Muharram: The Month of Allah and Submission to His Plan

The Month of Allah: Muharram and the Virtue of Fasting

Peace be upon you, peace be upon you. Why? Because the only true peace which you can achieve will be in Jannah, in the best of abodes. So now we see true peace is only on the Day of Judgment.

Now going back to the topic of Muharram, there is a riwayah in the Sunan of Ibn Majah al-Qazwini, narrated on the authority of Abu Huraira رضي الله عنه, where a man came to Nabi ﷺ and he asked him: which fast is the most virtuous fast after the month of Ramadan? And so Rasulullah ﷺ said:

(Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 1742)

That the best fast you can do after the month of Ramadan — we know all of us fast in the month of Ramadan, we know the virtues of fasting in the month of Ramadan:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 38; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 760)

That whoever fasts in Ramadan with complete conviction — that Allah is going to see our fast, Allah is going to reward us for our fast, He's going to see the struggle we are going through — then غُفِرَ لَهُ مَا تَقَدَّمَ مِنْ ذَنْبِهِ, their previous sins will be forgiven. So we know the rewards. We have heard throughout the month of Ramadan, and we have read the various books regarding the virtues of fasting in Ramadan.

And now imagine — what could be the greatest fast after this? So the sahabi asked: what is the next best thing? Ramadan passed, what's the next best thing I can do? So Rasulullah ﷺ said, شَهْرُ اللَّهِ — the month of Allah. Now you might be wondering, what is the month of Allah? الَّذِي تَدْعُونَهُ الْمُحَرَّمَ — that which you know as Muharram.

Now this month is known as the month of Allah. And similarly, it is the month where Allah saved Musa عليه السلام and his followers from Fir'aun. Now there are many connections we can make between the month being known as the month of Allah, between Muharram and Musa عليه السلام — the story of Musa عليه السلام being saved from Fir'aun.

Submitting Completely to Allah's Plan

Dear friends, the wisdom and the planning of Allah is something which we can never even hope to try to understand or perceive. Rather, our job is to completely submit to Allah and trust that He will take care of us.

Whoever is conscious of Allah, يَجْعَل لَّهُ مَخْرَجًا — He will make a way out for him. وَيَرْزُقْهُ مِنْ حَيْثُ لَا يَحْتَسِبُ — Allah will provide sustenance for this person from where he could never even imagine. He would never think that his sustenance, his way out, would come from this avenue. But Allah's plan is something which we can never hope to perceive. And Allah will make it happen.

And the submission to Allah is something which isn't just in salah. Having consciousness of Allah isn't something which is just in salah. Rather, it is at all times that we have to submit to Allah.

Our ulema mention that even our aql — our rationale — is a tool for understanding the divine law. Qari Tayyib rahimahullah beautifully mentions this concept in his book Masalik-e-Ulema-e-Deoband. He says that the aql is مَوْضِعُ الْأَحْكَامِ — it is not مُوجِدُ الْأَحْكَامِ. That it is the place where the ahkam reside, where the divine law resides — it is not the inventor, not the creator of divine law. It is the مُدْرِكُ الْأَحْكَامِ — it is not the مُنْشِئُ الْأَحْكَامِ. It is that which is used to understand divine law; it is not that which has the level of creating law. That it is the خَادِم of the حَاكِم — it is not the حَاكِم itself.

This is true submission. Where we say: O Allah, I am completely in Your service — even my most distinguishing feature. Many of us may have studied mantiq. We know the fasl of insan. The distinguishing feature of insan is what? النَّاطِق — rationale, having the ability to rationalize things. That even that is in the khidmah of Allah. That I have no power over anything, even my most distinguishing feature — it is used for Your service, O Allah. It is used for understanding You.

The Story of Musa عليه السلام: A Highlight

And the story of Musa عليه السلام is filled with this concept of submitting yourself to Allah — completely trusting in Allah, not questioning Allah, rather just going through with what Allah wants from us. And we see the help of Allah coming from unsuspected places.

We don't have time to go into the entire story of Musa عليه السلام. You know, for example, when there's a game of sports, sometimes people just watch highlights. So we'll just go into one highlight amongst the entire story of Musa عليه السلام. This is not like a game of sports — rather the entire story of Musa عليه السلام is filled with benefit, with stories and lessons and admonitions which we can take. So I'll just fast-forward all the way to the end of the story of Musa عليه السلام, when he was saved from Fir'aun.

So the day of Ashura — Musa عليه السلام at night received the command to travel with his followers:

That travel in the middle of the night. So Musa عليه السلام and his followers traveled. They left the kingdom of Egypt and were heading towards Sham, heading towards the direction of the north. However, things may not always go our way — again, this is all the plan of Allah. They ended up traveling east from Egypt. And so they're traveling throughout the night, and suddenly they reach a roadblock. What is this roadblock? The Red Sea.

How are they going to cross this? They traveled on foot. They didn't carry boats on their backs. They had nothing. How are they going to cross the ocean or the sea? And suddenly they see from behind them a cloud of dust spiraling. And this isn't a cloud of dust from the wind — this is Fir'aun and his battalion chasing them, saying: this is a small group of followers, this is the last straw, we are going to get rid of them completely.

Fir'aun had implanted into the hearts of the people that Musa عليه السلام wants to get rid of your perfect way, of your freedom where you can do whatever you want:

That he will remove you, expel you from your lands and remove this perfect system that you have. That now finally we are going to get rid of Musa عليه السلام and all of his followers. And so they see this, and now the followers of Musa عليه السلام are seeing Fir'aun coming closer and closer, and they're thinking: what is going to happen to us?

That we will be completely overpowered. They're saying: O Musa عليه السلام, how could you do this? We trusted you. We left our land. And now what is happening? We are stuck at the ocean. We are going to die. We put our complete trust in you. We left in the middle of the night — we had families, we had wives, we had children — but we left aside all of that and traveled with you. And now we are going to lose our lives? What kind of treachery is this?

And so Musa عليه السلام — he didn't say: how could this be, where did I make an error? He didn't say: O Allah, how could You do this? I am a prophet of Allah. I am from Banu Isra'il, from that lineage where there is a Nabi ibn Nabi ibn Nabi ibn Nabi — a prophet who is the son of a prophet who is the son of another prophet. How could You let me go to waste here? He didn't say: let me go talk to Fir'aun, I'll figure something out. No — even at that moment, he was a Nabi of Allah, but he didn't say: I will find a way to help you. He said:

My Lord is with me. سَيَهْدِينِ — surely, He will soon guide me. For those who are studying Arabic, we know that when a seen is added to a fi'l mudaric, it is mustaqbal qareeb — that very soon Allah will guide me. He will show me the way.

And so what happened? Allah made a way for the ocean to split, and Banu Isra'il crossed it. And then Fir'aun — even at that moment, you see the epitome of stupidity. He sees all the signs of Musa عليه السلام — the staff, the locusts, the drought, all the different signs. Even at that moment he says: the ocean has opened for me so that I can capture Musa عليه السلام. So they go inside, in between this dry part of the Red Sea, and while they're in the middle, Banu Isra'il crosses.

The Drowning of Fir'aun: A Lesson for All Time

They say: don't tell a lie. Because one lie leads to another lie, leads to another lie, until eventually you get caught up in your own lie and then it's too late. And so what happens? Fir'aun is in the dry part of the Red Sea, and now the command of Allah comes — the Red Sea closes. And now Fir'aun is drowning. All his people are drowning. He sees his entire life flashing before his eyes.

He says: you know what, I have some time to go back. We think to ourselves: I'll live however I want, I'll just come to the masjid from Jumu'ah to Jumu'ah, sometimes I'll come to salah — if I leave salah now, it's whatever, when I get older I'll worry about all of that. Fir'aun said: I have a little time, I can make it up. And so he says:

There is no god except the God which Banu Isra'il believe in, and I am from those who submit themselves. Why? Because he had already attributed ilahiyyah to himself — he had already attributed divinity to himself. So even at that moment, he is thinking of whichever way he can divorce himself from every single statement he made before. He's trying to make a fresh start.

But when we delay things, sometimes it is too late. Fir'aun sees the signs of Allah. He sees the angels coming and the nizam of Allah. And at that point it is إِيمَانٌ بِالْمُشَاهَدَة — he is seeing everything in the nizam of Allah. The test of Allah is to believe in Allah without seeing these things — to believe there is an entire system of Allah, and Allah is taking care of it. What do we see? We just see the results. But now Fir'aun is seeing the process. And so what did Allah say? He didn't say: mashaAllah, you finally realised the right path. He said:

That now? After you see everything? And you disobeyed and you neglected Allah before, and you were from those who caused corruption and sowed corruption amongst the land? And then Allah not only causes Fir'aun and his army to drown — He preserves his body so that he can be a lesson for everyone else:

That today We will preserve your body, so that you may become a sign for those who come after you.

Everything Except Allah Will Come to an End

Respected friends, everything in this world is a sign which should direct us towards Allah. The Prophet ﷺ — he was not a poet, but he loved poetry. And he said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6147; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2256)

The most truthful statement a poet has ever said is the statement of Labid: that everything except Allah is batil — it will come to an end, it will surely cease to exist. And every blessing that you have, everything around you — one day it will end. That is our mindset. That is how we should be with everything around us: realising that this will all come to an end.

And the only way to have true success, to have bounties which will last forever, to have a good life which will last forever, and to have a true life of freedom — today the idea is that freedom is by fulfilling any of your desires, that real freedom is being able to do whatever you want. But the reality is that if we want true freedom, we have to submit ourselves to Allah.

Our god is not our desires. No — we submit to Allah. But if we want to submit to Allah and gain the help of Allah, we hear the ayah:

Whoever is conscious of Allah, Allah will make a way out for him. We want to submit to Allah. But let's ask ourselves: how much do we know about Allah? Really, myself — I start speaking, and I don't know how long I can go before I stop and think: what more can I say about my God, about the One I am supposed to submit myself to, the One in front of whom I will present myself on the Day of Judgment? How much do I know about Him? How much can I talk about Him? Maybe 5 minutes, 6 minutes, 10 minutes. And even that is a great ni'mah from Allah in these days.

The Danger of Ignorance and the Importance of Knowledge

So if we don't know anything about Allah but we want to submit to Allah, our first step is to learn about Allah. Who is Allah? What is the system of Allah? Who are the Anbiya? Who are the Ahlullah? What is the Kitabullah? That is our job. And one of the biggest traps of Shaytan is ignorance.

When you are ignorant of someone — I'll give an example. When someone goes overseas for the first time and they visit the mango seller. The visitor is ignorant of the market, of the economy of that area. So the seller will charge him prices far above what he charges the normal inhabitants of that city. Why? Because he is using his ignorance to take advantage of him. So if we are ignorant — not of the mango prices, but ignorant of Allah — then imagine the field that Shaytan will have with us.

And this is what we see around us. Why is atheism on the rise? Why are people doubting their own faith? The deen of Allah, the complete deen of Allah, the perfect deen of Allah — why are people doubting their faith? It is not an issue in the deen. Respected friends, there is nothing wrong with the deen. The deen is perfect. The problem is with ourselves. That we are ignorant of Allah. We are ignorant of the nizam of Allah. And so the only way to combat ignorance is knowledge.

Regarding that, inshallah, next week we have our annual retreat, which will be regarding our aqeedah — how we can learn about Allah. And we can't think to ourselves: I'll just attend the next one. How do we know we'll even be Muslim by the next one? We are given this opportunity. You're given an opportunity once, you're given an opportunity another time. But if you don't do shukr to Allah, why do you expect Allah to give you more? So we need to take advantage of these opportunities that we have.

So inshallah, next week there will be a retreat regarding our aqeedah. The book that will be covered is Divine Realities with Shaykh Fahad Taslim. So I ask Allah that He allows us to become true muslimin, He allows us to solidify our aqeedah, and He allows us to enter Jannatul Firdaus.

Announcements

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