 We're living in a time that is very different from the time our parents lived and our grandparents lived. To say the least, it's very strange and the challenges that our children face day in and day out are different than the challenges that we face as we grow up in this country. The Americas of the 80s and 90s is not the Americas of today. Things have changed and our children growing up, they are coming up with challenges that we really didn't have to deal with and it wasn't part of this society or any society. But what do we do at this time in order to equip our children growing up to make sure that they have their identity as a Muslim, that they grow up as a Muslim, they live in Islam and they die in Islam. There are three things that I feel like it's essential in our time to remind ourselves and also to teach our children. And if you do these three things, I think that they will be equipped to go through the valleys of life, the roads of life, the ups and downs of life and they will still be okay, inshallah. The first thing is to tell them about Allah SWT. Tell them about Allah, the reality of God. That there's no power or strength or momentum power except that which comes from Allah SWT. Allah can do whatever He wants. Tabarak al-Ladhi bi-yadihi al-mulk wa hu'ala kuli shay'in qadir. Blessed is He who has the entire dominion in His hand and He has power over all things. We have to make sure that our children know who Allah SWT is. So they feel they have tawakko to a Lord that He can do whatever He wants and they never feel alone. When they have Allah SWT they have everything, they have everything. That's what we need to start teaching our children about the reality of Allah SWT. In teaching, teach them basic aqeedah from a young age, from a young age that we, our children need to know. This is how many of the young people, Muslims and people of other faith, they lose their religion because they say, oh if God is all powerful and if God is all good, then why do you have the tsunami? Right? That's not our religion, that's not our aqeedah. We believe that Allah SWT manifests Himself in two ways, with Jalal in Jamal, with majesty and beauty. So when we see a waterfall, what do we say? Subhanallah, because it's so beautiful. And when we see a tsunami, what do we say? We say Subhanallah, it's the majesty of God. Allah is doing that. It is Allah that is beyond, He is the one who is every faal, every action that happens. It is Allah behind that. So our children need to know that, that connection they have to have, that it is Allah. So when they are alone, they know that Allah is with them. He says, you should know with certainty, with haqqul yakeem, that wherever you go, Allah is with you. In a book called Children's Letter to God, one of the children who's five years old wrote a letter to God, it says, dear God, ever since I found you, I never felt alone again. I never felt alone again. And that is that connection. We have to make this relationship of Allah with our children real. And the best way to do it is through prayer. Because five times a day, we connect with Allah SWT. But how do we connect? How is our prayer just motion? Or we can go beyond motion to see the meaning of the prayer? As-Salaamu Alaykum, the prophet SAW said, the prayer is a central pillar of this religion. This is what's holding everything together. It's the prayer. As-Salaamu Alaykum, it is your ma'raj. It is your spiritual, you will go to a place where no one can go. Because you enter another realm, another reality, another zone. The moment you say, Allah Akbar, you enter into the prayer. Teach them the reality of the prayer. Teach them not a prayer of, you know, they went to Maulana Jalalatina Rumi. And they said, how is it that when you pray, we just, just by looking at your prayer, we're just mesmerized. And then when we pray, it's different. And he said, Maudharnama sajdebe di darmi barim, bi chara onka sajdebe di warmi barat. He said, when I pray, I pray towards the beatific vision of God. How devastating to these bi charas, these poor people who pray towards wars. Pray towards, we have to teach our children the, the, the taste of worship. Because everything in life has a taste. Just like food has taste. Friendship has taste. Religion has taste. Worship has taste. It has a taste. And this is why it is important. He said, if you do your sajda with ish with love, it is then and only then that you can taste the sweetness of your worship. That's the only time you can taste the sweetness of your worship. Teach them proper prayer beyond motion, that they're standing in front of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Then when they go to sajda, there's a cosmic shift that happened. Every time we go to sajda, Allah removes everything between a servant and himself. There's nothing between us when we are in sajda and we say subhanahu wa ta'ala, you are the most high. Are we lying in that moment? Are we lying? Is he the most high? Qajab Abdullah al-Ansari, the great sage of 5th century, he said one of the great lie that Muslims say is when they go to a prayer and say, Allahu Akbar to enter. He said, is God greater than everything else in that moment? If it is, then you have the right prayer. If it is, then you have the right prayer. Because prayer by its nature, by the nature of prayer, it should prevent you from fahshah and from munkar. It should prevent you from evil action. It should prevent you from doing anything wrong. This is the need. This is why it's five times a day just to reorient yourself towards Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, but not physically, physically, mentally and spiritually. And this is important that when we are in the prayer, we teach our children from a young age that you're in standing in front of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Sayyidina Ali, when he used to go to the prayer, he used to shiver. He said, why are you shivering? He said, I'm standing in front of Allah. Shouldn't I shiver? This is the maqam of the prayer. But for us, he became just an act, an act of physical act, right? Well, one of the Urdu poets said, he said, safiqaj dil purayshan, sajda bi-zouk, ki jaz bi-andarun baqi nahi haik. He said, your lines are all crooked in the Masjid and there is no, there's no burning love, desire in your heart. Why? Because there's no though, there's no burning, there's no fire in your heart, that's the reason that you're depressed. That's why the reason you're in prayer and you're scattered, you're everywhere. People go around the globe when they pray and when they say, salam alaikum wa rahmatullah, they come back. Why? Why are we so scattered? Why are we so scattered? Because the prayer, we don't know the meaning of the prayer. We don't know who we are standing in front. This is the relationship. This is how you connect people to Allah SWT through Salat, through prayer and those children when they grow up, if they have that connection, you will see wonders in their life. You will see wonders in their life. The second thing is that we should remind ourselves and teach our children about the love of the Prophet SAW. Make them fall in love with the Prophet SAW. Tell them stories from a young age, the great Syrian scholar said, to love him is to know him. You have to know this man in order to fall in love with him and everyone in the history of Islam, whether they were Muslim, they were Jews, they were Christians, they loved him and they respected him if they studied his life and if they were fair, everyone. So, teach them about the Prophet SAW. Why should we love him? Why should we love him? Because Allah loves him, because Allah took him at his Habib. The Sahabas were sitting one day and they were talking and one say, oh mashallah, look at Isa AS, the Maqam of Jesus, right? Masihullah. Look at Isa, Ruhullah. What a Maqam. Look at Musa AS, Kalimullah. Allah spoke to Musa. The other one says Maqam, look at the Maqam of Ibrahim, Khalilullah. He is the friend of Allah SWT. The Prophet SAW was coming from the back and as he heard their conversation and he smiled and he said, and I'm the beloved of Allah SWT. And what a beloved is, a Khalil is not. A Kalim is not. A Masih is not. This is the highest level to be the beloved of Allah SWT. Every Sahabah loved him. Why? Because his beauty was unlike any other beauty. His beauty was unlike any other beauty. His akhlaq was at a level that the Qur'an says, You are a vast character. Your, his character, he, every moral virtue, every moral virtue, he was a master of. He has mastered every moral virtue. And that's why all of the Sahabah loved him. All of them, they were in love with him. Every single one of him. Every single one. Because of his akhlaq, his character, I was only saying to perfect noble character. How does one perfect noble character? Can somebody teach Black Bill Jujitsu if they don't have a mastery in Jujitsu and they haven't got their Black Bill already? No. You have to be at a level of perfection in order to teach that. So the Prophet SAW's character was perfect, SAW. So and he loved the Sahabah. This is one thing that people forget. The Sahabah loved him, but he loved the Sahabah and he noticed. He noticed everything just like the Sahabah noticed when he said, Abu Bakr looked at him and he saw the gray hair. He counted the gray hair and he said, Oh, you have this many gray hair on your beard. This is ish. This is love. Pay attention to the detail. But he noticed as well. He noticed Thawban. He noticed Thawban, one of the Sahabah, that he was losing weight, that he looked really sleep deprived. And he went to Thawban. When they called him, he said, Yeah Thawban, come. What is wrong? Why are you losing weight? And you know what he said? He said, Wallahi, every time I want to eat food, I think about you and I run to the Masjid to see your face. When I see you, I forget about food and drink. And the Prophet SAW smiled. This is love. These are lovers of the Prophet SAW. Then the Prophet SAW said, Why are you sleep deprived? He said, At night, I can't go to sleep all night. I said, Why you can't go to sleep? He said, Because I miss you, Messenger of Allah. The greatest feeling you will ever have in your life is when you miss the Messenger of Allah and you shed tears. And somebody will ask you, Why are you crying? He said, I just miss my Messenger. That is the day that your heart comes to life with his love. So he says, Ya Rasulullah, I miss you so much. But it's night. I can't come to the Masjid. You are in your house to see you. So I stay up the whole night in the hope of dawn. So I can come to find your prayer and see your face. And the Prophet SAW says, What else? You look very, you know, the face, one of the things that Raqab al-Isfahan said, He said, The face is an amazing thing. All your emotions shows in your face. If you get angry, it shows on your face. If you're sad, it shows in your face. If you're happy, you're smiling, it shows in your face. So the face shows. The Prophet SAW said, Your faces are the binders of your deeds, right? So your deeds will manifest in your face. And that's why you see the old awliya of Islam. If you look at the photos of old awliya of Islam, you will see how beautiful and radiant they are. And look at the old photos of actors and actresses, what happened to their faces. He said, I'm worried about jannah. Who is worried about paradise? He said, Because you're going to be in jannah till Ferdows. What is going to be throw man in paradise? Which corner of paradise I'll be? Would I see you in paradise? If I can't handle a night without seeing you, how am I going to handle life in paradise? I don't want paradise if I don't see you. Paradise, if you don't have a lion is messing in paradise, it's just a bunch of trees. It's just a bunch of trees. What makes paradise paradise to see the beatific vision of God and to be with the Prophet SAW. So before the Prophet SAW could answer, and this is the heart of an ordinary sahaba who was around the Prophet SAW, and he had this yearning and this real true love for his Messenger SAW. Allah says down Jibreel from Sidratul Muntah to go down and gives the answer. The Prophet could not answer him. Allah didn't allow him to speak. He said, No, you answer him. And he said down revelation. As for those who obey Allah and His Messenger, they will be with those whom Allah granted their favors on from amongst the prophets, amongst the truthful, amongst the martyrs, and amongst the righteous. And what a club to join. What a companionship to be part of. That verse and according to what he leaves, Asbab and Nuzul came because of Thawban, question in his journey in his life for the Prophet SAW, that you will be with them. You are the Prophet SAW said, A person is with whom he lives. And the ulama of hadith, they say this is the most hopeful hadith in all of hadith collection. This is the most hopeful hadith in all of the hadith collection. A person is with whom he or she lives. Who do you love the most? If you love the Prophet SAW, you will be with him and they hear after. The third and last thing to teach our children and remind ourselves is the concept of Thawban. It is extremely important that we put that in their hearts from a young age. That no matter what they do, they can always go to Allah and ask for forgiveness. And that only happens if we do the first two. The first is to have a relationship with Allah, that they can go to Him. That this relationship is real. Don't teach the children about the concept of this, make God a concept in their mind. Something they cannot grasp. Make it real. Allah is our haqq. Make it real for them. That they have a relationship with Allah SWT. So then they can make Thawba and go back. All of children of Adam will make mistakes. Every son and daughter of Adam makes mistakes. There's nobody on this planet that doesn't make mistakes. But the best of those who make mistakes are those who turn to Allah and make Thawba. Because you become in Allah. You love those who make Thawba and those who purify themselves. Both are the same thing. One is inward, one is outward. The people who purify and make Wudu and they're always in purity, they clean their outward. But Thawba is the whistle of your internal being, your heart. It gets purified. So turn to Allah SWT. And turn to Allah and make Thawba. Thawba means to turn. It's a wrong translation for repentance because repentance comes from terms that's from other traditions. But Thawba literally means to turn. Who do you turn to towards a Thawba? The one who's constantly turning towards you. That's why it's powerful. It is not because oh I made Thawba and I turned to Allah. No, you turn towards a Thawba and he turned that dirt that you are into a priceless gold. That's what he did. Allah SWT turned into a priceless gold if you turn to him. If you turn to him. But if you don't live in sinful lifestyle and most of these things happen because from a young age, we don't teach our children. You won't make mistake. If you do, go to Allah. Ask for forgiveness. He will forgive you. Allah is forgiving. Tell them stories. If you look at the history of Islam, if you look at the history of Islam, there's a whole, there are books written on these people who were sinners and they were turned into saints. And one of them is Bishr al-Hafi. Bishr al-Hafi was an alcoholic and addict. There are people who are daim al-Khamr. They're always drunk. And may Allah protect this community. May Allah protect our families and our friends from this. But those who are afflicted with addiction, please do not make fun of him. Please do not laugh at them because you don't know what they're going through. If addiction is real, people are addicted to their phone and they can't put it down. What do you think about the man who's addicted or a woman who's addicted to drugs and heroin and crack and cocaine? There are people who are addicted and we should help them and stay out of that. And the only way you can do it if you bring Allah at the center of your life, even the Christian in the 12-step program he says, let go and let God. Let go. But you have to have God in order to get to get out of that addiction. But you can get out of it. Bishr al-Hafi was an alcoholic and he was daim al-Khamr. He was always drunk. He was always drunk. But one day he was passing by. It rained. It was muddy. The road was muddy. And he saw a paper and on the paper that says Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim in Arabic and he passed and he saw the paper and mud was all over and he wanted to walk over it. But he said, how could I walk over the name of God? This is a drunk Muslim. This is a drunk Muslim. He said, I can't walk over the name of God. So he went to pick it up and this is why what do the police do? The police wants you to walk on a straight line and they put the hand on the nose and they do all these stuff. Why? Because people who are drunk, their hand-eye coordination is not one. It's not working the hand-eye coordination. So he goes to pick it up and he falls in the mud and he can't pick it up. He gets back up and says, no, I should just walk over this and go home. And then he says, no, this is called dilemma. This is called dilemma and logic. What am I going to do? Should I go over this or should I pick this up? But I can't pick it up. I try. I fail. He goes again. He goes, no, I'm not going to walk over the name of God. He goes to pick it up again. He falls again. He gets all muddy. He gets up the third time and he says, I know who's putting me down on the mud and I know who's testing me. But wallahi if I fall a million times, I'm going to pick this up. I'm not going to go home. Why is he drunk? He goes the third time he pick it up. He goes home. He cleans it and then he puts perfume on it and then he put it in the highest place in his house and he falls asleep. He falls asleep and he has a dream and he hears a voice and the dream and the voice the hadith says, he says, you purified our name today from the mud and you perfumed it and you put it in the highest place. Old Bishop will purify you and will perfume your name. The people will mission you until the end of time with beauty and then he wakes up. He abandons alcohol because he had God on his side. He abandons alcohol and he becomes Bishop Hafi. He becomes a sheikh. Thousands and thousands of people they came to Islam, practicing Islam, made toba at his hand. And up to today, 12th century later, we're still mentioning him here in Texas. We're mentioning Bishop Hafi, Rahimullah, may Allah have mercy on his soul. Why? Because he turned to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and he knew that if I turn, Allah is not going to, he's not going to close his door. Allah will not close his doors. His doors are always open. This is what Moulana Rumi, the thing that he said that we did is one of the most beautiful lines. He said, in Dargahimah, Dargahimah, the kingdom of God is not a kingdom of hopelessness. It's not a kingdom of hopelessness. And if you're broken your vow a thousand times, come back and come as you are. Come as you are. Don't filter yourself when you go to God. In this society, they want you to filter yourself in order to give you a like. Allah loves you unfiltered the way you are. Go to Allah whenever, whatever time, anytime you're ready, just go to him. And his door is open and he's waiting for you to come and make toba in turn to him. And may Allah make us amongst the people that we love Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We love the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. We have a relationship with Allah and we have a relationship with our Prophet and we are people of toba. Allahumma sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. We have a relationship with Allah.