Mubeen Kamani – End of the Islamic Year
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AI: Transcript ©
So
We're at a time of the year
where Hujaz are returning back from Hajj.
And
with their return they bring a lot of
different emotions
about this experience. And this experience is, of
course,
what we refer to in Islam as a
life changing experience. Something that
a person
shouldn't be
the same.
And this change is so important that Allah
makes it mandatory upon Muslims that you need
to have this change in your life
at least once.
But
this sits in our Islamic calendar in a
very unique time.
The return of Hajj.
It sits at the end of the Islamic
calendar, which
brings us to today.
Sunday will be the first of 1446,
the Islamic calendar.
And we look at the end of our
Islamic calendar,
and a few things have to happen.
If these few things don't happen, then what
will most likely
transpire is,
the next year will exactly be like the
previous year.
And if we look at our life, the
sad reality is,
majority of the time, this is what happens.
Sometimes we get confused.
Wait, that was just last year, but it
was actually 3, 4 years before.
Because
every year is on repeat.
Rinse and repeat.
To the point that it's like
the same thing happening and there's just no
change.
There's no progression. There's no growth.
What do you do this year?
I worked.
I was a father to my children. I
paid my bills. The same mortgage, the same
car payment,
everything. Where
What progression was there?
I was 39 last year, this year I'm
40.
And that's about it.
And that's why these few things have to
happen.
At the end of the year, number 1,
the first thing that has to happen is
muhasaba.
Reflection
and contemplation
about how was the last year.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the Quran he
says,
Oh you who believe
fear Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
And be conscious and reflect and take account.
Accountability.
About what you've done in the last year.
Take accountability
of what you send forward to
ta'ala. If I were to sit down and
think to myself in this past year,
and we talked about this in Ramadan, about
giving yourself a rating.
That in the beginning of Ramadan, rate yourself.
How am I as a father? How am
I as a husband? How am I as
a son? And the rating will be different,
but accountability is that you now go back
and reflect on those account those ratings, and
you say to yourself, this past year, the
way that I rate anything else that I
you know, if you go to a restaurant,
we give it ratings. If you go to
a store, we give it rating. People actually
rate the masjid. If you go on Google
Maps, you'll see there are ratings of the
masjid. And it's silly
what how people rate the masjid, but that's
another tangent that I won't go into right
now. But give yourself a rating.
In 20
in 1445,
the Islamic calendar, how was Mubin as a
husband?
Now if you ask my wife, that rating
will be different than my rating.
But how was Mubin as a father,
as a
employee,
as a community member,
And look back in the past the previous
years and was that rating the same? How
was I when it comes to my relationship
with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Whenever we think of growth, the reality is
the only growth that we focus on
majority of the time
is the growth of our finances.
But there are other aspects of insan.
There are other aspects of human beings. Our
main purpose is not finances, but yes, finance
is important.
I have bills.
I have to feed my children.
I have tuitions. They have soccer practice. They
have this. They have that.
So finance is important, but then now you
what you have to do is rate yourself
in this past year, that how was I
in every other aspect of my life.
Umar says,
take yourself under accountability
before Allah Subhanahu Wa'ala takes you under accountability.
Until you don't take yourself under accountability, you
won't be able to change yourself.
But remember a day will come when Allah
Subhanahu Wa'ala will take you under under accountability.
Malay bin Naa says that Allah subhan'ala gives
you
2 eyes.
And the reason why he gives you 2
eyes is so that you see the goodness
in others and you see the flaws within
yourself.
Usually, we do it the other way around.
That we see all the flaws in everybody
else.
Sit down with me and I'll tell you
all the flaws of my children.
Tell me I'll tell you all the flaws
of my coworkers and all the flaws of
my spouse, and everybody else around. But
if you wanna ask me about my flaws,
that list is too short.
It's probably less than the announcement that we
have here at the masjid.
But says turn
that around. Look at the good in others.
Look at the good in your spouse. Look
at the good
in your children and your coworkers, and look
at your flaws.
And until you don't do this, you won't
be able to hold yourself accountable
and change will not happen.
Hassan Bessi says
that a believer
a believer is a guardian over himself.
That we take care of our own matters,
and we watch over ourselves first before we
look at the faults of others. Anas Bin
Malik says that, when you look at somebody
else,
always think When you look at a younger
person, think to themselves think to yourself that
that person has less since they're better than
me.
And when you look at someone older than
you, Anastasimatic says, remember that they have more
good deeds, so they're also better.
Than you. But taking time out and muhasaba,
reflection,
conflation,
is a huge part of Islam.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, when he
would go to
the cave of Hira, before Iqra Bismi, what
was he doing?
He was meditating.
He was reflecting
at the situation of life,
at what's happening.
You know, in our lives, so many
moving things happen.
When our with our children, with our work,
so many things happen that if you just
stop and think
what just happened?
It will change you.
In Hajj,
when the when judge come back and they
tell you that, you know what? Usually, I
would just move on, but when I stop
and thought about
that I'm standing for the house of Allah
it changed
me. When I stopped and thought about that
I'm so thirsty, and some random person hands
me water, it changed me. And in our
lives, the same thing happens. There are so
many moments that if we were to reflect,
it would bring a change into our lives.
The second thing
is to repent over the shortcomings of this
past year.
Usually when we finish the law,
a lot of times we tell the children
to say, astaghfirullah, astaghfirullah, astaghfirullah. And I was
teaching a class and
one of the kids said to me, Shaykh,
it doesn't make sense that how can we
finish salah and we say a salah? Should
it not be the person that didn't even
pray that that person says a salah?
Why should I see it?
And the answer to that that our teachers
give us is this is for the shortcomings
within our salah.
And in this past year, even so we've
tried our best,
the reality is
each of us tries our best as a
father,
as a mother, as a community member.
But there are
shortcomings,
and there are sins that we commit in
this past year.
And a part of moving forward is asking
Allah
to forgive our past.
And Allah sub The prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam,
he actually brings us in a very beautiful
Hadith and he says that look, insan is
created in a way that we commit sins.
It's a human trait.
And then he carries on and he says
that if you were not to He says,
by the one whose hands my soul is
in, if you were not to sin, then
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will sweep you out
of existence.
And he would replace you
with a creation that would sin.
And then they would repent to Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. And every time that they repent,
they get closer and their bond gets stronger
with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And this is the beauty of Allah
The beauty of Allah
is that every time that you ask him
for forgiveness,
he loves it.
In sun,
my child says, Abba, I'm sorry. Abba, I'm
sorry. Abba, I'm sorry. And after some time,
I get tired of it, and I said,
you know what, your sorry means nothing to
me.
It's empty words.
But Allah
every time even though your words may be
empty, for Allah
it means a lot.
Your heart may not even be there. You
may even you may be thinking about some
random things as you say to Allah, oh
Allah, please forgive me. But that forgiveness,
the Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala loves. The Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala says, let me introduce you
to who I am. He says, Ar Rahman,
I am the most merciful. When you ask
me for forgiveness,
I love it. This past year didn't go
well, that's fine. This past year, you committed
sins, that's fine. This past year, you made
promise in the month of Ramadan and then
you went back to those sins, that's fine.
You have rahmad.
You have Raheem.
You have Ghafar.
You have Tawab.
Ask Allah for forgiveness
of everything that's happened this past year.
And this leads us to step number 3.
As we come to the end of
this Islamic year, it's important that you plan
for the changes in the upcoming year.
What will I do this year?
Is there something that I can do
to make this upcoming year different?
Some class,
some goals,
some achievements.
And it's not just Islamic, but any type
of growth.
I'm not gonna say that make sure you
sign up for a class here, and you
come to the halakha. That's a given.
But to set yourself
certain goals and certain plans for this upcoming
year, and the very famous saying that if
you don't plan at all, you're planning to
fail.
The failure to plan is planning to fail,
and that's what usually happens
for ourself. Our plan is
work, bring home a check, and that's it.
But set some goals for yourself.
You know, if reading Quran is a weak
point for you,
a goal of mine will be that I
will read
maybe once a week. Let's not overburden ourselves.
Maybe once a week of coming to the
merchant is a weak point for you, then
you know what? I will come Fridays and
one more day.
And then solely solely increase, and solely solely
increase. As the prophet salallahu alayhi wa samsays,
the most beloved actions
to Allah
are the ones that you do continuously.
If it's Friday
and Monday, then make sure every Friday and
Monday you come to the masjid.
And once you conquer that, add another day.
Once you conquer that, add another day. As
long as you can do it continuously,
that's what the goal should be.
But at the end of this year,
as we plan for next year, make sure
that there are certain things that you have
that
you that you set aside as goals.
And the 4th point,
as we wrap up this year, is to
understand the importance of time.
It's been 7 years since I joined this
community. And, honestly, it feels like time has
flew.
And,
life
is pretty much the same
where time just flies.
The prophet salallahu alayhi wa samaan hadith says
there are 2 niramats of Allah, 2 niramats
of Allah that very few people
utilize.
He says number 1,
good health.
Once you lose
it, then you value it.
He says, number 2, free time.
The time that you have, understand that there's
a value to it. Allah
of course says,
by the
token
of
time,
is losing out. You're not making the most
of it.
Except for the people that believe.
And they follow with good deeds, and they
encourage others to do good, and they encourage
other to be patient.
Imam Shafi'i Ramtula'i say that he would say
that
time is like a sword. If you don't
use
it to cut, it will cut you. In
the
Arabic language there is a saying. In English
they say, time is money.
In Arabic they say,
Time is more valuable
than wealth.
In the very famous hadith
value 5 things before 5, and one of
those 5 things is value the time that
you have now.
And what that looks like
is to understand that our time with
our children is limited.
So many things that we push off.
There's a conversation that I need to have
with my daughter. There's a conversation that I
need to have with my son where I
tell him, beta,
you matter to me.
I love you.
I won't just say it with my actions,
but in my words as well. But I
push that off. There's a lot of time.
There's a lot of time.
Today she's
17, 18, 19 years old, and I ask
myself, where did time go?
So, understanding number 4, the 4th thing is
understanding the value of time. That time will
continue to fly by
until you don't make the most of it.
We pray that Allah
gives us the ability to act upon
Oh, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. We ask for
infinite mercy. Oh, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. We
ask that you have mercy upon the Muslims
wherever they may be. Oh, Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. We ask that you have mercy upon
our brothers and sisters in Palestine. Oh, Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. As time flies, their their
their torture and their situation has remained the
same. Oh, Allah has only increased. Oh, Allah,
Subhanahu wa ta'ala, we ask that you turn
and turn the matters for them. Oh, Allah,
we ask that you give them ease. Oh,
Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'ala, we ask that you
give us the ability to make the most
of the time that we have. Oh, Allah,
Subhanahu, to help us strengthen in our relationships
with the time that we have. Oh, Allah,
give us the ability to make the most.
Oh, Allah, help us plan for the upcoming
year. Oh, Allah, help us ask for forgiveness
for all the sin in the past year.
Oh, Allah, forgive our sins, overlook our shortcomings,
pardon our mistakes. Oh, Allah, guide our youth
to that which is pleasing to you. Oh,
Allah, we ask for jannah and actions that
bring us close to jannah. Oh, Allah, we
seek protection from the fire of jannah and
actions that bring us close to the fire
of jannah. Oh, Allah, we ask that you
protect our youth. Oh, Allah, we ask that
you protect our community. Oh, Allah, we ask
that you give us unity amongst our community.
Oh Allah, do not test us more than
what we can bear. Oh Allah,
we ask that you be pleased with every
single one of us. Oh Allah, be pleased
with us. Oh Allah, be pleased with us.
There's a request
for brother
who is sick, brother
who is in the ICU, and,
who is going to have heart surgery. We
ask
give them strength. That Allah
give them complete, everlasting, that is quick, that
has that has in it. Allah gives their
families and patients during this hard time. Allah
return them home.