Heart Soul – Episode 21

Welcome to heart and soul with me, Lauren booth your place to reflect. So here we are day 21 of the Muslim fast of Ramadan.

We've made it through the first three weeks. And we've got the strength of the last 10 days of spiritual reward to keep us going for those outside the faith. It's incredible to see people in the heat going about their normal daily lives, and doing without food and water for the days, and days and days. But it's important to understand that Ramadan is a period of fasting, and reflection and devotion. And that generosity and sacrifice which we observe,

makes it unlike any other festival. It is an intensely spiritual experience. Perhaps you didn't know this, but the word Ramadan actually comes from the Arabic root word for parched first, or sunbaked ground.

And aren't we seeing that in Qatar right now, the ground is so dry and the heat is shimmering upwards. And that word Ramadan, it's so expressive of the hunger and thirst that is felt by those who are spending this month in a fast

other holidays. Well, they are to do with indulgence. But Ramadan is by nature, a time of sacrifice. It is the one thing that God says to Muslim believers. This is actually for him. You see when we pray, it's for us. Our observances do us good, they break our day up, they de stress us. They give us that time to reflect that other understandings and faith groups have as well. A Buddhist will do well, by their observances, by their chanting, by their self cleansing by those rituals. And in the same way a Muslim who breaks our day, five times coming out of the office, when we instead of having a cigarette break, we'll go and pray. These are our renewals. But fasting is in the Islamic

understanding for God alone. And through fasting and Muslim experiences hunger and thirst. And it allows us to sympathize with those in the world who have little to eat every day. Our grumbles are something that are so rare to feel now. And yet there are millions and millions around the world who were in this position every single day. Imagine how that feels. This parched mouth that we have this banging headache. Imagine if that it was our experience every single day, going to work in that way, waking up in that way, and going to sleep in the same way. I remember once watching a phone in television show in the Arab world. And a man from Africa called the chef who was on the program and

said chef,

I have no food and no drink. So does my fast count if I do it for the sake of Allah. In other words, every day is like Ramadan for him throughout the year with enough food to keep him going only and the chef began to cry. Because of that realization that in just nine days, we will be entering eat

and we will be able to have an abundance of food again. And we'll probably if we're honest and if we don't control ourselves go back to the snacking and the foraging.

But millions of people don't have that choice. And this month of fasting helps us recognize that

this increased devotion helps Muslims to feel closer to their Creator and to recognize that everything we have in life is a blessing from him. It's a time of increased charity as well. It's a time for Muslims to develop feelings of generosity and goodwill towards others. And we invite everybody to partake in this this month. It is recommended that any generous acts you can do do them now.

This special time, people will appreciate them more. And you may feel an even greater sense of reward. Who knows. So if you have food, you're not going to eat today in your home, package them up and take them to someone around you who you see driving along while you're in a car. Or when you walk those few meters to the air conditioned office, find that person, give them food, give them food for their family, give them beautiful shampoos, give them something lovely that you don't really need. Let's be people who share more who are able to let go of things. This is also what this month is about. It is about detachment.

detachment means that the things we own no longer own us, we can give it all we can keep it, it doesn't matter so much to us. And that makes us independence, spiritual people through this month of self control, and Muslim practices are good manners, better speech. And we learn, we reconnect with good habits that we hope to keep going for the rest of the years.

And we change our routines, don't we, we have chance to establish a more healthy lifestyle. So let's try and these last nine days, sisters, to not have any sweets in the evening, or at least to take down that sugar content. And to keep this up the rest of the year for our own health, and for the health of our families. And if you're smoking still, let's see if we can detach from that habit that damages our lungs, and can lead our children to an addiction later on. This is a time of spiritual wealth. And I'm joined with sister it's a time of spiritual wealth. And joining me today is Sister aneesa. kasun well being advisor and hijama specialists Salam Alikum Riley consider moratalla. We

talked a little bit earlier about Heidi's that helped change your life once you entered Islam and how your special interest was in the life of the Prophet and how he was health driven. And the advice given? You mentioned one Hadees about honey and hijama. What was the other Hadith that changed your life? Okay, well, I'll actually give you two more. One of them was

where he said that there are two things that we will neglect, one is our time and one is our health. So I took that as right, I'm not going to neglect those two things, you know, I'm going to make sure that that's not, that's not me. And the second one, which is ultimately one of my favorite is take the benefit of five before five. And this one to me breaks up all areas of your life. So it's take the benefit of your youth, before your old age, take the benefit of your health before your sickness, take the benefit of your wealth before your poverty, take the benefit of your free time before you're preoccupied. And ultimately your life before your death.

That is very, very deep, deep knowledge there. Especially because if you look into it, so much of it is about rushing your time how we spend it, your youth don't waste it your energy, it is about energy and time really, isn't it? Yes. And it does coincide with like I said that the one before about, you know neglecting, if you have these five, and this is what I tried to do personally as a mother of four, you know, and that my children range from one to 20. So I've got that kind of, you know, every child at that critical moment.

You know, I have to obviously balance my time, efficiently. And you know, think about it if you're sick, if you're sick, you know, you can't take the benefit of not only prayer, but maybe going out and visiting a sick person, maybe, you know, walking or spending time with your children, you can't do it. So I think for me as well as a Muslim. Islam is a preventative way of living it, you know, prevents you. And if you really take the benefit of those things before then hopefully, you know you won't fall into error.

Tell us how you manage your time. Okay, so

I am a mother of four, like I said, and I homeschool. I also work a lot with the community in the UK and in Doha. I like to

you know, balance my time by making sure that I also do something that the Prophet peace be upon him recommended which was

You know, balance your time with your family, with your business and with your faith. So, I think this is important, because I see a lot of people and a lot of people actually come up to me and they say, Well, I'm too much on one side, you know, so we may, you know, be too much, for instance, working so, and you end up neglecting your family, you know, you may, you know, you know, be too much with your family that you neglect your house, you know, things like this. So, I think, definitely, for me, I create this kind of wheel, a hand

on a second let's let's talk through the life wheel, because I think that's a very interesting concept. And it goes right to the heart of rights in Islam, the prophet peace be upon him talked about, you know, the Rights of the Child, the rights of the family, the rights of the wife, when there were when there was conflict and times of conflict, and the soldiers went away, the prophet peace be upon him was very aware, for example of the rights of the wife to have the soldier not be on campaign for months and months at a time they had to come back, give the wife the support she needed. So in this day, when we talk about work life balance, Islam already had that mapped out now,

how do we do that in a life, we'll just give us a brief version of how we could go away and do that fantastic, right. So a lot of life coaches use what's called a life wheel. And it's where you have a circle. And it's split up into segments, a bit like an orange, you know, it can be anything from five to, you know, eight segments, and you write your most important areas. So you might write your family, your business, your happiness, your your wealth, your health, definitely put your health, your faith, you know, so you put the most important areas in your life. And then you number them one to 10, and you color them in, why do you number them on what do the numbers mean? So you number them

one to 10, according to how you feel that day. So it's really important to date it because for me and my family, and the people that I work with, we do try to do this every month. Okay? So for instance, okay, if my health might be a five out of 10, because I need to increase my activity, and I need to maybe eat less meat. And then I write down my actual goals, and they might be my goals. So I've not only got a visual look and perspective of my life,

as but I've also got my goals, so I know what I'm working towards. And that is really important. And once you write your goals, then you can actually embark on taking action, you know, martial law, may Allah bless us and give us all the bad occur of time, we often feel that we're rushed off our feet, and we miss use time, and we are in an age of entertainment, where if you watch a movie every night, suddenly 14 hours, yes, a whole waking day has gone. And I often say to my children, you won't remember the day you sat and watch the TV all day, or you know, whatever movies, you're streaming, but you will remember the day you went on your bike or you went on the adventure, you just fell out

with your friend, all of these learning experiences. Definitely. And like you said, How do I balance my time? I'm, I think, I wouldn't say I'm the master, but I love to do lots of things at once. So I might be in the kitchen cooking, but at the same time, I might have a weight around my leg. And I might be lifting my leg and doing some side lunges, you know? So, yeah, that's a definite way. So do you really endorse the whole thing of actually losing weight and being helped, you know, while you're doing housework can actually work? Yes, I for many years, I didn't have a Hoover. And actually I was bought my first Hoover by somebody who suffered from a similar illness because they

couldn't, you know, see me suffering but I swept my whole house every day because I've got children who have got dust allergies, and that was my exercise. And that was my way of also keeping humble you know, in a world of technology, you know, we can kind of get caught up with having lots of cars and machines to do everything from us. But you know, there was something that I learned when I went back to Jamaica when I was about 13 and that was how proud you feel when you hand wash. You know we were so used to just put it in the washing machine clicking a button pouring a bit of soap powder or liquid in but the physical side of actually you know washing and also when I went back to Africa and

I watched these women they were wonderfully strong and you know not rifled with pain and and disease but they were washing their clothes and they will move in their bodies. Now something that we have to you know include in our daily lives. Thank you sister and EC you're listening to heart and soul here on Qf radio. We'll be back to explore humility. After this Nasheed break

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you're listening to heart and soul on Qatar foundation Radio 93.8 with me, Lauren booth, sharing her essential habits based on the life of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him and his recommendations his sister, and Lisa, welcome Assalamu alaikum. We were talking before the Nasheed about

humility, and being humble because sometimes, often now, our external becomes more important to us and more precious than our internal life. We can spend an hour on our hair. And I experienced this when I do television work as well, in the mainstream, that brilliant women will spend two hours on hair and makeup and 15 minutes, actually researching very important topics. And this is a sad state of affairs for all of us. And if we look put them in a spiritual realm, how much of our day is actually spent in searching where we are emotionally? How do the emotions and the the activities of the body and health tie in together? Well, I try to keep everything really simple. And that's from

being a teacher. And also being a mother. You know, I don't overcomplicate things because I can't, you know, take everything in. And I and and often when I'm teaching, I talk about our bodies being like a car. It is a machine.

It is not us, we our our souls, you know, our bodies are just physical things that change actually, you know, we get new lungs, we grow new fingernails, you know our skins, cells are falling off and reproducing all the time. So our body is just a physical thing a bit like a car that can visit. It's like a vehicle that just you know takes us to places. So if we spend so much time for instance, shining our car and buffing it and making it look all nice, you know, we tend to forget that we need to use it and that it can have some type of benefit. Now, this is what I love about, you know, teaching children because it gives you that essence of remembering who you are as a person. And I

think that is something that we've got caught up in

As of today, if we spend so much time on our exterior, we forget about who we are who we really are, we forget about our heart. So we tend to our outside, but we're not actually tending to our inner self. And that's what we need to concentrate on, perhaps we can take a moment just to consider subdued as well. And the incredible miracle of that position for the human being, it is a fantastic way of, you know, of not just, you know, bowing and praying to, should we describe that position to everybody who may not know, okay, so. So Jude is when you actually put your forehead on the ground. And you are, it's a prayer moment, it's a movement that is in our five daily prayers. It's

fantastic, actually, but scientifically, and medically, it has been proven that it helps detoxify you as well. You know, and it actually expels radiation from your body. So it is it does have physical benefits as well as spiritual benefits, especially when done on the earth. Isn't it the one time as well that your head is actually

beneath your heart? So it reverses the flow of blood, which of course is very healthy and other traditions headstands Yeah, third method of doing that just anything to give your lower body that break? Yes, I used to work with a specialist who used to have one of those crazy machines that used to turn people upside down. So you'd strap them in, you know, and, and I used to say, you only need to pray five times a day to get that benefit and plus a lot more. Finally, and the name of your book that you recently released on health and well being. It's called 12 steps to health naturally. And where can we find that? You can find that on Amazon sister and Lisa May Allah subhanho wa Taala

count us amongst those who remember him and treat our bodies gently and are grateful to him, and that we are remembered in a greater gathering in the heavenly realm. May the divine blessings of this month of peace be upon every one of us, Santa Monica Valley concilium Mara Medallia.

I'll be back with you tomorrow for another episode of heart and soul Assalamu alaikum the producer for this series is a hab Usha