All praise is due to Allah , Lord of the worlds

All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. May Allah bless us with لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ (Laylatul Qadr). And inshallah, hopefully we get the best of the last few days that are left of Ramadan.

Alhamdulillah, should always say Alhamdulillah. First of all, Allah bless us that we are alive. That we are sitting down. That we are able to make the Jum'ah prayer. And we are able inshallah to make the Qiyam prayer. And the rest of the prayers. And the rest of the Ibadat of لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ (Laylatul Qadr). And the Du'a and so on. That's a blessing from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

So it is very important for us to acknowledge the Ni'mah of Allah upon us. This important part of our religion is the attitude that we show towards Allah and the Ni'mahs of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. One of the interesting verses that we read when Allah talk to Ali Dawood.

You know, Allah bless them with a lot of Ni'mahs. Dawood, Sulaiman alayhi salam. And Allah says, And do Dawood thanks to Allah.

Transforming Gratitude into Action

Normally we say, say thank you. That's a very famous statement. We all say, say thank you. But Allah doesn't say here, say thank you. Or say Alhamdulillah. Allah says, means do. Do thank you. What is do thank you? Meaning, turn your saying of thank you into action. Into Ibadah.

And that's where the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam was making all the Ibadah. You know, standing all night. And Aisha radiallahu anha would ask him, Didn't Allah forgive your sins? And his answer would be, Wouldn't I be a thankful slave of Allah? A thankful servant of Allah? So he turned his thank you into action.

And Aisha noticed that. And asked him, Why are you doing so much work? And so much Qiyam and standing on your feet until your feet are swollen? And his answer is, to say thank you. But saying thank you is translated into action.

And that should be our attitude in the next, especially, all the time. But especially in the next few hours, and in the next few days that are left of Ramadan. Maybe inshallah, during the translation of this verse, maybe we witness لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ (Laylatul Qadr) and get the best of it.

Understanding the Value of Laylatul Qadr

I want to explore with you a few points that might be of benefit to you. That might be something that you were not aware of. But I just want to bring them to your attention.

First, we read about لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ (Laylatul Qadr). And you all know the translation of Suratul Qadr. It's better than a thousand months. And Allah said, Indeed, we revealed it in لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ (Laylatul Qadr). Revealed the Qur'an in لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ (Laylatul Qadr). The ha here, referring to the Qur'an.

How do you know the value of لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ (Laylatul Qadr)? Maybe in our expressions here in the American language that we say, you have no idea what لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ (Laylatul Qadr) is. You have no way to think of the value of لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ (Laylatul Qadr). It's beyond comprehension. The value is really much, much more than you think. So it's very important for us to remember that.

Notice لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ (Laylatul Qadr) is repeated twice over here. Allah could have said, But says لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ (Laylatul Qadr) again, to emphasize the importance of لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ (Laylatul Qadr). لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ (Laylatul Qadr), لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ (Laylatul Qadr). Second time, The third time over here. To emphasize the importance of remembering لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ (Laylatul Qadr). In just a short two lines, you hear it three times over here. That's very important for us to note.

It's better than a thousand months. Translate a thousand months into years, it would be about 83 point something. So let's say 83 years of Ibadah. Who lives 83? I mean if you live 83 and you devote all this time to Ibadah, you won't really be able to get those 8300%. As you sleep, you do other things, so practically you're not going to be able to spend all your life in that.

If you live for 60 years, you sleep for 8 hours a day, means one third of the day, means one third of the 60 years, means that you slept 20 years of your life. You live 60 years, you sleep 8 hours on the average, so childhood, adulthood and so on. So you really, at the end, slept 20 years. And if you read the Qur'an, for example, and make the Ibadah in 2 hours, most probably it's going to translate into 2-3 years of your life, of the 60 years. That's if we're really lucky to spend 2-3 hours of Ibadah a day, pure Ibadah.

So when Allah tells us it's better than a thousand months, then we really should take an opportunity of that and make the best of it.

The angels and the soul, Jibreel alayhi salam, bring sins down, come down with all kinds of goodness. And peace it is until the Fajr inshallah. So we all inshallah hope to witness that and we all know about it.

Laylatul Qadr in Surah Ad-Dukhan

Perhaps the other piece of information that I would like to add to that is the practical, part of the practical meaning of it was mentioned in another place in the Qur'an, لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ (Laylatul Qadr) mentioned in two places and the first place is surah al-Qadr the second place is in surah al-Dukhan. إِنَّا أَنزَلْنَاهُ فِي لَيْلَةٍ at the introduction of surah al-Dukhan Dukhan means the smoke.

What's the relationship between لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ (Laylatul Qadr) and the smoke? You wonder why would Allah talk about لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ (Laylatul Qadr) when He talks about the smoke? Smoke is referring to the smoke that happens as one of the signs of the Day of Judgment. So what's the relationship between this sign of the Day of Judgment, smoke and لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ (Laylatul Qadr)?

So Allah said, We have sent it down in a blessed night. إِنَّا أَنزَلْنَاهُ فِي لَيْلَةٍ مُّبَارَكَةٍ All the barakah comes with it لَيْلَة مُبَارَكَةٍ All the night is mubarakah إِنَّا كُنَّا مُنذِرِينَ فِيهَا يُفْرَقُ كُلُّ أَمْرٍ حَكِيمٍ Sending the warnings and all goodness that are decided in this night فِيهَا يُفْرَقُ كُلُّ أَمْرٍ حَكِيمٍ أَمْرًا مِّنْ عِندِنَا ۚ إِنَّا كُنَّا مُرْسِلِينَ رَحْمَةً مِّن رَّبِّكَ In this night Allah sends the rahmah.

So what is good? So far is good How is this connected again to the smoke? The sign of the Day of Judgment What's the connection? The connection is People were not giving attention to this rahmah Busy And the kafirs at the time who were opposing the Prophet ﷺ and fighting him Would not listen and benefit from this rahmah They are totally away from this rahmah Doing other businesses, playing

As Surah al-Dukhan said it They are in a state of playing فِي شَكٍّ doubt and playing Of course it's referring to the kafirs of Mecca who were opposing the Prophet ﷺ But it's applicable to everybody Who doesn't really rush to the rahmah And spends the time in amusement or something else لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ (Laylatul Qadr) is not in the heart It's not a priority Something else pushes this priority And that's no good

So Allah is telling them بَلْ هُمْ فِي شَكٍّ يَلْعَبُونَ فَارْتَقِبْ Notice the qaf with the qalqala And the ba with the qalqala So it's kind of a shaky word When you have this kind of qalqala And it kind of wakes you up فَارْتَقِبْ يَوْمَ تَأْتِي السَّمَاءُ بِدُخَانٍ مُّبِينٍ يَغْشَى النَّاسَ ۖ هَٰذَا عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ رَّبَّنَا اكْشِفْ عَنَّا الْعَذَابَ إِنَّا مُؤْمِنُونَ أَنَّىٰ لَهُمُ الذِّكْرَىٰ وَقَدْ جَاءَهُمْ رَسُولٌ مُّبِينٌ ثُمَّ تَوَلَّوْا عَنْهُ وَقَالُوا مُعَلَّمٌ مَّجْنُونٌ إِنَّا كَاشِفُو الْعَذَابِ قَلِيلًا ۚ إِنَّكُمْ عَائِدُونَ

Verses go on and on, shaking People at that time, shaking everybody And are you waiting? What are you waiting for? You're not giving this attention To this rahmah that we sent to the Prophet of Allah What is happening with you? What are you waiting for? Are you waiting for the smoke to come to you? While you're in this ghaflah, in this heedlessness You're not waking up And then we see a scene from the Day of Judgment Where they say, O Allah, take this torment away from us

See, and the scene is about this matter My point here, without going into literal translation of every verse Allah is saying, don't, you know, turn away from this rahmah Until you're surprised by the signs of the Day of Judgment By the smoke You don't want to wait until the smoke comes to you Wake up now and benefit from this rahmah

The Muslim Community Response

And nobody really is aware of that more than the Muslims More than us, more than you You rush with entering the masjid yesterday Because the parking lot in the masjid is full The people are coming, children, women, men, young people Everybody is entering the masjid to benefit from this rahmah And I remember the verses of Al-Dukhan They say, Alhamdulillah, we are thankful to Allah That everybody is coming to show gratitude and thankfulness to Allah For benefit from this rahmah that is revealed Maybe in that night, maybe tomorrow

And the fact that it is hidden Is it in the whole month of Ramadan? Is it in the last ten days of Ramadan? Is it in the odd numbers of Ramadan? All these are possibilities But keeping it hidden from us is for wisdom That we work hard as much as we can Especially the last ten days of Ramadan As much as we can So that we get the benefit fully If we spend two hours or three hours every night In anticipation of لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ (Laylatul Qadr) Definitely we will benefit from it, inshallah That's one of the reasons we have

Fasting and Community: The Medina Wisdom

Another piece of information that I want to share with you That is related to that When we look into the two statements about لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ (Laylatul Qadr) إِنَّا أَنزَلْنَاهُ فِي لَيْلَةِ الْقَدْرِ And the other one of Al-Dukhan And we look at them, they were revealed in Mecca But شَهْرُ رَمَضَانَ (Shahrul Ramadan) was revealed It was made an obligation in the Muslims In Medina, in the second year of Hijrah

After the Prophet s.a.w. spent the thirteen years in Mecca Then moved to Medina And the first year passed, there was no order for Siyam Then in the second year, Allah made an obligation on the Muslims to make Siyam Why in Medina? Why wouldn't fasting be established or prescribed upon the Muslims in Mecca?

That really relates to the philosophy of Islam And when you examine the five pillars of Islam You have the Shahadah to Allah, لا إله إلا الله You can do it immediately when you enter Islam وأن محمداً رسول الله إقام الصلاة is there all the time Once you enter Islam, you're going to do that And it's done all your life Shahadah to Allah, لا إله إلا الله you say it once but you say it in the Salah all the time أشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وأشهد أن محمداً رسول الله In every Salah you say it

Then the other three pillars of Islam Siyam, Zakah and Hajj were in Medina What's the wisdom for that? Because they really practiced in a community The best ideal situation is to practice them in a community You can't separate Siyam and Ramadan from the community You can't separate it from the actions Islam is not about rituals

And I say what I'm saying and I'm confident because I translate to you what's in the Qur'an Allah said in Surah Al-Ma'un Have you seen the one who belies the deen? It's that person who pushes harshly the yateem And does not urge to feed or provide the food for the miskeen So a totally different definition than what we think A definition that focuses on kindness On giving, on sharing, on caring That's what the practical meaning of Islam is

And the practical meaning of Siyam is to really translate Siyam into kindness Into giving, into sharing, into caring, into character And if it's not translated into that Then it's devoid of any benefit from it So your actions towards others The actions towards others require a community Community was not there in Mecca Everybody was hiding and hiding his faith or her faith But now in Medina everybody is there to build a community

Imagine yourself living in a place where there is no community in Ramadan The taste of Ramadan would not be the same The actions that you need to do and help others And go out of your way to be kind to others And to show kindness to others Is not there by yourself So fasting is very much related to action that serves the community And builds the community

And what a way to see the Muslims in the masjids Coming with all members of the family And witnessing that and praying in jama'a in the masjid And then you pray Taraweeh and so on And you pray Fajr What a beautiful scene That shows how good Islam is And how valuable fasting is It's another beautiful meaning that I want to share with you

The Prophet's Teaching on True Fasting

And this is very much connected to the understanding of the Prophet SAW That he brought to us When he said to us in the hadith In another story Al-Juh In another story Al-Juh and Al-Atash So you really have Perhaps a fasting person does not get anything of his or her fasting Except thirst and hunger Yes you save from the punishment of not fasting But there is no reward If you don't translate the siyam into actions as I explained earlier

You cannot separate the ajr of siyam from the actions that you do And from the attitude that you do And that puts a lot of focus on what we do And after Allah said Do Ali Dawood shukr He said a few of my servants are shukr Are thankful to Allah May Allah make us all thankful to him And may Allah make us all benefit from لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ (Laylatul Qadr) And stand all night in لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ (Laylatul Qadr) Or most of the night if we can do all night inshallah

O people fear your Lord Indeed the earthquake of the Hour is a great thing The day you see it Every breast will be taken away from what it breastfed And every being will put a load on its load And you will see the people drunk And they are not drunk But the punishment of Allah is severe

O you who believe Fear Allah as He should be feared And you will not die except when you are Muslims

Knowledge into Action

The actions that we should always do in Ramadan Especially the last 10 days of Ramadan Is the du'a Is the qiyam The ruku The sujood And that is very much tied to the ilm And when Allah said Are we going to make equal those who know and those who don't know That Allah brought this statement We are not going to make equal those who know and those who don't know As the second half of a verse Second half, not the first half

The first half says Are we going to make equal the person Who stands at night Making qunoot Ruku Sujood Fearing al-akhirah And hoping for the mercy of his Lord Is not going to be the same as the person who doesn't As surah az-zumar indicates to us in this verse

So it's very important to translate the knowledge into action Action that relates to deeds that we do And iman that's in your heart The qunoot is action The sujood is action The qiyam is action Is in the iman Fearing al-akhirah And hoping for the mercy of his Lord Is also in the heart Is in the iman You want to translate your knowledge into iman and deeds In belief and actions And that's very important And you cannot separate that from the knowledge we get Very important for us to contemplate Reflect

The Story of Sulaiman and Reflection

I just give you an example A question was asked In the quran A competition that is provided by different islamic centers And the question was In masquerade Last night or the night before Who brought the throne of the queen Of sheba to sulayman alayhi salam And people started to say Must be an angel Must be a jinn Must be this

But when you look at surah an-naml And examine it And here comes the reflection I give this as a part of reflection And the one who gave him the knowledge Said I bring her throne to you before you blink And then sulayman saw the throne of the queen in front of him And then he said this is from the fadl of Allah upon me The gift of Allah upon me To test me if I'm thankful or not What an attitude that we've been talking about

But anyway They started to say Is he a jinn? Is he an angel? Or is he a human being? And that takes us to think and reflect And tie surah an-naml to the seerah of the Prophet And to understanding the quran And the rule of the quran in our lives

Comes in surah an-naml

And ant said to the rest of the ants Enter into your dwellings Lest Sulaiman should not step on you and crush you Then Sulaiman smiled

And then Sulaiman smiled and said Oh Allah enable me to be thankful to you and to the ni'mah that you provided me and my parents and grandparents And enter me and let me die with the Saliheen وَأَدْخِلْنِي بِرَحْمَتِكَ فِي عِبَادِكَ الصَّالِحِينَ

Which is more miraculous? An ant recognizing Sulaiman by name Recognizing that he has an army And talking to the rest of the ants and the rest of the ants would understand her And telling them go and protect yourself before Sulaiman crushes you, he and his soldiers Why wouldn't the surah be called surah Sulaiman? It's about the miracles that Allah gave to Sulaiman But rather surah An-Naml, the ant Because the focus in surah An-Naml is about the miracles that Allah gives to his creatures

That's why at the beginning of the surah Allah talks about Musa, the story of Musa The focus on the miracles that Allah gave Musa وَأَنْ أَلْقِ عَصَاكَ ۚ فَلَمَّا رَآهَا تَهْتَزُّ كَأَنَّهَا جَانٌّ وَلَّىٰ مُدْبِرًا وَلَمْ يُعَقِّبْ We read وَأَدْخِلْ يَدَكَ فِي جَيْبِكَ تَخْرُجْ بَيْضَاءَ Put your hands in your pocket, you'll see it white

We see Sulaiman is able to talk to the birds and to the animals وَعُلِّمْنَا مَنطِقَ الطَّيْرِ Did Sulaiman learn it by going to school? Did he learn it by spending time with the ants and with the birds? Or did he learn it by revelation? Or was it a miracle? Definitely it was a miracle As we mentioned Musa before that, it's a miracle And the ant is more miraculous And the ant is one of the creatures of Allah Allah breaks the laws, natural laws and gives miracles to people Important to think of that

Then the hudhud, that bird, the wobo, coming and talking to Sulaiman And aware of things that Sulaiman is not aware of وَجِئْتُكَ بِنَبَأٍ مِّن سَبَأٍ يَقِينٍ مَا لَمْ تُحِطْ بِهِ I brought you news that you were not aware of A hudhud, just a little bird You know, it's amazing Allah breaks again the laws, gives miracles

And then you look وَقَالَ عِفْرِيتٌ مِّنَ الْجِنِّ أَنَا آتِيكَ بِهِ قَبْلَ أَن تَقُومَ مِن مَّقَامِكَ The jinn, which is totally different than the ants So I bring it to you before you leave this meeting But the other one that Allah gave the knowledge Said I bring it to you before you blink What a way Miracle again is happening

And then we read about another miracle وَإِذَا وَقَعَ الْقَوْلُ عَلَيْهِمْ أَخْرَجْنَا لَهُمْ دَابَّةً مِّنَ الْأَرْضِ تُكَلِّمُهُمْ We bring on, on the Day of Judgement Allah says We bring a talking animal to them And animal talks again about miracles Why is all of that?

The Connection to the Prophet's Time

Then the one who brought the miracle here Must be a human being And Allah has given him that miracle As a creature of Allah How is this related to the seerah of the Prophet? I said that wasn't the time when the Prophet was in difficulty all the Tawassim This is one of the Tawassim Tawassim and the Tawassimim comes in that difficult time my knowledge or my Awareness of this fact makes my understanding of the surah much better

Then it's telling the Prophet. Don't worry Even if it takes a miracle to bring you victory will give you that miracle Did the Prophet get any miracles during that time of the revelation of this surah? After he was tortured and going to Ataif and the difficulty in Ataif and people throwing Stones in his face.

Yes, definitely and Allah broke the law for him natural law and he had an Isra Immediately at this time of the revelation of this surah So Al-Isra is a Khariqah is one of the miracles that Allah gave the Prophet So and you go to the surah after that and it's all about how Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala is given a gift to the Prophet

In surah Al-Qasas that comes as one of the Tawassim and tells the Prophet We want to give a minna, a gift to those who were oppressed A minna means something that is not in your hands a gift from Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala Important to really think and reflect and learn as we go and enjoy being a Muslim and have confidence in Islam and the knowledge the understanding Increases your confidence your Iman أَلَا بِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ تَطْمَئِنُّ الْقُلُوبُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ طُوبَىٰ لَهُمْ وَحُسْنُ مَآبٍ

Closing Remarks and Du'a

Dear brothers and sisters I can go on and on But inshallah, I hope that we all benefit from لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ (Laylatul Qadr) and take the best time inshallah of our time Some people even take off the days alhamdulillah luckily the next few days is the weekend So there is a natural break for you. I hope we'll spend the time doing that before I conclude I Will make the du'a inshallah and then we'll make announcements After that

Announcements

Before we make iqama for the salah I would like to make the announcements Khatmul Qur'an at the center is this Sunday June 10th the night of the 27th of Ramadan here inshallah in the Da'wa Center Isha starts at 9:45 followed by Taraweeh we have a motivational speaker Nicholas will be here 500 parking spaces reserved free of charge for Islamic Da'wa Center for the guests within a walking distance from the center babysitting is also available please join us also zakat is $10 there are envelopes by the donation box please pay it and the center will take care of it and the rest of the eid announcements will be posted on the da'wa center website and facebook page inshallah aqeemus salah