Post Ramadan Downfall- Maulana Muntasir Zaman

Post Ramadan Downfall

The month of Ramadan was indeed a very fruitful month. The entire day we were fasting, the entire night, to the best of our abilities, we were engaged in the worship of Allah. But, as we embrace the joyous occasion of Eid al-Fitr, and after that, the month of Shawwal, we should also keep in mind that there is also a downfall. That Shaytan, who was chained up, is now released.

Now, there are two things I would like to highlight. First is the knowledge regarding your enemy, and secondly, knowledge regarding yourself.

During the month of Ramadan, we had the great opportunity to better understand ourselves and our responsibilities to Allah. We got closer to Allah, and we accumulated as much good as possible. But what is interesting and very important to note is, in fact, it is not the person who gathers as much good as possible who is successful. Rather, the successful person is he who is able to safeguard and preserve whatever he has accumulated.

The True Pauper

A person asked Rasulullah ﷺ — when obviously Nabi ﷺ said, "Do you know who is the pauper, the poor person?" — this person said, "Obviously the poor person is he who does not have a dirham, nor does he have a dinar. He doesn't have a silver coin, neither does he have a golden coin." Nabi ﷺ told him, "No, you have misunderstood the poor person."

Rather, the poor person is he who comes on Yawm al-Qiyamah with a mountain of good deeds, but he infringed upon the rights of his fellow Muslims — he slandered so-and-so, he hurt the feelings of so-and-so — and whatever he accumulated will be transferred to the account of the victims of his slander. And if that is not sufficient, then that person's ill deeds will be transferred to his account.

Now this is very important, because it was the blessing of Allah that we managed to do such a great amount of good. But the question now is: the month of Shawwal has begun, Ramadan came to an end — how am I going to go forward?

Do Not Forget Too Quickly

Mufti Muhammad Shafi' rahimahullah, a great Mufti of Pakistan, when he was on his deathbed, he addressed those around him saying, "My demise is inevitable. Maybe in a few days I will pass away. And I know it is natural for a human being to mourn over the deceased, but it is only a few days before he also forgets that person. So I know you are going to forget me, but do not forget me too quickly."

Ramadan has gone. It is inevitable and natural that we are going to forget whatever we have accumulated in Ramadan, but let us not forget it too quickly. So what are the steps forward? How do we go forward? We should understand that whatever we have done in Ramadan, it should be our primary focus — how we can preserve those good deeds.

The Advice of the Prophet to 'Uqbah ibn 'Amir

A Sahabi by the name of 'Uqbah ibn 'Amir رضي الله عنه came to Rasulullah ﷺ and said, "O Rasulullah, مَنْ نَجَا؟ — What is success? Encapsulate for me in one sentence how I can achieve success."

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ did not instruct him to go and perform thousands of raka'at of prayer, to give an abundant amount of wealth in charity, or to go for Hajj as many times as possible. Rather, he directed his attention to an important point — the preservation of good deeds. As it is said in English, prevention is the greatest cure.

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2406)

First Advice: Control Your Tongue

First and foremost, he told him: أَمْلِكْ عَلَيْكَ لِسَانَكَ — if you want to acquire this success that you so sincerely want, then first and foremost, control your tongue. Whatever you are going to say, ensure it will not hurt the feelings of others, ensure it will not be a means of your degradation.

Once in the presence of Rasulullah ﷺ, 'A'ishah رضي الله عنها, our beloved mother, made a derogatory comment regarding another wife of Rasulullah ﷺ concerning her height. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was so angered and upset that he told her, "You have said such a statement that, had it been mixed with the seven seas, it would have contaminated them."

So أَمْلِكْ عَلَيْكَ لِسَانَكَ — to control our tongue. And unfortunately, in our circles, the problem is we too often get engaged in backbiting and ghiba. One of the greatest sins related to the tongue.

Once a successor, a tabi'i, by the name of Rabi'i ibn Khirash, attended a gathering and a sitting with his friends and his companions who began backbiting. He thought to himself, "This is not becoming of a believer, hence I should leave." He stood up, excused himself, and left.

After a short while, he came back under the assumption that they had stopped speaking of that topic. But when he heard them backbiting again, he said, "I have to leave again." But he succumbed to his weakness and felt too shy to stand up and leave, so he remained and even uttered a few words that were inappropriate.

That night when he went back home, he had a nightmare that a hideous figure grabbed and embraced him and forced him to eat swine — pig meat. When he woke up in the morning, he tasted that disgusting taste of that meat, and he thought to himself: "Allah, for that short moment of time I was oblivious of His instructions and I went against His rules. Allah in this world gave me a taste of that punishment. What will be the punishment in the Hereafter?"

So we should keep in mind that although in Ramadan we have done an abundant amount of good deeds, we should not become so arrogant and so complacent that we are happy with what we did but do not make it our concern to preserve what we did.

Mufti Muhammad Shafi' rahimahullah had a teacher who was known as Hazrat Mia rahimahullah. He would always come and sit in his company and they would speak on different topics. Once he came to sit with Hazrat Mia, and as they are from Pakistan, their native language is Urdu, though as scholars, Arabic is their second language.

He began speaking with him in Urdu, and his teacher Hazrat Mia responded in Arabic. He was surprised and asked, "O my beloved teacher, why are you speaking in Arabic when we always speak in Urdu?" The teacher initially deflected, but when pressed for the truth, he said, "O Shafi', if you want to know the truth — whenever we sit down, often we tend to speak about what is permissible, but then we digress and start speaking about things which are impermissible. I thought that if we speak in Arabic, not being our native language, we would have to think two or three times before we utter anything. So let us speak in Arabic — before we say anything, we would have to think about it. If we are going to backbite or speak of something unnecessary, we would think before it. Weigh it, then say it."

So the scholars were cognizant of this: whatever I say, it may be something trivial in my eyes, but it will snatch away my good deeds. We always complain about other people.

Once a husband and wife were at the breakfast table, and through a window you could see the backyard of the neighbors, who hung their clothes every single day to dry after washing. This wife had a habit of constantly complaining. Every morning she would tell the husband, "Look at our neighbors — they have the dirtiest clothes. Every morning we come, we look outside the window and we see that their clothes are dirty. Will they ever learn?" The next morning she made a similar remark. The third day she came and told the husband in amazement, "Wow, it is about time they washed their clothes. Look outside — their clothes are clean!" The husband said, "You know what? I just cleaned the window this morning."

The whole time she was looking through a dirty window. She was looking through the lens of a critic. Likewise, when we comment on other people, more often than not, it is not what they are doing wrong — it is a reflection of our own inconsistencies and our shortcomings.

A person comes to the doctor and says, "Doctor, my nose is hurting. My eyes are hurting. My back is hurting. Every time I touch these parts, they hurt." The doctor said, "Let me see your finger." He saw that the finger was fractured. So obviously, no matter what he touches, it is going to hurt, because it is the finger that is hurting. So when we comment on somebody else, it is not that they have a shortcoming — it is that we have shortcomings and we are looking through the lens of a critic.

Second Advice: Let Your Home Be Your Refuge

When Nabi ﷺ advised 'Uqbah ibn 'Amir, the second advice he gave was:

"Let your house be spacious and sufficient for you." More so in our times, when we walk outside, immediately our gaze falls on haram. We listen to haram. Whether we do it consciously or unconsciously, in the end of the day, it is impossible or greatly difficult for us to abstain from the fitan and the trials that the outside holds for us. So Nabi ﷺ told him: try to stay within your house to the greatest of your ability, because our homes should be a retreat for us. We should have such family members that when we come home, we get this support, this upliftment — that we do not need to go outside. We have a sufficient source of support in our house, at our home, in our children and our wives.

'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz, one of the greatest khulafa in the history of Islam, when he married Fatimah bint 'Abd al-Malik, her father gave her a very expensive jewel as a present. When she received this jewel, 'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz came to her and said, "Let me make one thing straight. It is either you keep this jewel or I stay in this house. If this jewel stays, I am leaving. If I am to stay, this jewel has to go." She replied, "Even if I had a jewel the price of which was many times more, I would have given it away in charity just to be in your presence."

This is the support we need — that when I look at my spouse, when I look at my children, I will not be averse to deen. I will not be averse to my religion. I will strengthen my faith and get closer to Allah. When 'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz passed away, the next khalifah, Yazid ibn 'Abd al-Malik, came to Fatimah bint 'Abd al-Malik and said, "Your husband has passed away. If you wish, I can return that expensive jewel." She said, "I did not want it in the life of my husband. How can I want it after he passed away?"

So we need to construct a family that when we return home, they are a means of support — specifically in the poisonous and hazardous environment that we are living in, where it is very difficult to hold on to our faith. The example and the analogy is that of a person who tries to hold on to burning charcoal.

Third Advice: Weep Over Your Shortcomings

Nabi ﷺ further goes on to say:

"Make it a habit to weep over your shortcomings and sins." Often, when we perform two raka'at of tahajjud, we think we have reached the seventh heaven. We think we have done such an amount of good that nobody can do more than me. Nabi ﷺ — the perfect creation, nobody can be greater than him — yet he would ask Allah for forgiveness 70 to 100 times on a daily basis.

Hafiz Ibn Hajar, one of the greatest scholars of hadith from Egypt, comments on this hadith and says: "Why did Rasulullah ﷺ have to ask for forgiveness when all his sins are forgiven?" He says: when he would engage in permissible actions, his status was such that he would not be able to cope with those permissible actions, and he would ask Allah for forgiveness.

"The good deeds of the righteous are the sins of those brought nearest to Allah." — This is a well-known aphorism among the scholars of tasawwuf.

Sari al-Saqati was a very pious figure in Islamic history. Once, news reached him that the house he lived in — that entire area, all the homes — had been burnt. He immediately went to that place in Baghdad and asked around: "Is this news true?" They told him that all the houses were burnt, but his house was not burnt. He said: الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ — "All praise to Allah who saved my house."

Many years after that, he would seek forgiveness for that one statement of saying الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ. People would ask him, "Why are you asking for forgiveness for saying الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ?" He said, "I am not asking for forgiveness for this virtuous act. Rather, it was the attitude with which I said it — because I should have expressed grief for the loss of my Muslim brothers instead of expressing happiness for the benefit that I got."

Their understanding of seeking forgiveness was much different from that which we have. So Nabi ﷺ advised him: وَابْكِ عَلَى خَطِيئَتِكَ — cry over your sins. Always understand: human beings are weak and prone to error. Although you may think you have reached perfection, that thought itself is a shortcoming.

Express Gratitude to Allah

These three advices of Rasulullah ﷺ are very relevant to us, especially post-Ramadan, in how we can preserve our good deeds. We should also express gratitude to Allah for the fact that He has allowed us to do all of these good deeds. Gratitude is the responsibility of every human being.

On a lighter note — a husband and wife were married for approximately 20 years. The wife would always cook the best of foods — the best lunch, the best dinner, the best breakfast, everything that he wanted, she would provide. But she was always sad. One day the husband went to work and spoke to his co-worker, saying, "Why is my wife always grumpy? Why is she always angry with me?" The co-worker said, "Did you ever show gratitude to her for whatever she gives you?" He said, "You know what? That is a good idea. After 20 years, today I am going to go back home and thank her for all of those 20 years — I am going to give her a smile she has never seen before."

So with this objective in front of him, he starts smiling from work and he is on his way back home. At lunch, the wife puts food in front of him and he begins eating, smiling with every bite, saying, "Wow, what amazing food. You are the best wife ever. I know it has been 20 years and I never said anything, but wow, you are the best." And as he is taking a bite, the wife begins to cry.

He is confused — she is not supposed to cry. She says, "For 20 years I have been providing food for you, and not once did you show gratitude. Today, when the neighbor gave food, you are going الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ and smiling as if there was no food before."

So gratitude. We should show gratitude to Allah for everything He has provided.

Conclusion

The month of Ramadan is a very fruitful month, but we should be cognizant of the fact that as quickly as we have accumulated this good, even faster we can lose all of it. So let us take to heart and inculcate the advices of Rasulullah ﷺ:

• Control your tongue, and be cautious of what you say.
• Try to the best of your ability to confine yourselves to your homes.
• Whatever shortcomings you have — and naturally, as human beings we have shortcomings — ask Allah for forgiveness.

May Allah first and foremost grant me the ability to practice, and those who are hearing.