Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – Virtues of Ashura 10th of Muharram
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Bismillah al Rahman al Rahim Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa
Salatu was Salam ala so you did more saline water earlier. He was
so happy with our Casa limiter Sleeman kathira. In Iommi been a
Marburg.
As Muharram has begun, which is the first month of the Islamic
calendar,
it's a good idea to speak about some things that are related to
this. Firstly, some of you may have received some Mahara Mobarak
is a New Year MOBOTIX. And you know, people have this new
because they have so many texts available, what they do is they
sending out all of these texts, Jumar MOBA can have on Mubarak and
one of these things now, per se, there's really nothing wrong with
saying that because Mubarak just means be blessed. So essentially,
it's like a dua saying, May your year be blessed me, your Friday be
blessed, and so on. However, making a tradition of it is where
I see the problem, making a tradition of it is where I see the
problem, because it's like, you know, you're going to expect
others to say the same thing to you, you're going to say that to
others, and so on, it's completely fine to give a dog, the thing
about the new year, and so on, really, the Islamic year, I don't
really see any significance of when it starts and where it ends,
because it doesn't matter, because people are not necessarily born on
the first of the month of the Islamic year. And thus it, you
know, signals anything for us. I think that seems to be from a
Western perspective that wish somebody a new year, new year
resolutions and all the rest of it. And we were just kind of
Islam, resizing it in a sense and saying that,
you know, may your year be blessed, and so on which there's
nothing wrong with giving somebody a DUA, but I don't really see the
point of the significance of doing it on the first of the Islamic
year, because really, the Islamic year, it has nothing to do with
the birth of the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wasallam, or the death of
the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. It's actually got
something to do with his migration. But the thing is that
whenever we speak about the Islamic calendar, or the first of
the month of Muharram, the first of the, you know, the day, first
day in the Islamic calendar, we probably don't even have in our
minds, the prophets of Allah isms migration. So
the other thing you have to realize is that we're born in
different months, you know, you could have been born in Muharram,
you could have been born in January, February, March, April,
May, whenever most of us probably don't even know the month that we
were born in an Islamic sense. I mean, if we were to ask most of us
here today, right, what month were you born, born in? What Islamic
month and what Islamic year you were born in. I mean, most of us
won't even know that. I think that's probably more important to
realize, because the milestones in our life, you know, when it said
that, you become a you're a youth from when you're a teen to when
you're about 33 years of age, according to Josie, for example.
33 years of age, most of us are going to go by and go by the
Gregorian system that we normally realize, however, the Islamic way,
you're actually going to be 33 Earlier, or, for example, the age
of 40 is when the mind matures, when a person becomes more
mentally mature, and more settled in that regard. And again, most
people are going to wait until they're 40 Gregorian, which
because the longer years, 365 days as opposed to 355 days, you're
actually going to be 40 before you're 40 in what we consider the
normal sense. So I think the Islamic year is important to know
about for certain reasons as Ramadan and Maha Rahman Ville,
hedger and the Hajj and all of the rest of in reviewing Oh, well,
when the Promise of Allah while you are synonyms, or what was
born, and, and in that sense, but really were born in different
months. And for us, it doesn't really matter what month comes. If
it's a month of virtue, then we take that into consideration. Now
rubeola will is not the only month that's virtuous, there are four
months in the year that are considered virtuous and rubbish.
And Muharram is one of those months, right and in Muharram, the
great thing about Muharram is that it has that one day, which is
considered the 10th of the month that Ashura Ashura literally comes
from the word Aisha, which means 10 and Ashura refers to the 10th
day of the month. Now there were certain things that happen on this
day as there's lots of things that are related about what happened on
this day. Some are authentically narrated and others are not
probably the most authentic narration about what happened on
that day is that the Prophet sallallahu Sallam came to Madina
Munawwara and he saw that the Jews were fasting on this day, so he
wondered why you're fasting. Now in that time, it seemed that the
Jews were still following the lunar calendar as the Muslims
follow the lunar calendar going by the months. You know, when you see
the moon, which means that the month will be 29 to 30 days, so
they probably had the same sequence as us as Muslims. So they
told him that this is a day when Mousavi Salam was safeguarded or
protected from the Pharaoh. He was delivered from the Pharaoh and his
army and Pharaoh was caused to drown on this day because that's
when they they drowned in the river.
And so the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, well, Musa
Islam is our Prophet. What he said was that now we're even more
entitled to Musa we're going to, we're going to follow the Sunnah.
So he said, I'm going to fast that but he also said that next year,
if I remain until next year, I'm going too fast the ninth as well,
which means that it's an encouragement to do two days,
because you don't want to copy the tradition of a another nation
totally and completely, as though you want to take the benefit of
it. So the prophets, Allah, some said, will add one extra day. So
they're gonna might have mentioned that you can either add nine and
10, or 10 and 11. However, there's also another opinion among some
Marilla my like one animal who not many who wrote the medieval
Hadith, a great word Greek scholar, what he said, and which
is really true, which I discovered later, as well, that the Jews no
longer follow the lunar calendar, they follow a kind of verse,
they've kind of following a solar calendar, you know, just to make
sure that the dates they do things are more predictable, in line with
other dates, like Christmas, and so on. So I remember when it's our
show, I mean, we were obviously in a very, very heavily populated
Jewish area, very orthodox Jewish area, as well. So it's not, you
know, just secular Jews, but in the very orthodox, and we don't
really see them making a big deal about this particular day. And
then I actually talked to one of the it was either rabbi, one of
the counselors about this, and I think it was a rabbi, they have it
on a different day, that so they've actually turned it around
into a different day, which is kind of a set day, every every
year. So based on that, what the some of the relevant mentioning
now is that if you cannot fast two days, because the progress of the
license whole purpose of telling people to fast for two days, was
to do differently to what the Jews had been doing at the time. So it
wasn't like we're just following another nation. You know, this is
a big misconception that many of the earlier orientalist, used to
bring up all the time, it was their perspective, and it was this
big thesis among them, that
the Muslims, the religion of Islam, it literally just took
things from Christianity and from Judaism from the Old Testament
from the New Testament, and it kind of just regurgitated it or
revise it in a particular way. And it's just literally a real
reformation of that, or it's all taken from the sources of that.
And what they don't understand is that many things that we do, that
the Christians and Jews may also do, they're just human things that
people do just human ethics and so on, just because they're very
similar in some aspects of ethics. And maybe in some laws, and maybe
in some sorts of prohibitions, or some some sort of ethics and
encouragement, it doesn't mean that one has to come from the
other. These are just things that go back to a natural source that
the humans have been following for a very long time. And Allah
subhanaw taala has confirmed confirmed those things and
emphasize those things. So based on this, you can understand from
this hadith of the prophets of Allah, some wants to oppose what
they were doing and not follow it completely. So now what the rhythm
I mentioned that since the Jews no longer fast on this particular
day, it's no longer also necessary or it was never necessary anyway.
But it's no longer even.
So important that you should fast two days however, because
obviously awesome said so we'd still encourage to fast two days,
especially in these days, when it comes in this month of November,
right? Where the days are so small. I mean, in the UK, it's
going to be four o'clock, right? Your your Iftar is going to be
around four o'clock to 410. And the Sir Who the starting is going
to be really early as well. So it's very easy to fast the two
days, right? And plus, it's to do with the weekend as well. So
inshallah it'd be very easy. So it's completely fine, fine device
for two days. But it's also permissible for those who can't
make the two days too fast for one day, there's nothing wrong with
that. And that's why they're LMR mentioned, they shouldn't even be
any Carozza they should not be even any undesirability in doing
that. Right. And they shouldn't be no undesirability in doing that,
either. So that's just to clarify that point. Now that one of the
benefits of this day, which I'm sure you know, we hear about this
every year, and one of the Greek but one of the greatest benefits
of this day is that we find the Sunnah of Rasulullah sallallahu
sallam, before Ramadan was made obligatory, that Ashura the 10th
of the day of Muharram was first made obligatory according to some
narrations. So therefore Muslims fasted on this day first, but when
Ramadan became necessary, became obligatory, and Allah subhanaw
taala revealed the verses about Ramadan. Then, this day, the
Ashura no longer was necessary. It became a sunnah promise that Allah
some will continue to foster stay this day, every year. And that's
the thing and then in the hadith of Muslim, the benefit is just
like with the day of alpha fast, although they're the the reward is
doubled, in the sense that they're the process that allows them said
that I hope in Allah subhanaw taala that anybody will fast this
Day of Arafah the previous one year sins are forgiven and also a
future one year sins are forgiven. In this one though, the Hadith
mentions only for the previous year, that your previous year sins
are forgiven, but that's great anyway, because that means our
minor Sins of the previous sin years are forgiven. And if you
make some Toba on that day, as well, our major sins can also be
forgiven me
Allah subhanaw taala give us the trophy. And finally not. Another
important point about this, which needs to be clarified is that
there is a tradition in some communities to cook certain types
of food. Now let's understand where that you know how that comes
about. Essentially, there are some narrations, for example, one
narrated by by hottie and others. They're all weak when you look at
them individually, right? They're all weak when you look at them
individually, but what it relates to is, that man was the Allah, He
Yo Ma Shura, whoever is whoever is generous, whoever has widespread
generosity on his family on that day. So that's what the tofi
That's what it is a Dosia to Al Al Yama Ashura, which means to be
wide and generous on that day, right to be expensively generous
on that day, which means to not just be one thing, but to be
generous in many aspects. Right? It's Tosia was our was our means
to be broad, right? To have lots of space, lots of bandwidth,
right? That's what you call WUSA. And those are our means to give
that kind of bandwidth to somebody else, to give that kind of opening
that kind of room to others. And
what most people they think is that, you know, you you, you maybe
just order some food on that day from the restaurant from the
takeaway or something like that, and you feed your family, right,
so the wife doesn't have to cook well, that could be one aspect of
it, but don't limit it to that. What the * am I mentioned that
this could be in everything this could be in this could be in many
different things. Right? So for example, Allah Halabi what he
mentioned is
he says that this is this can be considered mazahub Mundo it's not
a sunnah, but it's a must to have because this hadith aren't so
strong. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, what he said was
that man was Sahaja Yoga he
man was an OSA Omen was salah, Allah yesterday, he was early he
Yo Ma showed up for also Allahu Allah, he set your sanity he then
Allah subhanho wa Taala will treat him like this with expensive
kindness. So I think that's a good translation, expensive kindness,
when Allah subhanho wa Taala will treat him with this kind of
expensive generosity and kindness for the whole year. Right. So
that's what the Hadith mentions in Mumbai, hockey, related from Abu
Huraira for the Allah one, even though Roger will humbly has
mentioned this as well, in his lawful evil narrative, but the
main thing is that many orlimar of the past they actually tested this
out, they did this they acted upon it, even though it's based on a
weak narration, right? It's okay to follow it. Because it's just a
virtuous act that we're we're following. It's not about
legislating something on someone making something necessary and
obligatory on some on someone. It's not an Akita issue. And
neither is it a, an issue of obligating something. In fact,
it's literally about, it's literally about
just virtuous thing, and it's a good thing to spend on one's
family anyway, regularly. Normally, whatever we spend his
money with the right intention, it's permissible, and it's not
just permissible, it's actually virtuous to do so. But it becomes
even more virtuous on this day, because then Allah has blessings
on you for the whole year. And so if you know Ariana was one great
Hadith scholar that you'll see him in the chains of many generations,
right related by all of these great Hadith collectors, right
great, great Hadith scholars, he said that I have tried this job
now who I have tested this, tried this, practice this, on this
expensive kindness on the day of Ashura for 50 years. Mundo hum,
Sina Center for 50 years, and from our inner who ILAHA Juran and for
Mara ina in La Jolla. And the only thing that we found from it is all
excellence, that we actually found it to work. So that's something
but again, the fasting is more important. The first thing is
greater reward. This is an additional thing. Right? This is
an additional thing, especially for the breadwinner of the family,
right normally considered the father, right the man of the
house, that it's normally now what now we mentioned here is that in
understanding this narration, he says that it is Mr. hub to do this
expensive spending and generosity on the family on this day, both in
foods, in clothing, and in anything else. So it should not be
just restricted to food, it could be food, clothing, it could be
anything else. Right where you just spend a bit more on that they
be a bit more expensive in that regard. And
one very interesting thing that he notes here he says when we must do
quality he does hear one thing that the word Dosia which means is
expensive spending on the family
includes, he says is a steam Star model and we're in middle here
whoop to use. Handsome Hello very interesting. He says to use a
variety of different types of seeds and lentils, legumes as you
can
Call them right. So which means in order to or whatever you call them
dials, you know, different types of dials. So, you know, I'm not
sure if there's a tradition of making catcher on this day, as
they call it, you know, which is like this mixture of different
types of lentils is supposed to be healthy for you, because just,
it's always multi greatness, essentially a multi green broth.
That's what it is. Right? So he says that this could refer to this
kind of multi green soup that a abroad that somebody makes right
now, again, this is just his understanding, just his opinion.
This is not to say that we're trying to make a catcher or
something like that this multigrain broth a sunnah on this
day. It's not a sunnah to do this in the first way, it's just the
mazahub. Anyway, to start with, right, there's these additional
benefits to it. But I think where he's coming from, is that
normally, right? Normally people, especially in the, in the times of
zoom, in the times of abstinence, where they were focused more on
the hereafter, they would just cook one type of a meal, right,
they will just cook one type of meal. Now, if somebody wanted to
do doTERRA On that day, if somebody wanted to be more
expensive in the spending on that day, they may cook two meals, or
they may have two meals cooked, or maybe three meals. But another way
to do it, is instead of just using one type of lentil for a soup,
like just pea soup, or just, you know, one one type of bean soup or
one type of, you know, lentil soup or whatever, you use a mixed soup,
which means that when you use that mix soup, you're actually feeding
your family for many different types of lentils. So maybe that's
where, where there is this tradition of some people doing
this, right comes from, but again, it's not necessary, right? If
somebody thinks is necessary, I must do this particular thing on
that day, why didn't you guys make this particular type of dish that
becomes a huge problem. Likewise, on the eighth day as well, you
know, when when you have this tradition among certain cultures
that you have to have this particular type of milk, right,
that's made with with what you call those?
Vermicelli right. Vermicelli that again, I don't know what the
origin of days, right? I absolutely don't know what the
origin of that is. If somebody feels like they want to drink it,
okay, fine. Enjoy, you can drink it, that's not a problem. But to
think that you must cook it on eat, and it's got a special, you
know, virtue or reason. Well, you need to know what the reason is.
And if there's a foundation for it, if you don't, then you don't
do it, right, unless you just do it for yourself. Right? That's,
that's the way these these things normally work. So that's about
Ashura. May Allah subhanaw taala give us the tofi gets next week,
we will Tofik to fastest day, right and encourage the children
to fast as well. Because this was a day when they would encourage
the children to fast as well as related in a number of narrations.
In fact, there's one narration which is rated by Bukhari, and
Muslim from Robert year been Timo with ebony frog says she says
that, after that, we used to fast it. And we used to make our
children faster as well. And then she says that we used to go to the
masjid. And in order to keep the divert their attention from the
food from from feeding hungry, because these were young children,
right? They don't know why they're missing their meal for as such.
Now it's okay to miss a meal for a child once in a while. I mean,
it's probably healthy for them, right not to do it too often, in
the sense that, you know, some children just don't want to eat
anyway. Right. But to make them miss the meal, what they what she
says is what she relates is that we used to make these little
things out of wool, so little toys, maybe out of rules,
something to play with, like a clump of wool or something of that
nature. And whenever they would feel hungry, we would give that to
them so that they could play with that. So it would it would occupy
them. Now a number of other Hadith about this as well. So it's
actually in this one is a particularly encouragement to make
our children do the same as well. There's another narration that's
related by Imam Toblerone. Though it's a slightly weak narration,
but the Mantovani related, that probably something Allahu alayhi
wa salam used to, on the Ashura day used to call his all the all
the children that were that were being
that were being nursed by his daughter Fatima, the Allahu anha,
or anyone in his family, right. So any little child that was being
brought up and nursed by breastfed by his family members, right? He
would if he would call them he would have them come to him and
then he would put his saliva in their mouth. He would put his
saliva in their mouth. And then he would say to the mothers that
lotto the room, Elaine, do not nurse them do not give them any
milk to drink until the night because his his saliva that he put
the bulk of that would keep them satiated until the night. So it's
a good time to encourage our children to foster as they as
well. So it's not just in the month of Ramadan, but we have
these other milestones during the year as well.
So again, I mean
This thing about wishing people the New Year Mubarak and all that
kind of stuff. Personally, I just don't see much of a basis to that.
Because Muharram is one of the four months of that are considered
to be sanctified months, it's not the only we forget the other
three, we just focus on this, as the new year starts, what
differences a new year make? How is that going to change our life a
new year. In fact, I think the time to make resolutions for us is
Ramadan, because that's when we actually go through a lot of
physical change, you know, a lot of dietary change. So there is a
change, and, and there's a lot of spiritual change as well. So then
we could actually make certain resolutions, but I mean, New Year
is just kind of weird time. You know, there's just I mean, just in
the middle of the middle of the year, really, depending on when
you are when you are born. I mean, it doesn't even come on your
birthday as such, right? I mean, you're probably more, you're
probably better off thinking on the day of your birth, you know,
the anniversary of your birth or birthday as such, to think about,
you know, I've wasted all of these years of my life, I've spent all
of these years of my life, where am I going with this? It's
probably instead of celebrating it as a time to, you know, like
birthdays people celebrate it. Oh, I've lived for another year. I
mean, as though you live for another year, you know, as though
you just finished a salt course, you know, as though you just
finished his major challenge. And, you know, it's got nothing to do
with us. It's Allah subhanaw taala. That keeps us alive. Right?
Yes, we can celebrate the fact that you've had a great year in
terms of spirituality. Otherwise, we should be really thinking that
we're What have I done during this last year? I'm one year older.
That means I'm definitely one that much closer to the hereafter. So
what should I be thinking about? Should I be blowing on a cake?
Right? Or should I really be thinking about when my room will
be taken out of my body? And how much more Am I more time do I
have? Yes, Allah subhanaw taala has given me these years, I must
be thankful for what I've been able to do during this time to get
into paradise and to build up my paradise movie. But what about all
the time that I've wasted? What about all the bad things I may
have done? I mean, really, that's a time of reflection. But, you
know, so we're not talking about whether birthdays halal or haram?
That's totally, eerily you know, that's totally irrelevant to what
we're speaking about what we're speaking about, here's what we
really should be doing. Because when the hereafter is our real
life, we're what we should be focused on. It's like somebody you
know, you've got an investment, you're eventually going to go and
retire there. Focus on that, no, I'm going to focus right now I'm
just going to enjoy as much even though I have a bad retirement,
we're going to call that kind of a person foolish, because we're
going to think, Well, why are you worried about your retirement,
which is going to be forever, it's going to be eternal? And it's
going to be directly related to what you do today. So why should
we focus on today, then, as opposed to them? We can, we should
only be focused today, based on how it will project for us our
retirement, our eternal retirement in the Hereafter. And I think when
you start thinking about that, you won't go around and asking, Can I
have a birthday cake on my birthday? You know, Can I do a
birthday for my child, and whatever the rest of it. And I
think if we get our children to think that way as well. It won't
be it won't be an issue. So while the other day was was my birthday,
so called irony, I hadn't even realized my daughter came home she
goes is your birthday today, Mashallah. I've got to start
making Toba. You know, I have to start making Toba because that's
that makes me one year, one year older from my from my Devil May
Allah subhanaw taala be thanked that he's given me this life is
given us this life and he's allowed us to live this live this
much is given us the Tofik to be Muslims to be believers, and to do
whatever we've been able to do so far. But may Allah subhanaw taala
forgive us for all the shortcomings we've had. And may
Allah subhanaw taala make the remaining years that we have May
Allah subhanaw taala give us a long life on Iman and give the
make the last day of ours in this world the best of our days, not
the worst of our days. Because really we should be looking back
and thinking how are we 10 years ago? Am I better off 10 years ago
am I better off right now? Am I getting progressively worse? Am I
getting better? As really a reflection that we need we need to
make? May Allah subhanaw taala give us the tool for you