 Dear brothers, dear sisters, we are now in the month of Ramadan and today's Qumba is about some of the lessons that we learned from Ramadan. I want to ask you, and this Qumba maybe will go over three lessons. If I were to ask you what's the most important thing in your life, if you can name one thing that you consider the most important thing in your life. Some of us might say our business, some of us might say our family, some of us might say our children, some of us might say money. Ramadan teaches us that one of the most important things in our life is time. Time is one of the most important things in our life and it goes very quickly. And if we're not in control of our time, our life will go and we won't even feel it. And control of time meaning controlling the order of time. Being in control of yourself from morning until it's late. And even obviously everything we do in order is in order. And that's one of the beauty of Islam. All acts of worship that we perform, there is order in the actual worship. There is order in how we pray, how we stand, we stand in life. Does it hurt the prayer if you don't stand in life? It doesn't, but it's more beautiful and it's more adequate and it's more hsad. Everything we do in Hajj is in order, in fasting is in order, in Zaka'a is in order, in prayer is in order. There is an order in everything. An order implies beauty. Then the next lesson for the new world is about change. It's about going back. Allah SWT in Quran says, And he put the word Siyam between two things, between Imam and Taqwa. I.e. Imam, our love for the truth, our love for what is real is manifested in our Imam. And Allah SWT is the only reality and is the only truth, is what we call Imam. I.e. in our priorities, the truth has the highest priority. Our love for the truth is always at the highest. We despise the truth, we despise anything that's not the truth. And through fasting, there is hopefully a goal that we're trying to achieve. Fasting facilitates for us, if we have Imam and if we love him. And if we fast out of love, not out of the robotic action. If we fast out of love for Allah SWT, the ultimate destination will be Taqwa. What we will accomplish through Ramadan and through fasting, out of love will be Taqwa. Taqwa of Allah SWT, Allah will be in our heart all the time. And that's why the Malayka, when it came to the reward of fasting, they weren't able to write it down. They weren't able to estimate what reward they would be. So Allah SWT told them, Except for fasting, it is for me. Our servants, they fast for me out of love and out of obedience. And I shall reward them. And when the generous reward, his reward is without measure. Allah SWT. Malayka were not able to estimate the reward. So Allah says, I will reward them. Don't worry about them. Through fasting, we also learn that fasting is about education. It's about disciplining. Disciplining of our soul. It's about refinement of our character. It's about purifying our heart. It's about reconnecting with what's important. Reconnecting with our Lord, glory be to Him, is about our deepest commitment and our highest aspirations. What is it that we want to achieve out of Ramadan? What is it that we want to achieve out of life? What is it that the most we are committed to? I.e. if one was to ask you, what is the most important thing in your life? What are you deeply committed to? What are we deeply committed to? We're committed to Allah SWT. We're committed to the truth. We're committed to the religion which is the manifestation of this truth. So when we educate ourselves and when we discipline ourselves and when we become and control ourselves, we get closer to the behavior of the angels. We approach the character of the angels. The angels spend all their time in worship. And they don't commit sins. They don't think badly of one another. They don't mind the business of others. They mind their own business. Unless they have a mission to accomplish. Unless they have a job to do. And Ramadan is a period where we can look at ourselves and look deeply within ourselves and say, what are we committed to? This is a time of review. What are we committed to? What is the most thing that is important to us in this life? It's time. It's love. It's the truth. It's our family. It's our children. It's our community. And mainly, it's our relationship with Allah SWT. Because only hereafter, only if we have a good heart, we will be accepted. Get in touch with our angelic side. And suppress our demonic side. Suppress our desires. To be in control of ourselves. Which is to be in control of our desires. Our desires do not control us. We control our desires. We channel our desires to what is important. We don't get angry. We channel our anger. We decide when to get angry when not to get angry. We don't let anger over come us. We don't let our emotions over come us. We don't let anything that drag us away or take us away from our goal and our destination. And over go it. Lastly, Mahfira and Al-Qalmin and Nara. And soon we will enter the last and the last Ramadan. And the last lesson that we can go over in this book is that Ramadan actually is a period of renewal. Everything needs renewal. In this life, when we look at the trees, the trees in winter time, they die away. In spring time, they come back to life again. Everything goes through this. And it is a sunnah of Allah SWT that He created in this universe. There's a cycle. And this earth, this planet, Allah SWT cut down everything in this earth and put everything in two stages. I.e. this planet is capable of fulfilling whatever we need under the day of judgment. How can a final planet satisfy the needs of infinite number of people through the process of regeneration, through the process of renewal? Every year the earth renews itself. Every year we harvest the crops and next year we have new crops. We're always e-generating ourselves. And it's a sunnah in this universe. It's a sunnah in the planet, it's a sunnah in the trees, it's a sunnah in animals and also it's a sunnah in human beings. Every once in a while we re-evaluate ourselves. We re-evaluate the way we're working. Maybe it's time to change jobs. We re-evaluate our values and values. We try to re-generate ourselves. Ramadan is about regeneration. This is the time to reset your counter. This is the time to regenerate yourself and go back to ground zero. Go back to scratch. Everything needs maintenance. Your car needs maintenance. Your house needs maintenance. The mosque needs maintenance. Our heart needs maintenance. Our life needs maintenance. And Ramadan is a maintenance time. We change the oil in our heart. We change the oil in our car. We regenerate ourselves. So if you want to benefit from Ramadan, think about what you want to reset the counter. Your sin is it. Your behavior is it your character. Think about one thing and try to accomplish this before the end of Ramadan. Allah SWT will assist us and facilitate for us to achieve our goals insha'Allah and to regenerate ourselves and to renew our commitment to the Lord of the world. Allah SWT says Allahumma fa salli wa sallim wa barit ala Sayyidina Muhammad, wa ala ala Sayyidina Muhammad. Allahumma fa salli wa sallim wa barit ala Sayyidina Muhammad. Allahumma fa salli wa sallim wa barit ala Sayyidina Muhammad, wa ala ala Sayyidina Muhammad. Peace be upon you. Peace be upon you. Peace be upon you. So we do have a shahada, inshallah. Our Mary will be coming up here with the Basad al-Husay. So just give us a moment while I come up. I just really quickly want to put an announcement that for Juma, inshallah, make sure we know our masks before we're moving into the volunteers and keep your masks on the whole time playing here. As we enter the last 10 days of Ramadan, inshallah, we will be announcing an update this Sunday, inshallah. We'll be having special accommodations for the outside and inside, inshallah. So those that are vaccinated, it's an honor system that you'll be going inside, inshallah. And then everything is mic outside. And the tarawih prayers will be there on the odd nights, inshallah. But you still have to register, inshallah. And you can register for going inside or you can register for being here outside. The Juma will still stay outside, inshallah. It's just for the odd nights. We have a lot more people accommodating. So we're going to be opening up the inside, inshallah. So please, if you haven't been vaccinated, being vaccinated is an honor system. So prefer that you go inside only if you've been vaccinated, inshallah. The vaccinations work for your body. Please make sure that you don't want to be a super spreader. I'm glad the numbers are looking really good in Alamea County. So we don't want to have any kind of spike or be a spreader event here at MCC. So please, if you ever feel sick when you're coming here at MCC, if you have a cough, if you wake up with anything at all, make sure that you do that specific thing for the community, inshallah, and not come. The cancellation process is there as well. So we want to mention also that the fitra is due before heat day. The fitra for Hanifi is $5 and then I believe it's $10 for Shahi. So we'll start with the say if you want to come on heat day. So that will give us enough time to... So Mary has been on a long journey. My new journey, she's here with her friends. And so they're just going to take her to Shahada. It's been a long journey for her. And she's been very honored at the privilege. So I'll say it's here and I'll hand the mic over to her. Yes, please. Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. Dear brothers and sisters. Alhamdulillah. We are so honored to have Sister M.K. here with us today to do a version of Hada. Mashallah from what I have learned. Her story is quite secret. I was actually reminded of the story of Senbana Farsi, which hopefully you have something that we will share with Sister M.K. just in terms of the evolution and the path and the seeking and the sincerity of her journey to be here today. She is joined by her brother Azhar, who was here of Herbiyah, Mashallah, who also had a part in her being here today, Alhamdulillah, as well as... Sarah. Sarah, her friend who is here to support her. Alhamdulillah, of course, we have the community members here also who are ready to, inshallah, receive her and to make sure that she is supported on her path in this beautiful faith of ours. So now, M.K., I went briefly over with you that this is a pretty simple process. The way that one enters Islam is by testifying to their faith in an inter-public setting like this or just in front of witnesses. So Alhamdulillah, we have quite a lot of witnesses today. But the phrase that we will be saying is very simple, and I will repeat it in Arabic in a slow way so that you can repeat word by word. And then we will give the English translation of it. We'll say it three times. And as soon as that's done, you have entered officially the faith of Islam. But we, of course, believe that the moment you accepted in your own heart that God is one and the Prophet Muhammad is the Messenger of God, that is when a faith entered your heart. So you were Muslim at that point. But this is just the official example. Alhamdulillah. Again, thank you for honoring our community to do this. We are very honored whenever anyone enters the faith, but certainly when they want to do it with us as witnesses. Thank you for that. So we'll go ahead and before actually I begin, just to clarify, your previous faith was, what faith method do you have? Evangelical Christian. So you're an evangelical Christian. So I'm sure in your study of the faith of Islam, you are very clear that we do not believe in the divinity of any mortal human. God is one. We're a monotheistic Christian. And I believe in the Prophet Jesus who is the Prophet Muhammad who we see as a prophet and not the Son of God. Okay, great. Alhamdulillah. So now we will begin. So the phrase for the declaration of faith will begin out with Arabic. So the microphone next to you, if you can speak into that so that we can all hear you. Okay. So we say, and I invite all of you community members also to please renew your faith and repeat the shahada. It's always a good thing to do and opportunity, but certainly when we're witnessing someone enter the faith as well. So this is that. Ash. So is this mic on? Yeah. Go and check if that's on. It is? Her mic? Ash. Okay. Okay, good. So we'll recess. Sorry. Once again, just with that. Ash. Ash. Okay. So we say, and I, Muhammad and Muhammad, you're a prophet of Allah, Prophet of Allah. Ash. Ash. You're a prophet, but you're a prophet, and you see where I say, What was the meaning of what we said? I bear witness that there is no God, but God. And I bear witness that Muhammad is the last and final messenger of God. It's the last and final messenger of God. Welcome to the Fated Sister MK. I wish I could hug you because of COVID restrictions. We are giving virtual soul hugs. Insha'Allah at one point we will physically hug. But welcome to the Fated Sister MK. We are all your brothers and sisters. This is your community. You are always welcome here. We have an incredible team of community members here who are willing and ready to answer any questions you have.