Bismillah
Fasting and the Furious: Mon, Aug. 17, 2009
Speaker: Sh. Muhammad AlShareef
Notes:
Middle of marathon -> very few people, one type of person who witnesses this middle, they are the participants; only the participants witness the middle
Naseeha:
#1
We are starting this 30 day marathon; Allah (SWT) tells us exactly why he created us: He only created mankind and Jinn for only one reason and that is Ibadaah -> worship of Allah (SWT) (mentioned in Qur’an)
You were created and made for no other reason than this
#2
This Ramadhan, Allah (SWT) gave you another change to fast, read Qur’an, give Sadaqah, attend Taraweeh
Buy now, while you still have time to purchase because tommorrow will come and the markets will close
You have the opportunity so take advantage of it now
#3
Dhikr -> Remembrance
‘Hey you, you Believer, if you are claiming to have Iman, then Remember Allah (dhikran Khatheeran)’-> in Qur’an, when should you remember Allah? You should remember Allah whenever you forget
Just like songs looping in our minds, the remembrance of Qur’an should be looping in our minds and our tongues
#4
Allah (SWT) revealed Qur’an on most blessed of nights; person must open their hearts to Qur’an;
Qur’an:
‘Will they not contemplate the Quran?’
Either they contemplate the Qur’an or their hearts have locks on it
Leave behind the Duniya, when you perform the memorization and reading in Qur’an; the pages someone has memorized are worn; You can tell how much Qur’an is being read by the pages; Make sure pages of Qur’an do not remain untouched
Beginning of Marathon, many spectators; end of Marathon, there are many spectators; Problems is middle of marathon or middle of Ramadhan
5:2:4 ratio
When Ramadhan starts, 5 lines in masajid; fourth day of Ramadhan kicks in the line goes to two lines; last ten nights of Ramadhan, the prayer lines go up to four; last ten nights the crowds start picking up around 24th night of Ramadhan; what if Laytul Qadr is on 21st of Ramadhan? Feel sorry for those ppl who miss that night;
What if every Ramadhan we miss Laytul Qadr because it’s on 21st of Ramadhan?
Look to your neighbor on your right, one of us in masjid may not be here next Ramadhan.
Allah (SWT) talks about three types of slaves:
1) Amongst slaves -> slaves who do dhulm (injustice) to themselves, they do not recite Qur’an;
2) Muqtasib, economical -> they just do what they have to do, they read Qur’an and don’t share it or convey it with anyone else; they do Fardh but don’t do nawaaful, sunnah
3) Sadaqul-Khaira-> Those who are racing to the good deeds; they do the Fardh and do nawaaful and Sunnah and look for more opportunities to do good
************************************
This lecture is Nafil
There’s a gap in everything; going to the gym: you are excited in the beginning and then there is a dip
This pattern of dipping after starting is a human condition; Ramadhan is not an exception, we start Ramadhan excited and then we dip.
Ramadhan is so brillant, if you can solve the Ramadhan dip then you will have a template of how you did it
We’re talking about the gap
When you start fasting, your body finally gets a break from poison; you get a break from coffee, biryani, smoking; the body gets a chance to cleanse in Ramadhan
Someone who smokes, when Ramadhan starts, they will immediately get a headache; If you give body a chance, the body will get sick because of all the 11 month poisons you give to your body; have mercy on the body and cleanse
By third day, it will get bad; By 4th, 5th day you will get hazy fog that will start to lift; by 6th day the fog lifts
Ramadhan is coming: the month of food festival; Ramadhan is the month of feeding not eating; Person slams down all poison on the first day of Ramadhan before Maghrib prayer and then will go eat;
Person leading Taraweeh -> you can’t lead with that much food in your stomach; there’s no way you are going to make it to Taraweeh if you overeat
Ppl gain weight during Ramadhan
Sixth day when they come out stronger
Have Suhoor, because in suhoor is barakah
Person who stuffs themselves with Iftar don’t wake up for suhoor
Last ten nights, the Prophet Muhammad intensifies his worship
abtrimmer.com -> infomercial; detox program;
Herbal teas to cleanse your body
Thank Allah (SWT) for giving us Ramadhan
In Qur’an:
‘Hey Believer, I made fasting Fardh on you as I made it Fardh on those who came before you’, ‘So perhaps that you may have Taqwa’
Analogy of Taqwa: you fast in the mall, you wonder if anyone is staring at you, no one is staring at you, there’s a camera that is pointed at you, you just now became conscious of it, the camera was looking at you before but now you are conscious of it; everywhere you go there is a camera, you are just unconscious of it; to be conscious of camera: is Taqwa -> God-consciousness; when one is conscious of Allah, they will do what he commands
Ramadhan is a training ground of Taqwa; no one will know you fast
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said:
‘Every action of Son of Adam is for him except fasting; verily fasting is for me (Allah)’
Fasting is emphasized, it trains for Taqwa; Door called Rayyan (those ppl who fasted enter through this door in Paradise); Rayy -> means to have your thirst quenched
Ppl who don’t pray, but they fast during Ramadhan; Shayateen are tied up in Ramadhan;
The dip: 1) Qiyam-ul-layl / Taraweeh and 2) recitation of Qur’an
Qiyam means to stand up; Taraweeh trains ppl to have Khushoo (concentration); Many ppl don’t understand what Imam is reciting, even Imam doesn’t understand; what if you decided to learn what you recited; how do you pay attention for long periods of time
Ibn Al Qayyim said:
The slave stands before his Lord during Prayer
The slave also stands before Allah on Day of Judgement
Whoever neglects standing for prayer in this duniya, their standing will not help them on Day of Judgement
If you can stand for one hour/two hours in Taraweeh then the five daily prayers is very easy
Jibril told Rasul to forgive Hafsa (ra) (wife of Rasul); Jibril said Hafsa frequently fasts and stands for prayer
Imam Malik was famous for hadeeth; when Ramadhan came he would close book of hadeeth and focus on Qur’an
Two other things:
1) Sadaqa: month of charity; whoever feeds a fasting person, has the reward of that fasting person without diminishing that reward; the feeding does not have to be at your house; how about feeding ppl at the masjid;
2) Don’t know Arabic but still want to benefit from Taraweeh: read translation from what Imam will read night before or beforehand; read translation of the Tafseer;
Even if you struggle with the words, so be it, struggle; Why can’t you hear an Ayaah and ask what does that word mean?
Allah (SWT) is talking to you and you don’t understand what he’s saying; there’s guidance in what Allah is saying; you can cry about this; sincere tears will lead you to learn the words of Allah (SWT)
Monks in the evening; warriors in the morning
If the Muslims have that type of justice then they will conquer
Those who cut off from their brothers and sisters in Islam -> that is haram; no forgiveness, wait until they make up with each other; after three days the effects and poison will takeover
We don’t go in dip with things that we love, example: video games; we don’t need motivation with things that we love
Three prayers:
Taraweeh
Qiyam
Fajr
Energy you get is really small during last ten nights; are you really plugged into Ramadhan? Or are you really charging?
Three tips:
1) are you plugged into Ramadhan in regards to your time?
Initial excitement passes; don’t try to think you will have willpower for future; you need to automate it; set up automatic withdrawal
Use your mom to motivate you during Ramadhan; Have her motivate her; become Ramadhan buddies with her; together you can wake up for Suhoor and go to Taraweeh
Prepare Suhoor before going to Taraweeh; when you come back you can go to sleep
Put a bowl of fruit or granola bar by your bed so when the alarm clock goes off you can just eat it
Automate:
Plan meal plans in advance; freeze meals
Do shopping and buy Eid stuff now so in last ten nights you aren’t spending your last ten nights in shopping mall
If someone invites you for Iftar; Iftar invites distract from Taraweeh; if you go to someone’s house, do it sparingly; let’s focus more on Ibadaah
Book time off for Itikhaaf in advance and do Itikhaaf; Allah blesses us so much for that
If you get in dip:
reading Qur’an, sadaqah
Divide Ramadhan in 4 day blocks, don’t do it for whole Ramadhan, do it for four days, you can give yourself a break
Four days doing work, fifth day take a break (go for an Iftar); Ramadhan will be divided in six parts every five days
2) your health?
I want to loose weight; you sign up with a personal trainer
What can non-Muslim retiree teach you?
4 a.m. a man in full suit smoking; retiree used to be in army and he always wakes up during dawn;
Circadian rhythm -> in 24 hour cycle, your body finds best time to work
Moods: you know when you are energetic
Ramadhan comes along, your rhythm is messed up and then it adjusts; wake up at same time and go to bed at same time this will become second nature to you
Someone who fasts and fasts properly don’t have difficulty going in different time zones
Make sure you do something everyday so rhythm is happening
With regards to stuffing oneself: accept iftar but don’t eat all that is prepared; tea saucer should be serving plate; eat in those portions;
Some say:
we don’t want to waste food, children in Africa are starving: how does stuffing yourself help children in Africa?
Some say: ‘We should be thankful?’, we can be thankful by giving sadaqa
Wasting food -> munkar (against Sunnah)
Stuffing yourself -> munkar
Let pain of throwing out food remind you to eat less next day instead of stuffing yourself
3) your Iman?
power of what du’aa can do for you
What would be things you ask for:
One for the akhirah (i.e. Jannatul Firdous, being with Rasul in Jannatul Firdous)
One for the duniya (i.e. getting married, having children, having a nice car)
Materialistic things are ok, you have du’aa for akhirah as well
‘O Allah give us good in this life, and good in the hereafter, and protection from the hellfire’
Keep the du’aas with you during Ramadhan; make du’aa to memorize Qur’an; du’aa will get you what you want
Add things to du’aa list for duniya and akhirah; don’t forget good character; your family; if there is someone you are cut off from, mend your friendship
Women during menstral cycle:
She can focus on du’aa even in last ten nights
She can do dhikr, you don’t need wudu to do dhikr
She can volunteer (i.e. babysit children, this helps other ppl focus during Taraweeh)
Dawah (all non-Muslims think it’s cool fasting, some women can go to public schools and talk about Ramadhan; she can make Ramadhan gift baskets and share it with ppl at masjid)
She can read Islamic books
She can listen to lectures online
Is it permissible for women on menstral cycle to read Qur’an? Insha’Allah; yes she can recite, she can’t touch Mushaaf; weak hadeeth: a women can not recite Qur’an during menstral cycle;
Going into dip: I’m bad, I’m so dumb/stupid; don’t abuse yourselves verbally, if you miss something so be it, implement something else; don’t beat yourself up; just say it’s ok
Zakat: how do you pay Zakat?
Quick formula:
cash
gold is representative of money; take gold and weigh it; take grams/ounces, take price of gold online, gold amount is $1,700, bank account is $1,000 so pay 2.5% of $2,700
85 grams = $2000
She can give sadaqa as gold if she wants
$2k if you had more than one year, if yes, pay 2.5%; if no then don’t have to pay Zakat, just pay sadaqah
Review:
-How to pay Zakat
-If you are not perfect, no problem
-A women in menstral cycle
-How to deal with time, health, and Iman (automate things)
-Justice, one of ways to be just -> make up with one another
-If person doesn’t know Arabic and attends Taraweeh, read translation
-Main dip will happen in Qiyam and relationship with Qur’an: The Prophet (pbuh) said fast and you will be healthy
-Gap and how to prevent oneself from it
-Marathon, only ppl in middle are participants; many ppl came at your aqeeqah to celebrate your birth and at your death, Insha’Allah, many ppl will come to your Jannazah; The middle is what you have control over
Misc:
heartwheeljournal.com
Measure salaah progress; watch dip happening
Al Huda Institute in Toronto
