Muhammad West – Am I a Good Person
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We testify that there is none worthy of
worship with Allah
And we send our loves and our greetings,
salutations to beloved Nabi Muhammad
to his pious and his pure family, to
his companions, and all those who follow until
the end of time. Ameen. Hope you all
had a wonderful, blessed Eid.
Yeah. And you suck, survived the food hangover
this morning,
rolled into the masjid. Alhamdulillah.
Will I accept our Ramadan, our active Ibadat.
Really, this is the last and the most
difficult part of Ramadan
is the day after Ramadan, the days after
Ramadan.
And we
naturally see a dip
in our Ibadat.
And this is normal. Even the Nabi
never exerted himself in Ibadah as he did
in the last 10 nights of Ramadan.
It's a very well known hadith that Aisha
mentions that Nabi never stayed up the whole
night. He always slept at night, except the
last 10 nights. That's when he he himself
pushed himself went beyond
his normal capacity.
So there is gonna be a dip after
Ramadan,
but we hope that the dip does not
mean we go all the way back to
where we were before Ramadan or even worse
than that. And that is the challenge.
How much of Ramadan
can we maintain? Can we keep? How much
of Ramadan will stay with us?
For most of us, and I speak to
myself first,
first and foremost,
we perhaps
prioritize salah to the point where we're in
the masjid or we we had our wudu
before the adhan went. Are we going back
to making salah right at the last minute
just before the next walk comes in or
even worse, missing salawat?
And we've if we look at what how
we spent yesterday,
some of us,
we dressed appropriately, maybe for the sisters, during
the month of Ramadan, I know I need
to wear the dukki, but now that
we are in Eid or after Ramadan, that
which was, you know, sinful comes back. And
so this next,
week or 2,
I want to prepare
there's a list. Allah, and you must have
covered this if you recited the Quran, went
through it. Allah gives a list of who
is a good person. What are the qualities
of a good person? What are the things
I need to I could tick a checklist
list of what makes you a good person?
There's a few aya throughout the Quran that
gives you a breakdown, and it's for each
and every one of us to keep this
list in mind. How much of that should
I prioritize? Where should I focus on?
What of Ramadan can I maintain? Because I
can't maintain all of it. What of it
are the important things? So we will have
this question, am I a good person? And
inshallah is for all of us to introspect.
Allah says this
with, piety, righteousness.
Is not
Being pious, being righteous, being a good person
is not only about turning your face from
1 from the, the east to the west.
Being the ritualistic
worship is not itself piety in itself.
But piety
entails
that they have sincerity in their Ibad, in
the Iman, that they have Iman in Allah
and in the day of Qiyamah and in
the angels and in the books that were
revealed and in the. Meaning, firstly,
a true believer,
his belief system a good Muslim, a good
person, his belief system
is in order.
And the only way you is and and
this list is in terms of priority. Allah,
when he gives a list, he gives it
in terms of priority.
So the first thing that you need to
have in order is what we call your
aqidah, your theology.
And therefore, the only way you get that
that is through learning.
If you were going to focus on something
post Ramadan,
where do I pick up? Where do I
embark?
You need to get into a class. You
need to participate, make part of your life
learning so that my theology is in order.
Part of our series that we discuss, our
iman is constantly being bombarded and attacked with
different ideologies,
different philosophies.
One of the most important for one of
the major philosophies today, liberalism is there is
no such thing as a higher power. You
live how you wanna live. You decide. You
are your own ilah. Allah says the believer,
the first thing that he looks to is
getting his heart in order. His belief is
in order. Then
the second quality of a person of righteousness,
And the second the the then from an
action perspective, it is a person who is
charitable.
In his wealth,
he shares his wealth. Now many of us,
we did so much of charity during the
month of Ramadan.
Perhaps if we look at all the charity
we give as a community during Ramadan, you
look at relief organizations, they collect, like, 90%
of the year's revenue in Ramadan.
But in the rest of the year, we
kind of fall off the wagon. And so
Allah says a believer, a true birr, piety,
is the person who gives out of the
out of wealth which they love. Allah mentions
it here, and I hope we love our
money very much. Allah Even though you love
it, even though we really, really want to
have that extra holiday, that new vehicle, they
give of their wealth
to their relatives,
family members who are in need, to the
orphans that are in need, the poor, the
person who finds himself
as a, you know, the traveler in the
past where he got stuck the bigger
or to help free people who are in
slavery.
That they
establish their salah and they make sure that
their salah
and their zakah is is is is in
order.
And they are honest.
They keep their word.
They are when they talk, they speak the
truth. When they do business, they do business
honestly. When they are employed or the employees
of a company, they are honest in their
dealings.
And they are patient through the difficult times.
Now when things
are tough, they are patient. Allah says this,
if you have these qualities, your iman is
in order, your salah is in order, you
are charitable
in those who are in need.
You are honest in your business dealings. Allah
says, then you are a person who I
testify is sadaqoo. Your iman is sincere.
And then you'll have this quality of taqwa.
Remember, Ramadan,
we all know that.
So that at the end, you will have
taqwa. Now how do I know I have
taqwa? Allah says these are the qualities of
the people of taqwa.
If you have these qualities, well,
you have taqwa. And if you are missing
in any of them, then your taqwa needs
to be worked on. In a in another
list of ayaat, in Surat Al Maarij
in the 29th,
Jews, Allah says
Allah says, indeed, I created man very impatient
very impatient with
Allah. We have no patience with Allah.
When evil touches him, he becomes
distressed. He becomes despondent. He becomes angry.
But when good comes to him, then he
becomes very stingy.
When he's when he's going through when we
go through a bad time, we complain and
we argue and we are difficult. We're very
sad. But when Allah gives us good, then
we're very stingy and we're very arrogant.
Except Allah says accept
a special group of people. Who are these
people? Number 1, Al Musaleen.
Those are the ones who make this salah.
Their
salah. That they are
consistent on their salah.
We have this
but I'm a good person, you know. I
love the environment and I'm not I don't
swear at people. I'm a nice person to
humanity. That's good part of being a Muslim.
Another person will say, I'm a good person.
Yeah. Maybe I'm not the nicest,
friendly person. I'm rude, I swear, but I'm
in the masjid.
Now Islam doesn't want this
either or.
You must do the rituals,
and you must be a good, nice human
being. And this goes down to what when
the prophet speaks about Islam, he says a
Muslim is a person who worships Allah and
cares for the creation. He worships the creator,
and he's good to the creation. You can't
have the one with the other.
So but when you look at when Allah
lists them, he begins with salah. This is
the priority.
He is.
So if we are post Ramadan,
we're not going to make tarawih.
If we are lucky, fortunate, you are still
making a bit of tahajjud, grant us that.
Grant us to maintain that. But if we're
not even on that level,
do not lose the wither. But even if
we lose the wither, do not lose the
fart.
Do not lose the fart. Don't let the
fart be something which we make a, you
know, 4, 5 waqts after Isha'i.
But work is gonna come but we showed
in the Ramadan that when even though we
had we had the same amount of meetings
in the Ramadan like we have now, we
have the same obligations.
We will not allow
anything to derail us from our solar,
at least in the waqfid must be made.
And, of course, if you can make it
within the earliest part, the better. So Allah
begins, a good person,
he is consistent in his salah salah.
The second quality,
a good person is a person who gives
of his money to the bigger and the
poor.
Charity is part of his makeup part of
her makeup.
They are charitable.
And number 3, they have a firm belief,
a firm commitment in kiyama.
Believe in kiyama. Now everyone will say I
believe in. But when you speak when when
when you look in the Quran,
when Allah refers to people who don't believe
in,
it is the quality it's not that they
don't believe in the day of the day.
They are most most people believe in a
life after death.
But the attribute of a person who is
conscious about,
He's conscious about consequences about how he lives,
how the way he lives his life. A
person who lives their life completely
as they wish to desire as they desire.
They don't mind cheating people. They don't mind
hurting people. They don't mind doing all kinds
of sin. If you ask him, do you
believe in kiyama? He'll say yes. But Allah,
when Allah speaks about a person in the
Quran who doesn't believe in kiyama, he has
no regard for consequences of his deeds. He
doesn't think that he's going to be his
actions demonstrate he doesn't believe in.
A person a believer, Allah says, a good
person.
He is constantly
fearful,
worried.
It it occupies his mind about my position
with Allah on the day of Qiyamah, that
there is a place like Jannam. It's very
unpopular to talk about punishment, adhab, nowadays,
but a believer keeps us in mind. And
Allah says,
nobody should feel secure when it comes to
the punishment of Allah. Nobody should feel
I'm safe. Everybody must have a good amount
of concern
concern about the consequences of their deeds.
And the believers, may Allah protect, they are
the ones who are chased. They protect their
private parts. They do not come at zina.
The only time they engage in sexual conduct
is with their wives with their wives. But
whoever wants more than that, whoever goes beyond
what is halal, then you have transgressed against
Allah. So Allah gains his salah,
charity,
being conscious about the limits of Allah,
specifically
avoiding zina.
And they are faithful
when they do the covenants. They trust. They
are honest again. A person you cannot be
a good person.
If people say, that guy, he's a bit
dodgy.
He's a scammer.
That is not part of what being a
there is something seriously deficient in your Islam.
Nobody should be able to legitimately point the
finger and say, that guy,
you know, you can't trust him. Don't leave
money with him. Don't do business with him
or her.
You can't trust him. A believer is always
honest. And that they are honest in their
testimony again.
And Allah ends the list and they are
the ones who are properly observant of their
salah. He began the list with salah and
he ended the list with salah.
These are the people Allah says, I promise
them they will enter Jannah. So
I know when we enter Ramadan,
we see how many khatams must I do
to be a good person. How
much extra must I do? Must I fast
Monday, Thursday is the middle. All those are
good, but Allah didn't put that on the
list. Those are extras. Those are good. Allah
says this list I'm giving you is a
very simple list.
Believe in me properly.
Make salah on time.
Be charitable
within your limits. Part of your monthly
spend must be on the orphan, must be
on the poor, whether it's R1, R10, a
R1,000,000, whatever you can afford.
Number 4, you must be honest in your
way you deal with people, the way you
speak, the way you do your transactions. You
cannot be a liar or a a a
a a a, you know, cheating people.
Number 5, you must protect your modesty, your
chastity. The way you dress as a Muslim,
the what you look at, what you scroll
at night, mother protect us, who we speak
to. So we need to a part of
a believer is we have that in order,
and we are constantly,
you know,
we we safeguard the limits of Allah. These
things, Allah says, is a good person. This
will get you into Jannah. He doesn't he
doesn't put in the Quran. Allah doesn't say
you need to make a khatam every month
or make tahajjud every night or fast extra
every Mondays Thursdays. Those are nice to haves,
but these things, Allah says, are nonnegotiable. So,
inshallah, as we try to rebuild, build our
life post Ramadan, we ask Allah to grant
us in that which is most important and
ask Allah to make us people that are
good. Amin. We'll continue next week.
Just one
one announcement, and that is to say to
everybody who supported all our programs during the
month of
Ramadan and who supported, all our efforts and
those who came to the Masjid in particular.
We really appreciate that you share your act
of worship and your body with us. Once
again, we, wish you all the best, in
the time after Ramadan.