not. All right, this is what He is not, everybody. He is not a person. He doesn't have a body the way we do. He is not like anything you could ever see and nothing at all is like Him. Now, we refer to Him as He. We say, Allah, He did this, He did that, but Allah is not a He or a She. And then the little boy of Bella said, but where is God? Allah, was even here before He made time and space. He was before time and space. The world and the universe we live in are in time and space. And there is outer space where spaceships travel to the moon. You experience time and the changing with the changing of day and night and different seasons. You grow up in time. You're little now and you become bigger. But God made time. He doesn't grow or change. Allah is always and forever now, the Imam explained. And then the children asked, but how close is God to us? He is beyond the earth and heavens. And there are many of these. His knowledge and presence are everywhere at the same time. He is a throne like a king, but not any kind of a throne you could think of. He is above the throne and the heavens. But guess what? He's above the throne and the heavens, but He is still nearer to you than your own carotid artery, not your jugular vein, which is here. The carotid artery is right here. Everybody put their finger right here on the side of their chest and press hard. Now, you can feel your heart beating because what's happening is from your heart, oxygen is being pumped up to your brain, right? It's going, that's what you're feeling right there. If the heart wasn't bringing oxygen to your brain, you know, you wouldn't live. So Allah is closer to you than that point you're feeling. You all got to have your fingers on your neck right here, pressing hard. Allah is closer to you than that, right? But this nearness God speaks of is not like any kind of nearness you all know. It's beyond what we can know. It's completely different. For example, we're sitting near each other. Oh, and your eyelid, put your finger on your eyelid. You see how near your eyelid is to your eye, right? You can understand nearness. But Allah's nearness is completely different. And beyond anything we can know with our minds that think, right? And then a little Abdullah said, so there are different limits to what we can understand with our brains. Indeed, said the Imam to know God, one has to open one's heart to special knowledge that seems to go beyond our understanding. Now, you see this. Now, once upon a time in China, all right, a man came to a great sage and he said to this sage, which is a wise man, a sage, he said, oh, wise man, I want you to show me God. And the wise man said, how can I like, it's how can I light a candle to show you the sun? In other words, our minds are like little candles, right? Can a little candle show the light of the sun? No, because our minds, our reasoning is very small, and it can't do that. So you have to remember that your reasons, your reasoning can't understand everything, right? Only, only our special spiritual hearts, the ones you all are polishing, only these can be open to real knowledge. What we can come to know about God and his qualities is his names, who all have heard the 99 names, right? Like the Merciful, the Perfect, the All-Powerful, and the name Al-Malik, the King, but he rules all the worlds, even the ones I've heard that name. Yeah, the worlds even where the angels are, and the Quran mentions, right? The face and hand of God, but these aren't like ours, they're just examples to help us understand. He created everything, and he knows everything. But do you know what, children? He is lovingly given you who he loves so much, exactly what each of you need to be near him, and it's different for each one of you. That's why you should never envy what somebody else has. I wish I had this, I wish I lived where they did, I wish I had their kind of car. You never want to do that because Allah has given each one of you exactly what you need in order, the kinds of trials and blessings that you need to draw close to him. So little use of exclaimed, oh now I see what's going on, we don't have to worry ever, because God has put everything in perfect order for us. As long as we try to do what God asks us to do, and do the right thing toward others every day in our lives, then we will be doing what God wants us to do. We'll be fine if we keep trying to be good. He is always with us, caring for us, no need to worry, we can trust Allah. Zaynab remembered, what you are explaining to us, dear Imam, reminds us of your own life story, we children will never forget how one day when you were teaching, Allah swt took your voice right out of the middle of your lesson and no words were coming out. Now what is this? You see children, this was because Allah wanted Imam al-Ghazali to go on the long trip and to discover being near to him through being humble, right? And so he took away his voice. You could say, oh that was a terrible thing that happened to him. Well remember when we did the story of the boy and the horse, when we did the book of knowledge, maybe good maybe bad. So then Omar added, but if that scary trial Imam al-Ghazali had not happened to you, you wouldn't have gone on your long journey, which ended with your writing your wonderful books just for us. That story reminds us that we don't have to be afraid or worry, that God is always near and protects us in many special and different ways and usually kids without us even noticing every minute he's protecting us and giving us what we need. And you know what? We don't even notice it. We're just so busy, you know? Thank you children said Imam al-Ghazali. You are right. We need to be at ease because God is managing everything. Even if it doesn't seem that way, he's giving us the best possible care and love at every single second. Suddenly one of the children noticed a black ant creeping on the black marble floor and exclaimed, I bet God doesn't know about this tiny ant. The Imam said, oh, but he does. He is even aware of a tiny atom, a seed blowing in the wind or a speck of floating dust moving in the air. He knows all secrets and even my dear children, your innermost thoughts and what your hearts are feeling. He is always here with you. Nothing can happen that he has not already decided whatever Allah wishes to happen in this world and in the world of the angels will happen exactly as he chooses. Now we hear about often that God hears and sees and speaks. So Omar said, can God see us now and hear everything we are saying? Yes Omar, he does this without having eyes or ears. Remember he can see a black ant crawling on a black rock in the darkest part of night without eyes and it doesn't matter how far away a sound is. He can hear it even if it's on the other side of the world children. God isn't like us in any way. Glory be to God and when he speaks, he does so without a tongue or lips. He has sent books to us through messengers, prophets like Moses and Jesus and the Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him, peace and blessings be upon all of them. Moses could hear a speech without there being a letter or spoken sound. Maha said, but we can use our tongues to recite and say the verses of the Quran, can't we? And we can even memorize God's words in our hearts too. Isn't that amazing? Imagine children that we can say God's words. This must be the highest and most important thing people can do. The Imam went on. Well said Maha, God doesn't need to do anything, but he's able to create everything and so he did. We wouldn't be here unless he had brought us all into being. God also made the heavens, the earths, the angels, the animals. You know what he did, children? He said, Kun Fa Ya Kun, be and it was. Well, all of you say with me Kun Fa Ya Kun, everyone say it. Kun Fa Ya Kun, be and it is. All right? All right? And everything came into being. All right? Otherwise it wouldn't exist. So God is very wise and just, if I say you are wise, I mean you usually understand things very deeply. If you're a wise person, a wise grandfather, it means you usually know the best thing to do in every situation if you're wise. When we say a law is just, we mean he is always fair, right? But sometimes we might not be able to understand his fairness. This is because his justice is not like ours. We may think something that has happened to someone isn't fair. Maybe someone in our family is very ill. Maybe people died in an earthquake, but a law knows everything about each of our lives and which blessings and which trials are most needed to bring about the highest and best in our hearts. So if something that hasn't happened, if something that has happened doesn't seem fair to you kids, you just need to trust God's wisdom over all things. Just trust. Of course. Yes? If I'm ever sad that I'm learning something and I want to do something else, I just think that I'm the chosen one that Allah chose me to learn about in this blessing so then I get happy. You are so wonderful. You're so bright and beautiful. I just love getting to know you. This is such a pleasure. So Bilal said, of course, if Allah made each thing and each one of us in a perfect way, everybody, and then we don't think what happens is fair, that's not very smart of us, is it? No, said Khadijah. Our minds and brains are very tiny. Remember like the candle, right? How could we know what Allah has planned to do with each of our lives and to help each of our golden hearts? But look at our beautiful world. Whatever he makes has a special beauty. Look at the elephant. Look at the goose swimming. Look at that beautiful lion and those sheep, right? Everything has a special purpose. And if we can't understand why things happen, we can certainly trust our Lord and maker, right? What an amazing universe he has designed. Oh, the children all said so true and look how kind God is to us and to all that he created. Look how he forgives all the people who somehow forgot him and forget him and end up doing wrong. And the Imam Ghazali said, and also children who went on, Allah gives special wondrous rewards that we don't even deserve for simply doing what he has asked of us. He has asked us to pray and fast. And of course, he has asked us to polish the dust off our shining hearts, right? I have noticed that you children have already begun polishing the dust off your hearts. Isn't that true children? You're all doing it, aren't you? Yes, they cried out. We have been polishing our hearts. After reading your book of knowledge, we decided to draw hearts and then place colored dots on them, which represent the different kind of dust we each need to polish away. Qassem explained, yesterday I was able to rub off some of my arguing and complaining dots, and yesterday I erased my dot for not sharing. I feel much better. We don't want these dots which come from our low selfish, not real selves to hurt our real shining selves, our golden hearts. And then Abdullah said, but Imam, how do we know what God wants us to do when we know and understand so little? How do we know this? Ah, explained Imam Ghazali. That's exactly why Allah sent prophets like Abraham, Noah, and Moses to us who brought his ideas and words to us. God's messengers have told us how God wants us to behave and what he forbids us from doing, because it's bad for us and makes our hearts dirty and ugly. These wonderful prophets and messengers have told all the people from the beginning of time what is true. They have brought, these prophets have brought special messages from God. Our Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him brought us the Quran. Maha replied, yesterday you explained what it means when we say la ilaha illallah. There is no God but God. And you talked about who God is. Right. Thank you, Maha. But did you know that your faith is not complete without saying and understanding the second half of the shahada? This is the statement, a statement of what we believe to be true, the shahada. Muhammadur Rasulullah. You see it right here in calligraphy children? Muhammad is the messenger of God. And the children said, we say these words a lot, but we don't actually know their deeper real meaning. Oh, there are many, many levels of meaning hidden in these words. Here are some of the inner special beautiful things which you are really saying when you say Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. All right, here's some of the things. He came not just to us but to the peoples in all the world as well as to the jinn who live in another very different dimension. Each time Allah sends another message or revelation to the people of the world, he confirms or states once again all that is true. As hundreds of years go by, people may forget some of his message and become a bit confused. So over time, he kindly repeats to humankind his perfect teaching. And this comes to people all over the world in their own languages and in ways they can best understand. Allah doesn't leave anyone out. The Quran says, we have sent to people at all times religion in their language. Qasem added, oh, and ma'am, this is even true in our own daily lives. Something is explained to us and it's clear. And then after a while, we need it repeated. Allah's final and most recent message is now kept safely as the Quran. So you can see why we love the Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him. He was completely pure like a child. And even though he couldn't read or write, the words of Allah came through the archangel Gabriel to him. You see here, we're seeing an image of the wings of Jibril. And that is the Prophet peace and blessings be upon him. He's in the little cave of here, little cave in the Mount of Herah outside of Mecca. And so the angel began the Quran and brought it to his he received the Quran on his heart. That's children why your hearts are so important. So Gabriel came to him and then the Prophet memorized the passages just as they were revealed directly to his heart. And these words were recorded written down as the Quran and have continued to be memorized since that time. The Arabic language itself has many levels of inner meaning. Each root may have like katabah. You know, he wrote each of those three letters and those roots have meaning upon meaning. And as you grow older, you will learn all of these deep meanings. So the second half of the shahada in it, we are reminded that when we say Muhammadur Rasulullah, that we believe what our Prophet has transmitted to us about this life we are in now and the next life that comes after we die. Now, here's some scales, but Allah is so very merciful that the scales which he made to weigh our good and bad doings for deeds are very kind to scales. On the one side where the page is listing our good deeds are placed, Allah has already added a lot of extra good deeds. This side of the scale is shining, but the darker pan which receives the list of naughty doings has purposely been made lighter by Allah who is so wise and just and he's the most kind and the most merciful. He has already removed a lot of silly bad deeds from that pan, right? The Imam continued to explain, children, listen carefully. We're now talking about what happens when you die. So after we die, we've just been buried two special beings named Munkar and Nakir. They will ask each one of you these questions. Who is your Lord? What is your religion? And who is your prophet? Maryam exclaimed, well, we already know what those answers, don't we? Allah's our Lord, Islam is our religion, and our prophet is named Muhammad. The children said, is that all? Which the Imam nodded? Yes, that's all you will be asked. Imam al-Ghazali added, and what happens in this life if you do something very bad or wrong? Ahmed spoke up in order to make sure we don't keep on doing bad things, our parents or teacher may punish us. This gives us a little time to think about how bad our behavior was and to change our ways. So children who are all listening in and the ones who may see this later as a recording, this is your homework assignment. I want you all to get, make a little scale to get two little cardboard boxes, do you see like this? And hang them on a hanger. And then one box, it's called the naughty, the naughty doings that you don't want to do. And then the good deeds. And then you can collect little stones, little, little pale, light colored stones you can put in the good deed one. And then you can find sort of darker, darker pebbles or something like that. Maybe M&Ms and you can put those in the other one, right? And then you will see, you will discover that your good deeds actually are weighing more than your bad. You're going to feel good about this. So I want every one of you to do this. It's just like coloring the dots on your hearts, right? What you've been drawing. And doing this and doing your dots on your heart, these are just reminding you to find more and more ways to polish your hearts and make them shiny, right? The dirty stones that we pile on our toy scales will be like the dots for being angry or lazy or selfish, right? But good manners are like good deeds. If you have good manners, if you're polite, if you say hello in salamu alaykum and stand up, if an adult comes into the room, you know that having good manners, what that really means is putting the other person first ahead of you. It's so easy to do. You know, helping mother is putting her before playing, putting her first. So what you do when you have good manners is you're putting the other person first. Letting someone play with your toys is also good manners. And so after you answer the questions of Munkar and Nakir, all right, they've asked you, they've asked you those questions. Guess what happens next, everyone? There's a thin bridge, a hero is like a hair or a thin blade, and you're going to have to cross it and see it fall in to the hell. Well, they're just, but only the worst people fall. I wouldn't worry about it, right? You're trying, you're trying to reach your home, the next world that's waiting for you. So don't worry. You know, only the people who don't believe in Allah and who do really terrible, really horrible deeds, right? So don't worry about it. All right. I don't want any of you worried. The important thing is you have a wonderful, marvelous time polishing your hearts. Now, you've got to cross the bridge, or cross the bridge, and then you'll come to an immense watering basin. It's called called al-hawd al-marud. And this is the pool of Muhammad, salallahu alayhi wasalam. And you come to this great pool. This little girl is lying there, thinking about it, right? And this is the place where those who believe in God and His messengers get to have a drink of this very special water that's whiter than milk and sweeter than honey. And once you drink from this, you will never be thirsty again. You'll always be completely satisfied. And guess what's around this pool, right? It's so large, this pool, everybody. And I want you to remember this. This is what you're learning. It would take an entire month, at least 30 days to cross this, to cross this pool. But around it are little tiny drinking cups. And these little jugs that are all the way around the edge, right? There are as many stars as there are in the heavens. And then you get to drink from one of these little jugs. And you know where this water comes from, from one of the rivers from the Garden of Paradise called al-Ka'athar, which means abundance. It will never end. I'm sure you all have heard the surat al-Ka'athar, in the Atanak al-Ka'athar. I bet some of you already have memorized that one. So children, at a time, right? At a time when your account is finally taken, you know, you're his sabb, the addition is taken and all your good and bad doings are added up, those who have gone, who have already become near to Allah will go directly to the Garden of Paradise. Muslims will be asked what they did, how their prayers were, talk about their fasting, their kindness, and the way they treated others. We must always feel, we also have to feel, by the way, in our hearts, sure about the excellence of our Prophet's companions, the Prophet's companions, Abu Bakr, Usman, Omar, and Ali, radi allahu anhum. So Ghazali tells you, now remember, we've been talking about your golden heart in this particular story in the Book of Belief, Book of Talheed. Ghazali tells us that the ideas that we are learning, the good ideas that you're learning, are like little seeds planted right here. You see? Right here in your heart. I want everyone, put your hands, everyone put your hands right on top of your hearts, right now. And I want everyone just to imagine inside, there's a beautiful golden seed gleaming inside of you. Can you all feel it? It's in there, all right? Because you all are children, you're very close to the fitra, you know. So you have golden seed in there. And when God made each one of you, He placed this inside of you. And He also made it possible for you all to understand what is possible and impossible and give you an inclination, a leaning toward loving faith. That's why you can't stand lying or cheating, right? It really hurts when you see people being unfair and not telling the truth. Why is this? This is because your hearts know what is true. It might be very hard to understand what the truth is, but God has already put the knowledge inside of you. And so you recognize what is true. Can't you all tell the difference between what is true and right and then what is false and wrong? Throughout your whole life, knowledge is like a seed in your heart, and you must strive to help it grow into a magnificent tree of knowledge. Now, to help these golden seeds of true ideas grow inside of your hearts. What can you do? Seeds need to be watered, right? And they need sunshine, and they need to be cared for. So the little boy Omar said, oh, I see what you're seeing about the meaning of watering the seeds in our hearts. What we are learning, what you and our parents and teachers are teaching us, is like watering these shining special seeds. The ideas you are being taught, children, everything you're learning from your teachers and you're going to school and your parents and from Imam al-Ghazali's books, all of these are watering your special seeds. These ideas will help you become stronger and as you grow, as the seeds grow. I have a comment. Yes, go ahead. Please. I'd love your comment. I just wanted to tell you that I home school. Oh, that's wonderful. I'm so glad you home school. That's really good, yeah. That's kindergarten. Oh, that's wonderful. Aren't you, aren't you lucky? Aren't you really, you're so blessed, really. You're fortunate that your parents can make that possible for you. I'm in fourth grade. Oh my goodness. Oh, that's wonderful. That was Zahra, right? Yeah, my brother home schools too. Oh, thank you Zahra for telling us this. That's really wonderful. So I'm sure all the wonderful things you're learning, these are like watering the golden seeds. The ideas that are in your heart are becoming stronger and growing because they're getting all kinds of support and sunshine from all the teaching you're getting at home. That's really wonderful. So think of it this way. The first things you are learning are like planting seeds in your heart. So how can you water them so they get very, very strong? Okay, some of the ways you can water them is do your prayers at regular times. You can study the Quran and Hadith. You can sit with beautiful elders, with your grandparents, and lovely people in your community who are at peace with themselves and with the loss upon Awat al-A'la. And you can try and be peaceful like them. Look at them and see if you couldn't start to imitate them. Remember in the last book we were told in the book of Hajj that when you're circumambulating the Kaaba, you're following along with the angels who are in the next world, the alam al-malakut, you're circumambulating with them, imitating them. And then Ghazali said, we become like who we imitate. So if you see beautiful people who are kind and very noble, imitate them. So all of these kinds of things are going to help to water your seeds until they grow and become stronger and stronger and turn into a goodly tree. The Quran speaks, Quran verse Surah 14, a goodly tree whose roots are firm and branches are in heaven. This is what your knowledge is like, like a beautiful tree. So look, if the tree, look at, here's this little boy, right? He's got a little plant growing. He said, these good ideas growing in this boy's heart are becoming a great tree. You could color this. It's in your workbook, by the way, that you have. This comes with your, with book two, it's the workbook. You can add fruit, all the good that comes from your good ideas, right? So if the tree began growing from a seed, right, which God, which God gave us, a seed of true ideas. And if we listen with care and with love to what our teachers and parents say, now everyone listened to what your teachers and parents are telling you, right? If you listen to them in that way, the tree will be watered. When you listen to your parents and your family and to your imam, it will, it will water your little plant and will grow from what it learns. And one day, look, look how big your tree will become big, big, big and beautiful from your beautiful ideas. And if you live your life with these beautiful ideas that you're learning, you'll be able to do really good things, you know, coming from a strong tree. See, look here, here's the little boy and you can see that little plant is going to become a great tree and look at him as a grown-up person. See what a beautiful noble person he had become because he kept nourishing the ideas, the good ideas, and trying to do them, everything he was taught. So we people can be strong, like strong, beautiful trees. And when we do good things, these not only help other people, right, doing things for other, you know, good, doing good, but it helps polish our own hearts at the same time. So you see the fruits that come from good learning and good doing are not just helping us to have good lives, but they're also helping us get ready for the next beautiful world where we will all be going together, right? And then what the children said, but how do we even begin to help our little trees grow? We are only children. When we are little, here's some things you can do, children. When we are little, we can memorize verses from the Quran and things our beloved prophet peace and blessings be upon him said, some of the hadith. While we are small, it's easy to memorize. It's hard for someone my age, but you all, it's easy to learn things by heart. This is the perfect time for you to learn these beautiful passages and plant them in your heart ready to grow. You may not understand all the words yet or what they mean, but later you will. But what you need to do is get these beautiful Quranic passages memorized in your heart. Remember, these are the words the Sayedinah Gabriel, the angel Gabriel said, you'll be, you'll be reciting those very words in your heart. Angelic, right? The little boy Balal said, I have been, I have been given a life and this is my own garden to take care of. My teachers and my parents are giving me seeds to plant in the middle of my garden. And also they're giving me advice about how to keep my garden weeded and watered. Imam al-Ghazali speaks about weeding. You've seen weeds outside. The weeds get around your plants and flowers and they kill them off. They strangle them, right? And then the boy Ahmed said, the weeds smother little plants and try to kill them. So children, we must watch carefully out for thoughtless doings, which are like bad deeds. Be on alert. Watch all the time. If you start doing something silly and ridiculous and naughty, realize it's like a weed. It's a weed trying to strangle your beautiful little good growing plants. And Imam al-Ghazali said, your life children is a gift that God gives to you. Now children, suppose you gave your very best friend a nice gift and that friend threw it on the floor and just crushed it and stepped on it. How would you feel if that happened children? Wouldn't that be terrible? If you gave your friend something and they just threw it on the ground and stepped on it? So imagine a law has given you this beautiful life and all these possibilities, right? So you don't want to waste your lives that your lives have been given to you by God. So you don't want to waste them. These are your lives and you don't want to throw them away. You want to use them for what they have been intended. Allah wants you all to return to him pure and happy as you are right now and to enjoy beautiful, beautiful lives. We're just at the end here. So just ending right now, so I want to wind up. So Imam al-Ghazali reminds you everybody. He says, children, don't waste your time by getting into a lot of arguments about religion. Sometimes parents and people and scholars, they argue over, they go on and on arguing about different points, right? They discuss endlessly and they argue, right? And sometimes they get full of pride and then they start disliking other people for different ideas. Imam al-Ghazali says, and he wrote these books, not for children, by the way, he wrote these for people our age and scholars. He was telling them not to do it, but you're finding out now about these ideas. So you won't do them either. You won't, all right? So he says, focus on what you are learning and on doing good, right? And on being kind and thoughtful. Don't be angry or upset. Be happy, be the happy people full of shining light that you already are. And he said, sometimes it might happen, you know, might happen that someone has misunderstood something in religion, right? And your parents, very kindly, very sweetly and calmly will tell them what is correct, you know? Not in a mean way, you know? And in that way, they are able to help a person who might be full of doubt. Always use gentle words, right? Don't feel proud, right? If you really want to be helpful, be gentle and not proud. The Quran, our holy book, is filled with good reasons that can help people understand, all right? Let's hear an example. There have been some people who have not believed that we will have a next life after we die. All right, children, I'm sure you will run into many kids who say, I don't believe that there's a next life. I don't believe there's a next world after we die. This is all there is. There are people who actually think like that. But you know what the Quran says? It explains that God, who created everyone in the first place, right? Can bring them back. He can bring them back to life again. That means if Allah created people in this world and He brought us into this world, then certainly He can bring you into the next world too. I mean, that would be easy. That's pretty clear, said Yusuf. It makes sense that if God made us and brought us into this world, right, why wouldn't it be easy for him then to bring us into the next world? The one which comes after, the Garden of Paradise, and added Maha excitedly. We learn from your book of knowledge that we have a false lower self or ego, the nafs al-amara. It only thinks about itself and not others. This is where the black dots come from, right? This lower part of us is selfish and greedy and wants to show off to others how good we are. This low false, it's not who we really are. This low false self also forgets who we really are, our real beautiful selves, the real selves that are completely happy. That low self, which pretends to be who we really are, has to be right and win out all the time. It's very embarrassing seeing people like that who always have to win out and are not nice. Children, you have to stay aware of your three selves, right? Right? You have to stay aware of your three selves. Whatever happens in your life, you will be able to turn that into something that will help you in many ways and make you peaceful and happy. Just watch your three selves. The lower self that's not you, the nafs al-amara, the selfish means, separated egoic self. Then your nafs al-awama says, oh no, that's the wrong thing to do and the nafs al-amut to my inna is your real self. Just when you see yourself getting upset or being silly, just look and say, oh, that's not, that's the lower self. So Ahmed explained, oh my goodness. And we know it's not easy to do this to be our real true selves. It's very hard. Look at the story of Imam al-Ghazali. We saw how hard it was for you and Imam al-Ghazali. You noticed when you were a very famous teacher that you were proud and enjoyed being famous and smart. And then Allah kindly took away your voice so you couldn't teach anymore. And he let you become a humble janitor. You see in the picture here, children? There he is sweeping a humble janitor. Allah honored him by taking him from being rich and famous and powerful. He was honored by bringing him to this beautiful state, where he was humble instead of full of himself, right? So once you get so children, once you get empty of all of your stuck up ideas, you can become pure and full of light. And then you will be able to understand about the deep and very important meanings of every detail of our religion. At the end, all the little children in the story, they said, oh Imam al-Ghazali, bless you and thank God that you have been able to go through every tiny detail of our religion and explain the beautiful meanings for us, the real and true inner meanings that so many people no longer know or understand. Praise Allah. You have made us love our prayers and want to understand all that God has asked of us. You are giving us step by step away full of meaning to love God and our faith. And that ends the book of belief. And isn't that beautiful? The children are thanking Imam al-Ghazali. And we're thanking him too right now. It's no different. We're not children pretending we see him. We are who we are. And we can thank him because he is always present in his teachings and all the wonderful things he is helping us with. So I just wanted to say, you know, I imagine I finished this in exactly an hour like I was supposed to. But I would love any of you to have any comments or questions or anything at all. It's been a pleasure to teach you these six evenings. I want to tell you, though, to have gone through six hour classes with you and given you what took eight years to do. It's really been too condensed and I feel very bad. But now you've had an overview of the ideas and you can slowly read the books, do the workbook pages, do the activities, have fun and really learn everything that you've been presented with for your very own hearts. So I give you many, many filams. Any questions? Why does a host keep wanting me to unmute? Why does what? Why does a host keep? I don't know. Now I can't even hear you. Oh, because I was on mute. Why does a host keep wanting me to unmute? I don't know. Is this the last session? Yes, this is it. We're saying goodbye, but I'll come out and visit you again in California. Can I come out to the Muslim Community Center again and see you all? And we can sit around and do some art projects. Yes. Play some games. Should we do that? Yeah, when there's no coronavirus. Yeah, that's right. That would be when the coronavirus is gone. Yeah. Yeah. And Aisha, I want you to keep helping Brother Munir. I have a question. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. What are the weeds that you talked about? They were bad deeds, right? Well, yeah, everybody does some bad deeds, don't we? Even if we're proud or mean or we don't share, those are the kinds of things we're talking about. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome, Yasin. Anymore? Something you can all do, if you go on the children's interactive gizalichildrens.org website, if you go to Things to Do, you'll find a section where children have sent in videos. I wish you all would make videos of doing the wrong thing and then doing it right. But one little boy out of Lagos made a little Lego car going along. Wait, I can get rid of, I can stop sharing here. Oh, yeah. Oh, here I am. Yeah. So he made a little toy car and it's going along like this. He's going and it hits a Lego tree and he's dead. And then you made out of Legos, a little grave, a little grave, and then he has the two beings coming to question him. Who is your lord? What is your religion? It was really funny. I hope you all will go online sometime and on the website. And there's a what it starts with a beautiful heart walking along and it's got a brush and then jealousy jumps out and it brushes off jealousy. And then you can go and read the books like the flip book that I hope you read of the Mamal Gizali's life. There are other books and there are many things you can do. And I would love it if you all became part of the community and made little videos like some of the hilarious videos you all will see and you could send in one little girl from Pakistan. She's from Sialkut, Pakistan. And she has pets, white peacocks. And she had a beautiful silver dress and she had her dolls go to a doll luncheon. She brought them in a doll car. And then when they left, they talk badly about the hostess. They said, oh, her food was horrible. She didn't look very pretty. And then they thought, what did we do? We were backbiting. So they turned around and they went all the way back and they went to her and they said, we are sorry. Forgive us. We apologize for saying something wrong behind your back. But some of them are really, some of them are really funny. There's the one of the two girls that are playing around and they they're doing cartwheels and one of them falls in and breaks the mother's vase. And they said, oh, mother is going to be so angry, so upset. And then mother is coming and mother walks in and said, who broke my vase? And they said, oh, little Ahmed there, the little baby boy on the on the couch. He went, no, no. And then the girls thought, what did we do? So they go into the mother and they say, mother, we lied. We're sorry. We broke it. We will try to fix it. But we want to tell you, we, we apologize. And the mother loved them very much for being honest and asking forgiveness. But you could make films like this and you go and see what kids have sent in. You're just going to laugh. You're going to really laugh. So I hope you all will do that. Like little plays with my friends. Yes, you can take an iPhone and make little videos, go and look at a lot of them and you'll get ideas what you can do. They're really funny. I hope you do that. Yeah. And I hope you get a chance to go through all the different workbooks and fill in the blanks and have your mother go through the activities and maybe for each chapter, come up with some really fun activities you can do. You know, one of the great activities is, I think we talked about this last time is that good thoughts and bad thoughts. Remember, we talked about the good thoughts that the angels have in your mind. And if you have bad thoughts, it's like barking dogs, scaring the, scaring the angels away, that if you have a good thought, you're supposed to act on it right away. Don't wait. There's what we see, like the lower things coming and say, maybe you have the good thought, I'll go and help mommy now. And then the thoughts say, oh, go and watch TV instead. If you can catch, if you have a good thought, quickly do it, because the bad thoughts, the lower self are trying to ruin everything for you. So really watch, look at your good thoughts and the second you have one, like go and do it. Well, I've loved being with you, but this isn't the end. This is just the beginning. Let's just check in, you know, maybe next year we'll get together. You all are older and you can tell me what you've learned from your work and all everybody, please write to me. Please send videos. Be in touch anytime. Anybody else? Any mom or dad? Maybe I could try making videos. I would love it if you did. Do you promise me you'll do that? That would be so beautiful. I have some Minecraft characters I could do. Could you do that? Oh, that would be wonderful. That's wonderful. It's Jabriel. Your name is Jabriel, isn't it? Yeah. I love that name. Isn't that a beautiful name? It's beautiful. The name of an archangel. I mean, isn't that wonderful? What's on your t-shirt? What's on your shirt? A monster truck. A what? A monster truck. I thought you said that. Yeah, look at that. A monster truck. Oh my goodness. Thank goodness. Well, let's see. Zahra, would you like to say something? I think my video will be funny because I'm kind of a funny person anyway. Oh, I can't wait. I can't wait. That'll be great. And what about Hyann? Are you there? Maybe not. Well, shall we call it a night? Shall I go off and finally go to sleep? It's been wonderful being with you all. And you're just a real family to me. So I'm sending you so much love and so many slams. Thank you for teaching us. Thank you so much. Oh, thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you. And I love you all. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to do this for us. Oh, thank you. What a nice thing to say. Thank you. Thanks, Hyann. Well, like I said, bye-bye.