Abdul Nasir Jangda – The Virtues Of Arafah
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Granted us the ability, the opportunity to be
able to witness
the day of.
And I wanted us
to take a little bit time out here
tonight,
or this evening,
right before the time of Iftar, which we'll
talk more about the significance of this fast
and
something for us to focus on here.
But I wanted us to take out a
few moments to be able to really understand
and appreciate exactly,
you know, what opportunity Allah has granted us
here.
The significance of the day of Arafah,
to understand how
remarkable this day is, how profound this day
is,
how virtuous and blessed this occasion is,
and what kind of history
has occurred on this particular day.
So first and foremost,
this day of Arafah,
the prophet
maybe the most significant thing about this particular
day
is that the prophet said,
That
the entirety of Hajj,
the act of Hajj,
right, which we know exactly what Hajj is.
Hajj is a 5th pillar of Islam. It
is one of the obligations of our religion.
It is
the culmination
of the mission of the prophet
Hajj is an experience. It is a moment.
It is a practice.
That if a person goes and performs Hajj,
they return back from Hajj.
The prophet used this particular expression to describe
it. That person will return back in the
form or in the condition
in which their mother gave birth to them.
They'll basically return back anew,
completely free of any kind of sin
and tarnish that they might have been carrying
with them from over the years and the
decades.
So Hajj is so profound and so powerful
and so beautiful.
Right? It is the meeting place of the
entire Ummah.
And the prophet says
that
the day of Hajj,
the day that basically completes Hajj and fulfills
the Hajj
Hajj is
Arafah.
So that's this particular day.
And that's how blessed this day is. The
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
when he himself, the Quran how does the
Quran tie in with the day of Arafah?
It's important for us to understand.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, when he
went for Hajj,
and he was performing the Hajj there, the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam informed us
that
this particular
verse was revealed upon me
there in Arafat, on the day of Arafat,
and that verse was
Today, I have completed for you your religion.
And I have fulfilled upon you
my blessing, Allah says.
And I have approved
for you
Islam as a way of
life. So this particular verse of the Quran,
which in many ways represents the completion
of the mission of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam. It was revealed on the day
of Arafah.
Arafah, just like we talked about, it's it's
both things. For the hujaj,
it is
a day of new beginnings.
But at the same time, for the prophet
salallahu alayhi wa sallam, the day of Arafa
was a day of completion.
It was a day of fulfillment of the
mission and the promise of Allah.
The prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, therefore he
says about
Arafah,
The best of the days is the day
of Arafah.
And the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam in
another narration,
he says that,
That there is no day that is more
virtuous in the sight of God than the
day of Arafa.
That on the day of Arafah, Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala,
He
sends His mercy down closer to humanity.
And on this day,
the people upon the earth who fast, and
who make dua, and who worship.
Allah brags about those people
to the people of the heavens.
That Allah tells the angels, look at my
servants upon the earth.
The people who are worshiping Allah on this
day, particularly the people in Hajj.
We probably all saw the pictures of the
hujaj making du'a'a rafa.
But nonetheless,
the narration says that all the people that
are worshiping Allah, calling out to Allah on
the day of Arafah,
Allah brags about them to the angels.
And Allah says, look at my servants.
Right? Particularly
on a day like today,
it's not that big of a deal, but
nonetheless, it's not nothing.
Right? Everybody who fasted,
we realized today that we're out of practice
with those
long, hot fasts of the summer.
Right? March spoiled us a lot.
Alright? March April spoiled us a little bit.
We realized that today. We felt it today.
But so that little bit of inconvenience, that
little bit of sacrifice, it goes a very,
very long way,
Where it earns us the love and the
pleasure of Allah.
And that's
something very remarkable and beautiful on this day.
Now
specifically,
on the day of Arafah,
fasting is very important. Now obviously, we're talking
about this at the end of the fast,
but I just wanted to mention because the
prophet mentioned something.
That the fasting on the day of Arafah,
I hope from the mercy of Allah, he
says.
I hope from the mercy of Allah. One
very important thing whenever we are performing good
deeds is to actually have hope
in the reward from Allah
And that's why even though whatever choice we
made today is made,
and now we're near the end of the
fast.
But I still wanted to mention this because
in the scenario and in the case,
in the instance that we were fasting,
it's very important in these moments right now
to be thinking about and reflecting on the
reward from Allah. Well, what is the reward
from Allah? The reward from Allah is that
the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam says, all
of our sins of the previous sin, the
previous year, clean
slate.
By
just
fasting
for
1
clean slate
by just fasting for one day.
And
Allah, the the way the prophet words it
is all the sins of the coming year
will also be removed. But how can you
be forgiven for something that hasn't happened yet?
How can you be forgiven for something that
hasn't occurred yet?
Even though Allah can do anything, but the
imam An Nawawi
he
explains, what that means is Allah will grant
that person protection
from falling into further sin for the coming
year.
Allah will grant that person protection.
Allah will guide that person, protect that person,
so that they do not fall into sin
for the whole coming year.
And the prophet
he says,
That there is no day on which Allah
frees more people
from the fire of *
than the day of Arafah.
And so this is the day of dua.
This is the day of dua
where we make dua, we ask Allah, we
supplicate to God, God, we spread our hands
before Allah, we beg and we plead to
Allah.
We ask whatever it is
that we need.
Whatever it
is that is troubling us. Whatever it is
that is weighing on our heart.
Whatever it is
that has been
causing great stress and distress.
That this is the day where we can
pour that all out to Allah
And that's why the narration says, more people
are freed from the hellfire
today than any other day throughout the entire
year. Because this is the day when many
people,
millions
of our brothers and sisters,
just, you know, however many hours before,
were standing there in Arafa,
and they were begging for forgiveness for themselves,
for their families, for their friends, for their
communities, for the hulunlah.
And then all the fasting people
all throughout the world,
duas are accepted on the day of Arafa.
On the day of Arafa, duas are accepted.
The fasting person,
their duas are accepted.
When the person sits down and is about
to break their fast in the moments,
few moments before the opening of the fast,
duas are accepted.
So think about all the factors that are
combining here today, right now, in this very
moment.
The day of Arafah, fasting, the time of
Iftar.
All of that
is creating such a remarkable opportunity
for duas to be accepted.
And
so the primary thing the prophet
taught us,
now we can ask for anything, and we
should ask for
everything. But a little reminder to me,
and all of you all,
is that as human beings, as people,
we can sometimes
become so
consumed
by something that is really troubling us or
something that we desperately need.
That we need a little healthy reminder
that, yes,
ask for whatever, ask for anything, ask for
everything.
But a little healthy reminder from the prophet
to all of us
that the thing that we are most desperately
in need of
more than anything
else, is the forgiveness of Allah.
And I forget that
because I'm a human being.
And so I become so
overwhelmed and inundated and consumed
by my own consumption.
I become so consumed by my immediate worldly
needs.
But it hurts here, and I'm hungry,
and my pocket's empty.
Right? I become so consumed by this. Not
that these are bad things. Of course, we
should be making dua for these things. But
I do become very overwhelmed by all these
things.
The pain, and the money, and the loss,
and the need, and the want.
Right? I become very overwhelmed by all of
it.
And so I'm sitting there with my long
dua list, and God forbid
God forbid
that whole dua list,
it didn't say forgiveness on there anywhere.
It didn't say Allah's mercy anywhere.
He didn't say jannah.
He didn't say protection from hellfire anywhere.
That would be a tragedy. It'd be a
travesty.
And so on this day,
more than anything else, we ask Allah for
his forgiveness
and think and then now,
billions of Muslims around the world around the
world begging and pleading,
crying,
fasting,
thirsty, hungry,
tired, exhausted.
And then making du'a for forgiveness
and think about,
inshaAllah.
May Allah accept all of our prayers.
But the billions of people being freed from
the hellfire today. May Allah make us amongst
them.
And so that's the significance
of the day of Arafah.
Now
before we
kind of move towards,
the time where we'll make some dua, we'll
spend a little time in dua and supplication,
There were a few things that I wanted
to also highlight about Arafa.
In that, you know, just historically
and in terms of the
principles of our deen and our religion, our
what we call.
Right?
I do think that it's important that we
talk about a couple of things.
Number 1,
that
the day of Arafa
is also the day and the occasion
of what is maybe the most important
comprehensive
address
of the prophet
to his ummah.
And if it's the most remarkable and most
important address of
Muhammad to his
then that means it is the most remarkable
address any human being has ever delivered.
This might just be the most important and
profound
speech
that any human being has ever given.
And that was
The sermon of the farewell pilgrimage of the
Prophet
And on this day, the Prophet
delivered this address.
And in many ways it was again foundational,
but it was also
completing
his message and his mission.
And we'll talk about it here in just
a few moments about what he said at
the end that allows us to understand that
he was completing his mission,
and he was preparing for his departure,
and he was bidding farewell to his ummah
on this particular day.
But the prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam delivered this
Khudba.
Maybe we've seen posters
and graphics and things like that where you'll
have the whole Khudba written down.
And so if you look at that,
it it is of decent
length,
but at the same time, it's not,
like, pages and pages long.
It fits onto 1,
you know, poster,
maybe a couple of pages,
but that's the entirety of it.
But what he said on that day by
the way, number 1, it should be noted,
that is the longest the prophet
ever gave in his entire life.
That is the longest khutbah he ever gave.
Which was which would maybe maximum fill up
2 pages.
That's it.
That was as longest chutba ever.
Because the prophet
had a particular gift.
He was granted the gift of comprehensive
speech.
He could say a lot
in very little.
And the prophet
while this was the lengthiest speech he ever
gave, but still it wasn't that lengthy.
It's so profound and so rich in meaning,
that entire books have been written on the
meaning of that speech.
Entire books.
There's one particular text I have.
A 180
pages
were written
explaining
the meaning of his speech on that day.
So
very profound.
So obviously,
we can't get into all of it here.
I like to just leave people sometimes with
a little bit of a reference where you
can go into more detail.
If you
visit the Qalam podcast,
we have a podcast series on there called
the Sira podcast.
Unfortunately, you'll be subjected to more of my
voice. But
in the Sira podcast,
there are 3
sessions. 3 hours
where we went through the khutba line by
line and discussed the meaning of it. And
even that 3 hours, I'll be very honest
with you, was a summary.
But still,
even the summary of it
was covered in 3 hours. So that's somewhere
where you can basically go and kind of
listen to at your own leisure.
If somebody would like to explore the khutbah
of Hajjatul Wida' in more depth and more
detail. Alright?
But I wanted to highlight a few lessons
that the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam imparted
to us
on the day of Arafah, during his Hajj.
Some things for us to reflect upon.
Number 1,
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said to us
on that day,
and this is something that,
you know, obviously, it needed to be mentioned
and it needed to be talked about.
I was
hoping to talk about it here.
On that day, the prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam
engaged in a very fascinating
dialogue and exchange with
the ummah.
There were over a 100000
sahabah performing hajj with the Prophet salallahu alaihi
wa sallam.
And he started asking them questions and going
back and forth with them. Very interesting.
He says, first of all,
What month is this?
What day is this?
And what
place is this?
Now obviously,
the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam was not asking
them about,
I forgot what the date is.
Where he was asking them, oh, who didn't
know? They're performing Hajj. It's Arafa.
Everybody knew it's the 9th day of Dhul
Hijjah.
Everybody knew.
The prophet was not asking them some frivolous
question like what day of the week is
it?
What relevance and significance does that have?
But the prophet
they understood. He was asking them,
what is the significance of this month? What
is the significance of this day? And what
and, of course, they knew where they were.
They didn't just end up there by accident.
How do a 100,000 people show up somewhere
by accident?
Of course not. They knew exactly where they
were.
Is right there.
So they, of course, knew where they were,
but they understood the prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam
was asking them, what is the significance of
this place? And they all responded and replied
in one voice.
That they said, this is a sacred month,
this is a sacred
day,
and this is a sacred place.
And what the prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam was
trying to do was create
Like to understand what that means. Like imagine
being
in Makkar or Madinah on 20 7th night
of Ramadan.
Imagine.
The Prophet was saying, Well this isn't that
different.
This day
is also very very sacred.
Now here's the implication of that.
If it was a 27th night of Ramadan
and you were in Makar Madinah,
can you imagine? Can you even fathom? Can
you comprehend committing a sin?
Would you?
Like deliberately commit a sin?
Absolutely
not. It's terrifying. It's horrifying to even think
about it.
Well, the prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam was also
saying
that y'all are here in Hajj wearing a
haram
in front of the Prophet
performing Hajj.
Would you ever commit a sin? Would you
ever violate this moment? And they said, no.
No. No.
No. Well, the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam then
he said
that
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said, then
remember
that your
your lives,
your blood,
your lives,
and your property, your wealth
is also sacred.
And how you can't even imagine violating this
moment?
That the violating the life
and the property
of a believer
is even more horrifying than the idea of
committing a violation right now.
If you're wearing ihram, standing in Arafat,
in front of the Prophet
Think about how horrifying it is to commit
a sin there. The Prophet
said, Violating the life
and the property of a single Muslim
is more horrifying than even that.
And so the prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam on
that particular day, one of the big lessons
that he imparted was about the sanctity of
life.
I talk about this very specifically amongst all
the other
lessons that we could talk about here
because
we once
again
cross another date
and another occasion
off of our calendars
and the massacre
and the genocide of our brothers and sisters
in Gaza still continues.
How horrific of an idea it is
that we've
gone through so many,
like, dates on the calendar.
So many
that we have gone through
Muharram,
Ashura,
the beginning and the end of Ramadan, and
the Eid.
Now here we are,
Hajj,
and about to do another Eid,
and nothing has
changed.
It still continues.
It hasn't stopped.
And so
I connect this back to the earlier point
that we met that we talked about,
and that is the power and the significance
of this day.
This is the day of duas.
This is the day that duas are answered.
That
we need to be making dua and we
will be making dua on this day once
again.
But with full conviction,
with no doubt in our minds or in
our hearts that Allah will answer.
But the prophet on this day, he talked
about the sanctity of life.
How sacred life is.
And this is a lesson. Right? Somebody might
think that why would he, in his most
important address, talk about something so obvious as,
oh yeah. Murder is bad.
Well, look around the world today. We just
talked about the example of our own brothers
and sisters in.
And look at
just,
you know, our recent history as humanity.
We have taken all the gifts that Allah
gave us.
The intelligence,
the ability,
the resources,
all of it. We took all of it
and we poured it into
a singular effort of becoming
more efficient at killing human beings.
That is our big achievement as humanity
today.
That we're good at destroying
people.
And so think about this lesson
of the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam. This
reminder from him.
And he reminded us of this, that be
mindful
of the sanctity of life.
And
as we just mentioned, once again,
particularly for us,
this is a very important reminder.
That if I had maybe become a little
less
kind of tuned in and dialed in
into what's happening to my brother and sisters,
then this is a reminder
that I need to reconnect.
I do not have the luxury.
I do not have the ability.
It is a crime.
It is criminal
for me to become distant and unaware and
disconnected from what's happening to my brothers and
sisters.
And if some of us have been carrying
this burden on our heart,
and it feels very heavy, and it continues
to be very heavy, then this is a
reminder from the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam
that we are that then then say, Alhamdulillah.
Because in this particular moment, that should be
the condition of a believer
that they are concerned,
that they are distressed
about what's happening to the ummah of the
Prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam.
On this
particular day,
the Prophet
he made
such an emphatic dua.
And I wanted to
kind of conclude on this as we go
into the dua ourselves.
The prophet
made such emphatic dua.
There's
a narration
in which the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
says that the best dua is a day
is the dua of the day of Arafah.
And the most blessed thing that I have
said today, the prophet says that he has
said today,
and that all the prophets before him said,
That there's no one worthy of worship except
for Allah.
And,
he alone
is worthy of our worship and he has
no partners.
And
to him belongs everything and to him belongs
the ultimate praise, And he is capable over
everything.
And
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
says that prophet kept making this dua
on the day of Arafah.
Oh Allah, all praise belongs to you
as we are saying and even better than
the praise that we are saying.
Oh, Allah to you is dedicated all my
worship, all my sacrifices,
all my life
and even my death. Everything is dedicated to
you, O Allah.
And, O Allah, to You will I return.
And everything I have done good in this
life is all dedicated to you, O Allah.
O Allah, I ask you for protection
Allah,
I ask you for protection from the punishment
of the grave. And, oh Allah, I ask
you to protect my heart
from the whispers of shaitan.
And O Allah, I ask You to protect
us.
Protect me and protect us from all other
kinds of evil things.
O Allah, I ask you to protect me
from anything evil that the wind
could bring sweeping in.
And Usama
who was one of the closest people to
the Prophet and used to always be in
the service
of the prophet
He says that the prophet
was sitting on the back of his camel
making dua,
And he had his hands up making dua.
And he had the rope of the camel
on the sitting on the back of the
camel.
And while he was making dua, the rope
slipped and fell off the back of the
camel.
And when it fell, it kinda caused a
bit of a tug
on the rein of the camel. So the
camel started dipping its head while the processor
was sitting on it. So what you have
to do in that situation, you need to
grab the reins
and you need to pull it up again
so that the camel will get straight again.
And he says, I was watching the prophet
making dua, and the rope fell.
And the prophet
without breaking his concentration, without lowering both of
his hands, he reached down with one hand,
and he grabbed the rope and he pulled
it back up, but he didn't stop making
dua.
Because that time and those moments were so
precious and so valuable
that he did not want to miss
a second of dua,
not 10 seconds of dua.
Such a precious moment.
So inshallah, what we're going to do from
now,
is we're going to
engage in some du'a, some supplication to
Allah Please be focused, remain focused, and concentrate.
Let's make the most of these last few
moments that we have.
We have just a few minutes, so we're
gonna inshallah read some duas, and then I
wanna encourage everybody after we're done reading the
duas that you make du'a on your own.
I'm actually gonna sit on the floor and
face a qibla, insha'Allah.
But, what we'll do is we'll have a
couple minutes of duas as a group, and
then we'll have a few moments of silence
where everybody can then
beseech Allah personally.
Allah, we ask you for your forgiveness, you
Allah. Oh Allah, you are the one who
is the most forgiving.
Oh, Allah, you are the one who forgives
and who loves to forgive you, Allah. So
we ask you to please forgive us, you
Allah. Oh, Allah, if you were to take
all of the sins that we have committed,
all of the mistakes that we have made
and the indiscretions that we have, oh, Allah.
If you were to count all of our
negligence and all of our moments
of forgetfulness, you Allah. Oh, Allah, we know
that your forgiveness of those things would be
nothing to you, you Allah.
You could forgive us in a moment, you
Allah. And for us,
it would completely clean our slate, you Allah.
But for you, it would be nothing but
a single instance of your mercy, you Allah.
So please forgive us, you Allah. Oh, Allah,
gather all of our for all of our
sins and our shortcomings, you Allah, and forgive
them and wipe them clean on this day,
you Allah. This is the day in which
you send down your mercy, You Allah, the
most, You Allah. Please allow us to take
part in that mercy, You Allah. Oh, Allah,
allow us to be those who are constantly
guided, You Allah. Oh, Allah, give us the
goodness in this life, you, Allah. And the
goodness in the next life, you, Allah, and
protect us from the punishment of the hellfire,
you, Allah. Oh, Allah, on this day on
this day, you Allah, it is the day
in which you save the most souls from
the fire of *, you Allah. That you
write their names free from the fire of
*, that their necks are saved. Oh, Allah,
include us in that list, you Allah. Include
us and our parents, you Allah, and our
families, you Allah, and our teachers, you Allah,
and all of our loved ones, you Allah,
and the entire Ummah, everybody who believes La
ilaha illa Allahu Muhammad Rasool Allah. Oh Allah,
allow them to be amongst those that are
cleared from the hellfire, you Allah. O Allah
we ask you, you Allah, to relieve all
of our anxieties and distresses, you Allah. O
Allah we ask you to free us from
all of our worries and all of our
anxieties, you Allah. Our grief and our incapacity,
you, Allah. Oh, Allah, protect us from laziness,
you, Allah. Protect us from being cowardly, you,
Allah, and being miserly, you, Allah. Oh Allah,
allow us to be those that are free
from debt, you Allah. And allow us to
have our own agency, you Allah, that we're
not overpowered by other people, you Allah. Oh
Allah, give us health, you Allah. Oh Allah,
give us health and well-being, You Allah. Oh
Allah, grant us health and well-being in this
life and the next life, You Rabbi Alamin.
Oh Allah, please allow our hearts
to remain firm on this path,
Oh Allah, do not let our hearts fall
off, You Allah. Don't let us become distracted,
You Allah. Don't let our hearts deviate from
one another, You Allah. From things like jealousy
and ranker and envy, you Allah. Oh Allah,
allow us to always remain united, you Allah,
upon the kalima, you Allah. Oh Allah, allow
us to always be those that unite upon
our our blessed messenger, Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
so that we can see him on the
day of judgment, You Allah, and he can
take us by the hand in his paradise.
Oh, Allah, we ask you to give us
strength, you Allah, and patience, you Allah, and
allow us to be firm against all of
the disbelieving efforts, you Allah. Oh Allah, we
ask you to grant us patience you Allah.
We ask you to grant the entire ummah
patience you Allah, and strength you Allah, and
allow them to withstand you Allah all the
oppression and tyranny.
Ask you on this day, You Allah, in
which you send down your mercy in the
most amount, You Allah, in the highest volume
and the highest quantity, You Allah.
Allow Your mercy to hit us, You Allah,
like the rays of the sun, You Allah.
Oh Allah, allow Your mercy to envelope us
like oxygen, You Allah. Oh Allah, allow Your
mercy to fall upon us like the the
the rain of a storm, You Allah. Oh
Allah, allow your mercy to cover us, You
Allah. Allow your mercy to completely
envelope us, You Allah, so that we experience
nothing but your mercy, you Allah, in this
life and the next
year. Oh, Allah, there are many things that
we seek from you, you Allah, and you
know what is in the depths of every
single person's heart, you Allah. Oh Allah, if
it is good for us, you Allah grant
it for us. And, oh Allah, if it
is not good for us, then remove it
from us and replace it with that which
is
better. Oh Allah, we ask you to send
your peace and blessings upon our messenger, Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi wasallam, our teacher, our beloved, our
guide, our role model, the one who stood
for us and cried in the night, you
Allah, and he wept his eyes, you Allah,
for us, you Allah. Oh, Allah, send your
peace and blessings upon him and his family,
you Allah, and upon his companions, you Allah,
and allow us to be amongst those who
follow them until the end of time. And
now I wanna encourage everybody to take just
one moment to make their own duas before
we hand out dates for the iftar.