Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim, Alhamdulillah, Al-Rabbi Al-'Alamin, Al-Salaat wa-Salaam, Al-Sayyid al-Mursalin, Al-Ali, Al-Sahb Al-Main, Al-Rahmat Al-Qiyay'al, Al-Rahman ar-Rahim. One of the things that I wanted to address is, this title, A Journey to Eternity. And life is a journey and we always take journeys and there's a beginning point and there's an end point. We want to get to a destination. So when we go, if we live in San Francisco, say if we want to go to Los Angeles, we start from San Francisco and then we end up in Los Angeles. And on the way, there's, you know, Vesta points and gas stations and places we stop and we reflect and we kind of relax and have tea and coffee and all that stuff. That is, in reality, our life is a journey like that. We have a few stops here and there and then we get to the destination. So the great Quranic question is, Fa'ainat al-Haboon, where then are you going? So, O human being, where are you going? Where do you think you're going? And this is a great question that many of the Gnostics, many of the spiritual masters and all of the scholars, they were constantly grappling with this idea of where am I going? Where have I come from? So Maulana Rumi said, Ruzha Fikre Maninas Wahama Shab Sokhanaam. Sorry, I just wanted to fix this. He said, Ruzha Fikre Maninas Wahama Shab Sokhanaam Ke Chara Ghaafil Az-Zahwale Dilik Hishdanaam. He said, all day and all night, I sit and I think and I reflect about this thing. Why am I unaware of the state of my inner being, my heart, my soul? Because the heart and soul are saying things. They're singing a song and they're telling us something but we can't hear it because we're disconnected. As kuja oma da'am, oma da'am bahre chibum. Bak kuja mi'ramam, okhir nan umo'i wa'tanam. Where have I come from? Where am I at? And where am I going? Well, you show my place of permanent residency because he knew that he's not in this world as a permanent resident. None of us are here as a permanent resident.  We got our visa, we came here. We're here for a period of time and then we depart. So he said, then he realized this. He said, I know who I am. Murgh-e-bogh-in-malakuta ni'amaz ala maqaq. Chanruzi kapasi saaqtan az badanam. He said, I am a bird from the meadows of paradise. I'm a bird from paradise. I'm not from this planet made out of dirt. That's not where I'm from. This soul of mine, they have put it in this cage, this body, for just a few days to carry the soul. Right? It's just a cage. This is what it is. So then he says, y'allah, show me my place. How did I get here? But the great question that Rumi's asking, how do I get back to where I'm supposed to be? How do I get to this destination that Allah has decreed for me? He said, man bahut naumada minjaw. I didn't come here by myself. I didn't come here. I was brought here. So since I didn't come here, there's no way I can find my way back. You can only find your way back from a place that you came and you're okay, I can make, I know where I came from. I can go back. But he's saying, no, no, I was brought here. Who has brought me? Allah has brought me here, right? Onkyu allah mad-al-bos, but al-tawatanam. The one who has brought me here, surely he will take my hand and take me back to my watan, to my place of permanent residency. Where? Divine presence. And this is the rule of life. That you have to know, these are the questions, the great question we ask and from this question. See, Rumi said, har kuja muskil jabab onjarabat. He said, whatever there are difficulties, that is what the answer will go. If you have difficult questions, answer will go. Go, the answers will come, right? Answer will come. He said, har kuja kishtis ab onjarabat. He said, whatever there's boats, the water goes there where the boats are, right? You build a boat, the water will come, right? When Nuh, alaihi salam, built a boat, there was not a flood, right? So this is how, so in order to find a way home, real home, right? We must connect with Allah. And that connection is through love. We must love Allah. We must love Allah because there is a one button home, GPS that we have inside of us. It's called the heart. And Rumi said, eish k astur laa bi astur laa bi khudas. Love is the spiritual GPS to the mysteries of God. Love is the spiritual GPS to the mysteries of God. So this one button home, you press it, and it takes you right there, from here to the divine presence. From here to the divine presence. But we have to know where we came from. We have to, if you don't know where you came from, you won't know where you're going. And this is a journey of the human being. It begins, most of us we think it begins here on planet earth, but that's not where it starts. It began before the creation of human being, before the creation of Adam, alaihi salam. When Allah created the soul of the human being. So all our soul, all the souls of human being from Adam, alaihi salam to us, our children, our grandchildren, all the way to the end of time till the last person, all of the souls were created and Allah has gathered all of them, right?  And Allah asked us, this is a day in the Quran, this is a day that it actually happened with, ahad Rabbuka min bani Adam, min bani Adam, min duhurihim, duriyatuhum, when you're Lord, right? And when your Lord brought forward the descendant of Adam, the children of Adam from Islam, all of them, all of the children of Adam were brought forward and then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala brought them and put them in front, all of them in one area, right? And they say it's in the valley in the Mount Arafa, where Arafa is when you go to Hajj, right? So, and what did it say? What did Allah say? Allah said, alastu bi rabbikum halu bala shahidna. Am I not your Lord? Am I not your Lord? They said, bala, yes indeed you are.  And this is why atheism is an alien thing in the history of human creation because our souls have already testified to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, they testified and they say, yes, you are our Lord. How could we not now say, oh God doesn't exist? And this is one of the tragedies of our time with atheism because people, the people who believe in God and majority of the people on this planet, Alhamdulillah, they all believe in God, majority of the people, why do we believe in God? Something we haven't seen, something we can't taste, we can't see this, you know, there's no senses. People say, oh, if you don't see it, how do you believe in it? Because our souls saw it, our souls saw God, the light of God on this day, Yomul alas, the day of alas, the day of affirmation. And we all said, yes, you are our Lord. This is the first, it's the first stage, there's five lives in the human being. This is the first life of the human being. This is before the creation of the earth. This is before the creation of Adam and his son. This is when Allah created only the souls of the human being. So Allah asked, we said, we all said, yes, you are, right? Why did Allah do that? He's answering here. In takulu yawm al qiyamah, inna kunna anhaada khayafilim. We did so, lest you should say, on the day of judgment, on the day of resurrection, we were unaware of this. I didn't know. So you can't say you didn't know because your soul knows. How did we connect to our soul to get that knowledge back into our heart, into our mind, into our bodies? This is the journey. This is why it's important to know where we came from and how we were created. So Allah created the souls first. We were in divine presence and we testified that you are our Lord. This is the first life and it was a long time. Millenias and millennias, it went on. Until then Allah created the earth and the heavens and the plants and the minerals and the animals and then the human being in the form that we are right now. Adam was created and then his spirit came in. From this place that the Yomul alas happened came into the body of Adam. And this is when the second life of the human being begins in this world. So what happened when we were in the womb of our mother? When we were in the womb of our mother, something happened. Maulana Rumi said that when the X and Y chromosome or XX chromosome for a girl or for a boy, they come together. It's a place called Nafir. It's right next to the womb. It's called Nafir in Arabic and English for salpents. And then from there it moves into the womb. He said, in the Nafir, when you became something in existence, the XY chromosome got together and you became a male or you became a female. In that moment he said, He said, From the moment I got cut off from this place where I was in a divine presence, I got cut off and this soul came into the womb of the mother into the womb and went into the Nafir. He said, the first cry began there. That's when we start our first cry. He said, Subhanallah, I left a place of perfection, a place of tranquility and beauty and everything was just happening perfectly. Now I'm here, right? I need the umbilical cord and all of these, this is a separation from Allah. So the first time human being shed tears according to Rumi is in the womb of the mother. And then we come in, we are born. What is the first thing that the baby do when they're born? They cry. Why did they cry? Because now they're distant even more from Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. It's crying out of just being from the station of Qurba closeness to the station of distancing themselves. Now realizing that we are on this planet earth. So what is this planet earth where you come in? In this earth, you have three life, three stages of life.  That's for every one of us, right? If you're lucky to go through the stations of life. If you're lucky. So you go through, what do we do here in childhood? We memorize. We learn adab manners, right? We observe our elders to see how did they walk? How did they talk? This is how you learn adab from your elders. Like we were never taught a book on adab. We were never taught a book on adab. We were taught, we just looked at our parents and our uncles and the teachers and we learned manners from them. So then these are the years that you memorize. Things that you memorize when you're young. You would never forget things you memorize in the old days. It's like riding on the beach and the water comes in, it's gone, right? On the sand on the beach. So in the young age, just like carving on the stone, I still remember poems that I memorized when I was five, six years old. And I would never forget them, inshallah. But the things I memorized recently, it comes in, it goes out. So what is this life of this world? What are the great poets of India, Abdul Qadir Bidil, who has Diwan in Persian and Farsi? He summarized the entire life of human being in one line. He said, He said, He said, No, my friend that this night of youthful night of yours, right? It will turn into a dawn of old age. People when they're young, they don't think they can get over, they will get old. They think they will be young forever. This youth and this energy will be there forever. But they don't know that this is gonna be gone. He said, when you start a fire, he said, it starts with smoke and then it becomes a flame, gentle flame and then the flame rises, right? And then the flame goes down and then it becomes just cold. And then it becomes ashes, gray and then done. That is our life. We are like fire. When you first start, when you first come into the world, we can't see anything. Like human being, the eyes can't see. They see everything blurry children. Everything is blurry. What happened when the start of fire and smoke comes out? Everything is blurry. Like when you make barbecue, right? The smoke makes everything blurry is, you can't see it. That's childhood. That's the start of the fire. Then a little bit of fire. You can put your hand on it and get warm. That's like the first few years of your child, right? You're there two, three, four, five, six, seven. It's beautiful. You hug them, they come to you, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? And then the fire gets higher. And then it's the teenage years, right? They become like fire. You can go a little bit closer. You feel like you're getting burned, right? And then what happens? Old age, the fire goes back down. It goes back down. And it becomes gentle. It's old age.  You need glasses. You can't see anymore. Everything is fuzzy now, right? And then what happened? Gray hair comes. That's ashes. The fire goes down. And it becomes ashes. And then it's gone. This is the life of a human being. Start a fire, let it end, and observe it, and see your life in it. Because that is how quickly you will pass. So this is the life of this world. So this world, what can this world give us, right? Suri Ahmed Zarukh said that, this is what he learned from Junaid al-Baghdadi. He said, that a dunya adar al-hammin wa gammin wa abtila'in wa fitna, that dunya can give you only grief, depression, tribulation, and strife. That's all it can give you. Look at our lives. Look at our lives. Those of us like, if you were born and raised in Afghanistan and came to this country, what did you experience? Ham, gam, abtila, fitna. Just wars, depression, sadness, civil strife. That's all we experience in here, right now. There are people that are worried about their children. There are people who are worried about their health. There are people who are worried about their finances. There are people who are worried about their siblings that they can't visit, about their parents, that they're in another state, another country. It's always ham and ham. Anxieties are always there. You can't get rid of it, because as long as you're in this world, this is what the world can give you. But now, Maulana Rumi says something very beautiful. He said, since you know that this world can only give you tribulation, grief, trials, and civil strife, and depression, and sadness, why don't you travel to the universe that has only happiness and joy? And that is inside. That is in your heart. That's the travel inside. And Rumi said, He said, let me tell you what happened to me. He said, I live, I turn my heart into a boat of happiness. And I live in extremely and a joyous and complete joy and bliss. I have no grief. I have no sadness. I have no anguish. I don't have any. Why? I'm afraid from everything that's bitter in this world. All of the bitter things that are sour in this world. I stayed away from it. How did he stay away from it? He took a journey inside. Once you start going inside, you would see that there is a paradise inside of you. The paradise is already here. You can go and start experiencing your paradise inward. And you can see the light. Amar-e-jan-sefati dar-rahi del paydashod dar-rahi del chillatifah as-safar. Heech-maghu. Rumi said, when I saw traveling inside, I saw this illuminating moon. Where did it come from? And the moon said, I'm you. This is you.  You've been covering me with dark clouds. Welcome. Welcome to the inward travel. And Rumi said, whoa, what an amazing travel is this to go inward? So that's where you find tranquility. That's where you find beauty and ehh-san and complete instead of happiness and joy. So you have to get, you have to understand that this world is not our permanent place. It's not our real home. Our real home is paradise. And if you settle for this planet, you have done a disservice to yourself. You have done a disservice to yourself. Rumi said, it's like a man who sees a flood coming, right? And who goes out and sees a riot. Some of us grew up, we saw some of the riots, right? The riot in LA when it burned down the whole town. We saw it on TV, right? Rodney King riots when we were young kids, youngsters. Would you open a store, he said? He said, Oh my, my, my friend, my brother, my sister, I'm just wondering at you, what have you seen in this place of riot that you're opening up a shop, a store in the middle of the riot? You're opening a store in the middle of the riot?  He sees a flood coming in.  Who would do that? Nobody in their right mind would do that. That don, they say, have you heard anybody eat the food that it's inside the trap? Why did they put that food inside the trap? Because they know nobody's gonna eat that. The bird is gonna come to eat it. It grabs it. This junior is a trap. And the food is inside the trap. Nobody will conquer this junior. Nobody will. Alexander the great wanted to do that, right? I'm gonna conquer the world. I'm gonna conquer the sun from sunrise to sunset. He traveled from it. And then in Afghanistan, they stopped him, right? When a dagger poisoned his dagger and he died in India, right? Nobody is gonna conquer anything. You can't. The only thing you can conquer is yourself. When you conquer yourself, you have conquered the universe. Not just the world. The entire universe is yours. Because this is the high station of contentment. Because al-qina al-kanzun layafna, the Prophet said contentment is an inexhaustible treasure house. So Rumi's advice is don't fall for this world. Don't fall for this world. It's gonna trick you. It's gonna trick you. It's a trap, right? Go inward and find yourself. Because once you find yourself, it is paradise. So what are we supposed to do? We are supposed to learn as young age, right? Memorize and practice. Why are we so practicing at a young age? Because practice make permanent. That's what practice does. It becomes permanent. You would never leave it. All this action you start when you're young. If you pray when you're young. If you make zikr when you're young. If you do all these beautiful action when you're young, you will continue until you die, right? This is the nature of starting at a young age.  You can actually earn so much reward during the time that you're a young man. So spend your time, spend your youth in service and of creation and the service of creator, right? Umar Khayyam said, Ibadat be just khetmat khal, nis, betaswi wa sajjado wa dal, nis. He said, my friend worship, because people think worship is just prayer, just reading Quran. That's amazing worship. Nobody's gonna say it's not. But there are other worship too. He said, worship is to serve the creation of Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'ala. He said, it is to serve the creation of Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'ala, to give a hand to a person who's fallen, right? To give a hand to the person who's fallen. And then in the old age, what do you do? You get ready to meet your Lord, right? Readiness is all, as Shakespeare said. You get ready to meet your Lord. In that, you can't get ready in old age. You start at the young age and you're building in during the time of your youth and it wipes when you get old. So that's the life of Junior. Then we leave this world and we die. Now death is not the end of our life. The soul doesn't die. The body dies, right? So the body is just like Rumi said, it's a cage that the soul has been put in. So now it flies out. It comes out cause the cage breaks down and it goes out. Now you go to the third life, which is called the life of Barzakh. The life of Barzakh is the grave. Barzakh means interspace, not here, not there. It's between the two worlds. So we go into Barzakh and grave is an amazing place. Hassan al-Basri said, what an amazing place is the grave? Is the end of this life and the beginning of next life? Is that bridge between the two worlds? And everybody will have an experience of the grave. Now the people are afraid of graves. They have grave phobia. I was one of those people when I was young because of all the things that we hear, the stories that snakes and scorpions. What are those snakes and scorpions? Those are your actions. Those are your speech.  If you open your mouth, I would instantly know if it's a candy store or a place of scorpions and snakes. In other words, what you say has the physical words, has a metaphysical reality, right? And those become something that will come and haunt us. So that's why we have to be really careful about what we say. So people who have grave phobia, one of the thing you can do is to get rid of that is listen to Surah al-Murad, Surah 67 on the Quran. There's a beautiful Hadith, Mina al-Qur'an al-Thalathuna ayah, the professor said in the Quran, there's a Surah that has 30 ayah, right? And this will get rid of your phobia, but it will make shifa'a. This Surah will make shifa'a until a man is forgiven completely, right? Ta'ala Allah forgives them. The Surah will make shifa'a for you. And it will get rid of your grave phobia. So Surah 67, to listen to it until you memorize it. If you listen every day, inshallah, you will memorize it. The next life, the fourth life is after the grave you spent. In the grave, there are two groups of people, one are the eva people, one are the good people. The good people, when they're asked the question, who's your Lord, what is your religion and who's your prophet, they answer because they love the prophet, they know the religion, they pray. They don't have to be scholars in olama. They just have to be people who practice it.  So you would see your final residing place, your final place of permanent residency in paradise. You would see it. And the scent of paradise will come into the grave and you'll smell and it's a sleep. In the hadith says that like the bride that sleeps on the night of her wedding, a trying called beautiful sleep, right? That you'll be sleeping and smelling.  I testify to smelling that in many places in the world that I traveled, Alhamdulillah. So the fourth life is the life of the day of judgment. Now the day of judgment, although it's the last day, as what the Quran says, it's the last day because in paradise there is no sun. One of the nature of the sun is it bothers you. That's why you can't stay in the sun for more than a period of time. If you say you get sunburn, right? People go to the beach and they stay and then they come back. We go back to the shade, right? So day of judgment is the last day with a sun. So there's a sun. In paradise everything is in shade because paradise is about perfection. There's no extreme in anything. Everything is perfect. So this day is a long day.  So you will actually watch the movie of your life but it's the director's cut. You would see God's version of that video because if you made toba from the sins you did, those scenes will be cut off. If you have done wrong action and you made toba sincerely, you repented to Allah and you didn't do them again, Allah will remove those scenes and your movie will be beautiful. Even though you did a lot of harams but there will be cut off. So everybody will see the final cut pro version there. Now the junior we have the final cut pro it's just perfection of God's... Don't worry about the 4K and the 6K quality. And this is why one of the reason they have judgment is so long because everybody's watching everybody else's movie. So people want to watch everybody else's movie. I want to watch there's quite a few people on my list. I want to watch their movie because I love them. Not out of hatred or something. I love them who want to see their movies. Your teachers you want to see their movies. So in any case you have to see that movie. So this is the day that people are really... This is a really difficult day. It's not an easy day. The Qur'an says يَوْمَيَ فِرْرَمَا اِمْنَا خِيْ وَأُمْمِهِ وَأَبِيْهِ وَصَحِبَةِ وَبَنِهِ That this is the day that people would run from their parents, from their children, from their mother, from their...  Like how is that possible? Like what does that even mean? And this is the... If you think about coronavirus right now, COVID-19, we are running away from each other, human beings, from a virus. That there's a possibility that we might get it. And the possibility of getting it, then there's a mortality rate of one or two percent. But imagine that day where everything is 100 percent. This is the real day. So people, everybody's nafs enough to see me, me, me, me, me. But even on that day, subhanAllah, for the believers, for the Muslims, our Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, he's the only one who says, Ummati, Ummati, my Ummah. He comes to the Shafa'ah. He comes to the rescue of his Ummah. He comes to the rescue of the major sinners, right? Sheikham Diwara, Ummatara, Kedorat, Tupush Dibhan. He said, Sa'adi Rahmatullah Ali in the Gholistani says, What worry did the Ummah have? What worry would your Ummah have? When they have an advocate like you on the Day of Judgement. That we have an advocate like the Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, is standing behind us on the Day of Judgement. But what worry do we have, right? Chiba Az-Mawjibah Ondra Kibaw said, Nuh Kishtibah. He said, would the person who is in a boat worry about it? When the sailor is Nuh alaihi sallam? Would you worry about the ocean? When the sailor is Prophet Nuh alaihi sallam? He would worry about it now with the Prophet Nuh alaihi sallam, right? The same way he says, What worry do you have when the Prophet is making Shifa'a for you? And this is the beauty of this religion, that there's Rahmah of Allah, even on that day. Even on that day. Then people go by the Sirat. When they do the Sirat, there's a bridge you have to cross between Day of Judgement and inter-paradise. And this bridge, when people look, they start painting. How are we gonna cross it? It's so long, we can't even see the other side of it. And Allah says, to the Ummah of the Prophet sallam, how did you guys cross when you came across an ocean? In a river? They said, well, we had boats. And this is in Hakim Samar Khandi's book. He narrates this tradition in the Sawad al-Hadim. And he says, and then Allah says, you guys have boats as well. And he said, where are our boats? And he says, your massages are your boats. And all the mosques will come. And everyone will go to their local mosque and it becomes like a boat. And it expands itself that all of the people who used to pray regularly in the mosque, they will fit inside this building, this their actual mosque building. It expands and expands that everybody fits in there. Then it grows wings like an airplane. And it flies over this bridge and enters paradise. They say in that speed that when they blink, with one blink they're in paradise. Allah's mercy is beyond the foams of the ocean. Allah's mercy is beyond the foams of the ocean. There's a story of a man on the day of judgment that when Allah says, I'm telling you, which removed, split all criminals, just all of the criminals go on one side, all of the good people go on the other side, and the criminals they're held back. And this is the day of justice. This is the day of retribution. This is the day that those people who committed crime in the name of humanity, those people who burned people alive, those people who lynched people, those people who took the rights of people, who took the money of the orphans, those who raped people, those pedophiles and all of these evil people in the world that have done wrong, they will pay for it because they didn't pay in this world. They bought their way out. On that day, you can't buy your way out. Or you can't. This is the day of justice. Allah is Al-Adil, He's just. And all of these criminals, they will go. And amongst them, there's a man. You can imagine all of these people. Amongst them, there's a man, one-third of the way, he turns his face and looks back to Allah.  This man is hellbound. He turns back and looks at Allah. And then two-third, just before the fire of hell, he turns back and look at Allah again. Allah tells the angels, go bring that man. Allah knows. The heart of the believer goes bring that man. These are all lessons that we can learn. What can we learn? He said, oh, my servant, my Richard servant, why did you turn around? He said, when I went one-third of the way, I remember a verse from the Qur'an, warabbuka ghafoor ad-durrahma.  I said, maybe you'll have mercy on me and forgive me. And then you get in. So I went halfway through, and then I remember another verse. Wa wan yaqfir ad-dunubah illa Allah. Wa wan yaqfir ad-dunubah illa Allah. Who can forgive your sins and your acts of disobedience and your maqsiyah and all the wrong that you have done? No one can do that except Allah. I said, maybe you'll forgive me. And then you did Him. So when we got really close to the fire, I remember another verse from your holy book, wa liya'ibadialladhina asrafu ala anfusuhim. La taqnatu min rahmatillah. Say, oh, people who have wronged yourself because when we sin, we don't wrong God. We wrong ourselves. You have wronged yourself. Don't cut yourself from the mercy of Allah. Don't be hopeless. Don't be in a state of despair from the mercy of Allah. Inna Allah yaqfir ad-dunubah jami'an. Allah can forgive all your sins. Inna wa al-ghafoor wa raheem. He's ghafoor, he's raheem.  Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala told him, come back. This is a man who got his fold on his left hand and he was hellbound. Even he was pulled back. He said, go to my paradise because you had a good opinion of me. We have to have a good opinion of Allah. An'a inda abdi danni bi. Allah says, I am in the opinion of my servant. In danna haydan falahu wa in danna sharran falahu. If he thinks good of me, I'll manifest myself and good for him. Everything that he will see is good in beauty and Ihsan. And if he thinks bad of me, I'll show him what he thinks of me. Have good opinion of Allah. In these times, know that even with this virus, even with this quarantine, even with losing our jobs, even with struggling with our families, with our friends, with finances, with health, with everything. No, just say Allah, it's from you. It's from you. It's from you. Whatever's from you, I'm okay. Whatever comes from you, it's fine. As long as you're pleased with me, Allah. And you ask Allah to make it easy. You ask, there's a lesson. I need to learn from this. I need to learn something from this. So this is the day of judgment.  People go to paradise. Paradise is eternal. There's in paradise, there's different narration how old we are, 18, 21, 27, 30, 33. Allah knows the age. But when we enter paradise, because paradise opposite of the junior, every day you get more energy and you get more youthful instead of getting like older and more like weaker. So the pleasure, you get more pleasure every day because you have more energy, more youthful, more energy, more youthful, more beautiful. Everybody's beautiful, we become more beautiful by the day.  Now we know Snapchat has filter, Instagram has filter. You can put it on and everybody looks flawless.  But the essence is you.  Every eye, every deficiency, every blemishes, all of them are removed and everybody's like a supermodel in paradise. In paradise is a place no ears has ever heard anything like it. The sound of paradise, no beats can give you that sound, Sony can give you that sound, no Bose can give you that sound, nothing can give you the sounds of paradise. And the colors of paradise, no eyes has ever seen anything like it. No eyes has ever laid on anything like paradise, right? And no mind has ever imagined anything like paradise where the trunk of the trees are made out of golden silver, where the homes are made out of bricks of golden silver, where we kill ourselves for every home in paradise made out of bricks of golden silver. Where the pearls are hanging from trees, where the dirt of paradise is saffron. Saffron is the most expensive food on the planet, is the most expensive food on the planet, is dirt all over paradise, is saffron. So this is where we go. And this is where people in their paradise, this is finally they have complete peace and tranquility. Ya Rabb-e-Sallim, ya Rabb-e-Sallim, ya Rabb-e-Sallim. Ya Allah, this is so peaceful. This is so peaceful. Ya Allah, ask the people who went through pain all their lives, their pain and suffering. Because do you remember any pain? Allah, I don't remember any pain. One breath in paradise removed, entire life of pain is removed with one breath in paradise. Entire life of pain and suffering with one breath, you inhale, you don't even have to exhale it.  I don't remember any pain. Everything is perfect, right? This is paradise, Allahu Akbar. And that's the people who go to fire. Now there are people who go to fire who are good people, but they've done a lot of wrongs. They made mistakes and they didn't make toba. They didn't turn to Allah. They didn't change, right? Then they have to purify. It's fire is a purification.   Honestly, it's difficult.  I don't wanna do this. It is difficult for a young man to do that. When somebody comes and everybody's drinking, they say, I don't wanna drink and you leave the party. It is difficult, but that's like being in the fire. But that's what makes a human being. That's what makes us amazing, that we can do that. We can turn ourselves into swords in this world so we don't have to go experience that fire. But if you don't, then we have to go to that fire and purify it because paradise is a place only the pure can go. Only the pure is pure and only the pure are allowed. And so this is where you get the purity of the people of purity enter paradise. So this is the last life.  There's a river between paradise and hell. And then they dive into that river and that takes them into paradise. And at the end, the greatest blessing of paradise is to see the vision of Allah, Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. And everyone will see Allah. Like we see the full moon, we will see God with a naked eye on that day, insha'Allah wa Ta'ala. And we will be in the company of the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, min al-nabiyyin wa siddiqun wa shuhadai wa sallim. Wa hasuna wa laika rafiqa. And be amongst the prophets and amongst the siddiqun, the truthful and amongst the martyrs and amongst the righteous. And what a beautiful club to be part of. What an amazing companionship to be part of. And may Allah make us amongst all of those people, insha'Allah wa ta'ala. So I don't know what time it is. And I wanted to in a second to see, sorry, just wanna make sure that we are good over time. And if there's any questions, maybe we can, I don't see the question. And our host is gonna come back to get some question because I think we are almost out of time. But Ajan, we have some questions. Yes, go ahead. The first question is one of our sisters asked, is everything predetermined or can we change our destiny? Okay, that's a good question. Is everything predetermined or can we change our destiny? Now, there's two ways of looking at the world. One is God's way. So you have God's way and you have a human way. So the two ways of looking at the word don't obsess yourself with God's view. Like people wanna see, okay, I wanna look from God. No, that's none of our business. We have to look at life through our vision, the vision that God has given us, what Allah has told us, right? We have free choice, right? We have free will. Everybody has free will. You can turn it off right now and leave this program. That's your choice. You can stay, right? You can have a cup of tea. I can do, this is my choice, Bismillah. I just drank some water, I had a choice. I did it, right? Now, that choice was enabled by Allah. He gave me that ability to do that. Allah is the masjid. If Allah's masjid is not with my action, I can do, I can, no matter what I do, I won't be able to drink. The fire cannot burn unless Allah permits it. The knife cannot cut unless Allah permits it, right? So it's all with me, but Allah has allowed this in the creation for us, in the creation for us to, because the word of Asbab, right? It's a word of means in order to get to an end. So we have choices, but once that choice is dead, so I just drunk that water. That was predestined for me. That was predestined for me. Now I have a choice to drink water again, or I don't drink the water. Okay, so I didn't drink the water. That was predestined. Once the action is dead, right? That's predestined. But until the action is alive, that's, you have a choice, right? The choice is, it's very difficult to teach over a short Instagram program, but Sayyidina Ali was asked about Qadr, about choice and predetermined. Do we have a choice, or everything is predetermined, or we don't have it? So he said to the man, raise one of your leg. So the man was standing here, rose one of his leg. He said, raise the other one now. He said, I can't. They said, it's between the two. In other words, Rumi has a really beautiful analogy. And I think Imam Ghazali has the same analogy many of the scholars use that. He said, imagine a chess board. Everybody, people who play chess, I love chess. I grew up playing chess. If you play chess, you have like, you have the pawns, you have the queen and the king, and you have the bishop, and you have the, all of these characters on the chess board. And then you start playing. That's life. That's your life.  I wanted to be a bishop. Why did Allah put me there?  That's, it's all in the chess board. All of your moves there, yes, you can go places, you can do things, but all of them are within the chess board. You can't get out of it. And that is the knowledge of Allah. You can't get out of the knowledge of Allah. So, the water inside this cup is past, present, and future. The water inside this cup is past, present, and future. The knowledge of Allah is the cup. Just to understand this from a Naqidah perspective. That is the knowledge of Allah is the cup. It holds everything. Because Allah is the creator of time and space, he is not in time and space. So, he doesn't have to wait for tomorrow as we have to wait for tomorrow because we're in time and space. Now, everyone has choices. You go door A, door B, door C. You're like, oh, which one should I take? A, B, or C, take door A. You choose, it's your choice. You can, so if you choose door A, that's your destiny to, you're choosing it. Where are you gonna end up? Then if you choose door B, right? That takes you to another place.   Why people say, well, you know, I lost my mom. Why did I lose my, you would see on the day of judgment. You would see everything unveil on the day of judgment. And the famous story that Maulana says about the ant that's crawling on the Persian carpet. You see, there's an ant that's crawling on this beautiful Persian of honey carpet, right? And it goes and it sees all these colors. It sees black, then it sees red, then it sees blue, then it sees green, then it sees yellow, then it sees white. It says, what is wrong with this person who made this carpet? What are these random colors? There's no pattern to it. I get black, black, black, white, green, blue, green. Then I get white, white, white, green. There's no pattern. There's nothing. It's just who made this carpet? What was wrong with him? This is what the ant is complaining about the Persian carpet. And when the ant is picked up from the carpet and looks up from the top and see the design of the carpet, and then it says, oh my God, I didn't know these were flowers and geometric patterns and beautiful designs. I thought it was just random nonsense colors that the designer put on this carpet. And on the day of judgment, it's a day of awe and ooze.  Everything will make sense to you because Allah is gonna show you the carpets of your life. Everything will make sense. Everything, the whole destiny will make sense because we see half now. We don't see the other half. And this is why you do what you're supposed to do. Don't worry about the, people see that I want to get into the mind of God. Don't worry about the, don't worry. My brother one time asked me when I was young, I said, you know, does Allah know this? He said, why do you care about Allah's knowledge? Why do you want to know about that? Allah has told you to do something, do it. Do the best of your ability. This will drive you crazy. And that's what it is. Now, Iqbal has a poem and he says, Khudiko karbulan etna kihar taqdeer se pehle, Khuda bende se khud puche, Bata tere raza kiahe. He said that, you should elevate yourself to a degree that you get so close to Allah.  Now you have a choice with your destiny. How do you want? You can change your destiny, right? Become so pious that Allah will tell you, I can change your destiny. How do you want it to be written? Tell me and I'll write it. What this poem means, and many people are making a mistake in understanding this poem. What this poem means, that you should elevate yourself to the degree that you become a lover of God.  And you would look and you would say, I love it exactly as it is because you chose it for me. Because you chose it for me. If you love Allah, you love your destiny. If you love God, you love your destiny. This is the relationship of human being with God. Is that you love God, you love destiny.  Everything that comes with it, you're okay with it. You're okay with it. Wallahi, you're okay with it. And Masnubi has a Rumi, Rumi has a story about Mejnun and Layla. And Mejnun wants to find out about what Layla likes because Layla wasn't talking to Mejnun. He goes, I want to hear her voice. I want her to talk to me. So they say Layla loves Rubies. This red beautiful precious stone. So he goes to Layla's, by the Layla's house and Layla's in the balcony. She doesn't pay any attention. And then Mejnun puts the ruby on the rock. Layla from the corner of her eyes looking because she loves Rubies. And then Mejnun picks up another rock and smashes it into pieces.  And Mejnun just burst out and laughed at her. He said, that's why I did it.  I just wanted to hear your voice. I don't care what you say. I don't care what you say. And there are people like that with God. They don't care. Whatever comes from Him, wallahi, whatever comes from Him, it's beauty. It's, we don't see it. We don't see it. We see the thorn. We don't see the rose in the thorn. This is our problem. We want to see everything now. Allah's saying, wait, be patient. I'll show you everything on a day of judgment. And you will be amazed at your destiny. You will be amazed at your destiny. And this is what Yaqbal said. He said that if you knew your own destiny, you would not have time to fall in love with anything in this world except falling in love with your own destiny. Because that's how beautiful it is. That's how beautiful it is. So don't try to be these people to say, you know what? Nobody, you know, Gandhi said, nobody, no human being wants to be, no soul of any human being wants to be in the body of another human being. All right, because Allah has put that in, that ghayra, that this is me. Even if I'm poor, I like, you know, this is it. I don't want to be in somebody else's body. The soul wants to be in its own cage. So just be pleased with the decree of Allah and know that you have a choice in life, right? But that choice is within the chess board of life as well, right? So don't get depressed. Don't get depressed. What we said at the beginning in the middle of the talk. So live stream here, one second. I need to do this one second. I need to go on the Instagram just finished up. So I need to, sorry. I'm not very savvy with these things. Okay, live. Sorry. People on Instagram forgive me. So I don't think, I don't know if I can go back live. I might take a few minutes live. Anyways, Mr. John, that's the answer to that question. So maybe we can do the next question. Okay. Another question is, another brother says, my heart is pure and I'm not bothering anybody. And I don't pray in practice that much. I know Allah is Rahim. Hopefully he'll forgive me. What do you say about that? Just because I don't pray that much, but I'm a good person, good human being. Okay, that's a very, that's a good question. We're back live on Instagram as well. So Alhamdulillah. So the question is, somebody said that I have a good heart. I don't harm anybody, but I don't practice that much. So, you know, that's, that was the question, right? Yes, yes. Okay. One of the nature of good heart is that you practice the religion. This is what a good heart, a pure heart would lead you because heart is a place Allah resides, right? You can't find him in the desert. You can't find him in the mountain tops. You can't find him in the ocean. You can't find him in the skies, in the moon, in the sun. No. You can only find Allah in the heart of the believers. That's the one that we put into our poem. How wondrous it is that I am contained in the heart of the believers. If the purity is from the light of God, you can only do good. You can only worship God. That you would be a practicing, it will lead you. And don't give up. You can trust me. There are people who struggle. It's hard. This world is hard.  And they were like, listen, I don't pray. I said, when you get out of show, you said, I can't make wudu. And it's just so hard. And they were not injured at all. Like literally these people, I don't know, like where they were at. So I said, listen, when you get out of shower, you're already in wudu. So you make ghusul, you have shower, you can eat. Just when you get out of shower, just do two in a prayer. Just start with that. And Allah is my witness. Like that was the beginning. And it led to, you know, another two years.  He said, it's the whole time we prayed. So start somewhere. There's a starting point for everybody. And don't put so much on your shoulder. Allah loves moderation. Just Shaytan loves extreme. Allah loves moderation. Shaytan loves extreme. Don't go to the extreme. The Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, beware. He said, beware of wudu, fideen. Extremism in your religion. Don't go to extreme in your religion.  If your heart is good and you're not harming anybody, that means that the heart is ready to worship Allah. So if you're not worshiping, you're depriving that heart from what it's supposed to do. Any other question or are we good? Yes, we have a lot of questions. I know we can't get through all of them, but a few more questions here, sir. Another sister says, where do our thoughts come from? What is the source of our thoughts? Where is our thoughts stored? Is it internally or externally? Yeah, we actually talked about it yesterday on Instagram. The thoughts that come from foreshores, I just summarized it. It's called khawatir, khawatir rahmani, khawatir malikani, khawatir shaitani, khawatir nafsani. So there's four sources of your thoughts. One is it comes from Allah, and then it comes from the angels, it comes from the nafs, the ego, the desire, your own desire, and it comes from shaitan. These are only four sources that comes in. And those are, you're supposed to, those evil thoughts from shaitan and lazy thoughts from your nafs, you're supposed to kind of like, suppress them and just not obey them. And you're supposed to obey the good thoughts that comes from Allah, to do good, to command, to do good. And the good thoughts from the angels to encourage you to do good, those are the one you're supposed to do the, just obey those thoughts. So those are the four sources of thoughts and it's very simple, straightforward. But it is, you have to figure out how to distinguish. I talked about it a couple of days ago on Instagram. We're gonna put that video on Instagram, insha'Allah, probably tomorrow so people can watch that in more detail. Next question. Is it possible that we are shown to us during our first stage of our soul everything we will experience on earth? Or did we just bear witness Allah's oneness? Can you repeat that I didn't get it? Is it possible that we were shown to us our first stage of our soul everything we will experience on earth? Or do we just bear witness with Allah's oneness? And also, us on earth, if we are spiritual sound, can we tap into that experience? What is the concept of deja vu? So the whole point of the path of the spirituality is to actually become our soul, to connect with that soul, that pure soul where it actually experience seeing the vision of God, right? And this is why the Awliya and the saints, they can see, you know, everywhere they look, they're like, I can see the presence of God everywhere. And this is the two schools of spirituality, wahdat al wujud and wahdat al shuhud, which is, it's a separate topic and subject, but, you know, that everything is, they see God in everything and that everything reminds them of God. But anyways, that is, that's what you can do. So when you go in this path, the whole point of it is to connect with that soul. That's the whole point of spirituality, is to connect with that soul. Rumi said, he said, In other words, you have to remove the desires of the body and dig inside and travel inward and become one with your soul. And once you become that, then you're qualified to be with in the presence of God because the soul is always in the presence of God.  Because they need their risk and their food and then they come back, right? Because this is, they can't handle this, you know? So this is how you connect.  That's a junior, right? And that's a junior. And then the ukhara we either here after gathering, you have to become all soul. You have to remove the desires from yourself, inshallah. And then in that way, you can be worthy of seeing the divine. Right, and John, I have a question. Hopefully we can wrap up with this. You talked about having the inward journey into yourself. What are some best practices or actions that we can do in order to make that journey? Yeah, that's a good question. The question is about taking the inward journey. What are the practices we can do to get inward journey? Some of the easiest thing to do is start having some quiet time because we are distracted with so much noise.  It has a lot to say. And people are not used to being in silence. So, you know, go somewhere without headphones, without anything. You don't even have to breathe. You know, just don't stress over these things that they have to take a look and start with just going and reflecting and sit and doing nothing for 15, 20 minutes. So, make that practice.  So, start with that as just to get to know yourself and what makes you happy, what makes you joyful, what gives you pleasure, all of that. And then you start seeing things and then you will keep going. And it's a journey. It's not overnight. It's not fast food. It's a journey. And if you keep doing that 15 minutes, then to 20 minutes, then to 30 minutes, then to 30. And then the goal of life is within two years or three years, you get to an hour a day, me time, it's your time. Then once you go from silence, then you will go to reading. From reading, you go to zikr, from zikr. So it's step by step. Then when you're reading, you're also in the state of silence. And it's beautiful once you get to that level. It's absolutely amazing. Then you're making zikr in your state of silence as well. It's an amazing, these are stations that you can, everybody can get. It's not impossible, but it's not easy either, right? So start with just silence and just reflecting. And then a lot of people like, we live in like people who are in California or living in Sydney or beautiful places that has nature to go out in the nature and reflect, go by the water, reflect on the ocean. Because oceans are reflection of the ocean inside of you, right? This is, you know, Nolana Rumi said that, you know, we are like a drop that once we fall into the ocean, then the ocean becomes the drop, not that we become the ocean. The ocean becomes us. That's how powerful this drop is. He said, within the drop of the water of the human being, there are seven massive ocean in and inside of it. So just to figure yourself out, know yourself and go, just think about all of the blessing, think about who you are, think about the times you were supposed to die, like literally like accident almost happened, this that how, why did Allah save you? And those are the things really for me, like why did Allah save me so many times? I had accident two, three times in a car, I should have died. Why don't, just those, like to be grateful and those things will push you to become better human being, to do abadah, to serve, to worship, to reach Quran, to do all of these stuff through those experiences, inshallah. There's I think a question here from Instagram. We respect during the, that's the same question that we answered it. Okay. Final jump, another question is, and I'm not sure if you've answered this already, but if all of our destiny is written by Almighty Allah, then what is the purpose of du'al? Why do we make du'al then? Yeah, the du'al. So the thing is that again, this is how, we shouldn't think from God's perspective, think from your perspective, look at the word from your perspective. Iqbal said your du'al is not there to change your destiny, but it's there to change you. It is there to change you, so you are content with your destiny, that you're pleased with your destiny, right? And this is the, see the thing is about people need to understand this. Everybody needs to make du'al because zikr in awrad, like people had awrad wards that they did in the morning, like a lot of people now that I know they do ward latif in the morning, they do ward rathab shahir in the evening. People did da'la al-khairad daily and you know, you know, russuri yasin and waqa and mulk and you know, at least the least you can do, like even during the pandemic, like people, there are people who don't do anything. At least you can do is Bismillah al-Ladhi l-Layhi d-durru ma'ismi ishayum fi'l ardi walafi'simahu wa-simil al-alim three times and awudri kelimati l-layhi ta'amati misharimah khalaq three times, like these things are protection. Now, if you do aware, right?   Like death. If it's time for you to die, no matter what happened, it doesn't, it's done. The time is appointed and it's done, right? It's an appointment and it cannot be put forward or delayed or canceled.  And right by the middle of the freeway as you're driving, right? You get a flat tire. You get a flat tire, your car goes everywhere, another car comes and hits you in the back and then it just, you get hurt and all. What awrad, the width do, you have the flat tire, but once you exit. So there's no accident and it's a protection. It's a shield that comes around you. So this is why we do all those awrad or why we do these words in the morning so when we leave that we are protected from these things that it's coming towards the thing that are coming. So then, you know, it's like, if you walk naked on the street, right? How much would you, when you come home in the evening and I hope nobody goes naked on the street, when you come home with all these bruises, why?  But if you wear clothing, right, you're gonna protect yourself. But what if there's a riot and people are throwing rocks? What are you gonna do?  The same thing. This is what du'az are, du'az are like helmets, that the spiritual helmets and jeepurank that it protects you from those unnecessary things that supposedly it hits you, but gentler. Just, you know, like we said, the flat tire will happen when you exit instead of happening on the freeway. So those are the beauty, that's the beauty of du'az, insha'Allah. So the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, and Allah can do whatever he wants, listen. In terms of destiny, God says, God can do whatever he wants. He can do whatever he wants.  Everybody said this man is hellbound, he used to do a lot of wrongs. He was a sinner, a bad man in the community. And then in the day of judgment came. And the whole, all of the people run and said, whoa, let's point it to this man to Allah.   And this man go to paradise. And they say, Allah, what do you mean? Like we were the good people. And he said, no, why did you close the door on him? When he said, oh, were you God? Were you God?   How do you know? I can forgive him. I can do whatever I want. I forgive him. I put him in paradise. And I'm not going to forgive you guys.   You did all this wrong, sister. You did all this wrong. God would never forgive you. Those people will have a hard time in the Yomul Qiyamah with God. They will have a hard time. Don't play God. Play human being.  You're someone who has no, no power over anything. The only power we have is over ourselves. And most of us, we don't even have that over ourselves. We, our, our nafs and our ego and our desire is devouring us. So don't stress over these things about, you know, condemning people in this and that. Do your du'as, protect yourself. There's a protection, right? Do your du'a. Allah can do whatever He wants. Fa'alunimayurayd. Remember that. Allah can do whatever He wants. He has taken sinners, made them saints. And this is, this is in our tradition. We have tons of it. And inshallah, we're trying to do a course on that subject as well. So people can see the hope of all these people who are really horrible people in life. And then they turn, turn around, may toba and then they become saints of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We can take one more and then we'll wrap it up. Question please. And if there's no question, then we can wrap it up. Yeah, a sister asked a question. She says about makeup in a zoo. It's basically, if I have a makeup on and I need to do wudu again, do I have to wash off that makeup even if I did wudu prior to that? What do you suggest? Yeah, if you have wudu, then you don't need to make wudu again. Once you have wudu, make wudu one time, you can use the same wudu until you break it for one, two, three, four, five, pray the whole day, you can pray with that wudu. So you don't have to make wudu again on the thing. Now they have these other makeup that are, what they call that the water penetrates through and things of that nature as well where you can wash where it doesn't get removed with water. But the water is supposed to reach the face. Face is farmed in wudu.  Those four things are mandatory. If you miss any of those, your wudu is in Ba'ala.  What's part of those four in the Hanafi based on chapter five or six of the Quran. All right, JazakAllah Khair, thank you very much. Mela, I'll reward all of you for listening, for being here. It's late night. I know most people in the east coast is past midnight, so I thank you and we went on for too long, so I ask Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala to forgive me for anything wrong that I might have said, anything good is from Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. Mela, I'll protect all of you and increase you and protect our teachers and our friends and our families during this pandemic and may He heal all of those people who are struggling with this disease right now with coronavirus, may Allah heal them. Ya Allah, Ya Rahman Raheem, because with Him, everything is easy and Mela removed this and made this a means that people come to Allah and come to understanding His power, inshallah, and to turn and make tome, inshallah, and become better human being and people who would do good for their communities and their society.


Now our next speaker, I haven't seen for some time prior to this evening, but I get in touch with him He's a congressman. He's from Texas and Texas next to California as the number two state as far as we cool is not concerned but Ron Paul Has been a member of the Republican Party from Texas and that's like not being too popular You know if you want to count numbers. It's like being a libertarian if you will It's like being in favor of reason then emotion from Texas He consistently ranks first in the house and the ratings of both the National Taxpayers Union and the council for a competitive economy He's now serving his fourth term and he's going to talk to us tonight And there's a lot of time which is tough for a Texan on the subject of the need for new ideas Would you please welcome Congressman Ron Paul? Thank you very much I'm here from the government. I'm here to help you Certainly is nice to be here and I Really believe and feel strongly that it is indeed an honor for Bob to have called me and to invite me to speak to you because I Just convinced it's a distinguished audience and it's a great event to celebrate 15 years of reason But in fact in the 60s it was an important decade for me I finished medical school in the early 60s, and it was as I was finishing medical school that I developed an interest in economics as well And it was during the 60s that I think Anne ran had a lot of influence on What I was thinking at the time and I do recall that I did receive the first subscription of reason magazine in 1968 and received everyone since and Therefore as I was formulating my views during the late 60s and the early 70s as I was entering into politics I know definitely that the magazine has had an influence and still does Influenced me a lot in my staff in Washington. So it's it's been a great magazine and I hope sincerely it continues to Do the job it's been doing I I Understand I saw some applause here earlier for the for anarchists, and I want you to know that some of my best friends are anarchists But I want you also to know that I wouldn't be here if I wouldn't be a politician if I wasn't a politician I'm here because I'm a politician because Bob wouldn't have called me if he had just heard about me being a gynecologist Delivering babies done in Texas now our laughter might have called me because he might need a gynecologist I'm here because I'm a politician not because I'm a doctor and it's been a vehicle for me And it's been something that has permitted me to participate and actually qualify so to speak to come and meet with you and Since my pay is less as in as I'm being involved when I'm involved in politics, and it would be when I'm in medicine Some of the rewards are the is the privilege of coming to and meet with you So I qualify mainly by being a politician and to me in some ways this is self-serving because I do enjoy being involved and dealing with the issues of the day Not because not only because I enjoy the discussion, but also because I'm concerned about what's happening And I think my topic for the night is rather appropriate the need for new ideas How can you think of a better guy to talk talk about need for new ideas somebody who spends their time in Washington? I mean, it's it's very obvious If you ever want to see Bob is more optimistic than I am he was describing all these wonderful things happening in Washington All this deregulation and this stuff going on some days. I'm not that optimistic I mean, I do think I get more optimistic when I come out here and visit real people You know when I come back to the United States, it's much better than when you're in Washington But I do believe there is certainly a grassroots change occurring in the country today it is not reflected and has not been reflected in Washington yet and Who knows if it will or not, but I do know that the effort is worth worth it And one way or the other if we're determined we can do something about it. How it's going to come about I'm not so sure. I've decided we've only have two problems in Washington Made up of conservatives and liberals the rest are okay But we we certainly have problems and I thought I'd try to demonstrate a little bit of what we're facing And the reason we need some new ideas. I found a couple bills I thought I brought I thought I'd bring along with me to show you what's happening And here's one introduced just recently about a fellow by name of Weiss He said that he would like this as a bill HR 4 and 4 to provide a story for the president to stabilize Price's wage is interest rates and corporate dividends It's all he wants to do He wants to eliminate all windfall profits In other words necessary to care out to purpose this title and to stabilize interest rates corporate dividends and similar transfer at Levels consistent with orderly economic growth. It'll be it'll be orderly There won't be any In such orders regulation may provide for the making of such adjustments as may be necessary to prevent gross inequities. No inequities And only a minor penalty if you don't behave you get fine 25,000 dollars if you don't pay you go to jail So that's one sitting there just in case they run out of things to do This kind of stuff you think never could be possible But the truth is a lot of this is on the books of ready You know if you look at banking regulation number one and the defense production act and all the other things sitting there They really want to take absolute control of the economy in your life They can and they will and do time if we're not careful Now here's another one hj res 202 This is by mr. Owens. He says proposing and oh he has to amend the constitution on this one serious stuff An amendment to the constitution which provides that the united states shall guarantee to each person the right to employment opportunity Everybody gets a job. So don't sweat it. Don't worry if you're out of work Tell us in washington We'll fix it up for you know just last week the administration center build down introduced by somebody in the senate and They they've been annoyed.   So what they're doing Is we're going to declare if we pass the law that china is no longer communist But this is the truth They said if it's no longer communist then they qualify for xm ones and they get a discount rate The other day they came to the state department came to and they said, uh, we'd like to change your mind on the n max We need your vote on the n max. It's a tight vote and I said, well, um I'm not all against this defense business, but it doesn't make a heck of a lot of sense to me to You know build more weapons when we're still paying for theirs I said Too much the answer for that but then he got the thing he says well I'll tell you what he says that would be bad and then I mentioned that about communist china I says what you're trying to do is you know changes with with china and he was very much aware of it He says he said, you know that if you had your way that be dancing in the streets in moscow today because they would know that We were we were going to desert our friends in china He would just scare the death of we don't send enough of your mind to china Then they might become friends with russia Well, he didn't get my vote I understand I called my office this evening when I got in here and they said well, uh The secretary of the defense called me three times today. I guess there's a vote coming up on tuesday, and it's a tight vote But uh, I don't quite see a lot of any reason right now that we should build weapons for both sides I don't know how I'd feel any more secure You know, I still can't understand this about the weapons, you know Uh, I wasn't for this nuclear freeze business. Uh, I'm just for voting for less money for Bombs that's all but I didn't like this idea of Of signing signing a treaty because I don't trust the soviets and I don't it doesn't make a lot of sense But I don't what I don't understand is how they feel so much more secure If you have 30 000 bombs, how do you get more secure with 40 000? You know, and that's the argument and the other thing is is if you have 30 or 40 or 50 000 you freeze them How do you feel more secure if you sign a treaty with a bunch of old loans? so Long behold, I was in the middle of that when I couldn't even find either side I was on in that debate Here's another one Monetary control act a few years ago was passed 1980 and uh in the conference This was never debated in the house or the senate but in the conference They stuck a little clause in there and said Well, if we run short of collateral for our front of reserve notes use foreign bonds They're pretty good mexican bonds british bonds But you do they have it it's little don't they do it all the time They they thought they were going to sneak this through and that nobody would ever see or hear it again And nobody would check on them. Well, I found it and we circulated this among newsletter writers And we had generated tens of thousands of letter to the federal reserve system who never gets any mail But they didn't feel good about all the mail they were getting they were rather annoyed by it So they decided they were going to change this they came over and volunteered to have hearings to explain that that's not so I was Distorting it and that's really not what was going on We weren't using really foreign bonds to collateralize our money What they said was happening was they were just trying to earn interest and of course They've been giving me a little bit trouble in in giving me the information I've been looking for But they said we were going to revise that and this week lo and behold Mr. Faunt Roy who's the subcommittee chairman on domestic monetary policy subcommittee on which I serve They have introduced this when we called the office. We said well Have you checked this out with the fed to see if they approve this and they say what do you mean? They're the ones who wrote it They admitted it they said it's to amend the federal reserve act to provide Flexibility in the issuance of federal reserve notes in order to assure that the nation will have an adequate supply of currency Now, how do you think they're gonna do that and you deal with a restraint now? They can't print unless they have Mexican bonds I mean there's a lot of restraint there But now they're gonna change the rules It's my time up. Yeah I'm just getting started This says That collateral shall not be required for the federal reserve. That's now they're not even going to use any that funny money in the back I'll be a funny money But they're changing the rules all the time But if that doesn't convince you I can tell you a few more We're desperate We're desperate in washington the country is desperate desperate for new ideas desperate for the ideas That have been presented in magazines like reasoned for several years to be implemented Yes, we see signs that they have been introduced But what we have in washington really you can't rest well at night Don't be reassured that we're making much progress I think in the educational sense we have made progress and I think at a grassroots level we have The real question in my mind is do we have enough time? Do we have enough time really to change enough attitudes so that one day Those who are in charge of the legislation in washington will reflect those views today. That's not the case Fortunately, though more and more grant people are joining the underground economy and keeping the economy alive and But that that won't work forever because that just gives the status more incentive And that's why this administration has just hired 5,200 new irs agents And that's the problem because unless we resolve that conflict of the great desire for the real market to work That is the black market versus the Individuals in washington who think they must enhance revenues And collect be more efficient tax collectors This is also why there's a big attack right now today on the hard money assets Mainly because you who know something about hard assets protect yourself and you're pointing the finger at the scoundrels And you're saying you're the carpets who's destroying the money and we know what you're doing and we're going to preserve our country We're going to preserve our freedom. We're going to preserve our own asset. So what are they going to do? They're going to attack it. That's why in the conference they put a little clause in there and exclude from the iras You're not allowed to buy gold coins And that's why they're preparing to make sure that if you invest in golden silver any collectible that you won't have capital gains benefits It's an attack on Those individuals who know how to protect themselves because if you know how you point the finger at the ones who are causing all the trouble Those who are depreciating the currency destroy the system and destroy the country It wasn't too long ago when we had our first budget resolution 1981 One gentleman was asked, uh, you know, he had been lobbied by the administration to come in this way to vote with the administration And he said he finally did and the interviewer asked him. He said, how come uh, how come you voted with the administration? He was one that was wavering back and forth. He says, well, he gave me the best deal And the reporter said, well, you know, and I think he needed some guarantee that he'd get a subsidy Somehow another that he needed for his district. He says he got the best deal from the republican So he went with the republican balanced budget, you know, only 47 billion off balance that turned out 115 and They said does that mean your vote can be bought And the congressman said no, but it can be rented Be real sure though, we have things under control in washington because we had a very crucial vote yesterday Very significant vote Yesterday, we made sure that the temporary debt has now become permanent debt Now, I know you realize we were getting ready to pay that debt off and that's why it was always called temporary But the permanent debt was always only 400 billion But we had to raise the debt limit up a little yesterday. We had to boost another hundred 100 billion that is we had already raised at 145 billion for this year But they raised it and turned it into our permanent debt. It's 1.389 trillion now But since the concert has been in charge, uh, we've been doing real well We have only increased the national debt by 454 billion dollars, nearly a half a trillion dollars obligations, of course, are about 11 trillion Can you imagine what would have happened if we'd have had the liberals in I mean, we could have been in big trouble But the spending we're getting control of it We're really tightening down on about what we're doing what we have expect to do is generate a lot of new money Stimulate the economy and collect more taxes and then the balance the budget will be balanced But don't hold your breath. It doesn't look like that's going to happen You know, sometimes I don't seem to fit in real well in washington So one day after I got back to congress, I was in in 76 for a part term and I was reelected in In 78 and I went back and I introduced a couple bills like Reduced the salary of congressmen at the rate of inflation. Maybe they'll learn a lesson But that didn't go over to me. I got two cosponsors But then I had one that said no junkets. No junkets. Y'all stay home Y'all know what to do at home and vote without going over to europe and paris and all these places to study the issues And one fella came in had been in about 20 years. He sat down. He says look Ron. He says we're glad to have you back But lay off. He says a lot of us enjoy this. He says y'all just learn to enjoy these side benefits because that's part of our pay And I said, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, and that went by but he came back six months or so later And he sat down with me again He wanted to give me some fatherly advice because I think we were looking at a vote and was 435 to 1 And uh, and he was he was a little bit worried about that. He says look he said you keep both like that And you're not going to come back again. He says you're a weak politician And he says you got to go with the mainstream if you want to get reelected and he was serious He wanted to give me this advice on how to get how to keep coming back. He said I want to give you this advice He says in washington expediency is a virtue consistency is a vice And he said, uh, if you learn that lesson you'll learn to come back another day Well, something happened after that he went home and lost his election I went home and my opponent dropped out and I got 99 of the vote So maybe truth wins out in the end Now I'll bit you any money. I'm coming real close to having used up all my time And I'd like to just give you one little quote I hope I got a message across that we have problems and that we need new ideas. That's what I was supposed to do But I'd like to quote from mises and say and and recite this There is no means by which anyone can evade his personal responsibility whoever neglects to examine To the best of his abilities all the problems Involved voluntarily surrenders his birthright to a self-appointed elite of superman in such vital matters blind reliance upon Experts and uncritical acceptance of popular catchwords and prejudices Is tantamount to the abandonment of self-determination and to yielding to other people's domination That's what we have to do. We have to prevent that and thank you very much


I suppose I grew up in much the same way most kids do, but with one major difference. We'll get to that a little later. I was an only child raised by a single mom, never really knew who my father was. Mom didn't really talk about it, and I felt weird asking too many questions. She always did the best she could for me, and for the most part I had it pretty good. She'd see me off to school every morning, before heading into work, and after school I'd spend time at my best friend's house down the street, until she came and got me. My best friend's name was Ryan, and together we went on all sorts of adventures. Our parents said we had the most overactive imaginations they'd ever seen, and often scoffed at all our crazy stories. We spent most of the time playing out in the woods, at our secret tree fort we'd built some years ago. It was our haven, our home away from home. It was a Friday after school, that Friday came up with the greatest idea I'd ever heard. He wanted to camp out at our fort overnight. We lived in a small town where nothing bad ever really happened. It was one of those places where everyone knew each other. People looked out for one another back then, and half the time no one even bothered locking their doors. We ran the idea by our parents, into our profound excitement got the green light. We spent the next hour or so grabbing everything we'd need to stay the night at our fort, which included a decent haul of snacks we pilfered from our collective kitchens. It turned out to be a beautiful night. We'd never been able to stay so late at the fort before, and it was exciting. We started it all off with the customary ghost stories told by flashlight, and once we got ourselves all good and worked up, we decided it was time to do some exploring. It was the moment we'd been most looking forward to. The woods were more alive at night somehow, as if powered by some magical force that our minds had conjured up. We left the safety of our fort and slipped into the growing darkness between the trees. Every sound had us on edge. Our flashlights dancing around us, like an epilepsy inducing light show. That didn't stop us though. And we continued until we hit some unfamiliar territory. We'd never gone this far before during the day and weren't sure what to expect. We stopped when we came across a small ramshackle of a cottage just sitting there amidst the overgrowth. We did what every curious kid would do in that situation, find a way to get inside. It was easy enough with no lock to speak of, the door creaked and moaned as we forced it open. Our flashlights swept from left to right, illuminating the meager furnishings within. It was just one giant room with a bed against a far wall and a rocking chair with a small table and an oil burning lamp in the middle. There was even an old wood burning stove in the far left corner that looked in decent working shape. The entire shack seemed eerily clean for a place that looked so abandoned from the outside. I suddenly felt very nervous and glanced over at Ryan for some support. Who do you think lives here? I asked with some trepidation. I wasn't sure I really wanted to know the answer. He cast aside glance at me and I saw the same anxiety stretch over his darkened features. He forced a reply though, trying to be brave. I can't imagine anyone could be living out here. It's probably just one of those little hunting shacks. I nodded and convinced myself he had to be right. When you're a kid, it's so easy to dismiss danger sometimes, even when you shouldn't. We decided to claim the place for ourselves after a little more conversation. We thought it would be a much better place to stay the night. And it wasn't that much further out than our fort was. It wasn't as if our parents were going to know the difference anyway. The worst thing that could happen would be some hunter showing up and shooing us away, no harm no foul. Our excitement grew by leaps and bounds as we made the round trip to get our stuff from the fort and head back to the shack. Our exploration had provided us with the ultimate find and we were starting to get a little tired. We stretched our sleeping bags out on the big bed. It seems so comfortable. We had our snacks and told a few more stories before eventually falling asleep. It had to have been the middle of the night when some strange noise woke me up. It sounded like someone was clearing their throat, so the first thing I did was look over at Ryan, finding him asleep. I turned on my flashlight and shined it around the room. I heard that throat clearing noise again, but this time it was followed by a voice much closer than I expected. Its tones were strangely soothing as it spoke. Hey kid, down here.  I looked down. Laying there on the floor, half under the bed, was the most terrifying sight I'd ever seen. From what I could see of it, the thing that spoke was about a quarter of my size. It had long, spindly fingers that idly rubbed against the edge of the bed. Its mottled gray skin sort of hung from a thin lanky frame. Enormous razor-edged teeth filled its sickeningly sweet smile. Its eyes were a strange pale yellow color, and it smelled of dirty lake water and rotten eggs. Before I could even do so much as scream, it held one of those impossibly long fingers to its mouth to shush me. And for some reason, I can't even explain, I obliged. We sat there in silence, just staring at each other for what felt like an eternity. Eventually, it broke the silence. So tell me, Aaron, what brings you and your little friend to my home? It's a little rude, I must say. How would you like it if I broke into your home? Hmm? How did it know my name? I couldn't speak, I couldn't move. I just laid there, unable to look away from it. It sensed the fear that must have been radiating off me in waves. It spoke again, I can see you're not a little boy of many words, Aaron. So how about I do all the talking? With wide eyes, I forced myself to nod. We were going to die here. I knew it. I envied Ryan more than anything at that moment. He'd never have to see the thing that would end us. The creature continued as if we were having a pleasant conversation. That more than anything, I think, was what made me almost piss myself. Good, good. So here's what's going to happen, Aaron. You're going to let your little friend Ryan sleep. Don't bother waking him up, it won't make a difference. As long as you stay right where you are, you have nothing to fear from me.  Does that sound fair? It seems fair to me. Again, I could only nod as I stared at him. What I didn't understand was the game we were playing. It seemed to me that it could have yanked me right out of the bed and eaten me any time it wanted to. Yet here it was, offering some strange reprieve. I kept the flashlight on and scooted a little closer to Ryan. It spoke one last time before sliding itself back under the bed. Sweet dreams, Aaron. As if I was ever going to sleep again. I lay there like that, all night, staring at that spot on the floor where the monster had been. Sometime later, light began to creep its way in through the cracks in the shack and Ryan finally woke up. I really didn't feel like talking about what happened until we were at least back home. Ryan was still excited and droning out about the shack and what a great night he had. I didn't want to ruin it for him, so I just nodded and agreed at the appropriate times. Even though I knew he was my best friend and that he would surely believe me, I was having trouble believing myself.  It was more than possible and I just decided to chalk it up to that. It was a weird night in a strange place, bad dreams happened in even safe environments. Once we were back in the relative safety of Ryan's house, I quickly changed my clothes and stuffed the wet ones in a plastic bag that had held snacks the night before. I was feeling calmer now and decided to tell Ryan about the horrible nightmare I'd had. He listened carefully. When I was done, he took a deep breath before talking. That sounds scary as hell, Aaron. Good thing it was only a nightmare, huh? I quickly agreed with him and we made plans for him to spend the night at my house. Mom had the rest of the weekend off and agreed to it and I think Ryan's parents were just glad to have a little break. Ryan came and picked us up. The first thing we did was take turns having a shower to wash off the stink of the woods that still clung to our clothes and hair. Feeling clean after the night before was the best feeling in the entire world. It's not that I forgot about the dream or anything. I was just so busy having fun with Ryan that I didn't dwell on it.  I still have that cheat code memorized even after all these years. Eventually, the night started to roll back around. Ryan and I conned my mom into letting us hook up the VCR in my room so we could watch some scary movies. She turned in early and left us to our own devices which suited us just fine. We made some popcorn, grabbed some pop tarts and soda and geared up for a marathon. We planned to stay up till dawn watching movies. It was to be this great achievement. I think we both ended up passing out around two in the morning, but it was still the longest we'd ever made it. I remember being woken up by a strangely familiar sound, one I'd not expected, even though perhaps I should have. Someone or something was clearing its throat. The voice drifted up from the floor somewhere, but this time I didn't look. I didn't even so much as turn on a light or make a single noise. Instead, I just pretended to be asleep. I thought that if I just kept my eyes closed, it would go away. I should have known better. The voice drifted up to me with its far too relaxed and chilling tones. I know you're awake, Aaron. So this is what your house looks like. It's bigger than I expected. So much room under here. I bet if I tried, I could fit you both down here, you know. I shuddered and bit my lip hard enough to draw blood. Gently, I laid a hand on Ryan to wake him up. I'd be damned if I was going through this alone all over again. His eyes drifted open lazily and I put a finger to my lips and pointed to the floor. His eyes got wide and he nodded ever so slightly. This, however, was not lost on the monster under my bed. It spoke once again. Ah, Ryan, welcome to the party. Let me fill you in on the rules. You leave the bed.  I shouldn't have had all those sodas, boys. It's going to be a very long night. We just laid in silence after that, neither of us able to sleep. There's no way we were both having the same dream. It had to be real. Why did we go into that shack? This is the question I still ask myself every day. The monster said good night to us eventually, but we knew he'd still be there till morning. My mom came in to wake us up and found us both shaking and pale. We tried to tell her what had happened, but of course she blamed the movies we'd watched the night before. The more we insisted that our monster was real, the angrier she got. Eventually, it led to scary things being banned in the house for a while. That was fine with me, though. I'd had my fill at that point. Since we had school the next day, and Ryan hadn't finished his homework yet, Mom and I took him home. We gave each other a knowing glance before we parted ways. That night, I laid every booby trap under and around my bed that I could think of. There were trip wires made from some fishing string attached to the bell to my old bike. There were Legos sprinkled all around the border of my bed. I even stuffed my toy chest and all sorts of things under there to make sure the monster would have no room to hide. I assumed that Ryan had done the same, or at least I hoped he did. Seeing him the next day at school was a relief.  As usual, we went to his house after school, but decided to take a break from the fort for a while. Neither of us wanted to be any closer to that shack than we needed to be. Before Mom came to pick me up, Ryan's mom got a call from her relative. Apparently her grandmother was dying, and they had to rush to Florida to be with her. That meant I'd probably have a babysitter after school till they came back. Before bed that night, I checked my traps. Deciding everything was all set, I crawled into bed, and after hours of staring at the ceiling, I finally fell asleep. That night, I woke up to the sound of that old bike bell going off, and something moving under the bed. Shortly after, I heard the voice. Is this how you treat all your guests, Aaron?  How about we call a truce? Perhaps you and I just got off on the wrong foot after all. I sure could use some company, you know, Aaron? It gets lonely living under people's beds. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I'd seen that movie Little Monsters, and even though I'd secretly wished for my very own Maurice, the reality of it was far too frightening. This time, however, I decided to speak to it. So why do you hide under people's beds? The creature chuckled gently. It's sort of my job. I am a monster, you must realize. Would you like to play a new game, Aaron? What sort of game? I replied. He was quick to answer. Any game you want, of course, I see you have electronic battleship under here. I stopped to really consider what was going on. Was it possible that this was a friendly monster? Up until a few days ago, I hadn't really thought monsters existed at all. Something about this seemed too good to be true. Its voice was so soothing, and if not for its appearance, I might have left that bed. Oh, so no game then. I shook my head a bit and looked into his fiendish eyes. He responded soon after. A pity, but I understand. We barely know each other. In fact, you don't even know my name, silly me. You, my boy, may call me Mr. Jones. We kept up the conversation most of the night. We talked about comics, movies, food, pretty much all the stuff that kids my age were interested in. This happened every night that Ryan was gone, which was pretty much for the rest of the week. Every night, the monster would ask to play a game and try to get me off the bed, and every night I decline, and we talk instead. On the last night, however, things got stranger if that were even possible. I'd cleared a space for it and sat patiently awaiting his return. As always, that sound of a clearing throat signaled me to its arrival. Good to see you, Aaron. It said, Evening, Mr. Jones, did you have a good day? Mr. Jones shook its head. No, Aaron, I did not. I'm very hungry, you see. I haven't eaten in a week. Don't play a game with me, why don't you? Help me get my mind off the hunger. This time, when I refused, it got angry.    I'm going to start with your eyes, though. That's the most delicious part. There'll be nothing left of you, Aaron. Nothing left at all. The bedspread and sheet began to move as if it were tugging them. Eventually, it had slid off under the floor and disappeared underneath the bed. Then all of a sudden, everything just stopped. For a moment, I could swear I heard someone crying and screaming. It sounded so eerily familiar to me somehow. I laid there awake for hours longer with nothing to show for it before eventually falling asleep huddled in the centermost part of my bed. The light slipped in through the window in my room, but it was the crying and loud voices I heard coming from the living room that woke me up. I crept out of bed and cupped my ear against the door to try and hear what was going on. With everything I'd been dealing with, I wasn't prepared for what I heard. Ryan and his family had come back late the night before, but when they woke up in the morning, he was nowhere to be found. The only trace of him had been a streak of blood that stretched across his floor and disappeared beneath his bed. It was at that moment that I knew the voice I'd heard had been his. A lot of people were organized to search the neighborhood and surrounding woods. I knew exactly what had happened to him. I even tried to tell people, but of course no one would believe me. I told them about the shack, though, but no one wanted to listen to the hysterical child. Ryan was never found. His family moved away. A few months later, I assumed to escape the constant reminder of their son's disappearance. I myself moved on with my life as best as I could. I grew up and left town as soon as possible. I never really settled down and had kids, preferring to be alone more than anything. The older I got, the harder it was to make connections with people. I barely even have any friends, save for perhaps the people I work with. As I sit here writing this, I can't help but miss my best friend. And after all these years, the memories of it all still seem so fresh. I know that any time now, I'll hear what I've been waiting for. Tonight will be different, though. I can't keep going on like this. Tonight, it ends one way or another. I can hear Mr. Jones now moving under the bed. I hear him clearing his throat and begging me to come out. I can hear the sounds of Ryan screaming and begging to be let free. I can see those long, spindly fingers rising over the side of the bed to pull on the bedspread and sheets. I can see his yellow eyes creeping up to get one last good look at me.


Hi, I'm Carla Holt and I'm going to show you some of the Assistive Touch features that are built into an iOS device, such as an iPad or an iPod. Assistive Touch is a feature that supports students with motor or dexterity issues. So let's first look at how we can turn Assistive Touch on. So I'm going to go into my Settings app, I'm going to click on General on the side bar and I'm going to scroll down to Accessibility. And here, I might have to scroll down a little bit, but I'm going to click on Assistive Touch and I'm going to move the slider to the on position. So now while Assistive Touch is on, I'm going to just close my Settings app. You'll notice here on the side a little floating ball that I can move around in case it's in my way. When I tap on it, it gives me some options. As you can notice, if you're using an iPad 3 or iPad mini, you'll have options for Siri, so I could click on Siri and I could start talking. I can tap anywhere on the screen to dismiss that. Likewise, there are other additional features of Assistive Touch that are very beneficial for students. When I tap on the Assistive Touch button, I can click on Device and here under the More options, one option is multitasking. If I click on that at the bottom, it shows me my multitasking bar, so I can quickly and easily switch between apps. I can also use Assistive Touch to take a screenshot, so I'm going to tap back on the Assistive Touch button. I'm going to click on Device, More, and now I can tap on Screenshot. And as you've noticed, the iPad has taken a screenshot. Taking a screenshot normally requires pressing the Home button and the On-Off Sleep button at the top, requiring both hands, which may be difficult for students who have motor impairments. So we have looked at the Assistive Touch features in an iOS device.