 My beloved brothers and sisters, we begin by praising our Lord, our maker, our master, our owner, our creator, our designer, our provider, the one that we are returning to, the one who gives us everything, gives us every bite, keeps our heart beating, keeps our eyes working, gave us everything we ever received. We praise Him and our praise falls short, but we praise Him. And then we thank Him and we say thank you to our maker. We thank you abundantly and endlessly. We thank you, ya Allah, and we thank you for this moment, for this gift of Islam, for inviting us to this moment, inviting us to this banquet, inviting us to this house, inviting us to know His name, inviting us to bow to Him, to prostrate to Him, to praise Him. To know Him, to read His words. We thank Him that He gave us these words. We thank Him for bringing us from nothingness, from making us from nothingness. And then we remind ourselves that we're not made for this world, for this domain. We're not made for this domain. This is just a temporary place. We're all visitors here. We're temporary visitors. And in this visit, sometimes it's pleasant, sometimes it's unpleasant. Sometimes there are ups, sometimes there are downs. Sometimes we're grateful and sometimes we're patient. But in all of those moments, we have Him with us. And then we remind ourselves, we warn ourselves that we're returning to Him. Who are we returning to? To our own selves. We report to ourselves. No, we report to our maker. We report to our designer. We report to the one who controls heaven and hell, who controls our life in the grave. We warn ourselves that we're returning to a life in the grave after this temporary test. May Allah be gentle with us. My brothers and sisters, as we come on this Friday to reorient ourselves, to reorient our hearts, to our divine purpose, to align with the divine, to remind ourselves why we're here, what's our purpose, what is this all about. We remember that the messenger that God sent to us, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, our messenger, our leader, our guide, our prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, he told us purity is half of faith. Purity is half of faith. And Alhamdulillah fills the scales. And Subhanallah and Alhamdulillah fills the cosmos, the heavens and the earth. And prayer is light. And charity is proof. And patience is illumination. And the Quran is either for us or against us. And every day, we are a vendor of our own soul. We either free it or we destroy it. Sadaqa Rasulullah. That's a hadith in the 40 hadith, Nawawe, one of the great compilations. And in this hadith, there's so many beautiful gems, right? Prayer is light. Prayer is a light. Nour. Right? And we ask ourselves, when we're feeling a little uncomfortable, when we're feeling a little down, when we're feeling a little off, something is missing. What do we do in that moment? Watch a movie, eat ice cream, call someone. In that moment, the invitation to all of us is to get some spiritual nourishment to feel better. In that moment, when we're feeling a little gross, when we're feeling a little off, go give a sadaqa. Open your bank account, open your credit card, open launch good, open something Islamic relief, and go give $20, $10, $50, $100, $500. And turn to Allah. Because when you turn to Allah, He turns to you. When you give victory to Allah, He gives victory to you. Take care of Allah and He'll take care of you. Take care of Allah and you'll find Him by your side. How do we take care of Allah? The Lord of the world, the majestic, the all-powerful, the one who's free of need, al-mughni, al-gani, free of need. How can we take care of Him by turning to Him, obeying Him, surrendering to Him, doing what He wants us to do? So we go and we give sadaqa in that moment. We go and we fall in that moment. We prostrate in that moment. And when we give charity in the other hadith, charity is a proof. A proof of what? A proof that you choose Allah, that you know Allah, is Haqq, is real. And that when you turn to Him and give to Him, that Allah will take care of you. And so in these moments of need, in these moments of desperation, when we're feeling a little low, because this is the ebbs and flows of this world, al-qabid, al-basit, the one who expands and contracts, al-khafid, al-rafiq, the one who lowers and hires, al-mu'iz, al-muthil, the one who hires, honors and humiliates, al-muhi, al-mumid, the one who gives life and takes life, al-nafiq, al-dhar, the one who benefits and the one who distresses. This is the nature of this abode. We're going to go up and down. And the invitation for us is when we go up, we see Allah. And when we go down, we see Allah. When we go up, we find Allah. When we go down, we find Allah. When we're enriched, we turn to Allah. When we're impoverished, we turn to Allah. Death and life. To test you, who of you is going to have the best actions? We're all going to go to our graves with three things. Our family, our money and our deeds, our family and money return. We don't take it with us. But our deeds, our actions, our character, we take it with us. Seek forgiveness from Allah. He is all hearing. He is all forgiving. He is near and he hears. And Allah forgives all sins. Bismillah. Alhamdulillah. As-salatu wa salamu ala Rasulillah. You know, all of us were designed, we're not angels, right? We're designed weak. We make mistakes. And that's okay. It's okay to make mistakes? Yes, it is. So long as we follow it with something beautiful, that's the takeaway from today, my beloved brothers and sisters. It's okay to make a mistake as long as we follow it with something beautiful, it erases it. It's okay if we do a mistake. So long as we follow it with something beautiful, it erases it. It's okay to do a bad deed as long as we follow it with a good deed, it erases it. In the other Hadith Nawawe, in the 40 Hadith Nawawe, اتَّقِلَّا حَيْتُ مَا كُنْتُ وَأَتْبِعَ الْسَيْئَةَ الْحَسْنَةَ تَمْحُوْهَا وَخَالِقِ الْنَاسْ بْخُلُقِ الْحَسْنَةَ This beautiful, beautiful principle, وَأَتْبِعَ الْسَيْئَةَ الْحَسْنَةَ تَمْحُوْهَا This is our paradigm in life. I will make mistakes with my wife. I will make mistakes with my son. I will make mistakes with my mother. I will make mistakes with my wife. I will follow it with something beautiful to erase it. I will make mistakes with my son. I'll follow it with something beautiful, it will erase it. I will make mistakes with my mother. I'll follow it with something beautiful, it will erase it. All of the children of Adam make mistakes, all of us make mistakes. And the best of those who make mistakes are those who repent, who turn to God. And there's three conditions for repentance. Number one, we stop the mistake. We stop the sin. Number two, we feel bad. And number three, we strategize and intend to not do it again. And they asked one of our historical scholars and saints, Hassan al-Basri, Rahimahullah, what do you say of a person, a Muslim, who does the same mistake 70 times in one day? And after each of the 70 times, he does tauba. Hassan al-Basri said, what is he other than a believer? He's connecting with God 70 times a day? Allah. He's feeling remorse 70 times a day? Allah. He's having a moment with his maker 70 times a day? Allah. And the best of those in the continuation of the hadith, the best of those, the best of the repenters are those who purify themselves. The purification is half of faith, outward and inward, different meanings. And so we come today to find Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, to find the messenger of Allah, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, to tell Allah to declare, I submit to you, ya Allah, a sadaqatu burhan, charity is proof. And there's different kinds of charity. Helping your brother is charity, a good word is charity, smile is charity. Putting a bite of food in your wife's mouth is charity. Fixing a relationship between two people is charity. Planting a tree where someone gets shade is charity. Making someone's heart feel better is charity. It's proof that what, that we exist for God, not for being impressed with our own selves. And so the takeaway today, my beloved brothers and sisters, all of us in this journey to Allah, in this journey to get victory over our ego, in this journey to get victory over shaitan, in this journey to get the pleasure of the divine, in this journey to heaven, to paradise, to fulfill our deal with God that we made. Am I not your Lord? Yes, I'll obey you, I'll obey you. So that our invitation today is, I will make mistakes, but I'll follow it with something beautiful. I will follow it with something beautiful. I will make a mistake with my neighbor, I'll argue, I'll have loud noise, I'll have a big party and invitation. The next day, take him some fresh homemade biryani. Take him some fresh homemade cookies. It erases the heart. Maybe I cut someone off on the highway. Say thank you, smile at them. Most people will forgive you, right? Follow it with something beautiful, it erases it. I make a mistake with my mother. I neglected, it's so, I'll follow it with something beautiful, it'll erase it. I'll call her, start calling her once a day, I'll start sending her her favorite chocolate, I'll start sending her her favorite pistachios or nuts, I'll find it. Maybe she likes walnuts, maybe she likes almond, maybe she likes macadamia nuts. Find out what your mother likes and send it to her and make it automated so you don't have to do it because shaitan will come and make you forget. Make it automated delivery once a month, $20 a month, right? I'm going to make mistakes here and there and even in the workforce, we all know this. If we make a mistake, then they ask us, did you learn from this? In interviews they ask you, what mistake did you make and how did you learn from it and how did you correct it? We're all growing, we're all growing and so we have to acknowledge our weakness and instead of, the excuse is uglier than the mistake. The excuse is uglier than the mistake. So I made a mistake with my brother, my sister, my uncle, my aunt, my mother, my father, my son, my brother, my wife, my husband, my neighbor, my boss, my whatever. It's okay, it's okay, admit it and just follow it with something beautiful and it'll elevate you, it'll make you noble, it'll erase it. Instead of giving an excuse, oh well, it's your fault because you said this, oh well, I didn't know you should have told me that, you should have told me this. That's just, it's uglier, no need for that, diffuse it. And so all of us sitting here, imagine we go back to our relationships right now and we apply this method and we tell our spouses, we tell each other, I will make mistakes with you, I will make mistakes, we will make mistakes with each other but you know what, let's commit when we make mistakes with each other that we will follow it with something beautiful to erase it. That's our men hedge, that's our method, that's our humbleness that we go back into this world and so we can have this beauty that we bring wherever and finally there's another proverb that says, pay back someone who disobeys a law towards you by obeying a law towards them. So someone who disobeyed a law towards you, you're like, well it's their fault, it's their fault, they need to fix it, it's their fault, they should come and say, maybe you're right, maybe it is their fault, but it's okay because you're dealing with a law. So you say, ya Allah, I'm gonna obey you, I'm gonna connect with the one who pushed me away, I'm gonna be generous to the one who's greedy to me and I'm gonna forgive the one who harms me. Masha'Allah, alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah, may Allah forgive all of us insha'Allah, Allah send peace and blessings on humanity's teacher, our Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Allahumma kfiril al muslimina wa al muslimat wa al mu'minina wa al mu'minaat al hayyai minhum wa al amwaat. We ask Allah to cure all the sick, to heal us inwardly and outwardly. We ask Allah to have mercy and forgive all of those who have passed away. And to forgive our dear mother and aunt Aqila Mujaddidi who just passed away, who just passed away today or yesterday, may Allah forgive her and elevate her and grant her heaven and grant her paradise and the Suhba and the companionship of our dear Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And may Allah give us victory over our own selves and may Allah give us the strength of silence. And may Allah give us the victory over our egos. And may Allah give us the wisdom to follow mistakes with something beautiful. And let us give charity, Ya Allah, so we can prove our submission to you, prove that we surrender to you, prove that we know you, prove that we align with you, prove that we accept you and acknowledge you. May Allah be gentle with us and be gentle with Benny Adam, gentle with Benny Adam, gentle with the children of Adam and Eve. I mean, may Allah protect our offspring until the last day. May Allah help us answer the three questions in the grave. May Allah illuminate our houses, a sabrudiyat, patience is illumination. May Allah give us gentle patience and fill our houses with light, fill our bodies with light, our eyes with light, our ears with light, our inner universe with light, our outer universe with light. May Allah help us live for Him instead of being so conceited. May Allah give us humbleness and not arrogance. May Allah give us a gentle life and bring us closer to Him gently with gifts and not through tests. May Allah honor our elders and give them good health. May Allah give victory to our teachers and our scholars. May Allah help some of us and all of us stand in the night calling His name for the Ummah. Ya Allah! May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala accept from us and grant us sincerity. May Allah help our children connect with the Qur'an and read the Qur'an and understand the Qur'an. And may Allah help us be gentle with our spouses and forgiving for our spouses. And may Allah always allow us to live this Muhammadan methodology, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, wa atba al sayyiat al hasana tamhuha, follow a mistake with something beautiful and it erases it. And may we not be people who give annoying, ugly excuses and give us the strength and humbleness to admit our mistakes, Amin. And we ask you Ya Allah for everything wonderful and beautiful that our Prophet, Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ, asked you for Ya Allah! And we seek protection from every harm that he saw protection from and send peace and blessings on our Master, Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ. Subhanah Rabbika Rabbil Izzati, amma yasifoon wa salamun ale al mursaleen wal hamdu lillahi Rabbil Alameen. Inna Allahi ya'mur bil adli wal ihsani wa ita idha al qurba wa yanha anil fahshai wal munkari wal baghia adhikum la'allakum tadakkarun, remember Allah and He will remember you and thank Him and He will increase you and make the call to pray.