Tahir Anwar – Ramadan Reflections Mercy
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AI: Transcript ©
I wish you once again, Ramadan Mubarak, and
I pray to Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala,
that may these days and nights of Ramadan
be a blessing for all of us.
As we begin these
middle 10 nights of Ramadan, we are reminded
by the hadith of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam where he says,
the first portion is that of the mercy
of Allah, the middle portion is that of
the forgiveness from Allah
and the final one
is asking Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala for protection
from the hellfire.
So as we begin these middle 10 nights,
of Ramadan,
let us remind ourselves that in addition to
everything that we ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
for, per the recommendation of the Nabi sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam,
magfirah,
forgiveness is something that we ask for increasingly
within these 10 nights. And as I had
mentioned the hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam last week where the Prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam was climbing the pulpit. He
said Amin
three times
and essentially reminded us
that attaining forgiveness from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is so easy and one of the greatest
things that we need to do in the
month of Ramadan,
and that if we don't do it, the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam has prayed against
or Jibril has prayed against that individual, and
the prophet alaihi salallahu alaihi wasallam has said
Amin to it. So what I would like
to do
is share a verse or 2 of the
Quran and a few traditions and a hadith
of the prophet Muhammad salallahu alayhi wasalam. Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala in Surah Al Imran
reminds us and says, wasari'u
ilaMafirati
mirubikum
wajannatin
arduhasamawatuwaladhatlimuttaqeen.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, hasten,
race,
run
towards the forgiveness of your Lord. Wasari'u
Musara'a.
Go really quickly. Illa makhfaratin
m rabbikum, towards the forgiveness of your Lord.
Wajannatin,
and towards gardens.
The width of which or the span of
which
is the heavens is equivalent to the heavens
and the earth. In other words, Jannah is
much larger
than the heavens and the earth
and run towards it, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
says, by
seeking forgiveness from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Or iddatilin muttaqeen.
What is this Jannah? It has been prepared
for the muttaqeen, for those who are God
conscious.
Then Allah mentions
a few qualities here, and I'll go through
them. Allah
says,
Who are the muttaqeen? These are people who
spend
in prosperity
and adversity. In other words, they spend when
times were good and they spend even when
times are difficult.
Walqazimin
al ghayva, and these are people who hold
on to their anger. They repress
their anger. They're really angry. They're in a
position
where they can actually be angry at another
individual, and despite that they hold back. Walaafinaalinas,
and they forgive people. They forgive people.
Right? If you forgive others, Allah will forgive
you. There's that hadith of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam where he says,
have mercy on the people of the face
of this earth, and the one in the
heavens will have mercy on you. Right? If
we forgive for the sake of Allah, Allah
will forgive us,
insha'Allah. That's the greatest reward
that we can,
you know benefit from, that we can expect
from Allah
when we forgive others. Then Allah continues, wallahu
yuhibbul muhaseen, Allah loves those who do good.
Now listen to the next verse. Allah says,
who are the muttaqeen? Allah is still describing
the qualities of the muttaqeen.
The muttaqeen are people who when they commit
an evil, when they make a mistake, when
they commit a sin,
or they oppress against themselves. In other words
you do something that you shouldn't have. Zakarullah.
They remember Allah. You know they make that
mistake.
You've made a mistake. It's not like we
haven't. We've sinned,
but then what do we do? Zakarullah. They
remember Allah. You Allah.
Right? In prayer, either we remember Allah in
prayer, we remember Allah in zikr, we remember
Allah through salawat. However, it is that we
remember zakarullah,
fastharullidunu
bihim.
And the muttaqeen
are the people who make istighfar
of their sins,
who seek forgiveness of their sins. Right? We
say, you Allah, forgive me. However it is
that we seek forgiveness from Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala, and then this is the part.
Wamayafiruzhunuba
illallah.
Who is there to forgive sins except Allah?
Who has the authority
to forgive sins except Allah?
Who has the ability to forgive except Allah?
In other words, there's no one
that can forgive
any wrongdoing that we do except Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala. And Allah is reminding us that
seek forgiveness from Me, and I will forgive
you. And in addition to My forgiveness, I
will give you paradise.
And they do not persist
on the actions
that they used to do. Ulaika jazahummaqhiratumma
rubihim. Allah then once again reminds us of
the rewards. He says, these are the people,
the reward for them is maqhiratumma
rubihim. Right? Forgiveness from their Lord, wajannatum
tajrimintahdi
hal anhar,
and gardens,
paradise
underneath which rivers flow, halidi nafiha.
They will be in there forever. Wani'ama ajurul
aameleen,
and what a beautiful
return and reward this is for those who
do actions, for those who do good. There's
another place where Allah
when we talk about forgiveness, Allah
says,
walyafu,
walya sfahu.
Right? This is in Surah Nur. Allah says,
walyafu,
walya sfahu,
Let them forgive, let them pardon, let them
forgive, and let them overlook.
Over Walliafu, walliasfahu. What does overlooking mean? Overlooking
means that you happen to be in a
position
where you can get your revenge, where you
can get your return.
Despite that, you say, you know what? For
the sake of Allah, until the day of
judgment,
until
I go into paradise, you've been forgiven,
and I'm not gonna bring it up again.
Now, of course, you know, there's times and
places if if there if the instance is
that of harm and you want to bring
it to the attention of any individual or
that individual, that's understood.
But, you know, sometimes someone has done something
wrong to you, and you just and it's
really not gonna make a difference. You just
end up forgiving them. Walyafu walya sfahu. Then
Allah continues. Alaatuhhibbuuna
ainyafirallahu
lakum.
Would you not love that Allah would forgive
you?alaatuhibbuona
ainyafirallahu
lakum. Would you not love that Allah
would forgive you? I want to share a
few ahadith, forgiveness. Remember we're talking about the
middle 10 days of Ramadan and forgiveness.
Abdullah ibn Abbas narrates
that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam says,
man lazimal is this is such a beautiful
hadith. Man lazimalistirfarrah.
This is not just for Ramadan.
The Nabi sallallahu alaihi wasallam says, whosoever
makes,
constantly seeks, or makes istighfar,
constantly.
And I'm not this, by the way, doesn't
mean that you pull out a tasbih every
day and say astaghfirullah, astaghfirullah, astaghfirullah, astaghfirullah, astaghfirullah.
No. While that's part of it, This doesn't
necessarily just mean that after the prayer we
say astaghfirullah astaghfirullah astaghfirullah
3 times as we are reminded in the
hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
No. This just means constantly seeking istighfar.
You do something wrong, you think of something
wrong, you say, you Allah, forgive me. In
your heart, with your tongue, you say, you
Allah, forgive me. You think of something else,
you say, you Allah, forgive me. You saw
something that you know you shouldn't have seen,
you say astaghfirullah
or say, Allah, forgive me. You hear something
that might not not haram, but just might
be doubtful. You say, you Allah, please forgive
me. I promise not to do it. In
other words, is in a constant state of
istighfar,
consciously remembering and thinking of the things that
might be wrong, man lazimal istighfar,
constantly seeking forgiveness.
Allah promises 3 things for that individual. Jaaarallahu
lahu min kulli dikhin makhraja.
Allah will appoint a way out of every
distress for that individual. Anything that worries you,
Allah will appoint a way out of that,
and a relief from every anxiety. Wamin kullihammin
faraja.
A relief from every anxiety. You know you're
in a difficulty. You're in a bind. You
don't know how to get out of this.
Make Istighfar. Allah will pull you out of
it. You're worried about something, you can't go
to sleep at night, make Istighfar, Allah will
create an opening. Right? Allah will grant you
relief from every anxiety, waraazakahum
minhaytulayaktasib,
and Allah
will provide sustenance
from where they least expected it. Imam Abu
Dawood narrates this. Another hadith, the Nabi Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam says, whosoever says, Astaghfirullah
ladi lahi
lahiirqayumuatubu
ilay, I seek forgiveness from Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala, the one without whom there's none worthy
of worship except him. Allah ilaha illa hiyur
Qayyum, ever living, all sustaining, wa'atubu ilay, and
I make tawba to him, and I repent
to him. The Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Salam
says.
Gafartu this is by the way a hadith
Qudsi.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
actually, I apologize. This is not a hadith
Qudsi. The Nabi sallallahu alaihi wa sallam says
that his sins will be forgiven.
Wa'imka nakadfaraminazah.
Even if this individual would have run away
from a battlefield.
Even if this individual would have run away.
Running away from the battlefield is considered to
be one of the major sins. You know
when we talk about major sins,
shirk is a major sin. Disobedient to parents
is a major sin.
Usury is a major sin. Usurping the wealth
of orphans or anyone else's wealth is a
major
sin. Running away from a battlefield is a
major sin. The Nabi
says, if you simply say astaghfirullah,
alladillahillaha
illahu alhayyul qayyumuatubu
ilay, Allah would forgive all your sins even
if it was a major one. And I
want to close with another hadith, Anas radiAllahu
anhu says that I heard the Messenger sallallahu
alaihi wasallam, who said that Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala has said, this is a hadith Qudsi.
Oh, son of Adam. Oh, son of Adam.
I shall go on forgiving you as long
as you pray to me and aspire for
my forgiveness,
whatever
your sins may be. As long as you
pray to me and don't pray to anyone
else, and as long as you aspire for
forgiveness from me and no one else,
I shall continue to forgive you whatever
your sins may be. Right? Makana minka walaubaliin
doesn't matter to me. Yebna Adam, O son
of Adam, lo balartazunu
baqaanana sama sunmastafartani
gafartulaka
walaobali.
O son of Adam, I do not care.
It doesn't matter to me if your sins
should pile up to the sky
and you seek forgiveness from me, I would
forgive you. In other words, even if your
sins
are so much that anan as sama, they
pile up all the way to the sky.
Ghafartulaka
wala o bali. I would forgive you, and
it wouldn't matter to me. Allah says it
wouldn't make a difference to me for me
to you can't take anything away from me
by my forgiving you. It won't decrease in
anything that I have. It's very simple for
me to do, and then the Nabi alai
the Nabi alaihi sallahu alaihi wa sallam says
that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala continues,
Oh son of Adam, if you come to
me with an earth full of sins and
meet me,
come to me
on the day of judgment.
Or in this world,
come to me with an earth full of
sins and meet me, not associating
anything with me in partnership, in other words
not having made any shirk,
I will I will certainly grant you as
much pardon
as that fills the earth. In other words,
you brought an earth full of sins to
Allah
and you did not seek, you did not
make any shirk, and you sought Allah's forgiveness,
Allah would return that back that much back
to you in forgiveness.
Brothers and sisters,
as I mentioned earlier, we're going through the
middle 10 days of Ramadan,
and of course the entire month of Ramadan,
and we seek forgiveness from Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
No matter who we are, no matter what
we've done, no matter what sin we might
have committed in the past,
let us seek these nights to seek forgiveness
from Allah
Make tawbah to him to the best of
our ability, promise Allah that we won't commit
that sin again, but at the very least,
seek forgiveness for for that which has been
done in the past. No matter how major
or minor, Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, would forgive
us. May Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, accept our
fasting and standing, our prayers, and everything that
we do in Ramadan, and make the rest
of Ramadan an easy one for us, insha'Allah.
Barakallahu fikhum JazakumAllahu Khairan, salaam Alaikum Warahmatullahi wa
barakatuh.