Note: The following transcript was generated using AI and may contain inaccuracies.
Praise be to God, Lord of the worlds.
And peace and blessings be upon the most beautiful of prophets and messengers. Our Prophet Muhammad and upon his family and all his companions. Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
To everybody who's tuning in to another episode of Aabidul Sabeen. It's been a while since I've done one of these car journeys, but I'm honoured to be joined by Ustad Abdul Ahad today. Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
JazakAllah khair for joining me, I know that you're only here for a very, very short visit. I really appreciate you agreeing to do a quick episode with me, that inshallah, we hope will bring some kind of benefit to the people. So right now we're in the middle of Sha'ban.
Sha'ban is a month that precedes Ramadan, and I think today is like the 13th of Sha'ban. So we have approximately just over two weeks remaining until we enter the blessed month of Ramadan. So what we're going to talk about today, inshallah, is the virtues of Ramadan, the blessings of Ramadan.
What is Ramadan even? And I think we can divide it into three sections, before Ramadan, during Ramadan, and then after Ramadan. So that's the kind of topic that we want to discuss today, inshallah. I suppose the first question I'll ask you, which is obviously a very important one considering the topic, is what exactly is Ramadan? Bismillah alhamdulillah wa salatu wa salamu ala Rasulullah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa mawala.
First of all, it's a pleasure again to be with you. JazakAllah khairan for facilitating this, and I hope it's going to be a benefit for all of us. I think it's befitting, first to say, to begin how our pious priests used to begin when it comes to the topic of Ramadan.
I mean, six months before Ramadan, they would start asking Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to allow them to reach it. So I sincerely ask Allah, that He allows us to reach the month of Ramadan, and likewise, He blesses Rajab and also the month of Sha'ban for us. Ramadan, as Qaladi mentioned, I believe he's mentioned in Surah Qurtubi, when Imam Qurtubi speaks about the ayat of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُتِّبَ عَلَيْكُمُ السِّيَامُ كَمَا كُتِّبَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ وَمَنْ عَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ O you who believe, fasting has been prescribed upon you, made compulsory upon you, so that you may, just like it was prescribed upon those who came before you, so you may attain God consciousness.
He mentioned something great, which is a beautiful benefit, where he says that Ramadan, when we look at the linguistic meaning of it, first of all is الكفر, to abstain, where it's mainly abstaining from one thing, which we can I think divide into two. So that one thing in general is شهوات, any general desires. The desires we can divide into two, we can say they are desires of food and drink, and then the second one is desires of sins generally, and the biggest of that sin, if you want to say, is intimacy in the day, basically.
So if we simplify it for the people, it's abstaining from all haram, number one, generally, but more importantly abstaining from the desires of the stomach and the private parts. Even on the خلال, for example, the man who's married to a woman, and of course food and drink which are خلال. Exactly, so if we summarize it, it's abstaining from desires, the desires which we divide into two, the desires of the stomach, food and drink, and the second desire is the desire of the private part.
The private part of course is خلال normally, if you fulfill yourself with your spouse, however, in the month of Ramadan, it's made prohibited to do so in, you know, the daylight period. So that's the first point is الكفر, to abstain, and it isn't just about abstaining from food and drink as we just mentioned. What's amazing is Imam Al-Qurtubi, he mentions and says it comes from the word رمض, Ramadan comes from the word رمض, which means to burn, in the linguistic meaning, also means to burn.
And I think it's Ibn Al-Qayyim, he mentions and says the reason why Ramadan, coming from the root word رمض, to burn is because the month of Ramadan, just like, I mean, when we think about burning, the month of Ramadan burns away the sins of the person who's sincere and who seeks forgiveness in that month. I mean, abstaining from these things that are mentioned and praying in the night prayers and the day not eating and drinking, etc. It's the process of cleansing one from sins, purifying one from sins.
Another way we can answer that question of what exactly is Ramadan after we've understood the linguistic meaning and also the shari' meaning, which is to abstain from food and drink along with desires in the daylight periods and also a means of cleansing and also a means of seeking forgiveness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. What is Ramadan to conclude as the ayah concluded? كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَوَةُ كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْرِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُوا That's what Ramadan is about. It's to attain and to seek and by the end of it to be someone who's attained God consciousness.
And Taqwa isn't necessarily to fear Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. I think the best translation would be to be God conscious, someone who is conscious of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and someone who stays away from the haram and stays away from... and doesn't come close to the boundaries of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So this is what Ramadan is all about.
It's about, you know, spiritual cleansing. It's about forgiveness. It's about a process of purification, process of learning to become God conscious.
And as a disclaimer, it's not, it's not, it's not about, you know, feeling hungry or necessarily feeling the suffering the poor people go through. That's not the aim of Ramadan. It's not the aim of Ramadan.
And it's, I think that's something which is spread amongst the general mass. That we fast during the month of Ramadan so we can feel how the poor people feel. That it's not, Wallahi it's not.
There's no hadith for that. There's no ayah for that. There's no athab of the pious priests.
Something I was told when I was younger. Were you told that when you were younger? Yeah, I was told that when I was younger. It's something that I think is easier to tell the non-Muslims because you feel like they can relate to you more.
Rather than telling them the actual reason which is to attain taqwa. And in reality, in these kind of situations in Islam, when Allah has told you the reason, it's not for us to make up our own reasons. Even though that might be a by-product.
It might be a by-product. That's not the reason it was prescribed upon us. Yeah, I always say, first of all, with regards to relating to non-Muslims.
We don't need to water down the religion necessarily, you know. But more importantly, I think to make people understand again, I always say to anyone that asks, even the non-Muslims, if anyone asks me generally, I would say that there's a difference between the ultimate goal of Ramadan and the possible effects or the possible, as you said, by-products, the possible remnants it might leave off. Some of those remnants it might leave off, those effects that it might leave off, the by-products are things like, you know, appreciation.
Things like appreciating food and drink. Yes, this is a by-product. When someone doesn't eat for daylight hours, especially in the West for a long period of time, you're going to be like, subhanAllah, this is such a, you know, it's something we should appreciate.
Likewise, a by-product is to fill the hand of the poor people. Likewise, another by-product or effect or remnant of Ramadan would be, because a lot of people say, oh, Ramadan has so many good health effects, health benefits, you know, it has all these, it cleanses your system. And, you know, it's something in the doctors, you know, saying cure for cancer and all of these things.
It's a by-product, it's a remnant, it's an effect of Ramadan. Likewise, the others, of course, your skin might start glowing, of course, etc, etc. But it's not the aim, it's not the aim.
And it's to get close to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, to rectify our situation with Allah. And it's also, I mean, it's an opportunity to seize and inshallah we'll speak about that as well, inshallah. You know, that's something that is actually really important to just drill down a little bit more, because now we're in the period before Ramadan.
And this issue of intention, because that also relates, you know, like these by-products, they can actually corrupt someone's intention, actually think I'm just going to do Ramadan because I want to be healthy and because I want my skin to glow or whatever else the other reasons are. Lose weight. Yeah, lose weight.
These kind of things, what it's going to result in is a person is going to zero out their reward with Allah. And they're actually going to go through the exact same process as the person who's maximizing his reward. From the outside, the two are doing the exact same actions.
But on the Day of Judgment, this one's going to be rewarded and this one isn't because they had no intention to please Allah. They had no intention to fulfill their obligation. And they had no intention to get closer to Allah through this action to worship.
And they made it a habit or something. And that's another thing that especially in my community, I've noticed that people in Ramadan will fast because it's just a culturally accepted thing to do. People who won't necessarily pray in the month of Ramadan, but because everyone's fasting and it's almost like if you're not fasting, someone's going to be like, how can you not fast? This kind of thing is not coming out of a fear of Allah, it's a fear of the people and what they're going to say.
And this is also something that someone now watching this video, I don't know when it's going to be edited and produced, but you have an opportunity to fix that. You have an opportunity before the month starts to change that intention. If you've fallen into this in the past, you have the opportunity for this month to change that intention and say, actually, I'm going to do this for the sake of Allah.
And even if you listen to this halfway through Ramadan, fix your intention now. InshaAllah, you can do it for the sake of Allah. It's vital.
It's definitely vital. As we know, the two pillars of the act of worship being accepted is Ikhlas and Mutabaat. As Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, لَإِنْ أَشْرَقْتَ لَا يَحْضَطَنَّ عَمَلُكُ وَلَا تَكُونَنَّ مِنَ الْخَاسِرِينَ If you commit shirk in your actions, then we will nullify these actions of yours.
مُمَّا أُمِنُوا اللَّهَ لِيَعْبُدُوا اللَّهُ مُخْلِصِينَ That would be, they were not commanded except to worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. وَالْحَالَ هُمْ مُخْلِصِينَ That would be, whilst they are ones who are making sincere the religion for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And many other verses of course that are evidence for that.
The second pillar being that would be following the message of salallahu alayhi wa sallam. As he salallahu alayhi wa sallam said, صَلُّوا كَمَا رَأِيْتُمُنِي وَصَلِّي And he prayed the prayer as you see me praying. And that's of course general, that's of course specific to the salah.
But it's general, you know, for everything else. This being, you know, following the message of salallahu alayhi wa sallam in the acts of worship we do. As he said, صَلُّوا كَمَا رَأِيْتُمُنِي وَصَلِّي And he prayed the prayer as you see me.
That's of course specific to the salah. But it's general as well. فَعَلَى كُلِّ حَالِ We must work hard on these two pillars.
And of course the one you mentioned was the first one. And a very amazing benefit that Sheikh Salih Muhammad Salih mentions in his explanation of لَحَدِيدْ إِنَّمَا الْعَمَالُ الْتَنْيَاٰتُ He says a beautiful statement. Very eloquent, he said He said عِبَادَاتُ أَهْلِ الْغَفْرَةِ عَادَاتُ وَعَادَاتُ أَهْلِ الْأَيْقَرَةِ أَيْقَرَا عِبَادَاتُ He said the acts of worship of the heedless people are actually acts which are just customary acts, normal acts of life.
And the normal acts of life, the customary acts of, you know, things in life for the people of knowledge and the people of consciousness. These are actually acts of worship for them. He gives an example because it's not easy to understand the statement in and within itself, right? He says the acts of worship for the people of heedlessness are acts of their customs, normal acts.
They're not going to be rewarded for it. The example he gave was if someone, you know, wants to do the acts of worship, for example, ibadah, like ghusl, for example, and this person, he's at swimming, okay? And what would have been right whilst he's in the swimming pool is to intend ghusl, right? If he intends ghusl whilst he's inside there, it would have done what? It would have uplifted his, you know, major impurity. So he says just because of the intention, this person being inside the swimming pool, even though he's trying to do ghusl, he's actually not doing it.
It's just the act of, you know, swimming for him. But the opposite as well. The person, his adah, his norm, his customary action, which is to go swimming, he's gone swimming.
Just because of his intention, his swimming has become an act of worship, which is ghusl. And he says the thing that differentiates between these two people is the intention and it's very vital because you mentioned that inshallah all the Muslims will be fasting this month. Some people's fasting won't be accepted just because of their intention, because they didn't intend.
They intended a family gathering instead. They intended family time. They intended him to lose weight.
They intended to feel the, you know, the suffering of the poor and all of these other intentions that one might have. And I think the most common one for a lot of brothers and sisters is, you know, family time. When it's iftar time, you know, I'm not necessarily going to sit around with family if I'm not fasting as well.
So I'm just going to fast because my family are fasting, because my parents have told me to fast. And I've always, I've just fasted my whole life. It's just been a thing.
This is not enough. So inshallah, let's, you know, start it off with ourselves, let's fix our intentions right from the beginning. And if, you know, brothers and sisters are watching this now, then let's hope they can change their intention now and also seek forgiveness from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for that little impiety that went by us all inshallah.
Definitely inshallah. That statement that you started off with where you're told by the Salaf as-Saleh who used to actually make dua to Allah six months prior to the month of Ramadan for Allah to allow them to reach it. There's something in that that shows that they understood the value of this month.
And this again, the second thing I like to talk about, about when we talk about before the month of Ramadan, understanding that this isn't to be seen or it shouldn't just be seen as a month where I have to do this again. And I have to go through this hardship. I'm not going to be allowed to eat or drink.
This is a month of opportunity. It's a month of forgiveness. It's a month where the doors of Jannah are open and the doors of Jahannam are closed.
This is an opportunity for someone who maybe hasn't been close to Allah. Maybe they're watching this video and they haven't been that close to Allah throughout their life. How many people have we seen that change their life in the month of Ramadan? People who are not that close to Allah, but they start practicing in the month of Ramadan and it makes them into, from the best of the Muslims.
It's an opportunity for you to fix your relationship with Allah and to get close to Him and to seek His forgiveness for everything that's come from before. 100%. You know, it's amazing.
When you see our, you know, the people of the past, when you hear about the people of the past and everything, when you really look into their life, you just think, how was it actually possible? You know, they valued Ramadan so much that they would put their health on the line for Ramadan. There is some beautiful athar, Ahnaf ibn Qais, who was, I mean, it's disputed if he was a companion or a sahabi. I think he died in the year 72.
Sorry, a companion or a tabi'in. He died in the year 72 or something like that. He lived at the time of the Prophet ﷺ, definitely lived at the time of the Prophet ﷺ, but if he saw a prophet and etc., if he met him, it's disputed.
So he's either kibar al-tabi'in, so he's from the major tabi'in or from the sahabi. Ala kulli khal, he was asked, because he got to a really late age in his life, he became really old, and he likewise started getting a bit sick. So he was asked, I think it's mentioned in Sifatul Safwa, he was asked, you know, Ramadan is coming, but you're becoming old, you're becoming really old in age, you're becoming weak as well.
All Ramadan is going to do will make you weaker. But he said something amazing. He was someone known to fast a lot as well.
He said, الصبر على طاعة الله أهوى إليا من الصبر على عذابه And being patient upon the obedience of Allah to me is easier than being patient upon His punishment on the Day of Resurrection. And he's weak, he can't really fast that much. He's probably really old.
He has an excuse to not fast. مَن كَانَ مَرِيضًا وَعَلَى سَفَرٍ فَعِدَّتُ مِنْ أَيَامِ الْوَخَانِ So he had an excuse, but still he said, this is patience. I know I'm old, you know.
Likewise, our pious predecessors, they would prepare for the month of Ramadan before by even saying good things to one another. And we should also implement this, you know, عَمْرِمْ الْخَطَابَ بِاللَّهُ عَنْهُ He used to say, مَرْحَبًا بِرَمَضَانِ مَرْحَبًا بِمُطَهِّرِ ذُنُوبِنَا وَبِمُطَهِّرِنَا مِنَ الْذُنُوبِ And he welcomed Ramadan, welcomed Ramadan, the purifier of our sins. And he would become happy.
عَلِي رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ He used to say, مَنْ كَانَ هَمُّهُ مَا يَدْخُلُ جَوْفَهُ كَانَ قِيمَتُهُ مَا يُخْرِجُ مِنْهُ Whomsoever in the month of Ramadan, his ultimate aim, his ultimate desire, his ultimate, what he looks forward to, is what goes past his throat when he's breaking his fast. Then his value is just going to be what comes out of his backside. Meaning his feces.
I mean, they would see it as it's not about food and drink. It's more of Ramadan is an opportunity. They would look forward to it.
They would wait for Ramadan to come and beg Allah to allow them to reach it, etc. And you know what's enough for us? What's enough for us to really understand before we enter this month of Ramadan is that we really, really, really say to ourselves, I thank you Allah for giving us this opportunity the moment it comes. It should be from the slogans of Islam that when it comes, we are all happy.
We're all excited. We're all ecstatic when it comes to this opportunity, this fursa. وَإِذَا لَمْ تَنتَيْزْ مِنَ الْفُرْسَةِ يَنِي صَارَتُ غُسًّا إِذَا لَمْ تَنتَيْزْ مِنَ الْفُرَصِ صَارَتُ غُسًّا When someone doesn't make the most of opportunity, then it just becomes very bitter.
Oh, it went. You know what's enough for us to understand is when we ponder upon the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and His kindness. You know, when we ponder upon the year and just generally time, our time is short on this earth.
Yeah. You know, the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said أَعْمَارُ أُمَّتِي فَبَيْنَ السِّبْتِينَ وَالسَّبِعِينَ The average lifespan of my ummah is between 60 and 70. That's very short.
That's history as well. It's shorter than what we actually think it is. The messenger sallallahu alaihi wasallam, the best man to walk the face of this earth, he died at the age of 63.
Anyone who goes past 63 generally, فَبِهَا وَالنِّعْمَةِ It's something hidden within itself, a blessing. But I realized to myself, half of our life, I believe, sorry, a third of our life, we're probably sleeping. And then when we cut up the time we're at work and you know, seeking rizq, it's probably another third.
Probably eight hours of the day. And eight hours you're sleeping is all. You probably have maybe five hours of the day remaining per day.
And eight plus eight is 16. Say another eight in fact. Two, three hours you're probably eating.
You're probably traveling as well. Likewise, how many times are you using the toilet, even speaking to your friends, catching up with family. You probably have a worship within two hours of the day remaining.
Now, you have two hours of the day remaining. Most people, the Muslims, أكثرهم لا يعلمون أكثرهم لا يعقلون Most of the people, they're not on the straight path. Most of the people, they're not ones that are intellectual.
They're not smart. They're not going to make the most of those two hours. They're going to be going out partying.
They're going to be going out with their friends. They're going to be watching TV. They're going to be, you know, going to cafe shops, etc.
Which I'm not saying it's bad to go cafe shops. I'm not saying it's bad to necessarily perhaps, you know, spend time relaxing. ساعة و ساعة ساعة و ساعة.
No, I'm saying. But, I mean, most people are not going to calculate their time like this. And be like, I only have this much.
So what does Allah do? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, He gave certain virtue to certain hours of the day over other hours, such as the last day of the night. He gave certain acts of worship virtue so you can reap what you couldn't do, such as the person who prays, you know, the Fajr and the Isha Salah, it's as if he prayed half of the night. كما قال النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم Allah gives certain days of the week, virtue over other days of the week.
The Fajr and Isha prayers are in congregation. Congregation, نعم. Fajr and Isha in congregation.
It's as if he's prayed half the night or he'll sleep the whole night or one of those. And another one is, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, He gave certain virtue like يوم عاشورة You know, virtue like تكفير السيئات To have your sins forgiven for the year to come. Likewise, يوم عرفة The dua of يوم عرفة And it's certain days that are given virtue so you can reap the fruits of those days because you can't do the acts of worship.
Allah gives certain months, virtue over certain months. Allah said, إِنَّ عِدَّ التَّشْغُورِ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ أِثْمَا عَشْرَ شَهْرًا فِي كِتَابِ اللَّهِ يُوْمَ خَلَقَ السَّمَوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضُ وَمِنْهَا أَرْضَعَةٌ ذُهُولٌ There's four months that are given virtue. They're sacred months.
The acts you do on those are, Inshallah, multiplied. Likewise, sins you do on those days are worse, of course. So anyway, Why am I mentioning this? First 10 days of Dhul Hijjah as well.
First 10 days of Dhul Hijjah, exactly. These are great opportunities. Likewise, لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ خَيْرٌ مِنْ أَلْفِ شَهْرٍ A thousand months is equivalent to, I think around 83 point something or 84 point something years.
You know, if you calculate it, that every single year, and in times that by, if you're given 60 years, which is the average lifespan, 60 years you've got لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ Times that by, 83 years of Qiyam, your praying, of likewise, Dua you might be making, Quran you're reciting, everything. So, The point I'm trying to get to here is, Enough for us to understand the value of Ramadan, before we enter it, for us to be happy, we should celebrate. When I say celebrate, I mean from our hearts, we should be happy, and we should thank Allah, show gratitude that this blessed month is here.
Inshallah, may Allah allow us to reach it when it comes. Enough for us is, that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, from His mercy, He's allowed us a specific month, which is the month of Ramadan, to reap fruits that we would not have reaped, in our lifespan, if we had tried. Enough is لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ Enough is having your sins forgiven, and burning of your sins, if you fast with the correct intention, the correct way, everything else.
Allah, it's a blessing of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and it's one from His kindness, and the pious priests would be happy about it. Even the Prophet ﷺ, when that month would come close, he would say, يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسِ قَدَ جَاءَكُمْ رَمَضَانٍ شَهَرٌ مُبَارَكٌ A blessed month has come to you, O people. كَتَبَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامِ Allah has made fasting compulsory upon you.
فِيهِ لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ خَيْرٌ مِّنْ أَلْفِ شَهْرٍ Inside it is the night of decree. It's better than a thousand nights, etc. A thousand months, sorry.
So, على كلٍّ These are how our pious priests were. They would look forward to it. They would yearn for it.
They would understand that being patient upon not eating and drinking is more better for them and easier for them to be patient upon the punishment of Allah. They would get happy. They would say, Oh Ramadan, welcome.
You know, the purifier of our sins. They would be happy about it. So it's upon us all as well, Inshallah.
As long as Allah allows us to reach it. But let's count down. Let's really be excited about this month.
Let's not be like, Oh, I have to stay away from eating and drinking. I can't go to restaurants. I can't do this.
I can't do that. Let's look forward to it, man. And may Allah make us reach it as well.
It's an indication of someone's heart. And this is really for us to reflect over our hearts. It's an indication of the position of someone's heart of how they feel about Ramadan when it's approaching.
Is it as the Salaf as-Saleh would, looking forward to it, looking at it as an opportunity? Or is it as many of us do, unfortunately, looking at it as, I have to do this, I have to go through this again. I can't wait for it to be over so I can just carry on living my life. And that indication of the heart, this is the opportunity to change that.
If you feel like you've got something inside your heart, where you're thinking, How can certain people feel that way about Ramadan and I can't? This is the month to change it. This is actually the perfect opportunity to change it. So within this now, the last thing from my side, and if you have anything more to add on to this period of before Ramadan, then you're more than welcome to.
The last thing from my side is after recognizing that this is such an opportunity, after, if Allah allows you to reach it, after thanking him and being grateful for that, it's now about what can I do before Ramadan starts to make the most of it? So, you know, some people say about having a planner in place or having goals and targets and objectives. I want to read this much of the Qur'an. I want to complete the Qur'an, which means every day I have to do this.
And I'm going to split that after the five sunnah words. I'm going to do this kind of stuff. What are your thoughts on, you know, having this kind of approach to it, inshallah? Yeah, it's good.
It's good. During the month of Ramadan, we should all have goals. We should all have aims.
We should, of course, base those aims upon the ultimate aim. So the ultimate aim is to attain God consciousness, to get closer to Allah. Anything that you believe will help you in the boundaries of the Sharia, attain that ultimate aim, you can have small means to reach those.
And you can, inshallah, it's not a problem. You can definitely do it. And I would definitely advise one to start preparing for Ramadan by actually thinking, what do I want to achieve? If I don't know how to read the Qur'an, let me learn how to read the Qur'an before that month comes, so I can practice in the month of Ramadan.
If I've never finished the Qur'an before, let me start making a schedule. Let me start making plans. How can I finish the Qur'an by reading it this month? Likewise, have a plan on how much istighfar you want to do every single day.
Plan it out. Certain times, have a schedule. We really, really, really, really need to focus on getting rid of these sins that I've been doing.
This opportunity has come. How can I cleanse myself? How can I... It should be a month of rectification. I know there's an ayah, which I would say that, you know, inshallah, we should all... When it comes to Ramadan, honestly, it's the ayah, when I read, I say to myself, this should be our slogan for Ramadan, where we should all kind of have on our head every single day.
Of course, not ta'abudan, not as an act of worship, but just as a means of like, this is Ramadan. This is what Ramadan is all about, and it's going to be a motivation, inshallah, for personally, it's my slogan. It's my main title for the month of Ramadan, which is And... It's a rhetorical question.
Are they not going to seek repentance from Allah? Are they not going to seek forgiveness from Him? When Allah is the most merciful and the most forgiving. All forgiving, all merciful. What's straight after that? ... Allah is calling you to Jannah, forgiveness.
And in the month of Ramadan, when we've spoken about everything, it burns one's sins away, it cleanses, it purifies. And all of these things, it should be like, You're not going to seek repentance from Allah now? You're not going to seek forgiveness from Him? ... Whilst He's the most forgiving, most merciful. Are you not going to? I mean, that is the ayah, which I really think anyone who's thinking about since they've died, if they've committed zina, they've drunk alcohol, they don't pray salah, they've committed shirk, whatever it is, they say to themselves, what's the point of me fasting? What's the point of me changing my life? What's the point of this? Allah is not forgiving me.
Allah is going to punish me. I don't have any hope. Now with Ramadan coming, the ayah has brought my emphasis.
Ramadan has come, the day of Qadr has come, the month of the Qur'an was sent down, all of these things, are you not going to seek forgiveness? And if you're not, then when are you going to? You're right, I mean, there's a lot of hope for Allah, that's right. Definitely without Jannah. That's personally my ayah for the month.
Of course, not Ta'abud, not as an act of worship or anything like that, but just it's, you know, there's other verses which also really, you know, not necessarily support it, but they accommodate for it very well. Allah said, Allah wants to forgive you. You know, that's what He wants.
He doesn't want you to be punished. He wants to forgive you. You just need to turn to Him.
There's no better month other than this month. So this month, inshallah, we have an intention to, you know, change our lives and rectify our situations. Everyone's struggling.
Everyone's suffering inside, spiritually. Everyone's going through things in their life. We all need this rectification.
We need to turn back to Allah. And our happiness that we need lies inside Allah and to remember Him. I think that ayah for me is the ayah of the month, inshallah.
Let's talk now about the next section, which is during the month of Ramadan. We've spoken extensively about what to do before the month of Ramadan, how to approach it, mindset in terms of processes. What now in terms of like, now the person has reached the month of Ramadan, we ask Allah to allow us to reach it.
What's your thoughts on this now? In the month of Ramadan, first thing, first thing, first thing I'll say, before anything else, is what we mentioned before. We'll make that our base. We'll make that our foundation during Ramadan.
I have to work around attaining this, which is how can I become God-conscious? How can I get my sins forgiven? How can I do iqla'a minal dhuloob? Completely fall, I mean, cancel out and give up sins that I do. This should be the number one thing. And of course, the messenger salallahu alayhi wa sallam, he taught us that.
And one amazing hadith the messenger salallahu alayhi wa sallam said was, مَلَّمْ يَدْعَ قَوْلَ الزُّورِ وَالْعَمَلَ بِهِ وَالْجَهْلَ Whosoever does not leave off, you know, speech that isn't good, backbiting and singing and music, likewise slandering people and speech that isn't beneficial and acting upon sins, and likewise ignorance and sins, basically. فَلَيْسَ لِلَّهِ حَاجَةٌ أَن يَدَعَ طَعَامَهُ وَشَرَامَهُ Then there's no need. Allah doesn't need this person to leave off his drink and his food and drink.
He's not going to leave off these sins and backbiting and all these other things. Allah doesn't need you to leave off your food and drink, okay? Then he continues and says, وَرُوبَّ صَائِمٍ And it's possible. Perhaps someone who's fasted, he's completed his fast in terms of eating and drinking, who hasn't achieved anything from his fast except الجوع والعطش Very scared.
What is this hadith saying? The person he's abstained, mashallah, from food and drink, he's hungry, he's thirsty, no problem. Everyone gets that. But the prophet said, إِلَّا الجُوعَ والعطش Except hunger and thirst, meaning everyone will get that.
But he hasn't left off sins. He hasn't left off backbiting, slandering, just talking for no reason as well. He hasn't left this off.
And likewise, the message of sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, the same hadith he ends up and says, وَرُوبَّ قَائِمٍ And it's possible that someone, he's prayed the night prayer, all 29, 30 days or so in the month of Ramadan, and he did not achieve anything whatsoever from his night prayer, except إِلَّا السَّهْرَ وَالتَّعْب Except just staying up at night and being tired and fatigued. So على كل حال, the first thing I would definitely say is that we should focus upon leaving sins, leaving off sins. You must leave off sins, wherever sin they are, wherever sin is, wherever sins they are, wherever sin is.
If it means backbiting, slandering, talking about people that are not there, likewise, zina, girlfriend, boyfriend, all of these haram, listening to music, every type of haram that one is shackled, locked up in these shackles of, and it's drowning him, he must leave it off. And wallahi, the person's salvation in the dunya and the hereafter is in leaving off sins. And when we leave off sins, when we are God conscious, when we fear Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, we really get, we attain the happiness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
More importantly, there's a beautiful statement in Raqeeba, how Allah says, He says, Whomsoever is shy, becomes shy in the dunya, of being disobedient to Allah, Allah becomes shy to punish him on the Day of Resurrection. We need to be shy in this month. You are, you have these whispers, you have these whispers of shaitan coming to you saying, you know, do this sin, go to this person and do this, listen to this music, be shy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, be shy of Allah, and inshallah Allah will be shy to punish you on the Day of Resurrection.
Of course, it's in the sifatullah, it's characteristics to be shy, in a way that befits him, which is suitable for him, etc. And it's actually in line with the hadith, the message of salallahu alayhi wa sallam, when it says, Al-muhim, number one, is al-iqla'a min al-dhulub, to stay away from sins, to cut off sins, etc. The second thing I would say is, that we should focus on, in the month of Ramadan, is the recitation of the Qur'an, the recitation of the Qur'an, and our pious predecessors, when we look at them, the month of Ramadan was the month of the Qur'an, and in the month of Ramadan, in which the Qur'an was sent down, from Allah to the Lord of the worlds, sorry, to the Lord of the worlds, from where it stayed, and then it came back afterwards.
recitation of the Qur'an, if we look at our pious predecessors, someone like Muhammad bin Ismail Al-Bukhari, who died in 250 something, you know, the author of Sahih Bukhari, people think he was just about hadith, hadith. No, he used to finish the Qur'an, every single day in the month of Ramadan, every day. You know the hadith of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, where, you know, they say that one shouldn't finish the Qur'an more than, you know, every three days.
People say, oh, but why would our pious predecessors do it? That's outside of Ramadan. In the month of Ramadan, it's different, because it has a special virtue. Now, that's not it.
Muhammad bin Ismail Al-Bukhari, he, after he prays Taraweeh, would go home, continue praying Qiyam in the night, and finish the Qur'an every three nights, in Qiyam alone. Qur'an. Sufyan Ibn Sa'id III, who died in 161, he used to be an Abbad, constant worship of Allah, used to worship Allah, worship Allah, fasting, and he ate Nafl fast, the like wise Nafl, Sunnah, Rawatib, Sarawat, etc.
He says when the month of Ramadan would come, he wouldn't do anything else, other than reciting the book of Allah SWT. Al-Rabee' Ibn Sulaiman, he's a student of Imam Al-Shafi'i, he says Imam Al-Shafi'i, he used to finish the Qur'an 60 times in the month of Ramadan. Six zero.
Twice a day. When I read these kind of things, I say, how is that even possible? You know, Ustadh Uthman, actually asked the exact same question to Shaykh Salih Ibn Abdullah Ibn Hamad Al-Usaimi, and he said, Shaykh, when you hear these narrations, how is that even possible? You know the time it takes to finish the Qur'an? He says, I've tried it. I don't know how it's possible to do it twice a day, 60 times a month.
He said, you're looking at Imam Al-Shafi'i through your lens. You're looking at him through your lens. So sometimes when we hear this, we think, of course, they had more barakah in their time because of the way they were and the people they were.
SubhanAllah. It's amazing, Wallahi. It's honestly amazing.
They were in a completely different realm. Another example is Walid Ibn Abdul Malik. He would normally finish the Qur'an every three days.
That was his norm. In the month of Ramadan, he would finish the Qur'an 17 times. So that's approximately every two days.
Approximately. There's many other examples. Qitadat al-Muda'a, he would leave off everything else and just teach the Qur'an in the month of Ramadan and do nothing else.
In the month of Ramadan, he would make it the month in which he just teaches the Qur'an. Saeed ibn Jubair, likewise, who's from the Mufassirun of the Taliban, who died in 1995, he would finish the Qur'an every two days. So ala kulli hal, second point I really say is al-iqbalu ala qiraat al-Qur'an A lot of people might ask themselves, is it better to recite a small portion in the month of Ramadan, tadabbur, and ponder over it, or is it just better to read with no tadabbur? Ulama, they mention and say, usually, kitab al-anzalnahu ilayh al-mubarakun miyaddabbaru ayatihi He sent down his blessed book upon you, so you may ponder upon its verses, act upon it, etc.
Ponder upon it, learn the meanings, etc. But in the month of Ramadan, khatma, khatma, khatma. Just focus upon reading the Qur'an and gaining the reward.
And one letter, it turns by ten, etc. And you don't need to go to the virtues of reciting the Qur'an, of course. The second most important thing I'll say is al-iqbalu ala qiraat al-Qur'an, read the Qur'an.
Try to finish it once at minimum. And when I say once at minimum, I mean the general mass. You're working a nine to five.
I'm not talking about someone who's taking time off, etc. You should be doing much more now, you know. And someone who can already read the Qur'an, it's actually very practical.
I don't know, like, what you think about that, but if I'm honest, like someone who can read the Qur'an fluently, he should be able to read one just in no less than 30 minutes. Yeah, I would say, because I think your level may be a bit higher than most, but I would say as someone who is from the general mass, I would say you're looking at 45 minutes of an hour. But even then, even then, I'm being just, but even then, even then, because remember, when you read the Qur'an, you've memorized the Qur'an.
When you memorized it, it's much easier and quicker, right? I'm talking about someone who tries to memorize the Juz. Let's say 45 minutes. Yeah, 45 minutes, but even then, that's easy to make that time, right? Honestly, if someone cannot read 45 minutes of the Qur'an, without being judged for, I don't like to judge people or anything like that, but they get even every day, the month of Ramadan.
Yeah, just for 30 days, I mean, for the 29th day. Yeah, exactly, for every day, for 30 days of the month, in the month of Ramadan, you read the Qur'an, you sit down, so much reward, you're fasting, and everything else. When will you actually do it? It's a question we should all ask ourselves.
When is it? Are you going to do it when you retire? You know, when someone can just make excuses, you know, within the time they're in, and when someone gets to 60, 70, and they're retired, the 45 minutes, Not only that, but their heart now is no longer able to do that, because for so long, you've put it off, that your heart now, Allah is not going to be, Now your heart is not able to do that, even though you thought when you were 20, when I'm 40, when I'm 50, I'll do it. Now that you actually put it, your heart has become so corrupt, because you haven't done it for 30 years, that you can't even do it. So that's a scary thought.
So I definitely say the recitation of the Quran, make a schedule, you know, recite with your family. You know, if you have children, come together, recite together. You know, Jibreel alaihi salam comes to the message, it's the only month that Jibreel alaihi salam comes to the message of salallahu alaihi wa sallam, for the entire month, and they would, you know, read together, and they would finish, do khatmah together.
So if it means, you know, your family, your wife, your brother, your sister, or someone, or even a, you know, a friend or whatever, try to read together possibly as well. But Quran, Quran, Quran, Quran, Quran. So can I say that those days? No, I think it was him or another, or someone else, he says, when the month, إذا دخل رمضان فإنما هو قراءة القرآن وإطعام الطعام This month is about nothing else, and reciting Quran.
Nothing else. It's better for you to recite the Quran in that month than praying sunnah sarawah. It's better for you that month to do, of course, other things that are compulsory, like being obedient to your parents, helping your parents in the kitchen, your mother, etc.
That's, of course, compulsory anyway, if you request, but I'm talking about sunnah acts. Other things you could be doing, it's better for you to recite the Quran in that month. So, you know, there's a very, very profound hadith when it comes to, you know, reciting Quran or some stuff, which is very, very profound.
Whenever I hear it, I say, wow, subhanAllah, because the Prophet, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, he was questioned, he was asked by an Arab Bedouin, an Arab Bedouin, he was asked, أي صائم أعظم وأجر عين الله Who is, which fasting person has the most reward in the sight of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? And the reply was not, the person who stays away from the most sins, the person who prays the most sunnah salawat, it wasn't the person who gives the most amount of wealth or food to the poor. He said, أكثرهم عند الله ذكرى Those who are the most, in terms of the remembrance of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, the best remembrance is the recitation of the Qur'an, the best remembrance of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, subhanAllah, alhamdulillah, wa alhamdulillah, la ilaha illallah, etc. The best is the recitation, the best dhikr is the recitation of the Qur'an.
Now look at this then, this is why our pious priests, our pious priests, they don't do things for their own sake, they see that the best of those who fast are the best in the remembrance of Allah, the best of remembrance is the recitation of the Qur'an. So now I want to be the best in my fast, so I'll do the best type of remembrance, which is recitation of the Qur'an. These who teach hadith, they will stop, to teach fiqh, they will stop, just recite the Qur'an and they will teach the Qur'an, nothing else.
So, to conclude with the second thing that we should focus on in the month of Ramadan is that we really open that book that has been on our shelves and it's got dust upon it, and you know, recite it, recite it, recite it, and you know what's amazing, some brothers and sisters might be thinking, what if I don't even understand the Qur'an? So that's a very good question. Imam Ahmed, rahimahullah ta'ala, you know, he never answered the question, but an incident which happened to him, answered the question of course. Some of us might be thinking, reciting the Qur'an, I don't understand it.
Am I really going to benefit? Am I really going to get closer to Allah by that? Imam Ahmed, rahimahullah ta'ala, he says he had a dream, he had a dream, and in his dream, he says, I saw Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Of course, the seeing of Allah in the dream, which is a different dream, but even those who say you can't see Allah, you know, you don't see Allah in his physical form. That's why he was asked, what did Allah look like in that dream? And he replied, Noor, I just saw Noor.
He never said, I saw a specific face, I saw anything like eyes or nose, nothing like that, he just said Noor, Noor, just Noor, that's it. He says, I asked Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, which act can I do to get closer to the most of Allah? Look, he's saying something specific. Of course, the general answer would be tawheed, right? And don't commit shirk with me and worship me alone.
But he wants a specific act of worship. Fasting, zakah, praying, which act of worship of Allah can I get close to? And he says, my Lord replied to me and says, by reciting my book. He never stopped there.
He asked and said, Oh Allah, shall I recite your book with understanding or no understanding? He says, my Lord replied and said, whichever one you do, shirk, and with either, whichever one you do, you get closer to him. And subhanallah, we've done tajjid, we've actually experimented in this, right? When we, a lot of us don't know the Quran, when we ask brothers and sisters, we don't know the meaning of the Quran, even ourselves. But when we're young and we don't understand the meaning of the Quran, we still have this feeling.
It's true. It's just something. Even until now, there's a verse you actually don't know the deep rooted meaning of it.
You don't know the translation of some certain verses. And you just feel this tranquility, you feel this, you just feel something. There's some people who enter the religion because they hear the Quran, they start crying, it does something to the heart, they don't understand language, they've never heard anything about Islam.
What is this? 100%, without a doubt. So, I would definitely say to conclude that second point, inshallah, is to recite the book of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. My brothers and sisters, even if you don't know the meaning of the Quran, just read.
So there's also something else I want to add on to the second point, inshallah, because I want to link it back to the goal of Ramadan, which we mentioned that all the while, throughout the month, we want to be asking ourselves the question, are we getting that thing called taqwa, that we've told, this is the purpose of this month. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, So he basically said that taqwa is in the heart. Now this issue of reciting of Quran, someone might ask, like you just mentioned now, but I've actually got a story that I was thinking about, that some of the people of knowledge narrate.
Someone might ask that, isn't it better for me to actually do it with reflection, just like you asked us now, instead of just reading it without understanding anything. It's actually a story that some of the people of knowledge narrate, and they say that there was a boy, and he had a father, and he was very obedient to his father. And his father asked him to go to a well, and to get some water from a bucket.
And the bucket was excessively muddy, very, very dirty. So of course, being the obedient child he was, he said, okay, let me go to the well, get in the water, and bring it back to my father like you requested. He'd go there, fill up the bucket with water, come back.
As he's walking back, he notices that the bucket has holes in it, and the water is just coming out, and out, and out, and out, to the point where he returns to his father, and there's no water left in it. And his father looks at it and says, do it again. So he goes back to the well, fills up the bucket of water.
As he's walking back, he's trying to hold with his hands, trying to hold the water in, because you can see that it's got holes in the bucket, and it's just falling out, falling out, falling out. He came back to his father and said, do it again. He did it for the third time, came back, same thing happened, water's just falling out of these holes, came back, and the father said, what do you notice? He said, I don't know what I'm doing, I'm just going to the well, I'm filling up water.
As I'm walking back, the water's just falling out, and out, and out, and I've come back with nothing. He said, look at the state of the bucket. It was excessively muddy before, and now it's clean.
So sometimes you don't know the impact that it's having on your heart. You might think that this is not having any impact, because I'm not understanding it, I'm just reading, I'm seeing, but it's actually having a profound impact on your heart. It is 100%.
It's a spiritual cleansing. The Qur'an is, وَكَذَٰلِكَ وَحِلِنَا إِذَكَ رُوحٍ مِّنْ أَمْرِنَا You know, it's the spirit. It's not just mere words on a piece of paper.
It's not just mere words, mere letters, mere harakat, on a piece of paper. Rather, it's something of a Qur'an, something which is, and it's the only thing which is not created, which is amongst us. The only thing which is not created, which is in the creation.
And when you put that together, that second point with your first point, you can notice how now, we're starting to build a person, and the Muslims starting to realize that actually this taqwa, yes, this is a month, I mean, you should be achieving it all months round, but this is such an opportunity to achieve it, because as your heart is getting stronger, it allows you to stay away from sins more. And as you're feeding your stomach less, because actually, profoundly enough, the more you eat, it has an impact on your sins. The more you fulfill your desires in the stomach, the more sins you're going to have desires for, and wanting to.
Actually withholding that in this month actually makes it easier, amongst many other things in this month, to stay away from sins. And as you're reading the Qur'an, your heart's getting stronger, it's getting cleaner, it's getting purer, to the point that you're starting to refrain from sins easier and easier and easier, and you come out of the other side a completely new Muslim. Like you might think, and some people think that I'm never going to be like this, I'm never going to be from the best of Muslims, I'm never going to be able to achieve it.
But don't think like that. You actually have an opportunity here to make the most of Ramadan, and you can come out of there completely like, you know, being able to do things that you never thought you could. The third thing that you're going to mention in the month of Ramadan.
So what was the first one? The first one is trying to stay away from sins. Staying away from sins. The second one is to increase the recitation of the Qur'an.
The third thing is it's the month of Dua. And you know Dua, when we ponder upon it, it's something like no other. How many times have we been in positions where we're completely helpless? When I say helpless, we actually don't have means, you know, and we make Dua to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is taking us out of a specific situation.
Dua is a weapon of the believer. Dua is that which we turn to when, always, but more importantly, when there's no hope. And more importantly, the month of Ramadan, I say because, you know, there's a fa'idah, jameela, jameela jittan.
I really wish people understand this. Okay, it might be a bit of Arabic, etc. But if we understand it, plus the month of Ramadan, Inshallah, we can understand the proper, real, real value of Dua in this month.
You know the ayat of Siyam, in Surah Al-Baqarah, يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ أَمْرُوا كُنتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامُ كَمَا كُنتِبَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ بِالْقَوْلِكُمْ لَعَلَكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ أَيَّامًا مَعَجُودًا وَمَنْ كَانَ بِكُمْ مَرِئًا وَعَلَى سَفِرِكُمْ لَعِدَّتُكُمْ أَيَّامًا مُحَمَّدًا When we continue, continue, وَإِذَا سَأَلَكَ عِبَادٍ عَنِّي فَإِنِّي قَلِمْ When we get to that verse, the next verse is وَإِذَا سَأَلَكَ عِبَادٍ عَنِّي فَإِنِّي قَلِمْ up to that verse, before we got to that verse, the verses before it were talking about fiqh matters pertaining to Ramadan. If you miss one day, then you have to do the other day. If not, feed this many people.
If not, then you need to, you know, free this many slaves, etc. And these two fiqh rulings pertaining to Ramadan. Are you with me? Now Allah suddenly moves to the month of Ramadan.
And when you look at the siyaq, the context of the verses, tomorrow is the month of Ramadan. And the proof for that is the verse after this verse is continued by وَحِلَّ لَكُمْ لَيْلَةُ الصِّيَامِ الرَّفَةُ إِلَىٰ نِسَائِكُمْ وَنَّ الْإِبَاسُ لَكُمْ أَنْتُمْ لِبَاسُ لَنْعَلَكُمْ This verse is specifically connected to the month of Ramadan because the verses before it and after it are talking about the month of Ramadan. But from the siyaq, from the angle of the context, it is talking about the month of Ramadan.
But it gets even better. You know, when you analyze this, I think it is Imam Qurtub al-Munkathir, one of them, when they're speaking, and I remember my sheikh, when he was giving a tafsir of this, I think it was in 2016 or something in Masjid Dar al-Saraf, which is Muhammad. He taught tafsir maybe six times in that masjid.
When he was going through this verse, until today, it's the verse that I benefited the most from. He said something amazing and he took it from either Imam Qurtub al-Munkathir or I think Imam Qurtub al-Munkathir, one of the tafsirs. He said when we look at this verse, look at the organization of the verse, Allah said وَإِذَا سَأَلَكَ عِبَادِي عَنِّي When My servants ask about Me to you, O Muhammad فَإِنِّي قَرِيبُ Then indeed, I am close.
Now, look, what's the beginning? When My servants ask you about this, then this, right? Yeah. There's other places in the Quran where the exact same, I think maybe 10 places, the exact same type of construction of the sentence, but Allah doesn't say then this. Listen to the formation of these ayat.
وَيَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الْمَحِيطِ قُلْ هُوَ أَذَنُ وَيَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الْيَتَامَةِ قُلْ إِصْلَاحُ اللَّهُ وَيَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الْرُّوحِ قُلِ الْرُّوحُ مِنْ أَمِرَهُ وَيَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنْ ذِي الْقَرْنَيْنِ قُلْ سَأَتْلُو عَلَيْكُمْ مِنْ ذِكْرَهِ وَيَسْأَلُونَكَ مَاذَا يُنفِقُونَ قُلِ الْعَفْرِ There's more verses. These are the ones that come to mind. When they ask you, Muhammad, about this, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, قُلْ, tell them this.
When they ask you about this, قُلْ, tell them this. There's always قُلْ. The only time that there's no قُلْ is in this verse.
وَإِذَا سَأْلَكَ عِبَادِي عَنِّي Allah never said فَقُلْ إِنِّي قَرِيقٌ Remember they took from this, He said the fact that Allah in all of the other verses, He said قُلْ قُلْ قُلْ They're talking about matters that are specific, that only Allah specifically knows of, and there needs to be an intermediary between Allah and His servants to tell them this. Which is قُلْ مُحَمَّدٍ You tell them this, this, this, this is the ruling. However, the matter being spoken about here is not فِقْرُ It's a matter of Dua.
وَإِذَا سَأَلَكَ عِبَادِي عَنِّي Oh Allah, oh Muhammad, when my servants, they ask you about pertaining to a matter, which is that they want, they want something from the dunya, the akhira, forgiveness, something that they wish they want عَنِّي Regarding me, it's not about عن اليتامة, the orphans. It's not about عن المحيط وَإِذَا سَأْلَكَ عِبَادِي عَنِّي Regarding me, then I don't need you to tell them. There's no intermediary.
فَإِنِّي قَرِيقٌ I'm close to them. What's straight after that? وَإِذَا سَأْلَكَ عِبَادِي عَنِّي فَإِنِّي قَرِيقٌ أُجِيبُوا الدَّعْوَةَ الدَّاعِ إِذَا دَعَانِي I respond to the call of the caller. I respond to the dua of the one who calls upon me.
فَلْيَسْتَجِيبُوا لِي There's a condition, however. Respond to my call, which is my obedience. فَلْيَسْتَجِيبُوا لِي And then I will Inshallah answer their duas.
This when I heard that, I said subhanallah, Until today, I remember that benefit of the top of my head with ease. Because Allah is saying to you, You don't need anyone in between me and you. I'm here.
And it's the month of Ramadan. It's in the context of the month of Ramadan. So dua, dua, dua, dua, dua.
And I actually believe we should make strategic times of making dua in this month. By doing what? You know, there's a, you know how I said to you, Allah, he gave presidents, oh sorry, He gave virtue to certain days, hours, times, months of the year, etc. Right? You know, in the month of Ramadan, There's so many opportunities when it comes to dua that have been combined.
Prophet ﷺ has said, ثلاثة لا ترد دعوته There's three that the dua is not rejected. One of them is, دعوة المهروم The oppressed person that makes dua. The second was the leader who is just, a just ruler.
And the last one is, الصائم حتى يستطيع The one who is fasting until he breaks his fast. That's one. The second one is the second timing.
The Prophet ﷺ told us another time in which dua is accepted is Between adhan and iqamah. I mean, pay attention to this. And on top of that as well, It's early Ramadan generally, And you've been taught to make dua.
So look, I actually believe every single salah Between the iqamah, the adhan and the iqamah, One should make a specific plan of making dua every single day. Five salahs, if you can pray the five in the masjid, of course. If not, and you can hear, you're in a Muslim country, You're not in a masjid, but you can hear the adhan and the iqamah as well.
You can also make the dua. على كلٍّ, make that timing. Because you're fasting as well.
And if you're fasting, you won't be rejected. And it's between the adhan and iqamah, you won't be rejected. Another time I would say strategically make dua is The last day of the night.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, He says, هَلْ مِنْ سَائِلٍ هَلْ مِنْ مُسْتَقِّلٍ Is there anyone that wants anything from my kingdom? Is there anyone that wants my forgiveness? Etc. And it's time of dua where it's accepted. So the last day of the night, you're already going to be praying qiyam, hopefully.
Even if you're not, get up around, you're already going to be up for suhoor. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I actually forgot about that.
You're already going to be up for suhoor. Have 10 minutes, 15 minutes. When you go in the corner, you make dua privately, just you and Allah.
Where it's the month of Ramadan. You're not fasting here, but it's the month of Ramadan. وَإِذَا سَأْلَكَ لِبَادِيَ عَنِي And more importantly, it's the last day of the night.
And then you have straight after suhoor, what salah? Fajr. Anyway, where you started to fast. I really believe that we should make a strategic schedule of dua, times to make dua and divide them into times that are general.
Anytime you're fasting, you're on your way to work, you're in your car, you're fasting. All the way until you break your fast, you're going to be forgiven. Likewise, anything you wish, ask for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And likewise, the second type of dua one should make after the general duas is the dua in these specific times and make them specific. Write them down, make a schedule, make them part of your... Just like you have 9 to 5, you start work at 9 a.m. Have a time when you make dua. Again, I say not ta'abudan, you don't do it as an act of worship.
I'm specifically going to do 3 p.m. or 2 p.m. When you organize that, but to make things easier for you. Now I think what should be worked on, you know, there's another beautiful verse where we should yawn for the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Allah said in the Quran, وَإِذَا جَاءَكَ الَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِآيَاتِنَا Or Muhammad, when the people who believe in our signs come to you, or those who believe in our verses come to you, فَقُلْ سَلَامٌ عَلَيْكُمْ Say to them, peace be upon you.
كَتَبَ رَبُّكُمْ عَلَى نَفْسِهَا الرَّحْمَةِ Your Lord has prescribed upon Himself. I mean, this is not the writing of compulsion where it's the same as us. Rather, it's the one of virtue.
Allah does it on His own way. He says Allah has prescribed it on Himself. He's written, made it upon Himself that He's merciful.
The mercy is given, the tafsir of the mercy is given in the next part of the verse. مَنْ عَمْلَ مِنْكُمْ سُؤَلْ Whosoever does an evil act amongst you, فِي جَهَالَةٍ عَلَى الْإِغْنِرَاتِ And then he seeks forgiveness from Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala. Then you find Allah to be one who is merciful and who is forgiving.
So the mercy Allah has written upon Himself and prescribed upon Himself is that He will forgive you. So and it comes under dua as well, seeking forgiveness, etc. And the dua can be of course, dua which is things of the dunya, but the best dua one can make is that he seeks forgiveness.
Anything you get in the dunya, I went quick to that. And in fact, the message of sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, you know, towards the end of Ramadan, you know, we should all be thinking about if our sins were forgiven or not. And Jibreel alaihi salam started making that, he was saying Ameen, Ameen, Ameen.
And then one of the Prophet said, why? What happened? He said, مَنْ رَغِمَ أَنْفُرْ The person who's ever doesn't get his sins forgiven in the month of Ramadan, vote him, shame upon him. All of these opportunities in Ramadan, the time of dua, it's too many opportunities. So the third one, I would say in dua, I think we can specify main points, those three.
Other things will come, of course. Likewise, you have time to think about your sins. خَلْوَ مَعَ اللَّهِ I have been having private time with Allah, pondering upon things you've done in the past and regretting it and etc, etc.
Likewise, helping your mother out in the kitchen. These are sub things. These are sub points.
But I really believe that someone makes the foundation, principles of Ramadan. Number one, giving up sins. Number two, recitation of the Quran.
Quran, Quran, Quran, Quran. And number three is dua. Revolve your Ramadan around this.
Inshallah, you have a successful Ramadan. Again, look, there's other things like praying in the night prayer. You're right.
They're general things that everyone will probably, everyone will do it anyway. All I would say is don't make even your taraweeh prayers a custom. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Everyone is just going, yeah, that's right. Make your qiyam something. The Prophet ﷺ said, مَن قَامَ رَمَضَانِكْ إِمَانَ وَإِحْتِسَابًا وَغُفِرَ لَهُمَا تَقَدَّلُوا مِنْ هَمْ بِهِ Whosoever stands the night prayer in Ramadan, all of his sins will be forgiven that he's done.
And of course, the minor sins, etc. And whoever finishes the surah with the imam, likewise, it will be as if he's been standing up the whole night. I mean, these are the intentions we should have.
So I'm not going to touch upon those little points that people would already be doing. Apart from saying, make sure your intentions are right for them. Don't go to the night prayer because your friends are going.
You're going to go out to chicken shop after. And especially in the UK, it's something big, man. Brothers, especially, actually, maybe not now, but you know, when it's summertime, those officers do sit down outside in nice weather.
I'm not saying it's bad. I'm not saying don't do that. It's not bad or haram or anything.
If that's the reason you're going. If that's the reason you're going, taraweeh. Just because it's a custom and link up with the brothers is a problem.
Unless we make it a reason having our sins forgiven. It's not even ponder upon that. It's forgiveness.
Wallahi, Ramadan is the amount of opportunities that are there. And we really understand the hadith, the message, as salamu alayhi wa sallam said, Shame! Woe to the person who doesn't have his sins forgiven. You really think it's actually true.
How many opportunities have we been given? And that was the best of angels making the dua and the best of humankind saying, That's a scary situation to be in. Okay, so you mentioned three key things to focus on during the month of Ramadan. The first one, staying away from sins.
The second one, the Quran, particularly reading it and trying to complete it as many times as possible. And the third one was to increase in your dua and you mentioned specific times that we can be a little bit strategic and actually focus on those times to make dua as well as generally because we will be fasting. What else do you want to talk about that a person can think about during the month of Ramadan? Things to be aware of.
Something to be aware of, I would say, Ali, is over-eating when it comes to the actual breaking of the fast, iftar time. We tend to have this culture of having a big feast, this culture of, you know, the family should get together and have as much food as everyone can, everyone should just stuff themselves. Yes, family should get together, no problem, Inshallah, but it shouldn't be one where, you know, you have so much to choose from.
You've got like 10 different dishes and when you finish, you know, you are so stuffed you can't even walk. And we know this from the brothers in Tarawih. We have the brothers in Barakah and all that stuff.
So I think we should, I really think we should avoid that. And if we look back into, again, the people of the past when it came to eating. Yeah.
Someone like Abdullah ibn Umar, the narrator of the Tarawih, he says that, Abdullah ibn Umar, he says, he says, Since I became a Muslim, my life was full of food. I never ate anything to the extent about bloating or overeating, etc. You know, there's an author of Aisha radiallahu anha, of course, it's not a hadith necessarily.
So if it's true or not, it's a different case, but the meaning is correct. Aisha radiallahu anha has narrated that she said, the first bid'ah to occur is overeating, bloating, and people to become, she says that, of course, hypothetically, because it's not the first bid'ah, of course, there are other bid'ah that took place before it, like the Khawarij, of course. But she says it hypothetically, to put down overeating and being someone who, you know, eats a lot of food, etc, etc.
Our pious predecessors, others would say stuff like, Whosoever wants to bring light to his heart, then they eat less and others eat like that. So, over eating generally is not good. The prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam also mentioned that the worst, the worst utensil that one can fill up hypothetically, again, is his stomach, the worst organ to fill up is one's stomach.
Likewise, he mentioned that when we eat, which happens to be the third bid'ah, your third should be your water, your food, and likewise, a third for one's space to breathe, etc. Generally, eating too much is disgraced. More specifically, in the month of Ramadan, because you have the night prayer coming straight after that, you should not eat too much.
And you know what's strange? Some people, they actually put on weight during Ramadan, even though they fast the whole day, but that one meal that they go in so hard, they actually put weight in there. And I think it goes back to what we spoke about at the start. What do you want out of this month? Is your intention to actually get closer to Allah? Because if it is, then as difficult as it is, and I'll be honest with you, even myself, I find it difficult.
It is hard to be fasting all day. You really want to eat, you want to drink, but to control yourself at that moment in time, knowing that I want to stand in front of Allah, Iman and Muhtasadah, that's the reason I want to do it. If it was just to get through the fast and just get through the process of these 30 days, of course, of course, it's been overindulged, but it goes back to your original intention.
No, it is, it is. And honestly, you know, these are of course, you know, but when we do tajribah, when we physically again experiment, whenever we eat less, our worship is so much better. When someone overeats, their worship is a lot harder.
Very true. When someone eats less, likewise, their worship is a lot better. They can pray a lot more easier and everything else that comes with it.
And also the type of food as well. Type of food is very, very important as well. You know, especially, I mean, the Somali diet is not great.
The Pakistani is not great either. Exactly, the Pakistani isn't too great either. I mean, I'm not necessarily a nutritionist, but try to reduce your food in terms of quantity, but also the food you're eating, try to make it at least, you know, nutritious to some level.
Yeah. To say the least. And, you know, the best guidance, the guidance of the Messenger sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is never angry.
Anything in moderation is not bad as long as it's halal. So, that can be your nutritional rule, inshallah. Okay.
So, yeah, overeating, even on Suhoor as well, you know, you don't, one thing a lot of brothers and sisters do is, they might have work and everything else, so they tend to not have Suhoor. They'd rather sleep that extra night, right? And miss the Suhoor, so they can, you know, wake up just before Fajr and then get ready for work. And if they need to go and sleep, they go and sleep.
But they will make that 30 minutes just before Fajr, they will sleep instead of waking up for Suhoor. The Messenger sallallahu alaihi wa sallam would say, eat at least, even a little, even if it's one day, for indeed there's barakah, there's blessings in it. So, that's another thing I'd say that we should, you know, pay attention to, not forget.
So, eat less in, that's right, not less, don't eat too much, don't overeat, don't comploat it, when it comes to iftar, among other things, and eat something at least, something little for Suhoor. And treat it as an act of worship. Suhoor is an act of worship.
That is true. So, you always have that intention to do everything you do during the month, well, in your life really, not just during the month, but always try and keep Allah at the forefront, you know. You know, there's another statement I remember, it's Ibrahim ibn Adham, he was saying, من ضبط بطنه ضبط دينه or من ضبط بطنه ضبط دينه Whomsoever, Whomsoever takes control of his stomach, takes control of his deen, ومن ملك جوعه ملك الأخلاق الصالحة Whomsoever takes ownership of his hunger, you know, will be able to take ownership of his, you know, his conduct and how he acts and everything else.
So, food and nutrition and drink and everything we consume, consumption is also a part of our religion. Kahlil salam, what else would you, what is in your... Kahlil al qadr Yeah, during the month of Ramadan, of course, towards the end of the month, well, we think it's towards the end of the month, but we don't really know for sure. You know, Muhammad ibn Uqman, he has a sharaf, قلوب المرأة which is called طرفة الكرام على شرفة قلوب المرأة He mentions in the hadith of, you know, the Daylatul Qadr, the hadith, even the ayah as well, he's commenting on the ayah, when it is and all this kind of stuff.
40 different opinions. 40 different opinions. Yeah.
40 different opinions. One of the opinions, and these are not random people saying it, this is like, you know, ikhtiram between actual companions, Allah o Akbar along with ta'atabi'een, ta'atabi'een, etc. One opinion says it could be any day throughout the whole year.
You know, of course there's some that are stronger and some that are not. But even if we say, yes, it's going to be in the last 10 nights of Ramadan, some say odd nights, we don't even know which is the odd night or not, because it's all going to depend on the last day of Ramadan, when the last day is going to be, basically. So, على كلن, we don't know when the month of Ramadan is, it could be any of that time, there's wisdom behind not knowing it as well, there's wisdom behind the khilafah, you know, courage, etc.
Just make the most of every single night of that month. Not just the last 10 nights. The whole month, work hard on it.
And inshallah, you have a guarantee that you've caught that month, sorry, that night, which is the Qurnah too, Al-Fishar, a thousand nights. And we mentioned before, of course, the virtues of it and how kind Allah is to give us the opportunity in 83 or 84 years of, you know, qiyam, or the citation of the Quran, etc, etc, making dua to Allah and everything else. So, Laylatul Qadr, I would say, the main point we touch upon is no one knows when it is.
So, just make the most of the whole of Ramadan so you can make sure you actually reap the fruits of that in the night as well. And even more importantly, if you want to say the last 10 nights, and I won't do it as well, inshallah, I'll try. I think it was Ibn al-Qayyim al-Khimra who said that if Laylatul Qadr was anywhere in the entire year, I'd spend the whole, all the nights of the year, the whole year, searching for it.
And so the one who believes it's in Ramadan, not necessarily, it's just there. However, there is a question that comes to the mind now that if that person does that and has that attitude and they go from day one, what about the issue of peaking too early or burning out or running out early? Okay, so, you know, burnout definitely is a thing. Hadith of the Messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that comes to mind where he said, وَلَنْ يُشَادُّ الدِّينَ أَحَدٌ لَغَلَبَهِ that there's no one who, you know, makes the religion hard or difficult upon himself except that it overdoes him, you know, إِنَّ الدِّينَ يُسُورُ فِي الْرِجِنِ easy.
So, what I would say is in terms of burnout is from the beginning, anticipate that you burning yourself out or overdoing yourself will end up or it might, you know, cause you to overdo yourself. Okay. So, from the beginning, anticipate that and try to avoid it.
So, don't hear about the Salaf finishing the Qur'an twice a day and all this other stuff and think that's it. We shouldn't, inshallah, aspire to become like them. But بَلِلْإِنسَانُ عَلَى نَفْسِهِ بَصِيرًا Every single person knows himself.
Everyone knows their circumstance. If you have never finished the Qur'an once in your life, don't try to finish it twice a day. If you know likewise that, you know, you haven't even finished the Qur'an once a week, don't even try once a week.
Start off with once for the whole month. If you are someone who's never read the Qur'an and you actually don't know the Arabic alphabet or anything like that, don't even try to finish it once even. You know, maybe try to finish half of the Qur'an, maybe 10x out of the Qur'an, etc.
And hopefully, you'll be rewarded for your intention anyway. But the first tip I say in terms of burning out is know that there's a danger of burning out right at the beginning. Because would you agree that some people don't even know that the whole thing about burning out exists? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Most people aren't even aware of it. They'll just, you know, say I'm not working, I'm going to get a ticket for the whole year and that's right, the whole month, I'm going to do this. It's good, I'm not saying don't, but keep in your mind there's a possibility of burning out, so don't overdo yourself right from the beginning.
Then what you can do is, the second thing I would say is have something, as you know, you know, the health drinks, you know, progressive overload. Okay, what is that? Because I'm not going to have to speak to you Fair enough, fair enough. Or do please, shall I say.
Progressive overload, so start off with something small and increase it with time. Yeah. So maybe start off in the beginning of Ramadan, first 10 days.
For example, only reading half of this first 10 days. Something easy for you to do, even if it means one page of the Quran. Right.
Even if it means half a page of the Quran, do that for 10 days in a row. Everyone again, is different. فَلِلْإِنسَانُ عَلَىٰ نَفْسِهِ مِن فَصِيرَهُ You know yourself better than me, I know myself better than you, etc.
So I can say, you know what, something which would be very easy for me to do and I guarantee that I can actually do it might be half a page of the Quran first 10 days. Then the next 10 days, boost it up. Now do a page, a page of the Quran, two pages.
If you're already doing one juz per day for 10 days, do two juz per day. If you're doing two juz already, now do three juz. I mean lift up.
Then the last 10 nights, that is when now you need to go all out. The third point which is actually linked to this, make the last 10 days your burnout. As in literally intend to burn out the last 10 nights.
What I mean by that is the Prophet ﷺ narrated that, I think it was Aisha she said in the last 10 nights, come شَدَّ مِنْ زَرَةٍ وَأَيْقَضَ أَهْنَاً He would instead of it's hypothetical again. He would basically tie his waist. You know, some ulama, they say that it would be that he wouldn't engage in the interviews whatsoever.
Others would say that he would just generally work a lot harder in the last 10 nights. We say pull up, not do socks. Pull up, socks.
Exactly. But it would be the last 10 nights where he would go all out, where he would go fully all out. So the third point of how we can avoid burnout is actually intend to burn out the last 10 nights.
Because firstly, you follow the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ, but secondly, and most importantly, once you burn out the last 10 nights, what's straight after Ramadan? Eid. So it's your time to basically now you have burned out, kind of enjoy the latest of loose within the boundaries of Islam, of course, where you can now really enjoy celebrating and you can enjoy the hard work that you've done, etc. So the rule of burning out is burn out the last 10 nights.
Don't overdo yourself the first 10 slash 20. Do not go full on without the last first 10 days and then you're thinking oh, I can't really do this anymore. So I think burning out is something which exists.
Burning out is something which, you know, it's natural, of course. You would burn out if you went to gym and started doing weights that you've never done before. You've never gone to gym and you started doing the 50kg, bench press, I don't know, I think bench press is not a thing.
Bicep curls maybe, 50kg is quite big a lot of them, but the point I'm getting to is what do you expect? You know, it's something which you need to build over time and that's exactly what Adeem is about anyway, right? Progressing over loads and getting better and better and better and getting better and better and you know, bit by bit, the best of actions are the most consistent. You want to do something small, consistent, and then build it up bit by bit. Just like the Messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam could have came down to him a long time ago but it came down bit by bit.
It's a little bit of need for action to be firm upon it. So we want to be someone who's firm upon the religion, right? We want to be someone who's firm upon Ibadah for our whole life. Do something little which you, increase bit by bit inshaAllah ta'ala to avoid burnout and if you burn out at the end, it's good, it's a good thing inshaAllah ta'ala.
And that concept you mentioned about you need to come straight up for Ramadan, use that psychologically as an advantage to motivate yourself. You know like when you did exams at school and you know that the exams are going to come to an end on May or June or whenever the GCSEs come to an end, that feeling that you have over the summer holidays, that enjoyment that you have on the summer holidays is dependent upon how hard you worked for the exams and how much effort. You could not do any effort with the exams if you don't even enjoy the holidays, you're regretting it, you're thinking about that question, why did I do that and why did I do that and if you exert all your efforts, you actually enjoy the holidays and actually think I did my best, whatever the results come in August, I did my best and Eid is similar like that, you don't want to regret Eid, everyone's having fun, everyone's enjoying themselves, family time and you're thinking I didn't make the most of Ramadan, you've got this regret.
Very true, very true, you're right. The whole point of Eid anyway, Eid al-Fitr is to you know enjoy the hard work you've done, that's why it's even sunnah to eat before you go to you know the Eid Salah, the Eid al-Adha, I need to reward you for the hard work you've done so inshallah I look forward to that reward by burning out towards the end, you know burning out as well, you need to remember, it's basically like I use the analogy of your car punctured, you have a punctured tyre right, Somalis, it's a big Somali anyway, where you've just overdone yourself and finally your tyre is punctured, you can't do it anymore, the reason why I said that's good towards the end of Ramadan for you to burn out because there's nothing else for you to do because Ramadan is finished now anyway, like your car, if it's taking you to your destination and then it punctures, it's not the end of the world, you're there but it's well, puncturing halfway is a good thing. Okay so we're back on the road and as I said just before we stopped filming, that we've now reached the final part that we wanted to discuss which is after Ramadan, what are your thoughts with regards to this? First of all may Allah allow us to reach the end of Ramadan, there's many that of course reach Ramadan but I'm not giving that to all of you, but just a few points regarding the end slash after Ramadan which is once Ramadan is completed, the first thing I've seen is you need to keep up the momentum, of course you're not going to be doing the same things that you're doing in the month of Ramadan to the extent you're doing it out, yes you're right, however, one shouldn't go back to his old ways, I always think of Ramadan as a petrol station, the Somalis they say, it's a petrol station, you're there literally just to fill up your car, and then that fuel should allow you to get to the next destination which is the next Ramadan, okay, so Ramadan is you know, it's a training program, it's whatever you want to call it, you accustom yourself to good habits, get rid of others, the haram you might be doing everything else, so you can now continue doing these acts of worship and likewise stay away from the haram until the next Ramadan inshallah, so literally just like a petrol station, take your means and then you know, continue your journey to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, so that's the first thing which is, consider Ramadan just to be a means, you know, to fuel yourself for the rest of the year, it's not the end essentially, it's not the end, it's important, it's a statement that comes to mind, that Allah, the same Lord, the same, your Lord in Ramadan is the same as the remaining 11 months as well, sometimes people will just worship Allah in Ramadan and they don't continue, exactly that, sorry it's a statement, I think it's the highest basis, exactly, what's the Quran call it now, ... ... ... ... ... ... ... whoever used to worship, a month of Ramadan and indeed Ramadan is gone, ... ... ... whoever used to worship Ramadan, Ramadan is gone, can no longer worship Ramadan, you that someone who worship them is gone, it's, it's not here anymore, However, whoever used to worship Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala then or something Allah is the Lord of all of the months, at least in the last day.
He doesn't just worship Ramadan, etc. It's a very famous statement. But that's the first point.
The second point I would definitely say pertains to the month of Ramadan is there is a woman that Allah spoke about in the Qur'an. The parable he gave is amazing. And this is a lot of the time used after the month of Ramadan is finished.
Don't be like this woman that's mentioned in that very Surah Nahl. There is a woman who what she used to do was she used to sew, okay? She would sew slash knit. So and after doing all of these knits, right? She would one by one unknot these these things that she would do.
She would unknot it one by one. Then she would sew again and then unknot, and sew again and unknot. Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala, this woman, she was in Makkah.
And Allah sent down a verse saying وَلَا تَكُونُوا كَالَّذِي نَقَضَتْ غَزْلَهَا مِنْ بَعْدِ قُوَّةٍ عَنْ جَلَّةٍ Don't be like the woman who would sew and make these knots only to untie her knots. When we look at the month of Ramadan, we are making these knots ourselves. Yeah, to the extent that we want our inshallah, I want to be firm on the ground and not be able to, you know, be pushed off.
Just like when you make your, when you make all of your knots strong and you can't tear it apart. Don't be like that woman in the sense that when Ramadan goes, you put all of your hard work down the drain. Where you go back to your old ways.
You no longer pray Salat al-Fajr. You no longer pray congregation. You no longer even pick up the Quran until next Ramadan.
Likewise, you go back to the things that you used to do. Why would you undo the hard work that you used to do during the whole month? Don't put it down the drain. So that's what I would say as well inshallah pertaining to that.
Don't be like that woman. Don't undo all of your hard work in the month of Ramadan and put it all down the drain. Last but not least, another point, probably without it pertaining to after Ramadan is if you want to know if your Ramadan was accepted, then look at your situation after the month of Ramadan.
Our vice-presidents, they say he who wants to look at whether or not his deeds were accepted and you know, if his Ramadan was a successful Ramadan, then look at your situation. Are you still doing those actions? Yes or no? Are you still praying Salah? Have you gone back to your old ways? And that's a sign that it's not accepted. And to actually conclude with this point is to beg Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala to allow his deeds, those actions, the night prayers, the fasting, the dua, the zikr, everything ought to be accepted from us because they can just be hada' and muntura.
It can just be dust that's been wavered with the wind. So and likewise, the companions, they used to seek Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala and they used to beg him that he accepts their deeds for six months after Ramadan. The six months after Ramadan, they beg Allah, Ya Allah accept our Ramadan from us.
O Allah accept our Ramadan from us. O Allah accept our Ramadan from us. And then six months after that, towards the month of Ramadan, they ask Allah to allow them to reach the next one.
So let's make that also a habit, but more importantly, may Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala allow us to reach Ramadan, but also, you know, the end of Ramadan as well. And we need to celebrate with our families, friends, and the Muslims in whole. As a whole, inshallah, continue to the last Ramadan.
Any advices you would want to give? No, I think that's sufficient. I really think you did a good job, mashallah. I think that's sufficient.
I almost don't want to get people thinking too much about after Ramadan right now and think more about what we mentioned at the start of the video. Ustaz, jazakallahu khair for joining me. I very much appreciate it.
Thank you very much for your time. And I ask Allah to accept it from you. And inshallah, I hope he reunites us again.
You still need not in Jannah.
