Life in the FAST Lane with Sheikh Abdul Nasir Jangda

Life in the FAST Lane with Sheikh Abdul Nasir Jangda

Opening Quranic Recitation

As-salamu alaykum.

Quranic Recitation:

""

صَدَقَ اللَّهُ الْعَظِيمُ

JazakAllahu khair.

Introduction of Sheikh Abdul Nasir Jangda

And now we have our Sheikh Abdul Nasir Jangda with us. Before we begin, just a little quick intro.

He is the founder and director of Qalam Institute. He was born and raised in the Dallas area. At the age of 10 he went to Karachi, Pakistan to memorize the Quran. He excelled in memorization and committed the entire Quran to memory in less than one year. He then returned home and continued his school education. After graduating from high school, he went back to Karachi to study the Aalim course at Jamia Binoria. He graduated from the rigorous seven-year program in 2002 at the top of his class and with numerous ijazat in various Islamic sciences. Along with the Aalim course, he concurrently completed a BA and MA in Arabic from Karachi University. He also obtained a master's in Islamic studies from the University of Sindh.

He taught Arabic at the University of Texas at Arlington from 2005 to 2007. He has served as an instructor and curriculum advisor at various Islamic schools and Islamic study programs. He has served as an imam at the Colville Masjid in the Dallas area for three years. He is a founding member and chairman of Mansfield Islamic Center. And he is also an instructor at Bayyinah Institute. So without further ado, Sheikh Abdul Nasir Jangda.

Sheikh's Opening Remarks

Bismillah walhamdulillahi wa salatu wa salamu ala rasulillahi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'in.

I just want to make sure everyone can hear me before I start talking. And I keep talking and realize that no one can hear me. So is there any way to give me a little bit of a signal? Okay. Excellent. All right. Very good.

The Value of Family and Relationships

So alhamdulillah, it's an honor and a pleasure to be here with everyone. I apologize for the little bit of a delay. I know there were some people hitting me up on Twitter and Facebook telling me that they were looking forward to the session. So I just want to apologize for being a little bit late. I guess I'll share this with everyone just as a reflection.

First and foremost, as you see here, I'm babysitting today. So alhamdulillah, I have my daughters with me. This is Aisha, who you saw. And Maryam is also here with me. So I'm kind of on duty. I'm babysitting today, alhamdulillah.

And at the same time, one of my very, very dear friends. This is someone who is very honestly one of my best friends. And he accepted Islam actually when we were in middle school together. He accepted Islam at that time almost 20 years ago. And we pretty much grew up together since that point on. And subhanAllah, two days ago his mother passed away.

And so I was actually visiting with him and just making sure he was okay and spending some time with him. So it's a real blessing. Family and loved ones in our lives are a real blessing from Allah. And a lot of times we truly only understand their significance and the impact that they have in our lives. Once they're gone, they're no longer with us.

So I guess my first reminder to myself and to everyone here would be to make sure that you cherish your family members. And you cherish those relationships. And you strive your best to do right by them and spend as much time as possible as you can with them. If you're within physical proximity, you're close proximity to them, visit them. Spend time with them. And if they're not near you, you can't physically actually spend time with them, then try to make sure that you at least give them a call. Call them tonight before you go to sleep. Let them know that you love them. Let them know how much you care about them, how much they mean to you. And just cherish every opportunity you have to be with them.

Introduction to the Topic: Life in the Fast Lane

The topic today is life in the fast lane. I make it known on my Twitter account and even on Facebook about my disdain for the cheesy titles a lot of times people come up with for different Islamic events. I don't always approve. I end up being a part of many of these events. I will give some credit that this is an actually creative name. It's actually pretty creative and the wordplay is actually pretty intelligent. So therefore I'm hoping that Subhan Tariq was not the one who came up with the title. Otherwise I would be complimenting Subhan Tariq which would be a problem for me.

Nevertheless, inshallah, moving on to the topic is Ramadan. There's a lot to be said about Ramadan. There's a lot that has already probably been said about Ramadan. And there's a lot that will continue to be said about the month of Ramadan as we move closer and closer. We are literally inching closer and closer to that day. We're literally four days away from the month of Ramadan. And so inshallah these reflections and reminders will continue.

The Two-Step Process of Ramadan: Cleansing and Filling the Heart

But what I wanted to share, what I wanted to talk about today very quickly is two things. I have two specific thoughts I wanted to share. First of all, what I'd like to do is talk about what type of an opportunity the month of Ramadan is. And what is the process of the month of Ramadan. Look, we all understand that Ramadan is a great blessing. It's a great opportunity. You can improve yourself. You can become a better person. We understand that. But what is the actual process for becoming a better person through the month of Ramadan?

It's a two-step process. The way I'll explain this is that the heart has been referred to as a container. The heart is literally a container. And that container will either have something clean or something unclean, something pure or something impure.

For instance, if you have a dirty cup. If you have a cup or a glass that is dirty and it's filthy, it's got dirt, it's got mud, it's got filth inside of it. But then you want to pour some clean water or you want to pour some clean milk inside of it to be able to drink from it. Then the first thing that you have to do is you have to clean it. You have to empty the filth that is inside of it. You have to empty that out. Then you have to wash it up. You have to clean it up. And then refill it with something clean, something pure.

And so once you clean a dirty cup and then you fill it with clean, cool water, then now you can drink from that water. So as I spend the next, you know, 45 minutes, an hour talking to you, when I start to become a bit parched, when I start to get thirsty, my mouth starts to dry up, and I start to lose my ability to speak, to talk to you, I will keep taking a sip from that water and that's going to keep me going. That's going to allow me to continue for the next hour. And that's basically the objective here.

Step One: Cleansing the Heart

Our heart is a container similarly. Very similar to this glass right here. Our heart is a container. What happens is that because of life, nafs, shayton, environment, influences, just life in general, a lot of times that heart, that container can become filthy, can become dirty and can be filled with, can become filled with dirty, filthy things.

Well, the very first step of the process is that we got to clear it out. We got to clean it out. We got to rinse it out. And the way to go about in doing that, as drastic as it may seem, because when I take it out of context and I explain it to you like this, it actually might sound very drastic to you. But the way to go about in doing that is depriving yourself. Removing that heart. Removing yourself from those things that have led to your heart becoming polluted.

They themselves are not polluted in and of themselves maybe. They are not pollutants themselves. But those things or those circumstances have led to your heart becoming polluted. And that occurs through two things:

Number one is things that are impermissible. Things that are not allowed. Things that are off limits. Regardless whether it's Ramadan or it's not, whether you're fasting or you're not. Lying, cheating, backbiting, cursing, swearing, etc. All these other sins of the heart, of the mind, of the tongue, of the hands. These things that are impermissible, that are prohibited, that are forbidden by Allah.

We first have to make a stronger effort to stay away from those things. And that is achieved in the month of Ramadan because in fasting, these things are haram across the board. But their hurma, their impermissibility, the prohibition of these things is emphasized even more while we are fasting in the month of Ramadan.

Number two, because unless somebody is in a tough spot, they live by themselves or their family is not Muslim or whatever their circumstances may be. And our prayers and our hearts go out to those people. I personally really admire and look up to those people. I was just telling you about this childhood friend of mine, this buddy of mine, Luke. His family wasn't Muslim. And because of that, but he was Muslim, mashallah.

And actually right before he left, we were talking about meeting up and spending time together in the month of Ramadan. And he actually said to me, he goes, you know, I always noticed being a Muslim kid, everybody loved Eid. But he goes, for some reason, I always liked Ramadan more than I liked Eid.

And I understand part of what that was, was because unfortunately because we are such a terrible community sometimes that we don't make room for people who might not have Muslim families of their own. We don't make room for them in our homes. We don't welcome them into our families. We don't include them in our Eid celebrations. That Eid is literally another day at the office for them. And they really don't have a celebration on Eid to go to.

So he is like, I love Ramadan. And so Ramadan is really, really tough for folks like that. But generally speaking, if you are part of a community and your family is also Muslim, then when everybody is fasting together, it creates an environment which makes something easier to achieve because everyone is doing it.

So first of all, through fasting, all those things are prohibited generally speaking, but they are even more emphasized to be stayed away from. Abstinence from those things is even more emphasized during Ramadan, during fasting. Then on top of that, because the whole community, the whole home, the whole family, everyone is fasting, everyone is staying away from lying, cheating, wasting time, engaging in sinful things, and it makes it easier to achieve that.

So that is the first thing. The second thing is that on top of staying away from things that are already haram, making an extra effort to cut out the haram things from our lives, the second thing we do is we actually stay away from, we abstain from, we deprive ourselves from things that would normally be permissible. For instance, again, eating something halal, drinking water, this is permissible. Physical intimacy with one's own spouse is permissible. But we stay away from that. We deprive ourselves from those things during the fasting hours from Fajr to Maghrib.

Why? To again clean out the heart. To clear out all the dirt, all the filth that might be there. So we have to clean it out, we have to clear it out. It's a flushing. So we're literally flushing out our heart. We're purging our hearts from all the filth and all the sins and all the dirt that has accumulated inside of that container that is the heart.

Step Two: Filling the Heart with Spiritual Nourishment

Now once the heart has been completely cleaned out and cleared out, the next step of the process is filling it with something. So I'll give you an example, and this is actually what I think is most needed for us today. Because generally speaking, most people on this broadcast probably do fast during the month of Ramadan. And if they don't, you know, you should, and may Allah make it easier for you to fast inshallah.

But, so if most people, they fast. So fasting, I cleared out the cup. I cleaned out the glass. But in order for me to be able to fulfill and relieve my need, in order for me to be able to sustain myself, I have to fill it with something. I have to fill it with clean water. And then it will be a form of sustenance and nourishment and refreshment for me.

Similarly, we clean out our hearts when we fast, if we fast properly. But then we have to fill it up with something that will be nourishment, spiritual nourishment, spiritual food. What is that spiritual nourishment? What is that spiritual food? That, simply put, is the worship and the obedience of Allah. Most specifically, the remembrance of Allah. And even more specifically, when talking about the remembrance of Allah, it's the Quran, the book of Allah.

So it is the worship of Allah, which is very specifically the remembrance of Allah. And amongst all the different types of the remembrance of Allah, the thing that is the most important during the month of Ramadan, while fasting, is the book of Allah, the Quran. That is what is our spiritual food, that is what is our spiritual nourishment.

That's why when we look at the month of Ramadan, it's two main activities. Fasting during the day, Qiyam during the night. Taraweeh, Tahajjud, Qiyam.

The Prophet's Example with the Quran

And even while we're fasting, we're told by the practice, by the sunnah of the Prophet (peace be upon him), every Ramadan, of course, Allah knows best how much Quran the Prophet (peace be upon him) would actually recite. But during the month of Ramadan, he would actually recite the entire Quran to Jibreel (peace be upon him). In fact, it's mentioned that in the last year of his life, he didn't recite it once, he recited it twice, in its entirety to Jibreel (peace be upon him). And so, we learn from that. And then his own personal recitation was on top of that.

Reference: Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 4997 and Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2450

So we see that the Prophet (peace be upon him) made a very specific effort to dedicate time to the book of Allah, because that fills the heart with the spiritual food and the nourishment that will keep us going for the rest of the year.

First Key Point: Fast and Make Time for the Quran

So, the first lesson that I wanted to emphasize, remind myself and also emphasize to all the brothers and sisters on the broadcast here today, is fast during the month of Ramadan, but make time for the Quran. Schedule time for the Quran. Make the Quran a part of your daily regimen in the month of Ramadan. And everything else that you might have to sacrifice, everything else you have to cut off, I would suggest you compromise on everything else that you need to. But do not compromise on the book of Allah and spending time with the book of Allah, because that is our spiritual food.

What happens with a lot of people right now is, people fast, but they do not necessarily spend a lot of time with the Quran. Reading, reciting, memorizing, understanding, studying, listening to the tafsir, listening to the recitation of the Quran, they don't spend a lot of time with the book of Allah. What happens because of that is, we cleaned out the glass. We cleaned out the glass, but we didn't fill anything inside of it.

So when Ramadan is over, after a week or two weeks or three weeks go by, and now you start to feel thirsty, meaning your soul is thirsty now, you need some spiritual nourishments and spiritual food, there is nothing in the glass to sustain you. And that's when Ramadan wears off. And a month after Ramadan, we are no different than we were a month before the month of Ramadan. And that's a tragedy for us right now. Individually and even collectively as a community.

Building Progressive Improvement

But if we spend time, we dedicate time to the book of Allah, to the Quran, during the month of Ramadan,

what will happen is not only did we clear out the container, the glass, but then we filled it up. And once we filled it up, when Ramadan is gone, now we have something to sustain us, now we have something to nourish us, we have something to take from, to sip from, to drink from, and to keep us going the next 11 months, so that when Ramadan comes back around, I can take a step up to the next level, and I can inshallah move forward and better myself.

Because what happens is, Ramadan is a very special time. Ramadan is a blessed, amazing, amazing opportunity. It's hard to replicate, it's hard to duplicate the experience of Ramadan outside of the month of Ramadan. So what happens as a consequence? You naturally are going to take a few steps back after Ramadan, when Ramadan is over. That's to be expected.

But the problem is, we only took two steps forward. And then when we take two steps back after Ramadan is over, we're back to where we started. Square one. We're back at the ground floor. But if we take eight steps forward, and even if we take two steps back, we're still six steps ahead of where we were before Ramadan. Then the next Ramadan, we take another eight steps forward, and okay, maybe one, two steps back after it ends. Now we're 12 levels. We're 12 stages, 12 steps ahead of where we were two years ago before Ramadan.

So it's a gradual process. It's using Ramadan as a launch pad to becoming a better person for the next 11 months, and then continuing to build on that slow, steady, incremental, you know, progress that we achieve every Ramadan. And inshallah, you know, when we look back a few years down the road a few years later, we'll be very, very grateful and thankful to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for our progress.

Fasting as a Prescription from Allah

So that's the idea. So the first thing I wanted to emphasize here on this broadcast was, fast, focus on fasting, and focus on fasting right. You know, even in the Quran, when Allah talks about fasting, He talks about fasting as a prescription.

"It has been written upon you. Meaning a prescription is being prescribed for you. A medication is being prescribed, a remedy is being prescribed for you, and it's called fasting.

"Just like it was prescribed. So there's a track record. This medication has gone through trials. There are case studies, there are testimonials that this medication works, this remedy works. Like it was prescribed for the people before you."

But then Allah says something very interesting. Allah says:

"Maybe, hopefully, possibly you will attain or develop taqwa. Meaning Allah did not guarantee that just by fasting you will develop taqwa. But maybe you will. Why? Because it's up to us. If we fast properly, we'll get taqwa. If we don't fast properly, as the hadith of the Prophet (peace be upon him) says, Allah has no need for someone to starve themselves, to deprive themselves of food and water.

Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1903

"Whoever does not give up forged speech and evil actions, Allah is not in need of his leaving his food and drink."

Allah has no need for anyone to do anything of that sort. So we have to understand that if we do not eat or drink, meaning fasting technically, but we don't stay away from sins and we don't try to better ourselves, we don't pray on time, we don't spend some time with the Book of Allah, we don't make any dhikr, we don't send any salawat on the Prophet (peace be upon him), then we were hungry and thirsty for about 16 hours.

And from where I'm sitting, I'm in the great state of Texas. Alright, in the great state of Texas we're going to be fasting for almost 16 hours and it's going to be about 108 degrees outside. And if you spend 16 hours not eating or drinking and all that you basically achieved was that you were thirsty or hungry for 16 hours, that's really a tragedy. That all you got at the end of the day was 16 hours of thirst and hunger, that is a tragedy.

But I need to be able to develop and attain taqwa through my fast. And that will happen through my efforts and through my cognizance, through my awareness and the efforts that I put forth in my fasting.

Making Time for the Quran

The second thing is make time, dedicate time, fix time, to spend time with the Book of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And that can be achieved through a number of means. I encourage that you spend time reciting, reading the Quran in the Arabic script. I recommend that you try to memorize a little throughout the month of Ramadan. I recommend that maybe you read a little translation. I recommend that you engage in some study of the Book of Allah and in your community, in your masjid, if there's going to be a tafsir lecture, a tafsir dars going on during the month of Ramadan, make time for that, attend that and go to that.

Ramadan Tafsir Series Initiative

As a personal effort, and this is just a personal initiative from myself, I realize that there are a lot of people, because I have been giving a tafsir dars based off of what I learned from my teachers, they gave a tafsir dars every night in the month of Ramadan in their respective masjid for 40-50 years, for most of their lives. So I learned that from my teachers and every Ramadan I would give a tafsir lesson every single night in Ramadan.

I got feedback from a lot of people saying that this opportunity is not available to everyone in their communities, in their masjid. So what we started doing was a few years ago, we started recording these tafsir lectures every single night and now we have a Ramadan tafsir series that is available online.

So on muslimmatters.org, on the Muslim Matters website, every night in the month of Ramadan a tafsir lecture will go up. This year we'll be doing, last year we did the tafsir of Surah Yasin, you can go back and still watch and inshallah learn from those lessons. This year we'll be doing the tafsir of Surah Maryam, Surah number 19.

So every night there will be one lecture, one part of Surah Maryam, about 3-4 ayat that will be lectured on and there will be a video recorded on it and you can actually go there and you can watch this video, you can view the video and you can inshallah engage in some study of the Book of Allah. And the idea behind it, the motivation behind it is it only covers about 3-4 ayat per night. So it is very practical for you to actually read those 3-4 ayat, try to memorize those 3-4 ayat, watch the video, learn the meaning and the explanation of those 3-4 ayat and when Ramadan is done, the entire Surah Maryam, Surah number 19, you have it memorized, you know how to recite it properly, you understand its meaning and inshallah your relationship with the Quran is improving.

So I recommend everyone make time, to spend time with the Book of Allah during this Ramadan.

Second Key Point: The Mindset of Excellence - Lessons from the Battle of Badr

The second thing I wanted to talk about was the mindset that we go into the month of Ramadan with, the type of goals that we set for Ramadan. This is something I've talked about quite a bit in the last few weeks, that in the Battle of Badr, which is one of the greatest moments in Islamic history, it occurred during the month of Ramadan. It was the second Ramadan in the blessed city of Medina. And on the 17th day of that second Ramadan, the Battle of Badr occurred.

Something very interesting about the Battle of Badr was, when the Prophet (peace be upon him) went to Madinatul Munawwara, when he made the migration to the blessed city of Medina, he had an agreement and a pact with the Muslims of Medina, who are called the Ansar. He had a pact and an agreement with them. The pact and the agreement was that if somebody attacks Medina, the Ansar of Medina would fight alongside of the Prophet (peace be upon him) and the Muslims and defend the city.

But the Prophet (peace be upon him), because of his pre-existing conflict with the people of Mecca, the Quraish, if he went outside of Medina to engage in battle, then the Muslims of Medina were not obligated to join him and go outside of Medina to fight. They would not be obligated to and they would not be sinful if they refused to.

When the Battle of Badr occurred, Badr is far outside of Medina. When the Battle of Badr occurred, the Prophet (peace be upon him) gathered all the Muslims together and told them, this is the situation and we have to go outside of Medina to engage in battle.

The Ansar's Response: Going Beyond the Minimum

The Ansar of Medina responded by saying, O Messenger of Allah, we will not forsake you. We will not leave you. We will not say to you like Banu Israel said to Musa (peace be upon him). Rather what we will say is that like Banu Israel said to Musa (peace be upon him):

"That you and your Lord go fight. We are going to sit right here and just wait for you to get back. Rather we will come along with you and fight by your side."

And SubhanAllah, so understand one thing. The Muslims of Medina did not have to participate in the Battle of Badr and it could not be held against them if they did not participate. In spite of that, not only did they participate, but there were 313 Sahaba in the Battle of Badr. 313 Muslims participated. Out of them, two-thirds of them, over 200 of them, two-thirds of them were the Ansar of Medina.

Meaning what? They did more than what was required of them. They didn't ask what is the bottom line? What does the contract say? What is the bottom line? They didn't say that. Rather their attitude was let us try to do as much as possible. Let's push ourselves and do what is not even required of us in order to win the pleasure of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and to be closer to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.

The Reward for Excellence

And the outcome, the result and the consequence of that was that the Ansar of Medina are about whom Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the Qur'an promises them paradise. Allah in the Qur'an has said He is pleased with them. The Prophet of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said:

Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 3785

"By Allah, you are the most beloved people to me."