 Okay, let's do this again, we are without a doubt, certainly with all thanks, gratitude and praise. Gratitude and praise has been combined in this. We have done some work that you and I have done all the time, Alhamdulillah. It belongs to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. If you believe it, as you believe it, we praise Him for that reason. If Allah have awareness, have consciousness, have reference of Allah, of your Creator, of your Master, in a manner that you do not want to do something that He does not like, often has been translated as fear God. The question will come, why do I need to fear God? For what reason? He is saying, make sure that you are not doing something that it is not up to accordance to God's rules and regulations and expectations, and you come short of it, you fall short of that. So have that kind of consciousness of Allah. The way He deserves it, that's a big word, the way He deserves it. It requires a lot of explanations. Your homework, figure this out. The way He deserves it. Wa la ita min tunna illa wa antu muslimun. And there are no circumstances that you forgot what we just talked about, that you need to have awareness and consciousness of Allah at all times, while you are not in this world. Wa la ita min tunna illa wa antu muslimun. When I was asked if I could read the prayer here, for this Friday, the 3030 version, I was wondering what am I going to talk about. It's not an easy thing to do. So some of you may have heard this before. So I was at my mom's house, and one of the advice mom and dad was leading me all along when I was growing up, I found I happened to find it and it's written on their wall. So I took a picture of it. And that's the picture I'm going to talk to you about. Insha'Allah, today for the next 15 minutes or so. It is summation of the advice of someone that has encoded heavily in the Qur'an, and for Al-Yahsa, we know he is not a prophet. His name is Luqman. I don't know what the biblical name is for it, but there is one. It will look to that. Luqman, for what we know, wasn't a prophet, but he gave tremendous advice to his son. For what we know, I wasn't a son who was leading in advice. Now this picture that I have is in Farsi, in Dari. So if you understand Farsi or Dari, you're up for a treat, because I've read it that way. My Farsi is not a good, but I could try to translate it and point out a few things. He says to his son, oh my dear son, I am grateful and thankful to God. Much like we said, I am grateful and thankful to God that he is giving me wisdom. He is giving me a lot of wisdom. I don't know how to thank him. I have collected over a thousand things, over a thousand things that I'd love to talk to you about, but that is quite a bit. That's a lot. No one has that much concentration. I don't know how to thank God. I don't know how to thank God. I know over a thousand that I reduced it to 400 that I'd like to discuss this with you. Even he understands 400 is a lot for a teenage kid, a son. If you have a teenage voice, or boys and Muslim girls, you know, try to give them advice, because one year comes out of the other year. It doesn't even penetrate. It just goes out, and the other comes out of the same year. Immediately. But he understands that. That's part of the wisdom. He's like, I reduced it to 800, 400, and now I reduced it further to eat advice. Pay attention to what he's saying to him. Now, it's impossible to explain all this eat. Now, I'm going to select a few here and there, and I'm going to tell you what that is, and what is the most relevant to us. The most important one is this. He says, do choose a high-guess but a low-shocker. There are two things you can never, ever, ever forget. Always, always keep it in your head, in your mind, in your character, in every single thing you do. What are those two things you would wonder? Khadab or man. Don't you ever forget who created you? Don't you ever forget who is in charge, who is the one who actually maintains you, gives you gifts, and who nourishes you all the time. That's Allah. That's God. I constantly remember God. Always. I also remember that one of the gifts God has given you is this life that you are breathing, that you're living, that you're having, enjoying, that you're in whatever you're doing on a daily basis. Breathing in, breathing out. That master gave you that. It is temporary, and you can take it at any moment. Two advice. Don't you forget about God. Don't you forget that time. This life is temporary, and it's going to go away. It goes on. And the other, I'm going to jump to the last four advice he has given. And those are, I think, essential and critical for us with the way we live today. So do me a big favor. When you listen to this advice, this is directly the example of Muhammad. He's the reducer of them. He can go ahead and look ahead and read it, and it's exactly the transition of that. So it is not just you hear this, but what I like for me and you is to think and contemplate about it. What does this really mean to me? What does that mean to me? I could explain a little bit here. What is that? But further effort and homework is on you to think, okay, I've heard this. How do I apply this? What I do, take account of your life. It gives us what it says. But what it should be is about negator. When you enter to any gathering, pay attention, this is a little bit tricky. When you enter to any gathering, take charge and control of your tongue. There's numerous records in Quran that says when you try to speak ill of someone, when that person does not exist, it's one of those major sins, one of the major no-no's for us. You can't do that. Irrela, backbiting is no-no. This, how do we do backbiting these days? Ponder upon that. It is where do we gather mostly? It is not that we gather in someone's house in a hallway of school or something. That happens still, but the majority of our time is gathered here. It's right here. What we don't think about is the social media as awesome as it is, is an evil thing as it is. Anytime that you see someone's post and you are eager to comment something sarcastic, that you are just done to say something that is not so good, or immediately using a thumb down or a thumbs up, anytime you see somewhere else, somebody doing something, take a snap picture immediately and put it on Instagram. Snapchat, all the other media that you are, for young ones, Facebook is not a thing of work because it's not so cool for them, but all the other things, yes. These are the areas that we enter all the time. All the time. As a matter of fact, a share that came here last weekend, he had some really beautiful sayings. One of them, he said to the young ones, my class, Sunny's school class, he said, boys and girls, you guys are drug addicts because you are addicted to this. This is your addiction. Not the typical drug that we know that this is your addiction, and it's true. How often do we click this one and look at it? How often do we look at someone's Instagram? How often do we try to go to Snapchat and immediately respond to something? It is a constant basis. Constant. One of the way that I saw this years ago when this iPhone thing was just coming out and it wasn't even that popular, he said something really incredible and really hit me hard. He's like, if we pick up the word of God the way we pick up this, as much attention we put to this one that was social media, if we do that on a constant basis, you would, I will guarantee you that scholars will be walking amongst us in here at this age. Scholars and scholars, and we are really high caliber scholars. Why? Because we have this on a constant base. The moment we wake up, until we go to bed, it's just like, can you detach yourself? And also it's next to your pillow, and if there's a residue, you just need to get a check. Who said what? Who posted what? That's what he's saying to the sun. When you enter to these areas, make sure to guard your tongue. Make sure to guard your tongue. Make sure that you know what you're doing. Don't immediately dismiss something or someone and say some, speak out of someone. But so for anyone, when you're gathering and you haven't invited, it's also in this thing that we are saying, when you're invited, make sure that you eat enough that it satisfies your hunger and your thirst. That is a literal translation. But you need to go beyond that. You need to go beyond that in this era, in this era that you and I are living with this little device in our hands. How much time do you really want to spend on this? That's what this means. When you enter to social media, when you enter to Instagram, if you're following 1200 companies, sites, whatever, you really need to go check every single one of those 1200s. There are people that we, everyone's updates on these social media. This is incredible to me. Incredible to me. I'm on a heart, 45 minutes this way, 45 minutes that way, tricked on a daily basis. Every single one is hooked on social media checking each other's status and making comments. 45 minutes, 90 minutes, minimum. And then obviously, I was just crossing the road down and there's a young man. He is walking, passing the red light while he's having his thing in his hand and he's just giggling. He's not even paying attention at all if the cars are coming or not coming. We are absolutely addicted to it. When he says when you enter these areas, make sure that you get enough that you need to go by and don't overdo it. But when you enter any area, sacred area or someone's house, lower your gaze. How does that apply to us? In this study that you and I said in social media, the L things that are not so good at coaching and absolutely send www.whatever that you can put in there, it is so common to you and I. It is so common, especially with this device that you have in your hand and you are addressing specifically to my younger brother that you take this and you see your parents are not watching. You have this in your bedroom with you. You're asking for trouble. You're seriously asking for a major, major trouble from all kinds, from all corners. That's what he's talking about to you and I and his son. When you enter somewhere, you have to be able to understand what is your limitation? How far can you go? What is it that you can do or you cannot do? Be aware of that which ties exactly to the concept of Taqwa that we mentioned at the beginning of the Qur'an. Be aware of Allah. Be aware of God that he is watching you all the time. And the last advice he gives when you enter the prayer, prayer is not an exercise that comes down and we get to needing stuff. That's not what it is. Prayer is a whole lot more than that. A whole lot more than that. When you enter the prayer, make sure your heart is earning towards talking to God. A couple of weeks ago when I came here and I talked to you guys about what that is, it is conversation with God and what that is, it came directly from the hadiths. That's what it is. When you look at this advice at the beginning he says make sure that you know who your master is, who God is. At the end he says make sure that you know that God because once you enter the prayer you are entering into conversation, direct conversation with that master. So he ties the entire thing effectively, beautifully. Here is something I did an experiment I did mention in my class. When we enter the prayer there is a concept of making wudu. Most of us do not know wudu is actually an act of worship. Wudu is much like any other act of worship you do, that's what it is. Cleaning yourself, washing, cleaning yourself. We do it as fast as we can. The more time you take, the more you concentrate the more reward you get out of it. There is an element, there is a reason for the wudu to be refreshed. There is a reason to listen to the ada before you get to the prayer because you want to get rid of all the thoughts and minds and anything else that you are doing. Whether you are in school, whether you are involved in some sort of daily activity, you want to put that behind because what are you trying to engage to talk to God. I did something an experiment I said, see how this works. I played a music, one song that my kids listen to, one of the songs. The PG-rated version played it in a background on a loop about ten times. While I'm doing other things, other things at our house, this is going, I'm not actively listening to it but it is going in the background. Time for prophet king stop the music, give myself a couple minutes, came to be a prophet. Guess what I was hearing throughout the five raka'ada that was in five weeks of prayer. I was hearing the lyrics of this song in my head over and over again. How many times I say this, how many times I say this, how many times I say I want to concentrate on what I'm saying. The lyrics are going in my head constantly. That's two minutes. Hour and a half later, the lyrics are going in my head. It's driving me nuts. Throughout the night, whether you believe or not, I'm seeing this verse in my head and dreaming about this. It was highly, highly disturbing. That's what this advice is thinking about. This man is wise. He is right. When we say we establish prayers, we need to know what that means to establish prayers. We can jump from watching a movie while we're in a list of an action scene and a movie pause because your mom and dad says mother, you're still watching that and you're constantly going through the scenes in your head while you're trying to do mother and you have no clue what you did. You have no clue. That is not the purpose of the prayer and that's what he means. Clarify, clean your heart, empty it from all the other things that you have been involved before you get engaged into the prayer. This is a time for us to ask. And the best thing to ask is for Allah's forgiveness and that's what this means. Allah says in Quran, Allah says in Quran, Ya, Ya, Ya, Ya, Ya, Ya, Ya, Ya, Ya, Ya, Ya, Ya, Ya, You should complain about more things and that's what Allah says, Ya, Ya, Ya, Ya, Ya, Ya, Ya, Ya, Ya, Ya, There's many subjectations to the purpose of your role, but I need to say it as you can, because we just decided that for the beginning of the second part of the Khutla. If you understood the hair of the part, because it's a command from my own mind, all you can get is the word for it. The second thing I have a holiday request is that keep everyone around the world in your prayers, specifically the areas that are seeing tremendous challenges, Syria and Lebanon. These areas are just suffering truly. The least that I can do at this moment, the least, which doesn't cost you anything, keep them in your prayer. Allah says, Allah has commanded me on three things, and I've said this over and over again, and I do not get tired of mentioning them. Allah is saying to you, Forget about saying, These are the three things that you must do in order to be successful. On the flip side of the token, he says, Three things you absolutely cannot do, because it destroys your life and destroys your success.