The Guest Around the Corner: Preparing for Ramadan with Sh Ammar Alshukry

إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ، نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ، وَنَعُوذُ بِاللهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا، مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ، وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ، وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ، وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ وَصَفِيُّهُ مِنْ خَلْقِهِ وَخَلِيلُهُ، بَلَّغَ الرِّسَالَةَ، وَأَدَّى الْأَمَانَةَ، وَنَصَحَ الْأُمَّةَ، تَرَكَهُمْ عَلَى الْمَحَجَّةِ الْبَيْضَاءِ، لَيْلُهَا كَنَهَارِهَا، لَا يَزِيغُ عَنْهَا إِلَّا هَالِكٌ، صَلَوَاتُ رَبِّي وَسَلَامُهُ عَلَيْهِ.

عِبَادَ اللهِ، يَقُولُ اللهُ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ فِي كِتَابِهِ الْكَرِيمِ، بَعْدَ أَعُوذُ بِاللهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ:

أَمَّا بَعْد: All praise is due to Allah. We seek His guidance and His forgiveness and we seek refuge in Allah from the evil of ourselves and the whispering of our desires. Whom Allah guides, no one can misguide, and whom He allows to be misled, no one can guide.

And I bear witness that there is nothing worthy of worship except Allah alone, having no partners, and that Muhammad ﷺ is His slave and His messenger and His perfect worshipper.

The Lesson of Preparation from Surah At-Tawbah

Allah in Surah At-Tawbah speaks to the Prophet ﷺ about the munafiqeen. After the Prophet ﷺ had gone on the campaign of Tabuk and returned back, he found 80 or more hypocrites in the city of the Prophet ﷺ who had not gone on the campaign.

When Rasulullah ﷺ arrived, the first thing that he did was he set up shop in the masjid — even before going to his family, he came straight to the masjid. And he listened to the excuses of 80-some-odd hypocrites. They gave him excuses. They said their houses were unprotected, they weren't ready. And Rasulullah ﷺ accepted all of their excuses.

But Allah said to the Prophet ﷺ, "May Allah forgive you — why did you accept their excuses?" Until Allah makes a statement and He says: if they had truly wanted to go on the campaign with you, they would have prepared for it.

Allah is criticizing failure that is due to the lack of preparation. He said: if they had truly wanted to succeed, if they had truly wanted to go with you, they would have prepared for it.

The Example of Abu Bakr As-Siddiq

The opposite of the munafiqeen, of course, are the sincere. And the greatest of the sincere is the one whose name is As-Siddiq — the truthful — Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه. And we see in the example of Abu Bakr, when Rasulullah ﷺ was preparing to migrate to Medina, and he was giving permission for one group of companions to leave, and this companion to leave, and this companion to go, and to migrate, and to migrate, and to migrate.

Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه was not told to migrate. He was not given permission. He was not told that he was going to migrate with the Prophet ﷺ. But because he was sincere, and he truly wanted to migrate with Rasulullah ﷺ, he prepared two camels. He purchased two camels — not one. He purchased two, just in case. And he was feeding them with the best of feed — just in case.

The Prophet ﷺ shows up at his house, mulatham — with his face covered — at a time, Aisha رضي الله عنها says, during the day where the Prophet ﷺ would never visit them, even though he would visit every day. He shows up during the middle of the day with his face covered, and he tells Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه: "I was commanded to migrate." And Abu Bakr says, as-sohba ya Rasulullah — am I going to be your companion? And the Prophet ﷺ said, as-sohba — yes, you are going to be my companion in the hijrah.

Aisha says: as a young girl, I did not know that people could cry out of happiness, until I saw my father in that moment, crying out of happiness.

That is the difference between someone who is sincere — wanting to go on that journey, he's ready, he has the two camels ready — and someone who is not.

They would have prepared for it.

The Guest Around the Corner: Ramadan

I say this as an introduction to our brief khutbah — which is about the guest that is around the corner: Ramadan. And preparing for the month of Ramadan.

We all know what Ramadan entails. We know the schedule. We know it involves fasting. We know it involves suhoor. We know that it involves reading the Quran. We know that it involves charity. We know that it involves taraweeh. We know the routine. And we also know the feeling of Ramadan passing at the end of the month, and us looking back and saying: I wish that I had done more. I wish that I had taken better advantage. O Allah, please allow me to experience another Ramadan so that I can do better.

And here we are at the brink of doing better. We are half a month away from Ramadan. So the question becomes: what are we doing to prepare for this month?

I want to share with you, insha'Allah, five or six quick tips. And more importantly, I want to invite you after this khutbah to go back and have this discussion with your family. Have this discussion with your friends. Involve whoever it is that you need to involve, but remind each other of the importance of taking advantage and preparing for Ramadan, so that when this guest comes, we are ready to go.

Nobody runs a marathon off the couch. I don't know anybody who has ever done that — just jumps right off the couch and tries to run 26 miles. That doesn't happen. Ramadan is 30 days. We know that it's a marathon. So let's prepare.

Six Ways to Prepare for Ramadan

1. Make a Sincere Intention

The first of the things I want to mention is to simply intend to do good in Ramadan. Intend to do good. Because if a person intends and says sincerely, committed to Allah, "I am going to pray the nights of Ramadan" — even if a person becomes impeded for whatever impediment comes their way, whether it is sickness or whether it is travel — they get that reward. Because they intended to do it. They committed to doing it. If a person commits to giving charity, even if that charity is impeded, you get rewarded. Your intentions will actually allow you to reach levels that your actions don't reach.

2. Set Goals

The second is to have goals. What are my goals for Ramadan? What did I accomplish last year? How can I increase this year? Is my goal to read this much Quran? Is my goal to attend these many prayers in the masjid? I want to commit to praying in jama'ah during Ramadan. What are my goals?

Think about those goals seriously and try to make those goals things that are smart — that they're specific, they're measurable, they're actionable, they're realistic. Don't sabotage yourself in Ramadan by having a goal that you've never ever accomplished or anywhere come close to. "I want to read the Quran 10 times over in Ramadan" — well, I've never even completed it twice. So let me actually get better, insha'Allah, and have goals that are reasonable. But having goals is the most important thing.

3. Start Practicing Your Schedule Now

The third is to start practicing what your schedule might be like and to start building discipline in those areas from now. If I know that Ramadan is going to include a lot of standing and I know that I am absolutely shattered by the fourth night of Ramadan — like half of the community is — then let me practice standing now. Let me add a little bit of Qiyamul Layl now. Let me make sure that I am fasting.

The Prophet ﷺ would fast more in the month of Sha'ban than in any other month. That is part of the preparation for the fast of Ramadan. And right now we are in the three white days — the 13th, the 14th, and the 15th — this weekend. So maybe I fast tomorrow, maybe I fast Sunday, to get ready for the month of Ramadan.

4. Remove the Decision-Making Process

The fourth is to remove the decision-making process as much as I can. Ramadan comes and we are not in the Muslim world where everything stops for Ramadan. Our work doesn't stop, our school doesn't stop. And so we are juggling so many things and we suffer from decision fatigue many times. So as best as I can, I remove whatever decisions I need to make. What is the iftar schedule going to be in my family? What is the calendar going to look like? Where am I going to pray Taraweeh? What are the things that I am going to be doing throughout the month? As best as I can, whatever decisions we can remove as a family before Ramadan, let us do that and let's commit to it.

5. Keep Up with Your Dhikr and Quran

The fifth is trying to keep up with my Quran and my adhkar in Ramadan. The dhikr of Allah is the thing that the Prophet ﷺ gave as advice to everybody who is too busy. Everybody who is too busy to do anything, the Prophet ﷺ would tell him: let your tongue be moist with the remembrance of Allah.

And Rasulullah ﷺ was asked in the hadith reported by Ahmad: which of those who fast is best? And Rasulullah ﷺ said:

The one who remembers Allah the most. (Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 9737)

Maybe I am very busy at my work. Maybe I am already grieved that I don't feel like I'm going to be able to do as much this coming Ramadan. But you know what I can do? Whether I am at work or whether I am at school, wherever I am, I can increase in my dhikr of Allah. Making sure that my dhikr is very strong — that I commit to the adhkar of the morning, I commit to the adhkar of the evening, I increase in the dhikr that I make throughout the day — and putting up whatever system I need to put up for me to succeed. Maybe that is a group that I have with my friends or family members where we commit to these adhkar and remind each other in the morning and the evening. But I commit to increasing in my dhikr during the month of Ramadan and to increasing in my reading of the Quran as well.

6. Minimize Social Media

And the fifth — and it is the big thief — is social media and our attention. I know people who in Ramadan leave their WhatsApp groups, leave their social groups. They go zero dark thirty for that month and come back on Eid. Their return is greeted with more happiness by their groups on the day of Eid. Some people may leave a group never to return again — they're not allowed back in. But the point here is minimizing my social media — and minimizing it from now.

In the world of digital minimalism, they talk about this a lot: if you cannot delete the social media apps for whatever reason during Ramadan, and if you have a desktop, move those apps from your phone to your desktop, and it becomes a completely different experience. I still have Facebook, but I have it on my desktop instead of on my phone. So I'm not carrying it with me everywhere. I can still check it at times during the day, but I minimize it. Instagram, all of the most popular apps — they all have a desktop version. Put them on your desktop instead of on your phone. I can still check in daily, but checking in on your desktop or laptop is much different than checking in on your phone.

7. Prepare Your Charity

And the sixth is preparing your charity. We all know Ramadan has fundraisers. You are going to walk into many fundraisers in Ramadan, and you are going to see many fundraisers online. This is the nature of Ramadan.

Rasulullah ﷺ was:

The most generous in Ramadan. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 3554; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2308)

And we all know that he was like the wind, touching everything. So preparing my charity from now, preparing the idea of charity — sometimes we take on extra shifts to prepare for a vacation. But what about, in the next two weeks for example, I take on extra shifts at work for the purpose of giving charity in Ramadan?

We know that it is going to be intense everywhere that we go during Ramadan. That is what we expect. And the causes are obviously deserving of every dollar that reaches them. But simply walking into Ramadan with the intention: this year I am prepared for charity. I am not going to be on another 27th night or on the last nights of Ramadan without anything to give because I wasn't ready. If there is any year where I am going to be ready — with whatever I am ready with — I am going to be ready this year. I am not going to be caught without competing in one avenue of khair, one of the greatest avenues of khair in Ramadan, which is the avenue of charity.

So we ask Allah to allow us to hear the speech and follow the best of it.

أَقُولُ مَا سَمِعْتُمْ وَأَسْتَغْفِرُ اللهَ لِي وَلَكُمْ، فَاسْتَغْفِرُوهُ إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ.

Second Khutbah

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ، وَالصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَى رَسُولِ اللهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ.

For those of you who are just joining, we mentioned six quick ways for a person to take advantage and prepare, insha'Allah, for the month of Ramadan:

The first was to have an intention — the intention of doing good.
The second was to have goals.
The third was to start practicing your schedule now as best as you can.
The fourth was to remove the decision-making process.
The fifth was to keep up with your adhkar as best as you can and monitor your social media.
And the sixth was to prepare your charity.

We ask Allah to allow us to experience the month of Ramadan.