5 Reminders About Ramadan

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we all know that the month of Ramadan is now upon us to pray that first of all, all of us have the best Ramadan of our lives. And that we are able to make more changes that make Allah happy with us and us please without rub in this month than any other time in our lives before. I pray that Allah accepts all of our worship, and accepts all of our fasting, and doesn't let us become lazy in the course of this month. And allow us to make the most of it so that you can reap the rewards of that in this light and in the next. So having said that, a few years ago, I did a series of just lessons we can draw from the ayat from above. And that's available on YouTube. I don't want to repeat that

series. But it is a reminder for myself and for all of you if you'd like to get benefit of that and go through it again. It's a good orientation because I tried to spend time with every phrase that Allah has mentioned in regards to the ayah. The IATA Promobot this subject in the Quran only occurs once it's not talked about multiple times. There are other things that the Quran talks about multiple times. So everything we had to learn about it has been packed into one section one passage, so it must have quite a few very heavy things. Each phrase has many, many heavy lessons in it, which is why it's I think it's beneficial for you to go through that. But the purpose of today's Club is

actually first and foremost, to try to summarize at least five things that everybody myself all of you should have in mind, about Ramadan, we should you know, just reorient ourselves mentally prepare ourselves spiritually prepare ourselves. And there are five things at least that stick a stick out in my mind from those ayat that I think are of paramount importance. So the first of them is that Allah mentions that the purpose of fasting itself not Ramadan, but fasting itself, that its primary objective is that it is hoped that we will develop this thing called Duck and duck Why is probably one of the most fundamental demands of the Quran. It is a description the people of Ghana are called

McDuffie, for example, the people that have duck water that people agenda many places in the Quran, Allah azza wa jal will say that he has given us this guidance giving us this revelation so that we can have TBWA prophets are told either he will sit down, go to these people, maybe they'll get acquired I love that Hula, hula hoop pika. So Taqwa Is this one of the core if, if you were to think of Islam, or the message of the Quran, like a building, one of its most fundamental pillars is the heart. So a person like what are the objectives of our religion is that I and you should have this this quality inside of me. This thing called inside of me now this word comes from lockup, and up

with diaton, which means protection naturally, and this is the same origin as the word that many of you know the DA Amina attina for. Dunya Hassan.

Hassan Pina, another piece

From the same origin as the word Dupois, actually, and we say in the meaning of protect us from the punishment of the fire, so it actually has this word and its essence has to do with protection. And the the, if the pattern is called form, what that does in Arabic, it makes the meaning to protect yourself. So if I am having duck, what that actually means I'm protecting myself. So when you protect yourself from something dangerous, that's why a lot of times you might see in translations, that law will be translated as fear, right, but it's actually not fear, the Arabic word for fear is hope. And in widget, and key, there is the other words in Arabic for fear. But this word duck y

actually has to do with protection of self, for example, okay, for that the owner, income person, or what the WHO Yeoman, or what taco now I let you read that will caffeine, protect yourself from the fire, you know, and some, some places a level actually use the outside farm and say, oh, and first of all, it comes down to protect yourselves and your families from the fire. Now, obviously, we protect ourselves from things that are dangerous. So when you go home and you lock the door before you, you know, keep going through, you've just done a small act of Taqwa. Because you don't want somebody to walk in when you leave the car in the parking lot. And you put the alarm on, you

actually engaged in an act of trying to protect yourself within the car. So we take these measures all the time. In fact, a simple example of that was outside of the spiritual realm, is if the weather's really cold outside, you're going to put a coat on before you go out, that's actually applied to any measure you take to defend yourself to protect yourself from any kind of danger, or threat is actually an act of tough luck. So that's the first thing we have to understand. But there is another dimension of the law. So for example, your you really love making your father proud. Right, and he knows there's this one habit you have, you know, that is gonna disappoint him. Or when

he sees your room is messy, that he's going to be disciplining will punish you, but there's gonna be a look on his face and look on his face is like the death sentence for you. Like, that's the worst thing that ever happened to you is that look on his face. So when you or your mom just says, Hey, your dad's coming over in 10 minutes, or something, then those 10 minutes, you're gonna clean up that room, not because you're afraid of your father, you're going to protect yourself from what from that feeling. You're going to protect yourself from disappointing him. That's actually it's protecting yourself isn't just about someone you fear. It's also about someone who you fear

disappointing. Someone you fear hurting the feelings of some, you know, so we do this kind of thing. For example, if you're if your children, you don't want to have conversations about financial difficulty that you're having maybe right, and you've got your dinner table, and you've got all the bills spread out, right, and you're talking to your wife or your husband about the financial issues, and the kids walk in the room, then you quickly wrap that up and you don't bring the subject up and you don't even want them to over here. Why? Because you're protecting their feelings. You don't want them to get anxiety. You don't want them to worry about that. You understand. So this is engagement

of turqoise him similarly, women or men that are that are grandfathers are older, they're sick, right? And when they're sick, they don't want their son or their daughter to worry. No, no, I'm okay. I'm okay. So there'll be coughing, coughing, coughing, and the son comes in and they try to control it and hold it in, because my son will get worried that I'm sick. Right? And they say, Are you doing okay? Yeah, I'm doing perfectly fine. Some people will even hide doctors reports and things like that, right? Why they're not afraid to tell their children, but they're worried about the feeling that they will get, right the anxiety that they will have. That's actually also an

expression of Dupois in everyday life. But this thing this stuck, while Allah wants us to have it with him. He wants to have for all of us to develop that part of him. What does that mean? At one level, it means I'm afraid of making Allah angry. That's certainly one of the meanings of Dakhla meaning ALLAH is capable and very much has warned me about things that are punishable. And I want to be afraid of that and be mindful of that and take protective measures to secure myself right. By the way, the famous narration of our model de la Mourinho when he was asked to describe duck law was about a loose cloth that you're walking through a thorny path and you're trying to secure yourself

so your clothes, don't get caught in the way is actually again, an image of someone protecting themselves, right taking extra precautions. But another dimension of our Taqwa with Allah is I really don't want to disappoint Allah. Allah has done so much for me. And I don't want to give Allah the impression that I am ungrateful. for what he's done. For me. That's also actually done for i So Taqwa isn't just driven by fear. It's driven by love too. So I don't want you and I to think about Taqwa as just something that's driven by fear. There are other driving emotions and you know, aspects of my relationship.

with Allah that are also part of what applies. Now, all of these different things protective is have one thing in common. You have to be aware. You have to be very self aware. You can't be careless or distracted. You have to be mindful if you want to have thought. So when you're driving carelessly, you're not observing tough while you're not watching where your lanes are, or you're talking to your friends, some people when they drive, and the jogging with a friend, they love making eye contact. I hate those kinds of friends. I'm not friends with those kinds of people. Like so have you been? How's it going? Things are good. She's just

look over there. Okay. And then they start looking in the rearview mirror, I still see you, you know, keep your eye on the road. Because I need you to have Taqwa right now, I need you to be aware and protective, because you're putting, you know both of our lives at risk, right? So having said all of that the prerequisite for really, truly having Taqwa is awareness, if you're not situationally aware, right, and this is what I was raised with, you know, at least in my early adult life in New York, you're situationally aware all the time. When you're when you get in a subway, you first somebody call, you first scan the entire subway card for suspicious individuals, and you sit

as far away from them as possible. Right? When you're walking down the street, and you somebody is coming this way, and there's nobody else you cross the street and then cross because you know, you're taking any chances. You know, and in New York back in the day, I don't know if things are like that now. But if you're going down the street in Queens, or Brooklyn or wherever, and somebody just says, Hey, how you doing? This says that you run, you don't wait for you know. And so when I moved to Texas, and everybody you pass by the how's it going? Good morning. Oh, because the taqwa kicked in, I've still been in a motor because you don't know what's coming next, you know. So I'm

sharing all of that with you. Because Allah says this is point number one, I gotta hurry up the rest of them. Allah says that the goal of fasting, the primary goal of fasting is that all of us develop Taqwa. All of us become aware and protected and cautious, right. And we become protected for what purpose for the purpose of not of not disappointing him and not angering him, or the purpose of not losing our blessing. You know, you can be protected when you're protecting something precious too, right? That's just because you're afraid because you want to hold on to something precious. So this is related directly to fasting. And I just want to simply remind you, though, I've talked about it,

you know, many times, I just want to simply remind myself also and you how are these two things related to each other? How are you becoming so aware when you're fasting? Well, when you and I are fasting, our bodies are being deprived, and being deprived of hydration, and being deprived of food. And the doesn't matter how well you can sustain yourself and what's good, what good stamina you have. If you're used to eating food after a certain number of hours, it's going to hit you. It's gonna start having an impact on your energy levels, you're going to start feeling the growl in your stomach, you're going to start feeling drained, your body is actually telling you the body that

Allah has created, that is telling your stomach is telling you your throat is telling you feed me replenish me. Basically, your your insides are telling you disobey Allah, your body's communicating with you, and it's sending messages to your brain to disobey Allah. That's what it's doing for hours, for hours. And this is not even a want. It's a need. It's actually a need. It's above and beyond the walk. And yet, even if you're at the office, and there's no Muslims around, or you're at home, and your parents aren't there, and there's a big, you know, piece of chocolate cake sitting there on the table and you're fasting. It's not like you're going to look around and try a bite.

There's no camera, there's nobody else you're just aware that Allah doesn't want me to do that. So I won't do it doesn't matter how hungry I get. Doesn't matter how thirsty I get. Doesn't matter how tempted I get, I won't cross the lines. Allah wanted me to Allah doesn't want me to cross. Even if my body is screaming for it. Even if everything inside me it will be so much more relieved. If I just do this if I just take things one sip. There's one set I remember I used to do these weird experiments like these are like duck experiments on myself when I remember them seven years old. I did weird things because it was in Serbia was extremely hot. Right and so hold on, and you get like

all fired. I'm going to do I'm going to fast this year, seven years old. You don't have to, but you know, I did it. And then it was insanely hot. So I was like, So what could I do? Can I drink water and just gargle it like

Does that count?

Or what if I just take this chocolate and just just put it right here? Just a little bit? You know that I'll spit it out afterwards.

But when you when you mature What do you realize you can't even go near that stuff.

You're gonna protect yourself 30 days of that, and what do you develop? The fasting is over, you know what happens a couple of days, even after Ramadan is over, you're about to reach for that banana and you think twice Oh,

or even if you eat it was like, Oh, what have I done? Oh, wait, it's over.

Because you're so conditioned, right? What does that done? It's trained you the fasting of that duration has trained you in me to actually be aware of Allah's Presence constantly. So we're living the clock for that entire month. That was supposed to be this abstract thing, you should have consciousness and mindfulness of Allah, what mindful exercise can I do? Allah gave us this incredible institution of fasting. It's an incredible thing, that you can actually bring Taqwa into your life. Now I look on that. Right. So this is actually the first most important thing that I need to remember about fasting. And the point of the fasting is when this 30 day training is over, and I

have the rest of the time the rest of my year, then I'm going to have to use what I the energy, this awareness that I built, it's going to help me demonstrate that what even when I'm not fasting, it's going to help me develop the core, when I'm talking to somebody, it's going to help me develop that flow. When I open up my phone, it's going to help me develop the flow when I'm at work, or with my friends, when nobody else is around Allah is still around. Right? Allah still watching. So that's actually the first and primary objective of

the second. If you can close the door, or if you could just by signal, remind folks not to talk during the Jumar. It's against the visual, I can actually talk through all the kinds of noise but I feel bad that they don't realize their earnings.

And their other people are listening, which is them engaged in an act of worship. So all of us are actually engaged in an act of worship. Allah forgive. Okay. The second is actually history and gratitude. This is an important lesson, a very key lesson, which is, you know, in the Quran, you will think Allah is only going to talk about what we should believe what we shouldn't believe what you should do what you shouldn't do. That's pretty much right. But a huge part of the Quran is actually history. A huge part of the Quran is one history. And specifically, what I want to highlight today is the history of our prophets, Allah Allah. That is a big part of the Quran. Right?

So, there are places like Sunita Toba that are talking about the conquest of Makkah and beyond. Or there's Prince's extra little foot, which are talking about the Treaty of could they be on what happened afterwards, or a huge chunk of Sutala Imran is commenting on what happened in the Battle of Auckland, or a huge, you know, almost the entirety of silicon and fun, is a commentary about what happens after the Battle of blood, for example. So there are places in the Quran that are very specific to the life of the prophets of Allah. And the question arises, okay, fine, this has to do with the seal of the prophet or its opposite. And what does it have to do with you and me because

God is supposed to be timeless guidance, right? It's supposed to be timeless guidance. And what we have to internalize here is that the life of our messenger SallAllahu, alayhi, wasallam, is actually a part of being Muslim. It's a part of my psyche. I have to read, revisit his life, revisit his struggle, because it connects me to him. Now, let me give you other than Islam examples, because this has happened to the outside world, but we're on does it in a remarkable way. Every country in the world has some kind of Independence Day. Right? They have an Independence Day where they revisit the nation's history, or they have some kind of Memorial Day for a great war, the way the day they

had a victory or a great massacre that happened, right, some kind of a day to commemorate a great historical event that becomes a part of a people's national identity. It becomes a part of their national identity. And a really important part of that day is to revisit that history to remember and they'll say things like never forget, never forget, right? And it's a part of what makes you love your nation. It's a part of what makes you a part of that struggle. It makes you feel like you're living or your continuation of that legacy. It makes you grateful for the soldiers or whoever made those sacrifices. It makes you grateful for them, right? Well, the same way that my father, and

his life is a part of my identity. And his father is a part of my identity and his father is a part of my identity. That's my ethnic identity. Well more important than that is my identity as someone who carries La ilaha illAllah Muhammad Rasulullah sallallahu Taala that is a that is the core part of my identity. And that part and the only way I can truly sustain that that connection to Allah and his messenger both solution is there are some parts of his life and some parts of that history that Allah put in the Quran. So I review it when I'm reciting the Quran.

over and over again, I'm reliving the Prophet's life is also set up with those words that capture some of those incidents. Because refreshing that history is a part of our consciousness, that becomes an absolute part of our consciousness as a Muslim. And one of those events is actually the beginning of Revelation, oran started coming down to Muhammad Rasul Allah, which is the start of this entire mission, that in fact, the entire mission, you can think of it as the entire seat of the reflection and the purpose of it is the is the delivery of the Quran. That's what it is. And what did Allah do, instead of making us celebrate a day, to remember that, a day to remember that, and

event to remember that what Allah has done instead is He's given us an entire month to remember that. And the other the other major memorial event that we have celebratory event that we have is actually the institution of harsh and in hudge, we're remembering to profits at the same time. We're remembering and commemorating the struggles of Ibrahim alayhi salam, and the fact that also Allah salAllahu Salam liberated the Kaaba so we can actually restore the legacy of Ibrahim Ali's. Even the hudge ties back to history, the same way the month of Ramadan actually ties back to history. Which is why am I saying that because the Ayat of Ramadan, say, Shadow Ramadan and that the NZDF Ian or

Allah could have just said the month of Ramadan fasting it he could have just said that but the first thing he told us is why is this event significant? Because the most important event in history, the delivery of the final word of Allah happened in this month. The meet the car is the car because of this month, we have a connection Telugu allah sallallahu Sallam because of this month, the Para Hema de salam from 1000s of years ago was answered yes to either Mia Attica your limo Makita Akbar was a key him the prayer of a Rahim when he was building the Kaaba yella when they send them a messenger. That prayer was answered the moment the Quran started coming down in this month.

This month is historically the most significant month in the identity of a Muslim. It's not just about fasting or fasting I talked about the first thing was Dukla. The second thing is it this is a part of our identity as a people. We have to be conscious and aware. Now what what why do people have memorials? Oh, we have to remember the sacrifices of those people. Right? Well, what is the significance of remembering that Quran came in Ramadan? Well, the Quran didn't just come with some words that you can conveniently recite, because hula SallAllahu Sallam recited these words. He was humiliated. He was rejected by his own people. His easy life became the hardest. The people who

accepted as mission became the object of of torture, they became targets. Eventually they were kicked out of their homes. They are messengers of Allah bled because of this Quran. He was sent us poisoned because of this. He was humiliated because of this Quran. He was slandered because of this Quran. So this Quran did not come to me and you that were reciting it in the month. It didn't come to me cheap. It came from the blood and sacrifice of many believers, most of whom is a pseudo Allah Himself. So ALLAH and he said, there were people who died. We say who who Allahu Ahad, Allah Who summit we say very easily. And there are people who are saying, I had I had while they were being

tortured. So we say them very easily. But they didn't say it easily. They had to pay a huge price for saying those words. There was not an easy thing for them to do. What is this these words shahada, Malanga, the Zilla field Quran, what does that do to me, it makes me realize that these words in front of me, I should not take them lightly. Because there were people that I love more than even my own family, they paid a huge price. So one day, I could have these words. And this is a month more than any to remember that, to relive that to revisit that. And that's why the second idea, the second thing that I want to remind you, I was supposed to say five things I got stuck on

two, but that's okay. But the second thing that we have to commemorate this month because it's tied to the struggles of Rasul Allah, so it makes us grateful for what he did, what the Sahaba did, and what Allah did by giving us this favor. What Allah did by giving us the stream, you know, like, one time I decided when I was at the end of university, I decided, man, I've, I've heard, you know, excerpts from the Bible. I've heard you know, one verse here and there, somebody's quoting a passage. I'm just gonna read the whole thing. I'm gonna read the entire Bible. I kid you not I read the entire thing. And it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life because I fell in love

with the Quran because I read the Bible. I read the Bible and I realized God Allah, You gave us a word that is so clear, and it's so direct. That is so profoundly light. That is so easy to understand. That is, so

concise, that is so incredibly, incredibly explanatory that I don't have to wonder what is it saying to me? What am I supposed to get out of this? It's so straightforward.

Like, and then I started imagining before the Quran came, and people were looking for guidance, and they were looking for guidance in books that have been changed by people, how hard it must have been for them to say, Well, how do I make sense of this? What am I supposed to get out of this? How do I make sense of all these contradictions, and Allah gave this humanity this gift, and above that the Muslims the gift that we get to have it, we get to have the word of Allah directly. You know, it makes you appreciate what we've been given. And by the way, there's a direct connection between history and gratitude. Because at the end of childhood Ramadan, Allah the only people were under the

height of Silla, the local school so that you can all be grateful. There's a direct connection between the coming of the Quran in the month of Ramadan, and me being grateful to Allah, I have to be grateful for this call. I have to be grateful for this relief that Allah brought, not just for me for humanity, but for me personally to Canada will come when Lily Admah or Suki is in Cuba, that the Iranian question Han Allah. Allah describes the six centuries after Jesus, when darkness spread in the world. And the word of Allah was altered. For six centuries, the world fell into darkness. And then Allah describes that as the moon came for a little bit, which is Jesus. And then the night

fell, and the night became darker. And then the morning rose, what's that morning, that morning is the coming of the crime. And so he says, No Deal and militia, a warning for all people. You know, Lehman shock. I mean, come on, yada, yada, yada. Whoever wants among you, they can take a step forward. And whoever wants they can, they can stay back. That's the choice is yours now. So it makes me grateful for the Quran, I'm going to wrap the next parts up rather quickly. At least I'll do three today. Maybe I'll do the other two in the next next week, because we have the entire month to appreciate the month of Ramadan, so no need to rush. But at least I'll give you one more. And that

is that Allah says in the eyes of Ramadan, he says you need to love will become will use whether you need to be co LRS he says Allah wants ease for you. And Allah doesn't want hardship for you. Allah wants ease for you, Allah does not want hardship for you, the month of Ramadan is celebrating the Quran. And the Quran itself is actually a way for me to make my life easier, not make my life harder. Allah says his goal and giving one of his goals and giving us the Quran is to make my life easy. And to get rid of difficulty from my life.

It's actually that's one of its goals. We have to stop thinking that if you come towards Allah, things are going to get harder.

You know, let me tell you something. This is the this is the fifth route that Allah has created in nature in life. Eating, you know, eating unhealthy food is easier.

eating healthier, making healthier choices is harder.

being lazy is easy, exercising is hard.

Not studying is easy. Studying is hard. Not getting up and going to work on time is hard. But staying in bed and keep missing meetings is easy. But you know what? Every time you stick with the easy, the easiest temporary and it follows up with long term much bigger difficulty. Every time you don't want to study, you'll have an easy time. Enjoy yourself. But then you know what, you're not going to graduate, and you're not going to get the job. And you're going to get all kinds of problems. All these trickle effect of the problems because you chose what ease, you chose ease. You didn't want to take care of your body. You didn't want to take care of your health. You made all

kinds of choices. You know what, maybe not now you can enjoy. But a few years down the road, you're going to be paying in medical bills that you never imagined. Why? Because you didn't you chose ease. You didn't choose difficulty, right? In everything in life. There's a there's a lot of laughs that when you choose when you take the easy route, you're signing up for what difficulty and then when you start taking the healthy route, the better route. You realize it wasn't so hard anyway, it was all in my head.

And getting up early is not a hard thing. Studying is not a hard thing. It was just it was a mental block. thought was what Allah has given us in His laws on the outside seems like it's too hard. Five prayers. Well, at least I'll try and run them I'll try reading Quran I don't know why I'm going to get the time. Though you know what's easier, I can just open up Tik Tok and keep on scrolling. Scrolling. That's way easier.

was so easy, no effort. But we know what we think the easy thing has no consequences, has no consequences. Allah says he wants ease for you but not ease right

Now he wants long term ease for you.

And he doesn't want hardship for you. And the only way you can get long term ease, if you have short term difficulty,

you have to put yourself in Ramadan is an example of that, isn't it? The mind itself is short term difficulty, followed by long term Dakhla. That's the mentality that Allah wants us to develop. So you need to learn to become a user, whether you need to become an officer, Allah wants ease for you. He doesn't want hardship, especially for you. And so we have to, as we are now engaging in this remarkable month, we have to kind of reorient our minds, we have to think about this a little bit differently. We have to refresh our relationship with the appreciation of the word of Allah, what it means to have taqwa and what it means. What is our relationship between with ease and difficulty.

May Allah azza wa jal make us really truly take advantage of this remarkable month. And again, I pray that Allah accepts all of our API that and gives us a newfound love of Allah his book and his messenger some a lot more of us BarakAllahu li Walakum feel for added hacking when the value er can be it? Chemo

hamdulillah salat wa salam O Allah.

Sources for the Himba Hatami in the beginning Mohamed Amin, amin, and he was happy. Allah azza wa jal if he could get even better and a Buddha will be let him initiate Kanaka gene in Namaha Ramadan Quetta who use a luna LNAV Yeah, you already know Amanu Sallu alayhi wa sallam. sliema Allahumma Salli ala Muhammad Ali Mohamed come on salita for him.

For him for either me in Mohammed Majid Alma Burdick either Mohamed Mohamed Kamal Baraka or him earlier for him. The irony in Majid, everybody Allah, Allah, it took a lot in La Jolla, what do we do with accent we will call back when Han is Russia. He will look up political law he Akbar Allah who you know metal sound of me Salah insalata Kenneth