Mufti Menk – Ask Allah Respectfully – 27th Night of Ramadan – Light Upon Light
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The upcoming month of december is known as the month in which the Quran was revealed, and fasting is necessary to achieve the taqwa, which is the main objective. The importance of praying for one another and not letting fear control our actions is emphasized, as well as the importance of not mocking at Allah's actions and not showing negative language. Visits to Jumu'ah and recitation of the Quran are also emphasized, as well as not making mockery of things like the umroom and not showing food in a way that is wasting or bragging about weight.
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Firstly, I want to welcome you all to
this beautiful Iftar
on this eve of
27th Ramadan
in London. May Allah almighty accept it from
us and grant us
true forgiveness during this beautiful month of Ramadan.
May Allah make us utilize the rest of
the days of Ramadan and the nights in
a way that we still achieve his forgiveness
and we achieve the taqwa,
which is the main objective of this month
of Ramadan.
In Surat Al Baqarah, Allah describes the month
of Ramadan as being the month in which
the Quran was revealed.
It was easy for him to say Shahru
Ramadan is the month of fasting.
And in the verse before that, he did
say, oh, you who believe,
fasting has been prescribed upon you just like
it was
upon those before you. Let's read the verse.
He mentions the reason of the fast is
to become more conscious of Allah,
who your maker is,
where you were before you were made, where
you are right now,
and where you will go. Allah wants you
to ponder over it. Allah wants you to
develop yourself,
your connection with him, your respect for all
the others whom he created.
That's Allah. So he says,
In order that you achieve taqwa.
Taqwa can be translated as the consciousness of
Allah, the fear of Allah, the
piety also known as taqwa,
the connection with Allah creating a barrier between
you and the punishment of Allah. All of
these are part
of the word and the term taqwa.
Allah says when you fast correctly, the idea
is to help you achieve that taqwa.
So become conscious of Allah. Think and ponder.
Don't just stay hungry through the day and
you haven't even read your 5 salah. Don't
just stay hungry through the day and you
have not disciplined yourself.
So we have a few more days insha
Allah
in which if we have not achieved much
in the past days, we will be achieving
much more by the will of Allah, subhanahu
wa ta'ala, in the last few days.
Let's take it seriously as we are seated
here.
It is a time of calling out to
Allah as well.
You can continuously
repeat your supplications and your duas while you
are seated here, while you are listening to
what's going on. And throughout the evening,
one of the most important duas,
Oh, Allah, you are forgiving. You love to
forgive, so forgive me.
One of the important duas, repeat that
throughout at any time, even now as we
are seated.
Within yourself, you can say it with the
movement of your lips, a slight voice. Oh,
Allah, you love to forgive. You are forgiving.
You love to forgive, so forgive me.
And with that, whatever you want, Allah has
kept in every one of us
needs that can never be fulfilled by anyone
besides him. So Allah wants you to ask
him, call out to him, make du'a to
him, cry to him, Ask him. Continuously
ask him. Ask him again and again, and
Allah Almighty will open your doors.
So don't waste a moment.
Don't waste a moment because
these are the last few days of Ramadan.
We get very serious. If Allah wanted, he
could have had the night of decree known
as Laylatul Qadr right at the beginning of
Ramadan, and he could have told us what
day and date it was,
but he didn't keep it at the beginning.
One of the reasons is people would have
just fasted on that day, worshiped on that
day, and the rest of it, they would
have had fun.
But he kept it at the end. So
as you build the climax, you
build, and towards the end, you get even
more serious.
Similarly, he did not let us know what
the day and exact night
it was
because had he told that to us, everyone
would have come just on 27th
or 29th,
or if he had set the date of
25th or 26th,
we would have just come on that night,
and the rest of the nights, what are
you doing? I promise you sitting at the
shisha lounge,
puffing away, claiming that there's nothing wrong with
this. It's okay. I'm chilling. It's at night.
Would you believe
that 2 days ago, someone asked me a
question,
does
smoking the shisha
or the hookah, whatever you guys call it,
what do you guys call it here?
What do you call it? Husha. Shisha.
Okay. Does smoking that break the fast? Woah.
Does it break the fast?
SubhanAllah.
Even if you're not fasting, you are broken.
SubhanAllah.
So you gotta quit the habit. It's a
bad habit. Really, it is a bad habit.
And if you are fasting, it's even worse.
Obviously, the fast is broken. May Allah Almighty
forgive us. Imagine people are looking for any
excuse
to continue to do whatever
they want to do. Nonetheless,
we have a few nights of seriousness. We
are going to be serious The next few
nights, pick up the Quran. Even those who
have not yet picked it up throughout the
month, pick it up from today, tonight.
Read a few verses from your phone wherever
else it may be. Read them. I know
there are those from amongst us who have
not even opened the Quran throughout this entire
month. I know it because youngsters have confided
and said, you know what? I I really
wasted my time. What should I do? And
I said, it's
not yet over. You are fortunate that you
are thinking about this before the month is
actually over. So take it seriously. Read a
portion of the Quran. Read the meaning of
it. Make your duas. Pray for yourself and
for others.
Do not forget our brothers and sisters in
Gaza. Come what may, that should be the
beginning of your prayer. We ask Allah right
at the beginning to grant them comfort, safety,
security, and victory. May Allah Almighty grant it
to them.
So as much as we want to make
du'a for our own needs, people want to
earn, people want to marry, people want children,
people want good health, people want so many
other things.
Remember to pray for those
besides you who are in need, and at
times those needs are far greater than yours.
Whenever I think of our brothers suffering in
Palestine and Gaza right now,
my problems become
small, insignificant,
almost nothing. I think to myself, wallahi, I'm
living in a nima and a favor of
Allah. What problem do I have? It's minute.
It's almost
embarrassing to ask Allah
for something that is so small when there
is something humongous in front of you that
you forget sometimes to ask Allah for just
because it's someone else. We are believers,
and we reach out to everyone in whatever
way we can. May Allah Almighty grant us
that goodness. So my brothers and sisters,
the Quran, Allah says, shahru Ramadan, the month
of Ramadan in which the Quran was revealed.
In it, what is there?
There is guidance for mankind,
clear signs from Allah
And there is a criterion Allah distinguishes between
right and wrong,
falsehood and the truth. And if you are
to connect with Allah, he will give you
the ability to distinguish between right and wrong.
In this day and age,
we are living at a time of
technological advancement with positives and negatives. One of
the negatives
is that on social media, we see so
many things.
At times, we don't know how to tell
the difference between what is true and what
is false. We fall victim
to accusing people of something they were not
guilty of simply because we saw a video,
not realizing it's either just a clip that
doesn't give you the context
or it is totally fabricated and we didn't
even realize.
May Allah Almighty grant us ease.
May Allah almighty grant us ease.
It's becoming more and more difficult to distinguish
between right and wrong, but when you are
close to Allah and you develop a relationship
with Allah, he will definitely make you
from among those who can distinguish.
And the bare minimum is you stay away
from that which is futile
and that which does not concern you.
Many times people comment about others without realizing
Allah's not going to ask you about them
at all.
You want to help someone? Do so. You
want to guide someone? Do so. You want
to correct someone? Do so in the best
possible way. But don't involve in their lives
negatively such that you lose and nothing happens
to them besides the fact that they would
get your good deeds if you have any,
such as when you've backbitten them, when you've
slandered them, when you've harmed them
unjustly. You're doing things that, subhanAllah,
have resulted in your connection with Allah becoming
distanced. This is the month of Ramadan.
We should be conscious of what goes in
our mouths, what comes out of our mouths.
A few more days remaining,
occupy your tongue with the remembrance of Allah.
I'd rather say
I'd rather say that statement
any day
than to talk about another person behind their
backs in a way that they would not
be impressed if they heard what you said.
That's called hibah.
I'd rather say,
glorifying
Allah and praising Allah. Why?
Because
the Hadith says,
2 words,
2 little phrases
that are very light on the tongue, very
heavy on the scale,
very loved by Allah.
That's a hadith, the last hadith in Sahih
al Bukhari, and the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
stressed to us the importance of the remembrance
of Allah and how
small phrases can be heavy on the scale
for you or against you. In this case,
for you.
And then
when you utter bad words, it will be
against you even if you think it's something
light.
When you accuse someone of having an affair,
for example,
Allah Almighty
warns us in Suratun Nur
when they accused Aisha
of immorality,
and they belittled it in the sense that
they thought it's not really something big and
serious to talk about, meaning to talk about
it is not such a grave sin because
it's something small. Allah says,
You think it's something light, but in the
eyes of Allah, it is humongous
to utter those words. This shows us that
there are some words we consider light.
Light, small.
We accuse someone, we hurt someone, we said
something about someone, and we don't even think
about it twice. And Allah says, on the
scales, it's actually very heavy, but on the
wrong side.
In the same way, you have words of
praise of Allah
that are simple but heavy on the scale.
On the right side, you have words of
slander and backbiting and accusation
and evil words that might be light on
the tongue,
heavy on the scale, but on the wrong
side. May Allah protect us. This is the
month of Ramadan.
Become conscious of it. Make life easy for
people and develop your relationship with Allah.
Many of us struggle to pray 5 times
a day. Let's be honest.
Many of us struggle to pray 5 times
a day. Today is the day when we
promise Allah, oh, Allah,
strengthen me to fulfill my
obligations
unto you
and make it difficult for me to sin.
Woah. That's a beautiful dua. Oh Allah,
make it easy for me to fulfill my
obligations unto you. Call out to Allah with
this dua and be serious about it.
When you say, oh, Allah, help me to
find a spouse, what do you do? You
open your eyes and you look, don't you?
You make an effort. Am I right?
SubhanAllah. That one we understand. But when we
ask Allah to make it easy for us
to fulfill our obligations unto him, shouldn't we
also be energized
to fulfill it?
Make an effort. Don't just say, oh, you
know what? I made a dua to Allah
to make it easy for me to get
up for salah, but he didn't wake me
up. But you didn't set your clock, and
you didn't make an effort, and you didn't
even have
the intention to get up.
In that case, what happened? You made a
dua, but you were not so serious. This
evening, we are serious about it.
The ummah the ummah needs us, needs every
one of us.
We are together tonight.
Islam has given importance to togetherness.
It has given importance to groups,
gatherings,
getting together
as one ummah.
It's
called jama'a,
a group
of whom? Of Muslims, people who gather.
Jumu'ah, what is it? It's the day of
gathering.
The day when everybody comes together. What do
you gather for?
You gather for prayer.
You gather in order to listen
to a talk known as a Khutba that
will wake you up,
that will give you guidance,
that will address some of your fears and
concerns and some of the issues that are
affecting you as an ummah.
That's what the Jumu'ah is all about. And
if you don't attend the Jumu'ah, can you
really call yourself a Muslim?
Can you really call yourself a Muslim when
you are not bothered about the Jumu'ah?
Let's make an effort, insha'Allah. We will attend
it properly, regularly,
arrive on time, and even before the time.
And insha'Allah,
we ask Allah to reward us. So that
getting together is very important. This evening, we
have gotten together 15,000 or more of us.
And Allah Almighty alone knows the conditions of
the hearts of each one of us. All
of you have issues and problems and difficulties
and hardships that you will cry to Allah
for because he made you in a way
that you have hardships in your life. Not
a single one of us can say I
have absolutely no hardship, no difficulty, nothing to
call to Allah for.
But each one of us, our difficulties are
unique to our own lives.
I have issues, my problems,
my hardships, my difficulties.
Allah alone knows them. I know some of
them. I may not know even all of
them. Allah knows them. But I ask Allah
to help me
overcome
whatever hardship it is and to help all
of you in your unique lives,
whatever it may be that is bothering you,
whatever concerns, anxiety, struggles, whatever you have, may
Allah Almighty make it easy for you. Today,
I want you to pray for one another
too. We say, oh, Allah, in this wonderful
gathering that has come together to open the
fast together, to be reminded of you, oh,
Allah,
to fulfill prayer together. Oh, Allah, everyone who
is here,
help them in whatever way they need that
help,
and make easy for them
the obedience of you,
and make easy for them their lives and
grant them entry into Jannah
and paradise.
May Allah guide us all to the straight
path. That is a concern
for the ummah.
When you are worried about the ummah, you
start praying for everyone.
When you are not worried about the ummah,
you only pray for yourself.
I saw a little clip
on social media
of people asking Allah, oh Allah, grant me
a g Wagon and grant me a pink
bag and grant me something else. Have you
seen that?
I want to tell you never ever
make a mockery of du'a. That's what I
want to say. As much as people may
have laughed, as much as they might have
made a serious du'a, for me, it cannot
have been serious when you are videoing it,
laughing about it, and so on. Dua is
one of the highest and greatest acts of
worship.
I would never have said this if it
was not a serious matter.
Don't make a mockery of dua because then
you when you're asking Allah serious things, subhanallah,
what do you expect?
I don't want people to come and make
a laughter about something that's a massive act
of worship. And people might say, Sheikh, you're
taking it too seriously. It's just a joke.
Trust me, I have better jokes than that.
But they're not mocking at Allah and his
Rasul, sallallahu alaihi wa sall. Don't I have
better jokes, guys? Come on. Come on.
Should I say 1?
I'm fasting, so I'd rather spend the time
not saying 1. Come back in December light
upon light, and I guarantee you, inshallah, if
I'm there, we give you one. Right?
And by the way, I know it's April.
That wasn't an April fools.
May Allah grant us ease.
So the point I'm raising is, yes, it's
okay to ask Allah for whatever you want.
No problem. Masha'Allah, you ask. But don't make
a mockery of it.
Do you get my point? May Allah Almighty
give those sisters better than what they were
asking.
Is that a fair duha?
May Allah give them better than what they
were asking, and may we we believe inshallah
their intentions were good. Nonetheless
nonetheless,
the lesson is for all of us, don't
make a mockery of things.
You can create perhaps content that might be
content of laughter
for as long as it's within the limits,
that's okay. But try and make it beneficial
somehow, either for your deen or your dunya.
Your worldly life, alhamdulillah,
you benefit people by saying something, doing something,
or
for your religion, your faith, your connection with
Allah,
some Quran and so on. We have the
Imams of the Haram this year. Amazing. Awesome.
I had the good
gift of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala of being
in Makkah for a short time in Ramadan
and Madinah Munawwara.
Trust me, I heard some recitation.
I did not want it to stop. When
the imam was going into ruku, I felt
up I felt a pain that he should
have continued. What was the name of this
imam?
Anyone knows one of the new imams in
Makkah?
I can hear someone saying shamsan, one of
them. Another one?
Sheikh Badr. I can hear these names. Look,
we know who they are. Sheikh Badr at
Turki, in my opinion, may Allah protect him,
preserve him. Listen to his recitation.
I love it so much. I fell in
love with this guy. I can't stop watching,
listening, and repeating over and over again. For
some reason, everyone is impacted and affected differently
by different reciters and at different times it's
another reciter. You might find someone else in
a few months time. But for now, for
me, this man did it in the month
of Ramadan such that I was moved and
motivated.
Imagine the Quran,
the recitation of the Quran,
listening to the Quran. If you're not good
at reciting it, minimum
listen to it, try to repeat the words.
Wallahi, it brings pain to the hearts. When
I see young boys and girls, sometimes little
children
memorizing
song after song after song with words at
times that are so embarrassing, I don't even
think they themselves know the words. I remember
a young person
who was singing a little song with words,
and I said, do you know this? Do
you know what it means? And they said,
no, because it was in another language. So
how are you saying it? Well, I just
learned what it's saying, you know. Imagine, it's
a fact.
They learned the words
without knowing what they mean because it was
in another language, and they learned it.
Well,
how much effort did you put to learn
this Quran? It's the month of Ramadan. Didn't
we say Allah says shaharoo Ramadan? Allahviunzilafi'il
Quran.
The month in which the Quran was revealed.
That's one of the most important facts about
Ramadan. That's why Allah says it in the
Quran.
Can't we make an effort to memorize a
little bit? Trust me my brothers and sisters,
we can do it by the will of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. May Allah Almighty grant
every one of us goodness and ease. May
Allah open our doors. Wallahi. We are here
in great numbers.
We need to be very, very considerate of
everyone else,
and we need to be selfless tonight.
Help each other.
I'm sure you already have
a pack, the cold pack as they call
it.
I'm sure you will hear the instruction when
the adhan goes, InshaAllah, we will open our
fast. We give it a few moments. We
will do our salatulmagrib,
and after salatulmagrib,
we will remain exactly where we are for
guess what? What are we getting?
The hot meal by the will of Allah.
And then we will, Insha'Allah,
enjoy that hot meal. It will take a
bit of a time to get it across
to all the 1,000 who are here. Be
patient.
Once you get it, inshallah,
don't forget to say Bismillah
before you eat, by the will of Allah
Subhanahu wa ta'ala. May Allah grant us goodness
and ease. And as we eat,
we will remember those who don't have food.
I want to
remind you of something important.
When others don't have something, it doesn't mean
you should also not have the same thing.
If people are struggling in one part of
the world, we feel their struggle, we reach
out to them, we send them whatever we
can, we help in whatever way we can,
but that doesn't mean I need to starve
to death as well, to show support to
them. No.
I also need to eat, but I will
not be extravagant,
and I will not show food in a
way that I'm wasting or bragging about how
much I have. Then it becomes
a person who's insensitive
of of what's going on. But I'm allowed
to eat, I can have food. People said,
you guys are distributing food to so many.
Why didn't you just send it to those
who don't have food across the globe? Well,
you know what? We've already sent a lot,
but I have to eat. You have to
eat.
Don't
lie.
This the person talking
has also eaten,
subhanAllah.
So why look at someone and say,
why don't you do something for someone that
we've done, and we will continue to do?
It doesn't mean I'm not allowed to eat.
The reason I say this is because what
is wrong is when people are extravagant.
When people have so much and they want
to brag about how much they have in
terms of food and drink and so much
lavish
meals when others really don't have,
then it becomes
crossing a line that we should not cross.
May Allah make it easy for all of
us and grant us the best of this
fast today,
the best of all the fast we have
already fasted, and the best of the days
to come. May Allah make us from those
who have fasted the month of Ramadan in
the proper way, and may Allah forgive our
shortcomings.
May Allah make us from those who stand
in Taraweeh the proper way, and may Allah
forgive our shortcomings. And may Allah Almighty truly
bless every one of us. Like I said
earlier, the patience you have to endure tonight,
Insha'Allah,
bear in mind, we are here to worship
Allah.
We are here to enjoy a meal together,
the Iftar together inshallah,
and worship Allah, achieve something, and leave.
So as we leave,
please bear in mind the etiquette
of having attended a function like this. Let's
not make,
you know, a scene outside
that would not depict the reason why we
are here by the will of Allah Subhanahu
wa ta'ala. May Allah bless you all. I
hand over back to brother Omar.