Abu Taymiyyah – Hidden Gems in Being Forgiven In These Ramadan Nights
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AI: Transcript ©
My beloved brothers and sisters,
Ibnurajab Al Hambali,
the great scholar,
he says in his Kitab Latayf Al Ma'arib
which is a wonderful book
that speaks about
the virtues of different seasons and times,
and what is recommended for an individual to
engage in.
He says,
How can the believer not shed tears,
and he is about to part ways with
Ramadan,
and he has no guarantee
that he will be able to come back
to another Ramadan.
Right.
With just a couple of days remaining, my
brothers and my sisters,
right,
us as believers,
we become sad,
and we feel
that this may well be the last time
we are able to experience the month of
Ramadan.
Right?
I said this in the Fajr reflection, just
a couple of days ago.
Right? We buried someone at the graveyard,
And normally when we enter into the last
10 nights of Ramadan,
it doesn't really normally tend to cross our
minds,
that
there is a possibility of us passing away,
because we are preparing for the day of
Eid, we are excited,
we can't wait for it.
Right? My brothers and my sisters, I want
all of us to take a couple of
moments out to just reflect
on the following.
I want you to imagine,
4 weeks from today,
the Angel of death has ripped your soul
out of your body.
And then you are placed
on the janazah table.
You are being washed, and then you are
shrouded with white cloths.
And then your family, they come and they
pick you up,
and take you to the masjid for you
to be prayed on.
You know what happens
at this time my brothers and my sisters,
and I heard this reminder, and it really
really touched my heart.
You completely
lose your identity.
From being called Muhammad or Fatima,
your name becomes the body.
Bring the body, wash the body, shroud the
body.
Now take the body, it's time to move
the body.
From the
washing area now to the Masjid,
that's what your name has become, the body.
Right?
After that my brothers and my sisters, you
are carried to
the graveyard,
and then eventually you are admitted into
that hole that is 6 feet down into
the ground.
And then what happens after that my brothers
and my sisters, your family and friends, they
will mourn your death
for a couple of days, and then eventually
you are forgotten people, they get on with
their lives.
You know, an incident that I can't get
out of my head, couple of years ago,
I think it was,
we buried the young man.
It wasn't even 1 hour
after he was buried,
his friends they were sitting in Pepes.
Have you guys heard of Pepe's?
It's a chicken shop.
They sell you rice and chicken,
and wings
and strips.
They were sitting there
already having forgotten about
their dead friend that just passed away, and
they're speaking about the football.
That's how quickly one may well be forgotten.
And then if you're living the life of
being a people pleaser,
this is
eventually what ends up happening.
Having said all of that my brothers and
my sisters,
we've just entered into the last ten, right?
We may never get this opportunity again, right?
Instead of working hard,
haram
all of the haram that we want to
engage in on the day of Eid.
Am I wrong to say that my brothers
and my sisters?
We are planning
which hotel to hire out, which car to
book out, which haram to do with a
woman.
Unfortunately this is the case.
Right?
A couple of years ago, you guys know
Abu Hassan, Amir ul Qom,
one of the caretakers of the Masjid, the
one that runs the programs.
He phoned me and he said, please, Abu
Taimy, can you come?
We will give you the mic and the
speakers, and stand on Wilmsborough Road,
to give them the reminder,
right? That they don't destroy all of this
hard work.
Wallahi my brothers
and my sisters,
you know as soon as the adhan goes
off, maghrib time,
the announcement has been made that tomorrow is
going to be Eid, as soon as the
Adhan Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar,
in some places it is as if you
can see that the shayateen have been released,
The devils are
out with the way some of us start
behaving.
Warms the road just around the corner.
Take a look my brothers and my sisters,
and may Allah as well guide us and
those who will be there.
Right?
This is the sad reality.
We end up destroying our Ramadan
for a couple of hours of what we
may consider enjoyment,
right? And it will never give you that
everlasting peace and enjoyment that you are striving
to
acquire.
Alib Nabi Talib
my brothers and my sisters. You know, what
he would say on a night like that,
he would come out and he would call
and say,
Is there anyone whose Ramadan has been accepted
so that we can congratulate him?
Is there someone whose Ramadan has been rejected?
So that we can pay our condolences to
him, we can pay our tasi'ah
to that individual, tasi'ah.
Who would you normally pay your tasi'ah or
your tasi'ah to, brothers and sisters?
Someone who has just died, passed away, you
go to his family, say, Inna Lillaha, Inna
Lillaha, Lillahaima Akhat. What?
And we pay our condolences, right?
He wants to pay his condolences
to the one that
has destroyed his Ramadan.
My brothers and my sisters,
right?
What are we
trying to achieve in this month? Are we
only worshiping Allah
in these days?
Right? And then after that we're going to
go back to our lives, and whatever else
that we may have been engaging in. Is
this what Ramadan is actually really for?
Right?
No, my brothers and my sisters, that's not
necessarily the case.
Right?
I remember last year, subhanAllah,
in West London, I gave a khutba, a
brother came up to me,
and he said there's a brother that is
in the masjid but he's too shy to
come up to you. I was like, okay,
Haya, what's the issue?
He said, he's a drug dealer, but this
month he's going to sit in a masjid,
and he's just going to read Quran. I
was like, oh mashaAllah, excellent.
No, but he goes wait, wait.
He's not going to be doing it, but
he has all of these youngsters running around
doing the drug dealing on his behalf.
And then on the day of Eid, he's
going to invite them over, and they're going
to make the calculations of what they made
on the in Ramadan.
This is what Ramadan is for my brothers
and my sisters.
I always mentioned this, right? Last year again,
there was a screenshot that went round
of a sister saying to her boyfriend,
I don't want to see you till the
day of Eid.
Tell the day of Eid, we're not going
to talk.
And everyone is commenting,
She's going to stay away from her boyfriend
for 30 days.
Is that what Ramadan is for, my brothers
and sisters? And then on the day of
Eid, he's holding his arms out,
right?
Waiting to embrace her,
to continue with the haram. This is not
what Ramadan is for.
You have that kind and then you also
have my brothers, someone
who was maybe involved in haram, and then
wants to use Ramadan to bet himself. This
is good. He wants to use Ramadan as
a stepping stone.
And Ramadan is not just for practicing people.
It is for anyone that are looking for
inspiration.
Right? And it's wrong to refer to them
as a Ramadan Muslim.
My brothers and my sisters,
I want to stand over, insha Allahu Ta'ala,
the hadith of Aishatah
Want to take away 2 important benefits
in this Khutba from this hadith. One day
she came to the Messenger
and
she
said,
O Messenger of Allah, I come to know
when Laylatul Qadr is what you advise me
to say. And this du'a we've all memorized,
Insha'Allah.
O Allah, Your Afu. You love to pardon,
so pardon me.
Right.
2 statements that I want to mention, again
from Ibn Rajiv, from his wonderful Kitab Lataif
ul Ma'arif.
The first, my brothers and my sisters, he
says,
Al Afoo women Asma'illahi ta'ala.
Afoo is from the names of Allah.
It is He,
right, who overlooks
the mistakes and the shortcomings and the sins
of His servants.
It is He, al Mahi, the one who
erases
the traces of these sins.
Right. Al Mahi li athariyaanuh.
Waohuuhibbu al aafu, he loves the pardon.
And he loves
that his servants, they pardon and forgive one
another. And here comes the important part.
Here comes the important part my brothers and
my sisters.
When they pardon and forgive one another,
that's when Allah will forgive them. I'll say
that again because it's key.
When they forgive and pardon one another, that's
when Allah will pardon them.
Him pardoning is more beloved to him than
punishing them.
Where did Ibn Rajiv take this from? You
have the hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam also.
Have mercy on the people, Allah will have
mercy upon you.
Forgive and pardon, Allah will forgive you. You
know, my brothers and my sisters, we're going
to be standing.
You Allah, forgive me. You Allah, of all
of these sins.
We want to be treated
by Allah
right? In this way and be pardoned, right?
But we are not ready to pardon others.
We are not ready to remove the grudges
that we have in our hearts.
People fall out over the most pathetic and
dumbest of things.
You know what's even worse than that?
You know what's even worse than that? Some
of us are not talking to our relatives,
brothers, sisters.
Even worse than that is some of us
are not talking to our parents,
or we've cut them off, or we don't
want anything to do with them.
Right? You want to be forgiven my brothers
and my sisters, Ibram Raqayim, he says,
Indeed between you and Allah are sins that
nobody knows about.
Nobody knows about except
Allah.
You want Allah to pardon and forgive you,
make sure you forgive others.
These sins that we have between ourselves that
Allah overlooks,
you know Allah says in the Quran, I
love this Ayah.
Whenever you are struck with a calamity,
right, it is because of what you earned
with your own hands.
But then look what he says,
There's a lot that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
forgives, pardons, and overlooks. Imagine
every sin that we fell into Allah, Azzawal,
punished us for it, but he doesn't. He's
so kind.
And then the one time we go through
a calamity or a struggle,
even though it was because of our sins,
we get angry at Allah.
Right? When he forgives so much, he overlooks
all of this.
Right?
Let me tell you all my brothers and
my sisters about the great companion Abu Bakr
who doesn't require an introduction,
who was a role model in Al A'fou
for all of us.
He had a cousin called Miss Taheb Noosa,
it's mentioned in Surat Noor.
Miss Taheb Noosa, when he migrated from Makkah
to Madinah,
his only source of income was Abu Bakr.
Right?
He didn't have child tax credit or housing
benefits,
none of that was available.
His only source of income was Abu Bakr
radiAllahu ta'ala.
He would give him an allowance.
Right?
Then the ift took place, the slander of
Aisha, when the munafiqun,
the hypocrites,
started spreading about her that she committed a
faisha.
That she committed what? Haram.
Right?
From amongst those who participated
in this slander
was her own uncle, mister,
cousin of Abu Bakr
It reached Abu Bakr, he became absolutely
furious.
Like imagine what you would do and how
you would react if someone done that now
to your wife or your cousin
or your sister
or a female relative of yours,
how you would deal with this situation.
In most cases tables are going to get
flipped,
right?
He swore by Allah,
I am not going to spend on him
after today.
No mukhalas.
So a verse was sent down.
This verse
The people of virtue and grace should not
take an oath that they will now stop
helping
those who migrated from Makkah to Madinah. It's
being
referred to Abu Bakr, and also mister mister
is the one that migrated. Abu Bakr is
a person of grace and virtue.
Allah says, to Afu and Usafi.
What's the difference between the 2?
Is
not to hold that individual to account
for the mistake
or the sin that he committed.
And Asaf is,
right? It is to remove the traces
that you have,
right? You know the grudge that still remains.
It's one thing saying to someone, look I
forgive your Khalas, that's it, but it's another
now you remove the traces and you deal
with that individual as if nothing happened,
That is a whole different level.
And then Allah said Allah to Hibunyaqfirullahahuwalaqum.
Do you not want Allah Azzawajal to forgive
you?
When Abu Bakr heard it, as soon as
he heard it, he said, bala. Of course.
Of course.
Right. That's why Abu Bakr radiAllahu ta'ala is
who he is.
And I'm not gonna stand here, my brothers,
I'm gonna talk like this is easy to
do, but remember,
that which is hard, the reward and the
status is so much more greater.
My brothers and my sisters,
pick up that phone,
make that call.
Right. Bury the hatch, as they say. Be
the bigger man.
The best of the 2 is the one
who starts with the salaam, as the messenger
said.
Right.
And see how you will feel as soon
as you put that phone down.
See how your heart will feel when that
huge burden has been lifted.
Right. You may feel like, oh my dignity,
but my dignity though, right?
Remember that which you have waiting for you
my brothers and my sisters.
Right?
The second thing my brothers and my sisters
that I want to mention and we will
conclude with it.
The benefit that Ibnu Rajib takes from this
hadith.
You know, if you think about it,
who's the one asking the question? It is
Aisha.
Who's the one answering? It's the Prophet Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. What is she asking
him? What do you advise me to say
on these nights? Bearing in mind, that Aisha
she's just been worshiping Allah for 20 days.
She was a Abida.
Right? Devout Worshipper.
So Ibn Rajabi says,
The only reason why he told her to
ask for forgiveness, and you're thinking to yourself,
she hasn't done anything wrong. What does she
need to ask for forgiveness for? This is
a misconception many of us have, that you
only ask for forgiveness when you've done something
wrong.
He says, the only reason why he told
her that is,
The smart and intelligent
individuals.
Right? The Awliya,
the closed beloved servants of Allah.
And then after having done all of these
good deeds, they don't see themselves having accomplished
anything.
Right? They don't see much of it.
After that, my brothers and my sisters,
they run back to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala,
seeking forgiveness the same way
a smart
sinner would do.
What's a smart sinner?
Someone who just committed haram, he committed zina,
or whatever else. If he's a smart sinner,
he's going to go and beg Allah for
forgiveness.
He's saying this is the state of the
one who's been doing all of these good
deeds.
He doesn't get deceived and deluded with his
actions,
or think now khalas have become something.
No.
The same way the smart sinner begs Allah
for forgiveness,
you my friend, who has done all these
acts of worship, to go sit alone, You
Allah forgive me, You Allah forgive me.
Again,
these are levels, my brothers and my sisters,
that we ask Allah azza wa'ala to allow
us to reach.
It is a whole different game now with
these individuals.
Right?
May
Allah make us from amongst them. Even Imam
Siyadih in his manduma says
They do obligatory acts, they do the sunnah
acts, while at the same time they see
that there's more room for improvement, and that
they're still falling short.
Right?
To conclude my brothers and my sisters,
you know my DMs are full
of people saying that
they can't benefit from the month of Ramadan
because of Menses.
I'm going to quickly list 8 things that
our sisters can do.
Number 1, being alone with Allah
This is something that a woman on her
menses and anyone else can do.
Number 2, making du'a in the night, you
don't need to be in the state of
tahara to be able to do that. Number
3, doing a lot of dhikr. Number 4,
muhasabah, holding yourself to account.
Number 5, feeding
those that are fasting and the poor.
Cooking.
When you cook soup, he said, or when
you cook the food, make more so you
cannot give it to the neighbors.
And then you will get the reward
of them fasting.
And the one who paid for it, the
husband,
he's going to get that reward as well.
Number 6, waking up others for qiyam.
Encourage them, wake them up, pray, right?
May Allah have mercy upon a woman.
She woke up and then she prayed in
the night.
And then after that she woke up a
husband.
If he refuses,
she gets water and she
throws it on his face.
And then the man was mentioned as well.
May Allah give you a wives like that,
Amin. Right?
No one said Amin, Allahu alaihi wa sallam.
The last one my brothers and my sisters
is
forgiveness and cleaning your heart, which we already
mentioned, and also charity.