Ramadan: The Blessed Guest, Purifying Hearts for Taqwa

The Blessed Guest: Preparing for the Month of Ramadan

Beloved brothers and sisters, esteemed and honorable elders and guests of Allah — as many of us are perhaps anticipating or aware of, there is a very beautiful, wonderful guest that is inshallah approaching and coming our way. This is a time in the year, this is a time in the life of a Muslim that a Muslim always looks forward to. Such that the sahaba رضي الله عنهم, they would wait for over six months in anticipation for this month. They would prepare themselves extensively for this month. And this is none other than the month of Ramadan.

Sayyid al-Shuhur — The Leader of All Months

The month of Ramadan is such a wonderful month that in a hadith it is mentioned that Rasulullah ﷺ even referred to it as Sayyid al-Shuhur — the leader of all months. And Allah addresses us in the Qur'an so beautifully:

That is: "O you who believe, fasting has been prescribed upon you, as it was prescribed upon those before you, so that you may attain taqwa."

This is one of the specialities of the Qur'an that no other book has — wherein the reader himself is being addressed. Allah says, Ya ayyuhal ladheena amanu — oh you who believe. Kutiba alaykumus siyam — fasting has been prescribed upon you.

The first thing that we think about — unfortunately, many of us, hopefully this is not the case, and if it is then inshallah we can change our mindset — is that many of us wonder, "Oh man, how are we supposed to fast all of these days? These long days, and we have to stay away from food, we have to stay away from this and that." But Allah says, kama kutiba alal ladheena min qablikum — this has already been prescribed upon many other nations and generations before you.

In a narration of Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Rasulullah ﷺ mentions how this aspect of fasting for a duration of time was even mandated upon other prophets and their nations as well. So kama kutiba alal ladheena min qablikum — this is a tried and practiced method. La'allakum tattaqun — for various different benefits, the most important of which is that it brings a person closer to Allah.

The Rust on the Heart

Throughout the year we are engaged in so many different activities, and slowly our hearts become covered with different layers of dust and different specks of darkness. Rasulullah ﷺ has mentioned that when a person commits a sin, then his heart becomes covered with a nuqtatun sawda — a small black dot.

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3334)

If a person nazaa wa istaghfara wa taaba — if a person stops, repents, and turns back to Allah — then suqila qalbuhu — his heart is purified. But if he does not, then it fills with more and more and more. Until a time comes where Rasulullah ﷺ even likened this heart — the heart of a believer — to the heart of a disbeliever. Where Rasulullah ﷺ said the same ayah will apply:

"Nay! Rather, the rust of the sins which they committed has covered their hearts."

That a time — may Allah protect us all — may come to certain individuals where their hearts are so rusted because of the deeds that they were involved in, that their connection with Allah is completely gone. It's like a disbeliever — no matter what you tell him at times, it doesn't have any impact. No matter what signs manifest before him in his life, it does not cause him to turn towards Allah. So Rasulullah ﷺ mentions — may Allah protect us all from this type of heart — that if a person is not particular and not careful, then a time comes where his heart is completely engulfed.

And every single Muslim — you can say 99% of individuals — after the month of Ramadan, if you were to ask them, if you were to take a poll amongst all the Muslims in the world: "Do you feel spiritually better and more connected to your Creator than before the month of Ramadan?" — it is quite likely 99.9% of them will say yes. And the reason for that is because of the power of this month.

The Stained Garment — A Parable

There is one sheikh who mentions: if a person really cares about their clothing and it gets dirty, then immediately — say you are wearing a wonderful, beautiful white thobe like many are wearing today — if there is a stain of ketchup or something spills on it, if you really care about it, you are going to go immediately and attend to it. You are going to clean it. And for most people when they fall into sin, that is what happens — we feel bad and we immediately repent to Allah.

But there are certain times when such a heavy stain enters and falls on the clothing where now water is not sufficient enough — now you have to apply a very strong chemical, like bleach, to wipe it away. And for the believers, Allah has provided such solutions throughout the year, and the greatest of these arguably is the month of Ramadan — provided that a person uses his time wisely.

The Virtues of Ramadan

With regards to the month of Ramadan, there are so many different virtues. With regards to every aspect of the month of Ramadan, every action that a person engages in during this month, there are hundreds of virtues. And unfortunately, because of lack of time, we cannot go through all of them. Just going through those verses in Surah al-Baqarah where Allah talks about the act of fasting, then highlighting the fact that this month is so special because of the Qur'an, how much Qur'an is recited in this month — then Allah continues and talks about the aspect of du'a, and then the aspect of breaking one's fast, and then i'tikaf — so on and so forth. All of these are mentioned in the ayat of the Qur'an and each one is coupled with hundreds of virtues. Unfortunately we don't have the time to go through all of them.

Jannah Beautifies Itself for Ramadan

Rasulullah ﷺ has mentioned in a hadith that throughout the year, Jannah itself — paradise, so beautiful that Rasulullah ﷺ, describing it, said the likes of which the eyes have never seen, the ears have never heard of, and the thought of which has never crossed a person's heart — this is where Allah mentions:

"No person knows what beauties have been hidden, waiting for them in Jannah, all as a reward for the good actions that the believers do in this world."

Allah mentions with regards to Jannah as well: whatever your heart's desire, you will find there. Whatever you wish for, whatever you summon — it is going to be there. But despite the fact that Jannah is so beautiful, Allah beautifies it even more. Allah addresses Jannah in another hadith and says: beautify yourself. SubhanAllah! The whole year is taken in preparation for beautifying Jannah — just for the advent of Ramadan. Just to accommodate the believers and the actions that are being sent up for them, and to welcome those people also who perhaps pass away in the month of Ramadan and who attain Jannah and protection from the fire of Jahannam in this month, as Rasulullah ﷺ mentioned.

May Allah protect us. There is one group of individuals that Rasulullah ﷺ actually made du'a against — that may that individual be distanced from the mercy of Allah — that individual to whom the month of Ramadan comes, yet all the others attain salvation from Jahannam and attain Jannah, while that person is left behind.

Thus, Jannah is beautified for the believers. If you look at the world around us — and I'm speaking quickly because there is very little time — anytime there is an occasion where there is an influential person visiting, you'll find there is preparation. If you're bringing a guest over — maybe he's a close friend, he'll be there for a few minutes — maybe you'll even call home and say, "I'm bringing a friend, can you just prepare something?" If it's a larger gathering that doesn't happen so often, you'll beautify the house, ensure that you vacuum everything, everything will be spick and span. And subhanAllah, if there's a very great individual — a dignitary visiting the town — then even more preparation is done. All the potholes are patched up, for example, in preparation for that auspicious occasion.

And now look at what is being prepared — Jannah itself. Why? For the month of Ramadan. That shows how wonderful and amazing this month is.

Multiplied Rewards in Ramadan

Rasulullah ﷺ addressed the sahaba right before the month of Ramadan and mentioned various different things. One of the things that he mentioned is: whoever performs an act of good in this month, a voluntary action, it will be given the reward as though it is a mandated action. A person does a nafl action — he'll receive the reward of having performed a fard action. Imagine the nafl prayers that we do will be equated to fard actions in this month — which is not found in any other month.

And that individual who performs a fard action — an obligatory action — in this particular month, Rasulullah ﷺ says in another hadith that no person can outperform the fard actions which Allah has ordained upon us. So if we are not particular about our salah, we are not particular about our zakah, we are not particular about the fasting itself — then this is something that we should become particular about. Rasulullah ﷺ mentioned such a person will receive 70 times the reward.

Imagine if you and I had a box — and this box was such that every time you pressed the button, you would receive 70 dollars — and you had one month to benefit from this box. Then what would you do? What would you and I do? We would stand there until we drop dead, until we pass out, pressing this button again and again. And then when we're about to pass out, we wouldn't just stop — we'd call our other family members: "Hello, stand here, ensure that you're constantly pressing this button so we can maximize" — because we're seeing the results. This is similar to what Rasulullah ﷺ was describing.

The Story of the Unwanted Guest

I'll end off with this. On one occasion there was an alim who was passing through a town. This town had never really received ulema before, so they were very happy, very surprised. They called everyone in the town for a meeting, saying: "This great alim is going to speak to us." So he spoke to them and he said: "There is a wonderful guest that is coming. The name of this guest is Ramadan. He is going to come at this particular time — when the new moon happens — and he is going to be here for this amount of time."

They were so happy, their faces were gleaming, because no one had ever addressed them before, no one had ever cared about them. But as he was speaking and telling them, their smiles turned into frowns. He finished his lecture and left.

Then they said: "Mandatory town meeting — what are we going to discuss? What are we going to do with this guest? We're not used to this. How are we supposed to stay away from food? How are we supposed to live our lives? We have to read Qur'an, we have to pray, we have to do this and that. We cannot do that."

So what they decided was: we're going to post up individuals at the entrance of the town. The guest was prescribed — once the new moon reaches, this guest is coming. They had people standing there asking: "What is your name?" "My name is Muhammad." "What is your name?" "Ali." "What is your name?" "Fatima." Pass — no problem. Then finally, one day a person came. "What is your name?" "My name is Ramadan." — as some people have the name Ramadan, like Ramadan Ali. So they immediately took him. Later they were asked: "How was your guest?" They said: "We didn't have to fast, we didn't have to do anything, we didn't have to read Qur'an, nothing — we sent that guest packing home just where he came from."

SubhanAllah. The moral of the story is: let it not be such that the month of Ramadan is coming and — I seek refuge with Allah, may Allah protect all of us — some of us unfortunately see it as a burden. We see it as a time where we have to do this and we have to do that.

Let us not adopt that mindset. Let us adopt a mindset where we are looking towards it very positively. How are we going to adopt that mindset? We have to read about the virtues. We have to read about the virtues and attend those lectures. Chicago — that area, mashaAllah — is full of these programs. Let us make it a point to attend them, to look forward to this month.

Let us read books that we have available to us, such as Riyad al-Salihin, as well as Fada'il al-A'mal — a wonderful book to read. There are some things that a person can, if it is questionable, bring to the attention of the alim regarding all of these materials. But nonetheless, the more that we read and the more that we encourage ourselves regarding this topic, inshallah, the better it will be for us.

May Allah grant us all the tawfiq.

Announcements

Please kindly pass the donation boxes from left to right and donate generously. Also note that there is no curb parking — please do not park on the curbs behind the seminary building or the Swift Highway. Alhamdulillah, we have additional parking spaces in the used car lot. Please also kindly do not park in the condo's parking lot.

Inshallah, we spoke about preparing for the month of Ramadan. Alhamdulillah, like many other masajid, Dar es Salaam is also providing such a program. We had one last Friday by Mawlana Ammar, and then inshallah next Friday, which is February 2nd, we will have another session after Isha Salah.

Please also save the date for the No Tech Retreat. This year's theme is Connecting with the Creator. It will be February 17th and 18th with Sheikh Zakaria Patel, hafidhullah — he is the Imam of Masjid Taqwa in Toronto. Please kindly mark those dates as well.

The Weekend Islamic Studies Program — Spring 2024 enrollment is open. Classes are online and on-site every weekend. The Saturday track has Fiqh of Salah, Seerah of the Makkah Period, and the 40 Ahadith of Imam al-Nawawi. The Sunday track has Fiqh of Purification, Aqidah Part 2, and Islamic Etiquettes. You can enroll online.

We also have our weekly programs: Team Fajr will continue tomorrow inshallah — iqamah is at 6:15. We also have Tafsir every Tuesday, weekly Salawat on Thursdays, and sister programs including a weekly Tafsir in Urdu on Thursdays from 12 to 1 p.m.

There is a special community program today for sisters from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. by our visiting scholar, Ustadha Shamira Ahmed from the Rahma Foundation. She will be speaking on the topic of Scholarship in Islam: Exceptional Women in Our Tradition. Sisters of all ages are welcome to join.

We also have a monthly dars on the first Sunday of every month, followed by lunch from 12 to 2:30 p.m. for women. The upcoming dars is on February 4th.

The Youth Girls Program has a kickoff event for girls ages 13 and up. Join us for a day of activities and halaqa on Saturday, February 3rd from 1:15 to 4 p.m.

We also have multiple du'a requests for all those that are sick and all those that are going through difficulty — especially for all of our Muslim brothers and sisters throughout the world, and especially for the people of Palestine. May Allah grant them all aafiyah. May Allah cure them. And may Allah grant them perpetual ease.