Preparing for the Month of Ramadan

Preparing for the Month of Ramadan

Brothers and sisters in Islam, the khutbah today is about preparing for the month of Ramadan. Ramadan is a short period of time to get closer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, to show Allah azza wa jal our devotion and our dedication, and what we can do in terms of worship.

If you look at it in terms of percentages, Ramadan is 8% of the year — or if it's 29 days, it's 7-point-something percent of the year. We all know that we were created, and the reason we're alive, the reason we're breathing, is to worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So if Allah azza wa jal, who created us for His worship, asked for 50% of the year, it wouldn't be too much. If Allah azza wa jal asked for 25% of the year to be intense in worship like Ramadan, it wouldn't be too much. But Allah azza wa jal just asked us for 8% of the year — or 7-point-something percent of the year. That's all that Allah azza wa jal wants to see from us: effort during this short period of time.

And it is a short period of time, as Allah azza wa jal Himself described it in the Quran:

Just a few counted, a few numbered days.

The Blessed Month — What the Prophet Said

And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam described this month as follows, narrated by Abu Hurayrah radhiyallahu anhu:

(Sunan an-Nasa'i, Hadith 2106; also reported by Imam Ahmad in his Musnad)

The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said: "Ramadan has come, and it is a blessed month. Allah azza wa jal has made the fasting of this entire month obligatory upon you. The gates of the heavens are opened during this month, and the doors of the Hellfire are closed during this month, and the leaders and the strong of the shayateen are chained up during this month." All of that, of course, is to facilitate our worship so that we have fewer distractions in our way. "In it is a night that is better than 1,000 months. Whoever has been prevented from the goodness of this night — he is truly the one who has been deprived." That is the definition of someone who has lost and been prevented.

How the Righteous Prepared for Ramadan

The righteous before us used to be pleased and happy when Ramadan approached. They used to be grateful to Allah azza wa jal that He extended their lives long enough to witness the month of Ramadan. And it is famously known about them that they used to make du'a six months before Ramadan, asking Allah that they make it until the month of Ramadan.

And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam used to make a similar du'a. It is known that he used to say:

"O Allah, put barakah — blessings — for us in the month of Rajab and Sha'ban, and allow us to witness the month of Ramadan."

So they were conscious of Ramadan the entire year — not just in Sha'ban, as many Muslims do, when Sha'ban comes and they remember the month of Ramadan. But the righteous before us, six months after Ramadan, they're still making du'a to Allah to accept their fast in Ramadan. And six months before Ramadan, they're asking Allah to experience Ramadan.

Common Problems and Misconceptions About Fasting

I want to highlight just a few of the problems and misconceptions. One of the problems is that until now, many people think that fasting is only to abstain from eating and drinking from sunup until sundown. So for them, it's all about ingestion. Those are the people that will spit a hundred times after wudu because they don't want any molecules of water in their mouth, even though that is pardoned in the Shari'ah. They tell you not to smell food, not to smell smoke — whereas if you mistakenly eat, your fast isn't broken. That means there must be something more than just abstaining from eating and drinking.

Siyam — fasting — means to abstain, linguistically. So you abstain from lying, from backbiting, from fighting, from arguing, from looking at the haram. And not just during the day — this is our second point — the entire month is for Allah azza wa jal.

There are many people who abstain from all the haram during the day because they're fasting, but then when they break their fast, they smoke, they vape, they let loose their tongue, they let loose their gaze. But the idea is that the whole month is for Allah azza wa jal — not just the times when you're fasting.

And Allah azza wa jal tells us in the Quran, the verse that we all know:

"O you who believe, fasting has been prescribed upon you as it was prescribed upon those before you" — but here is the point — "so that you may attain Taqwa," so that you can be God-conscious and God-fearing. So how can someone attain Taqwa if they only have Taqwa for half of the day, and when they break their fast they just go back to normal? How would they attain Taqwa at the end of this month? The idea is that the entire month is for Allah azza wa jal, and our mannerisms and our worship aren't just during the hours when we're fasting — we continue after we break the fast as well.

And the scholars mentioned that لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ means that fasting affects the heart — fasting affects the heart. Because the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2564 — pointing to his chest three times)

"Taqwa is in the heart" — and he said it three times. So that means fasting affects the heart. Fasting is not about the stomach per se, nor is it about health. For some people it's the month of health — they lower their cholesterol, they abstain from sugars, they start to exercise. And for others it's worse: it's the month of gourmet — 30 different soups, 30 different meals. But there is no Taqwa that can be attained if after sundown everything goes back to normal.

Leaving the Permissible for the Sake of Ramadan

The other thing I want to mention is that the righteous before us, they used to not only leave the haram for the sake of Ramadan — they used to leave good deeds, mustahabb acts of worship, just so they could focus on Ramadan. Today, a lot of us we leave the haram for the sake of Allah, for the sake of Ramadan. But they used to leave the halal as well.

Sufyan al-Thawri rahimahullah used to cancel his classes on 'aqeedah and fiqh so he could get closer to Allah azza wa jal and focus on worship and focus on the Quran. And Imam az-Zuhri rahimahullah would stop teaching and focus on worship and the Quran. So they used to leave great deeds for the sake of Ramadan. So the question is: can't we leave television, video games, and watching useless videos on Facebook and YouTube — just useless videos of funny things happening, car crashes, and things like that — can't we leave that for the sake of Allah azza wa jal during the month?

Taking Advantage of Moments — Not Waiting for Free Time

The next thing I wanted to mention is that a lot of us are busy — almost everybody is busy — and we don't have time to read the Quran. One of the mistakes people make is that they look at their schedule and they try to find empty chunks, empty hours of time, where they could read the Quran. But the truth is, there is not a single one of us who has an empty chunk of time. Just look at next week's schedule — which one of us has four hours empty? Or three hours on Sunday or Tuesday? Nobody. And if you had three hours, you wouldn't sit and recite Quran for three hours.

So what we should do — the hack, or the way around that — is to take advantage of the moments throughout the day. There are people that we know personally who did amazing things by taking advantage of moments, not looking for empty chunks of time.

There is someone that we know personally who memorized his entire Quran inside the car — not in the masjid, completely in the car — because he lived in a city where the traffic is among the worst in the country. Houston is the same; it's in the top ten. He said every time there was an accident or a delay, he would photocopy a page of the Quran and clip it to his dashboard. He said: "There's an accident — I recite a verse, repeat it, memorize it, move to the next verse. There's traffic and a delay — I read the next verse. The light is red — I read the next verse." He memorized the entire Quran sitting in his car. He took advantage of moments. He didn't look for chunks of free time in his schedule.

There are many stories like this one. One of the imams we personally know — he lives on the West Coast of the United States. In two months, he learned a language. Not a common language — one of the rare languages that's only spoken by people beyond a mountain in a specific country in Far East Asia. He learned it in two months. I personally asked him: "How did you do it in two months?" He said: "Every language in the world is composed of two things — vocabulary words and the grammatical rules. In the first month I learned the grammatical rules." And he's an imam, and he's a father, and he's busy. "In the next month I learned vocabulary words." How did he do it? By taking advantage of short moments. He said: "I would write down lots of vocabulary words on note cards and put them in this pocket right here. I stop at a traffic light — I pull the cards out and memorize the word. I'm in an elevator — I pull out a word. I'm on hold on the phone — I pull it out and memorize a word." In one month he was able to speak the language fluently — not just "hi, how are you," but fluently — because he took advantage of the moments.

So some people are busy; they don't have chunks of free time. "When am I going to recite the Quran?" We are so blessed now — we have the Quran on our phones. We can just read whenever we get a few moments, and you'll be surprised at how these moments add up to hours per week. So it is possible.

Sometimes someone says: "I'm really busy and I come home fatigued during the week." It's not a problem — show Allah azza wa jal what you can do on the weekends. If you're not able to during the week, put effort during the weekend. It's like telling Allah azza wa jal that if you had the same amount of time during the week, you would put the same effort that He sees you do on the weekend.

How the Righteous Worshipped in Ramadan

The righteous before us — the way they used to worship Allah azza wa jal in Ramadan. Ibn Hurmuz — and who is Ibn Hurmuz? He was one of the teachers of Imam Malik. Imam Malik said:

"Whenever my iman would get weak, I would just come to Ibn Hurmuz and just look at him, and that would keep me going for days." Just looking at him would keep him going for days. This is the man that we're talking about, rahimahullah.

So Imam Malik mentions in Al-Muwatta that Ibn Hurmuz said:

(Al-Muwatta of Imam Malik)

That is, the reciter — the imam — would recite verses per rak'ah in the hundreds. And also in Al-Muwatta he mentions that some of the early Muslims said: "We had an imam that would finish, in the first eight rak'at — and they prayed 23 — in the first eight rak'at he would finish all of Surah al-Baqarah. And if he did it in 12 rak'at, people would get upset and feel that he shortened the surah."

Another of the righteous, Khalid ibn Durayk rahimahullah, said: "We had an imam in al-Basra, and every three nights we would finish the whole Quran." Every three nights they would finish the entire Quran. We're going to spend the whole month struggling to finish the Quran once — and every three nights they would finish the Quran. He said then the imam, somewhere in the middle of the month, fell ill. So they got a new imam who would finish the Quran every four nights. The question is: what was the reaction of the people? He said the worshippers became upset — they felt that he rushed the salah, because he finishes the whole Quran every four nights.

Now fast forward to our times, and you've all seen these videos of the 12-minute tarawih. It's an exercise session — they're just jumping up and down, back and forth, and you don't know what they're reciting. We've seen those videos in many parts of the world; some of them made the news, with the imam boasting that "my tarawih is 12 minutes only," and people love the fast salah.

One of my close friends said: "I was invited to have iftar" — this is in a Muslim country — "and after the iftar, I wanted to just pray in any masjid nearby. So I went to a masjid in their neighborhood." He said: "The imam, in the first rak'ah of tarawih, said الفاتحة. Everyone said Ameen. The imam said الله أكبر." He said: "In the second rak'ah..." — he said: "Wallahi, I left the salah. I didn't know whether to cry or to laugh." But here's the saddest part: "The saddest part was I have never in my life seen Muslims as happy and smiling as those people after the salah, all praising the wisdom of the imam and his hikmah and his understanding that people are busy."

Seven or eight percent of the year — show effort in front of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

The Reward of Praying Tarawih with the Imam

So you hear these stories of people who would finish the Quran in three nights — how can we match that? The good news is a hadith narrated in at-Tirmidhi, Abu Dawud, an-Nasa'i, and Ibn Majah rahimahumullah:

(Sunan at-Tirmidhi, Hadith 806; Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 1375; Sunan an-Nasa'i, Hadith 1605; Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 1327)

"Whoever stands with the imam in the tarawih until the imam leaves, he will have the reward of a full night of prayer in qiyam written for him."

So you can get a full reward — a full night of qiyam written for you, as if you stood the entire night — from Maghrib till Fajr. You can get that full reward if you just come and pray behind the imam until he leaves. Which means: if you want this reward, don't leave before Witr. Don't leave halfway. The whole salah is 35 to 40 minutes — maybe that's how long our qiyam or tarawih is. Just stay the whole time. And if you want to pray more at home, pray more at home. But if you want the full reward, just stay with the imam for 40 to 45 minutes and you get the reward of the entire night written for you.

The Advice of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal

And I'll conclude with this advice that Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal rahimahullah gave his son. His son Abdullah said: "Awsini" — give me advice. He said:

"Intend good. Have good intentions. When it comes to approaching Ramadan, just have good intentions for what you're going to do, and you will continue to be in a good state as long as you intend good."

Ibn Muflih rahimahullah commented on this advice. He said:

"What an excellent advice from a merciful and caring father to his son." And he comments that it has gathered the good of this dunya and the next in this simple wasiyyah.

Ask Allah azza wa jal for His forgiveness. Indeed, those who ask for His forgiveness shall prosper.

Second Khutbah — Raising Our Children in Ramadan

الحمد لله رب العالمين، والصلاة والسلام على رسوله الأمين، وعلى آله وصحبه أجمعين، أما بعد.

The advice that we give every year before Ramadan comes is this: one of the most amazing things is how a man will pray here in this musalla the entire month — the entire prayers — reacting to the verses, perhaps even crying with the ayat, while his son — and we don't mean an infant son; he could be a teenager, or he could be 10 or 11 years old — is just wreaking havoc, destroying and wrecking things in the masjid, fighting with other kids.

It's one of the most amazing things: a man will pray the whole month here and have no clue where his son is. The whole month the child is playing soccer, playing dodgeball, fighting with other children, breaking things — and we have to go investigate on the cameras — the whole month, while the father is right here in the front row.

So brothers and sisters, it is our responsibility. The question is: if your child plays soccer the whole month, at what age does he develop the patience to just stand still and pray? Is there a magical age when he turns 15 and he'll come pray with the imam? Or 16? Or 13? Does he just magically have the patience to stand in tarawih? Or do we train them from a young age?

A few people — you see it every year — they have their child next to them, they pray, and they reward them. They offer some kind of great reward: "Pray the tarawih and I'll give you this," so they can get used to it. But it cannot be that Ramadan is just the month of intense play — more than the rest of the year — for our children. What are they going to learn? Make a deal. You know your child better — 20 days out of 30, 15 out of 30, 10 out of 30. But it can't be that all 30 out of 30 is just running around. It just can't be.

Allah Loves to See Effort

The point, brothers and sisters, is that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala loves to see effort from His servants. We've said this multiple times before — many times Allah azza wa jal rewards you on your effort, and not on the results and not on the success.

One of the clearest examples of that is Nuh alayhis salam, who called his people for 950 years, but only a few people believed. So the question is: does he get the reward of 950 years of effort, or does that not count — he just gets the reward of the few handful? No doubt, everybody knows he gets the reward of the effort.

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala loves to see effort from His servants. Why didn't Allah azza wa jal make Fajr at 11 o'clock? Why did He make it so early that people have to get up, struggle, and put in effort? Because if it were at 11, who would miss Fajr? Maybe six people on the planet would miss Fajr — everybody would catch it. But Allah wants to see your effort. He wants to see you struggling, wants to see you put some work behind it.

And why did Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala prolong the life of Iblis? Why didn't Iblis just live and then die a thousand years later? Why did He prolong his life until the Day of Judgment? Because people will then keep struggling against Iblis — Allah loves to see us trying.

So as we're sitting here, we make the intention that we're going to do our best. We're going to give Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala our best during the month of Ramadan. Make your own plan. And the scholars give wise advice: they say don't start big and then burn yourself out. Start moderate, and if you can increase — increase it. Increase the number of pages, increase the number of acts of worship. But a lot of times people start off heavy and then find out they can't handle it. That's why from the 15th of Ramadan until the end, you see the numbers of Muslims decrease. So don't overburden yourself.

With that, we ask Allah azza wa jal to make us of those who recognize the truth as clear truth and follow the best of it, and to make us of those who recognize falsehood as clear falsehood and abstain from it.