Allah is telling you,
Don't you understand that in this beautiful month
you have increased the voluntary prayer?
How on Earth can you decrease the compulsory prayer outside of Ramadan?
How can you not have an enthusiasm within you to be in Salah on time or before time?
How can you delay your five daily prayers?
How can you not feel that you would like to pray for Allah?
Because there are two things.
We must be thankful to Allah (swt) Almighty
for accepting us to be from among those who worship Him alone.
We should always look into our acts of worship
and purify them for the sake of Allah alone.
As Muslimeen, the outstanding feature that
we have is that we worship Allah alone.
He who made us is the only one who is worthy of worship.
No human, no stone, no stick, no animal,
no bird, no fish, no creature is worthy of any act of worship.
But the one who made all those an entire creation is the one.
The whole concept of La Illah Ila Allah Muhammadur Rasul Allah
is that there is none worthy of worship.
Every time you say that you need to think about what you have just said.
Many people say La Illah Ila Allah , you ask them, what is the meaning?
There is none worthy of worship Besides Allah.
They never ever thought of What exactly are you saying?
Do you realize that is a declaration of faith?
But we end up worshiping things Besides Allah claiming the same claim.
My brothers, my sisters,
after that small introduction, I want to tell you we are in the month of Ramadan.
Best month of the calendar.
I want to tell you that we are in the last ten nights of Ramadan.
Best nights and best parts of Ramadan.
I want to tell you that we are on a day known as Jummah.
Jummah is the best day of the week.
I want to tell you we are here at a time
when the Imam is on the minbar best time of the Jummah.
This is the best time in the best time in the best time in the best time.
Seek Allah's forgiveness.
May Allah forgive you and I... Oh Allah, You are most forgiving.
You love to forgive. Forgive us.
Do not underestimate the value of a statement that comes out of your mouth.
Keep on repeating these and include your heart in it.
When I say include your heart in it.
Do not pay lip service to the remembrance of Allah.
He does not need it. We need it.
And the only time your dhikr and remembrance is acceptable is
when you've included the heart..
All your actions are judged only by the underlying intent.
Put your heart, give it some thoughts.
Give it some time.
When you complete your Salah,
We say astaghfirullah thrice we say allahumma anta salam, et cetera.
There are adhkar (a protection from all types of evil,) that we read.
If you don't have your heart in it, you are not achieving the desired result.
So put your heart in it.
When I say astaghfirullah we all say it, but we pay lip service; astaghfirullah...
We said it twice because we need to say it twice. The number,
In actual fact, what is more important than it is the intention that lies inside.
So on a day like this, you may never see such a day again and I may not see it.
I don't know what's going to happen right now
and what's going to happen as I walk out and what's going to happen tomorrow?
I may never witness some of the brothers and sisters who may be here today.
I may never see them again.
So seize the opportunity.
Another thing, if you look at the month of Ramadan and we have almost completed it
May Allah allow us to see the month of Shawwal having been forgiven by Him.
That's the main aim.
When Aisha (ra) asked the Prophet (pbuh)
if I were to witness the night of decree, laylatul-qadr, what should I do and say?
He just answered the simple answer.
say..
SubhanAllah, if you go to someone, you say,
what should I do the night of laylatul-qadr?
You are expecting a long answer.
Read this. Read that.
Do this. stand in Salah.
Do taraweeh. Do this.
The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) makes everything simple.
All that is good and those are deeds we should be doing.
But the most important thing he just said, seek forgiveness.
Seek forgiveness. You are human, you falter.
Search your heart.
Cleanse it, purify it.
Seek forgiveness;
Oh Allah, you are most forgiving. You love to forgive.
Forgive me, subhanAllah.
So my brothers, my sisters,
in these blessed days of Ramadan, we should realize a few things.
I want to mention one or two; the first one:
As-Salah..
My brothers, my sisters, how many units of prayer extra voluntary,
That is not compulsory,
Did you engage in in the month of Ramadan known as taraweeh?
You don't even know. You have to sit and start counting;
Right or wrong, you don't even know because you have to count,
That's how many they were.
My brothers and sisters, Allah is telling you,
Don't you understand that in this beautiful month
you have increased the voluntary prayer?
How on Earth can you decrease the compulsory prayer outside of Ramadan?
How can you not have an enthusiasm within you to be in Salah on time or before time?
How can you delay your five daily prayers?
How can you not feel that you would like to pray for Allah?
Because there are two things.
One is those who pray because they have to pray
and the other is those who pray because they want to pray.
When you start off initially as a young person, people tell you Salah, Salah.
So you end up going because why you have to do it.
You realize, I have to do it.
That's good enough, Mashallah. You have to do it.
So you are doing it, right?
There comes a time in your life
as you grow a little bit older or you get closer to Allah,
When you are doing it over and above have to
it's now I want to, I want to not I have to.
It's my fard / compulsory and my duty and I want to do it for Allah.
That's the only time you start involving in what in that which is over and above fard.
That which is over and above what is compulsory?
When do you do Sunnah and NAFl and all of that?
You only can do that when you want to.
Subhanallah, when you want to then you come early.
You take your time. You are here.
You have had a nice shower or bath or wudu / Ablution .
You have worn good clothes. You put small attar / perfume.
I hope the attar does not give headache to other people
because that's what happens sometimes.
But we are so happy.
We come and we, Allah Akbar. And you are taking your time.
That means you want to pray.
Ask Allah to get you to that.
May Allah purify our hearts.
Magnetize the Salah to our hearts.
May Allah Almighty magnetize the Salah to our hearts.
My brothers, it's not enough to just make a physical effort.
Allah needs to accept you for it.
Keep on asking Allah to grant you steadfastness.
Ask Allah to grant you steadfastness.
Because Allah will give it.
We are talking today.
You are hearing the sermon today.
But I want to inform you,
without acceptance from Allah, it will not move me.
It will not move you.
If Allah accepts you,
O Allah, who grants steadfastness and strength to the hearts.
O Allah, the one who turns the hearts.
Turn it towards the Deen / religion. Grant it Steadfastness in Your obedience.
So the biggest thing that we could advise after the issue of worshiping Allah alone
is to fulfill your Salah / Prayer, the second pillar of Islam.
First one is exactly as we start to worship Allah alone
To follow the Sunnah of Muhammad (pbuh) To believe firmly.
He is the Nabi of Allah, the messenger of Allah.
He didn't utter from his own whims and fancies and his desires.
It was revelation.
What he said, what he taught. Believe it. Follow it.
So, number one, the issue of Salah.
My brothers, my sisters,
if you come out of Ramadan and your Salah has improved, you have succeeded.
If you come out of Ramadan and you have a new love for Salah, you have succeeded.
Young people don't realize true success is
when Allah loves you to pray for Him because Allah puts it in the heart.
Come to pray. We hear ‘Hayya Alas Salah’ ‘Hayya Alal Falah’
The two are connected.
You want success.
You come to prayer because Allah calls the Salah itself success.
When Allah is saying to us through
the teachings of Rasulullah (pbuh) that Adhan should be called.
And you should say ‘Hayya Alas Salah’.
And you should say ‘Hayya Alal Falah’.
He is calling you Hayya means to come towards, right, the same thing.
What is it?
One time he calls it Salah, the other time he calls it Falah.
So what is Falah? Falah is Salah.
You follow what we are saying?
You want to succeed?
Success is depicted by how you fulfill your Salah.
You can have the millions and the billions
and maybe in this worldly life you have everything, luxury.
It is nothing in the eyes of Allah.
It is not equivalent even to the wing of a fly in the eyes of Allah,
not the wing of a fly in the eyes of Allah.
But if you read to two units of prayer at fajr
Allahu Akbar, If Allah helps you to get up early for SalatAlFajr,
to make wudu and to come and fulfill your two sunnah..
It is better for you than the whole Dunya
and whatever it has, this whole world and whatever it has.
When you have the love to get up early in the cold winter nights
and to turn on the tap and to do your Wudu
and you are loving it, you have now arrived at a level you should thank Allah about.
Thank Allah for that, second thing I want to mention.
And I will just mention these two.
My brothers, my sisters, it is time to purify our heart.
The diseases of the hearts are plenty.
The heart is the seat of government of your entire body.
That's what the heart is.
The Hadith says,
In your body there is a piece of flesh.
There is a piece of flesh.
If it is pure, the body is pure.
If it is dirty, the body is dirty.
So Shaytan knows when I want to tackle
and attack, the first thing I need to do is attack what?
The heart.
The heart is dirty, filthy, messed, full of hatred, jealousy, ill, feeling,
bad thoughts, evil items, desires,
all that, is part of devil's plan.
He's knocked you at your main organ.
That's what it is from the heart which is connected to the brain.
The man is destroyed.
He might fulfill Salah, but his heart is so filthy he comes out
and slanders and backbites and enjoys juicy gossip.
one of the narrations;
A person who loves gossip and continues to enjoy to gossip about others.
How can there be a place for that person in Jannah?
That's just a warning from Rasulullah (pbuh).
Spend your time wisely.
You have minutes in this Dunya, nothing more.
Your days in this world are limited, very limited.
How old are you now and how many days was that?
Ask yourself. One year has 300 and something days.
365 according to the Gregorian and 355 according to the Lunar.
You think how you want to think?
Multiply that by ten, it's only 3000 something.
Multiply it by another ten. It's what?
3000 plus 3000, perhaps 7000, 8000.
What? Days.
That's all you have. in 20 years...
How many years more are you going to live? 20.
It's only a few thousand days, trust me.
May Allah grant us goodness.
Our days are limited.
So two things that I have spoken about today.
One is your Salah. One is your Salah.
My brothers, my sisters, there is no amount of emphasis that is
sufficient regarding the matter of Salah.
It is the founding pillar.
The pillar that holds up your deen.
That's why the Prophet (pbuh) says
the difference between a believer and a non-believer is the issue of Salah.
Whoever leaves it purposely has entered that side, not this side.
They are on the other side.
Allah grant us forgiveness , steadfastness.
The second thing is the issue of cleaning the heart.
Learn to help others. Learn to be selfless.
It's not about you alone.
Learn to speak to people correctly.
Learn to give people benefit of doubts because devil creates doubts in the hearts
and the minds of people against their own brothers and sisters.
So as an Ummah / nation we become fragmented and then we lose our energy.
Hence, what is happening across the globe where we see ourselves being trampled upon
simply because we have said La Illah Ila Allah.
may Allah Almighty forgive our shortcomings
and grant us steadfastness give us forgiveness during this month of Ramadan.
Help us to worship him alone at all times.
Help us in our Salah and help us to cleanse our hearts.