Hamzah Wald Maqbul – Ramadn 3rd Late Night Majlis Remembering Our Elders and Praying By Night 05292017
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All praises to Allah
who gave us the of reaching the Mubarak
nights of Ramadan.
I wanted to share a couple of reminders
for myself
and for my, loved ones,
and for,
anyone who wishes to hear and benefit,
in some of the nights of Ramadan when
we have the opportunity to do so.
Out of the memory of my sheikh,
Sayed Nafeez Shah
and Raul Hussein,
with whom the best Ramadan I spent in
my life,
I spent,
in his Hanqa,
in,
Lahore or outside of Lahore across from the
Ravi,
from the
from the
the the the literally the bridge of the
girlfriends.
Obviously, not in the boyfriend girlfriend sense, but
in the sense of
of, of
of of
a girl who has friends that are female.
The strangeness of place names in Punjab, which
oftentimes end up becoming very strange,
aside.
But that Hanqah was a, a beautiful place
where for the first time in my life,
at least in an institutional setting,
we had the chance to gather only for
the remembrance of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
So whoever entered into that place,
came, and the first questions they were asked
are, how long do you intend to stay?
They were checked out a mat and a
blanket and a pillow
and shown where the facilities for Wudu were.
Food was provided to every guest, and the
food was provided in such a way that
everybody had to sit in the manner according
to the sunnah,
when served.
And
is the the the the best plate,
so that there would be barakah in the
food. And people weren't there to eat or
drink. Rather, eating or drinking was something that
was a,
you know, just a a necessity that was
there to be, done away with when possible.
And so whatever dish was served,
that dish was served with bread. If you
were hungry and you asked for more bread,
you were given more bread. And if you
asked for more food, you were asked, did
you arrive with the bride side or with
the groom?
Meaning what? You're sarcastically thrown a question as
if,
you, came to a wedding and you're expected
to be treated like a guest.
And, this is a type of, I guess,
harshness that perhaps
if it were
given to people in the Masjid,
in America, people would whine and complain. This
is not the character of the of the
sunnah, the prophet
and why are people being so harsh.
But the fact of the matter is, it
is the character and of the of the
companions
who bore all sorts of and
difficulties,
in the path of Allah,
and they imposed those
and exercises and difficulties on themselves in order
to forge the nafs
into something that was
a powerful
tool,
to be used in the path of Allah,
and that's a part of the sunnah. It
seems that everybody seems to have lost. Everybody
else thinks the sunnah of the prophet
is,
there to turn everybody else into, some sort
of benign greeter at Walmart,
that's there to,
that's there for you for for for the
ego service,
and really it's quite the opposite.
So the nights that I spent over there,
we,
prayed the entire
and by day,
everybody was expected to be in the salat
having read their sunnahs
and, in the before the was
was said. Otherwise,
some sort of correctional and rectification
action was taken.
And,
so the consequence was what? That everybody was
there,
and with their on time for the prayers.
And, this is something people take the prayer
for granted or they think it's a joke,
but really the prayer is the greatest weird,
that Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, the great
greatest,
provided and prescribed to the greatest of,
that Allah sent to
mankind
in order for them to make their tie
with the the greatest Allahu Akbar, with Allah
who is the the the one who is
transcendent above his creation.
And so the the most supreme benefit was
the prayers on time. And then afterward, we
had daily, vigor, and, we had
a after,
the after
and we had a after the
and the has prayed promptly
after
a
at the passage of a 3rd of the
night as was the, preference of Sayidina And
the,
the majlis that would happen after,
Sa'atul Isha, the sheikh would sit
and,
the
the the the the
the
ones who are doing service for the
the
people who came for the remembrance of Allah,
they would
give out,
tea at that time and give out some
sort of light snack at that time to
everybody.
And the sheikh would, you know, say something
with regards to spirituality or or deen or
Ramadan.
Oftentimes, it would be a reminder or remembrance
of the
who had passed whether from the distant part
of the
or from the middle part of the or
from the relatively recent part of the, and
they would share anecdotes,
regarding their lives and their struggles.
And it was a a time to kind
of recharge
and, replenish one's Himma.
And then through the night, there would be,
something,
which is what I would imagine what the
Sahaba whom
used to do as well is that people
would spread throughout the through its courtyard, through
its, different rooms, through its the masjid, through
through all the other parts of it. And
then there would be several congregations, but small
congregations, 2, 3 people
here, 2, 3 people there, and they would
pray throughout the night. And the ones who
would read would read, and the ones who
prayed alone would pray alone.
And this would go on until the time
of suhoor,
and, then afterward, everyone would pray together,
and, there would be
time for and time for reflection
and individually.
And when a person gets into a routine,
they can do those things that they cannot
do when they're running around haphazardly.
And so people would come and stay 5
days, 10 days, 20 days, 15 days. Some
people stayed for the entire month of Ramadan.
And from my own life, that's the Ramadan
that I had the
of reading the most amount of Quran.
And it came to the point where I
would even hear the Quran in my dreams
and in my sleep.
And so I would like to,
at least in my own deficient way,
have a little opportunity to,
from time to time on the nights when
I'm not running
from pillar to post, with other duties and
responsibilities. Inshallah, I have a small muj list
with,
those who wish to share it with me,
like this from after
in which we can,
sit and talk and make mention about,
about the deen of and the remembrance of
and the the the the people of this,
the
and the
and the people who made this from the
times that have gone past so that we
can at least keep, some part of what
the bequeathed us and left to us alive,
in whatever deficient way that we we do.
So the first thing I wanted to mention,
just in this so that it doesn't become
too long,
is the hadith of the prophet
the snippet of the hadith of the rest
of
the
The one who,
stands in prayer
in the nights of Ramadan, in faith in
Allah Ta'ala and
hope for a reward from him. That person,
all of their sins will be forgiven.
And so the understanding of this,
had this this prophetic,
saying
in the context of
of of of Ramadan
and in the context of its execution was
seemingly understood by the messenger of Allah
companions to
be operationalized in the salatul tarawi.
And,
obviously, you know, if someone were to say
is good, it's something that shouldn't be like
a news flash for everybody. People know that
that dawg is good. But one of the
things that that
that kind of scratches the chalkboard of my
soul
is the idea that people have that, oh,
it's only a sunnah. Oh, it's only a
sunnah. It's only a sunnah.
And, the fact of the matter is it
is a sunnah,
but, you know, to say it's only a
sunnah is to not understand what it is.
To have all of your sins that came
from before forgiven
is
literally
to be given a pass on the day
of judgment, on the day when people are
going to be
roving from place to place and person to
person like madmen,
looking for one good deed for just 1
or 1
or 1
and for some people, just one
and, they're not going to be able to
find it. And, their frustration is going to
be justified because it is a harbinger of
being cast into the,
eternal fire and the eternal torment of Allah
ta'ala. On that day,
to have all of your sins that came
from before
forgiven,
is is a is a very great and
it's a very great prize. And,
really the sunan of this Ummah,
the Sunan of this prophet
are not from this world. They're from above
the Saba'as, and from above the Arshadim.
They come from a different realm, from above
the 7 heavens and above the magnificent throne
of Allah to Allah. Even the that the
the the Muslims get together and pray.
Because right now in the northern hemisphere,
the the
nights of Ramadan are extremely short, and the
time of Isha is is very late. There
are a number of people who will jettison
and, leave the sunnah.
And it's not something that's worth leaving,
for anything in the world.
And
it's something that we should remind one another
and help one another too. And it comes
in the hadith of the prophet that,
the recitation of the Quran and the, the
the recitation of the Quran
and the,
fasting will come in,
in in in personified and anthropomorphic form on
the day of judgment while a person's judgment
is going on, and they will argue in
a person in in front of Allah Ta'ala,
in the court of Allah Ta'ala,
and intercede in the court of Allah Ta'ala
on behalf of the person who did them.
What is it? The recitation of the Quran
and the fast. And the fast will come,
and both of them will come as people
who are,
in the form of people who are respected
by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And so the, the the
the the fasting will come and say, you
Allah, forgive this person for my sake because
of me,
they lost their food and drink.
And then the recitation of the Quran will
say what? You Allah,
forgive this person,
for my sake because of me they lost
their sleep.
So the idea is this is that the
Taraweeh is obviously not going to be easy
to pray. It's not going to be easy
to attend. People do have to go to
work. People do have to do other things.
Alhamdulillah, one of the blessings of spending Ramadan
in America, one of the one of the
few and far between blessings of spending Ramadan
in America is what? Is that people have
to go about their day as normal, which
is something close to what the Sahaba
used to do. So you see kind of
a disgusting
display of of of of sloth and laziness
in the Muslim world,
during Ramadan where nothing gets done and people
just kinda show up to work and collect
their salaries for no reason.
And poor people have less of a a
a an ability to do that. Usually, it's
like government employees and, and and and the
upper classes that do things like this. But
it's horrible and it's fine, you know. You're
obviously not gonna be as productive as you
are,
when you're not eating and you're not drinking,
you're not sleeping. Although some people find a
way to be even more productive, including the
Sahaba,
who,
their victory in Badr and their victory on
the Fathav Makkah was in Ramadan,
and including our salah for
who crossed the Iberian Peninsula in ships,
and burned their ships behind them, or at
least so we're told, from the tales of
the historians.
And,
in the last 10 days of Ramadan,
and they met with,
they met with the enemy,
on the day of 27th,
and Allah gave them victory.
And so, you know, inaugurating
inaugurating 700 years of civilization or more,
the civilization,
the political reality of which has collapsed, but
the cultural reality of which is still alive
in the in the books of Ibn 'Abdu'l
Bar and Ibn Rushd al Jadw al Hafid,
in the books of ibn Hazm,
in in the books of the, the the
the the literary,
legal, philosophical,
and spiritual geniuses in the tariqa
of,
in the,
the the the the the in the tariqa
of Abu Madian al Ghoth,
and and numerous other things in the in
in Shad and and a number of other
things. It's still alive to this day. Those
people that inaugurated that that era in human
civilization when,
during Ramadan.
So the idea is what? Is that that
that,
Alhamdulillah, over here, at least we're not, you
know, we're not given we're not privy to
this kind of, like,
debilitating and crippling laziness that that seems to
take, place,
in the Muslim world. So it's understood
in the context of this hadith that what
the recitation of the Quran, especially in the
month of Ramadan, will do what?
It's gonna make you lose sleep. You're gonna
be tired. Right?
Are you gonna be tired?
Right? How about you? Are you gonna be
tired?
But what's the benefit of that tiredness?
The benefit of that tiredness is Allah Ta'ala
when he's asking you about your life in
front of everybody one day.
That tiredness will come back and it will
vouch for you. And Allah ta'ala will listen
to it, and Allah Ta'ala will accept its
vouching for you, and you'll be forgiven your
sins on that day when people will be
in,
very dire necessity for Allah Ta'ala's forgiveness.
These are not things Rasool Allah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam,
legislated for us, like, kind of like a
bonus round on a video game between levels.
You see how many barrels you can break.
It's kind of a a a a somewhat
useless waste of time we're at most some
sort of spiritual amazement or amusement.
It is something that all of us are
going to be in need of,
and did us a favor
and gave us
secrets,
divulged secrets, and gave us clues to find
those things that we need,
when a great number of humanity are not
going to be able to find those things,
and that's nothing but the fado and the
grace of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So this salatul Tarawi should be taken seriously.
People should go to the place where the
isha has prayed on time and not,
people don't gerrymander
the prayer times in order to fit their
own hala. They should go to the places
where,
the entire Talawi has played prayed like the
and whom prayed it, which is 20 rakat
and and and and
3 rakat of whether they're 3 in a
row or they're 2 in 1. And they
should pray this entire tarawee. Now
that being said,
it's understood that the the nights are very
late. Places like Seattle,
right now in this part of the year,
if you pray the entire, you don't even
have time to get home and and,
you know, eat your suhoor anymore. Places like
London, they don't even have true prayer times,
at this at this part of the part
of the night, so it's, even worse than
that. So if you are in a situation
where you cannot
read the entire juz or hear the entire
juz being read, then
what you should do is the following.
And if you're,
you know, in charge of a masjid or
have a place where you can facilitate this
also, Allah reward you,
there should be a taraweeh for the people
who want to read the entire juz. If
people want to read more than the entire
juz, then let them have their own separate
taraweeh where they read 23 Ajza.
In Chicago.
We have several places like that. And in
other places, we have several places like that
where the father of Quran have the Himma,
and there are people who have the Himma
and the stamina and the the courage to,
stand stand and listen to so much of
the book of Allah being read. And really
that's closer to the, the practice of the
Sahaba and the
better, the better era of this.
But if you cannot do it, it's difficult
for you rather than than skipping Taraweeh or
not going to the masjid
or or bouncing out before completing your Tarawee,
you should either as an individual or as
a community or group have a special separate
Tarawee
because the congregation of Tarawee is not like
the congregation of Jumu'a,
where it's it's, a a an objective of
the congregation that everybody should be praying in
the same,
in the same, in the same gathering. Rather,
in one masjid, you may have several different
rooms or you may have several different, areas.
So you can have one Tarawih which is
a bit longer. You can have a normal,
a normal one which is the entire Juz,
and you can have a a place where
the Taraweeh has prayed short so that everybody
prays their 20 rakaat and leave,
so that nobody leaves the the the the
sunnah of the tarawih behind.
And, nobody leaves this this practice because if
a person prays it in it, it's Akmal
in its its its its perfect form,
minimally perfect form. It's hoped that they would
be entered into the promise of Rasuulullah
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam that a person will
have,
their sins forgiven. In the short surahs, you
can go through them very quickly. If it's
20 rakaat,
and you have a a a a a
a a where a short surahs are being
read, there's no reason you shouldn't be able
to finish your
in 30, 40, 45 minutes,
and let people go home. But this is
something just
a reminder for myself and a a a
a a for myself,
and a sincere advice for,
everybody in the that don't blow this thing
off.
Don't don't let it go completely.
The thing which is not which cannot be
fulfilled completely,
also shouldn't be left completely. And at any
rate, the tarawih, his twenty rakaat,
the finishing of the Quran in the Taraweeh,
at best, is a a fadilla. It's a
a a virtuous thing to do, but it's
not in the same level as praying the
Taraweeh itself. It's not
by the, but people should not leave this
thing.
They should not leave this thing. Even if
they have to pray it in their homes
or whatever, they shouldn't leave this thing. They
should hold fast to it. And that's, I
think, one of the reasons that the,
one of the wisdoms, I should say, for
the wording of and
the hadith is there that when you read
it, you read it with the hope from
Allah that this thing will be accepted and
you will,
will will have your your your sins forgiven.
That when you read it with 2,
with 2 attributes, one is that you have
faith in Allah and the other is that
you hope for reward from him. You don't
don't just pray your just
because everybody else is doing it or because,
like, mommy or baba is forcing you to
or whatever. What is the hope? The hope
is because of this, Allah to Allah forgive
me all of my sins.
If you pray like that, then Allah to
Allah will
forgive you all of your sins. Allah
give all of us so much stuff. Allah
accept from us. Allah reward,
our teachers,
and their teachers' teachers all the way back
to
the
who transmitted this deen to us and who
showed us an operational practice. All that I'll
reward our those who are with us and
those who have passed. All that I'll reward
all of those,
people sacrificed years of their, of their childhood
in order to memorize the Quran. Some of
them, getting beaten or some of them missing
out on the fun that the other kids
did. Some of them, being yelled at by
their teachers.
It wasn't the yelling wasn't for what? Because
the teachers hate them. But but what? So
that someone can carry this deen forward to
the next generation. All of those children who,
had to go through and endure all of
the in order to memorize the Quran so
that they can now stand in front of,
the omens, in front of the ummah, and
they can,
read the book of Allah and the ayat
of the book of Allah and,
keep this,
alive, which is
a vehicle for the forgiveness of so many
people and the acceptance of so many people
from Allah
Allah reward them and Allah reward their teachers
as well. Allah reward everybody who,
partakes and participates in this noble sunnah and
all of those people who may not participate
in it but wish to participate in it
or would have loved to participate in it
if it was possible for them. And
all of us tell the day that we
die that we can,
stay,
consistent and, and and stay,
bound to the sunnah of Rasool Allah sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam, whether it's this one or
another one.