| HAVE TAQWA Prof. Dr. Mahmud Es'ad
COSAN Aùzu billâhi minesh-shaytànir-rajîm. Bismillâhir-rahmânir-rahîm. Alhamdu lillâhi rabbil àlemîne I seek refuge with Allah
from Satan In the
name of Allah the Merciful the Beneficent. Praise is due to Allah, the
Lord of the Universe. We praise Him with the best of the praises
endlessly. Peace and blessings of
Allah be upon our beloved Prophet Muhammed,
his
family, his companions and his sincere followers. ....... لغدٍ واتقوا
الله ان الله
خبيرٌ بما تعملون
(الحشر:١٨) (Yâ
eyyuhelledhîne âmenut
tequllàh) "O you
who
believe, fear Allah! (wal
tenzur nafsun
mâ qaddemet
lighadin)
and observe what you send to the hereafter ahead of time. (Wattaqullah) Fear Allah! (innallàhe habîrun bimâ ta'melûn)
Verily
Allah is aware of all what you do" (Qur’an
59:18). What does a person send to
the hereafter? All the good and bad deeds carried out in this life are
sent to
hereafter. Inviting people for iftar,
paying money for charity, paying zakah,
building a mosque, fasting, offering formal prayers, performing umrah, performing Hajj, participating in jihad,
and doing
other kinds of worship are sent to the hereafter. Each person
sends these
deeds to the hereafter. Likewise, committing offenses, drinking
wine,
gambling, oppression, injustice, shameful acts, and other deeds that
are
offensive to Almighty Allah are sent to the hereafter, too. Almighty Allah states in
the Qur'an: "Each person will receive the reward for an atom's weight
of
good deed and the punishment for an atom's weight of bad deed.
Each
person must watch out what he sends to the hereafter." In other
words, Almighty Allah says: "O My
servants!
Pay attention to your deeds! Send good deeds to the
hereafter! Send
deeds that would make you happy in the hereafter and deeds that would
earn the
pleasure of Allah and blessings in the hereafter. Do good deeds!"
Almighty Allah says: (Wattaqullah, innallàhe
habîrun bimâ
ta'melûn)
Fear Allah! Verily Allah is truly aware of all what you do." In
other words, "Almighty Allah sees all what you do, so do not do bad
things." Even if you do it secretly, Almighty Allah would know
about
it. You could not be absolutely alone because Almighty Allah will
be with
you: وهو معكم
اين ما كنتم
(الحديد:٤) (Wa huwa
me'akum eyne
mâ kuntum)
"Wherever you are, Allah
is
with
you" (Qur’an 57:4). Almighty Allah
and His
angels are with you all the time. The angels are on your
shoulders. كرامًا
كاتبين.
يعلمون ما
تفعلون
(الانفطار:١١-١٢) (Kirâmen
kâtibîne ya'lemûne
mâ tef'alûn)
The angels
register all of your deeds. Each person has a registry book where
the
angels record the good deeds and bad deeds. There are angels that
stay
with the person all the time. There are angels for each member
and joint
of the body; there are guardian angels to protect the
person. There
are angels to register the deeds. There are other angles that are
responsible for earth, sky, rain, clouds, wind, and sun. That
means a
person is surrounded by angels. There is no place a person could
be
"alone." There would be so many witnesses even if no human being
observes a person while he commits an offense. Almighty Allah
sees all
things. Each of us should be aware
of the fact that Almighty Allah sees us, and each of us should be
very
careful of what to send to the hereafter accordingly. What does Almighty Allah
say? اتقوا الله
(الحشر:١٨) (Ittequllah)
"Fear Allah! Be aware of Allah
and
avoid
deeds that are unpleasant for Him." In another verse, Almighty
Allah says, bismillâhir rahmânir rahîm:
يا ايها
الذين اۤمنوا
اتقوا الله حق
تقاته ولاتموتنَّ الا وانتم
مسلمون (اۤل
عمران:١٠٢) (Yâ
eyyuhelledhîne âmenû)
"O you who believe! (ittequllàhe
haqqa tuqàtihî)
Fear Allah the way how
He
should be
feared. Have taqwa! (wa lâ temûtunne illâ wa entum muslimûn)
Do not die in any way except as Muslims!" (Qur’an 3:102) Hadrat Ali RA said: "My Lord!
You are a Lord as I am pleased with. I praise you. Make me
a
servant that You are pleased with."
What
kind of a person would Almighty Allah be
pleased
with? When a servant has taqwa,
Almighty
Allah is pleased with that person. You must know some people
around who
do not hurt anybody, have a rosary in hand, keep saying prayers, who
are
gentle, sweet, and like angels. We refer to them as "people who
have tawqa." What does taqwa mean? Taqwa comes from the root wiqàya
that means to protect something. Taqwa
means
for a person to protect himself from Almighty Allah, for Almighty Allah
has
absolute limitless power and He will reward or punish people in the
hereafter
according to their deeds in this life. Almighty Allah is مالك يوم
الدين
(الفاتحة:٤) (Mâliki
yawmid-dîn) "The
owner of
the day of Recompense" (Qur’an 1:4) when
the
rewards or punishments will be given to people according to their deeds
in this
life. Since Almighty Allah is the
Sovereign on the Day or Recompense, He will reward the good servants
and punish
the bad servants. That is why we have to fear Allah and protect
ourselves
from the hellfire where the bad servants will end up. There would be
unimaginable forms of torture in Hell. That is why we have to
fear Allah
and avoid Hell. We fast in Ramadhan because Almighty Allah made fasting an obligation on us with the following verse: Bismillâhir rahmânir rahîm:
على الذين
من قبلكم
لعلكم تتقون
(البقرة:١٨٣) (Yâ
eyyuhelledhîne âmenû)
"O you who believe!" --We have been
addressed--O
Muslim servants who say "We believe in Allah, His messengers, His
scriptures, ... " in the creed. (Kutibe aleykumus
siyâm) "Fasting has been
prescribed on
you as an
obligation (kemâ kutibe
'alelledhîne min qablikum)
as it was prescribed upon those before you (leallekum
tetteqùn) that you may attain taqwa
and become righteous." (Qur'an 2:183) We understand from this
verse that fasting is an obligation (fard).
It is an obligation on every believer who is healthy. It is an
obligation
because the verse says (kutibe)
"prescribed." The verse also states, "as
it was prescribed upon those before you." We
understand that fasting had been an obligation on the ummahs
that lived before us. Why did Allah prescribe
fasting on people who lived before us and on us? We all are the
children
of Adam. Our nature has been the same. We have the same
[spiritual]
diseases and the cure has been the same. That is what we infer
from this
verse. The last part of the verse
points to the purpose: (leallekum
tetteqùn) "that you may attain taqwa
and become righteous." That means when a person completes his fasting,
he
should attain taqwa. He should
become a
righteous servant of Allah, a good Muslim. In the verses that I
recited above Almighty Allah asks us to have taqwa:
يا ايها
الذين اۤمنوا
اتقوا الله حق
تقاته ولاتموتنَّ الا وانتم
مسلمون (اۤل
عمران:١٠٢) (Yâ
eyyuhelledhîne âmenut
tequllàhe haqqa
tuqàtihî wa lâ temûtunne illâ wa entum muslimûn.) (Qur'an 3:102) يا ايها
الذين اۤمنوا
اتقوا الله
ولــتــنظــر
نفسٍ ما قدمت لغدٍ واتقوا
الله ان الله
خبيرٌ بما
تعملون (الحشر:١٨) (Yâ eyyuhelledhîne
âmenut tequllàhe
weltenzur nefsun
mâ qaddemet
lighad, wettequllàh,
innallàhe khabîrun
bimâ ta'melûn.) (Qur'an 59:18) These verses instruct us to
have taqwa and be righteous Muslims.
We shall
be righteous Muslims, avoid all offenses, have good manners, be
trustworthy and truthful. Almighty Allah has pointed the path for
us to
be righteous in the verse 183 of Surah Baqara:
fasting. Dear brothers and Sisters!
Almighty Allah prescribed fasting for us, as He prescribed it for ummahs before us, so that we may attain taqwa.
This verse indicates that fasting is a method to attain taqwa.
Fasting will help us attain taqwa and
become
righteous servants. Dear Brothers and Sisters!
As you know each person has a body consisted of our hands, arms, head,
eye, ear
and other organs. We also have a
spirit, a
soul. When the soul is in the body, the body has a value.
When the
soul is gone, the body has no value despite the presence of the eyes,
eyebrows,
and other organs. A person becomes speechless when his soul
leaves his
body. The soul and body together make the body move.
Without the
soul, the body becomes a pile of meat. We also know from the
verses of the Qur'an that each person has a nafs. There is a
being called
nafs in each of us. The nafs in each of us has been created to
tend the
needs of the body. It is the manager of the body. When the
body
feels hungry, the nafs wants food and warns: "Go eat food. I have
been completely drained. I cannot even stand up. I am
losing my
vision. Go eat something. Hurry up!" When the water
in the
body goes below a level, the nafs warns again: "My lips have been dried
up! Go find some water so I can drink it!" When the body works too
much, the nafs says: "I feel tired! If you work with this pace of
the work, soon you will collapse. Take a break! Rest a little. You need some
sleep!" The nafs points out to the needs of the body. The desires of the nafs are
called Shahawât-i Nafsâniyye.
Shahawât means desires and
wants. The
nafs produces desires: "I feel hungry, thirsty. I want food and
water.
I want some rest. I want some sleep. I want to get
married." These are some of the desires. Of course these desires are needed to maintain the body. Almighty Allah has not created anything in vain; there is a reason, wisdom, in the creation of everything. The nafs is needed to protect and maintain the body. ......... Man needs control.
That is why the famous people have managers. The professional
sportsmen,
actors, and other famous personages have secretaries and
managers. Some
of the business is taken care of by the managers for the person.
The
manager, the director, the coach of the body is nafs. Nafs is
needed
because it informs about the needs of the body. Dear Brothers and
Sisters! When this nafs is left alone, then it would not
limit
itself. In other words, the desires of the nafs have no limits,
and they
go on and on! When they exceed the limits, these desires lead to
sin. For instance, they could make a person steal, dishonor
another
person, or do other bad deeds. The nafs could make a person get
lazy,
stay in bad and sleep for long hours. Under the influence of his
nafs, a
person could wish that he takes it easy while everybody else works
hard.
Such a person becomes degenerate; his nature, corrupt. For the reason above, this
stage of nafs is called an-nafs al-ammarah
(the evil self). (An-nafsul ammâratu bis sû'i)
It is the evil self that orders a person to do the evil. When a
person's
nafs is not trained, it orders the person to do evil. This is
stated in
Surah Yusuf: ان الفس
لامَّارةٌ
بالسؤ الا ما
رحم ربى (يوسف:٥٣) (Innan
nafsa le-ammâratun
bis sû'i
illâ mâ rahime
rabbi)
"Indeed the nafs is a persistent enjoiner of evil, except those upon
which
my Lord has mercy." (Qur'an 12:53) The excessive desires of
the nafs must be limited. Who is going to do the limiting and
control? The father of a child puts the limits: "Do not go out to
play soccer! Do not go to the movies! Sit here and finish
your
homework! Wake up and get up! You cannot go outside unless you
finish
your homework!" Somebody outside manages the child. When the child becomes a
strong grown-up, an independent person, who is going to direct
him? Who
is going to manage and train the nafs from outside? The nafs of
the
person needs training. If the nafs is trained, the person reaches
salvation. It is stated in the Qur'an: قد افلح من
زكيها. وقد
خاب من دسيها (الشمس:٩-١٠) (Qad
aflaha men zekkâhâ)
"Prosperous is he who trains and purifies his nafs (Wa qad
khàbe men dessâhâ)
And failed
is he who seduces it." (Qur'an 91:9-10) The tazkiyetun-nafs, the training of
the self, leads to salvation. One who fails to train his nafs
will be
disappointed in the hereafter. That is why training of
nafs is one of the most important tasks for a believer and the most
important
subject of Tasawwuf. The nafs of the person must be
trained. Whose
nafs? Who is the person? A director, a minister, a
president,
a man, a woman, everybody. The nafs of everybody must be
trained. A person becomes mature if his nafs is trained just as Mawlânâ Jalâleddîn-i
Rûmî, Yunus Emre,
Eshrefoghlu
Rûmî, Ibrâhim Haqqi
Erzurumî and other personages we see
around, we have heard
about or we have read about in history books. Let me give you an
example: Hadrat Qadi Shurayh
was a judge. Two persons entered his court. One of them had the
Muslim
attire while the other one had the Christian attire. When he saw
them
together, he wished that the Muslim person was right. His heart
took the
side of the Muslim before they even stated the matter of
disagreement. He
had both of them sit across from him.
Then he
asked what the matter was and he listened to the claims and
defenses. He
came to the conclusion that the Muslim person was wrong and the
Christian was
right on the matter of disagreement. He issued the verdict that
way, yet
he felt the pain in his heart for the rest of his life for wishing that
one of
these two persons who came him to seek
justice was
right. He felt sorry for himself for not looking at them as
equals. The
self of the person is trained, a person controls himself. The nafs needs to be
trained, and one way of training the nafs is fasting. That is why
Almighty Allah has the Muslims practice every year not for a short time
but for
a month. It is a training on limiting the desires of the nafs and
controlling it. Now, what does our nafs
want? It wants food, beverages, and intimacy with our
spouses. What
does Almighty Allah say? "You shall not eat food from dawn until
sunset in Ramadhan!" "Is it haram?" 'The food itself is not
haram, but you shall not eat it from dawn to sunset O My
servant! you shall not drink water,
either!" "Is water haram?" "The water is not
intoxicating; it is not a prohibited matter. However, you shall
not drink
it from dawn to sunset in Ramadhan." The water and food are
essential for the body for the maintenance of life. Almighty
Allah tells
us to stop taking these two important matters from down till sunset. What do we do? We
want them. Imagine it is a summer day and you are fasting.
Think
about the heat of the summer, the heat of ..... Doctors immunize children
to protect them from the diseases. Could we say, "why
do you hurt children by inserting a needle into their arms? You
know that
they are going to get discomfort when you inject the immunization." The doctors would respond:
"I insert the needle because I am giving them some of the microbes of
the
diseases to them. Their body overcomes these microbes and gets
immunity
to these diseases. They will get some discomfort, but is it
temporary." In the past, when these
contagious diseases come to a locality, it would kill many
people.
Ottomans knew about smallpox and some ladies would do the immunization
in the
neighborhood. The epidemic of smallpox would pass like a breeze
in
Ottomans, yet it would kill one-half or one-third of the population in We, too, learn self-control
by abstaining from the lawful and essential matters from dawn to
sunset.
We are training ourselves to gain control over our wills. We
learn how to
hold ourselves and be patient. As you know, once a man in
a white dress came to the Prophet SAS. He had a white,
illuminated face;
his dress was extremely clean. Nobody had seen him before.
He was
not from Madina, yet there was no sign
such as dust
or sweat indicating that he had traveled. He sat by the Prophet
and had
his knee touch the Prophet's knee. He looked very close to the
Prophet
SAS. Everybody was amazed: "Who could be this stranger?" The man in the white dress
asked some questions to the Prophet and the Prophet answered
them. Every
time the Prophet made a statement, he confirmed: "You have said the
truth." The companions were puzzled: "How could a person talk to the
Prophet in this manner? Who is teaching Islam--the Prophet or the
stranger?" One of the last questions
was the following: وما
الاحسان؟ (Wa
mal ihsânu)
"What is ihsân
o Messenger of Allah?" Ihsân
means doing something well. What could be that
something? It is the servitude. Ihsan
means being a good servant to Allah. We had
asked ourselves in the beginning of the discourse: "What kind of a
servant
does Allah want us to be?" He wants us to be good servants.
The man in the white dress asked: "What is ihsân?
How does a person become a good servant?" The Prophet SAS
answered: الاحسان ان
تعبد الله
كانك تراه فان
لم تكن تراه فانه يراك
(خ.
عن ابى هريرة) (Al'ihsânu
en ta'budallàhe ke-enneke
terâhu, fe-in
lem tekun
terâhu fe-innehû
yerâke)
"Ihsan means worshipping Allah as though
you see Him. You do
not see Him, but He is everywhere and observant; He sees
you." The man in the white dress said: "You have stated
the truth." He asked another question and left. After the man in the white
dress left, the Prophet turned to the companions and asked: "Do you
know
who the person was?" "We could not
recognize him o Prophet of Allah." "He was the angel
Gabriel; he appeared as a human being. He asked these questions
for me to
answers so that you learn your religion. He came here for that." This hadith is called hadith-i Jibrîl,
and it was
reported by Hadrat Omar. According to this hadith,
the servitude has to be good: We shall worship Allah as if we see
him. In
the presence of another person, when we feel that we are observed, we
pay more
attention to what we do; we would be more careful as we sit down, get
up, talk
or do anything. Almighty Allah sees us all the time; hence, we
should do
our servitude and worship accordingly. "How are we going to
do our worship?" "We have to do our
worship with taqwa. We have to pay
attention to
make sure that what we do is not offensive to Allah, false or leading
to the
hellfire. We have to avoid all that could prevent us from
entering
paradise. We have to be on our toes all the time. Every move we
make has
to be planned. Hadrat Omar RA was a curious
person. He used to ask people around him questions. Let me
tell you
one anecdote about him. I will return to our subject later. Abdullah ibn-i Abbas
was a young person, yet he was extremely
knowledgeable. When Hadrat Omar became the Caliph, he asked
Abdullah
ibn-i Abbas to be among his council of
advisors. The elderly of the Quraish
and other
companions questioned the wisdom of Hadrat Omar: "Why do we include
this
young man among us? We have children of his age. Why does the
Caliph ask
him to be present at our meetings?" Hadrat Omar RA was one of
the awliyaullah. All of the
companions were awliyaullah, yet he was
among the asher-i mubash-sharah, i.e., the
ten people who
were told that they will enter paradise. He was among the top
companions. He had Abdullah ibn-i Abbas
RA
called. May Almighty Allah bless this young companion as well as
his
father and grant them His consent. May Allah grant their
intercession on
us, too. Hadrat Omar RA had Abdullah
ibn-i Abbas sit among the elderly
companions and asked
them: "Tell me the message of Surah Nasr":
اذا جاء نصر
الله
والــفــتح.
ورايت
الــناس يدخلون فى دين الله
افواجًا. فسبح
بحمد ربك
واستغفره، انه كان
توَّابًا
(النصر:١-٣) (Idhâ
jâ-a nasrullàhi
wal fet-hu
wa ra-eyten nâse yedkhulûne fî dînillâhi efwâjâ...
Fe sebbih bihamdi
rabbike wastaghfirhu
innehû kâne
tawwâbâ) The elderly men responded:
"O the leader of believers! As people got interested in Islam and
became Muslims in large groups, Almighty Allah asked the Prophet (Fe
sebbih bihamdi
rabbike) to glorify and praise
his Lord
and (wastaghfirhu) and seek
forgiveness from Him, (innehû kâne tawwâbâ)
verily He accepts the repentance of His
servants. It is an order to the Prophet that he should praise
Allah and
Turn to Him when victory and the help from Allah arrived." Hadrat Omar turned to
Abdullah ibn-i Abbas RA: "What is your
opinion? Do you agree with the statement?" "No I do not agree
with them." "What do you think it
is?" "In this Surah
Almighty Allah informs the Prophet that he would depart from this life
soon." The word al-fat-hu
in this verse refers to the conquest of Makkah.
Makkah was
conquered. Earlier, Muslims had been expelled from Makkah
by the unbelievers of Quraish.
Muslims had
immigrated to Madina due to the
oppressions.
Then there were battles of Badr, Uhud,
the Ditch (Handak). Later Makkah
was conquered. There were no centers in the Abdullah ibn-i Abase said:
"In this Surah Almighty Allah informs the Prophet that he would depart
from this life soon." Hadrat Omar RA commented: "I
do not know any other interpretation but this. That is the deeper
meaning
of this Surah. 'O My Prophet! You are about to complete
your
mission. Praise your Lord for that and ask forgiveness from
Allah.
Your departure from this life is close.'" Abdullah ibn-i Abbas
was young but knowledgeable. His knowledge
elevated his rank. Hadrat Omar was the
reporter of the Jibrîl Hadith.
According to the
hadith, each person shall do his worship as though he sees Almighty
Allah.
That means, he shall do worship with taqwa,
in a
state of mind that is based on taqwa.
If he
does something wrong, he shall think that Allah sees him and will
punish him in
the hereafter. If he does something good, he shall expect its
reward from
Allah. We can conclude that ihsân, i.e.,
doing the worship in the best way and having taqwa,
which is recommended in many verses of the Qur'an, are essentially the
same
thing. Both of them mean for a person to be aware of what he
does, to
fear that Almighty Allah will punish him when he does something wrong,
to avoid
all that could lead to hellfire, and to avoid all that could prevent
him from
entering Paradise. Hadrat Omar RA was very
knowledgeable person, and he would ask questions. He asked Ubey ibn-i Kâ'b RA:
"Almighty Allah orders taqwa in the
Qur'an. I want to hear from you. What is taqwa?"
Ubey ibn-i Kâ'b
RA was one of the companions. He was a scholar; he knew the
Qur'an
well. He was one of them who collected the verses of the Qur'an.
Hadrat
Omar RA, too, was a knowledgeable person, yet they would exchange
knowledge by
asking questions. Hadrat Omar RA asked: "How do you understand taqwa?" Ubey ibn-i Kâ'b
RA asked a question in response: "O Omar, have you
walked in a field that had thorns?" "Yes, I have." "How did you
walk?" "I picked up the skirt
of my dress." "Why did you do
that?" "I lifted up the
skirts of my dress because I did not want it to be torn. Then I
paid
attention to where I stepped to avoid the thorns. They could hurt
the feet
and make it bleed. They could tear the dress." "That is taqwa."
What a great answer! Ubey ibn-i Kâ'b RA
explained it
with an example, in a way that would stick to the minds. Taqwa is living a life as though walking
in a field full of thorns. A Muslim must lead a life as though he
is
walking in that field. The thorns of this life are the offenses
and
sins. If you step on a thorn of sin, you will injure yourself
spiritually. If you commit an offense, you will wound yourself
spiritually.
You have to avoid the offenses and sins. You have to be extremely
careful
in life. "Do people commit sins
because they don't know what is sin?" "Not
at all!
They know it well what is haram. Everybody knows that drinking
intoxicants, gambling, uttering lies, and involving in usury are
sins.
Very few people would be committing a sin without knowing. People
commit
sins knowing it is prohibited by Allah. They do it because they
cannot
control their nafs. They say afterwards, "I am sorry. I
could
not help it! I could not control myself. I followed the
path of
Satan; I followed the desires of my
nafs." During the month of
Ramadhan, a Muslim practices controlling his nafs. He does the
training
by not drinking water, not eating food and not getting intimate with
his
spouse. Almighty Allah put up our strongest and stormiest desires
to
train us. By not doing them from dawn to sunset, a person learns
avoidance and taqwa. Do we understand the verse
of the Qur'an better? كتب عليكم
الصيام كما
كتب على الذين
من قبلكم لعلكم
تتقون
(البقرة:١٨٣) (Kutibe
aleykumus siyâm)
"Fasting has been prescribed on you as an obligation (kemâ kutibe
'alelledhîne
min qablikum) as it was prescribed
upon those before
you" because they had the same responsibility. They had nafs,
too,
and they would become better persons if they controlled their
nafs.
"(Leallekum tetteqùn)
that you may attain taqwa and become
righteous."
(Qur'an 2:183) Dear Brothers and
Sisters. Do not consider fasting as "staying hungry from down to
sunset" only. Go beyond that and understand the purpose. Few days ago we were in
The imam responded: "I
sure could, yet I would have a request. It is my custom, a
weakness, to
ask those who are present to listen to the Qur'an not by their ears but
with
their hearts." There are so many people
who hear things, but they act as though they never heard it. A
child
hears his father's words, yet he goes and does the same thing that he
should
not do. Why would he do that? He could not control
himself.
We often say, his father's words "entered through one ear and got our
through the other ear." We know that there is no such thing, yet
we
imply that the person did not do what he was told to. Listening
is not
enough; one must understand and apply
on
himself. The person must instill what he hears into his
heart.
Looking is not enough; one must see it and place it in his
heart.
That is why the imam said: "I will recite the Qur'an, but you should
listen to it not only by your ears but also by your hearts." Dear brothers and
Sisters! You must not carry out fasting in the form only.
You
should not be content with being thirsty or hungry whole day; try to
understand
its meaning and purpose, too. What is purpose of fasting?
(Leallekum tetteqùn)
It is a task to make you god-conscious and strengthen your will
power. It
is a great training work. If I may say, it has been a modern
training
work for over centuries. It is a method for strengthening the
will power
that the men of twentieth century has been
looking
for. Unfortunately we see some
Muslims fasting the whole day and at the iftar
they
light a cigarette. What happened? What happened to the
training? He
tried getting taqwa all day, and in the
evening he
broke his training. As the songs go: Karakolda doghru söyler He tells
the
truth at
the police station, Akshamdan söz
verip de Would
one
promise in
the evening
I would like to end my
discourse with something bitter and important. What is the sign
of
acceptance of our worship in Ramadhan? We offered Tarawih
prayers, recited Qur'an and fasted. we
offered
night vigil prayers, spend money on charitable causes, fed the poor and
invited
people for iftar. Are they
accepted? Our
beloved Prophet said: "The sign of acceptance of the worship carried
out
in Ramadhan is the continuation of this excellent state of the person
after
Ramadhan." After Ramadhan, if the
person does not maintain his good state that he acquired in Ramadhan,
if
resumes bad activities after Ramadhan, it means that Allah has not
accepted
that person's worship in Ramadhan. That is why we should
pay
attention to this. The purpose of fasting is to learn self
control and
strengthen the will power against the offenses and haram. The
purpose is
to acquire taqwa. Do not forget this
at
all. Remember it after the iftar and
after the
month of Ramadhan. Live a life with taqwa.
Almighty Allah will place
His muttaqî
servants (those who have taqwa) in His
Paradise. اعدت
للمــتــقــين
(اۤل
عمران:١٣٣) (U'iddet
lil muttaqîn)
" اكثر ما
يدخل الناس
الجنة تقوى
الله وحسن الخلق
(راموز
الاحاديث:٣/٨٠) (Aktheru
mâ yudkhilun
nâs al-jannah
taqwallahi wa husnul khuluqi) "What takes people to The second quality to take
a person to For the training, one month
is a pretty long time, not short at all. It also repeats every
year.
A person undergoes this training every year. It is an annual
spiritual
and bodily maintenance. We ought to learn about taqwa
and understand it well. We ought to strengthen our will power and
join in
this Ramadhan among those who have taqwa.
We should
succeed in becoming muttaqî servants of
Allah, for
Allah loves those who have taqwa and grant
them good
ends. He treats them with blessings in His Paradise. May Almighty Allah make
your fasting real--not in form only. May He not place us among
those who
fast without being aware of the meanings of fasting.
May He grant us the good feelings that are meant for us in Ramadhan.
May He strengthen our will power and remove the tarnish from our
hearts.
May He remove the curtains from our eyes so that we can see the truth
as truth,
the path leading to His consent, and His Beauty.
May He grant us the love of His path.
For the
rest of our lives, may Allah make us His beloved servants, grant us taqwa, and keep us on His straight path. With the
secrets of the Surah Fatiha. Sirri Kirimoglu
Mosque --
|