 Salam alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu. First of all, I want to apologize. This is not my regular voice It's No one would believe me if I say what happened I got allergic reaction to pistachio Which is impossible for afghan to get allergic reaction to pistachio because I think we used to do our tahleeg with pistachio Just to get things started All our lives we eat pistachio almost on daily basis, but Hamdulillah something I really loved I Can't eat anymore, but it's been a couple of weeks that inshallah they said another week or two I should be back to normal, but we'll see Anyways, these are the days of final days of Ramadan One of the thing about Ramadan is that the primary purpose of it is very clear in the Quran That we have revealed this month What is the purpose the primary purpose la alakum tatakum in order that you may gain consciousness of God takwa Is to be aware that Allah is with you all the time and he's watching you all the time That is the reality That is a reality, but your awareness becomes takwa The reality is Allah is watching you Allah is with you all the time But when you come to that understanding when you come to say Allah is with me Then that is you become a muttaqi in that moment But there are secondary there are other purposes that we understand and feel for the people Who don't have enough food to eat and we always remind our children that when if tar time comes SubhanAllah look their people if tar comes they don't even have food to break their fast They might have to just break it with water and bread So we have that food so we remind ourselves about the blessings of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala he's given us and about those people who are less in Status than us and the reason why it's important To look at those who are lower than you than those who are higher than you so it will put you in the state of shukr Shukr is one of the highest station that you're in the state of gratitude y'all I thank you for blessing me with these blessings But one of the things that I really truly Admire about Ramadan and I love it is my my favorite In the month of Ramadan is that this is the only month That you really can come to understand yourself to know yourself Maulana Rumi in the Fihimafi he says something very interesting. He said look at a human being He said we can take the hair out of a dough We split the cell we turn the human cell into a football field And we go into it with our microscope to see what is inside of the cell We know the distance between here and Mars We know that this is between the earth and the moon and the Sun We we know what the stars are made up. We know the rocks of Mars in in moon We have we have all of these knowledges About the trees about the plants about the the animal kingdom about the heavens and earth everything and yet majority of us will die not knowing ourselves majority of us will die not knowing ourselves and knowing yourself is Why is it important in our tradition to know ourself? Mu'aid al-Razi Rahmatullah Ali said Manu arafa nafsahu faqat arafa rabbu whoever came to know himself came to know Allah It is through yourself that you will come to know Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala But if you don't know yourself and this is why it's important to know Not just the physical self because there are layers of knowledge of yourself in the modern world The the young generation the Gen Z's in in in all the past. I would say two generations They know the south from the outward perspective so well That I don't think that we had any understanding. They know which which Color of makeup Would look perfect on their skin from the plethora of colors of Hundreds of colors that all almost the shade the same shade But they know which one would are perfect on their on on their face, right? We know that From amongst hundred perfume, which is the one that actually we love the most But they're all might smell the same most of it We know all of the set. This is not the self that the olama talk about the real self is that which Raqab al-as-fahani in in said something really beautiful He said that that look at the human face Well, the most amazing thing is about the human face And this is why it's prohibited to hit someone in the face because we are created this face the wedge Because all of almost every attribute of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is a human face Allah is the one to kill him. He speaks. It's in our face. We speak Allah is all seeing we see it's in our face eyes Allah is all hearing we can hear but here's the thing When you're sad, why do I see that in your face? When you're happy, why do I see that in your face? When you're angry, why do I see that in your face all of these emotions that are inside of you They all manifest in your face as well So not just knowing the outward but knowing the sources of those and this is the problem with our you know We put we put There's a we don't go to the source We don't go to the source Omur par ghalib yahi bool karta raha Doo chehri parte ur ayina saaf karta raha All of your life ghalib says the great Indian poet Oh ghalib you made this mistake all your life the dirt was on your face and you're wiping the mirror and This is many people. This is what they do. They wipe the mirror They don't they don't want to go inside. Why don't we want to go inside to take this journey? Why do people want to go inside to find out who they are? Because for some of us The journey is scary to go in we don't want to go in because of what we have done But here's the secret of this religion the secret of this religion is that with all of the Darknesses that are inside of each and every one of us no matter what we have done because the nature of sin is Darkness in the nature of darkness is its multiplicity. You have a thousand different darkness is not one If you turn off the lights in this room, there are layers of darknesses But when you turn on one light all darkness is dispersed with the nature of one because the nature of Touche is when it comes Everything that's not to heat has to move out everything has to go When unity come multiplicity disappear How do we get this journey the end-world journey Moana when when he met shops at the breeze? He took him on the end-world journey and he said it's difficult. Please don't take me as hard How am I going to go through this? To know myself and chums taught him something he said just take that just go inward I'll show you something and that thing would help you He said what is that? He said there's a light He said what do you mean? There's a light. He said Kamari John Sephate Darrahe del paydashod Darrahe del chillatifa safar He each magoo. He said I went inward and I saw this illuminating moon inside of me and when I looked Everything was illuminated and room. He said oh my What a beautiful journey what a gentle and beautiful journey is the end-world journey Most of us we don't want to turn on the light Most of us. We don't know we have a moon inside most of us We don't have someone to help us to show us our moon We want to think that shams Tabriz did to Rumi he didn't turn on the light for him he just showed him his own moon and That is a sign of a great teacher. They don't give you a fish. They teach you how to fish That is a sign of a great teacher. So in this month Why is this month? Unique in knowing yourself in comparison to the other month the reason why in the Maktibat of Sheikh Ahmed Serhin did a great Mujadid al-Fathani who's buried in Serhin, India He wrote He said that human being are created. There's two essences in you. One is heavenly A'lam al-amar One is earthly A'lam al-Khalq. So he said you are created from these two A'lam al-Amar, A'lam al-Khalqa, A'lam al-Mujarra, A'lam al-Khalqa, A'lam al-Zahra, A'lam al-Mujarra, A'lam al-Khalqa He said the A'lam al-Khalqa, A'lam al-Amar, this the the the heavenly reality When Allah said be and it was and that is he said There are five things but we won't go over the five but the most important thing is your Ruh your Kalb You got it? Your Ruh, your Kalb and then it said it's your Serh, your mystery, your Khafi and your Iqbal the mysteries of the human of the human being But A'lam al-Khalqa has five things as well. It's the four elements that we were created from. We were created from We know it's the four elements, right? Hot, cold, wet, dry water fire Earth and wind. So those are the four elements that we were created from in the nafs The nafs is not from heaven. The nafs is not heavenly. The nafs is earthly. The Ruh is heavenly So Sheikh Ahmad Tarhindi said all your life is a tug of war One post to this side, who's pulling to this side? It's the fourth element pulling down in the nafs. Why? Because they're made from earth and they feel good at earth. They love shopping. They love eating They love overeating. They love over shopping They love everything that has to do with the dunya. All of the shahawat of the dunya, they love it But the Ruh Your Ruh and your Sir are not from the dunya No matter how much you give them of the food of this world, you cannot satiate them. The Ruh needs the zikr That's what it needs. And if you don't do zikr, you're starving your spirit Just like if you don't eat, you starve your body And then your qalb, your heart So The problem throughout the 11 month is one thing These earthly, your fourth element in the nafs, they have a big helper, shaitan They're a big helper. It's kind of make it, they seem make it unfair. It's not unfair But it's a little bit the shaitan and the west spring. But Allah In this month locks up the shayatino jinn They're locked up. If you for me You know when I first thought went to college I was really confused about about life and I wanted to really choose that religion. I Really wanted to choose a religion. I said whatever religion makes sense. I'm gonna choose this so I took a Class on comparative religion, you know teaching Word religion by Houston Smith, I didn't even know Houston Smith was a Muslim We read that book and starts with you know Christianity Judaism and Buddhism and Hinduism and Jainism Confucianism all of them and under addition that we read back in the days that 20 some years ago 30 years ago. It was Islam was the last chapter and I loved it because I really didn't wasn't interested in that until the end So let me let me know about all these other religions because we grew up in a country where it was only one religion We thought that was it in here in America. You see all these your friends are Buddhists and what is the Hindu? What is the Jain and what is the Christian? What is it? So I'm like, whoa, what is this? I want to know and one of the things that really struck me about this was Ramadan because Ramadan came and not only me everybody was a good Muslim Everybody was getting up for Fajr. Everybody was doing all five daily prayers. Everybody was going to the Quran And I'm like wait a second. How is this possible? How is that possible? Who's doing that? Who's doing that? Why can I get up that easily for Fajr outside Ramadan when I get up like that in Ramadan? Why is it that I can go a whole day without eating? If I don't have my my chi by 10 a.m I'm gonna be the whole day. I People know this after my time. I don't have time But I'm still Going through the day doing my work all of that. Who is doing this? This is the proof of the religion one of the one of the people in prison told our Sheikh when he was doing prison Outreach and he said he said why did you become Muslim? He said I tried every religion and I said whatever religion is the truth. It will help me Quit smoking. He was a smoker cigarette. He couldn't quit. He said I became a Buddhist I became a Christian. I became a Jew. I became every I was going to every religion I say I want to be part of you as long as you make me quit this cigarette I'll be part of your religion and he said none of them help. I became Muslim Ramadan came I didn't smoke for a month and I quit and I said this is the true religion But this month is really there's so many merits in it But the biggest thing that you can take out of this month and especially in these last days is really come to know yourself If you were doing bad things before Ramadan Whatever it was you're doing and you're not doing it during Ramadan. Know that your essence is good But Shaytan got the best of you know that your essence is good You're good But Shaytan has the best of you once Ramadan is over you will go back to that if you don't make a change You will go back because Shaytan is gonna come he's gonna bring the same Statsis to put you in that trap. He has the game plan already. He's waiting for for the night of aid The game plan is already done He knows how to get you because he's gotten you before The only way you can get out of that is For you to come to know yourself What makes you happy? Not the happiness see I Had a friend who I thought like Like this person was the happiest person on the planet Honestly, I've never seen a person laugh so much sometimes so much laughter that it would annoy me That I would tell people tell this person Calm down too much laughter. There's no Joy in the air happiness in the air and then so many years passed by then I get a call That this person Attempted suicide but survived so I was do some counseling I realized that all of that depression The person was actually depressed But trying to laugh their way out of this world That's not how it works Happiness is not the laughter of the mouth. It is the smiles of the heart And that's many hearts are weeping and crying But people are trying to laugh to show other people that they're happy. They are not living for themselves They don't know who they are People don't know who they are And if you don't know who you are You would never ever be happy you not even taste happiness You're not even taste Happiness because we will not do What makes us happy? We will always do things to make other people happy. We will live our life For other people in other people would never Ever be happy with you. There's the nature of the world The nature of the world they would never nobody would ever know you Nobody if you think somebody would know you you're dreaming your parents would never know you Your parents will never know you your children would never know you. There's the cry of every I stopped in counseling many You know because it just drains you so like three four people left once they're on their way. I'm done But one thing that I always got from children. Oh, mom doesn't understand me. That doesn't get me 14-year-old kid Mom doesn't get me dad doesn't get me parents come crying my daughter doesn't understand me my son doesn't understand me. Well Here's the answer. They're not supposed to They're not supposed to Allah has made it that way Because if you can find solace in this dunya if you can find someone so you can lean on them You can lean on them. Then why would you will forget about Allah? Everyone in your entire life is a detour to Allah Everywhere you go road is closed go this way road is why is this road close my house is right there No, no go this way Detour all of those detours leads you to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala All roads leads to God and Allah's done and they would never know you so Don't waste your time trying to explain yourself and this is why So many of the young people they tell their secrets to their best friends, right and then a Year later two years later. They end up. Oh my god I had people who were literally suicidal Because they said something to someone and that someone when their friendship went sour told other people There's one of the poets said that he said don't tell your your secret your best friends because your best friends have best friends So that's how it that's how it works So they would tell other people because it's a nature of the human being I don't know if he has no story, but the Alexander the Great That's Alexander the Great haircut was in the way that nobody saw his ears Because he had really big ears his ears to drag up to like his Really bad ugly big ears, but he had this haircut that will cover it and nobody's ever seen it So his the guy who does his haircut dies So they try to hire somebody else they find the best haircut guy this young guy come in and they say There's only one thing he said what? He said that you know When you see his ears You can't talk about it to anyone and if you do you'll be killed your entire family will be killed He said no, of course. I wouldn't say this Alexander the Great So they hired him as the haircut and he first haircut that he gives his shot Seeing his ears and he's just trying to control himself So he gives the nice haircut a day pass a week pass a month pass a year pass He can't hold it He said I gotta tell somebody and this is why sometimes we say we got to get out our chest We got to share it with someone so he says what am I gonna do? What am I gonna do? She's you know what I just have to say it if I say it and just get out of my chest It's good So he goes outside the city he goes in the middle of the desert and then he finds a well a water well And he puts his head inside of the well He said Alexander the Great has really long ugly ears as he shouts this. Oh, man. That feels really good I got out of my chest comes few time passes by So this traveler comes into the town and he says you guys here Alexander the Great has really long big ugly ears Everybody's saying they hear the news. They get this guy they bring him Bring the barber the barber comes in stop his head off. So why is it he told you he said I swear to God I would never do that. I haven't told us so so he says But how did this man on the street saying that he knows that Alexander has so they bring the man He said, how do you know this? He said, you know what? I went I was traveling I was taking water from a well and I had this echo from the well Does it Alexander the Great has really long big ugly ears? So the moral of this story is Doesn't matter who you tell Somebody will come out. So if you don't want anyone to know something don't tell anyone keep it in your heart Keep it in your heart simple as that. So Coming back to knowing yourself. Why is it important to know yourself? Because through knowing yourself, you will know a lot Iqbal Rahmatullah Ali said in the Persian line. He said as Hamak as Kenar agheer Sohbat ashenat ala Hamas Khuda Khudi tala Hamas Khudi Khuda tala He said abandon Everyone and seek the companionship of the only familiar one, which is Allah Then seek to know God through yourself and seek to know yourself through the light of God So if you know yourself You will get to know Allah and when you know Allah through that light that illuminates your heart You will get to know who you are they go together knowing yourself and knowing Allah and what a shame It would be that we live our lives and we get to know everything in the world And we get to know everyone and we need to learn philosophy. We get to learn mathematics. We get to learn Science in history, right? And yet Someone asks us who are you? We don't know if you don't know Where you came from? where you're at and Where then are you going? These are the three Quranic question Where you came from? where you're at and Where then are you going for any other Abu the Quran ask where then are you going? Where do you think you're going? Hey, Maulana Rumi knew it well He knew it perfectly. He said I have the one button home GPS. Follow me Hey They ask we ask in in the 90s from Sheikh Maliakubi The way to enter paradise was easiest way to enter paradise. He said turn right go straight Turn right go straight Amen to be la so musta came say I believe in Allah and then stand by that be upright stand by that Get to know yourselves many people Will really get to know themselves in the grave, which is very sad And very sad to know yourself in the graves, but if you know yourself There are few benefits, but the greatest benefit of knowing yourself young people Is this No one can buy you out No one can buy you Because you realize your worth Your value will look at Karamna Benny Adam The Quran says we have ennobled the children of Adam. There's a nobility About you that Allah says That I've bought you and in return paradise For paradise Will you sell yourself for a few moments of pleasure? Will you sell yourself for a few dollars? Or a house or a car or anything? They ask more than a roomie. They said you have evaluated everything. Give us the evaluation of the human being What's the worth of the human being? He said He said oh human being you're more expensive than this world in the hereafter put together How sad you don't know your own value How sad you don't know your own value Don't ever sell yourself cheap because Allah's offered you already Paradise a place where no eyes has ever seen anything like it. No ears has ever heard anything like it No mind has ever imagined anything like it Can you imagine the sound of paradise? you know once my friend put a You got a Dr. Dre beats said it have you seen this I said man the last time I put on these things I saw a walkman back in the days with those headphones. He said no no try this in and all honestly. I'm like wow Just a quality of sound unreal But what about the quality of sound of paradise that no ears has ever heard anything like the music of paradise? What about the beauty of paradise that even imagination? right People go and see Avatar the movie and they're in awe like just in Cinematography But imagine Paradise that you can't even imagine it. That's how beautiful it is Right, you can't even imagine it Imagine the face of the Prophet Mara at I know and what is it around? Mithlata hafeel warah No eyes has ever set on a face like the face of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam Imagine seeing that You're gonna make yourself mahrum deprived from seeing the face of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam For a moment of pleasure to sell yourself cheap Right, is that what we're gonna do? What is this face? What is this face? It's a face Khadnara taqallubi wajeeq if he's Samah, that's the face When the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam went to Medina The qiblah changed because they used to pray towards Jerusalem But the Prophet always wanted to pray towards Kaaba. It was in his heart But he never asked He never asked Adab with Allah. Highest adab No one had more adab in the history of creation than our Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam Adab in your rabbi Fahsanat adibi Allah has taught me adab and how beautifully he has taught it to me Imagine the adab that is taught by God Perfection of the human being he wanted the qiblah to be changed, but he didn't ask What did he do? In the prayer Right Because some of the Jews not all of the Jews in Medina We had a lot of Jews that became Muslim and a lot that supported in the out the pack with the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam But some of them gave him a hard time and they said you have a new religion. Why do you pray towards our? qiblah to Jerusalem You have a new religion why you pray this way? The Prophet was really hurt and he wanted the qiblah to change In the prayer He raised his face Towards heaven literally he went like this and immediately Before he could put his face down a loss in jibreel from sidratul muntah This is the furthest place any creature has ever gone Except the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam that passed on Even jibreel can't go no more from there sidratul muntah the furthest limit the tree of the furthest limit That's what jibreel is Go down Before my beloved put his face down We know why you turned your face towards that We know You don't say anything We will change this qiblah Toward the qiblah of your desire For widely watch Haka shatr al masjid al haram So turn thy face towards masjid al haram towards the qiblah The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam turns exact opposite way In the jama'ah while praying All of the companions they turn go behind him Continue their prayers. They don't say like oh, why are you doing this? This is this station of love The station of love The obedience is not because you have to is because you want to That's the difference Obedience of the king is because you have to do it Obedience to your boss because you have to do it obedience to the one you love you want to do it You want to do it? It's your desire So he turns his face And Allah brings the camera right in front of him Some people say how does it how does it come? This some of these, you know Senorium Ayatina We will show our signs We will show our signs on the horizon and on themselves Until it manifests in that Allah is real God is real. Allah is real. He's Allah When I first time I saw this thing becoming reality this thing really came oh my god Was the first time I saw a 3d movie Because I kept doing this I thought it was right in front of me, but it was Probably a hundred feet away from me on the screen And it wasn't so if Hollywood can do that Allah can't do it If Hollywood can do it Allah can't do it These are all signs So he sees the cabra in front of him like a 3d movie in front of him. So we adjust his chest To the cabra and that is the most accurate qiblah on the planet earth Masjid qiblatain in Medina most accurate qiblah On the cabra because all of the qiblahs are for him in Mecca not to the cabra. I know cabra is impossible so That is the face Who doesn't want to see that face? Who like who doesn't want to see that face? you know poets they Think about the poets is that they make things more beautiful than they are It's the nature of poets Like if they write a poem about the stage here You feel like oh my god what a stage you was because they would embellish But the poet said He said He said great Indian poets He said oh Oh messenger of Allah your face is so beautiful That every model of the world is jealous of your face And no matter how much I praise you And i'm a poet and I can praise really well I still fall short of praising I went through the cosmos I went all over the world I've seen the most beautiful models. I've seen people of akhlaq. I've seen people of beauty But you oh messenger of Allah You're in the league of your own Here's something else Imagination I can't imagine anything A form more beautiful than your face Shamsi, Nad Anamiya, Qamar, Hoori, Nad Anamiya, Pari Are you the illuminating sun? Are you the illuminating moon? Are you a medium of paradise? What are you? This is Amir Khosrow And at the end he says He's a beggar He's a beggar and a strange person coming from the land far away And he came to your city in Medina Monawwara In a hope that you may have a glance toward this poor soul in your city And there were lovers like that Who loved the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam That the city the dirt of that city The dirt of that city was that coal in their eyes The people who walk barefoot in Medina they never put on shoes They did they were they stayed there. They never put on shoes There are people right now There are people right now that we know That they never fly to Medina They never fly I'll go and fly over the posters The people that we know they never sleep in Medina They come to Ziyad and leave out of just how am I going to sleep when my legs crossed in Medina In the city The Jihad where is the is the neighborhood of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam So you don't want to be in that neighborhood in Jannah with him forever By just a moment of pleasure to sell yourself cheap This month comes to teach us our value to teach us who we are Really to teach us who we are Where we came from Where we are at and where we're going and I swear by Allah No matter what you have done in your life This night These nights of Ramadan lay little qadr Can wipe your entire lifetime of sinfulness Of disobedience and make you pure like the day you were born And don't think that you messed lay little qadr or that you will mess lay little qadr Exactly Don't think that way Every single one of you Don't think that way And in the abdi dhanibi Hadith kutzi says Allah says I am in the opinion of my servant How he or she thinks of me I'll manifest myself in that way Every one of us inshallah either we caught it or we'll catch it Right But no No That Allah can make any night for you Lay little qadr One of my teachers said He said the real lay little qadr Is when you realize The power of Allah That moment Allah will make that night lay little qadr for you When you realize you your connection to Allah when you realize your dependency to Allah when you realize That he is your rub in your his servant When you realize that that calling that he says my servant is the greatest name for you Whatever title that I give you in the dunya no matter what the highest title that you can get in this dunya It It's annihilated With the title that Allah gives you abdu Abdullah my servant You are my servant You are my servant. This is the greatest and this is why khajab the la nasari will end with this khajab the la nasari the great sage Who died in 481 buried in the city of herat in afghanistan when the great sufi master said He said in his munajah He said ilahi I got a big weeb and they meant As arsh makes that at khanda iman He said yallah If you just say you're my servant I'll be so happy that the carrier of the arsh will hear my laughter I'll be so happy Just call me the fact that you say i'm your servant That's all i want to be your servant because that is the true freedom If you're not a servant of Allah You're a abdu dinar abdu dirham You're the servant of severing gold materialism. You're the servant of your shahwa your desire You're the servant of your boss. You're the servant of your wife. You're the servant of your husband. You're the servant of Allah will make you servant To everything in this world if you don't if you don't become a servant If you don't make sajda for Allah Ye ek sajda jisi to gerasa mashtahi Hazar sajda jisi ditay ademi konachat This one sajda You do for Allah you think oh my god. I'm doing so much. I have to pray that one sajda alleviate you from a thousand unnecessary sajda That Allah can make you humiliate you in front of everybody else, but his servitude That is the real freedom That is the real freedom. Do not become abdu dinar at the ram Have the wealth of this world be rich be millionaires the billionaires have every have the junior in your hand And not in your heart Leave your heart for Allah and for yourself Leave the heart To know yourself and to know Allah and have the junior in your heart in your hand That's all you want to do and make sure that the junior that you have in your hand. It's moving constantly What is uh in the result of the kashiri? I said I was reading that Earlier and one of the master said he said it's like the wealth is like water If it keeps going it's always fresh and good But if it's still it goes bad So make sure you spend it You don't hoard the wealth. It's always you're spending it and you'll get more inshallah ta'ala Especially spending it for good causes inshallah, especially on these days of night of ramadan Mela bless all of you Mela protect you in these blessed nights If there's any questions or clarification or comments And then we'll make a draw and then inshallah, I think uh one of the weather is going to lead um Sort of work and then there's going to be started to speak, right? Yeah I have the mic if everybody has a question I think they're too tired. Yeah Uh sisters, we have sisters trying to get in could you come forward please? Brothers are okay Sisters, I think there's sisters at the door the sisters if you start moving a little closer to the stage. Thank you I guess there's no questions So I come Is that a lot of city for you doing for a beautiful talk? Um I had a question. So I think you made a really good point like finding oneself But uh, I have a question more like tactically. How do you do that? How do you actually go about what are some steps you take to go in and find yourself? Very good question. How do you find yourself? So I'm writing something on that topic inshallah Hopefully I can publish it soon. But just to um The first thing to find yourself and to know yourself I hold hardly believe this my belief it could be wrong There's no foundation for it If you don't have if you don't take 30 minutes a day for yourself, you're not living life Don't call it life If you don't take 30 minutes what I call me time Me time That time is super important and for every person is different Everybody's different Uh, some people it's a walk. They just want to go out Go for a walk They have their flashcards with them Memorize something They have their headphone listening to Quran They have nothing I don't listen to anything when I go for my walks Reflecting on nature Everybody has something Some people they go in the corner of the room Reflect close your eyes No, you two human beings are the same and that's what I add in the process I'm saying human beings are like mines Copper mines gold mines diamond mines everybody's different. So there's not a formula for one. One of my students we were in we're in They were in Malaysia Ask me a similar question And then so I told him that you have to have me time and find yourself But you have to find a place where you feel at ease Where you don't feel like you have to Photoshop yourself. See the power with us is we always have to filter ourselves because Especially the generation that grew up on instagram where everything is filtered They never see reality in its true form The prophet says Ya Allah show me The reality in its true form Unfiltered I want to see the reality in its true form What is true is true what is falsehood is falsehood and give me the ability to follow it and show me falsehood In its true form not filter And give me the ability to stay away from it. So that is one of the big problem A moment where you don't need filters You don't need filters There's nobody there. It can't I mean they get to a point and this is in the shah-e-naqshman said khelma that anjuman You know Privacy in the gathering That's a high station where you could be sitting there with all these people But you're you're not even here physically. You're here spiritually or somewhere else Right, that's a high station that people will get to that station But you have to start by being in a place that is only you and you feel at home in that place So one of my students said Um, young young younger. So anyways, I met her maybe like Six seven months later I had a talk in a muslim in a salafi center and she was there and she came He was like, hey, dude Allahi that thing you said about 30 minutes a day for yourself me time. I found myself Look at my hands It got all blisters on her hands. I'm like, oh god. What happened? Like, what did I teach you? So anyways, it's good. No, no I realized the place that I feel comfortable was on a swing So I got me a swing in the rope. Actually it my hands are as blister But it's been doing it for like months and I have a swing in the backyard And I go and it's the most relaxing thing for me and Alhamdulillah, no complaints. She was happy Everything was fine. She was focused on what she wanted to do in life But not everybody should go on a swing to find themselves, right? But Everybody has to find a place For me when I was in high school, I went through some trying time, you know first First generation not understanding the language Being in this country Not doing anything, honestly So I had really Some difficult I would say months and almost semester. So I remember Mr. Gallardo I think it's the only person I remember To three people three names from my high school teachers. It was the Gallardo was my counselor And he told me one day he said, did you get your driver license? I said, yes I was in 11th grade. So yeah, I got my license and he said He said uh Go to San Francisco And I'm like, whoa, that's never been to San Francisco without the families No, no, go to San Francisco and go give me an address to go by the beach Sit and reflect on water for two hours And just reflect by your life and about this And I was like really game changer for me just seeing The creation of Allah just without any distraction And it really helped me out the water for some people is the water for some people is the night sky It's camping. They will go and I know that People came to Islam through night sky. I know that for a fact But the night sky it boosted their image just seeing the stars, right and got to know themselves. So Finding yourself is really knowing How insignificant you are and how significant you are at the same time That is the secret of knowing yourself to know that that's so you're The insignificant part comes not to get arrogant The significant part comes so you don't feel like oh my god. I'm nothing. I can't do anything that you would see That you are the cream of the crop. You are the best of Allah's creation You are the highest of Allah's creation You are the you're the middle creature create creatures You're the middle creatures Allah has created the biggest thing And the smallest thing and we are in the middle Right, there's a there's a beautiful video. It's called everyone should watch this It's like a short video. It's called the power of 10 The power of 10 and there's a video on this family in a park And then it zooms out 10 times and then you can see the whole park and then zooms out 10 times You can see the whole city then zooms out 10 times You can see the whole country zooms out and then there's you see the earth And then keep zooming out 10 times and then you see the whole galaxy The whole cosmos becomes like a little dot And then he zooms back in to the people and then he zooms in 10 times into them And you would see that the reality Of everything you saw Outwardly it's inwardly as well. It's inside of you And this is why when that little boy was crying and saying Ali saw him. He said oh little boy. Why are you crying? Don't you know that the entire cosmos is inside of you So that knowing that but then also knowing that you are nothing In order not to get arrogant If you can balance those two And you have that 30 minutes What you can find And if you can't take 30 minutes away from your 24 hours day schedule then Don't call yourself a free person. You're not a free person You're a slave to everything else But to the truth of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala How could we not take 30 minutes a day? Sleep lasts 30 minutes We waste human being We waste so much time all of us I'm the first one to raise my hand the amount of time I waste Even though I feel like I don't waste a lot of time But I still do in comparison to the last generation of people So in comparison to my teachers So all of us you can take 10 minutes from here 5 minutes from here to get that 30 minutes a day And reflect reflect on yourself Reflect on the blessings That's one of the things that you need to do Is shukr we're becoming a A generation of ingrates Well, we don't have shukr We have to people people of gratitude and shukr Just reflect on what Allah has given you Right And for example now Every day I'm like subhanallah. What a blessing voice is just to be able to speak because when I wake up I can't even speak it takes me half an hour in order for my voice to get going. It's been like two weeks Right What a blessing what a blessing to have digestion What a blessing not to have asthma and breathe normally All of these blessings were into adunah met allahilatu hasuha If you try to count the blessings of Allah you will not be able to count them But also Allah can take those blessings away from you as well And there's no end to that either So if you in shakartum la azid anakum if you're grateful Allah will give you more to be grateful of So finding yourself by 30 minutes a day reflecting on yourself Reflecting on the blessing that Allah has given you reflecting on the abilities that you can do aim high And this again comes back to the same point Rumi said aim high But always remember that a piece of hay Cannot pick up a mountain Know the reality as well. Don't fool yourself, but don't aim low But don't aim for impossible Don't aim for impossible Have high ambition, but know your limitation as well, right? So inshallah I think that that's the starting point and once you reflect on that things will come because One of the biggest thing you can do you is this a lot of people might think it sounds like insanity But talk to yourself And really You talk to yourself it makes a difference In that the 30 minutes that you have when there's nobody there Just make sure nobody catches you and put you on instagram. You'll be like the mad men of the city Yeah You don't want to say hey, how are you? How's it going? But don't really talk to yourself, you know I mentioned this to one time, but a few months ago. I had I had a shipment in These guys that you hire they kind of dipped and I had hundreds of boxes to take into the way I was like my god And it was becoming dark and I had to take them all in I said, okay, I'll do it. I have a broken wrist when I was young I jumped from a second story building Because you know you I've won a son you watch all the stupid Indian movies So you actually think you can jump so I did and I broke my arm from here and here So whenever I pick a lot of heavy weight it start the pain started coming back So that night I came home I was I can pain for three four five days six days It's going like I'm like so one day I was sitting and I just said I saw talking to my hand. I said look You have a right over me But I'm not supposed to overwork you and I did I'm sorry And it was really It was a crazy moment. It was a good moment, but uh, and nobody recorded it I was make sure there was a log. Nobody can hear me. Um, so in any case it was very interesting There was this healing that I felt in my heart For that and literally within a few days it disappeared the pain And I realized that there is a connection and we neglect ourselves a lot Yet if somebody else has pain in their hand, how's your hand doing? Oh my god, if you haven't been we call them. How's your hand now? Is it better? But we don't ask our own hand. We don't talk to ourselves. So we always neglect ourselves But with other people oh So as to how are you has it going? But what about yourself? Do you really talk to yourself? Do you take care of yourself? We are all guilty of that and this is the first step of getting to know yourself is to respect Your own body parts to respect your pace and this is why you know, the things that are Not permissible in swam It's because of the honor of the body parts It's because of that You know like now people I saw a guy he had his old ear cut out and there was a giant hole in here Poor guy, non Muslim guy, you know, I mean that this is the ear that Allah has given you It's designed by God Don't change your creation of Allah you can't do something that make it more beautiful You can't Right. So there's a sacredness about everything. So treat yourself with that long answer for a short question I hope that was that Okay, there's no question There's If you could describe the abd of Allah and I know you're big on poetry I've always enjoyed your poetry Either it's from Rumi or if you could share with us if any of the poet said something about Being the servant of Allah swt That's beautiful question. Um, the abd Allah is The the great the best name to give your children Our names that have abd in ham Like obida, we're homida like abd Allah abd rachman abd raheem abd al malik abd al awwal All of those names then the abd with the name of Allah And then the other one is like Muhammad hamed mahmood that which has praise in it. These are the highest Names that to be given to your children But the abd Allah the station is the the greatest better than any poet That could say it Is what Allah said The prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam has many names. We know there's One of the sheikh in in england printed a book Three hundred and thirteen names of our prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam. There's books with 99 names of the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam Really available But in the quran muzammil Mudathir, ya ayyul mudathir, ya ayyul muzammil the quran tahah Mahmood maqam al mahmoodah Ahmed his name in the previous scripture. So all of these names of the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam all of these name beautiful names But the greatest night So the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam had the worst day and greatest night The worst day of his life was taif That was the worst day. He said that was the worst day Of my life what happened in taif The greatest night of his life was ashram miraj where he went He passed The tree of the furthest limit Couldn't go no more nobody could go anymore jibreel Right gov jibreel al bepar and arpeyam Gov row row man harifi to niham. So at that point the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam said jibreel come let's go Why did you stop we got to go i'm not done yet He said no no no i can't go no more This is this you are you're in the league of your own. This is nobody has ever caused this He said come You were just showing off your wings to me come follow me Gov birun zin adai khosh farre man gharzana parre But who's that parre man? He said oh my beautiful illustrious friend Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam and jibreel were friends So he said oh my illustrious friend If I take one more step forward from here All my wings and feathers Will burn and I will fall This is you you go further In this night where the prophet goes so close To his lord in the divine presence What does Allah say to him? How does he address him? Subhanallah the asra be abdi Layla min al masjid al haram il al masjid al aqsa Glory be to the one who take his abd Why did Allah use abd why not muhammad? Why not mahmud his name on the day of judgment maqam and mahmudah? Why not because the greatest Station that you can earn is becoming abd Allah That perfect slave of God Because he took servitude to the level of perfection And that's why Allah called him On this night abd He called him muhammad. He called him mahmad. He called him abd He taking his servant on this night to Masjid al aqsa The great so that is the reason why this is the highest station to achieve Is to become that perfect servant We were all for sure of that But at least we should imitate to be a servant An obedient servant at least inshallah sisters All right, all right You want to explain it We can do All right, so I just Did it We extend our hands in prayer and these blessed nights in this blessed place with these blessed people Raheem We have nothing and we come to you with broken hearts. Yallah. Yallah in this crowd, you know the affair Of everyone's heart. Yallah, you know, there are people here that are suffering. Yallah I mean from depression from sadness from financial difficulty There are people who are suffering from their children. There are people who are suffering with their parents The people who are suffering with their they're they're confused about their their religion They're confused about their identity. Yallah, there are people here tonight That they don't have any door to go and this is why they came to your house. Yallah to the masjid. Yallah. Yallah I mean on this blessed night of lady to the other and we are asking yallah from you We're asking from you. Yallah. We come to you. We're not going to ask for anything small We're not going to ask for anything insignificant We come to the door of the most generous Akram or akramin. Yallah. You're the most generous of the generous. Yallah. Yallah. I mean we ask you To put the ointment of healing in every broken heart. Yallah tonight Everyone who is here, whatever they are suffering. Yallah alleviate their suffering. Yallah and Put your light in their hearts. Yallah make the way for them that they get to know themselves And they get to know you and keep them happy in this dunya and keep them happy in here after Yallah make us all amongst the people that on the day of judgment Yallah, you're pleased with us and the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is proud of us. Yallah on that day Yallah, don't make us amongst the people of sheqawah amongst the people. Yallah That will go to the fire of help. Yallah. Yallah make us amongst the people that we get our folder in our right hand Yallah, that you will say we are amongst those who are a duhan that we are pleased with your decree You're pleased with our action. Yallah. Yallah, make us amongst the people of jannah Yallah put us in the neighborhood of say now Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam put us in the neighborhood of Bibi Aisha sidiqa people in the neighborhood of Fatima to Zahra Yallah put us in the neighborhood of Bibi Khadija to Al-Kobra. Yallah put us in the neighborhood of Sayyidina Abu Bakr and Oman and Othman and Ali. Yallah put us in the neighborhood of Abu Dahl al-Qifari. Yallah Yallah, we want to see these people. We want to meet these people. We want to be in their presence. Yallah Yallah, don't deprive us from seeing your face. Yallah, from seeing your face like the full moon. Yallah On the day of judgment, Yallah, don't deprive us from your rahmah. Yallah from the shefa of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam Yallah, don't deprive us from your shefa. Yallah, forgive us for any sin that we have done. Yallah, protect us. Protect our children. Yallah, protect our children. Yallah, protect our offspring until the yawmul qiyamah from all of the fa-sat in fitna of their time. Yallah, make him amongst the saliheen, amongst the righteous people. Make our children our offspring until the day of judgment, beneficial members to their societies. Yallah, make him amongst the people of fitna. The day, they don't lose anything that they have that you have put in them. Keep them on the path of fitna. Yallah, Yallah, remove confusion from the heads and from the hearts of young people, all of the muslim around the country and around the globe. Yallah, we're confused about themselves, about their identity, about who they are. Yallah, Yallah, keep us on the path of fitna. Protect us. Yallah, protect us from all of the evil of this society and give us the best of this society. Yallah, make us, make our children beacons of life. Yallah, that we become a guide. We guide people and bring them to the path of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And Yallah, make us amongst the people that we love you and you're pleased with us. Make us amongst the people that we fall in love with the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Yallah, that we truly love him. Yallah, from the bottom of our hearts, Yallah, make us amongst the people that every time we want to do sin and disobey you, we remember you and we run away. And we run to you. Yallah, you're like Yusuf alayhi sallam, run to you and you open all of the doors that will close. Yallah, open the doors to you. Yallah, that is to, we know that all the doors are closed except your door. That's the only door that's open and we're coming to you. Yallah, we're coming to your door. Yallah, don't turn us away. Don't turn us back. Yallah, because of whoever, I know, we know Yallah that tonight there's somebody here who has a broken heart. There's somebody here. Because of that broken heart, forgive all of us. Yallah, because of that one person that is depressed. Yallah, forgive all of us. Because of that one person, Yallah, that is having a hard time in this dunya, traveling through this world. Yallah, forgive us, Yallah, because of that one person. Because of that one person who has lost someone that they are suffering from the loss of a family or a friend or a loved one. Yallah, forgive all of us. Yallah, and with you, everything is easy. Allahumma yasser, will our toss, Yallah, make the affairs of life easy in that heart for all of us.