[Music] for [Music] everyone um it feels like I was here just uh yesterday but year goes by quick huh masallah um I pray that all of you are doing well and that you are your families are in the best of health and best of Eman and I also pray that we make the most of this Ramadan and it's the best Ramadan of Our Lives um Typically before Ramadan we have you know these welcome Ramadan type programs and we uh give almost uh identical kinds of reminders about how we need to mentally prepare ourselves and make
the most of this month that's this is not going to be one of those talks so uh what I decided to do there you know when it comes to the concept of Tasia I have a certain view on the concept of Tasia T in Arabic the simple English meaning would be purification and of course the Month of Ramadan is an attempt for us to purify our hearts and purify our connection with Allah right but there are two kinds of purification there is spiritual purification the purification of the heart and there's also the purification of our
understanding the purification of the mind right and um I think that you are going to hear a lot and benefit a lot from reminders that already talk about the purification of our hearts and the kind of the kind of The kind of the kind of you know good deeds that we're going to do that help towards but the session that I want to have with you today is actually more focused on it's it's focused on the the cleansing of our thoughts and our understanding of what it is that we're about to celebrate in the month
of Ramadan uh I'll also say that I've talked about this uh I you know I've been giving lectures on the Quran for Over 20 years and I think I've given a lecture about Ramadan every year for 20 years uh so there's plenty of this out there but I don't think I've taken this approach that I'm about to take tonight in any of the last 20 years so it's uh it's something that I've been thinking about more recently and I think it's absolutely necessary for especially young Muslims but even old alike but especially young Muslims to
have some of this education as part of their core Education so I pray Allah gives me Clarity in speech and you're able to take something meaningful with you that you can keep for yourselves and also share with family and friends okay having said all of that um it is my uh absolute conviction that the the Quran from fa to NAS like fa is Surah number one Bak is Surah number two Al Surah number three we all know that it was not revealed in this order right uh so this the question then is why is it
in this Order and it is without making a lecture about that I've given entire courses about that but I just want to share with you what I believe about that because that will impact how I talk about today's subject what I believe about that is this is Allah's Design This Is Not a Human Design This is Allah's design Allah decided in the end that fa will be one Bak will be two Al would be three would be four ma would be five and the sahabah only agreed to this order Because they understood this to be
ordered unanimously from the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and there are lots and lots of reasons to argue in in favor of that view that it's not just some people you know some companions eventually decided this should be the order this was always supposed to be the order and this is as clear as even when I say alhamd goes first and goes second just like theat go in a certain order the Surah is go in a certain order now What is the benefit of that there's lots of them but I'm going to focus because Allah talks
about Ramadan inak and the thing is that just like every bone in my body has a certain place like this bone in my finger Allah didn't put it in my foot and he didn't put it in my rib cage and he didn't put it in my ear he put it here it's a certain size it's a certain configuration and it fits here right Allah doesn't put anything anywhere Accidentally Allah is you know he he puts things in the most appropriate places he put the sun exactly where it belongs the moon exactly where it belongs he
put my eyes in my face exactly where they belong he put every cell in my body exactly where it belongs the same way he put the ayat of his final Revelation exactly where they belong and so he put the ayat of Ramadan exactly where they belong which is where inah Bak so it's it's nice to Go through the aat of of of of Ramadan and say hey I learned something but the question then arises there could have you Allah has given short suras too right is very short there could have been aah Ramadan and could
have been just the aat of Ramadan done it's a little Surah by itself but he didn't do that he put it here and Allah situates something somewhere there has to be a reason so this if you will if the subject of Ramadan is a brick or it's a Wall it belongs to a building and that building isah Al Bak so the approach I'm going to to take today with you is why is this here why why why is the conversation about Ramadan here and not anywhere else and where in the Surah does it occur and
that will help us understand what the intention of Allah is the the greater intention of Allah and what he wants us to understand about this amazing month that we celebrate for since the since the birth of Islam since The Hijra of the Prophet sallu alaih wasallam since the revelation of these ayat we've been celebrating Ramadan so and and the Muslim were supposed to contemplate this from the very beginning so let's take a little bit of a step back I'll just say one quick thing about bakar as a whole and then we'll get into the subject
matter and that is that the when the prophet wasam was delivering his message you all know that he was delivering his message in mekah And then in Madina right and situations would come up and every time a situation would come up Allah would reveal an Ayah or a Surah or a bunch of ayat to address that situ situation right so Allah says says Quran we broke it up so you can keep reading it to the people at the right occasion at the perfect moment somebody came and asked a question ayat came down answering that question
a situation came up Allah comments on that situation so people can understand that Situation properly so the question the question was well why why did the ayat came in a certain order but the final design was a different order right because the mission of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam was for a was for a limited period of time it was for 23 years and in that mission things progressed a certain way and the Revelation was according to the mission but at the end of that mission the mission mission accomplished the Mission accomplished now we are
an umah now we are a civilization and now so now you're going to have generations of people from now until the end born Muslim they're not going to come and you know be hear the da of Islam and then finally accept Islam yes new people will come but we are now a nation by ourselves we're not newly forming we're not birthing as a nation and so from here on out there was the the Quran will play a different role the Quran was playing the role for guiding a mission when it was being revealed and the
Quran is then playing a role M among other things guiding a nation it's it's now guiding a nation things have changed Now We're a nation and it's as if Allah sees fit in his wisdom that from the end of the mission onwards anybody who will ever pick up a copy of the Quran a Muslim especially will pick up a copy of the Quran recite ask Allah for guidance in the fa and the first guidance Allah Will give him is Bak that's Allah's design and I think about that from an education perspective I've been in involved
in children's education college education for a long time and I think about what different countries do with children's education you know one of the things that every country does in elementary school education is they teach you National History they teach you uh you know the founding fathers they'll teach you you Know how the country came to be what revolutions were fought what wars were fought how they won uh you know if you if you go to a Muslim country you might see when the Muslim the Constitution was ratified who the great Heroes were who were
you know in in Pakistan I I did a couple of years of schooling in Pakistan too they would highlight the wars we have had with India and who the great Shad were the pilots who died in war Etc they would do that but it's why are they Doing that why are they doing that why are they teaching you National why are kids learning about Abraham Lincoln or John Adams or you know why why are they learning about these people in our textbooks you know why because they the idea is a nation wants to build a
sense of identity and if you know about how the nation came to be you will have a sense of attachment and a sense of belonging oh this is where we come from this is why we're number one this is What makes us a great nation these are our heroes right so the history education is a kind of indoctrination actually right and it's it's there to make people loyal to the country loyal to the state loyal to the government that's why governments have a lot of say in what goes into the curriculum right now we have
a loyalty to Allah and Allah knew that Muslims are going to belong to every corner of this Earth You know I one of the most fascinating experiences In my life was I went to an island in Malaysia called kotak naalu I know it's fun to say um and I I I left qualum we got on a flight and we're flying it's an island so you're flying over and you're going to reach that Island right and I'm flying and I'm thinking it was like a 2 three hour flight and I'm sitting in the plane looking outside
at the ocean and I'm like reached here and when I when I got to that Island I'm taking a car it's like a village almost most of it right and if you've ever been to La I mean Allah forgive you but if if you've been if you've been to if you've been to La you seen the Hollywood sign right there so there was a mountain and there was a Jalal there was a big giant word Allah on the mountain I was like wow that is so cool you know Islam was meant to spread everywhere and
it wasn't always under the shade of an Empire but Allah knew every Muslim will be a citizen loyal to Allah himself our kala makes us loyal to Allah and then loyal to Allah's messenger sallallahu alaihi wasallam so he in his in his perfect wisdom saw it fit that the first thing we should get is a history education the the first thing we should get is a hisory just like every country does that right but Allah does his version of that the Divine version of That you and I should get a history education and where does
that history education begin it begins with Surah Al bak and so again Bak is 286 aat that's not going to happen tonight right so but I do want to give you some key pointers to get to the ayat of Ramadan the first story that will be mentioned will be the story of Adam it will soon be followed and actually I should say something before that before that we're going to see Allah will talk about three kinds of people Believers disbelievers and hypocrites we're going to come back to that Believers disbelievers and hypocrites then he's going
to talk about the story of Adam Alam the first story of humanity and he's going to give us a version of that a glimpse of that story then as soon as that ends he's going to talk to us about the children of Israel and he's going to talk to us about them for a long time as 8090 a just dedicated To the Israelites and what they did I thought it's our history wait I thought this is supposed to be Islamic history we we're supposed to be the ones that are becoming loyal citizens of the umah
loyal citizens to Allah and his messenger why is he giving us Jewish history in this book in the beginning and then after that he will talk to us about ibraim let's see if you remember what was the first story Adam Then the Israelites then ibra then he says and by the way now you're an um we made you an um that the the the fourth story if you will is my story and your story and in that comes Ramadan part of that is Ramadan by the way and I've said this in other lectures but you
guys know um Nations celebrate their independence so they have an Independence Day Nations celebrate the Day on which their constitution was signed right so they have have a Constitution Day an independent day you know Freedom day whatever day right our constitution is the Quran is it not and it was revealed when in Ramadan so we don't have an independence day we have a revelation month you understand the concept it's because we're actually a civilization a nation and a nation needs to remember its Origins and our origin is the our origin story is the revelation of
the Quran so we celebrate as an entire month Every single year an entire month dedicated to that celebration but now let's go back I said there are three groups of people Allah mentions before the stories begin what three groups did you mention okay now put your mind at the time of the Prophet s imagine you're there when he hears when you hear about Believers you're hearing about the sahaba around you when you're hearing about disbelievers who are you hearing About you're in Madina you're in Madina there's Muslims around you those are the Believers when Allah
says about the disbelievers doesn't matter if you warn them or not they're not going to believe they're stubborn etc etc who are these people the people you left behind in what city in meca the kufar it's about them but then there's a third group of people what did I say what the third group of people is Hypocrites and the if you look at the openings of the opening Of the Surah the way Allah described Believers very straightforward the way Allah described disbelievers very straightforward the way Allah described Hypocrites very complicated the most detail went into
Hypocrites you know why because there's this weird mix between believer and disbeliever believer on the outside kind of disbeliever on the inside it's a mix between the two it's contaminating black and white so it's different Shades of Gray different shades of hypocrisy it's kind of Twisted so and it's hard to hard to discover it's hard to and and it it's it started getting people worried am I one of them like am I is this talking about me I need to worry about that how can I just be self-confident that no no no I'm not from
that group well let's see right now the reason I'm bringing that up is that Allah spoke about hypocrites in some more detail and then we're going to switch Over I I'll I'll connect Adam Alam in a second what I'm going to show you today is Ayah number8 to Ayah number 16 that's my agenda Ayah number8 to a number 16 that is describing some things about hypocrites and I'll show you something special about that I'll I'll give away the mystery from now everything Allah described about the Hypocrites in 8 to6 he repeated it or explained it
in some way when he was talking about the Israelites so he repeated it not as Hypocrites but as Israelites and the importance should be clear to everyone we know what the importance is okay I don't know if I'm a hypocrite or not but there were people before me who did certain behaviors that Allah labeled those people lost their position with Allah they were the Muslims before us they were the carriers of Allah's word before us they were the followers of the Prophet before us they were the followers of the Shar before us they Were the
Muslim before us that's what they were and Allah gave them celebrations like he gave us they had days of fasting we have days of fasting they had a we have aah but after showing that they didn't do their job Allah changed the capital of Islam from Jerusalem and he changed it to where Mecca so we got our own Capital new capital and we got our own you know national uh celebration right so we're thus you're a New nation right which means they got removed from that position and we got placed in that position that's what
happens in Bak okay now all of this but I skipped the story of Adam won't won't talk about Adam in detail Alam today I'll talk about him tomorrow though at story night but I'll tell you one thing about him of all the people in the all the creations of Allah Allah made one special creation that Shocked the Angels like of all the creatures you could make that would be above everything else that deserves the Saga from all the Angels which means it's a by the way SJ happens when something is incredible so this creation is
so incredible that not some angels every single angel in existence and by the way there's way more Angels than human beings right all of them across the seven Skies have to perform an act of s that to acknowledge that Allah has made the most remarkable creation of all and who's that Adam some super special creation of God right and then Adam Alam made a mistake he made a he made a mistake even though he's so awesome he made a mistake and then he repented from that mistake but fast forward he's on Earth We're on earth
now the children of Adam are on earth now the whole story started we were chosen above every other creation that's how it started when Enough of the children of Adam spread Allah and we when enough children happened of Adam Alam over thousands of years then now we're not just children we're actually entire different nations so just like from all the creations he chose One Creation that's just like that from all the nations he chose One Nation so the first special selection was Adam but when the children of Adam spread enough another special selection was made
and That was the children of is they were especially chosen they were especially chosen by Allah now with that back so there's selection and selection going on isn't it okay again this part I have said in previous lectures but I'll repeat it for you I said there were or four stories I I'm I know you forgot what are the four stories in bakar Adam the Israelites ibraim us this is really cool Adam Alam was Tested and he failed but he repented which teaches us you can fail but you can redeem yourself just like at school
you could fail a test and take a makeup exam or something or makeup assignment or something right you could do that there's a there's a come back possible there's a comeback possible okay that's one the Israelites were tested and they also what succeeded or failed they failed and not only did they fail they refused to Repent so the difference between Adam he made a mistake the Israelites they also made mistakes but one of them made a mistake and repented mistake he made a mistake and he asked for forgiveness when they were told you know ask
Allah for forgiveness we don't want to ask per apology we're not sorry they weren't sorry so now Allah shows us two situations sometimes you're tested and You fail but you can get you can redeem and sometimes you're tested and you fail and you don't want to redeem yourself you're defiant the third story was who is he also tested huh test test test and ibraim Alam is tested harder than the the first two and what does he do with all of his tests he passes all of them so now you got three scenarios Adam scenario B
scenario and ibraim scenario and who's the fourth one And Allah says about us we will test you what's Allah telling us by the way you needed those three stories because let's see which one of those three you fit in are you going to pass your test like who ibraim Alam are you going to fail your test and be defiant like who b or or are you going to sometimes fail and then make like whoam some of our tests will pass immediately sometimes we mess up and some people don't don't want to fix Their ways and
guess what those who don't want to fix their ways they were called what in the beginning of the Surah Hypocrites those were the Hy you you understand the framework here okay now with that framework in mind we're going to read what ay number did I tell you 8 to 16 we're going to stop at each one my my my the my Approach will be I'll tell you what the Ayah says and then we'll look at what Allah says about the Israelites along the same lines okay so the so the the first ay I'll read number
eight again is about the Hypocrites in Medina it's about the hypocrites among people are those who say we believe in Allah we believe in the last day but they are not Believers at all in reality they don't actually believe at all they're saying it but they don't really mean it that's what Allah is saying okay let's see what Allah says About the Israelites this is going to be Ayah number 91 9192 when the Israelites are told in Medina there were Israelites there too when they were told believe in what Allah sent down they say we
already believe what what was given to us no thanks I mean you want us to believe in Quran we have the Torah already we don't need yours we already got our own we're good and Allah says and the fact is they don't even Believe in what they have they just believe in what is behind them and it is the truth confirming what is in front of them or with them in other words they are denying the parts of their own Revelation that is confirming that Quran is the final word of Allah they have it they
know it in fact you should look this up online there are actually a few rabbis nowadays on Facebook that are Scholars of uh Hadith Also rabbis rabbis Scholars of Hadith and they've been asked public questions hey do you believe Muhammad is a prophet they say absolutely straight up on Facebook not even Yak straight up hey yes he's a prophet according to our you know our understanding he is a prophet of God why don't you become Muslim well he's just not for us he's for everybody else it's really cool that he's a prophet but we are
in we're in business class this the Economy class ticket you know we already have a ticket we we don't need this revelation we already have our own that's they're open about saying it so they say and the way Allah answered them I just this is not the subject but I got to tell you when Allah when Allah gives a burn right o listen to this so they said we already believe right here's how Allah responds listen to this he says so why did you kill so many Israelite prophets if you're actually Believers you believe in
what you have and in your own book you admit that you killed many what prophets is an interesting kind of IM killing prophets but Allah didn't stop there okay okay prophets maybe you didn't think of them as too high because they're just you know later prophets but your ultimate Prophet your savior from the pharaoh who's your savior from the Pharaoh M the next and by the way forget about other Prophets your own your savior MSA came to you with clear evidences and you ended up worshiping a golden calf knowingly uh you did you just say
you believe already in what you have this is what Iman looks like this a interesting IM okay okay you know what okay m is just human right so it's okay let's take it let's take it up a notch let's take your IM to the test up a not what Say in the next Allah says by the way there was a time when Allah himself raised a mountain above you and told you himself hold on to the Revelation I've given you with all your might and you said we hear and we disobey so you you killed
Prophets you defied Musa oh what's that forget defying Musa you even defied who Allah himself Allah himself and then he said then Allah says wow some pretty horrible things Your faith tells you to do if in fact you're faithful that's some Faith you got there what did the Hypocrites say when they were told believe they said they actually say we believe in Allah and what was sent down and Allah says they don't actually believe do you see that being echoed with the Israelites right thousands of years before them now the next one this is the
ninth Ayah now the second description of The Hypocrites they're trying to deceive Allah and those who believe and they're only successful at deceiving who themselves and they have they don't even know they think they're doing something wrong to and those who believe they're only deceiving themselves talking about the Israelites later on in Ayah 57 Allah says they weren't doing any harm to us any wrong to us they were only harming And wronging themselves he Echoes the the the attitude of the Hypocrites with the Israelites in the 10th Ayah listen to the words carefully in the
H in the in the hearts of the Hypocrites there's a disease and then Allah says Allah made the disease increase the virus got worse the disease intensified right so there's talking about a disease not only there's a disease it gets worse talking about the Israelites Allah says he says your hearts became hard like Stone talking to the Israelites they became like stone or even harder than Stone just like he said to the Hypocrites there's a disease it increases Stone even harder than Stone do you see a parallel happening in the 11th a when they're told
don't cause facade don't cause corruption in the in the Region in the land don't do that and then Allah says they're the ones causing corruption that was the Hypocrites what did m am tell them what did Allah even tell them don't go around in the world causing corruption and in the very next Ayah after Allah M told them don't go around causing corruption in the next Ayah about the Israelites Allah says we can't just have one kind of food give us all these other kinds of food And then at the end of it Allah says
listen to what the Israelites used to do they were told don't cause corruption and the next Ayah what did they do they used to kill the prophets of Allah they used to deny denied the revelations of Allah and they used to disobey Allah and cross all kinds of make all kinds of Haram Halal for themselves that's what they used to do isn't that the definition of causing corruption by the way they caused that Corruption but considered themselves what we already saw what do they consider themselves Believers and the Hypocrites were told don't cause corruption they
say no no no we're the one 's making things right we're the good ones here we're the heroes here now look at Ayah number that was 11 and 12 now let's look at Ayah number 13 when the when Hypocrites are told why don't you believe the way other people believe why don't you believe like Others believe why don't you the Hypocrites are told why can't you believe like Abu Bak believes why can't you believe like Omar believes why can't you believe like believes why can't you believe like Zu believes there's so many examples around you
they're following what the prophet is teaching why are you having such a hard time you have plenty of good examples around you a support system around you and they say n you want you want us to be like these fools Abu Bakr really he used to have such a good business in Makkah look at him he's homeless they're refugees now you want us to be refugees like them this is how they would talk about the sahab like these these these are your good examples can you give me some better good examples please so they called
them s and what does Allah say to the Israelites just like they were told be like others who believe the Israelites were told in the Quran why don't you make the way all the others are making R and when the was changed when theah was changed they were the idiots Allah says they were they were the fools who said what turned them away from their in other words they're like now we have to change we have to be like them if we want to stay on the same religion this is a subtle thing but I'm
going to kind of take a minute to explain it to you The the of Allah sahu alaih wasallam before the the instruction to pray towards the Kaaba was revealed he used to pray towards what towards Jerusalem okay and but when he was in Makkah some narrations tell us that he had such a love for the Kaaba because he knew it's the house built by ibraim am he used to pray behind the Kaa so he could face Jerusalem and Kaa at the same time you understand but when he moved to Medina sallallahu alaihi wasallam then if
in order to face Jerusalem he had to put his back to the Kaa CU now he's in between the Kaaba and Jerusalem he's in between so he can only face one of them now and so because he was still not told he can pray towards the Caba he was still praying towards Jerusalem and this used to hurt the prophet's feelings sallahu alaihi wasallam now we'll leave that aside for a moment just another thing the Israelites even now on Facebook will tell you he's a prophet of Allah guess what Allah tells us about the the Israelites
who were living in Medina did they recognize that he's the prophet of Allah yes yes but when they saw him pray towards Jerusalem it felt kind of good okay we're not accepting him but he's still I mean he's accepting our capital so we're still kind of kind of legit still right we're not going to openly accept him but Allah ain't that mad cuz He's still praying towards Jerusalem and then Allah reveals what pray towards the Caba now the thing is if the Israelites don't believe in Islam don't believe in this Prophet they think this Prophet
is a liar they shouldn't care whether he prays towards the east the West the South or the North what do you care it's not your religion whether he even prays at all why does bother you and in they come Around they come out get offended they get hurt they say what made them turn the direction they used to pray in that they used to keep praying with how come they're turning Direction what's this and in doing this they gave away that they were actually accepting of the Prophet internally and this was just a show of
defiance Hi alikum here's a cute I can't concentrate Anymore give me five are you GNA stay there I got who who's who's is that is that oh it's your friends okay so who's father of the year over here okay okay very good she's so cute M Allah protect her that's your baba yeah I I believe my kid's going to do that soon he's a he a little small is in the corner over there but yeah mahallah okay what was I saying Something about Islam changing of the the subject changeed direction right so now another parallel
between the the the Hypocrites and the Israelites then we're almost done this is the 14th Ayah now talking about the hypocrites when they meet believers they say we believe just like you guys do but when They have their own secret meetings they say we were just kidding we don't we're just joking around we're not really with them so they have double loyalties right Allah Allah calls them out for their secret Hangouts and says you know there Allah doesn't need security cameras Allah sees everything so he makes their secret hangout public what do we find among
the Israelites Allah says when they meet the Israelites The Israelites meet with you and say hey you talk about Adam too we have Adam too wait you talk about you're you're talking about you know Moses we got we got Moses we're the same we're let's have an Interfaith this we're basically the same where we have the same faith we don't need to convert we're already pretty much the same thing you know and then some of them would hear the the Quran and they'd say hey last Saturday when I was at you know at the synagogue
I heard some of this stuff and it's very similar you guys are telling us things we didn't even know about our Prophet but it's I think we should talk more and then they'd go back to their own posi and they say what did you say did you go tell them you have things in common with them don't give up internal Secrets these are company Secrets they're going to use that again against you later when you talk to the Muslims don't open your mouth about what you know if you hear Something familiar from your book sh
listen if you talk to them about this stuff on Judgment Day they might use it against you and say hey they knew so they got told Allah bring okay they got told you need to keep your mouth shut but when you meet them Allah says when they meet them they say we believe just like you who said that already in Madina the Hypocrites said Allah said about the Hypocrites when they meet the Believers they say we also believe echoing the same exact attitude Allah Allah says Allah is mocking the Hypocrites and he lets them go
further and further in their Disobedience listen to this one carefully one of the punishments of Allah is he lets Hypocrites keep going further and further and further in their Rebellion you guys familiar with the story of the cow In when when commanded them Allah is telling you to slaughter a cow what was the first reaction they had you know what they had they said what did the Hypocrites say him and what did Allah do with the the Israelites who said oh what kind of cow what color cow did Allah stop it or Allah kept kept
them going you know what that is that's a of that's what he did with them he showed the Hypocrites are doing this but Allah already showed us a story how that plays out what that looks like and that's the story of the cow and so finally about the Hypocrites Allah says those are the people who sold guidance in exchange for misguidance they they were they sold out the religion that was given to them the truth that was given to them in exchange for anything else that was misguidance and that sale that business deal did not
Produce any profit for them what does Allah say about the Israelites he says they they sold off their their salvation in the next life for this life they made a sale the Hypocrites made a sale the Israelites made a sale and by the way when the Israelites were described as making a sale it was about them killing each other they would call themselves one um and still kill each other and then Allah said look how they Sold their religion look at how they sold their afterlife for this life now why did I share all of
this with you all of this to show you that the Hypocrites are actually being compared with the example of the Israelites and if you look at the entire record of the Israelites in Surah Bak You Come Away with a few things you come away with a few lessons the most important lesson is that they detached themselves they had no original Connection with their book they had no direct connection with their book the vast majority of them are uneducated people uneducated in the religion they don't know the book except their own assumptions their own Wishful thoughts
they only make assumptions so they have no real knowledge of the Revelation that was given to them commenting on this attitude meaning they had a they had a very okay they believe in the book they Recite the book they celebrate the book they listen to it they chant it but they don't actually think about it they don't think about what's being and if they thought about it they would know this is the prophet of Allah and they should change their ways right that that would be the case and Allah is basically warning that there's what
happened before where people called themselves Believers but they had an artificial relationship with Allah's Revelation now Let me ask you again what was the first story Adam Alam was told by the way I'm sending you to the Earth listen I'm sending you on the earth if and when any guidance comes from me whoever follows it will have no fear on them nor shall be be the ones in depression and in grief Allah told Adam alisam guidance will be coming and who received fullon guidance the Israelites and then they took that guidance and instead of following
it they made their relationship with that guidance artificial let me just tell you what an artificial relationship looks like imagine there's a sign that says you know Maryland is 250 mil that way there's a sign what's the purpose of that sign that if you're going to Maryland that helped you and you can go right some of you look at that sign and say wait I need to analyze What color is that what material did they make this sign with what's the font is that helvetica is that aial and you're you're you're standing there you're staring
at the sign discussing all these details about the sign guess what you're missing the point what was the point go to Maryland it's that way the sign says danger do not Enter right you're like wow that skull looks really cool what's that let me let me Trace that I want to take a picture of it you're standing it says danger keep away and you're right in its face like wow now you have a really deep relationship with that sign but it's kind of you have a senseless a Mindless relationship with the message of the sign
you understand do you do you Understand what I'm getting at Allah gave them a book and the book became used for Ceremonies for weddings for birthdays for for for funerals world s the book got used for special occasions the book got used on special religious uh Seasons the book was recited beautifully me some parts of it were memorized parties were thrown when you memorized it that was that was the book but the nation openly was violating left right and Center what the book was Actually saying openly while saying we love this book man the way
it sounds is so beautiful I memorized like half of it wow masallah you memorized half that's amazing now I'm am I am I really talking about the Israelites sounds scary huh sounds scary Allah is telling us this is what they did and their hearts became hard and then he gave us the month of Ramadan and said about the month of Ramadan by the way when he talked about fasting it's interesting he connected fasting to the Israelites did you know that he said fasting was mandated on you just like it was for the people before you
they used to have fast too so whenever we're thinking about our religion in the backdrop in the backdrop is actually the people who came before us and Bak made sure that we think like that that was one of the objectives of Bak so now we're made a new nation our isang by the way the third test was who the third test is Adam's test Israelite test and then what's the third test good ibraim alam's test and ibraim Alam is interesting he passes all his tests and then he's got the special status with Allah cuz he
passed all these tests and then he makes a Dua and he makes the Dua that Ya Allah with my son is from his descendants there should be one messenger that comes who reads Your Revelations who teaches them the book who teaches them wisdom and he purifies them from the line of is who came Muhammad came wasam and when he was given when did that which month did that begin in so actually Ramadan is a celebration of the answer to the Dua of ibraim alam Ramadan is finally when Allah answered the Dua of ibraim alam and
what does ibraim Alam remind you of when it Comes to tests don't fail don't fail pass with flying colors right the words are really cool Allah tested him and he perfected completed all the tests and guess where comes again Allah is talking about Ramadan he says uh uh what's the Ayah the a synonym for it complete the count of the months complete the counts and ibraim Alam declared you know in his Uh in his story if you know the story of ibraim alam he was showing people how dumb it is to worship the Sun and
the Moon and he would say and what do we do at the end of Ramadan now you do you do we are celebrating something that started with Adam we are being warned not to turn the celebration into what who turned it into the Israelites and we Are being reminded to keep the spirit of ibraim alive in the month of Ramadan the only way we can do that is we develop a genuine relationship with this book every single individual develops a genuine relationship with this book so the last few minutes that I'm going to share with
you I'll talk to you about what some of the components of that what does that look like the thing is you cannot think now about the Quran without thinking about ibraim Alam it's impossible and you can't actually think even I'll take it a step further you can't think about the of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam without always who's in the background always ibraim the entire fight in Makkah is about destroying the idols why why not have this fight somewhere in you know in in uh the Philippines where they have Buddhist temples why is this fight
happening in mekah in the middle of a Desert what is the significance of this place this was originally a Masid this was not a temple this was a Masid Masid built by who ibraim is being kicked out of makah because he's trying to restore the legacy of ibraim alamam goes to Medina and his heart is bleeding cuz he's not facing the Caba and when he's facing the Caba just think about that when he was facing the Caba and the sahaba were now facing the Caba Is it would it hurt you to know today that you're
facing the Caba but around the Caba there are Idols would it hurt you to know that wouldn't you want every Salah wouldn't it be a reminder that I exist to one day destroy those Idols wouldn't that be a reminder when the sahaba were making Salah towards the were their Idols still there every Salah was a reminder that mission not yet Accomplished because what's the mission and then which is early Allah even revealed complete Haj you don't do Hajj in Medina where do you do Hajj in meah and mekah is in the control of the enemy
the mecah is in control of the idol worshippers when Allah says complete Haj he's actually clearly telling the Muslims listen you're going to finish what ibraim Alam started and by the way when We complete Hajj we sacrifice the animal whose Sunnah is it to sacrifice the animal right everything goes back to ibraim this entire Rel that's why it's called the religion of your father ibraim that's why his test is at the center the one who passed all the tests that's why that's there so what is does that mean for all of us one thing about
ibraim alisam I'll highlight ibraim alisam followed the truth no matter who didn't like it when he was a young man His dad didn't like it when he was a little bit older his Society didn't like it and he stood by the truth no matter if everybody in the world hated him and were okay with throwing him into a fire that's okay I'm not letting go what I believe I stand by what I'm not afraid of my culture I'm not afraid of my peers I'm not afraid of people that are more powerful than me I'm not
afraid of my family I will stand against anyone in my loyalty to Allah what does the loyalty to Allah look like today the loyalty to Allah now that the Quran came is loyalty to the book of Allah why Allah himself describes it you've all heard the phrase right hold on to Allah's Ro you know what the synonym for that phrase is in the Quran as though they're one thing hold on to Allah and hold on to the Rope of Allah What's the Rope of Allah the Quran is one thing like ibraim was loyal to his
R we can only show loyalty to our R by being loyal to what the Quran now we don't have Idol worshippers to fight like ibraim Alam ain't nobody throwing us in a fire but let me give you a reality check Allah says right by the way right after the aat of Ramadan Allah says don't eat each other Don't consume each other's money using lies don't use a lawyer don't use a lawyer to win a case which you know you stole the money but you got a good liar and got away with it don't do that
don't be biased when it comes to Distributing The Inheritance so you can get more of the share and you know you don't deserve it that's coming right after Ramadan they're Financial instructions right after Allah says eat whatever you know whatever is on the earth there's such a long list I if you if you search right now Halal in this area find Halal Zab extra Halal extra Zab we even recite all ofak on our chicken before we Slaughter it Etc ET Super Halal when we think of Halal what do we think of how was it slaughtered
that's what we think of is anybody thinking about how' you make the money you bought really Halal chicken With really Haram money is that Halal you know what we've done we have partial loyalty to the book of Allah when it when it comes to money matters partial loyalty to the book of Allah when it comes to cultural matters partial loyalty to the book of Allah and then we say that we are the umah of Muhammad wasam when you mindfully when I mindfully read the Quran and then I look at myself I look At my family
I look at my culture I say wo whoo something is off something is way off what's going on here what is going on here like Allah for example will talk about taking care of the orphans for example the only orphans we take care of are the ones that show up on a brochure the only orphans we take care of is a crisis video somewhere far away on a do you know the orphans in your neighborhood you know the orphans in This Masjid you know the how how when was the last time you spoke to the
orphans in your own family there are some orphans in your family some kids lost their parents when was the last time you connected with them you think when the sahaba were reading the aat about orphans they were looking up who who to save thousands of miles away first or in their immediate vicinity when when when Allah is talking and this was recent because it's in my Mind because I was just teaching in Allah says when you divorce a woman do not kick her out of her house for three months or three Cycles you cannot expel
her from the house the most uh the most populated part of the Muslim world the most the most Muslims in the world are between South Asia and Southeast Asia that's the most dense population of human beings and also the most dense population of Muslims in the World when a woman gets divorced typically in that region the husband calls uh the the lady's father and says hey come take your daughter I'm done Allah says those are limits set by Allah and no no no but I have I'm done with her I said come take your daughter
or the woman says I'm not going to put up with this I'm out Allah says they shouldn't leave Allah says to the women they shouldn't Leave when I say we have to have a genuine relationship with the book of Allah we have to have loyalty to the book of Allah because ibraim Alam so showed loyalty to Allah what I'm saying is our loyalty to Allah is our loyalty to the book of Allah how are you going to be loyal to this book you don't even know what it talks about how you going to do that
there's no excuse doesn't matter if you weren't raised learning it it doesn't matter that you you just Never didn't have a chance it doesn't matter if you're a surgeon or you're in medical school you're a cab driver you're running an Uber you're running a restaurant you're busy you're busy or busy ain't nobody too busy to nourish themselves with water I too busy I didn't drink for 3 days nobody was too busy for that because it's nourishment your body needs nourishment you never say you're too busy your your needs nourishment how can you say you're too
Busy how can I say I'm too busy Ramadan is a time to remind ourselves that the body can wait it can wait it's time to reconnect with the word of Allah reconnect so yes we're going to recite the Quran but man can you restore the legacy of ibraim am and the original purpose of Ramadan and not have an artificial relationship and let that begin even from now and take it into hyperdrive during Ramadan every one of you should have a goal that you're Going to read the Quran mindfully I don't care which translation we're not
I'm not going to do a QA with which translation should you read the worst translation on the planet I don't care read the Quran ask questions about the Quran what does Allah mean here what's he talking about here I don't get this I don't get this have have a whole notebook about your conversation with god and what is he saying I want to know more about what he's saying you are so People hear a a a press release people hear election news and then they want to hear somebody explain what was that what does that
mean what does that mean for the economy what does that mean for interest rates what does that mean for house prices what does that mean for this they want to get the full scope here God himself is speaking you're like there's no desperation what does that mean I want to know what this means I need to understand this better Develop that thirst develop that thirst I I want to redevelop that thirst for myself this Ramadan I want you to have that thirst this Ramadan yes it's a month of fasting yes it's a month of I
yes it's a month of T yes it's a month of Dua but all of that stuff is actually there to reinforce the core the heart of the matter and the Heart of the matter is this book came as a guidance in this month so seek guidance in this book all over again every year renew your Connection to Allah renew your connection to the Quran that's what it was supposed to be that that that was the objective so let's put everything else as secondary and this as primary this is I'm not saying you have to complete
the entire Quran in Ramadan and understand everything but even if you tell yourself this year Bak this Ramadan bakar this Ramadan bak and even if you got through 20 aat of Al Bak in all of Ramadan no problem I got until next Ramadan to finish take your time take your time with Bak take a whole year no problem this time well spent time spent with the word of Allah is time well spent and then next year take onah Iman and then the year after that let's get let's get started with why follow this order because
this is Allah's order this is Allah's design there's a curricular design so let him coach you through the whole thing let Him coach you through his guidance let him coach you through his speech so this is just the the the message that I wanted to share with you and put things in perspective and with this background in mind I tell you I can promise you if you spend the next couple of weeks even just reading bakar with some of the background pointers that I've shared with you you'll see things I didn't even mention you'll notice
things that I didn't talk about and they'll pop out at You and they'll give you insight and appreciation into what Allah is saying may Allah make this month a month in which we are reconnected to his words like we've never been before in our entire lives Allah make this a month that he turns our hearts and our minds towards him in sincerity and clarifies our understanding of This Dean and gives us the courage to stand up against our own selves stand up against our cultural practices stand up against anything that Is not loyal to the
word of Allah may Allah make us truly loyal to his word like he told the Israelites fulfill my Pro fulfill the promise I'm taking from you I'll make my promise to to you complete too do your part I'll do my part that's what Allah told the Israelites it's through them Allah is telling us that so may Allah make us of those who fulfill our our part of the agreement and Allah fulfills his promise and gives us the victory That we so badly [Applause] want hey so instead of a here here's my philos opy on QA
sessions they're so deflating like I it's you end on a high note and then you have a QA I have a question what do you say about nail polish like come on come on so I don't I don't like like QA sessions like that uh so what I'm going to do is I'm just going to hang around here for about 20 30 minutes I'll Give about because the the ladies are in the in the back so I'll just be in the middle and I'll just have as many conversations as I can with as many of
you before I go I got to check on the status of my baby too cuz he he was in here and it was pretty sweaty so I got to check on that too but uh thank you so very much for attending I'll just be right here in the middle we'll have some conversations may Allah reward you immensely sponsored Again by Africa Relief uh check out the booth on the side
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