Ighsaan Taliep – The Hajj is Arafah

Alhamdulillah

also let us Salim or Allah Rasool, Allah, Salawat, Allah. He was

salaam, who Ali wala Ali. He was Sahabi. He wabaraka was a la

rabbi, Charlie surgery.

Respected elders, our beloved fathers and our respected mothers,

our beloved brothers and sisters in Islam, in our innocent

children, I greet you all assalam. Ali Kumar Ahmed Allah, He

obarakatu, well.

Thanks and praises be Unto Allah. We turn Unto Allah and eternal

gratitude and praise.

We pray and

entree that Allah, subhana wa taala, make us among those who

follow the example of our beloved, Nabih Muhammad, sallAllahu, alayhi

wa sallam

in being grateful

and being a thankful slave of Allah.

System of Allah in life is that, when we are grateful,

Allah gives us more.

And on the flip side, if we ignore Allah's favors, If we disregard

His niran

Allah removes them,

and our beloved rasulallah is

famously recorded

to characterize himself by saying a fellow Akun, Abdul shaquran

Should Have they not be a thankful slave of Allah,

loving salaams upon his noble family, his companions and friends

and all those who follow Him until the final hour.

And we pray that Allah inspire our hearts towards that,

says Allah In the Holy Quran, all the elehint regime, a

Abu

Well, Lady Nakata will be a yet in a Sumo, a book man fill a met,

may Yes, sha Allah, who you'd lil

when me

stuck In sadaq, Allahu, alaihi,

lotabrota, Allah in the Holy Quran reminds us

that he had created

all human beings

and all communities of living beings,

in communities,

Allah says there isn't a single animal that may traverse the earth

or a being that flies the skies, except that they are all in

communities, like you are in communities,

and

we have not neglected to mention of anything in this Kitab

uma ILA, Rabbi, him, yo Sharon, and then ultimately, the final

resurrection in return is Unto Allah, Subhanahu wa and

those who defy and reject Allah's signs. The signs of ours is Allah,

summan wa bukman fidumat, they are

dumb, they are deaf, and they are dumb in darkness. And whomsoever

Allah, subhana wa Taala wishes Allah shall leave him to his

misguidance. And whomsoever Allah, subhana wa taala, wishes Allah,

shall place him on a straight path,

our beloved brothers and sisters in Islam,

human beings,

when we're talking about Hajj,

then Hajj in itself,

is for us yet, but another

means and a ways through which ALLAH SubhanA wa Taala allows us

to understand and conclusively in our understanding and realize

what the manifestation of life on this earth for human beings are

and of the manifestations of life for human beings on this earth

is that we are meant to be together.

Is there anything that is as powerful? Are there many things

but.

Chance that can be more powerful in its expression

than that expression of the unity

of the Ummah of our beloved Nabi Muhammad, sallAllahu, Sallam on

Hajj and through Hajj.

Hajj on its own. When we look at the word itself. It means to have

an intention. Means to make an intention, and more particularly,

intention to travel, to go on a journey. That's why it's called a

pilgrimage.

Pilgrimage does have its added connotations also,

and this is something which, through times immemorial,

historically, human beings have always embarked on pilgrimages

to try and seek and to attain Spiritual Rebirth, spiritual

renewal.

And so in Islam,

the Hajj in itself, this pilgrimage from our Koran and the

Sunnah,

is this special pilgrimage of which the intention is, Al qarab,

belt, Allah,

and like those before us want to gain this spiritual rebirth. Want

to gain this spiritual renewal,

which is a deeply, deeply intimate and personal affair,

isn't it?

No one else

can give me spiritual rebirth.

It's a very, very personal affair,

and therefore my intention is rabbuka, the Lord of the Kaaba, in

order for me and for us to attain to some closeness of that

particular objective.

And so,

like the birds, have these innate desire to migrate in flocks

to different destinations

depending on the seasons.

And they are innately without we understanding how attracted to

certain destinations.

So we also have this inner desire to make this migration and this

pilgrimage to that holy holy site. And so House of Allah, subhana wa

Taala allows us to come to this understanding and appreciation of

the unity of humankind, which is so central, central to our

understanding and a manifestation as human beings in Islam and this

social exchange and the social relations and interaction for us

as Muslims at the Cape even take on some even more special

dimensions, isn't it, because lumberica dulum to socialize

as we bring that socialization right into our spiritual and to

our religious identities in the most admirable and remarkable,

innovative ways.

These are beautiful innovations, the bidara, which is Hasina,

which the Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wa sallam, Sina Shima,

Shai, Rahima, Allah, Bucha, Hanifa would call bida atu

Hasan.

And so all of that starts even before we embark on this journey.

And what are these things that we do, but expressions of love,

expressions of compassion for one another. Respect. I respect my

brother when I go and visit him, because he informed us, it's out

of respect that I go there to go and pay him a visit and to go and

greet him. It's out of my kindness of my heart that I'm trying to

nurture and foster to go and visit my brother who is going on this

sacred journey. So all these cultural practices are fused and

infused and founded and based upon those important Islamic values,

but all of it is about this social interaction with one another.

And so when we arrive there, we arrive

in the sacred precincts, in the Haram of Mecca. And we go past the

meerkat and we arrive, and you see this ocean of human beings. And we

once again become infused with this united.

That nations notion that we are all one, we are all equal,

we are all brothers. We are all have the same ambitions,

objectives to come closer Unto Allah and to renew ourselves

spiritually. And so we reinforce the words of the Prophet Salla

Salim in our minds when he says, No, there's no superiority for

this nation over that nation. There's no superiority for this

color over that color. It's all about the equality of man,

and that is a supreme expression of humility,

you cannot

confirm the equality of human beings. If there is an otter of

kibbur in your heart, it's impossible. If you believe that

you somehow better than others, you cannot subscribe to the

equality of of human beings. And so

Allah subhanahu wa taala wants us to through this journey, achieve

the objectives that Allah Taala states in the Holy Quran are the

specific objectives for such journeys and pilgrimages,

journeys, generally, pilgrimage specifically, Allah says in

Suratul Hajj,

afalamya,

fatakun, olahun, Kulu niya, aqunya, Bihar, don't they travel

into the earth? Like the birds travel. They migrate from one part

of the dunya to another part of the dunya,

don't they travel through the Earth, says Allah, so that they

may gain hearts with which they can understand, so that they can

gain understanding and development in the thinking through their

hearts, so that they can develop the AK through their hearts.

In Islam, intellect,

therefore, is not about the equivalence of what is residing in

brains,

because Allah says that the equivalence of intellect is what

is developed through the hearts.

He's also indicative of that intimacy, of personal nature, of

this development, the spiritual renewal and this birth. And so

Allah Tala says, in order that they may gain hearing with which

they hear, and sight with which they can see, hearing with which

they hear, sight with which they can see, because sometimes you

have ears but you can't hear. Sometimes you do have eyes, but

you don't see. For inahala, Tamil, Abu SAR because there's not vision

that goes blind well, like in tarmal, kullu bulati, if you

sudor, it's the hearts that's in the bosoms that go blind. It's the

veils that we become

hijab with.

Therefore, in hajj, there is also the Bab of hajab

that something en route may happen that prevents you from arriving at

your destination.

And so similarly, these veils with which our hearts, in our minds, in

our eyes, in our ears are veiled with prevents us from that

spiritual arrival. We cannot arrive. It's impossible.

And so therefore Brothers and Sisters in Islam, when the Prophet

sallallahu Sallam used the words al hadj Arafat Abu, Arafa.

The word Arafa in the first instance is a reference to that

place, Arafa, and reference to that time on that place, Arafa, on

that specific day. And so when some of the tribes of the Najib

people came there, late arrival on Arafa, it was already past

the sunset time they said, a rasulallah, do we actually get

Hajj? And then Abu Salim

instructed a caller, a munadi to proclaim al Hajj. Arafa, Hajj is

Arafat. So as long as you were here on Arafa, and this was even

though it was after the time of sunset, that is still the time of

ARAVA, people who are late. And so if they were on Arafa before

sunrise the following day, they would have, of course, been

granted Hajj, the word Ara.

Affair has got to do with knowing, understanding Arafat to know

marifa is knowledge,

they say, the place Arafat got its name from when ALLAH SubhanA wa

Taala allowed our mother and our fathers in Adams in Hawa to

reunite and they actually recognized one another now on the

earthly existence, after they have been,

after they have been ejected from Jannah in their earthly existence,

ALLAH SubhanA wa Taala allowed them to meet, and they then

recognized, to recognize one another On some say, Sidney,

Ibrahim, alaihi, salatu wa salam, when he was taught the manasik

Raj, Jibreel took him on this journey of Hajj. And when he was

taught the manasik, Jibreel asked him, arafter, have you now

understood? And you would say, araf, I have understood. I have

known. Now. It is also said that because of humans and this big,

massive congregation of people who would then congregate on Arafat

and them learning to no one like you would have in the time of the

Prophet sallallahu sallam, the first ever such a massive

gathering of none, less than 150,000

souls on Hajj with the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa. They all got

to know one another, and we all get to know one another. You can

try and envisage and imagine how it must have been for them when

they were standing there as such a massive group in the history of

Islam,

listening to the Farewell Sermon of the Nabih Muhammad,

and how even at that time, all this interconnectedness of fellow

human beings, fellow believers, was part of that experience. At

the same time, trying to bring about that spiritual renewal,

which is very, very, very personal. And so unless we are

able to bring through this self knowledge, the self discovery,

that's what journeying is all about. Journey is about self

discovery. Unless we can bring through this objective of

understanding, then we are, in fact, screened. We have been

deprived from that arrival Mahjoub, as we learn in these Babs

and Abu Abba. And so we then begin to truly acknowledge and recognize

Allah, Subhanahu, wa taala, presence, Allah Talas, our

presence in Allah Talis mercy, because also we understand that we

cannot gain Allah's salvation in Allah Talas, Jannah except through

Allah Talis mercy. Allah says Prophet saws. Prophet sallam said

Allah. Tali says that none of you shall enter Jannah except through

my through My Mercy, except through the mercy of Allah,

subhanaw, wa Taala and so Brothers and Sisters in Islam, our families

are there. Our friends are there. We can't all be there.

It is of the hekma, of Allah's wisdom, that * is only fought

once in a lifetime. We are one comma, 7 billion Muslims on this

earth today. They could probably give to people who come through

the borders. About one comma, seven visas for Hajj. One comma, 7

million visas.

Other people are the ones who are inside the country, etc, etc. And

so, because those are the statistics, actually. And so that

is not even a 10th, it's not even a 100th, it's a 1,000th percentage

of the entire ummah.

But when we're talking about us being here at home,

Al Hajj, Arafat is about also rekindling the spirit of Arafat

within ourselves, because we don't only have to be on Arafat in order

to spiritually renew ourselves,

we can spiritually renew ourselves through all sorts of things which

Allah Tala gives us. Allah Tala, for example, requires of us to

consider fasting under the Not there. Not only that, Allah asks

us to consider to engage in intensive Ibadah in the first 10

days of

of Haja, which is in two weeks time, and that there is no other

Ibadah that you can ever perform that is more loved by Allah than

that which you do in the first 10 days of Dhul Hijjah. It's a season

for spiritual rebirth and renewal,

something that we even overlook and think that what is the wisdom

of this? Like a person that may have the niya to actually

slaughter on the day of Eid ul Adha sunnah in there is that from

the time that the first day of the hija sets?

In that we should refrain from cutting our nails and cutting our

hair. Now, that really puts paid to tilakos, visit naribabitu, but

Jim muridma muy time.

But the point is, it may look trivial, but it's about putting us

in a frame of mine to remind us about these great days, to remind

us about this ample, fertile, abundant opportunity for spiritual

rebirth and spiritual renewal. It's all of it together and so

Brothers and Sisters in Islam, all of it is to combat the remembrance

of Allah. Is to combat the raffle. Is to combat the raffle, to combat

the mindlessness and the heedlessness, and if we're talking

about our own experiences today,

the most critical way in which we bring, again to the fore, the

manifestation of that community nature of human beings, that we're

all part of the social unit.

We must become so concerned, we must become so desperate. We must

always become so despaired

of the extent

of the decadence in our society, the crimes that are being

committed in our society, the violent crimes that will be

committed in our society, the killings and the murders and the

maiming

the child and the children, the young child of eight months old

that can be raped, the single family within the last two weeks,

a single family of five members that can be shot and gunned down

inside their home,

the social consciousness that the rekindling of the spirit of Arafat

requires of us to be able to reflect into our own reality here,

because we're not on the planes of Arafat, we are here.

What does that drive us towards? Can we be indifferent about it?

Can we be mindless about it? Can we be not caring about it?

When Allah Tala intends for the perfection of the development of

human manifestation to be that unity and the Brotherhood amongst

them

and so Brothers and Sisters in Islam, the least that we can do is

to start with those intense duaz that we pray that Allah, subhana

wa taala, bring relief and Allah bring for us solutions to these

desperate times in which we are living with lives and societies

entirely broken. Families are broken, and that is why society is

broken, and to rekindle the spirit of that self awareness of ours,

that self consciousness of, how do we move forward? Faith leaders are

meeting in this coming week in bontiville at a summit to

consider, what can we do about this? Non Muslim people, Muslim

people. We should be at the forefront in that

our judge on that side, of course, also vero in all of this, our

beloved brothers and sisters in Islam, our responsibility in the

society of Allah, coming close Unto Allah of spiritual rebirth,

as the Hajj demonstrate, is intimately and inextricably linked

to our relationship with our fellow human beings. Allah Tala

has sent

Malaika of adab, in a place when they transgressed the laws of

Allah. And these Malaika found a very pious person there worshiping

Allah. And they said, Ya Allah, what must we do about this man?

And all his response was,

start with him.

Start with him,

and so May Allah guide our hearts as community, as human beings.

Allah guide our hearts as leaders, the representatives of Allah,

Khalifa, Allah, fill AR that Inshallah, we also fulfill our

role spiritually as well as socially, within these very, very

trying and difficult times in which we face Malaga.

Me.