Twenty-Sixth Ramadan Lecture Presented by Al-Sayyid Abdul Malik Badruddin Al-Houthi, 1443 A. H.
The Need to Benefit from the Blessing of Rain and Pay Attention to Agriculture
I seek refuge in Allah from Shaytan, the outcast.
In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful.
Praise is to Allah, Lord of the Worlds. I believe that there is no god but Allah, the Sovereign and the Manifest Truth, and that Muhammad, our master, is His servant, Messenger, and Last Prophet.
O Allah, confer Your salat and blessings upon Muhammad and the Family of Muhammad as You conferred Your salat and blessings upon Ibrahim and the Family of Ibrahim. You are Owner of Praise, Owner of Glory! And be pleased with Muhammad's good companions and all Your righteous servants and mujahidin.
Brothers and sisters, peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.
O Allah, guide us and grant us acceptance, for You are the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing; accept our repentance, for You are the Relenting and the Merciful.
Allah (Glory be to Him) says in His Holy Book, the Wise Dhikr , {‘And it is He who sends down the rain after they had despaired and spreads His mercy. And He is the Wali , the Praiseworthy’}. Thanks to the bounty of Allah, His mercy, and His generosity, He has sent down rain: It has rained in many various governorates after horrible drought that caused great suffering, especially to rural areas. People suffered a lot in securing drinking water. At the agricultural level, the suffering was great, as trees dried out in some areas. People also faced great suffering to graze cattle, leading this kind of activity to decline to the extent that some cattle have died in some rural areas and some places.
The drought has badly affected the life of people and their livelihood and caused great suffering. Then, Allah (the Merciful, the Generous, and the One of great, extensive bounty) sent down the blessing of rain. This is mercy and great blessing provided by Him (the Almighty). In response to this divine blessing, we are supposed to turn to Allah (Glory be to Him) in gratitude and to turn to Him more often so that we ask Him more of His bounty, to ask Him for forgiveness, to seek to obtain the reasons of His pleasure and stick to them, and to get closer to Him (the Almighty).
The remaining nights of the blessed month of Ramadan are blessed nights. It is also important to devote more time during these nights to Allah in order to ask Him for forgiveness, to turn to Him in sincere repentance, to devote and dedicate oneself to keeping to His way, and to seek the righteousness of souls, deeds, and positions, both what is apparent and what is hidden in our hearts. This is what we should do when we turn to Allah (Glory be to Him).
Allah (Glory be to Him) is the most Merciful and the most Generous. He wants what is good for His servants. He, the Almighty, is the One Who says, {‘Had the people of the towns believed and feared Allah, We would have opened for them blessings from the heaven and the earth’}. The mercy of Allah comes as we experience difficult circumstances and huge suffering, so it, to a great extent, changes the reality of our life at the psychological level, living level, and the level of general reality. Therefore, Allah (Glory be to Him) says:
{It is Allah who sends the winds, and they stir the clouds and spread them in the sky however He wills, and He makes them fragments so you see the rain emerge from within them. And when He causes it to fall upon whom He wills of His servants, immediately they rejoice. That is although they were, before it was sent down upon them, in despair. So observe the effects of the mercy of Allah: How He gives life to the earth after its lifelessness.}
The state that Allah described in the blessed verse that says, {‘That is although they were, before it was sent down upon them, in despair,’} is a state that is experienced by many people when they fall into great despair and confusion and do not know what to do for themselves. They find themselves in horrible suffering and desperate need because of the dire need of water. Water plays an important and essential role in people's life. It is the heart of life because people need it for them to drink, for their cattle to drink, for agriculture (which plays a key role in people's life), for urbanization, for economy, and for all life aspects: commercial, economic, urban, and agricultural aspects. All of that depends on water, and it is of the most important proofs that reveal how desperately we need Allah (Glory be to Him) and how desperate we are without Him. That is because no one can grant us rain and send it down except Allah (Glory be to Him) with His mercy, grace, and bounty. This reminds us of the fact that we need Allah and His mercy. It also reminds us of the crime we commit against ourselves when we commit bad deeds or neglect some due responsibilities, which harms us and causes us to lose in our life.
Istiqama and gratitude are a must for increasing and
preserving blessings
Faith, Taqwa, turning to Allah (Glory be to Him) in repentance, and returning to Him are reasons for His mercy, bounty, and grace. Indeed, Allah (Glory be to Him), even in states of draught and hardship, reminds us of that to encourage us to supplicate Him, return to Him, change course for the better, and hold firm to His guidance in this life. Hence, we have to invest these remaining days and nights of the blessed month of Ramadan in turning more often to Allah so that He bestows more of His bounty upon us and grants us of His wide bounty and mercy. We are in need of His mercy in this worldly life and in the Hereafter. We should ask Him to send down more rain and great bounty upon us, to help us in all our life affairs and primary needs, to guide us, and to grant us success.
Of what we should ask and beg most from Him (the Almighty) is forgiveness. We should seek forgiveness from Him and ask Him for forgiveness. Also, we should repent to Him a lot, and when repenting, we should be determined to keep to Istiqama and to get rid of grievances. These are very important matters.
In the context of showing gratitude for blessings, which is of the most important matters that help blessings to be preserved and increased, Allah (Glory be to Him) has provided a firm promise in His Holy Book when He (the Almighty) says, {‘If you are grateful, I will certainly give you more’}. Being grateful is a reason for preserving and increasing blessings. Before anything else, thanking Allah makes us appreciate blessing, feel grateful to Allah for His blessings upon us, feel and acknowledge how great the bounty and grace He bestows upon us is, and become thankful to Him for all of that. It also makes us seek to deal with His blessings properly and keep away from using them in what is disobedience. This is the least of what we should do in return for the great blessings Allah (Glory be to Him) has bestowed upon us. Imam Ali, the Commander of the Believers, (PBUH) said that we should not use Allah's blessings in what is disobedience or displeases Him.
One of the most important things that should be taken care of is paying due alms. When the blessing of rain comes, agriculture flourishes again. The various crops represent a main source of income to many people; however, after Allah increases the sustenance of many people and sends down the blessing of rain, some people withhold Zakat and evade spending for the sake of what represents goodness and righteousness, notably Zakat. It is a habit for so many farmers to pay only some of their Zakat and eat the other part. In doing so, the person meets the blessing with ingratitude and offends Allah. This act is a grave transgression and a violation of one of the pillars of Islam. The Muslim should not—and it is not appropriate for him/her as well—meet Allah's blessing with ingratitude, especially when taking into consideration that s/he is in need of Allah. This act, at the same time, indicates stupidity because paying Zakat maintains and preserves blessings and results into obtaining more blessings, goodness, and Allah's great bounty. When we withhold in singiness from paying the required alms, we withhold against ourselves. Indeed, we harm and destroy ourselves. So it is an act of disobedience and stupidity and leads to loss. Being stingy and unwilling to pay due alms is a loss, whereas paying due alms is not a loss, for it protects money and brings more blessings and bounty.
Thankfulness is a way to retain Allah's blessings. When we thank and praise Allah and feel grateful to Him, we remember how we suffered, how we have benefited from His blessings, and how these blessings have reflected on our lives: At the spiritual level, we feel happy and comfortable; and at the living level, Allah opens the doors to sustenance, adds more blessings, and makes our circumstances better. It is very important for us to be mindful of this, thank Allah, and seek Istiqama. Allah narrates what His prophet Nuh (PBUH) said, {‘I said, “Ask forgiveness of your Lord: He is ever forgiving. He will send down abundant rain from the sky for you; He will give you wealth and sons; He will provide you with gardens and rivers”’}.
Allah (Glory be to Him) is the Possessor of great and enormous bounty, and He is the Most Merciful; therefore, turning to Allah (Glory be to Him) in true and sincere repentance and seeking His forgiveness is a way to grant His mercy and bounty, as well as continuously seeking to remain on a right course that is based on His guidance and teachings: In another verse, Allah says, {‘If they had taken to the right way, we would have given them abundant water to drink’}.
Therefore, we must hold firmly to the guidance of Allah (Glory be to Him) and His teachings in all our affairs and seek to fulfil our duties and responsibilities and adhere to His instructions in following a faith-based approach in our dealings, for ‘Religion is about conduct.’ This applies to our conduct in general: Our conduct in the commercial field, agricultural field, and all other fields—’Religion is about conduct.’ We should also in moving to fulfil our responsibility to establish what is right and just and to carry out what we are entrusted with. So remaining on a right course is important, and all people are commanded to remain on a right course: Allah said even to His Prophet (PBUH&F), {‘So remain on a right course as you have been commanded, along with whoever has repented with you, and do not transgress’}. We all have to seek to adhere to a right course in what we do and the responsibilities we seek to carry out.
The better the conditions for Istiqama get, the greater
the responsibility becomes
Those who are in positions of responsibility should also keep to the right course, for ordinary citizens are not the only ones addressed here. Therefore, any official, or whoever is in a position of responsibility or particular authority, should not think s/he is beyond this; rather, this should be more obligatory for those in a position of responsibility. That is because the greater the authority and importance a person enjoys, the bigger his/her responsibility will be before Allah. Therefore, s\he has a greater obligation to adhere to a right course in his/her performance and to carry out his/her responsibilities honestly, faithfully, and sincerely without any cheating or attempt to abuse his/her power and betray the responsibility entrusted to him/her—s/he has to make sure that s/he performs his/her duties in a way that pleases Allah (Glory be to Him).
The same goes for everyone. We should seek Istiqama because it is essential for the wellbeing of our life and for leading a righteous life. So adhering to the guidance of Allah and to His commands (Glory be to Him) and seeking to achieve this in all fields is for our own benefit in this world and for our own benefit and great success in the Hereafter.
Thanks to Allah, we—as a Yemeni Jihad-performing nation that that is affiliated to faith and enjoys an identity of faith and that was greatly honoured by the Messenger (PBUH&F) when he said, ‘Belief is Yemenite, and wisdom is also Yemenite’—as well as all Muslims, should keep to Istiqama. However, conditions for Istiqama might be more favourable in a particular country than in many other countries when efforts within the Ummah are already paid, based on Allah's guidance and on the affiliation to faith, to cooperate in righteousness and Taqwa: to free the Ummah from subordination to its enemies; to stand up to corruption, falsehood, and evil with firm intention to clean its arena from all of that ; and to get things right in relation to the souls of people, the reality, the practical efforts, intentions, and attitudes. This is a true blessing. But the more perfect the conditions for Istiqama are, the greater the responsibility becomes. Indeed, the more perfect the conditions for Istiqama, righteousness, Taqwa, and faith are, the greater the responsibility and accountability become for negligence, carelessness, misdeeds, and not responding to Allah. Thanks to Allah, the conditions are perfect for us, the Yemeni people, to be perfect in our faith. We need just to pay more effort and attention, show more commitment, seek to obtain greater awareness, and show more care—the right conditions exist to a great extent.
As we turn to Allah by asking forgiveness, praying to Him, seeking to obtain Istiqama, and remaining faithful to the right position—which is one of the greatest acts of worship that draw a person closer to Allah and one of the great and good deeds, for it is a blessing from Allah to adopt and hold firmly to the right position and to be a Jihad-performing nation that encourages good, forbids evil, stands for what is right, says what is just, and adopts the right position in the face of Taghout in this age, which is a great blessing—we also should seek to make better use of the blessing of rain.
The need to seek to make better use of rain
Rain falls in a specific season, even though Allah may send down rain in unexpected times, and often comes down very heavily and in a great amount, but a large part of it goes to the sea or the desert, depending on the regions and water routes. Some of the water heads through valleys into the Red Sea or the Arabian Sea; some to the desert. In most rural areas, people do not have, or seek to have, water tanks or ponds, let alone the barriers, dams, and water cannels, through which people can make better use of this blessing.
In the past couple of days while raining in some regions of some countries, we saw how enormous amounts of water came down the valleys, heading towards the sea. As we notice our dire need of water in the reality of our life and the essential role it plays in our life and our living and economic conditions as we truly need it since it represents sustenance from Allah, it is important that we seek to substantially benefit from this blessing, to preserve it, and to store it more extensively. All that needs (besides the individual effort through which lots of people can get tanks and ponds) a collective effort, cooperation, and social initiatives in order to increase the number of water barrages, which are beneficial. Indeed, they are beneficial, for they can be used directly and can also feed groundwater and water dams. In fact, through cooperation, people can achieve great and crucial things when they work in a spirit of cooperation: They can build barrages, dams, and canals, which people really need. For instance, in Tehama, Jawf, and different places, besides the eastern regions , they need water canals to greatly benefit from the flowing streams at the agricultural level.
When people enjoy the spirit of cooperation (cooperation in righteousness, Taqwa, and in what is good for the public), they will be able to carry out many things with Allah's help and support. In addition, they will benefit from this blessing in a better, more extensive, more sustaining way, and their suffering will be elevated. At the same time, this will have a good impact even on groundwater. This also requires turning to Allah (Glory be to Him).
The need to pay attention to agriculture to remain
a steadfast Ummah
Moreover, attention must also be paid to agriculture. As the planting season is approaching, we must sow seeds, such as corn in mountainous areas and perhaps some areas of Tehama. Seasons come successively in different areas according to the diversity of the agricultural environment and climate in our country, Yemen: mountainous areas, eastern areas, and areas of Tehama.
However, the attention paid to agriculture is still insufficient to a great extent, even though the developments, the events, and the tensions that take place on a global scale in other countries have a considerable impact on us due to our dependence on foreign imports. So grain prices keep rising. When we depend on importing wheat, various grains, and various food products from outside, and such crises, tensions, events, wars, conflicts, and different problems occur in other countries, this leads to crises and greatly harms us.
Before anything else, we should increase our agricultural production and food production. This is a matter of common sense, for all people take this matter seriously. However, Muslims no longer pay attention to it, while other nations have devoted more attention to it—how unfortunate! As Muslims, we are supposed to care more than others do because this matter is part of our religion and of our national security, as called in some countries. We should stay away from falling into a state that enables our enemies to dominate us through pressuring us and imposing a blockade that even targets our food.
We mentioned in some lectures that the Prophet (PBUH&F), after moving into Madinah, promoted agriculture there. Palm trees and grain were planted in very wide areas. As a result, agricultural production flourished, and he used to encourage that. We need to exploit the agricultural season and become active again in agricultural production, but this also requires cooperation at the individual level and the level of social initiatives and agricultural associations. People can establish more of these agricultural associations, which boosts agricultural production and marketing in a way that has a good impact on people's lives and food .
The state of laziness, lack of vision, negligence, and despair has destroyed our Arab peoples, and it extremely affected them in their affairs. When we emphasize this matter, we also note that this matter represents a faith-based motive to us to seek to be a steadfast ummah that holds firm to its right position, attitude, and orientation and seeks to be free from the influence and the pressure of its enemies.
Increasing agricultural production is important in every respect, at the level of the blockade and at the level of the developments and events that occur in other countries and affect our situation in Yemen and our situation in the rest of the Arab countries. Also, it is important at the economic level because importing products mostly depends on the dollar, the US dollar. Indeed, things are bought in dollars, and this affects the currency, the value of the currency, and prices. This leads to many negative consequences.
As for the merchants, it is for their own interest and for the benefit of their country to invest in the agricultural sector and in local production. This helps them to save a lot and at the same time benefits everyone: It benefits merchants and other people, tackles the problem of unemployment, and provides opportunity for the labour force. So it has positive effects in all aspects.
The Agricultural Committee can coordinate beneficial projects with merchants that benefit them, provide good profit, and serve their country. Also, with citizens on the matter of cooperatives (agricultural associations and cooperative associations) and establish more of them in different districts and regions so that people can rise, cooperate with one another, and pay attention to their affairs in order to make their difficult situation resulted from their laziness change for the better. This requires turning to Allah, paying effort, working, and cooperating. Indeed, it requires turning to Allah, keeping to His path, thanking for blessing, paying effort, working, and cooperating. This is what we need and should focus on.
We ask Allah (Glory be to Him) to grant us more of His great bounty. He is the Most Merciful, and He is the Bestower and the Generous.
Also, we ask Him (‘Glory be to Him) to grant us success and lead us to what pleases Him. O Allah (Glory Be to You), have mercy on our martyrs, heal the wounded among us, set free our captives, and grant us victory. You are All-Hearing! O Allah, accept our fasting, night prayers, and good deeds.
Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.