 servants of Allah. I counsel all of you and I counsel myself first and foremost to ask forgiveness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. The human condition is a condition of trials and tribulations and overcoming those trials and tribulations. But the question that has to be asked is how do we overcome our trials and tribulations? And this is really what the Prophet's peace be upon all of them from the first Prophet until our Prophet ﷺ all of the Prophet's came with the same essential message to teach people the right way to teach people the right path what's called the Siraat al-Mustaqeem, the straight path. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, وَأَلَّهُ إِسْتَقَامُ وَعَرَبْ طَرِقَةِ دَاسْقِيْنَهُمْ مَا اِنْ قَدَقَةَ Had they been upright on that path they would have been given rain and copious amounts in abundance. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala test people. These tests are to bring us back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. لَعَلَّكُمْ تَرْجِعُونَ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَضَرْعَعُونَ In order that you are humbled by your sins, by your mistakes, that you try to redress and rectify them. The basic morality of our species is very simple. It's not a difficult morality. And so when we talk about sinfulness, which is almost a word that has been excised from the English vocabulary, it's a word that people want to remove from their dictionaries, from their lexicon. They have criminal law, which is positive law made by men. But there's other law working in the world. It's a metaphysical law. It's a law of cause and effect. It's a law of you so, you reap what you so. And the basic morality of the human being was summed up in the Ten Commandments. This was a country, despite all of its problems in the past, it had an ideal commitment to those Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments were enshrined in many places. They've been removed because they say that we separate church and state, which is fine to separate church and state. But it doesn't change the fundamental truths of those commandments, which are shared throughout the world, whether you're Abrahamic people or not. People everywhere had an understanding of those basic commandments. Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala in Al-An'a'am and other places in the Qur'an. There are three places where Allah sums up the morality of this book, the morality of the Qur'an. Ta'ala. Ta'ala means to come, but it also means to elevate yourselves. Elevate yourselves to the discourse of this book. Atlu alaykum ma haramah rabbukum. You know, come and listen to what your Lord has told you is prohibited for you to do. It's prohibited for you to do. Allatu shiruku bihi shay'a. That you don't associate with your Lord. This is the first in the Decalogue of the Jews and the Christians. And we share this land with many Jews and Christians. This is the first commandment in the Decalogue. Now shalt not have gods beside me. Allah says, Laatu shirku bihi shay'a wa bilwali daini ihsana. Honor thy parents. Honor thy parents. This is the fundamental relationship. If this relationship is upset, then the balance is upset. And we see everywhere parents being disregarded, disrespected by their children, even murdered in many cases now. Matricide and patricide has become a common occurrence in our newspapers of people killing their own parents. But then Allah SWT says about the parents because there's a two-way relationship. There's a two-way relationship. Allah SWT says, Don't kill your parents. Don't kill your children out of fear of poverty. Don't abort your children. Don't spiritually kill them. Don't force them to do things that are inappropriate for them. So the parents also have a responsibility to honor their children. The Christians have an understanding of this in their own book, in the New Testament. Paul says to the people, Honor your parents. But then he says to the parents, Don't give your children reason to dishonor you. This is the relationship. And this is the foundation of human society. Is the family. And if the family becomes corrupt, if the family becomes the base, if the relationship between the parents is disrupted with their children, then this is the beginning of a chaos in a society. And then Allah SWT says, We will provide for you and them. We will provide for you and for them, for your children. And for you, don't worry about your provision if you honor these laws. Now we move in to the next relationship between the self and the sins of the soul. These are called in some traditions the hot sins, Don't go near sexual perversions and deviations. Don't go near them, Don't go near them, don't go near what is manifest from them and what's hidden, the hot sin of human being. Wala taqtunun nafsallati haram allahu illa bil haqq. And don't kill, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not phonicate. These are basic messages that have been given to us as guidelines for our lives. They're not difficult. That's what Allah has counseled us to do. In order that you might understand and use your intellects. And now we move into the real grave sins after these which are the sins of commerce. Don't go near the wealth of the orphan. Those people, the children, don't devour or consume their wealth, illa bil la tihia ahsan. Hatta yaduqa ashutda. Wainful kaila wal mizan. And be just in your commerce, in your commercial transactions. You look at how our country has become filled with the sinfulness of Wall Street. The sinfulness of all of these haram transactions and abuse of people's wealth. It's widespread rampant in our country. And these are the sins that the religions don't talk about anymore. The economic sin. The recent pope began to address them and they called him a communist. Simply for bringing up the economic sins against poor people. But these are real sins. Wainful kaila wal mizan bil qisba. And then a reminder. We don't give you more than you can bear. You can practice these things. These are things that are outside of your ability to practice this basic fundamental morality. It's not outside of your ability. Wainful kaila wal mizan bil qisba. Wainful kaila wal mizan bil qisba. And when you speak, speak up right. Speak truthfully, speak justfully. Well, O Canada, Kourba, even if it's against your own people, your own relatives. Even if it's against your own religion. If your co-religionists are doing things that are wrong, you have to speak out against it. Because truth is truth, no matter where it comes from. And the Muslims should be people of truth. Shuhadah. Witnesses. We're supposed to be witnesses and you look at what Muslims are doing everywhere. Our communities filled with sinfulness. We're filled, we have racism. We have racism in our community, the public prohibited racism. And then we have the cheating, the lying. And then we have these crimes of, terrible crimes against people, against masjids. And now we see what's happening all over the world. If people don't wake up and see how serious what's happening. Look at Ukraine. Ukraine is in a major crisis. Syria. Afghanistan. Iraq. What will it take? Does it have to come here until we wake up? What does it take for human beings to wake up and simply do one thing? Two more it Allah. Just turn back to your Lord. And then Allah SWT says, Fulfill this covenant with God. This is a simple covenant. Just a few commandments. Fulfill this covenant with God. Fulfill this covenant. This is what Allah is asking us to do. Right now the scientists say that there is about four miles up along the coast of California is a pressure that's preventing storms from coming in. It's like a wall that has been put up. Who put that wall up? You see, the materialists don't believe these things anymore. But the people that were here before, they had Anoni Indians that were here before. If they had drought, they knew what to do. They would ask forgiveness. They would go make atonement. Aboriginal people understand this. Modern people have become so divorced from nature. So now they think, oh, what a beautiful day. It is a beautiful day indeed. But it's not a day to make you smile when it should be raining. It's not a day to make a smile. We should be worried. Governor Brown said that this is only the beginning. That's what he said. Now he has privy to information we don't have. What do they know that we don't know? What's going on? Because everywhere this planet seems to be in turmoil. Not just in human turmoil, but natural turmoil. And there's a relationship, and this is what modern people deny. They deny the relationship between human behavior and between the natural world. But the ancients all understood this. They understood this. They understood ate. They understood nemesis. The Greeks understood it. The Hindus understood it. The Buddhists understood it. The Muslims understood it. The Christians, the Jews, they all understood it. Modern man doesn't understand it. Modern man is in denial. Modern man thinks that his actions have no impact. As long as he's not hurting anybody. No. Our actions have great impact and we're hurting many, many things. Abu Hurairah, R.A., said, Someone who said, That even the bird dies in the nest because of the sins of human beings. They're oppression against themselves and against others. The drought is from our own doing. I once said to my sheikh, That the biggest terrorist is nature. Because he can do what no terrorist can do. And he said, No, the biggest terrorist is the human being. Because nature only does to the human being what the human being deserves. You have no problem with what you have done. And know a lot about it. That any affliction that comes to you is from what your own hands have brought. And how much does he forgive? He forgives much. When you take away the people of Allah, you'll hurt them. If Allah took human beings to account, He wouldn't leave anything on the earth. The Prophet said, Very easy with your Lord. Because had it not been for the children that are suckling and for young people with piety and for animals grazing, he would not have left any of you. So this is something for us to think deeply about. To contemplate. In our tradition, even the Ahlul Kitab are to come out. They're welcome to come out and pray with us. Because we're all in this together. We're all in this together. And we need the prayers. We need fasting. We need Tawba. People should be doing things. Really. Because it affects all of us. It affects our children. If this drought continues, you will see serious consequences to this drought. Already they're starting to show. But they will get worse. There will be rationing of water. People will be forced to ration the water they use in this state. And that's why we need the rain. May Allah give us rain. May Allah forgive us. Astaghfirullah. Astaghfirullah. Astaghfirullah. You said, Astaghfirullah, May Allah forgive your Lord. He sent heavens for you with His grants. May He make you rich from your children. May He make you paradise and paradise from your water. They laughed at Noah. And now they can laugh at people coming out to pray for rain. People don't believe in these things anymore. Many people don't believe in these things. That's fine. They laughed at Noah. They can laugh. But we believe in God, we believe that it's God that rules this universe, that there's a power behind all of this, that there's a reason why we were created. There's no shame. This is what should give human beings some sense of pride, that they're servants of their Creator, that they're grateful to their Creator. Not that this is some kind of backward, pre-modern thinking before we knew all the answers. No. Why can't they? All the technology, why can't they bring the rain? All they can ask you to do is ration. This is the extent of all this knowledge that they have, they just tell you, use less water. That's all they have. You can't see clouds that aren't in the sky. We believe that God is the one that brings the clouds. He has angels that have this system. The Qur'an talks about the riyah as a sign of God. Now we know how sophisticated the wind system on this planet is. It's a very sophisticated system. And now we know. We didn't know that knowledge, but the Qur'an had that knowledge. Now in conclusion, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam told us some very profound things and this is about the metaphysical nature of our actions and our behavior. And he sought refuge in these things. He told them about certain khisal, qualities in people. And he said, I seek refuge in God that you never see this. The first one he said, This is the first one. That sexual deviations and perversions never manifest in the people except God afflicts them with diseases that were unknown to the previous generation. They will get diseases. This is a metaphysical reality. Now some people will say, but how it doesn't just affect them, it affects everybody. Exactly. That's what the Qur'an says. اتقوا فِتْسْنَ تَلْلَاتُوا سِبَنْ لَلْدِينَ ضَرَبُمْ مِنْ كُمْ حَاصَىَ Be, protect yourself against calamities that don't just afflict the wrongdoers because if it only afflicted the wrongdoers, everybody would just say, well, let them do their wrong and they'll get there. No, but because it afflicts all of us, we have to stand up and condemn it. We have to say, this is wrong. They can say to us, just respect us. We respect you. Respect us. No, in order for you to respect us, you have to respect our, not only our right, but our understanding and our responsibility to condemn what you're doing, to condemn it. We have to, in order to be true to our faith, in order to protect and guard ourselves from what we believe are calamities that won't just afflict you, but they will also afflict us. This is a real problem on this planet now, these differences of understanding. But as far as I can tell, science is on our side. If we're really rational, if we really believe in rationality and what makes sense and what science is telling us. This is telling us there are certain things that you shouldn't do because they're dangerous. And as far as I know, there's nothing in our religion that's halal, that's harmful. But everything that's prohibited has harm in it. There's nothing in our religion that's prohibited that doesn't have harm in it. Nothing. And everything that's permitted is good for us. It's just using the intellect. Affara taqilun wum ahsum min Allahi khutmah. What's better than Allah's judgment? That's the first. But then he said the second one. Ma naqsa qawmun min al-mizan awan mikiad. That no people become unjust in their commercial transactions illa except that they get the tribulation of sinin. And this is drought that continues. See people, again, religions only talk about sexual problems. Our religion addresses the grave sin of economics. And you look at the economic inequality now that they're all talking about finally. They're starting to talk about this incoming inequality. These are the reasons that people are brainless with help from people when there's economic injustice. This is what Allah swt has told us through his prophet. So this is a grave tribulation. And then he said that if a people, if they refuse, ma min aqumun, zakat al-amwadihim, illa tulu bi habsa qatar. The rain, if they don't help poor people, because economic injustice is one thing where you steal from people, exploit them, all these things. But then when you have wealth and you don't help others with the wealth, then the rain is withheld from you. This is what our prophet Salaam said. These are metaphysical realities and you can't get around them. The Christian people and the Jewish people, their tradition, they know many of these things. But unfortunately, many of them have forgotten. The Qur'an says that had they only established the Torah and the Injir, wala wala aqamu tawratu wa l-injir wa ma'unzila min rabbim, had they only established the Torah and the Gospel and what has come from their Lord, la'akulu min faqihim wa min tahti abjulihim, they would eat from above them, from the fruit trees, and from below them, from what comes from the earth. They would eat from all that. And then Allah swt says about them min hu'umatum muqtasida. There are good people among them, righteous people, moderate people. But then Allah swt says, But many of them no longer practice what they know to be true. And they've left it. So we're living in a country that has made many positive strides undeniably. And we have to acknowledge that. But there are many things that they've gone backwards on. And we see the results of it. So may Allah swt forgive us our sins. I'm going to turn towards the Qibra, make dua. May Allah swt answer all of our prayers. May Allah swt bring rain, insha'Allah, that nurtures the earth. Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim. Allahumma la nahti san'ana alaika anta al-hamathina ta'ala naftika. Ya'udin, ya'kareen, ya'jabbar, ya'ghaffar. Ya'dal jaladi, ya'dal jaladi wa rikram. Anta khaliqu kulli shaykh. Anta rabbu l-'alameen. Anta khalaqtana, Anta rahimtana, Anta razaqtana, Anta akramtana, Anta ahsansa ilayna wa n'ahnu assa'na ilayka bi-znubina. Allahumma kthildana wa rahamna wa tuba'lina. Allahumma kthildana wa rahamna wa tuba'lina. Allahumma inna dhrubana qada habisit anna al-antaa. Wa n'ahnu na'atarifu wa amamaki ya'arhamar-rahmeen. Inna dhrubana qada habisit anna al-antaa. Our sins have made this water be prevented from us. O Allah, forgive us our sins. Allahumma aski biladuna, give our land water, give our animals water, give our children water. Ya'Allah, give the innocent among us water, ya'Allah. Allahumma thildana wa rahamna wa tuba'lina. Allahumma ahyi al-balad al-mayit. Allahumma inna ka qubta wa anamu anallahi ya'hi al-artha ba'ana moutiha. And know that your Lord brings the earth back to life after it's dead. Allahumma show us your sign. Let us see the earth come back to life. We see it's death and we know our sins and we ask you to forgive us, ya'arhamar-rahmeen. Allahumma bring this earth back to life. Anta arhamar-rahmeen. Allahumma thildana wa rahamna wa tuba'lina. Wa muslima tada hiya minhum al-amwal. Allahumma la tuwakhidna bi ma fa'la al-sufaha'u minna. Allahumma la tuwakhidna bi ma fa'la al-sufaha'u minna. Ya'arhamar-rahmeen. Allahumma ya'arab al-alameen. Ya'amaliki yawmideen. Allahumma thildana ya'arhamar-rahmeen. Allahumma qubta wa qawduk al-haq. Astaghfiru rabbakum. Innukha ghaffara yursir al-sema'arekum idrara. Faha na hnuna astaghfiruka wa natubu ilayka. Allahumma arsil anina antaaran. Allahumma arsil anina antaaran. Ya'arhamar-rahmeen. Allahumma qufudna wa rahamna wa tuba'lina. Innaka anta tawwab. Allahumma barak bi habibina. Sayyidina Muhammad al-ladyi rafa'iyadehi wa kawwanta al-sahab. Ma ma'iyyuna sahab. Ya'arhamar-rahmeen. Allahumma kama d'aak. Ya'Allah na hnuna d'uubi sumnatihi bi haadat istisqaa. Allahumma arzukna ya'Allah. Allahumma arzukna wa la tahlimna. Anta arhamar-rahmeen. Allahumma la tahlimna. La tahlimna. Anta arhamar-rahmeen. Allahumma astu r'iyyubna ya'Allah. Wa l-fir b'nubna ya'Allah. Allahumma baidin jira'im wal muharramat. Anta arhamar-rahmeen. Allahumma arzukna ya'Allah. Anta arhamar-rahmeen. Allahumma arzukna ya'Allah. Allahumma n'adda bi qulubna wa tahir al sinatna wa aadanana ya'Allah. Allahumma baidin n'al fawahish wal munkaraat ya'arhamar-rahmeen. La ilaha illa anta subhanika n'ahmaduku wa n'ashkuruku wa mitubu ilaiki ya'Allah. La ilaha illa anta. Allahumma inna n'akulu wa n'achnu muslimun. Ashhadwa la ilaha illa Allah. Ashhadwa anna muhammadun abduhu wa rasuluhu. Allahumma bi haqi hali kalimah astajib lana. Inna ka fukta. Adda'un astajib lakum. Allahumma n'achnu n'adda'uka f astajib lana. Subhanika ya'Allah. La ilaha illa anta. Subhana Rabbi ka Rabbi d'izzati amma ya'sifun. Wa l-salaamun aal al mursaleen. Wa l-hamdu lillahi Rabbi arameen. Aameen ya Rabbi arameen. Bismillah, the sunnah is to repeat this. If rains don't come until they come. So my recommendation for people in the Masajid that we should do the salat that is to spa. People are busy, it's difficult for them to come out. But we can do insha'Allah in the Masjids. People insha'Allah in our different Masjids. And we should ask people around California, the Muslims to do this insha'Allah. Jazakum Allah khair.