Our behaviour during Ramadaan and our behaviour after Ramadaan

In the name of Allaah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

Praise be to Allaah, we seek His help and His forgiveness. We seek refuge with Allaah from the evil of our own souls and from our bad deeds. Whomsoever Allaah guides will never be led astray, and whomsoever Allaah leaves astray, no one can guide. I bear witness that there is no god but Allaah, and I bear witness that Muhammad [Sallallaahu 'AlayhiWaAaliheeWaSallam] is His slave and Messenger.

O you who believe! Fear Allaah as He should be feared, and die not except in a state of Islam (as Muslims) with complete submission to Allaah.)

O mankind! Be dutiful to your Lord, Who created you from a single person, and from him He created his wife, and from them both He created many men and women, and fear Allaah through Whom you demand your mutual (rights), and (do not cut the relations of) the wombs (kinship) Surely, Allaah is Ever an All-Watcher over you).

O you who believe! Keep your duty to Allaah and fear Him, and speak (always) the truth). He will direct you to do righteous good deeds and will forgive you your sins. And whosoever obeys Allah and His Messenger (Sallallaahu 'AlayhiWaAaliheeWaSallam) he has indeed achieved a great achievement (i.e. he will be saved from the Hell-fire and made to enter Paradise).

                    

To proceed:

Verily, the best of speech is the book of Allaah and the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad (Sallallaahu 'AlayhiWaAaliheeWaSallam). The worst of affairs are newly-invented matters, and every newly-invented matter is an innovation, and every innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Hellfire.

As-salaamu 'alaykumwaRahmatullaahiwaBarakaatuh.

                                 

In shaaAllaah, our topic for tonight is:

 

Our behaviour during Ramadaan and our behaviour after Ramadaan

As we are all aware, we are in the last ten days of this blessed month and it is in these days that we have the greatest and most virtuous of all nights throughout the year and it is within these blessed nights that we have the greatest and most virtuous night in the year and that is the night of Qadr.

As Muslims as we are, we always have predecessors that we learn from regarding how to conduct our selves during these blessed days. Those predecessors are our Beloved RasuulullaahiSallallaahuAlayhiWaSallam and His blessed companions. If we go through their lives and see how they conducted themselves during these last blessed days, at least, we can also see the various acts of worship that we are supposed to engage our selves in during these blessed days, how we are expected to be and the fact that we are supposed to hold fast to those acts of worship and increase them as much as we can coupled with the inner purification of our intentions and always been in line with what the Messenger and His Blessed companions did.

Ramadaan is almost ending and as such, this is a time where we have sit back and reflect on all what we have done so far in this blessed and think of how we can utilize these remaining blessed days. Next week Friday in shaaAllaah, will be our last Friday for this blessed month and as such, only Allaah knows those among us who will live to see the next Ramadaan and hence we have to take this Ramadaan if it is the last our life time and in doing so, we will in shaaAllaah treat it with all the seriousness it deserves. We have to try as much as possible to utilize these blessed days to the best of our abilities so that we can make up for all the missed opportunities within the first 20 days. Probably, there might be some things that we intended doing with the first 20 days or some limits we set for our selves seeking to achieve but due to some reasons beyond our control, we couldn't achieve those dream of ours within the first 20 days and as such, these last 10 days present to us once again, a once in a lifetime opportunity to make up for those missed objective of ours.

 

UmmunaaAa'ishaRadiyallaahuAnhaa narrated that our Beloved Messenger used to exert himself in more worship during these last 10 nights more than any other time (Saheehu Muslim).

 

Based on this, how are expected to conduct our selves during these last 10 days, should be just how the Messenger conducted himself during these last 10 days and that is by exerting our selves in worship as much as we can so that we can make the most of these blessed nights.

 

And the acts of worship are numerous among which include:

 

The night prayer. This is the most virtuous of all prayers after our obligatory prayers and as such, our Beloved Messenger used to pray throughout the whole night during these last ten nights.

 

In the hadeeth of Bukhaaree and Muslim, it is reported that the Messenger of Allaah during these last 10 nights used to tighten his belt, wake his family up for night prayers and also offers the night prayer

The devoted servant of Allah makes these nights alive with prayer, reading and reflecting on Qur'an. The long qiyam prayer has been particularly recommended during the nights on which Laylatul-Qadr could fall. This is indicated in many ahadith, such as the following:

 

Abu Dharr (radiyallahuanhu) relates, "We fasted with Allah's Messenger (sallallahualayhiwasallam) in Ramadan. He did not lead us (in qiyam) at all until there were seven (nights of Ramadan) left. Then he stood with us (that night in prayer) until one third of the night had passed. He did not pray with us on the sixth. On the fifth night, he prayed with us until half of the night had passed. So we said, 'Allah's Messenger! Wouldn't you pray with us the whole night?' He replied:

 

'Whoever stands in prayer with the imam until he (the imam) concludes the prayer, it is recorded for him that he prayed the whole night.'…" [Recorded by IbnAbiShaybah, Abu Dawud, at-Tirmithi (who authenticated it), an-Nasa'i, IbnMajah, at-Tahawi in SharhuMa'anil-Athar, Ibn Nasr, al-Faryabi, and al-Bayhaqi. Their isnad is authentic]

 

Abu Hurayrah (radiyallahuanhu) narrated that the Messenger (sallallahualayhiwasallam) said,

 

"Whoever stands (in qiyam) in Laylatul-Qadr [and it is facilitated for him] out of faith and expectation (of Allah's reward), will have all of his previous sins forgiven." [Al-Bukhari and Muslim; the addition "and it is facilitated for him" is recorded by Ahmad from the report of Ubadahibn as-Samit; it means that he is permitted to be among the sincere worshippers during that blessed night]

A believer makes du'a' to Allah, penitently beseeching Him for His forgiveness. He is inspired by the Prophet's (sallallahualayhiwasallam) words, "Our Lord, most Exalted, Most High, comes down to the lowest heaven during the last third of each night and announces (reassuringly): Whoever makes du'a', I shall answer it. Whoever asks (for something halal) I shall grant it; and whoever seeks forgiveness, I shall forgive him." [Bukhari]

The believer, conscious of Allah and their sins, will continue to beseech Allah, in and out of prayer, during his prostration. A'ishah (radiyallahuanha), reported that she asked Allah's Messenger (sallallahualayhiwasallam), "O Messenger of Allah! If I knew which night is Laylatul-Qadr, what should I say during it?" And he instructed her to say:

"Allahummainnakaafuwwuntuhibbulafwafa'fuanni (O Allah! You are forgiving, and you love forgiveness. So forgive me."  [Recorded by Ahmad, IbnMajah, and at-Tirmidhi]

 

A'ishah (radiyallahuanha) said, "When the (last) ten started, the Prophet (sallallahualayhiwasallam) would tighten his izar (i.e. he stayed away from his wives in order to have more time for worship), spend the whole night awake (in prayer), and wake up his family." [Bukhari and Muslim]

For a time, the only concern will be cleansing oneself of the forgetfulness that this life propagates in one's heart, the sins that accumulate, darkening the heart, making it insensitive to disobeying Allah. He begs Allah to keep him away from misfortunes in this world, the punishment of the grave, and the torment of Hell. He asks Allah to make him patient and steadfast in struggling to maintain his Islam in this world and asks Him to overlook his shortcomings, periods of laziness and neglect. Sincere devotion on that night will render the believer forgetful of the time, until he is surprised by the adhan of Fajr. After Fajr, as the sun creeps above the horizon, reddish and weak in its appearance, without any rays, the effort at night will have been worthwhile. The believer rejoices, knowing that this was quite possibly Laylatul-Qadr and "Whoever stays up (in prayer and remembrance of Allah) on the Night of Qadr fully believing (in Allah's promise of reward for that night) and hoping to seek reward (from Allah alone and not from people), he shall be forgiven for his past sins (Bukhaaree and Muslim).

Other acts of worship that one can also involve himself in includes:

Giving out Sadaqah and helping the poor and the needy.

Abundant recitation of the Glorious Qur'aan coupled with pondering over its miraculous meanings and trying to implement the commands in it and then staying away from the prohibitions in it to the best of our ability.

Making a lot of du'aa of which the best du'aa to be recited during these last ten days has already been mentioned earlier on not forgetting the etiquettes and conditions of du'aa. Du'aa for our ourselves, our blood relatives and other close family members, friends and the Muslim Ummah in general.

Doing a lot of Azkaar to soften heart and draw our selves closer to Allaah. In doing the Azkaar, always try and look out for those ones that came from the one concerning which Allaah said:

Nor does He speak from his own inclinations. It is not but a revelation revealed. Also, whatever Azkaar one may be reciting, always try to draw the meaning of what your lip is uttering to your heart and in doing so, you have a complete ZIKR in which both the mouth and the heart are doing ZIKR.

Istighfaar is also something that we must pay attention to during these blessed days.

The acts of worship that we can conduct ourselves with during these blessed period are numerous and as such cannot be exhausted here. Any acts of worship that can draw a person closer to Allaah can be done if and only if it has precedence from the life of our Beloved Prophet and His Blessed Companions.

With all these acts of worship that we are to engage our selves in, we should try as much as possible to involve our young ones so that they also get use to it from their infancy especially those who are seven and above.

Our time is almost up and as such, we will pause here for today and in shaaAllaah, some other time, we shall continue with our attitude after Ramadaan.

 

Whatever good that we said is from Allaah and may He reward us all and wherever we erred is from my self and the devil and may Allaah forgive us all. Aameen

On this note, we say:OAllaah, send prayers upon Muhammad and the household of Muhammad, just as you sent prayers upon Ibraaheem and the household of Ibraaheem. Verily, You are full of praise and majesty. O Allaah, send blessings upon Muhammad and upon the household of Muhammad, just as You sent blessings upon Ibraaheem and the household of Ibraaheem. Verily, You are full of praise and majesty.How perfect You are O Allaah, and I praise You. I beat witness that none has the right to be worshiped except You. I seek Your forgiveness and turn to You in repentance.WassalaamuAlaykum WA Rahmatullaahi WA Barakaatuh