20160513- Second Khutba- Sheikh Khalil Abdul Rashid

Sha'ban: The Month of Preparation

We ask Allah to give us barakah in this month of Sha'ban. We ask Allah to give us the full barakah of the month of Rajab that has just passed. We ask Allah to allow us to witness another Ramadan.

We are in the month of Sha'ban — the first Jumu'ah in the sacred month of Sha'ban. This is also described as the month of Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him. In this month of Sha'ban, we must begin the mode of preparation.

We must begin to prepare. In reality, Rajab is the month to begin to prepare. But sometimes some of us are late, and so there is Sha'ban.

The main aspect, the main objective, the main purpose of the preparation required in this month is to begin to disengage — to disconnect ourselves from all types of worldly reliances, all types of concerns about anything other than our akhirah. To begin to rearrange and to prioritize what is most important. That is, first, to be people of deen.

And as Muslims, to be a person of this deen requires ikhlas. Some ulama say that the entire deen of Islam is about one objective — to get people to reach the state of ikhlas. That is deen.

Two Processes: Disconnection and Reconnection

In order to achieve that state of ikhlas, there are two general processes. The first process is the process of disconnection. The second is the process of connection — reconnecting.

Disconnecting from our concerns, worries, and desires for the world — our fears about what may happen to us in the world, or what we might leave behind, or what we might not get. Our focus and our anxieties and our struggles and concerns about dunyawi matters. And because of our ihtimam and our ishtighal — our busying ourselves with the world.

You see, the world doesn't busy us — we busy ourselves with it. Because of us busying ourselves with the world, we become distracted, deluded, detached, removed, disengaged from the khaliq of the world, from the Rabb of the world, from the creator of the world. So ikhlas is about reorienting ourselves to one objective, one focus, one purpose, one hadaf, one qiblah, one Ka'bah, one Rabb. It's removing us from the multiplicity, and the confusion, and the diversities, and the options, and reducing it to one.

This month of Sha'ban, we must begin to think like this. We begin with what the Prophet ﷺ said in this beautiful text:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 12, Hadith 65 — also recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari)

Indeed, Allah Ta'ala is tayyib — pure. Meaning that He, Tabaraka wa Ta'ala, is munazzah — above and beyond any and all types of naqsan: deficiencies, weaknesses, defects. Allah Ta'ala is above and beyond any needs, any reliances, any weaknesses. Allah Ta'ala is tayyib.

And He only accepts things that are free from weaknesses, and needs, and deficiencies, and attachments. So if we offer something to Allah Ta'ala — if we offer any act of ibadah, any act of sadaqah, if we offer ourselves, our a'mal, our institutions — we must offer them with no attachments. Nothing attached. It must be pure, dedicated, directed to Allah Ta'ala.

So if we want Allah Ta'ala to accept us, we must go to Him — but with no attachments. We must strive to reach Him, but with no secondary motives.

The Command to the Believers and the Messengers

And then the Prophet ﷺ said that Allah Ta'ala has commanded the believers — أَمَرَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ بِمَا أَمَرَ بِهِ الْمُرْسَلِينَ — with the same level of command, and the same type of command, and the same quality of command as He has instructed the messengers. Not the anbiya — the mursaleen, the messengers.

And that command is two-fold. One:

If you want to offer something, if you want to give something, you must take something. And therefore, if what you want to give and what you want to offer is pure — and you want to offer pure to Allah Ta'ala who only accepts what is pure — then we must consume and take in what is pure.

And therefore, if our a'mal and our deeds are not pure — if they are not stripped down to ikhlas, if they have different attachments to them — first of all, it's a problem with the output. So if there's a problem with the output, then that means there's a problem with the input.

Consuming What is Tayyib — Holistically

كُلُوا مِنَ الطَّيِّبَاتِ — Consume what is tayyib. And it not only means eating and drinking, but it means general consumption. Because you can consume information, and the information that you consume can be qabeeh — absolutely ugly, and wretched, and horrible. And then you've consumed bad information, false information, and you allow that to be a part of your psyche, and you take that bad information to salah with you, and it distracts you from properly offering a tayyib salah to Allah Ta'ala.

Because on the way to the masjid, you're listening to music — crazy input, qabeeh input. On the way to the masjid, you're listening to talk radio which has crazy things on it — haram discussions, discussions full of waswasah, and gheebah, and kadhib — lying and backbiting, things that are haram. When we allow that to enter into ourselves, we become subjected to that kind of destructive input, and we wonder why we cannot focus in our salah properly. And we wonder why we don't receive the utmost benefit in our salah. And we wonder why the only thing that we get out of our salah is ta'ab — fatigue, boredom. And we go back from the masjid and we plug into the same thing, and we receive the same input.

كُلُوا مِنَ الطَّيِّبَاتِ — whatever you put inside of you must be tayyib, if you expect to offer tayyib to Allah Ta'ala, who is tayyib and only accepts what is tayyib.

It requires not just a dietary change, but a lifestyle change. We've got to discriminate not only from what we eat and drink, but what we listen to, what we watch, the money we make, how we spend, how we think, how we internalize, what we listen to in terms of gossip and discussions, and what people say — casual conversations in the hallway, in the parking lot. Certain things must be ignored. We have to be very careful as to what we put inside of us.

Sha'ban is the month to begin to discriminate in this regard. Because if we don't begin watching those things now, we're going to fail miserably in Ramadan. Because Ramadan is not just about staying away from food and drink. It's also about staying away holistically from putting haram things in our bodies — like listening to something that's haram, looking at something that's haram, speaking something that's haram, entertaining things that are haram. Not just the haram — also the makrooh, and at a deeper level, the shubuhat, the doubtful matters.

Sha'ban is the month to begin to change our focus, to begin to discriminate, to be very careful about what we put inside of us. Not just inside of our bodies and inside of our minds, but also what we allow inside of our homes, inside of our children's minds, inside of our environment. We begin to re-look at and re-examine these things.

Now, when we properly examine these things and we start to allow certain things to come in and to say, no, we're not going to allow certain things to enter — then we'll notice a qualitative, not quantity but quality, a qualitative change in our ibadah.

كُلُوا مِنَ الطَّيِّبَاتِ — and then what comes?

وَاعْمَلُوا صَالِحًا — and then you act, you perform amal that is righteous. Consume well first, perform well second. That's the condition. I didn't write the ayah — Rabbuna, Jalla Jalaluhu, composed it.

That's the same advice given to the mursaleen — it is also applicable to the mu'mineen. In that regard, and only in that regard, listen very carefully — in that regard, and only in that regard, our believers are held to the same standards as the prophets and messengers. Consume right, and you'll perform right. In that respect, we can expect the same results. We can expect the same successes.

This idea of "all the anbiya are up here and I'm down here" — yes, that's true. But the anbiya consume tayyib, and you can consume tayyib, and I can consume tayyib. They did good works, and I can do good works too. But it starts with a full holistic approach to properly consuming and internalizing the right information, right content, right nourishment.

Our Relationship with the Dunya

The second thing is about our relationship with this world out here — with this dunya. Our relationship with this world is paradoxical. We have to have a relationship with it, but we don't have to have a relationship for it. We live in it and of it, but not for it. We don't rely on it — we rely on the creator of it.

We have a connection with it. But our connection with the world is based entirely upon our connection with Allah Ta'ala. So we connect vertically first and then horizontally second. We rely on Allah Ta'ala to manage our relationship with the world, to guide us to certain things, and we adhere to those rules.

We have to look at, in this month of Sha'ban, the devices we have — the things in our homes, in our pockets, in our vehicles — everything that has to do with our connections and relationship to the world. And we need to scrutinize and analyze those devices, those means, those asbab that affect our relationship with the world. Do those devices and those means cause problems for us when it comes to our wanting and our needing to connect with Allah? Is our connection to our devices and to the things in this world greater than our connection to Allah Ta'ala?

When the salah time comes and the phone rings — which one do we internally, not externally, internally respond to first? Which one? When the salah is established and we're in the salah and the phone rings — which one drives us to be more focused and dedicated? After the salah, do we check our phones or do we check our adhkar? Are we concerned about work, or are we concerned about amal?

The Story of Musa and the Staff: A Lesson in Reliance

You see, this is the beautiful point about the story of Musa alayhi salam in the Qur'an, in Surah Taha. Beautiful — one of the most profound sets of ayat. I encourage us all to read it. Let it serve as an example for our relationship with the things that we have in the world.

Allah Ta'ala introduces Himself to Musa alayhi salam. Now Musa knows he is speaking to Allah Ta'ala. And Allah Ta'ala knows His abd. He asks him:

"Musa, what is this thing in your right hand?" Now Musa knows Allah Ta'ala knows what it is. But the question is not a question for information — it's not to be answered. It's a question for reflection.

What is this thing in your pocket? What is that thing in your wallet? What is that thing you hold so dearly, so tightly, that symbolizes your connection to the world?

قَالَ هِيَ عَصَايَ — It's my staff. It's my cell phone. It's my keys. It's my degree. It's the letters in front of my name. It's the title. It's my alma mater. It's my father's background. It's the color of my skin. It's the type of passport I have. It's the amount of investments in my account.

I lean on it. I rely on it. Without it, I fall. That's the purpose of relying on it. You see, if it's moved, you fall. You lose your account, you're done. If your license is taken away, forget it. If you're not white, you can't succeed. If you're not American, you're not good enough. If you haven't come from a particular country — khalas, doesn't matter. If you don't make enough money, you can't survive.

I lean on it. That's what he said. I have other uses for it — I use it here and I use it there. I use it to keep bad things away. I pay my taxes. This thing of the dunya that I rely on — my business card — multiple uses.

فَأَلْقِهَا — Throw it away.

See, the tariqah of the mursaleen is deep. The way of the anbiya is profound. If you want to follow Allah Ta'ala, if you want to reach Allah Ta'ala — throw it away. Cast it down. Test yourself. See what you're made of. If you're a believer, throw it aside.

We've got Muslims who can't even turn their cell phones off when they enter the musallah. Can't put it on silent. Brothers praying in salah, cell phone rings — they have to check it. I've seen that. In salah — a brother takes it out and checks it. In salah! Who are you connecting to?

So test yourself. This is what Sha'ban is about. Let alone Ramadan. Let alone the last ten days of i'tikaf — where all connections are supposed to be severed. All of them. Start to re-examine your connections — your relationships with people, with places, with things, with ideas, with cultures, with concepts, with your friends and colleagues. Re-examine those things. Can you cast them away? What happens if you tell yourself: for one day I'm going to go without my cell phone. One day I'm not going to give my business card to anybody. Can you do it? Or do you feel you have to do it?

Cast it down. For the sake of Allah Ta'ala. Shut your phones off when you come in here.

The Snake: Seeing the Hidden Danger

And it became a snake. When he cast it aside, only then did Allah Ta'ala show Musa the potential danger of that thing. You see, when it's so close to you and you rely on it, you're addicted to it, you're pulled into it — you become blinded to the dangers of connecting so much to that device, or those backgrounds, or CVs, or whatever it is. You think that you're also tuned in to Allah Ta'ala. But it's a destructive connection. It inhibits vision.

It became a snake. And Musa saw the potential danger in it. All of a sudden, that thing that was strong was flimsy. Couldn't pick it up. Couldn't rely on it. Didn't have a backbone. Had no uses whatsoever. The thing that he knew was so close and intimate to him became the very means — the very sabab — of potential destruction.

And that's why some of the ulama say:

That one of the signs that you are relying on your deeds rather than on Allah is that when you make simple mistakes in your day — normally when you make a mistake you should quickly make tawbah and correct yourself and move on — but instead you make a mistake and you feel your world is gone. You feel there is no hope for you. The cause of that is because you relied on that stick that became a snake. It was false reliance on something.

When you rely falsely on something and you make a mistake in the world and you think Allah Ta'ala will not be there for you — the reason you lose hope in Allah Ta'ala, the reason you don't see the blessings He has given you, the reason you don't see yourself as being worthy enough to connect to Him — is because you put too much effort into connecting to something else away from Him. That's why.

And when you properly connect with Him, nothing you do — no mistake you make unintentionally — will prevent you from running to Him. Nothing will prevent you from running to Allah Ta'ala in your mistakes. Let alone in your hasanat.

Everything in the world that you're afraid of, you run from it — as in the story of Musa alayhi salam. Except Allah Ta'ala — you run to Him. You run to Him.

Lightening the Load to Run Toward Allah

So Sha'ban is this month. But you see — when you've got too much baggage, you can't run fast. When you have too much holding you down, you can barely run, let alone run fast. So your journey to Allah Ta'ala is not only slow, but arduous and tough.

(Sunan Ibn Majah, Book 7, Hadith 1690; also recorded in Musnad Ahmad)

How many sa'im — how many people who fast — get nothing from their effort. They're doing amal, praying, coming to the masjid, they're doing those things — but they get no benefit, no spiritual, internal, ma'nawi, ruhi, qalbi benefit. Except that they get tired, hungry, thirsty. No difference. Like going to the gym. Wa na'udhu billah, wa na'udhu billah. May Allah protect us from this — this is a wretched state.

Sha'ban is about us turning inwardly and looking at everything in our environment and seeing: what is it that I am relying on, that I need to drop? Not literally, but figuratively. I need to re-examine my relationship with that thing. Because in Ramadan, that is the month to really develop my relationship with Allah Ta'ala. That is the marathon month. That is the month we run. Sha'ban is the month we practice. The month we work hard.

We don't go to the 30th of Sha'ban the way we are now, and then on the first day of Ramadan start to change all of a sudden. It's not going to work. Or it'll work — but we'll get tired, hungry, thirsty. That's the way it will work.

Do you really want — do I really want — do all of us really want the same type of Ramadan every single year? Or do we want it to get better? This works in the material world too: if you want to get better and better, you have to strive harder and harder. Work tougher and tougher. Sacrifice some things. Put some things aside. Re-evaluate yourself. Work harder. It's the same principle with ibadah.

The command of Allah Ta'ala — all of the commands of Allah Ta'ala — summed up in one aspect: be people of ikhlas. Be right. Be people of ikhlas.

All these things of the dunya will pull you. There are times to disengage. Even the salah times — those are mini moments to disconnect. Take advantage of those mini moments, those small moments, and when the major moments come, you'll be able to disconnect.

Don't be like someone who, when the time comes and we are asked to throw the staff — you hesitate and say, "Do you really want me to throw it? It might break. I don't have insurance. Can I just toss it gently?" No. Move. Do it. Do it when Allah Ta'ala gives the command. Do it. When the adhan comes, go. When the ibadah time comes, rush.

Be a person who throws that staff — not a person who hesitates and barely lets it go. Be aware of the dangers of connecting to anything other than Allah Ta'ala. And be aware of the blessing and the responsibility of connecting only to Allah. Alhamdulillah.