Ali Ataie – God’s Promise in the Last Ten Nights of Ramadan
AI: Summary ©
The historical context of Islam is discussed, including the historical period of Jesus Christ's service and the use of "naive" in title. The speakers also discuss the use of "has" and the historical context of the "naive" title. The concept of forgiveness and rewirements is also discussed, along with the use of "will" and "nafs" in context of slavery. The speakers emphasize the importance of remembering to be mindful of one's fasting and avoiding waste of time.
AI: Summary ©
Alhamdulillah.
All phrases do to Allah
We've entered into the,
last,
third portion of the final 10 days of
the month of Ramadan.
These are some of the holiest days
of the year.
Allah
in the Quran takes an oath by these
10 days, by these 10 nights.
And whenever Allah
takes an oath by something, an oath is
called a qasam,
then that thing is truly great, that thing
has taqrim, and it has tashrif, it has
honor, and it has majesty.
Allah, for example, he says, well, also, Allah,
takes a note, so
also is something great.
Allah says
He takes an oath by Dua and the
lay. These things are great. Allah
says,
by the fig and the olive,
and by Mount Sinai, by the city of
security, meaning Mecca tul Bukarama.
So these are things that are great. Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala says that Amruqa
directly to the prophet Muhammad salallahu alayhi wasalam.
He says by your life, and he said,
I don't remember Allah
taking an oath by someone else's life other
than the life of our master, Muhammad So
Allah
says,
He says, by the Fajr and by the
10 nights, and there's some difference of opinion
here
from the exigence.
Some of the urama say these 10 days
or nights refer to the first 10 days
of Dhul Haqat.
Others say that these 10 days nights refer
to the first 10 days of Muharram culminating
in the 10th of Muharram, which is Yom
Yom Hashuah.
The others say
that these 10 nights are the final 10
nights of the month of Ramadan. And the
hadith recorded a few nights ago before the
taraweeh in,
Sahih Muslim, our mother
Aisha
She says about the prophet
during the final 10 nights of Ramadan.
She says,
that he used to,
tighten his belt or tie his loin cloth.
He's to tighten his belt. The urnama is
saying that this is an idiomatic expression,
meaning
something like he used to prepare for serious
work.
Like, what we say in English now, we
say to roll up one's sleeves,
to get ready for serious work, some serious
business.
And he would spend his night to get
tikaf in the masjid.
And you would engage in salawat, in prayer
to Allah
and thinking of Allah
and in tadpbur of the Quran, you would
he would contemplate the meanings of the Quran.
And Jibril, alayhis salaam, would descend upon him
during these last 10 nights,
and they would, present Quran to each other
in a process known as.
And this was,
witnessed by countless
Sahaba. So he would step on his
during this time. Now, Imam al Razi, he
says defining Islam. He says, al Islam
he said, al Islamu al ibadah tul bil
Faleh.
He said Islam is worship of the creator
while showing compassion and mercy to his creation.
So the Sahaba described the prophet
as, that he was the most generous of
all of humanity.
But the similitude of his jude, of his
generosity during the month of Ramadan,
The similitude of his jude was like that
of rain laden clouds
that bless the earth. Not only did he
step up his ibadah
during this month and approach
Allah but he would,
he would step up his compassion
towards the creation.
Last night, we heard in the Talawiya,
insulat al Ahzad. Allah
says about the prophet
And whenever Allah
says, lafat,
it is tantamount to an oath that Allah
is taking an oath that indeed indeed, I
swear,
And in
Arabic is a verb that means to be.
Usually means he was. But in the context
of the Quran,
it denotes
It denotes perpetuity
and continuance.
That indeed, I swear, you have in the
messenger of God and will always have in
the messenger of God,
a
beautiful pattern of conduct.
For anyone who has hope,
and makes frequent and believes in the last
day, has hope on the last day, and
makes zinger of Allah
in abundance.
And another eye in the Quran at the
end of Surah Al Tawbah,
Allah
says,
There has come unto you a messenger from
amongst yourselves.
It grieves him that you should perish.
Deeply concerned is he about you. And the
una must say in this part of the
ayah
is is general. That the prophet
has concern for the whole of humanity.
And now we have a jussis. Now we
have specificity.
To the believers, he is kind and merciful.
One of my favorite examples of this type
of deep concern
and love that the prophet
has for humanity.
Khuzusan al Muslimim
is a hadith al Sahih Muslim when a
man comes to the prophet
in the month of Ramadan. And he says,
you Rasulullah,
I broke my fast intentionally.
And the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam said
to him, you have to fast 60 consecutive
days now. And the man said, I can't
even fast Ramadan.
How am I going to fast 60 consecutive
days? So the prophet
told him, free a
slave. And he said, I can't afford to
do that. He said, feed 60 poor people.
And he said, with what? I have nothing.
The prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam himself goes out
and gives him some food.
He says, here, take this and feed people.
He said, feed who? He said, I'm fufaral
of poor people.
He said,
wallahi. I swear to Allah.
You Rasulullah, oh messenger of God. There is
no people more poor, more impoverished
between the two mountains of Medina than my
own family.
So the prophet
said to him,
take it and feed your family with me.
He wanted Muslims to flourish.
He avoided
what doctor Jackson called Gotcha Islam.
You know, people that are trying to expose
the false of others. Yeah. Gotcha.
Right? No. The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam wanted
people to flourish.
Think about the hadith of the prophet salallahu
alaihi wasalam when a man came to him
after salatul asr.
And he said to the prophet salallahu alaihi
wasalam, I broke the commandment of Allah, so
punish me according to the kitab of Allah.
Punish me according to the kitab of Allah.
The prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam said to him,
didn't you just pray with us?
And the man said, damn. He said, yes.
He said,
It's already been forgiven for you. It's already
been forgiven.
He wasn't seeking to, you know, meet up
punishment against the Muslim, the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam.
There's a hadith and there's some weakness in
this hadith of the oil must put it.
The prophet
said about the month of Ramadan.
He said,
The beginning of a month is rahman. The
Rebbe say the first 10 days of night
is rahman because the assas,
the, foundation of everything, of anything is Rahmah.
The first ayah in the Quran is mistallah
arrahmanarrahim.
Ar Raheem. In the name of Allah, be
infinitely be be indiscriminately compassionate, be intimately loving.
The first hadith the children
life in the dunya begins in the rafam,
in the womb of a mother. This is
what raham is related to rahma.
Beginning of the month is rahma.
In the middle of the month is forgiveness.
It's not we fasted for 10 days,
and we've engaged in extra worship. We have,
as it were, a sin offering
to give to the Allah
in an attempt to have him forgive us.
Said, you
for
the
Ramadan. Everyone has forgiven in Ramadan except the
one who refuses.
So they said to him, who refuses
to be forgiven? And he said, the one
who refuses to make istifa.
That there are people who refuse to make
istifa.
People who believe in God.
Our president was asked during the campaign,
have you ever asked God for forgiveness? He
said, I never had the need
to ask for forgiveness.
And there's actually a difference of opinion
among the sierena. Who is better? The one
who sinned and made Tova or the one
who never sinned at all? Ultimately, they said
the latter is better because it's closer to
the rank of a prophet. But there's a
genuine difference in opinion between the 2.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said in
that all of the sons of Adam, all
of the children of Adam with exception of
the prophets who are, the the Isma, they're
guarded from,
intentionally, consciously disobeying Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
But everybody else
is in a state of sin.
But the best of those who sin are
those who make Tawbah.
Those who reorient themselves, literally turn back to
Allah
and Allah
is at Tawba,
the one who reorients itself towards us.
The prophet
is
He's the best of creation.
He's Masoon. He cannot consciously disobey Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. Yet he says, I seek Allah's
forgiveness
70 times in the day. That our mother
Aisha heard him in Sajda.
Heard him say
She heard him say, glory be to you.
I am incapable of praising you, the likes
of which you have praised yourself. This is
why he's making Tawba
Because he cannot praise Allah
as Allah
has praised himself.
He's also our exemplar. He's teaching us hadal
edak with our Lord. He said,
In the hadith of the Nuhibam, the prophet
sallallahu alaihi salaam ascended the minba on 1
Friday.
He he climbed the first step. He paused,
and he said, and this was heard by
the Sahaba in the front row. And then
he climbed the second step,
and he's and he paused, and he said,
ameen, and this was heard by the Sahaba.
Then he climbed the 3rd step, ameen. So
after the prayer, they asked him, what was
the meaning of this? Why did you say
Amin?
And he said, subhanahu alaihi wasalam, that Jibril
alaihi wasalam came to me while I was
on the first step.
And he
said, The one who meets Ramadan and is
not forgiven, you enter the hellfire and be
distance by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So he said to me, say amim, so
I said amim.
And then he said, I found the second
step that Jibreel alayhi salam came to me.
And he said, the one who has 1
or 2 parents of old age, but did
not take care of them, did not show
piety towards his parents.
And because of that, he enters the fire,
and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will distance him.
So
he said to me, say amen. So I
said, ameen.
And he said, when I climb the 3rd
step, Jibril alayhi salam said,
That the one when you are mentioned,
he does not bother to send benedictions upon
you. When he hears the name of the
prophet,
he doesn't
send,
and he dies in his distance by Allah
With respect to the first Amin,
in other words,
Allah forgiveness in Ramadan
is everywhere.
If you did not attain
it, then truly won't we don't deserve them.
We really have to work hard not to
make Tawba
in Ramadan.
For not making Tawba in Ramadan, we have
to check our Ramadan,
check our fasting.
And then he
said,
The last part of Ramadan, which is the
time that we're in,
is freedom from the fire. And this word,
Itun. Right?
This is a word used in the context
of slavery.
This word means manumission
or emancipation.
And the meaning here according to the urhamah
is that we've been enslaved by our shakwa,
by our base desire to the knob.
And in Ramadan, we are essentially purchasing our
freedom
from the fire
by attaining independence
from our shahua.
We are purchasing our freedom. We are manumitting
our soul from the fire by attaining independence
from our shakwa. In the Hadith and Muslim
integrity, the prophet
he said, Hellfire is veiled by desires.
In other words, hellfire
is disguised
to look like your desires.
Like wasting time,
or sexual deviancy,
or excessive sleep,
excessive eating,
excessive joking.
This is exemplified by a hadith attributed to
Isa Alaihi Salam
when the dunya personified itself and manifested itself
to him in the form of an old
haggard prostitute.
She came to Isa,
and he looked at her and he said,
how is it that you're able to dupe
and destroy so many men? Look at you.
And she said, I hide in the shadows.
This is the dunya manifested as this old
woman
speaking to Risa alaihi salam. I hide in
the shadows and wave men over to me.
And when they come to me, I slaughter
them.
They came to fulfill their shaqa,
and they found death.
He continues
paradise is veiled by detestable.
In other words, paradise is veiled to look
like things detestable
to our shahwa.
The shahwa, the base self doesn't want to
be active. It doesn't want to,
live life in in moderation.
It doesn't want to fast. It doesn't want
to pray. It doesn't want to study. The
nefs doesn't want these things.
But this is the road to Jannah.
Imam al Qazadi said the 4 things that
we should habituate are nafs,
solitude silence,
hunger, and sleeplessness.
According to Muhammadu Wazady, the two main sources
of nausea, of sin, come from the button
and the phalange,
the stomach
and,
the *.
And he called these as shawwataim,
the two base
desires.
Book 23 on the Yahya is called,
the breaking of the 2 desires.
In Ramadan, food, drink, and relations,
marital relations during the daytime are haram. The
purpose is to discipline and purify the lower
self, the nus.
One of the meanings of of
that we mentioned earlier,
we said was,
a figure of speech in in Arabic, meaning
that the prophet
would get ready for serious business. Some of
the arnama say, this is a euphemism
that you implement a self imposed state of
celibacy
during the last 10 nights of Ramadan
to concentrate on his worship, even though it's
halal to do that.
This is a training program
to become Madakani, to become angelic.
The angels, they only do they only do
what Allah
orders them to do. They don't have volition.
They are in a complete state of time,
a complete state of obeying to Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
But in our postmodern society,
become fully endorsed sometimes.
You have these movements now.
Body acceptance movement.
Incredibly
mysterious, enigmatic.
A mystery to medical,
professionals that people are saying there's no relationship
between body weight and health.
They use this acronym, HACE.
Healthy at every size.
No doctor endorses this.
This is a way of just shifting blame.
I don't need to change myself for my
gluttony. It's society's fault. That's who needs to
change.
Or if 25%
of Internet searches deal with indecent material, 25%,
billions of times admit.
And you not only now have homosexual,
you have bisexual,
you have metrosexual,
and sexual.
What on earth is a pansexual?
These people are you know, they they sanction
their lust. They.
In the Quran, the nafs is tried hard
time. We're talking about the nafs. We're talking
about the lower self, the base self that
needs to be transformed.
The anima in Latin.
Right? The psyche in Greek. We're not talking
about the lure of the spiritus,
which is the,
imperishable soul, the.
We're talking about the nafs. It's tripartite.
These are mentioned in the Quran.
And nafs alamal alisud.
This is the nafs, the lower self that
incites towards evil, untrained, undisciplined.
We have to work on that.
We begin training our souls.
The nafs becomes the
striving soul.
The striving soul, the soul that is engaging
and disciplining itself and transforming itself, and then
you have nesulbuzna
inna,
the tranquil soul,
the soul that has actualized the hadith of
the prophet sallallahu alaihi
Now if you truly believe
until his Shawwa, until his Hawa is in
perfect accordance
with what I have brought.
One of the names of Ramadan is Shahru
Jihad,
the month of intense striving.
And the Sahaba, they engage,
the bushrikeen,
Fazwat,
in the month of Ramadan. This is the
martial or military aspect of jihad, which is
obviously only declared by legitimate state authority, not
by vigilantes.
But there's another aspect of jihad, and this
is a hadith. Some people say this is
not a hadith. This is a hadith recorded
by Imam Al Bayh Hadith. The is man
four, and goes all the way back to
the prophet sallam alaihi sallam. It is a
hasad Hadith. It's a good Hadith. Now when
they were returning to the Qaswat Badr,
the prophet salam alayhi wa sallam said, you're
returning from Al Jihad Al Asfar, the military
aspect of jihad, to Al Jihad Al Ahmad,
to the greater jihad. And they said, yeah,
Rasulullah, we just overcome 3 or 1 odds
on the battlefield. What is this greater jihad?
And he said,
jihad.
The
quintessential
Mujahid
is the one who strives against his lower
self, his base motives
in the obedience of Allah.
The question I get a lot, especially from
the youth,
is what is the point of fasting?
Is it like a diet plan or something
like that?
Right? Which is interesting because the data shows
that in many Muslim majority countries,
food consumption increases.
Because we have Muslims gorging themselves,
overeating,
feasting,
not fasting.
This is incredible.
This is a fitna.
The prophet
said come
When he says come, it's either interrogative or
rhetorical.
Min sa'yim in a prepositional phrase means it's
time to be a rhetorical.
How many people are there that fast, that
get nothing from their fast
except hunger?
There's an axiom amongst the
that the merit of a thing is known
by its objective.
And that all you who believe fasting has
been prescribed upon you just as it was
prescribed upon those before you. Of course, you
have some Christians that will fast Lent. You
have Jews that fast,
Yom Kippur and other days.
And then he says,
In order for you to have taqwa.
Right? This is the objective.
In order for you to have taqwa. The
word taqwa is related to
which is a shield. The prophet said,
The fast is a shield
that you're guarding yourself from what are known
as the seven inroads to the heart.
And this is something we're supposed to be
doing all throughout the year, but the human
being, insan, forgets.
Probably the etymology of the word insan is
nesia, the one who's always forgetting. We need
reminders. We need an annual training program. This
is the purpose of Ramadan.
That we have a shield to protect the
inroads of the heart. The 7 inroads, al
aim, the eye.
That when we're fasting, we see something haram.
We suddenly remember we're fasting. We distract. We
we look away. We divert our glances.
They hear, we don't hear something haram.
The the sound, we don't
talk illiquid people.
We guard our tongues.
They get the hand. We're not stealing things.
We're not abusing people.
The button and the foot, we're not going
to somewhere that's impermissible.
And then the button and the thumbs. And
the last 2 were especially harmful according to
Imam Al Azek.
Lazar. And he said, hunger
is a cloud.
Whenever a bronze man is hungry,
his
heart rains down with
very differently
what we're hearing
in the post Islamic
priest.
Now if you look at the Quran,
we have a section in Al Baqarah
2183 to 187.
Allah speaking of fasting.
And nestled within these ayaats
about Ramadan,
fasting is prescribed. Ramadan is the month in
which the Quran was revealed. If you're sick,
if you're traveling, so on and so forth,
right in the middle of this ayat
of these aya, we have the seemingly unrelated
aya.
Right in the middle, Allah
These ayats are not unrelated.
You see every surah of the Quran,
the ayats exhibit a coherent structure according to
the rules of Semitic rhetoric.
There's an incredible book, Nizam al Quran,
Hamiduddin
al Farahi.
And this student, Hamid Aksam al Islahi,
who wrote an incredible tafsir of the Quran
in Urdu called Sadambur e Quran, nonvolumes.
It's in the process of being translated. This
is incredible work. Western Scholastics
recognize this. I mean, the best word written
in English or translated into English on this
topic of the coherent structure of the Quran
was by a Belgian priest, Jesuit priest, Michel
Kuipers,
of the composition of the Quran, rhetorical analysis.
So the question is, what did this have
to do with fasting
When my servants ask you concerning me, say
I am Farib, I am close to them.
I answer,
every supplicant when he calls upon. You
Your relationship with this ayat, with this section,
with this cluster of ayat is that siyam
or that fasting
is the path to actualize
Qur'l,
is the path to actualizing
nearest to Allah
that when we fast and we need to
experience Allah's nearness.
I'll give you a quick example.
Fasting causes us, or at least it should
cause us,
you were in the world and you never
fed me.
You were in the world and you never
fed me.
And then we'll say,
how can we feed you? Allah
said, if you had fed the hungry, you
would have found me with them.
Is the path to actualize.
I answer every supplement when he would die
with the dying of God.
I answer every supplement
when he calls upon. Part and parcel to
fasting
is dua,
that we should be in a state of
Dua. And the most exalted of the Dua
during this time according to our mother Aisha,
probably alone to the Aisha.
He said the prophet
would constantly recite this dua.
We have to memorize this,
that Allah
is al-'ahu, which is different than al-'ahu.
Allah
has many names indicating
his attribute of forgiveness is at Tawwab, as
we mentioned, Al Zahaher.
Right? Then you have these intensive forms, Al
Fafoor Al Fafar.
Right? Which basically means the one who veils
the sin. The sin is still there. Allah
will veil it.
But al Ahfu, the one who is alahafu
is the one who obliterates
and who trace up the sin. It's erased
completely,
and we forget about it. We don't see
it later on the Yom Kiyama.
And, of course,
any one of these nights
is later did follow.
The
Abbas, he said
the prophet said,
That seek
this night
and the last 10 nights
of the month of Ramadan.
This is when the Quran was revealed.
Allah
sent down the Quran. This is called the
The inside of the Quran is when the
Quran came down in one shot, and one
And later to come from the lower,
from the tablet to the firmament
to the salat al dunya. This is called
the insal.
And then
Allah over the next 23 years
revealed the Quran
peace
from the firmament to the sacred part of
the prophet Muhammad
This is called the Tanzil.
And the Quran says that this night is
better than a 1000 months.
Better than a 1000 months. A lifetime of
worship
Allah give us a to be able to,
to fasten
our seat belt, to roll up our seats.
He get down to serious business. He give
us to feed. He catch this later to
pump up
and have the reward of over a 1000
months.