Mufti Menk – Farewell to The Haji

			salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.
		

			smilla rahmanir rahim al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa Salatu was Salam O Allah Muhammad Ali Al
amin Nabina Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa jabeen woman tambien v San elijo Medina that All
praise is due to Allah Subhana Allah to Allah blessings and salutations upon Muhammad sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam, his entire household, all his companions May Allah subhanho wa Taala bless them
all, and may He bless every single one of us.
		

			Beloved brothers and sisters, it brings a smile to the face to be back here, so soon after the month
of Ramadan, that it gives the feeling that we are fasting.
		

			May Allah subhanho wa Taala grant us goodness and May he accept from us the fast we've engaged in
and may we realize the fact that he has granted us the months of Hajj, which are very blessed
months, that commence immediately after the month of Ramadan.
		

			Today we are in the month of June,
		

			which is just before the ledger and many of the Hajaj are planning their trip Mashallah perhaps some
may have gone and some might be leaving very, very soon. We ask Allah subhanho wa Taala to take them
with goodness and to make easy for them the Hajj that they will be engaging in to facilitate for
them every form of comfort once they are in the house of Allah subhanho wa Taala and on that blessed
journey and to bring them back with a hedge mob rule, in a condition that we would have all
benefited from there are at least I mean,
		

			brothers and sisters, it is important for us to know that Hajj is one of the pillars of Islam. If
you take a look at the five pillars of Islam, you will come to realize that some of these pillars
are connected to a physical sacrifice, whilst others are connected to a monetary sacrifice. The
pillar of Hajj is one pillar that is connected to both physical as well as monetary. Let me give you
an example. for reading Salah you do not require cash, you require the physical movement for giving
zeca you do not require movement but your cash or your wealth needs to be given out. When it comes
to hedge. It is both. So this is Allah subhanho wa Taala
		

			it is a pillar of Islam that the almighty alone decides when it will be compulsory upon you. So if
you are a Muslim, and if you have arrived at the age of puberty, and if you are saying and if you
are a person who can afford the journey to Hajj and back and you have enough wealth to look after
your financial obligations during your absence or whilst you are on the journey of hedge, then it
would be necessary for you to go for the next possible hedge which means you start applying
nowadays, as you know, it is not like it was before we can decide last minute that we want to go for
Hajj and the visa is available. Some have applied for years on end and have still not had the good
		

			fortune of being accepted for this blessed journey. So we start applying if we do not show an
interest in this pillar of Islam, and we happen May Allah protect us all to die in a condition where
we were able and capable and it was compulsory upon us but we did not even try to go then it is
very, very dangerous and detrimental because it would be a pillar of Islam, that perhaps we would
not have held up yet we call ourselves Muslim. So by saying this, I'm encouraging myself and
yourselves. Once it is compulsory upon you. We need to start applying and making an effort to go May
Allah make it easy for us. And may Allah subhanho wa Taala take us again and again to the holy
		

			lands, and may He preserved the holy lands. May Allah subhanho wa Taala protect those holy lands for
the Ummah at large. So my brothers and sisters, people then go for Hajj, why is it that Allah has
given so much importance to this particular journey? We could probably write books about it. And
there are so many verses of the Quran that explain it. And so many a Hadith of the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that have explained it. But if we were to go through just a few of these
examples, we would come to realize that Ibrahim alayhi salatu salam sacrifice was so great that
Allah loved it so much that he decided and chose to keep that alive up to the end of time.
		

			And it was emulated by Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam, which actually became, which then became
even greater in spirituality. And then it became an obligation which became obviously that which if
we do not fulfill, we become sinful had we had the ability and capability to undertake the journey.
		

			So, Ibrahim alayhi salatu was Salam as a young boy, we know that he was searching for the truth in
the presence of his father, who was engaged in identity and either worship. And this is from the
Quran. The young man is questioning his father, oh my father, what are you worshiping? What is all
this about? This is a stone these are six, what are you doing? and his father says, You dare
question me. And he says, Look, I will not agree with this just blindly, because the way you are
doing things does not make sense at all. So Allah subhanho wa Taala love this because Ibrahim Alayhi
Salam at a very young age, he says, In the word gem,
		

			football on Sunday.
		

			I have indeed faced my face to the one who has created the skies and the earth, in purity. And I'm
not from amongst those who will associate partners with my Creator.
		

			That statement was so beloved to Allah subhanho wa Taala. And this young man continued on that path.
And he became such that very few people accepted his message. We find the Prophet loot loot was the
nephew of Ibrahim alayhi salatu was Salam lute, later to be known as alayhi salatu was Salam
accepted the message of his uncle and the wife of Ibrahim alayhi salatu salam by the name of sada
May Allah blessings be upon her. She accepted as well. And these were the two who had accepted the
message yet. Ibrahim alayhi salatu wa sallam was one of the highest of prophets of Allah subhanho wa
Taala, after Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
		

			And Allah says what
		

			Ibrahima Allah, Allah has taken Ibrahim alayhi salatu was salam, as a family, as a friend, as a very
close friend, Subhana Allah. So
		

			the closeness to Allah subhanho wa Taala was not connected to how many people accepted his message,
but it was connected to the message itself. And the pristine following of this powerful Nabhi of
Allah subhanho wa Taala. Now that he recognized the law, now that he knew his makeup, and now that
he had declared openly that Oh Allah, I have found you I'm going to face in your direction alone,
this beautiful path, I will worship you alone, whatever you instruct me, here I am this surrendering
he had already declared. So Allah says, okay, we are now going to test the slave of ours. By
instructing him to do things that will not make sense to the human mind.
		

			Today, we are instructed to do things that make sense to us, mostly, still, we don't engage in them.
So Allah says, hang on, this will happen and we will
		

			internalize this entire experience, and we will attain allies this entire life of this great Nabhi
of Allah subhanho wa Taala. And we will cause it to be emulated by Mohammed sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam, and perfected to the degree that up to the end of time, they will be lesson for everyone, as
to the surrendering to Allah subhanho wa Taala. So Allah says, We are instructing you to sacrifice
your child. Allahu Akbar, is my name and is Salatu was Salam. He had this child after a long time,
in old age. And when the child was young, imagine the love between a parent and a child. Yesterday I
spoke and I said, even the non Muslims, not only do they love their own children, but when we see
		

			little children of the non Muslim, they are so innocent. We tend to smile at them. We feel so much
comfort you see a little baby no matter what religion that baby's parents may be upon, but you feel
Wow, what a gorgeous child and we make to offer them May Allah subhanho wa Taala grant us all the
ability to find the path and trade upon it and to keep us on that path. May Allah do that for us. I
mean so Abraham either you
		

			salatu salam, when he was instructed with that instruction via a dream, via a dream, he decided to
inform his child that this is the dream of head Oh my son. In my dream I saw that I was sacrificing
you. What do you see? What's your opinion? Imagine? What type of an upbringing did Ebrahim a Salam
give the child of his and hotjar alayhi salatu salam who was the mother, that as soon as he said, I
saw this in a dream the child realized this is an instruction from Allah. He says, yeah.
		

			Oh, my father, do as you have been instructed, you will find me to be from amongst those who endure
		

			from amongst those who endure, we sometimes so we cannot endure getting up for Salatin. We cannot
endure dressing appropriately because of the pressure of society and community and the rest of our
friends we cannot endure giving up CDs that are full of dirty beat and so on. We ask Allah Subhana
Allah to Allah to grant us even that much of endurance, we will become powerful people. So this is
the example of Ibrahim alayhi salatu was Salam and his son, that we have a great lesson to learn
from people go for Hajj every year. Remember, it is a sacrifice of Ibrahim alayhi salatu salam, as
well as Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that they would be obligated to emulate and to continue
		

			and at the same time to come back, having surrendered to the law, Allah subhanho wa Taala and made a
declaration to say before I went and now that I'm back, I will be a changed individual. May Allah
subhanho wa Taala change us even without going.
		

			So brothers and sisters, look at the endurance, Allah says we to keep an eye on him as a close
friend. You know why? Because of this type of endurance. So if I endure, and if you do, and if we
are patient for the sake of Allah, and we surrender to the decree of Allah, we automatically become
friends of Allah subhanho wa Taala, automatically,
		

			we become friends of Allah. Why? Because I'm enduring for the sake of Allah, if endurance for the
sake of Allah in the past made them the Friends of a lot, then the same applies today. And each one
of us has a different level of endurance. And perhaps we will be enduring different things. Some
people need to practice restraint. That also is termed a sub restraint from what a person sometimes
has an idea to commit a sin. And suddenly they say, I'm not going to do that. Look at Ibrahim
alayhis salam, as he's going now to execute the plan. chiffon comes to him on three occasions, and
he pelts the devil, he tells the devil literal penalty. Why? Because this devil needed to be
		

			repelled. There is a physical, there is a physical effort that is required to repel the devil in my
life in your lives. And this is why we always say that when a person goes for Hajj, and they are
asked to throw those pebbles to where the devil was what we call jumbunna, to LA cabana, and so on
the jamara The idea is not to bruise or to damage the pillar that is there or to try and prove a
point by hitting a rock or an umbrella or or throwing a slipper or to upon that pillar. That's not
the idea. The idea is the devil that disturbs the individual such as myself and yourself on a daily
basis with bad habits, bad qualities, bad inclinations, I am saying Allahu Akbar. And I'm throwing
		

			that bad habit out leaving it exactly they meaner. So when I come back, I will have had a minimum of
49 a minimum of 49 of these bad habits of mine that I would have left in minimum. So say for
example, a person has a habit of lying, cheating, deceiving, adultery, *, say for example,
time wasting, missing Salah meaning laziness, say for example, consuming the wealth of others or
eating interests, say for example, any other bad habits you named and they are, they're gambling,
whatever else. If we leave out 49 of these habits, by the time we return from Hajj, we would be as
pure as the day we were giving birth to.
		

			And this is why Allah gives us the first day in Mina.
		

			On the eighth of the ledger, people go to Mina. When they go to Mina they will read five Salah in
minute according to the pseudonym Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and they will engage in the
love of the Quran, the vicar of Allah, perhaps a good reminder and meditation over our condition.
This is how much I am here. Bless
		

			A journey people at home are making to alpha me I'm making to offer them at the same time. What are
the bad habits I have, if we are weak, we can actually jot them down, write them down and take a
little paper with you. I've got this habit, that habit, this habit and so on. We start asking Allah
for forgiveness. Yeah, Allah changed my life helped me to give up this bad habit Yala. I'm very weak
when it comes to for example, the opposite * Yeah, Allah made me strong. These are some good
resolutions. So in Mena, we begin by meditating by thinking by by looking into the bad and the evil
and also look at the good and how we can increase it such that the next day when we go to alpha on
		

			the on the ninth,
		

			which is by far the most powerful day of Hajj. One narration says Alhaji arafa * rotates around
alpha that alpha is what is considered had you haven't been there. You can call yourself a *.
Allah subhanho wa Taala make it easy for us all. So when we get to Allah for the day, again,
deflection you are pondering, some people are only worried about their food. And I always tell them,
You worry about the food in a few hours, you'd have to worry about where the food goes.
		

			Really, it's reality those who've been to Africa, they know you need to just eat a little banana and
some sort of fruit because you want to Mashallah, like we say, the biryani Subhanallah you know
what's gonna happen, you're gonna have to think of where to release all that law cover in arafa
There won't be a place perhaps in Mena also if you might have to tag along and wait for hours on
end. So remember had is not about food and comfort, which is not about super drink and being clothed
well and smart. We need to know it's about a sacrifice to rejuvenate. It's about a sacrifice, to
dedicate the rest of your life to Allah subhanho wa Taala May Allah subhanho wa Taala grant us a new
		

			beginning today.
		

			So this is why if you take a look at the day of alpha, there is lot of seeking of forgiveness. We
say alpha the alpha to stand and make the dua in the late afternoon crying to Allah for ourselves
making to our for the guidance of our enemies you know like I always say the enemy people sometimes
only make dua for destruction anything small that happens Allah destroy him Allah breaker Allah show
them Allah fix them. These types of doors sometimes they are unhealthy because we make it for others
and others make it for us. So everyone is suffering. Rather we try to say Allah guide me Allah
soften the hearts yellow bring them towards the party Allah bring bring us close to what is right
		

			all of us yeah, Allah show us the light. These are positive to us. They have a good impact on us and
our outlook to life and even our outlook to the hereafter. positive impact right? We making positive
dua Allah grant him Jana, Grant me, Jana, to Allah, this is a good job. We see a man we disagree to
disagreements with him, whether it is in economics, whether it is in spirituality and religion,
whatever it is two, three differences and we cast the man like he is someone who doesn't deserve
paradise. What if he happens to end up being in paradise before us and we get there because he made
a deal, that we should be there. And then we sit there and say, Hey, I shouldn't have said that. And
		

			Allah says, Don't worry, I know what happened. I have a big heart, make a positive for one another.
The enemies of Islam soften their hearts so that they can come into the fold and support the cause.
Look at colleagues
		

			and so many other of the Sahaba who caused quite a bit of damage in the past when they accepted
Islam, they tried their best to recompense it by contributing towards the cause. So the day of
arafah The next day, or that evening we sleep in minutes. And what happens sorry we sleeping was
delivered and it was delivered. Normally you are under the canopy of the sky. Where you look at the
stars, you are there on the moon, the silence 1000s of people but they are either walking or they
are either snoring or should I say sleeping and some might be engaged in a bother. If we take a
careful look at that we would realize Allah is giving us this rejuvenation where you've just been
		

			forgiven that day in arafa. Now you are here today Subhana Allah or this evening in was deliever and
you are contemplating the day you will be in your grave when it's only you and Allah subhanho wa
Taala and you will have what can it be? It's only Allah's mercy that will grant you any canopy in
your grave. So we are thinking about it, and we are considering and contemplating. And we are
thinking deeply about the day that we will be all on our own.
		

			Just a number. Like I said in the month of Ramadan and I'm repeating it again. Do you know your name
becomes irrelevant against your body, the day you die? Have you ever heard that your name becomes
irrelevant?
		

			against your body the day you die? Because when you die just like when anyone else you know has
died. They say
		

			Where is the body? Bring the body? Have you watched the body? They don't say Where is bring? Did you
watch? Let's put him down is going down they say the body bring the body down Why? Mashallah, he
will always be remembered. But against the body, the name is no longer relevant. Allahu Akbar, we
need to think that so this is why when you go for Hajj, your name is irrelevant. You are just a *
like another 3 million you know, nobody's going to say Okay, you know what? You are allowed to wear
a suit because you know what back at home you got the big bucks. No one's gonna say that you have to
weigh the same two you're not allowed to actually show that you are different. Even the perfume not
		

			allowed. Why? Because someone might have montale rights. The other one might be having Rodriguez
Subhana Allah and one saying hey, man is better than his. So then they say, hey, this guy's a rich
guy. Let's turn towards that direction. No, no, nothing of that nature works. We are equal. We are
at par Mashallah. Allah tells you when you go down into your grave, you're not going to take your
Mercedes with you. You're not going to take your perfume with you your money with you, everything is
going to be left behind. So in Mustafa we contemplate and consider and we prepare ourselves for the
day we are going to meet with Allah make ourselves conscious and promise Allah that we will remain
		

			conscious of the day we are going to die from this day on.
		

			And then the following day in minute, the first thing we do the big bad habits that we have we leave
them there. Allahu Akbar, that's my jealousy gone. Allahu Akbar. That's the deception gone. Allahu
Akbar. That's the bad habits that I've had of whatever else gone. This is the backbiting gone. This
is the, you know, the the, whatever else you'd like to say adultery, *, gambling, all the
other bad habits, drugs and so on. May Allah subhanho wa Taala help us imagine you release seven
major bad habits. The next day, another 21 The following day, another 21. So we've already got 49
minimum and if you want to stay for another day, perhaps you will release even a few more. But
		

			nowadays when we go we don't consider that sometimes because we just go we bout I've seen with my
own eyes, people take rocks.
		

			Today I'm confronting you.
		

			I've seen that happening.
		

			I've seen it. I've actually seen people take umbrellas and start working the poor pillar, the
pillar. The pillar is only a demarcation of where you are supposed to be throwing your paper in more
the devil that's inside that needs to come out then the devil that's there that needs to be whacked
low, aka that was the case would have taken him out a long time ago.
		

			So when we come back, people must feel this man we are his bad habits. We come back humble. We are
down to earth. We've sacrificed we've done the office era.
		

			We've made for ourselves we've made for everyone else who's around us and for the entire humanity
and we are so positive. We have such a link with Allah We are blessed. And for example, one of the
bad habits is you know, our urge to dress inappropriately. That bad habit is left in a minute we
come back, our scarf is on the head. In the case of the women, we are dressed appropriately. We no
longer have the urge to dress in tight clothing. May Allah protect us, but rather we dress properly
because now we have had the opportunity to go for Hajj. We may never get that opportunity again. Can
I tell you how fortunate we are. I met someone from Indonesia a few years back and they told me Make
		

			dua I haven't yet been for Hajj. But I said you are quite old. So the uncle tells me, you know, I am
here for him and I met him in Makkah. I'm here for hombre. Allah has granted me Well, I've been
applying to come for Hajj for the last 15 years. My name is not yet come through.
		

			I give preference to those who are much older.
		

			We are sitting in a country where two three years you try and inshallah it will happen by the will
of Allah.
		

			And there was a time when we didn't even need that. So are we waiting for a time when perhaps it
will take even longer before we can go for Hajj. Is that the case? Or are we from amongst those who
have been chosen to go for Hajj, but we came back without changing our lives. This is why they say
that to go for Hajj and to engage in the physical actions of Hajj quite simple, because you can go
to camp somewhere in a tent elsewhere perhaps in the college Camps Bay if you had the Camps Bay
around the corner, and you might be there for a few days and you might enjoy whatever you're
enduring. You came back and you say Wow, we had a good trip to Kansas Bay.
		

			Hodges not just like that, no, you can't just say we had a nice trip to Hajj but you're still in the
nightclub. You haven't given up your bad dress code.
		

			You haven't, for example, given up, you're lying, you're stealing, you're deceiving. Your problem
causing some people's bad habit is that they just love to light the match, like the match. They say
like, you know, shape and he wanted to prove that, you know, I am just a person who does very
little, I do very little, I don't make people commit murder and so on. I do very little. So he
wanted to show them what he did. He took a small droplet of honey, put it on the side of the table.
		

			And he went to he sitting at the back and watching droplet of honey, this is how things start. When
we don't control ourselves. Small Things can become huge, because we fall prey to the devil, small
thing can become massive. So here comes that little honey fly set on it. And what happened,
		

			a little spider came along, grab the fly. And then a little lizard came grab the spider, then a
little Rat King Crab, the lizard, then a cat King, crab. So Panama, then a dog came
		

			and ate the cat. And then passes the owner of the cat. And he started hitting the dog and then
passes the owner of the dog started hitting the owner of the cat.
		

			And then one murder the other. And he says it was just a drop of honey law Kabbalah, Allah subhanho
wa Taala grandma's goodness anyway, that the moral of that entire little parable is that we should
make sure we do not create a mountain out of a molehill. It happens sometimes my brothers and
sisters we need to reflect some people it's in their nature to cause problems. So even if nothing
wrong was said they carry a tail from here today. When a man gives us the opportunity to go for
Hajj, we need to come back saying yeah Allah. If there is anything bad, I will make a dua to you to
help and rectify and I will try my best to positively contribute to the matter so that it can be
		

			resolved rather than going and carrying tails here and there.
		

			This is the goodness this is what Allah subhanho wa Taala has blessed us with. And this is why those
who have been afforded the opportunity to go for Hajj. If they returned from Hajj without having
changed their entire lives, it is going to be such a big loss because they may never get that
opportunity again. And there are so many others who would have loved to go who have not been able to
go but you were given the chance. Why did you come back and you still haven't changed your life. May
Allah subhanho wa Taala bless us who have already been for Hajj to change our lives once again and
bring it back on the straight and narrow May Allah bless us. So my brothers and sisters, like I said
		

			to fulfill the physical part of Hajj is not so difficult. Because today, everything has been made
easy. The aircraft are so easy or they make it so easy to fly so comfortable. And you arrive there
in 10 hours, you're ready 11 hours you're ready then sometimes you pass by Dubai in order to buy all
your stuff. Now Allah protect us. Yes. And sometimes we coming back via Dubai because we want to buy
all the things before we get home. See, they name it actually they know how to get hold of me and
you.
		

			And so that's the journey we went for Hajj, but Where were you all the stuff you bought from? Oh,
that was when we were in transit.
		

			And we call it a journey of Hajj. That's how easy it is you go and stay in the five star hotel
Mashallah, you know, one day there was an uncle.
		

			And we were sitting in the mythos. And he says, you know, this is a sign of Tiana, look at these
tall buildings, look at what's going on. And I tried to calm him down, because there's nothing I
myself or yourself can start doing about it. And anyway, we talking and so on. And I happen to, you
know, he said, Look, this is very bad, it shouldn't happen. I tried to explain to him Look, the good
jobs are increasing in number and so on and so forth. Let's look at the different angle of it.
Because at the end of the day, I can't really do much about it. So after a while, I asked him, you
know, what were you saying?
		

			He turned around and looked at the tower, and he looked at me and he says better I don't say.
		

			I said so they built it for you.
		

			Allah make it easy for us. That's how comfortable life is in five star accommodation. Right next to
the bottom, you can see the cabin, and you can see the crowd and choose when to go down. That never
happened. Right in 1970s and 80s. Ask those who have been in the 50s how difficult the journey was,
and how they had to struggle, and how hot it was and how sickness and so many other things we need
overtook them. Some of them lost their lives day. But today, life has become so easy. So the
physical part of it has become more and more easy. They now have a train going and coming. They now
have so many different facilities we've had a lot for myself and yourselves. But the problem is not
		

			that the difficulty is when we come back. We are taking the spiritual aspect of it for granted.
		

			We're taking it for granted. Let us go back and thank Allah for that.
		

			facilitation because our physical bodies are not as powerful as that of our grandfathers anymore.
They could endure the heat today we need a condition they could endure the cold today we need
blankets and heaters but with us we will go not realizing that the facilitation from Allah regarding
our physical aspect is there in order for us to enhance the spirituality yet we come back we're the
same person. As we come back the same evening, a guy Saturday night I'll see you there. What's that?
Allahu Akbar May Allah subhanho wa Taala help us to change. You know, the sooner we realize that we
are going to meet a love very very soon, the sooner we become a better person, and we ask Allah
		

			subhanho wa Taala to bless us all. These are just a few lessons that inshallah we have derived from
the journey of Hajj and I hope and I pray that I have said a word or two that can help myself and
yourselves and I really want to make dua for the judge who are going May Allah make it easy for you.
May you come back with
		

			our do aza with you Don't forget us in your eyes and the suffering humanity across the globe make
dua for them as well. We do make dua for them. My brothers and sisters that Allah you know, must
have worked tirelessly through the month of Ramadan, I'm sure there are so many of the scholars of
Islam who have had beautiful programs in the month of Ramadan. Let's appreciate their efforts. They
are in our midst, they work so hard, it is about time we got up and supported them and looked at
their work and try to be a part of it. Because if we are not a part of the scholars of all of those
who are around us and we do not make use of them, then what are we waiting for? Will we be waiting
		

			for someone to drop from heaven by that time it may be too late. So we appreciate the efforts of
every single scholar of Islam and every single Muslim who has contributed in a positive way towards
the oma my brothers and sisters. We are proud of you and we are already part of one family. And we
really need one another at this moment and we need to support one another and give one another a
good message a positive message so that we can be boosted and our link with Allah subhanho wa Taala
can be strengthened. May Allah subhanho wa Taala make it easy for those who are going for Hajj to
come back and live their lives as judge who have been already for Hajj and May Allah subhanahu wa
		

			taala grant us goodness until inshallah we meet again also De La Hoya selama albaraka ala nabina
Muhammad