Ramadan Message- “The Hearts Can Still Remain Connected”

The Hearts Can Still Remain Connected

Opening and Greetings

Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim, wa salallahu ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam. Assalamu alaikum, peace be upon all of you. I extend on behalf of the entire Zaytuna College just a warm salam to all of our supporters, to people out there.

Congratulations on the Coming of Ramadan

Also, congratulations on the coming of Ramadan. The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) used to congratulate the Sahaba with Tahniyah for the onset of Ramadan and would remind the companions, and obviously this is a reminder to all of us, that Ramadan is a time when the doors of mercy are open, and he said, the doors of the fire are closed, and the demons, those demonic forces are locked up. So this is an extraordinarily blessed time.

The Strangeness of COVID-19 During Ramadan

On the other hand, I think a lot of us are feeling the strangeness of having COVID-19 hovering over us during this time. So all over the world, people are being told by their governments to be sheltered in place. In several places, it's actually much more difficult than it is here in the United States. There's real restrictions. I was speaking to somebody in one of the Gulf countries, telling me that they were literally only allowed to go out for a small window to go to store. So I think we have to be grateful that we do have still some mobility.

Ramadan as a Communal Time and Finding Other Ways of Sharing

Obviously, this is going to affect our Ramadan. Ramadan is a communal time. It's a time of gatherings. It's a time of coming together. It's a time of sharing food with one another. That is not going to be the case this Ramadan for most of us, which means that we have to find other ways of sharing.

Focusing on Our Families

One of the most important things I think we can do is focus on our families. Many of us are blessed to have families, and in those cases, it's very important that we just recognize that this is a blessed time to really reconnect with our families, with our children. Alhamdulillah, Ramadan does not change. Nobody can change time, and so suhoor is suhoor, iftar is iftar, and we can always pray.

The Importance of Solitary Prayers

In our tradition, prayer, while it is communal, it's also solitary, and one of the most important prayers for spiritual development is the solitary prayers that we do, the sunan, which are outside of the communal prayer. These are extraordinarily important for the human development, and then again, taraweeh, according to the

Maliki school, is actually preferred in your house over doing it in the masjid, as long as there is a group doing it in the masjid, fulfilling the sunan kifaya.

Imam Malik's Position on Taraweeh and the Hanafi Method

So that's an important point that Imam Malik, may Allah have mercy on him, considered that better in the home, it's free from the possibility of riya or the hidden shirk. So that's something for people to contemplate.

Obviously, in the Hanafi method, it's a sunan mu'akkadah, so it's very strong, and traditionally, the Hanafis have really been the ones that, certainly in the United States, that have had all the khatams, and may Allah reward them and the Imams that have done that with all that sincerity.

Recognizing the Blessings Hidden in Tribulation

This is also a time to recognize the blessings that are hidden in the tribulation. We're seeing clean air in many of our major cities. Los Angeles had some of the cleanest air it's ever had in recent history, and so we can see also the rain that's come for those of us that are on the West Coast. There are blessings that come with these things. The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) said that epidemics are a mercy for the believers, so I think it's important for us to see that we have a merciful Lord.

Is This a Punishment?

There's been people that have been asking, is this a punishment? And if we use that word, I think we have to use it in the same way that we would punish our children for doing something wrong. God created us, and Allah (جل جلاله - Jalla Jalaluhu) has sent guidance for humanity out of the love that he has for his creation, so I think it's important whenever there are these redressing of wrongs, and our planet certainly is filled with a lot of wrongs, that they're done really in hopes that we might return to God.

The Verse from Surat al-Rum

There's a verse in Surat al-Rum where Allah (جل جلاله - Jalla Jalaluhu) says ظَهَرَ الْفَسَادُ فِي الْبَرِّ وَالْبَحْرِ بِمَا كَسَبَتْ أَيْدِي النَّاسِ "Corruption has appeared throughout the land and in the sea because of what our own hands have wrought" (Quran 30:41), but then it says, لِيُذِيقَهُم بَعْضَ الَّذِي عَمِلُوا "in order that they might taste some of what they have been doing" لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ "that perhaps they might return to God." So I think it's very important for us to remember that this is a time of tawbah, of repentance, and Ramadan is really one of the most opportune times of the year to do that.

A Time of Repentance and the Du'a of Laylatul Qadr

And so that's what we would all, at Zaytuna, encourage ourselves first and foremost, but then all of you to take this as a time of repentance. The great du'a of Laylatul Qadr is اللَّهُمَّ إِنَّكَ عَفُوٌّ تُحِبُّ الْعَفْوَ فَاعْفُ عَنَّا "Oh Allah, You are the Pardoner, You love to pardon, so pardon us." And so this is a time of maghfirah, of forgiveness, and certainly this virus has reminded us, one, of the temporality of our life on earth, that all of us, every day, are facing our mortality.

The Temporality of Life

The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) said in a hadith that Imam Nawawi put as one of the foundational hadiths in our tradition, that if you wake up in the morning, don't expect to go to sleep at night, and if you go to sleep at night, don't expect to wake up in the morning. And I had a very interesting experience with Houston Smith, and a lot of people did not know that he actually prayed five times a day, that he had said his shahadah. And I visited him when he was sick at the end of his life, in his bed, and he was really quite luminous and stunning there.

The Gift of Life

And when I came in, he lit up and just said, your timing is impeccable. And then he said, you're visiting me on the last day of my life on earth. And I was pretty taken aback by that statement. And then the next day, I actually called to check up on Houston. I thought that he might have died that day. And he hadn't, and he lived for a few weeks after that. But the great lesson that he taught me that day was, that's exactly how we should live our lives. The gift of life is an immense gift, and we should treasure it, and not, don't throw your lives to destruction. Don't kill yourselves. We should really preserve to the best of our ability the gift of life, but we should also know that it is a very fragile gift that can be taken away from us at any time.

Death as a Gift for the Believer

And if we're believers the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) said الْمَوْتُ تُحْفَةُ الْمُؤْمِنِ "Death is a great gift of the believer."

One of the gifts of plagues and epidemics is that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) said الْمَطْعُونُ شَهِيدٌ "That the one who dies in a plague or an epidemic is a martyr."

The Virtue of Dying in an Epidemic

And according to Ibn Hajar, who wrote a book called بَذْلُ الْمَاعُونِ فِي فَضْلِ الطَّاعُونِ "Help in the virtues of plagues and epidemics," and in that book, he actually said that the one who dies in an epidemic is the only of the seven martyrs, outside of the one defending their country, is the only martyr who's at the same level as the person who is defending the country. And so especially for the doctors and the nurses and the physicians out there on the front lines of this battle, I hope all of you are protected, but you should know that if you do succumb to this illness, it's a martyr's death and all your sins are forgiven. So that's something to take some solace in that case.

Ramadan as a Time of Thinking About Others

Another thing that I think is really important to remember is that Ramadan is a time of thinking about others. Hunger is one of the aspects of the month, to think about the poor and the needy. So there's a lot of people that are going to be in greater need than was expected because of this tribulation. There's a lot of Muslims doing food drives for people that need help. And so it's a time of giving.

Supporting Zaytuna College

Zaytuna is your college. Many of you have been supporting over these years. I mean, I've just been overwhelmed in seeing some of the support of people that 20 years they have been continued giving, first to the institute and now to the college. And so we're extremely grateful. We know that it's going to be a trying time for many people, and we hope that you're able to continue to support. But if not, we completely understand that and would hope, inshallah, that Allah help you get back on your feet again when this tribulation is over.

The Ramadan Reader

And so I really hope that you continue to support the college. We sent out a flyer for you, and then we have a little Ramadan reader here. There's some wonderful short articles by some of our faculty at Zaytuna who we have some really excellent scholars there about the mercy, the forgiveness, and the emancipation, which is in a hadith that has some weakness in it, but scholars have used it as an important hadith in looking at the month. So the whole month is mercy, the whole month is forgiveness, and the whole month, inshallah, will be an emancipation from the fire.

Du'a and Blessings

So may Allah (سبحانه وتعالى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) bless you all, protect you all in these trying times. Inshallah, may you find really peace and serenity in your homes. The home is a great gift from Allah. The Arabs call it the maskan, the place of sakinah. So may Allah (سبحانه وتعالى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) give you all sakinah in your homes. May Allah (سبحانه وتعالى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) make this a blessed Ramadan for you, a Ramadan of the Quran, a Ramadan of prayers in the night. Even though they're in your homes, remember that Imam Malik said the reward was greater than the one in the masjid.

Keeping Hearts Connected

So may Allah (سبحانه وتعالى - subhanahu wa ta'ala), inshallah, keep all of your hearts connected with those that you love and with your communities. Even though your bodies are separate, the hearts can still remain connected, inshallah. And we have this extraordinary gift of technology, which enables us to reach out to people and to speak to people in great distances. And so those aspects are blessings that we should really be aware of, the fact that we can call people and that we can connect and we can let people know that we're thinking about them, that we're praying for them.

Many Blessings in This Tribulation

So there are many, many blessings in this tribulation. And certainly for me, one of the greatest that I've seen is just the extraordinary quality of the air that I've seen going out and walking every day and just really overwhelmed by how much pollution that we don't really think about that's incremental and people now are seeing mountains that they haven't seen before because the pollution is clearing up in many places. Certainly the

animals seem to be overjoyed. We saw murmuration outside of the house that I've never seen before. And my brother noted that he thought that the birds seemed like they were chirping louder than normal.

A Message for Humanity

So I think even though this is a great difficulty for us, many of us have been a great difficulty for the animal kingdom. And I think some of them are actually relieved. And in fact, some people have made the argument that this is actually the animal's revenge on us for not being good stewards of the earth. And so it's very important that we recollect and remind ourselves that God put us here as caretakers, not as overlords. We are caretakers of this place. And he has given us this extraordinary garden, this amazing creation, and told us, take care of it. And many of us have failed to do that. We have not been good stewards.

A Time to Reflect

And this is a time, I think, for us to really think about the trials and the tribulations that are upon us as really important signs and maybe a message from God that we should think about the madness of modern lifestyles and the fact that we really do need to change the way that we've been living. And this might be a really important wake-up call for all of us.

Final Du'a and Remembrance

So may Allah (سبحانه وتعالى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) bless all of you. May Allah (سبحانه وتعالى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) increase all of you. May Allah (سبحانه وتعالى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) elevate all of you. May He give you a blessed Ramadan. May He give you a Ramadan of piety, a Ramadan of recitation of the Quran, a Ramadan of charity, and a Ramadan of familial solidarity in your homes with peace and security wherever you are.

Remembering Those Who Are Suffering

May Allah (سبحانه وتعالى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) make it easy on the countries that really are suffering now, places like Syria and Yemen and Palestine and Iraq and Libya and Kashmir and the Muslims in India. I mean, there are many places where the Muslims are really having a difficult time. So even though it's difficult for us, it's certainly not as difficult as having somebody bulldoze your house or arrest your father, the type of things that are happening in many places. So we're grateful for what we have.

Remembering the Refugees

May Allah (سبحانه وتعالى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) make it easy for the refugees because these are people that are really having an incredibly difficult time. And some of the problems in the camps are really quite extraordinary. The social distancing in the camps is almost impossible. So there's real concerns for those people.

This World as a Tribulation and Trial

So these are the tribulations of our time, but we were forewarned in the Quran that Allah created this world as a tribulation and a trial for us, and we will be tested, and this is certainly a big test for us in our lifetimes. May Allah (سبحانه وتعالى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) give us the ability to see the wisdom in it and to see the mercy in it and to look with the eye of rahmah and not with the eye of niqmah, with the eye of mercy and compassion, not with the eye of animosity or anger.

Closing

So barakAllahu feekum. Wassalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.