 We begin with the thanks and the praises of Allah SWT, saying to Him, Alhamdulillah. We declare His praises loudly and openly so that we can feel what it means to praise Allah in our hearts. That what we do with our outward limbs translates to the situation and the circumstance that happens internally within us. And so if we do good outwardly, we should expect a good transformation to occur inwardly. And so as we move into this month of Ramadan, we are in the last few nights of Sha'ban. We need to prepare ourselves so that we can gain the benefit of Ramadan. So that we know how to make the most of this Ramadan. And so if I were to ask a question and think about this question, think, what is the purpose of Ramadan? Why is there Ramadan? One of the main things that we do in Ramadan is fasting. Fasting is preventing our stomach from receiving food and water. What is the purpose of fasting? Why do we do these things? Why do we pray in Ramadan? Why do we fast in Ramadan? Why do we read the Quran in Ramadan? What is the purpose of these actions? This is an important question because without purpose, the actions are useless. If I don't fulfill the purpose of a thing, I have not benefited from that thing. So if the purpose of me to go to work is so that I can provide for my family, but at the end of every month when I receive the paycheck, I rip it up and throw it into the garbage. My work, my effort, my output was without purpose. If I study for a test and I take the test and the purpose of the test is to get a good grade and right before I turn the test in, I rip up the test and put it in the trash. My effort that I put in is purposeless. It was not worth it. So the actions that we're putting into Ramadan, the Quran, the prayer, the fasting, the work that we're doing, if we're not fulfilling the purpose of that work, it's like we're taking all of it and just throwing it into the trash. So we need to be very clear what is the purpose of Ramadan? What is the purpose of fasting? And this Allah SWT tells us very clearly in the Quran. When He talks about fasting, He says, كتب عليكم الصيام كما كتب علي الذين من قبلكم لعلكم تتقون. That the purpose of fasting is so that you can achieve taqwa. When He speaks about Ramadan, سبحانه وتعالى, He says, الشهر رمضان الذي انزل فيه القرآن, هدل الناس وبهينات المين الهداء والفرقان until the end of the ayah where He says, لعلكم تشكرون. The purpose of Ramadan then is so that you can achieve and attain gratitude. So the purpose of fasting is taqwa, consciousness of Allah. The purpose of Ramadan is gratitude, shukr to Allah. Both of these actions of having taqwa and having shukr are actions of the heart and not of the limbs. So in order to benefit from Ramadan, in order to benefit from fasting, our hearts need to be affected by taqwa and shukr. And the work that we do to put in the Quran that we read, the prayer, the fasting, the صدقات الذكاء, that's our effort, that's our studying, that's our waking up in the morning and going to work, that's our trying really hard to understand the concept so we can pass the test. So we put in the work, but the transformation takes place in our heart. And so if we don't benefit with the transformation of the heart in Ramadan, we have not achieved the purpose of Ramadan. We have not achieved the purpose of fasting. So how do we transform our hearts? How do we feel taqwa in our hearts? How do we feel shukr in our hearts? How do we feel these actions of the heart? We begin to prepare from Sha'ban. And we begin to understand what it means to have these actions occur in the heart. We prepare in Sha'ban by doing something very important. And this is the Hadith related about the night of the 15th of Sha'ban. Not just of the 15th, but the remainder of Sha'ban that prepare your hearts for Ramadan. But Allah SWT scans His creation. He scans His creation, seeking from His creation those to forgive. And Allah forgives every single person that He finds asking for forgiveness except for two. The ones who do not receive the forgiveness of Allah in Sha'ban are two. The mushrik and the mushahin. The one who associates partners with Allah. And the one who harbors enmity in his heart for his fellow Muslim brother or sister. So the preparation of Sha'ban is to remove the evil of our hearts, the evil of shirk and the evil of anger and hatred. And so that animosity that we hold on to, whether it be to our parents or to our children, to our siblings or to our uncles and aunts, to random members in the community, that hatred that we have in our hearts for these people, regardless of how badly they hurt you, regardless of how badly they embarrassed you, regardless of how badly they made you feel. The work of Sha'ban is to purify that hatred in your heart for them. The work of Sha'ban is to cleanse your heart so that it can be ready to receive the lights of Ramadan. This is the work of Sha'ban. And then as we enter into Ramadan, the purpose of Ramadan again is shukr. What is shukr? What does it mean to have gratitude? Gratitude is not simply just saying thank you, Allah. It's not simply just saying Alhamdulillah. Gratitude is the ultimate realization that the blessings that Allah SWT has given me are blessings that I do not deserve. With that in mind, He still gives them to me. And that feeling that you get is gratitude. If I were to tell people right now that before you walk out of this muster, everyone's getting a check for $1,000, where did this come from? Why me? Why a thousand? That shock and that hesitancy really for me? Are you sure like this is actually for me? And then I insist, yes, take the money and then you take it and you go when you sit in your car and you're wondering, did I really get this $1,000? That blessing that you receive that's unexpected that's not deserved. The feeling that you have is shukr. That is the feeling that we need to develop in our hearts through Ramadan. And we all feel it, but we all feel it with silly things. We all feel it on the day of Eid. When we go to someone's house or after the muster, then it's the middle of the day and we pick up that Eid donut and we're like, really, it's Eid, then I'm going to eat this donut in the middle of the day. I've been practicing for the last 30 days to not eat donuts in the middle of the day. But something about this feels wrong, but I'm going to go ahead and eat it because Allah wants me to eat a donut on Eid. That's that weird feeling that we get that I'm drinking water in the day. I'm eating in the day. That's shukr. That's shukr that we're feeling from the depths of our hearts because we're experiencing something that we feel that we don't deserve, that we feel is unexpected. The reality is everything that you have is not deserved. Everything that you have is unexpected. But our hearts have become hard so that we don't know. And we think we're entitled to life, we're entitled to our next breath, we're entitled to wealth, we're entitled to friendship, we're entitled to family, we're entitled to food, we're entitled to AC, we're entitled to shelter, we're entitled to be able to pray without a threat. All of these are blessings that we do not deserve. And yet Allah gives, and He gives, and He gives, and He gives, and He continues to give. So bringing that awareness in our hearts is the goal of Ramadan. And so going into Ramadan, that is what we seek. Going into Ramadan, that is what we need to develop in our hearts, cultivate in our hearts. And so we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for this opening and for this blessing, and we ask Him to never make us slaves who are ungrateful. Astaghfirullah ali walakum walisa'ir al-Muslimin. Fa astaghfiruh innahu hu al-Ghafur al-Rahim.