Ingrid Mattson – Recording Ramadan Resolutions 2017 4 Speakers
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Brothers and sisters, it's just so wonderful to
be joining you here tonight,
as we approach Ramadan.
SubhanAllah, Ramadan
is
an ancient spiritual practice.
And when we pray when we fast during
the month of Ramadan,
we're not
only joining ourselves
through the generations of Muslims who came before
us doing this
year after year after year,
but we're also joining,
people
throughout humanity.
Allah
says that this fast was ordained for those
before us so that we,
as well as Muslims, so that we
might,
be mindful of Allah
So this is one thing that I'd like
to point out and for us to really
think about how
this fast
shows to us and demonstrates to us
the
value of prophetic religion versus trying to find
our own spiritual path as many people wish
to do these days.
So many of us when Ramadan
ends and we've,
felt the spiritual uplift from fasting and reading
Quran
and all of the good deeds, we make
a commitment and say,
I'm going to try to, you know, do
more voluntary fast during the year, or I'm
gonna try to keep up,
some of these good habits. And inshallah, we
do and we grow a little bit every
day. But you know and I know, I
think, that for most of us,
we're weak human beings, we're forgetful human beings,
and
we find it very difficult
to keep,
to keep up with all of those commitments.
And every year when Ramadan comes,
you know, one of the things that we'll
hear again and again people say is,
I really needed Ramadan, but Ramadan came just
in time.
And that, subhanAllah,
really is the proof of the value of
prophetic
religion
because we could at any time decide we're
going to fast
or to recommit ourselves to doing more charity,
to be reading more Quran,
but it is not the same thing.
And so we all need that, and I
want I want this month and and the
experience
of spiritual uplift that we feel this month
to also
give us a firmer conviction
in our religion.
The fact that this prophetic religion, that this
path that the prophet Muhammad
that he showed us
through the guidance,
and the direction of Allah
that this is the right way.
Now,
the next thing I wanna say and this
may seem a little strange given that I'm
going I'm the first,
teacher tonight,
but I I wanna focus in the little
time that I have because we all just
have a few minutes here
on the people who, in fact,
cannot fast during Ramadan
because
one of the things I've heard from many
people who I've spoken to the last few
days,
I I keep running into people who, because
of, you know, health reasons or other reasons,
pregnancy, nursing,
you know, many situations,
cannot fast
or either the whole month
or,
cannot fast for some time. And so I
want us to remember that Ramadan is
a blessed sacred month. It's a special time.
It is a time that is established by
Allah
to be a special sacred month, and there's
much more
that,
many more blessings that we can experience, inshallah,
if we're aware of them, even if we
can't fast.
This is the month when the gates of
heaven are open and the devils are chained
chained up. And so anything we do, inshallah,
has more barakah,
if we're aware of that and make our
intentions sincere
to, become closer to Allah
It is a month when we can increase,
and everyone can pray. Even if you can't
make salat, you can at least make dua.
So increase in prayer and reading Quran,
And this is an opportunity for us to
have all of our sins forgiven.
Abu Huraira, may Allah be pleased with him,
reported that the messenger of sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam
said,
whoever observes salm, whoever observes fasting in the
month of Ramadan with sincere faith and hoping
for a reward from Allah, then all his
past sins will be forgiven.
And whoever stood for the stood for salat
in the night of, Laylatul Qadr
with sincere faith and hoping for a reward
from Allah, then all his past sins will
be forgiven.
So,
praying even if for those, and I know
many elderly people now who can't, please reassure
your family, your parents, and others
that there are many opportunities
for them. One of the things that we
do as human beings
very often is
is not take advantage of the opportunity in
front of us,
but mourn for something gone in the past.
But but what we believe as Muslims,
our belief in Qadir itself,
when we talk about Leila Tal Qadir, we
should think about what Qadir is. And Qadir
is whatever is in front of us.
And that everything that's put in our way,
even if we experience it as an obstacle,
is an opportunity to do some good. This
is a month when we,
when the benefits of charity are multiplied.
It is a month when every single one
of us can fast from from
harsh
speech and fighting and arguing. Every one of
us can do that. This is a month
when
when we give in charity and for those
who can't fast, it is a month to
feed others.
And I'd like to recommend
that people consider
that,
if you can go to a place and
participate in a feeding program
rather than or in addition to giving money,
it's better.
Because
then, if you go and actually feed people
and are involved in that, you will have
an embodied experience,
in the way that a person fasting is
having an embodied experience.
Very often people,
with a lot of sincerity, you know, write
a check or put, you know, send some
money in their credit card, and that's good.
But if you can actually be involved, put
yourself in a place of feeding,
this, of course, is the way that, you
know, certainly during the time of the prophet
Muhammad alaihis salaam,
most of the people would have would have
fed others. It wouldn't have been just by
putting a check-in the mail.
It's also a time when we should not
only think about our own,
spiritual upliftment, but try to help others.
You know, if the days we can't fast,
we can support others who are fasting by
maybe cooking food that day or helping them,
watch their kids.
But also, it should be a time when
we look for those
who don't have those supports. We need to
expand our circle. There are many people who
are lonely, who are independent,
you know, converts,
divorced
people, single people.
Expand your circle
because,
there are so many who would love to
to experience that blessing
of breaking the fast together
and praying together.
Finally, I just want to say in my
last minute that, of course, we live in
different hemispheres. So for those of you in
the southern hemisphere, these this is a time
of short days.
And the benefit of the short days of
Ramadan, when Ramadan has short days, is that
there's more time for night prayer,
more time for reading Quran, more time for
inviting guests, for Iftar and praying in congregation.
Well, for those of us in the northern
hemisphere,
when the days are long,
it is,
there are other opportunities.
We experience the rigor of a long fast,
and it's a mistake to try to to
do everything the same every year. So many
people say, well, I regret I can't go
and pray in the masjid
every night because,
I really like to do that, but it's
too late. I have to go to work
or my family's at home.
Rather than looking at that as a negative,
look at it as a positive.
Praying at home with your family instead of
going to the Masjid is a beautiful opportunity
to bring your family together.
The prophet Mohammed he
prayed his Taraweeh prayers
in his
home in the last years of his life.
So it is not lesser than, it is
not,
something that is worse than praying in congregation.
It is
another opportunity,
to experience,
the blessings of of lifting up that light
of prayer in the home and binding your
family together,
and and learning
also to be more more confident and fluent
and fluent in reading the Quran, with your
family.
So with that, just these are my few
humble,
suggestions,
and I hope they're of some benefit.
We change each year, the time changes. The
most important thing is to take a little
time to take account of ourselves.
Who are you since last Ramadan?
Since Ramadan 5 years ago, 10 years ago?
Of course, we have to take into account
our different obligations.
You know, you have a you've when you
have many little children, it's different than you
when you were a single student.
But there are also different opportunities. Look for
those opportunities
because
every year there is a chance for you
to grow. May Allah
bless you and bless
this month
and bring our community
closer to the most merciful, our creator,
through this time.
Everyone.
I hope you can, hear me and see
me.
Can you all can you all hear me?
Just let me know in the chat group
if you can in the chat room if
you can, hear me.
Yes.
Okay. Awesome.
So,
just wanted to, thank doctor Ingrid Matson. And,
as as we
as we hear from our teachers tonight,
please note down any questions that you have
because we will have some time at the
end
where you can address,
our scholars and teachers today
with some questions,
related to their talks or related to Ramadan
in general,
or the theme of of Ramadan
resolutions.
And, and alhamdulillah.
One thing I wanted to mention that I
didn't get to mention before is that,
celebrate Mercy's webinars
are something that we've done for a few
years now. This is probably the 9th
webinar
that we've done over the past 7 years,
in terms of, like, how we try to
teach about the profit. So lastly, we do
those in 4 ways.
One of them are through webcasts,
also known as webinars,
like this one tonight.
And
looks like the group
of participants has really grown even, over the
past
few minutes. We've had some more people join
us,
and more people are still joining as well.
So I would like to now go ahead
and introduce
our next speaker,
and that is Imam Zayed Shakir.
As you know, he is the cofounder of
Zaytuna College,
one of also one of our great greatest,
scholars we have in the west, and we're
very honored to have him join us today
to give us advice,
in terms of Ramadan and making our resolutions
for the month of Ramadan.
So, Imam Zayed, we will now,
unmute your
microphone and turn on your webcam, and we
will have you join us now.
Myself and all of the brothers and sisters
who are listening
of
a hadith of the prophet
where he mentioned
many of the virtues of Ramadan
and then,
two
versions of that hadith and then
to mention
2 very powerful lessons that I think will
really inspire us.
So the hadith is the following.
So this hadith which is related by Imam
al Bukhari and Muslim
on the authority of Abu Hurayrah, radiAllahu anhu.
May Allah be pleased with him that the
messenger of Allah, may the blessings and peace
of Allah be upon him, said,
every action that the human being does,
its reward is for him. And rewards or
motive good deeds are multiplied
10 times over up to 700 times over.
And the other narrations,
many times over and beyond that.
And the law,
the mighty and majestic says,
except fasting that is mine, I will reward
this servant
with that. He has left or she, whatever
the case may be. He has left his
food and drink and his carnal
lust for my sake.
The fasting person will have 2 delights. The
delight when
he or she breaks their fast and the
delight when he meets his lord. And the
foul odor that sometimes emanates from the mouth
of the fasting person
is sweeter with Allah than the fragrance of
musk,
as we mentioned related by Imam Bukhari and
Muslim.
So this the point we would like to
make here is the
exemption. What's being exempted?
So the prophet
mentions
all the actions that the human being does
that reward accrues to them.
And then those actions in terms of their
reward are multiplied
10 times over. They're multiplied 700
times over.
And then Allah says,
may he be mighty and majestic.
Except fasting, that is mine. I will reward
him
with that.
So fasting
is exempted from the deeds that are multiplied.
In other words,
unlike all of our of our other
devotional actions,
fasting has no numerical limits in terms of
its reward.
Except fasting, that is not multiplied 10 times
over. It's not multiplied
700 times over. It has no numerical limits.
And the Urimad said because fasting is a
manifestation
of patience.
It's a long we have to fast long
days. We have to be patient. It's not
over in 5 minutes like the salah. It's
not over
in a few days, but, actually, like the
Hajj, but the actual rituals of the Hajj,
they're over in several hours, spread out over
those
few days. But fasting is all day
for 30 or 29 days. So it takes
a lot of patience,
to get through it.
And the reward what is the reward for
patience?
Allah
reminds us in the Quran,
the fasting people will be giving the, the
patient ones rather,
will be given their reward with no numerical
limits.
And in that
fasting and the prophet
mentions in some other hadith,
Ramadan
Shahru Sabr. Ramadan is the month of patience.
A some
who are sober. Fasting is patience.
Many of the exegetes of the Quran and
commenting on the statement of Allah,
seek the help of Allah literally with patience
and prayer.
They interpret that a the sayami was salah,
that is to say with
fasting and prayer.
So
in that fasting is a manifestation of patience.
Its reward, like the reward for patience, has
no numerical limits.
This is the first point. The second, there's
another version of the hadith mentioned by Imam
al Bukhari,
also related by
So in that version, every action that the
child of Adam undertakes
is a source of a speciation for him.
It is a source of atonement for the
sins and transgressions.
Allah says, except fasting that is mine, I
will reward the servant with that. And here
the exemption is from those deeds that are
a source of
expiation.
So our our prayer, our awrad, adhikar,
recitation of Quran, commanding the good, forbidding Iran,
our zakah, our Hajj,
all of those actions
are for us. And
their their source of atonement
or expiation.
Except
fasting. In other words, fasting is not a
a source
of expiation.
So,
Imam Sufyan bin Uyayna, one of the great
early,
scholars of this ummah
from the generation of the righteous forebears, Salafasaleh,
he mentions that
on the day of judgment, when a process
referred to as a a Radul Mavalim,
so compensating
those we've wronged
takes place, And people would take from a
person's good deed. As one hadith mentioned,
He would take from his or her good
deeds take from his or her good deeds
until all their good deeds are
exhausted.
And some people, they've done so much wrong,
unfortunately,
that all of their good deeds will be
exhausted.
At that
point, Sufyan
bin Uyenah, he mentions
that Allah will return to the fasting person
the reward of their fast because that was
not a source of expletiation
for the person's action because that reward was
not for the person. It was for Allah
fasting is mine, Allah says. So no one
could take that reward.
And the imam
al imam Sufyan bin Uyayna, he says,
for many people, after all of their good
deeds, the reward of their good deeds have
been exhausted, The reward of their fasting will
be returned to them, and they'll enter paradise
based on the fasting, the reward of the
fasting alone because that's all they had. But
that's a lot. Why? Because
fasting has an unlimited reward. So that great
reward
of the fast cannot be touched by anyone
because it's Allah's. It's not ours.
And for those whose good deeds have been
exhausted, when all of those they've wronged have
taken their good deeds,
they will be given the reward of their
fast, which no one could touch, and they'll
enter paradise on the reward of their fasting
alone. So brothers and sisters, this should remind
us,
of just how great this opportunity Allah
is giving us with Ramadan,
And we should avail ourselves and take full
advantage of it and to try to observe
all of his sunun,
to to engage the suhoor, the pre dawn
meal. Don't sleep right up until the sun's
about to come up. Pray fajr and then
fast.
Take the pre dawn meal.
Try to control your tongue, as doctor Matson
mentioned, and can be very cautious in your
speech.
Try to fill your days with the remembrance
of Allah
especially with the Quran, which is the most
excellent form of dhikr.
Try to fill your days with Quran. When
you're not working or you're not attending to
some business, fill those free times,
with Quran. Don't be like the person that
is mentioned by the prophet
2 great blessings most people are cheated out
of, their
their,
free time.
And I just had a senior moment in
English. I said, and I've never
their good health and their free time.
So your free time in Ramadan, don't be
cheated out of it, brothers and sisters. Fill
it with the remembrance of of of Allah.
The best remembrance
is the Quran. But in general, this as
one of the salif mentioned, and we'll stop
here.
That saying
one time in Ramadan is like saying
a 1000 times outside of Ramadan.
And as the prophet mentioned, sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
madakhi wllahhi ramanamakfurunna.
1 who remembers Allah abundantly in Ramadan,
their sins will be forgiven. So take advantage
of this opportunity, brothers and sisters. May Allah
bless all of you and bless,
Tara Masid and his team for undertaking
this wonderful, wonderful,
work of Celebrate Mercy and their various activities
which he outlined earlier,
including,
webinars
such as this. May Allah bless them and
bless all of you. This is Imam Zay
Shaker.
Everyone.
Let me turn on my video real quick.
Assalamu alaikum, everyone, and thank you to
our dear, Imamzaid
Masha'Allah. I remember I was telling,
sister Nur Khan, a good friend of mine
about, you know, when Imam Zayed Shekhar confirmed
for the webinar,
she said, Masha'Allah, you you have a mountain,
you know, joining this webinar today. And I
said that, you know, Imam Zaytsek is like
the Mount Uhud
of America.
You know, we love Mount Uhud and Mount
Uhud loves us, you know. So we were
honored to have Imam Zayed join us today.
And we have 2 great teachers
joining us, coming up.
One of the things I wanted to ask
everyone, kind of a fun activity real quick
is in our past webinars,
we've had groups of people
that have come together and and watched sometimes
as families,
but sometimes even as bigger groups. So I
wanted everyone to type in the chat room.
There is a chat window that some of
you have been using. I can see that
some people are using the chat room now.
And just type,
how many people that you are watching this
webinar with. Are you watching with
your family,
with a group, with your
spouse,
maybe with at your local masjid?
Let us know how many people you're watching
with and also,
where you're joining us from as well.
Let us know inshallah.
And another thing I wanted to mention is
that
we this webinar is actually pretty costly to
put together whenever you want to to use
a big,
service like Zoom and get a large number
of people to join.
It is costly. There are costs associated with
it,
and just putting this together.
So we are very grateful to a couple
of
organizations
and companies that have sponsored
this webinar and helped us with some of
the expenses.
And one of those is the, Amana Mutual
Fund, where my good friend, Amjad Qadri,
based in Chicago works.
And, he's actually a manager there.
And I wanted to invite,
Anjad Quadri to just spend one minute here,
talking about,
the Amana
fund,
Amana Mutual Fund and explaining that to us,
because and we're very grateful to them for
having sponsored
this webinar. Let me just pull up your
slides really quickly here.
While you do that, thank you very much,
Stark. I, you know, I've been watching since
the beginning, and I realized that you guys
have actually made the
the,
webinar technology grow because your meetings were so
big originally that some of the original services
could not even
handle the amount of crowd that you had
that I recall from the beginning.
Thank you. So here we go. I am
I am now showing your your slides.
Thank you very much. It's great to join
here tonight. It's wonderful to have our wonderful
teachers with us, my personal teachers, a majority
of them.
And it's a pleasure to see this important
call with Ramadan resolutions.
Some of the resolutions that some of the
your participants will probably be making tonight is
either to perform Hajj,
to save enough money to care for one's
family in case of emergencies,
for some great spiritual needs,
some religious needs or education for the children.
In all of these things, Insha'Allah, we'll be
able to help. We're in a position to
do it. One of the slides that hopefully
we'll be seeing here shortly is our 30
year anniversary slide.
Alhamdulillah,
we are now on our 31st
year of doing,
Islamic investing in North America, actually in the
world. We're one of the oldest and largest
companies to do it. And
so we are clearly positioned in a place
to help everyone to do that. On the
next slide,
the one with the 30 years on there,
you'll see our contact information
and our website relatively easy, amanafunds.com.
Feel free to contact us. Again, my name
is Amjad Qadri. I don't wanna take up
much of the time. I want everyone to
be able to go back to making Ramadan
resolutions. Part of which will probably be zakat
and financial, and we're here to help as
much as we can.
The first slide was on our sukuk fund,
and that's for a lot of our,
lot of our community that's getting older or
that wants to save have capital preservation.
Again, great program, Tarek. Been watching since the
beginning.
You're doing a wonderful job. Assalamu alaikum.
Thank you so much to Amjad Qadri.
Thank you so much for,
being a sponsor, the Amana Funds being a
sponsor of this webinar and helping us with
some of the costs as well.
And we are going to go ahead and
move forward
to our next speaker, and that is sister
Dalia Mogahed. Many of you all know Dalia.
She needs really no introduction, but she is
the director of research at ISPU.
And,
and I'm sure you all have heard about
their recent poll that you can check out
on their website. Debbie, if you don't mind,
mentioning when you come on at some point
during your talk, mention the website for ISPU,
that would be great,
so that people can see the new poll
on the American Muslim
community.
So I will now go ahead and hand
this off to,
Ustadh Dalia,
to start with the Ramadan resolution talk.
Thank you so much.
I want to spend the short amount of
time that I have with all of you
today talking about 2 broad
themes. 1 is
how should we think about our FAST? How
what is our FAST supposed to teach us,
and what is the mechanism,
of of attaining that learning. And then the
second thing is taking it very practical,
with some suggestions on on how we can
deepen and and,
and
and make our fast
more meaningful, more impactful
to, to our our lives this this year.
So I start by
by thinking about
our entire purpose, our purpose for
being here on this earth, our purpose for
creation.
And it is in the attainment
and in the realization
of,
of
of the true understanding
of.
It it is in
truly making
Allah
our only deity in our lives.
And
Allah has given us tools
to attain
this
goal.
These are really the pillars of Islam. If
you think about the concept of a pillar,
we we talk about the pillars of Islam.
If you have ever seen a building
with pillars, what pillars do is they hold
something up. They are a means.
They,
they don't simply
stand there with nothing on top. They they
are holding something up. They are the foundation
of something. And that something is is the
realization of Tawhid, is is truly
centering Allah in our lives.
And each one of the pillars of Islam,
starting with the shahada, which is at least
to acknowledge, to bear witness, in fact,
of the oneness of Allah and of the
prophecy of prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Each one of the pillars
in its in a different way
enables
this concept of tawheed,
of putting putting Allah at the center, of
making Allah our only deity,
of truly and in every way
removing false idols from our hearts and from
our minds,
starting with our impulses, starting with our ego.
And so when you think about the way
that we are told to fast, the the,
the way that the Quran speaks about fasting.
And and,
doctor Mattson mentioned the the aya. It is
in
1 83, and I'll just read the translation.
Oh, you who have attained faith,
fasting is ordained for you as it was
ordained for those before you so that you
might
remain conscious of God. And then the word
in in Arabic is,
so you that you might attain.
Comes from a root that means to shield.
It's to shield yourself against evil.
Another,
you know, understanding of the word is is
to
be conscious of God, to protect yourself against
disobedience.
And as we think about how fasting helps
us attain taqwa,
I I think that this will help us,
really get get the most out of the
fast.
When and I'll I'll explain it by by
maybe using an exam an example or an
analogy. When you are
in
a city and you look up at the
sky, you can hardly see any stars.
There's light pollution. There's distraction.
Your eyes,
are not able to see the beauty of
the stars because there's too many things around
taking away from that.
But if you've ever gone stargazing in the
middle of the desert
where there is no lights, there are no
lights for for miles around,
You
know how
unbelievably
gorgeous that night sky is,
filled with stars, almost stars upon stars, stars
on top of stars.
And you see so much more. Now those
stars were always there, but we were distracted
from them. We were blinded,
by our distractions from seeing them.
And in the same way, fasting
takes away
that pollution.
In the same way that we when we're
in the middle of the desert and the
light pollution is gone, we can see so
much more.
Our vision is cleared.
In the same way, when we have
easy
to access,
material comforts,
We don't dig deeper. We don't
we we are
distracted by these comforts from
seeing
more
and seeing further.
So
one thing that fasting helps us to do
and in so doing helps us attain taqwa
is it
increases our spiritual
sensitivity,
and it does that
by taking away the easy fixes that we
all go to. For me, it's definitely coffee.
Right? If I'm
bored
or
anxious or whatever, coffee is, like, my go
to thing. When I'm fasting, that's not available.
And so I have to
ask myself, where do I go for sanctuary?
Is it something material, or do I
go to,
a place that is deeper?
A sanctuary of the soul with Allah?
Fasting forces
those questions and forces that mechanism
by which by being deprived
of our easy fixes,
we are able to
attain
we are able to to to really reach
higher and and and and deeper,
understandings.
So that's the first thing is is it
can
sensitize us just like our eyes
are sensitized when when light pollution is is
gone.
Another way that,
that fasting
does that for us is is it really
it it puts us in in in a
in a mood where or in a in
a state
where our
response time is increased.
And here's it's a very simple thing.
The space between
or the
the time
between a stimulus and our response is where
free will lives.
And the longer that space
is
the the larger that space is, the more
we are reflective and thoughtful between
a stimulus and a response,
the more we can truly be free rather
than just obeying our impulses.
Fasting, just in a biological sense, actually
slows down your reactivity,
your your reaction time.
It forces you,
really, almost whether you like it or not,
to
respond slower, to think more before you respond
to things.
And and that state can can then when
once you experience that, it can become more
of a part of who you are, more
of a habit of of taking that time,
before responding,
before answering,
rather than, you know, our our normal lives
where we tend to be very
reactive, very, very impulsive
in in the way we respond to things.
And then the third way, and and this
is, this is often what we hear about,
but it really is something
I think we don't we don't think about
enough is the experiential
learning
of
hunger and thirst.
Most of us, if we have an Internet
connection and are watching this
webinar,
for the most part,
are are not going hungry.
You know, we are probably,
comfortable,
you know, relatively in our lives.
And
it it becomes very difficult sometimes
to
to have true empathy and compassion with those
who go hungry all year. And that experiential
learning,
going through Ramadan, especially in these very long
days of summer,
can help us
connect with our fellow human beings
not as,
not as simply patrons
or as,
as as people who are
giving charity, but as equals.
And and that's really how
Islam sets it up. We are we are
a community of equals.
1 has been given the responsibility
to purify their wealth and one has been
given the right
to receive zakah,
if they are eligible, and and no neither
one is superior to the other. It is
it is a family of equals
simply with different responsibilities and duties according to
the will
of Allah.
So
a few practical suggestions
for for Ramadan.
The first one
is
to
start if you aren't already
establishing a practice a bit.
These are small,
easy
things to integrate into your day.
So after you finish your,
just sit for
10, 15 minutes and do.
Start your day with that protection on your
heart. Start your day by polishing your heart
and make it a practice. If you have
this goal of of doing it every day
for 30 days, it it will inevitably become
a habit that you can take into. It's
a beautiful gift that you can build for
yourself
to,
to continue throughout the year.
The second thing is Quran.
Now many of us this is such a
beautiful
display of of our our global family. I
love these webinars for that reason. Many of
us,
Arabic is not our first language. Even for
me, who grew up in an Arabic speaking
household,
I'm not great at reading
the Quran. This is something that I struggle
with.
And so
I wanna offer a way to
engage with the Quran that can that can
be done by anyone.
And that is in addition you can listen
to the Quran being recited
and you can read the translation.
And you can choose
a surah
that
you will
study in during Ramadan.
And in addition to listening to Quran and
as much as you're able reciting it, actually
study
and reflect and and write your reflections
about one specific surah. You can take 1
aya each day
and reflect on it. So you can, you
know, commit to do doing 30 aya's in
in, in the month of Ramadan. Each day,
spend 15 minutes writing your reflections on the
meaning of this one ayah and what it
means to you in your life. So how
so commit to a more
active engagement with the Quran.
It is beautiful to recite the Quran and
have recite 1 juz a day. These are
all things I'm I'm absolutely encouraging, but I'm
I'm also encouraging you to
engage
actively
and reflect
actively on the Quran and what it means
to you.
And then I will I will end with
2 more things.
The 4th thing
is
resolve yourself, make a resolution
to
forgive
someone.
Forgiveness,
we we we talk we think about,
we think about Ramadan as a time to
seek forgiveness, and it absolutely is.
But it is also a wonderful
opportunity
to do what might be the hardest
and
and most rewarding
hibeda of all, which is to forgive someone
else.
And I say that based on the fact
that Abu Bakr
Rajallahu,
he was a man who when asked for
sadaqa, he gave all his wealth.
He was he was a man that, you
know, that his worship was was not paralleled
with any of the Sahaba. He was the
man that he's called a siddiq because he
believed
in the prophet and believed his story about
Israel Mirage even when others were wondering, you
know, what does this mean?
And yet, he was also
the man who struggled
with forgiving his relative who had spoken badly
about Aisha, his daughter, and he would have
to have been and he was reminded
of the need and the importance of forgiveness
by
by, verses of the Quran.
And this shows us that even Abu Bakr,
alayhis,
who who was capable of all of these
things,
forgiveness was hard for him. Forgiveness was something
he he still had to, be reminded of.
So take it make it a resolution that
this year, you you will let go of
one grudge that you've been holding. You will
forgive one person that you have been,
holding a grudge against or have been angry
with
for the past year. And in this way,
you can truly free your heart,
probably like nothing else.
And then finally, and I'll end with this,
increase increase your charity, increase your.
This is something we're always encouraged to do,
but this is a time where the prophet
was it was no other time was he
more generous.
And these are there's really easy ways to
do these things.
Now there's online platforms. LaunchGood has one where
you can it's actually you can set it
up where it's taking a certain amount every
day and and donating it, but there's lots
of other ways as well. Wherever you happen
to be in the world, increase
your Sabahat. And I'll just end by sharing
ISPU's website.
It's an organization that focuses on
empowering the American Muslim community with the best
research.
And our website is ispudotorg.
And And if you're interested in the poll
on American Muslims,
it's
ispu.orgforward/poll,
and I can type it into the the
message bar. Thank you.
Assalamu alaikum, and thank you to,
Dalia Mogahed for that beautiful talk and reminder.
And again, I just want to remind everyone
that we will be actually having some time
for Q and A
after our final talk by doctor Omar Abdullah.
Before,
Sheikh Omar begins,
I just wanted
to mention one last thing,
regarding some of the work. I talked about
the fact that celebrate mercy, we do these
programs like webinars and traveling classes
that teach about the prophet, but
you may recall that,
most recently, we launched the campaign. I'm gonna
skip ahead. We've done some campaigns
that teach about the prophet, peace be upon
him, through our actions.
And some of these campaigns
focus on responding to evil
with good. So when
our 3 winners
in North Carolina,
Dia, Yosur, and Rosanne were killed by a
next door neighbor, an Islamophobic next door neighbor,
we managed and and organized this campaign
that
responded
by feeding our neighbors across America.
And it was a campaign that raised
food for the hungry
and homeless across America.
And at the in the end, our goal
was a 100,000
meals.
In the end,
through
Launchgood and through the
almost 300
canned food drives, we were able to collect
almost 200,000
meals,
for the hungry and homeless across America. And
most recently,
I'm sure you heard of the campaign that
we coorganized with Linda Sarsour
to
raise money from the Muslim community
for the vandalized Jewish cemeteries.
And the inspiration behind this was a beautiful
story of the prophet Muhammad
where he stood up to show his respect
for a Jewish funeral
that passed by.
And Kareem Abdul Jabbar has actually mentioned this
campaign
recently in some speeches
and also in an op ed piece. And
Alhamdulillah, this campaign
has gone way above its goal
with many donations actually coming from the Jewish
community as well.
The goal was $20,000.
We hit that goal in 3 hours. And,
alhamdulillah, this is just one example
of how we try to teach about the
prophet Muhammad,
peace be upon him, through
our actions.
And
what I'm going to say now is that
Dalia had a great transition
to discuss
the
act of charity that we have to give
in the Ramadan. And the prophet
was known to give
a lot in the month of Ramadan.
And I wanted to just plug
something that Dalia mentioned real quick. Let me
bring it up here.
And it is launched good. And so I
want you all to just open up the
chat room real quick, and you're going to
see a YouTube link for a 30 second
video because LaunchGood is actually one of the
sponsors that has helped us out
covering some of the expenses of this webinar.
So take 30 seconds
and watch this video by LaunchGood
that you'll see in the chat room. It's
just 30 seconds, but we would really like
you to see that to see it about
the the Ramadan challenge.
Just click on the chat room and play
the YouTube.
Okay. So we hope you all were able
to
see the,
the 32nd commercial about the Ramadan challenge. I
literally
signed up for this challenge just 2 days
ago,
where you can actually tell
Launchgood that you want to give
a certain amount of money every single day
in Ramadan towards a good cause, towards a
a crowdfunding cause that Muslims are setting up,
around the world, actually.
And so I wanna encourage everyone.
If you'd like to sign up for the
Ramadan challenge, this is one resolution we can
make is to give some sort of Sabaka,
even if it's small, every day.
You can actually sign up at that link
that you see on the screen right now,
celebrate mercy.com
slash challenge. I believe
5,500
people have already signed up to give every
day in Ramadan, and you can actually automate
it. So you don't even have to go
in and think about
which
cause to give to. It can automatically,
every day, choose a cause
to, you know, swipe your credit card basically
and give, you know, $5
or $2
or $10 or however much you wanna give
per day to a cause. So we wanna
encourage everyone to,
check out
Ramadan the Ramadan challenge, and you can go
to, again, to celebrate mercy.com/r
c, the link you see there. And, actually,
every time you sign up through that link,
celebrate mercy.com/rc,
Launchgood will actually be giving a donation
to celebrate Mercy as well. So it's benefiting.
It's a really cool collaboration.
Alhamdulillah.
So that said,
I'd like to go on to our final
speaker. We have, Sheikh Omar Farooq Abdullah from
Chicago.
Many of you all know him again as
one of the greatest scholars we have in
the West today.
We all love doctor Omar Masha'Allah,
and he will be speaking before we move
on to
a brief question and answer period with all
of our teachers Insha'Allah.
So doctor Omar, we will turn on your
webcam and mic
now
and, and hopefully, we'll be able to see
you and hear you
to start your your, your your talk inshallah.
Okay. Doctor Omar, I think we can hear
you, but we can't see you yet. So
Can you hear me? Yes. We can hear
you. We just gotta get your your video
on. Alright. I I I have my video
on.
Let me see. Share screen. Should I hit
that? No. No. Not share screen. I think
it's there's something that start video there.
Alright.
So,
Yes, Mila.
Do you want me to to hit anything
in particular?
Yeah. What? On the bottom left, it should
have a button that says start video. Okay.
I I I hit that right now.
Okay. It says we can't start your video
because the host has stopped it.
Okay. Let me see here.
Let me see if I can get someone
here to help me. Just one minute. Okay.
Sure.
Alright. So
I've got a helper here to help me.
Okay. Awesome.
Okay.
Can you can you
see what you can do with this?
Okay.
Okay.
It's not, showing.
It seems like, the yeah. Your your webcam
is not turning on for some reason.
The the web camera is turning on?
No. It's not. It doesn't seem to be,
is there anything blocking the webcam at all
or or no? I don't think so. No.
I'm sitting right in front of my computer.
Okay.
If the if the camera doesn't turn on,
we can we can just do audio. That's
okay. Okay.
Would you like me just to begin?
Yeah. You can go ahead and start. That's
that's fine.
First of all, it's a great honor to
be here with you, Tareq, and to be
with doctor Matt and Imam Zaid and Ustadh
Adalia Mujahid
and all of you wonderful
people around the world
who are viewing this.
The prophet tells us
that on the first night of Ramadan, which
here in Chicago may well be tomorrow,
the moon should be very visible tomorrow,
that God
shackles down
all of the satanic demons
and all of the rebellious jinn,
and he locks
shut
all the gates of the fire.
And at the same time he opens up
all the doors of paradise.
So Ramadan is a very special time of
the year as we all know, and we
feel different when the month comes in. As
doctor Mattson said very beautifully,
Ramadan also always comes at just the right
time,
at the perfect time.
And just as we get ourselves ready to
fast,
and perhaps we clean up our houses and
decorate our houses and put out some lights
because of this
great,
occasion and this great festivity.
So also the Gardens of Paradise,
they decorate themselves
for Ramadan.
So this year, for example,
the Gardens of Paradise
are decorated with
the decorations of the year 1,438
of the Hijra.
And this is to welcome you because every
night during this beautiful fast, there are people
who are emancipated from the fire.
Those of us who have deserved worse,
but were given better.
And the doors of heaven are open for
all of us.
So God enable us to go into this
month with the greatest of hope
and the greatest
of celebration
and joy, and to have great strength in
that. And as Sidi Tariq mentioned in the
very beginning,
don't count the days,
but make every day count.
The prophet
is reported to have once said to his
wonderful wife, Aisha,
keep knocking on heaven's door.
And she asked him how,
and he said by hunger. That is by
fasting,
by hunger and thirst.
So when we are feeling those pains of
hunger
and we're feeling that
thirst.
You know, know that this is the sound
of your knocking on heaven's door.
Good character
begins
with hunger.
Good character begins with thirst.
Good character
begins with the stomach. We have to control
our appetites in order to be the best
human beings that we can be.
And
it is narrated also from the prophet that
he said, everything has a door. That is
everything has a portal
that is proper for you to enter it
from instead of coming through the window or
the back door or something else.
Everything has a door, and the door of
worship is fasting.
So this is a very special
type of worship,
and Imam Zayed emphasized that in what he
said.
That
the reward of fasting
has no analog.
It cannot be spoken of in numerical terms.
You can't say you're given 10 times the
reward or 70 times the reward or 700
times.
But
fasting has this special relationship with God. And
in many authentic hadith,
the prophet says
that God says,
The fasting is mine. I own this. This
is mine.
In other words, it's not yours. And as
Imam Zayed so beautifully pointed out,
even when our other deeds will be taken
from us as atonement for the wrongs that
we've done and given to others,
that according to great scholars like Sufyan ibn
Uyayna,
that will not happen in the case of
the fast because that belongs to God, and
he will keep it for you, and he
will give it back to you.
And one of the beautiful things that we
read about in the traditions
about fasting
is when the prophet says
in
an authentic permission.
He says that
the faster has 2 joys
that
he delights in, that he or she delights
in.
When he breaks his fast,
he delights in joy.
And when he or she meets
their Lord,
then he delights in the joy of his
fast.
And
one of the indications of this beautiful Hadid,
as our scholars have pointed out,
is that in fasting,
God has actually given us the promise
of a good end,
of a good death.
The death of a believer
who doesn't lose his or her faith. And
he has also
given us the tidings that we will meet
with him in paradise.
Paradise. So the reward of fasting is beyond
anything
that we can imagine.
And we ask God to enable us
to enter into this fast
in the best of spirit
and to understand how great this act of
worship is.
The verb of fasting in Arabic,
Som, which by the way is shared in
all the prophetic languages of the Semitic peoples.
They all use this word som or som
or soma
in Syria.
And it means insek, it means to stop
doing something.
It means also for something to stop. So
we use fasting in ancient Arabic
for the water to stop flowing or for
the wind to stop blowing.
But another meaning of this verb in its
ancient
context in the Arabic language
is that
Psalm means also
exaltation. It means
to be high.
We said the Arabs would say, som and
nahal.
They don't mean that the day fasted. They
mean that
the sun reached the zenith,
and it is at that highest point in
the sky.
It doesn't go any higher than that. And
then also when the sun is in that
position,
it's as if it were not moving.
For a few hours, it's as if it's
standing still in the middle of the sky,
especially in the sunny deserts of countries like
Arabia, places like Arabia.
And so also the scholars have pointed out
that
this verb
is perfect for fasting because of the fact
that fasting is so elevated.
It is the type of worship that brings
all other types of worship to life. As
our sister, Ustasa Vidalia, said,
you know, fasting removes from you the veils
over your heart. Just like going out into
the desert removes that light pollution
so that you can actually see the stars
that were always there. And as she said,
it also increases,
you know, our spiritual sensitivity.
So fasting is highly exalted.
This is the act of worship
that is unique among all other acts of
worship.
This is the one that brings our hearts
to life. And, of course, because we are
also fasting in this incredible month
where
God
facilitates the fast
and he chains down the demonic beings and
he closes the doors of * and he
opens the doors of paradise that has ornamented
itself for us
to receive us. So, also,
you know, this fasting renews
all of our other types of worship.
It is said that fasting is actually not
an Amal. It's not an act. It's not
a deed.
And that's because of the fact that Arabs
understand
by
the
nominal,
act or deed,
things that we perform.
For example, we stand in prayer. We bow
in prayer. We make prostration in prayer. We
give money that could be counted.
We go to pilgrimage and don,
the pilgrims
garb and so forth. But in fasting,
the deed is not doing a deed. The
deed is not eating, not drinking,
not partaking of those other I have those
other habits or appetites,
which are permissible at other times, but they're
not during the day.
And,
therefore, also, we want to fill Ramadan with
other acts. And as Imamzade
said so beautifully,
you are given immense rewards for everything that
you do in Ramadan.
If you do a single voluntary
good deed in Ramadan, it's as if
you did an obligation,
a religious obligation
in some other month. And the rewards
of obligations are much greater than the rewards
that come to us,
that the than the rewards that come to
us
from,
voluntary acts. And when we do a Faridah
in Ramadan, an obligatory
act of worship,
then it's as if we did 70. So
this is also the month of activity.
Your fasting is by not doing certain things,
not eating and drinking and so forth. But
you want to fill the month with good
deeds. And we all find
that it's much easier to do that in
Ramadan
than it is at any other time of
the year.
So, God, give us the great joy of
this month.
God, enable us to to set out on
this month
with earnestness,
with sound intentions
that we're going to do Tawba. We're going
to turn back to God. We're going to
renew our covenant with the Quran.
We're going to pray our prayers better.
And again, by the very act of fasting,
then you should be awake in your prayer.
You should be able to be present in
your prayer.
So God bless us with this month. Muslims
all over the world are in celebration
that in just a matter of hours, we
will begin
this great event,
and we must ornament ourselves and ornament our
hearts just as the gardens of paradise
are also ornamenting themselves.
And pray for this Ummah. Pray for the
believers.
One of the greatest things of all in
Ramadan
is the worship of supplication.
The God says in the Quran,
Your lord has said call upon me, supplicate
me, and I will respond to you. And
so, therefore, when you supplicate,
you've got to have absolute
certainty
that your supplication will be answered. And especially
in this month, pray for Syria.
Pray for the refugees of Syria, the broken
homes, the broken families. Pray for the Muslims
of Iraq. Pray for the Muslims of Libya,
of Egypt. Pray for Somalia. Pray for the
Yemen.
Pray for the Rohingya.
Our beloved brothers and sisters in Burma who
are facing genocide.
Pray for yourself, pray for the family, pray
for our countries, pray for the world, And
remember that your prayer will be answered.
The prophet said, sallallahu alayhi wasallam,
supplication, it is what worship is all about.
It's the real essence of worship. And he
said,
that
the most excellent type of worship is Dua.
And then in the famous hadith,
that supplication
is the marrow of worship. It is the
essence of worship. So make this a month
of giving of yourself.
Overflowing
generation,
generosity from yourself and of getting our hearts
sound.
Islam is laws and rules, and we cannot
have guidance.
We cannot have ethics and morality
without law and without rules.
But those laws and rules of Islam, they're
like a fence
that encloses a garden.
And what really counts is not so much
the fence. It's very important, but what really
counts is the garden,
and the house, the beautiful house in that
garden, and that's your heart. So bring your
heart to life. All action comes out of
the heart.
Renew your covenant with God, renew your love
with the prophet,
and,
renew your
acts of obedience and goodness and avoid all
wrong. And
don't count the days, but make the days
count. God bless you all. Pray for me.
Pray for us all. Pray for our Ummah,
our wonderful communities in the United States and
in Canada and in Mexico
and in Europe and throughout the world. God
bless you all and give you a beautiful
Ramadan. Ramadan
Kareem.
Everyone.
To doctor Omar. I know that we are,
over time quite a bit,
over time, but we do want to,
have some questions for our dear teachers and
scholars
who have, who have blessed us with this
beautiful wisdom, beautiful knowledge,
and these these points of advice for us
as we move into Ramadan
Insha'Allah.
And for those who can't stay about any
longer, we wanna encourage you to please take
the survey.
You can see a link there, celebrate mercy.com/survey.
We would love your feedback on today's webinar,
and there's also a donation link because we're
still trying to recover
some of the expenses for this webinar. So
if you can take the survey, there's actually
a part in the survey where you can
make a donation as well to help us,
pay for the the, webinar's expenses.
And, again, thank you to Amana Funds and
and LaunchGood for helping out
as sponsors as well. So one of the
questions we have,
is,
you know, there's actually a couple of questions
that are similar
in terms of, like, should should I make
a goal of
finishing the Quran in Arabic if I don't
understand Arabic, or should I focus more on,
understanding the meaning of what I'm reading, during
during,
Ramadan? So I think that's a common question,
especially in the west where many people may
attend
and you of course, there's a barakah and
blessing in that, but they don't understand
the Arabic.
So should someone prioritize the understanding
of the Quran when they're strengthening their their
reading in the month or focus on trying
to complete the Quran.
So,
I think we're now
have all of the speakers on their, webcams
and microphones. So I will let any of
you all who wanna take a stab at
that, go ahead.
And just try to keep your answer brief
so we can get to a couple of
more questions also.
I would like to hear from others. I
would say that if you don't understand Arabic,
by all means, you should read the Quran
in English and try to
get through as much as you can. Before
I learned Arabic, I I actually did a
khatam.
And every year in English, Yusuf Ali has
the 30th marked off in English.
But if you can read it in Arabic,
I think this is an opportunity
to benefit your soul.
And
every ordinarily,
as the prophet mentioned
letter like
in
Don't say that alif, lam, mim is a
single letter, rather alif is an individual letter,
lam is an individual letter, mim is an
individual letter, and every
good deed is multiplied 10 times over. So
every letter ordinarily is 10 times as doctor
Omar mentioned. In Ramadan, that multiplication is far
greater. So if you're reading the Quran in
Arabic
and you're shoveling
Hassanat
into your akhir.
And so the the salaf imam and I'll
stop here. Imam, Israeli imam, both Abu Hanifa
and Imam Al Shafi'i would do 60
katoms of the Quran in Ramadan.
That's 2 a day.
And others would do less than that, but
prodigious amounts of Quranic
recitation.
So
you should do as much as you can
in Arabic.
You have the other 11 months to really
ponder and study,
the Quran.
And I think I appreciate others' opinion on
that, but I I would offer that. But
if you don't know Arabic,
by all means, read it in Spanish, read
it in French, and English to understand the
meaning and to read as much of the
message as you can during this blessed time.
It's called.
Mhmm. So some normally, we shouldn't read the
Quran in more than
in in less than 3 days.
Is discouraged. But there are special times when
the rewards are multiplied,
such as Ramadan or the first 10 days
of Bilhijah or special places,
such as Mecca or Madinah
where the deeds are multiply. And so these
are opportunities
that might not return to us in our
lifetime to just do immense
good and benefit to our soul.
Can I respond to that?
Please do. I would invite you to respond.
I would just like to point out that
our sister, Ustad Adalia,
she did have a very good suggestion on
this point.
And, just to repeat a little bit of
what I understood from her and, of course,
she can add to that is that if
you're not good at reciting the Quran,
today, we have incredible
recitations
available.
So you can recite with a reciter.
And,
you have recitals like Imam al Khosuri who
is one of the most perfect reciters ever.
And, you know, so it's good for you
to also recite with him the.
Maybe that will help the person who's not
a good reader to do it well,
the.
Thank you, doctor Omar. Doctor Matson, did you
wanna add to that at all? Okay.
Okay. I can I can see you there?
Okay. So,
another question was,
Imam Zaid, you had mentioned the amount of
reading
that Imam Shaffari and some of our great
scholars had done in the past. So one
person had a practical question, like, what
what do I do? What are some tips
on how I can continue
the habits, the good the good worship that
I start in Ramadan or the increased worship?
So, you know, we don't wanna go into
this,
conference mode, I guess, where, like, after a
conference, you know, your good deeds kinda stop
after 48 hours. Give me one second. There
there's a semi emergency I'm dealing with them.
Oh, no problem. Let me tell this person.
I'll call them in a couple minutes. No
problem.
Sound like Luis. I'll I'll call you in
a couple minutes.
And what does anyone else wanna take that
real quick?
Doctor Matson, maybe?
Wait. What's the
sorry. Can you which question are we on
now? How do we continue, like, the increased
worship that we take on Ramadan, the good
deeds? How do we make that more consistent
going forward after Ramadan?
Mhmm.
Well, I mean, Ramadan is a special month.
Right? So we're not we're not going to,
very few people could,
keep Ramadan all year long. I mean, we
have to be
realistic in our expectations
and also,
you know, understand that there are blessings of
this month that are there are not other
times in the year. So we need to
be,
merciful with ourselves and realistic. At the same
time,
I think,
you know, different people have
have different things that they're struggling with. You
know, some people are struggling with their time.
Some people
are struggling
doing their prayers on time. Other people find
it
difficult to
turn to the Quran, to do a little
reading from the Quran regularly,
and and it differs for different people. I
think the most important thing is you've come
to the end of the month
and each person will find that they're
that that some aspect of this practice,
has really
lifted them up, and it's something that they're
not
normally able to do very regularly.
Focus on that thing in particular. So, for
example, if it's
making sure you wake up
on time for FEDJ and say all of
your prayers
in time,
try to pick that one up for this
year.
Or if it is that you normally
don't
find yourself reading the Quran very much during
the year,
but you've gone you you've made this part
of your practice during Ramadan,
try to focus on that. So it's gonna
be different for every person. Don't try to
do too many things at once.
It's better to take a,
you know, a good practice and slowly integrate
it into your
daily life so that it becomes a habit.
Because
if you do too much,
you know, you can overwhelm yourself, and this
is something that the prophet Muhammad
warned us against,
you know, overwhelming ourselves with too much.
Did you wanna,
add to that doctor Almod at all?
Yeah. Anyway, I think one of the most
important things is,
the misconception that people have about spirituality.
That you get a spiritual high in a
melon, and they think that's spirituality. And when
that high is not there afterwards,
then they feel that they're at a low.
Spirituality doesn't really work that way. Spirituality is
about your relationship with God, and it's not
about the way you feel, whether you're ecstatic
or you're not ecstatic.
And the most important thing is that when
we come out of Ramadan, we come out
of it good.
Not that as doctor Matson says, that we're
going to continue to do all these amazing
things that we were taking off time
for in Ramadan. That's not going to happen.
You've got to get back to work. You've
got to deal with your family.
You've got dinner, and you've got meals to
prepare and so forth. But you want to
be strong. You want to come out of
Ramadan
with the strength, and you want to keep
that. And
there is going to be a low that
comes after coming out of this blessed month.
This is one of the wisdoms of the
Eid that we have this great celebration after
Ramadan to bring closure to the month but
also to celebrate at a time when many
of us are actually very sad
because of the fact that the month is
now leaving us. So don't be deceived by
your emotions,
and don't try to gauge your own spirituality.
Be upright. Stand on your feet. Do the
best you can do. Avoid doing wrongful things.
Guard your eyes. Guard your ears. Guard your
tongue.
Keep your heart pure.
And, God, enable us to be better and
to be transformed by this month in which
we transform ourselves.
I just wanted to I think we're, we're
gonna go ahead and conclude because we have
gone over time,
and, I think Imamzade might be talking to
the brother who unless, Imamzade, unless you can
come back to the webcam here in 5
seconds or so. Oh, there you are. Good.
Good. Good. So I wanted to ask That's
great.
Iman Zayed, I wanted to ask if you
could, conclude with a dua for us as
we start Ramadan. Many of us may be
starting tomorrow.
So if you could conclude tonight's,
webinar with a with a du'at for all
of us. And I just wanna mention also
that this webinar has been recorded, so it
will be shared with people who could not
attend.
We will be posting that on the Facebook
page, the event page, our email
list, so, please look out for that. We'll
be posting that probably in the morning, Insha'Allah,
for those who missed it, Insha'Allah.
So thank you all again for joining. It
was a great blessing to have our teachers
with us tonight,
and I wanna encourage everyone to take that
survey. And, Ibam Zayed, if you could conclude
with the dua, it would be, great, inshallah.
To take advantage of the great, great opportunities
for forgiveness that you have opened up for
us in Ramadan, that you bless us to
fast it with sincere faith, anticipating a great
reward, that you blessed us
to stand during the night
at prayer during the great during the these
great great special nights of Ramadan. We pray
that you bless us to attend to Laylat
Al Qadr.
That great great great great night of of
worship and devotion
where where you show the angels the full
Adamic potential of the human being. We're all
over the world. People are praying, and people
are reciting Quran, and people are pouring their
hearts out in supplication and invocation.
You Allah, we pray that you bless us.
We pray and ask that you bless us
to attain to these great blessings. That you
bless us to remember you abundantly during this
special month. That you bless us to spend
generously
from how to the extent that is
that we're capable of spending, Allah, and imitation
following the way of the blessed prophet
who you dis who was described as the
most generous of people and the most generous
the time he was especially
generous being Ramadan. When we may may we
be blessed to follow in his illustrious
footsteps, you allah. We pray that those you
make easy for us that we are able
to spend some days in in isolation,
just in in in the masjid, in the
confines of the masjid during the days of
the kaf, you Allah, remembering your name and
reciting your scripture, and and pray, invoking you,
you Allah, and supplicating
unto you, you Allah. We pray that you
bless us
to to take advantage of this opportunity. We
pray that you bless us to be fitting
representatives of of your religion and fitting
representatives
of the last prophet to grace humanity.
We pray that our collective light drowns out
the darkness that has manifested itself in Manchester,
England, and
murdered by
lunatics, and then they're set up as representatives
of your religion that our light drowns out
their darkness, that our positive energy drowns out
their negative energy, that our devotion to you
is is a is a testimony to the
word, to the truthfulness
of your your messenger, and the truthfulness
of the message
that you have sent him within the truthfulness
of the Quran, you Allah. We pray that
you purify our hearts, that you purify our
intentions, that you bless us to lower our
eyes, and you bless us to silence our
speech, except that which is contains great benefit
and that we focus on you, you, you
Allah, that we focus our hearts and we
focus our energy and we focus our intentions
and we focus our concerns and everything is
focused towards you during this great great month,
you Allah, and that the energy and the
momentum that we build up during this month
sustains us in the 11 that follow it,
you Allah. We pray that you bless all
of those who participated
in this gathering, all of the blessed
and learned people who are able to share
with the participants and all of those who
who inquired and asked questions, you pray that
the answers they received were satisfactory and edifying
to their hearts and their spirits,
We pray that you bless us to carry
this torch of truth
that was lit by the messenger Muhammad
forth into the world and that we pass
it on to those
who follow us and they pass it on
to generations yet unborn.
And that we
are able,
you Allah,
to gather around the fountain of our Prophet,
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam in Jannah.
That we're able to see his blessed continent,
and that you bless us
to to gaze upon you in a way
fitting your majesties, your majesty, and your incomparability,
Allah.
That we are amongst those,
you Allah. We're amongst those,
you Allah. We're amongst those, you Allah. We're
amongst those, Nadirim,
You Allah.
In conclusion,
we ask that you bless us to respond
to the invitation of your prophet
when he
said, expose yourself
to the gentle breezes of your lord's mercy.
And we know that those breezes
are blowing in Ramadan
in a way, in a fashion that they
don't blow at any other time, that you
bless us to expose ourselves to those we
we, and
that we enjoy
the the the insight
given to us by our great scholar, Nirajib.
When he said commenting on that prophetic expression
May Allah has weaves up his mercy
that he touches touches whomsoever he pleases amongst
his servants. And one touched by one of
those breezes
experiences joy so deep and profound that he
or she is never saddened
for the rest of eternity.
May we be touched by those breezes in
Ramadan,
You
Allah.
Thank you again to all of our teachers.
Thank you, Imam Zayd, for that beautiful dua.
And we look forward to seeing you all
on the next program, and we pray that
you all have a blessed Ramadan
and remind you all to please take the
survey.
You can see the link there on the
screen. Celebrate mercy.com
slash survey.
Thank you all again. Thank you to our
teachers, and we hope to see you again
soon.