 Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim, alhamdulillah wa salatu wa salam, wa ala ashraf al-anbiya'i wa al-mursaleen. Sayyidina wa maulana wa hadibina Muhammad, sallallahu alaihi wa salam, wa ala ali wa sahbihi wa salam tasliman katira. As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh dear brothers and sisters and welcome. Alhamdulillah, I believe this is session maybe 12 or 13 of Agenda to Change Our Condition. So alhamdulillah, we are going to continue with chapter three from where we left off last time. If you are new to this class, I invite you to check out MCC's Facebook page and their YouTube page. They have all their past videos on there and you can see what we've been doing here with this class. But just again, we are covering a text called Agenda to Change Our Condition by Sheikh Hamza Yusuf and Imam Zaid Shaqqat. Here it is. I encourage you to get the text, inshallah. But I do have some accompanying slides that I used just to guide the discussion. So we're going to go ahead, inshallah, and screen share right now. So I'll go ahead and do that. Bismillah. Give me one moment. There we go. And Bismillah. So the last time that we spoke, we were still covering chapter three and the section that or the topic that we're covering in chapter three is called Practical Steps to Change Our Condition. And so this is now really, you know, a lot of times when we talk about wanting to better ourselves, you know, I speak to people all the time who really want a deep connection with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And of course, we know the basics. We know we have to pray more. We know we have to do the more they give. We know that we have to increase our general, you know, Ibada and our consciousness of Allah are remembrance of him. But sometimes there's other things that are much more practical day to day things that we can do. So this chapter is actually talking about those day to day things. It's giving each person an opportunity to really test the sincerity of their desires because you know, it's easy to say I want to be close to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. I want to be better Muslim. I want to do these things. It's on the tongue. We can all profess these things. But when it comes to action, this is where we really show our sincerity. So here is an entire chapter devoted to giving us practical ways where we can really do that where we can really change our state, our condition, our connection to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Again, Dennis, an incredible service by compiling this book, which has so many profound reminders and just it's just full of gems. And Alhamdulillah, we have covered so far up until now. Anyway, so many wonderful things and there's much more to come. But just to quickly recap, here's chapter three, the practical steps, right? So we covered, for example, and this is the first page that I have here covers. Sorry, there's a bit of a lag sometimes. So it's not coming up, but just bear with me here. Let's go back. Then it goes really fast. Okay, so here are the topics that are covered in chapter three. So they talk first about the five pillars and really coming to understand them and implementing them and making sure that we do them correctly. Active outreach, Dawah. How do we do Dawah as Muslims? What is our approach? Of course, every faith group or every political group or every, you know, group has their own way of outreach. But we, Alhamdulillah, as Muslims have a very unique and beautiful form of outreach, which we call Dawah or invitation. We invite people to learn about our Dean. Instead of, you know, going out and doing missionary type work or proselytizing to people, we invite them to learn, right? So learning how to do that in the best way possible, focus, you know, how to establish focus in general on what you want, you know, in your faith, in your practice, cooperation, learning to be someone who is a team player, a group, you know, who thinks about the collective, who thinks about the benefit to everybody in all of your actions, how to have a good character. So all of these things are kind of like kinship, families, we've covered so far in the previous sessions. So today we pick up on charity. So I'm going to go to that slide here. So here again, we did active outreach, we did focus, right? Cooperation, good character, and kinship families talked about the importance of keeping family ties, right? All of these things are very important for us to remember because in order to really cultivate and get as close to the prophetic example as possible, we have to take all of these messages very seriously and implement them. It's not enough just to pray and just to say that you are a Muslim action matter. So these are all again ways that we can do that. So for the next topic of charity, here's the content of that section, we should all commit to donating some portion of our wealth in addition to the zakat that we pay. Commit to some Islamic cause financially and support it on a regular basis. Also try to support any bona fide organization that solicits help. Regular spending in charity diminishes the value of the world in our hearts. This is one of the greatest means to prepare us to meet our Lord. The Prophet said wealth is not diminished by charity. So I love if again, you're paying attention to the phrasing here. Our understanding sometimes as human beings is that when we give away our wealth that we are losing, right? We are losing somehow because it's normal. We live in a time and place where we're doing transactions all the time and then we go and we get a bill later on if we're using our credit card or we see a statement maybe in our checking account. But there's something that suggests that we are at a deficit that we've lost our funds because we paid for something. So our brain kind of wires is wired to think of giving money as a loss. But the beautiful thing about zakat and about sadaqa is that it is never at a loss. And that's why when the Prophet said I miss telling us in very clear terms wealth is not diminished by charity. We have to believe that with absolute certainty that every time we give for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, it's actually going to be returned to us in ways that we cannot comprehend. And we should never think of it as a loss like we do in other cases, right? That it is actually the opposite. The benefit of giving for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala again is that if you're doing it for that pure intention and you know it's pleasing to your Lord, then you should just feel the sense of calm, this trust and the syaqeen, this certainty that inshallah Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will repay you at some point. And I personally have actually witnessed really incredible things that I can't explain other than to say subhanallah, you know, Allahu Akbar, this is a divine act because I have witnessed things that are just again inexplicable. For example, giving someone a payment of a very particular dollar amount and then you know, being in a position where I need money and the same day just a few hours later, the exact dollar amount that I had given away is returned to me. And when I mean exact dollar amount, I'm not talking about, you know, you know, multiples of five, you know, like $50 or $500 or $200, you know, things that you can easily round up. I'm talking about dollars and cents here, very specific amounts that are just kind of mind boggling, you know, that how subhanallah did it happen that almost to the exact cent someone pays you something for something totally unrelated to what you just gave to someone else. This has happened to me personally. And I'm sure these things have happened to other people as well. So there are examples like this where Allah is showing us, of course, he's capable of everything and anything that he wishes. And in our mind, it's always, you know, it's amazing and it's incredible. And we should be in awe of him when these things happen. But the point is that this is confirmed for us in so many ways, if we're paying attention to the signs. And again, so many examples. So, and I'll actually I'll tell you one example that just came to my mind. I once worked at an organization and they gave me a payment amount and, you know, they gave me a check and I didn't look at the check, you know, I left the organization and I got into the car and I wasn't actually expecting anything from them at that time. So it kind of came to me as a surprise that they were paying me and I, you know, was very gracious of them. So I took it. I got in the car and as I'm about to or I opened it and I saw the amount and then I decided to, you know, I'm on my home. So I called my husband to ask him, you know, how he was doing and how the kids were just kind of checking in with him and letting him know I was on my home. And then I asked him what he was doing and he said he was actually making payments for our annual, you know, Sadaqah and just different things that, you know, he'd like to do at certain periods of the year. And that's what his task was that day while I was out and I didn't know that. So then he just started listing off like some of the organizations locally, Alhamdulillah, that we support and, you know, just kind of giving me an update of how much he was giving to each. And I was again amazed because he mentioned the organization that I had just stepped out of a few minutes before. And I asked, you know, he mentioned it, what he gave and I said, wait, say that again. And again, it was, it was a, you know, it was a number that was very random. He didn't, you know, he just kind of chose to give that amount. But it was the exact amount that I just received from them. You know, it was like SubhanAllah within minutes, all of this happened and he said that he had just made that payment. So again, these types of things should indicate or should prove to us that when we give for the sake of Allah, we're not losing, you know, he's at home making a donation and then Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is giving me the exact amount back in return as a payment for my service. So it's just these types of things we have to stop and think about the timing of these things and really the great wisdom of why these things happen, but also appreciate these words of our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam who reminds us that wealth is not diminished. But what is diminished, right? What is diminished by giving charity? What is, well, he tells us right here or this, that our scholars tell us here, regular spending in charity diminishes the value of the world in our hearts. That's important because the dunya, the more we attach our hearts to the dunya, the worse off we are. This is why people have problems in this world because hubba dunya is a disease of the heart. It afflicts many of us and we have to purge it from our hearts because when we attach our hearts to the world, we have a difficult time dealing with the reality of the world. You know, people who have hubba dunya have a difficult time when they're afflicted with different trials and tests or calamities because they have attached themselves to the wrong thing. They don't want to leave this place and so anything that threatens that becomes very difficult for them. Health matters for you. You get a diagnosis that you don't want. Nobody wants, you know, a diagnosis from the doctor that we know, you know, is likely to end either really, you know, a terminal for example diagnosis or something that we know that our health is in jeopardy. Nobody wants to hear that. But a person who is attached to the dunya and is afraid of death and is afraid of their meeting with Allah SWT will have a much harder time coping with the reality of their impending mortality. And this is why we have to stay away from things that attach our hearts to the dunya. So by purging or by giving our wealth away, we are inshallah, preventing our hearts from attaching to this dunya. You know, and mashallah, there are so many amazing examples. Just this past Friday, for example, I tuned into a broadcast on Celebrate Mercy, which is a wonderful organization dedicated to teaching about the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. But they do these programs on Friday called Friday Gems and they have different speakers and they had a speaker named Imam Soheb Sultan and he's from the Princeton community on the East Coast. He's a chaplain at Princeton University. But Imam Soheb, and I ask everybody to please make the offer him and his family. He gave possibly one of the most moving talks I've ever heard. This past May, he received a diagnosis of cancer, stage four cancer and the doctors, of course, Allah knows everything and he is the only one who can say when it's someone's time to go. But they gave him a prognosis of two years that he had, I think one to two years. Anyhow, Imam Soheb gave this wonderful just, it was so moving to see someone facing their own mortality with such grace and such dignity and masha'a Allah, the Bara'a Allah, speaking so eloquently and beautifully with so much faith about death. And this is someone clearly who has made peace with the decree of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. Now, if you're attached to the dunya, again, it's going to be very difficult to do that. So this is why we have to practice of charity, Sadaqah, because I can't very seriously because there's wisdom in it beyond just giving wealth and helping people who need it. Of course, that's also one of the main reasons why we give. People have rights over us and so we give to fulfill those rights. But it really, the other byproduct of giving often and frequently is that you are helping your heart disconnect and you're seeing the reality of this world for what it is, which is a place that we travel through. We are not permanent residents on Earth, right? That's not what we want. We're just travelers, inshallah. And so you kind of just lose that love for it. But this is one of the wonderful benefits of giving charity often. So I encourage you to please, you know, make the offer Imam Soheb and his family, but watch that talk or send it to people. It should be on the YouTube page of Celebrate Mercery or Facebook. Send it to anybody that you know who is currently struggling with a diagnosis or some other serious grave health issue and they are having a hard time or even grief. You know, grief is something that a lot of people grapple with and I know because I do grief counseling or spiritual grief counseling with people. So I know that it's very difficult for a lot of people who are going through loss, whether it's the loss of a parent or a spouse or a child, God forbid, or any family member to sometimes really cope with those things. But it's important to hear messages like Imam Soheb because this is someone again who has a different perspective that we need to hear more often. You know, death is something unfortunately that has been erased in our society so much and people are so uncomfortable talking about anything related to death. And the reason that is because we are stricken with a world that is so attached or, you know, it's just a time where people are so attached to this dunya that the thought of death repels so many people and they run from it. But this is not our way. The believer remembers death or we should remember death. We should think about these things and we should talk about it comfortably because we don't see death as an end. We see death as a transition to the soul's journey and it's actually a one step closer to our Lord. So we should welcome it because again, if we are happy to return to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala and be reunited with Him, He is also happy to meet with us. So we should yearn for that. Of course, you know, we should prepare for it and it's something very serious, but not to look at it as this end and then fall into despair which so many people do. So really important again to take charity and the benefits of charity beyond just money and transactions, but looking at all of these other incredible benefits that just getting in the practice of being a more giving person will have on your heart, inshallah. So it's a really important point. Now the next section is also something so Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala important and for us to talk about and I wish I had, I have Mashallah some really wonderful friends. One in particular comes to mind. She is a half of the Qur'an and she's a lover of the Qur'an. May Allah bless her. But she's the type of person that whenever the Qur'an is mentioned, you can see this light just shine upon her because she is so moved by the Book of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. And it's really something that is her life passion. Mashallah may Allah increase her. But this chapter, I mean I wish she was here because I think you would have a much more fruitful discussion hearing from someone like her to really explain this chapter, but I'll try to do my best. I used to teach Qur'an back when I was teaching at the Islamic schools here locally in the Bay Area. And it was one of my absolute favorite times of my life because at that time I started my every single day alhamdulillah wa shukrillah teaching Qur'an and to who, to the young children. So it married the two things that I love so much in there, so dear to me, the Book of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala and children. So this chapter certainly spoke to my heart but let's look at what our teacher said here. She said that read the Qur'an in its entirety at least twice a year. At least once in Ramadan and once during the rest of the year. Try to read it with contemplation at least once a year. We should make it a habit to read those chapters. The Prophet's life set him encouraged us to read every day at their appropriate times. Yasin al-Murq and al-Waqya should be a part of a daily practical practice. If one is able one should see complete one should, excuse me, complete the Qur'an every 40 days, every month or every week as was the profound practice of our earlier communities. So let's just talk about that for a moment. You know, reading the Qur'an masha'Allah, you know, at least once in Ramadan. You know, we have Ramadan is coming up, right? It's just a couple of months shy, right? Ramadan. And so this is the time now where we have to really start to prepare our hearts for the regular recitation of the Qur'an. And so, you know, sometimes though, again, because of our own nefs and the nefs is remember lazy, it doesn't usually work with us. It works against us. We might just think of the Book of Allah SWT as only being for the month of Ramadan because it's the month of the Qur'an. And so, insha'Allah, there's, you know, we recited and we engage with the Qur'an during that month. But as this advice is very clear, that should be like a given, you know, it is the month of the Qur'an. We should just kind of give that it's due, you know, just like we fast and we give zakat and we're more charitable and we feed people and we do all those beautiful works. We should just understand that it's a given of Ramadan that we're going to read the Book of Allah SWT and insha'Allah, do akhatham, right? So that's, you know, let's put that aside. Now, the other part of the advice is that we should be doing it the rest of the year as well. So this is where all of us have to again go back and really hold ourselves accountable. If you've ever said that you really want, for example, khushu, right? So many people I've heard this over the years say, I wish I had khushu in my prayers, right? I wish I had more connection, more feelings. Sometimes I just, I don't feel it. And they're always talking about their feelings and their feelings and their feelings. And there's this idea which we should reject. The idea is that in order to establish a regular practice, I have to first feel something, right? I have to have this epic, you know, sort of a, you know, spiritual awakening or experience is high. And then that will motivate me into doing regular practice. There's some people who have that idea and they're waiting for that. And it's kind of like, well, until I feel that, you know, bolt of inspiration or jolt of inspiration into my heart, I'm just kind of going to, you know, do your, but not they kind of, you know, just have that understanding that something has to happen and then they'll suddenly, you know, change. Whereas when we understand this entire text, what it's really saying to us is, you know, you have to do the work. You can't expect the fruits, right? If you're not going to till the soil and get in there and harvest and plant your seeds and water and do all that, you can't expect fruits. That's the byproduct of your diligence, your persistence, your sincerity. So if you've ever wanted a deeper connection with Allah, you want to be more solid in your in your Dean, then you have to look at your practice. And one of the areas that I believe, and this is also what our teachers have have mentioned as well, is that there's been a disconnection or a disconnect from the book of Allah. And so we have to hold ourselves accountable and ask ourselves how often do I really engage with the book of Allah. And I know we've, I'm sure all of us have heard the khutbas and the lectures that talk about all the Quran's are collecting dust on the bookshelves. Well, that might not be as relevant anymore because now everybody's kind of moved to digital, you know, mediums and we have apps and we have all this other stuff. So let's talk about that. Do you have, you know, if Allah has made it so simple for us now, right? We don't have to go to the bookshelf to go and read the Quran. I mean, obviously, if you ask any Quran teacher, they would tell you that's preferable to use the actual physical must have. But beyond that, if Allah has made it easy for us to access his book through the phone, through our devices, which are in many cases, sometimes super glue to our hands, right? I mean, that's what it seems like because we don't put it down. But if that's the reality that we have such easy access to the book of al-Husbandah and, you know, we're not still reading it, then the problem is with us, right? It's not that we don't have enough time. It's not that we're, you know, too busy doing this or the other. It's that we lack initiative or we lack that desire and that should cause concern. Why? You know, think about the entire world. You know, people spend hours. I always marvel and, you know, this is just a general observation, right? I think if you spend time reading fiction and getting involved in all of these different genres and books and self-help books, it could be you know, nonfiction science fiction, whatever it is that you're into. But if you make time to read those things, you have Kindle, you have all these other apps, you have all those other access to different books, and you make time for that, just think about your choices, right? It's kind of, it's definitely a downgrade, right? If you're going to spend hours doing that, but then you say or you claim or you maybe, maybe you don't even think of these things, but the reality is that you're not making time for the best book on Earth in existence, which is the book of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. The stories within the book, the treasures, the messages, the profound heart wrenching sometimes verses and heart you know, flooding the heart with inspiration verses are so much that the Quran offers, and every time you read it, it'll offer you something new. Why? Because we are always evolving. We're always in different phases of our life. So 10 years ago, we may have been in a different stage in our life than we are now. We've evolved inshallah. We've gained wisdom. We see things with a different eye. So when you go and you open the book of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, you could read the tafsih or the verses and maybe a chapter that you memorize when you were 10 years old, suddenly it has this profound effect on you now that you're reading it at 30 or 40. But if you don't even bother to do that, then you have to again, hold yourself accountable. Why? Why is it that I am making time to escape into all these fantasy lands when the book of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala describes for me the greatest thing that my mind can't even fathom. When you read the verses of Jannah and you read these incredible stories that have happened that are real, we should be in awe of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala and his creation and of the prophets and all of the extraordinary things that are to come. That's what the book of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala does is it prepares the heart for truth, instead of just falling into a fantasy land, a fiction written by human beings. So just call yourself out. Like what is it that I don't want to read the book of Allah, but I'll read other things. It's likely, again, you're enough, Shaytan, this is how he works. He likes to distract and get us all swept away with whatever trends are happening. The reason why is because we won't make time when we should for the most important thing is if we're too distracted. So you have to pay attention and ask yourself, how have I changed over the course of five, six, seven, eight? Just go back as far as you can. Even one year, ask yourself from last year to now, how have I changed in terms of my relationship with the book of Allah? Have I memorized more? Have I read more? Have I committed to reading more? Do I, you know, am I looking forward to Ramadan and actually engaging with it? Or am I kind of dragging my feet and thinking about it that way? All of those things are important internal conversations to have because I'll let you know where you are spiritually. But the bottom line is, as this advice tells us, we should be making a concerted effort throughout the year to read as much as possible every day. And for some people that might be a few verses, some people that might be a page, some people, mashallah, who do far more than that, who can do more than one juz, you know, mashallah, and they read very frequently because that's their commitment. So every one of us have a choice to make about how we use our time when it comes to the book of Allah swt. But the most important thing is to remember that it's not just for the month of Ramadan. This is a book that we have access to 24 seven every single day. And if we are truly sincere about wanting to be close to Allah swt, the least we can do is read His words, right? I mean, that's to show you whether or not your claim or your desire is sincere. If you're not willing to do that, then it's just lip service at that point. It's just words that you say, but the heart has to be moved to action. So, and then of course, the wisdoms here about reading the certain, you know, chapters that will, that there's great benefit to, right? So with the mulk, of course, we know it's a very night. This was the practice of the Prophet So I said, I'm to read it before sleep. So with a lot of many of the scholars say that if someone is struggling with risk, right, they they want to increase their sustenance to read surat al-waqia frequently. Surat Yasin, in general, this is a healing. It's the heart as they say, the heart of the Quran. You can read it for you can read it for many, many different benefits, but just making the practice of reading these surahs as often as possible, inshallah, until you you memorize and it's incredible the Book of Allah that how without sometimes even any intention or preparation you just by listening to verses frequently and often you find that you've memorized them. That's such a gift from Allah, right? That just listening to his words that they not only, you know, they penetrate the heart, but inshallah, they also seer into the into the mind and we memorize them. So that's all gifts from Allah, but we have to do the work, right? So, you know, and if one is able one should complete the Quran every 40 days, every month, every week. Again, that might not be where you're at right now, which is okay, but work towards that and I'll tell you from my own personal experience. Alhamdulillah for more than maybe 10, 15, I don't know how many years now. I really don't have the count, but it's been certainly more than 10, 15 years. I have alhamdulillah completed the, you know, the Quran once a year in the month of Ramadan. That's just been my commitment and alhamdulillah Allah has given me Tawfiq every year, inshallah may that continue. I mean, but this year and actually, well, in the past few years, I started to realize like I need to do more than one Khatm instead of just, you know, doing what I just said, which is only doing it for Ramadan. That was because, you know, typical excuses we all make motherhood, all work, all this stuff would get in a way. So I never would really be able to finish an entire Khatm. I would get close, but not really. So this year, alhamdulillah, I'm just giving this nasiha because it might work for you. I'm very blessed to have a group of beautiful sisters, Sahbah matters, the people that you interact with on a regular basis. They should inspire you and if you don't have that, you know, companionship may Allah give you good friends, good sisters, good brothers, but this group of friends I'm very blessed to have because what we did is after Ramadan we decided that we were going to commit to doing a Khatm together. So every month we have this rotation where we assign, you know, certain juz or chapters of the Quran to each other and then we rotate. So after, you know, every month it's the next set of chapters that we read. And the intention was that by the end of the year we would have, inshallah, finished an entire Khatm collectively because we're all reading from different parts. And so now collectively we do a Khatm every month, but by the end of the year individually we've all finished another entire Khatm. Actually just today I spoke to two of the sisters that are in the group and we were speaking about actually accelerating and increasing our reading for this particular month because the Ramadan is coming and we want to do more. So this is the benefit of doing these things with a group, because when we're left to our own devices, again the ego is strong and Iblis can distract us so we might not get very far. But when you do things like that where you commit to reading with your friends instead of book clubs, Oprah's book club or whatever other book club you have, where you get together and you discuss books that have really very little benefit to you. I don't want to discount book clubs, okay? That's not what I mean. But I'm saying if you had a choice, if you have very limited time and you can only do one book club, please do a Quran club. Get together with your friends and say, you know what, I want to start doing Khatm so let's do these together. It's a very simple idea. You just rotate five six chapters per month per person and inshallah you do a Khatm every month. So anyway, you know, do that. Do that instead of getting together and just talking about random books that you'll forget about as you move on to the next one. Whereas with the book of Allah it does imprint, it will impact your soul and more importantly, most importantly, it strengthens your connection to Him, right? So the advice at the bottom here it follows in the next paragraph is that we should also commit to memorizing some portion of the Quran every year and couple that with memorizing the 40 Hadith of Imam Al-Nawli. So this is also another objective we should all have. Alhamdulillah back 20 plus maybe 15 plus years ago in the group that I was involved with and studied with we did this. We actually had this kind of like a competition I guess you could say of memorizing the 40 Hadith. And Alhamdulillah I remember you know getting into it and the first maybe two or three Hadith Alhamdulillah committed to memory and then you know life happened and I know the Hadith but I don't have them all memorized. But anyway those first three Hadith that I memorized Alhamdulillah you know the brain is an amazing thing. You know we all know this if you've committed anything to memory that even if you don't visit something for a long time that you made it's still there right. So there's been times where I'll come across one of those Hadith that I memorized many many years ago and I always marvel at the fact that I can still recall it or I still remember what comes next and it's like wow this isn't something that I engage with every single day like the Quran right the Quran is different. We memorize the shorter verses for example of Juzama because then we go and recite them in our prayers but with the Hadith it's not always the case to be reciting them all the time but it's still incredible to me that after so many years of not engaging with those Hadith that they're still imprinted in my memory and I can recall them Alhamdulillah Al Shukrullah. So the benefit of memorization for the sake of Allah is that the gift keeps on giving and that you're not Allah will give you the gift of just being able to hold on to his words or the words of the Prophet SAW. Alhamdulillah again if we're sincere. So there's more that I wasn't able to type these, some of these sections are a bit longer so I can't fit everything on the slides but I'll read from the text. So after they mentioned the 40 Hadith of Imam Annoi, our teachers also say also reading the gardens of the righteous at least once a year is a cogent way of reminding ourselves of daily sunnah practices. We should all strive to retain what we have memorized from the Quran. Ibn Hajar Al-Haythami and others considered it a major sin to forget what one has memorized of the Quran. So that's also really important. If you've committed to memorizing parts of the Quran or you already have then the task at hand is to renew your memorization and to make sure you review and you're always reciting those verses and to not forget. And so that can happen in many different ways. Again, reading them in your prayers or just reading the verses or listening to them, listening to Qari and making sure that you can recite along. It is prohibited to derive rulings from either the Quran or the Hadith unless one has fulfilled the prerequisites of an independent jurist, Mujtahid or has studied what the rightly guided scholars have said about a particular verse or Hadith. So this is now just a general warning against taking your reading of the Quran to a different level that is not appropriate for you. Just because you are reading the Quran or the Tafsid or the meanings does not mean that now you are able to interpret those verses or use certain verses to establish rulings and to go out and start distributing fatwa to random people. We should know that that is completely unacceptable and wrong because that's not the role of every person. We have scholars who have done the training and they have gone through the requisite knowledge to do that so that is not our place but we can certainly read about the opinions of scholars and the rightly guided scholars of the past or the present who have arrived at certain decisions or conclusions and we can share those but not to take it into our own hands. We are commanded to remain humble in the presence of the book and the Hadith and maintain in our hearts the following three Quranic injunctions. So first, seeking refuge in Allah from Shaitan before we read anything from the Quran. So A'udhu Billahi Minash Shaitan al-Rajim taking that very seriously because you don't want to open the book of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala and then just start reciting without saying that and your thoughts go all over the place and it just ends up not being beneficial to you for that reason, right? Do not be forward with our own understanding in the presence of Allah his book and his messenger Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, the sunnah and ask the people of remembrance if we do not know. So do not be forward again not to assume that we understand everything because there are some verses that we would need further analysis or the analysis of the scholar or the interpretation of the scholar to truly understand sometimes we can get a little too confident and that's what that's speaking to to not be overconfident, to be humble, to accept that language, most of us I would say the majority of us are very limited in our knowledge with the book of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala and English translations or other language translations do not equate with actually understanding the Arabic and knowing the different roots and all of the meanings and there's so much nuance. We cannot compare ourselves to the level of scholars who dedicated their entire lives to studying the book of Allah and even they themselves will tell you that it's an ocean and that they're they don't have all the answers. So who are we to presume our understanding right and then the to ask right so if there are certain verses that we don't quite understand to do that do diligence to get the answers that we seek instead of assuming things taking our own interpretations or letting those thoughts kind of turn into doubts and then it affecting our faith in general but doing the necessary work to find answers inshallah and Alhamdulillah for our deen that doesn't shy away from that. People are not told not to ask questions. We are actually told the opposite to seek to learn to go out and ask of course in the best way in the best context but in other traditions they're not even allowed to ask so we should say Alhamdulillah that's not our faith right so that was the section on the Quran and of course there's so much more to say about the book of Allah but they're keeping it pretty concise here as general advice on how to change one's condition when it comes to these practical day to day things that all of us can be doing so taking up again a regular practice of the reading of the Quran is something all of us should be doing every single day at least one page or verses just something but you can't completely disconnect and unplug from the book of Allah and then expect to see all these openings it's just not that's just not going to happen now the next section or that's not likely to happen I should say the next section is the remembrance of Allah so this is again at the bottom of page 33 if you do have the text we're let me see the time actually here okay Alhamdulillah okay Alhamdulillah so in the remembrance of Allah this section we must be committed to a serious practice of the remembrance of Allah and be actively engaged in purifying and preparing our hearts for the inevitable meeting with our Lord vikr has a profound effect on the heart and should not be underestimated it must be done regularly even in small amounts a little that is constant is better than a lot without consistency the minimum vikr should also include a portion of the Quran every day and the prayers and orations that the Prophet s.a.w. was known to recite in the mornings and in the evenings and this is something we also have to be immensely grateful for that the Prophet s.a.w. left us with so many daily du'a from the moment we wake up when we go to the restroom we leave the restroom, we put on our clothes sit down and eat, we finish eating we leave the I mean and we should do our best to memorize those du'a to teach those to our children because what that is doing is putting them in a state of constant remembrance of Allah s.w.t if we just did the five prayers there's so many hours through the day hello are you there I have no idea what happened I think somehow I got disconnected from the broadcast but I hope we're still broadcasting I actually don't know if we are but let's see ok so our inshallah we're still broadcasting I apologize I don't know if my internet got disconnected or what happened but something did happen so let me bring the screen back up inshallah we'll just quickly resume from where we are I apologize for that little inconvenience there ok so we were talking about the remembrance of Allah so let's see here I don't remember what I was saying but I'll go back and read here it says the minimum that should include a portion of the Quran every day oh yes I was talking about the daily du'a's of the Prophet s.w.t and the fact that the fact that the Prophet s.w.t left us with beautiful du'a's to fill in those gaps between all of the five prayers and it's to put us in the state of constant remembrance because in the absence of that and the absence of the remembrance of Allah our nafs will start to fill the void with other things like I said with music you see people watching just spending hours and hours scrolling on tiktok videos or instagram snap whatever social media they're on disturbing toxic news from cable news or you know watching Netflix and all these other streaming services why because they're not preoccupied with something better so we have to think about how we use our time and that's why the remembrance of Allah is so important because it puts you and I love the way they phrased it you know the fact that we do it because it will prepare our hearts for the inevitable meeting with our Lord subhan Allah that's really it we need to be prepared because it is going to happen and if we've learned anything this year during covid we should have learned about the fragility of life the fact that at any moment someone can be taken and it's really in Allah's hands and nobody has any idea of when our time comes and that awareness and it's quite I mean subhan Allah it just speaks to how much we need to we need Allah subhan Allah and how much we are desperate for his mercy and his forgiveness because the very fact that he's told us that death is indiscriminate and that we have no idea when we will go that that doesn't put us in a state of fear and and just wanting to you know do our best is is a clear sign of how forgetful we are how we can fall into heedlessness so easily and how we really are at the mercy of Allah because if you really think logically about it it's like you know it's in many ways you know for example when you when you hear of someone with a terminal diagnosis like this brother that I mentioned earlier imam sahib sometimes you may imagine like wow how does it feel to know that you have a sentence already you know someone has given you a clear indication that you will not live past this age right like to know that your mortality is not only imminent but it's almost written in it on a date or a time frame that is tangible that you can you know understand we may just sit there and think oh my gosh how you know that's that sounds so terrifying but if you really think about it aren't we all in the same position in the sense that we are all terminal we all will die and the fact that we don't have the answer should make us even more nervous because at least the person who has some idea they have time they have time to get their order you know affairs in order they have time to you know fix situations that need to be fixed and prepare their family and prepare their hearts and to really work on their relationship with Allah so in many ways it can be a blessing in disguise but those of us who don't have that you know prognosis or who haven't been given that shouldn't we operate on a more you know kind of you know nervous or not fearful but you know just there shouldn't there be more urgency shouldn't there be a sense of wow I really need to get myself together because I don't know it could be tomorrow right because death is veiled from us we have no idea when our time is but if we really remember death often and we remember the lost prophet often then what that would do is it would as imam so hey beautifully said on Friday it would help us to live better you know that's the beauty of the remembrance of death that's the beauty of the remembrance of the lost prophet is that you are remembering not to get caught up in the sad dark space of death and morbid thoughts no it's to say you've given me this precious life gift of life and I want to you know live it to its fullest and take care of my family and my relationships and my loved ones and just be a good person that's what the remembrance of Allah and the remembrance of death should do which is why it's so important now if you did that every day if you read the book of Allah's prophet every day if you did the remembrance of Allah's prophet every day then when death comes will you be in that panic state that I'm certain millions of people have found themselves over the course of history because they weren't prepared may Allah protect us from that we should ask Allah's prophet for the best ending that we are protected from that type of an end that we're caught completely by surprise and we're not prepared and we're even doing something worse which is engage in sin may God protect us and that's our time and you see these I was just telling some friends earlier today on Amazon Prime there is a show I think it's only available until the end of this month but it is about people who've had near-death experiences and I really recommend you to watch it it's just really profound to hear people and you know we have to just believe that these people are not fabricating their stories they seem, I mean they have these are real true accounts of people who have had accidents really horrific, horrific near-death experiences but they are speaking openly you know years maybe sometimes after their trauma their traumatic experience about what happened to them the moment that they you know died in many cases their hearts flat-lined they lost consciousness completely for some in some cases 20 minutes imagine subhanallah nothing no brain activity, no heartbeat, nothing but they are describing these scenes that are just out of this world subhanallah literally and it's really moving to hear their accounts but it just reminds you that subhanallah this is you know death it's gonna come at any time for all of us and we have to be prepared for it and this is why the remembrance of Allah is so important and so they go on to talk about, I'm sorry let me see the time we have that little disruption ooh subhanallah, okay we're right at 9 o'clock so I'm gonna actually, I'll stop here there is more to share on this section that I don't want to just quickly summarize, I think we can just pause and we'll return inshallah in a couple of weeks continuing this section on the remembrance of Allah and then continuing with the next section so I'm gonna stop here so that I can see if there are any questions and bismillah just give me one moment I can pull up the screen okay bismillah so I'm gonna go to Facebook and sorry I'm trying to coordinate here there's too many tabs open I have to open up actually a Facebook tab so and brother salman if there are any questions on YouTube please let me know I have a hard time coordinating between the two but let me check with MCC okay mashallah so I don't see any questions in the Facebook page but let me go to YouTube and I'll try there and then if there aren't any questions inshallah we can just end and then we'll resume inshallah I have a hard time coordinating between the two sorry my volume came on okay so alhamdulillah I'm on YouTube and I also don't see any questions here but I thank you all for tuning in inshallah with the section on the remembrance of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in two weeks time and I invite you again if you don't have the text to get the text and to read ahead you're more than welcome to read ahead we're still on chapter three and that way you'll be ready for inshallah the next session but thank you again for your time may Allah protect and preserve all of you and your families inshallah we will end in dua bismillah