Kamal El-Mekki – Advice After Ramadan
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Alhamdulillah Muhammad who want to stay in or who want to stop Pharaoh when we left him in Shadow Realm for cinema sejati Medina, Maya de la Hofer Ramadan della woman you believe in the Allah. Wa shadow Allah Allah illallah wa the hula Cherie color wash do Ana Muhammad and Abu rasuluh yeah you have Latina on top Allah have cut Ducati he wanted to Mutanda 11 to Muslim moon. Yeah you had Adina on top allah how Apolo Conan sadita Useless hola como Armada como fella come Zuber come. When will you play la hora Sula, who Takata Pfizer for frozen Alima and my bad, very nasty and hazy Kitab Allah will SNL howdy howdy Muhammad in sallallahu alayhi wa sallam are short on OMO remote data to
her what coulomb of data in VEDA what could live without in de la Wakulla within say now,
Brothers and Sisters in Islam. In Ramadan, we learned the value of putting effort in worship. And as we explained many times before Allah subhanaw taala loves to see effort from His servants. And many times in Islam, Allah subhanaw taala will reward you on your effort not necessarily on successful results. That is the case with Dawa that is the case with making effort to pray on time or to wake up for vigil to wake up 4pm
The scholars had the saying they used to say at a BCA Damak for entire iba cut Damak at a paddock, yawning exhaust fatigue work your feet, your legs, work them exhaust them meaning in worship in standing in prayer. And if you do that for entire labor, if you do exhaust them, you do work them well. Damac they will advance you forward they will advance you towards Allah azza wa jal they would advance you on the Day of Judgment. In Ramadan, we tasted the sweetness of a vida of worshipping Allah azza wa jal, the sweetness of the Quran, the sweetness of vicar and the sweetness of Salah. So let Allah see you continue to do your best and not abandon the good deeds until the next Ramadan
because the purpose was to drop some bad habits and to pick up some good habits that you will continue for the rest of the year. Yeah, Jen natal Rahmani les the rocky satin Bella Leah and Alan Kessler. It is saying oh, the Jana the paradise of the Most Merciful, you are not cheap, but you are expensive for those who are lazy. So when in this whole book, we want to focus on three pieces of advice. The first one pertains to family. The second one pertains to the youth and specifically how they're going to spend the summer. And the third will be about the winter Surat Salah and its importance. As for families, one of the studies showed that the average family spends about 37
minutes a day of quality time, just 37 minutes a day, which adds up to just nine days out of the entire year of quality time. If you add them together, it's just nine days out of 365.
And
another study showed that adults spend an average of about three hours a day on social media. And we're having young kids now young kids will complain to their parents that they're always on their phone. And then when they become teenagers, the parents complain that they're always on their phone. But think about the idea of when your child comes to you, and you're doing something and you're chatting, and you're texting or typing. And then they want to show you something and you told them not now, and then they want to talk to you about something and then you push them slightly away. Let me just finish this. Think about years and years of every time they come towards you. You push them
away, they come towards you, you push them away. And for most people when their children are young, this is one they want to spend time with you more than anyone else in the world. And then they become teenagers. And then our complaints reverse. The children don't want to spend any time this boy doesn't want to spend any time with the family. Well part of it was you train them years of pushing him away years of not now yours Oh wait a minute, that yours when they wanted to spend time with you. You didn't want to then they become teenagers. They don't want to spend time with you and now you're looking for that quality time. So beware of that. And we have all seen families to
families getting together for a feast or barbeque and then you look at them. Every single one in the living room has their head down on their phone. Why? What are you gathering for in that case? Everybody
comes together drive the distance, and everyone just has their head on their phone.
One of the dogs, one of the dots even, I was speaking to one of his sons, and he has no clue what his other three siblings are studying at the university. So I asked him, if you live in the same home, how could you not know what your siblings are studying? He says, I don't see them. So you can't all be that busy. You don't meet over lunchtime. He says my mother prepares the pot and leaves it on the stove. And she just yells out announces that it's lunch is ready. He says one brother will come take his plate, go watch TV, the other will come take the plate, go to his room, the other sister will come take their plate and go to their bedroom. And so he says I never get to see them.
They don't even know each other. So beware, and especially in the summer, monitor your children's behavior, monitor how they treat each other and how they talk to each other. And it's not acceptable that siblings hate one another. And one time, even in our community, we asked the children and all the words towards their siblings were words of hatred and displeasure and dislike. So monitor that very closely and make sure they have a good relationship. And that words like I hate my brother, I hate my siblings are absolutely not acceptable. But when it comes to spouses, and this is one of the best pieces of advice offered by one of the Messiah. He was saying that when people when someone
gets married, the focus his focus, the man is on his wife. And her focus is on the husband and they're focused on each other. The minute they have children, there is an unwritten agreement. Now that we have children, we have to put all our energy and time and focus into raising righteous and proper children. So they both shift the focus completely on to the children. And then what happens, they start to neglect each other, the wife will neglect herself, the husband will neglect himself. And then he starts looking around and all kinds of problems happen because they didn't give attention to one another. One study said that couples will spend just 12 nights out of the year of
quality time together out of the whole year, just 12 nights together. And we'll see cases of couples on the brink of divorce. And their problem would be that she has just become a creature created to take care of the children. So she's just doing laundry, cooking, cleaning, making sure they do the homework by the time he gets home, she's completely fatigued, or she just complains about their grades and what they did to their misbehavior. He says we have no relationship whatsoever. So the shift said that even after you have children, the focus is still on one another. And now you have children. But the focus is still on one another that many people automatically say now we have
children, we have to focus on them, and then neglect neglect their relationship. And that's why we see so many troubled relationships and couples coming for counseling and going for other to other places for counseling. Because of this, because they have nothing together. They just focus on being servants to these children.
When it comes to the youth, we're saying there is nothing that is more important than Islamic knowledge. And if you don't believe this, you're going to go full circle, and you're going to come back to the same place. One of the biggest challenges that will be facing Muslims in North America, it is already one of the biggest challenges and it will continue to become more apparent in the coming years. And that is youth leaving Islam, and they're leaving Islam for the absolute most ridiculous reasons whatsoever. For fifth reasons that they don't even comprehend. We don't they don't even do enough research. This doesn't make sense and they start to leave Islam. This is one of
the biggest issues and the only thing that can help after Allah azza wa jal is Islamic knowledge. This is the solid rock that will withstand all these waves that are crashing down upon you day in and day out.
The man came to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi salam So the Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam asked him magia a beggar What brought you here what brought you to me Florida jet to a global end he says I came to seek knowledge. So the Prophet sallallahu Sallam asked him ah Allah merger or B Que la, Yanni it means I asked you by Allah nothing brought you here except that Allah Allah Yanni he's making the oath Wallah. And nothing brought me here except seeking knowledge. So then the president tells him in that manner ICA now Tada Oh Ha ha ha the toilet. Ribbon beam is not that the angels lower their wings for the students of knowledge out of being pleased of what they do, meaning
seeking knowledge. One time that Prophet sallallahu wasallam came out to
The companions and they were in a gathering of learning and vicar. So he asked them Ma, what made you sit here? They said Kaduna North Corolla. They said we sat down to mention Allah azza wa jal. He said Allah ma cada Camila Harada. I asked you by Allah and nothing made you sit down here except that remembering Allah subhanaw taala
they said Allah Yanni they made the oath me yes by Allah. That's the only thing that made us sit here. He said Emma in Neelam esta Khalifa come to Mata loco, he said, I didn't ask you by Allah as an accusation in an accusatory way that I don't believe you. Well, I can need to come but I came to let you know, and Najib Briella Jaya Annie Bharani and Allah Yuba, he become ill melodica Oh, Mala Ekata who that I came to tell you that Allah subhanaw taala was boasting based on what you were doing boasting your deeds in front of the angels that were that are with him? What else can grant you this honor? And what else could you do on this earth and Allah subhanaw taala will boast in
front of the angels look at my servants, and how good no matter how good you get a basketball, that's not going to happen. No matter how good you get at video games, that's not going to happen. So for parents, then the advice is to care about your child's Islamic knowledge. Many parents come to us when it's too late. Many cases, a child will be watching videos of atheists hours upon hours per day, then they decide they're leaving Islam, then they bring them here and they want in one session that we magically touch them and something happens and they come back to the dean and their Messiah or what have you. It doesn't work like that. You have to be in charge of that you have to
monitor that the entire time. And it never fails. It never fails. The best students are always meaning Islamically are always always the ones whose parents care about their Islamic education. It never fails. You look at the four Imams Imam Malik Imam Muhammad Shafi Abu Hanifa Imam, Allah, all of them were orphans, and all of them have mothers had mothers who cared about their Islamic education. And I'm gonna play him. His sister, his oldest sister was the one who cared about his Islamic education. Imam Shafi. He was so poor and his mother was poor, but she would go out and she would find us paper, they were too poor to buy paper and she would find us paper that's acceptable.
They tried to erase from it so he could use it to learn in his his Deen. So for the youth, we also say the Quran, there is nothing that you read that will be greater nor more beneficial for you than the Quran. Our problem is just we belittle the Quran, and I mentioned the story before where a young man came, actually, he didn't want to come to speak to an imam. And he told his friends because the Imam was gonna tell me read the Quran. As if there is no benefit in this Imams, they don't know what they're doing. They just tell you go read the Quran or make his vicar makes the fire but just throw these cop outs at me. So we made sure to tell him at the end of the session to read the Quran,
because that is the correct answer. Yes, read the Quran. And if you read the Quran, you wouldn't be I don't want to go into what he was confused about. It was something beyond ridiculous beyond ridiculous that a philosophy professor told him but the answer would have been in the Quran had he always flipped through its pages.
And one of our youth in Virginia he used to run around the masjid would yell at him and then they went and enter the Quran competition. So they all traveled to Saudi Arabia. And while they were there, after the competition, they took all of the contestants to the Kaaba, and they open the doors of the Kaaba and let them walk inside and pray inside the cup. Many great scholars have been prayed inside the Kaaba, but there's nothing else in this world they could have done in the United States that will get them to go all the way to Mecca and have someone opened the door of the Kaaba and allowed them inside. They could have become the greatest athlete of all time, no one would invite
them to pray inside the cabin. They could have memorized whatever they memorized nothing except the Quran. Nothing elevates people like the Quran. Nothing strengthens Iman, like the Quran and nothing protects after Allah azza wa jal like the Quran. And it's so sad that the number one thing that replaces the Quran and the hearts in the minds and in the ears of our youth, especially, and even our adults, it's music. And many follow the mistaken opinion that music is hello, it's 100% mistaken opinion. 100% And if it's not mistaken, have one of our youth right now grab this microphone and just say the lyric
of the things you listen to every day. What is the subject matter? What is the content? What kind of words? Are they? Would you be embarrassed to come and say it right now in front of the community? How is it Hala and what is shame that this nonsense is what's replacing the greatest words ever the words of Allah subhanaw taala.
As for the summer, make sure this is for the youth. Make sure you focus on Islamic learning focus on the Quran, and for the parents encourage them to care for that the same way you encourage them to care for their schools and their studies and their swim classes and their soccer practice. This summer we have a lot of learning programs and activities for all kinds of ages for high school and college. We have classes for the young we have the summer program, and make sure they don't waste their time and they don't miss opportunities to learn. Make sure they learn something new every day meaning something new about the religion every day, and enough facts about frogs and mountain goats
and things but important things one of the young men he said I made a vow to learn something new every day. He said one day I was super busy and I went to bed then I remembered that I didn't learn anything. I turned the light on grab the book opened and read the Hadith immediately, something new every day, or at least learn a skill, some beneficial skill mechanics, woodworking something in the summer. A few summers ago for our summer program entry summer program. We brought in something simple, we brought wood, nails and hammers. And we had the students just hammer a nail into a piece of wood. And these kids were saying we've never in our life driven a nail into a piece of whatever.
We had them go outside and learn how to change a tire. We had them learn how to sweep and these are basic things one day they're gonna go live in a dorm, and one day you're gonna go visit their dorm and you're gonna be surprised at how a human being can live in such filth because they never learned basic skills. And we're intent is to teach that this summer so take advantage of these opportunities. Akula cola was tougher. Hola. Hola. Hola, Emily, welcome in Jimena de nuke festival through via Fosun most of Vereen ask Allah Subhana Allah for his forgiveness, Indeed, those who ask for his forgiveness shall prosper.
hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa salatu salam ala Rasulillah I mean, while he was here, Jemaine about in the month of Ramadan, we many of us got used to and accustomed to praying the winter prayer. The winter prayer The Scholars say is a sunnah Makeda and many people misunderstand this term they think what could it means confirmed like some sunnah not confirmed. This one's confirmed like what could it means and Nabi SallAllahu Sallam never ever skipped it ever. They said freesurfer or Phil hallelujah Annie, whether he was traveling or whether he was a resident, he never ever skipped a little bit. Even if he missed it, he would make it up the next day he would make it up the next day.
And it's time is after a sharp prayer after you pray shot, you can pray a little bit or if you're traveling and you combine you pray mother and combine it with Asia. You can pray the winter at that point also if you're a traveler,
but it's best at the end of the night. It is known and narrated that the prophets of Allah salaam pray the letter in the beginning of the night and then he prayed it in the middle of the night. And then he prayed it at the end of the night and that became his sunnah to pray at the end of the night. And
it is the scholars say it is the best prayer after the fight. And Nabi SallAllahu sallam said no, you have to look at Allah with three in movement. He says the only one who maintains or keeps up with the Witr Prayer is the believer. So the scholars said he made it Salallahu Alaihe Salam, one of the signs of iman to pray with her. Imam Malik Rahim Allah He used to say if any man misses three winters in a row for one row su he is a wicked man. If he misses three winters, he is a wicked man. Why? Because number one, it is so short one Raka. And what would you know that the bras had? Never ever skipped it? And if he skipped it, he made it up. Why on earth would you skip it? And it's just
one Raka. Then the other thing,
the coda and the fact that the Muslim would never skip it. So this he said, If a man skips three which is a wicked person, In another Hadith the Prophet Salam said in Allah za comes salah, 10 for son Lulu, in Allah kudzai Come Salatin for saloon
He says indeed Allah has increased you a prayer. So pray it is talking about in winter SallAllahu sallam. So some of the scholars of Islam called Witr Prayer, the sixth prayer, the way they understood this hadith, that Allah azza wa jal gave you five prayers and then he added one to them. So they said that's the sixth prayer. That's how important they saw it. So they said the best prayer after the five no doubt is the winter prayer followed then second best would be the Sunnah for Fajr rebirth and Fajr and then after that will be all the other sunnah. And some scholars even went to the, to the extent of saying that falafel which is why
it is permissible to pray it in one raka This is the majority opinion of the madaket Shaeffer is an humble is this is based on the Hadith in Sahih Bukhari and Muslim also insolent epidote and Anessa. In m de magia. And the bisol sell themselves if you want to pray it as five that's fine. If you want to pray as three that's one that's fine, and if you pray it as one that's also fine. And in a hadith narrated by Ahmed and nessa II, a dar Remi, and it's considered so he the Prophet Lim prayed three rock art with one Tisha hood, the first recited al Fatiha and somebody hits Barbican Allah, the second al Fatiha and sort of Catherine and then the third sort of floss. And then he made one Tisha
hold in the end. And you can also obviously pray it in any of the sort of the Quran it doesn't matter and there were times in the porcelain pray that even much longer than that, then narrated by Ibn headband and Hakeem Adar Putney and it
came in love and war crane, he mentioned that with the Sahara is not the Prophet sallallahu sallam said low to tear with Allah thin outer become seen in oh seven and then this is the part of the heavy he says
and do not make it resemble Salatin mother do not make it resemble Salatin McGraw. So the scholars said, You pray the three rock art but not like a mugger prayer, you don't sit for the first dish, I hope you continue to get up again for the third time, and then you end it with the last dish out. Similarly, if you prayed five, and seven, and so on.
With that, I'd like to conclude
with a conversation that I overheard in right here in America in Atlanta, Georgia. And there were these three friends, and they were talking in front of me, and they had made a pact. And one of the reasons it's so easy to worship Allah azza wa jal in Ramadan is that everyone's doing it. Everyone is fasting. Everyone's praying with her everyone's giving so the condom makes it easier. So these friends came up with a brilliant idea. They made a winter challenge between the three of them, that they're challenging each other to see which one of them will be the first one to skip a with her. And they were talking that it was months and none of them skipped with a prayer and one of them was
saying the other day I was extremely fatigued and tired, but I still got up and I still pray the winter and I didn't want to lose the challenge. You can do things like that just to encourage one another especially for the youth for winter prayer for the Quran for fasting so you don't abandon it for giving sadaqa these little challenges and these challenges have nothing to do with the purity of your intention with Allah azza wa jal, Yanni, just like when we have Quran competitions, people were initially memorizing it for the sake of Allah azza wa jal, and then the competition and the prize and the position just serves as an extra boost or an extra motivator. With that, we ask Allah
subhanaw taala to make us of those who recognize the truth as clear truth and follow the rest of it, and to make use of those who recognize falsehood as clear falsehood and abstain from it.
Allah humara to hurry to hablen aside, well, I told that anamod Allah humara to how you blend I say well out of Delana Ahmed, Ya Allah accept what little we presented in the month of Ramadan? Yeah, Allah accept our fasts. Ya Allah accept what we gave in charity forgive our sins and free us from the Hellfire Jana banana mean.
Yeah Allah you are the one who is not in need and we are the ones who are in desperate need for love Minister Jalla dunya Kabara Homina What am I blog Mina? Wala Ilana Remo, Sirona
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