Parting Farewell Advice of Ramadan
By Nouman Ali Khan | 2026-01-09T15:16:19.340817+00:00 | Topic: Ramadan
Parting Farewell Advice of Ramadan
By Nouman Ali Khan
Opening and Quranic Recitation
I seek refuge in Allah from Satan, the accursed.
The month of Ramadan in which the Qur'an was revealed as guidance for the people and clear proofs of guidance and separation. So whoever of you bears witness to the month, let him fast. And whoever is sick or on a journey, let him fast for a few more days. Allah desires ease for you, and He does not desire hardship for you. And that you may complete the fast, and that you may glorify Allah for what He has guided you, and that you may be grateful.
All praise is for Allah, the Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings upon the noblest of prophets and messengers, and upon his family and companions altogether. My Lord, expand for me my breast and ease for me my task and untie the knot from my tongue that they may understand my speech.
Introduction: An Ayah of Departure
This is the ayah that usually the khateeb or the speaker uses to introduce us to the month of Ramadan. And here we are at the end of the month of Ramadan and I'm choosing to recite this ayah before you and share some things from this ayah. I'd like to title this brief conversation you and I are going to have inshallah as parting advice from Allah - parting reflections, as Ramadan is leaving us, this beautiful friend is leaving us. What are some things that should be on our mind that Allah Himself mentions in this beautiful ayah?
The Subtle Wisdom of the Quran
The first thing I want to highlight to you: The Qur'an is very subtle in the lessons that it delivers to us. Allahazzawajal drops, like there's this - it's a beautiful treasure. Every ayah is like a treasure, but every little detail in the ayah is like a pearl by itself, a diamond by itself. So you have to pay attention to the little details.
The Purpose of Fasting: Understanding Taqwa
O you who have believed, decreed upon you is fasting as it was decreed upon those before you that you may become righteous
This famous ayah - when He talked about fasting He mentioned at the end of that: لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ
Now there's a little subtle difference in Arabic between saying لِتَتَّقُوا and لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ . If you say تَتَّقُوا then it means the purpose of fasting is that you should get taqwa - A should lead to B. But what Allah doesn't say - He says لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ which كما نقول في العربية في المعنى الأوسع - it's vaster in meaning. You know what it means? Hopefully you'll get taqwa out of it, maybe you'll get taqwa out of it, you really should get taqwa out of it. In other words, Allah didn't make a guarantee between fasting and taqwa, but He did mention that if you do it right and if you do your part correctly.
And that is what the Prophet himself explains (صلى الله عليه وسلم) - how do you do the fast correctly? How do you get it done correctly?
Whoever fasts in Ramadan out of faith and expectation [of reward] -
If you have the right iman, right attitude, right intention - that's on the one side. And then the other side is: watch yourself, keep a close eye on yourself. You know like your boss keeps an eye on you? Those of you that have like a possessive boss like that - keep an eye on yourself. If you can do those two things, then you're doing the fast right, and then you might get out of it the gift of the fasting. The gift - what you get at the end of it all is not Eid. The gift at the end of fasting is taqwa.
What is Taqwa?
So the first thing I want to talk to you about is the relationship between fasting and taqwa very briefly. I don't want to give you an abstract philosophical conversation - very realistic, easy to understand, practical connection between fasting and taqwa.
Let's just first understand what taqwa is and why I don't - I refuse to translate it as fear. I don't agree with the translation that taqwa is fear. The word taqwa in Arabic comes from (وقاية - wiqaya) means protection. (إتقاء or taqwa) means to protect yourself.
Like you know, on the day of judgment everything is flat, you can't hide anywhere, you can't go into a hole, you can't go into a building. Allahazzawajal makes it all flat:
So he says: يَوْمَ يَجْعَلُ الْوِلْدَانَ شيبًا - how are you going to protect yourself if you disbelieve? The day on which even babies, their hair is going to turn gray - how are you going to protect yourself?
So the word taqwaAllah uses in the meaning of protecting yourself. So when we say have taqwa of Allah, you know what it means? Protect yourself from disappointing Allah, from making Allah angry, from displeasing Allah. Protect yourself from that. Protect yourself from becoming, you know, a loser.
Allah says اتَّقُوا النَّارَ - He doesn't just say have taqwa of Allah, he says
Taqwa vs Fear: The Difference
And here's the other reason I refuse to translate it as fear. We actually heard the Imam - it's interesting I was going to use these ayat anyway and the Imam recited it in the witr prayer. Shaytan tells the human being اكْفُرْ - disbelieve. فَلَمَّا كَفَرَ - and when he does disbelieve, what does he say? إنِّي بريءٌ مِّنكَ - I have nothing to do with you, bro. You can go further, you ain't my bro, right?
But what does he say after that?
Let's understand that a little bit. The bank robber is afraid of the police or no? He's afraid of the police. He's still robbing the bank, isn't he? Fear is not enough to not make you a criminal. Even the criminal is afraid of the authorities. You go a step further and you protect yourself from doing crime - you stop yourself. Taqwa includes the fear and what you do as a result of that fear.
You know, the one who's afraid of the cop is gonna stop at the red light - he still has خوف right? But the criminal who even - who is afraid, his heart is pounding too when the cops are running after him, but he didn't protect himself, he didn't do the right thing. You follow? So taqwa is more than just fear - it asks for more.
Fasting as Training for Taqwa
Now Allah says the purpose of fasting is taqwa. The thing of it is, you and I have to - we have to behave a certain way throughout our waking day, and we have opportunities to obey Allah and we have opportunities to disobey Allah. And these opportunities - sometimes everybody's watching us, sometimes nobody's watching us.
What you're listening to on the radio in your car, nobody knows but you and Allah. There's a couple of, you know, recording services Allah has installed on your shoulders, other than that nobody knows what's going on. Who you're talking to on the phone, nobody maybe knows. What you wipe from the cache or the history of your web browser, nobody knows, right? It's only between you and Allah, that's it, nobody else. How you're dealing with people at work, nobody knows - just you and Allah, nobody else knows.
And a lot of times we're not aware, we don't feel that, you know, the Muslim even fails to realize all the time that Allah is watching, that I should be careful. We lose consciousness of that.
What happens in fasting is - fasting, it's hot, it's Texas after all, you know, 100 degrees, what, 50 days now with one day off? 50, 60 days, 100 degrees or more. So when we fast, and especially those of you that go to work and come out, you sit in the car until the AC kicks in or whatever - you can feel the fast. You can feel the thirst. Whether you want to or not, your body will be screaming for water, whether you're going to drink or not.
And actively your body is asking you to disobey Allah. Your body and mind, as we are fasting and we feel hunger and thirst, our body is yelling at us to disobey Allah, and we keep telling our body: no, no, maghrib, no. We have this conversation inside our body the entire day, and you're actively, actively protecting yourself from making Allah unhappy.
Even if you forget, your body doesn't let you forget. Even if you forget that, you know, I'm fasting, your hunger will remind you that you're fasting, and then you'll have to literally tell your stomach: no, not right now, two more hours, you hold on.
This is training. Because after this, you know, right now our body is making us - calling for something, and even the halal things we have to stop ourselves from. After this training month is over, Allah says: go back, you can have these halal things. But this training should help you now stay away from what? The haram things.
The Importance of Training
And training is really important training. You know, when somebody goes to training, they can't even miss a single day. Any of you been to training? Training is a very concentrated program, right? They have 10 days, 20 days, whatever they have, and you cannot miss a single day. You'll be disqualified from the program.
So what used to be the case is: before Ramadan was revealed, the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) used to fast even before Ramadan came. And Allah calls them أَيَّامًا مَّعْدُودَاتٍ - few days. مَّعْدُودَاتٍ - جَمْعُ قِلَّةٍ بالعربية - any less than 10. Those few days - middle 3 days of the month, or up to 9 days, etc., etc.
And at that time, if you miss a fast, then you have two options. The option was: you should make it up, or you can feed the poor:
Then Allah revealed Ramadan. Now Ramadan is not a few days. How many days is it? 30 days. So it's already harder, it's already harder. And if you miss a fast for some reason - you got sick or you're traveling - if you're traveling, then now you don't have two options, you only have one option: you have to make it up. What was the other option? You could feed the poor. That option is no longer there. The fuqaha talk
about exceptional cases, but generally you and I don't have that option. I'm not in the mood to fast, I'll just feed somebody. No, no, no. You don't have that option anymore.
So first of all, there are more days now, and second of all, it's harder because you can't take a day off. And if you take a day off, you have to make it up. So it's tougher.
Allah Wants Ease Despite the Challenge
And at the end of all of that, Allah says يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ بِكُمُ الْيُسْرَ - Allah wants ease for you. Wait a second, Allah just made this harder, and then He says He wants ease for you. Subhanallah!
And you know what, for you and me, when Allah says that, we're thinking: yeah, but it's summer. But you know what? Think when this ayah was revealed - the hot summers of Mecca and Medina. No SUVs with air conditioning, no air conditioning, no central, you know, climate control. They don't have like even fans running for them with electricity, literally under the sun the entire day.
You and I go for 20 minutes outside, what happens? "اج بہت گرمی لگ رہا ہے" - you know, oh my god, I have a headache, I can't do anything today. These sahaba are fasting, they're fasting in Medina, you know, and at that time, subhanallah, and Allah says to them: no, no, this is easy for you. I want things to be easy for you.
You know what that means? That means as hard as this is, I want that you learn to have taqwa. You should get taqwa out of fasting, and if you get taqwa out of fasting, you will have a really easy life later. A little bit of training here, and you'll get what you should out of - in this world, the thing you will need is taqwa. If you get that out of here, then what is coming for you permanently? Jannah. And what's jannah? اليسر
And if you don't get taqwa here, what's coming later on? You think this is hard? This is nothing compared to what's coming. وَلَا يُرِيدُ بِكُمُ الْعُسْرَ - He doesn't want hardship for you. He wants good things for you.
So this is the first thing I wanted to share with you - the physical connection, the conditioning Allah is doing between fasting and taqwa.
The Comprehensive Nature of Fasting
I know the Prophet tells us (عليه السلام) - our fasting is of the eyes also, of the tongue also, of where we go also, of how we deal with other people also, of our anger also. Our fasting is of many things. But the minimum training - not everybody will have that kind of fast. There will be people who, when they're fasting, their hunger kicks in and they, you know, some of you, when you get hungry, you get really cranky too, right? So you're like extra snappy with your wife, or you get mad at the kids: "Hey, you're running again!" or something, right? And then you say: "Why are you so angry?" "Because I'm fasting!"
It's supposed to be the opposite, man. It's supposed to be when you're fasting, you're supposed to be more patient. You just go: (إِنِّي صَائِمٌ، اللَّهُمَّ - inni sa'im, allahumma) - I'm fasting. I'm not going to say anything, even if people are insulting you.
But I'm not even talking about that higher level. I'm saying even if you just listen to what Allah is saying just abstaining from food - just that much in and of itself, the point of it is to get taqwa out of it.
The Seed and the Intention
The last thing I'll say about it before I go to the next ayah - the last thing, this is really important. I want you to compare two people in your mind. There are two people - they want to grow a tree, or they want to grow a flower. Both of them have the equal, equal patch of land. Same exact amount of sun comes to that land. They put water on it, they put, you know, they put fertilizer, everything. They take care of it, they rake it every day. The soil is good, and it's getting enough water, everything - except one of them put a seed inside, and the other one didn't put a seed inside.
Okay, they're doing the same exact amount of work, but there's one of them that's going to get something out of it, and the other one nothing. He's doing the same work, he's doing the same exact work - he gets nothing out of it.
What I'm saying to you is: if you and I have the intention of getting taqwa out of Ramadan, and then we work - we're going to fast anyway, it's going to be hard anyway, you're going to go through it anyway - if you have that intention, you'll get the flower out of it. When you don't have that intention, you'll go on the diet plan, and most of you end up gaining weight anyway in Ramadan, right? Because everything you eat at the end of the day is like super fried, and you know, that's when then qiyam becomes difficult because of what you ate, right? Subhanallah! First half of the day you cannot stand up because you didn't eat. The next half of the day you can't stand up because of what you ate.
So that's what ends up happening with a lot of you. But the point I'm saying is: plant the seed. And you know, I'm saying this - I'm like, brother, why didn't you say that in the beginning of Ramadan? (الأَعْمَالُ بِخَوَاتِمِهَا أَيْضًا - al-a'malu bi khawatimiha aydan) - the deeds are also judged not just by their intentions, but by their final intent, by their final intent. So it's not over yet. You can still fix it. Still good, you know.
Ramadan: The Month of the Quran
So that's one. Now I told you, when Allah mentioned fasting, He mentioned the purpose of fasting - the goal is taqwa. But that's not what he said about Ramadan. Usually when you and I think of fasting, we just think Ramadan - Ramadan, fasting, same thing. Allah made a distinction. And whenever somebody says Ramadan, what's the first thing that comes in my head? Fasting. So that's what comes in my head.
Allah says: that's what He said about it - Ramadan is the one in which the Qur'an was revealed. The first thing Allah wants you and me to
know about Ramadan is what? That it's the month of Qur'an. Fasting has its own purpose - it was already there before Ramadan. But this month especially, what makes it special? It's like you're also even fasting in this month in celebration of some great event, and that great event is that the Qur'an came down in this month. It's because of the Qur'an we're fasting in this month.
And Allah praises the Qur'an: . Man, it's just subhanallah - he dedicates the first chunk of this ayah just to talk about how great the Qur'an is.
So on our minds this month, I know it's a lot on the fasting, but you know what it's supposed to be on? On the Qur'an.
The Connection Between Taqwa and Guidance
Why? Allah says in the beginning of this surah - this is surah al-Baqarah, same surah - he says - all of you know this - )Quran 2:2). You and I want to get guidance from the Qur'an. The Qur'an came in Ramadan. Allah says: I will not guide with the Qur'an except people who have what? Taqwa. Fast so you can get what? Taqwa. And now listen to Qur'an so it can guide you, because if you listen to the Qur'an without taqwa, it's not gonna help you.
Subhanallah! Look at how complete the training month is, right? First you gotta get the prerequisites. The prerequisite for guidance is taqwa - do that in the fasting. Now that you've done that, put that in the fasting, you got a little fresh, now stand in front of Allah in salat and listen to Qur'an, because now you can appreciate Allah's guidance. What a comprehensive training, subhanallah!
The Multiple Purposes of Ramadan
But then, so you know, that's one aspect of it. And I told you the purpose of fasting is taqwa, but Allah mentions another purpose of the month of Ramadan. Allah mentions several goals of the month of Ramadan - not one, several goals. So I wanna share those with you.
Allah says - I didn't give you days off this time, and you can't just give sadaqa this time. You have to make it up if you miss it, and if you miss it, you better be sick or you better be traveling - some serious reason. Then if you still miss it, then here's number one reason I'm giving you this training: so you can complete al-idda, the number.
Al-idda means a very limited number of days, very specific deadline and dates. And idda actually in old Arabic was also used for your life - your life. In other words, we're going to be - you and I are going to be on this earth for a number of days. We cannot add a weekend, we cannot take away a weekend. We can't add an hour, we can't take away an hour. We can't add a minute, a second, and take away a second. We have a idda on this earth.
Allah says to us in this surah - which of course the first meaning is: so you should complete the number of days of the month. But also Allah wants us to finish all of our days on this earth with taqwa, all of the days on this earth with guidance. And so this month is there so you get ready for the rest of your life, the rest of the life. - subhan Allah.
Learning to Prioritize Allah
Then He says - this has three meanings, by the way. So that you declare the greatness of Allah. I gave you this month so you can declare how great Allah is.
Now there are several things here. By fasting itself, by fasting itself, we declare Allah's greatness. Allah's command is greater than my hunger. Allah's command is greater than my thirst. This is تكبير الله - Allah is greater than what I want, what my body wants, what my appetite wants. Allah is greater. You're already learning to make Allah the priority in your day rather than yourself. If you can do that in Ramadan and learn from that to do that in your life, you've learned the lesson of
Then of course, - when do we say Allahu Akbar? Daily, Allah makes us say it. When do we say it? In the Adhan, in the Salat. So you can pray the way Allah guided you. In other words, this is a month of lots of prayer, this is a month of exhausting prayer. But after this, when you go back to easy schedule prayer, you'll say: this is easy now. This is not like the training. Training was hard, it was a lot of work. Now it's actually relaxed schedule - just four Rakat every night, not four and then twenty and then three, not like that. It's just four. It's easy now. So you should be declaring Allah's greatness, meaning Salat, the way He guided you.
Of course, another meaning of that is: on the day of Eid, what do we do? When we finish the number of days, we make of Allah: Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, la ilaha illa Allah. We do this coming our way to the prayer, right? This is the meaning of also
In other words, one of the things that should come out of Ramadan, in addition to Taqwa, is that you learn to make Allah a bigger priority than yourself and myself. - based on how He and what He guided you with, which is the Quran itself.
When you're gonna take the guidance from the Quran, you will know what Allah wants. You and I already know very, very well what I want, what you want, what we want. Nobody has to give us a class on that - what you want. Quran is a class on what? Allah wants. Now you will have to compare between what you want and what Allah wants, and you will learn to make priorities. Your priorities will submit to Allah's priorities for you.
You should complete the number of days - number one purpose. Number two purpose: you should make Allah the priority.
Becoming Grateful People
And here's the last purpose: - maybe, hopefully. See - no he didn't say . He said . He made a difference here. He said: maybe you'll become people that are grateful. At the end of Ramadan, hopefully you'll be grateful, hopefully you'll be grateful.
What does that mean? It means, you know, when does someone say thanks? When? When something good has happened to you. Somebody gave me a bottle of water, I say - I thanked him when something good happens to me. Now think about this. So thank you is done in response to a gift - that's when thank you is done. Allah says at the end of it: so you may become people of thank you, you may become grateful people.
The question arises: what are we thanking him for? I know we have to thank him for everything, but in this ayah in particular, what are we thanking him for?
We're thanking him for two things. One: to give us this training that will help our entire life. You know, when you go to a good school - when people that go to a good school, and then they graduate from that school, and they get a wonderful career - these are the people that actually go and become part of the alumni institution, and they donate back to that school because they say: I got my career from this place, I graduated from this place, and it benefited me so much in life, so I'm grateful to this institution. This training - people who graduate from it will be what? Grateful.
They'll be grateful for two things: grateful for fasting and grateful for the Quran - actually Quran first, because the Quran was mentioned first. What bigger ni'mah can we be grateful to Allah for than the Quran itself?
So at the end of this month, what should happen? At the end of this month, you and I should become people that are really, really grateful for having the Quran. That should happen at the end of this month we become grateful for the Quran. Subhanallah!
The purpose of fasting is taqwa. The purpose of completing the month is you become grateful - you appreciate what you have. And it's so awesome that our Qurra recite long passages, and they try to finish the recitation of the entire Quran. Even if they don't finish the entire Quran, they recite a significant chunk of the Quran. The more you listen to it, the more you appreciate what Allah has given you, and so you become more and more and more grateful.
Allah's Nearness and the Gift of Dua
And so now that you have become grateful and your training is done, now you know how to declare Allah's greatness, now you know you've learned something about how to make Allah happy - it's a simple way of putting it. Those two ayat are about learning how to make Allah happy.
(Quran 2:186) - when my slave asks you about me, tell him I'm very near. - no doubt about it, I'm close. You've learned to fear Allah like he's close, you've learned to declare Allah as a priority like he's close. So when it comes to asking Allah for stuff, Allah says: in that I'm close also. Don't just think I'm close to punish you and to impose my authority on you. I'm also close to you when you ask me for things.
(Quran 2:186) - I completely respond, I respond completely to the call of anyone who calls me إذَا دَعَان - whenever he makes dua to me.
And this إذَا دَعَانِ is important because people make mistakes. You know, you go do something you shouldn't have done, and you're in a place you shouldn't be, and you're leaving the movie theater or you're leaving this bad company of friends or the club or whatever. As you're walking away, you're feeling bad about yourself: maybe I should make dua. And the shaitan comes in: you're gonna make dua at a club? Dua is at the masjid, not at the club!
Allah says إذا دَعَانِ - whenever he makes dua to me. Whenever your conscience kicks in, whenever your taqwa wakes up, doesn't matter where you are, doesn't matter what you've done, Allah will respond to the dua.
(Quran 2:186) - then they should try to respond to me too. I'm giving them so much, I'm guaranteeing them: you ask me, I will give it to you. And I am near.
Near means - this is why we say سَمِعَ اللَّهُ لِمَنْ حَمِدَة - Allah heard whoever praised him. You know, if I talk like this, you can't hear me now, can you? You can't hear me because I'm talking really low. To hear me when I talk like that, you have to be what? Really close. We say سَمِعَ اللهُ لِمَنْ حَمِدَهُ - Allah heard whoever praised him. How can Allah hear whoever praised him? Allah explains: I'm near, I'm so near. (Quran 50:16) - I'm closer to you than your jugular vein in here. I'm closer than that. You know, you have to put your hand on it to feel the pulse of that - you can't feel it just sitting there, right? Allah is closer than that to us. So he hears.
- I mentioned this here because the purpose of fasting was taqwa, the purpose of Ramadan to make us grateful, and the gift at the end of those two things is: now you're ready to make dua. Now you have qualified to ask Allah, and Allah will open the floodgates and give and give and give.
The Problem of Asking Without Giving
There are people who don't get taqwa out of Ramadan, and they don't appreciate what Allah has given them in fasting - they don't appreciate it - but they wanna make dua anyway. I don't wanna do anything for Allah, I just want Allah to do stuff for me, right? I'm not gonna pray, I'm not gonna fast, I'm not gonna
eat the halal, I'm not gonna earn the halal, I'm gonna do all the wrong things, but when it comes to dua: Ya Allah, I have an exam tomorrow, hook me up, you know? And if you didn't study, then you extra dua that day, right? You really (اذْكُرُوا اللَّهَ كَثِيرًا - uthkurullaha kathira) - then a lot of dhikr of Allah.
Allah says in this dua - in this ayah he says: fine, make dua to me, I will respond, but (فَلْيَسْتَجِيبُوا لي - falyastajeebu lee) - they should try to respond to me too. They're asking me for stuff, I'm asking them for some stuff too. I'm asking you for some things also.
Allah says (وَلْيُؤْمِنُوا بِي - walyu'minu bee) - and they should continue to believe in me. In other words, sometimes a person makes dua, they get impatient. I made dua to Allah yesterday, I still haven't grown back my hair, what happened? You know, people get impatient.
Allah says: keep the faith, make dua to me, try to respond to me, and continue your faith (فَلْيُؤْمِنُوا بِي - falyu'minu bee) they should continue to believe in me (لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْشُدُونَ - la'allahum yarshudoon) (Quran 2:186) - and if they can do that, then the next thing they can become people that are right, they're set right.
You know, Rashad in Arabic is something that was going the wrong way - you fix it and it's now going to go the right way. Like, you know how you fix the alignment in your car? If you can become a person of dua, have iman in Allah, and become a person of dua, Allah is guaranteeing you will become a person that's going in the right direction.
Why? Because dua is a conversation with Allah.
The Golden Opportunity: Learning to Talk to Allah
I know many of us have - this is the last thing I'm sharing with you guys inshallah - this is the golden opportunity to make dua. Ramadan, conclusion of Ramadan: oh ya Allah, we just finished the training period, accepted training, graduated from this training, and now we just got to ask you for some things for ourselves, our families, our parents, our relatives, the Muslims, you know, our own character flaws, you know, our rizq - these things we have to ask you for.
You know, at the end of all of this, you become one thing - that great thing that comes out of Ramadan is you become aware of Allah, right? You become aware of Allah. And when you become aware of Allah, you can talk to him without feeling weird.
We make dua to Allah all the time, and probably many of you recited or memorized dua that you recite all the time: (رَبَّنَا آتِنَا فِي الدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةً - rabbana atina fid-dunya hasanatan) (Quran 2:201) - I think everybody here knows that, right? (اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِ مُحَمَّدٍ - allahumma salli 'ala muhammadin wa'ala aali muhammad) - everybody knows that. People memorize that, but that's just something you're reciting - you're not talking to Allah. You're literally like - you're talking, you know, you go to your boss and you don't just recite, you say: can I have a raise? You go and talk to him, and you realize he's standing right there.
When you're in your car by yourself, talk to Allah. He's listening. Talk to him. You're not a psycho if you do that. You're not - it's not psychotic to talk to Allah by yourself. Somebody sees you: this guy is talking to himself. No, I'm talking to Allah. You're crazy, man, what are you talking about? I don't see no God.
"- they believe in the unseen. He's there. He says he's very close too.
You should try it sometime. Talk to Allah. And when you talk to Allah, you will start believing in his presence more than ever before. You know, people who don't talk to Allah are not aware of his presence - they're not conscious of him. And people who talk to Allah, it's settled in your heart that he's there, he's listening. And then you're set straight, and it's hard for you to go crooked because you just talk to him.
And it's not like when you and I talk - we talk and then we part ways and I'm no longer there. You talk to Allah - when the conversation's over, what? He's no longer there? He's still there. He's still there. He's still constantly available.
And when can you talk to him? You know, when you talk to important people, then you have to set an appointment. I need some time from you, imam sahib, can you give me some time? You go to the principal: can I get an appointment? Go to the CEO of the company, you have to get an appointment. With the doctor, you have to get an appointment. With a lawyer, you have to get an appointment, right? The immigration officer gives you an appointment. Important people give you appointments.
What is the appointment time with Allah?
- I will respond to your call whenever you call, whenever you call. No time restriction, constantly available. Subhanallah!
This is the gift that comes at the end of Ramadan:
Closing Dua and Reflections
- may Allah make us of those who are set straight. May Allah make us of those who learn how to sincerely make dua to Him.
When you memorize a dua - inshallah memorize a few duas before Ramadan comes to a close - and memorize those duas, and when you memorize them, learn what they mean, and don't just recite them to Allah, say them to Allah. There's a difference between reciting to Allah and speaking to Allah. Literally ask Allah for things, ask Him for things.
And may Allah azzawajal make us of people that get taqwa out of this month, that become conscious of Him out of this month. May Allah make us of people who are truly grateful for the Quran because of this month. May Allah make this month really what it's supposed to be - a training that will give us taqwa for the rest of our lives. May Allah provide us in His rizq another training next year. May Allah give us haya until then that we can enjoy another month of Ramadan, and Allah azzawajal accepts that month as well.
May Allah azzawajal forgive the shortcomings we've had in this month, the laziness we had this month, the things we could've done and we didn't do, the evil deeds that we did even though shaytan was not around - we did them all on our own. May Allah forgive all of those, because this is the month of forgiveness.
May Allah azzawajal teach us to become people that have good expectations from Allah, that don't lose hope in Allah, that keep asking Allah whatever it is that they need. And most of all, what we need is taqwa and guidance. May Allah give us taqwa, and may Allah give us guidance.