 السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم والصلاة والسلام على سيد المرسلين سيدنا ونبينا محمد وعلى آله وصحبه وسلم يا ربنا لك الحمد كما ينبغي لجلال وجهك وعظيم سلطانك اللهم افتح علينا في دبح العارفين اللهم علمنا ما ينفعنا وانفعنا بما علمتنا يا رحم الرحيمين يا رب العالمين وفرانك اللهم وايدك النصير يا رب اريد ان افتح عليكم في هذه الجهة وفي هذه الجهة will be focused on our heart so this is a series of the principles of religion so we will be talking we will be discussing acts of worshipping الله سبحانه وتعالى we will be talking in another series in the second series about the good character of a Muslim and other series will include other related topics so the reason for having this series is to get us ready to the day where we are going when we are going to leave this dunya so it has a secret in strengthening our Iman it has a secret of strengthening our relationship with الله سبحانه وتعالى it has a secret of getting us closer to سيدنا محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم so each and every Muslim should have special proofs should have special ways of proving whatever he is saying when discussing issues about our religion so these proofs from Quran and Sunnah should be in our hearts so that we talk about them we say them as proof when we need them so we want to get ready for the day when we need الله سبحانه وتعالى if we ask ourselves are we ready if the angel of death comes to us and tells us this is your time are we going to say الحمد لله غدا نلقى الأحبه محمد وصحبه oh الحمد لله we are going to meet سيدنا محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم and the companions and the loved ones are we ready or are we asking are we just getting surprised oh my God I did not do this I did not do that I did this I should not have done it I should have acted so-and-so at this incident and so-and-so at this time so where are we we want to get ready for the day that we are going to leave this dunya we want to get ready to meet الله سبحانه وتعالى and سيدنا محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم talk to us and told us about that time that we have to get ready and the first thing that we can get ready by is his words when he told us صلى الله عليه وسلم صلي صلاتك كأنك مودع pray your prayer so perform your prayer as if it is your as if it was your last prayer your praying what your praying ظهر then pray as if you this ظهر prayer is the last prayer that you are going to perform in this dunya so how would you do it how would you do this صلى الله عليه وسلم how would you how would you perform this صلى الله عليه وسلم so you would think this is my last صلى الله عليه وسلم I need to perform it too with the most perfection I can so my heart should be present in this صلى الله عليه وسلم I should be aware of each and every letter I'm going to say so if there is a reward after this صلى الله عليه وسلم after this prayer I want to get all the reward I don't want to miss any of this reward so this is what it means to صلى صلى الله عليه وسلم كأنك مودع perform your prayer as if it was your last prayer get your heart present in your صلى الله عليه وسلم now سيد محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم has given us a hint of how to meet الله سبحانه وتعالى of how to prepare our heart to meet Allah سبحانه وتعالى so our heart should be full alert so this is what سيد محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم told us so the key of happiness is to follow the sunnah of سيد محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم why because with each movement with each action that سيد محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم has done there is a secret there is a wisdom there is light so we want to get the wisdom we want to get the secrets we want to get the light of the sunnah by following سيد محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم some people say we are not going to to pray the sunnah or we don't want to say it we don't want to do anything that Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم did any extra we want to pray only the fort so whoever leaves the sunnah of سيد محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم whoever does that can be this can be explained in two ways that he is not this person is not convinced in following the sunnah of سيد محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم and doing what he did or being ignorant so why do we follow the sunnah of سيد محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم why do we emulate سيد محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم why do we want to do the same the same things that سيد محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم we want to do all that just to be coolness of an eye to say و سلام and that's the goal of following the sunnah of سيد محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم it's one way of showing our love to محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم so this is the goal of following the sunnah of سيد محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم so this series is to get us closer الله سبحانه وتعالى to get us ready to meet الله سبحانه وتعالى and to get us ready for the day when we are going to leave this dunya. How do we want that day to be? We want it to be the happiest. We want it to be the day we want this day to be the day that الله سبحانه وتعالى is pleased with everything that we do on that day. Or our actions are sincere for the sake of الله سبحانه وتعالى. No other reason. We want you to be pleased with us ya Allah. We want to meet you when you are pleased with us ya Allah. We want to be with the group about whom you said in the Qur'an several times. رضي الله عنهم ورضو عنهم. الله is pleased with this group of people and this group of people is pleased with Allah سبحانه وتعالى. How can someone be pleased with الله سبحانه وتعالى? When someone witnesses whatever goodness Allah سبحانه وتعالى has prepared for him, then he will be pleased with الله سبحانه وتعالى. So how are we going to get ready to meet Allah سبحانه وتعالى? We want to perform our prayer and I'm going to say a list now and we will be talking about each and every one of these aspects. So we want to perform our prayer. This is the first and most important thing. When we pray, we want this prayer to be performed in the Qur'an. الله سبحانه وتعالى says الذين يقيمون الصلاة. Those who perform prayers. He did not say those who pray. No. He said those who perform their prayer. So we will be talking about that. So another action is giving the zikar and giving the sadaqa. So there is ways to do that. There are ways to do that. And there is a way of how to perform it just for the sake of Allah سبحانه وتعالى. Another action is fasting. How to perform our fasting? How to how to perform our fasting? How to fast in a way that Allah سبحانه وتعالى is accepting our fasting? We want our fasting not to be just abstaining from water and food and other permissible things that Allah has allowed us to do during the day except for when we are fasting. So we don't want just to abstain from things. We want to get the reward for abstaining from these things. Another action is Hajj. When we perform our Hajj. When we go to Hajj. So what are the things that we have to do that Allah سبحانه وتعالى is accepting our Hajj? So what are the things that we have to do so that Hajj will get us closer to Allah سبحانه وتعالى? Another action is reciting the Quran. What are the secrets of reciting the Quran? What is the secret of reciting the Quran? How can we get the light of the Quran in our heart? Another action is remembrance. How do we remember Allah سبحانه وتعالى? What is the best zikr to do? What is the closest way to get us closer to Allah سبحانه وتعالى? What is the best way? Then we will also be talking about seeking the lawful. So we know that there are things that Allah سبحانه وتعالى has prepared for us. He made things lawful for us. But there are things that are not lawful. We cannot do them. It's not permissible to get closer to them. So what are these lawful things that we can do to get closer to Allah سبحانه وتعالى? Then we will be talking about good companionship. Who is a companion in this dunya? Would you say in the Muhammad ﷺ say about him or about her? What are the most important characteristics that we have to seek in a companion? And we have so many friends of Allah talking about companionships. So the Muhammad ﷺ talked a lot about a companion. And the easiest way to think of a companion is what the Muhammad ﷺ said. من ينهدك إلى الله حاله ويدلك على الله مقالم. A companion is the one who if you sit with him, if you sit with her, if you sit with this person, you will feel immediately that your faith status is being elevated. When you hear his words, you will feel that his words or her words get you elevated. Get you closer to Allah. Get you to know Allah سبحانه وتعالى. So we will be talking about companionship. We will also be talking about commanding good and forbidding evil. How? What can we do? What is good? What's evil? How can the sound heart differentiate between good and evil? There is a fine line between them. How can we not get good and evil mixed up? How can we be aware of this fine line? And when we know what's good and what's evil, how can we spread this word? How can we command good? And how can we forbid or get people to be away from evil? And we will end up with following the sunnah of Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ. Why? When we pray, we read Surat Al-Fatiha. So we read Surat Al-Fatiha at least 17 times every day during our prayers. Twice in Fajr, four times in Buhr, four times in Haasir, three times in Mughrab and four times in Aisha. So what do we say? What is the first du'a that we say? إهدنا الصراط المستقيم. Oh Allah, guide us to the right path. And some of the Awliya of Allah SWT explained the right path to be Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ. So when we ask Allah SWT to guide us to the right path, then we are asking Allah SWT to get us connected to Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ. We are asking him to make us able to follow Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ. We are asking Allah SWT for guidance to follow the light. This light that will enlighten our path along the journey that we are going on now towards Allah SWT. So this is what we need in this dunya. We need to perform these outer actions so that our heart will be expanded. When Allah SWT said to Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ, ألم نشرح لك صدر. Haven't we expanded your heart? What does this mean? That Allah SWT gave Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ the ability to understand everything. So he expanded his heart ﷺ. And when our heart expands, it makes us aware of things that we were not aware earlier. It makes us able to understand things that we were not understanding before. It makes us able to deal with people in a better way that we were not able to do before. It makes us understand our role in this dunya. Why did Allah SWT give us in this dunya? What is our role in this dunya? Why are we here? What are the responsibilities that we are going to perform that we have to be aware of this in this dunya? So what is our relationship with Allah SWT? Where did we come from? Why are we here? Why are we in this universe? And where are we going to be after our death? What is this record that I am going to receive on the day of judgment? How should I fill my record? How should I be of the winners on the day of judgment? So so many questions that we have to think of. So to be able to meet Allah SWT and he will be pleased with us. It's the pleasure of a person to be a winner on the day of judgment. And how can someone be a winner by being in the day of judgment? By missing Hellfire. And this is a blessing. This is a real blessing. Because who misses Hellfire? Those whom Allah SWT is pleased with. So we want to be with the group of people who are winners on the day of judgment. The group of people about whom Allah SWT said رضي الله عنهم ورضوعا. So this dunya is in this dunya we have a body and we have a soul. So living in this dunya means that the soul is connected to this body. And this is of course a blessing. Because if we do not get to know what is this blessing then we would not be able to recognize the reward on the day of judgment or the punishment on the day of judgment. So when we know that our body is connected to the soul then we have a chance. We have a chance to correct any mistake that we do during the day. When you go to bed at the end of the day just have a few minutes and try to scale your deeds of the day. What have you done? Is it good or evil? What have you said? Is it good or bad? What have you ... how did you help this person? How did you perform on this thing? So scale your deeds when you have time before these deeds are scaled for you. So just get yourself ready to the day that you are going to be present before Allah سبحانه وتعالى. On that day we will stand before Allah سبحانه وتعالى. We will stand in front of Allah سبحانه وتعالى. And He will ask us, have you done this action on this day? We will say yes, ya Allah. We will say have you done this on so and so day? We will say yes, ya Allah. He will ask us about every single thing that we have done in this dunya. Our record will have every single thing that we have done in this dunya. Every single word that we have said in this dunya. Every single action that we have done. We looked at things. Were they lawful? Were they permissible? We have to have taqwa in this dunya. This dunya that this taqwa will save us on the day of judgment. What's taqwa? Taqwa is there are so many ways to define taqwa. But the easiest way is التقوى أن يجدك الله حيث أمرك ويفتقدك حيث نهاك. الله سبحانه وتعالى will find you where he orders you to be. الله سبحانه وتعالى will see you performing the things that he ordered you to do. And he will see you not performing what he has ordered you to be to abstain from. This is taqwa. And when Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ talked about taqwa he pointed to his blessed heart and he said التقوى هنا three times. So if you want to have taqwa you have to have your heart connected to the heart of Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ. So that taqwa will be transmitted from his heart to your heart. This is taqwa. So in this dunya we have to have taqwa. Some people saw this dunya as a place of eternal living. So they did not care about dying. They did not care about breakening. So they did whatever they wanted. No rules. Nothing to follow. Because they don't believe in meeting الله سبحانه وتعالى. They thought that this is the eternal life. They did not consider that this life is just a journey to take us to the final destination whether it is جنة or نار. Paradise or Hellfire. So this journey is a long journey. Whenever we are going on a trip whether it is a few days or few weeks or maybe a month or a year we get prepared for this journey. We take all the necessities that we need. And we take other than necessities that we need. So along this journey that we are going to meet الله سبحانه وتعالى What are we preparing? How are we preparing ourselves to meet الله سبحانه وتعالى? On that day it will be repeated. إلا من أت الله بقلب سليم. So everyone is a loser except that who came to الله سبحانه وتعالى with a sound heart. So how can we get a sound heart? This is what we are going to learn in these series. So this series will be focused on our outer actions. The next series, the series after is going to focus about our characteristic as a Muslim. How should we fill our heart with? What should we fill our heart with? On the day of judgment we will be having our records. What do we want these records to have? There will be a huge big record filled with everything. Whether it's a big action or it's a speck of an action. Speck of an atom of action. It will be in our record. So to get ready to read these records we have to do what we just say. Scale your daily records. If you find something good then thank Allah سبحانه وتعالى that has prepared you that has enabled you to do something good. If you find that you have done something bad during the day. Well again thank Allah سبحانه وتعالى that you still have a chance to fix what you have done. Why? Because the minute death knocks our door the repentance door is closed. Fixing things is done. We cannot do that. So just get ready to meet Allah سبحانه وتعالى. And the successful one is the one who listens to the Hadith of Sayyidina Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم and follow the orders of his Hadith. Follow the tips that he has given us. In one of the narrations Sayyidina Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم says كن في الدنيا كأنك غريب أو عابر سبيل وعد نفسك في أهل القبور So be in this dunya as if you are a stranger or as if you are just a traveler and consider yourself as one of the people of those of the people of the graves. Why? Because when you consider yourself in this dunya as a stranger then you don't care about all the things that Shaytan has adorned for people to follow to fall into his traps. So you are a stranger. You have just one goal. You don't care about looking right and left. You have a goal and you want to go straight to the end. You don't want to follow just lines here and there. You go right one time. You go left one time. You go backwards one time. No, just forward. Just go forward. You have a mission. Just go directly. You have a goal. Go directly to your goal. Don't get affected by the arrows that this dunya is shooting against you and against your heart. There are so many ways of getting distracted from this right path. From this straight path. We want to shield ourselves with the outer actions that we have just counted. The prayers, the Ka'a fasting, the Qur'an and all the actions that we have just mentioned. These will give us a shield around us that when the arrows of dunya are being shooted against us we are shield. We will not be affected. We will not be affected. The calamities are all around us. The afflictions are all around us. The problems are all around us. But we want to be strong. And this is how we want to raise our new generation. The new generation that we are responsible for. We want to raise a strong generation. We want to meet Allah سبحانه وتعالى Ready to meet Sayyidina Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم Ready to be coolness of night Sayyidina Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم So be in this dunya as a stranger or as a traveler Get as much sustenance as you can والباقيات والصالحات وخير عند ربك There are so many ways that we can do that are helpful for us when we meet Allah سبحانه وتعالى What are الباقيات والصالحات سبحان الله و الحمد لله و لا إله إلا الله و الله أكبر There are so many easy things that we can do but these things have great protection for us So prepare yourself to the day when you are going to meet Allah سبحانه وتعالى Prepare yourself for the day when death is going to knock on our doors One of the poets say وما الموت إلا رحلة غير أنها من المنزل الفاني إلى المنزل الباقي Death is nothing but a journey A journey that takes us from this house A journey that takes us from this house which is from this world that is going to vanish It takes us from this world to the other world From this vanishing life to the eternal life And we want to be happy on that eternal life So Allah سبحانه وتعالى when He created His people He created them for no reason And He did not leave them to do whatever they want with no restrictions No أي حساب الإنسان و أي يترك السودة Amazing Aya in Surah Al-Qiyama Aya 36 Is man going to be Does man think that he is going to live without any restrictions? To do whatever he wants No reward? No punishment? No One lady came to one of the prophets and she was crying And earlier they used to live And the people at that time used to live hundreds of years 600, 700, 800 years And when he asked her why are you crying She said I lost my son, he was so young And he asked her how old is he And she said 300 years And he said oh he is young You know Sayyidna Nuh you lived so long He called his people 900 years, 950 years That's the time when he called people to Allah SWT So he told her oh your son is young But what do you think this is how he comforted her He said what do you think of a group of people who are going to live But they will live only 60 years 70 years 80 years She said oh my God will there be such a group of people who will live such a very short time He said yes She said you know what I think I will spend if I am supposed to live 60 years I will spend all my 60 years just doing one Sujood to Allah SWT One Sujood 60 years So imagine how our life should be The life of the story of life and death on this on this dunya Is not just a story If we read through the Quran Allah SWT prepares us for everything He tells us what we are going how we are going to live in this dunya And what we are going to see on the day of judgment What are the results of the way we live in this dunya So the wise person lives in this dunya as if he is a stranger Or as if he is a traveler Who passes from one place from one station to another station Once there was a lady in the house In a train sorry So Someone got on the train And That person bumped into her dropped things on her And He collected his things and then Went to the end of the train And the person sitting next to her Said to her Why you didn't say anything to this person He hurt you He got your clothes dirty She said It's just a journey I'm stepping down next station And this is how we should think of this dunya We are on a journey that we are going to step down Next station We should get ready With this Introduction We come to the end of our First session Insha'Allah Next time We will go over The first Point that we have talked about We are going to cover all these Outer actions One by one To get the benefit Insha'Allah To get our heart ready And prepared To Meet Allah Subhanahu و-ta'ala And He will be pleased of us He will be pleased with all of us Insha'Allah And until We meet next week I send my Salam And I send your Salam To say And we tell him We love you We want to be with you on the day of judgment السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته