Life Changing Ramadan – Part 1
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Channel: Yahya Ibrahim
File Size: 21.72MB
Episode Notes
Life Changing Ramadan | Part 1 – Yahya Ibrahim
AI Generated Transcript ©
In Alhamdulilah, he Muhammad who wanna stay in hoonah sofiero
fusina Dr. Molina Maja de la hufa movie La La, la, la La, la, la la la la la la la sharika lahu eyeshadow no Mohammed Abdullah Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa The early he was supposed to be he was certainly more bad. Yeah, you're Latina am an otaku? La Hakata hottie 11 to Muslim moon. Yeah yohannes itakura bacuna The hakomi nuptse wahida wahala amin has been humare geralyn Kathy Romani set up what Taka la la vida de Luna b1 in alohacare nalli Kumara feva Yeah, you have Latina I'm an otaku. La Hola Hola, Colin Salida you select American
woman you're a la hora Sudha hufa confessor fosun alima Amoeba?
Always and forever. We begin with the praise of Allah we send our prayers of peace upon interview Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, we testify with firmness and conviction that none is worthy of worship but Allah and that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is is worshiping slave and final messenger. I continue to remind myself and you have Eliza gel and the tough love that he is deserving of us. And I pray that Allah subhanho wa Taala increases our consciousness and awareness of him to a capacity that he is deserving of us subhanho wa Taala
how beautiful it is to be on the footsteps of the month of Ramadan. And you know for those of us who
have been making the drop of the Sahaba were for half the year after the month of Ramadan they would ask a lot to accept the Ramadan Aloma to have better Ramadan Nina Shara Ramadan me know a lot except the month of Ramadan we've just finished. And for the second half of the year when they would come about, you know six months away from Ramadan, they would begin to think will we reach it and Subhanallah just you know, in my personal circumstances and in the people that we know within our community and others there's many of us who arrive close to the month of Ramadan but are not blessed to actually greet it. And this is one of the concepts that's taught to us by the prophets I send
them that the month of Ramadan comes to us we don't go to it we can never assure and be guaranteed that we will arrive at the month of Ramadan with an ability to be able to sustain our fast and the second half of the drought of the Sahaba was Allah whomever live now Ramadan Oh Allah allow us to reach the month of Ramadan. And I make this on behalf of myself and you and I asked the loss of Hannah was Allah the Almighty, although we feel that we are near it and we are close to it. That may Allah subhanaw taala allow us to reach the month of Ramadan with health and ability and success in its fasting Allahumma Amin.
The aim today inshallah that we're going to have three sessions, we're going to end the first one that close to 11 o'clock, take a 10 minute break. And then we'll go on and start again and have another 4045 minute session ended at 12 o'clock, have a 1015 minute break and then end at 1pm inshallah, I know you guys have busy lives, and I don't want to take too much of your time. And we don't want to
just lose focus on the spirituality of the month of Ramadan that's coming at the same time. We want to make sure that we're prepared for it. And the theme that I've set for the seminar is that we want it to be a life changing Ramadan. And this has always been a concept of those who acknowledge the sinfulness before Allah, all of us have this hope. And it's one of the things that we're ingrained with that with the month of Ramadan, there comes this opportunity that is not found in other than the month of Ramadan. In the month of Ramadan conditions physically change, your body will physically change, you begin to feel different, you begin to feel a little bit different, you begin
to feel a little bit of hunger when maybe we have excess and we haven't felt it the rest of the year, you begin to feel tired, a spiritual tiredness where your knees hurt from standing up and thought, Oh, we need a little bit of back pain and oh my god, what is that? You know, I need a massage. Right? I haven't stood up to a lot in prayer this long ever, except in these days. And you'll feel that the first couple of days standing until it gets a little bit more difficult than as it proceeds in the rest of the year in the rest of the month. And your body physically endures some of that your mind also begins to change where you would normally argue you're asked to say in the
saw him where you would normally argue back with someone I'm right. I know what I'm saying is right. But you say these up Hold on a second. I'm sorry. I'm passing Hey, don't bother with me.
Don't listen to what I'm saying. You just stay, let's be quiet, you begin to think about what you say. You begin to also consider family. And the month of Ramadan is really a month of family, it's a month where normally we might be distracted from our families. Normally, we don't sit together at the table. Normally, we don't break bread together. But all of a sudden, the month of Ramadan kind of compels you, because if thought is at the same time everyone's gonna eat at the same time. Even if you would normally skip out on dinner with your family, you say, Oh, no, this is one of my mom's gonna put out that beautiful video for me. So I better be there before it's gone. Right? You begin
to think about joining with others, you also begin to think about charity. And you begin to think about, you know, that greatest opportunity of reforming yourself with a law and a law tells us in the portal and the first regret the only regret really that those who have passed away when they are asked and they say Oh Allah send us back to this world. Or better. It'll Janna read, let us go back. Let me have one more chance to go back on to that dunya to do one good thing for alpha sub duck, communists. They don't say so that I can pray or so I can fast or I can make has your so I can apologize. It simply is so that I can be charitable. Like if I can have that one opportunity to put
in someone else's hand. Something you blessed me with that I say Oh Allah, although it's mine, I've given it to them. And I asked you to get it approved for me on the Day of Judgment. And the prophets. I said Lim talks about South Africa. He says a sadaharu boreham.
Charity is an evidence for you on the day judgment. It's evidence I'd say hey, you see that guy over there? Yeah, a lot. That guy that's my money. You know the shirt he's wearing. It's because of me. Because of what you blessed me with that I decided to pass it on.
That becomes the central focus for a person on the Day of Judgment a lot. I want evidence that I helped and benefited someone all of those are kind of things that come with a month of Ramadan it's a month where we think about things in a way that we might not normally think about them. And we want this month of Ramadan to be a life changing Ramadan. You know, it's it doesn't matter how much you pray normally. in Ramadan, you will always pray more. It doesn't matter how charitable you are, you will always be more charitable. And therefore that's the secret of the words of the Sahaba when they describe the prophets I send them an SME Malik or the Allahu Allahu Allah. He says Canon nibio
so I sell them a Jawad what our prophets I send them was generous. well educated Mr. yakun, but his greatest generosity
was when the month of Ramadan arrived, he was a tornado of generosity can add your demeanor via helmore Salah he was more charitable than a swift when that moved through the city, those of us who live through yesterday hamdulillah You know, my sister, she's visiting from Canada. And we're watching the news. And it said, winter storm warning. Now we're from Canada.
Like
there's no STORM WARNING for rain.
Unless it's freezing rain or like hail rain, you know, something like that. So she goes, Oh my god, it's gonna be really good. And she looks
So when's the storm coming? I said, Oh, it's come and gone. She's like, Really? It's a you know, that quick when that moves through the city, 100 kilometer an hour gusts that you know, that was the prophets. I send them charitable Miss and Ramadan. That's the imagery that nsmb Malik use uses. He was more charitable. He was a tornado of generosity in the month of Ramadan.
Now one of the greater things of course, that we all will appreciate in the month of Ramadan, is that
the prophets I seldom when you know what he's delivered the Orion in the month of Ramadan. Ramadan, Allah the Koran, the month of Ramadan is where the Quran was initially first in revealed, you know, this is a significant testament of the virtue of this month, and it's revealed on that auspicious night lady little card. And that night of power and Divine Decree is something that we all look forward to. And we pray that Allah subhanaw taala makes our worship in it equal to the 84 years that he promises how you don't mean alpha. It's better than 1000 months. So we want to talk about the opportunities that we have for a life changing Ramadan. We're going to begin initially by talking
about the sanctity of Ramadan, you know, we're going to talk about
the sanctity of Ramadan as a whole, there's a copy there for you, if you can grab one of them. For those of you who don't have copies, you can grab them up from the top there from the sisters there and there's a box there of some of the the guide. So there's an opportunity
for us to earn a massive, massive, massive reward in the month of Ramadan if we do it right. And the gains in the month of Ramadan that the Sahaba always envisioned that was taught by the prophets, I seldom was that the month of Ramadan would come and go and you were a better human being after not just a better Muslim. See, the essence of Ramadan is that you would become a better person, you would become that charitable spirit, who cared for the needs of others, who was more conscious of what they said, who was willing to sit with their family more have more time in their home, who was a person who lived that life of Ramadan, outside the month of Ramadan. So if you turn to that guide,
which is a guide on fasting in the month of Ramadan,
we're beginning by first looking at the concepts behind siyam fasting is not something new.
It's not something that was just given to our Navy Mohammed sama, lahari usnm. And in fact, the first verses in the Quran where Allah speaks of fasting, Allah subhanho wa Taala says, Yeah, you handed in a man who are you who have come to believe
he begins to introduce to associate kuti ballet, Kumasi, and it's been written for you it's already been prescribed. It's always been there, combat kuchibhotla levina min publikum, as I had prescribed fasting on the nation's and the people who have preceded you. Now you can see allusions to this in the forearm. Some of the ways of the peoples before us, our cousins in faith, the Jews and the Christians. One of the forms that they still do is vows of silence. So for example, you wouldn't find it strange that a nun would say, I'm not going to speak for one day or for three days or for one month, some of them even years. It's a vow of silence. That was a form of fasting. And Allah
mentions that in the forum for zecharia alayhis. Salaam, Zakaria, Allah says to him, your evidence that I've given you something good is to remain silent. Celeste and I are in Serbia for three even nights don't speak a word, right? So you find that that was a form of fasting, there was also the form of fasting from particular kinds of foods and particular times in the day from eating them. And kosher laws until now kind of reflect that, you know, you can't eat meat, milk and drink milk if you're going to have certain kinds of foods along with it at the same day. In the same occasion, even practicing Christians, Catholics until now, they will have concepts that relate to Lent. Until
now in Australia, if you want really good seafood, you want to eat it during the Easter season, right? The season before Easter because they don't eat meat. They say for Lent, we don't eat meat, we only eat seafood, right? And that's why proms Mashallah get on the barbie very soon and quickly, right. So fasting isn't something new, it was always in place, there was always a concept of fasting, even amongst the nations that preceded us. The lunar calendar is also quite significant for us and our cousins, as well as in faith, the Jewish people, they follow a lunar calendar. And the lunar calendar, of course, moves forward 11 days every year. So therefore Ramadan doesn't just stay
in one particular time. Now, one of the things that you might not know
is that the outcrop used to try to deceive each other by randomly claiming it was a sacred month. So it's a they used to have certain months in the year where warfare was prohibited. So if your tribe was weak in a particular moment in time, you say, hey, it's actually that money there. But there's no moon, it doesn't matter. Right. And therefore the concept of shower became Hold on a second, the month can't just be declared, it must be mush who must be famous. And what's the sign that a month is famous is that everyone can see it? Everyone can see what what could they all see out in the desert at night, the moon that he learned, and therefore that became the sign of the Ishihara of
every month the famous acknowledgement of a month entering into a new beginning and a new evolution for the following month. And therefore Allah subhanho wa Taala begins the word Ramadan by saying sha Allah Ramadan. The word Ramadan itself is also quite significant Ramadan used to follow
When the month initially came into fruition, in the month of scarcity in the month of dryness in the month of Ramadan, in a month where there wasn't excess water, excess vegetation with the sky didn't rain down. It was a time you had to sacrifice and hold on to yourself. So that concept became Ramadan. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was ordered to fast who can tell us in which which year of hegira it's not even in the first 13 years. We, you know, for 13 years, the Muslims did not pass the month of Ramadan. And then the Prophet migrated to and Medina, how many years after to two more years in the second year of Israel? So that's 15 years of Islam having been delivered to
the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, before there was an instruction to the believers to fast. What do you think about hijab? How many years do you think a job took before it became an enshrined covenant between a law and mankind?
It was only two years before the death of the prophets, I send them some say three years. So you know, nearly 20 years, 1920 years of the prophets message before hijab became enshrined. So Allah wasn't the first thing that they were ordered. You know, when when the Prophet was given Islam, Allah didn't say, okay, five times a day, it was actually nearly 10 years after the message was delivered to him. So I tell them, that the five daily ritual prayers became prescribed because we know they were given in the in the in the occasion of surah, one meraj. And the commentators who comment on Ramadan, and hijab and salah and they see that intoxication was just a year or so before
the end of the life of the prophets, I send them all of that shows that Islam did not come initially with the spirit of immediate obedience. And therefore when you hear the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. He says to my new job, I'm sending you to the people of Yemen, there are plenty people who believe in God, the first thing they just there's some confusion about who is Allah? Allahu, Allahu Allah, Allah. Allah says in the Quran in surah, Tonka booth, say to them, our Lord and your Lord is the same Our Allah and your Allah is the same. But what you have become to believe about Allah is wrong is different. The God is one Subhana Allah, but what you believe about him and what we believe
about him is where we dispute so tell them that we believe in Allah and tell them who is Allah in kabiru if they accept this from you, yeah, more
luminous Allah, teach them about prayer. In copy Lu, teach them about Sudan and Zakah and copy you if they accept if they accept if they accept, then teach them about the Hajj. So there was a gradual process that led people to come closer and closer into the fold and security of complete service to Allah subhanahu wa Tada. The importance of the month of Ramadan, of course, for us is that it gives us this rejuvenating opportunity where we can come to Allah azza wa jal, in a way and in a time.
That gives us an ability to purge ourself of the excesses of the previous year. Let's move on in sha Allah with how to excel in the month of Ramadan. And why the month of Ramadan is such a significant opportunity for us, in our condition with Allah. Really the main thing, and this isn't found in your text, but I thought I would just add a few points. And I do want you to consider that the pursuit of the month of Ramadan is a pursuit of general blessing in your life. And the concept of Baraka in Islam is a really important concept and I do want to spend just a few minutes on it. Baraka is this one thing we all ask for each other.
In fact, we say it at times in a reflective way. It's like a reflex that we say it's not actually thinking about what we're asking, you know, you meet me say salaam aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa
barakato. someone's getting married, you say barakallahu li
May Allah bless this union.
Baraka is this thing that we it's a part of us. It's the one thing that we're all asking Allah subhanaw taala for, and therefore when you hear the words of the prophets, I send them where he says Shahada Ramadan Sha MOBA, the month of Ramadan.
The Prophet defines it as being the man. its totality. It's a to z, its Alif to yar, its beginning to its end. Its whole conceptualization is Baraka, its blessing. Now Baraka means three things.
Baraka, it means that if there's something
that you believe is little negligible, small, it's something great. I wish it was more, you know, I wish I had more money. I wish my health was better. I wish, you know,
that Allah would cure my children or my wife, I wish that you know, the, the time that I had wouldn't go by so quick. I wish that I could have Baraka in this, this or this that concept is that sometimes we think something is not enough. And we underestimate its value initially, but a lot of promises that if Baraka is placed in it, that that which we think is negligible, not enough too little will become extra and greater than what we need. That's the first part about aka. The second part of bottlecap is that if you have something anything Mashallah, this is good enough. I have a handler I always wanted this car I got this car. I always wanted that home and hamdulillah we got
the home we put we put the thing we bought the house and it's ours. Now, the thing that I didn't want I received it.
But now I want to preserve it.
Because I don't want it to Allah Don't let them scratch my car. Yeah, yeah, Allah, you know,
Allah dama terranes. Remove my roof tiles. Yeah, a lot. Don't let you know, there's something I have that I am appreciative of 100, Allah, Allah, you've given me that I'm happy with it. I'm not asking for more. But oh, Allah, don't take it away from me, and handling that for my children, and 100 illa for my job, and 100 enough for my life and my home. I'm happy with it. But now, Baraka isn't to increase it, it's to preserve it. The third aspect, of course, that relates to Baraka
is where we don't have anything at all. It's not that I have something little, it's not that I have something enough is that I have nothing, and I don't know where I'm going to get it. And each and every one of us at one point or another, we come to a point where we say, I don't know where and how I can fix this thing. I can't, I don't know how I'm gonna get married.
Where is this guy on a shining bright horse that's supposed to come and save me from the evil venomous dragons of the world. I don't see him there, I can't, I don't know where my risk will come from. I can't envision learning to read the Koran better than I'm doing it. Now I can't, I don't know how this will change for me, I can't see it changing. And therefore that's Baraka, where a law brings to you what you yourself could not conceive could ever arrive to you. In your wildest dreams, you couldn't imagine that this would come in that amount in that way from that person. All of a sudden, that person who you did not, you know, you never in your life thought that this person would
be contrary, they were kind. It's incredible. Something changed their heart, my husband and wife, their whole life at odds with each other. And all of a sudden, Baraka enters and they become better than they were before even they got married. In a way it's even better than our honeymoon. I don't know how, but Baraka can arrive and change circumstances. And those three aspects of Baraka are each and every one of each and every one of us is in need of them. And the month of Ramadan comes with that promise. It comes with the promise that Allah is the only source of Baraka. And it's important to kind of highlight this because sometimes you get these false teachings where people are made to
be given a place that they are not worthy of. So you'll find some people they'll they'll it's almost as if they worship this particular teacher or this particular what they call a saint or welly or Sheriff or whatever. And it's almost as if like, if he drinks from Oh my God, I got a drink from his cup. I gotta, you know, wipe it, touch him, I make and then I'm wiping him or you know, all that kind of false concept of bottlecap. The concept of Baraka is that it is only sourced from Allah
and it resides only in the things that Allah has declared they reside
unit as a permanent residence, so the carrabba Alhaji oral sweat is a permanent place of Baraka. Mexican mocha Rama is a permanent place of Baraka, Allah says, It is a place where Baraka has been put elbaite that helps that land that area as book on mubaraka. It is a blessed land. There's a blessed place in Sinai, where Moosa received the wacky, the Madina, munawwara the city of the prophets, I sell him It is a place where Baraka flows through it, the prophets I send them says he man flows to it, and hypocrites flow out of it. It's a place that is loved by the believers.
But when you look at the concept of Baraka, and every instance of a law mentioning these places and localities of Baraka, if you look at it from the outward physical presence, they are places of what would seem in hospital in an inhospitable place. Mecca is a place that was very rugged. It was a place where Ibrahim when he sets his family alayhis Salam hotjar in his mind, he says, You're a law you've ordered me to leave my family in this area that has no vegetation, has no water has nothing
and Madina munawwara everything that surrounds it was volcanic, that black agate aggregate rock, those volcanoes as you're traveling from Mecca to Medina, by the buses by the coaches if you've been to a general Mirage, if you had a tour guide, good tour guide like me, I would explain that to you. everywhere around you is destroyed. Mountains and volcanoes are leveled. Even in the time of the volcano exploded in it flow just to the entrance of the city of the Prophet Mohammed sighs
it's a rugged place, it was unreachable
Jerusalem.
Allah subhanho wa Taala says Subhana Allah The SLR via de minimis Jesus haraam, Elon Musk de la casa and levy bow aachener Hola. That place that we have put barossa all around it. But if you look at the history, and I'm not talking about the last 80 years, if you look at the history of vital muchness it has always been full of bloodshed.
It has always been built and destroyed. Even the Prophet of Allah, Allah Isaiah, he comes to it after the Persians had destroyed it. The people of God that were in it were all massacred. And I was I even comes into beta, none of this. And he looks and he says en de la hubba hubba hubba Mota. How will Allah resurrect the city after it's been killed?
The city has been killed, decimated for a matter hula hula. So Allah put him to death 100 years
from madatha This is the area that comes right after our usual courtesy and then Allah raised him back 100 years he was dead. Allah brought him back to life. And Allah said okay, go back and see what the city and the city was rebuild it.
The Crusades, the Mongol every you know, the city has always been under siege. Baraka is misunderstood.
Baraka does not necessarily mean outward physical happiness. It doesn't necessarily mean completion. It doesn't necessarily mean excess of wealth or it's going to be Julian crusted when we say that Ramadan can come in your life and give you Baraka, it doesn't just mean joy and happiness. It might also mean tests that make you spiritually fit before Allah subhana wa Tada.
It can also mean that in the month of Ramadan, you will endure in a way it's an endurance, hunger and thirst that you earn from it, the blessing of Allah subhanho wa Taala.
And therefore, when you want to excel in the month of Ramadan, you need to come to that concept very, very soon, that the longer you stay awake at night,
the more charity that you give, the deeper your hunger is for crying out to a law and worshiping a law and kindness to others. The more people you fed, the more people you've invited into your home, the greater your generosity is even at your own expense at times. That that becomes the source, the stepping stone, the cornerstone of putting happiness and Baraka into your life. So we're going to talk about five things about this finding happiness and bottlecap finding that joy in our life. And these are all things that are mentioned.
There's a Hadith of the prophets I send them I'm not going to itemize them, each and every one individually. By the, by the way, those who have come a little bit late, there should be booklets up at the top. And there should be booklets down under here if you want to make it a little bit easier for See for yourself. So the first thing of building Baraka in the month of Ramadan,
his family comes first. Now families are difficult.
who He really has never had a good family feud, you're just not a good person.
If you haven't feuded with like a brother, or a sister or a cousin or an uncle, or, you know, if there isn't some kind of imbalance there, you're not really a family. There's always that weird one in the family. There's always that you know, strange kind of something will go missing and people blame the wrong guy. And for years, they won't talk to each other. You know, somewhat, I'm sure someone's land back home in a country you've never visited, people are arguing about where the fence line should be. Or is that just in my family? Okay. It's gotta be there's gotta be some kind of that olive tree is our olive tree. Have you ever seen the olive tree? No, but it's mine somehow, right?
There's that kind of stuff. It could be a mango tree in Pakistan, all of tree in Philistine? It could be, you know, a mafia in Egypt, whatever, right? There's some kind of argument over some ancestral, you know, tea leaves in Turkey. Right. It's some kind of ancestral feud. And that's absolutely normal. But what is not normal? Is that the feud?
In times of Ramadan, and times of togetherness, he
that that feud extends past? What is the norm
that a person's daughter is getting married and you refuse to go because they owe you money?
That someone in your household has fallen ill but the person that you're arguing with you say I don't want them to come see her. You know, I've had this I've had, I've had a person there their mom is dying and the older brother was refusing for a younger brother disease or mom, because some kind of family squabble? No, after you sit down, move out of the way whoever wants to see you will see her. Sometimes people get so cold, callous, dark hearted, that they forget about the love they seek from Allah subhana wa Tada. And the month of Ramadan is the month we all say yeah, Allah, Allah, Allah, and here we are doing the things that Allah has prohibited, and said, Do not do because they
block Baraka entering into my life. So the first at the beginning of the month of Ramadan, irrespective of what the argument is, irrespective of how much you dislike that person, irrespective of how much that you know, she hurts you in your marriage, how much he was abusive in his marriage, irrespective of those kinds of things, the HAC of a law upon us in doing what is acceptable between each other becomes the central focus.
It becomes important for us to seek to give access to our hearts to Allah, and to open them to people who normally we would not give them access to it. Now, I want to make a clarification that this does not mean that the one who hurts us we allow them to continue to hurt us that the one who has been abusive that that means we continue to let them abuse us or continue to let them take from us. There's a huge difference between being able to forgive someone and ask a lot to mend our hearts and to cure their problem than it is just to hate them. And just to say, I will never forgive them. Nothing in my heart will ever change what I hate about them law. That is an insult to them. That's
insult to your own soul. It is freedom of your own soul, that you find the capacity to cure your heart and move past those kinds of illnesses. This does not mean that we sit in the same place where danger is a nonprofit I sell them says that a believer is not stung by the same lizard from the same hole twice. You know, if I sat there and there's a mound of ants, and I got bitten by some army ants, I'm not going to come back tomorrow and say, Oh yeah, I can sit there again. No, it would be a lack of EMA and not just a lack of intellect. It would be sinful for me, to allow myself to be abused again, to be hurt again, to bring harm to myself. And that's the inner meaning of
The verse where Allah subhanaw taala says in the law hola yo yo Roma becoming hotter, yo yo, maybe I'm putting a lot will not change the condition of a people until they change their own condition. Allah will not bring you to success unless you actually move towards it. Allah will not help you get over that problem unless you make the changes to end that abuse and difficulty.
Number two is to show compassion.
show compassion to others, and Allah will provide you His mercy and compassion. And we begin
with those who are nearest to us in relation that was always the way of the prophets, I send them an affordable fan club, the one who is nearest to the one who is nearest to the one who is nearest, the nearer you are in kith and kin, Your brother has a greater right on you than your cousin, I remember my daddy used to teach me, I don't know, I get maybe it's an odd thing. But our Arabic upbringing was very strange. My dad, I remember he would say, into our whole college namak, you and your brother against your cousin
went to have namak, aloe vera and you and your cousin against the stranger. Right? So don't put your cousin in front of your brother. And don't put your a friend in front of your cousin. That was kind of you know, and really the way of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam is that that is true where he man resides where faith resides. It is true where a man resides, but then it's added to Yes, there's the one who is near to us, my mom is more deserving of my attention than my aunt. And my aunt is in more attention of me than her than then my second ENT or my cousins, and they are closer to me in my attention in their need for charity and their need for my giving than those who might
need my neighbors. And my neighbors are more near to me than others and that that that's an important process. So the people you work with and live with. And an ingrained concept for us in terms of Zika has always been to give it locally. You know the mama Shafi he would say that the one who gives a car even to his own family outside where he lives, that that isn't accepted that it wouldn't be considered as a cat man. It has to be to those who you are in and amongst. Sorry, think we've gone.
Number two, so begin with those who are nearest to us in relation exert yourself towards righteousness with them in laws, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, neighbors, even the one who's an unbeliever one of these beautiful Hadith is found in the Hadi insight and Bahati and you know, at the end in the days of read where they did the slaughter you know, you've just slaughtered meat usually like to give it out to people and to share what Allah has blessed you with with others. So I've the law, it may have been us. He ordered a salad the butcher as soon as he had made the slaughter he said what the gelatin yahudi the first person that you give charity to
from this, who you're going to share this meat with is my next door neighbor, the Jew. And he said yahudi tempt the way you're going to begin with him instead of your you know what one of your others he said, no, yes, you begin with him, Kevin a lemon and why sell him this is what the Prophet taught us sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. So I want you to think about that, you know the next time you have that nice barbecue and you have that neighbor and you have other people even if they don't attend at least make a general invitation and an attempt for them to come.
Remember that a believer loves for others what they love for themselves and this is one of the ways to attract the love of a lot in the month of Ramadan to us. Always in the month of Ramadan you come to park your car love for others what you love for yourself am I gonna Am I parking in this way it's gonna hold people back when they come to leave. am I standing after total we have people want to get home they got work to do they exit you know, they exerted themselves all night and thought Oh, yeah. And I parked and I've kept you know yakking away in the messages while I've double parked kept one that way. Am I going to abuse that brother who's donated his time and his a bother? You know, some
of our brothers for the first eight taraka they want to be praying like you're praying, but they stay outside to make sure that no one is double, triple parked. And you come and then you abuse them as well. You don't know there's a parking spot there. Why don't you do your job well happens every year.
You know, exert yourself to love for others what you would love for yourself. Speak to others the way you want people to speak to you show kindness to others in that capacity, the way you would want others to show capacity to you.
Remember that the one who feeds others
receives the reward of the one who's fasting. And this is really important. You know, when you when you feed other people, it ensures that you are given the reward of the one who ate even if it's a date. You know, I always love some of my students, I'm going to be inundated with dates now. I never have to buy dates in Ramadan. Mashallah, because my students of the school they owe everyone comes with like a box that your your brother, like, thank you. I'll add that to the pile. And handler we're stocked for dates until the next Ramadan. Mashallah. Right. It's beautiful, because the person who's fasting, you know, it's an incredible, incredible opportunity. And I want you to think of what
one of my teachers he said. He said, Yeah, hear his story, draw a saw him. He said, buy from people they're drawn when they're fasting.
And I said, What do you mean by like, pay the guy five bucks? Can you make a good one? Okay. $10 probably double it. And I go, What do you mean, by that you are from someone who's fasting. He said, when you've given charity, especially to someone who doesn't know you, like when you've given that charity, there, you know, I was talking to you about those young kids in South Africa, right? You've given that charity to these people, you've never seen them, you'll never see them, you won't even know their name, they don't know your name. But all of a sudden they receive that money and they receive that happiness and they make up your Allah help the one who helped me, that's you. You've
just bought with your dates, with your money with your kindness, you've bought $1 from someone for nothing $3 $5 $10 you bought someone making your art for you, that normally you would not have had their drop. So purchase the draw of the righteous purchase that you are of the needy, because they are answered by Allah Subhana Allah to Allah in a way that you might not be answered for your own needs.
Remember that faithfulness, Eman is not complete. Until you honor the elders.
And show mercy to those who are younger. You know, the prophets I send them he talks about honoring our elders, sometimes we forget the place of our parents, our grandparents, sometimes we just take it for granted that they'll always be there. They'll always be a part of our life. They're always giving us advice. gotta hear it so much from them. It's as if it's not as important as you actually might consider and it is incredibly important.
Think about the importance of those who are senior in your life. The teachers who have taught you, the leaders who kind of face some of the difficulties that we don't face. You know, the the people who run the massager and the people who contribute towards them, the people who gave us and fought battles, legal battles, to give us an opportunity to stand for total, we, you know, legal battles were fought for some of the massages, for you to be able to come in as a place of worship registered for you to stand there and all of a sudden you come and you let everyone down. You know you with your parking with your attitude with without without supporting it with your charity. All of those
are things that are significant.
Remember that Allah is gentle, and loves gentleness. So come above, the prophet SAW Selim, he says that Allah
is gentle, and loves gentleness, gentleness, in your words, gentleness in your attitude, at one of the things that I remember, I was attending a PD, a professional development and some of the people there were from the police services and other government agencies. And I was giving them a PD about Rama bond and some of the things that relate to Muslims and stuff. And then they shared, you know, some of the statistics and it's actually, you know, quite true. In the month of Ramadan, there's a notable spike of domestic disturbance calls.
Statistically,
there is a greater likelihood of Muslims phoning the police to end kind some kind of family squabble in the month of Ramadan than outside the month of Ramadan. They say it's a marked spike, you'll find people argue more, there'll be more disturbances, and we will actually go out for that. And it's one of the reasons that the prophets I seldom says to us, that when someone speaks to you in a harsh way, say I'm fasting. And it's not to say to them, because the guy might not even you're in the soil, and he's like, what did you say mean? It doesn't only mean you're talking to me, oh, well, anytime it's a reminder to you, I'm fasting, calm down. It's not worth it. Step back. Right. That
has always been
The word of the messenger Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
the prophet SAW Selim says, and you know, we'll end with this, that success and excellence is to bring joy to the heart of another person.
It has to soon it's to bring happiness to someone. The great the epitome of success in your life, is that you brought success, excellence, and made happiness for someone in their heart, you fed a hungry person, you've removed some difficulty from someone that they couldn't remove without you. And you've lightened the sorrow of the one who was depressed. And in those four things, or profits, I sell them says hotaka iljin, their footsteps for you that leads you to jedna to bring happiness to the one who wasn't happy to remove the burden of someone who couldn't remove it for themselves. You know, sometimes it's just a little you know, it's something small for you. But it means something
great for others, to bring a person who was afflicted, they were in trouble and you reassured them and you help them out
and to bring and to remove sorrow from the hearts of others. And all of that comes down to the final statement of the prophets I seldom or hammelmann fell out of their home called Memphis, Mr. Show, merciful gracious this to those who live with you on earth. And the one above the heavens, the Lord of all, all the Almighty will show you his mercy and kindness subhanho wa Taala