Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – Practical Steps on Extending the Real Purpose of Ramadan
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If I do a good deed I used to feel like genuinely right if I do a
good deed I used to feel like, Man, I should get rewarded for
this mashallah, you know, I should get rewarded for this. That's how
I used to feel, and why not? Don't you feel like that? Right? That's
what we all feel like, I did a deed. Now based on that sometimes
what happens is that you might even show off, you might think I'm
better than that guy, because look, I did this deed, so I'm
gonna get more rewards. And then I read something by a pinata Illa al
Eskandari, right, where he who's a knower of Allah, like, he knows
Allah, you know, much more than I do. And he said, it is sufficient
for you, for us.
As a reward for any deed that you do, that Allah considered you
worthy of doing that deed in the first place.
It's like, wow, look at that.
That just changed my mindset about this. So yes, I do know that the
person has an Allah has promised rewards for seven deeds, but the
focus is not like that. Your focus now is, you know what, thank you
Allah, that you allowed me to sit here and do this, that you allowed
me to pray You allowed me to give zakat you made me one of those who
can do this. That is a choice of Allah that he's allowed us to be
like that.
Bismillah hir rahman Rahim Al hamdu Lillahi wa Salatu was Salam
ala Sayyidina Muhammad
wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa Baraka was seldom at the Sleeman
cathedral Eli Yomi Dean Amma bad call Allah dalla Philip Quran
emoji they will for carnal Hamid * yes they will let in a year
Allah Moon will Loreen Allah Allah moon in nama desert Kuru oil, Bb,
Okada. They're either in Nehemiah Kabul Allahu Meenal Ducane. So the
Allahu Allah the brothers and their sisters
we meet mashallah after this month of Ramadan has passed during the
month of Ramadan and before the month of Ramadan, there was a lot
of discussion about what Ramadan is about.
What's the significance of Ramadan objective of Ramadan purpose of
Ramadan and what we're trying to attain in Ramadan. As soon as
Ramadan finishes that discussion ends and we usually tend to forget
a lot of people tend to forget what the purpose of Ramadan was.
And you might be thinking, so what the Ramadan is done, the purpose
of Ramadan has been achieved, Ramadan is completed, if we're
told that this was the objective of Ramadan, 30 days of Ramadan has
passed. So it's done and dusted. We'll wait to hear it again next
year. So I think this is where we could do better. That's why I'm
going to remind us of a few things. Because Ramadan is not
supposed to be. It's not like
you know, there are certain times of the year when you have sales,
where some things are offered for cheap and you get good deals on
them the purpose of those times or not that you only enjoy those
products at that time. And then once that sale time is over, then
we've got nothing to do with it and we don't extend the benefits
of that time. Usually what we do is when it's a time when things
are being sold, there's a good discount on phones or clothing or
some Appliances we actually get them to be used later. It's just a
good opportunity to gather something so that we can actually
use it later. Also, the other thing the way many of our earlier
generations and still some people approach Ramadan was that Ramadan
was the highlight of the year
Ramadan was the highlight of the year so literally they will be
preparing for Ramadan for six months would you mean preparing
for Ramadan for six months preparing food and putting it in
the freezer so that they could be ready for a study time? Easy to
cook? No The purpose was psychologically ready spiritually
ready so that when Ramadan starts you get the most benefit you can
take the most out of the month of Ramadan. Okay, that's done. What
about after Ramadan for six months after Ramadan? They just be asking
Allah to accept that oh Allah except whatever we did during this
time. So what kind of a status is that? Subhanallah so for them Rama
was Ramadan to Ramadan and if they got the next Ramadan Al
Hamdulillah there's two people who died. One used to do more do more
deeds than the other one. He died earlier. The second person he died
later he got
quicker into paradise. Why? Because he had that extra Ramadan
which was worth about 93 years or something like that of extra
deeds. It's an amazing time. Right? I know we don't see it. We
don't We can't log in somewhere to check our balance. Or mashallah,
you got Leila to recover. You know, you manage to do this much
Sadhak on that day, and it was there was the 26
fifth night was the 23rd night this year, we can't see that kind
of stuff. So that's why we sometimes just kind of make it
insignificant except sometimes on the day. Now, the other thing is
that, you know, imagine that you were given an opportunity to, to
meet somebody that you really wanted to meet. But you got a very
short opportunity, somebody was very, very busy. Some, some
somebody that you really admire or love, or whatever the case is, and
then you managed to meet with them for a few minutes. Not forever,
you know, not not that such that you actually got tired of them
afterwards. But you've got to meet them for a few minutes. How much
will you relish? How much will we relish that meeting? For days and
days afterwards, you'll tell people I met that person, okay, I
only had two minutes, but what a meeting that was, and so on, if
it's somebody you love, if it's somebody you admire, likewise, if
you manage to go to somebody's house, and mashallah the food that
they had cooked certain dishes, were out of the world for you. You
know, sometimes it's just that I mean, there's hardly any
restaurant where everything available in that restaurant,
right is 100% Usually every different place has certain things
which are better than other things, but you went to somebody's
house, and mashallah their wife Allah bless them cooked something
really amazing, which you still smack your lips about. You can't
just turn up there every day like you know, it's not a restaurant,
you can just turn off their brother. Let me order this dish,
right? How much will you remember that you will continue? Remember
you wish you had that taste? You wish you could have carried on
that tissue? We'll talk about it.
Do we feel like that about Ramadan?
Well, Ramadan What a time it was some people do they really feel
that Ramadan was the time they still the thoughts, the pleasures,
the beauty of this month is still lingers for them. They're like,
Man, I miss it. I miss it. Ramadan, you know, can't be there
for the whole year. Otherwise it becomes standard and normal. So do
we feel like that or not? Now, I'm not trying to make you feel
guilty. Right? If I don't feel like that I'm not trying to make
myself feel guilty. But I am praying to Allah, that he allows
us to feel that way that when Ramadan finishes, we have six
months or several months. You know, Ramadan is so powerful
Ramadan is so powerful. That it is the time I mean, I know Ramadan is
gone. But what what I'm trying to explain here, is that why Ramadan
is gone, I don't want us to feel bad, right? Because we need to
thank Allah for the Ramadan he gave us and for whatever he did
allow us to do Alhamdulillah May Allah accept that, but it's just
so that we can prepare for the next one. So it'll be different.
And there's certain things we can do to allow the blessings of
Ramadan, though shaytaan is back out. And that wonderful moment is
gone. Allah is still there. The one who gave all of these extra
rewards, and extra blessings, he's still there to give it to us
individually if we still want it. So we can carry on and extend
this, it doesn't have to end. It doesn't have to end there's one
brother, he was involved in a certain sin just it's an
addiction, he couldn't get out of it. Try as he might. It's just one
of those sins where you get into and then after that, soon as you
finish doing it, you feel bad, right? But then the next time in a
few days, you want to do it again. And then you feel bad again, that
Ramadan. There's one Ramadan, he said that he really made an effort
made a lot of dua to Allah subhanho wa taala. And he said
that after Ramadan for about seven months, if I remember correctly,
he said that I did not even feel like doing that sin. Before I
would feel like it I would have to try to resist, I would fail.
Sometimes I would succeed. I didn't even feel like it. It
didn't even
come in my mind. My mind didn't even go there. It's like I had
developed an immunity. You know, some people who deal with hay
fever or allergies or something. They have to be really careful
when they come across allergens. And but when you have immunity
like you don't you can walk through a park and no problem.
Alright. He said about after seven months, he started feeling loose
again. He started feeling weak again. I don't know what happened
afterwards. Then he said another year he made again he used Ramadan
for an extra effort. This time we pray to Allah subhanho wa Taala
made a lot of dua to Allah subhanho wa Taala I need to get
out of this sin, Allahu Akbar, I need to get out of this sin.
And he said that year he said in Attica as well he had the
opportunity to be in Attica and he also mashallah, two and a half
months or so later he went for Hajj as well. What a wonderful
year he said that yeah, I got immunity from that sin for about
nine months. Like for nine years, I didn't even feel like it. You
know what I mean by immunity, it's like you know, when you're not
Muslims are not into drinking, meaning wine and stuff like that.
So when you if you like shopping would like shopping here. You'd
like shopping. You'd like to go through all the aisles, check
things out, especially if it's your favorite store. When you get
to these two three aisles. You just have to ignore them.
There's certain aisles, we just have to ignore like Al
Hamdulillah. Like you just say, Alhamdulillah I don't need to go
there. I don't need to waste my money. And you don't even feel
like you do. But if you've been in to drink, he's like, I wish, no, I
can't. Right? The switches off. If the switches could be off for the
sins that we struggled with that would make life easier, right?
Ramadan was the time to do that. Right? So this time, he said for
nine months, I didn't feel like committing that Senator, I don't
even feel like it. After nine months, I started feeling a bit
weak.
And he said, Look, I thought to myself, I don't want to fail this
time. I want to let the blessings of Ramadan and I want to avoid
this now, how do I do it? I've got two months left 910 11 the 12
month is Ramadan again, he said if I can pull it through for two
months, I'll be back in the safe sanctuary of Ramadan. And he said
that's what he managed to do. He said Subhan Allah, I felt so good
because after years and years, this was my first year free of
that sin.
All the blessings of Ramadan, and a bit of Hajj and so on. That's
what Ramadan can do for us. Now.
I said with anything that you enjoy, you let it linger, right?
You enjoy you speak about it. And again, as I said before, if you
don't feel like that about Ramadan, don't beat yourself up,
but hopefully inshallah Allah will allow us to feel like that for
next Ramadan. Because when you're prepared for something, the reason
we don't feel like that a lot of people just think Ramadan Subhan
Allah, a lot of people just think Ramadan is there to indulge in the
spirituality, do that extra read that much extra Quran, you know,
give that much more. Sada cart and zakat or whatever, come to the
masjid more. Don't listen to music. Don't you know do anything
haram like, be careful. And then when Ramadan is finished shaytans
back out. So you know, it's no longer another brother. It's not
Ramadan anymore. Like, what's your problem, man? That was Ramadan.
It's not Ramadan anymore as though Ramadan is a time when you have to
be careful. And then God looks the other way after you come out of
the month, then it's all okay. And it's all cool. No, and I know that
some people might think Ramadan like is very rigorous and very
have a lot of strictures inside, I want to enjoy life. We'll do it
after Ramadan. It's just we need to get to an understanding of
enjoying life, while not disobeying Allah, and there's a
way to do that. It's just we don't know how to do that, then that
becomes difficult because then we just feel like disobedience is
what gives you pleasure. Like sinning gives you pleasure, but
believe me, there's lots of Halal sources of pleasure and halal
sources of enjoying yourself. He says, if we're not used to it,
then you don't know. Okay, so now, that was the first aspect of this.
Now this is the most important aspect. Okay. Why don't we feel
like that? Why do we feel Ramadan was in fact, I would hesitate to
say, or I cautiously say some people think Ramadan was this
month of inconvenience, almost. I had to change my time of eating of
my time of sleeping, my time of resting, I had to be careful, and
so on. They still observed Ramadan because they have belief. But it
was almost like all of that's gone now. Like I can really enjoy
myself right now back to it. Okay. Why does this happen? I've been
this is what I've been thinking. I've done many Ramadan's. And I'm
thinking, why is it that we feel this way?
And I think one of the conclusions that I've come to which I want to
share with you today and get us to think about it is that if there's
one thing that is stopping every individual Muslim, and Muslims as
a whole from becoming more Muslim, and more men, and more believers,
because look at this, when we Allah gives us the opportunity of
Ramadan, he says, I'm going to open up the doors of paradise, so
that it's easy if you want to be written to come in paradise easy.
It's an open house. You're welcome. Right? I'm going to close
the doors of hellfire. So I don't want people to go in hellfire and
at night, every night in Ramadan, I'm going to write people as being
freed from hellfire emancipated from hellfire. May Allah have
written our names in that may Allah male names be allowed there.
And then I'm going to do one of the things I'm going to take away
the shaytaan. So you only have to worry about your soul, your
habits, things that you're already used to. That's why if you notice
we just finished Ramadan. Did anybody feel like doing a new sin
in Ramadan that they've never done before?
Anybody?
Because New sins come from Shaytaan or from a friend or so
called friend, right? from others, okay.
In Ramadan, you still feel like doing sin, especially first few
days. It's because of habit. It's a habitual sin, which is comes
from the knifes then Allah gives us 30 days and
says I want you to stop your food drink and halal relationship which
are halal. Just so that you can control you enough so you can say
to you enough no you can't have a coffee right now you can't have
water right now even though you're feeling so tired at 11 o'clock in
the morning, while at lunchtime you feel like having lunch and you
just can't work properly can't function because he's so tired and
you know you're you're hungry. No, you can't say eventually two three
days into Ramadan. You enough stops asking for it. So if you can
stop asking for Halal things then you can control it for haram
things as well. That's one of the understandings of Ramadan
hopefully we've been able to do that. That's why if we don't know
that after Ramadan, we'll just go back to square one again. Okay,
Ramadan is finished I did well then hamdulillah let's carry on
the look at it this way. If we were at a five out of 10 in the
level of Eman like if we can measure our iman a five out of 10
for example. When we went into Ramadan, usually everybody goes up
six out of 10 789 10 Do you think anybody went to 10 out of 10 in
Ramadan? Yeah. Anybody feel like they got 10 out of 10? Yeah,
Mashallah. At least one or two people are saying that nine out of
10 Eight out of 10 Insha Allah we definitely increased by a notch or
two you have to Ramadan just mashallah is just such a time that
you just feel like it right? It'd be really crude to not feel like
it right it'd be really weird hamdulillah so does that mean
after Ramadan we go back to a five that it was only for Ramadan that
we went up to a nine or 10 No, the idea of Ramadan is a stepping
stone to make us better for the coming year. Then the next Ramadan
for the coming year after that, and so on. So that when we die, we
are at our best.
That's the you know, I see that as the purpose of Ramadan every other
way is not like just, you know, have a good indulgence, right. All
the food is all the food is cheap right now just enjoy yourself and
then after it's going to be expensive. Again, this is not
about food. This is about buying things that you're going to use
for the rest of the which means spiritual things. You're buying
spiritual utility, you're buying spiritual appliances, you're
buying spiritual objects, or spiritual food or whatever it is
that keeps you going. That gives you the strength for the other 11
months. But shaytan is backout for a lot of people, you know what
they mess up on the day of Venus's? shaytaan comes back out
by the evening of Eid day they've messed up and they feel really
really bad. That's why I think the six faster show while are very
helpful because they keep you in that mode for a while. Okay, right
now what I'm going to do Inshallah, you know, maybe I can
give a bit of an opportunity to ask questions afterwards about the
subject afterwards if we finish early enough inshallah I don't
intend to take too long anyway. My second part which is very, very
important is after thinking about this, that why don't we a lot of
people treat Ramadan mashallah they do good in Ramadan, but why
not after Ramadan? Why doesn't it carry on?
So this is what it is, I think, number one, which is one of our
biggest problems facing the Muslim ummah, and has been the case,
right? So why am I talking about it? What's difference? Is it going
to make Inshallah, if at least one or two people it makes a
difference to then I think my job is done, and our job is done, and
we got to better people, if not 20 better people, right? If not 100
better people hamdulillah the biggest issue that we're all
facing is ignorance. And ignorance of what? We get so many WhatsApp
messages every day, new Hadith 10, new Hadees from different WhatsApp
groups. No, no, that stuff is random. That's not That's not
focused. That's random, right? And it's information overload. So then
you can't sift it out. And then you'd start ignoring things.
That's not the way that's not the way forward. Ignorance is one of
the biggest things that this OMA has always faced with the ignorant
ignorance of what? Okay,
ignorance of what this life really is about. What our real challenges
are, what our real purposes, who Allah really is, and how do we
define our worship and our devotion to Allah? And how do we
enhance it? Where are we and what it should be? With many of us are
ignorant, why are we ignorant? Because
where do we get our Islamic understanding from? Like, we as I
mean, most people here looks like you've been born as Muslims. Okay,
so where did you get your Islamic understanding from, you know, your
fundamental, basic Islam? Where do you get it from? You got it from
where this kid is getting it from, which is the mucked up the
madrasa, the teacher that taught us when we were young, between the
ages of four or five, and if our parents taught us a few things
until the age of 12 1314, whatever it is, since that day, since that
day, how many of us have taken a course on some very specific
aspects, some in depth aspects of Islam? Not talking about Beyonce?
I'm not talking about Joomla
lectures and hotbars those are motivational this lecture. I'm
giving his motivation, hopefully, inspiration and inshallah there's
nothing deep here. Well, I try to bring in some in some some depth,
but usually we don't have depth. There's no complicated discussion
about more complicated aspects because some people just don't
enjoy that, or people don't feel comfortable sometimes with that.
So how many of us have studied something or read a book on Islam?
Any aspect on Islam since the time we left our teeth, our childhood
learning? How many of us have done that?
Okay, so that's two, you've done it, right.
Put your hand up. Otherwise, you're letting the bucking people
down?
For right, so about four out of what, 30 people, that's percentage
wise, and this is not to condemn anybody, right? This is just as us
to appraise that, what is the situation that we're dealing with?
That's a very small percentage, right? of people who've,
who've either taken a course or read a book.
You know, the what we learned when we were young, may Allah bless our
teachers, whoever taught us that was for children,
to ground us, get us going. Do you think that's all of Islam? anti
Islam was taught to us now let me bring a few other things and I
want us to reflect about ourselves really, right. So please bear with
me. Number two, how many of us have read the Quran?
I'll start off with meaning. So that we know at least once in our
life, what Allah is saying to us.
Right? How many of us read the whole Quran with meaning? Okay, so
that's about four or five people.
The rest of us, we're going to finish this life and we don't know
what Allah is talking about. Yes, we may read, we may do Quran items
in Ramadan. But it's a totally different that's wonderful
mashallah, but it's totally different. When you let Allah
speak He, Allah has speaking to us from eternity, and we're not
letting him.
Even Arabs are like that. It's not like just because they know okay,
it's easier for them. Whenever they do read Quran, they get it.
But the rest of us, we have to get a translation. At least once in
our life.
How many times have we picked up, looked for? Even five, one Hadith?
I want to see what my prophet says Salallahu Salam about marriage. I
want to see what my prophets Allah Islam says about bringing up
children, about life, about sickness, about success, about
paradise about Allah. I want to see what my prophet says about it.
Salallahu Alaihe Salam Brookes awesome leftist, 1000s of Hadith.
Allah has made it that nearly everything he said that could be
recorded was recorded. Everything he did, that could be recorded was
recorded without YouTube. Without cameras, all in writing.
Buhari alone has over 6000 narrations when you add the others
as multiple, every subject. Have you ever felt a desire that I
would like to see what the Prophet salallahu Islam says?
about business, about earning about money about life? About
whatever?
Does that desire never come up? Does that design ever come up? Are
we going to die? And we're going to stay in front of Rosa Solomon.
We can't say that we ever read anything? Yes, there's going to be
some Hadees that are thrown at us sent to us. We listen to in
Beyonce and encode buzz. And so those come about, but what about a
an objective study?
All right, we've heard various different anecdotes, we've
attended Sierra programs about various aspects of the life of the
prophet Sallallahu sallam. How many of us have read a book on
Syria or followed a full series on the full life story of the Rasul
Allah Islam? Maybe a few more? Mashallah, right? What I'm trying
to say is that without that, how we going to know what life is
about otherwise, you know, the deen we have is basically just
what we had in our young age, plus stuff that we've picked up on the
way.
Plus stuff. It's kind of random added on here and there. And if
we're conscious, then we've asked certain questions. But we've never
done because we don't have the time.
That's what we think we don't have the time. I don't think it's the
time really, because tell us how many of us has actually considered
that I want to do this.
I should do this. It's important for me to do this. How many of us
have thought that? That I need to read a book on Syrah? I need to
read Hadith and I need to understand the Quran. How many of
us thought that I need to do this before I die? Right? That's very
few people. Right? Okay. About seven eight people. That's a bit
more of
People, the rest of us don't even know that we should be doing that.
It's like okay, we're practicing. We're doing our salah, hopefully
Insha Allah, we're doing our first that's enough. It's enough to get
by in sha Allah. Allah give us success in sha Allah to get by but
don't you want to hire places of Jannah? Don't you want to be that
we want to be among the prophets and among the Siddiqui in, among
the shahada among the Saudi and among the Oliver, we've got a
whole life to become alums. And Arlene is not the one who studies
for six years and becomes an imam. You can become an island by the
time you're 70 years old, by studying something every week,
every month, and learning something more, something more,
something more, something more, something more, by the time you
die, we'd be a lot better off. Otherwise, our life is the same.
That's why if you look at your Ramadan, right, our Ramadan's
isn't our Ramadan, the way we do things in Ramadan, the same for
the last 10 years.
Same amount of Quran, same kind of ritual, same routine, it hasn't
improved necessarily. For some people, it has improved, right? If
it was really bad, it's improved. Everything needs to improve in
life. That's why ignorance is the biggest thing now with ignorance,
we're not going to get anywhere. So for example,
how many of us worship Allah because you're scared of *?
Who's scared of hellfire? Let's put it that way. Okay, doesn't
need everybody. Right. Okay, who does worship because they want
paradise.
Okay, I used to think that as well. But after having learned
that, that's just the first stepping stone, that's the first
rung of the ladder. Right? And there's nothing wrong with that.
But you know what the higher motive is, I don't care about
paradise or *. I just care about pleasing Allah. I love Allah
so much that I just want him to be pleased with me, and I don't ever
want him to be displeased with me. Because if that's the case,
Paradise will come and hellfire will go anyway. Can you see that?
That's a highlight. Did you ever think that though?
Why don't we think that because not something you just gonna think
about? unless ALLAH just inspires somebody. This is knowledge that
the Omar give us. But usually we don't speak about these things as
often.
You only get this by reading the likes of rozalia and tannery and
others who speak about these things. When you keep reading the
Quran, then you see in the Quran, where Allah subhanaw taala he
speaks about paradise and *. But he speaks about those who love
Allah, Allah is with them. And you develop that love for Allah
because you start knowing Allah more we don't know Allah enough.
How many of us have ever read a review of ALLAH?
Whenever we want a new product to interest in in the new thing, we
read reviews, how many of us have gone and read a review of Hola,
hola, hola, como de la bella hate to frame it this way.
We know Allah in that basic idea of he's great, and he's all
powerful. That's all we know about him. We don't know the details
about him. We may have heard a story here and there about his
kindness and generosity and mercy and so on. But we've not made
Allah personal to us that we can call him by his various names we
know him so well that when I want to be protected from something,
when I want to be veiled as a Yes, sir, when I want to be forgiven, I
say yes. Or fall when our I want to be cured. I use the name Yeah.
Shafi. Right when I want benevolence from him when I want
generosity, I say your word, yeah, Kareem. Right? How do we Why don't
we know Allah like that? Isn't Allah there? Isn't he like that
for us. But we don't have a sophisticated understanding of
him, or the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam ignorance is why
we can't benefit fully from all of these things that we do. Once we
know these things. You're single Salah that you do your Astral
prayer that we just did, would be a totally different thing. It's
just about knowledge of knowing more, and then our practice fits
into that. For example,
if I do a good deed, I used to feel like genuinely right if I do
a good deed, I used to feel like man I should get rewarded for this
mashallah, you know, I should get rewarded for this. That's how I
used to feel, and why not? Don't you feel like that? Right? That's
what we all feel like, I did a deed. Now based on that, sometimes
what happens is that you might even show off, you might think I'm
better than that guy, because look, I did this deed. So I'm
going to get more rewards. And then I read something by a pinata
Allah al Eskandari, right, where he who is a knower of Allah, like,
he knows Allah, you know, much more than I do. And he said, it is
sufficient for you, for us.
As a reward for any deed that you do, that Allah considered you
worthy of doing that deed in the first place.
It's like why Wow, look at that.
That just changed my mindset about this. So yes, I do know that the
Rosen has an Allah has promised
rewards for seven deeds. But the focus is not like that no focus
now is, you know what, thank you Allah, that you allowed me to sit
here and do this, that you allowed me to pray You allowed me to give
us a card. You made me one of those who can do this. That is a
choice of Allah that he's allowed us to be like that.
Hasn't that changed our mind today? Of what how our worship
should be focused what Allah who Allah is, did we even Ever think
about that, that the fact that alive and gave me that's enough
for me and I don't care about reward after that, by you caring
about a reward makes no difference. It's what makes a
difference is the real reason why you're doing what you're doing.
And if you're doing for Allah, you don't need anything else.
I'm not saying that you don't care about reward at all. Right?
Ultimately, you could do that if you wanted to you because you just
care about Allah and that is the reward. If I have Allah I have the
reward. And if Allah has me, I have the reward. Because
everything is about Allah subhanaw taala. So ignorance is does not
allow us to prosper. But it's self induced ignorance. I know, we live
in London, I've seen that the people up north have much more
time than people in London, because things are cheaper. Even
our young people, they are forced to work forced or
encouraged or feel that they must work are young boys and girls feel
that they must go and get a job to survive, to help with the rent, to
help with the cost of things because London is just busy by
nature. That's just the way these big cities like London and New
York and Sydney and Los Angeles and, and Dubai, they just busy by
nature, there's just something in the air that makes them different.
And I've lived in a very calm area. Right. And, you know, it
took me three months when I came back from Santa Barbara,
California, which is a very relaxed area, just mountains on
one side ocean on the other side, and just amazing, amazing place,
right? One of the most beautiful places, come back to London took
me about three to four months just to get too used to the traffic, I
was very frustrated. Right? It's very busy lifestyle. So we don't
have time, but actually, there's very few people who actually don't
have time. And many of us, there are times in our life when we
don't have time because something has come up somebody's at
hospitals or afterward you rush in the hospital, God forbid, or
there's some something's happened in the house, you have to get
billed as you come so you have to be with them. Right, you just got
no time or there's a project that you have to spend, you know, 16
hours of the day, most of her have a lot of time. It's just we have a
phone, the smartphone and the social media. That is where half
an hour and YouTube is so easy. How much bulking time there is
when you get onto YouTube. You can pass two hours just like that
right?
In any language, at any age, smart Allah, you got Bangla stuff on
there, you got all this stuff on there, you've got English study or
whatever language you want, mashallah caters for everyone,
half an hour an hour. It's just if we can stop wasting our time and
understand our priorities, and focus on I want to learn something
new every year.
I want to get better. I want to know Allah, I want to know,
because that's what's gonna give me otherwise, we might scrape
through in sha Allah, at least if we can scrape through even that's
great Hamdulillah. But, you know, then ultimately, forever, that's
our level. Why don't we get a higher level, because in the
world, we try to get higher levels of things. We're not satisfied
with the basics. We always upgrade ourselves and our phones and our
cars and our homes and clothing and things like that. Right? When
you first need a jacket, you don't you don't think of a Canada Goose
jacket to you. For your first jacket when you're 1213 Any jacket
works. Your first phone for you got a phone.
If I gave you if I gave you this old Nokia phone that just works.
Would you be happy with that? Maybe not.
You'd be happy, right? But give it about you.
But then give it five years and you want the latest one, right?
Yeah, because you're still at that moment. Yes. Right. It's just the
way these things work is the way that things work. Right. So I
think, let us view Ramadan like that, that it was an opportunity,
it is an opportunity to push ourselves up and benefit from it
for the rest of the year. And then the next Ramadan for the next
Ramadan. And we need to get rid of our ignorance, it is no longer
tolerable. If you want to achieve something we need to get rid of
our ignorance. If your family is something if your family is a
family that doesn't do this stuff. There's never been an utterly
menial family. There's never been a half is in your family. There
has never been a person who's read all five prayers in the masjid in
your family. There has not been anybody in your family who's kept
a beard and worn a hijab for example. Does that mean you must
carry on like that?
If the Sahaba were like that, and they came from those tribal
mentalities and of warring factions and ignorance and
absolute darkness, and they said that's how we found that is how we
found out
Our forefathers we would be lost today. They couldn't have
supported the Prophet sallallahu sallam, let us change that. Why
don't you be? I can give you examples of families that had no
order ma No, you know, they're just decently religious now.
Mashallah, in that one whole generation, out of all of the
uncles, children, all the boys like 1015, that all half is of the
Quran.
Like every single one of them, I think, except one half is of the
Quran. Doesn't matter if it's not in your family, why do you have to
perpetrate the ignorance of your culture, I love culture, but
there's bad aspects in our culture, keep the good aspects,
get rid of the bad, you may follow resistance, but we can't stay
ignorant anymore.
We have to benefit ourselves and our generations to come, you lay
that foundation make a difference. And it's easy all of your children
can be Hafiz have the Quran and have all straight A's in their
GCSEs and a levels and, and they can get to you know, they can have
good degrees from good universities aim for the best in
everything
I can give you number of individuals in the you know,
within 10 miles of here, right because I teach in a you know, in
a particular madrasa where we have students who are PhDs, doctors,
engineers, and they're also alums of the dean, they've also done
heads of the Quran, you can be the best of both worlds, just because
your family didn't have that it was just all doctors are all
engineers are all you know, Army or whatever it is, you know, from
Pakistan Army or Bangladesh or whatever it was, or India doesn't
mean that you have to carry on like that. There's a new world
we're living in, and you can the opportunity Allah has given us in
London, you know, Allah, Allah be thanked for that. Right? Allah be
praised for that. So use the opportunities, get rid of this
ignorance, improve ourselves. And then we can see that we can be
closer to Allah subhanho wa taala. So essentially, read the Quran
with meaning along with your reading, just like that, read some
Hadith, get a Syrah book, and read the life story of ourselves and
then you, I guarantee you, you read this once through, you will
want to do this for the rest of your life. You don't know the
pleasure that's found in there, you will feel more enriched, you
will feel more grounded, you will feel much more spiritually
motivated, and you will feel hungry for more because it's
addiction. Right? You will, that's what you'll get into. Then
inshallah your life will improve everybody around you the
contentment, the piece that you have, the willingness to meet with
Allah subhanho wa Taala Inshallah, all of that will improve. And, you
know, the lot of people say, you know, we're just in this
competition in the world, all of that rat race, you will still be
working, you can still make a lot of money, no problem with that
make a lot of money. We just need righteous people with a lot of
money to do the things in life, because that's what is needed in
the world today a lot of money in the hands of righteous people to
do things for the Ummah and for themselves. So that's a that's a
lot of stuff in a short amount of time. Hopefully, it's not too much
to digest. But keep that in mind. Let us start with trying to
understand Allah better. And that will be our beginning. May Allah
may Allah grant us is understanding that's where he
created us for. May Allah grant us your understanding. May Allah
grant us your knowledge. May Allah make it easy May Allah grant us,
oh Allah grant us your your love, and the love of those whose love
will benefit us, oh Allah make our surroundings conducive for your
love conducive to your devotion, allow us to remove the obstacles
in our path, the excuses that we have, and forgive us for our
delay, and our laziness or procrastination. Our indulgence is
in other things, obsessions with other things, our distractions,
and our sins and transgressions of Allah forgive us, and allow us to
start afresh and become closer to you. Well, I can read that one.
And we'll have to like go beyond me. 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 Dean 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 insha Allah 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 know to listen to lectures,
but you need to have this more sustained study as well. Jessica
law here in Santa Monica when I have to live record