Sikander Hashmi – Ramadan Final 10 KMA Friday Message
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Try to fill the gaps in between as
well.
Respected elders, dear brothers and sisters, my young
friends, Assalamu
alaikum
For those who may be following sports,
the NBA and the NHL seasons
are both soon coming to an end.
And at this point,
the teams are vying for the playoffs,
for a playoff spot. Some of them have
clinched, some are about to clinch a spot.
Some of them are at the bottom of
the list,
just
barely making it or thinking that they could
make it if they win a few games.
During the regular season,
games are played, there's ups and downs.
Games matter during the season, but they don't
matter as much.
There's always
60, 70 other games left
to try to make a comeback, to try
to turn things around.
But as the season nears the end,
the stakes get higher.
The stakes get higher, why? Because they want
to make it into the playoffs. And they
know that if they do not do well,
they won't be getting in.
And once they clinch a playoff spot, there
are celebrations.
There are celebrations, especially for the weaker teams.
Now they haven't actually won anything yet. They
haven't won any series. They haven't won the
semifinals. They haven't won the finals or the
championship. It hasn't happened. They've just qualified for
the playoffs and they celebrate. It's like the
biggest thing ever.
Then all of a sudden, the stakes get
even higher.
There's a new energy.
There's a new buzz.
Sometimes you find that there's weak teams
and all of a sudden,
they get new energy
and they're upsets.
They take out some of the best teams
in the league when it comes to the
best of 8.
The players,
they're playing for free.
They're not paid for the playoffs, but they're
happy to play.
Television schedules change.
Shows are dropped to accommodate
these games.
Prices for seats,
they shoot up,
demand increases.
And as the finals approach,
the anticipation
increases even more.
The finals, they're suspense.
Teams facing elimination and loss,
will they get eliminated? Will they survive?
Is it going to go into overtime,
sudden death overtime?
Brothers and sisters,
we are now entering
the finals.
The entire regular season,
we had our ups and downs.
Some days,
we had what was needed to please Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Other days, we didn't.
Then we entered into Ramadan,
our playoffs.
We skated around our desires
and found ways
to score those precious moments
of Ibadah, of worship,
prayer,
dua,
Quran,
charity,
khidma.
Some days
the effort
went into overtime,
but with patience and steadfastness,
we overcame the hurdles, Alhamdulillah.
Now we enter the finals,
the best of 10.
And we know
that this one
is going on till the end,
unless of course,
Allah
decides to take us out of the game
before that.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us the
entire Ramadan.
The believers,
they're rushing to get close to the action.
Some will be camping out
at large masajid,
doing anti qaf,
a beloved
sunnah of the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam.
Others will be lining up
at 3 AM
to please the Master,
all in anticipation
of the big win,
the champion of nights,
And why would they not?
Why would they not?
Allah
tells us that this one night,
one night of power, one night of destiny
is better than a 1000 months,
not equal to, but better than a 1000
months, 83 years
4 months
of worship.
Meaning that the good deeds performed on it,
standing in prayer on it,
doing any act of worship for Allah
on it is better than a 1000 months
of doing that same act of worship.
This is a tremendous gift,
blessing from Allah
And some of the commentators of the Quran
tell us that it has to do perhaps
with the long lifespans
of the previous
nations
and how
their members,
the Muslims then were able to spend many,
many years, much more
than us in the worship and service of
Allah SubhanaHu Wa Ta'ala
and the struggle, the path of Allah Subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
So the companions of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam felt left out. They felt disadvantaged.
Why? Because they would compete
in goodness.
They would compete for khair.
They would compete for jannah, they will compete
for the pleasure of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala,
they will compete for forgiveness from Allah Subhanahu
wa Ta'ala.
So they felt disadvantaged
that this these people, this person in the
past
spent such a long time
serving Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala
struggling in the cause of Allah Subhanahu wa
Ta'ala. Whereas we our lifespans are 60, 70,
80, 90 years, 100 years.
So this was a gift from Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala where Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala said,
You can seek this one night
and you can catch up.
You can seek this one night every Ramadan
and
you can catch up to those
sincere and devout servants of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala.
He used to worship
for many many months and many many years
in the past.
We were commanded to search for it by
the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
in the last 10 nights.
And those who can't for some reason,
then
at least in the last 7 nights.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, Aisha radiAllahu anha
relates
That the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
he used to seclude himself during the last
10 nights of Ramadan.
He used to what? Seclude himself in the
last 10 nights of Ramadan
and he would say search for
in the last 10 nights of Ramadan.
Thus, we know that it's likely one of
the odd nights of the last 10 of
the month of Ramadan.
Now, there tends to be a lot of
curiosity sometimes
that when actually is like a true uqadr.
Is it always on the 27th night? There's
a hadith that suggest so. Right? And this
is why we find that
people place a lot of importance on the
27th night, but it doesn't have to be.
It doesn't necessarily
have to be because
the hadith which mentions this could have been
specific to that particular time and that particular
year. Allah knows best. We know that the
Prophet
was given knowledge of it but then it
was taken away, it was made to forget
because people were quarreling
and that was made a cause
of us not knowing the precise state of
laylatul qadr. But there can be a lot
of curiosity, you know, when is it actually
because everyone's trying to score the big one.
So there's a lot of curiosity.
So
the exact date we don't know,
but there are some signs. For example,
the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam told us that
on the morning following laylatul Qadr,
the sun rises not having any rays
as if it were a brass dish until
it rises up.
And also another narration from the prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam,
that Laylatul Qadr is calm and pleasant,
neither hot nor cold,
and the sun arises on its morning being
feeble
and red. And my brothers and sisters my
friends if you're looking for
and you're going to wait to see the
sun the next day, guess what it's too
late. Okay.
So my suggestion is is don't focus too
much on the signs
Focus
on scoring on every night so that Insha'Allah,
inevitably,
you catch.
Now what does it actually mean to seek?
You know, some might get the impression that
seeking
means to go out and see the temperature
and see, you know, how it feels and
if it's calm or not and whether it
is And if we know we are happy,
it's No. That's not what it means to
seek
To me, to seek
means to seek it through our actions
to please Allah
through our devotion, through our worship, to increase
the worship
at night.
Ramadan.
Aisha Rabiullah Wa'anha relates
that when the last 10 nights would begin,
the Messenger of Allah Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam would keep awake at night,
meaning for prayer and devotion.
He would awaken his family
and he would prepare himself to be more
diligent in worship.
He would
prepare himself to be more diligent
in worship.
So the recommendation
is to make long prayers in the night.
Not only a high reward insha'Allah,
but tremendous amount of forgiveness
as well because the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
has told us
That whoever stood in prayer on Laylatul Qadr,
in faith and hoping for a reward from
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, he will have all
or she will have all of their previous
sins forgiven.
So this is something the primary act because
you see this hadith has come different wordings.
And
then specifically
So there's a special virtue, special,
you know, highlight with regards
to having
and standing on
with perfect faith, full faith in Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala
and hoping reward from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
This is an action which has been highlighted
by the prophet
we will have starting
Sunday morning, 21st night,
Saturday night into Sunday morning. Sunday morning 3
AM we will start here.
We will have it every night till the
last night of Ramadan.
May
Allah accept from us.
We want to be begging Allah
for forgiveness
primarily. So climax
of mercy and forgiveness
and being freed from the fire of *.
A time for making dua.
Aisha radiAllahu anha says,
She asked the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
O Messenger of Allah, if I realize it's
laylatul Qadr,
what should I supplicate in it? What dua
should I make? So
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said,
say Allah.
Beautiful supplication, beautiful dua. Oh, Allah,
You are
most forgiving,
You
are most forgiving and You love forgiveness, so
forgive me. O Allah,
You are most forgiving and You love forgiveness,
so forgive me.
We want to increase
in our good deeds. These nights
and days, but especially nights,
are nights that we do not want to
waste in any way.
We don't want to waste in any way.
Right? We want to be focused as much
as possible on the worship of Allah Subhanahu
wa Ta'ala.
What if it is Laylatul Qadr
and
you spent the night gaming?
What if it's Laylatul Qadr and you spent
the night playing soccer?
What if it was
and you spent the night chatting with others?
What if it's
and you spent the night on your phone
browsing reels, shorts,
posts?
What a 1000 months
worth of scrolling on social media?
What a 1000 months worth of watching shorts?
It's not gonna get you anything. No reward
for that.
Right? So we wanna focus on
as much as possible. May Allah
grant me tawfiq in all of us. The
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
He would exert
more effort in worship on the last 10
nights than the other nights. So Ramadan
was more worship compared to the rest of
the year. And then
the last 10 nights were the most worship
compared to the rest of Ramadan. So this
is the time when it gets real. It's
already real and now it's like time's running
out and this is the chance to score
the big one
and this is the final opportunity
to gain the forgiveness of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala to appeal to the mercy of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala so that we don't come
out of Ramadan as losers,
so that we don't come out of Ramadan
as losers. My brothers and sisters, it is
a prime time to make tawba, to repent,
to connect with Allah sincerely.
Talk to Allah
privately. Maybe in the dark
when no one's around,
talk to Allah
Cry in front of Allah
And if you can't force yourself to If
you can't make yourself cry, then as they
say, fake it till you make it.
Fake it till you make it.
Try to fake cry in front of Allah.
And maybe when you start fake crying, you're
going to realize that, You Allah, I'm not
even able to cry properly in front of
you. I have to fake cry. And then
maybe that will actually get the real tears
rolling.
One way also is to think about your
birth,
think about the happiness of your parents,
your innocence as a child.
And then as you grow older, you started
sinning
and the sin start for all of us
as adults.
And think of all the sins that you
have committed
with your hands, with your eyes, your mouth,
your feet, all of the evil thoughts, all
the evil desires,
hidden desires that lie in your heart, in
your mind that only Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
knows and which will be exposed on the
day of judgment.
Is this why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sent
you in this world?
So you can commit these sins and think
about these things.
Think about these things.
Think of your sins.
Think of the state of your heart.
What would happen if you died right now
without Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala forgiving those sins?
Think about
the day where you will leave this dunya.
Will death be painful or easy?
Think about your own funeral.
When you're buried and left alone 6 feet
in the ground,
but no one will help,
when your loved ones will leave you alone,
and then the angels will come in to
question you
and the answers will come out automatically.
Will those be the right answers or the
wrong answers?
Will you be the one who begs Allah
for respite,
for the second chance
that will not be given?
Or will you be happy to meet Allah
for what
awaits?
My brothers and sisters, change must come one
day
because one day it will be too late.
So let us be from amongst those
who sees the moment
and who capitalize on it.
So you surrender in front of Allah
Put up your hands in front of Allah
and say,
Enough is enough.
O my Rabb,
I have tried to fool You enough,
but in fact I was fooling myself.
I confess for all of my sins and
my shortcomings, my weaknesses.
Please grant me acceptance and purify my heart,
purify my mind, purify my soul, and make
me the way You want me to be,
and grant me a good return to You.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us
a good return to him. May Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala grant us the bounty, the gift
of laylatul Qadr.
And the question I ponder often is, what
is the future Masjid
going to look like? What is the future
of Masjid in this country?
And the answer is found in the past
at the time of prophet
when he established the Masjid in Masjid and
Abi and how it became a place
of Muslims together
and take care
of many of their businesses.
Muslims would go there
and find relief in many ways, find education,
and find learning,
and and that's where the Muslim community grew
from.
And our, you know, future
of Masjid in Canada
looks like that Insha'Allah. And we are trying
to establish a Masjid here
that
is captures the soul of this community,
that brings this community together in many ways.
When when I was growing up in a
country,
in a Muslim ghetto
where we are all Muslims,
and there were masajids, 3 you know, the
masajid I went to, there were 3 masajids,
each of them 50 meters apart, and there
were big Masjid
while people's houses were very small.
And we wanted to gather some students to
get together and do math class.
The management said, no. We can't do math.
It's haram. Like, didn't say haram, but it's
like
if you only we the only way the
only
thing you can do in this masjid is
pray, and that's all.
And that was really
setback to many people, and many people, you
know, then did not connect with the masjid
that they should have.
What we are trying to do here is
to build something for future generation
that will last a long time, that will
last a legacy and try to build a
legacy for us.
So, alhamdulillah, you know, and when this KMA
started, there used to be, like, 15 people
who used to pray in Rilashah.
Now we have 100 people who come together
and the brothers and sisters,
you know,
and, Masjid alhamdulillahi
is always hustling and bustling with activities.
So all the contributions and efforts that people
have made, we can see the result right
away in front of us. You know, people
who come to the Masjid, you know, we
are building a generation
which will carry the torch of Islam in
this country that is so necessary, and we
see this every day now that there is
hate against Muslims. You know, a small thing
we try to do and then, you know,
people spew hate on Muslims. So we have
to establish, we have to build resilience
in this community and it has to start
from
1 person at a time and 1 masjid
at a time, and Insha'Allah, that's what we're
trying to build, a
masjid that is strong in its base, not
just the building, you know, building you can
build a strong building and people will come
and pray and make dua. Allah
will reward you for that, But then there
is a resilience for the Muslim community that
we need on which we can build a
future, Insha'Allah, for our future generations,
and that's where our entire focus is. Alhamdulillah.
You know, in the past 2, 3 years
since we have established this place,
we have been able to achieve a lot.
And you can see when you come to
the Massey in the evening or the weekends,
it's always busy. It's always filled with activities
that is benefiting the community. Every inch
and every minute,
that people want to use the Massey, it's
available to them in so many ways.
And your,
and the contributions that you've made and the
efforts those who are making, Allah is rewarding
them many, many times.
So I ask you for your support and,
you know, I ask Allah
to give you,
give all of us ability to participate
in the building of this Masjid and this
community center. I want to build it a
center
rather than just a plain Masjid where people
pray inshallah.
And inshallah, we make
this Masjid and the people here and, of
course, everywhere else be a cause
for the Muslim resurgence
in future.
So in this Ramadan, Allah will multiply your
rewards many times, and thank you for all
your kind of support. Please stretch your support
when you can, and please, you know, you
this weekend, you'll be meeting meeting many people.
Inshallah, go talk to you know, when you
when you have a chat in your iftar,
talk to your friends from out of out
of Kanara and mention to them the work
we're doing, inshallah.
As and, you know, InshaAllah, tomorrow, we are,
you know, we are beginning it's a new
beginning tomorrow for for tomorrow. We had a
chapter. Now we're gonna start a new chapter
tomorrow InshaAllah with laying down with, ground bearing
ceremony InshaAllah for the masjid, and you are
all invited. Please bring your families.
Go register online. If there is spots become
less, we will open more spots
on following day, but please try to register
and come. There are 2 sessions. 1 is
starting at Dohar, like, after Dohar, and the
second session is starting at 3:30.
Please register to one of the events. Come
and take participate and a big part in
the community, Insha'Allah. Allah
will reward you all, and you will remember
this, you know, many years from now that
you were part of something, you know, a
masjid Insha'Allah.
It's not a fancy good sea event with
lots of important people. That's not the idea.
The idea is to bring people together to
participate in the dig Insha'Allah. So we all
have a share in doing that. So please,
canonmuslims.
CAdig is the place where you can register
and, then you can join us inshallah,
tomorrow.
As you know, there are costs involved with
building the Masjid, and you all already know
this. I don't wanna spend too much time
on this. Our goal for this Ramadan is
$800,000 to cover,
the complete cost of the structure that's gonna
be going up
from the external. So we're not finishing the
inside yet. We're talking about the outside building,
the foundation, the walls, the roof, the windows,
the doors, things like that, the utilities.
So, yeah, there's a shortage of about $800,000,
so that's what we're gaining, collecting funds for.
And, today, we have an opportunity, and we
wanna think about this as an opportunity, not
a burden. And what the brother Mahood is
saying, you know, you talk to your relatives
and your friends, share the opportunity with them.
Right? Be excited and share the opportunity, invite
them to plant their seeds of sadaqa with
us here as well in this message so
that once we all leave from this dunya,
we have
coming from different sources around the world. Just
like we diversify our investments, don't put all
your eggs in one basket. Is that what
they say? Right? So diversify your as well.
Encourage your friends and relatives to do that.
Today,
we have, a, generous donor
who has offered to match up to $40,000
of donations.
So
$40,000 span total for today will be matched
by another 40
dollar for dollar. So if you have not
given yet or perhaps you want to take
advantage of this blessed day and give more
especially because of the matching, please do so,
and it will help us get to our
goal and it will help us complete our
building.
May
Allah accept from you, grant, make it heavy
on your scale of deeds, and make it
a means of protection
for your yourself, your family, and your future
generations as the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam has
told us,
that charity extinguishes
sins just like water extinguishes
fire. So ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to
make it in your favor.
We'll take a quick break inshallah.