Alhamdulillah, with Allah's mercy He has given us Ramadan and the ability to pass through Ramadan nicely. Through Allah's mercy, He has given us the precious moments of Ramadan.
The objective of Ramadan was one - for people to become Muttaqi.
Ramadan has refreshed and reminded us of those qualities that should be developed in a Muttaqi.
In the Quran it states that in the hereafter, when a person will arrive, he will put forward a strange question to Allah. He will say, "Allah I have wasted my time. Now I have arrived at the station of the hereafter which you continued to remind me about. Now I have realised that you gave me such a precious life/opportunity and everything you gave me was a treasure, but I wasted my time. Allah, be merciful on me, and send me back to the world. I promise I will not waste my time and I promise to perform good deeds."
These are the words the Quran has stated about those individuals who take this life as a joke or a game.
Their objective of life is to become successful. They desire total comfort in the world, but this is impossible. This world is the paradise for the foolish people. Morning and evening a person can see the reality of life, but even then the desire within them doesn't diminish.
If one doesn't attain the world, he thinks he is at loss. He worries if some money doesn't enter his pocket or if he doesn't run a trade or his sons don't become capable. Shaytan has injected these thoughts in the human's mind.
The Quran has reminded us that we will be saying these words in the akhirah, so isn't it better that we realise now that we are in the world to live only, but not to stay. The traveller passes through the world, he doesn't stop and dig trenches. We are travellers and this isn't our destination.
Allah responds in the Quran, that "in the world didn't I give you the chance and order you to take the advice from the warners and bearers of glad tiding."
Is the Quran not the means through which we should have attained advice?
Allah says If we want to attain advice then He gave us enough life to attain it.
Allah will say that Rasul's came, books came, Ramadan came and this was a message for us!
نذير
Does not mean that a person is scaring you through snakes and scorpions. Prophets do not scare us like that. They came to warn us and make us fear the consequences of our wrong actions against Allah's orders.
The head of all the Prophets, Nabi ﷺ witnessed the consequences of these sins with his own eyes.
Nabi ﷺ lived in the earth and experienced the heavens. Is there anyone better than him to advise us?
So the Prophet's عليهم السلام warned us against sins and punishment.
Verily, those who disbelieve, it is the same to them whether you (O Muhammad Peace be upon him) warn them or do not warn them, they will not believe.
(Al-Baqarah, verse 6)
Some people are so staunch in their rejection and their hearts are so hard that If a Nabi or a deputy of a Nabi came to them, warned them and tried to instill fear within them, they still wouldn't accept them.
There are 2 types of people who are sinful.
1) The stubborn staunch people who don't have imaan. They have pride within them and they stand firm in their way. They have the enjoyment of life. They acknowledge that the person who has come to remind them is the Nabi yet, they stick to their stubbornness. They say these statements; "where is it written?" & "Mind your own business."
The percentage of people within this catergory have increased today. This is why the world around us has changed. This mindset has developed alot which we call so called 'modern and progressive thinking.' These people say, "we are in the new era, those were the old days! Talk about earning and making!"
2nd category of people:
Those who slip due to ignorance, negligence, misunderstanding and due to environment. They are not stubborn and they have a bit of remorse and regret. They are just negligent and bone idle. When they are explained to, they accept.
Ramadan comes to awaken people who were lazy and negligent.
This category acknowledge the sins but the first category do not accept the sinning and instead they call it permissible!
They say, "if a woman doesn't go out, how will she succeed?"
When the warner comes to these people, they are stubborn and don't accept. Allah says their hearts will be sealed. And the pious predecessors say that this is Allah's punishment. They don't know the meaning of Ramadan and they don't want to know. They don't know who is the Muttaqi
21st May, 2020
The other group does wrong actions, but they are ashamed and accept their wrong. If a warner comes to them, they obey.
The first group do suhoor and go to work, they are full of sins, immodest lifestyle and in the evening they just eat, break their fast and this is their fast!
Allah has set a seal on their hearts and on their hearings and on their eyes there is a covering. Theirs will be a great torment.
(Al-Baqarah, verse 7)
Allah says I gave you the heart for you to understand and accept.
These people continue to run to sin but Allah has sealed their hearts.
There's nothing left in Ramadan which does not assist one in becoming a Muttaqi. If we don't want to accept or embrace Ramadan or we do not fulfil it properly and we are careless about haram and halal, then in the akhirah, Allah will say, "did the reminders not come to you? Why did you not understand?" Then Allah will say, "the time has passed."
Similarly, Ramadan has passed and after that, there will be a serious regret.
So my brothers, we have not understood the value of Ramadan!
Ramadan has passed. Now we will become those people on qiyamah who will say, "send us back to the world!" and Allah will say "did I not send Ramadan to you as a reminder?"
The important thing which we are made to practice in Ramadan is valuing time and performing actions in the right time and at the right place. This is using time appropriately.
A person's schedule becomes disciplined during fasting. Much discipline comes into one's life during Ramadan. E.g: Waking up time, time for sleeping, breaking the fast, time for worship.
In Ramadan, one has so much awareness and doesn't want to waste this special time. So Allah gives us a special hint here, that our lives are numbered in this world, our life is only a few days!
So it means the days of Ramadan are temporary.
In Ramadan we engage in much worship, we complete many Quran but we don't do this in other days because that realisation has developed in Ramadan that time is short and we need to earn in this time!
Allah has stated that doing fard in this month will grant us the reward of doing 70 fard and if we do a nafil, we recieve the reward of performing a fard.
This is stipulated so we may have practice and we can rehearse this and refrain from abandoning the sunnah and nafil.
Outside ramdan we often do not pray sunnah ghair muakkadah or nafil, but here Allah has developed the recognition in Ramadan that life is but a few days. So how we made effort in Ramadan for a few days to earn the reward, our lives are also a few days. Take this learning across the rest of your life and keep this awareness within you and when this awareness comes into the mindset, that person becomes a Muttaqi.
A person who doesn't have this realisation of spending his time wisely believes his time is more valuable than Ramadan. But a person who has discipline and has developed that awareness, he begins to have concern.
He begins to ponder and analyse that his time shouldn't be wasted and he says I need to continue performing some worship or other. This is the greatest recognition that Ramadan develops within us. Such a person doesn't want to leave out a sunnah or a nafil.
In Ramadan we perform good deeds with the intention of receiving reward in return. With this in mind we also pray Taraweeh!
If we can do this in Ramadan can we not pray isha in congregation outside Ramadan? All night long we can stay awake for tahajjud but can we not pray fajr in the morning or tahajjud outside Ramadan?
So Ramadan gives us a big message of discipline of life. A life of a believer should be according to routine. Scheduled time for eating, working etc
For example, a believer has responsibilities of working even during Ramadan. He doesn't leave Allah's worship for the sake of the world. He wakes up in Ramadan hungry, but still continues to do labour and works.
We have not been instructed to stop life's efforts whilst fasting, such as earning a living or household chores. This is because fasting teaches us discipline for life. It creates concern within us.
We all must be in the habit of praying tahajjud in ramdan as that is the time we eat etc. So we should be doing this and remain in the habit after Ramadan. After isha before we sleep we should pray 2 or 4 or 6 rakat tahajjud outside Ramadan.
If we can live live this in Ramadan, we can live like this for the rest of the year.
The biggest teaching of Ramadan is that it has ingrained discipline within us.
As soon as Ramadan ends, we should analyse if our discipline is stil there.
Our routine will begin to change slowly, (we will resort to our old ways) so we should beware and keep up the good deeds we used to do in Ramadan. We may reduce our worship, but not abandon them altogether. We must he steadfast.
After Asr we would do Dhikr in Ramadan, so we must continue this after Ramadan as we have to earn for the hereafter!
Ramadan came to give us great habits. We need to continue this even afterwards and imitate the actions we would do in ramdan.
We must value Ramadan and accept its message and avoid sins after Ramadan because a believer isn't like this. We should consider the days after Ramadan to be just like Ramadan.
Women shouldn't be gossiping and holding gatherings of gossip and nonsense. We didn't do this in Ramadan so we shouldn't do it after.
Beware! We must not leave Quran and good deeds on the day of eid.
If Allah gives us taufeeq we will do Dhikr in the morning and evening. And if this habit continues and we are disciplined,
then consider that this person has developed taqwa.
May Allah swt grant us the taufeeq! Ameen
The objective of Ramadan was one - for people to become Muttaqi.
Ramadan has refreshed and reminded us of those qualities that should be developed in a Muttaqi.
In the Quran it states that in the hereafter, when a person will arrive, he will put forward a strange question to Allah. He will say, "Allah I have wasted my time. Now I have arrived at the station of the hereafter which you continued to remind me about. Now I have realised that you gave me such a precious life/opportunity and everything you gave me was a treasure, but I wasted my time. Allah, be merciful on me, and send me back to the world. I promise I will not waste my time and I promise to perform good deeds."
These are the words the Quran has stated about those individuals who take this life as a joke or a game.
Their objective of life is to become successful. They desire total comfort in the world, but this is impossible. This world is the paradise for the foolish people. Morning and evening a person can see the reality of life, but even then the desire within them doesn't diminish.
If one doesn't attain the world, he thinks he is at loss. He worries if some money doesn't enter his pocket or if he doesn't run a trade or his sons don't become capable. Shaytan has injected these thoughts in the human's mind.
The Quran has reminded us that we will be saying these words in the akhirah, so isn't it better that we realise now that we are in the world to live only, but not to stay. The traveller passes through the world, he doesn't stop and dig trenches. We are travellers and this isn't our destination.
Allah responds in the Quran, that "in the world didn't I give you the chance and order you to take the advice from the warners and bearers of glad tiding."
Is the Quran not the means through which we should have attained advice?
Allah says If we want to attain advice then He gave us enough life to attain it.
Allah will say that Rasul's came, books came, Ramadan came and this was a message for us!
نذير
Does not mean that a person is scaring you through snakes and scorpions. Prophets do not scare us like that. They came to warn us and make us fear the consequences of our wrong actions against Allah's orders.
The head of all the Prophets, Nabi ﷺ witnessed the consequences of these sins with his own eyes.
Nabi ﷺ lived in the earth and experienced the heavens. Is there anyone better than him to advise us?
So the Prophet's عليهم السلام warned us against sins and punishment.
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا سَوَاءٌ عَلَيْهِمْ أَأَنْذَرْتَهُمْ أَمْ لَمْ تُنْذِرْهُمْ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ
(سورة البقرة، الآيه ٦)
Verily, those who disbelieve, it is the same to them whether you (O Muhammad Peace be upon him) warn them or do not warn them, they will not believe.
(Al-Baqarah, verse 6)
Some people are so staunch in their rejection and their hearts are so hard that If a Nabi or a deputy of a Nabi came to them, warned them and tried to instill fear within them, they still wouldn't accept them.
There are 2 types of people who are sinful.
1) The stubborn staunch people who don't have imaan. They have pride within them and they stand firm in their way. They have the enjoyment of life. They acknowledge that the person who has come to remind them is the Nabi yet, they stick to their stubbornness. They say these statements; "where is it written?" & "Mind your own business."
The percentage of people within this catergory have increased today. This is why the world around us has changed. This mindset has developed alot which we call so called 'modern and progressive thinking.' These people say, "we are in the new era, those were the old days! Talk about earning and making!"
2nd category of people:
Those who slip due to ignorance, negligence, misunderstanding and due to environment. They are not stubborn and they have a bit of remorse and regret. They are just negligent and bone idle. When they are explained to, they accept.
Ramadan comes to awaken people who were lazy and negligent.
This category acknowledge the sins but the first category do not accept the sinning and instead they call it permissible!
They say, "if a woman doesn't go out, how will she succeed?"
When the warner comes to these people, they are stubborn and don't accept. Allah says their hearts will be sealed. And the pious predecessors say that this is Allah's punishment. They don't know the meaning of Ramadan and they don't want to know. They don't know who is the Muttaqi