The Prophet’s Life As As Governor on Our Actions

The Prophet's Life As Governor On Our Daily Actions

Imam Zaid Shakir

Opening Praise and Testimony

All praise is due to Allah, we praise Him, seek His help, ask for His forgiveness, and repent to Him. We seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our souls and the wickedness of our deeds. Whomever Allah guides, there is none to misguide him, and whomever Allah misguides, there is none to guide him. And I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, alone without any partners, and I bear witness that our master Muhammad is His servant and messenger.

"O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared and do not die except as Muslims [in submission to Him]."

"O mankind, fear your Lord, who created you from one soul and created from it its mate and dispersed from both of them many men and women. And fear Allah, through whom you ask one another, and the wombs. Indeed Allah is ever, over you, an Observer."

"O you who have believed, fear Allah and speak words of appropriate justice. He will [then] amend for you your deeds and forgive you your sins. And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has certainly attained a great attainment."

Amma ba'd (to proceed): Verily, the truest of speech is the Book of Allah, and the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ). The worst of affairs are newly-invented matters, and every newly-invented matter is an innovation, and every innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire.

All praise is due to Allah, all praise is due to Allah, all praise is due to Allah, who has guided us to this, and we would not have been guided if Allah had not guided us.

All praise is due to Allah, who has revealed to His servant the Book and has not made therein any crookedness.

All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds.

All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of all the worlds. All praise is due to Allah, who has blessed us to attain to the great month of Ramadan. All praise is due to Allah, who has opened up the gates of mercy during the month of Ramadan.

The Blessing of Ramadan

All praise is due to Allah, who has opened before us the avenues of forgiveness during the month of Ramadan. All praise is due to Allah, who during every minute of this month liberates those of us who are sinners from the hellfire.

There is no god but Allah.

The Hadith of Jibreel's Du'a

It's related in the Sahih of Ibn Hibban, from Abu Hurairah, may Allah be pleased with him. He said: The Messenger of Allah, may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him, climbed the minbar. He said, Ameen, Ameen, Ameen. They said, O Messenger of Allah, you climbed the minbar and said, Ameen, Ameen, Ameen.

The Messenger of Allah, may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him, said: Jibreel came to me. He said, Jibreel came to me and said, "Whoever reaches the month of Ramadan and is not forgiven, so he enters the hellfire, and Allah sends him away. Say, Ameen." So I said, Ameen.

Ibn Hibban relates in his Sahih, on the authority of Abu Hurairah, may Allah be pleased with him, that the Messenger of Allah ascended the minbar and he said three times, Ameen, Ameen, Ameen. And amongst what he said, and those who were present, they said, O Messenger of Allah, you ascended the minbar, and you said three times, Ameen, Ameen, Ameen.

And so amongst what he said, he mentioned about righteous treatment of the parents, he mentioned about salawat upon himself. But for our purposes, amongst the things he said, is that the angel Jibreel, he came to me, and he said, whoever attains to Ramadan and is not forgiven therein, let him enter the hellfire, and let him be distanced from Allah. And he then said to me, say Ameen. And the Prophet said, Ameen.

The Seriousness of Ramadan

So, brothers and sisters, we mention this hadith to remind myself and to remind all of you the seriousness and the weightiness of Ramadan. In that, whosoever attains to Ramadan and leaves the month not forgiven, that Jibreel prayed against him. This Fa is called Fa'at Du'a.

May he enter the hellfire and may he be distanced from Allah.

And then, Jibreel invoked the affirmation of the Prophet upon that prayer.

Say Ameen to this Du'a I just made. And the Prophet, he said

in response to Jibreel. Because he knows Jibreel has been sent by Allah to convey this advice and to make this Du'a and to invoke the affirmation of the Prophet.

The Issue of Taraweeh Prayer

Now I'm going to say something, not because I want to stir up controversy, but because my heart is pained. My heart is pained when I see the Imam after 8 rakats of Taraweeh say,

and then 80% of the people leave the masjid.

And if you ask them why, some of them will say, and again not to stir up controversy, but to ask

Where are you going? To go back to the television? To go back to the social gathering you left? At the Iftar?

Iftar in Ramadan shouldn't be a social gathering. It should be an opportunity to see people we might not have seen and to allow the host to get the barakah and the forgiveness of feeding the fasting people. And then it should be back to work. Although it's dinner, technically it should be like the lunch break. Work before the lunch break, you take the lunch break, you go back to work.

And the real work of Ramadan is the work of the night, not the work of the day. Work of the day is in the marketplace. Work of the day is in the factory. Work of the day is in the lab. Work of the day is in the cubicle. Work of the day is behind the wheel of the truck, whatever you might be doing. But the work of the night in Ramadan is the prayer and the Quran.

Addressing Common Misconceptions

So if you're going after the imam makes taslim, when you're going to your Quran, alhamdulillah. You're going to make awrad, alhamdulillah. But if you're going to nonsense, brothers and sisters, knowing that this opportunity to be forgiven to this magnitude isn't going to come back for another year, and tomorrow is promised to no one to say nothing of next year.

But some of the people they'll say that the prophet never prayed more than 11 rakats at night. You've heard this. Some will say 13. And that's their proof for abandoning the imam, which is bad adab to the imam. The musalli should pray until the imam leaves.

The Sunnah of Twenty Rakats

In any case, it is sunnah of the prophet to pray 20 rakats. This is the sunnah of the prophet because it's the sunnah of the khulafa rashideen. And the sunnah of the khulafa rashideen is the sunnah of the prophet because the prophet has ordered us to follow the sunnah of the khulafa rashideen.

(Sunan Abu Dawud 4607, Sunan al-Tirmidhi 2676)

"Adhere to my sunnah and the sunnah of the rightly guided caliphs who come after me. Cling to it stubbornly [literally, with your molar teeth]. Beware of newly invented matters, for every newly invented matter is an innovation, and every innovation is a going astray."

Whoever lives on after me will see much difference of opinion.

The Foundation: Hearing and Obeying

Our religion is hearing and obeying. If we have a nice logical explanation or wisdom all the better, but we hear and we obey with or without the explanation.

It is incumbent upon you to hear and obey.

That's our religion.

We hear and we obey.

It's not "we hear and if it sounds good to me, if it makes sense to me, if it's convenient for me, I will obey." That's not our religion. Our religion is

We hear and we obey.

And this is so important even if a slave would be put in authority over you, you should listen and obey.

Following the Rightly-Guided Caliphs

Some narrations say

Whoever lives on after me

You're going to see much difference of opinion. You're going to hear all kinds of opinions. And in the face of all of that confusion, how do you cut through the chase? How do you get to the point? How do you avoid being pulled here and there and everywhere by the confusion?

It's incumbent upon you to follow my sunnah. And did he stop there? He didn't stop there. He said,

And the sunnah of my righteous guided successors.

So there's no argument to say it was Omar who gathered the people behind and told them to pray 20 rak'ahs. That's not an argument when the messenger of Allah has said

And the sunnah of the rightly-guided caliphs after me.

Clinging to the Sunnah

And he didn't stop there.

He said cling to this so hard that you bite into it with your molars like a pit bull. You ever see a pit bull bite into something? I have. I saw a pit bull bite into a German shepherd's neck, and the owner of the pit bull had to come and pound them in the head until he let go. That's how we should bite into and hold onto and cling to the sunnah of the

And then he said something else - Beware of innovated things. Because every innovation is a form of going astray.

Every innovation is straying and every straying is in hellfire.

Which means what? Following the sunnah of the

is not bid'ah. Following the sunnah of the

is not bid'ah.

A Call to Seriousness

So unless there's some life-threatening emergency, the masjid should be as full after 20 rakats as it is after 8. Or just admit it, unless you have some emergency, that you don't care for the sunnah of the

Therefore you don't care for the sunnah of the Prophet because it's the sunnah of the Prophet to follow the sunnah of the

because it was His words, not my words that commanded you to do it. That commanded us to do it.

And so what if it so happens that when we're watching our television or when we're getting our sleep that we come up a little short on yawm al qiyam and then the dua of Jibril that the Prophet himself affirmed applies to us. We don't think it will. We pray that it won't. Allah's mercy is expansive but should we gamble? This is serious business brothers and sisters.

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