Consistency After Ramadan - Hafiz Mohsin | Islamic Reminder | Jummah Khutbah

Consistency After Ramadan

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. And I send blessings and peace upon the messengers, as a mercy to the worlds.

Our master Muhammad, and upon his family, and his companions, and those who were guided by his guidance, and followed his Sunnah until the Day of Recompense, and beyond.

Allah has said in the Glorious Qur'an, after I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Satan. In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

O you who believe! Seek help through patience and prayer. Verily, Allah is with the patient.

And Allah said: And those who believe are more intense in love for Allah.

And the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: Verily, for every deed there is a driving force, and verily for every driving force there is a period of slackening. And whosoever's period of slackening is towards his Sunnah, he is successful. And whosoever's period of slackening is towards other than that, he is destroyed.

O Allah, open my heart, and ease my affairs, and clear my tongue, so that they may understand my speech.

If you were to enumerate even one blessing of Allah, if you were to calculate, if you were to count even one blessing of Allah, if you were to ponder over even one blessing of Allah, you would not be able to do so. So we thank Allah for all the blessings that He has given us — from being able to see, from being able to talk, from being able to hear — in all of our five senses.

We thank Allah for the greatest blessing, which is Iman — to believe in Him, to recognize Him, to know that there is none worthy of worship except Him. And we bear witness that the final prophet of Allah is Rasulullah ﷺ, that he is His final messenger and His servant.

The First Jumu'ah After Ramadan

Dear brothers and sisters, we know very well that it has been almost a week now since Ramadan has left us, since Ramadan has passed. You can say this is the first Jumu'ah since Ramadan ended — the first Jumu'ah was on the day of Eid. So we are in bliss and happiness. But this is the first Jumu'ah that you can say is after Ramadan.

And it is time to ask the introspective questions. It is time to ask the difficult questions: Have I kept up with all of my goals that I made in Ramadan? Have I kept up with all of the Ibadah that I started in Ramadan? Have I continued it even after Ramadan ended?

Because we know very well that the Lord of Ramadan is also the Lord of Shawwal. Is also the Lord of Dhul Qa'dah. Is also the Lord of all the other eleven months in the Hijri calendar. We know that Allah is Lord of all the worlds. So Allah is not to be worshipped only in Ramadan — Allah is to be worshipped outside of Ramadan as well.

So have I kept up with my goals? In the few minutes that I have, this is one thing I would like to elucidate upon — the fact that: do we have consistency upon our goals? Have we kept up?

The Purpose of Fasting: Taqwa

Before that, I want to mention that Allah says in the Qur'an — and we've heard this ayah many times — the reason that Allah has prescribed fasting upon us in the month of Ramadan:

لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ — it's so that perhaps we may gain a sense of taqwa. Perhaps that we may become a muttaqi. Perhaps we may have some God-consciousness of Allah.

So if that was the goal of fasting, then the obvious question is: have we reached that goal? Have we reached any sort of taqwa? Have I gained any type of closeness to Allah? Have I had a sense of ma'rifah of Allah? Has this increased my love for Allah? Because this was one of the goals of fasting.

Allah says in the Qur'an:

That the believers are those that are very fierce, that are very strong in the love of Allah. So first we need to recognize who Allah is, and then after recognition of Allah, we may gain a sense of love for Him.

This is why the Prophet of Allah has prescribed the du'a:

That: O Allah, we ask for Your love — اللَّهُمَّ إِنَّا نَسْأَلُكَ حُبَّكَ — we ask for Your love. وَحُبَّ مَنْ يُحِبُّكَ — and the love of those people that love You. Not only do we ask that You love us and that we love You, we also ask that You give us the love of those that also love You. وَحُبَّ عَمَلٍ يُقَرِّبُنَا إِلَى حُبِّكَ — and also the love of those actions that bring us closer to You.

اللَّهُمَّ اجْعَلْ حُبَّكَ أَحَبَّ إِلَيَّ مِنْ نَفْسِي وَمَالِي وَمِنَ الْمَاءِ الْبَارِدِ — we ask Allah to make Your love the most beloved thing to us. The most beloved thing. The love of Allah, let it be the most beloved thing to us — more than our wealth, more than our own selves, and more than cold water.

And just to explain what it means: the du'a says to make Your love more beloved to me than cold water. If any of us had the chance of making Umrah or Hajj, we know that we're supposed to go around the Ka'bah seven times. And nowadays we know that the weather can be very hot — the sun is pouring down on us. And the moment over here, this is when we realize what it really means to be in the shade of the throne of Allah:

What it means that there is no shade except the shade of Allah on that day. When we're making tawaf around the Ka'bah and we go underneath the shade, that's when it really hits our heart what it means to have shade. And even in that moment we realize what the value of cold water is — when we have just a cold sip of zamzam after going around the Ka'bah seven times, drenched in sweat, people bombarding us from all sides, and then when we have just a cold sip and it goes down our throat into our body, that coldness — this du'a says: make Your love more beloved than that water to me.

The Hadith on Driving Force and Consistency

Now Ramadan has passed. A week has passed. Seven days has passed since Ramadan ended. And time will go on. Life goes on. Nothing stops time.

And this is where the hadith that I really want to stress. The Prophet of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, says:

(Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 6882; also referenced in Sahih Ibn Hibban)

This is something that can be applied to anything — to a worldly matter or a matter of the hereafter. إِنَّ لِكُلِّ عَمَلٍ شِرَّةً — that for every action there is an initial driving force. What you say in Urdu, there is a josh. In the beginning, like in Ramadan, the environment is made — everyone is reading Qur'an around us, we feel naturally motivated to perform that action as well.

Maybe your friends are memorizing a page a day in the Qur'an, maybe five lines. Now there's a sense of competition — you know what, I want to outdo him, so I'm going to try to memorize perhaps sixteen or seventeen lines, or maybe seven lines, more than what your friend does. This is a musabarah — this is the competition that Ramadan creates. This is the environment that Ramadan creates. This driving force.

The Prophet of Allah knew this. The Prophet of Allah says: إِنَّ لِكُلِّ عَمَلٍ شِرَّةً — every action has this driving force. But what comes after that driving force? وَإِنَّ لِكُلِّ شِرَّةٍ فَتْرَةً — after this driving force, it slowly dwindles away, it slowly goes away. Then there's this period of discontinuity — a period where the action is just too hard to continue. Fatrah is a brief time period.

So after this driving force in the action, and that josh ends — that's when the real test comes in. For us to have continuity. For us to have consistency. For us to have persistence in that action. The Prophet of Allah says that when this period of time after the driving force comes, and even then if that abd, that worshipper of Allah, if he were to follow up and continue that action — فَمَنْ كَانَتْ شِرَّتُهُ إِلَىٰ سُنَّتِي فَقَدْ أَفْلَحَ — if he follows that path and continues that action, then he has succeeded.

The Most Beloved Deeds to Allah

Why has he succeeded? Because the Prophet of Allah says in another hadith:

The Prophet of Allah says that the most beloved action to Allah is not that action that is done in multitude — not that action that is done with its quantity being a lot. No, no, no. The Prophet of Allah says that the best action is the one that has mudawamah in it. أَدْوَمُهَا — the one that is continuous. The one that continues from one day to the next.

Whether it be sadaqah for perhaps maybe a penny a day. Whether it be memorizing the Qur'an — whether a line or two lines a day. Whether it be helping out your neighbor, even if it's a little bit. Whatever it is, as long as it has consistency, as long as it has continuity, then the Prophet of Allah says that is the best action in the sight of Allah. وَإِنْ قَلَّ — even if it's a little bit.

Quality Over Quantity in the Sight of Allah

What does Allah say in the Qur'an regarding testing us? In Surah Al-Kahf, Allah says:

Allah says: We have made everything upon this earth like a beauty towards the eyes. زِينَةً لَّهَا — it's beautified for us. لِنَبْلُوَهُمْ — so that We may test them, referring to al-nas. أَيُّهُمْ أَحْسَنُ عَمَلًا — which of their actions is the best.

Allah did not say أَيُّهُمْ أَكْثَرُ عَمَلًا — which of them does the most actions. Allah says أَيُّهُمْ أَحْسَنُ عَمَلًا — the best of actions. Not the most in actions, the best in actions.

What does this tell us? That when Allah weighs our actions on the Day of Judgment, they're not going to be weighed in terms of how much they are. Allah does not weigh our actions in terms of quantity. We may have heard this so many times — quality over quantity. This also applies with Allah. Allah says that the actions that are beloved to Him, the actions that Allah tests us with, the actions that Allah looks towards are not those actions that are done in number.

Because if they were done in number, then we could easily just read forty juz in one night and then call it a year. Why not just call it a year? Forty juz in one night — that's a lot — and then just stop for the rest of the year. That's not how it works with Allah. Allah wants a follow-through. Allah wants a follow-through.

The Six Fasts of Shawwal: A Lesson in Continuity

One very important point was mentioned yesterday. A visitor from California gave a brief khatrah — a brief little talk right after Maghrib — and he mentioned a very profound point. He said that the Prophet of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, has said regarding the six fasts of Shawwal:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1164)

Whoever fasts in Ramadan, then follows it up — ثُمَّ أَتْبَعَهُ — he follows it up with six fasts in Shawwal — not necessarily consecutive, just six fasts in Shawwal — it is as if he has fasted the whole year. كَانَ كَصِيَامِ الدَّهْرِ — it's as if he fasted the whole year.

If one were to apply math, it's very easy to understand. Allah says:

Whoever does one good action, Allah multiplies it by ten. If there were thirty fasts in Ramadan, then thirty times ten is three hundred. Six more fasts in Shawwal is sixty more — six times ten — and three hundred plus sixty is three hundred and sixty. And there are three hundred and sixty days in the lunar calendar. So it comes out to one year.

But this is not the main point of this hadith — how it comes out to one year. The Prophet of Allah is bringing a very subtle point in this hadith, and that is mudawamah — continuity.

One is to just fast in Ramadan — or it could be any action — and after that say: خَلَاص, I'm done. I'm not going to do it anymore. That was Ramadan time. After that, I'm going to do it next Ramadan. No — the Prophet of Allah is saying: after you have finished your fasting, follow it up. Have a follow-through plan. Make it consistent and follow it up with six fasts. So with any action of ours, we should not just stop. We should not have a barrier right after we're done where we don't continue it.

Building Consistency: Motivation and Habit

This is why, when they mention creating habits: start off small. Have the thirty-day plan — and we had our thirty-day plan, we had Ramadan. So when we start off a habit, make a goal for ourselves. And that goal will create the motivation. But one thing we need to realize is that motivation is only the starting factor.

It's like that initial josh, that initial shirrah as it's defined in Arabic — that initial driving force is motivation. It will get us off. It will get the ball moving. But to keep it moving — that's where persistency and consistency come in. To push the ball is motivation. To get us started is motivation. Create a goal. But to continue on that goal, that's where consistency comes in.

Try to continue this, do it daily. And creating habits is actually not that hard. First off, to have that motivation, it comes from iman — having belief in Allah. Having belief in Allah and having love for Allah naturally motivates and naturally creates the consistency.

Istiqamah: Consistency Is Greater Than a Thousand Miracles

I'll end off with a very profound Arabic proverb that is very famous. Everyone knows about it:

Consistency is better than a thousand miracles. And why is that? Because istiqamah itself is a miracle. But it's better than any other miracle because istiqamah creates consistency, it creates a follow-through, it creates continuity in an action. And that continuity of action creates quality in that action — because you work on it every single day. And that creates the best of actions. أَحْسَنُ عَمَلًا.

Remember this one point: Allah does not look at our actions in terms of quantity. Allah looks at our actions in terms of quality.

And the last thing — always seek Allah's help:

There is nothing that can help us in any way except from the help of Allah. Allah says in Surah Al-Baqarah:

O you who believe, seek help in Allah in two ways: having sabr in everything that happens, and praying towards Allah.

Closing Du'a

So we ask Allah to give us mudawamah in all of our actions. We ask Allah to not let any of our a'mal that we started in Ramadan be destroyed in such a way that we don't continue them. Because one of the signs of qabuliyyah — one of the signs of acceptance from Allah — is that the action continues. That Allah gives us the tawfiq to continue that action. That is one of the signs of acceptance of the action.

So we ask Allah to accept our actions in such a way that Allah gives us the tawfiq to continue our actions. We ask Allah to accept our Ramadan — all of our actions in Ramadan, all of our siyam, ruku', sujud, qiyam, everything that we did, and our sadaqah in Ramadan. And we ask Allah to give us the tawfiq to continue it — not only in the months after Ramadan, but throughout the whole year.