Gems Of Ramadan ✔

DAY 7 - LET THE COMPETITION BEGIN

An important topic and one of the strongest ways for many to charge and ignite their Ibaadah is flipping back the pages of our golden history. There are many, many different ways to charge yourself into doing Ibaadah. We talked about igniting your yearning to Allah so let us talk about igniting your Ibaadah. One of the ways is warm up for Ibaadah (like the two Rak'ah the Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam did), that gives you energy and excels your Ibaadah. Remembering death kills boredom and blows the sleep away, making room for your Ibaadah. Snippets of the lives of the Salaf overcomes laziness. It energies, charges and gets one to excel and that is what I wanted to talk about.

Befriend the Salaf. Choose a friend from the Salaf and befriend him. Everyone has stars they look up to and Muslims have the Salaf as stars. Those are our stars. Someone will say how do I befriend the Salaf when they are all dead? Yes they all died (no doubt about it), but their legacy of Ibaadah to imitate and mimic lives on. Today the standards have become so low that if one does not do too many Haraams, he is considered a saint by many. The surrounding status around us has become so low that those who do Sunnah and Nawaafil for their Salah are labelled forerunners in Ibaadah, Saabiqun Bil-Khayraati Bi'ithnillah (سَابِقٌ بِالْخَيْرَاتِ بِإِذْنِ اللَّـهِ).

But let us look at our forefathers, the real standards we look up to. I am not going to try to mention any example of their worship in Ramadhaan, I want to give you a glimpse of their life three hundred and sixty five days a year (a normal day to them). And if that is a normal day, let your mind wonder how their nights and days in Ramadhaan were.

Abu Musa al-Ash'ari, the supporter of the Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam, the Daa'iyah and one of two people who took Islam all the way to Yemen. Yemen and its surrounding areas, today Abu Musa al-Ash'ari and Mu'aadh in their graves get the reward of everyone there. That is one side we know, but he had another side like every 'Aalim, Mujaddid, Mujaahid and righteous Imaam, and like every pious Muslim should have. Abu Musa strived hard in his Ibaadah during his life. When they saw him in that fashion, they told him why do you not relax a little bit Abu Musa? He said when the horses are about to get at the end of the race or when they see and spot water and they are about to reach the water, they sprint to it. And I am at the end so let me continue until I die, and he did, radhiallahu 'anhu. Surprising? Well more stunning than that is that they did not say these kind of statements at the retirement age, they used to say such statements in their youth. Many were known to say such statements in their youth. When a person is doing a two mile run, he needs to maintain a form. He takes off at a slow pace, picks up a little bit and then in the final lap and the last yards, he sprints to the finish line. Their life and Ibaadah was not like that. Their life was like the last few yards, like the last lap that you are sprinting to.

Abu Muslim al-Khawlaani yearned so badly to meet the Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam. A one man nation who single-handedly by the power of Allah took down al-Aswad al-'Ansi (the man who popped up in Yemen claiming he was a prophet of Allah). While the armies clashed and the memorisers of the Qur'an were being killed one after another (by the tens and in another narration by the hundreds) as they were fending off Musaylamah al-Kathaab, Abu Muslim al-Khawlaani on the other side of the world took down al-Aswad al-'Ansi alone by the will of Allah. A man whose Du'aa was answered. He had a statement similar to that of his teacher Abu Musa al-Ash'ari, but he also said something amazing to the Sahaabah. When he was ousted out of Yemen, he quickly headed to Madinah to meet the Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam, only to find out that the Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam had died just before he got there. In his agony of not reaching the level of a Sahaabi, he said do you companions think you will ever beat us? No Wallahi we will compete with you and we will beat you. Daring, bold statement from a giant. That should be my statement and your statement. We should compete with our Salaf, if you want their levels and if you want their companionship in Jannah.