Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – Attaining Love and Closeness to Allah through Ramadan
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AI: Transcript ©
There's a whole study it's published is the thinking Person's
Guide to happiness. Prince Ghazi wrote the book. And in there he
argues from a verse of the Quran where Allah subhanaw taala talks
about what a man and a believer is going to receive in the hereafter.
It's going to be endless giving from Allah subhanho wa Taala Alta
and layer Mazouz as Allah says, it will be an atoll and Rama do is it
will be a continual non ending giving from Allah subhanaw taala
that none ending giving from Allah subhanaw taala to human beings to
the believers who go to paradise. A lot of it is to do with you
giving with us giving, the more we give Allah subhanaw taala gives to
us, we want to secure that position because that's when we
really want access to all of the luxuries.
Alhamdulillah Alhambra Hamdulillah he Hamden Cathedral on YouTube and
mobile confini houbara Canady Gmail your Hebrew Rabona Yoda
Jalla Jalla who are Manuel was salatu salam O Allah say you dill
Habibi Mustafa SallAllahu data are they who are either early he or
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Dean Amma Barrett called Allahu Taala for the Quran and Machida
will for climate Hamid shadow Ramadan Allah the Anzhi Luffy Hill
Quran Wakata Tada
Yeah, you heard that the nominal cortiva equals ciem communicatie
by Allah Lavina min publikum La La Quinta tekun
Firstly, when I when we got this
when when we were contacted about this program, I was wondering what
the name meant
the way it's the way it's spelt and the way some people pronounce
it as well. It sounds like
Eliana like some new exotic sister's name? woman's name?
Eliana like Ariana of Chinese have this name called Ariana right.
Eliana then I thought about acid actually is actually a IANA.
Right, that's right, right. l IANA, which means to assist. I
mean, I guess we're running out of names, right? We're running out of
names because Alhamdulillah there are multiple charities, right? And
that's actually a good thing. Inshallah, as long as you know,
we're not competing in the wrong way. And we're competing in the
right way. We've already covered yet another facil Muthana fee
soon.
Which means that this is something that we need to compete in. So
mashallah, that's another charity because there's enough to go
around. There's so many people around the world which need help,
and not every charity can get to everyone. Everybody has their own
resources. And Masha Allah so Allah subhanho wa Taala accepted.
It's the first time I've heard it of it. But Al Hamdulillah it's
good, because 20 years ago, can anybody tell me how many dessert
shops? They were in Leicester? Just 20 years ago? How many
dessert shops? Were there?
One or none? Right? If you're if you're lucky, there was one I in
London in our kind of East London. I just remember one, right?
Possibly one and I can hear if that was 20 years ago, or 15 years
ago. Now. Every street has two or three. And it's no longer and it's
no longer desert palace. There's
Chai wallahs and multiple iterations of that. So there's
Chai, well, of course. And then there's multiple. I mean, I hope
Chai was not here. Right? Well, even if you are here, it's okay.
But what that shows it shows us something. We have been in this
country for how many years now? The Asian population, the Muslim
population on mass, I mean, Muslims have been in this country
for hundreds of years. But in terms of the on mass, immigration,
lock, stock and barrel, and masjid and so on about 60 to 70 years.
End of the 1950s is when the first people arrived. And then the 1960s
is when the mass immigrations were right, our grandparents and maybe
this there are some grandparents here the first generation. So I'm
a second generation, we have third generation and maybe even you
know, I don't know if there's any fourth generation people here,
right? They may be right, maybe younger children. But 3040 years
ago, I'll give you an example of how it felt like I was in
Athens just a few years ago, I visited Athens, whenever I go to
any of these cities. I like to try to find where the community is and
where the mustards are. And in Athens, in the capital of Greece,
I found one masjid, they had Pakistanis there. They were pretty
much just waiting to get into the rest of Europe, in London and
other places. They didn't want to settle there because it's not a
really good it's not really a comfortable place to be for a lot
of Muslims. Then there's the Bangladeshi community. They seem
to be they seem to be better settled there. And then after
that, most of these massages interestingly, I don't think I saw
any proper Masjid because
There is an issue about having a formal masjid, you know, with
minarets and domes and things like that even the old Ottoman Masjid.
There's very few that are left the Parthenon in Athens actually had a
minaret on top of it, because the Muslims, the Ottomans actually
ruled Athens and much of Greece or probably all of Greece for quite a
long time, you know, a few 100 years ago, but then it was taken
over, taken back from them. So, I went into one machine many of the
machines or like rooms in basements, right, or something of
that nature. We went into the one Somali masjid
and they had a little program or something after the namaz and
after the short program, they were serving something.
Right, they were serving some you know what they served. They served
popcorn.
They served popcorn, like just plain white salted popcorn, not
even buttery, special, you know, luxury popcorn. This is just
simple, straight white popcorn. And literally reminded me about
3040 years ago, in the small massages that we had, they were
just coming up without any kind of proper plaster on the walls. And
now mashallah, we're in a different level. Last Ramadan and
Ramadan before it, I went to at least three mustards
for Iftari margaree time, and mashallah, everybody was served
ajwa
That's the top of the dates everybody every mousseline that a
few 100 masala is in there is being served ajwa dates, no
Medjool dates, right at your dates. It just tells you where our
community is, I really want to get you to understand where you are,
because shaytaan you're a Docomo fucker shaytaan is the one who
wants you have makes you fear. Poverty makes you fear poverty.
And where we were 4050 years ago, and the struggles that people had
to do to send money back to countries to look after people and
so on. The current generation doesn't need to do that. The
reason why you can have dessert parlors forget restaurants,
restaurants, okay, you can justify that, because that's essential
food items you need to eat, people need to eat, but you don't need
desserts, or that many at least, right? You definitely don't need
to go out of your house for tea, and pay three pound for a cup of
tea or something like you can make that at home. But people do it.
And there's nothing wrong with that if somebody wants to do
business, that's fine. I'm not saying it's haram. I'm just
showing where we are with this. Right where our community is. Now
how much further what's the next thing? Right, these are new ideas.
You know, first it was different ideas of what kinds of restaurants
you can have different cuisines because people get tired, they get
bored, they get weary of the same thing. So then came desserts, then
it became then it became a tea places, then it became bubble tea.
What's next, the only way you can get around, the only way you can
do this is if you have disposable income. Otherwise, none of these
extra stores would work. If these kinds of plays these are what you
would call additional tertiary auxilary extra luxury places that
you can only patronize if you have disposable income. You don't go to
these places if you have just if you're on survival mode.
What I'm trying to say is that that's why Al Hamdulillah I'm so
glad that the charities are keeping up. That's how many
charities there are. We have multiple charity programs. So
that's a good thing that at least that may be balanced. It's just
that not everybody gives to charity. There are still many
people who, mashallah I live very luxury lives. So 3040 years ago,
there might have been one person earning money. And they were
looking after maybe five to 10 individuals here, and in some
village in another country. Right. Now we have the father who's made
all of that effort, and he's got three, four or five children, sons
and daughters, many of them are professional, and mashallah
they're all earning professional salaries. So many homes are
probably making salaries of between 50 to 100,000. No problem.
Right, there is a lot of disposable income. I don't know if
I should be revealing the secrets. It's an open secret anyway.
Alright, so the point what I'm trying to make here is that
shaytan constantly makes us fear, poverty. So what I want to speak
about today is that the way to give and the way to give and
prepare your hero because that's the real world. And one of the
ways to calm the anger of Allah subhana wa Tada. And to become
closer to Allah subhanho wa Taala is literally to give
there's a whole study it's published is the thinking Person's
Guide to happiness principles, he wrote the book. And in there he
argues from a verse of the Quran where Allah subhanaw taala talks
about what a man and a believer is going to receive in the hereafter.
It's going to be endless.
leaving from Allah subhanho wa Taala Allah and Allah Mazouz as
Allah says, it will be an atoll and Rama do is it will be a
continual non ending giving from Allah subhanho wa Taala that nun
ending giving from ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada to human beings, to the
believers who go to paradise. A lot of it is to do with you giving
with us giving, the more we give Allah subhanaw taala gifts to us,
we want to secure that position, because that's when we really want
access to all the luxuries. The more we give, the more luxuries we
get access to them, and is going to be way beyond
the desert parlors, and so on of this world, it's going to be way
beyond that we would never even be able to think about. So now. This
is what we need to do. Because I've been thinking of this for a
while and why can people still not give, even though they live in
live very good lifestyles, there's a masjid close to us, which was
just built, recently renovated, and they need a lot of money. They
said that they were taxi drivers, bus drivers rather, who had come
and give 10,000 pounds of their savings. These are bus drivers.
They're not necessarily the richest, they're decent. They gave
and gave 10,000 the individual said that I went to one person in
London, who has a portfolio of properties in London, he has such
a portfolio of properties that every month every month, he is
able to buy a new property for around the 700,000 mark.
That means seven that means about five of those four or five houses
of Leicester. He can buy one of those properties every month,
that's 12 times 700 a year. He couldn't get a penny out of him.
Why? Because it's all calculated that when I make the 700 I've got
that house already on offer I've already bid on it. I'm gonna buy
that. They say that the sometimes the wealthiest ones their money's
always tied up.
In this world. What we need to do is we need to make a calculation
how much do I need? If you're a person of money? If you've got
meaning you're eating well that's what I'm gonna say you've got
money, you've got security, you've got your eating well, you can buy
the clothing you can you want you got a decent car, you got a decent
home, that means you have more than Do you know that us in
England and the majority of us mashallah, the way we live, we
live literally like the top five to 10% of the world lifestyle.
Our lifestyles, the one we have here of the majority of people
sitting here I'm assuming is the lifestyle of the top five to 10%
of the population of the earth. That means about 90% At least 70%
of the world live lesser lifestyles than us. Of course
among us there's the cream the top elites, but that's not what I'm
speaking about. I'm talking about the regular lifestyle the access
we have to things is not what they have in other countries. For
example, just a simple example just so that we understand. Come
May June and Indian mangoes will arrive and as soon as they are
about to finish the Pakistani mangoes will come because their
season starts later. And as soon as they are finishing the
Bangladeshi mangoes are now coming in. And as soon as they're
finishing the Egyptian mangoes are coming in. I don't know if you
knew that. But the Egyptian mangoes are not coming which are
half decent mangoes actually. And then throughout the rest of the
year, you have sell to the South American mangoes for whatever
they're worth. Right? I was in Africa, one of the countries of
Africa a few years ago, it was their winter, which was around
July. I asked for some oranges. So where you're going to get oranges
at this time. This is not the season in winter. This is not the
season in England. Have you ever been to a supermarket and there's
no oranges? You probably get angry like you got an entitlement. Why
aren't there oranges? Right Alhamdulillah. Another thing is
many other countries in the world, even prosperous nations, they go
through lots of turmoil and trouble natural disasters. We've
had an I don't know what the wisdom in this is. But we've had
two of our most powerful Muslim nations just in calamity in this
last year. The first were the floods in Pakistan, which has
literally devastated millions of people, millions of people.
Pakistan is one of our very, very powerful countries. It's the only
Muslim country and very few countries of the world that have
an atomic power, whether they're good or bad, but whatever it is,
right. Then we have turkey. And that's been devastated devastation
of the devastation. What is going on? There's many other countries
like America, America sees its fair share of hurricanes and
storms that rip through the southern areas like Alabama and so
on. Alhamdulillah in England, nothing happens. We don't have
floods. We don't have major storms. We don't have hurricanes.
We don't have earthquakes. We don't have tsunamis. It's an
island. We don't have it. I'm not asking for it. I'm not asking for
it. I'm just saying that something's happening here. And in
sha Allah, there's something happening here and it's for the
good and we can
Be thankful we can be shocked in see Allah subhanaw taala mentions
something in the Quran, the Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam has
a famous Hadith that many of you may have heard of, which is that
the prophets Allah some spoke about destruction that certain
communities will be destroyed and the punishment of Allah subhanho
wa Taala will come and I think it was a shot of the alarm she said,
we also going to perish will fina asylee Hoon? Whereas we have
righteous people among us you know we have righteous people among us
will we still be destroyed even though there's people who may be
doing vicar and so on and righteous people said yes. That's
still gonna happen. However, there's a verse in the Quran
somebody remind me which verse it is where Allah subhanaw taala says
that we are not going to destroy them, whereas they have mostly
Hoon in the different beside him was the one who remembers the
verse. I know you didn't expect to be tested today. It is Ramadan is
coming around. So remind me when you get it remind me but mostly
Hoon and Solly whole Saudi Hoon means self righteous, I am
righteous. I do my stuff. Mostly who ends when you when you are
trying to reform others as well.
So I the one is that I'm pious, myself most of the Hoon is when
you're assisting others in piety, you're reforming others. You're
doing your armory, Madhavan Hillman, we there's something
going on in England, which we want to thank Allah for. And we want to
do more of it. Because the world is going through tough times. And
we need to assist and we need to have so this is what I this is
something I thought about after speaking to lots of people.
We need to take a budget of our of our lifestyle and our accounts and
our income. We need to because if you've never done this, you will
always think that you need more, and you will always think that I
can't give. So take a take. Take stock.
There you go.
Walmart cannot book Alia helical corabi Holmium. Lulu, mostly
whole. Walmart can rob Booker leave Likkle Cora, your Lord is
not going to destroy the in habitations, the cities, the
towns, the villages.
Due to any oppression, while the while the inhabitants there are
doing Islamic while they're doing reformation work.
Everybody contribute to this so that we can keep the punishment
away. Everybody, don't leave it to the scholars don't leave it to the
charities, every one of us, shall Allah is law, whether that be
assisting the poor, whether that be doing the right, whether that
be teaching, whether that be assisting in whatever way a form,
let's do Islam and may Allah subhanaw taala make us of the
Muslim and the Saudi him, right. So the way we do this is that we
check how much our income is our yearly income is and how much we
need to comfortably live, you know, our budget, our amazon.com
orders, our meat orders, and so on and so forth. And then we see how
much we have left. And then we we earmark a portion of that to
assist, whoever that is you're assisting and you can spread it
far and wide. If you don't take stock of that you will never know
how much you make and how much you can give. And then you won't give
because we always feel like we need to do more. Some people by
their very nature, a generous, many people by their very nature,
they are stingy. That's just their nature. The way to overcome that
is to take stock, understand where we're going in this life, what
we're facing in the Hereafter, and the assistance our dua should be
in whatever case there is oh Allah allow me to do what is the most
beneficial in this context for the people of Pakistan for the people
of Palestine for the people of Syria, for the people of Turkey,
and every other place there is oh Allah accept me use me for the
service of your deen employ me and accept me for the service of your
deen. I'm in Europe. So now that Ramadan is coming up, so the way
you know we have lots of programs about Ramadan before Ramadan, it's
a good reminder because Allah says what that good for in the zikr 10
Farrell meaning remind for reminders are beneficial for the
believers. That's why we do it. I know I benefit from speaking about
or listening about Ramadan, even though we're doing with veterans.
Right? How many people here is there anybody here for whom it
will be their first Ramadan?
This year? And he converts, for example, or any young children,
they're going to do their first Ramadan this year. Right? Very
few. Everybody's a veteran of Ramadan. So what do I tell you
about it? I don't like to repeat the same old things. So to bore
you, right? You say Oh, I know about that. I know about that. I
know about that. So what do I speak about today? Well, the
reason we speak about this is because I want to speak about is
that the purpose of Ramadan is that when it comes to the dunya
anything of the world, we increase every year, every two years every
month
We upgrade ourselves, right? We upgrade ourselves. Nobody stays on
beta version. You know, it's always the next version, the next
phone the next car the next model up. In fact, if you take a simple
example, right, there's a guy who's just finished college or
university is going to get his first job, he's gone for an
interview. When he when he needs to go for that interview, he needs
to look formal. So he needs a suit, a blazer, maybe he will go
and get the any blazer, whether it be from Primark. I'm not putting
down Primark, but maybe that's where he'll go first. Because in
that much money, you might be go to as the George, right and just
buy a just look to look formal. As they go up in the world, he gets a
job and then after that, he gets another job. Eventually, he
probably will never wear a blazer from some companies. It'll have to
be canali, Giorgio Armani, and Gucci and so on and so forth. We
upgrade in everything. Everybody is those of you who eat out a lot,
you know exactly where to go, what's good food and what's bad
food and this place and your critics of food. Everybody can
start a blog. It just some people most people choose not to.
Everybody starts up like there's so many blogs out there. Right?
Because when it comes to the dunya even juba's the first job by your
first phone, give a 1516 year old kid gets his first phone doesn't
matter what phone it is. I've got a phone, I'm excited. Your first
car, it doesn't matter what car that is a banger car, I've got a
car, I've got wheels, I can go somewhere with it. But then you
become more discriminatory, you become more refined in your
tastes, right? You become more particular. But when it comes to
our deen, it's the same old let me give you an example. Somebody in
India in Pakistan in Bangladesh, for example, and they want to come
to London. They want to come to England. They call it London.
Right. Where are you from? I'm from I'm from London proper
London. has like a casual indenture. There is only one
London like a proper London can Leicester I certainly in London
naked London chair. Right. But anyway, what I want to say is that
let's just say there's somebody in insolate or in Goodra that he
still wants to come London, to be honest. He doesn't care where in
London he comes. I just want to get to it just dropped me at some
coast. I'm in London. Right? I don't care where I just want to be
living because they've been to South Africa. They've been to
Portugal. They're trying to get into London. Doesn't matter. Where
is that our relationship with Paradise was Janet. I've heard of
Janet, I want to go there. I've got this generalized understanding
of Jana. But I really don't know any of the stages of Jana. I've
never read a review of Jana. I just want to get there somehow.
But is our is our
decision and earnest desire for Jana? The same as this
individual's earnest desire to get to London? How do you compare the
two? Who do you think has a more intense desire to get to London to
get to Jana?
We'll leave that to each individual to decide. Right? So if
you want to get to Jana, and you want to get to Allah, then you
need to read reviews. Right? How many of us have ever read a review
of Allah? You're gonna think this is blasphemous, like, what is this
guy talking about? How do you read a review of Allah? Well, yes. Have
you read a review of Allah when you buy, you want a new product?
You want to get something new, you read things about it, you read
reviews, you ask other people about these things? What have you
read about Allah to learn more about Allah so that, as Allah
says, In the Quran, well, Latina, I should do hope and Lila, the
people who believe they are most intense, in their love for Allah,
the most intense, ardent in their love for Allah? If we're not, then
why is why aren't we? Because we don't know Allah, Allah is such an
entity, that the more you know about him, the more you have to
love him, you can't help it. Our job is just to find out more and
to read more about Allah and that is how we'll find it. That is how
we will love him more. Our job is just to read more. And then you
can just love because love the way love works. Right? The philosophy
of love, is that you use love means to incline towards beauty.
That's what love means to incline towards beauty. What does beauty
mean? Beauty means balance, proportion, equilibrium and
perfection. Allah subhanaw taala is totally
perfect. What you incline towards when you love something like if
you think that you love a certain car or a certain individual you
want to get why do you think that you need to be? Why do you think
you're in love with them? Because you've discovered few qualities in
them which blind you from any defects with Allah and His
Messenger SallAllahu sallam, there's only perfection and only
good qualities. So the more qualities that we learn about the
more it will attract us to it. If I'm looking for a car and I've got
three or four possibilities. Eventually my choice will be one
particular one based on the fact that it has more qualities, more
gimmicks, and more spec and
price range, etc compared to the others, that's why Finally, I'll
get that car. I was looking for a car. And I didn't even know it
existed. That particular model I didn't know it existed. After I
started looking for it, I started noticing seeing it everywhere,
everywhere. What happened? Did they just suddenly flood the flood
the streets with them? No, they were always there. It's just, I
was ignorant of them. But now that I've noticed it, I find it
everywhere. I see him everywhere. That's why we don't feel the
presence of Allah everywhere. That's why our fast Ramadan will
go, we will do Hajj, which are both actual activities of love.
When a person loves Allah, week, if you pray five times a day,
then at least you at least we love Allah enough that we are able to
get away from everything else, or the busy aspects of our life and
come back to Allah five times a day. That is proof that we love
Allah otherwise, why else would we? Now yes, some people say Oh, I
don't want to be punished, or I want paradise. That's why but
that's still related to Allah is still a good thing. If you pray
once a week on Friday, well, at least you've got that much you
need to increase it to five times a day. Now once you've increased
it to five times a day, then comes Ramadan. Ramadan is fasting.
That's the main aspect of Ramadan. Fasting is a non action. You know,
when you fast you don't do something we actually abstain from
something we abstain from food drinking, and relationship with
the with the spouse, right, which are usually Halal things, but we
abstain from dawn to sunset. Why do we do that? Why would you stay
hungry. In fact, if you didn't do this for Allah, we can say you do
it for Allah. Because if you didn't do it for Allah, then you'd
eat in secret and just show people that I'm really really hungry.
But the fact that you you actually do it, you actually stay hungry
means that there's some connection with Allah.
And then that's why Allah subhanaw taala says regards to fasting as
opposed to all the other acts, that all the other acts the shape,
the angels have a score sheet, to to reward us for the base reward
for each action, Salah tanhaji, and so on. With along with the
bonuses this depending on how much we've put an effort into it and so
on. When it comes to fasting, Allah says a so more li one GB,
that fasting is for me, it can't be for anybody else. I will
directly reward and when Allah gives the reward, it's in heaps.
Because I mean, just a simple example from Dara, have you ever
thought about it, that every forum which we have to do anyway, Allah
says I'm going to give you 70 rewards for that? No generous
person gives that much in the world. If there's a store, they'll
give you buy one, get one free or to free maybe and if it's closing
down and say, Look, buy one and take five three, but who gives you
73? That's just crazy.
Only Allah can do that. Only Allah can do that. He just maximizes in
Ramadan. That's why SHEIKH AHMED sir Hindi rahmatullah wa Majid Al
Thani, as we know him, about 400 years ago, he said that every
moment in Ramadan, like every second, every minute of Ramadan,
is so valuable, because Allah has concentrated into it so much
value, Baraka blessing mercies, and so on that you can't find that
in any other time.
Now, you may have heard there's a hadith in which the prophets Allah
have said that whoever misses the fast in Ramadan, you know, for no
valid excuse, they miss a fast in Ramadan.
Somebody said, I've got a very, very important business meeting
with a very important client, I have to take him out for lunch,
and I can't be seen as not eating. That's the wrong way of thinking,
you can definitely take someone out and said, I'm not eating
because I'm on a special diet. And people respect diets nowadays.
Like, you know, you'd be quite cool and savvy if you said, I'm on
a diet, right? So you can be very proud of that penicillin. Sorry,
I'm not eating. I don't drink wine. I don't drink that stuff.
Because it's very harmful for you. You have to be proud. You're gonna
say Muslims, I can't drink. That's the wrong way to approach it.
Right? If you're ever in that context, you have to be proud of
what you are you have to believe in it. Right? So all you've got a
special football match that day, so you just think I'll fast later.
I'm not breaking and I'm just not fasting today. As though that's
any better. Right? Then the person felt bad after Ramadan, Ramadan
finished, the person felt bad and he decided I'm gonna fast
literally every single day outside of Ramadan. The hadith says that
he can't make up for that one fast he missed of the reward. That's
how concentrated this reward is. That's why as Ramadan is around
the corner.
Ramadan is an act of love. You stay hungry for the sake of Allah.
But this is what we miss because we're constantly focusing on just
doing things. But really Ramadan is the time to get closer to
Allah. By staying hungry for the sake of Allah, you can only stay
hungry for your beloved. Why would you stay hungry for anybody else
unless they were? I mean unless they were paying you for it and I
guess Allah is paying us for it. But it really it should be for the
love of Allah. That's what it should be. And that's why they say
that you
Somebody is really successful in Ramadan for staying hungry for the
sake of Allah and every time that they feel hungry or thirsty or
weary or tired I'm doing this for Allah
I think if we're going to do something new this Ramadan if
you're not doing it already is that try to think of Allah as much
as possible when you are fasting and when you are standing the
hadith of there was a man sama Ramadan a Eman and YT Serban
warfare Allah Houma taka the momentum and the other hadith is
man karma Ramadan Iman and YT Serban warfare Allahumma Takada
women were fast the month of Ramadan with faith not because
everybody does it and I'd be probably shut them if I don't fast
Rajmohan Iraqi, right as they say, right, like because everybody fast
I fast as well. Right? So whoever fast with iman and with the Serb
at the sub in Arabic means where you're
where you are literally calculating or anticipating
something from Allah and that is open to you and then tested and
anticipating that Allah bring me close. Allah loves me, Allah makes
me love him. Allah blesses me, Allah raises me whatever you want
in that.
When is that going to happen? If we're not conscious of our first
they say that anybody who fast like that all of their previous
sins are forgotten or forgiven. So you can actually come out of
Ramadan, like the day our mother's gave his birth, by just that
thought process that consciousness that's, I think, from a lot of
people, we do it as a ritual, but we want to do it as a heartfelt
sentiment. The other one is, whoever stands in the nights of
Ramadan with iman, and anticipation from Allah, what are
their previous sins are forgiven? Again, the same thing there when
you're standing in taraweeh and mashallah Imam SAAB is taking his
time. Right? So instead of cursing and swearing, between the
photocards and afterwards and having a big conversation about
that, just think, Man, this is for Allah. I know he's gonna reward
me. I can only do this for Allah, I can only do this for Allah. You
know, once you start thinking like that, all of this becomes easy
becomes an act of love, as opposed to a toil as opposed to just the
tough, rigorous act. And the same thing if you stand for tahajjud
right you stand with the hygiene is tough because you have to We
just came back from taraweeh late The nights were short now and
hamdulillah they're getting longer. It's the sub, the sub the
sub, so this Ramadan needs to be better than any Ramadan before it.
We need to get closer in this Ramadan than we've ever been
before to Allah because that's the personal purpose of Ramadan. Let
us not forget that because Ramadan is a month of love. It's a month
of generosity. And Allah is giving us everything in this month he
closes the doors of hellfire he opens the doors of Paradise, he
locks up the shaytaan Come on, what else do you want? He gives so
much blessing and Baraka it's amazing how mashallah our women,
they're able to cook things they never cooked throughout the year
like it's absolutely amazing how that baraka of time and effort and
so on come about right what is the Ramadan preparation like we've
made our some leucism whatever and we put them in the freezer right
already for Ramadan is IG Ramesh Baraka you, you know how much
money is spent in Ramadan? how much food is fed in Ramadan, how
many charities this is their this is their time for collecting
Ramadan every night every day how much has been given why? Because
generosity from Allah Allah is extremely generous and it says in
a hadith in the Shama that the Prophet SAW son was at its most
generous in the law in Ramadan in Ramadan when used to meet with
Gibreel generosity you can feel it you actually feel much better in
Ramadan Have you noticed that you will never feel like doing a new
sin in Ramadan?
shaytaan is locked up. Okay, we still people still sin in Ramadan.
But I want you to think or if you've not thought about this,
this Ramadan comes up. Think that if you are committing or feel like
committing a sin, it will usually be a habitual sin. You hardly ever
going to think of doing a new sin in Ramadan. Why not? Because the
shaytaan is out of the picture shaytaan makes us do all sorts of
sins unless you've got a friend who's a shaytaan right the
shaitana Lin's then then you're in big trouble Allah Tala protect us
but otherwise you don't get you don't get a whisper of a new sin.
If you still feel like sending in Ramadan it's just a habit you
still feel like smoking because you got to habits. That's what it
is. All right. And that is related to the knifes and that's the
message of Ramadan, that Allah wants us to stop eating, drinking
and relationship, which are usually Khaled at other times and
also Halal in the evening, for that time so that we can just
train ourselves how do we train on us? Who has a habit of having a
cup of coffee or tea at about 10 o'clock in the morning after their
breakfast? You know, they go to work and then they
feel a bit low, right? And then you're like, I need a coffee
because I'm feeling tired now right to boost myself a lot of
people have coffee come Ramadan first day of Ramadan about 10
o'clock you know when you're gonna start feeling like that and you go
to the coffee maker and you remember that I'm fasting, I can't
have a coffee.
Your knifes is asking, you're gonna you're nuts. There's gonna
protest, no, I can't work, I can't think straight, I'm tired, I'm
going to fall asleep, I can't be productive. No, you can't have it,
give it two three days and eventually your knifes will stop
asking you. The ego stops us It folds into submission. That's the
beauty of the human ability that we can force our knifes into
submission if we can force our knifes into submission Subhanallah
for, for against Halal things, then it should be much easier to
force it into submission from haram things. Right from haram
things. And that's the purpose. Only when we can do that when we
can control ourselves and not just release it in whatever it wants.
Can we actually become closer to Allah and develop Taqwa? That's
why Allah subhanaw taala says that oh people who believe fasting has
been prescribed upon you as it was on the people before you so that
you can get in Taqwa taqwa, essentially is consciousness of
Allah. And the reason we are never conscious of Allah as to what he's
doing, I can witness him I'm thinking about him is because we
just allow our we release our knifes in pursuance with whatever
it wants, at whatever time it wants. Amara, the Allahu Anhu he
saw a man and he had something in his hand a packet in his hand. He
said, what is that? He said, The Law Minister hate to who fish
thereto. Oh, this is some meat I decided. So I purchased it.
Right, I decided so I purchased I felt like having some meat. I
wouldn't do anything wrong with that. I felt like having a cup of
chai. So I went had some anything wrong with that. I felt like
having a milkshake. A waffle. So I wouldn't had it. So I don't know
there's shouldn't be anything wrong with that Omarosa couldn't
do much the hate is straight. Like everything you desire. You just go
and buy everything you desire you just by saying that? Do you have
some ease not prohibiting him. He's just saying that you have
some control of your knifes. Like, by with measure, indulge will
measure. But don't do a straw off. Don't do it with abandon.
Otherwise, you forget the hereafter.
That's why that's what's going on with that many people go for Hajj,
same thing. Many people go for Hajj. They go around the Kaaba
seven times, they have no idea why they go around.
They just go around. Am I going in the right direction? Am I reading
the right things? But really, why would you go around seven times on
the cover? Like would you get out of that? Is it a bit of exercise
because you guys don't exercise at home. So Allah says, Come on, at
least do a few laps. And now the guys in Makkah they're saying that
you better do it in the masjid takes four times that amount. You
can't go into the math unless you got a ramen. Because the purpose
is exercise. Know, the purpose is that when you love someone, then
you will need to do many things for that for that individual. You
will love intensifies. So you're remembering them multiple times a
day. So you can remember Allah at least five times a day. And then
there's times when we have to stay hungry for our beloved because
that's what they want. And then after that, when humans get in
love, they want to be close to their beloved. So Allah says,
Okay, fine, come to my house. This is as close as you're gonna get.
So you go there says, Okay, now I want you to go around. Because if
you can't get inside, then at least you can go around the area
of Your Beloved, everything related to your beloved you see
your beloved car, and like wow, that reminds you people go crazy
in love that they look at the moon and they think my beloved must be
looking at the moon. So that's what I'm looking at the moon and
they make a connection like that love is crazy. Right love is
extremely, extremely powerful. So we go there Allah says go around,
out of love has been busy Rahim Allah saw heard a younger woman
doing some love poetry. And he told her off he thought that she
is talking to a boyfriend.
Like because it was a stereotype. You could say he stereotyped her
and she just turned around. He says what do you understand? Do
you know who I'm speaking to? He was speaking to Allah subhanaw
taala.
Now what happens is that when humans get very close, they
eventually want to hug. You want to be together? That's human
reality. It's just human nature that you want to hug you want to
kiss. Allah gives us the ability at the militarism province I was
on when they put his chest and his cheek there and he cried out, and
believe me that is definitely the one place where there's such a
power in that place. If you can get there. If you can get there.
There's such a power there that you can you feel so close to Allah
and whatever doors you make that usually from my experience of many
people, it gets accepted pretty much straightaway. And then you
still want more closeness. So Allah says, Okay, fine. We'll let
you kiss the Blackstone. That's the only thing that you can kiss
that we've allowed you to kiss because kissing is a human
expression of love that they have a longing for that so fine. Go and
kiss the Blackstone
These are all expressions of love but we're missing that dimension
maybe because we're looking at it too realistic ritualistically let
this Ramadan be different to every Ramadan of the past we want to
take stock and say that how was my last Ramadan this one is no longer
going to be the off the shelf, no frills package of Ramadan that
I've been doing for the last 20 years. I'm going to better it this
year, of course unless mashallah you're doing the ultimate package
of Ramadan and you can do no better. But most of us can do
better. That's why final points is let us take stock of what we did
last Ramadan, what kind of sadaqa that we gave charity, what kind of
Quran we recited, what kind of dollars we made, and, and Quran we
read and so on. And let's see and plan to do better than that this
Ramadan and most thing is I want to know Allah by the end of this,
I want my connection to Allah increase. So if I was a five out
of 10 before Ramadan when I end Ramadan, it's going to be eight or
nine out of that and I don't want it on the day of Eid to fall back
to five.
May Allah subhanahu wa taala bless all of you here. Our list of
brothers and sisters absolute pleasure to be with you. And may
Allah subhanaw taala reward these brothers and sisters who are doing
this work this L IANA Foundation, may Allah assist the sisters May
Allah assist the Eliana foundation and may Allah subhanaw taala
accept us all for the service of his Deen. Right May Allah accept
us all for some kind of service of his deen and to make us of the
mousseline of the Reformers so we can continue to keep away the
punishment and even more punishment is kept away. Welcome
to dharma 900, like Robbie Londrina, Salaam Alaikum
Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh. The point of a lecture is to encourage
people to act to get further an inspiration and encouragement,
persuasion. The next step is to actually start learning seriously
to read books to take on a subject of Islam and to understand all the
subjects of Islam at least at the basic level, so that we can become
more aware of what our deen wants from us. And that's why we started
Rayyan courses so that you can actually take organize lectures on
demand whenever you have free time, especially for example, the
Islamic essentials course that we have on the Islamic essentials
certificate which you take 20 Short modules, and at the end of
that inshallah you will have gotten the basics of most of the
most important topics in Islam and you'll feel a lot more confident.
You don't have to leave lectures behind you can continue to live,
you need to listen to lectures, but you need to have this more
sustained study as well as local law here in Santa Monica when I
have to live record