First of all, I want to apologize, this is not my regular voice, no one would believe me if I say what happened, I got allergic reaction to pistachio, which is impossible for afghan to get allergic reaction to pistachio, because I think we used to do our tahliq with pistachio just to get things started, all our lives we eat pistachio almost on daily basis. But alhamdulillah something I really loved, I can't eat anymore, but it's been a couple of weeks that inshallah they said another week or two I should be back to normal, but we'll see. Anyways, these are the days of, final days of Ramadan. One of the thing about Ramadan is that the primary purpose of it is very clear in the Qur'an, that we have revealed this month, what is the purpose, the primary purpose? In order that you may gain consciousness of God, taqwa is to be aware that Allah is with you all the time, and He's watching you all the time. That is the reality, that is the reality, but your awareness becomes taqwa.  But there are secondary, there are other purposes that we understand and feel for the people who don't have enough food to eat, and we always remind our children that when if tarat comes, subhanAllah, look, there are people, if tarat comes, they don't even have food to break their fast, they might have to just break it with water and bread. So we have that food. So we remind ourselves about the blessings of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that He's given us, and about those people who are less in status than us. And the reason why it's important to look at those who are lower than you than those who are higher than you, so it will put you in the state of shukr. Shukr is one of the highest stations that you're in the state of gratitude. Ya Allah, thank you for blessing me with these blessings. But one of the things that I really truly admire about Ramadan, and I love it, it's my favorite in the month of Ramadan, is that this is the only month that you really can come to understand yourself, to know yourself. Maulana Rumi in the fihimafi, he says something very interesting. He said, look at human being. He said, we can take the hair out of a dough. We split the cell. We turn the human cell into a football field, and we go into it with our microscope to see what is inside of the cell. We know the distance between here and Mars. We know the distance between the Earth and the Moon and the Sun. We know what the stars are made of. We know the rocks of Mars and Moon. We have all of these knowledges about the trees, about the plants, about the animal kingdom, about the heavens and earth, everything. And yet, majority of us will die not knowing ourselves. Majority of us will die not knowing ourselves. And knowing yourself is why is it important in our tradition to know ourselves? Maulana Razi, he said, man arafa nafsahu faqat arafa rabbu. Whoever came to know himself came to know Allah. It is through yourself that you will come to know Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. But if you don't know yourself, and this is why it's important to know not just the physical self, because there are layers of knowledge of yourself. In the modern world, the young generation, the Gen Z's in all, the past, I would say two generations, they know the self from the outward perspective so well that I don't think that we had any understanding. They know which color of makeup would look perfect on the skin from the plethora of colors, of hundreds of colors that all, almost the shade, the same shade. But they know which one would look perfect on their face, right? We know that from amongst hundred perfume, which is the one that actually we love the most. Well, they all might smell the same most of it. We know all of the self. This is not the self that the ulama talk about. The real self is that, which Raghub al-Isfahani said something really beautiful. He said that, look at the human face. One of the most amazing things about the human face, and this is why it's prohibited to hit someone in the face, because we are created, this face, the wajj, because almost every attribute of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the human face. Allah is the one who speaks, it's in our face, we speak. Allah is all seeing, we see, it's in our face, the eyes. Allah is all hearing, we can hear. But here's the thing, when you're sad, why do I see that in your face? When you're happy, why do I see that in your face? When you're angry, why do I see that in your face? All of these emotions that are inside of you, they all manifest in your face as well. So not just knowing the outward, but knowing the sources of those. And this is the problem with our, you know, we put, we put, there's a, we don't go to the source. We don't go to the source. Umar par ghalib, yehi bool karta rahah, doo chehre parte aur ayina saaf karta rahah.  The dirt was on your face, and you're wiping the mirror. And this is many people, this is what they do, they wipe the mirror. They don't, they don't want to go inside. Why don't we want to go inside to take this journey? Why do people want to go inside to find out who they are? Because for some of us, the journey is scary to go in. We don't want to go in because of what we have done. But here's the secret of this religion. The secret of this religion is that with all of the darknesses that are inside of each and every one of us, no matter what we have done, because the nature of sin is darkness. And the nature of darkness is its multiplicity. You have a thousand different darknesses, not one. If you turn off the lights in these rooms, there are layers of darknesses. But when you turn on one light, all darkness is dispersed with the nature of, because the nature of tawheed is when it comes, everything that's not tawheed has to move out. Everything has to go. When unity comes, multiplicity disappears. How do we get this journey, the end-world journey? Maulana, when he met Shafzat Abriz, he took him on an end-world journey, and he said, it's difficult. Please don't take me. It's hard. How am I going to go through this? To know myself? And Shams taught him something. He said, just go end-world, I'll show you something, and that thing will help you. He said, what is that? He said, there's a light. He said, what do you mean there's a light? He said, kamare yijon sefaate darrahe del payidon shod, darrahe del chila tifa safar. He each magoo. He said, I went end-world, and I saw this illuminating moon inside of me. And when I looked, everything was illuminated, and Lummi said, oh my, what a beautiful journey. What a gentle and beautiful journey is the end-world journey. Most of us, we don't want to turn on the light. Most of us, we don't know we have a moon inside. Most of us, we don't have someone to help us, to show us our moon. One of the things that Shams tabrizdeh to Lummi, he didn't turn on the light for him. He just showed him his own moon. And that is the sign of a great teacher. They don't give you a fish, they teach you how to fish. That is the sign of a great teacher. So in this month, why is this month unique in knowing yourself, in comparison to the other month? The reason why? In the Maktibat of Sheikh Ahmed Sarhin, the great Mujadid, al-Fathani, who is buried in Sarhin, India, he wrote, he said that human beings are created, there are two essences in you. One is heavenly, a'alam al-amar. One is earthly, a'alam al-khalq. He said, you are created from these two, a'alam al-amar, a'alam al-khalq, al-mujadid al-amar. He said, the a'alam al-amar, this, the heavenly reality, when Allah said, be and it was. And that is, he said, there are five things, but we won't go over the five, but the most important thing is your ru'h, your qalb, you got it, your ru'h, your qalb. And then I said, it's your ser, your mystery, your khafi and your khwa, the mysteries of the human, of the human being. But a'alam al-khalq has five things as well. It's the four elements that we were created from, we were created from, everybody knows the four elements, right, hot, cold, wet, dry, water, fire, earth and wind. So those are the four elements that we were created from in the nafs. The nafs is not from heaven, the nafs is not heavenly, the nafs is earthly, the ru'h is heavenly. So sheikh Ahmad Sarhindi said, all your life is a tug of war. One post to this side, who's pulling to this side, it's the fourth element, pulling down in the nafs. Why? Because they're made from earth and they feel good at earth. They love shopping, they love eating, they love overeating, they love over shopping. They love everything that has to do with the dunya. All of the shahawat of the dunya, they love it. But the ru'h, your ru'h and your serh are not from the dunya. No matter how much you give them of the food of this world, you cannot satiate them. The ru'h needs zikr, that's what it needs. And if you don't do zikr, you're starving your spirit. It's like if you don't eat, you starve your body.  So the problem throughout the 11 months is one thing. These earthly, your four elements in the nafs, they have a big helper, shaitan. They have a big helper. It's kind of make it, they say make it unfair, it's not unfair. It's a little bit, the shaitan and the west spring. But Allah, in this month, locks up the shaitin of jinn. They're locked up. For me, when I first went to college, I was really confused about life. And I wanted to really choose a religion. I really wanted to choose a religion. I said whatever religion makes sense, I'm going to choose this. I took a class on comparative religion. They were teaching world religion by Houston Smith. I didn't even know Houston Smith was a Muslim. We read that book and it starts with Christianity and Judaism and Buddhism and Hinduism and Jainism, Confucians, all of them. And in addition to what we read back in the days, 20 some years ago, 30 years ago, Islam was the last chapter. And I loved it because I really wasn't interested in that until the end. So let me know about all these other religions. Because we grew up in a country where there was only one religion. We thought that was it. In here in America, you see all these, your friends are Buddhists and what is a Hindu, what is a Jain and what is a Christian? What is it? So I'm like, whoa, what is this? I want to know. And one of the things that really struck me about this was Ramadan. Because Ramadan came and not only me, everybody was a good Muslim. Everybody was getting up for Fajr. Everybody was doing all five daily prayers. Everybody was going to the Quran. And I'm like, wait a second. How is this possible? How is that possible? Who's doing that? Who's doing that? Why can I get up that easily for Fajr outside Ramadan when I get up like that in Ramadan? Why is it that I can go a whole day without eating? If I don't have my chai by 10 a.m.,  People know this. I have to have my chai. I don't have chai, but I'm still going through the day, doing my work, all of that. Who's doing this? This is the proof of the religion. One of the people in prison told our sheikh when he was doing prison outreach. And he said, why did you become Muslim? He said, I tried every religion. And I said, whatever religion is the truth, it will help me quit smoking. He was a smoker, cigarette. He couldn't quit. He said, I became a Buddhist. I became a Christian. I became a Jew. I became, I was going to every religion. I said, I want to be part of you. As long as you make me quit this cigarette, I'll be part of your religion. And he said, none of him helped. I became Muslim. Ramadan came, I didn't smoke for a month and I quit. And I said, this is the true religion. But this month is really, there's so many merits in it. But the biggest thing that you can take out of this month, and especially in these last days, is really come to know yourself. If you were doing bad things before Ramadan, whatever it was you're doing, and you're not doing it during Ramadan, know that your essence is good. But shaitan got the best of you. Know that your essence is good, you're good. But shaitan has the best of you. Once Ramadan is over, you will go back to that if you don't make a change. You will go back because shaitan is going to come. He's going to bring the same circumstances to put you in that trap. He has the game plan already. He's waiting for the night of Eid. The game plan is already done.   What makes you happy? Not the happiness, see, I had a friend who I thought like this person was the happiest person on the planet. Honestly, I've never seen a person laugh so much, sometimes so much laughter that it would annoy me, that I would tell people, tell this person, calm down. Too much laughter. And there's all joy in the air, happiness in the air. And then so many years passed by, then I get a call that this person attempted suicide but survived. So I was doing some counseling. I realized that all of that is depression. The person was actually depressed by trying to laugh their way out of this world. That's not how it works. Happiness is not the laughter of the mouth, it is the smiles of the heart. And that's, many hearts are weeping and crying, but people are trying to laugh to show other people that they're happy. They are not living for themselves. They don't know who they are. People don't know who they are. And if you don't know who you are, you would never, ever be happy. You would not even taste happiness. You would not even taste happiness because we will not do what makes us happy. We will always do things to make other people happy. We will live our life for other people. I mean other people would never, ever be happy with you. There's the nature of the world, the nature of the world. They would never, nobody would ever know you, nobody. If you think somebody would know you, you're dreaming. Your parents would never know you. Your parents would never know you. Your children would never know you.  There are like three, four people left once they're on their way, I'm done. But one thing that I always got from children, oh, mom doesn't understand me.  Parents come crying, my daughter doesn't understand me, my son doesn't understand me. Well, here's the answer. They're not supposed to. They're not supposed to. Allah has made it that way. Because if you can find solace in this dunya, if you can find someone so you can lean on them, you can lean on them, then why would you forget about Allah? Everyone, in your entire life is a detour to Allah. Everywhere you go, road is closed, go this way, why is this road closed? My house is right there, no, no, no, go this way, detour. All of those detours leads you to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. All roads leads to God, and Allah is not, and they will never know you. So don't waste your time trying to explain yourself, and this is why so many of the young people, they tell their secrets to their best friends, right? And then a year later, two years later, they end up saying, oh my God, I had people who were literally suicidal because they said something to someone, and that someone, when their friendship went sour, told other people, and one of the poets said that, he said, don't tell your secret to your best friends, because your best friends have best friends, so that's how it works. So they would tell other people, because this nature of the human being, I don't know if you guys know the story, but the Alexander the Great, this Alexander the Great haircut wasn't the way that nobody saw his ears, because he had really big ears. His ears would drag up to like his really bad, ugly, big ears, but he had this haircut that would cover it, and nobody's ever seen it. So the guy who does his haircut dies, so they try to hire somebody else. They find the best haircut guy, this young guy, come in, and they say, there's only one thing. He said what? He said that, you know, when you see his ears, you can't talk about it to anyone, and if you do, you'll be killed, your entire family will be killed. He said, no, of course I wouldn't say anything, this Alexander the Great. So they hired him as the haircut, and the first haircut that he gives, he's shocked seeing his ears, and he's just trying to control himself. So he gives the nice haircut, a day pass, a week pass, a month pass, a year pass, he can't hold it. He said, I gotta tell somebody, and this is why sometimes we say, we gotta get out of our chest, we gotta share it with someone. So he says, what am I gonna do, what am I gonna do? He says, you know what, I just have to say it.  So he goes outside the city, he goes in the middle of the desert, and then he finds a well, a water well, and he puts his head inside of the well, he said, Alexander the Great has really long, ugly ears. So he shouts this, oh man, that feels really good. I got it out of my chest, comes, a few time passes by, so this traveler comes into the town, and he says, did you guys hear Alexander the Great has really long, big, ugly ears?  The barber comes in, chop his head off, he said, why is it, he told me, he said, I swear to God, I would never do that, I haven't told a soul. So he says, but how did this man on the street saying that he knows that Alexander has, so they bring the man, he said, how do you know this? He said, you know what, I went, I was traveling, and I was taking water from a well, and I heard this echo from the well, that says Alexander the Great has really long, big, ugly ears. So the moral of this story is, it doesn't matter who you tell, somebody will come out. So if you don't want anyone to know something, don't tell anyone, keep it in your heart, keep it in your heart, simple as that. So coming back to knowing yourself, why is it important to know yourself? Because through knowing yourself, you will know Allah. Iqbal Rahmatullah Ali said, in the Persian line, he said, as Hamak as Kenaragir, Sohbat ashenatalab, Hamas khuda khudi talab, Hamas khudi khudatalab, he said, abandon everyone and seek the companionship of the only familiar one, which is Allah. Then seek to know God through yourself, and seek to know yourself through the light of God. So if you know yourself, you will get to know Allah. And when you know Allah through that light that illuminates your heart, you will get to know who you are. They go together knowing yourself and knowing Allah. And what a shame it would be that we live our lives, and we get to know everything in the world. And we get to know everyone. And we need to learn philosophy. We get to learn mathematics. We get to learn science and history, right? And yet, someone asks us, who are you? We don't know. If you don't know where you came from, where you're at, and where then are you going? These are the three Quranic questions. Where you came from, where you're at, and where then are you going? Where then are you going? Where do you think you're going? Right? Maulana Rumi knew it well. He knew it perfectly. He said, I have the one-button home GPS. Follow me, right? They asked, we asked in the 90s from Shukh Mahmali Akhubi, the way to enter paradise. What is the easiest way to enter paradise? He said, turn right, go straight. Turn right, go straight. Say, I believe in Allah and then stand by that. Be upright. Stand by that. Get to know yourself. Many people will really get to know themselves in the grave, which is very sad. It's very sad to know yourself in the grave. But if you know yourself, there are a few benefits. But the greatest benefit of knowing yourself, young people, is this. No one can buy you out. No one can buy you. Because you realize your worth, your value, the Quran says, we have ennobled the children of Adam. There's a nobility about you. That Allah says that I have bought you in a new term, paradise for paradise. Will you sell yourself for a few moments of pleasure? Will you sell yourself for a few dollars or a house or a car or anything? They asked Mawlana Rumi, they said, you have evaluated everything. Give us the evaluation of the human being. What's the worth of the human being? He said, He said, oh human being, you're more expensive than this world in the hereafter put together. How sad you don't know your own value. How sad you don't know your own value.  No ears have ever heard anything like it. No mind has ever imagined anything like it. Can you imagine the sound of paradise? Once my friend put a, you got a, Dr. Dre Beats said, have you seen this? I said, the last time I put on these things, I saw a walkman back in the days with those headphones. He said, no, no, try this. In an all honestly, I'm like, wow, just the quality of sound, unreal. But what about the quality of sound of paradise that no ears has ever heard anything like the music of paradise? What about the beauty of paradise that even imagination, right? People go and see Avatar, the movie and they're in awe, like just in cinematography. But imagine paradise that you can't even imagine it. That's how beautiful it is. Right? You can't even imagine it. Imagine the face of the Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, mara at'ainun wa l-aisatara, mitl at'ahafil warah basharah.  Imagine seeing that.  For a moment of pleasure to sell yourself cheap, right? Is that what we're going to do? What is this face? What is this face? It's a face. Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam went to Medina. The qiblah changed because they used to pray towards Jerusalem. But the Prophet always wanted to pray towards Kaaba. It was in his heart. But he never asked. He never asked. Adab with Allah. How is adab? No one had more adab in the history of creation than our Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. Adab in your rabbi, for Ahsana Tadibi. Allah has taught me adab and how beautifully He has taught it to me. Imagine the adab that is taught by God. Perfection of the human being. He wanted the qiblah to be changed. But he didn't ask. What did he do? End the prayer, right? Because some of the Jews, not all of the Jews in Medina, we had a lot of Jews that became Muslim and a lot that supported India at the time with the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. But some of them gave him a hard time and they said, you have a new religion. Why do you pray towards our qiblah towards Jerusalem? You have a new religion. Why do you pray this way? The Prophet was really hurt and he wanted the qiblah to change. End the prayer. He raised his face towards heaven. Literally, he went like this. And immediately, before he could put his face down, Allah sent Jibreel from Sidratul Muntaha. This is the furthest place any creature has ever gone except our Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam that passed on. Even Jibreel can't go no more from there. Sidratul Muntaha. The furthest limit. The tree of the furthest limit. That's what Jibreel is.  We know why you turned your face towards the heaven. We know. You don't say anything. We will change this qiblah towards the qiblah of your desire. For why do you watch haqqa shatr al masjid al haram? So turn thy face towards masjid al haram towards the Kaaba. The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam turns exact opposite way in the Juma'a while praying. All of the companions they turn go behind him, continue their prayers. They don't say like oh why are you doing this? This is the station of love. The station of love. The obedience is not because you have to. It's because you want to. That's the difference. Obedience of the king is because you have to do it. Obedience to your boss because you have to do it. Obedience to the one you love you want to do it. You want to do it. It's your desire.  Some people say how does it how does the Kaaba come? This some of these you know we will show our signs. We will show our signs on the horizon on themselves until it manifests in him that Allah is real. God is real. Allah is real. He's al haqq. When I first time I saw this thing becoming real this thing really came oh my god was the first time I saw a 3d movie because I kept doing this. I thought it was right in front of me but it was probably 100 feet away from me on the screen and it wasn't. So if Hollywood can do that Allah can't do it. If Hollywood can do it Allah can't do it. These are all signs.  So he adjusts his chest to the Kaaba and that is the most accurate Qibla on the planet earth. Masjid Qibletain in Medina. Most accurate Qibla on the Kaaba because all of the Qiblas are for him in Mecca not to the Kaaba. I know Kaaba is impossible. So that is the face. Who doesn't want to see that face? Who like who doesn't want to see that face? You know poets they one thing about the poets is that they make things more beautiful than they are which is the nature of poets like if they write a poem about the stage here you feel like oh my god what a stage you was because they would embellish but the poet said he said He said great Indian poets he said oh oh messenger of Allah your face is so beautiful that every model of the world is jealous of your face and no matter how much I praise you and I'm a poet and I can praise really well I still fall short of praising I went through the cosmos I went all over the world I've seen the most beautiful models I've seen people of akhlaq I've seen people of beauty but you oh messenger of Allah you're in the league of your own you're something else imagination I can't imagine anything a form more beautiful than your face the illuminating sun are you the illuminating moon are you a maiden of paradise what are you this is amir khusrao and at the end he says khusrao gharib as to gada of tawda that's your city khusrao is a gharib is it and he's a he's a beggar he's a beggar and a strange person came in from from the land far away and he came to your city in a hope that you may have a glance toward this poor soul in your city and there were lovers like that who loved the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that the city the dirt of that city the dirt of that city was that coal in their eyes there are people who walk barefoot in medina they never put on shoes they did they stayed there they never put on shoes there are people right now there are people right now that we know that they never fly to medina they never fly i'll go and fly over the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam there are people that we know they never sleep in medina they come do ziyah and leave out of just how am i going to sleep with my legs crossed in medina in the city the jihad is the neighborhood of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam so you don't want to be in that neighborhood in jannah with him forever by just a moment of pleasure to sell yourself cheap this month comes to teach us our value to teach us who we are really to teach us who we are where we came from where we're at and where we're going and i swore by Allah no matter what you have done in your life this night these nights of ramadan lay little qadr can wipe your entire lifetime of sinfulness of disobedience and make you pure like the day you were born and don't think that you messed lay little qadr or that you will mess lay little qadr don't think that way every single one of you don't think that way and in the abdi dhanibi hadis kudzi says Allah says i am in the opinion of my servant how he or she thinks of me i'll manifest myself in that way every one of us inshallah either we caught it or we'll catch it right but no no that Allah can make any night for you lay little qadr one of my teacher said he said the real lay little qadr is when you realize the power of Allah that moment Allah will make that night lay little qadr for you when you realize you your connection to Allah when you realize your dependency to Allah when you realize that he is your rubber in your his servant when you realize that that calling that he says my servant is the greatest name for you whatever title they give you in the dunya no matter what the highest title that you can get in this dunya it it's annihilated with the title that Allah gives you abdu abdu la my servant you are my servant you are my servant this is the greatest and this is why khajab the la nasari will end with this khajab the la nasari the great sage who died in 481 buried in the city of herat in afghanistan what a great sufi master said he said in his monajab he said ilahi i got a big wee banday man as arsh begzarat khanday man he said ya Allah if you just say you're my servant i'll be so happy that the carrier of the arsh will hear my laughter i'll be so happy just call me the fact that you say i'm your servant that's all i want to be your servant because that is the true freedom if you're not a servant of Allah you're a abdu dinar abdu dirham you're the servant of serving gold materialism you're the servant of your shahwa your desire you're the servant of your boss you're the servant of your wife you're the servant of your husband you're the servant of Allah will make you servant to everything in this world if you don't if you don't become a servant if you don't make sajda for Allah this one sajda you do for Allah you think oh my god i'm doing so much i have to pray that one sajda alleviate you from a thousand unnecessary sajda that Allah can make you humiliate you in front of everybody else but his servitude that is the real freedom that is the real freedom do not become abdu dinar abdu dirham have the wealth of this world be rich be millionaires be billionaires have every have the junior in your hand and not in your heart leave your heart for Allah and for yourself leave the heart to know yourself into know Allah and have the junior in your heart in your hand that's all you want to do and make sure that the junior that you have in your hand it's moving constantly one is uh in the resaulat al qashiri it said i was reading that earlier and one of the master said he said it it's like the the wealth is like water if it keeps going it's always fresh and good but if it's still it goes bad so make sure you spend it you don't hoard the wealth it's always you're spending it and you get more inshallah especially spending it for good causes inshallah especially on these days of night of Ramadan may Allah bless all of you may Allah protect you these blessed nights if there's any questions or clarification or comments and then we'll make a door and then inshallah i think one of the brothers gonna lead sort of mulk and then there's going to be sort of just be right i have the mic if everybody has a question they're too tired yeah sisters we have sisters trying to get in could you come forward please brothers are okay sisters i think they're sisters at the door the sisters if you start moving a little closer to the stage thank you i guess there's no questions what's that it's not like i'm zaka last city for you doing for a beautiful talk i had a question so i think you made a really good point like finding oneself but i have a question more like tactically how do you do that how do you actually go about what are some steps you take very to go in and find yourself very good question how do you find yourself so i'm writing something on that topic inshallah hopefully i can publish it soon but just to um the first thing to find yourself and to know yourself i hold hardly believe this is my belief it could be wrong there's no foundation for it if you don't have if you don't take 30 minutes a day for yourself you're not living life don't call it life if you don't take 30 minutes what i call me time me time that time is super important and for every person is different everybody's different um some people it's a walk they just want to go out go for a walk they have their flashcards with them memorize something they have their headphone listening to Quran they have nothing i don't listen to anything when i go for my walks reflecting on nature everybody has something some people they go in the corner of the room reflect close your eyes and no you two human beings are the same and that's what i add in the process i'm saying human beings are like mines copper mines gold mines diamond mines everybody's different so there's not a formula for one one of my students we were in we're in uh we were in Malaysia asked me a similar question and then so i told him that you have to have me time and find yourself but you have to find a place where you feel at ease where you don't feel like you have to photoshop yourself see the problem with us is we always have to filter ourselves because especially the generation that grew up on instagram where everything is filtered they never see reality in his true form the prophet says allahumma arayni al-haqqa haqqa what does that mean to you allah show me the reality in his true form unfiltered i want to see the reality in his true form what is true is true what is false what is and give me the ability to follow it and show me falsehood in his true form not filter and give me the ability to stay away from it so that is one of the big problem a moment where you don't need filters you don't need filters there's nobody there it can't i mean they get to a point and this is in the shai naqshman said khilwa taran juman you know privacy in the gathering that's a high station where you could be sitting there with all these people but you're you're not even here physically you're here spiritually or somewhere else right that's a high station that people will get to that station but you have to start by being in a place that is only you and you feel at home in that place so one of my students said um young young younger so anyways i met her maybe like about six seven months later i had a talk in a muslim in a salamic center and she was there and she came it was a sattva dun allahi that thing you said about 30 minutes a day for yourself me time i found myself look at my hands and she had all blisters on her hands and i'm like oh god what happened what did i teach you so anyways it's good no no i realized the place that i felt comfortable was on a swing so i got really a swing in the rope actually it my hands are all as blister but it's been doing it for like months and i have a swing in the backyard and i go and it's the most relaxing thing for me and hamdulillah no complaints she was happy everything was fine she was focused on what she wanted to do in life but not everybody should go on a swing to find themselves right but everybody has to find a place for me when i was in high school i went through some trying time you know first first generation not understanding the language um being in this country um not doing anything honestly um so i i had really um some difficult uh i would say months and all the semester so i remember mr galardo i think he's the only person i remember two three people three names from my high school teachers but mr galardo was my counselor and he told me one day he said did you get your driver license i said yes i was in eleventh grade so yeah i got my license and he said um he said uh go to san francisco and i'm like whoa that's never been to san francisco without the families no no go to san francisco and go give me an address to go by the beach sit and reflect on water for two hours and just reflect by your life and about this and i was like really game changer for me just seeing the creation of a lot just without any distraction and and it really helped me out the water for some people is the water for some people is the night sky it's camping they will go in and know that people came to islam through night sky i know that for a fact but the night sky it boosted their ima just seeing the stars right and got to know themselves so finding yourself is really knowing how insignificant you are and how significant you are at the same time that is the secret of knowing yourself to know that that's so you're the insignificant part comes not to get arrogant the significant part comes so you don't feel like oh my god i'm nothing i can't do anything that you would see that you are the cream of the crop you are the best of a lost creation you are the highest of a lost creation you are the you're the middle creature create creatures you're the middle creatures alas created the biggest thing and the smallest thing and we are in the middle right there's a there's a beautiful video it's called everyone should watch this it's like a short video it's called the power of ten the power of ten and there's a video on this family in a park and then it zooms out ten times and you can see the whole park and then zooms out ten times you can see the whole city then zooms out ten times you can see the whole country zooms out and then there's you see the earth and it keeps zooming out ten times and then you see the whole galaxy and the whole cosmos becomes like a little dot and then it zooms back in to the people and then it zooms in ten times into them and you would see that the reality of everything you saw outwardly, it's inwardly as well. It's inside of you. And this is why when that little boy was crying and said, and he saw him, he said, oh little boy, why are you crying? Don't you know that the entire cosmos is inside of you? So that, knowing that, but then also knowing that you are nothing in order not to get arrogant. If you can balance those two and you have that 30 minutes where you can find, and if you can't take 30 minutes away from your 24 hours day schedule, then don't call yourself a free person. You're not a free person.  How could we not take 30 minutes a day, sleep less 30 minutes? We waste human being. We waste so much time. All of us. I'm the first one to raise my hand the amount of time I waste, even though I feel like I don't waste a lot of time, but I still do in comparison to the last generation of people. So in comparison to my teachers. So all of us, you can take 10 minutes from here, 5 minutes from here to get that 30 minutes a day and reflect, reflect on yourself, reflect on the blessings. That's one of the things that you need to do is shukr. We're becoming a generation of ingrates where we don't have shukr. We have the people, people of gratitude. And shukr just reflect on what Allah has given you, right? And for example, now every day I'm like subhanallah, what a blessing voice is. Just to be able to speak, because when I wake up, I can't even speak, it takes me half an hour in order for my voice to get going. It's been like two weeks, right?  What a blessing to have digestion. What a blessing not to have asthma and breathe normally. All of these blessings were into adunah. If you try to count the blessings of Allah, you will not be able to count them. But also Allah can take those blessings away from you as well. And there's no end to that either.  So finding yourself by 30 minutes a day, reflecting on yourself, reflecting on the blessing that Allah has given you, reflecting on the abilities that you can do. Aim high. Aim high. One of the, and this again comes back to the same point. Rumi said, aim high, but always remember that a piece of hay cannot pick up a mountain. Know the reality as well.  But don't aim low. But don't aim for impossible. Don't aim for impossible. Have high ambition, but know your limitation as well. Right? So inshallah. I think that that's the starting point. And once you reflect on that, things will come. Because one of the biggest things you can do is this, a lot of people might think it sounds like insanity, but talk to yourself. And really, you talk to yourself, it makes a difference. And that's the 30 minutes that you have when there's nobody there. Just make sure nobody catches you and put you on Instagram. You'll be like the madman of the city. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Hey, Han, how are you? How's it going? But no, really talk to yourself.  And I had hundreds of boxes to take into the warehouse, like my God. And it was becoming dark and I had to take them all in. I said, okay, I'll do it. I have a broken rest when I was young. I jumped from a second story building.  So you actually think you can jump. So I did and I broke my arm from here and here. So whenever I pick a lot of heavy weight, it starts to pain start coming back. So that night I came home, I was like in pain for three, four, five days, six days is going. So one day I was sitting and I just said, I saw talking to my hand. I said, you have a right over me. But I'm not supposed to overwork you. And I did. I'm sorry. And it was really, it was a crazy moment. It was a good moment. But nobody recorded it. I was making sure there was a log. Nobody can hear me. So in any case, it was very interesting. There was this healing that I felt in my heart for that. And literally within a few days, it disappeared the pain. And I realized that there is a connection and we neglect ourselves a lot. Yet if somebody else has pain in their hand, how's your hand doing? Oh, my God, if you have been recalled, how's your hand? Is it better? But we don't ask our own hand. We don't talk to ourselves. So we always neglect ourselves. But with other people, oh, so and so how are you? How's it going? But what about yourself? Do you really talk to yourself? Do you take care of yourself? We are all guilty of that. And this is the first step of getting to know yourself is to respect your own body parts, to respect your face. And this is why, you know, the things that are not permissible in Islam is because of the honor of the body parts. It's because of that.  Poor guy, non-Muslim guy. And I realized that this is the ear that Allah has given you. It's designed by God. Don't change the creation of Allah. You can't do something that makes it more beautiful. You can't, right? So there's a sacredness about everything. So treat yourself with that long answer for a short question. Apologies. I hope that was not how it happened. Okay, there's no question. Well, there's a sound. If you could describe the act of Allah, and I know you're big on poetry. I've always enjoyed your poetry. Either it's from Rumi or Baal. If you could share with us, if any of the poets said something about being the servant of Allah swt. That's a beautiful question. The Abdullah, the great, the best name to give your children, or names that have, have the Innaham, like Obedah and Hamedah, like Abdullah, Abdul Rahman, Abdul Raheem, Abdul Malik, Abdul Awal, all of those names, then the abd with the name of Allah. And then the other one is like Muhammad, Hamed, Mahmood, that which has praise in it. These are the highest names that to be given to your children. But the Abdullah, the station, is the greatest better than any poet that could say it, is what Allah said. The Prophet, as many names, we know there's one of the sheikh in England, printed a book, 313 names of the Prophet As-Salaam. There's books with 99 names of the Prophet As-Salaam, readily available. But in the Qur'an Muzammil, the Qur'an Taha, Mahmood, Maqam and Mahmoodah, Ahmad, his name in the previous scripture. So all of these names of the Prophet As-Salaam, all of these beautiful names. But the greatest night, so the Prophet As-Salaam had the worst day and greatest night. The worst day of his life was Taif. That was the worst day. He said that was the worst day of my life, what happened in Taif. The greatest night of his life was Isra'an Miraj, where he went. He passed Sidratul Muntaha, the tree of the furthest limit. Couldn't go no more. Nobody could go anymore. Jibreel, right? Gof Jibreel or Beppar and Darpeyam. Gof Rourou, man Harifi to Niham. So at that point, the Prophet As-Salaam said, Jibreel, come let's go. Why did you stop? We gotta go. I'm not done yet. He said, no, no, no. I can't go no more. This is this you are, you're in the league of your own. This is nobody has ever cost this. He said, come. You were just showing off your wings to me. Come follow me. Gof Biruun, Zinhadei Khoshfar Rehman, Garzanam Parre, Bistruzat Parreman. He said, oh my beautiful illustrious friend. Prophet As-Salaam and Jibreel were friends. He said, oh my illustrious friend. If I take one more step forward from here, all my wings and feathers will burn in our fall. This is you. You go further. In this night, where the Prophet goes so close to his Lord in the divine presence, what does Allah say to him? How does he address him? Subhanallah the asrabi abdi laylan min al masjid al haram il al masjid al aqsa. Glory be to the one who take his abd. Why did Allah use abd? Why not Muhammad? Why not Mahmood? His name on the day of judgment. Maqam al Mahmooda. Why not? Because the greatest station that you can earn is becoming abd Allah. That perfect slave of God. Because he took servitude to the level of perfection. And that's why Allah called him on this night abd. He called him Muhammad. He called him Muhammad. He called him abd. He taking his servant on this night to masjid al aqsa. So that is the reason why this is the highest station to achieve is to become that perfect servant. We were all for sure of that. But at least we should imitate to be a servant. An obedient servant at least. InshaAllah. Sisters, alright. Alright. So let's just wait you want to explain it. We'll make a. Alright. I just did it. In the name of Allah. We extend our hands in prayer. And these blessed nights in this blessed place with these blessed people. Ya Allah. We have a bunch of people. We have nothing. And we come to you with broken hearts. Ya Allah. Ya Allah. In this crowd, you know the affair of everyone's heart. Ya Allah. You know there are people here that are suffering. I mean from depression, from sadness, from financial difficulty. There are people who are suffering from their children. There are people who are suffering with their parents. There are people who are suffering with their confused about their religion, confused about their identity. Ya Allah. There are people here tonight that they don't have any door to go. And this is why they came to your house. Ya Allah. To the Masjid. Ya Allah. Ya Allah. I mean on this blessed night of later. And we are asking Ya Allah from you. We're asking from you. Ya Allah. We come to you. We're not going to ask for anything small. We're not going to ask for anything insignificant. We come into the door of the most generous. You are the most generous of the generous. Ya Allah. I mean we ask you to put the ointment of healing in every broken heart. Ya Allah tonight. Everyone who's here, whatever they are suffering. Ya Allah. Olivia, they're suffering. Ya Allah. And put your light in their hearts. Ya Allah. Make the way for them that they get to know themselves. And they get to know you. And keep them happy in this dunya. And keep them happy in here after. Ya Allah. Make us all amongst the people. That on the day of judgment. Ya Allah. You're pleased with us. In the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is proud of us. Ya Allah on that day. Ya Allah. Don't make us amongst the people of Sheqawah. Amongst the people. Ya Allah. That will go to the fire of Hell. Ya Allah. Ya Allah. Make us amongst the people that we get our folder in our right hand. Ya Allah.  That we are pleased with your decree. You're pleased with our action. Ya Allah. Ya Allah. Make us amongst the people of Jannah. Ya Allah put us in the neighborhood of the Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. Put us in the neighborhood of Bibi Aisha Siddiqueh. People in the neighborhood of Fatima to Zahra. Ya Allah put us in the neighborhood of Bibi Khadija to Al-Kobra. Ya Allah put us in the neighborhood of Sayyidina Abu Bakr, and Umar, and Othman, and Ali. Ya Allah put us in the neighborhood of Abu Abu Dahl al-Qifari. Ya Allah. Ya Allah. We want to see these people. You want to meet these people. You want to be in their presence. Ya Allah Ya Allah. You mean Ya Allah don't deprive us from seeing your face. Ya Allah. You mean from seeing your face like the full moon. Ya Allah. On the day of judgment. Ya Allah don't deprive us from your Rahmah. Ya Allah from the Shifa of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. Ya Allah don't deprive us from your Shifa. Ya Allah. Forgive us for any sin that we have done. Ya Allah protect us. Protect our children. Ya Allah protect our children. Ya Allah protect our offspring until the Yawm al-Qiyamah from all of the Fasad in fitna of their time. Ya Allah make him amongst the Salihin wa Salihat, amongst the righteous people. Make our children our offspring until the day of judgment. Beneficial members of their societies. Ya Allah. Make him amongst the people of Fitrah. The day they don't lose anything that they have that you have put in them. Keep them on the path of Fitrah. Ya Allah. Ya Allah remove confusion from the heads and from the hearts of young people, all of the Muslim around the country and around the globe. Ya Allah we're confused about themselves, about their identity, about who they are. Ya Allah. Ya Allah. Keep us on the path of Fitrah. Protect us. Ya Allah protect us from all of the evil of this society and give us the best of this society. Ya Allah. Make us, make our children beacons of life. Ya Allah that we become a guide. We guide people and bring them to the path of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and Ya Allah make us amongst the people that we love you and you're pleased with us. Make us amongst the people that we fall in love with the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Ya Allah that we truly love him. Ya Allah from the bottom of our hearts. Ya Allah make us amongst the people that every time we want to do sin and disobey you, we remember you and we run away and we will forfitru ilallah and we run to you. Ya Allah you're like Yusuf alayhi sallam, run to you and you open all of the doors that will close. Ya Allah open the doors to you. Ya Allah Ya Rahmah rahmeen. Dara haw hamab asta asti. Allah that it to we know that all the doors are closed except your door. That's the only door that's open and we're coming to you. Ya Allah we're coming to your door. Ya Allah don't turn us away. Don't turn us back. Ya Allah because of whoever I know we know Ya Allah that tonight there's somebody here as a broken heart. There's somebody here because of that one broken heart forgive all of us. Ya Allah because of that one person that is depressed. Ya Allah forgive all of us because of that one person. Ya Allah that is having a hard time in this dunya traveling through this world. Ya Allah forgive us. Ya Allah because of that one person because of that one person who has lost someone that they are suffering from the loss of a family or a friend or a loved one. Ya Allah forgive all of us. Ya Allah and with you everything is easy. Allahumma yassir. Wa la tuasir. Ya Allah make the affairs of life easy and not hard for all of us. Wa sallallahu ta'ala ala siyyidina wa habibina wa quratil aayunina Muhammadin. Wa ala ala alaihi wa sahbij main. So we're going to do. So we're going to do some Quran recitation before we do a Salat at Zizbe inshallah. We'll be doing Salat at Zizbe in this room inshallah and then when we are ready for that we'll sisters move here inshallah and we'll be here and that'll take us about 20 minutes or so inshallah to do the Salat at Zizbe. Meanwhile we'll read some Quran inshallah and then we'll have a special Dua after Salat at Zizbe. Qiyam is going to be at 3 a.m inshallah please. Yeah let's read Surah Muqt together inshallah. So if you want to open up Surah Muqt on your phones unless you have a memorized inshallah you can get up a Quran from the prayer hall if you like and see the Muhammad Constantin will read for us inshallah. He's one of our hip students here at MCC Inshallah we have many people mashallah with the Ramadan many people are doing Qatam every day so we'll do the Qatam that take the baraka of Turqum inshallah. So we'll do the Qulu-Allahu-Aha three times Qulawuz-Brabi one time and Qulawuz-Brabi last one time and then we'll read the Surah Fatiha then Ali Flamin and Ayatul Kursi and in with Amun-e-Rasul. Bismillah.  And they do not turn away from anything of His knowledge except for what He wills. And He has the throne of the heavens and the earth. And He does not turn away from it the memory of them. And He is the Most High and the Great. The Messenger of Allah has believed in what has been revealed to him from his Lord and the believers. All believe in Allah and His angels and His books and His messengers. We will not forgive anyone among His messengers. And they say, We have heard and obeyed. Our Lord has forgiven you and to you is the victory. Allah does not forgive anyone except for what has been revealed to him from His messengers. He has what He has earned and what He has earned upon it. Our Lord, do not take us, for We have forgotten or we have made mistakes. Our Lord, do not bear grudges upon us like what You have carried upon those before us. Our Lord, do not bear grudges upon us like what You have carried upon us. Forgive us, forgive us, and forgive us. You are our Lord, so help us against the disbelieving people. We will stand here, brothers and hero. We will explain to us how to do Salat at Tazbi.  It is a very special thing to do. And you will be fulfilling the sunnah, inshallah. As we get situated, brothers, if you want to come on this side towards the stage, and give the sisters room, please let's get your chairs and put them off to the side, inshallah. We just need a moment to situate ourselves, inshallah. Assalamu alaikum everyone. So inshallah we are going to do Salat at Tazbi. This is a special prayer, inshallah. So this is a hadith of the Prophet, his uncle, Ibn Abbas, R.A.T. So in this prayer, we are going to do Tazbi called Subhanallah, Ibn Abbas, R.A.T. 300 times. In the four raka, past two odd nights we've been doing this. I know many of you already aware of the process, but just for the people who are not, who are new. So we are going to do Subhanallah, walhamdulillah, wa la ilaha illallah. This Tazbi 300 times in four raka. So the first raka, right after Sana, when you read Sana Subhanallah, we are going to do 15 times this Tazbi. And right after Tazbi, we'll do the Surah Fatiha and the second Surah, that is called Dhamma Surah. And right after Dhamma Surah, we'll do 10 times this Tazbi. So 25. And then when we go to the Ruku, in the Ruku, we do the three Tazbiahs, Subhanallah al-Azim, Subhanallah al-Azim. Then we'll do 10 Tazbiahs. Then we'll get back from Ruku. It's called Qiyam again. We'll do 10 times Subhanallah, walhamdulillah, wa la ilaha illallah. Then we'll go into the Sajdah. Right after Sajdah, Subhanallah al-Azim, three times and 10 times this Tazbi. Get back to the Jalsa. That is between two Sajdahs. When we sit, that's Jalsa. So in that, we are going to do 10 times. And then in that second Sajdah, we'll do another 10 times. This was 75 times in one raka. Four raka, it's going to be 300 times, inshallah. So I hope this is clear now. InshaAllah we're going to start now. Okay, I'll... So I'm going to say one more time. So this Tazbi is Subhanallah, Subhanallah al-Azim, walhamdulillah, wa la ilaha illallah. So I'm going to go slow. And every time when I'm going to start, I'll read it loudly so that you'll know we are going to do this Tazbi. And one other thing, an Imam can also make mistakes. So the people who are behind have to be really careful. When Imam makes a mistake, they can call Subhanallah just to make Imam correction. This prayer is very frequent. Like we don't do every day like that. So once a year. So we do that. So there are chances that we have a mistake too. So the people who are back, they can just correct the Imam. Okay, inshallah we'll start. One second. Every raka, we are going to do 75 times. Okay, there are questions again coming. Let me repeat the process. Okay. So this Tazbi, how many times are we going to do? Total? 300 times. So every, in four raka. So each raka, 75 times. Okay. So first, when we do the Takbir, Allah Akbar, right after the Takbir, we do Sana. Subhanallah al-Azim, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, walhamdulillah, wal So this covers 75 times in war raka. So that's how 4 raka will become 300 times, inshallah. In the name of Allah. Allah is the Greatest. Glory to Allah and praise be to Allah. There is no god but Allah. Allah is the Greatest. Glory to Allah and praise be to Allah. Glory to Allah and praise be to Allah. Glory to Allah and praise be to Allah. Glory to Allah and praise be to Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. Glory to Allah and praise be to Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. Glory to Allah and praise be to Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of all the worlds. The Most Gracious, Most Merciful is your Lord on the Day of Judgment. We worship you and we wait for you. Guide us to the straight path, the path that you have bestowed upon them, the path that you have bestowed upon them, and the path that you have bestowed upon them. We have not explained to you your heart and your gift of gift, which has been given to you and raised your reminder. But with the family of Yusra, when you have left, then go away, and to your Lord, go away. Subhanallah wa alhamdulillahi wa la ilaha illa Allah wa Allahu Akbar. Sumia Allahuliman Hamida. Subhanallah wa alhamdulillahi wa la ilaha illa Allah wa Allahu Akbar. Subhanallah wa alhamdulillahi wa la ilaha illa Allah wa Allahu Akbar. Subhanallah wa alhamdulillahi wa la ilaha illa Allah wa Allahu Akbar. Subhanallah wa alhamdulillahi wa la ilaha illa Allah wa Allahu Akbar. Subhanallah wa alhamdulillahi wa la ilaha illa Allah wa Allahu Akbar. The Most Merciful, the Most Merciful, the Lord of the Day of Judgment. O you who worship and O you who ask for help. Guide us to the straight path, the path that is bestowed upon them, other than the path that is bestowed upon them and to Allah. And the religion, and the olives, and the tourists. And this is the safe country. We have created man in the best way possible. Then we gave him the best of the best. Except those who believe and do good deeds, they will have a free reward. So they will not deny you after the religion. May Allah not judge. Praise God and� God. Except, God is the Master. Praise God and하게. Except, God is the Master. Allah is the Master. Praise God and하게. Except God, the Greatest. Praise God, our Lord of all the worlds The Most Merciful, so Merciful, nad Hajji Duma, the Lord ofMultiPretty, amazing roads next to sutr- O you who worship and O you who ask Guide us to the straight path, the path of those whom You have bestowed upon them, other than the darkness upon them and the darkness of darkness. Indeed, We have sent it down in the night of power, and I do not know you what is the night of power. The night of power is better than a thousand months. The angels are sent down, and their souls are in it, with the permission of their Lord, from all things in peace. It is until the dawn of dawn. Subhanallah, and praise be to Allah, there is no god but Allah, and Allah is the Greatest. Allah is the Greatest. Subhanallah, and praise be to Allah, there is no god but Allah, and Allah is the Greatest. In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Subhanallah, and praise be to Allah, there is no god but Allah, and Allah is the Greatest. Allah is the Greatest. Subhanallah, and praise be to Allah, there is no god but Allah, and Allah is the Greatest. Allah is the Greatest. Subhanallah, and praise be to Allah, there is no god but Allah, and Allah is the Greatest. Allah is the Greatest. Subhanallah, and praise be to Allah, there is no god but Allah, Allahumma, allahumma wa al-ahma, Allahu Akbar. As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullah. As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullah.