 Just want to make sure that you're comfortable. This is about you, this is your moment. Okay, thank you. And I want you, this is your heart, this is your soul, your existence, your utterance, your affirmation. And so I want to respect you and honor you in this moment. So that's the most important thing for us today. So just tell me, tell me where you're at, what's going on, what brings you here, what's up? Well, they're gracious enough to be accepting me into their family. And I want to be a part of their family and learn the culture and you know, join your song. Beautiful, beautiful. You know, so God interacts with us in subtle ways and calls us through different ways. You know, and some people find God, you know, after a tragedy. And so you're finding God in a very pleasant way. So you're, inshallah, you'll have two, you're falling in love twice. So you'll fall in love, inshallah, with your wife and falling in love with God. Very grateful though. But so it's to see, to see, you know, a gentle call, inshallah. And so this is definitely, you know, I see, you know, what brings you here is the family. But also, you know, this is a moment of what you say, Michael, is an affirmation that that's bigger than anything else you'll ever say in your life. This moment, just to put some context, what we're doing here is more significant than any other moment in your life, even more than saying I do, than saying I love you. So this is the journey of the soul. And the soul is in the vehicle of the body, right? And the soul exists before the body and will exist after the body. And so this moment of affirmation is basically saying that I acknowledge that I have something in me that's more special than all of this, that's bigger than all of this, bigger than the mansions and bigger than the millions and bigger than this and that. And there's something greater. And that's my heart, right? It's my heart and my soul, which what you say right now transcends time and space. What I mean by that is right now, you know, we have the physicality, we have this table and this chair and this, you know, throne and this carpet and these walls, but what you will say it will transcend the space because it goes to another realm that we can't see with our eyes, but we can see with our heart. And so some, you know, in today's time and culture, we we only believe what we see. But after this moment, we see what we believe. Okay. So there's something inside of you, Michael, and inside of me and inside of each of us here that is so much more beyond anything that we do in this world, you know, pay the bills or have relationships or graduate, you know, this moment, this graduation, the spiritual graduation that we're about to commence like a commencement ceremony, the spiritual graduation is more valuable than graduating from any institution or any Ivy League or with any degree. It's much more valuable, much more valuable. And if we don't, if we don't taste that value today, we'll taste it one day. And one day, one day, I promise, I promise that this moment will be the happiest moment ever of existence, affirming God, acknowledging God. It used to be where humanity, the default was, the default was acknowledging God. Now it's the opposite. Now God is irrelevant. We live in a desert of godlessness. And so to come today and acknowledge, yeah, yeah, there's something, there is a creator. It didn't just all come and happen by itself. And that creator created me and put something in me that's so special. And so we're aligning with the divine. So your immaterial soul, which is your essence, your nice hair, you know, your nice, beautiful, elegant face and style, those are not your essence. Those are details. Your essence is here. And now today we're coming to affirm with our essence and to say la ilaha illallah, to say, I have a creator. I do have, I do have someone who made me and I'm going back to that creator one day. So that journey, so now it transcends time, what you say transcends time, because what we're going to say, these words you're going to utter are so big, so huge, so significant that they go to a timeless time. They go, we can't even comprehend that, but it goes to the next life. It goes to our afterlife. So it goes to the unseen realm and space of angels and God where we can't see it and witness it. And also it transcends time. So what you're doing today, Michael, you look like a young man, solid man, beautiful man. It's, it's, it's a new beginning of in here. I acknowledge you God. I acknowledge you where it's not popular to acknowledge you. It's not, you know, I'm not going to get rich or famous, but I acknowledge you. I acknowledge you. And that's, you know, I, it's, it's, it's a powerful thing. It's a very powerful thing. And it's a beginning of a new journey. It's a new journey to acclimate ourselves and to, and to get slowly. So we have a body, mind and soul, three dimensions, right? We have our body, we have our mind, right? And we have our soul. And so the idea of Islam, Islam means the surrender to surrender our body, mind and soul to God's way. And when we surrender, we experience Salam. We say Salam, which means peace. And so the idea is when we align with the divine, when we surrender through Islam, then we experience the Salam of peace because they say, God is the author of Islam and God is the author of you and me. The same author. God's the author of the world and the universe, the author of Islam, the way of life, and the author of us living in this world. So when those all come together and they all align, us using the light from God and the guidance from God to live in this world, then there can be this harmony, right? This harmony. So, so just, just some context, Michael, you know, I know we just met, you know, and you're like, who is this guy and noisy, you know, wasting my time. I just, I want to do my part to serve you and do justice to this moment. And so that's why I'm sharing this so we can, so we can all appreciate this moment and congratulations to the family where, you know, God works in his ways and sometimes we understand it and sometimes we don't. Sometimes we comprehend, sometimes we don't, right? And, and so we have this surrender to God, right? And insha'Allah it'll be all right. Insha'Allah it'll be all right. Insha'Allah you're going to be all right. Insha'Allah you're going to be all right. Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah. So it's, and I, and I'm grateful to participate and to serve you, Michael, and it's an honor, it's an honor to be here. Alhamdulillah. Finally, this last thing I'll share, Michael, is if you've ever done anything wrong, you probably didn't. If you've ever done anything wrong, this spiritual awakening, as a gift from God, erases and pardons any mistake, any sin, any error that we ever did wrong in our life. And let's just, just to soak that into a moment, like having a clean slate with God, the master of the universe, like your teacher can erase your, you know, your mistakes on your math exam, you get straight A's and you celebrate, but this is like the creator of the universe telling you you have a clean slate. And to appreciate that for a moment, because that's the ultimate victory. That, that is the true victory. Returning to God with a clean sound heart. And that's the journey we're all on. That's the journey we're all on today. And this is a journey that you are, you know, reaffirming and recommencing today in a different magnitude. And I, and, and, and so when we do this and utter these words, and we'll do it one time in English, and we'll do it three times in Arabic. When we utter these words, imagining, you know, imagine, it's called mindful, you know, mindfulness, whatever you want to call it, God consciousness, mindfulness, meditation, but imagining the erasure, the erasing of any sins I've ever done, imagining my soul connecting, aligning with the divine, imagining the light of God in a manner befitting, entering into my spiritual heart. These are realities that we don't perceive with our five senses, but they're real. And one day when our soul leaves our body, all of these things will manifest and we'll see them all. It all makes sense. That moment when we all leave this world, that moment when we all leave this world, we're going to, we're going, we're dying and it's, it's always, you know, we mourn and it's sad, but it's also a birth. It's also a birth. Just like we died from our mother's womb, when we left it, we were born here, we continue to, to travel, our soul continues to travel with different vehicles. And then we go back to our Creator and we say, I acknowledged you. You told me to acknowledge you, I acknowledged you. I didn't worship anyone except you. No one was worthy to worship except you. And I followed the messengers that you sent and I followed the messenger right to the best of my ability as much as I could. And when I couldn't and when I lapped and when I made a mistake, you're the forgiver and you can forgive me. Right. And you can forgive me and I ask you to forgive me and God loves to forgive. And so Michael today, today, you know, with that in mind, you know, again, I'll say the last thing I'll say, although I've said that before. Islam came to elevate, to elevate us. What does that mean? Islam came to bring the best, the best out of us, the best possible Michael I can be, the best neighbor, the best son to my parents, the best employee to my, to my employer, the best employer to my employees, the most gentle to people who are close to me or far to me, the most generous Michael I can be, the most compassionate Michael I can be, the most forgiving Michael I can be, the most honorable Michael I can be, the most humble Michael I can be. And that's the point. Allah, Allah, God designed this to elevate us. The best husband I can be, right? The best, you know, and that's, and that's why God sent this light, its guidance, this divine light, its guidance, you know, to save us from our lower egos, right? They say the spiritual warrior is the one who breaks an idol and everyone's idol is his ego. So we have to break that, that, that idol and ego and stop being so impressed with our own selves and our own ideas and accepting God in our life. Trusting God more than we trust ourselves, right? And it doesn't mean turn off our mind. God doesn't want us to turn off our mind or intellect. No, we use our mind and we use revelation and they say revelation is like light. You see these light bulbs and our mind is like our eyes and we need both. We need the light bulbs and we need our eyes to see and we need God, God's revelation and we need our mind to live. We need both. And if we turn off one of them, it's dark, we bump into it, we trip, we hurt ourselves, we hurt others. So if this room had no light, we have perfect 2020 vision, I can't see anything, I'm going to hurt myself and others. Or if this, or if I don't have eyes and there's perfect light, I might bump into people. And likewise the same thing, I can be the wisest human, the smartest human. But if I turn off access to God's divine light through the Quran, through the prophets, through the messengers he sent to us, then I might trip over myself and hurt myself and hurt others in this journey called life. And likewise, if I, likewise, if I use all of God's guidance and divine light, but I turn off my intellect, I will also trip and hurt myself and hurt others. And there are people that do that. And that's called misguided religiosity. Someone's so religious in a misguided manner. And so they use something so beautiful called Islam to do ugly things, right? And that happens, you know, in many different ways. And so we, so Michael, you're coming today with your, you obviously are a intelligent man and that's what brings you here today. And the first word that God revealed to the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him was, read, read. And that's my, that's my, that's my message to you when I leave today and I go back to my life and you, Michael, go back to your life, read because knowledge in our mind leads to love in the heart, which leads to devotion in our actions. That's the order. And you can't just jump to devotions. I want to pray five times a day and I want to fast, rumble down, I want to get my church without having some love in our heart and some knowledge in our mind. So read, read, find teachers and we have teachers in this community and we have very relevant books and material to help you on this journey. You're not alone. You're not alone. You know, the wolf eats the lonely, the lonely sheep. You're not alone. And it's a blessing that you have this family. It's a blessing. It really is. And for you to honor each other, inshallah, honor each other, right? And we are always here for you. If anything, listen, Michael, if anything doesn't make sense to you, if anything wouldn't be approved by your gracious grandmother, whoever, you know, that grandmother that we all know, that old school grandmother, if she would say, you know, this doesn't feel right to me, you know, what is, this is, it's probably, it's probably a little, it might be a little different. You see what I'm saying? Like the timeless truths of good should, are all the timeless truths and universal truths of good and right. That's what Islam brings to us. And it brings it to us in a manner not, not that I designed or a person designed, but God designed. We couldn't be designed better. Sometimes we comprehend it. Sometimes we don't, but we trust it nonetheless. And so as you go in this journey of Islam, of learning and growing, you might have some questions or, or, you know, doubts and that's okay. That's okay. You know, that's okay. Finally, I'm going to end with this for the third time, I say that. You, you might know the story of Noah, you know, the messenger of the prophet, Noah. And what did he do? He built a boat and where did he build it? He built it in a desert. There's no water. So when he was building the boat, they're like, they're making fun of him. What's wrong with you? What are you doing? It doesn't make sense. And likewise today, Islam is our boat. And when we're going to do Islam, they're going to say, what's wrong with you? It doesn't make sense. Why are you doing that? Because we're in a desert of godlessness. And those who got on the boat, they landed and they were safe. And those who didn't drowned. And today, we don't want anyone to drown. We don't want anyone to drown. No one to drown. But sometimes people drown in their misery or in their, in their unhappiness because of certain things they do. But what we're going to do is we're going to say, people might mock me. I'm going to get on the boat of Islam and the waves are going to come. We're going to stay on the boat and then we'll dock in heaven, inshallah, in paradise. And this is reality. And one day we will witness it, inshallah, and we will be together in heaven. And we'll still look back at this moment, Michael. And we'll be like, thank God I did that. Thank God. Thank God. Thank God. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. So this is a magnificent moment, magnificent moment. Alhamdulillah. So Bismillah, Bismillah, Bismillah. Any final thoughts, Michael? I just wanted to say thank you for your words and the feeling behind them. It's very beautiful. And I just feel very grateful that you're here with me on this day as I start my journey. And I know I have a lot to learn, but I'm looking forward to it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So imagining the significance of this moment, I'll invite you to bring the microphone close and then repeat after me so everyone can hear. Michael, repeat after me please. Bismillah. I bear witness. I bear witness. I testify. I testify. I declare. I declare. I affirm. I affirm that there is no one worthy of worship, that there is no one worthy of worship, except Allah. Except Allah. That there is no God, that there is no God, except Allah. Except Allah. And I also bear witness. And I also bear witness. And I testify. And I testify. And I declare. And I affirm. And I affirm. That Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. Is the messenger of Allah. Is the messenger of Allah. And I also bear witness that Mohammed is the messenger of Allah. The messenger of Allah. I also bear witness. I bear witness. Illa ha illa ha illa Allah Allah vah vah Ash hadu Ash hadu an na Illa Muhamadan Muhamadan Rasulu Rasulu Allah Allah Final Time. Ash hadu Ash hadu an la an la Illa ha illa ha illa Allah illa Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah. Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest. There is no god but Allah. Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest, and to Allah is the Praise. Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest. There is no god but Allah. Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest, and to Allah is the Praise. Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest, there is no god but Allah, Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest, and there is no god but Allah. Congratulations Michael. Bismillah we can pray together. Bismillah, Alhamdulillah, As Salaamu Alayhi wa Salaam wa Rasulullah. Ya Allah, we bear witness that you are real, that you exist. We acknowledge you with every cell in our body. We acknowledge you with our complete existence. We acknowledge you with every atom imposed in us. We acknowledge you and we submit to you. And we align toward, we reorient. We repurpose ourselves to obey you, to follow you, to love you, to trust you. And we ask you in this moment that you heard, that you saw, that you witnessed in a manner befitting to you, to accept Michael, Amin, to bless Michael, Amin, to give Michael openings and victories and illumination and blessings and guidance and to fill his home and his life and his family with joy and happiness and success and to make easy for him this journey called life and to pour in him wisdom. Ya Allah, we ask you to pour in him wisdom and to pour in him joy and happiness and to give him Muhammeden character, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, to give him beautiful character so that wherever he goes, he shines. Wherever he goes, he brings joy and he brings smiles. We ask you to make Michael a vessel of beauty inwardly and outwardly, mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally, and to take care of him in this journey of life and to give him openings after openings after openings after openings and bring them and let them come. Ya Allah, Ya Allah, he just testified that you are real, that you exist and that he doesn't worship anyone except you. Ya Allah, we ask you to accept him and to bless him and to turn to him and to make easy for him his path and his journey and to let him fall in love with you and fall in love with your messenger Muhammed Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and fall in love with the Quran and fall in love with Islam and let him taste the sweetness of this faith. Let him taste the sweetness of submitting to you. Let him taste the sweetness of your proximity. Ya Allah, we ask you Ya Allah to make easy for him whatever he's going through in his career and in his life to make it easy for him and we ask you to make him always honouring, take care of his family and his relatives and make him more beautiful as a Muslim than before Ya Allah. As he's abandoned, as he's abandoned that path and now it acknowledges you through the way of Islam we ask you Ya Allah, we ask you Ya Allah to bless him, Ya Allah. We ask you to take care of him, Ya Allah. We ask you to take care of him in every possible way that you know is good for him. Ameen, Ameen, Ameen, Ameen, Ameen, please accept Ameen. We ask you for everything good that our Prophet Muhammed Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam asked you for and seek protection from every harm that he sought protection from. And we conclude with your words in the first chapter of the Quran Al-Fatiha. Insha'Allah. Insha'Allah. Congratulations Michael, congratulations and now with a super clean slate with God I ask you to pray for me. I mean it, I really mean it, I'm desperate for your prayers right now. I know all the wrong I've done and all the mistakes I've done right now in this moment you are pure like a baby like the day you were born from your mother. Pure, sinless, pure. And I ask you to take advantage of this moment and pray for the world and humanity and harmony and to pray for me and my family and we're expecting a little baby any day now so thank you, so I ask you to pray for me. Promise me you'll pray, promise me, thank you. I mean anything you'd like to share in conclusion with anyone, with the family, with anyone. Bismillah. Just again I just want to thank everyone here at the beginning of this journey for me and my life and I just want to, I'm just very, very grateful for how accepting everyone is of me. Bismillah, Alhamdulillah. Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations.