 Alhamdulillah, it's awesome to see you all here on this beautiful day. You might say, I come here every Friday, but you get the invitation every Friday to come. Invitation from whom? Invitation from the one who created you, from the Lord, from the master of the world. Say Alhamdulillah for that. So we say, Alhamdulillah, certainly all praise, gratitude belongs to Allah subhanahu taala, and for that reason we praise Him. We thank Him. We ask for help in all matters of life. We seek refuge from Allah from the evil of our souls. We seek refuge from Allah from the evils of Allah and those who lead us astray from our sins. We bear witness, Allah is the One, the One, the One. We bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and messenger. Allah says in His book, You are a believer, a Muslim, a not a Muslim. So what does this call upon, be mindful of Allah, be aware of Allah, have consciousness of Allah, and His presence, be mindful of Allah, be mindful of Allah, be aware of Allah, have consciousness of Allah, and His presence, everything that you do in all matters of life. Haqqat Qatihi, the way he deserves it, falata mu'tunna, don't you dare, I say that on a purpose, falata mu'tunna, level of emphasis, don't you dare, don't you dare, there's no equivalent English translation to that. To forget what we just said, which means have awareness and consciousness of Allah, that means Allah is the first priority for you, falata mu'tunna illa wa anta muslimoon, don't get caught that you are departing this world but you forgot what we just said. So there are a lot of awesome scholars and teachers of yours and mine stood here for weeks and weeks and talked to you all about these two months, past month, this month, and upcoming month, the grand month that is coming up. You all know about it, you know what to do and all that. I'm gonna give you a few hints, inshallah, and by end of this khutbah, if you say I got nothing, I learned nothing, I accomplished my goal because I supposed to be a reminder, not supposed to teach you something new. So I'm gonna be thumbs up for me, yay, I did what I supposed to do. So here it is, the month is coming up, right? We supposed to have some sort of preparation. One of the areas that I'm gonna point to you, I'll give you a few pointers, is this. I was reviewing one of these awesome surahs in the Qur'an and Allah says the following. You all know this, I wanna see all these faces like smiling, ya I know this, Audhu Billahi min ash-shaytani r-rajim, khad aflah al-mu'minoon. Allah already tells you, you have succeeded, the victory is yours. It's yours, you already did it. As long as to what? So listen to this, you probably know all these words, you know salah, right? You all know salah. And Allah goes on, explains a few more things in this ayah, it's surah al-mu'minoon by the way, surah al-mu'minoon, a few more things and guess what at the end, it says So Allah tells you salah, prayer and gives you a bunch of stuff and says prayer at the end. Sandwiches everything between the two prayers. So what am I talking about? Everything that you do as far as religiosity is concerned, as far as living this life is concerned, it all sums up to one thing. And that's the meaning from salah, from connection, from making a connection. With whom? The way you make a connection with Allah, that is it. Everything that we do, we memorize Quran, we fast, we give charity, we do our eight to five jobs, whatever we do, at the end of the day, everything sums up to how is my relationship with Allah? When I stand in front of Him and I talk to Him, what do I do? What do I say? And this is why Allah says, here's how you, this is what you do. Sandwiched all the activities between two salah. So what is my message to you? You make a goal. You know, in professional life, all of us are professional lives. What we do on an eight to five, beginning of the year, January, February, for me it's this month, March, I have to make goals. And I have to show how I did towards those goals towards the end of the year. Everything at the end of the year depends on that. Did I do well? How much compensation am I going to get? All that good stuff comes out of that as a result of that. You make a goal. Don't make 15 goals. One goal. And what that goal should be for all of you, if you accept, is to make a connection with Allah better. Allah says, Quite a few scholars spoke in this semester that I remember. And pick your favorite teacher, your favorite scholar and go search. There's so much information there to talk to you exactly what that is. I'm not going to give you a lecture because it's not going to be possible. Understand what the khushu is. At the end of the day, here's what khushu means. It's humility. It's humbleness. It's your state of heart. How do you present yourself to Allah, to your Lord, to the Masr, to the one who created everything created you? How do you present yourself? How do you go about it? How do you start that activity which we will do inshallah soon here? How do you do that? That is what khushu is. That's what humbleness is. At the end, towards the ninth ayah of this surah, Allah says, Once you develop this humbleness, this state of mind and heart, to speak to your Master, then you do hafizun, salawatihim hafizun. That means all your priorities surrounding the prayer. What does that mean? I know a few of you sitting here. Mashallah, a lot more knowledgeable than I am. I know how you run your life. These are awesome examples for all of us to learn. They look at the calendar. They don't say, Okay, I'm going to have a meeting at 1.30 to 2. Then I'm going to squeeze in my prayer there. That's not how they run their life. They run their life saying, Prayer starts at 1.30. And I have until 3.30. I want to make sure surround all my activities around the zohar prayer. That's what this hafizun means. How do you get this khushu thing? The question becomes, How do you attain this? I got a few tips, and I'll give you a few tips, inshallah, see if it makes sense to you. If it's the state of the heart, remove all the distractions. All the distractions when you're trying to do prayer. What does that mean? If a TV is running behind the background, it doesn't work. You don't attain that. If you're hungry, it doesn't work. If you're thinking about the project that your boss called you, it has to be done, and you're like, Okay, let me see. I got to get a few. That doesn't work. You have to get your mind clear, your time, dedicated time, a dedicated place. That's what you've got to do. Then, once you do this, there's a ton of preparation. We usually talk about prayer, and I'm guilty of it. I have talked about prayer here, saying, You've got to know what you're saying. That is true. You've got to know what you're saying, but you have to prepare yourself before you get to that point. And that should be our goal, inshallah, in 30 days of month of Ramadan, 29, 30 days, to prepare ourselves to that level. You have a few more days to prepare yourself. Think about it this way. It's a spring training right now. Baseball analogy, if you know. Before the main event starts, you've got to practice. This few weeks, you've got to practice before Ramadan starts. When you stand, before here's another tip, it works so well. Oh, if you do this. Before your standard prayer, when someone says, Iqama, take a moment. Take a moment. Don't get up, immediately say, Allah Akbar, and just boom, boom, boom. Take a moment. Stand, ponder, and think that you are standing. You're standing in front of Allah. You're standing in front of Allah. You're about to engage in a communication with Him. What are you going to ask? What are you going to ask Him? Stand there for a moment. It doesn't mean five minutes. If you give yourself extra 15 seconds, 30 seconds, I guarantee you that the quality of prayer will change. And your life will change. Incredible, absolutely incredible. When you're about to say and say, Allah Akbar, with full intention, that you're saying, Allah, I'm here standing in front of you. Every challenge that I brought today with me, you are greater than that. Allah Akbar means Allah is greater than dot, dot, dot. You fill out the dots. Allah is greater than every single challenge that you have. Whether it is work-related, whether it is marital-related, whether it is a financial-related, it's a health-related, whatever it is, you're standing and you're declaring, saying, Allah, you're greater than everything that you brought with me today. And I'm going to talk to you right now. And you say, you know, when I was a kid, my dad used to say something to me, may Allah bless his soul and grant him Jannah, say, I mean. He used to say something in Arabic. I didn't understand. I was a kid. I was a little kid. I didn't understand the Arabic. Then I kind of got it later on. He would say this. He would say, son, I'm going to give you a tip from the Hadith. He would say, you will probably know it. Think about the meaning. There are two words, really easy, really light on the tongue. In the Mizan, incredibly heavy. In the Mizan, when the counting comes, time accounting. Habibatani ila Rahman. And Allah loves them. He would say the Hadith to me and he would say, say after me, Subhanallah wa bihamdihi Subhanallahil A'zim. He would tell me, just keep on saying this. Subhanallah alhamdulillah. Subhanallah alhamdulillah. Keep on saying this. Subhanallah wa bihamdihi Subhanallahil A'zim. That's it. And what do you say? Subhanallah. You're speaking to Allah directly saying, Ya Allah, Subhanallah. That's what you say. You say, how perfect you are, Ya Allah, wa bihamdihi. And you say, and yours is all the praise and thanks. That's how you start your day. If you think about it, the other tip that I received was just absolutely mind-blowing. The prayer, the prayer, we say the Arabic, Subhanallah, wa bihamdihi wa bihamdihi. We say, paaz in the language that you are familiar with, whether it is English or something else. Read the meaning first in your head before the prayer and think about it. It changes your life. It changes your life. When the prayer becomes better, your life becomes better. All the challenges that you have, you'll see that one after another is going to be just taken care of. Incredible. That is my goal for Ramadan. If you accept, make that your goal, inshallah, to work on that. Forget about all the other goals that you're going to say. One thing, your relationship with Allah. In a few seconds, I'm going to sit here, inshallah, and I make dua. This is one of those times to make dua. What are you going to ask Allah? Ask anything you want. What scholars have been said, ask for forgiveness. There's an incredible ayah in Quran. It's just amazing. And here's the ayah. You already know all of you know this. Why is this incredible? Allah says Allah, just Allah, and all the angelic farads. Imagine how many angels are there. I don't know. They do something on a continuous basis. Yusallun is a present tense verb. Yusallun means on a continuous basis, not one off. What are they doing on a continuous basis? What are they doing? They send blessings, peace and blessings to our beloved, Muhammad, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Imagine the status of him, sallallahu alayhi sallam, that Allah and all the angels, what should you and I do? Allah tells you already. And let's end this way. As you hear in every single khudra around the world, from the famous ayah from the Quran, and I'm tempted to translate it to you. I'm not going to translate it to you. And here it is. Here's the homework. Surah An-Nahl, 1690. Surah 16, ayah number 90. That is the secret for success. If you ever wanted to know how to become successful, Allah tells you in that ayah and one of the places in the Quran, what does that say? It gives you three things to do and three things to not to do. So let's do with this hand. Three things to do and three things not to do. What are those three things to do? Inna Allaha ya'amurbaladli wal-ahsan wa'ita iðil-qurba wa'iyanha analfahshā'i wal-munkari wal-baghih. Ya'idhukum na'allakum ta-dhakkarūn wa'aqim al-sada. Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Ashwodinlā ilah illa allā, Ashwodinlā ilah illa allā, Ashwodinna muḥmadurusullā, Ashwodinna muḥmadurusullā, Ayyālā salāhi yālā, Ashwodinna muḥmadurusullā, Ayyālā salāhi yālā,