Ramadan Session – EP06 Hold on to the Quran

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on the one hand or put on demands that we understand it. And the demands that we understand it very, very well. And so these rules and these other parts of

the evidence

Okay, yeah, sorry, I had to stop my daughter from cleaning the budget. Hold on.

So, so anyhow, so on the one hand, you know, these, these parts are very important, and they're good, but at the same time, I feel like sometimes it turns us into couch potatoes. So we just listen to a lecture about foreign and that is our getting closer to the Koran. Well, that's only one part of it. And the other parts of it that are equally I would argue, even if not more important, are,

you know, memorizing the Quran, reciting the Quran every day, trying to make sure that you're reciting it in a way that's better and better. These are the practices the practical dimension of our relationship with the Quran. And so when somebody really wants to prepare for Ramadan, very, very well, I mean, the first basic piece of advice I would give you, I mean, I'm talking to so many different kinds of people, excuse me, I'm talking to so many different kinds of people. Right now, some of you are mothers, some of you are students, some of your employees, you have different kinds of schedules and different kinds of obligations. So you have to figure this out this piece of advice

out for yourself how it's going to work specifically, but making time to recite the Quran every day, like, put everything else down. And I'm not just talking about the Quran, you already memorized, I'm talking about picking a time in the day, preferably after one of the prayers like after pleasure, after I shot a good, good, nice time for after motive even. And this is not after a robot starts. But this is from now and just sitting with the book of Allied reciting, if you can't handle a lot than at least a couple of pages, and you'll notice that you get lazy very quickly, like you recite a little bit and you start yawning or you start feeling like I gotta do something else. It's not the

couch potato because you're actively doing it yourself yet, you're not just sitting back and listening and you can tune out or tune in, you actually actively have to put an effort into reciting the Quran. And this is really where your personal

litmus test is going to come to play.

How much talent time really do I enjoy spending with this book. And if you don't get in the habit of reciting it regularly, the next step that I'm trying to advise you of which is going to be to try and memorize it, that's never even going to start. That's forget that road, you know, so the first thing is get into the habit of reciting the Quran every day. This is I'm not saying this as a replacement of the lectures in the talks and other stuff. I'm saying that, you know, saying this as a basic practical starting point in your own personal journey with the Quran. And it's something that the scholars amongst the speakers among us, those who don't know much at all about Arabic or

odd or proceed, all of them are in the same boat when it comes to this, this is something we equally have to give importance to. So just because I've been stuck or trying to study this stuff for art for the last decade, doesn't mean that I'm exempt for having to recycle for the island, you know, a decent amount of it amount of it every single day. It doesn't make me exempt. It's something I need as much as you need and even my teachers need it's not something that anybody will graduate beyond that's the beauty of this book that we're never past it We can't just say oh, I already recited that page. I already recited this, it doesn't work like that. And Ramadan is a great opportunity for

instilling and reinforcing those good habits and shallow tada so my first two bits of advice get in the habit of reciting for and regularly from now until the beginning of Ramadan manageable amounts. You know that's the other thing that I was mentioning in this clip of mine last week is Ramadan comes and we go overboard, right so there's a person who doesn't even pray if they pray maybe they pray at home and then in Ramadan for 30 straight days they come to the machine and they're there for eight or 20 totally exhausting themselves halfway into it. They can't even wait for Ramadan to be over. Like they can go back to normal again. This is unhealthy actually. I'm not saying you

shouldn't make 28 Please go ahead. But get into good habits that you can keep alive or bring to life before Ramadan starts. And you can keep them alive after Ramadan is over. So yes, when Ramadan starts Recital Hall just everyday to Joe's day if you can go ahead, but if you can't handle that, after all, nobody has done that start with something far more manageable. what's what's what's manageable.

stainable is far better for you, you know, my

little is enough, what's little, you know,

the best of these are the ones that are the most constant. And the most constant needs are the ones that are the most manageable. They're not, they're the ones that you can, you wouldn't have to go out of your way to maintain. So first bit of advice for site we're on regularly from now on every single day, my personal recommended time is after fudger. It's a particularly peaceful time. And an easy it's, there's an enjoyment and don't put it in the Baraka video, enjoy the rest of your day, the blessings of that you feel the effects of it, in your work in school, and whatever you carry yourself doing, you're going to see the benefits of it. And that's one more point on the side that I

wanted to make before I share with you the next bit of advice. And that is that we often don't realize the spiritual benefits of praying in the masjid or reciting the four R's of AI by itself, active acts of worship, extra prayers, and alaafin. Actually, you know, you guys will know the difference between a prayer that's just a hit and run, literally banging your head on the floor a couple of times that made sense that got a lot out of the way, or you took your time and prayed peacefully, you will notice the difference not only in the prayer, but how you feel that day after the prayer, the day you make it to the masjid to pray, fudger the day you make it to the muster to

prayer, you're going to feel different, it's going to you're going to be at a piece that you haven't enjoyed before. And you can, from your past experience already testified to those differences. It does make In fact, a difference. And those are the these are some of the joys of Islam. One of the joys of our Emacs is that we get to taste its fruits, even in this life. You don't have to be an advanced scholar, or as I hit up, you know, some really high spiritual status to enjoy these things. Even if you have not in the habit of regularly praying in the masjid or reciting a lot of odd, you get started. Now you'll start tasting the sweetness of it right away. It's not something you're

going to have to wait for. So I pray that all of you get to enjoy that sweetness, and get in that beautiful habit. inshallah, tada, that's my first bit of advice. The second bit of advice that I want to share with you about the month of Ramadan. Again, because keeping in mind that you know, there's all kinds of audiences that are listening to this talk and i, you have different family situations, social situations that I can't even imagine. But I do want to make an educated guests that a lot of you belong to families where there are significant family members that aren't interested in religion. They're not very, quote unquote, religious. And they don't necessarily care

for learning the religion more learning Islam more or worshipping more, but even those kinds of members of the family when it comes to them, Yvonne, they kind of turned towards the dean a little more than usual. I mean, the most will become religious will be in this month. And I see that as a golden opportunity not to complain about those people. Usually what happens in the foot by isn't that a football or the last football on the Sunday was angry at the crowded says don't just come here every now and then disappear. Come here every single every single night of the prayer, whatever, I only see what the prayer cetera, et cetera, instead of using that as an opportunity to

vent your frustrations. And that's an opportunity to invite people as guests, these people have come, they don't normally come. So the fact that they even show up as a favor, is not something you should complain about. We should look at it the other way. These are people that otherwise have little or nothing to do with the faith. You know, they're barely barely holding on to the faith. So take it as an opportunity to invite them.

If that's okay, don't worry about it.

Sorry, guys, interruption in the middle.

Sorry.

Okay.

So what I wanted to tell you then is in your family, if you have a hard time bringing up the bringing up a religious conversation, maybe the value of the beauty of prayer, maybe something you recited from the Koran or you heard something being explained about an issue found particularly beautiful. Ramadan is a really nice opportunity when you go over to your cousin's house, and you will get invited to that friend's house, or they you invite them over to your house, when you never actually get a healthy opportunity to talk about the religion. Now you get an opportunity. Now you've got a like a disarm, you know, a non confrontational opportunity to speak to your friends and

family in a way that's not going to create an argument. You don't want to have arguments and debates and don't fall into those debates. And don't allow those debates to become dominant in in your conversation with a lot is about getting closer to Allah and maybe doing your part in helping somebody else get closer to Allah. Once you come to appreciate you help somebody else appreciate alongside, right. That's what you want to be able to do. So on that note, I want to take you to my third and my final bit of advice that again, I think applies to myself, and I'd like to share that with you also. Ciao.

And that is that, you know, when you talk to folks, you're gonna get an opportunity to interact with folks in Ramadan that you don't normally see the rest of the year or you don't. Like I said, you don't normally get to talk to them about their religion the rest of the year.

But you know what those kinds of people, they have all kinds of interesting and weird opinions about Islam. And they're members of your family. It could be your uncle, it could be your cousin, it could be your grandfather or whatever. So when you do talk about the deen, they'll bring up these tangent, weird ideas of theirs. And then they'll ask you your opinion about them. You know, they'll start maybe some one of your relatives and start criticizing is all made up? What does that mean? anyway? We should just follow that. What are some other rules that say, you know, well, look, Ron talks about alcohol, but you know, it's not the same as beer. So it's okay. And you'll be sitting there

going? What are you talking about? Why are you talking like this, and it'll make you upset, because obviously, these are some very basic things in the religion. And these people are bringing them up almost as a joke. Or they're bringing up really absurd, ridiculous understandings of their religion that can boil your blood. Here, I'm particularly talking to the young in the audience, that feel like they have to defend their faith at any cost, even if it means severing family ties. That's the point where you have to take a put, put the brakes on your tongue, hold yourself back and allow the conversation to be steered back in a good direction. I just wanted to talk about getting closer to

about, I just wanted to talk about that, you know, how great how great the recitation of Quran was the other night, change the subject, don't go into debates, don't go into religious arguments, this is not the month to do it. That's not the time to do it. Everybody should walk away with a good taste in their mouth after a conversation about being in this one. Yes, those issues should be hashed out and they shouldn't be discussed. But you find another time to do them. This shaitan is out of the picture right now, these people are right for dialogue. And that will entirely depend on your mannerism, and your patience and your courtesy with that, in trying to deliver that message.

And some of you some of the sisters that are listening right now will have to do that with their husbands who are averse to the religion. There are some husbands whose wives don't really like anything to do with this stuff. You know, they they think that like, you'll become too religious, this will be the opportunity to soften those hearts, there may be your parents, your parents think you become too religious, your fanatic, you know, and they're upset with you, they criticize you all the time. And this will be a chance for you to not respond to those things, like you know impulsively, and become reactionary but rather to be very, very patient very calm in your in your

reaction to them, and keep the atmosphere positive. And good. another bit of advice that's tied to this, this was with family. another bit of advice is with friends, all of us have friends that aren't very religious. Or maybe they're you know, old friends from college or even high school or, you know, they're friends now and you keep in touch, but you don't really you're if you do talk about things that maybe you talk about sports, you talk about a movie that just came out you talk about video games, whatever you're talking about, you don't talk about Dean, this is the month to try to invite one of your friends Hey, come over, first off, let's go to the machine and pray

and just you know, hang out with them and just pray that you don't last the entire 20 just go for a shine, bring them back or something. And you don't even have to preach a word just try to bring them into that environment, just that environment and then let alone do the rest. Maybe they'll just just being in a machine that for so long will do something for their heart. It happens it really does. So you You and I are not in charge of changing people's hearts but we can certainly try to bring them to a good positive environment and then if there's goodness in them and I'm sure there is it's gonna flourish a level allow it to flourish so

this is the month to try and do that to mend family ties to being to help friends come to closer or better company and shout out I'm for you personally as I started my talk with for you and me Should we should we should memorize more for at the end of this Ramadan than we knew going in. We should have decided more than we had come in with some you know we have this perfectionist ideas I'm going to finish the entire program three times in Ramadan. That intention lasts about what a week and then you run out of gas. Then you say okay, at least I'll recite the whole art once in the month of Ramadan and you start out like that but then again you run out of steam. Why cuz you're not in that

habit which means you have to get started from now. You have to get yourself in that habit from now

and I really hope that you do that. That I do that and you do that and don't get lazy this Ramadan. The worst thing you can do is have a bomb came to an end and you look back and you say man another Ramadan with and I didn't really fully take advantage of it. I ran out of steam too early. You don't want that to happen to you this. This is this is not that. You and I are going to allow that to happen.

inshallah we're gonna get ourselves in here ahead of time. I know my time is pretty much up because I have to go and prepare for another class. But what I as parting advice, what I wanted to share with you, especially for the young in the audience, inshallah, is take care of yourself.

Like, pray the sudden before the before the first prayers, pray the solid after the prayers, pray them in the machine, or come home and pray them, but take care of them. That is a huge part of reaping the spiritual benefits of ibadah. And it will get rid of laziness from you, you know, you'll become active in doing worship, because a lot of the time of extra worship, so and if you're, if you're even barely making the energy to do the, the obligatory prayers, then in Ramadan, you're gonna really honestly, you're just gonna run out of steam very, very quickly, you're not gonna have the ability to do much, and it's gonna be an opportunity wasted. So you want to take advantage of

adding a little bit more than usual, from now on. Make sure you make those two lockers after public. Make sure you pay yourself after a vote. Make sure that you complete all of a sudden, and even after I tried things like that, just make sure you you take care of those extra acts of worship, and You sit and you make do all by yourself. You put yourself in that situation. So you're trained to really, really take advantage of this Donilon. I pray that you and I are able to learn a lot about the Koran and memorize and recite, I pray that all of us are able to worship on light in a way that we haven't done before. Or we've gotten too lazy to do that. You know, you don't we don't compare

ourselves to the person praying next to us. But we should at least compare ourselves to our own selves from before Ramadan started from yesterday to today, at least we should have that comparison. I should be a better Muslim today than I was yesterday. I'm just going to wrap up the channel China. I'm very optimistic about this from Milan.

I think it's going to be a beautiful, beautiful month for all Muslims, especially us here in the US, inshallah, tada, I wanted to extend my silence to all of you and your families and make sure that they're fasting and their you know, their worship is all accepted by Allah azza wa jal, and did they make most of it, you know, Ramadan is going to be late nights all across the country, which is going to be really late, which means the Ali is going to be extra late after that, which means guys who specifically talking to the guys now, don't hang out after prayer, go to sleep, go to sleep, because it's gonna ruin your budget. What's the point of praying twice a week and you can even become a

budget. That's, it's an exercise in futility. So make your make your worship, but make sure you have a healthy sleep schedule. Make sure you don't overdo it so you can stay on course and make you know, be productive and shallow tada throughout the entire month. So these are a few bits of advice that I wanted to remind myself of, and remind all of you of in getting ready for the beautiful month of Ramadan. realize there was a need to see a month where we are closer to the water and then we've ever been and milazzo will help you and I understand this book. Enjoy this book. love this book, memorize this book and act on this book as it deserves to be acted on barakallahu li walakum feel

for it. While finally we'll end it with Kim Solomonic.

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