Life In The Fast Lane With
Date:
Channel: Abdul Nasir Jangda
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AI Generated Summary ©
The speaker discusses the importance of studying the Quran and learning about Islam, particularly in the context of personalized learning. They also mention the success of learning about Islam through study and sharingAI Generated Transcript ©
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does our color hair. And now we have our share of the national agenda with us. Before we begin just a little quick intro, he is the founder and director of Kollam Institute. He was born and raised in the Dallas area at the age of 10. He went to Karachi Pakistan to memorize the Quran is excelled in memorization and committed the entire Quran to memory in less than one year. He then returned home and continued his school education after graduating from high school he went back to Karachi to study the RM course at jumia in Korea. He graduated from the from the rigorous seven year program in 2002 at the top of his
class and with numerous ijazah
in various Islamic sciences, along with the other choices concurrently completed a Ba and Ma in Arabic from Karachi University. He also obtained a master's in Islamic studies from the University of sin. He taught Arabic at the University of Texas at Arlington from 2005 to 2007. He has served as an instructor and curriculum advisor at various assignments and Islamic studies programs. He has served as an Imam at the Colville most Masjid in Dallas area for three years.
a founding member and chairman of manage mansfields Islamic Center and he is also an instructor at the unit Institute. So
without further ado
Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa Salatu was Salam ala rasulillah where Allah Allah, he was such a big marine.
I just want to make sure everyone can hear me before I start talking. And I keep talking and realize that no one can hear me. So is there any way to give me a little bit of a signal?
Okay, excellent. All right. Very good play. So I'm delighted an honor and a pleasure to be here with everyone. I apologize for the little bit of a delay. I know, there were some people hit me up on Twitter and Facebook, telling me that they were looking forward to the session. So I just want to apologize for being a little bit late.
You know, I guess I'll share this with everyone just as a reflection. First and foremost, as you see here, I'm babysitting today. So from the law, I have my my daughter's with me, this is Ayesha, who you saw. And Miriam is also here with me. So I'm kind of on duty on babysitting today. Alhamdulillah. And at the same time, one of my very, very dear friends, this is someone who you know, is is very honestly one of my best friends.
And he accepted Islam actually, when we were in middle school together, he accepted Islam at that time, almost 20 years ago. And we pretty much grew up together since that point on and you know, Subhana Allah, Allah, Masha file, two days ago, his mother passed away. And so I was actually visiting with him and just just, you know, making sure he was okay and spending some time with him. So, you know, it's, it's a real blessing, you know, family and loved ones in our lives are a real blessing from Allah. And a lot of times, we, you know, truly only understand their significance in the impact that they have in our lives. Once they're gone, they're no longer with us. So I guess my
first reminder to myself and to everyone here would be to make sure that you cherish your family members. And you cherish those relationships. And you strive your best to do right by them and spend as much time as possible as you can with them. You know, if you're within physical proximity or close proximity to them, visit them, spend time with them. And if they're not near you, you can't physically actually spend time with them. Then try to make sure that you at least give them a call. Call them tonight before you go to sleep, let them know that you love them, let them know how much you care about them how much they mean to you. And you know just just cherish every opportunity you
have to be with them. The
the topic today is life in the fast lane. You know I make it known on my Twitter account and even on Facebook, about the my disdain for the cheesy titles A lot of times people come up with for different Islamic events. I don't always approve, I end up being a part of many of these events. I will give some credit that this is kind of this is an actually creative name. It's actually pretty creative and the wordplay is actually pretty intelligent. So therefore, I'm hoping that some homepaddock was not the one who came up with the title Otherwise, I would be complimenting some hot Arctic, which would be a problem for me.
Nevertheless, inshallah moving on to the topic is Ramadan.
There's a lot to be said about Ramadan. There's a lot that has already probably been said about Ramadan. And there's a lot that will be continued to be said about the month of Ramadan. As we move closer and closer, we are literally inching closer and closer to that day. We're literally four days away from the month of Ramadan. And so inshallah these reflections or reminders will continue. But what I wanted to share what I wanted to talk about today very quickly is
two things. I had two specific thoughts I wanted to share.
First of all, what I'd like to do is talk about how, what type of an opportunity the month of Ramadan is and what is the process
As of the month of Ramadan, look, we all understand that Ramadan is a great blessing, it's a great opportunity, you can improve yourself, you can become a better person, we understand that. But what is the actual process for becoming a better person through the month of Ramadan.
It's a two step process. The way I'll explain this is that the heart has been referred to, you know, the heart has been referred to as a container, the heart is literally a container. And that container will either have something clean or something unclean, something pure or something impure. For instance, if you have a dirty cup, if you have a cup, or a glass that is dirty, and it's filthy, it's got dirt, it's got mud, it's got filth inside of it. But then you want to pour some clean water or you want to pour some clean milk inside of it to be able to drink from it,
then the first thing that you have to do is you have to clean it, you have to empty the filth that is inside of it, you have to empty that out, then you have to wash it up, you have to clean it up, and then refill it with something clean something pure. And once so once you clean a dirty cup, and then you fill it with clean, cool water, then now you can drink from that water. So as I spend the next, you know, 45 minutes an hour talking to you, when I start to become a bit parched. When I start to get thirsty, my mouth starts to dry up, and I start to lose my ability to speak to talk to you, I will keep taking a sip from that water. And that's going to keep me going. That's going to
allow me to continue for the next hour. And that's basically the objective here.
Our heart is a container. Similarly, very similar to this glass right here, our heart is a container.
What happens is that because of life, knifes shape on environment, influences, just life in general, a lot of times I've heard that container can become filthy, can become dirty, and can be filled with can become filled with dirty, filthy things. Well, the very first step of the process is that we got to clear it out, we got to clean it out, we got to rinse it out. And the way to go about doing that, as drastic as it may seem, because when I take it out of context, and I explain it to you like this, it actually might sound very drastic to you. But the way to go about doing that is depriving yourself, removing that heart, removing yourself from those things that have led to your heart
becoming polluted, they themselves are not polluted in and of themselves, maybe they are not pollutants themselves. But those things are those circumstances have led to your heart becoming polluted. And that occurs through to two things. Number one is things that are impermissible things that are not allowed things that are off limits, regardless whether it's Ramadan, or it's not whether you're fasting or you're not lying, cheating, backbiting, cursing, swearing, etc, all these other sins of the heart of the mind of the tongue of the hands, these things that are permissible, that are prohibited that are forbidden by Allah subhanaw taala, we first have to make a stronger
effort to stay away from those things. And that is achieved in the month of Ramadan. Because in fasting, these things are haram across the board. But they're they're huruma they're impermissibility the prohibition of these things is emphasized even more while we are fasting in the month of Ramadan. Number two, because you know, unless somebody is in a tough spot, they live by themselves, or their family is not Muslim, or whatever their circumstances may be and, you know, our prayers and our hearts go out to those people we I personally really admire and look up to those people. I was just telling you about this childhood friend of mine, this buddy of mine, Luke,
his, you know, family wasn't Muslim. And because of that, you know, but he was Muslim. Mashallah. And actually, right before he left, we were talking about, you know, meeting up and spending time together in the month of Ramadan. And he actually said to me, he goes, You know, I always noticed being a Muslim kid, everybody loved your aid. But it goes for some reason. I always liked Ramadan more than I like to eat. And I understand part of what that was, was because unfortunately, because
we're such a terrible community sometimes that we don't make room for people who might not have Muslim families of their own. We don't make room for them in our homes. We don't welcome them into our families. We don't include them in our eat celebrations. That either is literally another day at the office for them. And they really don't have a celebration on eat to go to. So he's like, I love Ramadan. And so Ramadan is really, really tough for folks like that. But generally speaking, if you are part of a community and your family's also Muslim, then when everybody's fasting together, it creates an environment which makes something easier
To achieve because everyone is doing it. So, first of all, through fasting, all those things are prohibited, generally speaking, but they're even more emphasized to be stayed away from abstinence from those things is even more emphasized during Ramadan during fasting. Then on top of that, because the whole community, the whole home, the whole family, everyone is fasting, everyone is staying away from lying, cheating, wasting time, engaging in sinful things, and it makes it easier to go to achieve that.
So that's the first thing. The second thing is that on top of staying away from things that are already hard on making an extra effort to cut out the horrid things from our lives, the second thing we do is we actually stay away from we abstain from we deprive ourselves from things that would normally be permissible. For instance, again, eating something Hello, drinking water, this is permissible, physical intimacy with one's own spouse is permissible. But we stay away from that we deprive ourselves from those things, during the fasting hours, from fudger. To motive, why to again, clean out the heart to clear out all the dirt or the filth that might be there. So we have to clean
it out, we have to clear it out. It's a flushing. So we're literally flushing out our heart, we're purging our hearts from all the fields and all the sins and all the dirt that has accumulated inside of that container. That is the the heart.
Now, once a heart has been has been completely cleaned out and cleared out, the next step of the process is filling it with something. So I'll give you an example. And this is actually what I think is most needed for us today. Because generally speaking, most people on this broadcast, probably do fast during the month of Ramadan. And if they don't, you know you should, and May Allah subhanaw taala make it easier for you to fast in sha Allah. But so if most people they fast, so fasting, I cleared out the cup, I cleaned out the glass.
But in order for me to be able to fulfill and relieve my need, in order for me to be able to sustain myself, I have to fill it with something I have to fill it with clean water, and then it will be a form of sustenance and nourishment and refreshment for me. Similarly, we clean our hearts when we fast if we fast properly, but then we have to fill it up with something that will be nourishment spiritual nourishment, spiritual food. What is that spiritual nourishment? What is that spiritual food that simply put is the worship and the obedience of Allah, most specifically the remembrance of Allah. And even more specifically, when talking about the remembrance of Allah, it's stuck on the
book of Allah. So it is the worship of Allah, which is very specifically the remembrance of Allah. And amongst all the different types of remembrance of Allah, the thing that is the most important during the month of Ramadan, while fasting is the book of Allah, the Quran, that is what is our spiritual food that is what is our spiritual nourishment. That's why when we look at the month of Ramadan, it's to two main activities, fasting during the day, the yam during the night, Tara we had Korea and even while we're fasting we're so we're told by the practice by the some of the profits, a lot of them every Ramadan, of course, Allah knows best how much we're on
the profits, a lot of them would actually recite, but during the month of Ramadan, he would actually recite the entire Quran to Djibouti lollies gibreel Ali Salam.
In fact, it's mentioned that in the last year of his life, he didn't recite it once you've recited it twice in its entirety to Djibouti on a Salaam. And so we learned from that and then his own personal recitation was on top of that. So we see that the prophets Eliza made a very specific efforts to dedicate time to the book of Allah because that feels the heart with the spiritual food and the nourishment that will keep us going for the rest of the year. So the first lesson that I wanted to emphasize remind myself and also emphasize to all the brothers and sisters on the broadcast here today is fast during the month of Ramadan, but make time for the Quran, scheduled
time for the Quran. Make the quarter on a part of your daily regimen, in the month of Ramadan, and everything else that you might have to sacrifice everything else you have to cut off. I would suggest you compromise on everything else that you need to but do not compromise on the book of Allah and spending time with the book of Allah because that is our spiritual food. What happens with a lot of people right now is people fast. But they do not necessarily spend a lot of time with the Quran, reading, reciting, memorizing, understanding, studying, listening to the Tafseer listening to the recitation of the Quran. They don't spend a lot of time with the book of Allah. What happens
because of that is we cleaned out the glass. We cleaned up the glass, but we didn't fill anything inside of it. So
When Ramadan is over, after a week or two weeks or three weeks go by, and now you start to feel thirsty meaning your soul is thirsty now you need some spiritual nourishment and spiritual food, there's nothing in the glass to sustain you. And that's when Ramadan wears off. And a month after Ramadan, we are no different than we were a month before the month of Ramadan. And that's the tragedy for us right now, individually and even collectively as a community. But if we spend time we dedicate time to the book of Allah to the Quran during the month of Ramadan, what will happen is not only did we clear out the container to the glass, but then we filled it up and once we filled it up,
when Ramadan is gone, now we have something to sustain us now we have something to nourish us, we have something to take from to sip from to drink from and to keep us going the next 11 months so that when Ramadan comes back around, I can take a step up to the next level and I can inshallah move forward and better myself. Because what happens is, Ramadan is a very special time Ramadan is a blessing, amazing, amazing opportunity. It's hard to replicate, it's hard to duplicate the the experience of Ramadan outside of the month of Ramadan. So what happens as a consequence, you naturally are going to take a few steps back after ramadan ramadan is over, that's to be expected.
But the problem is we only took two steps forward. And then when we take two steps back after Ramadan is over, we're back to where we started square one
level just we're back at you know at the at the ground floor. But if we take eight steps forward, and even if we take two steps backwards, still six steps ahead of where we were before Ramadan, then the next Ramadan, we take another eight steps forward. And okay, maybe one two steps back if trade ends. Now we're 12 levels, we're 12 stages 12 steps ahead of where we were two years ago before Ramadan. So it's a gradual process, using Ramadan as a launchpad to becoming a better person for the next 11 months and then continuing to build on that slow steady incremental mo you know, progress that we achieve every Ramadan and inshallah You know, when we look back a few years down the road a
few years later, we'll be very, very grateful and thankful to Allah subhanaw taala for our progress. So that's the idea. So the first thing I wanted to emphasize here on this broadcast was fast, focus on fasting and focus on fasting, right. You know, even in the Quran, when Allah talks about fasting he talks about fasting as a prescription quotevalet camassia it has been written upon you, meaning a prescription has been prescribed for you. A medication is being prescribed a remedy is being prescribed for you and is called fasting. Could you Valley camassia just like it was prescribed. So there's a track record this, this medication has gone through trials. There are case studies or
testimonials that this medication works is remedy works come out. kuchibhotla Latina man publikum like it was prescribed for the people before you. But then Allah says something very interesting. Allah says La La Quinta tahune maybe hopefully possibly you will attain to or develop tequila. Meaning a lot did not guaranteed that just by fasting, you will develop taqwa. But maybe you will. Why? Because it's up to us. If we fast properly, we'll get adequate if we don't fast properly, as the Hadith of the prophets, Allah says, Allah has no need for someone to starve themselves to deprive themselves of food and water. Allah has no need for anyone to do anything of that sort. So
we have to understand that if we do not eat or drink, meaning fasting, technically, but we don't stay away from sins, and we don't try to better ourselves. We don't pray on time, we don't spend some time with the book of Allah, we don't make any dictator, we don't send any Salawat on the Prophet sallallahu sallam, then we were hungry and thirsty for about 16 hours. And from where I'm sitting, I'm in the great state of Texas. All right, in the great state of Texas, we're going to be fast, almost 16 hours, and it's going to be about 108 degrees outside. And if you spent 16 hours, not eating or drinking, and all that you basically achieved was that you were thirsty or hungry for
16 hours. That's really a tragedy, that all you got, at the end of the day was 16 hours of thirst and hunger, that is a tragedy. But I need to be able to develop and attain dakhla through my fast and that'll happen through my efforts. And through my cognizance through my awareness and the efforts that I put forth in my fasting. The second thing is, make time dedicate time fixed time to spend time with the book of Allah subhanaw taala. And that can be achieved through a number of means. I encourage you to spend time reciting memory reciting reading the Quran in the Arabic script. I recommend that you try to memorize a little throughout the month of Ramadan. I recommend
that maybe you read a little translation, I recommend that you engage in some study of the book of Allah and in your community in your Masjid, if there's going to be at the fear lecture of the series that is going on during the month of Ramadan, make time for that attend that and go to that as a personal effort. And this is just a personal initiative from myself. I realized that there are a lot of
People because I haven't given enough here there's based off of what I learned from my teachers, they gave it to us here there's every night in the month of Ramadan in their respective masajid for 4050 years for most of their lives. So I learned that from my teachers and every Ramadan, I would give it the sheer lesson every single night in Ramadan. I got feedback from a lot of people saying that this opportunity is not available to everyone in their communities and their massages. So what we started doing was a few years ago, we started recording these subsea lectures every single night. And now we have a Ramadan tafsir series that is available online. So on Muslim matters.org on the
Muslim matters website, every night in the month of Ramadan, as your lecture will go up. This year we'll be doing last year we did the Tafseer facility as in, you can go back and still watch and inshallah learn from those lessons.
This year, we'll be doing that subset of students medium. So number 19. So every night there will be one lecture one, one part of students medium, about three to four shots that will be lectured on and there'll be a video recorded on it. And you can actually go there and you can watch this video, you can view the video and you can tell us engaging some study of the book of Allah subhanaw taala. And the idea behind it, the motivation behind it is it only covers about three to four ions per night. So it is very practical for you to actually read those three, four ions. Try to memorize those three four ions, watch the video learn the meaning and the explanation of those three four is and when
Ramadan is done the entire sort of money I'm certain number 19 you have it memorized. You know how to recite it properly, you understand its meaning and inshallah your relationship with the Quran is improving. So I recommend everyone make time to spend time with the book of Allah subhanho wa Taala during this Ramadan. The second thing I wanted to talk about was
the mindset that we go into the month of Ramadan with the type of goals that we set for Ramadan.
This is something I've talked about quite a bit in the last few weeks.
That in the Battle of the Battle of button, which is the one of the greatest moments in Islamic history.
It occurred during the month of Ramadan. It was the second Ramadan in the blessed city of Medina. And on the 17th day of that second Ramadan.
The Battle of bundler occurred something very interesting about the bundle above that was when the prophets a lot he said I went to El Medina tomonaga when he made the migration to the blessing city of Medina. He had an agreement and a pact with the Muslims of Medina who were called the unsought. He had a pact in an agreement with them. The pact in the agreement was that if somebody attacks Medina, the unsought of Medina would fight alongside of the prophets or some of the Muslims and defend the city. But the prophets a lot less and because of his pre existing conflict with the people of Mecca, the Quraysh if he went outside of Medina to engage in battle, then the Muslim
Medina were not obligated to join him and go outside of Medina to fight. They were not they would not be obligated to and they would not be sinful. If they refuse to win the battle of other occurred but that is far outside of Medina. When the Battle of whether occurred, the profits a lot of them gathered all the Muslims together and told them this is situation and we have to go outside of Medina to engage in battle.
The unsought of Medina responded by saying a messenger of Allah, we will not forsake you. We will not leave you we will not teach you like Medusa even said to Musa alayhis salaam, rather what we will say is that like musar, et cetera Musa alayhis salam further how the answer or aboukir for katella in our Hakuna car you don't, that you and your Lord go fight, we are going to sit right here and just wait for you to get back. Rather we will come along with you and fight by your side.
And Subhan Allah so understand one thing, the Muslims of Medina did not have to participate in the Battle of Baba and they could not be held against them if they did not participate. In spite of that, not only did they participate, but there were 313 Sahaba. In the Battle of other 313 Muslims participated out of them, two thirds of them, over 200 of them, two thirds of them were were the unsought of Medina.
Meaning what they did more than what was required of them. They didn't ask what is the bottom line? What does the contract say? What is the bottom line? They didn't say that. Rather their attitude was let us try to do as much as possible let's push ourselves and do what is not even required of us. In order to win the pleasure of a last panel it's going to be closer to the profits a lot a setup and the outcome the result and the consequence of that was that the unsought of Medina are about whom the last PowerShell in the Quran promises in paradise. Align the Quran has said he is pleased with them. The Prophet of Allah sallallahu Sallam said, We're lucky unto Vanessa la he's
I swear by Allah you are the most beloved people to me, that the Prophet of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, No silica naseeruddin that if all of the people went down the path was silica till the end and the unsought went down another path. Let's select to Adil and thought I would go down the path of the unsought. So, that was the love the affection that the Prophet of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam had for the unsought and that was a direct result that was a direct consequence of their attitude and their willingness that they did not ask for what is the minimal what is the least I have to do? What is the bottom line? But they were a people who focused on how much more can I do?
And each and every single one of us needs to go into this Ramadan with the same mindset. We need to stop asking the questions. Well, can I not fast if this is going on? Is it okay for me to not fast if that is happening in this, we need to stop worrying about the bottom line. This this attitude is called living by fatwa. When we were not told to live by photo, we were told to live by tequila. Let's let's start asking ourselves the question let's not ask the mom to shift the question What is the bare minimum anymore? What is the bottom line? Let's start asking ourselves the question how much more can I do? How much harder Can I push myself? How much further Can I push myself and let's
dedicate this Ramadan to making that change in our lives inshallah. And if we're able to do that, we will be in sha Allah in that same category of people was sabich una sabya hoon. The people who are rushing ahead wasabia Kunal sabya, hula ecol, macabre boon, those people that are rushing ahead, and those people that are the closest and the nearest and the dearest to Allah subhanaw taala. So Let's all make an effort during this Ramadan to try to belong to that group of people have been lucky to Allah insha Allah. The last thing I wanted to real quickly say in a couple of minutes, I told you I had two major points, I made both my major points. This is kind of a another point that I just
wanted to add in. You know, a lot of times during Ramadan, we focus on Masjid or on Salah, siyam, decarb tilawat, our, we focus on all these different things. And that's a very, very good thing.
A lot of times just because of our own lack of understanding of our Deen we a lot of times lead family by the fall by the wayside family is the thing that we sacrificed. First and foremost, in striving and working hard to achieve all of these things, we oftentimes end up sacrificing family. Ramadan does not require us to sacrifice or to come up short in our family relations. Rather, Ramadan can be an amazing opportunity to come closer with our families, while doing all of these other good things. How can we do that? We said karamba read with your family study. So when you sit down to watch it, that's your lecture, you sit down to read the translation of the Quran, sit
together with your family members and read it together. If you're not going to the Messiah to actually pray Salah, like father or Monday or whatever it is, then actually pray together in Jamaica, as a congregation as a family in your home, eat your food and eat it start together as a family as much as possible. And not only that, one thing I recommend, and this is something that I realized. And that's why I'm advising myself first and foremost. You know, I have I have a wonderful mother.
And now I have a wonderful wife as well. And what I mean by that is my mom was always awake up before you know an hour before everyone else woke up for some food, preparing and cooking some food for everyone in the family. And now my wife is always up, you know, and added, you know, half an hour 45 minutes before I wake up to basically get started getting suhu ready. But that does not mean that we should be lazy about that. But an amazing way to come together and bond together as a family during the month of Ramadan. Don't just eat your food and then start together don't just show up at the table rubbing your eyes wiping drool off of your face eating so who didn't and and show up you
know ready to just pounce the the table full of food and it's our time, but rather prepare so who didn't they start together as a family. Don't just eat your food and it starts together as a family. Prepare it together as a family. So you set your alarm 30 minutes before Showtime 30 minutes before it's our time and go to the kitchen and help your mom help your wife whoever it is that normally would prepare this for food. You help him participate in preparedness all together. Because if you're working together in the kitchen and you're preparing food together, then use that opportunity to have a good quality conversation. That is good quality family time you're talking You're joking
you're laughing you're discussing about different things. As you prepare food together then you sit down together to eat food and break bread together. And that is an amazing way to be able to come together during the month of Ramadan. When you offer the mustard fruits that are we go together as a family. One thing that again I realized this is organized by y m
So there's mostly younger brother and sisters, but you never know somebody else might be on here on the broadcast. But if nobody else I'm at least giving this. I'm giving advice to myself. I'm reminding myself. Many married folks, many families that have younger children, you guys saw I shot earlier on the camera. So many families, many young couples who have smaller younger children,
the mothers, the wives, the Sisters of our community, are oftentimes required to sacrifice their experience of Ramadan for the sake of the children. And again, that is a very, very noble sacrifice on their part. And yes, there's a difference in the level of emphasis of going to the masjid and praying till all we in congregation for men than there is for women. That's true if we talk about it, purely through it from a fitness perspective.
It's not all we Masjid attendance of the masjid is more emphasized for men than it is for women. There's no doubt about that. That's an issue of fic. However, like I just said, There comes a time in a place where we got to stop living by fatwa and start living by taqwa. Our women folk are desperate for spirituality as well. They are looking forward to Ramadan as well. They need a spiritual boost and experience during Ramadan as well. So what I strongly recommend to the brothers who are married, have younger children, where you cannot maybe take your kids to the Muslim fatale prayers, and your wives are making all the sacrifice the mothers are making the sacrifice of being
home with the kids, if not every other day, maybe twice a week. But occasionally, at least a couple of times a week, you make the sacrifice and maybe staying home with the kids. And let the sister go to the masjid pray, it's always there, listen to the heartbeat, or listen to the third dose. Listen to the tafsir meet and greet with other sisters in the community and achieve some of that spirituality of the month of Ramadan. Because otherwise, we have to understand one thing. The most important people in our community are the mothers of the community, because they are the first and foremost teachers in the model B's of our children, the future of our community. And if we're
sincere in calling our children the future, we will also respect the teachers of the future of our community, the model B's the trainers of the future of our community. And those are the mothers in our communities. So it's very important to take care of them and make sure they have a good experience. And I'll be very honest with you. One of my main motivations behind the Ramadan of su series was keeping mothers in mind so that mothers at home also have some type of a steady you know regimen of studying the book of a law and setting the future of the Quran. So those are just a few reminders that I had that I wanted to share with everyone. The last thing I wanted to talk about is
Ramadan is also an opportunity to build community. And that of course we realize we do in stars, community stars at the masjid we pray in the masjid. We try to attend all the prayers in the masjid we meet and greet each other we socialize we do it stars together. But at the same time, our younger brother and sisters are also looking for community are also looking for community. Sometimes when our when our children are teenagers, our youth they go to the masjid and it's a very I'm not criticizing i'm not i'm not trying to be offensive I'm just being very honest. When it is a very Uncle and Auntie vibe at the masjid meaning it's just you know, a lot of older folks of the
community having biryani together for a start talking about you know, job and work and business and politics etc. The kids are just kind of sitting around and the second the kids decide to you know, play some ball or start joking around laughing there. They're told to be quiet in the parking lot is full and you can't play outside and you can't play inside. You can't play anywhere. You can't do anything. And it ends up becoming a really draining spiritually draining experience for a lot of our children a lot of our use a lot of our youngsters and that's where organizations like why Mr. An amazing amount are really filling a very necessary void. You know, a lot of the local work that I am
does that that is the main reason why I admire why I'm so much. You know, I attend the conferences and I enjoy the conferences and I love the conferences.
But at the same time, the main reason why why M has my admiration is the local work that they do. The neighbor nets are some of the most it's it's just an amazing thing. It's an amazing concept. They are modern day outcomes for our youth. They are the modern day outcomes for youth. And so the neighbor net is an amazing opportunity for youth to come together to bond together to spend time together during the month of Ramadan. So, look up why I'm in your local neighborhood. There will be three arms, there will be neighbor nets, there will be stars for the youth. There will be a whole flurry of different activities. I really emphasize that you look it up. You try to join in you
participate you support however you can, and at the very least continue to make law. The law gives these brothers and sisters the strength
Keep doing the work that they're doing because it's just really needed in our oma today in sha Allah, Vina Nikita Allah. Um,
the, I believe I received a message that the there were some questions that needed to be answered as well. So inshallah, if anyone has any questions, I hate to be in a rush. I love spending time here, you know, answering any questions that our youth might have, or brothers and sisters might have, I probably will have to get going in about 10 to 15 minutes, because I have to make sure my kids have not destroyed the house by now.
They're beautiful. They're amazing, but at the same time, they're very active. Mashallah, so I don't hear anything, which is usually a sign of something being destroyed right about at this moment, it's the calm before the storm. So I'll give you guys about 1015 minutes inshallah. And then I'll have to get going get back to babysitting responsibilities, just suck. Okay. First of all, before we move on, if anybody who's watching this, if you liked it, if you're watching on YouTube, you can hit the subscribe button, which is like on top right there. And if you want to know about these lectures, later on, we will have more in the future inshallah you can like our Facebook page, Muslims. And
with that, let's go on to q&a real quick. So the first question we have here is, what advice do you have to convert during Ramadan who do who don't have family members to share their experience with
so who are reading Quran, PR, etc.
My advice to our convert brothers and sisters, and I want to give a disclaimer, I give this advice. With
you know, with with complete, I just want to offer the disclaimer that there's a very good chance that I'll be completely absolutely wrong, in my advice, because I don't know what they're really dealing with. I don't know what they're going through. I told you about one of my best friends, I have a couple of close friends who accepted Islam and they're in when they were really young. And I seen the sacrifices that they make and what they go through. And it's, it's really a huge challenge. You know, male Asana make it easy for them. But what I would advise him to do is try to seek out any type of good company, any type of brotherhood sisterhood that they can find. But really, honestly, I
don't know what advice I would give to the actual converts. But what I would advise the rest of the community, everybody else watching this broadcast, what I would advise them is you need to make, you need to go out of your way we need to step out of our comfort zones, I realized that it might be very strange and bizarre for your family to have a random person over for your house for his talk. Alright, especially and I'm going to go ahead and just say it as it needs to be said a little bit of real talk here. If you're like a typical day see family, like a little picture. So you know, they see family, then I realized that your parents would be very freaked out if you brought like, you
know, a Caucasian person or an African American person over for your talk to your house. But we have to step out of our comfort zones. I'm sorry, we just don't have the luxury to do that. This is the home of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. It doesn't matter where we're from, it doesn't matter who we are. It doesn't matter what we're comfortable with what we're not comfortable with. This is the home of Muhammad Ali Salaam, and the prophets, a lot of Islam on the day of the Bible of conduct stood out there in the middle of the community and his words were preserved in the collection of Hadith 1400 years later till today so that we could learn a lesson from it, where he pointed to some
manual fallacy rhodiola what I knew and he pointed towards him and he said, salon Amina elbaite salon belongs to my family salon belongs to my home, my house, my family. That was the attitude of Mohammed salatu salam so our youth groups, our homes, our families, our friends, circles, our little social circles, we need to make space and we need to invite convert brothers and sisters into our own lives, our own personal lives, to be able to share them alone and it's experience with us inshallah.
Okay, next question. Well, one thing I wanted to just recommend, again, was, I actually was this past weekend I was in Boston at the ispcc mom's waves, Masjid, and they're actually doing a really awesome thing. This Ramadan, they're actually having an F star for the Convert brothers and sisters in the community, where the Convert brothers and sisters are being asked to bring their families even if their families are not Muslim. They're being told to bring them and they're going to have a really nice, you know, it's thought and it gets together for them so that they can see what Ramadan is all about and they can actually feel closer to the community and they can introduce their
families to one another. So we need to have programs like this inshallah, welcome them into the community.
Okay, so next question we have is what are some mannerisms when making the law?
The basic etiquette of do is that I would recommend again, I believe it's on YouTube, you'll find it on the Koran weekly channel.
It was just uploaded a couple of days ago where I gave a one hour session on DHA, specifically related to the month of Ramadan. So you'll find that online and I recommend you watch that because it's an hour long so it's gonna have a lot more detail than my two minute answer will but the
One thing that I will point out because of the limited time about da is actually when my friend was just visiting amber when he first accepted Islam. And a few years later and he was talking to me about making wine I was sending overseas by this time. And I remember telling him one thing that I had learned about making draw from the Quran and the Hadith of the Prophet Alayhi. Salam is
do our needs to be a conversation between you and Allah.
Do I is not a recitation robina Arjuna Virginia has an hour of the life that he has an hour Okay, now, that was not a recitation, guys a conversation between your law school let's see where Hosni Illallah yaku Bala Salaam said, I complain and I cry in front of Allah. So you're older, bakudo burdwan hufa. And so, cry and beg and plead literally talk to a law, pour your heart out to a law, that's what needs to be. And that's what the main thing I would emphasize. So find a quiet private time where you don't feel shy, you don't feel ashamed in front of anyone, you know, lock yourself in your room, and then cry, talk, pour your heart out in front of the line, have a conversation with
law, that will be the most heartfelt blog that you've ever made you turn left each other.
Okay, so next question. You mentioned that it is more emphasized for men to attend thoroughly. Does that mean men get more so up? Or do move in for going out of their way to attend a prayer that isn't imposed on them get more if a sister attends every night? Is it equivalent if a man attends every night?
This is a it's a it's a very interesting question within with an even more interesting answer. Look, we have to understand one thing. Sometimes what a lion is messengers allottee. Some have said might not fit into our social cultural paradigm, meaning because of our society, or the culture that we live in, you know, all the young people watching this, you know how sometimes your parents have something from DC culture or Arab culture. And it kind of frustrates you because you're like, it's not Islamic, it's DC culture, and kind of makes you upset? Well, we have to be, we can be hypocritical about that. There are some things that we have an attitude about. And that's because we
are influenced by American culture. It's not Islamic, it's American culture. So the Hadith of the prophets, a lot of them very clearly explicitly says that a woman's prayer in our home is more rewarding, more superior. It is superior it is more rewarding than her prayer in the machine. Oh come on God Allah His salatu salam, the prophets a lot of some said this. I'm not saying this. Some crazy moolah is not saying this, the prophet of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, these blessings be upon this. Now if, if somebody watching this or listening to this thinks that that is sexist, or that is biased against women, then understand that is a shortcoming of my understanding. That is
another shortcoming in a line is messengers allottee setup. So Nevertheless, the Prophet says I said, a woman's prayer is more rewarding in her home. But at the same time, there's another issue at hand here, there's another situation that others second issue at hand here is that we're talking about the amount of a person this hadith is talking about, if somebody has good strong sound emaan. And they're just looking for more reward than for a woman, it would be more rewarding for her to pray at home. But if her emaan, if she's struggling with her emaan, because when she's at home by herself, or she's at home, and the kids are yelling, and screaming, she just cheat, she hasn't
experienced real strong spirituality for an entire year, maybe four months at a time. And her eemaan is withering her mind is dying, then it becomes necessary for her to go into a good environment, be a part of a collective, you know, environment where she can get spiritually charged, then that's another question. That's another situation. And that's where I would emphasize, sisters should go and have families or their husbands have to make some sacrifice in order to make that possible. Very simply put, just ask yourself what's more important to you? What's more important is the more reward or the spiritual emaan health of your wife, as to the mother of your children, ask yourself that
question. I'm pretty sure what the answer is going to be. And then you basically know what you got to do.
Okay, well, last question is, can you give some examples about bonding with family?
Some examples of bonding with family, I mean, from the life of the Prophet sallallahu sallam, there's many, many examples. I'll give you a couple I'll give you some from classical examples from the life of the Prophet so similar. So how about all the laguan home? And then I'll give you maybe a couple of contemporary examples, you know, modern day success stories, like they like to call them from the life of the prophet SAW Selim, you know, the profits a lot. He said to me, do I
okay.
All right, just a second. Ayesha
premier
All right, so just making sure they're okay. All right. So
the profits a lot isn't made for a husband. He said when a husband wakes up for the 200 prayer knocklyon prayer, and he finds his wife asleep then he wakes her up for it as well. May Allah bless and may Allah have mercy upon that person. Just a second. I'm sorry about this. I shall baby Come here. Come here, sweetie.
Me Baby.
All right. So the Prophet of Allah, Allah He said, I'm also similarly made to our May Allah reward May Allah bless. May Allah shower that person with his mercy, who a wife, who wakes up to pray in the middle of the night and finds her husband asleep, and she wakes him up to pray with him. The profit of each of the 1100 talks about when the profits of some would pray in the night, and he would wake us up to pray with him.
Who hopped over the long run, who used to wake up his family to pray 200 prayer with him and would recite the I of the Quran from Surah Taha, what would be Salatu was severe Alia, that command your family to pray, and you'll be very punctual and regular about the prayer. So it was a family group activity.
At the same time, modern day stories are so many beautiful stories about you know, I'll tell you one story of my of my own.
The lie, memorize operon as was mentioned in the bio, I memorize the Quran when I was really, really young. So one of the things whenever you memorize the Quran is you have to review it, you have to keep up with it. And that can be very challenging at times, my teachers, my Koran tutors, the ones who helped me keep up with my quarter onward, my mom and my dad, every day, they would make an hour a day they would take turns, they would make an hour a day to sit down and listen to me recite my juice to them and pick up my mistakes or correct me if I was making any mistakes. And this was quality time that we spent together every single day. And the effect of that was the law I memorize
up on. I have now today been leading Salatu tarawih for the last 18 years. My younger brother is a half of the person who has been leading Tel Aviv for about six or seven years. And now what happens a lot today my father at the age of 65 is actually memorizing the Quran.
He said spends almost three four hours a day memorizing the Quran. My mom is studying grammar, Arabic grammar and so on. So when families spend time together, they dedicate time together and they engage in study on worship of Allah together. They actually not only come together closer together as a family, but they also grow closer to Allah subhanaw taala together as a family may have lights up from all of us and give Tofig to all of us.
Okay, she's not gonna
suffer Go ahead, brother checkup don't ask her for taking your time out babysitting and you know being with us here today. You know May Allah bless your family I mean I mean so before you know before you guys leave just remember to you know subscribe, you know our YouTube channel like our Facebook page for more events. And if we can have
in this
absolutely lambda measurable alameen will aka to limit subpoena or salatu salam ala ZD mursaleen wala Allah He was of the woman Sylvia whom you're sending Elijah Medina Allah Marina Allah the click of a shoe click over here about to take a look at in arguments and actually more equally her budget I mean, because you didn't have enough You know, a lot of money in the car for one to hit will offer for
burnouts a couple minutes in the contest similarly to Ballina in the contractor woodworking or solar local jalala at helping you Mohammed by Allah Allah. He was such a big marine bureaucratically, I mean, does that come along later on everyone again, and with salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah.