Mustafa Khattab – Receiving Ramadan
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AI: Transcript ©
So after 2 weeks, inshallah, the month of
Ramadan will arrive.
And some people I'm sure that most of
the people are excited. Some people are terrified.
But
what can we do to receive this month?
What makes the sahabah of the prophet
stand out as the finest
among Muslims? 2 things. Number 1,
they saw the prophet salawasalahu alaihi wa sallam
in front of them. And number 2, they
were with him for long periods of time.
So they were his companions.
So Allah
has honored us as Muslims,
this generation,
that we believe in the prophet
without seeing him. And the prophet
says in the authentic hadith that we are
his beloved ones
because we, unlike his friends, we believe in
him without seeing
So since the sahabah of the prophet
are the finest and the best in the
Muslim Ummah,
then to learn how to receive the month
of Ramadan and how and how to make
the best out of the month, so we
need to look closely at the example of
the sahaba and what we can learn from
them. And today, we will learn 3 things
from them.
Number 1, they used to make up for
everything they missed
either before Islam or after they accepted Islam.
Number 2, they always came to the prophet
asking about the best Ibad
and the most beloved Ibadah to Allah. They
were not asking about the Ibadah, like, in
the basement or the smallest Ibadah. No. They
were always aiming high and thinking big and
always asking about the biggest and the finest
Ibadan and Ibadan that generates
the most rewards.
And number 3,
they used to take advantage of the special
and unique times, like the month of Ramadan.
So if you want to be to to
get a lot of rewards just like they
get or they got, we need to follow
these three things.
So what? Some of the sahaba, they used
to, like, make,
or make up for everything they missed before
they accepted Islam because some of them, they
accepted Islam late. Like Abu Hurayrah Radiullah Manhul,
he accepted Islam late. He accepted Islam 3
years before the death of the prophet sasallam,
but still he narrated more hadith than anyone
else among the sahab.
So technically, he lived a 1000 days with
the prophet sasallam,
and he narrated more than
5,000 hadiths from him.
So some of the sahaba who accepted Islam
late, like, Abu Sufia Radi Allahu Khanil ibn
Barid al Amin Al Az,
when they accepted Islam, before the dead end
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, they
will come and they would say, oh, prophet
of Allah, we did a lot before Islam
to turn people away from Islam,
and we fought against Islam. Now
we will spin everything we have to support
Islam,
and we will struggle with you to make
Islam victorious. Now they're making off for everything
they missed before Islam.
What we can learn from the Sahaba is,
some of us, for example, they don't know
how to read Qur'an.
Even some Arabs, they don't know how to
read or they don't know how to read
with tazweed.
So Ramadan is a chance for you
to learn tazweed and to learn how to
recite Qur'an, at least to be able to
recite the salah.
If you delay the salah,
make sure that the Ramadan inshallah you pray
on time so you make up for everything
you missed before. If you don't pray sunnah,
make sure in Ramadan you pray sunnah, you
pray tarawiyyay.
And as we know in the hadith of
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, if you
pray sunnah in Ramadan, you will get the
reward of a faaq and obligatory
prayer.
So the sahaba used to ask the prophet
about the best and the finest and the
most generating
of their works among good deeds. So the
prophet
would tell them that the finest acts of
worship,
the acts of worship that makes your scales
heavy on the day of judgement,
the most beloved acts of worship to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala are the following. He gave
different answers in different situations
based on the background of the one who
was asking him the question. So sometimes, the
prophet would
say, kindness to your parents
and relatives. This is the best action.
In another situation, the prophet, sahaja sallam, will
say, taqamullah,
and kindness, and generosity.
In another situation, the prophet, sahaja sallam, will
say, salah.
Praise.
And in one time, the prophet
passed by a grave, and he said, 2
rakas for this person. If he comes back
to life and pray 2 rakas,
these 2 rakas would be better for him
than anything in this world.
Another time someone came to him asking about
the best action
the person can do, and the prophet said
fasting.
Fasting is the best thing. It has no
equal,
and so on and so forth.
The Sahaba,
may Allah be pleased with it, used to
take the question to another level.
They didn't only ask about the finest actions
or the best actions,
like salah and charity and so on and
so forth, but they would ask the prophet
about the finest type of prayers
and the finest type of charity and the
finest type of Zakat and the finest type
of Hajj.
So the prophet would say that this type
of Ibadah
we know Ibadah is the best, but the
best type of Ibadah is dua. They
would ask, we know that the salah is
the best, but what is the best salah
we can offer? The prophet would say prayer
at night.
Or salah to fast on the day of
Jum'ah, this is the best.
And in terms of fasting, he would say
the fasting of the wood is the best
type of fasting.
And charity,
he would say that the best charity ever
you can give is charity to your relatives,
uncles,
aunts,
brothers, and sisters. This is the best time
of
We learned from this, from the sahabah. If
you want to generate the most rewards,
you have to look for the finest and
the biggest acts of worship.
So number 3, the sahaba would look and
take advantage of the best times to make
a bada because this would generate more rewards
than other days.
We know that the acts of worship in
Ramadan are multiplied more than any other time
in the
year. And Allah
exalted some days over others like the day
of Jummah is better than the rest of
the week.
And some months are better than other months
like like a month of Ramadan is the
best month in the year.
The night or laylatul padr is the best
night in the year, better than any other
night. So the sahaba would look for these
times and take advantage of them to do
their best.
So the Sahaba used to take advantage of
this.
So take advantage of the month of Ramadan
and try to get close to Allah
Take advantage of Laylatul Qadr
and take advantage of salatul Qiyam and praying
at night, especially the portion
before salatul Fajr. And the prophet
says about this part,
during that part before saladu fajj, Allah
will descend to our heavenly,
earthly heaven, and Allah
will stretch his hands every night and say,
is there anyone who is asking for anything
that I will give it to him? Is
there anyone who is asking for my forgiveness
and I will grant it to them? And
so on and so forth until the day
of
So I conclude with this story from one
of the sisters. She was an Indian sister
in South Carolina,
and she was all that she had some
medical problems, and she couldn't fast during the
day. And she used to come to me
crying,
and she used to say, I wish I
were healthy so I would be able to
fast.
And at night, in Taraweeh,
she couldn't stand up in salam because she
couldn't stand up. She had to sit in
that chair, but sometimes she used to force
herself
to stand up and tawiyyah,
and she used to come with knee problems
and back problems. And I told her, Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala
knows that you can't. You would if you
could.
You don't have to force yourself to foster
Ramadan. You're old and you're very sick. You
can't.
And you can't stand in the salah at
night, sit on a chair, and Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala will give you that award. In
Islam, you get that award for doing your
best even if your best is not good
enough.
And I used to remember the youth.
The young brothers and sisters who are young
and healthy, but still some of them, you
see them in the sleep smoking.
In the day of Ramadan, they don't fast.
And at night, they don't pray taweeh. Or
some of them, they don't even pray. They
fly a day of prayers. Forget about taraweed.
They don't pray at all. So I used
to remember this system.
So in conclusion, we have to take advantage
of the month of Ramadan to generate more
rewards
and
to get close to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
and we ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to
forgive our sins in that month.
So the sahaba, 6
months before Ramadan,
they would pray that Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala,
give them the life and the strength to
be able to fast in Ramadan and pray
at night. And the 5 or the 6
months after Ramadan, they would make dua that
Allah will accept
from them whatever they did in the month
of
Alhamdulillah.
The project of the Islamic Academy has been
completed,
and the money that we must do have
been paid completely. So this year, inshaAllah, will
be a year of celebration,
and there will be a big event, in
November, inshallah, by the end of the year.
This Sunday, it will be a thank you
picnic for the Muslim community to show gratitude
and to give thanks to all those who
have contributed
to the whole community.
So inshallah, between 12:7,
this Sunday, July 8th, we'd like to get
to see you inshallah at Randall Park to
show you gratitude.