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Ramaḍān Reminders 1438H: nightly reminders after Tarāwīḥ, by Ustādh Rayaan Barker (hafidhahullāh)

• The Salaf took great care over how they concluded their deeds at the end of Ramaḍān, following the example of the Prophet ﷺ (Shaykh al-Fawzān, hafidhahullāh)

• "And those who give what they give while their hearts are fearful that they will return to their Lord": the believers fear that their deeds may not be accepted

• The Prophet ﷺ acknowledged that he could not fully praise his Lord: how then should we feel about our own shortcomings?

• Fear of rejection must not become despair: "O My slaves who have transgressed against themselves, do not despair of the mercy of Allāh" (az-Zumar 39:53)

• Repentance and seeking forgiveness need sincerity, remorse and the resolve to rectify what remains of one's life

Recorded at Masjid al-Furqān, Stoke-on-Trent

Explanation of the Book of Tawḥīd, taught by Shaykh Abu Iyaad Amjad Rafiq (hafidhahullāh)

• Chapter 50 of Kitāb at-Tawḥīd on the verse: "But when He gave them a good child, they ascribed partners to Him in what He had given them" (al-Aʿrāf 7:190)

• Naming someone "ʿAbd" of other than Allāh, such as ʿAbd al-Kaʿbah: minor shirk when only the name is intended, and major shirk when servitude is intended, as with ʿAbd ar-Rasūl

• Ibn Ḥazm's exception of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, why that name too is not to be given today, and why mentioning such names when narrating history is allowed

• The two explanations of the verse: that it refers to Ādam and Ḥawwāʾ, as narrated from Mujāhid, al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī and Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, or that it refers to the mushrikūn

• Benefits of the chapter, including a warning against the plots of Iblīs, who vowed to misguide all but Allāh's sincere servants

• The grave worshippers who name their children as servants of the dead usually intend the meaning of worship

Explanation of the Book of Tawḥīd, taught by Shaykh Abu Iyaad Amjad Rafiq (hafidhahullāh)

• Chapter 12 of Kitāb at-Tawḥīd: "From shirk is making a vow to other than Allāh", and the verse "They fulfil their vows" (al-Insān 76:7)

• The meaning of a vow (nadhr) in the language and in the Sharīʿah: binding oneself to an act of worship that was not obligatory

• Why making vows is prohibited: it burdens a person with what he was free to do or leave

• Fulfilling vows is worship, as Allāh praised those who fulfil them and commanded "let them fulfil their vows" (al-Ḥajj 22:29)

• The grave worshippers of later times call upon ʿAlī and the awliyāʾ even when drowning, while the first mushrikūn turned sincerely to Allāh at sea

• The two kinds of vow: a vow of obedience and a vow of disobedience

• Vows to graves, jinn and the awliyāʾ are major shirk that require repentance, and Allāh accepts the repentance of whoever turns to Him (az-Zumar 39:53)

40 Ḥadīth of Imām an-Nawawī (Islam Teesside), taught by Shaykh Abu Iyaad Amjad Rafiq (hafidhahullāh)

• Completing the 15th ḥadīth, of Abū Hurayrah: "Whoever believes in Allāh and the Last Day, let him speak good or remain silent…", with the explanation of Shaykh Ibn ʿUthaymīn (raḥimahullāh)

• A conditional sentence meant to encourage: "If you believe in Allāh and the Last Day, then speak good or remain silent"

• Speech is of three kinds: good, which is sought; evil, which is ḥarām, as is speech that leads to evil; and idle talk, which is not ḥarām but better left

• "If speech is silver, then silence is golden"

• The 16th ḥadīth, "Do not become angry", with Shaykh Ibn ʿUthaymīn's explanation: does it forbid the natural feeling of anger, or acting upon it?

• Training oneself in forbearance, as the Prophet ﷺ laughed when a Bedouin pulled hard at his garment

• Excessive anger harms even the body, and Islām forbids evil traits while commanding good character

Ramaḍān Reminders 1438H: nightly reminders after Tarāwīḥ, by Ustādh Rayaan Barker (hafidhahullāh)

• The polytheists in the time of the Prophet ﷺ differed in what they worshipped, whether stones, trees, angels, the Prophets, the righteous, the sun or the moon, and he fought them all (Shaykh Ṣāliḥ al-Fawzān, hafidhahullāh)

• Those who worship others besides Allāh can never agree on what to worship: the claim that "what we do is different" is refuted, since they also worshipped ʿĪsā and the righteous in the graves

• The fourth principle: the shirk of the polytheists of our time is worse than the shirk of the earlier polytheists

• In hardship they used to call upon Allāh alone, while those who commit shirk today call upon the deceased in times of both ease and difficulty

• False excuses such as "we only call upon the righteous" and "we have good intentions" are no proof, for the earlier polytheists did the same or less

• Believing that Allāh is the only Creator is not enough: worship must be dedicated to Him alone

• The intellect is a tool for understanding the Qurʾān and the Sunnah, not a source of ʿaqīdah, and it must not be exalted above them

Recorded at Masjid al-Furqān, Stoke-on-Trent

Ramaḍān Reminders 1438H: nightly reminders after Tarāwīḥ, by Ustādh Rayaan Barker (hafidhahullāh)

• Allāh accepts only the religion of Islām: the Qurʾān and the Sunnah, understood upon the understanding of the Companions and the early generations, not what the innovators have changed, nor neglect and extremism

• "Allāh is the protector of those who believe; He brings them out of the darknesses into the light": falsehood has many forms, while the guidance is one

• The purpose of reciting the Qurʾān (Shaykh al-Fawzān, hafidhahullāh): to understand it, to hasten to act upon its commands and leave its prohibitions, and to call people to it and be a good example

• The Prophet ﷺ: "Recite the Qurʾān, for it will come on the Day of Resurrection as an intercessor for its companions"

• How often to complete the Qurʾān: the ḥadīth of ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAmr (a month, then twenty days, seven days, three days); the Companions completed it every week in Ramaḍān, and it is best not to finish it in under three days so as to ponder the verses

Recorded at Masjid al-Furqān, Stoke-on-Trent

Ramaḍān Reminders 1438H: nightly reminders after Tarāwīḥ, by Ustādh Rayaan Barker (hafidhahullāh)

• Zakāt al-Fiṭr is legislated at the end of Ramaḍān to purify the fasting person of lapses and sins, and to feed the poor (Shaykh al-Fawzān, hafidhahullāh)

• It is obligatory on young and old, male and female, free and slave, and is given on behalf of oneself and those under one's care

• The time for giving it: before the Eid prayer, and if forgotten it still suffices until the end of Eid day, while delaying beyond that is sinful

• Who receives it: the poor and needy, as with zakāt al-māl, and it may be given to the guardian of a poor person

• Appointing a representative, such as the masjid collection, to buy the staple food and distribute it to the poor on one's behalf

• The view of Imām Aḥmad that the poor are not given money in place of food

Recorded at Masjid al-Furqān, Stoke-on-Trent

Ramaḍān Reminders 1438H: nightly reminders after Tarāwīḥ, by Ustādh Rayaan Barker (hafidhahullāh)

• Allāh ended the verses of fasting with iʿtikāf: "Do not approach them while you are in iʿtikāf in the masājid"

• Iʿtikāf is staying in the masjid in obedience to Allāh: a sunnah, rewarded if done and without sin if left, established by the Qurʾān, the Sunnah and the consensus of the scholars (Shaykh al-Fawzān, hafidhahullāh)

• The best iʿtikāf is in the last ten days of Ramaḍān, as the Prophet ﷺ did until Allāh took his soul (ḥadīth of ʿĀʾishah), seeking Laylat al-Qadr

• The conditions of iʿtikāf, beginning with the intention

• Shaykh Ibn ʿUthaymīn (raḥimahullāh): one may intend iʿtikāf with the condition of leaving for a necessity, such as the janāzah of a relative, and then returning

• The aim is to devote oneself to worship, not to sit chatting: beware of the mobile phone, WhatsApp and Telegram groups

Recorded at Masjid al-Furqān, Stoke-on-Trent

Questions and answers after the lesson on Kitāb as-Sunnah of Sunan Abī Dāwūd, with Ustādh Abdul Hakeem Mitchell (hafidhahullāh)

It opens with a discussion of the preceding lesson (the statement of Sayyid Quṭb on the khilāfah of ʿUthmān and ʿAlī, and the conditions for accepting narrations from an innovator), followed by the questions:

1. The ruling on a woman going to a women-only gym: uncovering only before Muslim women, and avoiding places with music

2. How to explain to a child that we have a choice when everything is decreed: the two types of qadr

3. Boycotting a brother over a worldly matter, and for how long: boycotting is for the sake of one's religion, no more than three days for worldly matters, and until sincere repentance

4. Whether the Salafī brothers must be united in boycotting a clear innovator, and the weakness of personality: the difference between companionship (muṣāḥabah) and advising (munāṣaḥah) (Shaykh ʿUbayd)

5. Whether the forehead must touch the floor in sujūd if a cap covers it

6. The ruling on free mixing with female cousins at family gatherings, and how to advise the family with wisdom

7. How to deal with a split among the brothers: refer to the elders and the experienced

Streamed LIVE at The Salafi Centre of Manchester on 26/8/19

Questions and answers with Shaykh Uways at-Taweel (hafidhahullāh), after the lesson on ʿAqīdat ar-Rāziyyayn

1. Advice following the recent passing of Shaykh al-Ithyūbī and Shaykh Ḥasan al-Bannā (raḥimahumallāh): take knowledge from the scholars while they are alive, be firm as Abū Bakr was at the death of the Prophet ﷺ ("Allāh is ever-living and does not die"), Allāh preserves His religion, and seek knowledge from living scholars upon the same methodology

2. Advice on polygamy when some sisters make it difficult: love what Allāh loves, do not place jealousy ahead of the legislation of the Qurʾān and Sunnah, the example of the Prophet ﷺ with ʿĀʾishah and Sawdah, the husband's trust and responsibility, and guarding the tongue in the first difficult year

Broadcast LIVE on SunnahRadio on 24/10/20