Mufti Ismail Menk - Make the Most of It

Make the Most of It - Mufti Ismail Menk

Opening

السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ

بِسْمِ اللهِ وَالْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ وَالصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَى عَبْدِ اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَأَصْحَابِهِ وَسَلَّمْ

My beloved brothers and sisters, how can I speak after Shaykh Shadi? You know that voice that I was hearing from when I entered here, and I'm thinking to myself, May Allah grant us acceptance.

But I'll try, my voice is much softer, and you can see I'm smaller actually in size. Alhamdulillah. But I'm really really honored to be here.

Post-Ramadan Reflection

I was following the progress at this venue during the month of Ramadan by the various links that I had received, and some of the other activities that were floating around social media, and I did see that there was great great achievement here. We primarily need to remind each other about our relationship with Allah. You and I know that we were created by Allah, we're going to go back to Allah.

And the distractions that come about immediately after the month of Ramadan that make us forget the dedication we had during the month of Ramadan are plenty. For us to be able to continue through the month of Shawwal in a way that what we achieved in Ramadan is not wasted, we have the six fasts of Shawwal.

The Six Fasts of Shawwal

We have, you know when you're going to the gym and mashallah there's a beautiful gym here, one of the best available for us I think. You have something called a warm up, right? Before you start. And when you're done, what do they call it? A cool down, right? Cool down. So we had a warm up to Ramadan and now that we're done we have a cool down with six fasts. And these six fasts subhanallah, we should be trying our best.

You know I feel so guilty because I'm a traveler, I haven't yet started my six fasts. But inshallah I'll try my best to complete them before the end of the month, (بِإِذْنِ الْوَاحِدِ الْأَحَدِ - bi'idhnil waahidil ahad)

However, what is important to know is all the goodness that we stood for, we should still be standing for that goodness.

Continuing the Spirit of Ramadan

The compassion, the salah. Imagine, I witnessed from miles away, people in this venue packed, engaged in taraweeh, which is a prayer that is not fard. It's not compulsory.

And they were dedicated to this prayer throughout the month, here at this venue. How can we not be dedicated at least to that which is compulsory throughout the rest of the year? If I was so happy, and I want to tell you something else. Don't you feel a spirituality in Ramadan? Don't you feel good in Ramadan? You know the food that you eat in Ramadan, I always say when you open your fast at the end of the day, it tastes so good.

It tastes a little bit different from the same food, if it was served prior to Ramadan. Do you know that? When you fast through the day, and you're having these savories, or you're having, you know, a few pies and a few things here and there, you know, as you put them in your mouth, don't they taste a little bit different? Like there is some barakah in it. There's something happening, man.

You know, why is it? Allah gives you the blessing in everything that you do because of the acts of worship that you've engaged in throughout the day. So at the end of the day, you feel good, you get up good. MashaAllah, you're empowered to do that which is brilliant.

It comes to you, subhanallah, without an effort. And in fact, if you were to get angry and upset, and say a word or two out of turn, you regret it because you know that's messed my fast up a little bit. And sometimes we are supposed to be, in fact, we're always supposed to be conscious of our attitude in Ramadan so that we don't spoil the fast.

As a result of that, Allah blesses you with a good feeling. He blesses you with that spirituality. Your food tastes better. Your children, the ambience, the blessedness in the home, everything feels nice. Do you know one of the reasons is because of your dedication to Allah. Allah has the power to make the other things feel good.

The Power of Consistent Dedication

If you had similar dedication outside Ramadan, you would have better feelings than you did during those months outside Ramadan in previous years. So if you are dedicated to your salah, I promise you, your life will change. If you come to the masjid a little bit earlier, a little bit earlier for the salah, your life will change.

Remember, Allah always wants from you quality, quality of an act of worship. Quantity doesn't really matter besides that which is compulsory. If it's compulsory, He wants both quality and quantity.

If it is not compulsory, He wants the quality more than the quantity. You see, so if you are dedicated and you give your prayer a little bit more time, a little bit more time, I promise you, your life will change. You have problems, you have issues.

Seeking Solutions from the Right Source

The owner of the solution is the one whom you are running away from sometimes. Amazing. You have a problem and I tell you, you know, I've got a contact with this minister. Do you want a meeting? And you say, yes, yes, please can you arrange the meeting? I say, I'll get it done for you. You'll make time because you know the thing you want, that man might have part of the solution. You're ready to go and meet, spend time.

You'll sit outside for half an hour, one hour. You don't mind waiting for a day or two and you get your meeting and you're so excited with a little bit of time. You want more time than that person can actually give you, right? But Allah is the owner, the true owner of the solutions.

We're knocking the wrong door sometimes. We're running away from the one who has the solutions to our problems, financial problems, family problems, community problems, whatever other matters, health problems, whatever it may be. The owner of the solution is Allah.

Spend a little bit more time with Allah and Allah will definitely change your life. He will change your life.

Connection with the Quran

Similarly, when it comes to the Quran, we know that Allah tells us:

"The month of Ramadan is the month within which the Quran was sent down."

I'm not going to go into the discussion of how it was sent down and why they say it was sent down in Ramadan, etc, etc. But, it is the month of the Quran without doubt.

You need to know that outside the month of Ramadan, your connection with the Quran still needs to be strong. At least a verse or two a day. Did you hear what I just said? At least what? A verse or two a day.

Is that too much? How many WhatsApp messages do we read every day? A lot, thousands, we've lost count. If you were to at least replace two of those messages, verses of the Quran, you will be okay. That's your connection with Allah.

The Story of a Brother's Last Day

I want to tell you one of the benefits. A brother passed away not too long ago, and I met the family. They told me that, you know, we have to really thank you.

I said, thank me for what? I've just come to say sorry. You know, I've come, the brothers passed away. You're saying thank you like I was Malakul Maut or someone, you know, who took this man away.

They said, no, no. This brother has actually started reading, he started off reading a verse of the Quran a day, based on advice you gave. And the day he died, he had read verses, because it develops, you know, you start off with one, the Quran is a magnet.

I promise you, when you start with one, it will take you to two, three and four. It will take you to a whole page. It will take you to five pages on its own.

If you are sincere with one verse a day, the Quran is magnetic. And why I say it's magnetic? The Quran is the word of Allah. And Allah promises you:

"If you get close to me a hand span, I will come close to you a whole foot. If you come to me walking, I will come to you rushing."

You want to read one verse, we're going to make it from our side, another four or five will be easy for you. We're going to make things easy for a person who is closer to Allah, who wants to be close to.

You want to be close to Allah, Allah says, I want to be even closer to you. We only want you to start, we will do the rest. So this brother had read verses of the Quran that morning, one page, I'm not too sure how many verses, but it was a page.

And he had closed it, he went up, he completed one or two things and a little while later he passed away. Imagine on his scale, his deeds will be placed. The last deeds that he did on the day that he passed away, one of them will be that he picked up the book of Allah, he read a few verses of Allah's Quran, meaning of the words of Allah, and then later on he passed away.

Isn't that something good? I mean, if someone were to say the day you died, or the day I died, the last thing I did on that day, I started off with the Quran or Salatul Fajr, a little bit of Quran and I carried on. Isn't that a blessed death? What more do you want? But you need to give yourself that opportunity, or seize the opportunity Allah has given you in fact. Don't be lazy.

Examples of Sudden Death

It could be your last day. I've seen people and I'm sure you have because of social media, who drop dead at any time. They drop dead, subhanallah.

Young and old, standing as the way I'm standing now, and suddenly drop dead. We saw an Imam last week, Jumu'ah, a person from Malaysia. Did you see the clip? Many of you saw it.

I actually posted it up on social media. Wallahi, this Imam, he started off his khutbah of Jumu'ah, in the masjid, a big masjid. And he says:

And so on, and he went on to say:

"Fear Allah" and whatever else:

"Remember the day you're going to go back to Allah," and all of you be conscious of Allah, and be concerned about your own deeds, and the next thing, he drops dead. He passed away.

I'm talking of this Jumu'ah that just went by, from the mimbar. He dropped dead. I would like to believe that is called husnul khatima.

There must be some deeds that that brother did. Time of Jumu'ah, first Jumu'ah after Ramadan, if your Ramadan was accepted:

"Your past sins are forgiven," subhanallah, and the man is standing there, delivering a message, da'wa ilallahi azza wa jalla, he just did the shahada, he just reminded people about the last day, meeting with Allah, etc, etc, and he went.

You and I could drop. Wouldn't we like a lovely death? Start off with the Quran. Read a verse a day, one verse. It's not difficult.

Using Technology for Good

You don't need anything complicated. Nowadays, you have it in your phones, right? Because you have it in your phones, you can pick it up. I know of an app called Nahtim.

Have you come across it? N-A-K-H-T-E-M. Some people actually made this app. If you download it, it closes your phone.

What it does? Every time you want to open your phone, it shows you the next verse of the Quran. Just read one verse and then your phone will open.

You will be shocked. You open your phone 300 times a day. You'll finish the whole of surah Baqarah the first day.

Are you ready to do that?

In fact, I want to suggest to those brothers to say, give them two passes. Three passes. You know what that means? Read one verse, we'll open your phone three times.

Three times. Because it's still okay if you read a hundred verses, right? You'll be shocked.

We're ready to read messages from people, but we're not ready to read the message from Allah. May Allah grant us ease.

Main Message

So the main purpose of these few words that I wanted to say was, my brothers and sisters, keep on going.

Ramadan has gone but we are not yet gone. Ramadan has gone.

I don't know if I'm going to see another Ramadan and I promise you none of you have a guarantee, not one of you has a guarantee that you're going to see the next Ramadan. So therefore, make the most of these days and try to develop yourself, your relationship with Allah, as I said, and secondly, your relationship with the rest of the creatures of Allah.

True Piety: Character and Obligations

The piety of a person is closely depicted by his character or her character. If a person thinks he is pious, if a person thinks he is pious because he does his salah, because he has a lot of knowledge, because for example, he gives zakah, because for example, he might be fasting a lot, that is not piety in its entirety. True piety can be picked up by witnessing a person's character and conduct. The two go hand in hand.

If you want to know how pious you are, take a look at your character and conduct, together with your obligations unto Allah. We're not belittling the obligations unto Allah. Together with your obligations unto Allah, take a look at your character, your conduct.

The Characteristics of the People of Jannah

This is why, and I will end on this note, when the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) was asked by the Sahaba (رضي الله عنهم) tell us the characteristics of those who will enter Jannah. Guess what he said? Two things, who knows them? He said two things. Those who will be in Jannah will have two main characteristics.

What are they? Who knows them? One is husnul khuluq. The first one is taqwallahi. Look at how beautifully it's worded.

Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) says two things:

(Sahih At-Tirmidhi Hadith 2004)

"Two things will take you to Jannah. The features of the people of Jannah, they will have a relationship with Allah that is strong, that's (تقوى الله) and they will have (حسن الخلق) a relationship with the other creatures of Allah, that will be beautiful."

Whether people agree with you, disagree with you, whoever, Muslim, non-Muslim, whoever they are, whatever they are doing, your akhlaq towards them, your character towards them, will be beautiful, will be beautiful. In that case, you truly have an understanding of Allah. You know that the same way Allah made me, He made him, He made her, He made all the other creatures, I need to respect everything that Allah made, if I respect Allah.

If I love you and I respect you, I'm going to respect your entire family and anything to do with you, your business, whatever to do with you, I respect it because I respect you. And I will take care of it because I love you. What about your respect of Allah? What about what He has made?

Do you think He just made everything for nothing? He made it to test you. What's your character going to be like towards the things I made? If Allah wanted, He wouldn't have made the dogs and the pigs, and the monkeys and the snakes, but He made all of those to test you and I. What will you do? Are you just going to go and start shooting and start, you know, wreaking havoc and destroying even the plants and so on? No. Develop your relationship with Allah and have good akhlaq.

Warning: What Leads to Hellfire

Can I just end that hadith? The hadith started off by saying, what are the characteristics of those who will enter Jannah? And He says:

Then He was asked, what are the characteristics of those who will not make it to Jannah? Those who will enter Hellfire, what would have been the reason for them to get there? Do you know what He says? You're going to get a shock:

(Sahih At-Tirmidhi Hadith 2616)

"Two things. The tongue and the private parts."

Those are the two things that will be driving people out of Jannah. Be driving people into the wrong place.

The Gift of Repentance

And you know what, my brothers and sisters? We have a gift of Allah. Guess what it's called? Tawbah. Istighfar. That is a gift of Allah. It is such a beautiful gift of Allah that we don't need to despair no matter what you've done.

Allah says, My slave, just come to Me. I will take you. Turn to Allah.

Have hope in the mercy of Allah. There is a lot of hopelessness. No.

Develop your relationship with Allah. Let's improve our tongues, the use of our tongues. Let's protect our modesty and chastity.

And Allah will grant us Jannatul Firdaus. May Allah bless us all. And I say these words of mine.

Closing

May Allah's peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad.