Shaitan's aim is to make you an indiscipline person
one who follows his own whims and fancies and desires.
Hence, even if it was just a school that gave you rules.
Or a religion that placed rules.
A person who is trapped by Satan would not want to follow any rules.
He wants to fulfill what is known as my wish,
my whims, my fancies, what I desire.
Allah Almighty, the Maker, what has he told us?
Whenever there are good things to be done,
even for a person who doesn't have a faith at all;
When he has to be disciplined,
he feels lazy, even to get up in the morning, he feels lazy.
Then to do the right things that which would help you, say,
for example, a person who doesn't believe at all.
They go to school,
they feel lazy to follow rules, they feel lazy to do the right things.
They find it difficult to do so much that is connected to discipline.
Why?
Because Satan's aim is to make you an indiscipline person,
one who follows his own whims and fancies and desires.
Hence, even if it was just a school
that gave you rules or a religion that placed rules,
a person who is trapped by Satan would not want to follow any rules.
He wants to fulfill what is known as
my wish, my whims, my fancies, what I desire.
Religion comes in and Allah Almighty, the Maker, what has He told us?
Whether it's a Muslim, a Jew,
or a Christian, or those who follow other faiths.
The rules and regulations are there to discipline you, to make you
a person who will succeed without regret,
a person who does not just have a moment of joy
followed by a lifetime of regret, but rather a person who understands
that I need to follow rules and regulations in a way
that my contentment is extended, not just throughout my little life on this earth,
but beyond going into the hereafter.
This is why we say, my brothers, my sisters, ponder and think.
Allah Almighty Himself asks us to ponder, to think.
Think about the creation of the heavens and the earth and the day
and the night and its rotation and how it operates.
Allah says, You know what? You will find that you have a Maker.
There are signs in there that will lead you to worshiping your Maker alone.
You will say,
Oh, Our Lord, you have not created all of this in vain.
We were to be hit by a cyclone early morning or today, today and tomorrow.
And we're all praying,
we're all making du'a, we're all asking Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
and we still ask for goodness and so on.
And yes, it has hit land as we speak.
But take a look at the weather outside right now.
What does it look like?
We were expecting, in fact, today, they declared that schools shall be closed.
Hence, we see quite a few people here, Masha'allah.
That's what was declared.
I'm not saying they were wrong or right.
I'm not a part of that decision making, nor am I an expert.
But what I want to tell you is, look at the weather out there.
We still hope tomorrow and the following day is going to be better.
We might have heavy rains and so on, but we are hoping
that Allah will spare us and others the wrath or the loss or the destruction.
That having been said, doesn't it show you that man sometimes makes big blunders.
He cannot even predict
what's going to happen tonight or this afternoon or after a moment.
And yet we think that Allah Almighty, who already told us that it's in My hands,
you pray to Allah, you believe in miracles.
We believe in miracles.
Something impossible is not impossible for Allah.
How many times have things that are totally impossible happened
because Allah willed them.
Things that man said, this there is no chance that this would happen.
It came and it happened and it was.
Subhanallah, that's Allah.
He has proven to us that He exists.
Now, what does Allah do?
Because He knows that He has let Satan come to us
in order to whisper within our systems to do the wrong thing.
Then He has the angels and His forces
who come to us instructing us to do the right things.
Then you have us in the middle whom He has given a brain,
He has given thinking capacity, He has given a responsibility,
and He has allowed a certain level of choice.
He tells us, I want you to navigate through all of this and worship Me alone.
That's the whole reason why I've created you.
I don't have a say as to why Allah made me.
I will never know unless I'm told.
People say, Why am I on earth?
Well, the best answer that
there is in existence is that you are here
in order to worship your Maker and return to Him in a beautiful way.
No other answer, and there are millions of other answers,
no other answer is as satisfactory as that.
Because I'm on earth.
Do you really think such a sophisticated human being
with such a unique identity in more than a thousand ways;
You are absolutely unique, different from the first of your species,
right to the last in your identity.
Do you really reckon that I'm just coming on earth to enjoy myself,
come, go to school, earn a little bit of money, enjoy,
buy the latest of things, have fun and die and go, and that's it.
It's the end of all.
It's impossible.
That's not the case.
A person who thinks and believes will realize, you know what?
There is a greater purpose.
I may struggle here.
That means on the other side,
if I worshiped my Maker alone, I would not struggle.
And if I have not struggled here and I've still worshiped my Maker alone,
I'll be one of the few lucky ones who have gained this world and the next.
And that's what we asked for in the du'a.
Our Lord grant us goodness in this world and goodness in the hereafter.
But you need to know,
Allah's divine plan is He has the forces of evil, the forces of goodness.
You, O man, in the center there,
and He's given you the tools to navigate through the two.
He says, I want you with all of this around you
to still navigate through it in the way that you worship Me alone,
come back to Me and I'll tell you where you have succeeded and where you failed.
May Allah grant us success.
In the interim, what does he do?
Less than 30 days from now, we have the month of Ramadan.
What is it?
It's one of those massive positive seasons
that are there for reflection and gaining the correct relation with Allah Once again,
it's called taqwa to develop your consciousness of Allah.
That's the whole reason why that month is in existence.
Allah says, We know you will sway from time to time.
We know what you need in order for you to remain on that path
and to understand the plot and the plan of the devil,
and to know that we want you to navigate through
what we just said a few moments ago.
We want you to navigate through all these forces and circumstances
and come out from it someone who's closer to us than they were previously.
I'm going to enter the month of Ramadan if Allah wills.
If He wants, He can take me and you before that.
You and I can go right now, today.
But Allah says, Start preparing for this month.
We are already now in the month
just preceding Ramadan, what should you be doing?
You should be fasting.
Even in this month, it's not compulsory, but it's a sunnah.
It is something the Prophet, peace be upon him, did.
Get used to Mondays and Thursdays.
My brothers, my sisters.
It will help you in every way.
It will even improve your health.
Our intention is not...
The primary intention is not that because
my health improves, that's why I'm going to fast.
But it's because it's a sunnah, I'm going to fast.
As a result, my health will also improve, in sha Allah,
because when you obey Allah, you'll improve in every single way.
The primary intention is to please Allah,
to do it because the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, did it.
Whether you understand it or not, medicine has only discovered now,
the benefit of intermittent fasting and so on,
and fasting two days in the week, and that's exactly how they've worded it.
Similarly, the 13th, 14th, and 15th of the lunar calendar, it's a sunnah to fast.
We ask Allah to strengthen us.
Then start during this month to increase the recitation of your Quran.
Start improving on the way you recite, the pronunciation.
Start learning the meanings.
Be dedicated.
Start looking for a text perhaps
that would explain to you the words of Allah in a language
you understand and make an effort to understand the word of Allah
because indeed it is the most powerful word in existence.
A man came to me and told me,
What proof do you have that the Quran is the true scripture?
I said, What other options do you have?
He says, We have the Torah, the telemood, we have the Bible, and so on.
He gave me a list of...
I said, You tell me, from all of those, which is the better according to you?
Not according to me.
According to me, it's not a question of better.
That is the scripture.
He says, Well, I suppose.
It's the Quran, but you know.
But I said, Okay, let's stop there.
So the best of what we have in the market, according to you, is actually the Quran.
Well, I say it is the best. Finished.
Because the others, if you have a doubt in the Quran,
there is greater doubt in everything else that exists.
So what would you follow?
That which has greater doubt or less doubt according to you, not me.
For me, there's no doubt.
You see the difference.
Anyway, he had to surrender and he had to accept and said, You know what?
In actual fact, you're right.
But still, Allah will not guide those who believe it's right.
If Allah doesn't want that guidance
because many people know what's right and wrong.
They're either too scared,
they're too afraid, or sometimes they just don't want or they fear.
They will lose what they have around them.
The Kuffar of Mecca, many of them knew what was the truth.
Allah says, But they were oppressive, they were wrongdoers.
They denied, they belied.
They just used to deny the verses of Allah.
I'm a leader.
I'm going to lose my position because if I become a Muslim,
they're going to do this to me and that to me.
You know what?
You love Allah more or your position more and you make a decision.
May Allah Almighty grant us goodness.
Allah has blessed us with the month of Ramadan that's about to come.
Prepare for it. Soften your hearts, solve your problems,
resolve your matters, try and solve the enemy between you.
Brothers are not speaking.
Sometimes people have issues and problems.
Try your best to resolve it.
Not everyone's going to be able to resolve every matter.
But did you try? Did you give it your best shot?
The answer is yes.
Well, Inshaallah, Allah has seen that.
Then you enter the month of Ramadan,
beautiful, as clean as possible, with the idea of cleansing yourself further
and elevating your status even beyond.
You see what will happen when you take
what Allah has considered sacred as sacred, Allah will open your hearts
and Allah will grant you success in this world and the next.
For indeed, He is the owner of entire existence.
What you are searching for Allah owns it.
Knock at His door and you will find it coming towards you.
Here, Allah has given us a massive door known as the month of Ramadan.
Oh Allah, grant us the ability to witness the month of Ramadan,
allow us to reach the month of Ramadan in such a way
that we knock your door before it, during it, and after it,
such that you've forgiven us.