 O Allah, we surrender ourselves to you. We turn our attention to you. We entrust our affairs to you. We depend and lean on you. I'll say it one more time. O Allah, we surrender ourselves to you. We turn our attention to you. We entrust our affairs to you. We depend and we lean on you. Out of love and fear of you. There is no escape from you, except to you. There is no escape from you, except to you. We believe in the messenger that you have sent and in the book that you have revealed. Ameen. O Allah, we ask you to witness this gathering. We ask you to give us openings in this night. O Allah, we ask you for the good of this night. It's openings, it's victories, it's illumination, it's guidance, and it's blessings. O Allah, if this is the night of power, if this is Lailatul Qadr, then pardon our sins. You love to pardon. You are the pardoner, pardon our sins, ya Allah. Ya Allah. And if it's not the night of power, you are the pardoner and you love to pardon. So pardon our sins, ya Allah. You are the Lord of the night of power and you are our Lord. You are our Rab. You are our owner. You are our caretaker. You are our owner. You are our caretaker. You are the one who grows us and molds us. We belong to you. Ya Allah. We belong to you, ya Allah. And we turn to you, ya Allah. We seek you, ya Allah. We yearn for you. You are our mission. You are our goal. You are our everything. Ya Allah. You bring life from death. You bring victory from failure. You do as you please. You are capable of everything. Ya Allah. Ya Allah, witness this moment. Ya Allah, we turn our hearts to you. Ya Allah, we can't save our own marriages. We can't save our own children. Ya Allah, we can't save our own brothers. We can't save our own sisters. We can't save our parents. But you can, ya Allah. We come in this night and we ask for big, big openings, ya Allah. Ya Allah. And we come in this night in this special place, in this special month, ya Allah. Turning to you because you are our Lord. You are our everything, ya Allah. Accept from us, ya Allah. I mean, send peace and blessings on our master, our teacher, the Prophet Muhammad, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. It's in our tradition, our teachers, our scholars, they advise us to change up your regimen of worship because it renews you. It renews your energy. So we change it up. We read some Quran, we do some Zikr, we do some Fikr, we do some Duha, we do some prayer. And each time it's renewal. And that's why commercials and cartoons, they got it down. So they change the screen every moment. So your attention is renewed. But our scholars, our psychologists, the scholars of the soul and the nefs, they've known this for a long time. So that's the intention for tonight. When we read Quran, four things happen, right? Tranquility descends. We are immersed in mercy. We are surrounded by angels. And God mentions us in a greater gathering. And so that's our intention, inshaAllah, in these big intentions, in these big, big moments. And God is capable. So anything you have, anything you're carrying, bring it now. Bring it and give it to God. Anything you're carrying, Allah is capable. And the key to openings, the key to gifts from God is desperation. You want gifts from God to come pouring down, showering down upon you? Desperation. To be desperate. The opposite of that is to be independent. I don't need you, God. I'm smart enough. I'm rich enough. I'm active enough. I'm strong enough. I don't need you, right? And so we come with desperation, with brokenness. We offer God everything we have, which is our nothingness. And we ask God, we bring to God our sins, our arrogance, our pride, our vanity, our argumentation, our backbiting. And we ask God, we give those to God, and we ask Him to replace it for us with hasanat, with reward, with mercy, with love, with gentleness, with paradise. And He's generous. He's the most generous of the generous. He's capable. So as we read the Qur'an in this month of the Qur'an, sometimes, you know, we have a goal to finish a certain number of pages in a day, which is a good, which is a lofty goal. And then while we're reading those pages, whether it's in Arabic or English, and each one has its merit and benefit, sometimes something will touch us. A few words might hit us. We might land. They might feel different. And when that happens, know that that's a breeze from the Divine. And when that happens, sit in that breeze and don't move. Don't go anywhere. Forget about your pages that you have to finish for the next hour. Forget about forget about everything. God has these breezes, so expose yourself to them. So in that breeze, sit and say it over and say it again and say it again and say it slow and say it and think about the first word when you say it and say it and say it and then think about the second word and say it and say it and say it and then think about the third word and say it and say it and say it and let it just paint you. Let God paint you. And what better paint is there? Let it cleanse us. And we do that also even when we say, subhanah rabbial a'la and the sujood. Sometimes think about the word subhan. Sometimes think about the word rabb. Sometimes think about the word may because each one has its different power and effect and cure. Rabbi is the most word that we say as a Muslim following Islam. The most word that we say as a Muslim. If we do the farb, the obligations, it's not Allahu Akbar. It's not la ilaha illallah, it's rabbi. Because we say it in the ruku three times, in sujood three times, in sujood three times, nine times raka'a. We pray 17 raka'a as a day. Fajr al-Dohar, Asad Maghrib, Asha is 17 times nine is 153. Rabbi. Why did God choose that word for to be the word? What does rabbi mean? Rabbi has three layers. G-o-t. Rabbi has three layers. God is growing us, growing us. So yeah, sometimes we get a test. Sometimes he's molding us. Sometimes we get squeezed. Sometimes we get a difficulty. He's growing us into something bigger and better, just like we grow our children sometimes. The o is he owns us. And the t is he's taking care of us. And so when you think of rabbi, we can think of each of those layers. And rabbi. I have a lord. A lot of people are living this world. They don't have a lord. They don't have a master. They don't have an owner. They're lost. It's meaningless. It's purposeless. It's aimless. It's directionless. We have a direction. Jannah. We have a purpose. It's amazing. Right? And then you say Al-Ahlal. And so each one, each one has a beauty. And so you enjoy that breeze. And our Prophet peace be upon him and the Sahaba. When that breeze would come, they would say the same verse over and over and over in the same night. And so this is, this is from our Sunnah. This is our way so we can connect with that, with that verse. Salah al-Habib. Allahumma salli ala Sayyidina Ahmad. Salah al-Habib. One more time. Salah al-Habib. Allahumma salli ala Sayyidina Muhammad wa Ali. Say with me. Salah al-Habib. Allahumma salli ala Sayyidina Muhammad wa Ali. Salah al-Habib. InshaAllah, I want to share one story with you. And this is the story of the historical figure in many of our cultures and civilization called Juhah, Hoja. Any other names you guys know about him? Juhah, a chemical figure, but historical real figure. And so Juhah, one time he was, he was, he was walking with his son and they, they had a donkey and they were walking and they had the donkey. And so Juhah, the father was sitting on the donkey and his son was walking and they passed by some people and the people looked at Juhah and he said, what a heartless father. He's making his child walk. So Juhah said, oh man, yeah, my god. So then he, he got off the donkey and he put his son to sit. And so they continued walking and then they passed some other people and the people said, look at that son with no edab. He's sitting on the donkey and he's making his father walk. What kind of edab is that? No manners. Look at the kids, these children, these days. So Juhah said, okay, we're both sitting on the donkey. So the father sits on the donkey, the son sits on the donkey and they continue walking. And then they passed by another group of people and the group of people, they look at Juhah and his son and they say, look at that heartless family putting all that weight on that poor donkey. What bad manners. So Juhah says, okay, let's get off the donkey. So we don't put too much weight on the donkey. So Juhah and the son start walking next to the donkey and then they walk by another group of people and the people say, look at those imbeciles. They have a donkey and neither, no one's riding it. So then Juhah takes the donkey and carries the donkey above his head and starts walking. And the moral of the story is if we're chasing the approval and the pleasure of people, we're making ourselves lower than donkeys. And so there is, pleasing people is a goal you will never achieve. And pleasing a law is a goal you should never leave. So achieve what you should never leave and leave what you'll never achieve. They say there's a quote that says, you know, in my 20s I used to care about what people thought about me, you know, I had to dress like them. What are they going to think of my, my, my, my hijab? What are they going to think about my clothes? What are they going to think about my hair? What are they going to think about my car? What are they going to think about my house? What are they going to think about my, about my wife, about my husband? What are they going to think about my joke? What are they going to think about my job, my career, my promotion? What are they going to think? And then in my 30s, you know, I got courageous and so I said, you know what? I don't care what people think about me. I don't care anymore. I'm going to, I'm going to be me. I'm going to live my own life. I'm going to be authentic, which is another discussion for another day. So they start becoming free of people's opinions and approvals. And then in their 40s, they realize no one was actually ever thinking about them. But a Muslim in their 50s realizes a law was thinking about them and looking at them the whole time. It's about a law, right? And so in conclusion, I leave you with this beautiful aphorism from Ibn Ata'illah, beautiful hikmah. And this is, I leave you with this gift to take this away, inshallah, from this night. Inshallah, we also take away paradise, sayameen and exemption from Hellfire. Sayameen, because that's what it's all about. Everything else is a distraction. We're only here for a few days. And so Ibn Ata'illah says, vanish from your eyes the sight of people on you in exchange for the sight of God on you. Did you get that? Vanish from your eyes, from your perspective, people's eyes on you in exchange for God's eye on you. When we make that shift, that paradigm shift, it's so comforting. It's so relaxing. It's so liberating. It's so empowering. It's so empowering. And the second part of the aphorism, and ignore people approaching you and witness God approaching you. And ignore people approaching you and witness God approaching you. Allah, that's what it's all about. That's what it's all about. Amazing. Amazing. And so I leave you with that, inshallah, so we can worship Allah as if we see Him. And if we don't see Him, we know that He sees us. So we don't end up carrying the donkey, inshallah, sayameen. So in this last third of the night, God asks three questions. Who's calling me so I may answer Him? Who's asking me so I may give Him? And who's seeking my forgiveness so I may forgive Him? And so we say we are Ya Allah. We're calling you Ya Allah. We're calling you Ya Allah. Ya Allah, we're calling you. Ya Allah, we're calling you. Ya Allah, we're calling you. Ya Allah, we're calling you. And we know you're the all-hearing. Ya Allah, we're asking you. Ya Allah, we're asking you. Ya Allah, we're asking you. And we know the one who responds, Al Mujib. Ya Allah, we're seeking your forgiveness. Ya Allah, if you don't forgive us what will happen to us. You're the only one who can forgive us. Forgive us Ya'Allah for the sins that we did privately and publicly. The ones we know of and don't know of. Ya'Allah when we go to our grave let us be surprised with our rewards not with our sins. When we meet you Ya'Allah let us be surprised with our rewards not our sins Ya'Allah. Ya'Allah don't let us go to our death bed and feelings of remorse and feelings of regret. When we meet you let us not have remorse and regret. Let us have celebration. Let us have celebration. Ya'Allah we yearn for you. Ya'Allah we yearn for you Ya'Allah. We yearn to be with you. We learn to meet you. We learn to be reunited with you. This is not our home. Come back to your Lord. Come back to your Lord. Enter into my servants and enter my my paradise. Ya'Allah this is not our home. You are our home. Ya'Allah help us reflect our Prophet's beautiful characters. Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Connect us with him outwardly and inwardly. Help us love him. Help us emulate him. Help us represent him. Help us represent him. Ya'Allah we miss him. We wish we could have met him. We wish we could have seen him. We wish we could have held him. We wish we could have hugged him. Just one look. Just one glance. Just one moment to elevate us. To inspire us. To set us straight. Just one word. Just one voice. Just one moment to witness. Ya'Allah help us fall in love with our Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Help us obey him. Help us follow him so that you can love us and forgive us as you say in the Quran. We want you to love us Ya'Allah and we follow your beloved Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and our beloved Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Ya'Allah help us live the meanings of la ilaha illa Allah. The multiple layers of meanings of la ilaha illa Allah. There's no one we worship except you. There's no one that there's no one there's no one there's no one that we seek except you. There's no one there's no one that we seek except you. Ya'Allah there's no one there's no one that owns us except you Ya'Allah. Ya'Allah there's no one worthy of worship except you Ya'Allah. There's no one's opinion there's no one's approval that we seek other than you and those who you want us to seek our parents and our teachers. Ya'Allah Ya'Allah help us experience the sweetness of this faith. Ya'Allah Ya'Allah here we are here we are here we are April 12 2023 21st of Ramadan. Ya'Allah here we are in this message in your house coming for what nothing except Allah. We're knocking on your door Ya'Allah we're doing Atikaf at your door and we won't leave until you open for us and we have a good opinion of you that you are the merciful of the merciful you are the generous of the generous you are the king of kings and we're coming to you Ya'Allah. Ya'Allah we're desperate Ya'Allah we're desperate Ya'Allah we're broken Ya'Allah we're sinful we're sinful Ya'Allah we're lost we're arrogant we're prideful we're jealous we love money we love image we love materials we love food we love all the things but do we love you have we lived our life for you have we honored you have we respected you have we obeyed you have we read your Qur'an have we served our parents have we honored our parents did we sleep through all the nights did we ever get up at night do we ever get up at night and call your name do we let our Qur'an our copy of the Qur'an get dusty did we look at things we should look at are we choosing this dunya over are we distracted by this dunya and we stay away do we love our work do we love our bank accounts do we think about our bank accounts more than we think about you Ya'Allah forgive us Ya'Allah forgive us Ya'Allah forgive us ya'Allah forgive us Ya'Allah clean our hearts Ya'Allah eliminate our hearts purify our hearts take care of our marriages take care of our children and forgive us Ya'Allah We bring to you sin, you bring to us forgiveness. We bring to you arrogance, you bring to us forgiveness. We bring to you jealousy and envy and disrespect and you bring to us forgiveness and love and mercy and gentleness. Ya Allah, you bring life from death. You elevate who you want and you humiliate who you want. Don't humiliate us in this world or the next, ya Allah. Ya Allah, our children. Ya Allah, our children. Ya Allah, our parents. Ya Allah, our sisters, our brothers. Ya Allah, those suffering around the world. Ya Allah, our brothers and sisters in Yemen. Did we do anything for them? Are we too busy enjoying our steaks? Ya Allah, the leaders of the Muslim world. Ya Allah, guide them, ya Allah. Guide them, ya Allah. Ya Allah, ya Allah. We beg you, we beg you. We can't do anything. This is your story. This world is your domain. You design it as you please and we don't reject the decree. You promise to test us, ya Allah. But we beg you, ya Allah. We beg you for our brothers, our sisters, our aunts, our uncles, our grandparents, our grandmas, our grandfathers, their little kids. The sisters. Ya Allah. When is the help of Allah coming? When is the help of Allah coming? We are close to Allah. Ya Allah, your help is indeed near. And you are near. And we love you, ya Allah. And we love you and we need you and we want you and we seek you and we live for you. You are our everything. We love you, forgive us, ya Allah. Cleanse us, ya Allah. Grant us paradise, ya Allah. With our parents. And if our parents have passed away, then illuminate their graves. Forgive all of their sins, ya Allah. Send them a gift at this moment. Send them a gift at this moment. All of our ancestors and all of our relatives and all those we care about, all of them listen. Send them a gift at this moment. Send them a gift at this moment. Ya Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahamin. Ya Ar-Rahman, Ya Rahim. Ya Allah, Ya Allah. Allahumma inna nes'aluka bi anana nashadu anna ka anta Allah. Wa hada ka laa sharika laka laa hada aslamat aladhi ilam yalid wa ilam yuradu wa ilam ya kufun ahadu. Allahumma inna nes'aluka wa anta wadduhu ilayka binabiyika Muhammadin sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Ya Muhammad. May Allah help us remember you and help us thank you and help us worship you beautifully. Ya Allah, thank you for this beautiful night. Coming from this beautiful religion. Coming from this beautiful month. Coming from this beautiful God. Coming from this beautiful prophet. Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And you are our beautiful Lord. You are our beautiful Ida. We love you, ya Allah. We thank you, ya Allah. Thank you for this beautiful religion. Thank you for this religion. Thank you for this guidance. Thank you for the guidance of Islam. Where would we be without it? Thank you for Islam. Thank you for Islam. Thank you for Islam. Thank you for Islam. Thank you for Islam. Thank you for Islam. Thank you for Islam. Thank you for sending us our prophets. Thank you for sending us our near prophet. Thank you for sending us our teacher. Thank you for sending us our role model. Thank you for sending us our captain. Thank you for sending us our hero. Our hero Habibi Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Allah. Thank you. Thank you, ya Allah. Thank you, Ya'Allah. Thank you, Ya'Allah. Right us from those who are from the thankful. A few people remember to thank you. Right us from the thankful, Ya'Allah. Ya'Allah, those who thank you, you increase them. We thank you for spiritual openings. We thank you for spiritual awakenings. We thank you for spiritual insights. We thank you for our parents. We thank you for our health. We thank you for our wealth. We thank you for our friends. We thank you for our family. We thank you for the gifts. We thank you for every moment of bliss we had. that we thank you for every smile, we thank you for every comfort, for every bite, for every sip, for every sitting, for every standing, for every walking, for everything, all good came from you. We thank you Ya Allah and those who thank you you increase them because you are so generous, you are amazing, you are amazing, subhan, subhan, you are our Lord and we are yours, you are ours and we are yours. We belong to you, alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah we know you, alhamdulillah we know your name, alhamdulillah we know this way, your way of Islam, alhamdulillah we know your prophet, alhamdulillah we know your messenger. Thank you Ya Allah, Ya Allah we ask you for sincerity, Ya Allah we ask you, we ask you Ya Allah to bring forth from us a Mujaddid, a Mujaddid, a renewer, we ask you to take care of our teachers and our scholars and their families and their children, Ya Allah, amin, amin. And we ask you for everything good that our dear prophet, as you have called and we seek protection from every harm that he saw, protection from. Subhanah, Rabbi, Kerab Al-Aziz, Ya Amin, As-Salaam, Wa-Salaam, Wa-Ala-Al-Musseen, Wa-Ala-Alameen, Wa-Ala-Alameen, Wa-Salaam, Wa-Ala-Alameen, Wa-Salaam, Wa-Salaam, Wa-Ala-Alameen, Wa-Salaam, Wa-Salaam, Wa-Salaam, Wa-Ala-Alameen, Wa-Salaam, Wa-Ala-Alameen, Wa-Ala-Alameen, Wa-Salaam, Wa-Ala-Alameen, Wa-Ala-Alameen, Wa-Salaam, Wa-Ala-Alameen, Wa-Salaam, Wa-Ala-Alameen, Wa-Ala-Alameen, Wa-Ala-Alameen, Wa-Ala-Alameen, Wa-Ala-Alameen, Wa-Ala-Alameen, Wa-Ala-Alameen, Wa-Ala-Alameen, Wa-Ala-Alameen, Wa-Ala-Alameen, Wa-Ala-Alameen, Wa-Ala-Alameen, Wa-Ala-Alameen, Wa-Ala-Alameen, Wa-Ala-Alameen, Wa-Ala-Alameen, Allahumma salli ala Sayyidina Muhammad al-Fatiha Allahumma salli ala Sayyidi