Prescription for Change

Prescription for Change

Opening: The Light of Faith

"Allah is the guardian of those who believe. He brings them out of darkness into the light."

In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate.

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ، وَالصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَى رَسُولِ اللَّهِ، وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ

All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. And peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah, and upon his family and companions.

السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ

Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.

Introduction: Welcome to Ramadan

Welcome alhamdulillah to our short sessions that we plan to cover during this blessed month of Ramadan on behalf of MAS Youth. I ask Allah to accept all of our fasting and our qiyam and to bless this month inshallah for us, and to help us with any difficulties that we might be going through in our lives during this time.

The Meaning of Sawm: A Time to Stop

The word sawm comes from the Arabic root صَوْم )saw). And sawm from صَامَ )sawama) actually means to stop, to abstain. Something freezes. For example, the Arabs would say صَامَتِ الشَّمْسُ )sawat ash-shams) - that when the sun reaches its zenith and it appears as though it's completely frozen in the sky, they would say sawmat the sun. The sun is sawmat, frozen at its highest point.

This month of Ramadan is a time for us to what? To stop. To pull away from the dunya. To pull away from our work. To pull away from the problems at home and our communities. To pull away from the pressures that exist around us, and to reflect on our purpose in life. To have some introspection. To look into ourselves. So we can step back and become spiritually alert, and let the dunya kind of take a passenger seat to our focus in life.

Reconnecting with Our Purpose

To regenerate our focus on the purpose of ibadah. Because in order to gain the understanding of ibadah, we have to understand our purpose of creation. In order for us to understand our purpose of creation, we have to step back a minute from the dunya. And in order for us to step back a minute from this dunya, we have to what?

Engage in an act of ibadah like siyam, which enables us to what? To sit back and ponder, and start to think about things which are really important.

So subhanAllah this month of Ramadan is here and it offers us a time to what? To sit back and think about things. To focus on things. The barometer of sins goes down, and the barometer of taqwa and obedience to Allah increases.

What Are You Bringing to This Month?

We bring different types of things to this month. But the question is, and I want to ask you now: what are you bringing? Are you bringing malice towards your parents or malice towards your husband or your children? Are you bringing jealousy of others? Are you bringing negligence in worship? Are you bringing being far away from righteous deeds and actions? Are you far away from being a successful person in this life and the next? What are you bringing to this month? Because this month is bringing something to you.

The Ailments We Carry

We come to this month with many ailments. With many sins. With many sicknesses. With many diseases. With many infections. Some of us might be so infected that we should be sent to the ICU and have an IV plugged into not our wrist but into our soul, because we need this antibiotic of iman which Allah has prescribed for us. So we come to the month with issues. All of us. I probably have more skeletons than the Smithsonian. So we're coming to the month with problems.

The Divine Prescription

And Allah, He mentions in the Quran a beautiful relationship that exists between us and this month. We're coming with these ailments and Allah prescribes the antibiotic - a 30-day slow dosage antibiotic which is used to cure these ailments.

Allah says in the Quran:

"O you who believe, fasting has been prescribed upon you as it was prescribed upon those before you, that you may become righteous." (Quran 2:183)

Allah says: fasting has been prescribed. It is a prescription. I should approach it in this way - I have ailments, I have issues that I need to change. And this is the subject of our short series: Change.

The Promise of Change

Allah says in the Quran:

"Indeed, Allah will not change what is in a people until they change what is within themselves." (Quran 13:11)

So get ready brothers and sisters to ride with me through the month of Ramadan. And our focus is on applying this antibiotic which Allah has prescribed for us.

A Blessed Month

And the Prophet ﷺ describes this antibiotic when he said:

أَتَاكُمْ شَهْرُ رَمَضَانَ شَهْرٌ مُبَارَكٌ

"The month of Ramadan has come to you, a blessed month."

And مُبَارَكٌ (mubarak) here means every aspect of the month. Every day of the month. The month itself. Every day of the month. Every hour of the month. Every minute of the month. Every second of the month. Every breath you take during this month is a blessed month, which Allah has given you and I to medicate the ailments which we bring to the month.

Closing

I ask Allah to bless all of you. I ask Allah to help us inshallah.

وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ

See you next time inshallah.