 All praise belongs to Allah SWT, the one without partners, the all-knowing, all-wise, the most generous, most merciful, glory be to Him. We bear witness that there is nothing worthy of worship except Allah SWT, and we bear witness that our noble and beloved Prophet Muhammad, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, is his final prophet and messenger, and that he was sent as a mercy to the worlds, and that he guided us to everything that is good, and warned us of everything that is harmful and evil, and left us on the straight path, and that those who follow his way, you and me, if we were to follow his way, will always be on the straight path, and none veer from that way except that they bring upon themselves destruction. Dear beloved brothers and sisters, esteemed members of the community, I remind myself and all of us to have taqwa of Allah SWT, for taqwa is indeed the life of our hearts and the provision for the hereafter. We are in a special season. Allah tells us in the Quran, in Surat Ibrahim verse 5, he said, In this ayah could have a double-edged sword. It can work in a way that refers to blessings, it can also work in the other way. Allah SWT says, and reminds him of the unmistakably clear days of Allah SWT, either to bless or to ruin. We are in a season of blessings, and the Prophet SAW reminded us in one of the hadiths that truly your Lord has in your days spiritual breezings, nafahat. He says, So these are special times that if we are ready, if our heart is prepared, it will be filled with light, and it will grow and we get and we draw near to Allah SWT. The Prophet SAW says, therefore, expose yourself to those breezings, i.e., make yourself available, make yourself ready to receive those breezes from Allah SWT, those breezes full of mercy. A few days ago, we bid farewell to the months of Rajab and witnessed the beginning of the months of Shaaban. So we are in a special season, a season that began with Rajab and now we are in Shaaban and culminates with Ramadan. A season that the believer, each one of us, has the opportunity to celebrate in their own way so that we can get the maximum benefit that this season can offer. The season that started with the sacred months of Rajab, the noble months of Shaaban, culminating in the most blessed months of Ramadan, that this yearly season is a yearly gift from Allah SWT. It's like a program for all believers. And this program, when we go through it, in doing so, we are all able to achieve growth both spiritually and otherwise. Devotionally, in any way we see, we aim to achieve. And just as a farmer or as a gardener, prune the roses or trim the trees so that they can grow better. In this season, we trim our time, we trim our sleep, we trim our habits, we trim our desires, we trim our wealth, we trim our activities to allow them to grow better, to grow in a blessed and a more meaningful way. And that's what we do with Zaka. We trim a little bit of our money in order for this wealth that we have to grow in a blessed and more meaningful way. Each of these months has unique characteristics and has unique qualities and properties. Rajab is described as the months of Allah SWT. Shaaban is described as the months of Rasulullah, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And Ramadan is described as the months of the ummah of the community. They come together, they worship together, they eat together as a family, they eat together as a community. They do activities together. So the question is, how can we benefit from Ramadan? And to benefit from Ramadan, we start preparing, we start preparing ahead of time. We start preparing from Rajab. And the Sultana, I only have three things for you to say to you, and perhaps a conclusion. And the question is, why prepare? And how to prepare? To take advantage, to take full advantage of the gift of Allah SWT, and the gift that this time offers. And one of the things that we learned, especially in the last couple of years, is not to take anything for granted. Especially time. Because you could be locked in your home for a full year. And not to assume that everything will continue to go smoothly. This is not how the world is created. This is not what dunya is. This is not what life is. That paradise is not going to take place on earth. There is no paradise on earth. And there is no hellfire on earth. The world that we live in and that we experience is a sample of hellfire and a sample of paradise. A micro-sample. It's not even a full sample. It's a mini-sample. It's a micro-sample. It's a nano- sample of paradise and nano-sample of hellfire intertwined together. Inna ma'al usri usra, inna ma'al usri usra. We experience hardship and we experience ease. If everything is going smoothly, something is wrong. If everything is always going smoothly, you may get a huge calamity. That the world can be paralyzed, completely paralyzed by something microscopic. By something the eye cannot perceive and see, such as a pandemic. Or something macroscopic, like we experience in Turkey the earthquake that takes place in Turkey, in Japan, elsewhere, Pakistan. Or the storms that we experienced recently in California and elsewhere. If we learned anything, we learned not to take anything for granted, especially time. And that we need to benefit from our time and benefit from this season. When we see these things, we realize the wisdom behind our religious principles, our religious guidelines, our Islamic principles and guidelines. Take, for example, the example I mentioned earlier, zakat. Have we ever considered the importance of zakat? Why is it that zakat is made one of the five pillars of Islam? Is it because we give a hundred dollars to the poor and needy? Or a few hundred dollars here and there? Most of us, maybe there is a zakat as five hundred per year. Some of us is a thousand. Some of us ten thousand. Some of us multiple times more. But have we ever considered how Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala made zakat one of the five pillars of Islam? And that how many layers of society zakat touches? We tend to think of zakat of one of the five pillars of Islam as something that we give to the poor and needy. That's it. Is that really what it is? Or is it something more, way more? In the Quran, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala tells us that the recipients of zakat are eight categories. And if we were to look further into these eight categories, we discovered that each category branches into multiple layers of society. And if we were to understand zakat fully, I'm sure this mosque is very, very responsive to the needs of the community. And they're always organizing programs for Rajab, for Shaaban, for Israa and Maraj, for Ramadan, for the Quran. Many things. And I'm confident that maybe this topic will find its way into one of its programs. If we were to look deeply into zakat, we will find that zakat actually touches anywhere between 16 to 24 segments and layers of society. And that's why it was one of the wisdom behind zakat is this. Only then we can appreciate the wisdom and the inner secrets of zakat. Only then we can appreciate why zakat is made one of the five pillars of Islam. Coming back to the special season we're in, each of the months has unique properties and qualities. How to prepare? It's up to you. What is it that you want to get out of Ramadan? There are things our religion recommends. But at the end, each one of us has their own shortcomings, has their own sins, has their own difficulties, has their own situations. And we decide. You choose what you want to get out of Ramadan. If you decide, whatever you decide, it's good to prepare ahead of time. And as the ulama say that Rajab, we saw your seeds. That's when you plant the seeds. And then you water the seeds and watch them grow. And then you can enjoy the fruits. In Rajab we plant the seeds. In Shaaban we water the seeds. And by the time Ramadan comes, we are ready. Our heart is ready. We are prepared to benefit from Ramadan. When Ramadan comes, we are ready to take the harvest and to enjoy the fruits. So what is our current situation? Since last Ramadan, since last Friday, since last Eid, since last many Islamic events and days, we have accumulated a lot of sins. We have accumulated many bad habits. And we have all our own shortcomings that became well-entrenched within our behavior, our actions and the way we do things. Just as our houses, your house will accumulate dust if not vacuumed properly. Our hearts accumulate dust. And it needs to be vacuumed regularly. Our hearts become rusty. Our hearts get filled with darker spots all over the place. So how do we prepare three things that all of us will have to do or can do? And then you decide what you want to get out of Ramadan in addition to these three things. The first thing is to get our heart ready, is we need to remove the dust. Before you cook, you have to clean the pot. And then you cook into a fresh pot. Before we fill our hearts with the lights of Ramadan, it has to be cleaned first. It needs to be vacuum cleaned. So how do we do that? We do it with the month of Rajab. And in the month of Rajab, our Sharia recommends to fill the month of Rajab with the month of Rajaab. Because the day of Rajaab leads to success. If we practice the day of Rajaab and we practice the day of Rajaab, we seek Allah's forgiveness. is tighfar. We seek Allah's forgiveness. We are taking the first steps to vacuum clean our hearts. And if there is a shell, hopefully this shell will crack and be opened. So when Ramadan comes, we are ready. In Sha'ban, Sha'ban is described as the months of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Sha'i, this is the last month we have to get ready for Ramadan. And it is described as the months of Rasulullah. And the recommendations in Sha'ban is that we fill it with Allahumma salli ala Sayyidina Muhammad, with salawat on the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Whenever you can. Each of us, each one of us, every one of us has their own rights and responsibilities. So we don't have to do this at the expense of responsibilities. So we give each thing its due. But if we can find time to send salawat on the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, 5 minutes a day, 10 minutes a day, that's great. And get all the distractions out of the way before Ramadan comes. So by the time Ramadan comes, the only thing you have to do is your responsibilities. Anything that will distract you, distract us with taking care of. And when Ramadan comes, we busy ourselves with the activities of Ramadan. And we create a special relationship between us and the Quran. And the minimum special relationship is that we recite the Quran. If we can do more, we try to understand the Quran. If we can do more, we practice the Quran. And if we do so, the Quran become a miracle in our life. It's not just some theoretical miracle somewhere else. No, you will see our lives transformed and changed by the Quran. And we will find that the Quran has answers for many things that we thought we couldn't find answers for. Because Al-Quranu Mi'ata, it's like the Earth. The Earth is finite and limited yet it can satisfy the needs of 7 billion people. Not just this year, next year. Through what? Through regeneration. Because we go through the four seasons and when spring comes again, the Earth becomes alive again. And we have a new harvest. We have new things. Similarly in the Quran, every generation has what it needs from the Ma'ani in the Quran. And if we need a new Ma'ani, if we need new meanings, if we need new answers to questions, we find them in the Quran. It's like the Earth. The words of the Quran are finite, but the meanings of the Quran is infinite.