 Surah Al-Rahman Al-Rahim, Inna Al-Hamda Lillah, how do we start? Certainly, certainly without a doubt, all praise, thanks and gratitude belongs to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. We praise Him, we thank Him. Allah says in His book, O believers, be mindful of your master, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. The way He deserves it. Don't you dare forget what we just said, which is the mindfulness of Allah. And there are no circumstances. Don't you dare find yourself in a state that you are departing this world, yet you are not in full state of submission. That's what you hear every Friday. So here's what I'm about to say. I was thinking when my brother Asif called me a million times that I have to do this. I rejected the million times, but hey, when Asif says do, you got to do it. What am I going to talk about? What I'm going to say today is nothing new. I'm hoping it's nothing new for you. And here's a joke I make all the time. When I ask my kids, my boys, when they attend Khutbah, they say, what did you learn from Khutbah? And their common answer, almost 99% of the time, is nothing. And if you come out of this Khutbah and your answer is, I didn't learn anything. I accomplished my goals because I just told you what you know. Khutbah is about to be a reminder. That's what I'm trying to do, remind you. There are a couple of words that you heard. I'm going to take you to a surah, the third surah, al-e-amran, al-amran in Qur'an. In particular, two ayats. I'm going to take you there. You have heard it over and over again. I'm just going to probably give you a different light, insha'Allah. And Allah says this on ayah number 32 of al-e-amran. He says this, I've heard this a lot. And I've heard this being, I'm giving this advice from my dear brothers all the time. Often translated as, obey Allah and the messenger. Obey Allah and the messenger. That's how it's been always translated. As I was mulling over the different scholars, what they say, and here's what I found out. A different light. The word wa, and, at the Allah wa, has been a little bit different, translated differently. So let me put it in some sort of perspective and example for you. That says, obey Allah. That is to say, obey the messenger, sallallahu alayhi sallam. That means if you want to know who Allah is, and if you want to know what Allah wants from you, you have to get down to prophetic tradition. You have to understand what the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam did in the situation that you are. So goodness. That means in order to get closer to Allah, you must be in full compliance with what the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam did. That's what it means. I'm going to skip the latter part of the area because that is a little different, scary. Why? Let me tell you something else. You have heard basheeran when adheeran, basheeran when adheeran a million times, right? One of the mission of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam was to give good news, glad tidings, and also warn you. Good news and warn you. It's not all good news, and you just feel good and ignore things. That's not how it works. That's what this ayah is about. The warning court, I'm going to come back to it in a bit, in a few minutes, inshallah. First of all, I have to say, I don't think I can do justice to these two ayahs that I'm about to recite, but part of my mission has been all along. Those of you who know me stand in front of you, I give you a homework, and that's what part of the homework is. The whole point of this is to create some sort of curiosity that you will go ahead and talk about it and read about it more. The first thing I said, the first thing I said, obey Allah, that is to say, obey the messenger sallallahu alayhi sallam. Here's what is really, really, really important for you to know from this part of the ayah. Please, sorry for all those I'm trying to spit on you, please pay attention. There is the absolute minimum that we are required to do. Often I give examples for students, because I stand in front of the students and do habahabahabah quite often. So all of you guys who are students, if you want to pass, if you want to get a passing grade or you don't want to get a chapat from your daddy, you got to get a C at the minimum. Otherwise you get one of those gifts. Okay? C is minimum. That's what this ayah is about. Your minimum, absolute minimum is to know the prophetic way that is applicable for your situation. What does that mean? I am a father. I am a son. I am a husband. At each situation and an employee, at each situation I see what the prophetic tradition was, characteristic was, I have to apply that to my situation at that moment and is exactly what that is for you as well. You're a student. You have to know what the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam did recommend it and suggested and actually followed that which you're going to follow. You're a project manager. You have to understand that you're an IT manager. You have to understand what the situation is for you. That is absolute minimum. Now, for you and I, we do not want to be minimum. We all want to elevate ourselves as we recite the last ayah of the khutbah that I would recite again, inshallah, that you have to elevate yourself to the next level. What does that mean? In order to obey the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam and understand Allah, the next level is ayah number 31. The one I just recited to you was 32. 332. Look it up. What does 331 says? This is the following. In kuntum tuhaibbuna Allah. Take one word at a time. In kuntum tuhaibbuna Allah. If you should love Allah, that means if you're absolutely sincere and you constantly... You know what we always say? Brother, love Allah. Try to love Allah. Follow love with Allah. What does that mean? How do you do that? Practically, how do you do it? Allah gives you the answer. If you should love Allah, then what? Allah's commanding Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam says to tell everyone, which I'm telling you, follow me. Means not me. Follow the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam. This is the next level. This is loving. This is not just following. It's not atiyah Allah or atiyah Rasul. It is loving, falling in love, lovingly, willingly, loyalty. That's what it is. What are you going to get? You can say, okay, what am I going to get out of this? Trying to fall in love with Allah and follow the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam providing the solution. What am I going to get out of it? What is in it for me? Everyone says that, right? If I say, hey, brother, do this for me or my son. I say, do this for me. And he's going to say, what's in it for me? What am I going to get out of it? Why? Allah tells you, your Habibkum Allah. Allah will love you back. Pay attention and just ponder. If you get the love of Allah back, what else do you need? You don't need anything else, any success that you want in this world and elsewhere, you will get it. How do you get that? Allah says, follow the prophetic tradition. Allah will love you back. Your Habibkum Allah. Okay? If that is not good enough, Allah says, Allah will lovingly forgive every single thing that you have done. Everything that you have done. Wipe clean, clean slate. That's Allah's promise. Think about it. If you want to be loved by Allah and everything that you have done, since you got up this morning until now, we can assure you there's quite a few things we did that's not kosher. If you want all to be forgiven, follow the prophetic tradition. Fatiha. Allah is the one who is exceedingly forgiving, exceedingly merciful. The last part of this ayah is incredibly important. If you understand Arabic, there's some gems in there. Allah did guarantee, did not guarantee his complete and utter forgiveness and mercy. He didn't in this ayah. He said, Did they say, The inner part is missing. What does that mean? It's almost a conditional. If you want the utter forgiveness of Allah and mercy of Allah, guess what? Fattabi'uni. Follow the prophet, Simple. Again, let me go back. If the question comes in mind, okay, I got it. How do I follow? It is situational. Based on your situation, figure this out. What the recommendation of the prophet, that is a higher level. What was the lower level? The passing grade? The passing grade was to obey. And here is, here's the latter part of the ayah that I skipped, and I'm going to go back to ayah 32 of 332. Guess what happens? It's very simple. You're listening to them again. You don't get this C grade. What happens to you? You get a gift, right? That's what you're going to get. If you think it's a passing grade, you fail. And Allah says this, He says, It gives me goosebumps. This part, it makes me shake in my spot literally right now what it just said, this ayah. That means if you turn your back to the obeying of Allah and obeying the Messenger of Allah, that means you have two standards. This is what you want it to do and you know for a fact that what you want to do is not in accordance to the prophetic tradition and it is wrong of you to do but you decided to do it anyway. Ignoring this, the golden standard, you didn't care about it, you turn your back. How Allah means turn your back. Allah says, What is kafir? What is kafir? You and I use this all the time to someone who doesn't believe. Here's the hardest part. To shake it up. I'm telling you to shake it. It's not my words. These are the words of God. If you don't have the minimum grade to pass, you're not considered a Muslim. Allah does not love the disbelievers. Someone who doesn't believe. The absolute minimum for you and I is that, by a 32. Incredibly important message and an incredibly heavy message. That doesn't mean now you go back and you try to, okay, what can I do 100% of time? That's not how human is designed. It's not designed like that. You and I make mistakes and learn. This is talking about someone who's deliberately trying to ignore. That's not what it is. You do your best, you fall short, you make a staghfar, you go back. You fall short, make a staghfar, ask for forgiveness, you go back. You try, try your best, you learn. That's how you apply this ayah. Allah says, Inna hu hu wa lafoo wa raheem. Inna alhamdulillah wa salatu wa salam wa ala surella sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Allah says in his book, wa aradabillahi min ash-shaita'ala rajim, Inna Allah wa malayikatahu, certainly Allah, wa ra'ala da'at Allah and all the angels. We salduna ala nabihi and they send salutations and peace and blessings to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Ya, ayyuhal ladina aamanu believers do the same. Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam wa teslimah. Allahumma salli ala Muhammadin wa ala ala Muhammadin. Kama sallayta ala Ibrahim wa ala ala Ibrahim Inna kaha minum majeed. Allahumma barika ala Muhammadin wa ala ala Muhammadin. Kama barakta ala Ibrahim wa ala ala Ibrahim Inna kaha minum majeed. I'll just conclude, insha'Allah, with the ayah that is most famous that you all have heard this over and over again and I'm going to say it again. Allah says, Inna Allaha Ya'muru Certainly, Allah is commanding you. So those of you playing tic-tac-toe those of you are talking to each other pay attention, this is your last last advice. Allah is commanding you. Not a casual suggestion. Commanding you to what? Three things. Justice. Elevate yourself. We just give you an example of how to make yourself better. How to be better than a C student. How to be better than an average worker, an average project manager, an average coder, an average businessman. How do you make yourself better? Allah is commanding you to make yourself better all the time. And you can say, Okay, I got it. Where do I start? Allah says, I got you back. Here's where you start. Wa'it ayat al-Qurba. Start with your family. If you find yourself that you're not at your best with your family and you're not being just with your family and your family. Wa'yanha anil fahshai wal-munkad wal-baqia. And three things, avoid. But at all costs, avoid. Fahshai, shamelessness, kills adil, kills justice. You know what we do? We look for a lot of loopholes. A lot of loopholes. And it's the second thing Allah says, avoid loopholes. You have two standards. Don't try to come up with reasons to justify your standard which you know it is not right. And the last one is value. Oppression. In all shapes and forms. Oppression. Do not oppress yourself first and foremost. Yourself. Do not oppress it. And anyone else around you. La'allahu akbarul. And I've said it. You have heard it. Wa'keenu s-salah.