2015 06 12 Friday Prayer Sheikh Mokhtar Maghroui

The Purpose of Our Creation

O you who have attained faith, be Allah conscious — says Allah azza wa jal — in a way that is worthy of who He is, worthy of His names and attributes, worthy of His glory and majesty and beauty and perfection, and make sure we do not die except in a state of Islam, in a state of loving surrender of our souls and spirits, of our hearts and minds, of our words and deeds — all in loving surrender to Allah azza wa jal.

My dear brothers and sisters, this dunya, this life, is a field for us to prepare for the ultimate encounter with Allah azza wa jal, for which we were created.

We were created in order to accomplish and to fulfill that reality of being an 'abd of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And being an 'abd of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, however, is the most powerful and the only means of the true attainment of the noblest sense of happiness — in this dunya and in akhira.

And those of us who choose otherwise — our lives will be, in so many ways, miserable and constricted, as Allah azza wa jal says.

The Blessed Gift of Ramadan

And of the means by Allah to help us be free and happy in this dunya and in akhira — of the many of His gifts — is the blessed month of Ramadan. Next Jumu'ah will already be Ramadan, and that will be the first Jumu'ah of Ramadan in sha Allah ta'ala.

And those who receive gifts from the Divine subhanahu wa ta'ala, and perceive them and understand them and conceive of them as special gifts, they will prepare themselves to receive those gifts.

As Allah azza wa jal says: whosoever shows reverence towards that which reminds of Allah azza wa jal — that is the sign that the hearts are in a state of taqwa.

And thus, as Ramadan is approaching — this beautiful gift of Allah azza wa jal, this beautiful, generous, benevolent, magnanimous, kind, compassionate, giving friend who left us last year waving his hands goodbye of assalamu alaykum, and from far looking back and saying to us, to the weeping eyes and to the sad hearts at the end of Ramadan: "In sha Allah, I shall come back next year — but be ready for me, better than you were this year. I hope that your companionship with me this year would help you prepare better next year."

And now we're looking at him coming in the horizon, approaching nearer and nearer. And some of the hearts are jumping with joy, and some of the eyes are weeping with happiness — to have been given by Allah azza wa jal the chance to live again and to encounter the blessed, beautiful, benevolent friend called Ramadan.

The Reward of Fasting: One Day, Seventy Years

My dear brothers and sisters, today — of the so many things we would need to know and remember about this blessed month, and we would keep doing that throughout in sha Allah ta'ala from now till the end of this month of Ramadan bi-idhnillah ta'ala — of the many things we need to know is something I wanted to emphasize today.

In addition to the fact that performing the fast of the month of Ramadan bears so many, many fruits that Allah subhana wa ta'ala by His divine grace is ready to give to us — the least of which, as an argument for us, suffices even if it were that argument alone to come full throttle with our hearts to receive this month in the way we should.

Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa alihi wasallam said — in what Imam al-Bukhari and Muslim and many others related, except Abu Dawud, alayhim rahmatullah ta'ala — that Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam said: just one day — if the servant of Allah azza wa jal fasts one day, however, with the qualifier that his or her desire behind that is Allah azza wa jal's nearness, love — hubb — love for Allah azza wa jal, seeking hubb, love from Allah subhana wa ta'ala — those reasons, in the way Allah loves, the manner one fasts — if it is in the way Allah loves, then Allah azza wa jal promises that for one day, Allah azza wa jal keeps that person away from Hell a distance of seventy years.

Kharif is the fall season, and each kharif is one year — from kharif to kharif. Doesn't it suffice to be kept away from that which is the result of the displeasure of Allah azza wa jal? That's the abode — one day will keep us seventy years away from that.

One day —

Not فِي سَبِيلِ النَّفْسِ. Not فِي سَبِيلِ الْهَوَى. Not for the drives and the whims and the personal priorities and the personal choices and the personal philosophies and the personal arguments for the nafs. The least of which is, sometimes we fast because we want to lose weight — that's halal, but that's not the one day that will lead me to be away from Jahannam for seventy years. Some of us fast because it's healthy, it's good for the body — which is true — but that's not why I would be granted that great reward. That's not فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ. That is hazz of the nafs, that is a share of the nafs, that has nothing to do with what Allah loves subhanahu wa ta'ala for me and wants from me.

Even this hadith alone, if it were to stand alone, would suffice for us to very actively begin to prepare to receive that beautiful friend, that beautiful gift from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

The Three Dimensions of True Fasting

Indeed, what I wanted to emphasize — please, my dear brothers and sisters, remember, all the young men and women — remember the spirit and the essence of fasting the month of Ramadan, and of fasting in general. Fasting, in essence, in the spirit of it, is not only keeping from food and drink and all sorts of things that, if we indulged in them, would nullify our fasting.

The imsak 'an al-mufattirat — the withholding from that which breaks the fast — is the rukn of the sawm. The imsak 'an al-mufattirat is the internal pillar of fasting, without which fasting is invalid. But the essence of the sawm is not only that. The essence of the sawm is so many beautiful things that Allah azza wa jal tells us about in the Quran — in ways direct and indirect — and that Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam tells us through his teachings in what we know as the Sunnah, in ways that are direct as well as indirect.

First Dimension: The Fasting of the Limbs from Sins

First, in addition to what I said — the rukn, the most essential pillar of fasting as the imsak 'an al-mufattirat, to withhold and to restrain the self from indulging in anything construed by the Shari'ah to invalidate our fasting — the essential fiqh of the qalb and the spiritual fiqhi dimension of sawm includes the following.

Number one: fasting is intended to make me fast from ma'asi — from sins.

Sawm is to restrain, to withhold, to be patient, to control — and thus sawm intends for me to be in sawm in that sense from committing that which Allah does not love and does not condone, from disobeying Allah. That my jawarih — my senses — my eyes, my ears, my tongue, my hands, my might, my power, my sexual drive — all of those, my legs — fast by not using them in committing dhunub.

If I refrain from eating and drinking and that does not lead me to the deeper sawm of struggling not to violate the norms of Allah azza wa jal by my senses, by my jawarih — my sawm is in spirit useless. In spirit, I say useless. Said Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam:

This hadith and many other texts assert the meaning that I just mentioned to you about the fasting of our jawarih — sawm jawarihina 'an al-ma'asi. What it means is: if one of us, while fasting, does not desist — for example — from lying, from false testimony, then Allah is not in need for that person to refrain from eating and drinking. To tell you and to me that the essence of fasting — the essence of sawm — is not simply and only to refrain from the mufattirat. That is the rukn. But to get me to ponder the deeper dimension of sawm — that my jawarih fast from ma'asi, voluntarily and deliberately — as the refraining from food and drink strengthens me and disciplines me to withhold from the drives of the nafs that are counter to what Allah loves subhanahu wa ta'ala.

Second Dimension: Fasting from the Superfluous

Number two:

To lead me to be in sawm vis-à-vis that which, in a sense, I can do without — the excessive, the superfluous — in anything: in eating, in wearing, in speaking, in feeling, in what I express of emotions of fear, of hope, of desire, of agreement, of disagreement. I do to the extent that is absolutely required in the divine sense, in the Shari'ah sense. I do not go beyond the haqq of my nafs to the hazz of my nafs.

For example, if in general I am hungry, I eat until I remove hunger — beyond that is hazz al-nafs, which is halal, until it will get to makruh and then it will get to haram. Hazz al-nafs is when the haqq of the nafs is granted and beyond that is hazz al-nafs. For example in matters of eating, in matters of dressing, in matters of how much I speak, in matters of how loud I speak — to what level some level becomes a haqq of the nafs, and then some level is a hazz of the nafs, and some level is a hazz of Shaytan.

Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam tells us that Allah azza wa jal celebrates those who are fasting, and stores for them, and has in store for them, of the greatest of rewards that only He azza wa jal knows. We shall talk about that some other time in sha Allah ta'ala.

And of the rationale for us that Allah mentions — He says azza wa jal in that hadith qudsi:

(Hadith Qudsi — Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1904; Sahih Muslim, Book 13, Hadith 163)

That the fasting person deliberately, voluntarily, lovingly gives up — for example — his shahwa, the drives of his nafs: besides food and drink, the drives of his nafs, the passions that his nafs has — he leaves that for Me. Fasting is to teach me that. That's what Allah says in that beautiful hadith qudsi. That is of the meaning we extract from that beautiful hadith.

It is also said in our teaching, in our Islamic teaching, and through a hadith:

O child of Adam, little and enough that should suffice you is better than much that would make you rebellious and tyrannical and therefore arrogant and deluded. That which makes us tyrannical and deluded and so on — that's all hazz al-nafs, and then hazz al-Shaytan.

Fasting teaches us that we restrain ourselves — we restrain ourselves from eating and drinking literally — it is intended to lead us to the deeper dimension of restraining ourselves: as I mentioned, first from dhunub of the jawarih, from the misuse and abuse of our faculties, our senses; and secondly, even to keep away from the superfluous, the excessive, that which we can deal without in all aspects of our lives. Allah loves that — He does that for me, for my sake. Allah azza wa jal says.

Third Dimension: The Fasting of the Heart

And thirdly, my dear brothers and sisters, sawm is intended to set me in a condition where I am with my qalb in sawm — that deepest dimension. My qalb, my heart, is in sawm. How? First of all, remember — Allah azza wa jal says in the Quran:

Allah says: verily, not only the hearing, the sight, and the heart — but all of that the human being shall be held to account for. Where I allow into my heart, in my relationship with the world, with other human beings, with other creatures of Allah azza wa jal, with Allah azza wa jal — where I allow from my heart to be expressed towards other creatures, towards Allah azza wa jal — in my qalb, I am held to account for it. Just like I am held to account for how I use my ears to listen to what, and how I use my eyes to look at what — I am to account for what I use my heart as.

In which condition, in which hal, in which state is my heart — currently in a condition which Allah condones and loves, or in a state in which He does not love?

Did my heart — was my heart in sawm, or was my heart not in sawm? As I refrain from eating and drinking and then give free range and free reign to what I feel inside — whether good or bad, evil or virtuous — I don't care, and I don't think it has anything to do with fasting?

لَا، وَلَا، وَثُمَّ لَا، وَثُمَّ لَا — No, no, and thereafter no, no. It has to do with fasting.

You must know — Allah says — you must know that Allah knows what you harbor inside of your selves, so be careful, be prudent, beware.

The sawm of the heart is the liberation of the heart and the control of the heart from being in a feeling, in a condition, in a mood, in a thought which Allah does not love — and consequently, to be above and to avoid in my qalb the low, base characteristics and attributes: of greed, of selfishness, of hate, of injustice, of tamah, of hasad, of kadhib, of ghish, of kibr, of ghurur, of riya', of lack of qana'ah — that my qalb should not be in that hal — of belittling others, of delighting in the pain of others inside.

كُلُّ ذَلِكَ يَنْبَغِي الصَّوْمُ عَنْهُ — all of that, the sawm ought to restrain.

My dear brothers and sisters, without that, my sawm is only external.

Aqulu qawli haza wa astaghfirullah al-'Azim ali walakum, fastaghfiruhu — tuba lil-mustaghfirin. Please seek the forgiveness of Allah azza wa jal. Allah is the most loving, merciful, and forgiving.

Second Part of the Khutbah

Alhamdulillahi wa kafa, wa sallallahu 'ala 'ibadihi alladhina istafa.

The Warning: Some Fast and Gain Only Hunger

My dear brothers and sisters, to recapitulate what we have mentioned — to summarize, in a word of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam, when he said — in that hadith related by ahl al-sunan and authenticated — he sallallahu alayhi wa alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam said: perchance, or eventually, there are people who fast — and the only reward they harvest from that fasting is hunger.

(Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 1690; authenticated by al-Albani)

Did you hear that? There are those of us who fast and the only fruit they harvest from that — he said — is hunger. Why? Because of what we mentioned before: none of that is established, all of that is violated, or some of that is violated.

So please listen, my dear brothers and sisters — and may Allah help my qalb listen first — and he says: and perchance there are those who pray at night and the only reward they harvest from that is sleeplessness and weariness.