Why Ramadan – some reflections

Scylla Rahim. I begin in the name of Allah subhanho wa taala, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful,

when hamdulillah All Praise and thanks be to Allah.

Wa Salatu was Salam ala Rasulillah

in our and peace and blessings and salutations on our Master,

the Messenger of Allah, the last and final of them, Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.

My dear friends.

Islam means to submit.

We Muslims, joyfully submit our will, to the will of Allah. Because we know that He created us, loves us and knows what is best for us.

We know him, we love Him, we trust Him. And so we obey Him.

Peace, which is how the word Islam is commonly translated, is the result of submission, because peace is a result. The word Islam means to submit.

Peace is not a cause. If you want a result, you must address its cause. The cause of peace is justice. When Justice is established, it results in peace. Justice, is to submit our will to the will of our Creator.

The result is peace, harmony, prosperity, and friendship. Until justice is established, any apparent peace is only a recess between wars. Rather than comes to refresh the spirit of submission. Ramadan comes to reboot our faith as Muslims and renew our pledge, to live a life of obedience to fast is to stay away. Fasting is not only about controlling physical desires, but about controlling emotions, speech and behavior.

It is as much gatekeeping about what goes into the mouth, as it is about what comes out of it. Not only no food, no drink, and know what the birds and bees do. But know lying, cheating, backbiting, slander, spying, tail carrying cursing, profanity and similar things which have become so common among us. As someone said to me, when I spoke about the prohibition, of backbiting, they said shucks, there goes my social life.

obeying Allah and denying ourselves things which are permissible or Halal reinforces the spirit of Islam

by submitting to Allah subhana wa taala. And reminds us to always, always, always obey him and leave everything that He prohibited if we leave that which is permitted, because he said, so how about that which He prohibited.

You should always be kind to Muslims, but particularly in Ramadan because no food, no drink, and no birds and bees deserves kindness.

The best way to find out about Ramadan is to have a Muslim friend and get them to invite you to their mosque and hope.

Now, please allow me to speak about something deeper, more fundamental about Ramadan, which I hope will interest you, and which I hope we can work together on

today's biggest problem globally is self worship. Worship of the self, we seem to have convinced ourselves that we are the most incredibly important, insanely interesting, the coolest, the sexiest, the most lovable, and the most powerful creatures that ever walked to the cemetery with divine right to exploit everyone and everything else.

We forgot the difference between trusteeship and exploitation.

We have convinced ourselves that the only criteria are right and wrong, good and evil, is whether we like something or not. If we like something, it must be good. No matter how it affects anyone else. The biggest casualty in this is kindness, and compassion,

which is all about somebody else.

In an increasingly connected world, this is lethal.

That's what life is, isn't it? A walk to the cemetery, during which we get a chance to leave behind markers of our passing. We get to choose those markets. So I asked myself, What do I want to be remembered for?

I said to you that I want to be remembered as a bridge builder.

bridges help people to meet and know one another. Out of that I hope will come appreciation instead of mere tolerance.

Are you with me?

Can we build bridges together?

Reconnecting with our Creator is critical? Because our uncaring way of living is the cause of global warming, endless wars, visiting misery on the innocent, while the perpetrators get wealthier, the collapse of relationships and our race towards species extinction. Our species,

when profit is the only motive, the only value than war is the result. Because war gives the highest ROI, highest return on investment of any business. Wars happened because wars make the highest profit. It is that simple. All the rest is fluff.

What do you call our global society, where we spend more on dealing death than we spend on healthcare, medical research, education, space exploration combined,

not just more as a percentage, but as multipliers and multiples of the other.

And yet, we say we want peace.

The greatest irony of our times is that all our knowledge of what is good for the earth and its inhabitants doesn't seem to be able to prevent us from destroying ourselves. The reason is not a deficit of information, but a surplus of greed. No wonder that the two effects of COVID were the number of deaths and the meteoric increase in the wealth of the top 1%.

The pandemic of our times is not COVID. But mental illness, isolation, loneliness, depression, despair and suicide.

We must work to cure this because it is not a sign of health to be profoundly adjusted to a sick society.

across nations and cultures, we are facing loss of values, which is worse than a clash of values,

a loss of morality, which is because a morality is worse than immortality, the belief that profit is the sole objective of life, and an education system that supports and reinforces all this. We seem to believe that if we have enough money, and have enough technology, all our problems will be solved. They work. That is why we teach technology and tools with almost no focus on the hand that wields that tool. We have forgotten that all technology and tools are value neutral. Whether they help or harm depends on the people who use them. The decisions of those people depend on their values and ethics and morals. But value education is not part of any curriculum syllabus or class

timetable in school or college is it?

Having said that, values, ethics and morals must be taught in the home, imbibed with mother's milk as it were. But does this happen in our homes? Do we demonstrate ethics and morals and values in our daily lives in our homes and abroad?

We forgot that children listen with their eyes. They don't care what you say until they see what you do. Do parents have conversations about values, ethics and morals with their children? Or should I rephrase that by saying, Do parents have conversations with their children?

We are paying the price. But we seem not to want to open our eyes and face it. As they say, you can give sight to the blind, but not to the blindfolded. Because to remain blindfolded is a choice.

There are two quarts of Frederic Bastiat, the author of the book The Law, which I consider to be required reading for everyone, which some of the state of our society today, globally.

The first one is when plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in our society. Over the course of time, they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it. He said when plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in our society, over the course of time, they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it in a moral code that glorifies it. And the Second Court is, when law and morality contradict each other. The citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense, or losing his respect for the law.

Ramadan is a behavior change bootcamp to help us to revamp our lives to make them a source of blessing for all those betouch

this can happen if we become more Takuan God conscious, conscious of Allah subhanaw taala in our lives, and our that is that opportunity.

loss of our data set in the Quran. Yeah, are you in Lavina Armando cootie Valley como Seattle. Kamakoti Reiner livina publikum la la conducta Whoa. He said all you believe fasting is prescribed for you, as it was prescribed for those before you that you will become a multiple people who are God conscious before you refers to the Jewish and Christian brothers and sisters, and the two faiths. Taqwa is a state where the person loves Allah more than anyone at anything else, and makes every decision based on whether it pleases Allah or not.

What piece of Allah is what is most beneficial for his creatures. And that is the secret to becoming a source of blessing for to all those we touch. This is the opposite of the dominant culture of self worship. Fasting reinforces submission and obedience, to build our connection with Allah, because success in life is all about having the right connections. I remind myself to factor Allah into the equation, because he is in any way. Fasting reminds us that one day we will account to Allah subhanaw taala for what we did, or chose not to do, and therefore to live with that awareness of accountability to the one from whom nothing is hidden. Fasting is the ultimate trust call. While

fasting, I can cheat, but I don't, because I love Allah, and I want to please Him. Awareness of accountability is the most powerful tool to ensure that will have happy, productive and beneficial lives. And about that is an opportunity to help us to revamp our priorities, and change our behavior to become more ethical, moral and kind. Fasting reminds us to repent and seek forgiveness from our Creator, and be assured of his reward in this life and the hereafter. In conclusion, I want to give you a gift, the gift of my motto in life. And my motto is, I will not allow what is not in my control, to prevent me from doing what is in my control. And I repeat, I will not allow what is not

in my control, to prevent me from doing what is in my control. I pray for guidance for protection from sin and evil. That which we know and that which we don't know. I pray for relief from pain and sickness and death and suffering and hardship for all people in the world. I pray for justice and mercy and forgiveness. I pray for friendship, understanding and love. And above all, I pray for compassion. Thank you