Mubeen Kamani – Building Taqwa
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AI: Transcript ©
Salaam.
Allahu
Akbar Allahu
Akbar
We started by praising Allah,
the one who is worthy of all of
our praise and and our gratitude. It is
it is Allah
who watches over us.
At all times, even though we are unaware
of him, it is Allah who is closer
to us in our jugular veins.
It is Allah
who hears us and listens to us
even though very rarely do we call onto
him.
It is Allah
that only through his mercy can we enter
into Jannah.
It is Allah
that through his mercy, he gives us times
like the month of Ramadan to
pull ourselves closer to him.
We then send peace and blessings upon the
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, the one that
was sent
not just as a mercy to mankind, but
as a mercy to the world,
who was sent not just to teach us
how to worship, but also to teach us
how to interact
and deal with one another.
We send peace and blessing upon the companions
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and
his family members, those who helped him and
aided him, umabah thereafter.
One of the names of Allah
is Allah
is Al Hakim,
the most wise.
And
in the wisdom of Allah
anything in our deen and any action,
anything that's made followed and mandatory upon us.
Through the wisdom of Allah
there is always a purpose.
There's a reason.
There's a benefit.
And we look at the month of Ramadan
and
the act of fasting that Allah
has made followed upon every single Muslim
with a very few a very few,
exceptions.
But what is it about this act that
Allah
says that every Muslim in the world
furls upon you
every year?
There's something about this act of fasting
that Allah, subhanahu, says this is going to
be beneficial,
and it will be beneficial to a point
that you will need to do it every
year, not just once in your lifetime.
But you will need that constant recharge
for a 30 day period. Not just once,
twice, but for a 30 day period. So
you look at this act and
question,
what benefit does this act bring to my
life?
What's the purpose of it?
And Allah
in the Quran tells us,
fasting has been made
mandatory upon you the way it was made
mandatory upon the people of the past.
And this part right here, what we understand
is
fasting
is not just something that Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala chose for our ummah, but it's something
that even for the nation of the past,
the benefit was there.
And he tells us what is that benefit.
So that you can gain this quality called
taqwa.
So if you look at our fast, and
the prophet he
says,
he says, how many people are there that
fast, but they get nothing out of their
fast except for hunger and thirst?
That's all they take away from it.
After a 13, 14 hour fast,
the only thing that you leave with
is thirst in your throat and hunger in
your stomach.
Whereas Allah says
the main purpose of fasting is so that
you adopt this quality of taqwa into your
life.
Now the word taqwa,
often it gets translated as to fear Allah.
Fear Allah
But in reality, fearing Allah
it's a bit tough
because
in other religions they're taught to love
their God. But now you look at Islam,
why am I being told to fear Allah?
Shouldn't I love Allah? And Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala is al wadhu, the one that's the
most loving.
Why should
I love why should I not love Allah
rather you know, and I should fear Allah?
And the scholars say that this fear is
a particular type of fear.
It's a fear that you love somebody so
much
that you fear that this person
may be upset with you.
It's like when you really love your parents,
or you really love your spouse
or a person about to get married and
they love their fiance.
And at that point,
they're worried that if I do something wrong,
they may be upset with me.
So the fear is not the fear that
you have against a lion or a predator
or a, you know, person that can cause
you harm, but the fear is that you
love
this being so much that you don't want
them to be upset with you.
You don't want them to be angry with
you. And this fear of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala is that we fear Allah's, you know,
displeasure.
And we fear Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala that
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, you know, his punishment.
God consciousness
in the Quran Taqwa, there are over a
150
ayats about it,
which makes you think that in Islam, this
is actually
a primary
concept.
It's not secondary. Because if it was secondary,
maybe Allah Subhanahu wa'ala would have mentioned it
once or twice. But the fact that Allah
Subhanahu wa'ala mentioned it a 150 times, and
on top of that, every time that Allah
Subhanahu wa'ala talks about an action that follows,
an action that's mandatory that every Muslim must
do, he says the reason behind it is
so that you gain taqwa from it.
For example, Hajj.
When Allah Subhan talks about Hajj, he says,
and the best thing that you can take
away from Hajj is
is that you take away god consciousness.
So now the question is, what does this
god consciousness look like? What does Taqwa
look like?
And the answer to that, Omar bin Qatab
al Adhan, he
he says that Taqwa is
as if you're walking down a narrow path
and there are thorns and there are obstacles
and there are things that are hazardous.
It's like when you're walking outside today and
it rained last night and you have to
go to your car and you see mud
puddles everywhere. So what you do is you
gather your clothes so that your clothes don't
get dirty, and then you
carefully select where you're gonna step.
And you tell your child, don't step in
the mud. Why? Because it will get your
clothes dirty. And Umar bin Khattab says, is
that you plan every move of yours
in a way that you are conscious that
this may harm me and that may
move me back from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
But this quality of taqwa is such a
unique quality
because in the Quran Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
says that,
I have only created man and jinn.
The only reason is to worship.
But then there's a problem.
And the problem is if we look at
our worship through a 24 hour period,
how much time are we worshiping Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala? And let's say if we were
to worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for salah
10 minutes for every salah,
You're still at maybe an hour of the
24 hours. So that ratio is off where
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says, I have created
you just for this purpose, but from your
24 hour period, you only worship Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala for 1 hour. So now you
look at it, that how can I turn
my other 23 hours into worship of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala? And the answer to that
is taqwa.
And that you're conscious of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala.
This quality
can take
any part of your day
and make it into a worship.
You know, Ramadan is about worshiping.
And yes, we would love to sit with
the Quran for hours,
but we have other responsibilities.
We would love to spend every night in
Qiam,
but
the next day we have work.
So now you look at this quality of
taqwa and you tell yourself, if I can
bring taqwa
into
every aspect of my life, then that part
and that's the beautiful thing beautiful thing about
taqwa is that it can take any action
and make it into an act of worship.
You're at work, and you have taqwa,
and the 7, 8, 9 hours that you
spend at work,
it can be an act of worship.
You're at home, you're spending time with your
family, and you have the quality of taqwa.
You're conscious that Allah
is watching over me. And this is what
Allah has commanded me to do, and this
is what Allah has told me to stay
away from. Again, this is
the fact that you're conscious about it.
That's what we're Allah is teaching us while
fasting.
Because in fasting, you're conscious about your intake.
Your intake that whatever you consume with your
mouth, or whatever you consume with your eyes,
whatever you consume with your ears. So this
consciousness in fasting, it then translates
into consciousness
of Allah
That every moment a person thinks that Allah
is with me, Allah
is watching
A person came to a scholar and asked
the scholar
that I want to commit a sin. There
must be some sort of loophole.
I wanna commit a sin.
Is there a loophole?
And he said go somewhere that Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala cannot see you.
It's like
if you want to disobey your father, you're
not gonna do it in front of his
face. You're gonna wait till he leaves. You're
gonna wait till he's not there. And the
moment that he cannot see you, that's when
you you may disobey him. Okay. We're not
saying you should,
but that's when you do it. So he
says that,
disobey Allah. If you wanna disobey Allah, do
it when Allah's command cannot see you.
Outside of my kingdom.
Sultan, you will only come to my kingdom.
The Allah
is
always
watching over you.
And this is that quality of
that throughout your day,
you're thinking
that Allah is watching me, will this act
please Allah, or will this act
I have Allah upset with.
Now the benefits of taqwa.
In one verse Allah
says,
rush and hurry
to the forgiveness of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And a person that has this, that Allah
Subhanahu wa ta'ala has prepared
jannas for them, paradises for them, that rivers
flow underneath it, and this is particularly
for the people that have taqwa.
He then says,
what this will look like in your day
to day life,
how do you know that I have tahqah?
How do I know that I've achieved,
or I'm working, or
I'm benefiting from this. He says,
That the first quality of a person that
has taqwa is that they will be open
to spend in the path of Allah
when times are good
and when times are difficult.
So many times when our financial situation is
good, we're open to give.
But when our financial situation is tough,
we restrict our hands.
On the way out,
when you pass by that donation box, the
amount of money that you put into there,
the amount of money that you select on
the Medina terminals
is based off of
your financial situation.
If things are going good, if you're budgeting
well, then you put more.
And in this ayah Allah subhanahu says, you
don't think one of
this
A person that has
they will spend when times are good and
they will spend when times are bad, understanding
that Allah is
the one who possessed the capability of turning
my bad times into good times.
And this is a very tough pill to
swallow, anger.
Because much as I would like to say
I don't have anger
and I'm in control of my anger,
if you ask the people around me, they'll
say something else.
If you ask my spouse, if you ask
my children
about my anger situation, the answer would be
different.
But when a person controls the anger, this
shows that they have taqwai. Why? Because they
understand
the anger of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
The
third quality is that they forgive people,
And the reason for this is that they
want Allah
forgiveness.
In 1 Hadith, the prophet
says,
Whoever doesn't forgive people, Allah
will not forgive that person.
Whoever does not show mercy,
whoever should not does not show kindness, and
how can Allah show kindness to that person?
So number 3,
And then Allah says,
and Allah
loves those people that do good.
In another place in the Quran, Allah
talks about
that people that have this quality
throughout your day, once again, as you sit
in your car, you're conscious of, if I
do this,
it will please Allah. If I do this,
it will displease Allah. When you're dealing with
your children, when you're dealing with your spouse,
when you're at work, this is the quality
that you have. Allah
says,
This person will not have fear.
This person will not have stress.
This person will be lighthearted.
Why? Because they left their matters in the
hands of Allah
but not building their quality of taqwa.
What does that look like?
Number 1,
Ramzan
takes us in that direction,
but
most likely you won't be at your destination.
It's years of work,
of constantly asking yourself, constantly reminding yourself that
Allah
is watching me. Allah
is watching me.
And the reason why you cannot completely achieve
it because shaitan does not want you to
achieve it.
Every time you get closer to taqwa, every
time you get closer that Allah is watching
me, shaitan comes and makes you forget.
And this is why Allah
says tells us, ista'wadha alayhim shaitaan
fansa
zikrullah.
Whenever shaitaan wanted to defeat a nation,
the first thing that he does is he
makes them forget about Allah
fansa'wadha. Fansa'wadha.
Now the zikrullah
is remembering Allah. So one is taqwa, remembering
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in your actions, and
the number 2, zikr is remembering Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala verbally.
And there's a benefit to that.
And when Hadith of Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
tells us,
Everything
that you say,
everything that comes out of our mouth,
every word,
it's actually on the day of judgement will
be used against us, not for us.
Except for 3 things.
That you tell somebody you do good.
And you stop people from doing bad.
And remembering Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala in the Quran,
he tells us,
As you remember Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, your
hearts
will find peace.
Imam Wazali hamtulalayhi
brings both of these things, taqwa
and zikr,
together,
and he says that
this quality of fearing Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
what it will do to you is
it will make
sinning
repulsive.
The sins that seem so enjoyable to us,
the luxury that seem so entertaining to us,
having taqwa will turn that around and will
make that repulsive. And he gives he carries
on and he says that the example of
this is like a person that loves honey.
The way that a person loves honey, you
and I, we enter the month of Mazan
where there are certain sins that we love.
It's a part of us.
But then you tell he says that then
you tell that person that loves honey that
this honey has been poisoned, they won't go
towards it.
Imam Ghazali says when a person has,
the sin that they loved, you now poison
that sin, and their heart is pushed away
from that sin. And this is when that
person's heart can focus on things that
matter, and that is remembrance of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala and the zikr of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
In another place in the Quran, Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala tells us
that
Hasn't the time came
where
the hearts of the believers
shake?
Something happens
with the remembrance of Allah
And as crazy as this sounds, how can
my heart shake? How can something happen to
me by the remembrance of Allah.
You ask somebody
that's
deeply in love with another human being.
Just hearing that person's name will bring a
smile to their face.
Their heartbeat will increase.
Their body language will change. And Allah
is saying that as a time came
that
my name has this effect on you?
My remembrance has this effect on you?
In one place in the Quran, Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala tells us,
I look at this verse, and it reminds
me of the month of Ramadan.
Because Allah says,
when the help of Allah
came, you know, coming to the masjid as
often as you and I are doing now,
at one time seemed impossible.
Leaving the sins
that we've left,
it wasn't something that seemed likely.
Spending hours in the masjid
didn't seem realistic.
Having this quality of taqwa, it didn't seem
like it would happen. But Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala says, when the help of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala came and then you were able
to gain victory
over shaitan, you were able to gain victory
over your habits, you were able to gain
victory over your nafs.
And now you saw flocks
and armies of people come into the religion
to the point that a masjid a masjid
that we just expanded is now short,
that people are praying outside.
And Allah
says, when this happens, when I give you
this victory,
then praise Allah, glorify Allah,
and ask Allah for forgiveness. And this is
the dhikr.
Remembering Allah verbally.
So in today's kutba, we we understand the
concept,
and the reason why Allah
tells us to fast and that is
to have the quality of taqwa, remembrance of
Allah internally.
And then you pair that with remembrance of
Allah
verbally,
and this is where a person, their actions
begin to change.
And every action of theirs, it now becomes
an act of worship. And as Allah has
told us that this
person,
and this is the true purpose of any
action of any act of worship that Allah
has given to us in the in in
Islam.
The month of Ramadan
where
we teach ourself restraint and we teach ourself
consciousness,
the month of Ramadan is also a month
to give,
and Aisha Adhan would say about the prophet
that Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam was the
most generous of people.
But when the month of Ramadan would come,
his generosity
would increase, and he would be even more
generous.
And the reason for this
is that the reward
of giving increases,
and this is why many of us, we
give our yearly zakat in the month of
Ramadan to maximize
on this reward.
As many of you all know,
we've opened the expansion of our masjid, but
there's still a huge amount that the masjid
is in need of.
And throughout the month of Ramadan, we will
continue to make this appeal so that inshallah,
you can maximize on your dollar and get
the most reward for it.
Currently, there is a immediate need of $500,000.
$500,000 of the masjid needs,
you know, that we took as a qad
before Ramadan,
before the fundraiser, and our goal was to
pay everybody back, alhamdulillah,
from the fundraise. So before the fundraiser, we
we loan we took a loan from people,
from the our community members in the, 15
people, and they all gave a $100,000
each. We were able to pay back 10.
We have still 5 people that we need
to pay back. So in this month in
Ramadan,
we ask everybody that please, you know, on
your way out, donate. This is a part
of the construction.
The prophet
says that whoever builds the house of Allah,
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, Allah
will build a house for them in Jannah.
So, in this month of Ramadan,
maximize,
make the most of your,
and given the path of Allah Subhanahu, Allah
Subhanahu, Allah Subhanahu in the Quran, he tells
us
Oh, Allah subhanahu wa'ala alibrahiem. Oh, Allah subhanahu
wa'ala alibrahiem. Oh, Allah subhanahu wa'ala alibrahiem. Oh,
Allah subhanahu wa'ala alibrahiem. Oh, Allah subhanahu wa'ala
alibrahiem. Oh, Allah subhanahu wa'ala alibrahiem. Oh, Allah
subhanahu wa'ala alibrahiem. Oh, Allah subhanahu wa'ala alibrahiem.
Oh, Allah subhanahu wa'ala, we ask you have
mercy upon Muslims wherever they may be. Oh,
Allah subhanahu wa'ala, wherever there is a Muslim
or wherever there is a human being that
is going through any type of difficulty, oh,
Allah subhanahu wa'ala, we ask you to remove
those difficulty from their path. Oh, Allah subhanahu
wa'ala, we ask you have mercy upon our
brothers and sisters in Palestine. Oh, Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala, we ask that you make this
month of mercy a mercy for them. Oh,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, they do not have
food. Oh, Allah, we ask that you give
them food in this month of Ramadan.
Oh,
Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala, the way that you have
given victory
to the peep to the Prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam and the Muslim in Badr over
the Quraysh in the month of Ramadan, we
ask that you give our brothers and sisters
in Palestine victory in this month. Oh, Allah,
Subhanahu wa'ala, the way that you open the
doors of Fatah, of Makkah, and you give
the conquest of Makkah in Ramadan, oh, Allah,
Subhanahu wa Ta'ala, we ask that you conquer,
and you give us fat in Palestine. Oh,
Allah,
we ask that you put an end to
this endless killing. Oh, Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala,
we ask that you stop the oppressors. Oh,
Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, we ask that you
make matters easy upon them. Oh, Allah, those
that have lost their lives, oh, Allah, we
ask that you give them the highest rank
agenda. Oh, Allah, those that are suffering till
today, that have lost loved ones, we ask
that you give them patience and sabr. Oh,
Allah,
we ask that you protect our community. Oh,
Allah, we ask that you keep our community
united. Oh,
we ask that you protect us and do
not test us with any type of hardships.
Oh, we ask for good in this dunya,
and we ask for good in the hereafter.
Oh, we ask that you guide our youth.
Oh, we ask that you keep them on
the straight path. Oh, we ask that you
give us a quality of taqwa. Oh, Allah,
accept our fasting. Oh, Allah, accept our standing
in tarawi. Oh, Allah, accept our praying salah.
Oh, Allah, accept our reading Quran. Oh, Allah,
the only reason why we are hungry and
thirsty right now is for you. Oh, Allah,
there is no other reason. Oh, Allah,
we ask that you open your doors of
mercy, and you open your doors of reward
upon us. Oh, Allah,
we ask that you forgive our sins. Oh,
Allah, we ask you to overlook our shortcomings.
Oh, Allah, we ask that you pardon mistakes.
Oh, Allah,
do not let us exit the month of
Ramadan the way that we enter the month
of Ramadan. Oh, Allah, we enter the month
of Ramadan with a bunch of bad habits.
Oh, Allah, we enter the month of Ramadan
broken. Oh, Allah,
we ask that you fix us. Oh, Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala help us break away from
our habits. Oh, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, we
ask for jannah.
Oh, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, we seek protection
of the fire of jannah.
Oh,
Allah
subhanahu
wa ta'ala, we ask that you pleased with
us.
Oh Allah, be pleased with us. Oh Allah,
be pleased with us.
Please move forward and make room for brothers
who are standing outside.
Just quickly,
as mentioned in the footba,
the masjid currently is in need of,
$500,000.
Again, it's a large amount,
but we're hoping that in the month of
Ramadan,
you know, we can gather this amount.
With this expansion, just to give you an
idea of what this expansion has brought us
so far. Right?
Of course, we didn't this year, we don't
have a tent.
We have everybody praying inside. We've actually reached
the max, and then now people praying outside.
We've already,
alhamdulillah,
have opened a
special dedicated room for girls to do their
trawih,
a special dedicated room for boys that are
memorizing to do their trawih.
There is a special room for kids with
special,
special needs.
Parents leave their kids, and we have,
respite people watching over them. There is a
childcare
during Tarawi free for 80 kids.
We had a for girls, just girls, with
over a 110
girls
that attended.
We have a boys' coming up. We had
a kids' iftar the other day. We have
a new Muslim iftar coming up. We have
Sunday school iftar. So
the community, alhamdulillah,
is benefiting
from this expansion,
and we're trying to, you know, provide more
and more services for our community.
But the only way that we can continue
to do so
is, of course, through your generosity.
So on the way out, please
do donate. If you
you know, there'll be pledge cards. If you
don't have the funds right now and you'd
like to make a pledge and pay over
time, you can do that as well. Again,
the masjid will continue to provide all their
services.
Tomorrow, we have our community, iftar. Everybody is
invited to make sure that you that you
come. There's also
a du'a request.
Sister Sayedir Rahman,
she's hospitalized. Darik Sayed, who's in ICU
and the father of of Shan Irfan
are all sick. We ask Allah give them
a complete, everlasting,
a,
a a a total shefa. Allah give their
family member love and, saber and strength during
these hard times.