We begin by praising Allah and we can't praise him enough, our praise falls short. And then we thank Allah and our thank falls short, our thanks falls short. We can't thank him enough. Sometimes we forget that we need Allah. And then we remind ourselves that we weren't made for this world. This world is, we're just visit, visitors in our home and our true abode and our true, our true resting place, our true domicile and residence is not here. We're only visitors and we warn ourselves that we are returning to our maker. We are returning to our creator who may question us how we lived our life, how we spent our time, how we earned our money, how we treated our wife, how we treated our husband, how we honored our parents, if we called our mother, if we called our father, if we helped the oppressed, if we helped those in need, we're returning to our maker to see how we did in this life. But right now my brothers, gentlemen, my community, my fellow children of Adam, my sisters, we're still alive. We can still read another page of Quran. We can still make another habit. We can still break another habit. But when we pass and we die, we can't read another page of Quran. We can't donate another dollar. We can't read another Surat al-Kahaf on Friday. We can't start another habit. We can't break another habit. We can't call our mom one more time. We can't call our father one more time. We can't treat our wife any more gentle. Our time is up. We can't seek forgiveness from someone we harmed. After we die, it's too late. We can't mend relationships between two brothers that are fighting. It's too late. We passed. After we die, we can't ask someone for forgiveness. We can't fix a relationship that has been broken. It's too late. But right now we can. Right now you can donate another dollar. Right now you can start another habit. Right now you can read another book. Right now you can honor another scholar. Right now you can help another institution. But one day, it'll be too late. One day that door is closed, that access has seized. And that's a reality, an unavoidable reality for all of us. Right now we can improve our character. We can become more gentle. We can become more soft. We can become more loving. We can become more patient. We can become more caring. Right now we can do that. We can overlook the people who hurt us. We still have that. We can still enhance our character. We can still do that before we meet our maker, before the test is done, before this journey is complete, while we still have breaths remaining that are being counted down, like on a countdown timer. We still have the opportunity to teach our kids, to do zikr with our family, to make someone laugh, to smile to someone. But one day those opportunities will be gone. But when you leave from this Friday gathering, this Friday prayer, you can still make an intention to read a jizid of the Qur'an every month. You can still make intention, I will be a better husband. You can still make intention that I will be a better son or daughter. You can make intention that that person, you can still make up with someone. But one day for all of us, that opportunity will no longer exist. And we don't want to be in that moment of death, and a moment of remorse, a moment of regret. Why didn't I? I could have. I should have. What stopped me? The dunya distracted me. The devil diluted me, but I had the chance. I had the opportunity. And right now, today we have that opportunity. Today you can leave here and you can send money anywhere in the world to any suffering person in the world, to any suffering Muslim in the world. Have you sent any money to Syria, the suffering orphans or the suffering starving families, or to Palestine, or to Yemen, or to the many places in the world? Our khair, our goodness should reach everywhere. Should reach everywhere. We should have a part of goodness in everywhere. We should have a part of goodness in zikr, a part of goodness in gentleness, a part of goodness in Quran. Our dear Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, said, تركت فيكم وعظين صامتا وناطقا فالصامة الموت وناطق القرآن I left with you two warners, one that is silent and one that is out loud that speaks. And the silent one is death. Our dear Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, said, I left you with two warners, a silent one and a verbal one. The silent one is death and the verbal one is the Quran. It's a warner. Our dear Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, said, اكثر من ذكرهات من لذات increase in your remembrance of the destroyer of pleasures. Death. Our Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, said, يا عجبا كل العجبي للمصدق بدار الخلود وهو يسعى لدار الغرور How strange is it? How strange of the strange is it? How weird. How wondrous. It's so wondrous that for the one who believes in the abode in the home of forever, yet he's striving so much for the abode of the temporary. This world, this world we plant so we can harvest over there. They asked one of the righteous salliheen, why is it that we hate to depart to the next life? And he said, حمرتم دنياكم وخربتم آخيراتكم فكرهتم أن تخرجوا من الحمار إلى الخراب.  So you don't want to go from the built to the destroyed. And right now we can build our afterlife. We can decorate our grave. We can decorate it with good character. We can plant trees with ذكر and تسبيع. Because that home is forever and that's waiting for us. And this is the abode of delusion. It hypnotizes us and religion is an alarm clock. And so every Friday we come to say, ya Allah, you are why I live. You are what I seek.  I live for you. And we make adjustments every Friday. And remember the truth and perspective and the reality that this life, we're all leaving. And every Friday we read in Surah Al-Kahaf, chapter 18 in the Quran verse 7 and 8. In one verse he says, what we gave you on this entire earth and this entire world is an ornament, a decoration to test you. Who's going to do the best actions, the best work. And in the next verse, وَإِنَّا لَجَاهِ الْمَا عَلَيَا صَعَيدًا جُرُزًا And we're going to make it all dust and crumble. In the next verse, everything is going to crumble. All of the square feet, all of the mansions, all of the mansions and the palaces and everything, it's all done.  And then we get the true palaces. We get the true reward. We get the true victory. And that's why we, that's what we live for. And that's what we're committed to. أقولوا قولي هذا وأستغفر الله لي ولكم فاستغفرو إنه هو الغفور He seeks forgiveness from Allah. He is indeed, He indeed forgives all sins.  Indeed it's going to find you. Death is going to find each and every one of us. They asked Sayyidina Ali. Sayyidina Ali said there are the children, there are the sons of the world and there are the sons of the next world. Sons of the Dunya and sons of the Akhira.  I'm sorry.  So stop chasing, so be of the sons of the next life because you'll never catch the Dunya and you'll never escape the Akhira. So be of the sons of the Akhira. That's what we chase. That's what we crave. And remembrance of death spoils love of Dunya. Doing a meditation on our reality that these breaths are being counted and they're diminishing and there's only a numbered quantity remaining. It's doing a meditation on that. And those who I know have passed away, they've been in their grave for one week, for one month, for one year, for one decade. And what happened to them and what happened to their dreams and their hopes and their businesses and their lives and what happened to their families and what happened to them? Doing a meditation on them spoils the love of this Dunya. And we need to be in the Dunya, but not of the Dunya. We need to be in the Dunya, but not of the Dunya. We need to be here in the prophetic Muhammad in ways, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and plant for our afterlife. And be a millionaire and be a billionaire, that's fine, but put the money in your pocket, not in your heart. My daughter once asked me, Baba, when Teslas were really new and exciting, can I go in the Tesla? I said your body can go in the Tesla, but the Tesla can't go in your heart. That's fine, but not in our heart, because our heart belongs to Allah, belongs to God, belongs to things that will never die, will never vanish, will never crumble, will never become dust. The everlasting, that's what our heart belongs to. So when we go into our grave, we're not missing the things that crumbled and become dust, because we took them with us. We took them with us in our heart. We're not gonna miss anything of this Dunya. And so I conclude with this, that in our modernity, in our modern era, in our culture, we have all been told a lie. And this is the lie that all of us are entitled, are entitled, and all of us are entitled to our comfort and our perfection. And this is the lie of our time and our culture. And this is causing anxiety and causing depression and causing the things that come from that. And we need to reset this, because Allah promises in the Quran that this is a life of difficulty, ad Dunya Darul Balaq. This is a domain, the Dunya is a domain of difficulty. And we need to reset this understanding and perspective that when we're patient in the Dunya, we'll get rewarded in the paradise, that we're not entitled to perfection here. And what happens is when we train ourselves and our children that you're entitled to perfect shoes, perfect socks, you don't like your socks, they're uncomfortable, change it, you're uncomfortable with your shoes, change it, you're uncomfortable with your jacket, change it, with your sandwich, change it, with the restaurant, change it, with your school, change it, with your car, change it. And then eventually, with your spouse, change it, with your religion. We need to understand that this is a place that we are patient and we have acceptance and contentment and riddle. We're not entitled to perfection, like the filters on Snapchat tell us like we are entitled because the filter makes my cheekbones perfect. That's a lie that my coffee is perfect because I have nine types of milk I can order from in Starbucks. I'm entitled to my perfect coffee, my perfect burrito. I'm entitled to my perfect everything because I can return anything to Amazon and Costco because I'm entitled to my customized, No, this is a lie. And this lie leads us to unhappiness. We are going to test you. We are going to test you with this and this and this. I created life and death to test you. Who's going to be the best of you in actions and works? So this lie is important because Islam is the recipe for happiness. Islam is the recipe for happiness. And we understand that this entitlement to perfection is a lie of our culture. And we need to understand that so we can raise ourselves, our families, our children and protect them from this anxiety and from this depression and from all this pain. All this pain, right? And so this is our message today that we are here for a temporary moment that death is going to find us, no matter what and let's prepare for that moment. So it's a moment of birth into a next life. It's a moment of continuation of see you later. It's a moment of celebration, not that we hate life. Muslims don't hate life but it's a moment of being reunited with your beloved where the veils can be lifted and now you can see your beloved throughout all the years here 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 years we can't see we have this limitation because of our nature of creation and then these veils get lifted and we can see. So we yearn to see our beloved and whoever yearns to see his beloved, Allah yearns to see him. And whoever hates to see Allah, Allah hates to see him. And so we yearn to see Allah. And his beloved messenger and our beloved messenger, Rasulullah, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam gada nalqa al-ahiba Muhammad wa sohba. Tomorrow we will see our beloved Muhammad, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and his companions. May we be reunited inshallah and gentleness. Ameen, Ameen, Ameen, Ameen.  All of us in this moment. Ya Allah, we ask you to cleanse us, to purify us, to illuminate us, to let us be from your beloveds. We ask you to let us be from your only yet, from your close friends, from your saints. We ask you to elevate our community, to elevate our ummah, to reunite our hearts, to give us the strength to see the opportunity of life as moments to draw near to you, as moments to rectify our character, as moments to be gentle to our wives, as moments to be gentle to our husbands, moments to honor our teachers, our scholars, as moments to massage our parents' feet, as moments to increase in knowledge, to read another book, to do another dhikr, another tasbihah, to read another page of Quran. Ya Allah, give us victory and don't let this dunya distract us. Don't let this dunya hypnotize us. Don't let the shaitan, the devil delude us.  Let us use our tongue only for you, Ya Allah.  Our ears only for you. Ya Allah, we ask you for everything good that our dear Prophet Muhammad, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, asked you for. We seek protection from every harm he sought protection from. And Ya Allah, we ask you, when we die, let it be a moment. Ya Allah, not of pain, not of suffering, not of remorse, not of regret, Ya Allah. But when we're reunited with you, let it be a moment of celebration, Ya Allah. A moment of happiness, Ya Allah. Ya Allah, this world is temporary. Take it out of our hearts. Don't let us love this dunya. Don't let us love this dunya. Don't let us love this dunya. Help us love the Akhirah. Help us love the Akhirah. Help us love the Quran. Help us love Islam. Help us love our Prophet Muhammad, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Help us love you. Help us enjoy the sweetness of saying your name. Help us love our parents and honor our parents. Help us love goodness, Ya Allah. Amin, and be gentle with us. Bring us closer to you with gifts and caresses of love. Caresses of love, Ya Allah. Don't let us be chained with the shackles of misfortune, Ya Allah. Bring us closer to you with gentleness. Amin, Amin, Amin, Amin. And send peace and blessings on our master, Sayyidina Muhammad. And may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon Sayyidina Muhammad and his family and companions. And may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him and his family and his companions. Glory be to Allah, the Lord of Glory, the Lord of Exalted, for what they have described and peace be upon the Muslims. And praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. Indeed, Allah commands justice and goodness, and comes close to you. And He forbids evil, evil, and the rest. May Allah make you remember you. Remember Allah and He will remember you.


So tell us what your name is and where you came from. So I'm Ysala Ventura and I'm from Colorado. Nice, welcome. Why don't you share with us your childhood and from where it started? Yeah, so my parents had me at a very young age. My mom was 14 and my dad was 16. So that already is pretty interesting. But so we grew up in a very Catholic home, very poor. It was multiple families in one home and we had very traditional morals, I guess you could say. So I saw people pray to idols, worshiping, a lot of not Christian stuff, I guess you can say. There was saints all over the house, everything like that. And so I grew up believing that that was the proper religion and I also believed that a man, the way that a man treated a woman was very different than I do now, but I saw my dad physically hurt my mom a lot. He was a very abusive man, he was an alcoholic. And so I grew up thinking that was how a man should treat a woman.  And so I just grew up with that mentality and no matter what, I always respected my father. And so after, I remember a very specific day, my father and my mom, because they loved to party, they decided to leave and my father never came back and I found out that he was deported. And so he was my world. And so as a daddy's girl, that shattered everything possible for me and we were left with absolutely nothing. So we were living in a hotel for a while and then, you know, fun start to run out and we went to living from a hotel to being homeless and to living in a shelter. And so we were, I was going to school and then, you know, going to a shelter in the night. And so that was my life for a while until social services started working with us and we actually moved into a small room in a house. So it wasn't even like an entire house, it was just one small room where all five of us lived. And so that was my life for a while. Wow, that doesn't seem like it was an easy childhood growing up, especially with everything that happened with your father. What was the, I guess the turning point or something that really marked you guys as a family? When you were the sage. Yeah, so there was one day where there was a festival going on and since we had no money, my mom felt terrible that she couldn't take us. And so we decided to clean the house, which was weird because, you know, we never cleaned. And so we decided to clean it completely spotless. And I remember we decided to get into our best clothes. Someone in the family just had the idea to let's go on a walk. And so we got into some very nice clothes what we had at the time.  And as we were walking, we heard worship music. And we never had heard music, worship music before. You know, we were used to the yelling and everything. And so it was very nice to hear. And I remember we decided to follow the music. And as soon as we got to where the music was playing, there was a church and they were just worshiping in the park. And so I remember we decided to stay and my mom was like breaking down in tears completely. And I remember, you know, feeling embarrassed. I don't know why she's crying. I don't understand what's going on. And the pastor came up and prayed for us. And I like to say that he and his family rescued us. Cause from that moment, there was a rainbow in the sky. And it was like a new beginning in the park, not even inside four walls in the park. And he prayed for us and he just completely rescued us. And that was the turning point for my family. Aw, let's give God some praise. It's crazy how she was rescued, her family felt rescued from outside of the four walls of the church. It was people who had taken the church outside of the four walls that really would be able to encounter people like her and her family who were broken, who were in need. And so what else happened from that moment on? Yeah, so I decided to go to my first youth retreat that November. And I remember encountering God for the very first time in my life speaking in tongues. And I didn't know I was speaking in tongues at the time. It just happened. And later someone explained to me, oh, you were speaking in tongues. But I remember I just fell in love with God. I just completely fell in love with God. And I went home and it felt like nothing had changed. We were still battling a lot. But I remember feeling in the middle of the night, like it would be dark and I would just, and we still had idols up. I would just begin to pray and just intercede for my family. And I was like, you know, 12, but I remember feeling the need to just pray and around the room and everything. And my sister would like get under the covers and just like, you know, shake, cause she was scared. But I would intercede for my family. And little by little, we started taking down the altars that we had, the idols, everything. And my family is saved. Amen, praise God. And so how did you end up coming to Hungry John? How did you hear about internship and how'd you get here? Yeah, so that same youth retreat I had been going to every year. And last year in November, Pastor Vlad was actually preaching there. And I had been rejected from my dream college, even though I had been accepted into other ones. I just remember feeling crushed and like I wasn't good enough. And I was like, God, you know, this is, it's a Christian college. What else could you want from me? And I remember being at the altar, being at the altar and I felt God tell me, Hungry John, I remember Hungry John. And he was just, he was just, he kept, I kept hearing that over and over. And so I spoke to Joe after service and he explained to me and I went home and applied. And here I am at Hungry John. Amen. Well, we give God the praise for your life, for your family. Amen.  Yeah, so our first service here, I didn't know, you know, I'm from a small town. So one service is the regular and so we stayed for both services, not realizing they're the same. But we decided to stay and we sat through both of them. And I remember my mom decided to stay and she just was seeking deliverance. And she decided to have a private session with someone and she was just completely set free, completely delivered. Seven years later, it just shows you keep praying. I mean, keep praying because even if you don't see it right away, it is coming. Yeah. Amen. Thank you so much for sharing your story with us.


The real-life SEAL seems to have joined up with the CIA much earlier. The late investigative journalist Alexander Cockburn contended that SEAL first came into contact with the CIA in the 60s as a Special Forces helicopter pilot in Vietnam and maintained links with them throughout his TWA years. Other accounts suggest his links might have gone back as far as the Bay of Pigs. Moreover, although the film suggests SEAL was just an excitement-loving pilot who got swept up in espionage at the time, eight years earlier he had been attempting to fly 1350 pounds of plastic explosives to some anti-casual Cubans based in Mexico when he was arrested by the US Custom Service. And far from resigning from TWA in 1978 to pursue this new, more exciting career in spying, he was fired in 1974 for falsely claiming medical leave when he actually was absent due to weapons trafficking. He escaped prosecution only because the CIA intervened, stating a trial would threaten national security.