Tom Facchine – 4 Facets of Ramadan – Discipline
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are some of the body of the law
many of our scholars have prepared blah blah blah to a school because there are certain things that eat experience of fasting for 30 days teaches us
this Ramadan Inshallah, we will look at four of the lessons that Ramadan teaches us one discipline to gratitude,
three, generosity
for mercy.
Today, we look at discipline.
We had mentioned last week that Allah azza wa jal explicitly tells us the main purpose of Ramadan in the very same person in which she obligates the best problem on the lawn before God says, yeah
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are you who have the least fasting is prescribed for you, as it was to those before you so that we will gain time.
We also discussed last week how Taqwa means to construct a barrier to keep you far away from what Allah does not like.
Because it involves staying far away from that our tap was often translated as the fear of Allah.
But it's not just fear of Taqwa also involves being proactive. It involves vigilance, it means we can't live our lives in cruise control, because evil is not stationary, it will try to find us.
And so our situation is like a nation that is surrounded by hostile forces, conspiring to weaken and eventually conquer us. Can we sit back and really just enjoy life? Is it responsible? Or even realistic to hope that if we mind our own business, we will be left alone in peace?
And if the answer is no,
then why would we think that our lives are any different when we know for a fact that the devil is real, and that each one of us has weaknesses, waiting to be exploited.
Tough luck, involves foreseeing the ways that the devil and your own worse inclinations can bring you down.
And if it requires call, careful planning and strategy to avoid those dangerous pitfalls.
This aspect of careful planning and vigilance is why Taqwa is sometimes translated as consciousness, or awareness
in today's idiom, is to be truly what
rather than gives us the time and clarity we need to take stock of ourselves and make these types of plans.
If the top bar requires planning,
it also requires practice. And that's what we intend to focus on today. Type one is not a moment's trial,
but rather a process and a skill that must be developed until it becomes a habit and a reflex. In other words, there's an aspect of the taco that involves discipline.
Tug of War has to involve discipline because life is full of tests. Allah azza wa jal has promised us that these tests would come. Allah seven total number
one another, the one that will reshape folks who want to jewelry when
was the last of the show. So really,
we will certainly test you with some parts of fear and some hunger and loss of property and loss of life and loss of crops. So give good news to those who patiently endure.
Allah azza wa jal is telling us what to expect.
Doesn't this verse cover almost anything that could possibly happen to us and despite fear, hunger, loss of wealth, loss of life, loss of property? Allah promised us that this will happen.
The existence of these tests in our lives does not necessarily mean that Allah subhanho wa Taala hates us or that he's trying to punish us. In fact, Allah azza wa jal told us
Sometimes this comes with the territory of professing belief, a loss of social attributes has to do with NASA and the Euthyphro and therefore to our whole life.
Do people think that once they say we believe that they will just be left alone without being put to the test?
Well, I'm one of those I'm totally
solid, who will react and then okay, maybe.
We certainly tested those before them, at this point almost impossible to auto clearly distinguish between those who are truthful, and those who are liars.
Allah subhanho To Allah tells us plainly, the reason why we allows people have faith to go through these tests. It's because Talk is cheap.
People can claim and
people can claim they believe people can claim that they love Allah subhanahu Azhar address last profits on the bottom it was.
But where's the proof?
The proof is in our actions.
We can't just talk the talk, we have to walk the walk,
we have to be put to the test to distinguish between the people who really believe and the people who are just playing around whether we pass or fail the tests, but Allah subhanaw taala has already pre ordained the four of us. As far as the results of how disciplined we are.
Discipline is like a muscle. The more that we use it, the stronger it gets. When we exercise discipline that we're building up an increased capacity to face on larger tests further down the road. Top one doesn't just appear out of thin air, it's like a savings account.
Every day, you need to put something into it. And one day something will happen where you need to withdraw from that account to pass the test.
And if you haven't been saved up this whole time,
then you're not going to have enough to pay the bill. When the time comes.
If we can recognize this, then all of a sudden, every single choice that we have to make has a new meaning. Every time you want to reach for that cigarettes, and have a smoke. Every time we scroll through your newsfeed and see people dressed in decently every time your spouse asks you to do something really don't feel like doing. Let's forget allow them along for just a second. Think about how you react and ask yourself does this build my discipline? Am I standing up for tomorrow? Opponent probably most of you will love me when
I stop you
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at Montana, Washington and a while back that would actually that was happening and checking ocean open an idea and I was thinking that that what happened in a hospital to pursue a daring one. So a lot
of people one person just been cathedral
discipline,
and chatbot will save us from humiliation in this life. And the next.
Demonstrating This is a story of the prophets of Allah while he was so cold, married and suddenly you will find once upon a time there were three men who were walking when it started to rain.
They took shelter and okay to get out of the rain get out of the rain but the older tumbled down from above the mountain and came to a stop right at the mouth of this cave. Trapped inside.
They started brainstorming how they could get out of the situation. It was very likely that no one
Whatever find them there.
And they will die of hunger, the first
one of them. So let's all try to think of a good deed that we did, surely for Allah.
If we ask Allah by virtue of these righteous deeds, faith, just maybe he will move the folder for us.
So they decided to child,
the first of them said, Oh Allah, I used to live with my parents who are very elderly, and my wife and my children,
I was responsible for all of them. I would always prioritize serving my parents over the rest of my family. If I went to fetch him, I would serve my parents first before my wife and children
one day, and I was delayed when I went to fetch milk from the herd. And it wasn't until evening that I returned. When I arrived, I saw that my elderly parents had already fallen asleep.
I stood there, waiting for them, not knowing what to do. I didn't want to disturb their sleep. Nor did I want to serve my children. And before that, and my children were whispering at my feet, they wanted the milk to
I ended up standing there until dawn, out of my duty to my parents. Oh, if that was sincerely done for you then move this folder just a little bit. So you can see the sky. And so it happened. The Boulder moved, and also the three men, they could see the sky and the sunlight.
The second fan began, he said all along, there was a girl. I loved her. As much as a man could possibly love a woman. I tried my best to seduce him time and time again. She always refused. I even offered her a lower sum of money and still, she turned me down.
time pass and she fell on hard times. She really needed the money and I knew this. So I made my offer again and finally she accepted. But then she said to me, yeah, I'm gonna love it tequila. Oh service of Allah. have Taqwa. Fear Allah be aware of Allah. And don't open what is sealed. Except if you have the right to do so.
After she said this, I immediately stood up and walked away, leaving her the money and then
Oh Allah, if I did this sincerely for you then move the folder a little bit more. And sure enough, the folder moved a little bit more than
the last of them and said, Oh Allah, I used to hire workers to farm my land. When the workday was done, they would come and ask for their wages, and I would pay them.
One day one of the workers turned and left before he collected his wages. So I took his wages and I invested them. I grew crops and I sold the crops and bought animals and bred them until produce an entire herd of animals.
One day, that same worker came back to me and said an interesting part of Taqwa. Fear Allah be aware of Allah and don't oppress me by depriving me of my rightful legions.
I said to him, Look at this entire herd, take it, it's yours.
He couldn't believe it. He told me to federal law again to stop fooling around. I promised him I wasn't joking. And I explained to him what I did with his wages while he was gone. Then he took his entire herd with him. And
oh, if I did that sincerely for you move the boulder out of our way.
And so it was time to move the boulder entirely. And the three men were able to leave the cave.
Notice how in this technique, each person was trying in different ways. The first man was trying by his love for his children. Categorically this is a good thing. We're supposed to love our children, but Allah subhanho wa Taala wants us to have the proper degree of
Have, we owe our parents especially when they are elderly, and we owe them an extra degree of loyalty and devotion even over our own children.
The second half was trial by restless, Allah subhanahu. Allah Allah has created with us urges for a reason. And that reason is to motivate us to get married and to start families to make us dutiful, and responsible.
Like the man in the story, we have to struggle against situations that promise us fun, with no strings attached, that tempt us with the sweetness of romance, without any possibility or responsibility or accountability,
that Allah knows that we need.
The Third Man is tested by his Well, it is significant that the situation here is a little bit ambiguous. He tried to pay the wages, but the worker disappeared. How easy would it have been for him to adopt the attitude though, sorry, you shouldn't take in your money. You snooze, you lose. Maybe in our society, we he would have made that workers sign some sort of waiver,
some fine prints, requiring them to take their money. By the way, that's what we would have done.
Anyway, we can certainly see a rationale for keeping the money and forgetting about the worker entirely. So keep that worker in mind and protect his interests, even to the detriment of our own takes a proactive form of discipline and in Tableau that cannot be misled or confused by an ambiguous situation such as this.
A person of Topo a person of principle, and discipline knows that we don't pay people's wages just because they asked for them.
We pay people wages, because it is the rights.
All three men had to make a decision when no one else was looking.
Maybe the parents would have never known. If the first man had served his children first time, maybe they wouldn't have cared.
Maybe no one would have ever discovered what the second man would have done with the woman he loves. Maybe the worker never comes back to call out to his wages, it didn't seem likely at the time.
All these choices were made in secret with nothing of parents to be gained from them, that is discipline that is toward
the righteous actions we do that do not benefit us at all. In this world. The righteous actions that actually contradicts our individual self interest, that is discipline and that is
fasting, Omaha goes hand in hand with building distance and building taco taco at any moment of the day. You can cheat.
No one is watching. You can sneak a drink of water or sneak away techniques. And no, no.
The only thing that stops someone from doing this is their discipline and their tempo. And so Ramadan is the reminder that we all have that in us. We all have a certain amount of discipline, but it's up to us to make the decisions every day that will develop and strengthen that discipline. Until we are prepared for the grief and the fear of that loss and a loss of confidence on a promise us that would come our way.
Everyone could do it. It could be something other people might not consider very significant. I'll share one final story from one of my professors in Medina. He sat down when he was in school. He added his best friend for all the ways the two best students in the class. They
would always compete to see who got the best grades. One day they received their grades for a test that they have taken. When they went to compare their tests, one of them notice that the others had gotten the points taken off. Because he had left a question like
this for them or something very, very strange. In all the years they have known each other, neither of them has ever left the questions blank before.
At least they would have taken a guess hoping to get some partial credit.
He asked his friend about it, and then his friend started to explain. He said that when he was taking the test, and he was trying to remember the answer to that question, his pen broke off his desk, and fell onto the floor. He leaned over to get his pen, and his eyes accidentally fell on the paper of the person next to him. He couldn't help it. It was automatic. all he saw was a single word on that test, and the entire answer came back to him. And all of a sudden, he remember.
He told his friend,
I was afraid
that if I put down my answer after I have seen the other tests that it wouldn't be cheating.
I was afraid Allah would ask me about the points I looked at
and so on.
instead.
No one has saw what happened. No one would have known
and there would have been plenty of reasons to justify writing the answer anyway. Oh, I knew it all along. I just forgot for a moment. I have a good students finding the good grades because it's time to get to a good university, etc, etc.
When he took the high road,
he made a decision in secret. He strengthened his discipline. He exercised his Taqwa. And the last comment was Harlan ever humiliates the people like talking about
this problem.
Let's all try to identify the moments when Allah subhanaw taala gives us these opportunities to build our discipline. And
let's try to recognize that and take advantage of them and take the steps to rebuild our world. So that we are stronger, stronger than ever. For most of us, I don't believe
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