[0:05]There comes a point when I don't care why. The fact that Allah told me, I'm going to do it. Allahu Akbar. That's called Islam, you're a Muslim. You have surrendered. Now you begin to taste the sweetness of anything and everything that happens in your life. Like we're talking about the deepness of seeking forgiveness from Allah. Like don't get lost in the ritual and just let me fast from the morning to the evening, like I got it done. No, this is like a deep exercise of seeking forgiveness. The first day of Ramadan, it may not hit you, but that seventh day of Ramadan, that 12th day of Ramadan, it hits you. You may not even care about it being fun anymore because you really want the soul to be enriched and that's your main concern.
[0:52]Assalamu alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh dear brothers and sisters, welcome back to Quran 30 for 30. Alhamdulillah, we are on juice two now and as we are really beginning Ramadan, we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to bless you all in your journey towards him. We pray that you are enjoying and engaging with the names of Allah series and getting to connect with those names. It's going to be a beautiful journey with those names. We also want to remind you as you get started, to check out all that has for this month and to donate. You can actually plug in your donations for the entire month and we encourage that. So if you've been with us before, you commit at least what you've committed before and more. And if you're joining us for the first time, this is your opportunity. We have so much that we're going to be announcing this month of what's coming up. Alhamdulillah, we are joined by Mufti Mink. Mufti Minka, a dear brother, a dear friend, someone that's inspired so many people. You know, mashallah, every time you meet us, you meet us with a lot of love. Allahu Akbar. And Allah grant us love such that we can go into Jannah as we love each other for his sake. Ameen, Allah Barik. How are you? Very well. Alhamdulillah, Mashallah, Barakallahu. Good to be in good company. Sheikh, who's the African King, you or Sheikh Abdullah Duro? Abdullah Duro. Okay, that's like a rapid fire question. He didn't even like us. I'm about to ask him a real controversial question about, All right, go ahead. So the Jell-O, I've answered it before, whichever country you're in at that time. So the Jell-O of that country, in that country is better, but if you're offering me the Jell-O of Nigeria in Ghana, it's not good enough. Ah, no. Because the Nigerians know how to cook it in Nigeria and the Ghanaians know how to make it in Ghana. The minute you're elsewhere, it's controversial. I see. You know what, that's a diplomatic answer. It's a good answer. But if you're in London, do you want Nigerian Jell-O or do you want Ghanaian Jell-O? There is a special London Jell-O, which is All right, Sheikh. If you are in Lahore, do you want Nigerian Jell-O or Ghanaian Jell-O? Pakistani. Pakistan.
[3:09]So biryani is just a spin-off of Jell-O? It's a spin-off. Or maybe maybe Jell-O is a spin-off of the biryani. So. Sheikh, so you know how to negotiate all things. Allah bless. Yeah. He didn't even want to solve Who plays ping-pong better? Me or Sheikh Abdullah Duro? I haven't seen you guys play, but I think you're taller, so you probably played better. He's got a point, Sheikh. He's got a point. Yeah, he has a point. You know Sheikh, you and I are like wired together, man, because I was going to ask him the same question about Jell-O. Oh, really? Yeah, man. Arwah, we've been vibing too much now over these last few years. Beautiful thing. Allah bless you, Mufti Mink, it's a blessing, seriously. And to get into the actual topic, before we get to the juice, Sheikh, question for you, at this moment, what is your favorite name of Allah Subhana Wa Ta'ala? I think when it comes to the month of Ramadan, generally, all the names that are connected to the forgiveness of Allah, I, I really take great time to go through them, to use them to call out to Allah, to try and understand them, ponder over them. It brings me great comfort because one of the most important achievements from Ramadan is forgiveness with the taqwa that you achieve, it's also a month of forgiveness and freedom from hell. At-Tawab, Ghaffar, Rahman, Raheem, Wadud, these are some amazing names to ponder over in the month of Ramadan. I do that a lot because we all want forgiveness, you know, no one is sinless. And subhanallah, that's Allah. I'll go a little deeper and more personal. I just have to. People see us and they go overboard with their praise. They go overboard with their criticism, they go overboard with their praise. Some people put us on a pedestal, some people put us under their feet in the dirt. And only Allah knows who we truly are. If someone in your position, how does that affect your calling out to Allah for forgiveness? You know, I I consider it a humongous responsibility when you call people towards Allah because people mirror that message on you. And we are not on a level of perfection at all, very far from it. And the balance between the praise and the hate, if I can word the second of it that way, is a good balance. Because while people are praising you, there's people who are actively out there to ensure that you fall. And you're the tightrope in the center asking Allah to help you, to protect you, to forgive you, to cover you, to use you and to continue to use you and that keeps you humble. So in a way, if there was no balance and we only had people who praised, perhaps it would have been worse. And if we had only people who hated, people would be discouraged, but because we have that balance, it's all about balance. You know, when we talk about the balance of Islam, the balance of Allah Almighty's system on Earth, that's what it is. So we have to remain grounded and keep reminding ourselves, we can be replaced. We are not perfect. People see the good and sometimes they don't see the other side of us, not to say we're evil, but the little sins that sometimes, you know, we are human. We should always be very grateful to Allah and thank Allah, seek forgiveness of Allah and ask him to continue to use us. I ask him every day, oh Allah, use me to serve your cause and continue to use us and keep us humble and steadfast. Mashallah, we come into the second juz, and obviously we're doing a focus on the names of Allah Azzawajal in this Ramadan and how they relate. The way Allah talks about himself in this juz is very interesting because it starts off as that to Allah belongs the east and the west, so anywhere you turn, then there's the face of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And there's something deeply profound when you contextualize this in al-Madinah al-Munawwarah, where the Prophet is coming to Madina and you have the people of the book who have lost substance and only maintained form. And they're judging the Prophet through the lens of their rituals and they're looking to validate Islam through their rituals. Oh, now he's facing this qiblah. Oh, now he's going this way. Oh, now he's doing this. This aligns with us. This doesn't align with us. And the Prophet is being judged but really, by extension, and deeper than that, the Quran is being judged. Allah is being judged. Like they're trying to validate this revelation based upon what they have. And Allah is saying to the people that I don't need to be validated by your rituals. Your rituals need to be validated by me. They need to be accepted by me. Your rituals don't make Allah. Allah is the one who owns and commands all rituals. Allah is the one who is to be worshipped through those rituals. So it's like Allah sets that tone before he gets into now some of the changes in the sharia. The changes in the legislation. And of course, the Ummah of Muhammad is being viewed as like a child Ummah to the Jews and the Christians. I think about this by the way, growing up in the United States and obviously, having been in so many different dialogues with, uh, with rabbis and pastors and Jews and Christians that a lot of times when you say the Abrahamic tree, you put Islam at the bottom. It's like you, you present Islam as this new thing, right? It's almost like our little brother, right? And look how Allah speaks of the ummah because that's what the sentiment that was being driven to the Prophet and to the Muslims when they came to Medina. Allah says and so we made you a justly balanced upright ummah. We'll talk about ummah so that you can be witnesses upon the people and the messenger will be a shaheed upon you. And we did not assign this former direction of prayer except to distinguish those who would remain faithful to the messenger of Allah from those who would turn on their heels. Like if you were only following the Prophet on the basis of him praying towards that qiblah which is towards al-Aqsa, towards Al-Quds. May Allah liberate from the occupiers. So if this is the only reason, because they were telling the Prophet we might follow you, we feel a little bit of an affinity towards you because you pray towards Jerusalem. But then how dare you change the Qibla from Jerusalem to Mecca? Who gave you that right, right? So if this is the idea, Allah is filtering you out. Allah doesn't need you. He doesn't need your ritual. That Allah is the one who makes rituals valid. Your rituals don't validate Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And that the change of command is to see who will stick to the one who legislates the commands in the first place, which is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. But then on the other side of the arrogance of how dare you change the Qibla this way or do that. Who gave you the right to do so, little brother? On the other side of that, you have the Sahaba. And the Sahaba here that are being referred to, those that passed away before the change of the Qibla. They only prayed towards Jerusalem. And now the Qibla is towards Mecca. And the Muslims that have outlived them are wondering, does that mean that all of their Salah was lost? And Allah will not lose your faith. And Allah will not lose your faith.
[12:08]So they worshiped Allah sincerely. They were praying towards Jerusalem. The Qibla gives us a unified direction, but Allah is the one who's being worshiped all along and throughout this. So Allah will not lose your faith. The tender mercy is that the believers that pray towards al-Aqsa had the blessing of praying towards al-Aqsa as well as having their Salah accepted. Anas ibn Malik used to say, I'm the last one alive who got to pray towards both Qiblas. I was honored. He outlived everyone else and that's why he defined himself. I got to pray towards Jerusalem and towards Mecca. Rahim, Allah is especially exclusively merciful on the day of judgment. So that was there was a reason why there was a prayer towards Jerusalem before Mecca. Allah could have just made it in the first place. There is a reason why that Allah combined for the Prophet both Qiblas. Both Qiblas that he is the Said of Ismail and Banu Israel. He is the leader of them. So he combines both Qiblas and this sort of really exemplifies this verse and that was ritualized, right? That we faced Jerusalem and we faced Mecca. But on top of that, on the Day of Judgment, you know, there's a narration and most of the say there's a weakness in the sanad in the chain, but the meaning is authentic. It's exemplified through many Hadith that there's not a single person on the day of judgment except that they would wish to be from the Ummah of Muhammad. And there is not a single prophet of Allah that was blamed, that was called a liar except that the Ummah of Muhammad will step in on his behalf and affirm him and confirm the truthfulness of his message. Look at the the privileging of the Ummah of Muhammad on the Day of Judgment. So it's a beautiful juz because it's like it goes to how Allah sees ritual, how Allah sees ritual and how he sees the performance of those rituals. And this is important as we get into Ramadan. Like we're talking about the deepness of seeking forgiveness from Allah. Like don't get lost in the ritual and just let me fast from, you know, from from, uh, from the morning to the evening, like I got it done. No, this is like a deep exercise of seeking forgiveness. So I want to stop there first, before we get into it, talk about the purpose of ritual. Like, what do you take from this? You know, every time Allah has asked us to do something, it's always for our benefit. That's what I always look at it as and that's what we're taught. It's not for the benefit of Allah because if the whole world had to disobey Allah, it would never reduce the status of Allah. Allah is Allah. And if the whole world had to worship him, it would not increase him in status. He is Allah. And there is a Hadith to that effect as well, that even if the whole of mankind from the beginning to the end had to do something, it wouldn't really affect Allah at all. So when he has asked us to do something, it's always for our benefit. Sometimes we know the benefit, we can sense some of it, like in fasting, for example. There are so many health benefits. Because humankind is such that when you see a health benefit, I call it a materialistic because it's connected to the world. We tend to say, oh, wow, but the spiritual and the the other religious sort of benefits that we see, that which is connected to the hereafter, connected to Allah Subhana Wa Ta'ala and that contact, many of us take that for granted. The minute we come to realize that when Allah has ordained something and we do it wholeheartedly for the sake of Allah, we have the we we enjoy all the benefits. Those we know and those we don't know. I remember, you know, people give us verses of the Quran and rightly so. Sometimes this verse will help you, for example, protect you from something, there's shifa in this verse, there's shifa in this, there is, for example, you have Ayatul Kursi and a few of the others. And I always tell people who say, I've only repeated these verses. I say, have you considered there may be benefit in so many verses of the Quran that you don't know about. So if you were to read the Quran cover to cover with a good intention for the sake of Allah, you'd automatically achieve the benefits that you may have known or not known of all the verses. Therefore, in Ramadan, we always encourage people, you're at the beginning of Ramadan. Take it cover to cover, listen to it at least, read it if if if not. Or combine two. I had someone ask me today that because I can't read the Quran, can I just listen to it? So I suggested to them saying, why listening? Why don't you read along? You know, it's it's a double benefit. So that's a very good thing. We can do it. This is Ramadan. We must make sure because we don't know the full benefit of it and the idea is we will benefit.
[19:16]So it's not about me and, you know, making a big show of thing and dressing up because everyone else is there and so on. You know, for us, it's more about building your relation with he whom you're going to return to. And then Allah gives you so many acts of worship that the reward of it is paradise. Look at Ramadan, the door of Jannah known as Al-Rayyan, especially for those who fast. And there are so many other aspects of the forgiveness of the month of Ramadan. The idea is to get paradise. So Allah's looking for any excuse to actually get you in. So inshallah, we get in by the will of Allah.
[20:17]Sheikh, it's a pleasure to have you as always. We love your presence. We appreciate you and Always an honor to be Mashallah bless you in Zimbabwe and wherever you may be. So
