 Alhamdulillah. One of the most amazing traits about our beloved Prophet ﷺ that we often don't reflect on enough is that he was an inwardly aware and inwardly awake human being. This is the blessed month of Rabi Al Awal, the Prophet ﷺ was born in this month and one of the best ways that we can bring life to his sunnah in this month, one of the best ways that we can celebrate his life in this month, one of the best ways that we can celebrate his blessed birth in this month, ﷺ is to pick a sunnah or two sunnahs and bring life to them and in the time that we are living in, there are a lot of people who are sleeping, a lot of people who are sleeping, a lot of Muslims who are sleeping, a lot of people in this country who are sleeping and it should not take an election as intense as the election that we just went through to wake us up as believers and to get us moving and to get us working and to get us to start doing things. This is one of the hallmarked aspects of our religion, it is one of the hallmarked traits of the Prophet ﷺ and it is one of the key messages of the Qur'an that Allah ﷺ he mentions in the Qur'an, he regularly emphasizes, do you not think are you not people of intellect, do you not reflect, what kind of people are we, are we people who are thinking people, are we people who are aware people, are we people who are awake people or are we the group in the Qur'an that Allah ﷺ says that no, they are death, dumb and blind and Alhamdulillah most of us we are blessed with outward vision, we are blessed with outward hearing, we are blessed with outward senses of smell and of speech but that is not what God is referring to in these verses, what he is referring to is that their hearts are not aware, their hearts are asleep, their hearts are dead, their hearts are deaf, their hearts are dumb, their hearts are blind, the heart Allah ﷺ says in the Qur'an, do their hearts have locks on them, are their hearts locked up or are they awake, are they unlocked, what does it mean to have an unlocked heart, what does it mean to be awake in the times that we are living in, does it take a leader who spreads xenophobia, who spreads racism, who spreads hatred to wake us up, does it take individuals massacring vast amounts of Muslim throughout the world to wake us up, does it take people who are regularly denigrating the moral aspects of the society to wake us up, does it take people who are waging a war on our youth and on our children with images filled with filth and with so much nonsense to wake us up, what does it take to wake us up as human beings, did we come to many of us, we immigrated to this country and many of you immigrated to this country, did we come to this country just to work a fancy tech job in Silicon Valley or to be a doctor or to be an engineer, have kids, live the good life and just chill or did we come to this country to spread this deen, to work hard to spread the message of the Prophet ﷺ while doing the other things as well but that should not be our sole focus, our sole focus cannot just be as Muslims in this society to just be chilling, to just be living the relaxed life, living in the comfortable world, going you know right now it's COVID so we're restricted but after this is done are we gonna just go back to the same old routine, go to work on weekends, we hang out with each other, go to dinner parties and gatherings and whatnot, kids do the same old thing, go home, watch Netflix, play video games, the PS5 is out now, get the PS5, what is it that we're doing with our life, what is it that we are spending our life doing, what is it that we are spending our time teaching our children, these are the questions we have to ask especially in these very very trying times that we are living in, you and I were not created to just play, we were not created to just make money, we were not created to just chase after all of the glories of this world, to chase after power and to chase after positions and to chase after this and to chase after that, that's not the reason why we are here, Allah says in the Qur'an that you are the best people ever sent forward to humanity, He's referring to this ummah, the absolute best people ever sent forward to humanity but what does He qualify that with, they're not just because somebody says that they are the best person ever sent forward to humanity, He says that you are a people who enjoy good and you forbid evil, aka you spend your time doing things that are productively beneficial to yourself first and foremost and to society but the structures that are in place in this society today want you to sleep, they want me to sleep, they don't want us to wake up, they don't want us to have a liveliness to us, why? Because it benefits people in power when the masses are sleeping and this is not something new, a thinking person is a dangerous person, an awake person is a dangerous person, a person who questions things a dangerous person, a person who tries to bring change is a dangerous person but a person who's spending all their time on Instagram sending WhatsApp videos to each other, laughing all the time, not actually engaged in what's going on in the world, that's not a dangerous person, that's not a person, I don't mean danger in a negative way, I mean in a positive way, that's not a person who's going to bring about significant amounts of change, that's not something they have to worry about, what did they use to say? This is not a new tactic, back in the days of the Romans they used to say it was a saying, give them bread and give them circus, keep entertaining them, keep them down, keep them numb, they won't bother the political class, they won't wake up and do anything, they'll just stay relaxed, right, in this world give them food, give them Netflix, give them Snapchat, give them this, give them that, give them the fancy jobs and the fancy cars and the fancy life and keep them numb, don't let them wake up, that's what the meta situations that are going on in this country, we have to really think about this, we have to really spend time thinking what are we doing with our lives and more importantly what are the things that we're letting our children do and our families do that are either going to wake them up or put them to sleep because I'll tell you right now there are agendas out there that are meant to keep people who have intellect sleeping, 150%, especially our children, you can have a child who spends their time reading, learning, thinking about ways that they can benefit society or you can have a child who spends all their time playing video games, hanging out, not doing anything productive, going to school where the education is especially in public school I mean you education might not even be the best word to define what it is that we get now, right, and you're going to have two very very different outcomes with those people, you're going to have two very different outcomes with what those people are able to do in society and yet what's even worse is if we are the people who encourage our families to not get into something that's going to benefit society, if we are the people who spend all of our time we waste all of our extra time right and of course we have to go to work we have to do the basic we got to do that right man especially you have we have to go work earn money this is a far but that's not what I'm saying I'm talking about the extra time that we have are we involved in the community are we involved in spreading good are we doing something anything it doesn't have to be protesting it doesn't have to be activism it can be something that that aligns with your skill set but are the Muslims doing things to bring benefit to the society and are the Muslims awake enough to think about the importance of all that matters of why that matters because I'll tell you right now the people who have an agenda the elite and wealthy the people who are thinking people they're not spending their time they know that they've just successfully distracted us with tv and with facebook and with this and that they spend their time reading learning thinking figuring out ways that they can gain more influence gain more power starting this organization starting that organization that's not that's what they're spending the time with but they know okay let me invent a couple of let me innovate on a couple of interesting products to keep these people asleep while I go out and actually do the work that that it is that needs to be done to advance their agenda usually not a good agenda so we have to reflect on this and the time right the time is now in this country look at what just happened in this country you had over 70 million people who voted for a racist human being straight up somebody who in our religion the Prophet sallam told us there is no difference between a dark and a light person there is no difference between an Arab and a non-Arab there is no difference between the somebody who has one color in their skin and somebody else it's about the taqwa that you have in their heart and yet you can have a demagogue who spreads vile information and what why is it that if we're at this stage in this country that over 70 million human beings will have to give account for why they selected a dajalic human being to be their voice in office why is that because when the intellect goes when you can't think anymore when you don't know how to base your arguments on facts on logic on policy on structure on intellectual engagement you're going to fall for anything you're that that person will fall for anything and that's why we are at one of the reasons why we're at this stage in this country that we are at right now because things have gradually been declining people are a tv people it's a media people it's a soundbite type of society we've created nobody knows what's true what's not true nobody knows the facts nobody knows the policies nobody knows if what actually counts as a valid voter an invalid vote and you can that's you can get somebody who questions everything but a thinking people a people who are aware a mass amount of people who are awake which is historically what the Muslims have always been they would not only not stand for that but they would be at the forefront of trying to bring about good and trying to bring about actual justice in this type of situation and all other situations but we have to think why has there been a gradual intellectual degradation which is always linked with a moral degradation people of high intellect generally speaking especially if you use the the the word of the intellect defined as the way Allah defines it which is it linked to your character they will be people of high morality and they will be people of goodness and people who have who have low morality and low goodness it's going to be accompanied many time with low intellect and thus you get somebody in power who can have all of that plus more we have to think what are we doing with our time what are we doing with our energy what are we doing with our cells what are we doing with our families and are we in this blessed month that we are in giving life to this sunnah of trying to wake up and trying to wake other people up i kulu koli hada wa astaghfirullah Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah so what is it that we have to do and we don't have you know much time we have to keep this this fairly short but what is it that we have to do in the time that we're living at first and foremost we have to realize the motivations that are going to drive us as human beings and drive us as muslim we have to know why you and i were created we were not created to just chill we were not created to just sit down and do nothing there are reasons and there are purposes for our life and we have to figure out what is my purpose everybody has a broad purpose which is to worship Allah which is to serve the creation of Allah but what are the the the specific nuanced purposes of your life what skills can you bring what benefit can you bring and what benefit can your children bring how get that motivation come because this this country is not headed in a good direction and the muslims i mean we're most of us inshallah are here to stay we are we and so we have to do the work to lay the foundations for what do we want in our community 10 20 30 years from now if you have a bright child of somebody in your family who's very intelligent who has passion for politics or civic engagement or activism or anything else that relates to doing work don't just encourage them to go and be an engineer or to be a doctor like our communities always do tell them to use their mind for other things those are all good things i'm not saying it's not a good thing mashallah those people bring a lot of benefit to society but that can't be the only thing that we're doing it's not just about living the cushy life anymore it's about waking up because that cushy life is under threat and that's not the purpose for why we are here how will we respond to the Prophet when he asks us there was so much immorality in society there was so much wrong going on in society what were you doing oh i was watching cnn for four hours a day i was watching netflix all day what how how are we going to stand to him what is it that we're doing oh what were you letting your kids do oh that was my child was 12 years old and i literally gave them a satanic device to play on so they don't bother me what is it that we're doing let's think about that so we have to identify who in our communities who in our family can bring some benefit and and get that motivation going and then the second thing that we should do is work on ourselves that should be always the first thing but before anybody engages outwardly they must work on it inwardly you cannot have real work and activism without the inner activism going on spiritual activism is the first and spiritual education is is is the first thing that we have to focus on then you get out and you actually have real people who are able to affect change Allah says in the Quran he does not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves we have to work on ourselves and work on our families spend time being grounded islamically being grounded spiritually being grounded intellectually whether it's within our tradition or in bringing in other traditions wisdom is the lost property of the believer that's okay for us to bring in concepts but we have to be grounded and then we can go out and work that's what we should spend at least 20 30 minutes a week if not a day with our families and our children learning educating bring then and brainstorming what is it that we can do and then the third thing is now let's get up and motivate ourselves and our families to do something whatever it is it's starting an initiative assisting with the already much all the great work that the community like MCC does or other communities are doing care all these organizations there's a lot of work to be done lots of work to be done but let's figure out what it is that we can bring to the table and at the same time couple that with the inner spiritual work the sahaba ikram they would spend the nights praying and the days working and spreading this dean and doing good work in society whether that's political engagement or other forms of engagement so the night time and there has to be spiritual work going on the sunna has to be followed inwardly you cannot have real activism without the inner activism it won't work and you can look to the likes of Malcolm X and follow his example as a recent person in this country who was able to balance and do both so let's reflect on this let's spend our time doing this and let's know that we have potential and Allah wants us to achieve your greatest potential but there are people in this society and demonic forces who want us to achieve our lowest potential Allah says in the Quran that you are created and you could achieve the highest of the high or you could fall to the lowest of the low ask yourselves which direction do you want to head in which direction do you want your family to head in and which direction do you want this country to head in the work has to begin now and inshaAllah Allah will give it to you. Give us him give us ability give us motivation give us direction. Bring about goodness and unity throughout this country throughout the world. Let this country stop aggressing on other countries. Protect all the Muslims from the acts of aggression that any country is doing against them. Wa sallallahu wa sallam wa barakah ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala Ali wa sahbihi wa sallam wa l-halim. Alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen. Akeem al-salatu.