{"id":4039,"date":"2011-09-03T00:17:59","date_gmt":"2011-09-02T23:17:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/khutbahbank.org.uk\/?p=4039"},"modified":"2011-09-03T00:17:59","modified_gmt":"2011-09-02T23:17:59","slug":"after-ramadan-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/khutbahbank.org.uk\/v2\/2011\/09\/03\/after-ramadan-2011\/","title":{"rendered":"After Ramadan 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cAs-sal\u00e1mu \u2018alaikum wa rahmatul l\u00e1hi wa barak\u00e1tuh!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA-\u00fathu bill\u00e1hi minash shayt\u00e1nir rajeem. Bismill\u00e1hir rahm\u00e1nir raheem.<\/p>\n

Al hamdu lillahi nahmaduhu wanasta\u2019eenahu, wanastagh-firuhu, wanatoobu ilayhi, wana\u2019oothu Billaahi min shuroori an-fusinaa, wamin sayyi aati a\u2019maalinaa. May- Yahdillahu fa huwal muhtad, wa may- yudlill falan tajidaa lahu waliyan murshida. Wa ash-hadu an Laa ilaaha ill-Allah, wahdahoo laa shareeka lah, wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan \u2018abduhoo warasooluh\u201d<\/p>\n

All Praise is due to Allah, We praise Him and we seek help from Him. We ask forgiveness from Him. We repent to Him; and we seek refuge in Him from our own evils and our own bad deeds. Anyone who is guided by Allah, he is indeed guided; and anyone who has been left astray, will find no one to guide him. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, the Only One without any partner; and I bear witness that Muhammad, sws, is His servant, and His messenger.<\/p>\n

Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem! Ya Ay-yuhal-latheena \u2018aamanut taqul-laaha, haqqa tuqaatihee wala tamu tun-na, il-la wa antum Muslimoon.\u201d<\/p>\n

O You who believe, \u2013 Fear Allah, as He should be feared, and die not except as Muslims.<\/p>\n

Ya Ay-yuhal-latheena \u2018aamanut taqul-laaha, wa qooloo qawlan sadeedaa. Yuslih-lakum a\u2019maalakum wa yaghfir lakum thunoobakum, wamay yu-til-laaha warasoolah, faqad faaza fawzan atheemaa.\u201d<\/p>\n

O You who believe, \u2013 Be aware of Allah, and speak a straightforward word. He will forgive your sins and repair your deeds. And whoever takes Allah and His prophet as a guide, has already achieved a mighty victory\u2026<\/p>\n

My respected Brothers and Sisters,<\/p>\n

By the Grace of Allah, we have completed another Ramadan. Another glorious month of Mercy, Forgiveness and Freedom from Hellfire has passed. A unique opportunity afforded to us for one precious month every year, where we can multiply our good deeds, has passed. We pray that Allah will accept our fasting and our other good deeds of the past month. Let us not be among the losers, who missed this opportunity, or who missed the main point of Ramadan. Let us not be among those who gained nothing from their fasting except hunger and thirst. They will have to wait for 11 months to get another opportunity. Let us ask Allah to spare us at least until next Ramadan. Let us in the meantime do our part of the bargain. Let us do the things that please Allah… the good Ramadan behaviour that we cultivated over the past few weeks. Let us try to fast at least one or 2 days a week, Mondays and Thursdays, throughout the year. Let us try to fast 6 days of Shawwal. But let us also today, think and reflect on what makes Ramadan so special.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just about fasting and feasting. Ramadan is pre-eminently the month of the Quran. It\u2019s the month that contains a Night of Power, Lailatul Qadr, one night that\u2019s worth more than 1,000 months. Why is this? What makes this night so special? Most people believe it was the 27th<\/sup>night of Ramadan, but it could well \u00a0be any of the last 5 odd nights, 21st<\/sup> 23rd<\/sup>, 25th<\/sup> 27th<\/sup> or 29th<\/sup>. Allah alone knows for certain. This is the night in which Allah, the glorified and exalted, Rabbul Jalaal wal ikraam,<\/em> the Lord of the Majesty and Honour, sent down His Archangel Gabriel, Jibreel alayis-salaam<\/em>, to our earthly realm of time and space. The time was during the last ten nights of Ramadan in the year 610 of the Christian Era, and the place was in a cave on Jabal Nur<\/em>, the Mountain of Light, near Makka. This is the epic story of One Night, One man, alone in cave, and One Book. Here Jibreel took Muhammad sws, the son of Abdullah, in a tight embrace, and commanded him to \u201cRead.\u201d Muhammad sws protested that he could not read, he was unschooled in reading and writing, but Jibreel persisted, and slowly, with great effort, the first majestic words of the Holy Qur\u2019an rolled from Muhammad\u2019s lips:<\/p>\n

\u201cIqra! Bismi Rabbikal lathee khalaq! Khalaqal insaana min \u2018alaq. Iqra! Wa Rabbukal akram. Al-lathee \u2018al-lama bil qalam. \u2018Al-lamal insaana maa lam ya\u2019lam\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cRead\u201d in the Name of your Lord who created: He created man from a clinging form. Read! Your Lord is the Most Bountiful One, who taught by [means of] the pen, who taught man that which he did not know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the next 23 years, through pain, suffering and ultimate victory of truth over falsehood, the Words of Allah emerged from the timeless space-less realm of eternity, and entered into our earthly domain. These sacred words illuminated the spiritual darkness of Arabia in the 7th Century, and its irresistible light has beamed brightly down the ages. We must never forget what the world was like at the time, six hundred years after Jesus, Nabi Isa<\/em>. The superpowers Rome and Persia were at war. Arabia and sunken back to idol worship. There were some Jews and Christians, but their scriptures were no longer the same revelations brought by Prophets Moses and Jesus. Through human error and human tampering, adding their own gospels, the Divine Word had been compromised. The pure monotheism taught by those great prophets, Moses and Jesus, was all but lost. It was time to put matters right. Allah\u2019s answer was to send a \u2018perspicacious Book,\u2019 a Furqaan, a Criterion, to measure right from wrong, to distinguish truth from falsehood. The Holy Quran has reconstructed the pure original message of Divine Unity, the message of Tawheed, which was taught by all the Prophets. Those who describe Islam as a new religion are mistaken. Islam means peaceful submission to the One Who created everything. This is the oldest, not the newest Religion. The religion of One God, Tawheed, Divine Unity, is the same religion of all the Prophets from Adam through Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus. Prophet Muhammad sws himself said that he did not come to teach a new message, only to confirm and complete the message of earlier Prophets. The Holy Quran also confirms this with the last verse that was revealed at Arafat, during the Prophet Muhammad sws last Hajj:<\/p>\n

\u201cAl yawma akmaltu lakum deenakum, wa-at mamtu \u2018alaykum ney\u2019amatee, waradeetu lakumul Islaama deenaa.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThis day have I perfected your religion for you, and completed my favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion.\u201d [S.5:v3]<\/span><\/p>\n

My dear Brothers and Sisters, 1400 years ago Prophet Muhammad sws faced an uphill task against vested interests of his time. You must remember that the Kaaba had 360 idols around it. Pilgrims came there to worship those idols and this made the guardians of the Kaaba, the Quraish tribe, very wealthy. Muhammad\u2019s message of One God was not welcomed. Just like Moses, Prophet Musa\u2019s message angered Pharaoh, Ramses II. So today also, the message of Islam is a threat to the Pharaohs and Emperors of the modern age. You can see them falling in front of your eyes today, in Egypt and Libya. This message says that everything belongs to God, and we human beings are the trustees, the Ambassadors of God. We have to care for everything in our environment as a sacred trust. We cannot just abuse and exploit other people, or the earth as if there is no tomorrow. This is the message of Islam. This is the message of Lailatul Qadr, the Night of Power, the Night of Glory. We who are the heirs, the inheritors of the Prophets, must carry this message forward: Worship no one but One God, serve your fellow human beings and care for our common living environment with love and devotion to the One who Created us all, until the end of your days.<\/p>\n

All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of all the Worlds; may the greetings and peace be upon the best messenger, Muhammad, the unlettered prophet; and upon his family and upon all of his companions.<\/p>\n

Amma ba\u2019ad, And, after this,<\/p>\n

\u201cBehold, Allah and his angels shower blessings on the Prophet. O you who believe! Ask for blessings on him, and salute him with a worthy greeting.<\/span><\/p>\n

O Allah! Send your greetings upon Muhammad and his family, just as you sent your greetings on Abraham, and his family. O Allah, send your blessings on Muhammad and his family, just as you blessed Abraham and his family. In both worlds, you are praiseworthy and exalted.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Alhamdu lillahi Rabbil \u2018Aalameen. Was-salaatu was-salaamu alaa Khairil mursaleen. Muhammadin-nabeey-yil Ummiy-yee, wa-\u2018alaa aalihee, wasah-bihee, aj-ma\u2019een.<\/em><\/p>\n

Ammaa ba\u2019ad:<\/em><\/p>\n

InnAllaha wa malaaikata yusall\u00fana alan nabi. Y\u00e1 ay yuhal latheena \u00e1manu sall\u00fa alayhi wasalli m\u00fa tas leema. Allahumma salli al\u00e1 Muhammad, wa ala \u00e1li Muhammad, kama salayta ala Ibrahim, wa ala ali Ibrahim. Allahumma barik ala Muhammad, wa alaa \u00e1li Muhammad, kama barakta ala Ibrahim, wa ala ali ibrahim. Fil \u00e1la meen, innaka hameedun majeed.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Part Two:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sub\u2019 hanallahi wal hamdu lillah, wala hawla wala quwwata illah billah yu althi yual theem<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll glory is for Allah, and all praise is for Allah; There is no power and no strength except with Allah.<\/span>\u201d<\/p>\n

Dear Brothers and Sisters,<\/p>\n

How can you and I get the most benefit from Ramadhan, and from Lailatul Qadr, the Night of Glory? Here are some suggestions:<\/p>\n