Hamzah Wald Maqbul – 2 Ramadn Late Night Majlis Akhdar The Magnificent Light GH 04032022
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the importance of the MSI movement and its goal to establish prayer spaces and fill empty spaces with devotion. They emphasize the need for understanding the material world and the d union in order to avoid empty promises. The speaker emphasizes the importance of meditating on the person and not just looking at the material world. They also discuss the meaning of the meaning behind Muhammad's statement to remember him and honor him, and the importance of protecting and guarding one's prayer. The speaker advises the audience to practice every day and avoid becoming a danger.
AI: Summary ©
We've made it to this Mubarak 2nd night
of Ramadan.
We didn't have a majlis in the 1st
night
because I was tied up with
some fiqh issues regarding the moon sighting,
for the first of Ramadan.
And, alhamdulillah, whatever day you started Ramadan,
whether your first fast day,
was Saturday,
or your first fast day shall be
Sunday. May Allah
make it Mubarak for you, and may Allah
accept it from you.
The masajid are open in most places after
2 years of
some sort of restriction or another, depending on
the locality.
Some restrictions were harsher than others.
But,
by Allah's,
we heard,
the imam
recite,
that Allah
said in his book
that take,
your beauty
and beautify yourselves in every masjid and every
house of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala. In that
particular set of ayaat,
which
speak about
one of the objectives of our civilization
as Muslims,
which is to establish places of prayer
and to populate them
not as a means to an end in
order to get something else, but as the
end itself.
That we should
establish these places and we should fill them,
not just with bodies, and with numbers,
but with nur and with longing for Allah
and with the salat,
a salat which connects the slave to the
Lord,
and
with prayers and with sincerity,
and with
the fear of the Lord.
And
this connection which has been
constrained
in the proximate
world of causes and effects
due to
pandemic and due to,
legal restrictions.
But in the ultimate sense, everything is done
by Allah ta'ala. Allah has a nilaam and
a system and his taqeen.
And the
creation,
and the sustaining
and the making and fashioning of the
creation in the way that he desires.
And for whatever reason in his hikmah,
possibly it's for some a test and for
others a punishment, and for some
a means to get closer to him in
a relief, and for others a
constraining.
And for whatever reason, Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala,
chose
that these masajid should be,
in part,
restricted from people or in whole in some
cases for the last 2 years.
And, Alhamdulillah, it's such a great blessing that
they're open again.
So for that reason, I wanted to,
speak a few minutes
in this first night,
about the salat
and about what we should be looking for
through it
when we attend the congregations,
when we go,
and attend the, the 5 daily prayers and,
thereafter,
the salat of Taraweeh,
that we should have a little bit of
a reminder.
Allah Ta'ala says in his book.
He says that remind because you are not
but a reminder.
And he says, and remind because verily the
reminder is beneficial for the believers.
A small section from the Matan of Al
Ahwadi,
A very Mubarak,
a very Mubarak text. It's the introductory and
first text in Maliki fiqh that any student
who wishes to learn fiqh will read.
Sadly,
arrogant and
haughty people,
nowadays skip these texts,
and
because of that, they become losers. And I'm
one of those losers. I remember I went
straight into the Risaleh, and I didn't read
this
text. I later on read it and wanted
to hit myself in the head. I said
there's so much nur and there's so much
baraka. And there's so much fiqh actually,
in this introductory text. And it's exactly the
fiqh that you need to know,
as a person who's gonna practice the deen.
But
such is the mindset of people who
are looking for something, but they don't know
what it is exactly that what they're looking
for.
They may pass by the very thing that
they need,
and keep
keep on pushing, keep on pushing in order
to
puff themselves up with,
empty achievements.
But those empty achievements are like I like
to remind,
my children who are in their local Taekwondo
practice.
When they get excited about getting a new
stripe and a new belt,
say, hamdulillah, mashallah. Congratulations. You've got your new
stripe. You got your new color belt. Like,
if you get into a fight with somebody
and you can't defend yourself, you can't punch
them,
your belt color is not going to help
you,
just like a person who gets a degree,
but they don't know how to do what
it is they need to in life.
Their degree is not going to help them.
Their, money is not going to help them.
When you're in your grave, you're not gonna
be able to,
eat your money, nor is it gonna bring
you any comfort,
from those types of things that, are going
to be plaguing a great number of people
at that time. May Allah, have mercy on
us, in any and all of those
above mentioned situations.
And so sometimes what happens is we pass
by those things that
are the thing that we were looking for
the whole time and are the things that
we needed the whole time. And I feel
like the Matanal Akhbari is one of those
things, and I feel like the salat is
one of those things. And how fitting that
the Matanal Akhbari
has, such
beautiful and such detailed and such needed things
to say about the salat.
In in the fine tradition of the Ahlus
Sunaw al Jama'a,
which
connects
the Islam and the iman and the ihsan
together.
The the fiqh and the, Aqida and the
together,
to the point where they're like,
inseparable. Like, the 3 dimensions, the x, y,
and z axis are inseparable from one another
when dealing with the real world tangible objects.
Takes,
a,
some
lines in his in order to explain something
about the salat while,
in the midst of explaining its mechanics and
explaining its farayd and its sunan
and its,
wajibat and then its mustahabbat.
He says,
describing this salat, which is again one of
those things that we
plow through it looking for something in life.
And, oftentimes, we forget or completely heedless of
the fact that it's the salat that we've
been looking for all along. And if it
was that we were given this salat,
we would realize that we are given everything.
And anything else that we need will be
fulfilled through the salat.
And,
if not, if we're heedless, then we'll,
you know, make the salat into some sort
of plaything on the side or into some
sort of,
like a chore or
task,
to
be
completely completed quickly
or like the wrapper with the candy bar,
something that you, you know, you take something
else and then you throw the wrapper away
to the side.
Have mercy on us and have mercy on
Thee
the complete heedlessness and cluelessness of our state.
So
He says,
He says that the salat,
it possesses a magnificent light.
Such a light that, the
hearts of those who pray,
it's like the sun rising,
on them. You see that the night is
dark.
The blackness of the night, a person can
barely see anything.
The magnificent
light of the salat is like the rising
sun over the hearts of those who are
praying.
And this status is not
attained by by anybody except for those
who have
in their prayer, who have
awe and humility,
in their prayer.
He says he says that
when you come to the prayer, empty your
heart,
from the dunya, from the material world.
And the word duniya,
you know, people use it to mean the
material world, and that's definitely a meaning of
it.
If you look at it from the Sarf
perspective,
it's, also in
of Dana'a and Dunu.
Dunu means that thing which is,
close, and Dana'a is that thing which is
reviled
or trashy
or,
very little in value, very, very mean in
value.
And so the dunya is the is the
it's the feminine superlative.
It can be the feminine superlative of both
of them. That it's that thing in the
feminine gender,
which is the closest to you and that
thing which is the most reviled.
And oftentimes,
at least one of those two meanings and
oftentimes both of those meanings are true at
the same time when talking about the material
world
that a person should,
empty their heart,
of the dunya and that which is in
it.
And a person should
focus
and meditate,
on he says meditate on your master,
for, whose sake,
for whose soul's sake you are,
and, for whose soul's sake you are praying.
Literally, for the sake of whose face you're
praying,
which is both an expression meaning for his
sake alone and and,
to the
and it is for that vision of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala
in Jannah which is such a great gift
and such a great honor
and such a great prize
that
it's very formulation
and it's very mention is somewhat of a
tricky matter. It's considered a tricky matter for
the
for the
in the sense that it's such a
great gift that Allah and great honor that
Allah would give to the slave that he
would allow, the slave to see his face.
That,
that even to conceive of such a thing,
there were many people who grappled with what
does this mean.
Some in their grappling with, trying to make
meaning of this, expression.
Fell into the way of error like the
and it's just it's just an enormous honor.
It's an enormous gift
that overwhelms even the
that over overwhelms even the
intellects.
Try to understand what does that mean.
That for the sake of seeing his face,
on the day of judgment,
you pray to him.
And he says that you have to meditate
on him, Meaning, you have to focus on
him.
You have to,
hone in on him,
and empty your heart of the dunya of
anything other than him. And in that sense,
there could be parts of the that are
dunya.
In the context of this sentence.
That there are angels and there's Jannah and
there's all sorts of other stuff.
That may even be something, you know, that
you'll be connected to in the
but you empty your heart of all of
those things in order to meditate on Allah
for whose soul's sake and for the sake
of whose face
you
are praying in the first place.
And
your literally your that your belief with regards
to what this salat is. What is this
salat? Your belief with regards to this salat,
your conception of what this salat is, is
that you should conceive of it as as
humility and awe and
and humbleness,
humility,
in front of Allah,
or in for Allah,
exalted is he above blemish.
It was
that that through your standing and through your
ruku, your genuflection and through your sujud, your
prostration,
that your salat is
a manifestation of what your
your uh-uh
awe
and your your
humility for Allah.
This of its this in and of itself
merits just pausing for a moment and thinking.
That next time I pray, what is it
that I'm doing? Because this is an interesting
it's an interesting thing. What does what does
a prayer mean to you in the first
place?
When you sit in,
many people will tell you, okay, fine. You
know,
Fudger has 2.
What is Fudger? It's 2.
And what is a? It has a standing,
and it has a
a genuflection, and it has a again
standing, and then it has
a a
2, in fact, 2 prostrations that are,
you know, that have a sitting in the
middle. And then afterward, if it's the 2nd
or the 3rd in or the 4th,
raka, then there's another sitting and, you know,
then there's a salam at the end and
there's
an in the beginning and etcetera etcetera.
What is the prayer? The prayer is made
up of these parts.
Interestingly enough, when somebody asks you for the
definition of something,
the definition of that thing is not given
by naming its constituent
parts.
When somebody asks you in English,
what's a noun?
And and then they say, or somebody says
a person, place, or a thing. That's not
a definition of what a noun is. Those
are examples of what a noun are.
And, there are nouns actually that are neither
persons nor places. I guess whether you want
to ask whether they're things or not,
you know, nothing is
by definition, not a thing,
nor is it a person, nor is it
a place, but it is technically a noun.
And so,
you know, these these are, a, they're not
definitions. They're just examples, and they're hardly, exhaustive,
lists of,
examples,
anyway.
Whereas, if you
ask an Arabic grammarian what a ism is,
he will tell you, something like,
you know, a completely self contained unit of
of meaning.
Something that doesn't depend on time or tense
or on,
the relationship of one thing to another in
order to give it meaning. But a complete,
unit of meaning, in and of itself.
And,
you know, so
we see, like, there's some philosophical impediments to
the way that we look at things.
In this civilization, this dominant civilization which has
educated and raised us.
If you're a person who
ostensibly is
drank the tradition from, your mother's milk, you
probably are not gonna be listening to late
night majlis on SoundCloud because you have other
greater, olema and masha'i to hear from. But
for those of us who were
kind of brought up in this system or
in the shadow of this system, even if
back in the Muslim world,
there there are these philosophical impediments,
conceptual impediments to understanding what things are, that
if somebody were to ask you what the
salat is,
many people wouldn't be able to readily explain
what it is.
They would say, okay, it's worship,
or it's 4 rakas, or it's 2 rakas,
or it's 3 rakas, or whatever.
They would probably answer with what the constituent
parts are, not necessarily to know what exactly
the point of all of those things are.
So he
says very explicitly, and this is again the
first
book of fiqh that anybody would read. Many
of the people who read Akhbari are in
fact children.
God bless those children and Allah give us
also the understanding of those children as well
before we pass from this world. He says
that,
That
the salata's
awe and humility
for the sake of Allah ta'ala through the
vehicle of
standing and through the vehicle of genuflection
and through the vehicle of prostration.
And it is.
It is,
the exalting of his majesty,
his magnification
magnification of him.
The exalting of his majesty and his magnification
every time you say Allahu Akbar,
you are,
exalting his magnification
his majesty and magnifying him. You're
declaring his greatness.
Every time you say Allahu Akbar,
and every time you make the
so many
times, in the prayer and can come so
many times in the prayer,
with and
to remember him.
And here means not only to remember Allah
to Allah, but to mention Allah to Allah,
meaning take his Mubarak name and to honor
his mention as well. So one of the
meanings of is to honor,
that it is a
here the means what? It is an honor
for you and for your people.
Yeah. Muhammad
It says to to take his mention, to
remember him, take his mention, and to honor
him.
All three of those meanings are sadeq over
here.
So he says that that what is it?
It is from your side. It is awe
and humility for Allah.
Exalted is he above blemish through the vehicle
of
standing in genuflection
and prostration.
And it is,
the declaration of his majesty,
with Tawdim and his magnification
through the vehicle of what Takbir and Tasbih
and Thikr,
through the vehicle of saying Allahu Akbar that
Allah is greater than anything else and exalted
as Allah above blemishments
and the other forms of the dhikr of
Allah
and the recitation of Quran
and,
and through
To the on his,
Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
our greatest benefactor and the greatest vehicle Allah
Ta' has created in his creation
for the the aid and the benefit
and the,
assistance
and the
salvation of the of the slaves.
And so guard.
So watch over your prayer and guard your
prayer jealously.
And because indeed it is the greatest
of the, acts of worship.
Now this is not a, you know, this
is not a
an exaggeration
or rhetorical flourish. It's a children's
book for,
and it has all of those issues in
it that are the most immediate in need
and, the most agreed upon by and large.
So why would he say that? He
says that protect and guard your prayer.
Be diligent with your prayer. Watchful over your
prayer.
Don't waste your prayer because it is the
greatest of the acts of worship.
It's the greatest of the acts of worship.
Why would he say that except for because
it's true? Because the
cons conception of the deen,
all of it is built on the foundation
of this one very simple fact.
That from all of the deeds, the salat
is the greatest deed that you're going to
do after the
that brings you
into
iman
saying
which is your ticket into,
into into the faith itself.
That after that, the greatest of your deeds
is the salat. Why would he say that
except for it's true?
And it's also something for us all to
think about that if there's some weird that
we think of that's greater than the salat
or some act or some deed or some
conquest or
some whatever it is that we think of
that's greater in our hearts than the salat,
then we have an aqidah problem, and it's
an aqidah problem that's not much talked about.
And it's not people don't give much concern
to it, but it really is greater than
a lot of the things that people
make a big fuss and make reputation videos
about online.
And if we carry this problem, there's no
need to freak out about it. If you
see inside your heart that really, you know,
like, I don't look at the salat like
this, like the greatest of the.
And there are other things that I I
I think are like a bigger deal, you
know, Like having a fancy or a fancy
or using fancy words or
attending some sort of particular program or getting
a particular degree or receiving a chilafa from
a sheikh or god knows whatever other things
people
aggrandize inside of their hearts. If you realize
that you have this problem,
no bother. No no need need to freak
out or give up or get offended.
In fact, when you know what your sickness
is, then you know how how to cure
it and how to treat it.
And, this is definitely an illness that, that
that that may touch some of us from
time to time. And, once we know that
we have it, we we need to work
diligently in order to cure it. What's one
of the best things to do to cure
it is to force yourself to pray and
to force yourself to do it again and
again and to force yourself to do it
with depth,
so that you, can correct,
those bad habits.
Break those bones that didn't set in straight,
and then put them in a splint and
in a cast so that they can heal
up again straight in the way that they're
supposed to be rather than, healing crooked. And,
then afterward,
your skeleton can't bear any
any weight. It can't bear any load afterward.
So,
continues. He says,
So he says he says, so don't leave
don't leave
your salat,
to shaitan.
He says, don't leave shaitan
an open,
opportunity to pray with your heart
and to preoccupy,
you from your salat
while you're supposed to be praying. Your heart
is preoccupied,
by shaitan
from the salat.
Don't let him do that to the point
where he will smite your heart
and,
deprive you from the
from
the joy and from the pleasure of the
light,
of the salat.
So it's your responsibility,
to
be constant in your awe,
in in the salat
because it's through that awe
that,
the salat is then able to
prevent someone and prohibit somebody
from indecency, from
and from sin.
All of it is because of the awe
in your heart that you feel for Allah,
ta'ala, when you stand in front of him
and seek, Allah's help in this matter.
And Allah, ta'ala, is the best one whose
help is ever sought. May Allah
give us Tawfeeq.
Nobody's born.
Well, some people, I guess, are, but most
of us,
you know, are not born
with this, like, really amazing salat that we
just say Allahu Akbar and then magically we
have, like, this amazing
Ijalal and tawlim inside of our heart every
time we say Allahu Akbar and you know,
and
and humility
you know through our standing and through
our genuflection
and through our prostration.
It's something we have to like practice
And what better way of doing so than,
in your local masjid this Ramadan.
And if you can't make it to the
masjid, even in your own house, this Ramadan,
you know,
take out time
and take out some courage inside of your
heart and try.
Practice really hard even though you feel like
you're a fool by practicing and by putting
time and effort into this thing and it's
you're just gonna feel goofy or whatever.
Don't worry, you're you feel a little bit
foolish, you feel a little bit goofy. It's
not it's not a problem.
But try try to focus,
try to feel, say what am I doing,
I'm standing.
The standing itself is a humility
in front of Allah. That I'm standing like
a slave stands in front of their master.
And when you make ruku, you know, especially
those of us who've been praying since the
time we were kids,
These things just become habits. Right? But say,
like, would you, you know, who would you
put your head down in front
of like this? It's the same way like
a dog puts his head down in front
of the master when it's getting pet, you
know. Feel the feel the humility and feel
the awe in front of a lot when
you put your head down in ruku.
You know when you make sujood who would
you put your literally your your nose into
the ground in front of them?
Who would you put your palms on the
ground and your forehead in the ground and
your nose on the ground and get down
on your hands and knees
in front of you think about that
just take a moment to appreciate it.
And and likewise, the other, parts of the
prayer.
And don't leave don't leave
that you know, don't leave any part of
the inside of your heart. Don't leave any
part of the prayer to shaythan.
Uh-uh so that he will be able to
smite your heart one day and deprive you
of the
of the and of the
the pleasure of having that light in your
heart and having that light bathe your heart.
What better time to practice any of that
than ramadan when the shaytan is chained up
in the first place.
That this is
an opportunity Allah made for you and if
you need extra practice
all 20 rak'ahs of taraweeh.
They're all there for you. They're all there
for you. And all of them are nur.
All of them are
like a box of candies and a box
of cakes and confections
and,
sweet things.
Sweet things that really there's so much benefit
in and there's so much taste and flavor
and, no blood sugar, no diabetes, no fat,
no cholesterol, no calories, no
need to taste gross like,
stevia or fake sweeteners or anything. All of
it is just pure. All of it is
just good. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give all
of us so much tofir
and give us such a salat that that
salat that we know how to put our
face on the floor and ask Allah for
all the things we need in this world
and the hereafter.
And that that he give us such a
salat that that he gave us the salat
so that we can ask and he let
us ask so that we can be given
Allah fulfill all of our needs through this
salat, in this world and the hereafter.