Mufti Menk – Ramadan 2016 – Save Yourself Series – 20

Salam alaykum. warahmatullahi wabarakatuh

smilla rahmanir rahim al hamdu Lillah wa salatu salam ala rasulillah why Allah Allah He was happy here.

We praise Allah subhanho wa Taala we send blessings and salutations upon Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, his entire household, all his companions We ask Allah Subhana Allah to Allah to bless every single one of them, and to bless every single one of us as well. May Allah subhanho wa Taala write our names from among those who are granted freedom from the hellfire. I mean, my brothers and sisters, it's important for us to know that Allah subhanho wa Taala one wants us to be grateful for the favors that he has bestowed upon us. Gratitude is not only by saying Oh Allah I thank you. Although that is one of the ways of thinking a lot to say like an hamdulillah cashew coo yeah wa

Jalla Jalla wrote to say for you is all praise and for you is all thanks. Oh Allah, that is indeed a way of praising Allah. But for a person to show through gratitude, he or she would need to adopt the commands of Allah subhanho wa Taala. He or she would need to find himself or herself, dressing appropriately fulfilling Salah, abandoning that which would displease Allah subhanho wa Taala. Looking forward to worshiping Allah that is true gratitude. May Allah subhanho wa Taala grant us ease when a person wants to commit a sin, but he protects himself from it because he is grateful that Allah gave him eyes Allah gave him a nose, Allah gave him hair, Allah gave him so much more.

Allah Subhana Allah Allah bestowed him with so many gifts, then that is the person who would actually be achieving the pleasure of Allah subhanho wa Taala. So Allah subhanho wa Taala tells us, Swati Brahim verse number seven, Allah subhanho wa Taala says, What is

Eden, Walla

Walla Shadi and indeed it is a declaration from Allah subhanho wa Taala to you that if you are thankful, Allah subhanahu wa taala will grant you increase, he will give you more. He owns everything. When you are grateful, when you show gratitude, he will give you more so panela imagine a beggar begging from you. And you only have one cent I'm talking about here in South Africa. And you open your window and you give one cent to the beggar. What did it displace of your wealth? Nothing. And the beggar is so thankful, so happy. I really thank you. I appreciate it. I really I pray for you, God bless you, whatever else, the deeper the beggar says, What will happen to you. You

say Hold on, hold on, let me look for something else. Right? You take out the 100 grand bill from your pocket, and you say take it. Well nowadays if the biggest I shop, I knew how to get that 100 died, Allah subhanho wa Taala grant us ease. But Allah subhanho wa Taala his ownership is such that even the amount one cent displaces from our wealth. If Allah had to give entire creation, whatever it asked for, it would not displace even that amount from his kingdom. That's how much he owns. That's what he owns. So panela. So to show Allah thanks for whatever you have, even if it is a little Remember, the only way of increasing the goodness Allah has given you, he says, through

sugar, through gratitude, through gratefulness, and I've already explained what it is. But the second part of the verse is very scary. He says, Whoever is ungrateful, let them know that my punishment is severe law. What is in gratitude, in gratitude in two or three different ways. One of them is when you find yourself, Allah has blessed you in so many ways. But you still want to displease Allah, you still want to go and do that which will earn the anger of Allah that shows that even what you have, you don't deserve it. Imagine the person you give them 100 grand bill and they throw it back at you and they tell you no way they repeat in front of you. What will you do? You'll

never give them again. Now Allah subhanho wa Taala forgive us. These are small, silly examples that have come to my mind right now. But the idea i'm sure we understand what is being said here, show gratitude to Allah stay away from sin, because if you show in gratitude, then definitely Allah subhanho wa Taala will not only take away what he gave you, and then you will regret but on top of that he made Subhan Allah Subhana Allah He may decide to punish you. May Allah subhanho wa Taala not do that to us, to punish us out of what? out of the fact that we were not grateful for what he gave us. So how Allah no other sin. The sin was

I just wasn't grateful. Allah gave me food I still went for Haram. Allah gave me drink. Allah gave me security Allah says okay, if you don't want to be thankful we will take it away. I usually give an example of, and this is another example I said off the cuff,

say the headscarf. If we don't cover our hair, I'm talking here of the women and even the men if we don't dress properly, like I've said, you know, the dress code is not only for women in Islam, it's also for the men. If we don't cover our hair, for example, where we are allowed to cover it in a country like this beautiful, you have the freedom and handling that there will come a time when perhaps that freedom will be taken away, and they will prohibit it and ban it like they have done in some countries of the globe. Now people will tell you, you know what, it's too late. No, may Allah Subhana Allah Allah bless us. May He strengthen us? May he make us from those who are grateful. The

fact that we can come to the masjid, we can identify ourselves as Muslim in the fact that we enjoy the freedom Allahu Akbar, make use of it. My brothers and sisters if you don't, a day might come when that won't be there. May Allah subhanho wa Taala help us all what a beautiful lesson, then. A lot of us think sometimes you know, some of the deeds that are done by the disbelievers, they are good deeds, sometimes they are very sometimes compassionate. Sometimes they reach out to people they are truthful, sometimes they are people who are innocent, they are hardworking, etcetera, etcetera. So people ask us, what will happen to them? What about their deeds? You know, the first question the

first question, that is, what will happen to the kuffar who are good people? I would like to answer it by saying my brother, my sister, on the day of judgment, we are taught that every one of us will be saying never see enough See, worried about himself. So stop worrying about everyone and everything else. Worry about yourself. Remember that you know what, you need to pack away as many good deeds as you can before the day that those deeds won't help anymore unless they were done before you died. May Allah subhanho wa Taala bless us. As for the kuffaar has done good deeds. Allah says quite clearly, I don't oppress anyone, I will give them the recompense of their deeds in this

world in such a way that because of their disbelief in the Hereafter, we kept nothing for them, then imagine you talk to someone and they don't believe in the hereafter. And then a friend says, but he's such a good man. You mean when he dies? And then he's going to go to Hellfire? Well, to be honest, he doesn't even believe that there is a hereafter What are you worried about? Talk to him first, about the hereafter. If he decides, okay, I want to believe in it. Now we can talk about how to save yourself from it. But what's the point of someone saying you know what, transfer the money into my bank account when he doesn't have an account.

He wants good deeds, but he's got no account to put those good deeds into. First you got to open your account by declaring your belief and thereafter you will be able to amass those good deeds. May Allah subhanho wa Taala help us so my brothers and sisters Allah subhanho wa Taala says, verse number 18.

But I don't

know whom karma Dini said that behave the Athenian minasi the deeds of those who just believe are similar to the ashes that are strewn on a day of heavy heavy wind, where you find the ash, you know, Ash is something, the result of something that was burnt totally, you had your deeds, you did them in return, Allah gave you good health, Allah gave you well, Allah gave you happy holidays in Hawaii and Honolulu, Allah subhanho wa Taala gave you kids who have probably gorgeous, absolutely good looking, you had a lovely home and every form of peace and serenity and stability. Those were your coupons, the good deeds you did in this world. Allah says, we gave you What did we give you,

goodness in the world as well. You believe in the world, you work for the world, we gave you the world. Those who work for the Hereafter, those are the ones we will give the hereafter to? Do we understand now what is being said. So my brothers and sisters, this is Allah, he's reminding us, for us as believers do not only work for this dunya This world is only a small portion. Remember, the bulk of it is going to be needed after you close your eyes. Remember that most of it? And I want to ask you a question. We all know people who have died, right? How long have they died for most of them longer than they were alive? Someone was alive for 70 years, they are now dead for the last 200

years they've been dead. So what this means common logic, we will be alive only for a short period of time, the rest of it will actually be wild. Where did Allah subhanho wa Taala grant us a deep understanding still man becomes deceived by the devil. This is why Allah says in verse number 22 of the same surah the devil will come to you and make a promise yet he owns nothing. And Allah has made a promise and Allah owns everything. And on the Day of Judgment, the two of you are going to meet who the devil is going to come you're going to have an opportunity to talk to him and the devil you the people who were led astray by the devil will tell the devil Hey, why did you lead us astray? The

devil would say Hang on. I had no authority over you. I just made things

look nice and beautiful. And you fell for it. That's all. Well, Carla shavon

shavon will say, when everything is over, when the affair has been decided, you know what she will say, in more

than happy to come to love to come. Allah promised you a good promise. Allah made a promise to you. I made a promise, but I was actually cheating you. That's what he says, You fell for it Subhana Allah. And then he says, well, American early

on in in, in the hour to confess to God to me, I had no authority over you except that I called you and you immediately responded without even a big effort from my from on my side. You know, when shaman wants you to commit sin for some strange reason, a person who will spend hundreds of 1000s of rands on the bottle on drugs, gambling, adultery, girlfriend, everything else, you'd spend hundreds of 1000s. But he will argue about the amount to be given as sadaqa to people on the day of he, whether it's 22 grams, or 50 grams. That's the debate law.

He will argue, and it becomes such a big figure. But five minutes before that he was on the phone with his girlfriend. And he said Don't worry, I'll transfer to you. How much do you want? 10 grand, we'll be okay. I'll give you 20 It's fine. May Allah forgive us? The point I'm raising is haram we're ready to spend on halaal that which is for the sake of Allah May Allah subhanho wa Taala help us remember, the minimum may be a certain amount which we cannot change because it is revealed by Allah and His Messenger when it comes to sadaqa. But that is not the ultimate amount in the sense that you can give more, it's better to give more if someone says look, the amount I owe is x, but I

would like to give x plus y plus z. Is there any harm in that? No? Huh? Give me Allah subhanho wa Taala bestow upon us his virtue. May Allah subhanho wa Taala grant us is looking at this devil, so save yourselves from the clutches of this devil by understanding his plot and his plan, he will come and beautify things, go back to Allah. This is why sin is very easy to commit, but wake up for Salah to

wake up for Salah to come to the masjid sit in an Islamic program stand up in taraweeh those 10 minutes that the Imam takes more insalata they will seem like two hours but the two hours we spent outside the masjid smoking and laughing will seem like 10 minutes. May Allah forgive us. Imagine why that was a waste of time. So Chopin just is beautifies it and says hey, it's nice. It's cool. You know, you're sitting here Saturday, Saturday evening. SubhanAllah when I was in Trinidad, they call it blaming, you know, they live and I was wondering what it means but now I know exactly what it means. They sit and just chill doing nothing. And that they will enjoy called him for Salah. Tell

them to listen to the Quran, tell them there is a program going on in the masjid Come and sit, they will sit for five minutes and as though they are ants in their pants, they will want to get up and walk out Allahu Akbar. Why is this my brothers and sisters, that is what shaycarl is talking about. Shaytan says I did not have any authority over you. I beautified it a little bit. You fell for it. Now you're going to pay now Allah Subhana Allah to Allah safeguard us. This is why Allah subhanho wa Taala says, when you are thankful to me, I will grant you increase. But I want you to know in order to be grateful, you will have to think what are the gifts I have bestowed upon you. A lot of what

Allah gave you, you won't realize until you sit and you ponder and he says when you do ponder, you will never ever be able to reach the ultimate gifts of Allah subhanho wa Taala you won't count all of them, how many are you going to count you're going to start today, one day, two days, five days, 10 days, you're going to start so many days counting every day 1000 things you still will not be able to complete the gifts of Allah. Even if you are to look only at your eyes, just your eyes. And you have to look at a million things that metzen will tell you regarding your eyes. You won't even be able to go beyond your eyes. A year later. May Allah subhanho wa Taala grant us a deep

understanding ask those who cannot see Subhanallah imagine with your eyes and with our eyes. We don't have a little knob on the side where we need to focus and make sure we can see properly etc. Rather you just come out the thing adjusts on its own to the light to the darkness to whatever it is etc etc. Everything is done planned by Allah gift of Allah with we were in prostration our entire life to thank Allah only for the way the oxygen is filtered into our system will lie it would not be enough. It would not be enough. If you were to pay a million rands for one heartbeat. And voila, he you were to save your life as a result of that you would result of you'd understand

That a million rounds for one heartbeat is worth it is worth it. Imagine if you had to pay that for every heartbeat and you have 136,000 hearts heartbeats a day. What would you pay? Say you had to pay one cent per beat? My brothers and sisters? Can you not read Salah at least? Can you not fulfill the five daily prayers at least save yourself? Allah gave you 136,000 heartbeats every single day if one had to stop it would declare almost the end of you. And yet you can't even get up for Salatu

May Allah subhanho wa Taala help us May he guide us? May he definitely keep us away from the clutches of the devil. We think we are healthy, but we're like a split second. You just need a doctor to tell you brother there's a tumor in your brain. May Allah says goddess, now Allah subhanho wa Taala cure all those who are seeking. So verse number 34. Allah says,

Allah has given you everything that you have asked him.

What

do you need?

And if you are going to count the gifts of Allah, you will never ever be able to contain them. You won't be able to circumscribe them, you won't be able to jot them all down Allah says never in a

cafe.

Indeed men, man is not only oppressive and the wrongdoer, but he is filled with ingratitude. May Allah subhanho wa Taala make us the exception, may we not be from among those who are ungrateful, may Allah subhanho wa Taala forgive us. Then we have another very interesting verse that Allah subhanho wa Taala has revealed. This verse is informing us about how we should not become depressed when the oppressor, according to us is not being dealt with. It is Allah who will deal with him and Allah knows that he is letting him off for a certain period of time. Allah says Allah is not oblivious of those who are oppressors. When someone does wrong to you, or when you do wrong to

someone, just because you are living Mashallah healthy and happy does not mean that Allah doesn't know what you've done. He knows he's giving you a time to turn to repent. And when the fixed time comes, he will get you a love Akbar. Listen to what Allah says. Verse number 42 Rahim. Allah attacks upon

the moon, in

Leo, Drosophila I

don't think that Allah subhanho wa Taala is oblivious of those who are oppressors of the deeds of those who are oppressing others. Don't think Allah doesn't know what is happening across the globe. Don't think Allah doesn't know who is wrong and who is right. Allah knows absolutely everything he says he gives respect to them for as long as he wishes up to a certain time when the eyes shall meet. May Allah subhanho wa Taala protect us all. It's very interesting to talk about how others will be dealt with by Allah. But we forget that sometimes we are the wrongdoers. We are the wrongdoers we do wrong to our family members, to sometimes to our brothers and sisters, parents,

children, whoever else it may be, Allah says Don't worry, we know what you're doing. We have you in our control. We know Allahu Akbar, Allah subhanho wa Taala safeguard us.

And this is why Allah says, those who see the punishment on the Day of Judgment, they will say, oh,

why don't you send this back so that we can do good deeds once again. Now we've seen Allah says what was the point? No point. You know, he man means to believe believing in the unseen if you've seen it, what's the point? Allahu Akbar.

If you have seen something, you don't want to call it a man.

A man is belief. If you translate the word belief, it's connected to something within your heart, I believe you which means I believe for example, all of us here so panela when we listen to the Quran, we I'm absolutely convinced that it's the word of Allah revealed to Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. jabril la salatu salam came down with it convinced? If I asked her Did you see gibril Allah salat wa salam you say no. But I believe that belief is more concrete than me looking at you right now. This could actually be more fake. Then Subhan Allah what we firmly believe regarding revelation. May Allah subhanho wa Taala, strengthen our Eman Allah subhana wa

Allah help us And may Allah subhanho wa Taala bless every one of us. So Allah says, we're leading nurse iomairt himolla una de novo mo wound the people regarding a day that the punishment will come and then the oppressors or the wrongdoers will say,

here, Nan Isla de

partie before our grantees despite the grant has responded to a short period of time, to a short appointed time, meaning just give us a little bit more time. Oh Allah and Allah subhanho wa Taala says no, that is not what is going to happen when the time comes. Allah subhanho wa Taala will punish May Allah subhanho wa Taala not do that to us brothers and sisters, we move on to the next Surah Surah to Egypt. And in it, there is something very interesting you know the term half in half in in our language refers to a person who has memorized the Quran, right? Or a half either. In our terminology, we say this one is a half of that means this person has memorized the Quran. But the

word half Eva actually means to protect to save God. That's what it means to save God. What have you saved God? Many people will say, well, they have safeguarded the Quran in their hearts. That's what they will say. They have protected the Koran by learning it such that you can take the book away, but they will be able to recite the words of the Quran they will. So Allah is telling you something very interesting to let you look at it from a different angle. Listen to what he says. Verse number nine in

a coven in Allah hula half Evo, we have revealed this for us before on here is referred to as addicted, the reminder, we have revealed this forearm and we will definitely protect it. That's what Allah says, we will make sure it remains intact. Okay. Now let's go back to what I was saying moments ago, if Allah promises you that he is going to protect the Quran, when you make an effort to memorize it, Allah will look after you because the Quran is in your hands. So if you want to save yourself from calamities in this world and the next your best bet also is to memorize the Quran. When you are memorizing the Quran, you move in you have MS Word inside you and you are moving around

there is a special care unit VIP protection for you. Because you know what, you have the Quran in your heart, you're not just an ordinary person.

So this is why Allah says we will look after the Quran. If you have made an effort to memorize it, you automatically fall into this verse. Many people when they read the first they think oh, that means to protect the poor and from any change, etc. Yes, that's true, but how in so many different ways including us memorizing it, it's a gift of Allah, no book, even the one you have written yourself is memorizable by you. Law. Besides the Quran, everyone knows that. And this is why Allah subhanho wa Taala tells us I will protect my brothers and sisters. Isn't this encouragement enough for us to make an effort to memorize the words of Allah start off somewhere, you know, people look

and they look at you and they start saying, I'm old now. I'm old. If I was younger, maybe my brothers and sisters let me give you some motivation. The Sahaba of the Allahu anhu the bulk of them who memorize the Quran were beyond the age of 40. You know that? They were old people. They were not young children. They were elderly meaning old. They were not kids in their teenage the majority of them were older than that. And they memorize the Quran but there was dedication. They never gave up. They knew you want to do something you will do it no matter how old you are brothers and sisters, one verse a day, are we ready inshallah one verse a day, we ready inshallah. Allah subhanho wa Taala

grant us that I really hope we can follow that through it's not so difficult. In fact, you can start off by memorizing the short Sutras, you can start by memorizing some of those sewers that you hear very often, perhaps, and then make an effort, just one verse a day. And I promise you something interesting that Allah tells us through the hadith of Muhammad Sallallahu sallam, he says, enamel eluding me yet indeed, every action or actions shall be judged by their underlying intentions. Every action will be judged by the intention. So if I had an intention of completing the whole Quran, and I was dedicated, and I actually started one verse at a time, and I did not finish a diet before I

completed it, what's the deed that will be written next to my name? A person will memorize the whole plan. Why? Because that was my intention. I didn't manage to finish it so Pinilla you're walking towards the masjid suddenly you die What happened? You will be written as one who has gone to the masjid before

That was your intention. That is how a lot judges, that is the gift of Allah subhanho wa Taala. So this is why my brothers and sisters, if you dedicate yourself you have every day a small portion, very small still, for as long as there is consistency, you have saved yourself. May Allah subhanho wa Taala Have mercy on us so that we can achieve that. I mean, so my brothers and sisters, that was something really great that I'm sure we've learned here this evening. Also something we need to know. arrogance is hated by Allah detested by Allah subhanho wa Taala. I want to tell you something else. I'm going to word it slightly differently because I want to I want us to look at it from a

different angle. We all know the sin of the devil. He believes he was that he did not prostrate. To who? to Adam, right? He please refuse to Prostrate to Adam. As a result he was pressed. He wasn't he was the one who was the devil known as shape and what made him refusing his arrogance. He thought he was too big, etc. He blease was asked to Prostrate to Adam by Allah. He didn't. How many times was he asked once? How many sujood? Was it? One such that one frustration because he rejected one frustration he was closed forever and ever.

Brothers and sisters,

you know what I'm doing?

We have been instructed by Allah to prostrate not to Adam to him himself. How many of us don't?

Think about it. My brothers and sisters. Think about it.

We always talk about Adam alayhis salam, we talk about the devil. We talk about the police. We talk about how Allah told him prostrate and he didn't but where are you? When Allah told you to prostrate your alternate prostrating? What about that?

You might argue and say okay, I still believe I asked him us forgiveness. I'm not arrogant, but come on. It's also lack of frustration and not to a creature of Allah, but to Allah himself and you didn't. My brothers and sisters, let's change our ways, frustrate for the sake of Allah. fulfill your duty unto Allah five times a day. And I promise you, you will find yourself saved from the clutches of the devil, my brothers and sisters, it is a serious matter. The first thing you're going to be asked about when you close your eyes as you are leaving this earth is going to be your prayer from amongst the first things. May Allah subhanho wa Taala forgive us on the day, we have

shortcomings from today. Promise Allah Allah, I will read at least my frog, I'm going to make sure I don't miss it. It's not difficult. Allah has given you 24 hours of the day, it will not take you more than 24 minutes to fulfill the form five times a day.

And then you expand on it. I'm not saying stop on that you will expand but this is the bare minimum. My brothers and sisters every time you hear the verses of the Quran, such as the verse 30 and 31 of certain ages, where Allah makes mention of a belief not prostrating. Think about how we also do not prostrate never look at that story without considering our own gift. May Allah subhanho wa Taala forgive us all. I'd like to end on that note my brothers and sisters. Remember, Allah is most forgiving, Most Merciful. Allah subhanho wa Taala is waiting. He's waiting for you. He's waiting for me. He's waiting for everyone to turn to him. Brothers and sisters. We are still alive. We are still

breathing. There is a lot of hope. My brothers and sisters let's turn to Allah give up our bad ways and habits. They won't get you anywhere. They only will cause depression, chaos, stress, split, disunity, everything of that nature, sickness and whatnot.

But Allah subhanho wa Taala is telling us quite clearly that if you turn to me you will find me most forgiving, Most Merciful. May Allah subhanho wa Taala bless us all sallallahu wasallam obata canon Amina Mohammed Subhana Allah Subhana Allah home will be handy to Allah Allah hi land