The Month Of Allah (SWT) - Mufti Azeemuddin

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ وَكِفَايَةً وَالصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَىٰ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ

قَالَ اللَّهُ سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَىٰ فِي الْقُرْآنِ الْمَجِيدِ بَعْدَ أَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

Respected elders, brothers and sisters, students and friends. السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ

We all welcomed the new Islamic year earlier this week. And this is the first Friday of 1438. As we are in the midst of the first week of Muharram, a few thoughts to share as a reminder for myself and all of us. That all of this is a sign of the Lord. Allah has put these milestones, mile markers—the beginning of a new year and the ending of an old year. All of this are great blessings of Almighty Allah. Otherwise, a person won't recognize, realize what's happening.

We have an extra added blessing in this country. As for that matter, anywhere else—not just in this country but beyond as well—that we as Muslims have two years. We have our new Islamic year. And then the year of the common era, January 1st. So they provide us dual opportunities for reflection. As many of us make resolutions and our friends and co-workers make resolutions at the end of the calendar year, we get an additional opportunity for us to reflect when the Hijri year begins.

And the Prophet ﷺ repeatedly would encourage his companions to reflect. To the extent, he said:

(Tirmidhi, Hadith 2333)

Or as the Prophet ﷺ said, when you wake up in the morning, don't wait till the evening. When you go to bed at night, don't expect to see the morning. Meaning, balance everything out, balance your records as you go. Let it not be that a person owes someone something—owes them money, owes them an apology—and then he has to leave this world.

So our deen tells us actually. Our religion teaches us to have a daily مُحَاسَبَة (muhasabah). Balance the books every single day. To ensure that we're never at loss. The business—if someone goes to an accountant at the end of the fiscal year and says, "I need to get everything sorted out. Where's your receipts? Where's your excel sheets? Where's your quick books?"—he says, "I haven't really done anything." You know that person is going to be in a big problem. Where are we supposed to start now? At the end of the year, you should have been saving these things. You should have been organizing things throughout the whole year. That's just one year's worth, and that is just of the financial aspect of the business. It becomes such a headache.

But my brothers and sisters, our faith and the obligations that the faith puts upon us—obligations towards our creator, obligation towards our messenger Prophet ﷺ, obligation towards fellow human beings, obligations towards the animal kingdom, obligation towards the plant kingdom, obligation towards the planet itself—all of those things, each one has its own record. And these are things that, as they say, the meter has been going since we have become mature, since we've reached the age of puberty. That non-stop, the meter has been running. How often do I sit down and balance the books to see how are my liabilities as opposed to my profits? And the money that I've been storing up, my capital, as well as the profits in this year. That type of balancing needs to take place.

The Prophet ﷺ mentioned in one hadith. He said, "Listen, work hard. Continue to work and strive while you are being very careful that you don't transgress the orders of Allah. Work diligently, but at the same time, be careful that in your diligent work, you don't overstep the boundaries."

وَاعْلَمُوا (And know very well):

That you're gonna come face to face with your deeds. You're gonna come face to face. When a person says in a gist of anger, "I'll see you in court" or "I'll come face to face to your house," the person gets scared. But this is more scary. This is more intimidating. Allah says, you will face your deeds. You will face your deeds. Rasul ﷺ says, you will face your deeds. Come face to face with the good that one has done. With the evil that one has done.

It's very, very simple. Allah says, Rasul ﷺ coded the ayah of the Qur'an. The Prophet coded the ayah and the verse of the Qur'an. Whosoever does an iota of good will most definitely see the reward of that, will see the good or see the reward of it. And whosoever does an iota of sin will see the sin itself or see the punishment of that sin.

So it is ذَرَّة (dharrah). ذَرَّة is the last, smallest, indivisible particle that may exist. So it sometimes is translated as an atom. Sometimes it's translated as a small particle. Whatever the case may be, basically the tiniest portion that's possible out there. The tiniest bit of sincerity. The tiniest bit of show and ostentation. The tiniest bit of good character. The tiniest bit of arrogance. All of those things are being counted by Allah. Weighed by Allah. Measured by Allah. And a person will have to come face to face with that.

The Fleeting Nature of Time

Brothers and sisters, as we bid already farewell to the previous year and the new year we welcomed it, one aspect that we have to reflect simply is how fast time is moving. And I'm sure all of you are with me on this, that maybe you can't even think about the whole year. Just think about last Friday. You remember last Friday as though it was this morning. Where you were sitting. Which masjid you went to. What the khutbah was about possibly. Maybe your experience that you may have had with some friends you met. Relatives you came with to Friday prayers, what not. It's so vivid. If you can't remember Friday, you probably definitely remember maybe your Friday evening or your Saturday. But it's as though it was yesterday. It's so quick.

And the Prophet ﷺ already told us that. That from the signs of the hour and the coming of the actual hour of doom, the actual hour of judgment, the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6645)

That the time will be very fast-paced. Things will seem to go at a much quicker pace. And we're seeing that today. It really is. It's just so quick. A person can't realize where their time is going.

Technology and Self-Control

We have all these gadgets. All sorts of apps to maximize our time that are calculating this, calculating that. Unbelievable amounts of information is being gathered by others and by ourselves if you want to. It's being gathered by others for sure. But if you want to gather and keep it on your device you may do that as well. And the purpose of all of this is to supposedly make our time more efficient. There's so many time management seminars, programs, etc. All of them are saying, "Oh, make the most of your time." But we see the more the gadgets that are coming into our lives, the more apps, all these type of things—they really aren't helping. For most of us, they really aren't helping.

There's a very interesting study that I came across two weeks ago regarding these apps that measure how many calories a person is burning, how many steps a person is walking, etc. It's automated—that a person measures how much you walk—and people usually have that to say to control their weight. And they did a very lengthy, like three years study on this. And it was surprising to see that actually the people who were using those apps regularly ended up actually worse off than the people who were using it and then gave up. And it's not a golden rule obviously, but this large group, study group that they focused on, that's what the result came. And one of the reasons, possible reasons they said, was the fact that even though it's being measured, a person says, "Guess what, I've already walked two less. I've eaten so much. Forget it. It's no point." And so they give up. And then they just start binge eating or they just stop doing any exercise. And it's a downhill from there.

You hear about so many other things like this. That when a person thinks like the "Big Loser"—you know, those type of shows that they have and whatnot—where people are competing to see who loses the most weight in one year. And you go look? They've done research. Went to go visit those people after a year. And what happened to them? سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ (Subhanallah). Back to where they were. Worse than where they were. Many, many, many, many of them were worse than where they are. That tells us that just simply by using an app, simply by using certain things, our quality of our life is not necessarily going to improve.

There are certain things that a person needs to genuinely take control of. And that thing a person needs to take control of is none less than the نَفْس (nafs) and the inner self. That's a problem. That's the biggest enemy right there. That nafs. If it comes into control, then my problems, your problems—a vast majority of our problems—whether it's related to our eating habits, whether it's related to our sleeping habits, whether it's related to our character with fellow human beings, whether it's related to our personal worship with Allah—all of those things will come into control. If simply a person takes control of his or her nafs, of the ego-based desires, and says that "I'm going to put this in track," if this thing comes right, then everything else. There's nothing standing between us and our reaching our goals.

The University Analogy: Spiritual Growth

Brothers and sisters, one needs to use the closing of the year, the beginning of the new year to make resolutions, to say, ask ourselves this question. I was speaking to some college students, and I said, "You know, imagine you're at this university, and year after year you're in English 101. Every single year in English 101 for the next past 6, 8 years you're sitting in English 101. And also Bio 101. And then you'll be known—you'll be known as the ghost of this university that never graduates, that never moves forward. Year after year you're sitting in the same class. What will people tell you? What will your professor say? What will the janitor? What will the custodian? What will anyone say? How come you never move from this place? You're always here?"

Because it's not acceptable that a person just says, "I'm happy with the status quo. I like it here. It's comfortable. You know, الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ (Alhamdulillah) I go home. I have 3 meals a day. My mom and dad have great parents. I got a great family. Probably soon have kids too. You know. And what not. If he stays there long enough, why are you worried about me staying here?" And you'll say, "No, you need to go to either a sheikh or you need to go to a psychiatrist. You need to go somewhere. This is some serious problem. You can't just be happy that you're having 3 meals a day, your dad's paying for the bills, you know, you got stuff coming. Or maybe you have a side job. But how could you be sitting in the same classroom for the past 6 years? None of you would accept that."

Brothers and sisters, let's reflect on another aspect of our life. الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ I don't think anyone sitting here has done that or knows anyone who's doing that—sitting in the exact same class year after year, semester after semester, not moving forward. But when we look at our own knowledge of our own faith, when we look at the knowledge of the Arabic language, when we look at the knowledge of our fundamentals of our deen, about the life of the Prophet, for many of us really we're still stuck in Sunday school.

For so many people they're still stuck maybe in 7th grade, 8th grade, 10th grade. The level of knowledge that we had at that time, that our parents taught us, they took us to school and dropped us off and said, "Come on, learn." Our teachers taught us in the masjid or what not. We are maybe hovering around the exact same, you know, just a teeny bit more maybe, teeny bit more. But really not much progress in the past 30 years, past 20 years, past 40 years, past 10 years. For many people, it really—it's still the level of knowledge. The amount of books of سِيرَة (Seerah) that they read, the amount of companions of the Prophet that they can name and their salient features, the amount of major Islamic events that took place and that affected the religion—سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ—whether it's a story of Mi'raj, whether it is the story of battles that took place from Badr to Safin to Hunayn to Jamal, whether it was of course the battle of Karbala that we talk about in Muharram, and whether it is the various khulafa that came in the rains and what was happened, what didn't happen, whatever knowledge that one had when we were studying Geometry or studying Algebra 1. Now that we are well into our 30s and 40s and now our kids are doing math, we may be exactly in the same spot. That's a time. That's a point of reflection. How could it be? How can I accept that?

And then if we remind ourselves, "No, الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ, life is going good. خَيْر (Khair). مَاشَاءَ اللَّهُ (Mashallah) everything is fine. Just like that person who says, 'I'm stuck in 101 English, but guess what, I'm still eating 3 meals a day. My bills are being paid for. What's the big deal?' You'll say, 'This is a big deal. I'm sorry. That doesn't make sense.'"

So if a person is eating his meals, he's going to work, after Jummah he'll go to work, and then he'll spend the weekend with his family doing some things, Monday back to work. Bills are being paid. Insurance is being paid for. My brothers and sisters, that's not the really sign of a very fruitful life. That's just the basic things. That's like someone saying, "I went to use the restroom today. الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ, life is good. It's good. مَاشَاءَ اللَّهُ." That you're not being tested with that. But that's just the basic things of life. These are the needs of life. That's not the purpose in life.

Knowledge, Love, and Closeness to Allah

We have to see that our relationship with our Almighty Lord and our Prophet Muhammad—the knowledge that we have about them. If we do not have knowledge about them, how are we supposed to love them? If we don't have knowledge about them, how are we supposed to worship Allah? If we don't have knowledge and love of Allah, how are we supposed to get close to Allah? They're all intertwined. All interlinked.

Let us make a determination this year that, إِنْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ تَعَالَىٰ (Inshallah Ta'ala), I refuse to live in ignorance. I refuse to live in ignorance. I refuse to say, "I guess so if you said so." No. I'm gonna go learn my deen. I am gonna go learn about my faith. I'm not gonna listen to people just randomly saying, "You know, this is how it is." How many brothers and sisters fall into major mistakes in their faith? And you ask them, "You are a very intelligent person. I'm surprised. Why have you been doing this all your life?" He says, "Well, that's what people said." Whose fault is that? Why do we listen to people, just random people? Go and ask the scholars and say, "Okay, I would like to read up on this topic."

No one is saying don't study, don't educate yourself. We talk about literacy so much. We champion the education of women. And we talk about how we need to bring education to our home countries, for many of us where you've immigrated from, that we need to bring education to the villages. Brothers and sisters, we're not in a village. We're مَاشَاءَ اللَّهُ in a Mecca of learning, in the city of Chicago and in the suburbs. We have an amazing resources both from a university line, from Islamic academics, everything available. Madaris, masajid. And now in this day and age, for a person to remain ignorant—this is an effort that they have to do. An effort that I choose willingly to turn a blind eye to my faith and willingly wish to remain ignorant about my deen.

Preparation for Death and the Hereafter

This will very quickly wrap up. Very quickly come to an end. And a person will definitely come face to face with death. And that's why the Prophet ﷺ constantly reminded us to prepare.

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6053)

Live in this world as though you are a traveler. A traveler is not worried at what's happening at the other end of the world. He only wants to know what time is his flight. What terminal is his flight leaving from? What time will be arriving there? Who's gonna come pick him up from the airport? Is his ticket in order? Imagine a person instead of that is looking at what's happening in some other part of the world or is looking at some other issue. And in the meantime, he misses his flight. What a failure. What a failure. Exactly is the example of the one who focuses solely on world events, on sporting events, on cultural events, and is completely oblivious of his own flight, completely oblivious of the time of departure.

Destination also. Is it hell or is it hellfire? Is it hellfire or is it paradise? Where is it gonna be? If there's only two. If there's only two options. And a person needs to see the lifestyle that I'm leading. Where is it going to? We all have that level of consciousness. We all have that level of knowledge. When we can look down and say, "The lifestyle I'm leading is a life of success—of success in the hereafter—or the lifestyle that I'm leading is not the life of success?" That الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ, that light we all have. We can deep down reflect on our own selves. We don't need someone to beat down upon us. We don't need someone to beat down on our neck. We can kind of take the knowledge that we have, the iman, the faith that we've had all our lives, and in light of that focus and to see where am I headed.

And if a person is headed in the wrong way, الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ there's still chance. There's still chance. As long as the غَرْغَرَةُ الْمَوْتِ (ghargharat al-mawt), the death rattle, hasn't begun, there's more than enough chance for a person to repent and to turn to Allah.

Indeed Allah says that He will not forgive shirk—the ascribing of partners to Him. What does that mean? Some people misunderstood even this verse. سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ. They think if a person is a mushrik, was a polytheist, and then he doesn't know he can repent. Obviously this is not what it means. It means if a person passes away on the state of shirk, while ascribing partners with Allah, and did not repent before passing away, then that won't be forgiven.

But if a person, like all majority of the companions of the Prophet—most of them were mushrik, most of them were in kufr and shirk—they repented and they made tawbah and they embraced the faith at the hands of the Prophet ﷺ, of course they're forgiven. And anyone else for that matter. وَيَغْفِرُ مَا دُونَ ذَٰلِكَ لِمَنْ يَشَاءُ (And Allah will forgive anything beyond that as well). Meaning, if a person passes away without getting an opportunity to repent, even though he intended, Allah has the power and the will. No one can question him. He may choose to forgive. But we should not bank on that. What we should bank on? We should bank on Allah's mercy that will come to us when we seek forgiveness.

The Sacred Month of Muharram

Brothers and sisters, let us welcome this month. This new year. Starting off with the first month which is شَهْرُ اللَّهِ الْمُحَرَّمِ (Shahru Allah al-Muharram). Known as the month of Allah, the sacred, sanctified month of Allah. Why is it called the month of Allah? All months belongs to Allah. All days belong to Allah. It is simply to give it honor, to give it significance—that this is a very honorable beginning of the year. How it began. And why did the Islamic calendar begin the way it has? إِنْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ تَعَالَىٰ, following Friday, next Friday evening, we're gonna be discussing that—the lessons of the Hijrah of the Prophet ﷺ and the role Hijrah plays in setting our calendar and why that's so important.

But before I end, I would like to remind you that this month being a very special month is a month of fasting as well. The Prophet ﷺ has encouraged us multiple times in many different hadith regarding the fact that after the fast of Ramadan, that we fast, one of the most blessed months to fast is the شَهْرُ اللَّهِ الْمُحَرَّمِ (Shahru Allah al-Muharram), the month of Muharram.

The Prophet ﷺ specifically gave emphasis to one day known as Ashura, the 10th day of Muharram, which will fall on next Wednesday, إِنْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ. This is a very blessed day. Rasulullah ﷺ, as hadith mentions, that this is the day when many great things have happened. Including, as the Yahud and the Jews of Medina told the Prophet ﷺ, that this is the day we are revered. We're revered this day because this is the day when Musa and the children of Israel were given deliverance from the Pharaoh and were saved from the calamity. And many other great things have happened on this day.

So the Prophet ﷺ said, "Well, we have more right to fast on this day because these prophets are my brothers. And what has happened with them, سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ, and the blessings of Allah with them are blessings with me as well. And we are closer to the prophets. So we should definitely continue this sunnah and practice of honoring this day for all the great things that have happened, including the assistance of Allah for the righteous people."

Don't we need that the most today? Don't we need assistance for those who are trying to keep firm on their faith and protection for those who are trying to keep firm on their faith? For the thousands and millions who are suffering every single day in the wars, senseless civil wars are taking place, and all sorts of other wars as well. Bloodshed. We need assistance of Almighty Allah. No one can get out of this, get us out of this mess besides him. So we need to revere this day by fasting it.

And the Prophet ﷺ has said that fasting on this day of Ashura, he says, "I have hope from Allah that he will atone and forgive one year worth of sins." So then he also instructed, he said, "If I live till next year, I will fast the ninth as well." And in some riwayats, a day after—you need eleventh. But he did not live till the next year. So we are encouraged to not only fast the tenth on Wednesday but either add one day before or after—Tuesday or Thursday. But if you do it on Thursday, you get the added benefit of being a Thursday. And it was a set habit of the Prophet ﷺ throughout his life to fast on Mondays and Thursdays. So if you do it on Thursday and Wednesday, you get two birds with one stone. You've got the Ashura and you've got the eleventh. But it also ends up being the Thursday of the month, Thursday of the week. And hopefully this will not just be our last fast for Muharram, but it will open up the doors for many other fasts as well.

The Death of Imam Hussain and Justice in the Hereafter

On this blessed day, the death and the horrible death of Hussain ﷺ, as we know, took place on this day. But remember that being on the day of Ashura, on the tenth of Muharram, only gives honor to Hussain ﷺ. It gives honor that Allah took—like someone who passes away on Friday. He does not ruin Friday. But rather, he gets honor to be passing away on Friday. Similarly, someone who passes away on the tenth of Muharram doesn't ruin the entire day. Instead, he gets honored that his shahadah, his martyrdom, took place on that day.

And for us as shaheed, what does Allah say? That you think them to be dead, but Allah says:

They are well and alive by their Lord being provided with sustenance. So all the shuhada, including Hussain ﷺ, in that sense are alive. And we talk about their lives and their achievements. We learn from their lessons. We pray to Allah that He grants us love of the Prophet ﷺ, the family of the Prophet ﷺ. That He allows us to respect the family of the Prophet ﷺ. Allows us to continue in their footsteps.

And it's a stark reminder. It's a very straightforward, stark reminder that not always the people who are on the truth will succeed and triumph. Many times, people who are on the haqq and the truth will lose their lives, will be bitterly tortured and punished, and bad things will happen. But this world is not the place for justice. That place is the hereafter. So just because you are on the truth does not necessarily mean you will have a round of applause and everyone will be supporting you, whether at work, whether at home, whether with relatives, whether at a grand scale—national level, international level. Not everyone who speaks the truth will be honored for that. Not everyone who stands for the truth will be loved. Don't worry about that.

We have to stand by the truth regardless of whether we have the people with us or not. Our allegiance is with the truth. And that is exactly one of the beautiful lessons that we learn from the tragic events of Karbala and the death and the shuhada of Hussain ﷺ and his many family members of the Prophet ﷺ. That people like him—if Allah watched them being killed and the blood being spilt and the world didn't stop rotating, the sun didn't just disappear, life moved on—so don't think that life will stop, stand still when things bad happen to us. We're definitely not like the family of the Prophet. We're not like the grandchildren of the Prophet ﷺ. This is the system of Allah. This is the system of Allah.

There's a place of justice that's called the Day of Judgment. And in this world, it's a give and take. Some days will be for you. Some days will be against you. Be patient. And just ensure when it's all done, when it's all said and done, we're on the right side of the history. That's the most important thing. Not history to be read by people and glorified, but in the books of Allah. That when Allah presents our book in front of the millions and billions on the Day of Judgment, the angels will be present, the prophets will be present, we know deep down, الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ, we stood by what was true even though we maybe have taken financial loss or other types of, you know, loss of life, etc.

The key thing—which is dispute with husband and wife, dispute with children, dispute with business partners, dispute with neighbors, wherever it may be—this common thing. We have to remind ourselves. We learn from that story. Stand for the truth. Don't worry about the support of the people. May Allah grant you and I and all of us in our extended families and the entire ummah strength to follow through and stand by the truth. آمِينَ رَبَّ الْعَالَمِينَ (Amin Rabbil Alamin).

We ask you, إِنْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ, to move forward and stand up for your sunnah salah. Move forward, إِنْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ, complete the rows.