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Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Alhamdulillahirrabbilalameen. Wa salatu wa salamu ala sharifil anbiya wal mursaleen. Muhammadur Rasulullah ﷺ, wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam. Dasliman kathirin kathirin.
From my Wadu, my brothers and sisters,
Alhamdulillah, when we think of virtue, when we think of doing something good,
we think of events, or we think of specific, special times of the year.
For example, when we think about Ibadah, about the worship of Allah ﷻ, immediately the thought comes of Ramadan.
We say, well, you know, when Ramadan comes, this is what I will do. Of course, I will fast. But in addition to fasting, I will read more Quran. And in addition to fasting, I will make Yathikaf in the last ten nights of Ramadan, and so on. And then we think about, I have not been for Umrah, or I haven’t been for Umrah in a couple of years, so I will go for Umrah. Or I have not done Hajj, and that is a fard, ayin.
And I will be more comfortable during Ramadan than during Ramadan. And I will be more comfortable during Ramadan than during Ramadan. And I will be more comfortable during Ramadan than during Ramadan. And I will be more comfortable during Ramadan than during Ramadan.
Doing good, we equate virtue with specific times of the year, or specific events, or specific places. But the great secret of success is not these kinds of things. Obviously, there is nothing wrong in making a Thaqaf in Ramadan; we should do all these things. But the secret of success is in what you do on a daily basis, every single day. What you do from the time you wake up in the morning to the time you go to bed. So as an exercise, what I will request you to do is
take a piece of paper and sit down peacefully, and write down what you do from the moment you open your eyes in the morning.
So what time do you wake up? And so the minute you wake up, what do you do? And write it all down. And then see what you have there. Because this is your real asset. The real asset is what you are doing on a daily basis. I’ll come back to this in a minute.
But just to give you an idea, there is a beautiful story in the Sira of two Sahaba, Ridhwanand Rai and Rahim Jain,
who accepted Islam on the same day. And then some years later, one of them was killed, he was Shaheed in one of their battles. And the year after that, the other person, he died of natural causes. He did not get killed in a battle, he was not raised again. Not Shaheed, he died of natural causes. Now one other person who was a friend of these two, he came to Rasulullah ﷺ. After Sadaatul Fajr, Rasulullah ﷺ would sit there and sometimes he would ask people if they had seen a dream, if they needed some dream to be interpreted or so, or otherwise he would speak something, khatira, and based on that itself we started this Fajr Implanted series many years ago alhamdulillah. So this person who was a friend of these two, he said to Rasulullah ﷺ, he said Ya Rasulullah, I had a dream last night and in the dream I saw these two brothers and friends of mine who had a dream. And I saw one who had accepted Islam on the same day and then one of them so and so died as a Shaheed, InshaAllah, in this battle and the second one died of natural causes one year later. But in my dream I saw the second one going into Jannah before the first one.
He saw the one who was not Shaheed going into Jannah before the first one.
Now this does not decrease from the virtue of the one who was Shaheed, but this is the dream he saw. So he said to Rasulullah ﷺ, he said Ya Rasulullah, please can you explain this, how is it possible? This is my dream. So the first thing I want to also emphasize here because since we are talking about dreams, a dream is not something that is exact. A dream is not something that if you saw it in the dream then that is exact. It is not exactly how the thing actually happened or is happening or will happen. But Alhamdulillah, the dreams of the Salaheen, the dreams of the people of Allah ﷻ, the good people, they have significance. So he asked this question. So Rasulullah ﷺ said to him, why are you surprised? He said, did this man, the second one, he said did he not have the dream of Allahﷻ? Did he not have one additional year in which to do good deeds? Did he not have one additional Ramadan in which to please Allahﷻ? Did he not have the first ten days and nights of the Lajj? Did he not have, and he mentioned to him, did he say did he not make Amarah? Did he not make one more Hajj? And so on. So why are you surprised?
Now, if you see the focus of this, Rasulullah ﷺ is referring to, not to some special event or some special event based thing. He is saying that his routine, this other person who died a year later, he said his routine was such that one year worth of those deeds gave him the position before Allahﷻ that he had. Second, consider to get to the seerah. The longer it takes to be comfortable and comfortable to be comfortable and comfortable to be comfortable and comfortable to be comfortable and comfortable to be comfortable comfortable to be comfortable comfortable comfortable virtuous woman and she worships Allah all night, every day. Every night she worships Allah all night.
Rasool Allah said to her, tell your friend that she will get tired of worshipping Allah, but Allah will not get tired of that. So it is better for her and Allah likes it that you do
something and even if it is small, some act of worship, even if it is small that you do it consistently throughout your life. So obviously if you are going to pray tahajjud, alhamdulillah, this you can do all your life. But if you’re going to make Salah the whole night then this is not something you can do all your life. This is something you can do you know for a few days maybe then you get exhausted. So instead of that Rasulullah said, do something but do it consistently. Once you start something good, don’t leave it.
So to come back to where I asked you to write down, take stock, and say what am I doing today. So from the moment you wake up, as soon as you open your eyes, what do you do? What you should do is to say, Ashadu an la ilaha illallah, wahadahu la sharika lahu, wa ashadu anna muhammadin abduhu wa rasuluh. Right? Recite the kalima. As soon as you open your eyes, recite the kalima. Make this into a habit that becomes almost automatic. So inshaAllah, when the malaika wake us up in our graves, we will open our eyes and we will say, Ashadu an la ilaha illallah, wa ashadu anna muhammadin rasulullah. And automatically this is tasdik. And this is proof that inshaAllah, we died as Muslims. So as soon as you open your eyes. And then go make wudu and pray tahajjud. Pray two rakat at least of tahajjud. And then read one juz of Quran, inshaAllah. One juz of Quran, one zipa. And then go to the masjid for salatul fajr. And after you finish salatil fajr by jamaah, sit where you are praying and that’s it. It doesn’t mean exactly the same spot. If you need to get up and sit on a chair or something, do that. But stay there until the time of Israq. And Israq comes in around 15 or 20 minutes after the time of Fajr is over. After Tulu, after Sun Sunrise starts. So because praying during the Sunrise is haram. It’s not permissible. So 15-20 minutes during that period don’t chit chat, don’t look at your phone, don’t surf the net. Just sit there and make dhikr of Allah’s Mahanuddin.
So if you are, for example, before Salatul Fajr you should finish one Yusuf Quran. If you could not do that, then finish it then, when you are sitting after Salatul Fajr. And then you must, once you finish that, then make dhikr. And among the adhkar which are recommended is to say Subhanallah a hundred times, Alhamdulillah a hundred times, Allah Akbar a hundred times, La ilaha illallah one hundred times, and then La hawla wa la quwwata illa billah one hundred times. Now one way to do that is also to say Subhanallah wa Alhamdulillah wa La ilaha illallah. Subhanallah wa la quwwata illa billah one hundred times again and again again and again again and again again and again and Salam on Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Allahumma salli ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala alihi Muhammadin wa barik salim. Or whichever durood you want to say, durood Ibrahimi, which we do in Salah, Alhamdulillah. So do this 100 times. Inshallah, you’ll be able to finish all of this before you pray Israq. And then you pray two rakat and two rakat. So totally four rakat.
Israq and Salatul Dhuha. If it’s prayed later, it’s called Salatul Dhuha.
So Israq you pray two rakat and two rakat. And Rasulullah ﷺ said, the one who does this, which is prays Salatul Fajr and then stays in the masjid
until the sun rises, which is time of Israq. And he prays two rakat and two rakat. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala will give him the reward of one hajj and one umrah. Now imagine, if you do this on a daily basis, Alhamdulillah. You wake up with the kalima on your tongue. You pray two rakat of tahajjud. And the reward of tahajjud, Allah said,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala said, these are those people, and he’s praising those who pray tahajjud. He said, these are those people who wake up from their sides in the night and stand before Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala between fear of Allah’s punishment and hope for his reward. That is the position of the Muslim. They stand there and beg Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala to forgive them and they ask Allah what they want to ask him. And Allah promised to give, Allah promised to accept all the du’as that people make in tahajjud. I always say, if you say I want something really, I wish for something really, and you’re not praying tahajjud, then you don’t wish for that. Simple as that. If you are serious, then why are you not praying tahajjud? So, this is the reward for tahajjud.
So you did that, and then you prayed salatul fajr by jama’at. The reward for that, just the two rakat of sunnah of salatul fajr, Rasulullah ﷺ said, if Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala turned the sky into a bowl and filled it with reward, it would overflow. It would overflow. Just the reward of two rakat of sunnah. So imagine the reward of fard, and imagine the reward of that by jama’at, which is 27 times the reward. Right? And then, you stayed in the masjid, and you made zikr of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala. So Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala gave you the reward of just staying in the masjid itself, which is ibadah. And then the reward of whatever you recited and whatever you did. And then you prayed
ishraq, two rakat, two, plus two rakat, so four, in two rakat units. And Allah gave you a reward of one hajj and one umrah. And your day has not even started. Your day is starting now. The day is starting now. Before that day starts, you accumulated all of this. And this you are doing on a daily basis for the whole of your life. Imagine what kind of
virtues you have managed to accumulate. Just by routine work, every day, the mahmur, every day the routine is such that it’s a routine which gathers this huge worship. You don’t have to wait for Rabadar and Dhul Hijjah and Hajj and Umrah and this. Don’t wait for anything. Your daily thing which you do.
Similarly, you get into a car, you get onto your bike or whatever you’re driving, what is the first thing you do? Do you say the Dua of Safar? Or you just get on like an animal? And start driving?
Simple things, right? You sit down to eat your meal. Do you go wash your hands? And then when you sit down, do you say Bismillah? And do you make the Dua of eating? And when you finish the meal, do you thank Allahﷻ?
And you make the Dua of, which is after the food? Every single day, As-Salaamu Alaikum, life, if you say, you know, that historical moment, the book of, a little book of a compilation of all the Dua’s, may Allah bless the one who did it. There are Dua’s Rasool Allah used to make Dua for every single action of his life. He went to the toilet, he made a Dua getting into, going into the toilet, he made a Dua coming back out of the toilet. Everything. And this is what we must try and inculcate. Routine way, routine units of virtue. Not event-based. Right? The five Salawat, the five Fard prayers, that Allah has made Fard on us. This is the biggest, this is the most huge virtue that you can ever imagine. There is nothing which is bigger and which is more beneficial than the five Fard Salawat, the As-Salaam, the Rasool Allah, which is the best deed that I can do.
And the Prophet said, As-Sala’a Ala Waqtihah. He said the Salatul Fard. He said the Fard Salat at its time. That is the best action that you can do at that time. So we ask Allah to help us to develop these positive routines, which InshaAllah will help us more than anything else that we can do. All the rest of it is bonus. It’s all the rest of it is good, Alhamdulillah, do it. But the daily routine, this is the secret. Of InshaAllah getting the pleasure of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala. And we ask Allah for His forgiveness and for Jannah. Wa Sallallahu Ala Nabeel Karim Wa Ala Alihi Wa Sahbihi Al-Mahim Bi Rahmatul Kareem Al Raheem