Vertel mij over de islam

Ramadan #1

In the month of Ramadan [is that] in which was revealed the Qur'an, a guidance for the people and clear proofs of guidance and criterion. So whoever sights [the new moon of] the month, let him fast it; and whoever is ill or on a journey - then an equal number of other days. Allah intends for you ease and does not intend for you hardship and [wants] for you to complete the period and to glorify Allah for that [to] which He has guided you; and perhaps you will be grateful.

As-salamu 'alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. (Arabic).

inshaAllah wa Ta'ala, this evening I like to share with you as some of you probably already deciphered some reminders that will help me and you prepare for Ramadan. Ramadan is around the corner and it's a good time to remind yourself of some important lessons in regards to it.

I hope to do three things with you today.

The first of those things is probably the most ignored in the conversation about Ramadan. The placement of the ayat of the Ramadan in the Quran, the Qur'an talks about Ramadan in one place, Baqarah that's it Surah Baqarah and only mentions it one time but where is it mentioned and how is it part of the greater teachings of Surah Baqarah? How is it connected to everything that's followed? It's almost like a combination of several things. So I wanna share with you, how we get to this point in Baqarah. So we get a gain of little bit of a bigger prospective. So we understand that Ramadan of part of the larger lesson and larger wisdom that Allah Azza Wa Jal revealed in His book. That's the first thing I would like to do.

The second thing I like to do, is pay attention to the ayat themselves and may be extrapolate some lessons from the ayah itself in the way in which Allah talks about Ramadan. We all know what the month is, what its significance is but I wana highlight exactly how Allah Himself talks about it and maybe help ourselves drive some benefits from that.

Finally I wanna share with you that in this passage, the six ayat that are the entire section of the Quran on fasting. Like the entire wisdom of fasting and the month of fasting, all of it captured in these six ayat in Baqarah. Within these ayat there is a particular offering from Allah, There is a gift from Allah embedded inside. There is an opportunity. So I wanna talk about that opportunity insha Allah wa Ta'ala at the end.

So those are the three things I wanna share with you today. Surah Baqarah is divided basically in two conversations. It is the biggest Surah of Qur'an but it's divided in to two conversations. One of them is previous nation and their mistakes. Overwhelmingly, the first half of Surah Baqarah talks about Bani Israil, the children of Israel and the mistake they made. So the Surah talks about two conversations. One "Bani Israil" and the other "The Muslims". The first half of the Surah deals overwhelmingly with Bani Israil, the sons of israel. How Allah favored them, how many monumental mistakes they made. There was a whole list of counts, just like a criminal goes to court and they say you are being charged with a count of this crime, this crime, this crime etc and at the end when all the crimes are listed what comes after that in court? The verdict. So we are expecting at the end of entire conversation [conversations of Surah Baqarah], what's the verdict. Within that list of crimes, I wanna highlight one thing. The jews of Madina rejected the Prophet (saw) by overwhelming majority on the basis that he was not from children of israel. He was not from the sons of israel. He was from the son's of ismail. That was their final basis. But toward the end of the conversation with the jews, you know when the crimes were being listed, Allah says fine. You don't think he is from the sons of israel then let's talk about israel himself. Israel (as), his other name is Ya'qûb and Ya'qûb's farther name is ishaq and ishaq's father name is Ibrahim. Allah talking to jews saying, Ok you wanna say that he is not from the children of israel and israel is your family, So Muhammad(saw) is not from your family. Is Ibrahim from your family? I mean they call themselves children of israel but is it wrong that they are also children of Ibrahim, is that true, sure. So actually first Allah talks about great grandfather, the grandfather actually, Ibrahim (as) then He says Ibrahim has a lot in common with israel[Ya'qûb] and Ya'qûb (as) of all the things Allah could have highlighted, there is one particular thing I wanna share with you. By the way all this conversation is about Ramadan, you will see. The whole thing is about Ramadan. So, Ya'qûb (as) is at his death bed and his sons are surrounding his death bed. He is about to die, according to Qur'an and he wants to give parting advice to his kids. How many sons did Ya'qûb had? How many sons israel had? Twelve. Remember twelve sons of israel became twelve tribes of israel. So these are the actual sons of israel. You know when we say children of israel, we think of twelve tribes. We are talking now in this Ayah about the actual father and sons of israel. They are surrounding him and he is leaving them with partying advice.