Ramadan Reset #03 Inner Outer Health – Eddie Deen

Welcome to Ramadan reset with me Your host Lauren booth. This podcast series is sponsored by what tan.org.uk delivering services to Syrians in need. Salaam Alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. May Allah Allah bless you. It's a great, great honor to have you here today. Well, they come with Salam rahmatullah wa barakato. Peace be with you. Hunger, love family good. It's like everywhere else locked down. But everybody's doing great hamdulillah fasting is going great. Fasting is something that we look forward to hunter launched a spiritual bootcamp that we're all a part of now. So it's a, it's here and has a lot, we're happy for it to talk to me a little bit about about the changes in

your life idea in the first Ramadan after you change from being you know, a street kid with a bit of a reputation to to this kind of strict, strict fasting, or Bismillah. It just goes back to the whole, the whole beauty of of Islam and Islam simply, as you know, I always like to define words because you never know who's listening. So Islam is to because everybody, at one point in their life, they have to make a conscious decision or they're making conscious decisions or unconscious decision to submit to something they're either submitting to their desires, to money to fame, to their own ideas. But as Muslims, we submit our whole selves entirely, we strive to submit to the

Creator of the heavens and the earth. So it gives you now by doing that you have a game plan. You understand that? It's impossible for you to play the lotto. We don't gamble, obviously. But just striking an example that if somebody was just because we use logic, and we also, we know that if somebody was because it's humanly impossible to play the lotto, for instance, every day for 30 days, you know, and when that'd be impossible, it's more impossible for this whole creation and everything in it to create itself. So we're doing something that is just natural, we're not covering up the fitrah we call it the natural inclination to submit to our Creator, the one and only and then now,

it just illogical that he would not have a, a purpose for us, and a game plan for us a blueprint for life and now we have that blueprint for life. And fasting is just one of those things, and it's there to help us to gain more consciousness of the Creator and it's something that's in the tradition, from all the messages that were sent they all came with the same message worship the creator and the creation be morally upright, do good deed follow that messenger would send for you you were living during the time of Jesus you have to obey Him that worship Him and worship the One God Moses at his time he was the messenger Abraham of his time at Muhammad peace and blessings be

upon them as a final messenger they all fast that also so we're continuing that legacy is that legacy and it's amazing about fasting is amongst other things, you see people there's a lot of bullies out there. So you see people bullying the Muslims you know, oh, why are you women, you know, wearing Hijab covering up but now we got this pandemic everybody's almost like wearing the cover right there for sitting on the people. Why are you guys

not drinking alcohol while you can? I mean we come to know that look, we don't have to play guesswork and see if it's good it's not you know, they just have a new study that came out not too long ago that every 10 seconds someone is dying from alcohol and now the new study is that even a little bit no amount of alcohol is good for you. So I'm gonna love the game plan tells us look the blueprint tells us because it's from the divine no guesswork, also now fasting fasting is something that hundreds we don't do it for the health benefits. But now you have so many people that are there are talking about intermittent fasting, fasting for health and cancer and all these things. But now

we get the best of both worlds. So and that's all because we we we came to this Deen sincerely, you looked at the evidence and now we can go ahead and trust in our Creator and benefit from from the spiritual benefits and from the health benefits that are all there in this Deen. It's a full package. Everything for life that we need is in the deen, we just got to get grounded in it, trust in a law and just go ahead and implement it to the best of our ability. So Pamela, how do we communicate the joy of self control in a society that lionize is do what you want when you want particularly America? I think well, that's interesting. You say that? Because, look, we know that

look, when you have the game plan. I mean, when you have purpose in life, when you're living your life, according to not your whims and desires, but according to how your Creator wants you to live. Now, you have everything laid out. You don't there's not that void in your heart. And we see that here in the States. We are in America, we're 5% of the world's population, but the people they end up consuming 80% of the world's cocaine. Can you imagine?

Yeah, 30 more percent of people are on prescription drugs, I mean, on painkillers and Prozac and whatnot. And now you have also during this lockdown, people now would usually have would go to the pub, they'd go to really

leanness to the pub. So the nightclubs weekend would come, they can't do that now. So you see, people are having to, to deal with all this pressure you see suicide is on the rise because people have lived for money they live for their job and everything just vanishing from their eyes. So now you see suicide, suicide is on the rise, domestic abuse all of these things. But Islam helps us again, we are human beings, we also have feelings, we have ups and downs tribulations. But look, Islam gives us the coping mechanisms, it gives us the antidote to all these ills. So we don't become part of the statistics, we become part of the solution. So that's why it's important that we try to

show Islam live Islam and communicate this message. And people have given every that's the thing that amazes me. I mean, people have tried everything, they put earrings here, they're everywhere, tattoo everywhere, everywhere, you know, you can see people are unhappy when you go to a boot camp, it's, it's intense, for a shorter amount of time. And it's supposed to produce more, the most amount of results in this short amount of time. And you're supposed to develop certain patterns or use certain habits in that boot camp. So they push you to the fullest to the max now. So this is what we're coming into. And you have, again, because you're a Muslim doesn't mean that you're not prone

to make errors and mistakes. So you might have some Muslims lighten up cigarettes, you might have some Muslims going to the clubs, still drinking or whatnot. I mean, we're human beings. So Islam is perfect. Muslims are the human beings who are trying to live its life, the more they're living Islam, the more they're grounded in it, the more they're going to be away from these vices. So now, the Ramadan is there to help. It's amazing because even you have psychologists and experts say that, you know, in order for a, for a habit to develop, you need a certain amount of time, you know, three to four weeks plus. So this is right there. no guesswork, you have a month now, to go ahead and

implement certain things you might order sometimes curse words you might be prone to there's no such thing as non white live

blacklights all online. So if you're saying things with your tongue that you shouldn't be saying, now you want your fast to be accepted because it doesn't matter if you're fasting from food, but you're not reframing from slandering people from gossiping from saying bad words, curse words, etc. You don't lose your fat. So any person who's grounded in their Deen, they know that. So now in this boot camp, this spiritual boot camp, you're trying to raise up, to get to another spiritual level to get closer to your maker to your Creator to God Almighty Allah so you want to please Him you want to get the most benefit and reward. So now you're striving hard to stay away from all these vices to

the best of your ability. So you're fast to be accepted, you get the tremendous reward and inshallah you can come out of this bootcamp of this Ramadan, we're now you've left off, you came in a certain way you're gonna leave in Sharla better. And now you're more tuned to go ahead and, and deal with the rest of life's journey that goes on from from here and you don't want to end up losing out on all this great opportunity and reward and that's one of the things about signs of your Ramadan being accepted is if you come in and you leave better now from the Ramadan.

So I wonder on a personal note, brother Eddie, what do you need from this Ramadan? What What did you want to reset in either your family life or in yourself and perhaps, you know, as Muslims, we have a slightly different take on Corona and this plague that has been sent down because you know, the pubs are closed, the bars are closed or closed, people can't get the things that they wanted to fill ourselves I was out today for the first time in four days in, in Istanbul, and all of the clothes shops are shut. All of the clothes shops that were so important before everybody would have been already probably focused on their eat outfits, let alone everybody else wanting to go to clubs and

wanting to get that fast fashion. Now, none of those matters. What matters is where are you going to get your dates? Where are you going to get your water? We're back to basics. What do you feel about that? It's amazing that from from something that now in just a matter of a short amount of time, how everything can go ahead and just change life as we know it. Just in a matter of moments everything is just is changed and and from something you can't even see.

So it's it's ironic I was thinking about this. I was like wow, for the people who are also crying like you said, you know, crying for help. A lot of times they cover up which naturally in them, and then they call themselves atheism or agnostic. And now because they cannot screw their Creator, they cannot but now they've relied on certain testimony because they nobody and I've heard I've heard the argument that you can see the krona under a microscope but

How many of us have a microscope in the back of our pocket? How many are actually, you know, going in to the lab and looking at it? No, you relied on testimony, somebody testified that this is it. And that's how it is. But we have more people that are deserving of following and believing is that these messengers that God Almighty sent, who are the most honest, the most trustworthy, and they all came to the same message. So now with this Coronavirus, it's also an another aspect there's we look for the good in situations that last one dollars as made it easy. I mean, he's made it where now you can go ahead and because work has been shut off, many people make the excuse even one of Muslims

that how am I going to provide for my family this then the other guy, they're so busy that they can open up the Quran, you know, they have time for seeking knowledge, what's the excuse now, so now you have the opportunity, perfect opportunity, because you're isolated, you're at home, if we lose this opportunity, it's going to be a big mistake. Same thing with our brothers, let's say we start with them first, who, who just, you know, they were just really vigilant about getting to the clubs, you know, they were just like, this was on their mind and going out or whatnot. It's a sad reality, but in reality, it's closed now the door the cubs are closed, we're being entertained from every avenue.

So those those those doors are closed. Some of our sisters who we love dearly our sisters in the dean Some are very scared and it's scary sometimes worrying about what other people are going to say what they're gonna think. And now they were kind of like worried about, let's say taking it to the next level. Right? She's working out and he's working on their character so important in the dean to work on your character but also Allah has other things that we have to implement he job is one of them. So now we've been scared Oh, what's he gonna say? What's she gonna say? Love move the whole world for you. Look at that. Now nobody nobody I actually when I went out I was just trying I was

putting on mine. You know, the thing I was I just kind of

Yeah, yeah.

I was just putting it putting on you know, but no one's gonna if you were in a job because it's like now people are not focused on that now it's like it's a totally different environment it's not it's it's something that I feel like last month Allah is moved the world for you said you can go ahead and benefit from these things now. In a way and you can really think think that another thing is, there's a beautiful one Noah lei Salaam, Noah, one of the messengers of Allah when he was asked, he lived 950 years and he was asked how do you see this life? He said, I saw this life like a house with two doors. I came in one and I exited the other. That's this life. So now Deaf is just the

mainstream media just pumping fear into the people fear into the people and this is you know, in and of itself can kill you. But

the one thing is that now death is something that I mean, it should wake up you know, there's a there's there's a hadith attributed to the Prophet Muhammad SAW said the intelligent person is the one who think about death, right?

So you think about the reality of this life that it can end at any time I can. I can die tomorrow. What's my purpose? Why am I viewing you you have it laid out for you? now's a good time during this pandemic. I just interviewed a professional fighter who said that because of this Coronavirus, he ended up coming to Islam. Exactly why because what we're talking about because now everything calmed down, meaning the threat now he just puts like forced to go back to thinking that isolation got him to thinking that's why we have more people in prisons accepting a smile because again, they're an isolated and now they get to think they get to ponder the rat race of life just takes people away

all the entertainment out there everything the rat race gets people you know, more consumed with materialism. But now it should be a time where you should really ponder and think what's my purpose in life? Where am I going when I die? You know, if I'm Muslim here, you already had the purpose get to know it. Really good grounded in it. It's simple to understand and start living it to your full potential. So take advantage of the double opportunity while you have the Coronavirus lockdown and also now you have Ramadan so we can go ahead and get the best of both inshallah, you have. You have where the Prophet Muhammad Allah has come and talked about if a person has food for the day

has safety and security and a roof over their head that they're the richest person in the world. But many of us take that for granted.

And because other people like who we're talking about now and in these places, they don't have that security you got Vaughn falling

in many of these places, people scared if someone's gonna intrude and come through their house and attack them in many places in this and then also food.

Food is also something that now we we have but our brothers and sisters

And these places they don't.

They expected to get paid. They expected to travel. But all of that was caught off. Everything was stopped. Now you don't even know what can happen next. Don't think that now, tomorrow the situation, this just might be the start of it. You don't you don't know. Food can cut off you just you don't you don't know. So we need to be grateful and thankful. And this is our way

to give back to those who are in that situation where they didn't know they didn't they didn't think that they were going to be in this situation. They also had plans they also had ambitions. But now you see what has happened? Yeah, I think it just naturally affect us.

All of us it because you're you're in you're in the environment, there are things that that you don't want to see, you see, there are things that you hear there are things that that affect us and it affects the heart goes through the eyes, to the ears, and it comes inside to the heart and that's why it's just a constant like trying to you know,

cleanse the heart when I can imagine just because every time a person sends there's a black spot left on a person's heart and then the the remembrance of a law derivative def is supposed to polish that the heart. But if you don't have that, man, it's just a scary thing. So we're working on that consequently, and we're also now like he's like you mentioned now in Ramadan. This is the this is where you got the whole car wax the heart wax. Now this is supposed to be where we're taking it to a whole nother level because yes, absolutely, we get affected with a lot of the things that are out there. It just it just damaging you.

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In the many of us get desensitized to things that we even we don't even think that it's bringing harm to us. We become so desensitized, and now you ended up letting a lot of this stuff come into the mind. I call it the STDs the spiritually transmitted diseases. They're there, they're affecting us. It's It's horrible. costing at the end of the day is for Allah to Allah. Did you know that prayers are for us? All right, they get rid of our sins, we're lucky to have them. Yeah, but fasting when you feel it's hard. You know why? Because it's meant to be difficult. It's not meant to be easy. What do you say about that? Brother Eddie, that, you know, do you ever feel it's quite

difficult, you struggle some days, I've actually given up almost given up brackets. So for some time now.

I kind of trained myself

to I've been doing the fasting.

Developing it, you know, up until Ramadan, it's become a little bit easier, I started to eat less, eat more towards the end of the days. But yeah, absolutely. Because people who are who are addicted to caffeine, and also the sugar. It's like a drug. So now, the headaches start kicking in

the when you when you look at what's going on with the body, you're also detoxing, you're detoxing your body also. Now a lot of these these toxic things that are in our body are starting to come out. And you see when someone in the beginning stages, while your body is adjusting, it can be very painful, it can be very difficult. So you know, that's one of the things you don't want to go backwards. So and also you want to get you want to reap the most benefits. So I talked about earlier, when and anything that is is good, like good for you. Now under the dean, you're going to sometimes you have to suffer a little bit for the growth. So it might hurt a little bit. But there's

tremendous benefits that are going to come from from all of this. Some people don't want to pray still. But we know prayer when you when you get into it, you're going to reap the benefits, it's going to come

fasting same thing. It's like why why am I doing that you have to have a good foundation. Also you have to know who you're fasting for you can't it you don't want to be just like a robot because many people will just go through the motions and give a food but you wouldn't really want to develop that love for your Creator and that's the knowledge to the proper knowledge you have to know to know your Creator, to love your Creator you have to know your Creator you have to now spend time with his book The Quran and and and studying the life of

The fundamental problem is based on evidence and proof. And this is what convinced me it wasn't something blind faith. You know, I looked at like your cell phone. So I will get you with your stories. I mean, people, they look at the different ways of life and they come to know that these are man made religions, they just doesn't add up. But Islam adds up. It's something simple to understand. You know, when you talk about simplicity, I'll give you the opposite something that's that's convoluted. Tax Code is convoluted.

Attorney lingo is convoluted, right? But Islam is not convoluted. It's simple. It's easy to understand. So now going back to what I was saying, is that, yeah, it can be a little bit trying, but with with those who have experienced it, and they come through it, it just, it becomes easier now becomes like, you know, you trained your body, and you'll be amazed at what your body can go through. But you don't want to also Now, add your body's detoxing, also, your spiritual going, also you're reaping the health benefits, you don't want to start putting garbage in your body, because now you're you're detoxing, and you're putting the garbage the toxins back in your body. So you want

to eat real food, avoid the fake food, you know, eat the good, the bad food that our last one has given us. And so you can really reap both the spiritual and the health benefits. This is a lot. It's amazing. It's in Allah's mercy that we get the best of both. One of my black belts, my cousin actually was where they were, it was midday, and one of the other students saw someone going into his car. So then they told him, Hey, someone's in your car, there's no way. So then he went out there. And then he caught the guy. He caught him. It was a young man, I think he was under 20, almost 20. And he grabbed them,

put them on the ground. And then the police came. And then he decided to just give them a chance let them go. And that was then that was picked up by the by the news media. And then they reported on it. So that was something that was that was very interesting, because he didn't want you wanted to show him some mercy. Because he didn't want that to go on his on his record. He didn't want that tomorrow. So he had a talk with him. And he, I think he connected with with the smile he connected with the boy's father. And he talked so he took this approach. Yeah, but this This goes back into also during these times as an all times we should we should be I've been talking a lot more about

health. We also have fitness, self defense. And so we're well we're well rounded in all these areas. You know, one we're grounded in our Deen, we, we know it, we live it. We're human beings, we're going to make mistakes. But we remember that as a last month Allah saying and chapter three of the Quran. I want 85 colonists in the ecotel mode that every soul will taste death. And that reading that should have us to really reflect and ponder like, hold on, you know, why am I here for a short amount of time. And then you come to notice life as a test. We're here for that short amount of time that we're being tested. And then last month, Allah tells us that I'm not creating life and death

except to test which of you are best indeed. So now you're racing towards good.

Being a good human being comes Allah. Allah bless you, brother, Eddie. We know just just by, by looking at the optimism of Islam, like just amazing that the prophet SAW some study that if the day of judgment was to come upon you, and you had a sapling in your hand planted right planted, if to pay yourself and your family look for the help, right, like even just by save yourself from a Hellfire just even by giving half a date, right, just give something just whatever you have, like, give it you're not losing it, but you're actually gaining with Allah in this life in the hereafter. It reminds me of the Prophet said take advantage of five before five, your youth before your old

age, your wealth before poverty. So now is an opportunity where while you have some wealth, you know to get rich with a lot you you give that wealth you know for the sake of Allah and then your free time before you're you're busy again Now Allah is freed you up. You have some before before things you come out of this lockdown and just right back into the rat race, right that and then you forget. So now you're like our brother, William art, the one who accepted. I had this program up in Sharla. This week, it was amazing that again, because of the Coronavirus equals calm down life is like I'm locked down and now things the hustle and bustle of life is not like it is it's calm and he ponders

thinks he accepts Islam, he starts to think you have an opportunity now everything is calm. Okay, the before before the tides kick in again. You

perfect opportunity and then he the prophet SAW Some said life before death you know again you're alive we have life. Death is around the corner you just don't know i mean here in America

3 million people die a year 7000 a day and now even though your chances you know realistically with the whole Corona we take the precaution we do everything but

death for us should be something that we're besides Coronavirus and everything I believe it's like a it's a 98% of people recover you know, but even even that I mean a law tells us that by by only by laws permission can a soul depart this life so we have to be but but that doesn't we don't become arrogant to the point that we're not thinking and worrying about death and we worry about the death is like okay, am I prepared now that I give enough that I pay my succot? Am I praying five times a day? Am I obeying my Creator? Am I pleasing my credit before I meet my Creator? Now you could go ahead and inshallah you can feel some confidence and you can expect good Ulla. But now if you're not

praying, you're not giving your miserly all these things and now you're just like he lists then it's going to be a problem then the last one, health before sickness. And now we have the spiritual health. We get to revive it during Ramadan, and also the physical health very important. We're very grateful that you joined us and we make dials for you and your family. The people in Chicago to have ease after hardship and for you to have the highest of genital for dues for your duty and your kindness or my May Allah bless your family comrades.

Thank you. Thank you.

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