Ismail Kamdar – Ramadan – The Month of Taqwa

			hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa salatu salam wa Rahmatullahi wa Let me begin by taking a loss of
ohana with Allah, and asking Allah to send his peace and blessings upon the final prophet, Muhammad
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and all those who follow his way with righteousness until the last day.
		

			My beloved brothers and sisters in Islam
		

			hamdulillah we are just a few days away from the most blessed time of the year,
		

			the ninth month of the Islamic calendar around a god. And this really, you know, the month of
Ramadan really shows us the difference between how Muslims approach this world compared to how the
secular people approach this world. Because when people from a secular background see Ramadan, and
they see Muslims, they think that this must be a difficult month for us. They think we must eat
Ramadan. No, they think it is they think of it as an inconvenience to us, because their lifestyle
revolves around following one's desires. And Ramadan is all about restricting your desires. So he
comes across the inconvenience. But to those of us who love Allah, those of us who follow through
		

			the life of a loved one, he was seldom for those people who have taken the submission to Allah
seriously. Ramadan is the single most beloved time of the year.
		

			Whether it is fasting, or praying, or are we waking up to who haven't eaten with the family, these
are amongst our favorite memories of our life. It's something we look forward to.
		

			Because our our lives are such Alhamdulillah has blessed us with this as Muslims, that we know our
purpose in life. And our purpose in life is to worship Allah, our purpose in life is to obey Allah,
our purpose in life is to pass the test, to pass the test of life and to get into paradise. And so
we look forward to Ramadan because Ramadan is an opportunity to help us accomplish our purpose.
Ramadan is the month of worship. Ramadan is the time when the doors of gender are open. Ramadan at
the time when our lives are answered, It is an opportunity for us, it is not an inconvenience for
us. And that is the mindset with which we must approach Ramadan. Now, what's beautiful about this
		

			month and about fasting itself, and about Islam in general, is that every aspect of our religion has
a purpose. It has a goal, it has the wisdom. Now this is important. This is a very important point.
Sometimes we don't understand the wisdom. Sometimes we don't understand the wisdom. But it doesn't
mean there isn't a wisdom. raga Allah who is most wise, he revealed the law and he knows the wisdom.
Okay, that's important. Because if somebody had to ask you, what is the wisdom of being tiragarde
zabaglione instead of tool, we don't really know. We pray to God because that's what a lot of us but
Allah knows, right? There's definitely a wisdom there. But only Allah knows why. So when we look at
		

			the laws of Islam, we will find that 90% of the laws of Islam, Allah has told us what he has told us
the wisdom behind it. And there is about 10% where Allah is testing, whether we are going to follow
him whether we understand the why or not. Right? So not everything has to make sense to you. If it
comes from Allah subhana wa tada we are and we obey whether we understand it or not. But Ramadan is
one of those things where Allah has explained to us why he explains to us why we passed, he
explained to us the wisdom of Ramadan, the goals of Ramadan, the goals of fasting, all of this is
explained in Torah bacara in verses 183 towards 185. Allah subhanho wa Taala explained to us the
		

			wise, so verse 183, or Hamdulillah, I think most of us are familiar with it. Most of us understand
it. In fact, I would say that
		

			many of us might have memorized it because every year before Ramadan, Allah mentioned this verse in
the footpaths, and they mentioned it for a reason. It's very important, right? What is that verse?
Yeah, you heard Edina Manu Kuta Bali, Kumasi amukamara mukamal coup de la la la Lena min publico, La
La ku, that cocoon. Oh, you will believe fasting is obligatory for you like how it was obligated
upon those before you why Allah tells us why. Now, boom. That the food so that you may gain taqwa.
Now, I want to talk about this for a while. I want this to be one of the main things we take home
from today's presentation. What is taqwa? Why do we need taqwa
		

			How does Ramadan help us to gain taqwa? If we can understand those three things then inshallah this
Ramadan is going to be beneficial for us. So what is taqwa many of the English translations, they
translate dakwah as fear of Allah.
		

			I believe this is English translation. Right there is another concept in a poor in the Quran quassia
that refers to the fee of Allah taqwa is more comprehensive. taqwa. It includes fear. It includes
love. It includes obedience, to include Vicar. It's a much bigger concept. Right is not just
referring to fear. It's much broader than that. The best translation for the word taqwa that I have
found is God consciousness.
		

			To be conscious of Allah to think about Allah to live your life, you know, in a way that you know
Allah is watching, to live your life, your life with awareness of halal and haram because we know as
Muslims, sometimes we forget. Sometimes we forget Allah is watching us. Sometimes we forget that
certain things are wrong. Sometimes we forget to do certain good deeds, that what is that awareness
at all times. So for example, if you are doing your business and you are conscious about whether the
business dealing is halal or haram, but where did the money you're earning is halal. That is taqwa.
You are running your business with taqwa. Right? If you are a leader, and you are being just towards
		

			the people who are following you, because you know you'll be answerable to allow the Day of Judgment
for how you treated your followers. That is taqwa
		

			taqwa means to be conscious of Allah.
		

			And it's a very broad concept. Sometimes some of us think taqwa just refers to, you know, praying
stralla or fasting or dressing in a certain way. This is why I love the statement of the great Queen
of Islam Fatima, Binti Abdul Malik, Raji aloha about her husband, Omar Ibn Abdul Aziz, radi Allahu
Omar even Abdul Aziz was one of the Romanian kings, one of the first Muslim claims in the first
dynasty and he was regarded as the best of the kings, right? I'm not sure how many of you are aware
of his story, if you're not aware of his story, go home researching, read a book on it. Listen to a
lecture about it very beautiful and inspiring story. Omar, even Abdul Aziz was regarded as the most
		

			pious of the obeah kings, and his wife, Fatima, who has a princess Her father was a king. All four
of her brothers were kings and her husband was a king. Right? So she was
		

			you know,
		

			like one of the greatest queens of Islam so she makes a really powerful statement about the husband
before that, rather than any of your heart. You know, we're not supposed to be puppies, be careful,
they're handing out tickets. So if you need to move your car, please go into so now. You know, we
don't want to go home with the wrong geometry. That's right. Okay, so getting back to our topic,
Fatima, Vinnie Abdul Malik, the queen of Islam.
		

			She said about her husband. She said my husband never used to pray extra Allah. He never used to
pass outside of Ramadan. But I never met a man with more taqwa him.
		

			Now this statement blew my mind because it taught me the taqwa is not only restricted to someone who
fasts extra, as someone who plays extra. What will Omar even Abdul Aziz Dawa, he stuck was he was
the king of the Muslim world, the most powerful person on earth at that time. But he lived a simple
life. He avoided any money he was doubtful about and tried to be just to every human and every
animal within his kingdom.
		

			So he never used to create 100. According to his wife, he never used to pass outside of Ramadan. But
she said he had more tacos and anybody else. Why? Because of his justice. So understand resonance
sisters, that that law can manifest itself in different ways in how you run your business, and how
you deal with your family, and how you treat those who you have authority over. All of this falls
under dunkwa. Right. A law allows different people to excel in different ways. Some people may be
better at fasting outside of Ramadan, some people may be able to print 100 every night of their
lives. Some people may be able to give charity every day of their lives. Each of us have different
		

			ways. But the point is, Ramadan is there to help us reach that level. Ramadan is there to help us
get from wherever we are to the next level. Because taqwa is not something that's that stagnant.
It's all different stages.
		

			You know, think about your own life. None of us can see that our mind stays at the same level all
year round, right? I don't think anyone can say that. We have days or hamdulillah. When we are full
of motivation. We want to study Islam. We are to pray extra. We want to find
		

			Especially during Ramadan many of us get that feeling. And then we get days we find it so hard to
wake up.
		

			Right. So what this shows is our taqwa is constantly going up and down. Right? It's increasing and
it's decreasing. So Allah subhanho wa Taala in his infinite wisdom, he knows that we need a yearly
reminder about taqwa. We need a break from our junior life to focus on on improving our taqwa. And
so Allah gives us these 29 days of the year where he lost the devils away where he opens the gates
of Jannah and when he opens up every source of the core for us so for 2019 we are involved in
fasting we are involved in reciting Quran imprinter are we making you are in if they're in charity
in all these good deeds, that is to supercharge our taqwa so we can take it to a higher level and
		

			hopefully maintain a high level for the whole next year. And in the next Ramadan, take it even
higher and keep doing that for the rest of our lives until we pass away on a higher level of taqwa.
So taqwa means to be conscious of Allah, it means to live your life in a way that you are aware of
Allah at all times. I say this and not just fear of Allah, because firstly, many of us must
understand what is meant by fear of Allah. Right? We think fear of Allah means you must be scared of
Allah like how we scared of a robber, are we scared of a lion? That's wrong? fear of Allah as
explained by the Allah means that you love Allah so much that you are afraid of disappointing or
		

			displeasing that we are Allah. You love Allah so much, that you fear disappointing him by committing
a sin. That is what he meant by fear of Allah. Right? So many of us misunderstand what is the fear
of Allah? Furthermore, many of us who restrict up what you feel, but it's not true that we can be
out of love. Can we ever hope for Allah's mercy, that war can be simply out of the cold or
remembrance of Allah? Right? So there's many aspects to it. Showed for the first part we spoke about
that. Well, what is taqwa? And we know the goal of Ramadan is to increase our taqwa. The second
point, why do we need taqwa?
		

			Why?
		

			Because we can't pass the test of life without it. We can't get to Jenna without taqwa every
description in the Quran of the people of Jannah. Allah does not say the Muslims. What does he say?
		

			He says the people of taqwa the moutoku he says that the macmini the people of true faith, the
people of taqwa the most in need the people of your son, meaning what? If you are a Muslim,
inshallah you will enter gender eventually. But if you are a person of taqwa, then you can skip
jahannam altogether and go straight to gender. So the way to skip the jahannam altogether and go
straight to gender is to increase our taqwa. So why do we need taqwa? The first and most important
reason why every human being needs to develop their taqwa is because it is the way to gender. The
way to gender is through increasing inequality. Because think about it when our taqwa is low what
		

			happens? We commit sins, we ignore our good deeds, we fall into major blunders. When our taqwa is
high, then we do more good deeds. Right? We are more conscious of Allah, we increase our Hashanah.
So taqwa is necessary for gender. In this world. There are benefits to taqwa as well. taqwa will
save you from suicide. Right? It will save you suicidal thoughts, because you are conscious of
Allah, your life is not focused on you. It's focused on Allah. It's focused on pleasing Allah, you
are aware that Allah is the alleged if we are going to help you with your problems, I was going to
solve the problems. So it helps you to avoid these thoughts to at least find them in the right. One,
		

			this world helps you to overcome depression and anxiety. Like many of us in South Africa, we have
anxiety about crime, right? We terrified about crime. But what do we do? I know myself whenever
scary thought comes to our mind about a crime happening as he has been alone, walking on the
sidewalk, and he calms me down. the remembrance of Allah calms you down because you know a large
taking care of you a lot protecting you. So taqwa helps to reduce our anxiety. It helps to reduce
depression, it helps to bring us back up to a level where we can manage where we can survive. taqwa
helps us to survive any test that life throws at us. Because when you are tested with difficulties,
		

			it is the consciousness of Allah that stops you from finding our way out of the difficulty. And when
you are tested with wealth and abundance, it's a duck of Allah that stops you from abusing that
wealth and abundance. So we need taqwa for every aspect of our lives, from our families, to our
businesses, to dealing with the test of life to our emotional and psychological problems, and most
importantly, for developing our
		

			relationship with Allah and entering into paradise. So every human needs taqwa. And therefore every
person needs to take Ramadan seriously. If we don't take Ramadan seriously it comes and goes and
there is no change. And how many of us have experienced that Ramadan comes, it goes nothing, no
change, we still the same person.
		

			So what we need to do to increase our taqwa. And what I do personally is every Ramadan, try to think
of at least two things. At least two things you want to change in your life. At least one good deed
you want to add to your life and once in you want to remove from your life and spend that Ramadan
working on those two things. Right? So for example, maybe you're not in the habit of reciting Quran
every day. So say from this Ramadan onwards, I'm going to develop the habit of reciting Quran every
day.
		

			And how do you make that work? Firstly, in Ramadan, Angela, most of us do recite Quran everyday in
Ramadan. The trick is after Ramadan over is over, and she doesn't comes back out to stick to it. To
stick to it. Right, she becomes a habit, the recitation of the Quran on a daily basis that was a
normal part of the lives of the Sahaba they wouldn't go a day without reciting Quran. How many of us
recite Quran on a daily basis, right? So something like that as a good deed to your life. The other
one remove a sin from your life. So maybe you are involved in interest based banking, or maybe
you're looking at things you're not supposed to look at. Or maybe you assume you have a bad habit of
		

			smoking, you know, or things which are bad for your body. Use Ramadan as an opportunity to cleanse
yourself of that sin and use it as an opportunity to make Toba and return from that sin and remove
it from your life permanently. Not for one month but permanently right so if we choose just two
things, each Ramadan it becomes realistic to work towards but what happens to many of us will be
unrealistic in our Ramadan goals. What do we do when you ever say from this Ramadan Oh, onwards, I'm
never committing a sin again for the rest of my life. Right? That's unrealistic. You are human.
Right? There's not a single person alive today who can fulfill that goal. Only Gambia can fulfill
		

			that goal. Rather be realistic say okay, I know this is a sinful habits I have let me get rid of
this happened. That's realistic. That's something you can actually do. Right. For some people they
will be unrealistic they will say that from this Ramadan onwards, I will pray every Salah of my life
with perfect concentration. And by the first taraweeh by the 15th record, that repetition is what I
know to be perfect. So don't aim for perfection. Aim for being your best. Aim for being better than
what you are now. If you are yearning to be there. Don't Don't think that I can reach from year to
year in one month. It doesn't work like that. Baby steps. be gradual in your development of your
		

			image and your taco.
		

			So Ramadan is the month of developing our taqwa we said today we're going to speak about three
things. Number one, what is taqwa? Number two, why we need it. And number three, how to get it in
Ramadan. Right. So for those who came late, we said that taqwa needs to be conscious of Allah to
live our lives in a way that we remember Allah and live our lives and obedience to Allah. That is
what taqwa is, right. And certainly, we said, we need the power in order to enter into gender into
all in order to enter Paradise, right? We need the power in order to protect ourselves from the
traps and tests and the difficulties of life. We need to protect ourselves from ourselves, if you
		

			know what I mean, that we need to protect ourselves from ourselves, meaning to protect our souls,
from our own arrogance, our own egos, our own desires, right, that was what stops all of that from
coming from coming out and taking over. And now we come to the final part of this discussion, which
is how do you develop
		

			a really good one method, which is try to add one good deed to your daily habits and try to remove
one sin from your life. Right? The second thing you can do in Ramadan, to really improve your data
is to fast with purpose. And many of us we fast as a ritual or habit, you know, it just it just it
just comes part of our lives. We wake up we go to work, we come home, we have the star, you know and
we go about with no spiritual benefit coming out of it fast with purpose. Every day, renew your
intention. Remind yourself why I am fasting. Remind yourself I am fasting for Allah to improve my
taqwa. So you are fasting with a purpose. Wake up for suhoor the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
		

			said that there is Baraka in the Sahel in the US.
		

			morning meal. Why do you want to listen to the Baraka? No all of us are asking about veggie burger
from the Prophet is telling us in the shareholders Baraka wake up for Sudha Baraka in your day.
Right? So the second thing we can do is wake up for sure, right to retreat to get this feeling of,
of fasting on purpose because what happens is when we not even waking up, and we're not even waking
up and renewing our intentions and talking about internally, because there is no verbal intentions
according to the Sunnah. Right? But to wake up early in the morning, to renew your intentions to
have to go to sit and read, do it on time. You know, all of this helps you to fast on purpose, not
		

			fasting out of habit. Right. The next thing you can do to fast on purpose is to control your tongue
while fasting. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that the person who does not stay away
from vulgar speech and bad actions, Allah does not need him to stay away from food and drink.
Meaning
		

			if you are staying away from food and drink while fasting, but why fasting, you are swearing people
you are abusing people, you are backbiting you are gossiping. There is no reward for that fast. That
is a fast without reward. Because the whole purpose of fasting is to learn to control yourself, is
you can control what goes into your mouth in terms of food and drink, you can control what comes out
of your mouth in terms of words. So control your tongue. If you want the full reward of fasting
control your tongue in Ramadan, Don't utter a word that is displeasing to Allah Don't utter a word
that harms another human being, learn to to follow the Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi
		

			wasallam when he said whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day for the Apollo hate, oh yes, when
he speaks what is beneficial or he keeps quiet?
		

			That is the way of the belief of the Buddha, you speak what is beneficial or you stay silent. Learn
to be like that. If you are like that, while we are fasting, then we will increase in our taco Why?
Because while we are fasting, we are now conscious of Allah not just in terms of eating and
drinking, but even in terms of what we are saying. The next thing you can do to increase your
conscious of allowing Ramadan is to recite Quran with understanding, not just recite Quran ritually,
but with understanding if there is a Tafseer halaqa at your local Masjid attended. If there isn't
any, then download some stuff. See, listen to some sort of speed online is plenty of sources of the
		

			feedback all of them are available today. Right? We can't make the excuse that Oh, no one's teaching
I've seen in my area 100 enough, go online. There is so much stuff here available for downloading by
authentic scholars. Listen to the meanings, read the translation. And when you read the translation,
a warning when you read a translation, and you come across a difficult verse, don't make up your own
interpretation for it. Ask him to clarify. Right very dangerous trouble she thought that he makes us
think that we can come up with our own interpretation of the Quran. I know you read the translation,
you try your best to understand the Quran but you understand that I have limitations in my knowledge
		

			so that which I don't understand. I will ask the experts right so recite Quran well fasting after
fudger after many, many of the sisters after absolutely busy in the kitchen, tried to get your
kitchen work done earlier. So after so you can recycle anime to is good, because that's a blessing
time. We'll do our at the time of retirees answered Tricia rushing about in the kitchen. You know,
if that time, you know sitting next to our even brothers and see if downtime is at peak hour this
year, right? Many of us will be stuck in traffic. So he says sitting in traffic and swearing the
traffic in our minds, maybe two hours sitting in traffic. Make sure you have your dates in water in
		

			the car with you in case you don't get home in time. Right sit in traffic and we do need to have
everybody else is stuck in traffic. They do all our guides all of them to Islamics everybody who
goes the time window was answered. Right? So take advantage of these times live in Ramadan of
consciousness and finally the Dharavi that there are we put all the debates aside all the the laugh
aside all the fighting aside, there are always about one thing and she's about two things. Number
one, it's about connecting with Allah number two is about getting your sins forgiven. Why do I say
this? Because the prophets wives are selling authentic Hadees whoever scans the nights of Ramadan in
		

			prayer out of Eman out of Hope it allows reward will have all of the past sins forgiven. So that's
why you pray to Robbie. Right? Whichever opinion you are following whatever the case may be, pray
your taraweeh for the sake of Allah, pray for the sake of earning mcfeely from Allah which of us
don't need forgiveness. We all have a lot of sins in this pasture. So here's an opportunity, right
to have the sins forgiven later on. But choose a Masjid where they pray properly. Because remember,
if they imagine
		

			rushing through the stroller, and he's not reciting with the dream. And if you can't even understand
what he's reciting that is a mockery of the Quran.
		

			Right? And that's actually a sin. So pray the rosary at those masteries with any side property will
tell you he can recite fast. Right? But what will you understand what they are reciting? That's most
important. And then before going further, are we open the translation need a translation of some of
the verses they're going to recite? So why is the upgrading that or are we if you find your
attention is wondering, you know, start thinking about the translation and reflecting on the
translation. So that helps you to stay in the salon, you know, instead of our mind going everywhere
else, you know, to work at tomorrow's tour and next days if you focus on the translation. So before
		

			going to the masjid, read the translation you know, if you know the first night that reciting the
first one and a half Jews read the translation of some of those verses and think about their
translation during the therapy, if you can't pay attention to what the mom is reciting that, that is
considered concentrating in your Salah, because you are reflecting on the meanings of what the
environment is reciting. Right? So make our ramadan ramadan of our consciousness and the way to do
that is to understand the goals of Ramadan, to work towards it, and to do our Avada on purpose. So
this Ramadan, enter Ramadan with the goal in mind that I will read Ramadan on a higher level of
		

			taqwa. And to do that I am going to start doing this need to do that I'm going to stop doing this.
To do that I'm going too fast on purpose. I will wake up for sure. I will wake up at 4pm only I will
make during the early parts of the morning. I will make dua before mother Uppsala, our recycler and
I will try my best to understand the Quran. I will clean my tarawih I will try my best to understand
and concentrate in the Dharavi and I hope that Allah will accept all of that from me and help me
improve my culture we enter Ramadan with that intention and inshallah your Ramadan will be
transformative. Because that's what Ramadan is meant to be. It's meant to be a period of
		

			transformation when a person enters Ramadan on the wrong path, but the live Ramadan, not just on the
street but by the way into the street Park. Right. This is why the prophets lie. Some said that the
doors of Jannah are open in Ramadan, meaning in Ramadan, there are so many ways to earn the
forgiveness of Allah. in Ramadan. There are so many ways to find your way back to Allah. in Ramadan.
There's so many ways to increase your taqwa. These are all the doors to general is opening Ramadan,
take advantage of it. So my brothers and sisters, I hope. As we come to an end of this discussion, I
hope that each of us will enter this upcoming Ramadan with purpose with a pure intention, with a
		

			desire to increase our taqwa with the hope of getting closer to Allah subhanho wa Taala that we will
do our good deeds to the best of our ability and that we will play out our RV and fast to the best
of our ability. And because of that, I hope and I pray to Allah that He forgives each and every one
of us but will ever since we have committed in the past and it makes this Ramadan a new beginning
for us a means of bringing us closer to him a means of improving our spirituality a means of
bringing us all closer towards gender and a means of of making us from those whom Allah loves me
Allah except for much of what you bargained for. Give us for example, a hater wakita 100 I mean,
		

			Salaam Alaikum.