Sikander Hashmi – The True Value of the Last 10 KMA Friday Message
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That if you get it right
and catch
even 1 in
the course of your life,
in which we turn to Allah
sincerely,
and Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala accepts,
then perhaps
this will be enough. This one laylatul Qadr
could even be enough
for our salvation on the day of judgment.
May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala grant us this
in each Ramadan.
Ameen. Now at this point, my brothers and
sisters,
we should ask ourselves,
how has it been going so far?
How
or what is the state of our recitation
of Quran?
What impact is the recitation of Quran
having on our hearts?
Are we feeling anything?
Is it impacting
and softening our hearts?
Are we feeling connected to Allah
What impact is fasting
having on us?
What is the state
of our salah?
The ford prayers,
the fard,
and especially at night?
What is the state of our duas? Have
they changed?
Since the first day of Ramadan
or you could say the last day of
Sha'aban
until today,
23 days,
has there been any difference or not?
Because this is the time to make it
right.
If it hasn't happened until now,
you're gonna think I'm gonna say it's never
gonna happen. No. You still have 7 days,
inshallah.
You still have time
to just get it straight
and to set things
right. It's the time to be reenergized
and to find
more time to worship Allah
to allow our hearts
to become softer.
It's that final push
towards the finish line, which is a very
crucial time in the race.
I've mentioned this before when you watch races.
Right? Track and field. You see people running
in the Olympics.
Right? What do you notice?
Right? There are people who start off strong,
but in the end, they start getting tired.
Right? And then there's others,
right,
that even if they start off strong, they
have that extra push in the end
because that's when it really counts. Even someone
who is behind,
you'll see in some cases,
last place through the entire race.
But as they're nearing the finish line, they're
the ones who end up overtaking everyone. So
if Ramadan hasn't been what you expected it
to be or what you wanted it to
be until now, do not despair because you
still have
6 or 7 days and nights
to make it right and perhaps
to get out in front ahead of everyone
else.
This time, my brothers and sisters, is so
crucial and so valuable that the prophet used
to devote all of his physical and mental
energies
towards taking advantage of this time.
So usually, what would he do? The prophet,
alayhis salatu wasalam, would head to the Masjid,
and he would seclude himself there. His bedding
would be taken to the Masjid, and he
would put up a tent.
He wouldn't leave unless it was absolutely necessary,
and he would even arrange to have his
food brought to him there. And if there
was anything
critical or important to discuss with his family,
they would come to the masjid to speak
to him instead of him leaving the masjid
to speak to them.
One of the main objectives, of course, of
all this effort was to catch the crown
jewel, which is Laylatul Akadr. As Aisha
relates,
That the messenger of Allah
used to seclude himself during the last 10
nights of Ramadan.
And he would say,
He would say, search for
in the last 10 nights of Ramadan.
And also to Harrow or to Harrow Laylatul
Akadr
in
the odd nights out of the last 10
nights of Ramadan. And brothers and sisters,
this does not mean that we should only
be worshiping and focusing on the odd nights
in the last 10 nights.
Right? Because
all of these nights are valuable. Sure. You
may put extra effort on the odd nights.
You know, just
try to manage your energy and your time.
But let us try to make an extra
effort, insha'Allah, on every single one of these
nights
to increase our ibadah, to increase our worship
and servitude of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
So what is Laylatul Qadr? As Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala tells us in Surah Al Qadr,
Al Qadr,
which is one night,
not more valuable than a week or a
month or a year,
but more valuable, not equal to, but more
valuable than a 1000 nights, better than a
1000 months,
which is 83 years 4 months. So even
better than that, SubhanAllah.
Meaning that the good deeds performed on it,
the standing in prayer
and everything else good that you do on
this night
are better than a 1000 months
worth of good deeds and prayers.
A tremendous blessing and gift from Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
And
we have been commanded to search for it
by the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam in
the last 10 nights, and there is no
fixed date. And as we were discussing in
in the sunset live last night, last evening,
the prophet
was actually given the information of the night,
and he was actually coming towards the people
to share that information.
But along the way, he encountered 2 people
who were quarreling and who were insulting one
another. And thus, this information
was taken away from the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam. You could say that he was made
to forget. But even in that, right, and
this is the point I shared, that even
when that happened and most people would think
that that was a huge loss. Right? Who
would not want to know when
exactly is? And with that information, that knowledge
is taken away, you would think that that
is a great loss.
But even then the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam took a positive angle to it saying
that
perhaps it is better for you.
Perhaps it is better that you do not
know when Laylatul Qadr exactly is.
Right? Because otherwise,
we all know what would happen.
Right? If everyone knew when Laylatul Qadr was.
Right? You can imagine what would happen.
Right? But this information has been taken away,
has been hidden from us, and
it will be for the better for us.
May Allah accept
all that he guides us to. Ameen.
The prophet
mentioned specifically with regards to
We have heard this hadith in different wordings
with different actions, for example, with regards to
fasting. Right? Ramadan.
So here the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
tells us that whoever stands in prayer on
laylatul mukadr with
faith with perfect faith and hoping the reward
for the reward from Allah
will have their past sins forgiven. May Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala make us for amongst them,
Ameen. So brothers and sisters, when we offer
these prayers because you see most of the
year, much of the time,
we are offering prayers and we know the
state of our prayers. Right? Right? Allah knows
the state of our prayers and we know
the state of our prayers. Right? Many times
we are pressed for time. Many times we
have a lot of things on our minds.
We know there's there's a lot of pressures.
There's a lot of things that are going
on. But on these nights, we should try
as much as possible.
If you're not able to do it in
this state, in this way that I'm describing,
it's still good to do it. You shouldn't
stop doing it. But we should try to
elevate
the status, the state of our prayers
to try to match it as closely as
possible to the night prayer of the prophet
sallallahu alayhi wasallam. So So trying to offer
it in a peaceful atmosphere,
in a way that it is not rushed
and we are not, you know, too concerned
and too worried about time. And then we
are able to stand longer because the recitation
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, his
standing in the night prayer used to be
long and he used to be beautiful. And
his prostrations would be super long as well.
His would be long as well. Now we
probably can't do it to the extent that
the prophet
did it. But as much as we can,
we should try to
prolong it and make it as peaceful
and,
as concentrated as possible,
insha'Allah. Making dua is very special, of course.
You know, seeking Laylatul Qadr and on Laylatul
Qadr. And the special dua we learned from
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, which is
a beautiful dua, Allahumma innaqaaafuwun.
Allahumma innaqaaafuwun. Tohibulafuwun. Tohibulafuwun.
Ask the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam that,
you Rasulullah, if I realize that it is
related to the Qadr, what dua should I
make? What should I supplicate in it? So
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam responded this with
this, That,
oh Allah, you are the most forgiving and
you love forgiveness.
You love to forgive, so forgive me. Ameen.
My brothers and sisters,
sometimes we struggle.
We struggle to find
what to make dua for.
Sometimes we find that we raise our hands,
we don't know what to ask Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala. We ask for healthy children. We
ask for health for ourselves. We ask for
a good income. We ask for peace in
our homes. We ask for certain things, but
then after that, we might run out of
ideas. So it is a good idea, my
brothers and sisters, to make a dua list.
When you have the time, sit down and
reflect and think about all the things that
matter to you, that are important to you,
that are valuable to you in this world,
but especially in the hereafter as well. Do
not limit your dua only to the needs
of this world. It is good. It is
important to turn to Allah
for absolutely everything in our lives, but do
not make this duniya the limit of your
dua.
Expand
the horizons of your dua. Think about your
passing, about your death. Think about the day
of judgment. Think about standing in front of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala alone. Think about your
future generations.
Think about a lot of things
and write down those duas. Note them down
so that when you raise your hands in
front of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, you have
a sense, you have prepared yourself in some
way to present yourself in front of Allah
and to beg.
It's like you show up in front of
a king, someone who shows up, someone who's
tremendously needy shows up in front of a
king and then they don't know what to
ask for. It's a lost opportunity.
You don't want to be in that situation.
So prepare yourself
for begging Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for making
dua to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sincerely with
your heart. It is good to use the
duas
that are mentioned in the Quran that Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala has stated in the duas
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. It
is very good to do that. We should
do that. But the essence of du'a is
that it comes from the heart. The essence
of du'a is sincerity.
So if it means that you do it
in your own language and you do it
in your own words and you speak to
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, absolutely go ahead and
do that. Because in the end, like I
said, what matters most is the state of
yearning in your heart, that state of some
humility and submission in front of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala. If you're going to just recite
duas that you have learned, which is very
good, masha'Allah,
but you don't know what they mean and
they don't have an impact on your heart
and there are simply verbal utter you know,
utterations,
then that is not necessarily engaging your heart,
which is what we want our duas to
be like, duas to be made with the
presence of heart. And that is by the
way one of the ways or one of
the conditions we can say of dua being
accepted that it is not coming, it is
not made with a distracted heart. May Allah
allow us to improve our dua.
It was the practice of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam, my brothers and sisters, in the
last 10 days of Ramadan,
the last 10 nights, to stay up at
night but also to wake up his family.
So if you can, nicely and gently encourage
your family members to wake up and worship
at night. Maybe they cannot do the whole
night. That's fine. But encourage them, your spouse,
your children, to try to get up and
do something a little bit extra. But be
careful, my brothers and sisters. Do not be
forceful.
Do not be forceful because when you force
someone to do something,
do you think they do it with their
heart?
Do you think they do it because they
want to do it and they're inclined towards
it? No. Many times it has the opposite
effect. So do not force but rather encourage.
Do it yourself and encourage your spouse and
your family members to wake up and worship
at night as well. These final days and
nights are an amazing opportunity to do good,
a gift from Allah
to make dhikr, to give charity,
and to do every good that you can
think of. We find in the books of
tafsir that nations of the past used to
have longer lifespans.
Consequently, they will be able to do more
good. For example, there was an example of
a Mujahid who struggled in the path of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for a 1000 months
and worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, served Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala for a 1000 months.
And the companions
were amazed. The companions of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam were amazed. Why? Because there were
strong competitors when it came to doing good.
What were they? They were strong competitors
when it came to doing good. It doesn't
mean that they were competing to put others
down. That's not what it means. What it
means is they were inspired by one another.
When they saw someone doing good or when
they heard of someone who had done a
lot of good, they wanted to do just
as much or even more. That was the
spirit of trying to be from the and
to be from the people who are the
front runners, the forerunners.
So they were amazed, and they felt that
they wouldn't be able to compete with people
of the past.
When it came to the people of the
past, they will not be able to compete.
How are you gonna compete with someone who
has spent who's a mujahid, who spent a
1,000 months serving Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala when
your lifespan may not be even that much?
You cannot compete.
So
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam was concerned. They
were concerned. Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam was concerned
that my ummah will not be able to
reach the same level of good deeds as
the past nations. This is one of the
explanations that the scholars give. So this night
was given as a gift to the ummah
of Rasulullah, hissallahu alaihi wasallam, a sign of
the mercy of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, that
even though your lifespan may not even be
a 1000 months, Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, is
giving you the opportunity
every single year to score on that one
night that you can get the worship of
a lifetime, SubhanAllah.
And every single month every single year, you
have that opportunity.
So now you can score a 1000 months
of worship and servitude
through your entire life on every single Ramadan
if Allah
will, And perhaps you will be able to
get ahead.
And what is notable here, my brothers and
sisters, is this rushing to be first in
doing good. So on these nights days, let's
try
to rekindle that spirit
and take as much time out as possible
to focus to focus on Allah
See, we have so much noise and distractions
today around us.
Whether it's work, whether it's social media, whether
it's entertainment,
whether it's family pressures, you know, whether it's
obligations,
right, whether it's expectations.
There's so much noise around us that it's
very hard to focus.
Right? But these nights are the times
when
we should be able to hopefully put pause
to most of these things
and just try to focus on Allah.
Let it out
all out in front of Allah Subhanahu wa
ta'ala. You know, put yourself in a state
of neediness
just like a beggar
who is desperately begging for some change,
a guilty person who is desperately seeking some
mercy.
Increase
the quality of your worship. Try to focus
on quality and not necessarily quantity,
and try not to waste too much time
on non urgent issues and discussions,
useless pursuits,
you know, that cause distraction from our focus
on Allah
Yearn for Allah.
Surrender in front of Allah. Put your hands
up in front of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala
and list out all your needs of this
world
and of the hereafter.
Humble yourself in front of Allah Subhanahu wa
ta'ala. Try to let the tears flow in
front of Allah.
And if the tears do not flow,
then try to use that as a means
for letting the tears flow.
That, you Allah,
the state of my heart is such
that 23 days and nights into Ramadan,
I am not even able to shed a
tear in front of you. And perhaps that
will do the trick and will actually bring
the tears out. May Allah
accept from all of us. May Allah grant
us later to Qadr. May he make our
humble efforts, our meager efforts, a means of
forgiveness and success in this life and eternal
success in the hereafter.
We'll take a quick break, inshallah. We'll continue.