The Right Mindset in Ramadan

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contemplations for what can help myself and all of you make the most of Ramadan, and I intended to share five of them, but I got to about two of them. So my intention is to try and continue that conversation. Because as we are in the middle of Ramadan, it's easy to lose sight of what we're doing, the physical exhaustion, the daily routine, these things, they tend to make you lose sight of the bigger picture, this happens to human tendency, when you're working towards something than the day to day tasks, you're so focused on them, that you kind of forget the vision for what you're working towards, right. And in the in the business world, companies, they always have these retreats

and these seminars or whatever for their employees, because when they get too involved in the daily grind, they lose, they're there, they're not motivated anymore, because they're, they're not excited about what's coming into the future, because they're too worried about the next task that has to be finished in the next hour. Or the thing that has to get done by this week or that week, etc. Right? So our dean, because it has rituals that are repeated, like the prayers are five times a day or the fasting is continuous 30 days, you're just, you know, if you even somewhere in the back of your head, if you and I get stuck in how many days isn't left, and how when time is fun, and how many

hours are left, we're just we're so caught up in the micro, that we lose sight of the bigger picture, and then the spirit and the purpose, the beauty of the whole thing is lost. Right? So that's one of the things that the Quran does. It doesn't just tell us fast. You know, it doesn't just Allah doesn't just give us rules. He keeps giving us the vision, the purpose, the mindset behind those rules. So we always even if we're doing the smallest thing, it's a big deal mentally. It's a big deal psychologically, spiritually, emotionally. And that's one of the great, incredible gifts of the Quran that it's not just a rulebook, it's not just the history book, it's a book of

mindset. This is why Allah azza wa jal keeps emphasizing the Isla Quinta de Lune, so that you can think so that you can contemplate so we're supposed to be really mindful in all of the acts of worship and especially this profound month, the month in which the Quran was given to us. So the next contemplation that I want to highlight are two things together, there are two phrases that I want to help us remind ourselves of the connection between them, they're both found inside the ayah of Ramadan.

Firstly, Allah says, you read Allah who become will usara whether you read to be commoditise, Allah wants ease for you and Allah does not want difficulty for you. Okay, or he does not want difficulty for you. And then on top of that, he says when he took me to the willing to commit Allah, Allah Hidalgo, so that you can complete the count, and you can declare Allah's greatness based on how he guided you. So those are the two phrases that I want to try and connect with each other. Just a couple of short reminders about each of these phrases. before Allah revealed the fasting of the month of Ramadan. Fasting used to be just a couple of days a Yama might do that. A hand a handful of

days, the narrations tell us just the middle three days of the month and that's it. Right so it wasn't it wasn't an even that was optional. So whoever could do it can do it whoever wants to give sadaqa they can give sadaqa it was actually much easier. And then Allah revealed not only do we have to fast an entire month we have to do it consecutively. Right and then if you miss any you have to make it up. So the the rules regarding fasting in a sense they

got tougher. It's also important to note historically that when the ayat of Ramadan were revealed, Muslims were gearing up for the battle of butter. So it wasn't an easy time. Right, you would think, Oh Ramadan, I'm going to take it easy, I'm going to take time off from work take time off from all the other responsibilities, so I can chill and have an easier time. This was one of the hardest years in the life of Muslims in the sea of the Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam, because they've just barely even set up in Medina. And on top of that, now the enemy is coming at them with full force. So they're preparing for battle, and they're going to go into the battlefield, actually, it's gonna

be forced on them during this month. So they are in the intense, most difficult time of their lives in a sense, and on top of that is the condition of Ramadan, the word Ramadan, also, you know, should that will hurt you know, they say that this

the, the, in the Arabic language, the word Ramadan comes from intense heat, because they are associated with extremely hot temperature. So what I'm trying to set is a scene of extreme difficulty when the Muslims first experienced Ramadan, and in the middle of that Allah told them, and then by an eco told all of us forever, you read the Allahu, because we'll use, Allah wants ease for you. Allah doesn't want difficulty for you, somebody could have said, if you want these for us, it could have been or could have been just one weekend, it would have been easier, right? Or if I try can't make it, if I can't fast in Ramadan, I can just feed one person, you know, and that will

be good enough to make it up. And that's good enough, that would have been a lot easier. How come Allah is saying he just made it harder. And then he said he wants ease for you. And he doesn't want difficulty for you. So the first thing I want to do is take a couple of minutes and help us understand that. How come Allah said that? How come he did that for us? See, the thing is, Allah has a sunnah. And he says, well, and tragically sooner, dilla hit of de la, you cannot find the change in the way Allah does things. Allah has a way of doing things. And he's created a pattern, a fitrah for this life for us. And in that Phaedra there are some principles, easy principles that even

Muslim non Muslim everybody understands is gravity is a principle, if I take my phone and let it go, it's going to drop to the ground. It's a principle. You know, if I'm if I'm going to drive recklessly, and I'm not going to look both ways or not check my rearview mirror, I'm going to crash into something, it's a principle, you can't break the rule. If you if I set fire on something it's going to burn. It's a principle, the same way there are spiritual principles. And there are life principles. And one of those life principles is you have to go through difficulty to get to ease. So for example, once you have a job, life will get easier. But to get to the job, you have to go

through a tough education. And you have to go through some hard work before you can get to the job. You know, enjoying the crop is easy. But to get to the point where the farm is ready, you have to do a lot of labor on the land for the whole year before you get to the crop. You know, you know, everything that's worth it, everything that brings about joy, success, ease in this life. It is it's not free, you have to go through a pathway of difficulty to get to it. That's just how life is. And if you choose to live easy. Now, so if somebody says I don't want to study man, I just want to take it easy at school, right? They don't want to study they want to skip classes, which is the easy

route. Well, if you choose ease now you're guaranteed difficulty in the future.

That's just the rule. If you want ease, you got to go accept difficulty. Embrace it, deal with it, develop a tough mindset so you can get ease down the road. And Allah azza wa jal instills that into us, especially in the month of Ramadan. This may be difficult, it may be challenging physically, your body's not used to depriving itself from nutrition for this many hours. It's not like you're on a different work schedule, you still have maybe some people even have more responsibilities and abandon outside of it. Right? There are people that you know, they go to the office, but I gotta have my coffee, I can't, I can't think straight. And these are the same people that are now they

haven't had coffee for a long time. And they're still functioning, they're still surviving. So it is it's not easy. But one meaning of that is miraculously Allah makes this month easier, like fasting and this month is easier than any other time of the year. For those of you that fast outside of Ramadan, if you fast a week after Ramadan, 234 days after Ramadan, if you fast you can I can guarantee you the energy, the momentum, the capability you have during Ramadan is not going to be the same outside of Ramadan. Allah has put something special inside of it. But the other thing that Allah is doing here very beautifully is that Allah is teaching you and means that it might seem like

this is hard, but I'm preparing you for ease down the road in your life.

So the question then becomes what is that ease? I gave you the example of a

student who's working hard going through difficulty, and he's going to have the ease of having a nice job, he's going to have an ease of, you know, being able to make an income, etc, etc. Right? But that's in the worldly sense. What does Allah mean by the difficulty of this month, and it's actually setting us up for ease down the road, you need Allah, Allah intense ease for us, meaning the intention is down the road forever, you should have an easy life. Well, the answer to that perhaps comes from the other phrasing. And this is the second and third phrasing. And the second phrasing is Leeteuk, middle Ada, so you complete the count, you complete the count, meaning Allah

intends for me to go through this one month training, and he wants me to complete it. Now, I want you to think about that, in fasting could have been due, you know, five days, or three days every month or two days every month. And then three days every month and 1010 months, we're done with 30 fats, but he, he put them together consecutively. Right? You can call this an intensive training program. And when you when you look at the psychology and the development of intensive training, rigorous training programs, you're when you're put in those kinds of hardcore kinds of programs, they're meant to train you physically, mentally, they're supposed to transform you. That's what the

military does, for example, they go through intensive rigorous training programs, or fire departments do it, or police officers do it, or, for example, athletes before their season begins, they have sprint trainings, right daily, they gotta hit it hard to be able to make certain to make certain progress and transformations. This is something Allah azza wa jal gave us so long ago, that if you really want to have ease in your life, you've got to make some changes. And change is a really hard thing to bring into life. Like we keep talking about changing our habits, and they don't change, right. So Allah put something in our life cycle every year, where definitely our eating

habits or sleeping habits are speaking habits or social habits, all of them are definitely changed in this month. So we're going through this training program. And by the end of it, we've experienced some level of transformation we've experienced, we're, we were able to make a change. This is really powerful, because some people, they start believing about themselves, when I can never change, I keep talking about changing, I do it for two, three days, and then I give up all right, you know, I get started and then I lose lose momentum, right? But Allah doesn't let you lose momentum. And Ramadan, he says, finished the count Leeteuk below eight done, every one of us is going at it, you

could be lazy and everything else and Hamdulillah, you're still finishing your month of Ramadan, you're still going through it, whether you're motivated or not tired or not, you're still going to fast the entire time, you're still gonna keep up with your prayers. And this is a remarkable thing. You know, it proves to you and proves to me that we are capable of going through this. We're capable of it. Which means if we're capable through it, of it in the hardest circumstances, which is Ramadan, then keeping up with it outside of it should be way easier. So somebody who was having a hard time praying five times a day, and they said, You know what, in Ramadan, I'm gonna make this

change, I'm fasting, I'm gonna pray five times, they prove to themselves for 30 straight days, they can keep up with it. Right, which means they formed a new habit. And they did it under tougher circumstances, they do under tougher circumstances. So that means after that, it becomes easier for them. Maybe before Ramadan, getting up for prayer was really hard. But now Allah has made that easy for you, you see, so that the first phrase is connected to that ease, because it is only after training that things get easier. Some of you are into athletic training, you know, or sports and things like that, when you first start doing your cardio wraps, or whatever else you're running out

of steam. You know, you're just you can't even keep up, you're grabbing your knees just you're halfway in ruku on the on the track, you know, but then once you keep up, you're you're shocked at yourself, you're shocked at how much your stamina has increased. How how remarkably Allah has created the human body to be able to endure more and more, the tougher you put it through rigorous exercise, the more discipline you put through it, put it through, the stronger it gets. That's what Allah has done. So the same thing is true of our faith. The more this every fast is actually making us spiritually stronger. Like you know, you just made a think about 1% half a percent improvement in

yourself by one fast. Now let's move down to 1%. Then it's moved on to a percent and a half. You're actually remarkably making a change in yourself, physically, spiritually, duck, why is increasing, it's becoming easier and easier for you to not even think about the food. The first day is going to be so hard. Oh my god, I'm so thirsty already. second day, third day, so can you feel it, but you're not even thinking about it? Because you've developed an endurance, obeying Allah despite your discomfort has become normal. It's become easier. You read the law who become a user, well, are you ready to become a universal political editor? And all of this is towards one altar.

met goal and that that ultimate goal is twofold. On the one side Allah describes willing to come here Allah Allah Maha can one of the most beautiful phrases in this ayah and that's what I really wanted to emphasize today for myself and all of you, so that Allah says, and this was given to you so that you can declare Allah's greatness based on how he guided you. Sookie you can declare Allah's greatness based on how He guides you. Now what in the world does that mean? means a few things. First of all, declaring Allah is greatness for the Muslim is the phrase Allahu Akbar, right? That's how we declare Allah's greatness. So of course, when the month of Ramadan is over, we celebrate by

declaring Allah's greatness. And when we're walking to the prayer, we're all you know, declaring Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, La Ilaha, Illallah Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar Allah and when you've done that, since childhood, you remember you walk into the prayer, you're talking about how much greater Allah is, but we ever connected that to what what does that have to do with Ramadan, all of Ramadan, Allah was greater for you. Allah was greater than your thirst, Allah was greater than your hunger, Allah is greater than your discomfort. You lived Allahu Akbar for 30 days, and you graduated. And now you get to sell now those words mean something. Now they have real meaning. So now when you're

walking, and you're celebrating the words, Allahu Akbar, you've demonstrated that in your life, right? So now what Allah is saying is, as you are saying that coming out of Ramadan, you, you lived Allahu Akbar, in Ramadan, and you're coming out of it saying, Allahu Akbar, what you're saying is now that I've proven to myself that I made Allah a greater priority than every, every one of my human needs, I disciplined all of my human needs, and made Allah a greater priority, I am now capable to get out of Ramadan, and carry on living, Allahu Akbar. Because outside of Ramadan, it's way easier, the requirements are way easier. There's way less restriction on what I can eat and what

I can do, right. And so this is actually the ultimate goal of Ramadan is that we come out of it living, Allahu Akbar, actually, now what does that have to do with ease, and that's the last thing I'll share with you today. What is not if I if I do really, truly internalize that Allah is greater in my life, then you know what, some of you guys, you know, you have friends that aren't exactly the best company, not for your faith anyway, right, the way they talk, the kinds of words they use, or the kinds of things they talk about aren't exactly halal. And you cut down on that company to your bro, I'm fasting, I can't talk to them, I, I can't I can't you make excuses, you cut away from that

company, you cut away from that environment. And then Ramadan is over. And you're like, I gotta get back with the bros. You know, it's, it's, it's either, you know, kind of back, you get to get the gang back together, you know, and uninvited guests, the Shetland, that's gonna be part of the party. But the point is, you got to, you got to get back to the normal, right. And when you do that, there's going to be something inside you. Because of this 30 day, if you did the study the training mindfully, if you did it mindfully, something inside, you will say, I can't just go back to that. That's, it's there's something bothering me. Now, if you did 30 days, mindlessly, you just went

through a diet program and you finished it, and then then you're gonna go back to exactly the way things were, which is why I'm saying obeying Allah is one thing, obeying Allah mindfully is a completely different thing. It's a transformative thing. So now you come out of that month, and you're like, I need to make some changes, with the kind of time I spending, which kinds of people I spend that time with, and which kinds of conversations I engage in, and what kinds of things occupy my mind, what kinds of things I expose my eyes to, I need to reevaluate is Allahu Akbar really part of all of that stuff? Or Is any of that stuff a violation of Allahu Akbar? You know, so I start

thinking about that. And so let's connect that to ease. Because that at first, even letting go of those friends, letting go of those habits, letting go of those, those good times. It's not easy. You know, you get accustomed to that it's it brings you joy, it gives you some kind of fulfillment, it's your release. But now you have to give that up. What is declaring Allah's greatness have to do with ease? You see, human beings truly believe, like I said, Before, when when a student chooses not to study, they're choosing ease, but really what they're choosing is difficulty. They just don't realize it. You know, when when a thief is in a store, and he's robbing the cashier in his mind,

he's choosing something easy, easy money. But if the thief doesn't realize that there's a security camera on his face, and there's a cop waiting outside, who didn't turn his lights on, he doesn't realize that what he's doing right now is not guaranteeing ease is guaranteeing a few months or years of difficulty. Right. So in his head, he's choosing ease, but in reality he shows

Saying difficulty with that mindset. Allah says to us with every one of his rules, every one of his commandments, everything that he said is haram for you. You have to remove Allah he will cover if he made filthy things haram for you. Things that hurt you things that harm you, or the things that are haram. Allah does not benefit from you obeying Him. Allah doesn't benefit from me staying away from haram stuff. I am the one who benefits. I don't see it though, because I want it so bad. I get blinded. I don't see that. It's actually for my own benefit. Allah says you read Allah Who do you have for uncle were wholly convinced and over Eva, Allah intends that he wants to make your your

burden lighter. He wants to make your burden lighter, he knows who he created. And this is where I want to conclude today with Allah knows, he says Allah, Allah, Allah woman, Hala, doesn't he know who he created? Allah knows what temptations you have. Allah knows what laziness you have. Allah knows what tendencies you have, what temperament you have, you know, you will think, Oh, my therapist understands me, Allah understands you a lot better than your therapist. You know, you can say, Oh, the only one who gets me is me. Nobody really gets me. Well, Allah gets you pretty good. He gets you better than you get yourself. You know, in the law, Lehman b that is Sue, Allah is fully

knowledgeable of what goes on inside the chess. There are stuff happening in my subconscious I don't even know about it. Allah does. Allah knows my conscience and my subconscious better than I do. I can have dreams and wake up and out. Remember, I'm, I think I was driving a truck, I don't remember. But Allah knows exactly what you drink, too. He knows every neuron that's firing inside of my mind. So when he lays out a plan, follow these rules, and you will have ease. It's not just from the point of view, oh, this is just Allah wants me to do this. But he doesn't get my situation. No, nobody gets your situation better than him. Nobody understands you better than him. Nobody, you know, knows

what I need. I don't even know what I need what is good for me better than he does. Once I let to let you know, let myself go. I'm not the biggest. I'm not the biggest authority on deciding what's good for me. In fact, the greater authority is Allah, that is another meaning of Allahu Akbar. Allah is in fact greater. He decides. He's going to tell me what is good for me. And when he tells me, I'm going to trust what he's saying. And when I go with that, I'm going to see ease come my way in ways I didn't even imagine. Allah describes this phenomenon. He says, Well, Manya tequila, which Allahu Mahajan were Zukerman Hayfield, if he says whoever can be mindful of Allah, whoever decides to

protect themselves from making Allah and happy, Allah will make a way out for them, whatever feeling anxiety, constriction, you know, whatever, you know, unrest, they have inside of them, whatever unmet, you know, calmness, that they don't feel whatever disturbance a person feels inside of them. Allah says Allah will make a way out for them. And then what will you do? Well, Zuckermann hate will they act as if they will provide that person from places they couldn't even imagine? They couldn't calculate they couldn't project that's where Allah will bring provision from, you know, shaitan comes to us. And he says, Listen, if you follow Allah's way, you're just gonna get deprived man.

You're not gonna get to live. You're just live a little. Just enjoy yourself.

Why are you being so hard on yourself? Are you being so strict? Right, so words like strict hard on yourself at least once to associate those words with with Allah as dean, or Islam is strict. Islam is hard. You know, Islam is tough. Those words when we associate them with our deen, that's the trick of shaitaan what words that Allah associated with our deen lightening of a burden the opposite? He associated ease he associated ease with it. The opposite of what the bliss wants us to believe this is why I shaytaan yada yada Kamal fakra Shaitan promises you bankruptcy even if somebody wants to give charity chances are you're gonna give that much What do you have left? How

are you going to pay the electricity bill? How are you going to get gas for the car you know gas prices are going up right you Ukraine? How are you going to prepay that you're gonna give sadaqa who you stupid just think a little bit but when you're gonna go to GameStop or you're gonna go on Amazon the app and you're about to buy whatever you're going to buy chatline doesn't come to you hey man, electricity bills, yo gas prices, then he's not coming to us like oh sharp bro sharp

childhood evil butter, you know? shaytani R and Docomo Fokker shaytaan. Promises ubank In other words, Jetline promises you everything that gets you closer to Allah is a deprivation. you're depriving yourself that's what he promises you. He's really good at convincing you and me of that this month because he's tied up this month because our souls are getting fed by the word of Allah this month because we are training ourselves. We get to lower the volume on Iblees. He's not going to stop his talk. You're never going to put him on mute. That's never going to happen. There's always going to be

I'm something going on that's this life you know he's clean he's gonna be stuck to you stuck to you until you die. And then when he gets gets when you come out on judgement day then your personal shutdown says points that UN says he did Allah He did it moderate who I didn't make him do it. You know, that's his job. But what we can do this month is raise the volume on Allah's words, and automatically that will different out when you lower the volume on the effect and the influence that Bliss has on us. That will also make a real manifestation of little capital Allah Allah Maha calm so you can declare Allah's greatness based on how he guided you. I pray that Allah azza wa jal really

brings about ease in our lives and makes the worship of Allah the obedience of Allah, something we find ease in, something we find comfort in the ultimate goal that I am you should have is that when we go towards obeying Allah, I should feel an ease in my heart. And whenever I'm about to take a step towards disobeying Allah, I should feel difficulty inside my heart. If I can condition myself like that I'm set. I'm good. You know, and I pray that Allah gives all of us that that we have developed that and strengthened that and are able to nurture it and only make it stronger and stronger as this Ramadan continues and are able to carry that into the rest of our lives.

BarakAllahu li Walakum filled Quran Al Hakim whenever anyway er combine it with liquid hatoon.

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