Nadim Ali – Ramadan A Special Time
AI: Summary ©
The importance of not dying to achieve victory and the need to be mindful of one's actions is emphasized. The use of the current month as a means of gaining weight and avoiding sin is emphasized, along with the importance of restraining one's anger during the time of Islam. The use of technology to restructure oneself and better use of time is also emphasized. The speaker emphasizes the importance of learning new information and structure in order to grow and be successful in the future.
AI: Summary ©
Indeed, all praise belongs to Allah, the most
high. We thank him, and we seek his
aid, and we seek his forgiveness.
And we seek refuge with him from the
evil of ourselves and from our bad actions.
Whoever Allah guides him, there's no one who
can mislead him. And Whoever Allah calls to
go astray, there's no one to guide him.
Again, whoever Allah guides, there's no one who
can mislead him. Whoever Allah calls to go
astray, then there's no one to guide him.
And I bear witness that there is no
deity except Allah who is unique and without
partners,
and I bear witness that Mohammed is his
worshiper and his messenger, and may the peace
and blessings of Allah be upon him and
his family and his companions and those who
follow them with good intentions
until the day of judgment.
All you who believe, fear Allah as he
should be feared and don't die except as
Muslims. Again, all you believe,
fear Allah as he should be feared and
don't die except as Muslims.
Oh, mankind, be careful of your duty to
your who created you from a single soul
and from it created its mate, and from
the 2 of them, he spread forth many
men and women.
Be careful of your duty to Allah whom
you demand your mutual rights and be careful
of your duty to the wounds that bore
you. Indeed, Allah is our al Akib over
you.
All you who believe, fear Allah, and always
speak the truth, he will cause your deeds
to be beneficial, and he will forgive for
you your sins. And whoever obeys Allah and
his messenger can be a truly achieved a
tremendous accomplishment.
Indeed, the best speech is the book of
Allah, and the best guidance is the guidance
of Mohammed sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and the
most evil of all affairs
are newly invented matters which has no precedence
in Islam.
Indeed, all innovations are astray,
and each astray is in the hellfire. And,
oh Allah, save us from it, oh Allah.
Accept our duet.
We have indeed revealed this message in the
night of power.
In what will explain to thee what is
the night of power,
the night of power is better than a
1000 months.
Therein,
come down the angels
and the spirit by Allah's permission on every
errand.
Peace or salaam.
This until the rise of more.
And we look at this particular source or
like dealing with later to call the the
night of power.
And and what the law says that it
is better
than a 1000 a 1000 months.
And when you do the math on that,
it's talking about well over 80 years 80
years
of blessings that you get for seeking the
night of power.
And one of the things that we have
to recognize that the prophet, peace be upon
him, said to seek it
in the last 10 days of Ramadan. We're
going into
the last 10 days of Ramadan.
And whether you started fasting on a Saturday
or Sunday,
give us all the blessings
of of this month, you know, because it's
important,
you know, for us to use this month
because Ramadan is a very special time. It's
a very special time. It's a month that
we get yearly
in order to basically improve ourselves.
It's a it's a month in which, you
know, Allah
gave us
in remembrance of the fact that the Quran
was revealed during this particular month.
Now
read I heard Allah's Apostle
saying regarding Ramadan.
Whoever prays
prays at night in the month of Ramadan
out of sincere faith
and hoping and and and hoping for a
reward from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
then all of his previous sins will be
forgiven. Again, all of our previous sins will
be forgiven if we're, again, engaging in the
night prayer, whether it's the or,
you know, the the wither or or getting
up before Fajr and praying.
Again, this is a special time, and so
we have to take advantage of this time.
We don't just want to use Ramadan as
a means. Okay. We're just gonna lose some
weight.
You know, we wanna lose the weight of
sin. We wanna lose that weight of sin.
We and and and the law gives us
this opportunity. We get, again, from prayer to
prayer, an opportunity for expiation. From Jummah to
Jummah, an opportunity for expiation.
Again, from Ramadan to Ramadan, an opportunity for
expiation.
From Umrah to Umrah, an opportunity for expiation.
And from Hajj to Hajj is an opportunity
for expiation. Expiation,
again, getting rid of sins. Getting rid of
sins. Because what we want to do, we
want to meet our Lord as pure as
possible.
And that means, again, using this time as
a means of of getting rid of the
attractions, the things that basically weigh on our
soul.
Again, as the great scholar, you know, said
in regards to that our nafs is it's
like a a big mountain that stands between
us and Allah.
And so we have to climb that mountain,
and we climb that mountain and suppress that
knobs. And the Ramadan gives us an opportunity,
as the law says, it's an opportunity to
learn self restraint.
It's an opportunity for us to grow spiritually,
not just religiously. We don't just wanna be
seen or been, because, again, nobody knows you're
fasting.
Nobody knows you're fasting unless you go around
bragging or have a sign on your on
your back saying I'm fasting.
You know, I had an opportunity this week
to break my fast.
You know, I got I went to,
went to do an event, and, we were
able to be successful.
We,
DeKalb County, in the print in the jail,
they were not giving the the the the
residents of the inmates there the suhoor.
And then they bring and then for iftar,
they were giving it to him sometime late
as 11 o'clock at night. And so CAIR
basically
basically,
you know, put forth some pressure on them.
They asked me to come and talk. And,
so we talked
and after I came out from the press
conference,
you know, I got a boot on my
car. You know, you you you trying to
do a good deed. And so I'm explaining
to the guy, you know, I put the
wrong tag number in. And, he said, yeah.
Well, it's you know, it could be anybody.
And so I'm sitting there thinking all in
my head, you know, you know, it's a
special place in * for people like this.
And I'm wanting to say all of this
and something said, no, brother. You fasted. And
so I just kept quiet.
And then,
and left and just took a picture of
the the
whoever the owner is.
And,
you know, you know, I used to have
this saying, you know, don't argue with the
pig.
Go see the farmer.
You know? And so I went to the
farmer and explained to him what happened. So
he gave me my money back from the
book.
Book. But, you know, I would've if I
engaged into an angry discussion with this person,
then I would've possibly broke up broken my
fast. And so and that's and that's the
the special time that Ramadan gives us to
really show our self restraint.
You know, that anger. Anger is shaitans intoxicate.
And so all of us can get angry.
The only people that don't get angry are
dead people. You know? But the prophet, peace
be upon him, when he was asked, you
know, advised me. He said, don't get angry.
The man asked him again, advise me. He
said, don't get angry. He said, advise me.
And again, he said, don't get angry.
And he says again, that the strong person
is not the good wrestler, but the strong
person who can restrain themselves and restrain their
anger. So it's important for us to utilize
Ramadan,
you know, as really a spiritual workout,
not just a physical workout. There's so many
spiritual benefits.
And, again, if we're able to restrain ourselves
during Ramadan, it makes it easier for us
to restrain ourselves the rest of the 11
months of the year. So it's important that
we basically recognize this as a special time.
We go into the cave
and we go into a stage of reflection
and basically
try to learn something deeper about ourselves.
Again,
prophet said, whoever fasted Ramadan,
again, out of sincere faith
and hoping for reward from Allah, then again,
all of his past sins will be forgiven.
And whoever stood for the prayers in the
night of of of Qadr
out of sincere faith and hoping for reward
from Allah, then all again of his previous
sins will be forgiven. It's a special time,
brothers and sisters, and we we have to
honor that special time. You know, it's a
time for, again, remembrance. It's a time for
bonding, for brothers and sisters to, again, to
bond with one another, you know, just renew
our connection to one another. It's a time
for connecting, you know, with ourselves.
It's a time for connecting with the family
and others if you don't have family.
You you know, again, we many of us
who are transplants had to, you know, basically
create surrogate families and create, you
had to, you know, basically create surrogate families
and create, families, just in in our in
our in our in our environment. And that's
what we had to do. You know,
we we created that. And some people are
closer to us than our our our blood
ties.
You know, so we have to be able
to use this as not just a time
of denying food,
but a time of growing spiritually.
Each year, we have to learn. As I
mentioned last time I talked, you know, try
to use this time to learn new ayat
of the Quran.
Because again,
during the day of judgment,
what is your shade?
Your shade is gonna be how much Quran
you know.
You know, you may have just a kufi
size of,
or a kemo size ounce of shade, or
you may have shade the size of a
tent,
a big tent, or a dome.
And so learn as much Quran. Don't just
be comfortable with the amount of Quran that
you know. Prophet, peace be upon him, said
to seek knowledge from the cradle to the
grave. In one translation, it says, even unto
China. Even unto China. Because, again, we get
complacent,
and so we have to continue to grow.
You know, if our job got retooled
and we have to learn new skills or
new skill set,
we'll be working day and night to learn
that new skill set because you're getting paid.
And
so Allah will pay us generously on the
day of judgment.
And so we have to basically continue to
learn as much Quran.
As we know, I've been working on some
ayats, you know, 2 years more. I remember,
when he basically
remember,
you know, you remembered, sword to memorized sword
to Bakkara, and I believe he slaughtered a
a camel to to just celebrate. And he
had the language, and he was around the
prophet, peace be upon him. So us being
English speakers is no excuse, but we get
a greater reward than people who are native
Arabic speakers.
And so let us use that time. Take
some time out the day when you're sitting
in the Masjid. And, again, all these devices
that connects us
to the Hadith and connect us to the
Quran. You know, we we should use them
for good inshallah. You know, again, it's denying
yourself
physical food, but
replenishing the spiritual food. That's what we have
to do because we don't want to use
we don't want to waste this time.
Ramadan is a time for us to continue
to grow. And, again,
as in it's talked about Surah Asah, it
says that verily by the token of time,
mankind is lost, except except for those who
have faith and enjoying in the mutual teaching
of truth with patience and constancy. And it's
also time is just something, a tool that
we use to structure ourselves. It's we have
to structure ourselves,
and Ramadan gives us this opportunity
to restructure ourselves. If I've said anything that's
inconsistent with what Allah has given us and
what the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam teaches
us, then I take full responsibility for that.
And if I've said anything, would you have
gained some new insight? As always, all praise
belongs to Allah.
Allah. Again,
how we use time
will determine
how we will be spending the hereafter
because time will be a witness
for you or against you.
And, also, there'll be no more time in
the hereafter, and then that's the the beauty
of what we have as Muslims.
And when we're given the dawah, you know,
the people are so
clung to this earth that they can't see.
They can't even believe in the hereafter. I
was sitting with some people, and a man
was trying to marry this lady who did
not believe, and and I had to explain
to him that she's not lawful to you.
She's not you know, you're worshiping love.
Sometimes people worship love and then they they
basically give up their their good place in
the hereafter.
And so we have to understand
that
the hereafter, there'll be no more time. If
Allah gives us 70, 60, 70, 80 years
on the planet,
then after that, there's no more time. How
do you want to spend your time?
But first, how are we using this special
time?
How are we using this special time?
You know, I'm often saying that
this is just our middle womb when we
were in our mother's stomachs, in the womb
of our mother's.
We didn't understand. We didn't know that that
was our world. That was our world. That
that that place we're bouncing around, that was
just our world.
This time
is just the middle wound
to true life. The true life begins
when when we leave this plane of life.
That's when true life begins, and we have
to understand that. That's the essence of iman
or faith, that that we don't see it,
nobody has come back and told us about
it,
but we read it in the Quran.
We read in the Quran.
You know, we hear what the law promises
us, promises to believers, promises those who pray,
promise to
those who give charity,
promises to those who do good.
It's a promise that and the law does
not break his promise, so we have to,
again, recognize
this special time.
We seek the later to call the,
again, which is better than a 1000 nights,
well over 80 years, well over 80 years
of worship.
Again, any good that we do,
whether it's charity, you know, whether it's a
good deed, it's multiplied immensely.
And also, again, working on ourselves.
You know, again, we should be breaking the
habits, the habits that
the dunya
brings on us, whether it's, again, smoking, whether
it's cigarettes, or whether it's it's it's it's
weed or drinking or, you know, engaging in
all sorts of promiscuity. We have to basically
get away from the habits that the dunya
calls on us.
This use this special time to get rid
of the habits because you have people again
who can stop certain things just during the
month of Ramadan and go right back into
it
once the Ramadan ends. So, you know, we
have to say, okay. Let's let's break it.
Because it takes, again, your brain a year
to believe you when you are
stopping a habit. And that's that's the problem.
The relapse period, you know, as a as
a council of addiction,
the the the the the brain has to
basically heal it takes a brain the brain
a year to heal no matter what the
drug that you're taking.
You know? And so that's the the most
vulnerable time for people who are in recovery.
And so
just because you might talk about the crack
addict, but you have people who are basically
addicted to other cracks too.
And you have people who are addicted to
television and computers and devices, and those are
called process addictions.
So we have to get away from those
things that take us away from our worship.
Let's use the tools that Allah has given
us to increase our iman, to increase our
knowledge, and to increase
our better use of time.
Because Allah says
Verily, by the token of time, mankind is
lost except for those who have faith and
enjoying a mutual teachings of truth with patience
and
counsels.
Our lord, take us not to task if
we forget or fall into error. Our lord,
lay not on us a burden such as
you did lay on those who have gone
before us. Our lord, lay not on us
a burden which we do not have the
power to bear and overlook our faults and
forgive us and have mercy upon us. You
are our guardian, so grant us a victory
against the disbelieving folks.