Ramadan 2019 – Ep. 15

Bismillah al Rahman al Rahim al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa Salatu was Salam ala rasulillah who Allah Allah He was a big marine Assalamu alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh everyone May Allah subhanho wa Taala accept our deeds I mean, this is episode number 15 Ramadan reminders 1440 of the hedgerow and this means brothers and sisters in Islam that half the month has come to a close or is about to come to a close depending on when you listen to this episode brothers and sisters in Islam, we Allah subhanho wa Taala accept what has passed and inspire what remains and make us diligent during the last 10 nights of Ramadan, the best nights of the year. And we allow me because from

amongst those who witness the night of power and decree and virtue and make us from amongst those freed from the hellfire. I mean, you're a bit I mean I take you

in today's episode to sort of to Toba is number 119. In this ayah Allah subhanho wa Taala says here you have levena manual De La Hoya qu ma saw deity in Allah subhanho wa Taala says oh you who believe oh you who accept who accepts a lot as one and accepts Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam as the final messenger. It took Allah be God conscious of Allah. Be people of taqwa be from the family of taqwa. Search for taqwa, adopt taqwa. Do everything in your capacity to attain taqwa and maintain taqwa. Not only in the month of Ramadan which is the month of taqwa, but throughout the days and months of the year because the same Allah you worship in Ramadan is the same Allah you worship

outside of Ramadan. Then Allah says after that command will cool numerous sizes in and this is a command, he commands us towards what towards having a righteous friend circle.

A friend circle circle of taqwa, a friend circle of taqwa a righteous, truthful friend, circle. Why brothers and sisters in Islam because Allah knows this is good for us to attain.

Without it, it will be hard to get because Allah created us. He knows us better than we know ourselves. And he has made us imitative by nature. We are developed by our environments, if we are continuously with the wrong people, that wrong environment will rub off on us. If we are with a people that are not from the truthful and the righteous, then taqwa will only be a distant thought.

Remember, Allah says, Oh, you will believe be God conscious of Allah and be people of taqwa and remain with the righteous people and have a righteous friend circle remain with the truthful people mean the righteous people. Because that is a means for you to gain taco.

You know, when we have a friend, it's as good as I saying, I like you.

And

a wise person said, that when you tell someone I like you, you are telling them, I am like you. I am like you. Right. And I think this clearly defines what I'm saying here, this concept of us being creative, created as imitative beings. We mimic our environments, right? You see children, mimicking their parents movements, and speech and activities and norms and habits. That's what happens. When you stay with someone long enough, you adopt some of the norms, we see it in marriage as well. So what do you think will happen when you have a friend circle over years, right? Especially in the norms of our life, where if you send your child to school, they spend hours over the space of years

with a particular particular genre of people. So this is the command from Allah subhanho wa Taala. And this is the message for us today to have a righteous friend circle to ensure that our children have righteous circles, the company is righteous. And when I went when I'm speaking about this message, brothers and sisters, it applies to all circumstances, both offline and online. And we have to say that today, because we have this digital age, today, we have children playing all these fancy games on the xboxes and PlayStations. And they connected real time via the Internet to people all over the world. And they in teams playing together and they develop relationships, and somehow long

as I've come across some cases where they have to be left.

Right, we're not helping our children have a righteous friend circle. So we need to look at this matter and this command and this instruction, in light of its seriousness, and in light of the different environments we are exposed to today, and those within our sphere of influence are exposed to today. The province that Allahu alayhi wa sallam furthering this instruction from Allah subhanho wa Taala. He teaches the oma his own, his own masala Allahu alayhi wa sallam about the effects of having a righteous friend circle and a friend circle that's not so righteous. He says Allah Allahu Allah, He will tell him that when you have a righteous friend circle is like how

A friend who sells perfumes what happens when you have a friend who sells perfume? Why does the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam liken, a good friend, a righteous friend to a person who sells perfume. Because think about it, if you go and meet this friend, if he's generous, he's going to give you an entire bottle of perfume. And you're going to benefit for a long time, you're going to smell nice for a long time until the bottle of perfume changes. And if he's a little less generous, then he won't give you a whole bottle of perfume. But let's say he is generous, but he can't afford to, he at least will take out a perfume bottle from under his table and spray it on you. So that at

least for the entire day, you'll be smelling nice, so you've still benefited from him.

And let's say he doesn't do that. Then when you visit him in his perfume shop, the nice smells and aromas in the air of the perfume shop or rub onto your clothes. And your clothes will smell nice. Maybe not for a long time. Maybe not for a whole day. Maybe for a few hours. Did you benefit absolute, you only stand to benefit from a righteous friend either in a big way, or in a small way. But you will always be

you know above pa

right? You'll always be better off than you were when you meet this friend.

Then the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he says the example of a person who has a bad friend, an evil friend, is like the example of a person who has a friend who smelt iron and iron manga. Nephew alakea as the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says, Why did the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam likened a bad friend to someone who smells iron? Well, think about it. If you go and meet your this friend of yours while he's working by the blast furnace, it's purporting you know, he's poor, he's pouring the iron rods into the blast furnace, right? He's heating them up.

A spark could come out from the blast furnace, land onto your clothes and burn your clothes. That's a major loss.

And let's say you say No, you know what, I'll be careful. No problem. I know that there's some, you know, negatives here. There's some undesirable realities here. So I still visit my friend, I like to have him as my friend, but I'm going to, you know, stay a little bit back, I'd be away from the blast furnace, well, then you still going to be in the environment of the room. So the black smoke of the room is going to get onto your clothes and stain your clothes both in color and

and stench you're going to be affected negatively. So you're going to lose the entire shirt. But now you have a shirt that you still would consider consider unwearable, right. So you still lost, you didn't lose the whole shirt, but it's as if you lost the whole shirt. So the negative.

All right, someone says, I'm going to be super careful, I'm going to be I'm going to stand I'm going to be in the environment. But even away from the smoke.

What happens you still got to breathe the air and the monoxide in the air will enter your lungs. Or you could say my body can expel it and so on and so forth. And I can do this and I can do that. The bottom line is you'll always be below pa when you meet this friend, a friend that doesn't feel Allah, you will always be below pa either in a big way or in a small way. Now this doesn't mean we shouldn't be friends with people who smoked iron. The prophets of Allah Allah was just giving an example. realities here is that we should keep away from us those friends who are not considered to be from amongst those that fear Allah subhanho wa Taala and want to get closer to Allah subhanho wa

Taala and have general on their minds and saving themselves from the Hellfire and all these battles that constitute taqwa. And we spoke about it in our first episode when we discussed the quarter, but didn't sisters in Islam, I pray the lesson is clear.

A righteous friend cycle. And this applies by the way to all your social media apps as well. Get rid of those friends who does not help you when you read your newsfeed. Right. They only post things that are that I fitna for you A fitna for your Eman fitna for your Islam, right.

They post things that act as a trial or become a means of you being entered into a trial and tribulation. Keep yourself away from them. Now I'm not saying break ties with people, but we're talking about who you consider your friend circle who you consider yourself to love to hang out with, right and benefit from. Otherwise we should keep relationship with everyone because we always need to invite people towards Allah subhanho wa Taala that is a different discussion. I end here and Allah subhanho wa Taala knows best and I'm Allah here aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.