Dear Brothers and Sisters!

With the grace of Allah (swt), we evaluated Ramadan, the sultan of eleven months, with Ibadah despite some difficulties brought by the pandemic. We tamed our Nafs by fasting, approached Allah (swt) by performing tarawih prayers, blessed our goods by paying our zakat, opened ourselves to Allah (swt) with our duas, and we gave our way of life again by reading our book of life, the Quran. Praise be to Allah who made us successful in committing these righteous deeds. We must now continue these beauties, which we have earned in line with our identity as a believer, which continues every day of the year.

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

In Surah Al-Hajj, Allah (swt) says: “Allah chooses from the angels messengers and from the people. Indeed, Allah is Hearing and Seeing. He knows what is [presently] before them and what will be after them. And to Allah will be returned [all] matters. O you who have believed, bow and prostrate and worship your Lord and do good – that you may succeed.”[1] In this verse we read, we are invited to do good in any time period. Our Prophet (saw) addressed his ummah, whom we are honoured to be followers of regarding this issue, as follows: “O people! Do only those good deeds which you can do, for Allah does not get tired (of giving reward) till you get tired, and the best deeds to Allah are the incessant ones though they were few.”[2]

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

We worship our Lord, the Lord of infinite mercy, who will greatly reward our deeds. Allah (swt) says in Surah An-Nisa: “And as for those who believed and did righteous deeds, He will give them in full their rewards and grant them extra from His bounty.”[3]

That is to say, as long as we make a sincere and constant effort in the way of servitude, Allah (swt) has promised rewards for us; On the contrary, he will bestow more than his own generosity. However, in the continuation of the verse, Allah (swt) says: “But as for those who disdained and were arrogant, He will punish them with a painful punishment, and they will not find for themselves besides Allah any protector or helper.” We must strive to do justice to our duty of servitude, even after the month of Ramadan.

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

We say farewell to the month of Ramadan, but we should not say goodbye to the gains we have achieved in Ramadan. We must continue our five daily prayers without neglecting them. We should not lose our consciousness of holding ourselves against the harams we gain through fasting. After Ramadan, we should be vigilant against the danger of falling into haram and keep ourselves away from the environment of sin. We should not return to behaviours that Islam never approves, such as gossiping and speaking between people and investigating people’s shame, after Ramadan. We should not contaminate our spiritual purification and pure state that we reached with Ramadan. With the awareness that Allah’s mercy and forgiveness is above the congregation, we should never stay away from our mosques and congregation that we filled with tarawih and five daily prayers. We should continue our habit of reading the Qur’an after Ramadan, even if it is five pages a day. Because the Quran expects to be read and understood from us after Ramadan. In order to make our lives after Ramadan like Ramadan, we should continue to do our prayers, even if a little. Especially after the Fards, we should look for ways to approach Allah through voluntary worship. Let’s take our first step after Ramadan by fasting for six days in the current month of Shawwal. Rasulullah (saw) said: “Whoever fasts the month of Ramadan and then follows it with six days of fasting in the month of Shawwal, it will be as if he had fasted the year through.”^[4]

May Allah (swt) make us abiding servants. Ameen.

[1] Surah Al-Hajj, 22:75-77
[2] Buhârî, Libâs, 43, H.No: 5861; Meâlde Fethu’l-Bârî şerhi esas alınmıştır
[3] Surah An-Nisa, 4:173
[4] Muslim, Sahih, H.No: 1164

Khutba-Protecting Our Gains from Ramadan