God Consciousness After Ramadan

God Consciousness After Ramadan

Opening and Introduction to Islamic Timekeeping

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. Alhamdulillah, Allah in the Quran says:

"They ask you about the new moons, say they are ways of determining your time and they are for the hajj," in other words, the ibadah that you do.

And the sighting of the new moon has historically been the way that the Muslims have always determined the months despite the fact that they were quite capable of doing calculations for centuries. The Greeks could calculate eclipses with great exactitude. And we are living in a time when we have incredible technology, ability to monitor the planets now that has never existed.

In fact, for centuries we only thought there were five planets. Now we know that there are nine in this solar system, possibly more. And now they are discovering, they estimate that there are four billion planets just in our galaxy. Four billion planets, not stars, planets. So these are miraculous days, but despite that, the Prophet ﷺ determined that the day, the 29th day, when you go out to see on the 30th day, when you go out to see the moon, the Prophet ﷺ called that day the day of doubt. In other words, the 30th day is a day of doubt because there is no certainty whether you can determine the sighting of the moon or not.

The Prophetic Wisdom of Moon Sighting

And according to the Naval Observatory website, it says that, and this is one of the highest scientific bodies for observation of the heavens, according to their website, it is not possible with certainty to determine the sighting, a naked eye sighting of the moon in the first 24 hours. And this is exactly what the Prophet ﷺ called it, the day of doubt. And to eliminate that day is to say that there is no doubt anymore. And it is still not true. So those Muslims who are holding to the tradition, fast when you see the moon, is a sight, it has to be with the eye. So the Fuqaha determined that a group, not everybody has to see it, but a group should see it.

And they end the month, according to our Fuqaha, it has to be a jama'ah ghafeer, according to the majority, you have to have a large number. Two days ago we went out to look at the moon and we did not see the moon. I had binoculars and you could not see it here. And there was one report in South America of three people that saw it. I personally did not feel comfortable and other people. And so I want to commend the SBIA for taking that position just because if you hasten an ibadah before its time, it is unacceptable. But if you delay an ibadah for certainty, you get a reward. So all you can do is benefit by just waiting an extra day to have certainty.

And when we went out last night to look at the moon, it was a tiny sliver, even last night it was a tiny moon.

And so to say that that was a second day moon, the Prophet ﷺ said the end of time will not come until people say when they see the first day moon, this is two days old. And the Prophet ﷺ said that that's going to be one of the signs of the end of time. Now having said that, the people who broke their fast yesterday, inshallah that's valid because they were following their leadership. And those who give fatwa, it's on them because not everybody is responsible. So I'm not in any way saying that it was invalid, I'm just saying that I certainly feel more comfortable that I completed 30 days. And I praise Allah.

Ramadan as a School of Spiritual Training

The end of Ramadan is an important time because Ramadan is a madrasah, it's a school. It's a school to learn certain behavioral patterns that you are supposed to take into the rest of the year. And so I want to remind myself and all of you that the Lord of Ramadan is also the Lord of every other month of the year. Allah is the Lord of Shawwal. He is the Lord of Dhul Hijjah and Dhul Qidah. He is the Lord of all of the months of the year, all 12.

And so in Ramadan people get closer to their Lord because of the nature of Ramadan. They don't backbite.

Normally people find it a little easier to talk about other people even though it's prohibited:

"Don't speak ill of one another behind their backs. Does one of you want to eat the dead flesh of your brother? That's what backbiting is. It's distasteful to you. It's loathsome to you." And so Allah is warning us and then in Ramadan we're supposed to be extra vigilant in order to train ourselves.

Controlling the Primary Drives

Also if you can control, according to Imam Al-Ghazali, if you can control yourself with food and your sexuality, then you can control all of the other things much easier because these are the two primary drives in the human beings. The eros drive and the drive for satiation, for food, satiety. And so in learning to discipline the soul, we get closer to Allah.

The Centrality of Purification in Faith

The Prophet ﷺ said in a hadith that Imam Nawawi puts in his 40 hadith, which indicates its primacy as one of the central hadiths of our tradition. He said:

(Sahih Muslim 223)

"Purification is half of faith." Imam Nawawi mentions in his commentary that Imam Al-Ghazali says الطُّهُورُ here means purification of the heart. That purifying your heart is half of faith. The one half is to enter into faith:

That is one half, but the other half is:

"He has flourished the one who purifies it, and stunted his growth and failed the one who stunts the growth of his soul." So tazkiyah is central to our tradition and Ramadan is about tazkiyah. It's about purification of the heart. It's about disciplining the soul:

"That we have prescribed for you fasting as a way of learning taqwa, learning piety, getting closer to God, being more obedient to Allah."

The Power of Dhikr and Prayer

So this is central. And then he said:

(Sahih Muslim 223)

"Saying Alhamdulillah will fill the scales." The scales according to our tradition are bigger than the heavens and the earth. The scales on the Day of Judgment. And saying "Subhan Allah wal-Hamdulillah," glory to God, praise be to Allah. Saying this, it is filling what is between the heavens and the earth. That's how vast it is to praise Allah.

And then the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih Muslim 223)

"And prayer is light." The Prophet ﷺ in a hadith that's mutawatir, it's a factual hadith, the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sunan Abu Dawud 561, Sunan al-Tirmidhi 223)

"Give good tidings to those who go in the darkness at fajr and isha. When they go to the mosques." Before electricity, people didn't have, they went in dark. Give them glad tidings of complete light on the day of judgment. Because on Yawm al-Qiyamah, there are periods as you move on the stages where it becomes completely dark. And those who did not have prayer in this world, they don't have any light.

Prayer as a Source of Light and Guidance

And so the prayer is light. It will guide you:

"Prayer will prevent you from doing foul and disobedient things." That increases your light. The more spiritual light you have, the more you can contribute to the elimination of darkness in the world. Darkness cannot

succeed. Because darkness is a negative quality. It's not a positive quality. If you have a room filled with light, if darkness comes into the room, it can't dispel the light. It can't dispel the light. But if you have a room filled with darkness, one bit of light that comes into that room can dispel all of that darkness. Because light is positive. It is not a positive quality. It is a positive quality. And that is what we are accruing with our spiritual practice, is light in order to dispel the darkness and the negativities that exist in this world.

This is the role of those who believe in God. Of those who believe that there is a day of judgment. That you are going to be taken to account.

Charity as Proof of Faith

And then the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih Muslim 223)

"And charity is a proof." It's a proof of your belief. How you give to others. Allah says:

"The human being has been created in a state of anxiety." We come into the world screaming, in a state of halu'.

And then he said:

"When evil afflicts him, he loses control." He becomes completely destabilized. When any harm comes to him:

"And when he is given good, he withholds." He is greedy. He is covetous. He wants to keep what he has. And not share it with us:

"Except for those who pray." Those who pray because they're in a different state of mind. People that have a connection with their Lord are in a different state of mind:

"Those who are constant in their prayer." Constant. Some say it's sujud al-qalb. It's the sajda of the heart. That's in constant prayer. Because the heart has a sajda, has a prostration like the head. Those who are constant in their prayer:

"And those who in their wealth is a portioned right for those who ask, who have need and they ask, and those who don't ask, and yet you can see they're deprived."

The Obligation of Zakat al-Fitr and Fighting Hunger

We have people now, we have today zakat al-fitr. You pay zakat al-fitr. Which is the sa'ah for each person. So you give a portion of grain, now we pay through the hanafi madhab money, because it facilitates that for places that need it more than we do. But we give that at the end of Ramadan, because Ramadan is about learning about hunger. That there are people that are hungry. There are many people that, it's inexcusable that we have famine today. We have a globalized system, and we have the means to take food to anywhere on the planet. And yet we have people now starving in East Africa. It's completely unacceptable. It's completely unacceptable.

We have people vomiting from overeating, in some societies. Really, we have people vomiting from overeating. We have people now, you go to the store, and you can see rows and rows of dyspeptic medicines, for indigestion, from people that eat too much, that don't need to eat that food. Really it's billion dollar industry in the United States. People from overeating. We've become an obese society.

The Imbalance of Wealth and Resources

People taking more calories than they need. Omar radiyallahu anhu once saw a man with a big stomach, making tawaf, and he put his stick up against his stomach, and he said, this would be better if it was on somebody who needed it. Right? Seriously. Those extra calories that you're taking in, they'd be more useful on somebody that really needed them. We've got people dying:

فَبَعْضُهُمْ مَيِّتٌ جُوعًا وَبَعْضُهُمْ مَيِّتٌ مِنْ تُخْمَةٍ أَوْ مَيِّتٌ طَرَبًا

A Mauritanian poet said, I'm amazed at a religion that calls for the fraternity of mankind, and yet, we see some dying from hunger, and some from satiety are dying, from eating too much. He's amazed like, how can a people whose religion tells them to take care of the needy, the Prophet said, nobody is a believer who goes to bed with a full stomach, and his neighbor is hungry. It negates your faith. And now on a globalized society, your neighbor can be a thousand miles away, because we know about people now. In the old days, people had excuses.

The Importance of Belief in the Day of Judgment

This is important:

"Those who pray, who are constant in their prayer." And then Allah says:

"And those, look how it's related. Immediately after that, those who believe in the Yawm al-Din." Brothers and sisters, this religion calls us to reflect on death. The Prophet meditated on death every day of his life. Not in a morbid negative way, but in a way in order to teach us the fragility of life. The fact that we're moving through life, that we will soon depart this place, and we will be confronted with a momentous event:

"The Striking Calamity. What is the Striking Calamity? And what can make you know what is the Striking Calamity?"

"About the great news over which they are in disagreement."

They ask you what that day is. The Prophet said, to hold to this book of Allah. To hold to the book of Allah. He said that it's the hablullah of Allah:

"And hold firmly to the rope of Allah all together and do not become divided."

Hold to this rope that God has given you. Everything that you need is in the book of Allah as explained through the sunnah of the Prophet. Everything that we need.

The Central Message: Belief and Righteousness

In conclusion, the central theme of the book of Allah is to believe in Allah and live righteously. When the Prophet was asked for advice, and the man asked him for advice, he said:

قُلْ آمَنتُ بِاللَّهِ ثُمَّ اسْتَقِمْ )Sahih Muslim 38( "Say that I believe in God and then be upright." And what is uprightness? All of the Quranic ethics can be summarized in one verse in the Quran:

"Say, "Come, I will recite what your Lord has forbidden to you."

تَعَالَوْا means come, but it also means elevate yourselves. Because when you call somebody who's sitting to تَعَالَ means to get up. So Allah is saying, elevate yourselves. Come, elevate yourselves. And I will recite to you what your Lord has told you, you should and should not do.

The Foundational Ethical Principles

And then He said:

"Do not associate anything with God."

"And show goodness to your parents." Filial piety, we're living in a time where parents are denigrated. Filial piety. And then He said:

"And do not kill your children for fear of poverty."

"Don't kill your children." No abortion. Don't kill your children out of fear of poverty that they're going to take from your provision or your food. No:

"We provide for you and for them."

So the أصول and the فُرُوع. The roots and the branches, the parents and the children. These are the roots of our trunk. Each one of us is a trunk. Our roots are our parents and our branches are our children. You need the whole tree to be holistic. You have to have the whole tree healthy. If you cut off the roots, you'll kill the branch. If you kill the... You'll cut off the roots, you'll kill the trunk. If you kill the branches, there's no fruit. This is the tree of life.

Nurturing the Tree of Life

That's why we're here, because we had parents. And there will be people after us because we had children. This is the tree of life that needs to be nurtured. And this is what Allah is calling us to, to nurture this tree:

"We provide for you and for them."

And then Allah says:

"And do not approach immoralities - what is apparent of them and what is hidden."

"Do not go near fornication. Don't go near it." Because if you do those things, theft, all of these things, then that will lead to destruction in your societies. And that follows مَا ظَهَرَ مِنْهَا وَمَا بَطَنَ. Inward and outwardly, the diseases of the heart and the diseases of the society.

The Sanctity of Human Life

And then Allah says, that don't:

"And do not kill the soul which Allah has forbidden, except by right."

"Do not kill any soul that Allah has sanctified." Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, it doesn't matter what religion, it is a sanctified soul. The Prophet stood up for the Jew in Sahih Bukhari, going to his funeral. The Jew who had died and he was going to the graveyard. The Prophet stood up and the Sahaba, this was a time when there was friction between the Jews and the Muslims. And the Sahaba said, Ya Rasulullah, it's a Jewish man. He said:

أَلَيْسَتْ نَفْسًا

"Isn't it a human soul?"

قَالُوا أَلَيْسَتْ نَفْسًا قَامَ لِإِحْتِرَامِ النَّفْسِ

He stood up to respect the soul going back to its Lord. Irrespective of its creed or its caste or its religion. It doesn't matter. It's a soul and Allah will judge that soul. We cannot judge the souls of people. Allah will judge that soul:

وَلَا تَقْتُلُوا النَّفْسَ أَلَيْسَتْ نَفْسًا

Don't kill any soul.

The Madness of Violence

Look at these, now this madness. We have 50 people died in a masjid the other day from some idiot who went in and thinking they're doing a good deed blowing people up. Really, we've got madness in our community. And then we've got other, we've got in this country, we've dropped bombs on people that did nothing against us. This is all madness, these cycles of violence. The only thing that will break these cycles of violence is intelligent people refusing to be part of this madness and demanding that there be a different way. That's the only thing that will change. Allah says, do not kill a sanctified soul. That is your religion:

"That is what He has instructed you, that you may use reason."

"He is telling you to do this in order for you to behave rationally, to behave intelligently, to behave reasonably."

Protecting the Vulnerable and Economic Justice

"And do not approach the property of an orphan, except in the way that is best, until he reaches maturity."

"Don't go near the weak people. Don't go near their wealth. Don't go near their wealth until they get old enough to take care of their selves." Allah says:

"And give full measure and weight in justice."

"Be just in your economics." That's the basis of a healthy society is just economics. Look at the injustices around the world and in this country. People who were robbed, their houses were robbed. Look at what happened. People who... Their houses lost equity and banks took those equity from them. Just bank robbery. When the bank people robbed the people. It's not... It used to be you went in and robbed the bank. But now the banks are robbing the people.

This is how distorted things have gotten. They were bailed out with billions of dollars. They didn't bail out Mr. and Mrs. Blogs who lost their house to a foreclosure because they couldn't pay. They weren't bailed out. Allah says, be just:

"O you who have believed, do not consume one another's wealth unjustly but only [in lawful] business by mutual consent."

"Don't eat one another's wealth. Don't consume one another's wealth with falsehoods, with lies, with vanities. Don't consume each other's wealth." Allah says, except it be commercial transactions where both sides are

pleased with it:

"And do not kill yourselves."

"And don't kill one another." Because if you have unjust economies, you have wars. That's how wars come. When one group aggresses on another group economically. That's what happens.

Understanding Modern Conflicts

Afghanistan, you want to know about Afghanistan? Look at lithium. Look at lithium. Look at the trillion dollars of lithium that's in Afghanistan. You want to understand why people are in Afghanistan? Because Afghanistan has the most important minerals for high-tech industry in the world. This is the world we're living in. A world of greed. A world where politicians give us lies and excuses and tell us that these things are going to better humanity.

No, it's really, this is a time when we need to become aware. We're politically aware. Zbigniew Brzezinski admitted recently that this is a very difficult time for world leaders because there's been a political awakening on the planet. It's much more difficult for us to do what we used to be able to do. This is his own admission. Because people now, they see the iniquities. They see the exploitation. They read about it in the newspapers. It's not like the old days. It's getting more difficult. They need to step aside and let human beings live with dignity and justice. Really, just let them live.

The Dignity of Human Beings

Because it's wrong what they're doing. It's evil and it's wrong. People deserve better than this. Human beings trying to raise their children in healthy environments without having fear of secret police taking them away or ending up in an orange suit somewhere off Cuba. Really, with headphones to take out all sound and blindfolders. This is called sensory deprivation which was determined to be a form of torture. And we had a Time Magazine article saying is torture justified? What happened in my world? I grew up in an America where we had civil society. Things like torture weren't even questions to be asked. Because this society, we were founded on principles of human dignity.

And if those people that we're fighting have brought us down to a level that's as bad or worse than theirs, what's going on? They used to hide these things. Like the syphilis studies that just came out. The syphilis studies. You see, the same Nazis that were doing those things on Jewish people were being done by some unethical people here on people in South America because they weren't as human as we are. This is the idea. This is racial superiority. This is that one people are better than another people. But those things were hidden. Those things were hidden.

Our Responsibility in the Face of Injustice

Those are nefarious deeds that are done in the dark. We can't do anything about that. But when they become

open, what responsibility do we have then? When we see what's being done in broad daylight. Shame on us. Shame on all of us. Shame on all of us. What's done in the dark is God's business. We can't change that. But what's done in broad daylight? Allah says, We don't task a soul more than it can take.

And then He says:

"And when you speak, be truthful, be just, be upright."

"Even if it's your own relatives, even if it's your own ummah, even if it's your own community." If Muslims are doing wrong, we condemn their wrong. Doesn't matter what it is. Even if it's your own community. This is a high religion. It's a religion of ethics and morality. This is what Allah is calling us to.

The Book of Allah as the Solution

The Prophet said, at the end of time, you will see darkness followed by darkness. And Sayyidina Ali said to him, Ya Rasulullah, what is the way out on that day? He said:

كِتَابُ اللَّهِ فِيهِ نَبَأُ مَا قَبْلَكُمْ وَخَبَرُ مَا بَعْدَكُمْ وَحُكْمُ بَيْنِكُمْ

"The book of God. It has news of what went before you and news of what's coming after you. It is a judge, an arbiter between you."

مَنْ تَرَكَهُ مِنْ جَبَّارٍ قَصَمَهُ اللَّهُ

"Whoever leaves it out of arrogance, Allah will break his back."

وَمَنِ ابْتَغَى الْهُدَى فِي غَيْرِهِ أَضَلَّهُ اللَّهُ

"Whoever seeks guidance in other than this book, you will be led astray. You will be led astray."

هُوَ الَّذِي حَبْلُ اللَّهِ الْمَتِينُ

"It is the strong rope of God."

وَهُوَ الذِّكْرُ الْحَكِيمُ

"And it is the dhikr, this wise reminder."

وَهُوَ الصِّرَاطُ الْمُسْتَقِيمُ

"It is the straight path."

وَهُوَ الَّذِي لَا تَلْتَبِسُ بِهِ الْأَلْسِنَةُ

"Tongues will not be confusing if they quote the Quran." And then he said:

وَلَا تَتَشَعَّبُ مَعَهُ الْأَهْوَاءُ

"Scholars will not differ if they follow what's in the Quran."

وَلَا تَشْبَعُ مِنْهُ الْعُلَمَاءُ

"The ulama will never tire of it."

وَلَا تَمَلُّهُ الْأَنْقِيَاءُ

"And the pious will never grow bored or weary reciting it."

هُوَ الصِّرَاطُ الْمُسْتَقِيمُ هُوَ عِصْمَةٌ لِمَنْ تَمَسَّكَ بِهِ وَنَجَاةٌ لِمَنِ اتَّبَعَهُ وَهِدَايَةٌ إِلَى صِرَاطٍ مُسْتَقِيمٍ

"When the jinn heard it, they said, we've heard a wondrous book that calls to guidance. This is the book, if you judge by it, you will be just. If you speak by it, you will be truthful. If you act according to it, you'll be rewarded. If you call to it, you will be guided to a straight path. It is a protection for whoever clings to it and it is a security and a safety and a surety for the one who follows it."

أَقُولُ قَوْلِي هَذَا وَأَسْتَغْفِرُ اللهَ لِي وَلَكُمْ وَلِسَائِرِ الْمُسْلِمِينَ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ