 O you who believe, be mindful of Allah as he deserves to be and don't die without having surrendered. We begin by praising Allah and we can't praise him enough, our praise falls short. And then we thank Allah and our thank falls short, our thanks falls short. We can't thank him enough. Sometimes we forget that we need Allah. And then we remind ourselves that we weren't made for this world. This world is, we're just visitors in our home and our true abode and our true resting place. Our true domicile and residence is not here. We're only visitors and we warn ourselves that we are returning to our maker. We are returning to our Creator who may question us how we lived our life, how we spent our time, how we earned our money, how we treated our wife, how we treated our husband, how we honored our parents, if we called our mother, if we called our father, if we helped the oppressed, if we helped those in need, we're returning to our maker to see how we did in this life. But right now my brothers, gentlemen, my community, my fellow children of Adam, my sisters, we're still alive. We can still read another page of Quran. We can still make another habit. We can still break another habit. But when we pass and we die, we can't read another page of Quran. We can't donate another dollar. We can't read another Surah Al-Kahaf on Friday. We can't start another habit. We can't break another habit. We can't call our mom one more time. We can't call our father one more time. We can't treat our wife any more gentle. Our time is up. We can't seek forgiveness from someone we harmed. After we die, it's too late. We can't mend relationships between two brothers that are fighting. It's too late. We passed. After we die, we can't ask someone for forgiveness. We can't fix a relationship that has been broken. It's too late. But right now we can. Right now you can donate another dollar. Right now you can start another habit. Right now you can read another book. Right now you can honor another scholar. Right now you can help another institution. But one day it'll be too late. One day that door is closed, that access has seized. And that's a reality, an unavoidable reality for all of us. Right now we can improve our character. We can become more gentle. We can become more soft. We can become more loving. We can become more patient. We can become more caring. Right now we can do that. We can overlook the people who hurt us. We still have that. We can still enhance our character. We can still do that before we meet our maker, before the test is done, before this journey is complete, while we still have breaths remaining that are being counted down like on a countdown timer. We still have the opportunity to teach our kids to do zikr with our family, to make someone laugh, to smile to someone. But one day those opportunities will be gone. But when you leave from this Friday gathering and this Friday prayer, you can still make an intention to read a jizat of the Qur'an every month. You can still make intention, I will be a better husband. You can still make intention that I will be a better son or daughter. You can make intention that that person, you can still make up with someone. But one day for all of us, that opportunity will no longer exist. And we don't want to be in that moment of death and a moment of remorse, a moment of regret. Why didn't I? I could have. I should have. What stopped me? The dunya distracted me. The devil deluded me. But I had the chance. I had the opportunity. And right now today we have that opportunity. Today you can leave here and you can send money anywhere in the world to any suffering person in the world, to any suffering Muslim in the world. Have you sent any money to Syria, the suffering orphans or the suffering starving families or to Palestine or to Yemen or to the many places in the world? Our khair, our goodness should reach everywhere. Should reach everywhere. We should have a part of goodness in everywhere. We should have a part of goodness in zikr, a part of goodness in gentleness, a part of goodness in Quran. Our dear Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, said, I left with you two warners. One that is silent and one that is out loud, that speaks. A silent one is death. Our dear Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, said, I left you with two warners. A silent one and a verbal one. The silent one is death. And the verbal one is the Quran. It's a warner. Our dear Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, said, Our Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, said, How strange is it? How strange of the strange is it? How weird, it's so weird. How wondrous, it's so wondrous. That for the one who believes in the abode in the home of forever, yet he's striving so much for the abode of the temporary. This world, this world we plant so we can harvest over there. They asked one of the righteous Salihin, why is it that we hate to depart to the next life? And he said, He said, And you destroyed your afterlife. So you don't want to go from the built to the destroyed. And right now we can build our afterlife. We can decorate our grave. We can decorate it with good character. We can plant trees with zikr and tasbih. Because that home is forever and that's waiting for us. And this is the abode of delusion. It hypnotizes us and religion is an alarm clock. And so every Friday we come to say, Ya Allah, you are why I live. You are what I seek. You are who I want. I live for you. And we make adjustments every Friday to remember the truth and perspective and the reality that this life, we're all leaving. And every Friday we read in Surah Al-Kahf, Chapter 18 in the Quran, verse 7 and 8. In one verse, he says, What we gave you on this entire earth and this entire world is an ornament, a decoration to test you. Who's going to do the best actions, the best work? And in the next verse, And we're going to make it all dust and crumble. In the next verse, everything is going to crumble. All of the square feet, all of the mansions, all of the mansions and the palaces and everything. It's all done. And then we go to the next life. And then we get the true palaces. We get the true reward. We get the true victory. And that's why we, that's what we live for. And that's what we're committed to. I say this in Arabic. Seek forgiveness from Allah. He indeed forgives all sins. Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, Wa-salaatu wa-salaam, Wa-ala Rasulillah, Wa-salaallahu alayhi wa-salaam, Wa-ala alihi wa-sahbihi wa-man walam. Qul inna al-mawta al-ladi, La-ti taferroona minhu fa-inna hu mulaqikum. Say death that you are trying to flee from and run away from. Indeed, it's going to find you. That death is going to find each and every one of us. They asked Sayyidina Ali. Sayyidina Ali said there are the children, there are the sons of the world, and there are the sons of the next world. Sons of the dunya and sons of the akhirah. And he said, he said the dunya is in front of you and coming towards you. I'm sorry. The next life is in front of you, coming towards you. And the dunya is behind you, running away from you. So stop chasing. So be of the sons of the next life because you'll never catch the dunya and you'll never escape the akhirah. So be of the sons of the akhirah. That's what we chase. That's what we crave. And remembrance of death spoils love of dunya. Doing a meditation on our reality that these breaths are being counted and they're diminishing and there's only a numbered quantity remaining. It's doing a meditation on that. And that those who I know have passed away, they've been in their grave for one week, for one month, for one year, for one decade. And what happened to them and what happened to their dreams and their hopes and their businesses and their lives and what happened to their families and what happened to them? Doing a meditation on them spoils the love of this dunya. And we need to be in the dunya but not of the dunya. We need to be in the dunya but not of the dunya. We need to be here in the prophetic Muhammad in way, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and plant for our afterlife. And be a millionaire and be a billionaire, that's fine, but put the money in your pocket, not in your heart. My daughter once asked me, Baba, when Teslas were really new and exciting, can I go in the Tesla? I said your body can go in the Tesla, but the Tesla can't go in your heart. That's fine, but not in our heart because our heart belongs to Allah, belongs to God, belongs to things that will never die, will never vanish, will never crumble, will never become dust. The everlasting, that's what our heart belongs to. So when we go into our grave, we're not missing the things that crumbled and become dust because we took them with us. We took them with us in our heart. We're not going to miss anything of this dunya. And so, I conclude with this, that in our modernity, in our modern era, in our culture, we have all been told a lie. And this is the lie that all of us are entitled, are entitled, and all of us are entitled to our comfort and our perfection. And this is the lie of our time and our culture. And this is causing anxiety and causing depression and causing the things that come from that. And we need to reset this because Allah promises in the Quran that this is a life of difficulty, a dunya darul balaq. This is a domain, the dunya is a domain of difficulty. And we need to reset this understanding and perspective that when we're patient in the dunya, we'll get rewarded in the paradise. That we're not entitled to perfection here. And what happens is when we train ourselves and our children that you're entitled to perfect shoes, perfect socks, you don't like your socks, they're uncomfortable, change it, you're uncomfortable with your shoes, change it, you're uncomfortable with your jacket, change it, with your sandwich, change it, with the restaurant, change it with your school, change it with your car, change it, and then eventually with your spouse, change it with your religion. We need to understand that this is a place that we are patient and we have acceptance and contentment and ridah. We're not entitled to perfection like the filters on Snapchat tell us like we are entitled because the filter makes my cheekbones perfect. That's a lie that my coffee is perfect because I have nine types of milk I can order from in Starbucks. I'm entitled to my perfect coffee, my perfect burrito. I'm entitled to my perfect everything because I can return anything to Amazon and Costco because I'm entitled to my customized, all this is a lie and this lie leads us to unhappiness. We are going to test you. We are going to test you with this and this and this and this. Who's going to be the best of you in actions and works? So this lie is important because Islam is the recipe for happiness. Islam is the recipe for happiness and we understand that this entitlement to perfection is a lie of our culture and we need to understand that so we can raise ourselves, our families, our children and protect them from this anxiety and from this depression and from all this pain. All this pain, right? And so this is our message today that we are here for a temporary moment that death is going to find us no matter what and let's prepare for that moment. So it's a moment of birth into a next life. It's a moment of continuation of see you later. It's a moment of celebration not that we hate life. Muslims don't hate life but it's a moment of being reunited with your beloved where the veils can be lifted and now you can see your beloved throughout all the years here 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 years we can't see we have this limitation because of our nature of creation and then these veils get lifted and we can see so we yearn to see our beloved and whoever yearns to see his beloved, Allah yearns to see him and whoever hates to see Allah, Allah hates to see him and so we yearn to see Allah and his beloved messenger and our beloved messenger Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam gada nalqa al-ahibba muhammad wa suhba tomorrow we will see our beloved Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and his companions. May we be reunited inshallah and gentleness. Ameen, Ameen, Ameen, Ameen Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen wa sallatu Allahumma salli ala Sayyidina Muhammad wa ala Ali Sayyidina Muhammad kama sallayta ala Sayyidina Ibrahim wa ala Ali Sayyidina Ibrahim fil aalamina innaka hameedun majeed Allahumma hadina fee man hadayt wa aafina fee man aafayt wa tawallana fee man tawallayt wa bariklana fee ma aatayt waqina wa srif'anna asharra ma qadayt Ya Allah, Ya Allah, we ask you to forgive us all of us in this moment Ya Allah, we ask you to cleanse us, to purify us, to illuminate us to let us be from your beloveds we ask you to let us be from your awliyat from your close friends, from your saints we ask you to elevate our community to elevate our ummah, to reunite our hearts to give us the strength to see the opportunity of life as moments to draw near to you as moments to rectify our character as moments to be gentle to our wives as moments to be gentle to our husbands moments to honor our teachers, our scholars as moments to massage our parents' feet as moments to increase in knowledge to read another book to do another dhikr, another tasbihah to read another page of Quran Ya Allah, give us victory and don't let this dunya distract us don't let this dunya hypnotize us don't let the shaitan, the devil, delude us Ya Allah, let us live for you breathe for you, walk for you, die for you let us use our tongue only for you Ya Allah let us use our eyes only for you Ya Allah our ears only for you Ya Allah, we ask you for everything good that our dear Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam asked you for we seek protection from every harm he sought protection from and Ya Allah, we ask you when we die, let it be a moment Ya Allah, not of pain, not of suffering not of remorse, not of regret Ya Allah, but when we when we're reunited with you let it be a moment of celebration Ya Allah a moment of happiness Ya Allah Ya Allah, this world is temporary take it out of our hearts don't let us love this dunya don't let us love this dunya don't let us love this dunya help us love the akhirah help us love the akhirah help us love Islam help us love our Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam help us love you help us enjoy the sweetness of saying your name help us love our parents and honor our parents help us love goodness Ya Allah amin and be gentle with us bring us closer to you with gifts and caresses of love caresses of love Ya Allah don't let us be chained with the shackles the shackles of misfortune Ya Allah bring us closer to you with gentleness amin amin and send peace and blessings on our master Sayyidina Muhammad Sayyidina Muhammad Sayyidina Muhammad Subhanah Salam Salam Salam Salam Salam Salam Salam Salam