Maximise Ramadan

Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato Bismillah al Rahman al Rahim al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa Salatu was Salam ala nabina Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam. We begin by praising Allah the Almighty the exalted the majestic. We asked him to send his choices of blessings and salutations upon our beloved prophet muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi wa sallam, his family members, his companions and all those who tread upon his path with utmost sincerity until the day of piano.

My dear brothers and sisters, the topic for today's reminder is maximize Ramadan. This month is a special month,

a month that the pious people of the past will prepare months ahead for we need to strive we need to remind ourselves with regards to the virtue of this month and we need to strive to make the most out of it, we ask Allah subhana wa terhadap for help to do so.

So inshallah Dinah, I would like to run through a few action items in a move to help us make the most out of this month of Ramadan before it slips away from witness. May Allah help us to make the most out of it. I mean, I mean,

action item number one, this is with regards to our intentions. Now we know of the famous Hadith that has been recorded in the book of Emanuel Bihari Rahim Allah, the talks about intentions in animal, Amma Lubin yet that our actions are based upon our intentions. So I remind myself and then all of you all watching this video,

to bring in a firm intention

to make the most out of this month of Ramadan, to strive to achieve the pleasure of Allah subhanho wa Taala. Destroy, strive to do as many good deeds as possible in a move to accrue colossal rewards from the generous Lord. So let us firmly intend to do so my dear brothers and sisters, that's number one. Number two,

set clear goals. You need to have a plan. You need to have a checklist. You need to have a timetable, you need to shedule things.

Otherwise, time is going to slip away and time is precious.

Every second, you see a second has gone past. There is no getting it back. You can spend all of the wealth that you own, but you can't get that second back. You can't get that minute back. You can't get that day back that week back that month back. So we need to plan ourselves in such a way we need to have this routine to make the most out of this month of Ramadan. So set clear goals

with what you're trying to achieve during this month of Ramadan.

Now, we're looking at this month this month is also known as what

it is known as the month of the Koran.

Allah describes this month in the Quran, Shambo Ramadan al Levy, Xin Effie Hindu for

shalom Shahada Ramadan, talking about the month of Ramadan Allah says that the Quran was revealed during in this particular month.

So it is a month during which we need to build a close relationship with the words of our maker subhana wa dyana. With the Quran, we need to spend time reading the Koran we need to spend time contemplating on the core and reflecting on the Quran pondering on the Quran studying the Quran. So we need to try and spend as much time as possible. My dear brothers and sisters, you need to plan your day in such a way that perhaps before every prayer, after every prayer,

who incorporate some studying of the Quran, some reading of the Quran. And today, we live upon a landscape where things have been made so easy. See, Subhan Allah, I'm sitting in one part of the world and you are sitting in another part of the world. And we are benefiting from one another. This is due to the tools that are available at our disposal through the mercy of our maker subhanho wa Taala your mobile phone, you have apps. You can have the Quran with you wherever you go. You can have recitations of the Quran with you wherever you go. You can listen to the Quran through your Spotify app through your YouTube app. You can have a playlist structured in such a way where you

listen to beneficial things

where you feed your mind. You feed your heart with that which is beneficial

you know the other day I came

Across this post and it was posted on our social media pages as well. You see WhatsApp has this feature where you can enable it if you want to where you can see when you were last seen on the platform.

You know there are privacy controls where you can switch it off if you want to, but then you can't see the last scene of others but if you do switch it on then you can see when others will have seen as well if they have enabled it.

So this post, you have the WhatsApp icon and it states last scene. Five seconds ago, last scene one minute ago. last scene, what 30 minutes ago, and then the Quran last seen 11 months ago. So Allah Subhan Allah, we should not become like that my dear brothers and sisters, we need to spend time with the words of Allah subhanho wa Taala.

This is what makes our hearts soft. This is what fills our hearts with the consciousness of our maker. This is how you develop taqwa. And we all know that taqwa is a key ingredient. If you're looking for success in this world, as well as the Hereafter, in a little cleaner Mufasa as Allah says in the normal call on indeed for the people of taqwa is Mufasa with tree and success in this world as well as the next May Allah subhanho wa Taala make us all from the people of taqwa I mean, action item number three, I might lose track of the you know the numbers but I'll continue with the action items. Asana a believers life needs to revolve around salah and this month is a good

opportunity for you to work on your Salah for you to work on the outer aspects of Salah as well as the inner dimensions of Salah because they both go hand in hand. Some of us have worked on the outer aspects but with regards to the inner dimensions with regards to our shoe, with regards to have a concentration in Salah with regards to gathering our thoughts in Salah with regards to our focus of a discipline and Salah, it's a wire, but outer aspects are all in place. You see you need to work on the outer aspects as well as the inner aspects. You take something like circle fatty hub, which is a key integral insula. A lot of us we have worked on the outer aspects where our recitation is good.

Now that's key. You can't ignore it. I mean, if you were to make a mistake in certain Fatiha, where if it were to lead to you saying something blasphemous, I've touched on this in previous videos, it would render the Surah Fatiha invalid which in turn would render the Salah invalid. So you have to work on your recitation of the Quran. But along with that, but I want to highlight my dear brother, my dear sister is that you must focus on the inner dimensions as well to savor the sweetness of Salah.

Such as we have the teachings of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that tells us with regards to Surat Al Fatiha it is a conversation between you and Allah subhanho wa Taala a conversation

when you read Alhamdulillah hyrum Bella Allah me in a lot of spawns my slave has praised me or off Manny Rafi him a lot responds to that my slave has praised me, ma Niki Omid doing a lot of spawns my slave has a glorified an X and exalted me. And when you read it, yeah, can I move?

Can I staring then Allah says this is between me and my slave and I will give him whatever he wishes Subhan Allah after every statement after every recitation.

After every I have certain Fatiha Allah responds to you, my dear brother, my dear sister. So we need to savor these inner dimensions of Salah. We need to we need to feel as if we're standing in front of Allah subhana wa Taala and dabboo De La Hoya Kanika Tara for inlanta kantara in Iraq, what is the sun? What is the Assam as per the hadith of gibreel as per the hadith of Gabriel, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he defines Hassan, Hassan My dear brothers and sisters, you have Islam, you have Eman And then you have Hassan and tabooed Allah and

it is to worship Allah as if you see him for inlanta kantara in Iraq, and even if you do not because obviously we cannot see Allah Subhana Allah to Allah in this world.

We pray that Allah azza wa jal blesses us

to witness him in.

People will talk about Yeoman moseyed on another day in Sharla a day

where we will all stand in front of Allah subhana wa tada

We will get the opportunity to witness the one we have been prostrating unto on a daily basis, the one who we have been raising our hands on to the one whom we have been reading his words with so much of love with so much of all,

to stand in front of him. So, in this world axon is to worship Him, as if you can see him and even though you cannot see him know that he sees you, these are the inner dimensions of Salah. So, we need to work on our

Salah.

So, with regards to you know all of this, you need to block time, you need to block time you need to create the schedule, you need to have this routine to ensure that you achieve these goals. And the next action item is to minimize distractions, you see, we are attempting to maximize Ramadan. So to maximize you need to minimize

when you minimize you maximize. So you need to minimize distractions and distractions, my dear brothers and sisters Subhan Allah, just as how we are living upon a landscape of convenience where we have so many tools at our disposal to do things very easily. And very conveniently, the very same tools can be a huge form of distraction. So you need to minimize these distractions. Take for example social media is a tool that can be used yes to spread the powerful message, a positive message a message of goodness. But similarly, it is something that can distract you. It has many negatives it has positives and negatives. A believer is an individual who lives a balanced life. Why

because he looks to the role model of Mohammed Salah to rugby was

the one who lived such a balanced life we look towards his life for guidance for teachings. And we strive for balance. We always strive for the middle of middle ground in whatever we do. So that's the next action item. minimize your distractions during the month of Ramadan. Identify the harms of these things and navigate away from them you know. And that's how a person of taqwa behaves.

The Sahaba were asked with regards to taqwa what is taqwa? And this hubby who was defining taqwa asks the question. Have you ever walked down a thorny path? To which the man replies in the affirmative? He says, Yes, I have why. Then now the Sahaba he goes on to say So okay, if you're walked down a thorny path. Then

he goes on to ask him so how did you walk down the thorny path. He says, You know, I walked very carefully, very gingerly. I made my way down the path and shooting I gathered all my clothes Together Together to avoid snagging my clothes onto onto the thorns. And I made my way very carefully. So then this hobby goes on to say that is taqwa, the road, the path is this worldly life you are traversing onto the hereafter. The thorns are the Maha Rama. The prohibitions of Allah subhanho wa Taala, the traps of the devil the traps of shaitaan. So you must be careful to avoid those traps. In today's you know, modern context you can, you can you can use the metaphor of you

driving down a road full of potholes. Now you've got this brand new car and you wouldn't want to damage your car. You wouldn't want to damage the undercarriage of your car, you would very carefully navigate away from the potholes and go carefully. So similarly a person with taqwa is very vigilant, he's careful to avoid them ohama the prohibitions of Allah subhanho Medina.

Moving on next action item, simplify your life. See for a lot of us the month of Ramadan, more than it being about fasting, it's about feasting. We spend a lot of time our our women folk spend a lot of time in their kitchen, cooking up

you know, recipes, cooking up dishes, and the men spend their time alone eating this is what the purpose of Ramadan This is not the purpose of Ramadan at all. Subhana Allah, we have lost the plot if we think that this is the purpose of Ramadan and this is what it has become Subhan Allah if you look around if you look at all these marketing slogans and campaigns they're all capitalizing on the fact that they know Muslims are basically going to be feasting during this month. That should not be the case my dear brothers and sisters Ramadan has higher and loftier objectives. We don't enter the month of Ramadan and come out the other side. Having you know indulged and and over eaten

Subhan Allah, no rather, we should simplify our lives where we spend actually less time in the kitchen. we simplify our meals, you shouldn't be over eating during Soho, you shouldn't be over eating during a bar. Why? Because it's going to be counterproductive. If you overeat during Soho, it's going to be an uncomfortable uncomfortable day during the fasting day. And if you overeat for a far

it's again going to be very difficult for you to now indulge in good deeds to indulge in a pm to indulge in studying the Quran, reading the Quran, and Salah taraweeh all of it is going to become complicated.

So these are quick action items we need to we need to plan to simplify our lives we spend less time in the kitchen, you know, we plan the menu for the entire month. We plan simple meals we cook ahead, we can we can freeze these meals and make you know certain arrangements to ensure that we have more time at our disposal to be doing what we're supposed to be doing getting closer to Allah subhanho wa Taala. During this particular month, that is key we need to remind ourselves of the true spirit of this month of Ramadan on a daily basis. My dear brothers and sisters, the devil is killed, the doors to Agenda are wide open. So this is a season full of opportunities you need to make the most out of

it. May Allah subhanho wa Taala help us to do so.

Lastly, my dear brothers and sisters, the last action item that I want to touch before concluding is make this month a month of knowledge of seeking knowledge. You see you have you have access to so much at your fingertips today. So many videos, so many books, so many live streams, so many CDs, so many podcasts, so many PDFs, so many knowledge circles. It's so convenient. Unlike the past where the scholars or the students of knowledge had to traverse miles and kilometers to seek knowledge today, from the comfort of our homes through platforms like zoom, and so many other platforms, you have access to so much of knowledge. And if we do not utilize these tools, these platforms,

I'm sorry to say that, you know we are going to be held accountable. How are we going to respond? How are we going to answer to Allah subhanho wa Taala when all when we had all of this to further our knowledge. So therefore use the tools at your disposal, use the platforms at your disposal to further your knowledge and use these tools to spread the message. Today we share all kinds of things on our social media platforms and through our accounts but when it comes to messages of goodness, when it comes to videos of goodness, we hesitate or or we click through them that does not be like that my dear brothers and sisters and you can start off by sharing the videos that are being put up

on a regular basis

with others so that they too can benefit that we can all benefit and share in the rewards so that you can maximize the rewards. You see if you inspire someone to read the one letter off the hall and that individual is going to be rewarded Yes. And similarly you are going to be rewarded This is the generosity of Allah subhana wa Tada. So let us share the good message far and wide. I hope these action items will benefit let us intend to family to maximize this Ramadan and we pray that Allah subhana wa Taala helps us to do so. With that I conclude this video i look forward to talking to you all in another video in sha Allah Allah. We have a few series going on we have the word from the

Quran and the Sunnah series going on. Regularly we hope to take a word from the Quran or the Sunnah of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasallam and and unpack it in detail. Then we have the Tafseer series that's happening on Sundays. We have all these martial law episodes going on. So please do benefit. Please do share it around as well. If you haven't subscribed to my channel, go ahead and subscribe. The second hire was Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.