 Verily, the number of months in the sight of Allah is 12, determined the day he created the heavens and the earth, and from those months there are four which are inviolable. That is the upright life path, the upright religion. So do not harm yourselves during them, do not harm yourselves during them, and fight against the idolaters altogether, as they fight against you altogether. And this verse of Allah, of course, he points out many different things, but he begins by highlighting that when he created this planet, he had determined that this particular planet would take 12 months in his revolution around the sun. Now, of course, as Muslims we calculate our time according to a lunar calendar. So it's a little bit short of a little bit more than what we would call 12 months in the Islamic calendar, but a few extra days. Fundamentally, Allah swt made this determination, that this particular earth, this planet would have or take 12 months to complete that revolution around the sun. And he said from those months, four of them are inviolable, and what it means by those months being inviolable is that these are months wherein we are to pursue good, we are to increase our efforts to avoid evil, and it was extremely important, even for the Jahidi Arabs, that during these months fighting could not be initiated. They were not supposed to fight one another. The months of the Ashur-ur-Huram are four, as mentioned by the Qur'an. The Qaeda is followed by the Hidja, followed by the Maharram. All three of these months are Ashur-ur-Huram. And the other one is the Mantarajah. Now, it is said that the reason of the wisdom behind making these months in a role inviolable was that in the former martial order, that people all throughout the world were subject to invasion at any moment. They were subject to raid at any moment. And so Allah swt chose Mecca, a moqarama, of all of the places on the earth to be a place where people should have no fear when they come to that place, no fear that they have their wealth and their property taken from them, fear, no fear that their lives would be taken, that there be no fear that other types of violations against their honor happen and occur. But on their way to Mecca, it may take some people an entire month to get there. So they're given the Qaeda to travel without fear. So this is all throughout Arabia. So it's not only for Mecca, it's all throughout Arabia because these are those special months. Travel to Mecca and then you have a month to perform your pilgrimage and do other things. And then a month in addition to a month to return home, safety, security given. The month of Rajab was special because people generally perform Umrah in the month of Rajab. So it was also singled out as an inviolable month. As people, Allah swt tells us that the human being is disposed to be ungrateful, that we forget the way that things used to be in this world. We forget the fact that we are on a large boulder, if we could say that, floating in outer space, spinning on its axis 1,000 miles per hour. We don't even feel it or notice it that we're going so fast. But even more extraordinary than that is that as the earth moves throughout space on its revolution around the sun, it is moving almost 67,000 miles per hour. It's 88 times the speed of sound. So you're not only doing this, but you're doing this as well at the same time. We don't experience or feel any of those things. We're so grateful and we're, I mean, we're so ungrateful, I would say. We forgive these things. We're ungrateful for security that Allah swt has given us. And that former martial order, again, people could raid and when they raid, they take your wealth. When they raid, they take your life. When they raid, they make you into a slave. They capture you. Those are the things that used to exist. And then Allah swt gave us Makkah and Makarrama. It gave us Makkah and Makarrama. Now compare that to what we constantly experience. 10 people dead in New York, 19 children and two teachers in Texas. Security is the blessing. Now, of course, there are two fundamental types of security. Physical security, but then also spiritual, psychological, emotional security. We can sort of multiply those things, but generally, I sort of placed them under two general categories. Courses easier for us to protect ourselves physically. We imagine, God forbid, that someone comes into the masjid with a gun. I would hope that enough of us would be willing to charge for that person. Some of us may get hit. Some of us may get hurt, but we're going to get him too, wherever that person is. Spiritual security is much more difficult. We let things in and poison our hearts and our minds and the television and the news and social media. Security is something to be grateful for. And we have to understand too that our sense of insecurity is not only... It's just not organic, an organic phenomenon that there are people who want us to constantly feel insecure. Consider this fact. While we are focusing on New York and Texas and Memorial Day weekend in Philadelphia, 13 people were killed. Not a national outcry about that. Yesterday, a 16-year-old boy in Berkeley was arrested for allegedly planning to have a shootout or a match shooting and bombing even of his high school. He was trying to recruit others to do the same. That's pretty close to home. But put things in perspective. We outrage when these things occur. But there is definitely something wrong with the culture in which we live. Taking away all the guns won't solve the murder problem. It won't. But it's okay, I think, is reasonable to want certain restrictions on people who are not mentally stable. But we need to be concerned about trying to address problems from their roots. In 2021, in Chicago, there were 797 homicides. There were over 3,000 shootings that year in Chicago alone. Compare that to mass shootings throughout the country. 61 mass shootings and 103 deaths across 30 states. In other words, mass shootings are terrible incidents. But they are far more normal or not mass shootings happening throughout the country because there's something wrong with the culture. There's something wrong with our culture. There was a man who came to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. He was from the Quraysh. He was a mushrik and he came with a group of people and he said, we know that you are the messenger of Allah. We know you are the messenger of Allah, but we are afraid that if we follow the guidance with you, then we're going to be snatched away from our lands. In other words, we're going to be killed. We're going to be massacred by the other tribes, all the tribes of Arabia. We're afraid. Now, Allah mentions this in the Qur'an and then he responds saying, So you say this and you believe that the security that you experience and you feel is because of the Quraysh or is because of the other tribes here in Makkah. But Allah said, no, no, no, this is not why. This reflect upon the fact that I have created a secure sanctuary and the people all around the outside of that sanctuary and those precincts, their lives are ended on a regular basis. This sanctuary fruits of all kinds have been brought to it. A provision from us from Allah, but most of them don't know. They don't know this is the case. Who is it that places it or inspires one to want to come to Makkah? Who is the one who makes their hearts attached to the millah of Ibrahim? Allah said, no, no, that security is not from the Quraysh, it's from me. So don't be afraid to enter into the Deen of Muhammad, SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. Imagine if they banned every cigarette to prevent lung disease. Imagine if they banned the cell of wine to prevent liver disease. Imagine if they banned the entry of every narcotic to prevent overdose. Imagine if they outlawed promiscuity and intravenous drugs to prevent the spread of HIV and hepatitis C. Imagine if they banned the sale of every fighter jet, every tank, every missile, tank buster, bomb and military grade rifle to spare the innocent victims of war. Imagine if they charged and imprisoned those guilty of war crimes against the people of Gaza and the Rohingya and the Uighurs and those dropping bombs and starving the people of Yemen, the people claiming that they are trying to save us. Those who tell us that they're saving us from pathogens and from mass shootings are the very people who are profiting from the sale of weapons, profiting from the sale of vaccines, profiting from the sale of therapeutics. And those are the same people who tell us that we have too many people on the planet. There are too many humans and that is a danger to the earth. The point being that there are some things we can control, brothers and sisters, we can control physical threats ourselves. We can protect ourselves from physical threats easily. We can't protect ourselves from the threats we can't see. We can only do what we can do. We can't protect ourselves from COVID. We've massed, we still got COVID. We social distanced, we still got COVID. We faxed and we boosted ourselves, still got COVID. But now, same people telling us, do the same thing that didn't work the last time. And I'm not saying that people shouldn't comply with expectations of an institution. But we just need to understand who's really in control. And I don't mean them. But Allah SWT, that you will die when Allah wants you to die. You will get sick if Allah wants you to get sick. The disease will pass you by if he decides it will pass you by. Especially when there's nothing left for you to do. Just put your trust in Allah SWT. You can control yourself and protect yourself from physical threats. Those you can't see, listen, put out your tongue. Allah SWT, security is a blessing, it's a great blessing. But we also have to be sure that we don't create unnecessary anxiety in ourselves. And so it is important for us to understand that all of the care and concern that those in power they have for us, that is not sincere. And one of my favorite verses in the Bible, Ephesians 6-12 reads like this. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rules of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. They don't care about us. They care about narratives. They don't care about democracy in the Middle East nor anywhere else. They care about the fiction of democracy to further control of the planet. They don't care about black lives. They care about the story they can create when whites take black lives. They don't care about the lives of children. They care about the narrative they can create from the massacre of children. They don't care about your health. They care about the narrative they can build from health crises in order to profit financially and expand their power. We ask Allah to be our protector from those who mean to continue to manipulate us and control us and to cause us harm. I say this. El Hamdulillahir Rahmanir Ar-Armene. Again, a side put into side the things that we know we can control and the things that we cannot control. We have put here to worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to increase our faith, to increase our closeness to him, and Allah has given us Islam for that. Islam is the source of salvation for our humanity. And what we can do, of course, are fulfill our obligations. We can make our prayers on time. We can continue to fast on voluntary days. But we also acknowledge that we are not equal in terms of our level of consciousness of God. That Allah, Subh'anaHu al-Ta'ala, he expects from us to be patient with one another. There was a man who came to the Prophet, peace be upon him, as we know, many of us know this story. He said, Ya Rasulullah, I read the letter to Maktubat, and I said, What if I only performed the five prayers, and I only fast Ramadan, and I declare the haram to be haram, and I don't add anything to that. Will I go to Jannah? He said, Yes. Yes, some of us are there. Sahaba, many of them came to the Prophet, peace be upon him, and they were asked him, Ya Rasulullah, give me more. I've already protected the five. I've perfected my five, and I fast. Give me something. What else can I do? Abdullah ibn Umar, he wanted to fast every day. The Prophet, peace be upon him, told him that the best fast is the fast of Dawud, al-Alih As-Salaam. Fast one day, don't fast the next day, fast the next day. But Hamza ibn Umar, al-Aslami, he came to the Prophet, peace be upon him, and asked him the same question. Can I fast every day? And he traveled a lot, and he said, I like to fast, continue my fast, burn my journey. And then the Prophet, he said, Yes, go right ahead. Because the messenger, peace be upon him, was able to discern the level of people's strengths and their capacity, their iman. He was able to do that. There were people, Abu Hurairah, he wanted to make a vow to continue to pray to Hajjud every night. And the Prophet, peace be upon him, said, No, break your winter before you go to sleep. Why? Because Abu Hurairah, he found it difficult to get up after he went to sleep. On the other hand, he would go out to the home of Ali and Fatima, to make sure that they were praying to Hajjud, to make sure that they were praying to Hajjud. He said, Abdullah ibn Umar, Nama al-Rajul ibn Umar. He said that what a nice man, what a great man is ibn Umar. If only he would pray at night, if only he would pray at night, encouraging them to do different things. We are on different levels. That's just the way it is. And we have to understand that. That we are here to try to make it easy for one another to do better. Shaytan, his olia, are trying to do the opposite. And they can continue to do the opposite. Just remember that Allah is ultimately in control of all of this. At any moment, he can decide, you know what? No more rotation of that plan. Stop. No more revolution. Stop. At any moment. You see, that heart, stop working. That Allah is in control of that. When people died, they died because it was their time. And if you live, you survive in illness, you survive because it was not your time. Again, oh, if he didn't get the vaccine, he wouldn't have, no, no. He didn't die because Allah said it's not time to go. It wasn't because of the vaccine, because it wasn't time for him to go. That's all. I know it can be somewhat complicated at times. But again, the fundamental point is that we should share security, understand the ways that we can protect ourselves, the type of security, which is easy for us to defend ourselves from harm against. And the other types of security, we have to arm ourselves mentally and spiritually against the baghals of Shaytan and his olia, because they're hard at work right now. The world is in crisis. Of course, it's been in crisis for a long time. But in this time, in this age, it is really serious, as Allah says, that he protects us and grant us the knowledge and the tools that we need in order to face these challenges and to not allow for our face to be taken away from us. InshaAllah. Subhana rabbika rabbil az-zati amma yasifoon wa salamu ala ala al-mussareen walhamdulillahi rabbil alamin maqim.