Hamzah Wald Maqbul – 17 Ramadan 1441 Late Night Majlis Ghazali & Corrupt Rulers Addison 05102020
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AI: Transcript ©
We continue,
this,
17th night of Ramadan.
The reading from
Moana Abu Hasan, Ali, and Naduis,
saviors of the Islamic spirit, in
particular,
with regards to the life, and work of
Imam,
Al Ghazali,
Rahim
with a discussion of,
his critique of rulers and kings.
So Mawlana starts,
Ghazali held that along with the religious scholars,
kings,
rulers, administrators,
nobles,
and the like were also responsible for the
widespread
moral and spiritual degeneration of people.
Abdullah bin Mubarak had also expressed the same
feeling in regards to the kings and nobles
200 years before Ghazali in his famous saying,
and who pollutes religion except for kings,
nobles, and the priestly order,
which is very deep. If you look at
the, you know, how everything
went sideways with regards to religion in Europe,
It was literally those 2 estates that gathered
together and just,
quashed and suffocated the,
the commoners to the point where they just
said to * with all of you.
And,
Voila. We have the world we have now.
Protect us from going down the path that
they went down.
Unmindful of his personal safety, Rizaliah
or stipends granted by the then kings.
Ghazali
was, however, courageous enough to denounce these awards
as unlawful.
He declared that these grants were, at best,
doubtful and worst prohibited.
He writes, the revenues accruing to the kings
these days are mostly prohibited for they seldom
have a lawful income, or if they have
any, it's only paltry.
He again says, the income of the kings
in our times is either entirely prohibited or
its major portion comes under this category.
There's nothing surprising in it because we find
nowadays no trace of the lawful sources,
like zakat, spoils of war, etcetera.
No income from these sources generally reaches the
king. Amongst the lawful sources, only the poll
tax remains
now, jizya.
But numerous unjust means are employed in the
recovery of these dues, which are not,
which are not allowed by the Sharia. The
officials of the state exceed the prescribed limits
both in regards to the amounts, to be
recovered and the persons to be assessed for
the poll tax.
Conditions laid down for assessment of this tax
are also disregarded.
Apart from these sources of incomes, the coffers
of the state are also filled with riches
extracted
from the Muslims, far in excess of the
tributes of the lands held by them,
confiscations, illegal gratifications, and similar other taxes which
are collected,
even more mercilessly than the jizya is, which
is I mean, this is very interesting discussion
about taxation and how the state is supposed
to work,
how the, income of the state is supposed
to work and what the purpose of the
state is ultimately.
Unjust taxation
on behalf of the state was a smoldering
grievance
of the common Muslims,
from the middle of the reign of Ban
Umayyah,
and it continued on later on. And there's
a lot of mavalim, even in states that
we hold in relative,
in relative esteem. There are many mavalim and
many, unjust,
happenings that happen in the,
collection of taxes which need to be examined
and need to be thought about and need
to be,
talked about for people if they want to,
if they want to, you know, rectify,
any attempt at,
living according to the deen of Allah ta'ala
in the future. And, in fact, actually, I'll
go one step further and say even
in in our current situation living in America
and living in,
living as
minorities in, many Muslim lands
or non Muslim lands as well as living
in Muslim lands as if we're minorities in
our own countries where the state doesn't give
proper patronage to
the dean,
in in any full sense.
Some, you know, some countries will take care
of the masajid relatively well.
Others won't even do that. You know, we
need to have,
mechanisms for funding for all of these things,
that take into account several
important,
you know, important,
considerations.
Partially that the funding should a, should happen.
B, that the people giving the money, by
virtue of having money or giving money, don't
actually overtake
and, ransack
the functions, that they are donating to.
Rather, their money is itself considered to be
a favor done to them that they, get
to participate as an act of piety in
the deen and don't have much more,
say in the way, that, learning, teaching, and
the
sacred functions of, of the of the endowments,
run.
And further than that,
it should be, you you know, it should
be something that is that that's just.
And the the way the massages work nowadays
on the kind of sugar daddy model where
everybody comes and is a, free,
free participant or free consumer of what the
masjid gives and does,
while a couple of individuals kind of pull
the strings behind the scene
without, you know, any
prerequisite of piety or knowledge.
Any piety or knowledge that happened to be
in the hands of such people is purely
coincidental.
This is not a sustainable model. This is
the model that we have here in America
where,
you know, non profits are just another type
of corporation
and, they get to compete,
for funds
and, are oftentimes driven by by such considerations.
This is not a sustainable model at all.
And when you project,
the inability
of people to have sustainable funding models,
through to,
you know, through a macro or through through
to a macro level, you get things like
the Mughal empire and you get things where
large portions of the, populace are actively encouraged
not to accept Islam because,
because the
problematic nature of taxation of Muslims or overtaxation
of Muslims with, you know, when compared to
non Muslims, etcetera.
These are all these are all problems that
need to be thought about, you know, and
like every other problem in the deen, or
in the life of the Muslims,
a person, you know, is best,
is best encouraged to go back to the
early times, to the times of the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and the companions or
the
not necessarily in order to mimic exactly what
they did but to at least learn the
and the principles which guided the way that
they,
you know, navigated through these problems, which were
real problems in those days as well.
But that's
a kind of a deep digression.
It's a tangent which is not completely unrelated
to what we're talking about but perhaps, beyond
the scope of, tonight's Majlis. So we continue.
Al Ghazali maintained that since the riches amassed
by the kings,
was either unlawful or at least doubtful, in
nature.
From the viewpoint of the sharia, it was
advisable that no, grants or donations
out of it should be accepted by an
alim.
Such an income he held was not conducive
to the spiritual advancement advancement of its recipient.
He further argued that instances of scholars accepting
royal grants in the past could undoubtedly be
cited,
but that was a world altogether different than
that of his own times. In connection,
to this, he writes, the despotic rulers of
the past,
because of being near in the time to
the rightly guided caliphs, were at least
conscientious,
or conscious of their tyrannical ways and hence,
they were
eager to win favor,
the favor of the companions of the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
and their associates and descendants.
Since these rulers,
of the old
were anxious that their favors should be accepted
by the devout scholars, they made these,
presentations of their own accord and without any
strings attached to their donations.
They even expressed gratitude for the acceptance of
their grants.
Religious,
scholars on the other hand accepted these presentations
only to distribute these amongst the poor and
needy.
At the same time, these mentors of old
never sided with the rulers in the furtherance
of their political ends. I'm gonna repeat this.
At the same time, these mentors of old
never sided with the rulers in the furtherance
of their political ends.
Muslim scholars seem to have been out of
the loop with, how to deal with kings
and rulers for so long that they've gotten
a little rusty at this. It seems that
most of the last century,
they were out in the cold and now
that they're being allowed into the majalluses
the majallis of hookm in
the the gatherings of the rulers. I think
they've become a little bit rusty and they're
not, you know, some of them at least
don't really know how to navigate those those
gatherings, properly and are getting used as tools.
And, you know, since,
that this is not like, you know, late
night political mudslists, we're not gonna bring that
up. We're gonna have differences of opinion about
all of that. But in general, you know,
it's just as a principle, important to know
that if someone is getting paid by somebody,
there's going to be some influence. So the
religious savants, on the other hand, accepted these
presentations only to distribute
distribute these amongst the poor and the needy,
which is in fact,
Moli Hamza says, a a corrective action because,
the the amassing of wealth unjustly of, of
kings and rulers and oligarchs
is on the back of the poor, and
on the back of the the needy
and the exploited classes. So to return the
money to them is a corrective measure,
and it doesn't necessarily have the same effect
of,
the same effect of accepting them,
personally of the ulama. Why? Because they themselves
don't benefit from them. Rather, they're just correcting
something that was, wrong that happened. It just
comes full circle. At the same time, these
mentors of old never sided with the rulers
in the furtherance of their political ends. They
never paid visits to kings and chieftains nor
did they ever encourage the latter to call
upon them.
It was not unoften that they warned the
kings for their irreligious actions or even cursed
them for their tyrannical ways. Thus, these scholars
accepted the presentations,
of the then rulers because there was no
danger, of harmful effect,
to the faith on account to it. Ghazali
continues, the kings nowadays have, however, only such
scholars on their payroll,
who they hope to win over to their
side for certain ulterior motives, or those who
would be willing to act as their entourages
and sing their praises. The vices flowing out
of the acceptance of such favor are many.
1st, the recipient has to endure humiliation.
2nd, he has to pay visits to the
donor. 3rd, he has to be lavish in
his praise for the grantor.
Fourthly, he is required to help the donor
in realizing his ends. 5thly, he has to
dance
attendance on the ruler like other courtiers.
6thly, he has to always express gratitude and
assure the donor of his help. Seventhly, he
has to hold his tongue over the tyrannies
and misdeeds of the kings. The rulers nowadays
would not extend their help to anybody who
is not willing to accept even one of
these conditions, no matter whether he be an
erudite, scholar of Imam Shafi'i's fame.
It is because of these reasons that it
is not lawful now for one to accept
donation from the kings even if one knows
that the latter has derived their income through
lawful means.
There is thus absolutely no justification
for accepting grants out of the revenues which
have been mobilized through prohibited or even doubtful
means.
Now if anybody still unashamedly accepts these donations
from these rulers,
and quotes the companions of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam and their successors as a
precedent. Perhaps he considers the angels to be
peers of blacksmiths
for he cannot avoid waiting upon the rulers
or their chiefs and officials and playing second
fiddle to them and these are all sins.
I have now explained the sources of lawful
and unlawful income accruing to the kings. If,
however,
anybody,
still deems it practicable to obtain a grant,
drawn out of lawful revenue,
he also deserves the same,
and he also deserves the same or gets
it without,
in any way, asking for the same or
having to please the king or his chieftains
or, else the donation does not depend on
any service to be rendered in return thereof,
then it may be lawful to accept the
same. But I would still advise that it
is preferable to refuse it, if only on
account of the evils likely to follow in
the wake of his acceptance.
Moana writes, Al Ghazali did not merely advise
to forsake the donations and grants from kings.
He went even further to stress that one
ought to completely dissociate oneself,
with them and hate their tyrannical and despotic
ways. He writes in the,
yeah. Secondly,
one should be so completely cut off from
the kings that he may never, come across
them. It is obligatory and indeed, safety lies
in it that one should hate, them for
their tyranny. He should never entreat god's blessings
for them nor praise them, nor else seek
acquaintance,
the nor else seek acquaintance of their courtiers,
no,
nor else seek acquaintance of their courtiers. 1
should not even desire to know anything about
them.
This is obviously for for those kings who
are despotic, tyrannical and treacherous in their ways.
There have been righteous and upright kings,
you know, in the history of Islam.
And, a little bit of word from Ghazali
with regards to that will come a little
bit later in the chapter.
Mullan Abu Hassan Ali Nadwe, further remarks, we
are living in a democratic age when freedom
of speech and expression is more or less
assured in almost every country of the world.
It is rather difficult to visualize the amount
of courage Ghazali had to muster and the
grave danger to which he exposed himself by
openly preaching dissociation with the rulers or advising
refusal of their grants and criticizing them for
their tyrannical and un Islamic policies in the
social, political,
and fiscal platform of that time, which is,
something I think many people will fail to
recognize that our our mashaikh in the old
days were outspoken to the point of being,
considered obnoxious or obstinate,
for the times that they're in. But they
said the haqq and, you know, people people
just couldn't handle it. They just couldn't handle
it. For despotic and autocratic rulers, as the
kings generally were in those days, even the
slightest criticism of the state or its policies,
or officials was sufficient mark of treason. And
the heads of eminent scholars and reputed personages
rolled on the ground at the, slightest displeasure
of those tyrants, which is true. There are
many people whose stories will never reach you
and whose books will never reach you because,
they, you know, they
they suffered at the hands of tyrants and
kings,
which is which is still the story to
this day,
with extreme and less extreme examples abound around
us of people who,
got and lost their seats, because of the
refusal to kowtow to,
to the rulers. Muftitapi Usmani
Allah gave him a long life.
He was the chief,
the the chief justice of the Sharia appellate
court in, in Pakistan in the Islamic Republic
of Pakistan,
during the reign of
the prime minister, Nawaz Sharif,
you know, the the second reign of the
prime minister, Nawaz Sharif,
when the government was overthrown by military dictatorship.
And they had successfully,
they had successfully
given the ruling that was passed into law
that,
that bank interest was,
declared riba and therefore unlawful, and the banks
in Pakistan were given a,
deadline
to,
implement a moratorium on the conventional,
lending system
and switch to a sharia based
system
of what they call Islamic finance.
Much of what they call Islamic finance nowadays,
much of it was developed actually in Pakistan
and then implemented in other places in the
world,
because of what happened in the past that,
when
previous
Musharraf, a man who,
doesn't receive a whole lot of respect from,
from me. And,
anyway, without going too much because this is
not like a about him. But when he
overthrew the government,
amongst the number of, like, messed up things
that he did, he actually, told Muftitapi that,
you know, I want you to rescind this,
this ruling of yours,
and Mufti Taqi said no, and so he
removed him from the court.
And then thereafter,
he asked, Mufti Munibar Rahman, who was the
senior,
the senior,
judge on the court
of the,
of the, who had connection with the, Brailvi,
you know, ideology.
And, he also refused. Allah bless him and
give him long life.
He also refused and so he was also
dismissed from the court. So
a
little tag team over there. And then afterward,
he
asked the, the head, Rafidi,
who sat on that court
and, he
apparently
acquiesced.
And because of that,
you know, the conventional,
banking system in in Pakistan survived. But, you
know, Mufti taqiyah Allah T'aal, bless him, he
he gave up that position.
He lost that position because of that.
And,
you know,
that's
a sign of heroism. Very few people will
give up their give up their power like
that nowadays.
But, you know, in the past, people literally
would give their lives. And this is, you
know, one thing interesting that a person should
consider,
which is that,
this is part of just being a man.
This is part of, like, good character, being
your chivalrous character.
Allah bless him and give him long life
and protect him and put barakah in his
work. He,
worked, a translation of
Faridu Din Atar's Futua Tanama,
a book on Futua on chivalrous and upright
and manly character. Jovan Mardi,
how to be how to behave how to
be a man.
And,
one of the one of the abhyat in
Persian.
And, you know, Athar is Nishapuri. He's he
he is a great scholar of Nishapur,
in the age,
in the age that,
you know, the still the great Masani of,
of Hadith were still there in in Nishapur.
And,
he was a respected man, and he put
this,
together. And one of the most memorable
memorable lines, of
the was what,
was that a man should say the truth
no matter what,
situation he's in, even if the truth should
lead him to the gallows.
That a man should say the truth no
matter what situations,
situation he's in, even if the truth should
lead him to the gallows.
And, these are the type of people. You
know, Ghazali also is a Persian speaker. He's
a native speaker of Persian.
His works many of his works were also
in Persian and he spoke you know, he
he was he grew up in Tuz, which
is
in the modern day Khorasan province of Iran.
And, he is a Persian speaker
and that Persianate culture, even though the companions
or the Oahu on whom didn't speak Persian,
but,
those lands were settled and established by the
companions and many of the,
customs
and many of the attitudes and many of
the sensibilities of the companions,
and the sensibilities that they brought their Islam
with are there in those places. And so
it's a little bit deceiving. A person thinks
Persian poetry, what does this have to do
with Islam?
But, you know, many of these things actually
preserve the old, the old virtues and the
old,
and the old, qualities of of the Arabs
that, bathed Islam to those places initially.
And, this is what's being talked about. Is
Gaza saying, where is those ulama? The ones
who are going to say the truth even
if it takes them to the gallows. And,
Mawana Abu Hassanalih Nadweh is mentioning that this
is the courage that Ghazali had.
And, it's the father of Allah Ta'ala that
he didn't end up there. Otherwise,
speaking the way he did most people, that's
that's where they would end up. Allah Ta'ala
saved him, for the benefit of this ummah.
May Allah
save everybody who speaks the truth. Give them
najat in this world and hereafter.
The, the the truth will always save a
person.
Don't don't be fooled by the dunya. This
truth will always save a person and, and
lies will always kill a person. They'll always
they'll always damn a person.
He says that for despotic and autocratic rulers,
as the kings generally were in those days,
even the slightest criticism of state or its
policies or officials was sufficient mark of treason
and the heads of eminent, scholars and reputed
personages rolled on the ground at the slightest
displeasure of those tyrants. People went to the
gallows because of this
However, throwing all considerations of personal safety to
the wind, Ghazalih
preached and practiced what he considered to be
right and never faltered from the duty of
severely admonishing the arrogant kings of his time.
Sultan Sanjar,
the son of the Seljukid king,
Malik Shah, who was the governor of Khorasan.
Once Ghazali happened to see him in his
court. Addressing Sanjar. He said, before his courtiers,
it is indeed regrettable that the necks of
the Muslims are breaking under the crushing burden
of your tyranny
while, those of your horses,
are over, burdened with expensive harnesses.
Muhammad, the elder brother of Sanjar, succeeded his
father, Malik Shah. Ghazali wrote a detailed letter
in the form of a treatise exhorting him
to inculcate the fear of Allah,
fulfill his obligations as a king, and work
for the betterment of his people.
Administration was generally in the hands of ministers
in the times of Ghazali. Therefore,
he paid more attention to them than to
the Seljukid kings for bringing about reform and
administration.
He wrote detailed letters and directives inviting,
their attention to the mismanagement,
maladministration,
inefficiency, illegal extortions, and high handedness of state
officials.
Ghazali reminded them of their responsibility
before god and invited their attention toward the
fate earlier tyrannical rulers and administrators had met
as
Seljukid kings,
mirror his personal courage, the desire for the
exposition of the truth and effectiveness,
of his, pungent mode of expression.
In one of his letters, to a minister,
Fakhrul Mulk, he wrote, you should know that
this city, Tuz, has been laid to waste
by famine and tyranny.
Everyone was scarred by the news of your
presence or scared by the news of your
presence, in,
Safra'in
and Damaran.
Cultivators sold their produce and hooligans behaved nicely
with the population.
Now that you are far away, the fear
has taken flight from these elements. The bully
has again taken the heart, and the farmers
and grocers are,
indulging in black marketing.
Anyone sending you a report to the contrary
to what I have stated is not your
well wisher. Verily, the solemn invocation of the
oppressed,
in Tus would surely be answered by the
lord. I counseled the governor of Tus but
he did not pay any heed to me
until an example was made out of him
by the divine justice. My solemn admonitions would
undoubtedly appear distasteful to you. But I would
not have dared to write this letter if
I had not cast away all temptations of
earthly favor out of my heart. Pay heed
to me for you would not be counseled
like this by anyone after me. Only those
can admonish you who do not allow their
selfishness to conceal the truth.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala raised the ranks of
our aqabr.
In a letter to Mujiruddin,
another minister, he says, now that the tyranny
has reached its limits, it has become incumbent
on you to help the oppressed.
I was a witness to this state of
affairs for a year or so. I then
migrated from Tuz in order to avoid casting
a glance over these ignomall oppressors.
Now that I have returned to Tus, I
find that the oppression is still continuing.
After, inviting the attention of Mujiro Din to
the despicable fate met by earlier ministers, Ghazali
continues,
the ministers before you met a fate which
none had met before them but now, I
see
oppression and destruction which I have never witnessed
before. You may not be pleased with the
state of affairs but when these oppressors will
be called on the day of,
of requital, I mean, the day that that
that people will be will get what they
what they deserve.
Everyone, responsible for their tyranny, even in the
remotest possible way will be asked to render
an explanation for it. The Muslims of this
place are extremely aggrieved.
The officials have collected quite a substantial amount
from the populace many times more than the
money sent by you for distribution of the
poor.
But it has not been remitted by to
the king. These people have, misappropriated
the entire amount.
And so this is, another
another example of Ghazali speaking the haqq to
the, to the kings. And again, it's not
like, you know, he's not just doing it
in order to, you know, show how tough
he is or,
in order to, you know, front and, look
big in front of his Moirids.
First of all, he's not going to, he's
not going to win any favor with anybody
by saying what he did and he's, you
know, probably gonna invite to himself
the,
the danger that comes with
exposing the misdeeds of powerful people. Because what's
happening, the ministers think that the the taxes
are being collected properly
but the tax collectors are basically eating it
and spoil it among spoiling it amongst themselves
and it leads to a weakness of the
state.
And you can see in these advices that
Ghazali is not just like, you know, like
anti statist, you know, like we're just, you
know, deep state and it's all conspiracy and,
we just hate the state for for for
the sake of hating it because that's an
act of piety. That's not correct.
The state is a a mercy from Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala. The state needs to function.
If the state breaks down,
then, there are evil people who get the
upper hand in the land, and the enemies
of the deen get the upper hand in
the land as they did
over as they did over the, the Muslims
in,
in in in in the era of colonialism.
That there was no one there to defend
the Haramain Sharifan anymore. You know, there's no
one there to,
defend the, you know, Egypt and Iraq and
Syria,
and Turkey. There was nobody there, that was,
you know, there to defend,
Bosnia and, to defend Albania, which basically fell
victim to genocide.
You know, there was no one there to
defend Crimea, which fell victim to genocide. There
was no one there to you know, when
the state collapsed, there was no one there
to,
defend the poor,
and destitute Muslims of Andalus who were then,
subject to genocide. There's no one there even
now to protect the Bichare poor Muslims of
Burma and of, East Turkestan,
the Uyghur speaking populations or the Hweig speaking
populations. There's no one there to
protect the Rohingyas or the brothers in,
the Central African Republic. There's no one there.
The state has collapsed. There's no one there
to to look after their
good anymore. So you see that he's not
just like,
like barking at the the governors for the
sake of, like, looking big or whatever. He's
pointing out
those things that are Mavalin that weaken the
state, and he's pointing out,
those things that weaken the public treasury,
so that the state,
cannot be ready to, fend off any,
any outside threat. And he's,
you know, talking about those things that weaken
the the spiritual
integrity of the state,
as well. And when people no longer believe
in the system, then, you know, what happens
is that public life falls by the wayside.
This is why you have this, like, malaise
in much of the Muslim world where
where people, you know, people are like, well,
what's the point of doing anything? What's the
point of building anything? You know, someone else
is just gonna take it and misappropriate
it and, make garbage out of it. You
know, I may as well just, like, you
know, get up and immigrate to,
x y z, non Muslim land. And you'll
see those people, those same people who wouldn't
do a day of honest work in in
the Muslim world, when they come here, many
of them will,
not all obviously, not all the immigrants are
like this this, but there are people. You
see that they wouldn't do a day of
honest work in their homeland. But when they
come here, they'll literally, like, you know,
work day and night,
and,
they'll all of a sudden learn the the
benefits of, of of of structure
and of responsibility
and of,
consistency
and of,
of hard work and of diligence.
And, like, years will pass by and they'll
build businesses and they'll build stuff for themselves
in, in this country or in countries like
it. And, the question is, well, why wouldn't
they do it back home? And the answer
is what? Because they have a feeling
and it's a relatively well founded feeling that
if they had worked hard like that back
home, a day could come when a corrupt
person with an in ordinate amount of power,
could just destroy, everything that they built for
themselves. So like, why bother, you know? So
when that type of malaise,
comes over the the state, then it really
does weaken, it does really weaken everything. So
you see, Ghazali is not he's not just,
you know,
talking smack to the kings in order to,
you know, himself become prime minister. We have,
you know, one rascal in the, in Pakistan
who is like that, who, you know, has
big marches talking about the corruption of kings.
And, why why does he do that? Because
he himself wants to become prime minister.
You know, that's that's not what's going on.
He has no he has no,
horse in that race. The only reason he's
even bothering
to make the is for the help of
the commoners
and for the strengthening of the state, for
the protection of Islam, and for the protection
of the Muslims
so that the the actual work of, of
the ummah can go on, which is protecting,
preserving, and practicing the knowledge of nubuwa and
spreading the, the deen of Allah and strengthening
it amongst its people and and to
invite others to it as well. Allah
give all of us tawfiq. Allah
give us basira and insight.
Allah
give us a tawfiq of reading the the
the valuable works of our and those who
passed before us and, learning and gleaning something
from it and learning the principles by which
they operated,
so that we can also implement those principles
in our own lives and we can advise
one another and, we can,
clean,
that thing which has been befouled
and, repair that thing which has been broken
and,
make efficient that thing which has,
become rusty. Allah
give us all in the in the process.
Forgive us for our sins
and, give us, some something to show him
on the day of judgment that we tried
to do our best, and we tried to
do something better, so that he could forgive
us and he can enter us into,
salvation and into his Jannah,
forever and ever,
by the barakah of, of these Mubarak
gatherings and by the barakah of this Mubarak
month of Ramadan and the Mubarak fast and
the prayers that we do at night and,
these these Mubarak days and night nights. Allah
give all of us from his father