Mufti Menk – Habit Building – Doha Qatar
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The speakers emphasize the importance of not just being worshiped alone, but also being worshiped by others. They stress the importance of understanding the word of Allah and the reward of people who read and listen to the Quran. The message is rewarded for those who study and implement it, and fasting, praying, and small small challenges are emphasized. The importance of testing oneself and others to see if they have any issues, building habits to avoid false positives and false expectations, and testing oneself and others to see if they have any issues.
AI: Summary ©
My beloved brothers and sisters, this is the
month of Ramadan.
And this is a Friday within the month
of Ramadan.
And this is the time of Salatul Jumu'ah.
So we have a blessed moment, in a
blessed
week, in a blessed
month,
and all this is the favor of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
My advice to you
and to myself is to be conscious of
Allah, to worship him alone. For indeed,
he is the owner of entire creation, The
creator
who placed you and I on earth
without us having a say.
None of us is on earth because we
chose to be here.
But rather we are on earth
because we were placed here.
And therefore, develop a relationship
with the one who has made you.
He alone
deserves to be worshiped.
When a person enters the fold of Islam,
they declare what we know as the shahada.
In it, they bear witness that there is
none
worthy of worship besides Allah.
Why then would we be worshiping any deity
or anyone or anything
besides Allah.
So it's very important to seize
a beautiful month like the month of Ramadan
to connect with the maker alone.
It is also the month of solidarity.
Today we are seated here in our 1,000,
wanting to hear
something that will bring us closer to Allah
and his Rasul salallahu alaihi wasallam.
Because it's the month of Ramadan, our hearts
are softened.
But do you realize it's the month of
solidarity? Those who are seated here with you
are your brothers, your sisters
in faith,
which is a stronger relation than the relation
of blood.
If you feel a good feeling towards those
whom you come across,
as you do your daily chores and go
to work and come back,
those whom you meet, those whom you see,
if you feel a connection,
and if you feel that they were in
trouble in any way, shape or form,
you would try your best to assist them
as per your capacity,
then Insha Allah, you are heading in the
right direction. The month of Ramadan
is a month of reaching out to those
in need. Not just in need of money,
not just in need of food and drink,
in need of anything, at times even a
good word.
May Allah Almighty make us from among those
who are conscious of this.
If that is the case and it is,
then
imagine saying a bad word. Imagine uttering that
which is abusive,
hurtful, hateful.
Surely,
it would be the opposite of what is
required of you as a believer.
And therefore, remember the statement of the prophet
salallahu alaihi wasallam
where he says, a believer
is not abusive.
He is not deceitful.
He is not hurtful.
He is not vulgar.
But rather a believer is he who utters
that which is upright.
Whoever believes in Allah
and in the last day, meaning
a person who is truly concerned about the
account
that is going to be taken on the
day of judgment,
such a person would only utter that which
is beneficial
or remain
silent.
May Allah Almighty
grant us the ability to
use our tongues and our mouths in His
remembrance
and in that which will be beneficial for
us on the day of judgment.
This is a month of the Quran because
the Quran was revealed in this beautiful month
of
Ramadan.
Allah says it is the month of Ramadan
in which the Quran was revealed
as a guidance
to mankind.
I promise you, my brothers and sisters,
the most
powerful word in existence is the word of
Allah.
The most
powerful message there is in existence
is the message sent to you by Allah.
Do you know that message?
When Allah has specialized
the month every single year of your life,
that is known as the month of the
Quran, but you have not done enough
to understand
the message
of Allah that is the most powerful, most
important message.
Surely, a day like this
should be a day of contemplating,
considering
and thinking
about how we can do better when it
comes to
understanding the word of Allah.
There are people who have reached their fifties
sixties,
And they've read so many books in their
lives
during their school days and perhaps later on.
But at times they are guilty
of not even trying
to read the Quran
and understand it.
Our duty towards the Quran is not only
to perfect the Arabic recitation.
Yes, that is extremely important.
And yes,
you will get a reward for every letter
multiplied by 10, and in Ramadan
even beyond that. But you will get an
equal reward
for learning,
trying to understand,
putting into practice and conveying it to others.
In more than one place in the Quran,
Allah is asking a question.
Will you not
consider,
contemplate,
ponder deeply over the verses of the Quran?
Are you not going to attempt to try
and understand it?
To try and ponder over it? To look
into it? Well, that is the message. At
a loss,
is the one who spends his life without
knowing what did Allah actually tell me in
His book.
The message was for me.
This is why we have the month of
Ramadan that keeps coming again and again.
We are fortunate in our beautiful masajid.
May Allah reward those who made this masjid
and who actually
thought of putting it here. And may Allah
reward all those who have put up masajid
across the globe. And may He use us
to put up these masajid
to make use of them. We are so
fortunate we have these houses of Allah, Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
Where melodious recital during the month of Ramadan
in many of those
masajid, the entire Quran is completed in recitation.
How beautiful is that? Imagine the reward of
the people who read, the reward of those
who listen, but do you realize
there is an equal reward for the one
who attempts to understand that word?
I cannot
over emphasize
the issue
of connecting with the meaning of the Quran.
It will change your life.
Promise today, that we will spend a portion
of the day, even if it be 5
minutes a day, to try and connect with
the Quran in the most beautiful way. This
is the month of the Quran. That is
why we are speaking about it specifically.
May Allah Almighty accept it from us.
My brothers and sisters, the Quran will transform
you. It will develop your character and conduct.
When Aisha radhiallahu anha was asked about the
character and conduct of the Prophet
she answered with a simple sentence,
His character was the Quran.
From this, it means that the Quran would
transform you and I to the degree where
your character and conduct would outshine
everybody else.
May Allah make us from among those with
the best of character and conduct. Yet in
the same Quran,
Allah speaks about Muhammad
And Allah Almighty says,
Indeed you
are upon
the highest level of character and conduct, if
we can translate it that way.
Adim, huge.
Something massive.
The most impressive character and conduct was that
of the prophet
It's not easy to be kind to those
who are unkind.
But the prophet
did it. It's not easy to be good
to those who have harmed you. But the
prophet
did it. Subhanallah.
He was on another level. May Allah Almighty
grant us the ability to study his life
and to put into practice aspects of his
life to the best of our ability. Wallahi,
my brothers, my sisters, the fact that we
are seated here so content,
so peaceful,
fasting for the sake of Allah. One pillar
of Islam is fasting. Another pillar that we're
about to engage in is the prayer.
Subhanallah.
Another pillar that we will engage in in
the month of Ramadan, those who have the
wealth to give that wealth. It's not necessary
to
give your zakah in Ramadan, but it is
rewarding
of a higher degree if you do that.
May Allah Almighty
grant
upon success.
So the gift of Allah, when you notice
the contentment you have in your heart,
it's a gift.
That contentment will only come when you connect
with Allah. Whatever happens in your life is
from Allah. Do not despair.
You have a month of Ramadan.
A month where
your problems become small because the problems of
others are great.
Look at our brothers and sisters struggling in
Gaza, in Palestine. It would be wrong for
us not to mention them and pray for
them.
When we hear and see what goes on
and is going on there,
automatically our problems become minute, small. It's like
we don't even have a problem. May Allah
Almighty help us all in our own difficulties
and issues. And may Allah Almighty
help and guard and guide our brothers and
sisters in Palestine.
My beloved brothers and sisters, the month of
the Quran
is a month wherein which
all of us should be reminding each other
to do good.
The fact that you asked someone or reminded
them to do good, you get a full
reward of the good that they do. So
why not? This is why Allah Almighty says
people are at a loss.
Allah swears by the token of time and
he says indeed man is at a loss.
Besides those who do what? Remind each other.
Besides those who remind each other.
Man is at a loss except those who
believe and do good deeds, and remind each
other about the truth and about justice,
and remind each other to bear patience.
My brothers and sisters,
Allah has promised all of us.
Allah has promised all of us that he
will test us.
That's why we're on earth.
In fact,
every single one of us has challenges.
The richest and the poorest, the healthiest, and
the one who is unwell. May Allah grant
cure to those who are unwell.
Those who are the most good looking and
those whom community might not consider as good
looking. Everyone has some issues no matter who
you are.
That itself is evidence and proof
that Allah made you to test you.
This morning I had a message from a
young man asking me
if he could have permanent tattoos
and why couldn't he have those tattoos.
And I told him,
if someone were to give you a motor
vehicle of theirs
and tell you that I want this vehicle
back at a certain time,
do you have the right to scratch
or to inscribe your name or anything you
think on someone else's vehicle? No.
The body you have
is given to you by Allah
only for a short time while you are
being tested.
When you enter a hard hatch zone where
there is construction happening, and they want to
take you to show you the place, they
will give you a helmet, and they might
give you some protective clothing.
When you enter, you wear it. When you
exit, you remove it and say, Thank you
very much. Here is the clothing.
If something fell, a stone or 2 or
a rock or 2, you were saved because
of your helmet. And you were intelligent enough
not to break the helmet and do silly
things to it because if that was the
case, you probably would have injured yourself, and
you would be to blame.
So in the same way, when we're entering
this earth, Allah puts the soul into a
body. And Allah says, I'm going to separate
the soul from the body once the mission
is accomplished. What is the mission? I'm putting
you onto earth and I'd like you to
do as much good as you can
until
I decide
that now your mission is accomplished. Come back
to us. Let's see what you've done.
That's exactly what Allah has done. So I
cannot decide to do something to this body
that is not ordained by the one who
actually owns the body.
This is why my brothers and sisters, the
point I am making is
we will be tested by Allah. He's put
us
into a body. The soul goes in
and he allowed us entry into the world
for a short time. He will test us
with 1, 2, 3, 20, 30, 40.
200, 300, 400 tests. Some of them will
be massive. Some of them will be small.
He promises you when I love you, I'm
going to test you more. I just want
to see. I told you I'm going to
test you. What are you going to do?
You lost your job? Do you come closer
to me? You lost your health, do you
come closer to me?
You lost something else, do you come closer
to me? You lost a loved one, do
you come closer to me? Or do you
turn away and forget
that you yourself are going to come back
to us?
May Allah Almighty make us conscious of this.
So this is why the contentment
is definitely
evident
upon the faces of the believers who are
connected with Allah,
and they understand that this world is temporary.
We are going to be tested. And it's
okay. I will rise to the challenge by
the help of Allah.
So this is the month of solidarity as
I said. The month of reaching out to
those in need. Reaching out to those
who are struggling and suffering in any way,
shape, or form. May Allah Almighty use us
to do good.
We have the fasting that I'm not going
to go into because every one of us
knows that we stay away from certain things
in Ramadan. But I want to tell you
I want to tell you very importantly, the
prophet Muhammad salallahu alayhi wasalam warns those
who stay away from food and drink, but
do not stay away from bad mouthing, and
foul language,
and deception, and false witness. He says,
Whoever is not going to quit or leave,
false witness and uttering that which is bad,
that which is
deceptive,
that which is abusive and so on.
During the month of Ramadan,
then
Allah does not have a need for that
person
to have quit food and drink. In other
words, they wasted their time fasting.
May Allah Almighty help us develop the best
of habits in the month of Ramadan. May
Allah Almighty help us to become the best
of people.
May we not only quit our sins for
Ramadan but even post Ramadan.
May we not only become people conscious of
what we say during Ramadan but even outside
of