This lecture reframes the preparation for Ramadan from a focus on personal achievement to a singular pursuit of Allah's acceptance, emphasizing that Ramadan is about Allah, not the individual.
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First and foremost, I want to thank the
brothers from the ministry, from the
mazjid, the volunteers, the staff, the
imam, everyone that facilitated this
lecture tonight. I want to thank all of
you for coming out. I ask Allah subhana
tala to allow us to reach Ramadan and to
allow us to have an accepted Ramadan.
Allah I mean,
so I've been thinking a lot about this lecture,
lecture,
probably more so than any lecture I've
ever given on how to prepare for
Ramadan. And I'll tell you exactly why.
Two reasons. Number one, I always like
to tie the Ramadan prep to the series
that I'll be doing in Ramadan. And so
for those of you that are following, we
will do be doing a series
at Institute for Islamic Research, the
names of Allah subhana wa ta'ala and
tying in the names of Allah subhana wa
ta'ala to our daily lives and I named
the series the name I need to show the
universality of connection to Allah's
names across circumstances and so that's
the first thing number two
how do we not repeat the exact same
thing every single year you see if I was
to Ask everyone in here, how many times
have you heard a lecture about how to
prepare for Ramadan? I'm pretty sure
everyone in here has heard a lecture
about how to prepare for Ramadan tens of
times, if not hundreds of times. Because
every year the same thing happens. We
get excited. We make dua. We know what
the are going to be about. We make plans
and then next thing we know Ramadan is
over. and we say inshallah next year and
we don't know if there will be a next year.
year.
So I wanted to start off with a basic premise
premise
and it's actually something that I take
when we would go to Hajj and may Allahel
accept the Hajj of those who have gone
and may allahel accept the Hajj of those
who intend to go but have not been able
to physically go.
He would always start off our Hajj group
and he would say, "What is the reward
for Hajj?"
What is the reward for Hajj? I'm asking
you now, "What is the reward for Hajj?" Jah,
Jah, forgiveness,
purity,
all of you are wrong.
Why? Because the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam did not say there is a
reward for Hajj. He said
a Hajj that is accepted
has no
has no reward except for Jenna. You see
when we talk about the names of Allah
subhana wa tala the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam said Allah has 99 names.
He did not say whoever memorizes those names.
You memorize them, you act upon them,
you internalize them, you live with
those names of Allah subhana wa tala.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
did not simply say that attending
is the reward. Whoever comes early
before the sits down and listens
attentively to the im then he has the
reward. You see the messenger of Allah
sallallahu alaihi wasallam always
assigns an internal quality to an
external deed so that we do not become
obsessed with the performance and lose
the substance
and so if I was to ask you what's the
whoever fasts Ramadan is forgiven for
whoever fasts Ramadan with faith and
seeking the reward, Allah will forgive
them for all of their sins.
And so, Subhan Allah, if you think about
what we say when we finish the salah as
a habit, I'm not saying it's necessarily
the sunnah, it's not the sunnah, in
fact, to do it habitually, but you say
it's may Allah accept from you. Someone
finishes Hajj, you say, "May Allah
accept from you
it is and we say at the end of the month
of Ramadan, may Allah allow us to not
May Allah accept from you and from me."
You see, the profoundity of this is the
following that we are seeking Allah's
acceptance. And so I want to begin this
lecture tonight by completely flipping
the premise of what the average Ramadan
prep lecture looks like. And you know
what the premise of Ramadan is this
year? Not how can you read the most
Quran this Ramadan. Not how you can
change yourself this Ramadan. Not how
you can do this or how you can do that.
The premise is how can you be sure that
Allah has accepted your Ramadan?
How can you be sure that Allah has
accepted your Ramadan so that at the end
of this month
when we say
it is not just a wish but a realization
that indeed we hope that allahel has
accepted from us and from you and subhan
Allah if you look at the idea of
verily actions are but by intentions
the beginning is about Allah
It starts with something very basic.
Your Ramadan is not about you. It's not
about your habits. It's not about how
good you're going to feel. It's not
about your own upliftment. Your Ramadan
is about Allah, not you.
Connecting back to the names of Allah
subhana wa tala. It's about Allah, not
you. the end of Ramadan.
If you were to put yourself ahead
and you're standing in front of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala
and it is the last day of Ramadan
and this Ramadan has been presented.
You know, I remember the very first time
verily man sees himself even if he
presents his excuses.
You know, when you've prepared your
excuses in front of someone and they
might be really good excuses, but you
know that those excuses are not
legitimate. So, you know your teacher is
going to hold you account. you know that
your employer is going to hold you
account and you're looking at how to
arrange the timing, how to perfectly
But even as you're saying it, you know
that there's something illegitimate
about your excuse.
And when you're standing in front of
Allah subhana t on the day of judgment
and Allah says why did you do this or
why didn't you do this and you start
giving your excuses
you know and you know that he can see
subhanahu wa'ta as much as you see
yourself he sees you more than you see
yourself you know when they say he sees
right through you he sees right through
you. And so no matter how crisp the
voice is, no matter how you articulate
it, Allahel sees it through.
Even as you start to give your excuses,
you already know where the excuses fall
short. And Allah
knows more than what you know about yourself.
yourself.
So here's the premise. Your Ramadan is
not about you. It's about Allah.
And I want you to think about the end of
Ramadan. If you're doing an autopsy of
this Ramadan,
you have two trajectories.
If you live to see the end of Ramadan,
either it was an accepted Ramadan or it
was a rejected Ramadan. Those are the
two possibilities. If it was a rejected
Ramadan, I want you from now to put
yourself ahead of this Ramadan and to
read the autopsy of your Ramadan.
And if this isn't your first Ramadan,
then you probably have a lot of
experience in failure and success. And
so if you're reading through the autopsy
of your Ramadan, why it failed, what is
in that autopsy?
This is an experiment, a visualization.
By the way, something very powerful to
write down, right? Write it down for
yourself. Sit with yourself before
Ramadan starts and write the autopsy of
your Ramadan if it fails. And then on
the other hand, if it was accepted, if
it was a good Ramadan, why was it a good
Ramadan? Write it down.
You see, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives
us the beginning and the end. And look
how remarkable the consistency is.
It begins with the name of Allah and
with the intention of pleasing Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala. It ends with
The end of Ramadan, Allah tells you
exactly what it should look like. What
the end of Ramadan should look like.
And you are glorifying Allah for what he
guided you to and you have become
grateful to him for that guidance and
every other blessing that follows. This
is what the end of Ramadan should look
like. like a successful Ramadan is that
by the way there's a legal
implementation of this which is rightbar
so there's a legal implementation to
this as that as you finish this period,
you should come out declaring the
greatness of Allah. But look at the
consistency here. I gave you the example of
when you finish your remember Allah
that when you finish your prayer
remember Allah standing sitting and
When you finish your
and you go back to your daily life,
remember Allah frequently so that you
When Allah gives you material victory,
when he gives you the victory of Islam,
say subhan Allah, say glorify Allah and
seek forgiveness. You see, the end of
every one of our
is remember Allah, remember Allah,
remember Allah, remember Allah. The
beginning of every single one of our
ibad is begin with Allah, begin with
Allah, begin with Allah, begin with Allah.
You start with the intention solely for
the sake of Allah subhana wa ta'ala.
Somewhere along the way your intention
might get chipped away at but you keep
going back to at least that my original
I fasted for you. Oh Allah I am fasting
for you. There's something so beautiful
about the affair of Islam in this
regard. You know what it is
that the Sahabah
understood as the scholars of Tuskia
said that their whole life
was merely worship of Allah subhana wa
ta'ala and so they did not distinguish
between their sleep and their waking up.
They did not distinguish between their
eating and their fasting because all of
in the obedience of Allah subhana wa
tala. You know what that means? Think of
it this way.
The last day of Ramadan, you are
commanded to fast. It is haram for you
to eat or drink.
The first day of Eid, it is haram for
you to fast.
The same Lord that commands you to eat
and drink is the same Lord that commands
you to withhold from eating and
drinking. And so the very first affair
of fasting is Allah what you tell me I do.
do.
It is between you and I. Oh Allah, this
is your affair. You command. I do not
command. You tell me when to start my
fast. You tell me when to end my fast. I
don't get to add or detract a minute of
that fasting.
you are my Lord. I am your slave.
And here's what I want you to think about.
When Ramadan starts,
there is a covenant that is going to be
made with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And the Sahabah,
they were very different from every
generation that came after them,
including the including the immediate
generation after them. And the best
generation after the companions of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam was
the generation immediately after them.
The best generation after the Sahabah
was the generation of the
Sahaba were a people of quality.
The were a people of quantity, not
without substance,
but without the depth that the Sahaba
had of understanding of substance. The
Sahaba understood this affair in the
deepest sense.
Their felt deficient
in knowing the companions. I mean, how
would you act if you met Abu Bak?
How would you act if you knew Omar? How
would you act if you knew and and and
and
how would you act if you knew these
people? May Allahel be pleased with
them. How would you act like you would
feel so small? I met
what's my compared to his? I met
what's my compared to hers. So the they
felt like we need to catch up here and
that the secret the difference between
us and you
is not the amount of prayer. In fact the
if you took the number of Quran that
they made they made more of Quran. If
you took the number of that they prayed,
the prayed more than the if you took the feats
feats
of how much they would do, it was more
than the companions. But says that's not
the difference of the secret between us
It is smaller in your eyes than a strand
of hair. In
We the companions saw those same things
that you see smaller than a hair as of
the most destructive major sins.
We had greater reverence of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
You treat sins very small.
We treat the same sins that you consider as
as
minor deeds as major sins.
It's a reverence of Allah that we have
that you don't have. Okay,
Okay,
which brings me to the next point here.
My lastb
was about
was about how early you get to salah and
the prophet sallall alaihi wasallam
giving the tears of rewards right that
who gets there first and how late is it
to prepare for something right
I'm going to tell you something which is
very important and please pay close attention
attention
when the halan of Ramadan shows
there is a certain closing of a book
and an opening of another book. It's
very serious how you welcome the hilal
of Ramadan.
It's not Ramadan is not something that
you get into it. Ramadan is something
that you've prepared for and when
Ramadan comes Ramadan when Ramadan comes,
right, the gates of paradise are opened,
the gates of hellfire are closed and the
There's something that happens at the
beginning of the month. That's the
equivalent of when the angels close
their role book as the starts. That's
the equivalent of
and those that caught in that's the
equivalent of getting to before.
It's the equivalent every one of these
they have that secret that ingredient.
The Sahabah,
they looked at
in a very special way. How they welcome
the month of Ramadan in a very special
way. And I want you to pay very close
Firstly, I want you to memorize this dua
with me.
And we're going to go into the details
and he was a young boy when uh his
parents embraced Islam. In fact, he has
a very beautiful narration. His mother
who I believe her name was Zan.
I know her name was Zan. Zan was his
mother. She brought him to the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam when he was a
child and she wanted her child abdah to
take ba with the prophet sallall alaihi wasallam
wasallam
and you know imagine when someone brings
their baby puts their baby by the way
some of you come to me to take pictures
with your baby I'm not a politician
number one number two there's no baraka
on my holding your baby or kissing your
baby and I'm and I'm being serious about
that by the way like I'm flattered
But your baby's probably going to cry
when you hand your baby to me. And I'd
rather spare myself and your baby the
embarrassment and the trauma. All right?
But imagine this woman bringing her ch
her baby to the prophet sallallahu
his hand on his head and he takes the
bea that way from him to validate the
mother that wanted her child. It's like
in Hajj where a woman holds up her baby
and goes, "What about this one? Does he
have does his count?" So,
So,
she brought Abdah to the prophet as that
baby for the prophet to take from him.
He says in an authentic narration that
the companions of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam
would say this dua the way that they
would say or recite the Quran
at the entrance of the hil.
By the way, the hil he's talking about
here is every month. So this is a dua
that I want you to learn that you will
say at the beginning of every single
month from now on. It's a good way to
plug ourselves into the Islamic calendar
as well, by the way, because most of the
time outside of Ramadan,
we have no idea what month of the year
we're in. So, it's a good way to
accustom yourself to welcoming the month.
month.
their narrations as well and their
disputes about them to the prophet
and I'll talk about the difference in
shah in a But this is an authentic
narration that we the companions would
say this the way that we would say a
surah from the Quran. The way we would
recite the Quran when the month would
Oh Allah let it come upon us with safety
Islam
and with pleasure from this is how they
renew the intention of the month.
Ramadan is no exception to this. And so
the dua that you will say with the first
night of Ramadan, how you will embrace
First and foremost, let it enter upon us.
us.
I'm going to share with you something
that is a rule
in Tuske,
a rule in Islamic spirituality.
It is a rule, a fundamental rule in how
we understand Allah subhana wa ta'ala. that
this is one everyone enters into
paradise through my um except for those
who refuse.
Number two, no one will enter Jenna
except by the mercy of Allah subhana wa ta'ala.
Please pay close attention to this.
You want your Ramadan to be accepted
first and foremost. Ramadan comes upon you
you
You do not come upon Ramadan. There's
something deeply profound about
if Ramadan comes upon you, dear brothers
and sisters
and you avoid what Allahel has commanded
you to avoid and you do what Allah has
commanded you to do, your Ramadan is accepted.
accepted.
Your is accepted.
The judgment of it goes back to what we mentioned.
