Ammar Alshukry – On Fasting – Prelude – How Ramadan Teaches Taqwa

			Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.
		

			We are fast approaching the month of Ramadan. And Allah subhana data says in the Quran about
fasting, famous verse in Surah Baqarah that we've all heard, Oh you who believe fasting has been
prescribed for you, as it was prescribed for those before you that you may gain Taqwa. And so, a
question is a very good question. Common question is how does fasting make us have taqwa? What is
the relationship between fasting and Taqwa? And one of the ways to answer this is through that of
examples that we experience every year during the month of Ramadan, we experience every single year
how fasting makes us have Taqwa or teaches us Taqwa. So, for example, when you're in the shower, and
		

			you have some water that almost kind of goes down your throat, what do you do while you're in that
shower in that moment, you make sure that that water kind of gets that you spit it out. Right? You
you, you're worried about it, you you're very particular about what enters into your throat and what
doesn't, whether it's in a shower, or whether it's in the loo or what have you.
		

			That's Taqwa. That is what Dakhla is, when you're when you're all alone in your house, and you've
been fasting for 15 or 18 hours, and there's still two or three more hours to go and you are
dehydrated and tired and fatigued and all alone and in your refrigerator is what will make all of
those problems go away.
		

			And yet you still don't open up that refrigerator door. Why? Because you know that if nobody else
sees you, Allah Subhana Allah sees you.
		

			That's what took place. That is what Taqwa is to feel and to realize that no matter what that limit
is of Allah Subhana Allah Tada irrespective of whether it's eating or drinking during the day,
during the month of Ramadan, or whether it's anything else outside of the month of Ramadan, if we
were to implement that same consciousness of if nobody else sees me, Allah sees me and that's enough
for me to not transgress those limits. If we had that same attitude in everything else, then we
would be from the MacDuffie and the month of Ramadan is also the month of the Quran. And there's a
direct relationship, ALLAH SubhanA data tells us that fasting increases our dukkha and access to the
		

			Quran is directly related to that Taqwa. In fact, in the introduction to the Quran at the beginning
of Surah, Al Baqarah, where the beginning Allah subhanho data says, And if la meme, this is the Book
about which there is no doubt a guidance for the people of tequila, and so as we fast and
experienced the fast, our Taqwa increases as our Taqwa increases, our access to the Quran increases.
And so you can see then, why the month of Ramadan is the month of fasting the month of Taqwa and the
month of the Quran. May Allah subhanaw taala allow us to experience the month of Ramadan and to
emerge from that month being those whose sins are forgiven.