Nadim Ali – The Importance Of Muharram
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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, then there's no one who
can mislead him. And whoever Allah causes to
go astray, then there's no one to guide
him.
I bear witness that there is no deity
except Allah who is unique and without partners,
and I bear witness that Muhammad is his
worshiper and his messenger. 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.
Oh, you who believe, fear Allah as he
should be feared and don't die except as
Muslims. Again, oh, you who believe, fear Allah
as he should be feared and don't die
except as Muslims. And, oh, mankind,
be careful of your duty to your Rab
who created you from a single soul and
from it created its maiden. 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 our qib 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, then he has truly achieved a tremendous
accomplishment.
Indeed, the best speech is the book of
Allah and the best guidance is the guidance
of Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
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
dua.
Surely the number of months according to Allah
is 12 as written.
In the book of Allah,
on the day he created the heavens and
earth, of which there are 4 sacred months,
the 1st month, the 7th month, 11th, and
12th month of the Islamic calendar.
That is the right faith. So do not
wrong yourself therein and fight the mushriks
altogether
as they fight you all together. And be
sure that Allah is with the Allah fearing.
And that's from the Quran.
And from the Hadith, Abu Hurairah radiAllahu anhu
said that the Messenger of Allah salallahu alaihi
wasallam
said that the best fast after Ramadan
is in the month
of Al Muqaddam,
and it's narrated by Muslim.
And again, it doesn't mean that we have
to fast the entire month, but fasting during
this month, it has many great benefits.
It was also reported from Ibn Abbas radiallahu
anhu.
He said that when the prophet
came to Medina, he found
he found them fasting one day, the the
Jews, the the Banu Israel of of Medina.
They fasted one day on Ashura.
They said, this is a great day. It
is the day on which Allah saved Musa,
alayhis salaam, and drowned the people of pharaoh.
So Musa fasted in gratitude to Allah.
He, the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said, I
am closer to Musa than they are. So
he fasted on on that day and issued
instructions
to fast on that day.
Alhamdulillah,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has given us instructions,
you know, that we are to observe. You
observe in an effort to
to bring us closer to him and and
we'll see fasting, we'll see giving charity, we'll
see prayer, prayer, and of course, you know,
being good, being kind to one another.
All of that is in the Quran. These
are instructions that are given to us in
order for us to to be
of of of of a proper humanity.
Because
Allah tells us in in the Quran that,
again, he does not change our condition
until we change what is in our hearts.
And so if we're running around with a
rusty heart, then, you know, we will basically
engage in rusty actions. As the prophet
said, everything can rust. And he said, that
which removes the rust from the heart, the
remembrance of Allah, the remembrance of Allah. Everything
will rust. And so so we have to
be of those to try to have basically
the the cleanest heart possible,
the cleanest heart possible. And he has given
us this month, You know, we're in the
12th month, you know, we're in the excuse
me, we're in the month of of Muharram,
the the the beginning of the the Islamic
calendar. And during this month, the special day
of of the Ashura, 10th of Muharram, which
which corresponded
with with yesterday, with 27th.
But also
outside of 10th, again, fasting,
doing good during this month, you'll get many
great benefits. Again, belief,
prayer, fasting, these are some of the ways
that we are to remember Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala.
And some scholars say that it's important to
add an extra day around the 10th that
we're having, whether it's 9th 10th or whether
it's 10th 11th. And so if you missed
it, just be mindful of these opportunities. Don't
just, again, be waiting for for,
for Ramadan to to start your fast. We
should fast throughout the year.
He gave us the the the fast of
Monday Thursdays,
you know. And of course, the best fast
is the fast of Dawud if you're gonna
fast every other day.
But in order to as a means of
expiation,
fasting is given to us. Fasting is given
to us. He stated again in the in
the Hadith that he was closer to Musa,
alay salaam, than the Jews of Medina. So
and he fasted, and he instructed those around
him to fast. And so and we
take this understanding that Islam is not a
new religion.
In fact, it is not a religion at
all. It is a complete way of life.
It is a way of life. And all
of the prophets, all of them taught
Islam. They bought Islam. They didn't practice Islam.
They lived Islam. So we have to be
of those to live Islam, and we have
to get away from the things that take
us away from
our practice and our
of of our purpose, and the purpose in
life is to worship Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
If we're engaging in behaviors that are inconsistent
with Islam, we have to basically
use the tools that Allah has given us
to to get away from those behaviors. Again,
you know, why do we fast? We we
honor significant events, but we also, as the
law says, you know, fasting is a way
of of of of lead teaching us to
how to restrain ourselves. Fasting is a way
of showing gratitude to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And again, as I mentioned earlier, it's a
means of expiation.
We have to deny ourselves,
you know, but we are still being sustained.
We are still being sustained
because fasting is a great tool that has
been used throughout throughout
time. You know, many of the great teachers,
they fasted in an effort to gain a
deeper understanding
of true reality. And what is the true
reality? The true reality is Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. The true reality
is the fact that we are a temporal
we have a temporal presence
on this planet. We have a temporal presence
in this world.
And if if Allah gave us 99 years,
you know, then what we have to look
at is what you're gonna do with those
99 years? What have you done with the
10, the the 15, the 20, 30, 40,
70 years that Allah has given you already?
What is in your hereafter IRA account?
Because, again, that's all we're doing is we
are stacking. We're stacking up deeds. We're stacking
up good deeds so on the day of
judgment, we get judged and we we put
it on the scale.
And if our scale weighs heavy
on the right side, alhamdulillah.
And if our scale weighs light on that
right side,
But you have an opportunity
to
increase the weight of that scale each and
every day. Each and every day. Even in
the programs, the the twelve step programs, they
talk about one day at a time. And
again, that's consistent with what the prophet, sallallahu
alaihi
wasallam, said, that to live each day as
if it's going to be your last. Live
each day as if it's going to be
your last. Again, don't just focus on tomorrow.
Be of those who do as much good
as you can do today. Stay in the
day. Stay in the moment.
And, again,
one of the things I used to do
prior to Islam,
I used to fast 24 hours. I didn't
know anything. You know, I just knew that
what I was engaging in wasn't
consistent with who I wanted to be. You
know, I was a young man, and I
would fast 24 hours. And then when I
started doing the fast, it got at first,
we started with juice, and when we started
with spring water, and then we did the
breatharian fast, which is what the fast that
we do when we don't ingest anything. No
food, no no water.
And when we did the breatharian fast,
you know, I recognized that something was sustaining
me, and that basically brought me into a
closer understanding that I need to be doing
something more than what we were doing. And
then shortly thereafter, Allah gave me Islam, introduced
me to Islam because at that point, I
was, you know, one who oh, I didn't
need religion. Religion is man made. And, of
course, it is. But Islam is not a
religion. It is a way of life. And
so the people around me were able to
teach me that a lot of the things
I came up with,
just yeah. Well, I thought, you know, I
I came up with on my own was
already codified in the Quran, already codified in
the Hadith. And so we have to use
fasting as a tool and not use the
the the traps
that this society puts out there for you
as a tool to to so called get
you closer to your spiritual self, like the
weed, like the alcohol, you know, like the
the the the the all sorts of behaviors
that, again, that are inconsistent
with what Allah would have us do. Because
you have so called influences, Muslim influences. And
influences are people who don't really have a
job. You know, they they just online trying
to make money and trying to get attention,
getting lights.
You have Muslim influencers
promoting the use of marijuana,
issuing fatwas,
you know, barely have a GED in in
trying to basically give a scholarly opinion.
When this when the first 250 years, this
religion was this way of life was already
codified.
They dealt with hash and all of that,
you know, during the prophet's time. They knew
about all that stuff. So when people tell
you it's okay to smoke weed, they're lying.
They're lying.
And if you're influenced by them, then, you
know, Allah knows best what your destiny will
be. Not just the spiritual damage that you
get that you do,
but what are you doing to yourself
on a on a on a on a
physical level?
Because it may make you feel good, then
what happens is you're damaging your kidneys, you're
damaging your lungs, you're damaging your organs.
You create an addiction. The work that I
do is, I'm an addiction counselor. I've been
working with people that they pay 1,000 of
dollars to get off weed.
1,000 of dollars to get off alcohol. 1,000
of dollars to get off * and and
* addictions. They go to hospitals and get
treatment, trying to change their way of life
when
Islam
basically is our treatment for those of us
who were engaged in dysfunctional behaviors.
So we have to be of those to
be able to, you know, just call these
people out. We have to call them out.
Call them out. What is their proof?
The prophet, peace be upon him, when they
basically abolished the comma, the alcohol, they say
they they you know, again, he didn't just
come first first. He didn't just say, y'all
need to stop drinking.
You know, I'm a prophet. Y'all need to
stop drinking. It was several years,
several years that the ayat started to be
revealed. And when that last ayat was revealed,
the the iman had gotten so deeply embedded
into the hearts of the Muslims
in what happened. And when the word came
out, it said, y'all need to stop drinking.
They said that that the wine flows through
the streets of Medina like blood and like
water.
And so we have to take a lesson
from those people. They gave up the drugs
of choice of their day. We have to
give up the drugs of choice of our
day,
you know, and not try to rationalize it.
Not try to, you know, basically lie your
way into doing something again that's inconsistent
to, inconsistent,
to what the law has has given us.
We have to, again, to deny ourselves. We
have to resist to exist on a higher
level. We have to resist to exist. You
know, again,
you know, we have
these types of lessons in the Quran, but
we have to open up the book and
not just basically
just recite it just as, decoration or just
as background noise. We have to learn to
live according to the dictates that Allah has
given us in the Quran and in the
example of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam. And,
again, if I had said anything that's inconsistent
with what Allah has given us and what
the prophet, peace be upon him, has real
modeled for us, then I take full responsibility
for that. And if I've said anything in
which you have gained some new insight, as
always, all praise belongs to Allah.
No, Allah. Bless us with the with his
intercession
on the day of judgment and forgive our
sins.
And as, again, as long
as we are alive, we have breath in
our bodies, we have an opportunity to change.
We don't wanna be of those who say,
well, you know, I'll just wait till I
get old
to to make the necessary changes.
You know, I'll I'll I'll keep doing this
and that until I get old.
But as I tell people all the time,
you know, I didn't you know, I'm the
only one male in my family to make
it past 30.
Make it past 30. So you're not promised
tomorrow, young people.
You're not promised tomorrow, old people.
You're not promised the next minute.
But what are we gonna do with it?
What are we gonna do with it? We
have to increase our prayer. We have to
increase our charity. We have to increase our
fasting.
Allah says, oh, you who believe fasting is
prescribed for you, as it was prescribed for
those before you, that you may be mindful
of Allah. And some translations said to teach
you self restraint, but in other words, to
be mindful of Allah. And then the translation
of the word prescription.
Where do you get a prescription from?
Where do you get a prescription from? You
get a prescription from the healer. And who
is the ultimate healer? Al Shafi.
Al Shafi is is one of Allah's names,
the healer.
And so he gave us this prescription. He
gives us the prescription
of fasting. He gives us the prescription
of prayer. He gives us the prescription of
charity. The prescription of doing as much good
as we can possibly do so that we
can be some of the best people on
the planet. Because we're a quarter of the
planet as Muslims.
I was listening on a on a conference
a few weeks ago, and one of the
questions that one of the imams had said,
he said that,
if your
masjid
disappeared
from the area in which
it it it would serve it,
would it be noticed?
Would there be a difference?
And that's what we have to ask ourselves.
What are we doing,
you know, instead of just just just not
just praying, but what are we doing as
a community to make a difference? If the
community mosque no longer existed,
would there be
a difference in this area?
If Masjid Farooq
and and other Masjids and Masjids throughout the
area, if they just just disappeared,
would there be any type of,
change? Would it effectuate any type of positive
or negative change in that particular area?
Even as individual Muslims, if Allah took our
souls
today,
what would be your legacy?
What would you what would people say about
you? What would people,
basically be doing in your name? What would
you,
have be done in your name? What
would be the difference? And so the whole
thing. It's not just about, you
know, praying.
It's not just about, you know, basically,
just being Muslim in dress,
but we have to be, again, Muslims who
are
basically
living this way of life, living this way
of life in such a way that
it will have a societal difference because again,
we are
possibly the last resort
for this part of the world, probably for
the earth,
because there's so much
lifestyle
change, so much toxicity on the planet
that we have to be the healers and
we have to clean this stuff up by
promoting Islam.
Are we doing that in our daily lives?
Are we doing that in our business practices?
Are we doing that with our families?
Are we doing that in the overall society?
These are some of the things that we
have to look at. And again,
if we're fasting, if we are basically observing
the basic tenets of this deen, you know,
we we will start to recognize this is
what we need to do. This is, you
know, the change that we happen to make.
Is our business serving the community, or is
it causing damage to the community? You know,
you if you are what they used to
call a street pharmacist.
If you're a street pharmacist or if you're
if you're a Muslim selling alcohol for your
store,
are you helping the community, or are you
hurting the community?
Are you selling lottery tickets and all of
those types of things, and and and and
basically as a voluntary tax?
Because again, gambling
is is is is prohibited
also in Islam.
So in Islam, it's not just a system
of do's and don'ts.
You know, it's about basically developing yourself spiritually.
And and and they say about what spirituality,
And one of the words that I learned
that, I think it comes out of the
either the Latin,
that
spirit,
it it it it's Latin for breathe.
For breathe. So when we talk about,
being we hear people say I'm a spiritual
person or engaging in spirituality
is that we're learning, you know, that if
we don't have breath, we can't live. And
so spirituality
helps you to learn how to live. Islam
teaches you a way of life.
It's the rules. So we have to be
of those who are not just religious, we
have to be spiritual and we have to
integrate that and make a effectuate a change
in ourselves as well as to effectuate a
change in the society.
Because again, they have
traps out there for you. I was reading,
about people who involved, get involved in addictions.
And again, in addiction, one of the definitions
I like working with is, is to engage
in unhealthy behaviors despite
adverse consequences
or to basically,
to engage in in in in in a
mood altering,
substance or behavior, you know, you know, a
a pathological
relationship with a mood altering substance or behavior.
So it's not just drugs and alcohol. It
can be anything. It could be games. It
can be computer. It can be work. It
can be religion.
It can be *. It can be food.
You know, it can be drugs. You know,
we're all familiar with the drugs, but addiction
anytime you have a pathological relationship with something,
you can have,
an addiction to a person. And so we
have to basically
have a healthy balance, that mizan.
We have to have a healthy balance in
life.
And they say that some of the,
aspects of people who engage in addictions, they
say people who actively engage in addictive behaviors,
they have these types of qualities.
They settle for numbness
while searching for peace.
They settle for indulgence
while searching for abundance.
They settle for gratification
while searching for fulfillment.
They settle for intensity
while searching for intimacy.
They settle for control
while searching for safety.
And they try to have perfection
while searching
for competency.
These are just some of the aspects of
the addictive
personality, and we have to recognize that Islam
helps us to address all of these dysfunctions.
Again, if we live as a Muslim instead
of just practicing Islam, we have to get
away from the things
that
are pulling us away from Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. And again, I'm going to mention the
weed.
You know, it's sad that Muslims feel as
though they have to get high
when
you have a system of life
that basically
takes you beyond any type of high that
any drug can give you. And it's not
about just being high.
It's about learning how to deal with life,
as they say, on life's terms. That's what
they say in the 12 step we learn
because people gonna be born on you. People
gonna die on you. You're gonna have good
times, and you're gonna have bad times. So
we have to basically learn to be able
to to to not just, you know, roll
with the punches, but to be able to
take the blow and and still have some
resilience.
This is the thing that we have to
recognize, brothers and sisters. If you're engaging in
behaviors that are inconsistent with what Allah would
have us engage in, it's not too late.
It's never too late until that last breath
when that angel of death comes up. Then
what happens is it's too late at that
point.
And about fasting, we were talking about that
earlier.
Fasting promotes,
again, blood sugar controlled by, reducing insulin resistance,
promotes better health by fighting inflammation.
It enhances heart, it it enhances,
improves heart and improves blood pressure.
It improves blood pressure,
and it also and it helps with the
cholesterol levels.
It may boost the brain functions and prevents,
neuro degenerative
disorders,
aids weight loss by limiting calorie intake and
boosting metabolism.
The act of fasting also has benefits physically
and spiritually.
So let's not just wait until Ramadan would
fast to fast. Let's try to fast throughout
the year so when
when Ramadan occurs, you don't it's not a
shock to your system. Again, if I've said
anything that's inconsistent with what Allah has given
us and teaches us, then I take full
responsibility for that. If I've said anything
that's that that's that you've learned or gained
some benefit, and how are you gaining some
benefit?
Then all praise
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 that have gone
before us. Our lord, laid on on us
a burden which we have not the power
to bear and overlook our faults and forgive
us. Have mercy upon us. You are our
protector and grant us the victory over the
disbelieving people, the common republic.