 Alhamdulillah wa shukrillah. I'm so grateful to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for really choosing me to be here this evening and gifting me the opportunity to get a great reward. On my way here, on the plane, I was thinking, wow, what a blessing. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala chose me to come and spend a Saturday night remembering him. And I thought of a hadith and it's one of my favorite narrations. It's a really long narration that both imam bukhari and imam muslim, rahimuhum Allahu ta'ala, collected in their sahiyas. I'm going to paraphrase it and I'm going to condense it because of time. Where the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, by the way, easy good deeds and also just out of out of respect to our Prophet. When I say Prophet you say, every single one of us should say it. There are so many virtues to sending salawats upon the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam if you knew you would never stop. But I'll share one because we were talking about easy good deeds. Every time you say sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala erases 10 of your sins. So let's say we say it a hundred times this evening. Any math people, what's a hundred times 10? Did anybody commit a thousand sins today? I hope not, right? Imagine a thousand sins from your book of deeds being erased. But it doesn't end there. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala writes for you 10 good deeds. So that is a thousand good deeds. And on the Day of Judgement Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala elevates your rank 10 degrees from every salat upon the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. So when anyone says the name of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam or mentions of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, what do you do? And I want you to say it out loud so that if the person next to you has forgotten when they hear you say it, they'll remember, they'll say it and you'll get double the reward inshallah. So a really long narration. The Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala created a group of angels. This group of angels has a specific purpose, a mission. They roam the earth looking for gatherings of zikr. Now Imam al-Nawawit, rahimahullahu ta'ala, who you may know, he's the famous author of the famous work, the 40 Hadith of Imam Nawawit. He commented in his book, which is one of my favorite books ever, Al-Adzkar min-kalam Sayyid al-Adirar. He said, all of these beautiful virtues where there are so many and I wish I can have a full class for you all on the virtues of this because then you'd probably feel what I'm feeling right now, the gratitude and the happiness. He said that all of these narrations that mention the virtues apply to circles not only of the zikr, like reciting Quran and saying subhanallah, alhamdulillah, ilahallah, wa akbar, but also gatherings in which beneficial knowledge is being taught. And so inshallah the angels are looking for a gathering like this one. So these angels roam the earth, they keep searching, then they see the light like Mufti Abdullah had said. And so they come rushing when one of them finds this gathering and I want you to imagine, remember Ramadan is the month of Quran, right? How does Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala start the Quran? Surat al-Fatiha, but then what's next? Surat al-Bakara, good job, you guys are away. He says, subhanahu wa ta'ala, al-iflamim, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, this is a book, there's no doubt about it. It is a guide for who, for those who have taqqa, which we're going to talk about later. Now what are the characteristics of these believers that the Quran is a guide for, the first characteristic is what? We have a lot of Arab here, so you know what I just said, what was it? Those who believe in the unseen, so what does it mean? When I say that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that there are angels who are roaming the earth, looking for gatherings like this, and when one of them finds a gathering like this, it runs to the heaven and it says, oh angels of Ohio, I found what you're looking for, it's at Cleveland State University, and they all rush and they sit between us, and they're so happy, they're so excited to be a part of a gathering like this, that they open their wings and they cover us with their wings. Now inshallah we're on with taqqa, so what do we believe? That right now there are angels with us, they're covering us with their wings. All right let's fast forward this hadith. So they come, they sit with us, when we get up and we leave we're going to all go home, I'll go to my hotel. Where do you think the angels will go? They will go to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and although Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is best informed, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala asks and says, oh my angels, where did you come from? And these angels will say, oh Allah, we came from Cleveland State University, and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will ask, what were you doing there? And they will say, miftah, and the MSA had this event where 500 people came and they were learning about how to prepare for Ramadan and they were remembering you and they were sending salawat upon your Prophet and then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says something very interesting, Allah says, why? Why did they come? Why did they go to that gathering? And I have a question for you, why are you here? Did you ask yourself that question while you were getting ready and driving over here? If not, now's your chance. What brought you here? What do you want? Why are you here? I'm going to give you a moment to think about that because if you didn't put an intention, now's your chance. And if you think about all of our intentions and you think about all of the things that we want, they really can be summed up into three main categories. And this is what the angels tell Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. They tell Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Ya Allah, they came and they spent five hours learning about you and your Deen because number one, they want your forgiveness. And isn't that what we all want? The forgiveness of Allah. Yes. Okay, let's try that again. Isn't that what we all want? The forgiveness of Allah. Wonderful. I need to know y'all are alive. And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala asks, is there anything else that they want? And they say, Ya Allah, they want protection from the Hellfire. And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala asks, is there anything else they want? And they say, Ya Allah, they want your Jannah. Now listen to the response that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says to the angels and told the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam so that you and I can hear it. Allah says to the angels, you angels are my witness. I'm going to give them what they asked for. Aren't you happier here? I'm happy I'm here. Thank you guys. You guys got them in love. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, I will forgive their sins. And I will protect them from the Hellfire. And I will grant them Jannah. Now there's one angel I call the snitch. If you're a little sister like me, you know what that word means. Growing up, whenever my brothers did anything naughty, they would look at me and say, dunya snitches get? The girls know. Especially the Palestinian girls. So there's an angel that I like to call the snitch. That angel goes to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and goes, Ya Allah, but dunya wasn't there for the vikr. Dunya had no intentions. Dunya sat in the back the entire time with her headphones on and nobody can see and she was watching TikTok videos. She did not say subhanallah once. She did not send salawat upon the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. When dunya asked them to all stand, nobody could see her so she stayed sitting. Listen to what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says to the snitch. I love that gathering so much. That gathering is so beautiful. So blessed that I give her that reward too. This is a gathering that nobody who even passes through it will leave miserable. So are you guys grateful you're here? Can we all say alhamdulillah? Because I think about it. I was sitting there thinking I could have been anywhere. I could have been in the mall. I could have been in the movie theater. I could have been in a restaurant eating with my friends. But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala granted me the tawfiq and created this perfect storm so that I can have the inspiration in my heart to come here. Allowed my plane to not be delayed. Allowed me to get here. Allowed me to sit here. And he did that for each and every one of you. You could have been anywhere but you're here. Alhamdulillah. So I'm so happy that I'm here with you all and I'm so happy that each and one of you are here. Alhamdulillah. So Ramadan. Ramadan is a month of forgiveness just like the hadith asked the angels said. Ramadan is a month of the freedom from the hellfire just like the angels will tell Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when we leave and Ramadan is a month in which we can get our signed tickets into Jannah. And so I wanted to share a little bit of advice with you all and honestly this advice is for myself first and foremost. I was reflecting when I was asked what I wanted to speak about and I thought I'd speak about something that I needed. A reminder that I needed because I love for you all what I love for myself and I love for myself the forgiveness of Allah in Jannah and I love that for you all. So we're going to talk about preparing our hearts for Ramadan. Now why did I choose hearts? Because the Prophet ﷺ it looks like you forgot so I'm going to try that one more time. The Prophet ﷺ he said that barely in the body there's a lump of flesh. If that lump of flesh is good the entire body is good and that is the heart. The Prophet ﷺ also said he said that barely Allah ta'ala does not look at your outward appearances rather he looks at your hearts and your actions your deeds. And so how can we prepare our hearts for Ramadan? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as we mentioned said in the Quran that this month of Ramadan is tied very heavily to the concept of taqwa consciousness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mindfulness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala being intentional and aware of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and we said that the Prophet ﷺ pointed at his chest three times and said taqwa is right here in the heart. And so when it comes to the discussion of Ramadan we cannot have a discussion about Ramadan without talking about taqwa and we cannot talk about taqwa without talking about awareness and mindfulness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and we cannot talk about mindfulness and awareness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala without talking about intentions. When it comes to our beautiful deen intentions are so very important as Mufti mentioned Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala doesn't necessarily care too much about the outcomes. What he cares about is your intention and your efforts. And so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is so merciful and so generous that he rewards us for our intentions. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said that whoever intends to do a good deed but they're unable to do it they get the reward as if they did it. And whoever intends to do a good deed and they're able to do it and follow through with it they get double the reward. And so intentions my friends are so very powerful. Be intentional. SubhanAllah it's so beautiful when I read about the companions that they would say we anticipate a reward in our sleep the same way we anticipate reward of standing up at night in prayer because when we sleep we intend that ya Allah I'm sleeping to rest my body so that I can wake up and worship you. They also said that about food. They were hopeful in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala would reward them for eating because their intention was ya Allah I'm eating to get energy so that I can pray so that I can work so that I can do the things that I need to do so that I could study for your sake. So let's inshallah become masters at intentions. One of the great scholars of the past used to say learn the art of making intentions because it can be greater than actions. Something small and a small act with a great intention can make that small act great and a great outwardly looking act with a small intention can make that act small. And so the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam he said about Ramadan man sama and in another narration man qama Ramadan iman al wahtisaban the person who pasts Ramadan or stands at night and prays in the Ramadan with iman and it is intentionally with faith in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and seeking the reward of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will have all of their previous sins forgiven. And so my dear friends let's start by making good intentions from now by making a plan I want to have all of these goals in Ramadan and make them grand and try your best and know that even if you're unable to do them all you got the reward inshallah ta'ala. And so I wanted to ask you all before we move forward have you taken a moment or two or five or thirty to ask yourself what do you hope to get out of Ramadan how do you plan to make this Ramadan different than every Ramadan that has passed if you haven't done so perhaps you can write these two questions down and spend some time tomorrow and reflect if you haven't already done so made yourself a plan a game plan on a strategy on what and how you want to achieve this Ramadan then maybe tomorrow you can set in your calendar a half an hour where you grab a piece of paper and a pen and you think what do I want to achieve this Ramadan and how am I going to do it create a checklist one of the most helpful things that helped me last year was not doing my checklist on my phone and my ipad but doing it on a piece of paper and I had the resolve I really did I was kind of extra but I was really afraid I was like last year we didn't get to go to tarawih we didn't have Ramadan in the masjid like I'm going to take advantage of this opportunity and so I had my checklist written down on a piece of paper and I would not leave the masjid in it until I did everything that was on my checklist it was just my thing and that was so helpful because when it used to be on my phone even though shaitans chained up so maybe it's my mini enough shape on I would be like oh why don't you just check instagram for a second or why don't you just text this person or why don't you just check your emails or why don't you do this and then 20 minutes would go by like Mufti said you say one video and then what happens friends we know we say we're going to just watch a few videos on tik tok and what happens a few turns into a hundred three hours later and you're like oh my gosh where did the time go and so maybe you can write it down on a piece of paper and have that checklist with you and have a resolve that every night before you go to sleep you have all of these things that you're going to do and you're not going to go to sleep until you do that and so one of the best ways to prepare ourselves for Ramadan is like we said to prepare our hearts so I wanted to share with you all five ways to prepare your hearts or we can prepare our hearts for this special guest the guest of Ramadan the first usually when I give lectures if it's your first time I'll usually do three five or seven and I'll usually give them titles if you'd like write those titles down because later tomorrow next week if you just look at those titles you will remember almost everything that I say I promise you there's science behind this and I'll ask you at the end inshallah so be prepared to tell me the five back to me all right the first is forgive and seek forgiveness what is it so let's start off with the seeking forgiveness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala every moment is a moment where you can restart and refresh your relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as long as you are able to take a breath as long as the angel of death is not in front of you and as long as the major signs of the day of judgment haven't happened turning to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and just seeking his forgiveness is literally a restart button for you and I it's such a gift that no matter what we've done no matter what has passed all I need is a sincere sorry and it's as if it never happened Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says oh my son of Adam as long as you call upon me and you have hope in me and you seek my forgiveness I'll forgive you and I won't mind at all even if our sins I want you to imagine this analogy imagine if every time you sinned a ball magically popped up and appeared so if you did something kind of small a golf ball appeared if you did something a little bigger maybe a volleyball and then if you did something really big maybe one of those yoga balls are you guys imagining thanks brothers who are nodding I appreciate you you guys are gonna get some special daz inshaAllah so imagine if I want you to really imagine this imagine this I'm going to use myself as an example I was a person who sinned so much that there are all these balls different sizes they cover the entire earth and then they cover the entire earth again and again and again and again and again and again and again until those balls reached the heavens Allah said if your sins were to reach the heavens and you come to me in repentance seeking my forgiveness I will forgive you and I won't mind it's just us all we have to do is just take that first step and ask Allah for forgiveness and so seeking forgiveness of Allah's pantheid is really important especially before Ramadan starts cleanse your hearts the Prophet ﷺ said that every time we commit a sin a black dot is placed on our hearts and all those little black dots make our hearts so hard and may Allah protect us there are some people that they never turn back in repentance to Allah so they never ask Allah for forgiveness so when you ask Allah for forgiveness every time you say Astaghfirullah Allah I'm sorry one of those black dots are removed but there are people may Allah protect us they never ask Allah for forgiveness so those black dots keep accumulating keep accumulating keep accumulating until their hearts become Iran their hearts become so hard and we don't want to be them so yes the Prophet ﷺ said every child of Adam will commit sins we're all sinners but then he completed his statement and he said but the best of them are the ones who realize it and they repent they ask Allah for forgiveness so friends tonight and every night before you go to bed just say Allah I'm sorry I'm weak forgive me please I want to be better help me ask Allah for forgiveness and know that he will meet you with a forgiveness far faster than you could ever imagine because he loves to forgive and he loves those who turn to him and ask him for forgiveness imagine a lot of Palestinians here so you guys will get my analogies whenever I would do something that would annoy my dad he would go to my mom and say bintik you guys know your daughter did this okay he would disassociate himself from me can you guys relate all he had everyone's like yes perfect I'm not the only one all right so and that's kind of natural it's natural that when you're upset with someone to disassociate yourself from them just a little bit but listen to what Allah swt says Allah swt says in the Quran tell my servants who have transgressed against themselves because when we sin we're not doing anything to Allah swt we're only harming ourselves those who have transgressed and they passed every line and they did everything possible those people who have transgressed Allah swt says to them tell my servants he still calls you in my mind he still shows you that love and that affection so friends seek forgiveness from Allah swt and the second part is forgive many of us are carrying these heavy grudges in our hearts this malice this hatred that's consuming us and we have no idea that's so heavy it's about to break our back forgiving people who hurt us is the most liberating thing you can do holding on to grudges is renting mental and real estate in your heart and giving that person so much power over you and only hurting yourself and i'm going to give you a few motivations to help you let go of that grudge inshallah this evening the first of which is the prophet muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam he said that on mondays and thursdays our deeds are presented to Allah swt and Allah swt forgives everyone except for two categories of people the first category is one that inshallah none of us are from and they are those who who worship other than Allah but the second category is scary it's a person whose heart is consumed with malice with grudges towards others i read a quote once and i thought it was very powerful by the way this topic is so great i actually teach a full entire weekend workshop on the topic of forgiveness and forgiving others i recently taught a two-hour mini workshop online on forgiveness and how to help yourself let go grudges if you're interested you can inshallah check it out but this quote was so powerful because it said holding on to a grudge is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die and that's true do you think that person cares that you have sleepless nights now you might be thinking but you don't understand dunya this person did such horrible things to me and i'm sorry i really am i'm sorry he said that the reward is so great that Allah swt says you can't even comprehend it so i'm not going to even try it's with me i got you forgive for yourself not for the other person oh my goodness there's so much i want to say time is fleeting but inshallah just remember every time you hear a narration about forgiveness remember the person who's actually telling you to forget is not someone who didn't go through hardships it's someone who went through the most extreme hardships and was able to forgive and so Allah swt says about the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that Allah swt made him a human being just like you he eats just like you sleeps just like you and that that human being is our role model because he's a human we can't say oh we can't do it he was an angel no he was a human and that can inspire us inshallah to let go of those grudges that are taking up so much space in our hearts and remember if your heart is filled with those grudges that means it doesn't have space for the blessings and the love and the mercy and the beautiful things that Allah swt wants to fill your heart with so number two beautify your heart through remembrance so we said when we seek forgiveness what happens we clean our hearts now after cleaning those hearts what we want to do we want to beautify it have through the remembrance of Allah swt Allah swt tells us in the Quran to remember him much and often Allah swt talks about his remembrance in so many places in the Quran and Allah swt calls the Quran vikr remembrance the Quran is the greatest form of remembrance and we all know that Ramadan is the month of the Quran and so inshallah each and every one of us starting from today can make it an intention and a resolve to recite Quran every day and in Ramadan to recite a khatmah of the Quran inshallah say inshallah if you haven't done it before inshallah you will be able to do it and if last year you did a khatmah inshallah this year you will do two and Allah swt grant you tawfiq talking about hearts talking about vikr talking about Quran i wanted to share with you one of my favorite du'a and it is a du'a of sadness the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said that there is no servant who has ever met with sadness or grief or worry and says this du'a except that Allah swt replaced that sadness with happiness and the du'a is Allahumma immi abduk ibn abduk ibn amatik nasiyati biyadik madun fiyah huqmuk adlun fiyah qadak i ask Allahumma with all his name for you you called him yourself or you sent him in your book or you taught him one of your creation or you influenced him in the foreign science and i wish i had time to go over this du'a but i don't because i want to share three more points so what i will tell you all is inshallah tonight on my instagram i will post it the arabic with the english and the explanation inshallah and inshallah each and every one of us can memorize this du'a because the sahaba asked the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam should we memorize this du'a and he said yes memorize it and every time you feel sadness say this du'a but why am i saying this du'a here when we're talking about the heart and talking about Quran because the du'a is saying ya Allah make the Quran the spring of my heart the banisher of my sorrow friends the Quran is healing not just spiritual but physically and emotionally i had a teacher once who said that du'a every time you recite the Quran make an intention that it heals you physically spiritually and emotionally listen madame you make your khatmah every time you open the book of Allah make a short du'a say ya Allah allow this recitation that i'm going to do right now to heal me to heal me from my trauma to heal me from my pain to heal me from my heartache to heal me from the spiritual diseases that i have to heal me from the physical ones that i have as well and inshallah Allah will grant you that healing fill your hearts with the love of the Quran recite the Quran all the time recite it while you're driving listen to it if you don't have wudu and you feel like you're a little lazy then remember Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala through zikr like subhanallah one of the things i love most about zikr like this is there are no prerequisites so you don't need to have wudu you don't need to be wearing your hijab you could do it anytime anywhere except for the bathroom but seriously you could do it while you're walking you could do a bite while you're in class writing notes you could do it while you're cooking you could do it while you're cleaning you could do it while you're driving Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in Surat al-Yamran إِنَّ فِي خَلْكَ الْسَمَوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ مَغْتِلَافِ الْلَيْلِ وَالْنَهَارِ لَآيَاتٍ لِؤُلِ الْأَلْبَابِ الذين يذكرون الله قياما وقعودا وعلى جنوبهم ويفكرون في خلق السماوات والأرض ربنا ما خلقت هذا داطلا سبحانك تقنع داب النار those who remember Allah standing and sitting and reclining they remember Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in all situations and it's so easy just subhanallah alhamdulillah la ilaha illa allahu akbar and every time you make a dhikr ibrahim alayhi salam or father he said to Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam tell your ummah I said salams wa alaykum salam ibrahim and tell them that jannah is fertile it has so much space and so much fertile land and it seeds other dhikr of Allah subhanallah alhamdulillah la ilaha allahu allahu akbar and every time they make a dhikr a tree is planted for them in jannah imagine I read some of the scholars say if you own something someplace what does that mean no one that you're going to be able to go there if you have property if you own a hundred trees in jannah what does that mean then inshallah you'll be able to go there you'll be able to be there right and so keep your tongue of moist with the dhikr of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and remember Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when it's hard to remember Allah and know that the reward is so great if you saw a little white card on your chair when you were sitting there's a du'a that I want you all to keep with you put it in your wallet I keep it next to my credit card so that I don't forget the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam he gave us a great reward for remembering him when it's difficult to do so which is when you are shopping and the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said whoever goes to the marketplace and says la ilaha illallah wa adha hu la sharika la halal munk wa la bilhamd yuhi wa yumid wa huha yayna yamut biyadi al khayr wa huha alakuli shayin qadiyat they will get one million good deeds and they will have one million sins forgiven and they will be raised in rank one million degrees and in one narration Allah subhanahu alayhi wa ta'ala will build for them a castle in jinnah du'a of the marketplace friends keep this in your wallet next to your credit card because it's really hard to remember it I promise I know when I'm shopping and I see the purses before I get into the mall I'm like du'a issuk du'a issuk du'a issuk and then I see purses and I'm like I forget and then I'm so grateful that when I open my wallet I see it and I go oh yeah du'a issuk remember Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and look at how great the reward is number three when we talk about the heart we cannot talk about the heart without talking about love so prove your love to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala through your salah no one can claim as Mufti may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala be pleased with him said that beautiful poem of Imam Al Shafi'a you cannot claim you love anyone especially Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when you're not doing with that person or what your Lord asks of you and what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala asks from us is so small but one of the main things that Allah asks from us is to pray our five daily prayers so where's your heart during the prayer prepare your heart for Ramadan by learning the thukh of prayer and I'm going to repeat that please learn the thukh of prayer it breaks my heart every time I'm praying and I notice one of my dear beloved sisters making a mistake in their prayer that can nullify their prayer breaks my heart because you're making the effort you're you're making your will do you're standing in prayer you're trying and then you're not doing it right Alhamdulillah we're all adults we learned so many things MashaAllah PhDs and master degrees how are we going to meet Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala not knowing the the fara'il and the arkan of salah so please friends refresh relearn the thukh of prayer and learn what you're reciting in the prayer and inshaAllah you will be able to cultivate this beautiful love between yourself and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala because salah comes from the word sila and sila is connection you will be able to meaningfully connect with Allah inshaAllah so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gifted us this beautiful gift of Salat to give us this opportunity to connect with him five times a day so inshaAllah I pray we are all able to refresh our thukh of Salat and learn the meaning of all of the askar and the that we read in our salah number four prepare your heart to call upon Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as Mufti mentioned and this is why it's hard to go after two people because it's like everything I wanted to say they're like saying it I'm going to say it anyways because there's there's a benefit and reminder inshaAllah and this is what Allah inspired in my heart as well in the only place in the Quran where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala talks in Ramadan snack in the middle Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says something so powerful and when my servants ask you oh Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam concerning me by the way in the Quran in multiple places Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells the Prophet and when they ask you about x or y say Allah tells the Prophet you say this right when they ask you about the soul say it is from my Lord everyone understand that point here Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala removes the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and when my servant asks you concerning me I am here I respond to the one who calls upon me when they call upon me that's how close Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is Ramadan is the month of du'a if you don't have a du'a journal friends please make a du'a journal have a book that you write all your du'a's down categorize them du'a's from my dunya du'a's from my akhira du'a's from my parents du'a's from my siblings du'a's from my aunts and my uncles and my teachers du'a's from my friends and write them all out and sit and talk to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and there are three opportunities that none of us inshallah should miss every single day in Ramadan the first is the last third of the night and this is every night where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that in the last third of the night Allah ta'ala in a manner that befits him subhanahu wa ta'ala descends to the lowest heavens and he calls out and he says is there anyone calling upon me so that I may answer them is there anyone who asks my forgiveness so that I may forgive them is there anyone who wants something so that I may give it to them and this happens every night friends just 15-20 minutes before fajr you're waking up anyways prepare your soho before you sleep so instead of spending 20 minutes you spend five and the other 15 you're spending it calling upon Allah ta'ala the second time that shouldn't be missed is the salat time between adhan and iqama the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that our du'a is not rejected between adhan and and after the salat after the fourth prayers and the third time is before breaking your fast and this is the hardest this is the hardest but you have to have disciplines and you have to tell yourself I'm going to make everything ready so that the 10 minutes right before start time I'm not busy doing other things I'm sitting down making du'a until I hear the adhan because the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that the fasting person whose du'a is accepted before they break their fast so du'a make time schedule time every day to make du'a to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and remind yourself of this reality so beautiful the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that Allah is high kareem Allah is shy and generous that when one of his servants raised their hand like this and say Ya Rab to leave them empty handed the sahaba were like what really like Allah answers every time then we should make a lot of du'a right and the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam smiled and he's like and Allah is greater than that Allah will keep giving you and last but not least number five you guys are still awake alhamdulillah shield your heart from sin shield your heart from sin protect yourself from sins friends do everything that you can during covid we did everything that we can to not catch that disease right what's more important than our bodies is our heart because we said it's the thing that Allah looks at Allah says and that's Allah that's what Allah is looking at shouldn't we do everything in our power to protect this beautiful gift that he gave us from disobeying him and know that the heart has doorways gates and the gates to the heart are the eyes and the ears and the mouth everything we see everything we hear everything we say has an effect on our heart so we have to be mindful and careful of what we allow in our hearts the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that Allah is not in need of a person to give up their food and drink but not give up backbiting and false speech once some women because they were companions of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam they came to the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam said to throw up he told them make yourself throw up they're like why are sallallahu fasting and he's like not anymore they made themselves throw up and they found pieces of meat in their vomit and the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that you ate the flesh of your sister by backbiting her talking about her behind her back a few weeks ago i was in new jersey with ustad and majid i don't know if he's here but i saw him on the program and he shared a very powerful hadith it's the hadith of the muflis where the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said do you all know who the bankrupt one is and they said ya rasulullah the bankrupt person is the person who has wealth but loses it all and he said no the bankrupt is the one who comes on the judgment with mountains of good deeds they did a lot of good deeds but they hurt this person they stole from this person they backbited this person they slandered this person and all those people that they hurt will come to them and take their good deeds and if their good deeds are not enough those people will throw their sins at them now this hadith is both comforting and terrifying do you feel that every time i think of this hadith i have conflicting feelings comfort because all the people who hurt me they're not going to get away with it but then terrifying why i'm human i hurt people too and so friends shield your heart from sins protect your heart from doing things that disappoint the one that you love the one who loves you the one who created you the one who gave you all the beautiful blessings that you enjoy and the one who created jinnah for you myfti am i done i have more i wanted to share should i end here should i keep going so five minutes okay now you might be thinking sister dunya you shared five things wonderful but like how can i stay motivated how can i keep reminding myself and keep working towards this and so we talked about takwa and the most frequent reference in the quran to the love of allah subhanahu ta'ala is in relation to takwa allah subhanahu ta'ala says multiple times in the quran allah subhanahu ta'ala loves the muttaqeen allah subhanahu ta'ala also says multiple times in the quran that allah subhanahu ta'ala prepared jinnah for the muttaqeen so i wanted to remind yourselves and mind how can we have this resolve to cultivate takwa to fill our hearts with takwa it's to remind yourself very often about this beautiful ayah in surah al-zumar and those who had takwa who were mindful of their lord will be led to paradise in successive groups when they arrive at its gates it will they will be open and the gatekeepers will say peace be upon you you have done well so come in and stay forever remind yourself of that amazing day when you'll be standing in front of these beautiful grand majestic gates with your prophet muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam because your prophet even though he endured 63 years of hardships and he should have gotten out of his grave and went straight to jinnah he doesn't want to enjoy jinnah without you because instead of going to jinnah he goes to allah and he says ya allah ummati ummati and he goes and he tries to get every single last one of us takes us to the gates of jinnah remind yourself of that day when you're standing by beside your beloved muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam and you're standing in front of these beautiful majestic gates and you walk in and you take that first step and the angels say salamun aleykum bi masabatu peace be upon you for what you patiently endured in dunya welcome and a caller will call out and say you will live and never die you will be healthy and never be sick you will be young and never grow old you will be eternally blissful and you will never ever experience not even a second of misery ever again imagine your castle that's not made of bricks or steel it's made of a bricks of gold and silver imagine your servants imagine that everything you want and more imagine the fact that you will just think of something and it will appear you feel like cherries right in front of you you want some grilled chicken there it goes remind yourself that you will be beautiful and your beauty will be comparable to the beauty of yusuf aleykum salam who was so beautiful that when the women saw him they cut their hands and they said there's no way this is a creature from this world he must be an angel remind yourself of all the blessings remind yourself that just one dip in jinnah will make you forget all of the misery of this world remind yourself that jinnah is worth it remind yourself that 60 70 years compared to forever is nothing and i'll end with this imagine if jeff bezos or elan must came to you and said to you if you work for me and do exactly what i tell you to do for five years i will give you all of my wealth what would you do you do it why because five years compared to the rest of your life is not a lot now what is 60 70 80 years max compared to infinity it actually is nothing right anything compared to infinity is zero remind yourself of that and every time she thought makes you forget tell him no i'm working towards jinnah i'm working towards the pleasure of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala i ask allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to make us from the people of jinnah i ask allah subhanahu wa ta'ala on this blessed night in this blessed month to grant us life to live and witness ramadan i ask him to make this ramadan our best ramadan yet and to allow us to witness and live and worship many ramadan over and over i ask allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to exchange our hardships for ease to exchange our sorrows for happiness to exchange anything that is causing us anxiety for tranquility and unshakable trust in him i ask allah subhanahu wa ta'ala the same way that he gathered us here that he gathers us all in jinnah for those who took off in muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam