Fasting 101 – Why Do We Fast

salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala rasulillah Allah Allah He was savage marine.

We begin the name of Allah all praise and glory be to Allah means finest peace and blessings be upon His messenger Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and his family and his companions every last one of them alone, I mean, okay, so we begin the fasting rule book, as a preface to the legal matters related to fasting and slim. We want it to begin today with some

reflections on why we fast what is the purpose and the objective of fasting for us as Muslims? Of course we all know that Allah subhanho wa Taala he said to us, no for an quotevalet Muslim all you have believed fasting has been written on you, prescribed for you like it was prescribed for those before you. What was this prescription for La La Quinta de Poon, so that you may attain God consciousness to be conscious and dutiful to Allah subhanho wa Taala.

You know, fasting is one of the pillars of Islam for a reason because Islam is about you being aware of Allah and submitting to him Subhana Allah tala Islam don't think of it as the name of the religion. It is, of course, but it is also the meaning of the word is submission. So fasting is an embodiment of that, that I submit to Allah.

And so our Eman is erected on this principle and it is revived and reinforced in practice, through the likes of fasting in a very profound way. It's even subconscious. It almost like reading greens or recalibrates us to what it means to be a Muslim, because you may not realize it, but you're getting deprogrammed if you will, from prioritizing yourself and getting to reprogram, to prioritizing Allah and rushing to him and rushing to where he wants you to be in the first few days of fasting, especially if you think about

the fact that

you may not realize it, but you go for coffee at a certain time you go for a snack at a certain time you go have a meal for a certain time and those first few days of fasting. You say, No, wait, it's Ramadan, right? You You snap out of your habits.

And you remind yourself I belong to Allah, I don't just respond to whatever impulse I have. And then that doesn't mean it's going to be easy. And that's the second benefit of fasting is that it creates in us a higher threshold for patience, because fasting is a practice of patience. You know, very interestingly the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said in mlra movie Talamo enamel Hill movie, hello.

This is very profound and very eloquent of him and his Salatu was Salam he said to learning or knowledge is by learning and patience is biwott practicing patience. And the reason why it's so beautiful or of the reasons is that we all know that if you want to learn something, you need to become a student humbled yourself and just go through the motions and learn educate yourself. But we differentiate between the intellectual and like the moral and so when it comes to patient say, I don't have patience, I'm short tempered, they take me off, they should know better and you throw it on someone else, no the same way your mental capacity your intellectual capacity can be enhanced by

learning your capacity for patience can increase

through practicing that practicing patience and so fasting is a huge practice for patients. So it's going to help us better be able to tolerate the demands of our self, our appetites in the most basic sense food drink and you know the the sexual desire, and instead I am able to restrain those wants and expects of me, this also serves our relationship with each other so many times were not able to restrain my desire for having the last word or having it my way and, but to practice patience gives you so many higher it gives you such higher horizons such a higher potential such a higher ceiling,

if we would just invest in it amendatory investment is the fast thing the month of Ramadan, also of the benefits of Ramadan

is our ability to let our spirits our rural households rise because we are more spirit than we are body but we focus throughout the year on the body right. And so that is what makes us superior that we have given priority to the spirit over the body.

You know, animals they just have their desire but they have no intellect to restrain their desires, right? That's what makes them animalistic. What makes the human being special. The human being has intellect and desires. So he develops the restraints we just spoke about.

to serve the desires which deserved to be front and center the desires of the Spirit, the needs of the spirit which are loving Allah and knowing came and connecting with him. That is what makes the human being so special, even more special than the angels because the angels have intellect but they have no desire. And so you have both and it's yourself.

match. And so it gives more leverage to the Spirit helps it catch up in hopes that it will take the driver's seat, this practice of fasting. And that is why also Ramadan is the month of quran quran came down in Ramadan and Quran is extra rehearsed in Ramadan, right. One of the ways it helps us rehearse is by severing that whole thinking about food time, meal time, snack time, more visits to the bathroom, to be honest, all of that.

And the last thing we will say that fasting, of course benefits us a great deal in terms of developing also our empathy, because you know, we can speak about those in need. But it's not as powerful as seeing an image, right? They say a picture speaks 1000 words, but even an image that we look at, or even a video that we see on our news feeds of those that are suffering from hunger and famine. It is not the same like tasting get yourself. And so these are of the many benefits though there's so many more than these four on the blessings and the wisdoms and the whys behind the fast tomorrow and Charlize oj will talk about who is obligated to fast is like a local agent. And we'll

leave one day at the end of each week for your question and answer a lot of the level that comes that I want to come