Preparing for Ramadan

Khutbah Opening

إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا، مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ، وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ، وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ، وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ

All praise is due to Allah. We praise Him and seek His assistance. We seek refuge with Allah from the evil within ourselves and from the evil of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide him. Yet whomever He allows to go astray, none can guide him. And I bear witness that there is no God worthy of worship except Allah alone. He has no partner. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His messenger.

O you who believe, fear Allah as He should be feared. And do not die except in the state of Islam.

O you who believe, fear Allah and speak the truth. He will direct you to do righteous good deeds and will forgive your sins. And whomsoever obeys Allah and His messenger, he has indeed achieved a great achievement.

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

Preparing for the Month of Ramadan

Brothers and sisters in Islam, today our khutbah is about preparing for the month of Ramadan. And the month of Ramadan is a short period of time. The intent and purpose behind it is for us to get closer to Allah, and to show Allah our devotion and our dedication and what we can do in terms of worship.

If you calculate what percentage of the year Ramadan is, it is only 8% of the year. If it's 30 days, it's only 8% of the year. If it's 29 days, it's even less than that. And we all know that Allah created us and put us on this earth just to worship Him. And He mentioned this in the Quran — the famous ayah that we all know:

I have not created the jinn nor humankind except to worship Me.

So Allah created us to worship Him. If He commanded and demanded the entire year of devout worship — like the level of Ramadan — it wouldn't be too much. If He asked half the year, it wouldn't be too much. But Allah only asked for 8% or less of the year where we put effort to draw near to Him. Just a short number of days. And that's exactly how Allah described it in the Quran:

Just a short number of days.

How the Righteous Awaited Ramadan

The early Muslims and the righteous before us would look forward to this month of Ramadan — not just in Sha'ban as many people do now, but they would look forward to Ramadan the entire year. The whole time they're waiting for the month of Ramadan.

The Prophet ﷺ, when the month of Ramadan would come — narrated by Abu Hurayrah — the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sunan al-Nasa'i, Hadith 2106; also reported by Imam Ahmad)

Ramadan has come to you — a blessed month. Allah made it obligatory upon you to fast this month. The gates of the heavens are opened for you. The gates of the hellfire are closed. The leaders and heads of the shayateen are chained up during this month. In it is a night that is better than a thousand months. Whoever was prevented from the good of this night, he is the one that is truly prevented.

The righteous before us would be happy when Ramadan approached, and they would be grateful to Allah that He extended their lives long enough to witness the month of Ramadan. They would spend six months just making du'a to Allah that they would live long enough to reach the next Ramadan. And the Prophet ﷺ himself used to make a du'a with this meaning:

O Allah, put barakah — blessings — for us in the month of Rajab and Sha'ban, and allow us to attain the month of Ramadan; to live until the month of Ramadan.

So they were conscious of Ramadan the entire year — not just in Sha'ban as we said.

What Fasting Truly Means

One of the problems we have is that many of us think that Ramadan — or fasting — is simply abstaining from eating and drinking from sunup until sundown. These are the ones who exaggerate after making wudu and spit a hundred times to make sure that no wetness remains in their mouth, even though that wetness is pardoned by the shari'a. You're not required to remove every molecule of water.

But these are the same people — for them Ramadan is just not ingesting things. They're careful after making wudu. They're the ones who exaggerate and tell you not to smell smoke, not to smell food. Some of them even say don't shower because water can come in through your ears — even though that's not how people typically ingest anything through their ears.

But if they were to contemplate: if you mistakenly eat during the day in Ramadan — if you eat by mistake and you have forgotten — it is pardoned and your fasting is still valid and you continue. Which should let us know that fasting is a lot more than just eating and drinking.

So people fast and during the day they abstain from lying, they abstain from backbiting, they abstain from fighting with others, from looking at the haram. But even that concept is not 100% complete. Because Ramadan is not just about the day. This is a month for Allah. So even after sundown, the month is still for Allah.

There are people who abstain from watching television because they're fasting. They abstain from wasting time playing games because they're fasting. They don't smoke because they're fasting. But when they break the fast, they start smoking and vaping and watching television, looking at images of women — all kinds of things. But it's still the month of Ramadan. It's still an entire month where we're supposed to show our worth to Allah. It's not just about during the day, and then at night we do something different.

And we all know the verse — Allah says:

So that you may attain taqwa. And that means, the scholars said, that fasting affects the heart. Because taqwa is in the heart. So fasting affects the heart and it's for the heart. It's not for the stomach. It's not about health. Some people make it the month of exercise and the month of dieting. It's not about lowering the cholesterol level. Number one, first and foremost, it was to affect the heart. And how can we attain taqwa if after sundown we relax and do whatever we want just because we're not fasting anymore?

How the Righteous Treated Ramadan

The righteous before us, brothers and sisters, would even leave mustahab acts of worship during the month of Ramadan. We're not talking about leaving haram because Ramadan has come. The righteous before us would leave good deeds to free up their time for worship.

Sufyan al-Thawri, the great scholar, rahimahullah, would spend his days and nights teaching — throughout the year — teaching aqeedah and fiqh and teaching the religion to his students. And when Ramadan would enter, he would cancel these righteous gatherings. He would stop teaching fiqh. He would stop teaching aqeedah. He was stopping mustahab acts of worship so that he could focus on getting nearer to Allah, on his acts of worship, and on the Quran.

Imam al-Zuhri, rahimahullah, would stop teaching as well and focus on worship and the Quran. So they would leave all these good deeds so they could give their full attention to the month of Ramadan.

Can't we then leave television, or leave video games, or leave these useless videos on WhatsApp that are constantly being sent from around the world — and the truth is, 99% of them are just garbage: cats falling into water, this guy slipped, car accident — and we spend hours upon hours per month just watching these videos? Useless Facebook posts? We're saying, people used to leave good acts of worship so they could focus on drawing near to Allah. Can we not leave television and games on our phones and useless WhatsApp discussions and Facebook posts and pictures of food on Instagram for the sake of Allah?

Making the Most of Small Moments

Many people say that they don't have time — because they're working full time and they have families and they have responsibilities. So they don't necessarily have time to devote any extra attention to the Quran or to reading the Quran. And what most people make a mistake in is that they think you have to find a portion of time — a slot in your schedule where you have three free hours — and then you'll read the Quran. Or: next Wednesday I have two hours that are free, I'll read the Quran.

Realistically, no one has three empty hours in their schedule. But if you had three empty hours in your schedule, would you sit and read non-stop for three hours? After half an hour, you fall asleep. So the point is: do not look for huge chunks of empty time in your schedule. The trick is to find short moments and utilize them.

There is a Muslim here in America on the East Coast that we know, and he memorized the entire Quran inside his car. Not that he went to a Saturday class and memorized with a shaykh. He memorized the entire Quran sitting inside his vehicle. He lived in a state that was in the worst top ten for traffic in America — much like Houston, which is in the worst top ten as well. So every time there was an accident or road work, he would photocopy a page of the Quran and clip it onto his dashboard. He stops at a traffic light — he reads a verse and repeats it. There is an accident — he reads a number of verses. Whatever the blockage was, he would recite a verse of the Quran. When he finished that page, he photocopied the next page. He memorized the entire book of Allah completely inside his vehicle.

Another person we know personally learned a language — let's call it a rare language, spoken in only a village between the mountains — and he learned it in two months, fluently enough to give full da'wah with full conversational skills. How did he learn it in two months, being a busy imam and a busy man?

He said, basically any language in the world has two parts. One part is understanding the grammatical rules and the sentence structure of that language. Once you have that, all you have to do is gather vocabulary words to use in sentences. In the first month, he learned the sentence structure and the grammatical rules. In the second month, he memorized hundreds and hundreds of vocabulary words. He did not look for chunks of empty time in his schedule. He took advantage of moments — sometimes seconds.

He said, I would write down lots and lots of vocabulary words and put them in this pocket. Then I stop at a traffic light — it's red for 30 seconds — I pull up the note cards and I memorize a word. I'm in the elevator — it's just a 15-second ride — I pull out the note card and memorize some words. I'm waiting at the doctor's office. A company puts me on hold on the phone. Any second he got, he pulled out his notes. And in two months, he completely learned a new language because he took advantage of these short moments and did not look for chunks of free time.

And the truth is, none of us have chunks of free time in our schedules. So the idea is to take advantage of these moments. How much of the Quran could we memorize in the time we spend looking at videos or in the little lost moments here and there? These moments add up to hours per week and tens of hours per month. So if we can just become conscious of where our time is going and take advantage of that, we could finish so much of the Quran despite busy schedules.

When people want to do something, they always find a way. There is someone alive and well in our day and age who works full time, has children, and spends time with his family — but he reads 24 juz' of the Quran per day. When you want to make time for something, you find a way. So the idea is: just for 8% of this year, we want to make time for Allah. Make time for the book of Allah.

Even those who work Monday to Friday — you can show Allah what you can do in the weekends. And there is no excuse in the weekends. It is as if to say, Ya Allah, I couldn't do this during the weekdays because I'm working — but now that I'm free, I have nothing but to devote my time and my worship to You.

Examples from the Righteous in Prayer

Look at how others would worship Allah outside of Ramadan, let alone in the month of Ramadan. Hudhayfah radiallahu anhu, the companion, said: I prayed one night with the Prophet ﷺ. He started Surah al-Baqarah. I thought to myself, he'll stop at verse 100. But then he passed verse 100. I thought to myself, he's probably going to pray this first rak'ah with all of al-Baqarah and then make ruku'. But then he finished al-Baqarah and started Surah an-Nisa', then finished all of Surah an-Nisa', then started Surah Al-'Imran. And then he went into ruku'. And the ruku' was just about as long as the qira'ah. Then he made sujood, which was just about as long as the ruku'. About seven juz' the Prophet ﷺ finished in one rak'ah.

And Ibn Abbas also had a narration describing the Prophet's ﷺ night prayer in a similar fashion.

From other generations, we find Ibn Hurmuz — and who was this great man, rahimahullah? He was one of the teachers of Imam Malik, rahimahullah. Just so you can get a sense of the level of worship of this man, Imam Malik said:

كُنْتُ آتِي ابْنَ هُرْمُزَ فَأَنْظُرُ إِلَيْهِ فَأَتَّعِظُ أَيَّامًا — I would come to Ibn Hurmuz and just look at him, and that would be a reminder for me for days. His iman would increase for days just by looking at him, not even speaking to him or listening to him.

Imam Malik mentioned in al-Muwatta that Ibn Hurmuz said: the qari', the imam, would recite in the hundreds — and that is how many verses they would recite in each rak'ah. Also in al-Muwatta, another narration states that they would finish al-Baqarah in eight rak'ahs. They would pray 23 rak'ahs, and in the first eight they prayed all of al-Baqarah. Sometimes the imam would finish al-Baqarah in 12 rak'ahs, and the people would feel that he had shortened the salah — meaning every rak'ah was half a juz' of the Quran.

Another, by the name of Khalid Ibn Durayk, rahimahullah, said: we had an imam in the city of al-Basrah, and he would finish the entire Quran every three nights. We struggled the whole month and we barely finished half the mus'haf. They would finish it in three nights — going steady, every three nights finishing the mus'haf. Then that imam got sick, and they got a new imam who would finish the mus'haf every four nights. And the people were irritated — they felt that he rushed the salah, because now he's finishing the whole mus'haf in four nights instead of three.

Fast forward to our times. We've all seen the videos — of the quick prayers, the imam who boasted that he can finish the whole taraweeh in 12 minutes. Or we personally know someone who said: I was visiting people, had iftar with them, and then went and prayed taraweeh in a masjid near their home. He said, wallahi, after the salah I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry. In the first rak'ah, the imam said الفاتحة, everyone said ameen, and the imam said نون — Allahu Akbar. And in the second rak'ah, Allahu Akbar. And he said, I have never seen a congregation leave a masjid with bigger smiles, praising the imam and his hikmah for understanding that people are busy.

لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ — what kind of taqwa, what kind of training comes from this type of salah?

Start Moderate and Build Gradually

There are so many amazing examples from the righteous before us. But from these examples, we don't mean that someone should take on more than what they can bear. One of the scholars gave very wise advice: when the month starts, start with something moderate. Don't start heavy. Because what happens is people don't know what they can bear. Someone starts and he wants to do three juz' every night — he has energy the first night, the second night — and then after that he starts to slow down. And that's why you start to see people in the middle of Ramadan, the numbers start dropping even in taraweeh. And towards the end, the numbers start dropping again. Because they did more than what they could bear. Find out what you can handle, and then if you can increase it, increase it. But don't start like a champion and only continue for four or five days.

The Reward of Praying with the Imam

The good news for us — how can we match these people who would pray these long prayers? We can match them because of a simple hadith in which the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 1375; Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 806; graded Sahih)

Whoever stands with the imam until he leaves, he will have the reward of a full night in prayer written for him. That's all you have to do. You don't have to recite hundreds of ayat. You don't have to finish the Quran in three nights. Just come to your local masjid, come on time, pray with your imam until the end. Don't leave before witr and finish witr at home — then you miss out on the ajr, the scholars said. Just stand there, and Allah will write the full reward of praying a full night in prayer for you. That's all you have to do. And that is from the mercy of Allah.

Push Yourself — Even When It's Hard

The idea, brothers and sisters, is that we push ourselves to do our best in the month of Ramadan. One of the most amazing stories of that is from one of the early Muslims. He was praying the night prayer, and his feet were hurting him. He had a stick in his hand, so he hit his feet and said: do the companions of the Prophet ﷺ think they will surpass us by far?

كَلَّا وَاللَّهِ لَنُزَاحِمَنَّهُمْ عَلَيْهِ — He is saying: I understand there is a huge gap between me and the companions, but I'm going to push myself to make that gap smaller — even if it's a little bit smaller. His feet were hurting, he was physically struggling, but he wanted to keep going and he encouraged himself to keep going.

That is really what we're trying to do during this month. We want to keep pushing ourselves — despite our work schedules, despite fatigue. Push ourselves and show Allah our devotion.

أَقُولُ قَوْلِي هَذَا وَأَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ الْعَظِيمَ لِي وَلَكُمْ مِنْ جَمِيعِ الذُّنُوبِ فَاسْتَغْفِرُوهُ فَيَفُوزُ الْمُسْتَغْفِرُونَ

I ask Allah for His forgiveness. Surely those who ask for His forgiveness shall prosper.

Second Khutbah: Ramadan in the Home

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ وَالصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَى رَسُولِهِ الْأَمِينِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ، أَمَّا بَعْدُ

One thing we'd like to remind ourselves of is that we want our families to feel the atmosphere of Ramadan — not just in the masjid, but also in our homes. And so the responsibilities of parents are to bring the entire family close to Allah.

One of the most bewildering things you'll ever see in the month of Ramadan is a man who prays the entire month in taraweeh — he might even be in the front row, crying and reacting to the verses of the Quran — but his son spends the entire month in the back of the masjid fooling around, disturbing people and hurting others. And not once does he make his son pray next to him. It is the epitome of selfishness where this man is standing and crying and worshipping, and he doesn't bother — he doesn't care what his son is up to.

Or the other side of that: the wife is cooking because he has to have a gourmet spread with food and variety. So she spends all day cooking and then is too fatigued to go to salah at the end.

And that's why one of the things happening this year — we're bringing back this year at CLIC — is full iftar. So that instead of our mothers and our wives spending all day cooking for the family, they can spend their time in the worship of Allah. And come to the masjid energized to worship — not to sit and gossip, but to be energized so they can worship Allah.

The point of this khutbah, brothers and sisters: let Allah see effort from you during this month. That is the entire point. Allah loves for us to strive to get close to Him. Allah loves to see His servant working and struggling and putting effort to come near Him.

If we think about it: why is Fajr before sunrise? Why wouldn't Fajr be at 10am so you wake up and pray it? Why is it so early? Because Allah wants to see you struggle against fatigue and sleepiness, get up, and put effort. Why did Allah allow Iblis to live so long — until near the Day of Judgment? Because he is going to create that catalyst. He is going to be the one we have to struggle against. Allah loves to see effort from His servants.

So the point of this khutbah: let Allah see effort on your part in this month.

Du'a