Zia Sheikh – Ramadan 2015 Khatira Day22
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Yesterday I talked a little bit about Dua
and afterwards a brother came up to me
and asked the question that, and this is
something that is commonly asked by a lot
of people especially those that visit us from
Pakistan and India, where it's common to have
a collective Dua which is done after Salat.
So he asked why, if the Dua is
so important, the Dua is not done collectively
after the Salat every single time, as we
see back home.
So the answer to that basically is, first
and foremost we need to understand that there
is no right time or wrong time to
make a Dua.
All times are equally important for making Dua.
There are certain times that the Prophet ﷺ
said, they are the times of acceptance of
the Dua.
For example, the time of sunset, the time
between Adhan and Iqamah, the time, there's a
specific time in Jumu'ah, and so on,
there are specific times that the Prophet ﷺ
mentioned.
One Hadith in Tirmidhi, it's mentioned, after the
obligatory prayers, this is a weak Hadith but
it also can be used for proof that
the Dua after the third prayer should be
done.
However, there is no record of the Prophet
ﷺ as a habit doing collective Dua with
the congregation after the third Salat.
So it's not a Sunnah to do that.
And to try to implement that would be
a leading one into doing an innovation or
something that was not done by the Prophet
ﷺ, which would be basically then tantamount to
bid'ah.
The question may be then that how come
we've always seen it done in Pakistan and
India.
The answer to that may be that as
Islam came to the Indian subcontinent from the
Middle East and from other places, maybe the
Imams wanted to teach the congregation how to
make Dua and they used to do it
collectively and then it basically just became a
habit.
But as for it being supported by the
Sunnah, there is no record of it from
the Sunnah.
That's why we don't do it collectively.
Individually, anybody wants to make Dua, this is
highly complimentary, complimented, they should do it, everyone
should do it, all times, any time, the
Dua can be done.
There's nothing wrong with that, Inshallah.
Today Inshallah I'm going to be talking about
Ibrahim ﷺ and Suratul Hajj.
One of the questions that comes up sometimes
is that we need to make sure or
we need to understand every single aspect of
Islam from a logical perspective.
We need to have a logical explanation for
everything.
And unfortunately this is not always possible.
And as worshippers of Allah ﷻ, those that
claim Ubudiyyah and to be the Abd of
Allah ﷻ, we need to understand that whatever
Allah ﷻ wants us to do or orders
us to do, we have to accept it,
we have to say, and we have to
obey it.
There are certain examples of that, for example,
when a person, he has gone to the
bathroom and after using the bathroom he cleanses
himself thoroughly, then why does he have to
come out and wash his face and hands
and feet, what's the purpose of that?
Impurity has been washed off by making istinja.
So why then do we have to wash
our body parts?
Quite simply because Allah ﷻ instructed us to
do so and without us doing that, the
Salat is not going to be accepted.
This is known as Amrit Ta'budiyyah, which
is that we do what Allah ﷻ tells
us to do because we are his slaves,
we are his worshippers, we obey him, whatever
he tells us, whether it makes sense or
not.
Similarly, a person, we're going through the month
of Ramadan right now, a person might think
that, you know, at the time of Iftar,
I still have a couple of hours of
energy left, I think I can drag on
my fasting for another couple of hours and
then I will get more reward from Allah
ﷻ.
No, that's not what Allah ﷻ wants from
you, whether you're, if you're in, for example,
in the winter time in Scandinavian countries, your
day is going to be about 6 or
7 hours only in terms of your fasting
or even more or less around that area,
7-8 hours.
So if a person feels, no, I can
stretch it for another 6 hours, you cannot
because this is against the command of Allah
ﷻ.
Once Allah ﷻ has told us, break the
fast at Maghrib time, then you basically break
the fast, there is no question of arguing
against Allah ﷻ and using our own logic
against what Allah ﷻ has commanded.
So we can have so many examples of
this.
Now if you look at the life of
Ibrahim ﷺ, each one of the commands that
Allah ﷻ gave him defied logic, okay.
Everything that he did defied logic.
Everything that Allah ﷻ commanded him to do,
a human could not understand it.
After longing for a child, Allah ﷻ blesses
him with a child in old age and
after a while Allah ﷻ tells him, last
night we recited it in Surah Saffat, slaughter
him, okay, where's the logic in that?
Allah tell me, I mean, why am I
supposed to slaughter my son that I've wanted
for so many years, I'm an old man,
maybe I'm not going to get another son
after this and you're telling me to slaughter
my son.
Ibrahim ﷺ could say that, right?
But he didn't.
He was set out to slaughter his son
and he was completely and utterly willing to
do it, both Ismail ﷺ and Ibrahim ﷺ
both willing to fulfill the command of Allah
ﷻ.
As the ayah says, فَلَمَّا أَسْلَمَا وَتَلَّهُ لِلْجَبِينَ
when they both submitted themselves, they both became
Muslims and then he laid him down face
front so that he could not look at
his face and he put the knife to
his neck but then Allah ﷻ sent down
a sheep to be sacrificed instead.
And then we look at the story prior
to that when Ismail is a newborn baby,
Allah ﷻ says go and put them in
the middle of the desert, okay?
وَادِنْ غَيْرِ ذِي زَرَعَ as Ibrahim ﷺ says
himself that I'm putting my Zuriya in this
valley which is غَيْرِ ذِي زَرَعَ which is
without any type of vegetation, no water, no
food, nothing but put the mother and child
there and you know, just do it.
Because Allah ﷻ wants you to do it,
He is commanding you to do it.
Again, Ibrahim ﷺ could object and say where
is the logic in that, where is the
understanding in that, I can't make head or
tails of it, I can't make any sense
of it but he didn't, he simply obeyed.
Again the building of the Kaaba in the
place which now had become inhabited but to
build the Kaaba in a place which only
had maybe a few hundred people living there
and to make the Baytullah about which Allah
ﷻ then commanded Ibrahim ﷺ to stand up
and make a Dhaan.
وَأَذِّنْ فِي النَّاسِ بِالْحَجِّ Okay?
How far is my voice going to reach,
oh Allah?
Okay?
I'm going to make a Dhaan, who's going
to hear it?
Allah ﷻ said no, just make the Dhaan.
يَأْتُوكَ رِجَالًا وَعَلَىٰ كُلِّ ضَامِرٍ يَأْتِينَ مِنْ كُلِّ
فَجٍّ عَمِيقٍ People are going to come walking,
riding on animals and nowadays on different modes
of transportation from far off corners of the
world which was what Allah ﷻ told him
is going to happen.
Again, logic dictated that I'm a human, how
far is my voice going to reach?
But he didn't object, he did what he
was commanded to do.
So this basically, all of these commands we
see, time after time, Allah ﷻ is telling
Ibrahim, he's fulfilling the command and that is
what Allah ﷻ has summarized in Surah Al
-Baqarah, وَإِذِ ابْتَلَىٰ إِبْرَاهِيمَ رَبُّهُ بِكَلِمَاتٍ فَأَتَمَّهُنَ When
Allah ﷻ tested Ibrahim ﷺ with many things,
he completed them.
And then it was said to him, قَالَ
إِنِّي جَاعِلُكَ لِلنَّاسِ إِمَامًا Allah ﷻ told him,
I'm making you an Imam for the people.
And that's why again and again in the
Qur'an, what does Allah ﷻ tell us?
اِتَّبِعُوا مِن لَّتَ إِبْرَاهِيمَ حَنِيفًا Follow the way
of Ibrahim ﷺ with full conviction and full
devotion, full concentration.
Don't waver.
Do what Allah ﷻ is telling you to
do.
Don't think about logic.
Islam is a very logical religion and there
are definitely wisdoms behind the things that Allah
ﷻ tells us to do.
But if we are to look for logic
in everything, then we will never find it.
And there will come a time maybe that
if something doesn't make sense to us, we
will just simply say, no, I'm not going
to practice Islam anymore because it doesn't make
sense to me.
And there are people that do that.
There is a person who actually left Islam
and he has a campaign going on to
stop people from fasting because it's damaging, according
to him.
It's damaging to the human body.
It's self-torture, it's self-mutilation and all
the rest of these logics that the person
has.
So, this is what happens when a person
tries to look for logic in everything.
So, as slaves, as Ibad of Allah ﷻ,
we have to understand this very, very clearly.
Let me just finish off by saying, what
is the word Abd anyway?
Abd, Ibadah, Ibadah is from the same word.
When you have the word Abd, it basically
means a person who is under the control
of his master.
This was what a slave was in the
days of pre-Islam and in the beginning
stages of Islam.
A slave was a person who was full
-time at the service of his master.
His master basically owned him.
Okay, his master owned him and he could
do with him whatever he wanted in terms
of taking work from him, selling him, buying
him and so on, giving him away, freeing
him.
This was what a slave actually was.
And when we say that I am doing
the Ibadah of Allah ﷻ, it's from that
same root letter.
I am the Abd of Allah ﷻ, that
basically means that I am submitting myself completely
to him and from the time I wake
up in the morning to the time I
go to sleep, I do exactly as he
tells me to do.
Okay, so this is what Ubudiyah actually is.
Being an Abd of Allah ﷻ truly is.
And when we do that, then the same
way that Ibrahim ﷺ was honoured and Allah
ﷻ gave him such respect in the Quran,
Allah ﷻ will give us that same respect
and He will love us and He will
reward us for fulfilling what He wants us
to do and being the true slaves of
Allah ﷻ.
I pray that Allah ﷻ gives us tawfiq
to understand and practice what has been said
and heard.