 بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم الحمد لله رب العالمين والصلاة والصلاة على سيد المرسلين وعلى آله وصحبه جمعين عود بكلمات الله تهاماتي من شرمة خلق بسم الله الذي لا يضره مع اسميشن في الأرض ولا في السماء وهو السم العالي ولا حولة ولا قوت إلا بالله العالي العظيم وصلى الله تعالى لسيدنا ومحمدن وعلى آله وصحبه جمعين برحمةك يا رحم الرحمن أولا شكرا لك for joining this session شكرا to MCC for putting these programs together بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم إن شاء الله what we are planning to do in the next few nights that we are going to be together go over some of the councils from one of the great sages of the 5th century إن شاء الله we are hoping they will benefit all of us during this blessed month of Ramadan one of the secret of Ramadan we all know about the faraida of Ramadan we have been into this month almost half way through this year one of the secret of Ramadan is because it is prescription just like in medicine you have over the counter and you have prescription drugs and Siam is prescribed this month of fasting is prescribed so there are mysteries in this prescription that Allah has written for the human being and one of the mysteries of this month is that we will get a chance to actually spend time with ourselves throughout the year people they don't get a chance to spend time with themselves or with their Lord here and there we go to the prayer we go to the Juma but Ramadan is a time that really we can concentrate on our relationship but Allah SWT and these two things are very important إقبال رحمة العلي the great poet of Lahour he said in a beautiful line in his Persian D1 and as you all know إقبال wrote both in Urdu and in Farsi in his Farsi collection Nasrara Khudi Mysteries of the Self is really one of the masterpieces of the Persian literature and he said از همك از كنا رغير صحبة عاشنا تلب هم از خدا خودي تلب هم از خودي خدا تلب هم ازخص كله وانتظار فإنه وحفظ فهذا ونقل ونقل ونقل ونقل ونقل ونقل ونقل ونقل ونقل ونقل ونقل إذا دخل شهر الرمضان when the month of Ramadan enters فتحة أبواب الجنة. The doors of paradise open. Right there, this relationship that we built with Allah سبحانه وتعالى that he's opening the doors of paradise for us in this month. وغول قد أبواب نار. And then he closes the doors of the fire, his punishment. He's closed the doors of fire, the hell fire is closed during this month. وصفر ذات الشياطين. And out of his mercy, he locks up the shayateen in the chain, in prison in this month. Because of the love that Allah has for his servant. جل شعنه. So this month is a time that we actually take a few steps back in order to jump further ahead. And this is the step back is to go into seclusion. This is why a lot of the علماء and the أولياء in the past and even ordinary people, they didn't take off. They in the last 10 days, they went into seclusion and they all they did, they talked to their Lord and they talked to themselves. One of the tragedies of our time is that people don't talk to themselves. Only in this country, only the mad people talk to themselves. But traditionally people talk to themselves, especially to your heart. The Prophet ﷺ said in a beautiful hadith that asks your heart because your heart would never lie to you. Human beings are disconnected from their hearts. This is what our Shaykh told us. He said, people are not disconnected from Allah. They're disconnected from their hearts. And if we connect people back to their hearts, they will see the light of Allah سبحانه وتعالى. So in this month is a time that we go inward. We go and we actually start communicating with ourselves, with our hearts and with our soul. Because Shaytan is not there to put waswasa into our head. And we have that freedom this month. And we have the ability this month. And Allah is there. It's so manifest. Allah is always there. Bahlul, one of the great Sufi master, he said, look, Taqwa, he was given the definition of Taqwa. He said, what is Taqwa? He said, have Taqwa of Allah. And he said, have Taqwa of Allah. He said, have Taqwa of Allah سبحانه وتعالى in your private gathering, when you're alone. And when you're in public. In your privacy, in your public. He said, فعلم بأن الله حاضر في كل مكان. Know with certainty that Allah is there wherever you are. Wherever you go, Allah is there. And that is the definition. Indeed, Allah is always there. But our understanding of that, that Allah is always with us, that is Taqwa. And in this month, we actually come to this. We can see that Allah is with us. The power of Allah, the hand of providence is on us. That we can go throughout the day without food, without drink. And without any complaints. Alhamdulillah. I haven't seen anyone. There's a Ramadan complain about the long days or about the fast. What about anything? Everybody's saying سبحانه وتعالى. So easy. Allah has made it easy. So, Abul Al-Ansari, which we will start tomorrow night, he has 10 advice for the believers. He has 10 advice in order to be successful in the dunya and successful in the hereafter. Majority of the advice of the علماء are أخراوي. They are successful hereafter. That how to win the آخر. Which is the greatest advice is to win the آخر. But Abul Al-Ansari is one of the unique characters in the Muslim civilization. He was a giant of the 5th century. He died in 481. Left behind a beautiful تفسير كشف العصرار. Left behind many great books in Arabic and in Persian. منازر سعرين سيد ميدان. Many books he has written. I am blessed to have most of his collection in my library. And one of the things that he said, he said I give you 10 advice. And if you practice these 10. If you practice them. He said you will be successful and happy in the dunya. And you will be successful and happy in the hereafter. And that's something that really a lot of us, a lot of people especially living in a modern time. It's really difficult to find سعادة. Find happiness in the dunya. And to secure your سعادة. Your happiness in the hereafter. And as Aristotle said, all of us are searching for one thing. Every human being on this planet. Whether they are Muslim, Jew, Christian. Whether they are black or white. No matter what they are. Men, women, children. Every single human being is in search of one thing. And that is a thing you cannot trade with anything in the world. You can't get it to buy something. It's not money. It's not wealth. It's not health. It's not friends. It's not family. What it is, it's happiness. It's سعادة. Everybody is looking for happiness. And he's going to give us the 10th habit of successful people of the dunya. And the hereafter. Insha'Allah we start that tomorrow night. And we hope that this is a blessed month of Ramadan. These are the time of reflection. These are the time that we need to spend some portion of the day or some portion of the night for ourselves. And indeed another portion for Allah سبحانه وتعالى. And that portion of ourself is reflection on our lives. And not about our past because the past is gone. مرنا رومي said, don't look at the past. If you have done something wrong in the past, Allah will make it straight. If you did cricket things in the past, Allah will make it straight. If you get on the straight path now. So now it's to put the milestone. Where are we going from here? What am I going to do until next Ramadan? And what am I going to do after Ramadan? How is my life going to change? Those are the milestones. We have to set some real serious goals for ourselves. Insha'Allah that we are people of success in the dunya and people of success in the Akhira. The greatest losers are the ones who lose both dunya and Akhira. And many people are like that. And then there are other losers who win in the dunya. They think they won but they lose Akhira. And the successful people are those who actually win Akhira. That's the successful. But the dunya is أولايكم الخاصيرون. They are losers in this world, the Quran says. There are people who are losers. But in the winning in success that Abdullah Ansari is going to talk about in the next few nights. We are going to be together. Insha'Allah is not about money. It's about the success based on virtue. It's virtue success that everyone appreciates it. Whether they are Muslim, Christian, Jew, atheist. And everybody loves virtuous people. You have never met somebody that say I hate this person. He is generous. Everybody appreciates generous people or people of temperance, of Haifa or people of justice and people of wisdom and people of knowledge. All of these virtues everybody loves them because it's universal and everybody appreciates universal truth. And everybody doesn't matter where you come from. We meet Christians that are virtues that people of virtue. And we appreciate that and we benefit from them. How many of us listen to the lectures of Dr. King and we benefit from those lectures? Why do we read Aristotle in Socrates? Because there is benefit in wisdom and we appreciate the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said that wisdom is a lost treasure of the believer. Wherever he finds it, he takes it. So wisdom anywhere. We take the wisdom from anybody anyone who has it. Knowledge and wisdom. We take it from them. Insha'Allah. So we'll continue tomorrow night with the first two advice of Abdullah Ansari on the path of salvation and success in the dunya and Akhira. وصلى الله تعالى لسيدنا وحبيبنا وقرة العيوننا ومحمدنا وعالي وصح بجمعين برحمتك يا أرحم الراحمين تقبل الله. May Allah accept the fasting and عبادات. Insha'Allah.