When we are weak and feeble in our obedience to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala, the word Taqwa (piety) that we so often hear, seems so difficult to attain …
Allah wants us to be in constant remembrance of Him s.w.t. He knows we are going to fall into sin but he wants us to be from those who constantly seek His forgiveness and ask for His mercy.
“Astaghfirullah al-’Azeem al-lazi la ilaha illa Huwal-Hayyul-Qayyum wa atubu ilaih ”
[I seek the forgiveness of Allah the Mighty, Whom there is none worthy of worship except Him, The Living, The Eternal, and I repent unto Him] … even if he has committed sins as much as the the foam of an ocean, still he will be forgiven. [Abu Dawud- 2:85/ Tirmidhi 5:569]
Istighfar ((Seeking forgiveness) is so important because
Question is, is my reciting going all in vain? And some people even say, well, can I read it in English? Is my reward gonna go, am I not gonna connect to the Quran and if I do that and the answer is no, Brothers and sisters.
The question is, how or why would Allah (Swt) tell us that you have immense reward for just reciting it without understanding? And then in other parts of the Quran, Allah says, why do they not ponder and reflect upon the Quran?
How will you ponder and reflect upon the Quran, if you don’t even open it up, if you don’t even recite it, if you don’t even read it?
So first of all, the Quran and the prophet (Pbuh), they call you to read it first and then comes upon pondering and the reflect naturally and automatically when you really want to connect with the Quran, Allah (swt) guides you through its reading to take that next step.
The Quran calls you to be consistent in reading it and not abandon it, for each time you read the Quran, It amazingly has something to say about what you are going through.
To the point that if you read it with reflection in care, you will soon discover that, as I said before, the Quran is actually reading you and knock the other way around.
The first thing I want to advise you is this, make time to learn how to read in Arabic. Even if you’re extremely slow at the start, keep going, grab a Quran app.
The second step is to recite once you know how to read, start reciting the surahs that you already know off by heart.
Number three; spend about 10 minutes or so looking up the translations of the meanings of the verses which you have recited, even if it’s just one verse, even if it’s just one word.
Number four, as you’re reciting to what and ask yourself the question, Do I do this? What actions do I do that I may be falling into what this verse is saying to me or a particular commandment you come across; you might say, am I doing enough of this Act lately?
Number five, after you ask yourself that question, don’t keep yourself there because then you might feel depressed. Answer your questions and give yourself an answer.
Now, number six, grab a pen or just put it mentally in your head and say to yourself, This is my next plan. For the next week or two, I’m gonna focus on practicing this particular verse, or I’m gonna focus on monitoring myself in this verse on making myself even better.
And Lastly, I’ll just add a number seven for you. Sometimes you don’t feel like we can…the Quran too often. Sometimes you get a little bit bored. Well, listen, even if you listen to the Arabic words being recited with a melodious voice, grab your favorite reciter.
According to the Hadith the Prophet Muhammad (saws) used to recite this supplication in the morning when first waking up and in the evening.
“O Allah, I ask you for Afiyah.”
Afiyah is an all encompassing word referring to overall well-being. This can include health, wealth, and safety from anything that may be deemed as harmful.
To be saved from any afflictions, you are in Afiyah.
To be healthy, you are in Afiyah.
To have enough money, you are in Afiyah.
To live, you are in Afiyah.
To have your children protected, you are in Afiyah.
And if you are forgiven and not punished, you are in Afiyah.
In the dua Dunya refers to this worldly life and the akhirah meaning the afterlife.
The Prophet (pbuh) has told us about a people that show up on the Day of Judgment. And this is perhaps the scariest thing of them all; completely bankrupt. The prophet (Pbuh) said, a person comes on the Day of Judgment and they have their prayers, they have their fasting, they have their charity, but they cursed this person. They mocked this person, they hit this person, and they backbit this person. They have all of these wrongdoings that they committed against the people so that the people line up in front of them on the Day of Judgment and they take their good deeds away from the transgressor.
A person is left with absolutely nothing to the point that they still have those that they owe, but they don’t have any good deeds left.
And the Prophet (Pbuh) mentions at that point that those that they have wrong but still have not gotten their recourse, they will put their sins on you. And so you’ll end up exchanging your good deeds for no good deeds and then eventually being burdened in the sins of of other people because you have no more good deeds to give to the people that are lined up in front of you.
Allah has made sacred the honor of people and Allah (swt) has made sacred the rights of people. And so you have to be very careful not to transgress.
The time for reconciliation and how we start to make up with people that we may have hurt or people that we were hurt by, where there was a mutual hurting that took place.
Number one, that a person, first and foremost has to come to the conclusion that it’s not worth it. It’s not worth losing out on the pleasure of Allah (swt). I don’t want my needs to not be looked at by Allah because I refuse to put my ego to the side and reconcile with this person. So I will reconcile with this person.
The second thing is that the entire exercise of Ramadan is the preference of Allah to yourself, right? to swallow your anger and to part in the people is one of the greatest exercises of preferring Allah (Swt) to yourself.
As Wadil (Rah) says, the nufs of ego is so much harder to overcome and so when you swallow that, and when you pardon people and when you reconcile and you put your nufs down, that is the greatest show to Allah (Swt), that you are seeking Him over yourself, that you are seeking His pleasure over your own pleasure, that you are willing to go through the difficulties of that process so that you could find ease on the day of judgment.
The third thing, that the prophet (pbuh) reminded us that when we are in a place of anger, that we want to disconnect ourselves from acting while the Satan is overtaking us, what does that mean?
The fourth thing: family, right now, we are seeing a time in which people cut off their lineage and to sever the ties of kinship / Ar- Rahim is far more severe than severing the ties with anyone else, and those ties are tied to the throne of Allah (swt). And whoever severs the ties, then Allah (swt) severs them.
If the sin of ignoring your brother for three days is so severe than what then of the sin of ignoring your parents, ignoring your spouses, ignoring your siblings for more than three days?
So reconciliation with family should be prioritized, because the relationship with family is so much more sacred and so much more precious than any other relationship that you’re going to find in your life.
Number five and I don’t want to be little in any way. if a person maintains a difficult relationship or a person holds a grudge, that holding of the grudge will directly burden you and hold you back from being able to take that next step towards Allah (swt).
When you remove a grudge and when you reconcile when you get over that hump, it allows you to focus on your spirituality because we are creatures that only have a certain capacity and in our limited capacity, If we fill that capacity with hatred or if we fill it with a grudge, then we can’t sleep at night, can’t think about other things during the day, we can’t fill our hearts with the love of Allah (swt) because we’re too busy filling them with the hatred of someone else.
We can’t experience the Sakina / the tranquility of our prayers because we’re too busy focused on the distraction and the enmity and the hatred and the hardship that comes with a difficult relationship or someone that we’re upset with or someone that we feel wronged by.
Ramadan is a time for us to set new paths towards Allah (swt). It’s time for the good doers to excel further; it’s a time for the sinners to abandon their sins.
Holding a grudge is like drinking poison and waiting SubhanAllah, when a person is talking about fasting from drinking, you don’t want to drink the poison of a grudge. You wait for the other person to be hurt. But at the end of the day, you are the one that remains in a state of pain.
And so doing away with that grudge is like doing away with that poison that you have been drinking and that has been holding you back And Allah knows how hard it is to forgive, And that’s why Allah (swt) forgives those that forgive.
The Hadith of the prophet (Pbuh), where he spoke about the destruction upon a person who witnessed the month of Ramadan and did not achieve forgiveness. you achieve taqwa, you achieve God consciousness and you achieve forgiveness that’s Allah wants from you and I, SubanAllah.
Let’s say this from today, Let’s read a portion of the Quran, Let’s start thinking about how we’re going to dress, especially for those who found it difficult to be on the straight and narrow regarding your dress code. So if you want to make your dress code even more modest and there’s always room for improvement, start thinking and planning from now.
Now we also need to become conscious of our tongues that needs to start from before Ramadan, from now.
I occupy it with the Remembrance of Allah rather than with The Remembrance of shaitaan. What does it cost you to speak upright, to speak beautifully What does it cost you, to Abstain from a vulgar word What does it cost you, to express your disagreement in a respectful way? Even the scholars are beginning to be disrespectful when they express their disagreement. And that’s how you distinguish between the one who’s actually wise and the one who’s not.
A wise person doesn’t stoop so low, but a person who’s not wise would actually just come and vent their frustrations and say what they want and think about it later. Subhanallah, Let’s not do that. When you’ve hurt someone, you need their forgiveness before Allah forgives you. That’s something that we are taught by the Prophet (Pbuh).
Start cutting down on your food a little bit. Subhanallah, Think about the poor from now. learn to reach out to others with your tongue meaning, speak good words to others. Make them feel reassured. Give them hope and courage. Give them hope about forgiveness. Ramadan is definitely the month of forgiveness, hope and mercy. And we must ask Allah (swt) to free us from Hellfire.
start planning; Where will I make taraweeh? Which masjid will I go to? How much Quran am I going to read? How am I going to improve it? Am I going to, for example, join any lessons?
How are you going to solve your matters and your problems with those you have issues with? You need to forgive in order to attain forgiveness.
In Islam we’re encouraged to forgive. Never does it say forget about it. We can’t forget where human beings, we’ve been hurt. So I may not hold a grudge and I may have forgiven completely, but I don’t want to have anything to do with such people. Nothing is wrong with that statement.
If you cannot do a lot of good in Ramadan, at least don’t do bad. If you cannot do a lot of ebada and acts of worship, minimum is, don’t sin in Ramadan, and it’s not like we should be sinning outside Ramadan. But be more conscious of Ramadan with the gift of that, Allah will protect you from sin even outside Ramadan.
O Allah, make faith beloved to us and beautify it in our hearts, and make unbelief, wickedness, and disobedience hateful to us, and make us among the rightly-guided. O Allah, let us pass away as Muslims, live as Muslims, and let us be joined with the righteous.”
Source: al-Adab al-Mufrad 699
Grade: Sahih (authentic) according to Al-Albani
We should take the Prophet (SAW)’s advice and turn to Allah frequently, as he said “O people! Repent to God and ask forgiveness of Him, for indeed I repent a hundred times a day”. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 5948
Once we repent, we need to strive to never return to the sin we committed. We do this by instilling in our hearts fear from God’s punishment and longing for His rewards.
Our lesson is to pray to Allah (Swt) and make sincere dua that He enable us to make sincere repentance and make our hearts firm upon His obedience.
This dua helps repel those feelings which we all are guilty of. Let’s learn and memorize it.
Every year, Allah (Swt) gives us a chance to earn His forgiveness, to purify our souls and to gain a position in the hereafter, that was before that impossible. That is the chance and the opportunity given to us in the month of Ramadan.
One of the duas the early Muslims used to read when they would sense Ramadan approaching, they would say, “Allahumma Ballighna Ramadan” which means oh Allah! Deliver us to Ramadan.
Allow us to live to witness Ramadan, allow us to be living and breathing and able to reap the rewards that are offer in Ramadan.
The Prophet (Pbuh), he told us. He said, When the the month of Ramadan enters, then three things happen: Number one, the gates of Paradise are flung wide open, and number two, the gates of Hell fire are closed, and number three, the Devils are chained up.
It is as if the prophet (Pbuh) is saying that this is your chance to give up your bad habits And it makes sense because In Ramadan, you’re fasting and you’re thinking about Allah more often because every time you’re hungry, every time you’re thirsty, you remind yourself, Why am I doing this? Why am I suffering?
I’m suffering for the sake of Allah. And if I can say no to basic things like food and drink, I can say no to watch indecent things. I can say no to waste my time. I can say no to being rude to my parents. If I can control my hunger, I can control anything in my life. And that is a Ramadan becomes like a training program to nurture your soul and to make you more disciplined person.
Of all the things that Ramadan is known for, it should be known as the month of the Quran. That is the month in which the Prophet (Pbuh) received Revelation when he was inside the Cave of Hira and the angel Jibreel visited him, and revealed to him;
Read [O Muhammad!] in the name of your Lord who created. (96.1) the first five verses of the Quran that happened in the month of Ramadan. In fact, the night that that occurred is known as laylatul qadr.
The Prophet (pbuh), he said, The most beloved good deeds to Allah are the ones that are regular, even if they are small. So this Ramadan plan to run the marathon, not a race. Every day, set yourself goals that you know you can achieve and slowly build up to greater goals towards the end.
Because the Prophet (Pbuh) said, The good deeds are judged by the ending. So if you start great and your end poor, that’s not good. But if you start steady and slowly increase your stamina and your worship and you end big, in sha Allah, this is a sign that Allah has accepted all of your Ramadan.
Never lose hope in the mercy of Allah. Always seek the forgiveness of Allah (Swt). But we have a major problem because we are taught that there are certain people Allah doesn’t forgive.
Allah (Swt) forgives all those besides certain people, who are those certain people? That Hadith is in Sunan ibn Majah (15th Shaban)
If you want to achieve the forgiveness of Allah save yourselves from the following:
Number one, mushirk – straight. That Hadith says, a person who associates partners with Allah in worship. Allah says, I won’t forgive that person. But we are talking of a person, who passes away, and he did not seek forgiveness or she did not seek forgiveness. Allah says, I can forgive everything. But shirk, I won’t forgive.
The second one is a person who holds in his heart grudge and hate and ill feeling and malice towards others. Clean your heart, my brothers and sisters; If you’re a Mumin and you want Paradise, clean your heart.
Clean your heart of hatred, enmity, malice, jealousy, etc, etc against anyone else. And the prophet (PBUH) confirmed that that was a quality of Jannah.
Another quality that is mentioned is a person who lengthens his clothing well below his ankles. It is depictive of pride. So the quality that Allah does not like is the quality of pride. Allah says, I don’t like the one who is proud and arrogant. The Quran says that, Allah doesn’t like those who are haughty and they belittle others.
The sign of pride is when a person rejects the truth and belittles others, you treat them like rubbish. Treat people with respect. Allah will forgive you.
Another type: a person who cuts relationships with their family for no reason or for worldly purposes because of money, because of wealth.
Don’t break relations unnecessarily. People ask, What about obedience to parents? Obedience to parents within that which is reasonable is a duty of Allah has placed on our shoulders. Allah subhanaw in the Quran has always told us to be kind to your parents, even if you disagree.
You choose a respectful means and a respectful way of disagreeing because you are never allowed to be unkind to your parents, even when you disagree with them. And even if they are unkind, be kind, disagree politely.
Another type: a person who is addicted to intoxicants of any nature and they don’t even have a plan to actually quit it or to seek the forgiveness of Allah.
Remember one thing, when you are doing something wrong, habitually, as a mumin / believer, at least feel in your heart, what I’m doing is wrong. wallahi, that feeling will save you.
So Allah says when you feel bad with your sins, it’s a sign that you’re a believer, why would I feel bad? Because I love Allah. I have a weakness. But I love Allah. I want Him to forgive me, strengthen me.
If Allah has accepted you, how do you know that’s the last question? How you know? Your life changes.
How do I know my hajj was accepted? I will know it when if I come back and things have changed in my life positively.
When you fast in Ramadan your life changes. You are forgiven and all the sins are wiped out. How do I know that Ramadan was accepted? When Ramadan exits and you know, your life has changed.
When you seek forgiveness of Allah, How do you know Allah has forgiven you? When you quit a few of these things in your life changes somehow.
From the hadith of Abu Hurayrah in the two authentic books, it is narrated that the prophet Muhammed (SAW) said, “From my nation a group of seventy thousand [people will] enter paradise whose faces [will] illuminate [like the] illumination of the full moon. (n the hadith narrated in Bukhari )
One of the category is “and they used to put their trust [only] in their Lord.”
In a state of pain or sad, we are also advised to say alhamdulillah ‘ala kulli haal (All praise and thanks are only for Allah in all circumstances)..
May Allah ta’ala grant ease to those in hardship and allow us to see and be grateful for all of His favours upon us despite whatever difficulties we might be going through, ameen.
40 years of age is a very important milestone in the life of a man (woman). Keeping in mind the average lifespan of sixty-seventy years, one who reaches 40 years of age completes about two-thirds of his (her) average lifespan; thereby meaning that he (she) enters into the last third of his (her) life.
Allah has emphasized this stage of human life very clearly in Qur’an. Please go through Aayah No. 15, Surah Al-Ahqaf, Chapter No. 46, Holy Qur’an.
We have enjoined man to treat his parents with kindness. With much trouble his mother bore him, and much pain did she give him birth. His bearing and his weaning took thirty months. When he reaches the age of full strength and becomes forty years old, he says: “My Rabb! Grant me the grace that I may thank you for the favors which You have bestowed on me and on my parents, and that I may do good deeds that will please You, and grant me good children. Surely I turn to You in repentance and surely I am of those who are Muslims.”
The All-Loving 