Dr. Quick advises us on how to get the most out of the month of Ramadan. This lecture was given at the Abu Huraira Center on June 1st, 2017.
Abdullah Hakim Quick – Getting The Most Out Of Ramadan
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The importance of shaking ground and avoiding harms' behavior during the month of december is emphasized, as it is the time for reflection and a focus on staying alive. The segment also discusses the physical activity that comes with the month of december, including sh patterning and avoiding harms' behavior. The " pest apocalypse" concept is discussed, including the negative impact on people's behavior and deeds, and the importance of finding a balance between good deeds and negative emotions. Pr responsibilities and small deeds are emphasized, and individuals are encouraged to take responsibility and try to do as many good deeds as possible to avoid damaging their personal relationships.
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smilla rahmanir rahim hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa sallahu wa salam ala Seder Lena rocker in the Vienna Mohammedan. While AlLahi wa sahbihi wa barik was under our praise the due to Allah, Lord of the worlds and peace and blessings be constantly showered upon our beloved Prophet Muhammad, the master of the first and last, and upon his companions and his family and all those who call to his way and establishes sooner, to the Day of Judgment, to what follows my beloved brothers and sisters, I begin with the greeting words of the righteous Salaam Alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh
Alhamdulillah, we thank Allah subhanaw taala for the blessing of being Muslim, in the month of Ramadan,
and this is a month that has so many hidden blessings. And it has so many
blessings and so many attributes that people will not fully understand until they make transition into the next life. And it's important for us to reflect upon what we are doing
and where we are going,
especially in these critical times that Muslims find themselves in. And when we look at the revealing of the court and itself and the institution of fasting, it is important for us to remember
that when the court and in sorts of bachata verse 185 is introducing this idea of the fast and what not it comes chronologically like this. Allah subhanaw taala is telling us Bismillah Ar Rahman AR Rahim, Shara Ramadan, Allah the unzila fi hillicon and houden le ness, we're big enough and you know who they are well for
that the month of Ramadan was the time in which the court and was revealed as a guidance to humanity and clear evidence from the guidance. And from that which separates truth from falsehood. So in the beginning, it was Ramadan itself. There was no fasting in the beginning. It was not instituted, the month was instituted, are recognized before the actual fast was recognized. And so this is important for us to keep in mind, because people tend to
focus more on the physical struggle of the fast. And no doubt we are in a major physical struggle, especially those who are living in the north. When the days are so long, we're in a struggle. And it takes a few days for our bodies, to adjust to the trauma of not eating and drinking, you know, for 16 hours, you know, whatever. It is a different condition for the body. But what is important for us to reflect on is that this is not really the primary issue about Ramadan.
It's not the fasting. The primary issue is that this is the month of the court and this is the month of guidance. And this is the month where truth is separated from falsehood.
And for human beings. The Quran tells us that whoever witnesses this month, should fast.
So if you are shy of this month, you are mature and you you're not ill and you're not on the road, you have your intelligence, then you should be making em sack
for the days in Ramadan.
So it begins by describing the month itself and the importance of seeking guidance and seeking the ability to
to separate the truth from the false foot,
and then it gives us an added means. Not only do we have the revelation, but also we have a physical activity that will literally give us the ability to separate. And there's no doubt that this activity once it kicks in, once it becomes part of us, it puts us in a different state of mind. Because we are working, we are going to school, we're driving vehicles, we're functioning in society.
But yet, the minds command to the body to eat, to search for food is turned off,
is turned off.
And so this is why it's such a blessing. Because if we were during the regular year,
to not eat and drink
from early in the morning, and then you go to sleep and you get up and you know, you're not eating and drinking, and then you're missing your lunch and you're missing your dinner. Most people would be going crazy, they'd be fainting, they couldn't take it.
But mentally now spiritually because of the blessing of this month. Because the jinn are locked up the evil jinn are in chains. And so the prompting that comes in our minds, and the mental condition, that we are able to now rise to what could be called an angelic state, because of melodica, the angels do not have the desires like human beings. So therefore, the angels have aluna Maroon, he has a law set, they do what they are commanded to do.
And they are in this highest state, whereas the animals and the human being,
we have an animal sight, we have to deal with our desires. And that's what humans being basically involved in, in the waking hours during the year.
We're hunting food,
whether you hunt food in the woods with a bow and arrow, or with a rifle, or whether you go downtown to a corporation,
and you work and you get a check to buy the food, you're still at the end of the day with this check with this money, you're providing shelter, you're feeding yourself,
right, you're sustaining yourself in order to physically survive. And that's how we survive as human beings in this world. But when we now are lifted out of this, that's a different state of mind.
It's a complete different consciousness. And this is crucial for us to recognize and to try to deal with,
especially in the condition that we are in today. And I say that because recently more information came those who are coming back from Mecca
are reporting that the sizes of the crowd. They're in Mecca, is like Hutch, literally when you're doing a regular tawaf. It's like too often the Father, you know, the main tawaf in the house itself. This is a regular talk that you do, never mind what's going to happen and too often their father. So it has reached that point in the last few years. It even reached the point where there's so many people in there,
that the tawaf, literally stopped.
So it's a huge amount of people who are praying to Allah subhanaw taala
in the best possible place to pray 100,000 blessings for the act that they are doing.
They have the ability to go there from all around the world.
And so, this is
a high spiritual, playing human beings who are making supposedly making that connection with Allah subhanaw taala.
My question is this.
And this is what I want to pose to myself again, and to pose to you
when we are in this month.
That while the people are there, in large numbers in Mecca,
and in Medina, and the dua if you listen to the two hours that the Imams are making,
we shouldn't have any problems. If If 1% of the Tao was answered,
we should have no problem on the ground.
If 1% of the intentions
and the vicar is responded to, we should have no problem on the ground.
We should not have people still running out of Syria.
We're still being destroyed, we should not have Philistine martial arts saw people trying to destroy it from underneath.
We should not have the famine in East Africa, which a lot of it is human made through infrastructure. Right and through climate denial, and we see what's happening now, the major powers even pulling out of the climate agreements, we shouldn't have this problem. If 1%
of our do our and our fasting is being responded to right now on the ground.
And this is the question. This is the question.
What is happening?
Where are we?
And what is going wrong. And this is where the month of Ramadan is a time to reflect. And this court and which is being given to us is being read to us not just that we can say I read the whole Quran, or I listened to it, we should be getting something out of it, which is going to help to change our life. And as we were reading in the first few days,
I came across some verses, inserts of bacala, which again, just struck me I thought about those people in this in Mecca, crowding together, so many of the making, making tawaf that they couldn't even move. Right do are at the same time. But Allah subhanaw taala is saying in verse 208, Allah azza wa jal is saying Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim. Yeah, are you Hello, Dina Armando tolu. To Sell me Kapha? Well, at the Toyota water shaytaan in the hula, can I do one movie? Allah said, Oh, you who believe enter into Islam into a state of peace and submission Kapha
completely
and do not follow the footsteps of the shaitaan for he is your open enemies.
So what are they saying here is very significant because the term Kapha in Arabic is very significant. If Allah could have said German,
there are other ways of saying this, like altogether. But Kapha gives, as the scholars say, it means every aspect
of your life, every aspect of your of what you're doing, whether it's your politics,
your economics, your social life.
It's not just what you do in Ramadan, or what you do in the masjid.
It's supposed to be every single thing that we do.
And alaris commanding us to do this.
And then gives us what happens if you don't do it?
He said, Don't follow the footsteps of the evil one. So in other words, entering into Islam piecemeal,
partly
only on Fridays, only in the month of Ramadan, is actually connected to the evil one. Well, yeah, to be law.
And this is a complicated form of evil.
This is not a normal form of evil that you would expect when you deal with the evil forces. But it is so important that the following verse, then Allah says, For Inzerillo to mean bad images at Komal, big net for Alamo and aloha season hockey.
Allah follow that verse up, don't follow the footsteps of the evil one. And then our last set, but if you slip
after clear guidance has been given to you, then you should know that Allah is Aziz and Hakeem.
And when al Aziz, the name of Allah subhanaw taala. This is a very important quality because this has a lot of dimensions. It's not just might, physical might, is
if you have Iza, you have respect.
You have strength. Also from that word comes Aziz, which is something which is dear, it's something valuable. So you are valued. You have respect.
So a lot of saying, if you don't do this, if you slip after the true evidence has come to you, and it's interesting, look at the word again, remember what we said about shatta? Ramadan, right, it said who done the NASS what baby not.
So Ramadan has come, clear evidence has given to you the other verses saying if you
lip, after the bayonet has come to you, then Allah has no need for you.
Allah is free of all want
allowance above everything they ascribed to him and his wisdom. So pada
will come to pass. So this verse here when I thought about the condition of Muslims now, and some of the things that you see happening in the Muslim world, our leaders, our so called Muslim leaders groveling on the ground,
right to people who are
in some of the worst forms of morality, groveling on the ground, right, you know, insulting their own religion, humiliating their own people, for a little bit of security, right, this is something which is
confusing to people.
It's confusing. But the reality is when we look at
these verses, when we go deeper into the court and into what has been given to us, we recognize that it is a clear action
which has led to negative results in the past. And Allah subhanaw taala has promised the same thing in the future.
And so this issue now what the issue is, is a large body of Muslims,
fasting making dua, making salaat.
Right, hopefully paying Zakat, which most of them don't do,
but at least claiming to be Muslim wearing Muslim clothes. Eating halau food.
That's one of the most important activities of Muslims is eating halau food. The above one of the bow shop and Thornhill. They said, you know, on the first day, just before Ramadan began the first day, there was so many people in the shop, that they wouldn't let you have a cat. You couldn't even move your body.
There were so many people in the shop.
The food went off the shelves like locusts, eating food, right? But this is shadow car, or is it shadow Tom? Is it the month of fasting or is the month of food?
So
the large body of believers or Muslims hoping to be in the state of a man.
Right striving. The question is What is happening?
And that is my thesis today that we're looking at in the month of Ramadan would allow us put us in this special state of mind. One of the great scholars of Islam wafaa khadim, Abu Mohammed Abdullah Eben Ahmed ibn Muhammad Eben Kodama el mapa de se, Rahim Allah.
This is a famous scholar who was born in Palestine, but he eventually moved to Damascus in Syria.
And a scholar who was blessed with a balanced approach to Islam and great wisdom. And this is one of the beauties of you know, Islamic
tradition that it can be picked up by people and other generations and taken to a high level. This is 620 years after the original
that he passed away, Rahim Allah. And he
wrote in a number of his texts, manhandle posse Deen is one of them. Some very interesting information,
which sort of starts to answer the question that we have about the large body of Muslims who appear to be doing what is right. But prayers are not being answered and humiliation and attack is increasing.
Instead of decreasing. He said that taqwa itself one of the main issues that we talked about, in Juma and even Ramadan itself, remember
that in those same verses, Allah subhanaw taala told us,
yeah, you had Edina, amanu quotevalet camassia kamakoti but Allah latinamerica Polycom that Allah, tactical, these are the oft repeated verses in that same set inserts a bucket, or you who believe fasting has been prescribed on you, as it was prescribed on those who came before you, in order that you would have tequila. So that's the main reason why we're fasting to have the consciousness of Allah.
And taqwa is made up of Allah health Raja. Fear and hope
that the person fears the punishment of Allah, but yet you hope in the mercy of Allah
And these two qualities create
a state of mind in the individual.
And when this scholar looked into this, he made an interesting point. And he said, we talked about our hover Raja. He said, you know, fear and hope, are two stimulants.
they stimulate you to do things. If you fear something, you jump back.
If you hope in something, you move toward it.
So taqwa is supposed to be a stimulant.
The communists would say, if you are a religious, religion is the opium of the people. So the more religious like smoking opium, then you just get high and you go to sleep.
So the more you practice your deen is, the more you're going to go to sleep. But the reality is, taqwa is supposed to wake you up.
But then he said something interesting, he said
that if the person is in a state of stagnation,
if something opposite is happening, then this is wrong.
So use the term hoorah.
Which means an illusion.
But it also means some interesting meanings. It means a delusion. When you're deluded. You think you know everything you think you're doing something but you're not actually doing it. It also means stagnation.
It can it can also apply to the evil one as well. Well, he has a villa. And of course, it means the Hurrah and this is what most people use deception, you are being deceived. So you have Taqwa, which is waking you up, get you close to Allah subhanaw taala. But then you have something else or cloudy gray area, which is stagnating you through a self delusion.
Right through a deception and illusion.
It's an illusion of something. How does this illusion come about?
One of the ways and again, this is studied by a person. This is a you know, 620 after the hegira. But this is like he's talking to us directly.
How can this delusion come about? He said, some people are deluded by their families.
They come from a Islamic family, a good lineage. Their father was a great scholar. And so the person says, Well, I don't have to study. I come from a family of Allah.
He's been he's been deceived.
Or they say I don't have to give something up. My mother used to give sadaqa.
Right? She was a great philanthropic person. So they they say Why do I have to give it my family build all of these buildings. They're being fooled. That's the level the evil is coming today.
And this is important because the prophet SAW Selim in his arafat sermon.
One of the details of the arafat sermon that he said near the end, he said, the shaytaan the evil one was el de Bella has despaired of being followed in the Arabian Peninsula in big things.
He can't conquer them in big things. Be aware of thing him in small things.
Be wary of him in small things, the big things you're Muslim, you got the Kaaba, you got your salaat. But the little things, right. That's where the illusion is coming in. And this is something really important for us to think about at this crucial point in time. And so how can people be fooled?
One person says well are, you know, in the morning, I'll make fudge in the masjid or maybe I'll go to Mecca, you know, 27 times times 100,000. Get out your calculator. Right, and then I'll do is stick a file 100 times after fascia.
So if you do the math, right, 100 times 27 100,000 whatever he said, He's, he's clear. So the rest of the day he spends backbiting people lying.
Right scandalizing people raising the prices, and he thinks that because he did those 100 is still far.
After fudger he saved you see that? You see the illusion. He's being fooled. He's not safe. He thinks he's safe. But he's not actually
Safe
another person says well
I'm young and I can enjoy myself and when I get older you know 50 6070 down make Hutch
right then I'll fast and whatever you know allows is Kareem, everything is okay. He is being fooled.
And this is where our scholar even Kodama, Rahim Allah in His been agile, classy Deen. It's an interesting point, because the actions are being done. But the result is not coming. This is what we're talking about now. And this goes on different levels. The Hurrah can also go on the level of people who are studying deep.
And this is something you would not expect people who are studying D. And so the person learns to read the code.
And they read it
in melodious tones. You know, and the prophets are seldom said the time would come when people would read the code and in a beautiful way, and it wouldn't pass that throat.
So they are being fooled because they are focusing on Tajweed maharjan haruf. They focus on the Makati, which they can pronounce properly, they read beautiful, but they're not implementing what is actually in they are being fooled there underneath hurrah.
And this is a this is an issue, which is of critical nature for Muslims right now. Because our numbers are so big, you go to the masjid to do our yoga our means that what is happening now, we're not supposed to have any problems. We're not supposed to have people rise in power, like south of the border,
you know, and actually humiliate our leaders. That's not supposed to happen.
But something is going on.
Even amongst those who are practicing the dean. Now, the example that he gave is the example of motor sofa, a person who is practicing to solve and that person would claim to be high spiritual level of Sufism, right? So they claim to be a high level of Sn.
Right. But the delusion is that the person makes that claim. But yet at the same time, they have pride.
They have greed.
They have all this jealousy that they have materialism, but they're supposed to be a person who has suffered Zeid, who has given up the world, that person is being diluted.
They think that they're on a high level, but actually, they're on the lowest level. This can also be applied to apply to a person who is studying arcada. And he might say we have the seller.
We have the seller.
And he's studying all of the rules of Akita and fit and has it down pat, but he is not implementing the character of Islam.
He's not implementing this. So even though the letter of the word is there, the spirit is actually gone. And you'll see this especially in the prophethood of Isa Leyzaola, when he came to the yahood. At the time, they had the letter of the word, but they didn't have the Spirit.
And it's the same thing that is coming out in this level of of Hurrah is the same thing that is happening.
And in this light in thinking about our situation, in thinking about the deeds that we are doing, especially in this blessed month of Ramadan, where we are in this state where we can think about it. I want to read you something from a quote from the was sia right from one of the final advices of Abraham Kodama, Rahim Allah. This is a very interesting statement. And I thought about this when I thought of the crowd, right? When I thought of like, what is going on with the Muslims What is happening? It seems to get more intense and more intense and more intense. He said, beyond God against that which will invalidate your good deeds. Less your good deeds become corrupted, and your
efforts disappointed and you fail to acquire the wage of those who act. He said beyond God against sluggishness of idle people, in case you lose this world, and the hereafter,
is the deep statement.
He said beyond God for certain actions, because these actions could literally invalidate you
Do
so the person is fasting, the purpose of making Ramadan, making salaat the Corolla. But there's it being negated at the same time delete button. He doesn't know there's a permanent delete button going on.
So he's typing and carrying everything? And is this something deleting everything on his computer?
What are some of these points for interesting points, which was made and this was the number one, or Ria,
doing religious deeds to be seen by people.
So if the person is fasting, because well, this is what our people do.
This is a cultural thing. And this is the lower level of the fast because you'll see people on that level, who are just struggling with food and drink. If tar is like, like, what time is it today, brother, and they look back at that watch 1000 times, hoping that the time will go, it's literally starvation, right? I feel sorry, for a person like this. They're starving themselves.
But the province has seldom said very clearly to them, man, let me yada colasoft Well, I'll be for laser lilla, hajah, and yada, yada.
He said that if you don't stop scandalizing people and acting on it, then Allah has no need for you to leave your food and drink. In other words, you're wasting your time.
So you like just hungry, right?
You're just starving yourself. It's a form of like suicide that you're doing. So the first is reality.
show it off. Second, it's our job. It's conceit.
And this is really serious for us now. Because can see, you think your way is the only way it's either my way or the highway. It's my school of thought, or
that's it.
And we get into these boxes of school of thought or Islamic movement, or my Masjid or my chef or whatever. And we lose the oma consciousness, the oma consciousness, and this is part of what's happening. You have people who are suffering and being killed and destroyed, and other people who are enjoying themselves and they don't even care.
Because the oma consciousness, you get to concentrated on ourselves, the conceit of the individual.
And this is a serious thing.
And what he's saying is, it could actually invalidate the deeds and this job can lead to pride.
With a person starts feeling I have studied or my people know, or we are the true Muslims, or whatever it is, and then it starts going to their head. And pride comes in. And pride, of course, we know is one of the worst characteristics that could plague the individual. Because pride leads also to arrogance. And it can lead to tribalism. And in some cases, even racism, well, you have to be law and that has happened in our ranks, even leading to divisions, these are all the things that we need to now consider in this month. Our scholar rahima Hola, Eben Kodama
also said, of those things that could invalidate the deeds, that Another issue is contempt,
meaning hatred for another Muslim, this is deep.
You hate another Muslim.
And you have this in your heart, right? And you're doing good deeds. But this toxic
quality inside of the heart is literally negating and deleting everything that the person is doing.
And the fourth point is opposing the sun
opposing the sun.
Because we know the sun is the explanation of the core app. But there are some people who say no, I'm not an Islamist, but they use these new terminologies Islamist if you're practicing, I mean, what does a study person who studies biology, they a biologist, right.
A person who says psychology is a psychologist. So a person who practices Islam, if you're going to use that derivation is Islamist. But when they say Islam is they mean ignorant, intolerant, you know, terroristic, you know, type of person right.
And so, opposing the Sunnah.
And this is the guide, literally the guide that has been given to us, what can we do? What is the cure? We cannot We can't leave ourselves hanging what can be the cure for these points that could invalidate it number one, vigilance and fear of Allah taqwa.
And vigilance. In other words continue the tableau. It's not just the tug of war while we're in the masjid or on Juma on Ramadan, continued taqwa continue. Number two,
taking responsibility for our actions,
and recognizing that the things that we say and we do this consequences.
And we're experienced in these consequences now, number three, that we should in order to do for this invalidation not surround yourself with excellent deeds, try to do as many good deeds as possible. And this is important for us in Ramadan itself, that we're not in Israel can get us out of this struggle for the food, right? The struggle for the iftaar. Right, try to get involved in some actions where you're doing good deeds.
Even if it means calling to the good and forbidding evil, I'm gonna build model for knio Mancha or feeding the poor, right? or do something with the fast in other words, we don't just sit there and stuff.
Like do something with the fast, then we're getting full benefits.
The next point is that when we make our supplications to Allah subhanaw taala make it in humility,
in humility, and recognize that we are nothing
look at the condition of our of our bodies. Look at the condition if you miss your soul, and it's easy these days to miss it, right? Because this time thing, and some people miss it and they fasted like 21 hours or something, feel how your body feels, and you know that we are nothing.
So when we turn to Allah, it should be a humble supplication intimate conversation with Allah subhanaw taala.
And he said, this is an excellent point. Fill your day and your life with istikhara.
fill yourself with estacada this is protection against invalidation of our deeds, protect ourselves by ask help asking a lot. Give us a sign help us make the choice. the right choice constantly do this. Don't give up at any point but constantly continue to estacada asking Allah subhanaw taala to help us we are in a critical state in our history. And those who have been studying Islamic history, have studied what happened just at the advent of the Mongol invasion.
They have studied what has happened at different points in Islamic history. We're in a critical point now. Where we allow blessed us with wealth, blessed us with numbers blessed us with technology. right but at the same time tested us with famines,
attacks upon our sacred places, right attacks upon our families. What are we going to do with the wealth? And what are we going to do with our fast
and so we pray that Allah subhanaw taala would help us to get full benefit out of this month of Ramadan. We pray that Allah subhanaw taala would help us to clear any ill feeling and pride out of our hearts. May Allah take the hatred of Muslims out of our hearts. We will also try to clear our minds and clear our bodies of any toxic evil thoughts and deeds. May Allah subhanaw taala Have mercy and protect the children of the home of Mohammed says Allah. May Allah protect and the honor and the dignity of the women of the Omar Mohammed Salah. May Allah protect and guide the men of the Omar Mohamed Salah. May Allah raise up true leadership in the Muslim world to take our confused political
leaders from darkness into light. And may Allah subhanaw taala make our last words our best words that our last words would be kelim a la ilaha illAllah Muhammad Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam akula Kali Heather Ross doctoral la Li walakum wa salaamu alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh