Achieving Net Spiritual Growth Beyond Seasonal Fluctuations

Opening Praise

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ، اَلْحَمْدُ لِلّٰهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِيْنَ، اَلْحَمْدُ لِلّٰهِ الَّذِي لَا يُعَدُّ شُكْرُ نِعْمَةٍ مِنْ نِعَمِهِ إِلَّا بِنِعْمَةٍ حَادِثَةٍ مِنْهُ، تُوجِبُ عَلَى مُؤَدِّي مَعَدِّ شُكْرِ نِعْمَتِهَا، نِعْمَةً حَادِثَةً يَجِبُ عَلَيْهَا شُكْرٌ، وَصَلَاةً وَسَلَامًا عَلَى رَسُولِ اللهِ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ

The Cycle of Peaks and Troughs

Alhamdulillah, Allah Ta'ala has blessed us with just over half of Ramadan that has already gone by. For many of us, some of us it may be our first Ramadan, many of us it's not our first Ramadan. Ramadans have come and gone before, and for many of us Ramadan feels great, because it feels like a time that we can get that spiritual boost that perhaps we are lacking throughout the rest of the year.

So now what ends up happening though is that we get that spiritual boost, and we feel very boosted in that time. But then thereafter, we normally just fall back to where we were before. If we were to chart our own spirituality — let's say the ruhaniyya, the connection that we feel, the iman rush — with that rush on the y-axis and time on the x-axis, then for most of us, and myself first and foremost, it would be a cycle of peaks and troughs. It would just be rises and falls.

Because what happens is that there's a time that comes throughout the year that we get a spiritual boost like Ramadan, and then during that time we feel like we're boosted up. But then what happens thereafter is that regular life occurs again, and then we find that we're falling. And this is a repeated cycle, so if we're to look at the trend line to describe our entire spirituality from now to 10, 20, 25, or 30 years before — however old we may be — then for many of us it's probably just flat.

So let's say for the last 10 years, last 5 years, whatever it is, Ramadans have been coming and going. We are grateful to Allah Ta'ala for that. But for many of us it was more just about a temporary boost rather than sustained growth.

The Corporate Analogy: Zero Net Growth

Now, if this same situation occurred in any business or corporation, what would happen is that they would be reviewing the profit reports from the past quarters, and then they would call an emergency meeting, saying that we've been reviewing our reports and we realize that there's something very bad going on. We haven't made any profit, because any profit that we make in the short term is counteracted by losses that we sustain thereafter, so our net growth is absolutely nothing. And this is something that's been happening for years. So they would say: we definitely need to re-strategize. We need to change how we're approaching this.

So given that, at an individual level, for many of us — and myself of course as well — this is kind of the story of our life, of our spirituality from one Ramadan to the next. Just like this would trigger a crisis in any business, this should trigger an internal crisis within us, in which we call an internal meeting, in which we talk to ourselves and we say: there's something really concerning going on here — there's no net growth. The trend line should be positive. It should have a positive slope, but for many of us it's just flat, because any gains that we have in Ramadan are counteracted by falls that happen thereafter.

So what we'll do today, insha'Allah, in the few minutes that we have, is we'll try to talk about what is the source of this problem, and then we'll talk about what we can do about it.

The "Bonus Round" Mentality

For many of us, we view Ramadan as an opportunity to increase our deeds. We may even hear the example — I've heard this before too, growing up — that someone said Ramadan is like a bonus round in a video game where there are coins everywhere; you just have to grab as many as you can. We hear the narrations that the reward of the fara'id is multiplied, the reward of the optional actions, nawafil, is multiplied, everything is multiplied. So you have to get as many points as you can and maximize on the reward.

If we look at it from this perspective, we understand that inherently this is going to lead to complacency. Because what ends up happening is that by the middle or the end of Ramadan, we realize: okay, I already scored a lot of points, hopefully, so I think I'm pretty good. I remember before a khatam in one of the nights in Ramadan — and of course in the last few days of Ramadan there are khatams almost every day — I heard one person saying to another: I don't think I need to go today, because I was already in a khatam a few days ago. I think I was already forgiven, so I think I'm done, I don't need to come.

So this is the attitude of complacency that results from viewing Ramadan as scoring a lot of points — because if you already get a lot of reward, then you feel like, what's the need, the impetus, to do anymore?

What Allah Says About the Purpose of Ramadan

But let's look at how Allah Ta'ala talks about Ramadan in the Quran. Allah Ta'ala says:

Allah doesn't say لَعَلَّكُمْ تَزِيدُونَ فِي الْأَعْمَالِ — "so that you can do more deeds." Ramadan has not been prescribed on you so you can temporarily increase your actions. If you do that, then obviously that's not going to lead into any long-term gain, because what ends up happening is that if we look at Ramadan as an opportunity to increase our actions during Ramadan, then kind of by definition, after Ramadan we're going to revert back to our original state — which is not doing anything — if Ramadan is viewed merely as an opportunity to increase our actions during Ramadan.

So that's why Allah Ta'ala doesn't talk about Ramadan that way. Allah Ta'ala says the purpose of Ramadan is to come about with a fundamentally transformed relationship with Allah Ta'ala. The purpose of Ramadan is لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ — so that we may attain taqwa. Perhaps, maybe, maybe you'll get it. So we see that the ultimate prize of Ramadan is not merely just doing a lot of actions. Rather, those actions are a conduit to this ultimate prize, and that ultimate prize is actually having this transformed relationship with Allah Ta'ala, which is called taqwa.

The Hadith of Fasting: A Paradigm Shift

Before we discuss taqwa further, let's look at one more symptom of the problem. There is a hadith narrated in Sahih Muslim — Imam Muslim narrates from his teacher Abu Bakr ibn Abi Shaybah, who narrates from Abu Muawiyah and Waki', from al-A'mash, from Abu Salih, from Abu Hurairah رضي الله عنه — that the Prophet ﷺ said:

That every action of the son of Adam will be for him, and one good deed is multiplied ten times — it can even go up to 700. And then the hadith goes on to say: إِلَّا الصَّوْمَ — however, fasting is exempted from this. Does that mean fasting is not rewarded? No. فَإِنَّهُ لِي — it is for Me. وَأَنَا أَجْزِي بِهِ — and I am the one who rewards it.

Now, one way that we can look at this is to say that the reward of fasting is off the charts — it's beyond 700, maybe 701, maybe 7 million, maybe it's beyond that. So that is one meaning of the hadith, definitely. But if we're to take a step back and understand this at a deeper level, then perhaps the hadith is telling us that we need to have a paradigm shift.

Maybe we think of being incentivized by reward in every other context. But perhaps the point of Ramadan is to have a reset. And Ramadan is not meant to be about quantifying a reward and just trying to see how many points we can get in our basket. Of course that's part of it — it's not to negate it. Of course we try to increase our actions, but the purpose of Ramadan is to reorient ourselves. Because remember, everything else is on that one scale — a good deed multiplied by ten to 700 — but fasting is in a category of its own. So maybe that means that we need to think of fasting apart from that. Because the goal of fasting is not merely just to have reward in terms of quantity, but rather the purpose of fasting is to develop this relationship with Allah Ta'ala, to have this newfound connection to Allah Ta'ala.

The Hadith Qudsi: Drawing Close Through Actions

There is a hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari in which Abu Hurairah رضي الله عنه reported that the Prophet ﷺ said — it is a hadith Qudsi, in which Allah says:

The thing that draws a servant closest to Allah is the fara'id — those are the obligatory actions. But then a person continues drawing closer to Allah Ta'ala through voluntary actions, extra actions, nawafil, until the point that Allah is saying: until I love him. فَإِذَا أَحْبَبْتُهُ كُنْتُ سَمْعَهُ الَّذِي يَسْمَعُ بِهِ — when I love him, then I become the ear through which he hears. وَبَصَرَهُ الَّذِي يُبْصِرُ بِهِ — and the eye through which he sees. Obviously metaphorical.

So that means that when we do these actions, the purpose of doing actions is not merely just to do actions and to get reward for it — insha'Allah that's part of it. But the real purpose of actions is to actually seek to develop a close relationship with Allah Ta'ala and to begin to attain the love of Allah Ta'ala.

Tying this back to our current discussion: the purpose of Ramadan, the ultimate prize, is not merely just to do actions, but rather to try and obtain the love of Allah Ta'ala, or this consciousness of Allah — لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ.

What Does This Consciousness of Allah Look Like?

Now let's think about this a little bit more. What does it mean to have this consciousness of Allah Ta'ala? There are a couple of different ways that we can look at it. One of them is to look at somebody who recently has a new person in their life. For example, somebody who gets married. We see that their whole conception of life is now fundamentally transformed. They're always smiling, they always seem to be happy. And we may ask them: okay, what's going on? Why do you have that smile on your face? And they'll say: well, I got married a few weeks ago. So now, that means that there's someone else on their mind that's constantly there, and it's something that occupies their thoughts. It doesn't necessarily stop them from their regular life — they're still going to school, going to work — but at the same time they have this fundamentally transformed psyche in which it's occupied by this relationship with someone else.

Someone goes from being without any children to having children. Someone becomes a father, a mother. Now, immediately what happens is that there's something that occupies their mind all the time. They think: if they hear a noise, they think, oh, is that my child? If someone gives them some food to take home, they'll think: oh, my child really likes this. That's the first thought that comes to their mind. Before, they would have thought: oh, I like this, I'm going to eat this. But you don't even think like that anymore after becoming a parent. So now, once you have someone else in your life — be it a wife, be it a husband, be it a child — your perspective on life becomes fundamentally transformed.

Now, of course, وَلِلَّهِ الْمَثَلُ الْأَعْلَى — nothing can be compared to Allah. But if a person develops the love of Allah Ta'ala, then we can see that their whole perspective on life, everything about them, is fundamentally transformed. فَإِذَا أَحْبَبْتُهُ كُنْتُ سَمْعَهُ الَّذِي يَسْمَعُ بِهِ — everything that he hears reminds him of Allah. Everything that he sees reminds him of Allah. Every place that he goes to, everything that he touches — as the hadith continues — it reminds him of Allah.

So now, we have to think about this: if our Ramadan is merely about trying to maximize reward, then what's going to end up happening is that eventually it will undoubtedly lead to complacency.

The Traveller Analogy

Let's look at a few examples. Imagine that a person has gone overseas to visit some relatives — let's say their grandparents live in India or Egypt or somewhere. They're there for a week, and then they have one or two days left on their trip. And somebody says: you know, you've been here for a couple of days, you didn't get to see the Taj Mahal yet, let me take you out, I'll show you the Taj Mahal, and let me take you to see the Pyramids in Giza. They'll say: no, no, no — I came here for a very specific purpose. I don't know how much time I have left with my grandfather, with my grandmother, and I'm here just to see them. Now I have one or two more days left, and I want to use that to maximize my time with my grandfather, with my grandmother. That's what I want to use my time for. I don't have time for anything else.

Now, if someone looks at it and says: well, I just wanted to check off the box that I already visited my grandfather, now I can go do anything else — that would be fundamentally missing the point. Because the purpose of the trip is to cultivate and strengthen and foster that relationship.

Similarly, the purpose of Ramadan is not merely just to do actions — as we said, that's something that will lead to complacency. Rather, the purpose of Ramadan is to have this relationship with Allah Ta'ala. And if that's the case, then we know that we would never want even a single moment to let go. We wouldn't want to let a single moment slip by us.

Introspection: Have We Transformed Our Relationship with Allah?

Because what if we introspect a little bit? We ask ourselves: okay, my Ramadan — half of it has gone by. Do I feel that I've fundamentally transformed my relationship with Allah? If we introspect, at least for myself and perhaps for many of us, we'll feel that we still have some work to do. So now, that means that the remainder of Ramadan should not merely be about: okay, I already got one khatam in, or I'm already doing this — but rather: oh no, I only have a little bit of time left, I haven't yet achieved my goal. So what am I going to do in these remaining days?

So the question is: how can we assess whether we feel that we have that altered relationship with Allah Ta'ala or not? A few things.

The Sign of Inabah — Longing for the Akhirah

One of them is the ayah of the Quran:

The Prophet ﷺ explained in a hadith in al-Mustadrak of al-Hakim what this nur that Allah is talking about is:

That a person has this longing desire that they really want to get to the akhirah. Why? Because they want to meet Allah. So if we feel that, we can introspect and ask ourselves: are the actions that we're doing, are we doing them because they're duties? We need to fast, we're required to, so that's why we fast. We have to pray, so that's why we're praying. That's one thing. But let's go back to the analogy from before — if a person just got married a few weeks ago and they're going to call their spouse, you don't ask: are you required to have a ten-minute conversation every day? They say: no, I just want to do it. So similarly, if we ask ourselves: am I doing my ibadah because I feel like it's an obligation, or because I have this internal burning desire to do it? That's one gauge.

The Sign of Flowing Du'a

Another gauge is: how much do we feel that we can talk to Allah? If we feel that we're able to talk to Allah Ta'ala in our du'a, and it just goes on and on — like we talk to a long-lost friend that we haven't seen for a very long time and our conversation can go on for hours — if that's how we feel our relationship is with Allah Ta'ala, then that's very good. Maybe that's a sign that we have attained this transformed relationship with Allah.

But if we put our hands up for two minutes and we feel: okay, I ran out of things to say, what else am I going to say now? That means that we still have work to do. That means that the purpose of Ramadan — لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ — so that we can have this relationship, this connection to Allah Ta'ala in our hearts — is still something that we need to work for.

So we ask Allah Ta'ala to give us tawfiq.

The Three Levels of Fasting — Imam al-Ghazali

Just to end with this: Imam al-Ghazali mentions that there are three levels of fasting. The first level of fasting is when a person just abstains from food and drink. The second level of fasting is that a person abstains from sin. The third level of fasting is that a person abstains from كُلِّ مَا سِوَى اللهِ — everything other than Allah.

We may think that this is impractical. How is a person actually going to do that? Actually, no. Because if we keep in mind the ultimate goal of Ramadan — which is to develop this fundamentally transformed relationship with Allah Ta'ala — then we'll realize that that's only just a natural product of fasting, that we won't want to engage in anything other than Allah.

We ask Allah Ta'ala to give all of us tawfiq.

Second Khutbah — Du'a

Remember Allah, and He will remember you. Call upon Him, and He will answer you. And the remembrance of Allah Ta'ala is the greatest.

Announcements

Sadaqah wards off calamities and draws Allah's mercy. Please pass the donation boxes from left to right. There are kiosks in the lobby as well. The Prophet ﷺ said, charity given on the day of Jumu'ah is better in reward than any other day.

Please be sure to pay your Sadaqatul Fitr. Visit www.MasjidDS.org for more information and to donate. Also please visit Darusalam.org for more details about upcoming Ramadan, I'tikaf, and Taraweeh details.

They have the Kids Edition — 24 Hours in the Masjid — which will be on Saturday, March 7th to Sunday, March 8th. Fathers are required to remain with their child for the duration of the program.

Additionally, we have the Sisters' Recitation Circle, which is an online Qur'an recitation with Alimah Nikat Muqeem from Ramadan 1st to Ramadan 20th. To register for I'tikaf, visit www.MasjidDS.org/rsvp.

We urge everyone to vote in the March 17th primary election. Early voting has started. Also keep in mind the Jumu'ah Salah time change from next Friday. The first session: English talk starts at 1:00 PM and Iqamah at 1:25 PM. The second session: English talk starts at 2:00 PM and Iqamah at 2:30 PM.

Du'a requests: Please make du'a for Sister Sadia Tahir Ali, who is suffering from stage 4 cancer — may Allah grant her shifa'. One of our students' fathers has been hospitalized due to ongoing cancer treatments and will have a minor surgery — please make du'a for the surgery to go well and for his complete shifa'. Additionally, keep the entire Muslim Ummah that is suffering in your du'as, especially when you are breaking your fast.

Residents are encouraged to participate in their civic duty by voting in the March 17th primary election. Early voting has begun and is available at Sport Hub, Glendale Heights, providing a convenient opportunity for community members to cast their ballots ahead of election day. Voting is an important way to take part in the democratic process and have your voice heard on issues that affect our community. All eligible voters are encouraged to make a plan to vote early or on election day.