e kind of internal Stimulations by being in a place where your your site is covered That you're praying in an area That is closed off such that you're not seeing things from the outside world that would then distract you Or that a person prays In their house and it's very dim or dark Such that they're not looking around and seeing other things Or he doesn't have something in front of him that would attract his senses All this for example, Imam al-Ghazali mentions That having a very colorful prayer rug that could be distracting Having a very ornamented designed prayer rug can be distracting And in the commentary the ithaf al-sa'l of Imam al-Zabidi He says that one of the worst innovations is these extra Ornate massajid with all these etchings everywhere and very overly ornamented He says one of the worst innovations that has taken place and it's actually not be fitting for having presence in nasada And it's the sunnah of the Prophet's life and this is a beautiful example To actually just have things very simple in the masjid And some of the most amazing masjid That i've ever been to Are very outwardly simple. They're so beautiful. They're very beautiful, but they're simple You know, there's just it's just white walls simple a prayer carpet And that's it place for the mushaf Place for the the the copy of the Qur'an. That's it and you go in there and you say There's just a presence that the place there's it brings you to be present with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Then you go to another place and it's got all of these Million dollar chandelier and you know imported all of these things and it's overdone now beautifying places is a good thing, but It's really about having presence of heart And oh, yeah, it says or that you pray close to a wall So that you're not able to see anything beyond the place of your prayer That you just look at the place of your sujood Or you're not distracted. You can't see anything outside of where you are praying And this is why the people who dedicated themselves to worship They would often do so in a very small space that was dimly lit And if you've ever visited the khalwa places of many of the salihin in many muslim countries You can find places where great ulama and great salihin Would engage in ibadah and they're usually very tight They don't have all these windows and all these things coming in they're usually or if there is a window It's kind of covered with a You know like a wooden covering or something just to get a little bit of light in And they're not distracted by anything of the world. It's very simple And it's almost kind of you know cramped and how many people would actually Go and read quran and you know, we hear of the salihin who would dig their own grave and read Duhatams of quran and their graves Why because it helps you have presence of heart this is This is i'm not distracted by anything in the world in a place like this or in a moment like this Now So you found that many people in this umma of the great salihin They would engage in their ibadah in a very small and dimly lit place That was only big enough for them to actually engage in sujud So because that place helped actually collect all of their focus and remain focused And determined to only be present in the prayer And those who were had a strength and a great ability Even when they would attend the prayer in the masjid They would still keep their sight in the place of their sujud. They wouldn't look around even those who had a certain level Of experience and steadfastness in their ibadah. Even then to be cared. They would be careful Not to risk losing their presence of heart And And the great salihin they would consider it From the the completion or the perfection of the prayer Is that you are so present in the salah and that you are not distracted By anything around you to such an extent that you don't even know who prayed to your right or to your left Like let's say you know the person But once the salah is done, he said oh, that was you. It wasn't focused on that That the person was present with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala So this these are the outward causes and the treatment the treatment is simple Is that you just minimize your distractions? And even imam al ghazali mentions and he's going to mention this in the inward distractions That we have to find ways Of collecting ourselves before we enter into the salah And that's one of the great wisdoms Of even having these sunnah prayers And a superrogatory prayers before the falq prayer so that we are continuing to deepen our level of presence And prepare ourselves to stand before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala And that we say the you know ayat al kursi and various And various invocations Before we enter into the salah to help collect ourselves and to be present with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala So those are the outward distractions and how to Deal with them and the treatment for them as for the inward distractions imam al ghazali says This is even more difficult than the outward outward is just turn off the lights Be present Turn off your phone Don't think about anything else and just pray But the inward he said is more difficult So whoever's concerns are taken through the valleys of the various Channels of worldliness They won't just be thinking about one thing alone Person might if they see something and say what's that noise and they think about that But if a person has an internal distraction They can be taken to all different types of places But lai azari yatlidu min jani bin ila jani that their Their thoughts are flying from one area to the next In terms of you know vastly different Chawaatler and passing thoughts that might not come to them and imam al ghazali is saying if a person Even if they're in a place where there are no outward distractions that they're in a small room and it's dark That that doesn't prevent them that doesn't save them from these types of inward distractions Okay So he says so the way to deal with that Is That the first thing is to force and this is a really A beautiful and powerful word one of the names of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is al-qahar The one who is overpowering and dominating That this is the word that's used here and yarrud an aqaran that a person dominates and forces the nefs to return back to Contemplating and understanding the words that are being recited in the salah Okay And to focus and to force it to focus on that over all other things And what helps a person do that is that they prepare before they enter into the prayer And that they remind themselves Of the hereafter and that they will stand before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala And the result of that judgment Is Is significant is so significant and dangerous that they need to think of that in the moment of the salah Okay, that it is such an intense Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that the disbelievers on that day Subhanallah I just learned the meaning of this ayah recently that the disbelievers on that day They when they see the scales and when they see the judgment they will be in such terror That they will look up and their eyes will be in such horror that they'll be wide eyed And they won't even be able to blink For how many Years will they be experiencing that where it will be so intense that they won't even be able to blink So you remind yourself of that in the salah What would I be like if I was true and I am But if the veil was lifted and I am standing before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala What kind of adab and presence what I have So you remind your nefs of that So This is a really practical and beautiful reminder that imam ghazali gives us and he says another practical thing You can do before entering the prayer is that if you have any Anything that you're doing and you want to tie some loose ends You know that you're you have something on the in the oven You have you know something that you're waiting for There's something going on that is occupying your thoughts that you actually Finish doing those things And that comes to an end before you engage in the prayer Because any of my alarms going off that it's still not it's going to burn I'm waiting for this important phone call a person's constantly going to be thinking about those things in the Sada that you try your very best to You know tie all those loose ends so that when you enter into the Sada, there's nothing on your mind You know one of the things that we have to do is you know, put our phones on silent Maybe even put it in a totally different room And just enjoy the Sada When we meet Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala You know, we will not regret. Oh that phone call I missed or that text message I missed and whatever it may have been for those moments that we are with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala So just having you know practically taking the the means available to us anything that's that's oh I have to write this email. I was extremely do that and then engage in the prayer with presence of heart Nahum So imam al-ghazadi says this is how you actually calm yourself from all of these various thoughts Okay, and then he says how do you deal with it at the root? So this is he's saying this is helpful for just having These passing thoughts that are coming through to kind of deal with them in the moment But then he says how do you deal with it at the root? And he says you have to look at These things that are occupying your mind that busy you And you have to say Where is the source from which they're coming from? And imam al-ghazadi says the things that busy you are the things that you find important You're not going to think about things that are not important to you So he says and then you realize that those things that are important to you if they're distracting you in the Sada And they're they seem more important in that moment than what you're actually in he says that those stem from your desires Those thoughts stem from what's important to you what's important to you if it's getting in the way of your Sala It stems from your shahawat stems from your desires Faye wa a'aqibi nafsahu ben-nuzu'i an tilka shahawat wa qat'i tilka la'ala So then the way that a person disciplines the nefs is by cutting off those attachments Is really trying to uproot those desires and cutting off those attachments And really that is freedom You know now even in a material sense people are talking about you know minimalism and things of that nature You know what you own owns you And not living like like that anymore But actually realizing that there's so many more meaningful things even in a worldly sense More than all of these things that occupy us. So you have to get to the root of it And cut that out Fahua Because everything that distracts that person in his Sada Is contradictory to his Dean And it is the soldiers of Iblis and one of his The Muslims enemies So holding on to that thing And he mentions the story of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam And this is for us to learn that the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam he had a ring And he's when he was giving the khutba He delivered the khutba and he would look at his new ring sallallahu alaihi wa alaihi wa sallam And then he said this ring has distracted me and he gave it away sallallahu alaihi wa sallam to teach us How you break those attachments And if this is getting in the way i'm going to give it away. I don't need it And that way I will be light before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala And then uh, finally He tells us a few stories of some of the sahaba. So aba talha Sulla fi ha'itin lahu fi shajab that abu talha he was Praying in an enclosed place where he had some trees there So as he was praying he saw a little bird That flew from the trees and he was impressed by the beauty of the bird So he said that his eyesight followed the bird Okay, so when he was done he mentioned to the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam the Tribulation that he was afflicted with Look at the level of the sahama It's a bird flying The tribute but he's this got in the way of my salah. So this is one of my enemies And one of the things that is harming my deen So then he said to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam I give away that those trees in that area that I was praying in that I own I give it away Sadaqa for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. I don't want it anymore. He let go of it And another Another man did the same thing and he gave it to Sayyidina Uthman ibn Affan and Sayyidina Uthman ibn Affan sold that garden for 50,000 Uh dirhams or dinas that he sold it for 50,000 It was very valuable. He got rid of it Because it got in the way of his deen So we have to really Imam al-Ghazali. He's going deep if you want to uproot The tree that is bearing rotten fruit, you have to uproot it So they did that so they could cut off the source of all of these passing thoughts And also as an expiation for their shortcomings in the salah. So this is the medicine. This is the treatment And it is bitter It is difficult, but this is the treatment Because what we mentioned about forcing your nefs to listen to what's being said in the salah That's a temporary easier approach and it won't solve the problem long term Okay So he says and that works for weak desires But if someone loves the world then they won't be able to do that and then finally he gives us this this example He says it's like a man Who is trying to focus and he just wants to reflect And he's sitting under a tree and he just wants peace of mind And every so often a bird comes and starts chirping above his head and flying in the branches And just takes a branch and he hits the bird and it flies away And then it comes right back It's the bird and it flies away. So now I can think the bird comes right back. He hits it again And then someone tells him you got to cut down the tree But you got to figure out a way, you know, we're not now when we're you know more Environmentally conscious people don't like that, but he's saying you have to cut down the tree of the desires So that the bird of these passing thoughts has nothing to come back to And then you can actually sit and think and be present No La ilaha illallah and he said all of these desires if you really get To the the source of it and the heart of it It is love of the world And you have to really strive and struggle against that And he says nobody is perfect. He said there are very few people who can have you know a prayer That is completely filled with presence of heart with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Says That's from his humility. So someone like us doesn't have hope in that Anil waswas and even for us just to have half of it Or a third of it safe from these insinuations and these whisperings Even that's an improvement Even that's an improvement. He said at the very least we'll have mixed some good with our shortcomings But what he's telling us here is once again not to make us lose hope But rather to say that we have to work hard and we have to do better So he says it's like the love of the world and having presence of heart It's like one vessel your heart is like one vessel and love of the world is like vinegar And presence of heart with Allah is like water So the two are not ever going to mix but he said the more water you pour in The more it will eventually push out the vinegar and fill it up Which gives us hope to say that wherever we are We just strive to do a little bit better and then a little bit better and a little bit better And it's about consistency and really seeking Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's assistance and support. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for the tawfiq And inshallah I will transition shortly to session four the inner meanings of prayer and this is really beautiful Please this is kind of well everything is leading to inshallah So we've reached the final session session number four And what we'll be doing in this session is looking at the inner meanings of prayer So one of the things that imam was that he does in this book is that he First starts he walks us through the prayer in relation to the outward meanings And so he talks about these same Stations of the prayer that we're going to be talking about now in relation to filth the outward dimension What are the legal rulings of them and then what he does is he goes back through And then he starts to speak about their spiritual meaning And this is extremely extremely helpful And this is something that is not enough to just go through this once It's not too hard to understand as we will see the meanings are fairly clear But this is something that we want to take good notes And remind ourselves of regularly and to go back to these meanings because These are the meanings in addition to what we've already heard that are going to bring the prayer to life This is what's going to make your prayer of a much greater qualitative value And so he begins with the adhan And so one of the meanings of the adhan that we can bring to heart is he says Is to bring to mind the dreadful summons on the day of resurrection So on the day of resurrection, we're all standing before Allah Every single human being will wait for his or her name to be called And so when we hear the adhan Akbar Internally we should remind ourselves that We're going to hear a name called on the day of judgment. We're all going to be summoned We're all going to be resurrected and then driven to the plane of judgment So immediately and mama shahdadi notes, and it's really helpful That the adhan the ikhama And the takbir of the haram prayer all begin with Allah The adhan begins with Allah Akbar The call to commence begins with Allah Akbar and the prayer begins with Allah Akbar So the meaning of Allah Akbar is central To our preparation for prayer and then entering into it It's central to how it is that we are in prayer And that's coming when we get to what is called the takbir or the ikhama So the adhan we bring to mind the summoning Of yawm al qiyam of the day as a resurrection And his advice to us then is to what? Devote yourself inwardly and outwardly To responding to this call and hastening to fulfill what it is calling to So the adhan is a pivotal moment there and unfortunately We don't get to hear the adhan as much As you would if you were in the muslim country It's one of the beauties of being in the muslim world is here in the adhan We're deprived of that oftentimes unfortunately And there was a question earlier about the other adhan And that as I said and Jen mentioned it's good that we call the adhan We should be calling the adhan so in your home When you are playing that one congregational prayer have someone call the adhan And again that in the absence of it's perfectly fine to use prayer apps in a thudger clock or something To remind you that the prayer is entered but in addition to the also called the adhan Because this is now that in our minds when we hear this now we transition Some things wanted from us now that we have to prepare for So again getting ourselves ready for prayer And devoting ourselves to the preparation That of it and that we know that in specifically in specifically in relation to the adhan that our prophet used to say Give us rest by it And so that our prophet so I said because his quarter to nine Is that his true pleasure and his true joy was in prayer He was longing for the adhan And that's what rahim raha and repose is that now it's time to stand before allah And again, we're only doing it obligatory five times a day It could have been much more But those are moments that subhanallah if we focus on the prayer Everything else in the spiritual path opens up after that This is it this is where we begin If we want to talk about spiritual the spiritual path, it begins here with the prayer So then the next Meaning is purification. So we're going to get ready for prayer then And we purify just as we purify our limbs outwardly by putting water on them We purify our heart By repenting from sin So as we are putting that water on our face It is a means to cleanse us outwardly, but also we're thinking about everything that we've done that with our eyes Seeking forgiveness from Allah as we are putting water on our arms as we're rinsing our mouth and so forth and so on Is that this is a means of cleansing and purification of our limbs, but also our heart And so this is a time when we purify ourselves Is that we also purify our heart by repenting from sin Having remorse what we've done in the past and resolving never to fall short again So the adhan, this is reminiscent of being summoned to Allah And purification and all of its meanings of everything that we've done on our limbs and our heart And then of course we have to have clean clothing And just as we have certain substances that might get on our clothes or on our bodies or on the place of prayer That prevent the validity of the prayer likewise There are that certain that other substances That are that substances not necessarily outwardly inwardly That staying our hearts and prevent them from that Receiving the meanings that they're supposed to receive So purification in both of its meanings actually will do it itself and then cleansing our clothes and things like that Removing any type of filth or nejas or anything like that And then is that covering ourselves? There's a particular way that we dress for prayer And there's of course the obligations that the scholars have said what is called the aura Our legal nakedness and we have to know that in relation to the outward dimension of prayer There are certain things that can that have to be covered But then likewise just as we cover parts of our body That are unbefitting for other people to see But what about the state of our heart? What is unbefitting for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to see that's in our heart There is no veil that can conceal that from Allah So we have to think about that meaning Certain things that are not appropriate for other people to see so we cover them What a blessing from Allah And likewise is that we have to cover up these meanings That are in our heart with forgiveness By asking Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to forgive us And Then what we're going to do after this is that we face the qiblah Okay, so we've heard the adhan that we have purified ourselves And then we're going to face the qiblah So you're going to actually go towards the place of prayer And outwardly you're orienting yourself in a particular direction So facing the qiblah means you outwardly turn your face away from every other direction Toward the house of Allah Precisely by facing one particular direction you are not facing any other direction So you're facing that single direction you're turning away in a sense from all those other directions towards The direction you are facing And the meaning here is turn your heart away from every other matter and toward Allah So outwardly you're turning away from every other direction except where you're facing And inwardly You're turning your heart towards Allah Like imagine if you bring that to mind Over and over again over and over again How your whole experience of prayer will entirely change And That statement that the story or the the statement of Hatim at Asam That was that MJ mentioned let's review that I want to make sure everybody got that down So what did he say when he that when he was asked About how he prayed Okay, what was the first thing that he did? Okay, so before that He would sit down in this place of prayer and gather himself Okay, so then he stands up for prayer And what is what does he bring to mind the Ka'bah? I heard it is right before him Okay, and the sirat The traverse which is the bridge over the hellfire is right beneath him And then what else Jannah is on his right And the now nasa sallam alaafi is on his left So the Ka'bah is before him he imagines jannah to the right now to the left and he's standing on the sirat and then The angel of death is right behind him He doesn't know whether this is going to be his last prayer or not And there's more to that but let's we can remember that this is the time where we would bring this to heart When we first start to face the qiblah And you imagine that you're right before the Ka'bah And all of those other powerful mashahid that will force the heart to be present It will force the heart to be present when we think about those things So facing the qiblah you're turning your heart away from every other matter And then the eqama which is the call to commence Is that we bring to heart the eminence Of the meeting with Allah because the adhan is recommended to be prolonged So that you know when it's result Allah Where is the eqama is recited quickly Allah And depending upon how they're both recited differently they have a different effect upon you This is the that eqama the call to commence halas prayer is about to begin And it's the meeting with Allah is imminent And so that affects you in a different way So you hear their call to commence and you bring to mind the eminence That's about to happen Of the meeting with Allah And then we have the standing position So we're standing before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala And when we are standing before Allah Is that we realize in our souls in our hearts The greatness of speaking intimately with Allah That we are standing right before Allah And what a blessing this is how prayer begins And the standing position And we will all be standing before Allah On the day of judgment Standing this is that a special That act of the acts of prayer and when we are worshiping And so that we are standing before Allah and we bring to heart that we are before him And when we slightly lower our hands, which is the sunnah Is that this is an indication of humility You'd slightly lower your head out of humility that you're standing before your lord And again, we remind ourselves just as we are standing before Allah Now for prayer that we're going to be standing before him On the day of judgment And then we make the intention And we have to memorize the intention that we make outwardly According to the sacred law But in doing so, we want to remind ourselves especially at this time Of sincerity This is for Allah And in some schools, they say this is exactly what you do So for instance, we just pray in Salat al-Lawar And the way to Fard al-Lawar Al-Bard al-Qaqas Right, you mention what is that the obligatory things to mention Ma'a Momin That Lillahi Ta'ala This is for Allah So you remind yourself at the intention At the level of the intention This is for Allah In addition to The outward intention that you're making Specifying the prayer and whether it's Fard or not And so forth Okay So We have the Adhan We have the state of purification Cleansing the body from its impurities Covering the body Facing the qiblah Calling the iqamah Standing before Allah Making the intention And then now we're ready to say the Taqibir of the Ahram And one thing the scholars mention is good Is to recite Surat al-Nas That's recommended So It's one of the ways to help you from Waswasa The whisperings of shaitan Is it just before you enter into your prayer Recite Surat al-Nas Okay, so then we're going to say the Taqibir of the Ahram So the Taqibira Is a single instance of saying Allahu Akbar And the idea of Ihram here is Just as we say Is the state of pilgrim's sanctity Once you make the intention To enter into a state of pilgrim's sanctity Certain things that are permissible are now Haram Certain things now Once you enter into the prayer Allahu Akbar The moment before you say that they're permissible You can talk, you can eat You can move, however you want to move But once you say As You can't talk, you can't eat You can't do other things Laugh This is a time to stand before Allah Surah An-Nadat And you shouldn't be Texting on your phone or anything else I always remember the story that one of our teachers said That he actually saw someone Answer his That cell phone in prayer So he pulls out his cell phone and he says Oh, suddenly I'm praying And he put his cell phone away I'm gonna do that, that would actually Break your prayer So when you say Allahu Akbar Is that They say that by lifting your hands You're making intention to throw the dunya behind your back Khalas The world, you throw it behind your back completely You're reading yourself of it Allahu Akbar And When you say this, that we need to make sure We should strive, at least That nothing is greater to us Than Allah Nothing is greater to us Than Allah So that when our tongue says Allahu Akbar Our heart does not belay it If there's anything In our hearts in that moment that is greater To us than Allah Then we're not truthful In our saying of Allahu Akbar Even though that's truth And so if your desires Have more power over you Than the commandment of Allah And so forth and so on And you're more obedient to them Than you are to Allah Than you have taken them as a god With a lower case G And pronounced the tekbir for them And so that when we say Allahu Akbar This is an opportunity for us to Have complete concentrations We enter into our prayer And one of the blessings is At every stage of the prayer We're saying Allahu Akbar So we really want to reflect Upon the points of Allahu Akbar And to make sure we bring that meaning To heart when we say it Because it's a way to get us Back so if our mind Starts thinking about other things In the standing position Is that when we go into the bank We're going to say Allahu Akbar And when we come out we say When we go into sujood we say Allahu Akbar It's a way to always bring yourself back So use the Allahu Akbar As a way to be present With Allah throughout your prayer Bring yourself back Your mind strays bring yourself back From the beginning of the prayer Until the end And then In some schools there is What's called the opening supplication This is in the Shafi school And the Hanafi school have their Both have their versions of And the Maaliki school of course In a far to prayer they're saying Allahu Akbar And immediately saying Alhamdulillah And these are the valid differences Of the great imams But in the Shafi school You are saying Allahu Akbar Alhamdulillah And then you're saying What jahadu wa jalallili Fattara samwati walat I turned my face to him who created the heavens In the earth In other words you are now Directing your heart to Allah And this is one of the Most special moments of all in life Are those moments Where we are present with Allah In the state of Iqbal And the meaning of being in the state of Iqbal Is that you are directing your heart to Allah Aware Fully that he sees you Subhanahu wa ta'ala And with the requisite Lowliness and humility And brokenness that we should have With Allah Prayer is deep It's deep And we have to work on our prayer And practice our prayer It's like anything else You, Stephen Curry did not become the best Three-point shooter ever Just because he's the son of Dale Curry He has incredible work I think Day in and day out Day in and day out Always trying to perfect his craft And his skills We'll do this for dunya How much more should we be doing this for the hereafter? This takes work to perfect this Prayer takes work To perfect it It's not enough to do this This takes work And we have to make it a priority But there's nothing more important for us to perfect Than our prayers This is what we want to perfect And we want to get this right So The opening supplication According to our school The intention there is we're directing Our essence to Allah And then We're saying This is known as the Ta'awud We are seeking refuge In Allah from Shaitan And one of the wisdoms of the ta'awud Is We realize That we are unable to protect Our own selves Except to the power of Allah We cannot be protected Unless Allah protects us Shaitan is our avowed enemy Whom we do not see And the only way to protect ourselves From Shaitan is to Turn to Allah Ta'awud In seek his help And to take refuge in him And Then Allah Ta'awud Will assist us So it's a very powerful meaning When we say it like that We're seeking But again all of these meanings Always are taking us back to Allah They always take us back to Allah Awli Billah Seeking refuge in Allah from Shaitan And then we're going to recite The Fatiha And again we want to outwardly learn How to recite the Fatiha correctly And sit with someone who's trained In tajweed to get your recitation Correct at least According to the bare minimum Again we want to really reflect upon Learn the basic meanings That we can reflect upon as we're reciting The Fatiha Of course the Fatiha is an ocean But there are basic meanings that we can bring to mind As we are reciting So when we say We bring to heart That we know that Absolutely everything is from Allah In addition to that We begin In his name seeking his help Some say that bad is for isti'ana Seeking the help of Allah So Bismillahirrahmanirrahim Everything is from Allah Seeking his help And everything that we do That we have deep Seated gratitude on our hearts For all of Allah's blessing All of his blessings And we praise him And then And again We've already said Bismillahirrahmanirrahim And now we're even repeating a second time Emphasizing the centrality And the importance of mercy Is that we bring to heart The comprehensive mercy of Allah In all of the meanings that the scholars say Of Al-Rahman and Al-Raheem Maliki yawmi ddin And now this is where It's Jalal So it goes from Jalal to Jalal That Maliki yawmi ddin That he is the king Of the day of judgement Yawmi ddin And so we bring to heart Fear of the standing Before Allah Before the king on the day of reckoning And then we say Iyaka na'budu Iyaka na'budu You alone do we worship So we renew our sincerity Iyaka na'budu And so imagine if we're actually present with Allah With that meaning in our prayer We do these 17 times a day In the Fahd prayers How that will help us to have sincerity In everything that is that we do And actually renew our sincerity Before every act Iyaka na'budu And that we also That second part of that verse And we're aware of our absolute need Of Allah Now we seek His help Iyaka ddin is said also in Al-Rahman and Al-Raheem Guide us to the straight path And then we're asking for guidance But then We know that There are people that He has guided that he's bestowed his favor upon Those are the people who want to be like In here What are we Intending So we say Those who you bestowed your favor upon And we know In another verse Allah Ta'ala says So again there's a mention of Allah has bestowed his grace upon them From the Nabiyeen and Siddiqun Four categories So what is our intention None of us can be prophets But when we say Where is our aspiration Do we just want to be good Or is our aspiration to be Is our aspiration to be from the Salah Is our aspiration to be from the Shuhada Or is our aspiration to be from the Siddiqun We should make the intention To that Allah Ta'ala make us From the elect of the elect of His creation And that we want To not just be from The lower ranks of those that he's bestowed his favor upon But those who have high ranks So we should make that intention Every time we recite the Fatiha So Then The two main archetypes Of misguidance The Those who have incurred Allah's wrath They know but they fail to put into practice And the Those who go astray without knowledge Those are the main two archetypes Of the different ways that people go astray And then we're going to Proceed after that two recitation Of the Quran And The other place that he speaks about Three degrees of recitation The lowest of which is two Bring to mind that we are standing before Allah We're reciting before Allah The second is Is that We bring to mind that Allah Ta'ala Is addressing us Individually And of course the first one That was addressed was the prophet So I said it by extension That others Are addressing us Directly with his words And then the third is one Where someone moves up in the degree of the spiritual realization Where Is that they witness The one speaking in The speech And that's a lofty spiritual state We speak about it Because we want to know that it exists And we love the people who have attained that great degree And were inspired by their stories So we strive to ascend To the degrees of recitation And Then we after this Is that when we recite And this is really helpful And actually it will be turned into a whole other seminar In of itself And in fact the next retreat that we're having Is on Book 8 Of the book Of the etiquettes of recitation Of Quran We'll go into a little bit more detail What he mentions here fairly briefly On small things that we can use As tools to help us reflect And so he says that every time That you see a command in the Quran The etiquette is that you Have resolved to put into practice Every time that you see a prohibition In the Quran You have resolved to avoid it Every time you see a promise in the Quran Is that you have hope That you are from those that Are recipients of that promise Every time that there's a warning In the Quran there's fear Every time that there's an admonition Is that you take heed The stories of the prophets You learn the lessons that are behind those That every time there's a mention Of his blessings upon us Is that you show gratitude And so it's meant that as we recite the Quran That all of this is coming Out of our heart This is how we're responding To the words of Allah So then after that we're going to go To a very bowing position And look at how SubhanAllah said How the closest that a servant is To his Lord is When he's in a state of prostration And how you're in the state of standing And then you go into the bowing state And This is a state where now We are humbling ourselves Before Allah And this is a great opportunity For us to show our reverence In all of him The powerful king subhanahu wa ta'ala And to glorify him And this is what we say And Bring into heart that we are bowing Humbly before him While glorifying him Then we're standing up And we're straightening up And that we're saying Saying that Allah ta'ala That responds To those who praise him Those who praise him Allah responds to them He answers their call That he subhanahu wa ta'ala Shows his mercy to his lowly servants Arabic Arabic Allah hears us And he answers our prayer Arabic So we're going back up Arabic And now we're preparing ourselves The position where we're closest to our Lord Now we say Allah Akbar And we go into Sujood And if we have humility In the bowing position, this is when we are in The utmost state Of humility Completely broken in Feel the absolute need of Allah We should love Sujood Sujood should be Beloved to us Allah And from the blessing of Allah He gives us an opportunity to go into Sujood And we've been prepared for that From everything that precedes And this is where we show our utmost Humility to him And then We come out of Sujood And we sit In that reverent way That we're taught to sit And there's du'as that we can say I don't believe it There's du'as that have been narrated by the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam But then now to emphasize the importance Of Sujood, we go back a second time Sujood could have only been once But Allah made us Prostrate twice in our prayer So Other humility, we come out And then again We prostrate again Repeating what it is That we said in the previous Sujood Then if it is the Depending upon what cycle of prayer it is We're going to go into the Tashahud The Tashahud Is the testification of faith And it's here In the Tashahud That we're reminded Of how we got the prayer in the first place The greatness of prayer One of the Again, ways that we can come to this Is how was the prayer revealed Where did we get the prayer We've all heard this probably Many times before When our Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Was in the divine presence Where no one else Went before him or after him And even Gabriel alayhi sallam Couldn't go with him In the divine presence And so the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Comes back from the divine presence With the gift of prayer And the prayer is The ascension of the believer That meaning is correct It's the way that we ascend And so when we say that The Tashahud The Tashahud Is that now this shows The connection to the Me'raj of the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Now how this is an individual Opportunity for you and I To be present with the Prophet To be present with the Prophet To be present with the Prophet To be present with the Prophet To be present with Allah To add and to ascend Through the prayer And so we should learn all of those details Of the meanings of the Tashahud And then of course That we, a part of that Tashahud As-Shalallahu alayhi wa sallam As-Shalallahu alayhi wa sallam We testify to the oneness of Allah And we bear witness that our Prophet Is the Messenger of Allah And we're sitting in that unique position With our right foot up With the most adab and manners Proclaiming that all the prayers All the good and all that Wholesome things that we May do belong ultimately To Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala And then After this We're going to send Salawat upon the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam And You as That they mention Is that you visualize The noble person of the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam In your heart And send salutations to him With love and longing to be with him Allah would have not put The salam to the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam In the heart and that's what he wanted you to focus on And in fact that we say As-Salamu alayka We're not saying As-Salamu alayhi We're saying peace be upon you Which is the kafir khitab The second person Peace be upon you And that's what Allah wants you to focus on In that moment And this indicates The importance of the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam And everybody else in prayer While you're praying if someone sends salams to you You just wave to them But we're someone to have lived During the time of the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam And were he to said Salam alaykum To them While they're in prayer It's an obligation to return his salam And there's deep Deep spiritual meaning there Deep spiritual meaning there And this actually happened Where the Prophet sent salams and asked And why didn't you return the salams to me Even if you're in prayer Before Allah And Rasulullah sent salams You have to return the salams to me There's deep meanings there And people that are Masaqeen That are cut off from these Loki meanings Of love and connection to the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam And who don't understand These types of things are cutting themselves off From one of the most important things Of all in this religion And unfortunately If we don't have those connections Let alone that if we deny them Is that this is Preventing us from Withstanding the onslaught of the evil At any time but especially in the end of time These are Meanings that are foundational To help us withstand as believers That the onslaught of the events Of the end of time especially And more specifically Ta'ala connecting our hearts to the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Loving him Having an intimate relationship With him Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam And that sending abundant salawat upon him Reading his life story And recognizing that he is alive In his grave And the only thing between us And meeting with him is death and dying in a good state This is how the companions were This is how we want to be This is the reality of this Dean And so That when we're sending these Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam That we are imagining the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam That sending these blessings upon him In peace on him with love And longing And then there's some beautiful supplications That have been narrated about what it is that we say That towards the end Of the prayer And this is a time where Dua is mustajab It's a time where prayers are answered It's a time to supplicate to Allah And to turn to him Subhanahu wa ta'ala And then We make Tasleem We say Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam And there's different ways of doing this In the different schools But in the Shafi schools Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Making the intention to Exit the prayer But to also greet the angels Who are present from the believers And so this is the way that we Exit the prayer And now Once we say in the Shafi school Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Even though it's recommended to say more In the Shafi school, your prayer is finished It's recommended to say And then another Tasleem To the left But then the important thing here Is how we are right after the prayer We don't want to be from Once the prayer is so many, so many Right and we're off Right, this is a time That mercy descends This is a time where There's Sakina There is that A lot of Tranquility in these moments We don't, we want to Remain in our spots for a minute And that We want to bring to heart That that might have been the last prayer And What is the first thing to do That soon after the prayer is to say Astaghfirullah, astaghfirullah You just pray that you're saying Astaghfirullah Teaching us to be broken before Allah Even if we've done something that's good And we Combine between the two Emotions of fear and hope We hope that our prayer is accepted That we fear that it's been rejecting And so immediately after the prayer As we're doing our invocations Like how we should be after the day of fasting This is a time that you're present with Allah Now on one hand you're thankful For Allah having enabled you to pray Having fasted that day But at the same time you're between fear and hope You don't know if it's going to be accepted Or you don't know if it's going to be rejected And then we ask Allah To accept our prayers And one of the great signs They mentioned about That our prayers have been accepted Is that we've asked Allah to accept them And we want to get in the habit of doing this And all of the different things That we do All the different acts of goodness that we do And so this is how we are after the prayer And then All of these meanings Even though this is a lot And even if you try to implement this Right off the bat Like wow this is overwhelming I can't remember all this In my prayers Start with a few of them But you have to go back to this material Time and time again It's not enough just to go over it one time You'll forget it By Mughal prayer Let alone Isha, let alone tomorrow Let alone after that You'll forget that you want to come back to it Time and time again To remind yourselves Of this and this is what we're all in need of To remind ourselves of these Blessed meanings With that insha'Allah I think that we will wrap it up And Lee we have about a few minutes For questions we didn't Allow any time for Q&A in the previous session So we'll now just a few minutes For questions And we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Bless these to be realities within us And to pray the way that the elect Of his righteous have prayed And to worship in a way that is pleasing to him Subhanahu wa ta'ala And give us insight into this religion And helping one another To be people of taqwa Helping one another to be people of piety As-Salaamu Alaikum Do we have any questions? I think if we would ever Legislate The permissibility of beating Another man in the masjid It would be for that reason It is a really serious thing And It is really incredibly unfortunate That it happens so often Because of the type of clothing that people wear And it's something that we have to Collectively just solve And Yes, I think at first If it happens the first time It's always good to remind our brothers With etiquette and that type of thing But it happens over and over again We should get more and more informed Because it's just so incredibly foul Anyhow, I think everybody knows what she's referring to So I'm not going to be any more explicit But aside from that I think the answer to your question is I think you have to simplify it Right, so Everything that you're learning here We've gone into a little bit of detail I would just simplify it for them Right, some of the The main meanings Just a few main Points of things that you want them to think about Throughout their entire prayer That's what I would do is to simplify this And do kind of a child's version Now, I know that Fons de Tey has A glissati for Prayer for children's series I'm not that familiar with How they treat the prayer But you might want to look into that for some ideas You might get some ideas to help you with that But in general, that would be a recommendation To really simplify it To have them attached to the overarching I was wondering if you could expand A little bit on the significance Of the speed of the Adhan versus the Aqamah Yes, so that the Temd to draw out The Adhan is recommended Right, and really that the Adhan, the purpose there is to let people Know that prayer Is, it's the prayer time Is entered So what's befitting for that is Kind of an extended Adhan in each That word that you say So that those meanings resonate With the hearts of the people Whereas The Aqamah, when you say something Kind of quickly When you recite something, it has a different Effect on you Right, so the fact that it's kind of Like being extended the Adhan Is that gives you ample time To really think about those meanings And to transition into Okay, now it's time for prayer But the idea there is that You're getting ready for the prayer And you're preparing yourself and making And then once you hear the Aqamah Right, it's more like now Prayer is imminent, it's about to happen And prayer is meeting with Allah This is Munajah The intimate conversation with Allah And so that the meaning there As I've understood it Is that it's to create That sense in you of the imminence of something This says when something is done Kind of quickly, it just Readys you internally That situates you For what it is that you're about to do The first question that I have Is about having Wudu inside the bathroom In Palestine for example People used to have Sinks outside the bathroom itself So they can say And recite prayers while Making the Wudu We don't have it here The second thing is It's something that I see in the mosques Where people actually Don't put their feet Exactly next to each other So they don't touch Is that an obligation That the feet touch Feet to feet and shoulder to shoulder Or is it actually permissible that People, because I see laxity In how people do that Yeah Right So the first thing is Is that Yeah Usually that In the way in many of the restrooms That we freshen up in Is that there are stalls Very close to the places that we make Wudu And you will find some scholars who say That the stall itself Inside of it is the bathroom area And then outside of that Is It's permissible to remember a lot Because you're outside of the place Because there's a wall there Even though it's a stall and it's open on the top And it's open on the bottom If it's a room that's closed off As in some bathrooms and some houses have it Definitely if that door is closed Then you're definitely out of the bathroom When you use the sink So you do have that You will find scholars that permit The mentioning of a lot to have Outside of the actual bathroom itself I still personally Choose to do it in my heart Because there are stalls there So There are opinions there But You have a choice there What you want to do there As for the prayer The most important thing is that you line up With people shoulder to shoulder And the hustle is Is that your feet are only supposed to be A hand span apart So I know some people feel like They absolutely have to stretch To touch other people's feet That's not an obligation, definitely So your prayer is valid 100% The most important thing that you want to Align up is you want to make sure Is that your heels Are lined up with everyone else's heels So you're not before people And you're lined up shoulder to shoulder And there are indications Where sometimes people to Make sure it would extend their feet But in general the most important thing Is to line up shoulder to shoulder And you're too far behind or too far ahead Because in some schools they line up with the toes Others by the heels Whatever message you're praying in There should be an understanding Of how it is that people line up for prayer So you make sure that you're in line But it's not an obligation, definitely To make your feet touch their feet And Usually in most of the places that I've been Is that even though with some of those narrations That some of the compounding used to do that Is that the sooner remains That you expand apart Whether you touch the people's feet or not No, they should touch Shoulders should touch Shoulders should touch I had a question regarding The inner states of prayer One of the things I've Struggled with is Like what to think About Or like how to feel throughout the stages Of the prayer and What would you say is like What would you say are people who tend to get Distracted easily Like I guess we're seeing here that you should Have Rajah and Hayah And I think you talked about that That at the end you should have some hope As well as fear And then there's this state of tazim What's like for people who are starting And to progress What's like one or two states That they could just embody to keep it simple So to keep it simple And perhaps I mentioned Naturally come out throughout your prayer If you're focusing On what it is that you're reciting Right, so let's say you're reciting the fatah Right, and That you're saying Bismillahirrahmanirrahim There's definitely going to be tazim In exaltation there Right And then if you say That might be a time as well From among the meanings as you're hoping for His mercy That's fear That's fear A feeling of absolute Helplessness And then Again there's fear And there's hope And that you might even have shame Come there about this, what have I done And then when you recite the chapter of the Quran Depending upon the chapter again Different emotions might come out That's exciting But then in the bowing position Again that's to Al-Din And combine with all In fear And likewise in Sujood But then also to which I'm actually surprised He didn't mention it among those states of The prayer is also love Love is also one of the very important Interstates of heart I'm actually surprised he didn't mention it in the prayer Because that's definitely a part of this Loving Allah When you worship Him That you have love in your heart for Him And so forth So the way I would recommend doing it Is now that you know those six things Go back from the beginning According to the outline here And see which ones fit in where And that will kind of help you Very practically speaking Make that your state As you do those things You have to slow down Well it's like anything else You can always go back to the analogy of sports In order My game was basketball You're going to be a good basketball player You can't think about what you're doing when you're playing But you work on your footwork Separately The laborsome part you just sit there And work on your footwork You work on your defense separately And different things in defense Whether you're closing someone out Or whether it's one on one You're shot, you're working You're shooting off the dribble Or when you're shooting off of a screen Or catch and shoot like all of those are individual skills And you might be good at one and not the other So you have to work On all of those things separately And then in game time You have to just hope You have muscle memory And just you can't think about those things So the same thing as in prayer Is that you have to work on it Piece by piece And then the more energy coming You come together And as you We'll just take One or two other We have a couple online as well Let's do the sister I really like your Suggestion that we pray As a congregation at home But for those of us with young children It gets quite distracting And so if we want to Everything that we learned today Would you recommend we pray in congregation That pray on our own Or focus on this at 6pm in the day My kids are older now So it's less of an issue But I did also have kids that were young And One thing is you have to do your best So we're living in societies Where we often can't practice the ideal And part of learning this Is at least you make the intention I have the intention in my heart To pray every prayer in congregation And keep in mind This is also part of the modern world Is that people don't tend to live with extended families So in traditional settings There were so many people around It was very easy to pray jama'a So the rule of Like only one congregational prayer In your home Is the general rule But if because of children That someone prays In congregations Then that's perfectly fine And it's actually probably advisable If you think that having children Or there's not something that you can Have them do To keep them quiet during the time of prayer That it requires that you be with them That it might be better to have someone Watch the children And then pray a separate congregation After that and have other people watch the children After that And if you can in the midst of that If there's still at least two of you praying Then that's great And so you try to do your best And then try to be creative in terms of How you set up the prayer time Where there's some type of Activity or something like that And that might be One of the times where you give them Minimal use Of something of a device And something tasteful Like we shouldn't always use the devices for that But if you're going to use a device To use something tasteful, that might be a time In a limited faction to do that Okay, sheikh We have a question from some online Viewers about praying while flying Can you give some tips to pray outside at Airports or inside airplanes Also, what if one has to do on an airplane During a long flight other than Where we do socks, is there any other Dispensation? Yeah, so I've never ever felt comfortable giving Telling people that it's okay to pray standing To pray, excuse me, sitting on planes I know you'll find those fatwas out there What I would say is Do your best to pray standing If for some reason, like The seatbelt sign is on and you're about to land And the prayer time just came in Then I would say, okay, pray in your seat And then make it up after But alhamdulillah that my wife and kids We always pray standing on planes Unless it's for some reason That we're unable to do so Or at least we try to Prayer has to come first And alhamdulillah The only planes that I've ever Not been able to stand up on Was always a Muslim plane Which is really strange I've never had a problem ever Praying standing on a non-Muslim plane And I think It is what it is But I would recommend That obviously if you're flying On a smaller plane From a smaller city to another It would be possible to stand up If that's the case, you pray sitting And then you make up your prayer after So I would say that Try first and foremost to Even if you have to pay a little bit more To select your flights According to prayer Okay, so last time I was here That we ended up flying back And we did a red-eye flight What we realized is that we'd have to pray fudger On the plane, so we went through Chicago Intentionally And we prayed fudger And then caught the connecting flight after that And it worked out that way And so try to arrange Your flight schedule so that You can pray and give prayer preference And oftentimes We can do that So then let's just say You're traveling to like Australia It's like the classic one for me Is because you're going to have to pray like four Or sometimes five prayers on the plane You still have to pray It's fairly easy to determine the qiblah Based upon the flight maps And you determine the qiblah And if there's a place for you to pray Just ask them kindly, say I need to pray And usually that it's facilitated And yes, it's very good for both men and women To invest in a pair of wudu socks There's many kinds now They used to only be available In like some Islamic bookstores But now they're even on Amazon Like Randy's Son is a good brand And they're all seen to probably have the same They just probably re-labeled them They seem to be the same manufacturer anyhow I would invest in a pair of those Make sure you have wudu when you put them on And then it's so much easier But even then like if you have to make wudu Put water on your feet I would just recommend just Getting the floor wet So just make wudu, right Getting the floor a little bit wet And then just drying at the end Definitely dry it The times that I've had to wash my feet You just put water in your hand Put your foot over the toilet Wash your foot again Use water again and then it's totally doable And then at the end make sure you clean it out So you don't leave it dirty You just wipe it all up And it's possible to do Although it's a little bit difficult The only plane I've seen that has a drain Is Saudi Arabian Airlines which is really nice Because they actually have a drain in the ground Because they know people are making wudu on it Which is really helpful And one thing I would recommend Is to plan your prayers Plan your flights accordingly And then try to remain in a state Of wudu if possible Wear socks, find a nice place And pray your prayers standing Definitely if you're able to do so One more too, one more? Maybe one last one This brother was asking Thank you Question towards dua Once we finish the prayer If we are in Jama'a Like what we have seen is A couple of times back home People make a long dua and a short dua Sometimes they skip it So what's the rule and what's the recommendation? After prayer Yeah, it's a great time to make dua That's a very decent time And these are the same times Where we have different schools of thought That permit different things And then that There's beautiful culture That comes into play here as well Which is not in conflict with the religion So these things are in general very good And I would recommend Going with the flow in terms of Whatever is the way of doing things In the particular locale that you are And hopefully That will start to develop More and more here And that we have to recognize Not every cultural manifestation is wrong Some of them are valid Legally valid That's an acceptable manifestation Of good innovations So there's a lot of room there But in general this is a very good time To make dua And it's Throughout the Muslim world This is a time that you see people in prayers Right after that So that could be something That I don't know the specific reason For that particular manifestation But It's dua So dua is a good thing And what is the specific reason For after Fajr and after Asr I'm not sure But again our tradition is vast And we want to be very careful Not to deny certain things So I don't know the exact answer to your question But I've seen enough diversity The ways of doing things To not jump to any conclusions And if you would ask them Especially the scholars Where is this coming from I'll talk to you


That would be that in order for people to stay abreast of what currently is acceptable and proper to put in the blue bin. They really should look at the website and and find out there or call I've called before and it's really great to get a live person on the other end of the phone to say, yeah, you know, we can answer your question, boom. So, that's really helpful. I don't see any other hands up. I don't see any other hands. Yeah, Michelle. Looks like Peter has his hand raised. Wow. Yes, hi. Well I'm back. So, I find this topic extremely interesting. And I certainly would encourage everybody to. Visit the merge the current one and certainly when the new one gets built. I have done that. And it's, it's a fascinating window on what happens when you put things into your blue box and where do they go. And so I have voted positively for this bond I think it's an absolutely essential thing. And, you know, it's a, it's a really wonderful opportunity that we have that we can put things in a box out on our street in front of where we live, and the city picks it up. So, I'm really encouraged and excited by this whole aspect. Thanks. Hello, I'm Sarah Reeves, Executive Director of the Chittenden Solid Waste District. Our job at CSWD is to help you make less waste and to help you safely handle the waste that you do produce. We have answers to your questions on recycling, compost, hazardous waste and household trash. CSWD's facilities manage all kinds of materials. Maybe you're familiar with the friendly staff at our drop-off centers where we handle trash, recycling, food scraps and so much more. Or maybe you've brought hazardous waste or leftover paint to the environmental depot. Gardeners may know that Green Mountain Compost is made at CSWD's compost facility from local food scraps and leaves. Half of Vermont's blue bin recycling is processed at CSWD's publicly owned materials recovery facility. We're award-winning educators. We advocate for statewide waste reduction policies and we work with local reuse programs to further those goals. We do all of this without any revenue from property taxes. We're funded by four main sources. These, charge at our facilities, a fee on every ton of Chittenden County trash disposed in the landfill, revenue from selling materials we collect and process, and revenue from products we make, like compost and local color paint. I invite you to find out more about our services and programs by visiting CSWD.net or by giving us a call. Thank you for all you do to reduce your waste and to keep Vermont green. If you're going back to school before you submit your essays. Your blue bin. Think it's just another place to put your household waste? Think again. The things you put in this blue bin are actually valuable resources that are about to embark on an amazing journey we call recycling. This plastic bottle, when it falls into the bin, it's about to take a magic carpet ride to a new life. It could become another bottle or something like this fleece. This is the first stop on the journey. CSWD's materials recovery facility, or MRF for short. Thanks to you, more than 80 million pounds of recyclables are processed in this building each year. They go through a wild series of spinning discs, speeding conveyor belts, whirling magnets. It's sort of like a Willy Wonka factory for recyclables. When they come out the other side, they're shipped off to market to be made into new products. Come into this building. We call it the tip floor. That's because this is where trucks literally tip their recyclables out onto the floor. It can look like quite a mess, but that's only because the MRF hasn't worked its magic yet. Another machine, a skid steer or a loader, pushes it all onto the first conveyor belt, where it heads up the hill and into the pre-sort room. The pre-sort room is where the first line of workers take off bags of shredded paper for special handling. They also take out items that made it into your bin by mistake, like styrofoam, plastic bags, and hazardous materials. It takes concentration in quick hands, but it's important to get these contaminants out now. Contaminants lower the value of recyclables and they can get caught into the machinery or even injure workers. Cardboard is the first material to be sorted.  After the cardboard, glass is next. Your recyclables go through something called a bottle breaker, which does exactly what it sounds like. It crushes glass into small pieces. That crushed glass falls through a screen onto its own special conveyor. The rest of your recyclables are still on the move. They're heading for two more sorting screens. We call paper, like newspaper and office paper, fibers. These items float on top of the screens, while containers, like plastic bottles and metal cans, bounce down the hill. The fibers head for a conveyor where workers pull out box board and cardboard for separate recycling. And they pull off any trash that might have sneaked by the first steps. The plastic and metal containers are headed for a special machine called the ballistic screen, whose rows of paddle arms weed out any leftover fibers and drop the containers onto their own conveyor. The workers on the next line are looking for plastic containers like jugs, tubs and bottles. These plastics may end up as plastic or composite lumber, bottle caps, or even fleece sweaters. Each worker on this line is looking for a different type of plastic to sort, and each type of plastic needs to be kept separate. That's because every type of plastic is different. Companies that buy the kind of plastic used in water and soda bottles, for example, don't want other plastics. The color of the plastic can also make a difference. A colorless plastic milk jug is worth more because it can be made into more things than one that has been colored or in your blue. Next up, metal. Ferris metals, or metals with iron in them, are in for a fun ride as they pass under a high-powered electromagnet, which lifts them off the conveyor and drops them down a chute into a bunker below. The last sorter on the line is looking for aluminum. Aluminum cans, aluminum pipe hands, big balls of aluminum foil, and those products will be recycled into just about any other product you can think of, made of aluminum. Aluminum siding, engine parts, or another aluminum. After all, the paper, plastics, and metal are sorted out. They're each billed into giant cubes that weigh up to 1,700 pounds apiece. These bails will be loaded onto tractor-trailer trucks and sold to companies that will recycle them into new products. These bails are worth a lot of money. Some are worth $30, some are worth more than $700. Each year, the MRF sells an average of $4 million worth of recyclables. But wait, we're not done yet. Remember that bottle breaker? Well, that broken glass took an exciting trip of its own past vacuums, fans, and magnets that picked out any paper, plastic, or metal bits that may have gotten mixed in. The glass then goes through a spinning cylinder called a trommel, and the end product is used in road building projects and in drainage projects. That's the end of this part of the amazing journey we call recycling. If you were a newspaper or a plastic bottle, your journey would have taken you only a half an hour from door to door. If you ever have a question about what you can recycle in Chittenden County, check out our A to Z list on cswd.net or give us a call at 872. Yes, we have one from Peter. Yes, Peter Sale Burlington. So those videos where I found very informative, it prompted me to ask two questions. Totally different. I believe that black plastic is currently not accepted in the blue bins because of its difficulty in recycling it. Is that because of the dye that's used to make it black? And it prompted me to think, why isn't there a use for that plastic? Because, I mean, we all use it in one degree or another and of course have to throw it out. But I would think things like plastic furniture for your lawn or deck that is low maintenance to no maintenance. Seems like it could be used for something like that. And, you know, any number of other uses. So that's one question and comment. My second one is, I remember reading, it was either in seven days or a VT digger article, probably within the last year about an incidence of PFOAs being found in compost. And of course, nobody wants that. But I wondered if CSWD tests for that in your compost. And if not, if there are measures forthcoming to do that. Thank you. Thank you.


You just heard from Trump supporters who still believe 18 months after January 6th that the 2020 election was stolen. I mean, some things truly never change. So that was a snippet from CNN's Donio Sullivan reporting at two competing rallies in Arizona. One rally featured Donald Trump and candidates that he endorsed and another rally featured Mike Pence and different candidates that he endorsed. So they both endorsed competing candidates here.  Let's watch. At Trump's rally, a bonfire of conspiracy theories. And saw things that it wasn't what they say it was. But there's been hundreds of Trump supporters now charged. I don't know if I've said guilty. So and do you think it's right for those people to have those people in jail and not getting any justice in our American system? Are you kidding me? Do you think it was right that they attacked the Capitol? I don't. They didn't. That was an inside job, buddy. That conspiracy theory that those who stormed the Capitol were not Trump supporters is widespread here. Have you guys been watching the January 6th hearings at all? No. No. No, we saw it when it all went down and then we saw like a lot of the BLM and the Antifa people in the building as well and and it's just it's just nonsense as well. But I think like 800 people now have been charged, right? Yeah. None of them are Black Lives Matter or Antifa. Yeah, that doesn't mean anything. Correctly, they have not been brought into court for their due process because they have not been arrested. Hunter Biden hasn't been arrested. Trump has told lies about the election in that he said he didn't really lose. Do you think that all the lies about the election are damaging for American democracy? You believe he lied? Do you not? No, I do not. I don't. Why? He won. But these are no longer fringe ideas. A majority of Republicans do not believe Biden's legitimacy won the election. I don't trust our government, first of all, period. And if you don't have fair elections, what good are they? Do you ever worry that you're wrong? Do you ever worry that... Oh, absolutely. Do you ever worry that maybe Trump has sold you a lie? Yes. If you start researching and believe that you're the one who's wrong and that you're crazy, which I did do, thinking, OK, maybe I'm wrong and maybe I am being brainwashed and believing something that someone's telling me.  So that last couple there is really interesting because for a moment, it was brief, but just for a moment, they became self-aware and thought, wait, maybe we're the brainwashed ones. I mean, in a way, I want to give her a little bit of credit, not too much, but a tiny bit of credit for being introspective. Was it for a second? Yes. But she was, nonetheless, introspective. And if the light pierced through the clouds for a second, maybe there's hope for her. Maybe one day she could become self-aware and permanently escape the delusions. But it's hard to say. It's interesting because she talks about how, well, I started to question myself, but then I looked into the other side and I just found more lies, lie after lie after lie, except the problem is that you found more people that confirmed your existing bias. Perhaps you strayed a little bit far from your delusions and then you felt cognitive dissonance. So for purposes of mental comfort, you retreated and you set out sources that affirmed the beliefs that you were already predisposed to have. I don't really know, but I mean, the fact that for a second, she was like, maybe I'm brainwashed and maybe everyone else isn't brainwashed and maybe we're the ones who are in the wrong. That's really interesting because I haven't seen that before. It's pretty binary in terms of what I've experienced based on, you know, different reporting.  So it's just weird that you can see the light and then you just, you go back into the cave. It's astonishing. Now also, the other lady was really interesting because you could tell that she was one of the more delusional people that Donnie had spoken to because she claimed that she's watching the January 6 hearings, which I don't believe, but she said that they are bullshit. Why? Well, because, you know, it didn't happen. Her response, like that hubris when she spoke to Donnie O'Sullivan. Oh, you believe that happened?  And he says, well, I was there. I mean, to accept what these people are saying, you literally have to deny empirical reality.  Oh, what's that? You see a bunch of raving lunatics storming the Capitol on January 6th. Well, that didn't happen, actually. Maybe it was CDI. Maybe we all imagined it. But they're just they're wrong. But then she kind of had to backtrack a little bit and claim, OK, it happened. But I know people who say it's not really the way that it was portrayed or it didn't happen the way that it portrayed. I'm paraphrasing her, of course.  You can't have a reasonable conversation with people if they exist and operate on a different plane than us. Like their reality is completely different than the reality that all of us experience. So how do you have a conversation with that person? How do you bring them back to reality? I don't think you can.  And that might be the only hope for them, even if it sounds crass and dickish, that's the only thing that you can do.  And maybe that'll work. Maybe it won't work. I'd argue it probably won't work on most of them.  Assuming there's any brain cells left that will be able to rub together. It's not like I want to do this. I would rather have a civilized conversation with these people. I mean, when I say want to, I don't want to, but I would rather us collectively as a society be able to speak to these people on just normal human terms as functioning adults are capable of doing. But you can't hear you just you clearly cannot. They've demonstrated they are incapable of having of having logical conversations, having reasonable conversations because they're they're delusional. So you can't talk to these people. They're too far gone. So you can either try to shame them or just ignore them. That's it. Now, I love the same couple who had a moment of clarity. They tried to blame this on BLM and Antifa, but they were caught like deer in headlights when Donio Sullivan said there's been 800 arrests. Not a single one of them have been from BLM or Antifa.  So there's always going to be some answer to a fact that's presented before them. But I mean, that should be really damning if you're trying to be objective as that woman was trying to be objective. They both conceded that they've contemplated whether or not they were wrong at some point. So could you also not think, hmm, maybe this is a little bit weird that there's no evidence that Antifa and BLM were there. And it was all Trump supporters. I mean, they don't think that's the problem. There's no critical thinking skills there. And when there is a brief moment of self-awareness from these Trump supporters, they retreat back into their metaphorical caves. So, yeah, let's get to the Penn supporters. Still delusional, but leagues, leagues, leagues more rational than Trump supporters. You believe the 2020 election was stolen? No, I don't believe the 2020 election was stolen. I believe that there are aspects of the 2020 election that were unfair. I voted for Trump twice if Mike Pence runs and vote for Mike Pence. OK, so why is that? I just think that, you know, everyone's seen the January 6th committee. He stood up for democracy that day.  And he was the one that was making phone calls to the military and trying to fix the situation while Trump was crying in the dining room. But even among this crowd, there is sympathy for Trump's election lies and support for a 2024 run. You're about to see Pence speak here. Trump's not a big fan of him right now. I understand that I hear that he could have not certified those results, depending on all the claims of the fraud, and I wish he would have done that. It doesn't matter if he was stolen or not. If the Republicans want to take back the House and take back the Senate and then eventually the White House, they need to move on. He makes a pretty interesting point that I agree with, actually. He says, even if you agree, the election is stolen, you have to move on because it's hurting the party. And he's absolutely correct about that. Now, he I'm assuming he was moved a little bit by the January 6th hearings, and the reason why he was at the Mike Pence rally was because he supports Mike Pence because he views Mike Pence as a hero, as a sort of savior of democracy. And on one hand, I'm happy that he came ultimately to the correct conclusion that the election was not stolen. But on the opposite side of the same coin, I hate that the way that Trump supporters are reaching this conclusion is by deifying. Mike Pence by deifying ghoulish individuals like Liz Cheney.  But I mean, is there some way that we can like find some middle ground to where you don't deify Mike Pence as a savior of democracy because he literally did nothing. In fact, he aided and abetted Trump for a large portion of that. And he had no authority to overturn the election.  So is there any middle ground where you can agree that Mike Pence at least acknowledges reality with regard to the election?  So there are issues with reality there. But either way, like, can we at least agree that he was correct about the election, but still not a great figure? Well, no, because even if you get these Trump supporters to admit that Trump lost the election, they're going to gravitate to some other horrible candidate, a fascist like Ron DeSantis, a Christophascist like Mike Pence.  But I think that there is a discernible difference between Trump supporters who are living in some alternate reality in their own heads and the people who just have odious views that I vehemently disagree with. I would much rather try to deal with those people than the Trump supporters who are completely delusional, because at least the folks like that Mike Pence supporter, I feel like you can probably have a conversation about him about our beliefs. I can tell him why his views on abortion and gay marriage and health care and the economy are wrong. And, you know, he would probably disagree, but at least you could have that conversation.  So there is a difference there. And I don't think that it's, you know, good or wise for the left to try to obscure those differences, because it does exist. Even if it does seem marginal to us from an ideological standpoint, but either way, if Republicans gravitate towards more sanity, even if they're still out of this world and extremist, I'll take that over the Trump supporters who are just.  I don't know what else to say. How else to describe it?  Good job getting to watch his videos before everyone else is tremendous. Many people are saying this. Join today, folks. You won't regret it.