The Ramadan Racetrack

My brothers and sisters with Ramadan upon the horizon and we ask Allah to deliver us to it. Allah Tabata, Kavita Allah says in surah that hadith is beautiful either not Filati Mirabai como Jana tiene are Doha cowardly sama you will. Alright that's the Lavina M and OB la he also they compete with one another

towards the forgiveness of your Lord and towards his blissful paradise

that which is wider than the skies and the earth and has been promised and prepared to those who believe in Allah and His messengers.

This is Allah's declaration to us all to compete, and the month of Ramadan is the heightened leg of that race.

Because the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said to us whomever fast the month of Ramadan, Eman and YT SAP and with faith and expecting from Allah hoping and Allah azza wa jal will be forgiven for their sins. And whoever stands the nights of Ramadan, Eman and mighty Serban. In faith and hopeful of their award, they will be forgiven for their sins. And so everyone goes in and should be going in with this aspiration in mind to race as best I can because the forgiveness of Allah and His paradise is more within reach for every competitor than any other time of the year. However, that's how we will all start.

But then people get subdivided into different categories in the race track, that is Ramadan, you may start finding people on the racetrack slowly making their way to the sidelines, sitting on the sidewalks, taking a break or quitting altogether, or perhaps getting tripped up and stumbling into a ditch for a long period of time.

Those ditches are various kinds, sometimes you will look in one ditch and you will find the person hugging onto their smartphone with the battery drain. And actually the phone had drained him more than he drained the phone.

Just the addiction and cycling from one application to another or one video to another. By the way, even Islamic video sometimes can be deceitful in the sense that it allows you to think you're doing because you're passively just listening to someone else. As opposed to you actively engaging in pursuit of the Promise of Allah and His forgiveness.

Or maybe others the ditch they fell into was

too much if thought.

And then obviously too much sweets after the thought. And so it would cost them the first stockpile of Russia or maybe all of Asia or more more of that from their night will be stolen pulled out from under them one night gun

of treasures. Or maybe someone will fall into the ditch of straining relationships and argumentation in this month of peace and serenity and sincerity. Or maybe a fourth ditch a person could get caught off guard and stumble into is the ditch of starting too strong too fast without preparation, right? They think it's a sprint and not a marathon. And so they pull a muscle if you will. And they they fall aside and they say I guess I'm just going to have to recover. And maybe the 27th night I'll be back.

Why does this happen? Because people jump right in without plan without preparation. So how to avoid in the racetrack of the marathon of Ramadan. These pitfalls, these ditches one of my teacher says you know when you're entering a race, especially a high profile race in a stadium somewhere you got to go through the locker room first, you got to pass through the tunnel and there's a reason for this you got to gear up you know if someone's swimming or someone's running or other you got to wear the right gear. less friction help you you know maximise on this competition you have likewise there is something you have to dress yourself in. As you enter this race. The most important thing to

prepare for Ramadan now in the final hour is to

remind yourself reactivate within yourself, the love and the longing for Allah subhanho wa taala.

This is by getting to know His names and his attributes. A person will not be able to resist loving Allah as they learn and relearn about him.

His beautiful names, his wonderful attributes this

is the greatest gateway to tasting, experiencing the sweetness of faith which lightens your burdens, it drives you it carries you.

And then also deepening deepening your recognition of the favours of Allah subhanho wa taala.

And not the least of which is the fact that he brought you another Ramadan.

He made you Muslim, and made you live to this month because he wants to see you in Jannah. And the only thing left is to capitalize in gratitude for that gift. But the gratitude in general, and to be extra practical, if you haven't done so already in these last 48 or 72 hours, go online. You know, Yaqeen Institute, for example, has an author of Allah series where it helps us learn and reflect on the Beautiful Names of Allah, read them, download them. It has a gratitude journal that is sort of Islamically designed, if you've never done this before, and you want a little bit of a of a crutch on how to work through really appreciating the priceless favours of Allah in your life. Go look

these up after the hotbar today. So that's how you gear up to enter the race, the love of Allah and the longing for him through getting to know him and through deepening your gratitude of him subhanho wa taala.

And then as you're proceeding to the racetrack, one of my teachers used to say, you have to be sure not to overlook the stand on the side, there's like a stand, a canteen, a pharmacy, where you need to pick up supplements, you need to pick up the nutrients and the supplements to put them in your bag, because you're going to need them throughout the race continuously, you're going to need to fuel up from them. The first of them is sincerity, Allah class, to be truthful with Allah azza wa jal that you are doing this for Allah's pleasure. Obviously, you know, Muslims, within a Muslim community, if everyone's fasting, you're not showing off that you're fasting because that doesn't

give you an edge everyone's fasting. But you may though, be doing this just for the feel good of doing good meaning just to please yourself, not necessarily to please Allah subhanho wa taala. And there is a careful point here, that a person must give their attention to that serving Allah pleases you, but it cannot be your ultimate objective from serving Allah is to please him.

He doesn't owe us anything, even if we serve Him because we can never repay the blessings to begin with. Right? And so Allah gave us our existence, and we can never ever compensate him for that.

And therefore, I am serving Him because that's his right even if he didn't ask for it. So how about when he asked for it for my own good, he asked for it. So that is the intention that is so here to single Allah out in our intentions as well. I'm doing this to please Him. And I call our attention to this because many times we can fall into the trap the misunderstanding of dealing with Allah azza wa jal in a very transactional way. Meaning

I see my worship as some worthy currency to be immediately cashed. As if I was a biller, we treat Allah as they're going to some banker, and my ADA is a check, and it should be immediately cashed out. I've done this and that and the third Why didn't Allah do this for me? Why did it Allah do that for me? Right? And so sincerity is what will assist you to best serve and Ramadan that I'm doing this for his pleasure, even if I may not be immediately pleasured by this.

And Allah azza wa jal said that his help will come in proportionate to your sincerity fellow sada hola hola can afire en la home? Had they been true to Allah, it would have been better for them. You know what this verse came down about, about the people that initially started following the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, then they couldn't find the results to continue the stamina to continue. He said had they been more truthful, honest with God, he would have given them the determination to be able to continue in the marathon of life. Right? So in the shorter marathon of Ramadan, keep this in mind. Sincerity with Allah and have the greatest means to sincerity is to

figure out some good deeds identify them to hide them from the world, if possible, even the closest people to you. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam told us this he said minister for I mean kumin Yeah, Khun Ella who Hubie goon mean aniline Saleh and familia file, whoever of you is able to secure a hidden stash of good deeds, some Quran, some charity, something right that nobody knows about, then they must do so. The stakes are too high.

This is your plan B or sort of you're getting the wheels turning also on your sincerity. The second of the supplements you're gonna have to take keep taking doses of even if it's a sour dose is the sour dose of patients Sabra inositol. Sub Rosa, they often say that triumph winning anything is the only possible as a result of a moment's patience is holding on just for another minute, just another minute. Do we think that the people who pray on light or pray much of the night in Ramadan or pray consistently at night in Ramadan, and then all of the night by the end of Ramadan, the way the Prophet alayhi salatu salam did? Do we think they don't get tired, they get tired like we get tired.

The difference is that some of us are patient through the fatigue and the tiredness and some of us are not willing to be patient. That's the only difference.

If you want to rest, you have to first give up for us. May Allah azza wa jal make Jana our rest and our comfort for eternity.

The Arab used to famously say mandala but Siyad. Tara, can we said that if you want Siyad, you want to be an elite competitor, if you will, an elite winner. See that? Like say it? You have to first give up though we said that you're gonna have to first give up the pillow. They don't come together there has to be some exchange.

And so, you know and patients here let me say brothers and sisters have the utmost importance is to realize that it's not just to a patient upon doing what I'm not in the habit of doing No. A more important patience is being patient upon staying away from the things that I've been prohibited from doing.

Sad and delighted to study Rahim Allah used to say,

America will be re Emanuel Hakuna Varina fetcher. Well, I urge you to enable more haramaty enlasa do good deeds, good people and bad people all commit good deeds all perform good deeds. Everybody does that. Everyone wants to feel good of doing good, it's normal. They're just everyone's in identify something they deem good to do.

But staying away from the bad deeds staying away from what Allah forbid, this is what a true confirmer of truth does. Only those that have certainty opinion, Allah are able to avoid violating Allah's boundaries. So the things you're not going to do this Ramadan are generally speaking more important than the things you're going to do this Ramadan.

But it doesn't just stop there. If you really want to be patient upon higher levels, whatever that means higher levels than you were at last Ramadan, you're going to have to be patient upon the planning process, the preparation process, for instance, someone can go through the same cycle, not knowing why I'm just sleeping every single night. I'm gonna say I'm gonna power through but I'm sleeping this night, I'm sleeping, he doesn't stop to say, Why am I sleeping? It's because I over ate. Right? Sleeping is doesn't just happen to everyone equally. Maybe I'm eating so much that instead of the food giving me energy, it's actually weighing me down and depleting me of energy.

So to resist the urge, resist the temptation. Right? So that is the patient the sour dose of patience. The third of them very quickly, is they said Zhu.

Zhu means this interest in this world. And of course, when we say this interest in this world, we don't mean that Islam like promotes, like unemployment, or like Islam. You know, glamorizes poverty, that is not the idea. The idea is that we are captives of this world, and not able to see the very shallow returns that this world has. And so we want to give ourselves some pause to snap out of that.

Like everywhere around us. You may hear someone on the racetrack saying, Yes. You said yes. What that sounded like, good, right. I finally made it and you turn right, they made it. But no one they didn't make anything. If you were to stop, you may realize and how powerful and inspiring is this realization, you may realize that you know what?

It is very possible that most of my life is over. I will not live as long as I've lived.

And you know what? There is probably pretty sure there is nothing left of the enjoyment of this life

that I haven't come across. There really is no sort of award. There is no restaurant, there is no car. that's any different than the ones I've already tried. They're actually not that different.

And that'll give you the power to break the cycle.

And to realize that men this world doesn't deserve all the attention perhaps I'm giving it maybe I should pursue a better world that suits me better. A world that could be very close as the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, Paradise is closer to one of you than your shoe strap. And the fire is as well. Meaning you put on your shoe and you strap that Velcro or that tie that rope that lace, and one day someone else can untie it. That's it. They're going to remove you for the remove that for the shrouds.

And the fourth and final one of the supplements I will mention too, if you are able to prepare a dose throughout Ramadan of the biographies of the early Muslims, just snapshots look for them. Of course the greatest of them is our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, why are you praying Yara Salah until your feet swell. When Allah has forgiven you for your past and future sins, He will say shouldn't I then be a grateful servant, or his companion that will Musa shatta yet of the Allahu Anh, when they're telling him you've grown so old, you've been working so hard, slow down and look at how much weight you've lost. That's what they told him. He used to say to them,

the lightest horses run the fastest. And he would say to them, doesn't the horse push everything it has left out of it when it reaches the finish line.

And you know, I mentioned to a genetic Mohamed before I sit down with him a whole lot. In the very last moments of his life. They said to Him enough like you just he was ignoring everyone visiting him. He's not talking to anybody. He's just reciting the Quran reciting the Quran. They said to him even now even now you're still reciting Quran

he said I need it now more than ever.

My Scroll of deeds is closing right now. My book is about to get finalized about to get published and handed it to me in the hereafter. I need it now more than ever, and he went back to ignoring them and completed yet another hutzpah, a full read of the Quran and then restarted immediately and he got a few dozen verses into total Bukhara and then his soul returned to its maker Subhana Allah Dawn of holy holy how they'll start from Allah all the money welcome.

Al hamdu Lillahi wa salatu salam ala Milena Viva La ilaha illallah or the hola Sharika who are shadow and Mohammed and Abu whenever you who are pseudo.

This same as your native name Muhammad Rahim Allah once saw a man not taking life seriously.

And so he said to him, don't you have it in you to be at least equivalent to a cat? He said a cat when it chases a mouse into a hole. It doesn't blink. It stays on top of the whole awaiting alert for its Lachman, its bite. He said, can't you harness some focus not for a lokmat Not for a cheap bite, not for a dirty rat, right. But for a Jana for a paradise. May Allah grant us all that focus that delivers us to his pleasure and his forgiveness. The last thing I want to say brothers and sisters very quickly. Don't be discouraged.

Don't be deflated by any limitation this Ramadan that is outside of your hands. The one who kept that opportunity from you will not keep the reward from you. Don't be confused by you know, quantity over quality. If you have a certain obligation in your life, like taking care of your children at home, or a certain you know constraint a true constraint that you have because you are conscientious in your job or otherwise, then know that Allah always rewards more for the obligations than he does for whatever is mandatory. And aside from the universal obligation that we all have every day to renew our repentance, our tilbyr and the fundamental obligation of Ramadan fasting, everything else

is technically voluntary.

If it's available to you know that Allah Allah has given you what he hasn't given others, but if it's not available to you know that Allah has still given you the opportunity for that to reward by fulfilling your obligations. If you have children, especially our sisters, we always get the question every year. You know what hamdulillah we're blessed we have a community that maybe we can arrange some sort of, you know, dynamic between parents that have similar aged kids, the Masjid itself and hamdulillah provides child care every night of Ramadan. And so try to do what you can and know that you are receiving your award in full for what you cannot. May Allah allow us to see

Ramadan and allow us to find out that we were forgiven this Ramadan? May Allah free us and our loved ones from what would bring us closer to his fire and guarantee for us and write our names in the heavens this year among the people of

Paradise