Husain Sattar – The Month of Dhul Hijjah
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the importance of remembering principles of Islam's mercy and avoiding mistakes and embarrassment. The upcoming Hajj events is a powerful opportunity to start life again and is a risk of turning the Earth into a robot. The importance of fasting and praying for the upcoming events is emphasized, and smallaker and careful prayer practices are recommended. The importance of connecting with Allah is emphasized, and smallaker and careful prayer practices are recommended as ways to strengthen connections.
AI: Summary ©
A few weeks back, I was,
speaking at
the MSI Masjid,
for the tafsir session, and I mentioned a
point which
I want to repeat at this session because
it pertains to,
the circumstance in which we find ourselves.
Sheikh Abdul Hayy, who's a very famous,
Sheikh of the subcontinent,
he used to say that Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala's mercy,
it looks for excuses
to cover a person.
That Allah
has mercy,
it's constantly looking for excuses
to envelope a person.
And subhanallah, you look at the construct of
the deen, how many times have we mentioned
it, how many times will we continue to
mention it, really the whole deen basically
is one excuse after another
to envelop
a servant in the mercy of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
I mean, first of all, you think about
it.
By default, our nature is
is such that we were created to make
mistakes.
It wasn't that we were created perfect, and
once in a while, we would make mistakes.
Actually, we were created to make mistakes.
We were by design. You know, that's the
funny thing. You think about companies that make
cars. Right? For example, Jaguar wants to come
out with a car. Right? Or Volvo wants
to come out with a car. They don't
design the car to fail. They don't design
the car to break down every 100 miles,
every 1000 miles.
They design the car to be perfect
so that they gain a reputation, etcetera, so
that people will buy their car.
Our design is opposite.
It's so strange. Everything that we do, we
try to do perfectly. Everything that we create,
we try to create perfectly.
But our design is not that way. The
prophet
said about Bani Adam that every single one
of Bani Adam is a sinner.
Right? And the best of them are the
ones who often repent.
So that right away tells us that the
default nature of the vast majority of human
beings is to make mistakes
by design.
And then what happens is that the best
of the people is then determined by their
ability to turn back and repent to
So what does that tell us?
That
Allah created
us to take advantage of his mercy.
Because if we're going to make mistakes,
right, the reason why we make all these
mistakes is so that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
can shine His mercy on us in different
ways in each circumstance.
Every person in this room has a fault.
In fact, every person in this room has
many faults.
And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala's beauty is such,
His extravagance is such, His wealth is such,
that in every person's
light, in their own way,
He forgives them.
You know, it's not like we all do
one sin and Allah forgives that one sin.
Every one of us comes up with the
most unique way to sin.
We put our minds to it, you can
say, by nature.
And we come up with this extreme unique
way of sinning, each person doing it with
their own ingenuity
and Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala's mercy is constantly
turning and forgiving, constantly turning and forgiving, constantly
turning and forgiving.
SubhanAllah.
That's why they say that Allah's
mercy is looking for an excuse at every
moment.
Okay. Now,
aside from just the nature by which we've
been created,
right, that's one issue.
Beyond that, the deen in which we've been
placed is designed that way as well.
Think about it.
Every time you come for prayer,
that prayer that you pray in Jammah,
in the Masjid,
it wipes away the previous prayer,
the sins of the in between that and
the previous prayer.
For example, you come to the Masjid to
pray the Maghrib prayer.
Alright. And let's say that you made some
mistakes between Asur and Maghrib,
then that salah wipes away what happens between
Asur and what and between Maghrib.
Okay. Beyond that, the wuluh that we performed
to prepare for each prayer, every time we
make wuluh, we're washing our hands, the sins
are washed away. We wash our face, the
sins are washed away. We wash our feet,
the sins are washed away. All of this
is in Hadith.
So pray to prayer wipe sins away. Wudu
to Wudu washes sins away. Jummah to Jummah
expiate sins. Ramadan to Ramadan expiate sins.
Umrah expiate sins And then Allah
once a year puts the whole world into
the time of Hajj, again expiates sins.
And expiates sin in such a way
that it brings the person back like they're
a newborn baby.
You have to understand. See, that's it's hard
to understand unless you understand in your own
context, and you have to think about it
in your own life. Look.
When there's a car, right, let's say you
have a nice car
and you're driving your car.
Alright. You might get a dent,
So it's not a big deal. There's 5,000
shops around the Chicago land area. Let's say
there's 500 body shops. You take it to
any body shop, they just knock out the
dent. It's gone. Your car will look like
new.
Okay. Now let's say that it's a little
bit of a bigger accident, right? The entire
front end is damaged.
Now you can't take it to any old
shop. Now you have to go to the
best body shop. If you want your car
to come out new, you can't just go
to any old shop, you're gonna go to
the best body shop. So what you're gonna
do is search down of those 500 shops,
maybe 10 to 15, 20% of those shops
will be able to make your car look
like new.
But sometimes, a car gets into an accident
and the whole car just gets totaled.
Now when the car gets totaled, what is
what what do they say? Not even worth
fixing.
Why? Number 1, it's gonna cost more to
fix it than it would to buy a
new car. And number 2, even if you
fix it, it's so messed up, so messed
up, so damaged that it's not gonna come
back to new anyway. It will always show
its blemish.
Right?
So that's in the case of a car.
Now, you think about us as human beings.
Right? Some of us
forget about some of us. Most of us
have
messed up our lives in such a way
that we've just totaled the whole
life. You know, one thing is to have
a dent here and then to come to
Allah, ask Allah for forgiveness, forgive this one
mistake. Right? Or to make a couple mistakes
and then go to Allah
and ask forgiveness. Okay. You Allah, I made
these 2 mistakes in a day. Our life,
our existence was a mistake in some ways.
It's mistake upon mistake upon mistake, and we
sin in so many different ways that we
don't even we can't even keep up with
ourselves.
We cannot even keep up with ourselves and
making a stifar and asking Allah for forgiveness.
We even get lazy in that.
Meaning, we total our lives to such an
extent
that we begin to say, I don't even
have the energy to beg Allah for forgiveness.
I just don't care anymore. I'm sick of
my own self.
I'm so sick of myself that I can't
even raise my hand to ask Allah to
forgive me. That's the state that our lives
get into.
Now, in that case, when we've totaled ourselves,
right, and there was no body shop in
the world that would be able to repair
us, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala He opens the
doors of His mercy and He allows us
to come towards Him. And He produces situations
like the Hajj, where an individual
who just destroyed their life,
right? And had no chance at starting over,
had no chance of having a new body,
right? From the body shop, gets an opportunity
to go, gets an opportunity to repent to
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and then gets the
opportunity to come back like what? Like a
newborn baby,
like a newborn
baby, meaning the person gets to start all
over again.
And so, you see
that in these days, how many people are
excited about the Hajj? SubhanAllah, that's the talk
of any person who understands what's going on
in the world.
You know, other people they sit around, you
go into some gatherings, they're talking about the
news, they're talking about sports, they're talking about
something else. Any sane person who has any
sense of reality in this universe,
right? At this point in time, that's all
they're talking about. People are getting together, they're
preparing for the Hajj, they're discussing the Hajj.
One person is talking about what the fact
that they went for Hajj last year, another
group of people is preparing to go for
Hajj this year, other people are thinking I'm
not going this year, Inshallah, I'll be able
to go next year. That's basically what the
discussion is. Everybody's
whispering about the Hajj. You know, like there's
a big event about to occur and everybody's
talking about it. And that's because of the
grandeur
of the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
that befalls that event. Actually, that's what it's
about. I mean, if people really had no
other reason to go besides travel, then there's
many places you can visit in the world.
There's many places you can go and enjoy
yourself and relax, etcetera. But this is a
very special event.
This is Allah Subhanahu Wa'ala's
special mercy coming upon the coming upon the
community in a very special way and producing
a very special result, which is the opportunity
to start life all over again.
Very, very big opportunity.
Now,
there's 2 sets of people.
There's one set of people that are going
for the Hajj
and they happen to be few and they
happen to be in this particular circumstance, the
fortunate.
And there's another group of people that are
not going for the Hajj but they happen
they will happen to be here for the
Hajj.
Okay, those people that are going for the
Hajj, obviously they need to prepare for themselves
for the Hajj, there's the fic of the
Hajj, there's the various aspects of the Hajj
that they need to consider. Those were discussed
in detail in the Atikaf program and there
have been many Hajj seminars since then. What
I wanna talk about right now is those
people that are not going for the Hajj.
Now,
even if you're not going for the Hajj,
you have to understand that one of the
principles of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's mercy is
that when it rains it pours.
You know, it's like that.
When it rains
it pours. So even though there's a particular
mercy that's going to fall upon the people
in Arafah
or at the Hajj who are performing the
pillars of the Hajj,
that shower will fall upon them. That shower
of Allah's
mercy will fall upon them. What you have
to recognize is that even though it will
be raining heavily over there,
the rest of the world will also be
drowning in that drizzle.
Okay. So it actually spreads throughout the whole
world. Now, what you have to recognize is
that if you don't if you're not going
for the Hajj,
then what you have to think to yourself
is what can I do
to attract some of that drizzle upon myself
as well? So it's very simple. And the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam subhanAllah he outlined
these things for us already.
Okay. First thing.
First thing that the person who's not going
for Hajj should do. It's funny because everybody's
talking about what you should do if you're
going for Hajj. Right? So we're talking about
it in in a somewhat backward way. If
you're not going for Hajj, what should you
do?
First thing is that any person that you
know going for Hajj, especially those people that
are close to you that you're close to,
you should go and ask them to make
the offer you when they're at Hajj.
That's the first thing. And the reason is,
is because the prophet
made a dua
concerning the people in Arafa for the Hajj,
which was, Oh Allah, forgive the people who
are making the Hajj
and forgive the people that the people
making the Hajj ask for forgiveness for.
Do you under you understand? One thing is
that if let's say you have a friend,
his name is Zayd, he's going for Hajj.
So if Zayd is going for Hajj, Zayd
will ask for forgiveness for Zayd. And the
Prophet made a du'a that Allah forgives Zayd
because he asked for forgiveness in the Hajj.
But the Prophet also made a du'a that
whoever Zayd asked for forgiveness for, that Allah
should forgive that person as well.
So, that's the first thing you do.
You know, you don't need to ask, Can
you bring me back these dates? Can you
bring me back this? Can you bring me
back a prayer rub? You don't need any
of that. You need one thing. You need
that that person remember you in your Dua
when you go for Hajj. And I'll tell
you, sometimes it doesn't even matter if you
ask. Actually, Allah will have to put it
in the heart of that person. Because when
people in Arafat, they're busy. They're thinking about
a lot of different things. So, actually what
you're doing is 2 things.
1, you're going to ask people to remember
your name. And then 2, you're going to
ask Allah to put your name in their
heart when they're in Arafat. Because how many
things can one human being remember? 1 person
ties their right shoe, they can't remember if
they tied their left shoe, right? How are
they going to remember your name? So that's
2 aspects that you have to keep in
mind. Number 1,
ask every person you know who's going to
make the offer you. And number 2,
ask Allah that he remind those people there
that they make the offer you. And anyway,
by the way, for those people that are
going, you know, sometimes you feel overwhelmed that,
oh, these so many people keep coming to
me and asking me to make dua for
them. So how am I gonna remember the
names? That's very simple because when you're there,
you simply say, you Allah, I ask you
to forgive me. And every single person who
asked me to make dua for for them,
I asked you forgive them and everybody who
wanted to come but couldn't find me and
intended to call and ask to make dua
for them, I'll forgive them as well. So
you just make a very general blanket dua
like that. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, his recording
is much better than ours. We have no
ability to record anything, Yet he's recording every
single motion of every single being whether every
single thing created, whether it be alive or
whether it be dead.
So that's the first thing.
Second thing is that you should recognize
that when Allah
takes the whole universe
and turns the earth in such a way
and rotates it around the sun in such
a way that the whole world enters into
the month of Hajj,
that a special mercy falls upon the entire
world at that time.
And actually, it's the power of Allah. So
you should think about it this way.
What it actually, Allah takes the whole planet
Earth
and rotates it around the sun
and then spins it on its axis in
such a way that the whole universe falls
into that month.
Right? Actually, that's the way months occur. Right?
The Earth the Earth is rotating around the
sun in a particular way when everything lines
up properly according to astronomy.
Right? According to the science of astronomy, that's
when the earth enters the month of Dhul
Hajj, and that's through the power of Allah.
I think that some there is a being
out there that powerful
that can shake the whole universe in that
way, that the whole universe then falls into
that kind of circumstance.
These are just excuses. This whole rotation of
the Earth, these are excuses for Allah's mercy.
He rotates the Earth through Ramadan, excuse to
forgive people. He rotates the Earth through Hajj,
excuse to forgive people. These are its excuses
and that's why the earth rotates. The earth
is constantly spinning around itself that produces Fajr,
luhar, mawr, besha. Right? All the prayers, all
sort of etcetera. And then that just is
another excuse to be forgiven. So actually, Allah's
power is again designed to create excuses to
forgive us. That was what we started with
anyway. So that's number 2.
That it should awe you
because that's what actually ibadah is about.
Ibadah, when you stand up on the prayer,
Rav, right? It's not about, Did I memorize
these 50 things to say? It's about being
awed by Allah
That there's this being out there that's so
powerful that he can take us on the
day of judgment and decide to put us
in hellfire and that our screaming would make
no difference to him whatsoever.
We could scream
any other human being. If they saw us
scream that way, they would think that they
would think twice before putting us in that
hellfire. But Allah is so mustelveni, he's so
free of everything and so above everything that
he can simply take all of creation and
put them in the hellfire, it would make
no difference to him.
And then you think that the same being,
Allah
can take all of creation and put them
into Jannah
and spend and spend upon them and it
would not decrease his wealth even in the
slightest way. Imagine how wealthy he must be,
SubhanAllah.
Anyway, that's what these types of Ibadat are
about. That's what these months are about.
To recognize that Allah's power is such.
So that's the first thing is to recognize
Allah's power and the fact that He rotates
the universe in this way.
Second thing
is that the Prophet
mentioned
that
in these 10 days, which are the first
10 days of Dhul Hajj, really you should
say the first 9 before the Eid, that
these days are very special days.
And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he advised
people to do certain things during these days
to take advantage of the mercy of Allah
Now
another principle within our sharia, and I mentioned
this principle principle before,
is that before the sun rises,
light spreads across the horizon.
Right? For example, if you wake up before
the time of Fajr, you'll see that even,
you know, as before the sun of the
morning rises, light begins to spread across the
horizon.
And then eventually,
the sun
rises. Same thing with the deen. The coming
of the prophet
did not just start with all of a
sudden bam wahi coming upon the prophet alaihis
salam. First, it started with him seeing true
dreams, then rocks began to make salam to
him, etcetera. There's a whole history behind that.
6 months
occurred of this of the light across the
horizon before the sun actually rose. So in
the same way, while the power of this
month actually lies in 9th of Dhul Hajj,
right, which is the big day, Yom al
Arafa.
Actually the barakah begins to descend
upon the community
much before that. It begins at the very
first day of the month.
Now what happens when the very first day
of the month begins?
Is that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala puts a
special reward in prayer
and puts a special reward in fasting.
In the book of Imam Tirmidhi, the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam mentions that
every single fast
from the first all the way until
9th produces one single year of reward.
So you fast the first, Insha'Allah, you get
1 year of reward. You fast the second,
Insha'Allah, you get a year of reward. So
this is in the book of Imam Tiddmidi.
Now, that then continues, continues, continues until it
reaches its peak which is fasting 9th of
Dhul Hajj. And this is something that no
one should miss.
Okay. So you start fasting on the first
if you can, do the second if you
can, do the 3rd if you can, but
the goal is the 9th.
Because the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said in
a hadith in the book of Imam Muslim
that the individual who fastes fast the 9th
of Dhul Hajj that produces 1 year of
expiation for their sins.
Alright? And so that's a huge,
huge benefit.
That one whole year of sin can be
wiped away by simply withstanding from food for
8 hours.
How many hours of sin must have been
in that year? And look at the exchange,
8 hours of withholding oneself from food
produces such an incredible reward.
So that's the first thing that's advised by
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
The second thing that's advised by the Prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is prayer.
The second thing is prayer.
In the same hadith
which in the book of Imam Tirmili
the Prophet mentions that the one who prays
at night,
right, at night
of the first, the night of 2nd, the
night of 3rd, the night of 4th, they
receive a reward as if they're praying Laylatul
Qadr.
So you can see how much Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala's forgiveness and how much his barakat
are descending upon the entire universe in those
9 days. So number 1, fill our days
with fasting
and number 2, fill our nights with prayer.
Okay. Number
3,
an individual
who is not going for the Hajj,
if they are Sahibun Nisaab. Sahibun Nisaab means
the individual who is eligible to pay Zakah,
upon whom Zakah is mandatory.
If an individual is Sahibun Nisaab, the Prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
commanded us that we must sacrifice an animal,
right,
in order to as part of a mandatory
act of worship to mimic what Hajjut Ibrahim
alaihis salam
did when he made an attempt to sacrifice
his son.
So this is mandatory and it occurs on
the 10th, 11th, or 12th. You have 3
days to sacrifice. The preferable day is to
do it on 10th,
but you can do it anytime on 10th,
11th, 12th, and on 10th, it's after the
Eid prayer.
So after the Eid prayer, for those people
who have enough wealth, they should go and
make the sacrifice.
Now, what's enough wealth? You can go and
look up the current rate of, silver, etcetera.
But it's about, let's say, 800, $900,
$700. You need to look up the current
rate. But if you are someone who pays
Zakah,
then this is mandatory upon you. And there's
a couple of things to keep in mind.
Number 1, is that each individual must do
this themselves.
The wife must do it for herself.
The husband must do it for himself and
any adult child.
Right? Now I use the word adult child
because people here, we have our own way
of defining what are adults and what are
children.
Any
adult as defined by the sharia, which is
any individual above the age of puberty,
male or female,
they also must sacrifice if they possess
enough wealth that Zakah would be mandatory upon
them.
Now, this is not something that the wife
just goes and takes care of and says,
Oh, I took care of it for the
family.
Nor is it something that the husband just
goes and takes care of and doesn't say
anything to the rest of the family and
says, I took care of it for the
family. This This is an individual responsibility.
So for example, if you're going to sacrifice
and your wife also needs to sacrifice, you
don't just send in the $80 check and
take care of both sacrifices. You talk to
your wife about it.
Cause she has to give you the permission.
She has to know that this is something
mandatory upon her. And then it's through her
permission that you go ahead and do it.
Now,
there are many different ways that you can
do the sacrifice.
The ideal way to do the sacrifice
is that you do it with your own
hand.
So there is a farm available in Wisconsin
and perhaps there are some in Indiana and
there may even be some set up in
Illinois. Every year, it varies depending on who
is trying to set this up. But basically,
there are opportunities
for you to go and sacrifice the animal
with your own hand. And that is the
best.
That's what's highlighted by the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi
Wasallam. That's the Sunnah of the Prophet SallAllahu
Alaihi Wasallam. And that produces the reward that
you're looking for. In fact, it comes in
Hadith that when you're sacrificing,
as the blood gushes out of the animal,
your sins gush out of you.
Right? In the same way that the blood
gushes. Now, anybody who sacrificed, you know that
when you sacrifice, that blood goes flying
And it takes a good 2 minutes before
the when the blood keeps coming, keeps coming,
keeps coming. Right? So in the same way,
just as the blood is gushing out of
the animal, in the same way at that
moment, your sins are gushing out of you
in the exact same way. So that's the
ideal. That you go and with your own
hand that you do that sacrifice. And there's
tremendous benefit in that. If you're able to
do that, then the corollary to that is
to recognize that the meat that you obtained
from the sacrifice, that the Sunnah is to
take that meat and divide it into thirds.
1 third for yourself,
1 third for your friends and family,
1 third for the poor. All right, so
that's 2 benefits from sacrificing with your own
hand. Number 1, you're gonna just you're gonna
get the benefit of the blood flowing. And
number 2, you're gonna get the benefit of
the meat and being able to distribute it
in the Sunnah way.
It usually costs about $100 $120
In this day and age, people spend $100
on many things. So why not do such
an incredible opportunity
to be able to sacrifice this animal, fulfill
this right of the Sharia and think about
the fact that you're basically mimicking the Prophet
Ibrahim
We talked about that in detail in the
MSI Tafsirah program.
So that's the first way of fulfilling the
sacrifice.
The second way of fulfilling the sacrifice is
to send someone else to do it on
your behalf. So you send a friend to
the animal farm, they'll sacrifice for you or
you can go with them and you can
watch while they sacrifice for you.
The third way is to send the money
to a foreign country or to some other
place within this country. So what happens is
various organizations,
usually relief organizations
offer the opportunity
to take,
40, 50, $60
they'll send it to a particular country where
the meat will be used, the meat will
be sacrificed, it'll be done in your name
and then you can, Insha'Allah, receive the reward
of that sacrifice plus of the meat being
distributed to the poor.
So this is another opportunity for us. Now,
when you make the sacrifice,
I'll give you one piece of advice, and
this is my teachers used to advise us
this as well.
Try to sacrifice 1 or 2 extra sacrifices
and do them those sacrifices
for other people who you're in debt to.
So for for example,
one of the recommended things that you might
want to consider is to sacrifice for the
Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Now it's not that
he needs your sacrifice, right? But actually it
creates a connection between you and the Prophet
In fact, on one occasion the Prophet sacrificed
1 animal for himself and he sacrificed 1
animal for the community.
So it's sort of in a way quote
unquote repaying the debt. Although we can never
repay the debt. But see these are ways
by which you create connections between yourself on
the Day of Judgment and other individuals, right?
Now you've created a connection between you and
the Prophet on
that day. It's another way by which you
connect yourself to the Prophet
Anyway, you can do it for your parents,
you can do it for your friends, for
your relatives, for your teachers, etcetera. Whatever, however
you desire.
So that's the second, that's the 3rd Sunnah
actually. Now, for the individual who intends to
make a sacrifice,
okay? For the individual who intends to make
the sacrifice, the Prophet
recommended
that that person
not clip their nails
and not cut their hair
from the first of Dhul Hajj all the
way until after the sacrifice.
Basically, what is happening is that you are
mimicking the individual who goes for Hajj. Now,
you know that when an individual goes for
Hajj, they put on something called the Ihram
and when they're in the Ihram, they're not
allowed to clip their nails and they're not
allowed to cut their hair. So the Prophet
SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, he recommended in a Hadith
that the individual who intends to sacrifice, so
they're not going for Hajj, they're gonna sacrifice
hair at home.
What they should do is they should not
clip their nails from the first
all the way until their sacrifice.
So now this creates some sort of connection
with them
with the people who've gone for Hajj. And
basically what you're really saying is You Outlaw,
my mind is at Hajj, my heart is
at Hajj, all of my thoughts are at
Hajj even though I'm not at Hajj. So
provide me some of the rewards that are
being descended upon those people at Hajj. See
everything is about Nisba and Nisdeen.
You connect yourself and then InshaAllah you receive
that reward. We know that the Prophet that
the Sahaba, when the Prophet told the Sahaba
Al Mar Uma Al Nahab they became very
ecstatic, right? He said to them that the
person will be with whom he loves. So
then on the Day of Judgment, if you
had a love for Allah and His Messenger,
InshaAllah you'll be with them. Why? Because there's
a connection there. So it's a lot of
the Deen is about creating these connections.
So if we're not able to go for
the Hajj,
it doesn't mean that we just give up
and say, Okay, well we're not going so
we move on with life. We create as
many connections as possible. We fast to show
that our minds and our hearts and our
souls are with the people at Hajj. We
pray at night to recognize that these are
very special days, that these are the days
of Hajj. We prepare a sacrifice even though
we're not going. We perform a sacrifice in
order to mimic
perhaps one of the celebrations of Hajj. Right?
And in the same way we don't clip
our hair, we don't clip our nails, etcetera.
If we're sacrificing
because we're trying to tie ourselves into the
people in Ahram at the Hajj.
So these are all recommendations
of the Prophet
to take advantage of these particular days. Now
the last thing to recognize is that these
are days of Allah
glorification.
And I told you that the Sharia is
designed and the Deen is designed to praise
and praise Allah. And that's what Ibadah is
about. When we sit down and worship Allah,
when we pray to Allah, it's all about
raising Allah and recognizing His grandeur.
So one of the recommendations, and in fact
it's mandatory,
is that
beginning on the morning of 9th, so Fajr
of the morning of 9th all the way
until Asr of 13th,
we have to make special takbiraat
after every single prayer.
Alright? This is mandatory on every individual who
offers the prayer. So the male will do
it out loud, the female will do it
silently.
From the fajr
of
the 9th of Dhul Hajj all the way
until Asr of 13th Dhul Hajj, you will
offer takbiraat
after every single prayer. So it means you'll
pray the Fard prayer or the Fajr
together or if you happen to be at
home alone and then you recite Allahu Akbar
Allahu Akbar La ilaha illallah
Wallahu Akbar Allahu Akbar Wallillahil Hamd.
So that's the Takbira that have to be
recited after every single mandatory prayer, only after
the Fraid.
The husband or the male will recite it
out loud, the female will recite it silently,
you recite it whether you're praying in Jema,
whether you're praying individually,
etc.
So this is a Takbirat and these are
basically the ways by which we continue to
glorify our Lord for those incredible blessings that
he bestows upon the universe during these particular
days. So this is how an individual ties
themselves in despite the fact that they may
not be going this year. Now, what's often
the result of such a tie in? When
you become someone,
right? If you sit, if you can really
connect to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, the hope
is is that he will notice you. He
will recognize you and Inshallah open the door
for us to be able to go
regularly to visit his home, Right? When somebody
is very beloved
to when an individual becomes very beloved to
Allah, Allah draws that individual near to them.
So what happens that individuals gets to pray
that the Hajjid prayer. And when they're praying
that the Hajjid prayer, they're drawn near to
Allah
they get to make special duas, they get
a special relationship with Allah through the Tawajid
prayer, right? The Sharia becomes easy for them.
They begin to follow the Sunnah.
That's a way by which Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala draws near people who are beloved to
him. So in the same way he begins
to give them the Tawfiq to go for
the Hajj, to go for Umrah, to again
follow his Deen, etcetera.
So make ourselves valuable. That's the basic point.
When we make ourselves valuable, then Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala InshaAllah will also value us. Now,
one thing to keep in mind
is that if you're not able to go,
one thing that you can do is make
it as easy for anybody else that's going
to be able to go. That's another important
aspect within the Deen that's a one you
know, these are the secrets of the Deen,
you can say. You know, these are the
secrets of the Deen. So if you're not
able to go, make it as easy as
possible for other people who are going. For
example, your family members are going, carry their
luggage on your back.
You know what I'm saying? Make it as
easy as possible because when you become a
khadim,
right, and you lower yourself and serve other
people, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tends to bring
you into the very special
gathering
of those people that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
draws near to him.
So sometimes we make mistakes, but when we
are people that are allowing other people to
benefit, then Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala inshallah will
be quick to forgive those mistakes. And that's
all about service. It's a whole separate thing.
In particular, if your parents are going,
do everything you can to make it easy
for your parents.
Everything you can to make it easy for
them. Whether it be helping them with their
luggage, helping them get ready, anything that you
can do for anybody that's going, make it
easy for them.
Perhaps Allah will put their name and your
and I'm sorry, your name in their heart
when they're in Arafa,
etcetera.
So again, tie yourself into these days as
much as possible. People always ask, okay, I've
really made a lot of mistakes. What can
I do now? I'm really suffering. I wanted
to be so much closer to Allah. Ramadan,
it became a memory. What can I do
now? Take advantage of these days. These are
very special days and they're about to fall
upon us and they're very powerful and there
are going to be a time when Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala's mercy will shine in such
a beautiful and unique way. So it's up
to us to take advantage of it. So
use these days to your advantage. Fast the
days, pray the nights, beg Allah for his
forgiveness,
assist those people that are going for the
Hajj, try to take advantage.
You know, just if I were you, I
mean, it's up to you. But if I
were you, I would just go to the
airport and just shake the hands of the
people going for the Hajj because it's beneficial.
It's beneficial. I'm telling you, anytime you even
shake, you know, if you shake the hand
of a believer, 2 people, they shake the
hand
only for the sake of Allah
We know from hadith that sins fall from
that individual.
So what's wrong with going there and smiling
at a couple of people who are going
saying, Yeah, Allah, these are your servants. They're
going. Let me see if I can carry
someone's suitcase or some old man that maybe
I can help out
carrying his luggage wherever. I mean, just take
advantage of these days. You know, that's the
person who really gets into it is the
one who takes advantage of every single opportunity.
So may Allah
give us a tawfiq
to be among those who regularly get to
visit his house, to be among those who,
can take advantage of these days, to be
among those who get the tofik to fast
during the days and to pray during the
nights,
and, to be among those who,
obtain some of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala's vast
forgiveness
during this special time.