How to Spend the Whole Year Like Ramadhan
Alhamdulillah, praise be to Allah, we are grateful that Allah has brought us people to this place with goodness and well-being in Ramadhan; and we are hopeful of Allah’s mercy that during the rest of Ramadhan, Allah ta’ala will grant us the same blessings and mercy and will allow us to complete Ramadhan. We can see that Ramadhan came, and it has also gone – it has departed. Ramadhan has refreshed our entire Deen, and there is no part of the Deen which Ramadhan has not made us practice. Every part of every sector has been revived by Ramadhan, because the objective of Ramadhan is not just restricted to these thirty days; rather, Ramadhan explains to us how we should live in all aspects of our life.
Listen to this clearly, because we think that there are just thirty days of Ramdhan and after that, we are free and what we have earned in Ramadhan is sufficient. No, this is not the case, my brothers. In these thirty days of Ramadhan, Allah ta’ala has made us practice properly through His grace and mercy. We were off the track and had become deviated, lazy and unaware, and had become negligent in our practice, we were not completing our Salah properly, we had no desire or passion for good deeds, we had no passion nor understanding in our recitation of Qur’an, and so Allah ta’ala, in His Hikmah, gave us this month in which we have been given the ability to practice. The month is such that every human being, even people who are weak, like me, have started to run towards the Masjid and pray Salah; those who did not open the Qur’an all year long have completed two, three or even four Qur’ans in this month; everyone – men, women and children – have all been busy, and have shown love for the Masjid and love for the Qur’an; in normal days, we didn’t pray any Nafl salah, but Allah ta’ala has made us pray twenty Rakahs every night. It is Allah ta’ala who has enabled us to do all of this, and He has made us strong.
So now Ramadhan is going, is that it? Are we free to go back to what we were before? No! If so, this would be a waste of all that effort. We have to spend the life we have left and all the days to come just as we spent our time in Ramadhan. Allah ta’ala has told us what the standard of life is. The standard for a Mu’min’s life is just like Ramadhan – these feelings and practices are not restricted just to Ramadhan. If someone wants to be successful in the Hereafter and wants to be saved from Hellfire and wants to go into Paradise and wants Allah’s Radha, then this must be his style – the style of Ramadhan. This is what we should do.
And by means of the whole of Ramadhan, Allah ta’ala has given us a unique Hikmah and wisdom – look at this. When Ramadhan started, Allah ta’ala started a unique system with His Hikmah, in that He imprisoned shaytan, our biggest enemy. Our story started with shaytan, so Allah ta’ala imprisoned our biggest enemy for us. End of story! Allah ta’ala shackled him and all of his workers from among the Jinnat – they were chained and imprisoned. Why? Because Allah ta’ala wanted to show us a secret here, to reveal a very big secret. What was the secret that Allah ta’ala wanted to show us? Allah ta’ala is saying ‘If you can control shaytan – as I have controlled him – then the rest of your life can be spent like Ramadhan.’ This is a very important point for us. By imprisoning and controlling shaytan, Allah ta’ala gave a message that the treasures of Ramadhan can be acquired in the rest of your life. If you want to spend the rest of your life in the manner in which you passed Ramadhan, you need to control shaytan just as Allah controlled him, and you need to understand his tricks and games; if you do so, then the guarantee is that you will spend the rest of your life how you spent Ramadhan. This is the biggest message of Ramadhan.
We have been so brave and courageous in Ramadhan, running to the Masjid, completing recitation of Qur’an, praying Nafl Salah – this is all from this favour of Allah in taking shaytan away from us. Yes - understand this point. From the first day, shaytan has not been present because Allah ta’ala imprisoned and controlled him. So what does shaytan do? I will share a Hadith with you where Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam tells us about the actions of shaytan and what he does to us. Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam explained this to us. Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam said that shaytan goes inside the human being – every human being – and he makes his abode on the heart; he sticks to the heart. Shaytan goes into the heart of every human being and latches onto it; once he controls the heart, then the person’s mind also comes under his control. From there, shaytan does an action whereby he puts an injection into the heart that instils thoughts into that person. It is the Master of the Two Worlds who is mentioning this Hadith, which is in Fazaa’il-e-A’maal. So shaytan works on a person in this way.
A pious elder, Hadhrat Mujaddid Alf Thani rahmatullah alayh, of whom everyone is aware, once made a Dua to Allah ta’ala – and obviously he was a friend of Allah, and Allah ta’ala accepts their Duas – saying ‘Ya Allah, how does shaytan do this? Please, have mercy on me and show me what shaytan does.’ By the mercy of Allah ta’ala, he was granted Kashf and Allah enabled him to see what happens. What he saw was that shaytan took the form a mosquito and sat upon the heart. You know how a mosquito sits? That is how shaytan sits on all of our hearts and makes them his headquarters, his base – remember this. Qur’an and Hadith are telling us this, otherwise we don’t know these things. Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam is explaining this to us, so listen attentively because we need to continue the rest of our lives in the manner of Ramadhan, and you can become like this inshaAllah if you listen carefully to what I am saying. So Allah subhana wa ta'ala showed Hadhrat Mujaddid Alf Thani how shaytan sits on the heart, and how he then pierces the heart with something like a needle or a pin. Every few minutes, he gives this injection into the heart, and this creates thoughts in a person’s heart, and he says to himself ‘Oh forget that – why do I need to pray Salah? Let’s go and do some other action.’ Obviously, when shaytan injects somebody, he won’t be giving the Corona injection, will he? It won’t be an injection that makes you healthy - rather it will destroy that person. He inserts all forms of evil and vice into the heart of a human being, and so, poor soul, that human being gets stuck and trapped due to having been injected with bad thoughts in his heart.
In Ramadhan, the first thing that Allah subhana wa ta'ala did was to remove shaytan from us and control him, and thus we became courageous. Since there was no Waswasah, the impact of his work and his games reduced. When we felt like praying Salah or Tahajjud, or keeping a fast and staying hungry, or reciting, we did it, and the reason we have been able to do all of this is that shaytan’s injections were not going into our hearts. My friends, all these deeds are not our achievement – I am the same person, and you are the same, and we have the same body that we had one month ago. We see so many people at the Masjid who didn’t come to the Masjid before, so how are they managing to reach the Masjid? How did those weak women wake up and pray Tahajjud, and how are we able to recite so much Qur’an when normally we can’t open it? The reason is that our special enemy is not attacking us, so we are free. And Allah’s Nooraniat and grace and mercies are descending on us in Ramadhan, so there is enjoyment after enjoyment for us. So Allah ta’ala has given us this message – ‘All of the actions and the work you have done in Ramadhan is not your achievement. Through my Hikmah, I wanted to make one point clear to you, which is that the rest of your life should be lived according to the habits and practices you established in Ramadhan.’
If a person doesn’t spend their life in this way afterwards, he is a failure. How can a person who leaves Salah be successful? How can a person who lies be successful? How can a person who does non-Shari’ah actions go into Paradise? If a person prays some Salahs and leaves some Salahs, how can he be successful? Have we not read the Hadith where Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam showed how bad it is if a human being does not pray one Salah in congregation, just one Salah, like the Asr we have just prayed? He showed this by displaying severe anger at this practice and saying ‘I feel like taking firewood and setting that person’s house on fire!’ This is the Mercy to the Universe who is saying this, so how can me and you think we can survive if we do this? The reality is that we are burning in hellfire if we do this, my brothers. We need to understand Allah ta’ala’s message which Ramadhan has come to teach us.
Ramadhan comes and we do nice, good deeds and feel happy, and we think that we are successful and that after putting on our smart clothes on Eid day, we are free. No, no, no, no – totally not. If we go back to the old ways, shaytan will be released and will lead us astray. On the day of Eid itself, you will see the games. You don’t even have to wait longer that the day of Eid itself to see the difference. What happens at Dhuhr? People say ‘Oh, it’s okay, Ramadhan has gone now, so what difference does it make?’ We will have to get up to attend Fajr due to the Eid Salah that follows, but at Dhuhr Salah, so many Musallis will be missing. How many people will be there for Asr Salah? There will be so much upheaval in the heart due to shaytan coming inside and putting his mouth onto it. Who has scanned the reality of this and revealed it? Imam ul-Ambiya, Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam, is telling us this fact – say SubhanAllah. He is telling us this and is explaining that all of the achievement of being able to spend Ramadhan the way we did was due to shaytan being imprisoned, and since he was controlled, our hearts were released.
Why does the freedom of the heart lead to this? Because inside the heart of the Mu’min is La ilaha illa-llah, Muhammad-ur-Rasoolullah, which is light upon light. And when the enemy has gone, the natural happiness of the heart returns, and it is in the Fitrah, in the nature, of a Mu’min that he then feels he should quickly go to prostrate to his Lord. He starts following the natural way of life, for this is the natural way. When you are thirsty, is in our nature to drink water straightaway. If you are hungry, your natural tendency is not to go to sleep, or to do some other action like visiting your friends. No, when you are hungry, the most pleasant thing for you is bread, and even if that takes the form of a dry chapatti or chapatti with yoghurt, you will say ‘This is very good food – this is the best food!’ This is Fitr – this is natural. So it is natural for a human being to want to pray when the time for Salah comes – this is the real natural life for a Mu’min. If he doesn’t feel this, it is unnatural and is not Fitr. If a person never feels hungry, we say that such a person’s condition is not natural, and we ask ‘Why is he not feeling hungry? How come hunger never comes over him? He is a human being, so he needs food.’ We say this because it is unnatural, and we would take him to the doctor and explain that something unnatural is happening because he never feels hungry. The doctor will he concerned when he hears that the patient never feels hungry and will take that person’s pulse and prescribe some tablets to try to stimulate his appetite for food.
Have me and you ever thought this way in respect of Salah? If those in our household are not praying Salah, do we think ‘What is the problem here?’ If there is immodesty in their lives, do we think ‘What is the problem here?’ If they are far from the Qur’an, do we think ‘What is the problem here?’ If they are habitual in some Haram action, do we think ‘What is the problem here?’ These are all unnatural actions and tendencies and inclinations, and any person who has recited the Kalimah, alhamdulillah, light has come into his heart and his body has changed. The Kalimah has this effect - as soon as a Mu’min is born, he hears the Shahadah when the Adhan is recited in his ear, and there and then, he has gone – end of story. He has been sold and the colours of Allah, the Sibghatu’llah, have overtaken that person. The Kalimah of Allah has arrived in his veins and in his arteries and in his heart will be love for the Qur’an, and love for the Baitu’llah; he will have dreams of Madina and will incline naturally towards Dhikrullah; the practice of all the Sunnahs of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam will be natural to him – this is not a new feeling. So if you are not doing this and feeling this, it means that we have become unnatural human beings, and that the natural tendencies we should have are not there.
Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam came and explained: ‘The reason for this is that you are far away from Allah and are challenging Allah – who can do this? I know that the reason for this is that your enemy is sat inside you and is preying on you and playing games with you.’ Allah ta’ala has told us that when shaytan was sent to the earth after refusing to bow to Adam alayhi salam, he said to Allah ‘Maula, give me some time. I am not going to leave them alone until I deliver them to Jahannam.’ Allahu Akbar – we have forgotten this story and thus we have become true friends of shaytan. Ramadhan comes, and with Allah’s Karam, shaytan gets imprisoned, and that is why we are able to pray all this Salah – remember this.
So Allah ta’ala has given us a chance to train just as soldiers train. You know how they go outside to train and practice so that they can cope when they are sent to the real situation. After these thirty days, we will be sent to the real playing field as well. It is not a matter of thinking that we will be able to control shaytan all the time, but rather we are told to make effort, to try and strive, and in this way, we will get Ramadhan all the time. It is not just about collecting the Noor of Tarawih in Ramadhan, no. Allah ta’ala is saying ‘Look ahead to the days which are to follow.’ Allah has told us to look at generations who have gone before – when shaytan gets released, you see how quarrels and murder and fighting and Fasaad starts. As for Salah, you will see that only he who has controlled shaytan can pray Salah – say SubhanAllah. Do you understand what I am saying?
I am not giving a speech here, rather I am sharing a very important point with you. Understand death – we must understand death, my brothers. It is very close to us, so understand the nature of that night in the grave; think about those questions of the grave and think about the environment of the grave. This time is about to come to us; think about those who have gone, those who have already departed. This is not a joke – this reality is with us now. This Dunya does not belong to us – it is artificial for us; it is not real, remember this. Every second we pass is not ours; these seconds are not ours. These are Allah’s seconds and moments, and with every second that passes, we go a little bit deeper into the grave. Think about this point. Yes? The person who doesn’t pray Salah will not succeed there, those who follow shaytan’s actions will not succeed there; those who do not practice the Sunnah of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam will not succeed there. The first question will be ‘Man Rabbuka?’ Allah will ask ‘Did you recognise Me and obey Me in the world? And then ‘Man Rasoolukum?’ – ‘Did you obey the Sunnahs of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam?’ What answer will we give? Shaytan is destroying us.
Our whole lives must be spent in the manner of Ramadhan; the question of doing otherwise should not even arise – no question. This is the whole game for the Mu’min. Praying Salah is in our nature, in our Fitr, and we should enjoy it in the same way that a hungry person enjoys himself when eating. A person who prays Salah as part of the natural way of life enjoys that Salah; he rejoices and says to himself ‘Ah, what joy! Salah has given me Sukoon and contentment – I was upset before.’ This is how it is for a person who follows the natural way of life; alhamdulillah, he will experience this Sakeenah and comfort in his prostration because this is the diet of his natural way of life – this is the food for his Iman. Say SubhanAllah. This is the life we should live.
So what do we need to do? Ramadhan is teaching us and is telling us ‘I have controlled shaytan, so now you need to control shaytan after Ramadhan.’ How hard is it? Tell me. Actually, this is a beautiful and fantastic task – you could say that it is a severely challenging task, but Allah is saying that we have to do this, otherwise we will remain no better than monkeys and apes, and the fire of Jahannam will await. We will not be able to succeed if we do not control shaytan. That is why we must try our utmost to control shaytan and establish our Salah correctly – otherwise the life of a human being will never be good. SubhanAllah – what a very important lesson we learn from the insight that Allah ta’ala gave His Wali about how shaytan does his work.
Okay – so what is our duty? What is our task? Raise your head and listen: the comprehensive task for every Mu’min is to live our lives in the same way that we have spent our time in Ramadhan. Whether we have ten years left or five years left, this is our target. Forget Ramadhan now – it has gone, it has ended, it’s all over. Now we need to go out into the real playing field. Don’t think that we will be forgiven due to Ramadhan – no. The whole of the life of a Mu’min should be obedience of the Rasool sallallahu alayhi wasallam, so that when we reach the grave, we can say ‘He is my Rasool.’ If we don’t do this, we will not be able to utter those words, my brothers. We can say that we are Ashiq-e-Rasool and that we are this and that, and our tears may flow as the Nasheeds blare out, but this drama will not succeed in the Hereafter. Only those who obeyed Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam will be able to say ‘He is my Rasool sallallahu alayhi wasallam.’ Those who imitated him, those who lived their lives according to his ways and practiced his Sunnahs will be able to say with passion ‘Who doesn’t know him? Of course he is my Nabi - I knew him before, when I was outside in the world, and I know him now as well.’ This affirmation will come automatically from his mouth. What about me and you?
The Walis of Allah have communicated the reality of the questions that were presented to them in the grave by means of dreams. They have told those they left behind ‘Oh my colleague, when I went to the grave, this happened and that happened.’ If I continue this train of thought, I will lose the message I am delivering. The message is that you should have pity on your homes and on your children and on your families and on your relatives, and you should say to them ‘What are you doing? You are going to Jahannam!’ Ramadhan is giving a cure and a solution and is saying ‘Show compassion and I will tell you the cure to control shaytan at all times.’ We must always control shaytan.
Okay now, so what is the solution that Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam has told us for this piercing of the heart that shaytan does? Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam is telling us how to control shaytan here – say SubhanAllah. This is not a Wali telling us this, nor a Qutb, nor a Moulana, nor a Mufti – who is telling us this? Imam-ul-Ambiya sallallahu alayhi wasallam, the head of all the Prophets is telling us the solution. Through His Rahmah and Fadhl, Allah ta’ala has given us Ramadhan Sharif and recitation of the Qur’an, and His Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam wants to save His Ummah so he is telling us everything. He is saying ‘Look, I will now explain to you how to control shaytan, and if you do this, I guarantee that shaytan will not dare to come near you’ – say SubhanAllah. He won’t dare – he will melt like water. Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam is saying ‘I won’t leave you empty-handed and without any knowledge about this matter in the world –but you don’t do this action, and that is why you are in a wretched state.’ And that is why the whole Ummah is in a wretched state and has failed – we don’t do this action. Instead, we make shaytan our friend – that is why we are failing.
So how do we do this? What is the solution? How did Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam explain how we can control and overcome shaytan? Will we act upon this, my brothers? Yes. This is not a drama – this is reality that I am sharing with you, my brothers. We need to find this out so that we can be saved. Ramadhan has come to an end, and we will soon have completed that training – by Allah, ask the friends of Allah how much they enjoy the taste of Ramadhan in the rest of the year. They will tell you – ‘In the morning, we wake up to pray Tahajjud in the same way, and we recite our fifteen Juz a day, and we pray Chasht and Awabeen like before, so what new thing has Ramadhan given to us? What new thing did Ramadhan give us, my brothers? There was no new action that Ramadhan gave us, alhamdulillah – we are the same, our routine is the same, and the rest of our life is the same. Ramadhan comes and goes, and we don’t know – there is no difference. We won’t even know when we go into Jannah, SubhanAllah – we won’t notice the difference.’
People like this spend their lives in this way, so what is wrong with me and you? Are we animals? Are we eating a different type of food from that which they ate, or drinking a different type of water from them? No – we are the same, and we eat the treasures that Allah provides just as they did. The difference is that they took Allah’s blessings and Ni’mahs and made friends with Allah, whereas we have taken Allah’s blessings and Ni’mahs and have made friends with shaytan – that is the difference. What a big difference! They consume Allah’s Ni’mahs and then make friends with Allah, while we take Allah’s Ni’mahs and then make friends with His enemy. We eat what Allah provides and then say ‘No, I am not going to listen to You – I am not going to pray Your Salah; I am going to sleep at Fajr time; forget doing this and that action.’ But for pious people, the whole of the rest of the year is like Ramadhan because they know how to control shaytan. They have learned how to control him in such a way that he doesn’t come close to them – he doesn’t even come close to their children and subsequent generations. Say SubhanAllah.
So what did Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam tell us? He showed the Wali of Allah, Hadhrat Mujaddid Alf Thani rahmatullah alayh, and said ‘Look what shaytan does to you – now you know, so explain to your Mureeds and your students what you have seen with your own eyes, and in this way they will have Yaqeen about this.’ So he saw shaytan sitting on his heart, biting, and shaytan’s children and his tribes were there as well, grabbing and biting that human being and doing their work. Now Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam told him ‘I will explain to you the method of extracting him from there – start doing Dhikr of Allah.’ What action should you start doing? The Dhikr of Allah. That pious elder said ‘As soon as I started doing Dhikr of Allah, shaytan ran away from my heart.’ And then he said ‘I then stopped doing Dhikr to see what would happen’ – and remember, this was such a great Wali of Allah. He was from Sarhind Sharif in India, and his grave is there as well, and he is from the great Silsila Naqshbandia and he is the founder of the Naqshbandi Mujaddidi line. He had hundreds of thousands of Mureeds, including kings and so many other people besides. But when he stopped doing Dhikr, shaytan came back even into his Noorani heart, and he said ‘Despite all my strivings and the enlightenment of my heart, I saw a darkness come over my heart’ – Allahu Akbar. He said ‘My emotions changed and bad thoughts started coming to me - suggestions to commit bad actions came into my heart.’
This was such a great individual, and if I start telling you about how great he was, you would be amazed and shocked at the Maqam that he had. This was Hadhrat Mujaddid Alf Thani rahmatullah alayh, who revived the Shari’ah and Sunnah in India, and who clashed with kings in order to revive the Sunnah. He clashed with Akbar and other kings and called them out – he was such a great Wali of Allah. Nevertheless, when he stopped doing Dhikr, and when shaytan came inside his heart and pierced and bit it, he said ‘My emotions and my heart changed suddenly, and I wondered what had happened to me’ - he became afraid at the change in his high level and at the loss of Noor within him. And if this happened to a person of his status, then what about us? We are broken-down because we are used to shaytan and have made him our solid friend and are not worried about him - we are just passing through Ramadhan like a custom. So then he straightaway started to do the Dhikr of Allah again, and as soon as he started, two feelings overcame him. His heart became Noorani again and the good emotions returned to him. SubhanAllah – he was so grateful to Allah because he had thought he was failing and that he was finished.
So in this way, he found out that shaytan had been waiting for him to become Ghafil and had attacked him straightaway when he did. Shaytan is always waiting for these opportunities to strike - this is the game between us and shaytan, my friends. So how much Dhikr of Allah do we do? We say ‘Oh, I will go to that Pir and this person, and I want to get a Ta’widh or a potion from this person.’ Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims all go to these people to get amulets and potions as solutions to their problems – this has become their Aqeedah. They seek magic and games and trances and tricks, and we do all of this because our Iman has gone and shaytan makes a person believe this. He says ‘No, no - you he will get success there,’ and then he makes him do Shirk and takes him far from Allah and makes him do wrong actions. So what a beautiful message Ramadhan gives – Ramadhan started from here. Shaytan went away and a beautiful illumination came into our lives – and when shaytan comes back, you will see the other life returning. We need to control this, and the method that we have been given is the Dhikr of Allah.
I will share a Hadith narrated by Hadhrat Ibn Abbas radhiAllahu anh which will confirm this point for you. The narration concerns a person who is weak in getting up in the night – and we are very weak when it comes to the Deen. If you ask a person to pray Salah, he says ‘Oh, I don’t feel like it – I have got a headache,’ but one hour later you can find the same person at his shop, where he remains working for eight hours. The same person who says that he is weak and that he has a headache and that his body is in a bad way and who says that he will pray when he gets home, you see him working a ten-hour shift at his shop. Ibn Abbas radhiAllahu anh said that Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam spoke about those who are weak and who find that Salah is difficult for them and who find it hard to get up in the night for Tahajjud. This is the sort of person who says ‘Oh! Tahajjud really is exceptionally difficult!’ but if the same person realises that by arriving early at a market-place he can earn good money, he gets up even earlier than Tahajjud in order to get there. I have seen people who do this – they travel all night long in the winter so that they arrive in time to set up a market stall. These are the same human beings who find it hard to pray Salah, and the reason for this is simply that shaytan is helping them and making them his friend – and if they go towards Allah, he pierces their hearts and gives them an injection.
So Ibn Abbas radhiAllahu anh said that Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam stated ‘If you are weak and feeble in Salah, and if you stay at home to pray and find that you have become weak and frail and useless when it comes to Allah’s Deen’ – and then he mentions the solution. We can take the whole Deen from these little points, examples and statements that are found in Hadith. If you are weak in fasting and weak in implementing good actions, then it is stated that you are like a Bakheel, a miser, who finds it hard to spend money. Such a person finds giving Zakah a hard thing to do, and if this is the case for Zakah, then how will he give Nafl donations of charity? Such a person is a Bakheel, a stingy, miserly person. He finds it easy to buy a huge TV set for his house - a set that is so big that it can be seen from far away, the sort that covers the entire wall - just so they can watch dramas at home. Is this not the case? We spend thousands of pounds on these devices, but when we are asked to give on Allah’s path, we say ‘Oh no, it is too hard – I can’t spend money in Allah’s way.’ We even play games with Zakah and seek Masa’il to reduce our liabilities, juggling our money around. We play games like this just to save paying ten pounds of Zakah. We say ‘Oh, I am in debt, I have to repay my loans’ - this is called being a Bakheel, a miserly person. Ask a Wali of Allah – if a guest comes to his house, he will go hungry himself, but he will feed that guest. Why? Because he has controlled shaytan.
So listen here: if you are weak in Deen and have no strength to practice Salah due to your weakness and frailty, and if you don’t spend in Allah’s way and are miserly and stingy, and if you are too cowardly to go out in Allah’s path, then Rasoolullah has taught the way to find refuge from this in the Duas he made against laziness and miserliness and cowardice. The person who is miserly doesn’t even give money to his family members – what a severe disease and illness! So Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam said ‘If these weaknesses and emotions have developed within you, then I will tell you the cure.’ What is the solution to this? Allahu Akbar – what a beautiful cure and solution: “Aktharu Dhikrullah” – not just do Dhikr, but do Dhikr in abundance. If you do large amounts of Dhikr, all of your diseases will come out of you. If you find that you are weak and frail in Salah, then do abundant Dhikr and you will fly to Salah, just like in Ramadhan. Why? Just as shaytan was not present in Ramadhan, Dhikr will bring shaytan into your control – he will run away from you. When he runs away from you due to Dhikrullah, then you will be the same person you were in Ramadhan, and for the rest of the year you will pray Salah just as you prayed in Ramadhan – SubhanAllah.
Do you want to become like this? Do you want to be an all-year long Ramadhan Namazi? Then start doing Dhikrullah. We spend money in Ramadhan, MashaAllah, and when people come asking, everyone takes out their money – how does this happen? It happens because shaytan has been controlled by Allah. So Allah is saying ‘Do Dhikr if you want to spend in the same way after Ramadhan, if you want to spend on your family and your housefolk, and give Nafl donations.’ Spending is like an ocean - the more money you spend, the waves come rolling back and the river flows again and the water you have spent gets replaced. If a person spends on the path of Allah, it doesn’t matter how much he spends, Allah ta’ala will replace that money and he will find that he has as much as before.
These are great Ni’mahs of Allah, spending in Allah’s path and renouncing cowardice so that whenever Allah ta’ala calls out, a person stands bravely and courageously. That is the mark of true bravery, and not what some claim to be bravery when they tell of their shops here and their businesses there. We think of those people as brave and courageous and strong due their ventures and earning power, but that is not bravery. Bravery is when a person stands up as soon as Allah calls, and then stands firm, SubhanAllah. And what is the cure for all of this? What is the prescription? “Aktharu Dhikrullah” – do Dhikrullah in abundance. If you remember Allah in high quantity, then the rest of your life will be like Ramadhan. That is why we are sat here, my brothers. Why are we sat here? To do Dhikr of Allah. And inshaAllah, if my health is good, with Allah’s Fadhl, I will come here after Ramadhan as well - I’m not going to stop, am I? So we need to do this, my brothers.
Now - how can we do Dhikr abundantly? Tell me. What does high quantity mean when it comes to Dhikr? If we pick up a Tasbeeh and start saying ‘SubhanAllah wal-hamdulillah,’ after a short while we will say ‘Okay, that’s it – finished.’ And then as soon as you finish, shaytan will come back inside you again. Say SubhanAllah. Dhikr makes shaytan run away, but as Mujaddid Alf Thani rahmatullah alayh said, as soon as you stop doing Dhikr, then shaytan comes back into your heart – and what will we say then? ‘But I did Dhikr – I completed some Tasbeehs – so I don’t know why my heart does not feel like doing good or praying Salah.’ Oh servants of Allah, Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam said “Aktharu” – do abundant Dhikr.
{يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ ٱذۡكُرُواْ ٱللَّهَ ذِكۡرً۬ا كَثِيرً۬ا (٤١
وَسَبِّحُوهُ بُكۡرَةً۬ وَأَصِيلاً (٤٢)
هُوَ ٱلَّذِى يُصَلِّى عَلَيۡكُمۡ وَمَلَـٰٓٮِٕكَتُهُ ۥ لِيُخۡرِجَكُم مِّنَ ٱلظُّلُمَـٰتِ إِلَى ٱلنُّورِۚ
‘Oh you who believe, do Dhikr in abundance’ – not just one Tasbeeh, or five Tasbeehs or twelve Tasbeehs. This is not the definition of Dhikran Katheerah. Allah says { ٱذۡكُرُواْ ٱللَّهَ ذِكۡرً۬ا كَثِيرً۬ا} – and if you do Dhikr Katheer, then { هُوَ ٱلَّذِى يُصَلِّى عَلَيۡكُمۡ وَمَلَـٰٓٮِٕكَتُهُ } – your Rabb and His angels send Rahmah upon you, Allahu Akbar. This Allah ta’ala’s Qur’an that is speaking here – and ten Tasbeehs is not the instruction given. Allah ta’ala says ‘I am instructing you to do abundant Dhikr’ – so how do you do abundant Dhikr? It is not the Dhikr of the tongue, because when you sleep, your tongue will stop.
Allah is saying ‘I have given you a machine, a generator so that you can do abundant Dhikr.’ In this one month that we have, we should do Katheer Dhikr with this machine, with this generator, and that is called Qalbi Dhikr, the Dhikr of the heart. What is the machine? What is the generator? It is the heart. The heart is a spiritual generator, a spiritual Tasbeeh, and Allah ta’ala has made it as a Tasbeeh. But when you put the Tasbeeh of beads down, then shaytan comes back again, whereas the heart does not stop. It does not cease to beat, and your Dhikr will not cease, SubhanAllah - as long as your heart is moving and motoring along, it will continue to do Dhikr if you have learned Qalbi Dhikr from a Wali of Allah, from a Sheikh, from a teacher. You have to learn this Dhikr of the heart; you have to have it prescribed and you have to receive permission for it. You need to learn it and then start doing it. It cannot be that you are given a Mercedes and you just take satisfaction from receipt of the gift; no, you have to drive the Mercedes. It is no good if you just leave it parked outside and go to London by bus – will you benefit from the Mercedes in that case? No. So if you learn this Dhikr, you have to actually do that Dhikr subsequently. SubhanAllah – you don’t just learn it; rather, you have to do it, you have to practice it.
Some people say ‘Oh, if I do Dhikr, I won’t be able to do Tilawat of the Qur’an,’ but who told you stop doing Tilawat of Qur’an? Or they say ‘How will I do Tableegh?’ but who is stopping you from doing Tableegh if you do Dhikr of Allah? Or they say ‘But I teach Hadith’ – who says you will have to stop teaching Hadith? While you are teaching Hadith, is your heart not beating away at the same time? Is it not beating while you are reciting Qur’an? When you do Tableegh, is your heart not beating? If your heart is beating, then you can be doing Dhikr at the same time, SubhanAllah. Say SubhanAllah. Allah ta’ala has given us a system in parallel which enables us to assign our hearts to Dhikr of Allah. In other words, you can sit down and do Dhikr without a Tasbeeh in your hand. Forget the Tasbeehs – when did the Sahaba-e-Kiram have Tasbeehs in their hands? Their hearts would motor along, beating with Allah’s Dhikr. So concentrate on your heart and pay attention to your heart – every second you should be paying attention on your heart. If you are saying ‘Allah, Allah’ in your heart every second, how can shaytan come into your heart?
Allah says in the Qur’an {ٱلَّذِينَ يَذۡكُرُونَ ٱللَّهَ قِيَـٰمً۬ا وَقُعُودً۬ا وَعَلَىٰ جُنُوبِهِمۡ } – Allah is saying ‘I want that Dhikr which you do even when you are asleep!’ Yes? When a person is lying down sleeping, shaytan attacks the most – he makes people mad at that time. We go to sleep, but we don’t know what Dhikr needs to be done at that time. We say ‘Oh, I do my Tasbeeh and then I sleep,’ but then shaytan comes inside for the rest of the night. So make your heart like those {ٱلَّذِينَ يَذۡكُرُونَ ٱللَّهَ قِيَـٰمً۬ا وَقُعُودً۬ا وَعَلَىٰ جُنُوبِهِمۡ }, and be like those who Allah mentions here – when they walk, they do Dhikr, when they are stood, they do Dhikr, when they are reclining, they do Dhikr, when they speak, they do Dhikr – do Dhikr of Allah in every condition and state and posture. How can you do that? Come! Come - it is Ramadhan. In two seconds, I will teach you this Dhikr, and if you work hard on it thereafter, you will become a Dhakir - alhamdulillah. You won’t be able to say to Allah tomorrow ‘Oh, I was too shy to learn Dhikr.’ It is your choice, but Ramadhan is going, so see what will happen afterwards if you don’t do Dhikr. Tasbeeh Dhikr will not give you success, let me tell you. The Dhikr that keeps going continuously is the Dhikr of the heart, and that is what will give success.
I am telling you in the light of Qur’an and Hadith that Allah is commanding us to do which Dhikr? {وَٱذۡڪُرُواْ ٱللَّهَ ڪَثِيرً۬ا لَّعَلَّكُمۡ تُفۡلِحُونَ } Minor Dhikr and small Dhikr is not what is required - no. Allah ta’ala is saying ‘I want high grade Dhikr, and I am giving you a guarantee that the high grade Dhikr of the heart will give you success, because shaytan will leave you if you do this. He will leave you.’ May Allah ta’ala make us proper Namazis with the Sadaqah of this Ramadhan, and may Allah ta’ala give us this Dhikr. Remember – shaytan wants to stop us from doing this Dhikr; he says ‘No, no, no – do some other action rather than Dhikr,’ but Allah ta’ala is saying ‘Do everything else as well but do Dhikr in parallel; do Dhikr at the same time!’ Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam has told us in Hadith: ‘What is the best Salah? Dhikrullah. What is the best Sadaqah? Dhikrullah. What is the best Hajj? Dhikrullah’ What does this mean? It means that if you do all these actions alongside Dhikr, then shaytan will not be with you, and all those actions will be accepted beyond accepted – say SubhanAllah.
My brothers, may Allah ta’ala give us all the ability to be Dhakirs, and may He make both me and you people who do Dhikr. I have said these few things because Ramadhan is departing and so that what follows can also become part of Ramadhan, and that through this Noorani feeling, we can understand our mistakes and errors, and also what we need to do and should do.
Come – let us recite Durood Sharif.
2nd Jun, 2021
Mashalla who in the world can give the umma diamonds like these no but our sheik allahumdolilla.
It does not matter how many time your listen to any of the talks
YOUR heart will testify i have nevers heard something like this before and EVERY TIME YOU will learn something knew in the same talk ..
Allahumdolilla...
11th May, 2021
SubhanAllah SubhanAllah SubhanAllah ?
I will miss these Ramadan evenings, the talks of love, these companionships of the Sheikh, ah, I will miss everything a lot,I don't know if I will get it again or not. Hadhrt Sahib, you are my glory, you are my hope, you are my faith. Well, I'm a sinner but by the mercy of Allah Almighty I hope on the day of judgement I will get your shadow of love and compassion.(Insha'Allah ta'ala)
Alhamdulillah, praise be to Allah, we are grateful that Allah has brought us people to this place with goodness and well-being in Ramadhan; and we are hopeful of Allah’s mercy that during the rest of Ramadhan, Allah ta’ala will grant us the same blessings and mercy and will allow us to complete Ramadhan. We can see that Ramadhan came, and it has also gone – it has departed. Ramadhan has refreshed our entire Deen, and there is no part of the Deen which Ramadhan has not made us practice. Every part of every sector has been revived by Ramadhan, because the objective of Ramadhan is not just restricted to these thirty days; rather, Ramadhan explains to us how we should live in all aspects of our life.
Listen to this clearly, because we think that there are just thirty days of Ramdhan and after that, we are free and what we have earned in Ramadhan is sufficient. No, this is not the case, my brothers. In these thirty days of Ramadhan, Allah ta’ala has made us practice properly through His grace and mercy. We were off the track and had become deviated, lazy and unaware, and had become negligent in our practice, we were not completing our Salah properly, we had no desire or passion for good deeds, we had no passion nor understanding in our recitation of Qur’an, and so Allah ta’ala, in His Hikmah, gave us this month in which we have been given the ability to practice. The month is such that every human being, even people who are weak, like me, have started to run towards the Masjid and pray Salah; those who did not open the Qur’an all year long have completed two, three or even four Qur’ans in this month; everyone – men, women and children – have all been busy, and have shown love for the Masjid and love for the Qur’an; in normal days, we didn’t pray any Nafl salah, but Allah ta’ala has made us pray twenty Rakahs every night. It is Allah ta’ala who has enabled us to do all of this, and He has made us strong.
So now Ramadhan is going, is that it? Are we free to go back to what we were before? No! If so, this would be a waste of all that effort. We have to spend the life we have left and all the days to come just as we spent our time in Ramadhan. Allah ta’ala has told us what the standard of life is. The standard for a Mu’min’s life is just like Ramadhan – these feelings and practices are not restricted just to Ramadhan. If someone wants to be successful in the Hereafter and wants to be saved from Hellfire and wants to go into Paradise and wants Allah’s Radha, then this must be his style – the style of Ramadhan. This is what we should do.
And by means of the whole of Ramadhan, Allah ta’ala has given us a unique Hikmah and wisdom – look at this. When Ramadhan started, Allah ta’ala started a unique system with His Hikmah, in that He imprisoned shaytan, our biggest enemy. Our story started with shaytan, so Allah ta’ala imprisoned our biggest enemy for us. End of story! Allah ta’ala shackled him and all of his workers from among the Jinnat – they were chained and imprisoned. Why? Because Allah ta’ala wanted to show us a secret here, to reveal a very big secret. What was the secret that Allah ta’ala wanted to show us? Allah ta’ala is saying ‘If you can control shaytan – as I have controlled him – then the rest of your life can be spent like Ramadhan.’ This is a very important point for us. By imprisoning and controlling shaytan, Allah ta’ala gave a message that the treasures of Ramadhan can be acquired in the rest of your life. If you want to spend the rest of your life in the manner in which you passed Ramadhan, you need to control shaytan just as Allah controlled him, and you need to understand his tricks and games; if you do so, then the guarantee is that you will spend the rest of your life how you spent Ramadhan. This is the biggest message of Ramadhan.
We have been so brave and courageous in Ramadhan, running to the Masjid, completing recitation of Qur’an, praying Nafl Salah – this is all from this favour of Allah in taking shaytan away from us. Yes - understand this point. From the first day, shaytan has not been present because Allah ta’ala imprisoned and controlled him. So what does shaytan do? I will share a Hadith with you where Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam tells us about the actions of shaytan and what he does to us. Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam explained this to us. Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam said that shaytan goes inside the human being – every human being – and he makes his abode on the heart; he sticks to the heart. Shaytan goes into the heart of every human being and latches onto it; once he controls the heart, then the person’s mind also comes under his control. From there, shaytan does an action whereby he puts an injection into the heart that instils thoughts into that person. It is the Master of the Two Worlds who is mentioning this Hadith, which is in Fazaa’il-e-A’maal. So shaytan works on a person in this way.
A pious elder, Hadhrat Mujaddid Alf Thani rahmatullah alayh, of whom everyone is aware, once made a Dua to Allah ta’ala – and obviously he was a friend of Allah, and Allah ta’ala accepts their Duas – saying ‘Ya Allah, how does shaytan do this? Please, have mercy on me and show me what shaytan does.’ By the mercy of Allah ta’ala, he was granted Kashf and Allah enabled him to see what happens. What he saw was that shaytan took the form a mosquito and sat upon the heart. You know how a mosquito sits? That is how shaytan sits on all of our hearts and makes them his headquarters, his base – remember this. Qur’an and Hadith are telling us this, otherwise we don’t know these things. Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam is explaining this to us, so listen attentively because we need to continue the rest of our lives in the manner of Ramadhan, and you can become like this inshaAllah if you listen carefully to what I am saying. So Allah subhana wa ta'ala showed Hadhrat Mujaddid Alf Thani how shaytan sits on the heart, and how he then pierces the heart with something like a needle or a pin. Every few minutes, he gives this injection into the heart, and this creates thoughts in a person’s heart, and he says to himself ‘Oh forget that – why do I need to pray Salah? Let’s go and do some other action.’ Obviously, when shaytan injects somebody, he won’t be giving the Corona injection, will he? It won’t be an injection that makes you healthy - rather it will destroy that person. He inserts all forms of evil and vice into the heart of a human being, and so, poor soul, that human being gets stuck and trapped due to having been injected with bad thoughts in his heart.
In Ramadhan, the first thing that Allah subhana wa ta'ala did was to remove shaytan from us and control him, and thus we became courageous. Since there was no Waswasah, the impact of his work and his games reduced. When we felt like praying Salah or Tahajjud, or keeping a fast and staying hungry, or reciting, we did it, and the reason we have been able to do all of this is that shaytan’s injections were not going into our hearts. My friends, all these deeds are not our achievement – I am the same person, and you are the same, and we have the same body that we had one month ago. We see so many people at the Masjid who didn’t come to the Masjid before, so how are they managing to reach the Masjid? How did those weak women wake up and pray Tahajjud, and how are we able to recite so much Qur’an when normally we can’t open it? The reason is that our special enemy is not attacking us, so we are free. And Allah’s Nooraniat and grace and mercies are descending on us in Ramadhan, so there is enjoyment after enjoyment for us. So Allah ta’ala has given us this message – ‘All of the actions and the work you have done in Ramadhan is not your achievement. Through my Hikmah, I wanted to make one point clear to you, which is that the rest of your life should be lived according to the habits and practices you established in Ramadhan.’
If a person doesn’t spend their life in this way afterwards, he is a failure. How can a person who leaves Salah be successful? How can a person who lies be successful? How can a person who does non-Shari’ah actions go into Paradise? If a person prays some Salahs and leaves some Salahs, how can he be successful? Have we not read the Hadith where Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam showed how bad it is if a human being does not pray one Salah in congregation, just one Salah, like the Asr we have just prayed? He showed this by displaying severe anger at this practice and saying ‘I feel like taking firewood and setting that person’s house on fire!’ This is the Mercy to the Universe who is saying this, so how can me and you think we can survive if we do this? The reality is that we are burning in hellfire if we do this, my brothers. We need to understand Allah ta’ala’s message which Ramadhan has come to teach us.
Ramadhan comes and we do nice, good deeds and feel happy, and we think that we are successful and that after putting on our smart clothes on Eid day, we are free. No, no, no, no – totally not. If we go back to the old ways, shaytan will be released and will lead us astray. On the day of Eid itself, you will see the games. You don’t even have to wait longer that the day of Eid itself to see the difference. What happens at Dhuhr? People say ‘Oh, it’s okay, Ramadhan has gone now, so what difference does it make?’ We will have to get up to attend Fajr due to the Eid Salah that follows, but at Dhuhr Salah, so many Musallis will be missing. How many people will be there for Asr Salah? There will be so much upheaval in the heart due to shaytan coming inside and putting his mouth onto it. Who has scanned the reality of this and revealed it? Imam ul-Ambiya, Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam, is telling us this fact – say SubhanAllah. He is telling us this and is explaining that all of the achievement of being able to spend Ramadhan the way we did was due to shaytan being imprisoned, and since he was controlled, our hearts were released.
Why does the freedom of the heart lead to this? Because inside the heart of the Mu’min is La ilaha illa-llah, Muhammad-ur-Rasoolullah, which is light upon light. And when the enemy has gone, the natural happiness of the heart returns, and it is in the Fitrah, in the nature, of a Mu’min that he then feels he should quickly go to prostrate to his Lord. He starts following the natural way of life, for this is the natural way. When you are thirsty, is in our nature to drink water straightaway. If you are hungry, your natural tendency is not to go to sleep, or to do some other action like visiting your friends. No, when you are hungry, the most pleasant thing for you is bread, and even if that takes the form of a dry chapatti or chapatti with yoghurt, you will say ‘This is very good food – this is the best food!’ This is Fitr – this is natural. So it is natural for a human being to want to pray when the time for Salah comes – this is the real natural life for a Mu’min. If he doesn’t feel this, it is unnatural and is not Fitr. If a person never feels hungry, we say that such a person’s condition is not natural, and we ask ‘Why is he not feeling hungry? How come hunger never comes over him? He is a human being, so he needs food.’ We say this because it is unnatural, and we would take him to the doctor and explain that something unnatural is happening because he never feels hungry. The doctor will he concerned when he hears that the patient never feels hungry and will take that person’s pulse and prescribe some tablets to try to stimulate his appetite for food.
Have me and you ever thought this way in respect of Salah? If those in our household are not praying Salah, do we think ‘What is the problem here?’ If there is immodesty in their lives, do we think ‘What is the problem here?’ If they are far from the Qur’an, do we think ‘What is the problem here?’ If they are habitual in some Haram action, do we think ‘What is the problem here?’ These are all unnatural actions and tendencies and inclinations, and any person who has recited the Kalimah, alhamdulillah, light has come into his heart and his body has changed. The Kalimah has this effect - as soon as a Mu’min is born, he hears the Shahadah when the Adhan is recited in his ear, and there and then, he has gone – end of story. He has been sold and the colours of Allah, the Sibghatu’llah, have overtaken that person. The Kalimah of Allah has arrived in his veins and in his arteries and in his heart will be love for the Qur’an, and love for the Baitu’llah; he will have dreams of Madina and will incline naturally towards Dhikrullah; the practice of all the Sunnahs of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam will be natural to him – this is not a new feeling. So if you are not doing this and feeling this, it means that we have become unnatural human beings, and that the natural tendencies we should have are not there.
Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam came and explained: ‘The reason for this is that you are far away from Allah and are challenging Allah – who can do this? I know that the reason for this is that your enemy is sat inside you and is preying on you and playing games with you.’ Allah ta’ala has told us that when shaytan was sent to the earth after refusing to bow to Adam alayhi salam, he said to Allah ‘Maula, give me some time. I am not going to leave them alone until I deliver them to Jahannam.’ Allahu Akbar – we have forgotten this story and thus we have become true friends of shaytan. Ramadhan comes, and with Allah’s Karam, shaytan gets imprisoned, and that is why we are able to pray all this Salah – remember this.
So Allah ta’ala has given us a chance to train just as soldiers train. You know how they go outside to train and practice so that they can cope when they are sent to the real situation. After these thirty days, we will be sent to the real playing field as well. It is not a matter of thinking that we will be able to control shaytan all the time, but rather we are told to make effort, to try and strive, and in this way, we will get Ramadhan all the time. It is not just about collecting the Noor of Tarawih in Ramadhan, no. Allah ta’ala is saying ‘Look ahead to the days which are to follow.’ Allah has told us to look at generations who have gone before – when shaytan gets released, you see how quarrels and murder and fighting and Fasaad starts. As for Salah, you will see that only he who has controlled shaytan can pray Salah – say SubhanAllah. Do you understand what I am saying?
I am not giving a speech here, rather I am sharing a very important point with you. Understand death – we must understand death, my brothers. It is very close to us, so understand the nature of that night in the grave; think about those questions of the grave and think about the environment of the grave. This time is about to come to us; think about those who have gone, those who have already departed. This is not a joke – this reality is with us now. This Dunya does not belong to us – it is artificial for us; it is not real, remember this. Every second we pass is not ours; these seconds are not ours. These are Allah’s seconds and moments, and with every second that passes, we go a little bit deeper into the grave. Think about this point. Yes? The person who doesn’t pray Salah will not succeed there, those who follow shaytan’s actions will not succeed there; those who do not practice the Sunnah of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam will not succeed there. The first question will be ‘Man Rabbuka?’ Allah will ask ‘Did you recognise Me and obey Me in the world? And then ‘Man Rasoolukum?’ – ‘Did you obey the Sunnahs of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam?’ What answer will we give? Shaytan is destroying us.
Our whole lives must be spent in the manner of Ramadhan; the question of doing otherwise should not even arise – no question. This is the whole game for the Mu’min. Praying Salah is in our nature, in our Fitr, and we should enjoy it in the same way that a hungry person enjoys himself when eating. A person who prays Salah as part of the natural way of life enjoys that Salah; he rejoices and says to himself ‘Ah, what joy! Salah has given me Sukoon and contentment – I was upset before.’ This is how it is for a person who follows the natural way of life; alhamdulillah, he will experience this Sakeenah and comfort in his prostration because this is the diet of his natural way of life – this is the food for his Iman. Say SubhanAllah. This is the life we should live.
So what do we need to do? Ramadhan is teaching us and is telling us ‘I have controlled shaytan, so now you need to control shaytan after Ramadhan.’ How hard is it? Tell me. Actually, this is a beautiful and fantastic task – you could say that it is a severely challenging task, but Allah is saying that we have to do this, otherwise we will remain no better than monkeys and apes, and the fire of Jahannam will await. We will not be able to succeed if we do not control shaytan. That is why we must try our utmost to control shaytan and establish our Salah correctly – otherwise the life of a human being will never be good. SubhanAllah – what a very important lesson we learn from the insight that Allah ta’ala gave His Wali about how shaytan does his work.
Okay – so what is our duty? What is our task? Raise your head and listen: the comprehensive task for every Mu’min is to live our lives in the same way that we have spent our time in Ramadhan. Whether we have ten years left or five years left, this is our target. Forget Ramadhan now – it has gone, it has ended, it’s all over. Now we need to go out into the real playing field. Don’t think that we will be forgiven due to Ramadhan – no. The whole of the life of a Mu’min should be obedience of the Rasool sallallahu alayhi wasallam, so that when we reach the grave, we can say ‘He is my Rasool.’ If we don’t do this, we will not be able to utter those words, my brothers. We can say that we are Ashiq-e-Rasool and that we are this and that, and our tears may flow as the Nasheeds blare out, but this drama will not succeed in the Hereafter. Only those who obeyed Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam will be able to say ‘He is my Rasool sallallahu alayhi wasallam.’ Those who imitated him, those who lived their lives according to his ways and practiced his Sunnahs will be able to say with passion ‘Who doesn’t know him? Of course he is my Nabi - I knew him before, when I was outside in the world, and I know him now as well.’ This affirmation will come automatically from his mouth. What about me and you?
The Walis of Allah have communicated the reality of the questions that were presented to them in the grave by means of dreams. They have told those they left behind ‘Oh my colleague, when I went to the grave, this happened and that happened.’ If I continue this train of thought, I will lose the message I am delivering. The message is that you should have pity on your homes and on your children and on your families and on your relatives, and you should say to them ‘What are you doing? You are going to Jahannam!’ Ramadhan is giving a cure and a solution and is saying ‘Show compassion and I will tell you the cure to control shaytan at all times.’ We must always control shaytan.
Okay now, so what is the solution that Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam has told us for this piercing of the heart that shaytan does? Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam is telling us how to control shaytan here – say SubhanAllah. This is not a Wali telling us this, nor a Qutb, nor a Moulana, nor a Mufti – who is telling us this? Imam-ul-Ambiya sallallahu alayhi wasallam, the head of all the Prophets is telling us the solution. Through His Rahmah and Fadhl, Allah ta’ala has given us Ramadhan Sharif and recitation of the Qur’an, and His Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam wants to save His Ummah so he is telling us everything. He is saying ‘Look, I will now explain to you how to control shaytan, and if you do this, I guarantee that shaytan will not dare to come near you’ – say SubhanAllah. He won’t dare – he will melt like water. Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam is saying ‘I won’t leave you empty-handed and without any knowledge about this matter in the world –but you don’t do this action, and that is why you are in a wretched state.’ And that is why the whole Ummah is in a wretched state and has failed – we don’t do this action. Instead, we make shaytan our friend – that is why we are failing.
So how do we do this? What is the solution? How did Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam explain how we can control and overcome shaytan? Will we act upon this, my brothers? Yes. This is not a drama – this is reality that I am sharing with you, my brothers. We need to find this out so that we can be saved. Ramadhan has come to an end, and we will soon have completed that training – by Allah, ask the friends of Allah how much they enjoy the taste of Ramadhan in the rest of the year. They will tell you – ‘In the morning, we wake up to pray Tahajjud in the same way, and we recite our fifteen Juz a day, and we pray Chasht and Awabeen like before, so what new thing has Ramadhan given to us? What new thing did Ramadhan give us, my brothers? There was no new action that Ramadhan gave us, alhamdulillah – we are the same, our routine is the same, and the rest of our life is the same. Ramadhan comes and goes, and we don’t know – there is no difference. We won’t even know when we go into Jannah, SubhanAllah – we won’t notice the difference.’
People like this spend their lives in this way, so what is wrong with me and you? Are we animals? Are we eating a different type of food from that which they ate, or drinking a different type of water from them? No – we are the same, and we eat the treasures that Allah provides just as they did. The difference is that they took Allah’s blessings and Ni’mahs and made friends with Allah, whereas we have taken Allah’s blessings and Ni’mahs and have made friends with shaytan – that is the difference. What a big difference! They consume Allah’s Ni’mahs and then make friends with Allah, while we take Allah’s Ni’mahs and then make friends with His enemy. We eat what Allah provides and then say ‘No, I am not going to listen to You – I am not going to pray Your Salah; I am going to sleep at Fajr time; forget doing this and that action.’ But for pious people, the whole of the rest of the year is like Ramadhan because they know how to control shaytan. They have learned how to control him in such a way that he doesn’t come close to them – he doesn’t even come close to their children and subsequent generations. Say SubhanAllah.
So what did Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam tell us? He showed the Wali of Allah, Hadhrat Mujaddid Alf Thani rahmatullah alayh, and said ‘Look what shaytan does to you – now you know, so explain to your Mureeds and your students what you have seen with your own eyes, and in this way they will have Yaqeen about this.’ So he saw shaytan sitting on his heart, biting, and shaytan’s children and his tribes were there as well, grabbing and biting that human being and doing their work. Now Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam told him ‘I will explain to you the method of extracting him from there – start doing Dhikr of Allah.’ What action should you start doing? The Dhikr of Allah. That pious elder said ‘As soon as I started doing Dhikr of Allah, shaytan ran away from my heart.’ And then he said ‘I then stopped doing Dhikr to see what would happen’ – and remember, this was such a great Wali of Allah. He was from Sarhind Sharif in India, and his grave is there as well, and he is from the great Silsila Naqshbandia and he is the founder of the Naqshbandi Mujaddidi line. He had hundreds of thousands of Mureeds, including kings and so many other people besides. But when he stopped doing Dhikr, shaytan came back even into his Noorani heart, and he said ‘Despite all my strivings and the enlightenment of my heart, I saw a darkness come over my heart’ – Allahu Akbar. He said ‘My emotions changed and bad thoughts started coming to me - suggestions to commit bad actions came into my heart.’
This was such a great individual, and if I start telling you about how great he was, you would be amazed and shocked at the Maqam that he had. This was Hadhrat Mujaddid Alf Thani rahmatullah alayh, who revived the Shari’ah and Sunnah in India, and who clashed with kings in order to revive the Sunnah. He clashed with Akbar and other kings and called them out – he was such a great Wali of Allah. Nevertheless, when he stopped doing Dhikr, and when shaytan came inside his heart and pierced and bit it, he said ‘My emotions and my heart changed suddenly, and I wondered what had happened to me’ - he became afraid at the change in his high level and at the loss of Noor within him. And if this happened to a person of his status, then what about us? We are broken-down because we are used to shaytan and have made him our solid friend and are not worried about him - we are just passing through Ramadhan like a custom. So then he straightaway started to do the Dhikr of Allah again, and as soon as he started, two feelings overcame him. His heart became Noorani again and the good emotions returned to him. SubhanAllah – he was so grateful to Allah because he had thought he was failing and that he was finished.
So in this way, he found out that shaytan had been waiting for him to become Ghafil and had attacked him straightaway when he did. Shaytan is always waiting for these opportunities to strike - this is the game between us and shaytan, my friends. So how much Dhikr of Allah do we do? We say ‘Oh, I will go to that Pir and this person, and I want to get a Ta’widh or a potion from this person.’ Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims all go to these people to get amulets and potions as solutions to their problems – this has become their Aqeedah. They seek magic and games and trances and tricks, and we do all of this because our Iman has gone and shaytan makes a person believe this. He says ‘No, no - you he will get success there,’ and then he makes him do Shirk and takes him far from Allah and makes him do wrong actions. So what a beautiful message Ramadhan gives – Ramadhan started from here. Shaytan went away and a beautiful illumination came into our lives – and when shaytan comes back, you will see the other life returning. We need to control this, and the method that we have been given is the Dhikr of Allah.
I will share a Hadith narrated by Hadhrat Ibn Abbas radhiAllahu anh which will confirm this point for you. The narration concerns a person who is weak in getting up in the night – and we are very weak when it comes to the Deen. If you ask a person to pray Salah, he says ‘Oh, I don’t feel like it – I have got a headache,’ but one hour later you can find the same person at his shop, where he remains working for eight hours. The same person who says that he is weak and that he has a headache and that his body is in a bad way and who says that he will pray when he gets home, you see him working a ten-hour shift at his shop. Ibn Abbas radhiAllahu anh said that Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam spoke about those who are weak and who find that Salah is difficult for them and who find it hard to get up in the night for Tahajjud. This is the sort of person who says ‘Oh! Tahajjud really is exceptionally difficult!’ but if the same person realises that by arriving early at a market-place he can earn good money, he gets up even earlier than Tahajjud in order to get there. I have seen people who do this – they travel all night long in the winter so that they arrive in time to set up a market stall. These are the same human beings who find it hard to pray Salah, and the reason for this is simply that shaytan is helping them and making them his friend – and if they go towards Allah, he pierces their hearts and gives them an injection.
So Ibn Abbas radhiAllahu anh said that Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam stated ‘If you are weak and feeble in Salah, and if you stay at home to pray and find that you have become weak and frail and useless when it comes to Allah’s Deen’ – and then he mentions the solution. We can take the whole Deen from these little points, examples and statements that are found in Hadith. If you are weak in fasting and weak in implementing good actions, then it is stated that you are like a Bakheel, a miser, who finds it hard to spend money. Such a person finds giving Zakah a hard thing to do, and if this is the case for Zakah, then how will he give Nafl donations of charity? Such a person is a Bakheel, a stingy, miserly person. He finds it easy to buy a huge TV set for his house - a set that is so big that it can be seen from far away, the sort that covers the entire wall - just so they can watch dramas at home. Is this not the case? We spend thousands of pounds on these devices, but when we are asked to give on Allah’s path, we say ‘Oh no, it is too hard – I can’t spend money in Allah’s way.’ We even play games with Zakah and seek Masa’il to reduce our liabilities, juggling our money around. We play games like this just to save paying ten pounds of Zakah. We say ‘Oh, I am in debt, I have to repay my loans’ - this is called being a Bakheel, a miserly person. Ask a Wali of Allah – if a guest comes to his house, he will go hungry himself, but he will feed that guest. Why? Because he has controlled shaytan.
So listen here: if you are weak in Deen and have no strength to practice Salah due to your weakness and frailty, and if you don’t spend in Allah’s way and are miserly and stingy, and if you are too cowardly to go out in Allah’s path, then Rasoolullah has taught the way to find refuge from this in the Duas he made against laziness and miserliness and cowardice. The person who is miserly doesn’t even give money to his family members – what a severe disease and illness! So Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam said ‘If these weaknesses and emotions have developed within you, then I will tell you the cure.’ What is the solution to this? Allahu Akbar – what a beautiful cure and solution: “Aktharu Dhikrullah” – not just do Dhikr, but do Dhikr in abundance. If you do large amounts of Dhikr, all of your diseases will come out of you. If you find that you are weak and frail in Salah, then do abundant Dhikr and you will fly to Salah, just like in Ramadhan. Why? Just as shaytan was not present in Ramadhan, Dhikr will bring shaytan into your control – he will run away from you. When he runs away from you due to Dhikrullah, then you will be the same person you were in Ramadhan, and for the rest of the year you will pray Salah just as you prayed in Ramadhan – SubhanAllah.
Do you want to become like this? Do you want to be an all-year long Ramadhan Namazi? Then start doing Dhikrullah. We spend money in Ramadhan, MashaAllah, and when people come asking, everyone takes out their money – how does this happen? It happens because shaytan has been controlled by Allah. So Allah is saying ‘Do Dhikr if you want to spend in the same way after Ramadhan, if you want to spend on your family and your housefolk, and give Nafl donations.’ Spending is like an ocean - the more money you spend, the waves come rolling back and the river flows again and the water you have spent gets replaced. If a person spends on the path of Allah, it doesn’t matter how much he spends, Allah ta’ala will replace that money and he will find that he has as much as before.
These are great Ni’mahs of Allah, spending in Allah’s path and renouncing cowardice so that whenever Allah ta’ala calls out, a person stands bravely and courageously. That is the mark of true bravery, and not what some claim to be bravery when they tell of their shops here and their businesses there. We think of those people as brave and courageous and strong due their ventures and earning power, but that is not bravery. Bravery is when a person stands up as soon as Allah calls, and then stands firm, SubhanAllah. And what is the cure for all of this? What is the prescription? “Aktharu Dhikrullah” – do Dhikrullah in abundance. If you remember Allah in high quantity, then the rest of your life will be like Ramadhan. That is why we are sat here, my brothers. Why are we sat here? To do Dhikr of Allah. And inshaAllah, if my health is good, with Allah’s Fadhl, I will come here after Ramadhan as well - I’m not going to stop, am I? So we need to do this, my brothers.
Now - how can we do Dhikr abundantly? Tell me. What does high quantity mean when it comes to Dhikr? If we pick up a Tasbeeh and start saying ‘SubhanAllah wal-hamdulillah,’ after a short while we will say ‘Okay, that’s it – finished.’ And then as soon as you finish, shaytan will come back inside you again. Say SubhanAllah. Dhikr makes shaytan run away, but as Mujaddid Alf Thani rahmatullah alayh said, as soon as you stop doing Dhikr, then shaytan comes back into your heart – and what will we say then? ‘But I did Dhikr – I completed some Tasbeehs – so I don’t know why my heart does not feel like doing good or praying Salah.’ Oh servants of Allah, Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam said “Aktharu” – do abundant Dhikr.
{يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ ٱذۡكُرُواْ ٱللَّهَ ذِكۡرً۬ا كَثِيرً۬ا (٤١
وَسَبِّحُوهُ بُكۡرَةً۬ وَأَصِيلاً (٤٢)
هُوَ ٱلَّذِى يُصَلِّى عَلَيۡكُمۡ وَمَلَـٰٓٮِٕكَتُهُ ۥ لِيُخۡرِجَكُم مِّنَ ٱلظُّلُمَـٰتِ إِلَى ٱلنُّورِۚ
‘Oh you who believe, do Dhikr in abundance’ – not just one Tasbeeh, or five Tasbeehs or twelve Tasbeehs. This is not the definition of Dhikran Katheerah. Allah says { ٱذۡكُرُواْ ٱللَّهَ ذِكۡرً۬ا كَثِيرً۬ا} – and if you do Dhikr Katheer, then { هُوَ ٱلَّذِى يُصَلِّى عَلَيۡكُمۡ وَمَلَـٰٓٮِٕكَتُهُ } – your Rabb and His angels send Rahmah upon you, Allahu Akbar. This Allah ta’ala’s Qur’an that is speaking here – and ten Tasbeehs is not the instruction given. Allah ta’ala says ‘I am instructing you to do abundant Dhikr’ – so how do you do abundant Dhikr? It is not the Dhikr of the tongue, because when you sleep, your tongue will stop.
Allah is saying ‘I have given you a machine, a generator so that you can do abundant Dhikr.’ In this one month that we have, we should do Katheer Dhikr with this machine, with this generator, and that is called Qalbi Dhikr, the Dhikr of the heart. What is the machine? What is the generator? It is the heart. The heart is a spiritual generator, a spiritual Tasbeeh, and Allah ta’ala has made it as a Tasbeeh. But when you put the Tasbeeh of beads down, then shaytan comes back again, whereas the heart does not stop. It does not cease to beat, and your Dhikr will not cease, SubhanAllah - as long as your heart is moving and motoring along, it will continue to do Dhikr if you have learned Qalbi Dhikr from a Wali of Allah, from a Sheikh, from a teacher. You have to learn this Dhikr of the heart; you have to have it prescribed and you have to receive permission for it. You need to learn it and then start doing it. It cannot be that you are given a Mercedes and you just take satisfaction from receipt of the gift; no, you have to drive the Mercedes. It is no good if you just leave it parked outside and go to London by bus – will you benefit from the Mercedes in that case? No. So if you learn this Dhikr, you have to actually do that Dhikr subsequently. SubhanAllah – you don’t just learn it; rather, you have to do it, you have to practice it.
Some people say ‘Oh, if I do Dhikr, I won’t be able to do Tilawat of the Qur’an,’ but who told you stop doing Tilawat of Qur’an? Or they say ‘How will I do Tableegh?’ but who is stopping you from doing Tableegh if you do Dhikr of Allah? Or they say ‘But I teach Hadith’ – who says you will have to stop teaching Hadith? While you are teaching Hadith, is your heart not beating away at the same time? Is it not beating while you are reciting Qur’an? When you do Tableegh, is your heart not beating? If your heart is beating, then you can be doing Dhikr at the same time, SubhanAllah. Say SubhanAllah. Allah ta’ala has given us a system in parallel which enables us to assign our hearts to Dhikr of Allah. In other words, you can sit down and do Dhikr without a Tasbeeh in your hand. Forget the Tasbeehs – when did the Sahaba-e-Kiram have Tasbeehs in their hands? Their hearts would motor along, beating with Allah’s Dhikr. So concentrate on your heart and pay attention to your heart – every second you should be paying attention on your heart. If you are saying ‘Allah, Allah’ in your heart every second, how can shaytan come into your heart?
Allah says in the Qur’an {ٱلَّذِينَ يَذۡكُرُونَ ٱللَّهَ قِيَـٰمً۬ا وَقُعُودً۬ا وَعَلَىٰ جُنُوبِهِمۡ } – Allah is saying ‘I want that Dhikr which you do even when you are asleep!’ Yes? When a person is lying down sleeping, shaytan attacks the most – he makes people mad at that time. We go to sleep, but we don’t know what Dhikr needs to be done at that time. We say ‘Oh, I do my Tasbeeh and then I sleep,’ but then shaytan comes inside for the rest of the night. So make your heart like those {ٱلَّذِينَ يَذۡكُرُونَ ٱللَّهَ قِيَـٰمً۬ا وَقُعُودً۬ا وَعَلَىٰ جُنُوبِهِمۡ }, and be like those who Allah mentions here – when they walk, they do Dhikr, when they are stood, they do Dhikr, when they are reclining, they do Dhikr, when they speak, they do Dhikr – do Dhikr of Allah in every condition and state and posture. How can you do that? Come! Come - it is Ramadhan. In two seconds, I will teach you this Dhikr, and if you work hard on it thereafter, you will become a Dhakir - alhamdulillah. You won’t be able to say to Allah tomorrow ‘Oh, I was too shy to learn Dhikr.’ It is your choice, but Ramadhan is going, so see what will happen afterwards if you don’t do Dhikr. Tasbeeh Dhikr will not give you success, let me tell you. The Dhikr that keeps going continuously is the Dhikr of the heart, and that is what will give success.
I am telling you in the light of Qur’an and Hadith that Allah is commanding us to do which Dhikr? {وَٱذۡڪُرُواْ ٱللَّهَ ڪَثِيرً۬ا لَّعَلَّكُمۡ تُفۡلِحُونَ } Minor Dhikr and small Dhikr is not what is required - no. Allah ta’ala is saying ‘I want high grade Dhikr, and I am giving you a guarantee that the high grade Dhikr of the heart will give you success, because shaytan will leave you if you do this. He will leave you.’ May Allah ta’ala make us proper Namazis with the Sadaqah of this Ramadhan, and may Allah ta’ala give us this Dhikr. Remember – shaytan wants to stop us from doing this Dhikr; he says ‘No, no, no – do some other action rather than Dhikr,’ but Allah ta’ala is saying ‘Do everything else as well but do Dhikr in parallel; do Dhikr at the same time!’ Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam has told us in Hadith: ‘What is the best Salah? Dhikrullah. What is the best Sadaqah? Dhikrullah. What is the best Hajj? Dhikrullah’ What does this mean? It means that if you do all these actions alongside Dhikr, then shaytan will not be with you, and all those actions will be accepted beyond accepted – say SubhanAllah.
My brothers, may Allah ta’ala give us all the ability to be Dhakirs, and may He make both me and you people who do Dhikr. I have said these few things because Ramadhan is departing and so that what follows can also become part of Ramadhan, and that through this Noorani feeling, we can understand our mistakes and errors, and also what we need to do and should do.
Come – let us recite Durood Sharif.