Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – Don’t Start Ramadan out Listening to This Lecture
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the Yemen Mubarak and fie Mubarak anally he come out your head Baba
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will have evil Mustafa SallAllahu Taala are they who are either he
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call Allahu terracota Allah for the Quran emoji duel for carnal
Hamid shadow Ramadan, Allah the on Zillow phenol Quran.
So the Kola who love him, my dear respected
sisters, where we've had a discussion about Ramadan, and what
to do in Ramadan and other things related. So I'm not going to take
too much time, I want to spend some time today if you have
questions to deal with them.
But since Ramadan is coming very close, just a few weeks away, we
need
there may be just some things that I will mention, which will
which may have not been mentioned. So the few things that I want to
mention about Ramadan, some of you may have heard them before,
because we discuss these things generally before Ramadan as well.
And it's as a reminder.
So the main thing is that we want the best out of this month of
Ramadan. And our aim and objective right from the outset needs to be
that this Ramadan has to be better than the previous Ramadan, and in
fact, any Ramadan before it. Because it's the opportunity that
Allah subhanaw taala gives us every year to do
to have that potential just to do more. And to get more for what we
do to earn to basically get more for less,
we want to use it as much as possible to try to accumulate
because it could be our last Ramadan. I mean, that's a
possibility as well, we may not get other Ramadan. So the idea of
the Ramadan is actually to boost us to rocket us to another level.
So we want that to be better than any of the Ramadan's before it.
But in order to do that, then you need to prepare to get the best
out of something, the best thing is to prepare for it. And the way
you prepare is to try to get major chores out of the way beforehand.
Everybody has things that they want to do, Ramadan is still part
of our life, we still have to eat and Ramadan, we just changed the
schedule we still have to live with still people are still gonna
have to go to school, people will still have to go to work, they'll
still be repair works, maybe they'll still be shopping to do,
and so on and so forth. But the more we can try to get out of the
way beforehand, then the more we can dedicate ourselves to the
activities of Ramadan itself, as opposed to the mundane activities.
I mean, I don't think it's possible to actually just cook
everything beforehand, just eat I mean, you still have to warm up
things and so on. But if we can get most of the base preparation
done, maybe get also a schedule made for Ramadan for every single
day what you're going to cook because I know for some women, one
of the most difficult things, even more than cooking itself is to
actually decide what to cook. That's a major psychological
decision that has to be taken because the thinking, What would I
like? What would the people I'm feeding and that are also going to
eat with me? What do they like, and have I had it before have we
just made it before shouldn't seem like a repeat. And they should
make it should please people as well. So if you can just
brainstorm that beforehand and make a schedule, then it's easy.
Then also, there's certain shopping that needs to be done for
these things. Well, that can also be taken care of beforehand, I
need this much meat, I need this much of this, this much of that.
Most of that can also be done in advance. So again, all of that can
be prepared, all of that can be organized from beforehand. And
that should help a lot. Because in Ramadan, you don't want to be kind
of rushing around trying to do different things. It just takes
away real time. It just takes away a lot of benefit that you can
potentially get during the month of Ramadan. Right. So number one,
the mundane things we plan for that we try to prepare for that
and get a lot of that preparation done. Number two, the second thing
is that for us for our
success in Ramadan, what do you want to do extra this year if last
year I finished this many Koreans and I did this much reading and
this much reflection and
this much thicker than I want to try to get more of that done this
month of Ramadan. I want to include our family in it. For
example, I want everybody to do something I want how can we
facilitate that? What kind of plans can we make? What kind of
strategies do we have in that regard? So I think when we tried
to plan like that, that okay, we're going to try to have a maybe
a competition of who reads the most, not just who reads the most
Quran but who reads the most stuff. See who reads the
who reflects who you who takes time to do that. Maybe some other
activities of maybe helping somebody else who don't have maybe
to give them some Iftar to help some Iftar maybe contribute one
day to the masjid Iftar for example, if the if that's
happening,
because feeding people in Ramadan is also a good thing to help
somebody break the fast. But then if that's what you're mainly
focused on to the detriment of reading the Quran, and so on,
because you're cooking whole day for every day, I mean, that's not
really a balanced either.
What we heard from some of our machines of the past,
even cigs, the courier Huntelaar, they used to have the women of the
house just cook some of the basic dishes, but they used to order the
roti and the bread and all the rest of it. So that was just to
facilitate for them. But then what about those people who are those
sisters who are actually doing the roti business, they're not going
to get any worship done. So we need to be considerate of those as
well. So I'm not promoting that you go and start buying your roti
from these roti producing sisters. Because they have to do some
Ibaadat as well. So maybe they can just make a huge stock beforehand
or something like that. Right. But anyway, that's just certain
things. The main thing I would say is that in terms of Ramadan, what
we should add is obviously our Quran reading because every letter
has the additional 10 Verse 1010 rewards for it. But along with
that,
the Ramadan month needs to be also the month of Mahajan. So whichever
timetable you're following, obviously, if you find the earlier
timetable, there's going to be very less time for tahajjud. But
then, since most of the women will be praying at home, they're not
going to have to go to the masjid so they're not actually restricted
to the time it takes in the masjid to finish the Quran.
To be honest, if you have children, or family members who
have Quran, who have who are men who have memorized the Quran,
rather than let them just do for a cut somewhere in a masjid, that
are we, I would actually personally suggest that you get
them to do taraweeh. At home, as long as you got somebody to listen
to them, you've got to half is in the home. Or you can organize with
another relative or something another cousin or something like
that, so that the women can even do therapy at home. That's really
good. That's what we actually do we've been doing for the last
several years anyway. So it's very useful, because the women at home
also get to attend the tarawih in the house with their family
members. So that's one thing that you can do.
Along with that, try to at least do some Tahajjud prayer each day.
Even if that's just two or four tickets, I know that for the
people who are following the early timetable, there's actually not
much time in between at all. Because if I'm assuming Saturday
time is going to be around one something or one o'clock or
something like that, I'm assuming is going to be one something, by
the time you finish, that will be about 1212 o'clock, you've got
about one hour to do everything. So again, if all of that is
prepared from beforehand, then you can actually spend that time. And
the most wonderful thing is that if you can actually try to keep
your will do from Asia to Fisher, that would be wonderful. Because
then you've got actually the whole night spent in order to be able to
do Fajr to be able to do Fajr with the same will do that you did for
Isha and tarawih. That's something that we just used to hear in books
that we used to just read in books and hear about the people of the
past that they did this. But it's Allah has made that a reality for
us, it's easy. And if you can actually do it from Maghrib time,
then that's even better, right, because the longer you stay in
will do. So one of these particular benefits, so you do
Tahajjud prayer. And then of course, there's the faster the
fast is very long. The main thing in the fast is not to waste any
time.
But rather to try to use it to the best of your ability. And when you
have nothing else to do, then don't waste your time with
watching TV or internet or I mean nowadays, people will probably put
their TVs off if they've got one in the house, they probably put
them off in Ramadan. A lot of people do that. But then there's
one TV that you're never going to have off, which is WhatsApp videos
that people send to us, and Facebook videos and so on. So they
need to be minimized as well. In fact, if you can just get yourself
off groups during the month of Ramadan, that would be the best
thing. Only keep yourself on the most essential ones that you need
to be on.
And even those that you're on, I mean you just have to try to learn
to ignore maybe this is the time to liberate yourself and ignore as
much as possible.
The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that whoever first
during the month of Ramadan with iman and the sub their previous
sins will be forgiven. And that means Whoever fasts for the sake
of Allah because of their faith in Allah not because it's just what
every believer does, and if I don't do it, I'm gonna look really
bad. But really because I want to do it for Allah subhanaw taala
that will actually make the fast much easier.
Because when you've got a reason for doing it, when you're doing it
for a particular reason, things become easier to do anyway. So
with all the heat and everything like that hamdulillah we've had
experience of several years of this already. And what's most
amazing is that when you're about to start, you think it's going to
be very difficult. But Allah facilitates and makes it so easy.
Allah would never have obligated us to do this, if this was not
within the human potential and ability, because now you can live
Allah Who enough son in law was Allah, Allah doesn't make anybody
liable, responsible and accountable for things that are
not within their ability. The fact that it is within our ability, but
that's something that you can only understand through experience.
When I was in South Africa two years ago in Ramadan, were the
first one you 12 hours. Personally, I enjoyed these fast
more than there because the day would just finish very quickly,
you'd have more of a night so that was the only benefits but the fast
were too small. Right? You wake up you do a few things and it's
awesome to pray and then it's mockery, prayer.
But one of the things that even some of the scholars were saying
there when they heard because we were finishing a shot at about
we were finishing Isha and Tara we had about half eight and a half
feet
right? Because that are we starting at 710 or something
sorry, Isha was starting about 7057 10. And by the time we
finished, that is about 830. And then we do a little beyond and I
would tell them that in London at this point in time, we will do be
doing assert prayer, and doing an Azerbaijan
so the alumni were quite surprised because they would go to sleep at
nine o'clock 930 Because they, you know, they have a full night's
sleep and awake and wake up at five o'clock for school. And then
after that you stay awake. So they said, haven't you guys got any
discretion? Any competent, special compensation that you know, you
can listen to hours? I'm like, why do we even need that? Even our
children are keeping fastI and 8789 year olds are keeping these
big fasts. Allah's makes it easy. That's amazing thing, Allah makes
it easy. But for each individual, to make it easy, you need to have
Iman and the sub, which means anticipate, from Allah, whatever
you want for that fast, whether the anticipation is for reward.
Anticipation is for closest to Allah. Anticipation is for Mark
Farah and forgiveness. Why am I fasting? What do I want from my
fasting? Fasting is this supposedly selfless act that can
only be for Allah. That's why many other men have written that, you
know, when you pray, that could be for showing someone else that I'm
only praying because these guys are on I want to show them that
I'm pious or something. When you give zakat or sadaqa. The reason
you're spending is to show somebody you're wealthy, or that
you're You're very generous.
When it comes to fasting, you can't have a dual intention that
is saying any dual intention there is insignificant in that sense.
Because if I want to tell people I'm fasting, I can be eating as
much as possible hiding because I'm not in front of everybody all
the time. I just tell them I'm fasting, I can just give a
straightforward lie. But if I am staying hungry, then that must be
for the sake of Allah. That's why one of the only worships where
Allah says that fasting is for me, and I directly give the reward for
it. So the angels are not necessarily consigned to give
allocate record rewards for that it's Allah Himself, because
fasting has to be for me. That's why many other ma have discussed
that fasting cannot have any Rhea and ostentation in it.
So
we need to really make it for Allah, the base level, it's for
Allah. That's why we're doing it. But we want to have Iman and then
we want to have as as much anticipation of as many things as
possible at the sub. I want Allah's forgiveness. I want Allah
as Rama when Allah is closeness, I want Allah to raise my status. I
want him to be happy with me. I want him to bless me, all of these
things are at the sub, the province awesome, lifted, General,
the sub.
Anticipate whatever you want.
So when we can do that, if you find, you get thirsty, you get
tired, you get sleepy, and it's because you're fasting and the
weather in which we're fasting. Maybe just that's the moment of
Artesia think about why you're doing it.
And Allah subhanaw taala loves it when people think about him.
That's why the Allah ma have written and it get that in some
Hadith as well that sometimes a sin takes you closer to Allah than
a normal state of
complacency. Like we haven't done if we don't think we're doing
anything wrong. Then sometimes we think that mashallah we're What do
you allow something and we don't do anything wrong. So we don't
actually do anything extra. We just kind of do normal. But when a
person falls and makes a sin commits a sin, then they feel very
guilty and
then they do a lot of Tober. And then that shoots them up. So it's
amazing how Allah subhanaw taala has made the system for us that
even when you sin, by mistake or by accident or by being
overwhelmed, for whatever reason, is always the way to come back.
And to actually come back even better. That's the most amazing
thing that I find in the concept of Toba in Islam, that you could
come back better than you were before the sin. Not that you do
sins for that reason, because you can exponentially get much further
without doing the sin if you just focused, but I'm just saying in
our default 70 become complacent.
So
we want to again, waste the least amount of time we want our fast to
be as pristine and proper as possible. We want to do enormous
amounts of hisab. During that time, we want to make our dua
Iftar, during Iftar beforehand, we want to increase the number of
Quran that we do. And we want to also add in certain salats, like a
well being and after Margarita, that's going to be difficult, but
at least when you get up in the morning, whatever time you get up,
you can do a Shahrokh prayer 2468 Records whatever it may be. The
benefit of all of this is that inshallah once we get it wired
into our system during Ramadan, it's easier to retain this after
Ramadan so that it's not just for Ramadan, that we're changing the
schedule, and then we get something after Ramadan.
Even in tarawih, we do 20 records. The Prophet sallallahu Sallam has
a similar narration, whoever stands during the nights of
Ramadan, they also with iman and hisab than their previous sins are
forgiven. So whoever stands we're going to stand because we're going
to do Tarawih prayer, just like we're going to fast. But if you if
you do it with iman, and the sub this anticipation, then even that
rockets you further up.
So we ask Allah subhanaw taala to help us in this regard. The
Ramadan is the month of the Quran. And that's why it's always been
from the time of the Prophet sallallahu Sallam prophets, Allah
some himself used to do an entire revision, a review of the entire
Quran that had been revealed up to them. And then in the last year,
he did it twice with Gibreel Ali Salam, though, would you realize
Salam. So even from his time, and then you've got the Sahaba, who
did these long tarawih is, what is mentioned is that during the time
of it, or the other times, they will do tarawih for so long, much
longer than our tarawih that people would be, you know, the
older people, they would actually have to stand with sticks,
just to continue to stand.
And in fact, the word tarawih comes from Theresa, it's a plural
of Teresa, that we have means the rest in between every four gods.
And if you look at majority of the books are fake, you'll actually
find that it says, to sit for rest for the amount of time it takes
you to perform for records. So if for God's take five to seven
minutes, then to actually sit for five to seven minutes afterwards,
then to do the next, then to sit again and then to do next. We just
don't see that today because we don't have time, right? Even in
the place where fasting is only 12 hours like the southern
hemisphere, Australian, South Africa, South America, right at
this point in time or even when it was 12 hours here 15 years ago.
I don't think anybody did that. But what they used to do in the
Haram is that they used to take that time to do tawaf in between
and in Madina Munawwara there was no tawaf there. So in the theory,
they would actually do some extra in our field. That's why according
to Imam Malik Rahim Allah one opinion of his is that tarawih is
the 20 rockets plus the four rest times that you get in between you
add another four rockets in so how much do you get?
Exactly so according to him, one opinion is that the law is 36
records. And I was actually because of the for extra in those
times that people would just do by themselves or they sat and did
something that was traditionally the taraweeh right for probably a
number of centuries. But today you hardly see that I don't think even
in Saudi they I don't think even in the domain they take that long
in between them. But that's just to give you have an idea of where
we were and you know what has been done before and so on.
So we ask Allah subhana wa Tada to allow us to prefer prepare for
this month of Ramadan by giving us Baraka during this time to get
away, get get rid of a lot of things that we need to do before
Ramadan so that we can really dedicate ourselves to Ramadan. Of
course, there will be people among us who can't give up the jobs they
do or there's certain tasks, but that's fine. Again, some of the
major things in
that can be done beforehand, so that you just fulfill whatever has
to be done. And then you use the rest of the time. Remember, the
way to get Baraka in your time is to organize time. Without
organizing time, you don't get Baraka because you'll just be,
especially when you're tired and hungry, then you may just be
taking time to sleep and so on. So have a time to have an app
organize the time to have an app fit that into your schedule. But
bizarrely, Rahim Allah mentions it very clearly, that by organizing
your time and making sure you stick to your schedule is by is a
method by which blessing in time will manifest itself and those
people who are very organized
they generally tend to be very productive. So we want to be
productive people, for ourselves and for our after hereafter
Inshallah, because there, this world will go very soon. And is
the real is the real life is the of the Hereafter that is such an
important thing for any Muslim to believe in the afterlife.
So, regardless of whether we live in this world for five years, 10
years, 100 years, even the real life is the eternal life and
that's where things are really gonna matter.
We ask Allah subhanaw taala to
help us and assist us in making this life conducive for the
afterlife, so that we can actually benefit from this life for the
sake of the afterlife, forgive our sins, Forgive our mistakes,
forgive our excesses and allow us to be closer to him and make this
Ramadan, a source of proximity to him that we've never had before.
While he did that on our annual hamdulillahi rabbil aalameen