 إن الحمد لله نحلده ونستعينه ونستغفره ونتوبه إليه ونعوذ بالله من شغور ينقصنا ومن سيئات عمالنا من يهله فلام إليه ومن بذل فلا هذهله وأشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وحده لا شبيك له وأشهد أن سيدنا محمدا عبده ورسوله يا إيوح الذين أملوا تقول الله حقا تقاتي حقا تقاتيه ولا تموتنا إلا وأنتم مسلمون يا إيوح الناس تقول ربكم الذي خضقكم من نفسه واحدة وخضق من حزوجها وبثلنهم رجانا كثيرا ونساءة والتقول الله الذي تساءلون به والأرحام إن الله كان عليكم رقيبة يا إيوح الذين أردوا تقول الله وقولوا قولا سديلا يصلح لكم عمالكم يوفي لكم ذو مبكم ومن قوتي الله ورسوله فقد فازا فوزا عظيما أما بعض فإن أصدق الهديث كتب الله وخير الحديث يوم محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم وشهر الأمور محدثاتها فكل محدثة البرع وكل بلعة بلالا وكل بلالة في الله الحمد لله الحمد لله الذي هدانا لهدى وما كنانا هترى اللولا أن حدان الله الحمد لله الذي أنزل على عبده الكتاب واللم جعله عواجا الحمد لله رب العلمين الحمد لله رب العلمين الحمد لله رمضان is an opportunity for us to draw close to our hearts to our hearts to our hearts to our hearts to our hearts to our hearts to our hearts to our hearts is an opportunity for us to draw close to Allah SWT and to just consider the nature of this opportunity let us consider the Hadith of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم صلى الله عليه وسلم صلى الله عليه وسلم فيما رويه عن ربه عز وجال أنه قال من عاللي وليا فقد عالجته بالحرم أنه who ever transgresses against one I have befriended and I declare war against transgressing party وما تقرب إليه عبده بشيء إن أحب إليه منما افترعته عليه ويجب أن أقرأ بأي شيء أكثر أحبه than the obligations I have imposed upon him or her. وَلَا يَتَقَرُبُ إِلَيَبْ إِنَّ وَاتِلْ حَتَّى أُحِبَّى وَإِنَّ يَقْرُبُ إِلَيَبْ إِلَيَبْ إِنَّ وَاتِلْ حَتَّى أُحِبَّى وَإِذَا عَدَبْتُهُ فَكُنتُ سَمْعَهُ اللَّهِ يَسْمَعُ بِيْهِ وَبَصَرُهُ اللَّهِ يُبْسِهُ بِيْهِ وَيَلُخُ اللَّهِ يَكْتِشُو بِيْهَا وَرِجْلَهُ اللَّهِ يَكْتِي بِيْهَا وَلَا إِنْسَا أَلَهِ إِنَّ الْرَاطِيَّدْنَا وَلَا إِنْسَ عَضَلِيْ دَرِيْ ذَنَّا So he says that the servant draws closely with nothing more beloved to me than the obligations I have imposed upon him or her. So reflect that Ramadan is the time of the year when we are specially diligent in pursuing our ordinary obligations of prayer. Zakat. Most people when they pray there is a cat. They are obligatory spending in Ramadan. And of course the obligatory fast occurs in Ramadan. So if the foundation of our drawing close to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala lies in the obligatory acts then there is no greater time than Ramadan. وَمَا تَكُرَّبَ إِلَيْ عَبْدِيْ بِشَيْئِنْ أَحَبَّ إِلَيَا مِنْ مَفْتَرَطُ وَعَلَيْ My servant does not draw close to me with anything more beloved than the obligations I have imposed upon him or her whatever the case might be. وَلَا يَزَادُوا عَبْدِيْ يَتَكُرَّبُ إِلَيَّ بِيْنَ وَاتِلْ حَبْتَرُ وُحِبَّةً And my servant continues to draw close to the voluntary acts until I love them. So what time does one do more voluntary acts than Ramadan? Ramadan we are reading the Quran. That's not an obligation. It's highly encouraged but it's not an absolute obligation. But in Ramadan everyone is reading one just towards the exact, every day, over and beyond their normal acts. Ramadan we pray the tarawih, the message is still for the tarawih. At least for the first apricot. So then it's half filled after that. But whatever the case Ramadan is the time people are praying these extra prayers. They're not praying them throughout the year. They're praying them in Ramadan. So if Allah is saying in this حديث قُدْسِي وَلَا يَزَادُوا عَبْدِيْ يَتَكُرْبُ إِلَيَّ بِنَّ وَاتِلْ حَتَرُ وُحِبَّةً My servant continues to draw close with me with the voluntary acts until I love him or her. Then what greater time than Ramadan? So from this we should be able to see that Ramadan is the greatest opportunity that we have to draw close to Allah SWT. So the Hadith starts out من عاد لي وليا Whoever transgresses against the willee are taken and willaya involves three things الكربة المحبة والكربة والنوات عفنة المحبة والكربة والخدمة It involves love It involves nearness And it involves service المحبة والكربة والخدمة So all of these are involved in willaya One of the keys to this willaya Besides the general things mentioned in the hadith The obligatory acts and the voluntary acts One of the poets he said بيتُ الولاية قصمت أركانه أركانها عفنة بيتُ الولاية قصمت أركانها ساداتنا فيه من الأبدال ما بينه سمطن واعتزان دائما والجُعُرُ وَسَّحُرٌ نَزِهُ الْغَالِ That the house of love and nearness and service to Allah SWT Its pillars have been divided now and delegated by our exemplary leaders from the spiritual elect of this ummah بيتُ الولاية قصمت أركانه ساداتنا فيه من الأبدال ما بينه سمطن silence واعتزان دائما And constant isolation والجُعُرُ وَسَّحُرٌ night vigil losing sleep وَمَزِهُ الْغَالِ And those who are able to undertake this these are the precious elevated, exalted members of this ummah but consider those four things the arcane as sums And Ramadan we're silent specifically in the latter part of the day we just don't have the energy to talk the people start monitoring their cause very carefully that I don't have the energy to talk in that one just don't accept but one who's conscious of the adab of the fast understand that fasting from excessive slanderous lying and other types of unacceptable speech is almost as important as fasting from one's food and drink as the Prophet ﷺ has reminded us من يدعم قول الزوري والعمل البي فليس لله الحاجة في أن يدعمه وشرادة the one who is at the need of fast speech speech involving those various categories we mentioned or fast actions والعمل البي meaning وعمل الزور for example what is عمل الزور so قول الزور is speech that is deceptive or misleading or false عمل الزور are actions that are misleading for example a person wears a turban of the rilladat and they're not an animal they're not a scholar that's عمل الزور والعمل البي that's an example of that so one who doesn't need fast speech and deceptive actions الله has no need that they leave off their food and their drink so leaving off speech that's false silences us lacking the energy to just be the chatterbox that we usually are that silences us so this is one of the keys to we lay مبينة سمطة where it is at and there in it and so رمضان is also a time of ارتكاء the sunnah of the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and رمضان is that he spent the last ten nights isolated in the masjid and so we should try to extend possible one or two days ten days if we can if one has vacation time the first use for that time should be ارتكاء not your sympathy or yellowstone because your sympathy is not going to immediately draw you close to Allah you might see the wonders of Allah's creation and that might impact your heart and draw you close but ارتكاء will definitely draw you close number one you're implementing a sunnah of the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and secondly you're giving yourself an opportunity to free yourselves from your habits when you're in a tent in the masjid your habitual activities can overcome you and one of the main or principle means of nearness also is breaking the habits of the nafs so they say مخالفة دوارك أفو المخالف دوهاوات opposing the inclination of your soul عيو دوارك is the essence of its cure so when we're making ارتكاء we're posing the we can't watch television which might be one of our adab one of our habits watch television you can't do that in ارتكاء we might spend eight hours on our phone opening and closing it a thousand times a day you can't do that when you're in ارتكاء and if you do make ارتكاء you should check your phone in at the office of the masjid or leave it with a family member don't bring it to you that's not ارتكاء that's engaging the habits check the phone at the door figuratively speaking so we break the habit of the nafs and we focus on Allah سبحانه وتعالى ما بينه سمتن وعطيزات ودعا and so وعطيزات ودعا they say in the beginning of a person's spiritual journey they enter into the خلوة ارتكاء or خلوة isolation for the ذكر Quran or رض at the end of the path دخل في الخلوة في بداة امره وفي اخره الخلوة ترخم فيه at the beginning of the path the aspirin enters into the خلوة at the end of the path the خلوة isolation enters into them in other words their hearts have been conditioned so that they can be in the midst of people and their heart is with Allah سبحانه وتعالى which is the objective so at the beginning they have to go into their isolation to be with Allah but at the end Allah is with them because their heart is always in a state of zikr and mindfulness with Allah سبحانه وتعالى where does that indictment will draw hunger naturally we're fasting so we're experiencing hunger and we're eating less especially as the month goes on we're eating less and less and less and as we become more spiritually motivated we don't even have the inclination need want to eat a few dates and eat a little bit and go back to the Quran make sure we get to the masjid for tarabi so these are all keys to willaya بيتوا الولادي قصة العركانة ساداتنا فيه من الابدال مبينة سبتن وعتزاد ودائم وجوروه هنجر فاستن وسهر we're doing tarabi we don't finish until 12 midnight so we're doing a night vigil we're losing sleep we go home we sleep 2.5-3 hours max we get up for so good so the sahar is there and so these are the things that render a person النزي اجزاعته النزي يعني فلان النزيه كريم بعيدا عن الربائد the fiery move تنزيه الله يعني هو بعيدا عن الاصافة بشرية he's exaughted above any human like characteristic as a wajad so نزيه الغالي this is the exaughted precious person and this is what Islam wants us to be we cheapen ourselves soon we chase all of these fads that undermine the dignity that Allah and His Prophet and Islam affords to us ان الله الجميل يحب الجمال the awesome of this Hadith clothing the Prophet ﷺ he was asked about a man in nice clothes nice shoes is that arrogant he said no arrogance is looking down and scorning people and then he concluded ان الله الجميل يحب الجمال الله is beautiful and loves beauty but that beauty transcends the clothing because at the end of the day الله loves the servant to be dignified and beautiful but what Allah considers is the beauty of the heart ان الله لا ينظرو إلى سواركم وانواركم الله لا ينظر إلى سواركم وانواركم وانواركم وانواركم وانواركم وانواركم وانواركم هذا ليس مهم with Allah some people have those things some people don't some people might be tall and muscular and physically attracted some people might be a little pudgy and maybe in the worldly terms they're not that attractive but if their heart is right they're beautiful because the noir from the heart shines on their faces you don't even notice their features or some so-called defectiveness in their features ولك ان ينظرو so Allah doesn't look at that Allah doesn't care if you're black or you're white so if you're the Aryan Superman or if you're the Asiatic black man like the nation of Islam used to say the king planet ruler of the planet the Asiatic black man or if you're the Aryan white man Allah doesn't care less it matters nothing with Allah and Allah doesn't look at your wealth Allah doesn't care about the size of your bank account Allah doesn't care if you don't have any money Allah doesn't look at your wealth إن الله لا ينظرو إلى سواركم وانواركم ولكن ينظرو إلى قلوبكم عملكم الله ينظر إلى قلوبكم وقلوبكم فالأسفل العالم الأولى هو أن يظهر على أعلى المقاومة وأن تأميه على كل ما يكوننا وأنه ينظر على كل ما يكوننا there will be noir on the face and the face will be beautiful إذا كانت قلوبة المقاومة the speech will be beautiful and the speech emulates from the heart so what's on the tongue وَجُرْ لَالْنِسَانُ وَعَلَى مَا فِرْفُؤَا دِدَلِينَا The tongue has been made as an indicator for what's in the heart. That's what Allah looks at. So if you spend a whole lot of time fixing yourself up, make sure everything is just right. Masha'Allah Masha'Allah You got it all at Macy's or Sakswift Avenue or North Strings or whoever. That's good if you have that money and you still pay your zakat. Go shop at Macy's. But it's everything just right. Fresh off the rack. No one else has one. You look for something that only had one in the store. Make sure no one else has it. Masha'Allah But if you don't spend more time making and more attention and more focus making sure your heart is beautiful. You're on the wrong track with your life. You're on the wrong track with your life. You make sure you're spending thousands of hours making sure you go to University of Phoenix to get your MBA so you can get a raise and a promotion and you go to this in-service and you go on to this special training course to help get your skills to get a better position and do you nothing wrong with that. You get a better position. You make more money. You make more money. You spend more than Macy's. Masha'Allah But if you're not spending as much or more time making sure you have a higher station with the law سبحانه وتعالى your life is on the wrong track. It's on the wrong track. Why? إِنَّ اللَّهِ لَا يَنْبُرُوا إِلَّا صُوَّرِكُمْ Allah doesn't care that your clothes come from Macy's وَأَمْوَالِكُمْ Allah doesn't care about the size of your bank account ولكن يَنْبُرُوا إِلَّا طُلُوبِكُمْ عَنَا لِكُمْ Allah looks at your hearts and your deeds. Learning your deeds. Perfecting your Salat. Memorizing more Quran. Perfecting Tajweed. These things should be part of our preoccupation as much as these other things are. So we're not saying leave the other things. We're saying make sure you're putting in the same kind of time for your deed and for the purification of your heart and your station elevating your station with the law سبحانه وتعالى. Just as you wanted to go from the stock room to the board room. Right? You want to go from the نفس الشهوانية بحيمية to the نفس التاملة. You want those kind of promotions. The شهوانية بحيمية لوامة ملهما مطمئنة راضية مرضية كاملة You want those promotions as much as you want from the stock room to the where the first floor to the stock court to the requisition officer to the manager of the requisition department to the supervisor of the division to the CEO so we want those promotions spiritually also otherwise our life is on the wrong track So anyway, so those are the keys to وصحر so we're praying Tartarali and three of these are captured in an assain of Imam and Ibrahim al-Nakhayee was one of the teachers of Abi Hanifa Tartaradi al-A'al قي سال إِنَّ مَا هَلَكَ مِنْ هَلَكُ وُقَبْلُهُمْ بِثَلَاتِ خِصَالِ فُدُولُ تَعَانِ وَفُدُولُ الْكَلَانِ وَفُدُولُ المَنَامِ that the people who were ruined before you they were ruined because of three things too much eating too much talking and too much sleeping So look at the beauty of Ramadan we eat less we talk less we sleep less That's from the beauty of Ramadan and that's from the keys of Lila'a So we pray that this Ramadan and all of our Ramadan are an opportunity for us to draw closer to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala an opportunity for us to have that qurban, that محب, that khimma that's involved in Lila'a Well, and Allah gives us Tawfiq in that I'll come and tell you this and I'll talk to you about this and I'll talk to you about this and I'll talk to you about this and I'll talk to you about this and I'll talk to you about this and I'll talk to you about this قول الله رب العالمين وصلات وسلام على سيد المسري سيدنا محمد على آله وصحه وسلم تسليم كثيرا إن الله ومالك تهوي سلم لان النبي ياقيه الذين آملوا صلوا عليه وسلم تسليم الله المصلي وسلم مبارك على سيدنا محبيبنا وكرت العنولنا محمد على آله وصحه وسلم تسليم كثيرا الحمد لله هذا هو ما يصدق أشخاص مجموعة أشخاص مجموعة بقية لفتحة أشخاص مجموعة بقية لفتحة لأسف حدوث حدوث لا يوجد إتصال لأسف حدوث لدينا هذه أسف حدوث لأسف حدوث المجموعة يوجد مجموعة في سوبيا ولكن مجموعة ليس كذلك حدوث كتبا ليس كذلك لم يوجد حدوث لم يوجد حدوث شيئا شيئا أين يوجد أمونيس شيئا أين أمونيس شيئا أين يوجد أمونيس شيئا في الناس التي لا يوجد فندي كلها يوجد ايجو سنة يشعرون بهم يحاولون بهم كل شيء يخبرهم لكي يكونوا أو يكونون فهي يكونون بشكل كبير 6 سنة 300 سنة بشكل كبير أعتقد أنه يومي فهي يومي ويضعه على المدرس وإذا كنت ترى مرحباً للمساعدة لإنسانسيديو ماذا هو فتاة الناس مثل هذا؟ أنا لا أحاول أن أكون مرحباً أنا أحاول أن أسأل فتاة ماذا هو فتاة الناس where that becomes is a modus operandi that's the functioning principle operates on everyone just do what you want do what you feel like doing exercise no restraint not even the principle don't do any harm that's not even operative anymore if you hurt others too bad increasingly what is the fate of that nation it will soon follow the Soviet Union so I'm not saying this out of ridicule I'm saying this out of concern I'm saying this out of concern what is the fate of a nation that becomes so greedy and obsessed with material gain that it will destroy other nations to get that material gain and it will turn a blind eye to suffering of innocent people what is the fate of a nation it's not going to endure because nations are built on a moral foundation not a material foundation as Ahmed Shalki the Egyptian poet mentioned إن من أمهم أخلاقوا مابقية وإنهموا ذهبوا أخلاقهم ذهبوا when their moral foundation goes they will soon follow and so a nation or a community that builds itself on morality that builds itself on a desire for humans of purification spiritual elevation that's a community that will endure and that's how this Ummah has endured think of all of the political regimes that have come in God while this Ummah or even Christianity or any religion has endured because it's rooted on foundation ethical and moral foundations that aren't amenable to compromise and this is why some Muslims' dollars are so concerned with the attractiveness of liberalism for our young Muslims because it leads to moral compromises so you find young Muslims saying things people in this Ummah have never said this or that thing that the Ummah has held to be haram for 1400 years it's okay why are you hating on people live and let live this is a threat to the future of five million of this Ummah because religion is not amenable to moral compromises it's foundation founded on moral servitude it believes in capital T truth and when our young people are talking about there's only small T truth all truth is relative to your truth this is my truth I just have that Muslim truth and you have devil worship truth but it's all good it's not all good in the shaitanah in the shaitanah it came out of the adhu I don't know who I do that in the hulaqum adhu I don't know who I mean Satan's an open enemy to you so how could devil worship be all good big brothers and sisters we have to draw a line and we have to be in consideration for people stillings and system but we draw the line and we hold the line or else we just surrender and capitulate because we'll be just like the Soviet Union or just like communist China or just like the Khmer Rouge or just like all of these African nationalist regimes that came up and they went this movement or that movement and we'll cover out of Khromian Khoma or Jomo Kenyatta or Julius Nyeri or this one all have the different twist on African socialism where is it today and what is it done for Africa it's made of mess may Allah give us the foundation and the fortitude and the vision and the insight to reform things and to place these in order and to undo the harms that our human hands have done ذحر الفسان فالبرمي والبحي بما كسبت ايطين الناس ليوذيقون بعضا لدي عملوا لعلنا كوربشن as appeared on the land and sea based on what human hands have brought about we give them a taste of the consequence of their destructiveness in order that they may return to the path of divine guidance so may Allah bless us to stay on the path of divine guidance to stay on that path و يمنعوب المسلمين والمسلماء و قومبينين والمؤمناء ن경 لأحياء منهم ولا مواتر ربنا لا تزِكُ لوبنا بعد فادتنا و حبنا من اللظوقة رحمة انك أنتا الوحاب ربنا افرغ علينا الصبر و افتب اقبامنا و نصورنا shall be our victor ربنا افرغ علينا الصبر و افتب اقبامنا و توافنا مسلمين و عفو عننا و أفرح لنا و رحمنا اهما اننا نعود بك من الهنم والحزن ونعود بك من العز والكسل ونعود بك من الجبن والبخل ونعود بك من غرب تدان مقهر الرجال اللهم اقسم لنا من خشاف كما نعود به بيننا وبين معاصك من منطعتك ما تبلغنا بها جنة ومن يقيم ما يهوين علينا ما صاحب الدنيا بسماعنا وقصارنا وقواتنا ما حجيتنا وجعله الوارلة مننا وجعل تقرنا على ما ظالمنا ونصرنا على ما نعدانا ولا تجعل مصيبتنا في ديننا ولا تجعل الدنيا أكبر رحمنا ولا مبلغ عمنا ولا تصلط علينا بجنوبنا من لا يخافك ولا يرحمنا يا أحمر الراحن وعرفوا عننا ووف يبانا ورحمنا أن تدرلانا فأو نصرنا على القلوم الكاتري اللهم نصر المسلمين في كل مكان اللهم نصر المسلمين في كل زمان اللهم نصر يخانينا المسلمين في فلسطين وفي الشام في العراق في غالستان في الهند الغالط في برما في كل مكان يا الله لا نصرنا في هذا البالغ اللهم نصرنا في هذا البالغ اللهم نصرنا في هذا البالغ وتخذل مننا زدنا ولا تنكسنا اللهم تخذل مننا ما قدمنا إليك بشافك رمضان من الصلاة والصيام والقيام والزكات فراتي دارتي كتابك العزيز ورمبرك لنا فيما بقيم شهر رمضان وانت مولانا فأو نصرنا على القلوم الكاتري سبحان ربك رب العزة عما يقصفون وسلام علي المسلمين والحمل رب العالمين أكمل الصلاة يا أحمد الله