Ramadan Reflections Day 13

You're listening to the Paloma Institute Podcast Series Ramadan reflections by Mufti Hussein Kimani?

Find us on [email protected] slash column Institute

smilla Rahim

hamdulillah Al Hamdulillah. haka file Salaam and over the hill

susunod, CD, MB, early heliski, I was having an affair about.

Yesterday in our reflection, we were talking about the fasting of the stomach. And in particular, we focused a lot of our discussion on the importance of eating halal and play.

And at the end of yesterday's discussion, as a part of a few suggestions that I made, in order to fast with our stomach properly, and to gain the complete reward of Ramadan, in regards to our stomach, one of the things that I talked about very briefly, and I actually mentioned yesterday that we would bring this up again. So I've brought that in discussion for today, inshallah. Now, what I had mentioned yesterday, was that it is important for us, in order to maintain the spirituality of Ramadan, that we eat moderately in the month of Ramadan. We remain hungry for so many hours of the day, 1718 hours of the day. But then when it comes to our time, sometimes we overeat. And then at

some times we overeat. I'm not saying eat, nothing at 200 have thought eat well. But just remember the principles of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and the very beautiful standardized principle, the purpose that allows them gives us one third for water, one third for food, and one third for air. If after having your meal, you can have a cup of water, that tells you that you haven't even saved any spot for your water, let alone the air at all. Okay, so always remember that we should eat moderately. Now one of the things that happens in Milan, and it's been really bothering me a lot since considering this past few days, I've had the opportunity to been to to have

spoken at a few fundraisers here in Milwaukee, and not only in Milwaukee everywhere, that whenever people have access to free food, they go crazy. They eat so much, and so much food is wasted. That you ask yourself that how much have we actually even learned from the spirit of a monk? How many times have you heard the Hatim saying that the spirit of Ramadan is to learn what the poor people feel. But yet at the same time, when it comes to your thought of time, we're putting so much food in our plate, so much food on our plate, that those will come after us in line for their food, either they will get no food, or they're going to get the leftovers of what we've taken without being

considerate of people who came who are going to come after us first thing. And the second thing remembering the base spirit of Islam, which is that we are supposed to eat in moderation, not to overload and how much we wait, waste is unbelievable. In Islam, we have permission to eat and drink coonawarra. But there's a clause after that Allah subhana wa tada says, well,

we're not to say, don't be extravagant or don't be wasteful in the law you must have been for Indeed, Allah subhanho wa Taala does not like those who waste. And it's interesting because one third of the food that human beings consume is wasted every single year, one third of the food that we buy, imagine if you walk out of Walmart with three bags in your hand, three bags of food, statistics show that one of those three bags are equivalent to that are actually and are actually going to end up going in the in the garbage. Why is that? Sometimes because the fridge isn't managed properly. Those who monitor the fridge and the contents of the fridge. They don't monitor properly.

They don't know what's inside. They check a few weeks later. And there's stuff in there they bought a few weeks ago. At times, it's because what do you call this, we overcook? And then there are times when we cook itself. This is all statistical By the way, the reasons. Now the reason, one of the reasons is because when we cook, our cooks at home aren't efficient. There's a lot of food that can easily be used. But just out of laziness, it's being pushed inside that is being pushed inside the garbage bag. We need to be so much more careful knowing that as Muslims, we have a responsibility that 1.3 cannot that you know that one third food that's wasted. It's actually equivalent to 1.3

billion tons of food every year. How much

1.3 I didn't say million. But I say anyone know how many how many zeros a billion has?

Nine 1.3 billion tons of food every single year go into garbage. If we can just learn to maintain a balanced diet and to conserve and conserve food and cut down on wasted. Imagine how many other people in the world we can actually feed and by the way, that 1.3 billion, what's consumer level, it wasn't industrial level. Okay, industrial level food wastage is on another level all together. We're just talking about consumer level.

You and I consuming food, how much we waste within our homes 1.3 billion

an average american waste about 209 to 254 pounds of food every single year. We're average Americans we raised over between 200 to 5200 to 250 pounds of food every single year. That's seven. And at the same times, we have to remember that, you know, 46 million Americans are on food stamp.

We're wasting how much 250 pounds of food every single year, every household. And at the same time, we have 46 million Americans that are on food stamps. Yes, this country is wealthy, but there are so many more people in this country who can definitely do with our help. And if we donated generously, and if we cut down on our wastage, there's so much more we can do. It's a basic principle. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam teaches us this, that when a person eats, the most Baraka lives in which part of the food

the last part of the food, the last few bytes, the last few grains right there, the purpose of awesome says that's where the butter case. And when our kids when they finish eating, you're wondering whether even anyone even ate, they're not there's so much food and ground. There's so much meat on there, and then you tell your kids cleaning they say, No, Dad, I can't do it. What do you mean, you can't do it? There are people in the world who had died to have a bite out of that meat that you've wasted in that have thrown inside the garbage right now. Okay, so we need to learn to conserve food to save up on food, the profits that allow Hollywood cinema so particular that the

Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam after he was done eating, he would take his finger and clean his entire plate with his finger. When is the last time we taught our kids to do this. And then after cleaning his plate, the Sahaba they mentioned before he would use a tissue or a napkin or some kind of towel to wipe his hand if he was going to use one. Or before he washed his hand. He will lick his cam to make sure in case there was anything left half or green or a little sauce or anything that wouldn't get wasted with the tissue, he would first clean that as well. And not only that, the wives of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam say after he was done eating and cleaning the plate, the

pot that we serve the food in he would stick his finger inside there as well. You know the pot the serving pot. Many of us our elders, we at least clean our plates. But tell me who have you seen cleaning the serving pot. The problem is that a lot of someone picked that up and he would clean the serving pot and he would lick on his fingers so profusely that the Sahaba they say the narrations mentioned that his fingers were turned red, because he would keep sucking on the making sure every single thing was out of there. Okay, we should learn to conserve food, not waste food. What happens within our communities? Is that mostly safe bottom pretty soft. He says something very beautiful

once I remember him, he said a very beautiful It sounds very cool. And I'll translate it in English after right? He said come the hot finish. He goes come by hot finish Casa de and also there's a combat freezer kasatkina So, Luciana Sakura vaca hochelaga he is to say May the wretched fridge freezer be destroyed. May the wretched he's so mad the combat. He's at the freezers coming to wretched. May the wretched freezer be destroyed by its arrival. Now the poor people don't get the share of our food anymore before people when they were done eating, but what they do at nighttime with leftover food.

Give it to the poor people. And they would go and search for people that want to go and give it to poor people. And today what happens is that when our foods done, what do we do with the rest of leftover food.

It goes right back inside the fridge right back inside the freezer. And then that food is recycled again and again. And we should remember that food when we cook it we should share it and finish it right then that's the last I don't want that. Remember this I'll tell you one thing. Allah subhana wa tada has created everything for a reason. Every single thing is created for a reason.

You know, it's very, there's so much research on this, that the way we eat meat, and every single season. It's very unhealthy for us. Meat. Animal meat should be only eaten in summer, or in winter depending on what part of the world you live in. And the other part of the season most times you will have more growth of fruit and vegetable. Allah subhanho wa Taala has naturally divided our our diet for us perfectly. Are you guys understanding this naturally is divided. See freezers and fridge are human made. If these didn't exist, we already know by the default what that lifespan is of the meat that we cook. You guys following what I'm saying? What the lifespan is of an apple, what's the

lifespan of an apple? after you eat it? I've take a bite out of it once you buy it. Few days very good a week or two. But now our apples elastic Mashallah, Mashallah, with all these preserves or preservatives for like years and months, they're going on and on and something we have to remember that we first of all, the point that I was coming to let me just come back to that this is another discussion. The point that I started off with is that we should first of all, be be conservative, in how much we cook. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said in a very beautiful Hadith and this is for the women or the men at the house who are responsible for the cooking duties. The prophets

that allow it was seldom said to the food for two people should suffice. How many people

Three, what are the status code? What are

the word I'm forgetting the word dominance any caffeine is Lisa, the professor said that the food for two people should suffice three, three, and the food of three people should suffice for people. So you should always cook not for one person extra before for one person less, the prophet said a lot of them said, the believer eats in one of seven portions, while the disbeliever eats in all seven portions because we only eat as much as we need to fuel our body to continue to worship Allah subhana wa Tada. So I have three quick suggestions on how we can cut down on wasting food in the houses. The first thing,

only buy food that you're going to need. Our supermarkets are so smart, you know, the store layout, there's actually there's actually, you know, research done on store layouts, how Walmart actually lays your store out, there's so much research into it so much money put into it. When you walk into the door, what's the first thing you see? Right? First they do a research off what kind of consumers do they usually have, what kind of people visit their store frequently, male or female? What kind of purchases do they usually come for, if they've come for this purchase, then the things that you need, usually the right at the front door. And then after that defeated in more and more and more

and more. And every single product is actually connected to the

the previous product and also the next product. So you keep walking and walking and walking, you came to buy apples and you're standing in front of tires right now. That's the way it is. So it's so well thought we have to remember that even though that may be a convenience for us or inconvenience, I'll let you guys decide that. But one thing for sure is that when we go to buy we should only buy those things that we need. If we buy little we will consume little. Okay, so first of all buy low. And as extension to that buy little store little cook little you guys understand that. Without the fighting with your loved one, he had an opinion. And his opinion was that anyone that stores in his

house food for more than 24 hours, he does not rely on the loss of Hannah Montana

is that a Jeep? Anyone who stores in his house food for more than 24 hours, he has no tawakkol he doesn't rely on Allah subhana wa Tada. So we should try to again by little store little and cook little cooking little noggin the responsibility comes on the parents again, if you cook little, the people in your house will eat little. If the cook at home cooks healthy, the people in the house will eat healthy, it's all about a lot of this is in the control of the person who cooks at home. The second thing, when you eat at home, you should always have smaller size plates. What size plates you do have not the huge ones, you should have smaller size plates, you even smaller size plates,

your fleets gonna be full by the first time you take if you need it, you can take again, that's okay. But always try to eat inside smaller sized plates. It's the very same logic that the office loves and taught us by saying when you eat, you should eat with How many fingers, three, even three fingers, you're going to eat less. With five fingers, you're gonna have a lot more eat with a spoon that's like a whole scoop right there, you're going to be eating a lot more food. So the smaller portions, the better it is. And the last thing, whatever is left over from your house, always make a point to donate it to the poor people. There are so many people in the world who would be happy to

eat leftovers of our house, who would be happy to eat, we shouldn't give them leftovers. First of all, we should cook for them. But if we have anything left over, we should know people in our house in our communities. You know, you may be thinking but I don't know anyone in my community. If you don't know anyone in your community, that's a bigger problem. Because that means you're enjoying your life so much that you've forgotten about the poor people that are definitely poor people within your community. There are bachelors here there are college students here there are people that are dorming. There are so many people here, and they can definitely do with your food. I remember six

years ago, I was in England once and I was studying at college and I came back home late because I got stuck in traffic. And there were literally two minutes left for thought. And I didn't know what to do. I was in college I was in England, I open up the freezer, I pulled out a bag that we had there was a bread in there. It was a not a not a pita bread. And I didn't know what to do with it. That's all I had. So I quickly took the pita bread, put it inside the microwave. And it's for those of you guys who are cooks, you know that's the biggest mistake. You take pita bread out of the freezer, put it in the microwave. When I pulled it out, it was so hard that I couldn't chew on it.

So then I thought to myself, Okay, you know what, I have a plan. So I took a cup of water, filled it with water, took a cup, filled it with water, warmed it up a little and begin to dip the bread in there so we can get soft so we can chew on it then. And after I finished the meal off I was thinking Wow, I can't believe I just had a thought on rock solid pita bread with water. I can't believe I did that. Then I'm not like you thought came to me. I thought myself Subhanallah I'm the amount of this budget. And there are so many Muslims here. Whether Imam or not, should we be looking for people to feed food to? Why do those who are poor have to come out and beg? You know, we say begging is bad

begging is bad. Have you guys ever said that before begging isn't good? It's not a good thing. Before you say that you should ask yourself when was the last time you went and searched for the beggars. If you didn't go and search for the poor people

Please don't raise a finger or raise your voice against those people who are begging in the street, let them do what they're doing. You weren't going to search for them. They had to come out because people like us weren't going to search for them. So again, we should be considered in this matter as well and try to make a point to distribute our food generously to those who are needy. Allah subhanho wa Taala give us a trophy to do so Subhana Allah Subhana Allah,

Allah Allah Allah.

Allah Allah Allah Allah, Allah Allah me, a ser Amari como rahmatullah wa barakato