Why We Fast #3

Ramadan is just a couple of weeks away. And that means it's time to start preparing for our cm cm in the Arabic language is made up of three routes letters saw the WoW meme, which means to withhold, or to refrain in the context of Islamic law. So you have the means to intentionally refrain from food, drink and romantic intimacy from the beginning of fedrick to the beginning of Muslim so yeah, and then Ramadan is one of the pillars of our faith right up there with hedge Zabka and sada in terms of how important it is. However, these pillars are not substitutable for one another, each one is unique. And each one does special work on us and on our souls. Fasting in particular is extra

special, or roboticle Javi got Muslim on episode 30 longer on call for all of us and while he's a little warm and he was so long call on law Colorama namely Adam Allah in lessly, I'm in the Hollywood Zb, Allah azza wa jal said this is a how the footsie every deed a person does is for himself, except fasting. Fasting is for me, and I will reword it. Very interesting. Your prayer is for you. Your as a cat is for you, your Hajj is for you, but your CM is for Allah. What does that mean? It means a few things. One, it means that it's harder to show off while fasting compared to other acts of worship. And that is because fasting is not about doing something. It's about not

doing something. And it's much harder to show off, about not doing something. With the things that we do. Yes, showing off is very, very easy. In fact, it's too easy. If we want it to show off in our salah, or in our prayer. We all know what we would do, we would make our prayer extra long. Think about the prayers, the average prayer that you make in your home, versus the average prayer that you make in the masjid. I'm guessing, I'm guessing that the one in the masjid takes longer. Now, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Maybe you have more respect for the mesquite. Maybe it's easier to remember Allah azza wa jal in the masjid than at home. But we need to watch out. And we need to be

careful. And we need to make sure that our prayer in the masjid isn't longer, better and more serene, just because we're afraid. Other people are watching that show me off. And that's very dangerous to our soul. So yes, we can show off in the prayer. We can also show off with cats and with hedge. Have you heard of social media? Yes. Have you seen people making falafel around the Kaaba with selfie sticks going live? Yes. Again, it might not be showing off. It might be Tao ALLAH SubhanA. Allah knows best. What is it in the hearts of people, however, however, it might be showing off. And every single person has to be very careful because that is very dangerous for the soul,

which is why the Senate were so concerned about the quality of their worship, as opposed to the quantity of their worship. How do you achieve quality in your worship, by protecting your sincerity? By guarding yourself from any possible way that you could be showing off to somebody else worship that is a secrets between you and Allah to Allah worship that nobody else knows about. That's sincere worship. And that's what makes cin special is that it is more sincere by default. No one else can see it. No one else really knows if you're fasting except for ALLAH SubhanA. If you really, really wanted to, you could fool everyone here. You could be eating all day long. You could eat an

hour before you come to the masjid. And then you could show up at the time of if thought and help yourself. We would know. That's between you and Allah azza wa jal and so if you are really fasting, that means that you chose to do it, and that you chose to do it with sincerity. You weren't just thinking about impressing

other people. Another thing that makes CME special is that no one can limit the reward or estimate the reward of this particular act of worship. Its real value is hidden with Allah subhanho wa taala. While most of mine have already been in power for the longest Rockies Bhagwad Eva southern Kulu I'm Adam the Adam, you bought off Hassan at your astral and 37 there fan, Paul Allah azza wa jal Illa, some for enum li wa Zb, the reward of every single deed that a person does is multiplied between 10 and 700. times Allah said, except fasting, except fasting for certainly it is for me, and I will reward it. Every other act of worship your prayer, your as a cat, you're hij reciting a poor en,

it's limited, even if that limit is extremely generous and expansive. Fasting is unlimited. There's no ceiling, if you fast, and if your fastest sincere and if your fasting is perfect, or as close to perfect as you can make it it will be worth far more than other acts of worship.

Great. How can we make fasting perfect? What makes one person's fast better than another person's fast? How can we take advantage of this opportunity that Allah azza wa jal has given us there's two ways. First, in what you avoid, and second, in what you do, how many ways to what you avoid, and what you do when we say what you avoid. We mean going beyond food, water and intercourse. That's the starter pack. Those are the training wheels. There are other things that you should be avoiding when you fast. You need to fast from slander, you need to fast from Goseck you need to fast from blaming other people or talking about other people behind their backs. You need to fast from cursing and

foul language if you don't know the law or who and then the VSO Allahu alayhi wa sallam call me and let me other Bolu what Well, I'm gonna be whether Jeff, the latest in there he had it on any other environment was shut off was probably recording, whoever doesn't stop foul will speech, foul actions ignorant behavior. Allah subhanaw taala does not need you to go hungry and thirsty. He doesn't need you to tiring yourself. In other words, what's the point? What's the point of getting hungry and thirsty if the slam isn't going to reach into your behavior and change your bad habits? If you're getting hungry for 30 days when the sun's up, but you still have a foul mouth? You're not doing it

right. And it doesn't stop at your mouth. Let's go through your eyes. The eyes need to fast two. Gentlemen, do not spend a year on Milan and scrolling through Instagram or Tik Tok looking at women either. This is a disease. This shouldn't be happening at anytime, especially in Ramadan.

You have any idea the poison that you're injecting into yourself and into the women around you. The Prophet alayhi salatu salam might have said that because this narration is weak another ACEF moonless Moon means you have any please looking for the look or the grants of the opposite sex is one of the temples poison arrows have either no Hadith it's true.

What if that was your sister? What if that was your daughter? The devil is hyping you up and playing with your mind he's lying to you. So that you'd be little the blessings that Allah has already given you in your life. The grass is greener, where you water it. You have everything that you need. Let's take responsibility and be better. Let's kick the habit known Ramadan. Let's fast with our eyes. If you want to excel in your fast if you want your fast to be better than the person next to you, or better than your fast last year, your ears have to fast to don't listen to gossip. Don't listen to idle chit chat. Don't listen to music. These are distractions. Don't you want gender? Don't you want

this Ramadan to be the time when you secure your spot in paradise?

Keep your eyes on the prize. shut out the distractions and get to work

All that is number one, what makes one person's past better than another person? Number one, what you avoid while you're faster, you avoid saying certain things, you avoid looking at certain things, you avoid listening to certain things. Number two is what you do. Because the other acts of worship that you do are more of a value of hope. If you do them while you're fasting. If you read core end, it's valuable, and it's beneficial anytime that you do it. But it's even more valuable if you do it while you're fasting. If pregnant, the Salah is valuable anytime that you do it, then guess what, when you're fasting is even more valuable. Fasting should create more time for you to do these

things. Which is why sleeping the day away, defeats the whole purpose of fasting. Don't waste your time, rest a little bit, then get back to working for your afterlife. This is also why we should not get too fancy with our food preparation. In the Ramadan Are you going to be fasting like a saint during the day, and eating like a king throughout the night, the ladies need a break. There shouldn't be more work in the kitchen during Ramadan. When you aren't even eating during the day. Fasting should create more time for prayers, more time for Qur'an, and that includes our women as well.

One of the best things that you can do for your soul, while fasting is to feed other people. This tames the ego, this discipline is the soul because you want that food yourself, you're hungry. And it's easy to feed people during the day when you aren't allowed to eat. But the real test is to feed people at the time of the clock. When you are allowed to eat. When you've got the green lights, when your hunger is at its peak. When you're there this room alone, gentlemen, and ladies, take a second.

First offer food to the person on your right to then offer food to the person on your left, then have something yourself. If you can control yourself at this moment, the moment for breaking fast and congratulations. You have one from Allah, you've learned the lesson you passed the test. If you can control yourself, if you fall upon that food like a wild animal, you're not getting the points. You're missing something that fasting is meant to teach you. It's meant to reach beyond all along and educate you and discipline you for the entire year. Don't come to Iftar thinking that you're there to eat huge mistake. You're there to serve. You're there to worship. You are there to feed

your brothers and sisters in faith. That takes sincerity. That takes couple of like the Prophet alayhi salatu salam said and let me

tell you hopefully I think he may have seen

the prophets of Allah while he was still there and said none of you will have faith until he wishes for his brother must on what he likes her himself we don't want halfway faith. We want complete faith and we won't get complete faith until we love one another to the point that we are sensitive to each other's needs to each other's once we won't get complete faith until we find the approval and pleasure of Allah subhanahu wa Tada in giving others the very same thing that we ourselves want quote unquote we have a list of people already welcomed by sad interested in them including them or stuck in a hole before.

I say what I tell people you don't in any way shut them down. Eventually you gotta leave and certainly wish everyone in the universe either and what happened in October so during the planning, sort of love it rather early, he was hoping he would if one was suddenly able to sleep and cathedral.

Fasting So Young is special. It's unique. There's absolutely nothing like it the Prophet Mohammed bin Salman said so himself

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To know the local rank and file Congress will receive a lot of money he was salam alayka Salta in the hula Mesilla the prophets of Allah body he was send them said upon you is too fast for certainly there is nothing like it. Some of the roadmap including even hazard Escalante say that this means that all else being equal, fasting is the best type of worship. Now there might be better acts of worship at a particular time for a particular people. It depends on what's going on in your life. And it depends on what's going on in society.

In times of economic hardship, the Catherine sadaqa might be the best form of worship because you yourself need the money. That means that if you give that money away to other people, it is more sincere it's more valuable.