 والله الذي هدان لهذا وما كنا لنا احتادي لولان هدان الله الحمد لله الذي انزل الفرقان على عبده ليكون للعالمين نذيره وصلاة والسلام على خير خلق ونور عشي افضل الانبياء والمرسلين حبيبنا وسيدنا وسندنا وشفيعنا ومولانا بالقاسم محمد وعلى آله التيبين الطاهرين المأسمين المظلومين اما بعد فودقار الله سبحانه وتعالى في كتاب المجيد فقول له الحق وهو أستخص صادقين اسم الله رحمان الرحيم إنما المؤمنين الذين إذا ذكروا الله وجلت قلوبهم وإذا توليت عليهم آياته زادتهم إيمانا وعلى ربهم يتوكلون صدق الله العليون عظيم صلوات الله محمد وأهل محمد أبدأ في الله's name the beneficent the merciful and all praise belongs to Allah سبحانه وتعالى for giving us this life and making us who we are and blessing us with this month of Ramadan in which much mercy has descended upon us and for the human race it is the month in which the Quran was revealed it is the month in which Allah has prescribed upon us fasting so that we can improve in our abilities to fight off the evil inclinations in order for us to elevate our standards and ourselves for this world and the next world and Allah has created us with two major components the material component and the spiritual component it's very important for us to know that these two components coexist within us and it is very important that we do not deprive either one of its due there are those who become very spiritual and they give up their material pursuits and then there are those who are very material and they give up their spiritual pursuits both are actually wrong that is not what Allah has created us for when we hear the story that we should be self annihilating you know we hear this the self in order to merge with Allah these metaphorical conversations need to be clarified otherwise people will misunderstand them self annihilation is not totality of self annihilation it is the annihilation of the evil inclinations that should be annihilated not the good one our material desires should be nurtured and we should go after them Allah says زينة الله التي أخرج لعبادي والطيبات من الرزق who has made the good things of this world haram for you Allah says they are for you in this world and they are exclusively for the believers in the next world so Allah has not forbidden that so we must when we discuss in these important nights how do we balance because the religion of Islam if there is one word besides the very profound words that should come to the front of our thoughts and our tongues when we ask what is Islam in the simplest of ways when someone says what is Islam the word itself should be sufficient it invokes the principle word called peace سلام you will find nothing resonates better with our hearts and the human race even on the social front even if you are running for politics the word peace is the most attractive word it causes people to imagine it it causes people to support such individuals and we are all looking for peace not only social political peace but internal peace the one that gives me tranquility we call it tranquility you see Allah says it is who sends tranquility into the hearts of believers and he increases their faith upon their faith so imagine this verse the last part implies that you and I can claim to be believers we can claim that we have faith but the Quran is saying that there is an evolution a growth in faith ايمانم مع ايمانهم even if you have faith there is always room to gain more faith it is very important on that to understand but in summary we have material and spiritual we must teach ourselves and our children and our generations that both are critical and important and they should not be neglected our desire to become wealthy our desire to live in good homes and have fine cars and fine clothes and to be sophisticated and to use advanced technologies is not forbidden in Islam it is encouraged today the advancements of what we have look at our cars today they have become much more sophisticated than they ever were if you look at the early times when Ford engineered the car those cars were very dangerous to drive on the road they had very minimal safety measures today cars are designed to also auto-drive they are still perfecting that art but if the desire for those things did not exist if there was no economy for that if there were no people demanding such technologies then we would be inhibiting progress materially so to want sophisticated things and to want entities that the average doesn't have is not forbidden in Islam and Allah proves that to us through His Prophet Sulaiman you notice Sulaiman in his period of time was so wealthy and so advanced in his technology that he rivaled all societies now he's a prophet of Allah and Allah reveres him in the Quran Allah blesses Sulaiman with much honor in the Quran and Allah says we gave him much wealth and much power to the extent that he invites the queen of Sheba she was stunned by his palace the floor of his palace was made of glass even in today's world you don't have homes with glass floors generally they are very expensive to build but Sulaiman had it Sulaiman had surveillance systems more sophisticated than the drones that we have today his surveillance was a living creature a bird who could fly and not only go see something in distant land but come back and tell him what they were doing wrong which drone today can do that which drone can come and tell you that they are obeying Allah and this obeying Allah Hood Hood who was the bird of Sulaiman would come back and tell Sulaiman that there is a queen who is worshipping the sun he was more advanced than we are today so such advancements are not forbidden in Islam it's the negative advancements that we must be careful about it's the ones that can cause destruction within our societies that we need to be vigilant about and to say no we will not allow such advancements because ethically they will violate the principle notion of peace peace so when someone asks us what is Islam tell them it's peace it's submission to the Almighty but another word you and I should use it's balance Islam is a religion of balance when someone asks you what is Islam in the function of peace is that you can't have peace unless you have balance when you have extremism you lack peace if you look at the physics of the universe you will notice it's constantly moving towards a balance everything in chemistry is trying to balance itself in physics it's balancing itself when we look within our body and you have free radicals in your body it's destructive free radicals are a result of you know atoms that are loosely destroying our bodies so we take antioxidants in order to neutralize free radicals there is a balance in the body when we eat there should be a balance excessive eating is dangerous Allah in the Quran says كلوا واشربوا ولا تصرفوا إنه لا يحبوا المصرفين eat drink don't overdo it he doesn't like it when you overdo it it's harmful to you so when we say what should I indulge in this world Allah says everything that is Halal for you but don't overdo it it's harmful to you because the physics of the universe demands balance and if you create an imbalance it will come back and throw you off off your extremism and it will force a balance the law of nature Allah is merciful Allah in the Quran says وعقيم الوزن بالقست ولا تخصروا الميزة maintain the balance and don't tip the balance Allah says we made the universe in balance maintaining balance justice تواسو بالحق تواسو بالصبر تواسو بالحق maintain justice maintain truthfulness maintain balance you will find the most powerful principles of Islam is built on the principles of balance our children when they come and ask us to do something and we know it's not good for them don't just say no to them say no with another option give them an alternative when you say no the child when they are told no it's extremism in their head you are extreme they say and that's right that perception appears to be extreme it's prohibitive sadly I question a lot of youth around the world and they consider Islam rather than it being peace submission balance they see it as prohibitive inhibitive too much haram everything is forbidden in Islam my friends can do so much they think that way and then of course they are very afraid they have to pray because mom and dad told them if you don't pray you are going to hell we are masters of defining and constantly talking about hell we are experts of hell the minute somebody does something you are going to hell and we are so good go to hell I don't like you go to hell Alhamdulillah because we will be sending each other to hell oh that sister is not wearing hijab oh she is going to hell she is going to be dragged by her hair who said that Allah has prescribed modesty and we will talk about hijab and modesty is not only for women it's for men too الله says وقل المؤمنات يغضد من أبصارهم وقل المؤمنات يغضد من أبصارهم الله is talking about a balance let the men lower their eyes and women also lower their eyes and cover yourselves properly so that there is no indecency because it's a religion of balance but when our children and our adults consider a religion to be inhibitive slash prohibitive then the love of that religion diminishes where we start to think less of it and we consider the religion to become a burden upon us when in fact religion of Allah is designed to remove the burden so we have to be cognizant that even when we are fasting in the month of Ramadan it's not a burden upon us it's a system of Allah to help us to balance ourselves so when we say no to our children give them an option or don't do this how about we do that oh ok it's not prohibitive there's an alternative Allah is describing this essence of peace even in paradise Allah says in paradise you won't hear vain talk no extremism gossip our extreme behaviors when we cause fitna with each other when we fight when we fault find our families and societies you find that that's extremism it leads to displeasure it leads to pain it leads to a lot of stress which leads to death but Allah says in paradise you won't hear vain talk fault finding none of that rubbish except everyone will be saying peace peace so when we talk about how do we achieve this peace not only within ourselves the most because I believe the greatest conversation is how do I achieve internal peace very important and we are trying we're experimenting and as I mentioned the stages of the evolution of the cell the nafs how do we reach that stage after when we have found ourselves to be the problem and we have found ourselves to be the solution how do I reach that stage where I am satisfied with myself with tranquility ever eager to return to my lord as Allah says you claim to be chosen people of god then have a desire to return to me here Allah is not talking about suicide not talking about death you mean you're eager to come to him how do you reach that stage where the petty things of the world don't bother how do you reach that stage where the petty things of the world don't bother you you think of the long term you are seeing yourself on judgment day the promise you made to that individual whether you borrowed money or you made a promise to help them you are looking at the day of judgment when you make that promise we need to teach our children the way to balance by the way the key component of causing the ship to be balanced in the sea is to peg itself to long term thinking when you and I have long term thinking and when our children are taught to think long term they become balanced the reason children become very agitated they are very impatient they lack the desire to wait till tomorrow it's very typical children have that it's because they have developed short term thinking because they are in survival mode they want to survive now now I need this pleasure now but you said them hold on you will get this pleasure tomorrow but better they said no that lack of long term thinking ends up becoming adulthood and you find adults who are unafraid of dying and they are still cheating and lying and while they bear religions that there is a day of judgment they don't really believe in it they haven't taken the long term into consideration as a result agitation starts you will notice people who have long term will not cheat you generally they won't cheat you and I'm talking about long term I'm talking about eternity because as they say in wisdom okay wise people think long term foolish people think short term now the wise person who thinks long term already has the short term in it but the foolish one has no long term in it so long term thinking is superior you find quran constantly reminds us of that be aware of يوم القيم and of the day of judgment they have certainty the God conscious ones in fact when you look at all the verses where Allah reveres and praises people you'll find that they talk in long term look I'll give you one example Allah says على حبه مسكينه ويتيمه وأسيره الله is talking about أهل البيت as you know you find that they may Imam Hassan and Imam Hussein were not well so she vowed that she will fast for 3 days as her promise to God that they should be recovered it's another so as you know as she is about to break the fast مسكينه ويتيمه وأسيره the poor man comes first then of course an orphan comes and then a wayfarer a stranger from another town and each time they are ready to break their fast they hear knock on the door and they give their food away and they break their fast with meager leftovers and they break their fast the second day the power of sacrifice you will notice without long term you can't sacrifice you will not let go of something if you believe in long term you will let go easily when Allah says ينفقون they spend with what we give them it's because they have long term in their vision they know they will not be bankrupt they know Allah gave them this so you find the house of Ahl al-Bayt is giving this food and Allah is so pleased with them يفون بالنظري ويخافون يوما كان شره مستطيرة ويتعمون الطعام على حبي listen to the verse they keep their promises and they are afraid of that day يفون بالنظري ويخافون يوما كان شره مستطيرة يعني they are afraid of that long day the day when the day of judgment will come they have it in their context constantly hence their behavior is the way it is ويخافون يوما كان شره and then Allah said يعمون الطعام على حبي this is in surat al-Dahar by the way in surat al-Insan then Allah shows us what they actually say because now Allah is talking about them now Allah is telling me what do they say they say لا نريد منكم جزاء ولا شكورة we want no reward from you not even thanks wow you just gave us food you fed us we knocked on your door you didn't slam the door on our faces you gave us the food that was meager for you when you shared it for us they said لا نريد منكم جزاء ولا شكورة you know why they say that you know what is the essence of why they say that because they feel they haven't done enough for Allah they feel Allah has done too much for them they feel even if they gave their souls to Allah they will not pay them back this is why they say لا نريد منكم جزاء ولا شكورة إننا نخاف من ربنا يوم عبوصاً قمطرير we are afraid of that day when hearts will be palpitating what will we answer our god when he has been so kind and generous and merciful to us that when we give we should not give for thanks or for reward we've already been rewarded subhanallah it's quintessential when we talk about essence of gratitude when you talk about an individual who has understood the rahmah of Allah سبحانه وتعالى it's such people to that level that they have accounted for Allah's mercy to such levels that they say nothing in this world will change us from appreciation of how mercy for Allah is يمامسين عليه الصلاة من كربلا as his child has received an arrow by hurmala and he's seeing the blood dripping and this child has lost its soul he looks up it says ردم بقضاء but the sleep and the amri we're satisfied by your decree Allah but your child just got killed and guess what you are the Imam you are the prince on earth you are the leader of all of mankind on earth and you answer this way they said yeah because we are too grateful to Allah we are balanced we are peaceful we have too much tranquility that while we see the misbehavior of the societies we have been sent as guidance to you so that we teach you how to behave believe me brothers and sisters travel the world study religions on earth there are thousands of them major ones few dozen study them you will find nothing in any historical equation to what i just mentioned in historical equations you will never find personalities of this character but the ones that we have in the dean of Allah in islam الله says to us how do you reach this so we have problems today i'm going to touch on a few today before i end but let me point out الله says انما المؤمنين الذين المؤمنين are those إذا ذكر الله واجلت قلوبهم when they hear God's name or they recognize God's presence their hearts become pliant meaning you feel cool you feel good like i've seen it by the way even among of course non-muslims too sometimes i would sit with non-muslim audience in the university and i talk about God and they would all look at me tell us more tell us who is this god we want to know and then they are spin drop silence and they are eager to hear the nuances of the definition of this ever-present ubiquitous god and i look at them and they have no distraction eager because heart is palpitating for god it's not muslim there are muslim sadly you talk to them about Allah they yawn and they fall asleep you gossip and they're wide awake you find false oh wide awake they were sleepy they lost it but talk about God they fall asleep الله says فذكر إنفعت الذكرة سيذكر من يخشى وإذا جنبها الأشقى الذي يصل النار الكبرى ثم لا يموت فيها ولا يحيا remind them reminding is beneficial the one whose heart is pliant doesn't have to be muslim in name one who's conscious of God's presence will listen to you سيذكر من يخشى but the one who is hard hearted the one who is material selfish short-term vision individual material capricious as we say in english one who is very selfish self-centered only me me i'll destroy the world macavel and style let me take it for me الله says ويتجنبها الأشقى the one whose ears are heavy they will not hear you when you recite the verses to them they turn away like they haven't heard you like there is a heaviness in the ears quran states it unbelievably elegantly he says but what is the problem he says we'll remind them it's essential for them to recognize الله says إنما المؤمنين الذين إذا ذكر الله وجلت قلوبهم you and i should pray in this month of Ramadan يا الله that give me that cognizance that when you are mentioned in any gathering that i should be vigilant and i should be cognizant and focused in that and let me not be reckless and fidgety and material that i need to pop pills in my mouth all the time because i'm so depressed or i'm so hyper tensed i've got so much stress i need all kinds of chemicals to calm me down today we're swimming in chemicals we're swimming the drug industries are making trillions of dollars in playing with the human psyche and we are throwing all kinds of drugs at each other and we are so dissatisfied because we've ignored our spirituality that now we're imbibing in all kinds of fantasy drugs today there's this فانتانول they say there's just one car load of فانتانول that crossed the border of canada to the united states they said it is more lethal than all the nuclear power on earth and then there's another drug that has come out called car fentanyl it's much deadlier than that and i'm thinking there's a market for this الناس are lining up to buy these things and those labs are manufacturing these kinds of drugs that are so deadly they give you this fantasy for a moment and the next thing you're dead you're overdosed and dead and i'm thinking why is our society going in that direction honestly deep down it's the net result of having denied the essential nature of the spirit when it is denied it leads into apathy it leads into a vacuum spiritual vacuum where the individual feels lonely they feel depressed and as a result they need solutions and today the drug industry is ever ready to throw pills at us and once we get addicted we're done i know with sadness some physicians with due respect to physicians who are masters of causing people to become addicted they'll give you these you know vikadin and painkillers because they make money and then you keep coming back for that and rather than get cured you got addicted it's a it's an ugly industry with all due respect to physicians there are good ones and there are bad ones and i ask the question why is that happening we don't have such dialogues we hardly talk and i want to introduce today the i gen you know what the i gen is the i generation that's this group the one that was born in 1995 to 2012 that's the new generation these are the ones who are completely born with these instruments i have seen even in my lectures some of you come and you've got your phone with you you know you look like you're really reflecting but you're chatting you know how much research has come out lately that children are developing bipolar correct characteristics it's leading to an increased amount of depression suicide rates have increased loneliness you would think this child is talking to a million people at a time potentially on twitter and they're lonely and they're depressed and suicidal if you see pictures i've seen it i watch when parents bring their children at school mommy's on the phone the child is on the phone somebody else is on the phone the kid gets out of the car mommy's still on the phone slams the door mommy's still on the phone she zooms away never like hug you know salamu alaykum take care and then our modern cars today plugins every seat has a plug you got your separate video streams your audio streams the child gets into the car father goes to pick up the child from school child gets into the car he's got his headphones plug it in goodbye i'm in my cyber world we're giving each other cyber hugs cyber love sending hearts to each other lols you know all kinds of and by the way now the emoticons that's just one dimensional micho kaku says that there's gonna come a time soon because research has shown we're able to upload emotions into human brain now you know that we have successfully uploaded emotions into an existing living human brain it says soon there will come a time when we will not be sending such emoticons we will be sending emotions to each other like when you're happy i'll feel your happiness in actual emotion in my brain that's the world we're approaching so what's the answer to this you find children are constantly i've seen parents talk to their children on a dining table texting texting i'm sitting on a dining table they're both on the phone i said what are you doing oh i'm talking to my son i said he's right there see he doesn't talk to me we only talk by text that's sad very sad research has shown that this addiction by the way the ign population almost entirely has this phone in their hands now is it bad no it's not bad research shows if you use a screen a phone or a screen for less than two hours maximum meaning anything less than two hours it's not unhealthy for you anything more than that in a day leads to depression leads to unhappiness leads to sadness and leads to a disconnection socially الله سبحانه وتعالى has combined us to do جماعة i'll talk about صلاة إن صلاة تنه عن الفحشاء والمنكر ولا ذكر الله أكبر صلاة i'll talk about it some the other nights prayer why is prayer so important especially جماعة shoulder to shoulder you have to put your phone away some people sadly they leave it on so they can watch the texts as they're praying i've seen people in the white situation السلام عليكم لجميع الله has got phone on the head i say you doing طوuv لجميع الله لجميع الله لجميع الله they got a phone أنا أقول لا حولة ولا قواتل. و then of course we've reached beyond that of course we've lost our connection with society I've seen kids who don't even know how to shake hands, don't even know how to give you eye contact They don't even know how to communicate with you, but chattery online, very anti-social in the real world It's a problem. Today our children hardly go to parks, parks have disappeared You know that there was a time kids used to line up when they were 16 They used to line up to go get their license I remember when I turned 16 on my birthday I got my license This generation doesn't care about license They hardly go out, they don't need it Either call an Uber, don't go out They've done research to show that children hardly go out with their parents lately They hardly communicate with society They're online constantly chatting And they become sedentary where their levels of activity is minimized And they're developing type 2 diabetes because they are now getting overweight And you've got all kinds of problems So socially they're becoming up So I advise us all, zikr of Allah is balance As parents we should be vigilant to make sure to take them away In our school we asked the students How many of you are willing to volunteer to give us your phones And some says okay we'll try it Within 30 minutes after they handed over They came knocking at the door, can we get it back They says that's an addiction You have an addiction, back off What is it? You're making life threatening decisions that you need the phone Are you like a surgeon Who's now taking care of a very sick patient that you need to answer something No, these are our children But they need to see how many likes they got How many followers do they have It's an addiction And it's not only for kids Adults, successful Hollywood adults are dying online Looking for accolades and looking for how many followers they have So that they can get the return They are also becoming sick with this So I'm advising us all اذا ذكر الله واجلت قلوبهم ذكر الله is social transactions I'll discuss it tomorrow Harvard has done the longest study On what is needed by the societies And they have concluded Conclusively That the human race is greatest aspiration Is to build social relationships In person to person So I advise us all Spend time Look at each other Shake hands Smile Hug them Talk to them Say nice things to them Say الحمد لله I'm so happy to see you Sit down Let's talk And put the phone away Today it's become very difficult I'll tell you one final point before I end The phones The eye watches Now It's connected to your phone It's interesting I have one I don't use it Somebody gave it to me I don't use it It's very rude So you're sitting there A message comes You're having a meeting Can you imagine in the olden days You dare look at the clock Somebody's in your house You may look at it from a periphery But don't look at it You're telling the person I'm tired if you get out You're wasting my time أخلاق The prophet says إنما أبعثتو لأتم مما كارم الأخلاق I have been sent to perfect your أخلاق To perfect your behavior So this technology is a baraka But it's also a nemesis And the balance is what we're talking about So when you have this phone You're looking at it Excuse me I just have a message Oh really Are you sure you weren't looking at the time It's insulting Or you put it on silent In a meeting You're looking Sorry You know how insulting that is You're talking to somebody They're looking at the phone Oh hold on one second I got something Now Where do we draw the line to this Do you think our prophet would do that Can you imagine When our prophet was in our time And he had a cell phone And you're asking him a question He says Hold on I got a text message I got a reply Or are you my Maddie And I'm doing that No So let's conclude tonight That Allah سبحانه وتعالى Says وَإِذَا تُولِتْ عَلَيْهِمْ عَيَاتُوا زَا دَتْهُمْ When you recite verses They pay attention They listen I advise us all Even these kindle books They're great I have them But nothing beats a real book Nothing about that smell Touching the paper Flipping it It's a dimension to that That nothing can compare to it So I advise us all Get into the real world Come to facilities Put your phone away Turn it off and say I'm sorry For the next two hours I am out of commission Thank you I don't care Let it go into voicemail I don't care Unless it's an emergency Figure it out But try your best To socially connect the children Especially the children They should be discouraged From having excessive amounts Of this technology in their hands Because it's going to lead To all kinds of social misbehaviors And may Allah give us the strength To make them the future leaders Of our society Which implies That they need to be vigilant Smart Attentive And they need to recognize People's names Who are you? Assalamu alaikum Assalamu alaikum When you meet them You should know how to speak You should know how to look at them Because it has a huge impact On how the world will see us In summary brothers and sisters I'm saying very clearly Allah has given us Material and spiritual Islam is a religion of balance Material pursuits And spiritual pursuits Are both important While we fast For spiritual reasons We must also aspire To become successful individuals Highly educated And to become leaders of this world And to understand That all the tools Allah has given us Are a blessing And we must abuse them With excessive use Through abuse And especially through neglect And may Allah give us the topic اسم الله الرحمن الرحيم اللهم إنا نرغب إليك في دولة كريمة تعز بها الإسلام وأهلا وتذل بها النفاق وأهلا وتجعلنا فيها من الدعاة إلى تعاتك والقادة إلى السبيلك وترزقنا بها كرامة الدنيا والآخرة وآخرة الدوان الحمد لله رب العالمين والسلام عليكم جميعا ورحمة الله وبركاته