Second Ashra:Taubah

[Following is a transcription(not word by word) of a talk delivered by Shaykh Kamaluddin Ahmed db during Ramadan 2009]

Alhamdulillah, by the Grace of Allah سبحانه وتعالى, you have completed the first 10 days of Ramadan – the first Ashrah of Ramadan – you just prayed the 11^th Taraveeh and insha’Allah if you rise in the morning to see another day, you will make the niyyat to fast the 11^th day of Ramadan.

Syeddina RasoolAllahi صلى الله عليه وسلم mentioned in hadith that Ramadan has three parts: the first 10 days are a Rehmah from Allah سبحانه وتعالى; the Middle 10 days are forgiveness from Allah swt and the last 10 days are emancipation from the Hellfire.

What we normally witness at the Masajid is that the first few days of Ramadan, we have a surge of people. This lasts till the 4, 5^th of Ramadan and then it starts to dip again. Many of this have it in us that in the beginning of Ramadan, we have a lot of inertia, we have a lot of jazba and passion, but then it begins to dip and fade in the middle and all of a sudden in the last 10 days, the last ashrah in search of Laila tul Qadr and in ‘itekaaf we have a surge again.

Now, its strange when we think of this that the middle 10 days are the days of maghfirah from Allah سبحانه وتعالى, so actually we should be increasing in our passion in these middle 10 days. And that is one way to understand how Allah سبحانه وتعالى Has Put this Rehma in the first 10 days i.e. out of His Mercy Allah سبحانه وتعالى Allowed us to fast although we weren’t worthy of such an ibadah. In the first 10 days, Allah سبحانه وتعالى out of His Mercy let us increase in our a‘amaal, in our ibadaat although we weren’t worthy of such an honour and in the first 10 days, out of His Mercy, Allahسبحانه وتعالى Enabled us to do those a’amaal that may now be a means of earning His Maghfirah and that is really what the whole month of Ramadan is; the whole month of Ramadan is just a bahana just an excuse for Allah سبحانه وتعالى to forgive our sins. You just spent the first 10 days of Ramadan earning a reason for Allah سبحانه وتعالى  to Forgive us – 10 days of fasting; 10 days of Taraveeh; and (for the vast majority of us) 10 days of staying away from gross and manifest and repugnant sin. In other words, aap naik bun ker rahein hain yeh 10 din as opposed to how we were living the rest of the year. Allah سبحانه وتعالى is such an incredibly Merciful Being that that servant and slave of His, who lives his entire life as a sinner, if for only 10 days he lives like a servant and even that was only due to the Mercy of Allah سبحانه وتعالى but nonetheless he lived like a servant and Allah سبحانه وتعالى Has opened these middle 10 days for maghfirah. Now Allah سبحانه وتعالى increases the forgiveness! Every day and every night [in these middle 10 days] Allah سبحانه وتعالى will Take out thousands and thousands of His slaves from the destiny of Hellfire and will be now admitted into Jannah.

The whole apparatus of Ramadan that we have been talking about is for this reason i.e. for Maghfirah:

– Closing the doors of Jahannum; opening the doors of Jannah

– Closing and binding all of the Shayateen

– Enabling us to fast to discipline our Nafs

– Putting us in a state of ibadat for 14, 15 hours of the day

– Telling us to pray taraveeh prayers, extra at night

All of this, in order to do our Maghfirah

So, it behooves us now, rather than letting ourselves dip rather than lapsing, that we should enter these middle 10 days with a renewed passion and the passion that we should have in these 10 days is seeking the forgiveness of Allah سبحانه وتعالى. That is why Allah سبحانه وتعالى has said in the Qur’an-e-Karim:

َأَنَا التَّوَّابُ الرَّحِيمُ

[2:160]

Allah سبحانه وتعالى Says about Himself that I am At-tawwaab and I (Allah swt) am Ar-Rahim

First meaning of At-Tawwab:  refers to that being who Accepts the Taubah of the people who turn unto Him. Taubah means to turn to Allah سبحانه وتعالى; to Turn away from sin and towards Allah swt; to turn away from ignorance, towards ‘ilm; to turn away from misguidance, to being rightly guided; to turn away from Ghaflah -being absent minded-, towards Dhikr-remembrance of Allah; to turn away from sins, back to obedience; to turn away from all of ghair-ullah, towards Allah سبحانه وتعالى. And At-tawwab means that Allah سبحانه وتعالى Accepts such a person’s Taubah.

Second meaning of At-Tawwab:  is related to us that we are At-Taaib that we are returning to Allah سبحانه وتعالى

At-Tawwab means that Allah swt is infinitely turning towards us. Just like the person who makes Taubah turns towards Allah swt, Allah swt’s Calling Himself At-Tawwab means that He is infinitely eternally turning towards that person who turns towards Him. That is what the Prophet is trying to say in a hadith-e-Qudsi that Allah swt Says that I am with my servant when he comes closer to Me, I come closer to My servant when he draws close to Me, I come nearer to My servant when she draws herself near to Me – such that if she comes to Me a handspan, I Come to her an arm’s length

….to be continued, insha’Allah

[Following is a transcription(not word by word) of a talk delivered by Shaykh Kamaluddin Ahmed db during Ramadan 2009]