 We begin with the thanks and the praises of Allahu Subhanahu wa ta'ala. We say to Him, Alhamdulillah, thanking Him and praising Him. We are grateful to Him and we worship Him and for our worship towards Him we are grateful to Him because we recognize that Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala is the one who allows us to worship Him. And if He had chosen for someone to not be able to worship then that person would be turned away, never allowed to worship. So by us being here, we recognize that Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala has shown us His mercy and shown us His grace. He has gathered us on this beautiful day of Jum'a and inside, Alhamdulillah. We are in these past few days facing a heat wave. So many people, I mean, me coming from, I grew up in Florida, so I'm used to the heat. I'm used to the humidity. But being here for the past few years now, people always talk about, oh, what's the difference between California and Florida? Oh, the weather. I mean, there's a lot of differences but something that they put, that it's easy to point out. It's the weather. The weather of the Bay Area, it's beautiful, it's nice. People always talk about the beauty of the weather in this area. Yet in the past few days, we have been experiencing heat. And so the environment around us has changed into a place that we're a bit uncomfortable. And so the natural response of facing that discomfort is to escape it. And so it's very easy to escape heat these days. No longer do we have to have Jum'a outside. We can sit inside in the AC on the carpet. We have cold water available whenever we need it. We turn the fan on or the AC on in our houses and we feel at ease, we feel comfortable. If we get too sweaty, we can go and take a cold shower. So it's easy for us to deal with uncomfort and discomfort, especially when the situation is out of our hands. We still feel like we have some control over making myself comfortable. However, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sometimes challenges us with discomfort. And so to use opportunities of discomfort such as this weather right now as an opportunity of growth. Usually, like I said, the natural response is to avoid the discomfort and go into a state that you have control over and avoid the places where you don't have control. So we can't control the weather, but what we can control is the temperature in our houses so we resign to our houses. Or we go in the car, usually we put the windows down when we're driving maybe but this time we have the windows up because we can turn the AC on. I'm not saying don't use AC or use AC or anything. I'm trying to explain that the natural response is to go back and feel like we have control over a situation. And when we do that, when we avoid this change in environment, when we avoid this change in our situation, in our environment, in our states, we're missing out on opportunities of growth. We're missing out on opportunities to better ourselves because Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala in a very famous ayah that insha'Allah everyone knows Inna Allah la yughayyru ma bi qawmin hatta yughayyru ma bi anfusihim that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala will not change the state of a people until they change what is within themselves. So discomfort, change, growth and not being the same, not being satisfied with where I am at, wanting more and wanting to grow is part of our path towards Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. When it comes to anything that we have a passion for, whether it be education, whether it be making a living in this world, whether it be improving at a sport, we're willing to push ourselves to points of discomfort so that we can get over the next plateau. How many times that someone is playing basketball and they push and they push and they push themselves until even they'll get injured and they'll fight through the injury and come back just so that they can push themselves to get better. How many times will someone stay up late and study and study and study so that that exam that's coming up that week, they can do better on it so that they can get a good grade so that they can have a better entrance until wherever they want to go next. So putting ourselves in discomfort is an opportunity for growth. And Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala after these powerful verses that he says, Inna Allah la yu ghayyru ma bi qawmin hatta yu ghayyru ma bi anfusihim. What does he say? He says, and if he wishes for a people, some sort of difficulty, if he wishes for them something bad, la ma radda lah. There is no turning back for them. They don't have a hope of escape. They don't have an opportunity. Once Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala has willed for someone or some people something that they consider evil or that we objectively say that this is evil. This is bad for us. This is bad for our dunya. This is bad for our akhirah. Something afflicts them. Once Allah has willed that for them, it's over for them. They don't have an escape. And there is no one, and they don't have anyone They don't have anyone other than him as a friend or a helper or a protector. He is the only friend and helper and protector for these people. So what can we learn from that? Not to give hope. To not lose hope. To not lose hope. Because as we sit here today, this is an opportunity that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala has given each and every single one of us for change. Us being able to worship him in a congregation like this is a sign that he is allowing us to change for the better. Meaning that he has not lost hope on you. He has not lost hope on you. He still believes in you. Your being here is a proof of that. Your being here is a sign that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, the Lord of the worlds, the Lord of Musa, the Lord of Isa, the Lord of Muhammad, has chosen you by name and he has not lost hope in you. The one who controls the sunrise and the sunset. The one who controls all of creation has not lost hope on you. We are chosen by Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala in this moment. There is no doubting that. Every single person in this congregation right now has been chosen. We cannot lose this opportunity to turn to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala for growth. We cannot lose this opportunity to turn our backs to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala in this moment. So I ask everyone to take one moment to themselves, to take one moment to themselves and look deep into your hearts, deep inside of yourselves and think about one thing that you know that you can improve on, that you know Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala asks more from you in this one thing. And I know that I am not fulfilling my task in that thing. Whether that be the recitation of the Qur'an, whether that be praying my prayers on time, whether that be praying my sunnahs before I pray or after I pray, whether that be being kind to my parents, whether that being no longer cursing, whether that be no longer eating haram. What is that one thing that you can walk out of this masjid and say, Oh Allah, for your sake and your sake alone, because you have hope in me, because you believe in me, I am going to give up this one evil thing that I'm doing for your sake and turn back to you. So we should look inside of our hearts in this moment right now and figure out what that thing is. One of the spiritual giants of our tradition, Sheikh Ahmed Zarruq, looked at 2,000 definitions of what it means to have ihsan, what it means to have beauty in the religion, what it means to have beauty in worship, what it means to draw close to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. And he says that all of these 2,000 definitions boil down to this one statement. Siddh Qutta Wajjuh Ilallah. Sincerely turning oneself towards Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. Insha'Allah we ask Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala that these moments that just pass, that Allah make us sincere, that Allah allowed sincerity to enter into our hearts for just one moment. And in that one moment maybe because of one person in this congregation who Allah accepted their dua, every single person in this congregation, Allah will have accepted our dua. It just takes one person. One of the benefits of praying in a congregation is that the reward of that congregation is according to the person who is closest to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. So if you have someone in the congregation who is like this with Allah and His Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, then just by attending that congregation you have reached that same level. Perhaps one of us sincerely turned towards Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala in this moment. And due to that one person's sincerity, this entire congregation will benefit. So we ask Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala to accept. And we ask Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala to allow this next prayer that we perform to be the most sincere prayer that we have ever performed in our lives. At a minimum of 17 times in a day we recite Ehdina Sirata Al-Mustaqeen. At a minimum of 17 times in a day we have to recite Ehdina Sirata Al-Mustaqeen. Imagine how many days people have lived. Multiply that by 17. How many times must you recite that verse in your lifetime? Yet you only need one moment of sincerity while reciting that verse to have it accepted for you so that you are on the path of Sirata Al-Mustaqeen. That is the mercy of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. In your entire life, out of all the times that you recite it just once will suffice a person who says Ehdina Sirata Al-Mustaqeen with sincerity in their hearts. So as we stand here, we ask Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala let this be the most sincere prayer that I have ever prayed. And let the prayer I pray after this be even more sincere and on and on and on. And this day until next week, let there not be a single time where I recite the verse Ehdina Sirata Al-Mustaqeen except that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala entered sincerity into my heart so that I can come closer to Him. And may that sincerity be more than it was in the previous recitation. So as we stand, we ask Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala to forgive us of our sins. We ask Him to bring our hearts closer as our bodies draw closer. We ask Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala to unite this congregation as one body, as one strong brick wall that no one will let anyone else fall from. We ask Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala to be an ummah of support for one another. An ummah that holds each other by the hand and takes each other to Jannah. And we ask Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala to continue to bless us and to continue to drown us in His mercy and His forgiveness. Aibad Allah, Rahimakum Allah Inna Allah ya'amru bil adli wal ihsan wa ita'idil qurba wa yanhaanil fahshai wal munkari wal baghi ya'idhukum la'allakum tathakkarun Uthkuru Allah yadkurkum wa du'uhu yastajiblakum waladhikru Allah ta'ala a'ala wa awla wa akbar wa aqimu s-salah