Mohammed Faqih – Ramadan Ready Maximizing the month of Shaban
AI: Summary ©
The importance of maintaining healthy relationships with others, especially believers who believe in Islam, is emphasized. Personal respect and uphold the community's values are also emphasized. Visits to practicing certain rights and maintaining healthy relationships with others are emphasized. privacy and respect for believers is emphasized, along with regular prayer and events to learn about missed opportunities and offers forgiveness to those who ask forgiveness. Regular prayer and events are emphasized as important for society to be safe and healthy environments. hiring people in communities and maintaining healthy environments are also emphasized.
AI: Summary ©
Buy Bismillah salatu salam ala Rasulillah sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam.
Tonight I wanted to discuss with you four principles Allah subhanaw taala mentions in Surah Al gerat.
Right? One of the predictors of a healthy, meaningful, productive life is if someone has healthy relations with those.
They care about family members as well as community members.
Now,
Allah and His Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
gave us instructions as to how we should maintain the bond or the relationships, this very, very special connection that we have amongst ourselves that we call brotherhood sisterhood, this community community relations that we have
and what are the sewers that address this is sort of moderate
and sort of gerat addresses it by tackling or by highlighting four very important principles. Number one,
is sort of Euro Allah subhanho wa Taala establishes
brotherhood, right, this
sense of camaraderie between the believers.
So Allah subhanho wa taala.
The scholars even call they call it an apogee Lahore Act means a bond or what.
PACT or
or
what, huh?
Okay, brotherhood, let's call it pact.
Right, a pact of brotherhood between the believers who establishes this app?
Allah subhanho wa taala. And one of the most powerful ways of stating it, Allah azza wa jal says, In Minowa, ICWA.
Enamel mommy Nona
a Whoa.
This this Style Hustle. Right. So basically, literally people translated as, right, the believers are our
only one brotherhood.
The believers are nothing except one blood brotherhood. So Allah Subhana Allah says that the bond between the believers the meaning the believers are nothing to each other except brothers or sisters.
Right?
That nothing else matters.
Amongst all the bonds and the connections that we have nothing else matters.
And this is
a Medina and verse that was revealed later.
But even the early comers to slab the early Sahaba, the Companions who accepted Islam in its earliest stages, understood this very well.
They knew this, they knew it.
As a matter of fact, it's something that is felt automatically if someone embraces Islam or Eman fully full heartedly if you embrace it fully, you will automatically naturally feel that bond and that connection. If you don't that means there is a weakness in what in your iman because that's what Allah is saying obeying and won't mean that one of the things that we need to participate in and be very proactive with is because we cannot take this relationship for granted.
There is no way that this can remain. You know
unbroken Sorry, I was I was distracted by animals like mashallah special treats. So enamel minnows, that includes all of us, not just
me.
Sorry.
Okay.
Yeah. So, so, if you cannot imagine this relationship, not to be tested not to be, you know, we can not to be there will be all kinds of things that will happen to this month. So we have to constantly engage in and be committed to do a slab. And that was the topic of my talk, but today, it's like they didn't want me
right. And the slot is to maintain,
to fix
to amend.
Right?
What just like when you when you cause
At least maintain hmm, yeah, it's just when you continuously maintain anything, any piece of equipments, right, any, you know your body, your health, there are a lot of things that need otherwise they deteriorate right with us with different factors it could actually weaken. So you have to continuously do Islam.
Right you have to do maintenance. And then the same verse where Allah Subhana Allah establishes this pact between the believers. Allah Subhana Allah says, For us salehoo been at Hawaii calm, right? Make sure that you maintain or your mend the broken ties between your brothers
is surah.
In surah, Al empfangen, Allah subhanaw taala says assoluto that Tibet Unicom right, and mend the broken ties between yourself. So so this means two things, one, you maintain the relationship between you and the rest of the believers.
You have to
that's why you have to stay in touch. You have to stay connected, you have to be part of the congregation. But a lot of people think that being part of the congregation is really just a very optional, voluntary thing. If you show up, you show up if you don't show up, it's not No, during the time of the Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam, the only people that didn't show up or what, and I don't want us to label people. That's not the point. The point here is just to understand the danger of being isolated and being fragmented. The province has Selim fought against that.
One of the primary reason there is five daily prayers and people that during the time of this habit was not even an option for people not to pray in German.
It was the exception, the norm was was people come together on a regular on a daily basis multiple times. So to come to in the province, and I'm used to say always stick to the Jamara, maintain the Jamara attach yourself to, to the gym, ah, do not drift away, do not break off from the gym, ah, which American Muslim
community, German army is community.
So being part of the community is not an optional thing, by the way,
being part of the community
is an obligation.
So, so you have to maintain it. So you have to maintain your relationship with the rest of the community, your relationship with the various individuals, as well as make sure that you know, your brothers, our community members have healthy relations between them.
Alright, principle number two, principle number three,
to respect
to respect, the honor to maintain respect and protect the honor of the believers.
Each member of the community, his or her honor has to be respected. And it has to be
maintained hillmorton moment
to know that and to uphold that.
Number four,
right?
How do we deal with news? Right? How do we deal with gossip? How do we deal with information regarding each other?
How do we how do we handle that?
There's a lot of information that goes back and forth. How do we handle that? What do we do with it? So all of these things were actually
stated in surah.
Alhaji right. And that is why I believe sort of your life is one of the essential sewers. And the study of it is extremely critical for every community. And it has to be something that is repeated every so often. It has to be on a regular basis. Okay, we really have to understand what is Allah subhanaw taala tell us, right? So for instance, sort of you out there are five prohibitions, we were forbidden from five things and sorted for you, right? Right, as a community,
we have to understand what these five things are, and also hold ourselves accountable. Right, and make sure that we we follow these principles. So so the first point was that Allah subhanaw taala establishes the Brotherhood or the bond between the believers a Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says that this relationship comes with what with certain rights and duties towards each other and inshallah to Allah, we've talked about them in the past. We need to talk about them. By the way, I don't believe that talking about these rights is something that you do just once in a blue moon or once every few years. No, it shouldn't be something that we do on a regular basis, reminding
because you have new comers, you have people accepting Islam, people need to know what their rights are as believers and what the rights of the other believers are upon them, it is something that we should be teaching our children is something that we should be enforcing is something in my opinion that we should even have written somewhere. Right? The six rights or the seven rights or whatever amount of rights, right, we take from the different that hadith, these are the 10 rights of the believer that have to be maintained, that have to be enforced, that we practice here at em I see is a home where we practice it, uphold these rights. Anyone that comes right, they have these rights
upon us.
Right. So we enforce them, we maintain them, we practice them, we encourage one another,
you know, some some of the most successful or some of the most dynamic movements, usually they have a set of principles, whether it's six principles, 710 principles, that they always repeat, every member has the memorized, they know them. Right? Everyone knows, nowadays, if you were to stop any Muslim and say what are the rights of a Muslim? They're like, what I don't know just to respect him. Okay, what else
we should be we should be we should be memorizing these a hadith called Muslim or non Muslim, the rights of a Muslim or another Muslim comes in another narration six. And then there are other rights. So these rights have to be maintained. of them. For example, just as a quick refresher, that when you see it Allah ketover, Salim Allah when you see you have to greet him, when he greets you, you have to respond. Swan.
Right?
If they if he invite you over to a walima,
right, Nova, you know, up to four times.
If he invites you to our live, you have to,
to respond, you have to accept
if he sneezes, you have to
write, pray that Allah blesses him.
Right? If he gets sick, then you have to visit him and check on him. All right.
And if he dies, then you have to
pray for him and follow his funeral procession. Right, and give him honorable burial.
And what's the number six mentioned the other Hadith.
If they seek your advice, or if they need advice from you, then you have to offer them genuine advice. You have to give them best advice.
So these are things that we have to practice and remind ourselves and say, Listen, these are the
this is the other person.
So this is something that comes with that bond. And that brotherhood. Also it means that your brotherhood, this this bond that we have between us
comes before
anything else is above any other relationship. It holds more value than any other relationship.
Let me repeat this again. It's not at odds with other relationship but what I'm saying it holds more value than
someone might say What do you mean? You're telling me my brother and Islam is closer to me than my blood? Brother? Yes.
Yes.
What my blood brother inherits No, not if he's not your brother in Islam.
Right.
Is this
so your brother in Islam?
Brother in Islam versus blood brother?
Right? Which one? Which one has more More? More? Right? Your brother in Islam?
What do you mean? Doesn't? Yeah, yeah. But it tells us if that person is Muslim, then yes, they hold higher status than someone who's done.
Because now when it comes to their Islam, they are equal. So if this person is your brother,
your blood brother, then they hold a higher status now. Now they hold the higher status, not because you were carried by the same person, not because you shared a womb not because you have the same DNA. No, none of these things. It's because that person is a believer. And then we look at what
this was illustrated in that moment in the Sierra, after the Battle of budder. Musab in Romania, who was very instrumental in the spreading Islam in Medina before the process before it became Medina before prophesy settler moved to Medina.
A year before that, when Medina was still Yathrib being called Yathrib, most of this charismatic young Bora she Companion of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam goes to Medina
and within a year the number of Muslims in Medina multiplied by so many by maybe 10 folds.
There were about 1212 Muslims first that came most of those with them. Right? There is more than 80 Muslims.
Right? This is Musa very charismatic on his list of people whom he invited to Islam are people like a sad, sad,
sad, sad, sad
about the Allahu Allah and we're talking about big, big names from the unsung
sad when we're alone is the Throne of Allah subhanaw taala shook when Sodom and Gomorrah passed away or the Allah Han, that person was invited was called to Islam by who?
Most other than me. So this must have happened. A man who used to belong to a very wealthy family in Makkah. Musa is a brand name.
Handsome, right?
Well Dressed Ha, rich, probably Allahu Anhu. They say that most ARB used to have his own perfume, his own his own designer
perfume. So much so that if he was to pass by a street you come hours later everyone would know that most are passed by this, most of us to be here because it had a very distinct custom made his own bottle, the hola that's how rich he was. Probably Allah, Allah, Allah, that most up, right gave up all of that follow the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he was abused by his mother and his family and his clan member because he chose to follow the Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam bonded with the believers, and then eventually the province of Salem sent him on the mission to be the prophesize Adams first ambassador or emissary to the people of Medina. And he was so successful,
right, Islam is spread throughout the whole city. So eventually, after the Battle of budget, most of his own brother came with the pig is a Mecca to fight Allah and His messenger and to fight the believers.
To kill them, basically, they came attacking. So Allah Subhana Allah gives the believers victory. Most of his brother was captured by a man from the unsought from the people of Medina.
Now the answer he doesn't know who this guy is. He's, you know,
most of our passes by him, he finds him, he passes by him, he finds that his brother is taken as a prisoner by who? A man from unsought from a different tribe from Medina.
So he says to him, my brother, he says, hold tight to him.
He said, hold on to him. You got a very you got a prize right there he said for in the Ummah who there to matar. He said his mother is very wealthy.
That's that's a good opportunity. Which means that
you're gonna you're gonna get top top money for for him as a ransom.
His brother was shocked. He's like, I'm your brother.
You tell this totally stranger. He said Musab looks at him. He says who came in doing it? He said no, he is my brother, not you. He's my brother.
He's my brother. Now you work him in doing it.
You came to kill us.
You came to kill the prophets of Allah. They said
you came to find us.
Right there. We're embedded whether it's closer to Medina than it is to Mecca. You didn't come all the way from Makkah here. You know on vacation, or a peaceful mission.
You didn't get you know, you came here to kill a lion is to kill the Prophet sallallahu Sallam and fight Allah and His messenger and kill us.
Good thing he captured you and he didn't kill you on the spot.
You be quiet. You're not my brother. He's my brother. We share the same faith, the same belief. What have you been doing it?
What do you think the Ansari would do to most of his brother? After hearing this conversation?
What do you think?
To begin with the Sahaba the promises have instructed them to take care of their prisoners and to be kind to them. What do you think but when he sees that his own Muslim brother who prefers him over his own blood brother, right? Is saw him and that's the advice he gave him. What do you think he's gonna do?
Right
it's gonna be extra
He's gonna handle them with care he is most obviously brother. Yeah, you know, maybe Allah will guide him one day eventually he did. Right? So home, but most of understood that his bond that he had with the believer is stronger than the blood relation that he had. And that is indeed, proper understanding, then that should be the spirit of every
of every Muslim. Right. And the whole point we talked about
mending broken relationships. So how Elijah man, this whole idea this the concept of Islam between the believers is so important so much so that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
allow the person to lie for the sake of helping two people what?
Make up.
And right now lying doesn't mean that you just make up something totally. But in other words, if you were to not tell the whole truth,
if you had to lie in order for you to help two people really see eye to eye and come back together, then be it.
This is one of the three circumstances under which
and the process and by the way, I explained it very beautifully. Because some people may abuse this. This doesn't mean you just completely go and make up. What the province has said it was talking about is the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said Les selca that Allah the Usili Cobain and NAS fan me Hira.
He said, a person who wants to
mend broken relationships between the believers or between people, and only says that which is good.
He only relays and shares that which is good, which is which will help the relationship heal and holds anything or any information that may damage may aggravate the situation, that person is not considered a liar.
So what we what I understand from this is that if if you must, if you
if you tell the whole truth,
if telling the whole truth is going to cause more damage than you don't.
So for instance, if someone comes to you and says, you know, you heard him, or you heard her, say this about me, right? And you actually heard them.
You never say, well, well, I Well, you put me on the spot now that you put me on the spot? Of course. No, you don't. You actually say no.
I didn't hear that.
Right. Or you say, I heard him say great things about you. You only you only say the positive?
You only share with what I heard. Yeah, you were there. They told me you were there in that gathering when that person said whatever they said about me? Didn't you hear them say that? You're like, I don't know what you're talking about, man. What I heard them say and then you say you keep saying the good things. What I heard them say is that they really care about you and that they really think that you're a great person. But But what that said, That's what I heard.
Because many times people before they say something bad about a person, they always say something good. You know, Allah I lovable heavy man, but sometimes and then they start with the gossip or they start like, you know, right. He's a nice guy and everything, but sometimes he loses it and then the person starts saying negative things. So, so now you only convey what the good part
if there is no good part, then you say well, I, you decline, you decline. And if your intention is not to cause right fitna between the believers or to help two people, you know,
reconciled, then that is allowed by the Sharia by the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wasallam. This just to show the importance of this concept of Islam between the believers.
The third, the third point that my comment on it is and inshallah will will, we need to actually break it down. If you look at
the verses from Surah
Al, how gerat that talk about maintaining the honor of the believers, we were one forbidden from making fun of each other or mocking each other or belittling each other or this
Surprising each other. You should not put down any believer. Yeah you Halina Amador NYAS Hong Kong.
Sisters Hear me out. We were forbidden, right? You were forbidden from belittling or looking down
on each other.
Specifically, Allah says all men do not look down upon each other. Oh women do not look down upon each other, don't mock each other. Don't make fun of each other larious hakomi Mill me well and he says, Minister,
Allah says you're not allowed to do that.
Right?
That's one
and Allah subhanaw taala is perhaps the person that you're looking down upon, you're making fun of is better in the eyes of Allah Subhana Allah you never know.
In the province I seldom used to teach the Sahaba that nothing
right Subhanallah
Abdullah bin was rude. Abdullah when Mr. Old was extremely skinny, he was so skinny, his legs were very, very skinny. So much so that when he used to say that whenever he climbed a tree that's a habit, they couldn't hold themselves, some of the Sahaba would start giggling laugh
and the problems or sell them eventually stopped them his back one I mean did
you laughing from because his of his skinny legs. They are in the eyes of Allah.
They are heavier in the eyes of Allah Subhana Allah than the mountain of ahead. And ever since he said that they stopped
almost Mini and Sofie had been to create the daughter of a Jewish rabbi. Right, Sophia, she came to the Prophet crying one day, and he said, What's wrong, Sophia?
She said, you know, Aisha, or I shall have so you know, keep calling me daughter of a Jew.
Yeah, she I mean, they didn't lie, but they meant it. Right? You have Natalia Hoody
and the prophets, Allah Azza know what they were up to. He said, If they ever say that to you again. Then say to them, my father is Aaron Harun, and my uncle is Musa
to bat
and next time one of them or they said that to her, they said that and they and they're like, Who taught you that? The Prophet Selim told me to say that they stopped
by even if so we were forbidden from teasing is the province has said at one time called the person something and then the Sahaba and he heard people call him that he didn't know he thought that was his nickname.
Right? So they said to the prophesy salami, Allah, Allah he doesn't really like that nickname, The Prophet Solomon stopped.
If the person doesn't like it, Hollis.
Right. Which brings us to the second so Allah Subhana Allah says, also he forbids us from calling each other names. Yeah.
Well, that enables open up, do not call each other names. Don't even if you're trying to tease the person, there is a difference between you know, you trying to basically be you know, loving and using some endearment. You know, you do it in a loving way. And you call someone you know, you give someone a nickname. And let's say they like it, but if someone doesn't like it, because they don't like it. Don't call each other names. Right? Well, that 10 hours will be a little bit so this was an amen, amen. Let me add to that Allah invited. Then Allah azza wa jal says so don't mock or make fun of anyone. Don't call each other names. Right? Yeah.
Also do not mocking that goes that falls under mocking do not make fun of each other, Do not mock each other do not call each other names.
Then Allah Subhana Allah says, do not spy on each other. Don't invade anyone's privacy. Do not do not spy on each other. Do not by the way, under not spying on each other fools do not reveal each other's secrets. Whether you're invading someone's privacy, or you're allowing someone else into their privacy into their business,
right. So there are two ways a person can violate someone's privacy one bye
bye spying on them themselves
to by being a tool or a facilitator for someone else to spy on them or for someone else to violate their
to violate their privacy.
And this it's a sin.
Sometimes being
facilitating that
spying on someone for the sake of someone else, that could even be worse than some people take that lightly.
Right? To give access to someone to give, to give access to someone, you know,
into the privacy or have someone else, you can't do that.
Right? Then Allah subhana to Allah for business from backbiting, talking about to each other. Now, all of this has to do with preserving and maintaining and respecting the honor of the believer. Coolen Muslim, Muslim haram, the province has set himself it's it's a it's a sacred
space. Right? Corner Muslim, Allen, Muslim Ihara.
Right, every every aspect of the believer, his honor, his wealth and his life.
Then we said that Allah subhanho wa taala.
In the verses prior to this, ALLAH SubhanA, Allah tells us that whenever you hear some something about someone, or any news for that matter, before you rush in to any conclusion, before you react to it, before you make a decision, before you reply, you respond, you'll forward
right? Share with 10 people or more. Before you do any of these things.
Anytime you receive a piece of information, especially if it has to do write about someone else,
or if it's a serious matter that could actually, before you start propagating, before you start spreading it before you believe it before you react to it before you respond, there are five,
factor by no factor, third battle, investigate,
go and verify do some research.
Sometimes all people have to do is just Google, you Google then you find out that the information was not authentic, or it was not accurate, or it was false. Don't make assumptions.
Allah Subhana Allah says it's genuine Kathy Ramona, one, avoid more suspicion,
and the same ayat, avoid suspicion. So these are principles that we really have to live by and remind each other off. And if any one of us if we if we find ourselves violating it, if we, if anyone violates it, we say, Listen, this falls under this man, we better verify this, we better look into this, we can't do that, as believers, you know, we're held to
the highest
moral standards and virtues.
And it would really be a great idea for us as Muslims, whether it's within our households, or within our community spaces, like massage like MSC or like the Islamic school, really to develop a set of core values
that we live by, and that we enforce, and that we teach ourselves and our children, and we hold ourselves to those core values. All from the year, someone might say, well, the prices have never did that. Yeah, because they're scattered throughout. But it helps sometimes to put them like in bullet points, 1234578 10, whatever core values that we feel, need to be highlighted, and that are extremely right. challenged in this day and age. In our culture, there are certain virtues that are extremely challenging
to really hold on to and maintain. Just quickly, just as an example, how about for instance, many of our children find, not only do they find the concept of the concept of hire is foreign to them.
Right? It doesn't even like it doesn't even click, they don't even they don't even understand it. What is higher?
Right? What is higher?
When he say this is, you know, this is this violates higher they're like, why? They don't understand they genuinely don't understand. It's not and people sometimes you will look at them and say oh, believe no, it doesn't register. Here is a very, we don't even have they don't even have a word for it.
You see Eastern cultures because they're hat based cultures. They have even in different cultures. They have names for the word hat. Right. shirt on like they have, right. What do you call her in Bangalore? Sharon, right. What do you call her in order? Sharon? Right. Right any any other language?
Hmm, we have. So in Eastern cultures hair is very.
In Western cultures hair is not.
What is what is it?
And that's why the word hair even when it's translated, there are multiple, multiple words.
Right? Maybe there is maybe in some, but higher in this sense of modesty because modesty. Modesty is an aspect of hair. It's not hair, by the way.
Because sometimes people say, Oh, don't be doing tomatoes, because they feel like modesty is not good insert, like imagine you go for a job interview.
Right? Or to be admitted to one of the top schools. Can you be modest?
Are they looking for modesty?
I'm asking
Dr. Zima.
Was that?
Yeah.
It will not hurt you.
It depends on who's interviewing you, right? Yeah.
A friend of mine was telling me that on the first day
in medical school at UCLA,
right, the first thing the professor told them was that they should be so proud of themselves. And that being there on the first day in and of itself is a huge accomplishment and he started telling them how many people applied how many people were selected, how many people actually ended up and that they should realize that and they should act accordingly.
Right. He was he was share he told me share it was nothing but a session in in boosting our ego and our
there was nothing but any assertion of Kibera is like you came out of it feeling like
so sometimes it depends not everyone appreciates modesty right.
Hello Salah Allahu ala Sayidina Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa seldom at the Sleeman Kathira does anyone have any comments or questions Shala
you know, Friday night is supposed to be a community night so that's
what happened to Ramadan
shall
now
say
they shall
what one of the greatest things about Ramadan is what?
Wallah I'm gonna ask you what is it that makes Ramadan so special? Is it tarawih
by the way, tarawih the process of did not pray in JAMA.
Throw away the process of did not pray in JAMA.
Right. The Sunnah entire way is not to raise your mind. I'm just being very frank with you.
Okay, you're like dude, man, the one thing that we really enjoy, you're, you're going to ruin it for us. No, that's not what I'm trying to say. But you remember the year of the COVID when when we had to pray at home everyone.
We were able to practice a sunnah.
And some people said, Well, I really enjoyed it. Because I finally got to really pray. But at the same time, there was a big part of us missing, which is what
what we experienced Ramadan, the Sahaba Bhagwan Allah name experienced every single day.
You know that feeling that you get when you miss taraweeh when you miss one night, or you come late, or you miss the front row in Ramadan, you're so committed to to it, and then you miss it, or you miss Fajr or you miss one prayer, you know that feeling of a loss. Devastated that that Salah is gone, that day is gone and you feel so hurt. That's how they felt every single day about any Miss salah or any Miss congregational prayer, or any missed opportunity to learn Darlene with the Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam, or any events that they miss, with the Prophet sallallahu Sallam any gathering, whether it's for food, or because every gathering that they had during the time of the
Prophet sallallahu sallam was an opportunity for them to learn and grow together and bond and connect
every day. That's how they felt
five times a day. So you and I live
that feeling during the month of Ramadan and that's why we're so you know, we're so attached and that's why we love Ramadan. We look forward to it, we're anticipating it
right? So perhaps if we start talking about the importance of this
our togetherness, our oneness, our unity, our bond, our connection, our love for one another, that's what counts in the eyes of Allah subhanho wa Taala
and that's why I was just bringing up the Hadith Hadith after Hadith
the process enemy the head he says something that is better Minka theory. So yeah, I mean was
I'm gonna tell you something that will really be much more useful for you then what you know voluntary prayers and sadaqa
and the promises kind of talks about this, this maintaining this and keeping this right And subhanAllah
you know, to me, I mean it's it's it's this Ramadan is gonna be somewhat hard.
Part of it is because there are phases that I was used to see. When I first came to this community I came out Ramadan and there are some faces that are no longer with us
there are some individuals who said that we don't know if we're going to be with you next year.
So this opportunity that we have with one another before Ramadan during Ramadan after Ramadan, I think that is worthy of celebrating.
And by the way, the reason we also celebrate eat together is just like we were celebrating us coming together to worship Allah and fast and obey Allah in the month of Ramadan. As a community, and anything that you do together you do as a community is much more rewarding. When you pray by yourself your first prayer at home you get you get a reward, you get one,
one Daraja one degree, if you pray in a jamaa or you get as multiplied by 20 Set 2527 times depending on which narration right if you pray them as much more rewarding, you pray by you fast.
Any, any day as volunteer you will be rewarded for it, you fast Ramadan with the rest of the Ummah with 89% or like 90% of the Ummah, it's much more rewarding. You perform raw anytime of the year is there is great reward there is an immense reward, you perform Hajj during a time where one or two or 3 million people come together and perform Hajj is much more rewarding. Anything that is done
globally or at the level of the Ummah or community is much more rewarding in the eyes of Allah subhanho wa Taala
The problem is seldom even talks about how when we line up in Salah we should align what
our bodies because if we don't align our bodies what is not going to be in line, our hearts will not be aligned aji
Yanni he is speaking about it what
literally and metaphorically,
literally, our hearts are not going to be aligned slide if one is like one inch or two inches. By the way, all of our hearts are almost in the same region. Right? So if we are aligned physically, then our hearts will be aligned. Versus him said if you don't, then your hearts will be what
that's what happens when he aren't when we're not on the same wavelength. When we're not when we're not putting the effort to see eye to eye to come together to align
right. Our hearts are not going to align
well that's terrible for the telephone.
And if our hearts are not aligned this was going to happen.
We're going to disagree
we're going to have discord we're going to see different you know we're not but if our hearts our Allah Subhana Allah says what unless Verbena Palooza come, then the differences that we have amongst us will be able to work themselves out. Well we'll work them out easily I was a bit Hollis, we will it will be much easier to compromise it will be much easier to write.
So this is the beauty of it. Come together. celebrate Ramadan, your togetherness, your oneness, your unity, your community, this beautiful bond that we have now reached out to each other. Right? I'll conclude by saying this the process of going Hadith talks about
he says
the Hadith where the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, who woke up to
day fasting.
And welcome to say I messenger of Allah. He said, who,
who fed a hungry per i forgot the order, who fed a hungry person who took the time to go and reach out to someone who's hungry, and feed them, take care of them. Welcome said I did message of Allah. He said who visited a sick person on his way to the machine, we did go and check on a person that wasn't feeling well. Right, who followed the janazah. And there was a janazah being buried. He, he joined it for things.
Now, out of these four things, three of them have to do with what
with maintaining ties, checking on a person feeding a person caring for someone, it has to do with caring for someone. Right? offering something for someone, you know, when you go for janazah, you're offering you respect to the person and also support for the family. You feed a person you visit the sick person, all of them, only one of them has to do with what
fasting is between you and Allah subhanaw taala these people that he fed, the people that he visited, the janazah that he followed, or he participated in, none of them knew that he was fasting.
Only Allah subhanaw taala knew yet his fasting along with these other things. becomes much yeah, and he is the reward for it becomes greater. The Prophet Allah Allah, Allah says, whoever does these four things in a day, what's going to happen?
Will go to Jana will be invited to Jana, from the beautiful various gates of Jeddah.
Right? Whoever does this. So
this is this is the spirit of fasting, the spirit of fasting is supposed to make us more empathetic, more sympathetic, right? More caring.
It's not just about starving ourselves, it's really about caring and reaching out to other people. So we can start that from now Inshallah, make sure that we reach out to family members, community members, people that we may have had some disagreement with, right? Offer forgiveness to people ask forgiveness from them, right so that we can start the month of Ramadan.
With on a clean slate, with Allah subhanho wa taala. May Allah subhanaw taala accept our deeds and forgive our sins, please make sure again, if you have any issue with someone work it out before the 15th off before the 15th of ich
Shaba.
Just to go back to the point you mentioned.
That's a good thing. It's you're supposed to have
to encourage everyone.
So
yeah, that yeah, it's a good thing to be, of course,
of course, it's a good thing. The problem is that when you tell someone, hey, it is a good thing, and they don't understand what you're talking about.
That's a problem.
Well, that's because the concept itself has not been lived has not been been manifested or modeled, there are certain things that have to be modeled, right, and it has to be enforced. And when I say enforced, meaning, it has to be reinforced by the environment around you. Hire is something that people pick from the environment around them. So when you live in an environment that is not conducive to hire, what happens? People lose the meaning of hair, the meaning itself, so it becomes very challenging for them to understand it, let alone to practice it.
Yeah, so that's why I'm saying that's why for instance, we should in our institutions or in our spaces at home, the masjid, we should, we should for encourage here.
We should make this a higher a space a space that is founded upon hire. So when people come here, they they know how to conduct themselves. And if someone says, Well, that's hypocritical, you have hire in the machine, but you don't have hire at Kroger. Yes.
Yes, no, no. Yes. Yeah.
Of course.
So,
I mean, it's not going to be let's be practical in this Be honest. You can't. You have higher you have higher you have more higher in the living room than you have in the bathroom.
Okay, so different spaces call for different levels of hat. Yeah. So when we are in the masjid, yes, we're going to be very respectful, be very modest. You know, when we are in a space where we are sharing it
With our sisters, we're going to maintain distance we're going to lower our gaze we will go into sisters same thing with a goat, they're going to hold themselves, you know, to different standards.
Right? I mean, it's, it's, it's known even even amongst non Muslims people the way they taught us of course, if it's outside, it's outside, but the way they carry themselves on beaches is different from the way they carry themselves in the church. Right.
So HIA needs to be really something that we need to talk about and has an increase and modulates for for our children and everyone else. Zack will love him. Please forgive me. If I have said anything or
forgive me for my shortcomings Inshallah, tada, we're embarking on this on a trip inshallah with the PVS families inshallah. So, there's about 42 of our community members
going together as a group and then we have other families that are going on their own We will be meeting their insha Allah Tala please keep us in your DUA. May Allah Subhana Allah accept our DS forgive our sins is our journey.
And
may Allah grant all of our community members all of us a safe return to our families a safe journey to Mecca Medina and then a safe return inshallah Huhtala before Ramadan, Subhanak Elohim handig Masha Allah Allah He lands in the sulfuryl Kana to be like that