بِسْم الله الرحمن الرحيم
1) Stay away from evil companions; because they're a means of decreasing your faith. And if you can't find good companions, it's better to be alone.
If he says, ‘All praise and thanks be to Allah, the Lord of existence,'
The Prophet ﷺ said:
"....Know Allah in times of prosperity, and Allah will know you during times of adversity" [Tirmithi]
We are at the time of prosperity now, so we have to exert our utmost to increase in faith, knowledge, and come closer to Allah - in order for Him to help us in the month of Ramadan.
Continuation: What should our behaviour be in the month of Sha'ban?
1) Stay away from evil companions; because they're a means of decreasing your faith. And if you can't find good companions, it's better to be alone.
2) Prepare for Ramadan with إيمان.
أهل السنة و الجماعة believe that faith increases and decreases. It increases with obedience to Allah and decreases due to disobedience to Allah. Since it increases and decreases, we have to analyze the level of our faith, and accordingly take the means of maintaining and increasing it.
A person who commits abundant sins and considers himself to have إيمان is in a very dangerous state. Such people aren't aware of the faith diminishing in the hearts; like the hypocrites. They had faith, but they didn't take care of maintaining and increasing it, so it diminished until it completely disappeared without them realizing it. Allah highlights this many times in the Qur'an, when He says:
They commit abundant sins, and the majority of these sins could be sins of the heart - like self-conceit, pride, envy - of which the Prophet ﷺ said:
دَبَّ إِلَيْكُمْ دَاءُ الْأُمَمِ قَبْلَكُمْ الْحَسَدُ وَالْبَغْضَاءُ وَالْبَغْضَاءُ هِيَ الْحَالِقَةُ حَالِقَةُ الدِّينِ لَا حَالِقَةُ الشَّعَرِ وَالَّذِي نَفْسُ مُحَمَّدٍ بِيَدِهِ لَا تُؤْمِنُوا حَتَّى تَحَابُّوا أَفَلَا أُنَبِّئُكُمْ بِشَيْءٍ إِذَا فَعَلْتُمُوهُ تَحَابَبْتُمْ أَفْشُوا السَّلَامَ بَيْنَكُمْ
"There have come to you the diseases of the nations before you: envy and hatred, and hatred is the razor. It shaves the religion and it does not shave hair. By the one in whose hand is the soul of Muhammad, you will not believe until you love one another. Shall I tell you something which, if you did, you would love each other? Spread peace between yourselves." [Ahmed]
If one sin has this effect on the religion of a person, then what about the rest of the sins?
How can we increase our faith during this month?
-> Increase in performing good deeds
And of the greatest of good deeds is acquiring knowledge about Allah. We have to learn about our Creator, by His names, attributes, and actions.
Look at how Allah nurtures His Slaves, How He is الرحمن الرحيم. Look into the Universe and into the details of your life and see the effects of His mercy on the events that are decreed upon you.
And Allah tells us in [1:4]:
He is the King who disposes the affairs of all His creation. He does whatever He wills; and His will is based on knowledge and wisdom.
The more you know about Allah, the more your faith will increase. He is near, and responds to the invocation of His Slaves. Even if you don't speak, Allah knows your needs, and may fulfill it even before you ask Him. He is المحسن, He is الروؤف, and no one else.
Ponder over the stories of the Prophets and Messengers. In [28:7], Allah ordered Musa's mother to cast him in the river if she feared for him:
And He promised her that'd He'd surely bring Musa back to her. And He did.
In Verse 13:
Allah never fails in keeping His promises. Because one of His names is المؤمن. So go through the promises of Allah in the Qur'an, and believe that Allah never fails in fulfilling His promises. This is an Aqeedah you're building up as you read the Qur'an.
E.g. In [2:153]:
E.g. In [14:7]:
Don't be like the hypocrites. Allah enlightened their hearts with faith and they saw the reality of everything - but what happened? They believed that as long as they could see the reality of everything, and as long as they had faith, it would remain steady until the end without them taking any means of increasing it. So the light of their faith extinguished, just as Allah mentioned in the parable in [2:17]:
And Allah didn't wrong them. It was them who wronged themselves. They didn't take the means of increasing their faith; so they apparently looked like good Muslims while their inside was void of any faith. If you're not diligent in increasing your faith, it can be taken away from you.
And just as a side note:
النفاق is derived from نفق which means tunnel or an underground passage. The gerbil makes an underground tunnel with two doors; one door apparent to everyone with which it comes in and goes out; but it has another secret door through which it runs away when it's afraid of his enemy. This is the state of the منافق. He enters faith with the rest of the people, from gate of Eeman. He prays and fasts with them and apparently looks like a believer. And he leaves faith from the hidden door. He enters from one gate and he leaves from the secret gate, without anyone perceiving it.
And Allah said in [63:3]:
It's very important that we take the means of increasing our faith.
-> Study the Qur'an.
The Salaf used to call Sha'ban "شهر القرآء" and would close their shops just to focus on reading the Quran and increase in faith.
The Qur'an is the speech of Allah, which He sent upon the Prophet ﷺ. Reciting the Qur'an in the correct way; with إحسان - will undoubtedly increase a persons faith.
How do I recite the Quran with إحسان? By following the way of the Prophet ﷺ and the Salaf. They used to focus on Surahs, not Juz.
In brief: We have to listen and recite the Surah we want to study profusely, focusing on the repeated words, Names of Allah, parables, stories, etc. until we get a full idea of what the Surah is talking about.
Then we have to go through the Surah verse by verse, and try to understand it by explaining it to ourselves. If there's something we don't understand, we put a question mark.
Then we should collect all our questions, go to the Tafseer and find out the answers.
The mistake many people make when they want to study a Surah is to go directly to the Tafseer book and they come out with not even half the benefits. We have to prepare, introduce the Surah to ourselves, and connect with it.
If you deal with the Qur'an in this way, your faith would undoubtedly increase.
-> Increase in ذكر الله
The more you remember Allah, the more Allah will remember you. In [2:152]:
And one of the impacts of Allah remembering you is that He'll increase your faith.
-> Invoke Allah
Make a lot of دعاء while you're in this month, for Allah to endear faith to your heart and make disbelief something hateful.
-> Strive hard against your self (جهاد النفس) with regards to obeying Allah.
The more you increase in obedience, the more your faith will increase. And the most difficult part is to collect your heart while performing the act of worship. We may be used to do going good deeds, but our hearts aren't collected. We need to have attentive hearts;- What's motivating me to perform this good deed? Why am I doing good?
The more attentive your heart is, the more reward you'll receive.
E.g. The Obligatory a Prayers.
Prior to wearing your prayer garment, remind yourself of the rewards and virtues of praying:
-> The most beloved deeds to Allah are the obligatory, and prayer is one of them.
-> It's a means of forgiveness of sins
-> Of Elevation in ranks
Etc.
When you're praying remind yourself that you're talking to Allah, and Allah is responding to you.
The Prophet ﷺ said: “Allah the Exalted said, ‘I have divided the prayer (Surah Al-Fatihah) into two halves between Me and My servant. A half of it is for Me and a half for My servant, and My servant shall acquire what he asked for.
Allah says, ‘My servant has praised Me.’
When the servant says, ‘The Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.’
Allah says, ‘My servant has glorified Me.’
When he says, ‘Master of the Day of Judgment.’
Allah says, ‘My servant has glorified Me.’
When he says, ‘You (alone) we worship, and You (alone) we ask for help.’
Allah says, ‘This is between Me and My servant, and My servant shall acquire what he sought.’
When he says, ‘Guide us to the straight path. The way of those on whom You have granted Your grace, not (the way) of those who earned Your anger, nor of those who went astray.’
Allah says, ‘This is for My servant, and My servant shall acquire what he asked for.'" [Muslim]
Saying 'اهدنا الصراط المستقيم' entails asking Allah to show you the right path, help you follow it, and keep you steady on it.
And then you bow and prostrate, remembering that when you do, your sins are dropping from your shoulders.
The Prophet ﷺ said:
إِنَّ الْعَبْدَ إِذَا قَامَ يُصَلِّي أُتِيَ بِذُنُوبِهِ فَوَضَعَتْ عَلَى رَأْسِهِ أَوْ عَاتِقِهِ فَكُلَّمَا رَكَعَ أَوْ سَجَدَ تَسَاقَطَتْ عَنْهُ
"Verily, whenever a servant stands to pray, his sins are placed above his head and over his shoulders. Every time he bows and prostrates, some of them will fall away from him." [Ibn Hibban]
If you pray in this way, you'll leave the prayer with your faith increased.
And As-Sa'di said:
"الصلاة الميزان الإيمان"
If you want to know how much faith you have, check your prayer.
So as the attentivity of your heart increases, as your faith will increase. And in order for our hearts to be attentive, we need to pause for a while before doing any act of worship, purify our intentions, and ask ourselves why and for whose sake we're doing it.
One of our problems is that we have mixed intentions. We don't know exactly what we want, and we're confused. This causes the Shaytan to make even more Waswaas in our hearts. Our intention should be clear, we should know exactly what our goal is. Then go ahead and take the action.
If you're still confused, don't take an action. Pause. Ask yourself again and again and clear your intention before continuing.
And this is one of the biggest mistakes we make. We do many actions without knowing why we're doing them. It may be that we started attending the classes with a good intention, but with time, as we started getting used to the routine, we forget to renew our intention. And when that happens to a person, his heart slowly starts to turn away from the right intention, without him even perceiving it sometimes - because it's so subtle; and he sees himself competing with this person, envying the other, arguing with another. You wonder why all these problems are arising.
It's because something changed in your heart. The turning of our heart is so subtle, and so serious. That's why the Prophet ﷺ used to profusely say:
The moment your concerns start to drift away from Allah's pleasure and Paradise, you need to focus on fixing your intention. It's because you changed that the situation changed for you. Allah said in [13:11]:
Having a good intention isn't something easy at all. It requires a lot of struggle.
The Salaf used to say, "Love of praise is the last thing that comes out of the heart of the believer"
Love for money, the Dunya can easily be rid from the heart of a believer. But love of praise is the last thing to leave. It's very difficult to remove it and requires a lot of struggle. Don't let your heart turn towards the praise of anyone.
-> Ask Allah to forgive all your sins - The major and the minor, the ones you know and the ones you've forgotten.
When Allah forgives sins, He forgives and exchanges them into good deed. So confess for all of your sins and ask Allah to forgive you.
We've done so many good deeds as well with no good intention, or even mixed intentions. There are times we help people, not solely for the sake of Allah, but because it's part of our nature. So ask Allah to forgive your shortcoming and ill intentions, and start anew.
When you take account of yourself, you start to wake up from that deep sleep you were in before. Ask Allah to forgive your past, and start a new life, with strong resolutions, and no laziness, hoping for the reward from Allah.
-> Do good to other people as much as you can.
If you do good to others, Allah will do good to you.
Start with the people in your house. You don't need to go our far and wide searching for people.
E.g. Your husband and children.
Many women cook for the sole reason that they have to. But even this action can be a means of getting reward from Allah.
In [76:8-11]:
The People of Paradise used to feed others while on earth, with their intention being to see Allah's face in the hereafter. They didn't want to hear words of praise and thanks.
When the believers do good, they never wait for gratitude. They do good and run away. They don't want to hear what people say. Take Musa عليه السلام for example. He watered the flock of the two ladies and turned away, invoking Allah. In [28:24]:
Whenever you do good, don't wait for the gratitude of the people. Allah may test you - you may do good to people and they might not thank you. What will you think at that moment? They don't appreciate what I'm doing, they're not good mannered, etc.
And if you see yourself waiting for a word of gratefulness, it means that your deed wasn't purely for Allah's sake.
We have to ask Allah to forgive us for all our intentions. How many times have we made this mistake in the past without us knowing that it's not right.
Do good as much as you can and perfect your deeds, because Allah loves the محسنين.
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