Our Pact with Allah (SWT) - Dr Ahsan Hanif

Opening — Khutbah al-Hajah

إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ تَعَالَى نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ وَسَلِّمْ وَبَارِكْ عَلَيْهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ وَسَلِّمْ تَسْلِيمًا كَثِيرًا

Introduction — The Lessons of Ramadan

We ask Allah that he accepts the deeds that we have performed thus far, and that Allah makes this last coming week a week in which we excel in our ibadah, and that Allah forgives us for our sins and enables us to see out this blessed month of Ramadan, and that Allah returns this month upon us year upon year whilst we are in a state of iman and in good health.

Indeed, from the greatest lessons that we can derive from this month of Ramadan — and the month of Ramadan is full of lessons: lessons in terms of our connection with the Qur'an, lessons in terms of charity and prayer and fasting and our character — perhaps one of the greatest of those lessons, and an overarching lesson, and something which binds between all of those other deeds and all of those other lessons, is a lesson that Ramadan reminds us of. And that is that Ramadan is a time when we remind ourselves of the covenant and the pact that we have between ourselves and our Lord and Creator Allah.

Ramadan is a time when not only do we remind ourselves of this pact, but that we also renew that pact with Allah. Because Allah — before all of us were born on this earth, before we came into existence upon this earth, when our mothers gave birth to us — Allah took a pact and an oath and a covenant from each and every single one of us. Because our existence upon this earth is not merely in jest and play, nor is our existence on this earth so that we can excel in terms of our dunya alone. Nor is it from the purposes of our creation that we become the richest or the most powerful or the most famous of people. In fact, the purpose of our existence is the covenant that Allah took from us before we were even born — when all of us were in the loins of our father and our mother, Adam alayhi salam and his wife.

The Primordial Covenant — Mithaq

As Allah mentions in Surah al-A'raf:

And remember — Allah is reminding us — remember when we took from the children of Adam, from me and you and our parents and our children and our wives and husbands, from the people around us, every single one of us, Muslim and non-Muslim. Remember when we took from the children of Adam a pact and an oath when they were still in the loins of their parents, and we said to them: أَلَسْتُ بِرَبِّكُمْ — "Am I not your Lord?" They replied: بَلَىٰ شَهِدْنَا — "Yes, O Allah, You are our Lord. We bear witness."

That is the pact and the covenant that we made — that we already testified that Allah is our Lord and Creator and Provider. That Allah is the sustainer of the heavens and the earth. We already made that pact and covenant that He alone is worthy of worship. Lest that we should come on the Day of Judgment and say that we were heedless, that we forgot about this oath and pact. Or that we should say it was our forefathers who made shirk with You, O Allah, and we were only children who came after them. That is not an excuse. Every single one of us made an oath to Allah — a pact and a covenant in which we recognise that Allah alone is worthy of worship.

The Void We Feel Without Allah

And that is why when you find many people who don't accept and embrace this beautiful religion of Islam — whether they agree or they don't agree, whether they attest or they don't attest — there is something missing in their hearts, something missing in their lives. They may have the dunya, they may be happy in terms of their worldly life, they may have money and cars and houses and so on and so forth, but within their spiritual self, within their heart, there is something missing. A void that sometimes they can't explain, they can't speak about, they don't know how to put it into words, but it exists.

And even for many of us as Muslims — those of us who are far and distanced from Allah, those who engage in haram, those of us who even when we try our best, we still trip up and we make mistakes and we sin — we feel that same void. We feel that in our heart there is something missing when we are distanced from Allah.

And that is one of the most beautiful and amazing things about this month of Ramadan, because it goes a long way into making up for that void that we feel. We are on a different level when it comes to Ramadan and in Hajj and in Umrah, because of the atmosphere and the timings and the surroundings. But when we are distanced from Allah, we too feel that there is that gap, that there is that hole within us.

That is the covenant that Allah took with us already. And Ramadan is a time when we should remind ourselves of that pact and oath and covenant, because all of this that we do — whether it is Ramadan and fasting all of these hours and praying at night and then praying qiyam after taraweeh and then giving charity and zakah and all of these other good deeds that we do in Ramadan and outside of Ramadan — it comes back to this one central purpose. It comes back to this one main goal. And that is that covenant that we made already with Allah.

The Report of Ibn Abbas and the Hadith of Anas

The famous and illustrious companion and scholar of the Qur'an, Abdullah ibn Abbas radiyallahu anhuma, said — in what is recorded in the Musnad of Imam Ahmad and the Mustadrak of Imam al-Hakim — that Allah took the covenant from the children of Adam whilst they were still in the loins of their father Adam alayhi salam. And Allah took from his loins each and every single one of his children and spread them out as if they were seeds — spread them out before him. And then Allah spoke to them directly:

(Reported by Ibn Abbas; recorded in the Musnad of Imam Ahmad and the Mustadrak of Imam al-Hakim)

He spoke to them directly and said, "Am I not your Lord?" And they said, "Yes, by Allah, we testify." In the Qur'an and in the Sunnah of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, without dispute it is mentioned that each and every single one of us made this pact and oath with Allah.

And there is another hadith — the hadith of Anas radiyallahu anhu, recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim — the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam told us:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 3334; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2805)

It will be said to a man from the people of the Fire on the Day of Judgment: "If you had everything on this earth, would you ransom yourself with it?" He will say: "Yes." And Allah will say: "I wanted from you something far easier than that." This amazing hadith gives us hope and it makes us understand the purpose of our creation and puts into perspective the reason that we are living.

The Simplicity of What Allah Asks of Us

Allah wants from us that we worship Him. And if you were to think and look at the many things that Allah has obligated upon us, then they are in reality few in number. In terms of the acts of worship, Allah has obligated upon you five pillars of Islam — that is all. Five pillars of Islam. In terms of how you deal with the people around you, Allah has obligated upon you that you fulfill their rights — rights that you would do anyway as a human: the rights of your parents, the rights of your spouses, the rights of your children, the rights of the people that you interact with. And then everything else in your life — everything else is halal, it is mubah — except for what Allah has made haram. You can enjoy your life, you can enjoy your family, you can enjoy everything, so long as you fulfill the rights of Allah and you stay away from His haram.

That is the meaning of this hadith — that when you fulfill لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ with its conditions, you fulfill لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ with all of its requisites, then Allah will save you from His punishment.

Breaking the Covenant — The Warning from Bani Isra'il

Ramadan is a time when we are reminded of this covenant and pact, because Allah in the Qur'an also tells us of those people who, despite making an oath and a pact and a covenant with Allah, would then go and break it. Allah says about Bani Isra'il when they broke their covenant with Him:

It was because of the way that they used to break their oaths and pacts with Allah that We cursed them and We made their hearts go hard. Allah in Surah an-Nahl mentions the parable of that person who breaks their oath with Allah:

Do not be like that woman — this is a parable that Allah is placing before us — do not be like that woman who, when she weaves something, she spent so much time and effort weaving a piece of cloth, embroidering it, stitching it, and then she goes and undoes all of those threads.

You make a pact with Allah in this month of Ramadan: you pray and you fast and you read Qur'an and you make du'a and you give charity, more than you would do outside of Ramadan. In fact, many of our brothers and sisters in this month of Ramadan will do acts of worship which — even though they are obligatory upon them — they won't do outside of Ramadan. But the breaking of the pact and the oath comes when after Ramadan we go back to our old ways: where after Ramadan we never pick up the Qur'an again until the following Ramadan; where after Ramadan the five daily prayers — let alone the nawafil — the five daily prayers, we miss them and we don't pray them; where after Ramadan the charity that we were giving stops and dries up and we don't give anything else until the next Ramadan comes. All of the good that we do, we don't do after Ramadan. That is from the breaking of the pact and the oath that we make with Allah.

Allah wants us to worship Him the whole year round. And Allah gave us this month of Ramadan so that we would train and discipline ourselves, so that we would remind ourselves of the pact that we made with our Lord and Creator.

A Call to Action — This Last Friday of Ramadan

So in this month of Ramadan, on this blessed day of Friday — what may very well be the last Friday of this blessed month of Ramadan — if you haven't yet made tawbah in this month of Ramadan, there is no better time than to make it on a Friday in Ramadan. If until now you haven't done the good deeds that you were supposed to do, you haven't given your zakah for example this year, then don't let the sun set on this day except that you've given your zakah, except that you've done those good deeds, except that you recited more of the Qur'an, except that you made more du'a. This is what Allah reminds us of.

All of these lessons in this month of Ramadan come back to this very central core concept — that Allah created us for His worship, and it is because of this worship and how we perform this worship that will determine our outcome on the Day of Judgment, whether we will be from the successful or from the unsuccessful.

The Uncertainty of Life — A Reminder

Allah took from us this oath and this pact that we should worship Him alone, and Allah has given us this finite, limited time that we have in this dunya in order to achieve that goal and to fulfill our part of that pact and oath. But one thing that Allah has not promised us or given us a guarantee for is that He will allow us to live for a long time. Many of us assume and fall into this false sense of security — the shaytan comes and perpetuates it — that we will live until we're 60, 70, 80, 90. We look at the statistics, the average life of a person in the UK, and we think that that applies to every single one of us, even though that is not the case. For Allah has not given any one of us that guarantee. Allah could make us die this very day, or He could make us die before the end of this very month of Ramadan.

There were people who this year began the month of Ramadan with us — today they are no longer with us. Only a few days ago, a member of our congregation, brother Bashir Othman, someone that we know in this community, died. He drowned in Switzerland. This was a brother in his 20s. He wasn't ill, he wasn't going through some terminal illness, he wasn't someone who was having problems with his health. He was a young man full of dreams and aspirations, and Allah chose to take him away in this month. Now we hope that that is a good sign for him, for it is the month of Ramadan, and the Prophet told us salallahu alayhi wa sallam — in the hadith of Aisha radiyallahu anha in Sahih al-Bukhari — that there are five types of martyrs, and from amongst those five is the one who drowns. So we ask Allah that He showers His mercy upon him and upon all of our brothers and sisters who have passed away in this month.

But that is a lesson for us. For Allah took that covenant from us, and then Allah could take us away at any moment. How many of us would be satisfied if Allah was to take our life away today? How many of us would be satisfied with what we have already put forth, even in this month of Ramadan? How many of us would be confident in meeting our Maker and our Lord if Allah were to take our life away this very moment?

The Last Ten Nights — Seizing the Opportunity

Allah doesn't give us a guarantee of life, but Allah reminds us in the Qur'an — just as the Prophet did — that we should make the most of the time that we have before us. And from amongst the greatest of those opportunities are these final ten nights of Ramadan. For the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam — when these ten nights came upon him — he would spend the whole night awake. He wouldn't sleep during these last ten nights. He would tighten his belt, meaning he would do even more than he was already doing. And we all know the life of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam when it came to his worship — how much he would recite the Qur'an, how much he would pray, how much he would give in charity. The companions would say that he was the most generous of people, and in Ramadan he was even more generous, and then in the last ten nights he was even more generous.

The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam in these last ten nights would awaken his family — he would wake them up — so that they don't miss this golden opportunity. These last ten nights contain the night of Laylatul Qadr. Perhaps it has already passed, and perhaps it is still to come. Laylatul Qadr is better than a thousand months — 83 plus years of worship in a single night of prayer and recitation. And the nights aren't even very long anymore; it is not nine, ten, eleven hours. It is four, five, six hours.

Allah asks that we renew this pledge and this oath and this covenant that we have with our Lord and Creator.

Islam Is Easy — Consistency Is Key

My dear brothers and sisters in Islam — Islam is an easy religion. Islam is a beautiful and simple religion. Islam is a religion that Allah has made easy for us, as He mentions in the verses of Ramadan:

Allah wants to make things easy for you and He does not want to make things difficult for you. But He wants that you should complete these days of fasting and that you should glorify Allah for the guidance that He bestowed upon you and that you may be grateful to Him. Allah has made things easy for you. Allah wants you to do those actions that will bring you closer to Him, even if they happen to be few in number, even if they seem small to you.

As the Prophet said salallahu alayhi wa sallam — in the hadith of Aisha radiyallahu anha in Sahih Muslim:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 782)

O people, do those actions which you are able to do. For Allah does not become tired or bored until you become tired and bored. And indeed the most beloved actions to Allah are those actions which are consistent, even if they are few in number.

Closing Du'a

So this is the time and opportunity that Allah has given us — not only as a reminder of what we need to do now, but a time where we need to renew this pact with Allah, that we need to realign our priorities and put things back into perspective. The reason why Allah created us, what He wants from us, and those things that grant success by the will of Allah in this life and the next.

We ask Allah that He allows us to use these last remaining days of Ramadan in a way that pleases Him, that He makes it a time that is fruitful in worship, that He makes us from amongst the people who stand in this month of Ramadan and fast in this month of Ramadan and stand on the night of Laylatul Qadr, and that Allah — as a result of that — forgives our sins and blesses us and showers His mercy upon us.

We ask Allah that He forgives our brothers and sisters who have passed away, and that Allah cures those from amongst us who are ill and makes easy for us and our brothers and sisters across the world our affairs.

We ask Allah on this very blessed day of Friday, in this blessed month of Ramadan, that Allah emancipates us from the Fire, and that Allah frees us and our parents, our spouses and our children from the Fire of Hell, and that Allah grants us the highest ranks of Jannatul Firdaus al-A'la.

وَصَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَى نَبِيِّنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ

Closing Announcements

As we are waiting for the brothers and sisters to make their rows and to straighten their rows, I remind you that there are many people praying today, so if you can squeeze together and make space for your brothers and sisters then that would be appreciated.

Also, on this last — what will be the last — Friday of Ramadan, we encourage you to donate generously towards your masjid. Allah has made charity one of the greatest acts that you can perform in this month of Ramadan, and there is no greater time or place to do that than in your masjid on this blessed day of Friday. So before you leave, make sure insha'Allah that you contribute something towards the masjid.