We're going to get started, just a little background before we get started and we'll talk about what we're going to talk about. There are two parts of this presentation. One has to do with logistics of going to Umrah and the other has to do with Umrah itself. When I say Umrah itself, I mean the fech of Umrah and the spiritual aspects of Umrah. The people in the room and people in the virtual audience, there are going to be two types. There's a specific Umrah that there's a group called FIST that's going to be doing on February 11th, inshallah, we leave. So about 10% of this presentation is geared specifically towards that. But the rest of it is towards any Umrah because Umrah is an Umrah. So for those of you that are not going on February 11th, that's fine. There's a lot of stuff you will inshallah gain from the presentation. Feel free to raise hands, ask questions. If we're going to, there may be portions we choose, answer later on. We'll just tell you that we're going to answer that later on. So briefly, just a little bit about FIST, F-I-S-T. This is a foundation for Islamic scholarship and teaching. And what we do with this foundation, we try to actually help scholars in many different ways, but as publishing books or just helping them because they need some help on some financial things or in some programs or any of the programs they have where they need some help. And then one of the things we decided to do also a couple of years ago, three years ago, was for the community offer Umrah programs for those people that really can't afford to go but have been sort of heroes, sort of what I think of as heroes, heroes doing a lot of work behind the scenes and let me know about them. And they've been doing that for years to offer them a way to go to Umrah for no charge and we collect money from the community. And then along with that, other friends just come along and everything is at cost for those that either you go relatively free or you go at cost if you are just part of the community. And we'll be doing, this is our third Umrah, insha'Allah, that we'll be doing. So with that, let me just get started and there must be a way to change the slides. Okay, good. Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem. So I'm going to talk more about the logistics and I will take maybe 15, 20 minutes. And then my son Ibrahim, who is a graduate, both undergrad and grad, will talk more, and has been to Umrah also many times, will talk more specifically about the feqh of Umrah and the spiritual aspect of Umrah. So with that, for those that are going, whether you're going the first time, you're going the second time, third time, multiple times, there's several things that are just really, really super important, right? And that is, you are going to meet, you have to think about this, you're going to meet your Lord, right? And I remember when I was young, and this applied to Hajj, applied to Umrah also, it's like you are going and think of this as a dry run for the last day, for judgment day, right? When I was young, that's what I was told. Meaning, if you've done harm to anybody, ask them for your forgiveness before you leave. If you own debt to anybody, pay the debt off before you leave, right? And you're going and you're going with the idea that you may not come back, right? So that's where your state of mind is, right? And that's how you have to think about this, right? So the intention of why you're going, this is not a shopping trip, this is not one of these, hey, I'm going to do this, that trip, right? You may do shopping, I must say don't do shopping, but I'm saying there's a sincerity of, I want to go to meet my Lord, right? That's the mindset you have to go with. And which means you have to clear your heart before you go of a lot of things that are dunya related, right? And one of the books I read frequently, before I go to Omra, is the book about death by Ghazali. I figured which one is the 40th volume, this is the last volume, right? The 40th volume. And that just puts you in the right frame of it's not about dunya, it's not about dunya, it's about akhara, it's about akhara, right? So read something to just get you in the right mind frame. So intention, sincerity, adab, adab here meaning just being courteous, adab here being polite to everybody, to the group that you're in, or when you go to Omra the people you're with, right? And if you're going to Omra the first time, and you have not been outside the country, and you're not used to what a Middle Eastern country is like, or India is like, or Pakistan is like, and you're just not used to the crowds, the intensity of crowds, or Afghanistan, the intensity of crowds, you'll be overwhelmed just with the number of people, right? And I remember one of my first Omra, I don't remember, it was Omra al-Hajj coming out of the masjid in Makkah, literally at the door, and we're walking like this, right? We're literally walking like this because there's no space. And the guy behind me sneezes, and his stuff lands here. And you can't get mad. And I wanted to, right? Or you have to hold yourself back, right? Just expect all of that, and just roll with the punches, just let it go. There are many, many people that do not. They don't, they get angry, and you see it.  Right, because for many, many people, they've never been on an escalator before. In the masjid, you're going to go up an escalator. The ladies or the men, they're afraid, they've never been on one. They've never been on a walk-a-later. This is the first time they've been on a plane, and this is all new, right, as some are literate, as some are not literate. So remember, when you get there, there's people from all over the world, and they're going to have all sorts of reactions, and you have to be patient. You have to be patient throughout your trip. And grateful. I've been told many, many times, you get invited to go to Umrah. You may have your plan to go to Umrah, but you get invited. So you have been invited, if you're going, you have been invited, right? So think about that. This is an invitation from Allah. This is an invitation from our Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, to come and do Umrah, to come visit his house, and to come visit with Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. And the last one, at least, I just said this earlier, is treat your group that you're with. This is your family. Yes, I know you've got family back. Oh, my God, that completely. But this is your family. During this trip, this is your family. We're all brothers and sisters. We help each other whichever way we can. And go out of your way to help each other, right? So that's the precursor, the prelimin, if you will. The rest I'm going to go very quickly. It is more for the people that are going on this particular trip, the 11th. There are 17 people from SFO. They're going to be going on the trip. Two from Memphis. Three from Los Angeles. And four, international. Yeah. The reason, by the way, it's blue. I took the names out because this is going to be published. I didn't want the names out, you know, and everybody to see who's going, who's not going to be at home at certain times, right? But he just tells you a number of people, a number of females and males. Do you have a question, Korea? So there are 17 people who are going from SFO, nine males, eight females. And the three from Los Angeles will be joining you in Istanbul. Okay? Two from Memphis and then four international. That's the group. And then a little more details. I spelled pickup wrong. A little more details. The only thing important here is pickup.  You all arrive at the same time, right? Exactly the same time because you have the same flight from Istanbul. You'll be picked up. My son and I will be at the airport picking you guys up by bus. Okay? So the rest of it from Medina on was don't worry because we'll give you an update from that. Okay? There are folks that are coming just so you can see myself and my son are going to be leaving early. We're going to Medina to look at the date. We're actually going for every seventh. So we're leaving this Monday. And there's some folks from Memphis. We're coming a little bit later. And then Irfan who's in the back over there. You're coming SFO by Jatta. You'll be coming a little bit later also. Irfan, I'll talk you offline. It may make sense for you and the person from Memphis to go together because you're within 45 minutes. Okay? And then people are going from London and people are going from Jatta. Okay. Pre-flight.  You've got to do a pre-flight that are important, whichever group you're with. Okay? First, have a visa. A visa, as you know, you can get a Saudi visit.com, I think. And it takes about 10 minutes to get a visa. You need your passport. Passport has to be good for six months after you leave. So passport has to be good. You're leaving in February. The passport has to be good for another six months otherwise you won't get the visa. Everybody in our group has already gotten a visa. Visa is online. I think it's about 130 bucks or something like that. Along with, when you pay for the visa, you also pay for insurance. And this is insurance in Saudi. So if you get sick, you are covered while you're in Saudi. Okay? Now, notice when you get the visa, there's usually two documents. Most of you have the visa doc. Many of you probably don't have the insurance doc.  What is important for you, that insurance doc actually is not that important. What is important for you, particularly in Turkish Airlines, it depends which airline, they want to see that you have insurance. I just showed my Kaiser insurance and they didn't care. Right? But they want to know you have insurance. Otherwise, they will not let you on the flight. Okay? So bring either your insurance card. If you don't have insurance, then you actually got an insurance when you got your visa.  Okay? If you have any trouble with that, just call me. We'll be able to get through. As of, I think a year ago, no shots are required, no COVID shots. Right? You may want to get them, not get them. That's completely up to you. Nobody's going to ask for them. Okay? If you're going for Hajj, you will be required to take meningitis shots. And it is recommended by the CDC and by, I forget the other group, to take meningitis shots. I don't take them. I don't take them for Hajj. So completely up to you. If you take them, you're going to get sick. You should take them a week before. They're expensive. Sometimes they're covered by insurance. Sometimes they're not. I don't take them. I haven't taken them. I don't go frequently. I haven't taken them in years. Okay, pre-flight. If you're going to Jeddah first, if you're going to Makkah first, you are going to be in Ahram. Okay? You can wear Ahram before you leave at San Francisco. Recommend you don't do that. And for men, Ahram, my son will go over this. There's Ahram clothing, and there's also a state of Ahram. I'm talking about Ahram clothing. Okay? So you can wear your Ahram clothing when you're in San Francisco airport or before you leave. Better not to. When you get to Istanbul, we'll talk about that here in a second, then you can wear your Ahram clothing. Okay? We'll talk about that in a second. So since we're going to Makkah, this group is going to Makkah first. And the situation, of course, is take your shower here before you get on the plane. Cut your hair. As you're supposed to. That includes armpits and pubic hair. Cut your hair. When I say cut your hair, I'm talking about shave your hair here and here. Cut your nails is what I meant to say. And if somebody could open that, I think somebody's trying to get in. And that's the pre-flight. So now you're flying, you're flying from here to, in this case Istanbul, or wherever you're going. You have about, in this case you have two hours in Istanbul. In some cases you may have three, you may have four, whatever it is. It's not a lot of time. Especially for men. Right? So now you're in Istanbul. Okay? My recommendation is go straight to the gate. Right? The 17 of you. Get together. Go straight to the jadda gate. Figure out what gate jadda is going to be. Go to that gate. When you're there, when you arrive there, then you go to the bathrooms. You do wudu. You do your makeup prayers. The prayers you did not do because you missed them or you didn't do it during the flight. Do all your makeup prayers there. And then, where you are. Okay, I meant to bring one and actually put it in the wrong car. Ahram is very, very simple to put on. I don't have a piece of clothing. But you basically put it around your waist. Right?  You can get any belt you want to.  Once you get the belt, remember you have a towel wrapped around here, right? And put the belt about four inches below the top of the towel. And then wrap the towel over the belt all around, right? All around. That's it. That thing is not coming off. You may feel uncomfortable and you may put your hand here just in case, but it's not coming off. Right? And you'll get used to it. Very, very, very quickly. Okay. Now you are in Ahram. I said we'll talk about this. For ladies and men, you have to pray two prayers. I think it's Nafal, right? It's recommended. But you pray two prayers, Nafal. Or recommend it to us. So Nafal? Recommend it. Okay. So you pray two Nafal. And somewhere between there and the Mikad, which is the line that defines where you have to be in the state of Ahram, you do your intention. Okay. The important thing I want to state is the following.   It means all those things. Okay. So my recommendation, we'll talk about this again, my recommendation is don't actually make the Nia of Ahram until your plane takes off. Right. Because we have known people that have been stuck in Ahram for days because they couldn't get on the next flight. Right. And they're in a state of Ahram, you stay in a state of Ahram. Okay. We'll talk more about that. I'm sure my son will say, but I think we'll talk more about this later. What do you take with you?  Take tonal, take admiral, take something else for pain, take something for coughs. If you have an antibiotic, you can take an antibiotic. All these things are available there. But by antibiotic, it used to be you can get anything over the counter. Now you need prescriptions for most things over there. Which means you have to go to the doctor. Right. But all the medicines are available there, but I would take a little bit of what you normally take. And if you can take an antibiotic with you, it's probably better. Almost everybody will get a cough. I almost guarantee that. Whether it's there or when you come back. Right. There's a little bit of lingering effect you have. So that's the medicines.   Right. Don't make the mistake of putting in your checked-in baggage. Because then you, when you land, you're not a harm. And he can tell you what the implications of that are. Questions on that? Just in terms of prep. Okay. How many luggage pieces to take? My recommendation is take as little as you can. So that means one check-in luggage. And then take a, so one luggage underneath. One check-in luggage, I'm sorry. One check-in luggage and one cabin luggage. That's it. Don't take a second one. The reason I say don't take a second one is for many people to take the train between Makka and Medina. Right. And there they usually just allow one hand carry luggage. Last time I went, we took the other luggage too and there was no problem. Right. But just try to bring as little luggage as possible. What you need, you can get there. And there are laundry shops available cheaper than here. Right. So if you need clothes washed, you can get them washed. I wouldn't get them washed at the hotels. Those are very expensive. But I know places where you get them washed. Next day you get them. Or go in the morning. It's available that night. Okay. Any questions on clothing or any of that sort of stuff? Yeah, yeah. But I'll answer that a little later. So this day of Ahram ends when you cut your hair. So normally the entire Umrah takes maybe four or five hours. Three, three. I think I'll take three hours. But this group will take three. So you'll be in Ahram basically from Istanbul to the time you complete your Umrah, which is maybe three hours after you begin the Umrah in Makka. Umrah is just Makka. Right.  You pray in between you do the Sa'i. You do the Sa'i. Umrah is almost over. Then we'll get the haircut or shaved, whichever. Then you're out of the state. Okay. For women, for men it's very easy.   Right. I recommend you get all of it off. You're fine. Sorry. Good friend.   For ladies it's more difficult. Because you cannot cut your own hair in the state of Ahram. You can't cut your friend's hair in the state of Ahram. Right. So you're going to find somebody to cut your hair that is not in the state of Ahram. And once that person does it, then you can cut each other's hair an inch. Right. All around. Right. So we basically at the hotel, when we get back and the ladies get back, we'll find somebody who's not in the state of Ahram. They'll cut an inch. Right. And it could be a guy or a gal, but hopefully it'll be a gal. They'll cut an inch. And then that person cuts somebody else's hair. That person cuts somebody else's hair. That person cuts somebody else's hair. Okay. So tricky if we just remember that. I'm not worried about that because we're going to be there. So we'll tell you the rules as we go through it. We'll tell you what you could do and not do. Yeah. So the Ahram for men, for ladies is anything you want. Anything goes. For men, it is two pieces of clothing. Okay. And you can put the belt. Okay. The clothing should be unstitched. Okay. So that's towels. And you can have a pouch. Yeah. And you can have a pouch. And frankly, you're going to have these. Unfortunately, I didn't bring it. I don't know how to describe it. How do you describe it? The pack. Like a gym bag you can have with shoulder straps. Yeah. Gym bag.   You don't walk with the shoes on, right?  In the old days, they had shoe racks everywhere. You just put the shoe racks. And half the time, your shoes get, you lose them anyway. But now there are a few shoe racks. Everybody just carries them. They put their phone in their little pack. They put their ID in the pack. I wouldn't put any money in the pack. I would make sure you have an ID in case something happens to you. We're going to know who you are. I would put down your hotel, which you're in. So we'll know if something happens to you, where you are. And your phone and what you're wearing. Your own bag. Everybody brings their own. Yeah. And not the big heavy backpack. The light. The thing with the two strings, the very light gym bag. Right. So any questions on that? Okay. I'm going to go quickly. Two things that are critical on the right-hand side. Phones. Everybody should have a smartphone. Why? Because there are two places where you need phone. In the hotel, you have internet connection. Okay. But I'm talking about cell coverage. You need cell coverage when you're outside of the hotel. And where you need it is two places. You need it to do the appointment for the rhoda. Rhoda is literally where Jesus Christ is buried. We're going to go close to that. That is my appointment only. It's very, very hard to get in. I mean, there's a good chance half of us will not be able to get in. And most of the women will not be able to get in. And I don't say that. I'm just saying that because I know people just came back from trips, literally last week, and we're not able to get in. It used to be you could go to a rhoda once every 30 days. Now you can only go there once every 365 days. Once a year. Okay. So, which means you have to get an appointment. So get the Nusuk application and you, S-U-K, get it, put the passport in, and then see if you can make an appointment for the days while we're there. And it doesn't matter what time, my recommendation, do it at night time, do it after Isha. But whatever time you can get in, get in. This we're not going to do as a group because chances of getting 17 people or 23 people at one time are like next to zero. Right? So we're going to do this individually. Okay. And I think about a week before you go, they open it up. They allow you to take appointments. Sometimes it's a little full. You try the next day. It's full. You try the next day. You try five times during the day. I've actually tried 20 times during a day just to get in and boom, it pops up. And then it's closed. Okay. So you get your appointment. Okay. When you get your appointment, you will see a live app that is running on here. Right? And it's blinking. Right? And they both use RFID. But my point is they want to see a live app. It's not going to be live unless you have cell coverage. But it just won't be live when you have cell coverage. Oh, thank you. Okay. Thanks. But that went too far.  I have T-Mobile. Saudi Arabia is free. It doesn't matter. Saudi or not, you get cell coverage for free in Saudi Arabia with T-Mobile. If you have Verizon or any of the other guys, I think it's about $40 a month for Saudi coverage. Or maybe $100 a month. It's been a while since I've used it. The third option is just buy a SIM card. A SIM card is about $25. You only need it for... Don't use it all the time. You only need it for those periods of time when you are actually literally outside the hotel. That's the only time you need the SIM card. And you only need it for getting in the road. And you don't... Here it says you need it for over-appointment. There are over-appointments. But I don't know. Anybody who's been there in the past year does actually...  Nobody ever checks. They don't check. Right? And these are for ladies to do omrat because for men, they actually look to see if you're wearing your ahram or not. If you're wearing your ahram, they let you enter on the thawaf, the main floor. If you're a lady, they let you enter on the main floor no matter what. But that's the way of filtering out or reducing the number of people on the mataf, which is the first floor. Otherwise, if you're just doing thawaf or just... they'll send you to the second floor. And the third floor is closed, which means it's packed. Right? The other application I would download is HISLO, H-I-S-L-O. This is just historical sites that one of the scholars put together of Makkah Medina. Actually, not just Makkah Medina. It's all historical sites in Saudi Arabia. Okay. I need to speed up a little bit. Any questions? Okay. So the critical things here are ahram. Right? When you land in Istanbul, and you gotta like almost run to the gate to Jeddah, you gotta do vadoo, you gotta make up your prayers, you gotta do enough for ahram, for the ahram, for the Obrah, and then as soon as you get on the plane, you gotta make your intention. Okay. And before you get there, make sure you get nusuk, and try to get your appointment for Umrah. I'm gonna start tomorrow, because we're leaving a bit earlier. I'm gonna start tomorrow, and then we'll give you updates on who's gotten it. It's tricky. There's some things that are tricky, so just feel free to... this group, feel free to call each other for help. Any questions? I have an appointment about a week before you leave. I'm not hung up on the Umrah whether you get that or not, because it's never been a problem. But still try to get it. Right? Just in case. The Medina one is more important. I don't exactly know when they open up. I would just start looking. Right? That's next. Perfect. Okay. Makkah, February 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. We leave. Okay. I'm not going to go through this, because I think my son is going to cover most of this. But you're going to get lots of books of duos. That's fine. You can read those. But duos from the hearts are serious duos. Don't feel hurried. Don't feel rushed. Everything around you is going to be rushed. You don't want to be in that mode. Let the rush be out there. You're calm. You're tranquil. You're just sakina, the state of sakina. Right? Occupy yourself with the Quran. As my son will probably tell you, rather than doing naffal, it is recommended you do thawaf. Seven seconds. Right? So instead of doing naffal prayers, there, better do thawaf. Better do thawaf. Okay? I think that's it on this side. On the right-hand side, I'll send this to all of you on the team here so you know. But basically, most of us are landing on the 11th at 7 p.m. That night, probably around noon, sorry, around midnight, we will do onra. Because you're going to land at 7 p.m. You're going to, by the time we get to the hotel, we're probably at 8.30 p.m. Relax. If you want to take a shower, take a shower. Do not use the soap in the bathrooms. Do not use the shampoo in the bathrooms. Don't use soap. Don't use shampoo. Just take a shower. If you need to take a shower, take a shower with water, and that's it. Yes, you can get perfumeless soap, but I never feel comfortable knowing it is really perfumeless soap. So just, water only. You go to the bathroom, don't use the soap. Right? Around probably midnight, we will all go, all of us. There are three or four people who will not have arrived. We'll talk about what to do there outside of this, and then we'll all go for onra. We'll take about three hours, the whole thing. Don't come back to the hotel, get our hair cut, and we'll be starved and we'll eat. We'll have places to eat 24 hours. We'll eat. So that's the first day. We are staying at the Swiss Mucca Hotel. It's right across, it's right across the merchant. Literally right across the merchant. Even though it's right across the merchant, it takes a good 20 minutes to just get out of the hotel, wait for the elevators, cross the boundary, get to the merchant, and then from the merchant find a place where they're going to sit. That will take at least half an hour. On Friday, you want to leave at least, if Juma is at, I don't know exact time, let's pretend Juma is at 12.15, you want to be there in the month of the 10.15, even though it's that close, because they start locking with gates, these plastic gates, whatever they're called, they start locking areas and they block it. You cannot come from here, you cannot go from here to walk around. This door is closed, this door is closed, this one's open, but to get to this door, you've got to go this. That happens a little bit after 10 o'clock. So if you want to get in and not be in the sun during the Chodba, then you want to leave 10 o'clock. So very quickly, we'll do a Ziara, a Ziara is visited by historical sites, likely on the 14th from 8 to Zohar, there'll be a class, I'm going to ask my mom, Hamza Malik, to do almost every night, not the first night, but this we'll talk about when we get there. You'll get copies of this, we'll take you through this. The important thing is the last day, Juma, we're leaving after Juma. Check out time is 12 o'clock. Juma is at one something. So you will have all your luggage outside, ready to go at about 10 o'clock. Remember I told you, you have to leave at 10. The luggage is ready to go at 10. We go to the Masjid, do Juma, come out, by the time we land back it's probably going to be like 1.30 or 2. Then we're going to take a bus to the train. So the bus will leave at 3, get there at 4. We're going to take the 5 o'clock train. We're going to arrive in Medina two hours later and we'll miss Isha. But we'll have our first night in Medina. Medina I'm going to skip because we could talk about this when we get there. Right? I think that's it. So that is just logistics. Things to remember and not forget. And Ibrahim, you want to start here? Peace be upon you. Peace be upon you. Peace be upon you. Peace be upon you. Peace be upon you. Peace be upon you. Peace be upon you. Peace be upon you. Peace be upon you. Peace be upon you. Peace be upon you. So today obviously we'll be talking about Umrah. As I'm sure most of you know each of the pillars of Islam are obligatory, but each one has an associated recommended act with it. And so for example with the testimony of faith the recommended act associated with it is sending Sadaqah on the Prophet. With your obligatory prayers there are recommended prayers with Zakat there's recommended Sadaqah etc. So the recommended act that pairs with Hajj is Umrah and that's why it's called the minor pilgrimage. When Allah obligated Hajj on us he revealed to Ayah that today I have perfected for you your religion and completed my favor upon you and I am pleased that Islam be your religion. In other words Hajj is considered the final Ayat.  In many ways both the Umrah and the Hajj specifically are preparations for death. And so when someone goes to Umrah to Mecca and Medina there's a stripping off of all your properties, a stripping off of all your clothes and you look the same as everyone else. Because when resurrected on Yom Qiyamah we'll be resurrected without any clothes on. It'll be so frightened on that day that we won't be looking at each other on that day. But everyone will be the same there will be no material differences or variances between people. And additionally we'll see this as we go through. What you're doing in the Hajj is reorienting yourself to Allah Salaamu Alaykum When you're making the love you're circling around the Kaaba and we know that the Kaaba physically is just stones. But at the same time somebody who worships the stones has actually left Islam. We don't worship stones we worship Allah. And the stones is just the place that's set as a representative of him. And so outwardly, externally the Kaaba is just stones. But internally it's internal reality is as the house of Allah. Again this reflects the state of the heart and what the human being should be doing in all of life. We begin whenever we recite the Quran or almost anything with the dua I seek shelter in Allah I seek shelter in Allah from the Akhrus Shaitan. What does that literally mean to seek shelter means that you've compared Allah to a house.  In other words the Kaaba is the house of Allah and your heart should be the house of Allah as well. Allah protects you just Allah protects people in the Kaaba and it's a sacred area and to commit a sin in Makkah and Irmahdina is much more grievous, a thousand times more grievous than committing a sin elsewhere. Similarly Allah protects your heart. The ideal person is someone who makes his heart the Kaaba as it were. So let's begin by going over some of the fiqh. So the Umrah has four requirements to fulfill. If you do all of these you've completed the Umrah. If not, then either you need to repeat your Umrah or you need to pay some sort of penalty which we'll go over. The first one is the Ahram. The second one is Tawaf. The third is Sa'i. Sa'i is running between Safda and Marwah. And the fourth is the haircut. So to begin Ahram has several components. Is the garment. Now before we put on the garment, we'll do that in Istanbul, inshallah. The preparation for Umrah begins before Istanbul. It begins when you leave here, when you leave your home. Because the meaning of Umrah is to go and to get ready to meet your Lord as though you're dying you should say farewell to everyone here. I think as my dad was saying if there's anyone who you need to seek forgiveness from if there's any debt seen to repay all of those should be done as much as possible before you leave. And so you should prepare and make dua and ready yourself to meet your Lord. Practically what this also entails is if you're coming straight out of work and then getting on a flight and then you're going to be in Istanbul in 36 hours. That's not enough time to get out of the working business mindset into the mindset of service and being humble before Allah. So I highly recommend before you leave spending half a day one day just clearing your mind, clearing your soul, not doing anything just repairing your heart and I say to everybody reading something about the Hajj or the Umrah or reminding yourself in various ways reading some of the dua books that we'll mention. That way when you reach Umrah, you're heart will be ready for it. Your mind won't be distracted with other things. Before you leave you should read to Turak as this just recommended not required. And then when you land in Istanbul obviously you'll need to leave the plane and then when you get to the Jeddah gate you should go to the to the restroom change into what are essentially towels and then you can make your intention and so on and so forth. The rules for the garment are as follows you cannot wear anything stitched or sewn anything stitched or sewn that covers a limb. So the exception here are belts. You can wear stitched belts because stitched belts don't cover a limb because you know hold your you know hold your your lower garment together. The stitches, the reason stitches and sewing are not allowed is stitches represent something which is your attachments to this world.  You're getting ready to go to the Akhira you're getting ready to meet Allah you don't want any attachments left and so the stitches likewise have to go they're symbolic of letting go of the dunya. You can wear a belt if you buy one of those ehram packages they'll often come with a belt or you can just wear your normal if you prefer that. You can wear sandals and flip-flops where the top is exposed meaning that imagine if this is your foot you can't have something that's going to cover most of the bone of the foot here. What you need is is the type of flip-flop where you have one thing that comes up and turns into two prongs that's sort of a flip-flop. If any of you have seen like the thick Adidas slippers those don't work but other flip-flops will work. You can and actually should wear a small traveling pouch around your waist and that will carry your phone and your wallet and whatever other necessities. For women you can wear any type of clothing however because of the spirit of the Umrah it's recommended that you wear something plain and that it's mostly white or mostly black. Women can't wear a necklub and that includes a mask and that also goes for men. You can't wear anything covering your face mask or anything else. Both men and women should not wear gloves although there's one school that allows it so it's not entirely prohibited and similarly women like men can wear pouches to carry their things. Any questions almost on the garments? Glasses are fine, contacts are fine.  Glasses, eye contacts are fine. Bismillah. So once you put on the Ahram garments then you need to make your intention for entering into the state of Ahram. Now what do you mean by the state of Ahram? All of you know that when you begin your prayers you begin with a takbir, right? You begin with saying Allah Akbar. That takbir is called Takbir to the Ahram. That's called Takbir to the Ahram. It's the Allah Akbar that you enter into a sacred state. Ahram means to make sacred. So you enter into a sacred state. When you're making the intention of Ahram, what you're saying is I resolve to begin my umrah and I resolve to enter into the sacred state with Allah. That sacred state is the state of being a fakir, someone who's needy, someone who's a beggar, someone who's an utter humility before Allah and that's why I will talk about it more, but a person should always be in the state of Tabiyah. Always telling Allah, I'm at your service right now. O Allah, I'm here for you right now.  And so the intention, it does need to be verbalized. The intention is just to resolve in the heart. If you want to verbalize it you can say something along the lines of O Allah, I intend umrah so facilitated for me and accept it from me.  Once you make this intention, then you need to say the Tabiyah at least once, but the sunnah is to do it three times.  At your service, all praise and blessings belong to you as this dominion. You have no partner. And so you repeat this three times and then afterwards you're between you're entering into the state of Ahram and entering into the Masjid. A person should always be repeating the Tabiyah constantly. You can obviously stop to make du'as or if you need to say some say some things to your neighbor or something that's fine. But the idea is you're in a state of sacredness before Allah. You're in a state of humility and worship before Allah and you should always be trying to be in a state of dhikr and a state of remembrance of Allah and invoking Allah and specifically with this Tabiyah. Then after you make your Tabiyah then you've entered the state of Ahram and as we'll get to, there are certain things that are prohibited when you're in a state of Ahram. And that's when those prohibitions begin. Once you've said your Tabiyah. And then it's recommended to send prayers, Salah and Prophet Salam and to make du'a for yourself and for others as well. Oh sorry, there was one more thing I meant to mention. Before the intention, before you get onto the flight the it's recommended to pray two rakahs of a prayer. This isn't require, this isn't require just nafah. In the first one to recite Surat al-Akhlaas, qul-ulahu ahad. And in the second one to, sorry, in the first one to recite Surat al-Qafirun. And in the second one to recite Surat al-Akhlaas, qul-ulahu ahad. So you promise the Ahram garment pray the two recommended rakahs, make your intention and then Tabiyah and then you've entered into the state of Ahram. Now what do we mean by Ahram? What do we mean by the sacred state? When someone enters into Ahram you're in a state where you're going before Allah as if you were dead, as if you had been as if you've died and been resurrected. In other words, there's no grooming in this at this point. You're before Allah, there's no lewd speech, there's no argumentation specifically as well hunting and and murder and intimacy are both prohibited. So, grooming what do we mean?  You can't apply oil to your hair. You can't touch perfume. That's why of the warnings against touching soap or touching shampoo because that will get perfume on you. It's prohibited to touch perfume with your clothes or with your body. Another thing to understand is once you're at the Kaaba often times the Kiswah of the Kaaba will have perfume on it as well. So when you're doing Umrah if you have the chance to go all the up to the Kaaba there might be perfume on the Kiswah so don't actually touch it. Maintain some distance from it. So all of these things have to do with grooming versus not allowed to do these things. Additionally, like I mentioned hunting, murder and intimacy and just general argumentation are all prohibited in this state. Argumentation is always prohibited but it's a especially severe sin at this time in this state. What can you do? You can take a bath and take a shower or you can scratch an itch as long as you're careful that no hair falls out and you can wear a ring or a watch even though this isn't recommended. It just wouldn't it wouldn't result in a penalty. If you do anything on the left-hand side that will require some sort of penalty to be paid. I don't have all that listed because the details can be quite lengthy but if it happens let me know and we'll figure out how much that exactly is. It usually isn't too much money. Yeah, so so if you do yeah, sorry, so if you do accidentally end up trimming your nails or some hair falls out or something like that then there's a penalty to be paid for that. So once you arrive in Jeddah and you're checked into your hotel there might be time to take a very quick shower or to change or to wash up or something and then we'll go to the Haram to begin the Omrah. Yeah, so after you leave so after your hair is cut then you'll leave the state of Ehram. You can continue to enter into the Haram do Tawaf you wouldn't be doing say but at that point you don't need to be in the towels anymore and so there's no restrictions on you in terms of the things we just mentioned. Ehram, when do we put it on? Now you'll notice here on the right-hand side you see essentially an area laid out with boundaries. These boundaries are called the Miqat and so the Prophet Salaam told us that anyone who passes these boundaries intending to do Omrah or Hajj must enter into a state of Ehram before crossing the boundary. This is for someone who's coming from outside of Mecca as we will be because we'll be coming from Istanbul. What that means is when the plane is flying in at some point it's going to cross one of these boundaries at that point you have to be in a state of Ehram but you won't know exactly when that is. You won't know exactly when that is. So, what does that mean? You should put on basically you should put on your garment and pray in a standal before you leave for sure. In terms of making your intention and reciting the Talbiya I would personally recommend doing it right when you board just so that if you want to sleep on the flight if you forget you're already in a state of Ehram. However, you can wait and about 45 minutes before the plane reaches you'll be crossing the border. So, here I've written down one hour around one hour before arriving then you can make your intention and do your Talbiya. That should be fairly straightforward. Now, after we do our Umrah you can choose to do a second Umrah or a third Umrah if you like. To do so you need to enter back into a state of Ehram. What does that mean? You need to go out to a Mecca boundary then you need to come into a state of Ehram where the garments make your intention do your Talbiya and then come back. The Mecca boundary for Mecca, if you start within Mecca is Masha Al-Aisha and so if you want to go every taxi driver every bus driver will know what Masha Al-Aisha means you get into a taxi it'll be about a 20 minute drive to Masha Al-Aisha there you make your intention say your Talbiya and come back and now you're in a state of Ehram again you have to complete the Umrah rituals before you exit the state of Ehram I don't know. Any questions on Ehram before we move on? Yeah, I got it. By that time we would feed ourselves? Yeah, yeah, I think so. It usually doesn't take too long to figure out where things are and once you've done it once it's pretty straightforward to know what you're doing. Yeah, good. So you just go back to the barber they'll just do a one over and take off whatever bits you might have and that's it. They have clippers and they have blades for shaving. Ehram, go ahead. Sorry, the Umrah? Yeah. Any other? Yeah. So your intention in your Umrah your first Umrah should be done with for yourself. I won't get into the effect of it but you should do it intending it to be for yourself afterwards you can do intention and combine multiple intentions together so you can do it on behalf of 10 different people all at the same time. Ehram go once, going twice. Let's go. So when you enter into the Kaaba there's some landmarks you should recognize. The first one is going to be the Blackstone you won't see the Blackstone there will be a huge crowd around it unless it's prayer time in which case as you can see here they'll have blocked off the area and you'll probably see some guards standing by it. After the Blackstone is the Hijri Ismail so if you look on the left hand side on the left hand side of the Kaaba here that's where the Blackstone would be on that corner you go around one corner you're at the Hijri Ismail which is also known as the Hatim the Hijri Ismail is important because this originally used to be a part of the Kaaba and there's some disagreement on whether it's the entire space or just the space marked here but in any case this was the original part of the Kaaba when the Kaaba was destroyed and rebuilt the Kaaba was made smaller and this area is a really special place in the world to pray because you're praying within the Kaaba you're praying within the original Kaaba and this is a place where your dua is accepted your dua is mustajab so it can be quite hard to get in here there's a lot of traffic and crowds obviously that's the significance of that place and then the other place to know is the Yemeni corner the Yemeni corner is right before the Blackstone so here where it says Ruk'an Aswad that's the Blackstone Ruk'an Iraqi is where the Hijri Ismail begins so before you if you're going counterclockwise then the one before the Blackstone is the Yemeni corner and the Yemeni corner is a place that when you're doing dua you make special dua at specifically because it's associated with the angels and the acceptance of dua and then lastly the last place to know is the Maqam Ibrahim Maqam Ibrahim is that gold structure inside of it if you're able to look is a footprint of Sayyidina Ibrahim alaihi as-salam and it's protected by this glass casing this is next to the Blackstone so the left side of the Kaaba right now is the Blackstone out and on the right hand side is the Hijri Ismail and the Maqam Ibrahim is over here so this will help you get your bearings for where you are around the Kaaba you begin your dua and end your dua at the Blackstone and there will be a green light on the opposite side on the mushed side which will tell you that this is the place that you begin your dua and end your dua so start there and start going around now so the Kaaba obviously is a place of many secrets and a greatly honored place the first sighting of the Kaaba is especially something sacred and something that stays with you for the entirety of your life and so from the time that you enter into the state of Ahram to a time that you begin the Kaaba or the time you see the Kaaba there are several things that a person should do first of all obviously be conscious and mindful of Allah in every moment in every act because this is a particularly sacred state to constantly chant the Talbiyah again you don't need to be shouting at a medium pitch it's fine when you enter a Maqa there is a dua you should make that you are entering the Haram the Haram is a sacred place and so there is a dua that you should make here that you yourself are made forbidden from the fire just as you're entering into a forbidden place into a sacred place then when you enter the Masjid itself once you're into Makkah and then into the Masjid then you and you're passing through the doors of the Masjid here is where you make the dua Allah open for me the doors of your mercy so just as you're passing through the doors of the Masjid this is like passing into passing through the doors of Allah's mercy when you enter sometimes you might be able if you keep your head up you'll be able to catch a glimpse of the Kaaba it's recommended to keep your head down and we'll be guiding you through all the crowds and where to go keep your head down until you're in the Ma'thaf the Ma'thaf is the bottom floor where the Kaaba is when you reach that area then raise your head because then at that point the first time that you put your eyes on the Kaaba this is another place that dua is accepted so here in a state of utter humility is where you you want to praise Allah and glorify him and then send prayers on the Prophet and then make whatever dua is you'd like to make the Laaf itself in the circuits beginning at the Blackstone and ending at the Blackstone one of the conditions of the Laaf as opposed to Sa'i is you have to be in a state of the Hara you have to be in a state of racial purity meaning you have to be in Wudu if you break your Wudu doing the Laaf you have to go out make Wudu and come back in if that happens after the fourth one come see me we'll talk about what to do because there's some problems there but in general you need to be in a state of of Wudu for the entirety of the Tawaf if you break your Wudu after your Tawaf and before you do your Sa'i between Safa and Marwa that's alright you don't need to be in a state of Wudu for Safa and Marwa when someone performs or when men perform Tawaf for the first three circuits for the first three cycles that you go about moving briskly and described like a warrior what does that mean? you should have your arms up and you should be moving your shoulders a little bit now the crowds will be so much that you can't actually move fast so you're more like doing this in motion but the idea is this is a place where a Muslim shows his strength where a Muslim shows his fearlessness because Allah is with him and so in the first three men they're going to be doing this sort of motion where they have their hands up and they're walking briskly and with some seriousness and then they should bear their right shoulder so normally your upper garment is going to cover both shoulders but in this one you take your garment and put it underneath and therefore your right shoulder will be exposed and then after the three you can cover it back up it's recommended when you pass a black stone in a circuit it's impossible to literally kiss the black stone if people will fight for hours to get into the black stone you'll be pushing with all your force it's not a good situation or rather and because you're in the house of Allah where sins are magnified and it's a place of great sanctity to fight in that sort of place is a deep sin and really look down upon so you really shouldn't try to kiss the black stone because it'll force you to get involved in the fighting and in the roughhousing instead of what you can do another way of kissing the black stone is when you pass the black stone you turn towards it you put your hands to your shoulders and you face your palms towards it you say Allahu Akbar this is equivalent to kissing the black stone and you don't have to get involved in the fighting so you go about seven times in constant the entire time there are specific duas recommended for certain places but it's important not to get too caught up in the words of the dua there are lots of recommended duas for different times and places the one that's most authentic is Allah grant us in this life good and in the next life good and protect us from the torment of the fire so that's the only one I would absolutely memorize and make sure that you say it between the Yemeni corner and the black stone all the other duas will give you some books it'll have several duas listed there otherwise just being a state of liquor just being a state of glorification whatever duas you have memorized it's important for them after you complete the seven surats we'll all be going in a group so you won't get lost we'll all be doing it together after you complete it it's obligatory to read two rakahs you don't have to do it behind Maqam Ibrahim but is this in the again whether we'll be able to or not depends on the crowd and how much space there is but we'll try to find a space behind Maqam Ibrahim and pray two rakahs and then we'll have a pre-recomended prayer is to do surat al-kaifarun in the first rakah and then surat al-akhwas in the second rakah after that face the Ka'ba stand up face the Ka'bah do a staghfar asik forgiveness of Allah and makdua and then drink samzam and then you finish your tawaf and you're about to go into your say was that al-furtaf? before we get into dimensional periods Okay, so we mentioned what the laf you have to be in a state of wudu. Now for menstrual periods This becomes a bit of an issue if your period is going to align with Doing your tawaf or doing your umrah. A few rules about menstrual periods. You can enter into ehram When you're when you're on your menses But you cannot enter any masjid and Therefore you cannot perform the laf What this means is you don't want to be caught in a scenario where you've entered into the state of of Ehram and then your period begins and you can't enter the masjid because what that means is you have to stay in it in In the state of Ehram until your menses ends, which will be however long it is So it's recommended before you leave to plan out exactly when when it's going to be if you need to take You know period blockers or a period delays or something Then talk to a physician and they'll be able to help you out with with what to do there if it happens that you are on your period and And you are in a state of Ehram and You have to leave Mecca before the period is going to end then you Should perform umrah while still in your period and there's a hat There's a hefty penalty to be paid with that And so you just go ahead and pay the penalty afterwards There's obviously no sin involved in doing it because you had no choice, but there's still is a penalty. So see it And then we'll move on to say Say is walking between Safa and Marwa. Allah says in Quran In the Safa wal Marwata min Sha'ir Allah You'll actually see this written when you enter into Safa. There's a dome on top. These are the ayahs that are written on the dome They mean a verily Safa and Marwa are from the rituals of Allah and Whoever venerates Allah's rituals, this is from the piety of the heart This is from the piety of the heart and so You begin and end with purity You begin and end with veneration of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala The say is itself is just the walking between the two hills When we say seven cycles a cycle is going from Safa to Marwa as one Marwa back to Safa as two and so on and so forth So you begin a Safa you'll end at Marwa after seven and then you'll need to walk and back In the middle, there are two green columns and nowadays they've added green lights up top where we're walking That area is where you need to where men need to rush or hasten And so you just walk a little bit faster than normal again similar to Arama, which you mentioned the warrior walk This meant to show the strength of the Muslim and that and there's a fearlessness that Muslims are commanded to have At each hill at Safa and Marwa is recommended that you stand and and supplicate and make Doa and just and and spend time there not be rushing through these rituals and then lastly the haircut after you finish your your say then We'll go back and then there are barbers underneath the clock tower, which is probably where Where we'll go you have the option men have the option to either shave their head entirely or to trim A trim means you're going to remove one inch of hair from all sides of your head if you have less than one inch Then you have to shave It is highly recommended to shave in any case It is highly recommended to shave in any case the trimming is allowed though if people want to do that While in a from you can't cut your own hair You can't cut your own hair and can't cut someone's out someone else's hair Which is why you have to have a barber do it do it for you As as my dad explained for women what that means is either if you're going with your husband or or someone He'll have his haircut and then he'll cut your hair And then you can start cutting other women's hair and you just continues in the cycle from there And after you've gotten your your haircut then you've reached the end of your Iran Your Iran state has ended and all of the prohibitions that were placed upon you have been lifted any questions about About say or yeah They usually charge about ten dinars or so so yeah ten ten. Yeah, ten ten real. So it's not expensive Any other questions about say or the haircuts or other requirements Okay The last thing just just a short thing about to visiting Medina and visiting the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam We know that when the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam made his hedra to Medina The place of Medina changed names from Taiba to Medina and change names to a Medina from Manauwara specifically Taiba means illness And Sorry, I changed name from Yathrib sorry to To Medina to Manauwara Yathrib means means illness or disease And so the Prophet the coming of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam was like the coming of a light or the coming of a healing And while he's there sallallahu sallam the place is still a place of light and a place of healing the When you're in Makkah and Medina, you might be tempted to explore the Mushred, which is fine But the secret Makkah and Medina is in Makkah the secret is the Kaaba itself And so ideally what you'll be doing every day is going to the Kaaba at the really seeing it if not doing Around it all the blessings of Makkah come from the Kaaba Similarly in Medina all the blessings in Medina come from the grave of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam Everything that happens in Medina is from the blessings of that one place. There is a consensus on the scholars and the Jama'at That the holiest physical substance in the world is not the Arsh. It's not the Kaaba. It's not the Blackstone It's the soil touching the blessed body of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam When we give salams to the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam you'll enter through This gate This gate is known as Babu Salaam the door the door of Salaam. It's right at the front of the Mushred In in Medina. So you'll enter through here or there might be some other entrance depending on what sort of obstacles they've The Saudi officials have placed but but more or less you'll Sorry, yeah for for men for women. You'll enter from the other side And you'll go through here at the end will be the graves of Sayyidina Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam first and then Sayyidina Abu Bakr and then Sayyidina Amr prayer When you greet them you should greet them knowing that they can hear you As it confirmed in the in the Quran in several places including Wala-tahsaban al-ad-dina kutilu fisa bi-llahi amwat But al-ahyaan ainda rabbihim yurusakun Allah says do not think that those who are killed in the way in the way of Allah and this includes the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam Do not think them dead No, they are living Given provision with their Lord. It's also known that the That the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam in Isahi hadith Said that he's shown in his grave The actions of his ummah every Friday and if he finds What he's shown pleasing then he praises Allah and if he finds What they've done displeasing then he seeks forgiveness for them When you meet the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam you're meeting him so I saw him This is important to understand He The idea of being living is the idea of someone who responds to stimuli That's the biological definition and then our our own scholars had a similar understanding And Allah said about the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam inna fatahana laka fataham mubina Really we have we have opened for your sake a great opening Really we've opened for your sake a great opening In other words every opening is through the key of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam If you ever if there's anything that you feel like is locked in your life You bring that to the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam when when you meet him If there's anything that you feel like is difficult in your life That's what you bring to the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam when you meet him Allah says in the Qur'an Allah says When they oppressed themselves Had only they come to you and Sought Allah's forgiveness and had the messenger sallallahu alaihi wa sallam sought forgiveness for them Then they would have found Allah Relenting of their sin and merciful upon them Notice what Allah is telling you that you go to the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and in that blessed location That's where you seek Allah's forgiveness so Acceptance of the acceptance of forgiveness comes when you do it paired with and coupled with the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam Either physically in location or in heart or someone like that And so there's a great blessing in being in Medina like like we mentioned The Sins in Medina are very weighty just like sins in Mecca are very weighty And they're especially weighty on the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam Because he said because Allah says You Really there's come to you and messenger from amongst your yourselves Also, what distresses you is weighty upon him Harith an alaykum. He has he's he has earnest for you The Mu'mineena r'of al-raheem. He is kind and merciful to the believers and when you send Salawat on the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam What does it mean you're I I send prayers on the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and send blessings on him What does that mean prayers and blessings? Our scholars tell us Salah comes from the idea of Tasliah Tasliah is to burn away When you come to the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, you're sending prayers on him in the sense of you're burning away Everything that's contrary to him You're burning away everything that's not from his Sunnah And you're saying and you're sending peace upon him peace meaning and the salim and minna Meen muhalafati sharia take meaning you are safe from us. You have peace That we won't contravene in your son your sharia Yeah, Rasulullah, and so every time you're sending salawat on the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam You're promising him to stay true to Allah's Commandment and to his commandments and That's why specifically in that place to do any sin is to offend the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam himself and he is forced to ask forgiveness for you You know any last questions before we end In terms of Mecca or Medina or the Umrah itself Last thing I wanted to To mention books to prepare from the first book the accepted whispers Is by Maulana Ashraf Ali Thaniwi It has it's a collection of pretty much all of the du'a's in the Quran and the sunnah So I'd recommend everyone guess this It'll it'll be available on amazon or or Amazon or Or if you're having trouble, we can find new copies The second book. Um, this is for people who want details about the feck of Hajj and Umrah This is by Sheikh al-Nur ad-Dinatr Who is a famous Sheikh shami sheikh of the previous century. He collected this brief manual To talk about all the rulings related to Umrah and Hajj as well as the du'a's Related and then the last book the Hajj and Umrah book compiled by our own local Sada Layla Fakira Um, we'll be passing out copies out of those and those are just du'a's for specific locations in Hajj and Umrah As-Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, Muhammadu anha, and he was obviously, it seems like they started praying so let's head over


With the recent negative news of rising inflation and the Federal Reserve decided to raise another round of interest rates, the market reacted violently, dropping as much as 6% in one week. I know it's very scary to invest during this uncertain time. And you must be wondering, will the market drop further from here, or is it the best time to enter right now to profit from the chip? Well, when it comes to investing, it's all about risk control. Because if you can reduce the risk and take care of the downside, the upside will take care of itself. That's why in today's video, I'm going to share with you one indicator that can calculate the risk level of the market. In fact, this indicator was proposed by the greatest investor, Warren Buffett himself. So if you can enter the market at the low risk level, and ride through the crisis together with Warren Buffett, that's where the profits lie. Oh Kylie, this is Chloe, and welcome back to my channel. We're all in one place for you to learn about stocks, investing, SOS options. If it's the first time of you coming to my channel, remember to hit the subscribe button as well as the notification bell so that you will not miss out on any of my future investment updates. An early thumbs up is also appreciated because it will tell you to algorithm that you find this video helpful, and it will help to push out to more people to inspire them to start investing safely. With the recent market volatility, so many investors are super confused and they don't know what to do. In this time of confusion, it's best to consult the greatest investor, Warren Buffett, for his advice. And Warren Buffett once proposed this indicator, saying that it's probably the best single measure where valuation stands at any given moment. And this indicator is none other than the Buffett indicator. So what is this indicator and how can you interpret it? This is what this video is about. But before that, I want to give a special thanks to MooMoo SG for sponsoring this video. They are also giving away a free 5-day investment course to help you to kickstart your investment journey step by step. If you are interested, just click on the link in my YouTube description box to register. With that, let's get back to the video. The Buffett indicator is a valuation method that used to assess how cheap or expensive the stock market is. Warren Buffett first proposed it back in 2001. The result of this calculation is a percentage of the GDP that represents the stock market value. Typically, a result of more than 100% means that the market is overvalued, while a value of 50% means that it's undervalued. And Warren Buffett once said, if the percentage relationship falls to the 70% or 80% area, buying stocks is likely to work very well for you. However, if the ratio approaches 200%, you are playing with fire. And indeed, the Buffett indicator successfully predicted the 2000.com bubble, as well as the most recent bear market that we are experiencing right now, where the indicator exceeded 200%. But before you get too pessimistic, let's look at the bright side. You can also use this indicator and start buying when it's cheap. As you can see, if the indicator drops to below 50%, that means the market is super undervalued. And back in 2008 financial crisis, the market dropped to all-time low, sending the indicator to close to 50%. If you started investing back then, your return would be a whopping 400% just by buying the S&P 500. So the question is, what is the indicator percentage right now? With all these drops, have we reached to a low risk level? The answer is 159%. What? You must be thinking, with all the drops, the market is still overvalued? Does it mean that from now on, the market is going to drop even more? The truth is, nobody can ever time the bottom. Not even Mr. Warren Buffett himself. But before coming to a conclusion that 159% is expensive, let's look at some more data points. If you observe the chart closely, the Buffett indicator has not been below 100% since 2013. Even in the recent 2020 COVID crash, when the market experienced a sharp drop, the indicator still lied above 100%. And if you stop investing because the indicator is more than 100%, you will have missed out 162% gain for the past 10 years. So what's causing this weird phenomenon in this indicator? No indicator is perfect, and there are some criticism against this Buffett indicator. And if you understand the counter argument, you will be able to make better investment decisions. Firstly, this indicator does not consider the stock value relative to alternative investment vehicles, such as bonds. Here is Economic Lesson 101. Generally, when the interest rates are high, the bond yields are higher. That's why more investors will be attracted to buy bonds rather than stocks. And vice versa, when the interest rate is low, more investors will be attracted to buy stocks because the bond yields will be lower. Over the past 50 years, the interest rate has an average of 6%. And during the 2000.com bubble, the interest rate was actually very lucrative. Investors could have chosen to put their money with the government bonds, which could give them about 6% return. But they still invested in the stock market recklessly, thinking that the prices would keep on going up. And as the result, the bubble burst. Whereas today, the bond yield interest is still relatively low. Despite all these interest rates high, the recent 10-year treasury yield is still less than 4%. Thus, it makes sense for investors to put their money in the stock market. And that could be the reason why the stock market has been staying abnormally high due to the low interest rate environment. Reason number 2. The stock market valuation reflects international activities while the GTP does not. Let's use Apple as an example. Though GDP does include national exports, it does not include something like sales Apple made in China. However, Apple's China sales is definitely priced in the stock price and therefore driving a higher buffer indicator value. As globalization has expanded steadily over the past 50 years, and that's why over the years, the percentage benchmark for the buffer indicator has also been shifting up to accommodate to the changes. And today, 159% is considered fair value. And of course, if you want to be super safe, you can also choose to wait until the indicator dropped below 100%. However, in my opinion, many great businesses have fallen to a pretty undervalued level. Instead of trying to time the market and wondering where will the bottom come, why not start investing bit by bit since the market is already pretty cheap. And if the market does go down even further and reaches below 100% of the buffer indicator by more, just like what Warren Buffett has been doing in every financial crisis to grow his wealth. And if you are new and wondering which brokerage to get started, you can consider Moomoo SG because Moomoo believe a lot in investment education. They are even giving away a 5-day jam-packed investment learning camp completely for free to teach you everything that you need to get started your investment journey. This course is suitable for beginners. Every single day, you will learn something new from setting your investment goal to how to pick your first stock, to when to buy, and how to choose an entry and exit point for competitive return. And if you have any questions during your learning, you can even ask the teacher assistants to clarify your doubts immediately. If you are new to investing, this course could help you to improve your investment confidence and prepare you into the investment market. Want to register the course for free? All you have to do is to click on the link below. After clicking the link, all you have to do is to click on the register button, fill up your information and click sign up and you will receive a telegram group link, click the enter button and you will join the 5-day learning camp. Complete all the modules to kickstart your investment journey and have a better understanding of the market. Lastly, do note that all the views to express in this video are based on my own independent research. Please do not take it as an investment advice or abide or sell recommendations. Always make sure you do your due diligence before making any form of investment decisions. With that, I will see you in the next video. Mata ne!


In entertainment news, Christy Teigen has broken a month-long social media silence to apologize for bullying several people on Twitter. In a blog post, the US model reflected on the crushing weight of regret for the things she had said in the past. Teigen published a series of tweets in May apologizing to TV personality Courtney Studden, who accused her of online bullying. Studden accepted the apology but said it could just be an attempt to limit damage to Teigen's reputation. In her latest blog post, Teigen said she was privately reaching out to people she had been sorting in the past, though she did not say who.


I'm here to talk to you about the importance of dialogue in development. That is where I live. That is where I've lived the whole of my life. That is Kibera, that I'm very proud of. In 1998 the issue of the flying toilets started in Kibera. And suddenly there was a lot of funding to build toilets in Kibera. And with the funding came few ideas and the biogas idea came in. In the year 2000 the biogas was in place and that is what it is. Unfortunately the biogas is inside the toilet. What you are seeing there is tissue papers seated on the sidelines. Honestly, who will cook in a toilet? This is a brilliant idea and you can see from the light that is coming from it. There is a lot of gas. There is a lot of gas. But unfortunately maybe the person who did that did not get the chance to dialogue with experts and all stakeholders and find a way to make this very useful. This is such a smart idea. It's clean gas. But it is in the wrong place, honestly. Another brilliant idea came and they made a toilet with tiles and all that. These are flush toilets. There are the pipes. The pipes have been put so well. The sewer lines are in place. But hold on, wait a minute. This is the water situation in Kibera. This is a daily situation where people have to line up for hours and hours to get clean water. And they use these 20 litre jarikens to take the water home. I doubt if they are willing to use this precious commodity to flush it down the train. These are the holes gaping now. And because the pipes are not being used, they break it. These I repeat again is a smart idea, but in the wrong place. I started a school, Kibera Girls Soka Academy. Actually it was a football program just to break the gender inequalities that was in Kibera in the year 2000. Over the years playing football with girls and really training them to be able to play and they were primary school going kids. It was really tough. And then I started losing them because they couldn't make it to high school. So I decided to start up a high school for them, a free high school for them. But this is where the dialogue started. I couldn't just build a school without consulting these girls and asking them, are you willing to come to school? And they confirmed that they were willing to come to school. And from 18 girls, we have 138 girls starting for free in that school right now. We do it differently in KGSA. We want our voices to be heard. We hear, we put our ears on the ground to understand the dynamics of what we are doing. This is me talking to the people of the community and trying to address the challenges. These are some of the people, our supporters. We encourage them to come over and we dialogue with them to find out the best way forward. It doesn't end there. The girls have a say they're supposed to be the voiceless, but we give them their voice.   And that is why we are consistent and we are there. And the school has been there for over these years. This guy you're seeing here is Sean Rush. He is the president of Junior Achievers, the JA. For those of you who know JA, it operates in 180 countries, but he has the time to come to the school. He is one of our personal supporter, comes to the school, dialogues with the girls, and they come up with plans that are supposed to be done for the school and it gets done. It gets done. This is the soka team. The football team still continues. The coach has to bend down and really sit down and talk to these girls and hear what they have to say. And that is the importance of dialogue. Have you ever asked yourself one thing? There is a lot of goodwill, people donating, donating all the time, but the poverty levels never go down. I think there is a missing link and this missing link is dialogue. Dialogue. We are so much about statistics and data. We need to know these about people. We need to start putting faces on the data and then putting names on the faces. And that way, I think there would be a better one. Thank you.