Urging the Seizing of the Opportunity of the Month of Ramadan.

The Shaykh : I urge myself and you to seize the opportunity in this blessed month. It is the custom of many people to travel to Makkah to perform the lesser pilgrimage and to stay there as long as Allah wills. Some return, and some complete the month, and there is no blame in this. However, if a person goes to Makkah and neglects his obligatory duties, he is thereby sinful, sinful. Suppose he goes to Makkah and leaves his job; if he is a muezzin, he leaves the call to prayer, and if he is an imam, he leaves leading the prayer. Perhaps someone who the people of the mosque do not approve of, or whom the Endowments Administration does not approve of, or someone similar, takes his place. This person is like one who demolishes a city and builds a palace. He could, if he wishes to perform the lesser pilgrimage in Ramadan, go for three days and return, or if he is on a plane, in one day. Likewise, some people go to Makkah and stay there all the time, neglecting their families and children, neglecting their families and children. They act foolishly and wander in the markets day and night, and they neglect the obligatory, because some people in Ramadan stay up at night and sleep during the day, and they leave the prayer in congregation, which causes them to be neglected, and he is responsible for them. Thus, this man has performed a recommended practice and left an obligatory one, and no sane person can prefer the recommended over the obligatory. Worse than that is the one who takes his family to Makkah and leaves the young men and women to wander in Makkah, acting foolishly with those who act foolishly, without caring. You find him in the Haram, in the Sacred Mosque, perhaps in the first row, thinking he has gained much reward and abundant good, not realizing that the poor man is in great sin by neglecting his family. Therefore, it is obligatory for us, my brothers, that when we wish to perform an act of worship, we consult the doctors of worship. Who are the doctors of worship? The scholars. We consult the scholars: Is this good or not good? Is it evil or good? As for a person worshipping his Lord with his emotions, this is a great error. Allah Mighty and Majestic said: meaning: with the Qur'an in which they are reminded .