Ramadan brought us this message that deen is not restricted to a time period. We are not part time Muslims. Our deen always gives us goodness at any time and not just during Ramadan. Ramadan itself may have passed, however, the message of Ramadan is very much present.
We should lead our lives as we did in Ramadan, without lying, without backbiting, taking care of others, being generous, and assisting others, alongside worshipping Allah ta'ala.
When My servants ask you ˹O Prophet ﷺ˺ about Me: I am truly near. I respond to one’s prayer when they call upon Me. So let them respond ˹with obedience˺ to Me and believe in Me, perhaps they will be guided ˹to the Right Way˺.[2:186]
If we have faith in Allah ta'ala, we will remain upon the path of guidance and our life will be spent the same way as Ramadan.
Allah ta'ala is very close to us and has granted us the ability to draw near to Him. Allah ta'ala is closer to us than our jugular vein. This is how Allah ta'ala defines His nearness. It is us human beings who distant ourselves from Him.
When we call out to Him, He immediately responds to us no matter where we are in the world. When the blessed Prophets faced trials and distress, they called out to Allah ta'ala and Allah ta'ala responded to them and assisted them.
If Allah ta'ala is there for us, we shouldn't chase the world, consume Haraam and beg from others. We should ask from Allah ta'ala directly.
If we have strong belief in Him, we will become a strong Muslim. Our faith is weakened when we fail to consider that Allah ta'ala is close to us.
Allah ta'ala gave us thirty days to revive our awareness and recognition that He is close to us. He allowed His splendour and glory to be illustrated during Ramadan, although it is always present in the universe around us.
Allah ta'ala instilled His brilliance, light and nearness in this month which transformed this month. This is the reason it had a positive impact upon us and pulled us towards His nearness.
When we acknowledge His nearness, the evil within us is removed and we become immersed in Allah ta'ala's love. We become inclined towards worship and we become desperate to search for Allah ta'ala.
It is the same Allah throughout the year. Just like Allah ta'ala was present for us in Ramadan, He is still present now and He invites us towards Him now too.
Allah ta'ala showed us the enjoyment of Ramadan, now it is up to us to develop the yearning and desire for His nearness. If we develop the yearning, we will experience the same emotions of Ramadan.
When we desire something and we supplicate to Allah ta'ala, Allah ta'ala grants us better than our desires. He knows what is better for us, so we should never feel that our supplications are not accepted.
We immediately criticise Allah ta'ala over our supplications, although Allah ta'ala protects us from what does not suit us. He grants us better and what He deems is best for us. We should have belief in this and this is the definition of His nearness. We must accept His decree and in doing so, we will become content and satisfied with every decision.
When we witness what will be granted to us in the Hereafter in exchange for our unanswered prayers, we will wish we were content with what we were given and our prayers were not accepted in this world.
A person performs Mujahadah in order to attain Allah ta'ala's closeness, rather than having his own desires fulfilled. This is what Ramadan made us aware of. Allah ta'ala revived the passion of His nearness within us. His nearness is the most valuable thing and there is no greater bounty than this in the world.
If a diamond is buried in the mud, it still remains valuable. When it is polished, it retains its price tag and people desire to acquire it. Similarly, the most valuable thing for a believer is his faith. After faith, the most valuable thing is Allah ta'ala's nearness through which our connection with Him is strengthened.
We fail to seek His closeness and realise how close we actually are to Him. Unfortunately, due to the greed of the world, disobedience and negligence, we have lost out on acquiring His nearness.
This greed of the world has disturbed our balance of life. We seek help from others instead of seeking help from Allah ta'ala. We make our own decisions instead of taking guidance from Allah ta'ala for our affairs. He is the greatest protector and guide. We should have belief that He grants the solutions.
Dunya and Allah ta'ala's nearness cannot co-exist. You either acquire one or the other. The non believers live for this world as this is their objective. The believers on the other hand, seek Allah ta'ala's nearness and constantly request Allah ta'ala for it. They desire to strengthen their relationship with Allah ta'ala throughout their lives.
When a person chases the world and materialistic things, he becomes deprived of Allah ta'ala's nearness and he becomes a Idolater externally through his practice.
"O Prophet ﷺ! When the believing women come to you, pledging to you that they will neither associate anything with Allah...." [60:12]
This proves that even a believer is capable of committing Shirk, so there is a danger present.
The AwliyahAllah perform the work of the Prophets and they remove Shirk from the students.
What is Shirk?
Shirk does not only refer to worshipping an idol or a deity besides Allah ta'ala. It may also refer to worshipping our own desires - our internal idol. Obeying our preferences and our lifestyle choices. Our desires make us oppose Allah ta'ala's instructions, thus, it makes us commit Shirk.
Allah ta'ala has given us one task and that is to follow the Prophet ﷺ practically. We should obey without hesitation and doubt and without having debates on irrelevant things. We should avoid formulating our own deen.
We claim that it is too difficult to practice. In fact, deen is made easy for us. We may travel the world and do as we please as long as we pack our deen and take it with us. We must practice the deen wherever we go. Furthermore, Allah ta'ala is close to us wherever we go. He is not more close to us in Makkah Shareef.
Wherever we are, no matter if the land is holy or not, if we acknowledge that He is close to us, we will gain the blessings.
The definition of Ramadan is Allah ta'ala's nearness, hence Ramadan has not left us. We must remember Him in the morning and the evening. We should never abandon dhikr. If we continue to perform dhikr, Allah ta'ala will draw nearer to us and allow us to experience His closeness
We should not place barriers between us and Allah ta'ala. Dhikr is what removes the barriers and it instils a light within us which allows us to implement the laws of Allah ta'ala.
Consequently, we will never become ungrateful to Allah ta'ala and we will be content. Those who are grateful, will never lead a life of sorrow. They will never complain or be displeased with Allah ta'ala. The grateful servant is he who accepts whatever he receives even if it is nothing. We should have no doubts in Allah ta'ala.
We should rise at Tahajjud time and we should supplicate and present all our needs to Allah ta'ala. He will grant us. The habit of greed of the world and begging makes us distant from Allah ta'ala. He is always close to us.
Ramadan brought us this message that deen is not restricted to a time period. We are not part time Muslims. Our deen always gives us goodness at any time and not just during Ramadan. Ramadan itself may have passed, however, the message of Ramadan is very much present.
We should lead our lives as we did in Ramadan, without lying, without backbiting, taking care of others, being generous, and assisting others, alongside worshipping Allah ta'ala.
وَإِذَا سَأَلَكَ عِبَادِي عَنِّي فَإِنِّي قَرِيبٌ ۖ أُجِيبُ دَعْوَةَ الدَّاعِ إِذَا دَعَانِ ۖ فَلْيَسْتَجِيبُوا لِي وَلْيُؤْمِنُوا بِي لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْشُدُونَ
When My servants ask you ˹O Prophet ﷺ˺ about Me: I am truly near. I respond to one’s prayer when they call upon Me. So let them respond ˹with obedience˺ to Me and believe in Me, perhaps they will be guided ˹to the Right Way˺.[2:186]
If we have faith in Allah ta'ala, we will remain upon the path of guidance and our life will be spent the same way as Ramadan.
Allah ta'ala is very close to us and has granted us the ability to draw near to Him. Allah ta'ala is closer to us than our jugular vein. This is how Allah ta'ala defines His nearness. It is us human beings who distant ourselves from Him.
When we call out to Him, He immediately responds to us no matter where we are in the world. When the blessed Prophets faced trials and distress, they called out to Allah ta'ala and Allah ta'ala responded to them and assisted them.
If Allah ta'ala is there for us, we shouldn't chase the world, consume Haraam and beg from others. We should ask from Allah ta'ala directly.
If we have strong belief in Him, we will become a strong Muslim. Our faith is weakened when we fail to consider that Allah ta'ala is close to us.
Allah ta'ala gave us thirty days to revive our awareness and recognition that He is close to us. He allowed His splendour and glory to be illustrated during Ramadan, although it is always present in the universe around us.
Allah ta'ala instilled His brilliance, light and nearness in this month which transformed this month. This is the reason it had a positive impact upon us and pulled us towards His nearness.
When we acknowledge His nearness, the evil within us is removed and we become immersed in Allah ta'ala's love. We become inclined towards worship and we become desperate to search for Allah ta'ala.
It is the same Allah throughout the year. Just like Allah ta'ala was present for us in Ramadan, He is still present now and He invites us towards Him now too.
Allah ta'ala showed us the enjoyment of Ramadan, now it is up to us to develop the yearning and desire for His nearness. If we develop the yearning, we will experience the same emotions of Ramadan.
When we desire something and we supplicate to Allah ta'ala, Allah ta'ala grants us better than our desires. He knows what is better for us, so we should never feel that our supplications are not accepted.
We immediately criticise Allah ta'ala over our supplications, although Allah ta'ala protects us from what does not suit us. He grants us better and what He deems is best for us. We should have belief in this and this is the definition of His nearness. We must accept His decree and in doing so, we will become content and satisfied with every decision.
When we witness what will be granted to us in the Hereafter in exchange for our unanswered prayers, we will wish we were content with what we were given and our prayers were not accepted in this world.
A person performs Mujahadah in order to attain Allah ta'ala's closeness, rather than having his own desires fulfilled. This is what Ramadan made us aware of. Allah ta'ala revived the passion of His nearness within us. His nearness is the most valuable thing and there is no greater bounty than this in the world.
If a diamond is buried in the mud, it still remains valuable. When it is polished, it retains its price tag and people desire to acquire it. Similarly, the most valuable thing for a believer is his faith. After faith, the most valuable thing is Allah ta'ala's nearness through which our connection with Him is strengthened.
We fail to seek His closeness and realise how close we actually are to Him. Unfortunately, due to the greed of the world, disobedience and negligence, we have lost out on acquiring His nearness.
This greed of the world has disturbed our balance of life. We seek help from others instead of seeking help from Allah ta'ala. We make our own decisions instead of taking guidance from Allah ta'ala for our affairs. He is the greatest protector and guide. We should have belief that He grants the solutions.
Dunya and Allah ta'ala's nearness cannot co-exist. You either acquire one or the other. The non believers live for this world as this is their objective. The believers on the other hand, seek Allah ta'ala's nearness and constantly request Allah ta'ala for it. They desire to strengthen their relationship with Allah ta'ala throughout their lives.
When a person chases the world and materialistic things, he becomes deprived of Allah ta'ala's nearness and he becomes a Idolater externally through his practice.
يَا أَيُّهَا النَّبِيُّ إِذَا جَاءَكَ الْمُؤْمِنَاتُ يُبَايِعْنَكَ عَلَىٰ أَن لَّا يُشْرِكْنَ بِاللَّهِ شَيْئًا
"O Prophet ﷺ! When the believing women come to you, pledging to you that they will neither associate anything with Allah...." [60:12]
This proves that even a believer is capable of committing Shirk, so there is a danger present.
The AwliyahAllah perform the work of the Prophets and they remove Shirk from the students.
What is Shirk?
Shirk does not only refer to worshipping an idol or a deity besides Allah ta'ala. It may also refer to worshipping our own desires - our internal idol. Obeying our preferences and our lifestyle choices. Our desires make us oppose Allah ta'ala's instructions, thus, it makes us commit Shirk.
Allah ta'ala has given us one task and that is to follow the Prophet ﷺ practically. We should obey without hesitation and doubt and without having debates on irrelevant things. We should avoid formulating our own deen.
We claim that it is too difficult to practice. In fact, deen is made easy for us. We may travel the world and do as we please as long as we pack our deen and take it with us. We must practice the deen wherever we go. Furthermore, Allah ta'ala is close to us wherever we go. He is not more close to us in Makkah Shareef.
Wherever we are, no matter if the land is holy or not, if we acknowledge that He is close to us, we will gain the blessings.
The definition of Ramadan is Allah ta'ala's nearness, hence Ramadan has not left us. We must remember Him in the morning and the evening. We should never abandon dhikr. If we continue to perform dhikr, Allah ta'ala will draw nearer to us and allow us to experience His closeness
We should not place barriers between us and Allah ta'ala. Dhikr is what removes the barriers and it instils a light within us which allows us to implement the laws of Allah ta'ala.
Consequently, we will never become ungrateful to Allah ta'ala and we will be content. Those who are grateful, will never lead a life of sorrow. They will never complain or be displeased with Allah ta'ala. The grateful servant is he who accepts whatever he receives even if it is nothing. We should have no doubts in Allah ta'ala.
We should rise at Tahajjud time and we should supplicate and present all our needs to Allah ta'ala. He will grant us. The habit of greed of the world and begging makes us distant from Allah ta'ala. He is always close to us.
May Allah ta'ala allow us to implement. Ameen