Bilal Philips – The Best In Islam #30

			Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato. The Allah's peace and blessings beyond each and every one
of you. I'd like to welcome you the viewers to another in our series, the best in Islam to the
series. As you all know, we are looking at what Allah and His Messenger what the Quran and the
Sunnah had to define for us as the best, the best in Muslim actions, Islamic principles, human
beings, events from our day to day lives,
		

			in whatever sphere, Allah and His Messenger have spoken about what is best, leaving certain
principles behind, which would guide us in our day to day lives.
		

			What we'll be looking at, in this episode is
		

			what is best in terms of the nights. What is the best night? I'm sure you all have an idea. But we
have from Surah Al other, the 97 chapter, verse three, Allah's statement, Laila to Kadri Hi rune
men, I'll fish out the worship in the Night of Decree, Leila, Takada is better than 1000 months of
worship, this night is a special night which Allah has given additional value. We know good deeds
are normally increased in their value by 10 times. And on other occasion for other different good
deeds, Allah can increase that as he wishes. It's not limited to 10. But at least it's worth 10
times its value in the case of worship,
		

			in that night, in Ramadan, among the last 10 nights of Ramadan, the odd nights, in particular,
		

			worship in that night is worth the worship of 1000 months. That's more than the average lifetime. So
what is being encouraged here is night worship, worshiping in the night, because the night prayer,
the voluntary night prayer known as tahajjud, is after the obligatory prayers, the prayer with the
greatest reward, that prayer which is done. After we have slept, we wake up before the morning
prayer,
		

			we get up and pray at that time formal prayers. Complete those prayers with what is known as Witter,
or the odd unit, one unit of prayer or three or five, that nighttime prayer tahajud is the greatest
prayer after the obligatory prayers. Why? Why is that night prayer so special, because it is the
prayer which is free from any aspects of showing off. It's just you getting up in the night. No one
else knows. It's just between you and Allah.
		

			That makes our intention, pure for prayer. Because it's not unusual that one while praying during
the daytime around others, etc. One is conscious that others are looking at them in worship.
		

			And it may affect our worship in one way or another. But that nighttime prayer, it's just you and
God. There is no chance for feelings of pride and things like that to come in. There's no place for
it. Nobody knows. Of course after you finish praying in the morning, you tell everybody what it's
like prayed last night. Okay, yes, you can destroy the reward for that prayer. But the prayer by
itself is the greatest prayer
		

			After the obligatory prayers, so in the month of Ramadan, we are encouraged to pray that nighttime
prayer throughout the month, it's done together commonly it's called tarawih. But really it is
tahajjud. That's what it is. Outside of Ramadan, it's just called tagit. They call it in Ramadan
tarawih.
		

			But it's one of the same thing. So we are encouraged,
		

			especially in the last 10 Nights, because people may be neglectful and leave the taraweeh
		

			in the first 20 Nights, at least in the last 10 We're encouraged now to make the effort to at least
do the last 10 nights as tahajjud in congregation
		

			at home outside of Ramadan, we may do it individually or do it in congregation, it's not an
obligation to do it in congregation. But the point here is that when we do this night prayer, in
congregation, it is supposed to motivate us and encourage us to be able to do it outside of Ramadan.
That's the idea that outside of Ramadan for the rest of the year, we do engage in it from time to
time at least as much as we can.
		

			We should be praying some night prayers. Now. Some people might say well, actually, it's only the
you know the last
		

			odd nights because the Prophet may God's peace and blessings be upon him I told us to seek it in the
odd nights. You know this is when it is
		

			likely to occur, the 21st
		

			the 23rd 25th 2729 and there are some narrations which indicated that it was the 27th may have been
the 27th On one occasion, but it is was not the 27th on all occasions. Because we know that the
Prophet Megan's peace and blessings be upon him and said that Allah had told him when the night was,
and he had wanted to convey that to the OMA, for us to know exactly when that night was so we could
all catch it. But when he came from his house, with the intention of going to inform it to people,
he found some Muslims engaged in argumentation and Allah caused them to forget it.
		

			So we know from that very authentic narration, that the exact night is unknown, how to figure out
which night it is, is known only to Allah.
		

			And it's quite possible that as scholars have said that the night may vary from year to year, it's
one of the odd nights.
		

			And if we consider the fact that
		

			there are enough times when Ramadan has been miscalculated, we started one day earlier, we started
one day late. And if we start one day earlier, one day late, then the 21st will become the 20th. Or
to become the 22nd. It will not be an odd night anymore. So anytime we go into Ramadan, those dates
that we have fixed can change. By the end of Ramadan, we'll find out that what we thought was the
27th was really the 26th or the 28th. So, really, in the last 10, we should strive our utmost to do
all of them. We should strive our utmost to pray all of those last 10 Since we're not certain which
one it may be, whether it is in fact, the odd or it is actually an even number. So the best thing,
		

			the safest thing to do in Ramadan is to pray those last 10 Make sure you catch every last night. And
that is encouragement because of the great reward for all of us to engage in it. But ultimately, it
is encouragement to bring tahajjud back into our lives. That tahajjud be a part and parcel of our
day to day lives. Bring it back in once a week, once a month, whatever.
		

			If we can bring it in and establish
		

			it. As we said before, quoting the Prophet may God's peace and blessings be upon him when he said
that the deeds most beloved to Allah are the ones which are done consistently, regularly, even if
they are small, so at least try once a month or once a week to do to hedge it and doing it with your
family is a good thing. Gather your family together and do it all together. That's quite who could
say it's not only permissible it's from the Sunnah Prophet Muhammad may God's peace and blessings be
upon him, depending on which house he was in of his wives, he would wake up the wives and the
children to pray along with him in the night, often, not necessarily every night, some nights he
		

			would get up himself, they would wake up themselves and join him. Other nights, he would sleep, he
didn't do it every single night. He prayed some night and some nights is that so we need to bring
back tahajjud into our lives. And this is the encouragement for us to do so. Ramadan is the time to
reestablish it. With that we're going to take now a brief break. And we'll be continuing to look at
the best in Islam after the break.
		

			Welcome back from the break.
		

			And now we're going to look at another recommendation. But this time with regards to the life to
come. We find a number of verses in the Quran in which Allah reminds us that that life to come in
Paradise is far better than this. For example, in Surah Furqan verse 24. We find a lost amount of
data saying there, as hobbled Jana Yama is in Hi rune moussaka run for axon Umatilla. On that day,
those destined for Paradise will have the best abode and the nicest of places for rest. We also find
in sewer allowed off verse 169, what data will ask era to hire rune, Linda DNA, cocoon, Avila taki
rune.
		

			And the home of the Hereafter is better for those who fear God. Can you not understand these verses
and there are many others like them.
		

			remind us that everything that we consider wonderful, pleasing pleasurable, that we strive for in
this life
		

			has an equivalent in the life to come, which is far greater, far better, which outshines anything in
this life. In fact, so we need to keep that as our focus, our goal, the pleasure of the life to
come, as opposed to the pleasures of this life. Of course, it's not easy, because the pleasures of
this life, we experience and we become addicted to them, and we love them. Whereas the pressures of
the life to come are spoken about. They're written in the Quran, we hear them recited, but what they
are really we have no idea, because the Prophet may God's peace and blessing be upon him and said
that in paradise,
		

			the contents of paradise, no eye has ever seen, no ear has ever heard, nor has it ever crossed the
mind of anyone. It is so different, so much greater.
		

			It is something unimaginable. So for us to be tied to that or focused on that. That which we have
never perceived, is not easy. The best that we can do
		

			is to try to do the right thing with regards to what Allah has commanded us. That whatever He has
commanded us, will eventually give us that reward. So our focus should be on the pleasure of God. To
try to do whatever we're doing in a way which is pleasing to Allah.
		

			If it is pleasing to Allah, then we will attain the best
		

			In the life to come, one thing that is sure is that we will not live forever, this life is going to
come to an end that we can be absolutely certain of
		

			the issue is, where do we want to be when it comes to an end. If we want to be in a better state,
		

			then obviously, there are things that we have to do in this life.
		

			And that's just common sense.
		

			We have to do the right thing. We have to avoid evil, and command the good strive for what is
better, if we are to achieve what is in fact better in the life to come. So these verses are
reminders for us.
		

			As we get distracted, and caught up in the day to day life, and the day to day, pleasures, worries,
etc. Our minds become so entangled in the things of this life that we lose sight of the ultimate
goal of this life. So these verses are reminders to us to keep focused, focused on the goal, the
goal of this life
		

			moving on, and after paradise, we looked at things concerning paradise, we're now going to look at
something concerning parents. And we find the narration in Sahih al Bukhari from Anna's and Ibn
Massoud, in which they quoted the Prophet sallallahu wasallam as saying, of the family, as Salah
truly works, the HA, for Varun validating
		

			the best of deeds are salah, on time, and kindness to parents, Salah on time, and kindness to
parents. Why is Salah on time, among the best of deeds are in fact, the best of deeds. Because
		

			salah in general, is a great good deed. The first deed, which we were asked to do, after having
accepted Islam, whether it is the day we wake up, having been Muslim all our lives, but not
practicing really Islam. Finally, we wake up one day and say, Hey,
		

			no, I need to be a Muslim.
		

			I what I've been doing up to this point is just ritual tradition, keeping up with the requirements
of my family, community, etc. Now I need to live this religion, I need to make it truly a part of my
life. At that point, when we wake up, focus has to be on what is most obligatory, the foremost
obligatory requirement, that is Salah, that's number one, and that prayer five times a day because
it's not just prayer in general. So you do it on Fridays. So you become what they call a Friday
Muslim. Or you do it in Ramadan, you are Ramadan Muslim, it is a five times daily thing, what we do
five times a day we organize our day around prayer. But
		

			because Satan is busy
		

			trying to distract us from the prayer,
		

			giving us excuses. So many times people miss their prayers, because of being caught up in the
worldly life. So naturally, the best thing to do is when the prayer comes in, when the time starts
to pray immediately, if we put off the prayer for something, and we say okay, after 10 minutes, I'm
going to go and pray. Then 10 minutes comes, then something else comes up, oh, there's something
else I need to do. I'll do it after another 10 minutes and something else and something until we end
up missing the prayer. The only way to break that cycle is to catch the prayer right at the
beginning right at the time when it comes in.
		

			And that is the time when the iodine is given then the commerce given the karma. The time for the
actual prayer is given at the beginning of the time. It's not done towards the end. So this is the
best time because that is the time of the congregational prayer, especially for men where they are
supposed to pray together in the mosque, then this is the most critical for them
		

			to try to
		

			pray at the beginning of the time, the greatest reward is there. After that, the Prophet mentioned,
bedroom validate
		

			kindness, goodness, to parents. This is a principle, which is essential for the correct functioning
of society, when the principle of being kind to parents looking after parents is lost, then the
society begins to crumble, where children will put their parents in old people's homes, rather than
deal with them, their lives become busy, we don't have time for our parents anymore. These are the
signs of a crumbling culture. Because those same parents looked after the children, when the
children were unable to look after themselves. It is only right that when they are unable to look
after themselves, that their children now look after them. That is only right.
		

			As is only reasonable when people break that cycle. So parents will look after the children but the
children don't look after the parents, then harm takes place. We see in surveys, investigations done
in the various old people's homes in the West, and they found mountains of abuse. Because those
people who are hired just to look after these old people,
		

			they have no connection. This is just a job.
		

			And that job can become very, you know, degrading, or very difficult when you're dealing with people
who can't take care of themselves, as we're dealing with a child is one thing. But now you deal with
an adult, who now you have to take to the bathroom, you have to clean them up, they may, you know,
pass urine on themselves. And you have to be cleaning up the beds and, you know, day in day out,
maybe you're okay for the first week, first month, but after a while it wears you down. So you find
that those people working in these homes, they become very upset quickly. You know, because the
people may have done something which they didn't like, they end up hitting them, kicking them,
		

			pushing them abusing them.
		

			Much of that takes place in the old people's homes.
		

			And that's what we resign our parents to. And that's evil. That is an evil situation where the
parents don't receive the care and concern that they gave to their children when the children needed
it. So as we said, this is a sign of a crumbling culture. And in the Muslim world, it would be
considered, you know, bad manners, bad behavior. To do that to our parents. We look after our
parents. With that their viewers, I'd like to thank you for being with us on this segment of our
episode from the best in Islam. We hope to see you in coming episodes. Salaam Alaikum Warahmatullahi
wabarakatuh