 As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh Alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen wa salatu wa as-salamu ala sayyidina Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi Wa min tabi'ahum bi ihsanin ila yawmidin Amma ba'ud I begin in the name of Allah, most gracious, most merciful I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship except Allah And that His beloved Nabi and Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him Is His last and final messenger I'd like to begin today by mentioning or reciting two verses or two portion Two portions of the Qur'an Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says A'udhu billahi min ash-shayqanir rajeem Bismillahir rahmanir raheem wa l-fajr wa layalin ashir And in another place Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says As we approach, inshallah, In the United States of America, the beginning of Dhul-Hijjah most likely tonight inshallah Today is Saturday, today evening we will be seeking and searching for the crescent of the month of Dhul-Hijjah And if we cite it inshallah then the month of Dhul-Hijjah will begin tonight In essence making the first of Dhul-Hijjah tomorrow inshallah Dhul-Hijjah happens to be an auspicious month Dhul-Hijjah happens to be a blessed month with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions in the Qur'an and I recited a verse where Allah says wa l-fajr wa layalin ashir Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala takes an oath and he says by dawn and by the 10 nights Imam ibn kathir rahmatullahi alayhi is narrated to have said al-muradubiha ashiru Dhul-Hijjah That what is the meaning of these 10 nights is the 10 nights of the month of Dhul-Hijjah Abdullah ibn abbas, Abdullah ibn Zubeir Mujahid And many of the earlier generations say that this ayah refers to the first 10 days of Dhul-Hijjah In fact, before we go into the specific merits of Dhul-Hijjah Many of the scholars are of the opinion that these days are better than the last 10 days of Ramadan However, what holds the last 10 days of Ramadan at a higher status is the night of Qadil In fact, many ulama are of the opinion that the best 10 days of the year are the 10 days of Dhul-Hijjah The first 10 days of Dhul-Hijjah And the best 10 nights of the year happen to be the last 10 nights of the month of Ramadan In other words, all the acts of ibadah and worship for which we prepare ourselves for in the last 10 nights of Ramadan, in the last 10 days of Ramadan In this very moment as we are approaching Dhul-Hijjah We should have that same enthusiasm. We should have that same fervor We should have that extreme same excitement about Dhul-Hijjah beginning Dhul-Hijjah is not simply about Eid, is not simply about Qurbani, is not simply about Hajj Rather Dhul-Hijjah, the first 10 days specifically, are also about the ibadah and worship of Allah There's a narration that says That your rewards increase during the course of these days and nights The rewards for your good deeds are multiplied by 700 times And so we are now approaching those days and approaching those nights Days of ibadah and days of worship I want to turn to a few hadith of the Nabi Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam The prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam is narrated to have said This is a sahri hadith Imam Bukhari narrates this He says the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam told the Sahaba There are no days in which good deeds are more beloved to Allah than during these days So the Sahaba were these were people who were concerned about where can we maximize our time Maximize our reward and so they asked the Nabi Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam Not even jihad in the path of Allah and the prophet responded and said Not even jihad in the path of Allah except for the individual who goes out in the path of Allah With his life and wealth and returns with neither one of them In other words unless a person and an individual ends up becoming a Shahid During the course of these days and nights otherwise These are the best days of ibadah and best days of worship There's another narration افضلوا ايام الدنيا ايام العشر The prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam says The best days of this world are 10 There's another hadith Abdullah ibn abbas sallallahu alayhi wasallam narrates No deeds are purer to Almighty Allah Nor greater in reward than good deeds performed in the 10 days of the month of sacrificing Right? It's narrated Qasim ibn Ayyub and he narrates this about the famous companion Saeed ibn jubayr says When the first 10 days of the month of Dhul-Hijjah would come in اجتهادا اجتهادا شديدا He would exert himself in ibadah حتى ما يقادوا يقديروا عليه So greatly that he would nearly overwhelm himself So these hadith definitely remind us of the merits of the month of Dhul-Hijjah That these are days and nights unlike others These are days and nights which are very similar to the last 10 days and nights of the month of Ramadhan There's another lengthy hadith and since we are going through the merits of Dhul-Hijjah I'll go ahead and mention it I'll just go through the English مامين ايامين افضل عين والله Similar beginning No days are better to Allah than the first 10 days of Dhul-Hijjah A man asked oh messenger of Allah are they better than are they better Are they the first 10 days better or time spent waging jihad in the path of Allah The Nabi عليه الصلاة والسلام said They are better than time spent waging jihad in the way of Allah Then he says no day is better to Allah than the day of Arafat The day of Arafat refers to the ninth of Dhul-Hijjah the day before Eid Now this is not the Nabi عليه الصلاة والسلام is not specifically mentioning this For the Dhul-Hijjah in Arafat Right for the Dhul-Hijjah in Arafat This is for everyone He says no day is better وما من يوم افضل عند الله من يوم عرفاته No day is better to Allah than the day of Arafat And then he continues He says Allah descends to the lowest heaven And he boasts to the inhabitants of the heavens About the inhabitants of the earth Saying look at my servants appearing disheveled and dusty They came from every mountain pass hoping for my mercy They do not see my punishment Yet they do not see that on no day Sorry yet they do not see that on no day are more saved from hellfire Than the day of Arafat Than the day of Arafat Now again this is, this specific portion is for the Hujjaj But if Allah SWT is so immense in his mercy brothers and sisters For those who are performing Hajj Then why wouldn't our merciful Allah SWT extend this mercy for all of humanity Right for all of humanity There's one or two things I want to mention Just something We are now ending the month of Dhulqaada For those of you that may or may not know The month of Dhulqaada is the 11th month of the Islamic calendar Right Dhul-Hijjah happens to be the 12th month of the Islamic calendar And so we are now literally ending our year We are, if we may think of this in December Right not literally in December But in December of the year The year is closing There's a celebration at the end of the year And then inshallah we will begin the month of Muharram Right the month of Muharram In which we have Ashura But we will come to that I'll mention one specific thing about that in a little while But with that said we're ending the year And I want to take a moment to remind all the young parents or parents here Especially if you have young children Teach our children the The Islamic months The name of the Islamic months Remind them of the names of the Islamic months Remind them which year or which month we happen to be in Also, this is something I did in a youth session yesterday I was explaining, I asked someone and I said Why Dhul-Hijjah? I asked the youth, I asked the young men and women I said, why Dhul-Hijjah so important? One of them so beautifully said That it's because we have the second Eid in there And so I was prompted to ask and said That what do you mean by second Eid? And what is referred to as the first Eid? Right And so interesting explanations And then one of them said that Oh because I said when is Eid? That was one of my questions And someone said somewhere around July Right that the Eid-ul-Adha happens around July And I took a moment to explain to them The lunar calendar and how the Gregorian calendar is 365 days And the lunar calendar is about 10 to 11 days less than that So in the course of 33 years all, you know We will have gone through the entire calendar And I kind of took my time explaining to them how If Eid this year is around the 20th of July It'll be in the 10th of July the year after I kind of used Ramadan as an example More than anything else Because many of these young men and women Were people who were fasting During the months of April and May when Ramadan was And I said soon it's going to happen in March And then February and then January and so on and so forth So I would urge you to take a moment to explain Your children, you know how the Islamic calendar works But yes this also happens to be the last month Of the Islamic calendar And it's also the month in which Hajj happens In which we perform Hajj But I'm going to speak to Hajj In a little while I'm reminded of a verse in the Quran You know we talk about Ibadah We talk about worship And you know what makes our Ibadah so special Or what makes our worship so special There's a verse in the Quran Allah SWT says Know that there is no God but Allah The beginning of our journey is knowledge The beginning of and I'm going to mention a Hadith In regards to knowledge in a little while as well But the beginning of our journey is knowledge And our you know our If our knowledge That's why we ask Allah SWT Allahumma inna nasaluka ilman nafi'a O Allah grant me beneficial knowledge Beneficial knowledge is that which transforms into action Because after ilm there has to be amal Right after ilm there has to be amal If after ilm there is no amal Then that ilm is of no benefit to us People are all about knowing things Knowledge I got to know this I got to know this I want to study this I want to know about this But if none of that transforms into action Then our tradition doesn't refer to that ilm As ilm unnafi'a As beneficial knowledge Specifically sacred knowledge And after that That the fruit of both ilm and amal Happens to be lam'a Illumination This is what the ulama mentioned Right that after ilm and amal And it's interesting how all three letters are the same Though the root letters are not the same But the three letters are the same We have Which transforms into amal Which should then transform into illumination So that's what it's all about And the mercy of our Lord The mercy of Allah We're reminded of in a hadith of the Prophet Where the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam says It's a hadith qudsi If my servant draws near to me a hand span I draw near to him an arms length This is the mercy of Allah Allah says just turn a little to me I will turn to you more than you're turning to me And if this servant of mine draws near to me an arms length I draw near to him a fathoms length And whoever comes to me walking I go to that individual running And so that's all that's just these I share these traditions In a hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam As an encouragement Right an encouragement that do not underestimate the power of your fajr prayer in congregation Do not estimate the power of making sure that you pray on time And you know these are these are these are just the bare minimum If anyone simply fulfills the bare minimum The fara'il it's nothing to be proud of really Our tradition clearly reminds us There's nothing to be proud of like oh my god If you go beyond that and if you do more than that Then that's what we should be grateful for Not that pride is never right to begin with But we should be grateful for But the voluntary the extra actions that we do In addition to our obligations should not be taken lightly Because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala out of his immense mercy Blesses us with so much greatness Right during all the time But specifically during auspicious periods And the month of Dhul-Hijjah The first 10 days and nights of the month of Dhul-Hijjah Are definitely auspicious times Our journey Dhul-Hijjah We perform Hajj We perform Qurbani sacrifice A lot a lot of these actions of ours Come from a very specific individual Ibrahim alaihi salatu wa salam The bulk of the entire journey of Hajj Is you know simply doing the actions That Ibrahim alaihi salatu wa salam did That Allah love Ibrahim was known as the friend of Allah The Khalilullah Ibrahim alaihi salatu wa salam had a very special place With Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Allah refers to him in the Quran Ibrahim was like that of an entire community Because he single-handedly was able to establish that Which it would take an entire community to establish This was by the wisdom of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala We read and I don't want to go into the stories But we read the story of Ibrahim alaihi salatu wa salam May Allah's peace and blessings be with him in the Quran We read his stories in the Ahadith We read his stories in the history And for so long we've been reading these stories That all of a sudden it's almost like Yeah I already know that It's not about simply knowing But it's about reflecting Reflecting the story of Ibrahim And what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allowed to establish through him What was it that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala was allowed to establish through him Allah chose him And Allah can choose anyone at any time for anything It was his immense desire to find Allah That Allah knew that this person was a special person This person had concern This person had strength This person had courage This person was not worried about what others had to say Right He was one who spoke the truth He was one who did it with love respect and wisdom Right Love respect and wisdom He turns to his father And he was a young man He was a teenager Okay he was a teenager Ibrahim was a teenager when this incident occurred He goes to his father And he addresses his father in the most beautiful way possible And he tells his father why do you worship this In other words if we see an elder doing something blatantly wrong Then we have the permission as those that are young To remind them, request them, question them But to do it with adab Right Not put them on blast Right This in this day and age It's all about putting people on blast We're living in in cancel culture Those this though the same people that are so big on cancel culture Don't like it when their thoughts and their ideologies Happen to come under question Topic for another day But Right But Not putting He didn't put his father on blast I didn't put his father He very respectfully questioned his father Right And then subhanallah Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala facilitated for him a moment In which he was able to address the entire community Right He was able to address And this wasn't from a place of arrogance This wasn't from a place where he wanted to Be condescending This was from a place of concern This was from a place of worry This was from a place where he just couldn't fathom That people would be worshiping other than Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Right Worshiping other than Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala And the verses in the Qur'an are just so beautiful When he saw the stars He said this is my lord When he saw the moon He said this is my lord When he saw the sun He said this is my lord And in the end he realized that all of these things went away And none of these things could be worshiped None of these things could be something that happened to be the lord And that was his question to his community Right When he had the issue with the idols Right He said how can you worship something that is unable to protect themselves Right This was this was all about tawheed In fact, the historians mentioned that there was no one other than ibrahim Who would worship Allah on the entire face of the earth in that given moment at that given time In that given moment at that given time And so it's just something to to think about That he had this concern for his community And then and then the community decides to throw him into the fire And I again, I did promise I'm not going to go into the story But I just feel like I want to share just one one thing here You know, they say they collected the wood for the fire for months They collected in fact It's it's been narrated that People who would be sick People who would be sick They would make an oath with Allah And they would say oh Allah or not Allah sorry with their idols And they would say if you were to cure me I will collect wood for the fire You know how sometimes when we go through difficulty we we You know, we turn to Allah and say Allah if if this works out I'll I'll fast for three days or I will give so much money in charity or I will change some of my actions I will not do some of the evil that I'm doing if you help me out in this situation They say that people would actually take an oath and say that Um, you know, we will collect the wood for the fire the fire burned for 40 days But he had so much conviction in Allah that when he was being catapulted into the fire Can you imagine right this Ibrahim was a human being Ibrahim had feelings flesh The ability to see feel just like you and I can you imagine being in a place where you're in a catapult Right and while if you know at that point if someone says Say that so-and-so is God. Otherwise, we will kill you Islamically is permissible in that moment to say it while not believing in it with your heart But he wasn't worried about that Jibreel comes to him and says that um What can I do for you and he says I'm not I'm not I'm not I'm gonna I'm turning to Allah for assistance And what was Allah's response? Oh fire Allah addressed the fire and said become cool Interestingly enough the word after that is salam peace Right not so cold that he would freeze to death because not you know cold can be very very cold become a Good right a good cold A comfortable cold For Ibrahim. Khair and then the story Continues Allah refers to Ibrahim in this ayah his Right, he was fully devoted to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala and then Allah says Hanifa Right Hanif means to incline to be inclined to be inclined towards something Allah refers to him as Hanif one who was inclined towards Dawhi Right Again just that word Makes this question. What are we inclined towards? What is it that we were and what is it that we're always worried about? What is it that we're always thinking about? What is it that we are always? Um working to achieve Right, what what are our goals? Right, what are our goals? What keeps us awake at night when we wake up in the morning? Right, what is it that you know keeps us going? Right keeps us going Hanif His inclination was towards Allah Right Allah first Allah first before anything else now. This doesn't mean that we can't Take the means it simply means that always putting our trust in Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala and Part of this entire journey in fact, I'll Haji Allah radi Allahu anha He leaves her in the desert She turns to him and and she says oh ibrahim. Where are you going? Right. Oh my husband. Where are you going? He doesn't respond and in that moment some of the ulama mentioned that Ultimately he was a husband. He was a father And you know, maybe if he turned He would have seen the tears and the worry Right and that wouldn't that wouldn't have allowed him to obey the command of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala So he kept going she understood hajarah understood and asked oh ibrahim Is this the command of your lord? And he responds and says yes Look at the trust of this woman. She says Right if that happens to be the case Allah would not destroy us She makes and there's not a thing in the valley Not a thing Right and this is not a sandy desert. This is a rocky desert Right many of us have been to Mecca and Medina, Saudi Arabia. What do we see? We see a rocky desert Right extremely hot scorching heat in the afternoon. He's walking away Right, but she doesn't complain Right. She goes she now she attains means She goes from one hill to the other hill from one hill to the other hill Right. She made an effort The word effort in arabic is translated as Right, that's the literal translation of the word sa'i. She made an effort She put her trust in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala right she Both in in the story of ibrahim aleyhi salatu wa salam Right and in the story of hajarah radi allahu anha one of the greatest lessons we can take away is what? faqr Right faqr not faqr with a ha. I don't want people to get confused faqr with a cough Right extreme poverty extreme need right depend complete dependence On Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Not being independent of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala They didn't pull out a resume and say well, I got you know, I'm gonna put my trust in Allah But I got this this and this like in that moment. Ya Allah. I have nothing I own absolutely nothing. I have zero means. This is that's why the ulama remind us That when we happen to be in in a moment of extreme difficulty in that moment despite all your means And despite the sunnah and in fact requirement of attaining the means when we turn to Allah our turning to Allah Should be filled with extreme humility and the statement that oh Allah without you. I have absolutely nothing I don't have any means In fact, the means that I have are also given to me by you because if you take those away, I don't even have those means Right, that's why there was divine openings That's why when we read the stories of the prophets and we read the stories of the companions We find the extreme Humility when we read the story of the pious predecessors extreme humility Extreme faqr in front of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala enlightened them now enlightenment did not mean wealth Take us because many of us especially in this day and age We attribute success enlightenment to wealth like if you have money, you're successful if you don't have it You're not successful, but that's not the case Right and divine enlightenment divine openings. This is something that we I explained a few days ago Right Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when we when we go to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with faqr Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will receive us with gina with enrichment And that's one of the things we take away from this entire story in the month of Dhul-Hijjah So Dhul-Hijjah is about what? submission Ibrahim submitted Hajra submitted And no matter how difficult it was there was complete submission Right complete submission to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala now As I mentioned earlier and I do want to mention this Dhul-Hijjah happens to be a month in which people do Hajj The reality is the vast majority of the people in the face of this earth do not perform Hajj even every year So it's not just about Dhul-Hijjah is not just about Hajj There's still so much for people who are not going for Hajj to do I do want to mention one thing and I've mentioned this Three times yesterday and once the day before that and I'll mention it again There's a lot of people under the impression that Hajj Oh Hajj didn't happen this year and it's happening for a limited number of people this year Hajj actually happened last year It was for a far more limited number of people Hajj is happening this year as well. It just so happens that a lot of people who would like to who have intended to go for Hajj Are not going to be able to make it Part of our aqida is ridah bil qadr content with the decree of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala content with the decree of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Whenever Allah invites us to the sacred lands, right that is through his invitation And we are right. We are content with the decree of Allah and we submit to him And if Allah has not destined for us to be there, we are we still submit to him subhanahu wa ta'ala Right. The lesson is about submission You could go for all the Hajj in the world and not learn submission at all What's the point of Hajj then? I hope I'm making sense to you Yet at the same time Right, you may not be able to go for Hajj and at the same time Right, you are content with the decree of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala say yallah If you haven't facilitated for me to perform Hajj this year I'm content with your decree that brothers and sisters is submission our entire life Our entire journey is about submitting to the will of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala But with that said There are so many in fact There are so many who had intended to go for Hajj this year interestingly enough In fact, I think far more people wanted to go for Hajj this year than in previous years Because you know people just kind of felt like it's an obligation on me And I need to fulfill that obligation sooner than later because life has no guarantees one of the greatest lessons We have learned in the course of the last You know 12 to 14 months But there are A number of actions and I'm going to go through all of them from the hadith There are a number of actions that we can do That would attain us the reward of performing a Hajj, which is accepted with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Okay, which is accepted with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala And then I'm going to go into the specific acts of ibadah during the course of the month of dul hijjah And then we will end in about 10 minutes inshallah and then we'll open it up for Questions inshallah And the nebisal, this is a very famous hadith The nebisallahu aleyhi wasallam says Man sallal fajr afi jama'ateen Whosoever prays salat al fajr in congregation Thumma qaada yadkurullaha hatta tatlu'a shams Then that individual remains seated in the remembrance of Allah That's the Qur'an, whatever it may be until the sun has risen Thumma sallal raka'ateen And then this individual performs two rak'as It's as if that individual has the reward of a complete hajj and a complete umrah And then the nebisallahu wasallam says complete, complete, complete So awesome Like literally imagine going for fajr And remaining there until after sunrise praying to rak'as and coming home Right you get the reward of one hajj and one umrah Interestingly enough You know the the preference and this is you know a difference of opinion and a lot of people argue In the shafa'i school the preference to pray salat al fajr is closer to the beginning of the time of fajr when it's still dark In the hanafi school the preference for the time of fajr is Towards the end of the time of fajr Okay, now end doesn't mean last five minutes by the way Okay, the end doesn't even mean the last 10 minutes The vast majority of the ulama are of the opinion that fajr should begin about a half an hour prior To sunrise this is because the fajr prayer is generally slightly longer If one were to for for whatever reason come to the realization that their fajr they didn't have wudu They broke their wudu for some reason they need to repeat their fajr prayer They have enough time to attain tahara to make wudu come back and perform their fajr prayer with enough time that they're not risking Uh, it getting into after sunrise. So don't misunderstand this hadith But one of the benefits and so in the indian subcontinent india pakistan bangladesh We generally pray fajr Towards the latter time towards the you know the end of the time of fajr And in fact in many cases when we would pray fajr at the masjid in the latter time You know, there's people who i've heard some people say that. Oh my god It's bright outside already in other words They're so used to praying when it's extremely dark that they can't fathom that fajr can be prayed when it's slightly brighter Of course pre sunrise, but people cannot fathom that so one thing to keep in mind And now one of the benefits of that and this is something that I saw with my elders and my teachers You know growing up is that when they would go for fajr prayer They wouldn't leave after the fajr prayer right because once fajr prayer ended There was about 20 minutes to sunrise Okay, 20 minutes till sunrise and then waiting for another 10 minutes after sunrise as were required to do So they would remain seated after the fajr prayer for about a half an hour and use that half an hour To get in their awrad their azgar and their you know recitation of the quran And then pray to raqas and then come home and have tea now that brothers and sisters is a life goal You know people talk about goals in life, right? I want to be able to do this accomplish this You know buy a home here buy a certain car be at this certain specific place in my career and so on and so forth But there needs to come a point in our life When we are when we start becoming hanif Inclined towards Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and part of that inclination and part of that Getting closer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is getting into the habit of praying salat al fajr at the masjid Which means that yes, you may not be able to live in a larger home away from the masjid If you depending on where you live you may need to choose to move closer to the masjid The size of the home may not be as large the neighborhood may not be as You know, whatever it is But being able to make it to the masjid You know regularly easy to come for salat al fajr and not have to drive for so long just to make it for the fajr prayer Right being getting into the habit at some point in our lives and saying listen, you know Okay, enough is enough But you know my work is very important to me and I will continue doing the work that I do but But I would continue I would want to make it to the masjid for salat al fajr so that I can pray in congregation and be there There's certain Questions and I'll get to the questions in a little while and I'm seeing them coming in as well. So with that said Yes life goals life goals and I've seen my elders I've seen my elders do this and I've seen now. I'm not just talking about my teachers I'm also talking about just elders in the community and within my own family where I'm from That, you know, these were people who might not even have been extremely diligent about praying at some point in their lives But as they got older they had certain life goals and part of part of their life goals Was was to pray their salat at the masjid as frequently as they could and being there for fajr prayer every day And sitting until after sunrise. So I need to continue another another hadith The nabi aleyhi salatu was-salam says Man kharaja min baytihi whosoever Exits their home mutatah Hiram after making wudu in other words you make wudu at home and then you go to the masjid ila salat il maktubatin to attend the farth prayer Fajr hu kaajr il hadjil muhrimi that individuals reward as as if the reward of a haji in the state of ihram Just any regular prayer you go to the masjid you pray you come back You just got the reward of a haji in ihram Abu umamah radi allahu anhu neray said the prophet sallallahu aleyhi was-salam says whoever goes to the masjid For the purpose of learning or teaching knowledge receives the reward of a haji Kaajri hajin tamman hajjatu hu is as if the reward You get the reward of a haji one who has a perfect one whose hajj was perfect So we don't while hajj is an obligation Let's not forget that the reward of hajj can be attained in so many different ways Two more two more a hadith and then i'll move on the nabi aleyhi salatu was-salam says Man sabbaha allaha mi'ata mi'atan bil gadaati wa mi'atan bil ashiyya kana kaman hajja mi'ata marratan Who the individual who recites subhanallah a hundred times in the morning and subhanallah A hundred times in the evening is like the one who has performed a hajj 100 times In another hadith a sahabi anas radi allahu anhu says a man came to the prophet aleyhi salatu was-salam and says Ya rasuh allah i would like to go for jihad Wala akhiru aleyhi but i don't have the money i can't afford to go All the nabi aleyhi salatu was-salam says are any of your any of your parents alive the man responded and said yes Oh messenger of allah my mother is alive the nabi aleyhi salatu was-salam says show allah How you serve her fa'idha fa'alta dalika In other words be sincere be complete be perfect. Don't scold them. Don't get angry at them Right do it with love. Don't do it because it's a burden Don't do it simply because of the reward do it with love sincerity immense desire If you do so duly you will be like a hajji You will be like a mu'atamir one who has performed umrah and you will be like a mujahid one who fought in the path of Allah So all these actions our tasbihat Our looking after our parents our prayer and congregation Our going to the masjid to attain sacred knowledge all of these attain us the reward of hajj Now let's move on to There are three specific things that i'm going to be talking about number one Fasting some of the ulamas have mentioned that fast as much as you can in during the first nine days of dulyi Some would say fast all nine days if you can others would say fast as much as you can during the nine days But as far as the ninth of dulyi which is referred to as the day of Arafah Abu Qatada, radiAllahu anhu n-nir-raith that the prophet aleyhi salatu was-salam said fasting on the day of arafah is an Expiation for two years the year preceding it and the year following Brothers and sisters if I may ask all of us to make an intention That the day before eid and again whenever eid will be based on the siding of the crescent tonight In sha Allah in the next half an hour or so 40 minutes or so Based on the siding of the crescent tonight In sha Allah let us make all make the intention that We are going to fast the day before eid the day of arafah and fast on that day because Two years of sins are forgiven and if for whatever reason we are unable to fast women on menstruation People who are elderly people who are ill if you're not able to fast Then know that as long as you had your intention was there to fast Then your reward is with Allah Then we talked about ashura earlier the tenth of muharram Which is going to happen in a month and 10 days from now 40 days from now The nabi aleyhi salatu was-salam continues and says Fasting the day of ashura is an expiation for the year before it for the year preceding it Right the prophet aleyhi salatu was-salam says there is no day that Allah will free more people than the day of arafah Ali radiallahu anhu used to advise people to say oh, Allah free my neck from the fire on the day of arafah Make the day of arafah a day of goodness a day of happiness a day of blessings a day of sharing a day of caring a day of zikr A day of feeding a day of being you know just being overall gracious People around you should be on the day of arafah people should say oh my god. What happened to you today? Why can't you be like this every single day that is what arafah should be like right be a faqee Be a faqee Okay, be a faqee And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Sorry, and then we're reminded right that Allah loves the fuqara. Ya yuhannas, antumu al-fuqara'u ilallahu allahu al-gani al-hamid. Allah loves the fuqa. Allah loves the fuqa Fasting is one number two the takbirat In the hanafi school. It is wajib to recite the takbir For five days Beginning on the day of arafah the ninth of the hijjah the day before eid from salat al-fajr So all five prayers on the day of arafah all five prayers on the day of eid All five prayers on the day of the eleventh of the hijjah all five prayers on the twelfth of the hijjah And three prayers fajr asr fajr duhar al-asr until after asr on the Thirteenth of the hijjah right so for essentially almost five days In the hanafi school. It's wajib for both men and women to recite this takbir once after every fard prayer Be it a prayer you're doing alone or in congregation And the reason I I want to mention this is because so many of us are under the impression There's two mistakes that people make one people think well, there's a few people think that it's only for men and not for women People think that it has to be done three times Um, and not just once and some people think that it only needs to be done when you are at the masjid praying in congregation And not when you are praying alone. So let me clarify that again Right begins on the ninth of the hijjah the day before eid the day of arafa from fajr prayer 9 10 11 12 and 13th until uh the asr of the 13th Once after every fard prayer men and women Whether you are praying alone or in congregation And then that leads us to urbani sacrifice Why sacrifice? Why sacrifice ibrahim Was asked to sacrifice that which was most beloved to him It's a story like I mentioned earlier. We've read time and again and we've become desensitized. It's just a story imagine if One of us was commanded by Allah to sacrifice one of our children like really think about it, you know, we'd be like mm-hmm This religion is not for me I can't do this. You can ask me to do everything else But I ain't doing this it's time for me to walk away now Now ibrahim was a believer in Allah He received the revelation and put his trust in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. He saw advice from his son Son when they went for the sacrifice to minna His son laid down on his stomach and said oh my beloved father if you see my face Maybe right out of your love for me You may not be able to fulfill the command of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. I don't want that to happen I don't want you to be I don't want you to be amongst those who disobey Allah So I want you to make my sacrifice and in that moment Allah commanded the knife to not do its job And Allah sent down a ram from heaven. Allah loved ibrahim sacrifice The the willing to sacrifice his son so much for the sake of Allah that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala instituted That sacrifice as an act of ibadah for the entire umma until the day of judgment That's what sacrifice is about. It's not just about going online putting in your credit card number hitting click It's not my sacrifice like I've taken care of it. That's not what it was It was a lot more than that I bet it was a lot more than that That's what sacrifice is about Now I'll also mention one thing before I go into some of the rules Some people say oh my god, look at these Muslims, you know animal rights activists vegans Is someone asked me yesterday young man asked me is veganism allowed in Islam? Yeah, veganism is allowed in Islam But that doesn't mean you don't have to do corbani if corbani is wajib on you. You still have to do it You can choose not to consume the meat But you know the meat eating the meat of your own corbani or eating the meat of corbani An animal sacrifice and the path of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is an act of ibadah in and of itself Someone so people you know some people argue and say look at you Muslims, you know you kill You know tens of thousands of hundreds of thousands of animals every year And you know I would say I would have to say to that and say well I do it because my god commanded me to do so but I I want you well that question of yours warrants another question for you How come you don't bat an eye when corporations, right fast food corporations do that and then some In an extremely inhumane way For nothing but money But you don't bat an eye there Right far more animals are killed and sacrifice or I wouldn't say sacrifice, but killed Right on a daily basis Uh, you know the corporations that you don't bat an eye there yet you have you want to bat an eye to the Muslims So corbani If you have If you have uh, the Nisab Right now in this case, it's not about having having it for a year or not As long as you have the Nisab on the morning of Eid or even after that as long as the days of Eid the days of sacrifice You're required to sacrifice in the Hanafi in the Hanafi school. It's one animal one small animal per person small animal Of course means goat not chicken Or one share in a larger animal a cow camel or so on and so forth as I mentioned It's not a ritual. It's an act of ibadah It's sacred. It's from amongst the Sha'ir of our deen the signs of our deen Um, and it's this it requires for us to pull away from the mundane and to think about what this is all about The nabi aleyhi salatu was-salam says whoever has the ability to perform a sacrifice yet does not do it Fala yaqra musallana that individual should not even come near to our place of eid prayer We have no need for you go do whatever you have to but don't come here This is a requirement zaydeb no arqam radi allahu anhu narrates a sahaba asked the nabi aleyhi salatu was-salam said Ya Rasulallah, what is furbani the nabi aleyhi salatu was-salam said it's the way of sunnatu abikum ibrahim It's the sunnah of your father ibrahim They asked and said Ya Rasulallah if we do it like okay, we got to do it What do we get back and return the nabi aleyhi salatu was-salam says one reward for each hair They asked and said Ya Rasulallah, what if it doesn't have hair? What if it has wool? Then the nabi aleyhi salatu was-salam says one for each strand Ali radi allahu anhu narrates the nabi salallahu aleyhi was-salam said to fatima his daughter aleyhi's wife and says Oh fatima stand by your sacrifice When when the first drop of blood falls you've been forgiven And on the day of judgment all of this will be brought and put into a scale and multiplied by 70 times Abu Sa'id radi allahu anhu hears this and he says is this only He he heard this he says Ya Rasulallah Is this only for the family for the al muhammad or is it for the entire umma the nabi aleyhi salatu was-salam says This is for the entire That's why while it is just as important for us to make sure that we Um, you know, we look after the poor and needy when we do our sacrifices There's no harm in sending it overseas But one should also endeavor to make a sacrifice where they live as well Right if not possible every year then definitely, you know, once every few years Right if if you haven't done your own sacrifice Physically or been present while a friend of yours a brother of yours the imam of the masjid was doing it for you Okay Then I would say there's something wrong with that right. There's something inherently wrong with that We should be able to do our sacrifice as well Um, we are allowed Um, I want to close in the next five to seven minutes. We are allowed um To do it on behalf of our deceased relatives our relatives who are alive in other words if One member of the family chose to do it on behalf of everyone else Yajuz permissible and it's allowed Okay And this one person paid for everyone that would be allowed. I know I know relatives family members teachers Who do it on behalf of themselves who do it on behalf of their Parents who do it on behalf of their late parents late grandparents and so on and so forth Um, Ali radiallahu anhu came with two camels and he said this this is one for me and one for the prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam He says the nabi alaihi sallatu wasallam told me to do one on his behalf as a result of which I will never leave it out even after the passing of the nabi alaihi sallatu wasallam Which is why we find the pious predecessors the ulama They would do one for the nabi muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam as well. They wouldn't just do they would do one for themselves They would do one for the nabi alaihi sallatu wasallam the abu talha radiallahu anhu narrates that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam did The two korbanis he did one for himself and he did one for the entire umma In other words, if you were to choose to do one for the entire umma that would be permissible as well So be generous in your korban The nabi alaihi and and the preferred you can by the way if you do your sacrifice You can eat the meat from the entire goat. You don't have to share it with anyone though the preferred method It's not from the sunnah per se, but the preferred method is one third for yourself One third for your relatives and family And one third for the poor and needy. That's also another thing we do when we make a sacrifice We share it with the poor and needy around us. So always keep that in mind The more we the more we spend in the path of Allah The greater our reward is with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala the nabi again This is a not a requirement but a recommendation the nabi sallallahu alaihi wasallam says If the 10 days of dul hijjah began and one of you intends to do a sacrifice not like you physically doing your sacrifice But you are actually You know doing korbani this year whether you're physically doing it in your presence or it's being done for you Let that individual not remove anything from his hair or skin in other words Um, you know not cut your hair and not trim your nails to be similar to those who are performing hajj To be in a state of disheveledness. That's all but it's not a requirement It's just a preference. So these are just a few things I wanted to remind everyone of in regards to the hijjah I know many of you had questions. And so what I'm going to do is I'm gonna InshaAllah try to go through Some of the questions that are being so if you have any questions, please share them Um, and we will go from there. InshaAllah, please, you know Uh, there's uh the admin at the mcc east bay is monitoring your questions So please share them there and then we will move on Someone asked and said what is the best time to make dua? On the day of arafat the dua made during the last hour on arafat is most likely to be accepted Does this apply to those making hajj or everybody? That is So first of all, let me uh, let me clarify something Um The qiyam of arafah the wukuf of arafah Okay, the wukuf of arafah is between zawal and ghorub between zohar between the time of zohar and maghrib um Now to specifically say that the last hour within that time frame is the most auspicious time or time of acceptance is actually incorrect it just so happens that As the day is coming to an end when you are in arafah at hajj You know people's feelings are intensified The time is running out and people want to get in their requests or make that request again And it's that moment of you know sort of time crunch and we see everyone making dua But the same dua that the same the power of that dua whether it's done in the last hour of the day Or whether it's done in the first hour of the day in other words after zawal in arafah Absolutely and exactly the same as far as those who are not at hajj The day of arafah for us Extends from maghrib The night before until maghrib of the night So there's no time specifically of course the most preferred time is the last hour of the night And the last hour of the night for us would be the morning of the ninth of the hijjah Because the last hour of the night if you were to say the night of the ninth that would become the day of eid Which by the way is also a night of worship in ibadah, but I hope I Answered your your question Is it permitted to make multiple intentions for one act of ibadah according to the hanifi school of thought Making up a day of fasting for ramadan and fasting the day of arafah. No, it is not A makeup fast is an obligatory fast and intentions cannot be combined Whether it's the fast of shawwal whether it's the fast of arafah or anything else for that matter now Could you fast on on the day of arafah for the makeup of your ramadan? Yes, of course you can there's nothing stopping you from doing that But that would not be considered to be the fasting of arafah then A sister asked this question and I actually saw that question coming in Ken the reward you mentioned about the fajr prayer applied to females Because women are not required to go to the masjid. I want people to understand this I'm not saying women should not go to the masjid Right women can should go to the masjid, but because women are not required to go to the masjid If they prayed fajr at home not even in congregation And remain seated in their place of prayer until after sunrise and prayed to rakaz Yes, they would also get the reward of a complete complete complete umrah and hajj Someone asked and said Is there any virtues in doing good deeds during fajr on the day of eid al-adha? The Quran swears by the day of nahr Is the fajr prayer during eid al-adha a sacred time The time of fajr prayer on any day is a sacred time to say Specifically that is the time of fajr on the day of eid an auspicious time not necessarily Okay, so I mean it's auspicious like any other day one other thing. I want people to remember On the days of eid be they eid al-fitr or eid al-adha in the Hanafi school specifically The prayer to be prayed after sunrise is salat al-eid So to pray ishraq we call it ishraq in the indian subcontinent We call it salat al-duha in the arab world To pray salat al-duha or ishraq After sunrise on the day of eid is incorrect The prayer to be prayed after sunrise be it immediately after sunrise or an hour or two or three hours later is eid No ishraq no salat al-duha on eid Also When we go to the musalla of eid be it the masjid fairgrounds park whatever it is when we go to the musalla of eid There is no raka. There's no praying there. There's no praying other namaz other salah there other than salat al-eid I hope people understand that you find people coming to the musalla of eid. It's a blessed day. It's a mubarak day The the the program still hasn't begun and people end up, you know starting and praying two raka That is actually considered to be incorrect Um, historically in muslim lands eid al-adha was would be prayed immediately after sunrise because people would run for sacrifice Just as on the day of eid al-fitr it is preferred to eat something before we go for eid salah Right. Allah says for 29 or 30 days. I commanded you to not eat. You didn't eat today I command you to eat And we fulfill that command of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala by eating Similarly on the day of eid al-adha the preference is that a person does not eat anything until the meat They eat the meat of the urbani I would see the elders in my family my grandfather specifically and some of my teachers Who would go for the the eid prayer and in in in our ancestral village Salat al eid would happen immediately or soon after sunrise and we'd actually have to go out of town to pray Everyone went out of town. There's a specific musalla for eid. We'd only use it twice a year We called it we call it eid gah. Some of you may understand that term We would go there for eid and then my my grandfather would go to the graveyard while some of my cousins would then go home and Immediately sacrifice and immediately cook something by the time he came back from eid That would be his first meal of the day the meat of urbani I'm probably not possible. In fact, I was reading somewhere that in the maliki school The sunnah and the preferred thing to do is for the people to perform their urbani after the imam Okay, after the imam so in other words the imam better do his urbani really really quickly And that so that people can begin their urbani now We of course pray eid here in america in many places like you know 9 30 10 o'clock not that there's any harm in doing so But you know, these are probably people who are not doing their own urbani or may be doing it the next day You have three days to do urbani by the way the 10th 11th and 12th of There's another question I will be in the plane on the day before eid. It is is it permissible for me to fast It's an 11 hour flight. Yeah, it's permissible for you to fast and you can fast while you're traveling You know, I recall once and I've shared the story many times um Many times when I travel to the east coast from here. I fast in ramadan I don't I mean, you know, I I I prefer to fast in ramadan over not fast So when I'm traveling to the east coast, I'm fasting my fastest two or three hours shorter that day And then the next day when I'm flying back I still fast And california time. I may I may be making my support as early as 1 30 in the morning or two o'clock in the oil Not even two. Maybe around 1 30 in the morning Um, and by the time I break my fast at 8 30 at night in the summer months, you know, I have fasted For, you know, almost 19 hours. Um, you know, is it the end of the day? No, it's not, you know Do I survive I've survived until now? I recall once when I boarded a flight from new jersey new work new jersey to bombay In ramadan and I chose to fast. I broke my fast after boarding the flight Within an hour or two. I made my so full And you the time you calculate is the actual place that you happen to be in in the flight at that given time So naturally if you're traveling east your night is not going to be Five six hours. You're at your night is probably going to be three four hours because the plane is traveling east So I you know about an hour or so later. I had another sandwich and drink of water And then when I landed in bombay The flight was maybe 15 16 hours long when I landed before I landed in bombay The sun had already set and I made my thought against I actually made if thought of support and if thought on one flight Of course, I flew back in the month of ramadan as well. I chose I did not fast because you know, I was coming the other way Had I chosen to fast I would have probably fasted for maybe I don't know 40 hours by the time I got to california So of course a lot, you know, a lot does not a lot does not impose that kind of a difficulty on anyone I've been I've been told that there's no more questions um, so may Allah bless you all and Reward you all I did read a comment every year Sorry, I not every year. I did read a comment earlier for someone that said that you had, you know, someone had emailed me Whoever that individual was brother. I also have a life I just might not have gotten to my email yet And I will get to you at my convenience inshallah. I understand that it may be urgent for you But um, you know, whenever I get a chance, I will attempt to get back to you May Allah bless us all and reward us all may all of your um All of our Um And iid and urbani be easy blessed and accepted by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and may Allah allow all of us Who desire to go for hajj and umrah to the sacred lands may Allah take us Again and again and again and again As many times in fact more times than our heart desires and more times than we can ever imagine and may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to Be present soon inshallah in makkah in madina in minna in arafat in muzdalifah To fulfill the actions of hajj inshallah