Line up and they take your good deeds until you have nothing left.
Can you imagine that Laylat al-Qadr is better than 1,000 months, a 1,000 months?
And Let's say that a person called Laylat al-Qadr for 50 years,
50,000 months of good deeds gone.
why?
The most important 10 days of the most important month of the year;
We know the Hadith of the Messenger (pbuh)
that a person comes on the day of judgment and they have their prayer.
They have their fasting, they have their siam.
Can you imagine how many Laylatul Qadr they have caught a lifetime?
a lifetime of seemingly doing the good deeds, but different
narrations of the Hadith;
Those things are in different order.
But the point is, despite all of that, you cursed this person.
You backbited this person.
you slandered this person, you hit this person, you denigrated this person.
Basically you had a nasty tongue.
So respecting Rights of Fellow Humans (Huqooq ul Ibad)
The people that you hurt line up and they take your good
deeds until you have nothing left.
Can you imagine that Laylatul Qadr is better than 1,000 months?
A thousand months?
And Let's say that a person call later the other for 50 years,
50,000 months of good deeds gone.
Why?
Because of the people that you hurt with this.
It's a warning from the prophet (pbuh);
the barriers to our good deeds being accepted or
being profitable on the day of judgment.
Now, that's not what I want to talk about tonight.
I just want to establish a premise for a moment
that as we're getting into the last 10, we need to make tawbah from those
things that might take away everything from the last 10,
prayer taking the most of our prayer, the good things about prayer.
It was a warning not to be forgetful for your prayer, right;
with your prayer and lose out on your prayer.
This is beyond that.
This is your good deeds going to waste because you're not
reforming your akhlaq, you're not reforming your manners.
And so if you want your Ibadat to be accepted, you have to
reform your akhlaq.
Can you all remember that if you want your Act of worship to be accepted,
you have to reform your what? Your manners.
If you want your acts of worship to be accepted, you have
to reform your manners.
May Allah (swt) allow us all to reform our manners and to perform
our acts of worship. Allahuma Ameen.
This is the time to do it in this life.
There's also another prominent aspect of these next 10 nights
which is dua to Allah constantly making dua
We have lists that we go to Allah with.
You've been asking Allah for all this time.
Laylatul Qadr is the night of Decree.
So you want something to happen in the next year?
That's your night.
That's the night that your next year is going to be decreed,
in the next 10 nights.
Your next year is going to be written down.
Think about the consequence of that, including, by the way,
those who plan to go to hajj.
May Allah write us amongst them, Allahuma Ameen.
So in these next 10 nights, something is going to happen
with your decree, Right?
And what is the barrier to your accepted dua,
And that's why I want to stop for a moment and think about
the surah that we just passed.
In surah An-Nur, Allah talks about the ideal society that got polluted
by some of those bad manners, slander, gossip
until they did not spare our mother Ayesha (ra), our mom.
Our mom was slandered.
You love your mother.
You're reading about the story of your mom being slandered
with the worst type of slander.
Our mother was slandered by people we also love.
Not the hypocrite Ibn Ubayy ibn Salul,
Some of the Sahaba fell into the trap, passing it right and left.
They took it and took aspects of it and passed it.
And Allah forgave the companions, not the hypocrites.
But what did Allah (swt) say?
That's a strong warning.
I'm warning you never to go back to this again.
Nothing like it the remnants of it.
Don't you ever go back to anything like that episode ever again.
Allah let you off with a severe crime.
And Yes, there were some people that had to pay the penalty
of slander and there were others that Allah knows, they passed
the slander, but they were not amongst the main slanders.
But Allah (swt) offered an amnesty, but a warning with that
Amnesty, Don't you ever go back to that way again.
Let there never be an episode in the society of Medina again,
Like the slander of our mother Ayesha (ra) in the society of Medina again.
That's a strong warning.
Honestly, if you're reading that Ayah the strength of it.
It is such an admonishment, the strength of it.
It's not even...
Allah does not even talk about what the consequences are.
It's just Allah is warning you.
I'm warning you, do not ever go back to anything like that again.
Don't let that happen in the Society of Medina again.
Just like Uhud, don't let the disobedience of Uhud happened again
and they never did, right?
Sahaba never had another uhud episode
and Sahaba have never had another if episode, Alhumdillah,
because they were people who took the Quran very seriously.
And then you see Surah Al-Furqaan, Ibadur-Rahman;
the servants of the most merciful.
And Allah mentions their Toba/ their repentance.
Why?
Because all of you will sin.
All of you will sin.
All of the children of Adam will sin.
All of us will fall at times.
But Allah (swt) mentions in the qualities of the servants of the Most Merciful.
And Allah reemphasizes that, by the way,
the one who not only repents, but who puts in the place of
where they used to sin a good deed instead to hold that place.
They cut off the means to sin and they now have the means to good deed.
They now have means to a good deed with Allah (swt) and for
those people, how merciful Allah is, Allah switches their sins to good deeds.
Now Surah an-Nur was a warning to society as a community,
don't mess up like that again.
You get one.
You messed up as a community,
Make Towbah to Allah and learn the lesson as a community,
Ibadur-Rahman is very individual.
When you messed up, turn back to Allah
and put in the place of your sin a good deed.
Why do I want to build on this, in sha Allah, tonight?
Because just like there are barriers to are good deeds having
any weight on the day of judgment, the barriers to our duas
having any weight in this life is our insistence on sin.
So the insistence on poor manners make our Ibadat meaningless.
The insistence on sin render our duas void.
How do we know? The Hadith of the Prophet (pbuh)
Oh my Lord.
But look at your dress.
Look at your food, look at your sustenance.
You're insisting on Haram and
then you're insisting on Allah (swt) to answer your dua.
How does that work?
Yes, Allah answers duas.
But what kind of effort are you putting in?
You're insisting on your ways and then you're insisting Allah
answer your supplications.
It doesn't work that way with Allah (swt),
and on what basis are you going to be responded to?
You're not willing to reform your ways, but you want Allah (swt)
to answer every one of your supplications.
Why?
Because I read the dua,
I prayed the entire night, I caught taraweeh but my duas..
Look for myself and for you;
Ramadan resolutions mean difficult, difficult, difficult sacrifices.
And what I want to really advise myself and all of you
and wallahi, it comes from a sincere place I hope for myself and for you.
Remove the means that are causing you to constantly fall
in the sins over and over and over again.
You know, for some people that means scrub your social media,
If you're not going to do it in Ramadan,
then when are you going to do it?
You need to delete your social media.
For some people, that means I need to exit certain WhatsApp groups
or I need to delete WhatsApp altogether.
For some people, that means I need to delete certain contacts.
Honestly, there are certain friends in my life that just
provide a constant Avenue to sins for me.
For some people, that means I really need to consider at this point.
So I'm in a haram business where I have a Haram level of earning,
I'm going to cut it off now.
For some people that means reforming your dress.
For some people, that means reforming your food.
For some people, that means reforming your sustenance.
But every one of us has to look deep, deep, deep, deep, deep.
Because when you show Allah (swt) that you're going to insist
on these ways and you're not willing to make those sacrifices,
that is the barrier between you and your supplication.
You become dua mechanical at that point.
How beautiful with the dua of a person that says, Ya Allah, I'm changing.
Ya Allah, I'm taking the next step in my journey to you.
Ya Allah, I'm looking at myself and I'm not going to insist on these things,
no matter how minor they are. Remember the prophet (pbuh) said,
Be aware of the minor sense.
Some of you are planning weddings, right now or after Ramadan,
How are you planning that wedding to be?
Think about it, right?
Every single aspect of your life,
What are you thinking about doing right after Ramadan?
Every single one of us look deep in the mirror as we go into
these 10 nights and say, How do I delete my past?
Because I want Allah to switch my sins to good deeds.
But in order to do that, I need to switch the means
to my sins with the means to good deeds.
And Allah is merciful enough to where He will clean the slate.
But am I going to clean my own slate?
Am I going to turn my own page?
I trust Allah; Ar-Rahman, the most merciful to clean the slate
if I sincerely turn back to Him.
But will I fill it with good?
And so while we're talking about Ramadan resolutions,
... less than two weeks left the Ramadan.
if you weren't going to make the change in these next
two weeks, if you're not going to do it in Ramadan, when
are you going to do it?
If you're not going to reform your earnings and the things
that the Prophet (pbuh) said, the barriers to duas,
when are you going to do it?
And if you start thinking about, well, but that would mean
I have to change this, and I have to change that.
You know how the shaitan end with this? Prophet (Pbuh) said,
When you're about to give charity, you're about to give charity,
The shaitaan open their mouths and they tell you what, poverty,
poverty, poverty, poverty, poverty, vacation trip.. these...
They hold you back from your charity. That's with every good deed.
You're about to turn the page with Allah (swt),
But what about your friends?
But wait a minute.
What about this?
What about that?
What about your social gatherings?
What about your family?
What about these people?
What about those people?
What about this factor?
Wait a minute.
But if you get this out of your life, Oh, but wait a minute.
Maybe you'll need to communicate with that person again.
The excuses, shaitaan wants to make sure the means are still there.
He's gonna come out of his chains with a vengeance
After Ramadan, we all know how we feel on the day of Eid;
He will come out of his chains with a vengeance.
He just wants you to maintain the pieces in place, the means
so that you go back to those things.
Let's hold ourselves accountable and Let's make some difficult sacrifices.
And that's how you get your duas answered.
Just like we don't know how the sins affect our lives,
They make our lives the void of blessings.
They bring in our lives trials and tribulations
that we don't even trace back the same thing,
Dear brothers and sisters, with our dua
We ask Allah (swt) to purify us from the sins and from
the shortcomings that cause our duas to not be answered,
And we ask Allah (swt) to purify us from the sins and
the shortcomings that caused tribulations to descend upon us,
and we ask Allah (swt) to purify us from the bad characteristics
and manners that cause our acts of worship to not be answered,
to not be accepted.
We ask Allah (swt) to fill our hearts, to fill our eyes, to fill
our minds, to fill our limbs with that which is pleasing
to Him, and to purify us from all that is displeasing to Him.
We ask Allah (swt) to allow this Ramadan to be a moment of
a turn page with Him,
And we ask Allah (swt) for anyone we have harmed that Allah (swt) allow
us to be forgiven by them as well.
We ask Allah (swt) to correct our affairs in regards to the hereafter,
and correct our affairs in regards to the Dunya,
and we ask Allah (swt) to make us amongst those who catch Laylatul Qadr,
and who do not have Laylatul Qadr invalidated on
the day of judgment.
O Allah accept it from us.
Allow us to catch it and allow us to see it on the day of judgment,
and do not let it be amongst those Laylatul Qadr
that are invalidated,
Allahuma Ameen.