Be Grateful For Ramadan

Be Grateful for Ramadan

The Salaf's Preparation for Ramadan

According to the Salaf, they used to prepare six months for Ramadan and then the six months following it, they would beg Allah that He accepted it. So the Salaf looked at it as this golden opportunity once a year to get close to Allah. And if you look at the verses, the concessions that they used to be permitted to pay if they couldn't do it, if it was difficult or something, that came later, right? So then Allah says, but to fast is better.

The Rulings on Breaking the Fast While Traveling

So you can break your fast on a journey of 32 miles according to some Malikis, 48 according to most of the scholars, 72 according to extreme views, so you take your pick. But you can break the fast right when you travel or when you're sick. So people with diabetes, some people it's haram to fast, this is called khitab al-wada' in Usul.

Understanding Divine Discourse: Taklif and Wada'

You have what's called khitab al-taklif and khitab al-wada'. Khitab al-taklif is the divine discourse of responsibility. So Allah says (كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامُ - kutiba 'alaykumus-siyām) - fasting is prescribed upon you.

Kutiba means it's fard, right? If something's maktoob, right? (إِنَّ الصَّلَاةَ كَانَتْ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ كِتَابًا مَّوْقُوتًا - ʾinna ṣ-ṣalāata kānat ʿala l-muʾminīna kitāban mawqūtā) - indeed prayer has been prescribed upon the believers at specific times. So 'ala is one of the ways of wujub in Usul. (وَلِلَّهِ عَلَى النَّاسِ حِجُّ الْبَيْتِ - wa lillāhi ʿala n-nāsi ḥijju l-bayt) - and for Allah upon the people is the pilgrimage to the House.

Another way of obligation is kutiba, you know? So Allah says kutiba, it means that it's prescribed, that you have to do it, right? So the fasting, but that's taklif. Now the wada', you have to fulfill the asbab, the shurut, and there can't be any mawani' that prevents you. So you have reasons why it's fard.

The Age of Maturity and Children Fasting

Bulugh is one of them, you reach maturity. Before maturity, it's not. Malik considered children fasting was actually ta'dib. He considered it to be a child abuse. Imam Malik. The other ulama were easier on it.

There's some hadiths in al-Bukhari that they used to get the kids to fast, but Imam Malik based his madhab not on hadith, but on the amal of the people of Medina. And in Medina, they did not have children fast. He considered it child abuse. With what we know today about glucose and the needs for children with developing brains, children should not fast. Especially when you've got to fast this long. But Imam Malik considered it child abuse.

The Conditions for Fasting: Hulul al-Shahr

So that's khitab al-wada', where you have to look at the asbab. So one of the sabab of wujub, one of the reasons for its obligation is the hulul al-shahr, when the month comes in (فَمَن شَهِدَ مِنكُمُ الشَّهْرَ فَلْيَصُمْهُ - faman shahida minkumu sh-shahra falyasumhu) - whoever witnesses the month among you, let him fast it. Whoever sees the month or witnesses or hears by certain knowledge that others saw it, then you have to fast it.

So that's one of the asbab. So outside of Ramadan, you can fast. (وَمَن تَطَوَّعَ خَيْرًا فَهُوَ خَيْرٌ لَّهُ - wa man tatawwaʿa khayran fahuwa khayrun lahu) - and whoever volunteers good, it is better for him. If you fast out of voluntary, it's better for you. It's a good thing to do. It's khayr. So that's another.

The Exemptions: Understanding Mawani'

And then mawani'. So if you have diabetes and your doctor says you can't fast, that's fard not to fast. That's the sharia. It's an intelligent system. It's not, this is not a stupid person's religion. In fact, the proof for me that it's not a stupid person's religion is sujud al-sahw.

Especially if you're a Maliki. Because sujud al-sahw is really hard. You have to think about, okay, what did I do? And then you don't make sahw for sahw. Because you can forget in the sahw. And when you fast, you know, sometimes, right? It's like the Mauritanian. Dhuhr came and the food was there.

They said, should we pray? Or should we eat? He said, astaghfirullah, let's pray first dhuhr. So he prayed, but he recited al-Fajr. Because he's thinking about the food. So if you, you know, those are what are called khitab al-wada'.

The Month of Quranic Revelation

And then Allah says that He revealed the Quran in this month. So the Quran came down munazzalan. You know in the Quran it has inzal and tanzil. Inzal comes down one time. Tanzil, yuqati'u. It comes down. This is Arabic. These are the subtleties of Arabic.

So the tanzil, it's bit by bit. So the Quran came down one time. And then it came down bit by bit. It's like you get a, it's like you get on the computer. You get the download. But then the printer, it comes one at a time. Right? It doesn't come all at once. So the Quran came down one time. And then it got printed out over the lifetime of the Prophet.

The Quran as Furqan: Distinguishing Right from Wrong

The Quran is a furqan. In other words, a criterion to distinguish right from wrong. So this is what Allah says that the month is a month of huda and furqan. That it came down in that month.

Allah Wants Ease, Not Hardship

And then Allah says that, if you look at what comes right after that. So He mentions it a second time. (يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ بِكُمُ الْيُسْرَ وَلَا يُرِيدُ بِكُمُ الْعُسْرَ - yurīdu-llāhu bikumu l-yusra wa lā yurīdu bikumu l-ʿusr) - Allah wants ease for you and not hardship. He wants ease for you and not hardship.

Right? Allah wants ease for you and not hardship. Why? So that you can complete your ibadah. (وَلِتُكْمِلُوا الْعِدَّةَ وَلِتُكَبِّرُوا اللَّهَ عَلَى مَا هَدَاكُمْ وَلَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ - wa litukmilu l-ʿiddata wa litukabbiru-llāha ʿalā mā hadākum wa laʿallakum tashkurūn) - and so you may complete the prescribed period and glorify Allah for having guided you, and perhaps you will be grateful.

The Spirit of Gratitude in Ramadan

Gratitude. The Prophet was most generous in Ramadan because he was most grateful in Ramadan. When you have something you want to give out of gratitude for what you've been given. So it's immense time of gratitude. Just feeling gratitude for Allah and for all that He does.

The Nearness of Allah and the Answer to Dua

Then (وَإِذَا سَأَلَكَ عِبَادِي عَنِّي فَإِنِّي قَرِيبٌ - wa ʾiḏā saʾalaka ʿibādī ʿannī faʾinnī qarīb) - and when your servants ask you about Me, indeed I am near. And when your servants ask, if they ask about me, I'm close. (أُجِيبُ دَعْوَةَ الدَّاعِ إِذَا دَعَانِ - ʾujību daʿwata d-dāʿi ʾiḏā daʿāni) - I respond to the invocation of the supplicant when he calls upon Me. I will answer the one who calls when he calls.

That has shurut, there's conditions for the answering. Because they used to come to some of the salaf, they say, we call. And the Prophet said, you know, the man raises his hands. (يَا رَبِّ يَا رَبِّ وَمَطْعَمُهُ حَرَامٌ وَمَشْرَبُهُ حَرَامٌ وَمَلْبَسُهُ حَرَامٌ وَغُذِيَ بِالْحَرَامِ فَأَنَّى يُسْتَجَابُ لَهُ - yā rabbi yā rabbi wa maṭʿamuhu ḥarāmun wa mashrabuhu ḥarāmun wa malbasuhu ḥarāmun wa ġuḏiya bi-l-ḥarāmi faʾannā yustajābu lah) - saying O Lord, O Lord, while his food is unlawful, his drink is unlawful, his clothing is unlawful, and he is nourished with the unlawful, so how can he be answered? That somebody will raise their hands in dua. His food is haram, his drink is haram, his clothes are haram, how is he going to get answered? So there's conditions for being answered.

But the general rule is, if you call on Allah, He will answer. Allah will answer you. If they ask about me, say, I'm near. (وَنَحْنُ أَقْرَبُ إِلَيْهِ مِنْ حَبْلِ الْوَرِيدِ - wa naḥnu ʾaqrabu ʾilayhi min ḥabli l-warīd) - and We are closer to him than his jugular vein. From the carotid artery, consciousness itself. He's closer than consciousness itself.

Answering Allah's Call Before Making Our Own

And then, (فَلْيَسْتَجِيبُوا لِي وَلْيُؤْمِنُوا بِي لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْشُدُونَ - falyastajībū lī wa l-yuʾminū bī laʿallahum yarshudūn) - so let them respond to Me and believe in Me that they may be rightly guided. Right? Respond to my call. Because He's calling out. We're calling on Him. But don't forget, His call preceded our call.

So if you want to be answered, when you call, you should first answer. If I call you up, and you don't answer the phone, right? And then you call me up. I might think, he didn't answer my call when I called him. Why should I

answer his call when he called me? Maybe that's not the right way to think. But there's people that will do that, right?

Or, you know, oh, hold on. One of the things about these phones that really interests me, is you always know where you stand with people. Because when they have a call waiting, if they get a call, they'll say, oh, hold on just one second. And then they'll go. If the person that is calling is more important to you, they get back to you. They say, I'll get back to you later. And then they go back to the other person. Right? So you know where you stand with somebody on call waiting.

If you're more important, they'll say, sorry, I'll get back to you. And they go back to you. But if they're more important, you're gone. History. So if you don't answer Allah's call الجزاء من جنس العمل - the reward is in accordance with the deed itself. That's an Arabic proverb. The reward is in accordance with the deed itself.

So if you want to answer Allah's call, that's how you get guidance. Rushd is by believing in Allah and answering His call. These verses are very interesting verses.

Intimacy During Ramadan Nights

And then Allah says, during that time, you can be intimate. Right? Why? The Sahaba, they were so worried about the sanctity of Ramadan, they wouldn't go to their wives during Ramadan. Allah said, no. That's a time you can go to your spouses once the night comes. So at this time now, mubashara is permitted. That's what they call euphemism in rhetoric. It's a kinaya. Mubashara for intimacy. Rafath is another kinaya.

So anyway, so Allah says that. And so if you, during that time Allah permitted that.

The Rules of Itikaf

And then, but He warns. Right? Don't, but when you're in, when you're in the time of itikaf, where you take a type of seclusion, which you can do anywhere technically. The Shafi'is permit it. If you enter into the masjid, you can make that intention. Malikis, you have to stay at least a night. But the Shafi'is, some Shafi'is, they do it every time they go into the masjid. No, it's an itikaf. Because they want the reward for it. This is one of the rahma of the ummah. It has the different opinions. But that's the Shafi'i opinion. Maliki, no, you have to stay in the time.

But during that time that you're in itikaf, it's a type of khalwa. Where you don't engage. And the Prophet, it's that he used to tighten his izar, his lungi. His loin cloth. Because that's Ramadan.

Ramadan: The School of Taqwa

It's madrasah of taqwa. It's madrasah of taqwa. It's to learn taqwa. And what is taqwa? Taqwa is avoiding the haram and doing the halal. Inwardly and outwardly. Not just outwardly. That's one type of people. Outwardly, they do those things. But inwardly, they're filled with the diseases of the heart.

The Obligation to Purify the Heart

And people forget that the diseases of the heart, that you're actually mukallaf. Or you have to work on your diseases of the heart. People think they're not obliged to work on their hearts. You are. You're obliged to work on your hearts. Because, Allah says (يَوْمَ لَا يَنفَعُ مَالٌ وَلَا بَنُونَ * إِلَّا مَنْ أَتَى اللَّهَ بِقَلْبٍ سَلِيمٍ - yawma lā yanfaʿu mālun wa lā banūna * ʾillā man ʾata-llāha bi-qalbin salīm) - the Day when wealth and children will not benefit, except one who comes to Allah with a sound heart. On that day, nobody will enter paradise unless you come with a sound heart.

The Secret of the Man of Paradise

And what is a sound heart? It's not having animosity or hatred towards other people. That's a sound heart. And the Prophet said about a man he passed by, he said, there's a man of paradise. That man was not known for doing much. He was just not an impressive person in Medina. And one of the sahabi said, what's his secret? See, I never see him doing all the extra stuff that a lot of people do.

So he went and he hung out with him just to find out. And then he couldn't see that he did anything that anybody else was doing. Finally he asked him, what's your practice? He said, my practice is I never go to sleep with anything in my heart towards anybody else. And that's what made him a person of paradise. Just not having that ghil in the heart.

The Diseases of Our Age

Now we're in an age of ghil, hasad, ghiba, namima, zur, kidhb. All these diseases, they're just rampant in our culture. And Ramadan is a time to really start reflecting. And obviously returning to the Quran as well. So may Allah bless you in Ramadan. May Allah bless your Arabic intensive inshallah.

The Importance of Mastering Arabic

Arabic is what the Arabs call al-sahl al-mumtani'. It's the easy impossible. There's an aspect of it that's really easy and if you break the code it becomes much easier than most other languages. There's another aspect of it that you'll never master it. It's just so rare to find people that have actually mastered the Arabic language. We don't have people that master English anymore. The nuances of English are just lost on people because language is extraordinarily complicated.

And the tools needed to master a language take many many years. Imam Shafi'i studied Arabic for 17 years before he did ijtihad. 17 years. Historically the ulama spent at least 20 years before they would do fatwas and things like that. Now every Tom, Dick, and Abdullah is on the Google giving their opinions and this is what we're in. Now there's all this confusion.

Arabic: The Sine Qua Non of Islamic Civilization

But Arabic is the sine qua non of our civilization. It's the Islamic equivalent of mathematics in this civilization.

If you want to reach the highest pinnacles of western civilization you have to master their mathematics. Because that's what they honor. They honor quantity. They honor the ability to build bigger bombs, better bombs.

So Einstein is the great. When they celebrate intellect they don't celebrate a poet like Robert Frost. They celebrate a mathematical genius. Because they're in the realm of quantity. Our culture is a civilization of quality. And language is a qualitative phenomenon.

The Prophet's Love for Beautiful Language

And our Prophet loved language. He spoke beautiful language. He was the most eloquent of men. And it's actually a sunnah to speak proper language. It's a sunnah. He never, ever made a grammatical mistake. Ever. He is the foundation of grammar. The Quran is the foundation of grammar.

Umar ibn al-Khattab and the Importance of Proper Grammar

And Umar ibn al-Khattab saw a man once, they were shooting and they were missing the target. And he said why aren't you hitting the target? Because there was target practice. They said نحن المبتدئين - we are the beginners. He said your grammatical error should have been نحن المبتدئون unless it was a predicate, but then you have to have the proper construction. So he could have said لا نحسن الرماية - we don't master archery, or something like that. But he said نحن المبتدئين . He said your bad grammar is harder on me than your lousy shooting.

JazakAllah khair.