 We thank Allah swt, we praise Him, as Allah swt should be praised. We thank Allah for keeping us alive for another blessed month, the month of Muharram. I mean Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam gave this month a title. This title is very big, very glorious, very overwhelming, Allah, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam called this Shah-ul-Lahi Ha'am, or simply Shah-ul-Lah, this is the month of Allah, or the month of Allah, the sacred month of Allah. As I have the intention inshaAllah, we have to cover a few components and maybe together they will make a big picture. One of the components is to understand this word of home, plural of Ha'am or a Shah-ul-Lah Ha'am. Is this word Ha'am? We all know, it simply means forbidden, this is Ha'am forbidden, right? But then you have Bayt-ul-Lahi Ha'am, the house of Allah, the forbidden house of Allah. And then we have Shah-ul-Lahi Ha'am, the forbidden month of Allah. So obviously if you want to go simple, if you say Bayt-ul-Lahi Ha'am, the forbidden house of Allah, forbidden what? We are not supposed to visit it, because when something is Ha'am, we're not supposed to do it. So if Bayt-ul-Lahi Ha'am is the forbidden house, which means no one shall visit, the month of Allah, Al-Ha'am, which is the month of Muharram, does that mean we're not supposed to visit, to live it? Al-Ashrul Ha'am, the four sacred months, are we supposed to not witness it? What does it mean? What it means is something that is very relevant for our life today, today, in this world, 2017. In the western world, where we Muslims make small communities, we have our faith, our religion, our tradition, we have our values, we have our principles, we have our defined structures of Halal and Ha'am. Some people do not think that observing Ha'am, meaning staying away from Ha'am, it's not a big deal. They take it easy when it comes to Ha'am. But Islam, our Deen, Islam, the word Islam, and our Deen is established on Halal and Ha'am. Let me explain a little bit. What do I mean by that? People translate the word Islam to peace. I humbly disagree. If you were to translate the word Islam, which we mean the Deen of Islam, you need a whole sentence. This sentence is driven from three, four ayats. What is the sentence? Islam is or means to live in the state of safety as number one, aspiring to peace as number two. By making an informed choice, number three, to submit your will to the will of Allah, number four. Now you have a complete definition. To live in the state of safety, aspiring to peace by making an informed choice. What's the choice? To submit your will to the will of Allah. Now you have accomplished every ayah that explains Islam in Al-Quran al-Karim. From the beginning of the creation, when there was only one human being, Adam and then Allah Azza wa Jil created Hawwa. So we have now a pair from the same kind, Adam and his wife. Allah is saying to Adam and his wife, go and live in Jannah. Go and live in this garden and eat from wherever you want to eat. But do not eat from this tree. Do not eat from this tree. This is the first story of the first human mentioned in the Quran. First story, Allah created Adam. Allah taught Adam the name of all the things, taught Adam the name of all the things, asked the angels to make sajdah to Adam which is a big deal. Because Allah is asking the angels to make sajdah to Adam. Whoa. Everybody we know is flipped upside down right now because you will be thinking, oh I wish I was an angel. You know, sujud to anyone other than Allah is shirk in our deen. Yes, in this final message that Allah sent to humanity, don't make sajdah to anyone other than Allah. Unless Allah commands you to do something else. So in this case, Allah commanded the angels to make sajdah to Adam. Allah mentioned two reasons in the Quran. Why did he ask the angels to make sajdah to Adam? Because Adam has two things. What are these two things? These two things are embedded in the ayat that Allah says, I asked the angels to make sajdah to Adam. One time Allah said that after he said, I taught Adam the names of all the things. Because Adam had the knowledge, then Allah asked angels to bow to Adam who holds this knowledge. Number one. Another ayah, it says after Allah blew the spirit in Adam, then Allah asked the angels to make sajdah to Adam. So two reasons. Your soul and your knowledge. The most two neglected things by you. What is the most taken care things by you? Your looks and your money. Let's be real, right? We want to benefit you. We don't want to just slide on you and I talk. Oh nice talk. We have to bother each other for us to grow. Pain and pressure leads to growth. So we're not going to run away from pain because as we said humanity found out, no pain. So let's not run away from pain. Let's deal with it. Let's not run away from pain so that we can grow. Two things. Your Lord said to the angels, I'm going to create a human from mud, mixed water and dirt. Still there is no combat food to sojuud. Still. So Allah continues. Once I'm done creating him and I'm done shaping him, and then I blow in him of my spirit, then fall into sojuud to him. So so in this ayah Allah asked the angels to make sajdah to Adam because of the way. In Surah Al-Baqarah Allah said I'm going to create khalifa. You are a khalifa, you are a khalifa, you are a khalifa, you are a khalifa, you are a khalifa, everyone is khalifa. Not in the political sense. The word khalifa, the political sense is not mentioned in the Qur'an. The word khalifa that you represent God and you are His servant is everyone. That's what's mentioned in the Qur'an, which is everyone in this room and everyone on this planet. Whether they choose to become a khalifa or not, that's their choice. So Allah said I'm going to create a khalifa. The angels said you are Allah. Why would you create people that way you fight each other and kill each other? So Allah said I know what you don't know. Then Allah immediately said I taught Adam the names of all the things. Then I showed them to the angels and said tell me of these names. They said you are Allah we don't know. Because we don't know what you taught us and you didn't teach us this. So you are Allah we don't know. You are the most wise, the most knowledgeable, we submit to you. Allah said Adam, tell them the names, tell them the names. So Adam told them the names after Adam was done displaying the knowledge that he has and he has learned from Allah. Then Allah said angels make now sutr to Adam. So two reasons in the Qur'an. Your soul and your knowledge. This is a month of purification. We purify our souls with making tawba, with making is tawfar. Not with being arrogant. How do people talk to them? This is the way I am. Take it or leave it. I like doing this this way. Okay. So you are your own religion and you are your own God and you are your own way and you are your own system because let's deal. We need to know what we're dealing with. This is the way I am. I don't do it. This is arrogance. Okay, arrogance. Allah will send one mosquito and then you will not talk to him. Will you stop boiling in malaria? That one mosquito that you said, you know, if someone told you, you know, you're nobody, mosquito could kill you. How could you say that to me? Forget an external threat. As I said today, every day, every day on average between 10 to 100 maybe more cells in your body mutate and become cancerous cells and your immune system goes and finds them in cancer. One time the body misses one cell, it will grow out of control and that person has cancer. So forget external threat, your own body cells. And you're talking about this is the way I am. This is the way I like it. This is the way I do things. And then five minutes you go to the, later you go to the bathroom and the smell that comes out of the bathroom is toxic, poisonous. You can't even stand your own smell. Where was that smell? And where was that feces inside you? But Allah hid it that you don't smell it, nobody else and why these feces and this smell inside you, you're talking with arrogance. So that's why we have two choices to be like Adam or to be like Shaytan. Allah told Adam, yeah Adam, everything is halal except this one item is haram. If you eat it, it will harm you. Shaytan will try to make you eat it though. So Adam, alaihi salam, lived in jannah, God knows how he long he lived and after he lived in jannah for a month, he didn't touch the tree. After time passed and passed and passed, I don't forget. This is not me. Allah said in the Qur'an. Allah even defended Adam in the Qur'an. Adam the one who disobeyed Allah and ate from the tree who's a prophet. The best prophet, the Prophet, said he ate from the tree but Allah said he ate because he forgot. He did not do it intentionally. Allah defended Adam in the Qur'an. Why? Because Adam made tawbah. So do you want Allah to defend you? Make tawbah. Don't be arrogant in your disobedience. You make a disobedience, then you are arrogant about it. Then you are saying, oh I did it and I'm proud of it. You made a mistake, a sin, repent. Because when Adam repented, you know, Adam, alaihi salam, and his wife, they had a so broken heart when they realized Shaytan misled them to eat from that tree and they forgot the command of Allah. They were just heartbroken. They didn't even know what to say. They just showed Allah that they're heartbroken. But they didn't know what to say. So you didn't know what Allah said in the Qur'an. When I saw Adam going through that, I taught Adam a du'aad. He made du'aad to me. I answered it and forgave him. He examined with cheating. This is your exam. What's your exam? Don't eat from the tree. Oh, Allah ate from the tree. I'm very sorry. Okay, just say this. Okay, Adam said it. Why are you forgiving? Nothing happened. And that's how easy our religion is. People want to make it hard and difficult. Or people want to change it and not abide by it. You don't want it? It's a different choice. Allah gave space for everyone. You want it? It's easy. Just abide by it to the best of your knowledge. Listen, listen. Why did Allah Azawajal tell them don't eat from the tree? Because there was harm to Adam. There was harm to Adam in that tree. Do you know, interestingly, when the story is told by the Christians, not by Christians, actually by the Bible, the story says that God did not want Adam to eat from this tree because it's the tree of knowledge. And Adam, God did not want Adam to know. Do you know what's the story in the Qur'an? Before Adam entered Jannah, he already knows Allah taught him all the knowledge. He's done learning the knowledge. And Malahika made soju to him. And now he's honored by living in Jannah. The story on the other side says what? He told him don't because God did not want Adam to. And when Adam ate from that, the thing, he came to know. And then he started, you know, questioning and saying, God, you know, and then Adam and Eve heard the footsteps of God walking in the garden. I'm quoting for you word for word. And then they hid behind the tree. And then God said, Adam, where are you? Where are you hiding? He said, here I am hiding behind the tree and I'm hiding from you because I'm naked and I am embarrassed. He said, how did you know that you were naked? How did you come to have knowledge? Did you eat from the tree? He said, yes, I ate from the tree. He said, why did you eat from the tree? Didn't I tell you you're not eating from the tree? He said, it's not me. It's that woman that you put with me. Literally. Paul Genesis number one. And then our Muslim sisters are sold that Islam is to the great woman and the Holy Qur'an, the great woman and this and that. You don't need to go far in any other book. I mean, before you attack us Muslims and attack our book, read your book first so that you have some Adam and you're not attacking with long horns, right? Because your horns will disappear once you read the first two pages. You will have no horns to fight with. He said, it is that woman that you put for me. She made me from the tree. So God says, why did you eat from the tree? Oh, it's that devil. The devil took the shape of a serpent and the serpent told me, so God said, no, you're punished and your punishment will be that you're going to go through pain when you carry the baby and pain when you deliver the baby, but you shan't still desire your husband. And it's not for Allah, we are going to make you a psycho. You're going to go through pain and then you're going to desire the pain. You understand? And then in the Qur'an, the pain that the woman goes through in pregnancy and delivery, Allah praised it in the Qur'an, called it jihad and made us, Allah tells us, if only, if only just remember. Just remember that your mother carried you in meetings upon meetings. A man came to the Prophet ﷺ saying, O Rasulullah, my mother was a slave. I first freed myself, then I have freed my mother. Have I paid her back? And the Prophet looked at him and smiled. He said, not even for one of her contractions. You haven't paid her back? Not even for one of her contractions. Contractions in Qur'an and Sunnah are praised as honor. Somewhere else is punishment for a woman. Then God said to the serpent, I'm going to make an amacity between you and the children of Allah. If they shall step on your head and you shall bite them in their heels. The shaitan is not the serpent. What's the problem of the serpent? Any case. From the beginning of humanity, Allah defined us human means as, what makes you a human? What makes you an honorable of creation of Allah? You have a mind. You have knowledge. And then you have an honor. You have a dignity. You have integrity. And there are certain things that you shall not do. There is a red line. You shall not do. You shall not cross. Why? Because you are a human. Because you have a mind. Because you have emotions. Because you have senses. Because you understand. Because Allah speaks to you and you understand the revelation. You shall have limits. I'm going to ask you a question. What do you call a person without limits? Who can do anything, anytime, anywhere? What do you call them? Shameless? Thank you. Another word? They're there. Their level is the one who performs dangerous acts. But what I'm saying, what do you call someone who's willing to do anything? There's no limits. No forbidding. Anything, anywhere, anywhere. Heal us. Okay, more? Just breathe. You are very nice. Animals are nice. A pride of lions. Pride of lions. They go hunting after buffaloes. How many buffaloes do they catch? 25 lions eat one. You know what does the human do? One machine gun. One human can eat 25 human beings. Not to eat. Not for survival. Just because of anger. Lions don't do that. Tigers don't do that. Hyenas don't do that. They just kill and do it. And once they are done, they show you on nature videos, deers and gizads know when the lion has eaten from the way he lays down. They walk right in front of him. He's not going to attack. He already ate. They know. They're not afraid of him. The second they see him, sits down like this. Okay, don't mess with him. He's hungry. Time to run, right? That's exactly. So a lion, a lion is not a criminal. Okay? A lion does not turn around and kill 25 lions because he's angry. Angry. You understand? So when you do something, when you have no limits, you know, so would you become a friend of someone who has no limits? Would you become a friend of someone who can turn against you and do anything because there's nothing forbidden to him? He can do anything, whatever he feels like he does, right? So that's why when a person has no limits, that person is like, there's no human word to describe. It becomes inhuman, not even, doesn't even belong to the animal kingdom. What happens when a person has limits, will never cross the limits. And you can predict his limits like he's predicted. He will not lie to you. He will not steal from you. He will not kill you. He will not backbite you. What do you call such a person? Honorable, huh? What do you call such a person? Trustworthy, huh? High character, right? That's why when a person has limits versus a person who has no limits, that person is what we call a godly person, holy person, righteous person, because he has limits and he doesn't cross. She doesn't cross that limit. So all of a sudden throughout different languages, throughout history, and throughout space, today, today, the word forbidden in every language is used in two contexts. Forbidden, don't do, and forbidden means holy and sacred. Even Buddhists, they have their forbidden city. The Vatican used to be called the forbidden city. I mean, this city is holy and nobody does anything harmful in it. So when a person has harm, which means limits, that person is a holy person. And then for him, there is a holy city to visit, al-bayt al-hamam. And for him, there is a holy month in which he's double holy. He's double, he has double forbidden things because he has limits. This is very, very important because today, freedom means you have no limits. You just do whatever you feel like. And no, no, no, that's not freedom. That's inhumanity. That's in, there is no dignity in dignity, right? That means that human becomes very dangerous. And that's why we have no problems on pressing a button and wiping the whole nation. Making a decision and destroying the whole nation. Why? Because there's no limits. There's no harm. And usually, people who don't adhere to harm, they almost have zero small to none believe in the day of judgment. Because it's all built on each other. If you don't believe that you will be questioned for what you do, you can do whatever you want. So believing in the day of judgment creates in you, inside you, a policeman inside you, who's watching you from inside you because you believe there is a day of judgment. And therefore, I better not mess with anything, not destroy myself, not destroy others in the name of me wanting to do whatever I want to. So when Allah Azza wa Jalla, in Al-Qur'an Al-Kareem, in Surat Al-Tawbah, made a statement that, you know, I will read for you the anaya from Surat Al-Tawbah, Surat No. 9 and Anaya No. 36, so that we are taking directly from the original source, the Book of Allah. I seek refuge with Allah from Satan, the accursed. In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. The number of months in the sight of Allah are 12 months. In the Book of Allah, in the record of Allah, the day He created the heavens, the skies and the earth, of which four are called Haram, sacred, holy. That is the complete perfect religion. So, do not wrong yourselves in these months. How do you wrong yourself? When you disobey Allah, when you commit sin, when you do harm, when you remove the limits from yourself and become worse than an animal, why shall you do that to yourself? Why? Why when Allah gave you a mind? Why when Allah gave you a soul? Why when Allah gave you a heart? Why when Allah made you a human? Why when Allah honored you? Why do you seek this honor? We have honored the children of Adam. We carried their descendants in the land and in the sea. We have given them from the Gracious and we have preferred them over a great portion of our creation, i.e. you are of the top 1%. Allah says, I have preferred you over a great portion of my creation, which tells us there is other honorable creation of Allah, but we are from the top and with us there are other on the top. Where do they live? Allah is telling you, I have honored you. Why do you seek to run away from honor? That is why my sisters, these special Haram revive in us the meaning of Halal and Haram, revive in us that we have limits, revive in us responsibility, revive in us the feeling of having limits, and with that we become honorable human beings. Because the word forbidden in every language is associated with the word sacred and holy. So when Allah calls Al Baytul Haram, the forbidden house, what does Allah say? The holy house, the sacred. Why sacred? Because people there are not there to harm themselves or harm others. They are here to benefit themselves and benefit others. If they see someone thirsty, they give them water, they see someone hungry, they give them food, they see an old person, they carry him, they see a person lost, they find him, they find where is his company, they see someone who needs help, they help one another. They're not allowed to hunt within the boundaries of Haram, because not even pigeons, not even deers, or gazaams, or any of this creation is supposed to feel fear in that secure place. Because when you have limits, there will be security. Because nobody will kill nobody, nobody will shoot nobody, nobody will harm nobody, so the place will become secure. So Allah says this is a secure place. Nothing should be harmed, nothing should be killed for no reason. You are, and that's why, subhanAllah, it's old, revolved around the same meaning. You go to Umrah. Where are you going? To al-Bayt al-Haram. You're going to al-Bayt al-Haram? Oh yes. Oh, you need to do something. Why is it? You need to wear ihram. What does that mean? You need to wear the clothes that declare you in the state of haram, state of ihram, meaning, listen, I'm not going to harm you, I'm not going to, I am in the state of ihram. Again, back to the word haram. The more haram you have, the more honorable you become. The more you say, I will not do this, this is below the level, right? A lot of time people come and ask, Sheikh, is this haram? Is that haram? Is this? Okay. You know what? From Allah's mercy, He made what is haram in Islam, very small items. Eat whatever you want. Just don't eat pork. And don't eat blood. Sheikh, who eats blood? No. Lots of people eat blood. They use the blood instead of the broth. I've seen that with my own eyes in California. Smarter the cow, they put the bucket and then it becomes like a gel. You know, it's, what is that called? Clotting, yes. Clots, so then they cut it and then they put the clots in bags, in bags. I'm like, what would you do? Oh, we cook the meat with it. This is the broth. Oh, Wallahi Allah said the truth. I thought I will never see in my life someone eating blood. I saw it in 2016. So Allah said, don't eat the blood. It will harm you. Don't eat pork. You know, went to the church and someone asked, laughing me, you know, why would you have against pork? What do you have against pigs? I said, actually we have nothing. What do you have against pigs? We have nothing. That's why we don't eat them. We don't touch them. You guys keep on killing them and eating them. What do you have against pigs? And they started laughing. We have nothing. We just leave them alone. If they don't harm us, we don't touch them. That's all. So Allah said, eat whatever. Just don't eat. Don't eat something that eats meat. According to the analysis of scientists, this is on the radio. I heard it 10 times, National Public Radio, National JGRAF, this and that science. They think the way it's developed, there was a monkey, monkey that had a virus in it. Not a normal animal, but it's no big deal. So another monkey chimpanzees hunted that monkey and ate it. The monkey that ate the other monkey had a virus in it, two different than that virus. Really, it happens, but it does happen. It happens, the two viruses married each other and became one virus, forming what? The HIV virus. Then what happened? Someone went and hunted that chimpanzee and ate it. And that's how the first case of HIV developed. Or if you are conspiracy theory, it developed in the labs of God knows what. Both possibilities. If you have the rule, I don't eat what eats meat, I don't eat carnivores, then you will not have a problem. You understand how much it saves you. So if there's something that eats meat, I don't eat. Unless it's fish in the sea, then the rule doesn't apply. Because all fish eat other fish, there's no problem. Sheikh, can we eat shark? Yes, you can eat shark. There's no exclusion to sharks or whales or anything. As a matter of fact, in the hadith, one of the Sahaba ate from whales and brought from the liver of the whale to the Prophet, Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Prophet looked at it and smiled. And he said, do you know what's the meat, the first meal of people who enter a gym? They said, what do you also know? He said, the liver of the whale. That's the first meal you eat in the Jannah. Ziyada to kebedilhut. The ziyada of kebedilhut. That says there's the kebedilhut and there's a ziyada that comes out of it, like an extra part. That's your first meal in the Jannah. What does it do to your body? Only Allah knows in Jannah. Like it gives you longevity, or God knows what it does. So brothers and sisters, we need to revive this Ha'ab. So, there's something called Ha'ab, but Allah made what is Ha'ab. Do you drink all the juice? Just don't drink alcohol. Don't let it ferment. So the Sahaba said to us, we make juice, you know, because juice was only for rich people. Why would you take to get the juice out of an atom without a machine? Imagine you have an apple, there's no machine to juice it. What would you do? Do you know how to get it? What do you do? You, buy it and then spin it out. Buy it and then spin it out. Good idea. What's the traditional way, how did they use to get it out? Put a rock, have a rock on the top of lots of apples, which is laid on another rock, and then whatever seems from the side, because it's very difficult. So this is called Nabith. Nabith is two kinds. Fresh Nabith, which is fresh juice, and Nabith that is fermented. So they said, we make Nabith. Can we drink it? He said, drink it, as long as it did not stay overnight. Because in Arabia overnight, one day, eight of Arabia would ferment anything. So he said, drink it as long as it's fresh. And that's why, you know, our Christian brothers and sisters, they say, what's the first miracle of Jesus in the Bible? First miracles of Jesus in the Quran before he was born, spoke to his mother from his, from her womb, after he was born, delivered a speech. First miracle for Jesus is him turning at age 33. First miracle of Jesus. Very late. He has already done so many miracles and taking the claim, blowing in it, becomes a burden. But in the Bible, when he's 33, he turned water into wine. Does he wine as halal? Why we call it halal? No, but he turned water into juice. Because the word wine is the same word in Arabic, Nabith. Because the poor people in there, why these dreams, they could not dream to drink, to eat the fruits in a form of juice. So, saying that he said, turn the water, because they're drinking water all day, to juice what the rich people only drink, to the masses. They enjoyed it. Alcohol. No, no, that was not alcohol. That was juice. So Allah Azza wa Jalla built our whole team on five things. They all have to do with forbidden things. These five things, if we observe them, we will live in the state of safety. One of the five things, preserving your mind. That's why alcohol is forbidden. Number two, preserving your faith. That's why ruining people's faith without knowledge is forbidden. Number three, preserving your property, wealth. That's why stealing is forbidden. Number four, preserving your honor. That's why backbiting and adultery and formication is forbidden, because it destroys people's honors. So preserving your faith, preserving your mind, preserving your property, preserving your honor. And what's the fifth one? As you're going to say, we said, mind, faith, property, honor. Who knows the first? These are the five hudud of Islam. What's the mother of them all? Think of the capital punishment. Preserving life. That's why killing another person. These five things trigger punitive law in Islam, punishment law. These five things. Islam, it's big, big, big, big, big, big, big, sure. What is Allah trying to accomplish through Sharia? Preserving your mind, preserving your faith, preserving your life, preserving your property, preserving your honor. Touch any one of these things towards another person, you will get punished, because now you'll overstep it. So what is Islam trying to create in the society? Safety. You, as an individual, apply these things on yourself, and the society applies it on each other. So now we're not struggling with our kids on drugs or on alcohol, or God forbid, going the route of Zina, you understand? Because the society protects each other. I watch you back, you watch my back. This is the purpose of the Islam. That's why Islam is to live in the state of safety, aspiring to peace, because peace is not something you turn on and off. Halal and ha'ab, you turn on and off. Right now, you can make a choice, not to kill a person or to kill a person. Steal someone's iPhone or not to steal someone's iPhone. Right now, in one second. But to achieve peace, it's a life journey. It's a life journey. You have to do so many things. And when you are young, you're always stressed out easily. You grow older, you've seen so many things, so many things, so many things in your life. So now you are more in the state of peace. Why? Because you've seen so much. Peace doesn't happen quickly. Safety happens like this. Snap. Right now, you can be safe, and everyone around you is safe, or you can be danger to yourself, and everyone is in danger or because of you. So the first principle in Islam is halal and ha'ab, to live in the state of safety. No harm, no safety. First thing in Islam, the five purposes of sharia, preserve intellect, preserve faith, preserve life, preserve property, preserve honor. This is the first. To preserve it, the people in that society have to believe that this is forbidden, and I will not touch it. Now, if you believe that, then welcome to al-bayt al-haram. If you believe in that, then welcome to wa'in ihram. If you believe that, then it is four months that you even reinforce these meanings. What are the four months? The month of Ramadan, and the month of Rabi'in. The first and the big, wrong. The four months has nothing to do with Ramadan, at all. Ramadan is a thing on its own. It's the seventh month, rajab, then the al-qaeda, the al-hijjah, al-muharram, three consecutive months. And three consecutive months, al-qaeda, al-hijjah, al-muharram, and then rajab. Out of these months, one month carried the word mu'arram, which is the month of mu'arram, the word ha'am. That's why the Prophet ﷺ said, this is the month of Allah. And he said, the best fasting after the month of Ramadan is the fasting of Shah-ul-Lahi l-haram, this month. And the best prayers after the fard, the prayers, is the prayers of the night, qiyam and ta'aljud. Not only in Ramadan, Yira, the first, the best fasting after Ramadan is in Shah-ul-Lahi l-haram. The best prayers after the fard is the one you do at night when everybody goes to sleep, because now you are investing in a personal relationship between mu'alla Allah. It's no more about you people and mischief and jinn. That's you did in the morning, five day prayers, jama'ah, people. Now it's one on one, ta'aljud on night. So that's the best prayers. Another hadith in Musnad-e-Iman-e-Mahmed, and it tell me the Prophet ﷺ said, one of the best months is Shah-ul-Lahi l-haram. Allah has forgiven some people in this month, and Allah will forgive more people in this month. What, what some people in this month? Allah forgave the children of Israel in this month. And Allah shall forgive more nations to come in this month, which is us. So this is a month in which Allah, SubhanAllah, there's a track record of forgiveness in this month. So how do you start? So how do you get together? We need a calendar. Abu Musa al-Ashali radi allahu anhu sent a letter to Sayyidina Muhammad al-Khattar. You sent a letter for me, do this by Shahban, but you don't specify Shahban this year or the following year. Two people came and they have one bottle of money from the other to Sayyidina Muhammad al-Khattar. And they said, you borrowed from me, he didn't pay me that content. He said, do you have a contract, written contract? They said, yes. So they got the written contract, they gave it to Sayyidina Muhammad. They said, and he shall pay me back this amount in Shahban. So Muhammad al-Khattar said, which Shahban is that? Last Shahban? The one who gave the money away. He said, yeah, it was last Shahban. The one who owes the money, he said, no, it's next Shahban. The Sayyidina Muhammad said, we can't go on like that. What do we do? So they said, okay, we will make a calendar. Let's follow the Roman calendar. He said, the Roman calendar is not for us. It's a solar calendar. Our months are lunar. People don't appreciate lunar months anymore because we're not in touch with nature and because we don't practice the Qur'an. But I will take all of your phones away, all of your muslimas away, all of your calendars away, and I'm going to ask you tomorrow to walk outside in nature and tell me which day of the month it is. There's no way for you to tell me. There's three, four months that are hot. It's June, July, August, sometimes September is hot. But even if you don't know which month it is, when you go out at night and watch the moon, you can tell which night. You know the Arabs? You know how they used to do the calendar? Do you know where was the calendar? In the sky. They walk out in the middle. Oh, it's the 14th. Today at night our eyes are not trained. Their eyes were so trained, they will know from the birth of the Hila to the next day, next day they can tell you it's the 7th of the month, the 9th of the month, the 11th of the month, just by looking at the moon. Divine calendar. Take the moon out, just stay with the solar months. You have no way of knowing it. You go by the season. So that's why Allah swt wants us to say fast Ramadan for seeing the Hila. Break your fast for seeing the Hila. There's a touch between you and nature. You're in touch with nature. Solar months are unique because they keep us in touch with nature. So in this, you know, they said okay which year shall be? So someone said first year shall be the birth of the Prophet ﷺ. Allah swt said when Rasulullah received the revelation when he was 40, that should be the first year. When he died, we all know which day he died. So and they said, and then someone said from the day of Hijrah. And when someone said that, every Sahib said wow, that's a nice date. So they said okay, first year is the year of Hijrah. Okay. Year of Hijrah, Rasulullah ﷺ was 53. He became a prophet at 40, 13 years in Makkah, 53. Moving to Medina, 10 years in Medina, 63, that he passed away. So Rasulullah passed away in the 10th year of Hijrah. How long Abu Bakr was at Khalifa? Two years. So now we have 10 plus two. When did the meeting take place in the third year of the Khilafa of Ramadan? So when they decided what year was the first year, it was already year 15. When they decided which year shall be, they decided what year it shall be, year number one they were in year number 15, from the Hijrah. So what happened before? Do we go minus one Hijrah, minus two Hijrah? No, we don't comment. We go from the day the Prophet was declared as a prophet. So from age 40, that's the first year of Al-Ba'itha, second year of Al-Ba'itha. Ba'itha means he was sent, Allah sent him to mankind by receiving Iqraaf, Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. So we have Minal Ba'itha and we have Minal Hijrah. Got it? So then we have to study these months and then in this ayah that I read, next ayah in which Allah says the number of months are 12 months, lunar months, of which there are four that are sacred. From the day that Allah created the heavens and the earth, these four are declared sacred. Month number 11, 12 and 1. These months are around the season of Hajj. Month number 11, some people who live away from Mecca, they start coming for Hajj, a month before. Then the month of the Hajj and then they travel back another month. You understand? But then they discovered that with camels and this they come from any corner from the Arabian Peninsula in two weeks. Hajj finishes on the 13th of Dhul Hijrah. So you still have two weeks to come back, right? There was a problem. The Arabian Peninsula was inhabited by tribes and those tribes like our day to day, they used to make a living from war, something which was not new. War was the means of making a living. So they said, okay, the strong tribe attacks the weak tribe, destroy the whole, you know, take men, kill them, take women, concubines, take children, sell them as slaves, take their positions, take their camels, take their cows, take their lambs, take their sheep, take their goats. That's a good thing. Rating, they used to raid each other. So what did the Arab do? They did not fight and don't matter because everybody's traveling for Hajj. They're like, we're going to keep that. Dhul Hijrah, everybody's going home from Hajj, we're going to keep that. But Muharram, three months without fighting, well, not too much. How are we going to make a living? So the Arab started doing something interesting. They said, this will not be Muharram. This year, we're going to main Muharram, Rabia Al Awal. Rabia Al Awal, we will call it Muharram. This Muharram, we can fight. But when Rabia Al Awal comes, it will be a replacement for this. So what did Allah say in the ayah after this ayah, إِنَّ مَنْ نَسِيْءُ زِيَادَةٌ فِي الْكُفْرِ زِيَادَةٌ جَنْتَةِ زِيَادَةٌ مَطْلَةٌ كُفُرْ وَزِيَادَةٌ الْكُفْرِ يعني not only you have, you are worshipping idols now, now you're playing with a team of Ibraheem, alaihi s-salam. You're coming and declaring a mantra, Allah is calling you Haram, you're calling it Halal. Well, let's fight in each other and raid one another, SubhanAllah. So Allah Azza wa Jalla told us these four months, we're not supposed to oppress ourselves and we're not supposed to declare war. Interesting line, this deem gets accused to be, it's a deem of terrorism when actually one-third of the year, four months, you're not supposed to initiate an offensive act. Four months, one-third of the year. And Allah said do not oppress yourselves, how do you oppress yourself in this month by committing Haram? So brothers and sisters, the question is coming year is upon us. What are your goals, as I said today in the khutbah, I think it will be posted very soon, inshaAllah. What are your goals for this coming year? What do you want to accomplish? If you can accomplish Islam, which is to live in a state of safety, by abiding by the rules of Allah, the five purposes of sharia, the halal and haam, aspiring to peace, how do you aspire to peace through your prayers, through your fasting, through your charity, through your self-cleansing from inside, through zikr, through a quiet peace, peace. By making an informed choice, how can you make an informed choice without learning your deen? How do you make an informed choice without learning your deen? This is very common. Every day I deal with this. A very strong brother in their deen, a very strong sister in her deen, very devoted, very disobeyed. In the ibadah, they are 99 percent. But in elim, they are one percent. So while in this journey, shaitan comes and puts a little rock in front of them. They tremble and fall and almost lose their deen. Every day story. Why? Because nobody is learning the deen. Nobody dedicated himself to spend maybe one month of the year learning the tricks of shaitan. How does shaitan mislead the Saba? The Quran is full of that and the sunnah is full of that. How can you predict shaitan? You know people that was very normal. People used to be able to predict shaitan and realize, oh this is from the waswas of shaitan. And every time shaitan make waswas khanas to the believer, they used to remember Allah. Shaitan used to fail miserably in his mission. He comes to whisper to you, he ends up making you remembering Allah. Because you know his tricks. But if you don't have this education, how are you going to battle shaitan? How are you going to battle your nafs? That you're out. This is the way I am. We will never change our ways. We will never change our culture. We will never change our tradition. This is the way we are from thousands of years ago. You're giving a very nice speech about jahidiyah. MashaAllah. This is amazing jahidiyah. Very nice. No, we will change our ways if it is against the way of Allah. Yes. Because we will be backwarded, stone age, closed minded, never minded by choosing our own cultures and traditions over the word of Allah and the messenger of Allah, his messenger of Allah, who want us to live a fresh life, prosperous life, good life, not a life full of gifts. You know, simply, shaitan double dips on a Muslim who's ignorant. First, you're doing what you're doing and you're about to do this. Shaitan makes you go and do something, sin. What you've got to sin is. But obviously, you've never learned in detail the story of Adam. So, oh my God, that was a good Muslim. I broke my covenant with Allah. I made a sin. Oh my God. So first, shaitan whispers, whispers, whispers and makes you do something haram. Because you couldn't catch his whisper the first time you did it. Fine, no problem. Now, it's time to repent. After you feel guilty, feeling guilty when you do something wrong is a healthy sign that you have a living heart. After you feel guilty, Alhamdulillah, that you felt guilty because some people do wrong and they don't feel guilty. Na'udubillah, their heart is dead. So, they feel guilty. When you feel guilty, Allah says, now time to move on. How do I move on? Follow a bad deed with a good deed and it shall erase it. Move on. Now, move on. How? You had energy to do something bad? Yes. Okay, you should have energy to do something good. Get up and do something good. Okay, and what happens if I do something good, after I do something bad? Allah says, the good deed will erase the bad deed. Not my word. I'm not trying to become a philosopher or a very nice shia, who promises nice things to people. Two ayat in the Quran. Follow a bad deed with a good deed and it shall erase it. Two different ayat in the Quran. Do you know what we do? We just get stuck in feeling guilty. And, oh my God, does Shaytan love that? Because he did two things to you. He made you go and do something harm and then he paramised you from doing something good. So, he double dipped in you. He made you do something wrong and I said, oh my God, I'm a bad Muslim in it. I remember sitting down with a sister. I'm a bad. What did you do? I did this. I said, okay. How do you feel? I feel bad if I get it. I said, good. First, healthy sign. Second, did you do it again? Astaghfirullah Shaykh. He never did that again ever in my life. Good. Masha'Allah. Second box checked. Do you intend to do it again? Ya Shaykh, I will never do this again. I said, for the third box, check. Did you give charity and salata? Did you make dua? Did you make extra salah? Ya Shaykh, I've been doing this for seven years. Good. Check. Box. I told her, okay. So, what's the problem? You speak in the name of Allah or Allah speaks in the name of Allah? I want to know. She said, no, Allah speaks in the name of Allah. I showed her two, three ayahs on the Qur'an. But Allah said, if you do one, two, three, four, I shall forgive you. So, I'm telling her, you're accusing Allah of lying? Allah said, if you do one, two, three, I will forgive you. So, I'm telling you, you'll forgive it. Not because I'm gratifying you forgiveness, because I had belief in the word of Allah. So, Allah said, if you do one, two, three, four, I will forgive you. And no questions asked. And Allah says, you can bring my word to me on the Day of Judgment and hold me to my own word. Like, no problem, because I don't change my word. She said, oh my God. So, Allah forgives me? I said, yes. I asked you specific questions. Did you lie in any of them? I said, no. I said, according to the ayah of the Qur'an that I just showed you, Allah has already forgiven you. Now, can you please move on? But no, I should have done something wrong. Let's go for a walk. Go home and cry till the day you die. Because you are exactly following the traps of Shehzad. He made you do the sin the first and he's analyzing you the second. What is this? Oh, but why? Our culture teaches us. How do you become a good Muslim? If you feel a lot of guilt. Oh, you are a good Muslim. You shall feel guilty 24-7. You shall feel dirt. You shall feel, you know, accused. You shall live in regret. Then who said that? Is your design or Allah and His messing? Because Allah is messing. I don't read any of this. Allah and His messengers said, if you do something good and you feel the guilt, take that guilt and use it as a propeller and engine to make you go and do something right and move on. Don't get stuck in guilt. But people want to do that. So, if brothers and sisters come in here, liberate yourselves. Follow Allah's way. Don't follow your culture away. Unless your culture matches the word of Allah. Islam does not have a problem with culture. Afghans wear hijab this way. Pakistanis wear hijab that way. Syrian ladies wear hijab that way. Saudi, as long as you're wearing hijab, whatever colors you choose, that's your business. In Africa, Muslim women, they wear a turban. Literally, like ulamas. That's their hijab. And they wear a shirt and that's their hijab. As long as it fulfills the hijab, alhamdulillah. Islam does not recommend that you can only wear black or brown or blue. Dark also. Not light blue. Dark blue. Where do you come up with that? Where do you come up with that? We have hadith that women in Medina used to wear white. Where do you go with that? And ladies used to wear black also. So, that was their available colors at that time. Cotton and God knows what else. So, the idea here, Islam never asks people to change the taste of their food. As long as you're not eating halam, you keep everything tasting the way it is. Just don't use haram ingredients. Islam does not fight the culture unless the culture starts fighting Islam and putting ways. So, this coming year, we want to enjoy our being. We want to live in a state of safety to aspire to peace. Because once you start harming yourself, there's nothing to talk about. You keep on taking drugs, taking drugs, taking drugs until you fry your brain cells. Now, someone is sitting down wanting to talk with you. You can't even understand. Because your brain cells have fried. They're already gone. So, first principle in Islam, live in the state of safety. Eat from the garden, but don't eat from this tree. This will ruin your safety. Don't eat from the tree. And anything haram became the resemblance of that tree is not living haram. Now, once you do that, you have to make a choice. And I don't want to repeat the khutba, but I'm going to leave you with a question that I asked myself and I asked people to answer in the khutba. Why are you alive? What do you want? What do you want? What do you want from yourself? What do you want from your wealth? What do you want from your family? What do you want from your existence? What do you want? There's only two choices. People are on this planet to build a glory for themselves and leave a legacy. Or they are on this planet to build a glory for Allah and legacy for them. Even nations do that. We're going to show them who's boss. Okay. Meet you after a thousand years, you will not exist. It's not going to happen overnight. But look at the Roman Empire. Even when Muslims started thinking like that, their empire is gone. When a person thinks, I'm here to, I'm going to show them. Show who? People. What? I have wealth. You really don't want to do that. You're going to invite so many things against you unless you are very good in reading the Qur'an. That's three times that I have to go see every morning and every evening. You're going to bring so much pain, right? And people, when you show them who makes money, I'm going to show them. Show them what? How good looking I am. Okay. I'm going to show them how many children I have. I'm going to show them. And people live their life. This is how we live our life. We live our life, living in the minds of others. So I wake up in the morning and I say, what am I going to wear? And then I start imagining the people on the street looking at me. And then I start, okay, they're going to look at me, they're going to judge me this way. So I want to wear that shirt and that pants so that when they're looking at me, hold them. Okay. You get out of people's heads and get in your own head. So we live our lives thinking what people are thinking about us and we forget the most simple principle in Islam. What is Allah thinking of me? So people want to build a legacy, build a legacy, build. People stop talking about Steve Jobs. Who's going to be Steve Jobs? Nobody. It's over. It's now Coke. And Coke is a big one. It's in Coke. And then also, you know what it's like. When was the last time you went to a funeral and people stood up on the top of the grave of a person and said, no, I shall not. He was an embarrassing person. He had 12 apartment buildings. They were all rented. Allah, this guy had a Ferrari next to the Lamborghini next to it, Maserati next to it. And then he had some BMWs and Mercedes parked outside. When was the last time you were done? People who are like that self-centered people hate them and they don't even show to their funeral because they were self-centered and they never cared about anyone else. But where do people come? Where do people show in large homes? When there is someone who used to give and give and give. Whether it's knowledge or money. When they come, they said, SubhanAllah, he used to give. He was there for me and no one was there for me. But yet what people want to do, they want to build a legacy for themselves instead of building. We are here for a short period of time to build a legacy and the glory of Allah. We do things for the sake of Allah and we make things for the sake of Allah. If you do that, Allah says, you glory and your legacy is on me. I shall take care of you. How? Oh, you can't even imagine how. What did you want in your house? I have gardens for you houses. What did you want in life? Money? I have in this wealth. What did you want to be known? I have in this knowledge for you. You are here. If you build a legacy for me, I will build an eternal legacy for you. Allah confirms the meaning in tours. They shall live in there forever for eternity as if the word forever is not enough. They shall live in there forever for eternity. Double confirming the meaning. You build a legacy for Allah. Within 30-40 years, Allah will build for you a legacy forever for eternity. And Subhanallah, people love you. You love yourself. Allah loves you when you are not self-centered and selfish. When you are given, people hate you. You hate yourself and Allah will be displeased with you when you are self-centered and you are selfish. So anyway, you don't win when you go selfish. Not with people, not with yourself, not with Allah. So why do it? Why live your whole life trying to get compliments from people and being selfish instead of helping them and being there at the time of need? That's why brothers and sisters, have a goal. Say what Allah said to His Messenger, Ibrahim, to what He said to His Messenger, last Messenger, Muhammad ﷺ. Allah said, Say, Say, my prayers, my rituals, my life in its entirety, my death is only to Allah. No partners with Him. I'm not going to build, I'm not on this planet to build a legacy for Allah. I'm here to build a legacy for Allah. And with that, I have been commanded, and I am the first of Muslims. I don't want to be the last of Muslims. I want to be the first of and I am the first of Muslims. That's your big goal in life. From that big goal comes out done. Okay, I need to live in a state of safety. Know how to myself or to others. From you done with that, you'll come now. Okay, not only I'm not going to harm myself and others, that's not enough. I'm going to benefit myself and others in the name of Allah. I'm going to find a charity work, volunteering organization, come and help in the Masjid, support a Muslim. Someone is in the street, host him. A lady completely broken and she needs some refuge. I will host her. A man who doesn't have money, I will help him. Because it's not enough not to harm yourself and others. You need to benefit yourself and others in the name of Allah for the sake of Allah. Now you have a plan. Then you ask yourself, how are we going to accomplish these goals? You put that plan and you go month after month after month. Waking up in the morning, what's my goal? What's my first priority? Don't inflect harm on yourself on others. What's my second priority? Bring benefit and to others, to yourself and to others. Why am I here to build a legacy for Allah, not to myself? If Allah will decide to give me a legacy, He will give me a legacy. If Allah doesn't want me to give me a legacy in dunya, I'm sure He will give it to me in akhirah. And that's how you change yourself. Now you've taken down, maybe you're not regular in your Salaf and the month, you become regular in your Salaf. Maybe you're not regular in your Fasting, maybe you're not regular in giving charity, you become regular. Maybe you don't care about others in your so selfish and self-centered that you only see your pain, you stop paying attention to the pain of the others. You start tailoring your own goals. But believe me brothers and sisters, if you don't have that first goal defined, my life, my death is for Allah. You will always be struggling with your faith. You always say, Sheikh, I have weak Iman. No, no, you don't have weak Iman. You have weak knowledge, determination and you avoid making a choice. So when someone tells you, are you here for Allah or for yourself? You're like, I want a little bit for Allah, I want a little bit. When you give it for Allah, make sure, rest assured, Allah will give you back everything that you wanted, everything that you wanted. When you are here for Allah, you're going to get everything that you wanted. And I'm saying, Ya Rasulullah, may Allah give me this, Ya Allah give me that, Ya Allah give me that. And then at the end I say, Allahumma salli ala Muhammadin ma ala Muhammad. So I do 10% of my du'ab for you. He said, is that good? He said, but if you want to do more, you can do more. He said, I'll do one fourth of my du'ab for you. Like one fourth of my du'ab and he says, Allahumma salli ala Muhammadin ma ala Muhammad, Allahumma salli. He said, that's good, but if you want to do more, you can do more. He said, I'll make one half. He said, that's good, but if you want to do more, you can do more. He said, I will do two thirds. He said, that's good, but if you want to do more. The man said, Ya Rasulullah, I will make my own du'ab for you. the Prophet's night and he said then Allah will answer your door, Allah will give you what you want and Allah will save you from what you want to be saved from. Dedicate yourself to Allah and Allah will take care of you. Dedicate yourself to yourself and you cannot take care of even yourself. You're not going to help yourself. You just do your part and dedicate yourself to Allah and Allah will take care of you. That's my message to myself this year, my message to you InshaAllah Rabbil Hanami, inshaAllah make you happy for me, inshaAllah Rabbil Hanami. Allah Azza wa Jalla Heal all the sick amongst us inshaAllah and inshaAllah I will be going through treatment inshaAllah for the next six months and then they come back inshaAllah and do some good work inshaAllah with you, inshaAllah and continue. May Allah Azza wa Jalla Heal us all from our sicknesses. The physical sickness is easy. There's a medicine for that. And when there's a moment Allah rewards you for it. The spiritual sickness is not easy. When you make yourself intentionally, I'm saying intentionally, not unintentionally. Intentionally when you sicken yourself you know what Allah said, in their hearts there is sickness and Allah increased that sickness. Don't ruin yourself my warning to you. Physical sickness? No problem. Too much reward. Allah will forgive your sins. Every time you go through a pain Allah will forgive you. No problem. Physical sickness? All good news. Spiritual sickness? There's no shifa. Allah gives you more sickness. Don't ruin yourself. Know your limits. Don't become philosopher when Allah's word is between your hand and the messenger. Say, but I think this and I want this and you mislead yourself and your family and the society because you're speaking from your head with no knowledge, experience, reference, nothing. Then you want to make great trouble in dunya and in akhira. So that's why we say Allah cleanses us from the diseases of the heart, cleanses us from the diseases of the soul from any sickness that is dangerous. And may Allah reward us for the sickness that we go through physically. Insha'Allah. I mean Allah will forgive you. If there's any question I would answer. Yes, sir? So I want to find out the significance of the Rosa for the age of Muharram. Fasting the tenth of Muharram was a fasting that the Prophet ﷺ and the Sahaba practiced before fasting Ramadan. That's how old he is. Some say they used to fast. You know, I was a Muslim came to Medina and said, why do you fast this day? But the tenth of Muharram is a day of remembrance for it's like a world just this day. Sayyidina Musa ﷺ, Allah saved him from Pharaoh and on the tenth of Muharram a sad incident took place in the history of the sunnah which is the martyrdom of Sayyidina Husayn ibn Ali ﷺ. So he was murdered on that day. So this is a point of remembrance. Fasting the day of alafa is a moment of reference and remembrance because what Sayyidina Husayn ibn Ali stood up for, he stood up for against injustice and stood up for justice. Sayyidina Husayn saw that the system Rasulullah left people with, which means shura abu baqir, shura, oh my, shura, if mal, shura, ali, this shura al-Hasan, shura people used to make elect and suddenly that was gone and now we have a king, son of a king, son of a king. So Sayyidina Husayn stood up against the first king in Islam which is Yazid ibn Muharram and truly as kings are known for they are merciless. So it didn't matter that he was the grandson of Rasulullah, they slaughtered him. You understand? So this is in 2017 when everyone's talking about justice, when everyone is talking about systems. Islam is for a system in which there is representation and there is election and there is nomination and there is a choice so that the people's voice is heard but also their leader's voice are heard. Just like in England it's not direct democracy. You elect the party and the party that takes the majority in the parliament, they elect the prime minister of England. People don't elect the prime minister of England. Islam is more similar to that. You elect the religious shura and the religious shura choose a Khalifa between them. So that's a modern even, you know, it's not far from reality. That is the system that Sayyidina Husayn said, I shall not live and die while I see that system change and nobody's saying anything. I want to be the one who said something and he said something and he paid his life as price for it. Around age 33, 34, he passed away and he had zero objections and zero regrets. His sister, Zaynab ul-Kobar, also the daughter of Zaynani, she came at him at his moment of death and he smiled and he said, Allah wait for me to die as a Shahid and Allah wait for you to be caught as prisoners of war. This is Allah's way and I want to peace with it. I don't question Allah what He does. I question myself and I have stood up for the truth. So today this is very relevant. Why? Because the Muslim world is navaged by what? Kings, prime ministers, presidents that keep on sucking the blood of the nation and giving nothing back. We will not see the daylight as an ummah until we stand up for what Sayyidina Husayn stood up for, which the Sahaba stood up for. Today, when you talk about Arabic, it's Sunnah versus Shia. To me, I don't even remember the words Shia or Sunnah when they talk about Sayyidina Husayn. It's irrelevant. It's our deen. It's the Sahaba and it's the grandson of Rasulullah ﷺ. So we revolve around the love of Rasulullah and his hand, wait as Allah taught us in the Qur'an, his messenger taught us in the hadith, and we do remember the death of Sayyidina Husayn, but it remembers that honors is different. But you know to do rituals that dishonor Sayyidina Husayn, I'm against that. Whether these rituals are done by Sunnah or Shia or UK, that's not the way you commemorate the death of Husayn. You commemorate it with sitting down and having a discussion. How can we make this ummah a better ummah? When the Japanese are having a system to elect their leader, they have peace in Japan. It's proven. When you have a systematic way in which the voices of the people is heard, you have peace because everyone has part of that. So the Japanese get to have election. Someone wins the election. The Europeans get to have elections and someone wins the election. We are part of the nation that we vote and someone wins the election and then you have to respect someone won the election except in the Muslim world. The nation goes to voting and the leader goes to voting and the leader wins against the nation. His one vote overrides all of their votes. Very interesting. And then we end up breeding dictatorship and then we ask what's wrong with Muslims. That's what's wrong with Muslims. At least one of the things that are wrong with Muslims is no, it's constantly dictatorship. We celebrated the Arab revolutions and this and that and it's like someone needed to teach us a lesson. Okay, you want freedom, I'll show you what freedom is. You'll all be dead. We should not give in to that. We should always be vigilant so that we don't change the deem of Allah. We don't change what is right. We don't change justice. So the month of Muharram and the day of Ashura, fasting the day of Ashura has nothing to do with the death of Satan. Has nothing to do with it. Fasting the day of Ashura is fasting the day of Ashura following the sunnah of the prophet. When the prophet fasted Ashura there was no. Did what are you saying? Did or Ali did? None of Ali's bait was dead except, you know, whoever died by the Sayyidina Hamza etc. etc. So it has nothing to do just to make clear the distinction. But whatever historical events happened in Ashura, whether saving Musa al-Islam or the Musa, Musa told, you have a belief. What do I want to say? I don't have a belief. I believe that I am God. As a matter of fact, I'm not just a God. I'm the greatest God. Because I don't like God because then people will say there's a higher God than you. I don't like some higher God. I am your greatest Lord, greatest God. Is it okay? You don't want to believe? Don't believe. Can you descend with me, the children of Israel, so that we can go and leave you alone? We don't want to bother you. You want to take my slaves away from me? You want to disturb my system of will? You want to take my workers? Are you crazy? What do you think? I'm not thinking anything. I just want to take my people and go away and leave you at peace. You don't want to believe? You don't want to change? That's your choice. But my nation just gave me the will to say, Na'ih al-Isra'ih, just a little bit. Oh no. So nine ayat, Allah show you Pharaoh, the frocks, the blood, the lies, the bleak. Nine ayat, Allah show you and he wouldn't. He wouldn't believe. Finally, Allah gave Musa and his people away to leave, cross the sea. Musa, it's a celebration, it's a day of justice. The oppressed people won. The slaves won. And it was Allah who gave them that victory. They had no means of fighting for hope. It is army. So this is, it's very interesting. Allah saves Musa, right? And the weak people against the tyrant. And then also, Sayyidina Hussain stands up against a tyrant at that time. Cold blooded, like no problem, anything goes. So it's somewhat the same message. But that has nothing to do with fasting the day of Ashura. We fast the day of Ashura because of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi wa sallam, fasted it. Before he meant the Jews and after he meant the Jews. He fasted it. That day and the day of Arafa, Alhamdulillah. So, very interesting. Ramadan last 10 nights, Lailat al Qadir. Dhul Hijjah, first 10 nights, Arafa. Muharram, first 10 days of night and the day of Ashura. But the whole month of Muharram is also open for fasting and charity. So in other words, we start the year on a high note. Fasting, charity, standing up for justice, helping the weak, no matter who they are. We start the year on that note and then we finish the year with that, inshallah. JazakAllah. Any other question? Yes. You don't need to stand up. You can sit down. JazakAllah. Yes, there are Muslim countries that are inhabited by a lot of Muslims, but Islam is not applied anywhere. Yes. I don't want to hold you hostage and hold you. Because very soon we're going to start making Qiyamul Lailat for staying here. I have so cold and I'm starved and they will go home. Yes, young man. Okay, explain. So everything I've explained in the lecture, from top to bottom, your goal is Allah. Observe halan halam. Benefit others, establish the Deen by helping others in the name of Allah. Observe your own personal Deen, salatia. This is all being a Khalifa and we are Khalifa to Allah in the out. Not anywhere else. Allah said, I will make a Khalifa. So this is our planet. This is where we be. God knows, Allah created seven skies and seven earths and the revelation is sent between these earths. So another ayah Allah say, if I want I will let those, the creation of the heavens and the earth meet each other. So one of the honorable people in Allah's creation is us human beings. But Allah speaks of other creation on other planets that also receive revelation. Just to give you a spin, right? Walk home thinking about aliens, right? We are one of the aliens. There's another six aliens besides us. That's of what we know. And then there are other aliens that we don't know. So far we know of three aliens, us in the movement. Number two, angels, because they're not DNA or carbon-based. They are light-based. And number three are agent. They're not carbon-based or DNA-based. They are smoke-based. So go chase the smoke. So people say, what is the definition of aliens? Let's go and find them in other planets. We say, what's the definition? They cannot be carbon-based, not DNA-based. We say, we're already out of you. We know two people. We talk to them, too. Angels and jinn. When you're done finding them, come back to us. We'll tell you about number three, like that. Alhamdulillah, you know, our Qur'an is very interesting, very, very interesting. Indulge yourself in the book of Allah. Show Allah that, Ya Allah, I want to live by your book. Show Allah that and Allah will help you. Read the Qur'an. Don't be intimidated. Don't let people tell you, you need to read 5,000 books before you read the book of Allah. There's no such an idea in the Qur'an. As a matter of fact, in one Surah, four times Allah said, We've eased Qur'an for zikr, so is there anyone who wants to make zikr? Allah made it easy. I also was given an Amanah. I remember I see the sister in the corner of the room. So, there's an MSA in the local high school, and there's Allah of Muslims in that high school, and our sister here, her daughter was speeding, you know, an effort to get these Muslim students to make a club, do activities, anything, archery, swimming, basketball, nothing heavy or religious, no heavy load. But the kids are not showing. They're not showing. They're maybe afraid, maybe they're shy, maybe they are running away from their Muslim identity. Without the registered one or non-registered one, they're not showing. So, if you have a kid that goes to high school, ask them to show up. Let's support our local MSA. I have witnessed with my own eyes, within the last 10 years, you know, almost 15 years or 20 years, the birth, rise and demise of MSAs because of the culture, public culture. You know, so Muslim students don't want to show that they're Muslims or this or that. Even though they get credit for it when they apply for universities, hours of the Muslim Student Club, you get a credit for that, right? So, let's figure a way to make our Muslim students proud that they're Muslims. Maybe they're not going to come back to Islam by telling them pray five times a day, maybe they're not going to come back. Maybe first step, you tell them be proud that you're Muslim because of one, two, three, four, because of our history, our science, our goodness, our people. Maybe first you can attract them to the idea, to the identity, and from the identity, you take them to the faith itself. But at least there's no hope in bringing someone back to the religion of Islam if they are even embarrassed of being a Muslim. We have now another problem to cover, which is the identity issue. Let's give them a Muslim identity. So, from there, they come back to Islam. But if I don't want to even be known as a Muslim, forget the five daily prayers. We're far away from that, you know? So, inshallah, Yani, we figure out a way to give accommodation, to give support, to give this. I have just been to Hub 925, which is a health club right here, that is meant for Muslims and non-Muslims, but it's meant to give a space for our youth so that they are proud of who they are. Let's take our Muslim students in college, community college and high school, take them to Hub 925, right? 925 is the area called of Pleasanton. So, this is, you know, nice place. So maybe this is a zone that is less intimidating than the Masjid zone, right? So they go there and they say, I am slowly but surely in this then they come back to Islam. I was, I grew up in a religious family. No choices, like you had to follow Islam. But I fell in love with Islam. I am who I am today because of Sacher. Believe it or not. I wish I can give you a glorious story. I was walking and sheikh appeared to me and put exam on my head and then I became a sheikh. Believe it or not, none of that. We moved to a neighborhood. There was the youth of the Masjid. They used to go to school, come back, have lunch, do their homework, pray Asr, come out, play soccer till madrid. Run to the Masjid, pray madrid, read Quran with a very beautiful nice sheikh from madrid to Isha, pray Isha and go home. And we did that six days a week. After one year, I discovered the biggest discovery in my life because I was a young adult. As an individual, independent, my own thoughts, heart, soul, my own choice, I discovered that I actually love Islam. I love everything about it. I love what it does to people. I saw my friends and what Islam did to them. It made them more dear to me than my flesh brothers. We were young, clueless, but we were ready to die for one another. That's how much we loved one another. So I fell in love with Islam. Why? Because someone invited me to a soccer game. And all of my family legacy that I can tell you about between now and tomorrow, Salat al-Fajr, didn't matter. That's not what made me choose Islam. And say, I want to live the rest of my life doing what that sheikh did to me, the stern of us that we were in that halaq. All of us turned full-time like dedicated people. Serving Allah Azza wa Jalla. The love he planted in our hearts for the Deen of Allah is unimaginable. So my mission in life was not to become imam or sheikh or speaker. I could kill about any of that. Give me any youth and I am very happy in my own universe. It doesn't matter what happens after that. So to take our students to basketball game, you know, back home soccer, hear basketball, it does miracles, miracles. Really. It graduates imams and mashaykh. You know? Then after they want that, we can send them to the Islamist school and after that we send them to Zaituna and after that we send them. You know? But we first have to find so let's make it our goal next year. Find muslim youth, send them to have 9-2-5 and then from there maybe we can secretly smuggle them to access it, right? Insha'Allah. I will be a nice school, insha'Allah. Ya Allah, we ask you by your grace and by your forgiveness and by your love by you being Al Wadoom Al Rahman Al Raheem. Ya Allah, you forgive all of the sins we committed last year and the years before. Ya Allah, make this coming year better than the last year. Ya Allah, change us from inside us into light in our hearts, enlighten our souls, awaken us, make us awake, aware and alert. Ya Allah, make us fall in love with you. Make us make a choice that we want you and we desire you and we want to give you everything that you've given us. Ya Allah, make that spark go inside our hearts for us, for our sons, for our daughters, for our spouses, for our relatives and friends and loved ones, Ya Allah. Ya Allah, that spark that you put in the heart, that hidayah, that nur, that salam that you put in the heart. No one can put it in our hearts but you, Ya Allah. So we ask you and no one else for that, Ya Allah. Ya Allah, we ask you that you choose us, you choose us and we ask you to help us to choose you. Remove our ignorance, remove our veil, remove the shaitan, the nafs, the temptation of life, what we want and we don't want. But remove it from us and make us see you as our ultimate goal in this life, Ya Allah. Ya Allah, we ask you that you guide us to the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Keep away the temptations of dunya, the whisperings of shaitan, desires of the nafs, company of bad friends, keep it away from us and make us walk on a seerah and stop being. Make the Quran our bin hajj, make the Rasul sallallahu alayhi wa sallam our example and role model. Inspire us to learn it, believe it, practice it, calm for it, dedicate our lives for it, Ya Allah. Ya Allah, we know that you are capable of giving any honor to anyone. So we ask you to give us the maximum honor for us to reach the maximum potential of our lives. To live life to the fullest in your name for your sake, Ya Rabb-e-Alamin. Ya Allah, we ask you that you help us against all the struggles that we face in our lives. Iyyah kan'abulu wa iyyah kan'as tahin, Ya Rabb-e-Alamin. So help us, Ya Allah. Help us with any challenge that we find in financially with our health, with our families. Help us so that we are all walking on your path and doing what we're supposed to do on this planet for the short of time that you've given us for our lives, Ya Rabb-e-Alamin. Ya Allah, bless this community specifically, this town, this masjid and this common community all over the United States, all over America, all over the world, Ya Rabb-e-Alamin. Make us people who bring hope, bring knowledge, bring honor to Muslims around the world, Ya Rabb-e-Alamin. And make us a beacon of light that will guide others to you, Ya Allah, not to us, Ya Rabb-e-Alamin. Ya Allah, hamar wahineen. Subhana rabbika rabbil azati amman wa sifoona wa salamun aleyhi wa sallamina wa rahmatullah ya Rabb-e-Alamin. Allahumma sayyidina wa rahmatullah ya Rabb-e-Alamin. So the chef just made a beautiful cloth for our community, but we would like to thank the chef for since MCC's inception around 2011, he's just done so much for his community in the fundraising, he's done with us the advice, the outreach that he's did and the du'a that he's made for his community. So we can't take enough for all that you've done with us as a community with your helping a lot. You're one of the key contributors to MCC. So we'd like to make a quick cloth for you Insha'Allah. If we raise our hands, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala be pleased with you and your family. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bless you and your family the best of your mind, health, I mean grant you multiple openings, increase your tajah, grant you the long-lasting, healthy, prosperous life, successful, protect you from all the evils, grant you the best of both worlds, grant you the company of our Habib. It's awesome. Make your life successful on this and that you have. Insha'Allah. Ameen to you. Ameen. Ameen to you father.