Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – Get the Most out of the COVID19 Lockdown
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Bismillah al Rahman al Rahim hamdulillah in Robben Island mean
or salatu salam ala so you did more saline wider early he was
Safi or Baraka was seldom at the Sleeman Kathy Iran Illa Yomi Deen
Amma beret
call Allahu Tabarka wa Taala for the Quran and Mudgee they will for
corneal Hamid on a cannula who knew it but whom were under defeat
him when I can Allah Who more Atiba whom will whom you stuck
your own will call in the BU sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said
Hakuna Phaeton Alka Ido V ha Hi Ramona. I'll call him we'll call
him Murphy Hi Ramana Maharshi Alma Shiva Hierro monastery. When the
shadow of Allah the specially for Omen watcher, the V. Hamilton.
Familiar with Biggie. Okay McAllen the VU sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
robber who Muslim. Allah subhanho wa Taala says in the verse that
I've just read the second part of the verse, Allah subhanaw taala
says, Well, my current Allahumma anthy Bahama Home yesterday, Iran,
Allah subhanho wa Taala will not be punishing them. Allah will not
punish them while they seek forgiveness. If they seek
forgiveness, Allah subhanaw taala will not punish them.
So as long as we seek forgiveness, then in sha Allah, we can hope
that Allah subhanaw taala will not make this a punishment for us or
will turn it from a punishment to our Rama and make it a source of
goodness in sha Allah and greatness for us.
Abu Huraira, the Allahu Anhu released this is a Hadith of Sahih
Muslim Abu Huraira. The Allahu Anhu relates that Rasulullah
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said the following. Now this hadith has
been around forever. And many of you will have heard this hadith
before as well. However,
we may have never understood it in this dimension, because the the
condition we're in right now is an unprecedented condition. We are in
a situation where, which we've never experienced before. We're in
a situation that we've never had before. So it's quite confusing
what we do what we don't do. That's why many ahaadeeth as well,
are very appropriate to the situation. But we've never thought
about it like that before. Because we've never had the experience.
You can only relate things to experience, experiences once
you've had those experiences. So now listen carefully to this
hadith, you probably will recognize it, many of you will
recognize it. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said,
Set Hakuna Fitton, there's going to be challenges, there's going to
be trials, there's going to be problems, there's going to be
calamities, everything that fitna can translate into. It could be
any of those things, there are going to be challenges and issues
and problems. I'll call it I'll call a goofy her higher nominal
time. The one sitting during that time is better than the one
standing. We'll call a movie haha, your middle mushy and the one
standing is superior to the one who's walking while mash up her
Jairo. Mina sorry. And though the one who's walking is superior to
the one who's running.
So you can tell you can see from this that the Prophet salallahu
Islam is saying that the one who's not getting involved in that fitna
in that trial, in that problem in that sickness, illness, whatever
it is, the best person is the one who's reclusive, who's doing
isolation basically, who's sitting down who's not trying to go out
there to get hurt. Then the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam
said mentor shara, Fela to stay Sharifa This is such a trial in a
calamity.
And a challenge that anybody who looks out for it, who peaks out
who
exposes himself to it, then it will turn on him. It will afflict
him, it will engage him
and woman widget if he has to then the promise a loss of advice, that
advice that end that anybody who finds security, anybody who finds
safety a sanctuary, any person who finds somewhere to be safe failure
would be then they should adopt that form of safety. They should
they should take those measures. So the experts in this as best as
they could, they told us what to do. So this hadith has taken on an
entirely new dimension. Now, what I want to talk about today is
we've had several lectures
with various aspects related to this whole COVID Coronavirus
problem. But one of the things that we're all forced to do today
is basically sit at home.
Right and sitting at home and not being able to engage too much
though we live in, as I said, times that would never have been
expected even maybe 100 years ago, where while we may be at home,
we're still in touch with the whole world. We still get
information about what's going on around the world. We can still
speak to people we can see people in this virtual way like right now
I'm here
Yeah, and I'm speaking to many, many of you online, right sitting
at home pretty much in a in a in a in a state of some level of
isolation, right. But I can speak to you. So isolation, isolation is
a very different concept today than it was 100 200 1000 years ago
or in the time of the Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wasallam.
However,
a lot of people are having difficulty, even in this kind of
isolation, this kind of staying at home, right, bunkering down
basically, right people are having trouble with this. So today, I
just want to look at this from a general, you know, perspective of
the benefits of isolation or solitude rather, to stay alone for
some time to cut away from everything that we've gotten so
used to, that has basically become our life, we want to cut away from
that, and see where we can go with this. Because there's huge
benefits to isolation to solitude if it's done in the right way.
Isolation can be a punishment, sometimes, as they do, where they
put somebody in, where they were, they put somebody in prison into
isolation, the isolation chamber or whatever it's called, where
they can't meet anybody else. So sometimes that can be a
punishment, that people can even go crazy. But remember with Allah
subhanaw taala, nobody will ever go crazy. Because Allah is always
there for you, and he can make his presence be felt if we look out
for him. So number one, some of the general benefits of solitude.
Research shows that solitude undoubtfully brings a number of
benefits, right? For example, one is freedom to do what you want,
not what others want you to do, to actually think about getting your
life back. And freedom in other creativity. You're not hindered
by, I mean, today is very difficult because you still got
your phone. Right, you still got social media. So there's still a
hinderance otherwise creativity for creativity, you need a free
mind. You need to not be curbed. Not be engaged with many other
things that create a lot of confusion, you need a clarity, and
solitude can provide that. Likewise, intimacy, intimacy with
Allah subhanaw taala intimacy with oneself. And of course, above all
of that we can develop our spirituality, as you'll see later
on as the talk progresses, that for our most spiritual
individuals, the prophets, they pretty much had to go through some
kind of solitude. Because solitude is when we cut away from
everything else and start focusing on Allah. I mean, for a moment,
there's never solitude, because there's always Allah. But what it
means is solitude from other people from from things and the
world and distractions. Now, what the experts say, and I'm not
saying just Muslim expert, I'm saying even non Muslim experts,
productive solitude requires internal exploration. It's a kind
of a labor that can be very uncomfortable. This is a big
trouble that people are having, they're not comfortable with
themselves. And this requires a lot of effort and a labor which
can be very uncomfortable, even excruciating.
Right. But as the experts say that if it you know, even though it
might take a bit of a bit of time and an effort and difficulty, if
you persevere, it can actually turn out to be a very, very
pleasant experience.
Once they say that, once,
it becomes that once you get, once you get into it, then maybe the
most important relationship anybody has ever had, will be the
one that you've had with yourself with Allah subhanaw taala.
I mean, the non Muslim experts, they say with yourself, but we
always have to have Allah subhanaw taala the most important
relationship for sure, as we know, is going to be the one with Allah
subhanaw taala. And this is a time as good as any if we, if we don't
use it, right, and we're getting upset about this, then this is a
punishment. This isolation is a punishment for us. It's like we've
been put in prison in an isolation chamber with just a few people, or
with nobody, because a lot of people are just alone. They may
have a roommate who has to stay in their own room, or whatever the
case is. But if we are to connect with Allah subhanaw taala in this
case, then inshallah it's not a punishment. It's actually Rama and
mercy.
According to a lot of modern research, they actually did
surveys, and many modern humans seem * bent on avoiding
solitude. In fact, I think it was two thirds of the people that they
surveyed said they'd rather have electric shocks. Right, then to be
in solitude.
Because the point today is that even when you're alone for a
moment on a bus, traveling, or waiting for something, you sit in
the car, you
You're going to start putting the radio on.
Elsewhere, you're going to have even when you're walking around,
you're not going to reflect about nature, or the trees or the birds
or just things around you, you're going to have earphones, right
headphones on. Right. So remember, the value of solitude is going to
depend on whether an individual can find their own interior
solitude and connection in harmony with Allah subhanaw taala. That's
what's important about this, we have to do this, because we're
forced into this, some countries are worse than others. So why not
use it to get the best out of it, otherwise, it'd be a massive waste
of time. In other words, if you can, if you want to put this
simply, when people extract themselves from the social context
that surrounds them, their phones and everything else, and
especially the social context and everything that surrounds them,
then they will become better understanding of how this, this
normal social setting shapes them. Because we'll have time to see
ourselves from outside of our social setting. Because we're so
immersed in it, we've grown up in it, we've hardly ever come out of
it. Now that we're forced out of it, there's a lot of reflection
that will take place. And there's a lot of things that will dawn
upon us, and then we'll understand what's good and what's bad.
Generally, they say that it's only through a shakeup. That good ideas
come to be that people do things that are even more useful and
beneficial. After they've had a bit of a shake up. If people
become too comfortable in the in whatever they've been doing for a
very long time. They don't realize that they could maybe do so much
more. So when they've had a shake up, they think they realize what's
good, what's bad. And Inshallah, we hope that we can do that here
as well.
You have to also remember that solitude in Islam is not something
that you do forever. That's why we have aitikaf a huge concept of
decaf, which was done certain, you know, certain days of Ramadan,
certain days of the year, the professor Lawson used to do it for
10 days, or 20 days in Ramadan. It's not something you do every
day. In fact, in Islam, it's frowned upon that you go and
retire to a cave, right? And you basically just cut away from
everybody forever, as your lifestyle. Radha Ania. That kind
of celibacy and so on is not appropriate for us. We live with
the community, but then we we exercise solitude in a measured
way. And in sha Allah, that will be a time so you don't solitude it
doesn't have to be forever, right? You don't have to distance
yourself from everybody forever. But rather, you just take the time
out to revitalize your body and clear your mind. And this has been
put upon us. So we're gonna have to do that. Anyway. Now let's just
look right from history, about what solitude has, has produced.
Amazing things have happened in solitude, new Holly salaam, and
his followers became confined. Now what a confinement on an ark in a
large ship, just water all around them. Everybody else perishes,
they're the only ones that survive. Right? That was for
whatever, 40 days, 40 Nights, generally, that's kind of the
number for any kind of maturity period, right? 40 days, 40 Nights.
That's generally kind of what humans need a 40 day period, right
to get something done. And maybe that's why they were made to do
this for about 14 days.
Then if you look at Ibrahim Ali Salam, he was quarantined for a
short while into the fire, right, various opinions of how long he
was in the fire. But then look at what Allah subhanaw taala gave him
afterwards. difficulties have to come about for that to be good
after that. And most of our profits are the best and most
closest of Allah servants. If they made to do that, then Subhanallah
you know,
we're lucky that Allah subhanaw taala is even testing us this way
to give us the suburb so that we could be rewarded use of it he
salaam, his first thrown into the well look at that solitude in a
well deep down by his own brother's bass family. And then
after that, later on, he is then again put into solitude. He's
basically put into prison, right solitude from the community from
outside from his position. But then he's exonerated after that,
from all the accusations against him, and his honor grows even
more. Then after that you have Eunice Ali, his Salam, his his
solitude was amazing, unique, unprecedented, and probably never
to happen again, which is that he gets caught up in a fish. Right,
in a whale. And that it could be either from one day, three days,
up to 40 days, Allah subhanaw taala knows best what happened,
but then his life totally changes afterwards. And he is he's given,
he's given the great things from Allah subhanaw taala. Then you
look at Musa alayhis salam, again, the same thing with Musa alayhis
salam. He is told to take himself to Mt tool to converse with Allah
subhanho wa taala. He basically separates from his people. He has
to go and do this alone. He's given mashallah His scriptures and
so on. There's always gifts at the end of solitudes if a person does
it, right, there's always a gift from
Allah subhanaw taala as long as they do it for Allah, as long as
they understand this is Allah putting me into this. I wasn't
going to do this voluntarily, right? I've never done it I think
before now I'm doing I think I've in my house, and seriously you
make a room in your house for like aitikaf. And you just basically,
you consider that your ethical for me, it's not the same as being in
a masjid, obviously, at the same time, but you want to be with
Allah if aitikaf means that I'm just retreating for the sake of
Allah. Then in sha Allah, may Allah subhanaw taala blessed us
with that. Then Maria Malaga salaam, the mother of ESRD salaam,
she gets put into isolation, literally because she's among all
the men in the temple. And the CReality Salam is looking looking
after her. Mashallah, in her solitude, she receives divine
fruits, she receives divine provision from Allah subhanaw
taala. Then after that she's in there, she has not touched
anybody, never been with a man. And then she gets given glad
tidings of a miraculous child, who is the most unique child in the
world of Eastside Islam, Jesus peace be upon him, born without a
father.
And then not just that, but you look at many others, you look at
the US herbal calf, their story, the whole surah is there, again,
they were put into solitude, this time they were put into study
solitude, obviously for their own good, it's always for your own
good. It's to keep them away from the, from those who are after
them, because they were believers, and the people around they were
not believers. And then they get given this very, very, very unique
situation of having to sleep for over 300 years, and they come back
in a different time. These are amazing things. I know, we may
think that, Oh, these are things that happen to others. We're not
hoping to come back after 300 years. I mean, that's not
something I'm looking forward to. Right. That's not something I'm
expecting even. But even on a small scale, we are in need of we
need at the mercy of Allah. Right, whether whatever he gives us,
right, we are fucky we are in need of the Mercy of Allah subhanaw
taala. Then we have the Prophet sallallahu alayhi salam himself. I
mean, he used to do his takeoffs later on as we know, every year he
used to do is take off, but then even be before that, even before
he receives his prophecy. While he's not a prophet yet. He's
already by Allah subhanaw taala, attuned to going into solitude
into that cave, into that cave of Hira. And that's when eventually
he he is exposed a confronts the angel, the angel comes to him, he
has this amazing experience, which was a difficult experience for
him. But then that makes him the prophet that that he was going to
be that makes him the Rasul that he is going to be. Right. So then
he's obviously doing a kickoff. And he mentions a number of fava
and benefits of decaf and of solitude in general, and focusing
on Allah. And basically for the Olia of Allah subhanaw, taala,
pretty much majority of them, they would have done some kind of
solitude, ticker for some other kind of stuff, because they know
that that's the only way to focus the heart, read it off all of the,
the shackles and attractions and the distractions. And then once
they've got Allah subhanaw taala in their heart, then they can
reconnect with people, but in a way that Allah wants because
initially, we're connected to people in maybe in a way that
Allah subhanaw taala doesn't want, it's the wrong kind of connection.
But it's not that Allah doesn't want us to connect with people. We
want to connect with people for the sake of Allah, so that we can
benefit from them and they can benefit from us. But that can only
be done once you've known our own selves and figured out ourselves.
So all of these people that I just gave you an example of all of
these people, and there's many, many examples, but just because we
have a short amount of time, all of these peoples, they received
huge Divine Mercy, divine protection, divine gifts, and a
change in their life. I mean, look at unicyclists Salam,
a Yubari Sana, we've talked about UniStar Islam in the fish, but uh,
you buddy salaam, he's given a very different type a very
difficult one. He is afflicted with various different types of
diseases, such that pretty much everybody abandons him. Right?
They shun him, so he can be there. But he nobody wants to be with
him. I think the only person that stays with him is his wife. But he
bears it through shaytan comes and tries to distract him. Shaitan
comes and tries to mislead him. Try it tries to give him some
other ideas of other cases. But no, he stays firm with Allah
because the only way that anybody anybody in that state could have
stayed firm is with Allah subhanaw taala because Allah gives that
strength. Then he passes the test. So then Allah subhanaw taala it
gives him back his health and everything And subhanAllah he has,
you know, Mashallah. He is given greatness from Allah subhanho wa
taala. In fact, no
The thing that we could also invoke here is that those seven
which should be under the shade on the Day of Judgment, one of them
is that person who
remembers Allah in solitudes.
Right now, I know this could mean different things, but who
remembers Allah in solitude, and then his eyes tear
his eyes to find something during these days, whether that be an A
sheet, you know, like a
pure on the sheet, right without any distracting music, because
remember, music is good for your soul. Whereas the Quran, and the
words of Allah are good for your spirit. That's the difference. A
lot of people think that music encourages you to do things and
inspires you to do things, and it may do but remember, the music is
connected to the soul, the knifes and that's not necessarily that's
not a good thing, right? Whereas the Quran,
we have to take it from just inspiring our soul to inspiring
our heart, our heart and our spirit, our rule. That's why
there's a big difference. But those people who must do that, who
get that benefit of that they will never want to listen to music
again.
So may Allah subhanaw taala give us that. So something that's
thought provoking verses of the Quran that make us think about our
life nasheeds poetry, write something that is reflective that
we can reflect upon in this time of isolation. And if we can then
shed tears in our dua, even right? In this type of isolation in sha
Allah will be
in the lounge on the Day of Judgment, which will be the shade
under the shade of the Throne of Allah subhana wa Tada. So, these
are the benefits in sha Allah that we can get if we must the
solitude, I ask Allah to do this for us, because we're so
distracted from online, talking about my own self. I wish I'm
saying these things to you. Right? And really, I'm asking Allah that
Allah give me this first, that Allah may give it to you and he
deprived me. And that would be really sad. So really, when I
saying this, when I've done this research, I'm praying that Allah
subhanaw taala gives me this and gives us all this. So these are
the benefits that generally a person can gain through solitude.
In sha Allah, once you have solitude once we've, once we've
got an understanding of ourselves,
our Vickery become more meaningful.
You know, the thicker that we've already always may have been doing
your favorite thick, or whatever the color is, it will become
suddenly more meaningful. You'll start focusing more on that. If
you've struggled all this time, that I can't focus in my prayer, I
can't focus in my task B doesn't mean anything I do. It doesn't
mean anything. Maybe this is the time that Allah wants to give us.
So I said this Coronavirus issue right now and this, that's upon
us. For some people, it's a punishment. But for other people,
it's a source of mercy and closeness to Allah, we want to be
from that second group of people, the latter group of people.
Also, during this time, the Quran reading that you will do in
shuttler will be more impactful, you will feel it more if you gain
solitude if you do it right. Number three, or number four,
whatever the next one, if you're writing a diary, you're writing
reflections, you're writing blog posts, you're writing Facebook,
and again, make that to the minimum. But if you are
reflective, and you have the right kind of isolation, you benefit
from it, then in sha Allah, your posts, right are going to be a lot
more honest, they're going to be a lot more honest, a lot more
genuine, and a lot more sincere, and in short, a lot a lot more
beneficial as well.
Right? One is that we write a journal entry for our own self,
really to look for ourselves. But nowadays, everything's in public,
our journals and our diaries are basically public information. But
they are generally dumb to show other people, right, and they're
totally wrong sometimes. So, in sha Allah, if you go inside each
and do this properly, and we do this well, in sha Allah, even a
lot of the junk out there will turn to inshallah benefits.
And of course, this gives us the most perfect time to introspect
and hold ourselves accountable for all of our words and deeds.
And another benefit of solitude is going to be that in sha Allah,
once we get it, that we've wasted this long, right or which we've
wasted this, this part of our life for this long in our life. Right
and the solitude has helped us this lockdown has helped us to get
that understanding, then inshallah our future goals are going to be
better.
Because we know what we've done wrong. We can learn from our
mistakes Insha Allah, may Allah make us of those that learn from
their mistakes. So now just quickly a lot of people have been
asking, right, a lot of people are asking Okay, what do we do in the
daytime? So just a few things about that. Number one, I am
assuming I am
assuming that most of us have more time while we are locked down,
because number one, imagine that you've saved on your commute time.
Some people in our community, I mean, if you're in London or
whatever, you're probably commuting for an hour, sometimes
half an hour, there's some people commuting for two hours, one and a
half hours, 20 minutes, right, whatever it is going outside,
getting into the car, getting onto the public transport, whatever it
is, or walking to work, or whatever the case is. That time is
being saved. Right. So clearly, that's time saved. Now, I know
there's some vocations like a lot of the IT jobs as such, especially
the those which require you to look after service and that. And
when you're working from home, I know sometimes it becomes more
undisciplined in disciplined where your boss or your manager thinks
that he can call you at any time because it's very flexible
working. Like I understand that. But for a lot of us, we're going
to have more time. That's if you want it again, this is about
getting outside, if we want it we're going to have more time. And
to be honest, both Muslim and non Muslim experts who are productive,
you know, people who are productive, right? If you look at
many of the philosophers, many of those who have high achievers, in
general, just productive individuals, and the likes of Imam
Ghazali and many others, right? Rahima hula, are scholars and so
on Imam Bukhari and so on. Pretty much I think all the experts will
agree, right? All experts on productivity will agree that
without discipline in your time, you're not going to get anything
out of your time. Because if you're just doing things as they
come along, and as you just desire, right, and you don't have
a fixed time for things, right, as far as possible, you're gonna
waste a lot of time and lots of people or if you look back at your
two weeks, that you've been, we've been in this situation or however
long you are, you know, in wherever whichever country you
are, just think
that if I if I don't have a rigid schedule, as far as possible that
I can, I can focus on, you've probably wasted a lot of time. So
the way to solve it, and that's why the Imam Ghazali his words are
very clear in his beatitude Hidayat beginning of guidance,
that for every time, you must have something that you do not
transgress grasp beyond, of course, you do your best, you can
never stick to it. 100% I mean, a very few people work like
clockwork, right? But at least you try your best have the timetable,
have not just the timetable, but you have certain things you want
to accomplish. That's always the best thing. Right? You want it
because genuinely, you may have noticed that if you want to travel
and you've got an itinerary, you've got a holiday somewhere,
you're going visiting somewhere and you've got an itinerary, you
get a lot more done, you're surprised, hey, I've got more than
today than I get done at home on my regular regular workday. That's
because it's all about timekeeping. That's very, very
important. So these are some of the things that you can do right
at home. Think, firstly, think of all of the things that you've ever
wanted to do with your family at home, right. But everything that
you've wanted to do with your family at home, Well, now's the
time, as good as I need to do it. Number two, right? Think of all
the things that you may be needing to do around your house, right
things that chores that you need to, you know, fix this or fix that
or get this or get that bill something or whatever the case is,
well, this is the time to do and we're not saying that you just
spend your time in a bar that I mean, of course, if you can,
that's wonderful. But there's a lot of other stuff that we need to
do just to make sure that our life runs. And that's completely fine.
So think about that, you know, there's going to be a lot of stuff
that you may have wanted to do with your children all your life.
But for some reason, our work never allowed us, now's the time
to do it. Maybe you wanted to read your children's certain books,
maybe you want to tell them about your life.
You know, maybe you want to tell them about your experiences so
they can learn from that the fathers and mothers are generally
with the children anyway, but I'm saying the father's maybe this is
the time to do it.
to ruminate over that to tell him about your Interact, you know your
relationship with your father. You know,
the other thing that we've got that
helps us right now is that Ramadan is around the corner. So there's
preparation for Ramadan. Right that has to be done. And that's
you know, we've got several talks on that subject that the best
Ramadan you can have is what you've prepared for from
beforehand. And the main thing just to briefly put it is that as
long as you've got try to get in these next two three weeks that we
have left for Ramadan, try to get everything done that's going to be
a cumbersome in Ramadan that you should like projects shopping.
I mean, as far as I know, there's many women around who are already
doing their Ramadan preparation, what that means is in Ramadan is
forward right social for the obligation to have certain types
of foods, you know, both healthy and maybe unhealthy. I mean, both
unhealthy and maybe some healthy, right? They already preparing all
of that and, you know, putting it in the freezers and everything
like that, right. So okay, if you have to do that well
Just do it now. Right?
You know, in Ramadan, those four foods, those obligatory foods, I
mean, I guess even in pandemics, you still have to have them,
right? I mean, they're necessary, you know, cultural stuff and
things. So we're not going to argue about that. Those of us who
are half of the Quran Well, wonderful time to revise
especially before Ramadan so that you can do taraweeh I mean, I'm
going to suggest that because, well, Allahu Allah, may Allah, may
Allah deactivate this virus so that we can go back to the masjid.
But we do have to be prepared for the worst. And that is basically
that this will be an amazing time, maybe for the first time in so
many years or decades, that there is going to be so many tarawih
prayers, so many more than probably have ever been done
before in the world. Can you believe it? Like think about it?
Right? Because before there would have been so many throw your
prayers in all the messages, which are probably already more taraweeh
prayers than ever been done before in the world because Muslims are
increasing. There's more taraweeh around the world than ever was
before before used to be restricted to certain countries.
Now the Muslims are pretty much all over in every nearly in every
country of the world. So they're going to be doing tarawih prayers.
They're now out of that now we're gonna have so many small
gatherings Misha because mashallah, in many areas of the UK
of the subcontinent of Morocco, of Algeria, of Tunisia, of of what's
the other country? Yeah, and all these different countries, right
Libya, there are numerous profiles of the Quran, Bangladesh,
Pakistan, there's lots and lots of half is of the Quran. Mashallah.
Now before it was, it was tough to get a position in the masjid. Now,
pretty much all of these things, all of you who fans out there
should be literally preparing to do hit that home with to do
taraweeh at home with the whole Quran, with your family. And this
may be the first time that many many people will listen to their
children read the entire Quran. That is the Mercy of Allah
subhanaw taala that's the Mercy of Allah subhanaw taala. So, those of
you who are who fuzz out there, you need to start preparing from
that right now. Right? Regardless of you know, whether you've done
therapy or not, you're going to do in sha Allah tarawih right. If
you've got a brother, or somebody, you know, you live together,
right? You're gonna do therapy, inshallah. Hamdulillah this is
something that we've been doing for the last several years we do
taraweeh in house, me and my son, and mashallah, you know, the
family gets to take part in that as well.
Those of us who are not half of the Quran, well, you can use this
time to memorize something, just set yourself a goal, you know,
this many suitors I want to memorize your scene or Surah to
Rockman sort of to work here, or this many more sutras or I've
forgotten some students, I want to memorize those. Another thing that
we want to do during this time is that ident if you haven't done so,
identify a place in your house, either a room or a space, where
which is kind of your makeshift masjid, right your home masjid,
and tell one of the children who are of discerning age they can get
it done right in the masjid is that and if you've got a local
masjid and they are still doing a Danda, right, then that would be
sufficient technically. But it's still better to do the Athan in
your own house, right for the solids, and then pray with Gemma
pray with congregation and the women can also join in in that
case, and inshallah they'll they'll get the reward for that as
well. So fix the time for the five prayers and do that with your
family. If you can, I mean, fast Mondays and Thursdays, right,
that's another great thing, especially in preparation for
Ramadan. And another thing I'm going to say is that you're going
to be stuck at home. I mean, even the government has allowed
exercise, right? Even if you don't want to go outside, do some kind
of movement, some kind of exercise 15 to 20 minutes.
There are there are lots of ways to do that. There's a lots of
routines you can find on YouTube, be careful a lot of them not very
appropriate the way they are. But there's one called a Tabata right
Tabata rage routines of exercise, there's numerous ones, there's
some really good ones without all the music and the leotards and
while the tight clothing, you want something appropriate, obviously,
just 15 minutes of it, that will be very useful, useful, maybe get
a pull up, pull up bar, some press up some, some some setups, go
outside for a walk, you know, alone while maintaining the social
distancing. And so on a bike ride, whatever it is, whatever your
whatever, so broad, I mean, obviously, those who are the more
vulnerable category, the older people, those with underlying,
they don't want to go outside, well, they need to do something
inside. Otherwise, you're just going to get unhealthy. And having
said that, another another very important message is stay out of
the kitchen. When you're at home. And if the kitchen is very close
by, then you're going to be constantly raiding the kitchen.
And that kind of grazing is actually really bad for your
health. So you want to avoid doing that. I know that's going to be
very difficult for some people, but just have good meals, right
and avoid the grazing. Another thing is that while you're at
home, right you want you don't want to get into each other's
hair. I mean already you probably are. I mean Savannah this morning,
we have three classes going on. So I've got a class going on. I'm
teaching online, my wife's got a class going
On, and my son, he's got a class going on in, you know, for, for
his school. So we had to be in three different rooms. But other
than that you're generally together, right you want to keep
out of each other's hair, you want to learn to respect one another,
give each person their space, have commute have communal times,
family times, but be careful because Subhanallah what, what we
don't want is that you start irritating one another. And then
what happens. And unfortunately, this is already happening. And we
need to take measures to avoid this and avert this, we don't want
this period to become
a period of broken families. Right, that would be a punishment
from Allah subhanaw taala. And it's our responsibility of how
we're going to act with our spouse, or with our children. I
know we may be flustered, and you may be under a lot of pressure.
But what we don't want to do is we don't want to, like, let you know,
we want to be very careful how we do this with people.
Another thing that we can put as part of our timetable, I'm just
giving ideas, it's up to you to take whatever ideas in addition to
this, or from this and put yourself a timetable, it's nice to
put it up, put it on the refrigerator on the wall
somewhere. So everybody knows what it is sit down and do it
collectively, right and take as long as you want. And each one
it's up to you, whether that's five minutes or whatever. Right.
Another thing that is very important is aside from your
Salawat times that your prayer times that you're gonna have
together, right, another time for little Halacha, a little Taleem
from a book that's useful. Now there could be many, many
different books that you can use we've actually just completed as
give me that book with my children that top one Yep, just completed
this, although we started this a while back that we reading with
the children, right? Because history is something that we don't
I'm not saying that's what you should do as well. But there's a
lot of books that you can lose published by terasse, publishing
lessons in Islamic history, the rosewood study, I mean, children
enjoyed it, right gives them broadens their idea tells them
about the background of the Muslim world and so on and the Muslim
history, the various different dynasties and so on and so forth,
read the book of the Syrah, read a book of Hadith. Provisions for the
seekers is a wonderful book, it's on white thread press, write,
short, short, Hadith, a little bit of commentary, sit down, read it,
and discuss it. I mean, there's Subhanallah there's a number of
other books that you can you can have, if it's just husband and
wife, maybe read the marriage book that we've just produced recently,
you know, the handbook of a healthy Muslim marriage, mashallah
many people have already done that. Maybe Inshallah, that will
be whatever, whatever is good for you probably got books there.
There's lots of PDFs of books, like books that you can find,
think what books you've always wanted to read. So one is that you
get books that you can read together 15 minutes or whatever a
day. And then there's other books that you want to get that you
always wanted to read certain classics, for example, that you've
always wanted to read, aside from the Quran and Hadith, right,
whatever else, this would be a good time for you. Another thing
is that you can maybe try to just encourage everybody tried to
finish, like one Quran between your family once a week, once
every two weeks, once a month. Maybe you can use the whole
WhatsApp method of the WhatsApp, Quran atoms, right with no force
or no pressure on anybody, but just voluntarily who those who
take part there's nothing wrong with it if it's done voluntarily,
right. So that would be another wonderful thing, because the only
thing that's going to get us out of here is the vicar of Allah. And
every home in which the Dhikr of Allah comes about, as we've
mentioned, in other talks as well, they are going to be in sha Allah
protected by Allah subhanho wa taala. And they are going to
receive the baraka and blessing. So we need to do that, as the
verse I read about the beginning of this cell that we will not
punish. Allah says, As long as they're doing a stick fire stick
fire needs to be part of that. So now another thing then, number 14,
I think this is right. Schedule a time for tahajjud. Right, if you
can get up. And I mean, since you're praying at home, you know,
going to the masjid, since your brain not going to work as well.
We've got a lot more control over our night, as long as you're
sleeping in good time at night. In sha Allah, the easy part in here
is that you start you wake up before Fajr time, but 15 minutes
quickly do overdue, get two or four rockets into a bit of dua,
and then Fajr time comes in, read your sunnah and then your fourth
of Fajr. And I think all you need is about half an hour to 40
minutes in which you can wait wake up, do will do, do tahajjud DUA
and then do fajr prayer and then go back to sleep. Like if you
don't want to stay up after that, and you want to get up later. It's
a wonderful time to do it because you have no obligations in terms
of, you know, commutes and things like that. So you have a bit more
flexibility. So
a well being after maghrib if you can do you know for extra six
records, and then and then Iraq after sunrise, these are all ideas
and recommendations actually. And lastly, you need to schedule a
time for along with the training and the book reading for Tasbeeh
is still far salawat and maybe in his will allow them a collection
of the hours that everybody does maybe even a day out together.
Other than that, basically whatever other things that you
would like to do with your family or the projects that you can help
somebody else with right
You can do for other people, you know, maintaining the precaution
so on. We ask Allah subhana wa Taala to accept this from us,
right? That's quite a bit of a list. You do what's good for you.
And if you have any good ideas, please do let us know. We can let
others know as well. And may Allah subhanaw taala accept this from
us. I can read that one and Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen
Allahu Mantis, Minka salaam Tabata theatricality where the Quran
Allah homea Yaga younger African Studies, Allahu Mejia Hannah me
I'm in La Ilaha illa Allah Subhana Allah in the Quran nominal volume
in just Allah one Muhammad Amma who? Yeah, a crumble economy.
Yeah, Hieronymus Udine, were higher on Martine yeah Medina Judy
will come on. Yeah, are hamara he mean? We ask you for your special
mercy Yeah, Allah forgive us. O Allah forgive our wrongdoings Oh
ALLAH forgive our shortcomings.
Allah forgive forgive our sins of ALLAH forgive all of our sins.
Yeah, Allah we ask you forgiveness for those things that we've
forgotten about. Oh Allah, those we remember Allah those that we
still continue to do allow us to stop doing them. Oh Allah, we ask
you forgiveness for those sins that have now become part of our
life. And we no longer consider them sins anymore. Oh Allah, we
ask You for discernment and true knowledge of Allah, we ask that
You grant us that understanding of what's beneficial for us and
what's harmful for us. Oh Allah, that you grant us the ability to
see the truth for what it is and to follow it, to see the wrong for
what it is and to abstain from it. Oh Allah. These are unprecedented
times that you've put upon us of Allah, we ask
that You grant us
the ability to take heat from this.
You grant us the ability to learn from this. You grant us the
ability to do the cyber and to rectify ourselves and to do what
you want from us. Allah we've been heedless of Allah we'd be
negligent of Allah. We've not even spoken out against the wrongs that
were there. of Allah, all the wrongs that were out there. Oh
Allah, they've all been shut down. of Allah. There are so many things
that us so many things have been shut down that are out there.
There are so many wrongs that have been shut down. Oh, Allah only had
we tried our best to do those things beforehand to stop these
things in our own way. You wouldn't have had to send a
punishment that effects all of us. Oh Allah.
We ask that you do not make this a punishment for us. That you remove
this element from us. You protect us from the difficulties of Allah
that you protect our elderly, you protect our young, you protect our
middle age, you protect the entire Ummah, you protect the entire
humanity and remove this of Allah make us in a state that were
worthy of your mercy of Allah We want your mercy we ask You for
Your clemency. We ask You for Your for bearingless we ask you
for your special attention of Allah we ask you for your love of
Allah grant us your love in our heart and the love of those whose
love benefits as in your court of Allah. Allow us to understand that
which is beneficial for us and to pursue only that which is
beneficial for us and good for us and that you'd be happy with our
Allah allow us to abstain from all of those things that you will be
unhappy with. Oh Allah make your obedience, beloved, in our heart,
make your disobedience hated in our heart of Allah and allow us to
abstain from it. Oh Allah, we ask that You grant us that which we're
asking you for. All of our permissible needs we're asking you
to fulfill of Allah do not make this time of isolation a
depressing time. Do not making it a time of dispute between family
members. Do not make it a time of darknesses of Allah do not make a
time of turmoil within the families. Do not make it a time
when families will break up. Oh Allah do not make it a time when
marriages will be on the rocks that parents will cut away from
their children children from their parents. Oh Allah do not make this
another minute Yama where you say Yama, Yama, your federal Moromi
Woombye he will be what Sahiba he will Binney liquid Lemare mean
whom Yama inshallah you ready? Oh Allah make this a time for us to
reflect so we can come together. And oh Allah give us the ability
to
to be of those who want to benefit others of Allah your prophets. And
Dolores has told us that you will be in the assistance of those whom
tried to help others. Oh Allah sometimes we don't know how we can
help others. Oh Allah, we ask that you allow us to deal with our
disease those who are dying that you allow us to deal with them.
in the correct manner of Allah in a rightful manner of Allah grant
us the understanding and wisdom for this of Allah. These are
unprecedented times they are chaotic times they are a time of
fitna and turmoil. And there are so many different views about so
many different things, even such important and fundamental things
about how to prepare the disease, then wash and shroud them, of
Allah. There are some cases where bodies are not able to be washed
or shrouded properly. They've been given in body bags and they've
been prohibited. Oh Allah, we ask that you do not let us die that
way. And you do not let our loved ones die that way. Oh Allah, that
you grant us the ability to deal with this in the correct way. Oh
Allah we could be we could make many mistakes in this regard. Our
only you can help us save us from making those mistakes of Allah
especially the Allah ma, they're in a very difficult situation very
challenging situation. People are looking up to the Allama to make
the right decisions, and to lead them in the correct way to give
the right judgments. To use the right dispensations. And to know
when to use the dispensations of Allah We ask that you forgive us
from making mistakes and you forgive any mistakes we have made
of Allah do not take us to task for our mistakes of Allah grant us
sincerity of Allah grant all those who are working out there, grant
them sincerity, grant them greater Hema, those the doctors, the older
ma the nurses, anybody who's on the frontline staff, anybody who's
trying to keep the security and maintain the health of the
community of Allah grant them, grant them understanding grant
them Tofik grant them protection. Oh Allah grant them a rewards. Oh
Allah all the sacrifices that people are making Allah grant them
a huge reward for them. Oh Allah the sacrifice the families are
making because their loved ones are working out there or helping
others Allah grant them a reward. Grant them subbrand patience so
Allah this is a time when we need stubborn patience. We need
fortitude we need
we need perseverance. Oh Allah, we need a huge amount of patience. Oh
Allah grant us that patience to do the right thing at this time of
Allah allow us make this time a time of good isolation for us, a
good solitude for us a good time of reflection for us so we can
understand what is what we've done wrong in our life. And we can use
the remainder of our life that the time of our life that remains more
productively, Allah make us productive individuals allow us to
have timetables where we can accomplish a lot of Allah make
this time a source of mercy for us. Oh Allah, there's no turning
it back. But Oh Allah, Allah, this lost that we have incurred this
calamity that we're engaged where we're afflicted by right now. Oh
Allah, we ask that you make this more beloved to us than had it not
happened before. But Oh Allah, relieve us of it. Oh Allah relieve
us of it. Oh Allah relieve us this ummah of this problem of Allah
relieve humanity of this problem of Allah relieve us of this
problem, you have all of this in your hands, give us the ability to
do that which will, which will relieve this problem for from us
of Allah, you're the one who set this in motion. You had your own
wisdom, and you have all the right to do this. Oh Allah. But a lot of
people are losing themselves in this. Oh Allah. So allow us to
turn back and run to you and do the right things so that we can be
relieved of these problems. Oh Allah.
Make this a source of purification for us so that when we die, oh
Allah grant us a long life on Iman and health and Alfia but when we
die, we want the Kadima we want to be stronger believers than we've
ever been before. of Allah protect us from the mischief of shaytaan
especially during this time, and especially on our deathbed. Know
Allah grant us Jen nettleford dose grant is the company of your
messenger sallallahu alayhi, wa salam, O Allah, all of those who
have passed away. Oh Allah, all of those who have been deceased.
During these times. We have many, many friends. We have many, many
people whose parents have passed away old ones have passed away in
our community around the world. Oh Allah, accept them as shahada
accept them as much as well like accept them as much as a status of
a martyr is very high in your sight, I will accept them as much
as in your sights. And Oh Allah, forgive them for all anything that
they may have done, raise their Daraja and status and grant them
genital for those. And Allah we ask that you accept whatever
little that we are doing, allow us to do a lot more. Allow us to do
that which is useful sometimes we don't know. But Allah make us all
keys of goodness in this world forces of goodness. And oh Allah
protect us from doing the wrong things, especially at this time.
Oh ALLAH from being forces of evil at this time, forces of disputes
and conflict and forces of spreading wrong and wasting time.
Oh Allah and making the wrong jokes. Oh Allah, we ask that, that
you grant us the trophy. Can you enable us to do that which pleases
you? And Oh Allah, we ask that you send your abundant blessings on
our men.
messenger Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa salam, through whom we
have all of these things that we have today the Eman that we have
today. I know Allah bless our scholars bless all of our all
those who have conveyed this Deen to us and allow us to be true
representatives of our faith today especially when our when Eman is
so important and the whole world is looking for some kind of
solution allow us to be that solution and not be part of the
problem. Subhanallah because Ebola is the term now you'll see phone
or sedan when Island Marcelino Al Hamdulillah