Rituals or Spiritual

Praise the due to Allah Lord of the worlds.

And surely the best reward ultimately, is for those who have Taqwa, the consciousness of Allah.

And surely there is no animosity except for the oppressor. And I'd be a witness that olara is one, and has no partners. And that Mohammed, the son of Abdullah, is his servant and his last messenger. May Allah always constantly send peace and blessings to Mohammed, to his family, his companions, to all those who call to his way, and establishes sadhana, to Day of Judgment. As to what follows. I remind myself and you again, of the critical importance of top line, the consciousness of Allah,

the awareness of the Creator of the heavens and the earth,

the fear of the punishment of Allah, but the hope in the mercy of Allah.

And this consciousness

is of vital importance, not only to every person,

but to the Muslim nation as a whole.

And especially now, in this very important time of the year.

This is the time of the great pilgrimage to Mecca, the great hatch

and over 2 million people are coming into descending upon Mecca, descending upon the holy precincts,

from every part of the world, all colors, all nations, all languages, the rich, the poor,

male, female, young and old, coming together in this amazing event, which is one of the most miraculous events that takes place on this planet.

And Hodge really is the climax for the life of a Muslim. The Hajj combines all of the great pillars or activities of Islam.

In the Hajj, there is the tauheed oneness of God, there is prayer, there is fasting, there is the giving of charity.

It is the essence of our faith. And it is an expression of what is to come when the whole of the human family will have to as a group, face Allah subhanho wa Taala

but it is important this year in particular,

that we reflect upon the rituals that we are doing.

The Pilgrims are in Mecca, in Mina in alpha

was Delica. They are performing the rights of the Hajj we here will be fasting and making our eat. It is critical for us to think about what we are doing.

And this is crucial for Muslims all over the planet.

Because Allah subhanaw taala has told us in the chapter of Al Hajj, the pilgrimage chapter, verse 32.

Valley cover may you have them in sha Allah, for in the Harmon taqwa palu.

Allah has revealed and whoever holds in honor, the sacred rights of Allah.

Such honor should come truly from the piety of the hearts. So when Allah subhanaw taala speaks of sha Allah,

these sacred acts that are going on and the precincts that we we are going to

whoever honors this this honor, this respect. This motivation

is not ritualistic. It is not mechanical, like a machine can carry out events. A machine can now work at a hospital and register you in the hospital and bring your medicine and go from first floor to the second floor. Artificial Intelligence.

But this action is not supposed to be robot like. It is not supposed to be machine like Allah tells us. It comes from taqwa tolu.

It comes from the piety of the hearts.

It comes from the essence of the people who are making the hatch. And that is a crucial concept that we need to reflect upon.

Especially in this particular time in history, Muslims are crying out for change. We are crying out for some economic change in our life crying out for social change, crying out for a political change

crying out for oppression to be lifted off our backs

but a lot told us inserts arrived in the LA UV Roma be comin hot Are you hungry Roma be unforeseen, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change that which is in themselves.

So the beginning of real change is internal.

It comes from the internal person outward, and then is responded by Allah subhanho wa Taala.

And so the Hajj itself, when we reflect upon the actions that the pilgrims will be doing, when we think about what is actually in the Hajj itself, we can recognize that there is an external part of the hunch.

But there is also an internal part.

And the external part

is crucial for us to carry out monastic all the rights of the Hajj in a proper way. And so we study monastic lodge we study, how to perform tawaf to circumambulate how to run in between Safa and Marwa, how to go out of our How was Delica, how to be in minute,

all the different actions, we study it in order to do it according to the way of Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon you.

But what is crucial for us now to think about, and that is to go beyond the rituals beyond the physical motions that we are doing, that a machine could also do.

Because a machine could put on Iran and make tawaf a machine could do sorry.

A machine could go to modify and raise its hands. A machine could sleep and was delaford. A machine could stone the shale team, but it's a machine.

But the human being the heart of the human being, which is connected to the soul.

That is the key point of the hatch. And it really is the key point of all of our rituals. And it's interesting because in the same chapter of Hajj, Allah tells us in the 37 verse, Leonardo da lahoma hawala, de Maha wallet Kenya now the taqwa minco. So Allah subhanaw taala tells us linien Allah Allahu la Omaha, that Allah does not receive or does not get the flesh of the animals when the animal the sacrifice will not demand

that the blood of the animal sacrifice in ritual does not reach Allah. But what reaches Allah is taqwa.

It is the consciousness of Allah within the individual. That is what reaches Allah subhanaw taala. So here we have clearly spelled out to us in Divine language, that the essence of the sacrifice in the pilgrimage is not just the physical sacrifices.

But the essence is the relationship between the pilgrim and the Creator.

And the essence of our faith is the relationship between us and Allah subhanho wa Taala.

And so when we look at the rituals of hatch, when we look at the fruits, or the essence of the pilgrimage, we see a number of very important

qualities or themes that comes out of the hatch.

The crucial theme running through everything is tawheed.

It is the oneness of God.

And the pilgrim who goes we'll be saying constantly and this will be imprinted on your mind until you die.

The pilgrim says love bake Allahumma bake the baker law sorry Kanaka bake in Alhambra, one near Mata laka, one molk lashari collect

That will be imprinted on your mind imprinted on your soul. But what did we say? We said, I am here, Allah at your service.

I am here Allah, you have no partners. Surely, all the praise all the blessings, and the kingdom belongs to you. You have no partners. So we are constantly

confirming

what Danny young, the oneness of the Creator of the heavens and we're constantly confirming this.

But the real test

is that after the Hajj once we have confirmed it 1000s of times and worship at the house and we leave Hodge doesn't continue.

That is where the ritual

is tested by the essence. So was the pilgrimage based upon the external and the internal, the internal, would enable the Muslim to go back home

and keep the oneness of Allah.

And so the person who performed the Hajj properly,

could not go home and worship graves

could not go home and worship individuals could not go home and worship money.

Because we have said lashley in Alhambra, when near matter, lack of Al mulk

we said it all praise all niyama blessings come fit the dominion. That's the molk everything.

It is yours because you have no partners.

And so the hard to internalized the Oneness goes back as a new person

to live the oneness of Allah subhanaw taala in reality,

another one of the great themes or essence of Hajj is unity.

People come together from all over the world.

And for most of us making the pilgrimage was the first time we met people from distant parts of the planet. We heard languages that we never heard before. We saw people we never saw before cultures and we were all together united.

We made solid together.

We did the salary running in between Suffern Mandala together,

we moved out of our together the unity is there.

But the tests for the judge or the pilgrims,

did they internalize the Unity

when they returned from the hatch?

Did they maintain that same respect that they had for the person of another color,

the person of another language or another culture.

I remember clearly the discussion between two broadcasters who were looking through the camera at Mecca.

And there were 1000s of pilgrims surrounding the Kaaba doing all types of things. And the Muslim broadcaster said to the non Muslim in 15 minutes, all of these people will stop what they are doing. And they will form concentric circles around this house and they will pray behind one now.

The non Muslim broadcaster said That's impossible.

Because we know our rock concerts, we know our political gatherings you cannot Marshal so many different people of different

colors and nations in 15 minutes, then the dawn went off.

And by the power of Allah subhanaw taala his religion, the Muslims lined up in concentric circles. They prayed behind one person in unity.

But once the Imam said the salams and he ended his prayers,

the test design

and the people went back to what they were doing.

So the test is on inside of us is unity

in the essence of Hodge is unity but

So now is to

express the unity in our lives. And it is so important today, even if we could call it operational unity.

Because we are not all the same.

We are Muslims. And we may emphasize certain aspects of Islam, because Islam is a broad way of life.

But operational unity is that everybody is able to come together and to benefit from the strength of the brother or the sister.

So such it was with the companions of Prophet Muhammad Ali slotless Allah. And it is reported that Khalid Ibn Al Walid wrote the law on the sword of Allah, one of the greatest military leaders in history.

He accepted Islam, near the end of the life of the Prophet peace be upon. He did not memorize a lot of chapters of the Quran.

So when it was time for the companions to pray, and Khalid was there, they would look to somebody else, because he was not the cardies. He was not the one to me. And they would look, for instance, and they would find Abdullah even Masood rhodiola. One

was a thin Yemeni man, but the master of the court.

He is the master of the book of Allah. And so Abdullah he would lead the prayer.

And Khalid, the six foot warrior would pray in back of the small thin men that was his leader, because of his abilities.

But when the enemies of Allah came on the scene, everybody said, Where is Harvard?

Put Khalid in the front. Now Khalid became the leader. What did Khalid do to deform his own group, his book called it

Oh, tariqa holla. Dia, did the former madhhab call it No, he was just one of the Muslims operational unity.

And it is crucial now for us

on a local level, on an international level for our nations, to be able to manage differences, to manage differences. Sometimes we have to agree to disagree.

manage the difference as Allah has made to know what Allah has made a variety in flowers variety in all forms of life. There are varieties in the way we think.

There's different even different varieties. In the Sunda there's different ways that Prophet Muhammad SAW seldom used to pray.

So sometimes certain aspects of prayer are slightly different, but that's okay.

We should manage our differences. And so, there may be somebody

who performs the eat salata eat, believing that according to the traditions of the prophets of Allah, that the arafat is when the Imam and the endo widjaja and arafat

and that they will follow the Hajaj.

And so they will make their eat on a on the day when the judge already on the tip. There are others who prefer a local citing

when there is doubt,

and that's fine. We need to learn to manage differences. The same way a slight difference in how we pray. But that difference should not take love out of our hearts. That difference should not make a wall in between one Muslim and another. We need to learn how to come together and to manage that which is different between that is the spirit of harsh.

So the ritual that we were doing the ritual of Salah, praying together

should inform us how to be united outside of salaat

how to be united outside of the pilgrimage. Hajj also teaches us equality,

equality, the Iran government is supposed to be the same for everybody.

The clothing, the concept of Iran,

the concept the things that we are doing and how much

we are moving together in equality as in our prayers. They should not be a first row for one nation and a second row for another nation.

It is it

Quality.

That is what hij teaches us. And all of the pillars of Islam

teaches us sacrifice to sacrifice from what we have been given, even if it means to sacrifice our health or our life. So, Muslims travel from long distances and some people actually give their life or they die on the pilgrimage and inshallah they will get a great reward.

But the reality is, the sacrifice has to continue.

It has to continue when we leave the precincts of the hearts. And so, the test is on us, that the hearts changed our character.

It changed our relationship,

all of the rituals that we are going through Ramadan, the fasting Zakat, purifying our wealth, it should change not only the external, but the internal.

Then in this way inshallah Allah subhanaw taala would answer our prayers, because we need our prayers to be answered.

The prayers for the poor the prayers for the suffering, the prayers for the oppressed.

And we need this at this point in time. But Allah subhanaw taala has made it very clear in the law, you hayneedle must be comin hot, are you ready to maybe unforeseen? Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change that which is in themselves? May Allah subhanaw taala enable us to change that which is in ourselves. May Allah subhanaw taala enable us to purify our hearts and our deeds. May Allah subhanaw taala enable us to perform our prayers and to perform our fasting May Allah subhanaw taala enable us to judge that they would have a beautiful hatch how genma bro was Saiyan mush cork done before May Allah forgive this since may allow to raise up from this hatch? A

generation of people

who will be able to change through the help of Allah

the conditions that we are living in today. I leave you with these thoughts. And I asked a lot of mercy on me and you

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