 on him, subhanahu wa ta'ala, for he is al-jami' and the purpose of the day of Jumu'a is that my heart, your heart, our hearts find a state of Jammu'a, find a state of gatheredness and focus experientially on Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala. And this gatheredness, hafidukum Allah, this gatheredness and focus on Allah experientially with my heart and mind and emotions, this gatheredness is even more important in the world in which I live, in the world in which we live. As you know, we live in a world or we live in an age of increasing doubt, increasing shakr. And this doubt, the skepticism, the cynicism, pervades even the concept of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's existence. Does the divine exist? I say I exist, but I doubt whether he, subhanahu wa ta'ala, exists. And flowing from this doubt in the existence of the divine are many practical consequences of those consequences, of those dire consequences is that the names and attributes of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, which are the source of our values and the source of our akhlaq, those names and attributes are negated with the negation of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Allah ta'ala is al-kareem, and so in a world that does not make Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala the center of its focus, where is the attribute of generosity? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is al-adil, the just. In a world that doesn't have Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, where is the realization of justice? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is a shakr, the grateful subhanahu wa ta'ala. In a world without Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, where is the concept and the practical manifestations of being grateful? Where is beauty if we understand beauty and we must as Muslims understand beauty and jamaal as beautiful akhlaq and beautiful values? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala your Lord is Hayyi. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has at His divine infinite level the attribute of Hayyi. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is in that divine sense, infinite sense without any anthropomorphic insinuation. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has the attribute of Hayyi and we know the attribute of Hayyi to be modesty, to be bashfulness, to be conscientiousness, to be spiritual sensitivity. And he, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, reminds us that Allah has this attribute and therefore I, we must have this beautiful attribute at my human level, at the level of my human potential. And thus Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam teaches us that every faith, every system of belief has its own defining feature, its own defining characteristic trait. Inna li kulli din, he said, with that emphasis, inna li kulli dinin khuluqan, every din, every way of life, every philosophy, every ideology, every religion, if we use that word, has its own defining feature. But this deans defining feature, wa khuluqul Islam, this deans defining khuluq is Hayyi, is modesty, is bashfulness, is spiritual sensitivity. Therefore, hafidhukumullah, as a Muslim, as a mature and educated Muslim, I must know that the most important feature or characteristic or value that must define me as a Muslim, is the khuluq of Hayyi, the most important feature, because the text is unequivocal in that regard, second to none, the value of Hayyi. And then that becomes, by this text, the standard by which I judge my Islam. That becomes the standard by which I measure the value, the quality of me being a Muslim. And that's the value and standard not only at the individual level, but at the collective level by which we measure our society, our community, our collective, indeed our civilization, because the text is very powerful and very clear in its explicit and implicit meanings from him, sallallahu alayhi wa aalihi wa sahbiosallam. And that is why, that is why in Arabic, Hayyi is similar to Hayyi, Hayyi is life, is life, and Hayyi is modesty. And that similarity is meant to teach me that indeed without Hayyi, there is no Hayyi. Without Hayyi, there's no true spiritual life. Indeed without Hayyi, there is no true even material life, because everything that is a khuluq in our deen, it is because it is beneficial. It serves a welfare for the human being, both materially and spiritually. So a society without bereft or having a very stunted sense of Hayyi is not a society that realizes the fullness and the deepness and depth of what it's meant to live in its Hayah. Istahya, yestahi in Arabic means to give Hayah, but it also means to resuscitate, to bring back to life. Again, this connection, this connection, powerful link between life and between the value and the khuluq of Hayyi. He said, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, inna al hayaa wal iman qurina jami'an, that truly Hayaa and iman and faith itself, qurina are tied together, are bound together, idha rufi'a ahaduhuma, rufi'a al-akhar. If one of them is removed, the other will be removed. If one of them is lost, the other will be lost. And so now in the first text, very powerfully, he sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi wa sahb sallam, he ties Hayaa to Islam. Now he ties sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi wa sahb sallam, he ties Hayaa to iman itself. And in a way that indicates a causal, reciprocal relationship with one another, that if my Hayaa falls low, so does my iman. If my iman falls and ebz, so will my Hayaa. And therefore anything that raises my iman must raise, if it truly raises my iman, must raise my Hayaa. And anything that genuinely, truly raises my conscientiousness and sensitivity and spiritual modesty is going to raise and elevate and evolve my iman in Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. And that is why he said, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, all of Hayaa. And he used an emphasis, all of Hayaa, Hayaa in general. And then he said, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, kulluhu to emphasize it, kulluhu khair. All the manifestations of Hayaa are khair, are good. In a world hafidakumullah in which the value of Hayaa has been depleted to the point of extinction. Indeed, the value itself has become practically speaking and even philosophically valueless. The way in which we talk, the way in which, yes, we dress, the way in which I behave, the way in which I interact, the way in which I conceive of my orientation spiritually, before even biologically, all of these aspects of life must spring from the fountain of Hayaa. Because Hayaa is not only, as you know, the way I dress, it's the way I speak, it's the way I walk, it's the way I look, it's the way I hear, it's what I think about, it's the way I feel, it's the way I interact with my mother and father, it's the way I interact with my teachers, it's the way I run the affairs of the masjid, it's the way I'm an activist in the field of advocacy and politics. It informs what I do when I'm alone and no one is watching, it informs what I do when I'm working in the social realm, in the social dimension. Hayaa, because it has to do with the quality of Hayaa spiritually, as well as materially, Hayaa informs every aspect of my daily mundane secular and sacred living, because Hayaa has many dimensions. The first dimension of Hayaa is my Hayaa with Allah subhanu wa ta'ala. There's a vertical relationship between me and Allah subhanu wa ta'ala, if you like, and in that vertical relationship Hayaa with Allah means Hayaa with His commands, Hayaa with His prohibitions, Hayaa with what He loves, Hayaa that He is watching me at every moment, at every level, dimension of my existence subhanu wa ta'ala. He is arraqib, watching, aware, Hayaa from that, to have the divine gaze, the infinite divine gaze upon my mind, my thoughts, my emotions, my feelings, my words, my deeds, Hayaa from Allah subhanu wa ta'ala, and then horizontal in my relational, interactional, transactional relationships to have Hayaa. And we know that in the world in which we live, there is an active quest on the part of some to undo Hayaa, to undo Hayaa. And you and me are like in one way living in a pot. I remembered when I was young this example, powerful example given by one of our teachers, the experiment of a frog who was dropped into a boiling pot of water. And the moment the frog touched the water, he jumped out. And then he was placed in lukewarm water and slowly the water was heated. Degree by degree, until the frog boiled to death. So we are living in a context, in an environment The virtue of time, by time passing, the entropic nature of time, the entropic nature of time, in which by the passage of time, it brings disorder naturally, as Allah created it to be. So as we are living in time and in an environment not only that is neutral, but that in many ways is hostile to the idea of Hayaa, I will change. Day by day, moment by moment, I will change. If I'm not aware of the milieu in which I live, if I'm not aware that if I don't make an active effort to reorder spiritually, to reorder my inner spiritual ecosystem, I will change. And after days, months, years, I will lose that innate beautiful innocence. And I will accept, and I will believe, and I will behave in ways that I would not even know show a deep void and lack of Hayaa. How do we change? How do our children change? How do generations change? They don't change overnight. They change step by step by step. They change gradually. And therefore, I must, as a Muslim, I must be reordering my spiritual environment aware of the changes happening in my mind, in my emotions, in my heart, connecting to Allah keeping my consciousness and awareness of Allah, focusing in the ibadat, being in the dhikr of Allah, being in dua of Allah, being in muraqabah, in vigilance of the changes in my akhlaat inside. If I don't do that, I will be changing. And it will not be a positive change. And therefore, Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam tells us, al-maru'ala dini khaleelihi, that I will be on the faith, the deen of my friend. Not only my friend in the physical environment, my friend in the virtual environment, in the digital environment of the most toxic and poisonous and harmful means that we infect ourselves with and allow our young hearts to be infected by in their loss of Hayaa is unfiltered access and availability to the digital world and the digital world for me as an adult and of course for the more vulnerable amongst our minds and hearts is very damaging to my their our Hayaa. So is it no wonder, is it no wonder that after access hours and years of access we surprise ourselves by what we do and what we are willing to allow and even what emotionally we are not sensitive to anymore. Though I may be intellectually, intellectually at least that Alhamdulillah intellectually disagreeing with X and Y, but emotionally I have already been conquered. Emotionally the battle has already been lost emotionally and then it's only a matter of time intellectually in which I change and change and change. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us of those who listen and follow the best of what they hear. Khidriha of the texts describing his Hayaa sallallahu alaihi wasallam of the beautiful texts that speak of who he was, the realities of who he was sallallahu alaihi wasallam. His Hayaa is described as that of a maiden unmarried innocent young girl who at that point did not know the world of men living in the private innermost quarters of her home sallallahu alaihi wa alaihi wasallam. That was his Hayaa. A girl, a young innocent maiden girl unmarried doesn't know about the world of men and lives in the innermost confines of her home. That was the purity of his Hayaa sallallahu alaihi wa alaihi wasallam and with that with that value he was a Rasul, he was a Nabi, with that he was a hakim, he was a judge, he was a Musharri, he was a legislator, he was a Qaid, he was the general of the army, with that he was a Muallim, he taught, with that he was a Nasih and he gave counsel and advice, with that he was who he was sallallahu alaihi wa sallam at every level of his interaction and action in life who says it can't be done, who says one can't have the purity of that value, the purity of that Hayaa and live a life that's modeled, that's inspired by that Muhammadan Hayaa who says that's proof that it can't be done and that's proof not only that it can't be done but that it must be done in order for me to realize my sa'ada, my happiness in dunya and in akhira. In conclusion Hafidah, I remind myself in you not to become a statistic, not to become another statistic of those who have abandoned and who have lost their Hayaa and not to become a statistic of those who because they have done that do not convey that to the next generation of young minds and young hearts. I remind myself in you to be mindful and to be cautious and vigilant about the sohbah, the fellowship, companionship that we keep both in the real world and even more importantly in the virtual world. Number two, I remind myself in you to implore Allah subhanu ta'ala with abundant sincere regular consistent dua that he returns to me what is insha'Allah dormant and a potential within me the intrinsic human fitra to have Hayaa and I advise myself and you to use the institution of Salah as a means by which to develop that Hayaa that five times a day to make my Salah or Salah of Hayaa with Allah subhanu ta'ala and to have that in my mind and heart as I pray who am I standing before what does it mean what is accessible of me at every level to Allah subhanu ta'ala and through Salah like that quality Salah focused Salah heart felt Salah may Allah subhanu ta'ala gradually instill and re-instill in me that innate beautiful innocent disposition of Hayaa from him because he is al-Hayee and so from him to me to have that khuluq and then to express it in my life. Hafidah cum Allah the I feel Hayaa to say this so forgive me the sohbah the institution I'm a part of has a table outside if you would like to see the five-year program that we will be launching in October and we also I believe the seminary has a program tonight about developing yakin by connecting with Allah subhanu ta'ala and through that some of the proofs though we don't need proofs but some of them nonetheless spiritual and rational of Allah subhanu ta'ala's existence Allahumma izal islamah wal muslimin Allahumma izal islamah wal muslimin Allahumma nsur man nasraddin wa jalla minhum ma'uhum wa khzul man khadal ad-din wa la tajalla minhum wa la tajalla ma'uhum Allahumma jaalna hadin mahdiin la dalin wa la mudillin la mughirin wa la mubaddilin Allahumma shri marzana warham mutana wa amin rawatina wastur auratina wa roddna ilayka raddan jameela Allahumma hadina li'ahsanil akhlaq la yahdi li'ahsaniha illa ent wa srif anna sayyihah la yasrif wa anna sayyihah illa ent rabbana aatina fi dunya hasana wa fil aakhir wa tihasana wa qini aathab al-nar aqim al-salah inna al-salata kanat aal al-muminina kitab al-mukuta