As we approach a third of the month of Ramadan having been\ncompleted, there is a sense of routine with the month that we are in. This\nmonth is all about the obvious restriction of food and drink but as Allah SWT\ndescribes fasting, it is actually so that we become mindful of Allah SWT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And this is the topic of this weeks reminder, the topic of\nTaqwa which is translated to mean, becoming mindful of Allah SWT, is a topic\nwhich none of us should be complacent over and especially so in the month of\nRamadan as the primary purpose of the act of fasting is to be mindful of Allah\nSWT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The imam reminded us of the importance of Taqwa, or\nmindfulness, in the first reference today from the Quran. The 133th ayat of\nSura Al-Imran is translated to say:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rush to do good actions, and draw\nnear to Allah through doing as He instructs, so that you achieve the great\nforgiveness of Allah and enter a Paradise as wide as the heavens and the earth,\nwhich Allah has prepared for the Mindful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dear brothers and sisters, if we ponder over this ayat, the\nfirst lesson we can take from this is that Allah SWT is asking us to rush to do\ngood actions. This isn\u2019t an instruction to be relaxed about this\nresponsibility. We need to have a sense of urgency on the good deeds that we\nperform because none of us know when our time is going to run out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Next, Allah SWT talks of the reward of Paradise and a awe\ninspiring explanation of how vast that will be. But as we begin to think of\nthis and yearn for this to be our final destination, He concludes this ayat by\ntelling us that this is a destination for those who have Taqwa, ie those who\nare mindful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And so, the obvious question to the reader of this ayat\nwould be, what is it that Allah SWT deems as being mindful or possessing taqwa.\nThis is mentioned in the next ayat and the second that the imam referenced in\ntodays reminder. It is translated to say:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Mindful are those who spend\ntheir wealth for the sake of Allah, in ease and hardship, who control their\nanger when they could seek revenge, and who forgive those who wrong them. Allah\nloves the doers of good, whose behaviour is this way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dear brothers and sisters, here we can see that Allah SWT\nhas directly answered the question in the next ayat and given clear instruction\non what mindfulness means.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What is interesting here is that the first point mentioned\ncould have been so many different things. Prayer, fasting, reading Quran etc.\nBut instead, Allah SWT chose to list the spending of wealth for the sake of\nAllah SWT as the first thing to acquire mindfulness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And in many ways this makes sense. Human Psychology and\nEconomics teaches us that it is human nature to spend less, the more wealth we\nacquire. We tend to hoard the wealth more as the amount of wealth we acquire\nincreases. Therefore, to go against this human nature, to spend that money on\nothers for the sake of Allah SWT requires us to go against our inner nature and\nthus requires us to be mindful of Allah SWT and the potential reward of such an\naction. We need to spend in charity at all times, consistently and\nindependently of how our financial situation is, this is the test and one we\nmust not overlook if we are to be of those mentioned in the earlier ayat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Next is the act of controlling anger, but Allah SWT makes\nthe point here of exacting revenge or right some injustice. This is also the\nhardest act to perform because irrational anger where we are wrong is easy to\nspot because it usually follows with guilt of some form for being angry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But when the anger is justified, when the injustice is on\nyou and when you are the victim, then every fibre of your being tells you that\nyou deserve that revenge, that you are within your rights to carry out a sense\nof justice, to right that wrong, it is that overwhelming feeling when you are\nin that position that you must bring yourself back from the brink and ask Allah\nSWT to forgive that person as you forgive them yourself. This requires serious\nself-control and mindfulness of Allah SWT and the reward you will receive from\nHim for showing mercy at this point. Hence the scale of the reward mentioned in\nthe previous ayat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Allah SWT concludes by telling us that He loves those who\nhave this type of behaviour. But the two examples are quite different, one is\nto do with giving away wealth and the other is to control your most-potent of\nemotions. And so, we need to ask ourselves what is the common factor that links\nthese two characteristics together?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this month of Ramadan, more than ever, we are, to some\nextent already performing that common factor. It is the act of knowing that\nAllah SWT is there at all times, watching us, testing us and all the while\noffering us the ability to reside in eternal bliss in Paradise through passing\nthese short tests of the dunya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once we realise this fact, and we actualise this into our\neverday living, our habits automatically start changing for the better. We stop\nwasting time on frivolous activities, we stop hanging out with people who take\nus away from Allah SWT and we find it uncomfortable to do anything we know\nAllah SWT doesn\u2019t like. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is is what taqwa is. It is living life knowing you are\nunder the care and watch of Allah SWT at all times. Allah SWT speaks of this in\nthe next ayat and the imam referenced it today. It is translated to say:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u02f9They are\u02fa those who, upon\ncommitting an evil deed or wronging themselves, remember Allah and seek\nforgiveness and do not knowingly persist in sin\u2014and who forgives sins except\nAllah?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dear brothers and sisters, we all have the ability to be\nthis person today. Why? Because Ramadan is that blessed time of year where we\nare already in this state. None of us here will take the opportunity when alone\nto drink a sip of water or steal a bite of food whilst fasting? Why? We all\nhave the ability to hide it from the world but none of us do it because we are\nall practicing mindfulness. We are all performing taqwa every day in this\nmonth. And that is the beauty of Ramadan, a stepping stone to carrying on being\nmindful for the rest of the year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And as Allah SWT then says in the fourth ayat to be\nreferenced today, in the next ayat of Sura Imran, it is translated to say:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Their reward is forgiveness from\ntheir Lord and Gardens under which rivers flow, staying there forever. How\nexcellent is the reward for those who work \u02f9righteousness\u02fa!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As we approach a third of the month of Ramadan having been completed, there is a sense of routine with the month that we are in. This month is all about the obvious restriction of food and drink but as Allah SWT describes fasting, it is actually so that we become mindful of Allah SWT. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_regular_price":[],"currency_symbol":[],"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon"],"blocksy_meta":[],"post_slider_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","post_slider_layout_landscape_large":"","post_slider_layout_portrait_large":"","post_slider_layout_square_large":"","post_slider_layout_landscape":"","post_slider_layout_portrait":"","post_slider_layout_square":"","full":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/salahadeenmosque.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/salahadeenmosque.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/salahadeenmosque.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salahadeenmosque.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salahadeenmosque.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/salahadeenmosque.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3093\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/salahadeenmosque.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salahadeenmosque.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salahadeenmosque.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}