 Dear family, in the last 10 days of Ramadan, we find ourselves ready. We are thinking about the zakat which we all give, and you children are thinking, but we're too young to give zakat, you know, we're little, right? But oh, you've given some zakat? You raised your hands. Oh, excellent. Good. Well, we're just going to look at a few points that will make you know more about this wonderful thing you've done, you know, which is quite amazing. I actually have some stuff written here for you, all right? So did you know that everything Allah makes, he makes in pairs, black, white, rich, poor, old, young? Tell me some more opposites. Someone else give more opposites. Big little, okay? Open clothes. What'd you say? Open clothes. Good. When you're, can you think of one? Up down. Up down. Yeah. Now, he made everything that way, right? So he made some people have money and some people not have very much. But you know, Allah is more powerful. He can do anything he wants. He could have made everybody rich or everybody poor. He could have done it. This is quite an interesting thought. Both sides, both those who have and those who don't have very much, they have many blessings because some of the things a person with very little can be blessed with. He can learn to be patient and trust God more easily. He's depending on God for everything. Whereas people who have everything kind of forget, you know, they're not clinging to God, but they have the opportunities to be generous. So now we're looking at something very interesting. Did you choose whether you would be coming from a family that had enough or not enough? Did you choose that? No. Did you choose children? Did you all actually choose your own mother and father? And did you choose what country you'd be from? And did you actually choose what things you're good at and what things you're not good at? Did you choose the people you know you didn't choose anything? And Imam al-Ghazali explains, we didn't give ourselves anything, our qualities where we are and therefore everything we have is on loan to us. It's just a trust. So everything that we have is literally on loan to us. Do you know a little boy said to me, he said, Auntie, when I borrow somebody's Legos, when I borrow a book from the library, I don't have a problem returning what I borrowed, what was on loan to me. So why should we have a problem giving back some of our toys and some of our wealth to people who have very little? That's a really interesting question, isn't it? We shouldn't have problems. But it's very interesting that zakat is the highest duty we have to do after prayer. It wasn't Hajj, right? And it wasn't fasting. It was zakat. After prayer. And you all know how important prayer is, don't you? We've talked about that. Imagine that the zakat is the highest duty after prayer. And it's mentioned in 82 verses of the Quran. That's a lot of mentioning, isn't it? And how do we pay it? We pay it with what God has already given to us. It's already God's and then we're paying it back. I think you all know the story. Remember the story. I'm going to tell you a story. Today we're going to have a short class because we're going to go over some of the things about talking we did last time. Remember the story that there were little children and they were on a merry-go-round. Can you all see the picture? See that? They're noticing. You see the little boy in the yellow jacket? He doesn't have enough money to go on the merry-go-round. And there are other children behind the fence. They feel sad because they can't do it. And the children are thinking, oh my goodness, they don't have enough to come on the merry-go-round. And they decide that they're going to go and see Hajj Abdullah. And on the way to see Hajj Abdullah, let's show you, they pass a man who is begging. Have you ever seen anybody who needed something reaching out, help me, help me? Maybe some homeless people. So they pass him and he's saying, Lila, Lila, give me something. I need help. And then the children, right, then the children run to the secret magic garden and they enter the beautiful door and they come in the beautiful door and they rush to their teacher, the wonderful Hajj Abdullah who is sitting there. He's already with some of the other children and they say, Hajj Abdullah. Why are some people rich and some people poor? And there's a man outside and he's saying, Lila, Lila, he's reaching out. What should we do? Well, Hajj Abdullah said, to start with, if someone reaches out to you children, maybe it's just someone in your school that's sad and needs a smile. Maybe someone needs money. Someone needs you to help them up from the couch. Maybe the grandmother. If anyone reaches out to you, you immediately give to them. So he said to the children, take this little bit of money here and go and give it to the man. And when he's saying, Lila, Lila, Li in Arabic means two things, four. It's for the sake of God. But it also, Li means it belongs to, it already belongs to Allah. So you're just taking what belongs to Allah already and moving it to some other part. You see, it's not like it's yours to give, but it's, you are moving it. So they go and take the money and then they come back. All right. Did you all, you didn't pick your parents, did you, right? And you didn't give yourself where you live or all the nice things you have. These are all from Allah alone. So you have to think of ways you can give some of these beautiful gifts back. Now there's a story about how to give and how not to give. Once upon a time, all right, once upon a time, the king went to this very rich man and he said, there's some people who don't have very much food and I want you to take them some food. And this rich, pompous, greedy man said, oh no, I have lands, but these are mine. All right. All right. I'll take them some food. He takes the food down, he holds it high up and the people are reaching up and he makes them feel low and not very, he makes them feel that they're begging, right? And then they're worried maybe next time he comes into town on his horse, we'll now have to take care of his horse. So that, so then do you think that's the right way to give? Hold it up high and make the people feel low. Maybe there's somebody in your school who needs a sweater, right? If you go and just hand down like here, you take this sweater, right? That's not the way to give it, right? Now or to give someone that you think needs something, you don't just say here, down like that. So then the king, this was really a law, went to this man who was an orphan and he knew about money and he said, there's a poor widow right here and she wants to educate her children and she has no money. Take her money. Now look what he's doing. You see, he has the plate of gold and he's holding it low and is he looking down on her? No, he's looking up into her face and you know what he says to her? He says, oh, blessed lady, I beg you, I beg you to receive what I bring on behalf of the king, not mine, but from a law, right? In order that I may fulfill some of my loan, so my children, that's what is being said here is that when somebody will take what you're giving them, you have to be grateful to them for letting you return some of this huge amount of stuff that's been entrusted to you and is on loan to you. And that's a pretty amazing thought, isn't it? That we really are just conveying what a law gives us and you will, as you grow up, children, you will notice that you are going to be attracted to the kind of person you are. Maybe one person is artistic or another boy likes engineering or other professions and you like certain things and some boys love to do trains and they love mechanical things and others are maybe sports or something else. And at the end of my life, I'm looking to see all the things I loved and wanted to do and I was attracted to and what I was attracted to and wanted to do was really who I was. It was the qualities and the skills that I now have and the end of my life, or not the end, but before even I use all of these things to do things to help people with. So it's really a wonderful thing, your beautiful lives that you're having, right? So I want to say something else to you. Now, one day, this is related by Abu Dhar. He was one of the companions of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. He was at the Kaaba and he overheard, I think it was the Prophet saying, by the Lord of the Kaaba, they are the losers. They are the losers, losers, right? And so someone said, who are the losers? Now, wait till you hear this. He said, the people who have material goods and they don't say, looking backward and forward, here, here, here. When I've been in Egypt, where I lived a long time, even the very poor people were always saying, here, have some of this, here, have one of these. All they say, I don't find that so much in my life now where I live. But honestly, we're supposed to be so generous that we're just saying, here. Oh, here, sit down here. And that if we don't do that, we're losers. So I want you to think about that, you know, because that's something to really to really consider. And remember, you know, when it came to Zakat, Abu Bakr Sirajideen, every year he gave everything he owned, everything. There was nothing left. And someone said, what have you left for your family? And he said, Allah and His prophet. And then another companion gave half. And some people give a lot and keep back what they think they might need now and for emergencies. But then the other kind is really to pay what we're asked to pay. And this will help to purify greed. Have you ever at a birthday party wanted the biggest piece of cake? The one with the roses on it? I always wanted the piece with the roses at birthday parties. You know, it's amazing how we just want more and more. Oh, I want a bigger piece. I love more of that. Really, we're looking at something which is kind of greedy. And really, we should start practicing giving. I read of a religious person who every day gave a lot of stuff all day long. He gave someone's walking by here, have a cookie here. Would you like one of my pens? And what happened is this man got into the rhythm, the habit of the habit of giving. And so this is something that we want to develop all of you from the time your children and we adults have to somehow come up and be able to do that. So that's what I'd like to say today about Zakat and you all and giving. But we last week, we talked about things that there are different ways of fasting. And one thing is fasting from saying the wrong thing. Did any of you attending that class, did you make the list of things that we can't do? Was anybody there? Any of these children? You were? OK, did you try to do any of those things? Well, I told my granddaughter. I called her on a Zoom call and I said to her, one of the worst things we can do is to have bad thoughts about people. That's gossiping to our golden hearts. And she is nine years old. And she said, really, grandmother? People are doing that all the time. She said, sometimes I look out the window and I see somebody going by, maybe a homeless person and think, oh, homeless person. Oh, she said, but I don't know what his story is. I don't know what happened to him. Right. And then she said, sometimes there's children in my school and they're really spoiled and horrible. And I think, oh, they're horrible. But I don't know what happened in their life. Maybe they're going through with something. So one of the things this nine year old granddaughter is telling me is how careful we must be watching the kinds of thoughts we have about other people and other situations. So that, I think, is a pretty good thing. Now she said another thing and I want you all to talk about it. Why would it be wrong to tattle tail on your brother or sister? Has anyone ever tattle tailed? You never ran to your mother and said, so and so is doing something. You did. So you did. All right. So when we do that, right, would we like someone to run to tell mother something bad we did? No, we'd like it hidden, right? So if you go and tell on your brother or sister or your friend, you are actually exposing something that they did. And we wouldn't like that done to ourselves. So we shouldn't do things like that, should we? And in fact, if you think about it, when grownups gossip about people, they're tattle tailing. They're telling stories on somebody, aren't they? You know, it's very sad. What about you, Muneer? What have been your experiences? That's something I have to watch all the time. It's very tempting. It's very tempting to just get into the rhythm, especially when you're around people and then they're just going at it and then you just have to excuse yourself or just remind them that let's not do this. I know because if we listen, we now know we're taking partnership in it, even listening to it. It's really scary, isn't it? How much that's going on everywhere all the time, isn't it? It's just terrifying, you know? Pervasive. It's just everywhere. It's just the norm. It's become the norm. That just shows how blinded we all are at this point, isn't it? You know, very, very sad. Did you ever lie at all or are you? Oh, here's something that little Medina and I decided we could do once upon a time. And this is not only a say in the Abu Bakr. It's also religious people of other traditions. You know what you're going to do after we hang up children? Does your mother have any raisins in the house? Mother, do you have raisins? You do. All right. The children are all going to have a few raisins in their mouth, just two or three. And all of them. And you, too, right? And until iftar, right, try to keep them. And every time you're about to speak, children, think, was what I going to say nice, I bet I'm going to have to take the raisins out. Was what I was going to say a good thing? Was it mean? Was it important? Would my silence and peace be better than that? Am I just talking all the time? So we're going to play the raisin game this afternoon. All right. And just keep raisins. And then just watch. And then you can make a little tiny list of the things you decided you didn't need to say. You didn't need to open your mouth. This would be good for us all. I just read a man today who kept a piece of tape on his mouth. He said it was the most amazing experience of his life. All the things he was about to say, and he could actually see what they were like. Isn't that something? Maybe we should do tape. But raisins seemed a nicer idea, anyway. You children, I don't know whether your mosque could arrange it, but maybe, you know how in the last 10 days, sometimes people do something called Istikah and they stay in the mosque. Maybe children could go and spend, take up, take a sleeping bag and and stay the whole day and work on their Quran and be peaceful and be a wonderful practice to begin. So do you help your mother get iftar ready? So, you know what, I think I'm going to go get my dinner ready because I'm on the East Coast, you know, I'm three hours ahead of you. So I'm going to go finish my cooking and we're going to have hamburgers tonight. I know that sounds really boring, but I just felt like having a cheese. That's really bad. But when I was living in Cairo, I was teaching high school and there was a little boy in the 10th grade that became a Muslim. And now he's all grown up. He lives in Connecticut. And I think he has grandchildren now and I follow him on Facebook. And you know what they do? They have made Ramadan so special that they have a so who are a breakfast, you know, because sometimes you just hardly want to eat or hardly want to get up. They have like things that their favorite things and they save it and they do it to get everyone up and happy in the morning. So they really look forward to something special. I just think that's so lovely, such a lovely thing to do. All right, my dear ones, I'm going to go and cook and I'll see you after Ramadan. All right, and we'll get together and I'll hear all about your Eid, would you tell me about your Eid when we get together again? Good. Many salam. Thank you so much. I love you. Lovely to be with you all at this time of day. It's been a beautiful day. Thank you so much.