Abu Bakr Zoud – Getting Ready For Hajj, A Meeting With Allah
AI: Summary ©
The importance of learning and understanding Al Hajj is emphasized, as it is a one-time commitment to purify one's wealth and purify one's wealth. Prepping for Al Hajj is essential, including washing and redoing one's body, keeping the heart clean and full, and performing the proper deeds. Visiting the holy eye and the Kaaba are also important, as it is the source of strength for mankind and provides financial and spiritual health. The church has a source of spiritual health and worship, and individuals are the guest of Islam. Visiting the holy eye and the Kaaba is a source of satisfaction and comfort for individuals.AI: Transcript ©
All praise and thanks belongs to Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
And may the peace and blessing of Allah
be upon his servant and final messenger, Muhammad
Sallallahu Alaihi
As to what follows my dear respected brothers
and sisters in Islam, Assalamu alaikum
And,
of course,
very soon,
many are going to be heading to the
house of Allah
in Makkah
to perform
one of the greatest pillars of Islam
and that is the pillar of Al Hajj.
And there is absolutely no doubt
about this fact
that Al Hajj
is a great pillar from the pillars of
Islam, and it is a great worship
and it is a beautiful worship
if a person really, truly understood the reality
of Al Hajj
and what change it's supposed to bring into
his life.
This is only for the one who reflects
and ponders over the meaning of Al Hajj.
And I always like to begin and to
share with my brothers and sisters in Islam,
a reflection
over the pillars of Islam.
If we're to reflect over the pillars of
Islam,
we will realize and notice that some of
them are done continuously
and frequently,
such as a salat
that is to be done 5 times a
day.
Ramadan and fasting Ramadan
is done once aye,
and paying zakat of your wealth is done
once
aye.
However, when it comes to the pillar of
Al Hajj, you notice something unique,
and that is that Al Hajj and alongside
of it, Al Umrah,
is to be done once a lifetime.
Not once a year, once a lifetime.
In fact, there was a companion that said
to the messenger, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
are we supposed to do Hajj every
year? When remained silent,
he did not say anything.
And his companion kept asking the same question.
Should we do Hajj every, every, every, every?
Then Nabi
said, no. He said, if I said yes,
then it would have been obligatory every
year. But what we learned and what we
learned from this hadith
is that Hajj is obligated
once a lifetime.
So now comparing this Hajj to all the
other pillars,
you realize that they're done frequently, continuously
Whereas this one, Al Hajj is required from
you and I once a lifetime.
What do we learn from this? We learn
something incredible.
We pray 5 times a day because we're
in need of 5 prayers a day. The
prayer keeps us straight. It keeps us in
line. It keeps our faith,
in a high. It cleanses us from our
sins and from the wrong doings of the
day and the night. We need 5 prayers
a day. We need to fast Ramadan
once a year. We need to fast. We
need to practice this worship once a year.
If we do it once a year, then
once a year is enough.
Zakat, we're supposed to purify our wealth. If
we do that once a year, once a
year is enough to purify the wealth.
When it comes to Al Hajj
and it's done once a lifetime,
what is this teaching you and I is
that if done correctly,
once a lifetime
is enough.
One Hajj,
a lifetime
is enough
to keep you connected with Allah
and to maintain that iman and that relationship
you have with Allah until the day you
meet Allah
So we don't know.
If we go to Hajj DC that we
will ever have a chance to ever go
there again.
And this is why it is incredibly
important
to learn and to understand and to gain
the maximum knowledge you can
about Al Hajj.
Because this is once a lifetime. You will
not know when you'll ever go there ever
again.
So you cannot afford to say let me
go and see it now. I will go
check out the place And then next time
I go, I'll focus and I'll do it
correctly.
We don't want to risk this. This is
why the brothers at Al Baytou, Jazaumullah Khair,
Abu Ibrahim and so so on are very
concerned
to put a program for you all a
month before Al Hajj.
Even though we can have delayed all of
this until we go to Hajj and gather
and collect you all there and give you
one lesson and that's it. But we realize
and we find out that this is not
enough to convey and deliver the message of
Al Hajj to the Hijaz
at that time. So we decide to
do seminars and lectures
and workshops.
1 month before Al Hajj so that you
can gain the maximum knowledge possible.
So that when you do Hajj,
inshallah,
you have the enough knowledge
to perform Hajj. If you do it right
and you do it correctly,
then once a lifetime
would be enough
to keep you upon the path of the
Iman until the day you meet Allah
Brothers and sisters in Islam, this is why
a salaf,
the pious
predecessors,
the companions and those that came after them,
these salaf,
they would emphasize
the importance
of reflecting over the spiritual aspect of Al
Hajj.
Mujahid
from
among at Tabi'een,
those that came after the companions.
He narrated
that he said, once I went with Ebon
Omar, the son of Omar Ibn Khattab. I
went out with him to Hajj.
And the companions that were with Abin Omar
accompanying him for Al Hajj.
They observed a large number of pilgrims coming
towards Mecca to perform their Hajj.
So they said to Abin Omar
Hajj.
They were amazed.
They said, Masha Allah,
how many have come to Hajj this year?
And you see this this phrase, how many
have come to Hajj? This is the same
phrase that people utter even until this day.
When they see the 1,000,000 and 1,000,000 of
Hajjaj at the house of Allah
So, he
said to his companions,
how few are they in number?
The companions of Abu Omar are seeing a
large number of
and the companion of the messenger
is telling them no. They are a few
in number.
And then Omar is understanding something different to
what everyone is seeing.
But
means is that yes,
there are many pilgrims here with their bodies
and their bags and whatever it is,
but only a few of them
are here with their hearts as well.
The majority are there with their bodies,
and only a few number of come,
and their heart is present
alongside their body. They understand why they're here.
They have pondered over the fact
that this is
a pillar of the pillars of Islam.
They understand why they're here.
They know why they have reached this place
that Allah has
allowed them to come to. And this brothers
and sisters in Islam is what we want
to discuss.
How can we be from these few that
was speaking about?
How can we be from these few
that are there doing Al Hajj not only
with their bodies but with the heart present
And the heart can never be present
if you do not understand
the reality of Al Hajj and why it
was legislated.
Brothers and sisters in Islam,
Allah
in the Quran,
he calls on all the pilgrims that are
heading towards his house to prepare.
He calls us all to prepare.
Allah
said,
He then said,
Allah he prepared, he told us, prepare.
What does a wadu means prepare?
They spoke about the preparation,
Repair your bag with haram.
Repair your water bottles when you get there
to Al Hajj.
Prepare your clothing, pack that up, and there
is an entire checklist
that we send you and we send the
so that they don't miss and they pack
up and they put in their bags.
But then Allah
shifts and turns our attention
to something very important
that many forget.
He
said,
Allah
He said, Prepare the bags. For verily,
the best preparation
you can do as a pilgrim
is the preparation of a
to prepare a
in your heart,
To make sure that your heart is switched
on and is present and is with you
in your body and present and active and
alive
when you're performing Al Hajj. And so I
always like to share with the pilgrims and
say to them, Wallahi,
if you packed everything in your physical bag,
every materialistic
matter you need for Al Hajj,
and you forgot the preparation of a taqwa,
which we'll discuss in a minute.
Then you have prepared nothing. In reality you
have prepared nothing.
And I say to them,
if you prepared a
if you prepared this piety and righteous
state of the heart,
and you forgot your bag completely,
Or your luggage was delayed at the airport
and it did not arrive
for you to catch it at the airport.
Then indeed you have prepared everything you need
for Al Hash.
Understand this point very carefully.
The preparation of a is
essential
for a correct
and an upright.
At Taqwa is here. It's in the heart.
This is where Taqwa is.
As in Nabi sallallahu alaihi wa sallam says,
This is where Taqwa lies in the heart.
So what the ayah is teaching us,
when Allah says, the best preparation is the
preparation of a Taqwa,
meaning the preparation of the heart.
How do we prepare this heart with taqwa?
1st and foremost
is to cleanse
this heart and wash it and rid it
of its sins and impurities and evil characters.
And this is why
just before Al Hajj was Ramadan.
And Ramadan is the greatest
worship season
that polishes the heart
and cleanses and purifies the heart and cleans
it basically.
As Nabi
says,
The fasting of the month of patience which
is Ramadan.
And 3 days of every month
cleanses the heart from its impurities. So
Alhamdulillah
Allah
enabled us to fast Ramadan.
Well, we
are guaranteed by Allah and his messenger
that our heart is pure and it's clean
after Ramadan.
We need to maintain this pure state of
the heart up until
we perform Al Hajj and of course continue
to maintain it afterwards with the different types
of deeds that come after Al Hajj. But
for now we're focusing
on maintaining this heart clean and pure.
Full of
Taqwa as we come towards
Al Hajj. There's only a month and less
than a month and inshallah ta'ala, we will
be there or just over a month. Yes.
So now brothers and sisters in Islam,
we cleanse this heart and we pump it.
We inject it with taqwa
via a Tawba,
repentance,
And seeking Allah's forgiveness.
And continuing
to do so. Even throughout Al Hajj we
continue to do so.
You know,
before he met Allah on the night of
before he met Allah and Allah spoke to
him and revealed to him.
Jibril came to the house of the
messenger in Mecca.
And he opened his chest, took his heart
out, washed it with Zamzam,
and filled it with knowledge and wisdom.
Then afterwards,
he stitched his
chest after putting his heart back in and
now he was eligible
to meet Allah in the paradise.
He was ready to meet him
And similarly
going to the house of Allah,
going to Al Kaaba
is actually visiting Allah. We
will discuss how. But when we go to
Al Hajj, we are actually visiting Allah
And it is not befitting for a Muslim
to visit Allah with a dirty filthy heart.
This is why we need to prepare the
heart first and foremost before we prepare our
baggage and our luggage.
And we prepare the heart as we said
by cleansing it from the sins and evil
character.
Work on the hatred that you have in
your heart. How are you going to get
rid of it?
Jealousy,
animosity,
envy,
arrogance,
hypocrisy,
all these nasty traits of the heart.
You need to and you want to get
rid of them from the heart.
In order to activate a taqwa in the
heart.
And that will then prepare you to perform
al Hajj
and to get the best out of your
Hajj
to maximize
your experience
in Al Hajj.
So this is the first thing in terms
of preparation.
Now, secondly,
we want to prepare for
and this is also part of the taqwa,
and that is by performing Hajj with pure
money.
Halal provisions.
Nabi says,
Allah Azzajal is pure
and he only accepts that which is pure.
So
when
performing Hajj, we want to perform Hajj with
clean money, with halal money.
And, of course, halal money is the money
that is earned through halal means,
and it's also the money
in which zakat has been paid
on its behalf.
So your wealth has been accumulated through halal
means,
then Alhamdulillah
and if you have paid your Zakat Alman,
the 2.5%
wealth that is due on every money that
has been sitting for 1 year and it's
over approximately $700,
if you have paid the 2.5%,
then that wealth has become
super pure.
It has become clean and cleansed from every
filth and dirt,
then a person now
has become even more ready
to perform al Hajj.
And the third thing of preparation,
and this is what we'll be discussing in
our remaining minutes,
and that is knowledge.
Preparing a heart with taqwa
is to prepare it with knowledge
about al Hajj and the reality of Hajj.
Brothers and sisters in Islam,
by
far, the greatest preparation
is to ponder over the reality
of the spiritual trip.
From the greatest ayat
in the Quran
that explain the secret
as to why the house of Allah is
established on Earth.
Why do we have to go there?
And this in fact is the first aya
that mentions the house of Allah in Makkah.
Allah he
said,
Allah he says, we made this house,
the house of Allah in Mecca.
We made it a
a place of return for mankind. And we
made a source and and a and a
place of security and safety.
And a place of peace.
A place of return.
Every time the person goes there,
he longs to go back there.
Ibn Abbas said
meaning people are never satisfied with one trip
over there.
They never get enough of it.
They continuously
want to return to the house of Allah,
And if they cannot do that, then they
visit the houses of Allah
that are around the world, which is Al
Masjid, the mosques that are established around the
Earth.
That is what Al Kaaba is. The secret
of Al Kaaba,
that it creates within us a longing
to go back to it every single time.
Maybe
people and you will experience perhaps this in
your own self.
They become emotional
when they leave the house of Allah
going back to their families and back to
their countries.
And this brothers and sisters,
it proves
that the greatest purpose of Al Hajj
and the core aspect of Al Hajj
is to develop a longing for Allah
and increasing love for Allah
That is the greatest aspect of Al Hajj.
Listen and pay attention to what I am
saying.
The greatest purpose of Al Hajj
is to develop this longing for Allah
And to increase love for Allah
which will be of benefit to you in
this life, in your grief and in the
afterlife.
That's the secret
for why the Kaaba exists on Earth.
You see,
here on Earth,
if we love someone,
we visit them in their house.
We enjoy time with them.
We discuss with them many topics.
We eat something in their house
and we enjoy company
of each other in each other's homes and
houses.
And Allah
he knows
that the believers love Allah
and they long to meet him Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala
And we cannot achieve this on Earth. We
cannot go and visit Allah physically on Earth
due to the greatness of Allah
Allah is greater
than us visiting him physically on earth. Even
the prophet Musa Alaihi Salam on earth. He
would say,
he said, Allah,
allow me
to see you. Let me see you. Give
me that permission and that ability.
Allah said,
You will not see me.
Glance at the mountain. Look at the mountain.
Musa Alaihi Wasallam was standing on a mountain.
Allah said to Musa, if this mountain remains
as it is,
then indeed you'll see me.
Allah
said,
when Allah glanced at the mountain, a little
bit of a Abbas, he said that Allah
exposed
this much of his light to the mountain.
And Allah
exposed
this much of his light to the mountain.
The mountain crumbled,
and Musa alaihis salam
fell to the earth.
He some of the nations mentioned he died.
Some durations mentioned
that he went in a unconscious state. Allahu'ala
what the case was.
But Musa Alaihi Salam,
he fell
from the greatness of Allah. He could not
see him.
And so from the mercy and the compassion
of Allah
is that he gave us something on earth.
That will soothe
and comfort the heart of the believers
that long to meet him and love to
see him. So
Allah made the Kaaba.
The sacred house of Allah
He made it for those who want to
visit him.
And whoever visits the house of Allah,
it is as though he has visited Allah
himself.
And this is why
When he saw the house of Allah
he stood
and he said
When he saw the Kaaba,
he said, oh Allah,
you are a salaam. You are the peace.
You are the source of all peace.
And
every peace that is on earth is from
you.
He would say, oh Allah, greet us.
Greet us and welcome us with peace.
You see brothers and sisters in Islam. When
Omar
sees the Kaaba and says Allah
he is remembering a name from the names
of Allah.
Because when visiting the house of Allah,
you are in reality visiting Allah himself.
The first thing he remembers when he sees
the Kaaba is a name of Allah.
And one of the most beautiful names of
Allah.
The name as salam.
You will find
that peace and comfort
overwhelms the heart.
When it sees the house of Allah
you forget every walls, the problem,
you forget every issue that you have.
And every concern and worry you have of
the afterlife.
Here.
You are at the source of all peace.
You ask Allah
to forgive you from all those sins. To
make the day of judgement easy for you.
To make the meeting of Allah. So I
shall one that you truly look forward towards.
And then he would say for hyena, our
Lord greet us with peace.
And isn't that the case when Allah
greets the believers
as they enter the paradise?
How does Allah greet the believers when they
enter the paradise?
He says to them, Assalamu alaikum.
He says, peace be upon you, oh people
of the paradise.
So this is the that is to be
set as soon as you see the
will say this altogether.
As we walk towards the house of Allah.
But this
is teaching you and I that the reality
of seeing the Kaaba and visiting the house
of Allah
is actually visiting Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
This is why Abin Abba
He used to say,
He used to say, Enjoy
this house.
Enjoy it.
And he just like you enjoy when you
visit
your friend
at his house,
or you visit your parents
back in their house or your children's home
or wherever it is. When you visit someone
in his house, you enjoy the moment. You
enjoy the experience.
You sit for hours and hours. And even
when you depart your friend's house,
you yeah. I mean, it's very difficult for
you to leave and you're saying to your
friend inshallah do this next time. Come over
next time and so on. Look at the
attachment.
This should be the attachment when you see
the house of Allah and visit the house
of Allah should be
an incredible attachment there.
The idea is
enjoy the house. How do we enjoy the
house of Allah?
Enjoy the house by looking at it,
by performing around
the house,
by kissing the black stone,
By
touching touch
it. That's where the sins drop and they
fall. Enjoy the house.
By praying towards the house of Allah
This is how we enjoy the house
by attaching ourselves to Al Mu'tazam,
which is
between the black stone and the door of
the Kaaba. There is a place there when
Nabi
would attach his entire body, his physical body
to the Kaaba. And he said that this
is a place of answered dua.
Enjoy the house.
By praying inside the Kaaba.
And this is
possible when they open that semicircle
because if you notice, there is the structure,
the cube structure itself.
And right next to it, there is like
a a circle, a semicircle.
Inside of that is actually inside the Kaaba.
And at times it's open
and people enter and they perform 2 rakat
in there. You're allowed to pray the sunnah
prayer in there, but you're not allowed to
pray the obligatory prayer in there. Whoever prays
there as though he has prayed inside the
Kaaba.
And this is how we enjoy the house.
This is how we enjoy the house
And this Kaaba itself, Allah told
us
about it. He said,
What's the purpose of this Kaaba? We've spoken
a few purposes so far. This is visiting
Allah
We said also,
that
Allah
he said this Kaaba,
its purpose is
Allah
He said, He made the Kaaba
a source of strength for mankind.
And what does that mean? The Kaaba
is there as a source of strength for
mankind.
Two things.
It is a source of financial strength,
and it is a source of spiritual strength.
You know, because back then when Quraish used
to live in Makkah,
the tribes,
they used to
as Allah says. The people of Makkah, they
used to have 2 travels,
1 in summer and 1 in winter. The
summer travel,
they used to go towards Hashem
Hashem where Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria is. They
used to go there. Used to buy the
goods
and come back to Mecca where the Kaaba
is and they used to sell. And in
winter, they used to go to Yemen. They
used to purchase the goods from there, come
back to Al Qaeda, and sell all that.
And they used to be money made for
the people. Even in Al Hajj. Al Hajj
is a season of people coming in from
all over the world and selling their products
and their items on the streets, on the
roads. You'll see all this. And this is
all permissible. There's no problem.
Allah
made the Kaaba as a source of financial
strength for the people.
But And also and most importantly
a source of spiritual
strength. Spiritual strength.
So when we go there, the the point
of Al Kaaba is to increase
our increase
our worship.
It's supposed to increase us spiritually. You go
there, you perform Al Hajj, you perform an
Umrah,
you pray one salat in the house of
Allah is is a 100,000
prayers.
It takes you 55
years to pray 5 daily prayers in your
house to achieve the reward of 1 salat
at the house of Allah Azza wa Jal
in Mecca. So no doubt it is a
source of spiritual strength.
This is the purpose for I exist. So
it doesn't make sense that you don't know
this and then you end up going there
wasting your time because you did not have
this crucial
knowledge that you're supposed to have. So be
careful of these meanings brothers and sisters in
Islam and this aya is enough
of motivation for us that when we go
there we're going to go with our hearts.
Whoever knows this aya
will Insha'Allah
go to the house of Allah with his
heart and not his body. And now you
know what?
With this small piece of information that so
far we have shared,
your heart is now ready. It's ready to
go alongside your body
to perform this
Hajj.
He says,
The people that go to do Hajj and
Umrah, they are the guests of Allah.
They are the guests of Allah.
He called them
and they answered his call. And they went
fulfilling what Allah
has requested from them.
So
don't
be
oblivious to this fact.
You are Allah's guest
when you go to the house of Allah
before you are the guests of or
myself
or anyone of the organisation.
You are the guest of Allah.
So you
behave how a guest should behave
in the house of his friend.
He had performed
6 dirhamahullah. He had performed 6 dirhamahullah in
his life.
This is one of the pious predecessors.
He performed 6 dirhamahullah in his life
and he became
old.
And he was very hesitant
to travel
to perform Hajj for another year.
So one night he slept,
and he seen in his dream a person
coming to him and telling him,
A
a a a a voice came to him
in his dream and said to him, oh,
isn't it a fact
that only
that you only call to your house whom
you love?
So he got up shocked
because he was hesitating. Should I go to
Hajj DC or not?
And he heard
a sound saying to him in the dream,
isn't it a fact
that you only go
that you that you are only called to
the house of those whom you love.
So then he got up and he said,
He said, glad tidings.
Congratulations
to the one who was carried by his
lord
to the loftiest of places,
and that is Makkah to perform.
So
Allah only invites
those who he loves,
those who he wants to welcome to his
house. And if Allah invites you to his
house,
that means Allah
wants to forgive you. He wants to guarantee
you a place in the paradise.
He wants to bestow his mercy, his compassion,
his gentleness upon you. He wants to select
you from among 1,000,000 and billions on earth
for a special mercy of his, Subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
And this is why the most repeated word
in Al Hajj is
That's the most repeated word. Do you know
the word
It's repeated 4 times in this one phrase.
You say it 4 times. And you know,
you know what means?
Yes, of course, it means, O Allah, I
am here at your service. I am here
answering your call to worship you. But the
word Labbeik,
it has a secret implementation.
It implies something.
It it it has a secret implication of
something.
It comes from the word.
And this is only said to a dear
friend.
If someone calls you, let's say your parents
called you, your child called you, you can
either say to them, yes. What do you
want?
Or you can either say to them,
means
my dear friend. What do you want?
So now when we say
we're seeing oh Allah,
you are our beloved.
We love
you. And we're here. We are here. Answering
your call because of the love we have
for you.
Is only a word used for the one
who you love.
You do not say Labake
to an enemy.
If an enemy called you, do you don't
say Labake to them?
Is only said to someone you love and
you love dearly.
And so this is the most repeated word
in Al Hajj.
Once again,
emphasizing that point that I've said to you
about the reality of visiting the house of
Allah is as though you have visited Allah.
And so now you are uttering words of
love for Allah
Every time you say Labbeik,
the one who understands
the depth of
this, you will find his tongue uttering Labbeek
non stop,
because he has understood
that this is a word
in where he is proving his love for
Allah,
increasing his love for Allah. And if you're
increasing
your love for Allah,
Allah loves you in return.
Brothers and sisters in Islam,
Yani,
this
is some of the things that I wanted
to share with you about Al Hajj,
about
visiting the house of Allah
There are many other things that
in our next lesson,
we will share.
We will Insha Allah Ta'ala
conclude our lecture
at this point.
Insha Allah Ta'ala in our upcoming session,
In our next lesson, we will
continue with you
more and more about some of the purposes
and the wisdoms of Al Hajj.
Why was it legislated?
We'll go through many of the different things
that we do in Al Hajj.
Why do we do them in such way?
We'll speak about the ihram.
What's its purpose and what's it symbolic of?
What does it represent?
Going around the house of Allah,
praying behind
What's
the purpose of all this? Why do we
do this?
And then we go to Arafa
and and the stoning of
all of this
We'll leave it until our next lesson. We'll
go through as many as we can. And
no problems if we don't go through everything
because
we're also going to see each other in
Madinah and Mecca.
And over
there,
we'll share more and more and we'll answer
your questions
to the point where you are satisfied and
you are comfortable
when performing your Hajj and, of course, throughout
the Hajj, we will be there as guides
for you. Most importantly,
spiritual
guides helping you make the most out of
your Hajj,
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