Moutasem al-Hameedy – First 10 Days of Dhul Hijjah 2024
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It is this time of the year.
The first 10 days of Dhul Hijjah.
And the title of these days
in the texts
is love.
Love of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
This is what marks these days,
the love of Allah
and the language of those texts
and the language we will try to
examine today
can only be understood
by those whose hearts have love
for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. This is the
language of love.
And if there is no love or if
the love is absent from the heart,
the language will fall on deaf ears
and it will not resonate.
The messenger sallallahu alaihi wasallam says in in
the authentic hadith.
Talking about these days of Dhul Hijjah, the
first days of this month, the last month
in the Hijri calendar.
There are no days
meaning in the year.
There are no days
in which
righteous deeds,
acts of devotion
are dearer to Allah.
There are no
no days
when Allah or where Allah
loves
good deeds to be performed
than these days of Dhul Hijjah. The first
10 days of Dhul Hijjah. The love of
Allah.
That's what Allah loves.
That's what Allah prefers the most
throughout the year.
Allah loves
righteous deeds the most
in these first 10 days of Dhul Hijjah.
The companions
were puzzled
that nothing
that Allah loves more than righteous deeds in
this lasting nights,
not even
offering one's life for the sake of Allah,
putting one's life
on the line for the sake of defending
the truth and the cause of Allah,
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said not
even Al Jihadu fee Sabi Lillah
except for one scenario.
When a person
offers their wealth
and their self
for the sake of Allah,
and they lose them. They don't come back
home. They don't make it back home. That's
the only exception to this rule.
So we are living in in days that
are special.
These are not normal days,
and the scholars of Islam have debated
which is
which 10 days are the best, or which
days of the year are the best.
The last 10 days in Ramadan
or the last 10 or the first 10
days of Dhul Hijjah? A big debate among
the scholars. Sheikh
Rahimahullah
ta'ala and others are of the opinion
that the last 10 nights of Ramadan are
the best of nights
ever.
And the first 10 days of Dhul Hijjah,
this month are the best
10 days ever
for righteous deeds.
So, this is a special time for Allah
Himself.
And when the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam
says,
there are no days that where Allah loves
good deeds
to be performed more than
these 10 days.
This is the language of love and as
I said if there is no love,
oh Allah in the heart it's hard to
appreciate what that means.
But let's take a worldly example.
You know when a husband
appreciates
his wife and he loves her
and he's probably
passing through some
some shops
and he sees something that his his wife
is fond of,
something that his wife really loves and appreciates,
something very special.
If he truly loves her
automatically,
it sparks in his mind
to buy that and sometimes even make a
sacrifice
even
when it's pricey,
even when it's gonna put a financial strain
on him.
He's gonna buy that gift
or his wife
and make it a special day for her.
When a father or a mother,
they come across something that is not very
common and they know
their son or their daughter
loves this thing so much
and looks forward to it.
The fatherly spirit, the motherly spirit
pushes that parent
to make the sacrifice and purchase this thing
for their son or their daughter.
Why?
To give them a treat
because they know they love this thing.
And we have seen those, all of those
like influencers,
youtubers,
who be who,
you know, gain millions of followers
just because they share,
you know, empty stuff or something empty of
value for the most part.
Pranks, and jokes, and nonsense.
But some of them make it and they
make a lot of wealth out of that.
And some of their most special
videos that they put out there
is with when one of them and especially
when they are young, they purchase or they
go and get for their father or their
mother the house of their dream. Right?
Or the car of their dream.
And they make a big video out of
that, and it goes viral, and we all
feel touched.
Why?
Because that's a special moment because that's what
their father or their mother loves the most.
So when they meet that love,
when they fulfill
that dream
of that person, it's a very special moment.
And many people when they see this,
you'll you'll find them in tears.
That's what the prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam is
telling us.
That's for people who love their spouse, who
love their children, who love their parents.
For those who love Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
the Prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam is offering us
this opportunity.
He is saying, These 10 days
that's the gifts that Allah loves the most.
Allah loves good deeds, Allah loves what's good
because He's good in
Allah is good
and He loves that which is good.
He only loves that which is good. But
good is not all at the same level.
There are things that are at a higher
and superior level of goodness
and good deeds
during these 10 days are so special with
Allah that he loves them.
And if you truly have love for Allah
in your heart that should mean a lot.
That's the golden opportunity
when you can offer Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
what he loves. Allah obviously doesn't need it.
At the end of the day it's for
you
because Allah wants good for you.
But when you know that Allah loves something
you should rush for it, And people would
say, you know, what should I do during
these days?
And it becomes trendy during these days for
people to come up with
acts of worship they don't usually do. Some
voluntary acts of worship
and that's great
but there is something greater
because if you combine this hadith of the
prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam where he says,
actions in these 10 days
are loved by Allah the most,
then you bring another hadith from the Prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam which is a divine hadith
where Allah speaks and Allah says,
This is the famous hadith in Sahih al
Bukhari where Allah talks about that whoever has
enmity
or animosity to one of my friends and
close servants then I wage war against them.
Then in this hadith Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala
says,
and my servant
will will never draw nearer to me with
anything better,
anything more efficient
than anything more than any
my servant will not draw to me with
anything that I love more
than what I made as an obligation.
So Allah loves most of the deeds. There's
no weird deeds. You don't have to go
and search into the books
and in some strange examples of what acts
of worship to do. Allah made it clear.
The things that Allah loves the most is
first tuhid
that you worship Him alone,
that you trust Him alone,
that you live your life for Him alone.
That's what Allah loves the most, that's the
biggest obligation.
Then the prayer salah, the 5 daily prayers.
You don't you don't need to look far.
It's at your doorstep.
The 5 daily prayers are what Allah loves
the most after tawhid because they are a
manifestation
of tawhid.
Pray them well on time.
Pray them in congregation because even those who
perform, if you don't perform these
prayers,
then you are in serious danger.
Your whole islam and iman is in serious
danger is and is under question.
But for those who pray and observe the
5 daily prayers there is so much
or there are so many areas in our
prayer where we are deficient.
We don't pray them on time,
maybe we don't pray them in congregation,
Maybe we don't fulfill their rights, we rush
through them.
We don't pray them well or we don't
have khushur, our hearts are not present in
the salah
and that's a great
defect in any salah.
It takes away the reward.
So start with this
that's what Allah loves the most and this
is the time that Allah loves these deeds
the most as well.
And then the other obligations,
the other obligations,
Not only your direct obligations to Allah but
your obligations to Allah through other people.
The rights of your family on you, your
parents,
your spouse,
your children,
the rights of your neighbors,
the rights of your Muslim brothers and sisters,
the ones that live
where you live and globally.
These are obligations when you fulfill them Allah
loves them
the most and in these days Allah even
loves them more. And that's the secret about
those days.
Then you have all of the other obligations.
When a sister these days wears her hijab,
this is not a passive action.
When you properly cover yourself
That's a great act of worship, it's an
obligation and Allah loves it and in these
days Allah loves it more.
Cause when we do something consistently
we turn to underestimate
its value.
But these are things
that Allah appreciates, and He loves,
and He's happy with,
He's pleased with those actions.
Imam Abin Hazkalani
he says these days
are the best. One of the reasons that
these days are the most beloved to Allah
in terms of good deeds is because
there is no time in the year
where the major acts of worship,
the prime act acts of worship, the pillars
of Islam
are found
on earth together
but during this time.
Cause in Ramadan you pray, you fast, you
read Quran, you do dhikr, you give charity,
you treat people well
and you do all of the other righteous
deeds but there is one pillar of Islam
that is time specific
and it doesn't fall in Ramadan and that's
Hajj.
But during these days Hajj is performed
so the whole spectrum of acts of worship
in Islam are being practiced by the Muslim
Ummah and that's the time Allah loves.
That's a unique time in the year
There's no other time whatever humans and muslims
are doing during the year Hajj is always
missing.
It's only this time of the year when
the whole spectrum or the whole set is
complete,
and Allah gives generously. And that's where the
blessing of the day of Arafah
and it's the culmination of these 10 days.
And I will leave it for the khaqib
insha'Allah next Friday to talk about it.
But as muslims we shouldn't let these days
slip away
without offering Allah a special treat.
And the special treat is that you you
truly renew your covenant with Allah, Your agreement
with Allah to worship him alone.
Clear your heart,
you know,
the true Mujahid, the true person who strives
for the sake of Allah is someone who
strives against their own self, their own defects,
their own desires,
their own dark side for the sake of
Allah.
None of us are perfect.
We all have serious defects,
we all have a dark side to ourselves,
we
all have serious flaws, we all have so
much evil in our hearts.
Naturally
humans without guidance or with inappropriate guidance that's
what happens to them.
So our life is about working against that,
to undo that darkness that is inside.
It's a constant struggle
and that's something that Allah loves the most.
You purify your heart because this is where
Allah looks.
As the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said, Allah
doesn't look at your wealth and your looks
and your physique,
Allah looks at your hearts. What's in your
heart?
Is the love of Allah
uppermost in your heart
above all other types of love?
It's your fear of Allah
dominant in your heart that you fear none
but Allah?
Is your heart full of hope in Allah?
That it trusts Allah more than it trusts
anything else?
Does that translate into a lifestyle?
That's what tawhid is.
Tawhid is not a concept that you keep
in your mind,
It's a way of life.
These are great acts of worship. Is your
heart full of envy and hate and jealousy?
Is it full of pride and arrogance?
These are diseases that take you to the
hellfire.
When you push against them, none of us
is free from pride, and arrogance, and envy.
None of us.
So you need to push against them. Your
fighting against them is one of the great
acts of jihad and worship that Allah loves,
so offer Allah this thing.
Start to change your ways from today.
This is the opportunity.
We ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to accept
from us.
One of the great acts of worship that
these scholars advise that we do during these
days is to fast.
Offer fast. So those who have days missed
that they missed in Ramadan,
that's a very
beautiful opportunity to start making those days up.
But for the day of Arafa, you have
to have a special
intention for the day of Alafa don't combine
you know making up a ramadan fast there.
But the rest of the days you can
do this.
So that's a good time our sisters who
have days
that they need to make up from Ramadan
that's a golden time.
And one of the great acts of worship
that we should do
and we should never forget these days
is solidarity with our brothers and sisters
and offering them the help that we can,
the support, the dua. Don't underestimate
the power of dua that comes from your
heart for the sake of Allah and whatever
else, whatever good that you can do that
can help relieve their pain, that can help
save a life, that can help
bring justice to them and you are able
to engage with it. That's something Allah loves,
one of the great things Allah loves. So
our brothers and sisters in Giza,
our brothers and sisters in Sudan
which usually get forget
forgotten
and they're going through atrocities. May Allah relieve
their stress and the stress of all the
Muslims everywhere. And many Muslims are suffering. Some
Muslims are suffering individually, no one knows about
them or only the circle around them knows
about them. Make dua for them.
You get reward for that. You get reward
for making dua for people you don't know.
Do that for the sake of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala
and again renew your covenant with Allah.
Offer sadaqa,
Offer sadaqa for the sake of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
Sadaqa is something that Allah loves and appreciates.
And in these days Allah loves it more.