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In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise belongs to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds. Peace and blessings be upon the most honorable prophets and messengers. Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him and upon his family. He is the most merciful and merciful. I remind myself and you, my brothers and sisters, this month has come as a month of mercy and a month of guidance. Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawzi and Ibn Jawzi, they said that anytime you feel lazy in Ramadan to worship Allah, remind yourself that it is a numbered period, number of days. Allah the Almighty said, Ayyama ma’du daat, the days are numbered. So if I am lazy, the time doesn’t stop. And once the time has gone, the leverage with that time also goes. Now the best way of ensuring that we get the maximum benefit from Ramadan is to make goals for Ramadan. So make goals for yourself and say what is my goal for reading Quran? How much additional Quran will I read? We are supposed to read Quran every single day of our lives. But in Ramadan, make a goal to say how much more will I read? In charity, how much more will I give? For example, if you make a goal and then make a timetable for that and break it down into sub-goals. For example, if you say, and you should say, try to do that, that in Ramadan I will do one complete Khatmah of the Quran. I will read the entire Quran from the first page to the last page and complete it in the month of Ramadan. So that is thirty Juz. Now if you are going to do that, then one way of doing it is to make a goal to say, after every first Salah, I will read five pages. In the Usmani Musaf, one Juz is twenty pages. So after every Salah, if you read five pages, you would have read twenty-five pages for the day, which means that you will be a little bit ahead, which is a good thing, because if the month comes with only twenty-nine days instead of thirty, you still would have completed the four An. Otherwise you get stuck with one Juz and last minute you have to read. So five pages a day after every first Salah. It’s very easy. It’s not difficult at all. Try it, InshaAllah, and Allah makes it easy. Even if you have hesitation in reading and you have some difficulty with reading, this is the time to change all that. So in thirty days you try it, InshaAllah Allah gives you fluency. Make dua to Allah swt, Allah will give you fluency, InshaAllah. Charity, make it a habit to give something every day. Every day in Ramadan. No matter what it is, five cents, something every day. Make it into a habit, inculcate that in your children and so on and say, some charity I will give every single day and the purpose of all of these is to carry this forward throughout our lives. So every day in your life give some charity. If you can’t find somebody keep a walk, keep a walk, keep a bowl or something, put the money in that. So that’s gone for the day. When you find someone you can give it. The whole point is to create goals to change our life going forward after Ramadan. The idea is not to change our life in Ramadan and go back to the old way. Change the goals going forward. Allah swt as I mentioned gives this month for us to leverage change, to make it easy to change and to give us additional rewards for changing. And therefore let us make the maximum of that and not waste any time at all. I remind myself anew that the most fundamental belief in Islam is the belief in resurrection after death on the day of judgment and the belief in meeting Allah swt. Take any of the other parts of our creed, including tawhid, risala, the creed of the oneness of the worship of Allah swt, the creed of Rasulullah swt, the prophet Muhammad swt being the last and final prophet or anything and ask so what? Why should I believe that? Because I will meet Allah. Why should I believe in Allah? Because I will meet Allah. Why should I believe in the prophet Muhammad and follow him? Because I will meet Allah. Why should I give charity? Because I will meet Allah. Why should I be good to my neighbors? Because I will meet Allah. And so on and so on. Everything. In our religion everything is based on this one simple question. Because I will meet Allah. Therefore when I meet Allah I want to make sure that that day, that time, that action is the best that I could have done. Right? So even though to do it at that time may be difficult, in some cases it might be unpleasant, in some cases people might be pushing you, in some cases people might not like what you do, but you still do what you must do because you know this is the right thing to do before Allah swt. And for that in conclusion, two very important things to do. One is make istighfar. One is make istighfar. Repent before Allah swt and turn towards Allah swt. first of firu, thumma tubu ilayh Make istighfar and turn towards Allah swt. Each one of us knows in our lives what are the things that I need to seek repentance for. Do that. It will be different for different people. Do that. Sit down, reflect, believe me you owe this to yourself. It’s not for anyone else, for myself. I owe it to myself to reflect on my life. I owe it to myself to ask myself where am I going with this path which I am walking on, where is it going to take me? Right? Don’t walk on the path like a blind person. Then you end up in trouble, oh how did I get here? No, you knew that this path was leading there. You got there because you continued to walk on that. Don’t do that. Use Ramadan as the time for reflection and say, okay whatever I’ve been doing, Allah swt the most merciful will forgive everything. Let me stop for a minute, take stock of my life and say, what is it in my life that I need to change? Alhamdulillah, if I am doing something which is good, go ahead. If I am doing something which is not good, now is the time to stop. Make istighfar, repent and turn towards Allah swt. Second very important thing, forgive everybody. Forgive everyone. It doesn’t matter what people did, the reason you need to forgive them is because they did something. So if somebody says, oh what he did, yeah sure, that’s why you forgive. Otherwise if they had done nothing, what are you forgiving? Forgive everyone, no matter what they did, forgive everyone. Seek forgiveness. I ask you all to forgive me. I ask whoever put this danda here to forgive them. I ask you all to forgive me, please forgive me whatever I have said and done. So please forgive me, I seek your forgiveness. And you ask forgiveness from whoever else, especially your parents, especially your siblings, especially blood relations. Don’t go to bed without seeking forgiveness and clearing your heart. Make that your goal for today, inshallah. If Allah gives us Ramadan tomorrow, we enter Ramadan with a clean heart. No rancour, no hatred, no grudges against this one and that one. Seek forgiveness, Alhamdulillah Allah forgives. You seek forgiveness sincerely, ask Allah to forgive, Allah will forgive you. Even if the other person does not want to forgive you, it doesn’t matter. As long as you have asked for forgiveness, Alhamdulillah you are good. Before Allah. Final point to close, we know that Ramadan does not come for Ramadan alone. Ramadan comes for the rest of our lives. So let us make that near and we ask Allah to grant us Ramadan. We ask Allah to grant us Laila Turqadr. We know the hadith of Isa Siddiqua radheel anha, our mother, she asked the Prophet, If I find Laila Turqadr, what dua should I make? And he taught her this beautiful dua. Allahumma innaka afu’ul tuhibbul afu fa’fu’ani He said, O Allah, you are forgiving and you love forgiveness, so forgive me. Such a beautiful dua. O Allah, you are forgiving, you love to forgive, so forgive me. I am not saying I deserve it, I am saying do what you love. Do what you love, in that is my benefit. Alhamdulillah. We have a God, we have a Rabb, who is the most forgiving, the most merciful. He introduced himself as such. Ar-Rahmanir Rahim, Ghafoorur Rahim. We ask Allah to forgive us. We ask Allah not to hold us accountable for what we do, knowingly or unknowingly. We ask Allah to grant us Ramadan in good health and with enough free time and the tawfiq and the guidance to do the best with it and not to waste it. We ask Allah to save you all and myself from all fitan, from all tests, from all difficulties, from all trials and tribulations, from all illnesses, from all kinds of things which are evil, those we know and those we don’t know. I ask Allah to become our caretaker and kafir in this dunya wal akhirah. Rabbana fa ghaffir lana dhulubana wa kafirunna sayyatina wa tawaffana ma’al bram. Rabbana zalamna anfusana wa illam taffil lana wa tarhamna lana koonana min al khasireen. La ilaha illa anta surhanaka inna koonana min al zalimin. Rabbak firu wa arhamna anta khayru ar rahimin. We make special dua for all the people who are oppressed everywhere on earth.
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