EPIC MASJID, Imam Nadeem Bashir, 10 Days of Zul-Hijjah

The Sacred Ten Days of Dhul Hijjah

Respected brothers and sisters in Islam, as you all know that we have entered into the very first 10 sacred days of the month of Dhul Hijjah. Of course, as you all know that the month of Dhul Hijjah, especially the very first 10 days, has a great and a very high position according to the teachings of the Qur'an and the teachings of Rasulullah ﷺ. This month in particular is very, very special. It is the last month of our lunar calendar, which is our Islamic year, then followed by the month of Muharram once again.

It is the month where people who go for Hajj, they go and they revive — not only do they, but the ones who are even at home, who are not able to perform Hajj that year, we revive the Sunnah of Ibrahim عليه السلام. The ones who are going for Hajj, they revive the practices of Ibrahim عليه السلام and Hajar عليها السلام. This is the month where when people go for Hajj, it is such an amazing experience.

For those who have not gone for Hajj, and even if we have gone for Hajj only once or twice, this should not stop us from asking Allah over and over again to give us the ability to go and make ziyarah of this sacred place — the most sacred place on the face of this earth.

The Special Acceptance of Hajj

Keeping in mind is that this Hajj, when a person goes for Hajj, it is such an experience. And it is accepted by Allah that a person can have fulfilled all the resources — a person can be financially stable, he can have the time, he or she could make all the arrangements — but if Allah does not want a person to come to Him, this person will never be able to perform Hajj. This is a very special acceptance by Allah.

So that's why first of all is that we should continue to make du'a to Allah: O Allah, regardless of my financial resources, regardless of what I have in my capacity to go for Hajj, O Allah, You bring me to Your place. O Allah, accept me.

That is when people go for Hajj and Allah does accept them — they continue to go for Hajj. I graduated from Al-Islamiyyah University in 2003. Till that time, my own teacher who taught me Sahih Bukhari, he had performed Hajj before that year — he had gone for Hajj for 24 years consecutively. Till this year, just right now I found out from some of my classmates that his wife has passed away, yet he is in Hajj. He is making du'a for his wife and he has now been in Hajj for almost 34 years consecutively. When a person is accepted by Allah, he will continue to go and make ziyarah of this special place on the face of this earth.

Equality in Hajj

Keeping in mind is that Hajj is so special, such an amazing experience, that everyone is equal before Allah. When you look at the pilgrims — the hujjaj, the brothers and sisters — when they go to Mina, when they go to Arafah, when they go to Muzdalifah, when they go back to Mina, they are all in white. Regardless of their color, regardless of their ethnicity, regardless of their financial status — it can be a king, it could be the poorest person on the face of this earth. It could be a person of this ethnicity or that ethnicity, from this culture or from that culture.

But when you see everyone doing something together — whether it is in Mina, whether it is in Arafah, whether it is in Muzdalifah — in Muzdalifah there are no exceptions for anyone. Regardless of your status, everyone is sleeping beneath the stars. Everyone is sleeping on the face of this earth beneath the stars. Everyone is equal before Allah.

So first of all is that this month is very, very special because of this sacred experience, because of this very amazing experience which is called Hajj.

Lessons from the Story of Ibrahim عليه السلام

But keeping in mind — besides Hajj — where did this all start from? It all started from Ibrahim عليه السلام. There are so many things that we can learn from Ibrahim عليه السلام. And what I would encourage even parents: you must create an atmosphere in your home. You must create an environment in the home where there is a vibe, where children are looking forward to the month of Dhul Hijjah. They are aware of the month of Dhul Hijjah.

Parents usually tend to rely completely on Islamic schools or Sunday schools to teach our children about who Ibrahim عليه السلام was, and why this month is so special, and why Hajj is so special, and why this day of Eid ul-Adha which is coming up soon is so special. We tend to rely on those kinds of things whereas we need to create an atmosphere in our own home.

Parents should sit down with their own children and tell them the story of Ibrahim عليه السلام. Who was Ibrahim? What did he do? How was his early life a struggle? How he was thrown into the fire and he was tested in that way? How he was forced to make hijrah with his wife Hajar عليها السلام? And then what happened to her? What happened to Ismail عليه السلام? And then what happened after that when Ibrahim عليه السلام came back to visit his family? And then they constructed the Ka'bah where people were making tawaf around the Ka'bah. What happened to the well of Zamzam? The history of the well of Zamzam. Who was it? Then the well of Zamzam was covered and was not to be found for so many years. Who rediscovered the well of Zamzam?

We don't sit down with our children and give them this history. There are two reasons for that. First of all is that we don't think it is important. Number two is that we may not even know about the history ourselves — we as parents may not even know the full and entire information regarding Ibrahim عليه السلام. But we need to create an atmosphere within our own homes. We must.

If this environment is not created within our own homes, where will our children learn from? Sit down with them and teach them who Ibrahim عليه السلام was.

When we look at the story and analyze the story of Ibrahim عليه السلام, there are many things that we can learn. But I just want to share with you only two things from the story of Ibrahim عليه السلام that we can really learn from.

First Lesson: Sacrifice for the Sake of Allah

The very first thing is that there will be times in our life where we will have to make a sacrifice for the sake of Allah. And keeping in mind is that when a person makes a sacrifice for Allah, Allah will never let their efforts go to waste.

Imagine the situation Ibrahim عليه السلام is put in. He is ordered by Allah to leave his family. Today when a person has to move from one place to another, they go and scout out the area. They look at which area is closest to the masjid, which area is safe, where less crimes are committed, which area is close to school. We look for all these things.

But imagine Ibrahim عليه السلام is told just to go and leave his family in a place where, as the Qur'an describes:

There are no resources of life. There are no sources of life. Wherever you look there is a desert. Would anyone today go and leave their family — a wife and a small child — in a desert? Absolutely not. No one would do that. But Ibrahim عليه السلام did this. Why? Because it was the order of Allah.

And when he left his family, his wife Hajar عليها السلام said: Are you going to leave us here in a place where there is nothing? I don't see anything around. There is no water. There is no source of life here.

And then Hajar عليها السلام said to Ibrahim عليه السلام:

Did Allah order you to put us here in this situation? Did Allah order you to leave us here? — (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 3364)

And he just gave the nod. He said yes. And then look at the iman. Look at the iman of this woman. When she knew that it was the order of Allah, what came out of her mouth? She did not say, "Ibrahim, you have lost your mind," or "Ibrahim, you have gone crazy that you are leaving us here in a place where there is nothing." She said:

If Allah has ordered us to be here in this situation with all these circumstances, then Allah will not let our efforts go to waste. — (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 3364)

Not only that, but then Ibrahim عليه السلام was challenged again. He sees in a dream that he is sacrificing his son. It was not something easy, because according to the proper aqidah, the dreams of the anbiya were a direct message from Allah — they were a wahi from Allah. Ibrahim عليه السلام comes to his son and he executes the order of Allah. What was that? It was a challenge from Allah.

Not only that, but Hajar عليها السلام was also tested. For a mother like that, alone with a small child, it is said that she was running between the mountains of Safa and Marwah. This action was so beloved to Allah that till today, every person who goes for Hajj or Umrah performs this sa'i between Safa and Marwah.

Not only that, but they also perform the actions performed by Hajar عليها السلام — when she was confronted by Shaytan, when Shaytan came to her and told her that Ibrahim عليه السلام had taken her son to sacrifice him. What did she do? She realized that this was the order of Allah, and to keep Shaytan away from her, she picked up stones and she pelted the Shaytan. This too was so beloved to Allah that today, a person who goes for Hajj pelts the Shaytan for three consecutive days — on the 10th of Dhul Hijjah, the 11th of Dhul Hijjah, and the 12th of Dhul Hijjah. The very first day they pelt the Shaytan seven times; the other two days they pelt the Shaytan 21 times each. This was so beloved to Allah that till today, every person who goes for Hajj has to perform these actions.

So first of all, what we learn from the story of Ibrahim عليه السلام is that there will be challenges that come our way from Allah. It will happen. It's part of the challenge of life. Allah says:

Do you simply believe that you say "I believe in Allah" and you will not be challenged? Every person sitting here in this gathering has their own challenges, their own problems — something that may bother us at night, something that may bother us at work. There's something that's always there. We may have our own issues, our own challenges. But a true believer, like we learn from Ibrahim عليه السلام, never loses focus from Allah. They always realize that when there's a challenge and you have to give up something for the sake of Allah, Allah will never let your efforts go to waste. This is the very first lesson that we learn from the story of Ibrahim عليه السلام.

Second Lesson: Family Iman and Collective Effort

The second and very important lesson that we learn from the story of Ibrahim عليه السلام is something that took place within a family — something that we need to work upon as a family. Each individual family needs to work upon this.

When we look at the story of Ibrahim عليه السلام, we see the level of iman of Ibrahim عليه السلام. He was able to leave his family. He never second-guessed. When Allah ordered him to leave his family in a desert, he never questioned again. When Hajar عليها السلام knew that she had to stay there, she never second-guessed the order of Allah. She never questioned the order of Allah.

Look at the iman of the child, Ismail عليه السلام. When Ibrahim عليه السلام said to him:

"I see in my dream that I am sacrificing you for the sake of Allah. What is your opinion in regards to this? What do you think about this?" What did Ismail عليه السلام say?

"O my father, O my beloved father, you do as you have been told to do." This is what you call iman. Strong iman of a child. Do any one of our children have the iman like the iman of Ismail عليه السلام? Absolutely not. Our children today, our teenagers, don't have that same iman today. But look at the iman of Ismail عليه السلام.

Again, look at the iman of Hajar عليها السلام. When Shaytan came to her to tell her that her son had been taken away to be sacrificed, and when she knew that this was the order of Allah, she never second-guessed, she never questioned — but rather she pelted the Shaytan to keep him away from her.

My respected brothers and sisters, what we learn from this is that there was a constant effort within the family. This family — the father, the mother, the child — their iman was very, very strong. Their connection with Allah was very, very strong. And we need to work upon this.

Today we see in our families that sometimes the father is very weak in iman and the wife might be very, very strong. It may be vice versa. It might be the complete opposite — the father is very, very strong, comes to the masjid all the time, does so much, and the wife is lacking in her iman. Sometimes it is the case where both parents are lacking, and the children are the ones who are very active in their community, come to the masjid, and their iman is strong. And sometimes it might be the complete opposite — the parents are doing so much, but the children are not. What we learned from Ibrahim عليه السلام is that everyone in the family needs to make an effort to increase their iman. Everyone needs to do something better to become closer to Allah, and to become Muslims who are more adherent to the teachings of the Qur'an and the Sunnah of Rasulullah ﷺ. We need to continue to make an effort upon this.

Once again, I'm going to say this, and I have no problem saying this: Do not — if your kids are going to Islamic school — do not rely on the Islamic school. Tarbiyah starts at home. Tarbiyah starts at home. It is not the responsibility of the Islamic schools. You have to teach your kids at home and you have to do the proper tarbiyah of your kids at home. That is where tarbiyah starts.

So that's why we need to create an environment within our homes regarding these 10 days. Teach them about Ibrahim عليه السلام and let them know who Ismail عليه السلام was. Our wives should know who Hajar عليها السلام was, and how much sacrifice she made overall.

The Virtue of the First Ten Days of Dhul Hijjah

These 10 days — especially the very first 10 days of Dhul Hijjah — are very, very special. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, as narrated by Ibn Abbas رضي الله عنه in a hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari, to the near effect, that the deeds performed in these 10 days are very, very beloved and very, very dear to Allah. The Sahabah sitting around in the gathering of the Prophet ﷺ questioned him and asked: Is this even more beloved and more virtuous than striving in the path of Allah? And he ﷺ said: Yes, this is even more than that — unless a person goes with his wealth and his belongings and does not return back.

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 969)

So this is something that we need to understand — that these 10 days are very, very beloved. Not only that, but in the Qur'an, Allah swears upon these 10 days. He swears upon the time of Fajr, the break of dawn, and then He swears upon these 10 nights:

According to many scholars of tafsir, these 10 nights refer to the first 10 nights of Dhul Hijjah — a testament to their immense virtue and standing before Allah.