Calisha Bennett – Your Best Ramadan Ever Recording
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bIllahi min ash shaytani R rajim Bismillah R never Haman hamdu Lillahi wa Salatu was Salam ala Rasulillah Salam Allahu alayhi wa sallam Ahmedabad welcome everybody it's now like Muhammad Salah to the your best Ramadan ever masterclass
with the intention of inshallah helping you to design and plan and intend to have your best Ramadan ever.
And very well done for all of you for thinking this far ahead, you know we're about I think we're about five weeks away from Ramadan. So for you to have, you know, seen the marketing for the master class and thought you know what, I'm going to start early this year and I'm going to prepare nice and early Well done my shoulder most people wait till it really sneaks up on them couple of days before or it has already started and then they jump on board with Okay, gotta get into Ramadan, but it doesn't maximize the potential of the monk. So you just now set an intention and then spend the next five weeks really internalizing and thinking about what kind of Ramadan you want, then
inshallah it will be the best Ramadan you've ever had. Inshallah, that's what we hope and make dua for all of us mean. So, what I'll do inshallah is run through a little bit of housekeeping. So as you guys come in, you're automatically on mute, and that just helps to alleviate any disruption. If there are questions, we'll have them at the end and you can jump on the mic but all throughout if you want to write anything in the message box on the side, feel free to do that. So there is a little message box for anyone who can see a little speech I think speech bubble with three dots on my laptop anyway, but on your phone, usually you can find a chat box. So if you have any questions,
feel free to ask them along the side and our session today inshallah we'll be focusing a lot of different areas and I'm not an ally mouth or a scholar or anything so I'm not going into the fifth of Ramadan like the jurisprudence I'm going through the practical aspects of what we need to think about Ramadan what we need to feel about Ramadan and what we need to plan ahead for our month of Ramadan because it truly is a blessing for each and every one of us if we are blessed enough to see it and to to meet it to experience it and to make it through to the end
and you know to be able to continue on and make dua for I lost my salah to accept it. So I'll put on my slides now my slide show to make it a little bit more interesting for you guys.
Hopefully all like slides give me a thumbs up if you like slides
and pop in the message box where you're watching from
whether you're watching from Australia or which part of Australia or if you're from another country that would be interesting to know as well as put this little window on the slide
so that Sydney ladies mashallah welcome
USA Michelle, I didn't know it reached USA that's interesting, Spain. Wow, mashallah, Perth. Lovely Perth, Ian's we've got Melburnians that the way to say it. Melbourne, Oman. Sydney. Wow, I really did not think my email went that far. Which I don't think it did. So yeah, just for showing up Brisbane. Hey Felicity, Omnicom Yasmine Saeeda.
Zara Christina Raisa Hynd. nostra Nabila. nasro from No way I have a different from Norway. Z nuts Tara
So welcome everybody just like a little clap for tuning in and showing up and inshallah you are ready give me a big yes if you're ready to get started
on this journey in sha Allah towards maximizing the blessing month of fasting and discovering ways to do so and inshallah having the best Ramadan ever. So let's just up the energy levels. I just had dinner, which maybe I shouldn't have, because now I'm like, feeling very relaxed. So I got up my energy levels hungry, la.
Awesome, just like look at guys and welcome to everybody who is tuning in from all over. All right. So in a quick introduction to myself, so my name is Felicia Bennett and I'm the founder of developing diamonds. And I established it with the intention of developing courses, workshops, coaching, and retreats for Muslim sisters all around the world, in order to inshallah strengthen their identities, and to establish a whole lot stronger faith and confidence to be able to have an unshakeable, unbreakable. It's
Islamic identity as a Muslim woman or a Muslim young person, so that we can really maximize and power through life. The motto for developing diamonds is aiming for sparkling success in this life and the next. And that is the, I guess the ethos that we uphold. Like we're always just trying to become our better selves to support each other to become each other's you know your best selves among it as a collective as a group and to really maximize our faith within ourselves and then as communities and of course as families and communities inshallah. So that's just in a nutshell, a little rough explanation of what developing diamonds is, but you're welcome to find out a little bit
more later on in sha Allah. So, to open up let's have a look at what Allah subhanaw taala says in the Quran about this blessing the month of Ramadan, Allah subhanaw taala says our beloved Mina showpony rajim
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while it took me a little data only two can be rule law Halima hadda, como Hola. Hola, como CashKaro on last one to Allah says, In His Holy Book, Oh, you who believe fasting is prescribed for you, even as it was prescribed for those before you that you may ward off evil, past a certain number of days. And for him who is sick among you are on a journey the same number of other days. And for those who can afford it, there is a ransom the feeding of a man in need, but who so does good of his own accord it is better for him. And that which and that you fast is better for you if you did Buttner the month of Ramadan in which was revealed the Quran, a guidance for mankind and clear proofs of the
guidance and the criterion of right and wrong. And whoever whosoever of you is present, let him pass the month. And whosoever view is sick or on a journey, let him pass the same number of days. Allah desires for you ease he does not desire hardship for you. And he desires that you should complete the period and that you should magnify a law for having guided you. And that para adventure, you may be thankful
and so that you may be thankful. So that is in Surah Al Baqarah. It should say chapter two, not chapter four. So that's a typo there. Apologies. So this beautiful verse of the Quran where Allah subhanaw taala tells us about why fasting was prescribed and the month of Ramadan being the month of the Quran. So those are the two main emphasis points that we should acknowledge inshallah
is I want everyone just want to make sure their microphone is on mute because I can hear someone's microphone. There we go.
Okay, got it.
So we open up with this verse to reminds us of the month of Ramadan and what it stands for that it was prescribed for us, like the like it was prescribed for those before us and that were supposed to foster certain number of days, and that there are certain guidelines to do with fasting. If you're not able to fast then there are things that you can do to make up for that reminder that Allah wants ease for us and not hardship, and that we should magnify allotments Allah for having guided us granola.
So I opened with that verse, where it allows one to Allah reminds us of the commandment of fasting first acknowledge that it is a commandment. So why this masterclass, why have we wanted to
Come here and say okay, this needs to be my best Ramadan ever. It's very important and those who know me well at the start of anything I'll always say why are you here? What is your why? Why did you pick this masterclass? Why didn't you just go and watch a Ramadan lecture on YouTube by someone much more knowledgeable than Miss Pamela like what made you choose this and inshallah you know you might have various reasons for me personally is because when I look at Ramadan I feel like every every Ramadan we should have the intention that it needs to be on this Ramadan ever. Because if we are not on an incline or an uphill journey in our life as believers then what does that mean? It
means we're either stagnant or we're really on a downhill you know on a decline on the decline journey, which we don't want on Allah we always want to be journeying forward and climbing upwards in our faith and in our Eman and in our achievements for Allah subhanaw taala to inshallah you're all here, because you truly, sincerely want to have the best Ramadan. So I want you to make a shift within yourself right now in this moment, to have a strong intention that you're here to learn to take even one or two things you don't have to take the many things that I'm going to share in this masterclass even one or two things to really implement and make this Ramadan better than your last
one and better than any other Ramadan that you've had before. So why do we want to maximize why learn seven ways to maximize this blessed month is because often we see Ramadan and we're like, okay, it's fasting so no food, no drink, try to be good do tarot, we, we see it as just kind of rote worship like just routine efforts that we're used to year after year. But sometimes it helps to take a step back or to be pointed or to have some things pointed out to say what about this? And how about that? And have you looked at how to have it have you had a look over there in terms of a strategy or a way that maybe you've overlooked that could really benefit your Ramadan and truly
maximize it. So we're going to look at seven different areas today.
So we're going to have a look at preparation for the month, we're going to have a look at eating we're going to have a look at early reflection. So reflecting early before the month starts. We're going to look at detoxification
learning and support Quran
and setting your intention inshallah. So those are our seven areas I shouldn't use numbers instead of ticks right. So those are our seven areas that we're going to look at today. So it's not the fifth of Ramadan it's not what breaks you fast it's not
the prescribed worship in Ramadan. That's not what this masterclass is about and you can find again that those topics online or through books and through studies from the mashallah scholars who would have been well prepared in being able to teach you that so this is more the practical hands on tips and methods to really maximize your Ramadan so you guys ready to get started? Let me check everyone's still awake check the message box or good
beautiful
Okay, so let's get started on the journey. Hopefully you're not too chilled out and you do have a pen and a paper or you have some kind of Ramadan journal that you use I generally try to have a Ramadan journal and I can tell you a little bit more about it later. But it's broken into little sections the front of the journal are all my little brainstorms for how I like my Ramadan to pan out and then I have a part which kind of reflects on each Ramadan what I felt I did well in what I felt I didn't do well in so every Ramadan beforehand, that journal comes out and I have a look at it and see where I've done well and where I haven't done so well and what I need to improve on and my
little kind of it's kind of like my own personal journey checklist of Ramadan. So hopefully if you don't have one, the notes from this session is the beginning of your literal Ramadan journal inshallah. Alright, so let's have a look at the first way of maximizing the blessing month number one is your preparation. Very, very important preparation. And as you can see in the image there preparation is the key. So preparation is one of the most important aspects to maximizing, optimizing anything that we do in lifespan Allah we all know how we feel when we're not prepared when we're not prepared for an exam when we're not prepared for an interview. When we're not
prepared for visitors when we're not prepared for all sorts of things. We know that starting off something on the back leg, it fills you with panic, self doubt, insecurity. So if we know that and if we know that not being prepared, never met
To feel good, then we need to really do the opposite. We need to be prepared, especially for Ramadan. And if we reflect on our previous Ramadan, you will always know that any time or any of the years where you were really not prepared and you hadn't set aside time to really think about Ramadan or putting some preparations, you started it and you've gone, I just don't feel good. And you've probably had conversations with people where they've gone. I just don't feel good this year, you know, Ramadan, or they'll say,
No, your friends or someone close to you, they'll just be like, yeah, it's not not I'm not feeling it. Not feeling it this year. And you're Wyatt, why don't you do you mean, why aren't you feeling and they'll say because I didn't prepare like I didn't feel prepared and feel ready. So many people say Ramadan comes day one, and then they're like, I'm not ready, right? Or when their husbands come back from the mosque, and they're like, the moon has been cited as Ramadan tomorrow, and you're like, oh, hamdulillah but you're like, a bit half hearted, you know, you're a little bit like, Ah, okay, I wish I had one more day to prepare. But, you know, it's already upon the person's come
along.
Someone's just having audio issues.
Sister left, okay.
All right. So how do we prepare, one of my favorite Quotes and Sayings is failing to prepare is preparing to fail. So that should just run through our minds like Subhan Allah, like, if we're not prepared, then we're not we can't expect a good outcome. We don't prepare for Ramadan, we cannot expect to come out the other side. And it has been our best Ramadan ever. Right? It's just that the you know, the possibility of that is very, very slim. And this miraculously throughout the month, you know, you establish this amazing depth and connection and you really push forward with your effort. But if you prepare before Ramadan arrives, and you're just ready, you have this game plan
for it, it's already become a priority and a focus in that 30 days that's about to come up and you're just ready to hit the ground running so we don't want to be of those who are preparing to fail, right? We want to prepare to succeed on Allah. Yes, Ben says Pamela this resonates with me so much preparation is so important and I don't remember actually preparing for Milan. Until now. Yes, when you're preparing now 100 losses the change in the good direction. Alright, so the first tip with preparation is to prepare early like what you guys are doing now 100 law don't let it be that day the day before a few days after a lot of the times that you know, Ramadan arrives and then
people start doing some preparations the day after and then they're like nah, it's just it's too late. It's too late and they you know lose lose their hope in the Ramadan from very early on. So prepare early like have it in your diary at the start of the year when you're scheduling your holidays and your school term and your work and your family getaways and whatnot your Ramadan should be in your diary and the preparation before Ramadan should be in. Okay, so in your diary should have a month before or a couple of months before start preparing for Ramadan. Now obviously we should have our fast light hopefully paid back way earlier than that month before so we want to be people
who are you know, forward thinking especially as Muslims not people are always reactive or it's coming quick quick do something we're like already preparing for what's coming you know, as Muslims we live in preparation for the asset we're always thinking okay, death could come at any time and we're preparing ourselves because death could come at any time so we're doing our deeds now. So just as in that way as we should be insha Allah you know, we should be preparing for our Salah before the time comes thinking okay, I'm going to do this that now because then the event is gonna go so make sure I have Waldo and we should be preparing early for all of our especially our acts of worship
preparing for Hajj. And likewise with Ramadan every year, you get a whole 11 months to prepare. So we shouldn't leave it to the you know, the week before to prepare for Ramadan. We were paying back all these fasts and we're all stressed and we feel negative about it. So prepare early, put in your diaries and your schedules, what you need to do to prepare so you're doing this masterclass now, maybe next weekend you're gonna write down in your diary go over the fifth of Ramadan just to recap and checking that you know, you're really prepared for you know what fasting involves and freshly reminded about it Shala
All right, so the next point is journaling. So as I mentioned earlier, your little Ramadan journal, just let it be a little notebook, something simple, doesn't have to be fancy. Just jot things down that your preparation for Ramadan. So, your journaling is reflecting how your Ramadan you know, use you know how it was proved in previous years.
As different things you did different lecture notes to get to be able to go over little gems so make it a little folder or a little treasure trove of your Ramadan you know preparation reflection and thought so your little like, you know, an ongoing masterclass booklet that stays with you in your journal as well. You want to have some goal setting in there. It's really, really important to have goals for Ramadan. Don't go into Ramadan and let it be it's whatever I fast I go to tearaway, I try to read some Quran and then that's it. Like that's not goal setting that's like whatever ng if that's even a word, that's just going through Ramadan, and just letting whatever happens happen.
Actually set clear goals of what you expect from yourself. And what you are committed to doing or achieving in Ramadan doesn't have to be 10 things. It could be just two things, you know, to make sure that I read the translation of the Quran, or I have a session of Quran for 30 minutes from 7:30am to 8am. Every day, whatever it is, whatever works would you have some goals that are really specific, that are unique to you that work for you don't set someone else's goals and put that on yourself? What is you know what is going to work for you and write them down? Writing things down is so powerful and there's so much evidence behind that and so many so much research to show the
benefits of writing down your goals. So start preparing food and meals. That doesn't mean cook for the whole month and put it in the freezer. I don't do that either. To start to think about what ideally would you like to be eating in the month? What do you need to prepare for the month what is necessary and not necessary? Remember this good old saying it's the month of fasting not the month of feasting. So a lot of the times when people say have you prepared for Ramadan? And you're like oh, what do you mean? And they're like you know your son uses your this scenario all these fancy either is Ramadan dishes, I'm like, can
you ask? Because it caught me off guard like have I prepared for my Ramadan like you know, spiritually prepared like no have you made your, your treats your food things? That should be the last thing we're worried about actually, you know, having to have in our minds the food, the food, but do have in mind what kind of eating habit you're going to have in Ramadan that will maximize your Ramadan. So what do I need to eat? How do we need to eat so that it doesn't take up too much of my time? And so that it doesn't make me sleepy and sluggish and unhealthy. Ramadan is the time to recharge and reform. We should be reforming the way that we eat too, you know, and cutting out some
of the deep fried stuff and unhealthy things all those dessert treats. You know, in Ramadan, you literally get three quarters of desserts every day sometimes sometimes. Definitely not one, but
what's going on, you know, it turns into this like massive month of feasting and celebration with foods.
So try telling the rest of your family it's fasting, not feasting. Yeah, I think that needs its own monster cause how to tackle family expectations with food. You're not going to be in everyone's good books, that's for sure.
Also, preparation is your eat gifts. Prepare before Ramadan. Don't spend, you know the last week last 10 days, clothes shopping and gift shopping. Like it's such a theft of baraka for those blessed 10 days you want those 10 days to be as quietly you know not running about everywhere as possible. You want to be as quietly at home as you can in worship and in quiet reflection and really maximizing this gift shopping the clothes shopping. It really takes a lot of goodness out of those 10 days and people are just so busy. Did you get your gifts yet? Did you get your gifts that we should be saying how's your 10 days going? How's your 10 days going? Not worrying so much about
these again, worldly material things do you give early also held you can buy this online like you can do Kmart online shopping as well that's really helpful. Those types of things are beneficial to keep you out of the shops and the distraction and the music and just the environment of materialism. You know, you want to keep that out of your holy days as much as you can
to allow audio cases on is having audio issues. Yeah. If people sometimes people come in
sometimes people come in and yeah, it's just an audio glitch, they have to kind of sign out and come back in again. All right, so also in preparation is your Iftar schedule. I know it's really hard and I know that some families have big families and a lot of expectation.
Well, I don't know. All I know in my previous experience anytime I've brought in focus on having to have an Iftar it's robbed me of my whole day and maybe some of the day before to have to think about the food and prepare and tidy the house and
It's, it really takes away from your Ramadan routine and your focus. So I know it's not easy, but we have to change we have to change what we expect from ourselves and what our families expect from us as well. So you know, little things like instead of having a big Iftar at your house, you can make those food containers and drop it off to everyone. You know, you can still feed your family you can tell message Everyone say, Guys, every Friday night was Ramadan, don't cook, I'm going to drop off a pot of food at your house. And that is the same as if you had them in your home. So try to get creative with how can you change it around so that your worship isn't impacted your worship comes
first. And if there are other ways you can feed people and get reward then do that. A lot of the time that if third parties, people, Miss taraweeh, people don't go to the mosque, the men especially women fall off the boat with their Quran reading because you're just so stuck that day and you'll miss the whole use of Quran if you are trying to complete the whole Quran, it can really impact it. So think about your Iftar plan. How can you get Iftar savvy you know, and and clever with your if there are some families just do that one day in the mosque and you know, feed everyone.
But you know, remember that a lot of the time people have so much food in their house, they actually been in more food in Ramadan than any time of the year. And we don't want to contribute to that. You know, there are times when I've been taught to if stars, and the people have had black rubbish bags, tipping food bowls of food into the bags, because no one's going to eat it because they've made so much. And I'm pretty sure that that's not what Allah subhanaw taala wants from us, you know.
So I hope that it doesn't upset anyone. But we really have to think about these Iftar habits that we have in our cultures and in our families. Another progression is sadaqa think before Ramadan comes, how can I give sadaqa in Ramadan? And do it as a brainstorming tool with your kids? How can we give charity and sadaqa in creative ways throughout this month, and brainstorming, I usually love that activity, it's fun, there's so many different ways you can make things and give them out at the Masters you could do guse You could make convert Iftar packs you could do you know local feeding the homeless, you could do all sorts of like little creative things that work as Sababa
so have a bit of fun with that. Inshallah, I do have a list that is like I think it's like 35 ideas 35 ways to do good deeds and stuff. So there's lots of different ways doesn't necessarily mean spending or having to buy things or costly you can also just do thoughtful things for people and find ways to share and find ways to pass on knowledge you teach someone I know one lady, she teaches kids Quran at the mosque through the whole Ramadan. Every afternoon like that says Love of God like what a beautiful thing. It just you can use Ramadan as a way to really like step up and do kind things and do good things and that is purification of your heart to helping you to become a better
person and inshallah earning amazing reward because it is Ramadan.
Ramadan fix so do a little bit of studies about Ramadan, as I mentioned before, okay, open up some lectures, take some notes, read a few books, just refresh it, you can never it can never get too old, you can always refresh what you know about Ramadan, make sure that what you know, so far is authentic, and that it's not cultural. It's not innovation. So kind of just refresh your understanding of Ramadan. And there were always those tricky areas like okay, someone's pregnant, what does she do? She's breastfeeding, what does she do? If someone has to take this or that medicine, there's always ways to update your knowledge and understanding of Ramadan that can better
equip you inshallah with different situations that could come in the future.
All right, how you going? So far? Everyone happy. This was our first area of maximizing our Ramadan. Oh, good. happy with that.
So let's go on to our second point, which is working on your eating beforehand. Now I had the option. I was like, Oh, I could go really, you know, technical and find all different things. But I didn't want to overwhelm your bombard you and I know that time is going to be tricky. So I do want to be aware of the time.
Yep. So I will sit I'll share that list of 35 Good Deed ideas inshallah. So, working on eating beforehand. This is really tricky. You know, like,
as you as Muslims, I think, I always make this comment too. I'm like, you know, for us, sometimes one of the most enjoyable Halal things is food. So that's why it's such a big part of our homes and our families and our Muslim world culture, that we come together we express love, we spend quality time with, you know, eating together, but where you were in times where the Muslim community is of the worst states of health in the world, I think the highest levels of diabetes, you know, after Australia, you know, US and Australia and a couple of the Western countries is like Saudi Arabia or its Muslim
lands you know Muslim lands like we have the most unhealthy people in the world yet we have the Quran and the Sunnah yet we have the guidance of Allah subhanaw taala yet we have the best way you know the best message of how to live life yet we are of the most unhealthy people despite being blessed to have the hidayah of Allah subhanaw taala so that is like a massive issue. That is indicator of the hypocrisy of us having the guidance and throwing it behind our backs so before Ramadan comes before we're faced with the Battle of the food that is put in front of us when we eat out and the Battle of what we're craving to cook that day. We should work on our eating beforehand
and our relationship with food beforehand. So many Muslims complain in Ramadan they put on weight why is that what's going on some month of fasting and we put on weight? And I remember I was talking to one sister she's like every Ramadan I put on five kilos and she loses weight throughout the year but Ramadan she puts on. Do you think it's designed this way for us? Like is this what Ramadan is supposed to bring us weight gain?
Or is it supposed to teach us discipline? Is it supposed to divorce us from the emotional attachment that we have with food? Is it supposed to help remedy us from emotional eating from the heedlessness of what we put in our mouths? We fast all day and then by the end of the day you know yourself how much you would love that clean glass of water and that piece of fruit or the dates no one eats days no one likes that in Ramadan we all like yeah like data on Monday to give me some dates and water. So we become very, like we crave the good things we actually crave healthy things. And then when it comes to breaking our fast once we've had that first mouthful, and you know those first morsels and
that first sip of water that settles and then we're like Alright, bring it on, you know we start piling in all the junk again, eating according to desire not to to our needs. So to work on our eating beforehand, we need to try to see food in a different way. And me personally like my journey with like battling with food and you know wanting to you know, I I went through a phase A few years ago where I was like Okay, it's time to just get serious about weight loss and losing some baby weight and stuff that I had after from Zillow having my five kids and yeah changing the relationship with food like Food shouldn't be just joy. We should look at food and it should be used to nourish
ourselves to sustain our energy levels to serve and worship Allah subhanaw taala So food is shouldn't be just looked at as indulgence and enjoyment and that temporary sensation in your mouth from the taste we should look at food of this is why I'm about to eat going to bring vital energy and goodness into my body into my cells if we you know I don't know yeah I wonder if the scholars or Allah Matt debate and have discussions about whether certain foods is it really Halal if it's like bad for your body or toxic or it has bad chemicals in it? Like would those things be still classified as food and halal when Allah subhanaw taala commands us in the Quran to eat the pure
things of the if we're eating impure things, what does that mean? You know, is that is it right? Is that wrong? You know, is it permissible Allah, Allah, maybe that's something that we can look into ask our scholars about.
So Nabila says sugar is her drug yet, and there are a few documentaries and a bill if you watch them talking about sugar, a couple of books as well. Sugar is a drug they like and it's like cocaine, in terms of your body craving it.
And some people get withdrawals too when they try to stop sugar.
So nostril she loses weight during Ramadan, but regains it on an ADEA the three days of age hard to to have self restraint, not easy. Room says eat for nourishment, not for constant enjoyment. Exactly. So it's actually psychologically changing your perception of food. Okay, we used to see food as like, it's something yummy. My tummy hurts, it means hunger. Now I just have to put something in it. Instead of going, Okay, this biological indicator of this tummy pain, I'm hungry. I need to now look for something which will satiate the hunger but it's also going to nourish my body because the food is becoming cells. And I'm pretty sure that a glass of coke, your cells aren't
gonna thrive on that black, you know, glass of coke, doesn't mean don't ever have Coke, okay. It's okay, cooks, you know, surely you can have coke every now and then. Every now and then very rarely. But it shouldn't be like every time you drink something, it's got to be like a sweet drink or it's got to be, you know, something that's not good for you. So just think about what does your body need? To stay alive to to be to be nourished? And look at this quote, spawn or you know, the Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam says, No man feels a container worse than his stomach, which means we shouldn't be filling it. We should rarely eat to our fill.
And that is the advice that we have from the Prophet sallallahu ala
wasallam so when it comes to our eating, look at our eating habits, what are the habits that we have the things we do repetitively, we do it without thinking, you know, you know, an example with habits that I've used previously is when you make a cup of tea, and I was like, This is what every time you have a cup of tea has to have something sweet next to it. So what's the standard like tea and cookies, right? Or tea in a biscuit with tea and a piece of chocolate? It becomes a habit. And sometimes you need to think, Okay, do I need to have the biscuit with the tea? No, I could just have the tea in here like, does it need to be tea? Or does it need to be coffee? Maybe it can be a herbal
tea, maybe we can just have a glass of water. So it's these little habits that we need to just question.
As I mentioned that in the Muslim world, we do we have a health crisis in the entire world, we have a obesity crisis, and we need to address it and not ignore it. And we need to ask ourselves, what is the meaning of food to? What does food mean to me? As you mentioned, is it just joy? Is it just for desire? Or is it to actually nourish yourself? The believing cells in your body, your body, which has a manner of you
look at the Sunnah of eating. We all know and we all learn but we don't practice it on a lot. We have to get active with internalizing and putting an implementing the actual sin of eating. So the full Hadith where the Prophet salallahu moralism says recorded in a Tirmidhi no man feels a container worse than his stomach. A few morsels that keep his back upright are sufficient for him. If he has to, then he should keep 1/3 for food 1/3 for drink and 1/3 for his breathing. So there's three important reminders here. That number one, a person does not fill a container worse than his stomach. It's the worst thing to fill to fill your stomach. And then we're told that
a few morsels is enough.
Sorry, someone's like
Janelle. Janelle, thank you, Mike is on.
All right, it gets knocked it happened.
Does that make sense?
And the second point we take is a few morsels to keep his back upright, that's sufficient for him. So what happens when we're hungry, it makes you just feel a little bit weak and you're a little bit hunched over like, Oh, my tell me I need to eat something. It's enough to have a few more morsels to have an apple to have a few nuts to have, you know, just a small little serving of food, just be like, Oh, Hamdulillah I feel like you know, like mice in my hunger is settled now and keep going not to fill the stomach up to the top until you have indigestion and people are burping. And you know, ask the people in rock in taraweeh. You know, they say it's the worst when someone is in too much.
And that is burping because their food is up so high, when they go into to record and so June, the food's coming up, because it's that high in the body, like it's not digesting not to mention the mix of what's been eaten on a lot. And then we're told the third point is how much we should eat a third for food, a third for drink, and a third for breathing. So when we look at our plate when we're serving, and we imagine like the size of our stomach, maybe sister room can tell us remotes the size of the stomach, the stomach, I think is only like the size of like a pair right and it can stretch a little bit. So it's like when we're dishing our food. How much do we actually need? How much you
know for 30 is supposed to be for air. Not you know, you're supposed to have that empty and just have a third of drink instead of food. Sometimes we eat so much food we're already full. There's not even space for space for drink. And then people ask Pamela like dehydrated and not drinking enough water but they can't fit any more in because they've had food. So you know we're already missing the important points from this beautiful Hadith panela I'll just read the comments.
Said laborer says hamdulillah don't feel weak or hungry during fasting mostly headache when I don't drink water. Yeah, headaches are a big one. You have to have enough water the room doesn't even have a have coat good girl room. Neither do I Well, I haven't like maybe once or twice a year habit if there's like an occasion or something.
So it's important for us that are for moms because the kids are watching us Yeah. Then watching our example. The headaches lack of water
essential oils help with headaches family law, that's awesome.
If anyone has audio issues
someone's getting stuck again. Fine in and out
sisters who can't hear sorry.
So we shouldn't eat more than the palm of our hand for Amelia. That's the ideal portion size. Some of us would be like why are you serious? But if you do that for a couple of days
Your stomach will be trying to shrink back to its size that it's supposed to be and you will feel quite full after eating that that proportion. Alright, so moving on working on eating we're all going to work on eating before Ramadan comes. The third thing that we want to maximize that Ramadan through doing is reflect on the parts of you that you want to work on. So Ramadan is a time of reforming yourself reforming your soul reforming your heart, reforming your Eman so it's an important time to spend and think about how you're going to do that and what you need to do particularly in Ramadan what you want to work on in Ramadan. And you worried that's not going to
happen on this before Ramadan comes you're already thinking about what do I need to fix in myself? What do I need to sort out what do I need to improve on what I need to make more effort in so look at the traits and character that you want to improve on.
Look at the worship that you want to improve on your your concentration in Salah your recitation of the Quran or how much charity you give or
you know all your different types of worship that you do your zikr your DUA your night prayer, you want to improve on them this is Ramadan, we all know it's the perfect time like we're able to make more Solon Ramadan than any other time of the year. That's the amazing potential that it has for us with regards to traits and character to become more generous to become more patient. Maybe you swear and you don't want to swear season Ramadan to okay I'm going to stop swearing this Ramadan.
I'm going to be more thoughtful I'm going to be more tolerant, what types of traits of character
qualities that you want to improve on? What's the knowledge you need to improve on this Ramadan is like boot camp, you know, some acknowledged boot camp it's like I need to really like understand the Hadith or Quran or understand who the last one of the Allah is, or I need to learn how to make dua properly. Or I didn't want to learn the fifth of Salah how to make Salah and how to do it how the Prophet peace be upon him prayed.
You might want to think about your lifestyle, how are you living your life and you know that in the way that you live your life, there's some things that you need to stop doing. And there are some things you need to start doing. What are some of the changes that you can start to make and for you from now to think no more than one Ramadan comes I'm going to stop that thing that I do at that hobby, or that company or that pastime, and I'm not going to do it anymore. This Ramadan it's time to reform myself or even you know to start with beforehand. And what are some things you want to incorporate into your lifestyle, some more Islamic habits and routines and and you know, to read
Quran every morning after fajr or to always do your Sunnah prayers or
to
make dua before Iftar, like little lifestyle, things that you want to add that you know better for you.
Reflect on your mindset.
You have a lot of negative thought patterns, or you may be depression prone.
A negative in the way you think about other people, is there some work that you could do with regards to your mindset that Ramadan can be the training ground for that, because you made the decision that you know what Ramadan, we're going to spend some time just, you know, at home chilling, not being too busy and running around everywhere. I'm going to really look at my mindset, you know, my discipline or my positive self talk or, you know, have a look at, you know, the way that I think about the world and what is my role in the world? What I think and feel about my identity? What kind of Islamic mindset do I have? Is my mindset Islamic? You know, do I battle with
myself? Or do I think good about others? Do I make excuses for others to just really assess what kind of mindset changes do you want to make, and again, mentioned all the word habits so again, habits reflect on the habits that you have, that you want to cut out, and the habits that you want to incorporate, as well as training ground for it. And time use. What do you do with your time? You know, when we when we look at the blessing of life, all it is is a matter of minutes and hours and days and months and years. That's all we have. We're just like, you know, it's literally like you know, sand passing through an hourglass before it runs out. We don't even know how much sand we've
got left in that hourglass. Pamela. When we look at time, we all get a blessed hamdulillah with the same 24 hours. But the difference between how one person might use that 24 hours and how another person might use it. 24 hours is so vast, some people would just blow their days away. Sometimes we'll be like, Oh my gosh, two weeks went by I haven't touched the Quran. How we used our time we all had that same 24 hours. You might have not had had touched the Quran in two weeks, and another sister has memorized a whole visit in two weeks. We both had the same time. Maybe that Stephen had more kids than you are
More commitments, but she maximize the use of her time. So what kind of person you want to be with regards to how you use your time? Do you want to use your time in the best way possible and treat time as one of the biggest blessings that you could ever have in your life from Allah Spano, Tala, or you're going to just let time pass like or tomorrow later, or not yet, not, you know, one day, we're going to use those types of terms in our self talk, and keep putting off things that we know deep down our actual priorities. But we keep putting other things in the way and distracting ourselves. So it's very, very important that we reflect on time and the use of our time. Allah
subhanaw taala says in the Quran, we fill out probably too little more painting wifey and forsaken a fella, Tubal Slayer, on and on the earth signs for those who have Faith with certainty, and also in your own selves, Will you not then see.
So last time I asked, Do you not see within yourself what you need to realize and acknowledge? So for us to reflect where last ones Allah reminds us to reflect and reminds us to look into ourselves? Why do we not see that on the earth, we have signs all around us. And time is one of the biggest signs that we have Panola how it passes, and how we see the plants grow, and they come into their fruits or for their flower and then they wither away and they die. That is
an example of us in this lifespan, Allah, even Kodama, may Allah have mercy on him, he said, with regard to taking stock of oneself after a deed is done. A last one of the islands says, Oh, you who believe fear Allah and keep your duty to Him, and look at every person to an every person look to what he has sent forth for tomorrow.
So we're, this refers to taking stock of yourself after you've done any deed. So Ahmad, your loved one, you know, we know this thing that he says, Take stock of your sales before you're brought to account, like take yourself into account before you are held to account. So to really like reflect where you're at in life now, where you're doing? Well, of course, very important to acknowledge where you are doing well. But also, where are you not doing well? Where could you do better? Where are you not fulfilling your potential? Where are you perhaps failing yourself? Or, you know, letting yourself down? Where are you angering Allah? subhanaw taala? Where are you taking something for
granted?
You know, are you taking your family for granted, you're faithful granted your your time for granted your intellect for granted? We have to hold ourselves to account. So rather than, you know, a lot of the times we're focused on the judgment of others what people think of us, but really, we should be judging ourselves checking in on ourselves, Am I doing the best I can? Am I being diligent? Am I being committed? Am I being sincere? Or am I slacking off? And if we be brutally honest with ourselves, you know, sometimes I check in on myself, and I'm like, Man, you are slacking off in disregard or that regard, I have to keep myself in check. Because if I don't, no one else will. No
one else would know, these are our own personal, you know, secrets that we see, like you have, you know, a spare moment of time, and then you were just you know,
doing something else that was futile when you could have been, you know, you could have been doing something more beneficial. So checking in on yourself is very, very important.
So the number of the verse that I mentioned, so that one that I mentioned, the previous one was sort of there yet chapter 51, verse 20, and 21.
So
there's a story I wanted to share with this regard about time, it was said that Tober, even Asuma was in Iraq, and he used to take stock on himself. One day, when he was doing that. He realized that he was 60 years old. He worked out the number of days of his life, and he realized that it was 21,500 days, 21,500 days, and he lives 60 years. He screamed and said, Woe is me. I'm going to meet the sovereign with 21,500 sins. How about if there were 10,000 sins every day? Then he fell down did and they heard a voice saying how quickly he was taken to Philadelphia Allah, Allah Subhana Allah says, Allah Allah, you know, it's a story.
But look at that, you know, if we sin once a day, for however many days we've been alive, that should scare us enough, let alone we seen way more than once a day is panela. So imagine how many sins we have piled up.
Do we really think about that? You know, that
Do we actually count our deeds?
Do we count our deeds? Or do we kind of ignore and pretend that I'm doing good yet, that's fine and not hold ourselves to account. So this is how a person should take stock of themselves with every breath that they take with every sin of the heart. So in their thoughts, feelings and emotions, you know, feeling yucky bad things, we don't want to feel yucky bad things, and then act on them.
Every action he does at every moment, if a man were to throw a stone into his house, for every sin, he commits, his house will be filled in a very short period of times an hour. But he does not pay much attention to remembering his sins, although they're already being recorded against him. Like we like if we asked ourselves, what sins have we committed today? We'll be like, I don't know. Like, we don't even take it to account and it is being written it is being held account. And we can't even keep track. What did you do yesterday that was sinful. We can't even keep track Subhan Allah, that alone last year, or 10 years ago, or 15 years ago, we can't even keep track of how many sins we
commit upon Allah. But it's there. It's piling up, you know, show that we even this last ones, Allah forgives us from His mercy, we repent. So we have to really reflect on what it is that we need to change in our traits in character, worship, knowledge, lifestyle, mindsets, habits, and time use. So sorry, that's a heavy one. But reflecting is never a light topic. It's a very heavy, serious thing that we as Muslims
are meant to do. It's very, very important to always reflect on yourself, because you know, no one's gonna do it for you.
Alright, number four is start detoxing. And I don't mean have apple cider vinegar and lemon, although maybe that's good, too. We should be doing the health detox. But this detoxing is referring to different types of detoxing, so detoxing in your environment. So any negative toxic things that are around you normally. And you know, you're like What do you mean environment? What's toxic in my environment? I can't tell you you need to ask yourself, what is something that plays on your mind in a negative way? What is something that plays on your heart in a negative way? What is something that you feel is not always good to be around? What is something that pulls you down and doesn't lift you
up? What is something that makes you weaken your faith or compromise your faith? Those would be the toxic things in your environment.
With regards to your home, detox your home from clutter, you know excessive material, belongings that weigh you down or if your house is very unorganized and disorganized it's very hard as a believer to have a clear mind and clear spiritual state when our homes are upside down and disorganized. So as believers we should be on top of what we have if you're not able to keep on top of your personal belongings. And you have like one of those mashallah those houses like off those hoarders TV shows? Well, that was sent by Marie Kondo. That lady when she goes to people's houses, and they're just like stuff piled up everywhere. If you're having issues with keeping on top of you,
your material belongings, then you need to perhaps get rid of some of them and do it before Ramadan. I used to volunteer at an op shop, and every Ramadan in Ramadan, we just have these bags of stuff. And I was like, what's going on? What's everyone doing? And then I asked the sister that was volunteering under. Why is there so much some people bring so much stuff and it's like in Ramadan, people just say, Well, it's time to do spring cleaning. Ramadan is not time to clean out your wardrobe do it before that I taught before Ramadan calm, so you're not distracted in the month of Ramadan by the clutter and the disorganization or the mess. So try to declutter your environment,
you know, prepare your area of worship or you know, the way that you want to organize your house, especially for Ramadan so that it's nice and, you know, easy to use and comfortable and there isn't too much cleaning up and stuff to do.
The next one is your company, detox your company, who you're hanging around with, that isn't good for you. And I know it's hard sometimes because you like, but it's family, or it's your long term best friend. But if it's not good for your spirituality, then maybe you need to have a bit of a break or have some time away just for the month of Ramadan. And that doesn't mean you think you're better than that person, that person might be better with Allah subhanaw taala than you but ultimately, your spiritual journey is unique to you. And it is your solo journey that you have to try to maximize as much as you can, you know, so some company like amazing sisters in law, you know,
we just we get up to mischief or we just talk too much nonsense or in that group, one of them just gossips a lot and they're just gonna say I gotta take a step back. Ramadan is coming. I just need to have some quiet time. So you know, it's
No offense to those that you need to step away from
media. So media, which means multimedia, social media, mainstream media, news media,
vertical Hollywood media, whatever it is
massive source of toxicity, you know, in our lives, it's visual toxins and then that becomes whatever you watching, you read.
It goes into your psyche goes into your subconscious, it affects your mindset, it affects your soul set. It disturbs you know your, your connection with your Creator. It distracts you from your priorities. So it's important to detoxes and start to cut down and if you want to know different ways to cut down you can look just look up ways to go on, you know, social media lists. There are lots of different ways in different tips that you can utilize and show off
on your phone and different apps and things like that, that you can use addiction so you want to detox from addiction. So okay, inshallah no one here is a drug addict, but it does happen. I have, you know, I have people that I'm very close to who are suffering from addiction. May Allah grant them shifa. I mean,
but addictions can be to coffee could be to cigarettes could be to shisha addictions, to swearing addictions to checking your phone. It's real to addictions, checking your phone is actually real, your brain releases dopamine every time you check, and you see notifications. So you've probably noticed that while you're listening to this, you've had a little bit of an inkling to pick up your phone and check if any messages have come in. Not asking anyone to confess I'm sure some of you are like, Oh my gosh, I did. I already checked my phone 17 times since we've been in this monster class. But it is an addiction. And we don't want to be addicted to anything, because that means that that
thing in this world has some power or control over us and to fully submit to Allah subhanaw taala you know, to live in submission to Him as a Muslim, that nothing should have power over us in this life except for him. Right? Nothing is worthy of our obedience or worship, I have to have that cup of coffee or I need my cigarettes, or I have to watch Netflix or I have to check my phone, you know, a certain amount of times. And that's that you don't have to do any of that. Unless you choose to. So we have to realize that we got to take our choice back and not be people of addiction.
Yes, Amanda hamdulillah for Muhammad salallahu Salam as advice to make is still far daily. Very, very important. Yeah, that's where we make we ask Allah for forgiveness because we fall into sins knowingly and unknowingly panela you delete social media apps in Ramadan. That's perfect. That's awesome idea. Very important.
And ream detox is the medina guilty of coffee coffees. I never used to be a coffee drinker and when I started drinking it, then I was like, Okay, I have to have a coffee a day. Isn't that strange is dangerous, so we have to address these little addictions inshallah.
So, when it comes to detoxing, it's the first step to reviving yourself, whether it's your body or your mind or your soul. When you stop consuming unhealthy foods, drinks and drugs, you're detoxifying your body. When you control your thoughts and you engage in good deeds. You're detoxifying your mind and soul. And Allah Schweitzer Allah he says, One of Su Amasa l Hammerhand. Voodoo Raha Toccoa cada F la Hymel Zakka poco de Hoberman, just to be told that by the soul, and he who proportioned it and he inspired it with its discernment or wickedness and righteousness, which means Allah created our souls. And he created us to be able to know what is right and what is wrong,
what is wicked and what is righteous. And then he says successful is the one who purifies their soul and purifies themselves. So it's just it's your soul and it's your food and it's your environment. That's what you're watching constantly we want to purify it because the dirty stuff creeps in just naturally creeps in and you have to just say, okay, that's not clean or that's not good for me, and you have to get it out of your life. As much as you can Charla I'm delighted Ben be alpha Rhodiola Han narrated the messenger of allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam used to recite this supplication beautiful dua O Allah all praises due to you filling the heavens filling the earth and filling
whatever else you wish. Oh Allah purify me with snow. What? Hail and cold water all purify me from sins and mistakes just as a white garment is clean, cleansed from dirt. And this is what we want. We want to be clean. Because we get polluted naturally, you know from our own cells, and from our environments. it pollutes us it pollutes our natural clean fitrah which is that beautiful connection with Allah
masala that we hopefully so sorely want is different pollutants come in and distract us, corrupt us make us ill, even our food can make us, you know disconnected from Allah subhanaw taala. And we want to be cleansed and purified from our sins and from things which harm has knowingly and unknowingly. Just as a white garment is cleansed from dirt, it's a beautiful doll.
And number five, seeking out some learning and support very, very important. So Allah subhanaw taala tells us like a favor which you already received in what we sent among you a messenger of your own rehearsing to our versus purifying you and instructing you in Scripture and wisdom and in new knowledge. So, last month, Allah mentioned that the Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam, purified society, with the message instructed the people in Scripture and wisdom and in new knowledge that's in Quran chapter two verse 151.
So if this is what the Prophet salallahu Salam was sent with, that would, it would instruct us in Scripture and wisdom. This is how we can wisdom in new knowledge. Our Islamic teachings are the best types of new knowledge to learn, to go in depth and to learn Islam. At a basic level, intermediate and in depth, it's the best knowledge that we could be embarking upon. Allah Subhana Allah says that he elevates to high positions those from amongst you who are faithful, and those who have acquired knowledge, solos, masala honors, the faithful people and those who have acquired knowledge. And the Prophet peace be upon him said that the world is cursed, and that which is in it is cursed, except
for vicar or remembering Allah and what follows it, or a learned person or a student. So like that, that this hadith just really makes me reflect No, everything is cursed in this world, sisters, everything, everything that we kind of pursue, or wish for wants to have, wants to experience a want to enjoy or want to achieve. It's all cursed, except for these things. The vicar of Allah, a learned person or a student. So we should want to be engaged in one or all of those three, the vicar of Allah, a learner person or a student. If we're not in those three, then we were cursed along with the rest of the world, or whatever it is, we're pursuing his Coast it's, it's not blessed. These
three things are bless the remembrance of Allah, the person of knowledge and the student. May Allah make us of these three, all three in sha Allah.
So Allah wants to Allah
tells us he gives wisdom to whom he wills and whoever has been given wisdom has certainly been given much good, and none will remember except those of understanding Ramadan, it's time to buckle down and start learning and develop a closeness to your community, a closeness to your mosque, a closeness to the knowledgeable teachers that you have around you. Ramadan is the time to be connected to plug back in to the Islamic traditions and the traditional learning and the traditional being under teachers and learning about last month Allah and his book and his Quran and Sunnah. From those who have knowledge, it's the time to get back into it and then stick with it Inshallah, you
can go to your local masters or Islamic center, find a friend or a teacher, we all usually have a friend who has a bit of knowledge that you could sit with and learn from them. And, you know, I have a couple of friends who have knowledge and anytime I'm like, Could you teach me this? Or can I call you once a week and you teach me you know, the Tafseer of the surah? They're like, Yeah, of course, that's fine. They are usually the most willing and ready to give us Panola they've dedicated so much of their time and life to knowledge that anyone who asks they're usually ready to go and they're usually sitting waiting for different organizations to come and call them to come and teach on
Allah. We really underutilized some of the learned people in our community, especially the sisters, you know, especially the females panela. There are a couple of knowledgeable sisters that honor that I'm like how can they aren't in crazy high demand being invited everywhere to to come and teach communities I have so much knowledge on a law so find a friend or a teacher that you can have time with. Remember to teach your household so be a giver of knowledge and start with your home. Be the one to teach your kids the Quran. Be the one to read the translation of the Quran after you know Maghrib Salah every day or before bedtime read one surah to your kids, be that person. read some
books or blogs or watch some videos. Seek some knowledge about the month of Ramadan about Leila to Qatar, about the life of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam any type of beneficial knowledge spend some time seeking it and online. There's so many courses there's so many
Free Online Islamic universities
there's so much support you could get like in Ramadan your only social media should be like plugging into Ramadan reminders you know so that throughout the day throughout your home I think Ramadan TV is an online channel that comes online you can just plug that into your on your TV and just let it play all day has Quran has Islamic shows, it has lectures all day long as Pamela so there's no excuses in this modern techno savvy world for us to not have you know, is beneficial knowledge infused in our homes and in our lives and Sharla how to entertain toddler without TV while fasting plugged into some good channels. There are some apps like Muslim kids a few things that Muslim kids
TV there's Zeki TV what are some of the other ones called god you guys remember what they were called? There's a few
you know, Islamic programs if you have to have electronic entertainment but yeah, otherwise play with the child have little I usually have a basket of toys in every room in my house so that my little one she can just you know when we're doing sometimes I'm teaching my kids on the floor in my room, and she knows she's got her little basket there she just plays let them join in and imitate and pretend in shallow like what you're doing with your other children or what you're doing yourself but you're reading Quran and you tell your little one come get your Quran Yeah, and then they go and get the Quran and can have a little small little whiteboard and draw some letters for them and you
might get distracted if you have little ones but that's okay, it's still worship, and you're modeling worship in front of them. So be that example in sha Allah
link you up with them as isa Yeah, inshallah as these
I will link you up with those who want to teach but they're not in this state. They're in a different state. I'll get them sit online Shall I have them as guests?
Okay, important point we almost towards the end guys. So the next point is get your Quran out. This is really really, really important and I'm going to tie this in with something I'm going to share with you at the end inshallah. So get your Quran out as we know, Ramadan is the month of the Quran, as I mentioned in the ayah at the start, and we all know it we all hear it the Ramadan is the month of the Quran. So let me ask you is an Ahmad on your month of Quran is it just wrote Quran where you read as much as you can in Arabic, but it didn't mean anything to you read it only for award you didn't read it to gain a connection with Allah subhanaw taala within internalize his message is
Ramadan, the month of the Quran for each and every one of us, we have to ask ourselves this question. What does it mean to you? What does the Quran mean to you in your life? Is it the thing to read for blessings? Is that or is it the thing to memorize from? Is that all? Does it mean anything more than that?
No, we're in epidemic times where people only see the Quran as like it's a token book. It's our token holy book, those jokes about it being on the top shelf, you know, in, in our Islamic rooms, in the salon room, in our house on the top shelves, the dusty book, when you bring it down every remodel and you got to wipe the dust off, it's on a lot. So we don't want it to become that book, we have to ask ourselves, How often do we actually read it? Do we touch base with it every day? Or once a week? Or once a fortnight once a month? Or rarely? Is there no routine? Is there no attachment to it? Is there no regard for it? How often do you internalize it? How often do you sit and you read
the verses? And then you try to channel what does this verse mean to me? What is Allah subhanaw taala saying to me?
Could you do better in your relationship with the Quran and your effort with the Quran? Do you know how to approach and understand it correctly? So the disciplines of reading, understanding and approaching the Quran? Do we do we know? Have you learned? Right have we learned I know I hadn't learned until you know read a particular book I had, I didn't know that there was a certain way you're supposed to approach the Quran and how you're supposed to understand it. And that without knowing this way, we can fall into the incorrect understanding of the Quran and then ended up reading the Quran and being misguided or misguiding ourselves because we're internalizing it in the
wrong ways. And
so it's very important to know how to approach it and understand it correctly the way that the last one to Allah wants us to approach it and understand it.
The last ones Allah says and this Quran is a book that we have revealed which is blessed it so follow it and fear Allah, that you may receive mercy to bless a book and then we're told to follow it. And then as we're following the process of following it to fear a loss one to Allah, so that we can have his mercy. The Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says the superiority of the speech of Allah compared to all other speech is like the superiority of Allah
Over his creation,
to how superior is Allah subhanaw taala over his creation, He is the all supreme of all of his creation, isn't it? And that is how the Quran is superior to all other speech, because the Quran is the speech of Allah subhanaw taala and it is superior to all other forms of speech. Any other speaker you listen to any other lecture you listen to any other motivational talk or mainstream or university lecture or most educated person in the world or the most wealthiest leader, or politician? None of this speech is worth anything compared to the speech of Allah subhanaw taala This is how superior it is. Do we treat it as something superior? Or are we busy reading novels, or
self help books or magazines or reading our news feed on social media? Do we really treat the Quran as the superior speech over all speech? And we need to remember that in the Quran, Allah Subhana Allah says that the Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam has said this, this is the time of the Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam, he said, and this is mentioned in the Quran, oh my lord, indeed my people have taken this Quran as a thing abandoned?
Do we take the Quran as something to be followed? Or have we abandoned it? Have we turned our backs on it? Oh, instead pursuing and chasing and following our desires? Or is the Quran our key like our number one that governs our house that governs our choices that governs our mindset that governs our habits that governs our lifestyles, that governs our eating, that governs our learning is the Quran. The governor in our house is Allah's words, the law in our house, and the guidelines and the guidance and the mercy is that all coming from the Quran in our homes? Are we trying to navigate using our own limited intellect, we're trying to navigate according to manmade you know, manmade
techniques of how to live life how to you know how to be successful
so number seven now final point, inshallah everyone is still awake. You guys still with me? Give me a yes. Let's try to get this done before Mercury hits in Sydney.
It's almost mob live in Sydney. Still here still awake?
Everyone's still there. Yes. Zara. ABSHER hinge Rihanna, theta Aziza I'm just calling out you names to acknowledge that you guys have written Yes. Manal. rrim Leyba Yes. Mean nebula are still they're still awake. Hamza Lulu, very patient bunch, you guys. I'm Attila loving it so far. Humbly. Last airy. For here. Samira. Nicole. Oh, someone even wrote rest. Yes, on the screen.
When Naza it's even as Asha Allah.
The nuts Lila, there's like a lockout everyone. Sometimes messages when you write them, they'll go to me privately. I don't know why they do that. So thanks to whoever wrote yes on the screen, but you're welcome to rub it off because I can't rub it off if someone else has written it. Alright, so our final point about setting a solid intention. So if we have a look at this image here, you've got the puzzle piece. Yeah.
Let's see if I can be clever and draw on the screen. Okay, so here we have this puzzle piece.
Alright, and the puzzle piece fits into this socket. And the soccer is intention to everything starts with intention. Your actions will be based on your intentions. Yeah. So your intentions are the mold
in which to fill your action. But at the same time, you can't have the intention, but not also have set in your mind.
A plan for action. So without knowing how you are going to take action being committed to the action you're going to take the intention becomes just an empty socket. It's just like a wish or a dream. So it's very important to make sure that we put these two things hand in hand, action and intention. And we know the famous Hadith in the Malama Lavinia were in nama liquid Lymbery man, our actions are judged by intentions, and everyone will have what they intended. So when we say set a solid intention, so I'm ending with this point, set a solid intention. It needs to be solid, it needs to be you saying okay, I guess in 10 I want to have the best Ramadan ever. But here's how I'm going to
do it. This is what I'm going to implement. You want to have a solid intention to fast properly.
You want to have a solid intention
to set and achieve goals should be to to set and achieve goals. So
Set some goals and then make sure you're going to strive and follow up to achieve them.
You should have a solid intention to make internal and external changes. So not just to outwardly do the right thing and change your environment, change your eating, do all these external changes and differences. But even more importantly, have internal changes. So that that way your external changes will be followed up with sincerity and an improvement in character, you know, it's no use looking like the best Muslim outwardly reading Quran being very modest, and being very Islamic and worshiping so long and going to the mosque and being so generous, these are all external things. But internally, you have, you know, you think negative things, or you don't have a good opinion of
others, or you're really, you know, negative on yourself, or you're very, you know, anger prone or depression prone. So make sure you also look at your internal changes and change in both ways, inwardly and outwardly is very important, inshallah.
Try to be making an intention to be consistent, that whatever it is that I say, I'm going to do this month, I'm going to do it consistently, be really solid, I'm going to consistently make these changes, I'm going to consistently, you know, work on my craft and reading, I'm going to consistently attend that class.
And that ties in with being committed and dedicated. So the consistency and the commitment and dedication kind of go hand in hand, be a committed person and believe it is, you know, most of them is a person of their word, not someone who enrolls in something, and then doesn't show up. And why didn't they show up, they just felt tired, they couldn't be bothered that day. There are times we have valid excuses to not show up. But you know, if you paid $1,000, for a secular course, tell me if you would show up to seven classes in a row 10 classes where you absolutely would pay $1,000. And if I don't come a recession, and they won't give me the certificate, but for Islamic things, yeah,
you might not get a certificate sure as heck doesn't cost $1,000 our summit courses, we pay a lot less. And then we don't show up.
And this is like knowledge for the dunya and akhira. Or you're learning the speech of Allah, which is better than all types of speech. And we don't even value it. We don't show UPS panel like shake on just overcomes us. You know, so be a person who is committed and dedicated when you say, you're going to be somewhere be there when you say you're gonna do something, do it when you start something, you finish it. These are the traits of people who are the Khalifa of mankind, the leaders of mankind, the vice Germans on Earth, were people who follow up what we say with action. You know, we do what we say is very kind of like rare qualities to find these days, very rarely, we find
someone that you you know, you're like, oh, that person I could I know I can depend on her. I know I can depend on that. That brother or that chef is very reliable, very hard to find spun around a lot. Correct us
have a solid intention to continue changes after Ramadan. You know, sitting here now to think about how you can have his best Ramadan. And then once it's over her, her last, I can relax again. Right. Your intention should be you're doing these things in Ramadan to have the best Ramadan because after Ramadan, you're going to continue them. That's what you know is is truly maximizing Ramadan, that you make changes that you continue on. Have a solid intention to seek out a connection with Allah like never before, to say to yourself from now, this Ramadan, I'm going to find a law like I've never found him before. Now I'm going to speak to him the way I've never spoken to him before
because it's such a blessing because of the shape and a chain. And because you know, the angels are, you know, we're in the mosque and we're worshiping and we're just in such a bit of state in Ramadan, seek out that closeness with him. Find those moments where it's time to cry out to Allah subhanaw taala that it's time to put your head down and cry that it's time to hear the Quran and actually cry when normally Oh yeah, we can't even crack it's here. Out of fear of Allah or love of Allah, or hope in Allah or fear of the Hellfire using Ramadan and push yourself to soften your heart and to clean the rust and to clean the hardness of that's the best time
you know, set a solid intention to deeply explore the Quran. Like meet the Quran is Ramadan, where you read verses and your likes panel like you're moved, you're shocked you're like, I don't even know this verse was here and even know that we had this wisdom and I've never heard or have I never read this verse. To deeply explore the Quran and through discovering the depth of the Quran you'll discover the depths of yourself because it's Allah subhanaw taala talking to you. When you read his words, that's when you truly get to know yourself because he speaks to you the core of your being in his perfect beautiful you know
Wisdom is beautiful speech of the Quran, he's speaking to you speaking to me. And when you read the verses you can feel feel him and you can connect with him speaking to you and you get to know yourself, you get to meet yourself. This is who I am. This is who Allah says I am. This is the potential Allah says I have. This is the mission Allah has blessed me with and commanded me with. This is what Allah wants from me. This is what Allah knows in his wisdom I should stay away from when you deeply explore the Quran. It just maps out life so much more clearer than the confusion that we experienced day to day from our own.
You know, from our own ignorance release Pamela.
They even made even handbell. He defines Nia as the intention of the heart to get closer to God during a worship service service. So the different orlimar they have different
definitions of what Nia is so I liked this one by Mr. Mohammed even handbell places the intention, it's the intention of the heart to get closer to God during a worship service. So your Nia through whatever it is through your cooking through how you spend your time through when you sleep and how long you sleep through. How you plan your day, what your Ramadan schedule is, from the gifts that you go to buy and you know what you choose to wear in, you know, for AIDS, all of these choices throughout this whole blessing month, if you're Nia is that your heart wants to get closer to Allah through you making that choice, making that purchase spending that time making that food, saying
those words reading that book watching that video if it's to get closer to Allah, in through worship, you know, with that being a form of worship, that's that's what your Nia is. That's what our near should be. That it's to get closer to Allah through what we do. And every day we have countless choices. I think it's estimated we make like 33 30,000 choices every single day. So many choices we make every day and if our choices are to please Allah subhanaw taala we're trying to make the halal choice, the best choice possible, they become all choices that are in the worship of Allah subhanaw taala from what you eat, choosing to eat something nourishing and healthy, to how you spend
your time to you making effort to read the Quran, through listening to a lecture in the car instead of some music through you spending time with, you know, someone who is going through difficulty instead of going out with your friends, you go and help someone who's in a needy situation. All those different choices become a means for you to get closer to Allah subhanaw taala because you're making that choice, because you know, he'll be pleased with it, because it's for him. So it's like hand in hand. You sacrifice for him. Your intention is accepted. It strengthens your email and it earns your award and Baraka. So Allah subhanaw taala is most generous. We do these tiny little
efforts and he gives us what we cannot even imagine a reward in dunya protection in dunya blessing in dunya and akhira countless rewards especially during the month of Ramadan how generous he is and how truly undeserving we are of what he grants us
even a year. He says the level of the slave sincerity in his intention, determination aim and fervent desire determines Allah's Tofik or Allah's guidance for the slave and enabling to act upon it. And his aid for him. aid and assistance from Allah depends upon the slaves in accordance with the sincerity in their determination.
So how strong your intention is and how determined you are and how you're purposeful you are in your aim for what you want for yourself I really want beautiful Ramadan I really want to draw closer to Allah I really want to purify myself of all these sins that I'm doing I really want to fix my mindset really want to fix some of these habits that I have. I really want to you know just become the healthiest version of myself for a last month while you're so determined. The more determined you are in your intention more Allah makes it happen for you know he helps you in grants you ease the water nice transaction, just you saying this is what I really want. Hola. Hola is like Dun, dun
dun make it happen. I lost my tallies were like with you. The what an easy transaction. You don't have to write a contract. You don't have to slaughter 10 Kobani sheep. You don't have to give $10,000 in South Africa, you just have to have a really beautiful strong intention. And Allah subhanaw taala will pave the way and open the way and make it easy for you in sha Allah, Allah. So let's recap. Everyone good still there. You guys haven't done a run on me and abandoned me. Talk to myself. One day I will be like talking to myself in one of these rooms on a wall.
Let's just check in where you're at before we summarize
So the city's cleaning out of fridge washers listening
for the city they guys all obvious gonna be like What are you doing? My drink? Well that's my favorite snack. So room says storytime for kids that's fine room just like a clown show log Allah reward you for reading stories to the kids commitment to Islamic classes. Yeah, it's really really important stamina.
Yep, so I'm going to upload the recording, don't worry. So a lot of deep things to think about. So let's recap seven ways to maximize our blessings month of fasting. Number one, prepare early. Prepare early, prepare early. Number two work on your eating. Number three, reflect on what you wish to work on. Reflect on what it is that you want to get out of it what you need to improve on.
And also a point that I forgot to mention about scheduling try to schedule what you think your ideal day or you want it to be. You have to schedule in.
You know when you want to do things when you want to have people for Iftar and how many pages you're going to read or when you're going to read your Quran each day you have to Inshallah, use a schedule to help you follow through. Number four, start detoxing. And it's not just the dietary detox. Number five, seek out learning and support it's very, very important, especially if you're isolated or if you're a convert, it's very common to you know, feel very lonely in Ramadan. Number six, get your Quran out I can't emphasize that anymore. I will mention something that will help you insha Allah with your Quran throughout the month of Ramadan shortly. And number seven, set a solid intention and
inshallah all these points have been beneficial for you. So looking at what's next for us in sha Allah.
So up next, I have four sisters who are interested in a four week online course called your Quranic connection. So feel free to pop some questions up if you guys while you're listening, and I'll answer any questions as well. So it's a four week online course I'll be starting in first of April until the 22nd of April. So I'll be uploading the the lessons every week, one lesson a week to have the whole week to just spend an hour and a half with your notebook and take some notes and your chronic connection allows you to strengthen your bond and your understanding of the Quran and what it should mean in your life and how to approach it correctly how to understand it correctly
and it will inshallah connect your heart with the book of Allah subhanaw taala like never before so just as we mentioned Ramadan is the month of the Quran. This gives you inshallah four weeks to be able to prepare yourself for your epic journey with the Quran over the month of Ramadan. So here's a little overview of the course.
So it's got four units, what is the Quran? What's your obligation towards it and its historical impact so that's unit one the Quran and new unit two is the Quran and us. So how's the Quran used by today's Muslims? How is it misused by today's Muslims? And what are the meanings and the etiquette of reading and reciting the Quran? You know, three is the Quranic guidance which talks about the goals and the outcomes of the Quran and the method of approaching the Quran. And Unit Four is the Quranic legacy, the correct method of interpreting the Quran and returning to the Quranic guidance, you get a booklet with a Facebook connection every week to touch base as students with myself as the
teacher. This these will be pre recorded lessons so you can watch them anytime during the week. I previously did this course live, but sisters struggle to show up live so I thought it'd be easier if it's pre recorded and then I send it to you guys and then you have the week to just watch it in your own time inshallah.
So the course because my course website only does US dollars, it's $97 for the course
these are the dates and the times you'll get all this mapped up I like things mapped out that's how I like to do courses personally. So of course registrations and payment and on March 31 And then it begins on April 1 and ends April 22 Bit of a typo there.
So each date there's a Facebook Live with me on that day. So we'll jump on I have a student group that I've created just for my students and then I'll talk to you about how the course will work and explain the first unit with you to you and then I'll upload the video will be uploaded and then you guys have the week to watch inshallah so not too much commitment for you but two hours and maybe one to two hours a week max to be really committed to just sit and think and think to yourself, what is the current