20170602- 1st Khutba-Essence of Fasting- Imam Mokhtar Maghraoui

Opening — Khutbah al-Haajah

إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ، نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنَسْتَهْدِيهِ، 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 سَيِّدَنَا مَوْلَانَا مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ.

أَمَّا بَعْدُ، أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ، فَإِنَّ أَصْدَقَ الْكَلَامِ كِتَابُ اللَّهِ، وَخَيْرَ الْهُدَى هُدَى سَيِّدِنَا مَوْلَانَا مُحَمَّدٍ ﷺ، وَشَرَّ الْأُمُورِ مُحْدَثَاتُهَا، وَكُلَّ مُحْدَثَةٍ بِدْعَةٌ، وَكُلَّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلَالَةٌ، وَكُلَّ ضَلَالَةٍ فِي النَّارِ.

O you who have attained faith, be reverent and conscious of Allah and aware of Him in a way that is worthy of who He is — worthy of His essence, worthy of His names and attributes, and the infinite beauty and majesty in His attributes — and in a way also that is worthy of the innumerable, unlimited grace and favours and bounties that He bestows upon us, inner and outer. And make sure we do not die except in a state of Islam, except in a state of loving surrender — of our spirits and souls, of our hearts, of our minds, of our words, of our deeds, of our likes, of our dislikes — all in loving surrender to Allah.

Welcoming the Month of Ramadan

Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah for the coming again of another month of Ramadan. Alhamdulillah for having allowed us one more year to receive that beloved friend — the friend of our spirits, the friend of our souls, the friend of our hearts — the month of fasting.

Peace upon you, O month of faith, O month of the Quran. Peace upon you, O month of security, O month of the Quran. Peace upon you, O month of those who are repentant to Allah. Peace upon you, O month of those who are worshippers of Allah. Peace upon you, O month of those who know Allah. Peace upon you, O month of illuminations.

O Allah, illuminate our hearts. O Allah, we are weak — please change our weakness into strength, strength in what You love. And take us, despite us, from our forelocks to virtue, to goodness — despite the negative energies inside of us that stop us from that, especially during this beautiful month. O Allah, please do not entrust us, ever, and especially during this month — do not entrust us to ourselves, nor to anything of Your creation. Entrust us to Your infinite bounty, Your infinite merciful love, Your infinite kindness. Verily You are subtle in what You will, verily You are over all things capable.

The Special Nature of Ramadan

My dear brothers and sisters, as he, ﷺ, informed us — as Allah informed him — he informed us that this month is so, so special. So, so special. During it, the flood of the magnanimity of Allah and the gates of His magnanimity are wide open — أَبْوَابُ كَرَمِ اللَّهِ وَجُودِهِ مَفْتُوحَةٌ — in ways open unlike any other month of the year. To the extent, as you know, that he said, ﷺ:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1899; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1079)

When the month of Ramadan arrives, the gates of paradise are wide open and the gates of hell are shut and the devils are chained.

The gates of paradise are open. They are open to your hearts and to mine. They are open to us every single instant from dawn to next dawn in the month of Ramadan — in ways very special. In other words, it is going to be easy for those who want to do good to do good. It is going to be easy for those who want to enter paradise to enter paradise during the month of Ramadan. Allah instills in human souls and in human spirits something we don't know — very special — that makes obedience to Allah, for those who want it, easier than before. To the extent that it also makes sinning and disobeying Allah and committing evil difficult — it is going to be made difficult inside the soul of each human person.

غُلِّقَتْ أَبْوَابُ النَّارِ — the gates of hell are shut. In other words, it is going to be difficult for those who want to do evil to do evil. And those who do evil during that month — that means those people of us who have souls that are truly, truly, truly evil, focused on evil, and loves evil.

The gates of hell are shut, and not only that — even the means to that: Shaytan, who comes and stirs my nafs and your nafs in order to say and to do and to commit that which is evil in one way or the other — those shayateen, says Rasulullah ﷺ, are chained. They will not be allowed to do that during the month of Ramadan.

Ramadan: A Mirror for the Soul

During the month of Ramadan, I am left to myself. I am left to my nafs — to discover my nafs — because Shaytan is chained. Shaytan, by the grace of Allah, during the month of Ramadan is made inoperative, and I am left with my nafs. During Ramadan, I will learn to discover what type of nafs I have, what type of personality I have, what type of self I have.

I cannot blame Shaytan. Shaytan is chained — is jailed, is inoperative. What I do during Ramadan of evil at any level, that is me. That is the personality I have. The kind of words I use — that's me, not Shaytan. The kinds of activity, evil at any level, that I commit — that's me, not Shaytan. I discover that during Ramadan, and that's a grace from Allah. That's a favour from Allah — to know what I am, so that I begin to seriously change that which is of me which I do not want and which Allah does not love.

The Essence of Fasting

And that's why, my dear brothers and sisters, I must remind myself again and you again: the essence of fasting — the month of Ramadan — is through first abstaining from the mufattirāt, from all that which breaks my fast and violates my fast, like eating and drinking and copulating and things that are mufattirāt. In addition to that, the essence of doing that is not just to do that — that's a means to something more important. Yes, Allah did require from us that, but that's as a means to something greater, something more important than not eating, than not drinking, than not copulating.

Something more important. For example — and I am only one who is here to remind first myself, then you — and yes, we repeat things from time to time so that we absorb them and we internalize them and we remember them and we strive to practice them.

So he said, ﷺ: when it is the day and anyone of you is fasting — that is, during the month of Ramadan or outside of the month of Ramadan, whenever we are fasting — this is what you need to do. Of the meaning of rafath is, again, the intimate spousal relationship. But rafath also means to be excessive in any way, to be fāsiq in any way, to practice that which is immoral in any way. And it is repeated: don't be one who is excessive. In other words, excess is when we say things, when we do things, when we feel things and allow those feelings that are immoral. When we say or do or feel that which is immoral — and immoral is excessive, sin is excessive, disobedience to Allah is excessive, a dhanb is excessive.

And also one must not yell, one must not be loud, one must not scream, one must not shout, one must not raise one's voice — don't do that, especially, he says, when you are fasting.

And then moreover, if now you are challenged — you are doing all of that, you are calm, you are doing your best, Alhamdulillah, you have these beautiful moral attitudes — and then someone comes from somewhere and abuses you: lies about you, cheats you, curses at you, hits you, fights you. SubhanAllah, you didn't do anything. Look what he says: don't do the same thing. Let her be, let him be. But instead you say to yourself: إِنِّي صَائِمٌ — remind yourself: I am fasting.

The Fasting of the Limbs

Now, what does that mean — I am fasting now? This is the second, deeper dimension of fasting. Because this is telling you — the first part of that text: don't do this, don't do that, don't do that when you are fasting. And then when this happens, this is the way you should react, because you are fasting. So what does fasting then mean at this level? It means to stop our limbs, our senses — like our eyes, our ears, our tongues, our hands — from doing and acting in ways that are immoral, and not only immoral, but that are not beautiful.

In other words: if I refrain from eating and drinking and copulating, then I don't control my tongue, I don't control my hands, I don't control my eyes, I don't control my ears, I don't control my power, I don't control my abilities, I don't control my resources and energies — then I am not really fasting the essence of fasting. Because with fasting comes that — that's part of fasting. As he said, ﷺ:

He said, ﷺ, emphasizing this dimension of fasting — the fasting of our limbs, the fasting of our eyes and ears and tongues and hands and legs and energies and abilities and power. When those are not fasting, then we are violating the essence of the fast. So in that context he says, ﷺ: therefore, the one who fasts but does not desist from things like that — and he gave an example: قَوْلَ الزُّورِ وَالْعَمَلَ بِهِ — such as testifying falsely and lying and lying against others — he says: those who do that while they are fasting, Allah is in no need, Allah is in no need, Allah is in no need for them to give up their eating and their drinking.

In other words, he is telling us the reality — the haqiqah, the essence — of fasting is this. Not eating comes from the fact that I have a will, and by that will I say no to something I want — which I usually do. What this is telling us is: we must transfer that will to all these things. That same will of saying no to the food — which is halal to eat originally — say no to it. That will must be translated and transferred to saying no to that which is usually not halal, haram.

Do you see? The will to say no to food — and food is halal regularly — that same will must be transferred to saying no to something haram. It should be much more easy. That's why training us in fasting by not eating that which is otherwise halal — and I have the will to stop that — that means it's going to be, and it should be, easier for me to have that same will, to use that same will, to stop from doing something that is haram or makrooh.

The Fasting of the Heart

And also, this second level — which is intended of fasting — is intended to lead me to fasting even at a deeper level: that my qalb fasts, that my heart fasts. My heart fasts from harbouring and allowing and nurturing feelings and emotions and drives that are base and low and cheap and ugly and immoral and sinful and criminal. That my qalb fasts from allowing attributes and traits that are ugly. He doesn't want me fasting of my heart in a condition — that Allah does not find my heart in a condition in which He doesn't love — a condition of kibr, or ghuroor, or riya', or other things. That my qalb is in fasting. I don't allow the feelings and the emotions that are wrong.

Did Allah not say:

Verily the hearing and the eyesight and the heart — all of those, the human being is to be held responsible for. I am going to be held responsible for what I allow inside of me — of feelings that are harmful, that are immoral, that are wrong at any level — in my relationship with Allah directly, or in my relationship with Allah indirectly through my relationship with the creation of Allah. My heart must fast.

Allah says: you must know that Allah knows what you harbour inside of yourselves — so be cautious of Him, beware of Allah. And there is the siyām of my qalb, the fasting of my heart — that I do not allow, that I must screen what goes into my heart and what comes from my heart. That is part of fasting.

Those Whose Only Reward Is Hunger and Fatigue

And that's why he said, ﷺ:

(Sunan Ibn Mājah, Hadith 1690; authenticated by al-Albāni)

He said, ﷺ, in this context: there are those who fast, but the only benefit they harvest from their fast is hunger — that's it. Not eating, not drinking — hungry, thirsty. In other words, the essence of fasting is gone. Because those of us like that — we fast in that first, dimensional aspect of fasting, that exterior aspect of fasting — we do that and we must, of course we do that. But we do not fast with our tongues, we do not fast with our eyes, we do not fast with our ears, we do not fast with our hands, we do not fast with our hearts, with our minds, with our emotions, with our feelings, with our akhlāq — we do not fast. So he says, those of us like that — the only benefit we get is hunger. That's terrible.

And he adds: and in qiyāmu al-layl — tarāwīh and qiyām — there are those who practice qiyām, and the only benefit they have from that tarāwīh and that qiyām is, guess what — fatigue and sleeplessness. Why? Because in that qiyām, like that siyām, the qalb is in the wrong condition and the jawārih are in the wrong state, and thus we would not be fulfilling the reality of fasting.

O Allah, please ease them for us. O Allah, make us of those who stand in prayer in a way that benefits us, and who fast in a way that benefits us with You, O Most Merciful of the merciful, O Lord of all the worlds.

I say these words of mine and I seek the forgiveness of Allah, the Magnificent, for myself and for you — so seek His forgiveness. Tuba — what an excellent abode — awaits those who sincerely seek forgiveness from Allah.

Second Khutbah — Du'ā

Alhamdulillahi wa kafa, wa sallallahu 'ala 'ibadihi alladhina istafa.

O Allah, please help us be of those who will fast this month of Ramadan in full faith and full expectation of Your benevolent rewards. O Allah, don't entrust us to us — especially during this month. Don't let us, even during this month, end up bankrupt. O Allah, please correct us, rectify us, bring us back to You during this month, so that after this month the momentum of Ramadan will not stop — by Your grace, by Your favour, by Your bounty.

O Allah, we are weak, we are weak, we are weak — do not entrust us to that weakness. Change our weakness into strength in what You love, O Most Merciful of the merciful, O Lord of all the worlds.

Remember Allah — He will remember you. Rise for your prayer. May Allah inspire you.