Hamzah Wald Maqbul – Khutbah at ISNA HQ Ramadn Giving 06242016.mp4
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Alhamdulillah
All praises to Allah.
All praises to Allah.
All praises to Allah who guided us to
this,
who guided us to Islam, and to iman,
and to his
house on this hour, this day, of this
month.
And we were not to be guided. Was
it not that Allah had guided us?
Oh, Allah to you is
praise as is commensurate with the majesty of
your countenance and the greatness of your authority.
Oh, Allah, we do not limit you with
any praise we can come up with ourselves.
Rather, we admit that you are the only
one who knows the true extent of your
praise worthiness.
And may the peace and blessings of Allah
be upon his servant and messenger, Sayyidina Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. May the peace and
blessings of Allah
be upon him,
and upon his noble companions, and upon his
pure wives, and upon his Mubarak and blessed
family and progeny,
and upon all of those who follow all
of their way until the day of judgment.
Brothers and sisters,
in a hadith
narrated by Sayedna Salman al Farisi Radhi Allah
Ta'ala Anhu,
which is included by Imam Behati
in his
Sunil Kubra.
So in the Salman Farsi narrates that the
Messenger of Allah
at the beginning of Ramadan
gave a long
talk regarding
the
and the virtues, the benefits,
the
the the beauty of Ramadan.
And this talk has a lot of information
in it. Undoubtedly, you've heard the hadith before,
but I wanted to focus just on a
couple of
things that the prophet
refers to in this talk.
He says regarding this month
that it is the month of generosity.
He says
that it is a month of generosity and
then the messenger of Allah
he tells 3 benefits,
3 benefits of
the one who gives
for the iftar, for the opening of the
fast of the one who was fasting.
The person who gives for the iftar, for
the opening of the fast of the one
who is fasting. He
mentions
3
benefits, 3 rewards.
The first is what?
That the person who is
giving for the one who is fasting, the
one who gives for that person to open
their fast. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will forgive
them their sins.
The second is what?
The second is what?
That that person, their neck will be freed.
It will be liberated from the fire.
Brothers and sisters, this is one of the
many
seeming paradoxes of the spiritual world.
We don't believe we're not reductionist people who
will only believe
in the physical.
Right? Only believe in the physical. This is
a philosophy known as empiricism.
This is a philosophy that doesn't even work
in science, much less in religion.
What is empiricism? If you cannot see it,
if you cannot taste it, if you cannot
touch it, if you cannot somehow experience
it physically,
or through some sort of sensory means, it
doesn't exist.
The most simple,
refutation
of
empiricism is what is the idea of 0.
0 is a number we've all become very
accustomed to using.
Without 0, you cannot make any of the
calculations that allows the electrical system in the
message to function, to allow us to build
buildings like like the one that we're in,
that allows us to build roads, the like
the ones that we drive on or to
drive in the to make the cars that
we drive in. 0 is something we take
for granted. Try to make a long division
calculation using roman numerals and you'll see you
cannot do anything without 0. Now, tell me
something.
0, can you show me 0?
No. 0 is not a number. It's a
philosophical concept.
0 is not something that you can write
because by writing you've written something. Right? It's
a symbol
that that that that that represents a philosophical
concept,
That it's a placeholder for something even though
there's nothing physically there, but you know that
there's something there that requires a placeholder, requires
some sort of notation.
From that, if a person learns thermodynamics,
they know about this concept called absolute 0
because of through which all of your anthropic
calculations and all of your free energy calculations
are made. Absolute 0 is also something that
you cannot make in a lab. You cannot
empirically
experience it. You cannot taste it, smell it,
touch it, or point to it and say,
this isn't a lab. Look. This is absolute
zero. But without it, none of the calculations
that we that we do are possible.
Brothers and sisters, we live in a time
where people are empiricists.
They have this idea, they transact in this
idea or in this philosophy that if it's
not physically present, it doesn't exist.
Now, when the Nabi sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
says,
What does this mean? That the hellfire is
real. The hellfire is a reality. Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala created it for a reason,
for a purpose.
And one of the other very,
one of the very in vogue and
and and,
in vogue philosophies and philosophies that is,
that pervades kind of the the the the
the dominant discourse that
that, we transact in is what? Is positivism.
That we only wanna talk about certain things
if they're positive. We only wanna talk about
positive things, we don't wanna be negative.
The fact of the matter is, if negativity
wasn't useful, Allah and his messenger salallahu alaihi
wa sallam would not have used them.
There would be no hellfire.
There would be no mention of punishment in
the Quran. There would be no warning against
punishment in the Quran. The Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam would have been a bashir and not
a nadeer, only a bringer of glad tidings
and not a warner. But the fact of
the matter is the messenger of Allah salallahu
alaihi wa sallam serves both functions.
Not just by his own Mubarak speech
but by the the text of the Quran
itself, by the nasa of the Quran itself.
And the fact of the matter is that
a person,
to be healthy, has to have a balance
between two extremes,
between and between
Between positive motivation and negative motivation. Between hope
in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and fear of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's punishment.
So the paradox is what? The paradox is
this, that Allah created the fire. The one
who fears that fire, that person would be
safe from the fire. And the one who
when he hears or she hears a hadith
regarding the fire, a hadith regarding jahannam,
and they think that that's for somebody else,
that's not for me. The fact of the
matter is that person is perilously, dangerously
close to that fire. It comes in the
hadith of the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam. That when a person dies and
is put inside of their grave, the people
of iman and the people of righteousness, these
are hadith. You don't know how to be
a specialist to find them. You can find
them in the real of in in in
simple collections of a hadith that are, that
the ulama compiled for for for the laity,
for the for the general masses.
When a person dies on iman and on
faith and on righteousness, when they enter into
the into their grave, one of the things
that happens after their questioning is that the
angel is commanded to open a window into
the hellfire and to show the person. This
is the place that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
created for each and every one of us.
Each and every one of us. Allah has
already created a place for us in the
fire, and the angel will show you that
place in the fire, and the angel will
say, but because of the mercy and the
grace of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and because
of your efforts and your
your your your your striving in your life
to be free from it, Allah
has replaced it for a place in Jannah.
But the idea that there is a place
in the fire for each and every one
of us, When
we seek
refuge
in
Allah
The most generous of the generous and noble
of the noble. The fact that there's a
place created for each and every one of
us in the fire is something that should
creep us, it should spook us, it should
cause us distress, it should cause us to
fear that that place not be used one
day. May Allah be our protection. Right? From
the night of Saturday, from Magrib of Saturday,
the last 10 nights of Ramadan will start.
In the same hadith, the Nabi
describes the last 10 nights of Ramadan as
what?
Right? That this is the time that the
slave
whose neck is enslaved to the fire, that
that that that those chains will be opened.
Right? That slave will be manumitted from the
the the the the fire.
What a horrible master to have. What a
horrible what a horrible, dominance
to be put under. What a horrible society
society to be a part of. What a
horrible social structure to be a part of.
That these last 10 days are literally
reserved from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
for the special purpose of what? The one
who wants to have his neck or her
neck freed from the fire, that that neck
will be freed from the fire if the
person asks in those 10 days.
And the hadith of the prophet
that his dua in these last 10 nights
was what?
Oh Allah,
you are the one who forgives. And you
love forgiveness, so forgive me. Right? And this
is not the forgiveness of one thing or
another thing. This is a total and absolute
forgiveness
for all of the things that all of
us did in our life. Allah ta'ala sees
everything and hears everything.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, because of whom and
in front of whom, even the prophet salayhi
musawatu wa sallam feared that their good deeds
were not good enough for him. His right
over every single one of the creation is
absolute
and without any sort of condition.
Allah ta'ala is right over every one of
the creation is absolute without any sort of
condition. If one of you were to buy
a a a car, if you were to
buy a Lexus or a Tesla or you
were to buy whatever, like, the most fancy
car you can think of is, and then
you pay for it in cash, and you
drive it out to your your your lot,
you know, like to a farm, farmhouse that
you own. And you took a sledgehammer, you
smashed the car to pieces. Is anyone gonna
be able to call the police and then
say this person committed a crime, take them
to jail? No. You called the police the
last well, did he steal the car? No.
Did he does he owe money on the
car? No. He paid for it in cash.
Did he,
you know, is there some sort of EPA
regulation he's violating?
This is Indiana. They really don't care so
much about those things here.
Well, why are you calling us? Why are
you wasting our time?
If you call us again, we'll take you
to jail. Now if a person can buy
a car in cash,
with cash he didn't print,
from a job that someone else is giving
him pay a paycheck from, with an education
that they received from somebody else, tuition paid
by somebody else, by a scholarship or by
their parents or by somebody else.
If that person can buy the car and
they have the right to do with it
whatever they want to once their ownership is
complete over that car, then what do you
think about
Allah who created the entire heavens and earth
from nothing?
The one who created entire the entire heavens
and the earth from nothing.
That one, his ownership and his right over
his creation is greater than the rights of
people like you and I in 2016
in the great state of Indiana.
This is something we don't think about and
we don't want to think about and we
don't understand,
But it is a reality.
There's nobody if he makes a decision
that will be able to then
appeal or overturn that decision.
Allah
the definition of justice in our is what?
Allah decides. It's the hadith, the dua of
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Oh, I am your slave and the son
of your slave man and the son of
your slave woman.
My forelock is in your hand.
Whatever you command regarding me, that's the thing
that will come to pass.
Whatever your judgement is, that's my definition of
justice. Allah who's right over everybody is absolute.
The one who doesn't need a reason, who
doesn't need a reason in order to punish
his slave. The one in front of whom
even the
even
the infallible and sinless
prophet salayahu alayhi wasalam,
when they come in front of him, they
fear him,
and they say that Allah to Allah who
promised them Jannah, only promised it to them
from his mercy, that Allah
the one who doesn't fear his punishment.
That's an injustice, and this is an excess
on the part of the slave against his
master. Rather, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala who has
the right to do whatever he wants, he
is the one who wrote on himself that
his mercy will outstrip his wrath. This is
not because of a right that you and
I have, nor is it because of some
sort of grace or virtue that we possess.
Rather this is Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in
his sovereignty
picking something for himself,
choosing something for himself that we are the
beneficiaries of. And we must recognize that that's
the that's the scenario. The scenario is not
because we're Muslims or because we, pray 5
times a day or because we're from a
certain country or we speak a certain language,
that we deserve the the forgiveness of Allah
to the exclusion of all other people. Rather
what? Because of Allah grace and his mercy.
Nothing that we did, it's all because of
his grace and his mercy
And what is grace? What is fadul from
Allah?
Say because of the grace of Allah ta'ala
and because of his mercy,
let the people rejoice because of that. It
is better than those material things that people
spend their lives trying to gather. What is
the grace of Allah The fumbled of Allah
is that
that blessing, that gift that we did nothing
to earn. It is that blessing and that
gift that we did nothing to earn. And
it is that blessing and that gift that
we can do nothing to repay.
It is that blessing and gift that we
can do, nothing to repay. So Allah
who has hidden the excuses for his mercy,
has hidden the excuses for his forgiveness,
has hidden the the the excuses for the
slave whose destiny was written for the fire.
Every single one of us by the testimony
of the Rasul has
a place prepared for us already by name,
and by individual in the fire, that Allah
has hidden the excuse to free us from
the fire in every part of his creation.
And our job is to look for those
excuses.
We don't say that we enter into Jannah
because of our good deeds. We don't say
that we'll enter paradise by our good deeds,
but by the grace and mercy of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala. And in that sense, the
failure is not the one
not the person who's not able to be
perfect in this life. The failure is the
person who cannot even try.
None of us is able to be there's
no hadith or no eye of the Quran
in which it says that the believer is
the one who's perfect and commits no sins.
The believer is the one who what? Who
constantly repents and constantly constantly seeks the fadl
of Allah ta'ala
and constantly follows a bad deed with a
good one so that the effect of the
bad deed can be erased.
So Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala's Messenger Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam who says, the one who feeds the
one who is fasting, that person, their neck
will be liberated from the fire. This is
a very good deal, brothers and sisters. This
is the best bang for your buck you're
going to get. This is the best deal
that you and I are going to get.
It's a deal that we don't even deserve.
If someone were to tell you right now,
okay, I ask you right now, can I
have a $1,000?
A person would say, no. That's like a
lot of money. Maybe $5, $20, I'll give
it to you. Some of us maybe,
doing well. Maybe they'll give, you know, drop
a drop a $100 on somebody. A $1,000
is just too much money. What if
I said to you, a $1,000 and I'll
give you
10 acres of land with a building that's
just as big as this building on
it. Everyone would run for it. They would
borrow money if they didn't have the money.
They would say thank you to the one
who gave them that offer. Why? Because you're
getting, in return,
far more than what you put into it.
Far more than what you put into it.
And you're humbled that you even had the
opportunity to transact in such a transaction.
He says, what?
This is
what said, what? The one who feeds the
one who is fasting?
That
person, their
their their their neck which was enslaved to
the fire, their neck will be freed from
the slavery of the fire. May Allah make
us from amongst those people in this month
of Ramadan, in this night, in this day,
in this very minute, in this very Mubarak
hour. May Allah make all of us from
those people. Say, amen.
And the third the third thing that the
prophet
mentioned, the third benefit of feeding the one
who was fasting is what?
Is what? That the person who gives to
feed the one who was fasting receives the
reward of the one who was fasting without
diminishing from their reward one bit.
The one who gives to feed the one
who is fasting,
receive the reward for reward of the one
who is fasting without diminishing from their reward
one bit. What is this? Those of us
who have the opportunity of spending Ramadan in
the Muslim world see this, that this is
one of the customs of the Muslims, that
when it's time for iftar, what do people
do? It's almost like a game show. They
grab the plate of dates, and they're handing
out dates to everybody.
Why? Because they wanna have the reward of
the person who is fasting. Indeed, said the
Salman al Farsi, radiAllahu anhu, who was from
the Ashab Sufa,
Sufa from the the poor people, the poor
guests. They used to call them euphemistically the
guests of Islam. He was from the poor
people who had nowhere to live, no one
to house them, and the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam taught them about the deen because they
had no job or no work to do
in the day.
Sayedna Salman al Farisi radiAllahu anhu says that
the asked, not all of us are able
to even afford to feed ourselves. How are
you gonna feed the the people who are
fasting? The messenger of Allah salallahu alaihi wa
sallam responded how?
He said, what? This counts even for a
person who gives a sip of water to
somebody when they when they are fasting. This
counts for someone who even gives a date
to the one who has one date to
the one who is fasting. This counts for
the person who even gives a taste of
milk to the one who is fasting.
This is what? This is the Nabi
training this ummah. Now tell me something, if
you give a date to somebody who is
fasting the whole day, will they be satiated?
Will they be full after after eating a
date? No. But one of the the the
customs of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was
what? Is that he used to reduce the
practice of the deen Saas to to the
degree that what? That everybody could practice it.
So that everybody has the habit of practicing.
So that when a person is asked in
the name of Allah and His Rasool Sallallahu
Alaihi Wa Salam to give from that which
they love. And everybody loves money. It's the
one of the most sincere forms of love
that we have in our in our culture.
Right? Everybody loves money so that when asked
to give from what you love, every single
one of the Sahaba radiAllahu on whom rich
and poor, everybody, they gave for the sake
of Allah.
Nobody said no. They gave what they had.
Even if they had to cut a date
in half and give that as sadaqa, they
would give it as sadaqa. This is the
meaning of of of of of
savior, face from the fire even through half
of a date. This is real. There are
some people, they only had half of a
date to give, and they gave it, and
the mocked them. They say, what? The the
sadaqa is something? The sadaqa is something that
you should you're gonna hope for reward from
Allah And and the munabbatim mocked them, and
Allah mocked them back. Them hypocrites mocked those
people who gave in sincerity.
When asked in the name of Allah and
his Rasool, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
don't say why is this person asking me
for money? Everybody's asking for money. Give to
give to that person.
If you have a lot, give a lot.
If you have a little, give a little.
If you have nothing to give, give them
du'a. So this person is doing a farqifa,
and this person is serving the ummah. The
Nabi alayhis salatu waslam who said,
I am the guardian and the protector of
the one who has no one to care
for them, no one to guard them, no
one to protect them. That's my job,
Whoever wishes to take up the mission and
the task of the Rasool Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
let them also consider that mission their own.
If you cannot go and feed the people
of the world, then give them the money
to feed 1 person. If you cannot do
that, at least make the dua for them.
At least when you see somebody who's doing
this work, be happy about it. So that
Allah may give you your portion from that
work as well. The dabi salallahu alaihi wasallam
himself was commanded by the messenger of Allah,
but commanded by
Allah As for the one who comes and
asks you, never never repulse them harshly. In
fact, say the Anas bin Malik narrates
that the messenger of Allah
That the messenger of Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
was never asked for anything after the advent
of Islam, except for he gave it. If
he had something, someone asked him, he would
give it. If he didn't have what he
was asked, he wasn't able to give, he
would seek forgiveness from such a person. Let
us revive these noble and lofty.
Let us revive these noble and lofty
prophetic, characteristics
inside of our lives, inside of our this
day, inside of this hour. And I want
to leave you with one last small snippet
from this hadith that's in the Salman al
Farsi
narrated. You know how when we have children,
it's a good habit. You should give your
children $5, $10, tell them, go put it
inside the the donation box for the masjid.
Go give it to a poor person. Go
give it for charity.
Why? It's not even their money. You're giving
them the money. All they're doing is they're
putting it in the box. But when they
put it in the box, and they see
mama and baba as uncle as big brother
is happy with them, big sister is happy
with them, it makes them what?
It makes them, it
makes their heart feel good about doing good
deeds. It trains them to do good deeds,
it makes them feel good about doing good
deeds. We should train them to do those
things, just like we train
our young ones and
our our our beloved ones, our little ones,
to good character
and to good conduct.
Just like that Allah
He's the one, his messenger, sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam, this entire hadith describe describes all of
the benefits and all of the the the
virtues of giving and of generosity in this
noble month. And
then while the Nabi also said
And this is such a month that the
provision of the believer is also increased in
it. Meaning what? Allah who's asking you to
give more, the Nabi salallahu alaihi wasallam was
asking you to give more, they also say
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives you more as
well. He's the one who gave you. Everybody
will eat well tonight. There's nobody, even a
broke person. Everybody eats well in Ramadan.
Everybody eats well.
Ghazali,
he says
he he he says that the person who
eats as much in Ramadan to eat outside
of Ramadan
is is is missing the point. And the
one who eats more in Ramadan than he
eats outside of Ramadan,
that person is, like, even further away from
from what he or she should supposed to
be doing. Right? So from amongst our ulema,
especially the Muaddiddeen, they said, well, this is
this is a good philosophical point, but what
are we supposed to do? The Messenger of
Allah himself, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam,
himself said, this is the month in which
the provision of the believer is increased. Do
we know the provision is is written by
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. If he wrote that
you're gonna eat it these days, what are
you gonna do except for eat? Say before
you start and when you're done. That's That's
really all you can do sometimes.
Allah
give all of us. Allah give us that
what he gave us that we spend for
his sake so that it can be something
we benefit from forever. May give us from
his grace and bounty in this world. May
give us from his grace and bounty in
the hereafter. May Allah help those people who
are going to dig through garbage in order
to eat their iftar and their suhoor and
this ummah, and they're there every single day
doing it. And when they when they eat,
they say bismillah, and when they're finished, they
say, alhamdulillah.
May Allah
give them the help in this world and
give us the help that we need for
the hereafter.