 Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds. We praise Allah and we seek His aid and we ask for His forgiveness. We seek His protection from the evil of ourselves and from the evil of our actions. Whoever Allah guides, none can misguide. And whoever Allah misguides, none can guide. I bear witness that there is no God but Allah alone. He has no like. And I testify that Muhammad ﷺ is a slave and final messenger. Praise be to Allah, who has brought the hearts together on this auspicious day of Juma, the day of Jama, the day of gathering. This is, he brought us together on that memorial day of Yama Mithaq, the day of the Covenants. On that day Allah asked us, Al-astubi Rabbikum, am I not your Lord? And we replied, Bala, indeed you are. Therefore this gathering is a reminder of that past gathering, as well as a reminder of the upcoming gathering, the upcoming gathering of Ibn-ul-Qiyamah that we brought together and judged on our actions in this world. Therefore we come to understand from this that the purpose of Juma is a reminder, a weekly reminder of these realities, of these spiritual realities, that this world is not permanent, that we have an abode that we're awaiting and we have an abode that we come from. And because of that, the reminder of this Juma is that we ought to be excited to come to Juma because it's a means of spiritual invigoration, a spiritual revival. It's a means for us to change ourselves, to change our actions and to direct ourselves towards where we are going. And the Qibbeh specifically is also a reminder, so a reminder for the prayer. It's meant to bring the hearts together. It's meant to gather the hearts together. And because of that, the Qibbeh is supposed to encourage Hushu presence, presence of heart in the prayer. And yet oftentimes we feel distracted even in the Qibbeh and therefore we come to be distracted in the prayer. A distracted heart helps us all run. And if we are indeed distracted, the purpose of Juma has been lost because that's the point of reminder, we don't keep it in mind and we do not act on the reminder. What the masters of the soul tell us is that when the distractions comes from Allah, things come from the heart's mirror being dirty or filthy. And that's why we can't focus on our prayer. We can't have khushu in our prayer. And it's for this reason that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said Aqdahu-l-Rushab-l-Inaan, purity is half a faith. I mean, neither this isn't physical purity. This isn't the purity of your body alone. Because the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam also said Inna-Waaha-La-Yam-Buru-Ila-Sura-Laykum-Wa-Al-Samikum Wa-La-Kinna-Waaha-Yam-Laykum-Ila-Qurubakum-Wa-Ama-Laykum Allah doesn't look to your forms and to your bodies, but rather looks to your hearts and to your actions. And Allah also says in the Qur'an Qad-u-Afflahamun-Zakkahah, he is victorious who purifies the soul. And Allah also says Gardens beneath which rivers flow, they will be there eternally. That is the reward of those who purify themselves. The Qur'an that we recite in the prayer, this is the sustenance for our hearts in the prayer. This is sustenance for our daily activities. But reciting the Qur'an and understanding it also requires purity. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says None touch it except the purified. And therefore no heart will touch the Qur'an. They won't touch the secret meanings of the Qur'an and enjoy them unless they purify the mirror of their hearts. And he said before the hadith about purity being half a faith, the scholars have understood this to mean not just the purity of the body, but also the purity of the inward. And he's saying there's four levels to this and we should each try to ascend one by one by one. So what is this one is just physical purity, purity from filth and dirt and other things which is a necessary condition for developing of the prayer. But the second one is the purity of the physical body from spiritual filth. And what this means is that the limbs of the body should be pure of sins and rebelling against Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Then the third level of sin is purity of the spirit, a spiritual purity. And this is that the ruh is free from evil character traits and from evil habits. And because of that it becomes free from evil deeds. And of course the highest level that is reserved for the amniyya and for the people of Allah is out of purifying the inner heart from seeking or desiring anything other than Allah who's named Aqtahir, who's named the pure. As the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says in the Hadith, Allahumma inni as erika, Bismiqal Muqtahir Aqtahir Aqtaiyib al-Mubarak. He says Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, O Allah, I ask you through your name the purifying, the pure, the wholesome and the blessed. And therefore purity begins with physical filth and then there's purity from evil acts and then purity from bad character and then purity from engaging or desiring or seeking anyone except Aqtahir the pure who is Allah. Now of course not every Muslim is required or held responsible for the higher levels of these purifications. Rather what's minimally required on us is just purification from sin. The first level and the second level. However if you really wish to understand the Hadith of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam when he says that there are three things made pleasing for him in this world, he says, Jua'ilat Quraat al-A'imi s-Sallaah, that the light of my eyes was made to me in the prayer. If you really wish to understand this Hadith and to actualize this delight and sweetness of the prayer that we all seek, if you wish to live our lives exemplifying the character of our beloved Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, then you must become Muhammad in our hearts too. Which means having a pure and shiny mirror of heart that receives Allah's blessings. If we made them the importance of purification in the prayer, it should be obvious why we do must precede our prayers and why it's a condition for our prayers and why it's recommended that we renew the Dua'at before every prayer. And so that we come to the prayer clean and pure. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, when a Muslim slave of Allah does renew and gondals water, his sins leave from his mouth. When he snorts water, sins drop from his nose. When he washes his face, sins fall from his head, this is sins leave from his face, even leaving from beneath his eyelids. When he washes his hands, sins fall from his hands, even falling from beneath his fingernails. When he wipes his head, sins fall off his head, even falling out from beneath his ears. And when he washes his feet, sins drop from his feet, even leaving from beneath his toenails. This is the spiritual reality of Udu. And we must be aware of that when we're making Udu. That we must be aware that the sins that are falling from us are as real as not more real than the water droplets that are falling from us. And it is so for the people of Basira. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, Nithta has-salah at-tuhur. The key that opens prayer, that opens the secret the spiritual secrets of prayer so that you can taste the sweetness of prayer. That key is purity. And this is because presence, while making Udu, carries through your presence of mind and presence of heart while praying. While absent-mindedness carries through in Udu and leads to wassua-sa while praying. So what then shall we be conscious of then in our Udu? When we clear our hands, we should intend that we are wiping in evil from our hands, that we may have committed, and that we are seeking forgiveness for using them in anything other than Allah's sake. When we wash our mouths, we should intend that we are cleaning our mouths of the fear of our backbiting, lying, deception, false promises, and the other sins of the tongue. We should intend to make our tongues clean for Allah's Dhikr and for the recital of His Holy Book, the Quran. When we wash our faces, we should intend to clean our eyes of the unlawful and disliked things that is looked at. And we should intend to purify our faces from trying to anything other than Allah. When we wipe our heads, we should intend purification from seeking leadership to be at the head of every table. Purification from seeking reputation and from arrogance. When we wash our feet, we should intend cleaning them out of the filth acquired from moving trades, places of evil and places of doubt. And so pay attention to the droplets falling off your body when you make me loo. And praise Allah for each drop is a sin leaving you. This is the presence of heart that, that when you pay attention to the spiritual realities of things that the Prophet ﷺ explained for us. And so if we practice presence of heart and we will do, we will naturally extend to presence of heart and prayer because we will come to the prayer fresh, clean of sin, and aware of our purity from the sin, ready to receive Allah's mercy and Allah's forgiveness. And in this we will have begun to adopt the worldly quality of purity, Allah's name, Allah heard the pure. Allah says in His Noble Scripture that Allah and His angels will pray upon the Prophet ﷺ. O our beloved ones, we pray upon the Prophet ﷺ. Allah will pray upon our Prophet ﷺ, our master and the Qur'an, our eyes, our Prophet ﷺ. And upon his family and his companions, the Prophet ﷺ will follow them until the day of judgement. Allah will forgive the believers, and the believers, and the Muslims, and the Muslims. There is no harm in them or in them. You are our Lord, the beloved, the close, the one who will answer the prayers. Allah will help the Muslims and the Muslims. And this is for the polytheists and the polytheists. Allahumma ya'haywa qayyum bi rahmatikan astaghif. Aslihinana sh'anana kullah wa la takimna ila anfusina tarfa ta'in. Allahumma ja'alil Qur'ana rabi'a kulubina wa mura sudurina wa zutnatilawatahu anaa al-niliu apraaf al-nahar. Allahumma hafad haadih al-ummata al-muhammadiya fi jami'i bi bilabihah imna ka'ala kulli sh'in qabir wa bil'ijabti injilir. Qala RasulAllahi sallallahu alaihi wa sallam alham mu'umma fi bi'umma fi ababir wa ashabi imfintina lahya'umaf wa astagruham haia al-wathbifman wa akba'a ma'ani wa fatima fi sayyidu nisa'i ahl al-jannah wa al-hasin wa al-khusayn nisa'ida shaba'i bi ahl al-jannah wa hamsatu asad allahi wa asad al-Rasulih khairu al-kuru niqayni thumna l-ladina yadunaham thumna l-ladina yadunaham a'ibaru Allah innu Allah ya'monukum bil'addu wal-ahsan wa ita'idu al-kulba minha anil fahshai wal-yunkari wal-bakri ya'idu kumna a'ilakum tiddakkirum al-kuru Allah al-Azim yadkirukum wa shkiruhu niqisitkum wa astaghfiru niqfirukum Raqil As-Salaam