 Allah is going to beautify your actions. Allah is going to forgive you all the things that you have done. And Allah puts another incentive for you. It says, the true success, the meaningful success, the success that actually counts, that weighs something, has value for you, is when you put your trust in Allah and you obey Allah and His messenger, Subhanahu ta'ala. That is the true success Allah says. So I'm here today with a simple message. You have heard this before. The way I say it, this job is very tough. Believe me, this is very tough job. It's not an easy thing to stand here and make sense of some things. It's a lot harder than you can imagine. But at the end of the day, today when we finish the khutbah and prayer and you say, I got nothing out of this, I knew all of it, I accomplished my goal. Seriously. Because what I'm about to say, you already know. It's just a reminder. That's what khutbah is supposed to be. Okay, so let's begin like this. Once upon a time, there was a man on face of the earth, a really beautiful man. He climbed a mountain because Allah called him to climb the mountain. Well, he did. Because Allah wanted to talk to him. Guess what his name is? His name is Musa Moses. So he went up to the mountain, top of the mountain, he spoke with Allah. When you read the Quranic passages about his conversation with Allah, one thing becomes very clear. That he loved it so much, he elongated the conversation. Allah asked one simple question. The answer was very simple and to the point, no, he elongated, he kept on talking and talking and talking. Do you blame him? The creator of this world. Allah, when we say, he invited him to talk, you think he's going to just say one word and give up? No, he kept on talking. And he wanted to talk more and more because the appointment is done, conversation is over. Allah delivered the message what the reason he invited him for. Now he is just dying to talk more and he's like saying but not saying, he's like, how do I continue this conversation with you, oh God? This is just like, wow, you can't imagine, you can't even put it in words. Well, Allah said, I'll give you a secret. You want to continue talking to me? Here is the secret. He gave it to him directly there, on top of the mountain. You know what the secret is? We are about to do that here. Allah said, you want to remember me, you want to talk to me, establish prayer. He didn't say pray. In the Arabic language, when you learn it, to establish something is different than praying. He didn't say just pray. He said, make sure all elements of prayer is in perfect condition if you want to talk to me. You want to communicate to me. And Allah said, I will respond to you when you communicate with me. There's a beautiful Hadith. I've mentioned this in one of our gatherings here. Unfortunately, I think it's kind of forgotten. The Hadith is just shakes you up, literally. Allah says in there clearly saying the prayer is a communication between you and Allah. That means you say something, Allah responds. You say something, Allah responds. Immediately in the prayer that you are involved. But the question for you and I today is like, really? Allah responds. How come I don't hear it? How come I don't feel it? That's a completely different subject. What is it that we can do to establish prayer, not just pray? Okay. That was the gift he was given. Some years past, some thousands of years past, someone got invited by Allah to talk to him. So this time he went up, not just over the mountain, over the horizon to meet his Lord and guess who that is? It's our beautiful beloved Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Once the conversation took place, he got a gift. Guess what the gift was? Because he wanted to talk to God also the same way. He got a gift. And that gift was that five daily prayers that you are talking about. In 2005, you know the story, how it goes and the interaction between Moses and Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam once he was descending back to earth, it's just beautiful. He got that gift too. So how do we establish prayer? That's a completely different topic. There are three different scenarios when it comes to prayer. Three different scenarios, so pay attention. When the time of prayer comes, either we are kind of negative towards it or we are neutral towards it or we are positive towards it. What does that mean? How do we become that? I conducted a thing. Some of my Sunday school students, graduates are here. Last week was Sunday school. The first question I asked, why are you here? And my beloved answer, the answer that I love the most comes, resonates. And I loved kids' honesty. I love it. You know what they say? They have a tough number. Say, I don't want to be here. My parents, my mom, my dad made me to come here. That's almost the answer. And it's true. It's like my mom, my dad forced me. Oh, but actually, not made me. Forces me to come here. So I love that challenge. When I see that, then I want to make sure that what is it that I can do to entice that person's interest so it would not be force will come on his own merit and negative thought. When a time of prayer comes, I'm not pinpointing, I'm pointing the finger to no one. This is how the household works everywhere. The time of prayer comes, let's say Maghreb. We are on our little devices in social media. We're watching this mindless videos, short videos. And daddy bought that clock in the kitchen and this is a lot of work that goes on. And we're still busy with that. Or we're watching some mindless show on TV. The Adhan is going on, we have no idea. Beta, time for prayer. Maghreb. Maghreb. Nothing, nothing in the registers. That is a negative response. Some of us are neutral. We're like, ah, okay, time for prayer. I guess let's go stand there and just boom, boom, boom, boom. Done, I'm done. That's a neutral response. The third one is the positive response. Mashallah, my daughter. I hope, I hope I'm not embarrassing her. I don't think she's here. I don't know if she's here or not. This is the positive response. When a Thursday comes Thursday, the first thing she's asking me, daddy, where are we going for Juma? And what time? First question. I love it. I absolutely love it. I'm like, I don't know. I don't know. Let's see, where's Munirbhai? Whatever he is, that's a positive response. I'm just kidding. That's a positive outlook. Looking forward towards a prayer. So here's, I'm going to give you a bunch of hints. A bunch of actual tangible things for you to do. How do we move from a negative to neutral and how do we move from neutral to a positive outlook toward the prayer? I was contemplating on that on my bike ride this morning. Yes. I told my Sunday school students, when they go bike ride, I'm actually engaged in the prayer and they're like, how is that possible? You're biking. Are you kidding? I'm like, hold on. This is what I was thinking. I came across this. I was just looking at there, trying to find it. In Surah Ibrahim, Allah says a bunch of stuff. A lot of his blessings to you. Allah says, I give you this blessing, that blessing, this blessing, that blessing. And then in ayah number 34, Allah says the following. So pay attention. Allah says, I give you everything. The really loose translation. Anything that you ask, I give it to you. Without asking any questions, without condition. You got them all. All the favors. Everything that you ask for. All the bounties, all the blessings. Here's the one I love the word. Nima. Nima, blessing is singular. Singular word, not plural. Singular. While Allah is challenging you and I, every one of us individually, collectively, saying if you sit back, sit back and start trying to say, Alhamdulillah, for an appreciation for one single blessing Allah has given you. One single. Entire life. You are not going to be able to calculate it. You are not going to be able to do so. That's the challenge. Allah started by saying, I give you every single thing that you are asking for. But if you try to show gratitude towards one, not going to happen. You are not going to be able to do that. So, how do you move from a negative to neutral to positive? Here's a tangible thing you can do. Think about one single nima, one single blessing Allah is giving you from the fajr until Zohar that we are going to do right now. One thing. What is that one thing? I don't know. You are a bazillion. Gazillion is up out there. The fact that you are breathing, the fact that you are sitting here, the fact that you actually see, the fact that you can hear me. Could have been one of those you couldn't hear. The fact that you can use every single joint the way you want to. The fact that you are breathing and each time you take the breath the oxygen goes in your lungs goes to the blood so that you can think and the carbon dioxide comes out. You know that, the biology of how it works. Any of those blessings, if you sit there for one of those to say thank you God, you are not going to be able to do so. But now here's your challenge. Before you start the prayer think about that challenge. Think about that nima, that blessing that you have. Think about it and concentrate on that. And every single movement that you have in the prayer, think about that. I can guarantee you your prayer will transform. You will not pray that you pray usually. It will take longer, which is so awesome the feeling you get, this accomplishment, this incredible thing that you are going to actually fly you get that. The next prayer you do the same thing. The next prayer you do the same thing. That's one of your tips. The next tip for you there's a hadith Allah says the key to jannah is prayer and the key to prayer is wudu, the way you prepare for the prayer. That is the key for jannah and for the prayer. Clean yourself properly. Pay attention. That's another thing. Here's a tip that worked really, really well for me and here's a tip we're going to do inshallah. When you come approach to the prayer, to the prayer spot, don't come as soon as you come there don't immediately just do and go on. Give yourself 10 seconds. 10 seconds. Give yourself 15 to 20 seconds. Just stand still. Don't do anything. Prepare yourself. Don't do anything. You will recognize this 15 seconds is long. It's really long. You will recognize that. But guess what's going to happen? You are just concentrating and you're like I'm about to stand in front of the Lord of the Universe I'm about to get engaged with Him. I want to be prepared and when you raise your hands and you say which you are saying Allah, you are greater than anything. Anything that is right now in my mind right now in front of me, the challenges that I have, you are greater than every single thing that is coming towards me at the moment and I'm submitting to you Allah Akbar Dude, it changes the way you pray it changes the way you approach prayer How many tips I'm giving you? The third one. The next tip you might say, I forgot all of them Before the time oh, on your little devices do me a favor, every single one of you if you do not have it you have the prayer app the free one, download it it tells you the time for every single prayer go through the settings set it up the way you want it to set it up it tells you the time of the prayer that is out there you know what time it is you know Maghreb is going to come at 7.52 or something whatever the 755 or 752 I don't know what time it is you know it's going to come at that time give yourself 2-3 minutes for any social media or any shows or any movies, anything stop just calm down you know what if you're watching a funny thing you're watching one of the funny videos you want to watch a dude's mugshot or something that you have been doing immediately to the prayer that thing is in your head throughout the prayer one complaint that we all hear I can't concentrate on my prayer I don't know what I'm reading that's exactly right because we are engaged with something else and that thing is playing in your head if you listen to your music before that guess what I guarantee you that that is the lyrics is going in your head if you're listening to the Nashi that thing is going to your head over and over again while you're standing in the prayer now our second complaint is I pray and make dua but I don't see any results okay we would just watch that we just listen to that hip-hop song and we just before the prayer and we just put that little thingy down pray then you put it back in there how do you expect the prayer to be the way you want it to be that is nothing to do with the Iqaba Sala I'm not trying to put you down but these are the realities that we face prayer Allah gave this to you and I as a gift to communicate with him which means when you communicate with him you are asking him for things you're praising him the more you praise the more you ask the more you're going to get because why? he is going to give you every single thing that you ask for he will and this is why we started the Iqaba saying we want to put our full trust in him when you put your full trust in him this is what's going to happen that is now the ball is in your court as they say it what is it that you're going to do when you come out of this pick one of those and make a change in your life transform your life guarantee that you will love it guarantee that your life will be different I say I say I say I say I say I say I say and he says I say and he says I say and he says I say I say and he says I say I say I say yououflage Son And lastly, last order of business, the ayah from the Quran, the secret for success, things you're supposed to do and things you're not supposed to do, three things you're supposed to do because Allah commands you to do it. Three things you're not supposed to do, Allah tells you to avoid it. And Allah commands you to do it. And it will end with the explanation, the recitation, and the rest of what you're supposed to do. Remember and do our job.