Keeping Up Spirituality After Ramadan

Keeping Up Spirituality After Ramadan

Opening Praise and Blessings

We praise Allah. A blessed praise, we send peace and blessings upon our beloved Messenger Muhammad ﷺ, upon his blessed family, his companions, and those who follow them until the end of time.

The Prophetic Role: Bearer of Good News and Warner

In numerous places in the Quran, Allah commands our beloved Messenger Muhammad ﷺ to extend good news and motivation to the believers. So, for example, in Surat al-Saff, He says:

"And give glad tidings to the believers"

The word bashar actually is from skin, because the idea is that you say or do something that actually shows a person has been impacted by you in a beneficial way. So Allah said, وَبَشِّرِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ after in Surat al-Saff mentioning all forms of worship, and sacrifice, and charity, and community, and believing in the Prophets who preceded us, and avoiding the mistakes of the prophetic communities that preceded us. If we're able to encapsulate that in our lives, we are then the recipients of the glad tidings of Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ.

And also of course in Surat al-Ahzab, Allah describes Al-Habib:

"O Prophet, indeed We have sent you as a witness and a bringer of good tidings and a warner, and one who invites to Allah by His permission, and an illuminating lamp. And give good tidings to the believers that they will have from Allah great bounty"

O Messenger, we have sent you as a witness, as a motivator, as a bearer of glad tidings, and also as someone who acts in a way which is meant to be almost a warner to the people, someone who stokes them to warning them, and a caller to Allah, and a torch that spreads light. And then again it reaffirms and give glad tidings to the believers.

The Danger of Shallow Understanding in Da'wah

Oftentimes in da'wah, people make this mistake, because they're shallow. A shallow person can easily fall to

cynicism, their inability to nuance goodness. And that's why the hypocrites can't have a relationship with Allah.

Allah says, when anything bad happens to you, you lost in Uhud for example, or you struggled in Tabuk, the hypocrites will immediately read into this, because they're shallow.

"They think every shout is against them"

Like you see them as being something incredible, but they're like:

"As if they were pieces of wood propped up"

They're like wood which has no... It's like fake wood, they're empty.

But the believer who follows the prophetic light is able to see good and bad when it's needed. So the prophet acts as someone who motivates, and also he acts as a spiritual, that's the word I'm looking for, a spiritual agitator. He agitates us. But he agitates us in a way that takes us to Allah.

And give good news to the believers. But often times, shallow people who are not critical and deliberate in being agitators, tend to focus on just being agitators. Reminding people how bad the world is. In a zombie apocalypse, a can of chili is caviar. So you paint the world in this horrible brush, and then you say, yeah, I'm the savior.

Warning Against Misusing Hadith to Terrify People

And that's why the Prophet ﷺ warned us in Sahih al-Bukhari: "Whoever says the people are destroyed, he himself is the most destroyed" (Sahih al-Bukhari 6032). And often times people will mistakenly use narrations to justify bullying the community, and terrifying people.

For example, the most common narration is the one mentioned by Sayyidina Imam al-Tirmidhi:

وَمَنْ كَانَ فِي بَيْتِهِ سُنَنُ التَّرْمِذِي فَكَأَنَّمَا نَبِيٌّ فِي بَيْتِهِ

This great text of hadith, inshallah one day we can teach it here, at least the Shamail. And the narration when the Prophet ﷺ was talking to the sahaba:

لَوْ تَعْلَمُونَ مَا أَعْلَمُ

"If you knew what I knew, you would laugh little and cry much" (Sahih al-Bukhari 4621, Sahih Muslim 2359)

And then Anas ibn Malik says, we begin to moan. And unfortunately that narration, that I just quoted, is mentioned by Sayyidina Imam al-Nawawi in his famous book, Riyad al-Salihin. But he mentions it مُخْتَصَرًا as a summary. He doesn't give you the entire hadith because the entire hadith as narrated by Tirmidhi is very long. So unfortunately most people, they're going to read Riyad al-Salihin instead of Tirmidhi.

So they're going to narrate this hadith as it is in Riyad al-Salihin. But we have a principle in usul of fiqh. It's not allowed to narrate a hadith, until you make sure you know the whole narration. Because maybe the other part of the narration:

يُخَصِّصُ الْعَامَّ وَيُقَيِّدُ الْمُطْلَقَ

Because maybe the rest of the narration is going to change the meaning. And that's why we have to be very careful if we haven't been trained in usul of fiqh, just to pull hadith.

The Complete Narration: Allah's Mercy and Comfort

But if you go to the narration of Sayyidina Tirmidhi, it transforms the entire narration. And that is after the Prophet left them, and the Prophet could hear them weeping, Sayyidina Jibril عليه السلام came to Sayyidina Muhammad. And he said, Allah has commanded me to order you to go back to them and placate them, and make them happy. Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.

We just came out of the month of Ramadan, and I already ran into a few people who said, I just feel so horrible. I was like, subhanAllah, did you eat on Eid? Most converts we hit up, IHOP. So I don't know what you're complaining about. And I said, what did you, like, what happened? He's like, man, I was online. That's immediately the first recipe for a successful disaster. I was online, man. There was like this, we can scoot forward, inshallah, brothers. He's like, I was online, you know, and I was like on this group called, Why Ramadan Was Bad. I was like, man, subhanAllah, bro. And he said, you know, people were just like, making me question if my worship was even accepted. You know, I tried to do itikaf, but my wife was ill, I had to leave, and this brother, like, went off on me.

The Prophet's Expression of Love After Worship

So I reminded him that the Prophet ﷺ, there are numerous occasions in his life, where he reminded people, that through their worship, Allah loved them. So for example, after salah, he said to Sayyidina Mu'adh:

"Ya Mu'adh ibn Jabal, O Mu'adh, Labbayk ya Rasulullah, I'm here to serve you, O Messenger of Allah. Wallahi inni uhibbuk."

"By Allah, I love you" (Sunan Abu Dawud 1522, Sunan Ibn Majah 925)

After they finished praying, he said, Wallahi, I love you. In numerous occasions, the Prophet ﷺ would use moments of great success, even though people weren't perfect, to remind people that their worship was a means

of drawing nearer to Allah. As he would also use moments of negligence, to remind people of their duty to Allah.

Celebrating the Completion of Ramadan

So brothers and sisters, pat yourself on the heart a little. And say, Alhamdulillah, that Allah guided us, to successfully fast the month of Ramadan. And that's why at the end of the verses, it says:

"And [wants] for you to complete the period and to glorify Allah for that [to] which He has guided you"

You know, like these days or so, that you can magnify Allah for guiding you, to being able to complete this fast.

But as one of my teachers used to say:

مَنْ يَعْبُدُ رَمَضَانَ فَإِنَّ رَمَضَانَ قَدْ مَضَى

"Like whoever worshiped Ramadan, Ramadan's gone."

وَمَنْ يَعْبُدُ اللَّهَ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ تَعَالَى حَيٌّ لَا يَمُوتُ

"And whoever worships Allah, then they should know that Allah is the living, who never dies."

Signs of an Accepted Ramadan

Many people are asking, how do I know if I had a successful Ramadan? Sayyidina Ali ibn Abi Talib said, we used to know if our umrah or hajj was accepted by Allah, because we would not return to the evil that we did before the umrah or the hajj. So the first sign, inshallah, that our Ramadan is on point, as Sayyidina Ibn Abi Talib, he mentioned, is that we find the good that we did in Ramadan, maintaining itself.

فَسَنُيَسِّرُهُ لِلْيُسْرَى

"We will ease him toward ease" (Quran 92:7)

The Power of Consistency

So there's a few things I think we should be aware of. And the first is the power of consistency. When Sayyidina Aisha was asked, and she said, I asked the Messenger of Allah the same question, what are the most beloved deeds to Allah? The Prophet ﷺ said to her:

أَحَبُّ الْأَعْمَالِ إِلَى اللَّهِ أَدْوَمُهَا وَإِنْ قَلَّ

"The most beloved deeds to Allah are those which are done consistently, even if they are small" (Sahih al-Bukhari 6464, Sahih Muslim 783)

And when a person came to Sayyidina Nabi ﷺ, Sufyan al-Thaqafi, and he asked Sayyidina Muhammad, tell me something about Islam, like, I can only ask you:

قُلْ آمَنْتُ بِاللَّهِ ثُمَّ اسْتَقِمْ

"Say you believe in Allah, and then be steadfast" (Sahih Muslim 38)

The Prophet ﷺ in Mecca, when all the difficulties were happening, and his community began to be rocked, Allah sends the verse:

فَاسْتَقِمْ كَمَا أُمِرْتَ

"So remain on a right course as you have been commanded" (Quran 11:112)

If we're gonna translate the verse really in a way that resonates with us, it means, stay down as you've been commanded. Hold the fort. The Prophet ﷺ said:

شَيَّبَتْنِي هُودٌ وَأَخَوَاتُهَا

"Surah Hud and its sisters have made me gray" (Sunan al-Tirmidhi 3297)

When this verse came, the Prophet ﷺ said, man, this chapter has aged me. Like the command to be consistent is so grave, so difficult.

The Final Advice of the Prophet to Mu'adh

Sayyidina Mu'adh ibn Jabal رضي الله عنه when he, it's related by Imam Malik in the Muwatta, when he was departing, the last time he saw the face of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Can you imagine, subhanAllah. And the Prophet ﷺ, he loves Mu'adh so much as a minister also, and as someone who understands emotions. The Prophet at that time, he knew he was going to pass away in the following year, as mentioned by Sayyidina al-Bukhari in his sahih. But he knows that Mu'adh is like young, he can't handle hearing that this mentor is going to leave him. So he just said to him, maybe you won't see me next year. And Sayyidina Mu'adh, he began to weep. Because he understood what it meant.

Then he said:

أَوْصِنِي يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ

"Give me some advice, O Messenger of Allah"

Like this is the last moment, I'm gonna be with you. Encapsulate these years with you in some words of advice. And he said to him, very beautifully, you know:

اتَّقِ اللَّهَ حَيْثُمَا كُنْتَ

Realistic Expectations of Consistency

So as we come out of the month of Ramadan, alhamdulillah, we said, alhamdulillah, that Allah guided us (الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ - al-ḥamdu lillāh). Allah chose us and guided us to fast, and complete our fast. And then we focus on the idea of small incremental commitment. It would be impossible to do everything we did now.

I remember, the first year I became Muslim, I would go to the mosque across the street from my university, every day for maghrib. And there I was introduced to some of the most spiciest food I've ever met in my life. But afterwards, I was sold. Mashallah. By the end of the month, I knew how to make Kashmiri Dal. But subhanAllah, I remember, I would go to the mosque every maghrib, and it looked like this. And I was like, man, I'm so glad I converted, mashallah. You know, the Muslim church house is packed every night. It's amazing.

Then, the day after Eid, I went for maghrib. As the naive convert. I made adhan, with a book. I made iqama, and I prayed with a book. I didn't know how to pray. And then I called my friend, he is Muslim. I said, hey, I think everybody went to the other mosque. He's like, brother, consistency is a gift.

So we have to think about realistic notions of consistency. Not allowing mistakes to destroy us. Not allowing success to blind us. Focusing on the community. Not falling into cynicism. And maintaining our relationship with Allah. Ask Allah to keep us firm, inshallah, upon the truth.

Second Khutbah: Being Followers of the Prophet and Sudan

(الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ، بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ ، وَالصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَى سَيِّدِنَا رَسُولِ اللَّهِ ، أَرْسَلَهُ اللَّهُ سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى رَحْمَةً وَجَعَلَهُ حُجَّةً وَاصْطَفَاهُ لِيَكُونَ خَاتَمَ الْأَنْبِيَاءِ وَرِسَالَاتِهِ، صَلَوَاتُ اللهِ وَسَلَامُهُ عَلَيْهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَأَصْحَابِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ - al-ḥamdu lillāhi rabbi al-ʿālamīn, bismi-llāhi ar-raḥmāni ar-raḥīm al-ḥamdu lillāhi, wa-ṣ-ṣalātu wa-s-salāmu ʿalā sayyidinā rasūli-llāhi, arsalahu-llāhu subḥānahu wa-taʿālā raḥmatan wa-jaʿalahu ḥujjatan wa-ṣṭafāhu li-yakūna khātama al-ʾanbiyāʾi wa-risālātihi, ṣalawātu-llāhi wa-salāmuhu ʿalayhi wa-ʿalā ālihi wa-ʾaṣḥābihi ʾajmaʿīn)

The Prophetic Follower Demands Action

To be a follower of the Prophet ﷺ demands uncomfortability. It doesn't allow a person to stay neutral within the current of the dunya. A prophetic follower will always find agitation and success maybe in places that no one else does.

The Situation in Sudan

You know there is a lot to be said about Sudan. One of my great teachers in Hadith and Fiqh, Sheikh Muhammad Noor, mashallah from Sudan. I used to look at his turban and be like, How? How do you wrap that turban? You know? He would tell me, you have to start it out, it looks bad. He said everyone wants to start out the turban looking good. But he said this turban is how you learn patience because it has to start out ugly and when you finish it— I was like I keep trying to make it look good from the beginning. He said that's the problem with you.

Many of our teachers in Quran, Sheikh Ismail, alhamdulillah in Azhar was from Sudan. We see now what's happening in Sudan is the same thing that happened in Egypt. CC backwards is ISIS. Right? We see the same state players involved in supporting the destabilization of Sudan, a peaceful protest that was led by mashallah young people.

So it's important like if we claim to be lovers of the Prophet, we have to deal with our own notions of racial issues, bigotry, neglect of the Ummah. One of my classmates recently I talked to him, he told me in Chad nobody visits Chad. Chad is not, you know, a sexy vacation home for Muslims. Now they're taking Halal cruises. He's like, you know, there are places in Chad now because of drought that we don't even have khatibs for Jummah. So you have these old Jummah and there's no one there. Climate change, if you're using plastic, if you're not going zero waste, you have to understand you're impacting places like this in the world.

The Islamic History of Sudan

But Sudan, subhanAllah, Islam came to Sudan 31 years after the migration of Sayyidina Muhammad to Nubia and the people of Darfur, interestingly enough, where there is a great history of Ulama, subhanAllah especially in the Arabic language, were those who met the first Sahaba to come there and they embraced Islam.

And it took 300 years for Islam to spread throughout Sudan. It did not spread with a sword, did not spread with forced conversion. It spread as Abu Talha said about the Sulh of Hudaybiyah, that when the peace was made between us and the Meccans, more people accepted Islam in peace in those years than they had up until that point entirely, because we're able to go and talk with people and we're able to have relationships with people and we're able to have ihsan with people.

And from there you have a large number of empires that were created in Sudan with scholars and activists and many great women who were Qurra of Sudan.

Our Responsibility Toward Sudan

So I want to encourage each and every one of us that we should take some time to have conversations with our Sudanese brothers and sisters. We should allow Sudanese brothers and sisters to take over our social media platforms so that they can amplify their own voice and we can step out. Sometimes the best way to be loud is to be quiet, but to stand against what's happening to the people of Sudan.

You know they're dragging bodies from the Nile that were weighted down with stones and these were people who were peacefully protesting. And remember those ulama, those talking turbans who said nothing about what's happening there or sat with heads of state who support what's happening there. If you follow someone to the point that you can't speak to their truth, then you are a hypocrite because the Prophet is not only he's also

So we pray a special prayer for our brothers and sisters in Sudan and we ask Allah to defend them. We ask Allah to protect them. We ask Allah to raise them up.

The Contribution of Sudan to Islamic Sciences

How important are the people of Sudan? I'll just give you one example in the science of Qira'at. One of the famous seven narrations, I'm going to read it today in Jumu'ah out of solidarity with Sudanese brothers and sisters, the riwayah of Abu Amr al-Duri from Abu Amr al-Basri. You know the people of Sudan, they took this narration, authentic narration of Qira'at, and they mastered it like we mastered Facebook. They mastered it like some of us mastered Fortnite. They mastered this Qira'at and Allah used them to preserve this riwayah in a way which is astounding.

I had a classmate in Azhar who could read it backwards. This dude could read the Qira'at backwards. I said, how did you do that? He's like, you know, I don't know, I just did it. One of my classmates from Sudan, my sophomore year in high school in Azhar, he memorized the Muwatta, he memorized Bukhari, he memorized the Qira'at in 10 different modes in one year. In one year.

So these, not only because of religion, there's also great thinkers, there's incredible intellectual people there. But just a notion of what the Muslim community owes these people. And on a geopolitical level, if we allow this to happen, what happened to the Egyptians, what almost happened in Turkey, what's happening in Yemen, then it will set our community internationally on a series of very difficult problems.

Closing Dua

So we ask Allah to guide us to be brave and to support the people of Sudan. We ask Allah to help us be allies to amplify those voices. We ask Allah to remove the disease of racism and bigotry, an indivisible form of shirk, from our hearts. We ask Allah to unite the ranks of the Muslims.

"Our Lord, give us in this world [that which is] good and in the Hereafter [that which is] good and protect us from the punishment of the Fire" (Quran 2:201)

"And peace be upon the messengers, and praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds" (Quran 37:181-182)