Allah's name, the beneficent, the merciful, and all praise belongs to Allah for giving us this ability to recognize wrong from right and that while we have propensities to take us away from Allah in the nafsah, لأمارتم بصوء إلا ما رحم ربي, yourself life has this desire to deviate, has this desire to be oblivious, has this desire to be reckless, has this desire to be very self-centered in a negative way, إلا ما رحم ربي, except by the mercy of Allah. What is the rahima? Allah has given us consciousness, He has given us a fitrah, He has given us a ruh, as you know, ruh and nafs are actually one entity, but one doesn't change, one is fixed, the other goes through evolutionary changes, meaning evolutionary social evolution, personal evolution, what we call, we change for the better inshallah, نفس أمار لوامة مطبئنا, whereas the ruh remains intact, and Allah has made us intelligent, and Allah has given us sensors, five major ones, sixth one being our intuition, it's the collection of the five that brings about a unique realization that you put all the sensors together to conclude in a direction, I have a hunch, I have an inclination, what is it, I don't know, it's a combination of many things, so Allah has enabled us, and given us all these capacities, and He has enabled us to go astray, but He has also enabled us with tremendous strength to remain on the right path. When Allah reveres His chosen agents in the Quran, meaning prophets, imams, the very close companions of such prophets, great personalities who were not prophets, but they were protagonists in society, they brought great results in society, they fought for truth, though they were not prophets, though they were not imams, Allah mentions them in the Quran, Luqman is a good example when Allah gives him hikmah, we gave Luqman wisdom, Luqman was an African person, dark-skinned, black-skinned individual, but Allah honors him so much, just like Allah honors the white, the brown, the yellow, but you notice that Allah swt honors people regardless of what nationality, what skin color, where they come from, Allah has created all of them as in His mercy, so we have created you male, female nations and tribes, so you know each other, and you find a person like Luqman, or you find a person in Asia who is Oriental, or a person in Middle East, you find that Allah swt has endowed every human being with His gifts, and Luqman was endowed with wisdom, we will talk about that tonight, the advice of Luqman to his son, and that's what you and I should be studying, the foundation of all truths, how do we solve our problems, yesterday I spoke about people who create trouble, people who are constantly stopping progress, today we need to talk about how do we progress, how do we reach progression, how do we avoid these pitfalls, how do we dodge the bullet, how do we remain steadfast and not stop and slow our progress, for time is limited, Allah has graced us with all of this, He has given us limited free will, but He has also made us weak, Allah says, we have made mankind in a state of trepidation, constant, no matter how rich you are or how poor you are, how powerful you are or how weak you are, there's always a moment of trepidation, you don't know, that the mere fact that death looms, when Allah says, it's all enough sin, every self shall taste death, and Allah says, and no self knows on which land they will die, there's a sense of trepidation, what do we mean by trepidation? Uncertainty, there are times you don't feel safe, it's like you in the ocean, you don't know if the ship will sink, you're in the car, you don't know if something will hit you, you're on the plane, you don't know if it will crash, there's always that period, that thought, that you can never guarantee total security, we made mankind in that state, and why is that the case? And then when we go deeper into life, we live in a circle of probabilities, chance, there are roughly eight billion human beings on earth, with variant emotions, some are happy, some are furious, and in between, there are those who are calm, and those who are agitated.  It can happen, road rage is very popular in the world, people kill each other for absurd reasons. So that world of probability where things can clash, where we don't know if I'm going to be the recipient of a stray bullet, or somebody was shooting somebody else, but it ricocheted and hit this person, and this person died, there is that whole world of probability. And many of us are wondering, God, why did you make such a world? It's slippery, no matter how well I stand, I can feel the earth rumbling, or I feel the slipperiness, or the slope, and it seems like I just cannot secure myself. Allah says security is only with me, look how Allah elegantly tells us, if you reject the demigods, the false innuendos, the false, the distractions that take you away from Allah, who is the one who rejects the demigods, the demigods are anything, anyone other than Allah. You believe in Allah, and you hold on to your root cause of why you exist, and your root return to the one who created you. You believe in Allah, and you hold on to a rope tight. And Allah consoles me by saying, love is on her, and it doesn't break.  You know if you're hanging on a cliff, your greatest fear while hanging before being rescued is will this rope break? Trapedation. But Allah says, I put Sakina into your heart. And I increase their faith upon their faith. Eman is what? Security. We translate it as, oh you who believe. But the actual pragmatic approach to this sentence is, oh you who are secure.  Security. Nothing more important in life, security. The net result of security, peace. What is peace? Salama. Muslims meet each other, we say, salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah. We say, salamu alaykum, and you reply, salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah. How beautiful it is. You don't say, what's up? Yo, you don't say, how are you? How are you? Gotta put the little accent, how are you? No, good morning. Well that's not bad. This is a morning that's good at you. How are you? I'm dying. Oh, well in that case I'll pray for you since you are dying. Oh I feel great. Oh good. That's great. I'm happy to hear that. It's sort of convoluted, isn't it? Peace be upon you. Like, wow. Who cares about the day? Who cares about your health? It's all in one shot. As-salamu alaykum. Hey, peace be upon you. Wow, you give me security, we just met. Yeah, and Allah says when somebody gives you that salam, reply then with equal or better. Wa alaykum as-salam, wa rahmatul kalam. Salawat ala Muhammad wa al-Muhammad. Islam is a religion of peace. Salama, when we pray, it brings peace. When we fast, it brings peace. We have children and adults asking, why do I need to pray? Why do I need to fast? Why do I need to obey God? Allah says, if you do not engage in these disciplines that I've given you, Allah says I manufactured you. I engineered you. I'm the one who knows what lies. Allah says, نَحْلُ أَقْرَبْ وِلَيْ مِنْ حَبْلِ الْوَرِيدْ We are closer to you than your jugular vein.  So when Allah is telling me, do this, do this, do this, do this. Don't do this, don't do this. We're asking Allah why, why, why. The manufacturer is giving you instructions on how to keep this engine and the spirit at the maximum potential. Well, we question it. Modesty. Why brothers on this side, sisters on that side? Why can't we be brushing shoulders? Sisters, why do you have to, why do I have to cover myself when I come? I've come to gain knowledge. Why? I say, well, there's a demeanor, there's a decorum. You know? When you go to work, you dress a certain way. When you go to sleep, you dress a certain way. When you go for an interview, you dress a certain way. When you're going to present to a large audience, you dress a certain way. There's a time and a place to dress. But what better dress than the dress of modesty at all times? Even if you're in your house, even outside, for modesty is that barrier that protects the integrity of a human being. People have committed suicide because they were sexually abused. Because they felt their modesty was taken from them so they feel unclean.  But the abuser now has committed something heinous and it is affected. I've seen children go astray because somebody abused them at a young age and they could never let go. No matter how intelligent they are, it just digs into their spirit and soul and they just cannot get out of it. So Allah is telling us, we have given you these injunctions for you. We've made these obligations for you. For yourself has a desire to deviate. But we guide you, illa ma rahima rabbi. So we are gifted with scriptures, prophets, imams and within every one of them, especially prophets and imams, we have examples in the highest forms of transactions for you and I to use as role models. That's why Allah says, اذكروا رحمة ربك عبدوا. وذكر في الكتاب مريم. Remember Maryam, remember Ibrahim, remember Musa. Why Allah says in the Quran? He says we reveal these revelations so we strengthen your heart. So we make you strong, we help you. We make you rich peace, tranquility. At the end of the day brothers and sisters, I could have a billion dollars in my bank account and be very unstable. I haven't achieved anything, anything. In fact, you become dangerous. When a person lacks peace and they have a lot of wealth, study them, you will see they're usually the most destructive. Because now they have power in their hands and they can destroy people because they're angry. But if you're calm and when we say tranquil and there is this inner peace within us, whether you're rich, middle class, or poor, mission accomplished. Because that's what the goal is about, tranquility. So this Dean of Allah, Subhanahu Ta'ala, has been designed for you and I to bring tranquility. So while the world is full of trials and tribulations, and as I mentioned yesterday, the troublemakers, they become a trial.  اِمْوَالُكُمْ وَأَولَا دُكُمْ فِتَّنَا They cause trials to you. Sometimes our children go astray. Sometimes our spouses are a burden. Sometimes our parents. Sometimes our friends. Sometimes our neighbors. You'll always find somebody somewhere having an axe to grind. It's either your neighbor, whatever. Somebody's got some anger to release and they found somebody to release it on, like that rogue rage person, because they crossed them. It was nothing illegal to pass a person, but they were looking for the slightest excuse to explode because the rage is building and they're ready to kill. Then when they end up in prison for life, then they regret.  قُلْمُوتُ بِغَيْدِكُمْ Because when you forget that your objective in life is to reach peace and tranquility, instead we think money, power, you know, fame will give me peace and tranquility. I have never found a person with fame, with power or with money, naturally because of that, to have peace. Impossible, impossible. You cannot.  So we live in a world filled with possibilities of trials. Anytime we can die, we couldn't drink water and choke. You could be eating, you choke. I witnessed, I remember as a child, I was about six years old, I was at the hospital visiting somebody in Tanzania and they had these long stairs to go up to the second floor. And I'm at the base of the stairs. I'm six years old. And a man from the Indian subcontinent is coming down and I'm watching him and he slipped. And he tumbled in front of me and he came down on the floor. I went towards him, he was cold. He snapped his neck. Dead. The family came there to visit somebody and the wife comes and she's screaming. Children are screaming, I'm watching. I'm myself crying. I could not believe what I witnessed. I was a six year old. But Allah told me, did you see that? Wa maa tadri nafsun bi ayi ardintamoot.  For the next second, you're planning, you've got vacations, you've got your bank accounts, you're planning strategies to build empires on this earth. And he takes one slip and you're gone. Everything changes. The dynamics change. All the contracts you were probably going to sign, they've all now just been nullified, potentially. Then, and they're waking this person up and I'm watching.  And he was a profound state of mind. But Allah has showed it to me many, many, many times. And the only thing that has come out of it, Allah says, did you see that? Did you Allah, He witnessed it? Allah says, maybe you naps. What are you going to do about it? Are you going to waste your time?  Are you going to create trouble? Are you going to find faults in people? Are you going to backbite? Are you going to spy? Are you going to be suspicious? Are you going to steal and cheat? Or are you going to straighten out yourself because any second I will take your soul. It's amazing. And how about when you meet people? Are you nice to them?  I remember when I was about eight years old. There were a group of boys in my school. I was going to a Catholic school. And they were bullying him. I've mentioned this before. I'll share it again. And they were bullying him and I was standing there paralyzed. And you know what to do? Eight year old learning, feeling weak, and children they love to get into fights unnecessarily because they're already starting to have insecurities. And shaitan has taught them, you want to be secure? They could say, yes.  Kick him. Slap him. Wrestle him down. Show him how strong you are.  Don't bully. Don't look down at others. Oh, those are people of different religions. Are you see how they pray? Are you see? Don't. لا يَسْخَرْ قَوْمٌ مِنْ قَوْمٍ. Meaning, it doesn't mean for between Muslims. For the human race, one group should not laugh at another group. And women. وَلَا نِسَاءٌ مِنْ نِسَاءٍ عَسَاءٍ يَكُنَّ خَيْرًا مِنْهُنْ In case you women are better than the other group, do not mock the other women. Oh, look at our hijab, it's a bit torn. Or that fashion is so outdated. Or the jewelry she wears. You know, we make comments like that. Oh, she doesn't look right. We make silly comments. Allah says لا يَسْخَرْ. Don't. So I remember when they bullied this young boy, I stood there. I felt really sad. You know, almost like I wish I could jump in, but there was like four, five of them ganging up on this young innocent boy. The reason I'm sharing that with you, with heart to heart, is to tell you one of the reasons why I'm standing in front of you. You know, from age childhood, you have these profound moments that builds your personality and shapes you. Eventually you rise to become a protagonist, hopefully, where you want to stay and grow where nobody can bully anyone in our environment. We want to stop negatives. We're going to build positive institutions. We're going to promote positive messages. And we're not going to sit and stand on the sidelines, weak, wondering what are we going to do to this injustice that takes place. But something that Allah touched my life at that young age, it has never left me. It bothered me. I went home. But in Africa, we go to the Masjid for Salah. Maghrib, Aisha, Fajr, Zahar. The Masjid is not far from us. So I get ready to go for Maghrib Salah in the Masjid. And as I'm entering the Masjid, there is a maqsal, you know, where they wash dead persons. The door was wide open and a small little body was lying on this platform. And how Allah took me there, I still pondered. Why did I go there in that direction? Why did I look? Why did I go towards it? And why was I curious? And I approached the body and there was no one in the room. The body was lying. No one on the room. So nobody stopped me from going in. And I approached and I said, it was that same boy who was bullied. But he had gone for tonsil surgery that afternoon. He needed to go for emergency tonsils. And it failed. And the boy died. And I looked at his body and so many thoughts came in my head. I said, wow, I didn't get a chance to fight for your justice. I witnessed you. But I didn't get a chance to fight for you. And I regret that. But I made it. But Allah also said, did you see that? Don't ever be harsh with people. For the next second I may take them away. And then you'll go to them and ask them for forgiveness. It'll be too late. So why not be nice to everyone and shake hands with everybody. And make peace between them as Islam is the religion of peace. And don't burn bridges. And be nice to them. You may be even firm. Sometimes in business we have to be firm. But people take it personal. You're attacking me. They want to break bonds. They want to attack you. Because they expect you to bow down to their principles. Be principled. Be nice to them. But don't bend either way like a leaf in one direction or another. No, be firm. But be a man of peace. So to me, my life, from that time onwards, it culminated watching these instant moments of a person that can die.  There is no security. Anything can happen at any time. But then I would ask as a teenager, God, why did you create such a system? You're merciful. You're caring. You're loving. You're kind. You protect us. Why put us in this cesspool of precariousness? And it dawned on me many years later. I see why it's there. Allah says, if I didn't do that, would you come to me? You would forget me. You would say I don't need God. We're secured. Allah says I put that. So you know who your lord is. And I make you shake. And I will make you shake. And I will make you shake. And I will make you shake. I will make you shake. And I will make you shake. When they are in that state of trepidation and trial when they are being tested with their life may be taken this fear Oh, yeah, Allah. There's a flood coming the earth is shaking The Bashirah Sabirin that when they have this Qalu inna lillah wa inna ilayhi raji'un They say we are from God and we return to God Allah says secure yourself there and watch for even if death overtakes you your mind We don't have I Was in Philippines and there was an earthquake in my hotel in the area and my hotel was experiencing my whole room was moving Literally a foot on each side. It was like the most uncomfortable feeling You don't know do I go to the safe and take my passport? Do I go into the elevator? I'm on the top floor of the hotel Do I run down the stairs? Do I hold on to the bed? Do I hold on to the wall? Everything is moving Allah says if I was all zillatil ardu zil zalah, you think you're so secure But when I shake it and you think you're so proud with your stiff necks walking you think you're something great in the world I Rattled the earth a little bit and you fall like flies.  We are the greatest thing that ever walked this earth, but how with humbleness Yamshuna lalhauni wa idhaa khattabahumul jahiluna Qalu salama they walk with humbleness Allah says now you are my servant salawat ala Muhammad wa ala Muhammad This difficulty you wake up in the morning. You don't know.  Yes, please please please come. Oh business right So you find well litigation Arbitration we gotta go for it. Why? Why not? Well, I love the peace makers Well, I love the good doers now we have an axe to grind because we're here on this earth forever Allah says you don't know they will attack you from every angle. I remember History Imam Ali bin abit Ali Balaysat waslam. Who was the shadow of Rasulillah the protector of Rasulillah the center of deem is Rasulillah Rahmatul ala alameen Amir al-Mu'mineen alaysalam the day. He's born. He's born in the Kaaba When his mother Fatima binti Assad brings Amir al-Mu'mineen as a baby. She hands him to the holy prophets Historians say that Imam Ali al-Salam did not open his eyes Until the Prophet held him then he opened it and looked at him And when the Prophet breathed his last At the age of 63 Imam Ali al-Salam had his eyes towards his eyes and they said the Prophet whispered in his ears and the saliva That was even coming from the Prophet's mouth was by Imam Ali hugging it 63 years Imam Ali al-Salam gave his life to defend promote protect with wisdom with patience with strength unafraid in khaybar Amir bin abd wood in khandak every battle Imam Ali al-Salam in uhud.  They only had a handful of friends Only handful Imam Ali al-Salam holds the hand of kumail ibn ziyad. This is kumail come with me As they are walking on the path. He says oh kumail preach to me preach Give me Hidayah He says Amir al-Mumineen you are the Hidayah You are the wealth of knowledge. We learn from you. He says I know but I also love to hear from you. I Love to hear what you say This is Imam Ali al-Salam who has to take one companion and walk and say give me Hidayah. What is he trying to say? There's hardly Hidayah in town There's hardly Haqq in town. There's hardly the mention of Allah in town Zulam is constant people are bashing cheating finding ways to destroy each other Imam is what worried what will happen to this humanity So I cry When I read his khutaba I cry not in Najul Balagh in khutba shak shakiyah when Imam says there is a bone stuck in my throat I am on this camel It is so wild Imam says I'm on a wild camel this analogy You know shak shakiyah is the foam that comes out of her stressed camel When a camel is stressed it starts giving a foam in its mouth It's called shak shakiyah That's why it's khutba shak shakiyah He says I am on this camel. He's talking about his position in the caliphate and those around him who are trying to manipulate his scenario He says I'm on this camel it is wild People So say wow You don't know who to say what you say one thing.   They said Ali Ibn Abi Talim I'm Iroh Maumineen. We have a matter to talk to you In baitul mal he had a camel that I mean he had a candle He said what is your matter personal or state-related? He said personal Imam just extinguishes the that one and he lights another camel candle So Talha and Zubair said to him why did you turn that off? He says that's a state matter. This is personal matter This is Salam alaykum Because they were coming to ask for wasta like can you give us some more money from the treasury? He said if you're careful with the candle We can't talk to you this Is the justice of Amir al-Mu'mineen? Subhanallah Salawat Allah Muhammad wa al-Muhammad He says I'm on this camel It is wild It wants to throw me off I Cry when I read this but but it's short. You know why it's short. It was so powerful The crowd couldn't handle it. So they sent him a note be quiet stop talking Imam reads the note and he stops Amir al-Mu'mineen I Think about there was no greater man after the Prophet than him His eloquence in speech is second to none It is being told to be quiet because he's speaking the truth He said if I pull The reins of this camel to subdue it.  We feel that camel. Yeah, I see that distressed camel in my life For if I pull the reins and take control I will tear everything and if I let go it will throw me and there's this fine thing in between to manage Balance when Allah says Maintain the balance difficult.  Do you answer do you remain silent? You know how much wisdom that is Allah wants us to gain knowledge The Prophet says Acquire knowledge from the cradle to the grave Because knowledge will strengthen you it will seep into you when you start acting on it It will give you stability. It will make you honorable. The world will love you For the Prophet has said nothing more beautiful is possessed by a human being then their intellect and The knowledge they're in and its transactions Rasulillah Talibul iln faridatun ala kulli muslim Here muslim is gender neutral acquire knowledge For all muslims it is an obligation in you to acquire knowledge Acquire it. It's good for you when you gain knowledge you gain stability And when you understand what this knowledge is about You will see that when you pray to God God says I made your life difficult Not me difficult what it means when Allah said well enough Luannakum Bishay Imin al-Khalf What he means is that since he has allowed us free will and he has allowed the human race to go positive and negative Any person who goes negative is going to be held for the rest of humanity That's the trial that Allah has allowed So when a troublemaker comes to you and creates trouble and wants to harm you and wants to Push you and wants to stop you to progress.  So you find this ill Acquire knowledge and then there are three stages imam Ali al-Sannaj al-Balaghas is the following Al-Alamu al-Thalathati Ashbar If he reached the first month Tkabbar And if he reached the second month Tawada And if he reached the third month Alima that he doesn't know anything three stages Knowledge is of three stages imam Ali al-Sannaj is when a person reaches the first stage They become proud That stage is the first stage anybody who has knowledge and the arrogant then the first stage Imam says when you reach the second stage you become humble and when you reach the third stage You realize you know nothing It's the third stage you and I need to be in because when we realize we know nothing Then for the rest of our lives, we will be gaining knowledge And when we gain knowledge and we ponder then Allah gives us wisdom Allah says you tell Hikmata man yashaal Women you tell Hikmata faqad oot ya kheiran katheera we give wisdom to who we will and whoever We have given wisdom to we have given much good. What is wisdom knowing how to connect the dots? What is knowledge the dots? The more dots you have the more knowledge you have but there are people highly knowledgeable, but foolish It's the ones who know how to connect the dots we call them wise people erudites people who are connectors of the dots People who have erudition Hikmah, they are what we call highly skilled They take exactly what's needed and they fulfill it in the shortest amount of time That's what you and I need to achieve. How do we get that read Quran? reflect and Then ask for Allah to help us Allah says to the Prophet wa qul Rabbe zidni ilma And say the Prophet was the most knowledgeable man Honored His knowledge traversed the universe universes But yet Allah is telling him wa qul Rabbe zidni ilma Say my lord increase my knowledge because the trajectory of increase is Ibadah And when we have that we pray we understand how to pray so Allah says that the unni Astagib lakum. How would you do dua in the right way when you and I are busy gaining knowledge when you sit you reflect You talk you question, but there's also an adab and an akhlaq on how to question When you go questioning in an arrogant way in a condescending way in an impatient way in a rude way then we have Negated the purpose of the acquisition We've tainted the idea of knowledge and what knowledge should we really have the knowledge of us all? That's why you notice we who do taqleed We follow Maraji Much Tahideen you will find each tihad is only in matters of Furu Not in matters of us all because us all you and I which is foundational the roots of religion you and I must gain it Without any emulation of a scholar we can learn from them, but we make our own decisions We learn from the Quran from the prophets from the imams from the scholars from the books from the professors But we become our own believers in God In prophethood in guidance in leadership and in justice and in day of judgment what we call Eschatology Study of the hereafter what will happen in the hereafter? What am I designed for these? Reflections many of our community members have very shallow understanding Hence they're like a tree Planted with a very shallow root and a little breeze brings the tree down Those who have deep roots Not only are the roots highly extended long distance To receive the nutrients of the earth But they are secure that even if there is a storm. They will not be dislodged Well So we tonight I'm gonna continue this conversation tomorrow. Do I how do we pray? We say God I'm praying I'm praying I'm praying. It's not getting answered. There is a problem With our behavior. There's our problem with how we understand Once you understand you will notice that the whole system will come into fruition and clarity Marriages are breaking Children are going astray fathers are calling me my son is becoming an atheist is becoming an agnostic I don't know what to do rightly so because we're not giving them the answers they need They don't want to become atheists, but they're getting frustrated. No one's talking their lingo We're just throwing traditions at them recycled traditions and they're getting tired of it and they say this is not working This is not giving me peace. I don't want this. I want something deeper. I want something more valuable I want to be a soldier of goodness. I don't want to be fooled by stories and What we call hashed out ideas of our forefathers. I need reason Many a parent's son when I was your age, I didn't question my father when he told me there's God The son says dad. We're living in a different world Welcome to the reality of this world. That's as well when I was young. I just followed Now he looks good, but is he really good? See blind following is dangerous Even if it's right for even if it is right if we're following blindly then through that following we may be destructive It's better to question and to say I am doing all of this I'm not going to stop praying and I'm not going to stop fasting I'm not going to stop believing in God, but I'm going to question it until I get certainty and Allah says keep struggling Till you achieve certainty Dalika kitabu la raiba fihi hudan lil muttaqeen in this book There is no doubt for those who are God conscious. How did they become God conscious? They acquired knowledge God gave them wisdom and there was a strategy and they established us all a dean Firmly now when they drink something halal haram. Why why should I drink this? Is it allowed for me or not? I should I dress like this? Is it allowed or not? The Usul is directing you. The Usul is guiding you The Usul is saying now go study and listen to the scholars You will see they will give you rules when they give you rules You have every right to question them when I go and meet the Maraji one-on-one. I ask them You have passed this fatwa show me the Dalil. I Won't prove am I questioning the Marja? No the Marja is smiling I'm so glad you asked. He didn't say you are not in Bethel college You didn't go to the house over 25 years like who are you to ask me shoe? No I've sat with Maraji for hours and they're talking and they're talking and they're talking and I would ask them Difficult questions and they're answering and they're answering. I said wow This is the Sunnah of Rasulillah This is the Sunnah of Ahlulbayt. O Amir al-Mu'mineen said salooni salooni Qabla an taqqidooni. Ask me ask me for that acquisition of knowledge Even if Malakul Mot was decreed to come and take our souls at that time. Allah says delay it for this creature This creation of mine is seeking knowledge. Let him stay longer This is Deen So Luqman Allah said walla qadaateena Luqman al-Hikmah. We gave Luqman Hikmah. What did Luqman say? Wa idhqaala Luqman ule ibnihi wa huwa ya'izuhu Ya'buniyya laa tushrik bil laa Inna shikka laa dolmun azeem. Listen to these verse magnificent verses You know when I read suit Luqman the 31st chapter Two things that came out from it although Quran is rich with so many dimensions eternal dimensions I have read Quran many a times and each time I read I feel like I've read it the first time It's an endless ocean and 31st chapter Allah says tilka ayatul kitab al-hakeem. These are verses from a book that is wise Tilka ayatul kitab al-hakeem. This word wise resonates in its highest form And Allah says this is a book of wisdom ودن ورحمة للمحسينين It's a guidance and a mercy for good doers. I like that I said ya Allah I want this gift wisdom give it to me I will fight it till I die give it to me I want it In the same surah Allah said وَلَقَدْ آتَيْنَ لُقْمَانَ الْحِكْمَانَ We gave Luqman wisdom Because he wanted it So what did Luqman say? So I looked at these two themes that attracted me and I fell in love with this surah This surah is my friend I walk talk I quote it often you will listen if you listen to my lectures I quote often from surah Luqman Often because it's a real being Imam Khomeini rahmatullahi alaih says On Judgement Day the most magnificent creations will come in front of you And you will wish you could possess them And you will say who are you you're so beautiful That creature that creation will look at you He says I'm surah such and such When I was on earth if you made me your friend I would be with you So Imam says make friends with this surah they're real The second theme of the surah love of parents Especially fatherhood How to be a father?   Why? This conversation is hardly there So Luqman is saying ya'a bune'ya Laa tu shrik bil laa foundation My son do not associate anyone with Allah Inna shirkala dolmon azeem This is the grievous act Ya'a bune'ya So then Allah swt jumps Wa wassainal insana bi waliday Hamalatu ummu hu wahnan ala wahnin Wa fisaalhu fi amayni Anishkulli wal i waliday Ilayil masir Parenthetical Quran takes over Actually Luqman is talking to his son But Quran is presenting it Because if Luqman says to his son My son God has made it obligatory upon you to be kind to me Your parent It would be self-serving So Allah talks Look at the hikmah of the Quran Luqman is talking to his son Son do this, do this, do this, do this But as a parent to the child Allah takes over and says Parents very important to you Talking to the human race Look at the beauty of the Quran Even in its flow of delivery of knowledge That Allah honors Luqman That Luqman should not sound like he's promoting himself Wa wassainal insana bi waliday The mother suffers pain upon pain For two years Therefore be grateful to me And to your parents Anishkulli wal i waliday Wa injahadak ala ntushil kabima Laysala kabihi ilm Falatu tihuma If your parents ask you to worship other than Allah Don't obey them Falatu tihuma Watta bi assabeela man anaba ilay Follow those who are right in this matter Your parents obey them It is conditional Imams and prophets No condition Obey them a hundred percent The Quran is saying Then Allah comes back To Luqman Ya'bunaya aqim al-salaa Wa amur bil-ma'roof Wa anha anil-monkar Wa asbir ala ma'asabak Inna dhalika min azmil umoor Wa la tu'sa'ir haddaka linnaz Wa la tamshi fil ardi maraha Inna Allah la yuhibbu kulla muhtalin fahul Wa qasid fee mashik Wa qadud bin sautik Inna ankar al-aswad Na sautul hamir Can you imagine a son Listen to his father talk like that My son keep prayers Aqim al-salaa Wa amur bil-ma'roof Do good deeds Wa anha anil-monkar Wa asbir ala ma'asabak Be patient with the trials that will come to you Indeed it is a difficult thing Inna dhalika It's difficult Father is saying My son you will be tested This world is slippery But it's okay Be patient Hold on It's good And don't turn your face away from people Don't be arrogant You see a person coming You turn this way La tu'sa'ir haddaka linnaz Look at humans and smile Shake hands with them Peace Quran says that La tu'sa'ir haddaka linnaz Wa la tamshi fil ardi maraha Don't walk on earth exultingly Proud Hitting the ground hard La tamshi fil ardi maraha God doesn't love anyone Who is a show off Who walks around telling you How educated they are And how strong they are And how many successes they have And their businesses are doing so well And what famous people they are with Inna allaha la You hebbu kulla muhtalin fakhur Waqsid fee mashyik Lower your demeanor Be humble Waqdud min sotik Lower your voice when you talk Don't speak too loud Allah says When you speak loud like that You sound like a donkey Allah is giving us advice You find that's the parent rule When we understand this rule Tomorrow we will talk about dua When we raise our hands Allahumma inni asaluka bi rahmatika allateen Wasyaat kulla shay When Imam Zaynul A'bideen Aleyhis salamu alayhi wa sallam He says Saifah al-Sajjadiyah One tahi biniyati la ahsan inniyyat Wa bi amali ila ahsan il'amal Make my intention The best of intentions Make my deeds The best of deeds There is a dua for every transaction Allah says Now you connect the dua And watch how Allah answers you When Allah says Adu'uni astajiblakum Ask me I will answer you This ayah It's with ghafir Allah swt When he says Ask me I will answer It's unconditional There is no condition to when you ask Even if you are a person Who's going astray Even an atheist Even a Hindu Buddhist Christian Jew Doesn't matter When they talk to God Allah replies them Adu'uni astajiblakum If you ask me I will answer you I will answer you I will answer you I will answer you I will answer you Don't worry But sometimes When you are asking for something It takes time to get it Do you have the patience Maybe it's not good for you Allah says Asan takraw shay'an Wa wa khairul lakum Asan tuhibbu shay'an Wa khairul lakum That which you don't like Could be good for you That which you like Could be bad for you Allah says Are you not satisfied If you pray to me Then let me give you What is best for you We'll talk about this du'at tomorrow Tonight I conclude Father to son You know tonight is the shahada We commemorate the shahada Of Ali Al Akbar The son His mother was Layla She said she was there The women were there for sure Ali Akbar was 18 years of age Young His older brother was Imam Zain Al-Abedin And you find that Ali Al-Akbar Had shujads And I told you He looked identical to the prophet The young prophet Was Ali Al-Akbar And I want us to remember That Ali Akbar Was such a beautiful child 18 Our Imam, Ahlul Bayt SubhanAllah Their children Noorun ala Noor Light upon light Each one was magnificent Their akhlaq You look at Abbas A.S You look at Ja'far You look at Abdullah You look at Othman All of them became shaheed They were standing Side by side Brother with brother Fighting against the kuffar And they were smiling Talking about Akhirah Talking about seeing the prophet You don't reach that stage If you don't gain knowledge You don't reach that stage If you don't have firmness in your soul You don't reach that stage If you don't apply it You don't reach that stage Unless you understand the gravity Of the message of God Through the Quran This is why I say to us all You and I deserve to be Among the sabaikun The sabaikun You and I deserve to be The foremost of the foremost That inshallah on judgment day Allah will raise us With the ultimate human beings And tell us enter paradise For you have struggled on this earth In your own little capacity For you've kept away from all the Destructions of the world And you did the right thing So Ali Akbar is travelling With his father to Karbala Strong Very strong person And as he is writing Imam Hussein alaihi salam Some historians say He saw creatures Eating away carcass Imam looks at that This is inna lilah wa inna ilaihi rajean Some historians says He's writing Imam got very tired Because you know it was sleepless How do you sleep?  You will be thirsty, hungry How? But this son is riding with his father Proud I see an 18 year old boy Such strength We would love to have sons like that We would love to have daughters like that Our daughters and sons Firm and afraid Zaynab, the daughter of Ali ibn Abi Talib Firm, not afraid You know Zaynab alaihi salam She addresses Yazid She's in chains Yazid is pontificating on the throne Hitting the lips of Imam Hussein's head You know lips, but the head was severed She addresses him Ya ibn al-Tulaka O you son of a freed slave That's how firm, unafraid Yazid was stunned He was addressed as a son of a freed slave Because his father and him were both slaves Freed by the Prophet Firm Ali Akbar is riding So Imam falls asleep And he says he wakes up He says He says Baba, what happened? He said, I just saw in my dream The Holy Prophet, our grandfather Calling out That soon you're going to unite with me Soon Ali Akbar knew as an 18-year-old boy He's going to get killed He said, Baba, are we not on Haqq? Are we not on Haqq? Are we not on the truth?   Wa ala Ali ibn al-Husayn, wa ala ashab al-Husayn, wa ala ashab al-Husayn. Wa ala Ali ibn al-Husayn, wa ala ashab al-Husayn, wa ala ashab al-Husayn. Salawatuka wa fi kulli wa qaida wa dalina hatta tutskinahu warudaka wa tumati'u fi rahmatika. Ya ar-Rahmar wa yajshif al-Sum, an ma yajimu n-ultarra yajshif al-Sum, an yajshif al-Sum, li rahmatika. Ya ar-Rahmar wa yajshif al-Sum, li rahmatika. Ya ar-Rahmar wa yajshif al-Sum, li rahmatika.


Hello to be repetitious I am Wanda Stewart and the only thing I'll say as way of intro is that I am not a native San Francisco I was born San Francisco I was born in Oklahoma City but I have lived in San Francisco the heart of San Francisco one way or the other since I was seven years old never lived anywhere else never grew to love anywhere else as I love San Francisco I will be reading and again I was my confusion or she is but the topic being endangered species I'm going I had planned on reading another one which if I my three minutes and out up I'll read them both but I will read the one from the from the book endangered species who says that I'm endangered comes as news to me can Navy beans fear a takeover by the black-eyed pea can black can black keys fear the presence of the nearby ivory does crude oil stand in fear of an eruption of olive oil no like tears and wheat they coexist and both grow tall you say that I'm endangered I sure don't feel that way I'm too busy breaking down barriers that once stood in my way I intend to be around till night turns and not today I'll never feel endangered no I'm here to stay if my three minutes are not up are they all right I got time to read another one which the same theme endangered white man to white man tells me I'm endangered never felt that way before how could it be that I'm endangered just listen to that white man talk women having babies much too soon and way too many about to take over the population they are Lord knows that's the white man's dread just like in Bible times read it in Exodus Hebrew women having babies faster and faster at a furious pace no word like exponentially then upsetting the balance of nature our women can't keep up now it's us they can't keep up with should have thought of that before brought us over by the hundreds never thinking we'd be free one day free to earn to vote to travel and yes to breed our own kind white man finally woke up realize that instead of him instead of me he might be endangered said best I start endangering him and making them scarce gotta make sure that black man is endangered and so take these pills too many babies these will keep you from having anymore take some coke a little heroin that'll keep the numbers down and even up the score need to level off them births even up the numbers stop this breeding by the thousands list I become the one who's in danger


One of the major blockings to making great work is the freedom to make a mess and I mean that figuratively and quite literally to make a mess. I know that a lot of great work doesn't get made because people don't have that freedom and so that's really what I'm grateful for is that Creative BC helped me make a mess and so thank you. This first song is called Love and all of its opposites. Most nights when I am finally ready to go to sleep and give up on the day opposites. I have a clue what'll happen so don't be sad if we pass like evening light. That's because I have been once for what it's worth. You will see my self will be cause we're on the note because darling if I ever have myself it is not when I am with anybody else. My darling if I ever have myself it is not when I am with anybody else. My darling if I ever have myself it is not when I am with anybody else. Thanks a lot. Thanks a lot.


Well, welcome back to the third day of the AI for Good Global Summit, and I'm joined now by the chair of the IEEE, Computer Society. His name is Andy Chen, he's with me now. Andy, good to see you. Good to see you. What is the IEEE? Well, it's the Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, and it's a professional association. We have about 400,000 members globally, and I'm focusing in the Computer Society, which is focused on the computers and engineering. And what brings you to the summit? Well, I basically was invited because of my background in several areas. One, my expertise in the power generation for cybersecurity, as well as my knowledge in the nuclear industries. But more importantly, my position as a board chair for the IEEE Computer Society, where we would like to be able to work collaboratively with different nations. We have about 160 countries that we have memberships on us, so almost every part of the globe we have students join our associations, as well as professionals who have already graduated. And as we're on day three, what are your thoughts about this three-day gathering? It's quite amazing. It's very eventful, and there are so much opportunities. There are so many different aspects of the global. There are people interested in academia, people interested in government relationship, and people interested in researchers, and people interested in industry. So it's really interesting bringing the tech company, as well as government policies, and at different levels. It's really, it's fascinating for me. And you're talking in your panel discussion about everybody's sharing the benefits of AI. Will that happen, or are you concerned that it is not happening? Well, I think one of the key things, important thing, and I was in the panel as a maritaz, is that you have to design it correctly. You have to put in some what we call ethics, just like people into the AI. So it does the right thing. It doesn't harm people. It does actually the benefit of the human being rather than destroying them. Because it could make them as an automatic weapons, which could be a massive destruction. So, importantly for us, it's to define those policies, standards that you need for the ethical design of those systems. Okay, great. Andy, thank you. So that's Andy Chen, who's the board chair at the IEE Computer Society with over 400,000 members worldwide.


Hello and welcome back, this is the second part of our lecture on programming using structures. Here is a quick recap of some of the relevant topics that we have already studied. We have seen a brief introduction to object oriented programming. We have seen how structures can be defined in C++, how their various members can be accessed and how structures can be initialized and copied. In the last lecture, we also saw some examples of programming using structures. In particular, we saw how to implement a function for checking out a book in a library information management system. In this lecture, we are going to see more programming using structures. Specifically, we are going to implement some of the other functionalities in the library information management system we have already discussed in the earlier lectures. Some examples in this lecture are from the book An Introduction to Programming through C++ by Aviram G. Ranade published by McGraw-Hell Education in 2014. All such examples will be indicated in slides with the citation AGR book. Now recall from the previous lectures that we were trying to design a library information management system that was motivated by discussions in AGR book. And in our library information management system, every pattern would have a unique numerical ID, every book would have a unique accession number. And we are going to allow three different operations, check out, claim and return. What is checkout? A pattern can check out up to three books at any time. And we have seen how to implement this functionality in C++ in the last lecture. What is a claim? If pattern X has not already checked out three books, then we will allow her to claim one book that is checked out by another pattern Y. And when pattern Y returns this book, it is going to be held for pattern X and not lent out to others. And of course, the return functionality is that a pattern should be allowed to return a book that she had checked out sometime earlier. We have seen in the previous lectures that a good way of going about writing a C++ program to implement the library information management system is to identify a book object and a pattern object. And specifically, we are going to implement these objects as C++ structures. So, the structure book is going to have different members which are going to store different information about the book like the title, authors, price, accession number, checkout status and claimant ID. And all the books in the library are basically going to be stored in the area library shelf, which we had decided will have 1000 elements. We had decided that the library is going to have 1000 books. And for purposes of our programming, we had also assumed that every element of library shelf will have its checkout status and claimant ID members initialize to false and minus one. Checkout status being false means the book has not been checked out. And claimant ID being minus one means there are no current claimants for this book. The pattern structure similarly has information about patterns of our library. So, this will have members like name, address, unique ID, number of books checked out and the accession number of any book claimed by the pattern. And we are going to have all the patterns of our library information about them stored in this array library patterns of size 200. We had decided that we are going to have 200 patterns for our library. And of course, each element of this array library patterns is a structure of type pattern. And once again for purposes of our programming, we had assumed that every element in this array library patterns will have its members named num books checked out and claimed book accession number initialize to 0 and minus one. Num books checked out being 0 means that the pattern currently does not have any book checked out in her account. And claimed book accession number being minus one means that the pattern does not currently have a pending claim for any book. Now, in the earlier lecture, we had seen how to implement the checkout functionality. Let us now see how we can implement the claim functionality. So, what is the claim functionality? Let us say a pattern denoted by current pattern of type pattern wants to claim a book denoted by current book of type book. So, what is involved in this process? Well, we have to first check if current pattern has already checked out three books or if she already has a pending claim. In either of these cases, we are not going to allow current pattern to register a claim for another book. So, we are going to print an appropriate message and return. Otherwise, we will have to check if current book is available and has not yet been checked out by anybody. If so, then we can just tell current pattern that there is no need to place a claim for this book. She can just go ahead and check this book out. If both of these checks fail, then we have to still check if current book has already been claimed by a different pattern. If so, then we cannot let current pattern lay claim to current book. Otherwise, we can allow current pattern to register a claim for current book in which case we are going to store the accession number of current book in the member claimed book accession number of current pattern. And similarly, we are going to store the unique ID of current pattern in the member claimant ID of current book. Let us see how we might implement this as a C plus plus function. So, here is the claim book function. We are going to pass current pattern and current book to this function both by reference as was discussed in the previous lecture. What is the precondition of claim book that the members of current pattern and current book are properly initialized?  And what is the post condition? We would like to ensure that a claim of current pattern on current book would be registered. If it is allowed, there are several conditions as we have just seen. And if those conditions allow us to register a claim of current pattern and current book, we would like that claim to be registered and we would have to update the members of current pattern and current book appropriately. So, how does the code for claim book look like? Well, here is an initial part of the code. Here we are first checking if the number of books checked out by current pattern is already 3. If that is the case, then we cannot allow the current pattern to claim any book any further. Or if the current pattern already has made claim to a book. So, if the claimed book accession number of current pattern is not minus 1, then she has already laid claim to some other book. So, we cannot allow the pattern to claim any other book. If this check does not pass, basically these conditions both evaluate to false, then what do we do? We basically go out and check if the current book is still available and has not been checked out by others. So, the checkout status of current book is false. Then we are going to simply tell current pattern that this book has not yet been checked out. There is no need for a claim. Current pattern might as well go ahead and check out this book. Well, if that is also not the case, then we have to check if there is already somebody who has laid claim to current book and if that somebody is different from current pattern. So, we have to check if there is a claimant for current book, which means the claimant ID for current book is not minus 1 and if this claimant ID is different from current patron's unique ID, then we just go to output a message saying that sorry, the book has already been claimed by a patron and if none of these checks pass, then we can allow current patron to register a claim for current book and how does that happen? We basically copy current book's accession number to the claimed book accession number member of current patron and we copy the unique ID of current patron to the claimant ID member of current book and we return. So, this is how we can implement claiming of a book in our library information management system. Well, but if you just think about it, a strange scenario can arise. What happens if a patron has already checked out a book and then she is trying to claim this book again and let us say this is the only book that she has checked out. So, she has really checked out one book and she again comes back and tries to claim that same book again. What happens in such a scenario? I will encourage all of you to think about this and also to try to understand why does this happen. We will address this in a few slides ahead in this lecture. Well, how would we write a C++ function for returning a book? So, just like for claiming a book and for checking out a book, we would write a function to which we would pass current patron and current book as parameters passed by reference. Here as precondition, we are going to assume that members of current book and current patron are properly initialized and we will also assume very importantly that current patron had indeed checked out current book. That current patron is not trying to return a book that she had not checked out. And as post condition, we want the members of current patron and current book to be updated appropriately so that we register the return of current book by current patron. So, how does the code for return book look like? Well, we are going to check if the number of books checked out by current patron is greater than 0, then we are going to decrement the number of books checked out for current patron and we are going to set the checkout status for current book to false. Otherwise, if the number of books checked out for current patron is already 0 and if she is trying to return one more book, then something fishy is happening. So, we will just print out this message saying that are you trying to return somebody else's book. Well, that looks simple, but once again, a strange scenario can arise here. What if a patron is trying to return a book that she has not checked out, but somebody else has checked out? It looks like our function return book would basically reduce the number of books checked out count for current patron even though she is returning a book checked out by some other patron. And once again, I would encourage you to think why does this happen? We will address this soon in a few slides. So, well, in trying to answer why do those strange scenarios happen, one can make a few observations. When a patron checks out a book, the unique idea of the patron is never recorded with the book. Similarly, the accession numbers of the books that a patron has checked out are never recorded with the patron. So, one might ask that if we kept track of the above information, can we avoid those strange scenarios that we just saw? Well, so let us try to see how we would keep track of that additional information. So, desirable change, albeit a late change would be to add some additional members to our structures. So, you might want to add a member called borrower ID to the structure book and a member which is an array of size 3, each element of that array being an integer and this array is basically the accession numbers of the borrowed books. We would like to add this member array to the structure patron. But now after having implemented checkout book, claim book and return book, how do we change things now? Do we have to go back and restart everything all over again? Well, here is where object oriented modular programming comes to our rescue and let us see how we are actually going to incorporate these incremental changes. So, what we want is in structure book, we want an additional member called borrower ID and in structure patron, we want an additional member array called borrowed accession number. So, every element of the arrays, library patterns and library shelf would now have these additional members. And for purpose of our programming, we will assume that all of these members are initialized to minus 1. So, now how would checkout book be modified? Well, after ascertaining that current patron can indeed checkout current book, what we have to do is we will have to iterate through this array borrowed accession number for current patron. And whenever we find an element of the array that is minus 1, we can copy the accession number of current book to that entry of the array borrowed accession number for current patron. And of course, we have to copy the unique ID of current patron to the borrower ID member of current book. How do we modify claim book? Well, after ascertaining that current patron can indeed claim current book, we have to check if the borrower ID of the current book is the same as the unique ID of current patron. And then we can just print out this message saying that the claim book has already been checked out by the same patron. The black part here and in the previous slide was what we already had earlier, the bold faced red part is the new part that we are adding to the functionality. And how do we incrementally modify return book? Well, we have to first check if the borrower ID of current book matches the unique ID of current patron. And if so, we can decrement num books checked out, we can reset the check out status of current book to false. And we must also iterate through this array borrowed accession number for current patron. And whichever entry in this array matches the accession number of current book, we have to reset that entry to minus 1. And finally, we have to reset borrower ID of current book to minus 1. So, in summary in this lecture, we saw a little bit more on programming using structures. Specifically, we saw how the claim book and return book functionality could be implemented in the library information management system. We also learned how to incrementally change structure definitions and functions using them. Basically, this is modular incremental software development and the use of object oriented programming, the use of structures helps us to do this. Thank you.