Mamdouh Mustafa

All praise is due to Allah. May Allah's peace and blessings be upon His beloved Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم. I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship but Allah alone without any partners, and I bear witness that Muhammad is the true slave, servant, prophet and last messenger of Allah. May Allah's peace and blessings be upon him, his household, his companions and everyone following him till the day of judgment.

We ask Allah Azza wa Jal, the Almighty in this blessed day of Al-Jumu'ah at this house of His to bless our gathering, to purify our intention, to fix our deeds and forgive our sins. We ask Allah Azza wa Jal to make us among those who listen and follow the best of what they listen to. اللهم آمين

The Wisdom Behind Allah's Commands

My dear brothers and sisters, it is the حكمة of Allah Al-Hakeem Subhanahu wa ta'ala. Allah is the all-wise and out of His wisdom Subhanahu wa ta'ala He does everything. He manages all our affairs.

Truly, Allah says in the Quran: Truly, everything we have created with a measurement, with a measurement and for a reason.

Do you think that we have created you for no reason, with no plan and you are not coming back to us? It means we have created you for a reason and with a plan and you are coming back to us. That is the meaning of the ayah.

So Allah says everything is created with a measurement. Allah Azza wa Jal said we created you for a reason. Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala said this creation has a plan and that plan comes out of the wisdom of Allah.

Believing in Allah's Wisdom

So, as a believer, me and you have to trust that everything Allah ordered us with or everything Allah prohibited has to have a wisdom behind it. Don't ever come into the thinking or the perception or the conviction of that unless I know the wisdom I'm not going to do it. No, as a believer, you know that there is a wisdom. The issue is, maybe you know it maybe not. Maybe you know part of it maybe not. But you know for sure that Allah is Al-Hakim. And out of your belief in Allah's name, Al-Hakim, you have to know that everything has a حكمة behind it.

And when Allah gives us the عبادات, worship, there is a حكمة behind it. And Allah Azza wa Jal gives us part of that حكمة because He has the ultimate حكمة:

Allah Azza wa Jal is the one who has the ultimate reason for everything, subhanahu wa ta'ala.

Allah gives the حكمة to whoever He wants. Not everyone will discover it. Not everyone will know it.

Allah Azza wa Jal says not everybody will know the interpretation of the Quran and the wisdom and the reason behind things.

Only those who have the ability to construe and deduce things from the أحكام of Allah are the ones who will know.

The Wisdom Behind Prayer

So all these آيات I just mentioned to show us that every عبادة, every season of worship Allah gives us Subhanahu wa ta'ala is for a wisdom and sometimes Allah gives us part of that wisdom. He told us that the wisdom behind the صلاة is to make you reach a goal - beside the آخرة, of course, جنة - but in this دنيا, practically speaking, physically, realistically speaking, something you can relate to:

So you have something here that Allah Azza wa Jal is saying it will help you achieve. صلاة will prohibit you from doing any sin or disobedience of Allah. What? Yes! If you do صلاة properly you will find it so hard to disobey Allah and so easy to obey Him.

The Wisdom Behind Fasting

And that's what happened with fasting as well. Allah Azza wa Jal said:

That is the wisdom! So you are abstaining from food and drink not for the sake of being hungry. When we understand that, mashallah the shopping list will become so long and you will find lines on the grocery halal meat stores and you will find people gaining weight after Ramadan. Why? Because I get hungry during the day, I have to compensate during the night. But while you are getting hungry, that's the part that Allah is telling us لعلكم تتقون - so you can have تقوى.

Understanding Taqwa

What is تقوى? In the simplest of definitions, what is تقوى? تقوى is to be able to fulfill the orders of Allah and abstain from His prohibitions easily.

All of us try our best to obey Allah - do the فرض and نفل and all that. And we try our best and struggle and strive to abstain from His disobedience, right? That's what we do. But to be able to do that with enjoyment - that is تقوى. That is the stage of تقوى. And fasting helps you to achieve that.

The Unity in Fasting

Once you know this goal and that wisdom and you have the tool, you're going to fill in between. You're going to live accordingly. So I am hungry to achieve another thing. It's not just for being hungry. It's what hunger makes me feel. What hunger makes me do. How can I relate to things.

Subhanallah, think about it. When you are fasting there is a meaning of unity in fasting. A meaning of unity. How? Unity - and I'm hungry, what is the unity in that? The unity is that you feel all your Muslim brothers and sisters are feeling the same like you right now. That is one thing. So after Ramadan if someone suffers in the corner of your town you should feel the same. That's Ramadan teaching you that. So if you felt hungry in Ramadan, that is how hunger feels like. When you find some member of your community suffering, you should know how that feels like too.

That's what Rasulullah ﷺ told us: A believer for another believer is like the body. If one part of the body aches, the rest of the body will share and relate. It will resonate with the rest of the body and the whole body will relate with fever and insomnia.

Making Things Easy

So the seasons of عبادة Allah gives us for a wisdom. Sometimes Allah tells us the wisdom. The wisdom behind the prayer, fasting, hajj is to teach you something in this دنيا - that obedience of Allah becomes easy on you.

What does that mean? It means there are lots of easy things but not necessarily easy for everybody. And there are lots of hard things but not necessarily hard for everybody. So Allah says when you do certain things, Allah will make easy things easy for you.

When you obey Allah through prayer, fasting, hajj and all of that, Allah makes these easy things to get to Him Subhanahu wa ta'ala easy for you. Many other people find it hard. Waking up for فجر becomes easy and becomes easier. You know what would become hard? When you don't wake up, it becomes hard on you. When you don't pray at the masjid, it's hard on you. Some people even when not fasting نفل, it's hard on them. When they don't read their portion of Quran everyday, it's tough to live a day without doing the ذكر of Allah Azza wa Jal. It is hard.

For other people, easy things - As much as أستغفر الله. How easy is that? أستغفر الله - two words. How many times did you say it since the beginning of 2018? If you can count it means you have a problem. If you can count it, it means you have an issue.

Preparing for Ramadan

So عبادة of Allah - that is the wisdom. Makes your tongue always moist with the ذكر of Allah. Makes your eyes hard to look to the حرام. Makes it easy for you to walk to the مساجد. Makes it easy for you to hand charity. Makes it easy for you to be around good people. Makes it easy for you to abandon the disobedience of Allah.

So inshallah when Ramadan comes, approach it like that. That is why the guided predecessors used to ask Allah for six months: اللهم بلغنا رمضان.

Asking Allah for Long Life

That is one of the times you can ask Allah to give you extra life. That is one of the times. اللهم بلغنا رمضان - what does it mean? Ya Allah, give me longer life, a couple more weeks. And this is good to do - ask Allah. You are asking Allah to give you time. So you can do what? You can obey Him more.

Make me live as long as life is good for me. When you make du'a for your brother, say أمد الله عمرك على طاعته - no problem. May Allah give you long life for His obedience. Don't say long life and stop. Don't do that.

اللهم بلغنا رمضان - Ya Allah, make us reach Ramadan. Why? So we can eat and drink and have dates and iftar in Ramadan? Is this what it is? بلغنا رمضان - month of fasting, month of قيام, month of Quran, month of ذكر, month of صدقة. بلغنا رمضان for that. May Allah let us reach Ramadan so we can get that season, the wholesale business. All these offers, ya Allah.

The Great Offers of Ramadan

What are the offers? What did Rasulullah say? That is why بلغنا رمضان. Ya Allah make us reach Ramadan. Why? To get this offer that Rasulullah gave us: whoever observes the fasting of the day during Ramadan إيماناً out of believing in Allah and believing in its obligation on him or her, seeking and believing in the reward and seeking it from Allah and Allah alone.

If you have those two - out of faith in Allah and believing it is a فرض on you and seeking the reward from Allah and knowing that the reward only will come from Allah - Allah will forgive all your previous sins. Of course I want to live until Ramadan. What other chance will I get? If I die before Ramadan now I lost that chance.

Since last Ramadan I don't know how much I earned and how much I deviated, how much wrong I did knowingly or unknowingly. I don't know. So I need a chance and here is a chance with the seal of the Prophet ﷺ telling me that if you observe the fasting of Ramadan with that intention Allah will erase all your previous sins with your name.

Is that all? No! He says you want another one? Another offer? You have two offers. The other one during the night. If you observe the prayers at night out of faith in Allah and believing it is a سنة of Rasulullah ﷺ and seeking the reward from Allah and knowing that the reward comes from Allah alone, Allah will forgive your sins.

Laylatul Qadr - The Night of Power

As if this is not enough, Rasulullah ﷺ said: Here is the big one for you.

In another hadith Rasulullah ﷺ said: فيه ليلة خير من ألف ليلة - In Ramadan there is a night better than one thousand months. Every year you have one night equal to your life if you live 84 years. Imagine someone who since they were born - that's impossible - from the day they are born until they die if they live 84 years which is more than the average. The average is 60-70. This is our average of this ummah as Rasulullah ﷺ said. But as if you pray every single day for 84 years and you get that every single year. One night gives you the reward as if of all your life prayer.

Whoever is deprived from the goodness of that night is a big deprived loser. اللهم لا تجعلنا منهم يا رب - Ya Allah don't make us among those who lose that night.

Wake Up and Commit

Three offers ya إخواني. We hear this a lot but today I'm trying to tell you the حكمة of Allah, the رحمة of Allah, mercy, the love of Allah to you and me. Love. Allah loves you. He gives you these chances free. And we sleep. And we come in Ramadan caring about our grocery basket. We care about how much food we have - لا حول ولا قوة إلا بالله. And we forget that big wisdom, this golden opportunity of forgiving all your previous sins and start fresh.

Ya إخواني, wake up! Let's have the commitment today in the house of Allah, now and here. The commitment between you and Allah Azza wa Jal that this year inshallah will be different.

Every Day is a New Chance

People say what is your new year's resolution. We say what is your life resolution. And every Ramadan you have a life resolution. Every day you wake up in the morning is another chance Allah is giving you at this life. You wake up in the morning, you say الحمد لله. First thing - لا إله إلا الله. First thing توحيد. And then you say praise be to Him Subhanahu wa ta'ala, the one who raised me from death to live another day. هذا عقد جديد - it's like renewing your lease in this دنيا. Every day you get that. Every year you get that Ramadan عقد.

The Wisdom Behind All Acts of Worship

Every year if you have money you get that عقد: Ya Allah I'm not selfish. Yes, you are the only one who knows how tired and exhausted I am in gaining this money. But I am giving it willingly for you Ya Allah Azza wa Jal. Only Muslims would be able to do that by the way. They don't have agenda. The difference between زكاة and tax - tax you delay to the last, you go to the post office, you find the last day of filing the tax it's the biggest, it's the most crowded. But it's زكاة - you can't sleep, you want to pay it, get rid of it, pay it with loving Allah Azza wa Jal. That's the حكمة.

صلاة teaches us everyday obedience of Allah, the جماعة. The جماعة is more important because the حكمة of it is way more than personal achievement. Allah rewards you for it. That's how our deen is. So صلاة teaches you something. صلاة alone teaches you something. But صلاة in جماعة is very important to function as a جماعة and a community. That's a contract everyday we do.

So don't think you coming to the masjid you're doing Allah a favor. No, you're doing yourself a favor because you belong to a جماعة. Look around you إخواني. This is what it is. If we know that, you will find the masjid full before even the خطيب comes on the منبر because you want to spend more time with that new contract that you get every Friday.

صيام teaching you many things - self-purification, caring about people, sharing the ummah's pains and happiness and everything. زكاة teaches you how to prefer others over yourself, how to care about others, how to be responsible about others, how Allah bestowed His favor and رزق and money upon you and you don't forget your brothers and sisters and human beings who are in need.

Hajj teaches you tolerance, teaches you troubleshooting, teaches you to work in a team, teaches you how to see different people, teaches you diversity, teaching you to work under pressure, teaching you to be the happiest person in the worst of circumstances. Hajj will teach you lots of things if you take it right. You come from Hajj - why Rasulullah said that who goes to Hajj and he does such and such he comes back like a newborn child? Of course! He shed all this skin and all these troubles and all this selfishness and all this ego down and he comes back fresh, new.

Understanding the Repetition in Islam

عبادة has حكمة. Allah is Al-Hakim and everything has حكمة behind it. As a believer you have to believe in that. Today inshallah this is what we get out with - everything Allah ordered us with or forbid for us has حكمة behind it. That حكمة is to make you and me better people, benefit in the دنيا and benefit in the آخرة. That's for sure we have to believe in this starting today inshallah, whether you know it or not. That's another deal - you pray to Allah to give you that حكمة to understand.

My dear brothers and sisters, I'm sure you listen to the etiquettes of fasting and the آداب of fasting, the أحكام and the rulings of fasting, what to do, what not to do. And this is part of our deen. Subhanallah all the important things - always they tell you you have to repeat it as many times as this to master it.

Before a pilot flies he has to do certain hours of repetition of the same exact thing. People who do self-defense and martial arts - they said you have to do ten thousand times the same thing until you master it. There is a rule called ten thousand. The rule of ten thousand. When you do something ten thousand times it becomes easy on you. So imagine every move you do ten thousand times - that means you spend years.

And Islam is like that subhanallah. We keep doing the صلاة. The imam keeps saying استقيموا every single time. If the masjid is perfectly aligned, still the imam has to say استقيموا - sunnah. He cannot say okay my people now reached the level, now إقامة الله أكبر. You still have to look and think استقيموا. We are standing there but that's the point of our deen.

Rasul ﷺ said I am the one who fears Allah the most. I already achieved that. Still Allah tells him اتق الله.

Even the متقين - Allah describes them as متقين in one ayah and Allah tells them have تقوى in another ayah. What does that mean? Continue doing it.

Practical Advice for Ramadan

So our deen - whenever you hear something that you know, thank Allah for the بركة. Thank Allah that at least you still have hearing to hear it again. I want to hear it again. When you love a story you keep listening to it, you don't get bored. That's why the Quran we keep reciting, reciting same الحمد لله everyday. Every صلاة you read الحمد لله. If you get bored of it - see رحمة of Allah Azza wa Jal.

So whenever we are reminded, take something new. This month of Ramadan we want to renew the contract with Allah Azza wa Jal. We want to eat less - and I mean it literally. Eat less. I am saying it from the minbar here because this is part of our deen too. Rasul ﷺ told us that.

And I have a suggestion for all of my brothers and sisters. If the people of dawah center praying today follow this, you will make du'a for me at the end of Ramadan. You will be fit. Measure your portions today and this weekend - whatever you eat and eat half of it everyday in Ramadan. You have two meals a day so one meal is less already. So that's one third out. Now you are going to take half of your portions in iftar like you did in lunch. Not in each meal you compensate for three - that's what we do normally. Iftar comes, that is the replacement of breakfast, lunch and dinner. And suhoor comes, another replacement for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We are not going to do that now.

Half of your portions. More صلاة, more ذكر, more Quran, more تهجد. That is our contract. I am reminding myself and my brothers. Very simple advice: eat less, half of what you eat. You are going to start now so when Ramadan comes, it's easy.

Number two, start training yourself with استغفار, صلاة of Rasulullah, سبحان الله والحمد لله. Read more Quran - even one page a day starting now inshallah. And when Ramadan comes it catches us on the higher curve, not comes as a shock.

May Allah make us among those who reach Ramadan and benefit from it the maximum benefit in this دنيا and the آخرة. May Allah forgive us our sins and take us with the righteous.

Remember Allah and He will remember you, and ask His forgiveness and He will forgive you. And the remembrance of Allah is greater, and Allah knows what you do.