Heart Soul – Episode 30

Welcome to heart and soul on Qf radio with me Lauren booth your space to reflect today on this final day of Ramadan. It is a pleasure to welcome back Chef sajit Omar, Chef Sajid, as you will know has a bachelor's degree in Sharia and holds a master's degree in judiciary. He is renowned as an international speaker and the galvanize er of communities. Salam aleikum.

Every Ramadan, we battle with ourselves. And we win, we win the battle. Because we control ourselves from dawn until dusk, these long days, if you're in Northern Europe, these medium length days, but still 1012 hours, you know, when you're along the meridian line of the earth, and we have beaten the self into submission. And that is a great jihad. And in the last program, we were talking about the elements of this self control.

The first level is of the human being is where evil is easy for the self. And this is a hated position where you just stroll, and you go to places where unpleasant things are taking place. And you listen to talk, which you know, is maligning somebody and you shouldn't be doing it. All of these minor and major unpleasantness is that we take part in they're easy for us, doesn't matter, let's just do these things. But then comes the second stage, which God loves the Praiseworthy, when we are self reproaching, I wish I hadn't done that, I'm not going to do that, again, the positive affirmations, I am going to work on this, and I am going to change. And then imagine reaching the

third stage, the content itself, I don't need to do the bad anymore. It's disgusting. I don't want to pollute my body, and I don't want to harm others. And ease comes after that. So today, we will be talking about the way forward for us all to continue, now that the blessing of Ramadan is leaving us chef take us on this journey. We all have this you know, and that was a beautiful summary that you just shared. Yes. Always, you know,

sad moments that we experienced at the end of a loved one.

It's just a special month, if not our joy every year. It's tickets are booked, you know, in advance, it will arrive comes into our home as a guest and it just illuminates our home.

It brings with it forgiveness. It brings you to freedom from the hellfire. It brings with it magnanimous rewards,

brings with it fasting, which is just good for the spirit for the for the bodies for the heart, and it brings with it the night prayer that teaches us so much it punishes our parents and causes us to connect with our inner self. And it makes us hear the inner voice of guidance that always calls out to us you know during the entire year but we fail to hear it because we drowning in the noise of chaos of our jobs and you know living the life of this world. So Amazon really comes in and leaves for us perspective. So very sad moment that the end is leaving us

when it's bought so much you feel sentimental

and you feel those mixed emotions because you know what's on my mind leaving courtroom it blesses the Muslims with the purity and then celebration. But you really don't want to think about the happiness of the next day you just want to be with your with your sadness of of the last day. And you know what, all this is just kind of event in beach. It's really a sign of belief in God Almighty and deletion his message and gratitude to God Almighty. So you know, if you are feeling down then congratulations cheat, which if you haven't digested the reality of the month that you've just witnessed, now, you know, Ramadan is is is a must. But the Lord of Ramadan is always with my back.

That's the focus that we should look at. Ramadan may come and go, but the Lord from above will always remain. Right. And the same Lord

gave us the month of Ramadan is still our Lord during every month of the year. So this mandates that we should be the best that we can be and take inspiration from Ramadan as varied across the remaining remaining months, whilst having hope that God Almighty will bless us again, in terms of assisting us, as human beings, because we are weak as human beings by bringing them on back, we further inspire us again, and no doubt we as Muslims are always in need of inspiration. You know, I always tell

my audiences that, you know, every company has a board of directors, and every human being should have a board of directors as well, as a board of directors, by video mentors, influenced by people who you take counsel with, you bounce things off, you bounce ideas off, you have a spiritual mentor, you have a business mentor, you have, you know, different mentors in life, we should strive to find those books, and request them to answer our calls and take our messages and just, you know, bounce things off them, so that we always remain on track. Because Ramadan is that month that comes about to teach us how to remain on track. So moving forward, there's so many things we can we can discuss

so many things that I can say, you know, you gave me three hours to talk on this topic, I'll happily do so. Absolutely. So firstly, firstly, you know, when when you watch this cartoon called Bob the Builder,

Bob the bill, but you can even learn from from obstacles above the bill that always says, Yes, we can write from a van comes to teach us a Yes, you. What do I mean by that. So the one of the inspirations now that you should pick forward after a moron is you have the ability to be whatever you want to be, you have the ability to be righteous, you have the ability to be pi, you have the ability to leave the bad habits that you hate, you have the ability to bring the good habits that you want to bring about in your life. Why? Why? Because in Ramadan, you spend an entire month leaving things which are normally permissible for you to

write. If you can leave things which are normally permissible for you to do that, no doubt you can leave those things which are impermissible for you to do because by default, it should be harder for us to leave permissible things. Why? Because there's no punishment for doing that. It should be harder for us to leave the miserable thing, and easier for us to leave in the midst of broken family. That's not the case before Amazon, but we opened after Amazon that's the case, right?

Right. Before Amazon, we say, you know, yeah, I asked about this the origin to do a section they had access, which is hard to see. Is it harder for you to do bad things or to? Is it harder for you to leave bad things or to leave good things? And they were scratching their head? And I said, Why are you scratching your head? Don't you know, if you do a bad thing? There's a mighty health IoT. So if the consequences are great, surely it should be easy for you to leave that bad thing. Right? That's the right paradigm. Unfortunately, our paradigms have shifted in the wrong way. But if you buy into the system, if you walk down this road, you're going to fall into a dark hole and you'll never come

out of it. Do you need any more convincing to leave that road? I'm changing my route straightaway. You're changing your straightaway. So the reality is, you know, God Almighty says if you eat permissible foods will go to Paradise. If you drink from the simple drink, you'll go to Paradise if you if you get married and have marital relations with your spouse will go to Paradise. in Ramadan, God Almighty is telling you, you need the things that you normally are allowed to do and you get paradise because of the

way you answer the call and you do that. So you've changed yourself. If you can do whatever you want to do, if you can stay away from the permission from what is normally permissible, but know that you can stay from that away from that which is impermissible. So the best lesson that we can take away with the possible promo bar is yes, you can. Let's summarize. Before we go to the break them what chef Sajid has brought to us. So some practical tips if we have managed for 30 days to eat nothing during the whole of Ramadan. from dawn till dusk, we can eat less we can be aware of the Sunnah of the Prophet peace be upon him a third for food, a third for water and a third for air on the stomach

will leave us spiritually and physically enlivened. It will give us the energy to increase our awareness and not be too locked into our body just digesting food all the time. Let's let's take that forward. And what about this? We have focused on our embodied in our families. Everybody has been told in in families where Ramadan is so important, right let's pray on time. We've changed our habits. We've put things aside maybe we've turned off the TV that's what we do in my house. 30 days.

I think outside Islamic programs or watching so we've taken all of these external amusements right down or out completely. Don't let everything just rush back in. Don't throw it all out. Let's let's, let's increase their Bardot and encouragement to one another. And another area, which is beautiful to continue is good deeds. And remember, you don't have to be wealthy you to to do a good deed. It's not all about money. A good deed can be a smile, a good deed can be a kindness. Let's be kind and do these small good deeds every day for the rest of the year and see how everything changes around us and we'll be back with more after this break. Peace be upon

the most compassion, the Most Merciful, the most

often

the most compassionate, the Most Merciful.

King of all kings, the master

His name is

Jesus

numero

uno, it's kind of me.

Start in the name of

the most compassionate, the Most Merciful.

The Most Compassionate, the most.

You're listening to heart and soul on Qatar foundation radio with me Lauren booth, sharing his gems of knowledge on this final day of Ramadan. With us today is Chef Sajid Ouma welcome back chef. We were talking about the way forward and EAD is coming.

Bless it eat a time of celebration. Can you just tell us how the Prophet peace be upon him? encourage the Muslims to celebrated? Yes.

It is indeed a day of celebration. And in Islam, we celebrate worshiping God Almighty. So yes, we're going to have a party in a permissible way. But God Almighty, when you say celebrate, he blesses us with a prayer that doesn't exist on any other day. And that is known as the prayer. And the prayer, you know, is meant to be a show of mighty unity. And that's what the prophet peace and blessings be upon him. I encourage us not to do the prayer in a mosque or in the masjid, but to go out to open plane land. So it can encompass a larger group of people. And everybody prays together. And the Prophet peace and blessings be upon him teaches us that God Almighty, please, 1000s and 1000s and

1000s, from the outside on that day, when the people come together for the eat gathering after having fasted the month of Ramadan, and

God Almighty forgive the people of that gathering of challenges mercy upon them. So God Almighty is proud of his creations out of worship is also, you know, when we talk about having a party, and we speak about this aspect of Islam, you know, you party to worship, right, we have a special prayer. Islam says, You have an exciting day. Don't forget who you are, and you are a Muslim. And because you don't listen, don't forget the poor people don't have fun, what's your neighbors hungry? So one of the compulsive actions on the day of eat before the prayer is to give out a charity. give out a charity, which is about 2.5 kilograms of the staple diet of the city or country that you live in.

You purchase that product for its cash equivalent, if that's what's better for the poor person, and you find poor people and you give out this charity before they eat prayer, so that they can celebrate eat with their families as well. So this is another amazing aspect related to the day of Islam. And this concept of, you know, celebrating. So, you know, God Almighty gives us a day of eating and advisory on the day of eat, which is the biggest celebration. Nobody's allowed.

fast, it's compulsory that you don't fast and if you fast you simple, right? Because, you know, fasting is for God Almighty. Worship is for bottom line. And God Almighty should be worshipped, how he wants to be worshipped, that how you and I want to worship Him. God Almighty doesn't want us to worship Him by fasting, on the day of celebration. So we are once again, fasting we must eat, because eating is also a show of gratitude that we fasted. So we recognize the blessings of food. And because of that fasting, we made, you know, holistic resolutions that we will not waste food anymore, we will be more charitable and think about the people who have less food because while this

The food is actually a blessing, before we eat, without even recognizing the blessing of it, we should take it for granted. So now we will stop taking it for granted. And because food will always remain a blessing, God Almighty says he takes a day to eat, and we enjoy the blessings of God Almighty apologies from the mercy of God Almighty upon us. So this is the day of eat. In a nutshell, the day of happiness is the day of show of love, they have unity to do coming together.

You know, beat the rich feed the poor, it's about happiness. And, you know, gratitude and being grateful, beautiful mighty for blessing us of the month of Ramadan and being able to pass them and now that is a beautiful image. What I have found is in places Saudi like Manchester, that Iied has become a day of shaytans return on a chariot with all his followers, rampaging down the curry mile. car horns hooting, I once actually apologized to policeman on the streets. And I said, I'm sorry, this is not what Muslims should do. This is not Islamic eat. It was more like a football match with prostitution. And I saw our sisters, it was horrible chef. And it was so sad. And my daughters were

crying and said, Mommy, we you know, there were new Muslims just converted and they said, Please take us out of this. So I'm off. Don't let shaytan Don't let him in the form of these bad habits, this excess that was never from our Deen from our understanding, charge back into our lives and overwhelm them. If you do that on eat. It's a good indication of the rest of the year. And I just wanted to repeat a very exciting moment for me, which chef Sajid has just introduced because I didn't know it before. Imagine that the Prophet peace be upon him has recommended to go and feed the poor before the IID prayer, and I'm imagining how that can work. Because before the prayer has now

become about, have you got your high heeled shoes? How are you curling your hair? You know, who's got the best jewelry on?

And I wonder how it How can it work? Share? How can we encourage our family to get out of bed early again? You know what? It's funny that you say that because as well. And I was touring the UK universities a couple of years ago, and actually spoke to all the students that I know from from the Muslims that attended the program, have asked us what on earth is describing causes? flags out loud music playing and exactly, I felt exactly as you said, Satan, the devil was out in on the chariot. Celebrating the day he was released. Yeah.

You know, and and I said, What is it and you know, I wouldn't be brave and say 10 times out of 1010 times out of 10 if people were celebrating it this way, they never fasted, the month of Ramadan will never live up to what it was. There's no way you can live. Ramadan is in all its its dynamics. And, and and its flamboyance and its beauty, and then come out with a product of the BRP such as what what you just described, there's no way there's absolutely no way. And that's why I mentioned to the listeners and you know, to those who witness these things, is look did not judge this now, based on the people that we we have to say this back judge is not based on the sources, judges are based on

the first generation of Islam that sources into life and and made those sorts of living memory. Look at how they did it. So you know, I'm really I want to apologize to the police officer. I actually actually shared an apology to the languishing community, because I was actually informed by some that when they do arise actually move out of the city for a day or two or three, they go on holiday

numbers, because it's so disruptive, so noisy, and I felt embarrassed and ashamed and I would offer an apology on behalf of my

Fellow Muslim brothers and sisters, we've made a grave mistake to these people and explain to them that look, this is not Islam, sadly, the culture is something else. I don't mistake it for Islam, because Islam is a religion that does not deserve to be implicated when the crime is with others, and so I can relate to that I can relate. Now, you know, what's interesting is learning from it. When he tells us to pass the mantle from us. He tells us why. And he's in the month of Ramadan. He doesn't think so that you may attain God's consciousness, it seems so so that perhaps you may think, perhaps, perhaps, perhaps, right. So if, you know,

God, consciousness is a gift given to those who live on fortnum. Amazon, it's not a guarantee. It's not a guarantee that if you fast, you're just going to get God conscious.

Right. And that is why God Almighty, the Prophet peace and blessings be upon him said that who ever does not look after his speech, you ever speak spoke speech, that God Almighty is not in need of you leaving your food and your drink. Because the fight is what is done. But if that has been volatile thing, it's substantial. It's not just fast for the sake of it, and then do what you want. Just stay away from the food and drink so that nobody can hold you accountable that behave how you want to behave. No, the farm is a means to an end, that by you detaching yourself from the food and the drink and the mundane activities of life, then, you know, your soul will have a chance to be

replenished. Because the past is a means to an end. The past is a means to taqwa. It's not something in and of itself, it's serving the purpose is aging. You know, it's like if you're injured, and they put you in an oxygen tank, it's not about you being viewing the oxygen tank. But then, you know, you don't feel the oxygen can properly because that's what sport people do, I believe it's like an oxygen tank to put you in. And it aids your your muscles healing faster or something like that. But you don't close the tents properly, or you don't follow the instructions. You don't fit the way you're supposed to sit you exert pressure on the injured joints, right? You come out of the oxygen

sense, without being killed right from the

tearing system without being cured. The same thing with the past. If you get considered the past tense that you go in, it protects you from other elements. But then you abused the nature of the environment that you're in, that fast is not going to give you what it is designed to give you. So God Almighty says perhaps you may think that for a while, because fasting is easy. Leaving food and drink is easy. But developing consciousness is hard. Thank you. That is hard. That needs that strike. You know, we're speaking about that, you know, the conquest of the self. You have to conquest yourself. But how to do that? Did chef Sajid Omar has been our guest throughout the month

of Ramadan, and make a dua for him and his family to encompass and feel surrounded by joy, all the future and into the next life. We thank you, Chef. And that's where we leave heart and soul the blessed month of Ramadan has departed. We're going away as well. And we leave you with this. May God provide you all whatever community you're in with blessings in the coming day of aid with your families with joy, and for us all to attain God consciousness, better behavior, more piety and kindness to one another in the years to come. Thank you, Nora. Thank you Isabelle share for your hard work. Thanks to Qf radio for this beneficial series. And a special thanks to all my wonderful

guests and to all IED Mubarak.