What you should achieve from Ramadhaan
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Channel: Mufti Menk
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AI Generated Summary ©
The importance of following intermittent fasting, following a natural way to improve health and wealth, and following worship for forgiveness is emphasized. The scale of the statement weighing on one's deeds is discussed, and the importance of giving beyond the 2%, 2.5% rule is emphasized. The speaker emphasizes the importance of fasting and not getting too far behind in rewarding one's actions, as it is a natural way to achieve their goals. The speaker also emphasizes the importance of fasting and not getting too far behind, as it is a natural way to achieve their goals.AI Generated Transcript ©
Masalaamu alhamdulillahi wa salaamu ala rasulillahi
wa aalaalihi wa sahabihi jma'in.
Mashallah.
I spoke to a brother
I met earlier
who was a revert.
He told me that
I'm so happy to see
so many people
so serious about their faith in the month
of Ramadan.
And I told him, I said, my brother,
do you know that we are actually a
true reflection of what a Muslim should be
like in the month of Ramadan?
And we should be letting that extend outside
the month of Ramadan.
So definitely in the month of Ramadan, you
will notice people who don't pray outside Ramadan
as they should.
Praying
with such dedication because it's Ramadan. Masha'Allah.
Don't you agree?
You see people giving charity more in the
month of Ramadan. Mashallah.
You see people who are usually very temperamental
and angry
calm down in the month of Ramadan. Don't
you see that? Mashallah.
You might be one of them, right?
I could be too. May Allah bless all
of us.
We see people at times who
are far away from the masjid. They hardly
come to the masjid but they are there
every night in the month of Ramadan praying
long prayer. SubhanAllah.
You see people reciting the Quran. You see
the music go out and the nasheeds come
in. You see the haram relations
cut off. SubhanAllah.
The only problem is some of them cut
them off and say,
does not depict a return to sinful behavior,
but rather it is a sign of joy
that Allah has given you the opportunity
to engage in such dedicated worship
that He wants you to be able to
say, this is the moon that I've just
seen. My life has actually changed forever.
May Allah Almighty grant that to us.
So this Ramadan,
I invite you my brothers and sisters
to continue with the dedication
that you have had in Ramadan.
Even if it may be 1 notch lower
in the sense that it's no longer Ramadan,
but it should never be lower than that
to the point where your obligations
are forgotten or left out Or something forbidden
creeps back in to your life, that we
should become considerate of. Allah says, laalakum
tatakun
when he speaks about the fast. He says,
in order for you to achieve taqwa.
What is taqwa? It is the proper connection
with Allah.
It is piety. It is God consciousness.
It is the fear of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala's wrath and punishment. So we ask Allah
to strengthen all of us. Ramadan is a
gift.
That gift continues right up to the next
Ramadan
if you really are dedicated.
And this is why if you look carefully,
we fast 30 days, 29 days, meaning 1
month.
And we're dedicated.
People who are engaged in haram, like I
said, they quit it
because of the sanctity of the month of
Ramadan.
People actually become more serious with things that
they were not so serious about. People who
had issues dressing,
usually in Ramadan they are strengthened by Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala such that their dress code
improves. And here I refer to both male
and female.
The dress code improves, mashallah.
But my brothers and sisters, the whole idea
is when you exit Ramadan,
look at how the prophet Muhammad peace be
upon him tells you,
Mansama Ramadan athummaatbaahu
sittamin Shawwal kana kasiyamid dhar.
Whoever fasts the month of Ramadan follows it
up with the 6 fasts of Shawwal
will have a reward as though they fasted
the entire year. If you look at it
and you break it down numerically, you'll find
that every good deed is minimum multiplied by
10. You fasted for 1 month, multiplied by
10 gives you a reward equivalent of 10
months of fasting.
You fast 6 more days, you multiply that
by 10, it gives you 60 days. And
60 days is 2 months. So 10 months
plus 2 months gives you the reward of
the entire year. However,
Allah wants you to continue in that beautiful
dedication. So you're fasting 6 days of Shawwal,
but what is even more authentic is to
fast 3 days every month
known as a yamulbib.
The 13th, 14th, and 15th of the lunar
month, we're advised to fast that, multiply by
10. You get a reward of having fasted
the whole month.
Another thing that is absolutely authentic is the
fast of the Monday and the Thursday. So
if you love Ramadan
and you enjoy the way Allah has kept
for you a season wherein you polish yourself,
then you can continue with the fast that
may not be compulsory,
but it will indeed polish you to a
new level where
I'm no longer fasting because it's an obligation,
but I'm fasting because of the love of
Allah. I enjoy it. I want it. I
need the reward and I want to improve
and polish myself
such that Allah become pleased with me and
I can earn paradise. Today, in order to
shed a few kilos and in order to
feel a little bit healthier, when the doctor
tells you you should engage in intermittent fasting,
we quickly do so. Intermittent fasting. I'm doing
what do they call it? The 16 or
the 186, isn't it? Or the 168 or
something of that nature where so many hours,
so many hours, and we do it for
our health.
What about your spiritual health? If Allah tells
you
twice a week, Monday Thursday, you fast, You
get a full reward. May Allah bless
you. Forget about having known about intermittent fasting.
This is something prophetic. It has something in
it for you way beyond
the beauty and the
uprightness of your own body and health.
It goes beyond that to something
that is unimaginable. It will carry through all
the way to paradise.
The hadith says when a person passes away,
many things follow that person to his grave
but some things go back. And what comes
with the person? His deeds.
What are the deeds? I'm going to work
on these deeds. I want to pack away
as I would with my suitcase when I'm
travelling.
Put essentials. Put things that are going to
help you. You want to be careful not
to carry unnecessary burdens because you know if
you're going by air, you're only allowed a
certain number of kilos or a certain number
of pieces.
So I cannot take more. I will pack
things but I'm not going to go with
empty bags.
I need to fill that bag with something.
I have a journey far more important than
any other journey I'm going to undertake. And
guess which journey that is? It's the journey
into the hereafter.
SubhanAllah.
What should I take with me? I'm going
to take with me the goodness that I've
done. Not all of us are scholars. Not
all of us have capabilities to be able
to teach the deen to someone, but every
one of us can do goodness. You can
be kind. You can reach out to others.
You can stop harming people. You can talk
to them with respect. You can share the
little you know. We have many of us
here who are seated today,
influencers on social media, masha Allah, with thousands
of followers, tens of thousands of followers,
millions of followers and tens of millions of
followers. SubhanAllah.
I tell you what, use your platform to
encourage people to do some goodness
and you will never regret it on the
day of judgment as you meet with Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. You may notice that one
small deed you may have done on that
social media platform that Allah blessed you with
actually
earned you. The tipping of the scale on
the right side and you went into paradise.
May Allah grant us Jannah.
This is the last day or the last
few days of Ramadan.
Right? The last few hours let's say of
the month of Ramadan.
I tell you my beloved brothers and sisters,
call out to Allah. Ask Him, Allahumma
inni asalukaljannah.
O Allah, I ask you to grant me
paradise. Allahumma
innaqaaafuwun
tuhibul afwaafu
ani. O Allah, you are forgiving. You love
to forgive. So forgive me. We want to
achieve forgiveness.
We want to really achieve
something unique and amazing. When we've achieved forgiveness
and we are serious about seeking that forgiveness,
we will feel a change in our lives.
We will feel a little bit more dedicated
to prayer.
We may not have been prior to Ramadan.
Ramadan came because of the effort we pushed
ourselves to make. The blessing of Allah is
outside of Ramadan.
I promise you He will give you a
push
in order to fulfill the salah, tasting the
sweetness of that prayer.
The minute you taste the sweetness of recitation
of Quran,
I promise you, you will be reading it
on a daily basis. People say, but I
don't have time.
One miracle of the Quran which is tried
and tested is when you do not have
time and you make the time to read
a portion of the Quran,
Allah gives you even more time through your
day and you wonder, how come I have
so much of time? But it's because you
made time for Allah who is the owner
and creator of time. Guess what? He spaced
it out for you and blessed you in
that particular time. You achieved 20 things
during
a time frame that you would only have
achieved maybe 10 or even less. Why? Because
you started your day with recitation of the
Quran even though
life might have told you, you don't have
time for this. May Allah forgive us. May
Allah forgive us. I can never say I
don't have time for my Maker because I'm
going to ultimately return to Him and he's
going to ask me, how did you use
your time?
That brings me to something very important.
Did I not say the last days of
Ramadan?
Let's take them seriously. If we were not
so serious in the previous days, now is
the time to become even more serious.
Let's engage in worship tonight. Enjoy the acts
of worship. What are the different types of
worship we can engage in today?
Number 1, seeking forgiveness of Allah, praising Allah,
remembering Allah.
The adkar,
that which comes to your tongue from the
words of praise of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
declaring His
glory and so on. Those are all important
ways of worshiping Allah. Similarly,
the pillars of Islam. We will keep on
repeating our shahada,
Ashhadu Allah Illaha Illallah. Ashhadu anna Muhammadan Rasulullah
or La ilaha illallah Muhammadur
Rasulullah.
The power of the statement is such
that on the day of judgment,
when it is put on a scale, it
will be heavier
than 99
files of sinful
activity
that a person engaged in.
Each file is from the east to the
west.
There is a narration known as hadith al
bitaka.
The hadith of the card where a person
will be brought on the day of judgment,
and as Allah says, he's going to weigh
your deeds. That's the mercy of Allah. Imagine
Allah says, I'm gonna weigh your deeds. You
got more good deeds than bad? You go
to paradise. You got more bad deeds than
good? You have none other than yourself to
blame.
Imagine if there was no scale
and every bad deed you did, you would
have to go into hell fire. Allah says,
No. We will forgive whomsoever we wish. If
you've done more good than bad, we just
look at the scale. If it's tipped on
the right side, you go to jannah, paradise
because you did better. Imagine that's Allah. So
keep on doing more good deeds, more good
deeds. Because when your deeds that are good
are more than your deeds that are bad,
you already have reserved your place in paradise.
So the scale
is such that, subhanAllah,
we go to Allah with
beautiful deeds and we come to him with
so many different things. I was mentioning this
hadith where a person is brought and all
his sins are being weighed. His deeds are
being weighed. And he has 99
files
filled with sin.
Each file from the east to the west.
And it looks like there is hopelessness
but Allah
is fair and
just. Once in his life,
sincerely in an upright way, he uttered
with firm conviction and belief that there is
none worthy of worship besides Allah. And that
Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam is his messenger. And
you know what? The hadith says, when that
card where this is written is placed on
the right side, it becomes heavier than those
99 files on the other side. Surely, it's
an act of worship to repeat the shahada
so often. Similarly,
what is an act of worship is the
pillars of Islam besides the hajj. Right? The
hajj you have to
do Hajj or or you have to fulfill
the pilgrimage
during a specified time in the month known
as Dhul Hijjah. But if you take a
careful look, there is something called the minor
pilgrimage or the umrah. If Allah has given
you the means, in Ramadan try to go
for umrah. As packed as it may be,
there will be a space for you. There
will be a space for you. Why? Because
the reward of doing umrah in Ramadan
is equivalent to doing hajj with the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam
according to some narration which is authenticated by
the scholars.
So if you have the means, go.
Don't let the crowd
make you think, no it's packed and it's
packed and there are too many people. The
blessings descend in a bigger way when there
are more people. This evening we are here
to worship Allah together.
1000 of us, approximately
15,000
of us. What do you think we're going
to achieve? We're all going to be begging
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to forgive us, to
alleviate the suffering of our brothers and sisters
in Palestine,
to grant them victory and protection.
That is the main core of our dua
tonight. May Allah accept it from us. My
brothers and sisters, we are bleeding because they're
bleeding. And we cannot sleep
in a sound manner because they are struggling
and suffering. May Allah Almighty grant ease to
them.
And may Allah alleviate their struggle and suffering.
May Allah grant them victory, and may Allah
open their doors. Amin.
So another act of worship, like I said,
the shahada is a pillar of Islam.
It is a pillar of Islam. You don't
just say it in order to enter the
fold of Islam, and that's it. But you
repeat it on a daily basis. In fact,
in your prayer, in your salah, every group
or every set of units of prayer, there
is an ashadu allahillaha
illallah. Wa ashadu anna Muhammadan Rasulullah.
You have to say that. That is your
shahada.
You say that in every salah. So it's
a pillar of Islam in another pillar of
Islam known as salah. And therefore, we engage
in voluntary prayer on a day like this,
a night like this. We engage in a
voluntary prayer in sets of twos.
Taraweeh or Qiyam.
Qiyam generally refers to standing at night in
prayer. The tahajjud is the late night prayer.
And the tarawih is the early night prayer.
In these nights, we do both of them
to the best of our ability.
Yes. One might argue it's not compulsory. I
know that. But why would I not engage
in something that's not compulsory but I'm going
to get a reward that is multiplied in
a manner
that is unlike any other time of the
year. Let me do it for the sake
of Allah. If I'm going to read Quran
in Ramadan in the condition of fasting or
in the nights that are considered the most
blessed nights of the entire year,
Why wouldn't I pick the Quran up and
read a little bit and see the multiplication
of the reward pack away as many deeds
to be placed on that scale on the
day of judgment. And when Allah knows it
was quite difficult for me to do that,
he's going to reward me based on my
intention
with my circumstance.
When we see one another, what do we
see? We see different types of people. Some
have beards, some don't, some in hijab, some
not in hijab, some this way, some that
way.
Everyone has their own struggles. You don't know
what someone has done and how far they've
gotten and where they've come. But Allah knows
the struggles. Allah knows your circumstances.
Allah knows your
condition. And therefore Allah will reward you uniquely
based on a combination
of everything put together for you. Your reward
may be higher than someone who outwardly might
be seeming to be more practicing
because Allah knows your struggle is real. They
moved from 90% to 91%
in 1 year. And you moved from 50
to 80 in 1 year. You're still behind
them, but your movement, Allah knows it. He
knows how much you've done. Therefore never allow
the statements of another human being to make
you feel that that has
some form of connection
with what Allah thinks about you. No way.
No way. May Allah Almighty forgive us.
We have charity which is a pillar of
Islam. Islam is the only religion, and I've
said this many times in the past, that
makes it a pillar of faith to share
what you have with those who do not
have it if you have beyond a certain
point.
The only religion
that makes it a pillar of faith for
you to share what you have with those
who don't have it if you have beyond
a certain point. And that is your zakkad.
So this zakah, you give it. You can
give it in Ramadan, you can give it
out of Ramadan. But if you were to
give
beyond zakah, something beyond just the 2%, 2
a half percent, something beyond that, then Allah
will reward you immensely.
So much of reward. Give.
Unfikiyabna
adama unfikaalaik.
A secret to earn is to release. Allahu
Akbar. Did you know that? A secret to
earn is to give.
The hadith Qudsi says, Allah Almighty says, O
son of Adam, spend.
Give and I will spend on you. I
will give you.
You want, if you want, what has Allah
given you already? Well, take from it and
give it to those who don't have. And
notice how Allah will shower it on you.
Subhanallah.
Because Allah's
quality of giving is the ultimate giving. Your
quality of giving is actually so small. What
are you going to give? You're only going
to give a portion of what Allah gave
you, but the same Allah gave everyone. Do
you know when there is a cause,
when there is a cause that that requires
funding for example,
don't think that that cause is going to
stop just because I didn't give. Allah puts
it in people's hearts to give and Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala can fulfill it without anyone
giving by creating a miracle for them. How
many of us? We don't depend on anyone
besides Allah. He opened doors
of some form of business that we never
imagined would happen. That was Allah. How did
He do it? He didn't allow you to
stretch your hand to anyone else. That's why
the du'a of the Prophet
that I want to teach you this evening.
Where the Prophet
asks Allah
to protect him from haram by giving him
sufficiency
in halal.
And the same we would ask, Allahummaqfini
bi halalika
anharamik. O Allah,
grant me such sufficiency in halal that I
am protected from haram.
Make me happy. Quench my desire through halal
in a way that I do not go
towards haram. What a powerful dua. Ask Allah
that. He will give it to you. Allahummaqfini
bihalalika
anharamic.
Oh Allah, protect me from haram by giving
me the quenching of my desire through the
halal.
May Allah grant that to us. You make
that du'a, even marriage becomes easy because Allah
gives
you halal in to fulfill your base desires
which is something natural by the way. May
Allah Almighty help us to do the right
thing all the time. And dua continues, wagnini
bifadlikaaman
siwak. O Allah,
Make me independent.
Grant me richness from you. Make me independent
through your virtue
in a way that I depend on none
other than you.
Oh Allah, grant me independence.
Meaning grant me sustenance, grant me independence through
your virtue, through your gift and your favor
in a way that I never depend on
anyone but you, oh Allah. Ask Allah that
and see what Allah does. So the point
I'm raising is on a day like this
and a night like this, give.
Even if it is a pound,
a dollar, 2, 5, 10, depending on your
capacity, whatever you can. And wallahi, if you
do it with the right intention, you will
notice within a short span of time Allah
multiply
your wealth.
Manaka samalun
min sadaqah.
Nobody's wealth has ever become depleted because of
a charity they gave. If anything, it was
multiplied by Allah Subhanahu
wa ta'ala. May Allah grant that to us.
So we have the prayer, we have the
shahada, we have the zakah, and guess what?
We are fasting. These are pillars of Islam.
We are fasting.
The fasting of Ramadan is compulsory. Yes. There
are few exceptions. Those who are unwell
and those who are travelling. If you are
not well,
that's the only time
a fast outside ramadan will be equal in
reward to the fast that is in Ramadan
when you have not been able to do
it for a valid excuse. The sisters on
their monthly cycle when they don't fast in
Ramadan
and they happen to make it up after
Ramadan,
that's the only time that you making a
fast outside Ramadan and you getting a reward
as though you fasted in Ramadan.
Allah will not decrease your reward because you
had an excuse or you weren't allowed to
actually fast. Allah gave you such a discount
that he said, I don't want you to
fast. I want you to concentrate on other
things. May Allah Almighty protect all of us.
And this is why even a person on
a journey look at how Allah says
to us, giving us a leeway and telling
us, if you're on a journey, you can
make it up on another day.
If he suffer according to a hadith. The
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam says, there is no
righteousness. It's not from righteousness
to fast
while you're traveling.
What this means is
when you know that you're traveling,
you have an option to fast or not
to fast and both are equal.
Don't think that if I'm going to struggle
and suffer while I'm traveling and I'm going
to fast because I'm traveling, then my reward
is going to be more because I'm righteous.
Allah says there's no righteousness.
You can fast or you don't have to
fast. It's the same because you're a traveler.
You're traveling. And you make it up after
Ramadan. It's not a discount like, I'm not
going to be making this up because I'm
traveling. No. You're traveling.
One brother comes to me and tells me,
you know, sometimes when you learn a little
bit and you haven't learned a bit more,
you tend to become confused. When you're confused,
please ask those with knowledge.
He says,
I read a hadith saying we're all travelers
on earth.
That means I have a discount all the
time. I said, Well, if that was the
case, we would be reading shorter salah all
the time and hardly anyone would be fasting
because when are you going to make it
up? Perhaps in jahannam. May Allah forgive us.
That's such a wrong idea.
Such a wrong idea. I told him, Brother,
I hope you're just joking. He says, Well,
I'm just looking for a way out. I
said, Don't.
A true believer looks for a way in,
not a way out. I want to know
how can I fast in a proper way?
What should I do? What shouldn't I do?
The other day someone told me, do you
know what?
We allow 10 minutes more in case,
in case
perhaps maybe the timing might be a little
bit wrong, you know. So we give a
leeway of about 10 minutes. I said, My
brother, 10 minutes is too much. Because when
Allah tells you eat now, you can't say,
Well, the sheikh at my masjid told me
I can't, I gotta wait for 10 more
minutes. You can't do that.
Allah says, Eat now, the sun has set.
It's over. You eat now. Whether the shaykh
in your masjid says, Wait for a minute
or not. That's not going to be an
answer to Allah
I tell those who make up these calendars,
you know the calendars made by a human
being, the timetables.
I say, My brother, don't give leeway because
Allah said, This is the minute, this is
the minute. You can't come up and say,
But I know a little bit better. I'm
going to give one more minute just in
case. Allah knows the just in cases.
Subhanallah.
You stick to what Allah has said and
Insha'Allah you are right. May Allah Almighty help
us and grant us goodness. You follow what
I'm saying? So my beloved brothers and sisters,
outside of Ramadan, we're going to fast. In
Ramadan, we're going to try and engage in
all these beautiful acts of worship. Guess what?
I've already overshot my time.
But nonetheless,
these are just few words of encouragement. Look
my brothers and sisters,
cry to Allah. Beg Him to meet your
needs. But while you're doing that, don't be
selfish. Don't just ask about yourselves.
I told you earlier, tonight we're dedicating it
to our brothers and sisters in ghazah and
we're going to pray for them and ask
Allah to help them, to grant them victory,
and goodness, and success.
And indeed our problems and issues, while we
do have them, they are diminished
in the face of the problems that they
have out there. And in other countries and
other places where our brothers and sisters are
struggling, some we know, some we don't know,
some we may never know. But trust me,
when you are more concerned about others,
your problems are diminished. If you have issues,
one of the ways
of helping yourself is go and volunteer with
the charity, and go and help people with
bigger issues than yours. And you start realizing,
wallahi, I've got no problem. I've got nothing.
Whatever I have is actually a blessing of
Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. Because within we compare
our lives with those who are in a
far worse situation than ours. That's what Ramadan
is all about. To change yourself. To change
the way you look at things. To become
compassionate.
To reach out to others, to change your
life, to connect with Allah,
to be interested in the life of the
prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him.
When a lie is said about someone, it
spreads very quickly but it's our duty to
find out the truth which takes a little
bit more time and you need to make
a bigger effort. May Allah Almighty use us
to find out always what the truth is
and then to follow it. And may Allah
bless all of us. I really would like
to welcome you all this evening. And I
really would like to ask Allah Almighty
to make it a successful evening where we
all enjoy
the great act of worship known as Iftar
together. And we pray for one another, and
we feel the love for one another, and
we
May Allah Almighty
grant us
forgiveness before we get up from our places
this evening. Ameen. Aquluqawlihada
Muhammad.
Muhammad.