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What Happens on the 15th of Sha'aban? | Khutbah
Does anything different happen on the 15th night of Sha'aban, and is there a special way of observing it? What do we need to remove from our hearts in order to be forgiven in advance of Ramadan? And in what practical ways can we make the most of this sacred, yet forgotten month?
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. As we talk about the month of Ramadan, and that which follows, it is important for us to really make the most of the moment that we are in, and in particular, a discussion ensues about the middle of this month of Sha'ban. And so let me just start off with a few basic things. The Salaf, the pious predecessors used to refer to this month as Shahrul Qurra, the month of the reciters, whereas Ramadan is Shahrul Qur'an. It is the month of the Qur'an. Because this is the month where the reciters begin the recitation of the Qur'an, and they show their commitment to the Qur'an before the month of Ramadan even starts. This is the month of fasting for the people of Ihsan, for the people of excellence. As A'ishah radiallahu ta'ala anha said, I never saw the Prophet ﷺ fast a month after Ramadan, more than this month of Sha'ban that we are in. And then you have the discussion about the 15th night of Sha'ban, and whether or not there is anything that is specific to that night. And so I want to start with the following, insha'Allah ta'ala, and that is to say that the month of Sha'ban is virtuous in and of itself, and it offers us the opportunity, the potential to clear out our hearts, and to prepare our hearts for Ramadan, without anything of the month of Sha'ban needing to be any more distinguished than it already is. The month in and of itself is a month that is distinguished, the entire month honored and distinguished, for those who wish to meet Ramadan with their hearts prepared, and with their actions already in motion, while other people are just trying to get started. It is already virtuous enough. But secondly, that what the Prophet ﷺ proposed or put forth, as a reason for the blessing of this month, is that the deeds are raised to Allah ﷻ, تُرْفَعُ فِيهِ الْأَعْمَالِ
that the deeds are presented to Allah ﷻ in this month, and that in and of itself should give us some pause. Because if the deeds are presented to Allah ﷻ, and Allah ﷻ sees holes in those deeds, before the month of Ramadan even starts, then it's important for us to start plugging those holes. But if the deeds are presented to Allah ﷻ, and we are blocked off from that presentation even happening in the first place, then what is the point of even going forward with our good deeds, when our deeds are blocked off from Allah ﷻ? What do I mean by that? The Prophet ﷺ used to fast every Monday and every Thursday. And when he was asked why he used to fast every Monday and every Thursday, he mentioned ﷺ because those are the times in which the deeds are presented to Allah ﷻ. And Allah ﷻ is the most merciful when He accounts. But Allah ﷻ sees two people who have a grudge, and He says, أَنظِرُوا هَذَيْنِ حَتَّى يَصْطَرِحَا Leave these two until they reconcile amongst themselves. Allah does not even look at their deeds. So there are those who when the deeds are presented to Allah on Mondays and Thursdays, their deeds are not even looked at. And there are those who when their deeds are presented to Allah ﷻ on Mondays and Thursdays, they are in a state of fasting. And there's an entire spectrum in between. The Prophet ﷺ described this entire month as a month of accounting by Allah ﷻ when the deeds are presented to Allah ﷻ. And he wanted to be in a state of fasting as his deeds were in presentation to Allah ﷻ. Now what does that even mean in the first place? Because Allah says, مَا يَلْفِظُ مِن قَوْلٍ إِلَّا لَدَيْهِ رَقِيبٌ عَتِيدٌ Every word that you say is carefully documented.
And Allah ﷻ sees you at every moment. It is one of those things in which Allah ﷻ has given us to let us know that there is careful attention in those moments. Similar to how you can make du'a to Allah ﷻ at every single moment. وَإِذَا سَأَلَكَ عِبَادِي عَنِّي فَإِنِّي قَرِيبٌ When my servant calls upon me, I am close to them. But there is a special time that Allah ﷻ wants you to know in that last third of the night that your du'a is particularly attended to. And so your deeds are particularly attended to in the month of Sha'ban. Your deeds are particularly attended to on the night of Monday and Thursday, on the day of Monday and Thursday. And you want to be attentive to those deeds as well. Just as you want to be attentive to those du'as. Now subhanAllah, when it comes to the 15th night of Sha'ban, almost all that has been narrated about it fills the threshold of authenticity. Even being considered for authenticity. There is a narration that's strengthened by multiple narrations that many of the scholars have accepted, both classical and contemporary. And it revolves around these few deeds. It revolves around these two things that the believer might find very, very hard to adopt in their lives. And it's more about what you're emptying out rather than what you're putting forward. That in this narration by Ibn Hibban that the Prophet ﷺ was reported to have said that Allah ﷻ looks out to His creation every single 15th night of Sha'ban. So the middle point of Sha'ban. وَيَغْفِرُ لِجَمِيعِ خَلْقِهِ And Allah ﷻ forgives all of His servants إِلَّا مُشْرِكَ أَو مُشَاحِنَ
except for a disbeliever or a person who carries spite, hatred in their hearts. Shirk and shahna are the things that disqualify a person from being forgiven on that night. I want to pause here for a moment. If we were to put aside all of the discussions of the ulama about whether or not this hadith would be accepted or not. And if we were to put aside all of the discussion from the scholars about whether or not this night of the 15th night which will be tomorrow night in most calendars. If we were to put all that aside, every single night is a night in which a person should honor that night by calling upon Allah ﷻ and waking up and praying qiyam al-layl. Every single night is a night in which Allah ﷻ presents you that opportunity. And if the Prophet ﷺ used to fast most of Sha'ban, and in every month the Prophet ﷺ used to fast the 13th, 14th, and 15th as a sunnah, then fasting the 15th is virtuous in any single month. So the fasting is down, the qiyam is down, all of that is down. Aside from the acts that have no basis in Islam that some people do culturally, let's talk about not just honoring the night, but honoring something that we're supposed to do in the first place and pay attention to. In Ramadan, Allah ﷻ incentivizes the things that are already rewardable, the ibadah that you're already supposed to do. But here dear brothers and sisters, these two conditions, these two things that are to be removed from us, require from us not just special attention, but a special type of love for Allah ﷻ that would allow us to overcome our hurdles towards Him in that journey that we hope to have in Ramadan. When it comes to shirk, we already know,
no one is to be worshipped aside or next to Allah ﷻ, no one should be given that rank, no one should be associated, as Allah ﷻ says, أنا أغنى الشركاء عن الشرك I am the most worthy, I am too worthy to have anyone associated with me in worship. فَمَنْ عَمِلَ عَمَلًا أَشْرَكَ فِيهِ مَعِي غَيْرِي تَوَكْتُهُ وَشِرْكَةٌ So whoever does a deed seeking someone other than me, then I will leave him and that shirk. There's no need for that deed. And so removing anything that would be a barrier between us and Allah ﷻ in that regard is more self-explanatory. But the point is, is that I worship Allah alone, only for Allah, without anyone else in consideration. I worship Allah ﷻ. أَمَنْتُ بِاللَّهِ There's no one else that's going to interfere with that relationship with Allah ﷻ. The second one though, الشَّحْنَاء That's the tough one. That you have hatred towards someone else, that you carry a grudge, that you're holding on to something that is consuming your heart, consuming your deeds, and shutting off the gates of those deeds before your deeds even get there. I want you to think about this. Ramadan opens for business on the first night. And there are people that arrive at the gate of Ramadan and they are told, even though you are alive, stay outside. Why? Because a person was unwilling to relinquish that grudge between them and their Lord. A person was unwilling to relinquish that hatred for the sake of Allah ﷻ. Now as I said, this is a spectrum. And the Prophet ﷺ mentioned, especially when your deeds are supposed to be presented to Allah ﷻ, don't put a barrier between you and Allah ﷻ. There's a spectrum here. But when it comes to شَحْنَاء,
it rarely remains stagnant and it consumes a person beyond being rational, and especially to a point where they can no longer be truly spiritual and connected to Allah ﷻ. The ulema mentioned, the scholars mentioned that with that hatred that consumes a person, it takes a person from merely being reckless to wanting to wreck other people. And in the process, it makes their deeds especially dangerous and malicious. So for example, usually when it comes to الغيبة, backbiting, the scholars say that غيبة often emanates, backbiting often emanates out of recklessness. But what usually crosses the line or causes that backbiting to cross the line into slander, which is even far more dangerous than backbiting, is that there's an element of hatred. You're not just reckless with your tongue. You want to hurt someone, you want to bring them down, and so you pass on slander about them. In one narration, the Prophet ﷺ mentioned, by the way, مشرك, مشاحن, or قاتل نفس, or someone who murders. What takes a person from being silly, and being loose, and being reckless, to being violent, and being particularly destructive, is that they have an element of hatred towards their brother or towards their sister. I want you to walk this back. And I want you to think about all of the messages that you're gonna hear in Ramadan about worshiping like the angels. You want to be as much like the ملائكة as possible in Ramadan. The angels don't eat and drink, they nourish themselves from the worship of Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى. The angels don't disobey Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى. They do exactly as they're commanded. Your fasting is an angelic exercise. You are imitating their worship of Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى in many ways during that time.
When you stand up and you pray at night, and you deny your body so that you can nourish your soul, and you find all of that عبادة, all that worship, and the angels are descending and ascending with your name and with your deeds. Be like the angels, be like the angels, be like the angels. There's an element here that precedes the output of good deeds. And it's particularly relevant to this moment of شعبه. The angels love only for Allah and they hate only for Allah. They love only for Allah and they hate only for Allah. What was it that allowed the companions of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم to prostrate their faces to the ground after decades of prostrating to idols? Was that they worshiped only Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى, they purified themselves from shirk altogether. But what was it that allowed them to prostrate instantaneously next to people that had killed their own family members and persecuted them and did all sorts of evil things to them? Is that they were also doing that for Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى. That they learned to love and to hate only for Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى and they removed their nafs, they removed themselves from that equation altogether. Similar to how the angels only love and hate for Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى. We're talking about the companion عمر بن عاص صلى الله تعالى عنه in this past week. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم made dua against him. But as soon as he saw him coming to him to say لا إله إلا الله محمد رسول الله, he loves him صلى الله عليه وسلم so much that عمر thinks he's the most beloved companion to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. Because that love and that hatred is only driven by Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى, by how a person connects that relationship to the most consequential relationship in their lives,
that relationship that they have with Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى. Just as there's a connection between shirk and shahna, multiple things that the scholars mention that shahna can even lead to shirk. That a person can worship their hatred of another person somehow to where they will do anything to bring down that other person to the point of leaving off their own deen to ruin that other person. Isn't that the case of Iblis? Isn't that the case of the devil himself? But there's also a connection between ikhlas, sincerity to Allah, the opposite of shirk, and the willingness to let go of a grudge or let go of hatred for the sake of Allah. You know the famous hadith of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم where he said, إِنَّ اللَّهَ إِذَا حَبَّ عَبْدًا When Allah loves someone, نَادَ جِبْرِيلِ He calls Jibreel عليه السلام. See it from the perspective of the angels. يَا جِبْرِيلِ إِنِّي أُحِبُّ فُلَانَ فَحِبَّ O Jibreel, I love this person, so love that person. Jibreel immediately loves that person. Jibreel doesn't need to hear anything else. I love that person because Allah loves that person. And then Jibreel عليه السلام tells the angels and all of the angels love because Allah loves that person. There's a continuation of that hadith in Sahih Muslim by the way. When Allah سبحانه وتعالى is angry with a person, when Allah عز و جل despises someone, نَادَ جِبْرِيلِ He calls Jibreel. يَا جِبْرِيلِ إِنِّي أُبْغِضُ فُلَانَ Yes, Allah سبحانه وتعالى despises some of his creation. So you too should despise that creation. Jibreel عليه السلام despises that creation. Now in the situation of the one who Allah loves, يُوضَعُ لَهُ الْقَبُولَ أَوِ الْمَحَبَّ فِي الْأَرْضِ Allah سبحانه وتعالى causes the love and acceptance of that person in the hearts of the believers to descend in the hearts of people around them. And for the one that Allah سبحانه وتعالى despises, Allah سبحانه وتعالى causes البغضاء.
Also, that repulsion to descend in the hearts of the believers for that person, for that one. But the point is that just like the angels, they love and they hate for Allah سبحانه وتعالى. They feel compassion and they feel rage for Allah سبحانه وتعالى. And that's from their sweetness of Iman, tasting the reality of Iman. And so when you see these Israeli soldiers posting their TikTok videos, doing the most repulsive of things in Gaza as they massacre our people, I hate them for the sake of Allah سبحانه وتعالى. I despise them for Allah. Because what they are doing to our brothers and sisters should bring a sort of rage to me, but a righteous rage. This is disgusting. I can't tolerate this. Allah عز و جل puts that in our hearts as believers. That's part of faith to hate that. But at the same time, if you love and you hate for Allah, then when it comes to your own personal dealings, and when it comes to your own grudges, the things that have happened in your own life, people that have offended your ego, your willingness to give that up for the sake of Allah سبحانه وتعالى is also always present because of your love for Allah سبحانه وتعالى. If you were to imagine Allah سبحانه وتعالى saying to you, Oh my servant, for me, let it go. For me, let this person go. For me, forgive. Would you really say no to Allah سبحانه وتعالى? Is it really worth getting in between you and Allah سبحانه وتعالى? Does your love for Allah سبحانه وتعالى not allow you? وَلْيَعْفُوا وَلْيَصْفَحُوا أَلَا تُحِبُّونَ يَغْفِرَ اللَّهُ لَكُمْ Let them forgive and pardon. Don't you want Allah سبحانه وتعالى to forgive and pardon you? Does your love for Allah سبحانه وتعالى not consume your heart in a way
that you're not going to let that grudge, not going to let that hatred take root inside of you and consume you? Isn't Allah worth it? Just like with ikhlas. I'll give off everything else for the sake of Allah سبحانه وتعالى with my personal worship. I'll also give off everything else for my own personal being out of my love for you, O Allah. Because it's not just putting your face on the ground in prostration. It's your willingness to put your cheek on the ground also for the sake of Allah سبحانه وتعالى and say, for Allah, I will forgive. For Allah, I will let it go. And sometimes it's much harder to do the latter than it is the former. It's a lot easier when you tell someone pray qiyam al-layl for 30 days. Alhamdulillah. You tell someone to pick up a phone and call someone they haven't called for three months? I don't know about that. For Allah, I don't know, 30 years, for Allah, pick up a phone, swallow it, put your ego to the ground, put your cheek on the ground for the sake of Allah سبحانه وتعالى. I don't know. And you know what happens as time goes on? Your hatred for that person only grows. Your grudge only grows. The distance only grows. For the sake of Allah سبحانه وتعالى, are you willing to swallow the bitterness? Are you willing to say, Ya Allah, for you, I will show that ihsan, I will show that excellence, and I'll relinquish it. For Allah, not because the other person deserves it, not because it's good for my mental health, not because it's good for my physical health, not because you know... No, no. For Allah, Ya Allah, for you, I will call him, I will call her, I will put it behind us. For you, O Allah, I forgive. I forgive. I move on. You know, dear brothers and sisters, Subhanallah, we often talk about Ramadan, you know, the holding back
from food and drink, and not tasting what we taste so regularly throughout the day. But I guarantee you that if you are to show Allah سبحانه وتعالى today or tomorrow, do it today, do it tomorrow, Ya Allah, for you, I will swallow the bitterness, and I will apologize, and I will put this behind. For you, O Allah, the gates of the heavens will open up to you بإذن الله تعالى so that your deeds in Ramadan ascend and ascend and ascend and ascend. It might be the most beautiful thing that you ever did for the sake of Allah because Allah knows how precious our ego is to us. Our ego is more precious to us than our food and our drink sometimes. Our ego is more precious to us than our existence sometimes. We'd rather die and be right than swallow it and allow that to move on. But if you want Allah to look at you and to forgive you, and you want to be included in those whose deeds are constantly ascending to Allah سبحانه وتعالى, Ya Allah, for you, because I love you, O Allah. I'm not going to make any more excuses. I will swallow it, and I will move on. There's a famous hadith where the Prophet ﷺ, he rises onto the manbar, and he says, Ameen, Ameen, Ameen. He had three steps on his manbar ﷺ. And when they asked the Prophet ﷺ why he said Ameen three times, and he said, Jibreel ﷺ made dua three times, and I said Ameen three times. What did he make dua for? رغم أنفه خاب وخسر May he be humiliated. What a loser. مَنْ أَدْرَكَ رَمَضَانَ وَلَمْ يُخْفَرْ لَهُ A person who Ramadan comes upon, and they are not forgiven. Why wouldn't they be forgiven? Why wouldn't they be forgiven?
Well, if your gate never opened to Allah سبحانه وتعالى in the first place, how would you be forgiven? It could be that shahna, that grudge that you're leaving there as a barrier. And the Prophet ﷺ mentioned that the next dua was against the one whose parents grow old in their presence. And they're not forgiven by their presence. They don't show them ihsan, they don't show them excellence. We live in a strange time that tells you that it's okay to harbor that type of hatred even towards the people that brought you into existence in the first place. Strange times. Yes, there are exceptions. Yes, there are abuses that cross the red lines. Yes, all of that is there. But the default, وَقَضَى رَبُّكَ أَلَّا تَعْبُدُ إِلَّا إِيَّا وَبِالْوَارِدَيْنِ إِحْسَانًا Allah puts your parents right after Him in that obedience. You've got to remove that shahna. And if a person has built up in their hearts the ability to have a grudge with their parents, then what does that mean for every other relationship in their lives? Shahna. You've got to get it out of your heart. And the third one, the one who the Prophet ﷺ is mentioned in their presence and they do not send salawat on the Prophet ﷺ. A person whose heart is filled with the love of the Prophet ﷺ is not going to have space for hating the other creation. The one who loves the best of all creation. The one who seeks to emulate the best of all creation ﷺ. The one who seeks to follow the sunnah of the man who forgave the people that chewed the liver of his uncle and caused his wife and children to die. You want to follow his sunnah ﷺ? If you're overwhelmed with that love of him ﷺ and loving his example and striving to be like him, how could you maintain a petty grudge when you have that prophetic example? And so you wonder how Ramadan comes and goes and you're not forgiven?
Resolve it now. Tomorrow is the 15th night of Sha'ban. I challenge every single one of us. If there's any hardship, any hard feelings, bitterness between you and your brother or sister, for Allah, initiate. And put it behind you. May Allah ﷻ allow us to put our faces and our cheeks on the ground only for his sake. May Allah ﷻ make us like the angels who love and hate only for his sake. May Allah ﷻ make us amongst those who love the deeds that are beloved to him. And may Allah ﷻ make us amongst those who hate that which is hated to him. Alhamdulillah. Surah Al-Fatihah
Surah Al-Fatihah Surah Al-Fatihah
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