Nadim Ali – Healthy Lifestyle Imam
AI: Summary ©
The importance of learning to be healthy and at the forefront of one's life is emphasized, including practice of holistic lifestyle, promoting healthy lifestyle, avoiding excesses, and not drinking meat. Personal activity, sleep, and drinking water are also emphasized, along with dental hygiene and mental health. There is also a community calledkyri' that promotes drinking slowly and support for those who want to become a paraphrase. Everyone is advised to take small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small small
AI: Summary ©
Indeed, all praise belongs to Allah, the most
high. We thank him and we seek his
aid and we seek his forgiveness. And we
seek refuge with him from the evil of
ourselves and from our bad actions.
Whomever Allah guides him, there is no one
who can mislead him. And whoever Allah causes
to go astray, there's no one to guide
him. And I bear witness that there is
no deity except Allah who is unique and
without partners. And I bear witness that Muhammad
is his worshipper and his messenger. May the
peace and blessings of Allah be upon him
and his family and his companions and those
who follow them with good intentions until the
day of judgement.
All you who believe fear Allah as he
should be feared and don't die except as
Muslims.
Indeed, oh, you who believe, fear Allah,
as he should be feared and don't die
except as Muslims. And oh, mankind, be careful
of your duty to your abhu, created you
from a single soul and from it created
its mate. And from the 2 of them,
he spread forth many men and many women.
Be careful of your duty to Allah whom
you demand your mutual rights and be careful
of your duty to the wounds that bore
you. Indeed, Allah is
over you. The
truth, he will cause your deeds to be
beneficial and he will forgive for you your
sins. And whoever obeys Allah and his messenger,
then he has truly achieved a tremendous accomplishment.
For indeed, the best speech is the book
of Allah
and the best guidance is the guidance of
Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and the most
evil of all affairs are newly invented matters
which has no precedence in Islam. And indeed,
all innovations are astray and each astray is
in the hellfire. Oh Allah. Save us from
it. Oh Allah.
Accept our du'a.
And,
we'll
to make the akuqah brief inshallah
because of the delay.
And,
we
all should make du'a,
that Allah gives us the blessings of the
storm and seek refuge in Allah from the
wrath of the storm.
Allah says, all you who have believed, eat
from the good things which we have provided
for you and be grateful to Allah. It
is indeed him that you worship.
And the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam said
that the strong believer is better and more
beloved to Allah than the weak believer, while
there is good in both. Again, the strong
believer is better and more beloved to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala than the weak believer, while
there is good in both. And that's again
from a Muslim hadith. And we have to
understand that
as Muslims, we should always practice
a healthier, a holistic lifestyle.
And again, holistic just means basically that that
you are healthy in mind, body, and spirit.
Mind, body, and from a spiritual perspective. You
know, we should be at the forefront of
you here about the organic foods and the
the the healthcare movement. We should be at
the forefront
of all of these things as Muslims. And
I always to say that Muslims should just
mean activists because we should be, you know,
not just active, but we need to be
radioactive for the most part. We need to
be active in all spheres of our lives,
and yet specifically in how we take care
of ourselves.
You know, the Quran gives us good understanding
of, you know, of of what types of
food that we should be eating. You know,
what foods are beneficial? It talks about the
honey. Talks about the vegetables such as corn
and and the herbs, and talks about the
fruits and all the the olives and the
dates and the grapes. And these are all
mentioned, the pomegranates,
all mentioned in the Quran. In bananas, we
have to look at all of the fruits
and the foods that Allah has given us.
He tells us to eat of the good
things, the pure things. And then also he
talks about the
milk. You know, he says Allah says, he
created the cattle for you wherein is warmth
and many gains and and and you eat
thereof.
And we and again, we see that milk
is just a gift that Allah has given
us. He says that, for you, there is
in the cattle a lesson. We give you
to drink what is in their bellies from
betwixt the chyme and the blood pure milk,
easy and palatable for those who drink it.
And again, seafood from the sea, a lot
tells us from the sea is something that
we have something to show gratitude
for. It is he who has made the
sea of service that you might eat fresh
fish, meat from it. And again, also some
birds are lawful and from the meat of
the fowls of what they like. So we
see that we have a dietary plan
already in the Quran for the past 1400
years or over 1400 years. Allah has given
us the the dietary plan that we should
basically
follow
follow. You know, as Muslims, you know, we're
not supposed to say we're not gonna eat
any meat. I remember I was off meat
for 2 years prior to coming to Islam.
And then I remember my brother, you know,
he said, well, the Prophet ain't me.
A brother, you know, he said, well, the
prophet ate meat.
You better than the prophet. And so that
ended my my vegan days, you know. But
even that, you know, when you look at
the prophet peace be upon him, he didn't
overeat meat. He didn't saturate his diet with
meat. He ate very little meat, but he
also ate meat. And so we have to
understand, we can't basically do something that's inconsistent
with Islam. We can't say, well, we're not
gonna eat animals
because some people take the position that you
shouldn't eat any any animal. And so as
Muslims, we can not eat vet, eat eat
meat, but we can't just say it's haram.
We can't do that, you know. And so
and we we have to basically look at
the fact that no matter what we eat,
we need to basically
be minimized.
You know, but as the prophet salallahu alayhi
wasalam, he says, you know, we have
to be be not be excessive in eating.
Not be excessive in eating because even if
it's halal, you know, we'll say, oh, it's
halal so we can just eat all we
want. No. You know, you know, it's you
know, even whether it's halal or it's a
behamid, we have to also not be of
those who overeat.
As the law says, eat and drink, but
do not commit excesses. Indeed, he does not
love those who are excessive.
Another frequently cited hadith says that that the
prophet
said that we should fill our stomachs 1
third, you know, 1 third with food, 1
third with water, and 1 third should be
left empty or 1 third air. In other
words, don't be gluttonous. Don't be gluttonous.
So we have to be of those who
are practicing
again a lifestyle
that's about life and not a lifestyle that
that leads you to death. Because most of
the diseases
that we are faced with today
can be traced back to
what we're eating, or how what we're not
eating and how much we're eating. You know,
again, as the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam
talked about that the the the belly can
be the the source of a lot of
diseases. So we have to be of those
who are conscious. We have to be of
those who are health conscious, you know, again,
in mind, body, and spirit. These are some
of the things that we have to do.
You know, we've been faced with this pandemic,
you know, throughout the past year. It's a
test big test that Allah has given us.
And as Muslims, you know, again, we should
be of those who,
relearning
the health
benefits of just the practice of Islam, healthy
lifestyle. And it helps to basically
increase your
immune system, gives you a healthier immune system.
So these are some of the things that
we have to look at. You know, I
know there's many positions on taking the vaccine,
but we want to get into the position
of of of of of of promoting
good knowledge and healthy knowledge based on the
science. And the prophet said the science is
his weapon. And so we if he if
he was living during this time, would he
be taking the vaccine?
We Allah knows best. But we have to
be of those who
get get all the research in and then
make a decision. I know in the Majlis,
we put a letter out saying it's up
to you. Make make the decision as to
whether you wanna take the vaccine or not.
But all of the imams in the Majlis,
from my knowledge,
they all took the vaccine. My myself included.
I took it in January.
So and I haven't grown another head. So
I'm just saying that, you know, we wanna
try to get back inside to the Islamic
Center. We need to basically not only practice
healthy
lifestyles on so many different levels, but we
have to not be a source of the
virus because they have this new variant that's
out that's more deadly than the old variant.
And so and so we have to start,
again, practicing a lot of wisdom or hikmah
in how we live our lives inshallah. If
I've said anything that's inconsistent with what Allah
and the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam has given
us, I take full responsibility for that. If
I've said anything in which you have gained
some new insight. As always, all praise is
due to Allah.
Beautiful sound
that rained.
Ten lessons that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam taught us in order for us to
live healthy.
Again, as I mentioned earlier, eat in moderation.
Eat in moderation.
Not just eating in moderation, but he says
to eat slowly. It was narrated that the
prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam was a strong advocate
of eating slowly to aid the digestive system.
And when you look at scholars
in, dieting and and all of that, you'll
see they tell you to count your shoes.
So a lot of the knowledge that people
have gone for PhDs,
to get PhDs for the prophet salallahu alayhi
wa sallam who was the unleaded person. He
was an unleaded person. He gave them this
knowledge 1400 years ago. Eat slowly. Helps to
digest our food. He also talked about the
importance of activity, physical activity.
Some of the brothers we've been walking,
every morning. And then there's a brother that
been running the the program, for the past
few years walks, you know, frequently around the
park. And so we wanna increase our activity,
our physical activity. You know? And then the
prophet also, he he promoted archery and sports
and horseback riding. You know, again,
as, as we we we recited earlier, a
strong believer is better endeared to Allah than
a weak believer, although and both of them
are good. The one who is physically strong
is better before Allah because they are more
active and energetic in their performance and their
worship,
and and they're taking care of the needs
of others. And also the importance of prayer.
The importance of prayer and the importance of
sleep, getting your rest. As the prophet
says that your body has rights over you.
The body has rights over you. Sharing food,
as he said, if there's enough for 1,
there's enough for 2. Again, he is not
a believer who eats to his full, but
his neighbor goes without food. And the prophet
said, well, he was salam talked about that.
The principle of improving
the the public's general health is is is
again is thankful to the prophet. We should
be of those who are sharing, you know,
with one another. You know, fostering a strong
community. In other words, having strong relationships.
Again,
and again, the scientists would teach you that
having healthy relationships
can aid in longevity and and aid in
your quality of life. And again, as prophet
salallahu alaihi wa sallam say, eating together and
not separately for the blessings are associated with
the company.
Also, fasting. Of course, we know the benefits
of fasting throughout the month, but also during
the month of Ramadan and just throughout the
year. Now, the new fad has become intermittent
fasting intermittent fasting. I wonder where they got
that from. Intermittent fasting. And again, they say
it improves the insulin sensitivity, speeds up the
metabolism, and curves hunger, and improves eating pattern.
You know, and also talked about dental hygiene.
Prophet Sallam Islam talked about dental hygiene using
the MSHWAC.
And so
I I I challenge anybody to find any
of his contemporaries, whether in Europe or Africa,
who that were promoting these types of concepts,
to drink water slowly. Drink water slowly. You
know, and so again, science today talks about
that the importance of drinking water slowly. The
prophet do not drink water in one gulp
like the camel, instead in small sips.
And he also talked about mental health. Having
a peaceful mind through accepting of life's changes,
who we'll say, In sha Allah and Ma
sha Allah.
He encouraged them not to be, engulfed with
anxiety or depression, not to worry, and specifically
anger,
don't get angry. He said, advise me and
don't get angry. He said, advise me and
don't get angry because anger is like a
form of an adrenaline can intoxicate you and
then you can make
impulsive decisions that you could regret for the
rest of your life. And so these are
the 10 points that the prophet gave
us, left us, you know, to promote a
healthy lifestyle. He's just he wasn't just a
person who was just a preacher. He was
a person who was a reacher.
And one of the things that I noticed
when I was in Chicago last week, there's
a group called Iman. And we have a
local Iman here in Atlanta.
But I looked around. They have a wellness
center. They have a mobile health clinic. You
know, they have houses for people who are
formerly incarcerated.
And
may Allah allow us to be of those
because even though this community is being gentrified
as the philosophy,
I'm a paraphrase a great philosopher
by the name of Pryor. You know, the
Muslim live here. You visited. You know, so
we have to understand that we're vested in
this community. And so as one of the
politicians said that people who graduated
graduate from Washington High can't afford to live
in this community now. And so we have
to make affordable housing. We have to make
health care affordable as or free. So these
are some of the things that we want
to envision. And if you close your eyes
and envision that to be able to buy
up some of the properties, fix them up,
and make them affordable, and not just basically
just for the gentry class. So these are
some of the things that we hope to
do with the Islamic Center and beyond.
And so I want you to basically dig
deep today, brothers and sisters, because again,
we're we're we're on the cusp of refin
of finishing the Islamic Center, but we also
have daily needs for people who come and
basically seek our help in many different ways.
So I want you to dig deep brothers
and sisters and and do what you can.
And even if all you can give is
a dollar, give a dollar. But if you
can give more, give more. If you can
pledge more, we have, you know, just several
ways in which we can go through. Zelle,
Cash App, you know, or you can write
a check and, you know, cash works too.
Cash works too. So these are some of
the things that I really, you know, again,
want to start to accomplish before Allah takes
me away from here. You know, because we
want to establish a a long term presence
here, long term presence and not just be
those who just pray
or, you know, that we want to be
of those who are helping our neighbors, helping
the Muslims and the not yet Muslims.
Our lord, take us not to task if
we forget or fall into error. Our lord,
lay not on us a burden such as
you did lay on those who have gone
before us. Our lord, lay not on us
a burden which we do not have the
strength to bear and overlook our faults and
forgive us and have mercy on us. You
are our protector and grant us a victory.