What makes us different

Bismillah Al Rahman Rahim Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa salatu salam ala Shara from Babel mousseline Muhammad Rasulullah, sallallahu alayhi, wa sallam, to Steven cathedra how my brothers and sisters, one of the great blessings of Ramadan is time.

It's quite

amazing. The fact that our daytime meals have been eliminated, it's quite, quite amazing how much time gets freed up.

So that the total number of hours is the same 24. But because we have,

because we restructure those hours, or rather, our activities, thanks to Roseanne.

And so our normal breakfast time, and

lunchtime and tea time, and whatever time is eliminated, we have a lot of extra time.

That gives us a unique opportunity to reflect on our lives. So let us use Ramadan also as a time of reflection. Truly, in our frenetic lifestyle, I don't know what else to call it.

We are like people who are in a constant state of emergency.

This is the this is one of the

evils and illnesses of modern life, which is alive that is constantly lived as if we are in an emergency,

the whole body is continuously geared up. Now, think about this, if you're if you for example, if you're sitting

and I don't see this, you advise you not to do that. And if somebody if someone does that stop them. If you're sitting with somebody who is driving dangerously

extremely fast and weaving through traffic and so on, you find that you are holding on to your seat.

You know you are you are you're completely tense, right, or, for example, those who go on rollercoaster rides, you're sitting there grabbing and grabbing the seat, and you're totally tensed. And when you get off, you can feel that tension leave the body. Unfortunately, our lives are such that the tension never leaves the body. We live in a state of enhanced tension continuously. And quantity contrary to what you might think. This doesn't make us stronger, it just makes us weaker,

gets us tired and exhausted. And that's what's happened to our time. So our the opportunity to just relax and sit and reflect and think about life. Think about ourselves, contemplate on what we are seeing wherever we are sitting Hamdulillah, Allah has given us eyesight. For those who have been given eyesight, maybe they should be more thankful for that. You're looking at the world and us and just reflecting on the different kinds of things that that Allah subhanaw taala causes to pass before your eyes, we don't have time for any of that our lives are stuck in our phones and in social media and sitting in front of a television or having some sound in our ears. Using our ear pods or

whatever device we use,

there is constant stimulation to the brain. So one of the brain was not designed for that, right. So we have we are overstressed over stressing it. We are short circuiting it. And that's why the biggest epidemic of the world today is not COVID. It's mental illness. Because

the brain just just short circuits, I mean it at some point it breaks.

So let's give ourselves a chance. So my submission is use this time to reflect. Now the thing I remind myself and you reflect on his

Let me try let me try to start from the fundamental, and that is that the single thing, I won't even say most important because it is most important because it is the single thing

that differentiates us from animals, mammals, is

our ability

to

have morals and ethics which comes out of our ability to reflect.

Allah has given us this ability to judge right from wrong. This is an inherent ability This is an intrinsic inherent ability, which is there in every single human being

irrespective of what he or she chooses to follow in terms of ideology or religion. What kind of education they have or don't have. It makes no difference. The ability to distinguish right from wrong

in a moral sense, I'm not talking about what is good to eat and what's not good we animals have that. Animals have that to a much, much enhanced degree.

The ability to differentiate to differentiate right from wrong morally, ethically, this is something that is given

only to human beings.

Not to, not to animals. Think about this, and I'm sticking only to mammals because to other things insects for example, Allah subhanaw taala has given this far more enhanced farm seeking to mammals alone.

Practically every physical quality we have practically every physical ability we have every physical strength we have, Allah has given bigger and better and more to every animal to every mammal.

We have for example, no fastest man on the face of the planet Usain Bolt

his speed his his top clock speed is slightly less than that of a hippopotamus.

Every average hippo runs faster than that.

We talk about strength.

I don't even have to go all the way to comparing the strongest man with an elephant.

Any mid sized

dog is capable of taking down the strongest man even imagine.

And if it's a trained dog, who's trained for attack work, he will take that man down even if that man is armed.

Ask me I have trained dogs for that.

So big deal,

every high jumper any cat your own little housecat

compared body size to the

height to which it can jump, any housecat jumps far more multiples than any high jumper can do.

And I can go on endlessly about this. So there is and then of course, as I told you, I mean, if you if you look at if you go out of the mammal, mammalian world and you go into say for example, the world of insects,

any ant can lift you think you are a weightlifter, right?

Great weightlifter, very proud of your muscles, you go and you lift 200 kilos, 300 kilos, any average and can lift the equivalent of a fully loaded 16 Wheeler.

There is no no way on earth that you are going to do that any flee worth is solved, can jump can leave the equivalent of you leaping clear over the Empire State Building.

So Allah subhanaw taala didn't give us any of these facilities, any of these abilities. But Allah subhanaw taala gave us the supreme ability of differentiating and distinguishing right from wrong. And that is why when we meet him jelajah law who the glorious of the magnificent, we are not going to be judged on the basis of how high we could jump or how much weight we could give to the gym or how fast we could run or you know how many kilometers or miles we could swim, we are going to be judged only on one thing, how did you use this ability of differentiating right from wrong

in order to help us to do that Allah subhanaw taala sent us this beautiful day in this beautiful way of life. It's not a religion as in a bunch of rituals to worship, a way of life called Islam, a way of life that is guaranteed to make us successful in this dunya while akhira in the in the Hereafter.

And in order to help us as we go along this world, like when you're driving down a highway, there are

rest areas where you can pull off the highway.

You don't have to maintain a certain speed. You don't have to worry about anything. You pull out the highway and the rest area has bathrooms you go relieve yourself you walk around it has a restaurant, you go eat some food and so on and so forth. Take some rest up you're feeling drowsy sleep for a while and then you rejuvenate yourself and you get back on the highway. That rest area for us is Ramadan. Allah subhanaw taala gives us this rest area to take ourselves off the highway. Here's the opportunity. rejuvenate yourself or

reboot your software. Take a look at your life, turn it around, if it needs to be turned around, directed fine tune it fine track it, what not, you want to call it, and then get back on the highway. Now how terrible it is for us for somebody who does not take advantage of that rest area. And that person is

refuses to do that and continues to drive on the highway. At some point in time, it's going to break down. And that is what happens to our lives as well, which is that at some point in time, we break down because we come to the toll gate after that there is no turning around. And that Tollgate for us this month, is our death. My brothers and sisters this month comes for us to help us to understand this, that the biggest wealth that Allah subhanaw taala gave us the absolute differentiator is the ability to differentiate right from wrong. And in order to do that, I'm repeating myself because repetition is good inshallah.

To do that correctly, Allah gave us the furqan gave us the criteria, his GitHub, the book of Allah subhanaw taala Al Quran, Kareem and he gave us the beautiful teacher Muhammad sallallahu alayhi salam to teach us the Quran,

verbally and in terms of actions by demonstrating it. Our job is to pay attention and to remould our lives on the way that Muhammad salallahu Alaihe Salam brought, which is the Sultan was takim and that remoulding is what Ramadan is for. I ask Allah subhanaw taala to grant us this ability and to help us to live our lives, like human beings, not as

mammals trying to become like other mammals was Allah Allah Allah will carry while he was happy, remember how to get what life