 Alhamdulillah wa shukrulillah. One of the early imams of our tradition, Ibn Ata'illah, he says, if I want to know your fate, look at what your fate is. If I want to know your fate, look at what your fate is. And this expresses one of the foundational guiding principles of the mu'min, one of the foundational guiding principles of the believer. This principle translates to that if you want to know, if you want to know where you stand with him, if you want to know your place with him, your rank with him, then look carefully, observe where he places you. Look carefully and observe where he keeps you. And so one of the most important foundational questions for the believer, when the believer engages in introspection, self-examination, as the philosophers say, the unexamined life is not worth living. So that's true for the believer. The believer is a person of ma'arifatunafs, knowledge of the self, that one of the first questions they ask is, fimadah aqamani. You know, where is he placing me? Where is he, Spannu Ta'ala, placing me? What are my days and nights like? And where does my mind wander, especially in the prayer? And one of the most important litmus tests, or measures, gauges for where one is with Allah Ta'ala is the salat itself. What is the quality of our prayers? Quantity, with our busy lives in the modern world, it's very difficult to take on a lot of quantity. We should strive to increase. But one thing that we can all do irrespective, regardless of how busy we are with our obligations in the world, is to look at the quality of our prayers. What's the quality of our salawat? The five obligatory prayers are the most important. And then any other of the sunan emphasize sunnas, where are our hearts during the prayer? Where are our minds during the prayer? Is the prayer filled with light and illumination and remembrance of Allah Ta'ala? And the existential states of the heart that are appropriate for the prayer, like gratitude, like contentment, like expressing need for Allah, like Heba having reverential awe for the divine, like hayat, like having shame and modesty before the divine majesty, like ultimately, love, the sunnah of our Prophet, sallallahu alayhi sallam, is to pray with love. He is Habibullah, sallallahu alayhi sallam. What are our existential, or do we have such existential states during the prayer? Or is the mind wandering in the valleys of dunya, that I need to take care of this and as soon as the prayer is over, I have to check off that and then there's this other thing. And by the way, I need to text this person. There's that email I have to send. And it's a litany and a list of ghafla, the valleys and the alleyways of ghafla, heedlessness. And this is something prohibited by the text of the Quran, walatakum minal ghafilin, do not be amongst those that are heedless in particular in the salat. We ask Allah for aafiyah. So just a few nights ago was the commemoration of the Isra'ul-Me'araj, the 27th of Rajab, which many ulama say it happened on that night. And the Isra'ul-Me'araj was the night in which the prayer was obligated. The most practical reflection that we take from that sublime night, and there are innumerable points of reflection and contemplation that we can have with respect to the blessed night journey and heavenly ascension of our Prophet, Sallal alayhi sallam. But of the most important, the most important, practically speaking, is the salat. And so the salat is also our opportunity to have some type of ascension. When our hearts are stuck in the mud of dunya, we're not ascending in our prayers. When our hearts are, you know, guided, being swayed right and left and this way and that way, with dunya, we're not ascending in our prayers. But when our hearts are having those sublime prophetic, Quranic existential states of gratitude, of contentment, of reverential awe and fear of the Divine and His Majesty, Jalla Thana'uhu, of satisfaction in the Divine decree of modesty and shame before Allah Ta'ala of paying attention, being present, and ultimately of love, then we're having some type of ma'raj of the heart that is a type of ascension and it is a sublime ascension. So insofar as the obligation of the prayer occurred on that night is a reflection, it corresponds to the potential, the invitation that our hearts have in our prayers. And so this is something as now we enter into Shaaban, Allah Mubarak to us in Shaaban and to Ramadan. May Allah give us barakah in this month and may Allah Ta'ala allow us to reach Ramadan and to have the best Ramadan of our lives, that this is something that we can make a concrete goal of ours. That between now and Ramadan, to really be committed to focusing on the prayer, making sure the five are prayed on time and making sure that when we pray, we are present. The Sunnah of the Prophet, SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, in the hadith, that when the man asked for advice and the Prophet said, SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, muaddia. You know, pray the prayer of someone bidding farewell. Imam Al-Ghazali, Rahimullah, in his Ehiyan al-Madin, he says, A, muaddia linafsihi wa hawahu, wa umrihi, sa'irun ila rabbihi. Yeah, he says that meaning bidding farewell to one's ego, to one's pride, and to every mundane, worldly concern of their lives and moving, traveling to his Lord. This is the, and the takbirah, you know, even the motion, SubhanAllah, like Allahu Akbar, it's like we're casting the dunya behind us. We're getting rid of these, the dunya is gonna be, it's gonna be there when we get done. It's not going anywhere and all obligations will get done. The more we focus on Allah Ta'ala, the more help he will give us, inshaAllah, with those obligations. So it's not worth it, even from a worldly, even from a, you know, a utilitarian perspective of advantage, it's disadvantageous to do that, let alone for one's relationship with Allah, let alone vis-a-vis the sharia, let alone for the welfare of one's akhirah. And so casting out, casting back the dunya and entering into presence with Allah. And Ammar ibn Yasir, the great companion, that he, he was once seen praying a short prayer. It was a short prayer, it did not take very long. And the, his, you know, companions asked him, and he said, did you see me falling short on any of the obligations, the rights of the prayer? They said, no, you did it properly, but it was a bit short. He said, I wanted to outdo the shaitan affecting me. I wanted to get, in other words, to have full concentration, better to have a shorter prayer with excellent concentration, with excellent quality, then a long prayer where the mind is just wandering this way, this way, and the other. The dunya, what is the value of the dunya? Our Prophet taught us, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he said in the hadith of the Jami'a of Imam Tirmidhi, ad dunya mal'unatun mal'unun ma fiha. You know, the dunya, mal'un means distant from Allah's mercy. It's far from Allah's mercy. And everything in it is far from Allah's mercy. Except for what? إليذكر الله Except for the remembrance of Allah swt. When Allah is remembered, now the mercy is there. When Allah is remembered, now there's illumination. When Allah is remembered, now there's enlightenment. When Allah is remembered, now there's virtue. When Allah is remembered, now there's good. When Allah is remembered, now there's beauty. Beauty is the only delight of the soul, the soul delights in beauty, and that's in the remembrance of Allah, إلا ذكر الله وما ولا and everything that Allah loves. So we're in the world, we have to be in the world, this is where Allah Ta'ala placed us, but if we are engaged in Allah's remembrance, true remembrance with focus and attention, if we are committed to fulfilling the rights of Allah Ta'ala, staying away from disobedience to him, focusing on what he is he pleased with. وعالم ومتعلم, the hadith concludes and a possessor of sacred knowledge and a learner of sacred knowledge. Those are according to the hadith where there is divine mercy and illumination. And in the Rewaya Ibn Tabarani, in his Mu'ajim Kabeer, the same hadith with the different wording, الدنيا ملعونة الملعون المفيهة this dunya is distant from Allah's mercy and everything in the dunya is distant from Allah's mercy, إلا مبتغي به وجه الله except when Allah's countenance is sought. Except when Allah's countenance is sought. In other words, whatever we're doing in the dunya, if we seek Allah Ta'ala in it, if we are doing it for the sake of Allah Ta'ala, if we're hoping for the pleasure of Allah Ta'ala, whether it be our work, whether it be our families, whether it be whatever our obligations are, then it's not ملعونة anymore, it's not distant from Allah's mercy, it is near to Allah's mercy. We ask Allah Ta'ala for Taufiq that we have lives filled with his remembrance and therefore the mercy and light of Allah and that most importantly our prayers are filled with that illumination. I say this. I ask Allah for Taufiq, I ask Allah for Taufiq. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of all the worlds. And I pray to Allah, Lord of all the worlds, and to His family, and to His companions, and to Him I submit a lot. Our prophet emphasized the value, the tremendous value and the windfall that we get when we make remembrance of Allah Ta'ala. He said in the hadith that is related to Imam al-Bukhari and al-Sahi. Sallallahu alayhi sallam, matulul ladhi yathkururabbahu waladhi la yathkururabbahu matulul haji wal-mayit. That the example of the one that makes remembrance of Allah, compared to the one that is forgetful of Allah, is like the example of the living and the dead. Like the example of the living and the dead. What's the difference between life and death? Is there a larger gulf of difference? Is there a larger vastness of difference between life and death? Thus what's the difference between a believer committed to remembrance of Allah Ta'ala, starting with the prayer, and extending then to their worldly obligations, the places that Allah places us in the world, vis-a-vis someone who is heedless, forgetful of Allah Ta'ala. The prophet emphasized, Sallallahu alayhi sallam, that Allah Ta'ala describes, how does Allah Ta'ala describe the blessed prophet Sallallahu alayhi sallam with respect to the night of Isra al-Ma'raj, the first ayah of Surat al-Israa, Subhan al-Ladhi as-Sraa bi-Abdihi, Lailan min al-Masjid al-Haram, il al-Masjid al-Aqsa al-Ladhi barak na hawlahu, linuri yahu min ayatina, innahu hu wassameel al-Basir. How glorious and exalted, it begins with zikr, Allah makes remembrance of himself, Subhan al-Ladhi as-Sraa. How glorious and exalted and sublime and august and majestic is the one that took by night, Abdihi, his servant. And the ulama mentioned that in the context of the most noble, worldly time of the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi sallam, the most noble and honorable incident of the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi sallam in this life, why? Because Ibn Abbas relates, as Tabarani relates, that Ibn Abbas relates, that the Prophet said, Sallallahu alayhi sallam, Ra'aytu Rabbi, on that night he saw his Lord Sallallahu alayhi sallam. And so in the maqam that Allah Ta'ala raised the Prophet, such that he actually had vision of Allah Ta'ala in a way we cannot understand rationally, that what is the description that the Prophet was given Sallallahu alayhi sallam, bi-Abdihi, Subhan al-Ladhi as-Sraa bi-Abdihi. Thus, the most noble state that we can aspire to is Ubudiyya Lillah, is to be true and authentic, genuine servants of Allah Ta'ala, people of Ubudiyya, people of true slavehood and servanthood to Allah Ta'ala. And the slave is there for Allah. And one of the most beautiful manifestations, going back to the prayer, which was obligated on that night, one of the most beautiful manifestations of the Ubudiyya of the Mu'min, the true slavehood and servanthood of the believer is in the Sajda. Aqrabu ma yakunan abmi rabbihi wa huwa saajid, that the Prophet described Sallallahu alayhi sallam, the closest that the servant is to his Lord is in the Sajda. Reflect on the Sajda. So if the beginning of the prayer is casting back the dunya, so we can focus and have zikr of Allah Ta'ala, then the most important part of the prayer, the Sajda, is when the face of the believer, which is the most noble part of the human being, is on the face of the earth, which is the lowest part of creation, in the sense that it is what everyone steps on. Allah made it Zalul. Allah flattened this earth so it could be walked over. It is lowly and abased. The word abased is related to base because base is bottom. So it's literally the place of abasement. And what, so we take the most noble part of our being, of our physical form, and we place it on the lowest thing between the heavens and earth. What does that lead to? E-Facement. E-Facement. That the ego is sublimated. And what's the result of a sublimated ego when the ego is rubbed down? Abd or buddhya? True servitude to Allah. That oh Allah, I'm not bringing my own self and all of these russum, all of these, what we identify with when we think of our place and our position and our prestige and our success and all of that dunya we, all the mirage, all of that illusion and delusion of the ego that the ego gets puffed up from blessings that Allah gives it, arrogant on the earth, arrogant vis-a-vis other people because of blessings from Allah Ta'ala. But in the Sajda, it's all gone. Where is our resume in the Sajda? Where is our prestige in the Sajda? What's left when we are, when the ego is effaced because the face is on the face of the earth? Abd or buddhya? True slavehood. Humble servitude to Allah. Oh Allah, here I am at your service. And that's the closest that we are to Allah Ta'ala because it wasn't about physical proximity that night. The Prophet was raised, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, past the low tree, not because Allah is located in a place but because Allah Ta'ala is showing the world his maqam, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. But we have an opportunity for sublime ascension when we go down in the Sajda. We ask Allah Ta'ala to make us people of utter need of Allah Ta'ala and abdhya to Allah Ta'ala. Slavehood and authentic genuine servitude to the divine. We ask Allah Ta'ala to make our hearts filled with gratitude and remembrance of Allah and the illumination and mercy of Allah Ta'ala that comes with that. We ask Allah Ta'ala to make us people who are realized in our prayers and therefore realized in all of our activities in this world. Allahumma ba'arik lana fi shaaban wa balliqna Ramadan. Allahumma inana saruk al-aafiya fidduniya wa l-akhirah. Allahumma inana saruk tamam al-aafiya wa dwaam al-aafiya wa shukra al-al al-aafiya wa l-ghina an-inasa rabbina atina milladunka rahmatan wa hiyyilana min amrina rashada inna allaha wa malaiqatahu yusalluna al-nabiyya. Ya ayyuhal ladina aamanu sallu alayhi wa salimu tasneema Allahumma salli wa salimu ba'arika al-asidina Muhammad al-nabiyya lumi wa ala aalihi wa sahbihi wa salimu alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen wa aqimu al-salah.