 We begin by praising God and our praise falls short because we can't praise him. Who are we to praise him? Who are we weren't how can we even praise him? But we praise him as he taught us to praise and we say Alhamdulillah and then we thank him But how can we thank him? How can we thank him for every time our heart beats imagine you had to say thank you to Allah? We could never do anything in life imagine we had to thank him for every time our eyes blinked For every time each organ in our body worked for every smile we had for every bite We had for every moment of comfort. We could never thank him Did we give these things to ourselves? Did we give ourselves our parents our health our soul our existence? We owe our existence to Allah He is entitled To our time our heart. He already owns us and our money And our thanks and then we remind ourselves that we weren't made for this world We're only visitors Temporarily visiting this place And that's why we come on fridays to wake up Religion is an alarm clock to wake us up and tell us this isn't your abode. This isn't your home You're just visiting Remember it's okay breathe do some vikr It's gonna be all good when we go back We're just visiting here And then we warn ourselves that we are returning to our maker Returning to our maker. What does that even mean? I'm returning to the one that made me That designed me that created me that gave me everything I ever had And he's gonna ask me and the first thing he's gonna ask me about Is how about my prayer my sallah The first thing he's gonna ask me about is my sallah So we warn ourselves we're going back to him And now my brothers and sisters we come on fridays So we can continue on our never-ending journey to fall in love with Allah Our never-ending journey to make Allah number one Our never-ending journey to submit and surrender To Allah to give to Allah everything that's already his To give to Allah my heart To give Allah my eyes My eyes you're not allowed to do what you want to do Nope, you do what Allah wants you to do My ears you're not allowed to do what you want to do. No You do what Allah wants you to do my feet. You're not allowed to go where you want to go You go where Allah wants you to go My hands you're not allowed to touch move where you want to touch and move. No So, you don't own yourself, I don't own you hand, Allah owns you, and you will obey Allah and you will submit to Allah. And we continue every Friday on this journey to remind ourselves that we live for Allah. We don't live for popularity. We don't live to fit in. We don't live to get approval from others. We want the approval of Allah. Of course that doesn't mean we become extreme and humiliate ourselves. But we live for Allah. Ya Allah, we want your approval. لكم دينكم واليديين, as you may have learned when you were five years old in the chapter. قُلّ أَيُهَ الْكَافِرُونَ I'm not like you, you're not like me. I'm not like you, you're not like me. You have your way, I have mine. And I'm Muslim. So today, on this day, I want to remind all of us that you have a meeting, an appointment with your prophet. Do you know where that meeting is? Do you know where that appointment is? Do you know that? Do you know that there's on your calendar, on your existential calendar, on your spiritual calendar, on your soul's calendar, you have an appointment with your prophet. You're going to meet him. You're going to see him. And he's waiting for us. And that appointment is at the fountain, at the water fountain, the water fountain on the day of judgment. Did you know you have an appointment with your prophet? Do you know that the Muslims made a deal with their prophet? You as a Muslim, you make a deal with your prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. What's that deal? The Muslims, at the Pledge of Aqaba, our ancestors, may Allah be pleased with them, they said, Ya Rasulullah, we want to be Muslim, just like all of you here, just like all of us here. We're coming, we're saying, I want to be Muslim. And what was the response? The response was, okay then, submit to Allah, pray, be honest, and don't fear, don't care when people make fun of you, when you're following God's way. Did you hear that? Did you hear that? This is from more than 1,400 years ago, he told the Muslims, you and me, he said, don't care, don't fear the censure, don't care, don't fear the reproach of others when you're following Allah's way. Don't care, don't care, don't care, don't care the reproach of others when you're following Allah's way, Allah's number one. People are going to point, people are going to laugh, people are going to wink, people are going to belittle, but the superior does not run away from the inferior. I want you to imagine, I want you to imagine this muscular man, this bodybuilder, who's tall and broad shoulders, who's deltoids and abs and his biceps and his triceps and everything, they're just super muscular and he walks mashallah and then there's this little pipsqueak and then this strong man sees the pipsqueak and gets scared and gets nervous and runs away. That's like a Muslim being embarrassed about Islam, that's like a Muslim hiding his Islam because we are, we are, we have the superior way, alhamdulillah. We have the superior man, alhamdulillah, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. He's the coolest man, he's the most amazing man, he's our man and he's God's man and a Muslim who's embarrassed, it's like that muscle man running away from the pipsqueak. And so, do you know, do I know, do we know our prophet? Oh, and the other part of the deal was, if you do that, what do you get? You get paradise, you get jinnah, you get heaven forever. That's the deal, ladies and gentlemen, that is why we're here. That is why we're here. There was a father who took his son out and he was walking with his son and then he said, son, you see that garbage over there? See the garbage truck? You see the garbage cans? You see the garbage on the street? He said, son, if I knew that God's, the love of God was found in picking up garbage, I would raise you to be a garbage man because that's what we want. We want God's love. However, I found that God's love is a knowledge. So I'm going to raise you to be a scholar and his son did become a scholar. And so our deal is we get paradise. We get paradise. And that's why we're here. That's why we're alive. Everything else is a distraction or everything else is a means to achieve that goal. Loving my wife or husband can get me closer to a love. Loving my children can get me closer to God. Eating can get me closer to God. Playing can get me closer to God. Can make a law love me. If I play the right way, if I don't say bad words, if I play the right games, if I play with the right people, that's fine because a law is happy. But if I play the wrong games with the wrong people, looking at the wrong things, hearing the wrong things and saying the wrong things, then those are distractions of the dunya. That's not why we're here. We're here to submit for a few years, and then you get jennah forever. Our retirement plan is not our 401k, it's not our pension. It's not one where 60s and 70s, our retirement plan is paradise. That's a short retirement plan. We don't know how long we're going to be in our grave. How long are you going to be in your grave, 1,000 years, 2,000 years, 5,000 years? How long are we going to stand on the Day of Judgment? How long are we going to be in the afterlife, 5 million years? That's retirement planning. Of course we need to be balanced Muslims, and we need to be balanced and strong in every way, financially and professionally and intellectually and spiritually. I say this, and I ask forgiveness from Allah, He forgives everything. Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, Allahumma salli ala Sayyidina Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man walah. You know what's interesting? God designed this religion and made Sayyidina Muhammad such a central figure. We need Sayyidina Muhammad salli ala salam to enter into Islam. Ashadu Allah ilaha illa Allah. Ashadu Anna Muhammad rasulullah. We need Sayyidina Muhammad salli ala salam for our prayer. For our prayer to be complete. Atahiyatulillah wa sallawatu wa ta'ibat assalamu alaika ayyuhannabi. Wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. We need Sayyidina Muhammad salli ala salam to make adhan, to call people to prayer. We need Sayyidina Muhammad salli ala salam for the day of judgment to begin. The day of judgment doesn't begin until Sayyidina Muhammad falls in prostration and Allah says rise and ask and I'll give you and he has the shafa'ah to intercede for us. So the two things I wanted to share today, number one, you have a meeting with your Prophet salli ala salam. He's waiting for you. And number two, about three or more times in the Quran, three or four times in the Quran, there were people that were sent messengers, prophets. And you know what they told him? Ma anta illa basharum mithluna, in antum illa basharum mithluna. You're a man just like us. No he's not. No he is not. They said you're just like us and you want to take us away from our father's ways. Who is this Prophet coming here to tell me how to live? You're a man just like me. I'm a man. I'm a grown man. Don't tell me how to live. And the modern Muslim has these ideas that Islam is here to take away my happiness. How absurd of an idea Islam is the recipe for happiness. With the modern Muslim, they think Islam is this little thing. Let me do it for a few minutes on Fridays, a couple minutes on each day. Let me do it in Ramadan a little bit and then let me put it back in this box and put it in the drawer and then let me go live my life. Let me go live my life so this religion doesn't get in my way. Let me go live my life so I can be happy. What is this modern idea? God is the author of you. God is the author of Islam. And God's the author of this world. And when they sync up, they match perfectly. When you submit to a law, it's the recipe for happiness. And so, let us not be victim to this modern man mentality and idea and think that religion is in the way of my happiness. How absurd, how disrespectful to the Creator. And so the second thing, the first thing is we have an appointment with our Prophet ﷺ and we're going to look for him by that water fountain. And the second thing is we're not going to say like those people said, You're just a man like us. No, he is not. He is the most special man. And just like that father said when he took his son, he said, I will raise you to be a garbage man if I found that God's pleasure was there. We also need to put, every day we're striving for something. Every day we're seeking something. Maybe we're trying to become richer. Maybe we're trying to grow our business. Maybe we're trying to grow our profession, our career. Maybe we're trying to become cooler, more successful. Maybe we're trying to become more handsome, more muscular. Are we trying to be more lovable to Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'ala? Is that in our recipe? Is that in our daily goals? Is it in our monthly goals? Is it in our life goals? God, I want you to love me. I want you to love me. What can I do to change so you love me? You know, like how sometimes husbands and wives, what can I do, parents and children? What can I do differently? What can I do differently? You talk to your boss. You talk to your employee. I need you to change this. I need you to adjust this. I need you to come earlier. I need you to do this less. I need you to do this more. How about us with Allah, with God? What can I do to be loved by you? Because I need that. I need that. I can't live this life without your love. And the way we do that is by following Muhammad, Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And so our, in our goals in life as we strive every day, it's to, I need to love my Prophet. It has to be a goal in our goals. And so right now is an invitation to recommit because God says renew your faith, renew your religion, renew yourself. And so we're renewing right now as we sit down before we stand up, renewing our commitment. That's right. Renewing my commitment to you, Ya Rasulullah, I live for you and I don't care if people make fun of me. I live for you, Ya Allah. And I don't care if people make fun of me because I'm going to be smiling and laughing and celebrating in the last day. And we look forward to our appointment with our Prophet, Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. There is a divine ensemble sending Salawat to the Prophet, God and the angels. And God invites us to join that divine ensemble, to send prayers on the Prophet. Please be upon him. And so we want to join that divine ensemble. And so we say, Allahumma salli ala Sayyidina Muhammad, wa ala ahli Sayyidina Muhammad, kama sallayta ala Sayyidina Ibrahim, wa ala ahli Sayyidina Ibrahim, fi ala alameena, innaka hameedum majeed. Allahumma hdina fi man hedayt, wa aafina fi man aafayt, wa tawallana fi man tawallayt. Wa bariklana fi ma aatayt, waqina wa srif'anna sharra ma khadayt. Fa innaka taqdi bil haqi wa la yiqudu alayt. O Allah, we ask you to let us stand forgiven, to let us leave this masjid forgiven. We ask you, Ya Allah, to unite our hearts, to unite the ummah. Ya Allah, we ask you to increase our love for you and your love for us, Ya Allah. And to increase our emulation of our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Ya Allah, don't forsake us to our own selves. Don't let the devil delude us or the dunya distract us. Let us live for you and breathe for you and die for you. Let us think for you and listen for you and use our eyes for you, Ya Allah. Ya Allah, help us honor our wives and our husbands. Help us honor our children and honor this faith. And let us taste the sweetness of Islam. Let us taste the sweetness of iman. Let us taste the sweetness of ihsan. Let us taste, let us fall in love with our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. The superior man. Don't let us run away. Don't let us be embarrassed, Ya Allah. Help us live with conviction with the superior man sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And when we meet him, let us hug him and love him and drink from his hands and be in the shade of the day of judgment. Ya Allah, don't let us leave this world in regret, in remorse. Let us leave this world successful, Ya Allah, from the winners not from the losers, Ya Allah. Ya Allah, cleanse us from our own egos. Let us, Ya Allah, from our own flaws. Ya Allah, we ask you to bring us closer to you with gifts and not through tests. And protect our children and our offspring until the day of judgment. And let them be people of La ilaha illa Allah Muhammad Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Remember Allah and He'll remember you and make the call to prayer. La ilaha illa Allah Muhammad Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Turn our attention to Allah. If it helps us concentrate, we can close our eyes and we turn to Allah as a group. Go iril ma qudube ayu wa s-i-s-i-s-i-f-i-s-u-du-ri.