MCC Tucson Lectures
Muslim Community Center of Tucson
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March 6, 2026·Ramadan 17, 1447 AH·12:52 PM·1h 13m·March 2026

What True Wealth Really Means in Islam

Fasting in Ramadan and the True Nature of Wealth in Islam

ramadan fastingintention in worshipbreaking fastspending in charitywealth and hereafterquran verseprophetic teachingsislamic education
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Summary

This content covers Islamic teachings on fasting during Ramadan and the proper use of wealth. The first section explains that fasting comprises two essential pillars: intention and refraining from anything that breaks the fast from dawn until sunset. The speaker details the six things that invalidate a fast (eating, drinking, and others), emphasizing that actions must be intentional and done with knowledge that one is fasting. The second section focuses on a Quranic verse about spending wealth in the way of Allah, explaining that all possessions are temporary and will eventually return to Allah. The speaker emphasizes that true wealth is only what benefits the hereafter, citing prophetic teachings that a person only truly owns what they consume, wear, or give charitably. The content concludes with a fundraising announcement for Rahma Academy, the masjid's school.

Transcript

Note: This transcript was generated using YouTube's automatic captioning, with AI-assisted cleanup for readability. It may contain inaccuracies due to background noise, audio quality, or limitations of the transcription software — particularly during Arabic recitation. Listener discretion is advised; please refer to the original video for precise wording.

But fasting in general and specifically in Ramadan, we've mentioned previously that fasting is really an act that comprises two two things at once. When these two things come together intentionally, then a person is essentially fasting. Because when we talk about fasting, what are we what are we talking about? We're talking about refraining. We're talking about not doing something. A person is refraining from breaking their fast. And this is a type of worship in itself. When a person avoids all that is haram, anything that is haram, this is an act of refraining. And worship is essentially of five types. You've got worship of the heart, worship of the tongue, worship of the body, worship of a person's property or wealth, and then worship of the worship of refraining from something. And then there are acts of worship which are comprised of more than one of these types of things hajj for instance. Hajj is a type of worship that includes all of these five types. It's an it's a worship of the heart of the tongue of the body of a person's wealth and refraining because there are things that a person in Hajj cannot do that he would normally be able to do. So fasting essentially is comprised of two parts. Number one that a person has intention. Number two, that a person refrains from anything that will break his fast. That's it. When these two things come together, refraining from anything that will break your fast with the intention of fasting, this is what we refer to as fast. And a person does this from the break of dawn until the sun sets. This person has fasted an entire day and this person has con has been considered to be fasting. So these are referred to sometimes as pillars by the scholars. Two pillars. The pillars of fasting are number one intention. Number two, that a person refrain from anything that will break his fast intentionally from the break of dawn until the sun sets. Now, the question here that comes into play, what will break a person's fast? What is it that breaks a person's fast? A person's fast is broken by one of six things. Anything outside of these six things will not break a person's fast. It may deplete a person's reward of fasting. It may be preferred that a person not do it while they're fasting. It may have various rulings. However, when a person is fasting, the only thing that will invalidate his fast, meaning the person has to start the day over on a different day, is one of these six things. And some scholars view them as being five because one of the six things can be included in another. You'll see what we mean by that. The first and second, the first and second things that will break a person's fast is eating anything or drinking anything on purpose. This additional word here is very important. When we say on purpose, meaning a person intentionally does it knowing that he's fasting. Let's say a person forgets that he's fasting and eats a five course meal. Does that break his fast? Absolutely not. Let's say a person forgets that he is fasting and eats or drinks anything intentionally. Even though they intentionally did it, it was unintentional as someone who is fasting. Therefore, a person must have the intention, I know that I am fasting and that this will break my fast and then proceed to do it. that will invalidate a person's fasting. When the scholars say eating or drinking anything, eating or drinking doesn't necessarily mean that it is food. It could be something that is not food. The point is is that anything that goes path of food and drink and that includes the sinuses, the nasal because the nose, you know, it connects back into the back of the throat. Well, how about the eyes? The answer is no. Not at all. Eye drops do not break a person's fast. A person may say, well, sometimes if a person does an eye drops, they might feel they're tasting it their mouth. This does not break a person's fast. And not one time has the prophet sallall.aii Wasallam instructed us that this will break their fast nor any of his companions. The path of food and drink is the throat is the nose and the mouth back of the throat. We will continue this inshallah next week. Again, the class is a little bit shortened now because of Ramadan. Usually, we start at about 20 25 minutes before Jum, but because of Ramadan and people fasting and so forth, doing it about 10 minutes inshallah. week after next we'll go back to the original timing.

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Allahbar. Allahbar. Allahbar. Allah abbar. ill.

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Ash Father.

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Hayah. Hallelujah fell. Halleluah. Allahbarb.

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Alhamdulillah.

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Muslim.

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Fore.

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Speech. forch.

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Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala says in that which translates to And why is it that you would not spend your wealth in the way of Allah knowing that Allah to he belongs the inheritance of the heavens and the earth. This verse is very striking in its meaning. And that is that this entire chapter is revealed regarding the entire chapter its main narrative is fighting in the way of Allah subhanahu.

[Arabic recitation]

And that that ji head is divided into two branches. You have jihad that a person does with his body, with his own soul, and jihad which a person does with his resources, with all that a person has the ability to give, whether that be wealth or property. Whether that be anything that a person can use to financially support or to pour resources into the way and the path of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala asks rhetorically here in this verse why would you not spend your resources verses in the way of Allah being that Allah is the one who will inherit all of the heavens and the earth. If a person saves and squirrels away their resources and does not give them for the sake of Allah, one of two things will happen. Number one, this person will die while these things are still squirreled away. Therefore, all of this trouble that they went to to save all of these resources is for not because these resources will then be divided amongst your heirs. People who didn't break a sweat, didn't lift a finger to accumulate these resources, they get them for free. Or number two, a person will finally spend all of these resources on himself on material things. And these material things will eventually go to someone else free of charge. Everything goes back into the box. Everything. Everything goes back into the earth where it was created from and hence back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And that is why one of the names of Allah is the great inheritor subhanahu wa ta'ala. After all of the creation is dead, after we are all dust, there will be none to claim our inheritance, our collective inheritance except for Allah. To he belongs the inheritance of the heavens and the earth. He tells us subhanahu wa ta'ala that he will collect back all that is upon the earth. Everything that we have, everything that belongs to us today will belong to someone else tomorrow and will eventually belong back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when there is no tomorrow and there is no one else to inherit. And so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala asks this question when he urges when he demands of the believers to spend their wealth for the sake of Allah and specifically in the path of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala he asks this question he says says, "And why would you not pour all of your resources into the path of Allah, or at least pour your resources into the path of Allah, being that Allah is the one who will inherit the heavens and the earth It will all eventually end up in the same place. There is a companion named Abdullah Abdullah. He came to visit the prophet sallall.aii wasallam. And one night he came to see him while the prophet was in salah and he heard him reciting the statement of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala the statement of Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala you all are being sidetracked act by the momentary amusement of obtaining those things, collecting those things which are of those things which make you feel like you have a lot. He says.

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He says the human being is constantly fretting over his money. constantly constantly his mantra is my money my money my wealth my wealth my property mine mine he says but oh son of Adam do you really possess of your wealth except that which you eat and physically becomes a part of your body or that which you put onto your body and wear out or that which you give for the sake of Allah and you will find in the hereafter. Those are one of three things. Everything else goes right back into the box. If you are not consuming it into your body to where it becomes part of your flesh and bones, if you are not wearing it on your body, if you are not giving it for the sake of Allah and Allah accepts it from you and rewards you for it in the hereafter, it goes to someone else. No matter how much it is, no matter how much your name is written all over it, no matter if it has a pin a pin number that only you know and no one can get into it except for you with your PIN number, protect your PIN number. Or no matter if you have it in an account and a trust and you have so many people looking after it to make sure that no one can access this these resources except for you and whom you deem all of it will go back into the box eventually. And hey, we live in America. Any money that is left unattended or any taxes that are not paid on it, it goes to the lovely government for free of charge. We could add that one on to it as well. Any of it because of course we wouldn't want a single dime to go unaccounted for. And so the point here is that what we have our name on doesn't necessarily belong to us. Everything that we have been given in this life, we have been given momentarily as a tool, as a puzzle piece that will make up our journey. Nothing more than that. It's not part of you. It is only yours by claim at this point at this junction. Think about it. Everything right now that we have, we inherited from generations that came before us. Everything. Everything. Even our own bodies are made up of the same dirt and the same earth that the previous nations were made of. We don't even get to keep our own flesh and blood. It goes back into the ground and the ground will take back everything that it gave us. And that is the nature of our relationship with the earth that we reside upon. Today we are the ones that are living on this earth and it nourishes us and tomorrow we will be inside of that earth and we will be nourishing it back and it will take back everything that it gave us. You don't get to keep anything. The only thing that you get to keep is what has gone through to the hereafter. As our prophet said,.

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He said, "Human being, do you really really possess anything beyond what you eat or what you wear or what you give for the sake of Allah and it goes to the next life." That is the only three things. And when we say what you wear, what you eat, not what you have, planning to wear and planning to eat. No, no, no. What you've already eaten or wearing right now. That's it. That's all you get. No more. Everything else goes back into the box. It gets recycled for the coming generations that will live on this earth after us. The prophet sallall.aii wasallam posed a similar question to his companions and Muslim the prophet sallall.aii wasallam said to his companions one day He said, "Who of you cares more about your heir's wealth than your own?" Meaning, when a person dies, their heir will inherit from them. A person cares more about what they inherit, not about what their heir will take from them. And so the companion said, "Oh messenger of Allah, of course every one of us cares more about our own wealth than our heirs." He said, "Whatever you give for the sake of Allah is yours. And whatever you do not that belongs to your heirs, not just to your kids and your your heirs, those who will inherit from you." No, no, no. your heirs, meaning anyone that will live on this earth after you. But this is very contradictory to what we are enveloped with here in this society today. You see, we all grow up and we all are in an environment that teaches us that this this is fiscally irresponsible. What you are saying, she what do you mean? Well, you have to go to school and you have to get a career and you can't spend any of that money. You've got to save it up so that when you retire, you've got something to draw from. So that you can go see the world once you retire. so that when you get married you can throw have a big wedding, you know, stuff like that. You've got to save every penny. You know what's interesting? Very, very few of us are able to live this reality anymore. It's 2026 in America. Everyone and his brother has his hand out to collect his subscription of the month. Not one of us is saving anything. Most Americans are in debt because we live in the country of you don't have to have money to buy something. Buy it and then pay me later. That's where we are. We're not saving anything. We've got a subscription for everything except for the air we breathe. And that is coming down the pike. We don't save anymore. And even if we did, back to what our prophet taught us. These are not new values. Our prophet sallall.aii wasallam taught his wives. He said to his wife, he said to his wife, Zan, he taught his companions and his own wives, give for the sake of Allah and Allah will give to you. The idea that you can somehow bend the world to your will by merely squandering and squirreling away money. That doesn't mean anything. You are dealing with Allah. When you give, Allah gives to you. You withhold, Allah withholds from you. Even if you think that you are that you are somehow getting ahead, the only true wealth is that which survives you upon your death and that is your wealth with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the hereafter. That is the only wealth that will that will continue beyond.

[Arabic recitation]

After the salah we are going to be fundraising for Rahma Academy. Rahma Academy is our school here at this masjid for the community here in Tucson for the children. This school is absolutely critical to our religion survival in this country. That is that in our public schools today, your children, our children are being taught themes of homosexuality, of hypersexuality, of godlessness, of scientific hubris, of religiouslessness, of moral depravity. And the only way that we can protect our children is to teach them ourselves. Now, our school might not be perfect. It might not be exactly what every single person thinks it should be and thinks it would be had they been the ones in charge of it. That's the nature of authority and leadership. Not everyone is going to be pleased. But there are two types of people. There are those who are truly with their brothers and sisters and feel a an obligation, a kind of ownership that if something is wrong, I will stick with it to try to help it or better it. And those who are not, they're there as long as what they want happens. If what they want doesn't happen, they'll just go somewhere else and take their business somewhere else. If they if McDonald's doesn't treat them right, they'll go over here to Burger King, right? That's a second type of person. We have to stick together and whether it is your child or my child, it is our child and every one of us will share in the responsibility of ensuring that our children are insulated to an extent from the depravity that larger society around us is engaging in, is indulging in, is normalizing. And there's only so much we can do. But this is absolutely the least we can do. There is not one reason for any one of us today to walk out of this masid without contributing something. Contribute $100. The amount of money you give to Starbucks, the amount of money you give to Netflix every year to show you programs about people with fake smiles and fake lives and entertain you and escape for a little bit from this world. For less money, you will be contributing to something that is truly eternal, inshallah, eternally with Allah. There is not a single excuse that one of us will have to walk out of this masjid without contributing something. And most of us can contribute a lot more than just something. And so with that inshallah we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to guide us to guide us to truly spend our wealth and resources in the way that pleases him. We ask him subhanahu wa ta'ala to accept from us. We ask him subhanahu wa ta'ala to give us the insight to recognize the truth when we hear it. the strength and courage to adhere to that truth in spite of the consequences and the honor and nobility of dying for and upon that truth and being resurrected upon it. Allah.

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Alhamdulillah. All.

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You sore. So stand shouldertosh shoulder. Close all of the gaps. Align your shoulders and feet with the shoulders and feet of your two neighbors. As we mentioned, as the rows are being straightened, we're going to be fundraising for about five minutes after the salah is over. We each have two responsibilities towards this fundraising. Number one, do not get up and leave unless you absolutely have some kind of emergency and cannot spare five minutes because one person leaves, the other person leaves, and we all have the idea that someone else is doing what needs to be done, but it's actually us that needs to do it. The least you can do, just stay for three, four, five minutes while we raise these funds for our children. Number two, do not leave the masid without contributing something. Alhamdulillah.

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Amen. Don't worry.

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All me Allah hid. All.

[Arabic recitation]

Alalaykum. First, I want to thank Sheh Ali for such a wonderful, very encouraging. , but I want to just emphasize on the need for this. So alhamdulillah as you know we have al 90 students at the Rahma Academy alhamdulillah takir now that's our goal was always like about 100 students and we are reaching that fast now what happens after that is what we need is the expansion of the Rahma academy in a physical infrastructure the sense so for that purpose Allahh has blessed us we have now 1 acre parcel on this street. Takb takb brothers and sisters, we have 1 acre parcel that has already been paid for. What we need to raise funds from now on is to build a school building on that lot. So without any further delay and again this is going to be a walk that's that's all the attributes she talked about and why you should give this is a saddaka jar. So all you need to realize is this is a per perpetuity where you are getting the reward that where you're going to get the reward for every time the student is learning something something about the deen is being taught in this school. So again it is a Islamic school we focus on that and now we have a very good news inshallah to share with you some other day. So without any further delay I'm going to request sheh Ali to help us raise some money inshallah make some pledges.

[Arabic recitation]

Inshallah with $10,000. Look, when you well when we say pledge this amount or that amount, you don't have to pay it all right now this second. You can pledge it, make sure that it is is down and then you can pay it weekly, monthly, bi-weekly, you can pay it within a year. Just pledge something and make sure that you follow through with that pledge. Inshallah, let us start with $10,000. We should get at least brother.

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$10,000.

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Five more. $10,000 for the entire year.$10,000. 10,000. You can pay it throughout the year.

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Mention his name.

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As you can. This will encourage everyone else. You need to be public. If everybody hides himself, then we're not going to see it. $10,000 Let's have a few more inshallah. 10,000. I see scrubs in the masid. I see doctors. I see professionals. I see guys with a pension. $10,000 inshallah. 10,000. Not to take too much time. We'll move on inshallah to.

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Amen.

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Are pledging, right? The board members, the people that are working here. We well, not working, but volunteering. We need everyone to be involved in this. Every single one of us right now must get involved in this in some way. But you'll move on, not to take up too much time. Here we have another here in the back. Yes. 10,000 inshallah.

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10,000 or we on 5,000?

[Arabic recitation]

Mashallah. 10,000. Any more before we move on? $10,000 throughout the year. Come on. It's America's 2026. It costs about 20 bucks for a loaf of bread. Now, we have here upstairs sis. So, it's all of the board members. We need some more regular members. 10,000. Let us move on quickly to $5,000. Inshallah. We should we should take these nothing. 5,000 here. We have 5,000 over here, brothers. 5,000 here in the front. Brother Sham said.

[Arabic recitation]

5,000.

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Opportunity.

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Throughout the year. 5,000.

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We have two. You don't know. This might be the one thing is accepted from you. This might be your ticket into paradise. If you knew we have here in the back, brother could be the one thing that tips your scales into paradise. And if that were the case, how much would you give right now? If you knew that that was your one ticket to paradise, how would you give it that you could sleep soundly after today? 5,000. 5,000. Let's take 5. We have another over here. Mashallah. Amen. Okay, very quickly, not to take up too much time. $2,000. We should have just people fighting, chomping at the bit right now. $2,000 2,000 over here by the wall as well. here by the wall. 2,000.

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Brother 2,000.

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It now.

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Who else can take this 2,000 over here this over here $2,000.

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There's a brother.

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Amen.

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Move on. And if we miss you, please make sure that you take it. Here we have a sister upstairs in the front. Mashallah.

[Arabic recitation]

Oh, mashallah. Took it for someone else. We have here 25. 25 here in the front. you sister here. And then we've got a little boy with his parents' money throwing it down from the balcony. Mashallah. Jude is throwing his mother's wallet down from upstairs. 2,000 anymore. $2,000 inshallah. Let's move down to 1,000 for the sake of time. 1,000. Less than a hundred bucks a month. You spend more on coffee. You spend more at the gas station for your kids. You spend more on Netflix. thousand bucks for the year we have over here a thousand a thousand all the students should be given you want to get married right this is how you get money and have some kind of something in the bank with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala get yourself a nice wife get yourself a nice husband $1,000 for the year $1,000 for the year we should have them just coming out of the woodworks over here 10,000 Amen.

[Arabic recitation]

Mother's wallet down as well from the balcony. Uhhuh. And Sala from upstairs. Mashallah.

[Arabic recitation]

Abdi. 1,000.

[Arabic recitation]

As off as some of the board members. So inshallah I'll get there once I once you start paying me more I'll start giving more. $1,000 inshallah 1,000 here. MASHALLAH 1,000 LESS THAN A hundred bucks a month. $1,000 inshallah every for the entire year. $1,000. $1,000. Inshallah we're going to stop that we have here in the back. Mashallah. Amen.

[Arabic recitation]

Right now to build our children a future and not have to ask anyone and teach them what we want them to know, not what someone else imposes on them. This is our jihad. It's our responsibility. We will end it there. Inshallah. Should we go with Yeah, we can end it there. If you have anything else to contribute, make sure that you sign up before you leave. Do not leave without giving something. Give a hundred bucks on your way out. Give something. Even if only for the we've heard today, give something. Anybody I mean obviously there's a box back there and you can donate, put it in the box. ask anybody who does not want to say anything just you can put that you know the the note in there with the name that will be inshallah we'll follow up on it. the couple of other announcements that we need to make I must make. first is the camel will start on between the Monday and Tuesday night will start between Monday and Tuesday night and that will be at 4 at 4 a.m. inshallah and sahur will be served here in in the masjid. there is a there's a fitter is $15 per person for everybody in the household inshallah. and brother Ahmed Jabar you have you have announcement.

[Arabic recitation]

Allayikum we did not catch all the names so if somebody pledge please come and just give us your name here I also have a very important amount announcement pertaining to the school and it's very exciting actually I just want you to know that the school kids participated in the southern Arizona science fair this year and we have 10 students who participated from grades 1 to three. We have four students from grade 1, four students from grade two, and two students from grade three. I just want to let you know that mashallah nine out of the 10 are winners today. We just got the announcement an hour ago and tomorrow inshallah they will be recognized in public by the SFS in the park and I'll have more informations about that. But I have the duty to mention their names and thank their teachers. On the first grade I have Jude Petar. I also have Malik El Malik Alarville. Mashallah. I have Zar Ahmed. Mashallah. And I have Zuber Ali. These are first grade teacher Elisha Roat Jazaki Lafer. In the second grade, I have Amir Al Ble. I'm sorry if I misname. I have Ralia El Kabash. I have Maria Abd and I have Muhammad Ali Jazak. This is under teacher Amal Al Fatak teacher. And in the third grade, I have one person out of two who won. And the third grade person is Muhammad Ali. I know I mentioned him before. I'm sorry I did a mistake maybe. and thank you teacher Ishra. I'm sorry I just got this news about an hour ago and I didn't have time to announce it. So you should be proud of your school in introduced to and showed you how important it is how important it is that you bring your children here. But we want you to know that we work hard and we go out of our way to even reach out to all the activities anything we can do to improve the school on a scientific and secular level. So please participate. Okay. Second grade person that I missed is Mik Hass. Congratulations to everybody. Sorry for the missing that.

[Arabic recitation]

One. Make sure you get every single one of them.

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House.

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Give me your name and tell me how you want to pay it and it'll be fine.

[Arabic recitation]

Know my son was doing it in charge. So, and IBM, we used to do that all the time. ,.

[Arabic recitation]

Afterwards. Can I get your number?

[Arabic recitation]

That's how it chose them. Whatever way you want to write. Okay. post. I will see what I can.

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MCC or NC.

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Is thanks to Okay. And the monthly, do you want to set it up? The same. Okay. This one you can set it up. Choose the donate. Then you say monthly notes right. How do you.

[Arabic recitation]

Let's do that.

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The month. But for zel I don't. Okay. I give it to you.

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[Arabic recitation]

Today is.

[Arabic recitation]

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Can you just put me down,000? What's your name? Huh?