Bismillah
We thank Allah that Ramadan has almost arrived and we wish everyone the best of this blessed month.
Below are some of the points that Habib `Umar made in his talk in the Mawlid last Thursday. We recommend you listen to the Arabic (it should be up on Habib’s website soon) if you are able as a translation cannot do justice to what was said.

Sayyidi al-Habib Umar bin Hafiz (may Allah preserve him) said:[1]

When someone turns themselves in full obedience to Allah saying and realising: I have turned myself to the One who created the heavens and the earth,[2] Allah then makes His creation subservient to him. Even the angels of the highest gatherings compete to be with such a person and to pray behind him. This is the reward of those that respond to His call and make their only desire calling to Him and serving Him.

To us was sent the one that Allah chose out of all His creation (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) Muhammad the son of `Abdullah. By him our faces were ennobled through prostration. I ask that just as these faces were ennobled through prostration that these hearts likewise be ennobled – a prostration from which they do not arise. When your heart prostrates to Him you know how to use what you have been given to attain that to which He has called you. Then you will have returned everything with which you have been entrusted to its rightful owner. Allah commands you to render back your trusts to those to whom they are due.[3] Everything you have been given is a trust so use it to obey Allah, spread good and give life to the Sunnah. Your hearing is a trust. Who does it belong to? Who gave it to you? Which factory produced it? Use your hearing to listen intently to His Qur’an, especially in Ramadan. How much do you recite in the day and night? How much did you recite last Ramadan? How much do you wish to recite? Arrange your time so you increase even if only gradually, so that you ascend and be amongst those whose fear drove them to travel by night so that they reached their destination, as in the hadith: “The one who fears travels by night and the one who travels by night reaches his destination. Allah’s merchandise is truly precious – it is Paradise.” You can see in front of you in the material world people expending all their efforts for that which amounts to nothing. Had these efforts been expended for the sake of Allah attempting to purchase His merchandise the results would be amazing! But the one who is imprisoned in the physical realm remains asleep until the veil is lifted, at which point it is of no benefit. Sayyiduna `Ali spoke the truth when he said, and he had direct understanding of these concepts: “People are asleep, and then they die they wake up.” Whoever causes his lower self to die by purifying it and making it subservient to the order of Allah has woken up. If someone only wakes up when their spirit leaves their body their awakening is of no benefit. Can he who was dead, who We then gave life and a light with which he walks among the people be like him who is in the depths of darkness, from which he can never come out?[4]

It is one message, one voice which all the Prophets from Adam onwards spoke with. They all said that all good is in your submission to the order of Allah and not being deluded by ephemeral worldly things. They all said this, by the order of Allah. All those that rejected this message lost everything . Will the disbelievers in our time be any different? No, there is only one outcome: this is the pattern which Allah has decreed. Success is only granted to those who follow the Prophet.

People have been deceived by the packaging which is the adornment of this worldly life. They thought they would find some short-term happiness in ways of living that are in contravention of Allah and His law. They found however that true felicity in this life before the next is in submission to the possessor of this life and the next.

You are called as the Prophets were called before you: let not the present life deceive you, nor let the Chief Deceiver deceive you about Allah. The promise of Allah is true[5] –so be callers to the truth. Allah has ennobled you by allowing you to call to Him. If you were employed to promote a company or a party you would be paid amounts which may be great in your sight but in reality are contemptible. If the Lord of the Throne uses you to call to Him, however, nothing which He gives is contemptible. All His gifts are magnificent.

We say to the people: instead of being deluded we bring light to you. If you obey it you will succeed and you will be saved. What you call us to will not cause us to abandon our duty. If we respond to your call we will be destroyed and you will be destroyed and if you respond to our call we will succeed and you will succeed. All of us on the face of the earth are aboard one ship. This was the metaphor the Greatest Guide used (Allah bless him and grant him peace). It is enough to know that he was sent to me and you and our parents and everyone in our time and those before and after us until the Day of Judgement.His strength lies in the One who said: Truly you are in Our gaze.[6] Through this secret we convey the call that he conveyed.

He was the one who would strive in Ramadan more than at any other time. Do you not want to be like him? Expend your efforts – you are able to do many things. Look at the people of this earth expending their efforts in buying and selling and production and look at the things that they have achieved. As for the one who expends his efforts in the service of this religion and this Prophet, give him good tidings. This is what the Companions did. Look at how al-Hasan al-Basri described them. He said: “Muhammad washed their hearts of attachment to this worthless life. I met seventy of the people of Badr and they had more abstinence towards that which is permissible than you have towards that which is prohibited.” Why was this? Because they drank from the cup of Muhammad. I swear by the One Who sent him, however much they drank, it did not decrease anything from that cup. His cup is still overflowing and you can still drink from it, even in the year 1432, from the same cup from which the Companions drunk. If the cups of Paradise do not become empty, do you think that the cup of Muhammad, for whose sake Paradise was created, will become empty? Allah give us to drink from this cup. Attach yourselves to him! You hear calls from your lower self, from this worldly life to attach yourself to other than him and I say to you: attach yourselves to him! Allah and His Messenger and all the pious people call you to do this. Shun attachments to ephemeral things.

The spirits of those Companions that al-Hasan al-Basri described longed to meet the Beloved (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) every night. If they mentioned him in a gathering their tears would flow. He said of them: “this worldly life was lower in their sight than the earth under your sandals.” They knew the value of things. That is why when they wanted their needs answered they threw themselves on his grave. That is why they washed his cloak and drank the water in which it was washed it seeking healing. We hear a lot about health and development but we find the worst diseases emanating from the so-called developed countries.This is so we know that behind the creation is the Creator.

One of the early scholars said that the one who seeks this worldly life kills himself but if his desire for it increases he kills other people – because he obstructs the path to Allah. There are so many people that have been killed in front of us. If only their bodies had been killed and their hearts remained alive with the light of knowledge of Allah, but their hearts have been killed! May Allah give life to our hearts and the hearts of the believers.

The world continues to tell you that its Lord is mighty and powerful and that all good is in holding on to His rope and connecting to the Seal of His Prophets. The opportunities in front of you are numerous. Be true to Allah and represent the rest of the Ummah – those who remember and those who have forgotten, those seeking Allah and those who have turned away, the ones who obey and those who disobey. Represent them when you turn to Allah and abase yourselves in front of Him – Allah will show you mercy and show them mercy. Whatever our differences are we are all aboard one ship. Whatever harm others do we cannot allow them to pierce the hull of that ship. If we allow them to do that we will all perish. As in the hadith a group of people on board a ship wanted to split open the hull in order to drink instead of getting water from those on deck. The Prophet (may peace and blessings be upon him) said that if those above take the hands of those below and stop them from doing this they will all be safe, but if they leave them they will all be destroyed. We have to stop them with all our strength. You have immense strength – how can you say “those satellite channels got the better of me”? You follow your lower desires and then you say “they got the better of me.” Did anyone impose them upon you? With one piece of strong resolve you can overcome them, starting from tonight.These things are from the allies of the Devil, and Allah says: fight the allies of the Devil, because the scheming of the Devil is weak.[7] If you reject the scheming of the Devil with strong resolve you will find that you have the support of the Best of Planners. Everything we see in the world teaches us lessons and sends us messages. It teaches us where we should stand and what we should do and intend and what should be in our hearts. We worship Allah by showing mercy to others and by purifying our hearts. Make the turbulence which we witness a cause of strengthening our faith and certainty. Ramadan and all the goodness it contains has approached. We ask Allah that it brings rectification of the Ummah and relief to those suffering. We welcome Ramadan with high aspirations. What do you intend in praying Tarawih, in reciting the Qur’an, in being there for the opening takbir behind the imam at every prayer throughout Ramadan? What do you intend in praying Duha? What do you intend in praying Witr? Make your intentions before Ramadan enters because Allah records our actions before we enter. We ask for the greatest and highest portion of Ramadan. O Allah do not deprive of us of Your good because of our evil. Make us keys that open the doors to goodness, not means for the spread of evil. Had You not wanted me to attain what I wish from Your bounty You would not have inspired me to ask On the first night of Ramadan You promised Your Beloved Muhammad that You would gaze upon his Ummah sogive us, our families, our neighbours and all the Muslims a great portion of that gaze!

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[1] In the Mawlid, Dar al-Mustafa the night of 28th Sha`ban 1432/28th July 2011

[2]Al-An`am 6.79

[3]Al-Nisa’ 4.58

[4]Al-An`am 6.122

[5]Luqman 31.33

[6]Al-Tur 52.48

[7]Al-Nisa’ 4.76

JazakAllah Khayr to Ustadh Amin Buxton for making this available to us. Please keep him and his family in your duas as well as my family as Ramadan enters our homes.