 O you who believe, don't die without having given yourself to God, without having given yourself to God. Don't die without having given yourself to God, without having surrendered, submitting, embracing God's control, God's ownership, God's as your rub, as your owner, the one who molds you and me, the one who takes care of me and you. We begin by praising Allah and our praise can never be enough. And then we thank Allah and our thanks can never be enough. And then we remind ourselves that we weren't made for this world, be in this world as a stranger or a traveler. We're best, we're strangers in this world, we're aliens in this world, we're aliens in this world, we're worldlings, worldlings, worldlings, because our home is in jannah and paradise and we're all on a journey going there. And sometimes we forget about that journey. And then we warn ourselves we're going back to our maker, going back to our creator, going back to our judge, going back to our owner to potentially be asked how did you live your life, how did you honor your mom, how did you spend your time, how did you use your eyes, how did you use your ears, did you call me, did you ask me, did you surrender to me before you died, did you acknowledge that you have an owner? My question for all of us today is what does your spiritual resume look like? It has different sections on the resume, you know it has like instead of professional background and career and education and hobbies and other interests and mission statement. So it's our spiritual resume and so it has the section of Quran and it has dhikr and it has parents and it has sunnah, sunnah, bite it with your molars, bite it with your molars, grip it with your molars and what are our hobbies on our resume? And do we have any gaps? Do we have any gap years? Oh, what's this gap year? You didn't touch the Quran for three years. Oh, what's that gap? Can you explain? Oh, the sunnah, so in our resumes we like to be progressing, right? We like to be promoted. We like to have certificates. Did we join the group of ibad-ur-Rahman, the merciful, the group of the people of the all merciful? Did we join that group? You know we have group affiliations. Did we join the group ibad-ur-Rahman, the people of the merciful, of the all merciful? Did we join that group? Is that one of our certificate? Did we join the groups of the group of those who pray at night? Did our resume increase or did we used to read maybe the Quran once every five years? Now we read it once a year, now we read it once every two months, now we read it once a month. We used to do no dhikr, then I started to do dhikr, and I started to say la ilaha illallah one hundred times in the morning, or astaghfirullah, turn to Allah a hundred times. Or how about the sunnah? How about the sunnah? Inna allah kataba al-ihsanah ala kulli shayt, God prescribed excellence in everything. Even if you slaughter an animal, slaughter with ihsanah, with excellence. We sharpen the sword to reduce the pain from the animal. We don't let the animal see the blood. We don't let the animal see another animal being slaughtered, right? Even a slaughterhouse can be beautiful, and that's a slaughterhouse. So God commanded excellence in everything. How about our resume about how we treated our family? How about this, did we honor our parents? Maybe my hobby was massaging my mom's feet once a week or once a day. Like that story of that man, the three men that were stuck in the cave, they were stuck in a cave, and the boulder came and blocked the door. And so they beseeched God and petitioned God through acts of sincerity. And one of them said, one of them was a story where he refused fornication and inappropriate relationships, and then the boulder moved by the power of God. They called God by that act. The other one was through, he used to come and bring milk for his family, and he would give his parents before his own children. And one day he came and returned home, and his parents were asleep, so he stood by them and didn't wake them up and waited for them to wake up, so he can share with them the milk until they woke up, then he gave them the milk. And then God accepted that prayer and moved the boulder again. And the third one was an act of generosity. What does our resume look like for how we spend our money? Are we increasing, or are we stagnant, because we don't want our resume to be stagnant. We don't want to be stagnant, right? We want promotions. We want promotions. So are we giving more than we used to? Are we sacrificing more than we used to? And this is the real life. This is the real journey. And these are the reminders, and all of us, all of us can improve one thing. How about our gentleness to our wife, or our gentleness to our husband? How about our arguments, our arguing? Did we reduce the amount we argued, or do we always have to have the last word? زي ين لهم الشيطان وأحمالهم؟ God says in the Qur'an, Satan, the devil, decorated their actions for them, made the ugly beautiful. And each generation has different actions, that ugly actions that are beautified as dupery of the devil. A long time ago, we know that they used to bury their daughters alive, and that was a noble or honorable action. The ugly was made beautiful. What are the tricks that we've potentially been duped by? Maybe it's this notion of freedom, and the false application of freedom. Freedom to sin, or freedom from sin. Freedom to obey all of my desires, how I want, when I want, where I want. And that provides happiness, that's the recipe to misery. Or is it true freedom, freedom from my desires? So no one controls me, chocolate chip cookies don't control me. No one can push my buttons. Maybe that's the… maybe that notion is being misconstrued or misapplied a little bit. Where there are these invisible chains that control someone and we need to break those chains. So whoever goes out of bounds against God, or people, and prefers this life over the next life, then their abode is the hellfire. However, whoever ... whoever honors or fears the presence of his Lord, or the station of his Lord, the maqam of his Lord, whoever honors that, do we honor the role of our Lord in our life? Do we honor the role of God in our life? Or is God, Staghfirullah, Audhu Billahi min-Shaitan al-Rajim, for even thinking it or saying it, is God this little part that we take out of the drawer whenever we want? Audhu Billahi. Now I want to do the God thing, the religious thing. Okay, let me put you back in the drawer, Audhu Billahi min-Shaitan al-Rajim, so I can go back to my life. Let me go back to my life. Does prayer get in the way of life? Is it a complete obstacle to life? Or is God, Subhanahu wa Ta'ala, Islam, infused and permeate all of our actions and thoughts? I say this, and I ask forgiveness from Allah and turn to Him. He accepts the one who turns to Him. Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah wa Salatu wa Salamu ala Rasulillah. Alhamdulillah for the gift of guidance Islam that we have. And a lot of people, a lot of people don't have this guidance to guide them. They're in the dark. They don't know the true recipe to be happy. A lot of people are missing that guidance, that recipe, right? And so they follow the recipe to misery, right? The whims, right? Wa amma man khafama qama rabbihi wanahan nafsah anil hawa. Whoever honors and fears the station and presence of their Lord and denies their ego, it's whims. Fa inna al jannahahiyal ma'wa. Their abode is heaven and paradise. Amazing. And that is our abode and that's waiting for us. And so today is a call in every Friday with this beautifully designed religion by the Divine. This is divinely designed religion. God authored this religion and authored us, and He knows what we need. He knows what we need, right? And so He orchestrated and put this Friday gathering together so we can have some perspective and go back into the world and back into our life journeys, right? While reinvigorated to commit and submit to Allah and say, Ya Allah, I live for you, I talk for you, I only get angry for you. I love for you and I give for you, Ya Allah, right? And so this idea of Inna Allah kattab al ihsanah ala kulli shayt, God commanded excellence in everything. In everything, the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, was always elegant. His hair was oiled. His beard was beautiful. He had a comb. He smelled lovely. He put perfume on. On Fridays, he'd clip his nails. They were always clean. He would dress his best on Fridays. Showers were encouraged. Of course, using them as swaq before we enter our home when we wake up. The toothbrush so we can smell nice. Excellence in everything. Excellence in everything. The way we walk, yamshoona halal ardi hauna. Is that in our spiritual resume? I'm on the group of the all merciful. They walk gently on this world. They're not heavy. They're not arrogant. Should I tell you who's forbidden from the fire and who the fire is forbidden from him? Do you want to know? The messenger of God asked this question. Do you want to know who's forbidden from the fire and the fire is forbidden for him? Al hayyina layyina sahal al qareem. The easygoing. The flexible. The close. The one who's approachable. Samhan idha ba'a samhan idha qadha. The one who's easygoing and friendly. The one who forgave the person's debt and let them pay late. Allah said you're not more generous than me. I forgive your sins. Take him to heaven. And so this is a call for all of us to have ihsan. And to apply this ihsan in everything as Muslims. Muslims are dignified and elegant in everything we do. And we get angry for God, not for ourselves. And in conclusion, in conclusion, sometimes it's difficult. Sometimes it's difficult to be gentle and forgiving and loving. Sometimes it's difficult, right, to not get angry. Sometimes it's difficult to be generous to the one who wasn't nice to me. Sometimes it's difficult to talk to my uncle or cousin or brother that harmed me, that took advantage of me, that abused me. Sometimes it's difficult, you know. I was good to him for 10 years and then he treated me this way or that way. Sometimes it's difficult. And so we need to take a moment and turn off these eyes of the head and turn on the eyes of the heart and deal with Allah. So that moment can be a little easier. So if I give a friend, if I give a friend, on Monday I give him Kit Kat. And on Tuesday I give him Kit Kat. And on Wednesday I give him Kit Kat. And on Thursday he has Kit Kat and I ask him for someone he says no. On Friday, is it going to be easy for me to give him Kit Kat? It's not going to be easy. However, I want to pause and think about this verse in the Qur'an and let's scratch Kit Kat. Let's say it was a Samosa. Monday Samosa, Tuesday Samosa, Wednesday Samosa. Thursday he doesn't give me Samosa, right, because we're Muslim. Friday is it going to be easy for me to give him a Samosa? So Allah says in the Qur'an. Now let's listen to this. Whatever you give to yourselves from goodness you will find it with Allah. So that Samosa that I gave, I actually, even though I gave it to my friend, I actually gave it to two others. Number one, I'll find it with Allah. So I actually gave it to Allah. Number two, I actually gave it to myself. How? I gave it to my future invisible self. What does that mean? Myself from the day of judgment. My spiritual self that is getting the reward, that's getting the hasanat. Whatever you give to yourself from goodness you will find with Allah. So now on Friday, on Friday am I giving to that same friend, the Samosa, the Kit Kat, the invitation, the $50, the car ride, the help. No, I'm not giving it to my friend. I'm giving it to myself. I'm giving it to Allah. So then it becomes a little easier on Friday. It becomes a little easier to do this hasan. And the reward of hasan is ihsan. When you treat people with ihsan, Allah will treat you with ihsan. And even more. So on Friday, I'm going to give the one who's greeted to me. I'm going to forgive the one who harms me. And I'm going to connect with the one who pushed me away. My brother, my uncle, my father. Why? Not for them, not because they got one on me. It's for Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala. For you, ya Allah. And then Allah takes care of us. Don't you want Allah to forgive you? Well then forgive that person who harmed you. Don't you want Allah to give you? Well then give that person who was greedy to you. Do you want Allah to connect with you? Then connect. This past week there was someone who was sick and they had a caretaker at their home and I spoke to that caretaker and I said, you know, thank you so much for doing this and taking care of that sick person. And you know what that person told me? They said, I'm enjoying being with Allah. I was like, what do you mean? And then it's that famous hadith. The famous hadith Allah says, I was sick. In the hadith, I was sick. You didn't visit me. How can you be sick? How can I visit you? You're the Lord of the worlds. My servant so-and-so was sick and if you visited him, you would have found me there. You would have found me there. So taking care of that sick person, you're with Allah. You make du'a. And that's why visiting the sick is such a beautiful action. Even if they're far, even if they're far, we drive to visit the sick. We have a beautiful religion, the most beautiful religion. The most beautiful. We just have to trust God and do what God wants even when we don't understand why, right? We have the most amazing religion. This is one of my favorite sunnahs. When someone's parents die is to visit your parents' friends. That's part of our sunnah. That's part of our Islamic tradition. Why? Because it's a system to take care of the elders that are lonely in their home. You have these lonely elders. They're 70, they're 80, may Allah protect them and give them health and happiness. All of a sudden all these 30, 40, 50 year olds are visiting them and their heart is touched. This is the system designed by Allah. We have the most beautiful way of life, the most beautiful religion. And so in conclusion again as we started, what does your spiritual resume look like? How is your Qur'an section? How is your dhikr section? How is your parents' section? How is your sunnah section? How many sunnahs do you do? How many sunnahs do you do? And let's do more of the sunnah and be proud of it. It's the most beautiful way. And we do it in a way that's relevant to our context inshallah. And so how is the section on our resume? Are there any gaps that we need to fill? And everyone has a different one. And that's where we're on this journey. Be in this world as a stranger or a traveler. And then we go back and we return to our abode of heaven. Allah's doors are always open. Go to Allah with sins all the way to the clouds. And ask Him to forgive you and turn to Him. He will accept and forgive you. Go to Allah with sins as much as the entire earth. Mount Everest and all the mountains, all the mountains. And Allah will match you with forgiveness. Allah's doors are open. The most beautiful doors. We just have to knock on those doors. Who's calling me so I may answer Him? Who's asking me so I may give Him? Who wants forgiveness so I may forgive Him? Allah asks every night. Every night in the last third of the night. And then in that beautiful hadith, hadith number 42 in the book of 40 Hadith of Imam An-Novi on forgiveness. Wala'ubali. I won't even mind. All of those sins in those 20 years, 10 years, 5 years, I won't even mind. As long as you turn to me and ask me, I won't even, I'll forgive you and I won't even mind. I won't even mind. You'll be my beloved servant. You'll be my Wali. So insha'Allah all of us on our spiritual resume, we can put, I was a Wali, a friend of God. Ameen, Ameen, Ameen. Wa'alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen. Allahumma salli ala Sayyidina Muhammad wa ala ala Sayyidina Muhammad. Kama salli ala Sayyidina Ibraheem wa ala ala Sayyidina Ibraheem. Ya Allah, we turn to You in this moment and we ask You to be proud of us. We ask You to send peace down to us. We ask You to cover us and immerse us in Your mercy. We ask You to surround us with the angels. We ask You to mention us in a greater gathering. We ask You to write us from those of the people of paradise. We ask You to help us have victory over our lower selves, over our whims, over our egos and to let us live for You and to let us trust You more than we trust our own selves and to only get angry for You and to use our tongue only in a way that makes You happy because You made our tongue and You own it and it belongs to You. To use our eyes only in a way that makes You happy because You made our eyes and gave us our eyes and to use our ears only in a way that makes You happy because You gave us our ears and You made them Ya Allah. Ya Allah, the day of judgment is real. We ask You, we fear that pain and that chastisement and that questioning and that interrogation and we ask You to write all of us in this group of the people of paradise without questioning and to help us honor our mothers, our fathers and to forgive those who've harmed us and to connect with those who've pushed us away and to be generous to the one who's greeted to us. Ya Allah, we ask You for everything good that our superhero prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam asked You for and we seek protection from every harm that he sought protection from and let us be proud Muslims. Let us not be copycats. Let us not be copycats. Let us have true freedom. True freedom from our desires, true freedom from our whims and not to be blindlessly obeying our desires, our whims or this praying culture, P-R-E-Y, this praying culture. We ask You to give us the goodness of this culture and the goodness of this civilization and to protect us from any of its wrongness and blameworthiness. I mean, I mean, I mean please accept this prayer and accept us and send peace and blessings on our master Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and his family and his children and his companions and everyone who follows him and let us be from them, ya Allah.