Kamal El-Mekki – Preparing for Ramadan

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all praises due to Allah we praise Him and seek his assistance. We seek refuge with Allah from the evil within ourselves and from the evil of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide him. Yet whomever he allows to go astray, none can guide him and I bear witness that there is no god worthy of worship except Allah alone. He has no partner and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger.

Yeah, you have Latina Armand otaku la ha ha patoka de La La Tomatina in LA one two Muslim moon. Oh you who believe fear Allah as he should be feared and do not die except in the state of Islam. Yeah, you Hallelujah Amen otaku Hola Hola. Hola. COVID and said either use la la cama como la la casa de novo come mama yo para la hora Sula, who has 1000 alima Oh you who believe. Fear Allah and speak the truth. He will direct you to do righteous good deeds and will forgive your sins, and whomsoever obeys Allah and His messenger. He has indeed achieved a great achievement about nostoc Alhaji thekey tabula rasa howdy howdy Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was Sharon Mora. Masato ha Hakuna

Matata tibidabo VEDA wakulla Middleton Allah Allah wa called out in vain our

brothers and sisters in Islam today are hookah is about preparing for the month of Ramadan

and the month of Ramadan. It is a short period of time and the intent and purpose behind it is for us to get closer to Allah subhanho wa Taala and to show Allah azza wa jal, our devotion and our dedication and what we can do in terms of worship.

If you calculate what percentage of the year Ramadan is, it is only 8% of the year, if it's 30 days, it's only 8% of the year. If it's 29 days, it's even less than that. And we all know that Allah subhanaw taala created us and put us on this earth just to worship Him. And He mentioned this in the Quran, and the famous I that we all know what Mahalo to Genoa ins Illa Leah Buddha and I have not created the jinn nor humankind except to worship me. So illogical created us to worship him if he commanded and demanded the entire year of devout worship like the level of Ramadan, it wouldn't be too much. If he asked half the year, like Ramadan, it wouldn't be too much. But Allah azza wa jal

only asked for 8% or less of the year where we put effort to draw near to him subhanho wa Tada. Just a short number of days. And that's exactly how Allah subhanaw taala described it in the Quran, a yam and ma do that just a short number of days.

The early Muslims and the righteous before us they would look forward to this month of Ramadan. Not just in Shaban, as many people do now, but they would look forward to Ramadan the entire year the whole time. They're waiting for the month of Ramadan

and Nabi sallallahu alayhi Salaam when the month of Ramadan would come narrated by Abu huraira the prophet SAW Selim said at Akuma Ramadan shahan Mubarak Ramadan has come to you a blessed month.

Further laoise agenda Aleikum Yama, who Allah subhanaw taala made it obligatory upon you to fast this month to fit the hovi of wobbu sama the gates of the heavens are opened for you will too vanilla coffee available to him and the gates of the Hellfire are closed with a vanilla coffee he were to go loopy Marotta to Shelton muda. He says that the leaders or the heads of the Shelton are chained up during this month fee he Laila to Hiram and Alfie Jr. in it in this month of Ramadan is a night that is better than 1000 months. madhurima Hydra faqad Kareem the problem said whoever was prevented from the good of this night he is the one that is truly prevented the righteous before us.

They would be happy when Ramadan approached. And they would be grateful to Allah azza wa jal that he extended their lives long enough to witness the month of Ramadan. So they would spend six months just making the out to Allah Israel that they would make it and Rama until Ramadan that they would live long enough until the next Ramadan.

And the Prophet sallallahu Sallam himself used to make a DA with this meaning Allahumma barik Luna firaga worshiping Allah put Baraka for us blessings for us in the month of Ramadan and Siobhan we're boliviana Ramadan and

Allow us to attain the month of Ramadan to live until the month of Ramadan.

So they were conscious of Ramadan the entire year, not just in Shabbat, as we said. And one of the issues that we are one of the problems that that we have until now is that many of us think that Ramadan or fasting is abstaining from eating and drinking from sunup until sundown. So that's what fasting is to them abstaining from eating and drinking from sunup until sundown. These are the ones who exaggerate after making will do and spit 100 times to make sure that no witness remains in their mouth. Even though that witness is pardoned by the Sharia, you're not required to remove every molecule of water, it's pardoned by the Sharia. But these are the same people for them. Ramadan is

just not ingesting things. So they're careful after making although they're the ones who exaggerate and tell you not to smell smoke, not to smell food. Some of them even say don't shower because water can come in through your ears, even though that's not how people typically ingest anything through the ears.

But if they were to contemplate if you mistakenly eat during the day in Ramadan, if you eat by by mistake and you have forgotten, it is pardoned, and your fasting is still valid and you continue, which should let us know that that means fasting is a little a lot more than just eating and drinking.

So people then fast and during the day, they abstain from lying, they abstain from backbiting, they abstain from fighting with others from looking at the harem. But even that concept is not 100% complete, because Ramadan is not just about the day. This is a month for Allah subhanho wa Taala. So even after sundown, the month is still for a large religion. There are people who abstain from watching television because they're fasting. They abstain from wasting time with playing games because they're fasting. They don't smoke because they're fasting. But when they break the fast, they start smoking and vaping and watching television, looking at images of women, all kinds of

things, but it's still the month of Ramadan. It's still an entire month where we're supposed to show our worth to Allah subhanaw taala it's not just about during the day, and then during night we do something different.

And we all know the verse Allah says yeah, you hola Xena Amano, quotevalet Kumasi, amo Kemal katiba Latina macabre con la la la la la quinta de Haan so that you may attain taqwa.

And that means the scholar said that fasting affects the heart because stuck was in the heart. So fasting affects the heart, and it's for the heart. It's not for the stomach. It's not about health. Some people make it the month of exercise and the month of dieting. It's not about lowering the cholesterol level. Number one, first and foremost it was to affect the heart. And how can we attain taqwa. If after sundown, we relaxed and do whatever we want, just because we're not fasting anymore.

The righteous before us brothers and sisters, they used to leave mooster hub acts of worship in the month of Ramadan. And we're not talking about leaving haraam because Ramadan has come the righteous before they would leave good deeds to free up their time for worship. So if you are an authority, the great scholar Rahim Allah, he would spend his days and nights teaching. This is throughout the year, teaching up Peter and teaching and teaching their religion to his students. And when Ramadan would enter, he would cancel these righteous gatherings he would stop teaching. He would stop teaching up here he's stopping Mr. hub acts of worship, so that he can focus on getting nearer to

Allah subhanaw taala focus on his acts of worship and focus on the Koran. We're not even talking about sins that we continue the entire year, and we just stopped them for the sake of Ramadan. The righteous before us used to stop other good deeds so they can focus on worship and focus on the Quran. In Amazonia Rahim Allah, he would stop teaching as well and focus on worship and focus on the Quran. So they would leave all these good deeds so they can give their full attention to the month of Ramadan. Can we then leave television or leave video games or leave these useless videos on WhatsApp that we're constantly being sent from around the world? And the truth is 99% of them are

just garbage. Just cats falling into water. This guy slipped car accident, and we spent hours upon hours per month just watching these videos used to his Facebook posts. Were saying people used to leave good acts of worship so they can they can focus on drawing near to Allah xojo Can we leave

Television and games on our phones and useless what's up discussions and Facebook posts and pictures of food on Instagram and what have you for the sake of Allah subhana wa Tada.

Many people, they say that they don't have time, because they're working full time and they have families and they have responsibilities. So they don't necessarily have time to devote any extra attention to the Quran or to reading the Quran.

And what most people make a mistake in is that they think you have to find a portion or a time period of slot in your schedule where you have three free hours, then I'll read the Quran, or next Wednesday, I have two hours that are free. I'll read the Quran. Realistically, if you have three hours, and no one has three empty hours in their schedule, but if you had three empty hours in your schedule, would you sit and read non stop for three hours, after half an hour, fall asleep, whatever happens. So the point is to not look for huge chunks of empty time in your schedule. But the trick is to find short moments, and use and utilize these.

An example of that there is a Muslim here in America and the East Coast that we know and he memorized the entire Quran inside his car. And he not that he memorized the Quran and he went to Saturday class and memorize with the ship. He memorized the entire Quran sitting inside his vehicle. He lived in a state that was in the worst top 10 of traffic in America, much like Houston which is in the worst top 10 as well. So every time there was an accident, roadwork he would put he would he would photocopy a page of the Koran and clip it onto his dashboard. He stopped at a traffic light, he reads a verse and repeats it. There's an accident, he reads a number of verses blockage, whatever

the problem was, he would recite a verse of the Quran. When he finishes that page photocopies the next page, he memorized the entire book of Allah completely inside his vehicle.

Another someone that we know personally learned a language, a very, let's call it rare language that is spoken in only a village that's between the mountains. And he learned it in two months fluently enough to the he can go and give full our full conversational skills. How did he learn it in two months, and he's a busy mom and a busy man. But he said basically any language in the world, it's two parts. One part is understanding the grammatical rules and the sentence structure of that language. Once you have that, all you have to do now is just gather vocabulary words, just so you can use them in sentences. So it says in the first month, I learned the sentence structure the

grammatical rules. And in the second month, I just memorize hundreds and hundreds of vocabulary words. Even though he's a busy man, he did not look for chunks of empty time in his schedule. He took advantage of the moments, sometimes seconds here and there. He said, I would write down lots and lots of vocabulary words, and I would put them in this pocket right here. And then I stopped at a traffic light, it's read for 30 seconds, I pull up the note cards, and I memorize the word. I'm in the elevator. It's just a 15 second ride, I pull out the note card, I memorize some words, I'm waiting at the doctor's office, a company puts me on hold on the phone. Any second he got he pulled

out his notes, and in one month completely learned a different note or a new language him and language that was strange or foreign to him in just two months, because he took advantage of these short moments. And he did not look for chunks of free time in his schedule. And the truth is, none of us have chunks of free time in our schedule.

So the idea is then to take advantage of these moments. How much of the Quran could we memorize in the time that we spend looking at videos or just the little last moments here and there. These moments add up to hours per week, and 10s of hours per month. So if we can just become conscious of where our time is going, and then take advantage of that we could finish so much of the hold on despite busy schedules. And when people want to do something, they always find a way to do it. There is someone who is alive and well in our day and age and he works and he has children and he goes to work full time and spends time with his children. But he reads 24 hours of the Quran per day. When

you want to make time for something you find a way.

So the idea is just for 8% of this year. We want to make time for Allah subhanaw taala make time for the book of Allah azza wa jal

even those who work Monday to Friday, you can show Allah azza wa jal what you can do in the weekends and there is no excuse in the weekends but someone can put great effort. So as if to say yeah, Allah, I couldn't do this during the weekdays because I'm working but now that I'm

Free, I have nothing but to devote my time and to my worship to you.

Look at how others would worship Allah subhanaw taala outside of Ramadan, let alone in the month of Ramadan. For the for the llama companion. He says I prayed one night with the Prophet sallallahu wasallam so he started sooner than Baccarat. So I thought to myself, he'll stop at verse 100. But then he passed verse 100. So I thought to myself, he's probably going to pray this first Raka with all of Al Baqarah and then make record but then he finished Al Baqarah and started suicide Nisa then finished all of your tennis up then started Emraan. So and then he went into record, and then they follow the law and he said the record was just about as long as the camera then image to Jude which

was just about as long as the record. So about seven years, the profits and loss lm finished in one Raka and if not abus also had an erosion of something similar description of the Prophet alum and his night prayer.

from other generations, we find Eben hormoz. And who was this great man Rahim Allah Eman Malik Rahim Allah This was one of his teachers. And just so you can get a sense of the level of worship of this man, Mr. Malik said couldn t ignore most for under LA for a woman. He said I would come to abnormals and just look at him. And that would be a reminder for me for days. His Eman will increase for days just by looking at him not even speaking to him or listening to him. So even Malik mentioned in the mode that abnormal said Colonel choreo Jaco bill me in

the car the Imam would recite in the hundreds. And that's how many would recite in each Raka also in what Mr. Malik another said that we would finish Al Baqarah in a truck out so they would pray 23 rock art in the first eight they prayed all of it Bukhara sometimes that the Imam would finish Al Baqarah in 12 rock art and the people would feel that he shortened the Salah. That means every rock I was half the Jews of the of the Quran. Another by the name of holiday boo Dora Rahim Allah. He said we had an Imam in the city of El Basra. And he would finish the entire Quran every three nights. I think we struggle the whole month, and we barely finished half of the most half. They

would finish it in three nights. So we're going study like this every three nights they finished, the Muslim said then that Imam got sick. And we got a new Imam. And he would finish the thought the most the most half every four nights. But the ideas, how did the people react? They said so the people were irritated and they felt that he rushed the Salah, because now he's finishing the homeless half in four nights instead of three. They felt that he rushed the salaat

fast forward now to our times. We've all seen the videos, we've seen the videos of the quick Salawat in the news, when a man boasted they can finish the whole Torah way in 12 minutes. La La Quinta takuan in 12 minutes, or we've seen other videos, other parts and we don't want to mention names. But

we personally know someone. This man tells me, I went I was visiting people had a thought with them. And then I went and prayed Tara and Emma sit near their home. This is in the Muslim lots.

He said well after the Salah, I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry. He said the first Raka the mom said well of Berlin everyone said I mean, the mom said noon Allahu Akbar. And then the second worker will call me Mama is Tarun Allahu Akbar. And then he says, I have never seen a congregation leave a Masjid with bigger smiles, praising the Imam and his achema for understanding that people are busy. Now look into

what kind of taqwa what kind of training comes from this, this type of Salah.

There's so many amazing examples from the from the righteous before us. But from these examples, we don't mean that

someone should take on more than what they can bear. One of the scholars get very wise advice. He says when the month starts, start with start with something moderate, don't start heavy, because what happens, people don't know what they can bear. So someone starts and he wants to do three years every night. So he's got energy the first night, second night and then after that, he starts to slow down and that's why you start to see people left in the middle of Ramadan, the numbers start dropping even in taraweeh. And towards the end, the numbers start dropping again, because they did more than what they can base it, find out what you can handle. And then if you can increase it,

increase it but don't start like a champion and only continues for four or five days.

The good news for us how can we match these people who had prayed these long prayers, we can match them. Because of a simple Hadith in which the Navy saw Selim said, Man, karma and Imam had

kuchibhotla haupia Medina, that's it. Whoever stands with the Imam until he leaves, he will have the reward of a full night in prayer written for him. So that's all you have to do. You don't have to do the hundreds of you don't have to finish the Quran in three nights. Just come. Wherever your local Masjid is. Come on time. Pray with your Imam until the end, don't leave before winter and finish winter at home, then you miss out on the edge of the scholar said, just stand there. And look how short Ursula is. Just stand with the Imam until it's done. And then go home. And in sha Allah Allah azza wa jal will write the full reward of praying the full night in prayer for you. That's all you

have to do. And that's from the mercy of Allah subhanho wa Taala. The idea of brothers and sisters is that we push ourselves to do our best in the month of Ramadan. And one of the most amazing stories of that is one of the early Muslims. He was praying the night prayer. And then he sat down between the rocket and his feet were hurting him. And he had a stick in his hand so he hit his feet. And he said, do the companions of the Prophet sallallahu Sallam think they will surpass us by far, Keller will law he learned as a human normally, he's saying I understand there's a huge gap between me and the companions, but I'm gonna push myself to make that gap smaller, even if it's a little bit

smaller. So his feet were hurting, but he ended so he's physically unable but he wanted to keep going and he encouraged himself to keep going. That's really what we're trying to do during this month. We want to keep pushing ourselves, despite our work schedules, despite fatigue, the push ourselves and show Allah subhanaw taala our devotion of cola cola was tough Roland alima welcome and Jamie I know first off through fire hose and Mr. Green. ask Allah subhanaw taala first forgiveness, surely those who ask for his forgiveness shall prosper.

hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa salatu salam ala rasulillah. Meanwhile, he was a big mind about

one one thing I would like to remind is that

we want our families to feel the atmosphere in Ramadan, not just in the masjid, but also in our homes. And so the responsibilities of parents are to bring the entire family close to Allah subhanaw taala. One of the most amazing and bewildering things you'll ever see, in the month of Ramadan is a man who prays the entire month in Torah with and he might even be in the front row, and crying and reacting to the verses of the Quran. But his son spends the entire month in the back of the masjid fooling around disturbing people and hurting others. And not once does he make him pray next to him. And it's like, it's like the epitome of selfishness where this man standing and crying and

worshiping and isn't bothered, doesn't care what his son is up to what his son is doing. Or the other side of that, where the wife is cooking, because her Grotto, he has to have a gourmet and a table spread with food and variety.

So she spends all day cooking, and then she's too fatigued to go to Salah at the end. And that's why one of the things that is happening this year we're bringing back this year at click is that there's going to be full install, so that instead of our mothers and our wives spending all day cooking for the family, they can spend their time in the worship of Allah subhanaw taala and come to the masjid energize, to worship, not to sit and gossip and fight with other women but to energize so they can worship Allah subhanaw taala

the point of this hookah brothers and sisters, let Allah azza wa jal see effort from you during this month. That's the entire point. Allah subhanaw taala loves for us to strive to get close to him and Allah as he loves to see his servant working and struggling and putting effort to come near him. And if we think about why is fudger before sunrise, and why wouldn't it be 10am you wake up and prayed by massage. Why is it so early? Because a lot of really wants to see you struggle against fatigue and sleepiness and get up and put effort. Why did Allah allow a police to live so long until towards the end of the near the day of judgment? Yeah, what a large region. Let a blessed lives such a long

life because he is going to create that capitalist there is going to be the one that we have to struggle against. So I'm

Loves You loves to see effort from his servants. So the point of this hookah let Allah xuejun see effort on your part in this month.

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