Abdal Hakim Murad – Halal versus Tayyib Ramadan Moments 1
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala Rasulillah where Allah
He was RP or Manuela Assalamu aleikum wa rahmatullah wa
barakato.
As we reflect today on the meaning of the fast and how we can seize
it with both hands and make it work for us,
we remember as well as the fasting date, a time when we break the
fast in the evening
and the time when we prepare to begin the fast in the morning,
this a hole and the Iftar
and of all of the different aspects of this month
the recollection of him the focus on the Quran, the focus on the cat
and the port, all of the particular blessings with Ramadan
brings to us
one aspect that it seems to me we sometimes neglect is a sharper
focus on what is sustaining us in the form of Allah's risk.
Allah subhanaw taala speaks of the halal and the
Colombian Moroccan alkyl eat of that which We have provided for
you Hala Island tayyiba halal and
just as we would not wish to break our fast on fast on a
pork sausage.
We should not if we follow the meaning of this verse, break the
fast on something that is not time.
Zero reminded that Islam is not just a list of rules that doesn't
affect us within but that there is a moral and a spiritual and a
transcendent aspect to what we do that is often harder to put into
words. What is halal? The Sharia is quite clear about what
constitutes Halal risk. What is tired, that is to say, what is
good
is a more subtle thing. And we can understand quite clearly what is
meant by it when we consult the Quran and the Hadith.
Send this hadith in Sahih Muslim
where the Holy Prophet says
in Allaha Amara meaning Bhima Amma Robbie who are saline.
Allah has commanded the believers with what He has commanded the
messengers
of Allah to Allah. Yeah, are you ha Russello Kulu Mina Taiyi Bertie
wa Malou salejaw In UB Mata manana Ali
Sadat Allah Who loves him, Allah says oh messengers of the top here
this discourses To the Messengers eat of that which We have provided
you with
it may it be tight hip in a tiny bit
and do what is right.
I see what you do.
What's the meaning of this command to kind of eat? Why do we need a
commandment to eat? It's kind of a fundamental, instinctual thing if
you don't do it for a few days and you fall over dead. What's the
point of a divine command to eat? It's like a divine command to
breathe. Seems a bit of a
strange thing but Allah subhanaw taala is saying here at the time
that
the good things
and then the Hadith
goes back to the Holy Prophet salAllahu alayhi wasallam
who speaks of a man
you'll see Lucifer Ashada Akbar. Your motto your day he elects to
map Europe Europe will not undergo haram or measurable haram or mal
Bestival haram, for under your study Ebola.
So then the Holy Prophet mentioned a man who's on a long journey, and
it's dusty and his hair is matted. And he raises his hands. And he
says, you're up, you're up. But his food is haram. And his drink
is haram and his clothes are haram. So how can his prayer be
answered? Outwardly he seems to be in the state that we are in when
we fast kind of dependent and helpless and needy.
But prayers are not answered. Unless there is this compliance
with the divine command and the ultimate have spent some time
discussing this.
For instance, is a prayer valid if you say it in clothes that have
been stolen, the burglar returns from his night's work and get
there
is ready for Fajr and he's just stolen somebody's suit and he
prays and it is that pray. He prays and it's that prayer
acceptable. There's several views. The general view is that it
strongly dislike with a prayer is not actually invalidated by that
that some of the early jurists in them told us and others said, it's
not valid. This is something that is important.
So this time
moves into a space which is spiritual, because
there's something about wearing something that is not legitimate,
that is going to affect your prep, even though on the face of it,
it's covering the hour. So what is going on?
Allah subhanaw taala uses this idea in Allah Who tayyiba on lei
acapella ILA talking about a lot is good to you, and only accept
what is good and tell you
in a number of places. For instance, we are told that at the
gates of paradise, he will say,
Salam aleikum Tibba tomforde Hello, Holly Deen to the
believers. Peace be upon you. You have been good time. So enter the
gates forever enter the gardens forever.
So this is the timestamp.
Clearly this has many manifestations one of them seems
to be the moral quality of something that we do that may not
be something that can immediately be fixed in Shetty on
the tire be something that is about goodness rather than
lawfulness. The two should align, but don't necessarily always
overlap.
Some of the early on that refuse to pray in a mosque that had been
built by a Sultan with money that had been improperly expropriated
from people. They would prefer to pray outside the mosque rather
than to enter it, because they felt not that the prayer was
invalid. But there was something inappropriate something not tidy
up, not goodly about Asha, offering worship to Allah subhanaw
taala in his tansy in his transcendence when he is tired, if
one is surrounded by this evidence of human foolishness and and
cruelty and indeed, in some corners of the Muslim world, where
these things are still regarded as important and people are not just
talking about Sharia boundaries, but are talking about meanings and
that which, as it were inheres in stones five centuries after
assaulter might have
taken somebody's money in order to finish his his mosque. There are
certain mosques which are known to have been built with Halal wealth,
and others, which were doubtful. So the Mosque of salt unbias it in
Istanbul is famous and the righteous always like to pray
there. Juma there because this whole time, despite all of the
other things that he was doing, made sure that only lawful wealth
was used to build the structure.
So a prayer can be the same in two mosques. But because of something
that happened, a wrong that was committed five centuries before
the Shetty insists that there's a difference for this is really what
we're talking about when we speak of type.
So when we think about how we break our fast, we should be
thinking about the processes which has brought the food to our table.
We should be thinking about climate change. This is important
in Islam.
Does it really make sense to drink a bottle of mineral water that is
perfectly Halal water if it has been shipped from New Zealand by a
ship that is built it belching methane into the atmosphere in
order to bring a bottle of water? That's probably no better no worse
for you than the water and your local well.
This is what we're looking at. Look at the genealogy of your food
and drink.
Look at the additives. Look at the artificiality of the ways in which
Allah's risk has been cultivated.
chemical additives, frozen, dried, freeze packed in plastics, various
ways in which the industrial world makes food cheaper, makes it
affordable, particularly to the poor. It's not necessarily wrong
to industrialize the food chain, but we need to think about the
extent to which this is necessary and the extent to which it's
extravagant advertising.
The packaging of so much of our food and drink unnecessary.
So this seems to me is something that these verses are telling us
to think about in Ramadan that we often forget about
For all too often in mosques, you can attend the Iftar. And
everybody is carelessly eating
white rice with too much oil from sources that they never really
think about. And then drinking large bottles of fizzy industrial
drinks,
which are not exactly risk type, although they're perfectly halal.
We need to think about this what kind of an example we're setting
for a world that's increasingly concerned with,
with the morality of food or drink production, and with with health
and sustainability, so it's ethical rather than legal, we can
make that distinction.
And then most significantly, when we choose to ingest into
ourselves, the body of some animal, it's a momentous thing to
take the life of a living creature. It's not not a natural
thing that's intrinsically right, even though our species is
omnivorous in the state of nature, but still, insofar as the Quran
speaks about other nations, of the animals and the birds or mammals
and fellow come. And we know that concern that the Holy Prophet
expressed for animals once on one of his journeys, a young Sahabi
came with a nest with chicks in it and said, Look, I found the masala
the Holy Prophet became angry, and said, haven't you thought about
the mother of these birds put it back where you found it. He's
leading an army he's changing the world. He has so many things on
his mind, but this was something that he cared about.
And very often, in the month of Ramadan, not only do we consume
too much, and too much meat.
The Holy Prophet alayhi salat wa salam never did. Although he ate
meat and enjoyed it. He was not a vegetarian. He was normal Fitri
human being who shows the fullness of our humanity in nature, and its
most perfect form.
But the extravagance and the forms of animal husbandry nowadays, must
give us pause
the chicken biryani in your plastic plate
halau certified.
But what about the kind of life that that chicken experienced,
cooped up maybe in factory conditions and yet the Holy
Prophet Allah who slept with Salam says one of you may pray and fast
but if he is, if he wrongs a hen which he has owned, is not to be
considered amongst the just where does that make us as we
thoughtlessly stuff, our faces with rice and chicken and other
things.
We need at least to be aware of these things and in our massage it
in our homes in our communities to see if we can move from the halal
to the subset of the halal which is the type that which is goodly,
that which reflects Allah subhanaw taala as
nature has himself goodly and pure and right Tayyib en la Caballo
Illa tayyiba, Allah is good type and does not accept anything that
is not good type. So insha Allah in this amazing month of Ramadan,
one of the transformations in our thinking and in our sole work that
we are experiencing, we'll be thinking about this very important
aspect of this multifarious month this one month intensive retreat
that teaches us so much about the outward and inward aspects of the
religion, we will be thinking about the meanings of the tired
and trying to move from greed to reflection, from the thoughtless
consumption of whatever has Halal on the label, to a greater
discernment, so that we become again an example to other owners
of creation care, and of concern for the other Halak. For the other
creatures for the other nations. The other Omen, which have a right
to be treated decently in life, and also in dead in death. So may
Allah subhanaw taala make this Ramadan of good conscience, or a
model of ethics, or Ramadan of reflecting on our responsibility,
not just to our fellow Muslims and fellow human beings and to our
families and our mosque communities, but also to the other
orders of creation. The other biological nations are Omen,
because the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
emphasizes this and part of the fullness and the goodness, the
time quality of Ramadan, that which will in sha Allah
bring about the creator's statement, Pivotal, you are good.
When finally, we are resurrected in sha Allah, we hope that this,
we don't deserve it, but he is generous. We hope to hear that
word. So Tom, you are goodly people. Ethical as well. It's just
law abiding. So then insha Allah where people of balance, people
have prophetic wisdom and people have compassion for all orders of
creation. People have good health. Insha Allah Ramadan is a time of
good health. We will accept our fasting, bring us safely to the
aid and bring about great harmony and goodness in our communities,
in our families, and in the whole world in sha Allah in this blessed
month BarakAllahu li comb will offer me income. What's the level
aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato