Jumah Khutbah: Purposeful Fasting

Opening

Allah is One and there is no partner for Him, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger.

O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared, and do not die except as Muslims.

O you people, fear your Lord, Who created you from one soul. And He created from it a wife, and He spread from it many men and women. And fear Allah, to whom you ask for help and mercy. Indeed, Allah is ever watching over you.

O you who have believed, fear Allah and say the right words. Your deeds will be corrected, and your sins will be forgiven. And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has won a great triumph.

We know, O servants of Allah, that the best speech is the speech of Allah, the Exalted. And the best guide is the guide of Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him. And the worst of things are its innovations. And every innovation is a creation, and every such creation is a misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire.

If I may request from the brothers to move forward as much as you can, insha'Allah, fill any gap that you see in front of you, so we can accommodate as many brothers and sisters as well in the back. Jazakumullah khair.

Purposeful Fasting

My dear brothers and sisters, I don't know if you're counting the days of Ramadan, but we officially passed one-third of the month of Ramadan. And one-third, wallahi, is a lot. As the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, when he said to Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, radiyallahu ta'ala anhu, as he was intending of giving away most of his wealth, and then the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, said, no, you can't do that. He said, what about one-third?

One-third, and it is still a lot. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 2742; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1628)

So one-third of Ramadan already passed, and I hope each and every one of you is enjoying their fasting, and enjoying their ibadah in Ramadan, ya Rabb al-'alameen. May Allah make it easy for us, ya Allah.

But how can I now benefit for the next two-thirds, insha'Allah, without losing momentum? I want to make my fasting purposeful. I want to fast with a purpose. I want to understand that there is a reason behind it besides just abstaining from eating and drinking. What is it that I need to build up in my fasting during the month of Ramadan? And those few words I want to share with you, insha'Allah, the meaning of fasting with a purpose. Because wallahi, purposeful fasting is a purposeful life. When you fast with a purpose, you build purpose for your life.

And how does Ramadan teach us this lesson? There are six steps in doing that.

Step One: The Build-Up

How do we build up in our life for whatever event that is coming? Whatever achievement I want to do? How does Ramadan prepare us for this? The build-up starts before the month of Ramadan. Remember Sha'ban? The month that the Prophet ﷺ used to fast almost the entire month of Sha'ban. Almost the entire month.

Aisha, radiyallahu ta'ala anha, said in the hadith: Rasulullah ﷺ never fasted an entire month besides Ramadan. He never fasted an entire month besides Ramadan. But he used to fast in Sha'ban until we say he is not quitting fasting. And sometimes he will pass a few days without fasting from Sha'ban. The point is the Prophet ﷺ used to prepare for Ramadan in Sha'ban. What do you call this? Warming up, building up. He was building up for a great event such as the month of Ramadan.

Whatever that you do in your life, do you build up for it? Do you prepare? Do you take time before you even start that project that you're doing? Whatever that is — you need to learn how to start building up for your life.

Also, the Prophet ﷺ, before the month of Ramadan, encourages people with anticipation. What is that? You fast when you see the moon and you break your fast when you see the moon. So before Ramadan begins, in the last few days, people are now anticipating. So everybody is now having what we call in the Arabic language a community goal. Everybody is now on the same page. Everybody is getting ready.

Are you one of those leaders who can recruit all your family, all your members, the people around you to fulfill that goal that you're trying to achieve? It's a purposeful life. You build up. You bring the people around you to achieve that goal. And Rasulullah ﷺ was the master in this field. He would prepare people before Ramadan begins and right a few days before Ramadan starts, people are now anticipating the sight of the moon so they would all be on the same page before that great event starts in their lives.

Do you prepare for the events that you're doing in your life? Do you prepare for the Akhirah? It's a great event. Are you living in anticipation for that day when you meet your Lord?

Step Two: Planning

The second thing that we do in Ramadan after building up — we start planning for it. How do we plan for the fast? The first thing is when you fast, the Prophet ﷺ gave us a purpose that you should always look for to achieve. What is that?

If you fast Ramadan out of belief and faith and hoping for the reward from Allah, Allah will forgive your sins. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 38; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 760)

Now that is an amazing thing to start with, right? You prepare yourself for Ramadan. Now it's my goal to achieve. I don't know about the other ones, but for me, I want to get this. I want to be forgiven. I want to make sure that when I fast, I have my intentions in my heart for the sake of Allah and I hope for the reward from Allah. That is a goal that I need to achieve right now.

And not just that, Rasulullah ﷺ is even teaching us to always keep conscious of that goal on a regular basis. How is that? Before you go to sleep, you make the intention for the fast. Before Fajr, you make the intention to fast. You remind yourself all the time with the purpose, with the goal, with what you're trying to achieve in that day.

As it is narrated from Aisha, radiyallahu ta'ala anha:

If you do not go to sleep with the intention to fast the next day, that day would not count. (Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 2454; Sunan al-Nasa'i, Hadith 2333)

So every single day, you're supposed to be having that intention. Yes, there is a difference of opinion in fiqh in terms of whether one intention for the entire Ramadan is sufficient or every night needs its own intention. But the point is that every day when you go to bed, you have in your mind and you have in your heart that tomorrow is a fasting day. What does that mean? That's always renewing your intentions, always keeping focus on the goal.

Is that how you live your life? Or your life is full of distractions? You set a goal for yourself and as you start marching toward that goal, distractions come right and left. You take a break over here and a break over there and eventually you never reach your potential. How many people die and wish they had a longer life so they could achieve what they wanted to achieve — whether it's a matter of dunya or the akhirah even, subhanAllah. How many people wish they had a second lifetime so they could do that? And the reason for it is mainly because they have so much time that they've wasted, and they wish that they could have always kept focus on their life.

Now Ramadan is teaching us this lesson. Every single night you keep focus on the goal. What is my goal? To be forgiven. I want to be forgiven. I want to make sure before Ramadan ends that Allah forgives me my sins.

In the hadith of Rasulullah ﷺ narrated by Abu Hurairah, he said that the Prophet ﷺ ascended the steps of the minbar in his masjid three times, and each time he said: "Ameen, Ameen, Ameen." And the Sahabah asked, "O Rasulullah, what is this Ameen all about?" He said, Jibreel came to him and made du'a for three things. One of them he said:

May his nose be rubbed in the dust — humiliated — the one who lives to reach the month of Ramadan and is not forgiven. (Sahih Ibn Hibban, Hadith 907; also narrated in al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3545)

Ramadan is an opportunity to clean up the mess. A purposeful goal is to make sure that when Ramadan is over, alhamdulillah, I recalibrate. I go back again where I belong. I should be here. I should be living this kind of life instead of always falling into distractions. This should be the purpose, not the distraction.

A lot of people make Ramadan an interruption from their daily life. Ramadan is not the interruption. Ramadan is the way of life — the way you live it, the way you see it, the way you live a purposeful life. Don't treat Ramadan as a distraction, as an interruption.

Also, from the way we plan for the month of Ramadan, the Prophet ﷺ is teaching us to not just keep conscious of the goal — no — but to work towards that goal on a regular basis. How is that? Wake up for Suhoor. He ﷺ said:

Eat the pre-dawn meal, for indeed there is blessing in the pre-dawn meal. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1923; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1095)

So that's not just focusing on the goal — no — it's working towards that goal. Every single night you make a movement, you take an action to keep you focused on that goal. So it's not just a reminder; it's an action that you take. How often do we take actions always leading to the purposeful goal that we have in our life? We always need to keep that in our minds and through our actions as well. Just that you remember your purpose doesn't mean you're going to take an action. And here Rasulullah ﷺ is telling us, wake up. It doesn't have to be a big meal. The blessing in the suhoor is just in eating a few dates or even having a sip of water. That's it. It's about the blessing, the barakah, not about the meal itself.

And then subhanAllah, one of the beautiful things about the month of Ramadan is helping us also learn to plan for short-term goals and long-term goals. That's planning in life. All of us have short-term goals — we would like to achieve this within 2 years, within 1 year or so. And then we have the 5-year, 10-year, 15-year goals. Why do you think people contribute to their 401Ks anyway? That's a long-term plan for them. Why do you think people are buying houses left and right? Because they want to retire in 10 years probably. That's a long-term plan they have in their mind.

In Ramadan, you also plan short-term and long-term. How is that? In the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ in Sahih Muslim, he ﷺ said:

Everyone who is fasting will be rewarded with two moments of joy: one when he breaks his fast, and one when he meets his Lord. (Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1151)

So what is your short-term goal right now? Anticipating the end of the day with the blessings of the food that you break your fast with — a joyful moment. Every single night you're achieving something. You're building up your achievement one day at a time. One day at a time. That's exactly what you do if you would like to plan for life. You can't do things instantly all the time. So you have to build up for it. You have to plan for it. You have to start working on it. So every single day is one day toward that ultimate goal. You start having that happiness and joy when you break your fast.

But what is the ultimate goal that I'm trying to achieve? That long-term goal. As the Prophet ﷺ says, the other joyful moment is when you meet your Lord with this reward. One when you break your fast, and one when you meet your Lord. Ramadan is teaching us to always be conscious, be organized, have a daily goal to achieve, and then have an ultimate goal that is a very long-term goal. Are we planning our life accordingly? Or are we just living life day by day — whatever we get out of that day, alhamdulillah, we're good to go? That's not a purposeful life. A purposeful life is when you have that ultimate long-term goal — when you meet your Lord — and every single day becomes an achievement, a build-up until you get to that ultimate goal.

May Allah make us among those, ya Rabb al-'alameen. Also subhanAllah, when you always look into that long-term goal — which is meeting your Lord — that is what gives you hope. When you don't have hope, what's the point? People get depressed. If you lose any hope to achieve, what's the point? So when you have that hope of meeting your Lord, you feel empowered to go — not empty-handed — but full with great deeds that you present before your Lord, feeling so proud of it.

I ask you in this moment right now to think about your own book of deeds. Think about it. Would you be proud to present that before Allah? If the meeting would happen today, would you be proud of it? Like you say, "Oh, alhamdulillah, I have 60, 70, 50, 30 years of great deeds." Would you be proud of this? Therefore, make sure to always, always keep adding to it so that when that day comes, insha'Allah, you will definitely be proud of it, bi'idhnillahi tabaraka wa ta'ala.

Step Three: The Hard Work — Sincerity

Now that we have built up to Ramadan and then we started planning for the month of Ramadan, the hard work begins. Alhamdulillah, you've gone through 10 days already. But what is that hard work anyway? The ultimate hard work is in the heart before anything else. What is it called? It's called sincerity.

In the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ — a Hadith Qudsi — Allah says:

Every deed of the son of Adam is for him except fasting — it is for Me, and I shall reward for it. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1904; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1151)

Why so? Because when you fast, probably the entire day will pass by and no one would even pay attention that you're fasting — especially in the winter when the days are very short. You'd probably be fasting every day and no one would even notice. But why would you even bother? You could go to the bathroom and drink water and no one would notice. But you won't. Even children they're taught this, subhanAllah. When they make wudu and a drop of water goes down their throat, they freak out and come say, "I think I broke my fast." Why? Because they know it has to be sincere. It has to be done with no one watching except for Allah.

So the first hard work we need to work on is this in our hearts. Are you always sincere? Not just for the fast — for everything that you do. When you pray, are you sincere? When you smile in the face of other people, are you sincere? When you shake hands, when you meet with them, when you eat together, when you come to ibadah and salah — are you sincere? What is in your heart? That is something you keep in mind because Ramadan will teach us to be sincere all the time.

Qiyam al-Layl

After that, as part of the hard work, the Prophet ﷺ gave us instructions. He said:

Whoever stands in prayer during Ramadan out of faith and hope for reward, his previous sins will be forgiven. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 37; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 759)

If you wake up and pray Tahajjud, if you pray Qiyam al-Layl every single night in Taraweeh in Ramadan, Allah will forgive your sins — as long as you do it with a good intention and hoping for the reward from Allah.

Siyam al-Jawarih — Fasting of the Limbs

We've also been taught, as part of our hard work, to watch what we say, what we watch, what we hear, what we do — the صِيَامُ الْجَوَارِحِ. In the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ narrated by Abu Hurairah in Sahih al-Bukhari, he ﷺ said:

Whoever does not give up false speech and acting upon it, Allah has no need of his giving up his food and drink. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1903)

قَوْلُ الزُّورِ is a comprehensive term for vain talk and vain work — anything that is useless and specifically in this month of Ramadan, anything that is harmful and hurtful, like lying and cheating and all that. If you don't stop this, and if you always do non-beneficial and bad things, then Allah has no need of you leaving your food or drink. Like what were you fasting for then? There is no doubt you still need to continue fasting as a ruling, but the quality of your fast is undermined when you're not watching what your ears are listening to, what your hands are doing, what your eyes are looking at — all these things. Make sure that you have that hard work so that you get the reward at the end of the day, insha'Allah wa tabaraka wa ta'ala.

Patience and Self-Control

The Prophet ﷺ is teaching us to be in a constant state of patience in Ramadan. Jama'ah, Ramadan is the ultimate test. Besides the Hajj, it is the ultimate test for us. During the day you're hungry, you're tired, you're thirsty, you're exhausted, you're sleepless. All of these are elements — and each one of them alone is enough to make you lose your temper if someone steps on your toe. Imagine having them all at once. You're hungry, you're thirsty, you're exhausted, you didn't sleep well, and you're probably running behind on your reading of the Qur'an. So you're short on time and short on temper. Easily, people can have some issues with each other.

The Prophet ﷺ says:

When one of you is fasting, let him not behave lewdly or act in an ignorant manner, and if anyone fights him or curses him, let him say: "I am fasting." (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1904; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1151)

If you're fasting that day, don't curse, don't speak ill, don't do anything bad. And if someone curses at you, don't curse back. Let this person remind himself and the other party by saying, "I'm fasting." What's the point of this? Teaching self-control. You control your urges. It's not that I cannot retaliate — it's that I can, but I choose not to. Then I'm in control. I'm not going to let anybody control my behavior. No, no, no. I control my own behavior. And that is the meaning of it when you say to people, "I'm fasting."

Reading the Qur'an

Part of the hard work that we do in the month of Ramadan is reading the Qur'an. In the hadith, Jibreel used to come to the Prophet ﷺ in the month of Ramadan:

Jibreel used to come to the Prophet ﷺ in Ramadan, reciting and studying the Qur'an with him. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 3220; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2308)

Jibreel used to come to the Prophet ﷺ in Ramadan, reciting the Qur'an with him and studying the Qur'an with him — every single Ramadan. That's hard work. You're going to have to put the Qur'an in your schedule. You have to make sure that you can, insha'Allah, do at least one khatmah every month of Ramadan.

Generosity

And another thing that we do as part of our hard work is generosity. The same hadith says:

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was the most generous of people, and he was most generous in Ramadan when Jibreel would meet with him and study the Qur'an with him. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 3220; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2308)

The Prophet ﷺ was the most generous person, and he was even more generous in the month of Ramadan. This is the time when people give and they give generously. You feed, you donate, you help and assist, and you give willingly. Why? Because you believe. And subhanAllah, you earn this money fair and square — it's hard for people to give it away just like that without anything in return. But Ramadan teaches us that the return is going to be عِنْدَ لِقَاءِ رَبِّهِ — when you meet your Lord. So I'm giving in Ramadan because I would love to have that joyful moment when I meet my Lord. May Allah make us among those who have it, ya Rabb al-'alameen.

Step Four: Reaching the Climax — The Last Ten Nights

Then comes reaching the climax in the month of Ramadan. So we did the hard work — what comes next? Right before it's over, you come closer to the finish line. I don't know how many of you do track racing or anything like that. But if you race, the most important parts are really the beginning and the end. The beginning to pace yourself right, to warm up and build up. And towards the end, you leave no one going in front of you — you go to become the first.

And that's exactly what happens in the month of Ramadan. The first few days we build up. In the middle, many people start relaxing — they get used to it. But then come the last ten nights. And that's when you start now coming to that climax moment in the month of Ramadan. And the Prophet ﷺ informed us that these ten nights are the most blessed of the entire month of Ramadan. It's not the time to start getting lazy. That would be the time when you start really putting in more effort. Because these are just ten nights — you finished twenty already. Now these are the most important ten nights that you need to focus on.

What do we do? The Prophet ﷺ used to do I'tikaf — dedicating the entire ten days and ten nights to stay in the Masjid. He would sleep there and worship during the night ﷺ. And on top of that, not just the ten nights — there is one particular night in these ten nights that is very important. As Allah described in the Qur'an, Surah Al-Qadr:

It's better and more rewarding than one thousand months — one thousand months are eighty-plus years of jama'ah. Which means every single Ramadan you have the opportunity to extend your reward by the amount of an entire lifetime in one single night. Can you imagine this? The amount of reward you get for one single night is the amount of reward you get in an entire lifetime. People before us used to live hundreds of years — like Nuh ﷺ, for example. We don't have that much time to do good deeds and good work. We have much less than this. So Allah has given us the opportunity to match up with them in one single night if you can dedicate your time and yourself to this.

So that's when you start reaching the maximum of your effort and your good deeds. And subhanAllah, one thing very interesting about planning for it is that the Prophet ﷺ was once informed which night it was, but then that knowledge was removed from him ﷺ due to an incident that happened among some people in Madinah. The point is, Laylatul Qadr is one of the last ten nights of Ramadan. I know people say, "But Shaykh, we had two different Ramadan sightings in this area — so which one of them?" Well, that's actually the good point — you need to consider every night a possibility for Laylatul Qadr. Every single night. I know you want to say the odd nights, but do the even nights as well. Consider each night a possibility for Laylatul Qadr, because again, it's one out of ten, ya jama'ah. It's one out of the entire year. You can make that effort, insha'Allah tabaraka wa ta'ala.

So that goal is dynamic. And some people in real life, subhanAllah, they thrive under pressure. That goal is dynamic and flexible so you always stay in anticipation until you achieve it, bi'idhnillahi Azza wa Jal.

Step Five: Celebration

And finally, after you achieve all of this in the month of Ramadan, comes the celebration. Like every achievement of each goal that you achieve, you deserve a celebration — a celebration in the dunya and a celebration in the akhirah. As for the dunya, we call it the Eid day.

Allah is reminding us that even the Eid day is a day of worship. He said:

وَلِتُكْمِلُوا الْعِدَّةَ — that you count the days of the month of Ramadan, all of them, whether 29 or 30. You complete the days of Ramadan. وَلِتُكَبِّرُوا اللَّهَ عَلَىٰ مَا هَدَاكُمْ — and you glorify Allah through the Takbeerat of Eid. That's a celebration — alhamdulillah, we achieved our goal. Every benchmark, you deserve a celebration. لَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ — so that you might become grateful. That's the ultimate goal we take away with us from the month of Ramadan — to be grateful. Throughout the entire year, throughout the entire lifetime, you are always grateful.

As the first sign of showing our gratitude to Allah on Eid Day — what do we do? We give Zakat al-Fitr. We help the needy. We provide for them so that everyone on that day has a day of celebration.

So you build up in the month of Ramadan. You plan for it. You do hard work. And when you do hard work, you reach that level of the last 10 days and then you celebrate a benchmark that you've reached. This is how life will keep going. You build up something, you plan for it, you do the hard work, you come towards the end, you reach your benchmark, and you are grateful that Allah blessed you for reaching that. Learn this from the month of Ramadan and your life will truly become a purposeful life.

May Allah make us among those who listen to the speech and follow the best of it, ya Rabb al-'alameen. Give us a purposeful fasting, ya Rabb al-'alameen, and a purposeful life. I say this and I ask Allah's forgiveness for me and for you and for the Muslims. Verily, He is the Forgiving, the Merciful.

Second Khutbah: The Follow-Up

Praise be to Allah, ya Rabb al-'alameen. Peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon his family and companions.

O servants of Allah, my dear brothers and sisters — once you reach a benchmark in your life, once you reach a goal, it's not the end of it yet. What happens when we reach our goals? We start evaluating. We do a follow-up. And we want to see: what do we do next from here? How can I make sure that what I have earned and what I have achieved continues with me? You need to build that momentum in Ramadan so it continues after the month of Ramadan. And our Deen is teaching us this.

Step Six: The Follow-Up

This is basically the follow-up — when you're winding down, you don't stop right away. You need to take it slowly. If you fasted for 30 days, don't just interrupt that fast altogether. No, you need to wind down slowly and gradually. How do we do this? The Prophet ﷺ instructed us to fast 6 days after Ramadan. Optional fasts now — you have the mandatory done. Now let's see if you learned the lesson. Can you fast 6 days after the month of Ramadan? Insha'Allah. When no one is now encouraging you other than yourself and what you built in the month of Ramadan.

Rasulullah ﷺ says in the hadith:

If you fast the month of Ramadan and follow it with six days from Shawwal, it is as though you fasted the entire lifetime. (Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1164)

Fasting 6 days of Shawwal helps you avoid withdrawal. You know when you go through a certain intense experience and then suddenly it's gone and you go through withdrawal — people sometimes go into depression because everything is gone. A lot of people dread the beginning of Ramadan, but when Ramadan starts coming to an end, they say, "Why can't every day become Ramadan?"

Six days of Shawwal, and then after that we start following up with more fasts — Mondays and Thursdays — making sure to keep the spirit of Ramadan alive. You follow up. Never stop planning, never stop evaluating, never stop with follow-ups even after the month of Ramadan. If you do so, I promise you and I guarantee that you will see that truly your life is a purposeful life — and it all begins with thinking that my fasting is not just counting days. It actually has a purpose, and I'm learning from fasting the purpose of this life.

O Allah, teach us what benefits us and benefit us with what You have taught us. Indeed, You are the All-Knowing, the All-Wise. O Allah, grant our souls their taqwa and purify them — You are the best of those who purify them; You are their Guardian and Master.

O servants of Allah, indeed Allah and His angels send blessings upon the Prophet. O you who have believed, ask Allah to confer blessing upon him and ask Allah to grant him peace.

O Allah, send Your peace, blessings and salutations upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his family and companions. And be pleased, O Allah, with the Rightly-Guided Caliphs — Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali — and with all of the companions, and those who followed them in goodness until the Day of Judgment.

And establish the prayer.