 a prestigious world-class institution is that I meet the best in the world. Academics, faculty, students, staff, researchers, people that come through our halls are like literally the kind of the one percent, the academic one percent of the world. And in my time of work with them, I'm just going to share a few pieces of reflection with you. And I say this very deliberately in that this is, you know, a business of an area before I realize that this is an approximately debate to the Silicon Valley, and you have many men and Muslim professionals, specialists, that wouldn't detect a related field from my show. So this is the best of the brightest in that sense, right? The best the Muslim community has to offer with respect to the specialties in his epicenter on this post, shall we say. And so hopefully there's some point of intersection is what I'm trying to allude to. And what I say to my students is what I'll share with you, which is that two things that we need to recognize, that it is the father of Allah, it is the grace and the param, the mercy of the Muslim family of Allah. It is infinite wisdom, right? And they think about that these bars are these lands, right? To do the work that we do in the places that we work, in the neighborhoods that we reside in, and to engage with the Muslim and not the community that we engage with. And with that privilege comes responsibility. So the privilege is that we have served lifestyles, we have certain training, we have certain access, we have certain influence to do certain things to make things sort of emerge and happen and be a part of the conversation. Because you know better than I do of the seven billion people on this earth. And in one point I said the billion Muslims that Allah has put on this earth. Allah has chosen you to be here. He's chosen me to be where I am. This is the part of our akhita, right? Allah has selected people to be. You are where He wants you to be at this very moment. The work that you do, the neighborhood you're in, the community that you're a part of, the network set over the lap that you've interfaced with, we're all destined by those of Allah. The first in the eyes of my students is the acceptance of this. With the acceptance of that privilege, because how many other of our brethren, our brothers and sisters from around the world, if they look at the outside, everyone's life is complicated. My life is complicated, your life is complicated. Your community has issues, my community has issues. But if people from the outside would look at our lives, how many of them wouldn't say that they want you to be here? If I was there, I would be this side, I would be that. So with that, the one that I'm trying to try at home is the appreciation for the network from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, for the verses that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is giving you here. And I don't just mean a material wealth and a material resources, although for many of us that's a starting point, right? I've come to that, I have a roof over my head. I've come to that, I have food to eat in my fridge. I've come to that, I have comfortable living standards with the car that I drive, the house that I live in, the name of the zip code that I reside in and what not. But that's the starting point. We need to, our imagination needs to be converted. But beyond the material comforts that I enjoy, it's the opportunities that Allah has given me, opportunities for me to recognize my potential, through my hard work, the seals, my competencies that I go through diligently with the faculties Allah has given me, Allah has given me the ability to go to school to get an education, to get a graduate education, to have some of the best teachers in me, as well as in me. To have the best in the sky, right? Spiritual teachers and guide and mentors and asafiyah for my spiritual, religious life, as well as in my dunya life, right? In my professional existence, to get degrees and accreditation and what not. What I'm saying is I then go beyond that in that the premise Allah has given us to be, we have to acknowledge and interact with this fact. We reside in the locus of power in the world stage. Like this in America, it is the movement and shaker, shall we say, of the economic, political, social, intellectual, cultural affairs of the world. It's like, if you drop a stone in a body of water and the ripple effect that goes out, well there's a very big stone that's being dropped by an American influence, cultural, political, military, technological and what not. And then the ripple effect, greatly outward from that, you and I are part of, whether or not we acknowledge it. So what I need my students to say is you just need to own it. You need to acknowledge that you are in a place of power and privilege. But then the second question is, what are you going to do with it? From every nip of Allah that it gives us, there has to be a happening for it. So we think of the power of Hadith in which it's said in the same, the progress of people beyond the city after the death of the Prophet Muhammad. And he was eating food and in the venture. He came wide. And he was doing some hanging through the Ashab. And he came with all of them. And he became very tired. He became weak. And one of the some hanging, that's, I mean, we have to look at the Holy Qur'an. What brings you to tears, why do you cry? And he said, I remember the time. I was with the Sunnah of Allah with the best of creation. Sunnah of Allah, the Sunnah. And I was seeing in His mercies and His people and His ma'amida eating with Him. And he said, Da'ab, welcome. Oh, my friend, Da'ab, welcome. Allah the Almighty asks you to love each and every one of these blessings that it sends to you. And then the boss said, we became quiet. And I became quiet. And he said, go for a lunch of the food. And I want you to imagine every single day how many kinds of wheat, how many delusions, more so the food, nutritious, healthy, life-giving morsels, and the company that we share with the people that live in our lives every day. A manifold, untold blessings that we share every day. And to live our lives with consciousness. And I'm talking at a physical, physiological level to start with sugar there. But when you start with sugar there, like I talked about the metaphor of the great eating, you know, ribbons that come out of it, then our heart and our mind should then go just not only are my material comforts something that I do with sugar too. Forge. The sugar forge, for those who follow Allah. But I think of those who follow Allah for everything else you gave me. And then I have to dig deep and ask myself, what is it that I'm doing with this? What is it that I'm doing here that I don't want to speak about in an African community, but maybe I just put out there for your consideration to think, do you know how I live and work in proximity to the Bay, or in the Bay? The organizations, the institutions, the people, right, that live in this area and think of what they have, what's my engagement with them, and how I'm going to take it seriously to not only serve myself, right, we're all, we have a mess. There's an aspect that I need to make my life comfortable, but I have a proper vision. This is the brilliance of what was to Allah, some of Allah, some of the parts of the companions. Not only do you take them from darkness into the light, the light of the mubah, the light of the mubah, but really over their hearts, really over their minds, and bringing people like Abu Sufyan, who already need the cultural, political, social, the leader of that society to the people like, we don't have to be lawful on them. To the people like, we don't have to be fine, we don't have to be lawful on them. At the opposite end of them, of the spectrum shall we say, or not spectrum, but of the hierarchy, and to give them a vision of who they were, and not only who they were, but what they could do, what they could give to the world. And I want to honor the time, but it is not the end. I mean, there's not many stories that end from the light of the Sahabah, one that I'll simply share with you. This is not that I share with my students, right? We live in an era of activism. It's important to acknowledge that. It's important to have very deep, thoughtful, and critical conversations about the Muslim voice in the activism that we see, political activism, social activism, economic justice, and all of that. But what I'm trying to get at right now is perhaps one time it's better if you talk about the rule that's seen in Bi'l-A'ba and Bi'l-A'ba. And with that, I'm going to include each other. I want to be as respectful of your time as I can. We've all heard this, the beautiful, powerful story that's seen in Bi'l-A'ba and Bi'l-A'ba. Bi'l-A'ba was literally a slave in that society. He was a man whose physical body was abused, tortured, and oppressed by his own father forage, by the Muslim king. And then also some would see this day in and take out in the early days of the Mecca to see him. And he would tear him apart. So much so that when he would go to Bi'l-A'ba, and he would go and the companions would say, the mother were there. The early companions, the great companions, he would say, can't anyone do anything? And one day, one faithful day, guess who sent them? Say that we want to see the people come to send them. And it starts with the law. I'll take care of it. And say we want to see those who wait and follow it. The wait and follow it was the owner of the worst of the Michigan in Mecca. And he goes to him and he says, how do I descend from you? I'm not making a story in the interest of time. He says, how do I descend from you? He makes a laugh. He makes a laugh. Cackles, they say, right? That's his horrible evil laugh. He's the one who wants this man. Because that's none of your business. It's just, what do you think your price will pay him? I'll pay that price for you. He says, okay, you know, we need ten gold coins, ten gold pieces. And he says, wait here. He goes home. He comes back with a pouch. He has sent these to the ball with him. And he hands it to him. As he's handing it to him. He says, or maybe the father says to him, you're a fool. You lost out on this deal. You know, you need money with him. You don't know what you're getting here. And say the mother says to him, you're a fool. You don't know what you're selling to me. The value of this man is such, if you were asking for a hundred pieces of gold, I would have given you a hundred pieces of gold. Because you don't understand the value of this man in the eyes of the soul of Allah, the soul of Allah in his sentence. And then the story continues. We've got all the stories of the tortoises that he unbelievably went through. Now, the others have freed man. So the process has given him two extraordinary responsibilities. The first is, he makes an instruction to be able to monitor the public structure. What message is that sending to the Beijing society, to a place that I'm taking a man that days ago was enslaved at the bottom of pure hierarchy and I'm elevating him. Not only elevating him, I'm elevating him. You know, the minister of finance. Like, this is the man that literally controlled the finances of the soul of Allah, the soul of Allah in his sentence. What message is that sending to that society, to take that who's most marginalized and to put it in the top of the food chain, so to speak. And all I'll say is this. I come from New York, by Wall Street, right? We did them in a time now, we're even talking about this in the ethics in the school of the management classes that they can obviously work on. You know, what are the ethics in our finance today? What is it saying? But across some parts, you take the most trustworthy people and those are the people that you put in charge of your finance. And then I'll let you fill in the blanks on where we are today as a society. But what else is the process of view? He tells the Allah to become a resident, to meet a man that is tasked with and charged with the responsibility of waking up the best of creation somewhat a lot of a sudden for his agenda and for his surgery. Which is his life line, right? As we would say, the connection, the angle that the process of having to his Lord was the nights that he's created. And he said, where is the one that's going to wake me up? He put the religious responsibility that he's given to Satan and the Allah. Then what happens to the Allah? There's one other process and we've spent all the day talking about the Allah and the virtues of the Allah. It is good stuff for the Holy General by the process of the Allah. He's a man that many people stop us from giving through the extraordinary work of Satan and the Allah. I just want to focus on the last thing. The process of the Allah dies under the process of the real world. When the process of the Allah dies, we know the story. That is the powerful story that we need to hold full thought. What happens? How does Satan not need to respond? How does Satan not respond? How does Satan not respond? And then how does Satan not have to look at everything and respond? One of the stories is the process of the Allah and the foolish Allah saying Allah is not really about the Allah. It's in the morning he acts with any pleasure in the Booker. The time he goes over comes. Satan will look at it and he starts to prepare a body for the Janazah. Satan will look at it and says to the Allah. The Allah called the Allah. There's a place in the Book where he and Muhammad were even today. If you're facing a people up it's to the back right it's called Muhammad Ya'a. That's where the Allah will give them. Where the Allah will give them. Where the people get down from. The Allah is standing there and he goes to get down. When he gets Allah Akbar Allah Akbar Allah Akbar Allah Akbar when he gets to Mashad Allah and Muhammad Rasulullah. You know what happened? When he gets to Mashad Allah and Muhammad Rasulullah out of the left corner resides the process of walk out of his house and walk to Musa Allah. He gets to Mashad Allah and Muhammad Rasulullah and the process of this walk out. The Allah can't go on. His voice cracks. He says, I can't finish. One of the companions finished his day of time. After a few days the Allah goes to Abu Bakr. He says, Ya'a. So leave the clothes to Allah. I'm done. I'm leaving. Abu Bakr says leave him. He says, Khalifa. He says, What are you talking about? He says, I can't stay here. He says, I'm going. He says, well I didn't have freedom. And he says, You freed me. But, if you freed me for Allah then you know that I'm a free man. If you freed me for yourself, this is a delusion. And the one who says, I'm not going to stop you. But Allah, believe me, He goes to the frontier. He goes all the way without a shout. During the time of Satan, I'm going to tell you there is a fact of false. I'm not going to bless us with a double fact of false. I mean, when he's there saying, I'm going to go by with the wujakr equals what happens. Say, we want to say, where's Bi'a'l? Bi'a'l is brought. Say, what do you want to say to Bi'a'l? You were honored to give that Adam in Haramain, in Baka and in Medina, now we're really great among this. Bi'a'l came against there and released Bi'a'l. When he has touched that one among us all. His voice cracks. They say the same number. One among us, Bi'a'l was soaked with tears and he fell to the floor. They picked him up when his tank was soft. They said to Sahaba that their beards were black. When they were under the feet, man, their beards were grey from age. Bi'a'l says, I'm giving it again. He goes to Damascus and he lives in Damascus for a long time. Now at the end of the story of this, I realize I'm going to be very close to my apologies. Bi'a'l now sees the process of the dream. The process says, have Bi'a'l. Where did she visit me? Bi'a'l wakes up in a starlight at the time of Fajr. And he goes to his wife. He said, I'm going to go. So where are you going? He said, I'm going to see Habibullah sallallahu sallam. He goes on his horse from Damascus hundreds of miles south and he arrives in Maninah. When he arrives into the old city of Maninah and when he walks into the city of Maninah, who does he see? He sees the city now for saying hello to Allah the one who was a young boy when he left and now he's a grown man and he sees the city of Bi'a'l and he's full of joy he says, Ammu, oh my uncle, won't you come into my grandfather's house and give me the Adhan. And Bi'a'l says to him, I saw I would never give the Adhan again. But for the beloved of my beloved, I will help him when I return on the three quets. So he goes to the masjid of the Prophet to the masjid of Quit. It's the mohammah that he had before and he begins to say the Adhan, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, it says in my modern verses that the streets of Maninah poured open with people because when the people heard the Adhan of Bi'a'l there was such a powerful emotional connection between the Adhan of Bi'a'l and the presence of the best that was told also that the people ran out of their houses crying, thinking that the Basalism had come back. And they gave it to the masjid and would be out of that mosque. And the Prophet was all of a sudden, the Prophet said, He gave the Adhan and He finished the Adhan and He finished the prayer. He went and he was sat on his grave with the Basalism and cried. And he cried. And then he went home. The end of the story is, the Prophet was taken to the bottom shortly thereafter and he was smiling. And his wife said, What are you doing? You're smiling. You need to paint on your body. What are you going to smile about? He says it's a day of happiness. What are you talking about a day of happiness? He says, This is the day I'm going to my friends. And he passed away the next day. He passed away that morning. And all of that I want to leave you with is this. These were people that understood purpose. These were people that understood opportunity. These were people that understood vision. I love how they gave them a task. I love how they gave them a chance. I love how they gave them a place. I love how they gave them a responsibility. And they stepped up to take care of the people needed to be done. We pray to the Holy Prophet that if he uses us wherever we are, here, there, wherever we are, you are where Allah wants you to be. And it's my job and it's your job to figure out why we're there and what we're going to do about it. May Allah forgive us our sins. May Allah accept all the efforts of this community and all of the communities that we love. May Allah be pleased with us. May Allah bless us. May Allah ease the pain of suffering from all of those who are in pain in suffering all over the world. May Allah use us to get the vanguard of them. All of our love is going to be in him. Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. We pray to the Holy Prophet that if he uses us wherever we are, here, there, wherever we are, here, wherever we are, here, wherever we are, here, wherever we are, here, wherever we are, here, wherever we are, here, wherever we are, here, wherever we are, here, wherever we are, here, wherever we are, here, wherever we are, here, wherever we are, here, wherever we are, here, wherever we are, here, wherever we are, here, wherever we are, here, wherever we are, here, wherever we are,