 We begin with the praises of Allah SWT and the thanks to Allah SWT for allowing us to be here today on this special day of Juma, Alhamdulillah. I bear witness that there is no God except a God and that Muhammad, the son of Abdullah, is his last and final messenger. Brothers and sisters, in the few moments that we have today, inshallah, I would love to talk about this concept of success. Today, everyone is trying to sell us their version of success. Everyone is trying to tell us what success is and what success isn't. Everyone is trying to push their version of success on us, whether it be our professors at college or whether it be you two personalities, what have you. Everyone is trying to tell us that success is if you talk this way. Success is if you dress this way. Success is if you drive this car. Success is if you treat your women folk this way. However you have it, everyone is trying to tell us what success is. But as Muslims, brothers and sisters, we already have a definition of success. We just heard it. Hayyalal falaa, come to success, come to success. Allah SWT is telling us multiple times a day to come to success. We have our definition of success, Alhamdulillah. Allah SWT is telling us to come to success. SubhanAllah. And so we have to find out what is success, right? Allah SWT is calling us to success. What is it? So we think, you know, okay, it comes right after. Hayyalal salaa, hayyalal falaa, success, come to prayer, come to success. So prayer is success, and that is true. Worshiping Allah SWT's success, doing the five daily prayers is success. But success is greater than that and broader than that for us brothers and sisters, and that's a beautiful thing. But in order to see it, we have to have our Akhira glasses on. We have to have the glasses of the next life on. We can't be looking through the lens of the dunya, we have to be looking through the lens of the Akhira in order to find this greater and broader success. When we start to look through the lens of the Akhira, everything can become success for us. So what is success? Again, we talked about how it is prayer. But success is anything that brings pleasure to Allah SWT. Success is anything that brings pleasure to Allah SWT. And so when we look with the Akhira glasses, everything can become the pleasure of Allah SWT. The pleasure of Allah SWT is in the smiles that come from our father and our mother. Success, the pleasure of Allah SWT is when we give a good word to someone. Success and the pleasure of Allah SWT is when we spend time with people and make people feel better. The Prophet SAW said in the authentic hadith, and this is the English translation, so please forgive me if the translation is a little off. But the translation of this hadith is the following. The Prophet SAW said that it is more beloved to me to walk with my brother in need than to spend time in Ithikaf in the masjid. What are we saying by this? What are we trying to highlight? What is the Prophet SAW trying to tell us? That even just spending time with somebody who needs our attention can bring about the pleasure of Allah SWT and therefore brings about true success. SubhanAllah. So may Allah SWT give us the Taufiq to have true success. And brothers and sisters, every single one of you didn't need to come here today. You don't have to be here at MCC East Bay in Pleasanton, California at 2.43 p.m. on Friday afternoon. You don't have to be here. You could still be at your work. I know today's a holiday, but you could still be at your work. You could still be at your desk, shipping your code, writing whatever article you need to write. You know, doing whatever you want to do, browsing the internet, reading about the layoffs going on, whatever. You could spend your time doing whatever you want to do, but you, every single one of you made a conscious decision to come here today. Why? Because you know this is true success. This is success, brothers and sisters. Being here right now, taking time away from our busy schedules to remember Allah SWT for a moment. This is true success. And unfortunately, people are looking for success in the wrong places. They're looking for success where success is not to be found. And it's driving them insane. It's driving them mad. They keep looking. They keep looking. They keep looking. My success is in my next job promotion. Success is in the next job promotion. Success is when I update my LinkedIn profile. Success is this. Success is this. And success is not to be found there. And so then they're driving themselves crazy. They become crazy. They become mad. They're like a hamster on a wheel just running, running, running, but not going anywhere. The hamster's not going anywhere. The hamster just gets tired. One of the famous psychologists, he had a definition of insanity. He said that insanity is, his definition of insanity was the following. He said insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. And so people are doing the same thing over and over and over again expecting something different. Expecting some type of enlightenment. Expecting some type of fulfillment. But they're not getting it. This is insanity brothers and sisters, and I know we've shared these stories, these comparisons in a previous khutbah, but Alhamdulillah reminders are good, but our scholars tell us, they define the dunya in two ways and they're very profound. The first definition one of our sheikhs tells us is that the dunya is like salt water, it's like sea water. When you drink sea water, you get more thirsty. When you drink sea water, you get more thirsty. So the second you take a sip, you think you're fine, but you're only satiated for about a minute or so, and then you're more thirsty. The sodium makes you more thirsty. This is the analogy that they give for the dunya. Another analogy that our scholars give for the dunya is like, the dunya is our shadow, is like our shadow. If we go outside and stand in the sun right now and we see our shadow and we try to grab our shadow or interact with our shadow, we can't. Every time you try to touch the shadow of your hand, it's out of reach. You can't reach it. Every time you try to interact with your shadow, it's not possible. It doesn't work. But the second you walk away and ignore your shadow, your shadow follows you. SubhanAllah. When you walk, your shadow follows you. But when you try to interact with your shadow, it's always evading you. This is how the scholars describe the dunya. SubhanAllah. So brothers and sisters, we need to have our Akhira glasses on. We need to have the glasses of the next life on. And when we do this, then we understand what true success is. Then we can find the pleasure of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in every little thing that we do. And when we find the pleasure of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in every little thing that we do, that is true success. That is true success. Ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for forgiveness, for verily he forgives all sins. All praise are due to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Brothers and sisters, our religion is so beautiful and it's so easy. It's so beautiful and it's so easy. And we always try to make it so complicated and so hard. It's so beautiful and it's so easy. When we take a sip of water, when we take a bite of food, when we have a good interaction with a friend or a family member, all Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is asking from us is to say Alhamdulillah. All praise is due to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And then rewarded for that interaction that you had. You're rewarded for that sip of water that you had. You're rewarded for that bite of food that you had. You're rewarded for that interaction and that conversation you had with a friend. All you have to do is say Alhamdulillah. Just remember Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Look how simple and easy our religion is subhanallah. And when we do something wrong, when we do something wrong, when we mess up, because we're not perfect. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala could have made us angels, but he didn't make us angels. He made us human beings with all our flaws and all our problems. But what makes us better than the angels, brothers and sisters? What makes us better is the fact that we can understand that we make a mistake and we still turn to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and we ask him for forgiveness. So when we make a mistake and we mess up, all Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is asking us to do is to turn to him and do Toba. One of his blessed 99 names is Tawab, the one that turns back. When he turns to him, he turns to us in no anthropomorphic or physical way. But when we turn to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, he turns to us. Subhanallah. Look how beautiful and simple and easy this religion is. It's really not that hard. It's very simple. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala asks us to provide for our families and take care of our families and to toil in the dunya, but not to forget him and to realize that success is truly from him. So this little interaction that you guys, some of you guys didn't even drive 10 minutes to come to MCC. But in the eyes of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, what you did was huge today. Taking time out of your day to come here to sit and remember Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for a short moment. This is all Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is asking for us. This is all Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is asking of us. It's so simple and it's so easy and unfortunately we make it so confusing and so hard for people. But the Prophet ﷺ made the religion easy for people. He made the way of life of Islam easy. When the Prophet ﷺ was sent to the people of Makkah, when he was sent to Arabia, it was an age and a society where everyone was doing whatever they wanted to do. People were walking around at the Kaaba without any clothes on. People were burying their daughters. People were eating whatever they wanted to eat, doing whatever they wanted to do, treating people however they wanted to treat them. It was a society of just whatever. People were free in quotation marks. People were free. And then the Prophet ﷺ came and he put guardrails, the boundaries that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has set on us. And the whole society turned around and eventually it took time and it took energy, but the whole society turned around and accepted this religion. Why? But why would they do this when the previous life that they had was a life of freedom and doing whatever you want and saying whatever you want and being however you want? Because they realized and they understood that true freedom and true elevation was in the submission to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. That true dignity was in the submission to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And brothers and sisters for us, we're going back to a society of that time where everybody wants to be whatever they want to be. People don't even know what they are anymore. You look at somebody, you can't even tell what they are. But we understand that true submission and true success, is in the submission to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to give us Taufiq. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to make us realize and understand how easy this religion is so that we can turn back to him, continuously turn back to him, to turn back to Tawab, the one who turns back to us. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give us Taufiq. Let's raise our hands in prayer. Our Lord in this world is better than we are in the hereafter. Better than we are the believers of the punishment of the Fire. O our Lord, forgive us, forgive our sins, O our Lord, grant us mercy and mercy. We give you the God, we seek forgiveness from Allah. We ask you, Jannah, I will return you from the Fire. Allahumma innaka afoon tuhibbu Al-Afuaf, afoon na ya kareem. Allahumma innaka afoon tuhibbu Al-Afuaf, afoon na ya kareem. Allahumma innaka afoon tuhibbu Al-Afuaf, afoon na ya kareem. Ya Allah, we turn to you in this moment right now. Ya Allah, we turn to you. We turn to you and we ask you for your forgiveness and we ask you for your khid and your lutf and your afya. Ya Allah, we ask you to be gentle with us. Ya Allah, we ask you to allow us to worship you in an easy and gentle way and to give us Taufiq to worship you. Ya Allah, we ask you, Ya Allah, to put barakah and our marriages, to put barakah in our families to take care of our youth, to elevate our community. Ya Allah, we ask you to be gentle with all of us.