 All praise is due to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala, Lord of the Worlds Master of the Day of Judgment. And we thank Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala for allowing us to be here today on this blessed and special day of Juma. Juma is a very special day outside of Ramadan. Imagine inside of Ramadan. In Ramadan, every moment is supercharged, Alhamdulillah. And so this Juma is super supercharged, Alhamdulillah. We need to take advantage of this Juma, insha'Allah. Glad tidings to all of the Muslims that are here on the first Juma of Ramadan. May Allah accept everyone's Ibadah and recitation of the Quran. Ameen. Brothers and sisters, in the few moments that we have together today, insha'Allah, I would like to discuss this concept of love, the concept of love and how our relationship with Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala is supposed to be one of love. And unfortunately in many places, in many parts of the world, this has been forgotten. Many great thinkers and philosophers and speakers have given their stab at trying to describe and explain what love is. People such as people of old, such as Aristotle, Plato, and even our own Imam Rumi. All of them have done some explaining on the concept of love and Alhamdulillah, we take a lot from the great thinkers. And in today's society, in the 21st century, love experts, social psychologists, marriage experts, therapists, what have you, have come up with this formula, which is pretty fascinating, about love. They say that in order to fall in love or in order to be in love with someone, you need to be fulfilling or going through the five languages of love. The five languages of love. And in the few moments that we have together today, inshallah, I would like to go through these five languages of love and see how our Prophet, as always, was ahead of the game, Subhanallah. So the first language of love, the first love language, if you will, is words of affirmation, words of affirmation. In order to be, to start the process of falling in love with someone or to fall in love with someone, you need to express your love to someone. You need to tell them, I love you, I appreciate you, I need you, I want you. This is one way of, this is the first step in falling in love or the first language of love, if you will. And we know the story of our Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, where he was standing with a companion and they were conversing, they were talking and then another companion walked by, another companion walked by. And the companion that was talking to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he said, Ya Rasulullah, I love that man, I love that man. And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said to him, Have you told him? Have you told him that you love him? And the companion responded, No, I haven't. And so the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, Go tell him, go tell him that you love him. So our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was encouraging the spreading of telling each other of words of affirmation. He was spreading, encouraging us to have words of affirmation with each other. We also know in the Hadith on the authority of Abu Huraydah, where the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, A good word is a charitable act. A good word is a charitable act. You can get a good deed for saying, I love you to someone, for having words of affirmation with each other. Subhanallah. The second language of love, number two, the second language of love, they say is, the experts say it's quality time. It's quality time. In order to start to fall in love with someone, you need to spend time with them. You need to be in their presence. You need to feel their heart, their energy. You need to converse with them, right? You need to be with them close. So this is the second language of love. And we know from the Shamal of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam that he gave everybody quality time. He was one of the most busiest people ever, but he always gave people time. All of the Sahaba felt that he would give them special time. We know that when he shook somebody's hand, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was never the first to let go. When he shook somebody's hand, he was never the first to let go. Subhanallah. He's a busy man. You would expect the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was a busy man. You would expect him to be in a rush to move on to the next thing, but he would never be the one to be the first to let go. Subhanallah. Subhanallah. The third language of love is receiving gifts. Receiving gifts. In order to fall in love with somebody, you give them gifts and you receive gifts from them and this brings people close. This is what the experts say. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said in hadith on the authority of Abu Huraydah that give each other gifts and you will love each other. Give each other gifts and you will love each other. Subhanallah. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam so many years ago was already giving us this advice. To give each other gifts, to bring the hearts closer together and to instill love. The fourth language of love is acts of service. Is acts of service. Doing something for someone. Being there for someone. Knowing that if someone has a hard time with a certain thing and you're good at it, then you take care of it for them. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said in authentic hadith, As-siyyid-u-Rijali khadimahum. The master of the people is their servant. The master of the people is their servant. Again, encouraging us to be in the service of our brothers and sisters, to be in the service of the ummah. And lastly, the last language of love is physical touch. After you've gone through the first four languages, finally you reach this point of physical touch, of being close to somebody physically, being with them, hugging them, holding them. And we know from the Sunnah of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, we know that all of his wives, but especially Aisha R.A. talked about how the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was close to her physically. When the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, when the, at the time of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, there were some people, some performers that came from out of town. And Aisha R.A. wanted to go see them. And so when the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, okay, let's go. And he took her to go watch these performers and she narrates that she, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was standing there, was sitting and she was standing and she put her chin and her cheek next to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and they were cheek to cheek, cheek to cheek and they were close to each other, Subhanallah. So we just went through the five love languages, the five languages of love and we explained how the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam encouraged these love languages ahead of his time, as usual, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. But there is another way that these languages of love are connected to us. There's another way that these languages of love are connected to our relationship with Allah, Subhanahu Alaihi Wasallam. These love languages are directly connected to the five pillars of Islam. They're directly connected to the five pillars of Islam. Subhanallah, these experts have laid out what needs to be done in order to fall in love and we see that in the five pillars of Islam, these are connected. Essentially, we can think of the five pillars of Islam as what Allah, Subhanahu Alaihi Wasallam, wants us to do in order to have a relationship with him. In order to have a relationship with Allah, Subhanahu Alaihi Wasallam, we need to fulfill the five pillars of Islam. So what's the first pillar of Islam? The first pillar of Islam is the testimony of faith. There is no God except God and that Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him is his last and final messenger. This is the first pillar of Islam. The first language of love was words of affirmation. Subhanallah, Subhanallah, amazing. In the first pillar of Islam, you are affirming with your words your belief in Allah, Subhanahu Alaihi Wasallam and his messenger, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. The second pillar of Islam is the five daily prayers. What is the five daily prayers? Quality time. It's quality time with Allah, Subhanahu Alaihi Wasallam. And the second language of love was quality time. Before the pandemic, when many of us were working in person and we were working in the office and you had meetings back to back and you had hectic schedule, it didn't matter. You had to find that corner in the office and you had to pray your doha namaz and you had to give that time to Allah, Subhanahu Alaihi Wasallam. You had to give that quality time to Allah, Subhanahu Alaihi Wasallam. That is the second pillar of Islam and how it is connected to the second language of love. The third language of love or the third pillar of Islam is fasting. The third pillar of Islam is fasting. The third love language is acts of service. Fasting is the ultimate act of service. Fasting is the ultimate act of service, Subhanallah. You're giving away, you're staying away from the halal even just because Allah, Subhanahu Alaihi Wasallam, told you to do so. This is the highest form of service, Subhanallah. And then the fourth pillar of Islam is the Qat. The fourth pillar of Islam is the Qat. The fourth language of love was receiving gifts. We know that Allah, Subhanahu Alaihi Wasallam, cannot receive gifts from us physically. No one is saying that. But when you're giving Zakat, you're giving a gift to the ummah of the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. You're giving a gift to Allah, Subhanahu Alaihi Wasallam's nation to help them, to help those that are less fortunate than you with your financial ability, Subhanallah. And then lastly, the last pillar of Islam is Hajj. The last pillar of Islam is Hajj and the last language of love is physical touch. Hajj, brothers and sisters, is a physical journey we must take. Nobody is saying that you can Astaghfirullah touch Allah, Subhanahu Alaihi Wasallam or something like Astaghfirullah. That's not what we're saying here. But Hajj is a physical journey. You can't do Hajj in Pleasanton, California. You can't do Hajj here. You have to go to modern-day Saudi Arabia and you have to do Tawaf around the Kaaba and you have to run between Safran Barwa and you have to, etc., etc. It's physical. You have to do the physical part, Subhanallah. So this is how the five languages of love are directly tied to the five pillars of Islam. And the five pillars of Islam are what Allah is asking us to do in order to have a proper relationship with him. So brothers and sisters, let's change our relationship with Allah to be one of love with this Ramadan. Let's let it be one of love this Ramadan. And when you make your relationship with Allah, Subhanahu Alaihi Wasallam, one of love, everything becomes easier. Instead of being tired at the end of 20 Rakats of Taraweeh, you're like, why can't it be 40? Instead of dreading getting up for Sahur and having to do the next 14, 15 hour fast, you're excited to do the next 14, 15 hours of fasting because that's what happens when you fall in love. When you fall in love, you're excited to do what you need to do for the one that you're in love with. I'll say this. Allahumma salli ala assidina Muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam, Ajmain. Brothers and sisters, we'll end very briefly with this last point. We know the story that has been narrated about the man on the day of judgment. There will be a man on the day of judgment and he will be brought forth to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and his good deeds will be weighed on one side and his bad deeds will be weighed on the other side. And unfortunately, his bad deeds will outweigh his good deeds. And so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells the angels, take this man to Hellfire. He failed. This is a test that we all must prepare for and he failed. And so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said to the angels, take this man to the Hellfire. So as they're dragging this man to the Hellfire, he starts looking around. He looks to his right and he looks to his left and he looks above him and he looks below him and he starts looking around. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells the angels to stop. He tells the angels to stop dragging him to the Hellfire. And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala asks him a set of questions and obviously Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala knows the answers to these questions but he is opening a dialogue with his servant and he is teaching all of us a lesson through this dialogue. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala asks the man, perhaps my angels missed something when they were writing down your good deeds. Perhaps they missed a deed here or there that might change your fate. He said, La Ya Rabb, no my lord, it's all there. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, perhaps my angels were unjust with you. They were too quick to write down the bad deeds and maybe they did a few extra that weren't supposed to be there. He said, La Ya Rabb, no my lord, it's all there. They got it right. It's they're all there. So then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala asks the man, why were you looking around? Why were you looking around when they were dragging you away? The angels were dragging you away. And the man says to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, I did not believe. I never truly believed that you were going to punish me. I never truly believed that you were going to punish me. And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells his angels, put this man into Jannah because of his good opinion of me. Put this man into Jannah because of his good opinion of me. Subhanallah. Brothers and sisters, this is the power of having Husnudan billah having a good opinion of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. This is the power of falling in love with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We know the hadith that Allah is as his servant thinks of him. If you think Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is going to punish you and get you on a technicality and he's the most harsh and the most tough, that's what you're going to receive. But if you are in love with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and you believe in his Rahmah and his mercy, then that is what you were going to receive. And obviously we always have the fear of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. But we need to have the love of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as well. We need to fall in love with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as well. Brothers and sisters, let's fall in love with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala this Ramadan. One week is gone. One quarter is gone. We have three quarters left. Let's make the most of it inshallah. Let this be the best Ramadan. Let this be the Ramadan where we fall in love with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Where we fall in love with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and then through that love everything else becomes easier. And through that love everything else becomes easier. Allahumma salli ala assidina Muhammadin wa ala aariki wa sahbihi wa salam Ajma'in Rabbi Janni mukimu salatin wa min dorriyati Rabbana wa takabal du'a Rabbana khfirili wa li walideya wa li il mu'minina Yawma yakum al-hisab Allahumma imni ala dikkika wa shuklika wa isni ibadatika Ya mukallib al-kulub tabbed qalbana al-Adeenak Ya mukallib al-kulub tabbed qalbana al-Adeenak Ya mukallib al-kulub tabbed qalbana al-Adeenak Nashadun la ilaha illa Allah Nastawfir Allah na saluka al-janata wa na audabika Mina nara Allahumma inna kaafu wa ntuhibu al-afwafafu anna ya kareem Ameen Contest