Nadim Ali – Seeking Balance In Ramadan
AI: Summary ©
The importance of fasting for spiritual reflection and devotion is emphasized, along with the need to learn and learn as much as possible to purify our minds, bodies, andebrow. The challenges of maintaining connection with Allah and finding ways to improve behavior are also discussed. The importance of fasting and balancing personal obligations with spiritual obligations is emphasized, along with the need to invite non-Mun-thug people to Islam and pursue knowledge and education. The speaker also emphasizes the importance of learning and education for the younger people and encourages them to embrace knowledge.
AI: Summary ©
Indeed, our 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 our selves and from our bad
actions.
Whoever law guides him, there's no one who
can mislead him, and whoever law cause to
go astray,
and there's no one to guide him.
And I bear witness we bear witness that
there is no deity
except Allah who is unique and without partners.
And I bear witness that Muhammad is his
worshipper 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 who believe, fear Allah
as he should be feared and don't die
except as Muslims.
And, O mankind, be careful of your duty
to your lab who created you from a
sinner's soul and from it created its mate.
And from them, the 2 of them, you
spread forth many men and women. Be careful
of your duty to allow whom you demand
your mutual rights and be careful of your
duty to the wounds that build your deed.
Allah has our al Akib over you.
Oh, you will believe for 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, then he has truly achieved a
tremendous accomplishment.
For indeed, the best speech is the book
of Allah and the best guidance is the
guidance of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. And
the most evil of all affairs are newly
invented matters, which has no precedents in
Islam. Indeed, all innovations are astray, and each
astray is in the hellfire. O Allah, save
us from it. O Allah, accept our
In the translation,
Allah says in Surat Baqarah. All you who
have believed,
decree it upon you as fasting
as it was decreed upon those before you
that you may become righteous,
that you may become righteous.
Allah's messenger, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, was recorded
as saying,
actions are judged by
the
doers' intentions.
Whatever a man has set his heart on,
he shall have it. So he who has
immigrated for Allah and his messenger
will be led by his immigration to that
to to just that destination.
And he who has immigrated for rarely reasons
to enrich themselves or to marry will be
led to to to just those objectives.
And again, when we look at
the ayat,
again, the last says, all you who have
believed decreed upon you this fasting, as it
was decreed upon those before you that you
may become righteous. The tatakkum.
And again, we have to look at the
importance
of fasting is to increase our iman and
to increase our taqwa and to increase our
righteousness.
Again, it's not about, you know, the whole
weight loss scheme that we talked about the
other week.
It's about
knowing self restraint. You have a refrigerator full
of food, a house full of food, but
during the day you're resisting for that. And
as the Vietnamese used to say when they
whipped Uncle Sam's eye and said, You have
to resist to exist.
You know, and so when we're fighting against
our desires, we have to resist to exist
on a higher plane. This is what we
have to be able to be doing as
as we are venturing
and then
just for this 1 third of the fasting
for this month. And, alhamdulillah, allow
us to have some beautiful days and beautiful
recitations at night
as we stand for salat. So it's important
for us to use this time to increase
our lam and increase our righteousness.
And again, as the prophet
said that, again,
the actions are judged by the deers' intentions.
What are their intentions?
Are we fasting just to ensure that we
can either fast and not eat, or are
we fasting again to to gain a a
deeper relationship with our lord?
And again, we have to fast. I mean,
Sheikh Shabjaba, when he came here and he
gave the quidbar, he talked about the 24
hour fast. And when you look at the
whole concept of fasting, we have to fast
with our actions, our words, and our hearts.
And then Ramadan is the blessed month. It's
a time for, again, spiritual reflection,
increased devotion, and worship. It's not about just
sitting around waiting for the meal.
It's about, again, reflecting,
learning new ayats of the Koran. As I
stated, you can't go 5, 10, 20 years
and just know in Fatihaani Klas. You have
to even if you learned an ayat a
month, again, that's 12 ayats that you'll have
by the end of the year. You know?
And so
there's so much technology today that we didn't
have when we came into Islam that you
can, you know, be on your phone and
instead of listening and bumping this to some
foolishness,
you can be bumping some Quran and Hadith
and learning and memorizing
them. Because if we get in the position
where previous Muslims have been in when, you
know, they were taking out take the Qurans
away and, you know, there have been societies
where they burned the Qurans.
And you have people who wanna ban books
that they don't agree with. And don't you
think that that the that the Quran is
not on that list?
You know, and so we have to recognize
that there's they test certain people. They test
certain communities to see if anybody gonna resist.
And then they'll come after the Muslims, you
know. And so
if all of the Qur'ans were taken away
and all the Hadith were taken away, how
much do you have under your cap?
And even it says during the day of
judgment,
how much shade you will be having will
be based upon how much Quran that you
know.
You know, so if you want lots of
Bakker of shade, or do you want a
klosh of shade?
You know? And that you know, and so
we have to learn as much as we
can. We have to learn as much as
we can sometime again to purify our minds
and bodies and souls and draw closer to
Allah
And then
life doesn't stop, you know, for many of
us. You know, we live in a pluralistic
society where we have multiple
races and multiple,
religious beliefs in this society. And so we
still have to go to work. You know,
when we live in a Middle Eastern country,
when we live in a majority Muslim country,
a lot of times the whole society shifts
for Ramadan. The work day starts later. The
school day starts a bit later and is
shortened. And so they adjust
the society to the farce. But over here,
you know, they're not going to even match
yet. You know, unless the missiles become more
numerous then they will, you know, basically start
making adjustments. But we have to go on.
The work still has to go on. We
have to engage in business, interact with people,
you know, of other faiths. And again, the
challenge lies in maintaining our fast and our
connection with Allah
and
still be connecting with the world. You know,
we have to create that balance. How can
we balance
our fasting
with the dunya,
you know, and again, with our actions and
our words? You know, fasting with our actions.
Fasting to goodness is not just abstaining for
the food and drink. It's about
fasting
from all sorts of vice, all sorts of
wrong behavior. The prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam said that whoever does not give up
full speech and evil actions, Allah is not
in need of his needing food and drink.
Again, Allah will not accept their fasting if
we don't change our behaviors.
You know, the the the scholar of psychology
says that if nothing changes,
nothing changes. And so we have to look
at what we need to change in ourselves.
During Ramadan,
we have to strive to purify our actions
again by avoiding the sins of backbiting and
lying and cheating and stealing and gossiping. You
know, we should also again increase our prayers,
increase our reading of the Koran, increasing our
charity because what we do,
you know, for the sake of righteousness is
multiplied.
We get a synergistic response for every one
action. If we recline, we get multiple
lessons for that. If we give charity, we
get multiple lessons for that. So these are
the things that we have to look forward
to and this will be only account on
the day of judgment. Again, robber dying can
be a starting point for, you know, people
for righteousness.
Because, again, you know, the people that book
during this time, they have the men where
they give up certain things.
And they also have the New Year's resolution,
you know. And so we have to develop
our own resolutions.
What do we need to work on during
Ramadan so that we work on the rest
of the year? You know, if we have
a problem with this or a problem with
that, then we basically use Ramadan as a
starting point to make make the improvements. We
have to basically, again, not just be so
focused on the lack of food, but say,
okay, how can I improve? We have a
concept
in the hospital in the medical field called
quality assurance.
And the point is is that nothing is
never perfect. Nothing is ever perfect. And so
what we have to look at is that
we always seek to improve
the the delivery of services. And so we
have to always seek to improve ourselves.
Because until,
you know, we get that last breath, until
we get that last breath, we have to
keep on, keep on, keep on, and keep
on working on ourselves.
You know, again, avoiding unnecessary distractions
and and time wasting activities. Again, fasting with
our words. You know, we have words have
the power to build up people or tear
people down. And so we have to basically
recognize that we have to watch what we
say. Do Muhammad Zion work to strive to
use our words to build up and uplift
people, again, rather than tearing them down? What
did the prophet
say about that? Whoever believes in Allah in
the last day should keep quiet, say good,
say something good, or just be quiet. Say
something good or be quiet. This is Sahid
Bukhari Hadith.
And, again, in our daily interactions, again, we
should avoid
gossip and slander and harsh words. Instead, we
should speak kindness and patience and understanding. Even
if it's not your nature. Even if it's
not your nature. You know, get away from
the nature because we don't want to be
of those who are following
our desires. Allah talks about the people who
follow their desires
because you can see what following the desires
have led to in this society. People worshiping
their desires. Anything that they feel, they're going
to do it. But as Muslims, we are
those who submit. That's all it means. 1
who submits?
Islam, submission to Allah and peace. Muslim means
one who saves of Allah. You know, we're
bound. You know, we're bound by the commitment
that we make. When you make that shahada,
I bear witness that there's no deity but
Allah and that Mohammed is his messenger. That's
a contract that you make. And
so so we have to basically not sort
of do a fence walk, but we have
to be of those who are committed, you
know, committed to the words and committed to
the actions that the prophet, peace be upon
him, has well modeled or well modeled for
us and the prophet and that Allah has
given us in the Quran. Again, we have
to use our words to invite others to
Islam,
invite them to learn about the beauty of
Islam. People are saying, why are you fasting?
I call it a dawah moment. A dawah
moment. Why are you fasting? You know, you're
trying to do great? No. You know, then
boom. Well, the Quran was revealed during the
month of Ramadan. And what is the Quran?
The Quran is the last testament. What do
you mean last testament? I don't know about
the old testament and the new testament. What's
this last testament? A downward moment
A Dawah moment. Because it's not about always
just, you know, pushing Islam in people's faces.
But when they ask you questions,
look for that Dawah moment
and so that, you know, that people can
basically get the beauty of this deal.
You know, we have to use this time
to invite people and encourage people to come
to the awareness of Allah. If I've said
anything that's inconsistent with what Allah has given
us and the prophet, peace be upon him,
has
taught us and remoted for us. I take
full responsibility for that. If you have said
anything in which you have gained some new
insight, as always, all praise belongs to Allah.
Oh, Allah, send peace and blessings upon
our beloved prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him,
and his family and his companions. And may
Allah increase his honor and elevate the station
and grant him the highest place in paradise
and bless him with your divine mercy. And
may Allah bless us with his intercession of
the day of judgment and forgive our sins.
The prophet said
Allah the exalted and majest and majestic said,
every act of the son of Adam is
for him except
fasting.
Every act
of the son of Adam is for him
except fasting. It is exclusively meant for me,
and I have known where you read it.
Fasting is a shield. When any one of
you
is is is fasting in a day, you
should neither indulge in obscene language nor raise
the voice. Or if anyone revives him or
tries to quarrel with him, he should say,
I am a person fasting. By him in
whose hand is the life of Muhammad, the
breath of the observer of a fast is
sweeter
to Allah on the Day of Judgment than
the fragrance of musk.
The one who fasts has 2 occasions of
joy.
1, when he breaks his fast and he
is glad with the breaking of the fast.
And 1, when he meets his lord, he
is glad. He's glad with his fast.
Again, fasting with our hearts.
Fasting is not just about, again, abstaining for
food and drinks. It's also about abstaining from
worldly
desires, worldly desires. You know, again, you have
to look at the things that occupy your
time, that keep you,
from missing salat, and keep you from basically
remembering your Lord. And then again, give up
those things or moderate those things. Everything
is not haram,
but if you can make it haram, if
it interferes with your ibadah, if it interferes
with your worship.
You know, and so,
as the prophet
talked about the joy of breaking the fast
and knowing that he has obeyed Allah. You
know, that's the the 2 what part of
the 2 joys. You know, during Ramadan we
have to strive to purify our hearts by
letting go
of the material possessions and the worldly desires.
You know, it's not about just chasing the
money. It's not about just chasing, chasing the
riches. It's not about just chasing fame. It's
about basically
humbling yourself for Allah
You know, we can balance our worldly obligations
with our spiritual obligations again by setting aside
time for reflection.
You know, just like you're taking time, if
you're giving up certain things, you have time
during Ramadan, and then during the course of
the year, make sure that you're doing that
during the course of a day. Allah gives
us a 168 hours a week, all of
us. What are we doing with it? You
know, he's just asking for a few minutes,
you know, a few minutes a day, you
know, just to worship. You know, less than
1%, you know, for the most part. We
we we we know, when we look at
all the prayers that come to a half
hour a day, if you're actual making the
actual prayers, you know, less than 30 minutes
a day, depending on the amount of prayers
that you're making. The 5 prayers, if you
get 5 minutes each,
that's, you know, again, with that 25 minutes.
And then if you're doing more, but he
gives us a 168
hours a week, he give us 24 hours
a day. But what are we doing with
it? And again, that's what the shaitan does.
He will try to distract you,
try to take, use your time against you,
you know, and so we have to basically
reclaim our time,
you know. Again,
interacting with non muslims during Ramadan. Again, as
I mentioned earlier, it can be a Dawah
moment, but again, they may not understand,
you know, but we have to share, you
know, what the joys and blessings of Ramadan
are bringing. It's an opportunity again for us
to invite
people to Islam. You know, because because that's
the goal. And after Juma, InshaAllah, there'll be,
2 people, I believe, wanting to come into
a fold, come into Islam. They'll be taking
the shahada. And so if you're able to,
please stay and witness that.
You know, again, we have to invite,
you know, to the iftars, you know. I
got I received a call the other day,
people wanting to know about Islam coming to
the Masjid, and I invited them to come
to one of the iftas so that they
can, you know, see the Muslims breaking fast
and engaging in worship, you know. So this
is an opportunity,
you know, for people to,
to learn about our Deen. And that's what,
you know, and then because of Gaza,
Ramadan has been on the tongues of people
who didn't know anything about Ramadan. So we
have to be the ones to to explain
it. The law has, again, made the world
very small. You know, again, balancing
the world
and your faith, that's always a task, you
know. And so we have to require we're
required to fast with our actions,
words, and our hearts. And again, it's an
opportunity to purify ourselves, to cultivate a spirit
of gratitude and compassion, and to share the
blessings and joys with others. You know, again,
may Allah grant us the strength and courage
to and wisdom to balance our worldly obligations
with our spiritual obligations and to draw closer
to Him.
You know, we just wanted to talk about
a giant that left us this week, Doctor.
Antar,
Rahimullah.
There's an African proverb that I love. It
says that the death of a scholar
is like a library burning down.
The death of a scholar
is like a library burning down. And
this, proverb,
it emphasizes the importance of knowledge. It emphasizes
the importance of education.
And it it emphasizes the great loss to
a society
and a community
when a scholar
passes away. It's like burning down the library.
And so
I just wanted to,
just say a few things about doctor Antar
at Ben Stafford.
He, reverted to Islam when he was around
19 and we have a brother who was
there when he witnessed witnessed his Shahadah and
then the law took him at the age
of almost, 77.
So you're talking about 60 years
of practice and commitment.
And he made sacrifices so that he could
bring knowledge to his people. One of the
things that when I lived in Saudi Arabia
there were a lot of,
African American and other American Muslims there and
they were fluent in Arabic and talking to
each other in Arabic and and reading and
they said well you know why don't y'all
come home and bring that home. You know
and so they were just sitting there comfortable
you know. Masa got 5 or 10 divans
playing all the air and they were just
living living large because they made hijrah.
And
Doctor. Antar, he
basically he studied here and he studied over
there, but he brought it back, he brought
it back to us and and he was
beneficial
to all the Imams, specifically the African American,
American Imams in this city. He made the
sacrifices to bring knowledge to his people. You
know, when I would say something, he would
pull me up after Jumu Nadim,
you got to tighten up the alhaime, you
know, you got to, you know, add that,
you know, put some put some more in
that kasra, you know. And so, but he
was just humble about how he would approach
this. Again,
he,
came to Islam at a time
when there was, you know, again,
a form of Islam, the heterodoxical
form of Islam.
And as a result of that, you know,
not only he sacrificed,
in attaining knowledge, he lost his brother, you
know, as a result of propagating Islam. They
established the first
actual Masjid
in this city, you know, and he was
one of the first Imams here in the
1970s, early 1970s.
You know, so his brother was killed as
a result
of establishing that. You know, again,
you know
if we had a question all the time,
we would always say,
you know, ask Doctor. Antart, you know, because
he was a master researcher. You know it
was common for the brothers to say, well
that's Antart, you know, he knows. You know,
he he would he would when I would
ask him something, he would bring me, you
know, everything, all the daleel. You know, that
that was his way. You know, again,
you know, we want specifically the younger people
because we're closer to the grave
than the cradle, you know. And the younger
people again, he came into Islam at 19.
And so and he got a PhD in
Islamic Studies. He got a PhD.
And so for the younger people, I really
want to encourage you to embrace
knowledge.
Because one of the signs of the last
day is that knowledge will disappear.
And so we have to basically,
you know, encourage that. If we have classes
going, go to the classes. They have classes
all around the city. You know, again, you
have classes all around the country that you
can get into online. And there are teachers
all around that are available that have went
over and studied and and and benefit from
them because you never know when any of
us will be taken away.
You know, again, let his death be a
reminder of our temporary nature in this plane
of life.
And again,
you know, do not, you know, treat Islam
as a fad. Because again, he was 19.
He could have went all kinds of ways
in in the early 1970s.
But he was consistent in his his travel
in the on the journey of Islam. And
so don't use coming to Islam as some
type of fad or some type of style.
It is a journey. You know, I'm 50
years in the into this month, you know,
but you know, there are brothers who are
longer,
than me in Islam. You know, longer time
than me in Islam. And so we have
to recognize that it is a journey. And
so when you are 60 70 and up
here possibly,
you know, what have you accomplished when you
look back?
What have you studied? Are you still
with Iqalas or have you mastered, you know,
Hadith?
Or have you, you know, basically, you know,
learned all of Baqarah? Have you, you know,
basically
gained certain amount of Ijazas or degrees of
understanding?
You know, so again, for the young people,
you know, when you take your shahada use
it as an opportunity
to embark on a journey of a lifetime
and not for a minute. I would encourage
you to follow the doctor Antar's example in
pursuing knowledge and again, may Allah
forgive his sins and grant him generosity to
Pharidos.
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 protector and grant us
a victory over the disbelieving people.