Khalid Latif – Your 10 Days of Dhul Hijjah
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AI: Transcript ©
In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the
Merciful,
all praise is due to Allah, the lord
of the universe, the master of the day
of judgment.
I bear witness and testimony to the oneness
of
Allah, to his magnificence, his omnipotence, his might,
his glory,
to his being the creator and sustainer of
all things,
the giver of life,
the guider of hearts,
the master of the day of judgment.
And I bear witness to the fact that
Muhammad ibn Abdallah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is his servant and final
messenger.
And the peace and blessings of Allah be
upon him and upon all those who choose
to tread in his path until the last
day.
It is said
that Ibrahim alayhi wasalam
was commanded to take his son Ishmael and
his wife Hajar into the deserts.
That the prophet Ibrahim alaihis salaam, a man
who epitomized for us the concept of tawakkal
upon Allah
a man who embodied this idea that all
he needed was God alone in his life.
This individual was told that you have to
take your wife and your infant child into
the desert and leave them there in with
nothing but some dates and water.
And along the way, he is being questioned
over and over that what is the purpose
behind this? Why are you doing this to
us? What is the reason for this action?
Until Hajar alaihi salaam says to her husband
that as Allah
commanded you with this, Allahu
amrakabehada. And when he says, yes, that is
sufficient for her.
And she is left there now under the
blazing heat of the Arabian sun with nothing
but some dates and water, and soon these
provisions, they leave as well. And this child,
Ishmael,
he cries out just like any infant would
cry out when they're in need of some
sustenance.
And this woman being a mother, like any
mother who would respond to the cries of
her child, she begins to run everywhere she
can to find something to give to her
baby.
She ascends to the summits of the hills
of Safa and Marwa looking as far as
she can to see if there is something
there in that barren land that perhaps could
help silence the tears of this child.
And while she is doing so, it is
said that at the blessed feet of Ishmael
alaihi salaam where he is kicking the angel,
Jibrael, peace be upon him, comes and he
strikes the ground.
And from where his feet are kicking from
there, the wells of Zamzam, they spring forth,
and the water it begins to come about.
And the Prophet
he says that, May
Allah have mercy upon this woman Hagar,
that has she not sought to contain that
water when it was coming forth, the entire
land would have been covered by it.
And the water now, it begins to attract
life to it.
The birds, they begin to come into the
middle of the deserts and there is a
tribe that is known as the Jurham tribe
that sees these birds flying into the deserts,
and they are astonished as to why they
are going where there is
nothing. And so they send their own emissaries
to see what is the purpose behind these
birds going into the middle of this barren
land. And to their
they find this large body of water, this
infant child and this woman.
And they say to her that will we
be allowed to sit? Will we be allowed
to situate ourselves
along this water? Will you let us live
here?
And she says, Yes, you can. But I
am in possession of this water. I am
the owner of it.
And these jurham, they sit now, they settle
around this water, the water is attracting life
to it, the people, they begin to come
and settle on that land, and this is
where we see the establishment of the city
of Mecca.
That from that one day, you see that
people start to come to it. And over
the centuries now, millions and millions of individuals
have gone to that blessed place. Even now,
there's people getting ready from all over the
world who are going to make a pilgrimage
to that land to embody the actions and
the rights of those people on those days
to embody the fact that truly they want
to develop a relationship with their creator.
And we see that habitually around this time
of the year, as we enter into the
month of Dhul Hijjah, the month of Hajj,
the khatebs, they begin to speak about this
journey.
They speak about how truly majestic it is,
they speak about truly how awesome it is.
They speak about what an amazing experience it
is and why we should do it.
But in reality, we are not individuals who
just days away from this blessed days of
Hajj that we can say, now I will
make a determination for myself that I will
go. That in reality, it's
a
I and that encouragement that would allow for
us to make a decision that would say,
I will leave everything behind so that I
can go and do this thing because I
know there is good in it for me
and there is good in it for the
people around me,
then I will go on this journey and
I will go and see this place where
people are not held down based off of
any socially constructed differences
that we seek to adhere and abide by,
but we see a commonality that ethnicities
and all ethnicities and all cultures come together
on a commonality
that says that they most assuredly should be
there as one.
But we waited for it,
and so perhaps inshallah, maybe next year Allah
will give us the tawfiq to go because
we did not decide that this was a
time for us to be there.
But it doesn't mean that still we cannot
take advantage of the days, perhaps not in
the same way as the hujaj, but there
is still benefit for us if we decide
to take advantage of it.
That this thing of the Hajj, it takes
place in a specific time in the calendar
year, in the month of Dhul Hijjah, and
the 10 days that are in the initial
days of this month of Dhul Hijjah. There
is something that all of us can benefit
from regardless of whether we are sitting in
Makkatul Muqarumah, Madinatul Munawara, or we are sitting
in New York City.
We don't have to be people who have
done the ehram and people who have gone
to that place to say that we will
take advantage of this month.
That Allah
in Surat Al Fazr, he takes oath by
the days, the first 10 days of this
blessed month when he says
that by the dawn and by those 10
days, and he is elevating them and sanctifying
them as he does when he takes oath
by any of his creation in that most
beautiful text.
And we have to recognize his worth because
even if we are not there, we are
here and we can still capitalize upon the
days that are in front of us.
That the prophet salallahu
he says that actions that are taking place
in these days,
meaning the days, the first 10 days of
Dhul Hijjah, they are more beloved to Allah
than actions on any other days.
And the Sahabi say that, You Rasulullah,
even struggling in the path of Allah,
even doing that?
And the Prophet
he says that, yes, even doing that,
except if you were an individual who struggled
in such a way that you took your
entire being and you took all of your
possessions and you went out with them and
you returned with none of it,
that you understood that your life wasn't one
that was egocentric, but it was one that
functioned off of a principle that took into
consideration the peoples who were around you and
you had a focus on God in such
a way that it was never about you,
but it was always about everyone.
A single exception but many of us are
not there and so the days are better
than anything else for all of us.
That they are even put into comparison of
they are even put into comparison of the
last 10 nights of the month of Ramadan
where some of our scholars say that these
10 days are even better than those
10 days. And it's within our hand to
take advantage of them.
The deeds that we can undertake,
actions that we can undertake, the performance of
doing good on those days are things that
we have to think about on an individual
basis and it is there for our own
benefit.
Then many of us get into a realm,
into a frame of mind where we don't
know how to proceed.
We want to do something with ourselves. We
want to act upon certain things. We want
to be able to say that I will
connect with my religious identity, but I don't
have a starting point.
And it becomes so relative because my strengths
and my weaknesses become unique in comparison to
your strengths and your weaknesses. So your ability
to in comparison to your strengths and your
weaknesses, so your ability to engage on certain
activity perhaps is not gonna resonate within me
the same way.
Maybe you get something different out of praying
the prayers that you pray.
Maybe you get something different out of reading
from the mushaf. Maybe you get something different
out of fasting on certain days. But here
there is no relativity to the idea of
whether or not there is goodness on performing
something in this time because it is not
you or me who subjectively is
is saying that these days are better than
other days, and Allah
Allah is being the individual, he is being
the entity that sets the precedent for us
by taking oath by them and showcasing and
highlighting to us their worth.
And any of us can take advantage of
them.
I don't have to be the person who
is delivering the khutbah, I don't have to
be the one who is teaching the class.
I don't have to be the one who
stands in front of 1,000 and 1,000 who
looks certain way, who dresses a certain way,
who speaks or acts a certain way. It's
made tangible for me regardless of where I'm
coming from. The only thing that keeps it
from me is whether or not I will
take advantage of it.
And so what keeps me from doing so
is me myself.
The prophet salallahu ta'ala alaihi wa sallam, he
would fast in these days of Dhul Hijjah.
That the only day out of of those
first 10 days where it would be told
to us that we shouldn't be fasting is
on the 10th day itself, which is the
day of Eid for us, and we are
taught that it is prohibited for us to
fast on that day.
But in those 1st 9 days, the beloved
of Allah alaihi salaam most assuredly he was
one who was going without food or drink
during the course of the day. He was
somebody who abandoned from these things so that
he could get more connected to everything that
was given to him and in turn see
where he could be of a benefit to
the people around him.
The fast that we do in the month
of Ramadan that is meant to give us
a consciousness not only of our own experiences,
but give us a certain relation to the
experience of those who are around us who
perhaps don't have the same benefit and blessing
we
1st
9 days, most assuredly on the 9th day
of
on those 1st 9 days, most assuredly on
the 9th day of Dhul Hijjah, the day
that we know was the day of Arafah,
explicitly it is mentioned to us in our
tradition that that is the day that we
should be fasting.
The fasting on that day becomes an expiation
for the year that came before and the
year that comes after it. The prophet salallahu
alaihi wa sallam most assuredly told us that
we should fast on that day.
And the day itself is a day that
is so sanctified.
It is a day that is so dignified
It is the day that in another hadith,
the beloved of Allah alayhi salaam says that
supplication on that day, they are from amongst
the best of
supplications. That it is something that we are
encouraged to do, it is something that we
should strive to do, we shouldn't leave it
behind.
But the day of Arafat is a day
that is about you understanding
your individual
strengths and weaknesses
so that on that day you are not
only
for yourself, you're asking for everyone else around
you.
You are asking for those who are in
need. You are asking for those who have
a deep desire for you to be something
for their sake that perhaps your utterance of
some sincere prayer would alleviate the hardship and
the strife that they face on a daily
basis.
When the Hujaz go and stand on the
day of Arafah, it is truly an amazing
experience.
Millions of people donning white garb from all
over the world standing on an open plain
in the plain of Arafah,
most definitely is probably the most analogous situation
for
us to that day of judgment, that day
of accountment.
Everybody's just standing, making their stance, finding their
place to stand and beseeching Allah Azul
of their most innermost desires and their innermost
secret wishes because there are no secrets from
him.
And they stand and they pray and they
ask,
and they hope that it is something that
they are given.
And you and I, we might not be
there,
but it doesn't mean we just sit around
here and do nothing.
Because the day of Arafah is for us
as much as it is for those who
are there.
And you have the opportunity to take advantage
of the night that precedes it, as well
as the night that comes immediately
after that day.
That the Prophet salallahu alayhi
wa sallam, he would stand in nights
consistently.
But especially in these nights of Dhul Hijjah,
those first 10 nights, he would make a
point to stand as well,
asking of Allah
in that portion of the night when everyone
else is gone to be with those who
they love, the beloved of Allah alaihi salaam,
he went to stand with his most beloved
standing where his feet were swelling in such
ways and tears were dropping from his eyes,
not asking of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for
his own sake, but for the sake of
the people around him.
Our understanding is that this man was somebody
who was Masoom, he was somebody who was
innocent, he was someone who was forgiven. He
does not need to ask of himself, why
is he doing this to himself?
And so his engagement in certain ritualistic
worship is not meant for his own self
benefit, but he knows that he has the
ability to alleviate the hardship of those who
are around him by just standing and asking
of Allah
to make things easier for their sake.
And we also have this opportunity to do
this,
that we can spend these days of going
out and engaging the society and being a
resource and something of to them, not thinking
about what we will lose in the in
the process of acting in a certain way,
but thinking about what someone else might gain
if we were to give up a little
of ourselves. And most assuredly, we can spend
those nights reinforcing all of the actions that
we had undertaken in the daylight hours by
asking of Allah to accept from us and
accept from all of us.
When we stand in the nights, it doesn't
have to be just about ourselves.
We can stand and ask for those people
who perhaps we have never had the fortune
of meeting, we have never had the blessing
of meeting, but we understand and we sympathize
with their experiences, and we know that we
would show that we have appreciation
for everything that we have been given so
that we won't be belittling
what they don't have.
Right now in this world, we have people
who have been submerged by water for months
of their
There are still people who are coming from
lands that you and I come from where
we trace our histories to. And even if
we don't come from those lands, there are
people who are in need of our help,
of our support, and we have become completely
indifferent to their experiences.
How is it that a third of an
entire country has been submerged by floods and
water and all of us are not rushing
day in and day out to help them
in their situation?
How is it that we live in a
city where people are not privileged in the
way that most of us are privileged, but
we are not in tune with their experiences?
We are not spending a portion of our
week, of our hours
dedicating in service to alleviate their pains and
their trials.
What hesitates our hand from giving when it
is most apparent in our tradition that the
man whose legacy that we claim to follow
was one who not gave only of his
possessions, but he gave himself to the best
of his ability.
And in these 10 days of Dhulhijja,
think about it.
Think about what it is that you actually
do.
Think about what it is that you do
for somebody else.
Think about how you have engaged the people
who are around you, what it is that
you give of everything that you have been
given so that perhaps somebody who was not
given that thing could benefit from you and
what you have.
And stand in those nights and ask of
Allah
to make things easy for all of us.
You might not see the young girl who
is sitting in her home trying to understand
why it has crumbled to the ground.
You might not understand that young child who
is dying of an illness that you and
I wouldn't even ever have to worry about
because when we are kids, these are medicines
that are just given to us without us
really having any issue in obtaining them.
We can't begin to fathom or imagine what
it must feel like for us to be
individuals who have to walk miles to a
well from which we would have to struggle
to pour water out of a bucket. And
when we were taking it into our bodies,
the actual consumption of it was doing more
damage than any good.
We don't have to think about
these things. And then many of us also
don't get motivated to go for Hajj.
But there are people who have these experiences.
There are people who go through these things.
There are people who have not been given
as much as you and I have been
given.
And we have to remember them in those
times and in those days.
The Prophet
he was a unique individual who gave of
himself whenever he had the opportunity
to do so.
In these months, in these days of Dhul
Hijjah, he made it a point to engage
in individual ibadah, in individual worship,
ritualistic
practice where he was remembering Allah
where he was reciting from the Quran, where
he was praying his prayers, not just what
was obligatory upon him, but standing in that
which was
that which he was just doing because he
wanted to do it extra.
He gave a lot in charity. He fasted
on those days. He engaged in these kind
of things because there were days that were
auspicious.
And even if we don't do it in
the rest of the year, don't let these
days pass without you doing it.
Take advantage of the fact that if this
is the first time that you're gonna do
it, make it with the intention that you
make it something that you keep doing beyond
that first time that you have done it.
And even if you do it only this
one time and you struggle doing it beyond
it, do it to the best of your
ability.
But don't waste the opportunity. Don't waste the
time.
Don't say that I'm gonna wait for Ramadan
to come. That is the point in which
I will be someone who is rejuvenated
emotionally, physically, and spiritually.
Because there's other times of the year that
Allah has given to us by which we
could be better than we can even imagine
if we sought to take advantage of them.
And these 10 days are the days that
have been told to us are the best
of days.
And within them, we find that day that
is most
sanctified in our tradition, that day of Arafah,
it doesn't take place at any other time.
Logically, the best form of worship to do
in these 10 days is the Hajj itself
because you can't do it at any other
point of the year.
And if we are in this place where
we are not going right now, we should
make a firm commitment that if we have
the means to go and we have the
ability, the physical health to go, then we
should go.
Because it's really not like any other experience
you can
imagine. Think about your gatherings.
Think about what it's like when people come
to your home. Think about who the people
are that you let in to your most
immediate proximity.
There are conditions. There are qualifications that you
won't just let anyone come and sit at
your table. You won't let anyone come and
sit at your house.
But our paradigm is in sharp contrast to
the paradigm of the divine.
Because Allah
he lets the best of creation
into that house, but he also lets the
most wretched and the worst of creation into
that house, and it takes nothing away from
his majesty.
And nobody
ever questions it.
And if you don't see it, and if
you don't experience it,
and the only reason that you're not letting
yourself do so is because you feel you
don't have to or you'll just wait till
later on, then you are kidding yourself.
Because you don't know if you're gonna make
it to the next on.
You don't know if you're gonna have when
you're 40 or 50 or you're 60 and
that's it.
I went for the Hajj in 2,005
and when we were making the tawaf around
the Kaaba, usually the situation is that it
is very packed and everyone is very close
to one another.
And as I was walking, I saw that
there were gaps in the places where people
were making their circles. And when I got
closer to the gaps, I saw what was
actually happening,
that there were women who were adult grown,
women who they were coming from,
places in Africa and they had come not
only strapped to them where all of their
possessions
only around the Kaaba.
And as they were crawling, not only was
it them who was making that tawaf, but
they had strapped to their backs their children
as well as they were going around.
If anyone would have an excuse to not
go and make that journey, would it not
be this woman?
But what is the excuse that we make
for
ourselves? What is really the excuse that we
say that I can't go and be there?
And even if we justifiably
have an excuse that says that I won't
go there,
what is the excuse that we have that
would say that me being here and still
having access to the things that I do,
I won't observe the things that I can
really easily do.
Why won't you fast on the day of
Arafah?
What's gonna keep you from doing it?
What real reason would you have
not to? Why would you not stand
in some of those nights
to ask
ask of Allah azza wa Jal? What real
reason would you have not to?
Really when it comes down to to it,
and I know the things that I'm able
to do that will not only bring me
direct benefit, but will bring benefit to the
people around me. What is the And the
Prophet
he recommends to us that most assuredly,
we should increase
our actions and our deeds on those days.
Do things for yourself in the 1st 10
days of Dhul Hijjah.
Most assuredly do things for others in the
1st 10 days of Dhul Hijjah.
And don't let those 10 days pass thinking
that perhaps you might come upon them again
because you don't know if it's something that
will happen.
There's a story that we have told before
of a elderly man who he sees a
young boy who looks as if he is
going on a journey.
And this elderly man, as he comes upon
this young boy, he says to him that
where is it that you are going? What
is it that you are doing?
And the young boy, he says says to
you Sheikh, I am going to Allah's
house, I am going to the Kaaba, I
am going to make that pilgrimage.
And he says that you seem to be
saying something, what is this that is on
your lips?
And the young boy, he says that, Yeah,
Sheikh, I am most assuredly reciting Quran, what
else would it be that I would be
saying?
And he says that where are your provisions?
Where are your resources? You are walking with
nothing.
And he says that, You Sheikh, if I
was to go and visit anybody in their
house, would I bring my own provision?
Then why when I am going to be
with Allah, Zohjal, why would I then bring
my own provision?
And the elderly man, he says, you are
so young.
It must not be incumbent upon you to
make this journey right now. Why are you
doing it?
And he says to you Sheikh, I have
seen many who are of a younger age
than me pass away before they had the
opportunity
to make this journey.
Why then when I have the means to
do so now, would I I wait for
a time that perhaps I would never even
reach?
Don't wait.
Take advantage of what you have the opportunity
to do when it's in front of you.
Because you don't know if that opportunity will
come again.
May Allah guide
us and protect us. May He bless us
with knowledge that benefits us. May He bless
us with the tawfiq to understand and implement
that knowledge into our daily lives. And may
he guide and bless us all.