Hello and welcome to this new segment of CD spectroscopy and MOSBUS spectroscopy for chemist. My name is Arnabdutta and I am an associate professor in the department of chemistry IIT Bombay. So, over the last few classes we are discussing about symmetry and how it is an integral part of the nature because one particular portion of the symmetry is chirality and nature uses chirality as one of the tools for molecular recognition and over here when you are talking about molecular recognition this chiral molecules in the forms of proteins in the forms of carbohydrates and nucleic acids they all become important because all these molecules which are actually an integral part of the biological segment is chiral in nature. For an example proteins when you talk about proteins proteins are made out of amino acids which are the building blocks for it and these are mostly L amino acids in nature whereas other hand when you talk about carbohydrate they are D carbohydrate in nature. So, these D and L are talking about their absolute configuration in the three-dimensional space on the other hand nucleic acids itself are not chiral but when they form this helical structure or the other secondary structure like beta sheet and all the systems the secondary structures are all chiral in nature and when biological system are talking among each other or actually interacting with other molecules this chiral environment becomes the key and that actually signifies which particular amino acids which is going to interact which particular carbohydrate is going to interact and how it recognize them. So, that particular system the molecular recognition and one of the important factor of that is this chiral environment and that is why we are interested to know about the symmetry and chirality and then when you are talking about chirality we found we can define it in the form of symmetry elements and also point groups which we have derived from mathematics and over there we found there are five symmetry elements can be found which can be E or identity operator C n rotational axis sigma reflection plane which can be sigma H sigma V or sigma D depending on its interaction its positioning with respect to the principal axis C n and improper acceleration S n and center of inversion I and among them all those things can be present in a molecule this particular symmetry element S n or improper axis of rotation is the key to find out whether my molecule will be chiral or not and over there we found that when you are talking about improper axis of rotation why it is important because by the definition of chirality or a chiral molecule or chiral object we say the mirror image is not super imposable or indistinguishable. So, over there what does it mean that I am doing a mirror image that means I am doing a sigma operation and then I am doing some rotation to find it out whether it is matching or not. So, I am doing sigma and C n together which is nothing but give me a S n axis of system and that is why we make it much more simpler when S n is equal to S 1 that means when n equal to 1 that is nothing but a sigma because I am doing a C 1 rotation which is nothing but an identity operator or living the object as it is. So, in S 1 is nothing but sigma. So, if you have a sigma you cannot have chirality if you are S 2 when you are talking about S n equal to S 2 it can be written as I center of inversion. So, if you have a center of inversion or S 2 you cannot be chiral if you have any other S n where n is greater than 2 even then the molecule cannot be chiral. So, that is the mathematical interpretation of chirality when a molecule can be chiral and if I try to bring that in the point group we have the C n and D n point groups where we found this particular point group does not contain any S n axis. So, they can be chiral in nature. So, in simplistic form to find out a molecule or an object whether it is chiral or not we have to simply just find out what is the point group of it if it belongs to C n or D n it will be chiral in nature. And then we try to find out which particular spectroscopic technique we can perform to find out whether the molecule is chiral or not and we found out there are multiple options and among them CD spectroscopy is one of the leading one we also have optical rotation along with it but CD spectroscopy is a crucial one where we found that we can observe its optical absorbance and if you have the optical absorbance band like this and if it the molecule is chiral and this particular band is chiral you are going to see some portion of it the chiral or it can be the opposite direction to which will define two different enantiomers. So, if say enantiomer A and enantiomer B actually belongs to the same molecule that means they are enantiomer of each other these two will show a CD spectroscopic curve where the x axis is the wavelength and y axis is the delta epsilon mole inverse centimeter inverse or we can also put that with ellipticity which is given in milli degree unit and we can find yes a molecule is chiral or not by CD spectroscopy if you get a signature in the CD spectroscopy then you can say yes my molecule is optically active and very interestingly this chiral molecule if you are seeing in a CD spectra that CD spectra should always have a precursor optical spectra unless you have optical active band you cannot have a CD active band. So, that is why first we perform an optical spectroscopy experiment figure it out which are the bands we are looking into and then if your molecule is chiral then you will find the CD active band among all this available optical active bands. So, that it is a thing we found and that is why CD spectroscopy becomes one of the important tools for finding out whether my molecule is chirality or not. Next we look into another system which is nothing but applications of CD spectroscopy. Next we look into applications of CD spectroscopy and over there so far we have covered three different examples. The first one we covered it is actually a cobalt based molecule which is bind with a peptide A, C, D, L, P, C, G and on the last class we have covered that or we found this molecule in presence of oxygen it goes sequential oxidation. First there is an oxidation of the thiolate ligand because over here when you talk about this system it is found that it is being bound with 2 nitrogen and 2 sulfurs and then the first molecule of oxygen reacts with it in the cobalt 2 state. The cobalt does not change its oxidation state the sulfur one of the sulfur becomes sulfenate or H O 2 and then further reaction with oxygen then the cobalt becomes cobalt 3 and along with it this sulfonate group comes into the plane of the 2 nitrogens and it goes to a ligand or solvent with the axi-ligation and it goes to a octahedral geometry. So, over there the first is oxidation of the thiolate and the second one is oxidation of cobalt 2 to cobalt 3 and that we have found over here and this particular sequential oxidation we found with respect to CD spectroscopy because CD spectra give us the first hint that there is a change in the molecular primary structure because all those things are actually part of this peptide which is chiral in nature and as I am going through sulfate to sulfonate sulfate to sulfonate that actually triggers a change CD spectroscopy can monitor that and then over here the cobalt 2 becomes cobalt 3 and it goes to an octahedral geometry and again CD spectroscopy can configure that because the presence of this chiral ligand scaffold and its interaction with the central metal. Over here I want to mention one more time the metal itself is not chiral in nature the metal active site however the presence of chiral ligand around it induces optical activity to this metal center especially metal centered optical absorbance band like D transition band or LMCT band. So those becomes chiral reactive the second example we figured out another sample with a cobalt saline ligand where this is actually bind with a nitrogen and oxygen molecule and over there we found this molecule is actually bound with the carboxylate ion and this is actually coordinating the cobalt especially in the cobalt 3 option state and stop it from binding to a another protons to produce hydrogen and this can only occur if I acidify it enough and the pH goes to below 3 only then this molecule actually opens up because nitrogen and oxygen remains as it is but this carboxylic acid group becomes COH so it does not bind and at the same time this protons are actually also acts as a proton release a proton can directly go and bind with the cobalt and it can trigger the proton to hydrogen transformation or hydrogen evolution reaction in short form we call them HGR. So that is possible to happen and we found it is happening over there because this is getting protonated and ligate off from this cobalt and again CD spectroscopy is actually allowed us to follow that when you record the CD spectroscopy at different PHS we found when I am crossing this barrier of pH 3 to lower than that we get a significant and visible change in the CD spectra which signifies there is a change in the primary coordination sphere of the metal because this particular band is an optically active band in the visible region not coming from the ligand itself but belongs to the metal center and that becomes CD active not only that it shows as a change this alteration allows us to follow what is happening in the system. Then the last one we followed with G quadruplex which actually shows that the four guanidine can form a nice planar structure which typically remain in the bottom of the chromosome in the telomeres region or telomere region and this particular G quadruplex can form in different forms parallel, antiparallel and hybrid we make sure of these two and again CD spectroscopy can tell us how this molecule is going to all these different kinds of possible orientation and this has particular signature and we can easily follow that to find out whether the molecule the G quadruplex is forming in the parallel, antiparallel and hybrid mode and also it will also allow us to find out whether I have a G quadruplex or not. Then today we are going to follow an another segment about amino acid resimerization. So, when we talk about an amino acid we already discussed that this molecule is tetrahedral in nature around the alpha carbon or the chiral carbon where if you put the hydrogen at the back carboxylic acid over here the R group over here R is the changeable group of an amino acid and this is the amine group over here we find out how it is oriented the carboxylic group R group and N group which is known as the corn rule and you can see it is oriented left hand wise. So, this is the L amino acid and there is also possibility of presence of another molecule where now I am putting R over here amine over here now you can see the corn rule still applies here but now I am moving in the opposite direction right hand side direction. So, this is the D amino acid. So, you have discussed earlier L amino acid is the most dominant form found in the nature when nature produces amino acid it is L amino acid in nature and this particular orientation why it is preferred there are multiple versions of that why it is happening and we have discussed even the possibility of an extraterrestrial material is actually influencing that which actually triggers the formation of amino acid of a particular geometry or chirality is the L amino acid. Now the question is what happens if I leave the L amino acid for a long time in presence of water it slowly converts to D amino acid. So, I should put it this way. So, it is reversible but it slowly convert to D amino acid. So, once what it is L amino acid it can be D amino acid in a while. Now I am going to give you several example of amino acid and it will give you a time scale in the terms of half life which gives us an idea how much time it requires to produce an L amino acid to D amino acid. So, if you start with 1 gram of L amino acid it slowly start producing D amino acid and at 1.2 time they will find only 0.5 gram of L amino acid is actually present the rest of them become D amino acid. So, if you follow this reaction it will be a faster reaction in nature and from the faster reaction you can find out the half life how much time it requires to get half of the amino acid to resimerize. And if we look into different amino acid we will take histidine as an example and the half life for L histidine to convert it to DMD histidine how much time it takes it takes 5500 years. So, it is a huge long time. Then if I take tyrosine the time scale is almost 8600 years it is longer. If I take alanine it is a polar amino acid it has a half life period of 32,000 years very long time. And then valine an amino acid with particular hydrocarbon chain and it is one of the slowest to convert to D amino acid at 180,000 years.  Now, the first question is why there is a difference over here between these two versus this hydrocarbon one a side chain and secondly how I can follow it up how I can follow this resimulation is happening. First we try to understand why the resimulation happens and how it is happening. So, for that we will start with the amino acid structure. So, again I am drawing an L amino acid this is the structure we draw but in reality in presence of water what happens they actually stay in their most stable form the carboxylic acid group becomes carboxylate because a neutral water around P7 the carboxylate is the most stable form. So, our group similarity is the nitrogen the amine groups become in is 3 plus because that is the most stable form of any primary amine group in water at P7. So, you can see at one side of the system is a positive ammonium group one side is negative carboxylate group and this particular form is known as zwitter ionic form. This zwitter ionic form is the most prevailing form for any amino acid present in nature and neutral condition and this is where all the reaction began when it start resimizing. So, the next thing happens this particular molecule react with some acid and this actually form the protonation form. So, this particular group gets protonated carboxylate the rest of it remain as it is. So, only the protonation of the most charge group over there it is a carboxylate it becomes carboxylic acid. Then comes the next step this proton over here CH bond holds out and create a CC double bond and if you want to create a CC double bond over here this particular group has to move and becomes O minus which actually takes this particular proton and if this is actually happening then what we are going to see is the following of a tautomeric form. Now this any C plus group come into the plane of the molecule. So, that is what is actually happening when this tautomizer happens and over here you can see now my alpha carbon was there previously it was tetral in nature. So, it is holding its chirality but now what happens it becomes a part of a CC double bond. Once it form the part of a CC double bond it becomes planar in nature and once it form a planar structure then it loses its chirality. So, it is not chiral because this actually contain a plane of symmetry. So, now what happens this becomes achiral and from here the molecule wants to turn back because this is not a very stable form. However, this is a possible structure it can go through as a tautomeric structure and how it is going to turn back it is going to return back the electrons over there this will come over here and this becomes carbon ion and this carbon ion is going to form over here and this carbon ion is going to abstract the proton and form the amino acid back and because it is a carbon ion derived from this C double bond C planar structure it can go either direction and there it forms either of the amino acid. So, this is one side and there is also possibility of the other side. So, this becomes NH3 plus this becomes R. So, you can see over here carboxylic R amine. So, this is the L amino acid and over here carboxylic R H. So, this is D amino acid and later on you can lose this extra proton over here and from carboxylate R group NH3 plus and H or carboxylate NH2 let us put R group over here NH3 plus and hydrogen and this becomes the D amino acid over here. So, that is how starting material and L amino acid has to go through a planar structure where it can lose its chirality and from this planar structure it can again regain the chirality, but over here if it is happening without any chiral environment in nature itself, but without any chiral environment it would produce both of them 50-50 and at one point time they will resume. So, that means I will see both the amino acid D and L present in the similar structure. So, now the question is why histidine and tyrosine are better? So, for that I am going to draw the side chains of them. So, side chains of histidine is CH2, 5-member ring. So, that is how the structure look like for histidine or tyrosine there is a structure. So, now over here you can see histidine and tyrosine this is actually a imidazole ring this is actually phenol ring. So, both of them are aromatic in nature. So, they actually have a natural drift of electrons towards them. So, through this electronic movement that the electron is going to come towards this electron dense aromatic rings. So, they can stabilize extra electron and this carbon if you remember it is bind with the alpha carbon which is actually forming the carbon ion. So, this planar structure then it goes to this carbon ion intermediate this carbon ion intermediate is actually getting stabilized by this aromatic ring and that is actually one of the factor which stabilizes the carbon ion intermediate with this particular group. And if it is stabilized more that means as we saw in the previous structure the possibility of coming from this part to this particular carbon and intermediate is high. So, you will end up at a higher rate in the resimulation region and that is why it is happening for histidine and tyrosine and one more factor also come into the picture that is due to the rapid proton relay. As you can see during this particular carbon and formation from the original structure there is exchange of protons between the system with the broad peak which is actually present in the vicinity. And over here this particular tyrosine, phenol or imidazole they actually have some groups which can exchange proton very fast. So, this actually create a rapid proton relay. So, when this carbon ion is forming a lot of proton has to be exchanged from this place to that place and this particular groups provided the source of the proton which is very near to it. So, that is why that is also another addition to this whole process. So, it is stabilized by the aromatic ring through minus i effect and rapid proton relay both of them affect the first formation of the carbon ion intermediate which is reflected into the fast resimulation compared to the other groups which do not have them. And that is why we find that the histidine and tyrosine is moving very fast whereas alanine and valine is pretty slow because they do not have a group which can stabilize the carbon ion nor they have protons to exchange its fast. Now, the question is how do I find it? How do I monitor that my L amino acid is converting to D amino acid? So, first of all we have to find out that when we start this reaction we have 100 percent L and 0 percent D and at the end of the reaction when the reaction will be end will be ending of 50 percent L 50 percent D. So, that is we are going to finally get if we allow this reaction to go for thousands of years. So, what we actually do we follow this reaction with respect to D and L ratio in the beginning of the reaction there is actually no D amino acid at all. So, it should be 0 and at the final stage because there is 50 percent L 50 percent D D by L ratio would be 1. So, that is what we are actually going from DL ratio 0 to DL ratio 1. So, how do you monitor that we can use again CD spectroscopy where we can follow CD spectroscopy of the amino acids where we start say this is the L amino acid and this is the D amino acid. So, when we start we will see only L amino acid and slowly with respect to time I start seeing this is actually going down and at one point time it will be 0 there will be no signature because D and L will remain in the similar concentration. So, that is I am going to follow. So, what I can follow is that particular wavelength over here what was the delta Epsilon and how it is changing with respect to time at this particular wavelength and with respect to time. So, this should slowly come down and that we can measure and extrapolate it to figure it out what will be the half life of this reaction and that is how it is being measured of 1000 years and more than 1000 years nobody is doing the experiment for 1000 years running. So, it is a extrapolation of the result and what is the advantage. So, as we know this L amino acid is solely going to maximize to a D amino acid. So, that means if I am doing this reaction even for a fossil the old stage sample I can look into what is the D and L comparison what is the absolute delta Epsilon value I know the 100 percent L 100 percent D value. So, from there I can back calculate how long the system was present in a biological form where L amino acid will be preserved 100 percent. Once it is died it is out of this biological chiral environment only then it start to racemize and go to 50 percent L 50 percent D. So, from there we can actually extrapolate that. So, that is why series spectroscopy can also be used in studies of old samples paleontology and all those things to figure it out what is the age of different fossils. So, with that we will like to conclude our segment over here where we found series spectroscopy can be useful tool to find out the racemization rate of L and D amino acid in HL phenomena. And by that we can follow the age and the reaction time of different old fossil fuel samples. Thank you, thank you very much.


So, my name is Ryan Bosch and I'm going to talk about how to encourage kids to code. This is a little bit about me. I like a lot of things, as you can see, but I also like coding a lot. And the reason why I like coding is because of my amazing family, which my mom and my dad are both here. That's my brother. And my mom and dad have been really great in teaching me the importance of code and how it can be such a great tool to have in your life. And at first, I didn't wake up one day and decide, I want to code because I don't think anybody really thinks that first. Because, yeah, anyways. But I'm going to be talking a little bit about code and what can help make coding a little more fun to do for maybe kids my age or youth, as you could say. One of the basics that we're going to talk about is ASA coders, which is a coding competition that my dad runs. We had one last year and I was a photo from it and I answered two questions during this slide. The first one is, is coding fun? Now, that's a little hard because for me personally, I don't think of the word fun when I think of coding, but I think it's really great. And as you can see in the photo, the kids who seem to be participating are laughing and having fun with friends and battling it out, which I'll talk about later. The next question is, what is the goal of free coding? For answer that question, I have to answer the question, what is the goal? What is Free Code Camp? Free Code Camp is where students can learn HTML, CSS, and eventually JavaScript. And this allows them to qualify for the ASA coders final, which is the final for the coding competition that my dad runs. Now, Free Code Camp is actually a great website, which I have actually done where it teaches you how to code pretty easily and it gives you step by step and you get to do it by making an app, which I'll talk about later. This is the first screen that you see when you start your journey of learning code on Free Code Camp, which it tells you to write Hello World, but I wrote Hello, talk to the ASCAs, we're here. So later on, you're going to be learning how to make a cat photo app because we don't already have enough cats on the internet. And as you can see, the code is a lot, this is actually my code that we took from the website when we were doing it. But it's really great website because it builds on to your code while you're doing it so it doesn't start over like when you keep on going forward. It gives you instructions, you run the tests, it's really cool, really fun, keep on making really cute cat pictures of things, it's really cool. So what I talked about is something that actually happened with me when I was going through Free Code Camp, I came to a part where my code had an error in it and I didn't know what it was and I looked, couldn't find it, so I stopped because I felt really mad that I didn't get it. And I went away, came back a day later, still didn't know what was wrong, came back three days later, still didn't know until I finally just said, you know what, I'm going to ask my dad because he knows a lot about code. And he actually sat down with me and showed me what I did wrong which was like a little thing that I read incorrectly and I continued. But what the thing I took away from this was why was this not as obvious as everything else? And I think it was because, you know, coding is awesome but it's not super duper easy. Some people have a talent for it, some people don't. But it is a great tool and I think that if you come to a point where you can't go forward for me personally, it's hard to kind of like ask for help but if you do, you can continue on and you can go further. And so that was a really great point. And later on, if you go through FreeCodeCat, I haven't made sure yet but you get to JavaScript where they teach you and it's the same as Python which was before and it gives you step by step and you add on to your code until you make a cute cat photo app. Now if you don't want to make a cat photo app, here is another website which I love. Like this is like the coolest website in my opinion. I have played this, I just don't know how long I've played this. But anyways, it is such a cool game and I'll tell you what. It has multiple levels and islands that you can have journeys on and you can actually build or choose your own hero which I chose, Captain Daniel Weston. You can choose your own language and you go through different challenges and you can save people and prisoners, free prisoners, defeat bad guys. But this is the first level or so after you get started where it just gives you your hero, it gives you a little maze thing.  And it says, move your hero to the gem and it's very basic from there. You just do that and it goes done and it gives you success. Because, yeah. And then later on it adds on, but it's a really fun game to kind of enjoy and play and I think that because it's so cool it has been a great website to use for our Ace of Coders Finals because it is just a video game and it's fun where you can go and you can solve problems and it's just a really great way to interact coding with fun. Now, the Ace of Coders final that we have is a little other part of Code Combat and it's like Dota 2 which is like a free to play multiplayer online battle arena and yes it is as close as it sounds. What we have here is the schools that participated and last year's Ace of Coders coding competition. And as you can see, two schools, when they get together the winner would go on and on and on until you get first, second and third winners. And that is what they were actually watching as you can see all the children laughing and pointing and it was really cool. I'm actually going to show you a video of one of the battles that was actually won and played during the competition. Oh, no. Okay, okay. If I can explain a little bit about what happens is that there's four points as you can see and there's two sides. There's red and there's blue and there's multiple codes that you can do and multiple players you can do but the basis of the battle is that the winner has all of the points. You can put different little people to your points and you just find until you get there and it's just a cool thing. This year's Ace of Coders competition and there's a Coder competitions happening this year and we already have 254 who have already registered but I think that this is a great opportunity to involve people that you might know, like young people because it is such a great atmosphere to be a part of. I was actually there as my first Coder competition I have ever been to. I was not involved but since my dad was running it I went and I watched and it was just really cool seeing how both teams would be in the front when their competition was happening and they would all be rooting and everybody in the audience would be like, boo, yeah and when people would get killed or people would be like boo and it was really, really cool and I really think that it's such a great way for kids to learn how amazing coding is. There might be students in different schools who don't know that they have even been to the Coder or have never been introduced to the idea but because of these competitions they can actually have a part and be a part of a group who know how much coding is fun. Now, I actually have homework for you guys and I know it's a little weird since I'm younger than you and I'm getting you homework but my homework for you is that at a minimum spend five minutes to walk a child you know through the first level of code combat and if they like it, if they don't like it, that's fine but if they do, they could be better prepared for the jobs of the future and I don't know what the jobs of the future are going to be and I don't know what I'm going to be doing in the future but I do know that technology is going so many places right now and that in the future technology might have a place in every single job that there is and learning how to code and knowing how to code it won't hurt because that's really great. Anyways, that's all. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave me a comment at facebook.com. I hope you enjoyed my talk and thank you all for listening and since the end of my presentation I would like to leave you with one final note. Live long and prosper. Forgive me but I'm kind of late. I don't know code of college. Sorry. Starting age, I think... Secondary school this year. All secondary school students for the junior category for the competition at least and JC students for the senior category. We've seen kids as young as six years old play code combat though.  It was so awesome. This is really weird. My kids weren't actually allowed to start coding for quite a while because I figured they have their whole life to learn how to do math and follow rules and solve for X and so for most of their primary school years it was go sing, go music, do all create, create, create, create, create and I knew eventually school would force them to learn calculus and algebra so sure enough one day when I saw them both doing calculus and algebra I said, okay we can do a little bit of code. It's in our flood. You know the questions for Shannon? Code Academy, so I like Code Academy. I tend to use just about everything but Code Academy. No, just because of how easy it is to work with people like Code School. I like Code School. Free Code Camp is completely open source and completely free. Both Code School and Free Code Camp and even Treehouse have nice API so if you're an educator or someone who runs national competitions it's easy to see what people have on their public profiles and Code Academy is just each time I've engaged with them I've never quite come away feeling that I could all the time students spent would be on a public profile that they could take with them forever and use with other things. I think if you're all 100% Code Academy that might be a little bit different. But yeah, so that's what we usually use these days in most of the schools I work with both undergraduate masters and at the JC and secondary school level our Free Code Camp, Code School, Code Combat and then any custom things that have been built in Singapore that we want to include in a single competition. Alright, any questions about Shannon's talk? I don't know.


Hi I'm Morgan and this is my sister Montana and we're a part of the Mosquito Creek rural fire brigade. The reason we're volunteers is because we've always grown up volunteering when we were younger and that was something our parents instilled in us. I guess we've always had like any little kid of fascination of firefighters and it's such a cool experience. I think I love having Morgan on this CFA journey because it's been really beneficial to have someone go through the exact same thing. We've been able to bounce off each other and learn with each other at the same time which I think if we were going through it alone it'd be a lot more challenging. My first turnout was the grass and scrub fire. It was really intense you get on the fire ground and a lot happens very quickly but it's amazing how your training kicks into gear and everything becomes second nature. And my first turnout was the total opposite to Montana's I had a car accident. When we got there there were already people on scene like the police and the other tanger as well so just having a role that was important I feel like was a great way to to get rid of those nerves of the initial turnout. The general firefighter course really helped us with our skills before our first turnout. We were lucky enough I think to do it twice and I feel like we walked away from each place more skilled and better off for completing it. We met some incredible people who gave so much time and energy into us and we're forever grateful for those people and we still think very highly of them. I think as Morgan said it was very handy completing it twice and in two different areas because we learnt such different things at both of the training courses and things that you still put into practice today and I think I will always remember those little things that those more experience have taught us. Going on our first turnout was to begin with a very daunting experience because you know there's so much hype and you sort of get all these nerves and all these emotions that you don't really know what to expect but it's actually comforting to know from our first turnout it's actually not as bad. I think after experiencing our first turnout looking forward to the future ones it sounds strange to say but I'm actually really excited about it. Now that I've got my first taste I'm eager to go out and learn more and yeah I just think of all of our older Brigade members they tell us so many stories of what they've experienced and that gets me really excited to see where it'll take us.


Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds. We praise Allah, we seek His aid and we ask His forgiveness. We seek His protection from the evil of ourselves and from the evil of our actions. Whomever Allah guides, none can misguide. And whomever Allah misguides, none can guide. I re-witness that there's no God but Allah alone. He has no like. And I testify that Muhammad, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, is a slave and messenger. Praise be to Allah, who has brought the hearts together on this auspicious day of Juma, literally a day of gathering, Juma means to gather. Just as He brought us together on that primordial day of Yom al-Ast, Yom al-Mithaq. On that day, Allah asked us, al-Astubi Rabbikum, am I not your Lord? And we replied, Bala, indeed you are. This gathering then is a reminder of that previous gathering. And it's a warning of the upcoming gathering, that of the day of judgment, when we will all be brought together and we will all be questioned whether we remain faithful to that primordial covenant, that first covenant. You may ask, I don't remember choosing this covenant. Why am I being held to this covenant? Why am I being held accountable for this covenant when I didn't choose it? And there's an answer for that. And the answer is actually quite simple. It's the fact that you actually did choose this covenant, but you don't remember it. You've forgotten your choice. Allah says, We offered the trust, meaning the covenant, the covenant of Khilafat to be God's representative on the earth. We offered this trust to the heavens, and to the earth, and to the mountains, but they all refused. And they were afraid of the covenant. But man assumed it, man accepted it, and man is most unjust, most ignorant. And this is something that, if we reflect on it, we realize it's actually part of our essential nature. Allah says, these are forms of exaggeration, is essential to us. It's part of our nature that we cannot escape, that we will be unjust, that we will be oppressive, that we will be ignorant, whether of the rights of ourselves or to the rights of others. And this is something that's fairly obvious if you look at it in the world, there's how many man-made crises do you know of? How many, you just turn on the news. There seems like a million things that we could talk about in terms of injustice, in terms of oppression, right? We talk about living a culture of war right now between conservative and liberal.  There are untold humanitarian crises all over the world, in China, in Burma, in France, let alone the various things that this country does. There are, and these are just the public crises. These are just the oppressions and injustices that are clear to us, they're global. And then there are the private ones, right? We make caricatures of these private ones. We talk about the aggressive boss, the unfair teacher, the rebellious child, the pompous preacher, the coworker that claims credit for your own work. There's plenty of volume in the world to go around and the list is endless. In the Rukana, the Luman Jahula, he is unjust and he is ignorant. But what we as believers, slaves of the law need to worry about and focus on is our own injustices, our own oppression. Because a lot is promised to take care of those oppressors out there. But what about us? It's easy to worry about others because it means that we get to play victim. We get to say we're oppressed. It's comfortable to focus on others because we get to sue their own egos. You know, we'll say, how dare so-and-so do such to me?  How dare he say that to me? I will get him back. This all, I know this is all a type of ego worship. But what the ego never likes to do is look at its own faults, its own shortcomings in its own flaws because that's to be uncomfortable. No one likes to acknowledge their own flaws. But that discomfort that you feel when you are dissatisfied with yourself, when you recognize the wrongs within yourself, that is precisely where growth happens, right? This, what they say, no pain, no gain. It's one of the tropes in this society. The first step to curing an ill is to acknowledge that it exists. And we have the same thing in our tradition. We say, the scholars say that satisfaction with the self is the root of all evil, is the root of all vice. And that dissatisfaction with the self is the root of all good, and that it's the root of all virtue. And in fact, the 20th, the great 20th century master, Jack Mahmoud al-Hashmi, has entire work dedicated to this. He speaks about the unity of the ummah and the unity of the ummah that was present in the past and this unity that's present now, that the unity of this ummah has been splintered and fractured into a million pieces.  And so what Shaykh al-Hashmi does in this wonderful work is to explain painstaking detail that the weakness that this ummah has comes from its disunity. And this unity that this ummah has comes from a unwillingness, from a unwillingness to acknowledge our own deficiencies, from each member being self-satisfied, being content with the self, because when you're content with the self, you don't acknowledge your need for others and so there's no unity. Each one becomes their own person. Inna hukkana daluman jahula man is unjust and ignorant. And so what belief in this verse is meant for us to do is that we mostly dissatisfied with the state of ourselves, an impressive and ignorant state. And what this requires is reflection on what unjust things am I doing? What unjust courses of action am I taking? And beyond that, once I recognize what those are, how do I rid myself of my own injustice if it is indeed an essential and fixed quality about me? And so Allah continues, right? He's guiding us down a path. Allah says in the Qur'an, He says a dichotomy in the Qur'an between two states. One is the state of being adhan, one is the state of being oppressive and unjust. And the other is the state of being beloved to Allah.  And this dichotomy is seen in these two verses of Allah says in one of them, Inna Allaha Ya Hibba Tawabin Wa Ya Hibba Wa Ta Taahirin. Verily, indeed Allah loves the off-repenting and he loves the self-purifying. And then in the other verse of Allah says, Wa Man Nam Ya Tug Fa Aulaikahum Al Baalimun. Those who do not repent, whoever does not repent, then indeed it is those who are unjust. And so you are either one or the other. You're either oppressing and unjust or you're repenting to Allah for your injustice and for your oppression and therefore becoming beloved to Him. There's a hadith where the Prophet, Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, explains that, Allah is more joyous at the repentance of a slave than a man in the middle of a desert who loses his camel and then is stranded in the middle of the desert. And he searches for his camel for days. You know, he's dying of hunger and of thirst and the heat. And then suddenly he finds his camel and comes up to him from out of nowhere. Allah is more joyous, has more farah at a slave who repents than that man who finds his camel. And farah, you know, farah has translated as joy. It's not, joy is not a mild happiness. Farah is not a mild happiness. Farah is an ecstatic joy. It's a joy that makes someone give freely beyond what a person may deserve. And this is the secret of Toba. That when you cease is sin, when you have deep regret for your shortcomings and then you recognize Allah's joy at your repentance and you recognize His love for you because of your repentance. And then you ask of Him His favor in that moment, in that moment of repentance because of His joy. That is when things are accepted. That's when your dua is accepted. And that's why after your Toba, there should be no more guilt of your past sins. They've been erased, they're done. It's as if they never happened. That Toba is sincere because Allah's joy erases the sin. Allah's joy erases difficulties in life and it erases you in rank. Instructs Quranic Ask forgiveness of your Lord right now for the same time, but they're accepted. Bismillah, Alhamdulillah. You may ask, I've asked for forgiveness and repented and asked for forgiveness and repented many, many times. How much more should I do? How much more do I have to repent? How much more do I have to ask forgiveness? And we reply that this thought that I've asked so much and nothing's changing. I've asked so much and I don't feel like I've transformed at all. This thought needs to be cast out of your mind. This is a satanic thought, this waswessa, because the entire point of Toba is to be in that state constantly. We know that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, verily I seek forgiveness on my Lord more than 70 times in a day. And then the point of Constant Toba then is to become content with your own inherent deficiencies. To be content with your own flaws, these flaws that they cannot change. Because Allah created you with deficiencies. He created you with flaws. And he did that for a wisdom. It's not just abath. It's for a wisdom.  Because when you're deficient, you need to rely on the one who is more perfect. So you rely on Allah. And you constantly turn back to Him. And this is the secret of creation, the creation of the human being, the secret that the angels didn't understand. When man was given the trust, when he was given the khilafa of the earth, the angels, the angels asked, atesh alufiha man yufsidufiha wo yasfiqud dima.  And this is a question that a lot of us may have. Why does Allah allow us to be evil? Why does Allah allow the suffering of this ummah, the suffering in this world? Why does He allow men to be so unjust? Listen to what the angels were asking. Now look at what Allah replies. Inni a'lamum ma'la ta'alamoon. I know what you do not know. And then he continues. He tells us the story of Adam, alayhi salam. And Iblis, la'anuh, Allah. Iblis, what did he do? He refused to bow to Adam, alayhi salam, right? He said, abaa was takbara wa kaanamina kaafirin. He refused and showed arrogance and became of the disbelievers.  What did he do when he ate from the forbidden tree? What did he do when he ate from the forbidden tree? He said, fatalaqaa adamum min rabbihi karimat fataba'a alayh. Adam, alayhi salam, learned some words from his Lord and he used those words to repent. He repented and turned back to Allah. And Adam, alayhi salam, is the father of mankind, not shaytan. He is the archetype that we learn from. And so how do we summarize all of this? The story of Adam, alayhi salam, Allah says, asa'a adamum bur rabbahu faghawaa thumma shaba'u rabbahu fataba'a alayh wahada. Adam disobeyed his Lord and turned away. Then his Lord selected him, accepted his repentance and guided him the right way. Subhanallah. asa'a adamum rabbahu faghawaa thumma shaba'u rabbahu fataba'a alayh wahada. Adam disobeyed his Lord and turned away. Then his Lord selected him, accepted his repentance and guided him the right way. Why did Allah select Adam, alayhi salam? Because of his sin and his repenting from the sin. This is what the angels could not fathom. That the very act of soul and corruption and shedding blood on the earth, this can transform into obedience through the power of Toba. We all know the hadith of the man who killed 100 people and he was still searched for repentance. And so he went to the learned man to the scholar and he asked, can I enter into jannah? Can I be forgiven for my sins?  Can I be forgiven for my sins? And the scholar said, yes, repent to Allah and then go to this far off city where you aren't known for your sins and you don't have a reputation. And you'll be forgiven. And he went on the way and on the way he got sick and he died. Then the angels argued, okay, if he was on his way to repent, if he was on his way, should he be entered into paradise or should he be entered into hell? And a lot shows that he'd be entered into paradise. The very act of shedding blood transformed into obedience through Toba because this man did Toba. And so what's the point of all this? The point is man's capacity for evil is great. That's undoubted. But his capacity for good is even greater if he keeps returning to his Lord. And so everyone sins, everyone makes mistakes. What do you do with that? Do you take the path of Shaitan, the path of Satan, refusing to accept that the sins are sin, refusing to accept your own deficiencies because it's uncomfortable because it makes you feel bad? Or do you take the path of the prophets, the way of Adam, the way of the prophets, who are constantly repenting to the Lord, repenting to Allah, and therefore ascending towards him and becoming those who are beloved and those of whom God adjoys.