4 Ways to Plan for Ramadan | Jumuah Khutbah | Imam Nadim Bashir | EPIC Masjid

First of all, as you all know that inshAllah Tuesday night will be our very first tarawih, inshAllah Wednesday will be our very first day of Ramadan. May Allah grant us Ramadan. May Allah grant us the last ten nights of Ramadan and may Allah grant us many more Ramadans, ameen.

Few requests for du'as. There is a request for brother Mazen Kahala who is dealing with severe complications after suffering a stroke while he was in Paris. He is the brother of brother Shafiq and the brother-in-law to brother Wael, both of them are members of our community. So we ask Allah to make it easy for him. May Allah grant him shifa.

Number two is a request from a sister by the name of Halima. She used to work here. Her mom is extremely sick and is in the hospital. So we ask Allah that He grants her shifa. May Allah grant everyone who is sick shifa.

We ask Allah the Great, Lord of the mighty throne to cure them. اللهم اشف مرضانا ومرضى المسلمين, and all of those who may have passed away may Allah have mercy upon them. اللهم ارحم موتانا وموتى المسلمين, ameen.

You see for 11 months, there is a focus on the body in itself. We focus so much on how we appear to others. Whether in terms of our physique, whether it is in terms of our reputation. But the focus is always on the outside, the external aspect of our life. Ramadan comes to focus on the internal aspect of our life. Because Allah, when He created this body, the most crucial part is the heart. And that is why throughout the entire year, we listen to khatirahs, we listen to khutbahs, spiritual reminders, whether it is on social media or what not. But the point is that we always get a dose of spirituality. However, when it comes to Ramadan, there is an environment that is created, so that is an environment that is conducive to that spirituality. And this is all from the mercy of Allah.

So with that in mind inshAllah, in today's khutbah, I want to share with you four areas, four things that we need to do when it comes to Ramadan and how do we plan for Ramadan.

1. The Importance of Proper Planning

The very first point is that when we talk about planning, there is a saying in English that if you fail to plan, then you are planning to fail. If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail. And the reality is that just like when you have a guest that is coming over to your home. Imagine if you have a guest that is coming from overseas, and they are going to be staying at your home probably for two weeks, for three weeks or even for a month. You start planning in advance. You start talking to your spouse. You start talking to your children. You start making space in your house, especially if they have a family. You are thinking about where we are going to eat, where we are going to take them. You start creating plans. Likewise, Ramadan is no different. It is a guest that comes within our home and stays there in our home for 30 days. 30 days within our lives and it comes with a lot of blessings. So when we talk about planning, there has to be some very serious planning when it comes to Ramadan.

And by the way, this concept of planning is something that we see even in the Qur'an, and we see even in the Sunnah of Rasulullah ﷺ. When you talk about the story of Yusuf عليه السلام for example, when he saw the dream of seven lean cows versus seven fat cows, and he interpreted the dream by saying that we need to stock up for a certain amount of years, because there is going to be a certain amount of years of drought that will come. And so through his wisdom and ingenuity, he came up with a plan in a way that the people of Egypt will not suffer financially when they go through that drought. What was that all about? That was called planning. This is part of Qur'anic wisdom.

When you study the life of Rasulullah ﷺ, there is a surah known as Surah al-Isra. And this surah though it is talking about Masjid al-Aqsa in the beginning, it's talking about the 10 commandments. And some of the sahaba they said that there are some commandments in there that is very similar to the 10 commandments that we see within even the Jewish faith or in the Christian faith. But the point is that you have all these teachings, but this surah was revealed where? Not in Medina, but in Mecca. People of Mecca did not know about the people of Medina. They did not know the stories that took place where the Jewish community is more attuned to. So the point is that why did Allah send down this surah in Mecca? Because Allah is preparing Rasulullah ﷺ that you are going to go to Medina, and you need to be prepared before you go to Medina in terms of what you're about to face. You need to be educated about their matters. When it comes to the battle of Badr, when it comes to battle of Uhud, Rasulullah ﷺ the way he is strategically positioned was all about planning. So planning is part of our deen.

You know when you say that I don't plan things, this is showing that we're not taking our deen seriously. We find it from Rasulullah ﷺ, we find it in the Qur'an. Hence when Ramadan is coming you and I, we all need to plan. And what do we plan for? We plan on how am I going to spend my Ramadan. This is what we need to ask ourselves. How am I approaching Ramadan?

Because there's a hadith of the Prophet ﷺ that you and I we have heard so many times. Yet we don't pay attention to this hadith. It is the very first hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari, and it is also the very first hadith in Riyad al-Saliheen, which is:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1)

Everything is dependent on the intention. If my intention going into Ramadan is, this is just like any other Ramadan. I will fast, I go for tarawih, and this is what my Ramadan is. Then wallahi that's all you will get from Ramadan. You will actually fast, and only Allah knows the quality of our fast. And we'll go for tarawih, and we'll get tired the last 10 nights, and then comes Eid, and that is it. Because that was our intention.

So many people ask me that Ramadan came, and Ramadan left, and I did not change. Why is that the case? Because we need to assess what was our intention prior to approaching Ramadan. This is also part of planning. What is my intention? That is what we need to ask ourselves. Is my intention that I want to become a better person? Then inshAllah if you work towards that, and you strive towards that, you cannot just make a plan and then take a step back. You gotta make a plan, and then you gotta execute the plan. That is what we need to do, and then guidance will come from Allah. First we have to do what we have to do within our own capacity, the rest is in the hands of Allah عز وجل.

So if I approach Ramadan that I want to improve my akhlaq, and then I use Ramadan, and I try to find moments to control myself to exhibit good akhlaq, then inshAllah Ramadan will be a positive for us. But if I approach Ramadan like many of us we do, then we will leave Ramadan with nothing in hand by the time Eid comes. So the very first thing is that we need to plan properly when it comes to Ramadan.

2. Spiritual Preparation for Ramadan

The second point in this khutbah is that there has to be spiritual preparation for Ramadan. That means that as Allah says, the successful are those who have made an effort on their spirituality.

These are things that we find many times in the Qur'an. But the point is that we need to work on our spirituality. This is the greatest, perhaps the most important objective of Ramadan. It is not about our grocery list, it is not about our recipes, it's not about stacking our freezers, it's not about the clothes that we will wear, it's not even about the decorations. I'm not against decorations by the way. If you do decorations at the house, good for you. But it's not about these things. It's about what we will achieve in Ramadan.

And that is why I need to ask myself, that am I committing haram in my life? Then I'm gonna use Ramadan as a catalyst to get away from that haram. Am I involved in riba? Am I involved in drinking? And this is something that happens in our Muslim community. When I say drinking, you're thinking like, oh, this is not our problem, this is their problem. No, this happens in our community by the way. Let's not be oblivious of the realities. The zina that happens within community members, within people in our community. When it comes to taking advantage of others, when it comes to stealing from others, cheating others in business. There are so many things that we are doing today that are haram. And then we ask Allah that why is Allah doing to me what He does to me? Why is Allah bringing challenges in my life? Now the challenges could be, by the way, it could be either because Allah wants us to become better, or it could be a result of our sins. But the point is that we are involved in haram. Then I need to use Ramadan to get out of the haram.

And by the way, it does not have to be all the haram. If yes, the more you can get out of the haram, the better it is. But just try to make only one change in Ramadan. If you're not praying salah, use Ramadan that I will fix at least just one thing. So that when by the time Eid comes, I'm not gonna disconnect myself from the masjid. I'm gonna continuously come to the masjid. You, yourself, I, myself, I know, and you all know where your weaknesses are. And all you need to do is to sit down and tell yourself that in this Ramadan, I am weak in one or two areas. I'm not gonna try to fix everything right now in this one Ramadan. I'm gonna take only just one or two. And I'm just going to focus on that. And that is it. That is what we need to focus on.

And not only that, but when it comes to our spirituality, anything that is an impediment to our spirituality, we need to leave all of that too. So that is why, again, I'm gonna be very blunt when I say this. If there is, you know, subhanAllah, in Ramadan, when it comes, there are so many iftar parties, people go for iftar parties, then they miss isha, then they miss tarawih, because they have stuffed themselves. What is the point of Ramadan? When people go to all these suhoor fests, I'm very much against these suhoor fests because it is nothing but just open mixing and socializing. Now someone may say that, well, you go in society, there's all mixing, I get it. But you don't need to go to these kind of places. Is someone putting a gun to your head and say, you have to go? No. You don't have to go, you don't have to go. Ramadan is not a time where we excel, where we are supposed to excel is in spirituality. Where we do excel in Ramadan is in socialization. That is what happens. And let me be also blunt about this, and I know this is gonna ruffle some feathers with some of the young brothers.

Planning for Ramadan

But even when it comes to Ramadan hoops, why is it that there's only one time of the year that you can find a time to do a tournament and that has to be in Ramadan? Could you not find any other time? You have 11 months. I mean, my God, 11 months. And it did not come to your mind that let's do a tournament at some other time, but let's leave Ramadan to Allah. No, it has to be Ramadan, as if there is some kind of fadail and hooping while it is in Ramadan. That's the point. We have to understand what is the spirit of Ramadan. So this is the point number two.

Planning Our Time for Ibadah

Point number three. Also when it comes to planning, we need to plan our time when it comes to Ramadan. When it comes to our istighfar, when it comes to our Quran, you need to sit down and sit down with your family. Sit down with your wife, sit down with your husband. Husband and wife have work, then plan out accordingly. If it comes down to picking up the children, plan out accordingly. Sit down, you need to ask yourself, what is that time that you're gonna give to the Quran? There has to be some time of the day you're gonna give to the Quran. There's gonna be some time where you have to give to dua.

When it comes to our sisters, our sisters should not be in the kitchen all the way till iftar time. They should be out of the kitchen at least 20-25 minutes before iftar, so that you can sit down as a family and focus on dua. Remind each other, teach your kids how to make dua. We don't know even how to make dua. You make dua in a certain way. This is why this time is there. So you need to sit down with your family and plan all this out. What time you're gonna go to work? What time you're gonna come back? Who's gonna pick up the kids? If there are different activities, extracurricular activities after school, who's gonna work on that? Who's gonna take the kids? And everyone needs to get an adequate amount of sleep, an adequate amount of rest, an adequate amount of time to themselves, and time for spirituality.

This planning is also extremely crucial, which we often don't do. How we approach Ramadan is, we will just go with the flow. And then we go with the flow, and sometimes if our ibadah, in my Quran, in my dua, if it can fit in, we will fit it in. But the priority is everything else. No, if you again, as I said, if you fail to plan, you're planning to fail. Simple as that.

Teaching Our Children About Ramadan

And the last important point that I will make is that when it comes to our children, we need to plan and how to teach our kids about what Ramadan is. As adults, you might go to this khatira and this lecture, and you might do all this. That's fine. But at the same time, we need to teach our kids. Because at the end of the day, either they will become a sadaqa jariya for us, or they will become a burden for us on the day of judgment. That is the reality. If I educate my kids properly, they will become sadaqa jariya for me. If I don't educate them properly, and this whole idea that, oh, I will teach them later on. This is a very big misconception.

Sit down with your kids and teach them how to make dua. Sit down with your kids and go through one hadith of Rasulullah ﷺ. And you don't have to give them an aqeedah lecture. You don't have to do all that. All that our kids today need, and I've talked about this before, they just need adab and akhlaq. They don't even have that. I'm being honest with you. Majority of us, we don't teach our kids just simple adab. When they come here to the masjid, how do they behave? They're running around. They have no respect for the masjid. And not only that, when they come inside the masjid, when they go anywhere else, they have no akhlaq, they have no adab. And then parents get embarrassed. And then they start yelling at their kids, why did you do this? Why are you embarrassing me? Well you as a parent, I'm sorry to say that you did not take out the time to teach them akhlaq and adab. That's what it is.

Now even when it comes to Ramadan, the reality is that when kids come to the masjid, there are so many cases where bullying goes on outside, doing tarawih. Teach your kids that this is not part of who we are as Muslims. They're going around destroying property. They're going around destroying, you know, messing around with certain things, breaking certain things around the masjid. Using profanity inside the masjid. Using racial slurs against other kids. What are we teaching our kids? Ramadan is the time to teach and educate your kids.

The Reality of Parental Responsibility

When you see your kids doing something that is wrong, if you bring your kids to the masjid, and they're misbehaving, and they're damaging property, I have seen it so many times. Where the parent is brought in, and the child is sitting over there, and the board members are telling that mother or that father, first of all, you'll find a lot of fathers, they'll become defensive. No, my son is Jibril. He cannot do this. No, your son is not Jibril. And you think your kids are so innocent. Your kids are not so innocent. No matter how much you educate them, their shaitan is always gonna be with them. So first of all, you have a lot of parents who will come and be very defensive about it.

Then when they see the footage, that their kids are actually do, they are destroying property, they are using racial slurs, they are using profanity inside the masjid when they come here for tarawih. Or they're doing things in the back like such as there are so many young brothers and young sisters, I'm gonna say this. So many young brothers and young sisters go back in the masjid, and it's like a halal dating site. It's right there in the back of the masjid. And all this is happening, and you think that your kids are mashallah, you know, Maryam and Jibril. That's not the way it works.

And when they see the footage, then what happens is, that, oh, okay, I did not teach them this. Of course, I know you probably did not teach them this. They probably learnt it somewhere else, but that does not exempt you from playing your parental role. That is a time when you sit down and you teach them, you educate them. And this simple thing that I told them so many times, what are you doing as a parent? Like, what is your role as a parent? I gotta really ask you. If you think that, oh, my kids are not doing it, well then buckle down, hunker down, play your role as a parent. Allah made you a parent for a reason. Not so that they are in charge and you are subservient to them. It should be the other way around. Where you are in charge and they are subservient to you as a parent. You need to put your foot down as a parent.

So that is why when it comes to planning, part of planning is that we need to teach our kids what Ramadan is all about. Sit down with them. Even if they are making dua, and even if they are asking for things that even what amuses them, what amuses them, let it be. But this is how you teach them how to make dua. This is what Ramadan is.

The Four Essential Points

So there are four things that we need to do. Number one as I talked about, planning is an Islamic concept that we should not ignore. Number two was that there has to be a spiritual plan going forward when it comes to Ramadan, understanding what is the spirit of Ramadan. Number three, there has to be a planning in terms of time, how we plan to use our time. And number four is how do we plan to teach our children this is the time. These few days that we have before Ramadan, this is why they are there.

So we ask Allah that as Ramadan is approaching, may Allah grant us the tawfiq to prepare for the month of Ramadan. And may Allah give us the tawfiq to make the right intention before Ramadan approaches so that we can have a spiritual Ramadan and we can become a better person throughout the month of Ramadan.

Du'a

آمين رب العالمين

فَاذْكُرُونِي أَذْكُرْكُمْ وَاشْكُرُوا لِي وَلَا تَكْفُرُونِ

أَقِمِ الصَّلَاةَ

Straighten your lines, fill in the gaps. Brothers in the lobby area, please come inside the main hall. Sisters, please straighten the lines, fill in the gaps. Brothers in the back two rooms, please make sure you come inside the main hall first. Brothers in the back room, please make sure the rows are complete.