Salah Mahmoud – 10052019
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AI: Transcript ©
My dear brothers and sisters.
In my last Khutbah here,
when I was talking about Al Isra wal
Maharaj, I stopped and I paused a little
bit to talk about salah and the importance
and the value of salah in our life.
And I mentioned that
it is a human nature
to always want to know why
we do certain things in certain ways.
Like for example,
why do we pray?
We talked about the struggle
that us person a personal level and our
youth are facing when it comes to the
salah.
And the reason behind this as I said
is that we don't know why we pray.
So before you tell your child do something,
you need to explain to them
why he or she should be doing that
Ibadah.
So last time we said for example,
unless
you show them that salah
is an energy,
a spiritual
energy. You get it from the source
which is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
then the salah would not make sense to
them.
Because when we pray in the morning for
example, what we're doing here, we're actually recharging
our spiritual batteries. We are seeking the energy
from the from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala our
maker. Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So unless we talk to them and talk
to ourselves about this, we will not really
value the salah.
Right?
One time I was talking to my students
and I was trying to make, you know,
the idea of salah close to them.
And the idea of dua and the victory
and all of these things because to them
it doesn't really make a lot of sense.
And to some of us as well.
So, one of the students was asking me
this question. He's like, why
do we
pray to Allah? Does he need our prayer?
So the answer is no. So then, why
we pray to God?
What is the point behind it? If I
don't need to pray, if he doesn't need
my prayer, then the question is, why do
I have to pray? Very valid question.
Right? And, subhanallah,
the example that I always give in this
this situation brothers and sisters to make it
close to their, you know, to understanding
and to us as well.
The example of the, you know, the the
mother
and the the the baby in her womb.
The embryo.
You see the umbilical cord?
Who needs it more? Who needs
it? The baby. Right?
So imagine
imagine
the umbilical cord the baby uses for what?
To receive the nutrition from his mother. Correct?
So imagine
if you cut this umbilical cord, what is
going to happen?
The baby is going to die for sure.
Yeah.
What about the mother? The source is not
going to be affected.
I'm not a physician, but the brothers and
the physicians here they can they can
they can confirm this.
So who needs whom now?
You need Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Because you get the energy from Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala. Like the child getting the nutrition
from his mother. SubhanAllah.
So brothers and sisters, what I'm trying to
say here is we need to answer a
lot of questions as why do I have
to do that?
With that being said,
today,
we need to talk about
why do we fast as well. The month
of Ramadan is here.
And we should be grateful to Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala that he made us actually reach
this month.
A great opportunity, a gift from Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala to be forgiven and to recharge
our spiritual battery again. So we can continue
our battle with the outside world until next
ramadan
Why do we fast?
It's a question.
Right? It's a question that you ask yourself
sometimes. Why do I have to starve?
What is the point? What God is getting
out of this?
Right? Very valid question. And here I'm not
trying to, you know, cause doubts or anything
like this, but this question, they cross our
minds.
If they're not crossing your mind now, they're
crossing the mind of your children. Why do
I have to to starve for 16, 17
hours?
What is the point?
And before we talk about any of the
points of brothers and sisters, and as we
know human beings, you know, our life is
like transaction. We always look for benefits. What
are the benefits? What I'm getting out of
this?
Right? Even our relationship with Allah
we're always looking for benefits and there is
no problem. You worship Allah
not just because you love Allah
but also
you want paradise.
So I worship Allah but I'm looking for
benefit as well. Now I'm fasting.
I'm going to fulfill this ritual.
This ibadah. What I'm getting out of this?
You need to understand this, you know, to
be able to answer this question to yourself
and to your child in order for them,
in order for you to actually value the
month of Ramadan.
So before I start talking about some of
the benefits that,
Siam give gives us, let's talk about the
the the three levels of Siam first and
then you decide which one, which level you
have.
The first level is the fast the fasting
of general people. Everybody.
Like what? Abstaining from food and drink and
so on and so forth. This is like
what everybody does. And there is another level
according to
the
is a special people. It's a higher level.
So these people don't drink, they don't eat,
and also their limbs,
their body limbs also, they they fast as
well. Their eyes, their ears, and so on
and so forth. That's another category.
And there is the highest level,
and this is the highest level. And this
category or that level,
they fast, they don't eat, they don't drink,
their limbs are also fasting
including the heart.
The heart their heart is also also fasting
from all the hatred and the disease of
the hearts.
SubhanAllah.
So, now you can decide which level
of the the are you from exactly. The
first, the second or the third.
Brothers and sisters, why do we fast
during the month of Ramadan? What are the
benefits?
In the next few minutes I'm going to
talk about
3 or 4 benefits
we get out of fasting. We benefit from
this. That's why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said,
said, has been prescribed to
you. So Allah
gave us this for a reason.
And, we are the people who are the
ones who are going to benefit from siyam.
So I'm going to talk first about the
spiritual benefits. How siyam is going to help
me spiritually.
2nd,
the physical
benefits of siyam.
3rd, psychological
benefits of Siyam fasting,
and finally, the social benefits of Siyam.
Number 1, the spiritual benefits of Siyam. Brothers
and sisters, we know that Siam in one
of the the best
that actually helps you spiritually.
Right?
And in my opinion, the very important or
the most important
benefit spiritual benefit we get out of Siam
is the fact that you accomplish and they
achieve you and the fulfillment.
The meaning of being a Muslim, the person
who submit to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala tells you fast and
you fast. Think about it. I will give
you an example.
And we experience that every single day.
Before fajr,
you are allowed to eat. Right? Sahari, suhoor.
Right?
SubhanAllah.
The moment you hear Allahu
Akbar,
you're not allowed to eat.
SubhanAllah.
You stop
by just hearing Allahu Akbar.
What about Iftar?
So one minute after Allahu Akbar, you're not
allowed to eat. SubhanAllah.
And then Iftar.
The moment you hear, Allahu
Akbar,
you eat.
1 minute after that it's makruh, his disliked
to break your fast. Why?
Disliked to break your fast late.
Because the prophet says,
which means that basically,
when you have the sukhoor, you should we
should make sure to leave a space
between sukhoor and
and fajr. But when it comes to iftar,
immediately, and when you hear the adhan, break
your fast right away.
So this is the very first benefit, spiritual
benefit.
The real fulfillment of submission of submitting to
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Allahu Akbar stopped aiding.
Allahu Akbar
started aiding immediately.
This is where can you find this?
Name a religion in the world, a faith
in the world that you have something like
that. That one word
affects your whole life, subhanallah.
And throughout the whole entire day you submitted
to to the will of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
So why do we fast? What is the
spiritual benefit? Number 1, we're fulfilling the submission
to the will of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
You're becoming a real Muslim.
Number 2,
of the spiritual benefits of siam is taqah
of Allah
and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us he
already explained why he prescribed fasting. As I
said as human beings we need to know
why we're doing certain things.
Allah
said
Taqwa is a big word that we'll always
hear. A lot of about taqwa. But what
is actually taqwa?
A lot of translations says,
you know, fear Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Which I really don't like this part. I
like the translation that says, be aware
of
Allah Be aware of Allah
in all your actions. Allah
says, I'm giving you so you can have
self consciousness of Allah
To become
the person who discipline himself. The person who
knows that Allah
is watching over him. Brothers and sisters,
taqwa is the only thing that will lead
you to the straight path.
We know that there are rules in the
world and you have to abide by the
rules, but it's the nature of human being
to don't like to hate restrictions
and rules and laws. This is our nature.
And the moment
when you're driving for example, the moment you
don't see a cop or a police officer
in the street, you will speed up. This
is our nature.
Right? You don't park on the wrong side
of the street because you know you will
get a ticket.
Right?
That's why it doesn't matter how many rules
and the regulations are there. We always always
can break them sometimes.
We can break them sometimes. But subhanAllah, if
you have taqah of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
you cannot break this.
Because you know that Allah
is watching you. Teach you this to your
children.
Rather than telling them this is or shameful
or shame you're not you should not do
that. Tell them that Allah is watching you.
Because that's the the problem and the mistake
that a lot of parents make. They always
tell them it's a or it's a shame.
Don't do that. But subhanAllah, if you focus
on that on the taqwa of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala, if you instill this in the
heart of your children, of your child, will
Allah he is going to be in the
straight path.
It doesn't matter how much you watch their
their cell phones,
their laptops, their Macs, their computers.
They can still do anything.
Right? They can do anything.
There are always ways.
Right? There are always ways to do haram
things.
Unless you have this in your heart,
subhanAllah everything become permissible to you.
That's why Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has given
you and
he tells you
focus on this.
Because is going to teach you Taqwa. You're
going to attain Taqwa through Siqwa. How?
Think about it. You're fasting right now. Right?
Do I know if you ate today or
not?
If I go out now and eat,
anybody is going to notice anything?
No. Why we're starving right now? Why we're
hungry? Why we didn't eat until now?
Because we know that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
is there.
Think about
it. When you brush your teeth
you ask
a 1000000 times, is it going to break
my fast or no?
Why?
Why are you taking it very serious? Because
you know that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala knows?
Subhanallah, this is the the real meaning of.
If you fulfill this in your life, watch
the happiness that you're going to have in
your life. You're going to be in the
straight path. Subhanallah.
One of the sweetest things I heard from
my students yesterday,
When the whenever they do something bad, something
wrong. You say, hey. It is Ramadan.
We hear this all the time. It's Ramadan.
Subhanallah.
I loved it.
It's Ramadan.
Why didn't we say this in Shawwal
and their Qadah and their Hajjah?
Why wouldn't we say that the whole entire
year?
So Allah is there, Taqwa is there.
So the idea of Ramadan is to
actually prepare you for the rest of the
year.
Right? It is Ramadan.
Taqwa is a big word brothers and sisters.
We need to understand it and Ramadan is
the beginning. Now you have battle inside you.
Your body is screaming, yelling at you. Saying,
say feed me. I'm thirsty. I'm hungry. But
you say no.
Only few days.
30 days.
Train yourself.
Train yourself and see what's going to happen
to you after that.
So
the first benefit of the spiritual benefits
from
fasting is fulfilling the submission to Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala
being a Muslim. The second is Taqwa of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Ikhwani Isiam is the
only riyyah free worship.
There is no showing off in
There is no showing off. There is always
a class,
sincerity. Why? Because everyone is fasting. You're not
doing something special to show people, hey, I'm
fasting today. Everyone is fasting.
That's why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala say,
for me. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala told us
about the reward of almost all the except
for. You know what? For salah, you get
this. For zakai, you get this. For Hajj,
you get this. But for, it's for me,
with me. I'm going to take care of
that. I'm going to wear you for this.
Lots and lots of spiritual benefits we can
learn from brothers and sisters. The second benefit
we can learn from the is the physical
benefits.
Right? We need this all the time. Whenever
you go to a physician, the very first
thing he tells you or she tells you,
what?
What is your diet?
What do you eat?
Right?
This is the worst container you can always
fill, is your stomach.
Is your stomach great?
And when you go to the doctor, you
say, what do you eat? What did you
eat yesterday?
Right? Most of the disease happen because of
the stomach. Allah
says, I'm going to give you a month,
30 days. Give break to your stomach. Relax.
All the toxics are going to be out.
The cells are renewed. The heartbeats are organized.
Again, I'm not claiming to be a physician
here,
but you will always hear that. Subhanallah.
We even feel this from human experience.
You feel like your stomach is relaxed.
Relaxed.
You don't have the problems that we face
before with the so much food. Especially for
controlling what we ate during iftar. And that's
a problem. That's a problem that apparently has
no solution. With the era of Biryani and
all of Mashallah, Khayrat on our tables, it's
hard to control.
Because the moment
the Maghribsallahu
akbar that You know, the Muaddim calls for
advance, feel like you're attacking the table, Mashallah.
Right? And that's Subhanallah.
That defeats the purpose of Ramadan. We're not
saying that we should be starving the whole
entire night, and the entire day,
but we say,
be moderate.
This is what Allah
is telling you.
Alright? That's why the prophet says, what? Break
your fast with some dates
and some water, and then pray Maghrib. Slowly,
slowly. Small portions.
If you try this, watch how healthy you're
going to be. You'll feel feel good about
yourself.
So that's one of the benefits of Siam,
brothers and sisters. The physical,
benefits of Siam. This is something also we
cannot ignore. As I told you, if you
want to know the value of what you're
doing this month, and by the way, let
me tell you something. The actual heroes,
they're not the Hollywood or heroes. The actual
heroes are here in the. Why? Because it
is beyond imagination
that we you don't eat and drink for
16, 17 hours.
These are the real heroes.
These are the real heroes, the Muslims
nowadays.
Because this is not possible,
and they had so many discussions with non
Muslims.
I remember in New York City, this physician,
she was not a Muslim, and she said,
I don't know how you guys do it.
I told her, listen, I'm a human being
like yourself. If I can do it, you
can do it as well.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said,
Allah
wants ease, not hardship to you.
And what happens here? If you fast one
day in Sha'aban, subhanAllah,
the day becomes very long.
You're starving, you're dying. But the moment Ramadan
comes,
we don't know what happens.
I see a lot of brothers here and
I'm nodding. They're agreeing with me because this
is reality brothers and sisters. Subhanallah,
I always wondered why did Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala says,
you read Allah. He does not want hardship
to you.
Because he makes Ramadan very easy for us.
Alhamdulillah.
The first couple of days are hard, but
after this, alhamdulillah, you're getting on in the
process.
Right?
And you are and fasting becomes very normal
and very easy for you. Alhamdulillah.
So we spoke about the spiritual benefits. Submission
to Allah
Taqwa will Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Sincerity.
And then we talked about the physical benefits
of fasting, which is
your stomach is always, always, always feeling good
because of that. The toxics are out of
your body and you becoming
a strong and more healthy human being.
Alhamdulillah.
Of
the benefits of fasting
during the month of Ramadan,
the psychological benefits.
What does it mean?
How does fasting the month of Ramadan
impact or affect your mental
health?
How you improve yourself as a human being
during the month of Ramadan? So many ways.
Brothers and sisters,
the month of Ramadan has proven to us
that there is no
such impossible in the world. That everything is
possible.
And Allah
has given you the ability to do anything
you want. And you're capable of doing more
than what you think, what you imagine.
A lot of times we're lazy.
A lot of times we think it's impossible.
I cannot do this, but but look at
you. Look at you. You're fasting 16, 17
hours as I said. Look at you. Look
at you with with with with fasting the
whole day, and you come in taraweeh and
you stand for 8 or 20 rakas.
Look at you.
You sleep only few hours and then you
wake up again for. Look at this. This
is not normal for human beings, but you're
doing this.
Look at the brothers or sisters who are
Allah
tested them with smoking habits, bad habits for
example.
They said we cannot quit, we cannot stop.
And I tell you, no. You can stop
any habit and Ramadan is a Dalil.
You would tell me that, yes, because I
know at the end of the day I'm
going to smoke again. I'm going to do
that habit again. I will tell you, but
if you again, if you are more patient,
you will quit.
Modern psychology tells us, you can
build a start a habit
in 30 days. 30 days focus on the
habit or something
that will become a habit.
And in order for you to quit smoking,
or to break, or kick any bad habit,
you need to start another another thing.
Right? And the month of Ramadan is helping
us to do that.
It's really sad to see some brothers and
sisters who are, you know, burning their money,
burning, you know, their health, and all of
these things because because they cannot quit smoking.
And they said,
the month of Ramadan is a great opportunity,
great chance for you
to prove to yourself that you are capable
of doing a lot of things that you
never imagined you'll be doing one day.
So start.
And any habit,
it's sad to read that almost half a
1000000 people die.
Half 1000000 people die every year because of
smoking
in the United States alone.
Like 1200
people,
they die almost every day because of that.
Which is very sad brothers and sisters.
So if Allah
tested you with something like this, please, the
month of Ramadan is great opportunity. Start from
now.
This is the time.
There is a joke that they always say
about the smokers and again, I'm seeing this
and really my heart is tearing.
And they always make dua that Allah
help us get rid of all the bad
habits.
They say,
there are 3 benefits of smoking. 3 benefits
of smoking. It's very funny, SubhanAllah.
Or 3 benefits the smokers
will be getting. Number 1,
they never age.
They didn't get older. You know why?
Because they die young,
And they have a lot of friends
because they always go to doctor offices.
And number 3, subhanAllah,
they say their homes will never be robbed.
Nobody will ever steal in their houses. You
know why?
Because they are awake the whole night coughing.
It's a joke, but it's sad.
So brothers and sisters, may Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala make it easy for you.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
make
quitting smoking and any bad habit easy for
you and for all of us. Inshallah.
Ramadan is a new beginning. Start.
Develop a good habit
and eventually, you'll get rid of the bad
habit.
And this is one of the benefits,
one of the psychological benefits of the month
of Ramadan.
Start now and say that
you are alive and Allah
give you the ability to fast during this
month. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give us
understanding of tawfiq.