Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – The Spiritual Preparing of Hajj 2024
AI: Summary ©
The importance of avoiding overwhelming expectations and experiencing the joy of football. The speaker emphasizes the use of hedges to achieve a pure " enjoy the journey" and finding a hedge to return to the spiritual journey of love. The importance of preparing for a potential career in Islam, learning about Allah's qualities, and reading the names of Islam to gain a better understanding of his actions. The speaker also offers to help people get a copy of their names for a better understanding of Allah's actions.
AI: Summary ©
Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah Hamden
cathedral the UN Mubarak and fie Mubarak and it cannot be Bharat
guna Yaga Jalla Jalla Allahu I'm in our wa salatu salam O Allah say
you will be Bill Mustafa SallAllahu they're either either
you are either he was happy he knew about it was seldom at the
Sleeman get here on
Eli Yomi. Dean another ad. What Allah here Allah Nursey
hedgesville Beat many star Illa Usabilla. So the color will love
him. So dear brothers and sisters, this is a really interesting
gathering when giving a talk in Joomla, or in any other way, and
usually the response rate is about 5%.
Right in terms of people listening to what you're saying and actually
implementing it. When it comes to Ramadan, it increases to about 10
to 20%. Because people are a lot more conscious and hearts are
softer, and there's a more focus. Why I like to do hedge programs
are the one that Eunice's got the bulk of this, right, is that
there's nearly 100% return rate on this. That's why we do hedge
programs. Right? That's my selfish intention anyway. Because if
you're going for hygiene, I'm assuming everybody here is
interested in hydro going for hydrate.
Anybody not going to just here for
a nice weekend. Right? So
the thing about hygiene is that we have an advantage. And then we
have a disadvantage, the advantage that we have is that we can get
there very, very easily. Even if that's 24 hours,
from England, usually it's between seven hours to about 12 hours,
depending on if you have a stop on the way or direct flights.
For people from America, it takes about 24 hours from people New
Zealand and those other Australia it takes a bit longer. Still 24
hours, you could be there. So that's the advantage. The
disadvantage is that that's too quick, like 24 hours is too quick.
Absolutely, it's too quick. The reason is, that for many of us,
you will be your flight maybe at nine o'clock in the evening, and
you will have finished work at five o'clock rushed home, grab
your bag that you would have probably and rushed to the
airport. And you're like worried about your alarm and stuff like
that. It's just too quick. There's not enough time to mentally,
psychologically, spiritually and emotionally prepare.
Now, if you compare the What am I comparing that to I'm literally
comparing that to 1400 years of history. It's only today, it's
only in this century, this half a century that we can get there
within 24 hours or so. Nobody ever I mean, unless you live very close
by, you will never able to get there within a day. Unless you
lived very close by anywhere else that you lived. It took days or
months. For example, the abovesaid caravan from Baghdad would be
prepared six months in advance. And that was the caravan so they
would have the security and everything because the the path
was fraught with dangers and so on. Because the hatch caravan was
a very lucrative caravan people with their wealth with their
money, whatever they had going through
individu individuals could take longer than that their money could
be lost on the way their money is finished. Their robbed by
highwayman, right, they have to stop somewhere Well, Visa systems,
you just stopped, someone took some work, you worked with
somebody who worked for somebody rather earned a bit more money.
And then after that you carried on your journey, and maybe had to
work again and you carried on your journey. Even if you because there
were no credit cards, there was no bank transfers, the money that you
had on you is what you had. And then if that went somewhere if
that finished, if that was stolen, it was gone. You were out of
pocket, nothing, you know, you'd have to earn more money. So it's a
much more difficult journey but can you imagine every step it was
going to take you two and a half months to get there like if you
did if you mean it take a few weeks to do a driving on
apparently a week or so right now you drove but every mile with
every step of your camera or your horse or whatever it is or your
carriage or whatever it is. There's the anticipation is gonna
grow through days and days or weeks and weeks of anticipation,
increase longing. And then finally you get there. You know, just the
fact that you've reached into Mocambo Colorado and you can start
breathing the air of McComber karma that in itself, I just can
just imagine maybe one day we'll do a trip like that a slow one to
build up that anticipation. So now the question the why am I talking
about this? The reason I'm talking about this is that a lot of people
I just got a call literally about two weeks ago from a person I've
never met but I've known for a while online, and he said I've
just
On the first camera of my life, and I am feeling so bad that I
can't muster up the emotion that I read about in the stories of the
people of the past
their sentiments, and their emotions that are recorded in
books in their narratives. I can't feel that. So what kind of what
kind of an Onra? Have I have I got what kind of an omelet am I doing?
He was feeling a shortcoming. Because the stories you read about
in the books, write amazing stories, like I don't have that
same sentiment, that focus.
So when I first explained to him, I said that, look, you know, those
stories that you're reading, they're the best of the best. I
wasn't trying to diminish it. But those stories that have been
recounted in books like for I'll edge, some amazing stories of
people's experiences. But those experiences are notable
experiences. They may even be the exception. They're the experiences
of the Olia of the friends of Allah subhanaw taala, who really
have prepared for it.
So number one, don't feel bad if you don't have that same
experience. But then I didn't want to just say that, you know, just
cop out. So I said, Well, look, you know, the way to get the real
benefit of hedge is, let me ask you a question. How many of you
are into football? And would love to and like to go to watch? Or
would love to go and see us a soccer game? I'm not. But I'm
asking. How many of you are like that? Probably the majority.
Right? Okay, how many of you are not like that?
Okay, that's a
now if you are taken with your friends, they really want you to
go and watch liverpool vs Manchester United or whatever,
right? Whereas the Anfield was a cold, right? And you're not really
into it. You just went along? Because they're like, No, you have
to come with us.
Your enjoyment and their enjoyment is going to completely different
for them every moment of it as soon as they enter that, that the
you know, the adrenaline even having to queue up for half an
hour, no problem. You're like, man, what am I doing here? I have
to clear for half an hour. What's the point of this? But then like,
no, that's every step. You know, that's, that's how that's how much
closer we're getting. And then they get their take their seat,
okay, I've got a good view from here. And that guy is playing and
that guy's got the ball and this guy's got the you're like, Man, I
don't get any of this. I'm just going along because of my friends.
This is the same thing with hedge.
We're all going because it's an obligation, that's for sure. Then
many of us are going because we want to go, all of us are going
because we want to go. Right? So that's the difference with the
football however, how can we experience it and enjoy the way
the guy who really supports that team wants to be there got those
really special seats? How are we going to how are we going to do
that? The reason that person enjoys it, right? Some diehard
fans are whoever they are right? The reason you enjoy it is because
you have a love for that team. I don't know why you have a love for
the team, but you have a love for that team. With everything
associated with that team. Some people have such a love that I've
seen Manchester I've seen the devil of Manchester United in
Masjidul haram a few times.
Literally, the guy's got one of his you know those shoe bags with
the the shaytaan on it say I usually don't say much. But as I
Brother, you bought the shaytaan in the message like What do you
mean? I said look, he got quite offended. Right? But that's the
problem. It has a devil in it and you shouldn't be taken into a
masjid. Right? Just a side point. But what I'm saying is that the
enjoyment that that person feels there, why can't we feel that same
enjoyment in homage as those stories represent?
And the reason is simple is because
the Hajj
is a journey of love.
Yes, you know you're going to you're going to be only why do we
go around the Kaaba seven times? Is it because you know, Muslims
once in a while, do a bit of exercise Come on.
Right go around seven times, at least once in your life do some
exercise. Is it for that reason? The Why do you go around seven
times?
Why do you go from you know, suffer tomorrow?
Okay, it's an emulation of Hydra. Hydra. Rodial Ali has Salam. But
why do you have to do that? And then we're literally counting 1234
Was it four or five? Seven? Have we really done it or not? The
whole thing becomes and that was how my first page was? And I don't
want us to be like that is about getting things done.
Right accomplishing tick box exercise of everything that needs
to be done.
That's what usually becomes a lot of people and that was that was my
case. 2001 And I thought to myself, This isn't Hodge This
isn't this isn't supposed to be Hush, hush.
is a journey of love. So why do we go around? The Kaaba seven times
like that? The answer is in the love.
For example, if you're from London, right, and you have a
very, very close friend
that lives
let's just say that lives in
Hackney and you're going on the A 12 and Hackney exit is there for,
you know, Hackney exit. You're not going in there. But what are you
going to think about when you see Hackney
you're going to think about your friend. There's just a natural
association, a quick association with your friend, your beloved.
And the more love you have, the more you're going to be thinking
about it.
Now Allah subhana wa Tada we do we pray five times a day. That's our
expression of love. That's what's supposed to develop the love
because why would you pray?
Right, it has to go beyond the obligation ritual, to doing it for
the sake of love for Allah subhanaw taala then we fast and if
you fasted this year, you definitely fasted for Allah. You
didn't fast for anybody else. You can't fast you must have fasted
for Allah because otherwise if you fasted for anybody else, you could
have eaten in private, and just express that you are fasting.
That's easy. I'm hungry. I'm really hungry, but inside you're
eating your biryani. Right? So if you really fasted, you stayed
hungry. It has to be for Allah subhanaw taala. Now Allah chooses
some of these people to come to his place. Right? So just imagine
it from a whole love perspective that you're finally invited to
your beloved house. Somebody you've longed for somebody you
want to be close to somebody you want to be associated with. And
finally they've invited to your house into their house. They don't
live in that house in with Allah subhanaw taala they don't live in
that house. So don't be like those individuals through the door of
the car but knock on door. Allah Mia, Cara Kia, tick target.
Right? If you understand what to do, like, are you okay? Because
Allah doesn't live in there physically. A Bedouin I was just
told recently a Bedouin, you know, right now Madina, Munawwara Masjid
the neighbor we is closed, sorry, is open 24 hours pretty much, just
some doors, they close and they leave some doors open but you can
go in but I remember a time just about 10 years ago when they used
to close that night for about two hours for cleaning up and so on so
nobody could go in. So a Bedouin from outside of Madina Munawwara
or whatever came in and he comes to the door and he's knocking on
the Yarra Sula, it's me where the Bedouins from so and so let us in.
Right? Some people have these kinds of thoughts. So the Allah
subhanaw taala doesn't live in the house, but it represents his
possession. It's a focal point, Allah has provided us because
humans work with focal points easier. Imagine if you had no
focal points, you just create anywhere, there'd be so much
disarray and inconsistency. Right. So this is to provide some kind of
consistency and unification that we pray towards the Kaaba. And
that is a place where we go, there's a special history related
to it from the time of Adam it summoned and Ibrahim Ali Salam,
right, I'm not going into the history now. Just trying to
explain that Allah then allows those who claim to love him the
muslimeen the believers to his house.
And we are going into the Kaaba is not part of the Hajj. It's not
part of any pilgrimage. It's just an it's just a
it's just something that if you get to do Alhamdulillah you get to
do but it's not something that is like you must try to get into the
house of Allah because that's never been part of the pilgrimage.
When you have a beloved, you want to be close to that person, to
that individual with Allah subhanho wa Taala closeness is not
through physical is not through physical distance, or physical
proximity. It's through your love for Allah subhanho wa Taala and
what we do for him and how it moves us, but he has given us this
GABA, and this Masjidul haram to get to so now you going around,
that's the best you can do is to go around the house of Allah seven
times out of love for Allah because this is my beloved house.
When people want to buy a new car, they will go to the showroom, and
even when it's closed, they will kind of go and look at the cars
in the evening. They'll they'll go online on auto trader or whatever,
they'll keep looking at these cars. Right? If if you're into
football, you're going to be constantly looking at the
highlights. So this is to get as close if you sometimes when
somebody loves someone, but they're not there, they go around
the house just so that it reminds them it gives them that bit of
closeness. This is what it's doing for us that we're getting that
closeness to Allah subhanaw taala that's why you go around. Hassan
Vaci Rahmatullah they saw a woman doing tawaf. So he's doing tawaf
and he hears this woman reading some love poetry. So he
stereotyped thinking as a young girl, probably a
This love poetry is probably about her boyfriend or her husband or
whatever it is. So he told her off he said, What are you doing in
this blessed place? Pure place? You are discussing this. She said
what do you understand? Do you even understand who I'm calling
to? Do you even understand who I am expressing this love for? I am
expressing this love for Allah subhana wa Tada
everybody there has a story and let our story be the great story
between us and Allah subhanho wa Taala everybody there has a
different sentiment. It's amazing when you get to speak to people
and what's in for us mashallah is just several 1000 pound, yeah,
it's become more expensive. But for other people, it's a lifelong
one opportunity. They don't get to come back from England, we get to
go back as many times as we want, you know, within a few years, but
other people don't. It's a once in a lifetime. Right? So we get there
to go to around the house of Allah. Now lovers, they want to be
close to the Lord and they would love to hug their Lord, sorry,
they would love to hug their beloved, you can't hug Allah
subhanaw taala. But he's given us a place to hug. And it is the most
amazing place if you can get there, which is the militarism,
the place between the door of the Kaaba and the Blackstone. So the
black stone and door of the cover with a policeman is standing right
next to him is that place where the Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wasallam went, put his chest and his cheek on there and cried out
there to Allah subhanaw taala that is the closest that you can get
there. So Allah because humans need this expression, humans need
this physical touch, they need to express it in this, their emotions
in this way, Allah has given us that place for it, if you can get
them without shoving anybody out
there after that humans like to kiss their beloved. Allah has
given us that ability to kiss the Blackstone.
These are all replacement these are all alternatives for that.
So you get to kiss the Blackstone if you get to kiss the Blackstone,
which also removes our sins. But the main thing is that for this
hedge to be successful,
if this may be just our one hedge, right hedge is getting more
complex in the sense of distances. And price wise and things like
that, may Allah keep making it easy for us. But that privilege
Alhamdulillah we do have to a certain degree in the West to a
certain degree, at least we have more capability. But it is getting
more done, the way they expanding everything. And for the people who
are older, and who have trouble walking and things. It's just
getting more difficult even though you know there's more and your
five star hotels is only as good as when you're in them.
Soon as you get out of the five star hotel, you're just like
everybody else, there's no bridge, you know, to the month off from
the dal Hijrah intercontinental
that if you book here, you're getting direct access to the motto
if you don't
do you will like everybody else. I was just there last week, but five
days ago, right. And it's just
the way to develop ourselves for that journey to make it really
worthwhile along with your laws and rules and rituals and all of
that that's all necessary, because we follow that procedure. Right.
But the real way to get the depth of the Hajj to come back, like the
day, our parents, our mother gave us birth is to make it a pure
journey of love
is to make that a pure journey of love.
You will do all of your rituals, but we will get the emotion that
we will get out of that the spirituality that will be
developed. That's the real reason that we're going there. A lot of
people I spoke to somebody the other day, have you done your
hygiene. I've done many homeruns he says I've not done it. I said
why not? I'm not ready. What do you mean, you're not ready. And in
fact, once in hedge, there was a guy, he was about 27 to 30 years
old. And he said shake. I've got a question for you. I said In fact,
we have many questions. So I thought it was gonna be a standard
edge question. It was a hedge question. He said, Is it okay for
me to be in homage? Like, Oh, no. Does he owe a lot of people money
or something? Has he come on page with stolen money? What's his
question? Isn't my whole family is telling me that I'm not old enough
for Hodgetts.
I'm not old enough for hygiene.
Right. So they make such a retirement thing. In some
cultures, you have to become pure. You have to stop doing since then
you can go for Hajj. It's a big fallacy. Hajj is where you go and
you stop doing things. I just went you go and you get rejuvenated.
You come back revived, we come back
with a zeal to make a difference. If we do it well enough.
You go there to do that. Then go again, when you retire. You have
the opportunity, but don't delay. As I said, I've seen a lot of
people who have been have to be carried around because they just
came you know, they came when they 50 something. So that's the
journey that you're going for. You've already signed up I'm
assuming I don't need to give that pep talk of you must go because
you're already going but why we must go
and how we must go, let us not make it just a tick box exercise,
let us make it a real journey of love, because that's the purpose
of it to go around the house of Allah. And what do we get out of
it? I think one of the best expressions that I've heard about
this right, of what we get out of it is one of the sheiks who
described it as a spiritual washing machine.
You know, when you get there, and especially the men when you are in
the, the two garments of FRR, the women they wear the normal
clothes, right, but the men feed it more because you're wearing
unconventional dress. Now, not many of you, I don't see many of
you in Louie's right in you know, in the sarongs, right, even if
they are, you know, you just don't have your pockets. And it's
different when you get to Minar. And you have that one cupboard
space. Right. And you've never slept so closely to somebody
before you know, except your spouse, right. And there's some
people trying to take two spaces and trying to make it as
comfortable as possible, and it makes you homesick of it. But
that's all good. It's all good. We're doing it. So it's a
spiritual exercise, you're tumbling around from minute to two
out of tumors deli faster, staying under the story, you know, the
multi star hotel, right in was that if I were you just find a
space and you just have to sleep, right? You're doing all of these,
you know, camping like crazy kind of things that you've never done
completely out of your comfort zone. destabilized, stressed soil
good stress, because it makes you think, and is enough time to think
they're right, if you if you want to think about what your life is
going to be about. So let us make this journey. Aside from all of
the laws that you will study in sha Allah, Allah will give us the
correct hedge, a valid hedge, no major mistakes, and Allah allow us
to avoid that. But that's one side. The other side is the
emotional and the spiritual aspect of it is that we come back as
greater lovers for Allah. But the only way to get there is you have
to train before we go in, you get into the ring, and you're going to
be knocked out. Right? So you prepare for the ring. Which means
you physically prepare and you spiritually Prepare from now for
the next three weeks or whatever we have four weeks or whatever we
have start
a vicar of la ilaha illa Allah at least you know 100 500 times a day
ilaha illallah starred one of the best ways to get to know Allah
subhanho wa Taala the How to I'm gonna I'm going to finish this off
now with in about five minutes with how to develop a love for
Allah so that in sha Allah when we get there we've got at least some
level of Allah
the reason you love something, why would you love something by the
way, you know when you love something, or let's just say let's
just take a simple example if you want to buy us if you want to buy
a car and you're looking for a car and suddenly you settled on one
why'd you settle on that one car what is it that has made you
inclined to that car and eventually prefer that car over
the others? What is it
literally I'm asking the question this time
sorry.
It gives you benefits so it's the
the make model and the features and whatever else it has and so on
right that's that's what usually thinking about.
So I was looking for a seven seater and there were two cars
that I narrowed it down to then somebody told me about a third
make was supposed to be a bet to make but I thought it was out of
my budget. And I found out it's kind of within my budget. Should I
just buy it No, I went and took a test drive I found out all of the
things about it. I started becoming inclined towards it then
I That's it. Everything else started blurring in my sight. I
mean one the others anymore. I just wanted this is just the
progression.
Allah says Allah Xena, Armando, Usha Durbin Nila. The people who
believe they are most ardently and intensely in love with ALLAH
SubhanA wa Tada.
We do we love something else more. We claim that, you know, we love
Allah, we claim that but do we actually, how many of us, you can
just put your hand up a bit? How many of us have ever said in a
moment of privacy and emotion? I love you Allah. Like, how many
have you ever been able to say that? Right? That's just about
five people here. But for other Beloved, we say I love you. If you
love your iPhone, you're on about it all day to others. I've got a
friend who's been trying to buy me an iPhone for the last four years.
For free. It's just don't want one. Right? When you love
something, you're constantly talking about it. So why don't we
love Allah? Like actually, why do we love other things more? Let's
put it that way. Because we don't know Allah enough. How many of you
have read a review of Allah? When you go to buy a product? You read
reviews, right? Haven't you here how many of us have read reviews
about Allah?
Like, where do I read reviews on like Google, right Amazon? No in
Quran the you can only love something like I chose the car,
when you find out its qualities and Allah has all the qualities
there are and he has no defects. So what we do is, the more we find
out about Allah subhana wa taala, the more we will be inclined
towards him, and trusting Him and rely on Him and love Him.
How do we get the understanding of Allah the best place is the Quran.
So I would say get a translation if you don't understand Arabic
already, right? Get a translation in whatever language and just
start reading a page or two. Just the Allah I want to know you
because Allah sent us this message that we haven't read yet. It's in
our inboxes it's on our shelves, it's on our phones. And imagine on
the Day of Judgment, we turn up and did you read my message or
here? I saw it. I didn't read it. I mean, we read it but without
understanding. So let's read it with understand just two, three
pages a day, just reflect, you will understand what Allah is what
he wants, what he doesn't want, what he likes, what he dislikes,
what he wants to give us what his philosophy is, what his ideology
is, what the theology is, what he's done before what he wants to
do for us, that's what you're going to get from there, we're
going to get to know Allah and that place is for Allah Hajj is
purely for Allah. Right.
That's the first way the second the second thing, I'm just saying
this quickly. The second thing is get a copy of the 99 names of
Allah, you know the 99 names, just get a copy in any language, and
just stop pondering over those names that will give us the
understanding of Allah as a multifaceted entity that we see oh
wow, he is this as well. And he is the author and he's the kahar and
he is the man document. He is the Jelani will calm and he is the
Cebu and he is the Shaku and you will find in the various names
that relate to issues in our life and start adopting those names and
calling to onto ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada with those names
to just read the names of Allah and to get an understanding. So if
I don't, I don't know you, but what's your name?
Who's who sang. So if I call you who? Sam you're like, yeah, he's
called me by my name, right? But if I get to know more about you,
and then I call on to you by saying Marsha, you're very good at
this and that you're gonna feel even more validated. Hey, he knows
me more than just my name. Like Allah subhanaw taala. That's
number two. Number three.
If you can find somebody who loves Allah and you learn from them how
to love Allah, listen to their lectures, read their books. That's
another way find the odia their stories. And number four, what I
said earlier is start a vicar. Start a vicar of la ilaha illa
Allah Subhana Allah with meaning Alhamdulillah regularly from now
until then, let us build ourselves up, prepare ourselves. Right so
that even though our journey will only be a eight to 12 hour journey
over Allah make it easy, right, we would have prepared beforehand
spiritually. So when we're there, we completely were in the zone.
The downloads will start straight away from ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada of
the Rama, the baraka, the Mercy, the love, and then our tawaf will
not just be seven rounds of exercise, there'll be something
else. So inshallah we will be seeing you guys in hajj, inshallah
mana, our friend mana Yunus is going to now carry on for the rest
of the day with you in sha Allah, take notes. And, you know, when
you take notes, this is just preparation. Inshallah, we'll try
to remind ourselves there, you know, there'll be additional
programs to refresh because I remember the first time I went for
hedge, I taught the hedge class I got there and I was I felt like a
fish out of water, right? Because it's just so different. But at
some villa, you're in good hands, mashallah Rashida and that they've
been really working very hard. So in sha Allah, I'm, that same kind
of work we'll be putting down there in sha Allah and you're in
good hands in sha Allah, but do your best at least, but main thing
Quran, the names of Allah, read about some earlier and the UScar
and inshallah let us be prepared Allah make it easy, Allah grant us
His love. And Allah allow us to love Him so that we can make this
a pure journey of love. Bucky read that way. And I humbly like Robbie
light. I mean, Allah bless you all, keep us in your doors.
The point of a lecture is to encourage people to act to get
further an inspiration and encouragement, persuasion. The
next step is to actually start learning seriously, to read books
to take on a subject of Islam and to understand all the subjects of
Islam at least at the basic level, so that we can become more aware
of what our deen wants from us. And that's why we started Rayyan
courses so that you can actually take organize lectures on demand
whenever you have free time, especially, for example, the
Islamic essentials course that we have on the Islamic exchange
To certificate which you take 20 Short modules and at the end of
that inshallah you will have gotten the basics of most of the
most important topics in Islam and you'll feel a lot more confident.
You don't have to leave lectures behind you can continue to live,
you know to listen to lectures, but you need to have this more
sustained study as well as local law here in Santa Monica when I
have to live record