Friday Sermon 18 th May 2018

Transcription

1 Friday Sermon 18 th May 2018 Hujjatul Islam Ustad Syed Jawad Naqvi (Principal Jamia Orwatul Wuthqa Lahore, Jamia Jafaria Gujranwala) Delivered at: Masjid Baitul ul Ateeq Lahore Pakistan

2 I invite, inherit you all bondsmen of Allah towards divine Taqwa and emphasize you to acquire Taqwa in your lives and establish it on the basis of Taqwa. Allah has made the creation of man in such a manner in which Taqwa is the base. Human life needs Taqwa for completion of his creation and reach its purpose. The other creation do not need Taqwa and neither is it kept for them. Taqwa is the protection plan for human life to keep it protected from threats and dangers. Without Taqwa man s life gets destroyed and a purposeless life falls below the status of humanity. When man goes down towards lowliness he falls even below the level of beasts. The relation of Taqwa with human life is very deep. One important chapter in the subject of Taqwa is how to acquire Taqwa. We have not started this chapter in our discussions but since this is the month of Ramazan which is the month of blessings, servitude, Quran and the month of spring of heart. We congratulate all believers on this grand occasion. The holy month of Ramazan is amongst the special bounties of Allah for his special servants which has come through the mercy of Allah. The grace beyond this is that this bounty gets repeated several times in our life. We waste this opportunity and do not make use of it. This is the month of ascension for man and for the traversers of the divine path this is a great opportunity. Its days, night, every moment, sleeping, breathing is all counted as servitude. The value and compensations for the deeds are increased. The devils are taken away, the doors of hell are closed and the doors of mercy get opened. All this happens and has to happen with the will and intention of man. Allah has made the entire system for the universe which works on the intention of Allah. But whatever is established for man there is also intention and will of human being. All what is totally based on the intention of Allah has no delay, break and it goes on properly But all what has the intention of man involved those affairs have difficulties for man because the intention and will of man is victim of calamities. Whatever has been ordained for the month of Ramadan will be achieved through the will and intention of man. There are treasures of blessings and grace have been filled in the month of Ramazan and man has to acquire that with his own will and blessing. If man realizes the reality of the month of Ramazan, possesses the cognizance (Maarifat) then he would desire that every month, every day should be the month of Ramazan. Since we do not understand and our hearts are not prepared for this spring we consider every day of Ramazan harder. As the Quran says that Salaat is a burden accept for those who have humility in their heart. Ramazan is much heavier than Salaat for such person and this is because they are not acquainted with the reality of Salaat, Fasting and blessings of this month. If the secret of Salaat gets revealed to us then we will become like those who are always in the state of Salaat. Similarly if the secret of Fasting gets revealed to us we will become like those who are always in the state of Fasting. We will desire the same what our Imams would seek that this Ramazan should be for the entire year and we should not get out of this. Amongst the obligatory etiquettes of Ramazan, one is Fasting, though this is the month of Quran. ا ي أاي ا ها ال ذ ي ا ن آ ا من وا ك ت ا ب ا علاي ك م الص ي ا ام اك ا ما ك ت ا ب ا علاى ال ذ ي ا ن م ن قاب ل ك م لا ا عل ك م تات ق وان }183{ O you who believe! fasting is prescribed for you, as it was prescribed for those before you, so that you may guard (against evil) 1

3 The verse says that Fasting has been made obligatory like on those before you so that you can reach up to Taqwa. The month of Ramazan is the source of acquiring Taqwa. In this month Fasting, Quran is the source of acquiring Taqwa. This is because man in this month with his will power and intention gets control over Taghwa, deviation. The first outcome of Fasting that comes out is Taqwa. Ameerul Momineen (a.s) says that if the outcome of fasting is not Taqwa then that is starving. Starving can give man some physical benefits but the soul of fasting which is in the form of Taqwa cannot be achieved. Since Taqwa is the divine planning for Allah and man has to apply that plan. Allah has made the plan, established the plan and man has to apply, implement that plan in his life. In order to implement divine plan in man s life you need will power. Then man comes under the shadow of Taqwa. Fasting provides this opportunity that man affirms his will power. Fasting is a resistance of man aginst his own self, his desires, and his habits and is an internal resistance established for man. I have mentioned this in the night discourse that the laws which Allah has made for man is based on obedience of Allah. But man does not do obedience of Allah and does not obeys the commands of Allah. One big reason for this is because there are many commanders other than Allah whose commands man follows. Amongst this one big commander for man is his self (Nafs), the carnal desire. The Nafs of man which is not silent even for a single moment; its work is to give instructions and commands to man. When man coms out of the servitude of Allah, he comes under the servitude of Nafs. Hence he does not gets the energy to do the worship of Allah and never even thinks that I have to deliver he commands of my Khaliq. This is the aggression of carnal self. There are many other commands inside the Nafs and outside, like lust, desire and habits whose captive is man. To come out from the commands of Nafs, fasting is the best method. This is the practice for Nafs. This is the month of practice for believers. Like certain departments in a country like forces who have to provide security and defense for the nation, they need to be prepared, they are made to do drills once in a year so that they are prepared for the entire year. The believers have to do worship and servitude for the entire year and for that the believer has to be always prepared. His preparedness is under danger due to internal and external factors. In this state when this preparedness is in danger and calamities are attacking him, then he needs that he should be me made to drill again so that his preparedness gets renewed and he delivers his duty. The preparedness is for his Nafs and soul. The preparedness for the forces are for the body or for the function for certain division. The preparedness for a believer is for his Nafs and soul. Thus this month of Ramazan is for the preparedness, drills for the Nafs and soul. We have transformed these practices, drills into customs. We pay more attention to Sahar and Iftar, these are not part of fasting, and Fasting starts form Sahar and ends at Iftar. Fasting is in between these, it is the time in between the two morsels when a person controls his Nafs. The act of abandoning and stopping the Nafs between these two sahar and Iftar is fasting. But the customary fasting is dependent on all Sahar and Iftar whereas in between the actual work is forgotten as to what is to be done. Customs do not provide practice and drills. The customs reduce the preparedness of Nafs. The preparedness does not enhances with the customary acts which we do for fasting. Not to eat, drink, not talk useless things and not going towards evil things is all fasting. The fasting is of entire existence of man. Lady Fatema Zahra (s.a) says that the fasting is not just the name of closing your mouth, it is for eyes, tongues as well. It is the fasting of imagination, thoughts as well and man has to include all those things in the parade, drill and then man develops that power inside him. But when we do the parade, drill in this month in customary way, we end up developing more habits and burden the previous burdens as well. 2

4 Allah has established fasting for development of Taqwa for man. If it is fasting for tongue, eyes, thoughts, and imaginations and for such fasting one fast is enough and if we do for 30 days like this then that is enough for the entire year. The way I said before that we have filtered our religions and presented it in such decorative manner and taught to people due to which despite of religion being present with us but still we are deprived of religion, with obedience being present but still we are disobedient, despite of Ramazan present we are deprived of its blessings. If the fasting was done Tab een in right way and reality of Fasting was presented in the correct manner and not just the Ahkam of fasting were presented and the philosophy of fasting was also presented and its secret would have been opened then those fasting could have achieved a lot from fasting. As I said before that Quran says that you should take support from Salaat and patience that is fasting, that too also in the daily affairs. The way you take help from various people you take help from fasting and Salaat. That is in your daily, family, educational affair. I gave example also that Ibn Sina says that whatever difficulty I faced in my life, I solved them with Salaat. We have never expressed this dimension of Salaat and similar for fasting we have not paid any attention towards it. Whatever customary, ancestral things we have taken we have clinched to it. Now the situation is that we are doubting the divine religion when we listen to it. What we have taken from ancestors is confirmed, but what is being told today is right or not is doubtful. We look at this divine religion with the eyes of doubt because the ancestral thinking is so firm. We are talking about all this now but still our today and tomorrow s fasting will be same as before. We will not ponder that whatever we were doing in customary manners in fasting but now we should do our fasting in accordance divine commands and needs. If man does real fasting, this man from one fasting can reach that position. I am not referring to some unseen power that you will reach. I am talking about form worldly perspective, its outward. If we have done real fasting and then do study, analysis then this act of study gets delivered so highly that it cannot be done in normal days. The condition is that it should be real fasting. Fasting does not mean Sahar and Iftar as they are outside the domain of Fasting or we can say they are meant for the effects of Fasting after the fasting time. Fasting is an act in between these which is delivered by the will power of man. We do Sahar and Iftar as a habit, but after Sahar we leave eating and this abandonment is due to our intention, will power. Though we are hungry, thirst, food is there and there are no obstacles as well but still we don t touch. To stop the Nafs from that thing for which he is in need, like it is hot and there is severe thirst but he controls it due to strong will power. He does not takes any step to quench his thirst. With his will power, he stops; but this should not be limited to eating, drinking. This intention which you have done and will power which you have shown then you can see what miracle this has done in our personality. I have become so powerful that despite of desire, need and without any obstacles I have not done something just on the basis of will power. This develops inside man the miraculous strength which is Taqwa Taqwa is the divine will that is established by Allah but will become practical with the will of man. Those things which are only meant to be done by Allah they are done by the will of Allah and man has no intervention in it. But those affairs which Allah has established and left on the will of man, there if the will, intention of man is weak he will leave that and he will go after those acts which are easy to do and these are generally habitual acts. The habits have besieged our personality and our personality has become the collection of these habits. The way our body is a collection of flesh, fat, bones, intestines which you can see when you slaughter an animal. If you open the body of man the same things will come out. But if you open the personality of man, in some operation theater and see what is inside that personality. What is meant by personality? The personality is the name of our habits. We will see all habits coming out. You will see the habit of the person in speaking, listening, eating, drinking,sleeping, informing, walking, giving, taking and all these habits have surrounded our personalities and 3

5 our personalities are the second name of these habits. In these personalities we don t see will power but only habits, whether we are attentive or not. The way we are not attentive towards our body. You don t know what is inside your head, what is filled inside even though it is our own but we are not attentive. We don t know what is inside our eyes and intestines. We are unaware about our body. We only know the skin on which we put cream and don t know what is inside. We know the outward of our personality but we don t know what is inside the personality. If some special surgeon comes up and opens our personality he will tell us that we have worst to worst habits inside us. Our personality has been formed by these habits and these habits do not allow will power to be formed. Habits are the biggest obstacles and man cannot develop the will power when habits are present. Fasting helps in developing this will power by controlling our habits. Satan is imprisoned is an analogy which is used as an example. Satan is locked, the doors of punishment are closed, the doors of misguidance are closed are the language of examples. Outward elements that blocks the path of man in his divine progress are controlled and nullified. They will not come towards man unless man himself goes towards it. If man does not goes towards Satan then Satan will not come towards man as he is tied up. But man goes towards him. The outward elements; Allah with his mercy and grace he has stopped but the internal elements are present inside man and man will get control over them through Fasting. Fasting provides the power of dominance over self. One who can fast can have power of doing anything. He can dominate any difficulty and hardship. This does not mean starvation. Starving means not to eat anything. The doctor says do not eat so your stomach gets fixed. You can control sugar with fasting and with starvation you can get many benefits but not Taqwa. Taqwa comes from fasting because fasting is not starving; it is the strengthening of the will power of man. Fasting does not mean you are fasting due to digestion problem, you are fit and you need to eat and drink also, weather is also hot and in this situation you have to prove that your will power is dominant on all these things. If man repeats this act for thirty days, and even though he is free, but he ends his freedom with his will power. If a person uses all his freedom but at the same time he has weakened himself. If you had 1 million Rupee and you spent that in one hour, it has proven your freedom to spend your wealth. But this freedom has made you poor and now you don t have a single penny. You are dependent on others. You have wasted your power with your freedom and now you are worth nothing. Fasting is despite of having freedom. If someone does not wants to Fast, he can do the disobedience, he is free to do and there is a big majority who is doing this. This is prohibited by sharia but this power of ignoring fasting is not taken away from them. When they use their freedom, they become like the one who has spent all his money and has become a beggar due to the misuse of freedom; the person who sacrifices his will power on his freedom has also become weak and poor. I am free I can do whatever I want, he is using his freedom. He becomes a poor person who has no will power left. Now he thinks to do something he cannot do even which a child can do. Those who do sins in this lustful era, and with provoking lusts, some people do sins, they do sins with their own self. They satisfy their lust with their own self, fulfill their lust with their own body and they consider themselves as free and after that act they turn into a corpse, a dead body after this act. It is a moving dead body, they cannot do even something that even a small child can do. They lose self-confidence, from body, soul and complete self-confidence they lose, what is easier for others to do, it is very difficult for them to do. This way a person uses his freedom for his own destruction. The month of Ramazan is the month of practicing, parades, drills and the ones which we have to follow to carry out practices is Quran, the Seerah of Prophet (s.a.ws), the Seerah of Imams (a.s). This way man acquires Taqwa and Taqwa is that divine, internal power with which man makes impossible as possible. Those without Taqwa are weak, subjugated persons. Taqwa gives this strength to us. We pray to Allah that may he give us the Taufeeq to deliver the rights of this month, the rights of fasting. 4

6 It is the month of descend of Quran. It is the month of forgiveness. We should seek forgiveness from Allah for the negative work we have done in the last year. It is not just an act of tongue. Man should feel ashamed, regret from the heart and pledge that I will remain now in the servitude of Allah and will not listen to the commands of anyone else other than that of Allah. Since the Holy month of Ramazan is the month of training our self; one esteemed act in this month is Infaq and Sadaqah. It is not just that you just leave eating but instead you have to deliver some more affairs as well. We have made Sadqa as a very lowly act and this is because of the elaboration and interpretation which has been done this way. It is not our fault, the Jantri have presented Sadqa like this only. We think that Sadqa is some filth, dirt in our body, the sins, disobedience and filth which we remove by giving Sadqa and the one receiving also thinks like this. Sadqa is a very high degree act. When a person does mistakes, leaves certain acts, it is compensated with Sadqa. Sadqa word comes from Sidq, truthfulness; it is the proof of his claim of sincerity. Hypocrites have false claims but believers are truthful in their claims. With this act it is proven that you are sincere. When you claim that you are believer, you have to prove. Some would come and tell the Prophet that we are believer, but they had no proof with them. Hypocrite claims big but they have nothing to prove their claims. Quran says hypocrites are liars but believers have sincerity and he repeatedly proves his sincerity. He does not proves his claims by just words, swearing. To swear in the state of fasting is highly Makrooh and in state of Ihram it is forbidden. Quran says that these people who swear on everthing, do not trust on such person, they are false swearing. It is Sadqa that proves the claims. We have confined Sadqa to just giving money, the domain of Sadqa is very broad, it is the proof of your sincerity of act. Whatever you have been given by Allah like knowledge, Taqwa, Tarbiyat. A Sadqa of teacher is to teach. Qaari to teach Quran. The one who has money will give Sadqa of money. He will prove that this money is not mine; it is from Allah. Some say that I have everthing form Allah, he is lying because he does not spends in the way of Allah, he is a liar, if Allah has given then why don t you give in the way of Allah. When you say Allah has given; then prove it. One who says this knowledge has been given to me by Allah then prove and that proof would be Sadqa. The month of Ramzan is the month of Sadqa, and is very effective but with its vastness. Not with the understanding of Sadqa which we have that is so lowly that people have distanced people from it. You should present religion in such opened, clear way that it has attraction inside it. If we express the reality of religion in a proper manner then religion has so much attraction in it that man becomes fond and in love of religion. Maghfirat is a big act in the month of Ramazan and continuously you should do Istighfar and keep fasting of your entire existence, of all dimensions and this fasting will provide ascension to man. May Allah provide us the Taufeeq to fast with its soul. SECOND SERMON The Second sermon is covered in separate document of Weekly Political Analysis. You can find the second sermon on below archive. 5