Eid Reminder: If Ramadan Could Speak | Mufti Abdul Rahman Waheed | Eid al Fitr 2020

Eid Mubarak — A Different Eid, A Different Ramadan

As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. You're not fasting today, are you? And if you are, you should break your fast. So we should have a little more spirit than that.

And the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 1987 — on the authority of Abu Dharr and Mu'adh ibn Jabal)

My dear brothers, elders, friends, mothers and sisters in Islam — Eid Mubarak to all of you. We can't hug, thankfully, because hugging is always confusing on the day of Eid. Some do three, some do five, some do different types of bear hugs. So today we can just stay away from each other and give virtual hugs. We can't shake hands, but that's also going to be tough.

Today's Eid is much different than many other Eids we've been part of in our lives. Just like Ramadan has been much different than many of the Ramadans we've been part of in our lives. And there's no denying that.

Speaking to Creation Without a Tongue

I never ever walk up to a speech with paper in my life. And today — have you ever seen me walk with paper in my life? Never in my life. But there was a poem that I wrote down that I'm going to share with you in this talk. I wrote this poem down like four years ago, I never looked at it, never memorized it. And honestly, in the morning when I was putting my books away, this was a bookmark in one of my books. I pulled it out and I saw it. I was like, you know what, I'm going to say it today.

And this poem is going to be what I want to speak to you about today. There is this very interesting phenomenon — a very interesting concept among the pious people of the past — that they would have these very intimate, personal conversations with makhluq, creations that don't have a tongue, that can't speak.

You'll see poets writing about the mountains of Makkah. And they say: if these mountains had a tongue, what would they say? They've seen it all. They've seen the Prophet ﷺ being pelted with stones. They've seen the Prophet ﷺ bleeding. They saw the birth of the Prophet ﷺ. They saw Bilal being dragged in the streets. They saw the Prophet ﷺ getting married to Khadija. They saw the day the Prophet ﷺ left Makkah. And they also witnessed the day the Prophet ﷺ returned for Fath Makkah.

Poets speak to the streets of Madinah. And they say: if these streets had a tongue, what would they say? About how the Prophet ﷺ, the day the Prophet ﷺ came to Madinah — if the trees,

from the valley of Thaniyyat al-Wada', if those trees had a tongue, what would they say about the first time they saw the Prophet's face? What would they say? How would they describe the feeling when the Prophet ﷺ walked into Madinah? And when Bilal gave the first Adhan?

The Conversation with the Moon

One poet — he looks to the moon. And he says to the moon: O moon, you've seen it all. The mountains of Makkah probably only saw the Prophet ﷺ and the people of Makkah. But the moon has seen it all. From day one, the moon was there. The moon has seen all the Prophets. Seen Yusuf عليه السلام when he was thrown in the well. Seen him when he came out. Seen him when he went to prison. The moon was always there.

So this poet speaks to the moon and he asks it in conversation — he says: I want you to speak to me, I want you to tell me what you've seen in your life. Because you've seen it all. You've seen all the Prophets. You've seen all the stories. All the stories we read in the Quran. All the stories we read in the Hadith. The moon has seen it.

So he says to the moon:

Can you please tell me something about what you've seen? You probably have all the stories in the world. Tell me something — tell me about the people. We've heard about the Prophet ﷺ, we've heard about the situation of the Sahaba, but please — tell me what you've witnessed.

Then he says:

The moon became very happy when this conversation started, because the moon started remembering those good old days. You know when someone tells you: tell me about the stories when you were young — you like those stories, because your hair was still on your head, and in those memories your parents were still alive, and you have many other good memories. So you start talking about that.

So the moon is told to speak about those memories.

And it started brimming with light. What did it say?

The moon said: Where do you want me to start? Should I begin speaking about the Prophet ﷺ? Or do you want me to start speaking about Abu Bakr or Umar? Should I start speaking about those people who wiped off oppression and tyranny from the face of this earth? And even though people were living, they revived their hearts through their lives. There was no life before them, and they revived those lives, they revived those hearts.

Those Who Defined Noble Qualities

Then the poet says:

And he says:

He says: I'll speak to you and I'll tell you the truth — these eyes have witnessed. And this sentence, this word — I'm going to explain it to you because I can't quite translate it. What it means is: you know, there is some sort of definition in the dictionary of modesty. You look up modesty and there will be a translation of modesty. You look up truthfulness, there will be a translation of truthfulness. You know what he said? He said, these people defined those qualities. They are the ones who wrote the definition of those qualities.

What dignity is — you learned that from their lives. What modesty is — you learned that from their lives. It wasn't even written in dictionaries before they came. And their lives became a means of writing those terminologies. You know how sometimes you say something and you get to coin that terminology — "Just do it" becomes Nike's, "Mamba mentality" becomes Kobe's. He says: well, every good quality you can think of, they coined it.

I have never heard a better praise for the Sahaba than this. He went so far beyond. He said: these people are the ones who set the translations and dictionaries straight. When they came, people had a different image of modesty, a different image of what haya, what dignity, what truthfulness meant — and they set the record straight.

He says: these people exemplify the highest of character. This is a Prophet of lofty status, of noble nature — and his companions were sitting around him like pearls, twinkling like the stars in the sky. That's how the gathering was when the Prophet ﷺ would sit and the companions would sit around him. It was a beautiful scene.

And then he says a most beautiful line about the character of the Prophet ﷺ: Dignity rests on the tip of the eye of the Prophet ﷺ. Dignity is in his eyes. Literally, when he sleeps, it sleeps with him. And when he wakes up, he lights up the world with his dignity.

The Story of Hussain and the Prophet's Smile

And he says: should I tell you about that day when the Prophet ﷺ was sitting there with all of his companions — who were like pearls twinkling in the sky like the stars — and all of a sudden his grandchildren walked in? Hassan was a child who had eloquence and could speak, but Hussain was a child who would stutter when he would speak. He came to the gathering and he tried to say a few words. He started to speak but he could not formulate words — first of all because he was a kid and didn't know what to say, and second of all because he was stuttering. He kept on stuttering, till there was an atmosphere of people being amazed, a little bit of shock, and a little bit of awkwardness that had spawned into the room.

If you're sitting there with your guests and your child walks in and is trying to say something — even if he doesn't stutter — we say, go inside the room, there are older people sitting here. And here is the Prophet ﷺ sitting with the Sahaba, and here comes Hussain, and he's stuttering. The Sahaba say: we felt awkward. We didn't know what to do — should we hug him? Should we go to the Prophet? And then we looked at the Prophet ﷺ — and he was looking at Hussain, and he had this huge smile on his face. Just waiting for Hussain to complete his sentence. After many minutes, Hussain completed his sentence. And then the Prophet ﷺ said: don't worry about my son — he inherited this from his father, Musa عليه السلام. Musa also stuttered. He connected him with his father, Musa.

The Story of al-Farazdaq and Giving Life

And speaking of giving life — there is the story of al-Farazdaq, the poet and linguistic master of his time. He was brought to the caliph's courtroom. He had said: "I am the son of the one who gives life." The king said: "You know what? I'm going to give you a minute to explain yourself. Why did you say that? That only belongs to Allah." He replied: "Have you not read the ayah?"

That the one who gives life to someone who was about to die is as if he gave life to the entire world. He said: my grandfather was the one who had ransomed his life to save daughters from being buried alive. My grandfather saved more than 70 girls from being buried alive. And Allah is saying that about the person who saved someone's life — the one who gave life, who saved a girl's innocent life from being buried — that person has given life to the entire universe. The caliph said: you're a genius, you can go.

If Ramadan Had a Tongue

And I'm mentioning all of this because there is this concept in our heritage where we speak to objects that don't have a tongue, and we ask them to speak to us and tell us: what was it like, O mountains of Makkah? What was it like, O streets of Madinah? What was it like, O moon — tell us about that.

And I say to you: we should speak to Ramadan and ask Ramadan — if Ramadan had a tongue, what would it say? What would it say to us?

It would tell us — in my words — it would tell us: you know, I'm a guest, I came. But it was a really interesting Ramadan. Usually I'm hosted in masjids, where I hear Quran being recited, where I hear people crying, where I see iftar happening. But this year I was not hosted in masjids. This year I was not hosted in Islamic centers. This year I was deprived of that. I was a guest that was supposed to be hosted in masjids.

And it would probably tell us: you better straighten up your act. These homes are open because it is from the permission of Allah. I'm also a makhluq of Allah, I can't make decisions on my own — Allah makes decisions for me. If you don't change your act, it might be the same next year.

If Ramadan had a tongue, it would tell those who could not get closer to Allah: did you not hear the du'a of the most merciful person to walk on the face of the earth? The prayer he made against that person who witnessed Ramadan — and I was a guest in their home, whether they were willing or unwilling, Allah sent me to their home — and they never valued me as a guest, and even though I came to their home, they could not get the mercy and forgiveness of Allah. Did you not hear the du'a of the Prophet ﷺ against this person? May Allah destroy that person who witnessed the month of Ramadan and could not be forgiven.

If Ramadan had a tongue, it would say to everyone who sat in i'tikaf — Wallahi, Ramadan would say: you honored me. You honored me. I was sitting around as a guest for a while and nobody was taking care of me, and all of a sudden you came around and you sat in the masjid for ten days. It would say to us: thanks, I appreciate that you took care of me.

If Ramadan had a tongue, it would tell all of us genuinely: I'm gone. But Allah is not just the Rabb of Ramadan — Allah is the Rabb of all the other months. He's not just in Ramadan. His mercy is not confined to the month of Ramadan.

The Follow-Through

Ramadan would tell us to follow through. It would tell us that the actions are not determined by the act — they're determined by the follow-through. A person can do good deeds, but if he follows them up with a bad deed, he wipes away the good deed. A person can give charity all day — he did a good act, he did good deeds. But then he did something wrong.

Allah says: don't waste, don't follow up your good act with a bad act — you'll waste it.

The Advice to Mu'adh ibn Jabal

And Mu'adh ibn Jabal رضي الله عنه — when he was crying as he was leaving the Prophet ﷺ — the Prophet said:

Don't cry, why are you worried? He said: Ya Rasulullah, you told me I'm never going to see you again in my life. And the Prophet ﷺ left him with an advice. He said: O Mu'adh, wherever you are in the world, make sure you perfect the follow-through. You can make a shot in basketball but your follow-through matters. Your golf swing follow-through matters. Your baseball swing follow-through matters. How you follow through matters.

And he said: O Mu'adh — every time you do a bad deed, follow it through with a good deed. Allah will wipe away your bad deed. Allah will wipe it away.

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 1987)

If you did a sin, don't worry about it. This is what Ramadan will tell us. Even if you were bad in Ramadan, and you never got to worship Allah the way you wanted to, and you never got to finish the Quran the way you wanted to — the way you should have — and you never got to cry in the entire month of Ramadan — it's fine. If Ramadan had a tongue, Wallahi it would tell us: remember the words the Prophet ﷺ told Mu'adh ibn Jabal. Just follow it up with a good deed. Just follow it up, just have a good follow-through, and you'll be fine.

Someone said something very interesting. He said: you know when you go to colleges and universities, they always say you should have a fallback option that you can fall back on. He said: look, I never understood why people say that. If anything, I'll fall forward, because I want to know where I'm falling. Why would I fall backwards? Fall forward, don't fall backwards. Why did I commit sins? Fall forward — I'll do a good deed. Who cares about falling backwards? Who cares about what happened?

The Man Who Came to the Prophet

Ramadan would have told us: look, follow it through with a good deed. When that man came to the Prophet ﷺ and said: Ya Rasulullah, you know anything you can imagine I did with this lady — except for zina. I did everything you can think of, except for zina. And the Prophet ﷺ said: talk to me after Salah. Then he came back after praying Salah and said: Ya Rasulullah, please tell me what to do. I'm suffering. I'm burning from inside. I committed a sin. And he said: did you pray Zuhr with us? He said yes. He said: have you not read the verse of the Quran —

Verily, good deeds wipe away bad deeds. Allah has wiped away your bad deed. You followed up with a good deed — Allah has taken care of your bad deed.

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2763 — on the authority of Abdullah ibn Mas'ud)

The Six Fasts of Shawwal

If Ramadan was here and had a tongue, it would have told us: listen, it doesn't matter how you spent the month of Ramadan — follow it up with a good deed. That's why it comes in Hadith — the word atba'ah comes:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1164 — on the authority of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari)

A person who fasts in the month of Ramadan and then follows it up with six fasts in the month of Shawwal — there's a follow-up. You see that follow-through? There's always that follow-through. The one who fasts in the month of Ramadan and then follows that through with six in Shawwal — it is as if he will get the reward of fasting his entire life. That's why the follow-through matters so much.

The PIA Flight — A Lesson Closer to Home

If Ramadan was alive, I'll conclude by saying this — if Ramadan was alive, it would tell us: it was a very strange Ramadan. There were more than 80–90 passengers sitting on a PIA flight flying from Lahore to Karachi. A normal flight. These people were thinking they're going to go home — to their parents, to their families, to their loved ones. They spent the entire month of Ramadan, they witnessed every single odd night, they witnessed everything. They were in Jumatul Wida.

And all of a sudden — they thought they were going to land in one minute. The pilots said: we're landing. Even the plane came so close to landing. But the landing gear did not come out, and they had to go back around, take a ten-minute run, turn around — and everyone in the plane thought they were landing. No one even thought they were going to come down crashing. And all of a sudden, this plane came crashing down. And with that plane came crashing down the souls of many people.

Ramadan would have told us: those people did not think they were going to die that day. Those people had people waiting for them at the airports. Those people had gifts already purchased for them. Those people probably had Eid cards written out to someone. But that Eid card never got there. That gift never got to them. They never got to embrace their loved one. They fell before they got to Karachi.

Yes — Ramadan would have told us: they're lucky. They passed away on Jumatul Wida. We know that. We believe that. They passed away after all the odd nights. They're fortunate. But Ramadan would have told us: they weren't planning on going down that day. Similarly, you should be very careful. You don't know when you're going. You have no idea. You don't know if I'm ever going to be a guest in your house again. How do you stand around thinking that I'm going to be here every single year? Ramadan — if it had a tongue — would say: take a lesson from that flight. Put yourself in those shoes. If you're dying, and you're on your deathbed, and that plane is coming crashing down — would you be leaving this world with a smile?

I always say: it doesn't matter, man. You can come crashing down — I'm all good. When al-A'mash was leaving this world, his children were crying. He said: what? Why are you guys crying for? He was on his deathbed. Would we be able to say that to our kids? I'm going to ask you this: if you were told you were leaving right now, would you be able to say this? Al-A'mash said: why are you crying for? Your father has not missed Takbeer-e-Ula for the last 60 years. Don't worry about me, I'm good. Worry about yourself. Don't cry for me — cry for yourself.

When Ibn Idris al-Zahid was leaving this world, his children were crying in his house. He's leaving this world in that house. He says: why are you guys crying for? I have read 4,000 Qurans in this room. I'm dying in this room where I've read 4,000 Qurans. Nothing's happening to me. You should worry about yourselves.

What are we going to say? What are we going to say? Ramadan is telling us to think about that. If it had a tongue, Wallahi it would say that to us. Are you ready for that? I came and I left. But are you ready for that?

This message came this month of Ramadan. This happened. Don't sit here oblivious. This was so close to home. Wallahi, I sat on that same PIA flight many times in my life. I've taken that route from Lahore to Karachi more than you can imagine. I would always fly PIA and I would always take that flight on Friday — because Bani Rotan was closed on Friday, I would go Friday and come back. And here it is — it fell. It was so close to home. Don't think it's so far away.

When Usama ibn Zayd رضي الله عنه had bought food for one month — he stocked up for one month! We already do that anyway. He stocked up food for one month. And the Prophet ﷺ smiled at him and said: what happened to Usama? He thinks he's going to live for one month? Does he think he's going to live for one month? He doesn't know if he's going to live past his one footstep.

Conclusion: Follow Through

If Ramadan had a tongue, it would have told us the bitter truth of this. So my dear brothers and sisters — let's follow through. Let's follow through. We don't know what's going to happen next. If we did good in the month of Ramadan, follow through with more good. Because remember — it's not about the act, it's about the follow-through. Whether you did good or bad, it's always about the follow-through.