Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – Getting more for less this Ramadan
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hamdulillahi rabbil Alameen wa Salatu was Salam or other Lagertha
Ramadan Lila de mi vida. Lee he was the Abba killer seldom at the
Sleeman theological Iommi deal another my dear friends.
Salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.
There's a hadith that I want to quote, hadith of sahih al Bukhari
where Abu Huraira are the Allahu anhu, the great Sahabi he says
that when the month of Ramadan enters, then there's a number of
changes that take place. He discusses a number of changes that
are taking place. And just to introduce those changes to us,
some of them are cosmic. Some of them are something that we only
told about informed about we can actually see, the prophets of the
Lord Islam said that either the halal Ramadan, then the doors of
paradise are opened up, and the doors of hellfire are closed, and
the shayateen The devils are locked up. Now these are three
things that we can't see. Because they're things beyond us. I mean,
Paradise hellfire and the shayateen we can't. But I
guarantee you that everybody here who's experienced Ramadan with
faith, they would have had the experience of these things.
Doesn't everybody agree that when Ramadan enters you actually feel a
bit more righteous, at least from the day before or the week before
and
you actually feel more guilty if you're not doing extra.
So paradise is opened up, the doors of paradise are opened up,
it's it sounds symbolic. For us we can take it in reality or as a
symbolism it doesn't make a difference. The point is that it's
easier to get into paradise to be decreed to get into paradise in
the month of Ramadan because it's the time when Allah wants to give
us every excuse to do so.
Because the prophets of Allah Islam says In another Hadith, that
every evening of Ramadan in every day of Ramadan, Allah has Otakar
people he frees from the shackles of sin or Hellfire however you
want to take it. And those people are then written to be from
paradise.
The doors of hellfire closed, which basically means that in
Ramadan if anybody wants to get into hellfire, they're probably
gonna have to break they're gonna have to be really miserable, or
really misfortunate to be able to want to do that. Because Allah
says, Look, I don't want anybody in hellfire at this time.
Paradise being opened up, Hellfire being closed shape ons being
locked up. You you feel the mercy in the air. Now let me speak to
our sisters. Well, let's see tall brothers. Actually, first, don't
you see that the women have some amazing inanimate stereotype. It's
just the normal tradition, that it's the women who cook in the
house. I know we may have families with a man maybe cooking in the
house, but that's you know, hamdulillah but generally, it's
the women who can cook in the house and may Allah bless you all.
Have you noticed that there's some really amazing types of foods that
come out during the month of Ramadan, both in the masjid and in
the homes? Where do they get the hammer from to do that, where they
get the strength to do that, despite the fact that they also
fasting. That's another book. This is baraka and blessing wherever
you go, including in the types of food that you will have. That's
why non Muslims they love coming to Masjid in Ramadan. Because
mashallah at least the cuisine is really good. Right? And mashallah,
Muslims are generally very hospitable.
Let's just take shaitan out of the picture quickly. I know that is
the it's the elephant in the room, because I've mentioned it so far.
That is shayateen. This hadith says shaytan is locked up. Many
people will question this idea. I still feel like singing in
Ramadan, I don't just suddenly stop. I may stop a lot, but
there's still certain things that I may still feel inclined to do.
And herein lies the answer to this. What is the way I look at
this narration is that it's not shaytan that is making us do any
sins in Ramadan necessarily.
The reason is that think about it and if you can't think about the
past and think about the future, when Ramadan actually comes up,
think of the nature of the wrong deeds, the wrongdoing, the sin
that we feel like committing, you will notice that it's probably
something that we've committed many times before. You will hardly
people will hardly ever feel like doing a new type of sin in
Ramadan. And this is a lot of people will tell you this from
experience, you'll know this from experience. The reason is that the
sins that we still feel like committing in Ramadan are
essentially just habits. They're not. They're not through the shape
pattern anymore. They just
The knifes the habit that we've been accustomed to them, right?
Whatever it is that it may be, I mean, I don't want to get into
that. But whatever it may be, it's just the same habit kicking in.
It's just like when you go to work at 10 o'clock in the morning, you
there's a nice coffee machine in your place.
Right They have a nice coffee machine with the various lattes
and everything and you have a coffee at 10 o'clock in the
morning otherwise you feel tired.
When Ramadan comes though you're fasting, you're still gonna feel
that the need for that 10 o'clock kick is going to take a few days
for us to overcome that.
So the idea is that generally in Ramadan, if anybody feels like
sinning, it's probably due to a habit. It's an habitual sin. And
Ramadan is then the time for 30 days to kick that habit. Because
che bonds out of the picture.
See the difference what the Buddha mentioned between shaytaan
pestering someone whispering to someone to commit a sin. And the
sin that comes through habit from the soul is that shaytan wants us
to commit any sin. He's just happy that we do a sin. So if we don't
do one sin, it's another sin. But the thing is that number one
Shayateen are severely restricted or imprisoned in Ramadan number
two, if you do any thicker, you read Quran you say La ilaha
illallah stockfeed Allah Alhamdulillah Allah hug or
whatever shaytaan runs away. What's worse in Honduras is Allah
subhanho wa Taala mentions the knifes the self, the soul, the
habit is totally different. You can do all the DUA you want it
will still want to do, it will still push you. I mean us smokers,
and do all the data in the world, it's still a push unless you're
very lucky.
The idea is to suppress it. Generally what the scholars of
spirituality say that if you suppress yourself seven times from
any particular urge, then you will gain mastering mastery over
yourself. If you give in then that soul will take over again. Ramadan
is the time learning the content. takuna as Allah says in the Quran,
so that you can gain Taqwa. When Allah tells us stop eating and
drinking and lawful sexual * the three things which
are normally permissible at other times, they are lawful things
eating and drinking, we're eating and drinking right now. Or we will
be but in Ramadan, you can't do that during the daytime, lawful
things that you can't do, stopping us from getting into the urges of
the soul for lawful things. And thus, also for unlawful things.
Don't let us over let our souls overcome us for unlawful urges. So
it's just a parallel that we're being trained for during this
month of Ramadan.
Now, I want us to because we got a very short amount of time I want
us to understand one thing that this Ramadan that's coming up my
dua to Allah for this Ramadan is that oh Allah.
Make this Ramadan better for me than any Ramadan before it make me
closer to you than I've ever been before. Because if that's not the
case, then it's just another Ramadan.
Let me let's take an example. Does any of you do any of you remember
the first time that you had to go for your interview after maybe you
came into this country or you've you finished your university or
whatever, and then you have to be formal. You have to get your first
suit your first blazer. Right? And you have to go for an interview.
Right? Does anybody remember that? Right? The Blazer you got I'm sure
you weren't looking for a Gucci place at that time. I'm sure it
was like any Primark, blazer Bismillah GA blazer as the blazer,
you know, whatever. The first time you get your Blasi, you just want
to please these want to look smart. Just want to go slowly,
slowly, though, become more refined. I don't want blazes from
Primark anymore, right? I'm gonna go to Savile Row. I'm gonna get a
hand stitch one is gonna have to be canali Giorgio Armani. Right.
The first time you got a handbag, right young girl growing up, she
wants a handbag or any handbag that looks nice is wonderful. But
eventually it has to be Louis Vuitton. Right? You have to get a
Louis Vuitton one because that's the one company which is so
amazing, right? I have to say this. It's the cheaper brands that
put emblazoned logos on the products and the inner city people
they take them up because they need a sense of identity. And they
want to become Adidas or Nike or whatever it is. But generally,
upper class bands, designer brands, they do that they had
small labels, because it was all about the style. Right? But Louie
Vuitton is one of those companies that have plastered their bags
with the LV sign and make you pay 506 100 pounds to promote them.
Thank you very much.
That's slowly slowly with everything in the world.
Has anybody been to Dubai? By the way?
Right? duniya 10.0 on steroids. Do you understand what I'm speaking
about? Basically, in everything of this world if we use the computer
software idea, my you know, I remember when I was on Windows
3.1,
right with a few megabytes of hard drive, but we upgrade and upgrade
and upgrade. That's why when it comes to everything, whether it's
our clothing, whether it is our food, we are connoisseurs every
year we become better we know exactly where we want to eat, and
we don't want to eat. We know we want. We know exactly what we want
to end what we don't want to. So when it comes to anything worldly.
We are on duniya 10.0. Unfortunately, sometimes when it
comes to our deen our religion, we're still in beta mode. What I
mean by that is when it comes into Ramadan, now are we going to the
Ramadan package for this year that we are going to entertain and
adopt? Is it going to be that same no frills generic brand package
that we're going to do the same old thing we've been doing for the
last 10 years for this Ramadan as well. When Allah is making all of
these cosmic massive changes,
showering his blessing and Baraka.
There's a hadith which says that if a person misses a fast in
Ramadan with no excuse,
and then they feel guilty, for example, and then they tried to
force the entire year, the rest of Ramadan outside of Ramadan the
entire year, they will not be able to replace that same level of
blessing and reward they would have attained from that one day of
Ramadan.
When I thought of that was just like, wow, how much of a
concentration of blessing that is being diluted and concentrated for
us in the month of Ramadan.
That's quite amazing. So to miss that is a problem. So how do we
get the best out of the month of Ramadan? The way I have found is
that number one, we need to prepare for it for anything that
you prepare for you will get more out of it. If you don't prepare
for something and you go into a cold, we won't get much out of it.
Because then it's all haphazard. It's then you do things as they
come along. You're sleeping sometimes you're feeling tired.
You're doing this that time well that if we haven't if we know from
our past experiences of Ramadan, both our brothers and sisters,
past experiences, Ramadan, this is how I feel, right? It's going to
be hot probably. This is the kind of thing I have to do. Let us from
now to Ramadan. The next few weeks that we have tried to get rid of
all of the major chores and whether it be at work or at home.
Preparations for things that we need for Ramadan, let's get the
major preparations done. Right in during these weeks. So when we
actually get into Ramadan, we can actually then focus also we know
what we've done for the last several years at least in Ramadan.
Let's up our game during this month of Ramadan. Let's have an
objective in mind. Right? I generally even suggest and this is
what my wife does. For the 30 days of Ramadan. She even has a menu
ready for each day. I mean, our sisters will agree sometimes that
more than cooking sometimes it's sometimes more difficult to think
of the right dish to cook. I know that there's sometimes wives
asking me in the morning, what should I cook I was like anything,
like you know, I don't know what, but but then we're very quick to
criticize when it's not right. Right? Thinking about what to cook
and prepare, especially for somebody who's discerning somebody
who wants to do a good job. It's one of the most difficult things
brainstorm right now make that so my wife does 30 days exactly what
on every day and then try to stick to that. And then you also know
what supplies to buy anything. This is practical things. When the
month of Ramadan comes of course Ramadan is the month of the Quran.
I mean, we have a very short amount of time I'm just going to
quickly mention a few things. But the other thing in the month of
Ramadan that you have an option to do which we find people find
difficult to the outside amount of Ramadan is Tahajjud prayer. I mean
speaking about Tahajjud prayer, which is the special night vigil
prayer assumes that we are already doing our five prayers so I'm not
speaking about them. I'm saying they inshallah if we are in doing
our five prayers Tahajjud prayer is that one prayer that you pray
when people are sleeping, right with generally before Fajr and the
reason why that time is so potent is because the Allama have written
that's the time of the Prophet last summer said son Looby lady
one nurse only pray at night when people are sleeping is because the
same that the Mischief Makers and the evil people of the night have
by then gone to sleep.
I know in England, the time for Fragile depends on which time you
follow which timetable you follow and it could be very early it
could
Be quite late. Right? I know there's that but and then the days
mischief mongers haven't woken up yet. So that's supposed to be the
most pristine time and people are sleeping, and you are waking up
for Allah subhanaw taala.
The women and the men, at least to to rockets of prayer, if not for,
at least make a few minutes of dua, those dollars will be
accepted. Ramadan is the time when Allah is willing to give the
prophets Allah mentions about him that he used to be generous. And
he says that the most generous he used to be was in the month of
Ramadan.
He used to be the most generous in the month of Ramadan.
I know today is a night of generosity.
Right? Tonight is the night of generosity give whenever you want
to give.
But the point about giving is very important the wealth that we have.
Allah has made us caretakers for it. I was with a very important
friend of mine. And he mentioned that he had paid for something he
donated to some institution. And I was like, wow, that's really good.
He says this is what he said to me. And it made so much sense. He
said, You know, if you have a tab with a pipe system with a tub and
you leave it closed for a long time and you've come back after
holding you put that tap on, it's going to come with dirty water
first.
If you continue to release the tap, and you continue to use it,
the water supply will continue to remain a fresh at the end of the
day as the Prophet sallallahu sallam said in the marina Kasim
Wallah who yoti I am just the distributor. Allah is the giver.
And we know we know I mean, you guys have done fundraisers, you've
been to fundraisers and I'm sure our brother here Rahim is going to
mashallah get you guys going with all of that. But there's no doubt
about this fact that when you give in the path of Allah, you will not
miss that money. You will always get the baraka and blessing back.
Unfortunately, we live in a time where we put money in a savings
account, and we see the money increase. Because we live in an
empirical world where you have things are based on observation,
we need to see the money grow, otherwise we don't believe in it.
Allah tells us something that sounds empirical, because we can't
observe it. He says give one in the path of Allah and we'll give
you 70 back. Unfortunately, there's no website that you can
register and log into to actually see that account. That's why it
makes it so difficult. But the bottom line is that Allah
describing us in the Quran right in the beginning says Alina you
may know and believe these are the people who believe in the unseen
This is one of the greatest characteristics of a believer.
Our whole life in this world is based on a belief in the unseen
otherwise why would you be here today? Right? When we give we give
for the sake of Allah. And finally, in Sorrento Manasa Quran
Allah says
yeah, you have Lavina Amanullah told Hickam and we're looking
whether Allah do Command Vickery La MaMa Yep, Allah Lika Allah eco
humble hacia rune were unfuckable me, Mara Sakala. come and spend
from what We have given you
will probably a year to have the communal mode before the time
comes when death comes to you. Fire cool. And after your death,
you will say Rob be oh my lord, Lola hurt me. Had you given me a
bit more time. Now remember, think about the state we're in. We're
about to die or we have died. And there is one thing that we want to
go back to the dunya for. The person here is asking Allah Oh
Allah give me some more time to let me go back to the world. What
do you think that's going to be? Why would you want to go back to
the world? What is the one deed that you're going to want to do?
Lola Horton, Isla Gillian Corrib. If you just give me a short amount
of time, a small period that's it. What do you think it's going to be
people may say prayer people may say paying my debt, you know, etc,
it says for a sadaqa so that I can give sadaqa what a cominciare him
and I can be of the righteous ones. Giving for a cause helps you
to become righteous, because that shows truthfulness. It shows that
if you are moved by a particular court if you are moved to spend
900 pounds on a new iPhone, you have you are basically faithful to
the cause of Apple Mashallah.
right that shows that shows your faith
if you can have the same kind of faith for our Muslim projects, and
you know, unfortunately I have not, I've not had much time to
discuss
Ventura listen as much as I would like to, I must confess that
because I've just been too busy since I've come back from American
and but that's no excuse from what I've been hearing from my friends
who do know about it, they do a wonderful job. And I have some
students in our institute wait for the institute that I've actually
studied at the, at the data room that you have in what's called but
the download that you have and mashallah, there's some really
good good teaching that's taking place there. So we ask Allah
subhanaw taala for acceptance, we ask Allah for facilitation, we ask
Allah for completion. And may Allah bless you all. May Allah
bless us all and may Allah allow this Ramadan to be better than any
other allow us to come out of it closer to Allah than we've ever
been before. May Allah accept May Allah accept working with our 100
like me