 Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, we thank Allah for allowing us to be here today and we begin with the praises of Allah. SubhanAllah wa bi hamdihi SubhanAllahil Azeem. No one deserves praise or worship other than Allah. And I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is his last and final messenger. Brothers and sisters, we live in very polarizing times. We live in very polarizing times. We live in a time when we live in a time of extremes. We live in a time of extremes. We live in a time when people say whatever they want to say about the other person without knowing all the facts. We live in a time when people spread lies without thinking twice. We live in a time where people's word doesn't mean anything anymore. We live in a time where slander is widespread and it can feel confusing and it can feel very like you're drowning in nonsense and in craziness. But when the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam came to, when he came with the message of Islam, when he was given the message of Islam at the age of 40, it was also extreme times and it was also polarizing times and it was also confusing times. And he sallallahu alaihi wa sallam had the challenge of restoring balance back into a culture and a society that was out of balance. And so when we see the crazy times that we live in and the confusing times that we live in, we have to understand that it is our responsibility as followers of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam to help restore the balance. To help restore the balance. And we first restore the balance, our teachers tell us, we can't restore balance to society until we have restored balance in our own hearts, in our own selves, until we have begun to work on ourselves and our own character. And we can start to work on restoring balance to the society when we are balanced, when those closest to us are happy with us and then we work from the inward out to society. We feel this imbalance and this craziness especially right now during the campaign season, during the midterm elections. It's a very confusing time and it's a very crazy time. And we see the politicians out there and the leaders out there saying whatever they want about people, saying whatever they want about their opponents without understanding or doing their due diligence. We see people spreading lies about each other. And many of our youth are focused, alhamdulillah, on bringing about political change. And that is very, very important and it is something that our youth need to continue to do. And it's frankly something that this generation is going to pick up. The older generation was more focused on establishing institutions and establishing us on the ground and now it is falling on the younger generation to do the political work that is needed. However, like we mentioned, it is very confusing times and it is times where people are going crazy and doing things that are not appropriate. And so it's very important that if we're going to get involved in this work and if we're going to get involved in politics and in helping this country move forward and helping our communities move forward and helping the Islamic community move forward, that we understand what Islam's role is in this situation. Where does Islam come into play? What is Islam, the religion of Islam, asking us to do? And so one of the beautiful things about our teachers and our scholars is that they break things down so that we can codify it and focus on it. That's something that we regularly see in our tradition. So for example, Islam is broken into five pillars. We can then break it down and make sure we're practicing Islam properly. There's five stages of love. Our teachers have broken that down. We've done previous khutbas on that. So now we can understand that and working on that. And our scholars have also broken down Islam into six things that Islam does, that Islam preserves in society. Six things that Islam preserves in society. And these six things need to be met. And if we're not meeting these things as Muslims, we understand that our spirituality is falling short. And so in the few moments that we have together today, brothers and sisters, I wanted to go through and look at these six things that the scholars have told us that our religion is supposed to be doing for society at large. And for our youth who are being involved in political work, these are the six things to focus on and to make sure that you, as a Muslim, are doing, inshallah, and you know that you're on the right path then and the right track then and getting away from all the ugliness and muddiness. So, Bismillah. What are the six things that our religion asks us to preserve? The first thing that Islam preserves or the shariah preserves is religion. That's number one. It preserves religion, it preserves the belief in God. And it preserves different types of religion as well. If we study the history of Islam, we know that Islam doesn't eradicate other religions when it enters a land. And we see this in the time of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ when he came to Medina and became the head of state of Medina. He didn't get rid of his Jewish brothers and sisters and Jewish neighbors. They were allowed to continue to practice their religion the way that they wanted to practice their religion. And he allowed them to do what they wanted to do. And even the hypocrites, those who were the monotheistic, he didn't go around trying to peer into their hearts and bring them out into the light and punish them. This is not the way of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. So, the first thing that our religion preserves is that our religion preserves is religion. The belief in God and making sure that people can worship Allah ﷻ. And that's one of the beautiful things about our country is freedom of religion. It's one of the foundational aspects that our country was established on. And it's why actually the United States of America was created. The people fled from religious persecution to practice their religion and their belief in God properly here. And so Islam is in line with that. Or rather, they are in line with Islam. So that's number one. The second thing that our religion preserves is reason and intellect. Is reason and intellect. The Prophet ﷺ described the Muslims as a discerning people. As a discerning people. People who can understand and read between the lines and understand right from wrong and not get caught up in the zeitgeist of the time. Not get caught up in the emotional aspect of the time. Muslims are the ones where we pause and we say, hey, let's wait. What is Allah ﷻ asking of us first? We don't get caught up in trends and in just movements. Muslims are supposed to be solid and firm people that are able to discern between right and wrong. So this is the second thing that our religion preserves is emotional and intellectual reasoning. And that's one of the reasons that drugs and alcohol etc. are not allowed in our religion. Because it gets rid of this intellectual and emotional reason that Allah ﷻ has given us to be able to navigate and understand the world. So that's the second thing that our religion is supposed to be preserving. Number three. The third thing that religion is supposed to be preserving is life. The third thing that Islam preserves is life. Life is sacred to Allah ﷻ. Life is sacred. It is one of the most sacred things in our religion and in our aspect, in our tradition. And unfortunately we live in a time when life is just being discarded. Everywhere you look, it seems like people are being completely just destroyed. The United Nations talks about how we live in a time when it's never been this time before where there's so many different communities that are facing genocide. Our Chinese brothers and sisters, our Palestinian brothers and sisters, the political wins in India are not looking great. So it is very problematic and troubling time for many of us and for many people. And Islam is supposed to be a religion and it is a religion where we preserve life. We preserve life. We preserve the dignity of life. Our religion takes the slaughtering of animals so seriously for consumption, right? Imagine human life. I mean, if that's how we treat animals, if you study the effect and the rules about slaughtering an animal to consume, you see how you're supposed to treat the animal. You're supposed to treat them well, let them have a full night of sleep, give them water before they're not supposed to see the knife that's going to slaughter them. This is how we treat animals. Imagine human beings. If this is how Allah is commanding us to treat animals, how are we supposed to treat our fellow brothers and sisters? And people think that life doesn't get taken in politics and assassination attempt on Imran Khan just a few days ago. I mean, this is common. Assassination attempt on Imran Khan just a few days ago. This is how a rye politics can go. So, subhanAllah, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to continue to keep and preserve the life of His creation. I mean, we're all brothers and sisters on this journey called life. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has invited us here for a short time, right? We need to treat each other as Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's guests, you know? Forget even just life, taking life, just the way we interact with each other in our daily lives, right? Not backbiting, not slandering people. Treating people with the same way we want to be treated. Honoring people, not getting offended. These are basic things that our religion teaches us to do. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us the fikan. Number four, the fourth thing that our religion preserves is property. The fourth thing, our religion preserves is property. Last midterm elections right here in Berkeley, California, $4 million worth in damages of property. $4 million in damages and property, subhanAllah. Our religion preserves property, other people's property. We understand that we are going back to the previous point that we are all guests of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala on this earth, that these things don't belong to us. They have a higher owner, a higher purpose. Our religion teaches us to treat our bodies properly because our bodies are a trust from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, subhanAllah. So we're supposed to look at everything with this sacred lens. So the fourth thing that our religion preserves is property, other people's property. When the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam used to go to war and he did go to war. But he made war so humane. He would never destroy properly needlessly. He would never have anybody destroy property for just the sake of destroying property. Animals were always left alone. Women and children were always left alone. They were taken actually, taken care of, subhanAllah. The fifth thing that our religion preserves is family and family values, family and family values. This is the fifth thing that our religion preserves. Our religion is a religion focused on the nuclear family. And we understand the previous point that we started this khutbah off with that we help society based on helping ourselves first, understanding that we're right. When we're right, then we can help people, hurt people, hurt people. So we can't be hurt in trying to help people, right? So if we don't have stable families, this is the foundation of society. This is the foundation of society. And we need to work and implement this first and foremost. The divorce rate in the United States of America is over 52% and the divorce rate in the Muslim community based on some studies that were conducted is now 37%. So we're catching up subhanAllah. So may Allah subhanAllah grant us healthy families and healthy children inshallah that can then go out into society and bring about the change that needs to be brought about for a healthy society. Amin. And then the sixth and last thing is human dignity. Human dignity is the sixth and last thing that our religion preserves. And one of the things we see in today's day and age is that people go around saying whatever they wanna say about whoever, whenever, wherever, however. It is absolutely and completely inappropriate and it is not the way of the Muslim. Even somebody that we disagree with, we do not ruin their dignity. We do not ruin their dignity. There was once a scholar who lived hundreds of years ago and it was known that he had a difference of opinion with another scholar and it was well known amongst the academic community that these two scholars didn't really see eye to eye and that their whole life they worked on debating each other and criticizing each other and critiquing each other in a very academic way. When one would take out an opinion, produce an opinion the other one would produce an opinion refuting that person, et cetera. They went back and forth their entire academic and scholarly careers doing this, going back and forth sparring academically with each other. When one of the scholars passed away, the students of the scholar that was still alive said, they started cheering and they started saying, look, your opponent, he's dead. Now you can do whatever you want. You can produce things against him all you want. He can't defend himself. And the scholar started crying. He started crying in front of his students. What are you talking about? This is not how, this is not, have you learned nothing? Have you learned nothing in our academic sparring? Have you learned nothing? How we interacted with each other? How we were respectful with each other? How it was known that we disagreed with each other but we were never rude to each other. And now that he's dead, you guys want me to just go and say whatever about him? Subhanallah. This is the way of the Muslim. We never impede on someone's dignity. Reputation is a lot. And we need to uphold the reputation of our fellow Muslims and our fellow brothers and our fellow sisters. And unfortunately, this is something that we don't work on and it creates a lot of distrust and disharmony within our community. And it's something that our Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam took very seriously. He wouldn't even say things about his own enemies. He would pray for them and make dua for them. But he never went around having smear campaigns on them or talking bad about them. The Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam did not spend his time talking bad about other people. There's never one incident in the seat of the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam where he's sitting in the masjid bashing on his opponents. This is not what our Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam spent his time doing. He spent his time building people up and giving them education and giving them tools to be able to live their lives better, not tearing people down. The Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam didn't tear people down, he rose people up. Insha'Allah we can be people who raise ourselves up, our brothers up, our sisters of society as a whole up. I'll say this to the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Bismillahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim. Inna allah wa malaikudhu yusalluna alal nabi yaiyuh aladina aamanu sallallahu alayhi wa sallim wa taslima. Allahumma salli ala sayedana Muhammad wa ala alayhi wa sahbih wa sallam ajma'in. Brothers and sisters just to recap, there are six things that our religion preserves in society. The six things are, number one, religion. Number two, reason slash intellect. Number three, life. Number four, property. Number five, family and family values. And last but not least, number six, human dignity. These are the six things that Islam preserves in society. And if Islam is not preserving these six things in society, we're doing something wrong as a community. We are failing our Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. If we are not making sure that our religion is preserving these six things in society. So when we go out and get active politically, or however in our community, we have to make sure that these six things are being preserved. And it is campaign season and everywhere we look, these six things are not being preserved at all. We can go through each one and give examples about how these things are not being preserved. Whether it be in Muslim countries or whether it be here in the United States of America, wherever we look, these six things are not being preserved. Nobody cares about human dignity anymore. People try to kill each other. People try to slander each other. They try not to let people worship the God that they want to worship, or the religion that they want to practice. They take away people's property, taking people away people's life. Literally, if you look at these six things, you can see that these are being taken away from the Muslims right now in India, Sopanol Amil, Sopanol Tadagrantham, success in Tulfi, inshallah, in their struggle. So these are the six things that our religion preserves. And these are the six things that we need to make sure are being preserved in our religion, in our society and in our country. And we can use this as a litmus test to make sure that we are on the right path and on the right path and uplifting our society in a way that would make our Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam proud. May Allah Sopanol Tadagrantham give us Tulfiq.