TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT? | Mufti Menk

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My beloved brothers and sisters, today is one of the days where we've been blessed by

Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala to be in his house, in the house of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala.

He will choose to be where they want, a believer chooses to be in the right place.

Remember that.

At any given time, Ramadan or out of Ramadan, a believer chooses to be in the right place

and always asks Allah to guide him or her to be in the right place at the right time.

While we have the energy and capacity to do things, we need to realize that it is only

by the acceptance of Allah that a person will be at the right place.

We are in the house of Allah.

Yes, because we made an effort to come here.

Without having made the effort, we would not be here.

But over and above that, it's because Allah wanted us to be here.

It's because Allah chose us to be here.

It's because we had asked Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala to grant us from his goodness and

to guide us part of the guidance that we seek whenever we read Suratul Fatiha is that

Allah Almighty will always guide us to be in the right place at the right time.

May Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala open our doors.

My beloved brothers and sisters, then this evening, as the sunset, we entered into one of

the odd nights from among the last ten nights of Ramadan.

Do you realize the value of this night?

Did you know that Laylatul Qadr could be any night of Ramadan to start with?

From the beginning to the end.

But there is a greater likelihood that it is one of the last ten nights.

Any one of them.

Did you know that?

And then did you know there is a greater likelihood for it to be one of the odd nights from among

the last ten?

And then did you know that there is a greater likelihood for it to be from the second half

of the last ten.

SubhanAllah, but a greater likelihood does not mean that it is not one of the other nights.

So we are taught, take every night seriously, that dua, if I were to ask you, that would

be most loved by Allah on an eve like this.

What would it be?

Allahumma innaka'afu'wan tuhibbola'afu'afa'afu'an mi'

O Allah, you love to forgive.

You are forgiving.

You love to forgive.

So forgive me.

That is the dua of the night of decree.

There are above that Allah creates within us needs.

Allah creates within us certain things that we want.

And Allah says, I created those things in you so that you can ask me, imagine if life

was just flowing so beautifully.

Many people would not find the need to ask Allah for anything.

But Allah says, all believers dig deep into the favours that I have bestowed upon you

and thank me for them because shakaratumla azeeda nakum.

If you are going to thank me, two things will happen to you.

Number one, I won't take away what I gave you.

Number two, I will grant you increase in what I favoured you with.

So if you are breathing today and you want to continue breathing without difficulty,

have you ever sat and thanked Allah?

O Allah, I breathe thousands of times a day.

You don't charge me for it.

I thank you.

Subbuhun kudusun rabbuna wa rabbalmala iketi wa rahe.

O Allah, praise be to you, glory be to you.

You are the greatest.

You are the Lord of the throne.

You are the Lord of the universe, the worlds, the creation.

You are the Lord of the angels.

Subhanallah, the Lord of the spirit, the Lord of everything.

You created everything.

O Allah, we owe it to you.

So on the eve like this, don't ever be lazy.

And ever, let the night pass without having sought the forgiveness of Allah, because if

you are to make a du'a and you are to stand in prayer at night, even if it were two units

known as two rak'aat, O Allah, he, if Allah accepted it from you, the value of it would be

equivalent to having done that for a thousand months, la ilatul qadari khayru min al fi shahu.

We've read that so many times, la ilatul qadr, the night of decree is better than a thousand

months.

May Allah forgive us.

Part of the mercy of Allah is He knows we are human.

He knows we will falter.

He knows the world will consume us.

He knows that occupation will overtake us.

He knows that earning wealth and money will become a concern for us.

He knows that some of our lusts and desires we may fall for them.

He says, I will constantly give you moments and seasons and times where you can reset your

relationship with me.

Come back.

I love you.

Allahu Akbar.

Allahu Akbar, have you thought of that?

Why does Ramadan come back all the time every year?

Why does every night Allah says, you know what, you get up, you make the hajjud, you ask,

I will give.

Why every night?

Why are they blessed moments every Friday and why does a Friday come back once a week?

Subhan Allah, Allah says, we allow these to come back every single time in order for

you to be given an opportunity to reset your relationship with Allah.

The losers are the ones who allow their lives to pass and they have not yet made peace

with Allah.

Every day the world gets a little weirder and a lot more awesome.

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fight against cancer to how AI is basically changing everything.

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find a mess.

My brothers and sisters, remember you have a bad habit, quit it for the sake of Allah

or my brother, my sister who's hooked on to gambling, who's hooked on to haram, who's

hooked on to the bottle, who's hooked on to whatever it may be.

This is your moment, this is your time, this is your season, this is your opportunity.

Quit it, cut it for the sake of Allah.

You may never see another Ramadan.

The way things are going, people are actually fear mongering across the globe at the moment

and some as soon as they are diagnosed and tested positive for this virus that we all

know about, they panic immediately sometimes dying because of anxiety and panic rather

than of the ailment itself.

May Allah protect us, our lives are in the hands of Allah.

We trust in Allah, we will be responsible, look at how beautifully responsible we were

at this venue this evening, Masha Allah.

Not because we wanted to, we had to.

We have no option.

May Allah forgive us, may Allah make it easy for those who've lost their loved ones more

than one in some families.

I know of families, tens of families who've lost their entire income and business because

both breadwinners are gone.

What to do?

Are we going to reach out to those children, those widows, young widows?

What's going to happen to them?

The widow was.

What's going to happen to them?

You find a man, he's alone with all his children trying to fend for them, look after them.

At the same time go out to work, life has changed suddenly, no one predicted it.

This was all in the plan of Allah.

Allah says, oh community, oh muslimine, we call ourselves jamaatul muslimine in this community

what I love is that phrase jamaatul muslimine is so common but do we really mean it?

Are we really a jamaatul muslimine?

Are we really a group and a family of Muslims?

And we care for one another solely for the sake of Allah.

You help a widow solely for the pleasure of Allah.

I had a young man telling me I'm helping her for the pleasure of Allah but I wanted soon

to be for my own pleasure too.

I said brother you can't say that, he says I'm not saying haram, I'm saying halam, subhan

Allah, look where the mine goes.

But getting back to what we're saying my brothers and sisters we have to reach out

to those who are struggling in our midst even if it's just by a kalimatun, by a good

word that you utter to them, my sister everything will be okay, don't worry we are here, we

are praying for you, we will try our best.

Tomorrow it could be myself yourselves, we can leave our families and go or part of

our families, I wanted to say wiped out but no return to Allah and we are still on earth.

My beloved brothers and sisters if you've lost loved ones here is the dua, Allah humma

innan as alukala humul jannah, O Allah we ask for them, jannah tul firdous wa lakumu

sobral jamil and we ask for you sobhrun jamil may Allah grant you a beautiful patience.

So my brothers and sisters these days are days filled with merit, filled with virtue do

not waste them, ask Allah what you want and there is one major difference that we need

to realize when we ask Allah and when we ask people.

If I were to ask you something I know you have and I say brother can you please do this

for me and I call you back five minutes later brother don't forget to do this for me

and I call you back the next day brother don't forget to do this for me and I call you

back the following day in the afternoon brother don't forget to do this for me and I get

up at two in the morning and phone you you won't even answer your phone, you'll block

me off and at the same time you'll tell me are you not ashamed of yourself right because

I asked you four times in two days Allah says you ask me a million times in a day the

more the merrier I love it when you repeat it because it shows your desperation and it

shows that you worship me you believe in me you know that I have the solution to your

problem Allah Akbar that's why repetition in dua is an act of worship the Prophet

Asalam used to repeat it thrice important dua's he used to say it thrice tonight in

Salat al-Witter we repeated the dua Allahumma innana awdu biqamin al-Barasi wal-Jononi wal-Judami

wa min Saye il-Asqam do you know why that is the dua the closest that we have to protect

ourselves from the virus that has overtaken this globe so we repeated thrice and we ask

Allah with conviction but at the same time we will be responsible we will definitely make sure

that it does not make us irresponsible may Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala grant us good guidance then

my brothers and sisters one thing we need to know on a night like this if your heart is filled with

enmity and hatred then you are far from the mercy of Allah clean that heart of yours how well you

need to know how release things let things go your life is not going to be affected SubhanAllah

you might at times not want to associate with the person who's hurt you and harmed you but let

things fly let them go forgive but don't forget for given forget is not an Islamic teaching no Islam

tells you forgive and do not forget why the Hadith of the Prophet Asalam he says la yulda gulman min

juharin wa haidin marratain a true believer is never bitten from the same source twice never

which means you were bitten once okay I forgive you but I'm remembering it because next time

when I see the same scorpion coming and turning around and preparing its little you know sting

whatever I will know I will walk away the other side because I didn't forget but I forgive you

Allah protected me what was it the favor of Allah if you want someone to forget what you did for

them you will have a lot of patchwork to do people can forget but forgetting will only happen after

a long-term beautified repaired relationship that will then make the person oblivious of what

happened before when trust is broken in a marriage in order to build it you need to work hard

you know when someone has sliced the hand now it will heal but there'll be a scar right but if

you put Vasili in every day and you get a little bit of the patch every day and nowadays you have

these people MashaAllah they can help you with a little bit of collagen and whatever else and

sometimes they can do a bit of surgery for you MashaAllah then what happens the mark slowly but surely

fades away but if you were to be gashed in the same spot again what will happen SubhanAllah

it's going to leave a mark for sure they say the sezarian section you shouldn't slice the same

place more than once what why it becomes dangerous may Allah grant the mothers of this umma

janna by virtue of their patience that they bore through childbirth I mean amazing our own

mothers we pray for them why don't we pray for the mothers of our own children and respect them

those are our wives MashaAllah my brothers and sisters today is a day of peace did you hear the

pitter-patter as we were fulfilling salah the rain SubhanAllah I thought what is the sound and

thereafter I told myself these are some signs they are certain signs we don't know and we won't

know for sure but they will always be a sign Allah gives you of peace of comfort of change of

heart of the feeling that my life is transforming that's Laylatul Qadr that's Laylatul Qadr your life

is transforming it's changing something's happening to you you're feeling like a rejuvenated person

that's Laylatul Qadr but if a person is sitting at the shisha lounge puffing away asking is it

halal my brother relax it's the wrong day the wrong night the wrong season while we're supposed to be

in the houses of Allah you're busy puffing and asking is this okay minimum I can tell you is

you're wasting your Ramadan you're wasting the moments when the angels are saying I mean to

any dua you make so make some good dua another point that we need to learn for this eve is my

brothers and sisters don't make a negative dua it doesn't work it won't help you make a positive

dua imagine you have a person you had a problem with you can say Allah break him destroy him kill him

make him this make him that Allah will only do what that person deserves but better than that was

for you to say oh Allah soften his heart make him steadfast make him a better person let him realize

his problems let him come and let him apologize that's if you really want oh Allah let him come let

there be a good friendship between us I want to read for you a verse that we read this evening

in tarawi extremely powerful you know the people of Makkah they fought each other because the

Muslims on one hand and the non-Muslims on the other of Makkah to the Makarama they were battles

that took place Allah says to Muhammad salah salam what's your heart understand that Allah is

the one who will grant goodness and he can change the hearts at any time as Allah who

Allah is all capable and all able of creating the highest level of love between you and the one

whom you are the enemy of right now Mawadda you know Mawadda show in our community we've got a

few girls called Mawadda right I see nodding the head Mashallah may Allah grant them Mawadda

Mawadda is one of the highest levels of levels of love Hanan is also a high level of love the

highest level of love of a different type but this Mawadda is a love and affection Allah says we

can create an affection between you and the one who's your enemy right now tomorrow it can happen

Allahu Kadir Allah is allable Allahu Ghaforu Rahim Allah forgives Allah is most forgiving most

Muslim look at how powerfully Allah words this for us my brothers my sisters what a lovely evening

this evening I was here and first thing I saw Sheikh Zaid and I told myself the memories are back

I make dua that Allah give the rank of Jannah without reckoning to our Imam Imam Malik

and to all those who we have lost from this community he was a great man and I remember when I

visited this mosque for the entire month of Ramadan for me it was historic and I enjoyed every

moment of it and that's why I try to make sure I tell brothers Zain and the others

Sheikh Faisal and so many of those brothers who are here you know what I would come even if it

means for a night let's rekindle that let's bring it up again even if it's a night by the will of Allah

and look Allah made it happen we spoke about it before Ramadan here we are we ask Allah to accept

it from us the love fi Sabili Allah we want love not because of money not because of power authority

position no love because you are my brother my sister in Allah in the Arabic we say fillah that's

why I'm translating it as in Allah but it means in the cause of Allah in the sake of Allah why do I

love you because you say the Shahada I say we're connected may Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala grant us

Rahman I was only due to speak for 10 minutes but look good deeds are multiplied right so may Allah

grant us all goodness. Well Allah my brothers and sisters this evening let's spend it with a little

bit of dua Allahumma innaka affuhuun tuhibbul affwa affwaanna you want to add karimun rahimun wadudun

it's okay those are the qualities of Allah and his names so remember that it's the mercy of Allah

and not only this night all of the 10 nights of Ramadan more so more so the odd nights I think

today I said something that many people probably didn't know and that's why some people were just

looking at me when I said lay let all the other can be any night of Ramadan people are just looking

yes it can be any night from the beginning to the end but more likely one of the last 10 nights

any one of the last 10 nights more likely one of the odd nights and I want to answer one quick

question before I go lay a little cutter tonight it might be 25th here it might be 26th somewhere else

it might be 23rd somewhere else sorry not 23rd I don't think but maybe the next day one day

disparity usually so who is right and who is wrong my brothers don't worry about that trust

when you are doing your Tahajjud it's already Jumwa time perhaps in America right when you

or in Australia it's already the following day you see by the time we are doing Salat

on Fajr they are coming out of Jumwa in Australia but our Fajr did not coincide Allah accepted

their Fajr differently from ours Allah accepts their Tahajjud differently from ours

Allah works in his own unique way you follow instructions and Allah will grant it to you

and to them and to everyone and it's possible different time zones could be different days altogether

there's no harm that is the will of Allah it's the same rule that applies when it comes to the

timings of opening your fast and breaking your fast you will follow your time in your area

when you are following your time in your area someone somewhere on the globe is starting their fast

what are you doing opening it or breaking it as we call is there anything wrong no

you're following your time zone where you are so Allah says I'll give you because if Allah says

a blessed moment is the time of iftar in which time zone he didn't address that which means

wherever you are that's the time zone may Allah open our doors my brothers and sisters

if I could I would be here again and again but life is such that we have to continue doing

whatever we have and Allah will gather us again in his obedience and ultimately in

jinnat al-Firdous with the most noble companionship of nabi Muhammad