Night of Sha’ban
Alhamdulillah, this great night that Allah ta’ala has given to us, the 15th night of Sha’ban, is a special grace and Karam from Allah upon this Ummah. Due to the Sadqah of His Habeeb sallallahu alayhi wasallam, Allah ta’ala has given such rewards and has reserved such treasures for this Ummah, the likes of which were not given to previous Ummahs. What is the purpose for which Allah ta’ala has given us this night? Let us understand this purpose, because if this night is wasted, then it is a big loss. Allah ta’ala makes everything for a purpose, and if a human being uses something for the purpose for which it is intended, then the full benefit of that thing is acquired. If, however, you don’t know what the objective is, and you don’t implement that thing according to its purpose, then that time or that item or that thing has been wasted.
The fact is that this is a very precious moment in time – very much so – and Allah ta’ala’s Karam and mercy upon this Ummah means that Allah doesn’t want to put us into great difficulty. Allah ta’ala doesn’t want to give us a big trial or a big difficulty or a big issue. The objective of this night is not that we have to stay awake all night; and the objective is not that we do Ibadah all night long; and the objective is also not that you put yourself through big Mujahidah and strenuous effort. If you obtain the objective, these things are Nur ‘ala Nur – but the objective itself lasts only two minutes. The objective takes just two minutes – this is the night that Allah ta’ala has given to us. If we understand and attain that objective in those two minutes, then we will not just benefit now, but rather after death, this will bring you Paradise. For this, you have to give just two minutes proper attention. As for the rest, alhamdulillah, if a person stays awake after attaining that objective and recites Qur’an or prays Nawafil, then that is being grateful to Allah and you can do as much as you want. But if we do not attain that objective and spend all night trying to seek other objectives, then in reality we will have wasted the objective of this night.
Look, Allah ta’ala has Himself said about this night, and you will have heard this, and the respected scholars will also have told you about the benefits of this night – so what is this night? Often people will ask ‘What Ibadah should we do on this night? Which Nafl should we pray? Which action should we do to attain success?’ But Allah, through His Karam and His bounty, doesn’t want to put us into difficulty and stress. There are just two things we need to think about: why we have been given this night in Sha’ban, and secondly, what we should do on this night. That’s it – that’s all. And this is not a matter where there is difference of opinion and this or that person doesn’t accept, and it is a matter for argument – this is not the situation. When Allah ta’ala wants to give, then everybody agrees about that thing and nobody can reject it. There is no rejection and there is no basis for rejection. Every person can attain it.
However, shaytan, the accursed devil, wants to attain his objective as well, and in order to divert us from these two minutes that comprise the objective of the night, what actions does he not make us do in this night. He promotes such Bid’aat and all sorts of actions, saying ‘That is it – this is the objective of this night.’ He says to put up lights and set off fireworks – not here, but in our home countries, it is as if a storm is brewing. Some people are setting up lights, others are cooking food, all sorts of Masa’il are put forward, and big gatherings are convened in the Masjids. By means of all of this, what does shaytan do? He twists the Deen in front of a person and thereby eliminates the objective.
In a Sahih Hadith, an agreed-upon Hadith, Hadhrat Aisha Siddiqua radhiAllahu anha reports what happens in this night and what Ibadah should be done – this is a Sahih Hadith. I told you that if you have courage and determination, you could do this every night – and Allah would like it if you did this every night. But we should do it on this night, and if we do not, and just carry on doing other actions and staying awake, then we will not attain the real purpose of this night. What is that, my brothers? This is a Sahih Hadith. This night starts after Maghrib, and what happens – remember this - is that as nights such as these progress, they give rise to a different intensity and effect – and we will feel this later when we come to what we are sat here for at this moment in time, which is Allah’s Dhikr. And then we go into the depths of the night, and get to the good time, the proper time, the genuine time - Allah especially likes that portion when most of the night has gone. Allah says ‘When My servant is on his own, alone with Me, when he is awake while everyone else is sleeping, I listen to him.’ Allah ta’ala likes this. So the more you extend this night, the more its value will increase – the value of our call will increase.
Allah ta’ala says that this intensity starts from Maghrib. And the meaning of the Hadith is such that Allah ta’ala shows Himself to people from the heavens – and this is the real objective of this night, so listen. Allah ta’ala comes down to the lowest heaven, and we don’t know what that heaven is physically or how Allah ta’ala descends – we have no idea and no understanding about this, and we are not concerned with that. And then Allah ta’ala calls out and makes an announcement – Allah ta’ala Himself is telling us what we need to do in this night, so there is no room left for disputation or quarrelling. There is nothing to argue about. People say silly things such as ‘Why do you do this?’ and so on, but we should just do this action that Allah subhana wa ta'ala has said. That’s it – straightforward. So Allah calls out with an announcement that continues until Fajr, and if somebody hears now or after an hour or two, how does he hear? It is not the ears that hear, but rather it is the soul of the human being that hears – it is the human being’s Batin that hears.
This is the case for this call that Allah ta’ala makes, and it is also true for the Adhan when it is called, that Adhan which we amplify with loudspeakers so that the sound will travel a long way - which is good. But even if the speakers do not work and the voice does not travel far, the Ruh that is awake will automatically absorb that Adhan. At Salah time, a person whose Ruh is fresh and pure and clean will automatically start feeling desperate. Even if he is at his shop, then that shop will not stay open because he will run to the prayer. However, if that person’s Ruh had been dirty, then he would have stayed in his shop, because his Ruh could not absorb the call of that Adhan. If he is busy in the work of the Dunya and Allah is calling out ‘Come – Come to Salah! Come to the Masjid – there is Falah here, success!’ then it is his Ruh which either does or does not absorb this important message. If I have Iman and I believe in the Qur’an, if I stay where I am despite hearing this message, if I do not go and do not heed the call, then it is not the ears that have not heard, it is the Ruh. It is the Ruh that can absorb the call and the Ruh that has the power. The Ruh of a Mu’min has power, and a person with a Ruh that is fresh and clean and pure, even if the loudspeaker does not reach his ears, he says to himself ‘It is time for Salah, so I must close the shop or stop driving my taxi. I have heard Allah’s call and I must respond.’
I have never in my life seen a person who responds in this way suffering any loss from responding to this call - I also did business all my life. That person whose Ruh is in this condition inside him, as soon as he hears that it is Salah time in the Masjid, he closes up and runs to the Masjid, no matter how busy he is - even if he has customers standing and waiting. I have seen this with my own eyes at Christmas time. Even if he had customers waiting in line, he would immediately close the shutters of his shop, despite the customers and without regard for how busy he was, and go running to the Masjid to pray his Salah and then come back – and all the customers would still be standing there! They wouldn’t even move while he was gone. SubhanAllah, the neighbouring shopkeepers would lament their poor turnover, but his was the best - by the time evening came, his business would have the best turnover.
My brothers, this is about how awake the Ruh is, how clean and pure the soul, the Ruh, the Batin is. This is the glory of a Mu’min that Allah calls him for Salah – in the life of a Mu’min, there is no greater action than Salah. There is nothing greater than Salah in the life of a Mu’min – remember this. The biggest, highest and most elevated thing in a person’s life after Iman, is what? Salah! Salah brings success, Salah brings salvation, Salah is the glory – everything is based upon Salah. Salah is the greatest action. We do many types of Dhikr and we do Tazkiyah and go to a Sheikh, but all of this is preparation for Salah – remember this. Remember - this is all to correct our Salah, so that we become strong and resolute inside. We should not reject this call from Allah in any way, and we should run quickly towards the Masjid at that time. When this emotion is cultivated in a human being, then he can consider that his Iman has become complete. He cares for nothing else, and when the time for his death comes, he will get Jannah beyond Jannah. The feelings inside a human being tell him directly whether he is a Jannati or a person of Jahannam – he can tell himself how his resurrection will go.
He should worry if the condition of his Salah becomes such that he doesn’t come to the Masjid – and all the Salahs have the same ruling. It should not be that at Fajr, only 30 people come, and then at Dhuhr, 100 come, and then at Asr time, 400 come. This is not the basis of Salah. The same criterion applies to all of the prayers - Allah’s call is the same, the Hisab is the same. The human being has to arrive for every Salah in the Masjid. When this condition is acquired, he becomes desperate for each Salah, and when the time for Salah comes, he feels like dropping everything else. Whether he is busy with guests, shop, business, taxi, working, he says, ‘Oh no, I am going to Salah. I don’t care.’ If someone invites him for food, before he accepts, he looks at whether the time will clash with Salah and whether his Salah will be compromised. Remember this: when his feelings and emotions and preparations are like this, he is a solid Muslim, 100%. His Iman is completely firm, even if he looks to you like a frail and insignificant individual who doesn’t do Mujahidah and Adhkar and other extra actions like Hajj or Nawafil. Look at these people who have done Umrah and Hajj one hundred times, but their Salah is being wasted. They remain standing where they are at Salah time and do not go – such a person is a waste of a human being. The basis and criterion of everything is that when Allah calls, the servant runs; whenever the call comes and whatever he is doing, when Allah calls, he says ‘Labayk, Labayk.’ It is the same as the call from Allah when you go on Hajj – Allah calls then as well. At Salah time, everything else finishes, just like when the time for Hajj comes, Allah says ‘Remove your normal clothes and run to Me!’ This Adhan is Allah’s call, and the Muslim who responds is doing the greatest action.
Coming back to what I was saying, it is the Ruh that responds to Allah ta’ala. Allah ta’ala says that it is the Ruh that is responding, and if the Ruh is strong, it will hear the call and do that action that Allah ta’ala is calling to. But if the Ruh is weak and dirty and we have never done Tazkiyah and have never tried to clean the Ruh that is within, Allah tells us to do Ghusl of the Ruh. Allah tells us that He has given us something with which to clean the Ruh:
“إن لكل شيء صقالة وإن صقالة القلوب ذكر الله”
Just like you clean your body by having a bath and then put on perfume and nice clean clothes, fresh pure clothes – you feel like doing this after a Ghusl don’t you? You want to wear nice clean fresh clothes because your body is clean. In the same way, Allah is saying ‘When you do My Dhikr and remember Me, then your Batin becomes clean.’ “إن لكل شيء صقالة” There are cleaning agents for everything – bathroom products like soaps and detergents – and Allah tells us here that he has given Dhikr for the cleansing of the Batin. You do Dhikr in the morning and evening because, just as your clothes and body get dirty, the Batin accumulates even more dirt than that. Perhaps you heard someone swearing, or there are sins of the eyes or of the mouth like backbiting or lying or words of anger – where does this all accumulate? The dirt and impurity accumulate in your Batin – this is where sins accumulate. It is stated in Hadith that when the sins build up and up, a person’s heart becomes as black as coal. It becomes dirty - but we don’t clean it. That is why Allah ta’ala says { يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ ٱذۡكُرُواْ ٱللَّهَ ذِكۡرً۬ا كَثِيرً۬ا (٤١) وَسَبِّحُوهُ بُكۡرَةً۬ وَأَصِيلاً} – ‘Do My Dhikr morning and evening so that the dirt of the night is washed in the morning, and the dirt of the day is washed in the evening.’
But we have no care or regard for this – we just want to do what we feel like doing. ‘I want to follow my Deen according to how I feel. I don’t feel like doing this, so I won’t do it; and I don’t feel like doing that, so I won’t do that.’ Allah ta’ala has given a system of life with principles, laws, schedules and rules to show you how to become successful. These are simple facts of life, nothing to argue or quarrel about, but shaytan has twisted our brains and made us dispute this and so we don’t want to do simple actions. Just as you get dirty outside, you get dirty inside as well, the dirt from sins at night, from you own backbiting or that of someone you sit next to. By sitting next to such a person, his sins go into you and, without realising, you become cold and dark inside. With your clothes, you know when they are dirty because you can see the stains and the dirt. That is why Allah says ‘I have prepared a solution for you because your sins are invisible inside you. You don’t have to do anything, just accept that dirt does accumulate, and every morning, do Dhikr and wash yourself, and every evening, wash yourself also.’ That is it. Be busy in Dhikr of Allah at all times so that when dirt comes, it is washed off and your Ruh becomes fresh and clean and resolute and strong. Allah says ‘When you do this, wherever you are and whatever I call you for, you will respond and run to Me.’
So judge yourself now. I should judge myself by looking inside and asking ‘How big a Muslim am I? How many times do I leave things and respond to Allah’s call? How often do I do that?’ This is a very simple analysis – forget about telling other people, just look at yourself. I need to look at myself and be courageous and have determination and high aspirations. Why am I not steadfast in following Sunnah and Allah’s Deen? Because inside, I am weak; my inside is full of dirt because I don’t wash myself and keep my Batin clean in the way that Allah has explained in these two Hadiths that I have told you about. Everyone accepts these Hadiths and believes in them and the action that they set out – this is common ground. This is the point.
Will we do Dhikr, my brothers, or not? For whom should we do Dhikr? For ourselves! This is for our own benefit, otherwise we will keep on behaving like monkeys and apes and animals, and we will do what our Nafs tells us and will not listen to the guidance of Allah ta’ala. Brothers, we need to understand this – we should hold fast to this fact. As long as we are alive, we need to follow Allah’s orders, not our orders and desires and opinions. If you decide to do something, and while you are doing it, Allah ta’ala says ‘Do this action’, then and there you should leave your action and do what Allah is saying. Why? Well, should I listen to Allah or should I listen to a human being? Tell me. Our job as Mu’mins is to follow Allah’s instructions and orders. If Allah says ‘Come in the morning at 4am’, then we will come at 4am. The time has just changed, hasn’t it? If the time for prayer is at 5am, we will come at 5am, and if it is at 2am, then we will come at 2am. We have to end our own desires and whatever Allah tells us to do, we do that. Say SubhanAllah. This is our Deen – what is there to argue about? What is there to be confused about? Every word and statement that Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam has given to us is beautiful.
There is a Mufti that Allah has seated inside us, and when you do something wrong, your Mufti will tell you straightaway and will nag you that you are not behaving correctly. The Mufti inside you does this. The person of Iman should test himself and see whether, when he starts to do a dirty action, he starts to feel discomfort inside. Often, we suppress that feeling, and say ‘It’s ok, I will do Tawbah later’, but the Mu’min knows that he is doing wrong. He knows it is wrong when he leaves Salah, or when he deceives someone, or when he is lying. Who tells him? The Mufti sitting inside will tell you and give you a Fatwa. Allah ta’ala has prepared a great solution for us within ourselves, but we suppress the analysis that he is giving to us. We should keep ourselves clean inside so that our Ruh is strong; and when our Ruh is strong, then we will listen to Allah’s messages. Which human being would not do Amal if he listened to Allah’s message? He will make haste and he will run in response to the message from Allah.
So the message is coming to us on this night, and we are being told what this night is for. Allah ta’ala descends to the lowest heaven and calls out. The pious predecessors have confirmed this, and I have heard this from my own Hadhrat Sahib, who said ‘My father himself heard the announcement of Allah ta’ala at Tahajjud time, and he would be there at 3am saying ‘Labayk, Labayk!’ He said to me “My son, can you not hear? I can hear that Allah ta’ala is calling us right now – I can hear His announcement!”’ Allahu Akbar – this was Hadhrat Sahib’s father, and his inside was clean and perceptive. It is not that he could hear and we cannot hear – Allah’s system is everywhere, as the Qur’an and Hadith have made clear. It is stated that, in the same way, Allah ta’ala comes to the lowest heaven on this night and calls out – and what is the announcement? That announcement reaches the Ruh of a person, and whoever’s Ruh is able to take the message on board, he will respond to it and do Amal on it. We will be able to see this today, and I have seen people doing Amal on this from Maghrib. I have seen womenfolk and menfolk doing Amal on this from Maghrib, with the Fadhl of Allah. Brothers, people of Iman are present in the world – they have not all disappeared. Those people are not wasting time.
What is the announcement of Allah? Whatever it is, we will do Amal upon it. ‘Is there anybody there?’ – SubhanAllah. ‘Is there anybody there? Is anyone’s Ruh alive? Is there anyone who does Dhikr morning and evening? Is there anyone whose Ruh is strong enough to hear My announcement?’ Allah is saying this tonight – ‘Is there anyone there listening to Me?’ Allahu Akbar. Allah ta’ala announces ‘Is there anybody there who is listening to My words?’ If we reply ‘What is it, oh Allah? What are You saying?’, then Allah ta’ala says ‘I want to give you something on this night, something that is very essential and necessary and valuable for you. I want to give you this very important thing, without which there is no Deen and no Dunya.’ If you do not acquire it, your Rabb will be displeased with you, and problems and destruction and diseases like Corona are all the result of Allah ta’ala’s displeasure. When Allah ta’ala is unhappy, that is when we see destruction coming to people’s lives. Allah ta’ala says ‘Because you are the Ummah of My beloved, I have this message for you today.’ What is that message? Allah ta’ala is saying ‘Is there anyone there who will ask Me for forgiveness? If so, I will give him forgiveness!’ Allahu Akbar – SubhanAllah! ‘Ask Me!’ Allah says.
‘Is there anybody there who has analysed himself?’ Who is saying this? Allah! Allah is saying ‘Oh foolish people – I am your Rabb, so I know you. Your have only a very short time left – a very, very short amount of time remains for you. Don’t place your hopes in being young, or in being wealthy – you don’t know if your name has been cut off the list. If your name has been cut off the list, then your situation will come to an end very soon – you don’t know. You think you are healthy, but I can change that situation. If you have an accident, then your life will come to an end, or perhaps another disease will come to you which will make you ill and then you will die. So listen to what I am saying – be focused and attentive now. You are going towards Jahannam due your disobedience and sins and excesses and stupidity. You have destroyed yourself and are running towards the fire of Jahannam. You are burning, and I, your Rabb who is present in front of you right now, am giving you an opportunity; I am giving you a chance, so come, come! Ask Me for forgiveness. You have committed sins, but whatever you have done – Zina, murder, alcohol – come to Me tonight to ask for forgiveness, and I will forgive all of your sins!’ SubhanAllah.
This is the objective of tonight. This is the biggest Ibadah of tonight, but we reject it and put it in our back pocket, and instead we do Nafl and read Qur’an and do Sajdah and Tasbeehs. Oh foolish people, oh mad people, go toward the genuine purpose of this night! If we don’t ask for forgiveness, how will we get success? Tell me. If we are not forgiven, how will we get success? This is an unrestricted opportunity, an open playing field – Allah ta’ala says ‘Whatever you ask forgiveness for, I will forgive you.’ Whatever condition you are in and however dirty you are, even if you have committed sins and excesses all life long, don’t worry, Allah will forgive you. Allah ta’ala is saying ‘Come – if you ask Me for forgiveness, I will give you forgiveness.’
This is the purpose, and whoever has done this action tonight can sleep with ease, for he has obtained the objective of tonight, SubhanAllah. He has obtained it absolutely, 100%. The Ruhs that will hear this message are those which are clean and fresh. If they are clean and pure, they will hear this message and there is no way they will go to sleep tonight without asking for Allah’s forgiveness – no way. What is the method to make this Tawbah? It is a very simple, easy method that will take no more than two minutes. Look, in the world, if a human being goes to a court, he has to bring witnesses and signed statements and documents and a solicitor and lawyers, but Allah says ‘The situation between Me and you is such that I don’t need a witness, and I don’t need proofs. All I need is for you to come to Me to ask for forgiveness, and I will say that I have forgiven you. That’s it!’ SubhanAllah. Can we have this and still be going to Jahannam? Allah will say ‘I gave you this night of Sha’ban, and despite this, are you still going into Jahannam? Oh foolish person, did you waste that night?’
You need three things when you ask for forgiveness – remember this: three things. You need regret, you need courage and determination, and you need steadfastness, SubhanAllah – and these depend on the fourth thing, which is Rahmah, the mercy of Allah. SubhanAllah. Firstly, you need regret – what is regret? You need to feel remorse and shame and think ‘Oh, I pestered that girl! Oh, I dishonoured that person! Oh, I swore at that person! What a bad thing I did when I slapped that person today.’ That feeling is called regret, remorse, self-consciousness, when the realisation awakens within you that you oppressed someone or did a bad thing. When you go to bed at night, you feel ashamed about what you have done. If you think ‘Oh, I wish I had not left that prayer in the morning’ that feeling of sadness is called regret or remorse. This is a fantastic feeling, for it is a sign that your Ruh is awake – remember this. If it is me or you, we should say ‘Oh, I regret the Salah that I missed! From tomorrow, I will definitely go to Fajr Salah.’ Allah ta’ala likes this so much, because it shows that this human being is at least not stubborn – he has regret and shame for his actions. He has remorse.
But if you say to someone ‘Have you prayed Salah, brother?’ and he says ‘Who are you to tell me to pray Salah? Look after yourself! Do you think you are someone special that you can tell me?’ You say ‘Sorry, brother, I just wanted to share the importance of this with you’, but no, he won’t listen because there is no effect on that person. He is busy running around in the Dunya, looking after his shops and businesses and houses, so he doesn’t even feel as if he is missing out on anything. He has no regret. Tonight, we need to be people who have regret and remorse, and say ‘Oh Allah, I am ashamed and regretful in front of You. I am ashamed of the dirty life that I have lived.’ If shaytan comes in and says ‘No, no, no – you are pious and good’, put him behind you and say ‘I am speaking with Allah tonight, so go away shaytan. Allah knows my Salah, He knows my Dhikr, He knows everything about me. Who are you, shaytan, to be giving me advice? No, I am presenting myself as a thief in front of Allah subhana wa ta'ala – He knows about my feelings and the dirty actions that I do. Allah says not to do something, and I do it. He tells me not to start the day with a sin, and I start the day with a sin, and then I do the same until evening comes, and then my night passes full of sin. Until I have done those sinful actions, I don’t feel sleepy at night. I am always opposing what Allah says. But today Allah ta’ala has given me an opportunity! Oh, Allah, I feel ashamed and remorseful, and I regret these actions!’ That is the condition of regret.
What is the second condition for Tawbah that we need to do today? Number one is regret, and number two is determination and courage – drive. You need drive. When regret and remorse come, then the second factor you need to include in your Dua is ‘Oh Allah, whatever sins I have done, I leave them from today.’ SubhanAllah. What do we need for this? Determination and a strong sense of purpose. On one side is Jahannam, so that person says ‘Oh Allah, I am determined to avoid this.’ Who can do this? A person who is brave and courageous. A person who does not express this in front of Allah is a coward. The most brave and courageous person today is he who admits to Allah ‘Oh Allah, shaytan has influenced me wrongly, and I am ashamed. I promise that from now on, I will not do this action.’ This is Tawbah, and without this, there is no Tawbah – remember this. So become a real human being, man-up, and say ‘There is no way that I am going to do this action again.’ If we make this promise today, it doesn’t matter what happens tomorrow.
The third thing, which comes after determination and courage, is steadfastness, Istaqamat. Say ‘I am ashamed, Oh Allah, and I promise that I will not do this sin again. I leave this sin from now and will not do it again after today.’ This is Istaqamat, that you intend to stay firm on leaving the sin going forward. These are three big steps, alhamdulillah, and you are engaged in a very great discussion right now. If you have remorse and shame, and are determined that from today, you will leave this sin, then you will say ‘Oh Allah, after today, I will not shave my beard and I won’t cut my beard. I won’t do that sin, and I won’t steal, and I won’t drink alcohol, and I won’t pester and look at women, and I won’t listen to music and singing.’ You are making this promise to Allah. ‘I won’t take anyone’s money, and I won’t do such sins again.’
And the fourth thing is very valuable. You have said to Allah that you won’t do this again, and even though you smoked cannabis or drank alcohol, Allah ta’ala has sent you to the Masjid on this night of Sha’ban, with your defects – so say it! If a person says ‘I won’t do it again’, even though he knows that it will be difficult for him, then he will find this fourth element very brilliant. If he is ashamed and says that he will leave the sin and will not do it again after today, then what is the fourth element? Allah’s Rahmah, Allah’s mercy – SubhanAllah. After making all the promises, still a person cannot see how he will be saved, but Allah says ‘I am with you, helping you!’ SubhanAllah. Allah says that when you make this promise to Him like this, He won’t just save you, but inshaAllah, Allah’s Rahmah will come onto that person, and in this way, shaytan cannot weaken that person afterwards.
So we must spend this night like this, my brothers. Do these actions, and then pray two Rakahs of Nafl Salah in gratitude and hope for Allah’s mercy. Say ‘Oh Allah, I have taken these steps and have made these promises, and I don’t know whether I will be able to repeat these steps again tomorrow’, and then Allah will say ‘You have made this promise today, so I have forgiven all of your sins. I am your Rabb, so if I can forgive you today, I can forgive you tomorrow as well!’ Don’t waste this night tonight, thinking ‘Oh, I’m going to do it again tomorrow’ – don’t worry. Forget about what may happen tomorrow and resolve that we will not leave the Masjid today until we have made these promises and done these actions. That is it – that is the biggest Ibadah tonight. Allah ta’ala Himself says that this is the Ibadah.
I will tell you a Sahih Hadith, which I or some respected scholar may have told you before, in which Hadhrat Aisha Siddiqua radhiAllahu anha states ‘One night, my Mehboob, my beloved husband Nabi al-Karim sallallahu alayhi wasallam was lying down next to me, and he thought that I was sleeping.’ How could she have felt sleepy when her beloved was not at rest and content? So she said ‘He thought that I was asleep, so the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam moved quietly from the bed’ – this is the meaning of the Hadith that I am relating to you – ‘and he got up very slowly and left. He tiptoed to the door very slowly so that I would not realise. Then he gently opened the door, went through it, and closed it behind him very gently again. So I thought to myself ‘What is going on tonight? What is happening – where is Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam going in the middle of the night so quietly?’
Obviously, the thought must have come into her mind that he may have been going to another wife or household, but in any case, she also got up quietly and followed. Where did the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam go? To Jannat-ul-Baqi – listen to this Hadith. He went to Jannat-ul-Baqi – these are the words about this night. He went there and he did the action that he went to do and then headed back, and he saw Hadhrat Aisha Siddiqua radhiAllahu anha on the way. He said ‘Aisha? You have no need to ask what I was doing – I will tell you. Gibreel alayhi salam came to me with a message from Allah telling me what Amal to do on this night. He came and told me that today is the 15th night of Sha’ban, and that I should go to Jannat-ul-Baqi and do Dua Maghfirah for all the Shuhada of Uhud.’ Say SubhanAllah. This Hadith has come to us, so what do we need to do? Maghfirah – ask for forgiveness, do Tawbah, repent!
Another point that comes out here is that is that me and you should not just be seeking forgiveness for ourselves – no, no, no. Today, even the deceased are waiting to see if somebody makes Dua for their forgiveness and for their salvation. My mother, my friend, my father, my uncle, the people who played with me and sat with me and drank with me – have you forgotten them? You don’t know what condition they are in now – their books have shut, and they cannot say ‘Allah’ once now; they can’t say ‘SubhanAllah’ anymore. Alhamdulillah, you can read the whole Qur’an now, and you read Surah YaSeen over and over again, and all the Kalimaat as much as you like. They, on the other hand, are desperate and cannot utter a word, and are thinking ‘Is there anyone who will pray for me? Where has my son gone, for whom I used to do so much? Where is my daughter who I used to love so much? I left the Deen for them and wasted my time through my love for them, and there was nothing that I did not give them. Oh Allah, I left You for the sake of my children, so is there anyone now who will seek my salvation?’ Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam said ‘Go brothers, in this night – yes, there is the opportunity to be forgiven yourself, but don’t forget the people that you knew.’ This is the second action that we are called to tonight. My brothers, after seeking your own forgiveness, don’t go to sleep until you bring to mind the name of every single deceased person you can think of, and seek forgiveness for that person, saying ‘Ya Allah, forgive this person; Ya Allah, forgive that person.’
And in my experience, when you start making Dua for other people, the names of so many friends of yours from your childhood will come into your mind and you will be amazed that you had forgotten them up to now. You won’t just remember your mother and father; when you get into this emotion of asking for forgiveness, Allah will remind you of many people, and faces will come into your mind. You will remember a person who once gave you water when you were young, or who gave you a book to read, or who played with you, or said something to you, and their very faces will come into your mind. You will remember the person with whom you used to pray Salah in the Masjid, the person who used to say Salam to you on the way. Allah is Karim, and He does not want to let any Mu’min go to Jahannam – He doesn’t like that. This is the 15th night of Sha’aban – why would Allah give this night otherwise? Do you understand what I am saying, my brothers? That is the second Ibadah.
So what do we need to do? We need to know what work we should do and what is innovation - Bid’ah - on this night. We might think we have to go to the graveyard, but SubhanAllah, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam only went once in his life. We go there and make noise and there is clamour and give rice and food – Allah knows best what happens at these events, for I have never been myself. These are the directions that shaytan leads us in, but rather, the message that has been given to us is that because the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam went to the graveyard to ask for Maghfirah for the people in their graves, the Ummah would know that when this night comes, they would themselves do this Ibadah for their beloved friends who have died, so that, when Allah had forgiven them, they wouldn’t be selfish and would also make Dua for salvation and forgiveness for those people who had favoured them in the world. We forget those who did us favours, but we should ask for their forgiveness and salvation – your Ustadh, your friend, your Mashaaikh. These are great personalities. A person who taught you just one word of the Qur’an is your Ustadh, your teacher, and the status of an Ustadh is greater than you can imagine, so you cannot conceive of the rank of the Ustadh of the Qur’an. A person should bow and give his body in the service of that person who taught him the Name of Allah - the Kalimah that he taught him will be the cause of his forgiveness.
My brothers, we don’t look towards these A’maal because our Ruhs are dead. Hajj after Hajj is performed, and tickets for Umrah after Umrah are bought, and the heels of our shoes are worn out from our trips over there, but the Ibadaat of our Akhlaq are so valuable and are very high indeed. However, these are only performed when the Ruh is fresh and clean.
Now listen to a third thing as well. I am summarising all these points for you because I know that we do not understand it in its entirety, so we should know that it is not necessary for us to bop up and down and struggle and strive. We just need to do the actions that will bring us forgiveness – everyone has their approach and style, and this is my approach to such nights. Come fresh to the Masjid in the morning and pray Fajr Salah and after that, do Dhikr and read Qur’an. The night will have been spent in the best way and you will have a new lease of life. You will be like a new-born baby as soon as you do Tawbah; that person is like an angel at that time. As soon as you do these actions, you will be as pure as a baby that has just been born from the womb of the mother.
Have Yaqeen on the words of Allah – read Surah al-Mumtahinah. Allah ta’ala says ‘Oh My Nabi, when the believing women come to you’ – SubhanAllah – ‘give them Bai’ah and accept their Tawbah.’ How should we do this? Allah says to take a promise from them that they will pray Salah and fast and will not do bad actions. And when you have made the promise, what should you do? What a great reward, and today that same reward comes – Allah tells His Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam to make Dua for those people. Who tells us this? I am reading the Qur’an here, not doing some other action. In the Qur’an, Allah ta’ala is saying to His Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam ‘Make Dua for them!’ This is the reward for their great action of Tawbah. So when we do Tawbah today, SubhanAllah, from the Ruh of the Qur’an in Madinah, those hands will be raised for you and Allah’s Habeeb sallallahu alayhi wasallam will say ‘Allah, you have forgiven them, so I now make Dua for these people.’ The Qur’an is telling us this. When Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam raises his hands for that individual who has done Tawbah and asks Allah to forgive him, tell me, what will be the Maqam of that person? Tawbah is a great action, my brothers. After that, Allah ta’ala says
{إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ غَفُورٌ۬ رَّحِيمٌ۬}
Allah is saying ‘This person is doing Tawbah, and, My Mehboob, you have raised your hands, so I am Allah! Listen – if he asks for forgiveness and you are requesting on his behalf, then I am Ghafur – I forgive all of his sins!’
So brothers, do we want to do this action? This is not a speech or a lecture that I am giving; I am telling you that I have to do this, and you have to do this. Will we do this? Will we just come and pass the night and then feel happy in the morning and say that we celebrated the night? What is the celebration? The actions I have mentioned are the celebration! That’s it – we will be successful. Otherwise we will carry on like monkeys and animals, telling ourselves that we can spend the night however we want, just wasting time and being bone idle.
SubhanAllah – Allah says {غَفُورٌ۬ رَّحِيمٌ۬} – ‘I have forgiven.’ And how has Allah forgiven? Allah ta’ala says ‘Go and tell those places where he committed the sins to forget that he committed sins in that place!’ The earth will be told to forget. This is the way that Allah forgives, not like a magistrate or judge, who says ‘Ok, I have let him off, but make a record of this offence.’ No, Allah ta’ala wipes away the records. Allah says ‘I am not just Ghafoor, but also Rahim – Merciful!’ What is Allah’s Rahmah? Allah says ‘My Rahmah is such that I want to give him reward on top of the forgiveness. I give him reward for his Tawbah!’ SubhanAllah - he was a wrongdoer, but he is getting a reward. What reward does Allah give? Allah says to the angels ‘Gather together all of his sins and bring them to Me. Collect all the sins together and then transform them into good deeds!’ How long will it take you to acquire all of this? You won’t have to remain in Sujood all night long – how long? Two minutes! That’s it – two minutes. Will we do this action, my brothers? It will take just two minutes.
And remember, we are all very sinful. Don’t think ‘Oh Allah, I do not need to do this. I am very pious – I am Hadhrat Sahib, I am Pir Sahib, I am this or that person. I am not sinful. All those sat around are sinful, but I am not.’ We say this, don’t we? We think ‘He is dirty, he is a thief, I am a Namazi, he’s this, he’s that.’ My brothers, look at yourself and think ‘I am the worst, and everyone else is better than me. I am the criminal.’ That is when a person goes to the Court of Allah and is accepted.
So do these two actions, and the third action comes when Allah ta’ala announces ‘I have forgiven everybody!’ So much forgiveness is spread that Jahannam will become cool – that is the forgiveness that Allah ta’ala will distribute tonight. But Allah has put an Ajeeb condition – this is also a message, so listen to this. These are the principles of tonight – I am sharing Hadiths with you. Allah says ‘I have forgiven all those who have done Tawbah, but if a person has committed a certain type of a sin and has not repented from it, then I will not forgive that person.’ What is that sin? It is such a sin that it is the root of all sins. So Allah ta’ala puts everything to one side and says ‘If you do Tawbah for that sin today, you will be forgiven as well’ – but that sin must be specifically thought about and admitted on his tongue, because Allah ta’ala has said ‘I have mentioned this sin specifically, because if he doesn’t do Tawbah from this sin, then it doesn’t matter what else he does – I won’t forgive him. Even tonight, I will not forgive him.’
What is that sin? Listen carefully to the sin and how to clean oneself of it. What a big message we are getting today, but people say ‘What’s happening? Why do they do this on this night?’ Listen carefully about tonight. What is that sin? Allah ta’ala specifies it. May Allah forgive us – we are all immersed in that sin; we can see that from our condition. Our situation betrays this. We have a Mihrab on the forehead to show how many times we prostrate, and our feet have marks from repeated worship, and we call each other Hajji Sahib and do this and that Ibadah, but these scenes do not leave us. We can remove them – if we bring a cat into the house, it will leave remove the mice. But if we just say ‘Cat, cat, cat!’, the mice will stay right where they are! If you don’t take the steps to remove the sins from your life, they stay right there – how will they leave? So today, make a special focus upon this sin. What is the sin, my brothers? Allah says ‘I will forgive all sins, but unless you specifically seek forgiveness for one particular sin, I will not forgive.’ Allah tells us the sin: malice! To harbour malice against somebody in your heart - hatred, envy, malice. If you feel ‘This person is this or that’, this is called malice if there are deep-rooted evil thoughts against that person in your heart. Malice is when you have evil whispers about someone and you harbour bad thoughts about them. And another thing that comes from malice is Hasad – envy. This is the root of all sins. Envy, backbiting, jealously, murder – these all start from malice and hatred. If a person does Tawbah from malice and hatred, then in a way, he has eradicated all the sins from the depths of his heart. Allah ta’ala has selected this sin of malice as the one which we have to eradicate from our hearts tonight.
My brothers, this is a very big message from Allah, so listen carefully to what I am saying. Allah ta’ala has given us the Tariqah, the method, to eliminate the sins of the heart. Allah says {وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ ٱلۡكِتَـٰبَ وَٱلۡحِكۡمَةَ وَيُزَكِّيہِمۡ}. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam brought three things – the Kitab, Hikmah and Tazkiyah. SubhanAllah, we have got the Kitab; and today, we have also got the Hikmah, which is the Sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and the Shari’ah; and the third thing? The third thing is Tazkiyah { وَيُزَكِّيہِمۡ} – but we don’t have this in our lives. We think ‘Oh, Pir Sahib does that, whatever it is – he knows better, that is his business.’ But these three things are the basis of the Deen: Kitab; Hikmah – Sunnah and Shari’ah; and Tazkiyah – the cleansing and purification of the Nafs. Remember this. So the Hukm that comes tonight is that you have to clean yourself within - both your heart and your Nafs. If you clean yourself, then the malice and the envy will be eradicated; but if you don’t clean yourself, then when you come to Allah with this sin, He will give a very severe reprimand and treatment, because this is the root of all sins.
Having malice and hatred for someone is lying about them and loathing them and having evil thoughts about them – malice is such a thing that your heart is full of bad thoughts about them due to your dislike and hatred. As soon as he leaves, you start speaking critically ‘Look at that person – what does he think he is doing?’ You criticise him without any reason due to this malice embedded in your mind – whereas actually that person is not like that. Evil thoughts have become embedded in your heart and mind, and this happens amongst ourselves – brothers, sisters, relatives, children, friends – because this has spread. When you have this sin within you, it stays there because you don’t do Tazkiyah. We are all patients with this sickness, all of us - the Abid, the Alim, the Zahid, everyone. The only person who can purify himself from this is he who works hard on it, and the hard work that is needed is Tazkiyah, purification. We say ‘Oh, I have no need for this – I can do it myself. I have no need to do it.’ No way – this cannot be. We have to work hard, and Allah ta’ala has given us a message tonight to do Tazkiyah, to clean yourself within if you want to ask forgiveness properly. So today, we have to make Niyyah that ‘Oh Allah ta’ala, from today I will take steps towards this, and because I want to clean my whole life, I will do Tazkiyah.’ Will we do this, brothers? InshaAllah.
So with these three things, the total Deen has come – alhamdulillah. In the morning, there will be a new lease of life - life will have changed. Make Dua and do Tawbah to Allah, saying ‘Oh Allah, I do these sins, so please forgive me!’ After forgiveness, you will become like an angel, alhamdulillah, and then you will automatically start to follow the commands of Allah. Number two - you have to embark upon Tazkiyah, the cleansing of yourself. Find a good person who you regard as pious – don’t go on what other people say, no. Whoever your heart considers to be a pious and good person, then ask him ‘How do you clean yourself and wash yourself internally? How do I do this?’ Shake his hand and ask for guidance – he will explain to you inshaAllah. Why? Who will enable you to do this? It is Allah ta’ala who enables a person to do this – it is not the human being. So whichever person your heart considers to be pious and upright and has love for you, even though he doesn’t even think he is good himself, when you go to him, Allah ta’ala will assist you and help you and will make that human being a means of guidance for you. He will assist you and automatically, he will become a doctor for you and will say such words to you that will have a very good effect upon you and benefit you.
This is also a very simple path. Don’t seek with your own choice – rather, leave it to Allah. Say ‘Oh Allah, show me the person that I should go to’, and then you will start to like that person’s words and will want to sit next to him. When such a person comes into your heart, immediately grab hold of that person’s company – I am giving you reference to Hadith here. Hold fast to that person’s company as soon as your heart attests, and say to that person ‘I want to do my Tazkiyah, so please tell me the Tariqah by which I can clean myself.’ I swear by Allah, he will give you such an easy method that you will be shocked and think ‘My cleansing is taking place so easily!’ Backbiting will be removed – and Allah ta’ala has said that when you start doing this action, even if your sins are not eradicated {سَعۡيُكُم مَّشۡكُورًا}, Allah says ‘When you come back to Me, I appreciate the effort that you made. The effort is what I like – at least you tried hard and stepped forward on that path. I like this effort of yours, and I will give you the same Maqam that you were aiming for in your hard work – I will give you that same result and reward – {سَعۡيُكُم مَّشۡكُورًا}.’
So is the Deen hard, my friends? Is the Deen difficult for any of us? Is anyone stopping us? Is anyone stopping us from working, from doing business, from driving taxis, from having a family life? Is anything being prevented? No. The Deen is very simple and Tawbah is simple to do. After that, Tazkiyah is also a very simple action. Going to a human being is such a simple action and becoming a solid servant of Allah is very simple – this night of Sha’ban is making us into this. Is this not Allah’s Karam? Tell me.
And the final point – please listen to the final point. Why has Allah ta’ala placed this night in Sha’ban? Say SubhanAllah. Why in Sha’ban, when Allah could have placed it in the previous month? Yes? Allah ta’ala could have placed this month in Rajab or in the month before that. Why in the middle of Sha’ban? What is this all about? The answer comes from above, from Allah subhana wa ta'ala. Allah says ‘The reason for this is one, which that your link is with My Mehboob, the one whom I love more than the rest of My Creation. You are in his Ummah, and due to his Sadqah, I gave you this occasion in Sha’ban - and there is no other reason. There is no glory in you, and no feat that you have achieved – just for being in his Ummah, I have placed this night in Sha’ban. Because you are in his Ummah, I have given you this night.’ The reason for choosing this time is this, that after two weeks, a very great month is to come, SubhanAllah, such a month that every night of that month will be like this night of Sha’ban, SubhanAllah. Allahu Akbar – say SubhanAllah. Allahu Akbar – Tarawih prayers, Qur’an, Sadaqaat, Nafl Salah will be weighed like a Fardh, and Fardh salah will be multiplied by seventy. Multiplied and multiplied, all the Thawab will float and fly in the air in that month.
So what a great favour this is! Ask those people who have gone into their graves today, or last month, or this month, who died yesterday, or two days ago; we should be so grateful to Allah that we are still sat here in this night of Sha’ban. Anyone’s time can come – can he not get Corona? Can I not get Corona? Is there anything that can save us? Nothing can save us, for it is Allah’s Hukm. We are commanded to protect ourselves, yes – whoever wears a mask, for example, is fulfilling Allah’s Sunnah, which is to use the means He has provided. Whoever leaves it is in a state of Takabbur, pride, because Allah ta’ala has said ‘I am sending you guidance and precautionary tactics, so by using them, that means that you fear Me.’ This does not mean that we should think these things will save us, no. Who can save us, ultimately? Allah can save us – but we must use the means available. If I take a Panadol, it is not the tablet that will save me from the pain – what can Panadol cure? Allah is the One who cures. So why do I take Panadol? Because Allah ta’ala says ‘Utilise the means that I have given to you.’ Say SubhanAllah.
Every sickness can be eliminated, but it can only be eliminated by Allah. It cannot even come to you without permission of Allah – it is Allah who sends, and Allah who removes. Allah gives the means, so by adopting the means, you are actually implementing what Allah ta’ala has instructed. You are turning to Allah and saying ‘Oh Allah, I am totally at a loss and am incapable. Only You can save me – without You, I cannot be saved.’ That is what is meant by using the means, the Sabab. Using the Sabab means ‘Oh Allah, I am coming towards You. I have no power myself.’ If we reject the means, we are saying ‘Oh, I am big – I don’t need this; I don’t need these solutions.’ Is there a difference? There is a big difference in those two ways of thinking. The person who doesn’t use the means is saying ‘Oh, I am independent’, but the difference in those who do use the means is that they have bowed and they have submitted. Is this not the case? A person’s actions automatically tell us these things. So when you utilise the means of protection for any sickness, this means that you are turning to Allah. You are saying to Allah ‘Oh Allah, I am weak – I have no protection. Without Your Fadhl, I am gone.’
Do you understand what I am saying, my brothers? What is it? Allahu Akbar – Allah ta’ala has given us this night of Sha’ban because Ramadhan is coming, that great month in which such days and nights come – just imagine! Allah ta’ala is saying ‘I did not want you to come to Me in Ramadhan in a dirty state’ – Allahu Akbar. ‘I did not want that you should come to My Masjid and to My Qur’an in an impure state. So what did you get? I desired to clean you two weeks beforehand to make you totally pure.’ SubhanAllah - that is why this night has come in the middle of Sha’ban. So whoever has washed and taken the bath of Tawbah today, whoever has asked Allah for forgiveness and removed his sins, whoever has made a promise to Allah that he will do Tazkiyah, saying ‘Oh Allah, I promise that I will do Tazkiyah and clean myself. I will cleanse my heart and purify my Nafs – I promise I will do this, oh Allah, and I will seek Your forgiveness.’ SubhanAllah, such a person is then totally ready for Ramadhan – totally. Every night of Ramadhan will be like the 15th of Sha’ban – he will attain Laylat-ul-Qadr and will get fantastic things. So this 15th night of Sha’ban is preparation. The objective is that we are preparing - for what? For the nights of Ramadhan that are to come. That’s it – chapter closed.
We are all sat here, so shall we go home now? I have given the Bayan, so shall we go home? Do you feel like going home? What a bad thing that would be! You have come to Allah ta’ala’s home and you have been given a great reward – Allah has forgiven us and has eliminated our sins, and Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam has raised his hands for us, so should we now just lift our heads and go home? Ajeeb Insan – only a weird person would do this. We have to repay the favour with a favour – and can such a favour be repaid? Allah, the Most Merciful of the merciful says ‘Whenever you ask something from Me and I give it to you, then first and foremost you have to send Hamd to Me and send Durood on My Habeeb – then I will accept that.’ Allahu Akbar – SubhanAllah. Say SubhanAllah loudly! So before we go, we should at least do an action - do Dhikrullah! Make Niyyah now – why are we doing Dhikr? ‘Oh Allah, we are praising You, we are doing Your Hamd so that You are happy. We are doing Your Hamd because we are grateful to You because You have given us a great reward, and we are sending Durood upon Your Habeeb sallallahu alayhi wasallam.’ For these two gifts, Allah ta’ala says ‘After you have done this action, whatever you ask for, I will give to you!’
So it is your choice – do you want to go, or do you want to do Dhikr? Say it loudly! Will you do Dhikr with happiness now? Or will you think ‘Oh no, I have to do Dhikr now and it is late.’ What have you got to do when you get home? Tell me. First praise Allah, and then depart. Recite those Kalimaat which Allah ta’ala holds very dear – HasbunAllahu wa Ni’ma-l-Wakeel, La Hawla wa La Quwwata illa bi-llah, La ilaha illa Anta Subhanaka Inni Kuntu min-adh-Dhalimeen. The value of this last one is such that it is from Hadhrat Yunus alayhi salam – we are sat here in comfort, but where did Hadhrat Yunus alayhi salam recite this? He recited this in intense darkness – how valuable this Kalimah has become! How great a Kalimah this must be in that, due to the Sadqah of our Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam, we have got this Kalimah in the Qur’an. And we can sit here in comfort and recite it and we will get the same reward that Yunus alayhi salam attained and was given. On what night are we to recite this? The night of Sha’ban! La Hawla wa la Quwwata illa bi-llah – what a great Kalimah. There is a stone pillar that is beneath the Arsh, and when a person recites this Kalimah, that pillar attached to the Arsh starts to shake!
My brothers, we have got these things so easily that we don’t value them or appreciate them. We should recite these every day and every night. SubhanAllahi wa bi-Hamdihi SubhanAllahi-l-Adheem – ask Imam Bukhari the value of this. He completed the Bukhari Hadith collection with this Kalimah. What a great Kalimah, light upon the tongue but so beloved to Allah - and we will recite it with ease. Tell me! And what are the rewards for it? It is stated that when the servant recites this, the gap between the heavens and the earth is filled with Noor, filled with light – and we get it so easily! But we say ‘Oh no, what should I read? What is the purpose of this?’ SubhanAllah, wal-Hamdulillah, wa La ilaha illa-llahu, wa-llahu Akbar – this is such a great Kalimah that Allah ta’ala says that its excellence is comparable to the Qur’an, in that a person who cannot recite the Qur’an can read this Kalimah and get the same Thawab. Imagine! I am telling you here what comes in Hadith.
SubhanAllah, through the Karam of Allah, every day in the morning and evening we do this action - every day! But due to your houses and your shops and your businesses, nobody comes. Nobody comes – the place is empty. Tomorrow, this gathering will complain and say ‘Oh Allah, they used to eat Your Rizq and consume Your wealth and earn money, but they did not have the Tawfeeq to recite these Kalimahs that were available in the gathering!’ It is not my strength and it is not your strength and it is not the Masjid’s strength; rather, it is Allah Fadhl and mercy that in this town, Allah has given these Kalimaat morning and evening. Am I doing this? Am I hosting this? Is it my energy that enables this, or is it the Masjid that enables this? Where are those people who are meant to be here? Where are they? Twenty or twenty-five years ago, why were these Kalimahs not commonly heard here? But once Allah ta’ala enables, then not one day or night passes without these Kalimaat being recited in this Masjid. Are we not reciting these Kalimaat tonight? Tell me. These A’maal of Allah are very beloved indeed. This Masjid is Allah’s, our homes are Allah’s, our shops are Allah’s – everything is Allah’s. Which of Allah’s Makhluq can initiate or enable Kalimaat as valuable as these? Can anyone in Creation?
These are great Ni’mahs that Allah ta’ala has given in this Masjid – Allah ta’ala has given freedom! Allah ta’ala has made this a centre and invites people to come, morning and evening, to recite these Kalimaat. Allah explains in the Qur’an that He gives Hukm to allow oceans and rivers to flow, and He also invites people to come in the mornings and evenings to do His Dhikr; and Allah enables these oceans and rivers to flow, but we have to come and dive into the water. Do you make excuses for not doing Dhikrullah? Allah says ‘Don’t look at the human being and worry about who is or who isn’t hosting the gatherings; rather, look at My Kalimaat. Look at what is being recited and read. Come running towards these Kalimaat when they are being recited, because if you don’t come, I have no worry and concern about it.’ It is stated in Hadith that when these Kalimaat are recited, so many angels gather between the heavens and that place on the earth that a person cannot imagine the number. The whole gap between the heavens and the earth is filled right now with angels reciting. And you think that it is us who are running this Dunya? This is the food of the angels, and they have filled the gap between the heavens and the earth right now to partake in the Dhikr that will take place.
So many Jinnaat also come to this Dhikr – Jinnaat! Wallahi, I am sat in the Masjid – so many are sat here. Jinn have told me themselves – and I have told this to you now. SubhanAllah. One told me ‘So many of our tribes come when Dhikr takes place, from far and wide’, and he said ‘My uncle is from the time of the Tabi’een’ - they live long lives! My brothers, these are the Makhluq of Allah, and this is their Rizq. I swear by Allah, this is a great action. If someone says ‘Oh, Pir Sahib is saying this to make Mureeds and increase his Jamat’, then who have I made a Mureed? Why should I make Mureeds? Do I have time in my life to make Mureeds? I don’t have long enough in life to make Mureeds – and what do they give to me? A car? A house? What? I have got the same house I always had, the same carpet – I have got nothing to my name, nothing. Why should I run after people and make groups and lists of people? What need do I have for this? Is there any need that I have in the Dunya to make lists of people and groups? This is not the situation.
Allah ta’ala selects somebody when He wants the work of the Deen to be done so that the Makhluq are given the invitation. And then whoever’s Ruh is alive, they run to the Dhikr of Allah and sit down – SubhanAllah. But people say ‘Oh no, no – Dhikr is not important. He will get kidnapped – he’s going to the wrong gathering.’ Brothers, the greatness of these Kalimaat is accepted by every group and school of thought in the Deen – all agree upon this. There is no difference of opinion, no Tariqah, nothing – the Qur’an itself says that Masjids have been made for Dhikrullah! The Qur’an says this, and Allah also says ‘Beware, beware! When you come to My Masjid, don’t leave My Dhikr.’ Is this not a verse of the Qur’an? Tell me. Allah ta’ala says ‘Beware if you come to My House and you stop the Dhikr of Allah. There will be punishments. I made Masjids for Dhikrullah!’ Isn’t this the case? Tell me.
Brothers, this is a great action! Will you come to Dhikr or not? Tell me. Yes? It is not my Dhikr; it is not my gathering. If I go, somebody else will host Dhikr. Somebody who Allah selects will do it – remember this. Nobody can do it from his own volition. If I try my hardest, I cannot do it. Don’t think that this will stop. This is a great action and there is great Rizq in this. When it is time for Salah, close your shops, and when it is time for Dhikr, just put your life on hold for thirty or forty minutes to recite the Kalimaats, and then leave. These are the messages of this night of Sha’ban – this is the Ibadah that I am telling you about. This is the Ibadah. Do you understand what I am saying? This is the Ibadah that we have to do.
May Allah ta’ala give us all the Tawfeeq. Ameen.
Come, let us do Dhikr for a short while, and then after Dhikr, we will do Dua, and then go and sleep and rest.
4th Apr, 2021
سبحان اللہ حضرت صاحب کے
ساتھ کیسے بات ہو سکتیُ ہے ؟؟
دوبارہ بیعت کرنی ہے دوبارہ توبہ کرنی ہے
Alhamdulillah, this great night that Allah ta’ala has given to us, the 15th night of Sha’ban, is a special grace and Karam from Allah upon this Ummah. Due to the Sadqah of His Habeeb sallallahu alayhi wasallam, Allah ta’ala has given such rewards and has reserved such treasures for this Ummah, the likes of which were not given to previous Ummahs. What is the purpose for which Allah ta’ala has given us this night? Let us understand this purpose, because if this night is wasted, then it is a big loss. Allah ta’ala makes everything for a purpose, and if a human being uses something for the purpose for which it is intended, then the full benefit of that thing is acquired. If, however, you don’t know what the objective is, and you don’t implement that thing according to its purpose, then that time or that item or that thing has been wasted.
The fact is that this is a very precious moment in time – very much so – and Allah ta’ala’s Karam and mercy upon this Ummah means that Allah doesn’t want to put us into great difficulty. Allah ta’ala doesn’t want to give us a big trial or a big difficulty or a big issue. The objective of this night is not that we have to stay awake all night; and the objective is not that we do Ibadah all night long; and the objective is also not that you put yourself through big Mujahidah and strenuous effort. If you obtain the objective, these things are Nur ‘ala Nur – but the objective itself lasts only two minutes. The objective takes just two minutes – this is the night that Allah ta’ala has given to us. If we understand and attain that objective in those two minutes, then we will not just benefit now, but rather after death, this will bring you Paradise. For this, you have to give just two minutes proper attention. As for the rest, alhamdulillah, if a person stays awake after attaining that objective and recites Qur’an or prays Nawafil, then that is being grateful to Allah and you can do as much as you want. But if we do not attain that objective and spend all night trying to seek other objectives, then in reality we will have wasted the objective of this night.
Look, Allah ta’ala has Himself said about this night, and you will have heard this, and the respected scholars will also have told you about the benefits of this night – so what is this night? Often people will ask ‘What Ibadah should we do on this night? Which Nafl should we pray? Which action should we do to attain success?’ But Allah, through His Karam and His bounty, doesn’t want to put us into difficulty and stress. There are just two things we need to think about: why we have been given this night in Sha’ban, and secondly, what we should do on this night. That’s it – that’s all. And this is not a matter where there is difference of opinion and this or that person doesn’t accept, and it is a matter for argument – this is not the situation. When Allah ta’ala wants to give, then everybody agrees about that thing and nobody can reject it. There is no rejection and there is no basis for rejection. Every person can attain it.
However, shaytan, the accursed devil, wants to attain his objective as well, and in order to divert us from these two minutes that comprise the objective of the night, what actions does he not make us do in this night. He promotes such Bid’aat and all sorts of actions, saying ‘That is it – this is the objective of this night.’ He says to put up lights and set off fireworks – not here, but in our home countries, it is as if a storm is brewing. Some people are setting up lights, others are cooking food, all sorts of Masa’il are put forward, and big gatherings are convened in the Masjids. By means of all of this, what does shaytan do? He twists the Deen in front of a person and thereby eliminates the objective.
In a Sahih Hadith, an agreed-upon Hadith, Hadhrat Aisha Siddiqua radhiAllahu anha reports what happens in this night and what Ibadah should be done – this is a Sahih Hadith. I told you that if you have courage and determination, you could do this every night – and Allah would like it if you did this every night. But we should do it on this night, and if we do not, and just carry on doing other actions and staying awake, then we will not attain the real purpose of this night. What is that, my brothers? This is a Sahih Hadith. This night starts after Maghrib, and what happens – remember this - is that as nights such as these progress, they give rise to a different intensity and effect – and we will feel this later when we come to what we are sat here for at this moment in time, which is Allah’s Dhikr. And then we go into the depths of the night, and get to the good time, the proper time, the genuine time - Allah especially likes that portion when most of the night has gone. Allah says ‘When My servant is on his own, alone with Me, when he is awake while everyone else is sleeping, I listen to him.’ Allah ta’ala likes this. So the more you extend this night, the more its value will increase – the value of our call will increase.
Allah ta’ala says that this intensity starts from Maghrib. And the meaning of the Hadith is such that Allah ta’ala shows Himself to people from the heavens – and this is the real objective of this night, so listen. Allah ta’ala comes down to the lowest heaven, and we don’t know what that heaven is physically or how Allah ta’ala descends – we have no idea and no understanding about this, and we are not concerned with that. And then Allah ta’ala calls out and makes an announcement – Allah ta’ala Himself is telling us what we need to do in this night, so there is no room left for disputation or quarrelling. There is nothing to argue about. People say silly things such as ‘Why do you do this?’ and so on, but we should just do this action that Allah subhana wa ta'ala has said. That’s it – straightforward. So Allah calls out with an announcement that continues until Fajr, and if somebody hears now or after an hour or two, how does he hear? It is not the ears that hear, but rather it is the soul of the human being that hears – it is the human being’s Batin that hears.
This is the case for this call that Allah ta’ala makes, and it is also true for the Adhan when it is called, that Adhan which we amplify with loudspeakers so that the sound will travel a long way - which is good. But even if the speakers do not work and the voice does not travel far, the Ruh that is awake will automatically absorb that Adhan. At Salah time, a person whose Ruh is fresh and pure and clean will automatically start feeling desperate. Even if he is at his shop, then that shop will not stay open because he will run to the prayer. However, if that person’s Ruh had been dirty, then he would have stayed in his shop, because his Ruh could not absorb the call of that Adhan. If he is busy in the work of the Dunya and Allah is calling out ‘Come – Come to Salah! Come to the Masjid – there is Falah here, success!’ then it is his Ruh which either does or does not absorb this important message. If I have Iman and I believe in the Qur’an, if I stay where I am despite hearing this message, if I do not go and do not heed the call, then it is not the ears that have not heard, it is the Ruh. It is the Ruh that can absorb the call and the Ruh that has the power. The Ruh of a Mu’min has power, and a person with a Ruh that is fresh and clean and pure, even if the loudspeaker does not reach his ears, he says to himself ‘It is time for Salah, so I must close the shop or stop driving my taxi. I have heard Allah’s call and I must respond.’
I have never in my life seen a person who responds in this way suffering any loss from responding to this call - I also did business all my life. That person whose Ruh is in this condition inside him, as soon as he hears that it is Salah time in the Masjid, he closes up and runs to the Masjid, no matter how busy he is - even if he has customers standing and waiting. I have seen this with my own eyes at Christmas time. Even if he had customers waiting in line, he would immediately close the shutters of his shop, despite the customers and without regard for how busy he was, and go running to the Masjid to pray his Salah and then come back – and all the customers would still be standing there! They wouldn’t even move while he was gone. SubhanAllah, the neighbouring shopkeepers would lament their poor turnover, but his was the best - by the time evening came, his business would have the best turnover.
My brothers, this is about how awake the Ruh is, how clean and pure the soul, the Ruh, the Batin is. This is the glory of a Mu’min that Allah calls him for Salah – in the life of a Mu’min, there is no greater action than Salah. There is nothing greater than Salah in the life of a Mu’min – remember this. The biggest, highest and most elevated thing in a person’s life after Iman, is what? Salah! Salah brings success, Salah brings salvation, Salah is the glory – everything is based upon Salah. Salah is the greatest action. We do many types of Dhikr and we do Tazkiyah and go to a Sheikh, but all of this is preparation for Salah – remember this. Remember - this is all to correct our Salah, so that we become strong and resolute inside. We should not reject this call from Allah in any way, and we should run quickly towards the Masjid at that time. When this emotion is cultivated in a human being, then he can consider that his Iman has become complete. He cares for nothing else, and when the time for his death comes, he will get Jannah beyond Jannah. The feelings inside a human being tell him directly whether he is a Jannati or a person of Jahannam – he can tell himself how his resurrection will go.
He should worry if the condition of his Salah becomes such that he doesn’t come to the Masjid – and all the Salahs have the same ruling. It should not be that at Fajr, only 30 people come, and then at Dhuhr, 100 come, and then at Asr time, 400 come. This is not the basis of Salah. The same criterion applies to all of the prayers - Allah’s call is the same, the Hisab is the same. The human being has to arrive for every Salah in the Masjid. When this condition is acquired, he becomes desperate for each Salah, and when the time for Salah comes, he feels like dropping everything else. Whether he is busy with guests, shop, business, taxi, working, he says, ‘Oh no, I am going to Salah. I don’t care.’ If someone invites him for food, before he accepts, he looks at whether the time will clash with Salah and whether his Salah will be compromised. Remember this: when his feelings and emotions and preparations are like this, he is a solid Muslim, 100%. His Iman is completely firm, even if he looks to you like a frail and insignificant individual who doesn’t do Mujahidah and Adhkar and other extra actions like Hajj or Nawafil. Look at these people who have done Umrah and Hajj one hundred times, but their Salah is being wasted. They remain standing where they are at Salah time and do not go – such a person is a waste of a human being. The basis and criterion of everything is that when Allah calls, the servant runs; whenever the call comes and whatever he is doing, when Allah calls, he says ‘Labayk, Labayk.’ It is the same as the call from Allah when you go on Hajj – Allah calls then as well. At Salah time, everything else finishes, just like when the time for Hajj comes, Allah says ‘Remove your normal clothes and run to Me!’ This Adhan is Allah’s call, and the Muslim who responds is doing the greatest action.
Coming back to what I was saying, it is the Ruh that responds to Allah ta’ala. Allah ta’ala says that it is the Ruh that is responding, and if the Ruh is strong, it will hear the call and do that action that Allah ta’ala is calling to. But if the Ruh is weak and dirty and we have never done Tazkiyah and have never tried to clean the Ruh that is within, Allah tells us to do Ghusl of the Ruh. Allah tells us that He has given us something with which to clean the Ruh:
“إن لكل شيء صقالة وإن صقالة القلوب ذكر الله”
Just like you clean your body by having a bath and then put on perfume and nice clean clothes, fresh pure clothes – you feel like doing this after a Ghusl don’t you? You want to wear nice clean fresh clothes because your body is clean. In the same way, Allah is saying ‘When you do My Dhikr and remember Me, then your Batin becomes clean.’ “إن لكل شيء صقالة” There are cleaning agents for everything – bathroom products like soaps and detergents – and Allah tells us here that he has given Dhikr for the cleansing of the Batin. You do Dhikr in the morning and evening because, just as your clothes and body get dirty, the Batin accumulates even more dirt than that. Perhaps you heard someone swearing, or there are sins of the eyes or of the mouth like backbiting or lying or words of anger – where does this all accumulate? The dirt and impurity accumulate in your Batin – this is where sins accumulate. It is stated in Hadith that when the sins build up and up, a person’s heart becomes as black as coal. It becomes dirty - but we don’t clean it. That is why Allah ta’ala says { يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ ٱذۡكُرُواْ ٱللَّهَ ذِكۡرً۬ا كَثِيرً۬ا (٤١) وَسَبِّحُوهُ بُكۡرَةً۬ وَأَصِيلاً} – ‘Do My Dhikr morning and evening so that the dirt of the night is washed in the morning, and the dirt of the day is washed in the evening.’
But we have no care or regard for this – we just want to do what we feel like doing. ‘I want to follow my Deen according to how I feel. I don’t feel like doing this, so I won’t do it; and I don’t feel like doing that, so I won’t do that.’ Allah ta’ala has given a system of life with principles, laws, schedules and rules to show you how to become successful. These are simple facts of life, nothing to argue or quarrel about, but shaytan has twisted our brains and made us dispute this and so we don’t want to do simple actions. Just as you get dirty outside, you get dirty inside as well, the dirt from sins at night, from you own backbiting or that of someone you sit next to. By sitting next to such a person, his sins go into you and, without realising, you become cold and dark inside. With your clothes, you know when they are dirty because you can see the stains and the dirt. That is why Allah says ‘I have prepared a solution for you because your sins are invisible inside you. You don’t have to do anything, just accept that dirt does accumulate, and every morning, do Dhikr and wash yourself, and every evening, wash yourself also.’ That is it. Be busy in Dhikr of Allah at all times so that when dirt comes, it is washed off and your Ruh becomes fresh and clean and resolute and strong. Allah says ‘When you do this, wherever you are and whatever I call you for, you will respond and run to Me.’
So judge yourself now. I should judge myself by looking inside and asking ‘How big a Muslim am I? How many times do I leave things and respond to Allah’s call? How often do I do that?’ This is a very simple analysis – forget about telling other people, just look at yourself. I need to look at myself and be courageous and have determination and high aspirations. Why am I not steadfast in following Sunnah and Allah’s Deen? Because inside, I am weak; my inside is full of dirt because I don’t wash myself and keep my Batin clean in the way that Allah has explained in these two Hadiths that I have told you about. Everyone accepts these Hadiths and believes in them and the action that they set out – this is common ground. This is the point.
Will we do Dhikr, my brothers, or not? For whom should we do Dhikr? For ourselves! This is for our own benefit, otherwise we will keep on behaving like monkeys and apes and animals, and we will do what our Nafs tells us and will not listen to the guidance of Allah ta’ala. Brothers, we need to understand this – we should hold fast to this fact. As long as we are alive, we need to follow Allah’s orders, not our orders and desires and opinions. If you decide to do something, and while you are doing it, Allah ta’ala says ‘Do this action’, then and there you should leave your action and do what Allah is saying. Why? Well, should I listen to Allah or should I listen to a human being? Tell me. Our job as Mu’mins is to follow Allah’s instructions and orders. If Allah says ‘Come in the morning at 4am’, then we will come at 4am. The time has just changed, hasn’t it? If the time for prayer is at 5am, we will come at 5am, and if it is at 2am, then we will come at 2am. We have to end our own desires and whatever Allah tells us to do, we do that. Say SubhanAllah. This is our Deen – what is there to argue about? What is there to be confused about? Every word and statement that Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam has given to us is beautiful.
There is a Mufti that Allah has seated inside us, and when you do something wrong, your Mufti will tell you straightaway and will nag you that you are not behaving correctly. The Mufti inside you does this. The person of Iman should test himself and see whether, when he starts to do a dirty action, he starts to feel discomfort inside. Often, we suppress that feeling, and say ‘It’s ok, I will do Tawbah later’, but the Mu’min knows that he is doing wrong. He knows it is wrong when he leaves Salah, or when he deceives someone, or when he is lying. Who tells him? The Mufti sitting inside will tell you and give you a Fatwa. Allah ta’ala has prepared a great solution for us within ourselves, but we suppress the analysis that he is giving to us. We should keep ourselves clean inside so that our Ruh is strong; and when our Ruh is strong, then we will listen to Allah’s messages. Which human being would not do Amal if he listened to Allah’s message? He will make haste and he will run in response to the message from Allah.
So the message is coming to us on this night, and we are being told what this night is for. Allah ta’ala descends to the lowest heaven and calls out. The pious predecessors have confirmed this, and I have heard this from my own Hadhrat Sahib, who said ‘My father himself heard the announcement of Allah ta’ala at Tahajjud time, and he would be there at 3am saying ‘Labayk, Labayk!’ He said to me “My son, can you not hear? I can hear that Allah ta’ala is calling us right now – I can hear His announcement!”’ Allahu Akbar – this was Hadhrat Sahib’s father, and his inside was clean and perceptive. It is not that he could hear and we cannot hear – Allah’s system is everywhere, as the Qur’an and Hadith have made clear. It is stated that, in the same way, Allah ta’ala comes to the lowest heaven on this night and calls out – and what is the announcement? That announcement reaches the Ruh of a person, and whoever’s Ruh is able to take the message on board, he will respond to it and do Amal on it. We will be able to see this today, and I have seen people doing Amal on this from Maghrib. I have seen womenfolk and menfolk doing Amal on this from Maghrib, with the Fadhl of Allah. Brothers, people of Iman are present in the world – they have not all disappeared. Those people are not wasting time.
What is the announcement of Allah? Whatever it is, we will do Amal upon it. ‘Is there anybody there?’ – SubhanAllah. ‘Is there anybody there? Is anyone’s Ruh alive? Is there anyone who does Dhikr morning and evening? Is there anyone whose Ruh is strong enough to hear My announcement?’ Allah is saying this tonight – ‘Is there anyone there listening to Me?’ Allahu Akbar. Allah ta’ala announces ‘Is there anybody there who is listening to My words?’ If we reply ‘What is it, oh Allah? What are You saying?’, then Allah ta’ala says ‘I want to give you something on this night, something that is very essential and necessary and valuable for you. I want to give you this very important thing, without which there is no Deen and no Dunya.’ If you do not acquire it, your Rabb will be displeased with you, and problems and destruction and diseases like Corona are all the result of Allah ta’ala’s displeasure. When Allah ta’ala is unhappy, that is when we see destruction coming to people’s lives. Allah ta’ala says ‘Because you are the Ummah of My beloved, I have this message for you today.’ What is that message? Allah ta’ala is saying ‘Is there anyone there who will ask Me for forgiveness? If so, I will give him forgiveness!’ Allahu Akbar – SubhanAllah! ‘Ask Me!’ Allah says.
‘Is there anybody there who has analysed himself?’ Who is saying this? Allah! Allah is saying ‘Oh foolish people – I am your Rabb, so I know you. Your have only a very short time left – a very, very short amount of time remains for you. Don’t place your hopes in being young, or in being wealthy – you don’t know if your name has been cut off the list. If your name has been cut off the list, then your situation will come to an end very soon – you don’t know. You think you are healthy, but I can change that situation. If you have an accident, then your life will come to an end, or perhaps another disease will come to you which will make you ill and then you will die. So listen to what I am saying – be focused and attentive now. You are going towards Jahannam due your disobedience and sins and excesses and stupidity. You have destroyed yourself and are running towards the fire of Jahannam. You are burning, and I, your Rabb who is present in front of you right now, am giving you an opportunity; I am giving you a chance, so come, come! Ask Me for forgiveness. You have committed sins, but whatever you have done – Zina, murder, alcohol – come to Me tonight to ask for forgiveness, and I will forgive all of your sins!’ SubhanAllah.
This is the objective of tonight. This is the biggest Ibadah of tonight, but we reject it and put it in our back pocket, and instead we do Nafl and read Qur’an and do Sajdah and Tasbeehs. Oh foolish people, oh mad people, go toward the genuine purpose of this night! If we don’t ask for forgiveness, how will we get success? Tell me. If we are not forgiven, how will we get success? This is an unrestricted opportunity, an open playing field – Allah ta’ala says ‘Whatever you ask forgiveness for, I will forgive you.’ Whatever condition you are in and however dirty you are, even if you have committed sins and excesses all life long, don’t worry, Allah will forgive you. Allah ta’ala is saying ‘Come – if you ask Me for forgiveness, I will give you forgiveness.’
This is the purpose, and whoever has done this action tonight can sleep with ease, for he has obtained the objective of tonight, SubhanAllah. He has obtained it absolutely, 100%. The Ruhs that will hear this message are those which are clean and fresh. If they are clean and pure, they will hear this message and there is no way they will go to sleep tonight without asking for Allah’s forgiveness – no way. What is the method to make this Tawbah? It is a very simple, easy method that will take no more than two minutes. Look, in the world, if a human being goes to a court, he has to bring witnesses and signed statements and documents and a solicitor and lawyers, but Allah says ‘The situation between Me and you is such that I don’t need a witness, and I don’t need proofs. All I need is for you to come to Me to ask for forgiveness, and I will say that I have forgiven you. That’s it!’ SubhanAllah. Can we have this and still be going to Jahannam? Allah will say ‘I gave you this night of Sha’ban, and despite this, are you still going into Jahannam? Oh foolish person, did you waste that night?’
You need three things when you ask for forgiveness – remember this: three things. You need regret, you need courage and determination, and you need steadfastness, SubhanAllah – and these depend on the fourth thing, which is Rahmah, the mercy of Allah. SubhanAllah. Firstly, you need regret – what is regret? You need to feel remorse and shame and think ‘Oh, I pestered that girl! Oh, I dishonoured that person! Oh, I swore at that person! What a bad thing I did when I slapped that person today.’ That feeling is called regret, remorse, self-consciousness, when the realisation awakens within you that you oppressed someone or did a bad thing. When you go to bed at night, you feel ashamed about what you have done. If you think ‘Oh, I wish I had not left that prayer in the morning’ that feeling of sadness is called regret or remorse. This is a fantastic feeling, for it is a sign that your Ruh is awake – remember this. If it is me or you, we should say ‘Oh, I regret the Salah that I missed! From tomorrow, I will definitely go to Fajr Salah.’ Allah ta’ala likes this so much, because it shows that this human being is at least not stubborn – he has regret and shame for his actions. He has remorse.
But if you say to someone ‘Have you prayed Salah, brother?’ and he says ‘Who are you to tell me to pray Salah? Look after yourself! Do you think you are someone special that you can tell me?’ You say ‘Sorry, brother, I just wanted to share the importance of this with you’, but no, he won’t listen because there is no effect on that person. He is busy running around in the Dunya, looking after his shops and businesses and houses, so he doesn’t even feel as if he is missing out on anything. He has no regret. Tonight, we need to be people who have regret and remorse, and say ‘Oh Allah, I am ashamed and regretful in front of You. I am ashamed of the dirty life that I have lived.’ If shaytan comes in and says ‘No, no, no – you are pious and good’, put him behind you and say ‘I am speaking with Allah tonight, so go away shaytan. Allah knows my Salah, He knows my Dhikr, He knows everything about me. Who are you, shaytan, to be giving me advice? No, I am presenting myself as a thief in front of Allah subhana wa ta'ala – He knows about my feelings and the dirty actions that I do. Allah says not to do something, and I do it. He tells me not to start the day with a sin, and I start the day with a sin, and then I do the same until evening comes, and then my night passes full of sin. Until I have done those sinful actions, I don’t feel sleepy at night. I am always opposing what Allah says. But today Allah ta’ala has given me an opportunity! Oh, Allah, I feel ashamed and remorseful, and I regret these actions!’ That is the condition of regret.
What is the second condition for Tawbah that we need to do today? Number one is regret, and number two is determination and courage – drive. You need drive. When regret and remorse come, then the second factor you need to include in your Dua is ‘Oh Allah, whatever sins I have done, I leave them from today.’ SubhanAllah. What do we need for this? Determination and a strong sense of purpose. On one side is Jahannam, so that person says ‘Oh Allah, I am determined to avoid this.’ Who can do this? A person who is brave and courageous. A person who does not express this in front of Allah is a coward. The most brave and courageous person today is he who admits to Allah ‘Oh Allah, shaytan has influenced me wrongly, and I am ashamed. I promise that from now on, I will not do this action.’ This is Tawbah, and without this, there is no Tawbah – remember this. So become a real human being, man-up, and say ‘There is no way that I am going to do this action again.’ If we make this promise today, it doesn’t matter what happens tomorrow.
The third thing, which comes after determination and courage, is steadfastness, Istaqamat. Say ‘I am ashamed, Oh Allah, and I promise that I will not do this sin again. I leave this sin from now and will not do it again after today.’ This is Istaqamat, that you intend to stay firm on leaving the sin going forward. These are three big steps, alhamdulillah, and you are engaged in a very great discussion right now. If you have remorse and shame, and are determined that from today, you will leave this sin, then you will say ‘Oh Allah, after today, I will not shave my beard and I won’t cut my beard. I won’t do that sin, and I won’t steal, and I won’t drink alcohol, and I won’t pester and look at women, and I won’t listen to music and singing.’ You are making this promise to Allah. ‘I won’t take anyone’s money, and I won’t do such sins again.’
And the fourth thing is very valuable. You have said to Allah that you won’t do this again, and even though you smoked cannabis or drank alcohol, Allah ta’ala has sent you to the Masjid on this night of Sha’ban, with your defects – so say it! If a person says ‘I won’t do it again’, even though he knows that it will be difficult for him, then he will find this fourth element very brilliant. If he is ashamed and says that he will leave the sin and will not do it again after today, then what is the fourth element? Allah’s Rahmah, Allah’s mercy – SubhanAllah. After making all the promises, still a person cannot see how he will be saved, but Allah says ‘I am with you, helping you!’ SubhanAllah. Allah says that when you make this promise to Him like this, He won’t just save you, but inshaAllah, Allah’s Rahmah will come onto that person, and in this way, shaytan cannot weaken that person afterwards.
So we must spend this night like this, my brothers. Do these actions, and then pray two Rakahs of Nafl Salah in gratitude and hope for Allah’s mercy. Say ‘Oh Allah, I have taken these steps and have made these promises, and I don’t know whether I will be able to repeat these steps again tomorrow’, and then Allah will say ‘You have made this promise today, so I have forgiven all of your sins. I am your Rabb, so if I can forgive you today, I can forgive you tomorrow as well!’ Don’t waste this night tonight, thinking ‘Oh, I’m going to do it again tomorrow’ – don’t worry. Forget about what may happen tomorrow and resolve that we will not leave the Masjid today until we have made these promises and done these actions. That is it – that is the biggest Ibadah tonight. Allah ta’ala Himself says that this is the Ibadah.
I will tell you a Sahih Hadith, which I or some respected scholar may have told you before, in which Hadhrat Aisha Siddiqua radhiAllahu anha states ‘One night, my Mehboob, my beloved husband Nabi al-Karim sallallahu alayhi wasallam was lying down next to me, and he thought that I was sleeping.’ How could she have felt sleepy when her beloved was not at rest and content? So she said ‘He thought that I was asleep, so the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam moved quietly from the bed’ – this is the meaning of the Hadith that I am relating to you – ‘and he got up very slowly and left. He tiptoed to the door very slowly so that I would not realise. Then he gently opened the door, went through it, and closed it behind him very gently again. So I thought to myself ‘What is going on tonight? What is happening – where is Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam going in the middle of the night so quietly?’
Obviously, the thought must have come into her mind that he may have been going to another wife or household, but in any case, she also got up quietly and followed. Where did the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam go? To Jannat-ul-Baqi – listen to this Hadith. He went to Jannat-ul-Baqi – these are the words about this night. He went there and he did the action that he went to do and then headed back, and he saw Hadhrat Aisha Siddiqua radhiAllahu anha on the way. He said ‘Aisha? You have no need to ask what I was doing – I will tell you. Gibreel alayhi salam came to me with a message from Allah telling me what Amal to do on this night. He came and told me that today is the 15th night of Sha’ban, and that I should go to Jannat-ul-Baqi and do Dua Maghfirah for all the Shuhada of Uhud.’ Say SubhanAllah. This Hadith has come to us, so what do we need to do? Maghfirah – ask for forgiveness, do Tawbah, repent!
Another point that comes out here is that is that me and you should not just be seeking forgiveness for ourselves – no, no, no. Today, even the deceased are waiting to see if somebody makes Dua for their forgiveness and for their salvation. My mother, my friend, my father, my uncle, the people who played with me and sat with me and drank with me – have you forgotten them? You don’t know what condition they are in now – their books have shut, and they cannot say ‘Allah’ once now; they can’t say ‘SubhanAllah’ anymore. Alhamdulillah, you can read the whole Qur’an now, and you read Surah YaSeen over and over again, and all the Kalimaat as much as you like. They, on the other hand, are desperate and cannot utter a word, and are thinking ‘Is there anyone who will pray for me? Where has my son gone, for whom I used to do so much? Where is my daughter who I used to love so much? I left the Deen for them and wasted my time through my love for them, and there was nothing that I did not give them. Oh Allah, I left You for the sake of my children, so is there anyone now who will seek my salvation?’ Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam said ‘Go brothers, in this night – yes, there is the opportunity to be forgiven yourself, but don’t forget the people that you knew.’ This is the second action that we are called to tonight. My brothers, after seeking your own forgiveness, don’t go to sleep until you bring to mind the name of every single deceased person you can think of, and seek forgiveness for that person, saying ‘Ya Allah, forgive this person; Ya Allah, forgive that person.’
And in my experience, when you start making Dua for other people, the names of so many friends of yours from your childhood will come into your mind and you will be amazed that you had forgotten them up to now. You won’t just remember your mother and father; when you get into this emotion of asking for forgiveness, Allah will remind you of many people, and faces will come into your mind. You will remember a person who once gave you water when you were young, or who gave you a book to read, or who played with you, or said something to you, and their very faces will come into your mind. You will remember the person with whom you used to pray Salah in the Masjid, the person who used to say Salam to you on the way. Allah is Karim, and He does not want to let any Mu’min go to Jahannam – He doesn’t like that. This is the 15th night of Sha’aban – why would Allah give this night otherwise? Do you understand what I am saying, my brothers? That is the second Ibadah.
So what do we need to do? We need to know what work we should do and what is innovation - Bid’ah - on this night. We might think we have to go to the graveyard, but SubhanAllah, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam only went once in his life. We go there and make noise and there is clamour and give rice and food – Allah knows best what happens at these events, for I have never been myself. These are the directions that shaytan leads us in, but rather, the message that has been given to us is that because the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam went to the graveyard to ask for Maghfirah for the people in their graves, the Ummah would know that when this night comes, they would themselves do this Ibadah for their beloved friends who have died, so that, when Allah had forgiven them, they wouldn’t be selfish and would also make Dua for salvation and forgiveness for those people who had favoured them in the world. We forget those who did us favours, but we should ask for their forgiveness and salvation – your Ustadh, your friend, your Mashaaikh. These are great personalities. A person who taught you just one word of the Qur’an is your Ustadh, your teacher, and the status of an Ustadh is greater than you can imagine, so you cannot conceive of the rank of the Ustadh of the Qur’an. A person should bow and give his body in the service of that person who taught him the Name of Allah - the Kalimah that he taught him will be the cause of his forgiveness.
My brothers, we don’t look towards these A’maal because our Ruhs are dead. Hajj after Hajj is performed, and tickets for Umrah after Umrah are bought, and the heels of our shoes are worn out from our trips over there, but the Ibadaat of our Akhlaq are so valuable and are very high indeed. However, these are only performed when the Ruh is fresh and clean.
Now listen to a third thing as well. I am summarising all these points for you because I know that we do not understand it in its entirety, so we should know that it is not necessary for us to bop up and down and struggle and strive. We just need to do the actions that will bring us forgiveness – everyone has their approach and style, and this is my approach to such nights. Come fresh to the Masjid in the morning and pray Fajr Salah and after that, do Dhikr and read Qur’an. The night will have been spent in the best way and you will have a new lease of life. You will be like a new-born baby as soon as you do Tawbah; that person is like an angel at that time. As soon as you do these actions, you will be as pure as a baby that has just been born from the womb of the mother.
Have Yaqeen on the words of Allah – read Surah al-Mumtahinah. Allah ta’ala says ‘Oh My Nabi, when the believing women come to you’ – SubhanAllah – ‘give them Bai’ah and accept their Tawbah.’ How should we do this? Allah says to take a promise from them that they will pray Salah and fast and will not do bad actions. And when you have made the promise, what should you do? What a great reward, and today that same reward comes – Allah tells His Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam to make Dua for those people. Who tells us this? I am reading the Qur’an here, not doing some other action. In the Qur’an, Allah ta’ala is saying to His Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam ‘Make Dua for them!’ This is the reward for their great action of Tawbah. So when we do Tawbah today, SubhanAllah, from the Ruh of the Qur’an in Madinah, those hands will be raised for you and Allah’s Habeeb sallallahu alayhi wasallam will say ‘Allah, you have forgiven them, so I now make Dua for these people.’ The Qur’an is telling us this. When Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam raises his hands for that individual who has done Tawbah and asks Allah to forgive him, tell me, what will be the Maqam of that person? Tawbah is a great action, my brothers. After that, Allah ta’ala says
{إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ غَفُورٌ۬ رَّحِيمٌ۬}
Allah is saying ‘This person is doing Tawbah, and, My Mehboob, you have raised your hands, so I am Allah! Listen – if he asks for forgiveness and you are requesting on his behalf, then I am Ghafur – I forgive all of his sins!’
So brothers, do we want to do this action? This is not a speech or a lecture that I am giving; I am telling you that I have to do this, and you have to do this. Will we do this? Will we just come and pass the night and then feel happy in the morning and say that we celebrated the night? What is the celebration? The actions I have mentioned are the celebration! That’s it – we will be successful. Otherwise we will carry on like monkeys and animals, telling ourselves that we can spend the night however we want, just wasting time and being bone idle.
SubhanAllah – Allah says {غَفُورٌ۬ رَّحِيمٌ۬} – ‘I have forgiven.’ And how has Allah forgiven? Allah ta’ala says ‘Go and tell those places where he committed the sins to forget that he committed sins in that place!’ The earth will be told to forget. This is the way that Allah forgives, not like a magistrate or judge, who says ‘Ok, I have let him off, but make a record of this offence.’ No, Allah ta’ala wipes away the records. Allah says ‘I am not just Ghafoor, but also Rahim – Merciful!’ What is Allah’s Rahmah? Allah says ‘My Rahmah is such that I want to give him reward on top of the forgiveness. I give him reward for his Tawbah!’ SubhanAllah - he was a wrongdoer, but he is getting a reward. What reward does Allah give? Allah says to the angels ‘Gather together all of his sins and bring them to Me. Collect all the sins together and then transform them into good deeds!’ How long will it take you to acquire all of this? You won’t have to remain in Sujood all night long – how long? Two minutes! That’s it – two minutes. Will we do this action, my brothers? It will take just two minutes.
And remember, we are all very sinful. Don’t think ‘Oh Allah, I do not need to do this. I am very pious – I am Hadhrat Sahib, I am Pir Sahib, I am this or that person. I am not sinful. All those sat around are sinful, but I am not.’ We say this, don’t we? We think ‘He is dirty, he is a thief, I am a Namazi, he’s this, he’s that.’ My brothers, look at yourself and think ‘I am the worst, and everyone else is better than me. I am the criminal.’ That is when a person goes to the Court of Allah and is accepted.
So do these two actions, and the third action comes when Allah ta’ala announces ‘I have forgiven everybody!’ So much forgiveness is spread that Jahannam will become cool – that is the forgiveness that Allah ta’ala will distribute tonight. But Allah has put an Ajeeb condition – this is also a message, so listen to this. These are the principles of tonight – I am sharing Hadiths with you. Allah says ‘I have forgiven all those who have done Tawbah, but if a person has committed a certain type of a sin and has not repented from it, then I will not forgive that person.’ What is that sin? It is such a sin that it is the root of all sins. So Allah ta’ala puts everything to one side and says ‘If you do Tawbah for that sin today, you will be forgiven as well’ – but that sin must be specifically thought about and admitted on his tongue, because Allah ta’ala has said ‘I have mentioned this sin specifically, because if he doesn’t do Tawbah from this sin, then it doesn’t matter what else he does – I won’t forgive him. Even tonight, I will not forgive him.’
What is that sin? Listen carefully to the sin and how to clean oneself of it. What a big message we are getting today, but people say ‘What’s happening? Why do they do this on this night?’ Listen carefully about tonight. What is that sin? Allah ta’ala specifies it. May Allah forgive us – we are all immersed in that sin; we can see that from our condition. Our situation betrays this. We have a Mihrab on the forehead to show how many times we prostrate, and our feet have marks from repeated worship, and we call each other Hajji Sahib and do this and that Ibadah, but these scenes do not leave us. We can remove them – if we bring a cat into the house, it will leave remove the mice. But if we just say ‘Cat, cat, cat!’, the mice will stay right where they are! If you don’t take the steps to remove the sins from your life, they stay right there – how will they leave? So today, make a special focus upon this sin. What is the sin, my brothers? Allah says ‘I will forgive all sins, but unless you specifically seek forgiveness for one particular sin, I will not forgive.’ Allah tells us the sin: malice! To harbour malice against somebody in your heart - hatred, envy, malice. If you feel ‘This person is this or that’, this is called malice if there are deep-rooted evil thoughts against that person in your heart. Malice is when you have evil whispers about someone and you harbour bad thoughts about them. And another thing that comes from malice is Hasad – envy. This is the root of all sins. Envy, backbiting, jealously, murder – these all start from malice and hatred. If a person does Tawbah from malice and hatred, then in a way, he has eradicated all the sins from the depths of his heart. Allah ta’ala has selected this sin of malice as the one which we have to eradicate from our hearts tonight.
My brothers, this is a very big message from Allah, so listen carefully to what I am saying. Allah ta’ala has given us the Tariqah, the method, to eliminate the sins of the heart. Allah says {وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ ٱلۡكِتَـٰبَ وَٱلۡحِكۡمَةَ وَيُزَكِّيہِمۡ}. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam brought three things – the Kitab, Hikmah and Tazkiyah. SubhanAllah, we have got the Kitab; and today, we have also got the Hikmah, which is the Sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and the Shari’ah; and the third thing? The third thing is Tazkiyah { وَيُزَكِّيہِمۡ} – but we don’t have this in our lives. We think ‘Oh, Pir Sahib does that, whatever it is – he knows better, that is his business.’ But these three things are the basis of the Deen: Kitab; Hikmah – Sunnah and Shari’ah; and Tazkiyah – the cleansing and purification of the Nafs. Remember this. So the Hukm that comes tonight is that you have to clean yourself within - both your heart and your Nafs. If you clean yourself, then the malice and the envy will be eradicated; but if you don’t clean yourself, then when you come to Allah with this sin, He will give a very severe reprimand and treatment, because this is the root of all sins.
Having malice and hatred for someone is lying about them and loathing them and having evil thoughts about them – malice is such a thing that your heart is full of bad thoughts about them due to your dislike and hatred. As soon as he leaves, you start speaking critically ‘Look at that person – what does he think he is doing?’ You criticise him without any reason due to this malice embedded in your mind – whereas actually that person is not like that. Evil thoughts have become embedded in your heart and mind, and this happens amongst ourselves – brothers, sisters, relatives, children, friends – because this has spread. When you have this sin within you, it stays there because you don’t do Tazkiyah. We are all patients with this sickness, all of us - the Abid, the Alim, the Zahid, everyone. The only person who can purify himself from this is he who works hard on it, and the hard work that is needed is Tazkiyah, purification. We say ‘Oh, I have no need for this – I can do it myself. I have no need to do it.’ No way – this cannot be. We have to work hard, and Allah ta’ala has given us a message tonight to do Tazkiyah, to clean yourself within if you want to ask forgiveness properly. So today, we have to make Niyyah that ‘Oh Allah ta’ala, from today I will take steps towards this, and because I want to clean my whole life, I will do Tazkiyah.’ Will we do this, brothers? InshaAllah.
So with these three things, the total Deen has come – alhamdulillah. In the morning, there will be a new lease of life - life will have changed. Make Dua and do Tawbah to Allah, saying ‘Oh Allah, I do these sins, so please forgive me!’ After forgiveness, you will become like an angel, alhamdulillah, and then you will automatically start to follow the commands of Allah. Number two - you have to embark upon Tazkiyah, the cleansing of yourself. Find a good person who you regard as pious – don’t go on what other people say, no. Whoever your heart considers to be a pious and good person, then ask him ‘How do you clean yourself and wash yourself internally? How do I do this?’ Shake his hand and ask for guidance – he will explain to you inshaAllah. Why? Who will enable you to do this? It is Allah ta’ala who enables a person to do this – it is not the human being. So whichever person your heart considers to be pious and upright and has love for you, even though he doesn’t even think he is good himself, when you go to him, Allah ta’ala will assist you and help you and will make that human being a means of guidance for you. He will assist you and automatically, he will become a doctor for you and will say such words to you that will have a very good effect upon you and benefit you.
This is also a very simple path. Don’t seek with your own choice – rather, leave it to Allah. Say ‘Oh Allah, show me the person that I should go to’, and then you will start to like that person’s words and will want to sit next to him. When such a person comes into your heart, immediately grab hold of that person’s company – I am giving you reference to Hadith here. Hold fast to that person’s company as soon as your heart attests, and say to that person ‘I want to do my Tazkiyah, so please tell me the Tariqah by which I can clean myself.’ I swear by Allah, he will give you such an easy method that you will be shocked and think ‘My cleansing is taking place so easily!’ Backbiting will be removed – and Allah ta’ala has said that when you start doing this action, even if your sins are not eradicated {سَعۡيُكُم مَّشۡكُورًا}, Allah says ‘When you come back to Me, I appreciate the effort that you made. The effort is what I like – at least you tried hard and stepped forward on that path. I like this effort of yours, and I will give you the same Maqam that you were aiming for in your hard work – I will give you that same result and reward – {سَعۡيُكُم مَّشۡكُورًا}.’
So is the Deen hard, my friends? Is the Deen difficult for any of us? Is anyone stopping us? Is anyone stopping us from working, from doing business, from driving taxis, from having a family life? Is anything being prevented? No. The Deen is very simple and Tawbah is simple to do. After that, Tazkiyah is also a very simple action. Going to a human being is such a simple action and becoming a solid servant of Allah is very simple – this night of Sha’ban is making us into this. Is this not Allah’s Karam? Tell me.
And the final point – please listen to the final point. Why has Allah ta’ala placed this night in Sha’ban? Say SubhanAllah. Why in Sha’ban, when Allah could have placed it in the previous month? Yes? Allah ta’ala could have placed this month in Rajab or in the month before that. Why in the middle of Sha’ban? What is this all about? The answer comes from above, from Allah subhana wa ta'ala. Allah says ‘The reason for this is one, which that your link is with My Mehboob, the one whom I love more than the rest of My Creation. You are in his Ummah, and due to his Sadqah, I gave you this occasion in Sha’ban - and there is no other reason. There is no glory in you, and no feat that you have achieved – just for being in his Ummah, I have placed this night in Sha’ban. Because you are in his Ummah, I have given you this night.’ The reason for choosing this time is this, that after two weeks, a very great month is to come, SubhanAllah, such a month that every night of that month will be like this night of Sha’ban, SubhanAllah. Allahu Akbar – say SubhanAllah. Allahu Akbar – Tarawih prayers, Qur’an, Sadaqaat, Nafl Salah will be weighed like a Fardh, and Fardh salah will be multiplied by seventy. Multiplied and multiplied, all the Thawab will float and fly in the air in that month.
So what a great favour this is! Ask those people who have gone into their graves today, or last month, or this month, who died yesterday, or two days ago; we should be so grateful to Allah that we are still sat here in this night of Sha’ban. Anyone’s time can come – can he not get Corona? Can I not get Corona? Is there anything that can save us? Nothing can save us, for it is Allah’s Hukm. We are commanded to protect ourselves, yes – whoever wears a mask, for example, is fulfilling Allah’s Sunnah, which is to use the means He has provided. Whoever leaves it is in a state of Takabbur, pride, because Allah ta’ala has said ‘I am sending you guidance and precautionary tactics, so by using them, that means that you fear Me.’ This does not mean that we should think these things will save us, no. Who can save us, ultimately? Allah can save us – but we must use the means available. If I take a Panadol, it is not the tablet that will save me from the pain – what can Panadol cure? Allah is the One who cures. So why do I take Panadol? Because Allah ta’ala says ‘Utilise the means that I have given to you.’ Say SubhanAllah.
Every sickness can be eliminated, but it can only be eliminated by Allah. It cannot even come to you without permission of Allah – it is Allah who sends, and Allah who removes. Allah gives the means, so by adopting the means, you are actually implementing what Allah ta’ala has instructed. You are turning to Allah and saying ‘Oh Allah, I am totally at a loss and am incapable. Only You can save me – without You, I cannot be saved.’ That is what is meant by using the means, the Sabab. Using the Sabab means ‘Oh Allah, I am coming towards You. I have no power myself.’ If we reject the means, we are saying ‘Oh, I am big – I don’t need this; I don’t need these solutions.’ Is there a difference? There is a big difference in those two ways of thinking. The person who doesn’t use the means is saying ‘Oh, I am independent’, but the difference in those who do use the means is that they have bowed and they have submitted. Is this not the case? A person’s actions automatically tell us these things. So when you utilise the means of protection for any sickness, this means that you are turning to Allah. You are saying to Allah ‘Oh Allah, I am weak – I have no protection. Without Your Fadhl, I am gone.’
Do you understand what I am saying, my brothers? What is it? Allahu Akbar – Allah ta’ala has given us this night of Sha’ban because Ramadhan is coming, that great month in which such days and nights come – just imagine! Allah ta’ala is saying ‘I did not want you to come to Me in Ramadhan in a dirty state’ – Allahu Akbar. ‘I did not want that you should come to My Masjid and to My Qur’an in an impure state. So what did you get? I desired to clean you two weeks beforehand to make you totally pure.’ SubhanAllah - that is why this night has come in the middle of Sha’ban. So whoever has washed and taken the bath of Tawbah today, whoever has asked Allah for forgiveness and removed his sins, whoever has made a promise to Allah that he will do Tazkiyah, saying ‘Oh Allah, I promise that I will do Tazkiyah and clean myself. I will cleanse my heart and purify my Nafs – I promise I will do this, oh Allah, and I will seek Your forgiveness.’ SubhanAllah, such a person is then totally ready for Ramadhan – totally. Every night of Ramadhan will be like the 15th of Sha’ban – he will attain Laylat-ul-Qadr and will get fantastic things. So this 15th night of Sha’ban is preparation. The objective is that we are preparing - for what? For the nights of Ramadhan that are to come. That’s it – chapter closed.
We are all sat here, so shall we go home now? I have given the Bayan, so shall we go home? Do you feel like going home? What a bad thing that would be! You have come to Allah ta’ala’s home and you have been given a great reward – Allah has forgiven us and has eliminated our sins, and Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam has raised his hands for us, so should we now just lift our heads and go home? Ajeeb Insan – only a weird person would do this. We have to repay the favour with a favour – and can such a favour be repaid? Allah, the Most Merciful of the merciful says ‘Whenever you ask something from Me and I give it to you, then first and foremost you have to send Hamd to Me and send Durood on My Habeeb – then I will accept that.’ Allahu Akbar – SubhanAllah. Say SubhanAllah loudly! So before we go, we should at least do an action - do Dhikrullah! Make Niyyah now – why are we doing Dhikr? ‘Oh Allah, we are praising You, we are doing Your Hamd so that You are happy. We are doing Your Hamd because we are grateful to You because You have given us a great reward, and we are sending Durood upon Your Habeeb sallallahu alayhi wasallam.’ For these two gifts, Allah ta’ala says ‘After you have done this action, whatever you ask for, I will give to you!’
So it is your choice – do you want to go, or do you want to do Dhikr? Say it loudly! Will you do Dhikr with happiness now? Or will you think ‘Oh no, I have to do Dhikr now and it is late.’ What have you got to do when you get home? Tell me. First praise Allah, and then depart. Recite those Kalimaat which Allah ta’ala holds very dear – HasbunAllahu wa Ni’ma-l-Wakeel, La Hawla wa La Quwwata illa bi-llah, La ilaha illa Anta Subhanaka Inni Kuntu min-adh-Dhalimeen. The value of this last one is such that it is from Hadhrat Yunus alayhi salam – we are sat here in comfort, but where did Hadhrat Yunus alayhi salam recite this? He recited this in intense darkness – how valuable this Kalimah has become! How great a Kalimah this must be in that, due to the Sadqah of our Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam, we have got this Kalimah in the Qur’an. And we can sit here in comfort and recite it and we will get the same reward that Yunus alayhi salam attained and was given. On what night are we to recite this? The night of Sha’ban! La Hawla wa la Quwwata illa bi-llah – what a great Kalimah. There is a stone pillar that is beneath the Arsh, and when a person recites this Kalimah, that pillar attached to the Arsh starts to shake!
My brothers, we have got these things so easily that we don’t value them or appreciate them. We should recite these every day and every night. SubhanAllahi wa bi-Hamdihi SubhanAllahi-l-Adheem – ask Imam Bukhari the value of this. He completed the Bukhari Hadith collection with this Kalimah. What a great Kalimah, light upon the tongue but so beloved to Allah - and we will recite it with ease. Tell me! And what are the rewards for it? It is stated that when the servant recites this, the gap between the heavens and the earth is filled with Noor, filled with light – and we get it so easily! But we say ‘Oh no, what should I read? What is the purpose of this?’ SubhanAllah, wal-Hamdulillah, wa La ilaha illa-llahu, wa-llahu Akbar – this is such a great Kalimah that Allah ta’ala says that its excellence is comparable to the Qur’an, in that a person who cannot recite the Qur’an can read this Kalimah and get the same Thawab. Imagine! I am telling you here what comes in Hadith.
SubhanAllah, through the Karam of Allah, every day in the morning and evening we do this action - every day! But due to your houses and your shops and your businesses, nobody comes. Nobody comes – the place is empty. Tomorrow, this gathering will complain and say ‘Oh Allah, they used to eat Your Rizq and consume Your wealth and earn money, but they did not have the Tawfeeq to recite these Kalimahs that were available in the gathering!’ It is not my strength and it is not your strength and it is not the Masjid’s strength; rather, it is Allah Fadhl and mercy that in this town, Allah has given these Kalimaat morning and evening. Am I doing this? Am I hosting this? Is it my energy that enables this, or is it the Masjid that enables this? Where are those people who are meant to be here? Where are they? Twenty or twenty-five years ago, why were these Kalimahs not commonly heard here? But once Allah ta’ala enables, then not one day or night passes without these Kalimaat being recited in this Masjid. Are we not reciting these Kalimaat tonight? Tell me. These A’maal of Allah are very beloved indeed. This Masjid is Allah’s, our homes are Allah’s, our shops are Allah’s – everything is Allah’s. Which of Allah’s Makhluq can initiate or enable Kalimaat as valuable as these? Can anyone in Creation?
These are great Ni’mahs that Allah ta’ala has given in this Masjid – Allah ta’ala has given freedom! Allah ta’ala has made this a centre and invites people to come, morning and evening, to recite these Kalimaat. Allah explains in the Qur’an that He gives Hukm to allow oceans and rivers to flow, and He also invites people to come in the mornings and evenings to do His Dhikr; and Allah enables these oceans and rivers to flow, but we have to come and dive into the water. Do you make excuses for not doing Dhikrullah? Allah says ‘Don’t look at the human being and worry about who is or who isn’t hosting the gatherings; rather, look at My Kalimaat. Look at what is being recited and read. Come running towards these Kalimaat when they are being recited, because if you don’t come, I have no worry and concern about it.’ It is stated in Hadith that when these Kalimaat are recited, so many angels gather between the heavens and that place on the earth that a person cannot imagine the number. The whole gap between the heavens and the earth is filled right now with angels reciting. And you think that it is us who are running this Dunya? This is the food of the angels, and they have filled the gap between the heavens and the earth right now to partake in the Dhikr that will take place.
So many Jinnaat also come to this Dhikr – Jinnaat! Wallahi, I am sat in the Masjid – so many are sat here. Jinn have told me themselves – and I have told this to you now. SubhanAllah. One told me ‘So many of our tribes come when Dhikr takes place, from far and wide’, and he said ‘My uncle is from the time of the Tabi’een’ - they live long lives! My brothers, these are the Makhluq of Allah, and this is their Rizq. I swear by Allah, this is a great action. If someone says ‘Oh, Pir Sahib is saying this to make Mureeds and increase his Jamat’, then who have I made a Mureed? Why should I make Mureeds? Do I have time in my life to make Mureeds? I don’t have long enough in life to make Mureeds – and what do they give to me? A car? A house? What? I have got the same house I always had, the same carpet – I have got nothing to my name, nothing. Why should I run after people and make groups and lists of people? What need do I have for this? Is there any need that I have in the Dunya to make lists of people and groups? This is not the situation.
Allah ta’ala selects somebody when He wants the work of the Deen to be done so that the Makhluq are given the invitation. And then whoever’s Ruh is alive, they run to the Dhikr of Allah and sit down – SubhanAllah. But people say ‘Oh no, no – Dhikr is not important. He will get kidnapped – he’s going to the wrong gathering.’ Brothers, the greatness of these Kalimaat is accepted by every group and school of thought in the Deen – all agree upon this. There is no difference of opinion, no Tariqah, nothing – the Qur’an itself says that Masjids have been made for Dhikrullah! The Qur’an says this, and Allah also says ‘Beware, beware! When you come to My Masjid, don’t leave My Dhikr.’ Is this not a verse of the Qur’an? Tell me. Allah ta’ala says ‘Beware if you come to My House and you stop the Dhikr of Allah. There will be punishments. I made Masjids for Dhikrullah!’ Isn’t this the case? Tell me.
Brothers, this is a great action! Will you come to Dhikr or not? Tell me. Yes? It is not my Dhikr; it is not my gathering. If I go, somebody else will host Dhikr. Somebody who Allah selects will do it – remember this. Nobody can do it from his own volition. If I try my hardest, I cannot do it. Don’t think that this will stop. This is a great action and there is great Rizq in this. When it is time for Salah, close your shops, and when it is time for Dhikr, just put your life on hold for thirty or forty minutes to recite the Kalimaats, and then leave. These are the messages of this night of Sha’ban – this is the Ibadah that I am telling you about. This is the Ibadah. Do you understand what I am saying? This is the Ibadah that we have to do.
May Allah ta’ala give us all the Tawfeeq. Ameen.
Come, let us do Dhikr for a short while, and then after Dhikr, we will do Dua, and then go and sleep and rest.