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My brother and sister, this is just a quick one to remind us to prepare for Ramadan. Allah SWT Jalla Jallalahu mentioned this month and He told us that He sent this month for a purpose. He said, Allah said, I have sent this Ramadan month. We have prescribed fasting upon you as we have prescribed fasting for people before you so that you may become Muttakoon. To have Taqwa is to have the concern continuously 24×7 for the pleasure of Allah SWT. To be concerned about Allah SWT’s pleasure, to ensure that we do not do anything to encourage His displeasure. And therefore we must be very careful that that’s the reason why I decided to say this ayat, to continuously monitor ourselves and say am I becoming a Muttakoon or not? The Ibadah in Islam, the prescribed worship in Islam of all the things which are prescribed are not to be done, they are not for their own sake. Each one has a reason for the reason why it’s prescribed and each one has something that it brings with us. There is a benefit from that and we must therefore monitor ourselves to see whether these Ibadahs, whether we are getting this benefit for which they are designed. For example, for Salah, Allah SWT said, Allah said the Salah separates the person from all disobedience and all shameless things. So if I am praying five times a day, I must monitor myself and see am I being separated from Fawshat and Munkarat because if my life is still full of things which are prohibited, then there is something wrong with my Salah. I need to improve my Salah because this is what the Salah is supposed to do. About the siam, about fasting, Allah said, Allah said we have sent this fasting and prescribed it so that you become Muttakoon, so that you become people of Taqwa. So when I am in the month of Ramadan, especially of course this will be done throughout the year, but Ramadan comes as a reminder for us. So in Ramadan, I must question myself and say as a result of Ramadan, is my Taqwa improving or not? Monitor ourselves on a daily basis. Am I more concerned about the pleasure of Allah SWT than I used to be? Am I making more is the far? Am I more conscious of the mistakes that I make and I seek not to make the mistakes? And if I make the mistake, do I seek to make amends? Do I seek protection from Allah SWT for this? What am I doing? I think all of these things we must be conscious of and we must monitor ourselves. Now, Ramadan is a month that we need to thank Allah SWT for greatly because of the following Fadha’il of Ramadan. These are the following benefits of Ramadan. First of all, it is the month which is the Nuzul of the Quran. Allah SWT said, Allah SWT said in the Quran. Secondly, the reward for Fardh Ibadat and anything which is far, the reward is increased 70 times. So if you are praying Salatul Fajr, you are getting 70 times the reward and so on. And therefore, I must consciously increase the amount of, be conscious more of the Farai that I am doing. So the reward for Fardh is increased 70 times. The reward for Nawafil is equal to that of Fardh. This is something therefore we must increase our Nawafil. Increase the, you know, pray Tahajjud regularly, increase Nawafil Salat, increase the reading of Faham more and more, Zikr, all of these things we must increase continuously and consciously. Then, the gates of Jannah are opened and the gates of Jahandam are shut. So this is a very, you know, it’s a very big blessing that Allah SWT has given us that in this month, Allah shuts the gate, opens the gates of Jannah and shuts the gate of Jahannam and the Shaitid are chained. Laylatu qadr, Allah gave us in this month, khayrun min al-fishar, Allah said the reward of this is more than that of the worship of 1000 months which is equal to about 83 years. So imagine one Laylatu qadr you get, you have got the reward of a lifetime of worship. And this means continuous worship for 1000 months which we couldn’t even have done even if we had wanted to. And finally, very important to remember the acceptance of dua at Suhoor and Iftah. Don’t waste that time in chit chatting, in, you know, watching your head in your phone. Forget about the phone and so on. Worship Allah SWT, make lots and lots and lots of dua. We need dua very, very strongly and very badly. Also don’t get those of you who have servants or those of you, the people in the house who are cooking, the ladies and so on. Please don’t put burden on them to spend that time instead of dua in cooking stuff for you. And you know, I like this samosa and I like this pakora. No, help yourself and be muhtat, be content with what there is and let them, leave them alone. Give them time to pray, give them time to make dua. And then also thank Allah SWT very much for another Ramadan. Remember those friends of ours and those relatives of ours who were with us in last Ramadan. This year they are no longer with us. Think about that. Did they know that last Ramadan was going to be that last Ramadan? They didn’t know that. You and I don’t know whether this Ramadan will be our last Ramadan. So treat the Ramadan as if it is our last because one Ramadan will be our last. And we won’t know which one it is. So the best thing to do is to treat every Ramadan as if it is the last. Now how do we prepare for Ramadan? What to do? One and first and foremost is sincere repentance. Allah SWT said, وَطُوُوا إِلَى اللَّهِ جَمِيعًا أَيُّهَا الْمُؤْمِنُونَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِهُونَ Allah SWT said in Surat An-Nur, And all of you beg Allah to forgive you, O believers, that you may be successful. All of you beg Allah to forgive you so that you may be successful. And Allah SWT guided us in this. So made lots and lots of dua that Allah SWT should help us. And Allah SWT should forgive us. Then it is narrated from Ibn Yasir. He said that Rasulullah SAW said, O people, I make repentance. I make istighfar to Allah SWT. Repent to Allah. He said repent to Allah because I repent 100 times each day. Now imagine this is what Rasulullah SAW is doing. So how much should we be doing? Try to do as much of istighfar as possible. Because two things that cool the angle of Allah SWT is, one is istighfar and the other one is charity. So increase your charity, lots of charity. How to prepare? Make dua. It is narrated from some of the salaf that they used to pray to Allah SWT for six months to give them life until they meet Ramadan. And then they would pray for five months after that, that Allah should accept this Ramadan from them. So Ramadan is a very special time. Let us treat it in a very special way. Second thing is to rejoice at the approach of this blessed month because of all the blessings of this month which I have already listed for you. We ask Allah SWT, we thank Allah SWT for the Ramadan, which is one of the greatest blessings that Allah has given us. Then Allah SWT said, Allah SWT said, Allah SWT said, Now appreciate the value of Ramadan. Think about this, if someone gave you a very expensive gift, very valuable gift, how happy you would be. Allah is giving us Ramadan which is a million, I mean I am just using this word thousand times, million times. It doesn’t mean that, I don’t mean that literally because we cannot even estimate, we cannot count and we cannot compare the value of Ramadan compared to any material gift we get. Because the biggest value of Ramadan is, Ramadan is for the dunya and the akhirah, whereas the material gift stays back with it. If someone gives me a billion dollars and I die the next day, that million dollars is going to stay here. If Allah gives me Ramadan and I die in Ramadan, I go to Jannah inshallah, because the doors of Jannah are open and the doors of Jannah are shut. And if Allah gives me death with Iman in Ramadan, I am inshallah, I go to Jannah surely. So what is the comparison between the two things? So very important for us to understand this and to thank Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala for Ramadan in good health and Iman and I ask this for all of you that Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala should grant you Ramadan-ul-Karim in good health and Iman and accept all your duas. Now how to prepare? The first and most important thing is to make up any outstanding fast. We are now towards the tail end of, we are now towards the tail end of Sha’ban. So use these days to fast and make up any of your khadafas. It was narrated that Abu Sarwa said, I heard Aisha Siddiqar say that I would owe fasts from the previous Ramadan and I would not be able to make them up except in Sha’ban. Now this is in Bukhari Muslim, Al-Hafiz ibn Hajar, rahmatullahi alayhi, in Fatal Bari, he said, from her keenness to do that in Sha’ban, it may be understood that it is not permissible to delay making them up until Ramadan, until another Ramadan begins. Which means if there are any khadafas, then finish them before the Ramadan, don’t carry them over into the next year following this Ramadan. Then how to prepare? Very important, seek knowledge in order to be able to follow the rulings of fasting. So speak to all of my, watch videos, today Ardhira knowledge is everywhere. So let us go and find that out and see, this also increases the show of the joy of getting Ramadan. The second thing is, here is to finish off everything so you are freed for Ramadan. Consider that time to be a great asset and don’t squander it. Third word is to sit with your family members, wife, children, husband, to tell them of the rewards of fasting and encourage the young ones to fast. No need to force them, but encourage them, they can fast for a part of the day, they don’t have to fast for the whole day. But get this into their system that they should start fasting so that as soon as they attend puberty, when fasting becomes far gone them, that they never miss a miss of fast in their whole lives. And if you start them off early, then they would have been fasting the full month even long before they enter puberty. So it’s very important to do that. Fast in some of the month of Shaban, those of you who have already been fasting until now, may all power to you, may Allah accept your fasting. Those who have not been fasting, start doing it now. And then read as much Quran as you can and try to increase the amount of Quran you read. Take some fast from social media also, you know, shut your phones down, sit down, just make bigger, connect with Allah, so you know that. Connecting with the whole world, there’s nothing that’s going to happen. All the forwards we said here and there, nothing on the ground changes. Understand that you’re wasting your time and you’re wasting the time of the one that you are forwarding that stuff to. Please don’t forward stuff. Please do not forward it. It serves no purpose. It’s just a waste of your time and other people’s time. Instead of that, make God to Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala because Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala can change the destiny of people. And we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala to relieve us from this suffering. Finally, fasting and Shaban. It is narrated that Aisha Siddique al-Adha al-A’rha said, I never saw Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam complete a month of fasting except Ramadan and I never saw him fast more in any month than in Shaban. And this is in Bukhari and Muslim. And it was narrated that Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said, I said, I asked Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, Ya Rasulullah, I do not see you fasting in any month as you fast in Shaban. He said, there is a month that people neglect. There is a month between Rajab and Naudar that people neglect and that is the month of Shaban. But that is a month in which people’s deeds are taken up to Rabbul Alameen. I would like my deeds to be taken up when I am fasting and this is in An-Nasaik. I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala to accept this month from us. I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala to help us to lead this life in a way that is pleasing to Him and to lead this, to be in Ramadan in a way that is pleasing to Him. I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala jalla jalaluhu to be pleased with all of you. I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala to save us from ourselves, from our nufos, from the wasawis of shaitar. I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala jalla jalaluhu to help us to do that which is pleasing to Him and to save us from that which does not please Him. Wasalallahu ala nabiyyil kareem wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa jma’in bi rahmatikai yawm al rahimi Ramadan kareem and Ramadan Mubarak to you in advance, insha’Allah. I request you for special dua for me as well. Wasalallahu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.
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