(Al Huda Masjid)

The nature and mandate of fasting is beautifully described in the Qur’an. Instead of just commanding us to fast, Allah addressed us as ‘mu’mineen’ to kindle the spark of iman within us to make us realize our intention–everything is for Allah. The primary purpose of why we fast is because we have this belief that Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala is our Maalik and He knows what is best for us.

“And if you do fast, know that it is better for you, if only you knew” (Surah Baqara; Ayah 184)

We can pretend that we know what’s best for us, but in reality, Allah knows what’s best for us. And when He says “ya ayyuhal ladhina amanu”, it means every single person whose ever had iman. And then He says “fasting has been prescribed for you” to give us a sense of support.

“Just as it has been prescribed for those people before you so that perhaps you may have taqwa” (Surah Baqara; Ayah 183)

The reason why we do this is to achieve closeness to Allah. Fasting isn’t for every day, but just a few days so that you can became close to Him.

Sahabah used to practice for Ramadan six months ahead of time. Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wa sallam would start practicing in Rajab (2 months ahead).

“Allahumma baraklana fi rajab was shabaan wa baligna ramadan”

“Oh Allah grant us barakah in rajab and sha’ban and grant us the ability to reach Ramadan”

Since Ramadan hasn’t started, we say this dua. Who knows if we will reach Ramadan or not? If you really understand the importance of Ramadan, this dua will become important to us.

It is THE most BLESSED month.

“If a person were to fast forever they wouldn’t be able to make up for the barakah of Ramadan,”

“Time is like a sword that cuts, if you don’t cut it, it cuts you…”

“How many people fast, but do not achieve anything but hunger. And how many people stand up at night to worship Allah swt at night but achieve nothing but tiredness and lose sleep; understand why you’re fasting.”

Imam Ghazali says that there are three levels of fasting:

1. The fast of the general average person: to hold back a person’s stomach and private parts from fulfilling its desires. This also holds its importance. “Whoever guarantees me that which is between their jaws and that which is between their legs I guarantee that person paradise”. Most people falter in this area.

2. The fast of the special servant of Allah swt: refrain from any type of sin that involves their hearing, sight, tongue, hands, feet, and all their limbs/organs. “Sin is that which gives you internal turmoil and you dislike that people become aware of it”

3.The fast of those people that are the particular chosen servants of Allah swt:The word Sawm is used in this: to hold back/to abstain. So hold and to watch over your heart and any base desires. Or by even pondering any thought about the dunya. In totality, refrain from involving the heart in anything other than Allah swt.

The middle group is the fast of the righteous.

Group two: If there was a King whose kingdom contained entrances by 5 different rivers, and he was under attack, the king would make sure that these 5 rivers were protected and guarded. Because if an enemy enters, then the whole kingdom is destroyed. Similarly, it is necessary to protect yourselves from sin from ALL limbs and areas, otherwise you are destroyed.

To be a part of the second group:

Things we should try to do:

1. To lower the gaze. Mandatory on every believing man/woman… because it is so shameful, Allah Ta’ala hasn’t even discussed it directly–”YOU (Rasulullah) tell them that…”

2. To protect the tongue.

3. To protect your hearing. A great muhaddith would wrap cloth around his head and put cotton in his ears whenever he went out in public, and someone asked him why, he said, “20 years ago I heard two people discussing something, the affects of which are still inside of me, therefore I do this whenever I go in public.”

4. To protect the rest of your limbs from sin. Don’t walk towards sin; don’t touch sin.

5. To eat less in Ramadan. The whole point of Ramadan is to eat less. There’s barakah in suhoor: “Allah and his angels send salawaat on those people who get up to eat suhoor” Suhoor and iftar don’t have to be lavish. Realistically, most people gain weight in Ramadan. We should enjoy, but, tone down the amount. The reason why Allah asks us to abstain from that which is halaal is that, so we gain the power to abstain from that which is haraam.

6. To have a balance of fear and hope. Fear that you don’t know whether your fast is accepted. And hope that Allah Ta’ala will accept it out of His mercy. Fear and hope are like wings, if one wing tilts too far one way, then the path is moved.

What we should do:

1. Ask Allah for tawfiq to benefit in Ramadan. “Whoever doesn’t ask of Allah, then Allah Ta’ala gets upset with that person”–nobody else is like that.

2. Make a firm resolve to abstain from all sins, especially of the eyes/ears/tongue/heart.

3. Free up time for ibadat. We’re all busy, so we have to MAKE time. This is the month of ibadat.

4. Schedule whatever appointments we have for before or after Ramadan. Don’t have things like that during Ramadan, it’s the month of Allah so devote it to Him.

5. Try to follow the sunnat. We all know Allah Ta’ala loves Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wa sallam, we may have people in our lives that we love; for example, our children. If we see another kid that looks like ours, we get happy because of that love we have for our own. When we resemble habibullah, Allah focuses on us as well. Just by mere resemblance. If anyone wants to deny the power of the effect of resemblance then they are denying a story in the Qur’an: Musa, as with the magicians. They came dressed up as Musa as to mock him but because of their resemblance of a Nabi of Allah, Allah granted them great iman at the end. External and internal sunnah should be practiced.

6. Learn the fiqh of Ramadan. Have access to a book/‘ulema to keep it fresh in our minds in case we approach a situation and we don’t know what to do.

7. Dua’, Qur’an, Dhikr—leads you to Allah swt and automatically keeps you uninvolved with others. FOCUS on Allah swt; don’t waste your time with others.

Two things To Hold Back on in Ramadan:

1. Disease of Lustful Glances

The Prophet once had a blind man come visit him, while some of his wives were with him. The Prophet told them to make hijab (leave) and they asked, “Why? He is blind.” But the Prophet saw responded, saying, “…but are you blind?” Meaning, girls are not exempt from lowering the gaze.

*Allah swt is aware of HOW you look (even from the corner of your eye), how you use ALL your senses (smelling, hearing), ALL movements of limbs (each step you take towards the opposite gender), and finally..everything you INTEND by that lustful glance.

Power = ability to DO something, and ability to NOT do something…applies both ways.

The affect of one lustful gaze can last you a lifetime.

2. Backbiting: if you backbite during Ramadan it is as if your telling Allah swt that you are going to fill up the empty stomach that you kept empty for Him, with the flesh of your brother/sister.

“Al ghibatu ashaddu minaz zina”

“zina is going against a right of Allah swt and gheebah is taking a right of a believer”

When you commit zina you don’t go apologize to the person, you repent with Allah swt. But with gheebah, you have to ask the person you backbit about for forgiveness and Allah swt wont forgive you until they do!

- Ask for forgiveness, for ex.: “If I have ever said anything…please forgive me”. Keep it simple.
- Speak good about them.
- Don’t be a part of it; stop it; leave it; or at least save yourself from it.

Increase in:

1. Recitation of La illaha illalah—so that it is easy to get rid of false gods in our heart.
2. Seeking forgiveness in Allah swt–ask with passion, otherwise it seems like a checklist; how are you going to give your LORD a checklist?
3. Ask Allah swt for jannatul firdous.
4. Seek protection from jahannam.

Hakim ul Ummah, Hazrat Thanwi (RA) received a letter from a person who requested some spiritual advice.

In reply to this person’s letter Hazrat Thanwi (RA) wrote, “Read twenty of my transcribed spiritual discourses and practice upon them, then inform me of your condition, i.e. whether or not you feel some spiritually elated and or change within your heart…”

After reading twenty lectures, the person replied, “Unfortunately, I have not found any change within myself at all…”

Hazrat Thanwi (RA) wrote back, “Either you have not read those lectures with the intention of spiritual rectification, or the subject-matter of those lectures you read were not spiritually-related…Or there is also a possibility that there is nothing within you which needs  rectification…”

The person wrote back and admitted that he did not read the lectures with the specific intention of spiritual rectification, to which Hazrat Thanwi (RA) replied that he should do so.

The last letter of this person came saying, “Alhamdulillah, I have acquired enormous spiritual benefit from those lectures! An amazing change has now taken place from within…”

Hazrat Thanwi (RA) then comments: “Now if I would have merely prescribed some zikr or something, then he would not have benefited so greatly.

Truly, if a person does something the right way, fulfilling its rights and conditions, then Allah Ta`ala will definitely put benefit in that thing.

But our problem is that we do things according to our own understanding and deficient conjecture, due to which we end up frustrated and confused.

Today’s fake peers and money-making, Sufi shaikhs have cheated the people, taking money from them and giving them wazifas to read… Is there such a thing as becoming spiritually rectified through wazifas and awraad? Islaah and spiritual rectification can only come from spiritual rectification.”

(Malfuzaat; 8/317)

Translator’s Note: This in no way is intended to belittle the power of dua’s Azkaar, which also play an essential role in spiritual rectification. Rather this means that if a person does not make an effort on leaving sins and working on changing his evil qualities, and inculcating within himself good character, then simply reading a thousand wazifas and awraad, without a practical effort in abstaining from evil and trying to do good deeds, then these awraad alone will not rectify him.

Hazrat Maulana Rumi (RA) very beautifully said, “I ask Allah for proper Adab, because the one who lacks Adab is deprived from the grace of Allah.”  This brings us to an important point the Akaabir bring up which is that if a person is maqbool and accepted by Allah, then Allah will never reject that person and so to say kick the person out of His circle.  But if a person seemingly belongs to be part of Allah’s circle but so to say gets kicked out, then the Akaabir tell us that this person was never accepted to start with in the first place.

From pondering over the above, one other point comes to mind.  This makes me realize the independence of the Ahlullah and the servants of the Ahlullah.  There are so many great Awliya all over the world with hundreds if not thousands of students.  These Awliya are not dependent on anyone of their students.  If a task is given to a particular student and not to another, it should be understood that the Shaykh must have done so for a reason unknown to both students perhaps.  The unseen system of Allah works wonders in ways that we cannot even begin to fathom.

Just keeping in my mind my own Shaykh (DB), who I know has numerous students, doesn’t allot specific things to every single one of them.  If we are told to do something, we consider it our good fortune, because we know with certainty that our Shaykh (DB) does not need any single one of us because he has complete reliance in Allah.  So when a person has Allah, they do not need anyone else.  We are more in need of our Akaabir than they are in need of us, in fact they do not need us at all.

I say this because Allah manifests some of His qualities on His servants sometimes.  Amongst those qualities are Samadiyat and Istighnaa (Self-Reliance and Independence).  These two qualities are always found with the Ahlullah and their servants as well, as Allah manifest these qualities on them.

We find that many a student of a Shaykh feels “left out”.  This in other words is equivalent to having a bad opinion regarding the Shaykh which is extremely detrimental for the spiritual progress of the student.  This is so scary that it can very quickly result in being rejected from the court of Allah.  The manner in which this takes place is that Allah removes that person from the company of the pious, and ultimately the person falls into deep ditch of depression and endless sin.

I mention all of this because something very astonishing occurred recently which I wish to bring to light.  There is a shaykh who had a student who was “upset” with the shaykh and what seemed as jealous and envious of certain other students.  So this student told the shaykh that they are ending the relationship of islah that was mutually established by the shaykh and this particular student.  So the shaykh said that whatever the student feels comfortable doing is fine, thus this relationship of reformation ended.  That same night, the shaykh received a random email from some other person wanting to establish an islahi ta’alluq with that shaykh.

Not to compare with Allah but just as Allah is not in need of our worship because Allah has numerous angels to worship Him, neither are the special servants of Allah in need of people because if one leaves, another one comes along who is always better than the former.

This comparison is also in the Quran where Allah speaks about the apostates that when they turn away from their religion, Allah will bring a new group whom He loves and they will love Him….

I guess this is just me going off on random tangents, but nonetheless, it is food for thought.  I pray that Allah accepts us all for His sake, never causes us to exit from the company of His beloveds.