 Without a doubt, certainly without a doubt, all praise, thanks and gratitude belongs to Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala to our Creator. We're going to explore that a little bit. Just a tad. What does that really mean? Praise and thanks. What does that really mean? Which is embedded in the Qur'an. or believers. Oh, you believe. Ittaqullah. How do we say this? Ittaqullah. Have taqullah, have consciousness, have awareness of Allah, develop that within yourself, develop that within your characteristics, develop that within your daily routine. Anything that you do that you are constantly, to the best of your ability, are aware of Allah, aware of your actions. The way Allah deserves it. Walatam mutinna, and the most circumstance, don't you die, don't you forget this rule, mu'antimuslimoon, unless you are in a state, a false state of submission. We say that, alhamdulillah. We are saying thank God and we show our gratitude. One thing you all need to know, every single one of you, when you came here today, it is not by a chance. When you came here today, you have been invited to come here. You have been invited to come here to participate in this occasion, on this day, on this blessed day. For that you say, alhamdulillah, for that you say, Allah, thank you. What does that really mean to praise and thank? Thanking is probably easy to understand. All the things that you have. In life that you're enjoying, you need to say thank to it, that's what Allah's command is. What does it really mean to praise? Allah shows it to us in the Quran. I came across one hadith which is not commonly known, not commonly talked about. I talked about one of the hadiths last time here and once the khabla was done, one of others came and told me that, what did, would you come up with that? I never heard of that. So this could be one of those scenarios. It doesn't mean that we're trying to be disrespectful to you. You may have heard this. Where do you find this? In quite a few books of a hadith where I found it today was in the front page of Tafsir al-Nikathir. Tafsir al-Nikathir, if you open it, it's right there. 20 pages of that. Read it, that's your homework. Go look at it, explore it, tells you in detail what the hadith is all about. It's beautiful. That's an English too, it's available for free. You can see it online. So you've been invited here. You say Alhamdulillah for that. Have you heard, let me say it this way, have you heard or have you told, if you're a young brother or sister or if you are an elderly, have you heard, you say that whenever you do prayer it's talking to God? When I ask my kids, what do you think prayer is about? What do you think it's about? The first thing that I hear is that it's talking to God, right? Talking to Allah? Yeah, where did you hear that? That's the question. That's what the hadith is all about. If you're so many and I'm contemplating like, oh God, another khutbah about prayer, I know what I'm doing, that's not what it is. I'm not going to unravel something that you haven't heard, you haven't seen, you haven't, you don't know. You know it. It's just a confirmation of what you know. Maybe there's something new in there. So just relax and take something with you. Allah says this. Here's our, like it would be first homework, that is to go through in the kateer, flip in the first four pages or so, you hear about this in detail. Your second homework. The hadith is hadith khudsi. You may have been tired, this is my method. If you don't know what hadith khudsi is, ask someone who knows what hadith khudsi is to explain to you. I'm not going to go in detail what the hadith khudsi is. In hadith khudsi, this is what Allah says. Prophet's Allah says that Allah said, قَصَمْكُسْ خَلَاتِ, قَصَمْكُسْ خَلَاتَ الْبَيْنِ وَوَوَيْنَ عَدِيْ مِسْفَيْنِ وَلِعَدِيْ مَا سَقَلِ. Allah says this. I have divided the prayer. So pay attention. I have divided the prayer into equal halves, two halves. The spine means the exact half, not the approximate amount. Exactly half and half, 50%. Allah says I have divided the prayer into two equal halves between me and my slave, which is you, between both of us. That's what Allah's claim is here. And here's how he starts. Allah starts in this hadith. وَلِعَدِيْ مَا سَقَلِ and anything that my slave asks, anything that my slave asks, he's going to get. Already you get the beginning of this is a promise. Anything you ask in the prayer, you will get. Ponder upon this. What does that really mean? What does that mean to you and I? I know what we are saying in the prayer. From our history we know any time we came across some sort of difficulty, those who brought this religion to you and I, the first thing they said they engaged themselves into prayer. That means they asked Allah for what they needed, the difficulty they were facing. It is Allah's promise that you will get what you asked for. First and foremost, you and I need to know what we are saying, what we are saying and what we are asking for. And it goes like this. The next part of the hadith is this. When my slave that you and I say الحمد لله رب العالمين I'm not going to translate that. That's part of you that you need to know. When you say الحمد لله رب العالمين guess what the response is from Allah. The response is all Allah will do it. الحمد لله عبد لله. It is quite difficult for me to explain to this that you are all living time allotted and also to be able to say it without getting emotional. Here's why. You are standing in prayer and you are talking and Allah responds. When you say الحمد لله رب العالمين the first ayah you finish immediately Allah responds. The response is حمدني عبدي. My slave thanked me. Here's what is really doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. I'm no different than you. When I'm standing in prayer there's million things going in my head. What happened to my project? What am I going to eat for lunch? Did I send an email? What is going to be for dinner? Is my kid happy? Is my spouse happy? Am I going to be able to have time to exercise? How am I going to pay the bill? Did I get paid? There's everything going to your head. Everything. Allah says my slave praised me. My slave thanked me. The teacher who I run this class from, he said about this. I'm going to give you a quick analogy. He said the number, you don't remember when your kid is in the first grade, second grade, comes home with a drawing with a picture and says look mommy daddy I drew you and it's a big head stick figures and all that is just like okay you drew me but guess what you do as a parent you and I find the biggest the baddest magnet and stick it on a fridge and put it there and proudly represented to how you must say my kid drew me which that stick figure is just kind of meaningless. Make sure you laugh. The way our condition of our parents for those of us who are lucky enough to know what we just said, Allah says proudly my slave praised me. He thanked me proudly to everyone, to all the angelics, to everything created. That's Allah's response. Next time you're standing here don't underestimate what you're doing. Don't underestimate what you're saying. Why do you think you have been invited here to talk to your master? Why do you think it is recommended that you come to a Congressional prayer? You clean yourself as you're talking to your master. If you're my apology, if you're smelling like chicken salad on a bologna, you don't deserve to be here. You don't want to be here. You don't want to cause discomfort to someone else. That at least goes on. When you're reciting maniki yawni deen, Allah's response, I'm not going to translate to you maniki yawni deen. That's your homework. Figure out what you just said. Allah's response is my slave glorified me. This is how you praise God by these words, by his attributes. By attributes, you praise him. That's what he says, All praise be to Allah, my Lord. When you go on and say the next one, When you read that, Allah's response comes immediately. And guess what that is? It's another word for glorification. Allah says again, he, my slave, glorified me. My servant glorified me right at this moment. There's another narration that says, Allah's response says, my servant or my slave put all his affairs at me. He had full trust in me. Allah's saying that to you. Now here comes the other part. When you're asking, and also at this moment, Allah says, Pay attention to this. Allah's words are, this is between my slave and me. When you say that to someone, when you say it, when you have created a relationship, when you have built a trust, when you have built respect and love to someone, you say, this is between us. Allah says it's between my slave and I. And for my slave is exactly, whatever he's asking, he's guaranteeing you that whatever you're asking, you're going to get it. That is the power of this prayer. When you stand in prayer, you ask for what you know what you're asking for, you are going to get it. That is a guarantee from Allah. When you go on, you're going to get the prayer. We get the latter part of the prayer. That's what Allah's response says. Everything that he just said, you're my slave said is all for my slave. Whatever he's asking for, whatever he's asking, I'm going to give him. How many times did Allah say this to you? The beginning of the adi started with that same phrase, in the middle when you just finished the first part of praising God, he said the same thing and when you ended this prayer, he said the same thing. In other words, he's trying to catch your attention. He's saying, pay attention. You will get what you're asking for, so long as you have sincerity in you, so long as you need it, so long as you know what you are saying. As I said in the beginning, there's about 20 pages of this in Ibn Kathirah and all the other part of the hadith that we find this. Hadith al-Putsi, Allah's promise. What does that mean to you and I? That means you and I need to know what you're saying. That means you and I need to value this act of worship. That means we have some homework to do, we have some work to do to understand every word, every word. Why Allah said al-Qalhamd? Why Allah? Why did he say Rab? Why did he say Al-Alami? What is the sequence between Al-Qalhamd and Al-Alami? Why in this sequence, why not in something else? Allah has many, many names I learned in study school. Why did he use Allah and Rab? Why not something else? These sequences and everything else that you ponder upon, that's what you're going to get. When you heard, you're telling your kid, prayer is communication. It is communication with Allah. He is responding, no fact, because this hadith confirms it. This hadith by Thamiz-e-Apink, I don't understand it. You and I have some work to do, make your parent as best as you can. In the next 10 seconds, 30 seconds, I'll tell you what, the best thing you ask is for the best. Allah says in this book again, إن الله و بلا يكتبوا يصلون على الذين. يا رأيه الذين حاملوا صلوا عليكم و صلوا وتسلموا. اللهم صلوا على أحمد و على آل محمد. كما صليت على آل راهيم و على آل راهيم إنك حبي مجي. اللهم بارك على أحمد و على آل محمد كما بارك على آل راهيم و على آل راهيم إنك حبي مجي. ربنا تقضلنا إنك أنت السميع عليكم و تقضلنا إنك أنت التواب رحمد. ربنا لا تؤثرنا إن نسينا و اختطنا. ربنا ولا تحمع علينا اسرعا كما حمرت هؤلاء الذين قبلنا. ربنا ولا تحملنا ولا تطاقتنا به. ربنا ولا تحملنا ولا تطاقتنا به. و حنا, أنت محمد. فان صلنا عليكم قبل كالدين عليكم. Whenever you make a drop, please include at least one. One in your drop. You all have seen, heard, read the news, and atrocities going on in Syria. And they are in a dire need. They are in absolute dire need. And villages and cities destroyed 80, 90, 70% of the people destroyed. People have been displaced and they are in desert, desert, desert shape. Do at least a couple of things. The least you can do, keep on remembering in your time. Keep on remembering, stop the game for Allah, ask Him for better days. And open your hearts, open your wallets, open your arms, open whatever you have to give them. Because they are in desperate, desperate shape. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says,