اصْبِرُوا وَ صابِرُوا وَ رابِطُوا وَ اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ
Allah ta'ala has mentioned the way we can attain success whilst enduring any condition, whether it is the most severe battle or the greatest fight. If a man keeps his eye on these 4 things, he will never be defeated. He will always be successful and will always win that battle.
The first thing mentioned is, اصْبِرُوا patience, perseverance, never lose hope and endure patience. The second thing is, صابِرُوا, which is to be strong, remain firm, “I wont move back.” After having patience and enduring it, he says, "I wont move away from this mission. I'm going to win this battle whatever happens." The third thing is
رابِطُوا
This is a fantastic thing. We should understand the reality that if a person wins a battle and he is victorious, then in the absence of this element, even the greatest victory can turn into a defeat and it can become a loss. So even if a person wins the battle, he can still loose after that. He has won and reached his destination but, without رابِطُوا and what is رابِطُوا ? To safeguard. To protect the victory. This is the important thing. If you don't have this then even if you have are victorious, you can lose. I'll give you the example of this so you understand this well. The battle of Uhud was a great battle in Islam and what happened in this battle was that, through Allah's pemission and wisdom, Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam prepared for this fight. The disbelievers came to fight and Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam made a plan here to achieve رابِطُوا. SubhaanAllah. Alhamdulillah you have probably visited the place in Madinah Shareef where this Battle took place. Hadhrat Hamza Radhiyallahu Anhu's grave is also there by the location of the battle of uhud. So first we climb the mountain, the small mountain and we stand here and make dua on it and there is a history of this mountain. Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam ordered the sahabah, the archers, to stand here And Nabi sallallahu alayhi alayhi sallam gave the instruction saying that "you will have a great role in this battle. You must do رابِطُوا. You must safeguard us. You are also included in the battle but when it takes place, you must not leave this place, this mountain." You must have seen the mountain. MashaaAllah. The Sahabah said, "okay that’s fine you have given the instruction." The sahabah were stood there present. The battle took place and alhamdulillah the believers were victorious and they experienced a great victory. It was such a great victory that the disbelievers left behind all of the wealth from the booty and ran away. They lost and the Muslims were victorious. Obviously, the Sahabah began taking the wealth which they had left and ran away from. The Sahabah who were instructed to رابِطُوا safeguard and not move from the mountain, were also stood there. They thought that the enemies have gone, they have ran away, why will they return now? So let's also go and be included in taking from the spoils of war. They forget their duty which Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam instructed them to do, "that your duty is a great deal and be aware of safeguarding." And these are those examples which Allah has given us until Qiyamah so we can understand because these type of challenges will come in our life. So the sahabah left their position and started to take from the wealth. The disbelievers, and this is always the work of every enemy, remember this, so when they were at a distance, the enemies said, "we aren't satisfied," they got angry again and made a plan and they said, "let's go back and attack again." Dangerous enemies always do this. Remember this. So they knew that the sahabah who were stood there before are definitely no longer there, so it is the best place to come from behind and attack from the back. Look at Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam's wisdom that he selected this place to be guarded before the battle even took place and said "don't move from here. "And at that time the sahabah didn't understand how important this guarding was. So when the enemies returned, that place was empty. The sahabah were not there. The Muslims then faced a great defeat, a great loss and many sahabah were martyred. If you go to the graves at the foot of mount uhud, you’ll see that there are so many graves there. It was a great scene of panic and chaos and no one knew who was alive and who had died. It was a time of anxiety. The sahabah didn't know where Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was, and there was a rumour which spread that Nabi sallallahu alayhi alayhi sallam had passed away. The sahabah became disheartened and it was a unique and challenging feeling. Due to what mistake? They left the duty of safeguarding and they deemed their enemies to be weak and left the duty. SubhaanAllah look at the verse of the Quran. It is correct that on certain occasions, صبر patience is very important, صابروا but to be firm is also very important. However, the most important thing is رابِطُوا, understand my point, it is very beneficial. Alhamdulillah. We are sat here for discussion, so we can understand and improve our lives through it, this is not a speech.
What a great example for us, the scene changed dramatically, meaning, it was such a great defeat that there was no limit. Many sahabah were martyred. Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam's blessed tooth was also martyred there. Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was attacked on his armour. You wear a waistcoat don’t you? So there was blood on his armour. It was full of blood due to his broken tooth. Maybe you have visited. There is a little cave on the side of Mount uhud where people visit. They go inside the cave and pray nafil. It is a very small place and with difficulty, you can pray salaah there. So Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam went there and rested there for a while. Anyway, that was the story. What is it telling us?
رابِطُوا
Is the most important thing. To safeguard, to lookout and protect. Allah ta'ala has given such a great reward for it, that even if one safeguards even for a small moment, then it is better than the world and whatever it contains, such a great reward for protecting. And there must be a reason for this isn't it? Such a person's sins are all forgiven, his ranks are raised due to his action of safeguarding. Ramadan has come my brothers and it was a very great open field. There was a great battle going on between us, our nafs and desires. This was not a minor battle, it was a very great battle! And it wasn't a battle of one day, or half an hour, Allah made us battle with our nafs for 30 days. There is no greater enemy for man than the nafs, my friends. It is the greatest enemy. From top to bottom, from morning till evening, what have we done in Ramadan? And Ramadan is about to end. This was the battle against our nafs. We were inside a massive field, we were occupied in a great battle, we were in opposition with all the evils of our nafs, we safeguarded the commands of Allah. We tried out utmost best to stay away from the disobedience of Allah. Whatever command came our way, we were steadfast on them. We remained firm that whatever happens, we won't do this action. We won't lie. We wont spoil our fast. We will protect our gaze. We will protect our tongues. We are not going to do any wrong actions. Why? "Because I am fasting." It is very difficult to let go of habits. This is a very great battle with the nafs. To control a habit in one month which you have been doing for your entire life, 12 months 11 months, is very difficult. Some people, they pray salaah the entire year, they recite Quran and they also try to abstain from sin. But there are other poor souls who are just gone. They are lost. When they engage in this battle alhamdulillah, then they become more superior than the other type of people. SubhaanAllah. Do you understand? This was the battle of the nafs. And what battle was this? Once the sahabah were retuning from a very severe battle and Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, "you are returning from a small battle to go to a greater battle." The sahabah were very surprised that, what could be a greater battle than this? That battle that we are retuning from, i can't remember which battle it was. Was it Tabuk? The sahabah did a lot of hard work in that battle. And they said, "is there a battle greater than this? What is that battle?" Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, "that is the battle with your nafs." Whoever understands the battle of the nafs, look, battles end don’t they? They start and then they finish. How long do battles last for? If you took a look at the battles in history, which have occurred, eventually they end. How long do they last? But the battle of man with his nafs continues until his death and it doesn't leave a person alone for even a second. Not even a second. To the extent that you are sat here, but your nafs is fighting you and it will revive your passions. I was narrating to you from the battle of uhud. What was the greatest loss of that battle? They gave up safeguarding the area. So this is the point we need to learn and understand. We also need to protect ourselves through the battle of our nafs. Say SubhaanAllah. Do you understand my point? Alhamdulillah. We have won the battle during these 30 days. We are victorious. Allah has accepted and the stamps have been applied that we have become Muttaqi. We have attained great ranks. The doors of paradise are opened for us. In hadith is it mentioned that, Allah subhaanahu wa ta'ala decorates jannah every day. And It asked, "oh Allah for whom is this jannah being decorated for?" It was said, " those who have fought the battle of their nafs." So what a great thing we have done? This is a great victory for us that Allah placed us in a big field with our nafs and asked us to control ourselves for a while. Today, there is glad tidings and good news for every Muslim who entered Ramadan and did hard work and every man has become a Jannati through the Grace of Allah. He has been forgiven. He has attained high ranks and paradise is waiting for him. Look at the bad state we were in before Ramadan, how much sins we used to commit, what bad habits we must have had in regards to our worship, society and character. In every aspect, we were dirty, we were animals and we would do whatever we desired and left whatever we desired. This is not the definition of deen. Deen is not what we like and prefer, rather deen is Allah's prefers and likes. This is the difference and this is what Ramadan has taught us that deen does not go according to our own desires. Your desires tell you to eat food, drink tea, your preferences and desires are many. Your desires are many, so fulfil them? But would a person do it? No, he doesn't during Ramadan. Why? We have done one action. We have sacrificed our desire for the sake of Allah's preference. The nafs is distressed. What has happened here? So we realise that Allah has made us practice for 30 days and He showed us our reality. "Oh believers, this is your reality." And in contrast, the lifestyle of an animal is opposite to the lifestyle of reality. Those who don't live correctly are like animals, not humans. The Quran has said that these people are worse than animals and the example of a dog has been given. That just like a dog barks, you also bark. The true person is he who sacrifices his desires for the sake of Allah's preference. This is not a game of 30 days. This is the game of a lifetime. Right now someone will be in the grave. Someone will be in hospital. Someone is about to pass away. Someone is preparing to depart. Someone is unaware of the sickness which is about to befall him. Someone is unaware of how many days he has left in the world. But this is our destination, our journey. لعلكم تفلحون like the verse has said, that you will only receive success in this state, when you oppose and defeat your nafs and desires, you crush your passions like you did in Ramadan and if you spend your entire life like that, as you spent these 30 days, which were not difficult, so it is not difficult to spend your life in this way too. Allah ta'ala has given us a lot of determination and strength in these 30 days. Extreme strength. Allah ta'ala asks, what has happened to you that you left sins for 30 days? You didn’t lie for 30 days and what bad has come to you? You protected your gaze for 30 days and what calamity has befallen you? You came and prayed salaah in congregation for 30 days and you came on time and what calamity has befallen you? It means you can do it! You have proved it and if you can remain hungry and thirsty from morning till evening in 100 degrees, whilst everything is in front of you, then can you not remain in this state according to Allah's preference? That when Allah is giving you blessings, food, good health, and everything, then in this state can you not live according to Allah's will and preference? So those people are lying who say, "it is very difficult. We can't do it. We try. Make dua. I can't do it." What has Allah ta'ala done? He has demanded very little from us. The amount Allah ta'ala has given us, the statuses he has given us, the blessings, we have so much in this world, to the extent that Allah says, "you cant count these blessings." لا تحصوها
Allah ta'ala extracts provisions for you from the seas. He grants you provisions from the heavens. He has created the flying birds as a source of provisions for you. He has created the animals to lay egg as a source of provision for you. He has extracted the honey from the bees for you. What else do you want? Is there any desire of yours that Allah ta'ala hasn't fulfilled? After giving you all of this, your Lord has only demanded for one thing. Only one demand. That "you do as I please." Say SubhaanAllah. This is only it. Get up, eat, drink, enjoy life, but just be careful of one thing. Practice in the way that I order you to and there is benefit for you in that. You don't even know the method, you animals. You don't know how to eat, how to live, how to clothe, how much to eat, how much you shouldn't eat. Even this is out of my Grace that I created you. Like a person is given a car, a manufacturer gives you a big car and he gives you a handbook with it. That "this is the car, you have paid for it, you have the instructions but I'm the mechanic and I know what these parts are so don't utilise it incorrectly because if you use it incorrectly, then your car will go to a waste." If you use it in the wrong way, put it in the wrong gear, drive it in the wrong way, then your car will go to a waste. So the manufacturer says, "drive it the way i am advising you to." Say SubhaanAllah. So you will drive the car in that way when you value it. It is your car and you brought it with your money but it is the choice of the manufacture which will be adhered to. You have given him the money and gone away from him. But no. You will drive it but whenever there's a fault with the car, where will you run to? Straight to the factory. "Can you take a look at this?" "Yes. There is a part which has been broken. That's fine, you don't know. I will replace the part and then you can drive it on the road again." So my lord says, I created you, Do you know what things are good for you or do I know better?" Say SubhaanAllah.
Oh monkey, You say that you want to sleep in the morning, "I enjoy it. Then I get up and I exercise and then I eat 2 eggs, I have tea and then I sit down." This is our life. Allah says, "oh animal this is not the way to live. You don't know this but, by getting up in the morning and reading salaah, it is better for your world and for your hereafter, for your vitality, your wellbeing and for all your needs. Allah says, “ I have kept this thing for you as a form of protection from thousands of things. I don’t wish to punish you. You woke up in the morning and your awakening, your sleep and everything is all a waste, in here is a disease, distress, calamity for you. You don't know because I created you. I manufactured you so I know that these things are harmful for you. What is better for you is those things I have explained to you that at this time in the morning, you should rise up, because sleeping at this time is harmful to you. It will make you sick. It will bring you distress and calamities. It is better for you that you go and perform wudu and become fresh and pray at the mosque like I have commanded. Then your entire day will be full of happiness and peace.” Whose order is this my brothers? The one who created us and gave us sustenance. The one who gave us food. If we feel like having yogurt, then immediately we say, "Bring the yogurt, bring a yogurt pot for me." You go and the yogurt is ready. Where is the yogurt coming from? Allah created a cow for it. Where did he create the cow? In Africa. SubhaanAllah. And it is providing you milk and yogurt over here, yet it is being made there. The milk is created from there. Where is it from? It is from Holland. "Made in Holland." You felt like having something, you had the desire and Allah hasn't prevented you from this. It is a permissible desire so Allah says, "eat." Look, I created this for you. I created a cow for you over there. The cow is created in that country, its milk is being extracted from there, the yogurt is being made there, you are desiring for it over here in the UK, it is being packed in boxes, the boxes are being sent here to shops and supermarkets. You are given the wealth and you have the desire to go and buy some yogurt. So you go to the shop and buy it and eat it. Say SubhaanAllah. Is this not what happens? We want to eat mango. Over here, nobody knows what a mango is. If I wanted to eat the Chonsa mango, the anwar batool, what is the name of them? Sweet mangoes. I feel like having it, don’t I? But there is no mango tree here. Allah says, this is my servant and this is his desire. He possesses Imaan so you don't worry, the mango will reach you whenever you want to eat it. Does it not reach us? I was eating a strange fruit and I said, "what's this fruit?" And I was told that this is from Africa and it grows there in a certain place. Say SubhaanAllah. And I thought, "why has this fruit been created?" And a voice came in my ear, "its not just you, people are also living here from that country who like this fruit." So that shop keeper came and grabbed a bag and filled it with fruit. The same fruit I was wondering what it was. I thought, Allah honours the desire of every slave. Allah gives us mangoes and He gives them what they like too. Allah fulfils the desire of small children. It's not the case that this thing is in such a country and it cannot come to another country. Allah say, you have the desire and I will grant it to you. So despite giving us all of these blessings what does Allah ta'ala desire from us? Think for yourself, how wretched we are, how ignorant, that despite having all these blessings, we don’t believe Allah. Who do we believe? Our nafs and desires. What is sat inside us and speaking nonsense. Tell me honestly. Put the deen and the religion on one side. And we get reward, that is on one side. But after fasting, tell me, do you feel the enjoyment of fasting? Whatever it is, you do feel the pleasure and satisfaction don’t you? When do you feel its pleasure, I'll tell you. When will it come to you? In around half an hour, wait for 45 minutes, and when a glass comes in front of you, with 2 dates, you will experience such pleasure in eating those dates and you’ll wish that the adhan is elongated so you can eat all 3 dates which are there. You will have so much pleasure in eating this, such that you will not have this pleasure even when eating biryani. Say SubhaanAllah. You will not even enjoy daal kichri. Because you eat those foods to fill your stomach. But here, after you implemented Allah's order, Allah has given you a blessing and that is what you are eating. This is the difference here. When you eat to fill your stomach, you eat the wheat and the corn. SubhaanAllah. But when you eat according to Allah's desire, after obeying the commands of Allah, then you receive the dates of Madinah and the blessed water of Zam Zam. Where is Madinah and where is you? SubhaanAllah. Where is the soil? The date which has grown from the soil of madinatul Munawwarah and the sand of Madinah and the leader of the Messengers is buried in this soil and he is resting there. SubhaanAllah. That Madinah soil, will there be no effect on that date? That is the soil of gold and silver my brothers, upon which the inhabitants of the heavens are envious! The angels are envious of that sand and soil of Madinah. If only we could visit Madinah. And we are monkeys and animals. We don’t know that it is only one desire of ours we have crushed and we followed the commands, so Allah has delivered the dates of Madinah and Zam Zam to us. Sometimes the Hajji's go and bring it back. We could never have thought! And Allah said, Go oh Bolton people, this will be your breakfast. When you control your desires, i’ll give you the breakfast. Madinah’s dates and a glass of Zam Zam. Say SubhaanAllah. Why have we received it? Because we obeyed Allah's words. Allah said, "don’t eat." We didn't eat. "Dont drink." We didn't drink at that time. Dont go to your wife. Okay she's my wife. She's my wife but my order is Ghair. Stranger. Be afraid of her. Go away from her. She comes to you and he says, "Astaghfirullah. Dont come close to me, we could become aroused." That is his same wife who he was always attached to. SubhaanAllah. Who used to feed and give him drink. Now he says, Astaghfirullah, why? Allah ta'ala says he has obeyed my command well and he has taken the halal to be haraam for that time. He is afraid of his wife. Where is your passion gone? What has become predominant? Allah's desire and choice has become raised and your desire has been suppressed . When this happens then Allah ta'ala makes an announcement that this person has become a Muttaqi. SubhaanAllah. You can read the verses regarding the Muttaqi yourself inside the Quran. How Allah has prepared jannah for the Muttaqi. So this is the discussion of taqwa. That's all we need to do. "How shall we become Allah's wali? His friend. How do we become like this? How do we become a Ghauth? How will I receive Jannah when I am so sinful? How will our duas be accepted?" Brothers, everything is possible and is easily present. Allah ta'ala says "today, oh fasting person there is no stipulated time for you, whenever you make dua to me, it will reach me through the direct dial. Accepted." Similarly, any individual who lives his life in this way, that He lives according to Allah's desires and not the desires of His own, then his duas are always accepted in his life. Like today your desires have been fulfilled because you didn’t obey your own desires. You obeyed Allah's. So a person who obeys Allah in his life, its a short life my brothers, I swear by Allah life is short that when a person departs and the angels ask you, "how many years did you live there?" you say, "I haven't even lived there. It seems as though I just blinked an eyelid and that’s it."
I'll ask you a question now. Ramadan has gone right? How long was Ramadan? Does it seem long? It has gone in a flash! It was like yesterday that I was sat here talking to you and how long has passed? Thursday night has come, the night of Jumuah and then next Jumuah isn't going to come. This is the last night of Jumuah with the Grace of Allah. We are gathering the light of Allah in these last moments. Say SubhaanAllah. The dhikr gathering. Masjid Zakariyyah. Allahu akbar. Allah's name is present. There are so many Mercies. And then unique angels, the angels of Ramadan will testify on Qiyamah. The common angels won't testify. They will be told to move back. The Ramadan angels will testify that these people were the people of dhikr. We saw them engaging in dhikr. We won’t let then enter hellfire. “Did you know this? "No i didn’t know that there was a dhikr gathering. I just came like that in the dhikr gathering. And I saw everyone sitting, I thought I’ll sit too, let me drag this fast out. Let me sit in the masjid, where else will I go?" The poor soul doesn't even know what dhikr is. I looked and I saw people are sat there so I wondered what they were doing? Okay let me just sit too, i'm fasting where else shall I go? And he will be given rewards and it will be said, "you didn’t even know but due to that gathering, you have attained success!” And still we are monkeys and we disobey Allah? What a strange thing? Am I right or wrong. Make a promise today that how I was in Ramadan, I will remain like this. Who do you fear? What calamity has befallen you? If you can control yourself this much today, then afterwards, you won't even need to control yourself as much. Eat, drink. Allah isn't making you control any one thing. He just said don't do wrongdoing or any sin. Do you promise? Have determination. Remain a Muttaqi forever. Earn the duas of the angels forever. Raise your hands and your dua's will be accepted. You can't find a job, you'll find the job. You're not getting married, raise your hands and then you'll be married. You don't have children, raise your hands and you'll have children. He's the one who gives and you are the ones who seek, so what is the barrier in between? Its the barrier of sins. It doesn't let our duas ascend to Allah due to Allah's displeasure. Whatever duas you make today will be accepted only because you are living according to Allah's desire and preferences during Ramadan. Do you understand my point? What a great Mujaahdah. This is a battle! This is a great battle for us weak people, you people have a lot of strength, I am a very weak person, I always sin. Its a very great battle. We stopped our bad habits and we listened to Allah for 30 days. We are prepared now for the rest. But my brothers, the same point I gave regarding the battle of uhud, that who won? Who was victorious? The Muslims. Everyone was alive at the time. And then how much were they in loss? How many were martyred? Because they believed that they were victorious. End of. We have attained success, let's go. But in the same way, remember what I'm saying. We are in Ramadan and we say we are victorious. We are successful. We are Muttaqi. We are pious. We have controlled our nafs. But, as soon as Ramadan ends, the enemy will return and It will return with vigour and it will try to control you. It will attack on the first day, on eid. What does the human being start to do? All of his efforts of Ramadan he puts down the drain within minutes. Yes it happens so the beautiful cure has come. Like what happened in battle of uhud isn't it? Now the cure has come, so what do we need to do? Come to the point. I desire my brothers, that we remain like this for our entire lives. Not that we should fast. No. Dont disobey Allah. Dont sin. I'm not saying keep fasting. Fasting has ended. This was a struggle that you were doing. How shall we live? Eat, drink and enjoy Allah's blessings and be grateful to Allah. That's all I'm asking you to do. Now everything will open after 30 days. But in our enjoyment, what do we do? We not only become happy engaging in what has been made Halal again, we turn Haraam into Halal and say this is permissible too. And this happens on the first day. Immodesty, music, singing, we do it like it is nothing. Like we made no effort during Ramadan. So we realise that the nafs has attacked again and it has won, like the disbelievers came from behind and turned the sahabah into martyrs and inflicted loss. So our nafs has martyred us again. And then what happened? It caused us a lot of loss. We don’t know if next year will come or not, and we have been put into that category of "zero." Allah raised us to such a high status, he gives us the good news of forgiveness , paradise has been opened, everything is granted to us, but we did one thing. The nafs came and overpowered us after Ramadan, it attacked again and we give up. Do you understand my point? What a dangerous thing we have spoken about today? Do we want to be safe? I'll tell you the cure. Do you want to be safe? Really? Otherwise you'll be destroyed. How will you be saved? Let's read the verse of the Quran again. SubhaanAllah.
اصْبِرُوا وَ صابِرُوا وَ رابِطُوا
If we want to be safe, then we can be safe with رابِطُوا
How? By protecting ourselves.
That's why Allah's Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam has granted us such a great reward for safeguarding that the one who does this, is greater than the entire world and whatever it contains. The one who safeguards. Do you understand what safeguarding means? The security guards who guards the house or the building. Remember that after you exit Ramadan then you need to do one thing. You need to safeguard your nafs. Secure a guard at the border of your nafs so it can't attack you again. I’m telling you a unique thing. If you prepare today during Ramadan, then as soon as the 30 days are up, you are going to stand our guards by our nafs, that how dare you return, I have become a Muttaqi, a Jannati and a Wali Allah and now I'm going to remain this way. So when will we be protected? رابِطُوا Allah has told us in the Quran.
اصْبِرُوا وَ صابِرُوا وَ رابِطُوا وَ اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ
Allah says I'm saving you from one thing because one day you will appear in front of me so fear that. Imagine that scene Allah says. Fear that scene. You cant imagine that day. The moment you are presented in my court, on one side will be paradise and on one side will be Hellfire and you’ll be watching the flames of Hellfire. The people will be running away and the angels will be dragging them back in chains and you are waiting for your judgement to be decided and this judgement will be an eternal.
'Fear Allah' ponder over this sometimes.
I'm preparing you for this so I've removed you from all these things, I've taken you out from Hellfire, I've removed you from it externally. I made you engage in hard work and if you want to remain in this state then there's a very easy task. I’ts not difficult to persevere at all. Its so easy that due to this easy thing you'll always be a Jannati and a Muttaqi. Will you do that action? For sure?
Allah opens the doors. Allah ends the verse
At the end of the verse, Allah says, لَعَلَّکُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ
Allah says there is no benefit for me, oh believers. Everything that I'm telling you, the guards which I'm telling you about won’t be of benefit to me. But just remember that throughout this action, you'll be successful in this world and the Hereafter.
We wander around like animals. "Nothing, nothing." Allah says, you could achieve high ranks and become a great person. Your entire life will remain like this in a beautiful way and without fasting, you'll have Ramadan. Say SubhaanAllah. Anyway, Let's see what action it is which we can start doing before Ramadan ends, so we can control our nafs and not let it attack us again. Where shall we go? Let's go to the court of Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and ask him for the cure. Only that will happen which Allah ta'ala wants. Shall we go? Shall we go to a Sahabi? A very beautiful sahabi. Abu Razeen Radiyallaha anhu. Whats his name? Abu Razeen Radiyallaha anhu. He said, "I heard from Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam," now we can hear what it is. We have arrived there haven't we? We have caught up with the Sahabi. "Please tell us the method. Did the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam tell us how to protect our Imaan after Ramadan and how to suppress the desires?
قال قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم
"I have heard," and where have these words come from? I’m not giving you the reference of a big book but I will give you the reference of a book which every child is familiar of. We read it day and night. Morning and evening we repeat it. This book is also present over here, it is present everywhere. What is it? Fazaail A'amaal. Who wrote this? A great Shaykhul Hadith. From there we find this hadith and he gave the reference of who? This great sahabi. The Wali Allah record such statements. It’s not for no little reason that this book became well known. SubhaanAllah. In this same book, there is the companions story of what nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam narrated. Pick it up and check. You probably read it but you have understood it today. This is the case isn't it? So we realise that reading is one thing and understanding is another. When you sit to understand then you start understanding so many other things too. So after you read, the readers should also try to look for those who may help you to understand it. Understanding is also important. So Abu Razeen Radiyallaha anhu says that I heard from Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam myself who said, "oh sahabi, shall I not tell you such an action," SubhaanAllah what a style of delivering learning. Shall I not tell you an action which will protect your deen completely, and control your nafs. Shall I tell you? The sahabi said ,"yes please tell me." Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, "ill tell you further." "What?" "You will receive the success of both worlds." So this is a beautiful secret. Who is telling us this? Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, the leader of Madinah. This is called love. So will you do it? Otherwise whoever does not obey Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, then who will he obey? He is ruined. We should analyse ourselves to see which commands of Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam we have implemented and which ones we have abandoned. Analyse yourself. Ramadan is going shall I tell you. Anyalyse yourself from top to bottom regarding those things which Allah's Nabi Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam has ordered. Due to not possessing those actions which he loves, Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam becomes displeased with that person. He will be displeased with that person in this world, in the Hereafter, and in the grave. And this is a great sin. Why is it a big sin? Because Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam doesn't like that sin.
Let's look from top to bottom at ourselves to see if that quality is within us at all? Assess yourself. What does Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam like?
من احب سنتي
“I like that your faces are adorned with a beard like mine.” "Oh Rasulullah, how shall we adorn ourselves with the beard?" "Like my beard one fist in length and a trimmed moustache." This is a hadith in Bukhari shareef which I'm reading to you. You can go and study it.
We are sitting in Ramadan. We want to be a Muttaqi. We want to be everything. In the end, our nafs controlled us didn't it? Someone has kept it this long, someone has kept it that long. Someone has kept it as they please. Someone has a French cut. Someone has done something else. Brothers, where is the desire and preference of Allah and His Rasul!? Where is their happiness? And such people will not receive paradise without Allah and His Rasul sallallahu alayhi wa sallam’s happiness. They will do the intercession. You want to obey your nafs, but imitate others and then you keep hopes for the Hereafter. Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam will say, "what is this?
Are these people stupid? Are our brains corrupt? What has happened to us? We should have that much intellect within us that even a child understands this. We ask for food from our mother, but we go and listen to the neighbours. So whoever we want to get from, listen and obey that person. Say SubhaanAllah. So when our external self is not correct, and we have a small defect and as a result of that ,
ليس مني
"He is not from amongst me." I have no connection with him. I have no connection with this appearance. I don’t know this person with this appearance. But you say “no, I’ll pray Salah with this appearance, I'll do Hajj with this, I'll do Umrah with this, I'll do saee with this." Listen. I'll tell you practically.
It was nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallams generation, a nation came and they had the appearances of the Jews and the Christian. They were fire worshippers. And before them, none had witnessed such people who kept shortened and trimmed and shaved beards. This is correct. I’m narrating a sahih hadith to you. This is nafs. Look where nafs takes a person far. We claim that we love Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam but we oppose him every morning and evening. We take a blade and we slide it against our face. We take scissors and we cut it. So much oppression. Think for yourself. And you glorify him and send durood to him. Are we stupid or what are we? I don’t understand.
"Leave the comb. Leave these 2 colours and take one colour, one path." One way. Take the example of travelling,
Can a boat of a passenger go in 2 directions? You can only take one boat that goes in 1 direction. We only have one boat and this is Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam's boat which we will travel in and go to Jannah. On top it is something else below us is another boat, our body is another boat, our clothes is another boat, our face is another boat. So many boats we have have collected and we want to travel and go to Jannah? Do we promise today that we wont cut the beard? Let me see how much loss you will get in the world. Even if you get the loss of the entire world, but our Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is happy, then what a great achievement. If your mum is upset, your dad is upset, the whole world is upset, no problem,
من احدكم
Doesn't matter who is upset with you.
If your wealth goes, everything goes, Allah says dont worry. Your transaction is not a cheap transaction because you made Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam pleased. Do you understand?
Is this not our nafs? We say we want to attain Jannah like this. I am fasting. I want to carry on with my sin. You are following your sin and leaving Allah's desire. Are you going according to your own desires? Allah says, I like a one fist beard and every sahabi, 124,000 of them kept beards. All of messengers although, they hadn't even come yet, but they had beards. There was no prophet who didn't have a beard. Why? Because they imitated everything Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam did. Even though in Jannah you won't keep a beard. Say SubhaanAllah. Over there you can fulfil the order. You won't even need to cut it there because it wont even grow. Allah will say leave the beard. It was only to test you in this world. There will be no beards there. It will be beauty in another unique colour there. So if we don’t keep a full beard in this world, then what will happen in the Hereafter, tell me. Do you understand? Today, repent for this sin because this is a major severe sin such that you'll be punished for in your grave, you'll be punished in you life. You’ll be punished in the Hereafter. You are doing all these actions with فسق Do you know what فسق is? You are performing a very level status of salaah, You are performing a very level status of fast, You are performing a very level status of dhikr, whatever worship you are engaging in, is all bereft of light. Allah's Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is displeased with your actions. Say SubhaanAllah. Sins are all sins but some sins are very severe sins.
Look, when a person commits theft, his sin is restricted to his theft, when a person commits adultery, he is sinful at the time he is committing adultery. When a person cuts his beard, he will remain sinful until he keeps the beard. He's gone for hajj, and he's a sinner, he's praying salaah and he's a sinner. He's reading Quran and he's a sinner. He is sleeping and he is a sinner because the sin of shaving is attached to him. Tell me, can there be a greater sin than this? You’re making your nafs happy, who else are you making happy, nothing else. The Mirror? No my brothers. Dont do this action. For the sake of Allah, don’t do this sin.
Death is very close. You'll remember my words. Very quickly death will come and people will put us in boxes. It will come in this town. Here. Someone will be looking at your face, at the coffin, the closed box, I've seen thousands of people like this where some people, whom we see morning and evening, they used to sit with us and then have departed from the world. Will you repent brothers? These are the last moments of Ramadan. Make sincere repentance, and if you do so, then the angels will bear witness that this person kept the intention to keep a beard in Ramadan that I will keep it full length and I wont cut it. So what did Allah's Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam say. He said, shall I tell you that action which will control your nafs completely and preserve your Imaan after Ramadan, just like you did in Ramadan? What is that formula? Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, "Shall I not tell you an action which will grant you strength in your deen and it will bring you goodness in both worlds. There will be no lack of provisions in your life. It will instil patience within you and all these 4 things will come in to you.
Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said , I'll tell you one action. SubhanAllah. Do this one action and you’ll get all these 4 qualities which have been mentioned in this verse and they are the best things for our lives.
اصْبِرُوا وَ صابِرُوا وَ رابِطُوا وَ اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ
Read it. Its in the last verse of surah Imran. I like this verse a lot.
وَ اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ
Allah's Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is giving so many things in one action. Allah's Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, "shall I tell you this action so you can do it all the time, and mashaaAllah you can attain all the blessings in this verse. The blessings of this entire verse.
"Oh Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam what is this action?"
Make an intention to do it. Will you do it? InshaAllah. You won't get an opportunity in Ramadan again. Make an intention, even if you make the intention today, whether Allah gives you the ability or not but I've told you such a great thing in Ramadan and I took one hour to explain it in detail. Ramadan will testify. So this action he is prescribing, you will constantly suppress your nafs through this action. The action will be easy for you and it won't be difficult. Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam never gave a difficult solution. What is the solution? Tell me. I'm not saying it. Read Fazaail-e-A'amaal and you will see the sahabi's name and then ponder over the message coming to you. Listen carefully. "Hold on firmly to the gatherings of dhikr. And when you are alone, then engage in dhikr according to your capability and you will receive everything inshaaAllah. Dhikrullah will allow you to have control and suppress your nafs. You will bury the nafs. You won't let the nafs get up. You need to be habitual in this action. Hold on to these gatherings of dhikr nights with strength and vigour. How fortunate and lucky are these people of Bolton. How fortunate are these people of Masjid Zakariyyah. Morning and evening this masjid is hosting this dhikr. The action which is the cause of glad tidings is happening in this masjid morning and evening. Such a great action. You can engage in dhikr alone, but it is rare to take part in dhikr gatherings in this day and age.
In the hadith it says that as soon as the era becomes close to Qiyamah, then the first thing which will disappear from the masjid is the dhikr of Allah. Check it out. Allah says I made the masjids for my remembrance and the biggest sign of Qiyamah will be when the massajid are devoid from the blessings of Allah. And thousands of things will take part. There will be enjoyment of the nafs. Everything will take part in the masaajid. But in those places where Allah ta'ala is happy with, there will less dhikr and gatherings. Go and see with the binoculars. How many masjid host dhikrullah morning and evening in this world today? This is the pious person's dua who was sat in Pakistan Gadai Shareef, thousands of miles away. He said, "where have you come from?" I said I've come from Bolton." He said, is it? "I like the people of Bolton. Beautiful people will be created here. Go there and revive the action of Dhikrullah." This was his desire and call. This was his desire and he had pity on Manchester at that night. Before this nobody came with this learning. "Why have you come here, go back to where you've come from." He said their hearts are deceased. Where will they have dhikr gatherings there in the masaajid? I like the name Bolton he said. The people are beloved there and they'll see you and people will come to you inshaaAllah. Go to the masjid and revive them and do dhikr in the masjid. That's why I'm say in front of you. It is the night of jumuah and Ramadan is departing. It is the final night of Jumuah. It is the final night of Ramadan and we are taking part in the gathering of dhikr. The morning will come and we will keep the fast. We will pray fajr and come back here again. People run back to their houses and we will do dhikr again at that time. Evening will come and the announcement of eid will be made. People will run and say, "there's no taraweeh today, the mosques will be empty, but there will still be dhikr gatherings going on. Because we have understood. Lets go back to fazaail A'amaal. I wont speak of this hadith because everyone knows this hadith. Lets go back to the book. What did Sheikh-ul-Hadith say that on the day of judgement an announcement willl be made, الذين يذكرون الله قياما
"Who are the most intellectual people?"
Those who made money, who made planes, who made boats, technology and science? Allah says, the most intellectual are not these. Tell me who they are.
You didn’t read the verse of my Quran
الذين يذكرون الله قياما و قعودا و على جنوبهم و يتفكرون
I announced in the Quran that the intellectual people are those who understood how Allah becomes happy and how Jannah is attained and they grabbed hold of that action, morning, evening and night, sleeping, waking up, sitting down, wherever they were, they had one action, which was the dhikr of Allah. They did it all the time. Say SubhaanAllah. Come let me show you the scene of that Allah ta'ala will say. This is the hadith. Read the hadith in Fazaail-e-A'amaal. Allah will say let me show you the scene of the Dhaakireen. All the groups will be there on Qiyamah and there will be a flag which will be stood and it will be planted and as soon as the flag will be at the front, a group will be ready behind that flag and when the group will be assembled, Allah ta’lah will say keep walking behind the flag and walk into paradise. “Who are these people, Allah?” Allah will say “these are the same people who did the dhikr of Allah sitting in the masjid. Today I will show you the status and the glory and how great these people were. They weren't mad people who run away from the masjid, eid was coming, they were running away from taraweeh and they couldn't sleep until they sat down for 30 minutes and did the dhikr of Allah through the Grace of Allah.”
الذين يذكرون الله قياما و قعودا و على جنوبهم
Those are the most intellectual and wisdom bearing people. It is not a minor thing. So will you do the dhikr of Allah? What more can I say now? If you don't have intellect then what can I say? You should have intellect that where there is a dhikr majlis, you should be quiet and sit down in the gathering. This is not a pir mureed thing. Here Allah's dhikr takes place. To learn anything, you need a teacher isn't it? Whatever you learn in the dunya, you need a teacher for it. So if you want to learn dhikr, you need a teacher. Go to the teacher. Seek the teacher. He is the teacher. Where did this "Peeri Mureeedi" come from? Forget all these secondary words. There's a teacher and he teaches you dhikr then alhamdulillah learn dhikr from him. If you want to learn how to make sweets then the manufacturer will teach you how to. The person who teaches you dhikr and enlightens your chest is called a Sheikh. The one who teaches you how to make bread, you would refer to him as the teacher who teaches you to make bread. So the teacher you teaches you the name of Allah is a Wali Allah. He’s my peer. He’s our teacher. His name is this. Whatever title you want to give him. It doesn't matter he is teaching you. Where has this Peeri Mureedi come from,? That's all artificial. The doors of the masjid are open for everyone. Come, sit down, engage in dhikr and you’ll be successful. No restriction, no passport, no certificate. This is a river in which you can jump and immerse yourself in. You can become cured and then leave. Has anyone been prevented? "Come. You come. Dont come. You leave. No. Whoever understands, understands. Whoever doesn't understand then that's his choice. Someone says I've never heard this before I want to read Quran. Carry on doing what you're doing. Who’s stopping you?
But Allah said it clearly, let me tell you the greatest action. Those who sit in Dhikrullah.
Will you do it? Will you sit in the dhikr gathering? It’s my duty to give you the invitation. I have given you the invitation. I've done the Tabligh and the Ta'leem. May Allah grant me the reward and grant you the reward for sitting. May He allow us to implement
Shall we do Allah's dhikr now?
یا أَیُّهَا الَّذینَ آمَنُوا اصْبِرُوا وَ صابِرُوا وَ رابِطُوا وَ اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ لَعَلَّکُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ
Allah subhaanahu wa ta'ala has mentioned 4 things with regards to this verse of the Quran.
اصْبِرُوا وَ صابِرُوا وَ رابِطُوا وَ اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ لَعَلَّکُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ
اصْبِرُوا وَ صابِرُوا وَ رابِطُوا وَ اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ
Allah ta'ala has mentioned the way we can attain success whilst enduring any condition, whether it is the most severe battle or the greatest fight. If a man keeps his eye on these 4 things, he will never be defeated. He will always be successful and will always win that battle.
The first thing mentioned is, اصْبِرُوا patience, perseverance, never lose hope and endure patience. The second thing is, صابِرُوا, which is to be strong, remain firm, “I wont move back.” After having patience and enduring it, he says, "I wont move away from this mission. I'm going to win this battle whatever happens." The third thing is
رابِطُوا
This is a fantastic thing. We should understand the reality that if a person wins a battle and he is victorious, then in the absence of this element, even the greatest victory can turn into a defeat and it can become a loss. So even if a person wins the battle, he can still loose after that. He has won and reached his destination but, without رابِطُوا and what is رابِطُوا ? To safeguard. To protect the victory. This is the important thing. If you don't have this then even if you have are victorious, you can lose. I'll give you the example of this so you understand this well. The battle of Uhud was a great battle in Islam and what happened in this battle was that, through Allah's pemission and wisdom, Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam prepared for this fight. The disbelievers came to fight and Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam made a plan here to achieve رابِطُوا. SubhaanAllah. Alhamdulillah you have probably visited the place in Madinah Shareef where this Battle took place. Hadhrat Hamza Radhiyallahu Anhu's grave is also there by the location of the battle of uhud. So first we climb the mountain, the small mountain and we stand here and make dua on it and there is a history of this mountain. Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam ordered the sahabah, the archers, to stand here And Nabi sallallahu alayhi alayhi sallam gave the instruction saying that "you will have a great role in this battle. You must do رابِطُوا. You must safeguard us. You are also included in the battle but when it takes place, you must not leave this place, this mountain." You must have seen the mountain. MashaaAllah. The Sahabah said, "okay that’s fine you have given the instruction." The sahabah were stood there present. The battle took place and alhamdulillah the believers were victorious and they experienced a great victory. It was such a great victory that the disbelievers left behind all of the wealth from the booty and ran away. They lost and the Muslims were victorious. Obviously, the Sahabah began taking the wealth which they had left and ran away from. The Sahabah who were instructed to رابِطُوا safeguard and not move from the mountain, were also stood there. They thought that the enemies have gone, they have ran away, why will they return now? So let's also go and be included in taking from the spoils of war. They forget their duty which Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam instructed them to do, "that your duty is a great deal and be aware of safeguarding." And these are those examples which Allah has given us until Qiyamah so we can understand because these type of challenges will come in our life. So the sahabah left their position and started to take from the wealth. The disbelievers, and this is always the work of every enemy, remember this, so when they were at a distance, the enemies said, "we aren't satisfied," they got angry again and made a plan and they said, "let's go back and attack again." Dangerous enemies always do this. Remember this. So they knew that the sahabah who were stood there before are definitely no longer there, so it is the best place to come from behind and attack from the back. Look at Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam's wisdom that he selected this place to be guarded before the battle even took place and said "don't move from here. "And at that time the sahabah didn't understand how important this guarding was. So when the enemies returned, that place was empty. The sahabah were not there. The Muslims then faced a great defeat, a great loss and many sahabah were martyred. If you go to the graves at the foot of mount uhud, you’ll see that there are so many graves there. It was a great scene of panic and chaos and no one knew who was alive and who had died. It was a time of anxiety. The sahabah didn't know where Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was, and there was a rumour which spread that Nabi sallallahu alayhi alayhi sallam had passed away. The sahabah became disheartened and it was a unique and challenging feeling. Due to what mistake? They left the duty of safeguarding and they deemed their enemies to be weak and left the duty. SubhaanAllah look at the verse of the Quran. It is correct that on certain occasions, صبر patience is very important, صابروا but to be firm is also very important. However, the most important thing is رابِطُوا, understand my point, it is very beneficial. Alhamdulillah. We are sat here for discussion, so we can understand and improve our lives through it, this is not a speech.
What a great example for us, the scene changed dramatically, meaning, it was such a great defeat that there was no limit. Many sahabah were martyred. Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam's blessed tooth was also martyred there. Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was attacked on his armour. You wear a waistcoat don’t you? So there was blood on his armour. It was full of blood due to his broken tooth. Maybe you have visited. There is a little cave on the side of Mount uhud where people visit. They go inside the cave and pray nafil. It is a very small place and with difficulty, you can pray salaah there. So Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam went there and rested there for a while. Anyway, that was the story. What is it telling us?
رابِطُوا
Is the most important thing. To safeguard, to lookout and protect. Allah ta'ala has given such a great reward for it, that even if one safeguards even for a small moment, then it is better than the world and whatever it contains, such a great reward for protecting. And there must be a reason for this isn't it? Such a person's sins are all forgiven, his ranks are raised due to his action of safeguarding. Ramadan has come my brothers and it was a very great open field. There was a great battle going on between us, our nafs and desires. This was not a minor battle, it was a very great battle! And it wasn't a battle of one day, or half an hour, Allah made us battle with our nafs for 30 days. There is no greater enemy for man than the nafs, my friends. It is the greatest enemy. From top to bottom, from morning till evening, what have we done in Ramadan? And Ramadan is about to end. This was the battle against our nafs. We were inside a massive field, we were occupied in a great battle, we were in opposition with all the evils of our nafs, we safeguarded the commands of Allah. We tried out utmost best to stay away from the disobedience of Allah. Whatever command came our way, we were steadfast on them. We remained firm that whatever happens, we won't do this action. We won't lie. We wont spoil our fast. We will protect our gaze. We will protect our tongues. We are not going to do any wrong actions. Why? "Because I am fasting." It is very difficult to let go of habits. This is a very great battle with the nafs. To control a habit in one month which you have been doing for your entire life, 12 months 11 months, is very difficult. Some people, they pray salaah the entire year, they recite Quran and they also try to abstain from sin. But there are other poor souls who are just gone. They are lost. When they engage in this battle alhamdulillah, then they become more superior than the other type of people. SubhaanAllah. Do you understand? This was the battle of the nafs. And what battle was this? Once the sahabah were retuning from a very severe battle and Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, "you are returning from a small battle to go to a greater battle." The sahabah were very surprised that, what could be a greater battle than this? That battle that we are retuning from, i can't remember which battle it was. Was it Tabuk? The sahabah did a lot of hard work in that battle. And they said, "is there a battle greater than this? What is that battle?" Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, "that is the battle with your nafs." Whoever understands the battle of the nafs, look, battles end don’t they? They start and then they finish. How long do battles last for? If you took a look at the battles in history, which have occurred, eventually they end. How long do they last? But the battle of man with his nafs continues until his death and it doesn't leave a person alone for even a second. Not even a second. To the extent that you are sat here, but your nafs is fighting you and it will revive your passions. I was narrating to you from the battle of uhud. What was the greatest loss of that battle? They gave up safeguarding the area. So this is the point we need to learn and understand. We also need to protect ourselves through the battle of our nafs. Say SubhaanAllah. Do you understand my point? Alhamdulillah. We have won the battle during these 30 days. We are victorious. Allah has accepted and the stamps have been applied that we have become Muttaqi. We have attained great ranks. The doors of paradise are opened for us. In hadith is it mentioned that, Allah subhaanahu wa ta'ala decorates jannah every day. And It asked, "oh Allah for whom is this jannah being decorated for?" It was said, " those who have fought the battle of their nafs." So what a great thing we have done? This is a great victory for us that Allah placed us in a big field with our nafs and asked us to control ourselves for a while. Today, there is glad tidings and good news for every Muslim who entered Ramadan and did hard work and every man has become a Jannati through the Grace of Allah. He has been forgiven. He has attained high ranks and paradise is waiting for him. Look at the bad state we were in before Ramadan, how much sins we used to commit, what bad habits we must have had in regards to our worship, society and character. In every aspect, we were dirty, we were animals and we would do whatever we desired and left whatever we desired. This is not the definition of deen. Deen is not what we like and prefer, rather deen is Allah's prefers and likes. This is the difference and this is what Ramadan has taught us that deen does not go according to our own desires. Your desires tell you to eat food, drink tea, your preferences and desires are many. Your desires are many, so fulfil them? But would a person do it? No, he doesn't during Ramadan. Why? We have done one action. We have sacrificed our desire for the sake of Allah's preference. The nafs is distressed. What has happened here? So we realise that Allah has made us practice for 30 days and He showed us our reality. "Oh believers, this is your reality." And in contrast, the lifestyle of an animal is opposite to the lifestyle of reality. Those who don't live correctly are like animals, not humans. The Quran has said that these people are worse than animals and the example of a dog has been given. That just like a dog barks, you also bark. The true person is he who sacrifices his desires for the sake of Allah's preference. This is not a game of 30 days. This is the game of a lifetime. Right now someone will be in the grave. Someone will be in hospital. Someone is about to pass away. Someone is preparing to depart. Someone is unaware of the sickness which is about to befall him. Someone is unaware of how many days he has left in the world. But this is our destination, our journey. لعلكم تفلحون like the verse has said, that you will only receive success in this state, when you oppose and defeat your nafs and desires, you crush your passions like you did in Ramadan and if you spend your entire life like that, as you spent these 30 days, which were not difficult, so it is not difficult to spend your life in this way too. Allah ta'ala has given us a lot of determination and strength in these 30 days. Extreme strength. Allah ta'ala asks, what has happened to you that you left sins for 30 days? You didn’t lie for 30 days and what bad has come to you? You protected your gaze for 30 days and what calamity has befallen you? You came and prayed salaah in congregation for 30 days and you came on time and what calamity has befallen you? It means you can do it! You have proved it and if you can remain hungry and thirsty from morning till evening in 100 degrees, whilst everything is in front of you, then can you not remain in this state according to Allah's preference? That when Allah is giving you blessings, food, good health, and everything, then in this state can you not live according to Allah's will and preference? So those people are lying who say, "it is very difficult. We can't do it. We try. Make dua. I can't do it." What has Allah ta'ala done? He has demanded very little from us. The amount Allah ta'ala has given us, the statuses he has given us, the blessings, we have so much in this world, to the extent that Allah says, "you cant count these blessings." لا تحصوها
Allah ta'ala extracts provisions for you from the seas. He grants you provisions from the heavens. He has created the flying birds as a source of provisions for you. He has created the animals to lay egg as a source of provision for you. He has extracted the honey from the bees for you. What else do you want? Is there any desire of yours that Allah ta'ala hasn't fulfilled? After giving you all of this, your Lord has only demanded for one thing. Only one demand. That "you do as I please." Say SubhaanAllah. This is only it. Get up, eat, drink, enjoy life, but just be careful of one thing. Practice in the way that I order you to and there is benefit for you in that. You don't even know the method, you animals. You don't know how to eat, how to live, how to clothe, how much to eat, how much you shouldn't eat. Even this is out of my Grace that I created you. Like a person is given a car, a manufacturer gives you a big car and he gives you a handbook with it. That "this is the car, you have paid for it, you have the instructions but I'm the mechanic and I know what these parts are so don't utilise it incorrectly because if you use it incorrectly, then your car will go to a waste." If you use it in the wrong way, put it in the wrong gear, drive it in the wrong way, then your car will go to a waste. So the manufacturer says, "drive it the way i am advising you to." Say SubhaanAllah. So you will drive the car in that way when you value it. It is your car and you brought it with your money but it is the choice of the manufacture which will be adhered to. You have given him the money and gone away from him. But no. You will drive it but whenever there's a fault with the car, where will you run to? Straight to the factory. "Can you take a look at this?" "Yes. There is a part which has been broken. That's fine, you don't know. I will replace the part and then you can drive it on the road again." So my lord says, I created you, Do you know what things are good for you or do I know better?" Say SubhaanAllah.
Oh monkey, You say that you want to sleep in the morning, "I enjoy it. Then I get up and I exercise and then I eat 2 eggs, I have tea and then I sit down." This is our life. Allah says, "oh animal this is not the way to live. You don't know this but, by getting up in the morning and reading salaah, it is better for your world and for your hereafter, for your vitality, your wellbeing and for all your needs. Allah says, “ I have kept this thing for you as a form of protection from thousands of things. I don’t wish to punish you. You woke up in the morning and your awakening, your sleep and everything is all a waste, in here is a disease, distress, calamity for you. You don't know because I created you. I manufactured you so I know that these things are harmful for you. What is better for you is those things I have explained to you that at this time in the morning, you should rise up, because sleeping at this time is harmful to you. It will make you sick. It will bring you distress and calamities. It is better for you that you go and perform wudu and become fresh and pray at the mosque like I have commanded. Then your entire day will be full of happiness and peace.” Whose order is this my brothers? The one who created us and gave us sustenance. The one who gave us food. If we feel like having yogurt, then immediately we say, "Bring the yogurt, bring a yogurt pot for me." You go and the yogurt is ready. Where is the yogurt coming from? Allah created a cow for it. Where did he create the cow? In Africa. SubhaanAllah. And it is providing you milk and yogurt over here, yet it is being made there. The milk is created from there. Where is it from? It is from Holland. "Made in Holland." You felt like having something, you had the desire and Allah hasn't prevented you from this. It is a permissible desire so Allah says, "eat." Look, I created this for you. I created a cow for you over there. The cow is created in that country, its milk is being extracted from there, the yogurt is being made there, you are desiring for it over here in the UK, it is being packed in boxes, the boxes are being sent here to shops and supermarkets. You are given the wealth and you have the desire to go and buy some yogurt. So you go to the shop and buy it and eat it. Say SubhaanAllah. Is this not what happens? We want to eat mango. Over here, nobody knows what a mango is. If I wanted to eat the Chonsa mango, the anwar batool, what is the name of them? Sweet mangoes. I feel like having it, don’t I? But there is no mango tree here. Allah says, this is my servant and this is his desire. He possesses Imaan so you don't worry, the mango will reach you whenever you want to eat it. Does it not reach us? I was eating a strange fruit and I said, "what's this fruit?" And I was told that this is from Africa and it grows there in a certain place. Say SubhaanAllah. And I thought, "why has this fruit been created?" And a voice came in my ear, "its not just you, people are also living here from that country who like this fruit." So that shop keeper came and grabbed a bag and filled it with fruit. The same fruit I was wondering what it was. I thought, Allah honours the desire of every slave. Allah gives us mangoes and He gives them what they like too. Allah fulfils the desire of small children. It's not the case that this thing is in such a country and it cannot come to another country. Allah say, you have the desire and I will grant it to you. So despite giving us all of these blessings what does Allah ta'ala desire from us? Think for yourself, how wretched we are, how ignorant, that despite having all these blessings, we don’t believe Allah. Who do we believe? Our nafs and desires. What is sat inside us and speaking nonsense. Tell me honestly. Put the deen and the religion on one side. And we get reward, that is on one side. But after fasting, tell me, do you feel the enjoyment of fasting? Whatever it is, you do feel the pleasure and satisfaction don’t you? When do you feel its pleasure, I'll tell you. When will it come to you? In around half an hour, wait for 45 minutes, and when a glass comes in front of you, with 2 dates, you will experience such pleasure in eating those dates and you’ll wish that the adhan is elongated so you can eat all 3 dates which are there. You will have so much pleasure in eating this, such that you will not have this pleasure even when eating biryani. Say SubhaanAllah. You will not even enjoy daal kichri. Because you eat those foods to fill your stomach. But here, after you implemented Allah's order, Allah has given you a blessing and that is what you are eating. This is the difference here. When you eat to fill your stomach, you eat the wheat and the corn. SubhaanAllah. But when you eat according to Allah's desire, after obeying the commands of Allah, then you receive the dates of Madinah and the blessed water of Zam Zam. Where is Madinah and where is you? SubhaanAllah. Where is the soil? The date which has grown from the soil of madinatul Munawwarah and the sand of Madinah and the leader of the Messengers is buried in this soil and he is resting there. SubhaanAllah. That Madinah soil, will there be no effect on that date? That is the soil of gold and silver my brothers, upon which the inhabitants of the heavens are envious! The angels are envious of that sand and soil of Madinah. If only we could visit Madinah. And we are monkeys and animals. We don’t know that it is only one desire of ours we have crushed and we followed the commands, so Allah has delivered the dates of Madinah and Zam Zam to us. Sometimes the Hajji's go and bring it back. We could never have thought! And Allah said, Go oh Bolton people, this will be your breakfast. When you control your desires, i’ll give you the breakfast. Madinah’s dates and a glass of Zam Zam. Say SubhaanAllah. Why have we received it? Because we obeyed Allah's words. Allah said, "don’t eat." We didn't eat. "Dont drink." We didn't drink at that time. Dont go to your wife. Okay she's my wife. She's my wife but my order is Ghair. Stranger. Be afraid of her. Go away from her. She comes to you and he says, "Astaghfirullah. Dont come close to me, we could become aroused." That is his same wife who he was always attached to. SubhaanAllah. Who used to feed and give him drink. Now he says, Astaghfirullah, why? Allah ta'ala says he has obeyed my command well and he has taken the halal to be haraam for that time. He is afraid of his wife. Where is your passion gone? What has become predominant? Allah's desire and choice has become raised and your desire has been suppressed . When this happens then Allah ta'ala makes an announcement that this person has become a Muttaqi. SubhaanAllah. You can read the verses regarding the Muttaqi yourself inside the Quran. How Allah has prepared jannah for the Muttaqi. So this is the discussion of taqwa. That's all we need to do. "How shall we become Allah's wali? His friend. How do we become like this? How do we become a Ghauth? How will I receive Jannah when I am so sinful? How will our duas be accepted?" Brothers, everything is possible and is easily present. Allah ta'ala says "today, oh fasting person there is no stipulated time for you, whenever you make dua to me, it will reach me through the direct dial. Accepted." Similarly, any individual who lives his life in this way, that He lives according to Allah's desires and not the desires of His own, then his duas are always accepted in his life. Like today your desires have been fulfilled because you didn’t obey your own desires. You obeyed Allah's. So a person who obeys Allah in his life, its a short life my brothers, I swear by Allah life is short that when a person departs and the angels ask you, "how many years did you live there?" you say, "I haven't even lived there. It seems as though I just blinked an eyelid and that’s it."
I'll ask you a question now. Ramadan has gone right? How long was Ramadan? Does it seem long? It has gone in a flash! It was like yesterday that I was sat here talking to you and how long has passed? Thursday night has come, the night of Jumuah and then next Jumuah isn't going to come. This is the last night of Jumuah with the Grace of Allah. We are gathering the light of Allah in these last moments. Say SubhaanAllah. The dhikr gathering. Masjid Zakariyyah. Allahu akbar. Allah's name is present. There are so many Mercies. And then unique angels, the angels of Ramadan will testify on Qiyamah. The common angels won't testify. They will be told to move back. The Ramadan angels will testify that these people were the people of dhikr. We saw them engaging in dhikr. We won’t let then enter hellfire. “Did you know this? "No i didn’t know that there was a dhikr gathering. I just came like that in the dhikr gathering. And I saw everyone sitting, I thought I’ll sit too, let me drag this fast out. Let me sit in the masjid, where else will I go?" The poor soul doesn't even know what dhikr is. I looked and I saw people are sat there so I wondered what they were doing? Okay let me just sit too, i'm fasting where else shall I go? And he will be given rewards and it will be said, "you didn’t even know but due to that gathering, you have attained success!” And still we are monkeys and we disobey Allah? What a strange thing? Am I right or wrong. Make a promise today that how I was in Ramadan, I will remain like this. Who do you fear? What calamity has befallen you? If you can control yourself this much today, then afterwards, you won't even need to control yourself as much. Eat, drink. Allah isn't making you control any one thing. He just said don't do wrongdoing or any sin. Do you promise? Have determination. Remain a Muttaqi forever. Earn the duas of the angels forever. Raise your hands and your dua's will be accepted. You can't find a job, you'll find the job. You're not getting married, raise your hands and then you'll be married. You don't have children, raise your hands and you'll have children. He's the one who gives and you are the ones who seek, so what is the barrier in between? Its the barrier of sins. It doesn't let our duas ascend to Allah due to Allah's displeasure. Whatever duas you make today will be accepted only because you are living according to Allah's desire and preferences during Ramadan. Do you understand my point? What a great Mujaahdah. This is a battle! This is a great battle for us weak people, you people have a lot of strength, I am a very weak person, I always sin. Its a very great battle. We stopped our bad habits and we listened to Allah for 30 days. We are prepared now for the rest. But my brothers, the same point I gave regarding the battle of uhud, that who won? Who was victorious? The Muslims. Everyone was alive at the time. And then how much were they in loss? How many were martyred? Because they believed that they were victorious. End of. We have attained success, let's go. But in the same way, remember what I'm saying. We are in Ramadan and we say we are victorious. We are successful. We are Muttaqi. We are pious. We have controlled our nafs. But, as soon as Ramadan ends, the enemy will return and It will return with vigour and it will try to control you. It will attack on the first day, on eid. What does the human being start to do? All of his efforts of Ramadan he puts down the drain within minutes. Yes it happens so the beautiful cure has come. Like what happened in battle of uhud isn't it? Now the cure has come, so what do we need to do? Come to the point. I desire my brothers, that we remain like this for our entire lives. Not that we should fast. No. Dont disobey Allah. Dont sin. I'm not saying keep fasting. Fasting has ended. This was a struggle that you were doing. How shall we live? Eat, drink and enjoy Allah's blessings and be grateful to Allah. That's all I'm asking you to do. Now everything will open after 30 days. But in our enjoyment, what do we do? We not only become happy engaging in what has been made Halal again, we turn Haraam into Halal and say this is permissible too. And this happens on the first day. Immodesty, music, singing, we do it like it is nothing. Like we made no effort during Ramadan. So we realise that the nafs has attacked again and it has won, like the disbelievers came from behind and turned the sahabah into martyrs and inflicted loss. So our nafs has martyred us again. And then what happened? It caused us a lot of loss. We don’t know if next year will come or not, and we have been put into that category of "zero." Allah raised us to such a high status, he gives us the good news of forgiveness , paradise has been opened, everything is granted to us, but we did one thing. The nafs came and overpowered us after Ramadan, it attacked again and we give up. Do you understand my point? What a dangerous thing we have spoken about today? Do we want to be safe? I'll tell you the cure. Do you want to be safe? Really? Otherwise you'll be destroyed. How will you be saved? Let's read the verse of the Quran again. SubhaanAllah.
اصْبِرُوا وَ صابِرُوا وَ رابِطُوا
If we want to be safe, then we can be safe with رابِطُوا
How? By protecting ourselves.
That's why Allah's Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam has granted us such a great reward for safeguarding that the one who does this, is greater than the entire world and whatever it contains. The one who safeguards. Do you understand what safeguarding means? The security guards who guards the house or the building. Remember that after you exit Ramadan then you need to do one thing. You need to safeguard your nafs. Secure a guard at the border of your nafs so it can't attack you again. I’m telling you a unique thing. If you prepare today during Ramadan, then as soon as the 30 days are up, you are going to stand our guards by our nafs, that how dare you return, I have become a Muttaqi, a Jannati and a Wali Allah and now I'm going to remain this way. So when will we be protected? رابِطُوا Allah has told us in the Quran.
اصْبِرُوا وَ صابِرُوا وَ رابِطُوا وَ اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ
Allah says I'm saving you from one thing because one day you will appear in front of me so fear that. Imagine that scene Allah says. Fear that scene. You cant imagine that day. The moment you are presented in my court, on one side will be paradise and on one side will be Hellfire and you’ll be watching the flames of Hellfire. The people will be running away and the angels will be dragging them back in chains and you are waiting for your judgement to be decided and this judgement will be an eternal.
'Fear Allah' ponder over this sometimes.
I'm preparing you for this so I've removed you from all these things, I've taken you out from Hellfire, I've removed you from it externally. I made you engage in hard work and if you want to remain in this state then there's a very easy task. I’ts not difficult to persevere at all. Its so easy that due to this easy thing you'll always be a Jannati and a Muttaqi. Will you do that action? For sure?
Allah opens the doors. Allah ends the verse
At the end of the verse, Allah says, لَعَلَّکُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ
Allah says there is no benefit for me, oh believers. Everything that I'm telling you, the guards which I'm telling you about won’t be of benefit to me. But just remember that throughout this action, you'll be successful in this world and the Hereafter.
We wander around like animals. "Nothing, nothing." Allah says, you could achieve high ranks and become a great person. Your entire life will remain like this in a beautiful way and without fasting, you'll have Ramadan. Say SubhaanAllah. Anyway, Let's see what action it is which we can start doing before Ramadan ends, so we can control our nafs and not let it attack us again. Where shall we go? Let's go to the court of Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and ask him for the cure. Only that will happen which Allah ta'ala wants. Shall we go? Shall we go to a Sahabi? A very beautiful sahabi. Abu Razeen Radiyallaha anhu. Whats his name? Abu Razeen Radiyallaha anhu. He said, "I heard from Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam," now we can hear what it is. We have arrived there haven't we? We have caught up with the Sahabi. "Please tell us the method. Did the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam tell us how to protect our Imaan after Ramadan and how to suppress the desires?
قال قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم
"I have heard," and where have these words come from? I’m not giving you the reference of a big book but I will give you the reference of a book which every child is familiar of. We read it day and night. Morning and evening we repeat it. This book is also present over here, it is present everywhere. What is it? Fazaail A'amaal. Who wrote this? A great Shaykhul Hadith. From there we find this hadith and he gave the reference of who? This great sahabi. The Wali Allah record such statements. It’s not for no little reason that this book became well known. SubhaanAllah. In this same book, there is the companions story of what nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam narrated. Pick it up and check. You probably read it but you have understood it today. This is the case isn't it? So we realise that reading is one thing and understanding is another. When you sit to understand then you start understanding so many other things too. So after you read, the readers should also try to look for those who may help you to understand it. Understanding is also important. So Abu Razeen Radiyallaha anhu says that I heard from Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam myself who said, "oh sahabi, shall I not tell you such an action," SubhaanAllah what a style of delivering learning. Shall I not tell you an action which will protect your deen completely, and control your nafs. Shall I tell you? The sahabi said ,"yes please tell me." Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, "ill tell you further." "What?" "You will receive the success of both worlds." So this is a beautiful secret. Who is telling us this? Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, the leader of Madinah. This is called love. So will you do it? Otherwise whoever does not obey Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, then who will he obey? He is ruined. We should analyse ourselves to see which commands of Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam we have implemented and which ones we have abandoned. Analyse yourself. Ramadan is going shall I tell you. Anyalyse yourself from top to bottom regarding those things which Allah's Nabi Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam has ordered. Due to not possessing those actions which he loves, Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam becomes displeased with that person. He will be displeased with that person in this world, in the Hereafter, and in the grave. And this is a great sin. Why is it a big sin? Because Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam doesn't like that sin.
Let's look from top to bottom at ourselves to see if that quality is within us at all? Assess yourself. What does Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam like?
من احب سنتي
“I like that your faces are adorned with a beard like mine.” "Oh Rasulullah, how shall we adorn ourselves with the beard?" "Like my beard one fist in length and a trimmed moustache." This is a hadith in Bukhari shareef which I'm reading to you. You can go and study it.
We are sitting in Ramadan. We want to be a Muttaqi. We want to be everything. In the end, our nafs controlled us didn't it? Someone has kept it this long, someone has kept it that long. Someone has kept it as they please. Someone has a French cut. Someone has done something else. Brothers, where is the desire and preference of Allah and His Rasul!? Where is their happiness? And such people will not receive paradise without Allah and His Rasul sallallahu alayhi wa sallam’s happiness. They will do the intercession. You want to obey your nafs, but imitate others and then you keep hopes for the Hereafter. Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam will say, "what is this?
Are these people stupid? Are our brains corrupt? What has happened to us? We should have that much intellect within us that even a child understands this. We ask for food from our mother, but we go and listen to the neighbours. So whoever we want to get from, listen and obey that person. Say SubhaanAllah. So when our external self is not correct, and we have a small defect and as a result of that ,
ليس مني
"He is not from amongst me." I have no connection with him. I have no connection with this appearance. I don’t know this person with this appearance. But you say “no, I’ll pray Salah with this appearance, I'll do Hajj with this, I'll do Umrah with this, I'll do saee with this." Listen. I'll tell you practically.
It was nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallams generation, a nation came and they had the appearances of the Jews and the Christian. They were fire worshippers. And before them, none had witnessed such people who kept shortened and trimmed and shaved beards. This is correct. I’m narrating a sahih hadith to you. This is nafs. Look where nafs takes a person far. We claim that we love Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam but we oppose him every morning and evening. We take a blade and we slide it against our face. We take scissors and we cut it. So much oppression. Think for yourself. And you glorify him and send durood to him. Are we stupid or what are we? I don’t understand.
"Leave the comb. Leave these 2 colours and take one colour, one path." One way. Take the example of travelling,
Can a boat of a passenger go in 2 directions? You can only take one boat that goes in 1 direction. We only have one boat and this is Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam's boat which we will travel in and go to Jannah. On top it is something else below us is another boat, our body is another boat, our clothes is another boat, our face is another boat. So many boats we have have collected and we want to travel and go to Jannah? Do we promise today that we wont cut the beard? Let me see how much loss you will get in the world. Even if you get the loss of the entire world, but our Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is happy, then what a great achievement. If your mum is upset, your dad is upset, the whole world is upset, no problem,
من احدكم
Doesn't matter who is upset with you.
If your wealth goes, everything goes, Allah says dont worry. Your transaction is not a cheap transaction because you made Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam pleased. Do you understand?
Is this not our nafs? We say we want to attain Jannah like this. I am fasting. I want to carry on with my sin. You are following your sin and leaving Allah's desire. Are you going according to your own desires? Allah says, I like a one fist beard and every sahabi, 124,000 of them kept beards. All of messengers although, they hadn't even come yet, but they had beards. There was no prophet who didn't have a beard. Why? Because they imitated everything Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam did. Even though in Jannah you won't keep a beard. Say SubhaanAllah. Over there you can fulfil the order. You won't even need to cut it there because it wont even grow. Allah will say leave the beard. It was only to test you in this world. There will be no beards there. It will be beauty in another unique colour there. So if we don’t keep a full beard in this world, then what will happen in the Hereafter, tell me. Do you understand? Today, repent for this sin because this is a major severe sin such that you'll be punished for in your grave, you'll be punished in you life. You’ll be punished in the Hereafter. You are doing all these actions with فسق Do you know what فسق is? You are performing a very level status of salaah, You are performing a very level status of fast, You are performing a very level status of dhikr, whatever worship you are engaging in, is all bereft of light. Allah's Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is displeased with your actions. Say SubhaanAllah. Sins are all sins but some sins are very severe sins.
Look, when a person commits theft, his sin is restricted to his theft, when a person commits adultery, he is sinful at the time he is committing adultery. When a person cuts his beard, he will remain sinful until he keeps the beard. He's gone for hajj, and he's a sinner, he's praying salaah and he's a sinner. He's reading Quran and he's a sinner. He is sleeping and he is a sinner because the sin of shaving is attached to him. Tell me, can there be a greater sin than this? You’re making your nafs happy, who else are you making happy, nothing else. The Mirror? No my brothers. Dont do this action. For the sake of Allah, don’t do this sin.
Death is very close. You'll remember my words. Very quickly death will come and people will put us in boxes. It will come in this town. Here. Someone will be looking at your face, at the coffin, the closed box, I've seen thousands of people like this where some people, whom we see morning and evening, they used to sit with us and then have departed from the world. Will you repent brothers? These are the last moments of Ramadan. Make sincere repentance, and if you do so, then the angels will bear witness that this person kept the intention to keep a beard in Ramadan that I will keep it full length and I wont cut it. So what did Allah's Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam say. He said, shall I tell you that action which will control your nafs completely and preserve your Imaan after Ramadan, just like you did in Ramadan? What is that formula? Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, "Shall I not tell you an action which will grant you strength in your deen and it will bring you goodness in both worlds. There will be no lack of provisions in your life. It will instil patience within you and all these 4 things will come in to you.
اصْبِرُوا وَ صابِرُوا وَ رابِطُوا وَ اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ
Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said , I'll tell you one action. SubhanAllah. Do this one action and you’ll get all these 4 qualities which have been mentioned in this verse and they are the best things for our lives.
اصْبِرُوا وَ صابِرُوا وَ رابِطُوا وَ اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ
Read it. Its in the last verse of surah Imran. I like this verse a lot.
وَ اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ
Allah's Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is giving so many things in one action. Allah's Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, "shall I tell you this action so you can do it all the time, and mashaaAllah you can attain all the blessings in this verse. The blessings of this entire verse.
"Oh Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam what is this action?"
Make an intention to do it. Will you do it? InshaAllah. You won't get an opportunity in Ramadan again. Make an intention, even if you make the intention today, whether Allah gives you the ability or not but I've told you such a great thing in Ramadan and I took one hour to explain it in detail. Ramadan will testify. So this action he is prescribing, you will constantly suppress your nafs through this action. The action will be easy for you and it won't be difficult. Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam never gave a difficult solution. What is the solution? Tell me. I'm not saying it. Read Fazaail-e-A'amaal and you will see the sahabi's name and then ponder over the message coming to you. Listen carefully. "Hold on firmly to the gatherings of dhikr. And when you are alone, then engage in dhikr according to your capability and you will receive everything inshaaAllah. Dhikrullah will allow you to have control and suppress your nafs. You will bury the nafs. You won't let the nafs get up. You need to be habitual in this action. Hold on to these gatherings of dhikr nights with strength and vigour. How fortunate and lucky are these people of Bolton. How fortunate are these people of Masjid Zakariyyah. Morning and evening this masjid is hosting this dhikr. The action which is the cause of glad tidings is happening in this masjid morning and evening. Such a great action. You can engage in dhikr alone, but it is rare to take part in dhikr gatherings in this day and age.
In the hadith it says that as soon as the era becomes close to Qiyamah, then the first thing which will disappear from the masjid is the dhikr of Allah. Check it out. Allah says I made the masjids for my remembrance and the biggest sign of Qiyamah will be when the massajid are devoid from the blessings of Allah. And thousands of things will take part. There will be enjoyment of the nafs. Everything will take part in the masaajid. But in those places where Allah ta'ala is happy with, there will less dhikr and gatherings. Go and see with the binoculars. How many masjid host dhikrullah morning and evening in this world today? This is the pious person's dua who was sat in Pakistan Gadai Shareef, thousands of miles away. He said, "where have you come from?" I said I've come from Bolton." He said, is it? "I like the people of Bolton. Beautiful people will be created here. Go there and revive the action of Dhikrullah." This was his desire and call. This was his desire and he had pity on Manchester at that night. Before this nobody came with this learning. "Why have you come here, go back to where you've come from." He said their hearts are deceased. Where will they have dhikr gatherings there in the masaajid? I like the name Bolton he said. The people are beloved there and they'll see you and people will come to you inshaaAllah. Go to the masjid and revive them and do dhikr in the masjid. That's why I'm say in front of you. It is the night of jumuah and Ramadan is departing. It is the final night of Jumuah. It is the final night of Ramadan and we are taking part in the gathering of dhikr. The morning will come and we will keep the fast. We will pray fajr and come back here again. People run back to their houses and we will do dhikr again at that time. Evening will come and the announcement of eid will be made. People will run and say, "there's no taraweeh today, the mosques will be empty, but there will still be dhikr gatherings going on. Because we have understood. Lets go back to fazaail A'amaal. I wont speak of this hadith because everyone knows this hadith. Lets go back to the book. What did Sheikh-ul-Hadith say that on the day of judgement an announcement willl be made, الذين يذكرون الله قياما
"Who are the most intellectual people?"
Those who made money, who made planes, who made boats, technology and science? Allah says, the most intellectual are not these. Tell me who they are.
You didn’t read the verse of my Quran
الذين يذكرون الله قياما و قعودا و على جنوبهم و يتفكرون
I announced in the Quran that the intellectual people are those who understood how Allah becomes happy and how Jannah is attained and they grabbed hold of that action, morning, evening and night, sleeping, waking up, sitting down, wherever they were, they had one action, which was the dhikr of Allah. They did it all the time. Say SubhaanAllah. Come let me show you the scene of that Allah ta'ala will say. This is the hadith. Read the hadith in Fazaail-e-A'amaal. Allah will say let me show you the scene of the Dhaakireen. All the groups will be there on Qiyamah and there will be a flag which will be stood and it will be planted and as soon as the flag will be at the front, a group will be ready behind that flag and when the group will be assembled, Allah ta’lah will say keep walking behind the flag and walk into paradise. “Who are these people, Allah?” Allah will say “these are the same people who did the dhikr of Allah sitting in the masjid. Today I will show you the status and the glory and how great these people were. They weren't mad people who run away from the masjid, eid was coming, they were running away from taraweeh and they couldn't sleep until they sat down for 30 minutes and did the dhikr of Allah through the Grace of Allah.”
الذين يذكرون الله قياما و قعودا و على جنوبهم
Those are the most intellectual and wisdom bearing people. It is not a minor thing. So will you do the dhikr of Allah? What more can I say now? If you don't have intellect then what can I say? You should have intellect that where there is a dhikr majlis, you should be quiet and sit down in the gathering. This is not a pir mureed thing. Here Allah's dhikr takes place. To learn anything, you need a teacher isn't it? Whatever you learn in the dunya, you need a teacher for it. So if you want to learn dhikr, you need a teacher. Go to the teacher. Seek the teacher. He is the teacher. Where did this "Peeri Mureeedi" come from? Forget all these secondary words. There's a teacher and he teaches you dhikr then alhamdulillah learn dhikr from him. If you want to learn how to make sweets then the manufacturer will teach you how to. The person who teaches you dhikr and enlightens your chest is called a Sheikh. The one who teaches you how to make bread, you would refer to him as the teacher who teaches you to make bread. So the teacher you teaches you the name of Allah is a Wali Allah. He’s my peer. He’s our teacher. His name is this. Whatever title you want to give him. It doesn't matter he is teaching you. Where has this Peeri Mureedi come from,? That's all artificial. The doors of the masjid are open for everyone. Come, sit down, engage in dhikr and you’ll be successful. No restriction, no passport, no certificate. This is a river in which you can jump and immerse yourself in. You can become cured and then leave. Has anyone been prevented? "Come. You come. Dont come. You leave. No. Whoever understands, understands. Whoever doesn't understand then that's his choice. Someone says I've never heard this before I want to read Quran. Carry on doing what you're doing. Who’s stopping you?
But Allah said it clearly, let me tell you the greatest action. Those who sit in Dhikrullah.
Will you do it? Will you sit in the dhikr gathering? It’s my duty to give you the invitation. I have given you the invitation. I've done the Tabligh and the Ta'leem. May Allah grant me the reward and grant you the reward for sitting. May He allow us to implement
Shall we do Allah's dhikr now?