MG CII Jun 11
Some people keep thinking about their past. They wish they could have done this, or done that. Sometimes they are so much into this that they re-write whole past 10 years of their life. It seems all their regrets are in terms of dunya. In Ramadan Allah swt brings our attention back to deen. We feel oh all year I kept getting angry, all year I missed my salah, all year I didn't give sadaqah, all year I had regret of this dunya. When people get this realization sometimes they get into depression. But in Ramadan when a person feels this, they immediately try to make up for it. In Ramadan Allah swt gives hopefulness to the believers who pray and fast. That's amazing that a person needs to pray and fast in a day, Allah swt will send extra mercy on them in the month of Ramadan just by the virtue of these two worships.
Most of us have had these feelings in Ramadan in previous years too. But as soon as Ramadan ended our feelings were gone as well. It's like shaytan comes back from vacation and takes over his job. The main problem is dunya. A lot of us take sin out of our lives. But after Ramadan we go back to them. This Ramadan what we should differently is that we should try to remove dunya from our hearts. If dunya is removed then inshaAllah even after Ramadan we will remain on this path.
What is dunya?
It is used sometimes in the context of wealth. In the second context it means everything other than Allah swt - all creation. Some people think that this is an extreme stance to take while there are a lot of hasanaat in dunya. They refer to this dua Rabbana aatina fid dunya. We are not asking to leave everything. Best example is like when you pray, we say don't let yourself have any thoughts about dunya. It means don't even think about your children even though they are from the hasanaat. In salah we are told don't think about anything other than Allah swt. It means everything except Allah swt - all creation should be forgotten. Allah swt says all of the dunya is not but a trifle in the regard of Allah swt. It does not just mean money. It means every single thing in the creation all of them combined is qaleel and insignificant with regard to Allah swt.
Taking dunya out of our heart does not just mean in a materialistic monetary way. It may remain in our homes, our pockets, but it should be taken out from our hearts. "O Allah now every single wish, desire, aspiration, information has left my heart. My heart is now empty. Now Allah I want your love to come in my heart." This is the process.
It does not mean that you become a monk. You retain the dunya but only have a functional relation with the dunya - no emotional, no hopes and desires, no loving, no attachment to it. And we all have such things in dunya that we do not have an emotional relation with for example none of us loves our chair, or the light switch, or the key or the rug - their only purpose is utility.
How to get dunya out of our hearts?
Only the dhikr of Allah swt can take the dunya entirely out of their hearts. If we don't do dhikr, we may still pray, we may be a good person but we will still feel an attraction to the dunya.
Generally a person has 4 problems:
1. Dunya: everything other than Allah swt
2. Shaytan
3. Makhlooq: creation
4. Nafs: ego
In the month of Ramadan, Allah swt has taken care of shaytan. All of jins and shaytan are locked up in the month of Ramadan.
Once a Sahaba ra came to Nabi sws and said that Ya Rasool Allah sws I want to get married but I am not yet able to get married, but at the same time I feel natural feelings and urges. Nabi sws said you should fast. It means fasting directly curbs and trims the passions and desires of the nafs. When a person fasts the fardh fast for Allah swt, just imagine how much effect it would have. By making it fardh Allah swt has made it more powerful and effective for us. If there were no fardh fast we would not have the ability to tame our nafs. Because of fasts we are fighting our nafs and shaytan is already placed in chains. Two of the four problems have been taken care of.
Dunya - our awareness and involvement in anything other than Allah swt and makhlooq specifically unlawful love remains. And we can see this in our lives that people say I was able to stay away from all of the sins except for sins related to makhlooq and dunya. People who have left sins still feel sinful inclination such that a man may say I cannot stop thinking about her, or a girl might say that I cannot thinking about him. These memories are all makhlooq.
Ramadan is all dhikr. The time spent in fast is dhikr. Any act done for Allah swt according to shariah and sunnah, that is accorded the rank of dhikr.
Allah swt does not burden a soul beyond their ability. And fasting is doable for us. Ramadan is also the month when we get to feel what would life be like if we were dhakireen. Most of us also experience this. We are praying 20 raka'a taraweeh, we are fasting throughout the day. If on a regular day you ask a person did you pray 1.5 hours nafl? They would say no. They are still the same person but in Ramadan it's easy to do for them. Dhakireen make more dua most people make more dua in Ramadan. Dhakireen sleep less, most people sleep less also. We get the qualities of dhakireen in Ramadan.
This way we see the power of dhikr. From the dhikr of Allah swt, all of makhlooq and dunya is removed from our hearts. Salah also has the same impact. Why does Allah swt makes us pray 5 times a day? So we forget the dunya during this time. We should be able to forget the dunya, and we must practice to forget it. Because dunya is not our real everlasting home. So we need to pull the plug of dunya. Most of us keep attached to dunya even during salah. If we pull the plug in salah we will feel in Salah. Allah swt wants our hearts to always be detached from this world.
Establish salah so you may erase any and all of dunya from your heart. You should worship Allah swt as though you see Him. If you cannot do this, then you should pray as though Allah swt is seeing you. During fasting we should always remember that we are fasting for Allah swt. Any time you feel hungry, and you remember why you are doing it - it is all counted as dhikr.
Many people say that they are addicted to sins, they repent but cannot leave it. Still in Ramadan they leave it. This is the power of fasting. But the real power is dhikr of Allah swt. Allah swt wants us to get dhikr in salah. Allah swt says establish salah for My dhikr. But all year round we don't have dhikr of Allah swt. All the opportunities of getting closer to Allah swt has passed us by. The people who are dhakireen the whole year, the same way me and you feel that I can't do sin I cannot disobey Allah swt, I have to pray awabeen etc. that's how the dhakireen feel all year round. Through Ramadan they get an increase in their closeness and marifah of Allah swt.
You will be able to witness less difference in their lives before and during Ramadan. But for us ordinary believers there is a big difference. But the mashaikh, dhakireen, saliheen, there is no big difference. The missing things in our life like tahajjud, reciting durud, istighfar practice it.
In Ramdan we should try to fill in every blank missing in deen. There are a lot of things missing in our deen. How high has Allah swt set the mark? Compare yourself that how far we are from Nabi sws. Imagine his sws feelings etc. there's a huge gap. We are the ummati of Nabi sws but we are no where close to that.
The people who enter Ramadan unprepared they use first 7-8 days to wrap up their dunya. In fact we should do it right now. Postpone everything to after eid. This should be your favorite sentence - whatever is going to happen is going to happen after Ramadan.
How to prepare for Ramadan?
Best way is to make true tawbah now. Now. Make irada - a deep will wish and desire that Ya Allah swt I want to be true and loving to You. Irada that I have travelled so much for this dunya and did so many things for this dunya. Please accept this Ramadan for deen. I'm willing to take the burdens. And tawbah means to seek forgiveness for all of our previous sins.
This is our choice to choose deen over dunya. We have done much for dunya and extraneous activities. Allah swt says O insan! What has deceived you about your Kind and Generous Rabb? Insan is inclusive of both believers and unbelievers. For believers it means, that why have we deceived ourselves that we choose dunya over deen? That's why Nabi sws asked us to make dua to put barakah in our rajab and shaban.
What dhikr can we do that we can continue even after Ramadan?
1. Recite Qur'an at least 10 - 15 minutes. At least half a para
2. Make istighfar - to seek forgiveness of Allah swt a 100 times
3. Recite salawat durud - we should never ever let a day go by when we forget Nabi sws. Because he was a nabi who never forgot his sws ummah. Never should we fail to recite the dua after adhaan to grant him sws maqam e mahmood
4. Remember Allah swt all the time in heart. Allah swt in the unforgettable being then how can we forget Him? Take it seriously that how can I forget Allah swt?
5. In your free time do muraqaba. This is your meeting and special time with Allah swt. The way you remember is to focus on His name Allah.
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