Ramadan Reminder

Being a Spiritual Athlete: Ramadan Reminder

Opening Praise and Testimony

We begin by praising Allah, we praise Him, we seek His help and we ask for His forgiveness and we take refuge with Allah from the evil of ourselves and from the evil consequence of our evil actions. Anyone whom Allah guides, no one can misguide. But anybody whom Allah leaves to go astray, no one can guide.

And I testify that Allah alone is worthy of worship and that Muhammad is His servant and His messenger.

Introduction: The Spiritual Athlete

We're going to be talking today about being a spiritual athlete, being a spiritual athlete in preparation for Ramadan. I have a lot of interest in athletics and I have a pretty good idea, not because I'm really an athlete myself, I've never really, well I suppose, you know, at school we were very athletic and my school was a very athletic type of school.

But I have a lot of interest in athletics from the point of physical training and also from the point of psychological training. And there's even a dimension in athletics which is spiritual training as well, right? Actually to be a really good athlete you have to master the three realms, the three realms, the physical realm and that's what most people think. Most people imagine that being an athlete is just about being fit and about being strong.

The Three Realms of Athletic Excellence

And most definitely and most certainly if you want to be an athlete you have to train. So in the particular field that I have some knowledge and interest, more interest in, which is mountain biking. For example, a top athlete in mountain biking in the discipline of downhill, which is, it's, the discipline of downhill mountain biking is quite simple.

You go from the top of the mountain to the bottom and the fastest one to the bottom wins. That's it, simply put, right? But it's very technical, it's very dangerous, it's very difficult, it demands a huge amount of strength and skill. Okay? And these people ride at incredible speeds over rocks and drops and jumps.

It's really amazing what they do. And you look at it and you think these guys are crazy. But, you know, if you've been doing it from the age of 11, by the time you're getting to 16 or 17, you know, it's more normal for you.

The Commitment of Physical Training

But the point is to compete at the highest level, you at minimum will have to do one and a half hours of training in the gym every day, except one day you'll take a rest. So this is, the top athletes will all be doing this. Every

day, they will be training in the gym, and this is not what you maybe think of training in the gym, you're like, like that, you know.

No, this is proper intensive training for one and a half hours. Now I want to ask you, just performing a Fard Salah, how many, how long will that take, your Fara'id? I'm not talking about your Sunnah Muaqidah and your Nawafil and your Tahajjud, yeah, if you do those things. Just the Fard, how long do you think in your day it takes? No, each one is 5 minutes, 5-10 minutes, yeah, so 25 minutes.

Right, 25 minutes.

Racing for Paradise

Now, when we are praying and we are making Salah, we are competing and racing for what? For Jannah. In fact, Allah, this is what is inferred to in the Quran.

Brother, what's the word in Arabic? Sari'ah, which means to race. Allah says:

Race for forgiveness from your Lord and for a reward which is as great as the heavens and the earth, meaning Jannah. Race, so Allah is actually telling us, you know, that we should make it like we are racing with each other and competing with each other, racing for Jannah.

So Allah Himself gives this example of racing. It's like it's a competition. But you see, in the world of athletics, you see people racing and competing to be on a podium.

The Reality of Athletic Competition

And this podium may be in the distance, may be in the discipline I'm familiar with. There are 60 male competitors. The females are less, very few females, but generally in the male, 60, 62 elite riders.

And all of them are competing for three places, first, second, third. And believe me, no one remembers who came second and no one remembers who came third, very rarely. People really only remember who came first, if they remember that.

I want you to think about this. And now athletes generally are people who are respected and admired. And I have to say, on a human level, on a human level, I don't mean on a spiritual level, on a human level, they deserve admiration and respect.

Because believe me, their training is not only physical, their training is mental as well.

Mental Strength: Overcoming Setbacks

Athletes, the best athletes are not only physically strong, they are mentally strong. What do I mean by mentally

strong? By mentally strong, I mean they are able to overcome many obstacles and many setbacks.

That's mental strength. Mental strength is the ability to overcome setbacks. And this is something athletes have to face all the time.

Losing, for them losing, if you're not winning, if you're not number one, you're a loser. Again and again and again. Some people will never actually ever step on the podium in their whole athletic career.

But they have to keep going. Or whether it's a team sport. The setbacks could be injuries.

Sometimes injuries are life-threatening. Sometimes they are career-ending injuries, yet still people come back from career-ending injuries, they come back. This takes a totally different type of strength.

There is the physical strength, and I've seen this myself, in the sphere of athletics. There are people who have all the skills. Their skills are amazing. They're fit and they're strong. But they don't know they don't have the mental strength. Because racing takes a special type of strength.

A very special type of competitive strength and the ability to pick yourself up again and again and again after setbacks.

Religion as Organized Spiritual Training

I'm saying all of this, my brothers and sisters, because there is a very strong connection and crossover between what we understand in the world of athletics and actually our spiritual life as Muslims. One of the things you hear people saying these days is, yeah I believe in God, but I don't believe in organized religion.

You see, and I always find that ridiculous. Because the whole purpose of religion is to be organized. Religion is like a systematic spiritual athletic training program.

That's why I call it being a spiritual athlete. Because every, imagine you said to an athlete, well an athlete said, well I believe in athletics but I don't believe in having an organized training program. Well okay, some people very occasionally will get away with it, but most people they will be laughed at.

It's like you are not ever going to reach the top unless you are very organized and you are dedicated. Not only in your exercise, in your diet. This is interesting.

The Discipline of Diet and Spiritual Nourishment

You see an athlete just can't eat anything. You think you can be a true athlete and compete at the highest level and just eat smarties and snicker bars and ice cream and paratha and biryani? No. Unless the only thing you are racing for is a big belly, then that's the particular discipline.

No, no. They are very strict about what they eat. Very strict.

And actually sometimes even a small imbalance, just having a sugary drink when you are not supposed to, can literally destroy your performance. It will spike your blood sugar levels, you will not be burning fats the way you are supposed to, and if you are competing in a race, a different type of race, a long race, you need a different type of metabolism burning your fuel in a different way. Right? If you eat the wrong type of foods, you will not be able to compete.

Your body will just literally shut down. So this is in this field of athletics.

Islam: Allah's Training Program

So I say that Islam is actually like Allah has given us a training program. He tells us to race for forgiveness and race for this paradise and Allah gives us a training program. And you will never be competitive spiritually and you will never be successful on a spiritual level, you will never reach that goal, you will never gonna reach that podium unless you follow the program.

You need to follow the program.

And the program is you pray five times a day. That's the base, that's the absolute basic level. Well of course, first of all, you have to have the right aqeedah, you have to have the right belief.

You have to believe things correctly about Allah and the prophet and the angels and the books and the messengers and the divine decree, the good of it and the bad of it. And all the other things, your belief has to be correct. That's the foundation of it all.

And then you have to be praying five times a day, this is the basic minimum.

Major Events in the Spiritual Season

Now just like in every sport, there are some big major events. Big major events that everybody trains for.

In many sports you will have a season, there's the football season or the racing season. In mountain biking you have the racing season which tends to be in summer. You have six or seven or ten major races, each one you will train for but one of them is gonna be more special than the other.

Okay, we have the same thing. And of course, in a sense, the actual event is still part of the training, it all comes together. So what do you think? In our religion we have some big events, right? We have some big events.

Events that actually we should be training for. So one of these big events is Ramadan. Ramadan is definitely one of the big events, right?

The Purpose of Ramadan: Acquiring Taqwa

So Allah tells us about Ramadan in the Quran:

This is a very, very powerful verse of Quran that we should really reflect upon. When Allah says, O you who believe, fasting has been prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those who came before you لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ - So that you may acquire taqwa. So Ramadan has a purpose and the purpose of Ramadan is that you acquire taqwa.

That's the prize. That's the prize you should be getting from Ramadan. That's the prize you need to get from Ramadan.

The Empty Trolley: Missing the Prize

So I give you an example. Imagine you go into a supermarket with a trolley and the trolley is empty and you walk all the way around the supermarket and you come out of the supermarket and the trolley is still empty. What did you get from the supermarket? Nothing.

Actually you just got tired pushing a trolley around. Yes? And the Prophet said:

رُبَّ صَائِمٍ لَيْسَ لَهُ مِنْ صِيَامِهِ إِلَّا الْجُوعُ وَرُبَّ قَائِمٍ لَيْسَ لَهُ مِنْ قِيَامِهِ إِلَّا السَّهَرُ )Sunan Ibn Majah 1690(

Some people will get nothing from their fasting except that they get hungry and thirsty. And some people will get nothing from their night prayers except they get tired.

Self-Assessment: Measuring Your Taqwa

There are some people who go, and here's the measurement. You can do it yourself. You can make a self- assessment now.

And this is part of the preparation. Ask yourself, make an assessment of your level of taqwa. What is your level of taqwa right now? Now what is taqwa? Taqwa is a type of inner awareness.

It's hard to describe. Is it mental, spirit? It's a type of inner state. And this inner state is a state of awareness about what is pleasing and displeasing to Allah.

It's often translated as fear of Allah, but that's not quite, it is of course fear is a dimension and scholars often explain it as taqwa is like a shield that protects you from Allah's punishment. So often the emphasis is on protecting yourself from hellfire, protecting yourself from Allah's punishment, protecting yourself from sin. So a person who has taqwa, whose taqwa, whose level of taqwa is high, they are very aware of things that are going to damage them.

They are very aware of what is haram and very aware of keeping away from what is haram. So that's what a person who has taqwa. A person who has taqwa keeps away from what is haram.

Hajj: The Major Event Requiring Lifetime Training

And hajj is another major event. Maybe the major event. Hajj is a big event. You see, one of the things that people get wrong about hajj, you hear them say, okay, I, you know what, I'm going to have fun in my life.

And then when I get older, then I'll, you know, I'll make toba and I'll make hajj. But it's a bit like saying, I'm going to drink beer and eat, you know, all the wrong foods and eat crisps and, you know, and just sit around and watch TV all day. And then I'll run a marathon when I'm 50.

Then I'll do the marathon. Do you think you could do that? What do you think would happen if a person did all of that all their life and then just decided to get up when they're 50 years old and run a marathon, what would happen? Would they be able to do it? You think they could run what, 50 miles or 100 miles or, I don't know, a marathon is 50 or 100 miles, right? 50 miles. You couldn't do it.

Hajj is difficult. You can't just live your life in a crazy way and then just say, I'm going to make hajj. Because hajj is full of tests.

Hajj is really hard. You have to be patient. People are going to abuse you.

People are going to do all sorts of crazy stuff. You're going to see things you can't even imagine in hajj. And you have to be patient through all of that.

No fighting. No arguing in hajj. Because fighting and arguing and wrangling in hajj is going to, it's, you're going to, it won't be acceptable.

So it takes years to learn to have that patience, right? So that when you're at the Kaaba and you're making dua with khushu, with awe and ikhlas, and these things take a lifetime to train for. Maybe some people, they don't make hajj until they're old because they're training for it. They know they're only going to get one chance.

The Historical Challenge of Hajj

And for a lot of people, that's how it used to be, brothers and sisters. There was a time when for a lot of people you had one chance and you probably wouldn't make it. A lot of people never made it.

They would either get shipwrecked or they get attacked by bandits or, you know, things were really hard.

Making hajj was a serious challenge. It was a serious possibility you would not come back.

So people really trained for it physically, mentally, spiritually, financially.

Racing for Forgiveness in Ramadan

So brothers and sisters, we're in a race, race for the forgiveness of Allah. And Ramadan is a time of forgiveness.

Ramadan is a very, very special time of forgiveness. In fact, the Prophet told us:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi 3545)

May his face be rubbed in the dust, the one who sees Ramadan and is not forgiven. How is it you reach Ramadan, you see Ramadan, you experience Ramadan and you don't get the forgiveness of Allah because the opportunities are so many.

The Many Opportunities for Forgiveness

Fast every day in Ramadan, you get forgiven. Pray the night prayers in Ramadan, you get forgiven. Even within Ramadan there's one night, Laylatul Qadr, better than a thousand months.

More opportunities, whoever prays that night, at least pray that night, you get forgiveness. Look, there's so many opportunities for forgiveness in Ramadan. Even if you can't fast, you can feed others and help them break their fast.

Not obviously when they're fasting, but whoever gives something to break the fast of a fasting person at iftar time, they get the reward. You get the reward. You share in the reward of fasting.

So many opportunities for good deeds in Ramadan. You see, so many opportunities for forgiveness.

Making This Your Best Ramadan

So brothers and sisters, let's, let's make this, let's try to make this a special Ramadan. How about all of us, all the Muslims everywhere, we make an intention right now, it's not too late. I'm going to make this my best Ramadan ever, inshallah. I'm going to make this my best Ramadan ever.

I'm really going to try to come out of this Ramadan, that I have acquired taqwa, that I fear Allah more than I did before. I'm more mindful of Allah than I was before. That I feel within me more strong of an urge to keep away from what is haram and to do what is right than I did before.

Changing the World Through Small Daily Changes

And really, you know, brothers and sisters, honestly, this is how you change the world. This is how you change

the world. If you really want to make a difference in our planet, often the biggest changes come from the small things that we do every day in our, the small incremental improvements.

And that, by the way, is another secret I know from athletics. You can't just, like I said, get up and run a marathon. Sometimes it happens, it's true.

Sometimes some guy just joins in, they've never seen him before, they never know who he is and he does something amazing. But actually, it's interesting. Again, in the discipline that I'm familiar with, kids now these days start riding at the age of, you know, they'll start riding a bike, but they'll actually start riding competitively like at 11, 12.

In motocross, for example, that's the age they start. If you, it's motocross, which is one of the motorbikes, that is so competitive, especially in America. They literally, when kids start to walk, they start putting them on bikes.

They're training them at the age of 11. If they're not, they haven't got a chance, no chance. They haven't got a chance to train them by the age of 11.

Right? SubhanAllah. But how do you get good? You get good by small, little, incremental improvements. That's what it is.

Just doing a bit every day. Improving yourself bit by bit, regularly, regularly, regularly, bit by bit. That's what it is.

Small, incremental improvements. Being mindful, thinking about what you're doing. And it's the same in Islam.

The Most Beloved Deeds: Regular and Consistent

The Prophet said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari 6464)

The deeds that are most beloved to Allah are the ones that are done regularly, even if they are little. Those regular deeds, those are the things that have a real impact. So if all of us make a change, and we commit ourselves to making that change, don't think too much in terms of big, dramatic events.

That's actually often where shaitan gets us. That's how often we can fall into extremes. Like some of our brothers, unfortunately, who do crazy things, blowing themselves up, blowing other people up, killing women and children.

Somehow they think, why? Because for them, they just want some one big, dramatic event. Because probably they've watched too many Hollywood movies. Too many Superman, Batman, Justice League, Masters of whatever it is, I don't know, superhero movies, The New Avengers.

They watch too much of this stuff. They think it's all about being a hero and the big battle. No.

Actually, really, the real change comes from mostly those little improvements that you make day in, day out, bit by bit, slowly, slowly.

Conclusion: Committing to Spiritual Development

So let's commit ourselves, brothers and sisters, to make that change this Ramadan, inshallah. Let's think of ourselves as spiritual athletes.

That's all of us. You may not be the most finest physical specimen. No problem.

You may not think you have the most amazing mind. Maybe you don't. It doesn't matter.

Allah doesn't look at that. Allah looks at your heart, your iman, your spiritual development. It's what is really, really, really important.

That's what we need to focus on, developing ourselves spiritually, being people of taqwa, being people who are truly mindful of Allah, and Ramadan is a great opportunity to do that. Brothers and sisters, for listening, we take questions or no? Okay, so no questions.