The Story of Samiry #1 Entitlement and Rebellion

Are these in grades you know, Allah gave them Ghanaians Halawa, and they were still ungrateful. Let's look at ourselves a little bit before. Before we point the finger this is this is also a test, but I will briefly comment about that test to you because that's not our main story today. The brief comment I want to make to you is they used to live in Egypt. And in Egypt, they were free or were they slaves. They were slaves. But when they were slaves, they had vegetables and lentil and garlic and onion and cucumber. They had that stuff. They had a variety of food, but it came with a life of slavery.

Now they're free. Now they're free and now they don't get a variety of food. They only get one kind of food. Some of them started saying hey, can you like make dua to Allah? I miss some of the old food from Egypt man's I'm in Buckley HA, HA for me how others hear about Sudan, Sudan, Bukhara? They said, You know, these young Kenny Musa, they said they went to Musa Musa. Allah likes to listen to your advice. Apparently, he could split water for you. I think he can arrange for a little bit of salad too. So why don't you ask Allah and here's the grocery list. So they gave him a list of vegetables to ask for. Because Monday in some ways, good. But we got a little let's let's let's make

this far more interesting. So they gave him a list of things to ask for. And the reason this is important, is because if you were in prison, and one day you got free, and after you're free, you're like, Man, I missed that prison food.

I missed that jail cell that much they used to give me uh, huh, can you can I go back to, can I can I get that food, if you miss prison food, then it's like, it's the same as saying you miss what? You miss prison. You miss prison, Allah tested them. And Allah is showing them that the price of freedom is you have to let go of some of the things you became used to, you have to get out of your comfort zone. That was the price of freedom. So when they told Musa that we miss prison food, that they were actually not appreciating the taste, not a food, they couldn't appreciate the taste of freedom. They couldn't appreciate. And Allah says to them, eat and drink from eat or eat from the good, impure

things that we've provided you the good, impure things is the same kind of bland food. But you know what makes it so good and so pure, that it's coming with freedom, that it's coming with dignity, they don't have to live like animals, they don't have to be treated like worthless, pathetic creatures that are owned by other human beings. They don't have to be treated with humiliation, their soldiers don't have soldiers can just walk into their home and kill their boys and let the women live. They can't just watch young men can't just watch their mothers being mistreated on the street by Egyptian soldiers under the pharaohs rule and not be able to say anything, not be able to

do anything. They don't have to live like that anymore. They are free. So Allah is telling them directly once they get free, eat from the good things that we good and pure things that we've provided you. And then he says, Well, that's the whole fee. And this is where the unique part begins. And solid Baja, he says, and don't listen to the translation. It's strange. Don't rebel in it. Don't be rebellious in it. Now you guys tell me what is it referring to?

The food? So how do you rebel in food? What does it mean? Allah is saying, eat from this food and don't rebel. And this is, this is a heavy statement from Allah. This is scholars of civil call. This is the out of area. And there's long discussion, but I'm going to make the easy version of this for you. So you take the lesson from this, Allah is saying that when I give you blessings, when I give you blessings, you get so drowned in those blessings. You get so comfortable in those blessings, that you start taking those blessings for granted. And then you feel like yes, yes. Yeah, no, I know, I have a mic chewing problem of, okay, this is that better, a better, okay. So you, you get so

used to those blessings that you take them for granted. And as a result of taking them for granted, you feel entitled. And when you feel entitled, you start disobeying Allah in all kinds of ways. This is an interesting formula. Allah is talking about that he has talked about with other nations. So I'm going to take you to some other nations and then come back here. Allah describes he criticizes disbelievers all over the Quran, but there's one particular kind of people that Allah especially goes after in the Quran. They're called a Nutrafin. New word for you today. I will move trophy and say that for me, and Nutrafin the mudra Feanor people who've been

basically live large, okay, if they could have, if they want to have a meal, there's like a whole feast. If they want to go on a vacation, they're going to take an entire entourage with them. They don't want to go to the beach, they want to take their yacht to the beach. You understand the people that live super large, and splurge and spend and spend and spend, you know, people that have fancy weddings or parties, and they give every guest that comes to give them a diamond something or a gold something and like why did you do that, or you give somebody everybody a car, you're just spending and spend it these, these people are called Nutrafin. And Allah has a lot to say about those people,

that those kinds of people become the most reckless in terms of Allah, they don't remember Allah at all. They get so lost in their luxury and they become so entitled, that they develop what you can call nowadays, God Complex, they become like that. Allah is telling the Israelites and they don't even have a lot right now they only have Monday and salwaar. But he's saying it may be Monday and Salah now but watch out, you get used to Allah's blessings, and you're not grateful, you're gonna become rebellious in no time. Because you'll enjoy the blessings of Allah, life is going to be easy. And when life becomes easy, you're gonna become rebellious. What do you find in America, as I

traveled, I learned this the hard the experiential way. I went to countries this year, this last year, that are struggling economically.

And I met a lot of youth that live in countries that are struggling economically, and then I come back to the US, and we're doing pretty good. And the problems of the youth that are struggling economically, and the problems of the youth that are living well are totally different. But totally different. The problems that are of the youth that are living well, they've got a nice house, you have your own room, like the idea that a kid has their own room, maybe in the time of fit island that used to be a thing. But this is not a thing where you in the Muslim world or most of the world, the family has a room not the kid has a room, you have your own room, you can change the temperature

in your room.

You know, you have your own TV, you oh my god, your life is so bad. You only have a ps4.

You know, your and your you have every luxury possible. And these kids are so miserable, and so depressed, and so angry. And so bratty. And so entitled, and so loud, and so rebellious, and oh no, I don't I don't think I believe in Islam. Mom, it doesn't make much sense to me.

I don't know why we pray and stuff is so backwards. You know where a lot of that's coming from. It's coming from being Nutrafin. Because when someone gets used to luxury, then the idea I have to be grateful for what I have, it starts disappearing. It starts going away little by little by little. I noticed this change in attitude when you travel, you see the diversity in psychology of people. It was one of the first things I noticed. Now the Israelites are not millionaires yet. They basically just have money and Salwa and instead of a house, they have a cloud, right? So they're living outdoors. So they're not living large, but Allah is warning them. Listen, be grateful and live

within the halal because if you become rebellious, taking the blessings I've given you for granted. He says Listen to these words for your hell and they come hobby that my rage will be unleashed on you.

Allah didn't say that you will be in trouble or you will be sinful. The wording is very strong. He said My rage will become unleashed. You're hella hella hella rock that means to undo or not. It's being held Allah is anger is being held back. And Allah says I will let it go. I will let it go on you. If you're not grateful for what I've given you. And by the way, the biggest thing Allah has given them is two things in the worldly sense freedom. And in the spiritual sense guidance two things for my heart it's guidance for my body and my being in this life. It's freedom Allah has given them those both of those things. Don't take them for granted for your Hulu Alikum Gaby for

your Hello Alikum Bobby Woman Yeah, Liliana. He probably forgot our and whoever my anger falls on. That person is as good as someone who has fallen off a cliff. Haha, Hawaiian Arabic to fall from somewhere high to fall somewhere low. It's like Allah is saying these are the people that are truly going to be humiliated, if not assured and some others are Shatta Wale Rahim Allah had beautiful commentary about this. I read that today and I was so moved by it. He said, If you are used to the luxuries of this life, and you forget about Allah, like you have a good you know, you have good looks. You have health, you have money, you have car, you have pleasures, you have everything

thing in this life and you become rebellious to Allah Hawa also means no matter how hard you try, you're gonna get old. No matter how hard you hold on the car is gonna get old, the money's gonna get old things are going to even if you become wealthier, your body will not get stronger, your body will become weaker, you will try to fight it and you will try to do research on what surgery I can do or what medicine I can take to feel younger and look younger. But you're falling it's taken it's getting taken away from you no matter what you do. And you are heading there's one thing that's for sure coming if you live a life if I live a life of disobedience and that is Allah's Anger being

unleashed on me sooner or later who quite literally I will fall for called haha he says good as fallen. This is the warning Allah gave directly to the Israelites. Now, before going on. tell you one more thing. This is not from Sudha ha This is from Sutala Arraf. They got across the water. It's been some time they're doing okay. They pass by a town. When they passed by a town those people were not Muslim. They had their own religion. And they had temples and they had big statues and you know, a monuments and stuff and they saw people praying in front of them begging to them bowing to them, put it making a nice temple around all that they saw that stuff. And they had seen some of those

things and Quran because they're Canaanites and they had seen some of those things in Egypt and they saw those things again.

And after everything Musa alayhis salam did for them you know what they said to Musa Salam.

Inshallah Allah Karim Allah whom Allah could you make us a God like these people like they have such a? They have such nice colorful gods? Can we have one?

Now listen, like if you put yourself in Musa alayhis salam shoes for a moment after everything he's done for them.

After fleeing Egypt, coming back, standing up to the Pharaoh 10 years of struggle against the Pharaoh nine years or more of struggle against the Pharaoh crossing the water with them. And they cry and they've seen so many miracles of Allah, after everything we've been through, you turn around to your prophet, and what do you say, hey, this, you know, I think if we had a statue, it would help me concentrate a lot more. It's like a visual aid. You know? Like, if we had like a god statue, then I think these people look like they're doing pretty good spiritually. Look at them. They sit there for hours. They have so much better who you are than us. I pray for two seconds. And my mind goes

towards the zipper courier samosa today. I can't remember, my mind goes all over the place. You know, it's for Muslims, who you are. It's very hard, isn't it? Staying focused in your prayers, not easy. But then you look at other religions, and those people are just sitting there and they're sitting in front of the statue, or they're sitting on top of a mountain and they're sitting for six hours and they don't budge how they get that kind of humor. That's because Shetlands like, Oh, you're already doing my job. I don't need to distract you.

He's interested in you pro. He doesn't want you to have concentration with Allah. If they don't, if they have concentration on anything else. He goes, I don't even have to work on these people. They're already doing my work. I can put my full concentration on ruing the guy who's making salah. Right? We have nothing to be jealous of from it. But these people came and said, Well, maybe maybe we could have that. Now the real question before we go on. The real question is why would they say that?

Why would they ask that after seeing all those miracles and following a prophet? Why would they even ask that? And these aren't just pagans, these are children of Ibrahim alayhis salam, and they've had Prophets for so many generations is how yaku you know, there's prophets of old that they know that legacy and Musa alayhis salam is part of that legacy. So it's not like the Israelites converted to Islam because of Musa alayhis salam, they were already Muslim. That how come this happened? And this is why I want to this is where I want to remind you that the stories in the Quran they're not just stories about ancient people. Allah told us every one of those stories because it will be applicable

to Muslims today and every generation Allah will never tell us the story in the Quran because it's interesting information because it's Fun Facts from history Nope, it's always some living problem that will come back again like a virus that will come back again and again and again in every generation. It's not like something that existed a long time ago. So I need you know, know something about the Israelites today. These people went through many different cultures like like going on and in Ghana on people used to consider the bull. The bull is the

strongest animal on the farm, because compared to the sheep, or the cow or anything else, the bull is the strong animal and it pulls all the way does all the work right. So the bull became a symbol of strength. And over time in Canaanite religions and Sumerian variations, the bull became an object of worship. They used to worship the bull. In fact, they even used to look at the moon when the moon is weaker. And they, they looked at it and said, It's the horns of a bull. And the bull is pulling the sky. That's what they believed about the stars are about about the moon in the sky, right? And from it then became the sacredness of the cow. And that wasn't so much in Egypt, but it did exist

among the people of Ghana. And the Israelites had a lot of genetic, you know, mixing with the people of Ghana. In this phase, they spent many think of it this way Muslims living alongside Hindus for hundreds and hundreds of years, for example, right? Are Muslims living alongside Buddhists for hundreds and hundreds of years? I'll tell you an interesting thing that I saw in Indonesia, Indonesia, many Buddhists live there. Yeah. And Hindus also. So Muslims, when Islam came there, they noticed that when they call people to the temple, they have you ever seen those giant, like dongs, and they go doom? You know, those like those martial arts movies that you don't watch? Because your

Islamic? Don't, right, they do that? So they will, they will strike it and strike it again, and strike it again and strike it faster, faster, faster, faster, I don't know. And that's their way of saying it's time for you know, it's temple time, or whatever. And the Muslims were so smart to call people to Allah. You know what one of the things they did because they people had never heard the Athan before. So you know, what they did? They started doing the Doom, Doom, Doom, Doom, Doom, Doom. And then they do the plan.

And hundreds of 1000s of people started coming to the masjid because they heard the thing and I went to the masjid in Indonesia, and I heard the thing go off, and

am I in the right house of worship? What's going on? No, no, this is a tradition from before. And it commemorates something that brought millions of people to Islam, the most populated Muslim country in the world. SubhanAllah. But I wanted to give you this example, because what happens when different religions live side by side, you take something and you take something and there's some exchange happening, like in South Asia, many of us are from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, etc, right? The way that the girl is dressed for the wedding, and the colors that she wears, or the way that they dress, the bride and the groom. That's not Muslim tradition. Where did that come from? That's

Hinduism. That comes from Hindu tradition. We have many values and many parts of our tradition that are actually borrowed from Hindu culture. So we know that some borrowing happens. Now borrowing in masala is okay. Borrowing in outfits is okay. No problem. You understand borrowing in architecture? No problem. Where do we not borrow?

In our religion? In our religion, we don't borrow our religion has already period, Allah has given us guidance already. And Allah told the Israelites, I have taken a promise from you from the side of the mountain. Hold on to this, don't let this go. And then they go to Musa and they say, could you get us a God like that? I mean, there should be some room for each jihad, you know, we're still Muslim, we're still Muslim. So we do a little bit of this stuff. And guess what happened in countries like Muslim countries that are that are closely related or in proximity to other religions. Muslims started developing their versions of Hindu shrines, their versions of alternative

houses of worship that are not misogyny. There are versions of worship that looks just like Hindu worship, just like Buddhist worship, it looks just like it. But they're, they're still Muslim. And they say it's not a big deal. I mean, they have that we, we can have a little bit of that here and there. And those of you that are from Pakistan, India, but you already know what I'm talking about. You already know what I'm talking about. So many rituals, so much paganism made its way into Islam. And the thing is, Allah is teaching us something really powerful, that human beings will always be drawn towards shake. And they have to go through a lot of training, a lot of training, to let go of

that desire. In fact, even if they are living with a prophet, which Prophet are we talking about? Musa alayhis salam, they live with a prophet, they saw the prophets miracles with their own eyes, but the culture has affected them for so many hundreds of years, that even though they're living with a prophet, they have the audacity to ask that Prophet What's so bad about some extra? You know, can you make us a visual

Oh God, how's that? How's that a bad thing? Subhan Allah. It's crazy. That's crazy. But then so that was the first warning sign. That was the first red flag. Now come back here. Allah told Musa alayhis salam, I want you to come and meet me for 30 days alone. I want you to come meet with me for 30 days alone. Allah told him which day to show up at the mountain, and I will give you my revelation. This is called the me out. So let me add was that Musa alayhis salam is going to be called and Allah will give him the Torah, but he's going to give him the revelation. And Allah told him which day to come. Now Musa alayhis salam is with the Israelites. By the way, when I read the story, one of the things

I think about is I'm a teacher. And if you've been teaching your students for a long time, right, and you say chapter one, why we believe in Allah, chapter two, Allah is one chapter three chapter, you get to chapter 55, and one of your older students says, so why do we believe in Allah?

Chapter one.

But you know, in America, you can't do that. But if a student did that, in Morocco, if a student did that in Indonesia, for students that are in Pakistan, or Bangladesh, and soon and the student said, so they ask a chapter one question when you're in chapter 50, what's the teacher going to do?

It's called hands on education.

And we know we know Musa alayhis salam, you don't want to make that man angry. Because that man can throw a punch.

He can throw a punch. And these people are really pushing it with one the one prophet you shouldn't be messing with like no holiday Salam, I can kind of get it maybe you can get away with that a little bit. You don't want to mess with Musa it's sort of and he this is why even Musa Allah is um, sometimes he would get so angry with these people, and people and there are people I feel like sometimes we are unfair to Musa Allison. We said he had a really bad temper, bro, do you know what he had to deal with? We can't deal with anything even close to that. He had an amazing control over his temper. When they told him we will not listen to you after crossing the desert. We will not

listen to you until we see Allah Himself face to face. Okay, you don't want to give us an idol we can look at let's see Allah Himself. That's what they told him.

He said oh the villa here and Hakuna manager Hey Ya Allah I seek your refuge. I don't want to be from the people who lose their control. Because jarhead is also losing control over your emotions. Yalla don't let be unleashed on these people.

But these ayat are not about Musa unleashing on them. These Ayat word if you aren't grateful for my blessing, whose anger will be unleashed. Allah's Anger will be unleashed. Allah's Anger will be unleashed. Now Musa al Islam has to deal with these people. Now you you tell me and many of you have been in a position of being teachers or being in a maybe you're in management. And when you're a teacher or your manager or your boss or you're the head of a family of five minutes. Oh my god. I just got started. Okay.

I'll wrap this up quickly. I think I'll finish this the next time I come in a couple of days. Okay. chala. But because this is there's a lot here, but I'll wrap this part quickly up. Okay. So the thing is, if you have to deal with unruly students, disobedient kids, or rebellious family, people that don't respect you people that question you, is that a is that a pleasant experience?

And you maybe if that if you don't find peace among those people, then one of the best things you can do is get away from them for a little little bit to find your peace. You'll find some people they spend a lot of time in the masjid. Like they're always in the masjid. Mashallah. But sometimes behind that, mashallah is in a stuff that Allah

because they're finally at peace in the masjid. Because there's a lot of drama at home. And I'm just going to

one place I can breathe, man. I just gotta, I can't talk to her. I can't talk to her. I can just I'm just gonna talk to God. You know what, at least

there could be people in that situation. Musa alayhis salam has to deal with these people.

get on his nerves, everything that comes out of their mouth, even me as a reader, it gets on my nerves and he has to deal with it directly. And then Allah says, Come on this day to meet with me. I'll give you my book.

Saudi Salam shows up early.

showed up early. Oh, the thing is, there's two reasons he showed up early one. These people are so difficult. What do I do? How do I get them to fix these are they're so messed up. Maybe Allah's book that he's going to give me will help me solve this part.

problem. So what Allah has told him Come on this day, he is so eager to get the solution. What does he do? He goes there early is the same as you know, people come to the mom and say, Mom, my son is doing this this this, is there an IRA, I can tell him? Is there a my husband does this this is my wife does this. Can I tell them a hadith? Can I tell them an IRA that can solve this problem? It's a divine solution, right? Musa alayhis salam is in need of a divine solution because these people, I don't know how much more can you see before you become a believer seriously. And you claim to be my follower and you're still causing me pain. So he goes and rushes to Allah. Another reason to rush to

Allah is if you had the choice between the company of Allah and the company of the Israelites, what you're going to pick

Allah's company. So he writes, and he says to, he says to our own are the servants brother, he says, you watch over them, I'm leaving you in charge. I'm gonna go speak with Allah.

So he goes to meet with Allah, Allah mountain, and he's left those annoying Israelites behind. And some of them he already knows. They would rather mix other religions into Islam. He already knows that yes or no, he knows that. But so he knows that's a threat, but he's really eager to find the solution. He comes to meet with Allah. And he says, A Allah says to him, Well, you can call me kya Musa, what rushed you away from your nation Musa?

Why did you come here early, you will think in the worship of Allah, if you come early, that's a good thing. If you come to Fajr early, it's a good thing or a bad thing. If you come to Juma or leads to good thing or a bad thing, if you prepare early, that's a good thing. And here musante Salam came to receive Allah's book, and he came ahead of schedule in any by any standard, coming early is a good thing.

And here Musa alayhis salam shows up early, and Allah says Why have you showed up early? What allowed you to rush away from your nation Musa? He's actually critiquing Mousavi Salaam. Now Musa alayhis salam is in shock.

Wait, this was a bad thing. I thought I did a good thing. So he turns to Allah and says, Hula, hula you know those people. They are right behind me. i They're not far behind ya allah and I left Musa with them. And so he says, We're, they're not gonna go anywhere. They're right there. I haven't left them too far back. Well, I didn't do a copy. Tada. I rushed, I came to you rushing so you could be happy. I came here to make you happier up, because I thought coming early would please you. So he did this for the sake of Allah have a minute left. So I'm just going to tell you, maybe I shouldn't tell you make you make you suffer a couple of days and think about this. But I'll tell you a little

bit. I'll tell you just a little bit.

Musa alayhis salam is a leader.

And being a leader, one of the biggest tests of being a leader is you have to deal with people.

You have to deal with people. As a, as a leader, you have to deal with people that support you. You also have to deal with people that show you they love you to your face, but hate you behind your face. You have to deal with people that are trying to destroy you. There you have to deal with people that will listen to you in front of you and go and undo everything you instructed behind you. You have to deal with people that are waiting to see you fail. They're waiting to their their love to see you fail. You are you are you're in a position of leadership, and they're constantly questioning your leadership. You have to deal with all of those people, isn't it? It's not an easy

job. Being a leader is not an easy job. But profits this is nowadays they say oh, if you have toxic people in your life, you need to distance yourself from toxic people. That's so cute. Because prophets were surrounded by what kinds of people, toxic people and they if they follow tick tock advice. You know what all y'all Israelites are way too toxic. I'm out. I need a more positive environment.

Prophets don't have that luxury. A real leader doesn't have the luxury of walking away from his difficult flock. He has to deal with his flock. He has to deal with them. And even if he's rushing to do something good, he's rushing to get Allah's book. And why does he want Allah's book? He wants Allah's book so he can help these people. Maybe that will help them even then rushing to a solution when you know they're not mature enough yet. They're not mature enough yet. You have to sacrifice your desire to get close to Allah for the demands of leadership. This is

The huge community, there's there's people, there's so many volunteers here. There's such a board here, there's Imams and others in positions of leadership here, scholars and leadership and everybody's working night and day over here. And I can guarantee you the people that are helping put the Iftar together, the people that are helping put the youth program together, or people that are helping put, you know, the tents outside or managing the parking, sometimes they're the ones that are barely catching the salah

happens or no, they're the ones that are not getting enough time to recite Quran and everybody else who started they're not getting time to recite Quran, you know, and they would love to just rush towards Allah. And they have a guilt inside them. That Ya Allah, everybody's praying, I'm not getting to pray as much as everybody else. But you know what the price of leadership is, you have to serve the people. And it does take time away from rushing towards Allah. And if you rush towards Allah and abandon your responsibility and say, no, no, no, I'm just gonna rush towards Allah. I don't have to take these take care of these tests, that Allah is even questioning his own prophet

Musa and insula and saying, No, your first responsibility to is those peace to those people. And when I call you on that day, every second before that time you owe to them. You don't you don't have that free time. That's for them. Because you're a leader. That's your expectation. Allah has a different standard for the leader.

Everybody else if they rush to Allah for worship good, the leader when they say I want to I want to take some personal time to do worship and abandon some of their critical leadership responsibilities, no good. Because that's their service to Allah. That is their spirituality. Allah is so balanced in the picture that he paints. These stories are so alive, I didn't even get to the juicy part. the juicy part is what are they going to Allah He left them for a little bit and I told you already they were interested in other gods right. It's gonna get much worse. It's gonna get much worse and when was Allison's comes back, we're gonna see the anger of Mussolini and the story is

gonna get far far more intense Inshallah, but I will tell you nothing about that now. We'll talk about that in a few days. BarakAllahu li Welcome to core added Hakimullah anyway er can be Salam or aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.

For coming out, really appreciate it. Hello, so many parallels add to measure on

guys Inshallah, we're about to start them in five minutes. So if you want to renew your will do freshen up inshallah and get ready for Salah we're about to start at three o'clock sharp with our esteemed quarry of the night.

Right now.

Right

Ship

Salam Alaikum okay, I know there

there are many

brothers and sisters that don't usually come they came tonight in Huntsville, Alabama, I mean,

so we want to just two rules. First thing I want I want the lights in the back, like all shut off. The second thing is all of our phones need to be on silent, please, please put your phone on silent. A lot of people just put their phones in front of them on the floor. The alarm goes off for like the third meal after a thought.

And I don't know what alarm it is but it goes off in the middle of the die all the time. And it really kills the moment so please just take your phone out and make sure that it's in your pocket. Just verify that it's on vibrate. If it's on the floor just check does akmola head so he can have this great experience? Can one of the volunteers please shut the lights from under the first eight bucks in the back

and also straight in the Rose. Can you stay in the rows and give space to your brothers and Shala and your sisters make sure there's no no there's a lot of crowding it looks like I'm gonna play pray in the last row I've been sitting here for like been struggling I feel like Musa alayhis salam you know all these kids

all I must Shala said if you could squeeze me

there's still another light on can you turn these lights off please? The ones in the front. One of the switches is up for the brothers and brothers in the hallway. Can you please turn off the lights?