 Allah says in his book, بَعَدَ عَوْذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ يَا أَيْهُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا Believers, اتَّقُوا اللَّهِ Have awareness of Allah Have consciousness of Allah Develop taqwa within you within your anything that you do حَقَّةُ قَاتِهِ دِوَهِ دَزَرْزَ فَلَا تَمُوتُهُنَّهِ Don't you dare to forget what we just said إِلَّا وَأَنْتَ مُسْلِمُونَ And you die, you forget about this rule which is you got to make Allah's priority How do you make Allah's priority? Well, guess what? Allah gave you an awesome avenue Allah gave you the entire month in case that you've forgotten This is it Second Juma, right? Isn't it amazing? We are here for the second Juma in a row Alhamdulillah If you think, oh, I just got in my car I knew it was Jumaic made it here You did However, Allah invited you here You are not going to be able to make it on your own accord unless you are invited Okay Second one Almost, what is it? Nine days past This is the ninth day The first one-third of this month One-third is gone However, you looked at it Whatever an anxiety we had However, we wanted to think about it We did all the preparation Remember the month before The two months before You heard all these lectures You made a preparation Preparation for what? We did a lot of things, right, so far We did a lot of things We are engaged in reading Quran We are engaged in tarawih We are engaged in... At the end of the day I want to ask yourself one question It might be completely controversial To most of you But somebody got to say it And here it is I am going to say it Is it about doing more? Is this month designed And given for you to do more? Quran says otherwise Quran says Or the way I do it in my professional work When I ask Let me give you an example When I ask people I work with So what happened? What did you do? Why did this, this, this, this, this At the end of the day I'm like Okay, so what? That's one of the questions I have So what? What do you mean so what? So what means What benefit did you get out of this? What was your goal And how did you achieve that goal? What did you make to make strides toward that goal? Make gains toward that goal What was your goal? How did you do towards that? Give me a list of things A to Z, a checklist That's not what Ramadan is about So what is about? That is the so what part Which is What did you do to make your life better? Do something differently? How did you make the connection with Allah? Which is the entire thing about Quran, Allah says I give you this revelation I give you these 30 chapters Over 6000 Ayat How did that make your life different? What are you doing next? What turns did you make That you did not make before? What decisions are you going to make? How did it influence your decisions? Or your life? That's Then you understand like That's what Ramadan is That's what the connection with God is That is what the purpose of revelation Allah gave you His words to you That's what we supposed to do Is it too late? Of course not One third is down Two thirds the gum Allah showered you with His mercy These nine days and a tenth day Absolutely What does that mean? He gave you so much So many avenues Including Removing the biggest distraction From you The biggest enemies out of the picture Imagine this Just imagine this In your daily work The biggest distraction is removed from you How easy is going to be your work To achieve what you are trying to achieve It's going to be easy That is the mercy of Allah upon you and I Moving forward What He's going to do He's going to open another gate for you He's going to open another gate You already know what the gate is The gate of forgiveness That doesn't mean the gate of mercy is over It's ended That's one of the Some of the understanding That's not what it is From the understanding that I have Contact with the scholars Studying, reading The gate of mercy continues And there's another one opens up Which is the gate of forgiveness For the next ten days That means you ask for forgiveness And ask And ask for anything that you have done Within your control That things are within Outside of your control Keep on asking Then the last ten days Icing on a cake That's going to come later There's one ayat of Quran Incredible Absolutely incredible That you have heard enough times When you read the ayat of Ramadan Which comes in Surat Al-Baqarah A few You know what is This is one of my pet peeves Whenever whoever recites Or explains the ayat of Ramadan They just stop one ayat short And it bothers me The next ayat is incredibly important And is critical part of that Which is the whole essence Of what we're trying to do And I said this earlier as well Allah is waiting for you and I He is waiting for you and I He is waiting for you to ask And that's why he gave you this month To ask Come forward Make the connection He is even giving you this invitation And if you ask me Allah says when I want you to ask He is instructing the prophet Listen to this a little bit carefully There's a nuance that is missed In the translation He is saying to the prophet If one of my slave servants Asks you about me Allah says I am near What is missing If I ask my brother If my brother is asking about me Tell him I'm giving a khutbah That's how the sentence is complete If someone is asking about me Tell him I'm giving a khutbah I'm busy Allah says if one of you One of my ibad asks about me I am near He took that tell them part out To show closeness to you Allah is extending his mercy to you Saying ask And he continues he says I will accept any da Single supplication Single dua You don't have to be a scholar You don't have to be a mulana You don't have to be a sheikh to make dua You be you That's what Allah says Maybe you have fallen short on certain things Allah says doesn't matter Come You didn't do things exactly The way you supposed to do Allah says No worries Come and ask Open invitation Open invitation It's not just for this month For all the time But specifically emphasize this month Take advantage of it My dear brothers and sisters Whatever numbers of days remaining Take advantage of it And make the so what part Part of your life Which means contemplate What Allah says in the Quran Over and over again And in a way it complains that You're reading but you're not thinking What you're reading You're not applying what you're reading Apply it So that it will shape you That is what Ramadan is To influence what you do And how you do And what you say What you watch What you touch Differently That what you're doing And in normal days And then you sustain Sustained that for the remaining months I'll ask Allah's forgiveness For me and you And you do the same I say I ask for Allah I ask for Allah I ask for Allah I ask for Allah I ask for Allah I ask for Allah I ask for Allah I ask for Allah So One of the other things That you can increase Your bank account What Allah Is this And He's told you And I to do it Because He's doing it himself And what is that Here it is Audhu Billahi minash-shaytan MIr zurjeem Inna allaha wo malaa'ika tahui Sallumna automachi How do you increase Your bank account Send salutations To the prophet Saddahsallahu alaihi salam As many times as you can Don't sit there and say, I'm gonna do it 33 times, I'm done. I'm gonna do it 99 times, I'm done. That's good, that's a start. Continue, continue. Specifically on this day and Friday, is one of the best days to do it. Ramadan, Subhanallah. I pray for Ibrahim and for Ibrahim's family, that you are Hamid-e-Majid. Allahumma, barakah to Muhammad and to Muhammad's family. As I pray for Ibrahim and for Ibrahim's family, that you are Hamid-e-Majid. And Allah says in the Quran, in Surah An-Nahl, which is 16, ayah number 90, gives you a secret for success.