Ramadan The month of Taqwa

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hamdu lillah

wa Salatu was Salam ala manleigh and OB

for inner circle howdy CK tabula. Okay you heard you heard the Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was shallow morning to her Akula Maha desert in VR for COVID-19 bodalla Wakulla Dippenaar a bad call Allah who died of equal Ania Majeed but the older bIllahi min ash shaytani R rajim Bismillahi Rahmani Raheem

yeah you Hello, Monica Ali camassia Maka Maka Allah Levine Amin Kabbalah Kuma Allah contact upon

you just a few weeks away from the most blessed and important month of the year, the month of Ramadan. And it's really easy for us to forget how important and blesses and necessary this month is. We get caught up with our work our families, our daily chores and stresses in life. And because of this, many of us Ramadan will come upon us without us even realizing where the time with. So it's important that we begin preparing for Ramadan, a few weeks, if not a few months before, it's too late for a few months before but we can a few weeks before that we get ourselves into the right mindset for this best month. Because no doubt that Ramadan is the most important month of the year

for the believer. And none of us can guarantee that we will be around for this Ramadan leave around the next we ask Allah to allow us to reach this Ramadan and benefit from it for all of us. All of us know people and loved ones who were with us last Ramadan and are not with us this Ramadan. We ask Allah to grant the agenda we ask Allah to accept the deeds and we ask Allah to allow us to reach Ramadan and to benefit from it. We should not take this for granted. We tend Allah subhanho wa Taala for all of these blessings upon us. We thank Allah subhanaw taala for making us believers for granting us the man for granting us duck walk for granting us the understanding of this religion for

granting us peace and safety and security. Allowing us to grow and to allowing us to develop as a community. And it is important for us that we thank Allah and that we understand what Ramadan is about why Ramadan is important and what should be our goals for Ramadan. We are all familiar with diverse. Everyone knows this verse. Every year. The verse Oh you who believe Ramadan fasting has been prescribed for you like how it was prescribed for those before you so that you can gain Taqwa. We all know this verse, But have we internalized it? Have we turned it into a life goal? Have we turned it into our vision for Ramadan? That this Ramadan, I'm going to increase my Taqwa this

Ramadan, I'm going to become a better Muslim. One of the big mistakes we make is that we treat Ramadan like a troll. We treat it like a like a cultural practice. We treat it like something to get out of the way. We stay focused in our business, we stay focused on everything else, and the fasting and the taraweeh just becomes something to get done. And when we do that, we don't experience the benefits of Ramadan. The benefits of Ramadan is to increase our Taqwa. You see taqwa, which is the Arabic word for God consciousness or higher it is something that fluctuates. It's something that none of us can reach a level of perfection in. Ai perfection in Taqwa was reserved for the prophets.

We can't reach perfection in Taqwa our tankwa is always fluctuating. And we all have struggles. We all have since we all have bad habits. And Ramadan's, it's time to try and change this. Ramadan is a time to try and big break some of these bad habits. It's time to try and build some good habits. Because our our Taqwa is not something that is set in stone. It's not that you become a Muslim and you are continuously pious. No, we all have ways that we can improve, and everyone's weakness is different. Some people find it hard to lower their gaze. Some people find it hard to dress. According to the Sharia. Some people find it difficult to control the tongue they

Do keep falling into slander and backbiting. Some people find it difficult to wake up a slot to Fudger. In all these cases, we ask Allah to forgive us and to grant us Hidayat and strain and to grant us righteousness. But we have to work on it. And we have to realize our weaknesses. So one of the things we can do is to look at upcoming Ramadan as an opportunity for growth as an opportunity to take our demand to the next level, to find one or two areas in our life where we know we are lacking and to make this Ramadan, a means of changing that. And yes, sometimes that change might not be permanent. Perhaps for example, you use Ramadan as a chance to start praying so I could budget on

time.

And you start being selected budget on time, and it lasts six months, eight months, and then you start slipping. And next Ramadan, you try again, the point is to keep trying. The point is to keep trying, don't ever give up on trying to be a better Muslim. Because we are all going to slip every Muslim. Every human being makes mistakes. Every human being has their sins and weaknesses. But we have to keep trying and we have to keep aiming to go further and higher and better. So our Taqwa what is the

developing Taqwa of higher to God consciousness is not just a Ramadan goal. It is the life goal of the believer. This is the life goal of the believer that we spend our entire lives trying to get closer to Allah subhanho wa taala, that with each passing day, month in year, we should be closer to Allah than the year before that we should be more righteous than the year before that. The as the years go by, we can see a change in ourselves that we are closer to Allah and more conscious of Allah today than we were last year or five years ago. This is what our quest should be, it should be a life goal. Are we living our lives in a way that we are pursuing the goal of Taqwa on a daily

basis, the minimum we need to do to at least maintain a basic level of Taqwa is to pray the five daily Salah

we can build upon that by reciting Quran praying the sooner Salah by giving charity by doing other types of good deeds for Allah gave us Ramadan because Allah knows we are weak. Allah subhanaw taala knows we need that we need that Imam boost we needed a man rush we needed that month that pushes us to be our best. And so we have 29 days every year. It's like a marathon session where we discover higher levels of spirituality within ourselves. We discover within ourselves the capabilities of doing good deeds that we didn't think we are capable of. Think about how many of us the entire year we say I'm going to wake up at 100 But we don't end up waking, waking up a slacker Fajr how many of

us that happens. And then suddenly Ramadan comes not only are we playing pranks to budget on time, but we bring 200 Every night as well. That's something we don't think we came up with how many people complain that they can't lower the gaze, you know, the addicted looking at things they shouldn't be looking at. Yet sometimes when they push push themselves, the entire month of Ramadan goes and they're able to lower the case. Ramadan is a time for self discovery, for discovering that you are capable of higher levels of piety, higher levels of demand higher levels of self control. That's when you realize that you have within you the ability to be better. And we need to take that

and apply to the rest of the year. So we have three weeks until Ramadan. What we can do in these three weeks is to start preparing spiritually for Ramadan. Number one, by keeping in mind that increasing our duck what is the goal? What are we doing to increase our Taqwa? Number two, to start getting into the habit of fasting, maybe by eating less or doing some of the sooner for us, but to get into the habit of of fasting so that when Ramadan comes it's not a you know, a strange new experience for us. It's something our bodies are accustomed to. Because what happens to many of us is we only fasting Ramadan, and even Ramadan comes around we complain, I'm too tired to work. I

don't have any energy. I'm moody, it's because you're not accustomed to fasting. But if we start now, if we start with some sooner fires, or at least you know, eating less, eating less meals in the day now, Ramadan will be easy in Shaba. Right, the fasting aspect will be easy, you'll have more energy for your body, you'll have more energy for work, and you won't affect your mood swings. The Mood swings are coming because we're not accustom to fasting. Instead, we are accustomed to just eating all day long, which is not a habit the believers should have any way. It is not the sooner. It is not the sooner to overeat. It's the opposite of the sooner the sooner is to be to eat

healthily to live a healthy lifestyle that you eat enough to stay fit and alive and energetic. It that is the sooner and for many of us, not only do we avoid the tuna all year round, but it's even worse in Ramadan. For many of us who eat more in Ramadan outside of Ramadan and this is a problem because we don't

Get the spiritual benefits of fasting. If we are over eating for Syria for Iftar you're not going to get the spiritual benefits if you are over eating. So let's start cutting down on how much we eat so that when Ramadan comes, our bodies are accustomed to it. Another way that you can prepare for Ramadan is to start reciting Quran if you are not in the habit of reciting Quran every day, which should be a habit for every believer, but if you are not in that habit, now's the time to start. Now's the time to start stop reciting 10 minutes a day, 15 minutes a day. So you get accustomed to the recitation of the Quran. So when Ramadan comes around, you are able to increase that and recite

the Quran even more. Another way in which we can prepare for Ramadan is to start working on the list of habits that need to change. So maybe this Ramadan inshallah is the month when you start lowering your gaze, maybe this Ramadan inshallah is the month when you start observing hijab maybe this Ramadan inshallah is the month when you finally start praying slotless budget on time, whatever it is, each of us know our own mistakes. Each of us know our own sins, each of us know our own struggles. But Ramadan is the time where we can change that Ramadan is an opportunity for change is an opportunity for growth, it's an opportunity for development.

When you look at the early Muslims in how they treated this month, and compared to how we do, we see that for them, this was their favorite time of the year. This is the time of the year that they look forward to. And they never made the excuse that because it's Ramadan, you know, our productivity drops. Many of us do that, right? We say because I'm fasting, I can't work. Because I'm fasting, I have to cut down on my work hours, because I'm fasting, you know, I'm going to get lazy on the job. The Battle of butter was 14 Ramadan.

The Sahaba accomplish many, many amazing things in the month of Ramadan. It never got in the way of they didn't say Oh, Ramadan is coming. You know, that's, you're just in our houses. No, they continue doing what they had to do. They continue living their lives. But on top of that, they fasted and they read Quran and they prayed the taraweeh. So it wasn't one or the other. It's finding that balance. So to conclude, a reminder to us all that we are three weeks away from the most important month of the year, and nothing should distract us from the fact that Ramadan is the most important month of the year. It doesn't matter what's going on in our personal lives or the world.

Ramadan should still be a priority, and preparing for Ramadan should still be a priority. And we all must make time for that. We also learned that Ramadan is a time for increasing our Taqwa. And we said increasing our Taqwa is not just a Ramadan goal, it's a life goal. Our entire lives should be a spiritual journey of getting closer to Allah subhanho wa taala. Ramadan is there to accelerate the journey to push it forward to make it faster to make us get there quicker.

And how do we do that? We do that by fasting with purpose. We do that by reciting Quran. We do that by eating less. We do that by focusing on removing sins from our life in the month of Ramadan. If we do all of this, then Insha Allah we will benefit from this month inshallah we will leave Ramadan on a higher spiritual level than we entered it and we are able to keep that high level or at least maintain a part of it for the rest of the year. And this is the goal of Ramadan. We ask Allah to make us from those who are reached Ramadan and benefit from it. We ask Allah Subhana Allah to accept our good deeds and forgive our sins. Robin Artina Jr. Hasina worked with us. He has no Raghava nog

souhan Robbie is a massive fan of Salah mousseline with Hamdulillah.

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in Surah Baqarah, chapter number two verse 185, Allah subhanho wa Taala mentions the month of Ramadan, he says SHA Hello Ramadan, the month of Ramadan. It is very rare for Allah subhanho wa Taala to mention a month by name in the Quran. This is very rare. And the fact that Allah Shiva had mentioned this month by name means it's a special month. And in this verse, there are so many benefits. There are so many lessons and from the benefits of this verse is we see that Ramadan is linked to the Quran. We will Allah shahada this chakra Ramadan and Lizzy on Zilla feel Quran, the month of Ramadan in which the Quran was revealed

There are two interpretations to this verse. The first interpretation is that the first revelation ekra happen in Ramadan. The second interpretation is that the revelation of the entire Quran from the highest heaven to the lowest heaven was in the month of Ramadan. And it's possible that both of these happen in the month of Ramadan. So the Quran came down in the month of Ramadan, it doesn't mean that Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam received the entire Quran in the month of Ramadan because we know he received it in pieces over 23 years. Right? Are we talking about the revelation to Angel Jibreel and also the first revelation to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, but he

doesn't just mention this to be the month of the Quran. It mentions why the Quran was sent down. And here we combine between three different verses Surah Baqarah, to get the beautiful tafseer of the Quran with the Quran. Because in this verse, Allah says that in the month of Ramadan, he sent down the Quran as guidance for mankind. Right, this is verse 185, Surah Baqarah go right back to the beginning. Verse two of Surah Baqarah. Right. This is hudl McKean, guidance for those who have Taqwa, jump back again. Verse 183, of Surah Baqarah. You are commanded to fast in the month of Ramadan, the other content coons that you can get into the combine the three, the Quran was revealed

to guide mankind. But the guidance will only reach the people of Taqwa to gain taqwa, you fast amount of Ramadan. You see this in a circle of taqwa, you fast to increase your taqwa Taqwa increases your understanding of the Quran, the Quran was revealed to be understood.

You see, you put the three together and we understand the purpose of Ramadan. The month in which the Quran was revealed is the month for increasing Taqwa because you need to understand the Quran.

And so this Ramadan, let us all take the opportunity to connect with the Quran. That does make the Quran central to Ramadan.

Recite it as much as you can. Take the time to study the translation. Take the time to study the field with or with a qualified teacher. Take the time to reflect on it. Memorize the Buddha. If you can, let the Quran let Ramadan be the month of the Quran. Let it be for you the month of the Quran. And we see even in the life of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam or even in the

practice of the angel Jibreel Ali salaam Ramadan was the motto of the Quran. Because every Ramadan, the angel Jibreel would recite the entire Quran whatever had been revealed up to that point to the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wasallam every Ramadan, and in the last Ramadan of his life, you recite the entire Quran twice the angel deploy. So reciting the entire Quran in the month of Ramadan is not just a sunnah of human beings. It's a son of an angel. It's something the angels did, as part of their preservation of the Quran, that the angel she brought he or he salaam recited the entire Quran to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam in the month of Ramadan, to help him to preserve it in his

memory to get the right order and to make sure that it remains preserved. So we should take the time this Ramadan to connect to the Quran. Let us memorize it. Let us recite it daily. Let us understand it. Let us learn to the fight.

This verse gives us even more details about Ramadan. They have so many beautiful lessons we can take from this verse. I'm just going to highlight two more. Two more lessons from verse 185 of Surah Baqarah Allah shahada commands us in this first too fast, right? He says whoever witnesses the month should fast man Shahid amico Machado for the full year so whoever witnesses the month should fast. Then he says if you are secret traveling, you can make it up later. And then Allah says in the same verse, because Allah wants ease for you, he does not want difficulty for you. Now from this the scholars have extracted so many fickle lessons and Maxim's and principles. We learn from this to how

commands are worded in the Quran. Allah says whoever witnesses the month should fast this is how we command is worded in the Quran. Right or coup de Baliga Muslim is also how commands are worded in the Quran. Then we see the concept of exceptions, or lucsa. Right where Allah says, if you are sick or traveling, you can make it up later. And we know we have an entire section of things you can do later if you are sick or traveling or other kinds of concessions that happen if you are sick, or traveling away traveling. A lot of people ask why traveling. And for many of us, you know sitting in an air conditioned business class airplane. No, we wonder why the concessions for traveling.

Understand that for the bulk of human history. Traveling was the hardest thing to do. Now if you are going from South Africa to Makkah 500 years ago, you're probably not making it back. i Let's just put it that way. That's how difficult it was to travel. You know the highway robbers

Do you know the desert storms go into new countries we know we don't know anyone. There's no main means of communication traveling was difficult. So Allah made concessions for the traveler. But the beauty of our religion is even now when traveling is a bit easier. The concessions remain, because Allah booted into the religion for us. So we still get followed these concessions when we are traveling, because traveling is 100% Easy today, anyone who have been stuck in an airport for 48 hours knows that, right? They're traveling still has its difficulties, and it's hard hardships. And that's why they are concessions for the traveler. The concessions for the sick person, we already

understand that. And then we get the maximum effect. And this is why was 185 surah. Baqarah is one of my favorite verses in the Quran. Because Allah doesn't just give us a command in an exception. He gives us the why. Right in the previous verse, verse 183, he gives us why we should fast which is to increase our Taqwa. In the next verse 185. He gives us why he has exceptions to this rule. Why does he have exceptions to this rule? You read a lot become more useful while you read it because also, because Allah wants things to be easy for you. He does not want things to be hard for you. From here we get the Maxim's of many Maxim's number one that the religion is easy.

Imam Bukhari in his Sahil Guwahati has a chapter called The chapter of the religion being easy. The chapter of the religion being easy. And in this chapter, he has a hadith on the prophets lie some in which the prophets always said that this religion is easy, and the extremists make it difficult on themselves. The extremists will make it difficult on themselves. So the nature of this religion according to the scholars, is it's meant to be practical. It's meant to be something that anyone can practice. It's not meant to be so difficult that only a tiny group of people are able to follow it. That is human error to make Islam like that. Allah wants things to be easy for you. He doesn't want

things to be difficult for you. Another lesson we get from this verse. Another Maxim we get from this verse is when life gets difficult, the Sharia gets easier. When life gets difficult, the Sharia gets easier. And we saw this in action when we started with the

social distancing in a masjid. But when life gets easier to Sharia gets more difficult. So when you know things get easier in our life, the Sharia goes back to normal. So Allah did not reveal the Sharia to make life difficult for us. fasting in Ramadan is not about making life difficult for us. Praying Dharavi is not about making life difficult for us. It's there to make life easy for us to make reaching higher levels of spirituality easy for us to have to make self control and becoming better versions of ourselves easy for us. And when things get too difficult when you are sick, when you have chronic illness, when you are traveling and you know unable unable to keep your fast in the

concessions come in. And this is part of the beauty of the Sharia. And this is part of the beauty of our religion. So we ask Allah to help us to reach Ramadan and to make it a means of spirituality and growth for us. And to forgive us for levels. All of our sins are up when Tina Fey Jr Hasina will feel flooded. Huseynov working Governor Robin Hublin I mean as wodgina was reacting to Kurata Yoon which honestly would have been a mama Robin Allah to his inner inner Sina Wakanda Robin, Eastern karma molto Allah leadin Amin Commelina Robin Milner Mala po catalana viewer for an hour Finland our habla de Mola and open soon Allah comida Pauline Subhana robit is at the mercy of salaam Musa

Linville Hamdu lillahi rabbil aalameen