Episodes

  • Al Asr – 2

    Al Asr – 2
    May 1 2025
    Auto-generated transcript:We spoke about the first ayat of Surah Al-Asr. Allah said, Allah took an oath by himself, by time, and he said that truly all humankind, all human beings are in a state of loss. Today let's talk about the next time, maybe let's see how far we get. Then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala put, gave us criteria. Everyone is in loss except, إِلَّا الَّذِينَ آمَنُ إِلَّا الَّذِينَ آمَنُ Except those who have, have faith. So this also we spoke about in the last Khatira, what is the meaning of faith. Then Allah said, وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ And those who do good deeds. Now it's very important to understand what constitutes a good deed in Islam. For a deed to be good in Islam, there are three conditions. One is the Niyah. It is the intention of the deed. Why are you doing this deed? If the intention is not good, then even though the deed itself may be good, it has no value and in some cases it might actually become a bad deed. To give you an example, reading the Quran, is it a good deed or a bad deed? Good deed. But if I am reciting or reading the Quran, when my intention is that I am doing it because people are watching and people will think, oh Mashallah, what a holy man and what a pious man is reading the Quran, then what happens to the deed? Gone, right? It's real. It's not only does it nullify and cancel the deed, but it makes it into an action which is haram, which nullifies. Same thing for Salah. Same thing for charity. Same thing for charity. You take the whole lot. We have the very famous hadith of the Salahs, the three people who will be presented to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala on the Day of Judgment. The first of them is a scholar of Islam who learned the Deen and who taught the Deen and so on. The second one is a philanthropist, somebody who Allah gave a lot of wealth and he spent it in the path of Allah. And the third one is a person who was a fighter. He was a soldier. He was a warrior. And not only did he fight, but he fought and he was killed in a battle between, you know, with people who were evil. But all three, and I'm condensing that hadith. I'm not narrating it in detail. But all three, Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, will be the first of them. The first of the people to be consigned to Jahannam will be these people. Okay. And the first of those will be the one who is actually a scholar, Islamic scholar, because of Nia. So the Nia is a very, very important, very first condition of the acceptance of any deed. And therefore, we need to continuously check our Nia to see what is our Nia. The Nia is like carrying, imagine that you are carrying a packet of money in your pocket and you are going through a very crowded marketplace. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. I think. Okay. So Nia, as far as making Nia, how do you see it Humans? Who say Nia that they will get stolen from the home, Nisha after this. What did you do so far. Why did you say what you say we are not going to bring more like a Harmonize? What is this so that we may have some. interesting letter to Sheikh Hussain Rahimahullah Itaada, where this man wrote and he said, Sheikh, I recite Quran well, so people put me forward for Imamate. Now, when I am praying, I make the intention that I am going to say, for example, I make the intention that I will recite 20 ayats. But when I am reciting and maybe I have recited three ayats or four ayats, I get a thought to say, you are reciting to please the people because your recitation is good. You are reciting well. So people will say, oh, mashallah, mashallah, what a great Qari. So he says, when I get that thought, I immediately, you know, shorten my recitation. Instead of reciting 20, I decided I have only five. Maybe I recite one more and I go into ruku, complete the rakat. What shall I do? And the reply of Sheikh Hussain Rahimahullah Itaada is very, very nice. He says, He said, when you get that thought,
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  • Al Asr -1

    Al Asr -1
    Apr 30 2025
    Auto-generated transcript:In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. And peace and blessings be upon the honour of the Prophets and Messengers, Muhammad and the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him and his family and companions. May peace and blessings be upon them. My brothers and sisters, the Sahaba, whenever they began a meeting or they ended a meeting, they would start and end with which surah? They would recite one surah. Which one? Wa al-asr. Shukr. Wa al-asr. Inna al-insana lafi khusri. Illa alladhina amanu wa amilu salihati wa tawasubi al-hakki wa tawasubi sabr. Allah SWT said, Allah took an oath. An oath is just a promise. It is taken to emphasise the importance of something. So Allah took an oath by time. In another hadith, Allah SWT said, Do not curse time. People say, oh, bad time. Allah said, do not curse time because I am time. So Allah is taking an oath by time, by himself. And then Allah is saying, see the Arabic grammar of that. Inna, which is emphasis. Wa al-asr. Inna al-insana. And then Allah is using another word of, another command of emphasis, which is the lamb of Taqi. La fi khusri. If you say, Inna al-insana. If you say al-insana, kullu insana fi khusri, the meaning is convertible. No, Allah SWT is saying very simply. Inna al-insana. La fi khusri. Truly and verily and surely and definitely all of human beings. Inna al-insana. Every human being on the earth. La fi khusri. Surely that person is in loss. In khusran. He is in loss. He is in... And then Allah SWT says, makes the condition, the criterion, except those who have Iman. Wa amilu as-salihat. And who do good deeds. Remember, this is all related. Allah did not say, illa alladhina amanu, aw amilu as-salihati, aw no. He didn't say this or that or that. Allah said this and that and that and that. Illal alladhina amanu, wa amilu as-salihati, wa tawaso bil haqqi, wa tawaso bil haqqi, wa tawaso bil sami. And those who invite towards the Haqq, to the Truth, and those who have patience, who have sabr, who have perseverance, who have grit, who have persistence. Now think about this and say, why is Allah SWT... What do we learn from this surah? And why was this surah considered so important that Sahaba, Ridhaan la hiya alayhim in main, used to begin and end their meetings, meetings with this? And that is, because this surah focuses on the most critically important elements of life. Because remember, in our life, it's not how much money you have, how much of power you have, what properties you have, none of that. Your health, your wealth, your, whether you are handsome or pretty, or whatever you are, makes no difference. So Allah SWT in His beautiful Kalam has clearly specified what is important. The importance of, the important things are the ones that Allah mentioned. So the Sahaba used to say, read this surah to remind themselves, what is important? Iman wa amir as-sarihaat, wa tawassu bi-raq, wa tawassu bi-sawar. So let me examine myself to see, do I have Iman? What is the meaning of saying, Iman? It means that I believe, and totally and completely without any doubt, in the Tawheed of Allah SWT, that there is no one worthy of worship, except Allah. And in the Risalah of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa ala alihi, that Rasool Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is the Messenger of Allah and is the last and final Messenger after whom there is no message. I do not make shirk, I do not join partners with Allah because there are no partners. I do not worship something other than Allah because there is no one worthy of worship except Allah. I do not allow my desires to supersede the orders of Allah. I don't worship my desires, I worship Allah. When I say I worship Allah, it means I keep Allah's boundaries, the hudud of Allah. What Allah made halal is halal, what Allah made haram is haram. Nobody else can do that. Nobody else can come and change that. Wherever the kalam of Allah,
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  • Real cost – #2

    Real cost – #2
    Apr 29 2025
    Auto-generated transcript:In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. And peace and blessings be upon the most honorable of the prophets and messengers, Muhammad and the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him and upon his family and companions. May peace and blessings be upon him and upon his family and companions. And may peace and blessings be upon him and upon his family and companions. I would like to remind myself and you that for all of this to happen for us, and we ask Allah the Exalted to make dua, but remember, I remind myself, dua alone is not enough. Dua has to be with dawah. There has to be action. The key is to get those good deeds into our account. It's not simply making dua. Allah said, see the generosity of Allah. Allah said, Masalu allatheena yunfiqoona anwaalahum fee sabeeli Allah Kamasali habbatin anbatat Sabaa salabila fee kulli tumbulat Immiyatu habba Wallahu yuda'ifu liman yasha Wallahu wa'asi unaleem Allah said, the example of those who spend their wealth in the cause of Allah is like that of a grain that is planted and it sprouts into seven years. The plant has seven years, each bearing 100 grain. You know, think of a corn plant. You plant one corn seed. The plant grows. It has branches. Each branch has a corn cob and each cob has 100 grains. There is one you planted, you got 700. And then the word of my Rabb, Jalla Jalaluhu. And Allah multiplies the reward even more to whoever he wills. For Allah is all bountiful, all knowing. Whenever I read this ayat, I revel in the fact that, you know, I am a person who is not a person. No thought is available to you. You move carefully that you are looking at God. We will first look at Mohamad Sanqu lotta who also says, a witness from the Prophet Mohammad, the ummah проблема has this command that I came from you. What does mooha meanơi That Allah is the hall ofиш and hu. which can really and truly only be done when we understand it in its original. And this is true of all languages. Urdu, for example, which I, alhamdulillah, is my mother tongue, and I think I speak it, and I understand, I read it, I write it, I love Urdu poetry. If you recite a Urdu couplet, with each word, the nuance of the word, the tone of the word, the way the word is used in that couplet, each one has a delight of its own, which you translate it, none of that can be conveyed. Now, this is the Kalam of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala. Ta'ala Allahu alhamdulillah, we don't compare the Kalam of Allah to the Kalam of any shahir. In any case, the Quran is not shahir. Very important to learn the Arabic language. That is what touches our heart and strengthens our faith. Just think about the dua which we make every morning, and see how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is described in this dua. The glory and magnificence of Allah. And how we place ourselves in a position, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave us the permission to place ourselves in a position where we are invoking Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and making Him the witness on our tawhid. Allahumma inni ushiduk wa ushidu hamalata arshik wa malaikatik wa jamiya qalkik annaka anta Allah la ilaha illa ant wahadaka la sharika lak wa anna Muhammadan abuduka wa rasuluk O Allah, I make you the witness. And I make witness the malaika, the angels who hold the throne. And I make witness all the angels. And I make witness everything in creation. Every breath of air, every wave of the ocean, every drop of rain, every flick. of snow, every sound, every radio wave, every creature, every human, every jinn, every animal, every bird, every reptile, every amphibian, everything I know and everything I don't know, every grain of sand on every beach. I make all of them witness that you are one. Wahadaka. La sharika lak. And there is no comparison to you. There is no one who can be joined with you. There is no one who is like you. There is no one who is equal to you.
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  • Real cost – #1

    Real cost – #1
    Apr 28 2025
    Auto-generated transcript:My dear brothers and sisters, respected elders, this life is a transaction. It's a deal. To get something, we must give something. So let us look at our lives and see what we are paying to get what we have. I'm going to count some things. It's not an exhaustive list. Just to give you some thinking points. Ask yourself, what did we give up for the conveniences of modern living? What did we give up to be able to eat processed food and drink sodas? What did we give up to get iPads and smartphones into our lives? That is the real cost, not the dollars you charged on your card. What did we get? What did we give up to get 24-7 news reports? Which rapidly morphed into super-focused propaganda. For example, we used to get literally hourly, maybe even minute-wise, I don't know, reports on the number of COVID deaths in the world. What did that do to us and our psychology? Today we get the same about Gaza. One of the things that happens, and I'm speaking as a psychologist, and that is the reason I've said over and over and over again, do not watch these videos. It deadens the heart. It makes you immune to the pain. Tears no longer come to your eyes. You no longer cry before Allah in tahajjud because you got used to that. Seeing it over and over and over and over. And that's the purpose of it. We get all these things. We get all these things. We get all these things. We get all of this in the form of graphic videos on our phones and social media feed. What did we give up to get this news? Think about that. And what would have been lost if we did not get this news over and over and over again? Our children compare their faces and their beauty and their bodies and their clothes with everything superficial. With everything superficial. With so-called influencers. And they get anxious. And they get depressed. And they despair. And they commit suicide. Have you ever heard of an influencer who talks about grades in school and working for real, worthwhile goals and feeding the hungry and helping the sick? Have you ever heard any influencer talk about these things? Things of true value? Our children are exposed through these influencers to cultures and values that alley cats would be ashamed of. But thanks to the power of the media, all that is normalized and applauded. And those who challenge that are maligned and denigrated and cast into the garbage bin of old people from the old country who don't understand us. Go ahead, do what you want. It's your fate. What did those children get in return? Today, mental illness is in epidemic proportions. Seven and eight year olds want to commit suicide. And they need psychiatric treatment. Do you think that's accidental? What did we get when we lost respect for parents and children and elders? What did we get when we gave up reading? What did we get when we substituted Instagram and YouTube shorts for serious study? What did we get when we lost our adab to the extent where you would go to a sheikh and say, shorten your lecture because I am getting bored? Hmm? Hmm? Hmm? Hmm? Hmm? I know all of these things. Or at least I don't know. I don't see all because I really don't see how all have benefit. But some of these things have benefits. But pause for a minute and calculate the cost. You got that benefit at what cost? As they say, there are no free lunches. So let's look at what we paid and ask, is it worth it? I remind myself, I knew that returns on interest are not the same as the cost of a job. I remind myself, I knew that returns on investment are assessed in terms of their magnitude and guarantee of safety. For example, if I sell my house and use the money to go on a world cruise in a luxury cruise liner, I will return with some nice photos, some worn memories, some amazing experiences and be homeless. Would you call that return on investment? Or a foolish waste of resources? On the other hand, if I sell my house and buy two shops, rent them out,
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  • Courage is the greatest virtue

    Courage is the greatest virtue
    Apr 27 2025
    Auto-generated transcript:My brothers and sisters, I read something yesterday which I want to share with you. There is an author called Sahil Bloom. He writes, Your entire life will change when you realize that courage, which is himmah, courage is the single most important human trait. Your whole life will change when you realize that courage is the most important human trait. In 1942, the author C.S. Lewis, offered this brilliant characterization. And he said, Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality. Courage is who you are when it is inconvenient, not when it's convenient. Courage is who you are, when it is inconvenient, when no one is watching, when the rewards are uncertain, when the outcomes are unpredictable. It is easy to declare our values and principles and virtues in times of peace. It's very hard to live by them in times of war. Courage is defined at the testing point. You are defined at the testing point. The truth, talent, and intelligence are abundant. Courage is not. There is someone out there living the life you want simply because they had the courage to act. They are not smarter than you. They are not more talented than you. They just took action when you didn't. They recognized that fear comes from inexperience, not in-game. They are not in-game. They are not in-game. They are not in-game. They are not in-game. They are not in-game. They are not in-game. They are not in-game. They are not in-game. They are not in-game. You are afraid because you haven't done it yet, not because you can't do it. Inexperience is a problem to be solved, and it's only solved through having the courage to act. They realized that the worst prison in the world is having the talent and intelligence to achieve something, to achieve something great, but lacking the courage to go out and do it. They understood that the guarantee of success is that the calculation is very good, They understood that the regret from inaction is always worse than the regret from action. But here's the most empowering thought. Courage is not born, it is chosen. Every single day, you get to choose how you show up at your testing point. You have agency. You are at the wheel. You are in control of your future with your actions in the present. The challenges do not get easier. If anything, they get harder as you rise. But you get stronger. You grow. You change. When you arrive at your testing point and choose to show up as the highest version of yourself, you become different. The Stoic philosopher Seneca once wrote, it is not because things are difficult that we do not dare. It is because we do not dare that things are difficult. You cannot build a life of meaning, purpose, and character by taking the easy paths at the testing point. Choose to dare. Choose hard. Choose courage. Courage now and easy later. I thought let me share this with you because if you think about this and you see this, this is the story. This is the story of the life of Rasulullah . This is the story of the Sahaba of Rasulullah . Take any part of the Sira. Even though he was the Nabi , Allah did not give him guarantees of success incident by incident. This is a very important thing to remember this. Allah gave us guarantee of success when? In the Akhirah. Wa al-aqibatu lil-muttaqeel. Not in the Dunya. Allah did not say if you take this step you will be successful. No. Take the step. See. When Rasulullah went to Taif, I'll give you examples from the Sira. When he went to Taif, did he know whether he will succeed or fail? He didn't know. If he knew he would succeed, why would he go there? No need. Just call them. If he knows he will fail, why will he go there? Nobody goes to fail. He took a chance. He had the courage to go there. He took a chance. He did his best. And he suffered. In the battle of Badr, did he know that they will win? If he knew that they were going to win,
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  • Q&A on Salah

    Q&A on Salah
    Apr 26 2025
    Auto-generated transcript:In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of all mankind. And peace and blessings be upon the most righteous of the prophets and messengers, Muhammad and the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him and his family. And many thanks and blessings. My brothers and sisters, it's very important. There seem to be small mistakes, but they are not small mistakes. They can, in some cases, they can invalidate your salah. In some cases, there is no salah. So be careful with that. Now, let's start with the saf. Formation of the lines. It's extremely important to form the lines shoulder to shoulder. Actually, touch the shoulder to shoulder. And when you stand, stand in a way where you touch the shoulder to shoulder. And then only your feet. Sometimes people stand with their feet so wide apart that the shoulder cannot touch. And in trying to touch the feet, they stamp the foot of the other person. Don't do this. Shoulder to shoulder. Then the feet should be at the level of the shoulders. If you touch the other person, you can't do it. But don't try. Don't try to push your foot and stand like this. No. Complete the saf. Second thing is complete one saf and then go to the next saf. So if there is some gap or there is some space at the end of the saf, make sure you fill that space. Only if there is space, then you go to the rest. Third thing is when you form any saf, the second saf, third saf, start in the middle. Behind the imam. Don't stand in one corner. Whether you are sitting on a chair, stand in the mat. Stand behind the imam. Start from there. And then fill up the saf as far as possible equally on both sides. Don't go and stand in one corner. Right? It's very important to remember that. Fourth thing is when you come and join and the imam has already started this allied praying. When you join, say for example you are joining in ruku or you are joining in qiyam or sujood. First thing is immediately join. Don't stand waiting there. Many times people are in sujood, they stand and wait to see, let him stand up. No. Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam specifically prohibited. He said, maybe Allah has kept your forgiveness in that sajdah. Don't be lazy. Trying to avoid one sajdah less. No. Go down and immediately join. Number one. Number two, when you join, it is the rukun of salah that you say Allahu Akbar. Simply moving your hand like this is like, you know, driving away flies or something. No. Just this. No. Raising your hand is mustahab. If you do that, very... Very good. If you don't do that also, salah is valid. You must say Allahu Akbar. Not necessarily loudly, but say Allahu Akbar. Without saying Allahu Akbar, if you simply do this and going to ruku, your salah has not even started. You are not in salah. You're doing some exercise. So please don't do that. Make sure you say the salah begins with the Allahu Akbar. With the takbiratul ihram. So very, very important. Start with say Allahu Akbar. And then you join the salah and then you follow the Imam as the Imam is doing. Inshallah. Right? Now in terms of adhan, many mistakes that people make, especially people from our part of the world, from the Indo-India, Indo-Pakistan area, we say Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. In the Arabic language, the dhamma, in Urdu we say pesh. The dhamma is the condition of every word last ends with u. Muhammadu, Allahu. Unless there is a reason why it changes to something else. So therefore, when you are joining the two, suppose you say Allahu Akbar and you stop, then you say Allahu Akbar. That's no problem. You can do that. But if you are joining Allahu Akbar with Allahu Akbar, you must say Allahu Akbarun, Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbaru, Allahu Akbarun, Allahu Akbar. Not Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. That is wrong. Right? So don't do that. Very common mistakes. Each, each area, which whether it's Arab or not, it doesn't matter. People have what we call in the Arabic language ...
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  • How important is Islam

    How important is Islam
    Apr 25 2025
    Auto-generated transcript:Alhamdulillah Rabbil Alameen wa salatu wa salamu ala ashrafil anbiya wal mursaleen. Muhammad wa Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa ala alihi wa sallam. Tasliman kathira kathira. Fammabadu, my brothers and sisters, if I ask you how critical is Islam for you? Or if you ask me the same question, how daruri? To use the Arabic word, how daruri? What is the answer? How important is it? How critical is it? Again, speak from the heart. Don't give me a standard answer. No. How daruri? How critical? Think about it. You don't need to tell me. Think about it. The reason I'm saying that, let me give you a comparison. Suppose I ask you three cards. A Costco card. Store card Costco. A health insurance card. Medicare, MassHealth, H&E, whatever. And a Social Security card. All three are cards. All three are numbers. Which is the most, if I tell you choose one, which will you choose? Which one? Social. Social, absolutely. Without the Social Security card, you will be in the icebox. Right? Right? Another example. Somebody goes to a storehouse. Somebody goes to TJ Maxx. He's going there because he has some need. The same person goes to ER in Bay State. He also has a need. Whose need is more? Yeah, right? Yeah, I mean, there's a no brainer. The TJ Maxx guy also has a need. He's going there to, you know, I want to buy a shirt or jacket or whatnot. If I get it, I don't get it, it won't kill you. But if I'm in ER, I can't breathe. My heart is doing all kinds of magic. Now, take this as a framework for comparison and ask yourself, how important, how critical is Islam in my life? Take this as a, is Islam as important as TJ Maxx? Or is Islam as important as ER? Is Islam as important as, I'm not saying it's not important. How important? What is the degree, the level? The reason I'm asking you that is because our decisions in our life, our actions, the choices we make are all related to the level of importance of that thing. As a family man, right, foreign boy, you have a family, a wife and children, you have parents, you also have friends. You have a family. You have a family. You have friends. You have colleagues. You are good to all of them. But if you had to choose and say, here is something, choose one. Will you give precedence to your friend over your son? No. No. That why, that's why we have to ask ourselves, how really important is Islam in my life? Because all my decisions, how much time do I spend in the worship of Allah Subhanahu Ta'ala, in the Ibadat of Allah? In Salah, in Dhikr, in Tilawatul Quran and so on. How much charity do I give? How much money, time, energy, life do I spend in the path of Allah? My earning, where do I give it? Where do I spend it? Where do I spend it? Where do I spend it? Where do I spend it? Where do I spend it? Where do I spend it? Where do I spend it? Where do I spend it? Where do I spend it? Where do I spend it? Where do I spend it? Where do I spend it? Where do I spend it? Where do I spend it? And here's the question, how much money do I choose to earn from? Somebody comes to me with this fantastic scheme. The only hitch is that I have to borrow money on interest. But he's showing me this, you know, you'll become a billionaire in 10 days. Will you take that or not? Eating, what goes into my mouth? And so on and so on. My relationships. My effect? All of them depend on how important is Islam. Because if I am going to choose something which is halal, even though I have the option to choose something which is haram without any consequences in this world. Like Sheikh Hussain used to say, this country is the freest country in the world because you can do anything you want. I remember we used to go in 1997 when I used to live here. Dr. Ali and I used to go for, those days we used to do two jaulas in a week. We had a makhami jaula and an intiqali jaula. So the intiqali jaula we used to do in UMass. So interestingly, in UMass in those days, you had the MSO room, MSA room. And on one side,
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  • Post-Ramadan gameplan

    Post-Ramadan gameplan
    Apr 24 2025
    Auto-generated transcript:In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise belongs to Allah, Lord of the worlds. And peace and blessings be upon the honour of the prophets and messengers, Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and upon his family and companions, peace and blessings be upon him, and upon many many. And what is next? My brothers and sisters, Ramadan has ended and so have the rites of Ramadan. But the rites of Allah remain and they will remain until we die. As Allah commanded, وَاعْبُدْ رَبَّكَ حَتَّى يَأْتِيَكَ الْيَقِينَ Allah said, worship Allah, worship your Rabb until the inevitable comes to you, until the truth comes to you and that is death. Ramadan came to increase our taqwa. As I mentioned in several of my khutbah before, every ibadah, every act of worship is not for itself. Every act of worship is a tool to achieve something. Salah is not for itself. إِنَّ الصَّلَاةَ تَنْهَىٰ عَنِ الْفَهْشَاءِ وَالْمُنْكَرِ Salah is the tool to separate us from, to protect us from everything which is shameless and everything which is not good. Everything which is rebelliousness of Allah and disobedience. So if I'm praying and I find that there is no change in my lifestyle, if I'm still disobeying Allah, if I'm still engaging in things that Allah has prohibited, then I must question my salah. I must question what quality of salah is this? That it is not achieving the purpose for which it is meant. Allah said about Ramadan, what is the purpose of Ramadan? Ya ayyu allatheena amanu kootiba alaikumus siyamu kama kootiba ala allatheena min qablikum la'alakum tattaqoon Allah said, Do you believe fasting has been prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you so that you may become muttaqoon, so that you may become conscious of Allah in your lives, so that you may become completely and totally obedient to Allah, so that you do everything for one reason only and that reason is because it pleases my Creator. Now Ramadan reinforced that because in Ramadan during the hours of the fasting from before sunrise to after sunset, we stayed away even from things which are normally halal. Why? Because Allah said so. There's another reason. If anyone fasted for any other reason then the fast becomes batil. The reason we fast, the reason we don't eat, we don't drink, we don't have intimacy and so on is because Allah said so. Not for its physical benefits or you know any other reason. Because Allah said so. And that is to reinforce this concept in our minds. Because Allah said so. So if I'm going to stay away even from the permitted things which are wholesome, which are good to do because Allah said so and for no other reason, then what must I do with those things which Allah prohibited? Ramadan therefore did not come for Ramadan. Ramadan came for the rest of our lives. That is the goal. We use Ramadan as a habit change, an attitude change and a life change opportunity. So that we can become uttaqoon, we can become people of taqwa. We can become people who are conscious of Allah in every aspect of our lives. And so that we live our goals, we live our lives with only one goal in mind and that is to please Allah . Developing taqwa is the most important goal in life. Because all the promises of Allah are for the muttaqoon. Not merely for the Muslimoon. Not merely for the person who enters Islam. When you enter Islam, you just enter the fort. But you want value added benefits? It has to be more than that. We have to become conscious of Allah in our lives. And we have to worship Allah only without any partners. And we have to obey Allah over and above. And before we obey Allah, we have to obey Allah. We have to obey anyone and anything else including our own desires. And that is why Allah said وَبَنْ يَتَّقِ اللَّهَ يَجْعَلْ لَهُ مَخْرَجًا وَيَرْزُقُهُ مِنْ هَيْثُ لَا يَهْتَصِبُ Allah said whoever is mindful of Allah, what is the benefit of being a muttaqoon?
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