Shaykh Dr. Yasir Qadhi | Q&A | Different types of Witr prayer, What is the best form of Sadaqa?

[Music] [Applause] in [Music] for each and every blessing that he has bestowed upon us we praise allah azzawajal for the blessings that we have recognized and can acknowledge and for the blessings that are hidden and we cannot even acknowledge them because they are hidden and we thank allah for having guided us to this beautiful faith and we would not have been guided had it not been for his guidance and we ask allah to protect us and all of our loved ones during this very difficult and trying uh times and to protect us and our loved ones from the plague and we ask allah that those that have passed on and how many many are they in the last few weeks and months those that have passed on we ask allah for their mulfira and their forgiveness and that their ranks are exalted and their graves are made of vast place and with that insha allah let us begin our q a for today uh so i'm going to begin on a spiritual question we have been uh concentrating on a lot in the field stuff which is only understandable but once in a while it's good to you know bring about some of the core values because we don't have to realize brothers and sisters that our religion is more than just laws and haram and halal and wajib it's more than this and no doubt there is the the the reality of laws and it's there it's important but there's always an inner core of spirituality as well so our first question today uh comes from brother one yahya from malaysia masha'allah and he says that we're supposed to have a pure heart and we're supposed to emulate the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam his question is the prophet alaihi wasallam his heart was cleansed and his heart was purified in a supernatural manner and allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala fortified it with iman so given that we are expected to have the qual saleem how can we possibly follow him when he has reached a level that we can never expect to reach now this is a very beautiful uh question and it is a question that uh uh you can sense insha'allah that our brother has a sincere love and he's worried that he's not gonna get to that status or that station because obviously our prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam is who he is and where are we in this regard and he mentions the issue of saleem and that's a very deep and profound topic and the topic of saleem i actually have given a number of khudbas and talks you can find it online but just to summarize that what our brother is referencing is that the prophet ibrahim alaihissalam he said in the quran that on the day of judgment on that day that yo malayan for um that neither wealth nor money will benefit anybody the prophet ibrahim alaihissalam made an exception and he said that except for the one who came in front of allah with the pure heart with a pure heart and allah mentions the prophet ibrahim alaihissalam and praises him when allah says now of course the term uh it is a reference to the spiritual heart it is not a reference to the physical pulsating heart this is a physical organ when the quran mentions when the prophet mentions there is a spiritual inner reality to our existence we will never understand it it's not something that is located in a particular place in time but it is located inside of us and the arabic word actually means technically it means that which is inside right it means that which is inside is that which is inside also by the way the term also indicates uh fluttering okay it indicates vacillation it indicates turning round and so our heart is called because number one it is inside of us right literally and spirit spiritually and number two because the keeps on changing right one day you have the highest level of courage the next day you're scared one day you have him and taka and strength the next day you just want to give up okay one day your iman is so strong the next day you know it's not like that you know one day you hate somebody the next day you will love that person so kalb is called because it constantly changes and that is why our prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam is firm upon your worship if our hearts change in love and hate and whatnot you know in this world and what not okay but it should not change when it comes to allah subhanahu wa it should be firm in the worship of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and of course the word salim it means it's from the same root as islam and it means the absence of evil right some have translated it as peace but in reality salim means the heart that has no evil in it and the salem it is called because number one it does not have the love of any god besides allah and number two it does not have any factors in it that prevents the person from worshiping allah subhanahu wa so the doubts that might exist in the heart of the munafir or following one's desires you know lustfully for example right this is not going to be kalibun saleem because there are people that believe in allah but they have impediments in the worship of allah he believes in allah and none but allah is a lord and then there are no impediments in the worship of allah and then point number three that there is no animosity and no hatred for anybody else in this world you have a pure heart is that to the best of your ability you do not have jealousy to any fellow believer you do not have any hatred you do not have any arrogance towards any other of allah subhana wa ta'ala and if you're able to master these three things then saleem has been reached and our brother is saying that our prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam he has reached a level of quality that we cannot reach and this is obvious nobody can possibly deny this and that is why he is our prophet salallahu in fact allah says in the quran that one of the reasons why he is so perfect and so chosen is that the quran has come to his albright the holy spirit or the trustworthy angel has come down with the quran upon your kalb so our dear brother in islam is is asking a legitimate question how can we possibly compare maya kalbanur to the kalb that the allah chose the quran to come down and be preserved in right in pure arabic allah has revealed the quran to the heart of the messenger and our brother is saying how can we compete with that and the response dear brother in islam the goal is not competition the goal is not to even get to that level because we know nobody can get to that level but the goal is that allah revealed that guiding light he revealed that nur he revealed that guidance and he revealed the messenger to be the perfect role model so that we have something to look up to we know we're not going to get to that exact same level and that's not the goal the goal is we keep that level or that macam and that height in our eyes and we keep that bar which is raised so high we keep it in our sights all the time and we try our best in every aspect of our life we try our best to come as close to the goal as possible with the realization we will never actually achieve it you see our prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam is called literally means a good role model a perfect role model allah did not reveal uh the quran to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam that all of us are going to be exactly like him allah revealed it to him so that all of us can attempt to emulate him so that we can take him and of course he was aided miraculously because he is the prophet of allah he is the chosen he is the muslim and what does muslim mean allah has chosen specific people allah has chosen isla means to take apart and to purify so allah has chosen certain prophets and certain families the family of ibrahim has been chosen and the family of imran has been chosen and specific people in that lineage allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has raised their ranks and purified them and therefore our prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam was indeed given a miracle and of the miracles he was given many miracles of the miracles he was given is that as a child his heart was opened up and his heart was cleansed miraculously and of course these reports are in uh the seerah books of ibn hisham in and the quran references it as well is referencing here that the prophet saws heart was purified in zamzam with zamzam water in a canister of gold purified and any evil that was in it it was taken out and of course we actually this was done twice this this uh spiritual operation it was done twice firstly when he was a child and then secondly on the night of israel he was fortified once again and of course this is something we expect that allah will honor our prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and fortify his iman and give him saleem and even in the hadith of buhari as well that our prophet salallahu mentioned that every one of us has an evil shaitan that's trying to misguide us and that shaitaan has been with us since we were born and aisha said that o messenger of allah even you and he said yes even me but allah has helped me that my kareem has converted to islam and he only commands good things right this is a divine thing of course you know we expect our prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam to be blessed in this regard so my dear brother in islam i sense your love for our prophet sasam i sense your fear at being you know uh distant from him but i can only assure you uh with the assurance that our prophet sasam gave to a man that came to him and said o messenger of allah i don't have you know that much you know sadaqah and i don't have that much you know salah and sam but i have a love for allah azzawajal and his messenger my heart has love for allah and his messenger and our prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said you shall be with those whom you love you shall be with those whom you love so the goal is not to uh to rea to ever try to achieve that exact level the goal is to keep on striving and innama allah will see your effort and your dedication this is the beauty of our faith dear brother in islam listen to this carefully every single boss or friend or life partner or colleague or human being will judge you by the final product nobody judges by the efforts you put in you know as a professor nobody cares as a professor your professor doesn't care how many hours you studied he wants to see the result on the exam if it so happened you didn't study at all and you just happened to know the answers and you aced it and there are others that study the whole semester and for whatever reason the the question was difficult and they weren't able to answer that you're not rewarded by effort in this world but in the eyes of allah you are rewarded by effort you're rewarded by dedication by sincerity therefore dear brother in islam put in the effort be sincere do each and every good deed and in particular in particular of the deeds that you should do to be with the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam i will mention two things that are explicitly mentioned in the sunnah of the prophet sassoon to be in the company of the prophet salallahu number one one of the servants of our prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam uh our process asked what do you want in you know for me to give you and the servant was smart he didn't say any money any horse he said i want to be with you in jannah o messenger of allah and so the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam said help me to help you in this cause by lots of sajdas so our dear brother wants to be close to our prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and the way to do that is number one extra sajdus lots of nafil salah make sure you're praying the regular the hajju prayers your sunnah make sure that that is done and number two our prophet explicitly said in the hadith that the closest of you to me in my manzil the closest you're not going to get to that manzil but the closest to you are who has the best of you in manners so monitor your manners control your anger good speak good words do not get angry at people don't be sarcastic and putting people down give better than what people expect and expect from others less than what is due unto you and always be the better of the two in any situation these are the two things and there are more but of course time is limited you're asking about trying to achieve you know as close proximity as possible that will be done by lots of sajdas and by good luck and so to respond to your question dear brother in islam aim and strive and put in the effort and realize the goal is not to with your actions get to that level that will never happen the goal is that allah will see your sincerity allah will see your efforts and allah will reward you to be in the company of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam we ask allah azzawajal that he blesses us to be in the company of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam on the day of judgement and in jannatul our next uh question is from brother arushad our next question is from brother architect and he asks that he has noticed that people pray witter in different manners and he is now confused he says that he is coming from a particular background now he has come to this country and in taraweeh and in other situations he has seen people are praying witted in different manners so he's asking you know what is to be done in this regard the response my dear brother in islam is that the witad is one of those prayers in which pretty much all of them have you know slightly different answers and so whichever method that you uh were upon you may choose that method and follow it no problem it is a very very uh you know trivial matter whichever of the positions you follow uh inshallah they're all telling you to pray with you and they're all wanting you to to do the prayer the differences are in the the minor or the minutia if you like and the the witted prayer is of course called witter because the term witter means odd and the witted prayer is an odd prayer it's always an odd number of so three raka is the default position of most of the madhhab and it is the hanafi medha specifies three in particular and it's an odd number and uh our prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam strongly commanded the people or strongly suggested depending on how you would interpret it the people to pray with her in the famous hadith in bukhari and muslim abu huraira radhi allahu and said that my friend meaning the prophet sallallahu alaihi commanded me with three things he strongly was means to put it very strongly three things number one to fast three days of every month number two to pray to uh at salat which is basically between uh fajr after an hour after fajr until and number three and to pray with it before i go to sleep so uh the prophet saws wanted abu hurairah to reach a high level and he's putting on abu hurairah certain uh you know extra things that he should do and so fasting three days of every month praying salat also called the ishraq prayer which is as we said the early sunnah prayer after the sun rises until salat and the number three to pray with before i go to sleep meaning that in case you are not waking up for tahajjud you pray with it before you go to sleep and uh it is reported in abu dhabi that ali said that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said o people of the quran pray witar because allah azzawajal himself is witter meaning one and he loves the witter meaning the witter prayer and he loves witter so this hadith saying o people of the quran some have said that o people of the quran means o muslims because we all believe in the quran and others have said that the prophet sasham is especially saying to those who have memorized the quran that those who have memorized the quran in particular they should not spend the whole night asleep they should pray with prayer and pray some extra prayers above and beyond the five prayers and in another hadith reported in muslim on the day of jummah in public and he said that the prophet sallallahu alaihi was seldom told us so he's giving the khudba and in the khudbah he's telling all of the people there what he heard from the prophet salallahu sallam that allah has added a prayer for all of you to pray and it is the prayer of witter and so pray the witter between salat and isha until salatu al-fajr this is a hadith reported in muslim muhammad allah has added a prayer for you so pray it between isha and fajr now these hadith all mention some of the blessings of witter and their other hadith as well and based on these a hadith and also based upon the hanafi school's categorization of actions pause your footnote i mentioned in another q a many many you know many many months ago i think almost a year and a half ago that the hanafis they have uh seven categorizations of all actions and uh the other madab have five categorizations so the hanafi's take uh the fart and the wajib and they make it two different things and they take you know makru and they say uh makru tanzimi and harimi and so what they have basically is two categories of obligatory and two categories of sin whereas the rest of the schools have one category of obligatory and one category of sin and therefore based on that so they say fardhan wajib is the same whereas for the hanafi's father is higher than the wajib and the same goes for the other side of the spectrum so the hanafi say the five salawat are fard and the witter is wajib meaning if you do not pray witar you are sinful in the eyes of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala because they have that category that wa'jib is something that it is obligatory to do but let's just be simplistic not to the level of the uh the other three schools they don't have that distinction and they simply have strongly encouraged and obligatory and based on this categorization winter cannot come under obligatory and so the other three schools basically have it at the very very highest level of strongly encouraged in other words right underneath obligatory they would have salat okay so that if you don't pray with it according to the other three schools you know allah is not going to you know punish you in jahannam for not praying with it but you're really falling short and it's the most important of all of the sunnah prayers all of the non wajay prayers the three madhav say it is the strongest level so this is in terms of its its its nature is it obligatory or is it not and each of the school has its you know um evidences to do so and in the end of the day you know i think any as imam ahmed another said that you know how can a muslim not pray with it you know i mean he he considered the one who doesn't pray with her as somebody whose testimony should not be accepted in a court of law for example like he is such a according to him that that paradigm like how can he be trusted if he's going to be so lazy as to not even pray with her you know in the end of the night and so let's not really get involved whether it's obligatory or not let's just try to pray with it because it is definitely uh something that the processor strongly strongly strongly encouraged us to pray and his own actions he never ever stopped praying with him even when he was traveling he would pray with her when he was traveling he would not pray the other regular you know sunan of the lahore and maghreb and after isha but he would pray witar and he would pray the two raka's before fajr these are the two that he would pray when he is traveling so let us make sure that we pray our witter now that's the first issue the second issue what is the timing of whiter here we have basically no controversy at all amongst the scholars that the timing of with it is any time after you pray uh salati isha until the crack before the time of fajr basically right until the uh the dawn basically breaks okay not the sun rise but the dawn breaking i.e that line that comes and signifies uh the the time of fajr so witar is from after isha whenever you pray isha after that until the timing of fajr it can be prayed at any time and our prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said in a famous hadith inside muslim and others that whoever is worried that he's not going to pray with her at the end of the night then let him pray with it in the beginning of the night and whoever thinks that he can pray at the end let him pray at the end of the night because the prayer at the end of the night is going to be witnessed by the angels and that is more blessed and hadith so this hadith tells us then that the ideal timing for winter is pre fajr and this leads us to our next point and that is that the concept of witter is linked to but not necessarily attached to the concept of tahajud okay so witter could imply all of tahajjud and you can call all of tahajjud witter because in the end of the day you will pray an odd number of rakat so you will pray 8 you know plus 3 that is 11. that's like all of your tahajud therefore sometimes when the term witad is used in the hadith it implies all of the tahajjud and the three rakats at the end and sometimes it only applies to that very last you know three uh raka and so for example in the hadith which is in which he said that my friend advised me to pray witar before i go to sleep what he means here is and what he means here is that you know so let's give an example that suppose that isha is at 8 30 p.m and you go to sleep at 11 p.m and for whatever reason you know you're not you don't wait wake up for tahaj you wake up so what is saying is that i will pray ish at 8 30 you know then whatever needs to be done then before 11 o'clock before going to sleep i will pray the whole tahajud and then go to sleep okay so abu hurairah because he was busy with hadith because he was you know for a period of his life he was very you know engrossed in memorizing what not so he would pray tahajjud before going to sleep and that is a permissible time for tahajud and he called witar tahajud now most of us when we use the term witter what we mean by it is the specific you know three rakaat only and that's fine nothing wrong with that terminology but most of us want to use the term within that is what we mean now the hanafi's as we said they said that the three with the prayer is going to be just like salah that you will pray three raka'at you will sit down in the second rakah you will say the tashahud and then you will stand up and then you will sit down in the third rakah and you will then have one tesleem at the end okay so for the hanafi uh madhhab maghrib and witter resemble one another as well the hanafis are the strictest out of all of the schools when it comes to kurut a lot of the hanafi brethren are not aware of this that the other three madahib do not have the qunut as such a necessary part of witter some of them say it is allowed or must but and in practice as we're going to come to basically none of the other madahis in practice i.e the followers of those madahib generally speaking they don't do kunut in witter but the hanafi's as we're all aware those that are from hanafi background the hanafi's associate witar and for the other schools is a separate dua and it is not necessarily linked with witter to the level of the hanafis the hambulis and the shafiris they allow the witter sorry they allow the root in the witter as i said uh the shah fairies and the hambalis they allow and in fact the hambali say it is encouraged even but they do not make it something that is basically an integral part and in practice most of the followers of the shafiri school and most of the followers of the hambali school in practice they do not do uh witad because the the method is not you know that strict upon it it is something allowed if you want to do it go ahead and do it um and the the hanafi school is the strictest when it comes to the dua of the witter and there's a special dua they call it as we know and it is done before the last uh roku now other math hubs are there's also reports within the hamburglar method as well they say that the witter should only have the kunut in the very last days of ramadan and this is a report also from the maliki method as well that the the prayer the dua should be associated with the witter only in the month of ramadan and some even add in the last half of ramadan like the last 10 nights of ramadan so these are all positions about the vis-a-vis the witter all of them are you know narrated and permissible as well there is quite a lot of you know difference of opinion about the procedure of praying with it i said that the hanafi's pray three raka'ah continuously with one teslim the maliki school uh they said that it is better to pray to rakaa then you make it a slim then you stand up and pray one raka'ah on its own okay so for the maliki school they break the three rakah into two halves and they base this on a hadith that she said that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam when in my room in my hijra in my chambers or compartment and i was in the house at that time and he would separate between the two raka'ah and the witter and i would hear that the slim between the two of them so they use that uh narration over there and the other uh evidence that they have is a hadith reported in the muslim that our prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam is reported to have said that do not perform the witter with three raka'ah or else it will look like okay so this hadith has been interpreted by the other schools to basically say that and especially the maliki school to say that the two raka's should be separated with the taslim and then you stand up and you pray one the maliki school did not associate with witter for them witar is simply the odd number and they also allowed even though they didn't encourage they allowed one raka if you're going to be you know not want to pray the torah and just pray one raka it will still be witter uh the shah for a school they said that the three raka'ah is the minimum of perfection and you can pray more so the shaffer he said with it is five and seven and 9 no problem and they said yeah if you really want to will allow you to pray one but that's like in macro you really shouldn't pray only one three is the minimum of perfection and it's even better to pray more than that because again for them the concept of witar and tahajjud is kind of combined up and so when you're praying like witar it is kinda sort of a tahajjud you might as well make it you know five or seven or uh nine and for the shafiris they said that you pray all three all three continuously without sitting down in the second rakah this is the preferred position and some said you pray two raka and then you do this and then you do one rakah so the shaffray methab did not want to resemble the maghrib prayer based on the hadith that they have and so they wanted to go a different route and they said you either pray three continuously without sitting down in the second number one number two you get back up and then number three then you make the uh to slim and of course uh both the shafiris and the hambadis they also said that it is preferred to recite surah allah in the first raka and then surat al-kafirun uh in the uh last in the last and the second raka and then uh and now sorry nas in the third raka also the shaffer is worth the medhab that said should only be done in the last part of ramadan during witter and not throughout the year in fact the shaffer school has dual in fajr salah by the way and that's why all of the the arab brothers from jordan and from egypt and whatnot they're aware of this that the shaffer school prays in fajr and the halafi school in india pakistan bangladesh the onut is done in witter and in the hambury school in practice in theory it is also in with it is encouraged but in practice they really don't do kunut except at times of you know calamities when they will uh do that so this is the shaffer school uh the hambari school they said that it should also be done in three and to do less than three is allowed but it is not something that should be encouraged you can pray one but it is makru yet it is also accepted and they also encourage to pray two uh plus one uh and they also allowed the uh the the hanafi way of doing it as well so the the hambury method as usual has plenty of uh positions about this and they said that uh is encouraged to do but as i said in practice they did not actually do the dua also by the way for most of the hamburies the quran is done after the record whereas for the hanafi's the quran is done before the record okay all of this was a quick you know kaleidoscope to explain to you that all of these positions have been narrated in the end of the day dear brother in islam don't worry about the other schools you have heard your particular school most likely i'm assuming you're from the hanafi background no problem then you've prayed the hanifi procedure these are things that very trivial issues whether you pray to and then to sleep and then one or you pray through three why do you do it uh before the after or you don't do it at all if you're maliki and shafiri no problem whatever is done these are all trivial things the main point is that we pray salat and that insha allah we strive to follow the sunnah of the prophecies in this regard because we know that witar is one of the most encouraging of all of the sunnah prayers our next question our next question we have brother ibrahim from myanmar masha'allah is very happy to receive this email i did not know we have viewers watching from myanmar which is the technically correct term for for burma we ask allah to facilitate and make it easy for all of our muslim brothers and sisters in burma and myanmar as we know they're going through a lot of issues brother ibrahim emails a very very beautiful question and it was so moving i thought i would just read um all of it that all of these questions are related to charity brother ibrahim says that when we give sadaqah must we verbalize the intention and there are many types of sadaqah there's fidya there's kaffara there's salah there's sadaqa there's zakah which of them is the most beneficial and he says when i give is money better or food better or how about helping somebody out and he also asks what are the additional steps we can take to derive the most benefit out of charity and then he asks the final question is that when we give charity what should our intentions be can we intend that we want something of this world as well from allah or must we intend only for the next uh and it would be problematic to give something for this world as well i.e what he means by this is that what if i give charity and i want to uh you know protect myself from evil what if i give charity and i want to cure a sick one what if i give a charity and i want more wealth is that going to harm the purity of the intention so all of these questions uh mashallah deal with the reality of charity and uh how to maximize this uh the impact of charity and uh i want to just point out that mashallah our brother ibrahim is really thinking deeply about this issue and you can tell he's like deconstructing every single aspect he wants to and he's eager to gain the maximum reward and for me inshallah this demonstrates insha'allah good heart and it demonstrates that indeed our brother is upon uh you know the right path to get the maximum reward from allah now in terms of the specific questions he's asking so he says that must we verbalize the intention and the response is that the verbalization of intentions uh it is something that generally speaking uh the sunnah has not come with the only time that the sunnah has come with verbalizing the intentions is when we go for hajj when we go for hajj we say bake allah humble bake out loud and we make dua to allah that oh allah make this hajj or umrah both of them are the same in terms of verbalizing make this a hajj or umrah in which there is no showing off in which we are doing this for your sake and we we say that oh allah i am intending to do hajj o allah this is an umrah for your sake o allah this is otherwise for every other deed that we do the sharia has not come with verbalizing the intentions and therefore it is best to avoid doing this there is no need to verbalize allah knows what is in your heart right allah is the one who is shahadah and so i know some of our scholars and some of them have they want you to verbalize and they think that by verbalizing you are purifying your intentions and you're focused on what you're trying to do i understand that philosophy so they say when you stand up to pray say oh allah this is you know that sunnah that's for your sake oh allah this is for raqqa you know so you are focusing on the intention i understand where they're coming from but of course the the flip side is that you don't need to verbalize to focus on the intention allah knows your intention you are standing up to pray or whatever it might be so there is no need to verbalize the intention for any deed allah knows your intention yes you must have the intention but there's no need to verbalize it our brother then says that there's so many different types of words mentioned in the quran and in reality uh you know fidia and kaffara and others these are technical terms that you only need to do when you have done a particular you know penalty so fidya for example uh that uh if you are in the state of iran and you break one of the rulings of bahrain you pay the fidya so the phidia for example it's not done any day of the week it's done as a penalty the same goes for kaffara that kaffara is only done to make up a penalty for example if you make a question to allah and then for whatever reason you have to break the qasam then you will pay a kafara so fidya and kaffara are both technical charities technical sadaqas that you only have to give if you have done something that that necessitates it otherwise these are terms that the average person every day does not need to do uh the term our brother says also sadaqa and in the in this case the term sadhaka and zika this is one of those terms that really confuses a lot of people let me put it to you this way very simplistically sodaka and zeka imagine you have two venn diagrams okay so what you have is that there is an overlap between these two venn diagrams and there is an area where sadaqa and zakah are the same and then there is an area where zakat is separate and sadaqa is separate okay so two venn diagrams and they're overlapping and in the middle sometimes when you use the term sadaqa you mean zakah and when you use zakat you mean sataka and there are other times when the term zakat takes on another meaning and sadaqa takes on a unique meaning so what does all of this mean the quran the quran uses the term zakat and sadaka to imply charity for the sake of allah eight categories of people and allah says those that are constantly giving you know zakat in both of these verses allah azzawajal is using terms zakat and sadaka and in reality each one of them is applying implying the opposite that most people understand from these terms and they get confused because when you read the book suffic they will say zakat is the obligatory 2.5 percent and sadhaka is the voluntary and this is correct sometimes sometimes the quran uses the term zakat and it means sadaqah like for example they're constantly giving charity any type of charity and in surah allah says allah says that sadaqa is for eight categories and he means zakat is for eight categories okay so bottom line the term zakat can mean technically that which is obligatory but it can also mean all types of charity and the term sadaqa technically can mean that which is not obligatory but it can also mean that which is obligatory okay how do you know all of this how do you know by context you go to the scholars you go to the books of tafsir and then you see you know when is zakat and when islam being used under which term and in reality the context is very very clear nobody gets confused in terms of the the language of the quran and sunnah so just keep this point in mind our brother is asking what is the different types so now you understand fidya and kaffara are technical types of charity that you must give as a penalty to make up something that you have done and sadaqa and zakah as i explained that there are technical definitions and then there's linguistic and technically zakat is the obligatory amount you have to give once a year to 2.5 percent uh on the amount that you have above the nissan and sadaqah is anything that is you know above that amount and yet the quran uses both of these two terms for each other our brother also says what form of charity is the most beneficial and then he gives examples giving money or giving food or helping others out and the response is that the most beneficial form of charity is that which is going to help the person the most overall the most beneficial charity is that which will benefit the person in front of you the most so for some people giving food is the best charity for others giving money is the best charity for others giving of your time of your effort of your you know somebody needs a ride someone is your your car and you say i'll take you no problem okay for some people smiling our prophet said smiling is charity time is charity as he said in one hadith pouring your bucket of water into your neighbor's bucket is an act of charity so there is no one charity that is everything is underneath it no the charity that is the most beloved to allah is the charity that is the most beneficial and this varies from circumstance to circumstance and the sunna of our prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and the actions of the righteous before us were to diversify one's charity and this is something that unfortunately not many of us think about when we think of charity we think of writing a check and that is it and in reality that is but one form of charity there is charity that is beyond this charity of your effort physically doing something for somebody else right literally standing up and going somewhere and helping somebody out there's charity of your physical strength there's charity of your status can you believe so if you are a person you know of fame of respect and you know you have connections and somebody needs halal help no problem it's nothing you know you're not doing a bribe or something help our prophet encourage this the quran encourages it whoever does a good shaft and a good shaft means you use your connection of something that is legit we're not talking about using them for illegitimate for a good connection somebody needs a job and you know you know this brother is qualified and you know the ceo of the company okay and you call them and say you know i know this brother he is a trustworthy brother right and i know him and i encourage you to to look at his resume this is a shafa'a this can be charity and subhanallah if you help this brother you know get on his feet and get a headal job and he helps his parents and he gets married this is the best you can he doesn't want your check this brother he wants that connection that you might have that he does not have right so my point being that there are different types of charity and so you need to look at what is going to be the maximum benefit and then do that and also realize as well that yes it is true that certain types of charities um you know there are certain hadith about them and so try to diversify don't just do one thing for example our prophet salallahu alaihi hussain in particular he encouraged the helping of the orphans right and in particular he said that when a man came to him and said oh messenger of allah my heart becomes hard so our prophet salallahu said go and feed a hungry person and wipe the hair of or the head of the orphan means how do the orphan love is charity dear brothers and sisters love so loving an orphan okay showing that orphan you know the orphan doesn't have a father figure and you become a part of that person's life and you are there so look at what he said give food to the hungry and wipe the head of that child imsahra saliyatim why because that yateem what he's missing the most is the love of a father and so if you step in and you take on a fatherly figure that is charity you're spending your time and your love and you're showing your dedication so diversify your just like you know the the income you know analysts the uh the wealth generators they tell us to diversify our investments right invest in this stock and invest in mutual funds and invest in real estate and invest in this and that they say don't put all your eggs in one basket so we as well when we invest for the sake of allah we don't want to invest in only one we diversify because we do not know which dua of which brother will be the most beneficial for us we want to do as much as possible and we build for example one of the best charities is to build water wells right this is something that was very common in the muslim ummah throughout our history one of the most significant charities that was always done is to have a public water source because everybody will benefit and they will thank you for it just have a you know in those days they didn't have running water so people would have a well they would dig it and then they would just leave it there and say waf anybody can drink from it so much so our prophet system even said that if a bird or an animal drinks from that water you will get the reward for it so these are things that we should think about uh diversifying our charity making the maximum amount of benefit and also for the longest time so you're saying which charity is the best i said that which is the maximum benefit and also that which goes beyond one instance in time so the longest impact to the greatest amount of people that's what you should be thinking about and so having a charity that is perpetual it's called a walk is better than a one-off charity and a simple example is as i explained building a well or constructing something that people can benefit from for longer generations for multiple times and that's going to be considered a a charity uh so that was the question about uh which form of charity is the most beneficial now our brother says as well that what can we do to derive the most benefit from our charity and subhanallah that's a very deep question and i must say that you know i don't recall anybody's asking that question to me any time before and masha'allah this is a brother from myanmar emailing masha'allah and he is saying that okay we're giving that money or whatever but i want to have you know as we're saying here in america the most bang for my buck i want to have the best barakah in my charity and i say to this brother you know you've already you've already begun that journey by this question the very fact that you are asking from the depths of your heart and you want the charity that you give to have the maximum impact in sha allah that is the beginning because innama rubiniyat that actions are judged by intentions don't look at the quantity of what you're giving look at the quality of when you give it and we have over here the beautiful example in sahih bukhari of the lady of ill repute right of a lady who whose lifestyle was to seduce other men for the sake of money and that lady we don't know her circumstance but it is clear that you know she had very difficult circumstances and so she was doing what she was doing this is not to justify but it is clear that allah forgave her for something which indicates that she has a positive side as well what did allah forgive her for we all know the hadith she was charitable to a thirsty dog in the summer day she was thirsty herself and she's looking for water and she sees a well and the daughter the the the dog is outside of the well panting because it doesn't have access to the water and so she goes into the well she drinks herself and then she takes her shoe and she gives some water to that dog and the dog is also a creature like we are creatures and the dog needs water like we need water and she had in her heart ikhlas that only allah knows subhanallah look this was a lady of bad character who is feeding water to the dog don't look at the charity don't look at the quantity don't look at the one doing don't look at the one whom it is done to a lady of ill-repute doing this water giving this water to the dog don't look only at one thing the quality of the heart subhanallah all of these factors of the story became irrelevant and what mattered was the quality of what she was doing in her heart and allah forgave her her whole life since because of that one act of charity so you have already begun this step when you ask how can i maximize it by your intentions number one number two another thing that maximizes it is to be consistent in your charities to be consistent allah says in the quran talking about the people of talking about the highest level of jannah those that are constantly giving charity okay so do not just give one off every few months try your best to do small acts of charity continuously throughout the year if not daily and remember charity doesn't have to be money it can be good attitude smiling face it can be a good word it can be helping hand so consistency in doing small actions our prophet salallahu said the most beloved of all deeds to allah is that which is consistent even if it is small so that's the second way to increase the maximum benefit of charity is to keep on being charitable as a lifestyle constantly and whoever is charitable by heart will find ways to show that charity in the daily life and then the third thing that we can say about maximizing the benefit of charity is to give charity in secret to give charity in secret our prophet salallahu talked about the seven people who will be sheltered on the day of judgment and one of them is a man who gives so secretly that his left hand does not even know what his right hand is giving and the meaning here don't advertise your charity it's not wrong to tell other people but try your best to have a lot of secret charities not even your spouse not even your parents quietly give in fact try to give so that the one you're giving charity to does not even know who you are go to that level so these are the three things that i advise you if you want to maximize your charity first and foremost your class in your heart secondly consistency and thirdly secrecy and the final question that you had is is it okay to intend something of this world or will that diminish the reward and the response is that it will not diminish the reward if you give charity in order to gain gain something from allah in this world it's not going to diminish the reward why is that because the very fact that you are linking a good to allah and you are saying that oh allah i'm giving you know this money oh allah asked that you protect me oh allah i'm giving this charity allah cure my son or while i'm giving this charity give me more in this world and the next world as long as you are linking it to allah it is not going to diminish because dear brother in islam you have to realize one thing you are not dealing with a created entity that is going to be stingy and miserly you are dealing with the khalik with the rabb with the rabbul you are dealing with the kareem allah is al-karim and allah is al-mannan and allah and allah gives and gives and gives and allah does not count so do not presume that there is any stinginess there is no stinginess allah is not stingy allah is the most generous and allah loves generosity so when you give expect the rewards of this world and expect the rewards of the next how do we know this because dear brother in islam our prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam literally linked charity with so many blessings of this world we can go on and on there's many lectures about this and every fundraiser that we attend here in the western world we know these you know from from from the uh from our memory when we know them right our prophet saw said give charity to cure your own sick relatives so if your child is sick we are encouraged to give charity for your child our prophet salallahu said that you know when we uh give charity you know we will get back more this is in the quran even right we will get back more in this world you know before the next world our prophet sasam swore by allah that when we give charity our money will not decrease it will rather increase so why did he link all of these worldly blessings with charity he never once said by the way he never once said you know if you want you'll get your reward in the in the hereafter and if you want your son will be cured because of charity he didn't make the either or he explicitly linked the giving of charity with blessings of this world as does the quran by the way right allah azzawajal says in the quran that allah blesses sadaqah allah azzawajal mentions in the quran who will give unto me a beautiful loan and i shall return it multiple failure allah will give it back much much much more why is allah telling you that he's going to give it back much more because see here's the point dear brother in islam how can it be evil or negative to want this world from allah when you give charity for the sake of allah because you are demonstrating your iman in allah when you say that oh allah here is my wealth to that poor person oh allah give me back more wealth you are demonstrating you believe in the promise of allah in fact and let me finish off with this point i know time is almost up here the term sadaqa in the quran it literally means the proof of your belief that's literally the meaning of sadaqah so we all know that from means to believe sadaqa allah has spoken the truth and the term sadaqa with the tamar buddha which implies the charity that we give the term sadaqa comes from that same root to believe why is the term for giving our wealth linked for the same term to believe here's the point when you give money expecting allah to give you back more and to help you in this world and to protect you and to lift his anger from you and to bless your wealth and to cure your sick you are showing allah through your money that oh allah i believe in your promise i believe i don't have any proof i don't i cannot see it but i believe when i give a thousand dollars i will get back much more in this world and the next world and so literally as we say in english you know put your money where your mouth is we say this that's what sadaqah does you put your money where your iman is how can it be evil how could it be negative how can it be diminishing of your reward when you are telling allah through your actions that oh allah everything that you mentioned about charity i believe in it and here's my money so there is nothing wrong in fact this is the essence of islam and iman in fact this is why we have been encouraged motivated incentivized to give charity for the blessings of this world because in order to get those blessings we have to believe in allah therefore dear brother in islam give and give charity and keep on giving and give for the sake of allah and give sincerely and give continuously and give secretly and give all types of charity and expect allah to bless you with every blessing of this world and every blessing of the next world and with that inshallah we come to the conclusion of today's q a i'll see you next week until then jazakum allah [Music] is [Music] foreign

Channel: EPIC MASJID

Views: 19,525

Rating: 4.9248824 out of 5

Keywords: East Plano Islamic Center, EPIC Masjid, East Plano Masjid, EPIC, Yasir Qadhi, Imam, Nadim Bashir, Ustadh, Baajour, Hafiz, Sajjad Gul, Allah, Quran, Islam

Id: -SOWNDMAoeI

Length: 60min 53sec (3653 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 26 2021