Post-Ramadan gameplan

Auto-generated transcript:In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise belongs to Allah, Lord of the worlds. And peace and blessings be upon the honour of the prophets and messengers, Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and upon his family and companions, peace and blessings be upon him, and upon many many. And what is next? My brothers and sisters, Ramadan has ended and so have the rites of Ramadan. But the rites of Allah remain and they will remain until we die. As Allah commanded, وَاعْبُدْ رَبَّكَ حَتَّى يَأْتِيَكَ الْيَقِينَ Allah said, worship Allah, worship your Rabb until the inevitable comes to you, until the truth comes to you and that is death. Ramadan came to increase our taqwa. As I mentioned in several of my khutbah before, every ibadah, every act of worship is not for itself. Every act of worship is a tool to achieve something. Salah is not for itself. إِنَّ الصَّلَاةَ تَنْهَىٰ عَنِ الْفَهْشَاءِ وَالْمُنْكَرِ Salah is the tool to separate us from, to protect us from everything which is shameless and everything which is not good. Everything which is rebelliousness of Allah and disobedience. So if I'm praying and I find that there is no change in my lifestyle, if I'm still disobeying Allah, if I'm still engaging in things that Allah has prohibited, then I must question my salah. I must question what quality of salah is this? That it is not achieving the purpose for which it is meant. Allah said about Ramadan, what is the purpose of Ramadan? Ya ayyu allatheena amanu kootiba alaikumus siyamu kama kootiba ala allatheena min qablikum la'alakum tattaqoon Allah said, Do you believe fasting has been prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you so that you may become muttaqoon, so that you may become conscious of Allah in your lives, so that you may become completely and totally obedient to Allah, so that you do everything for one reason only and that reason is because it pleases my Creator. Now Ramadan reinforced that because in Ramadan during the hours of the fasting from before sunrise to after sunset, we stayed away even from things which are normally halal. Why? Because Allah said so. There's another reason. If anyone fasted for any other reason then the fast becomes batil. The reason we fast, the reason we don't eat, we don't drink, we don't have intimacy and so on is because Allah said so. Not for its physical benefits or you know any other reason. Because Allah said so. And that is to reinforce this concept in our minds. Because Allah said so. So if I'm going to stay away even from the permitted things which are wholesome, which are good to do because Allah said so and for no other reason, then what must I do with those things which Allah prohibited? Ramadan therefore did not come for Ramadan. Ramadan came for the rest of our lives. That is the goal. We use Ramadan as a habit change, an attitude change and a life change opportunity. So that we can become uttaqoon, we can become people of taqwa. We can become people who are conscious of Allah in every aspect of our lives. And so that we live our goals, we live our lives with only one goal in mind and that is to please Allah . Developing taqwa is the most important goal in life. Because all the promises of Allah are for the muttaqoon. Not merely for the Muslimoon. Not merely for the person who enters Islam. When you enter Islam, you just enter the fort. But you want value added benefits? It has to be more than that. We have to become conscious of Allah in our lives. And we have to worship Allah only without any partners. And we have to obey Allah over and above. And before we obey Allah, we have to obey Allah. We have to obey anyone and anything else including our own desires. And that is why Allah said وَبَنْ يَتَّقِ اللَّهَ يَجْعَلْ لَهُ مَخْرَجًا وَيَرْزُقُهُ مِنْ هَيْثُ لَا يَهْتَصِبُ Allah said whoever is mindful of Allah, what is the benefit of being a muttaqoon? What is the benefit of being mindful of Allah? What is the benefit of being conscious of Allah in our lives? Allah says whoever is mindful of Allah, Allah will solve his problems. Allah will make a way out for them. And provide them from sources that they cannot imagine. When we face difficulties individually or collectively, let's ask ourselves do we seek material solutions or do we introspect to see which of our actions may be responsible for the difficulty and how we can solve the problem and invoke the help of Allah by bringing into our lives the blessed path of RasulAllah . By all means seek material means. There is nothing wrong with that. But do we have a place to go to the root cause of it? Because the fact is if Allah is saying I will solve your problems if you are obedient to me, automatically it means that if you are not obedient to Allah, then no matter what you do, your problem will not go away. Right? It's a mutually exclusive statement. Allah is saying I will solve your problems. Allah did not say I and whatever you do will solve your problems. No. Allah is saying I will solve your problem if you are obedient to me. So if I am not obedient to Allah and I am seeking solutions, material means, this one, that one, this advice, that advice, nothing wrong in itself but if that is done with the disobedience of Allah in place, then no material means is going to solve that problem. Allah is saying, In Surah Al-Nahl Allah said surely Allah is with those who have taqwa. Allah is with those who are mindful of Him. And those who are al-mursinoon, who are on the path of Ihsan, who work to perfect their deeds, to excel in the obedience to Allah . Allah is with them. See the, this is why you have to understand the Quran al-Kareem with its language, with its grammar, with understanding. Allah did not say Allah will have the taqwa. In Surah Al-Talaq Allah said He will have. In Surah Al-Nahl Allah is not saying Allah will have. Allah is saying Allah is with them. Allah does not say I will give them. Allah says I am with them. Completely boundless. Right? When Allah is with me, what is with me? Everything that Allah has is with me. All the treasures of Allah, all the khudrat of Allah, all the power of Allah. See the way Allah has honored those who are obedient to Him. Inna Allaha ma'al lazeena taqwa wa lazeena hum mursinoon May Allah make us among the muttaqoon and mursinoon, InshaAllah. I remind myself, I knew that in Ramadan we normally, we stayed away from what is normal. Or what is perfectly halal and enjoyable, only to please Allah. This was to instill in us a desire to live our lives to please Allah alone. Let us therefore look at all aspects of our lives and ask, does this please Allah? Let us look at our aqaid , our creed, our beliefs. Let us look at our ibadat , our acts of worship. What is the quality of them? Let us look at our sources of earning. Let us look at what we eat and drink Let us look at our relationships With our parents, our siblings Spouses, children, families Let us see how we treat our neighbours And let us look at Every aspect of our behaviour in society How do I drive my car? Where do I park my car? Where do I leave the shoes? How do I greet somebody, older, younger, what? And ask the same question Does this please Allah? My way of acting, does it please Allah? My brothers and sisters, believe me We have enough knowledge to know the answers But if you don't know the answer Please ask somebody who knows To make sure There will be only truth that which pleases Allah And let us continue to remain steadfast After Ramadan I ask Allah SWT for steadfastness For myself and everyone In Ramadan we came to the masjid In large numbers For Taraweeh Which is a big thing And Nafil Which is a voluntary prayer Not obligatory Let not the masjid complain to Allah SWT After Ramadan That it has been abandoned As they say Guests leave But the family stays The masjid is the beating, living heart Of the Muslim community Let it not fall silent Let us continue to love To listen to the Quran in Salah Let us come to the first Salah As we used to go for Taraweeh Let us pray at least one Salah by Jama'ah every day Make this into a Assumption for yourself I will pray at least one Salah by Jama'ah Any masjid I am not saying come to this masjid Any masjid you like But pray one Salah by Jama'ah Every single day And as we know if you pray Fajr and Isha by Jama'ah The reward is That of having prayed all night In Ramadan we gave charity And we are not going to give charity to anyone else We gave people Iftar every day But people are not anacondas They don't eat once a year So what about feeding people every day Throughout the year Let us make charity into a daily habit Like breakfast In Ramadan we fasted Also with what comes out of our mouths With our tongues, our ears and eyes We controlled our anger We smiled at people We were patient We were patient We were patient Let us continue to do that For the rest of our lives Backbiting, slander, profanity Cursing, useless talk Pornography, smoking, vaping Lottery, gambling Interest based dealings Are all still haram after Ramadan They don't become halat Because Ramadan ended We avoided these things in Ramadan All of them or some of them Let us continue to avoid all of them Throughout our lives That is the only way That we can achieve the purpose Of our creation and lives To please Allah Let us continue to please Allah In Ramadan we pray Qiyamul Layl Tahajjud Let us remember that Qiyam Is not restricted to Ramadan Allah gives its reward every day I remind myself and you That we Behaved in a certain way in Ramadan Because it was Ramadan And as I remind myself and you The purpose was not To restrict that behavior To that time period But to make that behavior A permanent habit A permanent behavior in our lives Allah praised Those who pray tahajjud Who wake up in the night And stand before Allah And He promised them reward That they cannot even imagine Allah said about tahajjud