Suhaib Webb – Preparing for Ramadan
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
First of all, assalamu alaikum
to everybody,
And welcome all of our Swiss members from
the to tonight's brief program,
as well as those of you online
who are, with us on Instagram as well
as TikTok and other places. First of all,
I wanna thank our volunteers at Swiss
who have made this possible.
And secondly, I want to as the prophet
he did with the Sahaba,
Give everyone,
the greetings
and excitement of a blessed month of Ramadan,
which is coming.
What I wanted to talk about first and
foremost is the statement of the prophet
who
said, as related by
and Muslim from Abu Hurayra, that whoever believes
in Allah in the last day
must be generous to his or her guest.
And this is actually the quality of the
believer
to be open and welcoming and generous to
guest. This was the way of the prophets.
Allah mentions
in the Quran,
how prophet Ibrahim, alayhis salatu sallam, was extremely
generous.
And, also, this was the way of the
companions of the prophet
When Abu Abu Ayyub Al Ansari
came to Iraq, and at that time, Saydna
Ali
had made Said ibn Abbas
the governor of of that
that city
And
but I love you too, man. And
when Ibabas
became aware that Abu Abu Ayub Al Ansari
was
there,
he welcomed him and he, like, lavishly
greeted him.
And he fed him, and he cared for
him, and he nurtured him.
And then Abu Ayub Al Ansari, he was
shocked, you know, at his his Ikram.
And he said to him, why are you
being so generous to me?
And he said, because he welcomed the prophet
to Medina.
As you were generous to the messenger of
Allah,
I I want to be generous to you.
So with that in mind, we have a
guest that's coming in a few days.
And this is the blessed month of Ramadan.
And so we want to think about welcoming
this month in the proper way. If we
have children, we should be building up this
moment. Today, I bought, like, my youngest daughter
a prayer dress,
you know, that I plan to give her
on the 1st night of Ramadan
as a gift just to say,
you know, I don't expect her to pray.
She's only 4.
But just to build up that excitement and
to tie Ramadan
into this moment.
I also know some of my teachers
when when the month of Ramadan would come,
and they would take their children out before
Taraweeh, and they would buy them, like, ice
cream
or some kind of sweet
so that they will
tie
this month of Ramadan into something
which is
delightful, something which brings happiness.
As Allah says in the Quran,
We're not happy in the shallow way of
happiness.
We're happy that Allah
has chosen us
to experience this month
and chosen us
to worship him.
That's why the Quran says,
Like, this is what people should
celebrate. This is what people should be happy
with. That Allah
has put them in the
that Allah has chosen them to be in
this month.
Allah
shows us something very beautiful. It's like in
Arabic that oftentimes when something is, like, really
important,
it will be embellished.
It's called
with.
The speaker will sometimes engage in embellishment
to show the importance of something. A beautiful
example is prophet Musa,
who
when he in Subtaha,
Allah
asked him,
what's in your hand?
Musa.
What's in your hand?
It's my staff. But then,
Saydna Musa, he starts to talk about a
staff like
it's the most expensive thing in the world.
Like, it's something unimaginable.
Like, who will talk about a staff like
this?
This
is my staff that I rest on,
and I use it
to look after my flock.
And I have so many more uses for
it.
This is called Itmab. Why would prophet Musa
in that moment when he's talking to Allah
go into so much detail
to talk about the staff
because he's talking to Allah.
And the opportunity
to talk to
Allah if anyone would have that opportunity,
they will not run out of words.
They will not run out run out of
things to say. And you and I,
when we make dua, we have that same
opportunity.
Also, when Musa, he makes dua,
he says,
oh, Allah, expand me. It's enough because if
you say,
it means everything.
Everything that in my life, in my heart,
in my mind, in my knowledge, in my
work,
expand me. But he continues.
Oh, Allah, expand my heart.
Expand my iman. Why he wants to embellish
this dua?
Because of this lucky moment
that he has to speak to Allah.
So the point is that sometimes in the
Quran,
and this should be noted in the English
language for people to pay attention to because
there is a very important tarabiya
lesson from this.
That in moments of goodness
and that in moments where there's an opportunity
to worship Allah
we should
extend
ourselves
and push ourselves to do more.
The same thing happens when
Allah talks about the month of Ramadan. It's
embellished.
And that's why I made this point. Because
when something is embellished in a positive way,
it is meant to highlight its importance.
Just like prophet Musa embellishes this opportunity to
speak to Allah, the ma'am
to to speak to god
So
Allah says,
fasting has been prescribed for you.
Then
in verse,
185,
he says, Ramadan, the month of Ramadan. Now
he begins to embellish
what is a siam, what is fasting.
Quran
in which the Quran was sent.
Quran
It is a guidance for people.
And it is
offering
them not only guidance, but then the signs
of the truth.
And that it is a time, the Quran
and this month, that will
distinguish between truth and falsehood.
If you think about what I just said,
we understand now the blessings of the month
of Ramadan
and the messings the blessings of the Quran
and the sunnah of the prophet. Number 1,
guidance.
Many people have
embraced Islam. This year, I saw a brother
today in the mosque. He
embraced Islam
brother Chase
right before the month of Ramadan. How
Allah
chose him, you know, to be a Muslim
right before Ramadan.
But after guidance, we need
sometimes
signs that will help us stay on that
guidance. That's.
And then after we find those signs and
we we start to live our life according
to the truth,
we we may find that our lives moments
of confusion,
moments of ambiguity. So we need.
We need things to be clear. So the
month of Ramadan and the Quran and the
sunnah of the prophet
give us these three things, guidance,
clear signs that we can we can maintain
our life too, And then finally,
a criterion
when things become confusing like now in difficult
times.
What I wanna talk to you about to
you tonight are some things that I will
build on over the month,
of Ramadan here on my social media platforms.
If Allah blesses me to live that long.
And that are 5 things that I want
you to think about briefly. I'm not gonna
take too much of your time.
The best speech is brief and short. And
then over the month of Ramadan, I will
build on these. And then if you're in
the Maryland DC area every Wednesday night and
then the last 10 nights, I will be
at the Dienet Center,
and I will build on these even more.
The first
sort of
principle that we wanna think about is that
these are five principles of tarbia. Like, how
are you gonna go into the month
hungry for food,
longing for caffeine?
And what you wanna be able to do
and what I want to be able to
do is to leave the month
hungry and longing for Allah.
And that's really the important lesson of the
month of Ramadan.
As we'll talk about in a second in
our second principle of tarbiyah,
How do I push in thinking about how
how am I going to leave this? How
am I going to leave that? How am
I going to stop this? How am I
going to stop that? And at the end
of the month, you wanna say to yourself,
how could I possibly stop praying?
How could I possibly stop caring about people?
How could I possibly stop being generous?
How could I possibly stop reciting the Quran?
How could I possibly stop
remembering Allah?
How could I possibly stop those things going
to the masjid, for example?
Because I came into the month hungry for
the dunya,
and I leave the month
hungry for the.
So what I wanna talk to you briefly
are 5 principles of tarbia. The word tarbia
is from a word which means to grow
a seed, to cultivate a seed.
And what we wanna think about is how
do we cultivate our hearts and our minds
and our actions in the month of Ramadan
so we can
have the fruit of this month, the blessings
of this month,
the rewards of this month so that we
retain them after the month of Ramadan.
So the
first is to act on the Quran
and to act on the sunnah of the
prophet salaihi sallam and to develop and cultivate
a daily relationship with the book of Allah
Subhanahu
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says to the prophet,
recite. And and is from a word which
means to follow.
So I'm reciting the Quran, but I'm reciting
the Quran
to act on the Quran.
I'm reciting the Quran to translate the Quran
into my life. I'm reciting the Quran and
developing a relationship with the Quran in the
month of Ramadan to be whole again,
to be complete.
That's why the word Quran, the strong opinion
of the scholars is from a word which
means to be whole,
especially if we've lost someone. We see our
brother, Manzanir, who lost his son,
16 year old son, just
a little over a few weeks ago. We
pray that Allah will give his son
and give him Jannah and give
and his amazing wife patience and make dua
for their son. That Allah will make him
from the people of Jannah, and that Allah
will reunite them
in Jannah. And still, he's here tonight for
this gathering,
still he's here tonight for this gathering.
How do I come out of moments of
tremendous loss? My wife just lost her grandmother,
90
7 year old,
dear woman who died making dhikr, who her
last few hours,
she was turned to the qibla.
Subhanallah.
And she was unable to speak, but she
could remember Allah. Subhanallah, she could remember Allah.
And one of the things that we think
about is how we live is how we
die.
Subhanallah. So how
in this month I can cultivate a regular
remembrance of the book of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala. I can build capacity to be in
the with the Quran because the word Quran
means to join,
to make whole. That's why you call it.
Right? Because the is
is a
a a a place where people gather
a village. The Quran is what is going
to gather me
in this dunya where I'm fractured by so
many things happening. What's happening in Palestine, and
we pray Allah will will will give them
fat and liberation
in in India, in Kashmir, in the Congo,
in Sudan, in America. Wherever we are, we
see fractures and pain and suffering.
So we have to have relationship with the
book of Allah
to be whole. That's why the prophet
said it as
to
2 things.
You will never go astray as long as
you hold on to them. The book of
Allah and the sunnah of the prophet
and the other narration,
the family of the prophet
So those
those opportunities
to be alone with the book of Allah
You know, I I
I had a teacher who memorized the Quran
in his village.
And that that teacher,
he will never forget what he memorized. So
I I used to be surprised, and I
said to him,
how is it that you have kept the
Quran? And he said, because
I
created
this
love. Allah gave me this ability to create
a love for his book that I memorized
the Quran
under the street lights.
Subhanallah, he said I didn't have electricity in
my home. I was so poor, but I
would memorize the book of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala
under the street lights. And it was that
effort
that brought the barakah,
was that effort that brought goodness. So the
first is every day, we wanna spend a
little bit of time,
We want to spend a little bit of
time with the book of Allah. In English,
in Urdu, in Persian, in Arabic, don't worry
about. Don't don't allow those kind of insecurities
to fog your moment with the book of
Allah.
You know, I wasn't Muslim. I was not
a Muslim before, and I actually read the
Quran in the restroom because I was so
scared of my mom. I was so terrified
of my mother
that I would hide the Quran in in
in I didn't know. I knew no Muslims
except one brother.
And if I found Islam in that setting,
what about you? What about others? And I
wasn't reading in Arabic. I wasn't reading. I
was reading the Quran. But I remember
my approach to the Quran at that moment
in my life was just guide me. Take
me.
Take my hand and lead me to the
Haqq.
For women who are menstruating,
you can listen to the Quran. Right? Listen
to the Quran. You don't have to feel,
oh, I can't hold the Quran. I can't
touch the Quran. No. Listen to the Quran.
In fact, most of the companions of the
prophet
they were illiterate,
so they would listen to the Quran or
hear other people recite the Quran specifically
in the month of Ramadan.
The second component of tarbiyah that we wanna
think about for this month
is to peel
unhealthy
attachments
from our heart
and to peel
unhealthy
attachments from our minds and our actions,
to to
pull away from things that are distracting us
from Allah.
If you're busy with the ahuwal of the
people
to the point that you forget your own
hand, this is a bad sign.
Whoever's busy with the the the conditions of
everyone else
in a bad way, not in a positive
way, and not their own condition,
they don't understand the purpose of life.
The prophet
said the successful one is the one who's
busy with hid or herself. Not that they
neglect
the things that are happening in the world,
But I'm talking about backbiting,
gossip,
you know, getting into people's business, jumping into
people's personal life, judging this imam, that imam,
this Muslim, that Muslim, this person's bad, that
person's bad,
like in.
But I I didn't look into myself
and judge myself.
That's a problem. That means that there is
an unhealthy
attachment.
So we call it a tajreed,
ma'amah tajreed in tarbiyah,
that I look into my life, and I
examine what are those things that are taking
me away from Allah's pleasure
and keeping me away from Allah, and I
peel them away from myself.
And I distance myself. And this is the
month where there is a great opportunity to
do that because even the permissible in the
day became forbidden for us. That's why we
say this is the month of Rabaniyah.
This is the month to be the people
of Allah because
we are leaving even what's permissible.
We are leaving what's permissible
for the sake of Allah. So I remember
as a new Muslim,
there were so many things that first Ramadan,
I was able to get rid of because
they were impediments
to a successful akhirah.
If you're a young person, you are being
bombarded, man. You're being bombarded
with so many unhealthy messages,
so many things that amplify your insecurity, so
many things that make you so worried about
yourself
physically and the exterior,
but you cannot forget the interior.
Because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
the one who comes to Allah with a
pure heart is the one who will be
successful.
So we have to think about
peeling away
those things which are unhealthy. And that's why
one of the great,
scholars,
he said,
whoever
doesn't
weigh, who doesn't weigh his or her actions
and deeds,
walked at every moment
with the book and the sunnah.
And they do not question their bad thoughts.
And that person is not considered someone who's
seeking the
who's seeking the
So the the the first
is to have relationship with the Quran.
The second is to peel away unhealthy
attachments that are keeping us away
from the and
from Allah
The third is to be zuhid,
is to be indifferent to the opulence of
this world.
And we had to be very, very careful
about the
monoculture,
which is being shipped into our minds, in
our hearts through social media. It's not social
media, actually. It's a dictatorial media. We have
very little control over this.
And it is a trick to make us
think, just look how many people since the
crisis
and the genocide in Palestine have been censored.
How many times have you tried to comment
and it says you're not allowed to post
this comment? How many of us, like myself,
have been shadow banned? How many of you
have tried to say something which is not
even inflammatory,
but you've been
censored. But then you find,
you find people
who are posting things that are against Palestine,
against Arabs, against Muslims?
Do you find people
who are posting things against
against Indian Muslims? They're not banned.
So you you
you have to ask yourself, is it really
social media, or is it a dictatorial media
that's being controlled?
And within that reality, there are messages being
targeted to you
to create values in your mind and thought
processes
that will cause you to act
in a way that will distance you
from being a to Allah. So the month
of Ramadan comes, the ultimate filter.
And it allows us to expand our capacity
for being indifferent to the the opulence of
dunya,
the zud.
And there are
4 foundations
of zud. Four foundations that we need to
work on
to think about how we can be truly
from those people that are considered.
Isn't about being poor.
Is about being somebody
who is moving to the no matter what
they have.
And there are
4 components of this.
The first is silence.
Doesn't mean to be overtly silent, but it
means to know when to speak and know
when not to speak, to avoid talking about
people, to avoid backbiting people, to avoid slandering
people, to avoid
hateful speech. And this can be extended
to our comments
and how we engage
people online, what type of,
relationships
do we exhibit with others? Are we abusive
to people? Are we using, you know, a
foul language? Are we, like we see some
of the the the non Muslim brothers and
sisters here. Some of them are egregious.
Their hatred for Muslims is so much that
they don't know how to control themselves.
So they almost need, like, a diaper in
their mouth because
so much
I can't say it, but so much filth
comes from their mouth because they don't have
the that we have.
They they are not able to conform to
prophetic morality. We We conform to prophetic morality.
We will not be like them.
So the first is silence,
and that's why the prophet, sallallahu alaihi wasalam,
said,
whoever believes in Allah Allah in the last
day should speak well or remain silent.
The second foundation
of
in this life is hunger.
And it doesn't mean hunger in an unhealthy
way, but it means fasting.
And so
the month of Ramadan is coming. We're able
to observe fasting. We're able to observe some
interval moments where we will feel a little
pains of hunger.
And that is one of the signs of
the person who is engaged in that in
that
with Allah and with the messenger of Allah
sallahu alaihi wa sallam.
The third component is
used to be along with Allah.
And that's very difficult now because we live
in an age this is an age of
exhibition. This is an age where everything has
to be exhibited.
And the idea of
to be alone with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is something maybe foreign to people. But what
does it mean to be alone with Allah?
It means even if I'm amongst people who
may be living foul, or even if I'm
at work or at school, I can't abandon
my responsibilities.
Maybe even around my family or my friends,
but I'm able to maintain my heart is
only for
I'm I'm able to make sure that in
my heart,
And
this also
can be extended to when you're making dua
in salah,
praying alone,
fasting. When you're in the state of fasting,
you're actually in.
Allah says fasting is for me because nobody
knows if you're fasting. So that is a
form of being in the state of with
Allah.
That's why
Imam says
that there is no better,
more more beneficial
supplement for the heart than interval moments of
isolation
to make zikr, to make dua. You
know, you don't have to put your tahajid
on on Instagram live, man. You don't have
to put moments where you're crying along with
Allah. That's nobody else's
business. That's between you and Allah. So I
have a seer in this month of Ramadan,
some secret
between you and Allah.
And I also that no one knows about
so that I have this idea of. Why?
Because the,
that isolation
breeds sincerity,
and sincerity is the key to Jannah,
is the key to paradise,
the key to the pleasure of Allah. And
you should have the intention, you Allah,
I'm doing this only for you. You Allah,
please accept this from me, between me and
you. And since it's a gift to you
from me, please amplify my rewards. Make my
rewards more.
The last
quality of the people of Zuhit
are those people who pray in the night.
And we know in the month of Ramadan,
this
is the month of qiyam.
The prophet
said, whoever
prays in the night with faith and hope,
all of their sins will be forgiven. The
majority of ulama say that means all your
sins, the major and minor sins.
So
who prays with hope. Because sometimes when we
stand to pray, we start to remember all
the bad things we did. But remember this,
if you were not good enough to stand
in front of Allah, Allah would not have
blessed you to stand in front of
him. But
Allah
established you in that moment,
so that should be enough of a means
to build your confidence.
So do not allow the insecurities of the
past
to
unravel the future that Allah has showed you.
Trust Allah more than you fear your insecurities.
So when we pray at night,
this is an opportunity to be from those
people of Zuid.
The last few and we'll we'll finish, quickly
because I don't want to take too much
of your time because we'll build over these
on these over the month of Ramadan.
But we're talking about the the foundational
components of a transformative Ramadan. You wanna ask
yourself, like,
what kind of Ramadan am I gonna have,
man?
I need to make this a Ramadan of
purpose.
I need to make this a Ramadan of
transformation.
So the first we said is to have
relationship with the Quran,
and don't allow yourself to quit. Oh, well,
I didn't meet read as much as I
wanted to. I didn't read a 1,000 verses
or I didn't read, you know, 20 pages.
I didn't read this. Just
read.
Don't worry. Allah
says
Read what's easy for you from the Quran.
Allah said we made the Quran easy. Don't
make it hard. Don't make something hard. Allah
made it easy.
The second we said is
to peel away
things from our heart that are distractions.
Like, are we spending too much time on
social media? Are we spending so much time
scrolling
that we're not observing our worship? Am I
spending too many too much time, you know,
doing things that have taken me away from
volunteering in the community,
amplifying the situation in Palestine, in India, and
other places in the world?
Am I so busy with those things that
I am not able to stay
focused on what's the
yet?
3rd,
he said, is to be zahid.
And the month of Ramadan is a great
opportunity to be indifferent to the opulence of
the dunya because we're not even eating, man.
We're not eating. We're not drinking. We are
increasing our output and do decreasing our input.
And that's why, one of the scholars,
they said about fasting something so beautiful.
Maybe Allah gave you, and he kept you
from something. Maybe he kept you from something,
and he gave you. So he learned, I
don't have to have all this stuff,
right, to to to really find intrinsic value.
The last 3, we'll mention quickly,
are to have great
to have great expectations,
and to have great goals for yourself that
are realistic.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam has said,
if you ask Allah, ask Allah for firdos.
Ask Allah for the highest level of Jannah.
So you wanna set some goals for yourself
in the month of Ramadan
that are slightly beyond your ability, but not
too difficult to the point that they undermine
you.
So you wanna set some practical goals for
yourself in the month that are achievable,
but would challenge you. Allah says
Those who strive
in our way,
we will open up the doors for them.
So just making a little effort. Don't go
into the month feeling weak.
Go into the month feeling strong.
Push into the month of Ramadan with a
great set of aspirations.
The last and we'll finish
is
good character.
We know that the prophet
the famous hadith
who said whoever doesn't leave evil speech and
evil actions,
Allah has no need that they fast.
And we know that the prophet Sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam, he warned people who fast, and
it's not translated into being good to others.
So this is the month
where the
prophet he exercised
tremendous generosity.
And he was kind to others. So if
you're in, you know, the masjid, if you
are
volunteering, or if you were dealing with volunteers
in your community,
be kind to them.
Don't be harsh to them. Don't be rude
to them.
And this also applies again to people online.
Just because you engage someone online doesn't mean
they're not human. They're human. You don't know.
Maybe that person that you say something nice
to, maybe that person that you say something
harsh to, maybe that person that you you
you may be rude to,
they may have had, like, the worst day
of their life,
man. And you may be contributing to their
their their falling into a greater sense of
lack of suffering. But on the other end,
as Allah says,
a good word is like a good tree.
You may say something good, and you plant
it in that person's life. And because what
you said to them,
it changes their day, and you get the
hasanah.
The prophet
said
Muslim.
To bring happiness to a fellow Muslim
will obligate for your jannah.
This hadith has reached us with 13 asanid
and their good hadith. So we're going to
stop here. We'll take any questions that you
have also. It's a lot of people on
all of these sort of outlets, but I
just want
to rehash quickly what I talked about. I
planned only to speak for 30 minutes.
And that is when I was young, I
could talk a lot. As you get older,
you you you become more scared to speak
about
Subhanahu wa ta'ala. You become more careful about
what you say.
But number 1, we said this is a
great month and we have to welcome this
guest
And we need to start thinking now
about how we push into the month. And
then
I see a question, what is the meaning
of the word from
the word
because Allah nurtures us. I don't like the
translation, lord.
All praise be to Allah, lord of the
worlds.
Is the one that nurtures you.
So
is the process of nurturing a seed in
the ground,
cultivating it, farming.
So here, we're using it as a metaphor
for how can I
cultivate my heart and my mind in my
actions in the month of Ramadan?
So that
I I push through the month of Ramadan,
and I come out hungry for the akhirah,
to come out hungry for the hereafter.
And so we said there are some foundational
principles. I skipped 1, and I'll mention it
quickly.
Number 1 is to have a relationship with
revelation.
To have a relationship with the source of
thought,
the source of feeling,
the source of values is the Quran. We
said that the Quran is from a word,
which means to make something whole,
to bring it together,
and the sunnah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam. Number 2
is that a person should what we call
and those Swiss students here we have in
our,
3rd year class on purification of the heart,
the book, the hiccup.
The second hicom
talks about.
How do I how do I remove things
from my heart? And it's expressed really beautifully
in Arabic
by one scholar. I'm trying to speak as
much English only,
but he said,
Don't be busy with Ariar. Ariar like from,
the changes that are happening in the world.
But be busy with the one, the dominant,
meaning Allah.
And don't become, like, overly occupied by the
states and situations in the dunya.
Be busy with the one who causes things
to happen and happen, who causes things to
change, mean, being busy with Allah.
Remember me? I will remember you, the Quran
says, to be busy with Allah. So how
do I,
peel away?
Maybe it's my sense of self worth. Maybe
it's
body issues. Maybe I'm concerned about, you know,
certain things that are really not that important.
And there's a very simple thing you can
do
to address how to peel things that aren't
important to you. Put the
in the center of a circle.
Put the put the hereafter in the center
of a circle. And then on the first
layer, put
what you actually have an influence over. And
then the second circle outside of that, put
what you can what you're concerned about, but
you can't have influence.
What should be the priority in my relationship
with Allah in the hereafter
are those things that I can have an
influence on?
Myself, my family, things around me, that should
be my priority.
My community,
how I can help, how I can assist,
how I can serve others,
that's things that I can do. But what
I'm concerned about, like, is there water on
Pluto?
Why did this happen? Why is this happening?
Why did I get into this grad school?
Why didn't I get this job? Why did
those are things beyond my control.
So those are things that I I leave
to Allah. So
and I focus on what Allah has given
me the ability to impact.
That will
allow me then to peel away
what doesn't really matter.
The third thing that we talked about is
being
being indifferent to the cult of opulence
that the monoculture of transmodality
is pushing on us.
And how do we develop that indifference?
We said there are 4 foundations of it.
Number 1
Number 1
is fasting,
hunger.
Right?
To have small moments
of interval hunger. Not not to be hung
hungry to the point that I harm myself,
but to be hungry just enough to feel
that this dunya is not comfortable.
Number 2 is silence.
And we said this extends to being online
and how we interact with people on social
media. If I have something good to say,
free free Palestine, of course, you wanna say
that as loud as you can. You
wanna say some nice words to people, of
course.
But meaning staying silent in moments
where
there is talk which is evil or harmful
or not beneficial.
The Quran says, say to my worshipers to
speak the best
to speak the best.
The 3rd that we talked about is having
high aspirations, and I didn't talk about it.
A strong will, a strong nihyah. Every night
in the month of Ramadan, we review our
intention
based on the hadith of Sayidah Hasa. So
training myself to be sincere.
Why am I posting this stuff online? Why
am I sharing this comment? You know, now
people just do things without thinking.
But
I should
habituate within myself
2
questions, lima
and kaf.
Why and how?
Why am I doing this action?
How am I doing this action? It's very
important to ask ourselves this question. As we
said earlier, the sheikh, he said,
whoever doesn't
doesn't interrogate his or her thoughts,
this is a problem.
So I I have to make sure that
I'm speaking well.
The third is being alone with Allah.
Taking time out to be alone with Allah
and interrogate myself whether in taraweeh, whether in
dua, whether in dhikr,
wherever I even if someone ask, how do
I balance fasting at work? You being alone
with Allah isn't is it isn't about a
place. It's about a state of mind.
So where am I at
if I see people doing something wrong or
something evil or something which is unacceptable?
I distance myself from this internally if I
can't do it externally. Maybe as new Muslims,
I knew in my 1st year, I was
living with non Muslims, and they were doing
things which are counter to Islam. But they're
my family. I have to be with them.
So internally, I'm with Allah. Physically, I'm with
them.
I'm present, but I'm absent.
I'm with Allah and
away from
evil.
The last is to pray in the night
to establish the ritual prayer in the evening.
And, of course, if women are menstruating the
last 10 nights of Ramadan, they can make
dua, they can make
they can make.
And the most important thing they can do
is make.
Breastfeeding mothers and mothers who've recently delivered
make intention, oh, Allah. If I could, I
would pray, and your intention will bring you
the reward.
You should say, oh, Allah, if I wasn't,
you know,
if I was able to pray, I would
pray the prayers of the greatest
and have that intention,
and you will be rewarded for it.
By your
The of the believer is greater than their
action.
And then the last
that we set are the foundations of this,
are
to be good to people,
to have good character, to be generous, to
feed people,
to to to
amplify
the cause of the voiceless. Like, we saw
so many generations
about Palestine and what's going on in the
Congo and Sudan
and all over the world to continue to
amplify to if someone asked, can I go
to demonstrations while fasting? Of course.
One of the greatest acts of Allah. You
stand in the day and you stand in
the night, You
stand in the day for justice, and you
stand the night asking Allah for his justice.
You stand in the day asking
Allah, reminding people, excuse me, to be just
to people and to be just in this
world. And then at night, you stand in
front of Allah asking, you Allah,
allow me to experience your justice. That's why
they say, say,
He used to fall asleep in meetings, and
people ask him, what happened? He said, the
day is for people. The night is for
Allah.
The day is for people. The night is
for Allah.
And so you want to turn that into
good character. We'll take any questions that you
have now. I do operate a school. It's
called Suhein Webb Institute. We'll be doing some
awesome programming for our
members. We're a fledgling start up. We are
not a huge entity. It's only $9.99
a month. That people can put it in
the chat box for me. It will help
me a lot.
So you can join for only $9.99
a month for your whole family at join
dotsuheweb.com.join.suheweb.com
and help us out because if you
support
independent scholarship and independent
education,
then
support that work because we are truly independent.
We are funded
by you, by the community. What
I was trained in in 3,
but my that I was taught
was the.
But I'm not fanatical,
in following my Medheb, especially when I did
my Ifta training in Egypt.
We keep the of
people in front of the Ishtiha.
So so that's that question. Are there any
questions about Ramadan?
Anything in particular also for people here,
on the chat? Let me open up the
chat here because there are a lot of
people. As a mother and wife, how do
we balance family and home responsibilities with ABAD?
This is a great question.
Everyone listen to this question because it also
applies to students, it applies to activists,
it applies to so many of us.
And that is 1st and foremost, dear Muslims.
We have to
revisit
the definition
of worship.
Because what happens is, and I don't wanna
make it too complicated,
we tend to restrict
worship
to the definition of the scholars of.
Because we're exposed to so much, the scholars
of Islamic law. So we tend to think
of worship as prayer,
fasting, zakah, and Hajj. Of course, those are
the foundational acts of worship.
But if we look in the Quran, dear
mother,
we see that worship is
is everything Allah loves.
And there are certain moments in our life
where we will be busy with certain things
because of
providence.
Because of what Allah
has decreed for us. Like many people ask
me, why were you off social media for
a while?
My my father was dying. I was busy
with my non Muslim father pleading with him
to take Shahada, and he refused.
My my wife gave birth. I have a
4 year old. I have a 18 month
old. I have 2 kids in college.
So I was busy.
That was the most important thing that Suhaib
Webb could do at that time was to
take care of his daddy.
The most important thing that Suhaibabad can do
at that time was to look after his
children, to help his wife.
So
what I want you to think about
is you shouldn't feel guilty because you're taking
care of your kids.
You're raising the next Salahuddin.
You may be raising the next.
You shouldn't feel guilty if you're in your
university program and you have exams and you
have to study and you have to prepare
because you're not able to do as much
as you would do when you have free
time. You don't have free time now.
Allah has given you this as your risk.
So the best act of
after fasting in the month of Ramadan
is what Imam
Ibnu Ayam called.
Your.
What's most important
for you to do at this moment.
If you're an activist, if you're someone organizing
for Palestine or Kashmir or in the United
States, you have to canvas for the elections
that are coming up. That is the most
important act of worship for you at that
moment.
If it's time for the adhan to be
a call, you don't start to read the
Quran. If it's time to feed people at
Iftar, you don't say I need to make
zikr. No. No. The most important thing to
do is feed the people. That's why Imam
Ahmed Alhambal, he was asked, would you rather
pay tahajid
or help a Muslim who needs to move
into a new home? He said, listen to
what Imam Ahmed said. I would rather help
that Muslim move because that has a systemic
impact on the people, and praying is just
for me.
So
the challenge, Sabrina, for you
in the month of Ramadan and for students
and others is not to separate your life
from Ibadah.
Everything is Ibadah if it's done for Allah.
Everything is that's good if it's done for
Allah. So, You Allah, I'm not able to
pray
because of my final exam. I'll pray what
I can, but please, I make this exam
for you. Oh, Allah, I'm busy as a
mother, as a father, with my children.
Some of us have special needs children that
even demand more time.
You, Allah, this is my active Ibadah.
This is the best thing I can do
at this moment.
So we saw the prophet
when he was giving the and Sahih Muslim.
And that man interrupted the and said, I
want to learn about Islam.
What did the prophet do?
He stopped his khutbah and he taught that
man. Why? Because that's the most important thing
at that moment.
So I want us to push into the
month of Ramadan. I'm gonna talk about this
later, not compartmentalizing
our life and worship,
but to seamlessly
bring all of those into
one complete
expression of servitude to Allah
and to not feel
guilty
about that.
Any other questions? How to avoid deal with
overeating and something about overeating? I didn't see
that question. Sorry.
I have a friend who is interested in
converting and wants to try Ramadan.
Would they?
So the question is sorry. I have the
wrong glasses on here, but the question was
about someone who wants to fast who's non
Muslim. Non Muslims, they can fast with us.
And you can tell them that if eventually
they embrace Islam, they will receive the reward
for that fast. If they accept Islam because
we know that the prophet said that even
the sins of someone who embraced Islam,
if they
Islam,
they they they their Islam is good. Even
their sins,
Allah will take their evil and turn it
to good So you
should tell them not only if you fast
Ramadan
will you be rewarded if you embrace Islam,
You will also all of the evil you
did will be turned to.
And there's an opinion that's this also applies
to Muslims who repent.
So
it's not just not just for those who
embraced Al Islam, but even those who are
born Muslim, and they say, you know what?
I want to get better.
I want to get better.
Thank you for that kind message. Are there
any other questions? We'll do some q and
a sessions, of course, always in the month
of Ramadan. Again, want to encourage all of
you to go to join dotsuheibah.com.
Support our work, man. We're struggling. You know,
we're a very simple organization,
3 or 4 people. We have actually our
videographers
were in Palestine in Gaza.
You know? And 2 of them, they are
alive.
One of them was able to recently get
out,
but, you know, it's a struggle
for those people. So we ask you to
continue. Can I read the Quran while I'm
on my period for women? We know there's
2 opinions about reciting the Quran,
when you're on your period. The strong opinion
you can recite
Anytime you can recite it, but Quran, we
know there's a difference of opinion.
We'll talk about that also as we go
into the month of Ramadan.
How to convert everyone into Islam? You cannot
convert everyone to Islam.
Only Allah can guide who he wants. Allah
said to the prophet,
you cannot guide who he
wants. Allah guides who he wants. Because if
we could guide who he want,
it wouldn't be a test.
But sometimes Allah will guide people like Omar,
people that we would have never imagined will
be Muslim
as a test for us. Can we accept
them as Muslims?
Can we embrace them as Muslims?
What can we make dua about? First, it's
such a great question,
First, we should make dua for ourselves,
that Allah will be pleased with us. And
then we make dua for our families, for
the, for our friends, for our brothers and
sisters, and for the needs that we have.
How often do you give talks and videos?
You know, I'm a father with 4 children,
so I don't I'm I'm I'm older, man.
So it's a little bit difficult for me
to be on social media as much as
I was when I was younger. There's a
few questions here from our students at Swiss.
Does fasting begin Monday or Tuesday?
According to
the the the North American Fit Council, the
first night of Tarawee is Sunday
in America, and then we fast on Monday.
May Allah allow us to live to fast
even one day.
With
all my illnesses being healed sooner during Ramadan,
am I disciplined and focused on just Allah?
Will all my illnesses be healed sooner during
Ramadan? I'm not sure I understand the question.
If you can rephrase it, Hamdah will be
better in.
So someone's asking about how do we sort
of balance
fasting and the joy of fasting
with what's going on in the world and
specifically the crisis in the Hadza.
So first and foremost, our happiness for for
the month of Ramadan is not the kind
of shallow happiness that maybe people have with
other things.
Our
fast our happiness for the month of Ramadan
is that Allah guided us to fast.
Just imagine, man.
You know, how many people have never been
guided to say
once in their life, and Allah chose you.
That's the happiness.
It's not the shallow type that happens. Second
thing, how do we maintain
our excitement for being able to worship Allah
more
and turn back to Allah and see so
much good in the
is
what Mustafa
said
in Listen to this one, he said. And
I want to jump off. I don't like
to talk too long.
He said
that you should see your life as though
you're on a boat,
and the dunya
is an ocean.
You're not responsible for the waves in the
ocean.
You're not responsible
for the creatures in the ocean, the depth
of the ocean.
Your job is you are the captain of
your ship,
and that ship has 3 responsibilities.
Number 1,
to be just, to be balanced,
not to tip over,
not to allow the waves to impact the
ship so much that it loses
its balance. No matter what happens in the
dunya,
I'm the slave of
I'm not the slave of the dunya. I'm
the slave of the creator of the dunya.
So no no matter how good things get,
no matter how bad things get, I'm with
Allah.
I'm with Allah. And I have the second
thing
he says, And the job of the ship
is to reach its destination, and the destination
for us,
is Allah.
So I I'm not getting distracted by what's
happening in the ocean. Even though it hurts
me, it pains me, I should pay attention
to it. I'm not indifferent to it, but
not to the point that it capsizes my
soul and capsizes my iman. I'm headed to
Allah.
The greater the challenge,
the greater the opportunity.
The greater people push injustice,
the greater I have the chance to push
for justice.
The more difficult the time is, the greater
opportunity to cash in with.
And that's why the prophet
said as related by Imam
with a good
There will be from amongst you some people
who one of their deeds is equal to
50 of you, different narrations.
The Sahaba
said, people will come after us who their
deeds are equal to 20, 10, 50 of
us, different narrations. He said, yes. Because these
will be the times of fitin. These are
these times.
So even though the dunya
the sea of the dunya is harsh and
cold,
and the waves are strong like Mustafa Sadiq
al Rafi. He
said, I'm not gonna allow the ship to
be capsized. Why? I'm with Allah.
I'm with Allah.
So just think about it that way, and
you'll be able to push through. Another question
from. I'm wondering how can we practice Ramadan
more when being away from family and community.
It's hard, you know, The hardest Ramadan I
ever had was when I was by myself
away from my family.
So what I tried to do is really
use, like, YouTube and Instagram and and and
there was no Instagram then.
And tried to watch, like, lectures of Shu
and to even I would even watch.
You know? Just so I would
fill in if you think about, like, supplements.
Like, I would supplement what I missed
being away from my family and community. Now,
you have FaceTime, you have Zoom. So you
can even do, like, iftar maybe with your
family or friends. You know, I know some
new Muslims who they do FaceTime iftar, you
know, alhamdulillah, especially during COVID. And they created,
like, their own community iftar through Zoom and
and and FaceTime and other things. So you
can push into that and use it.
Are there any other questions? A lot of
people asking to jump on the live. I
don't know you. I can't accept you to
jump on my live. I don't know who
that is, man. That might be that might
be Michael Rapaport or something. Even though he
blocked me,
he never knows who's asking to jump on
your lights.
So
someone says it feels,
it feels
wrong to pray
on a with our names printed on it.
No. It's okay. You can pray with your
name on the. There's nothing wrong with that.
Someone gave you a gift in a.
There's nothing wrong with praying on a as
long as it doesn't have images, like actual
images of people or pictures. It's okay. If
your name is on it and it's not
distracting you, no problem.
It's a good gift someone gave you a
Any other questions? Someone asked me how am
I doing? I'm good.
Thank you for asking. I really appreciate that.
Ask ask
people how they are, man. It's very important.
It's a very good question. I'm good. Thank
you for asking. May Allah bless you and
keep you, strong and give you a beautiful
Ramadan. Is it recommended to recite
sorry. I got the d for qiraat and
Ramadan edition to yeah. Of course. You can
read other qiraat. It's okay. No problem. Last
year, I I read with and
watched. It's good.
Just tell the people so you don't freak
them out.
So, yeah, people are saying that on my
IG, they ask people if they wanna join.
You know, I've been shadow banned since 2014,
people. So you guys talking about shadow banned.
Imagine someone has 900,000 followers on Facebook, and
they put a post up and it has
2 views or 2 likes. So that tells
you, as I said earlier,
it's
not social media, it's dictatorial media.
And that's unfortunate, but we we're patient. We
leave it to Allah.
We don't think about the numbers. We think
about the quality of the work we do.
We ask a lot to put baraka. Because
even if nobody follows you or me, if
nobody shows up,
the angels, they will write what you said.
We had a teacher years ago, Abdul Malik
from Houston,
Rahim. Abdul
Malik, he used to give dawah in the
hood, and he had a small mausoleh, and
nobody would come.
And he told me,
I used to give
talks by myself.
Subhanallah,
he used to make dua
just by himself. And then Allah blessed him
and his community grew.
So don't worry.
Any more questions about the month of Ramadan?
If not,
wishing all of you a blessed Ramadan. We
ask
Allah We ask Allah
to bless each and every one of you
to make it a beautiful Ramadan.
Please share my account with others because I
am being shadow banned. I'm sorry to ask
that, but it's crazy. Someone's asking, is the
calendar on Swiss up to date? It should
be up to date in the 1st week
of Ramadan. But the if you go come
out to the live classes tab now on
the website, you'll see all the live classes
there.
And someone's saying, it's a different way to
think of
you typed in Arabic. Even if you're shadow
banned, who knows how exactly.
You don't worry about it. You leave it
to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Even I don't
like to talk about it because it's like
shameful. You leave it to Allah.
Sabrina, also blessed to have you in my
life and to to engage with you and
have you in our classes. We really enjoyed.
Yes. I'm waiting. Someone said, wait. Wait.
Wait. I will wait for you
if you have any questions. My my kids
are asleep, so I have a few minutes,
before I have to jump off.
Any other questions? If not,
it was a pleasure to be here with
all of you. Please keep us at your
duas. We'll post this live on our,
Instagram,
our YouTube page.
You'll be able to see it there for
Jazakk Malakkaren.