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Fajr Reminders - Mahmood Habib Masjid and Islamic Center

Fajr Reminders - Mahmood Habib Masjid and Islamic Center

By: Fajr Reminders - Mahmood Habib Masjid and Islamic Center
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 We came to give, not to take. Islam Spirituality
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  • Istighfaar wa Tawba

    Istighfaar wa Tawba
    Jan 20 2026
    https://youtu.be/3a001miSN3o Auto-generated transcript:Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen. Wasalatu wasalamu ala ashrafil anbiya wal mursaleen. Muhammadur Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam. Tasleemun kathirun kathirun. My brothers and sisters, this morning we talked about istighfar and tawbah. I want to elaborate on that to remind myself and you about the importance of istighfar and tawbah. A man came and prayed, started praying in masjid of the Nabi al-Sharif. Sayyidina Ali bin Abi Talib radhi allahu anhu was sitting there. So the man came and he stood and he said, O Allah forgive me and forgive my sins. Astaghfirullah illa zi la ilaha illa huwa lahi al-quyyum wa atubu ilayh. And he said, Allahu Akbar. So when he finished his salah, Sayyidina Ali called him and he said, Do you think istighfar is only so simple? Just say Astaghfirullah and it's done. He said, This is not the way to make istighfar. He said, istighfar has several stages. He said, the first stage of istighfar is that you sincerely and deeply regret the thing that you are repenting for. So whatever is that sin that you have been committing, either of sin of commission or of omission. For example, you were supposed to do something for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. For example, the simplest and the most common one is the neglect of salah. We are supposed to pray and we don't pray and we neglect salah. So then, subhanAllah, may Allah Ta'ala give us tawfiq. Allah gives us tawfiq and we realize that this is something which I have been doing, which is very bad, I should stop doing it. And you want to make istighfar. So the first and foremost thing is to feel deeply regretful about doing the thing that you were, were not supposed to do or not doing the thing that you were supposed to do. He said, the second very important thing is that if the matter involved anybody else, for example, salah involves only the abd and the Rabb, Jalla Jalaluhu. There's no third person involved. But supposing it is that you usurped somebody's rights, you abused somebody, you slandered somebody, you did whatever you did. Which was from the rights of the people and you did not fulfill those rights or you deprived people of their rights. Then you must go and make amends. You must go and reimburse those people. You must go and apologize to those people. If you have to give back what you took, you must give it back. If you have to compensate them, compensate them. The Sahaba even asked him, he said, What if that person, the action, the actual injured person is no longer there? Because maybe I got this, you know, I got this realization that I've done something wrong. And meanwhile, this person has died or this person has gone away somewhere, is not accessible. Then what do we do? Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, Then you reimburse that person's heirs. The people who inherited from that person, his children or whoever it is. And he said, if even, so the Sahaba asked, this is the Aswala, what if even those people are not there? Maybe the whole family disappeared or something. He said, then you continuously make istighfar and tawbah for that person. And you give in sadaqah, continue to give in sadaqah, with the intention that Allah SWT should reward that person for this sadaqah that you're giving. So Sayyidina Ali said, this is the second step. He said, the third step is that you hate to go back to that sin that you were committing. You're committing with such intensity that even if you had to be, even if somebody murdered you, if somebody killed you, you still would not do that. Even on pain of death, you will not go back to that sin. And this is the fourth thing is that now you do the right thing and you stay on that right thing with istighfahmat, with steadfastness. So it's the istighfah and tawbah. This is the whole process of istighfah and tawbah. As I mentioned, this body, these two words are interchangeable. They are interchangeable. If somebody just mentions istighfah, then it means istighfah and tawbah. If somebody says tawbah, it means istighfah and tawbah. But if the two words are individually mentioned and if they are explained, then they mean what they mean. Allah SWT said, Allah said, make istighfah and then turn towards Allah SWT. Istighfah is to repent, is to apologize, is to be sorry. And tawbah and tawbah is to turn towards Allah SWT. So both are important. That we are, dreadful for what we did and that we turn towards Allah SWT Jalal Jalal Hu and we live our lives in a state of obedience to Allah SWT. Istighfah and tawbah is the root and the beginning of everything good. It is the beginning of a change in our lives. It's a beginning of completely revamping whatever we are doing. Allah SWT in His infinite mercy leverages us to do good. He has left the door of tawbah open until the end. Until the end. So no matter what anybody has done, one must never lose hope. One must never ever feel that, ...
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  • Ikhlaas un Niyyah

    Ikhlaas un Niyyah
    Jan 19 2026
    Auto-generated transcript:In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds. And peace and blessings be upon the most honorable of the prophets and messengers, Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, and his companions, with much peace and much love. Dear brothers, about the Ameer of the Believers, Umar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah curse him and curse him, said, I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say, The deeds are only by intention, or as he said, The Ameer of the Believers, Umar ibn al-Khattab narrated that he heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say, The deeds are only by intention, the reward of the deed is based on its intention. And about the Imam al-Nawiyah, peace and blessings be upon him, said in his book, Al-Riyadh al-Saleheen, in the introduction, The intention is to be manifested in all deeds, in all words, and in all situations, both clear and light. Imam al-Nawiyah, peace and blessings be upon him, said in his book, Al-Riyadh al-Saleheen, in the introduction, That the intention, the awareness of the intention, is important in all deeds, in all actions, and in all words, in all situations, that we might find ourselves in. Al-Bari'zatu wal-Khafi, Whether this is in the external environment visible or whether it is internal to us, in our hearts. I remind myself and you that on the Day of Judgment, this will be the basis on which we will be judged. We ask Allah to grant us Ikhlas al-Niya, sincerity of our intentions, because without that sincerity, the action or the speech will look the same, but it will either have no reward or it will actually be incurring a sin. We have the famous Hadith, which is considered to be one of three, which encompass the entire Deen. So this Hadith is considered to be something which is equivalent to one third of all knowledge. And that's called the Hadith of the Salas, the Hadith of the Three. Rasool Allah said on the Day of Judgment, the first person to be produced before Allah will be a scholar, will be an Alim, and he will be asked, what did you do for the sake of Allah? And he will say, I memorized the Kitab of Allah, and I used to teach the Kitab of Allah, and I used to teach the knowledge of Islam. And it will be said to him, you are lying. You did all this so that you would be known as a great scholar, as a Hafez, as a Qari, as a Mufti or whatever. And this was done. This happened. People knew you and they called you by all kinds of titles and so on and so forth. And today there is nothing for you and this person will be thrown into the Hellfire. Who is this person? He is a Muslim, he is an Alim, he is a Hafez of the Quran. And he will be thrown into the Hellfire, why? Because of the Fasad Fi Niyah. Because of the problem and the conflict of the intention. Then the second person to be produced before Allah will be a philanthropist. He will be somebody who Allah had given a lot of wealth and he spent it in charitable things. And he will be asked, what did you do for the sake of Allah? And he will say, I, Ya Allah, you gave me a lot of wealth and I spent it in your path. I spent it in your path. I did this, I did that, I did that and so on and so on. I helped these people and whatever. And it will be said to him, you lied. You did all this so that you would be known as a charitable person, as a philanthropist and this happened. In the world you were known as this great person who did so much of good and this and that. Built hospitals and masajis and madaris and God knows what. So that reward you got in the world. Here there is nothing for you and he will be thrown into the Hellfire. And the third person to be produced before Allah will be somebody who fought in the path of Allah and who died. And he will be asked, what did you do? And he will say, Ya Rabb, I fought in your path and I died for your sake. And it will be said to him, you lied. You fought for yourself because you wanted to be known as a great fighter, as a brave person. And you died. And here there is nothing for you and this person will be thrown into the Hellfire. So somebody will be thrown into Hellfire. Somebody who was an Alim, somebody who was a Saqeeb, who used to give Saqawat. And somebody who was apparently Shaheed Fi Sabirillah. All three, first three people in the Hellfire, these are the first three people. Not Kuffar and Munafiq and Mushriq, first three people. May Allah save us from this. So I remind myself and you that the Ikhlaas of the Niyya is the number one thing that we should guard against. Our scholars say, it is like going into a fair like Nawaz or something, right? Going into this fair and you have your wallet and you have a wad of money with you. Where will you keep your hand? On that pocket, right? Because you are afraid somebody will pick your pocket. There is a lot of crowd, people are milling around. This is how we should ...
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    14 mins
  • Isra wal Me’raj

    Isra wal Me’raj
    Jan 18 2026
    Auto-generated transcript:Alhamdulillah. And some people also fast on the following day, which is today. I remind myself and you that in Islam, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, first of all, Islam is the worship of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Allah ki ibadat ka naam Islam hai. Now Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala did not leave this ibadah for us to do as we wish, when we wish, how we wish. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala prescribed specifically what is to be done, when it is to be done, how it is to be done. Specifically, that's why there is so much importance. Why is there so much importance, for example, on Tajweed, which I keep saying all the time. You cannot say the name of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala any way you want. And after being told, after being corrected, if you still do the same thing, it's a major sin before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. You will be punished for taking the name of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in a way different from how it is to be taken. That is the importance of Tajweed. Right? Just pronunciation. Similarly, Salah prescribed specifically when is it to be done, how is it to be done. Right? All of this. As far as Isra'ul-Maraj is concerned, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, the first ayat of Surah Bani Israel, Subhanallazhi Asra' bi'abdihi laylam minal masjidil haram ilal masjidil aqsa alladhi barakna hawlahu linuriya hu min ayaatina innahu wa samiul basir. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, All glory and majesty to him who took his slave from masjidil haram to masjidil aqsa, barakna hawlahu, the place which he has put barakah, and blessing all around it, linuriya hu min ayaatina so that he may show him his signs, innahu wa samiul basir, and he is the one who is all hearing and all seeing. Right? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala did not say that he took him on such and such a night. Laylam minal masjidil. Which layl? Allah did not mention. Is it 27, 26, 28? Allah did not mention. Also, with the Arabs, they did not have a calendar of their own. They used to use the Roman calendar or the Persian calendar. And it was not a custom among the Arabs to note specific dates. They had names for years. They had the names of the months. But specific days and dates, it was not their custom. So, for example, the day on which Rasulullah s.a.w. was born is not known. There are many narrations. Maybe this day, maybe that day, maybe that day. But there is no doubt that he was born. Which means he is human. Similarly, with Isra wal Mi'raj, there is no doubt that Isra wal Mi'raj happened because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said it happened. And Allah said, I took my slave from Masjid al-Haram to Masjid al-Aqsa. Allah did not say he went in his dream. Allah did not say symbolically, No, I took my slave. Means physically, he was taken from Masjid al-Haram to Masjid al-Aqsa and then into the heavens. Physically, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala did that. This is our Aqidah. If people say, No, it happened in my dreams, it happened in my dreams. It is Kufr. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, I took my slave. How? Allah knows. Allah knows. We don't have to conjecture and guess about how it happened. It happened any way that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wanted it to happen. But Allah did not mention a specific date. So therefore, to celebrate that on a particular day or night has no basis in the Quran or Sunnah. Number one. So what should we do? What is the importance of this? Is it some story which happened? Or does it have any importance to this day? The biggest importance, there are many, many things, but the biggest importance of Al-Isra and Al-Mi'raj is what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave His Rasul alayhi salatu wasalam in a manner which suits His Majesty and Grace when the Nabi alayhi salatu wasalam was presented before Him. And what was that gift? Salah. Salah. Salah. Salah. Salah. Salah. Salah. Salah. Salah. Salah. So we celebrate Isra and Al-Mi'raj, but when it comes to Salah, the Salah is the gift. The purpose of Isra and Al-Mi'raj was to give the Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam the Salah. This is the only hukum of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, which was given above the seven heavens. All the other hukum of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala came down on the earth. The only hukum that was given above the seven heavens is the hukum of Salah. And we have the entire narration of that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave him 50 Salah per day and then Musa alayhi salam's advice, it was reduced and so on and so on and so on finally to five Salawat. So, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, of 50. So, 1 is to 10. So 50 Salat means that these 50 Salat is in the sense of you are free and your people are free to come into my presence at any time. If you take 50 Salawat and divide by 24 hours, divide by that, it's every half an hour. Every half an hour. Which means 24 hours, anytime you can come. So I remind myself and you the importance of this Salah. The importance of Sajidah ...
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    Less than 1 minute
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