 We begin with the thanks and the praises of Allah SWT, saying to Him, Alhamdulillah. All praise is due to Him, the Lord of the worlds, the one who ascribes to himself first and foremost with mercy and benevolence. And so that is the opinion with which we should look to Allah SWT, that He is first and foremost Al-Rahman and Al-Rahim. And when He ascribes to himself mercy, mercy unlike any that we know, mercy that is greater than a mother has to her child. When we recognize that mercy, who else would we want to determine our fate in the hereafter other than the one who is Al-Rahman and Al-Rahim? And so we acknowledge that He is also Maliki Yawmiddin, the master of the Day of Judgment. And He is the best of judges. And inshaAllah we ask that He will show us mercy on that day. And for recognizing that He has given us such mercy and He has granted us forgiveness, we owe something back. Not anything that will increase or decrease Him, rather something that we can say that O Allah, we submit to You. So we say only You do we worship. And only You are we going to ask for help. That is our payment that we give back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for showing us mercy. That we stand as grateful servants in front of Him and we submit to Him. So that we can be included in the people who did that before us. And so that we are not included amongst the people who rejected Him. So we ask Allah to guide us to that path. The path of those whom Allah has blessed, not the path of those who have earned the anger of Allah or those who have gone astray. And we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to accept. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala took a covenant from us. He brought forth all of humanity, all of Bani Adam. And He asked us a question. He said, Alastu bi rabbikum, am I not your Lord? In every single soul in existence, testified saying, Bala Shahidna, that yes, we witness to this, that we accept that you are our Lord. Since that day, we have been separated from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and we are on a journey to return to Him. In that spirit, we say that we belong to Allah and to Him we return. And we are continuously returning to Him subhanahu wa ta'ala. But in the process of returning, we go through many difficulties and we go through many challenges and tests. And so those tests cause us to increase and decrease, to have moments of expansion and to have moments of constriction. A moment that passed now, and it has only been now two days, is the month of Ramadan. The month of Ramadan in which our hearts are open to the mercy and to the forgiveness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. This beautiful month that has now been gone for two days, we ask Allah to allow us to return to it again in a year's time. But as this month has passed now, we hold in our hearts some type of feeling towards this month that, oh, how I wish I could be reunited with this month of Ramadan. Did I fulfill what I was supposed to fulfill in this month of Ramadan? Did I live up to the expectations of the month of Ramadan? Did I uphold the rights of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the month of Ramadan? So as is the practice of our pious predecessors, we too, for the next six months, for the next six months, beg Allah that, oh, Allah, accept from us our Ramadan. And after the six months end, for the following six months leading up to Ramadan, we should ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to prepare us again for Ramadan. And so our year should always revolve around Ramadan, either leading up to it or asking Allah to accept from that which has passed. And that's the state of the heart that's connected to something greater than it, but in every conversation, in every thought, in every moment, it remembers its beloved. So we have just left our beloved month of Ramadan. And so we should be constantly remembering it. Because once we are separated from our beloved, our heart aches. It remembers all of the good times that we had with the one that we loved. It is very rare to ask someone whose beloved has departed to remember things that hurt, that caused hurt from their beloved. It's difficult to remember those things. It's difficult to remember the times that were challenging, the times that were hard. The things that remain are the memories of happiness, are the memories of joy, and those are the memories that we want to go back to, that we want to return to. So now that we have left this beautiful month, we need to remember all of the joyous moments that we had in this month, all of the joyous times that we spent in this month, all of the joy that we felt on the day of Eid. We need to remember these things because our heart is empty now. Our heart is empty from the love of Ramadan. It's empty from the mercy of Ramadan. It's empty from the forgiveness that was found in Ramadan. So we need to continuously remind ourselves of these things so that we can be reunited with our beloved. Similarly, as we departed from that day of Alastubi Rabbikum, we were separated from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in one sense, and so our hearts are craving the love of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala once again. And so when our hearts crave and yearn for the love of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, we turn to many different avenues. How can I reinvigorate my heart? How can I feel that love again? And many people experience this. Sometimes someone will hear an ayah of the Qur'an and their eyes will begin to tear. Even if they don't understand the meaning, they'll recognize that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is speaking to them. Sometimes they'll hear a story of the Prophet ﷺ. And based off of how much they love the Prophet and how much the Prophet ﷺ loves them, their eyes will begin to tear, yearning to see their beloved ﷺ. Sometimes someone will say a line of poetry and the line of poetry will hit so deep that the person is moved and they're unable to explain what's going on in their hearts. We've all been there. We've all felt it. We've all had this moment at some point in our lives where we're standing in front of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and for no reason we begin to break down and cry in front of Him, in front of His majesty and in front of His love. Those are the moments that we think about and we yearn for and we hope to achieve once again. So the more that we remember our beloved, the more likely it is for us to return to those moments. The more that we speak about our beloved, the more likely it is for us to return to those moments. The more we incorporate our beloved in our lives, the more likely it is for us to experience that mercy and forgiveness again. So as we leave this month of Ramadan now, as the month has passed, as we have left the worship at night and the recitation of the Qur'an that we used to do in Ramadan, we need to intend that we will continue to do it after this month. We need to have a firm resolve that we will continue to remember Allah the same amount that we remembered Him in Ramadan, if not more, that we will recite the Qur'an the same amount that we did in Ramadan, if not more. These are the signs that our hearts are attached to their beloveds, are attached to the ones that they love, and that is Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in his month of Ramadan. Mawlana Rumi in the opening to his matnawi summarizes this entire emotion, this entire feeling by talking about the read that complains, that laments of being separated from its beloved. And so Mawlana Rumi talks about this read and he says that it wishes to return, and it continues to cry. And whether it talks to the faciq or to the mu'min, to the open transgressor or to the believer, it continues to say the same thing, that I only want to return to my beloved, I only want to return to my beloved. And so the people that hear the read, the flute that plays the music, some people will hear the music and they'll be moved by the music, but only the people who also understand the pain of separation will be able to hear the cries of separation within the read flutes. We have now experienced moments of separation from our beloved Ramadan. So in every single thing that we now witness to be a sign of Allah, we should look with the vision of the heart and the light of the heart. How will this remind me of Allah? How will me returning to work and eating at work remind me about Allah? How will going back to school remind me of Allah? How will sleeping earlier at night remind me of Allah? How will eating throughout the day remind me of Allah? How will the birds that chirp remind me of Allah? In everything now I should be reminded of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to open our hearts to this vision. To open our hearts to the light of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So that anywhere we turn we are reminded of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wa aina maa twallu fa thamma wajhu allah. Wherever you turn to you will find the countenance of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So this is our journey now. This is our journey now to not let go of the light that we have accumulated in Ramadan. To hold on to that light, to hold on to that love and to keep that love incorporated in every moment of our life. So we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to allow us to see this light, to allow us to experience this light, to allow us to cherish this light, to allow us to be grateful for this light and to not be heedless, to not be ungrateful because he has blessed us. And it is our duty now to stand and remember him. So we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for this and we ask to continue to come closer to him. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for this and we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for this and we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for this and we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for this and we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for this and we ask to continue to come closer He is a man and he is close to Allah and he is the end of the evil, the ungrateful and the rest of the world. May Allah remind you. Remember Allah, remember you and call upon Him to respond to you. And remember Allah the Most High, the Most High and the Most Great. May Allah bless you all.