Sikander Hashmi – Get Ready to Rise KMA Friday Message
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My brothers, my sisters, my young friends. We
begin by praising Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
the Lord of the Universe, our Creator, our
Sustainer, our Protector,
the Designer of everything
and nourisher of everything that exists,
and we begin by sending peace and salutations
upon his beloved Messenger,
Muhammad the son of Abdullah,
his final Messenger sallallahu
alaihi wa
sallam. I hope and I pray that all
of you are doing well by the grace
and mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Believe it or not, we are now in
the month of Sha'ban,
and it's the 6th of Sha'ban,
which means that there's about, you know, 24
days
left till the month of Ramadan.
Now when we think of Ramadan, of course,
our
latest our last reference for Ramadan is the
previous year, last year, and it was probably
our most unique
Ramadan experience ever.
Sadly, though, most of us were not able
to offer
a single prayer, a single salat in jama'at
in the masjid,
but we ask Allah
to grant us the reward
of offering each of those prayers
as if we offered them in Masjid Al
Haram.
Because the reward of offering a one prayer
in Masjid Al Haram, according to the prophet
salallahu alayhi wasalam,
is equal to
100,000
prayers in terms of its virtue and its
reward. And as we discussed long ago, my
brothers and sisters, you know, let us elevate
our actions, but also our intentions in our
duas as well. So if you're gonna make
du'a, why not aim high? You know, why
just ask for a regular reward when we
can ask for the greatest of rewards?
So, you know, let us always try to
elevate and find ways to improve our intentions,
to improve our duas, and, of course, improve
our actions as well.
Now,
you know, we have expectations
of excellence
from others and almost everything that we get
from others, right, whether it's a service or
whether it's, you know, respect or,
a product or anything that we are getting
from others. We always want the best. We
don't want something that is mediocre.
We want the best of the best
whenever possible, you know, as much as possible.
But the question is, what about ourselves?
What about our own actions?
The prophet
has said that
that verily Allah has prescribed Ihsan, you know,
excellence, perfection, proficiency
in all things.
So much so that the Prophet
mentioned
even when it comes to taking the life
of an animal, slaughtering an animal, you know,
for food and for our needs, that we
do it in the best manner. And that,
you know, we sharpen the knife so that
it is least painful
for the animal, so that it is quick
and,
you know, causes the least amount of pain.
In the Quran, Allah
tells us,
that indeed Allah commands to do justice
and to do Ihsan.
And the commentators say that al Ihsan
in the language
in in the Arabic language refers to
to to, perfecting something and completing it.
And it is derived from alhusun, which means
al jamal, which means beauty, which is the
opposite of ugliness. So we learn from this
that ihsan is that which leads to perfection
and that perfection
leads to
beauty and something being
complete,
which is the opposite of,
of ugliness
and it is divided into 3 categories.
So firstly,
the ihsan or, you know, the perfection and
excellence
in that which or in the relationship between
the servant and his Lord
to so that we worship and we serve
Allah
in the state of
as
the prophet
responded
to, the questioning of,
Angel Jibril
that Malihsan and the prophet
responded that it is that you should serve
Allah
as though you could see Him, for though
you cannot see Him, yet He sees you.
So this is ideally the state that we
should have
when we worship
Allah
but ideally actually
you know, at all times, but especially when
we are worshiping serving Allah
that we sort of worship Allah as though,
as though we could see Him, but we
know that we cannot see Him, yet He
sees us. Right? So that we feel that
presence of Allah
and that we are conscious
of it during our worship so that our
worship is not just, you know, rituals
without meanings, but rather
it is a conscious act, a act that
we realize we are doing in a state
that we would have if we were able
to see Allah
You know, that when we know that we
are doing something, we are performing or we
are doing something in the presence of others
and there's an expectation,
you know, there is a certain level of,
you know, of expectation
from the from the one or those we
are doing it for, then there's a completely,
you know, different,
level, right, as opposed to just doing something,
when no one can see us and, you
know, we're just doing it just like that,
you know, so there's a difference between the
2. So,
to worship Allah
and to serve Allah
with ihsan
is to serve Him with this feeling
as if we are able to see Allah
and, of course, we cannot see him, but
knowing that that he is seeing us, so
being really feeling
like, you know, that we are in the
presence of Allah
when we are
doing acts of worship and really at all
times.
Ibn Rajab
he writes to the effect that this hadith
indicates
that the servant worships Allah in this manner
by evoking his nearness
and that he or she is in front
of him
as if they were seeing him,
which leads one. What is the effect? Which
leads one to fear,
to piety,
respect,
and veneration. Right? These are the effects
of worshiping Allah
with that feeling of presence.
Secondly, my brothers and sisters, ihsan,
you know, excellence or perfection
in what is between the servant
and the rest of the people. Right? So
basically excellence
and perfection in our relationships, in our interactions
with those who are close to us, those
who are around us, those that we know,
that we don't know, those who are believers,
those who are not believers, other human beings.
And we can expand that to even, you
know, all of the creation of Allah
even to animals because
Imam Qutubi
he writes that a person
in whose house
his cat is not fed or birds are
not taken care of, no matter how devoted
that person may be to acts of worship,
they will not be considered to be from
the mhasinoon, from the doers of good. So
we find that doing good and especially having,
you know, excellence of perfection
in our interactions with the other creations of
Allah
is not limited
to just, you know, human beings, but rather
it is expanded to animals and, all of
Allah's creation as well. Thirdly, my brothers and
sisters,
doing things well. So the third aspect of
ihsan
is to do things well and to perfect
what we do so that when we make
something or when we do something, an action,
that we try to do it as perfectly
and as completely as possible,
regardless of what the action is, as of
course, as long as it's not something which
is Haram, it's something which is permissible,
that we try to do it in the
best way possible. Now, of course, we are
all human beings, and we go through ups
and downs, and we're not in, you know,
a a we're not in a in a
stable, stagnant state at all times. You know,
we have ups and downs. We go through
happiness and sadness and grief, and we go
through challenges, and we go through ease, and
and we have achievements and failures. So we
are human beings. Right?
So it may be challenging at times, but
the point is to intend and to try
our best.
Now, you know, every now and then, at
least on an annual basis,
we should evaluate ourselves. Because when it comes
to our physical selves, you know, we have
medical examinations.
When it comes to our spiritual self,
there are also opportunities for getting a spiritual
examination
and guidance from scholars and experts. But the
reality is though, my brothers and sisters, that
no person, you know, is always going to
be with us,
you know, and watching over us and constantly
guiding us. Of course, Allah
is always
watching us, and Allah is the one who
guides us. But as far as human beings
are concerned, we don't have a watcher over
us who is constantly watching us, and who
is, you know, examining us and pointing out
our our flaws and our, you know, mistakes
so that we can correct ourselves. So therefore,
we must build the habit of introspection.
Allah
tells us in the Quran,
that all you who
believe fear Allah
and keep your duty to him.
And let every person look. Allah
uses the word, you know, of looking, and
let every person look to what
he or she has set forth for tomorrow.
And again, Allah says, fear Allah,
verily Allah is all aware of what you
do. So Allah
is telling us that we should pay attention
to our actions, pay attention
to what you're sending forward into your account
of deeds, good and bad. What is it
that you're storing up that you're going to
have to face on the day of judgment?
So look and pay attention. Right? Introspection.
So are we sliding?
Are we going down?
Are we stagnant? Are we improving?
Right? And what we wanted to do, my
brothers and sisters, is to try to add
improvements
every year in everything that we do so
that our life is filled with progress, with
betterment, with positivity.
You know, this includes our work, our relationships,
our health, our finances,
but most, most importantly,
our relationship with Allah
the relationship
that matters
the most.
Now, it may not always be possible
in every way, right, as as we discussed
if we're facing challenges in our life, but
we try we should try our best. You
know, with Ramadan being less than a month
away, which is the highlight of the year,
you know, for the believers,
Basically, think of it, you know, if we
use an example from sports,
you know, like the playoffs and the finals.
Right? So we want to
aim for excellence.
Right? So,
you know, with with Ramadan
being so close,
right? This is the time, you know, the
playoffs, the finals, the the ending of the
season. So we want to aim for excellence
so that we have, you know, ideally Ihsan
in worship at all times, but especially in
Ramadan worship, Right? So that we worship Allah
in Ramadan this year in the best way
possible, you know, with the presence of mind,
with our heart and our soul and our
mind so that the improvements
that we gain are in Ramadan are long
lasting improvements.
You know, they're not just temporary for a
few nights, a few days, a few hours,
and then we go back to our old
selves. But rather, you know, we can truly
improve ourselves
when we exit Ramadan. So Sharman is now
here,
considered to be, you know, like the end
of the regular season. We want to end
the season on a high note so that
we have a good, a high chance of
success in the playoffs and eventually in the
finals.
The finals, as you can imagine, will be
the last 10 nights of Ramadan. Right? So
we really want to make sure that we
do end the season, right, this year in
Shaaban on a high note so that we
get into the playoffs while we are fit
and we are ready and we are warmed
up through the 1st 20
nights, days and nights of Ramadan. And then
for the last 10, we are ready for
the finals.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, what was his
practice in Shaban? The Aisha
says,
She says that I have never seen
the
Messenger of Allah fast
for a whole month besides
the month of Ramadan.
And keep more fast outside of Ramadan
than in the month of
Sha'aban.
Okay. So Aisha
saying that she never saw the
prophet fasting for a whole month beside the
month of Ramadan
and him keeping more fasts than in the
month of Shaaban, meaning outside of Ramadan. And
the prophet
has also said regarding Shaaban
that that is a month to which people
do not pay attention between Ujjal and Ramadan.
It's a month when people are, you know,
distracted.
So, of course we don't know if there's
something that ought to be given our attention,
we want to be people who give attention
to that thing, in this case, Shaaban. We
don't want to be from the people who
are distracted and who do not pay attention.
Aisha
her practice was to make up any missed
obligatory fasts before Ramadan in the month of
Sha'aban and the Prophet
would make up also missed optional fasts, so
fasts which were not obligatory
but for some reason perhaps he was not
able to fast on those days, so he
would make up the missed optional fast in
the month of Shaban as well.
So if we have any missed fasts, especially
obligatory missed fasts, then they should really be
made up before next Ramadan if we are
healthy enough,
to fast.
And as we, we learn, you know, Sha'ban
is a special month. This is indicated by
the actions of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
You know, you will fast so much, and
the reason, you know, one of the reasons
that he gave is that, you know, this
is the month when the deeds are presented
or raised and are presented to Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala and he said that I want
my deeds to be presented
while I'm in a state of fasting, right,
in a state of obedience to Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala or in a state of worship
to Allah and the Prophet
as we learned from the hadith of Aisha
he would fast a lot in Sha'aban,
although, you know, he advised,
not to fast, in the second half of,
of Sha'aban.
And this is,
has been, you know, understood in different ways
by the scholars. But, basically, for for those,
you know, who are not used to fasting,
perhaps it's not a good idea,
to fast, in the second half of Sharban
so that, you know, we are able to
replenish ourselves, so that we are able to
refresh ourselves and prepare ourselves physically
for the fasting in the month of Ramadan.
However, if someone was in the habit of
fasting,
regularly,
before,
Sha'ban and just or even in the first,
half of Shaaban, then, you know, you can
continue,
with some fasting. However, it's good to leave
some space a few days at least between
Shaaban and Ramadan so that we don't have
continuous fasting through Shaaban and into Ramadan. So
at least take a break of a few
days.
Now our pious predecessors,
they would focus on the Quran in the
month of Shaban, you know, like really intensifying
the recitation of Quran and reflection on the
Quran and really building that connection with the
words of Allah
And you know, nowadays what we find,
is that I'm noticing that there's a lot
of focus on decorations, you know, Ramadan,
decorations and, you know, things, you know, objects
and items
to decorate our homes. And, you know, and
some of them are, inshallah, you know, they're
very nice and there's nothing
wrong with, you know,
with
meaningful beauty,
because, you know, Allah loves beauty. So if
it's done in a halal and a reasonable
way, which is not wasteful, then, you know,
there is room for that. It's it's
it likely is a good thing. However,
you know, and of course for our children
as well to build some excitement,
and, and a reminder of the coming of
the month of Ramadan. So nothing wrong with
that. But my brothers and sisters, let us
not
let us not make it just about that.
We don't want Sha'aban to be just about,
you know, decorating for Ramadan,
without the actual meaningful aspects
that, you know, we should be focusing on
without the spirituality as an example. You know,
we don't want Ramadan. We don't want all
of our holidays,
you know, and special times to be to
become commercialized,
and and only commercialized like the other holidays.
Yes. You know, some trade and business
to prepare prepare for Ramadan,
Ramadan decorations in moderation, like I said, you
know, fine, alhamdulillah.
But it shouldn't just become about that, and
it shouldn't just, you know, fully become commercialized.
So that when Ramadan is coming up, the
first thing and the only thing that comes
to our mind is, oh, decorations
and, oh, the need, you know, the things
I need to buy and how things need
to look for Ramadan
while we neglect or while we, you know,
don't really pay attention
to
the the actual substance, which is our spiritual
state and our spiritual preparation for the month
of Ramadan. So, yes, you know, decorations and
and and other preparations and purchases and so
on in moderation may be fine, but let
us not lose focus and let us remember
what Ramadan and what Sha'aban are really about.
And and at the end of the day,
we don't want to overlook this month of
Sha'aban,
and especially from a spiritual point of view,
as the prophet has described that most people
end up doing. So what do we do?
Increase in as much good as possible, you
know, because Shaaban is the time to revive
our hearts, to warm up for Ramadan, to
get that spirituality
back, you know, to to focus,
to prepare ourselves mentally, prepare ourselves physically so
that we can get into Ramadan
in the best position possible.
And part of that is to reflect upon
last Ramadan. You know, how did it go?
Of course, like we said, it was the
pandemic. It was a very unique Ramadan, but
how did it go? You know, what did
we have trouble with? What did we miss
most? You know, what would you really like
to do this Ramadan?
What went well? What can we improve on?
You know, practically, is it the state of
our fasting? Is it the types of activities
we're engaged in during fasting? The types of
things that we talk about during fasting or
that we listen to?
You know, perhaps it's the recitation of Quran.
Perhaps we can do it with more feeling
and understanding and reflection.
Perhaps it is the state of our dua.
Maybe we are making dua while we are,
you know, in a state of distractiveness,
and we are not focusing in our dua.
We are not feeling our dua perhaps, or
perhaps, you know, we want to improve our
our,
experience in Qiam and Tarawiyah.
We want to make it more enjoyable and
more meaningful.
You know, we want our hearts to shake,
our iman,
our yaqeen, you know, to increase when we
hear the the verses of Allah
being recited, our hearts, you know, tremble and
shake. We feel something when the name of
Allah is mentioned, as Allah describes from the
qualities of the believers and, you know, at
the beginning of Suratul Anfal, you know, to
have an iman rush, you know, what do
you want this Ramadan? And, you know, what
do you want to improve on
practically, you know, so that we are constantly
building up, you know, for each Ramadan,
each year, you know, we are improving.
We are getting ahead. We are improving and
strengthening our relationship with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And each Ramadan can is can be a
great stepping stone. You know, imagine if a
person has even one improvement that they bring
into their lives each Ramadan
that helps them get closer to Allah
You know, can imagine how meaningful, how powerful
that can be, you know, after 40 years,
50 years, 60 years, for each year, you
know, there are 40, 50, 60, 70 improvements
that they brought into their lives,
that have stayed with them and that helped
them bring them closer and closer to Allah
Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala, you know, as opposed to what we
don't want is that we stay in the
same condition. We improve a little bit in
Ramadan, you know, and then we fall back.
It's like a person who's sitting in their
car and they're just moving ahead a little
bit and then we're reversing. They're not really
getting anywhere. They're not going anywhere. Right? They're
just going back and forth, back, you know,
forward, reverse, forward, reverse. And that's not what
we want. Right? We want to be a
person who is constantly improving, who's on a
journey, and they have, you know, goals and
objectives and destinations,
that they want to achieve,
in their journey. And this is our journey
to Allah
Right? So that's what we want in our
Ramadan, you know, as individuals, as families, and
as communities as well.
So how do we achieve that? So first
of all, you know, we need to clean
up the pollution.
We need to clean up the pollution. Right?
People do spring cleaning. Right? Because there's there's
mess and there's junk after the winter, right,
in our homes, in our yards, you know,
on the street there's litter. But so spring
cleaning, but spiritual
spring cleaning, right? So we detox,
we detox and we wean ourselves
off of that which distracts
from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala because honestly, one
of the primary reasons,
one of the primary reasons why we are
not able to concentrate,
why we are not able to focus, why
we don't feel anything. And a lot of
this has to do with feeling, why we're
not able to feel anything is because we
are distracted,
right? Because there's so much junk that we
fed, you know, to our brains, to our
hearts, to our bodies
that there's this there's so much distraction and
there's so much filth. There's filth and distraction,
right? And that doesn't jibe with the worship
of Allah.
It doesn't jibe with the remembrance of Allah.
How are we going to develop feelings for
Allah
if our heart is filled with junk? You
know, it's filled with darkness because of our
sins,
right? So this is that process of weaning
ourselves off at start to wean ourselves off
from all of those things which cause heedlessness,
which cause us to be distracted from Allah
which do not remind us of Allah
So, you know, cutting those things off or
weaning ourselves off as much as possible And,
you know, listening to, as an example, you
know, hard touching Quran recitation that has crying,
you know, fasting,
you know, spending
prayer,
time, you know, offering prayer at night alone
or just, you know, spending time alone in
solitude, especially at night, you know, reflecting on
our death, reflecting on the afterlife, you know,
gaining knowledge,
about Ramadan, about learning, you know, the wisdoms,
the virtues, the the secrets
of the rulings of Ramadan,
of fasting, you know, of prayer, of dua,
of sadaqa,
of all the things that we're going to
be doing in the month of Ramadan. So
really preparing ourselves,
you know, learning with humility,
learning about what Allah
has said about Ramadan, what the Prophet
has taught, what his companions
have done, have said, have practiced, and what
our pious predecessors
and even current,
you know, contemporary people of knowledge,
and and and taqwa have have said, people
of knowledge and piety have said about Ramadan.
Right? So really immersing ourselves
in every way possible so that when the
time comes, right, so that when the time
comes, when when Sha'ban ends and Ramadan starts,
we have the best position.
Right? We are starting off with the best
pole position. Right? Like in a race, you
know, we're up ahead in the front and
we're ready to go, and we don't need
time to warm up or to figure things
out, but we're ready to go straight out
of the gate. You know, that is what,
the position that we want to be in,
you know, most importantly building passion and desire
deep inside of us for Allah
for His love, for His pleasure, for His
forgiveness
for the month of Ramadan,
in order to plead Allah
to grant us a spiritually refreshing and meaningful
Ramadan with acceptance
and His pleasure, insha'Allah. So we ask Allah
to bless us in this month of Sha'aban.
May
He guide us towards,
you know, perfecting ourselves
in goodness. And may Allah
we ask Allah
to allow us to reach the month of
Ramadan. Subhanallah, my brothers and sisters, how many
people today are thinking
that are they are going to get to
Ramadan, but actually last Ramadan
was to be their last Ramadan. They just
don't know it even at this point. It
could be any of us.
Right? Maybe the last Ramadan, the last prayer,
the last sujood, the last,
dua'a that we made. Right? The last prayer
that we offered in Ramadan last year was
our very last one ever in Ramadan.
Only Allah knows. Right? So we ask Allah
to allow us to reach the month of
Ramadan. We ask Allah
to purify and revive our hearts. We ask
Allah
to grant us the best Ramadan thus far.
We ask Allah
to make it easy for us, to guide
us, to make it easy for us to
gain nearness to Him, and that He grants
us acceptance and grants us a Ramadan
that He wants us
to to to feel
and to experience. We ask Allah to make
us the way He wants us to be
in the month of Ramadan.
We ask Allah
to cure all of those who are ill.
Ask Allah
to forgive all of those who have returned
to Him. We ask Allah
to cure, to remove all distress, distress
and hardship and stress and anxiety and grief
from all of those who are going through
all of those things and to replace it
with happiness and peace.