Dhul Hijjah and Voluntary Deeds | Shaykh Ahsan Hanif

Opening — Khutbah al-Hajah

أَمَّا بَعْدُ — فَإِنَّ أَصْدَقَ الْحَدِيثِ كِتَابُ اللَّهِ تَعَالَى وَخَيْرَ الْهَدْيِ هَدْيُ مُحَمَّدٍ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ وَشَرَّ الْأُمُورِ مُحْدَثَاتُهَا وَكُلَّ مُحْدَثَةٍ بِدْعَةٌ وَكُلَّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلَالَةٌ وَكُلَّ ضَلَالَةٍ فِي النَّارِ.

The Importance of Voluntary Worship

When we study the life of our Prophet ﷺ, one of the things that becomes abundantly clear is how much worship the Prophet ﷺ used to perform. And when I say worship, I don't just mean the farā'id, the wājibāt — I don't mean the obligatory deeds that every single Muslim has to perform because Allah has legislated it upon them. But what I mean by that is the optional deeds, the nawāfil, the voluntary acts of worship.

The Prophet ﷺ, from the moment that he woke up until the moment that he would sleep at night, his day was busy in different acts of worship. If it wasn't the salāh, it was recitation of the Qur'an. And if it wasn't recitation of the Qur'an, it was a form of sadaqah. And if it wasn't sadaqah, it was teaching the people. And if it wasn't teaching the people, then it was helping others, or fasting, or any other acts of worship that Allah has given to us in this religion.

And that example of the Prophet ﷺ is important for you and I, because one of the things that we benefit from that is that when it comes to our deeds and our actions that are obligatory, most of us fall short. Most of us have deficiency within it. None of us — or very few of us — it is extremely rare that every salāh that you offer, every day of Ramadan that you fasted, every zakāh that is obligatory upon you that you have to give — you're going to fulfill it in its best and most complete and perfect way. It's human nature that we make mistakes; it's human nature that we're forgetful; it's human nature that we have errors and deficiencies.

So from the rahmah and the mercy of Allah is that He has given us an outlet — He's given us another avenue by which we can make up those deficiencies and we can exceed in terms of good and virtue.

In Ramadan, this month that just passed not too long ago, one of the blessings of Ramadan is that you're busy in many acts of worship. Yes, the month is blessed and the surroundings are blessed and the atmosphere that is created within it is blessed, because of the way that Allah has withheld certain evils and opened up certain avenues of good. But from the blessings of Ramadan is that you're just busy in goodness — you're spending as much of your time as you can in extra worship, and you see the impact upon that in your life. To be a person of ibādah, to be a person of nawāfil, to be a person who is just worshipping Allah in every opportunity that they have — whether it's a dhikr or recitation of the Qur'an or extra nawāfil or sadaqah or helping others or being good to them — all of this is something which is extremely important. The impact of it is something which you should never underestimate.

The First Question on the Day of Judgement

Our Prophet told us this ﷺ, in the hadith that is collected in the various collections of Abu Dawud, al-Nasa'i, and al-Tirmidhi, on the authority of Abu Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him, that the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 864; Sunan al-Nasa'i, Hadith 466; Jami' al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 413)

The first thing that the people will be questioned about on Yawm al-Qiyāmah with regards to their actions and their deeds is the salāh — and that means the obligatory salāh, those five daily prayers. Did you perform them? Did you fulfill their conditions? Were you performing them at their correct time? Were you having the level of attention and khushu' that is requisite in that ibādah? Allah will question every single one of you.

So Allah will say to His angels — and He is the All-Knowing:

Look towards the salāh of My servant — did he complete it and fulfill it, or were there deficiencies in it?

Now, how many of us sitting here right now can honestly and truthfully say that the Fajr that we prayed this morning, or the 'Ishā' that we prayed last night and the Maghrib before that — just the five last daily prayers that we offered — we fulfilled them in the way that was befitting? That we completed them in terms of their conditions and actions and obligations? That we fulfilled them in the way that we would be satisfied with, let alone anyone else?

Are they complete or are they deficient? If they happen to be fulfilled and perfect and complete, they will be recorded as such. But if they're deficient — as is the case for most of us, we're praying and our mind is elsewhere, we delay our prayer sometimes, we miss the time of salāh and we don't even have a good excuse for it — then Allah will say to the angels:

Look to My servant — does he have extra deeds, extra salāhs, virtuous salāhs, optional salāhs that he did during his lifetime?

Those salāhs that we think are insignificant because they're not obligatory — we'll pray Dhuhr or we'll pray Maghrib and 'Ishā', but those sunnahs that come before or after some of those prayers, we'll be like, we don't have time, we're too busy, we're too distracted, and we'll miss them. These opportunities that you have for the salāh — when you come into the masjid and you have half an hour and you could pray some nawāfil, or at home, or at night, or whatever it may be — we think that those opportunities are not important.

Look at My servant's salāh — does he have voluntary salāh? And then Allah, if that person has that voluntary salāh, Allah will say:

Take from his optional deeds of salāh and fulfill his obligatory deeds of salāh. The deficiencies that you have are made up.

And then the Prophet ﷺ said:

And then Allah will do the same for every obligatory deed. Your zakāh — that's an obligation and you didn't pay it correctly, maybe you didn't pay it on time, maybe your calculation was off — Allah will look at the sadaqah that you gave to make up the deficiency. The Ramadan that was obligatory upon you, when you did fast and you didn't fulfill those fasts every single day in the way that was befitting — the way that Allah obligated — Allah looks at the voluntary fasts that you did. All of the actions that are obligatory will be treated in this way.

And that is one of the greatest benefits of nawāfil, of voluntary acts of worship — that every single opportunity that you have to fast an extra day, to give some sadaqah, to recite some Qur'an, to make the dhikr of Allah, to teach someone something beneficial — all of these different acts of worship that Allah has made so many in their variety and in their forms and their levels of hardship and ease and the opportunities that are available — Allah legislated upon them because it is one of the signs that demarcates the believer who is trying and attaining — trying, working, and striving for the pleasure of Allah.

The Hadith al-Qudsi: The Station of the Awliya'

Allah says in the hadith al-Qudsi that is in Sahih al-Bukhari, also from the hadith of Abu Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6502)

Whosoever casts enmity against a wali of Mine, I have declared war upon them.

And al-wilāyah — to be a wali of Allah, the chosen, selected person that Allah makes from His closest allies — that's from the greatest stations that any Muslim can attain in this dunyā. And it's not a station that some people mistakenly think — it's not a station that can be inherited. It's not a station that's about the titles that you have or the prefix or suffix that you add to your name. It's not about the way that you dress. It's not about the family title or tribe that you came from. It is something that is earned through iman and through worship.

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6502)

And Allah says that there is nothing more beloved that a person can do, in terms of seeking nearness and closeness to Him, than fulfilling the obligatory deeds. Nothing more beloved to Allah than your five salāh and your zakāh and your fasting of Ramadan and your performance of Umrah and Hajj and those deeds that Allah has obligated upon you.

But how do you attain that level that is higher, that is greater, that is closer to Allah?

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6502)

But that servant then continues to do more voluntary deeds, optional deeds — nawāfil — and Allah says: until I love them. And if I love someone, I become the hearing by which they hear, the eyes by which they see, the hands by which they touch, the feet by which they walk.

And what that means is that everything you hear and see and touch and walk towards is only that which is pleasing and beloved to Allah. Everything you do revolves around the pleasure of Allah. So Allah places upon you His divine care and protection and only keeps you towards that which is good and protects you from evil.

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6502)

And if that person was to ask of Me, Allah says, I would surely grant it to them. And if they were to seek My protection and refuge, I would grant it to them also. That's from the greatest benefits of the nawāfil.

Examples from the Companions and the Scholars

And that is why the companions of the Prophet ﷺ — if you were to read their biographies and those of the famous scholars of Islam — their time was busy in ibādah. And as many acts of worship — they had families, they had jobs, they had other things that they had to do — but the empty pockets of time that they had, they would try to use as much of that as they could in the worship of Allah.

Imam al-Bukhari, may Allah have mercy on him, in his Sahih — for every single hadith that he collected and narrated, and there are nearly 7,000 narrations in that book — for every hadith he prayed two nafl first. Can you imagine? Every single hadith you're going to narrate, you pray two nafl. Most of us find it difficult to pray nawāfil even once a day.

Abu Dharr, may Allah be pleased with him, the famous companion — some of the Tābi'een said that we came to him and we found him in salāh, and he was praying two rak'ahs after two, after two, after two, until we lost count. So after he finished, we said to him: O Abu Dharr, do you know how much you prayed? Can you count how much you prayed? He said: No — but Allah counts. He wasn't even preoccupied about the number; Allah knows the number even if I didn't.

They would busy themselves at that level of worship to Allah.

The Question of Thawbān: What is the Most Beloved Deed?

And that is why one of the Tābi'een, as it is collected in Sahih Muslim, came to the companion Thawbān, may Allah be pleased with him — and Thawbān was the servant of the Prophet ﷺ, which means that he would have spent a great deal of time close up to the Prophet ﷺ — and he said: What is the most beloved deed to Allah? Or in the other wording: What is the greatest deed in the sight of Allah?

And what he meant is from that which is extra — because when you and I ask that question, we're still thinking about the obligatory deeds because we're struggling to pray our salāh. How many of us and how many of our brothers and sisters don't pray five times a day? How many of them don't pray for a whole week? Maybe perhaps only the Salāt al-Jumu'ah. And some of them perhaps don't even pray except two times a year when it's Eid. And some of them don't even do that. And for those of us that pray, we delay our salāh — let the time elapse, become busy, become preoccupied with other things.

Those companions, when they said: What's the best deed to Allah? They didn't mean from the obligatory deeds — because you and I don't have a choice concerning those. What they meant is: once I've done that, then what do I do next? Where should I put all of my time and focus and energy?

He asked this question to Thawbān, and Thawbān didn't say anything. So he repeated the question a second time and he didn't answer him. So he repeated it a third time. And then Thawbān said: Because you asked me three times, I will tell you — because I asked the same question to the Prophet ﷺ. And the Prophet ﷺ said to me:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 488)

Be from those people who make many sajdahs — always in prostration — meaning that he makes many nawāfil and prays as much as he can pray. For you will never perform a single prostration to Allah except that Allah, through it, will raise you a station and Allah will forgive you for a sin.

Every single sajdah that you make, every single penny, every single pound that you spend, every day that you fast, every time you make tasbih or takbir or tahleel or tahmeed, or you remember Allah, every word of the Qur'an that you recite — the reward is something which is amazing.

So the Prophet ﷺ taught us, therefore, by his example and in the way that he lived his life and through instruction to his companions — and therefore by extension to you and I — that the believer is someone who should be busying themselves in worship. And as the scholars said: the person who is busied in worship has no time, or less time, to be busy in evil and harām. But the one who is not busy in worship has more time on their hands, and inevitably some of that will go towards that which is displeasing to Allah and that which is harām.

We ask Allah that He allows us to benefit from our time, and that Allah makes us from the people of ibādah, and that Allah allows us to be from amongst those who become the awliyā' of Allah through iman and through worship — that which is obligatory and that which is voluntary.

The First Ten Days of Dhul Hijjah

We are, inshā'Allah, very soon — within a week or so — coming up to one of the most virtuous times of the year and one of the most blessed times that Allah has given to us, and that is the first ten days of Dhul Hijjah.

And what is reported in the Musnad of Imam Ahmad on the authority of the companion Abdullah ibn 'Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, that the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Musnad Imam Ahmad, Hadith 5446; Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 969)

There are no days that are greater in the sight of Allah, nor are deeds more beloved to Allah in them, than these ten days of Dhul Hijjah.

To the extent that some of the scholars were of the position that these days of Dhul Hijjah — the daytime — is more virtuous and more rewarding, because of this hadith, than the days of Ramadan, because of the rewards that Allah has given.

And that is why these are days that we should prepare for — just like before Ramadan we are preparing a few days or a week before, knowing that these are days that are limited in their number and in their virtue, so we need to excel and maximize that effort — likewise we should do the same for these ten days, because they're even shorter and the opportunity is even more limited. And most of us are neglectful of them, until maybe the day of Arafah, when we know that we need to fast.

Even the smallest deeds that are voluntary, Allah makes them grand. Allah multiplies them. Allah makes them extremely great in their scales.

The Prophet told us ﷺ:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 725)

Just the two rak'ahs of Fajr are better than this world and everything within it.

And the Prophet ﷺ said in the hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1410)

Whosoever gives sadaqah even if it is only like one date — so long as it is from that which is tayyib, from pure and halāl income, because Allah only accepts that which is halāl — then Allah will accept it in His right hand and He will rear it and nurture it, just as one of you rears and nurtures your youngling, until it becomes the size of a mountain.

And the Prophet ﷺ in the hadith of Abu Sa'id, may Allah be pleased with him, also in Sahih al-Bukhari:

Whoever fasts a single day for the sake of Allah, Allah will distance them from the Fire the distance of 70 years — 70 years from one fast.

And that is why the scholars of Islam used to use those fasting days of Dhul Hijjah — every day they would fast, not just wait until the day of Arafah, which has even more virtue and reward as you know. But they would spend all of those days fasting, and they would spend those days in Qur'an and in the dhikr of Allah and in giving sadaqah and in doing as many good deeds as they could.

Because this is one of the things that marks out the believer — that they're not just satisfied with doing the minimum, because they know that even the minimum that they do often falls below the standards that Allah has set for us. So they hope for Allah's mercy and they seek Allah's reward and His virtue by doing more and more in terms of the nawāfil and the voluntary deeds.

This is something which you and I as individuals, our families as a community — today it is something that we have massively neglected. To the extent that some of us will come to the masjid half an hour, 45 minutes sometimes before the Jumu'ah salāh and we don't do anything — we sit there twiddling our thumbs, having no benefit in this. Allah has given you these opportunities and these places because Allah wants you to use them in a way that is pleasing to Him.

Closing Du'a

May Allah grant us the ability to be from the people of worship. May Allah allow us to see these opportunities for what they are and to take benefit of them. And we ask Allah that He multiplies our deeds within them, and that Allah forgives us for our sins, and we ask Allah that He showers His mercy and forgiveness and His benevolence upon us and upon our Ummah, and that Allah makes our affairs easy for us.